1

"What's up, Tomoda? I heard you switched over to playing that new card game on mobile."

The bowl cut teen named Tomoda put down his bag before turning to the classmate with glasses. "Oh, that one? Yeah I started on it last night."

"Would you believe that Daimonji is already Platinum in the game?"

"Didn't that thing just got released last week? Holy... Daimonji!" With a distressed look, Tomoda called out to another classmate. "Daimonji! Just what kind of degenerate deck are you using? Help me climb!"

Kazuki Arata's ears did not register any more of the conversation among the trio of mobile gamers. He used to interact a lot with them thanks to another game, but due to real life circumstances, he just cannot log in to Lost Legend as much anymore, or other games, for the matter.

Not like he was lucky with his rolls there anyway.

His thoughts then drifted to what happened last night. It was an unbelievable sequence of events, and he still cannot get over it. No way can he tell the truth to just about anybody, and he felt some remorse over the lies he had to throw at Hikari when he got home last night.

"Good morning, Arata."

Hearing that cheerful voice, Kazuki tensed up and glanced towards his seatmate. However, there was nothing different from Miki Amagi's positive disposition. There were no signs of trauma on her face, and she looked completely normal, as if nothing happened last night.

"Good morning, Amagi."

"Let's work hard together today, Arata," she beamed as she sat down. "One last push before the school trip."

Kazuki exhaled. At first, he somehow thought that his seatmate would bring up the topic of the ordeal last night, but things seemed safe for now.

"Hehhh?"

Kazuki jolted up as he got startled by the third member of their trio's voice before being hit on the back.

"What's gotten into you today? You seem a lot stiffer than usual."

"Shut up, Shiki."

Shiki then raised his hands in response. "Ahhh, that hurts. You don't have to be so defensive and all."

The spiky-haired friend repeatedly looked back and forth between him and Amagi.

"So..." Shiki stared blankly at the ceiling, thinking of a random topic for the day as usual. "You guys ready for the school trip?"

A relatively harmless topic, good.

Looking back, Kazuki did agree with his friend despite his reaction. He did seem a lot more on edge today, and he knew that it had mostly something to do with the female in their trio.

He decided to tuck those thoughts away for the meantime the moment he saw the two friends engage each other in their everyday conversation.

He was worrying over nothing, after all.

2

Kazuki took each step with care as he walked through the crowded school hallway. Classes have ended, and as the weekend approached, students were busy packing up their things and talking about plans for the school trip.

With a class size of around twenty and a section for each year level, the school trip looked to be another big event. The other sections would take turns eventually, but for now, it was one class each from the first, second, and third year students who would be taking part in this trip.

Them, and Fuyusato's student council as a whole.

He nonchalantly continued his walk before glancing to the side and looking at the two female classmates that walked alongside him.

He soon approached the large sliding doors with the two girls behind him, and it was then that Amagi spoke up.

"Isn't this... Ms. Sadohara's room?" asked Amagi.

"Yeah, it is," replied Kazuki. "It's Ms. Sadohara's room alright."

"Is she...?"

"Unfortunately, yes. That person that Uehara and I were talking about last night was indeed her. Once we enter her room, make sure to just pay attention to half the things she would say. She spouts a ton of crap in between the important stuff, and—"

"Wow, that's so cool!"

Kazuki did a double take at his childhood friend's reaction.

"I didn't know that it was Ms. Sadohara. I always felt that there was more to her lazy and sleepy attitude, but to think that she knows about all those things, those portals, those monsters, and..."

"Shh! Don't talk about those things too loudly," Uehara responded as she tried to quiet her classmate.

To which, Amagi nodded in agreement.

At least she's taking it in stride.

For the longest time, Kazuki felt honestly surprised at how well Amagi took the revelation of Mu, Fragments, and the like. He expected her to be someone who would have been traumatized and spilled the beans to random people already.

He himself eased into the idea of becoming an Awakener thanks to being exposed to all those things through media. However, Amagi did not seem to be someone into all those geek interests nor even fantasy movies.

They approached the sliding doors when they opened, and to the trio's surprise, out stepped three girls.

Three girls of different grades whom Kazuki and Amagi knew.

Thanks to her signature wavy hair bleached in pale blonde and featuring orange highlights, both of them quickly recognized Rin Amamiya. The third year student always wears her uniform in an overtly relaxed manner, befitting the gyaru image that she had maintained for as long as Kazuki knew.

Behind her were two members of the student council.

Lilya Bloomenfled, third year student. Kazuki did not know this bespectacled person much, but he knew her from the drawings and paintings that got featured in publications every now and then. Her magenta ponytail complemented her status as the resident school artist, but one would be surprised to find out that she was also a pain in the ass when it comes to being a stickler to the rules.

She was flanked by a petite girl with a drill hair that Kazuki was not all too pleased to see.

There was no love lost between him and Sayori Misawa, the student council's secretary, proudly in charge of the school's gossip mill and master at writing clickbait.

"What a waste of time! Uggghh," groaned Amamiya after throwing her hands up in the air, showing off her polished nails that shone against the sunset. "Do I really have to go to the student council room with you? The matter's been settled!"

"Maybe you should behave yourself next time. Else, I'll see to it that you would be getting more than demerits and a trip to the school counselor's room."

Bloomenfled's voice was snappy and stern. She showed little to no emotion as she made that threat to Amamiya.

Looking at the scene in front of them, Kazuki theorized that it was Amamiya who got into trouble, and the student council had to intervene.

After giving him a glance with a raised eyebrow, Amamiya went on her way. On the other hand, Bloomenfled did not even give him a glance, as expected out of that student council member.

"Whaaaa, this looks like a scoop! Arata, seen with Amagi and the transfer student?" said the overly enthusiastic Misawa as she reached for her phone.

"E-eh..."

"Wha-"

The two girls with Kazuki reacted accordingly, but before anything more can happen, Misawa shouted as she got her ear pulled by the much taller Bloomenfled.

"Cut that out, we got a lot more important stuff to finish before the school trip," snapped her senior with magenta hair.

Kazuki, Uehara, and Amagi stared at the trio as they went their way.

3

Kazuki slid open the sliding doors that led to the private quarters of the school counselor.

The scenes from the last time he was here were still fresh in his mind. He once again saw the familiar bookcases as the smell of mint quickly filled his nose.

"Oh! You are..."

"Huh?"

At Kazuki's shocked reaction, the two girls also peeked in before responding with their own expressions of surprise.

Standing in front of the ornate glass table was a familiar face that none of them expected to see again.

"It's been a while."

Jay Shizaki put down the tray that he was holding and gave a meek bow to the trio who just stepped in.

Without warning, he quickly sprinted to them and gently held Amagi's hand. In response, the brunette stammered and was left speechless.

"Thank goodness you're fine!" asked Shizaki. "I'm truly sorry for what happened."

"I-I..." Amagi simply gave a smile. "Nice to see you again."

Kazuki found his eyes immediately turning to this blonde person thanks to the surprising turn of events, but he found no look of malice from his earnest eyes.

"What's going on here?" asked Uehara snarkily. "Why is he here?"

The chair behind the larger desk spun around, and Miyuko Sadohara faced the trio with a smirk. "Why the shocked look?"

"You tell me. Why is he here?"

"Well, as the chief figure of the people who helped her mom get treatment, I think that it would be best if such an amazing counselor and teacher as myself would volunteer to take him in for the meantime. So I picked him up last night at Aspira, and I asked him to be my... trustworthy assistant."

She winked at Uehara.

"Also, I am getting tired of filing all the paperwork and cleaning up. You can't let a woman like me stress over all those things!"

"And you were doing so well before the last two sentences, too," sighed Kazuki.

"Anyway, what brings you here, Arata? You finally gonna let me help you pick between those two girls?"

"Oh shut up. It ain't anything like that."

"Just kidding, just kidding!" laughed Sadohara. "Uehara told me about it last night."

"Oh, she already did? That makes things a lot easier then."

"Now, have a seat. Shizaki, mind serving our guests some tea?"

"Of course!" replied Shizaki with a salute. "Anything for you, my lady!"

As the blonde went to a corner of the room to prepare tea, Kazuki noticed the pillars of paperwork that were neatly arranged at one end of the counselor's table, and he had to take a second look at the amount of work this guy had done in a span of a day.

"He's completely become a manservant," whispered Kazuki. "Is that the charm of a mature woman?"

Before he can gaze at the school counselor's voluptuous figure and imagine the scenarios between her and the timid boy, Uehara whispered back. "To be honest, he's kind of a pushover even back then."

"The perfect catch for the vixen that calls herself a student counselor," said Kazuki as he took his seat.

"Huh? What is that I hear?"

Kazuki turned to see Sadohara hunched forward with her eyebrows raised.

"Moving on, shall we begin, all three of you?"

4

Kazuki did not pay too much attention in the first part of the briefing. All the time, he stared all over the room while Miyuko Sadohara told everything to Amagi. Everything basic about Fragments, Mu, Nullities, Armaments, and such.

"You got all of that?"

Amagi eagerly nodded as Shizaki served her another round of tea. The blonde boy then hurried over to her master in order to refill her supply before doing so with Uehara.

"Really? You're sharp. Hmmm, as expected from one of the top students in class. Maybe you can share with your childhood friend of yours some of that," said the school counselor. "So you're good to go! Welcome to the team!"

"Huh?" asked Uehara.

"What? You got objections? I think having the three of you work hand-in-hand in investigating the Fragments is an awesome idea. You even work well together as a team. You got someone who can attack, someone who can defend, and someone who can shoot things. Isn't that right, Amagi?"

Amagi chuckled nervously. "Actually, I'm not so sure about my skills, but I'll do my best!"

"Well, whatever. You have two people here to ask help from. I'm too lazy to do some combat training or anything like what that punk made me do."

Ms. Sadohara pointed at Kazuki and began downing her tea. Once finished, she continued.

"Now that we got that out of the way, I have gotten some intel about our man, Uehara."

Kazuki and Uehara turned to her in response.

"According to your descriptions, we have identified our man as Touya Satoru. A boy around your age hailing from another town. He lived alone in Fuyusato for several years as he pursued middle school education, using allowance money to stay in a small apartment room. Unfortunately, we did not have a single point person on him, as he was very withdrawn and reclusive in his schooling years. After an incident a year ago, the official records tagged him as missing. He has not come home to his registered residence."

"Missing? Do you mean..." Kazuki's voice trailed off.

"From the very same records, he had run away from home late one night and gotten tangled up in an incident with the Baihu Clan. The incident saw an abrupt end at the city riverside, but some reports have claimed to have seen him in what was believed to be the gang's temporary base of operations."

"It is just as I thought," commented Uehara. She placed a hand on her chin and slowly nodded to herself.

"This was one of the few isolated incidents of disappearances in Shiroki City. It did not make major headlines like what Dr. Kagami did because everyone brushed it off as a one-off thing. Besides, the media do not really care for those delinquents unless something really major were to happen to all of them at once."

"Ah! A Fragment!"

Amagi had a look of triumph when she blurted out that answer, as if she said something really smart and deductive.

"So you're saying that they actually got sucked into a Fragment?"

"I am positive of it," Uehara said in reply to Kazuki's question. "I have no greater proof than that thing that's on his back. When I slashed that woman off, I sensed its power and what it is. It was a Nullity. I'm positive of it."

"Really?"

"It was not just an extension of himself or a manifestation of his Armament's powers. It was a Nullity. One with power roughly equal or even higher than a Class B. As for how he got that thing attached to him... It makes my stomach turn to imagine what kind of heresy transpired to bond them together in such a way."

"A humanoid Nullity. It certainly is possible, but I have never encountered one myself."

It was Sadohara's turn to be puzzled at the mention of the humanoid Nullity. "Although I did have heard about a Class A or so from a former associate. Nullities who have transcended their beastly forms, if I were not mistaken."

"The more important question is what that guy wants from Amagi. When I fought him, he was blabbering something about Amagi's potential and wanting to get something out of her."

Kazuki was about to resume when he caught himself. The theory that had just begun forming in his head clicked, and he stopped as he pondered the horrific implications of that.

He looked at the worried expression of his childhood friend, and he felt as if a lot more gazes have gravitated towards him. It was not him that broke the silence, however.

"Could it be that Amagi was also someone capable of spawning a humanoid Nullity?"

Cold air swept through the room at Uehara's suggestion.

"It's certainly possible," followed Kazuki.

"Arata..."

Amagi had a look of disbelief on her face, and Kazuki tried his best to stay away from her eyes. It was Sadohara that broke the silence.

"It is farfetched and unthinkable, but I think that it is in the realm of possibility, no matter how small it is. Miki Amagi, you became an Awakener of your own will, right? What Satoru said about you has its basis. If you have enough mana and willpower to unlock the bow that represents your will, emotional outbursts from you could, statistically, have the possibility to generate a much greater Nullity than just Class Bs."

"I-is that so..."

"But you shouldn't be afraid," said Sadohara with a reassuring smile. "You got these two to watch your back."

"Thanks, Ms. Sadohara."

"Which brings me back to Satoru. You know, it's really lucky that you would be going on a school trip this weekend. By being up in the mountains and away from Shiroki City, you can automatically get away from him. I can then have some time to mobilize my connections so we can find tabs on his movement when you get back."

"Are you gonna be fine? What if you run into him while we're gone?"

"Who do you take me for, Arata? Just so you know, my Armament's power might be terrible against Nullities, but against Awakeners or whatever that guy is, Yata-no-Kagami is sure to give them hell."

Finishing her tea, she got up and walked towards the ornate table the three students sat around.

"Besides, isn't it about time for you to unwind? Go on, have fun, enjoy the joys of youth, and leave your worries behind! Exams are coming, so you're gonna need all the relaxation you need instead of spending your weekends holed up inside those gloomy rooms or confined libraries you have. Be like Uehara, for example."

She finished by slapping the black-haired girl on the back while snickering, which drew a reaction in the form of incoherent noises.

"W-w-what are you talking about?!" she said in a voice that showed a mix of embarrassment and anger.

"Well, it's not like I was the one constantly texting for nights at end on what to do in a school trip. I'm not the one who's super excited for the activities and fun times with the other schoolmates and cannot stop talking about those through texts. I'm not the one asking whether I'll be allowed to bring Nek-- "

"Stop it, you're embarrassing me!" complained Uehara, her face now red.

Another teasing attempt successful.

Kazuki was glad that at least it wasn't him this time.

"Well, the point is, for now, all three of you should relax. Amagi here will eventually be a great addition to your team, and I am confident in the two of you to work together with her when you get back. Okay?"

Kazuki nodded without hesitation.

Meanwhile, Uehara, freed from her embarrassed state, looked on with an unreadable expression.

"If the two of you are really confident in what she can do, I guess I won't be able to do anything about it."

"So there we have it! Now, just go enjoy your weekend like the lively youths that you are! And Arata, if I hear reports of you peeking on the girls in the hot springs, you know there will be hell to pay!"

Kazuki suddenly felt the piercing glares of the two girls on him.

"I'm not like that!"

"Cross your heart?"

"I swear!"

"So that's gotta do it for the meeting. Now, just go and enjoy the weekend while I go for some R&R. Shizaki can take care of the paperwork, check some papers, make some calls, clean the room, and tidy up my things before we retire for the weekend."

Seeing the subservient reaction of the blonde boy to that humongous list of tasks, Kazuki and Uehara yelled in unison.

"Don't use him as an excuse to slack off!"

5

The head of a Nullity went flying all the way right before what remained of its body was pierced with tentacle spikes. The head tumbled across the dry, cracked ground before dissipating.

The rest of its kin then found themselves diced into pieces by their ghastly assassin.

Putting on a bored expression underneath his mask, Touya Satoru sat on a rock and watched as his ever-trusty partner, Setsura, swooped down and devoured the disintegrating remains of the low-tier Nullities.

"This just isn't doing it. We need to consume something stronger, right, Setsura?"

He cannot get the image of the brown-haired girl off his head. What the doctor reported was indeed true. For her to manifest her power so easily was something that amazed Satoru.

Too bad it did not manifest in the form that he would have liked, but he knew that it would come. Soon, the darkness in the girl's heart will give birth to a sweet, brilliant being that he would be all too pleased to consume.

As those thoughts threatened to overwhelm him with anticipation and joy, he turned to the pale woman. It has been a long time, but he could still feel the exhilaration when that man overcome her, subdued her, and forced her to become his.

"Had your fill, Satoru?"

The parka-wearing youth turned around upon hearing that voice that echoed on the cave walls. It was a voice that calmed him down, and Satoru admired the smoothness of it.

It befitted its owner, the tall and graceful man with long, silver hair and his ever-trusty rapier.

It was the man that he had sworn loyalty to.

The one man that he could never hope to make submit.

The one man that he could never consume.

"I have come with important info for you thanks to my benefactor. Unfortunately, staying in Shiroki City will do you no good over the weekend."

From the pocket of his longcoat, the silver-haired man produced a piece of paper that he flung towards Satoru.

"The ones you are hunting will be at Tenka Peak. I would have suggested waiting for the following week, but I am sure that you are raring for a second go at them. I will take care of the arrangements and get us there."

The silver-haired man closed his eyes as if he already knew the answer.

"Now, won't you run wild at Tenka Peak and have yourself the meal of a lifetime?"

Under the mask, a slasher smile crept across Satoru's face.