“Rei, it seems that everyone's done.”

Kazane observed, biting her lip. She glanced back at where Ayato and Ayaka were, before looking back at Rei.

Rei nodded before looking at Saitou-sensei.

“Well, I think I'm going to talk to the teacher a bit. See if we can leave once we’re done.”

Kazane nodded. She stared at Rei, who was walking over to Saitou-sensei.

Rei was someone that Ayato had always talked about to her. Rei had apparently always beaten Ayato in everything, almost to a point where he could almost be described as having an “inferiority complex”.

“I guess running to someplace else counts as beating him, I suppose.”

To her, Rei was her best friend's brother. Ayaka occasionally talked about him from time to time. Ayaka and her had become fairly close as time went on. Though she might have to leave her one day.

Kazane shook her head at the thought.

There was always a chance for things to be normal. She wasn't like her brother, who wished for things to be special. She just wanted things to be like always. That's why she intended to enjoy the rest of the “normal” moments.

Rei came back to her, his hands on his hips.

“Well, it seems that Saitou-sensei said that if we were done, we could go.”

“I see. We should probably get back to the others.”

They turned around, looking at where Ayaka and Ayato were. Rei put his hands on his hips.

“I suppose you do any chemistry?”

“Chemistry? Not in particular. I just take general chemistry for the graduation requirements. Though sometimes I need help from my brother.”

“I see. It must be nice having someone who could teach you if you ever needed help. Ayato was-”

He suddenly stopped as he clutched his shirt.

Kazane felt it too. A chilly feeling entered the air, as if the temperature decreased. She turned around and observed the scenery. A person talking to Saitou-sensei stopped midspeech. The trees had stopped shaking.

Time had stopped.

Kazane bit her lip. Something like this was not possible, unless it was something unnatural. If the CHK and GIRUS things were true, then it was most likely that.

Kazane frowned.

“Something's wrong, isn't it?”

Rei glanced at Kazane.

“You can move?”

“Clearly.”

Kazane moved her arms up and down, something felt warm on her wrist. She pulled down her sleeve, and saw the bracelet she always wore. Her mother had given her the bracelet, and told her to wear it all the time.

It was usually yellow, but now, there was a light glow.

Rei closed his eyes, turning around. He pulled his sleeve down, revealing the same glowing bracelet.

“So you're one of us.”

“ーHuh?”

Kazane was left speechless. Thoughts raced through her mind. Rei was a CHK. Was Ayaka a CHK? The four of them, Ayato, Ayaka, Kazane, Rei were CHK?

Rei turned to her.

“It's not important right now. What's more important, is that GIRUS are here.”

GIRUS are here.

Kazane couldn't move. First, finding out about all the CHK and GIRUS things shocked her enough. Now, finding her friend, and the person besides her closest to her brother was a CHK too. Even more, there were the pronounced GIRUS right here in this area.

Rei bit his lip, as if trying to think of a way to bring Kazane out of her shock. As a moment of silence passed, Rei closed his eyes.

“Come on, I know it might come as a surprise, but if GIRUS are here, we can't stay around and do nothing. Ayaka and Ayato might be in danger.”

Hearing that, Kazane snapped out of her daze, and she looked up to meet Rei's eyes. Rei smiled.

“Let's do this.”

Kazane slowly nodded. She wasn't sure what was happening, but she had to check if Ayato was okay. And maybe Ayato would know what to do.

Rei turned around. He picked up a rock and whispered something. A brown light coated the rock, before he threw it as far as he could. It smashed into the trees, leaving smoke floating into the air.

“That should distract them to think that we're over there.”

Kazane and Rei turned around, and ran into the trail. The leaves stayed still as Kazane pushed past the forest. To the stop of time, frozen statues of people stood all around them.

As they ran, a voice came out in front of them.

“Rei?”

Ayaka stood in front of them, her long black hair still as they fell down to her shoulders. She slowly turned to them, as Rei and Kazane. She was facing towards the trees, looking as if they'd interrupted her thinking.

Kazane blinked.

“A-Ayaka?”

Ayaka glanced at Kazane, before her eyes wandered to the glowing bracelet on Kazane's wrist.

“I see, he was right.”

Rei stepped forward.

“Where's Ayato?”

Ayaka clenched her jaw. She took a deep breath.

“He should be fine. I gave him my bracelet and told him to lie down.”

“Huh?”

Kazane tilted her head. Ayato wasn't with Ayaka?

Rei nodded, turning to the field where he had left.

“I see. I'm going to get him, and we're going to hide somewhere,”

Ayaka walked up to Rei, and gently put her hand on his shoulder.

“Hopefully, the length of time of not wearing the bracelet wasn't enough to give our location away.”

The three of them ran towards the location of the final tree that was planted. Kazane crossed her fingers, silently wishing Ayato to be alive.

When the opening cleared, the three of them approached where they planted the last tree. Ayaka walked in front of them.

“He should be here. I left him-”

Ayaka froze, her eyes widening.

In the plains in front of them, Ayato was nowhere to be seen. Ayaka slowly walked forward, her jaw clenched as she looked around frantically.

“There's no way that he's gone. He has to be here somewhere.”

Just then, a loud laughter echoed, before an explosion sound shook the ground. The three of them looked towards where the sound came from.

A cold feeling entered Kazane. If Ayato was not here, and all of a sudden there was fighting-

“Ayato!”

Her instincts took over. Kazane turned around and bolted towards the location.

Her brother was alive right? There's no way he could be dead. That had to be the sound of him defeating GIRUS. All those times he joked, all those times he made fun of her, all of the conversations he had with her.

I told you, I was something special.

He was going to be alive, because he was special.

“Kazane!”

Rei and Ayaka called behind her. Kazane didn't hear. As she ran, the sound of wind rushed past her. Her body felt unnaturally light, her legs easily pushing her forward.

Ayato, Ayato, Ayato.

“You're alive, aren't you? You're breathing, smiling, laughing somewhere. Even though the odds…”

Kazane gritted her teeth, ignoring the cold feeling in her chest. Ayato had never received training. The odds of him winning were close to zero. Even so, she chose to believe that he was going to win.

“You'll laugh again. You'll banter with me again. You’ll have another talk with me about GIRUS and CHK.”

More smoke evaporated into the air, the direction where the noise had come. Where a supposed battle was happening. Where Ayato was supposed to be winning.

“That's right. No matter what happens, you told me yourself that you're special. Besides, no one could accept that you died, you know that as much huh? Everyone depends on you so much. Even myself…”

Kazane could feel her words getting self-deprecating as desperation filled her mind.

When she finally arrived at the scene, her mind stopped.

Three cloaked figures stood in the grass, over the lying corpse of an unmoving body. The grass around the body was soaked deep with blood, and the body had a large red hole in its shirt.

Kazane fell on her knees. Her mouth moved, but no words could come out. She blinked over and over again.

“A-Ayato is…”

The corpse had a face that Kazane could never forget. One that smiled as it saw her pout, one that cried and needed her to help it out, one that gave her life light.

Ayato Hinode laid dead on the feet of the three cloaked figures.

 …

“Ayaka, what happened to Ayato!?”

Rei was worried as they chased after Kazane.

“I don’t know!”

Ayaka’s face was angled down as she ran.

Rei looked in front of them. Kazane was surprisingly fast, despite her small, thin body. But more importantly, if Ayato was a CHK, then most likely, he was found by GIRUS, and chased off. Just in case, Rei clenched his fist, and a wave of cold air blew around him. He had summoned a noise cancelation shield.

“This is really bad,”

He murmured to himself. To have casualties this early in the CHK and GIRUS fight. Most likely, he questioned whether Kazane would be able to survive with the fact that Ayato was dead.

“I left him alone! I-”

 Ayaka struggled to continue her sentence, and Rei heard the thinness of her voice, as if it could crack anytime.

“I ran away from him! I was scared to believe he was a CHK! I thought, I thought.”

If Ayato could use his ability, then a GIRUS pawn most likely wouldn't kill him. Even so, he had a bad feeling about this.

Ayaka only squeezed his shoulder tighter in response.

“If something bad were to happen to him, then the fault would be…“

As they ran, the sight of Kazane kneeling on the ground was in front of them.

“K-Kazane are you o-”

Rei froze when he saw what was in front of them.

In the field in front, Ayato Hinode laid dead in front of Kazane, his face in her hands. Three cloaked figures stood afar, their backs turned and walking away. On their cloaks were a badge unmistakably a bird, the badge of GIRUS. He was killed by GIRUS. Ayato was the first casualty.

Kazane's head slowly fell down to the ground.

“Why did this have to happen? All I've ever wanted was for you to be alive.”

She clenched Ayato's sleeve.

“Why Ayaka!? Why did you leave him like this!?”

Kazane pushed herself up, taking a shaky breath.

“He was just a normal person! He just wanted to live! Why couldn't you run with him!? What were you even doing!?”

Tears streamed down Kazane's face.

“Why are you still alive!? Did he sacrifice himself!? Did you sacrifice him!? Was there even a need for a sacrifice!?”

“ーーーー”

Ayaka opened her mouth, but no words came out.

“It doesn't matter anymore. Ayato is, Ayato is dead.”

Dead.

Kazane’s last word lingered in the air as she fell onto her knees, burying her face into Ayato.

Only the sound of the footsteps of GIRUS walking could be heard at that moment, alongside Kazane's sobs into Ayato's sleeve. As the silence stretched, Ayaka's hands clenched into a fist, her hand shaking.

“You're quite cruel.”

A sad smile spread across Ayaka's face as she closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes, she looked at the direction GIRUS was walking. Two flames erupted behind her back, forming a pair of blue wings. A crystal materialized in her hand.

Sweat dripped down Rei's chin. As a result of Ayato's death and Kazane's greif, Ayaka had become too guilty to act in a rational manner. What Ayaka was suggesting, attacking the GIRUS, was certainly suicide, and most likely the deaths of Kazane and himself.

Rei grabbed Ayaka's wrist as she stepped forward.

“Are you crazy? There's three of them, there's no way you could-”

“Let go.”

Ayaka's voice was as cold as ice as she turned to Rei. She twisted her arm, pulling it away from Rei.

“I won't be able to understand how you feel, but attacking the GIRUS will only make things worse. It'll only result in your death.”

A laughter escaped from Ayaka's lips.

“Maybe so. But perhaps that's my punishment.”

Ayaka turned to the GIRUS, the flames of her wings spreading like a bird, swirling into the air. Specks of blue fire flew into the grass, a sizzling sound.

“I ran away again. To think that he really was one, I ran away. Even though GIRUS was here. Even though he didn't know anything or understand anything.”

Ayaka’s hand shook as a tear ran down her face. She wiped it and looked at Kazane in Ayato's arms. She lifted her arms into the air and stared at the sky.

“What a strange feeling! Every inch of my body wants to fight! All my runaway instincts, all my fears of GIRUS, all my worry of dying seems to have faded! Yet it came when it was too late!”

Ayaka walked until she was in front of Kazane, her arms lowering. She glanced at Kazane on the ground, before giving her a small smile.

“Kazane, I'm certain. That when I die, I'll be punished.”

Kazane slowly looked up at Ayaka, her eyes widening. Rei opened his mouth, but before he could call Ayaka's name, she flew at the GIRUS.

The tips of her wings snapped back, cracking like lightning as she flew towards the cloaked figures. Her hand grasped a shard tightly as she moved through the air, leaving a gush of air behind her that blew into Rei's face.

“KO Shatter!”

Dust gathered, forming three shards. Like an arrow, they flew towards the cloaked figures. The cloaked figures turned around at the noise.

Crunch.

The shards exploded on the impact of the shield, blowing the three cloaked figures back. One was unlucky, falling onto his back.

Ayaka landed on the ground close to them, her flame wings dissipating. She shot another round of shards. The two standing figures blocked the shard with ease, while the last one was stabbed in the gut, specks of blood shooting out of him.

“W-why you little!!!!!”

It snarled, before another shard slammed him in the face. It howled with pain, before disintegrating into dust.

“Y-you bitch!”

Another standing cloaked figure ran towards Ayaka, drawing out his sword. His sword had a purple dragon mark, a sign that it was enchanted by GIRUS.

Ayaka formed a long shard in her hand, raising it to block the cloaked figure slash. She ducked his next slash, and kicked him in the stomach.

“Ow, ow,ow, WHAT THE FUCK! You stupid girl!”

The cloaked figure wiped the blood off his nose. In his hand, he summoned a purple orb in his hand.

“I'm going to screw up your pretty face!”

In the next moment, he teleported behind Ayaka.

A wave of worry washed across Rei. He summoned a shield around Ayaka, but before the figure could smash the orb into her back, Ayaka spun around and roundhouse kicked him into the ground. While he was flying, she shot a shard that ran through his stomach, spraying blood on her face. The figure landed on the ground and gurgled blood, as it soaked into the grass around him.

“Impossible, impossible, impossible! How could I be losing to a woman!?”

Ayaka gazed at him with a look of disgust. Her nose wrinkled.

“Stop screwing around! You kill the lives of innocent people, yet on the battlefield, you spew nonsense like that!”

Ayaka clenched her jaw as she glanced around, looking for the third GIRUS. He was kneeled on the ground watching in shock as his comrades were being killed.

The second GIRUS had teleported in front of Ayaka while she had been looking at the other GIRUS. Ayaka turned around to see the cloaked figure in front of her slamming the purple orb in her face. She quickly raised her arm in front, and the purple orb slammed into her arm.

“ーgk”

Ayaka winced in pain as blood trickled down her arm. The sleeve of where the purple orb had hit was dark green, soaked with her blood. The cloaked figure tried to stab Ayaka with his sword, but Ayaka stabbed his wrist with the shard in her hand. The figure howled in pain, before lifting his feet and kicked her in the stomach as hard as he could.

“FUCK YOU!”

As he brought his feet into Ayaka's stomach, Ayaka flew backward, her body crashing into the ground. She weakly lifted herself out, coughing blood into grass as she clutched her bloody arm.

The GIRUS figure teleported above Ayaka. He lifted his sword above her body.

“DIE!!!”

Before he could bring the sword down through her chest, Ayaka’s flame wing's spreaded out behind her. Blue flames engulfed the cloak figure's hand, the wind knocking the sword from his hand. Ayaka spun around and a shard formed in her hand. She then flew past him, slashing him in half with the edge of her shard. His two halves fell on the ground, the organs in his body collapsing into a pile. They disintegrated into dust.

Ayaka panted as she clutched her chest. She coughed some more blood onto the ground, before falling onto her knees. As she tried to catch her breath, a sick, desperate voice came from behind her. Rei turned, to see the last figure, his hood falling off as he looked at the sky in desperation.

“My puppets, my puppets, my puppets, my puppets, my puppets, my puppets, my puppets!!!!”

He howled into the air, clutching the sides of his face and pulling his eyelids down.

“You killed them, you killed them, you killed them!”

He wailed, pulling blond blobs of hair out of his head. Ayaka turned to him, slowly pushing herself off the ground. She brandished the shard in her hand.

“Your journey ends here. Just like them.”

“My puppets!”

The blond GIRUS wailed. Then his head fell down, as he started to laugh maniacally. He pulled more blobs of hair out of his scalp. Ayaka pointed the shard at his face.

“Maybe one day, you'll find peace.”

The shard launched from her hand, heading straight for his face.

Rei frowned. Something felt awfully wrong about the last GIRUS. As he observed the last GIRUS, he noticed purple smoke swirling in his hand. The last GIRUS had activated a spell, one so unusual that it created purple smoke. Instinctively, he summoned a shield around Ayaka. As the shard flew towards the last GIRUS, it disintegrated into black dust.

Ayaka backed off. Her eyes were widened in shock.

In the next second, the rocks around Ayaka flew up in the air. With a snap of her wings, Ayaka lunged to the side. Just as she crossed the rocks, an invisible force crushed everything, the rocks, the grass, the dirt, flat against each other into a single sheet of earth.

As Ayaka flew back, a black shard flashed towards her. It slammed into the shield Rei had summoned. Despite the shard being dissipated by the shield, it left a force strong enough to knock Ayaka back. She crashed into the ground, but managed to catch the ground, landing in a kneeling position.

The last GIRUS stood afar, purple smoke leaving his hand. His eye glowed purple, three purple rings circling his hand.

“I'm glad I chose to let you give me such a beautiful presentation!”

“Y-you're the…”

Ayaka stuttered, the shard falling out of her hand as she stepped back.

“Eight Right Bishop of GIRUS, Khosrow Cesare. And I'll take pleasure in killing you!”

The figure laughed, a devilish grin on his face and he took a step forward. He lifted his hand, a bright, purple mark on his hand, as an array of purple shards formed above him, pointing to Rei and Ayaka.

Rei clenched his jaw.

This was most likely going to be the end for them. In fact, he wasn't sure if they would even make it out alive.

“Hm?”

Khosrow frowned as he saw Ayaka forming an ice shard in her hand while she stepped forward.

“You're not going to bow down and beg for your life?”

Ayaka clenched the shard in her hand and pointed it towards Khosrow.

“I don’t care who you are, I'm going to kill you.”

As Ayaka said that, Khosrow broke into a maniacal laugh.

“Amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing! Very well then, give me your best shot!”

Rei grimaced. He stood up, but before he could react, Ayaka lunged for Khosrow.

With her wings, she moved at unnatural speeds. Being light and fire behind oneself, it made her extremely fast. In fact, as she lunged for him, her wings were purple, the maximum speed that she could attain, which is said to be a half of sound.

And yet as she sped to stab him, Khosrow swung his hand faster.

“ーgk”

A dark purple shard had materialized in front of Ayaka, its burst slamming into Rei's shield. The impact exploded Ayaka into the air, but she flipped and landed on her foot.

“Such energy in a shield, amazing, amazing, amazing!”

Khosrow tossed another blond blob into the ground.

“Though it seems, I have to handle that first. Then maybe I can have some fun.”

The second he uttered those words, a crushing force surrounded Rei. The ground ripped.

“Oh, fuck.”

Rei channeled all his energy into a shield, surrounded where he, Kazane, and Ayato were at. The pieces of earth and an unseen force slammed into the shield, and Rei could feel the spine of his hairs stand as pressure squeezed him from both sides. He closed his eyes.

The pressure stopped. When Rei opened his eyes, he saw the area pinched together. Kazane’s eyes were widened at the two trenches around them.

“T-that energy?”

He could hear Khosrow's incredulous voice as he dropped another blond hairball. In his distraction, Ayaka lunged for him again. Immediately, Khosrow turned back to face her.

“Accende!”

The voice that called that was no other than Rei himself. He launched forward towards Ayaka, fully knowing that Khosrow was going to kill her.

Ayaka’s speed picked up, dashing towards Khosrow.

I’m not going to make it in time.

Khosrow let out a smile, his hand squeezing the clump of hair into dust. Even though time had stopped, a strong wind suddenly blew.

“Vanishing, LIGHT!”

At that moment, a ring launched itself from Khosrow. The force was so strong that when it slammed into Rei's shield, he found it impossible to move. It engulfed the area with darkness, so much that Rei couldn't see.

“T-this is one of the knight's trump cards, isn't it.”

Rei's teeth chattered as he held on to his shield, doing his best to block the wave. As he held on, he could only feel the wave getting stronger.

“ーgk”

The shield was thinning. Obviously, his power was no match for a GIRUS rank. If his shield couldn't handle it, then the others-

Snap!

The white shield that Rei had formed with his energy cracked, and the wave flew through him. Rei immediately spat out some blood.

“Gah!”

…

The darkness cleared, and Khosrow stood there, looking at the sky, his hand pointed at the sky.

“First battle was quite easy huh? But it's probably only going to get harder from here.”

Khosrow let out a sigh as he glanced around. The girl that was fighting him before laid motionlessly on the ground, the grass underneath her soaked with blood. Khosrow sighed.

“If only she had more training, perhaps she would've stood a better chance.”

Around him were some others. The boy that one of his puppets had killed with ease, who laughed like a maniac when he saw them.

“What was wrong with that boy?”

Khosrow muttered to himself. Beside the maniacal boy lay another unmoving girl, who seemed to have been too depressed by his death to defend herself.

The fight was not difficult, but he did know of someone else in the area. One that would surely give him a hard time.

“Kotaro Hinode, you're here somewhere, aren't you?”

Khosrow snarled, sure to kill that man. Even the thought of him drove anger through his veins. How many times had that man killed him? In his thoughts, a voice called him from afar.

“Y-you, you.”

In the distance was yet another boy. His hand held a brown orb, having survived his vanishing light. Though his shirt was drenched in red, he was still conscious. His face had red streaks streaming down it.

A stream of excitement washed through Khosrow.

“Hoo? A survivor? No way!”

Khosrow was filled with glee. He felt every need to tell the boy how special he was, how much energy that it took to survive. Of course, it was the same boy's aegis who negated his shards. If he was to let this boy leave and get formal training, he was certain he would be a very big problem to his reign.

“Very few people even make it out alive, you know. I'm impressed.”

“S-stop screwing-”

The boy's face twisted in anguish, most likely in response to the slaughter of his friends. Though midspeech, he collapsed to the ground. The blood of his shirt soaked the ground. He was injured to the point where he couldn't even finish his sentences. Still extremely impressive.

“Ah, ah, ah. What a shame.”

Khosrow laughed as he stepped closer to the boy.

“What a pity, what a pity, what a pity.”

In truth, he did feel a tinge of pity for them. Given their reactions and their fights, they were certainly raw. Camping on Earth to have a fun life. He did hear a lot of fun things about human life, from Kotaro Hinode. The thought made him boil with rage.

He took a look at the dying boy on the ground.

“It seems this is goodbye.”

He brought down the shard to the boy's back, to which the boy spat out blood, falling to the ground. And then he became still.

Khosrow brushed some dust off his shirt, throwing a blond blob of loose hair onto the ground, before turning around and walking off.

Even though the fight didn't even require him to lift a finger, he felt strangely tired.

“I'll come back a bit to retrieve the core, I suppose.”

With that, he slid his fingers into his pockets, before looking at the four bloody corpses before him.

“Sheesh, this isn't a very fun job.”

With that, he pulled out a purple crystal, and disintegrated into dust.