1

"So... are we taking the right path?"

Trailing his friend and activity partner was Kazuki, and he brushed aside the lush vegetation in order to keep up with Miki Amagi.

She's taking a far more active role somehow. Are the extra credits so important for her?

Nevertheless, Amagi soldiered on through the bushes and the leaves that blocked their way. Having strayed away from the main path, Kazuki thought that these challenges were to be expected.

"Yep, I am sure that my info is accurate!"

The tone of her voice could have been reassuring, but Kazuki was quite iffy with how far they have gone from the main path. Besides the rustling of leaves that their motions have been causing, silence surrounded them.

After seeing nothing but trees and vegetation in their path for so long, Amagi finally pushed aside the last set of shrubs and revealed a clearing in front of them. A patch of land, surrounded by trees, lay before them.

"Here we are!" said Amagi in an excited voice.

She jumped into the open area and stretched her hands out.

Kazuki followed suit, and as he stepped out of the thicket, his eyes quickly shot to a faraway structure that he did not see from afar.

"Is this shrine in the middle of the forest related to the secret shortcut that you mentioned?"

His childhood friend's smile gleamed in the moonlight. With the light from the moon illuminating her face against the dim backdrop, Kazuki seemingly saw a different side of her.

She was no longer just the childhood friend whose kindness knows no bounds. She was no longer just the one who balanced out their trio of childhood friends.

The form of her wielding her bow in a majestic manner emerged in Kazuki's mind.

Despite that, she was still a girl that he still wanted to protect.

Before he realized it, his mind had materialized the image of the parka-wearing youth. Tentacle arms on one side and a beautiful specter on the other. No matter what he did, he cannot tuck the sense of frustration away. It was a defeat that still stung as hard as it did the first time around.

At this rate, he would not be able to protect Amagi from that monster should he appear once more.

"Arata?" asked Amagi, a curious expression now having set in on her face.

Kazuki blinked repeatedly before he realized that his eyes had gotten a bit strained. As a result, he quickly shut his eyes, trying to hide that side of him in a bout of self-consciousness.

"Yeah, the shrine here is where one of the items was supposed to be. Our schoolmates had to deal with the spooky stuff first," said her, getting back to the topic.

"Well, all the spooky stuff are fake anyway. I'll probably have a bigger blast guessing who's behind which costume."

Having walked to the front of the shrine, Kazuki looked to the sides before directing his attention to the object in front of him.

On top of the stand was a chest, and for Kazuki, the item seemingly called out to him with an enticing air.

He concluded that whatever thing the organizers of the game had hidden would have been inside this chest.

"I guess you could say that, Arata. But do you know, last night, my roommates were talking about legends being passed down in Tenka Peak."

The fingers that were mere inches away from touching the chest stopped in place.

"Pardon?"

He looked back with raised eyebrows.

"They said that the guardian spirit of the shrine will swoop down on whoever dares disturb its peace in the middle of the night."

"Cool story, Amagi. Certainly sets the mood, huh?"

"Yeah, it really did. Misawa and Fujiwara were soooo into it last night."

Kazuki turned his attention back to the small chest, and as he was about to open it, Amagi spoke once more.

"But, Arata, don't you think that it can be true? Urban legends can end up being true, right? Maybe that thing, once they placed it on the shrine grounds, could have ended up getting a curse."

"H-hey, why are you telling me that now? Why are you trying so hard to convince me that this thing's haunted?"

Kazuki knew very well that his classmate was first talking about the rumors of disappearances being connected to another world just weeks prior. Those turned out to be very true, and both he and Amagi can confirm that with experience.

He made a loose connection, but rumors and ghost stories cannot end up being true that many times, right?

"I just think that you would know what to do if something does happen..."replied Amagi.

Kazuki felt the air bite into his arms, the cold creeping under his skin. He assured himself that he was not scared of any ghost stories, but another reality also set in.

There was no sign whatsoever of any Fragment or any connection to Mu.

Should there really be forces at work, both he and Amagi would be without their powers, and he pondered that as he slowly turned back to the childhood friend standing in wait.

Nope. None of that is true at all.

Kazuki assured himself again and again, yet he cannot help but anticipate the worst. His mind worked in overdrive, trying to recall the steps back to the main road. A contingency plan would not hurt.

There's still one option, though.

Abandon the objective altogether.

Normally, he would have not gotten himself into playing this game in the first place, and he would have found a way to drop if his partner had been anyone else.

Seeing Amagi's anticipating yet curious expression allowed him to overcome those selfish thoughts at the start of the game.

How could he just say no and abandon everything after all the work his friend did in order to give them an advantage? How could he just say no after she did so much heavy lifting and plotting of the forest while he just followed and did nothing?

He reached out and felt his grip stiffening on the small chest that's just a little over twice as big as his palm.

"Whatever happens, stay calm, Amagi."

When he saw her nod, he began the process of opening the chest. It was an easy task, and the chest opened with a pop almost instantaneously.

Inside was...

Kazuki gazed at the item that he lifted with his fingers. The ring, its jewel head shining blue in the moonlight, seemed to exude a mystical aura. Underneath the jewel was an imprint of an insignia that he cannot quite make out clearly.

"Whoa, this is some elaborate prop they prepared," he snickered as he put the ring into his pocket.

"Arata..."

Seemingly at Amagi's call, the wind howled. The night air suddenly seemed even more chilly for Kazuki, and as he hurriedly walked to his friend's side, his ears registered the sound of laughing.

It resounded and seemingly came from everywhere. Kazuki failed to locate where it was simply because all the trees seemed to be equally resonating with the laughter.

"Nice setup you got. It amazes me that you managed to get this much job done in a day."

He put up the snarkiest response he can with a smirk. He reviewed the pathing he thought of and turned to Amagi. He was fully prepared to make a run for it, only to be interrupted by a piercing scream.

She had her hands outstretched and was pointing at something.

"Arata, look out!"

Kazuki turned back just in time to avoid something swiping at him. He regained his balance after hopping back only to see a tall, female figure, fully covered in bandages and robes save for the long hair that seemed to be in a reddish hue.

Her arms, equipped with realistic-looking claws for nails, stretched out menacingly.

"H-hey, don't you think you guys are taking it too far now? We got the thing, and we'll be headed back to the inn to get this thing done with. Leave us alone, would you?"

In response, the figure shook her head before taking another swipe at Kazuki.

Now with full knowledge of the opponent, he easily avoided the clumsy and sluggish attempt at a swipe. He would unmask this person and just end it right here. It should be easy. One takedown, and it would be over.

"Arata, let's make a run for it!"

Huh?

Before he can fully process what happened, he already saw his childhood friend turn back and run opposite the direction of the assailant.

With a click of his tongue, he decided against confronting the attacker and ran after his childhood friend.

There goes his plan. Amagi had gone on a completely different path from what he had prepared to take. That annoyed him, but not losing track of her took more priority.

His legs worked overtime as he kept his sight on her figure that weaved between the scattered trees and the thick bushes that littered the part of the forest she ran into.

"Wait up, Amagi!" he called out.

Keeping up with her at full speed quickly became a chore that Kazuki did not enjoy one bit. She completely had him beat in physical conditioning and stamina, and he felt himself pant and sweat just simply trying to keep up with her.

Strangely enough, he realized that they were not being pursued. As he suspected, the monster girl was just a stationary actor all along. He had to admit that she did a hell of an excellent job with costume and prop design, though.

Those claws looked like they could tear through anyone unfortunate enough to get hit.

Another piercing scream brought those thoughts to a halt, and he felt as if his heart had been struck when he saw Amagi's figure disappear in front of his eyes.

Next came the sound of tumbling and rustling leaves.

To Kazuki's horror, he realized that in front of him was a slope, hidden behind thick vegetation.

Forcing his feet into a screeching halt, he reached where he last saw her, and his eyes widened as terror gripped him.

Lying at the bottom of the small cliff was his childhood friend, collapsed into a curled position. He knew that she had not seen the slope and had a rough tumble all the way down.

"Amagi!"

He shouted as he carefully slid down the slope, finally finding himself beside his friend, whom he quickly inspected. It had been a while since he last held onto her like this, and he quick went to work in his inspection of her.

The panic that threatened to consume him slightly evaporated when he got a better look at her body and saw none of the red flags.

She did not seem to have sustained a lot of wounds, and there was no smell or sensation of blood.

At least she wasn't hurt that bad. She was unconscious, yet her breathing seemed normal, and the height from which she fell was not high enough to be too life-threatening.

Leaning down, Kazuki slide his arm behind Amagi's back, supporting her while he began thinking about the situation.

"Now what?"

Kazuki sighed as he asked himself more questions. No sign of life presented itself as he continued looking left and right.

He started feeling sweat drip down his forehead as it slowly dawned on him what kind of situation he's in. Even if he were to call for help, telecom signal is terrible in this place.

There would be no way to effectively pinpoint his location in these woods.

Closing his eyes, he began mentally retracing the steps he took to get here. The woods were not covered in total darkness, so with a bit of luck and backtracking, he could find his way back to civilization.

Taking in a deep breath, he lifted Amagi with both of his arms, one arm supporting her legs and the other under her back.

2

"That doesn't look fun at all," Lilya Bloomenfled sighed.

The tall girl lay on her sleeping mat and stared out the window, while her reaction was met by Sayori Misawa pausing. She was busy typing on her smartphone before that came to an abrupt pause.

"Oh come on, you'd look the part perfectly! You'll be doing a favor to our friend right here who's madly in love!"

Misawa pointed at Amagi. The brunette, who was caught off-guard, did not have a chance to respond before Misawa continued.

"Why don't we try this out, Amagi? Have Bloomenfled-senpai be that scary clawed mummy zombie thing who's part of those legends I just told you two about. Plus..."

She approached Bloomenfled and immediately held onto her. "...being the tall and intimidating foreigner, she's scary enough to look the part."

To which Amagi heard a smack as the senior smacked her junior on the head with a roll of paper and began pulling at her ear.

"You know, if only you were not my fellow student council member, things would have been a lot worse for you now... Just like those boys had Amagi not interceded."

"Owowowow! That hurts!" complained Misawa.

The sound of the sliding wooden doors interrupted them, and Fujiwara appeared in front of the door with a plastic bag.

She put it down and started taking out the bottled softdrinks inside when Misawa got free from her senior and hurried to the doorway.

"What did I miss?" the smiling Fujiwara asked, her voice shaken with a hint of nervousness.

"Stop playing innocent, Fujiwara. I know you intentionally volunteered to get refreshments because you didn't want to hear ghost stories."

"Anyway," ignoring Fujiwara's grumbling, Misawa returned to her topic. "Fujiwara, you said that you wanted to help Amagi with love, right?"

"Definitely!" nodded Fujiwara.

"We both agree that she has a golden opportunity here at Tenka Peak, right? Now, we just need Bloomenfled-senpai's cooperation, and we'll help Amagi here knock it out of the park!"

Amagi was not sure how to respond, but the very next moment, the peach-haired secretary of the student council was almost upon her.

"Fujiwara asked me to do my magic, and I just told you the story I cooked up. Now, all we need is to have Bloomenfled-senpai agree to dressing up and forcing Arata's brave prince mode out, and you can lead him to that beautiful outlook that I have told you about. With both of your energy running high from what our monster will do, you can hit the home run on that spot!"

"I appreciate the concern, but you don't have to go all the way for me."

"What do you mean we don't? As I said, this is a golden opportunity for you! Besides, that's what friends are for, right? Fujiwara and I are the ardent fans of the Arata x Amagi ship! No transfer student's gonna take that away from us!"

"It might also help you get over your slump, Senpai," followed Fujiwara.

"Um..." Amagi fidgeted, but all sense of resistance faded when she looked at the all too eager faces of the two.

Amagi had a sensation that told her that this was all a bad idea, but she hesitated. It was not just her usual demure personality. Instead, she felt a sense of desire flaring up within her.

This might be the decisive moment for her. She had been with him for so long and had even taken the plunge into a new world that only he used to know of, yet ever since he started hanging out with the transfer student, the newly-formed distance between them seemed to continue growing....

--

Miki Amagi slowly opened her eyes only to be greeted by a beautiful scenery ahead of her. She felt as if she has been transported into another dream, and she eventually widened her eyes in wonder.

Her eyes gazed at the look of the valley ahead of her. Trees of varying heights created a sea of foliage that she overlooked, and they were surrounded by what she can make out to be lamps and lights from the poles on the roads crossing them.

Blanketed by the deep blue sky and the numerous stars, it really seemed like a scene out of a fantasy.

She relaxed and let the moment sink in while enjoying the feeling of being cradled by someone walking through the edge of the woods.

She recognized the scenic spot that Misawa had been telling her about as it opened up in front of her eyes.

How she wished that she would have been the one to bring Arata here, to give him a sight to behold and remind them of their childhood. Her mind recalled their youth, when he would carry her, tired as she was, across some of the more scenic spots in Shiroki City.

He was always her strength, and while he had withdrawn and turned into a moody loner, she believed that that caring boy still existed within him.

Like a little girl enjoying the serenity, she slowly raised her hands up in order to embrace the person carrying her.

"Woah!" called out a male voice.

She felt herself nearly getting dropped, as her gesture caught whoever was carrying her off-guard. She blinked repeatedly, and the moment that she saw who it was, she felt her face turning red.

Kazuki regained his balance in time to prevent her from falling back first, followed by relief seen on his face illuminated by the moonlight and the stars.

"That's a close one. Sorry, Amagi."

"N-n-n-no, i-it's fine, Arata!"

She furiously waved her hands and shook her head in embarrassment. She brushed her hair with her hand furiously before realizing something.

"The hairclip!" she whispered to herself.

The star-shaped hair accessory she had always worn was gone. She could have dropped it when she fell.

"Anything wrong?"

"N-no! It's nothing."

Then, she turned her gaze away from her friend. "How long was I out? How long have you been carrying me?"

"Somewhere around ten minutes?" answered Kazuki.

Amagi gasped. "Oh, I'm so sorry! P-please let me down."

As she felt her feet gently touch the forest floor, she still felt her heart pounding. It was as if the night air was not present given how warm she still felt.

"Sorry, Amagi. You fell at a bad spot, and I—"

Having recovered a bit, Amagi shook her head.

"It's gonna turn dark in a few more hours, and you wanted to get back to the inn as soon as possible. Since you only vaguely knew the way back, you decided to just carry me before we can get back to the main road. Did I get everything correct?"

"U-uh, yeah...." Kazuki agreed, scratching the back of his head. "Was that a weird thing to do?"

Amagi let out a chuckle in response before she turned to the scenery that lay before them.

"No. I knew that side of you will always be there. Doesn't this remind you of our childhood days with Shiki? Even back then, you were always putting us ahead of you, and you were always the brave and reckless one taking charge."

"Thanks, but you give me too much credit. That is young, naïve me."

With him letting out a sigh, Amagi decided to wrap her fingers around his. She felt her cold and smooth fingers touch his rough ones, and she tightened her grip. Her eyes then became fixed on his, and she stared at her resolutely as his eyes widened in surprise.

"Don't say that, Arata. Ever since the time we were young, you do not know how many people looked up to you."

"Feels good reminiscing about the past, huh?" asked Kazuki, looking at the beautiful sight in front of them.

He shook his head once and gave the scenery a longing view.

"Too bad. Those people looking up to me? Gone. Like the fickle people that they are," Kazuki cocked his head backwards and looked at the forest that stretched out beneath them.

"Times change. That person you spoke of has passed, replaced by the useless, directionless loser that you see in front of you. All I'm good at is being reckless and pretending to be cool with my cringey anime one-liners."

To which, Amagi responded to by shaking her head as well.

"But you still jumped into that horrible world and put yourself in front of danger to save me... twice."

"The guilt would kill me otherwise. Ain't that line of thinking a bit too selfish for anyone's liking?" Kazuki chuckled repeatedly. "After all you've done for me. You, Hikari, Uehara, Shiki... Feels bad if I were not to do at least something for you all."

However, Amagi did not respond with her usual chuckles. She remained silent and looked at her friend straight in the eye.

"Then what about when you canceled your gaming session to check on me when I got hurt months ago? What about the time when you spent hours helping Shiki recover from his slump? What about when you forced yourself to take care of matters when Hikari fell sick, despite being clueless about housework? Is everything due to just conscience?"

She gave herself a pause before continuing, and as she talked, she realized that her voice has become more and more passionate.

"What about the time when you took all the blame for what you, Ishida, and the rest of the boys did to that person? You simply remained quiet and took in all the blame for all of them, took in the hate and instead retreated into your current shell. I-It's just unfair!"

"Amagi..." his voice trailed off.

"You even saved Uehara when she tried so hard to push you away. Are you saying that all of that is just due to guilt and selfishness? All for a desire to just make yourself satisfied? All just because you were pretending to be the cool protagonists that you admired?"

"... Why are you doing this, Amagi?" asked Kazuki, now with a trembling voice. She could feel his emotions giving way, and she could see it in his now wavering eyes.

"Because for me, you'd always be the kind, brave hero that I can rely on to be my strength. You may deny him, but I know that that person still lives inside you. You're my hero, before, now, and forever!"

Kazuki simply stared at her, unable to reply. As she looked into his eyes, Amagi felt her heart pounding ever harder than before.

"That boy that made me fall for him several years ago... I believe that I can see him once more. I just knew it!"

"Whenever you feel lost, I will support you."

"Whenever you find yourself growing weak, I will be your strength."

"Even if the world were to turn against you, I will be here by your side."

She took a deep breath and prepared herself.

She resolved to get this over with before they make their way back to the inn. She has gone this far, and she cannot let all the effort that Fujiwara, Misawa, and Bloomenfled have done to go to waste.

"Arata..."

She saw Kazuki's eyes widen and a luminescent blush come over his normally stoic face.

"I love you, Arata."

Then, time stood still.