1

Her heart still throbbing and her fingers still trembling, Sana took several deep breaths before releasing it all in a cough.

"She's awake!"

She can make out Hikari's voice amid the blurry surroundings before hearing her classmate's footsteps.

"Where am I?" she said softly, blinking her vision back to clarity. Her fingers softly weaved through the soft mattress that cradled her back before she figured out where she was.

This must be the first aid station that they mentioned. That much can be said due to the mostly brown surroundings and the few people seated on the faraway sofa, talking to uniformed people.

Talk about a sense of déjà vu. It was not so long ago that she had found herself having passed out and needing Hikari's help. That time, she felt a sense of unease, as if something from the wisps was crushing her.

It was the same feeling of dread that came over her when she saw the mother and child fighting.

The sight had filled her with dread, and the wisps, black ones filled with hate, had burst out from them in full bloom. Deep inside, she also knew why that scene made her feel extra uncomfortable.

It was a fact that she had been trying to push aside, to avoid something ever since that night she ran away from home.

"Sana!"

However, this time, her Big Bro and Yuki-tan were also here.

She'll be safe with him as long as she kept up the façade. For as long as they don't know about the truth. He had given her a scare that night, but she was glad that he did not ask anything.

It was a mistake to talk about the calming blue lights that came out of him.

Still, the feelings of security and trust were enough to cause her to flash the slightest smile when he walked over to her and put his hand over her forehead.

It was the first time he touched her in a delicate manner, and it was only now that she realized how warm his touch felt.

"What happened out there?"

The distraught Yuki-tan was the first one to ask a question. Sana, however, did not know how to answer the idol, and responded in the way her instincts told her to: by turning away.

How could she tell of the things she saw, anyway? The idol will just find her weird. Worse, she could haul her off, abandon her and throw her back to her mother, where she'll be lucky if she would only get a scolding.

She hated that idea. She would never allow such thing to happen. She won't allow herself to be abandoned anymore.

She wanted to spend her life with Big Bro and Hikari, not Yura and her mother. And definitely not the other people who would not accept her, such as those people who claimed to be her friends before who did nothing to stop her mother.

A tear dripped from the corner of her eye upon realizing that such a dream life looked less and less plausible with the way things were. Eventually, more people will find out, and...

She gulped. With the pressure getting stuck in her throat, she coughed ever so slightly.

"Sana, what's wrong?" asked Kazuki.

"I-I don't know. M-maybe it's the people. I felt heavy and..."

"Oh, I remember this! That's just like how she passed out at school."

Sana's eyes sprang wide, and she gasped at Hikari's statement. She wanted to protest, but it was already too late. Her body was too weak to react, and not a single sound came out of her mouth.

"Sana collapsed in class, and when I took her to the school clinic, she told me about what caused it. She complained of... wisps? She said they're coming out of people, and seeing them filled her with fear. Unease. She said it's like she was being crushed by a powerful force. Even I had it, apparently."

"Wisps? You mean, like the lights you told me before?" asked Kazuki, his voice full of apprehension. He gave Sana a look that she did not like at all before turning to Yuki-tan, who had a shocked expression. "When did this start?"

Sana closed her lips, refusing to answer. Kazuki kept his gaze on her, but she could already sense the tension in his eyes.

"Sana, please. You need to tell us the truth."

"I-I-It's nothing!" she stammered.

She knew that such an answer would not convince him to leave her alone, but what else could she do? She needed to end this conversation before it gets worse.

She prepared to curl herself into a ball and turn away when Hikari's voice interjected.

"Yes! Now that I think about it, this was never a thing before we went to your school's festival, Big Bro."

"Hikari!" Sana's voice trembled.

That answer seemed to get something out of Kazuki. He then looked at Yuki-tan, and they nodded at each other.

"Hikari, we're gonna leave Sana here with you for a while. Kimura and I have to talk."

The idol nodded, and when Hikari gave them the thumbs up, they hurriedly went their way.

Sana waited for several seconds. As the two teenagers went out of sight, she finally curled herself into a ball before turning to face the wall. In spite of her trying to restrain herself, it seemed that the bottled up emotions wanted to explode.

It's over.

Her expression fell, and as much as she fought it, tears started forming at the corner of her eyes.

"Sana?"

A concerned Hikari had sat by her side. She brushed her hair aside before using a finger to gently wipe off the tears. But Sana only retreated, resisting Hikari's fingers.

Even without her seeing her friend's face, she knew that her actions had taken Hikari off-guard. It pained her, and in a moment of clarity, she let loose a soft breath.

After a long silence, she finally spoke up.

"Why did you tell them? Why did you tell them about the wisps, about what I felt back then?"

"Don't you want them to know so that they can help you?"

"No..."

"Why so?"

"Because I am afraid..." answered Sana. "I just lied to him. Now, wouldn't the two of you look at me differently? Will you send me to those mean adults?"

Hikari forcibly flipped Sana to the side, causing them to face each other. Sana turned right back in effort to not let Hikari see her teary eyes, but her friend only pulled her face back with force.

"Big Bro is not like that!"

"How can you tell? Have you ever talked to him about these things? The dreams we've been having? I... I don't want to lose him, and you."

"Geez, what brought this about?" pouted Hikari. "I told you Big Bro is not like that, and there's no one that knows him more than I do."

"Why did he go out with Yuki-tan right after you told him? He looked so stern doing it, too."

"What kind of brother does not worry when he sees his sister look so sick?"

"I don't like those eyes... It's like when Mama, when she..."

Her breath cut off, and she coughed. All of a sudden, the lights dimmed, and she shook her head free of it. Staring at Hikari, she saw the wisps, but they're much translucent this time.

That did not stop her from trying to drag herself away from Hikari, only to run into a wall.

"H-hikari, you..."

Hikari instead lunged at her, giving her a gentle rub across her wig. She held both of her hands, and amidst her smiling face, the wisps disappeared.

"Sana, don't worry anymore. Things will sort themselves out later, and you can talk to Big Bro about everything. Only if you want to, of course. For now, I want you to have faith in Big Bro and Yuki-tan."

From Hikari's grasp, Sana felt a soothing feeling. The warm touch of affection that she had not felt in so long.

With her energy spent, she slowly let her eyes close once more.

2

Kazuki led Kimura to an area just outside the first aid station. In normal circumstances, she would have had to be dragged here, whining and making a fuss out of it.

This time, it was different.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" asked Kazuki after he confirmed that they were in an offbeat path from the main flow of the tourists.

He patiently waited for an answer, and Kimura raised her eyebrows.

"Actually, there are two things I'm worried about, Kimura."

The girl listened on, her eyes darting from side to side, keeping a lookout for passersby.

"One is the Fragment. That was a close call, but a little more of that and we could have gotten dragged into a Fragment. And we could have taken Hikari and Sana with us, too. And it's quite sudden and strong unlike the ones in the city."

He clenched his fist at the mention of the two younger girls' name, but he recomposed himself and exhaled.

"You think someone's keeping tabs on us?" asked Kimura. "These Fragments typically don't happen so suddenly unless someone's triggering it, like what you said with the doctor, right?"

"Possibly. The Ishidas control almost all the infrastructure here, so Euphoria could be pulling strings. I doubt something as big as the Samsara incident will happen, but who knows what they're up to, since we're racing them to find the Magna Arbiter and all."

Kimura thought for a second before Kazuki continued.

"The second issue is Sana. When she held onto me a while ago, I felt it. It was a sense of dread, a sense of holding in. The confrontation undoubtedly taking a toll on her, and the negative energy probably finished her off. You know the kind of spiritual sensitivity that I'm talking about, obviously."

Kimura nodded before asking a question of her own. "Has she been having dreams like Hikari does?" she asked intuitively.

Kazuki sensed the worry in her tone, but he only shook his head once as a reply.

"I never asked her about it. But being someone caught up in the Fragment at the school festival, she's probably just like Hikari and the others. Fuzzy memories of what happened. Dreams resembling the events inside. Likely some kind of spiritual sensitivity."

"Then, I guess it's time you have a long talk with her about it."

"You talk as if it's super easy to do it," sighed Kazuki.

"The toughest part is actually asking her about it, eh?"

"Yeah. How do I suddenly start talking about stuff like that? I'll startle her, for God's sakes."

"I think I had it way easier back then," chuckled Kimura. "You also knew before my concert, right? The thing with me and the Render of Bounds. But you didn't want to break the mood and talk about those scary things, not after you tried so hard to reach out."

She paused. It seemed to be an ideal time for her to be doing some reminiscing before she killed the mood by sticking her tongue out.

"You're still a jerk that time, though."

"Funny hearing that from you," Kazuki playfully rolled his eyes.

"As for Sana, I have a feeling that she trusts me too much. She is going through a lot which causes her to be very attached to us. I dunno, I also feel that it's Hikari's and my job to be here for her. To be the source of her comfort."

"Haha. Hahaha! That's just so like you, Darling."

"Hey, what's funny?"

"Always tripping over your words, finding it awkward to start up conversations and ask about the tougher stuff. When you do get the courage to do it, you never fail to end up looking like a dweeb."

"I didn't bring you here to get lectured about, you know?"

"Don't think that I'm implying it's a bad thing. Let's go back to our topic seconds ago. If not for that, who knows what could have happened to me by then?" she said, putting a hand on her chest. "Had you not gone through hell and high water to find me at the beach, you would not have known about the Render of Bounds before it was too late. You would not have thought of attending the concert and helping me. Perhaps, you and I..."

She had a longing look, a blank stare to nowhere, as if she's tapping into her introspective side, the one that she never felt comfortable showing to anyone else... except him. Then, she turned away.

"W-what am I talking about?!"

"And here you are just talking about being awkward. Takes one to know one, right?" chuckled Kazuki. "Ah, doesn't matter. All of us are like that anyway. You, me, Amagi, and Uehara. We're all silly people with our own problems inside, hidden underneath our projected selves. Although... you're probably the biggest example of that."

"Stop it! A-anyway, the point is that you shouldn't be too hard on yourself or doubting your moves. The Darling who saved me was someone who dove headstrong into things and never hesitated to question people. Someone who's not afraid of the moment."

"Thank you, but I can't help but feel that we got sidetracked already."

"R-right, Sana! So, what were you saying?" she asked, blinking repeatedly with an awkward expression.

Kazuki sighed.

"O-oh, I know! You're telling me she could eventually be one of us?"

"Don't make it sound like a good thing, Kimura. I don't want you manifesting anything with those words. You'll jinx it!"

He caught himself in time, just enough to calm down and talk in a slower, more composed manner.

"Here's the thing. It's not out of the possibility that she's well on her way to becoming an Awakener. I mean, I was like that, too."

Kazuki furrowed his eyebrows before looking down. In deep thought, his next words came out more of a whisper of disbelief.

"Now that you mentioned it..."

"Right?! I do not know about you all, but how did you get your powers anyway?"

"M-me?" asked Kazuki. "Well... It was Uehara who gave part of her powers to me. It awakened something within me that allowed me to tap into my powers. As for Amagi... she kinda just got it after numerous trips to Mu. She has always been more spiritually-attuned than a lot of us, despite what people see."

"So there's really something that acts as a trigger. Well, the term 'Awakener' makes a lot more sense now. So, it's Uehara's powers for you, Amagi's predisposition for the spiritual, the Render of Bounds within me. The Absolute Order for Ms. Sadohara. Hmmm..."

"In the end, I think the more important thing now is the Fragment. I need to talk to Ms. Sadohara about it and for her to search through her files for possible foul play. As for us, I'm sorry, but it looks like we'll have to cut our trip short."

"Understandable. I think it's the girls who'll be more disappointed, though."

3

Kazuki hammered away at his keyboard while multiple medical reference pages were on his browser's tabs. He continued to gather information that could help them while recalling today's events. His thoughts wandered back and forth between the things he's reading and memories of a while ago.

---

Hikari was as efficient as ever when they got back home. Not long after they stepped into the room did she hurry to turn on the air-conditioning while preparing all the essentials.

Kazuki did his part as they quickly set Sana on Hikari's bed, giving her all the comfort she needed for a good rest.

She was quick to set aside Kimura's parting gifts, turning all her focus to Sana. He had not seen her this assertive in a while, but she was on top of everything, giving orders to her brother en masse.

Time flew by as everything was happening.

As he looked at her sleeping form, Kazuki did not think that anything bad would happen to Sana, but they also cannot be too sure. After all, she was still feeling the effects of her ordeal when they were walking towards the taxi bay.

An exhausted Hikari then took a seat beside the bed, opting to stay watch.

---

He had contacted Ms. Sadohara about the incident. She had tapped into her connections to watch for traces of Euphoria members at the aquarium, but it would take some time before a conclusion can be reached.

There was also another thing that bothered him, and it concerned the conversation with Kimura.

It was the implication of her words and how she could be right.

It's something that he wanted to avoid crossing into his mind as soon as the fallout from the Fuyusato Grand Festival started.

But there's no denying it as a possibility. Should she be proven right, it would mean a life that he never wanted for the two young girls. A life of danger and battle, cursed to traverse that unknown world and fight the beings from beyond.

Should they become Awakeners eventually, it could lead to even more complications. It's true that in some cases, those kinds of people make the most reliable allies. On the contrary, the opposite can be true.

How debilitating it would be to have the two innocent girls in the line of fire? It didn't seem fair in any way, so he hesitated in giving it some thought.

But there's no denying it.

He crashed down the bed, exhausted both physically and emotionally. He opened his phone and began browsing through the news when he heard a knock on his door.

It was faint, which made him doubt it at first, but it continued.

He put down his phone before heading to the door.

The door creaked open as he opened it, and standing on the door, much to his surprise, was Sana.

Kazuki examined her diligently, taking note of her sleepy demeanor. Her voice had the old tension and uncertainty in it, but nothing else seemed off. She seemed to have recovered from the incident a while ago, and that gave Kazuki some reprieve.

"A-are you busy tonight, Big Bro?" she asked.