Chapter 35 – Afesi Amartion

"You look… familiar…" Cerulean attempted to make out the face of the one who saved him. It was rather hard to do that, however, as the saviour had a mask, white clothes, and wings that completely concealed his identity. Maybe he really didn't recognize that face after all. "Have I seen you somewhere before?"

"Hmm…" The masked man turned around, using a voice that also seemed familiar to Cerulean. "I don't think so. At any rate, I'm just glad that you're all right."

"Oh, cut the small talk!" Hireashi grew impatient at the idle mood about the chamber. "You got in my way, so therefore, you must die!"

"Apostle Cerulean, you must run for cover," the masked man advised, aiming his bizarre-looking weapon at Hireashi. "I'll take on this scum on my own."

"W-Wait! There's still so much I need to-"

"Yaaah!" The masked man, without giving Cerulean another word, began an assault on Hireashi with little regard for his own safety.

"Do you honestly think you can defeat me?" Hireashi smirked as he readily accepted this stranger's challenge. "If the high-and-mighty Apostle Cerulean can't, then neither can you!"

"I bet I can," the masked man scoffed. "After all, all I'm facing is an oversized, annoying pufferfish, whose greatest talent is probably lazing around in a fishbowl all day."

"You'll pay for that!" Hireashi retorted, swinging his fins about in an attempt to hit the masked man, but to the dark god's chagrin his attacks did no good.

Meanwhile, Cerulean greatly admired the fighting style of this masked man, as it was quite unlike anything he had seen before. He almost wanted to join in, but… could he really trust a complete stranger?

Aurite certainly could, because not long after Cerulean contemplated helping the masked man, the Chevalier spoke, "Apostle, with all due respect, I cannot let this new ally of ours just take on the dark god on his own. I shall help him."

"But Kinshiro… Do you really think you can do it? Even I had a hard time!"

"I most certainly can," Aurite declared as he regenerated the golden aura from before. "Because I have faith this time that the gods can bring us a victory today."

With this proclamation, Aurite let the golden aura enshroud him, making him more gorgeous than he already was. Interested to see what could possibly be trying to stop him, Hireashi diverted his attention from the masked man to witness Aurite's transformation. "Hah! You think you can defeat me with oh so pretty sparkles? If you think that good looks can be enough to win a battle, then you've got-"

Hireashi could say no more, because after Aurite's transformation had completed, the Chevalier shot a shock wave of gold in the dark god's direction. Even the masked man felt the need to express his admiration in this sudden show of power. "Wow… I'm, uh… quite impressed, Chevalier Aurite."

"So…" Perlite, who with his other allies had taken a temporary break from slaying spirit monsters, turned his attention to his general. "I'm not the most beautiful person in the world after all. Someone has managed to match my beauty."

"Kinshiro…" Cerulean admired the new form the student council president had taken and the beauty he exuded. Aurite was now clad in pure white, with wings to match. Even the Aurum Blade had become the same colour, and it radiated in a pale light that surrounded Aurite, giving him an angel-like appearance.

"What is the meaning of this?" Hireashi, slightly daunted by the new Chevalier, tried to conceal his fear in a hoity-toity voice. "You false apostle! How dare you think to challenge me, when you know how powerless you are!"

"Fool, I am not powerless." To prove his point, Aurite spread his wings and cast a crater in the nearby wall with the Aurum Blade. "I am More Better Chevalier Aurite, and I will ensure that your evil ways will today be put to an end."

"You're all talk and no bite, I'm sure…" Hireashi taunted as he readied a slew of attacks. "Little do you know that it is you who will be put to an end. I'm going to beat you good, you hear?"

"Hah!" Aurite smirked as he joined the masked man in battle. "Do your worst."

As Aurite proceeded to further showcase his new battle prowess, Cerulean couldn't help but contemplate how the Chevalier managed to summon that much power in the first place, or why. Didn't he know that only the true apostle of Suijin could stand a chance against Hireashi? …And for that matter, why did a mysterious masked man try his hand at such a daunting task? Worst of all, why am I still standing here? Why do I wait while my comrades do all the fighting for me?

Cerulean wasn't sure what to make of the fact that neither Aurite nor the masked man seemed to mind that he distanced himself from the Hireashi battle. The two men seemed to fend of the dark god just fine.

"You move… quite well," Hireashi spoke of the masked man's fighting style. "But it's not enough to defeat me!"

"Oh, I bet it is!" Aurite replied. "Two great minds think alike, you know. A stupid pufferfish is no match for the two of us."

"You have a penchant for insults, my friend." The masked man gave a hearty laugh. "And great bladework, for that matter."

"Likewise." Aurite winked at the masked man as he aimed for Hireashi's lower fins with an Aurum Arrow, eliciting a minor grunt of pain from the giant fish. "My archery skills are quite awesome, too. I'll have you know that I've won a few youth championships when I was a child."

"What a fine, fine man you are to have so many talents. I'm sure you've a brilliant mind, too."

I never knew Kinshiro could be so… laid-back, Cerulean thought of how Aurite seemed to suddenly bond with the masked man. I always thought that he was the type to shut just about everyone off… I guess I was wrong. Maybe deep down, he's a really kind and friendly guy.

"Not brilliant enough, apparently." Hireashi didn't like how the two men could have such a lax attitude around him, as if fighting him were effortless. "Not brilliant enough to hold me off for long."

"What are you going to do?" Aurite apparently let the jovial mood inspire a bit of arrogance. "Knock me off my feet with your fins?"

"Precisely!" Hireashi took advantage of this sudden haughtiness, which to his fortune had caused Aurite to temporarily drop his guard – and allow him to get knocked to the ground in an awkward face plant.

"Ack!" Aurite had a hard time regaining his footing, as the headache he suffered from the face plant diminished his focus.

"Aurite!" The masked man wanted to save Aurite, he really did, but… distance was not on his side. There was no way that he would get to Aurite in time…

But there was someone who could – someone who would stand by his comrade without a second thought, someone who blocked an incoming, powerful fin strike from coming down on Aurite.

"What is the meaning of this? You, protecting a false apostle – the one who killed your boyfriend, and a complete traitor to his own comrades? Are you insane?"

"Quite the opposite, actually," Cerulean replied with sincerity. "If you attack Kinshiro, you attack me. He's too precious a friend for me to just let you harm him so readily. And unlike you, I can have sympathy for those who are in anguish. Kinshiro has endured more emotional pain than you can ever understand… For you to speak so ill of him, even after all that… I pity you for having such a dark heart."

Aurite would have let the genuineness of Cerulean's words move him to tears with their emotion, had the masked man not suddenly taken advantage of Hireashi being distracted, seizing the humongous fish with his magic and suspending him in the air.

"What do you think you're doing?" All of a sudden, Hireashi's notorious might seemed as nothing, as he was completely ensnared in a veil of peculiar magic.

"Aurite! Apostle Cerulean!" The masked man addressed the comrades as he struggled to keep Hireashi contained. "The two of you must put an end to Hireashi, now! Combine your powers!"

"Combine… our powers?" Aurite at first thought that this notion sounded a bit ridiculous, but after witnessing how dearly Cerulean wanted to protect him… jointly defeating Hireashi with the guy didn't seem like such a bad idea after all. With the Aurum Blade in his hands, he proposed, "Okay. Your Eminence, if it's not too much trouble… Would you please give me your hands?"

"All right." Cerulean returned the warm smile Aurite gave to him as he acquiesced to the request. In doing so, the two imbued each other with a vigorous energy that manifested itself in their weapons, now fused into one mighty and gorgeous blade. Having confidence in his dear friend, Cerulean gripped the sword firmly and spoke, "Kinshiro… Let's do this."

In response, Aurite nodded as he held his hands over Cerulean's, with the intent to impale Hireashi with their sword. And impale the dark god they did, eliciting an agonized cry of demise. As Hireashi began to fade in the atmosphere, the ground began to violently shake, stirring a storm of powerful winds throughout the headquarters that nearly blew everyone off their feet.

"Ugh…" Aurite, who wasn't exactly known for keeping his balance very well, struggled to hold on, that was until Cerulean gave him another look of reassurance.

"Kinshiro… Be strong. It will be over soon."

Aurite needed only that look to endure what would be a rather long defeat of the dark god. But that defeat was well worth it, because after Hireashi had truly disappeared, the surrounding land had been turned to normal, and once again everyone could relish in the peace they once knew. For once in a very long while, war did not plague the city, and the air truly felt refreshing to breathe. Feeling a bit tired, but not overly exhausted, Kinshiro and En spoke in chorus, "Love is… over."

"It… truly is, " Yumoto noted as in the course of Hireashi's defeat, everyone had reverted to normal form. "I'm just sorry that I couldn't do more to help you guys."

"Don't worry your pretty head about it!" Kinshiro smiled at Yumoto and gave him a pat of the back. "Now, about me repaying you for that 'mitten of gauze' thing…"

"But you already have – you've saved everyone, Kusatsu-sempai. You were really brave and looked totally cool while doing it, too."

In response to this charming compliment, Kinshiro blushed. "I'm not the only one you should thank… If anyone, you should thank the masked man."

"Speaking of that guy…" En spotted his saviour, who now wore rather ordinary clothes, easily, "he's still wearing his mask. You think that in all this mess, it would have at least flown off of his face."

"It's stuck on pretty well," the masked man replied. "It would only come off if I took it off."

"By the way," En began as everyone began to walk somewhere – they really didn't know or care where, they just wanted to enjoy their newly renewed peace. "Who are you, where did you come from, and why did you decide to help us?"

"I'm not telling you that. Why do you think I have this mask on?"

"Okay, okay, if you insist." En let the matter slide. For some odd reason, he had only just remembered something very important that he forgot… and that was his boyfriend, Atsushi. "Craaaap! In all of this mess, I somehow lost Atsushi's body!"

"You did?" Io asked, rather worried that in the cyclone Hireashi's defeat generated, Atsushi's body could have been blown off to gods know where. "You don't even have any idea where he could have gone off to?"

"No!" In a bit of a panic, En asked the masked man. "Hey, dude, if you can help me again, did you see a body with dark blue hair and glasses on his face? His name's Atsushi, and he's my boyfriend."

"I'm sorry to say that I haven't," replied the masked man. "I wish I did, though… Forgive me for being unable to help you."

"Oh, well…" En frowned, regretful that he was foolish enough to lose his own boyfriend. "At least now, his soul truly is at peace, and I have fulfilled my vow to him… Even if I do not have his body, I have that vow."

"If… you say so." For whatever reason, the masked man appeared slightly embarrassed.

"If you happen to see him, though, could you call me, and tell the police?"

"I will, friend." The masked man nodded with a smile as he proceeded for a particular path, quite aware of where he now wanted to be. "Now, if you'll excuse me, there are people who we need to go see."

"Besides our family members? Who are you talking about?"

"Your friends and loved ones at Binan High who are all worried sick about you guys."