"Tell me, Rin," Ryuu begins, sliding back a step, then another, before finally coming to a halt.
"Do you really think it was smart to follow me alone?"
His voice drifts aimlessly through the darkness, swallowed by the cursed fog. Rin doesn't answer—she only stops, standing firm.
"So no one wants to talk to me today, huh? At least noone but …"
He thrusts his arm forward, and from the swirling black shadows a weapon forms, dense, sinister, curved like a half-moon blade.
His grin widens, daring her. Rin reacts instantly. In the same blink, her blade flashes free, and she launches forward, closing the distance in a heartbeat. Her eyes blaze red, her golden sword ignites, flames bursting bright and real. Her strike cuts straight into the boy, or rather, through him.
Through nothing.
While his body melts into shadow, vanishing once more.
"Hehehehe … what's wrong? Did I just …"
His laughter echoes above her head.
"... hit a nerve?!"
The shadows behind Rin pulse. She whirls, slashing. Her burning blade cleaves through the void.
Just void. There was nothing. No target.
Spears erupt instead. From the left. The right. Above. Below. From everywhere. All lunging for Rin, closing in too fast.
But she doesn't falter. Her eyes flare red again, brighter than before. A thin veil of crimson light flickers around her—her shield. A barrier, like Shato's, but her own.
The first spears crash against it. A shockwave bursts across the field. The ground splits beneath her feet, grass scatters past the shrouded veil of mist, even the river swells with violent ripples. Crack after crack spreads across the shield—but it holds. And Rin waits.
Still. Patient.
For the chance to strike back.
"Hmmm … not quite what I imagined."
Ryuu's voice cuts in again, closer now. He's behind her, exactly where he'd been before, as if he'd never moved at all.
"I expected Shato's color-matching shield to be invincible—but you too? … Well, no matter."
More spears lance out of the fog, hammering into the barrier, never stopping for even a blink.
"Let's see how long you can last." His grin sharpens, laughter dripping arrogance.
The barrage grows. More and more spears, blotting out her vision, rattling the barrier, pressing in.
Still, Rin stands calm. Focused.
Not silent though. Slowly, she turns her head, her eyes to Ryuu. Then she raises her foot, stamps the ground—not hard, but sharp enough that droplets from a forgotten puddle leap into the air … and instantly freeze.
"Ryuu …" Her voice is low, almost whispered, as though spoken only to herself.
Her right eye dims—its red glow fading, replaced with a cold, turquoise light.
Then silence. She loses the thread, or chooses not to speak further. Instead she lifts her face. Her gaze. Her sword.
Her burning sword.
And then—her shield vanishes.
The crimson wall of flame dissolves, gone as if it had never been.
The spears remain. They lunge forward, closer, unstoppable now. Close enough to pierce her.
Suicide.
That's what it would be called—if Rin didn't know exactly what she was doing.
The first spear strikes, burying itself deep into the ground.
The next, and the next, tearing closer, closer, close enough to rip her apart.
But Rin lowers her weapon like a horn before her, and then she moves.
She leaps, blade-first, into the swarm of shadows.
Her flaming sword engulfs her, wrapping her whole body in fire as she plunges in. She slashes. She thrusts. She drives through.
The boy smiles. The spears stab. The storm freezes.
And then—
Silence.
The boy had won.
Or so he thought. Perhaps he thought too much—because suddenly the mass of shadows split apart. A crimson light burst through, her blade driving forward, Rin behind it, both surging toward their next target: the laughing boy.
Ryuu's grin froze in an instant. Almost at the same time, the ground erupted—spears, blades, jagged tendrils shooting up from the shadows, from the mist. Rin struck, Rin evaded, Rin leapt. Her blazing weapon carved forward, relentless. Ryuu conjured more, pulled back a step, but it wasn't enough—nothing could stop the force bearing down on him.
He threw his arm upward, a wall of fog swelling between them. But Rin was already airborne, hurtling toward it like a bullet. Her flaming sword ripped through the mist-wall as if it were paper, as if she were the shears meant to shred it.
Only an arm's length remained. A second, maybe less. Less, and a single thrust of her burning blade.
Ryuu did not flinch. He was certain—he could vanish, anytime, anywhere. He only had to lift his foot. Just spring away. Just leave the ground. Just—
Just one simple act.
But he couldn't.
Not with his foot frozen, locked to the ground.
Not with Rin's right eye glowing in turquoise, burning cold, while her blazing sword drove forward with all its might.
He tried to summon shadows, a black mass coiling around him, but even that collapsed under the crushing pressure. His body hurled across the concrete street, into shards of splintering ice, until he finally skidded to a stop. He tried to rise, to catch his breath—but his right hand froze to the ground, and Rin's blade slid under his chin. No flames now. No glow. But sharp enough, deadly enough, to end it all the same.
She lifted it slightly, almost mockingly—just as Shato had before. Not cutting, but promising to end him whenever she wished.
"Doesn't work so well when you're stuck to the floor, huh?" she asked, her voice flat, victorious, a conductor in this lonely battle.
"How …?" Ryuu muttered, barely audible, but enough for her to hear.
"Did you really think I was just watching?" Rin tilted the blade, letting its edge draw the thinnest line across his unguarded chin.
"Snacking on popcorn, cheering my leader on? Or did you think I'd charge into a fight I couldn't win? Ahaha … Ryuu. I thought you knew me better than that."
"Tehe … thought so too. Funny how wrong we both were." His voice was venom, defiant, even as her sword held him down.
"Quite talkative for someone about to die," Rin answered coolly, her gaze lifting for a heartbeat, then dropping again. "But one little thing still bothers me. Just one tiny detail I can't ignore."
"Why did you ever think you could defeat us? Because you killed a few Miracles and soaked up some power? I told you before—the one who wins is the one with the information, not the one with the childish, naïve dreams. And besides … you, alone, against six? Alright, maybe five, if we count out the boy. But still—you against me? Tahaha. Even if it were just me alone, Ryuu, this is exactly how it would end. So tell me—what the hell were you even thinking?"
Her words landed like a lesson to a fallen pupil. But Ryuu's grin answered for him, deaf to her scolding.
"What I was thinking? You really believe this is the time to ask your enemy questions? Right here, in the middle of a fight?"
"You're not my enemy, Ryuu. None of us see you that way. Which is why—"
"—why you can't kill me?" He cut her off, pressing his chin harder against her blade. She drew it back a fraction.
"Why this weapon of yours …" His grin sharpened. "… can't push deeper into my throat?"
"Kid, you have no idea how hard I'm holding back right now. Stop being so damn childish and use your—"
"You think this is childish? That I'm just bored? That this is puberty running wild? Ahahah! How naïve! Rin, the choice was already made. By me. Everything happening now, everything still to come—it's all part of MY plan. I set the board. I'm the hand behind it all. Even the kidnapping, the truck, the police. Every single piece, I staged it. Just to bring you here. So if you still believe I'm not committed a thousand times over—then, my dear, you're clinging to old memories. You're the one who doesn't know who I am anymore!"
Silence. Rin froze, her thoughts tangling with questions—too many, too heavy.
"R-Ryuu … don't tell me you …" The words slipped out, stunned. Then she steadied, forcing herself back to clarity. Anger tried to flare, but she killed it instantly. When she spoke again, her voice was calm. Too calm.
"If that's really how it is, then I have only one question left. What the hell … did we ever do to you, Ryuu? Tell me. What the hell?"
"Nothing. You did nothing to stop me. Nothing, before I became a threat at all," he answered.
"Tzz … so you really want the whole world against you, is that it?"
Her words closed the book on their argument. There was no winner here. Just silence—the silence before the storm.
A storm no one could predict. A storm that promised no victors.
Rin breathed, once, twice. Her choice was already made. Ryuu—this boy—was beyond saving. She was the rational one. The clearest mind among the Five Aces. The only one who could end this.
She raised her blade. Held her breath. Held back her grief, smothered it until not even a spark showed. No emotion on her face. None in her stance. And yet—it was there. Barely, but there. The weight of her past, gnawing still, heavy enough that even she—
the rational one,
the only one—
even she could not face it without pain.
And yet—she thrusts.
Or at least she means to, when suddenly a knee slams into her stomach.
She spits, staggers, reels—her grip slips, just for a moment.
A moment far too long. Long enough for her blade to tumble from her hand and clatter against the ground.
Before she can even react, the same leg swings again—this time the foot smashing her head aside like a kicked ball. Her body flies right, across the street, skidding over grass, until she crashes into the cold, slow-moving current of the river. Rin sinks. But she gathers her mind again, twists underwater, and kicks herself hard from the riverbed. Like a bullet, she bursts upward, instinctively grabbing the bank and hauling herself out.
Her clothes drip, her eyes glare through the strands of wet hair clinging to her face—straight at the new opponent. Or opponent ess, rather. A figure cloaked in the same black robe, a wolf mask covering her face, golden sword twirling in her hand as she practices strikes.
"Remind me—wasn't it you who said that by the time we arrived, you'd already defeated all five and taken the boy captive?" The masked woman's voice is unmistakably female. Mid-sentence, she casually swings her sword toward Ryuu's body, sprawled across the ground.
"Guess that means the bet's mine, huh?" she chirps, then flicks the blade aside and turns her attention to Rin—who looks like she could water the street with every drop falling from her clothes.
"Well, even the best plan can go sideways," Ryuu sighs, pushing his battered frame up from the ground. He rolls his wrists, steps up beside his teammate, and studies Rin with that broad, unshakable grin.
"That's why there's always a Plan B. Isn't that right, Rin?"
"Ah, so her name is Rin? What a lovely sound. Rin, Rin, Rini-din-din," the masked stranger sings, spinning lazily as she plays with the name.
"Rin two three, Rin three four, Rin stands here—be-fore me! Yes, here, here, before me-me, die-she will, right here heeeere!"
Her song and dance end with a final twirl, arm flaring out, finger pointing straight at the silent girl dripping by the roadside.
"How many of these lunatics did you bring with you?" Rin snaps, ignoring the bizarre solo performance, her eyes fixed on Ryuu.
He only shrugs, feigning innocence, half-hiding behind the singing woman.
"You could at least clap, you know. Then maybe I'd answer you," the masked girl pouts.
"I'll gladly clap you across the face if you insist," Rin mutters, wringing water from her heavy cloak.
"Hmpf! Fine then! But you're officially banned from all my future concerts!" the girl huffs, folding her arms like she's turning down a fan's request.
"And who would come, anyway? Paid seat-fillers? I doubt even they could stomach your voice," Rin fires back, sharp as her blade.
"Sounds like somebody's got a death wish," her opponent growls, finally tossing Rin's fallen sword aside and taking her stance.
"Oh? So you can actually get mad?" Ryuu asks in mock wonder as the metallic clang of the discarded weapon echoes between them.
"Well, look at that, Rin—you actually accomplished something," he adds, praising his ally with a smirk, arrogant and self-satisfied as ever.