1

"What is it that you wanted to talk about?"

With her hands crossed over her chest, Sayaka Uehara eyed her classmate with her back against the staircase. The rather cramped space just beside the staircase was not the most private of locations, but it did provide ample space away from the crowd.

At the very least, Kazuki knew that they did not really stand out and that their voices would be drowned out by the chattering that signifies dismissal time.

"It's about last night. You know, when I accompanied Kimura and all," answered Kazuki.

"Last night? Oh! Care to elaborate on the date you had last night with her? Must be a fun time going out with a celebrity," replied the black-haired girl while giving a smirk. "That should explain why she didn't show up to class today."

"Uehara..."

"You wouldn't have done anything indecent to her, right?"

Now facing Amagi's anticipating glare, Kazuki put a palm over his face.

"I wouldn't give this guy that much credit," chuckled Uehara. "Speaking of, you still owe us both an explanation for that whole thing with her. What's up with that?"

Kazuki caught himself at that question from Uehara. He had completely forgotten about it, and whatever attempts he had at coming up with an excuse were gone, largely thanks to how much happened last night.

"It's a long story, but let's just say that I just wanted to make up to her for some things. Let's get back on topic. So, what happened last night was I had to accompany Kimura to South Quinn Street."

"So something really did happen between the both of you."

"T-that's not important now, Uehara!"

Kazuki was not sure whether that did the trick, given the looks on the two girls' faces, but he quickly followed it up in order to divert the topic.

"Lots of things happened, but a Fragment opened up, and I found her inside, along with a Class B. The strange thing is that the Class B just disappeared. I shot at it, but none of my attacks seemed to work. Then, it just disappeared."

"A Fragment?" asked Amagi. "We could have helped, Arata."

"There were no signs of any developing ones in the area, though," followed Uehara.

"That is what worries me. I cannot help but feel a sense of déjà vu with the whole situation. Remember the last time something like that happened? Where a Fragment just quickly grew in magnitude and sucked people in without any warning?"

Uehara took no time at all to answer. "The series of incidents with Dr. Shin Kagami."

It was an easy answer. The last time something like that happened, it was the direct responsibility of the mad doctor. A master practitioner he was on the medical field, he also had sinister motives, using the Fragments as a place for him to continue his unethical research practices.

"I'm afraid it's something like that again." Kazuki nodded solemnly.

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because I already have a prime suspect."

Acknowledging the astonished expressions from the two girls, Kazuki took a deep breath and began.

"When I exited the Fragment with Kimura, her manager was right there. I am not so sure what to make of it, but it was as if she had been lying in wait. Plus, she came with those suspicious-looking guards that you often see in TV shows or what."

He began finishing his statement in a slightly louder voice. "Surely, that can't be coincidental, right? What if she was the one opening the Fragments for some reason, and we have another Dr. Kagami in our hands?"

"Well, I think it's your job to do some background research on the suspect. Good luck."

"W-wha?"

"Hey, you're the one that idol got the hots for. Should be a lot of opportunities to get to know the family."

"Uehara, don't you do these things before? You told me all about those spying things and—"

"I'd prefer going to South Quinn Street to check on the Fragment if it still exists. Amagi here will serve as my backup. I'm itching for some action, and we work especially well together, don't you agree?"

She gave a look at Kazuki and Amagi, quickly eliciting a response from the girl.

"You got club activities today? Let's do this after you're done with swimming club stuff."

"U-um, is it all right to leave Arata with all those troublesome work?"

"Well, I think it's all right for our aspiring ladies' man here to pick up the slack once in a while and leave the fighting to us girls, right?"

"Yes!" answered Amagi almost instantaneously.

So it's still a measure of revenge, huh?

Despite everything, the brunette friend still had the slightest look of uncertainty on her face, but her expression changed when Kazuki placed his hand on her shoulder.

"It's all fine, Amagi. Take care out there. Make sure to tell me if you discover anything."

The meeting then ended, and the girls went their way. As for Kazuki, he knew very well who to contact for things like intel. It was a relief that he did not have to go very far from the school, and he knew exactly who to approach.

2

"She hadn't even given a status update, huh?" mentioned Kazuki.

His eyes darted from post to post on his phone screen as he walked down the school hallway.

The Yuki-ON! app was on, showing his account details, a wall of announcements, and the daily reminder for Yuki-tan's big event. All of that was being supervised by the chibi Yuki-tan that floated all over the screen, this time having blue hair and wearing a powder blue wedding gown and a tiara.

Kazuki rarely turned on the app and simply installed it at Shiki's request in order to help join events and give the latter more chances at winning, with his account functioning as Shiki's second one basically.

Extremely crucial was the draw that just happened, with select people getting an exclusive backstage pass before Yuki-tan's concert. A guided tour of the Chronodome after concert hours was quite common, but Shiki would kill for a chance to do that with Yuki-tan leading the way.

Not that Kazuki can do much with the pathetic amount of YT points he had. He at least had some entries enrolled, and should lightning strike twice and he ended up overcoming the odds again, he'll just find a way to pass the ticket to Shiki.

"Speaking of, the concert is this Sunday. Shouldn't there be announcements for the winners of the big draw right around now? It's already Tuesday and all."

Having made his way up to the top of the school, Kazuki now found himself standing in front of the familiar pair of sliding doors. Before even entering, he could seemingly already smell the strong fragrance that would enter his nose the moment he slid the doors open.

Looking at the "Sadohara" nameplate, he put his hand against the door.

Hearing no sounds of students complaining inside, he assumed that no one was in for any counseling session right now.

Today was an unannounced visit to the counselor's office, but any responsible and respectable teacher or academy staff would probably not bounce right after school, right?

"I'm coming in!"

The moment he slid the doors opened and took his first steps inside the office, he remembered one thing.

Responsible and respectable definitely did not describe Ms. Sadohara as a faculty member.

"Empty, huh? Why am I not surprised?" he said to himself.

"Oh, Arata, is it? Good afternoon."

Actually, the staff room was not empty. Ever since the aftermath of the first incident with Dr. Kagami, there had been one mainstay inside Ms. Sadohara's office. The blonde boy who was the victim of the doctor's manipulations had since become an informal member of Fuyusato Academy's faculty.

Not as a teacher, of course. More like the counselor's manservant of sorts. It was truly an unenviable job, and Kazuki remained as confused as anyone as to why he would willingly take this job. He could have sworn that the boy has completely fallen for the counselor's devious charms, but his opinion of the soft-spoken boy was not that low, yet.

The blonde was in the process of wiping the numerous books on Ms. Sadohara's shelves when he had called out to the unexpected guest.

"Good afternoon to you, too. Shizaki, have you seen Ms. Sadohara?"

Jay Shizaki put his cloth away and hurried to the other corner of the spacious and extravagant room where all the tea sets were located. "Oh, she's not here in the meantime. She said that she had to do something, so she left me with things to organize and sort out."

Shizaki pointed at the pile of paperwork on the large counselor's desk. When he passed by it, he took a look, and he raised his eyebrows.

"Strange. I could have sworn that there were some massage vouchers here and others with really expensive-looking liquor on the picture..."

Kazuki facepalmed.

"Unbelievable."

Shizaki sheepishly laughed and shrugged. "Oh well."

"You know, Shizaki..." Kazuki walked and sat down in front of the smaller glass table. He began talking, but he was interrupted by a cup of tea that appeared in front of him almost immediately.

"Here, have one. Special guests of honor get one. That's what Ms. Sadohara said."

"T-thanks."

"So, what is it that you need her for? Any special concerns?"

"Well, it's something that I would rather talk to her in private about, but yeah, I guess it is a concern."

Sitting down in front of him, Shizaki got his own cup of tea and took a sip. Meanwhile, Kazuki wondered to himself whether he should be opening the topic to Shizaki.

The boy in front of him was not exactly a mastermind in the Dr. Kagami case in Shiroki City, but he was not an ordinary person either. He had witnessed the ferocity of the Nullities firsthand and was an unwitting accomplice to the doctor's schemes, so he technically had some experience with Mu.

"You see—" Kazuki grimaced in hesitation.

"According to today's horoscopes, Aquarius have very strong romantic prospects today. It would be wise to make moves and give strong responses to prospective partners this week in particular."

Shizaki spoke that in such a dead serious note that Kazuki stopped him. "H-hey, I was not asking for love advice. And how did you know my birthday anyway?!"

"Just messing with you a little bit, hehe. It's a little something that Ms. Sadohara practiced me with on her time off."

What else could it be?

"On a serious note, though, you seem really stressed, Arata. Come on, drink that tea and unwind a bit. Getting too stressed out is not bad for our health, you know."

"Thanks for the concern."

"Besides, I heard about the thing with the idol transfer student. How lucky could you be? Ms. Sadohara had been telling me about juicy things you've been doing with Uehara and Amagi, but now you got a full-fledged idol madly in love with you? There's no excuse for you to have such a long face, Arata. You're living the life of an anime protagonist!"

Kazuki clutched his head and sighed. "You know, that's another problem in itself."

The blonde chuckled in response. "All the more you should stay around for a bit and unwind."

He then stood up and got something from Ms. Sadohara's table before returning to his seat in front of Kazuki. He calmly placed the objects on the table between the two of them.

A pair of Destiny Shard decks.

Kazuki looked at Shizaki in genuine surprise.

"Care for a game?" Shizaki said, a smug look on his face.

"Wha?"

"Hehe, I've been learning how to play the game. Amamiya has been giving us a handful of cards. Ms. Sadohara has been readily accepting them to the point where she managed to build two decks already. In exchange, Amamiya's trips here end up being quicker and more problem-free than usual."

"That's corruption!" exclaimed Kazuki. Nonetheless, he looked at the cards with curiosity and grabbed one out of instinct.

"Anyway, you know how to play already? I can teach you the ropes to reward all your hard work," he said as he flipped through the deck and looked at the individual cards. He had this urge to play a game after all, and it would be a good way to pass the time while waiting for Ms. Sadohara to come back.

In the process, he felt his eyebrows furrowing and his eyes widening while seeing some cards.

Holy crap, these are really rare. Then again, what can I expect from the niece of First Strike's owner?

As he looked through the deck, taking extreme care not to scratch or damage anything, he remembered the past weekend and his trip to the tabletop café with his friends. Just how long had Amamiya been giving up these cards as bribes for Ms. Sadohara to have built two decks?

"Let's get started, shall we?" asked Shizaki, who had apparently been shuffling his deck while Kazuki had been deep in thought.

Time passed like a blur as the two boys played the card game. They played round after round, and both had lost track of the time.

"I'll play Heaven's Providence, evolving my unit on the field. Come, Heaven's Judgment, Ohr'Gevrah!" shouted Kazuki as he put a new card featuring a black angel on top of his lone card.

"On-play, Ohr'Gevrah can deal six damage to everything on the field," he said while pointing at the five cards on Shizaki's side of the field. "Afterwards, it deals damage to the player according to the cards destroyed by that skill. Wipe them all out, Sacred Cleansing!"

Shizaki leaned back. "I lost again. That's five in a row. That's some nice acting though."

Suddenly feeling conscious of the things he's been yelling for the past couple of minutes, Kazuki put his hand over his mouth and remained speechless, drawing laughs from the blonde.

"Haha. It's fine though. I like your expression now. You look a lot more relaxed. Guess you're one of those people who look mean and snobbish but completely drop their guards when in front of things they are passionate about."

"You're not wrong."

Kazuki's voice still had a hint of self-consciousness when the blonde continued.

"Hmmm... After playing all those games, I think I finally got what's been bothering you. It's got something to do with that idol. Probably some relationship troubles?"

"I-it's not that, technically, but," Kazuki stopped himself abruptly. He looked at the cards on his hand and at Shizaki's deck.

"No, the cards had nothing to do with it. I just threw a wild guess, hehe," Shizaki playfully stuck his tongue out, and he must have seen the grim look on Kazuki's face if his reaction was anything to go by.

Having accidentally let it slip anyway, Kazuki just sat back and prepared to talk. However, it was Shizaki who unexpectedly took the initiative.

"Let me guess, the whole lovey dovey thing was just her way of messing with you. No aspiring idol would risk career suicide like that. In case you didn't know, I'm a big fan of them, you know."

"Yeah, it's really been a pain. She can be a complete devil behind the public eye, you know? In a way, I can understand why she's being like that to me specifically. I also know why she's in an extra foul mood last night, but I still..."

"How nice of you, then. Guess I was not wrong about you, Arata."

"Pardon?"

"You know, I've always felt different about you. I do not want to talk like an anime character or anything, but when I met you, I sensed that you were much more understanding. You may seem rough around the edges, but I think that deep down inside, you're just lonely and longed for connections. Being an idol subject to the pressures of the industry, Kimura could have the same feelings."

He did not show it outwardly, but Kazuki felt a slight sense of happiness as he heard those words.

"On the contrast, Uehara reeked of an aura of darkness. Arata, please watch over her. It seemed that she had been carrying a heavy vendetta, and even the way she is right now, I still sensed that every time she drops by this room for a visit."

Kazuki knew what it was. In fact, that could be one of the reasons why she volunteered to head over to South Quinn Street in the first place.

"The point is that I think you're a way better person than you give yourself credit for. Even with her visibly causing you trouble, you still show some concern about her. You seem to be the guy who would dislike all the attention she's giving you, but I think that maybe there's more to it than just messing with you. You watch a lot of harem anime, right?"

"Oh, I get what you're getting at, but this is reality, Shizaki."

With a grin on his face, Shizaki stood up to get more tea. "But fiction does imitate reality. Just add a bit of sweet escapism, some powers, and you have yourself your favorite urban fantasy anime. See? Not so different. We can learn things from our anime and video games, you know? Especially when it comes to relationships."

"Whoa so you're going all philosopher on me now? Well, tough news. I'm not an anime protagonist. It's fun to act like it at times, but I'm not really the do-good type who can change people's minds with a heart-to-heart."

"Haha, it does sound like that, huh?" chuckled Shizaki. "But why don't you give it a try for a change? If you really want to be able to help Kimura, the best thing you can do is to start appreciating her for the good. From then on, you can find your way into her heart and start coming to a compromise."

Kazuki went silent.

A ringing phone would interrupt the silence, and Shizaki scrolled through the messages on his phone.

"Looks like Ms. Sadohara isn't coming back tonight. Man, I'm sorry you had to wait so long for nothing," said Shizaki. "It's getting so late now, too."

Seeing the long look on the boy's face, Kazuki smiled at him and put his hand on his shoulder. The boy, who had his face turned to the window and the night sky, looked back at his guest.

"It's fine. I've learned a lot today, and I have to give something as a token of thanks. I know, I'll pull some packs of Destiny Shard and help you upgrade your decks someday. Then, use those cards to kick Ms. Sadohara's ass for me, okay?"

He stood up and walked away. "Seeya, Shizaki. Been nice talking to you."

He left while not having accomplished his goal, but at least he got something out of the visit today. Perhaps Shizaki's advice might just work.

Opening his phone, he scrolled through his contacts before preparing to send Hikari a text message.

3

When the car door opened, Reiya Utara stepped onto the gravel floor. Adjusting her jacket, she took a bit of her time to look around.

Not a lot of cars were parked, and it seemed that there was no one else in the dark parking lot. Confirming that, the woman adjusted her jacket and took out a cigarette to smoke.

Her eyes scanned the area before finding the elevator room which would lead her to the higher floors of the building. After barely taking one puff, she tossed her cigarette aside and beckoned to her driver.

"Wait for my call. Do not be late," she said to the driver in a snappy tone before marching towards the elevator.

The female guard gave her greetings, and Utara responded in kind, despite not having any familiarity with this particular person. She had already noticed that on each of her trips here, it was a different person acting as the basement parking guard.

"Which floor is it? 58th?" she asked herself as she looked for the correct button inside her elevator. It was not too hard to find among the buttons that went from 35 to 60, but before she pressed her button, she opened her phone to check a message.

There was no need for a second check, but she just wanted to make sure. She had little time to waste for her most important meeting as Yuki-tan's manager. Even as she forced herself to exude a stoic and confident aura, she can feel her heart palpitating.

There was no mistaking it. The mere thought of it had haunted her and prevented her from getting ample sleep.

She knew that what happened last night would come again, and soon. She had long accepted that the day had to come, but at the end of the suffering, there should be hope.

With Yuki-tan's concert being a mere few days away, she had to get all the changes finalized with the sponsor of the event.

In what seemed like a few seconds, the elevator let out a dinging sound, and the doors slid open. Two men in suits greeted her at the door, and getting an ID out of her jacket, she flashed the card for the guards.

"Ms. Reiya Utara, the CEO has been expecting you."

They were about to lead the way when she pushed them aside. "I'll do it myself, thanks. Turn right and head straight, 4th door to my left, right?"

"Y-yes..."

While she walked, she began to recall the conversation two years ago, one of the most important ones she ever had. When Izaya had left her, she did not think that she would see him of her own will again, but it changed thanks to the girl that weaved their paths back together.

It was an intricate web of connections that brought the two of them together again, mere months after she found herself in that world of red.

I'll do whatever it takes to shine like the brightest star. I won't allow myself to fall to grief and regret anymore.

In an ironic thought, she also remembered that a star shines the brightest right before it explodes and dies off. It was so poetic, considering what she was preparing herself for.

The lavender-haired woman proceeded as usual and nonchalantly opened the right door. 4th door to the left, right corridor.

She then walked into the meeting room as the lone person turned around to face her. It was her first time meeting this man, but she nonetheless already had an idea what to expect.

A very tall man with gray hair. A necklace with charms that shook and emitted noise as they rattled against each other.

Finally, the most telling trait of his: a right eyepatch that hid the mechanized eye.

"Welcome. I have been waiting for you, Reiya Utara."

Utara's eyes narrowed as she kept her eyes on this man before taking a seat.

Yoshihiro Ishida.