Chapter 14 - Blinding Stars

“Hey!”

A firm hand shoved Kana’s shoulder sending her stumbling forward. She caught her balance, her boots crunching on the grit of a long, desolate street lined with skeletal, rundown buildings. Kana reached up, clutching the fabric of her bandana, and shot a pout over her shoulder at Mira.

“What’s your problem?” Kana let out a heavy, weary sigh.

“My problem is that you aren’t focused, oh Great Leader!” Mira taunted, “You’re acting like you're second to Akari.”

“I’ll have you know I’d take her down in a real fight!” Kana retorted, with a huff.

Junpei watched them, his expression softening as he looked at Kana. “It’s unusual for you to be so competitive,” he said,“You must really like them, don’t you? I think highly of them, too!”

Kana rolled her eyes, a reluctant chuckle escaping her. “You could say that. I just think being a Lucent is such a lonely profession. Every day, new bright-eyed kids join to fight a war, and I can’t help but think…” She trailed off, turning to face her team, her expression turning somber. “What if we could change that? We help so many people, yet the Blight never seems to recede.”

Mira tilted her head and furrowed her brow. “I guess that’d be good, but… we haven’t even ranked up yet. The Principal is a ghost half the time, and if we don’t pick up our slack, all our hard work is just going to get outdone.” She huffed as well.

“Which is why—!” Junpei stepped forward, brightened with resolve. “We’ll locate that Zanshu’s base and clear them out ourselves!”

“You’ve been awfully quiet, Toru. More than usual,” Kana noted, peering over Junpei’s shoulder.

Toru didn't look up immediately. He stood at the edge of the group, his gaze fixed on the shadows stretching between the derelict apartments. “Something isn’t adding up. This district is supposed to be a total dead zone, right?”

Mira nodded slowly. “Yeah. Ever since the Great Outbreak of Setagaya, they had to wipe the area clean. Though, I think this sector is still…” She paused for a moment. a sudden chill prickling her skin. She looked at Kana, her voice dropping nervously. “Kana… did you actually get clearance to come here?”

“...No?” Kana admitted, her heart beginning to drum frantically. “The Principal… he told us to come here directly.”

“Then—” Toru started to speak, but the words died in a wet, choking gurgle.

A torrent of crimson erupted from his mouth, splattering across the cracked pavement. Behind him, a figure had manifested from the light itself—a silhouette clad in armor so polished it seemed to glow. The face was a featureless void of brilliance. A blade of pure, solidified white light was buried deep in Toru’s back, its tip protruding from the center of his chest.

“P-please… Run…!” Toru sputtered.

The knight yanked the blade free with a swift motion. Toru’s body hit the ground like a discarded doll, his life’s blood pooling rapidly around him.

The world seemed to fracture. Mira let out a harrowing scream, her knees buckling as she began to sob. Junpei didn't hesitate for a second. With a roar of grief, he lunged at the intruder although the figure didn't flinch, merely raising their blood-slicked blade to parry the strike.

“Kana! Take Mira and run! Just leave!” Junpei screamed.

“Junpei! No!” Mira shouted just as loud.

Kana’s instincts took over. She grabbed Mira’s arm, her grip bruisingly tight, and began to sprint in the opposite direction.

Run! Just run! I have to save her. I have to—

Junpei looked back one last time, a family never leaving his face.“Live…! You must see the stars we couldn’t…!”

He barely finished the sentence before the white knight brought the blade down. A clean slash of light severed Junpei’s arm at the shoulder. He winced, his face contorting, but he couldn’t back down. He threw himself forward, landing a desperate counter-blow that sent a shockwave of wind pressure through the street, crumbling the nearby walls into dust. As the knight plunged the sword into his chest, Junpei grabbed the armored arm with his remaining hand, holding his grip tight.

“I… am a shield for others!” he roared, coughing up blood. “Something a traitor like you will NEVER UNDERSTAND!”

Rubble from the collapsing buildings thundered down burying them both in a tomb of concrete. Kana didn't look back. She couldn't. Mira’s pleas were becoming a rhythmic, nonsensical chant of their names as they sprinted through the ruins.

The armored figure appeared in front of them in a blur of white, completely unharmed. Before Kana could even register the movement, Mira threw herself forward, shoving Kana into the dirt. The knight’s blade whistled through the air, carving a deep, jagged line across Mira’s back.

“K-kana… up to… you… thank…”

Mira collapsed, her eyes glazed before she even hit the ground.

Kana stared at her friend’s body. her breath came in ragged, shallow hitches. The knight stood over the corpse, their voice a distorted, metallic hum. “That was more simple than I thought. What loyal teammates you had.”

Rage, cold and sharp as ever flooded Kana’s veins. She forced herself to her feet, her face twisting into a mask of pure fury. “You… BASTARD!”

Gigantic pillars of jagged steel erupted from the earth, screaming toward the knight. The foe danced through the assault, evading the metal spikes with a terrifying, fluid grace. Kana dived forward, rolling through the dust and surfacing with a punch aimed directly at the knight’s chest piece. She rained blows upon the armor, every strike fueled by an burning fury.

“I don’t care about your reasons!” she screamed. “We thought we could trust you! I’ll NEVER forgive you!”

She pulled her fist back for a final, desperate strike, the force sending the armored warrior skidding back. Steel beams flew from the surrounding buildings like harpoons, but the knight cleaved them in half mid-air. Kana launched herself upward, riding a rising metal structure to avoid a lethal slash.

The air around her began to shimmer; as her fury only grew. She slammed her hands onto the ground, coating the entire street in a liquid sheet of molten metal. As the knight’s feet became encased in the hardening steel, Kana bolted forward.

“I WILL kill you! I promise… I’LL KILL YOU!”

She wound up for the killing blow, but at the last millisecond, the knight broke free, their blade flashing upward. It sliced across Kana’s face completely annihilating her vision. She didn't stop her assault, even as blood dripped from her eye. She raised hundreds of spears from the ground, one catching the knight’s wrist and disarming them.

Kana landed a crushing punch to it’s midsection. In response, the armored foe beat her down with a flurry of blows onto her head and chest, a brutal pummeling that left her dizzy and spitting blood.

“Interesting,” the knight hummed, “You’ve been holding back, haven’t you? Then time for a final lesson.”

The foe moved with incomprehensible speed, flipping and twisting through a storm of knives and metallic hands that Kana threw at them. Kana dropped to one knee, flicking her fingers. A small, high-density steel pellet flew like a bullet toward the knight’s eye. The knight leaned back, the "bullet" grazing the visor as they countered with a flying fist that sent Kana spinning through the air.

I have to make it back. I have to tell Akari. I have to—!

“This is it! OUR magnum opus!”

Every scrap of metal in the street—rebar, pipes, pillars—melted together, forming a colossal blade twice the size of a human. Kana swung the massive construct over her shoulder. The impact with the knight’s sword created a hurricane, bulldozing the entire block. The blades struggled against each other, until Kana’s blade shattered into a thousand shards.

The knight lunged through the debris. Kana scrambled to raise a series of walls, but the white blade cleaved through them like paper.

A sharp, cold sensation bloomed in her stomach.

Kana looked down. The sword was buried deep in her gut, the tip protruding from her back. She coughed, a spray of gold-tinted blood staining her lips as she gripped the blade of her enemy.

“...Why…?” she managed to choke out.

“Hmm… business or pleasure? Let’s just say a mixture of both,” the distorted voice replied.

“Bastard…!” Kana hissed, her grip tightening on the white steel even as her strength failed. “When she finds out…!”

The sword was yanked out with a brutal twist. Kana’s body hit the dirt, her yellow-tinted blood spreading across the gray concrete.

“If she doesn’t play her part,” the knight said coldly, “you’ll see her soon enough.”

My… vision… Damn it…

Drops of liquid—bright golden—leaked from the knight’s featureless face, dripping onto Kana’s cheeks.

“Would you look at that… my technique evolved,” Kana whispered.

The knight chuckled, their sword fading into a shimmer of particles. “I’ll give you a final wish, since you put up such a good fight.”

With hands that shook violently, Kana reached up and untied the blood-soaked bandana from her head. She held it out, gripping it tightly.

“Give this… to Akari. She’ll… beat you. Even if I couldn’t…!”

“Kana Saito, eh?” the knight mused, taking the cloth. “I’ll remember that will. Now, sleep and never wake up again.”

Kana’s eyes grew hazy. The sounds of the city faded into a low hum. She lifted her hand one last time, reaching for the Knight, before her arm fell stiff.

Everyone… I’m sorry. I… entrust it all… to you. Find… solace.

The world fell to black.

Ami sat up in her bed with a strangled gasp, her skin coated with a cold, deathly sweat.

She looked around her room—the small, familiar sanctuary of hers filled with potted plants and her simple desk. Her heart was hammering against her ribs so hard it hurt her. She clutched her chest, scanning the room frantically. Each dark corner.

That memory I saw with Sera… it can't be a dream. It was too real. The smell of the rust…

“Kana… and the others…” Her voice trembled. “What the hell…?”

The silence of the room crushed her, the contrast of the silent quiet night and the carnage she had just witnessed was too much to bear as she gripped her hair so hard it was as if it could fall out.

“WHAT THE HELL?!”

Ami screamed, the sound tearing from her throat as she slammed her fists into her mattress over and over again. She eventually collapsed back into herself, sobbing silently in the dark, clutching the memories of a massacre.

Chapter 13 - The End.