Duncaster was loud that night.

Adventurers, soldiers, and civilians alike were searching through the rubble for lost loved ones, calling out the names of people who had disappeared. Parents frantically searched for their children, elderly people hobbled with canes, hoping to find a home that was no longer there, and young men and women dug through mounds of debris as they followed muffled screams for salvation from within. Torches lit up the city, and the Spire was temporarily sealed off. Unknown’s location remained undiscovered, as he had fled immediately after the battle. And as for Dead-Eyes, his corpse was in the process of being moved to a warehouse outside the city walls, where it would be studied by scientists and doctors alike.

But while many people were out and about, Kenji stood solemn in an upper room of the guild, where Cleo, Amelia, and all their friends were gathered also. Most other members had gone out to help with the rescue parties.

A single candle lit the bedroom, casting everyone in shadow as a ruined body lay beneath linens on the bottom bunk, where Misumi used to sleep. Not one person had spoken a word since they laid her down. And while Kenji failed to stop the tears from dripping down his cheeks, Cleo was far worse off than he, and was kneeling by the bedside, crying her eyes to near blindness. Why were they in that position? Why did Misumi die? Could she have been saved? These questions plagued them all, never to be answered by anyone but time.

“So…” Desmond broke the silence. “…I’m sure the Cathedral will be full of people like us come morning.” He looked to Kenji and his party. “What happens next is up to you. Cremation is most common here, but if you’d like to bury her instead, we understand. The guild will pay for the grave and any other expenses that come up.”

“That’s right,” added Flanigan. “You don’t have to worry about a thing.”

Simply having the conversation was enough to make Kenji’s stomach churn, and he fought back against the nausea which desperately begged for him to throw up. Cremation? A burial? These weren’t things he should be planning. At his age, death shouldn’t even be on his mind. And just like him, the thought of saying goodbye to Misumi stirred Amelia to heavier emotions, and she shakily embraced him, tightening her arms around him while she cried.

No amount of warmth, no amount of comfort would bring Misumi back—they knew that. Tears would not ease the pain. An embrace from a close friend would do nothing to calm their screaming souls. And all the while, Cleo wept over their friend’s shattered body, a living portrait of every awful thing in life. If only there was a way to reverse time, then perhaps they could see her again.

Kenji acknowledged their offer and decided burial would be best, given that her grandfather was in a cemetery outside Tokyo, a place she visited every year back home. Still, he couldn’t believe it was actually happening, and as Amelia cried into him, he scarcely mustered the strength to hug her in return, embracing her in the weakest manner possible.

“No, we’re not burying her…” Cleo blubbered. She sat up and wiped her eyes, then shot a piercing gaze back at Kenji. “H-How could you say that? I refuse to believe we can’t save her!”

He glanced away, uncertain how to respond. “Cleo…”

“Don’t act like I’m crazy!” she cried out. “Misumi was the nicest person I’d ever met and I refuse to let her go! You know damn well that Amelia’s a lot stronger than she was when Floris died, so if there’s a chance her spell will work, we have to take it!”

Elsewhere in the room, Sinopa’s ears turned down and her tail drooped.

But like an electrical current had begun to surge through him, Kenji perked up as he remembered the Restore Life skill that Amelia possessed. It hadn’t worked last time, but she had yet to grow into her abilities; now, however…it might be different.

“But if it fails again…” he said. “…you know what’ll happen.”

Cleo screeched with a dry and exhausted voice, “I don’t care! All I want is for Misumi to come back, and if we have to take a risk, then who cares? Just let Amelia try!”

Hearing that, Kenji couldn’t help but agree, and Amelia pulled away from him, proceeding to wipe the tears from her eyes and speak.

“I will do my best,” she insisted. “For Misumi.”

Flanigan protested, saying that it was too risky and that the aftermath may leave them with even more trauma than before, but Kenji and Cleo both argued that it was a worth the risk. If they could bring Misumi, it’d be worth whatever price they had to pay. Thus, as Kenji looked Amelia in her hazy-pink eyes, he nodded and told her to cast the spell.

Just like they had done when Floris passed away, everyone was gathered around while Amelia was positioned next to the bed. And as she calmed down, as her breath was stilled to near vanishment, she pressed both palms together and knelt down beside the body.

Pure silence.

From there, she started chanting in a tongue only her class could understand, causing a bright magic circle to spread out from beneath her, glowing like blue neon lights in a dark city. It contained myriad symbols and text no one could read, and once it filled the entire chamber with light and spread beyond the walls, lighting up the street outside, the guild began to shake under the spell’s power, to shiver. Finally, a deafening gale overcame them all like a monsoon, blasting all who were present with incredible force, and the room’s window shattered into a thousand pieces. The wind grew stronger—far stronger than before—as floorboards began to peel up, as paint on the walls began to chip away, as everyone but Amelia ducked for cover, and from the corner, Kenji noticed her eyes glowing star blue. Could the spell actually work?

When at last a recurring pulse of magic power radiated from Amelia, the spell reached its climax and her chanting had nearly turned to shouting—and then her voice was quelled.

She stopped and fell over, collapsing to the floor.

The magic circle remained, but gradually died, fading back into her.

And as Kenji rushed to her aid, putting an arm around her and lifting her up into his should, the spell came to an end…but was it successful?

Amelia has passed out, so asking her wasn’t an option.

However, Kenji laid her down flat, then staggered to his feet while the gale fizzled out, the quaking ceased, and the light diminished. Soon enough, only the dim ambience of night filled the bedroom, and Misumi’s body still lay beneath the linens, unmoving.

“C’mon…” he worried. “Wake up.”

Cleo stumbled hastily from nearby and slid to a kneeling position at the body’s side, begging Misumi to be okay. She needed her to be—everyone did. And in that state of ignorance they lingered for the longest time, having no clue whether or not their friend would rise up from her permanent slumber.

But then came movement beneath the blankets.

There were snapping noises like bones melding into place, zipping sounds like torn muscles repairing themselves, a quiet hiss like air creeping in to dead lungs. Though it was underneath a blanket, the brokenness of Misumi’s body dissipated before their eyes. No longer was she misshapen or in a state of deflation.

“Please…” Cleo wept, letting a single tear fall onto the covered body. “Please, don’t die.”

Kenji insisted, “She’ll be okay…she has to be…”

For a whole minute, the room was quiet with anticipation, with a desire to see their wishes come true, but when that minute turned into two, then three—when Cleo reached out and shook Misumi’s body—their hope began to die.

“You guys…” Flanigan uttered, a dreaded sigh pouring out.

“Quiet!” screeched Cleo. “She’s going to be okay! I know she is!”

“But she hasn’t—”

As Flanigan began to argue, a sudden noise shocked him and everyone else in the chamber: a gasp for air. Raw and desperate, it inhaled sharply from underneath the linens, and was followed by repeated coughing like a victim of drowning who was suddenly revived. The coughing turned into fits of pitiful cries, then coughing again, and by that time, both Cleo and Kenji ripped the blanket off of Misumi’s face to see her lying there with color in her cheeks, life in her body, and breath gasping from her lungs.

“Misumi!” bawled Cleo, falling forward as if all her muscles gave up at once. “You’re alive! You’re really alive! I knew we could save you…”

As for Kenji, he was so stunned that he had no clue what to say. There she was. Breathing. Crying. Squirming beneath the linens. What used to be a corpse had recovered and turned back into the Misumi he knew since childhood, and she wasn’t dead after all.

“Y-You’re really here…” he sputtered.

Just as Misumi’s fit of coughing ceased, her eyes narrowed open as her face clenched with pain, but she looked up from her position on the bed at everyone gathered around the room. Her friends—no, her family—were there for her, but from the confusion in her gaze, it was clear she had no idea why. With a voice drier than a desert, she looked at Kenji and asked:

“Of course I’m here…why wouldn’t I be?”

 

******

 

Her complaints of pain were endless for the first several hours, and while Sapphire did everything to heal Misumi further, her body wouldn’t except the magic. It wanted to heal naturally for some reason, perhaps as a side effect of the Restore Life spell. There was, however, medicine that could be given to reduce pain, and Misumi asked for it in heaping piles, and everyone obliged. Just seeing the blue and purple bruises all over her body, the cuts on her torso, arms, and neck, her bloodshot eyes, made everyone cringe at the idea of hurting like she did, for it must have been intolerable to suffer.

Kenji and Cleo explained the situation, how she had been brutally killed by Dead-Eyes, how they brought her lifeless body back to the guild, and how Amelia gambled on the Restore Life spell to bring her back and was now incapacitated, sleeping in her own bedroom with a low fever. And like children around their ailing mother, they gathered in chairs beside the bed, talking to Misumi, still not believing how fortunate they were to have brought her back from beyond the grave.

“Do you need anything?” Kenji asked. “Food? Water?”

Cleo added several questions of her own. “Are you warm enough? I can get another blanket if you’d like. Or do you need another pillow? If there’s anything you need, just tell me. I’ll get it for you.”

With a grin, Misumi gave a feeble answer, “I’m fine, you guys. Really. I think I just need to rest.” She shifted her body slightly and yelped from the pain. “On second thought…I could use some more medicine. Something to help me sleep would be nice, too.”

Both of them got up simultaneously to retrieve the requested items, but they paused, glancing at each other in confusion.

“I’ll get it,” Cleo insisted.

And as she left the room to retrieve more medicine from Sapphire, Kenji sat down next to Misumi, watching over her like a hawk. His silence must have been awkward, because Misumi commented on it immediately with her rough voice.

“I know I’m beautiful,” she joked. “But you don’t have to stare.”

“O-Oh, sorry, I…”

“I’m just kidding,” Misumi scratched hoarsely. “And I get it. You were scared. But I’m okay now, so you don’t have to worry about me anymore. Sapphire says I’ll recover in two weeks, and that I’ll be back to normal a few days after that. We can go adventuring again like we always do.”

Kenji wanted to dispute that, but his voice just stammered, tripping over itself. “Aren’t you scared of going back to normal?” he wondered.

In the subtlest way possible, she shook her head. “No way. Remember what you said? No more fears, Kenji. No more running. This is our life now, and we can’t sit in the corner and cry just because it gets hard or scary. Besides…I’ve died twice now. It isn’t all that bad, really.”

“Well it was hell for us,” Kenji asserted.

“I know. And I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. But how would you really feel if I decided to stop being an Adventurer because of this? Would you like it?”

He glanced to the side. “No, but I would understand it.”

“See? We’re in a party now. Our friends count on us. I mean, just look at how hard Cleo is working to make sure I’m okay. And Amelia…she’s completely drained after the spell, and there’s no telling what kind of lasting effects it might have. They’re doing everything they can for me, so when I get better, I’ll do everything I can for them. That’s how friendship works.”

A part of him wanted to argue, but at the same time, he wanted to agree. They had made a promise to each other that they’d conquer the Spire. That the wish on the tenth floor would belong to them. Even if they’re feelings about Japan changed before then, they still had every desire to chase a dream no matter how crazy it was, and they’d do just that—as a team. Cleo and Amelia, Desmond, Sinopa, and Sapphire; Flanigan. They had friends to lean on when times got tough, and that was all they needed to keep moving forward.

Before he could spit out a response, the bedroom door opened and Cleo entered, carrying a tray of medicine, tea, and even food, and once Kenji and Misumi looked at her, they glanced back at each other and smiled. Indeed, their friends were worth every moment of struggle. Pain was always more bearable when others willingly shared in it, and fortunately for Misumi—everyone she knew was willing to do exactly that.