A/N: Hello! I'm back! And I've tried to rewrite the entire story. I've done some soul searching, some brainstorming and some writing and that sort of stuff. There are new characters this time and different events this time around but it won't be too foreign. As per usual, your advice and feedback is appreciated and thank you to the people who have read the original version, as horrible as that was :P

Enjoy

Chapter One

"Do you accept eternal damnation, boundless sin and a bottomless hell of which you shall gain. Never again to see the light of grace, the redemption of spirit and freedom of soul? To never be granted access the the paradise of Heaven?"

"Do you really think someone like me still believes in heaven? The right to end the world, for that is the sinful crown I am destined to obtain. I gladly accept this fate. For me, there is not nor were there any lines which separate Heaven and Hell"

Kazeno Yamato shot up out of the bottom bunk of two-person bunk-bed and promptly planted his face in the ground. His breath was heavy as anvils and his sweat was colder than ice, yet his dark brown hair was absorbing heat like a solar pannel and his smoke grey eyes darted around the pitch black room like a rabbit on drugs.

"What the hell was that?" He thought of what he said in his dream, "The right to end this all? Eternal damnation?"

Kazeno's head was a foggy as the moonlit horizon that hung over Academy City on that early day. Nothing fit into place for him as an endless wave of question slammed his sleepy brain. It honestly scared him a bit, not the whole 'bottomless hell and boundless sin' part; but the part where he said he 'accept that fate'.

He sat up on to his bunk and once again tried to rack his brain for answers. This time even less made sense until a voice in his head said, "Still trying to forget the past?"

"Shut up!" Kazeno nearly punched himself in the head before realizing that he would only succeed in a concussion for his efforts.

"Ehh?" Kazeno-senpai, what are you doing this early?" a soft voice came from the bunk above. A sleepy mess of black hair with dark blue highlights dropped down to accompany the soft voice.

"Oh, sorry Eko" Kazeno looked up to see the girl hanging precariously over the ledge of the bed. And then she went from "hanging on" to "falling over" in a mere 2.41 seconds, landing on Kazeno.

"Oww…" Kazeno opened his eyes and found Eko laying on top of him, he wondered what his next move should be.

His half-awake brain mustered out three choices, all of varying level of dissatisfaction when Kazeno reviewed them. The first was kiss Eko awake. The second was to try and sneak a peek at Eko's underwear. The third was to try and get-

"Senpai, where do you think you hand is?" Eko sleepy pointed to Kazeno's hand that was unconsciously groping her bust. Then she fully realized where his hand was and proceed to slap Kazeno until he was fully awake and in considerable pain. It didn't help that each of her slaps were granted an extra jolt of electricity due to Eko's esper ability, "Overrider".

"Oh?! Sorry senpai!" Eko slightly panicked as she tried to find something to revive her roommate.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." Kazeno got up and rubbed the red hand-shaped marks on his face, "I've had half my body frozen by Isamu before, I can take this. Although, I wonder if this is what they call an 'unhealthy relationship?'" Kazeno chuckled.

Eko softly threw punches at Kazeno as he chuckled and got up and looked at the early morning. The clock told him it was about two hours prior to his normal time of getting up at seven. Pulling up a chair, he sat back and just stared at the hazy skyline of the city not yet awake. The number of cars and trucks on the road matched the number of lights on in the other highrises, few and far between not counting occasional pair of brightly-lit rooms. Kazeno personally enjoyed the view of District 4 during times like this, its just that he was never up early enough to enjoy it most days.

However, some of District 4's other spots weren't quite so pretty. The expansive district could be divided between two parts, those who have it good and those who don't. Kazeno was fortunate to live firmly in the middle of the good part of the area, where he didn't have to worry about being mugged at every corner. The other half he had only heard of in stories and saw in infrequent visits, as a lower-ranking member of Judgement, he was assigned to patrol that area and went there on things varying from assisting Anti-Skill in raids to giving out food for the less fortunate people there.

However, not all the the people there received them well obviously. Skill-Out had been building a sizable presence in the area plus many other strange-named gangs like "Red Scar" and "Eisenwald". Anti-Skill launched so many missions and raids against the gangs they might as well just declared war on that area and start a full-blown campaign and be done with it. Not that Kazneo didn't find the possibility of full-blown war against gangs to be an interesting prospect. Then again, the city would never allow that, even though there were so many gangs in that part, there was also a large number of normal, non-criminal residents who didn't have the luxury Kazeno had.

Eko tapped Kazeno on the shoulder as he was deep in his thoughts. He looked over and saw the girl hold out a Nepgear controller.

"Wanna play senpai~?" Eko smiled as the words "Gourmet Hunter 3" lit up the dark room from the TV screen.

"Might aswell, I'm too awake to go back to sleep." Kazeno turned around and picked up the controller before bringing over a pillow to sit on, "Maybe this time we can find that 'Century Stew' thing for that one quest."

"Okay Kayama-senpai!" Eko gave a cheeky grin, out of the many names that Kazeno managed to accumulate since he became the strongest level four esper in their school, Kayama was something only Eko was allowed to call him without getting her lungs forcibly emptied.

"Shhh. Its still pretty early." Kazeno bent over and put his index finger over Eko's tiny lips, "And don't call me Kayama. Okay?

"Shit!" Kazeno cursed as he shot up from the ground. The last thing he remembered was trying to beat a dungeon boss named "Brillfang the Kobold Lord" and getting to about half health. Now Eko was asleep on his arm and his alarm clock was yelling at him to get up since he was going to miss the monorail to school.

"Hmm? Vhat's going onn?" Eko's sleepiness shone through her slurred speech in the adorable way that only she could manage.

"We're going to be late!" Kazeno grabbed the girl and rushed her to the bathroom and handed her a bar of soap and a toothbrush before running off to the kitchen to make toast. Eko soon walked out more refreshed and (hopefully) swapped the bar of lavender vanilla soap with actual toothpaste. The fact her breath smelled a bit flowery however worried Kazeno as he got out their uniforms.

The Tokiowari High School boy's uniform consisted of a black vest over a white button up short-sleeved shirt paired with black dress pants and dress shoes. Girls had the same thing as the boys but wore black skirts instead of dress pants paired alongside a choice of stockings or loose socks. Ties were used to distinguished the grades: black was used for fourth-years, blue for third-years, Kazeno currently wore red since he was in his second year and Eko, who was a first-year, wore no tie.

By the time Kazeno was slipping on his vest, Eko was already putting the finishing her twintails. Part of Kazeno was amazed at the manual dexterity of the little girl but when he took her past into account, it wasn't all that surprising, especially in her former line of work.

"Hurry up senpai!" Eko was already was at the door, chewing her way through a piece of toast as Kazeno was stuffing papers and notebooks into his schoolbag. He slipped an old pocket watch with a cracked screen into his vest pocket, connecting the other end of the chain to a belt loop on his pants, "I'm coming."

The moment he walked out the door something just felt, off. He felt a sense of deja vu mixed with uneasiness and there was something pressing on the pit of his stomach. Perhaps he was just sensing the difference in air pressure to an overly sensitive amount, but it never made him feel this bad before. He stopped and held his hand over his heart, it was quickening for some reason and he couldn't say why.

"Sempai? You alright?" Eko spun around on her heels and saw Kazeno starting to bend over.

"Yah, I'm fine." Kazeno felt the strangeness and pain be lifted away suddenly, "Yeah, a lot better now." he began to run ahead of Eko, "Come on, we still have a train to catch."

He grabbed the younger girl's hand and began running with her in tow towards the elevator, he wondered if he should have told her about the things he said in his dream. He knew that weird dreams usually signalled some big, life-changing event. Oh well, Kazeno thought to himself, I'll just enjoy this moment for now.

"Anderson-sama, target is in movement, you're orders? Shall we start the plan now?"

"Nah, not today Honda-chan. Tomorrow would be more ideal given what our "friend" has willingly "shared" with us today. Besides, I still need to go through that arms deal with my old buddy from Skill-Out plus I'm due to a game of Russian Roulette. "

"So you're putting the plan off since you want to have fun first? That's so like you sir."

Of course I am, even Hades needs his breaks. Till then, ta ta. Just keep a watch on him, feel free to swap out with your new friend from Germany, Edelweiss I think her name was? No matter, you have your orders. "

"Roger, objectives updated, will follow." Honda hung up the call, "Now then, Kazeno Yamato, why is Anderson-sama so interested in the Vortex of Tokiowari, I wonder?"

Honda turned around, a small grin hung on her face as she amused herself with some humming, and, with a wind of sakura petals, all evidence of her existence was removed.