Disclaimer: I only claim my OCs and my stories. Nothing else is mine, and this is a work of fiction with nothing to gain.

Over a week...Sorry about the wait. Looks like things are really getting out of my hands. And no, I'm not abandoning my stories. Never. I just need a bit of time to make sure no story mistakes could be there. Grammar mistakes though, can't really promise you that since I'm not English native, but I will try my best.

To RedBurningDragon: Sorry for the premature assumption. But yeah, that really fits the situation.

The reason why Illococoo is there is in the last chapter, if you missed it.

Without further ado, enjoy chapter 14 everyone!

Kuro's POV

"Zzz…"

"Zzz…"

"Hey! Wake up! Agnes's looking for you!"

"Huh?" I slowly open my eyes to see Saito standing next to the table. I start sitting up, but not before letting Plutia slide out of my back to the sofa we're sitting. She's oblivious to what's happening now. I ask Saito while rubbing my eyes: "Did she say why she needs me?"

"She seems to be a bit on edge. Don't know why though." I nod and look around the room. Aside from me, Plutia and Saito, there's no one else.

"Where's everyone?"

"You and Plutia slept like logs, you know? It's already afternoon, and everyone's doing their studies. Or like the boys, spending their times training with each other."

"She's just too warm, okay? And I was frozen right before that."

"How did you get hit by one anyway?"

I point up. "Him." Then I stand up. "Can you lead me to her?" Saito nods and we walk out of my house…

And meet face-to-face with Julio. I sigh. "I don't want to be rude but…why are you here?"

He smiles genuinely: "Don't be so unfriendly like that. I heard from Agnes that she wants to go to the secret vault inside the Academy, and that she needs you to go with her, so I figure I should come to you first." Then he notices Saito. "But it seems like I'm the second one here."

Saito: "Seems so. You want to join us?" He nods. "You agree, Kuro?" "I see no reason to deny him." "Okay, let's meet Agnes…Wait, does any of you know where the vault is? Do you, Kuro?" "Honestly? No."

After we meet up with Agnes, she leads us to the Headmaster's office to ask permission to go in. And the result? DENIED!

Agnes shouts to him: "What do you mean by not letting us go in? I have the permission to open it from the Queen herself!"

Old Osmond: "I'm sorry. Even with her agreement, I wouldn't open the vault. It's too dangerous down there."

Agnes pulls me closer to her. "That's why I'm bringing him with me. He can withstand everything, right?"

I sweatdrop because of the reason. But, I understand why she's thinking like that. Even though… "I don't mind being a human shield, doesn't mean I like to be one."

Agnes turns to me: "I didn't mean you to be one. I just want you to use your power to…"

"That's basically the concept of a human shield. Anyway, why do you want to go there that bad?"

She didn't say it immediately. Then… "It's the grudges from the past."

The others look surprised at the review. Me, however… "Then why bother going down there anyway?"

Agnes looks at him with realization, and fury. "You know about it, don't you?"

"Nope. Not in details, at least."

Old Osmond also knows what I'm implying, but he doesn't say anything.

Agnes: "Then, who can you give me the details?"

I fake-yawn again. "Try to find out. I'm taking catnip now." I pull out some and eat, then turn into a black cat and jump on Malthida's table, and start sleeping. Before that, I feel Chuchu walking to me and then laying in my left. I put my front paw on its back, and both of us just drip into the dream world.

Saito's POV

Uh…what just happened?

Malthida: "Just him screwing around." Yeah, she's in the room, too. "Agnes, if Kuro said you're not needed to go down there, then you're not. Try finding the information from somewhere else. And don't force opening the vault and going down, it's dangerous for a reason."

Agnes shouts: "I'm a Knight. Danger is a part of my job."

Malthida: "But it's not a good cause for your own death. I learnt it from the hard way." Everything falls into silence. I and Malthida have experienced death, so I know what she's talking about.

Also, that sends chill to Agnes as she backs off a bit.

Old Osmond coughs to get our attentions back. "It's true that it's dangerous down there to go. However, if you really want to do it, then I will call Professor Colbert and tell him, along with miss Malthida here, to assist you in going there."

Malthida blinks. "I thought you didn't agree earlier?"

Old Osmond: "Let's just say…Kuro found a way to convince me." That's not a proper answer, old man. Agnes only cares that she's able to get to the vault now, as she pulls me and Julio out of the room, only to stop to wait for Malthida and Kuro after about three steps away from the door. And when she walks out, I see Kuro in her arms, still sleeping. Either he's faking it, or…nah, there's no other explanations.

When we headed to Professor Colbert's laboratory, we met Sasha holding tubes of liquid walking to the same direction. After hearing our story, Sasha decided to go with us as well, but after helping Colbert putting things in his lab to their places. Colbert sounded a bit hesitate when he heard that Old Osmond allowed us to go to the vault, but then he led us to there after he saw the black cat with us (He probably knew that's Kuro).

We reached the entrance of the vault, or I assumed so, since we're in the freaking women bathroom! Who the hell had the bright idea to put the goddamn enter here? Colbert led us to a room in the end, opened the door. We looked in, only to see items laying around without any particular orders. I would have assumed it was the wrong way, only to throw that thought away when Colbert pushed the wall, revealing that it's actually a hidden door. Julio then lightened a lamp, as we headed down the dark and cold stairs.

During the walk, Sasha asks Colbert: "The vault has been here for quite a while. How many have come down here?"

"A lot, but most likely only the Nobles and Brimir's believers were allowed to go down here. After generations, the entrance was hidden like you saw, and the vault was sealed with multiple protection spells so no one that had no business could come down."

Julio: "Then, it would be a lot of secrets that would expose everyone in Halkeginia."

Colbert says, a bit hollowly: "Yes…a lot…" What happened to him? He was just fine before we told him about Agnes' desire. It's like, he's trying to sue us away from here.

Agnes didn't notice Colbert's expression and tone as her focus is all about the vault. "Anything down here could be priceless, and it could make any Nobles lose their reputation."

Julio: "Seems likely, if this vault is so well hidden. Could it have all the details about Brimir's death?"

Sasha: "Unlikely. If they found out it's his own Familiar killing him, then pets would be killed the moment the lunatics saw one."

"Yeah, that would be the case." We're now facing a massive door. Upon looking over the door, and my experiences with games, I can see three star patterns placing in a column in where it would be a lock. A magic lock, huh? Sasha looks at them, then chanting a small spell, causing all three of them to open one-by-one.

Colbert asks her: "Brimir taught you how to use magic?"

Sasha shakes her head. "No. Us Elves always have magic. We just don't have main affinities like you all. We use magic that comes from the natural environment. If not, we would use our own power to chant the spell." Colbert nods at her explanations, as the others as well. Agnes is about to push the door to go in, when Colbert grabs her hand.

Colbert: "Miss, it's dangerous to go in there alone. We will come with you."

Agnes, suddenly looks irritated, pulls her hand back away from the Professor. "I don't need your help." Kuro might know something, but he's still sleeping now… "Thanks for coming here with me to this point. But now, I'm going in alone."

"Don't be ridiculous." She turns to Julio. "We have gone this far, our goal is only behind this door. We wouldn't waste our opportunity like that, would we?"

Malthida: "Also, there could be many traps inside, that people without magic can't get through. There's a high chance that, even if you go in with no problems, you can't get out. We're with you so that won't happen."

Agnes looks around to see our faces, knowing that she cannot argue with us. "Thanks for your help."

After we walked through the door, we're greeted by a dark corridor. With a structure like this, I would say we're inside an Egypt building that's built thousands of years ago.

"This… after though years, this vault is still intact. Very impressive."

Julio: "A vault that holds valuable resources like this, we would want to keep it forever. Pretty sure magic's infused even in the wall."

Sasha: "I don't think so. That would require too much magic. Either there is something that generates magic, or…"

"The structure itself is that good. There are multiple cases like that on Earth, where the whole records of old civilization were still there for us to discover. No magic required."

Colbert: "How old is your world's history?"

"About…near ten thousand years ago. Though, humans have been recorded to exist long before that…"

Agnes: "Quiet, everyone." I tense a bit. "Someone is behind us." We all now turn back to see into the darkness. Indeed, when we stop speaking, there are sounds of footsteps coming near us. Agnes and Julio grab their weapons, ready to pull them out at anytime. Then… When I squeeze my eyes, I see two figures, two small figures…oh, just them…

"So this is the secret vault that my eldest sister has told me about? You should call us down with you as well." The voice of Louise echoes through the empty corridor.

Agnes is the surprise one here. "Miss Valliere? Why are you going down here?"

"Kuro gave us a note…" Charlotte answers. "Saying that you're heading down here, and told us to come down if we wanted to. So, here we are." We now look at the culprit, and he just uses his foreleg to scratch his ear, and then goes back to 'sleep'.

Colbert sighs: "If Kuro told you that…we can't really do anything about it, can we?"

When our mistresses walk closer to us, I notice that Charlotte has a small bag with her. Normally she has one book on her hand, now a bag? "What's that bag for, Charlotte?"

Charlotte flinches a bit. "It's nothing." What's she hiding?

Louise coughs: "That aside, didn't we have something to find here?" We stand there momentarily to swallow that, then continue our travel.

Colbert suddenly remembers: "I have never asked this but, whose grudges you're holding against, Agnes?"

Agnes doesn't answer that. Julio pushes the question: "Is it something in your past, or some of the enemies that oppose your Highness?"

Agnes: "The Royalists have nothing in this. It's about my own enemies."

"The extermination 20 years ago, right?" She turns to see Kuro, who has turned back into his human form. "You know everything, and yet you let us go down here?" "Hey, this place needs some visitors anyway. About your past, I don't think I'm the suitable person to talk. You should be one sharing it with us."

Agnes turns back to where she's heading: "Why should I? That's not your concern."

Kuro: "Then how can we help you with your problems? We're in this case together, aren't we?"

That drops us in another silence. Louise's already walking side-by-side with me, and Charlotte with Kuro. Though he's wrapping his arm around her shoulder. I wouldn't do so with Louise, mind you, I don't really have a feeling for a relationship with her.

Charlotte speaks up: "You should do so. Kuro would do it if you don't, though. He did that to me before."

Agnes doesn't say anything.

Kuro: "You don't want to talk about it? Okay. How about the other things? Like, your love life for example?" Nothing. "How about I tell our friends here about your feelings towards…" He's cut short instantly, by Agnes pulling her sword and pointing it right to his throat. "Don't…you…dare…" "Hey! You didn't tell us anything, so I have to say some, okay?" Obviously Kuro's playing with Agnes now, as he's having Cheshire's smiley face. Agnes has a tint of pink on her cheek, her lips are biting in embarrassment.

Charlotte's probably got rubbed off by his personality, as she asks Agnes: "You have someone for your life?"

Agnes denies, constantly: "I do not! Don't you dare listen on what he said!"

"Then why does you sometimes look at that person with the eyes of a…" And he earns the sword going through his throat. Agnes lets go of the sword and walks away without a care.

Kuro doesn't say anything, probably mimicking that a person can't speak with a sword in his throat. Malthida just shakes her head and pulls the sword out. "You just had to trigger her like that."

Kuro smiles. "I did."

We then reach a narrow bridge. One by one, we walk in a line so we wouldn't fall down by accidents. Except Kuro who's tip-toping on a line of glyphs near us. Note that the glyphs are small, kind of just fit a hand palm, and they're a step away from each other.

"So…" Kuro speaks up. "You want to tell us your story or not, Agnes?"

Agnes: "You're not going to drop it anytime sooner, are you?" "Yep." She sighs. "20 years ago, my village was accused of harboring the rebels, and then, a group of Fire mages was ordered to destroy it. But, it's just the bastard Richemont planning everything up. Because of this 'rebel extermination', he gained a high position in the Noble society. And the price? My home, my family, my friends…" She continues after a sigh. "The one who saved me, I don't know where he is now. The only thing I remembered is the scar on his neck." Colbert grabs his neck unconsciously, but Agnes didn't see it. Is he… "I want to find and thank him, but…there's nothing I could do that time when I fell into darkness, and when I woke up, I was already in the hand of the Queen. From that time, I learnt to serve her, and dedicated my life to her and her daughter, the Princess." Oh, don't tell me…

Kuro: "A crush to your savior in young age? I'm proud of you."

Agnes…actually doesn't react to that. Not even flinch. "You sure like to run your mouth, Kuro."

Kuro: "I just don't like seeing everyone being grumpy and such." Then, I hear Charlotte and Louise whispering something, but I decide not to ask them. Their secrets, in their minds.

Malthida then asks: "Then, what happened to Richemont now?"

Agnes: "After the Queen found out, she ordered Wardes to go after and took him before her to be judged."

Louise asks in surprise: "Sir Wardes?"

Agnes: "He's tasked to deal special missions now. We have made a full-face mask for him that would cover his identity. He really wants to redeem his deeds before."

Louise sighs in delight. "Thanks Brimir."

Then, we reach the gate, which is written in Halkeginian for sure if Agnes can speak it out loud. "Editing the documents, destroying them or removing them, as well as the use of magic around the vicinity is prohibited. Anyone who disobeys the rule will be cursed to death."

Kuro looked deadpan when he heard that. I ask him: "Something's the matter?"

"The Creator just checked about it. Okay, listen up, we need to follow the rules here. If not, the whole building will collapse on us, you understand?" All of us nods at his order. He then opens the door and we look inside to see the decorations of a library. We then walk in and start searching for any details that's good for us.

"Hmm, let's see… Founder this, Founder that…seriously, how obsessed are you when it comes to him?"

Julio: "Probably because he has done a lot of things to us. But now, we aren't sure if his words are true or not."

Sasha checks a few more books before saying: "I would say they're still the truth, most of them. He just got his jealous take over when it comes to the elves."

Malthida: "Are you even in love with him? The history told that you have the first rulers of the nations as your children."

Sasha sighs: "Yes, but only before I found out the truth. I trusted the man, and yet, he betrayed me at the end."

Louise and Charlotte have gone to another shelf, and Kuro moves his hands across the books, not bother pulling out one to read. We're finding for a while before…

"You've got to be kidding." All eyes turn to Kuro as he pulls out a purple-covered book. He starts scanning through the pages, and the more he goes, the paler he is. Then, he calls Sasha: "Did you see Brimir read or write this book before?"

She takes a glance on the book. "Yes, I did. He said it's a spell book, but he can't cast any of them. I wonder why. I haven't read it though."

Kuro: "You're lucky both of you didn't know how to use this book. If not, not only the elves, but the human was also in danger."

He is dead serious now (no pun intended). Agnes: "What could a book make you so uptight like that?"

I see his left fingers twitching a bit. "I'm…so TEMPTED… to burn this book right here and now…But it would make the building bury us alive…"

Louise gets a little bit impatient. "Just tell us what book it is!"

"The Book of Shadow." That sends chill to me and Malthida. Everyone else hasn't heard about it yet, and it's for a good reason.

Charlotte tilts her head in curiosity. "Book of Shadow? What's it about?"

He then puts it in his coat pocket. "Not now. Everyone, I want you to find the most valuable information in here. Books, scrolls, papers, anything. Once we gather them in one place, I will put all of them into my hammerspace, and we run the hell out of this place."

Colbert sounds surprise and upset: "You want to trigger this vault's system? To destroy everything in here?"

Kuro: "We take what we can, and bury the rest. I cannot let this copy version lay around for a random person to pick it up. Now, move it!" He then starts picking up books and scrolls and puts it on the nearby table. We're dumbfounded by his actions, but then just follow his words.

Then, Agnes finds what she comes for. "This is it! The Incident of Angleterre!" We stop what we're doing and see her walking to the stair, sitting on it and starts reading the book. "Where…where… Here! In order to prevent the spread of a plague, people in Angleterre will all be burnt. What, plague? I thought we're accused of harboring rebels?"

"That's how Richemont fooled everyone. He tricked the mages to think about it, and they believed him." The voice of Kuro can be heard in the far side of the library.

Agnes starts reading more: "Okay, the Captain…"

Colbert suddenly asks: "What would you do if you find out who's the Captain?"

Agnes puts her hand on the page she's reading. "I have thought before, that I would kill everyone that's in this case. But now…" She looks in the dark hall, where Kuro probably is, considering there are sounds of footsteps there. Then she sighs. "I don't know if I should do that or not. Kuro is a dangerous person, T.O is a deity that sends fear to us with just a glance. But, both of them are forgiving to their enemies. And after knowing those mages were not at fault…" "EK!" Kuro's sound of surprise, followed by the sounds of books dropping. We decide to just ignore him. "I guess I will ask him first if he knew about this mission. If not, then maybe I will forgive him." She then continues her reading. "Now, the Captain, with the title…" She then fells silence. We wait for her next reactions…

"Colbert…" She begins. "How long are you going to hide from us?" She turns her head up to Colbert, her eyes show no clear emotions. Colbert sighs: "I really want to talk about it, but…I haven't found a good time to talk to you."

The Knight closes the book. "Now, I'm sure it's the good time to do so. We have quiet time for this, before Kuro makes this place collapse."

We now look at Colbert to wait for his answer.

…

Colbert: "Back to that time, I was ordered to exterminate your village because of the reasons everyone already knew. But, once we're doing our jobs, only I realized we got the false information. I tried to stop my comrades, but turned out they already knew about it, and they still did it anyway. After that I tried to save anyone, but they're already been killed. When the others left behind the dead bodies and went back with satisfaction of killing everyone…I found you, so I brought you out of that mess. When you're asleep, I gave them to Madam Karin, whom I could only trust at that point. And I heard after that, she gave you to the Queen for her to raise you. From that point, I left the army, and became a teacher until now, so I could teach the students about the horrible of wars and try to avoid them being a mindless soldier." He stops to catch a breath. "I don't deserve to be forgiven, but Agnes, please consider to find a way to get out of this madness. You can be Her Highness' Knight as long as you want, but don't throw your life away so meaningless. Try to find something to enjoy your life more than just what you're doing."

Is this all Kuro's plan? Because, it's too flawless. He said that we're not needed to go down here, and even gave out reasons to not doing so. And yet, we're down here, solving a misunderstanding in the past. And, he even managed to convince Agnes, not only words but through actions as well, for her to NOT kill Colbert right when he revealed the truth.

Agnes puts the book on the stair and stands up. Then…she walks to Colbert and hugs him, which catches him off guard in surprise.

Agnes: "I suppose I have to say my thank to you. Without you, I would probably meet my parents and friends in heaven or something. You gave me another chance to live. So…thank you, a lot."

We all turn silence to not ruin this emotional moment. Colbert can only smile sadly, but happily, as he wraps his arms around Agnes, letting her tears damp his coat, she's smiling in happiness.

Kuro also returns with tons of books in his arms, and he also doesn't make any sounds to not take the moment away.

After about a minute, the duo separate. Charlotte pulls out a handkerchief and gives it to Agnes, who gladly takes it and wipes out the tears on the face. During it, she notices Kuro has returned. "I see you have gathered enough things to take back."

Kuro: "From the deeper zone, yes. How about out here?"

Louise: "I think we got enough. Now, how are you going to trigger the protecting system without us getting killed?"

Kuro: "Gather everything in front of the door. When I put everything into my hammerspace, prepare an Explosion spell to fire to the door, if it closes. If not, we just start running, if my teleportation spell doesn't work."

Julio suddenly realizes how dumb we are. "If you have the teleportation spell, then why even bother this place collapses on us or not?"

Malthida notices something else. "Doesn't work, meaning HIM being involved?"

Kuro: "Yep. If he screws that at the right moment…I don't need to tell more, right?" And again, how dumb we are, part two.

When we have gathered books, scrolls and papers in one place, Kuro hovers his hand above them, as we prepare to run as fast as possible. And when everything disappears…

So do we. We're now inside of the library of the Academy, with students looking at us surprised and curiously.

"Uh…so, the spell works." I turn to Kuro. "Were you expecting this to happen?"

Kuro: "Honestly, only to the point I found the copy the version of the Book of Shadow. Before that point, yes, everything is according to my plan, even when I told Agnes not to go down."

Now that earns a look of disapproval from Colbert. "You pushed us to a dangerous place just for me to confess my sins to her? I thought you had a better plan for me."

Kuro just shrugs: "Sorry, out of ideas."

Then, Julio remembers about the copy. "Now, we're out of danger, tell us about the book you're so desperate to not leave it."

Kuro turns serious as he pulls out the purple book and…he burns the book instantly to ash. "One problem solved. The others…" On one table, everything we have gathered appears, making the students sitting at it jump back in surprise. "Now, to all of us, let's go back to my house, by walking please. I don't like having another teleportation WITHOUT a check from him."

We decide to comply, since he sounds a bit too tired. I don't think it's a physical fatigue, but a mental one. When we enter the house, Plutia is STILL sleeping on the sofa, while hugging Neptune's doll. Kuro just moves her a bit so he can have a small place to sit, as we pick the chairs around and gather around the table.

Once he has been comfortable in his place, he pulls out the real Book of Shadow. "The one I burnt before, was the copy version of this book. Now, luckily since it's a copy, no one can use anything from it. And luckily, Brimir wasn't pulled into a deadly dimension when he did all the spells wrong. It was too dangerous for anyone who's alive."

Agnes looks unconvinced. "If it's so dangerous, then how come there's no records about that book?"

Kuro: "Either Brimir thought it's a worthless book, or…no one really knew what this book was and just grabbed it alongside with Brimir's belongs."

"Why don't you show us the school?"

Julio turns to me: "What school are you talking about?"

Kuro: "You mean Heavenly Host?" I nod. "Don't you think they would freak out the first step they're in there?" "You did fix the school up, right?" "Doesn't mean I cleaned it to the point of returning it back to its glory days. It's the core of that world now."

Our talk gives everyone confusion. Colbert: "Can you at least give us the idea about that place?"

Kuro: "Maybe…all right. I will teleport us there." And another light occurs.

Charlotte's POV

When the light dies down, I'm sitting on the floor in some kind of classroom, with broken tables and chairs. The ceiling looks like it's going down in any seconds, and holes are seen on the floor. Then I hear a thunder sound, as I look out of the windows to see it's raining. I take my eyes out of it after a few seconds and just realize that: aside from Louise…there's no one else. And she's also clueless about this place.

"Louise, did you see anyone else?" "No. Only you." We stand up and are about to go to the door when we notice the blackboard. It's covered in child's drawings, but while half of them are okay, the others are covered in words that we cannot read. And that part of drawings…it gives us a chill spine.

"Is this…where Kuro died?"

"You heard his story?"

"Only a small part of it. He didn't tell me much, because 'it might traumatize you' as he said."

"I might see why…" Both of us shiver again when we look at the pictures.

"Let's…get out of here. It's giving me bad feelings." "Yes, let's go."

When we open the door, we see a broken hallway. Everything is falling apart, there's even a missing floor that when we look down, we only see an endless darkness.

"Char…Charlotte, did you see anything like this before?"

"No…even in the most dangerous missions, I haven't seen anything like this…" We're holding each other's hands to ease our fears. It's so creepy in so many ways.

Then, I notice on the edge of the pit, in the corner, there's a candle, along with a box of matches. I point it for Louise to see, then lighten the candle up. It doesn't shine very brightly, but at least we have light.

"Wait a second, we're mages, right?"

"Do either of us know how to use Fire or Light spells?"

"…Good point. Sorry."

We then turn back and walk inside further, looking for anyone. Then we see a stair and walk up on it, only during halfway, we hear something falling from the higher side of the stair. And when we reach the turn point…we see a body lying there, his hands are covering his bloody neck, as he looks up to something. Then, footsteps come nearer to him and…we see Kuro, in his right hand is the bloody scissors. His face is cold, showing no emotions whatsoever. The person tries to speak something in fear, but due to his throat being cut, no words come out. When Kuro steps in front of the body, we try to stay out of his eyesight by pushing ourselves to the left side of the stair. His focus is on the dying person, and then…he pulls out a lighter, turns it on, and throws it to him. We can only watch in silence as the person cries, cries in muted pain. It happens for a while, and the body turns to ash. Then, Kuro walks down and looks right at us. We yelp in fear, scared that this is not the Kuro we know. But then, he himself is being gulped in a blue flame, and then he disappears.

We stay there for like an eternity, but it's just a few seconds. It can't be…it can't be Kuro, right? He just killed a man, right in front of us, and he didn't flinch when he saw the man crying in pain…

"Who are you girls?" We yelp again and look to the lower path of the stair, to see a blue fireball floating there. I decide to pull out my staff and point to the blue flame, even though I'm not sure if I could do anything to it.

Louise also points her wand to it, and asks: "WHO… WHAT ARE YOU? Are you here to hurt us?" Her voice is shaking like her body.

"Hmm…you girls have no clues about this place, don't you?"

I answer: "We…we don't. We just got here, by Kuro. Do you see anyone with…" "Did you just say Kuro?" The flame interrupts me, and its voice defines a girl's. "How did you know him? You two look nothing like Vietnamese. You're from the West, aren't you?"

We look at it dumbfound. Despite being a fire, we can't really feel any heat from it. Then, Louise answers: "We're from another dimension, not from his original world. My name is Louise, and she is Charlotte. May I ask who are you?"

The fireball sways a bit. "I'm a victim of this place. You don't need to know more."

"Why are you like this?"

"I'm not alive long enough for this place to recognize my old appearance, so I'm stuck like this. It's not a bad thing actually."

We turn silence for a bit. The girl, we should call her like that instead of just fireball, asks: "Back to the matter, how did you meet Kuro? He has only interacted with the main girls here, and that's quite a time already."

Should I say it? I think I should. "I'm his girlfriend."

… "You're…his girlfriend?" I nod. The girl then giggles. "You must be very lucky to be his girl. Anyway, you're lost right?" We both nod. "Then, follow me, let me give you a little tour."

Louise is a bit suspicious. "Why didn't you lead us to him?"

"Near impossible. If he entered this place, he will be in a random place. We can't pinpoint where he is. He could be in another pocket dimension as we speak."

"Then, how can we find him?"

The girl: "Hate to say this, but we're not having any clues here. Maybe we can find the others to ask if they see him or not."

We nod again as we stand up and follow the girl as she floats up with us. But… "Uh, miss…" "Don't call me miss, that makes me old. Anyway, what do you want to ask?" "What was that from before, Kuro just killed someone here." "Oh, that's the event from the past. Sometimes we see them by chance, or Kuro wants someone to find out. Did you ask him about something, that he left you here?" "We wanted to know about this world, and…did you see another people coming here?" "Hmm…yes, there are a few more, but I'm not making any promises that we would run into them." "Then, why did it feel so real?" "That's how this place works. It would make you feel it happens right before you in that moment, but in fact it's a long time ago."

We start walking through many more rooms. Same scenes everywhere: broken windows, broken floors and walls. Louise asks in fear: "Is there anything else we could see here?"

The girl: "Uh, corpses of someone maybe?"

Both of us pale when we hear that. "CORPSES?"

The girl: "Yes, corpses. You're afraid of it?"

"You aren't?"

The girl: "Of course I am. But I'm used to it. Doesn't mean I want to look at one, though."

"How long have you died?"

The girl: "I…don't remember to be honest. Since Kuro fixed this place up, we don't really care much about time."

Louise: "Won't you feel…lonely? You're away from your family forever right?"

The girl: "Sometimes. I have a new family here now. Everyone here is my family."

"Kuro really has the most impacted in this place…"

The girl: "Sounds like he's popular in your place."

Louise: "He just ended a war with words and even turned our enemies into allies. With minimal casualties."

"And he's a God from another world than us."

The girl: "That one I heard from the teachers here. Is he really popular with the girls?" I blush when she talks about it. She notices it and giggles again. "Are you hiding something?" "Uh…"

Louise answers it for me: "He had two wives before he has her as his girlfriend." "OH! Quite charming isn't he? How did he handle you all in bed?" I blush even deeper.

Then, we see a light coming from the intersection. We come nearer, and see a teenage boy with glasses, holding a phone in front of him. The light comes from both sides of the phone.

"HEY MORISHIGE! We need your help!" The blue flame calls out to the boy, as he turns while waving the phone's light to us.

"Hello, you three. Why are you wandering around like that? It's not very safe here."

The girl explains to him: "They just got here recently. They're trying to find Kuro." The boy gives out a surprise look on his face. "And when is this place not dangerous?"

He chuckles: "Sorry, figure of speech. Anyway, what's their relationship with him?"

The girl: "His wife." That makes me blush.

"Hey, I'm not, okay?"

The girl: "Didn't you say earlier…"

"I'm just…his girlfriend, okay? I'm not engaged to him yet."

Louise asks Morishige: "Have you seen Kuro anywhere? We're trying to find him."

He shakes his head. "Sorry, but no. Maybe the others have. Let me get Mayu before…" "Don't walk so fast like that Sakutaro! I don't like getting behind!" He turns to his right, and then gets tackled by a girl roughly our age, with a purple marbles pin to clip her hair. And she's pouting. "Mo! You just focus on your phone and completely forget about me! You're so mean!"

The boy smiles and rubs her hair. "I'm sorry, Mayu. I'll be more careful."

The girl then smiles and turns to us. "You found some living survivors?" LIVING SURVIVORS?

The boy: "I don't think so. Kuro brought them here by himself, but then left them. Don't know why he's doing so. So yes, they're alive, but not quite of survivors."

"We asked him about the Book of Shadow and this school, so he brought us here."

Morishige doesn't show it on his face, but he's surprised. "How did you know about the Book of Shadow?"

"Kuro found a copy version of that book in our place. We asked why he's so scared about that, and he just teleported us here."

The duo looks at each other's eyes, probably choosing what to say to us. Then Mayu gestures us to follow them, and we comply. We walk in silence for a while, before I ask them: "How long have you been staying here?"

Mayu turns to us. "We lost tracks of time. But, most likely it's about 20 years."

Louise: "But Kuro's already 60 years old. How can it be just 20 years passed here?"

Morishige: "Time concept to us is different from him. Anyway, how's he doing? He most likely interacted with Sachiko and the kids, occasionally went around and talked with us."

"Probably he needed to take care of his family and his nations first."

The girl: "Yeah, that part we knew. We mean, is he okay or not?"

"He's still finding his citizens back…"

Morishige holds his free hand up. "Wait, someone's coming…"

Saito's POV

Okay, the first thing I see after being teleported: A broken hallway that leads to the bathrooms. Kuro, can't you pick anywhere better than here?

Julio is the only one that I notice who's with me, as he asks me: "Should I ask why we're here, and there are only two of us?"

"No idea. We should…" I stop and listen to the footsteps from our behind. Appears from the corner, a guy with red hoodie, a black beanie covering his blonde hair, black T-shirt and pants, walks to us with a camera on his hand. Looks like we're not alone. But, he's a bit transparent for some reasons…

I wave to him. "Excuse me, may I ask…" I speak in Japanese, since I heard from Kuro this school was actually in Japan. However, the guy pays no attention to me as he looks at his camera. "Hey sir, can you hear me?" He still walks directly to me. A bit frustrated, I grab his shoulder, only for his whole body to walk THROUGH me! What? Both of us look to him with surprise and fear. Is he a ghost?

Then, we hear a scream from the woman's closet, as the guy looks up and walks to it. We follow him, as he crouches at the doorframe and points the camera inside. Then, his face changes from curiosity to fear instantly. We walk to him, since we know we can't interact with him, and look inside the room…

And we nearly regret that decision. Inside one of the stands, a girl roughly Louise's age is hanging another girl up, while a zombie guy is watching them. I'm tempted to jump in and save the almost-hanged girl, but I don't really know how to deal with ghosts. I turn my head to Julio when I see Kuro, without his lab coat, crouching towards the camera guy.

"Hey, Kuro, we have a problem here. Can you…" But, like the first guy, Kuro doesn't react to my call, instead he grabs the shoulder of the camera guy. The guy jumps in surprise, as he turns back and nearly shouts if Kuro doesn't put a hand on his mouth and gestures him to be quite.

When the guy calms down a bit, Kuro puts his hand back, glances through the door way a bit, then turns to the camera guy. "English?" The camera guy nods. "Okay, Shougo, listen here. We're going to save the girl, and you're going to help me with it."

The guy, Shougo, widens his eyes: "Are you crazy? That girl is hanging her friend up."

Kuro: "She's possessed. Do you have holy water with you?"

Shougo pulls out a small bottle of water. "I do. But, how did you…"

Kuro: "No time to explain. Listen, I want you to put the girl being killed down, okay? I will deal with the possessed girl and the big guy. You understand?" Shougo nods in a bit of fear.

Julio is a bit on edge. "What are you waiting for, Kuro? Go in and save them!" Like before, both of them don't even turn to us as they look inside the closet.

I ask Julio: "Can you guest what happened here?"

Julio is not happy when Kuro straight up ignored him. "I know I have upset him many times, but it doesn't mean…"

"Julio…" I stop him. "I don't think he's Kuro we know. There should be some explanations after this…"

He takes a deep breath to calm himself down. "Sorry about that." Then, he asks me: "What do you think about this?"

I poke my chin. "I'm not sure. But, maybe it's something Kuro wanted us to see. Maybe it's his past. That's why he didn't react when he saw us. Also the same with the camera guy."

Julio nods in agreement. "Yeah. That's maybe the case. But then, why here?"

"Maybe it's random. I think the others would see it, or listen to his stories from himself."

"Uh-huh. Hey, they both went inside." Indeed, just a few seconds when we're talking, they're gone. We look inside the woman's room to see what's going on. The zombie guy's shoved against the wall, with scissors stabbing through his throat. Kuro's pushing the killer girl down to the ground, forcing her mouth to open and pouring the holy water into her mouth. The girl tries to break his grab, but he's using his body to stop her from moving. Meanwhile Shougo starts helping the afraid girl getting out of the rope before that thing snapped her neck. When he succeeds in his work and helps the girl standing up, the lying girl's also stopped moving, as Kuro throws one of her arms to his shoulder and carries her up. Both guys start moving the girls out of the room, but not before Kuro quickly pulls the scissors out of the zombie's neck. When the four of them didn't notice the zombie guy has turned his head to them.

Then, a blue flame appears and swallows the guy in it. And then…nothing…

We stand there a bit, trying to comprehend what's just happened. Then, Julio suddenly asks me: "Do you think Kuro obtained his power before this event?"

"I…don't think so. If he did, he didn't even need to use the scissors." Silence. "Let's get out of here first. We don't know if there's any danger…"

"Nao-mi, are your boobies just got bigger?"

"NONSENSE! You're just imagining things!"

We turn to the direction where Kuro has run off, and we're seeing the killer girl, walking while being harassed by the nearly-killed girl, the former being embarrassed and the latter being mischievous. Another event, I guess?

"Oh, come on. Even Kuro grew up as well, can't you get bigger like him?"

"I TOLD YOU THAT'S NOT…wait, who are you two?" The first girl notices us now. Wait, they're the real deal now?

"Huh?" The harassing girl now looks at us, and smiles even bigger. "Ho-ho. You found another boys other than your Satoshi? You naughty girl."

"It's not that. And get off me, Seiko! It's uncomfortable." After Seiko gets out of her, the girl bows to us. "Sorry for my friend's actions. She doesn't have much sense of embarrassment." Oh, don't worry about it. Just don't do it on us. "Anyway, why are you two here? It's been a long time since…"

"Hold up for a second." Julio interrupts her, as she looks up. "Are you two friends?"

Seiko, taking the chance, hugs Naomi again, if we're right about her first words. "Of course we are. Can't you see how close we are?"

…Is Kuro behind this…

I sigh. "May I ask if you remembered the boy who saved you before?"

Both of them tense up. Seiko asks us, a little bit suspicious. "What are you talking about?"

I point to the bathroom. "We just saw you nearly hanged by your 'best friend' here, and Kuro just saved you two in the last moment, while…"

"Kuro?" Naomi asks me. "You know him?"

Julio: "He's our friend. We asked him about a place called Heavenly Host, which I guess it's this place, and he just teleported us here without further explanations."

The two girls just look at each other in surprise after hearing Julio's explanations. I have to say something before they might have wrong assumptions. "He's on a foul mood. He just found out there's a copy version of Book of Shadow. Maybe he hasn't thought through before he got us here."

The girls haven't been recovered yet. I ask them: "Okay, can you help us finding Kuro and our friends, please? I'm sure some of them don't like this kind of atmosphere here."

Naomi regains herself back before speaking to us: "We should go now. The people here are more friendly, doesn't mean all of your friends will be okay around ghosts." I and Julio nod and start following them to the lower floor.

During the walk, I ask them: "Did you see any other people here? You know, the living ones?"

Naomi turns her head back: "We haven't. You're the first one."

Julio looks at the two, before asking: "How old are you two?"

Seiko asks him, she's having a smiley-cat face: "You're a bit rude, asking our ages like that gentleman."

Julio raises his hands up: "Sorry if I offense you."

Seiko just laughs: "I'm just teasing you. However, which age do you want to know?"

Julio has a confused look, but I understand why she asked that. "I think she's asking if you want to know her age now, or the age she's looking like now, Julio."

Naomi: "You seem to comprehend that quite easily."

"If I have to say, I'm nearly the same case with you." Now all eyes focus on me. "I have lived a lifetime, then I'm reincarnated into another person in the world where Kuro's associating with the Goddesses. You understand the rest."

Seiko suddenly smirks: "So, how many girlfriends do you have?" What?

Naomi shouts: "Out of everything you could ask, you asked THAT?"

Seiko nudges her: "Oh now, don't you feel a little bit lonely lately?" "THAT'S NOT WHAT WE WOULD TALK IN THE OPEN!" Naomi's face is fully red now.

I have nothing to say now. This girl and RED would be a good pair of teasing another girls…

Suddenly, I see another delusion of Kuro and Shougo carrying Naomi and Seiko. I point to the direction: "Hey you two, aren't they you?"

They look back and "Eh?" in surprise. Then, Seiko speaks: "Maybe Kuro wants us to follow that. Let's go."

Charlotte's POV

Someone's coming? We all look at the direction Morishige's looking, and see that Kuro and a guy carrying two girls on their backs. I almost walk to them if Mayu doesn't stop me. "That's not Kuro, just an event from his past." I nod slowly and continue watching. When the two boys take a sharp turn to a room at their left, I see Saito and Julio walking towards us with two other girls.

"Hey, it's Sakutaro and Mayu!" One of the girls shouts out to the mentioned.

We then gather before the door Kuro just entered. After a bit of information exchange, I got the names of the new girls: Naomi and Seiko. These two, along with Morishige and Mayu, are the victims of this place. But…it seems they're the remnants of the people Kuro have saved. Their alive counterparts are now living in their Earth. They're here, because they cannot return back no matter what. Kuro tried many ways for them to return back to their normal life but failed, and even with his Darkness power he couldn't do anything. That's why he's making everyone feeling more comfortable here rather than being covered in eternal darkness.

Though, the core element of this place, being haunted and such, is not making us feel easy.

Saito notices that us girls are not happy, as he asks Morishige: "Shouldn't we walk inside that room and take a comfort seat, before continuing our conversation?"

He blinks at the realization. "Oh, right, my bad. But…" He looks at the door behind him. "I don't think it's a good idea to stay in the clinic. It's not going to hold this much people."

Julio: "Then, what about the classrooms? I'm sure there are some that's still in good conditions, right?"

Fireball girl: "I took a look when I walked with Louise and Charlotte, but there's no room in much of a condition."

Mayu: "How about the auditorium? The one we used to celebrate Sachiko's birthday?" A birthday party for a ghost? Sounds strange…

Naomi agrees. "It's probably our best chance. Maybe the others would gather your friends there too."

"Excuse me but…" I decide to ask the crucial intel. "Do you all know about The Creator?"

All of the victims look at me. Seiko: "Do you? How about the…" She waves her index finger to my friends.

Saito nods. "Yes, we know. That's why Kuro actually trusted us enough to tell us about this place. Now, we should move on, before…" An earthquake interrupts his words as us human try to balance ourselves, or just straight up sit on the floor and wait for the earthquake to come.

When the earthquake ends, I look around to see if anything falls from the ceiling and…the place looks much cleaner… how?

Fireball girl: "Another teleportation?"

Louise: "That's normal here?"

Morishige: "Not to us at first. Only when Kuro called out the theory and we made a check, we found out why the earthquake occurred. It's more of a spacequake, but it's there."

Saito helps Louise to stand up, as Julio speaks: "We should get moving. No doubt another one could occur at a moment's notice."

Malthida's POV

"That's…not very pleasant."

Sasha: "Indeed. An earthquake from nowhere and without a warning? Not fit for my taste."

Satoshi: "Sorry about it. We aren't the ones designing it."

"It's fine. We saw stranger things."

Yuka giggles: "You're Kuro's friends, right? It must have been tough for you to follow him."

After the teleportation, only I and Sasha were in the classroom. We then met the Mochida siblings, and they're giving us a tour in this place, while trying to find Kuro at the same time. Sasha isn't used to this place, but to me, after seeing Kuro's Dark form, this place is like a quite park.

"Not so much. He's a reliable friend. Though, he likes to screw around a lot."

Satoshi: "That's what he's doing here after he absorbed all the Darkness. Making this place…not very haunted like before."

Sasha: "But then, why didn't he…"

Yuka: "He tried, but we're the remnants of the past. We can't escape here."

"How did he even test it if he didn't bring anyone with him?"

Satoshi: "He tested it with the person he killed. Needless to say, he's both pleased and not."

"Why both?"

Satoshi: "He only took a small part of that person and tried, and that part just vanished. He's pleased because he knew a way to scare the guy, but not pleased because he couldn't save us again."

"I see… Tough luck…"

Sasha changes the topic: "Anyway, how long have you talked to Kuro?"

Satoshi: "We lost track of time, really. Time in here would be different from his respective…"

Yuka suddenly asks Sasha: "Are you an Elf? Your ears are pointy and… your soul is a bit different than Malthida."

Sasha tilts her head: "Soul?"

Satoshi explains: "Thanks to Kuro, each of us has the ability to detect one's soul. But only in a certain range that we can deter how different one's soul is to the others. Before we met you, we could detect two souls suddenly appeared, so we thought two of us just teleported there."

"And you found us. What would happen if you didn't find us?"

Satoshi: "Well, since Kuro already fixed this place, I think that you would wander for a while before you found one of us. But if not, you're pretty much standing before the gate of Death, as Kuro dubbed it."

Only the ones who's close to Kuro in the past knew this detail. He himself even tried to find out if there were Dark spells in our world. He never wants anyone facing the same fate as him.

"You said there was an earthquake, right? Then the other part of the school should have appeared after that."

"Another part of the school? How did you know about that?"

Walking down the stair, Kuro and Satoshi are hurried about something… Another Satoshi?

Yuka seems a bit surprised, as she looks back and forth from her brother and the just-appeared one. Satoshi is surprised too, however, when he looks at a door that seems to lead to the outside, he understands. "I see, a hollow of the past."

"I take it that you know what that is?"

Satoshi nods. "It's when I lost Yuka to the other building of the school, and Kuro just met me for the first time."

Yuka: "I was lost back then, as I tried to find my way back to my brother, but then…" She stops there and shivers. Satoshi pats her head. "Now, now. He's been locked away so you don't have to be scared anymore." She nods, a bit of tears in her eyes can be seen.

Sasha: "Should we…follow the hollows?"

Past Satoshi noticed the door. "You're right! But I thought it was a wall before!"

Kuro: "That's how this place works. I will explain later when we have your whole group back, now come on!"

Satoshi: "I think we should. This place is no longer a dangerous place, and Kuro might want us, or you two, to see something. Let's go." Both of us nod as our group of four walk out of the door…

Colbert's POV

Where are we? Inside of an office of kind. Looks like the Headmaster's one to me. And, only Agnes is with me, and she's looking around, trying to find a clue where we are.

"It's…not what I'm expecting. Kuro made it sounds like he's teleporting us to a horrible place. But this? It's too normal for my imagination."

"You're…not wrong." I walk to the table, and look what's on it. It's the same like Old Osmond's, except that there's a family picture there. The old man in the middle… Then, the smell of blood comes out from the table, from one of the drawers. I open the one that I suspect, and how right I am, blood splats the inside of it. Agnes probably smells that too and walks to it, then walks back in disgust. "Blood in a place like that? Who would put blood in there?"

"That would be my doing. It's been a while since I had my last visitor being him." An old voice speaks at our left, as we instantly back away and point our weapons to the direction of the voice. We see an old man in a bole-colored suit, with a black tie and white shirt. He has slicked-back hair, black mustache and round-lens glasses.

And his words disturb me. "Who are you? And what do you mean by 'your doing'?"

"I suppose an introduction is a go. Takamine Yanagihori, the Headmaster of the school you're currently in. And about the blood in the drawer? Let the person controlling this place tell you, I don't think I should tell you that."

Agnes points her gun directly to his head. "And why should we listen to you? For all we know, you're planning something dark. And you just appeared out of nowhere."

He chuckles. "Sorry if I surprised you. But, I'm a ghost. That's normal to me now."

I'm still a bit caution about it. Ghost? Kuro's a god, but he mentioned he has died before… "The one controlling this place, why isn't that person you?"

"Another man has proved himself to be a better person than me in taking care of this place. So now…"

Agnes interrupts: "Kuro, is he the one you're talking about?"

The Headmaster, after a brief of surprise hearing the name, nods. "Yes, that's him. What is he to you two?"

Both of us: "Friends."

… The Headmaster laughs. "I thought so. Anyway, what are you going to do now? My office doesn't have much thing to fulfill your curiosity."

"Do you know where Kuro is?"

"Unfortunately, no. Only the First Four and Yoshie know exactly where he is. But, I could give you a tour in this place, and maybe we could encounter him in the way."

Agnes doesn't trust him much. "Why should we follow you? If you're the one making that…"

"If I was my past self, I would have killed you for finding out my secrets. But, not now. Kuro gave me a chance to redeem, and I'm not wasting it."

Another redeemable? How many…you know what, no, not going to ask that. It would get us another headache.

Agnes looks at him for a few more moments, then sighs and sheaths her weapons. "Don't make us regret it."

The Headmaster chuckles: "Of course. Follow me please."

We then head out of the room, and go down the stairs. The atmosphere is…dark, haunted…and the smell of blood…No wonder Kuro didn't want to talk about it at first.

Agnes pinches her nose. "Okay, this is too much blood for my liking. I have encountered blood in the war before, but this much in a school…"

Takamine: "One person caused all of this. And that's someone you would never expected in the first place."

"You?"

Takamine: "No. I'm the one who started this, but I'm not the one spilling these students' blood."

We then notice a corpse in the corner of the turn. The headmaster walks to it and kneels down, checking something.

Takamine: "An unfortunate fate… he must be really scared when he saw his life left him…"

"One of your students?"

"No. If you didn't know, Heavenly Host is an elementary school. This boy was a high-school student."

Agnes: "How did you even get here anyway?"

Takamine: "This place is hidden in a separate dimension. Only a few certain spells could get you here, if you screw them up."

I raise an eyebrow. "When you screw a spell? That's…a stupid way to design the spell…"

Takamine: "And yet, hundreds of students… could be more, failed, and ended up here."

Agnes: "Are those spells popular?"

Takamine stands up, and starts walking down further. "It is. However, those are just lucky charms. But, once you failed it…"

"Lucky charm? That could lead to somewhere like this?"

"Irony, isn't it? But, if you want to know why, we better find Kuro, or the culprit, to answer you that." We nod and start following him again…

We reach to the bottom level, and the Headmaster seems to lead us a bit aimlessly…

Agnes is getting impatient: "Where are you taking us? We don't have much time here."

Takamine: "First, when you're here, you have plenty of time. Timeline here runs completely different than the other universes. Second…I'm trying to see if Kuro left any clues…"

"YUKA! WHERE ARE YOU?" Someone shouts from the far side.

"YUKA! COME OUT!" This one is Kuro's voice. I shout into the darkness: "Hey, Kuro! Can you hear us?"

Suddenly Takamine snickers. Agnes asks him: "What's so funny?"

"You're trying to speak to the past."

"To the past?" Then, he and another person walks to us. But, they are transparent, and Kuro doesn't have his lab coat. "Why are they…"

Takamine: "Like I said. This is just an event of the past."

"BIG BROTHER! IS THAT YOU?" A little girl shouts from our back. Then, two people walk right through me and join the duo. The siblings are hugging each other in happiness, as Kuro and the guy walking with the younger sister before watch their reunion.

So Kuro's plan is to show us his past, huh? Makes sense if we want to know about this place…

Agnes suddenly says: "Why did Kuro give that person a look?"

I look at Kuro, and true to Agnes, his eyes towards the person Yuka was with was…strange. It's not thankful, but…despite…

Takamine: "He's his first kill."

…What?

Agnes: "First kill?" "That's something you should ask him directly."

"But, there's a reason for him to kill the person, right?"

Takamine: "Of course."

Kuro grabs the person's hand and shakes it. "Thank you very much. We're looking for the girl like, ever. Luckily that she hasn't been killed. We're very appreciated."

The person tried to say something, but then Kuro just pulled him, along with the siblings back to where they came from. "We need to find the others too. Make sure that we can find our friends before they got killed."

Takamine: "Let us follow them. I'm sure Kuro wanted us to do that. Who knows, maybe we can find your friends as well."

Sasha's POV

We open the door to see a bridge that leads to the another building of this place. And in that bridge, we can see three people, one girl, one boy, and a teacher. The three of them are looking at the forest around the school…

Satoshi probably knows them, because: "HOY! KISHINUMA! SHINOZAKI! MISS YUI!"

The three look at us, the girl then smiles and waves at us, or rather at Satoshi. "Hey, Satoshi! You're in this dimension too?"

Satoshi: "Seems so. Or Kuro has something in that…"

The boy, Kishinuma I guess, says in surprise: "Kuro? He returned? You met him?"

Yuka answers: "No, we haven't. But we met these two, and they said that they know him."

Miss Yui looks at us, and bows to greet us. "Nice to meet you two. My name is Yui Shishido, the teacher of these students."

I and Malthida bow to greet them back. Malthida: "Nice to meet you. My name is Malthida, and the girl here is Sasha." She stands straight up. "Judging by your reactions, you haven't met Kuro for a while as well, right?"

The girl, maybe she's Shinozaki, speaks: "He went and came whenever he wanted, and at the most unpredicted time. He returned here for no reasons is not…"

Satoshi interrupts her: "Kuro found a copy version of the Book of Shadow in a different planet."

Kishinuma shouts in surprise: "The Book of Shadow? That damn cursed book has a copy?"

I answer: "Luckily, according to Kuro, that one is not accurate, and no spells work. My…one of the people I know tried to use the spells, but he failed, and then just casted that away, not bothering with it anymore."

Kishinuma notices my pause in the middle of my words. "Your what? Everyone with their sanity intact would notice that book brings nothing but bad luck."

Malthida speaks up for me: "That's in the past, mister. We don't need to dwell into that anymore. That person is already dead, so we have lessened one problem."

Shinozaki shows a bit of concern. "Isn't that…a bit too cruel for you to say something like that? About a person's death?"

Malthida: "It's because this guy could be as bad as the first person Kuro killed, could be even worse."

Miss Yui scowls. "I still remembered him. He tried to kill you and his 'friends', right Yuka?"

Yuka shivers a bit. Yui immediately apologizes: "I'm sorry to bring that up. If that…"

Suddenly I hear two directions of footsteps heading to us, and Malthida also notices that too. I turn back to see the whole group of 6 students, including Kishinuma and Shinozaki, running out from where we just exited. I turn ahead to see the Mochida siblings, along with Kuro and someone…

"That person…" Malthida says, her voice holds a bit of venom in it. Is that person really…

Yuka immediately pushes herself behind Satoshi, trying to hide from that person. Satoshi pats her head to calm her down. "It's all right, Yuka. It's just a delusion. He's not here…" "It's…still scary Big Bro…" Then, the second later, both groups disappear.

"Malthida…" She turns to me. "You know him, don't you?"

Malthida: "Not personally. But, if I'm right, he's the first person Kuro has ever killed."

"Then, why did he look so friendly like that?"

"That's because he wanted that person to think he would get out with no punishment." The voice of Professor Colbert echoes for afar, and then, he and Agnes along with an old man walk to us. The students immediately bow to the man, except Kishinuma.

He smirks: "Never thought you would come down here. What's the occupation here?"

And instantly he's slapped by Shinozaki. "I know you don't like him, but at least pay your respect to the elder, wouldn't you?"

"Hey! He's the one who started everything, right?" "And even Kuro forgave him, why don't you?" "I'm not him, okay? I'm not that merciful like him!" And then the two start bickering to each other.

Agnes and Colbert walk to us, as Agnes whispers to me: "Were they like this when you met them?"

"No, actually. We just met him a few moments."

Satoshi sounds apologetic. "Sorry about these two. They're just like that every time."

The old man suddenly says: "Thirteen seconds before the teleportation everyone."

Satoshi is surprised: "That soon? We just had one a few minutes ago."

Yuka asks Malthida: "Is there anyone else with you?"

Malthida counts her fingers, then answers: "Four more. But they can handle themselves." Immediately after she finishes her words, blue flames appear around us, and before we could do anything, they gulp us down…

Saito's POV

We're standing in front of the auditorium's door now, according to the victims here. Compared to the other rooms, this area looks cleaner and more…welcoming.

Louise also notices that, as she asks Naomi: "Is this place special, that it's prettier than the other places?"

Naomi shakes her head. "Not exactly. This place has only used a few times for Sachiko's Happy Birthday parties. Sometimes, the others used it too, but not to its fullest. And, because since there's no one died here, at least that's what Kuro told us, this place doesn't have much of darkness corrupting it."

Seiko: "Now, now Naomi. Let's go inside first and show them…" Suddenly blue flames appear next to us, and the next second, the rest of our group are standing there.

Colbert is the first one to speak: "I saw Kuro did it many times ago, but this is the first time I was being teleported away like this." Then he notices us. "It seems everyone is here as well. Are you okay?"

Charlotte nods. "We're fine. How about you?"

Agnes: "Same. Though, we encountered a body, and…it's not a pleasure sight to see…"

Mayu nods in sadness. "Yes. Nobody is a pleasure sight…"

Morishige hugs her to make her feel comfortable, as her smile returns.

The old man walks to the door, put his hand on it to open, and turns to us: "Are you ready? Do you have anything to fix up first?" Everyone shakes their heads. "Alright, let's go."

And when he opens it…immediately the air feels heavy. This kind of heavy feeling can only mean one thing: Kuro is here, and he's not very happy.

In the middle of the auditorium, Kuro, in his Dark form, is facing his back against us, and he's looking at his floating screens, finding something with a few more people around him. Why do I know that's his Dark form? The freaking blood stain on the back and no-lab-coat appearance are the dead giveaways.

Kuro notices the door has opened, as he turns to us to show his badly-damaged face, that makes Louise and Charlotte grab my arm in surprise, and the others, who's alive, point their weapons to him. Only I and Malthida do nothing since we know that's him. He walks to us in a zombie-like fashion, that makes the matter even worse.

The old man sees that we're a bit on edge, as he laughs and uses his hand to lower Agnes and Julio's guns. "Don't be so afraid like that, it's just Kuro. I thought you already knew about this look of him?"

Charlotte is the first one to recover as she accepts the answer, a bit too fast. "That's Kuro?" The old man nods. Kuro stands in front of us and starts speaking, with his not-so-family-friendly voice: "Sorry about the sudden teleportation. I'm in a bit of hurry when I found out that…"

"Kuro…" Charlotte interrupts him, her hair's covering her eyes so I can't see how her eyes are like now. Kuro tilts his head in curiosity. "Yes?"

*SLAP!* We wince at that loud sound. Obviously Kuro won't feel it, but, if he's in his human form, he would have lying on the ground and massage the place Charlotte just slapped him. Geez, girls do hit hard.

Kuro is extremely surprised at that development, as he turns back his head, after being turned away by the slap, and looks at Charlotte. "Why did you…" Then, Charlotte just hugs him, shaking a bit. "Eh, Charlotte…" "Do you have any ideas how scared I was? Showed me your first kill with that empty eyes, and then just looked down to our place like that? And now you're showing up with this appearance?"

Kuro now realized something: "Wait, so the feeling of a person there…"

Charlotte interrupts him again: "Stop. I don't want to hear your excuses. From now on, you're going to be on my side, whenever you teleport us to anywhere. If you don't, I will ask Compa and IF to punish you together, got it?" She then looks up to show her watery eyes and a pouty face. SO, a little couple drama… Creator, you're running out of ideas.

Kuro then smiles and hugs her back. "I won't. And I'm sorry for scaring you like that." Charlotte's smile returns as she rubs her face to Kuro's body.

Well, at least they understand each other. If it's me and Louise, she would probably just turn away after scowling at me for like, an hour or so.

Seiko suddenly nudges Naomi with her Cheshire's smile. "Hey, Nao-mi. Isn't this what you always want to do with our Satoshi? You could do it now, if you like…" Both of the mentioned blush hard, and Naomi is covering Seiko's mouth before the girl could say anything that could embarrass the poor girl more.

Kishinuma just snickers. "Kuro did tell me that you did it one time to me, Ayumi." The girl blushes. "So? Can't a girl do that when she's scared?" "Hey, I never said that. Seeing Kuro like this just reminded me of the event." Kuro has A LOT of impacts to everyone he knows, doesn't he?

Yui then coughs to get their attentions. "Kuro, if I recalled, you're having some problems about the Book of Shadow, don't you?"

Kuro then turns serious as he releases his hug from his girlfriend. "Follow me." He gestures us to the screens he was looking when we opened the door. One of the people watching the screens turns to us. "Did you have a good tour in this place?"

I deadpan. "I wouldn't call it one, considering the sudden earthquakes, or spacequakes, and the blue flames are too sudden." Then, I turn to Kuro. "Why don't you turn back to your normal form?"

Kuro: "Sorry. If I'm here, I will be stuck like this. No changing before getting out of here." Then, he turns to the screen. "When you're taking the tour, I have scanned through a lot of universes to see if any other copies exist. And guess what, I found two more. One was from normal Earth, in the Shinozaki's old house. However, the Ayumi I saved has taken it with her, so it's safe for now. The other…" One screen is showing that he's trying to connect to someone. "I have to ask the permission of her first."

Malthida: "Permission? For what?"

Kuro: "To talk to the holder of it. *TRANSMISSION CONNECTED*. Okay, we're through." The person appears on the screen is…

?: "I didn't expect a call like this, especially from someone from another universe…"

Kuro: "Sorry about the call, but I need your permission to talk to your…"

?: "I know. The Creator told me about it."

Kuro: "What else did he say to you, other than me calling you?"

?: "He told me enough. I will take care of that problems."

Kuro: "Okay. Tell her she can keep it, but don't let that magician use the book. You girls can read if you want to, but don't use the spells in it."

?: "Normally I wouldn't listen to someone like you, but I don't like my place being trashed around either. Oh, and, when would you come?"

Kuro: "The Creator didn't tell me about that plan, so no, don't know yet."

?: "Fair enough. See you in the future. Oh, and, try to satisfy her desire." The woman points her finger to Charlotte and snickers, while covering her lower face with a fan. What's she implying. Then the screen turns static.

I turn to Kuro. "Is she the one…"

Kuro: "Yes. She's the real deal." Then, he turns to Charlotte. "May I ask what she meant like that?"

Charlotte: "Nothing." Your face says otherwise, Charlotte.

He then turns to us. "I think my work here is done. You want another tour here?"

Colbert: "No, thank you. The smell of blood here is not very…healthy for us."

Agnes asks him: "I think you should explain something to us first, before we returned back to Halkeginia."

Kuro nods and starts talking about his stories, identical to the stories he told with the Goddesses. And he earned another slap from Charlotte for being reckless. First is the staff whacking, then to ice spells, and now straight up slapping… Lucky, or unlucky to Kuro? The others are awe, or terrified about what Kuro has gone through.

In the end, we say our goodbye to the people here, and Kuro teleports us back to his house. And…Plutia, please…

Charlotte suddenly pulls him out of the house, much to his surprise. The others start standing up and are about to leave the house as well, when T.O shows up. "Louise, Agnes, Julio, Sasha, before you go, I need to talk about something."

When we sit back to our seats, T.O speaks: "I want to talk about the plan in a few days. Kuro, Charlotte and Aqua will attack into Joseph's place and eliminate him and take back the throne. During that time, I want you to go to the elves' land and make a treat with them. Once they agree, you ask the current leader to Tristain, the other leaders will take care of the rest. Do you have any objections?"

Julio: "Not exactly an objection. How are we going to convince the elves? Even with Sasha here?"

T.O: "Tiffania will go as well. Also, Bidashal is my friend. If you encounter problems, just call for Bidashal and say you're my friend. He will help you."

Sasha: "Will they ever forgive me for what I have done?"

T.O: "Better that or total annihilation. You elves should understand that better than us."

"Shouldn't Kuro…"

T.O: "After he has done with Joseph, he will be in the meeting. You will meet him there."

"When will these plans take place?"

T.O: "I will inform you once Kuro makes the plan in motion." I nod. "Also, about the visit to Heavenly Host…"

Julio deadpans a bit. "That's not pleasant. And, based on what Louise has said, was Kuro really that cold when he killed the guy?"

T.O: "If you know what that person has done, you're not going to have any sympathies to him."

Louise stutters: "But…in the end…when he looked at us…"

T.O: "According to him, he definitely felt someone there, but he dismissed and thought it's just a ghost of someone when he saw no one there."

"But, about his saving…"

T.O: "That's the mark of the beginning of his journey. The kill was near before he saved the Nine."

And we talk some more before T.O says his goodbye and disappears. The others leave the house, Plutia just…sleeps there, and I return to my room. Kuro hasn't returned though. Wonder what he's doing…

Chapter 14 end!

A little travel to the secret vault (yeah, I know it's an archive, but vault seems better to me) and the Heavenly Host. You can see a few differences from the original Corpse Party. Since you already knew Kuro saved the ones from Blood Covered, so I won't tell much about it.

About some of the bolded words...those are the clues for my next stories. Not immediately after this one, though.

The ending though...your guess. I'm that evil :D.

See you in the next chapters!