Hare and I had a straining stare-down for the briefest seconds before we fluidly raised our individual weapons and attacked.

Like a real hare, he was fast. I had to fight seriously just to be able to keep up with the marbles of fire he blew into the air, since my usual speed advantage was pinned down under his superior one. Again and again he burned my clothes with whips, jets, and small firestorms as I randomly directed the sharp pieces of my anti-Akuma weapon around our fighting arena, hoping to gain at least a single hit. In the flurry of melting from offence to defense, I couldn't tell if I was battling a lazy river or an avalanche. Considering, though, that I felt the stinging almost continuously, I might have been correct in saying that I was losing.

We backed off into soft powder after trading blows for the second time, both now fully aware of the other's basic abilities. But it seemed like he found the results easier than I did.

"Hm, you're a little better than the other exorcist, but still not fun enough. Did you awaken a level two on your Innocence yet?" he asked, fingering the flame that endured all the flying, jumping, and slicing. "You're going to need it to survive, boy."

I answered by reforming my staff and trying hand-to-hand.

Even there he bested me, twisting in seemingly impossible ways to avoid the white crystal's sting and then blowing fire onto vulnerable parts of my body. I yelped when he sprayed a bit of ribbon-bare wrist with flames, making me drop the staff for crucial seconds. When I bent over to try and retrieve it, he kicked me on the behind and I flew into the snow face-first.

I turned around panting for a good, deep breath as he placed a heavy foot on my anti-Akuma weapon. "So, I hope you know that when a Noah destroys Innocence, it's usually a thorough job," he smirked.

"I do," I replied, "But you can destroy it only if you can reach it." The staff vanished underfoot and returned to my cold, sweating hands. I stood unsteadily and pointed the sharp crystal at him. "And," I added, "You said 'usually', which is not a word meaning 'guaranteed'."

"Gutsy," he said with a faint smile, snapping his fingers at the same time. "I like that." More fire darts appeared overhead and rained down on me. I twirled my staff to shield myself from the assault and charged again. He lazily leapt away from my incoming slashing movement with a bend of his ankles and made it hail charcoal-making flames in reply, cutting craters in the snow that sizzled for a while after.

"Are you going to give me a good time? Bad toys don't stay in the house; they go in the incinerator."

"Why should I?" I retorted. "It's just an illusion like the last time."

The Noah suddenly vanished.

I gasped as he held the licking flame under my chin, face hidden behind mine. "Illusion, did you say? Oh, now that's a big, big mistake." I tried to kick him between the legs, but he again twisted out of range while my foot passed through air, not connecting with any flesh despite the small gap once between us.

"I'm bored with you now," I heard him say some meters behind me as I wiped the blackened skin off my face.

I didn't even have time to panic before head-sized fireballs flew out like a swarm of flies. They were numbered like so as well, and that was too many for me to reflect. A well-placed shot sent my staff flying, leaving my exhausted, badly burned body exposed to anything he threw at me.

But standing there and not actively resisting had an odd effect on me: I finally noticed the smell of singed hair and flesh, as well as the pain from the latter. Fatigue bit with persistent jaws into every part of my body, the dull throb sighing with a lovely relief as I let myself actually rest. Just sit here, some inner voice insisted, and let the world handle itself once you're off to a better place.

I closed my eyes to the words.

Let God fall from his heaven if I gave in to that!

Joints screamed as I tumbled to avoid the jet of fire he blazed into life. He followed me with the stream as I took off running to my staff, snatching it up seconds away from incineration. I had no doubt that he had the ability to fry the Innocence with heat like that, seeing as I began sweating about a meter away from the open fire.

As I snuck a glance at Hare, though, I noticed that I could barely see him past the roaring inferno. This gave me an idea; if I can't see him, he can't see me. "Heaven's Leaves; winter," I muttered under my breath.

The branches scattered into the shadows and flew around the rampage of fire to catch the smiling Noah by surprise. He caught wind of it somehow seconds before success and swung his flames at the shards instead. I sped them up and dashed every branch into the ground from where they were, raising them again beside me like black seedlings from the white snow and fusing them back into a single staff, which I deactivated out of fatigue.

Once the fireworks subsided, I saw with a little glow of happiness that some of my branches had escaped detection, particularly one that slashed his gray cheek with a bloodless gash. A corner of his hat was torn off, too, and cuts riddled the nice duster with jagged edges.

"Think I'm a dusty doll still?" I taunted in between panting and huffing.

He wiped his skin with the back of his hand, healing the rows of torn hexagons. Like a hot iron, he smoothed out the cuts over his clothes too, so it seemed like my successes didn't happen at all.

Then knife-sharp teeth showed themselves to me, each point glistening with snowy light. "I haven't felt pain like that in a long time," he said, shoulders shaking with…mirth? Oh, d—

I cried out in surprise as the cold white floor suddenly melted into a volcanic disaster.

My bad foot nearly fell in a snow-emptied crack as I backed away into a small patch of land that hadn't transformed into a searing lava channel. Hare perched some distance away on his own island at the heart of a very wide sea of fiery liquid rock.

"You're good," I heard him say across the heat. "So let's up this battle with a surprise." Raising a hand, he created a spewing fountain of lava that hardened into a tower of black stone about two stories high. A finger snap summoned a puff of smoke at its flat peak and left a large black top hat in its place. "And from the hat comes," he laughs, "Another candle!"

Sure enough, a jet of lava shot the hat into oblivion to reveal a tall, stark white candle lit brightly with a flickering black flame. And as I watched, the column of wax bent backwards and threw fireballs at me.

I painfully back flipped with my one good leg onto the rock behind me and nearly fell over as the seemingly solid floor gave way. Propelling myself back even farther to avoid dying in a substance over 1000 degrees, I grunted as my bad landing collapsed my knees upon falling on real solid rock.

"But I'm not done yet," he added, voice somehow still making it clear across to me. The island I sat on suddenly sat atop a geyser of glowing fire, precautiously balanced even when the molten mass turned black and spiky. Really, I was really scared when that happened. Was he going to break the thin tower and throw me in the scarlet, glowing lake?

But what was to come was probably even worse.

Another top hat, this one much bigger than any I've ever seen, appeared behind me. Being stuck some two or three stories up while my body was still fatigued, I could only watch as jets of lava propelled sharp chunks of obsidian into the felt, sending it flying and nearly burning the person underneath.

"Mana!" I exclaimed. "What…what happened?"

His limp brown hair swayed in the hot air as he looked up, uncurling slightly from the fetal position he was hiding in. "Chris? Where am I? Where are—what?" His eyes flicked from the spark-lit skies to the still-warm lava rock underhand. Finally, he saw the black figure in the not-too-far distance, and everything clicked.

"That Noah brought me here, didn't he? And what happened to you?" he asked, looking me up and down, doubtlessly wondering about the black blotches all over me. Some were even still alive with dormant flames.

"His name is Hare Flame, and yes, he did," I said slowly, ignoring the latter question. "Duck!"

A black fireball cut us apart as it flew from the white candle between Hare and us. "Oh," he gasped. "Are we in one of their odd realities, or have I been teleported to the Pacific islands?" Mana asked.

"So it was a reality all this time? No wonder he was so angry when I questioned it."

"You actually thought it was an illusion?"

"Well, in the field before this I was shot by Akuma and the virus spread…" The rest was cut off as I tackled Mana so as to get him away from the incoming flames. "Never mind. Let's get him first," I panted, sitting him up.

"Sure. It shouldn't be too hard on me just to get over there," he said, standing and thrusting his gold-gloved hands towards the white candle and the Noah beyond. I stood beside him and tapped the hole-ridden lava rock with my staff.

And together, we cried, "Innocence, activate!"

Again the light woke our dormant weapons. And it did so just in time as well, since scarlet fireballs began raining down on the two of us. I suppose Hare had seen the glow and decided to try and finish us off before we combined forces. Does that mean he's worried? Then…

"Let's make a plan first," I whispered once the flames subsided, then put my mouth to his hearing organ. "Listen, he has a really big grudge on me right now for teasing him. So I'll attack first and you use the distraction to deal a big blow, since you can pierce things better than I can."

"Are you two done yet?"

I ignored the Noah as I bent even closer towards Mana's ear. "I'll take the left, you go right. Then the candle might only be able to shoot one of us at a time."

"Do you want to make me angry?" he bellowed.

"Wait for my attack to keep him busy before you charge him."

"Got it," he said, nodding. But when he stood, he was still noticeably shaky.

"Are you okay?" I asked, a bit worried about the young exorcist.

"Can't lose to a girl two years younger than me," he grinned before running off, jumping over the side of our tower to land cat-like on the rock below. I almost laughed despite our dire situation; he was soon running on the right side shore.

Creating small bursts of black sand with every step, I took to the left with new heart and quickly approached the white candle sitting innocently on its tower. Seconds after passing it, I hopefully thought that the fire balls would stop. Emphasizing "hopefully".

So I couldn't say I didn't expect it when the candle went berserk and began spitting black flames like acid. "Eyes open, Mana!" I yelled to the small figure across the bubbling mess of lava. We both turned and slashed through the fast, near-invisible blazes. The wad of wax at their centers collected on our anti-Akuma weapons, creating ghostly white streaks of half-melted sludge to weigh them down.

Once the candle went dormant again, I slammed the hardened wax into the ground, shattering quite a bit to coat the floor. I couldn't see what my partner did, and partially didn't care; I was the first attacker after all.

Twice more did the candle spout the charcoal-dark flames before I skidded to a halt not five feet from Hare. And as I crouched down to prepare my sneak attack, another bout of fire erupted. Like the other three times, I whacked at the wax core and was dismayed to see Mana not too far on the other side. For every second we have our Innocence activated, our energy is sapped bit by bit, I knew. So I had to try and finish this as fast as I could.

"Heaven's Leaves," I whispered, "Winter."

The resulting mess caught me off-guard and blew me into clear sight as the wax trapped portions of my separating staff. Heavy lumps of black and white fell to the ground as its brethren went spiraling towards the Noah. I smiled as I saw him turn and face me. "Now!" I cried to the exorcist behind him.

But Hare didn't flinch one bit as gold and silver blades blossomed in his abdomen. Instead, he turned his head to stare at Mana, who was still standing there frozen in disbelief.

"Was that all?" I heard him say softly while drawing his candle from a sleeve.

"N-no way," Mana stuttered, pulling out his anti-Akuma weapon to find no blood or flesh on it at all.

I felt my face pale as he snapped his fingers again. From here, the sick light looked like one from a funeral candle. Heavy drops of wax spotted the ground with thick puddles…wait. Heavy drops of wax…

I called my branches back. "Mana, duck!"

Without hesitation he curled up on the floor, hands over his head. The Noah, however, turned to see me lift both the wax-trapped and separate shards of my anti-Akuma weapon and throw them with desperate speed towards the two of them. He probably didn't see it coming as one after another pounded him towards the edge of lava rock. Gritting my teeth against an overwhelming will to stop torturing myself, I raised a free hand and threw the last wax ball at his injured abdomen.

Something buckled, and Hare flew over his own sea of molten rock.

Mana and I watched as he began to fall in what seemed like slowed time. We heard his voice as he curled over to go down head first. "It seems like you two have won this battle. But rest assured it's not the end. We will meet again for another summer, exorcists. Perhaps even at your own residence." Light gathered at his landing spot and suddenly exploded without a sound to knock the two of us into oblivion, where we knew none but the heavenly state of sleep.