[Before That Day]

Day six, their training session started off quite unique. Haru, who is in his Battleship form, was bombarding them relentlessly with his cannons and nothing more.

He didn’t even take the opportunity to attack them while they were all disoriented and blinded by the smoke and dust caused by his battleship cannons.

Touka: How many times is he going to do this?!?

Elleth: Now that you say that, at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if this was his go-to move.

Or not, as he immediately deactivated {Fleet} and switched on {Swift Demise} as he ran towards the smoke cloud they were in holding his sword.

In which he fought each of them briefly. A flurry of slashes ending in a heavy overhead slash for Touka, alternating barrage of kicks and slashes for Airi, and roundhouse kick before going into his destroyer form and firing off his torpedoes, acting more like missiles rather than traditional torpedoes, at Elleth.

Once the smoke had cleared, Haru was still standing, not even looking tired, same with the others, just damaged from the attacks that he performed on them.

Haru: Good, good, you three can still keep going.

Just as he finishes his sentence Touka comes flying out, getting in behind him, and just as she’s about to pay him back and bring her own swords down on him, he blocks it with his sword.

Touka: My, looks like you can too.

Haru: Would’ve been dead if I couldn’t.

She jumps back as he turns back into his Battleship form, one side’s turrets turned towards Touka as the other pointed towards her older sister and Elleth.

Touka: You took that line from a game didn’t you?

Haru: Maybe, though are you just sta-

She fires out one of her sword’s blades from its hilt, with him having barely managed to dodge it, the blade planting itself into the trunk of a tree nearby as Touka had a grin on her face.

Touka: Now!

She yells out, Airi and Elleth immediately rush towards Haru, taking advantage of the fact that he was caught off guard as the two begin relentlessly attacking him.

He tried to fight back but to no avail as they had knocked away his sword during their assault, along his guns being too slow to rotate and aim at them as they ran around him.

Elleth: How about we speed it up?

Airi: You’re on!

Haru: Wait-

The pair started getting faster and faster as Haru continued to struggle to fire his guns at them, trying his best not to use {Skeletal Master} as he still feared using it.

The girls were wearing him down more and more as they continued this one-sided fight. Later on, Touka even joined in, making it even harder for him to fight back.

Their coordination with each other was unparalleled, for Airi and Touka it made sense, they were sisters after all.

Those two being able to pull something like this off wasn’t too surprising for him, he knew them since they were kids after all.

Elleth, on the other hand, he definitely didn't expect her to get along with, let alone be able to follow along with them during combat. If anything he expected Airi and her to have a rivalry.

Haru: Ah, damn, I may have created monsters.

He thought to himself, both very proud and very terrified at what he’s helped them turn into.

As they kept on pressing him back into a wall, the more he wanted to use {Skeletal Master} as his Battleship form was far too slow to deal with all three of them.

That, and even switching to {Fleet}’s other forms still wouldn’t give him much of an advantage.

He needed something he could use to strike them rather quickly, and unfortunately the only skill he had that he could pull it off with was also the one he was scared of using.

He could only defend himself using his Battleship form’s large guns as a shield.

Touka: Elleth now!

Elleth: Got it!

Until he finally found an opening, Touka and Airi got out of the way as Elleth was about to fire a Draconian Howl.

There, in that split second, he switched into his Destroyer form and fired off all of his torpedoes right at her.

She was thrown at a tree by the explosions. Effectively disrupting her from firing Draconian Howl at him, and taking her out of the fight.

A shocked look appeared on Haru, Touka, and Airi’s faces, neither of the three expecting that to actually hit her.

Haru: That worked?...

And so started Haru’s counterattack, he quickly ran for his sword, going into a fight with Touka, their swords clashing as his guns were busy keeping Airi at a distance.

Adrenaline slowly began flowing through him as he was regaining the upper hand, his attack from earlier having knocked Elleth out of the fight making it slightly easier for him.

Touka: Separating us? Really?

Haru: My bad, it’s the only thing I could think of at the moment.

Airi: I’ve got you now!

Haru: What?

Airi suddenly appears behind him, her rapier already pointed at his throat, trying to imply that she was capable of that.

Though he knew it was an empty threat, she would just wound him somewhere else, as she wouldn't want to cause a potentially fatal slash upon her dear Haru.

With that in mind, he recklessly points all his guns downward, firing at the ground to enact his escape plan.

He thinks to himself about how creating what is basically a smokescreen has become a habit of his, laughing to himself a little as he waited for them to come out of the smoke.

But the person who came after him wasn’t who he expected, it was Elleth, whom he thought would’ve been knocked out for the rest of the fight.

She was in her partial dragon form, the large wings coming out of the back of her outfit helped to propel her towards him.

Haru: Couldn’t stay down? Impatient maybe?

Elleth: This is training isn’t it? It’d be a failure if I didn’t improve in some way.

Haru: Right…

The pair continue to duke it out as Airi and Touka get back on their feet and prepare to join in the fight.

They picked up their swords, struggling a bit, and began running towards Haru and Elleth.

Once again, the girls had him fighting all three of them, sure they were all equally worn out at this point, but they still wanted to continue to push themselves till the last minute.

Considering they only had today and the next left to prepare for the raid on the mansion, they definitely were going to need to do that.

They kept going at it, raw clashes between each of their swords, no powers, no skills, wanting to hone their base physical abilities as well, just in case they found themselves unable to use their respective skills.

Day seven, the last day before the raid, it was just some light training, they didn’t want to get rusty after all, or at least that’s what Touka told him as she forcefully woke him up that day.

Touka fought against Haru, the pair only using their swords. Carrying on from yesterday’s powerless sparring. Haru was just dodging her attacks, along with parrying incoming ones with his sword.

All as she becomes more and more frustrated by his, somewhat rightful, stubbornness.

Touka: C’mon now Haru, yesterday wore us all out but that doesn't mean you can just not attack!

She keeps persisting, trying to get him to hit her back but to no avail as he was adamant that he wanted to take it easy that day instead of train till the last minute.

Haru: Give me a break, the four of us have been doing this nonstop since the king announced the raid. Hell we all were really worn out from yesterday, can’t we just take it easy?

Touka: You….you were the one who said we do this!

She angrily brings up one of her swords and attempts an overhead slash directed at him, to which he just dodges and tries to counter her other sword, only making her angrier.

Haru: My bad, my bad. How about we go on a date after this then?

Touka blushes a bit as she continues to fight him, trying to hide it as much as she could before he sees the look on her face and teases her for it.

So much so that she just goes wild with her slashes, cutting Haru in a few places even as he tries his best to avoid them all.

Haru: Calm down! Calm down! You’re going to kill me!

She couldn’t stop herself as she kept on slashing at him, with him even falling to the ground.

Though before he got cut into bits thanks to her, he thought quickly. tripping her up, causing Touka to let go and drop her swords as she fell on top of him.

Meanwhile Airi and Touka were watching them from the front porch, enjoying the show the pair were giving out.

Elleth: So she woke him up for this?

Airi: That sister of mine, she did things like this even back in our world.

Elleth: Your world? What does that mean?

Airi: Well…you see we were all transported here, not even of our own will, Haru might say otherwise though.

Elleth: I just thought all of those stories were just that, stories. To think I’d actually meet otherworlders like you. But, what about your families? Aren’t you concerned for them?

Airi: Can’t say I’m not. But, realistically, what can I do? I don’t have an ability or power that can send us back.

Elleth: I see, but the king said something about a cult right? That’s what we’re training for. Maybe after you defeat them they send you guys home?

Airi: It’s likely, but I definitely wouldn't count on it. The king gives me a bad feeling anyway.

During this Haru is sent flying back, hurtling towards them, if Elleth hadn’t caught him, he would’ve crashed straight through the door. The pair wondered what had happened while they were talking.

And, of course, it was an angry Touka. He provoked her yet again, didn’t he, they thought as she was heading for them, probably to pick him up and continue where they’d left off.

The two continued training as they kept on observing them. A little later Haru collapsed to the ground, Touka pointed one of her swords at him, he clearly had given up at that point.

Haru: You won, can we stop and just take a break? Let’s enjoy ourselves before we end up heavily injured tomorrow, probably. You two agree, right?

He directs the question to Airi and Elleth, they two being caught off-guard by him

Elleth: I guess…? I do kind of wanna enjoy the last day before the raid, I mean who knows it could be-

Airi slaps her in the back of the head, preventing her from finishing her sentence, as she had a feeling that it was something along the lines of “It could be my last”.

Airi: Haru’s right, little sister, why not enjoy ourselves before we head off to battle again?

Touka hesitates for a bit, her sword still pointed towards Haru as he is praying that she agrees with that.

Touka: It can’t be helped, huh. I’ll go get changed then.

She then leaves Haru, walking over to her sister, heading inside the house. Leaving him on the ground, tired and out of breath.

He followed shortly behind, before thinking to himself if he even had anything to change into aside from what he wore during his date with Airi.

So he just didn’t step through the door, instead just choosing to leave his outfit as it is, it’s just his black dress shirt.
He spent the time just waiting for them, along with getting to take a break after Touka woke him up early to train. The three of them finally came out of the house, all in casual dresses that fit their style.

Airi wore an off-shoulder dark blue shirt, with a long black skirt. It was kind of similar to the outfit she wore to their date last time, or at least Haru thought so.

Elleth wore a simple black and red short dress, matching with her hair which was tied up into a ponytail using a shiny red ribbon.

Touka wore a white tank top with denim shorts, a tan cardigan over top and some black boots to round it out.

Haru: Where’d you guys even get those? I probably won’t even be surprised if I see a place that sells a hoodie at this point.

Touka: I was surprised too at first, it’s really funny how there's places that sell clothing that resemble stuff from our world.

Airi: In any case how do we look, dear?

Haru: Cute, that’s all I can really say right now, sorry.

Elleth suddenly goes up to him and clings on to his arm, getting a bit of an unfair head start as Touka and Airi get jealous over the dragon girl’s actions. All as Haru stands there, still trying to process what just happened.

Elleth: Enough talk, let’s get going already, right Haru?

Haru: Y-yeah…

The four of them then headed towards the main area of the shopping district, wandering through the many shops there. Even going into some, picking out various clothes, gear, and even weapons.

It was quite nice, something they all clearly were having fun doing. Moving from shop to shop, finding various things that grabbed their eyes.

Getting drinks and some food in a nearby diner, stuffing themselves with delicious food.

Haru was just there for the ride, but he could definitely see the three of them enjoying themselves. It’s a nice sight, as much as he believed that it was a bit cliché thinking that.

He wouldn't say he wasn’t enjoying it as well, very much the opposite.

And yet, he could not calm down, sure he could put up a facade in front of them so they wouldn’t worry. But that won’t stop those from affecting him, right?

Every terrible thing that could happen during that raid, thoughts he tried desperately to shove down into the back of his head. He couldn’t hold them back any longer, how unfortunate.

Slowly those terrible things devolved into thoughts of him losing control in his berserk form and causing more harm than the people they were about to fight.

The Black Bones of the Devil as he put it.

A dark skeleton parallel to that of his own, its power haunting and tempting him at every turn.

Couple that with the fact that it can go off at any moment and he’s very much paranoid, to the point where he’s seeing visions of that form in reflective surfaces.

He recalls a phase in his life similar to what he’s going through right now, his little sister’s murder two years ago.

He remembers having visions of her in various puddles or just anything reflective, and even though he and everyone else knew he wasn’t at fault at all. For some reason he blamed himself regardless, even now to a lesser extent.

The uncanny similarity to that whole situation reopened that old, nearly healed, wound. Great, now he had to deal with that on top of what he was dealing with now.

While he thinks that they haven’t noticed yet, when in reality Airi and Elleth were aware, or at least they could guess what was going through his head at that moment

The only one blissfully unaware was Touka, she was never someone who really got things like this, even back in their world. Though she was always a worrywart, whenever Haru was sick she would drop mostly anything to take care of him or help him recover.

He always thought that was one of her biggest flaws, how she could just drop something so easily to take care of someone like him, even if they were childhood friends.

Well, that and being way too ignorant for her own good, the poor girl wouldn’t understand unless you told her outright. And he found this out the hard way.

Before he realised it, Touka and Airi weren’t there. It was just him and Elleth, just the two of them.

Elleth: Do you wanna sit down somewhere?

Haru: Huh? Oh, sure I guess?

He was very much caught off-guard with that question, but that was good enough for the dragon girl, dragging him somewhere as he tried to figure out where the two sisters went.

She eventually found a nice and quiet grassy hilltop nearby, well as quiet as it could be with some people, mostly couples, hanging about. He sits down next to her as an awkward silence comes over the two.

Elleth: Jeez, you really are an idiot.

Haru looks at her confused with her sudden statement. An idiot? I mean he knew that but what about it? Did he do something?

Elleth: Did you think we wouldn't notice?

Haru: Eh?

Elleth: Airi and I already know. That “Grim Reaper” is haunting you, isn’t it?

She was more or less spot on, at this point her having some form of clairvoyance wouldn’t be that surprising.

Especially considering she’s a dragon who’s lived for who knows how long, developing or learning new skills didn’t seem like much of a stretch, at least to him.

Haru: Ah, you got me.

He flashes her a slight smile, trying to keep himself from breaking down right then and there.

Elleth: I see…then are you really ok like this? Don’t you want to know how to control that thing?

Haru: I do, but like I said before I’m completely in the dark about mostly everything surrounding it. Activation requirement? Origin? Absolutely nothing. The only thing I know is the power, and even then it’s very vague.

Elleth: Is that all? Is there anything else you want to tell me?

Haru: I love you I guess?

He says it in a very joking yet somewhat sincere manner, Elleth obviously not amused by it.

Haru: My bad, I just wanted to diffuse the tension a bit.

Elleth: Ah, don’t worry about it. But go on, tell me it’s just us two right now.

Haru: Honestly I can’t really sit still. How could I, we’re going to raid a cult’s base, anything and everything could go wrong. Plus my head’s been messing with me all day, I kept seeing that form in puddles, glass, metal, anything reflective really, I hate it.

His voice sounded like he was on the brink of tears, the emphasis on the “I hate it” sealed it for her. Having him open up was a good decision, even if she had to see him in this state.

After this, the pair went silent once again. Likely to process what he had just told her, considering he told her mostly everything he was dealing with, leaving out the stuff regarding his sister.

Elleth: How do you feel, now that you’ve got it out of your chest?

She spoke up, breaking the silence between them as he turned his head towards her.

Haru: Slightly better, I feel like I wanna cry though. Best I don’t right now, causing a scene wouldn’t be ideal, right?

Elleth pulls him into a lap pillow, was this her answer or is she just not going to reply back?

Haru: Hey, what’s this for?

Elleth: Bear with it for a while, with all these couples around the pressure kind of got to me, sorry.

Either way he was satisfied, as he found her thighs quite comfortable. Soft yet pretty springy, kind of cold too. He soon found himself getting sleepy, eventually succumbing and falling fast asleep.

Touka: I found them!

Airi: So that’s where they went.

The two sisters finally made it, finding Elleth and Haru on that hilltop. They went over to them, finding that Haru was currently asleep in Elleth’s lap pillow.

They were of course a bit jealous, but that was to be expected.

Elleth: He got tired, that’s all.

Touka: This guy…

She looked at Haru, who looked like he was having the best sleep of his life. A small smile crept on his face as he slept, whether that was because of what he was sleeping on or his dream was up to you.

Meanwhile Airi looked at Elleth, it was a look that said all she wanted to say. Asking her if she got him to open up as she told her to, to which the dragon girl replied by pointing towards the sleeping boy.

If I hadn’t, then how is he sleeping so soundly? Was the response she was trying to convey to Airi. Getting a chuckle out of her thanks to it.

Airi: Good job then…

Touka: Good job on what?

Airi: Ah, she just told me how she got Haru to fall asleep that quick, right?

Elleth: Right.

Touka: Why though, you used sleeping pills on him in the past, wouldn't that be enough?

Airi: Wait, wait, don’t bring that up please. I beg of you, little sister.

Touka: Fine, fine, but do you two think I don’t know? Haru, his head’s all messy, isn’t it?

Elleth: Our bad, well I guess it’s more Airi’s fault. She didn’t mention this to me.

Airi: That’s because I didn’t know about this as well. So why tell us now?

Touka: Well…it’s just that I noticed it just now you see. In any case, did you find out why his head’s like that?

Elleth then explains to them that he’s been paranoid for a while, since the king announced the raid judging by his voice. And how he’s been seeing the berserk form in reflections.

That and how much he wants to learn to control that form, but just can’t since he doesn't know anything about it at all. Something they all already knew since the three of them fought it.

Airi: I see then,

Touka: Wait, seeing things in reflections? That reminds me of something.

Elleth: It does? What is it then?

Touka: It’s not exactly related to what he’s facing now, but it’s really similar to how he was when his sister went missing. Or at least as far as I can tell that is.

Airi: Eh? Sayaka went missing? When was this?

Elleth: Wait, he has a sister?
Touka: He did, then she went missing two years ago. When this happened I recall him telling me he kept seeing her in reflections like what’s happening to him now with the “Grim Reaper”.

Airi: That’s a strange coincidence, but it’s just that right?

Touka: Yep, or at least I think so. I can’t really see any other connection aside from that.

And, as if the timing was planned from the start, Haru began talking in his sleep, his voice barely audible. Though it was more like a single word or a phrase that were vaguely connected.

Haru: Touka…wedding dress…

Of course, the only one they could hear and actually make out what he was saying was the most embarrassing one of them all.

Airi: My, my, he’s having quite a nice dream.

Elleth: Sure looks like it. You ok, Touka?

She looks at her, the poor girl blushing profusely. Just what was he dreaming about? Something about her and a wedding dress? To her that only meant one thing, but still she tries to deny it.

Touka: H-huh? Y-yeah I’m totally f-fine.

Airi: Oh yeah, Haru did say he plans to marry you first. Isn’t that great to hear?

Touka: E-eh!? H-he did!?

She tries to get her older sister to tell her when that happened but to no avail, instead she just kept on teasing her, telling her how lucky she was and soon enough Elleth joined in as well, all as Haru remained soundly asleep.