1

“Arata, we got it right where we want it. You take the flank! Let’s finish this!”

Hearing the transfer student’s orders, Kazuki Arata took a sharp turn mid-run.

Weaving his way past the lined up pillars, he momentarily using each one for cover.

Kazuki looked for a possible opening against the enemy, a large humanoid Nullity.

With its bulky arms and thick frame, it gave off the impression of a large ogre, one with a gem for an eye and spikes all over its back. Small gems likewise framed its arms.

Kazuki kept his eyes on the gems on the arm before they lit up and fired concentrated beams of red light.

He raised the shield on his left arm in an attempt to protect himself from the debris caused by the lasers. As each rock fell and whittled at his shield, he fixed his eyes forward and continued his run, making sure to come at the enemy from a circular running path.

The goal was to get past all the lasers, flank it from the side, and put up his Armament in order to block the incoming smack from the Nullity.

Without a shield to protect herself, his partner otherwise relied on her much more agile movements in order to dodge the incoming attacks and rock chunks.

Using her speed to her advantage, Uehara moved from pillar to pillar as the two Awakeners concurrently approached the enemy.

The ogre Nullity let out a roar while the two closed in. The beams from its arms have stopped, and it instead raised those huge arms and took aim at the person closest to it.

Kazuki, with his shield at the ready, saw the attack coming and decided to meet it head-on. The ogre Nullity pulled its right arm back and delivered a bone-crushing blow, only to have it blocked by the magical shield.

“Guh!”

Despite holding his ground, Kazuki flinched at the impact of the blow.

Even with the shield and its magically-enhanced extensions softening the blow, getting hit full force by a fist as big as his head still did a number. He struggled as he found his shield slowly losing ground against the pressing force of the fist.

The ogre raised its other arm, intent on finishing it and shattering the shield with the next blow.

“U-uehara, your turn!”

“Hiyaaaa!” echoed the female battle cry.

Soaring through the air, Sayaka Uehara raised her sword and came down after a mid-air flip.

The powerful punch from the ogre’s left arm never came, as the entire limb fell down after being sliced by the female Awakener’s Armament.

Kazuki welcomed the sound of blood and the loud thud that followed, and he found the weight pressuring his shield removed, only to hear the sound of a crash and a short scream.

As it happened, the ogre had temporarily let the deadlock go and used the right arm to swat Uehara away. It roared once again, shaking the enclosed area and causing some rock particles to fall from the ceiling.

“Not on my watch!”

Seeing the focus shift away from him, Kazuki ran at the ogre.

“Assimilator’s Core!”

Yelling out his Armament’s ability, Kazuki felt the surge of power wrapping around the shield on his left arm. The flash of light and the high-pitched noise of magical energy preceded the appearance of the blade attached to his Armament.

The symbol of the bond he had forged three weeks ago and the promise that he had made.

A form made possible only by that miraculous moment when both Awakeners’ hearts resonated as one.

“Raaaagghhh!” shouted Kazuki at the top of his lungs.

Turning back at him, the ogre raised its remaining arm for a quick attack.

In response, Kazuki raised his Armament up, with the shield portion of it ready for a defensive maneuver.

Thanks to the attack having less force behind it this time, Kazuki more easily parried the fist. Tilting his shield to the side allowed him to deflect the attack mid-strike while maintaining his striking form.

This gave him the opening he needed, and he forcefully drove the blade portion of his Armament into the chest of the ogre.

Letting out an anguished roar, the ogre stood shaking in place. Its arm slid down harmlessly as it fell to its knees. The luster from the gems all over its body faded with the sound of a groaning device.

Then, it slowly faded. From the head down, it quietly dissolved into particles until it was no more.

With the battle over, Kazuki relaxed and tumbled down. His back landed against a nearby pillar, and he just let everything go and slumped down. In front of his eyes, his Armament slowly faded away.

“You’ve gotten a lot better at this. Well done, Arata,” said Uehara, who slowly walked up to him with a satisfied look on her face.

The sword she held disappeared into particles as well.

“You okay, Uehara?”

In response to Kazuki’s concern, Uehara flipped her long hair confidently.

“It just caught me off-guard, that’s all. More importantly, now that the Class B has been taken care of, I do not think that this Fragment is in any danger of affecting the real world now. Best case scenario, it completely collapses on itself and scatters the negative energy that formed it back to its harmless form.”

“That’s good,” responded Kazuki with a smile. “Mission accomplished for the night, I guess.”

Three weeks have passed by so quickly. After that battle against Dr. Kagami and the official formation of his partnership with Sayaka Uehara, Kazuki has found his nights busy with matters like this.

As Ms. Sadohara explained, the actions of the doctor caused the various Fragments all over Shiroki City to become more active. Normally, these closed off dimensions contained only Classes C, D, and E Nullities and posed no threat to the human realm.

However, thanks to the doctor’s manipulation, the Class C Nullities had started gathering more negative energy and evolving to their next stage. Once they reach that certain point of power, the threat of innocents being pulled into Mu becomes more and more real.

That was why the two of them were tasked to nip the bud in several hotspots in Shiroki City before disaster strikes.

“Shall we head back now?” called out Uehara.

“Just let me rest a bit. Gimme a few seconds,” answered Kazuki.

Giving one more look at the catacombs-like environment that they were in, he waited as his partner began the process of opening a portal back to the human world.

After three weeks of experience, Kazuki found the transition between the two worlds much more seamless. Obtaining his powers and his Armament has made the harsh environment within Mu far less pressing, and now, he has more or less gotten used to traveling the worlds and fighting the smaller Nullities.

Following the transition back to the human world, the two Awakeners found themselves landing on concrete floor, having exit the Fragment and appearing in the back alley of a residential area.

From the distance, Kazuki saw some bits of the park where it all began. The sight of the place gave him a nostalgic feeling.

Taking that dive, first acquiring his Armament, and saving Amagi. All are precious memories that he will forever cherish.

He gave another look at the veiled portal he came from when he heard his partner dial a number on her smartphone.

“It’s us. We took care of this area.”

“Congratulations. Looks like it was easy for you. Just as I expected.”

Kazuki heard bits of the heavily-altered voice through the phone’s speakers, but he opted to look out for passersby instead of listening in, until a certain part.

“You know, I got something very special for you tomorrow. The two of you will love it. It’s the perfect couple’s gift!”

“This better not be anything vulgar,” warned Uehara, only to get a mischievous snicker as an immediate reply.

Hearing that reply, Kazuki remembered the counselor sending them to Aria Alley last weekend.

She did go overboard with ordering and reserving all those “amenities” at the love hotel that they had to investigate.

How did someone like her become the school’s counselor again?

“Awwww don’t you trust me?” asked Ms. Sadohara in a teasing tone over the phone.

“After all the teasing and tricks you kept doing to us, no.”

“Me neither,” followed Kazuki, who chimed in from afar.

“Awwww, so mean,” sarcastically replied their superior. “Anyway, having swept through most of the hotspots in the city, I think it’s about time I give you two something for doing such a great job. Especially you, Arata. Things couldn’t have gone so smoothly if only Uehara was fighting alone.”

“Yeah, yeah. We’ll just see you at school tomorrow.”

After giving her farewell, Uehara cut the call and turned to Kazuki.

“So, what are you up to now? Heading home?”

“Yeah, Hikari’s home by now. Can’t keep someone like her waiting. She’ll keep waiting for me before eating at times that I feel bad going home late. Then, I guess I’ll hit the sack early tonight.”

“You better not let these Nullity-hunting activities affect your grades, too.”

Kazuki’s eyes twitched. Her words were like an arrow that pierced him right around the time he remembered something.

“Oh crap! I just remembered that our first exams for the year are coming next week. Looks like another all-nighter for me sooner or later. And to think that we’ll be having our class trip over the weekend, too… Who’s the genius that made that schedule?”

“Someone who doesn’t expect everyone to cram stuff at the last minute. Well, it’s good that you’re quite the responsible person in other areas at least. I honestly expected different at first.”

Somehow, that remark made Kazuki happy even if he felt that it had no right to. It comforted him a bit to hear people looking up to him again, especially someone that he just made friends with not so long ago.

“You can count on me. I won’t mess up at school, Uehara.”

He said his farewells, and he went on his way.

With the Arata residence not being too far from the place, it should not be too long of a walk.

A lot has happened, but compared to the wild ride which was the battle against Dr. Kagami and his Class B Nullity, nothing had come close in terms of intensity. Fighting a fellow Awakener, especially one out to kill, was a completely different animal.

Admiring the street lights and the tranquil path home, he wished that things would stay this way. Having settled in with his new role, he had the desire that things would remain as is.

Not having to prepare for a tough battle or come out of a Fragment as roughed up as before can only be a good thing.

It meant the absence of dangers that could threaten his loving sister and those he cared about.

He hoped for that, but deep inside, he knew that there would be little to no chance of that happening. Sooner or later, they would strike again.

He can only use what time he had in order to prepare for the coming storm.

2

The sound of flesh getting ripped apart filled the cave. Blood splattered to the walls in sync with the chorus of the carnage.

The small, humanoid Nullities with long arms, dubbed Class E’s, all went down in one fell swoop each.

The one responsible – a completely pale woman, let out a wail of victory while swinging sharp blades.

Using those weapons that have taken the place of her arms, she sliced the fallen Class E’s some more before magically absorbing their particles into her as she raised her blade arms.

Standing not too far away, Touya Satoru admired the form of the woman that he laid his eyes on. He held onto a mask as he observed the massacre that was happening in front of him.

Admittedly, past the wails and the brutal behavior, he found the pale woman breathtaking. Her emotionless look as well as her long, white hair only served to enhance her entrancing looks. Wearing a low-cut dress over the lower half of a long gown, she looked every bit the form of a typical man’s dream wife.

However, such desires will remain pipe dreams for any lustful man in the world… should they even have the ability to see her.

Satoru knew full well that he is the sole person who can claim ownership of such an ephemerally beautiful woman.

There was no stronger proof of that than the ghastly chunk of magical energy attached directly to the woman’s midsection. In lieu of a lower half that would have contained her legs, the woman had a thick, translucent torso, stretching all the way to Satoru’s back.

It was safe to say that the woman was literally bonded to her master in a sick and twisted way.

“Ah, this won’t do. No way will they appear in a place full of weakling Nullities like this. There are no Class C’s, what more a Class B?” said the disappointed Satoru.

He watched as the link attaching the woman to his back retracted, bringing her close to him.

He turned to the woman that now floated at his side. Using his right arm, he fondled the woman’s chin before his fingers, and subsequently the rest of his hand, transformed into flesh-colored tentacles. The tentacles snugly extended and wrapped themselves around the head of the white woman, massaging her as she showed her first glimpse of emotion in the form of a smile.

“Happy with your fill, Setsura? Let’s go back, shall we?” said him in a soothing voice as his tentacles reverted into his right hand.

The pale woman nodded.

Satoru stood up, and with his left hand, he opened a veiled portal. He then put his mask on and glanced at his right hand before stepping into the portal.

He left the cave behind with the feeling of disappointment.

Emerging on the other side of the portal, Satoru now found himself at a riverbank. The woman attached to his back was gone, and so was his entire right arm.

Those two were mere irregularities that could not exist outside the confines of the dimension known as Mu. As he stepped out of that dream world quite literally, so did they vanish and revert into the fictional projections that they were.

Now, he was left alone. Accompanied by nothing else but the fireflies that circled the river, he looked at the city lights at the distance.

Unaware, he drew closer and closer to the river until he stood right at the edge of the water.

He then found himself looking down and staring at the calm river that he knew traversed a big part of Shiroki City, a city that he had grown resentful of.

The hatred welling inside him magnified as he focused on the water and through the dimly-lit nighttime surroundings, saw a reflection of a parka-wearing youth with no right arm. It brought him unpleasant memories the longer he stared at it.

He decided to let such feelings subside as he put his arm inside his parka’s pocket.

From the pocket, he brought out a photo. A puzzled look came over his face as he looked at the photo that he was given just a day ago.

After going through the purple-haired doctor’s reports, monitoring some activity, and formulating a plan, that silver-haired man had given him this photo as a reminder of his assignment.

“Are they really that strong?” he said as he stared, wide-eyed, at the photo.

The task given was simple especially for someone as strong as he was.

He stood no chance in the real world, but inside Mu, his right arm and his servant gave him a frightening amount of power.

Subjugating and further analyzing such enemies would be easy, and killing them even more so.

On the picture was a picture of a male teen with bangs covering one eye along with an adolescent girl with long, black hair. They were walking together, just like any other teenage couple on a casual stroll in the city’s many hangout spots. The look of casual enjoyment on their faces irked Satoru.

What the hooded youth’s eyes were fixated on were not the two teens but the third person that appeared alongside them in the photo, the one positioned on the left of the male.

The silver-haired man had told him that based on the doctor’s files, this third person should be the priority target for investigation.

Satoru observed this third person even more intently as the silver-haired man’s words came back to him.

In contrast to the two teens’ seemingly formal and firm way of carrying themselves, the third person seemed a lot more relaxed and easygoing in this shot. She clung to the hand of the male teen. The third person played the perfect contrast and balance to the impression he got from looking at the two.

Satoru burned the image of this person into his mind.

The image of a brown-haired girl with a big, cheerful smile on her face.