Chapter 4: Rage and the Reaper

Around ten hours later, when the skies outdoor teetered between the dusk of night and the dawn of morning, Alex crept his way around the Yabiko HQ while everyone else was still asleep. After making his way to Kagura's office, he used his powers to unlock the door without a struggle and sneak his way inside.

He then went straight for the elevator and descended to the basement, where Kokonoe was hard at work at her computers, a hot cup of coffee at her side. Alex walked over to the desk and noted "Can't say it surprises me you're still up. How are things progressing Kokonoe?"

The Grimalkin gave a lazy nudge of the head to look at Alex, lifting her right hand up to support herself while showing the bags under her eyes. With a drawn-out yawn, she then smacked her lips and mumbled bluntly "This branch's coffee is shit."

"Huh?"

"Ghh…How the hell does anyone expect me to get any shit done if I'm not sufficiently caffeinated?!" Kokonoe yelled out her frustrations loud enough to rustle the papers beside her. Then, as though a slave to her unhealthy norm, reached for the coffee mug without any conscious thought and took another sip from it.

"…If only that idiot was still around…" With a more subdued grumble, Kokonoe placed the cup down and looked up at Alex, raising her brows and saying in a nonchalant tone "Oh, it's you…What do you want?"

After a couple blinks Alex held his right hand aside his shoulder, remarking to her with a surprising degree of empathy "What kind of coffee do you like?"

"You trying to crack a joke?"

"I'm trying to offer you a good cup of coffee, but if you want to keep being an ass about it…" As Alex mouthed off to her in an aloof tone, Kokonoe closed her eyes and shut him up with a curt "Give me an Espresso."

"Oh?" Alex raised his brows with a sly smirk on his face, and Kokonoe elaborated to him "There's no milk down here, so just keep it simple, but hot."

"…Alright, one Espresso, coming right up." Alex went around the table and took her empty mug, going to the other side of the room to begin his work. He popped into existence atop his palm a sufficient supply of coffee beans, then levitated their grounded forms before him. In a matter of seconds, he used pressurized water through the grounds to create a dark brown liquid that ended up in the mug.

Then he dried the remains to ashes and turned around, approaching the desk and handing the mug back to Kokonoe. She looked at it, analyzing it as though it were a scientific sample including giving it a thorough sniff, before taking the first sip of it. Without a second of waiting, she put the mug down and murmured "Hmph, not bad."

"Would it hurt you to say 'It's good'?" Alex said with a bit of snide in his voice. Kokonoe, going back to her keyboard as spry as a newborn kitten, did not say anything in response. So Alex just ended up standing there, crossing his arms while overlooking her progress on the monitors, until she brought up another topic.

"Aren't you too young to be having coffee?" It was a strange question for her to ask, as it almost sounded concerned.

"I don't drink coffee. I just know how to make it cause of my da-…." Alex bit his tongue tight and shifted to a different explanation on the spot "I-I mean, there was this guy I was training with who had me use coffee making as a way of learning how to control water pressure."

"…He just wanted a good cup of coffee, didn't he?" She saw through the details with incredible ease, and with a laid-back sigh Alex chuckled before noting "Frankly, he has the same taste as you. Guess all geniuses are like that."

"Hmph, I'm sure it's just a coincidence."

"Maybe, but you two are pretty similar." When Alex noted that in a somewhat chipper tone, Kokonoe stopped what she was doing and turned her chair around, keeping one hand on the desk while giving him a blank glare.

"You sure are talkative all of a sudden. What, did no one else want to talk?"

Leaning back and closing his eyes, Alex's tone deepened to punctuate the seriousness in his answer "Despite everything that happened back then…You're like one of two people in this entire building that I can have a decent conversation with."

"…You can't be serious." Kokonoe brushed the whole thing off as nonsense and squinted her eyes shut, scratching the side of her head before she told him "If that's the case, then go bother that one girl you're with."

"I wasn't referring to her, I was referring to Hibiki, but he's asleep. Right now things are…complicated with Shina."

"Well I don't want to hear about it. You're already distracting me from my work enough as is." Kokonoe noted while turning back to the keyboard. Alex creaked his eyelids open and with simple honesty said "You can be stand-offish all you want Kokonoe, but deep down you do care about what's going on."

She stayed silent, the movements of her fingers slowing for a few seconds before returning to a normal pace. With a shrug of the shoulders, Alex parted his arms and moved a couple steps to the left, asking her "So how goes the work anyways?"

"I've almost triangulated the signal from Ragna's Idea Engine, but it'll take a while before you can teleport to him."

"Did the machine break down already?"

"If it somehow did I'd blame one of you for mishandling my things…No, nothing like that. I'm just using most of this facility's power to recharge Tager. If I push the power too much-"

"Yeah yeah, it'll go out. Not like you really need Tager up to snuff anyways, he's not a part of my plan." Alex puts a hand into his left pocket and leaned a little in that direction while Kokonoe told him off "I'll do what I want with Tager regardless of what you say."

"Then don't complain to me about wasting time." Alex shrugged his left shoulder, and Kokonoe got a little more miffed in her tone as she mentioned "Well maybe I'd know what is and isn't a waste if you actually told me your damn plan is!"

"Look, I have a good reason for not saying anything. I get it's frustrating, but the sooner we get everyone here the sooner I can say what the plan is."

"…Tsk, fine." Kokonoe vented off the last stray bit of anger before she stared straight at the computer in front of her and mentioned "But…your plan isn't too bad so far. Considering you want me to build a device to track the other Nox Nyctores, recruiting Noel first was a good move. Each individual Nox Nyctores has a different power, but they all are powered by the same core."

"A compressed replica of the Black Beast…" Alex said grimly.

But for reason of her own, Kokonoe had a bit more praise to give towards the energy source. "It's a dangerous, but brilliant, idea. My mother was a genius mage, far beyond her time…"

Her tone got a little somber at the end, and she gave a quick shake of her head before focusing on the subject at hand "Regardless, the machine will still take a while to put together. It'll be easier to do with my supplies on hand, thank god, but once I'm done I'll call Noel down here and have her summon Bolverk."

"That works for me. Now, back to the subject of Ragna…" Alex leaned forward and tried to get a closer look at the computer, but Kokonoe smacked him in the face with a sudden rise of her left fist and said "Ever heard of personal space, idiot?"

With the tip of his nose now red, Alex pulled back and grumbled "I was just trying to find the coordinates for Ragna's location, give me a break."

"I told you, the teleporter won't be operational for a while, so what the hell do you think you'll even accomplish?" As she was in the midst of asking, Alex swung the Gaia Temporis from his pocket and spun it around atop his pointer finger as though it was a basketball.

"I'll just teleport there on my own." He said with a smile. Kokonoe looked over her shoulder for a moment and grumbled "Oh yeah, almost forgot about that pain in the ass stone…I'm starting to get the feeling you're just messing with me on purpose."

"Maybe." Alex replied with his smile shrinking. He then clasped the stone tight between his fingers and remarked "I just prefer not to use this for transportation unless necessary."

"Whatever, I don't care. If you want to go after Ragna now, he's in a forest south of the 12th Hierarchical City, Kukunochi." Kokonoe flicked a pointer finger up at the screen, showing a blip slowly advancing up the southern side of China.

"Geez, if we let him flounder around it'd take weeks for him to get up here. Oh well, good thing I'm here then!" Alex held the Gaia Temporis before his face and kept it between him and the screen. Focusing on the coordinates so hard that they'd be transmitted to the stone.

"Come on, I know you can do this." He forced his belief upon the stone and after a couple seconds it resonated with his forcefulness and ripped open a massive, multi-colored, swirling vortex right next to Kokonoe's desk. With it came a turbulent gale that blew away Kokonoe's papers and left her glasses tilting on the right side of her face.

Scrambling to stamp some papers down and keep her glasses one, the Grimalkin yelled out "Oh godDAMN it!" and jerked her head back to glare at Alex, only to find him walking back into the portal while giving her an innocent but sly grin.

"Have fun cleaning up!" As he slipped out of sight, he waved his hand up as though he was embarking on a voyage. Kokonoe was left flustered as she began to fix her desk up, grumbling swear words towards the boy.

In the span of a second, Alex had almost crossed two large countries and landed in the middle of a large forest. Being in roughly the same time zone as Yabiko, he was greeted by the early morning chill and fog. The trees were devoid of bountiful green leaves as they had been left shrouded in frost, and the sun only just managed to peek its way through the canopy. The cold was of no consequence to Alex, and he tucked the Gaia Temporis into his pocket and began his brisk stroll.

"Alright, now where are you Ragna…?" He shifted his gaze all around, shuffling his feet across the crisp, icy floor to avoid making a sound while keeping his ears open and making the wind obey his whims so he could hear any sounds Ragna might make. It was important to keep an eye out for any shadows too.

It only took a minute for Alex to hear something crunch, and he glanced to the left to see a pair of shadows advancing through the forest. Since, by all means, there was no chance of someone else walking around this time of day, Alex wasted no time kicking into a sprint and going past all the trees to catch up with the shadows.

"Hey! Ragna the Bloodedge! Turn around!" Giving a blunt greeting was enough to stop the two shadows, the taller one turning around and reaching for his blade while letting out a curt and gruff "What the actual hell…?"

"Mrrroooww! Don't worry Good Guy! Tao'll handle this!" The second shadow hopped in front of Ragna and hunched down, wiggling their tails before lunging at Alex like an uncoiled spring. The boy pirouetted around the left of the assailant, who landed on the ground and went sliding for a few feet before digging their claws into the ground.

"Wait, Tao?!" Alex said with some manner of shock, his words echoing into Tao's ears and making them perk upright, her mouth becoming a period as with a couple blinks she mumbled "Huh? You know Tao?"

Alex was about to open his mouth but found himself having to bite his teeth down as the tip of a large pearl white sword was held at the back of his neck. Shifting a little to peek over his shoulder, Alex saw Ragna gripping the blade in one hand while giving him a nasty glare.

"What's the big idea?! You just tried jumping us in the middle of nowhere!"

"Glad to see he hasn't lost his edge…" Alex thought with great sarcasm before playing along with the situation, slowly raising his hands up beside his head while saying to Ragna "I have no intention of fighting. You can lower your weapon, Ragna."

"Hmph, like I'm going to swallow that bullshit." His tone, even for him, was needlessly aggressive, and he nudged the blade a little closer to the neck. He hadn't made contact with the skin, but even if his tone suggested he'd reach that point Alex couldn't sense that same aggression coming from his body and called him out as such.

"Fine, but I'm not going to swallow yours either…So, I'll say it again. Lower…your blade." Putting his faith in what he sensed, Alex closed his eyes and let the sounds of that blade being sheathed confirm that he was right. Turning around, the boy lowered his hands into his pockets and watched as Ragna let out a disgruntled sigh, curling his right hand up into a fist so tight his knuckles would be white.

Tao walked up between the two and swiveled her head with the curiosity of a child, then focused on Alex in particular and asked with a head tilt "Good Guy, d'you know this person?"

Ragna closed his eyes and grumbled, while Alex pulled his head back an inch and found himself actually curious to know the answer.

"…Do you?"

"Tsk…! Yeah, I remember you. Got the rabbit to thank for that. She told me everything." Ragna grit his teeth and buckled down hard on the subdued anger as he spoke. Alex raised a brow and pressed him on "Everything" in an inquiring manner.

"Yes, everything!" Ragna spat out, his eyes so wide that you could see the veins inside. With a furious glare, he sounded utterly humiliated as he described to the boy "Including the part where YOU tied me up like I was some goddamn pig waiting to be roasted for a luau!"

"Ooooooooh!" Tao's fascinated gasp broke the mood in two, and she poked at Ragna's left arm while proclaiming "Good guy! You never told me you were made of ham!"

"Goddamn it Tao that's not what I meant and you know it!" Ragna squinted his eyes tight and brushed the catgirl off his arm with a solitary jerk. All the while, Alex grumbled with a scowl "Oh, I am SO going to get Rachel for this…"

When Ragna focused back on him again, the boy shook his head and said "Yeah fine, that happened…But hey, look on the bright side! It wasn't this version of you that got tied up!"

"Bull-SHIT! I don't give a damn about time loops or any of that nonsense! It's still MY body you screwed around with!" Ragna exclaimed, his rage loud enough to rattle the dormant trees.

With a dull gaze that had his head raised only a bit, Alex told the Grim Reaper "Look, I didn't come all the way out here for a fight."

"Oh yeah? Well…" Ragna reached for the handle of his sword and began to draw out, saying as the blade was thrust out in front of his body "You could have fooled me…"

"Last I checked, this didn't end well for you last time." Alex pointed out, cracking a cocky smile that Ragna remembered all too well, which in turn furthered his aggravation.

"Heh, I can easily wipe that smug grin off your face this time around. Last I checked, I've kicked Teurmi's ass while he made you his bitch!"

Alex drew a hand from his pocket and waved it out, blowing the topic off without a care in the world "I didn't have my sword at the time. Besides, last I checked, Terumi was laying your ass out like a bloody carpet before you acquired the Idea Engine."

"Excuses excuses. What, you too scared to fight bitch? Maybe you should rename your 'Phoenix' form to 'Chicken' form, chicken."

"What kind of lame ass come back is that? Even Tao could've come up with a better one."

Tao just tilted her head back and forth like a pendulum and murmured with blissful innocence "Tao's soooo confused…Tao doesn't know what Edgy Guy wants with Good Guy…"

"…Maybe I was hoping too much from Tao…" Alex thought with a slow, disappointed shake of the head. Ragna glanced at Tao and exclaimed "Just get to safety for now Tao, this'll only take a minute!"

"Ragna, seriously, I get that you're mad and all for what I did, but I'm not the enemy. Our enemy, the one who defeated me and humiliated you, is still out there. And…" Alex extended his hand towards Ragna, though the path was fraught with danger, and looked into his puzzled eyes.

"I came to give you the ultimate offer…A chance to put an end to that bastard Terumi once and for all."

"What?" Ragna's aggression took a momentary pause as his eyes widened, as though he could not process what he heard.

"This is another trick, isn't it?"

"It's as real as real can get." Alex replied with a terse nod. Ragna slanted his brows and stated gruffly "Yeah? Well forgive me if I don't buy it."

"Why?"

"You…the same person who had the BRILLIANT idea of using me as bait to get into Kagutsuchi HQ when he could have just busted the damn door down…Thinks that he has a plan to get rid of that bastard for good? Ha! That's so funny I could just DIE laughing!" Ragna's tone was a blend of mockery and his usual gruffness, and he still kept his blade raised towards Alex.

"…Ragna, what's YOUR plan for getting rid of Terumi?" Alex said with a light amount of mocking curiosity, to which Ragna was more than happy to smirk and answer as simply as expected of him.

"I'll kill him. That's all I need to do."

"HOW, exactly, do you plan to kill him? You think you can just go charging into Ikaruga and shank the bastard when he's not looking? A direct approach is suicidal, he'll always see you coming."

"Good. I want him to dread the coming of the Grim Reaper." Ragna boasted with overbearing confidence, and what little patience Alex had shattered as he gave him a burning glare and said with slow, punctuated anger "Are you an idiot?!"

"It's shit like that that allowed him to trample all over us unabated in the first place! I don't get why you're being so damn stubborn about this! I'm trying to help you kill the man who ruined your life!"

"Yeah, well nobody asked for your help." Ragna's words were like a bullet through Alex's chest, one so strong that he stopped talking entirely and resigned to gritting his teeth down. The Grim Reaper turned his head aside and then grumbled to himself, sheathing his sword before turning his whole body around and remarking "This is something only I can do. So for your own good, stay out of my way."

He began walking away, Tao following after a glance back at Alex. The boy held a closed fist before his chest and could sense his heart beat increase a little. Shifting the right side of his lips up into a frustrated scowl, he thought "It's true that nobody asked for my help, but…"

Images flashed through Alex's mind like a scrapbook being unveiled, reminding him of Ragna's future struggles, culminating in him being forced to become something akin to the Black Beast and then attack Noel and Jin without a hint of mercy. Then, in the aftermath, the "Imperator" would create the Embryo, an unholy, spherical amalgamation of seithr that would in time devour the world. Beyond that point, Alex's memories were stopped by an influx of painful scratches to his brain as the images devolved into static.

"Ghh…!" Grabbing the side of his head and stumbling a couple steps back, the boy's left eye glistened with the release of a tear drop from the pain, and he took a couple breaths to try and relax himself.

"J-Just like with the Guilty Gear world…I-I should be able to remember what happens past that point. I KNOW there was a sequel to Chronophantasma…" With a couple shakes, Alex saw Ragna about to disappear into the icy mist and swung his arm away, clenching it into a fist and coming to a conclusion separate from what bothered him "None of that matters now. I know what WILL happen, so I have to stop it FROM happening!"

Holding one foot forward, Alex reached deep within himself and called out to Ragna something he figured he might regret in a moment "It's because of Saya, isn't it?!" The Grim Reaper stepped down with a weightless impact, rustling the frozen leaves under his boot. The boy continued on to say "You think you're the only person who can deal with what she's become, don't you?"

Ragna then spun around and dashed right at Alex, throwing Tao off-guard with how sudden it was. He swung his hands up and wrenched Alex off the ground by the collar of his shirt, holding him right before his face, which was now twisted up in a maddened frenzy that he had only displayed before Nu.

"I am SICK and TIRED of people like you thinking you can just say whatever you damn well please! You, the rabbit, that bitch Kokonoe, you all look down on me and try to keep me in the dark on everything! If you know the truth, then say it! Come on, SAY IT!" Ragna shook Alex while making his demands. The boy was not the least bit rattled, but he nevertheless complied to his request.

"Right now, Saya's possessed by a demon of unfathomable power. There's no denying you're strong Ragna, but there's nothing you have that can save her. But I do…I know of a way to save Saya, though in doing so she'll…" Alex closed his eyes and swallowed a bit of hesitation before finishing "Well, there's no easy way of saying this…But the only way to save Saya is to kill her."

Ragna's grip tightened like an iron vise, digging into Alex's skin as he pulled him in closer and growled "Bullshit…! There has to be another way!"

"There isn't…And you already know that, don't you Ragna?" Alex raised his brows and gave Ragna a curious glare, to which the Grim Reaper ended up closing his eyes and growling with a deep-trodden scowl.

"Goddamn it…! Why? Why the HELL did this have to happen?!"

"We both know why, or rather…We both know who is responsible."

"Terumi…!" Ragna growled out his name and threw Alex at the ground. The boy made a soft landing but almost stumbled onto his rear, and he remarked with some empathy "That's right. Your sister may be possessed by a monster, but who put that monster inside of her? Who burned down your home, killed the nun that took care of you, and kidnapped your sister? In the end, it all boils down to that bastard, Yuuki Terumi."

Ragna gripped his fists against his hips and his scowl trembled. Alex looked him in the eyes and said "Terumi is someone you can actually kill Ragna. But not if you just go running right to Ikaruga. If you come with me, I promise I can give you a chance to take revenge upon that snake."

"…And what about Saya?" Ragna inquired in a melancholic tone. Alex closed his eyes and said "I trust that the people I send to deal with her will be able to get the job done."

"So, I'm not the only person you're recruiting." Ragna noted.

"Not even close. I've already got a few people back at our base in Yabiko, and there's some others I need to get on our side before we can launch our attack."

Ragna closed his eyes and thought on everything to the best of his ability. Scratching the side of his face, the Grim Reaper let out an aggravated sigh due to how shitty the circumstances were, then exclaimed with a pretty large amount of hesitation "Ok fine, I'll go along with your plan! But if I don't have Terumi's head within a week I'm leaving, got it?!"

"Oh, I can assure you it won't take that long. But hey, glad to finally have you onboard, Ragna." Alex extended his hand out again, but Ragna just glared at it with the intensity of a fiery dagger and the boy reeled it back in with a blank look in his eyes.

The Grim Reaper then looked back and saw Tao running around batting at the falling leaves without a care, asking the boy "So what about Tao?"

"Well, I don't need her for my plan but…" Alex brushed his hand out beside his shoulder while talking, then paused and looked at the catgirl's innocence, finding himself a little envious of it. With a sigh of reluctance, the boy shook his head and said "It's not right letting her fend for herself."

Jerking his head upright, Alex yelled out "Hey! Tao! How'd you like to eat some delicious food?!" The Kaka's ears perked up as though attracted to lightning, and she turned around and sprinted in front of Alex in the blink of an eye. Throwing her paws against his chest as her mouth became wiggly and salivated, she descended into a state of bliss.

"Delicious food?! Tao LOVES any kind of food, but delicious kinds are the best!"

"Well come with me and Ragna to Yabiko, and I can assure that you'll get all the food your stomach can handle."

"Yippee! Lets go Good Guy!" Tao turned and grabbed Ragna's left arm, using great force to drag him through the forest. Alex turned towards them and after a couple blinks mentioned "Tao…You're going the wrong way."

"Huh?" She looked back with curious dots for eyes. Alex began to walk back towards the portal he created while waving his arm in that direction. Tao let go of Ragna and scampered after the boy, while the Grim Reaper followed them both while holding his hands limp against his hips. It didn't take long to find the portal and head on through it, ending up back in Kokonoe's lab.

"Hey Kokonoe, we're back." Alex waved at the Grimalkin, who had reorganized the important parts of her desk. Ragna swung his head at her the moment he was out of the portal and exclaimed "Oh what the hell, you're here?!"

"Glad to see you too." Kokonoe responded with biting sarcasm. Ragna lowered his eyelidss and looked at Alex as he was going for the elevator, asking him bluntly "Lemme guess…The rabbit's here too, isn't she?"

"She's around here…Somewhere."

"And this place…It reminds me of an NOL HQ." Ragna got to the point of squinting, and with great nonchalance Alex responded "That's because it IS one. The Yabiko branch, specifically. But don't worry, they're on our side."

"Dissension in the ranks, huh? Whatever, as long as they don't rat us out, I'll tolerate them for now." Ragna begrudged. Before the three got to the elevator, Kokonoe raised her head and asked "Oh wait, before you go Ragna…How is that new arm of yours holding up?"

"Huh?" He turned around and with an uncaring glare at the Grimalkin responded "Fine, I guess?"

"Hmph, if you ever need it fixed, let me know." Kokonoe went back to looking at her computers, proceeding to address Alex "So kid, by my calculations it'll take me half the day to create the Nox Nyctores detector you need. Make sure Noel doesn't go to sleep until I need her."

"She's here too? Goddamn, how many people do you need for this so-called plan of yours?" Ragna asked with complete surprise, but Alex just shrugged as he strolled into the elevator and left him without answers. Once Tao got inside, the three went up to Kagura's office, where the Colonel was already waiting for them with a somewhat peeved glare.

"If you wanted to get into my office, you could've just asked for a key."

Alex stepped aside and brushed his arms out as though presenting Ragna like a runway model, saying to the Colonel "Kagura, meet Ragna the Bloodedge. Ragna, this is-"

"THE Black Knight? This is nuts…YOU'RE the one running this branch?" Ragna spoke with surprise, while Kagura held his arms in a fold and murmured "The Grim Reaper…Wanted for the destruction of two NOL branches and their Cauldron, throwing their respective Hierarchical cities into environmental chaos. You've killed thousands of people, some of them my former comrades in the Ikaruga Civil War. If you weren't necessary for taking down Terumi, I'd have you arrested where you stand."

"…Uhhh, nice to meet you too?" Ragna mumbled, and after that long-winded speech about the Grim Reaper's crimes Kagura cracked a gentle smile and said "But for now, while you're willing to work with us, I'll treat you like you're one of my men. Just don't go around causing trouble, ok?"

Ragna glared Kagura straight on and asked without hesitation "Is there a gas leak or something? I'm starting to get the feeling I'm the only sane person left in this building…"

Tao then jumped at Kagura and pawed at his chest, her mouth back to salivating as she demanded to know "Edgy Guy said there's tons of food for Tao to consume! Tao wants a really, really big feast Dark Man!"

"D-Dark Man?" Kagura didn't know quite how to take that, nor was he receptive to the forcefulness of this catgirl as he looked up at Alex and hastily asked "Alex, who is this?"

"That's Taokaka. For your own sake, you better give her what she wants." Alex said with a sly smile. Tao swung her arms up with abundant glee and proclaimed "Gimme Tao mountains and mountains of food! Tao'll devour it all until there's nothing left!"

"A-Alright, sure…I'll have the chefs get right on it. I-I mean…It's breakfast time anyways sooo…"

With an eat-splitting gasp, Tao reeled back and exclaimed "BREAKFAST?! That means…Pancake time for Tao!" Blowing right past Kagura with enough force to send him spinning, Tao left the office and speeded along to wherever her nose would guide her. When Kagura got his bearings, his face was wrought with fear the likes of which he'd never experienced before.

"I'm going to lose my entire culinary staff if I let her be…" Kagura, before he scurried off, looked back at Ragna and Alex and said "If you guys need to eat, you better hurry! I'll try and save what I can!"

When he was gone, Ragna's stomach growled and with a smile he said "Hey, like I'm going to pass up free food!" He ran out into the halls a moment later, while Alex just stayed behind and decided to take a seat in Kagura's chair. Placing his legs on top of the desk while leaning back, he looked at the ceiling and thought "Halfway there…Now, time to reunite the Six Heroes."

Next Time: Order against Destruction