chapter three - the empty hearts

April 2013, Paulownia Mall

The shadows, much to the surprise of many, often moved throughout the daytime.

Kirijo Mitsuru knew that fact all too well. They often grew under her eyes, in the corners of her mouth, in her half-empty bed and the open window.

Even now that the Dark Hour had faded, Mitsuru often kept a lookout for corpses left to the side of buildings, leaned on benches and left behind like paper from a wastebasket. There were plenty of reasons for them to exist beyond incomplete suicide or supernatural means after all. Shinjiro might have called her soft while handing them a foam bowl of soup as they passed. Akihiko would have… well, probably dragged them to the hospital and complained about the time it was wasting.

She smiled, brushing the ermine collar tickling at her throat. She could only think vaguely of the others' choices but she approved them deep down just the same.

Now if only she could approve of their time keeping habits… it was getting past noon. She wouldn't be able to stay outside much longer, at least not without tracking attention. Seeing the gazes of the high school students staring at her as they passed her bench, Mitsuru couldn't help but think that it was a little too late for her to be concerned about that.

Note to self: next time, wear less glamorous clothes. You'd think I would remember that.

She almost longed for the days of her school uniform and how easy it was to flaunt. Almost. That brought back the smooth handle of her rapier in hand, ice at her fingers, his voice so calm and clear when he barked out orders or squeezed her shoulder or gave a gentle push towards-

"Mitsuru-san!"

Speak of the angelic devil. Mitsuru scooted to the side as Yukari made to flop on the bench beside her, cargo shorts almost snagging on an upraised nail. Mitsuru raised an eyebrow as Yukari opened her eyes. The younger woman made a face, lips twitching with mirth in an attempt to control it.

"You're making me feel underdressed," Yukari said to Mitsuru.

Mitsuru laughed, red ringlets shifting in the air. "I think you may have accused me of that before, Yukari."

"Well, it clearly hasn't stuck." Yukari exhaled, relaxing into the wood. She gave her jean jacket a careful tug. "Looks like I'm the second one here."

Mitsuru nodded, pursing her lips. "Any word from everyone else?"

"Fuuka's gone to get Ken and Koro-chan," Yukari replied, flipping her phone open before Mitsuru could ask. "No idea where Junpei is, though Chidori is probably the safest bet."

"Akihiko is Akihiko," Mitsuru concluded with a dry laugh. "And Aegis is teaching."

Yukari chortled. "With Yuki-kun's name at that." Mitsuru glanced at her, but the younger woman's face remained at ease. Or at something similar to it. "I can't believe she's already interning. I think that's cheating."

Mitsuru chuckled. "Well, I would say so if I wasn't handed a job the second the dorm closed."

"True." Yukari made a face of mirth. "She's also the manager of our old dorm. Slow down is not on her agenda at all."

"Would you?" Mitsuru asked, taking out her own phone. Akihiko had texted her. It was, as befitting of him when he didn't feel like taking his gloves off, all in English and all in capital letters. She really didn't understand how he did that every single time, but it was amusing all the same. She was so busy responding that she almost missed Yukari's response.

"Mm… probably not. Still." Yukari giggled. "She's teaching home ec."

"Well, she didn't learn from Yamagishi."

Yukari snorted. She doubted that they would have let her teach that course if she had learned from Fuuka. She leaned onto her elbows. "So, uh, not to kill the suspense but…"

"But?" Mitsuru prompted, adjusting her coat again. Yukari tried not to stare at the way the coat was curving right over her sleeves and was tempted to ask if the former ice queen was melting in that. Probably wasn't.

"But… we live together."

Mitsuru cocked an eyebrow. "We do."

"And you've called this big reunion again." Mitsuru nodded. Yukari sighed. "Is this like that incident with the fake bear and the fighting arena? Or are we just catching up?"

Mitsuru sighed. "I will have to be honest with you, Yukari. It's a little bit of both."

The shadows continued to crawl, this time beneath their shoes.

April 2013, Tatsumi Port Island

For the third time in fifteen minutes, Niko not-so-discreetly closed Taiga's jaw. This time there was a teensy bit of drool. Gross. Not that Taiga noticed or likely even cared. There was a cute girl literally a half a meter away, talking to their friends. Or, well, being talked at. Niko loved Rina, but once you got her on a subject, boy could she chatter. The older student didn't seem to mind though.

Not that that took the crawling sense of unease out of it but well, he had no clue where that came from and this wasn't a god damn anime there was no need for this. She didn't seem like a serial killer or something. It was more like… nostalgia. Yeah, that was it. Hopefully. He wanted to ask, but that was kind of a dumb question. 'Hey do you remember meeting me because purple hair is not common and you look familiar?' Yeah, that would go fantastic.

Well, at least he wasn't alone in it. Yuuya and Akiho kept shooting her weird looks too. Didn't feel quite as unnatural and rude that way. Maybe the transfer student was just weird.

Thinking of that, they still hadn't heard the full story of Akiho being kicked out of her house. That was kind of important. Where was she going to live? There was probably room in the co-ed dorm Taiga and he were going to stay at but that was still really shitty and last minute or something. And they couldn't ask with the new chick around… which was probably done on purpose.

Damn it Akiho.

Then, just like that, they all stopped walking. Niko paused. "What?"

Then he saw exactly what, following the path of each set of eyes to something small and furry sitting on the concrete. Normally, he would assume it was a cat, but the longer he looked at it, the less he was sure of that.

Then it opened its mouth and revealed fangs bigger than its head. Nope, definitely not a cat.

"What the hell is that?" he shouted, one curse word twisting into Russian.

It lunged for him at the sound of his voice. The new girl moved and kicked out, knocking it to the side.

"Run!" She shouted. Of course, no one questioned. Everyone ran. Taiga, being the only one actually well versed in the layout of the area, took the lead with Rina scampering behind him at full speed. The new girl was at the rear, if only because she kept pausing to knock a shadow monster in the face. Niko really wanted to know how she was doing that.

But for now, he'd like to live long enough to get the answer to the questions in his head.

Taiga led them all scrambling up the train station steps and Niko stopped to drag Yuuya up the last few with nary a wince. He was going to get punched in the jaw for that later. They scrambled through the startled students and businessmen off early to wedge themselves into the train car. Even if they were sitting ducks, they might end up being faster moving sitting ducks.

Then a black hand almost made it through the door. Mirei slammed her heel down and it exploded, making someone scream. The train moved. Rolling with a surprising lack of urgency (at least for them they had just been chased by monsters), the group took a few seconds to catch their breath. Taiga then quickly leaned on a pole and started speed typing on his phone.

"I don't think," Niko wheezed. "That the police can help with goop monsters…"

"I'm calling Makoto-sensei," he said through lungfuls of air. "She can't answer texts worth a crap."

"Why are you calling a teacher?"

"I don't see you with any better ideas!"

Niko was saved from sputtering out any by their teacher's voice crackling through the speaker of Taiga's phone.

Taiga didn't even let her get the words of her greeting out. "Shadow monsters!"

April 2013, Tatsumi Port Island

Aegis even now understood very little about teaching. She knew how to teach her subject and the very basics of how people work. She acknowledged in her mind that in another world that this lack of understanding would be the most frustrating thing on the planet and that the little knowledge she had would not be sufficient to do as she desired. However, she was a bit too deeply involved in the universe to give a damn.

Even so, she did understand the idea that teachers have to protect their students. Considering Ikutsuki, she could be forgiven for not expecting to have to fight Shadows to protect her students. It shouldn't have surprised her though.

So she ran with every bit of strength in her mechanical joints. The only ones remotely on pace with her was Mitsuru-san, who had her motorcycle going full blast. Yukari-senpai hung onto her for dear life, torn between screams of laughter and fear.

I suppose she can think about that at a time like this…

Aegis wondered if those two had practiced so Yukari-san could fire her arrows from on the back of the motorcycle. She would have to ask, or insist. One of the two. Right now, she had to focus on getting to her students.

As they grew closer to the train station, she heard the familiar gurgling that would rise up from the ground, the sound which became viscous, black bubbles of slime with red eyes that would soon become more, much more. Much worse.

If they were slow, everyone would die at that train station, not just her students.

But they weren't going to be slow.

Mitsuru's voice crackled into her installed intercom. "I've called for retrieval teams and there are medics waiting at the end of the Iwatodai line." There was a pause. "Yamagishi is on standby back at the mall. We're trying to contact Akihiko and Iori. FOr now, the three of us will go in and dispatch the threats. Be careful of the third rail. This is not the Dark Hour. Understood?"

"Understood." Aegis was quick to reply, worry pumping in her in a replacement of blood. Yukari echoed her followed by a muffled shriek at a sharp turn. "Please don't kill Yukari-san, Mitsuru-san."

"I have managed to avoid it so far."

The closer they grew the more screaming they started to hear. Without hesitation, she raised her hands and fired bullets, skewering a few and leaving others to be taken out by bursts of ice. Aegis would have to appreciate that some other time. Running through the crowd, up the stairs, firing in her wake, Aegis mind blanked to the objective, the first objective that mattered now that the other was performing the true duty of a hero and the second was always fulfilled:

Destroy the target.

And she did.

She didn't have time to think about Shadows appearing outside of a certain place and time, or that their personas should not be active outside of those areas.

Then Fuuka let out a noise of alarm and fear. "Be careful," she shouted, making their ears ring. "Large Shadow incoming!"

Aegis scanned the area of the train station. What few people remained up there were inching towards the stairs and she hurried to direct them. Noise came from down below, each glurk sound cut off by what she hoped was her comrades.

The train tracks started to crackle, slowing an arriving train to a halt. She could see silhouettes beat against the doors but Aegis had to ignore it for the moment as the crackling grew louder and louder until something rose from the ground.

Something that was nothing like a Shadow.