"Ehh? Didn't you fling one a few weeks ago?"
Aldrin asked, his brows raised in genuine confusion as he watched his teammate.
Kirashi paused, scratching the back of his neck where the sweat was beginning to itch.
"Well... it took a massive toll on my body gathering that much wind. It's better to keep it for now."
"That's true, but... why make them fly anyway? Ah! The sea's close?"
Aldrin wondered aloud, glancing around the dense foliage of the island.
"No."
"Eh?"
"I want to see if that barrier will let us leave,"
Kirashi replied flatly, his eyes fixed on the shimmering distortion in the distance.
"Ah... How about a rock, enough for us to see?"
Aldrin suggested, kicking at a loose stone near his boot.
"That could work—"
Kirashi froze. The air around them suddenly felt heavy, the natural rhythm of the wind dying into a suffocating stillness. His breath hitched in his throat.
"Watch out!!"
"Wha—"
From the thickets ahead, a Seele burst forth like a shadow detached from the earth, its obsidian claws flashing toward Aldrin's head. In the space between two heartbeats, Kirashi saw it—felt the displacement of air—and moved.
A sharp gust exploded from his palm, the raw force flinging Aldrin aside just as the claws whistled through the space where his skull had been. The whisper of air was the only warning before fate changed course.
"It's fast! This is not good,"
Kirashi thought, his stance tightening as he felt the familiar ache of overexertion in his lungs.
Aldrin tumbled onto the dirt, coughing as he scrambled to his feet, the grit of the road stinging his palms. His eyes darted toward the tree line.
"Kara-chan! Are you two okay?!"
Kirashi's and Aldrin's eyes widened in unison. The Seele's claws were buried inches deep into a rotting tree trunk—directly beside the spot where Kara and Jayu had been resting.
The frail, blue-haired girl could only cover her mouth to stifle a scream as Jayu clung to her chest.
"K-Kirashi-san..."
Kara's voice quivered as she locked eyes with the creature. It wasn't much taller than Kirashi, but its proportions were jagged and wrong, twice as menacing as the mindless drones they usually faced.
"Kara-chan!"
Kirashi swept his arm in a wide arc, sending a condensed blade of wind that struck the Seele across its flank with the sound of a whip crack, shoving the monster a few feet back into the brush.
"Aldrin!"
"Got it!"
Aldrin ran, his breathing coming in hard, panicked stabs. He reached Kara, his hands moving with desperate care as he took Jayu into his arms.
"Kara-san! I'll take care of her!"
"Aldrin! You guys get away! I'll handle these bastards—protect them!"
Kirashi commanded, his voice sharp as tempered steel.
"Ok! Kara-san, let's go!"
Aldrin cradled the sleeping child close to his chest, his touch steady despite the way the ground seemed to shake beneath them.
With his free hand, he gripped Kara's arm and hoisted her up, lifting her toward her feet like dawn breaking through a long night.
With Jayu secure, they sprinted down the road. Their breaths came ragged, feet pounding against the dirt in a frantic rhythm, while the night behind them began to echo with the distant, guttural roars of Seeles clashing against Kirashi's wind.
"Tsk! Now there are two of you? Are there more?!"
Kirashi snarled as the bushes ahead rustled again. The sound grew heavier, a wet, sliding noise that made his skin crawl. Then the shadows split open.
Nine Seeles slithered out from the dark, their black, sluggish bodies crawling unnaturally toward the fleeing pair. Behind Kirashi, a tenth emerged, cutting off his only path of escape.
He stood at the center, surrounded—a lone figure in a ring of writhing, hungry darkness.
"Shit... nine in front, one behind. Six flame, three wind, two earth... I can only handle two. Damn it."
He pivoted, his muscles coiling as he aimed to take out the earth-types first to open a gap.
But then, the monsters did something he didn't expect: they turned their backs on him and began chasing down the road after Aldrin and Kara.
"They're following them?! What!? W-wait... are they aware of their weakness?"
Another Seele lunged at him from behind, its claws slicing through his jacket. Kirashi twisted aside, his instincts guiding him like a blade honed by years of solitude.
The attack missed his spine by a fraction of an inch. He pushed off the ground, flipping back in a fluid rhythm of motion and air, trying to widen the gap between himself and the oncoming swarm.
"Damn it! At this rate, I can't stop those two. They'll have to fight them on their own... Shit... Itoshi... everyone—where are you?!"
[Emerald Valley]
Even with his breath ragged and his limbs trembling, Itoshi refused to falter. With unwavering resolve, he dragged the sleeping bodies of Ryujin and Ayro uphill.
Their weight pressed on his arms like lead anchors, and each step carved a shaky, desperate line along the cracked road. Exhaustion clawed at his mind, a cold fog settling over his thoughts.
"I've... got... to... get... them there..."
Fatigue gnawed at him, pulling him into a suffocating grasp. His vision blurred, the world turning into a kaleidoscope of grey pavement and dark sky. Each blink felt heavier than the last, as if his eyelids were made of iron.
"They... have to get... there..."
His legs finally gave way, his knees hitting the stone with a dull thud. The pavement beneath him faded into nothingness. When he blinked again, the cold road was gone.
He stood instead in a vast, emerald valley. The air was alive here, pulsing with a frequency he could feel in his teeth. The wind no longer whispered; it surged, lifting his hair and urging him forward into a dream that felt far too real to be a hallucination.
"I have to... Wh—What?!"
Before him stood a white-haired woman, her silhouette clear against the vibrant green. She waved gently from the distance.
"What the hell—why am I here?!"
"You passed out,"
She said, her tone calm, almost teasing, as if they were old friends meeting for tea.
"I—I need to go back!"
The woman sighed softly, a sound that carried the weight of centuries.
"Going back so soon? This might be the last time you see me, you know."
Itoshi froze, the warmth of the valley's sun feeling strangely cold on his skin.
"W-What?"
"What were you asking again?"
The white-haired woman asked, tilting her head.
"Ah... Who—"
"Who chose you?"
She finished for him.
Itoshi hesitated, his heart thumping in the quiet air.
"Y-Yes..."
"Kyogira did,"
She answered.
"K-Kyogira?"
"Yeah."
"Who is that?"
Itoshi asked once more.
"She'll show up soon enough. I can't give you details—but it'll be a contest."
"W-What? A contest?"
The woman's expression softened as she spoke—not with an explanation, but with a verse that seemed to vibrate through the valley floor:
"Forged in fire, bound by fate, A burning force, a warrior great. His hands could summon light or doom, A fiery king, the world's own bloom. Through trials fierce, his flames held true, A beacon bright in golden hue."
Itoshi blinked, completely lost in the cryptic words.
"Eh..."
"There's a man in your world,"
She continued, her gaze piercing through him.
"Destined to meet you. He'll be your equal.. Or perhaps not."
"W-What?"
The woman turned her back to him, her form beginning to dissolve into the emerald grass. "You're getting your consciousness back. Good luck."
"W-Wait!"
But before he could move, the world bent inward, a violent suction pulling him back into the blur of reality.
Itoshi's eyes snapped open to the cold pavement. The smell of rain and ozone replaced the sweet scent of the valley. His chest rose and fell, shallow but steady.
He lay there for a moment, the taste of blood in his mouth, before whispering to the empty road:
"A man that's... the reflection of myself...? Got it."
He pushed himself upright, his hands trembling with a fine palsy but his intent certain. With a weak, defiant grin, he grasped the two men once more and resumed his climb.
[Abandoned School]
"There! Boats! In front of the old school!"
Aldrin shouted, his voice cracking as they bolted through the rain-soaked road.
They stumbled toward the looming structure of an abandoned school, its windows like empty eye sockets.
Just beyond it, a quiet port sat nestled in the dark, the moon's reflection wavering faintly across the black water. A single, weathered boat remained afloat, bobbing rhythmically against the dock.
Their legs burned with the fire of lactic acid, and their lungs ached with every gasp of the damp air.
As they reached the rusted school gates, a piercing screech tore through the silence, echoing off the concrete walls.
The Seele had followed. Its cry sounded like metal grinding on metal, a death knell in the quiet night. Aldrin looked back over his shoulder as they ran.
"They're near! Let's hide in the school!"
"O-Ok!"
"How's Kirashi-san doing?.. He's okay, right?!"
The thought pounded through Aldrin's mind like a second heartbeat.
They darted into a dark, dust-covered classroom, the smell of old paper and rot filling their senses.
They pressed themselves against the cracked walls, the cold of the stone seeping through their clothes.
"Are you ok? Kara-san?"
Aldrin whispered, trying to regulate his breathing.
"I-I'm good... Let me take care of Jayu-chan,"
Kara answered between shallow, terrified breaths.
"O-Ok!"
Aldrin gently handed Jayu over to her.
"It's crazy how she's still sleeping through all this chaos."
"She must've been through a lot,"
Kara murmured, stroking the child's hair.
"I know, right?..."
Outside, the Seeles roamed the halls, their long claws clicking against the linoleum floors. Their eerie, chattering presence wrapped the school in a blanket of dread. Kara and Aldrin stayed frozen, barely daring to breathe as the shadows of the monsters flickered under the door.
In the distance, Kirashi stood alone against the impossible—eight against one, a fight beyond his limits. And across the road, Itoshi struggled onward, dragging the weight of his brothers toward a summit that felt miles away.
~~~To be Continued~~~