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Rain from the sprinklers had been continuously scattering, yet not enough to put out the flames of the chair just to his left. The water level in the room had risen to ankle level, and it would presumably continue upwards until there would be no room left to breathe. People everywhere scattered and screamed, shoving obstacles, both living and inanimate, and scrambling for safety. Others were not so lucky, still trapped within the confinement of their personalized reality worlds, waiting to be woken.

Xion was still in the mental process of coming to his senses. To even grasp what had happened in the Daydream was more than enough, but now he was placed into what seemed to be a life or death situation.

There was no time to waste, but every movement was slow. His thoughts protruded his actions by a significant margin, all while Saeko tried to break him free from the chair that held him captive to this dungeon of doom. He could not hear his friend’s words, but the siren’s stabbing echoed within his ears along with the fear of all those around him. It was impossible to fixate on one single thing at a time.

That is, until he noticed the girl from earlier. Unscathed, without a care in the world.

She stared at him down from across the end of the room amongst the carnage and chaos. Then she turned to walk away, presumably towards the entrance of the establishment.

“WAIT!” he shouted, lunging forward with all his might just as Saeko had broken the restraints. This suddenness caused him to fall into the pooling water below. However, instead of a cold or refreshing feeling, the water was boiling hot.

“Khh-” he grit his teeth, quickly trying to pick himself back up and onto the chair he just was on. This was to Saeko’s confusion, given her crossed face.

She reached forward and pulled his shirt towards her, shouting words with no voice behind them.

“Don’t you feel it?!” he tried to yell over the noise, “the water burns!”

And then everything froze.

The people panicking were paused in their states. The flames no longer flickered, instead embers hovered mid air. The water no longer rippled, and the sprinklers no longer contributed, with their tears floating as well.

Saeko no longer moved. With her grip around him still present, the only remaining moving things here were Xion, and the girl that was walking away, now gone.

“I- HOLD ON!” he shouted, close to fear, beginning to believe the insanity around him. He carefully tended to Saeko’s grip, unfoiling her fingers so that she now held an open palm, all while her unnerving, and unflinching gaze watched him.

Xion ran forward as the waters burned at his barefoot feet again, causing him to shut his eyes in reaction to the pain once more. There was no point in searching for his shoes now.

“I’ll BE BACK SAEKO, I PROMISE!” he cried out once more, before hurrying to catch the mysterious girl.

Ahead of him was a narrow hallway that was a little more than shoulder length apart from each wall. Upon entering the hallway, the noises had resumed from behind him, and turning revealed everything had begun to move again in a crashing sound all at once. As he debated running back in, a door slammed down inches in front of him, causing him to jump back. He looked the other way to watch as another door shut, leaving him inside the still-dry hallway, dimly lit by a single flashing red alarm, and with no exit.

There was a breath taken over his shoulder, sending a chill down his spine. Although he felt no one there, or heard no noise, it was the pure white odorless smoke that indicated someone was there.

“Who-”

A thud smashed against the back of his head, then was followed up by a frontal gut punch that nearly caused him to throw up. Keeling over, Xion gasped for air. More white smoke breathed out from behind him.

“I’ll speak, you listen.” What felt like a foot pressed against the back of his neck, pressuring him against the floor. “What is it you were hoping for coming here?”

The voice was familiar once more, calm, reminiscent of the girl from earlier who had just been ahead of him, yet without a face it wasn’t possible to identify.

“Was it desperation? No. You’ve nothing to chase after or relive, so why come to such foul whereabouts? Foolishness then? But to bet one’s stake on a petty occurrence. A coin for conversation? How odd.”

Xion remained as silent as possible while recovering from the sudden attacks. Lest he anger his company.

The white breath then came down from the ceiling just as the pressure withdrew from his neck.

“Now then. Speak your words, with great thought I suggest. I’m curious to learn the reasons for your actions.”

He slowly stood back up, keeping any sudden movements to a low, and his head high to watch the breathing. There was a lot on his mind, and he wasn’t sure how patient she was.

“I came with my friend purely to step away from reality, not knowing I’d be doing it literally with Daydream’s machines.” There was a pause, noticing he hadn’t been assaulted. Xion continued. “I don’t know how much of what I saw was real, but what I believe is you can help me find a purpose within all of it. And if that’s true then-”

“What of the coin, Mizuno? Why blindly summon an audience with the Daimyo?” Her voice had become growingly impatient, opposite of the calm behavior earlier, catching him off guard.

“T-the thought was simply to thank him for his heir, since she saved me and my friends,” he stuttered.

There was silence, along with no sign of breath.

“You’re the heir, aren’t you?” Instinct had told him to brace for another blow, but he wanted to get things straight now more than ever. “The girl that sat next to me, the one that saved me a few nights ago. That’s you, right?”
With no response given, he knew his question was answered then and there, but now he could only wonder where the Daimyo was. There was no resolution to the fight he witnessed in his dreams, and by virtue, Xion may likely be one of the last people to have seen Kitsune if it was real.

“Tonight you were given another chance at life,” she suddenly spoke up as the smoke puffed out in front of him. “An assassin came after you, and our duel resulted in carnage throughout the room. He was possibly given a tip from onlookers, or just happened to be around. You lived, he died, simply put.”
“Why!?” Xion’s emotion rattled the small interior. “What reason would anyone have to come after me?”

“That I do not have an answer for, yet what I can confirm is that my master was wise in ordering me to protect you. I shall continue to do so until my master declares it unnecessary.”

“Protect me? How long have you been doing that?”

“For three years now.”

That was impossible. He’d only ever seen her twice, possibly three times with the shrine, and all those occurrences happened just a few days apart recently. However, those three years also struck him as important, for it was the same amount of time that had passed since his father had died. To be watched for that long by someone without knowing was uncanny.

“In the daydream there was this vision I saw towards the end. It took me back to a time I wasn’t even at, where my father died. While I was there, I couldn’t find him, no matter how much I moved around, but I did see a fight between Kitsune and Shin-”
She sprung forward. Silhouette forming into a full body out from the dimmed lighting, along with the kitsune mask he’d known her for now. She slammed him against the door, pushing an unsheathed blade against his neck, close enough that its edge tickled his skin.

“How do you know about that?!”

“I-I don’t know,” Xiom barely managed to mutter, “it- was just the d-dream-”

“The streets of Hokuriku are deserted! Nobody lives there, travels there, and nobody can recount that moment you described aside from me or that wretched man Shinobi!”

“B-but my father-”

“MY MEMORY!” she hissed loudly, “WHATEVER YOU SAW WAS MINE!”

Xion could hear her heavy breathing against the interior of the mask.

“Please just step back and talk plainly with me and I’ll tell you everything I know!” he blindly shouted, hoping she’d agree peacefully.

“Talk!” she said with a less intense growl, though without lessening her grip.

“My dreams showed me my capsule, where I could see my mother, and dissect the building into pieces. And I saw my best friend Kazue in Chubu, where he was about to arm wrestle Tsunami,” he panted. “Aside from the third dream that’s seriously all I saw and know.”

A moment passed without movement.

“What you saw was from my perspective. Times throughout my past. Why or how, I cannot grasp.”

“You spied on Kazue too? Why?”

“He is associated with you, much like your mother, thus making his whereabouts somewhat important, and a part of my mission. That, and-”
“XION! YOU IN THERE?” Tough Buff’s grizzled voice came directly behind him as he banged against the door. “HOLD ON, I’M GONNA FIX IT OPEN. DAMN THING WON’T BUDGE. SAEKO, LEND ME A HAND KID.”

As this had happened, the heir had let her grasp around Xion go, and she’d paced backwards a few steps.

“My master’s wish is becoming more apparent, and I realize you would be much safer beneath my wing, however, your skills are unknown to me.” She then tossed her sword at his feet. “If you can shed a single droplet of my blood, I shall consider you worthy of my teachings. However, if you fail, your luck will be the only protection you receive from this point onwards.”

She can’t be serious. He hadn’t swung a sword in his life, aside from the wooden ones his father would use to playfully fight with him as a child. Even if Xion had always won those, he was now facing someone who could travel the distance he could sprint, all within the blink of an eye.

He shifted his eyes down to the sword, thinking it was possibly the same blade used to kill his old boss. Picking it up, he realized it wasn’t the sword wobbling, but his grip around it.

“How much time do I have?” he then asked unsteadily.

“Until the door is opened, and the man behind it attempts to shoot me.” Before Xion could speak up, she added, “His hatred burns. I can feel it. He would travel the world if it meant a chance to end me, and he would be just in doing so. That is why.”

Xion nodded, gulped, and stepped towards her.

With a sweeping surprise attack, he went for her knees, just as he would always fight his father. The thought was she had no weapon, so if she lept, and left herself open, he could strike again for free. To his surprise however, she had already been in the air, jumping off the sides of the walls, and fell behind him, turning to kick his face just as he turned, and causing him to stumble back.

“You’re going to need to try harder than that,” she said without a hint of humor, completely serious.

“Hyah!” Xion yelled with a blade first charge towards her torso, watching as she swooped beneath his legs, and his blade smacked the door with a clang.

“XION!” Saeko’s concerned voice shouted from behind the door.

“Fight. If not for yourself, fight then for her. She will never be safe around you-”

The heir was cut off by an overhead toss of his blade, blindly tossed and spinning in hopes to catch her surprised, yet Xion was now staring in shock as she’d caught it by the handle.

As before, she tossed it to the ground, this time more forcefully.

“If you won’t fight for her, then fight for your friend, just as he fights for you now.”

“Kazue left to figure out his life, it has nothing to do with me!” Xion replied in frustration, leaping down to retrieve the sword more, but unable to pull it away from her foot’s pressure on it.

“You would be wise to understand just how far a friend would go for those he cherishes. Intent, willingness, you cannot succeed if you do not try to harm me.”

Forgetting the sword, he grasped at her leg, though he was immediately knee’d, producing a pounding pain on his nose, and the scent of blood came soon afterwards. He sprawled out onto the floor, dizzy.

The door behind them began to finally budge, now opened a small snippet of the way, allowing water to flow into the hallway.

“Honor those who have come before you, raised you, taught you, sweat and bled for you. Do the same for their legacy, and-” she uncharacteristically stuttered, looking down to notice the tear in the leg of her pants, along with the fabric missing between Xion’s teeth where he’d bitten off a piece.

“Ah. So the fox does have its wits about it seems.” She knelt down to him, placing her sword flat onto his chest, along with a red coin. “It isn’t blood, but it is more than nothing. You passed my challenge.”

Sparks began to fly down from the opening of the door as Tough Buff assaulted it with a mechanized blowtorch.

“In seven days, find me again. If you are prepared to learn to live a new life, then you will undergo the three trials of Inari. If reluctant, I shall protect you as my master instructed, but we shall never converse again.”

Though drowsy, Xion fixated on her words as she hovered over him.

“What can I call you,” he groaned as he asked her.

The door then reeled open, revealing Tough Buff’s energy-powered pistol, fully charged.

“AKUMA!” Buff called her out. His fingers itching to fire, but his aim is steady as ever. Saeko stood just behind him, face reddened, and tears still coming down.

“Got it memorized now?” she said mischievously.

Akuma stood up, and without her weapon, she turned her back and approached the other currently closed door.

“WE’RE NOT THROUGH!” Buff howled again.

“But I am,” she said, tossing a smoke bomb down.

Buff reached forward with his left arm, producing a wind blast from the side of his arm, and clearing up the damp hallway.

The door was still closed, and Akuma was gone, but pinned against the door with several daggers up and down was a bloody body. This body was a man, and with her mask placed on his head, this man was Xion’s assassin.