It's never a good experience, waking up in Ishana's hospital. For a few blissful seconds, you have no idea how or why you're there. You squint at the white ceiling of the room, partially because of the bright fluorescent lighting and partially because someone took your glasses, and wonder if one of your experiments went wrong. It's not unusual; the life of an alchemist is a dangerous one, and you're not the most careful of people when you're excited. Nine and Kazuma have told you so many times— Nine in her usual smothering but well meaning way and Kazuma in his usual hesitant tone. The thought of Kazuma stirs something in the back of your mind, and you disregard it as the butterfly feeling you always get when you think about the amnesiac boy.

You're woozy when you try to sit up, weak from whatever magic or medicine the doctors have pumped into you, and you can just make out the blur of pink and black slumped in a chair. You smile, happy that Nine has taken time out of her busy schedule to check up on whatever you have gotten yourself into, and wonder if Celica would be so kind as to heal you up so that you can go back to work. You spot your glasses on the table next to your hospital bed and reach over to pick them up.

The sight of white bandages wrapped around your arm is startling, but not so much as the memories that come crashing back—of another arm, reaching out and pushing you back and falling down—downdown it hurts KazumaithurtswhywhywhywhyKazumaKazumadon'tgodon'tgodon'tdon't—

You jump a little when Nine wraps her arms around you, unable to see her because you still don't have your glasses on and it wouldn't matter if you did since your tears are effectively blinding you. You can't hear her over the sobs that rip their way out of your lungs, but you think she might be talking. She clutches you close, your head pressed against her chest like she does so often to Celica, but this is no light-hearted sisterly bonding. This is her trying to hold you together with arms and magic and bandages while you're falling apart.

You soak her shirt with your tears and snot and drool, but she rubs your back like she's completely unaware of it. When you can center yourself again, regain the self that is Trinity Glassfield, bright and sweet and trusting, you try to stumble through an apology that she won't let you give.

"I'm sorry," she says instead, squeezing you as tight as your battered body can take without aching. "I'm sorry, I should have been there."

"N-no," you say, rubbing at your messy face with your hospital issued white blanket. It's soft, but not the same quality as your bedsheets in your dorm. "You were right, I was so stupid and look what's come of it—"

Her lips purse as she takes your injured arm in hand, fingers brushing your bandages in a feather-touch. She looks as if she could bring forth the healing magic that her little sister is so skilled in through sheer force of will. If anyone could, Nine could—she's the best, smartest, strongest witch you know. You should have listened to her.

"He didn't deserve you. Didn't deserve to lick the bottoms of your shoes, that suspicious, dishonest piece of—"

You don't know what kind of face you're making, but it's enough that Nine promptly stops. She sighs and pats the hand that isn't wrapped in bandages.

"It's going to be okay, Trinity. You're going to be okay."

You nod and wince as the action makes your neck ache.

"Nine…"

"Hm?"

"What happened to Kazuma-san? Is he okay?"

Her face is still blurry to you, and you can make out even less as she looks down, pink hair masking her expression. You didn't think your heart could sink any lower, but it proves you wrong.

"He's gone, Trinity."

You get on with life. Kazuma Kval is gone, and no one really seems to care. There's much more important things happening—the Black Beast, exams, parties, relationships. No one spares a thought to the empty desk in the classroom, because it wasn't like anyone noticed Kazuma to begin with.

It wasn't solely the fault of your classmates, you muse as your fingers dance upon the surface of the desk after class has ended and the other students have emptied the room. Kazuma never tried to get involved, never made any indication that he cared whether anyone, even himself, lived or died. It had taken a lot of time and a lot of effort for you to get any response out of him. Even then, he was more content to listen to you wax lyrical about your research and how the nearby café had the best tea and would you like to go there with me sometime, Kazuma-san? It was rare for him to agree to go anywhere with you and he never invited you anywhere. It was that trait that labeled him anti-social, weird, lazy, boring.

But you would have preferred him remaining that way rather than the scarily focused persona that he took on. You think back to the day in the library when he was so sarcastic about your concern for him. He had been searching for something there, searching for days, to the point of wanting to check in the Holy Ten Saints' records. What had been so important? You had thought he was looking for a way to recover his memories, but now you're not so sure. You'll probably never know.

You don't sit down at his desk, don't check if there's anything he left behind. He had nothing to begin with, worked for nothing, and there's nothing to mark his absence. He lacked the will to survive, and that's probably why he became so overwhelmed by whatever he was reaching towards. No one would take care of his belongings if he had any to leave behind, no one would wonder where he went except for a rare, passing thought, and no one would fondly remember the hesitant surprise in which he greeted anything that came his way.

No one cares that Kazuma Kval is gone.

No one but you.

You heal, you smile, you work, you live on. Life doesn't pause just because you want it to. You must be Trinity Glassfield, the carefree, smiling student with fluffy blonde hair that produces tea out of nowhere. People you don't know send you 'Get well' cards and you still get asked out by people willing to take care of your injuries on their dates. You turn them down gently, saying that you have no interest in romantic relationships at the moment. You overhear someone mentioning to a rejected friend that "I think she's dating that amnesiac guy, Kval or whatever his name is" and your heart clenches.

You wish him the best, wherever he is. Despite the injuries he gave you, despite how unsettling he became, you wish him the best. Maybe he's regained his memories and is living it up somewhere, forgetting that he was ever a student in Ishana. Maybe he died in his quest to discover his true self, died there in the room you tried to keep him out of. Either way, you'll never see him again. You don't even want to. You still miss him, but the 'him' that you miss was lost before he pushed you off of the stairs. If you saw him again, it would only be painful.

So you lock the memories of Kazuma Kval and the part of your heart that loved him into a box and set it aside. It's the only memorial that you will make for him, that anyone will ever make. Occasionally, you'll see gold gleam off of jewelry in a shop, a person as tall as him, the exact shade of his hair in a passerby's clothing, and the box will crack open, unsettling you until you can force the lid shut. The nostalgia is not what you need when you're wandering around, trying to train yourself for an attack by the Black Beast.

One day, Nine enlists your help in finding Celica. Your injures are completely healed and if you're not in the best state emotionally, you can hide it with a cheery smile, soothing words, and an offering of tea. The two of you travel together like you've always talked about in your youth. Konoe and Trinity, witch and alchemist, best friends forever, off to explore the world. Nine never mentions Kazuma, but you know she really wants to rant about that false fool who convinced her dear sweet unassuming baby sister to go search for her stupid jackass of a father. She rants and raves plenty about her family, though, and sometimes you have to coach her through breathing exercises and pour tea down her throat.

Celica is found with a man in red and Nine throws a fit as per usual, ready to blast the suspicious person hanging off of her precious sister to ash. You're on stand-by, adjusting your glasses and smiling indulgently, ready to jump in to protect the latest victim of your best friend's sister complex if need be. You're happy to find that your assistance is not needed, and offer a cup of tea to the man who would be known as Bloodedge to the familiar, comforting sounds of sisterly squabbling.

Sure, visiting the abandoned labs of Japan is nothing short of terrifying, and discovering the insane, dying father of Nine and Celica isn't the greatest experience, but you learn a lot from it nonetheless. Shoving one of your best friends into the Lynchpin isn't an option you want to consider, and Nine would never let anyone harm Celica anyway. It proves to be temporarily unneeded, as Bloodedge bravely sacrifices himself for the sake of the world.

You're so busy that Kazuma almost never comes to mind anymore. It doesn't hurt as much when you do think about him, and there's no evidence of him pushing you down the stairs left on your body. You train yourself and the people around you, thanking Bloodedge for the time he bought for humanity. You train, you build, you improve, you become, and the careless, trusting student who was so fond of Kazuma Kval is buried under the calm wisdom of the Platinum Alchemist.

It's with that warm determination that you go off to meet the people gathered to begin an assault against the Black Beast; Nine, Jubei, Valkenhayn, a warrior that you've heard rumors about named Hakumen and an unknown person supposedly brought in by Nine, Yuuki-something. You hope that all of you will get along, will take down the Black Beast, will become heroes whose names echo across the Boundary itself.

You are Trinity Glassfield, the woman who will be remembered as the Platinum Alchemist, and you'll carry the memory of Kazuma Kval with you into eternity.

A/N: I'm so excited for the release of Chronophantasma! Trinity is my favorite character even if she doesn't show up that much, but that's definitely going to change with the inclusion of the Six Heroes subplot. The Six Heroes are what interested me when I first got into Blazblue, and I've only loved them more with every game.

One of the things that irritated me about the novels was that Trinity seemed to be completely over Kazuma disappearing in Phase Shift 0, even though it wasn't revealed that he existed, that he and Trinity were close, or that he pushed Trinity down the stairs before he merged with Terumi. I like to think that she did love him romantically and even if she didn't, she definitely cared for him and he ended up hurting her. Yet she's not injured at all, physically or emotionally, when we see her meet Ragna in Phase Shift 0? Either there was poor planning involved there, or she was hiding how much Kazuma's leaving affected her. I don't know how long it was between Celica leaving and her being found by Nine and Trinity with Ragna, but I decided to give Trinity some time to recover here.

Since the fantranslation of Phase Shift 1 is still ongoing, I left it up in the air as to what happened when Trinity met Terumi. In the small translations I've read about the other novels, no one seems to have told Trinity what happened to Kazuma after he knocked her unconscious, though I assumed that no one bothered to tell her about Clavis locking Terumi away until sometime after Nine released him since Nine had no clue that Kazuma=Terumi until the prologue of Phase Shift 1.

Thanks for reading and I hope to hear about Chronophantasma from anyone who can translate Japanese once it's released!