The Endgame (Part 1)

The next morning, Makoto, Ryu, Chihiro, and Shiro went about their day as usual. It wasn't until their training was over that Makoto decided he should go ask Shiro about what he had seen the night before.
"Guys," Makoto said to Ryu and Chihiro, "I uhh, I'm gonna go ask Shiro something."
"Alright," Chihiro said in his usual peppy tone as he did some stretches. "Good luck!"

"Hey Shiro?" Makoto called when he found the older Paladin, who was standing near the gates to the Tower.
"Oh hey, puer," Shiro said, turning to face Makoto. "What brings you here to me? I suppose you have a question?"
He seemed calm and composed, completely unlike what Makoto had seen the night before.
"I just wanted to ask you," Makoto started, "about... well... uhhh, you see, I..."
'I can't just bring up seeing him talking to that creepy coffin!!' He thought. "I heard you walking around the Tower last night..."

Shiro's eyes widened for a split second, but then went back to normal right after.
"Ah, that." he replied calmly. "I was just a bit restless, is all. Nothing much."
'BUT I SAW YOU TALKING TO A COFFIN!!!!!' Makoto thought, practically freaking out. "O-OK," he said instead, fidgeting with his sleeves.
Shiro looked at Makoto and could tell something was up. "Are you OK, puer? " he asked.
"Yeah," Makoto replied, though he was still thinking about the coffin.
He just couldn't stop thinking about it. Why did he meet Feng, hear about Shinsuke's death, learn from Feng that Albus may have done it, and then suddenly see Shiro talking to himself at 2AM about Shinsuke and then going to talk to a creepy coffin?!
Well, it wasn't going to do him any good thinking about it, so he decided to try and shrug it off.
"Well," Makoto said, "that was all I wanted to know. I guess I'll just uhh... go back to Ryu and Chihiro then. See you later!"
Shiro waved. "See you later, puer! " he called.

When Makoto returned to the Arena, he went back to see the two brothers.
“Hey, Makoto,” Ryu said. “How'd it go?”
Makoto shrugged. “It was fine, I guess,” Makoto replied.
Chihiro turned to Makoto, seeming excited. “Did you get the answers you needed?” he said, his eyes sparkling a bit.
Makoto shook his head. “Not really, but that's OK. I can always try again later or with someone else.”

Suddenly, Chihiro stumbled over a bit. "Chihiro!" Ryu said, concerned. "What happened?"
"I-I dunno," Chihiro stammered. "I just sensed something and then felt light-headed for some reason."
Makoto looked over to where Shiro still was. He couldn't see him, but he felt like whatever was going on was something that Shiro would be able to solve, even if it wasn't that big of a deal.
"Should I go get Shiro?" he asked Ryu, who shook his head.
"No, it's fine," Ryu said. "I'll stay here with him til whatever happened just now wears off."
"OK," Makoto said. He was worried, but he knew Ryu would make sure everything was going to be fine.

                                                                         ***

That night, Makoto did the same as he had done before and stayed awake as long as he could til Shiro got back and fell asleep. The only difference was that this time, Shiro came into the room, but instead of going to bed, he took off his coat, grabbed a bag and his two swords, and left the room again.
'Wait, where's he going?' Makoto thought, confused. He decided to follow the older Paladin, so he got up and quietly left the room.
He followed Shiro outside the Tower and into a forest nearby. It was hard to see where he was going, but somehow Makoto managed to follow Shiro without being noticed.
'Why's Shiro coming all the way out here this late at night,' Makoto thought to himself.

Just then, he saw a flash, and there was an Abyss Warrior standing in front of Shiro, their sword drawn.
Shiro dodged the first attack, parried the second, and then made his first attack. He seemed like he was just lashing out, not thinking at all about protecting himself. It was like he had been holding something down inside of himself, and it had finally come out when he started fighting this Abyss Warrior.
Suddenly, he kicked the Abyss Warrior's mask off, showing a man around Shiro's own age.
The Warrior stumbled backwards and Shiro stabbed his two swords into the tree behind the Warrior.
"IT WAS YOU, WASN'T IT?!" Shiro screamed. "YOU WERE THE ONE WHO DID THIS!! YOU DID THIS TO SHINSUKE!!!! IT WAS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!!!!!"

Makoto watched in shock. He had never seen Shiro look so angry yet so sad at the same time before. Heck, he had never seen Shiro look sad period.
"WHY?!" he screamed. "WHY DID YOU DO IT?! WHY?!?!"
The Abyss Warrior scoffed at him. "You know EXACTLY WHY!" he said, kicking Shiro backwards.
"Shinsuke was in my King's way, he had to be dealt with, and I dealt with him!"

"THAT DOESN'T MATTER!!!" Shiro shouted as he jumped back towards the Abyss Warrior and grabbed kicked him in the side. Just as Shiro kicked him though, Makoto saw something.
Instead of just dropping to the forest floor, the Abyss Warrior seemed to evaporate into something that looked like dirt or dark sparkles of some kind. He didn't know how to describe it, but he knew that the Abyss Warrior had actually died.

                                                        He could feel it in his bones.