Symphonium Knights

In a small restaurant by the road, a girl was reciting something to herself, while the man who was behind the counter was busy washing dishes, though the atmosphere was light between them.

“So, What do you think?” - She said as she showed him a pretty poorly drawn poster,

“Why are you so fixated on being ranked first anyway?”

“Jeez, how many times have I told you about it. King Arthur, Joan of Arc, Zhuge Liang, Caesar. What do you think when you hear their names??”

“That one of them wasn’t even a real person”

“It doesn’t matter! It’s about the spirit, you know! Everyone knows their names,even now people speak and remember them. Doesn’t Mira have the same ring as them? I just want to one day stand along with them and there’s no better place to do it than Rubinsoft! The most popular city in the world! I’m sure if they’d be alive right now, they’d be trying to do the same thing.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure…”

“I’m serious about this, you know? Why do you think I picked up extra shifts at my part time job?”

“To pay for rent, bills and for the 1173 meals from me which you took on credit?”

“Well there is that… But Also! It’s all part of a greater plan, soon I’ll have saved enough to hire some people from the web, and then we can just go beat up one of the people at the bottom of the rankings to take their place and from there it’s a walk in the park. Effective, right?”

He sighed - “Do you really think it’s as simple?”

The atmosphere shifted into a much more serious one.

“I don’t think it worked like that. Whoever you remember, be it a hero or a villain. To all of them that status wasn’t something they were aiming for, their sights were set on something they believed was worth sacrificing for.”

“I know, but…

“I guess what I’m just trying to say is, maybe instead of forcing your way onto that stage, just do the right thing, and one day, before you’ll know it, you’ll be their “king arthur” or whoever you wanted to.”

She didn’t say anything but her face was pretty conflicted, and the awkward silence made him retract back to a more apologetic tone:

“Ahh, I might’ve gone a bit overboard there, I didn’t mean as a discouragement, just a suggestion ”

“If you believe that means the next meal is still on the house right?” - The girl laughed, and both of them went back to the previous casual atmosphere - “I still have some stuff I need to do, so I’ll see you on that offer later, bye!”

“Yeah… I’ll see you later”

She left the restaurant with a smile, but after getting outside, seemed to return to the more serious face she had just a second ago, before slowly going up the thin set of stairs which were right next to the restaurant. They only went up 1 floor, even if the building itself was taller, and after making it to the top she opened one of the doors on the right of the stairs, before making her way inside.

The room was pretty untidy, with random clothes all over the floor, but it wasn’t dirty. The fact that the curtains were blocking the light from the outside really enhanced that. She swiftly made her way to an older looking computer which was right by the entrance, and turned it on. As it was turning on, and the noise of it working was getting loud, she put on the glasses which were on one of the books nearby, and by the time she had them on the computer was already booted up onto a login screen on some website. After swiftly typing in a login and a password she was met with a large list that started at #999, all accompanied by weird names and extravagant logos. Though the list seemed to end at the number #900, with a large communication saying “Access Locked” whenever she tried to scroll further. She seemed to stare at the screen with a blank expression for a few seconds, before turning the computer off, and making her way outside, grabbing one of the over-the-shoulder bags that was near the door.

In a relatively calm pace she made her way around the active streets. Walking past large groups of people, and crossing the street multiple times, before passing between the alleyway of two tall buildings, until she arrived in what seemed to be a small cafe, and made her way inside.

“Sorry I’m Late!”

“We nearly started without you, you know! Go get changed!”

She went behind the counter and into the storage room to get dressed. As she stood upon the clothing pile, she sighed and watched it for a while, before slapping herself lightly on her face with two hands, and finally coming out and helping the rest of the staff. She switched from operating the till, to cleaning, to taking orders, for what must’ve been a couple of hours. In-between her tasks she’d look at the clock, and when it reached 1 PM, she proceeded to hand over all of her tasks, before getting changed and leaving. Without any breaks, after going outside and checking the time, she starts fast-walking to her school next..

It was at least 30 minutes later by the time she reached her class, before sitting down, and pulling out a notebook readying to take notes. The teacher was a little older woman, who took quite a while to reach the podium, and once she started speaking it took a while for her to get the sentences out. The girl took notes with a bored face, sometimes spinning her pen, and eventually after the lesson was finished, breathed a sigh of relief, before packing her things and leaving.

As she passed the class exit, she looked at the clock, which was right above the entrance, that was showing 5 PM now.

“Still have time, I guess I’ll go to the library”

She slowly made her way, passing by groups of people who seemed to be heading out of the campus. As she got inside she looked to see how many people were there, but it seemed to be empty. After getting inside she proceeded to get a couple of books from the shelf which were just on the topic she covered in class. After grabbing at least 5 of them, and placing them on the table in the center. After opening one of them and staring blankly at the question, her face went blank and she closed the book again.

“Maybe just a little…”

She murmured under her nose and took all of the books she just prepared back to their places, before going through different sections and grabbing a bunch of different ones. Some comics, some historical biographies and some mythologies. Tall enough that with the stack in front of her she couldn’t see where she was going, which led to her falling to the floor and throwing the books in front of her.

“Argh!”

The voice of a man surprised her, and once she looked up she saw him sitting on the chair next to hers, which was previously empty, with the stack of books she was carrying being spilled all over him, one of them opened wide and covering his face.

“I’m really sorry!” - she said as she got up from the ground.

“It’s okay…” - He said as he lifted the open book from his face, revealing his tired face - “But king Arthur, huh?”

“Ohh, so you know him, you’re a fan too!”

“I’m not sure if a fan would be the best word for it, but yeah…”

“Well, that’s close enough for me! So, who’s your favorite? Is it him? Maybe you like someone else, like Joan of Arc? Though women don’t often work for guys like you…”

“Favorite? I never really thought about it…”

“That’s a shame, you know! It’s nice having someone to look up to, even if you just look at the good parts, it’s inspiring in its own way, wouldn’t you want to do the same?

“Oh… No, no. I don’t think I could do that”

“Why not?”

“I just… Don’t think it’s a role for me. If there are people like you who’d be the main character, I think I'd be the person that was writing the book about them”

“Hmm I see… Is that what you’re drawing”

“Oh! This ! I mean it’s “ - He was frantically trying to cover up some of the drawings on his portion of the table but as there were clearly too many of them he gave up - “Yes… It’s something I’ve been working on, a superhero comic…”

Though he seemed embarrassed, he looked up towards the girl for a reaction, but she seemed pretty enthusiastic about it, which surprised him.

“That’s cool! So, what’s your favorite thing about them?

“Eh, I guess, it’s the cheesy lines…”

“Hmm…I think I understand, because it makes them memorable, right?”

“Yeah!”

Their discussion continued for a while, before the girl bid him farewell after a while.

“Don’t finish it without me, all right?! I wanna see the finished story!”

Though he didn’t have time to agree since she already left, judging by the look on his face, he planned on upholding that promise.

Without planning it, both of them would end up meeting each other in the library, oftentimes discussing the plotlines for the story he was writing, when one day she brought something up again.

“Hey, about the other day, Don’t you think it’s a bit sad?”

“Hm? What is?”

“The people who wrote these stories, I mean they’re usually not included, right? Even if they had to see all of it with their own eyes, they’re treated like they were never there.”

“I don’t think so, I think it’s noble in its own way, if not for them, then there’d be no-one to tell the story right? ”

“Hoh… I guess I never thought about it like that, like a sacrifice so the main character can move on…”

“Well, something like that”

“But no! I don’t think that beats being a character in it!” - She said it pretty proudly, but as she looked at him, he seemed focused on something else so she changed the subject

Their conversations would continue for a while longer, a couple days, but then one day something was different, the boy’s face was pretty bruised, even if some of them were covered up by bandages and through other methods. Though his face still had that reserved expression, something about it seemed off, which threw the girl off.

“Uhm, Hi, not working on the comic today?”

“Oh sorry, I left it at home, I’ll bring it next time”

She wanted to ask him what’s wrong, but something prevented her from doing so, and as both of them sat in silence, without talking to each other, time simply passed, until around the time she usually went home.

“So, eh, Goodbye, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Though he didn’t say anything back, she kept looking at him looking for it, before eventually she made her way outside of the library door, and just as she began to close he started speaking again.

“Do you think they exist nowadays? People you’d want to write about?”

“If they don’t, you just gotta become one of them right?”

Even if he matched her smile after this response, as the doors were closing, it seemed to fade into a much sadder expression.

Next day, when she visited the library he wasn’t there. She did her usual routine of going through some of the books, and looked for him between the different sections, but he wasn’t there. As she sat down in the chair she usually did, the room felt empty.

She stayed a bit longer than usual, so by the time she made it back home it was already evening, and she stopped again by the restaurant next to her.

“Welcom-! Oh, it’s just you.”

“Hey, you can keep the nice tone, I’m still a customer, what if I brought some people with me, first impressions matter, you know?”

“Customer’s usually pay their bill”

“I will! One day… Anyway, look at this!” - She said as she showed him a bank balance on her phone, though he had to squint to see considering how small the screen was

“Hoh, That’s more than I was expecting, so? What’s the plan”

“It’s time for my grand plan from earlier! I’ll probably skip classes and work tomorrow to focus on finding some info on who to target, but once that’s done it should be easy!”

“You know what day it is today, right?”

“Wednesday 1st of July, why? Is it your birthday or something?”

“You know, the contracts on the website expire on the 1st, all the people you’ve been planning to hire are probably gone now”

Her eyes got wide in shock, and she quickly rushed back home. After running up the stairs and into her apartment, she quickly turned on her computer, and frantically logged in to the same website as before, this time after seeing the ranking, she moved her cursor to the right to “For Hire”, and after clicking on it, even the cheapest option for a fighter was 3x her budget. Defeated, she left back downstairs, this time without any rush, before laying her head on the counter of the restaurant..

“It was all going according to plan too…”

“ I guess there’s always next month, though it’s probably gonna take you quite a while to actually save up, but hey, if you already have to delay your plans, mind paying off the meals?”

“You’ve said today is off-charge…”

“I guess I did… Did you think about what I said earlier?”

“A bit…”

Unsure of how he should answer he just continued cleaning some plates and started making some food, before he noticed that the girl was going outside - ”Going somewhere now?”

“Just for a walk”

“Ah I see, well stay safe.”

She dragged herself outside, and walked along the street with her head down. The streets seemed to be pretty empty at this point, with only cars occasionally passing by. Though the sun was already down, the large amount of street lamps illuminated the pavement enough to make it easy to walk, but soon after she walked into a park, where there were less of them.

She proceeded to walk deeper and deeper into it, before actually realizing just how far she went, as she started looking in all directions in order to check just where she walked off to. Though she was a bit far from home at this point, she didn’t feel like coming back, and instead just sat one on of the benches nearby

“Ahh! I was so close!” She said as she stretched on the bench, before resting her on the back of it. Even though there were bushes in the way she could see something moving behind them, and as the movement didn’t seem natural, she quickly flipped over in order to get a better look.

A bunch of men seemed to be standing under a lantern, seemingly discussing something, though it was clear one of them did not want to be there, as his body language was pretty reserved.

“Wait, isn’t that..” - she said as she squinted her eyes to have a better look - “That’s him!”

Her enthusiastic voice reached even the men who seemed to all look in her direction, but after not seeing anything since she quickly ducked and took cover behind the back of the bench they continued talking.

“That’s the guy from the library…” - she murmured to herself before slowly peeking her head again.

They were way too far for her to hear what they were talking about, but their rugged looks and facial expressions were indicating it wasn’t just a friendly conversation. Especially since the other men were quite clearly angry, and clearly demanded something from him. She could tell something was wrong, that they were forcing him to do something, and just as she felt like she should intervene, another man entered the picture.

He emerged from the darkness which the lantern didn’t illuminate, right next to her, and his long black hair blended with it perfectly. He must’ve been at least a head taller than the rest, and as soon as he came into the picture, both of the men who seemed to be bullying the man from the library earlier, stood up straight almost on command. All her determination from earlier seemed to evaporate at that moment. In a frightened manner she jittered. Even if the man didn’t seem to emanate bloodlust, something about him seemed off to her.

Then, it seemed like the boy from the library noticed her, but he didn’t inform any of the men standing next to him. Instead, he simply looked at her with a defeated face, which caused her to feel even more disgust about being unable to move, before her legs started running out of the park.

She ran, not caring whether the people could hear her, not even sure why herself. Despite all of her confidence from before, she couldn’t do it. All the things she told him about doing something good turned out to be a lie, that’s what she was disgusted about.

Whether from being scared, or because she was still disgusted with herself, tears started running across her face, and before she noticed she was standing outside of the park again.

She squatted to regain her composure, and to hide her face, when something cold touched her cheek, she looked up in shock just to see the restaurant owner from before drinking a small canned coffee.

“Don’t scare me like that! And what are you doing here anyway!”

“I went on a walk”

“Girls don’t like stalkers, you know?”

“I just felt something was wrong, so, what happened?”

“I ran away, after all that talk I couldn’t even move, and when I saw his face looking at me all disappointed, I couldn’t hold it in”

“So?”

“”So?” What do you mean So!? It wasn’t the right thing to do, but I still did it!”

“You ran away, that’s it, nothing is stopping you from going back and making things right, or do you think you don’t have it in you to reach #1?”

“Well, I do, But… It’s too late now, they’re gone by now, and I’m not some dog where I can track them by their scent.

“Maybe something like this would help?” - He pulled out a crumpled up piece of paper from his sleeve

“What’s this?”

“Location of their base”

“Huh?? Where’d you get this from, don’t tell me you’re one of them…”

“Well, I have my own methods, I’m just trying to get money for my meals back, but don’t worry I’ll add this to the tally. All you have to do now is your part.”

“Right!”

After reaching out her hand in front, he gave her the piece of paper, and with it, some motivation,

“Well, I got a business to run, don’t stay out too late”

“Hey! You know, I don’t say it often, but… Thank you.”

He didn’t say anything back, but seemed satisfied with her gratitude.

After steeling herself for a couple more minutes, she finally made her way towards the location marked on the paper, which was much easier than she expected, as the landmarks were quite easy to locate.

She stood in front of where the crumpled piece of paper led her to, which ended up being some sort of abandoned building, though even outside she could hear commotion from the inside. Though it looked unoccupied from the outside, once she strained her ears she could tell there were indeed people walking around, especially around the main entrance.

“Hmm…” - She scratched her chin, thinking on what would be the best way to approach the base, when a group of birds in her vision started flying all at once, which despite startling her at first, also revealed a thin alleway from which she could probably get inside.

After sneaking her way inside of it, it seemed to be a dead end with a couple of bins stacked at the end, but on the left wall a small window was present, and judging by how the rest of the place was built, it must’ve led to the abandoned building. After she stepped a bit closer, a small cat ran from behind the bins, and laid in front of her.

“Cute…” - She said as she started petting it, before shaking her head, causing the cat to run away - ”No no, I have a mission to do…”

She looked at the at the small window, and backed up towards the wall facing opposite of it, even if there wasn’t a lot of space, or perhaps because the walls were so packed together, she was able to jump 2 times, back and forth, between the two of them, before she reached the window.

After pulling herself up, she squeezed through the window and crouched on the frame, before jumping down inside of the building, and even though she didn’t notice someone was standing right under it, the way she landed on his shoulders made him fall to the ground and get knocked out in a single hit.

“Oops.”

The guy seemed to have held a steel pipe as a makeshift weapon, so she slowly pulled it out of his hand, making sure he didn't wake up, though it was unlikely that he did. There was no one else in the small room, and after she peeked her head outside, the only people left on the floor were standing around the main entrance waiting for someone to come in, so they didn’t pay much attention to the rest of the floor.

She moved behind one of the pillars, when then out of nowhere, a man came from behind one of them, both of them were equally as shocked, and the only thing she thought to do was to smack him in the head, which luckily knocked him out, but has also made loud noise, enough that the people next to the entrance both looked in that direction, however, they didn’t notice anything suspicious, that’s because in the instant she knocked him out, she has also made sure to hold up his body to make it seem like he was just standing there.

After they stopped looking she slowly placed him on the floor behind one of the pillars and wiped sweat off her forehead, which built up because of how much she had to strain herself to hold him up.

After which, she began slowly rolling from one pillar to another, with a pause between to make sure the people near the door hadn't noticed, which eventually landed her next to the staircase going upwards.

Without any other logical route, she slowly made her way up, when just as they were turning around, she saw someone walking down. She could have perhaps knocked him out, but after having to hold up that other guy just a few seconds ago, she felt like there had to be a better alternative, with each step he was closer, and made her heart beat faster, before an idea came to her.

The man was able to go downstairs without any interruptions, as she noticed that right around the turning point of the staircase was a small window, from which she jumped out and held herself on for a few seconds, before coming back in.

She continued her ascent upwards until she reached the final floor, which was just a giant hallway with a large door in the center..

The door was opened just slightly to let out light, so she knew someone was inside, and considering that it was on the top floor, it was also most likely where the leader was located, and even as she tried scouting to her left or right, there was no other way of getting in. Even if she still had her determination from earlier, it still took her a few seconds to get ready to face them, but after a deep breath, she forced the door open.

On both sides of the room, 2 groups of men, who were occupied with random activities, some seemed to be armwrestling with each other, others reading comics, while others simply talked with each other, but as soon as they heard the door slam, all of them looked in her direction. In the back of the room, facing the door was a makeshift chair, made up of large cut tires, stacked high enough that it was at least 2 meters high, and sitting on it was Naraki, who lifted his head to look at the commotion the girl was causing. But most importantly, next to him was the boy from the library, whose face seemed to be in the most shock after seeing that she came after him

“I found you!” - She said as she pointed the metal pipe towards him.

“Huh? And who are you?”

“Evil villains! I have come here to end your plans! Free that young man right now!”

The unserious response combined with the weird tone of the girl speaking resulted in most of them bursting into laughter, but upon hearing it, the face of the boy seemed to show a bit of a genuine smile, which Naraki noticed as well as he kept his cool.

“Are you serious?”

“Of course!”

He seemed surprisingly serious about the girl’s challenge, as signaled to a couple of the men to take care of the girl, a pair of men from either of the sides started going slowly towards her, before eventually turning into a full sprint.

Even if they were on the same team, they weren’t all that coordinated, and while one of them tried swinging at her, the other had to wait to make sure he didn’t hit his teammate, which made the attacks pretty easy to dodge for the girl.

After dodging punches from the two of them, she proceeded to knock the guy who attacked 2nd, since he was still regaining his balance after the punch. After seeing this, the man who attack first closed in a bit faster, probably due to not having to worry about his comrade, but even if he closed the distance way faster this time, she was still able to drudge under the punch, and hit him in the chin with the pipe, after which he fell to the floor.

As she looked towards Naraki for reaction with a smile on her face, he still seemed rather uninterested, which resulted in rest of the gang getting ready to fight the girl instead. This time there were many more of them, around 6, but since the girl was confident, and just took out a couple of them, 4 of them seemed pretty hesitant, nevertheless all of them started a similar rush to their predecessors.

One after another, overhead punches which she had to duck for, followed by leg sweeps which she had to jump over. But despite it seeming like a confusing fight, it was pretty rhythmic, and after she was able to dodge attacks from all of them, she finally felt like she could start her counterattack.

Naraki still seemed relatively unmoved by the whole situation, but he did look towards the boy to see his reaction, and even he was surprised at the fact that GIRLCITYMC was holding up against so many of the members.

This time, two of them signaled to themselves and attacked at the same time from both sides. As each of their fists came towards her, she smacked one of them from the top to change its trajectory downwards and away from her, before coming in closer to avoid the 2nd punch, while also, with the rotation built up from the dodge, spinning and hitting the other man straight in the face. Also knocking him out.

Since she was still moving, right after doing that, she jumped towards the 4 of the men who were still in front. And as they were the ones frightened from before, her just dodging that one attack scared them even more, resulting in her being able to land a couple of hits on 3 of them, before they were able to react, before the 4th, which was furthest away, fell to the ground and ran away.

She looked back, and saw that the fighter who’s punch she redirected with the pipe was starting to get ready to fight her, and while she seemed to get ready too, she stopped when she saw Naraki hop off the chair and onto the ground, which made a loud slam.

At the sight of that, the only remaining fighter, the same one whose punch the girl redirected seemed pretty happy and excited that his boss was moving in to help, but as soon as Naraki got close enough, he hit with enough force for him to fly pretty much across the whole room.

The girl felt the same fear as before, but this time, stood firm.

“Still keeping it hidden, huh…”

She was confused by what he said, but didn’t have much time to think about it, since soon after, he jumped close enough to start fighting.

His punches were much harder, crashing onto the floor, but because of the weight behind them, it felt like she had more room to breathe between them, but that seemed to be false, when right after dodging he appeared in front of her, this time, not giving her any opportunity to dodge, so she had to block with the metal pipe, which still sent her a good few meters away.

By the time she recovered, He had already taken one of the knocked out bodies on the floor and threw it in her direction to conceal his movement. She looked both left and right to see where exactly he went, but unsure she decided the best thing would be to use the flying body as a jumping platform.

She flew in the air, high enough that even when he reached his hand he couldn’t catch her, but as she was falling and didn't have much control, but he did, which is why he turned around and quickly ran towards the place she was falling towards, hoping to punch her mid air, but at the moment it happened, she rotated so that all of the impact from the punch would go to his fist, while holding the rest of the pipe in a way that’d redistribute the force around her body, which was still extremely painful, but she was able to still stand, at least.

“Why are you so obsessed with keeping him around anyway!?”

“I thought you were playing dumb, or still keeping it hidden, but I guess you really don’t know.”

She had a confused look when he said it, but soon a rather eerie creepy feeling ran through her body, similar to the one in the park, which is when the boy started to panic.

“It’s over… Please, You’ve got to run!”

“Huh?”

“Why do you think this city became what it is today? An ever-expanding metropolis, with limitless possibilities…Freedom? Money? Luck? Wrong, because it’s the only place on earth where conductors are born”

“Conductors?”

His black, long hair seemed to get even darker and longer, as it wrapped itself around him, it seemed to sink into his skin, like a needle sewing clothes. The girl was too confused both by what was happening and by whatever Naraki said, so she watched till his hair stopped moving, at which point he started slowly walking towards her.

“Have you ever heard of string theory? How every single thing in this universe can be modeled after a small string. And just how they all have a natural frequency, the same can be said for your soul. Once you find your resonance, you can unlock it, your “Imprint” that is”

The boy seemed to have made a face full of shame when he heard the man speak, which might’ve distracted the girl just a tiny bit, but even if she was fully concentrated she wouldn’t be able to react to Naraki who appeared in front of her instantly, knocking her out of the way.

As she laid on the floor and struggled to breath, he kept speaking.

“You asked me why him. That's because he’s a conductor, one of the only people who can unlock “Imprints”. As long as we can keep him with us, he can unlock the potential of anyone that joins us, and sooner or later, the #1 spot will be ours.”

When the boy saw Mira struggling, he was about to start walking forward, when a strands of hair from Naraki cut the floor right in front of him so he hesitated to move, but still managed to scream.

“Please! Just let her go, I already promised you I’ll help you already!”

“No can do, she saw my “Imprint” so she has to die.”

Even if he was moving slowly, she was still in too much pain to try and run away, after he got close enough he kicked her away again. This time she was able to get up before he came closer, but she was clearly struggling to stand straight.

She tried to attack this time, but even as she swung the metal pipe with the same force as before it had no effect. No matter the place she’d hit, his arm, his shoulder, his face, his hair would concentrate at the moment of impact, and he’d remain uninjured.

“I wouldn’t count on him helping you, it’s not like he could, anyway” - At the same time, he intensified the slashing of his hair behind him, making sure that the boy close the distance

With one of his hands he lifted her easily into the air by the neck, and even as she tried to resist by kicking and punching, his arms were long enough that she couldn’t quite reach, and even if she could, it was unlikely that it’d do any damage in the first place. The girl started screaming in his direction,

“Why are you scared!”

“That’s his role, after all, a conductor doesn’t have an ability to awaken, so all they can do is watch.”

The boy seemed ashamed of it but couldn’t refute it, which made Naraki smile considering he was in the right, but then he felt his grip on the girl’s neck loosening as her muscles got more tense.

“Shut up! You too, why are you hesitating, isn’t this what you always wanted!? “Conductor” or whatever, who cares about all that! The only person who can force you to stay on the sidelines is yourself! So let’s make one! A story where you can be a hero too!”

It was for the first time in his life that he acted on the desire that compelled him to move. With his face twisted unsure of what emotions he should feel, he ran. Naraki’s slashing his skin as he approached, tearing through his skin and skin like paper, bleeding all over, but he continued to run.

Just as Naraki turned his head to check, the boy passed right under his arm, and rammed into the girl, which with the fact that the grip on her loosened, was enough to get them both away. Because he was confused by the fact that the boy actually moved, he didn’t jump to them straight away.

By the time he looked at them, his hand was on her shoulder, which was exposed because of the fighting, and she had seemed to regain some of her strength.

“I’m not sure if it’s gonna work so fast,”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure it will”

“You can’t possibly believe you can awaken your “imprint” so fast, and with all the prof-” - His tone was arrogant, up until to the point a bright light started shining from the girl’s hand.

The metal pipe, which was still cracked and twisted from all of the blocking and hitting has begun to shine brighter. Enveloped by a golden light, its edges sharper, its length increasing, until it reached a point where it resembled a sword. And though its shape was still pretty flimsy and moving, it still looked imposing.

He was cautious, all the hairs which spanned across his body and rest of the room had all begun folding into just one of his arms, which continued to grow in size as the hairs packed inside of it. Despite all of that, neither the boy nor the girl were cowering in fear like before, both of them were standing firmly.

By the time the size of Naraki’s Arm has almost become the size of him, the two of them prepared to attack. Despite his initial composure, he was now clearly panicking at the size of her “imprint” of his screams as he got closer,rang in both of their ears.

10 Meters, 5 meters, 3 meters. The distance between them got smaller and smaller, until the clash finally happened. After coming to a stop and stomping one his legs, Naraki raised his fist and with the inertia built up, launched it at the two of them.

She was ready, she raised her sword upwards, and swung it just in time to match his punch. It was too late to stop now for both of them. But, it didn’t matter, no matter how hard his hair got, no matter how reinforced his arm was, the sword she created cut through it like nothing. As it was facing towards her, she cut in half, which resulted in the attack splitting in two and missing, before the finale of her slice, which cut Naraki across the chest, before he fell to the floor…

Both of them were confused at first as to whether the attack worked at first, but after a few seconds of him not getting up, they cheered their victory, before both fell to the ground from tiredness.

“It was my first time…”

“Fighting back, you mean?”

“That too, but I meant, using my conductor powers for someone I actually believe in…”

“It felt nice too, having someone believe in you… But there’s one thing I haven’t asked you yet.”

“Hm?”

“Name, your name, if you want to be included in the story, you have got to have a name, right?”

“Haha, Ouch…” - he couldn’t finish his laugh from the pain, but still seemed happy - “ It’s Len”

“I see, It has a nice ring to it, I like it”

“Would it matter if you didn’t?”

“Of course! There’s no way I could get to #1 ranking if my subordinates' names were all meek and funny!”

“Subordinates?”

“We beat Raki's hound, a spot must’ve filled out which I can take! All according to my grand plan… You’re joining as well, aren’t you?”

“Haha, sure!”

At the same time, the clock struck midnight. The ranking website, observed by tens of thousands of people, has just gotten an update. The the 950th spot, which previously belonged to Raki's hound was crossed out real time, and in its place, a space which simply said UNKNOWN was inserted, though the new gang’s name was yet a mystery, to both the users, and to the member’s themselves, its presence was real.

Back in the restaurant, two familiar figures entered through the door, greeted by the older man who was still behind the counter

“Welcom- Oh, it’s you”

“You can keep the nicer tone, I told you I'd bring customer’s right?”

He smiled a bit, before switching back to his more polite tone

“What can I get for you?”