During free period, Mato hangs out with Yuu and Yomi, talking about Mato's recent friendship with Rin.
"He seems to act pretty friendly with you. Do you two know each other or something?" Yomi asked.
"I accidentally got involved in yesterday's disaster. I don't remember much of it, but the next thing I saw was Rin standing right in front of me after everything was over. I was in a different spot when I saw him so he probably moved me to safety."
Mato turns around to take a look at Rin, but a sweat drop forms on her head when she finds him asleep in class.
"I guess he is not really the studying type."
"What do you know? Both of you finally have something in common." Yuu begins to laugh as she makes fun of Mato and Rin.
"Stop that. At least I don't fall asleep in class like he does."
"But he got the studying part of you right since you didn't do well on that math test and this was the third time you had below average score."
Yomi attempts to remedy the situation. "Yuu, please don't tease Mato too much, okay? There is such thing as taking things too far. Mato, please wake Rin up because the teacher will be coming back any minute."
"Right." Mato begins to shake Rin to get up.
"Come on Rin, the teacher is going to be here any minute. You are going to get in trouble if he finds you asleep."
Before Rin even makes an attempt to get up, the teacher arrives to see him still asleep.
"RIN!" The teacher screamed, forcing Rin to get up.
"Falling asleep during free period is fine, but not when a class is being taught, understand?"
"Yes sir." Rin spoke out of fear.
During the middle of class, Rin attempts to stay awake, but his lack of focus on the class causes him to space out, which the teacher takes notice of.
"RIN!" The teacher yells again.
A sweat drop forms again on Mato's head as she stares at Rin making a complete fool of himself.
"Is he really the guy who saved your life Mato?" Yomi asked.
"Yes, but he should at least be good with PE I hope. Otherwise I would never know how he saved my life."
Mato soon becomes happy to see that PE is actually one of Rin's strength in school. After she is done practicing basketball with her teammates, she opens the door to the outside, seeing Rin leading the other students in track and field, shocking his gym teacher with his performance.
"I am glad that you finally found something you are good at here." Mato whispered so Rin cannot hear her.
Yomi notices Mato's growing attention towards Rin during her volleyball practice and begins to feel left out. Once school is over, Rin immediately gets up, grabs his bag and prepares to rush out of the building.
"Man, I thought school would never be over."
Before Rin could get out of the building, Yomi stops him. "Excuse me, I am Mato's best friend, Yomi Takanashi. You are Rin Okumura, correct?"
"Yes, I am. Do you want something?"
"Do you mind if I talk to you regarding Mato?"
That question got Rin confused, but goes along with it anyway. "What do you want to say about her?"
"What exactly do you think of Mato? She talked a little about you may have saved your life since she doesn't remember much about what happened during the incident yesterday."
"She was definitely the first person I met in the city and you can probably say that I do consider her a friend, but I am still new here so I don't know much about it. I am actually hoping that I could make more friends here during my stay, but being able to talk to her was a good start to me. Honestly, I don't really know what to think of her other than that. Either way, if it is between me and her, I am hoping that she would at least consider me to be her friend. That is all I ask for from her."
His answer leaves Yomi unhappy as she watches him leave the school.
Back in the solitary confinement of an asylum, the patient begins muttering to himself, which only he himself could hear as the doctors continue to monitor his condition.
"How is his condition doctor?" One of the nurses asked.
"Not good. His mental state has shown no signs of improving. Poor guy, ever since he lost his wife and kids to a gunman, he has become secluded like a monkey being locked in a cage. The only difference is that he keeps forcing himself to relive his nightmares."
"Is there anything we can do for him?"
"Not right now at the moment. He has refused every offer for help. We are still trying to find the reason why."
"How long must he stay in there?"
"I don't know, but if we let him out in this state, all he will do is attack the other patients. The best we can do now is leave him be."
All though the patient continues to be monitored, the doctor watching him left the room. He still keeps muttering to himself, but becomes a little louder with the doctors gone.
"I won't let them. I won't let them take you. You are all I got left in this world. I WON'T LET THEM!" He soon begins screaming louder and louder, attracting the doctors' attention. The doctors had to sedate him to calm him.
In the Other World, Black Rock Shooter, Dead Master, and Black Gold Saw attempted to destroy the manifestation, but before it was destroyed, it reacts to the patient's outburst and soon begins to expand and disburse into smaller parts acting as decoys flying over the sky to prevent the real manifestation from being found, forcing the three personas to look all over for it before the manifestation summons another creature to the human world.
Chariot takes notice as one of the decoys lands in front of her. As she examines what it is, she later saw black smoke surrounding her and realizes that the decoy is attempting to control her, but destroys it before it can.
The three personas decide to go on to find all the parts before the real manifestation can take the form of another persona. However, Dead Master begins to see Rock with contempt as Yomi soon begins to feel distant from Mato yet again back in the Human World.
The student counselor of Mayo and Yomi's school, Saya, begins to notice that something is wrong in the Other World through her link with Black Gold Saw and worries what impact it could have on both worlds.
"What is going on over there?" Saya asked herself.
Yomi is then seen at home in deep thought, unsure of what to think of Rin and Mato being together, even as friends. She fears that Mato's attention towards Rin would cause her to feel left out just how Kagari felt the first time she was encouraged to break free from her dependence on Yomi.
The next day, Yomi attempts to hold another conversation with Mato as they arrive to school. Unfortunately for her, Mato spots Rin at the entrance and rushes to greet him, leaving her feeling more distant from Mato. Once Mato enters the building, Rin also decides to greet Yomi, but before he can, he notices that something is wrong with her and tries to figure out what to do. The bell rang before anything can happen was forced to leave Yomi behind. A tear fell out of her eye before Yomi enters the building.
After school was over, Rin hadn't forgot noticing that Yomi was unhappy this morning and attempts to find out what's wrong.
"Hey Yomi, I notice this morning that you were unhappy. Is something wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong. I just have some personal matters to deal with that's all?"
"Doesn't seem like it. Is there anything I can do to help?"
Yomi turns to Rin and glares at him. "Please stay away from Mato."
Yomi left the building leaving Rin in shock.
"Staying away from Mato? Why would she want me to do that?"
"It's because she is jealous of your so-called friendship towards Mato." Kagari told Rin.
"Who might you be?" Rin asked.
"Kagari Izuriha, Yomi's childhood friend and neighbor. I know that she is jealous because I used to be the same towards Yomi when she started hanging out with Mato."
"You are telling me the reason that Yomi wants me to stay away from Mato is because she is jealous?"
"Whenever someone takes Mato's attention away from her, she soon starts feeling lonely and becomes a bit hostile towards the people who took her attention. Yomi still has the personality I had before, but to a lesser extent. If you want her to stop hating you, you have to convince that you never tried to take Mato away from her. I'm counting on you to do this. I don't want Yomi to make the same mistakes that I made."
"I understand. Thank you for telling me." Rin leaves the building as Kagari watches him with concern.
Back in his dorm room, Kuro notices that Rin is not as active as he used to be.
"I was accused of stealing Mato away by one of her closest friends. I am trying to think what to do to convince her that I wasn't trying to steal her."
Kuro climbs up to Rin and rests on his lap. "That is actually a bit selfish for someone to think that about his or her best friend."
"It is, but I don't fully blame her for thinking that way about me. She was just lonely since Mato is her best friend. I am also hoping to become her friend not just because I have to, but also because I want to. I want to show her that she is not alone and that I will be more than happy if we become friends."
"I am sure it will happen. You just have to wait for time to pass."
"I hope so Kuro. I hope so."
In a park near Rin's dorm, a manifestation begins to occur taking the form of a dark swordsman. Rin immediately takes notice of its presence and looks outside.
"Kuro, is this guy a demon or something else?"
"It is neither a demon or a human. If it is the same as the spider we fought, we better stop it before it causes trouble."
"Let's follow it to see if it does cause trouble." Rin sets out with Kuro to follow the being.
Coincidently, Yomi also happens to be walking around the same park and the being shows up in front of her. Seeing a menacing aura surrounding the figure, Yomi steps back frightened. Rock senses the manifestation and tries to reach Mato, but Yomi's extreme emotions causes Dead Master to become hostile towards Black Rock Shooter as she begins to attack her. Black Gold Saw intervenes on Rock's behalf, seeing that Dead Master was the one who made the first move.
"Who are you?"
The being attempts to attack Yomi, but Rin manages to tackle it before it can reach her.
"Yomi, are you okay?"
Seeing Rin again did not make Yomi feel relieved. Instead, she still remains unhappy as she sees Rin continuing to fight the being using only his bare hands, not wanting to expose his powers in front of her.
"What are you doing?"
"Saving your life. Listen, I heard everything from your friend, Kagari. I never meant to steal Mato away from you. I was just happy about being able to make a friend here, that's all."
"I told you to stay away from Mato. I don't want to go back to how I was back then."
"I know what you are going through. I felt the same when I lost my old man. You don't have to be alone. I also want to be your friend, but you need to trust me as one in order to do so." Rin continues to lecture Yomi as he continues to fight.
"Mato is my most important friend. If I lose her, then I don't know what to do anymore. THAT IS WHY I DON'T WANT YOU TO TAKE HER!" Yomi begins to scream as tears start coming out of her eyes.
Dead Master becomes even more affected by Yomi's emotions and summons a barrage of chains, which Rock and Black Gold Saw desperately tries to fight off. Rock aims her rock cannon and fires at Dead Master, but the shots were easily dodged. She then summons two of her skulls and have one tackle Rock to prevent her from coming close.
Rin attempts to subdue the being, but finds himself outmatched without using his demonic powers.
"Yomi, please listen. Just because I am friends with Mato doesn't mean that I want take her away from her other friends. I saw you having conversations with her and others and seeing all of you gave me a desire to join. I don't want you and me to be limited to just having one friend. Please let me in to. I don't want to be alone either. Trust me."
Hearing Rin finally made Yomi realized that she was repeating her past actions and that Rin is just as much alone as she is. This causes Dead Master to return to her senses and stops attacking Rock and Black Gold Saw. Seeing Dead Master has returned to normal, Rock attempts to make contact with Mato, but is stopped by Dead Master, who intends to take her place. As Rin struggles, he got knocked back after the being finally lands a strike, only to be caught by Dead Master.
"Y-Yomi?" Rin was surprised by the transformation.
Dead Master turns her attention towards the manifestation and summons her chains to disarm it. The being attempts to dodge the chains, but was tackled by one of her skulls. The next thing it sees was Dead Master holding her scythe above before finally killing it. Around the same time, Rock finds a decoy manifestation responsible for summoning the swordsmen and destroys it. After the fight is over, Dead Master takes one last look and Rin. To his surprise, she smiles and nods at him, apparently out of appreciation for helping Yomi calm down, which helps her return to her senses. Dead Master then gives Yomi back her body, but begins to fall only for Rin to catch her. When she wakes up, the first thing she sees is Rin smiling at her.
"Is it over?"
"It is over. Whatever that thing is, it is gone now."
"I wish I could remember how it was over."
Rin realizes that Yomi doesn't remember her transformation and as Dead Master. Feeling that the story might be unbelievable to her, Rin decides to keep the transformation a secret.
"Let's just say that the creature finally returns back to where it came from. I got a little help from someone, but please don't ask, I don't know who it was either."
"I see. Rin, I am sorry I became jealous over your friendship with Mato without understanding you. Can you forgive me for my selfishness?"
"Of course, but only if you are willing to become my friend as well."
"I will be more than happy to. Thank you for saving me not just from whatever that thing is, but also from myself. However, if you want to become my friend, you are going to have to help me take care of Mato, Yuu, and Kagari, okay? I promise that we will take care of you in exchange."
"Of course."
After Yomi gets back up to her feet, she spots Kuro coming towards Rin.
"I can see that you finally defeated the being Rin. As expected from a great fighter."
"I had a little help, but a didn't want to tell Yomi about it since she doesn't remember."
"I see." With Kuro satisfied with the outcome, Rin pets his head.
"Is that your cat Rin?" Yomi smiles at the sight of Kuro.
"Yeah. His name is Kuro and thanks to my brother's intervention, he is allowed to stay in my dorm as long as I can handle taking care of him. I often take him out with me whenever school is not involved."
"He is very cute. Do you mind if I hold him and pet him?"
"I would be sad if you didn't."
Yomi giggled as Rin hands over Kuro to her. Yomi takes great pleasure playing with Kuro as Rin happily watches the two.
The next day after school, Rin asked Mato and Yomi if they want to hang out at a café nearby. They accept, but only with the condition of bringing Yuu and Kagari with them, which he accepts. On the way there, Yomi again is left deep in thought, but more in a positive way.
"Now that I think about it, even if Mato and Rin get together, my bond with the two can still remain strong, but only if I can remain strong. That will be my main goal from now on and plus, it is fun to tease Mato about being together with Rin." Yomi thought to herself and giggles.
Mato takes notice. "What's so funny Yomi?"
"Nothing much, I was just imagining how cute you two would be if you were together."
That statement puts Rin and Mato in shock, but Mato reacts more negatively to it out of embarrassment.
"I expected that from Yuu, but not you too Yomi!"
"Sorry Mato." Yomi playfully runs away as Mato chases her as she continues to deny her relationship with Rin.
Kagari goes to Rin. "Yomi seems to be a bit more playful than before. Did you do something to her Rin?"
"We just talk and I guess Yomi started having this side of her when she plays with my cat, Kuro."
"You have a cat?" Yuu asked.
"Yes I do. I'll introduce him once school is not involved."
"Please do." Yuu apparently has a soft spot for cute animals.
"I knew I could trust you. Please take care of us from now on like you did with Yomi." Kagari smiles at Rin for his accomplishment and Rin smiles back at her in return.
Somewhere in the Other World, the real manifestation is spotted among a pile of scrapped metal and begins to glow brightly as it reacts.
The cover image I got comes from a deviantart member, AngeloidAlpha, whom I got permission from to use it. It was fun making this chapter as well exploring Yomi's psychological problems and how it can affect both worlds. However, I would also like to know how the readers feel about the story, such as if they want me to continue or not so please leave a review.