Although Juna was concerned about Altina, she knew Jusis would take care of her for now.

She would later ask herself how she could have possibly known, but somehow, she understood that Kurt needed her.

"Kurt," she called out, and the sorrow in her own voice surprised her. The feeling from watching him increase the distance between the two of them made her chest ache, and not just with the effort of trying to keep up.

She was fast, but Kurt was faster, and only the rapid opening and shutting of the front door alerted her to his departure from the building.

Damn him! Nobody was supposed to leave the dorms without a second person accompanying them. What if he ran into a cryptid or a fiend? Or some sort of miasma-crazed person?

As she opened the door, she ran right into Musse and Fie, who had been out shopping.

"I'm so sorry," she blurted out, "but did you guys see which direction Kurt was headed in? I need to talk to him right now."

"We were going to go after him once we dropped off the groceries," Fie said. "He shouldn't be going out alone."

"It's all right. I'm going after him. Which way did he go?" Juna asked again.

"He went in the direction of the campus," Musse told her. "Good luck."

"Thanks. I'm sure I'll find him." Before either could say another word, Juna dashed off again.

"Oh, dear," Musse sighed as she headed for the kitchen. "That wasn't quite why I was wishing her good luck, but I suppose it doesn't matter."

Running as hard as she could, Juna managed to get to the front gate of the Thors main campus just in time to see Kurt disappear behind the main building. Although her lungs burned with the effort, she forced herself to keep up the pace. How far was he intending to go? If he left the area entirely, he would really be putting himself in danger.

But, no, Kurt was smart. He couldn't be planning to go much further.

Eventually, Juna's stamina ran out, and she had to stop to catch her breath for a few minutes. The campus was deserted, leaving behind a sad, slightly eerie atmosphere. However, there was also a strange beauty about the way nature continued to go about its business in the absence of humans. The grass had grown, and so had weeds in the flower beds. The windows of the student union and engineering buildings already looked a bit dusty.

The further she advanced, the more she felt herself being pulled in a certain direction. It was subtle, but something told her she would find Kurt just a bit beyond the engineering building. The feeling—both comforting and unsettling—grew stronger as she headed down a little pathway that ended in a clearing with a single bench and a building that looked much older than the other ones on campus.

"Juna." Kurt turned to her with an odd smile as she sat down next to him on the bench. "Do you know about this place?"

"No, but…" She looked up at the building. It was pretty tall, at least two stories, and she wondered at the fact that she hadn't seen it earlier. "It looks like an old building."

"It is. Apparently it's even older than the rest of the campus. It was built even before the academy's founding."

"Really?" She could almost sense a sort of distortion in the air around it, but there didn't seem to be any danger. "Come to think of it, Instructor Rean did say something about an old schoolhouse somewhere. Wasn't it where the old Class VII found Valimar?"

"Yeah. But nothing's happened here since the end of the civil war." His expression changed, and he looked so sad that Juna felt an urge to hold him. "Last time I was here was while touring the campus with Prince Cedric."

"…I see." Ever since that incident in Heimdallr, hearing the prince's name summoned the memory of Altina nearly being strangled to death. Even now, she had nightmares about that, and about everything that had happened afterward.

"I know I've said this before, but His Highness wasn't always so cruel. He was kind, maybe even a bit timid." Covering his eyes with one of his hands, he continued, "He was shy around girls—considerate—took his duties seriously—" His voice broke.

"Kurt, I…I believe you. Instructor Rean said the same thing." She took his other hand in hers. "Maybe there's—"

"I thought that maybe…" He set his hand back down, as though he had realized it was pointless to hide the tears in his eyes. "…Maybe he was the same person deep down. But seeing the way he handled Altina, I think that all traces of who he used to be are gone, after all.

"I was so furious with him back there, I…I spoke without thinking."

"…What do you mean?"

"What I said about Altina. 'Right now, she's far more human than you are!' And she…she heard me." He shuddered. "I spoke as though she were some sort of…model of non-humanness. Like the punchline was that, 'You're less human than this non-human!' She internalized what I said, and measured herself against Millium in the same way.

"I had to leave. I had to come out here. I didn't want her to see me fall to pieces like this. She can't know—"

Juna squeezed his hand. "I think Allie would understand if you explained it to her."

He returned the squeeze. "Yeah, I know. But that doesn't change the fact that I hurt her, terribly. She's going through so much already, and now she has what I said on top of all that. And I know I can't run from the consequences of my actions. I just want her to stop hurting."

They sat like that for a few minutes, hand-in-hand, their body language doing the talking for them. Eventually, Juna realized that she had rested her head on Kurt's shoulder at some point, and it reminded her of the time he had placed his hand on her shoulder to comfort her outside Crossbell.

She straightened herself. "Kurt."

"Hmm?" Kurt's voice sounded far away as he looked off into the distance.

"I want to help you." She stared at him, willing him to face her, but his head didn't move. "I want to help you…like you helped me, back then. In Crossbell."

Kurt finally turned to look at her, his eyebrows raised in mild surprise. "Juna, you're already helping me. If I didn't have you here, I don't know what I'd do. I'm sorry I made you feel like you needed to do anything more." This time, he was the one to squeeze her hand. "I know I have other people supporting me. But Instructor Rean has so much going on, and so do Altina and Ash—No. That's not…the only reason." His eyes darted to the side, and a faint blush appeared on his cheeks. "I…I really enjoy being with you, Juna. You mean a lot to me, in a way that's different from my other classmates. No matter how tough things get, I think of you and of how you're always smiling—I love your smile, Juna—and I feel comforted."

Her chest tightened, but not in a painful way. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? She longed to ask him if it was true—if he really felt about her the way she felt about him—but his problems were more important right now. She held both her hands in his as she confessed her own feelings. "You mean a lot to me, too, Kurt. I've seen how much you care for other people. How much you want things to be made right when they're not. Together, we fought for justice, and I've never felt more alive than when I'm fighting at your side."

"Oh, Juna." Kurt smiled at her, but quickly turned away as tears sprung once more to his eyes.

"W-what's the matter?" Juna asked.

"I hope you won't take this the wrong way, but just now…" His grip on her hands tightened. "You sounded…like him. Before that whole mess at the end of the civil war, I mean. We would train together sometimes, and he had the biggest grin on his face when we were finished. He always put in his best effort, and he was pretty good, but not boastful or cocky in the least. He wasn't a sore loser, either. Sure, he would get frustrated when he lost in a match against me, but that only made him more determined to give it his all next time." He dropped her hands and buried his face in his own hands. "Sorry, Juna. I guess being compared to someone like him is—"

"No, it's okay," she insisted. "I understand what you mean."

Once again, a few minutes passed in silence.

"Juna…." Kurt took her hand again. "I don't know what it is I'm going to do, now that all this has happened. I don't even know if we'll live to see tomorrow. And even if we do, I might have to go off on my own someday. I…I want to see more of the world. Find my own path—that kind of thing. I know it sounds cliché, but ever since I lost what I believed to be my purpose in life, I've felt like I have no direction." His eyes looked into hers. "I want us to remain friends, even if we have to be apart from each other. Or maybe even—" He stopped speaking and looked back down.

Juna smiled, stood, and placed her hand on his head, which made him look up at her and blush. "I like you, Kurt," she said as she patted his head. "You're going to be okay. And if you need to find your own path, I'll be one hundred percent behind you. Even if we're not physically together, we'll be together in spirit, right?"

Kurt laughed.

The abruptness of his laughter startled her, but then, so had everything else that had happened today. In fact, she had never seen Kurt like this—hands on his stomach, doubled over, gasping because he was using up all his oxygen laughing. "K-Kurt?"

He wiped his eyes. "Juna, that's so like you. I've always found your bluntness to be so refreshing." He smiled at her, and her heart leaped at the sight. "'Together in spirit.' I like that. Let's go with that. Because no matter what happens…I won't forget you, Juna."

"That's how I feel, too." The gentleness of her own voice surprised her, and she realized she was stalling. Soon, the two of them would have to return to the dorms, or everyone else would start to get worried. She sighed. Musse would definitely tease her about it.

"I guess we should head back, huh?" Kurt stood up as well. "I'm glad you chased me here, Juna. You've really cheered me up." He held out his hand. "Let's go together."

That night, everyone crowded into Rean's room to eat cheeseburgers and fries and drink beer, juice, or tea.

"I fucking love cheeseburgers," Crow said as he bit off nearly half from the one in his hand.

"Cut it out, Musse," Ash grumbled as Musse held out a French fry. "Just because I'm not at peak performance doesn't mean you have to treat me like a goddamn baby."

"You seem to be enjoying it, though," Altina said, calmly sipping her grape juice.

"Shut up, bunny." But he did look truly relaxed—almost like his old self.

Juna looked around at Class VII, both new and old. Alisa and Elliot sat together on Rean's bed, and so did Rean himself. His eyes still lacked some of the shine from before all this had happened, but his face had regained its normal color, and his smile was genuine. He caught her eyes for a moment and waved. With her conversation with Kurt fresh in her mind, she grinned broadly as she waved back.

Fie, Laura, and Emma were sitting on a sofa that someone had dragged in from downstairs. Something Fie said made the other two laugh, although Emma was also shaking her head. Laura took a moment to wipe her eyes before replying.

Machias, Jusis, and Gaius were all sitting on the foor, each with a different sort of drink in hand. Jusis, too, had changed—his smile seemed warmer, somehow, even though his eyes looked much sadder than they had before the Gral incident. He said something that Machias responded to by squeezing his shoulder, while Gaius placed his hand on Jusis' head. The peaceful scene was momentarily broken when Crow grabbed some of Machias' fries, but the latter got over it quickly, even chuckling a bit before returning to his conversation with Jusis and Gaius.

And Kurt….

Yes, Musse had teased them, but she had also promised not to tell anyone if they weren't ready to "make it official" just yet.

Strangely, although Juna had been anxious before confessing to Kurt, she felt no urgency to dive into a relationship with him now. She finally understood what Rean and the others had told her about the bond that Class VII shared.

She looked around the room, filled with people she loved, a second time. It had to be her imagination, but her hands still felt warm from Kurt's grip, even as her heart filled with warmth for the rest of Class VII.

It was true that they had a long journey ahead of them. Now that Rean had decided to fight alongside the rest of them, she was determined to ease his burden in any way she could. And she knew there would be heartache and tragedy in the days or even months to come, and that the world might end.

However….

"I'm not as afraid as I was before," she whispered to Kurt. "I feel like, even though I'm going to need to fight like hell to put an end to this Great Twilight thing, I'm ready to take on Gehenna itself. And I think I have you to thank for that."

He took her hand—right here, with everyone in the room—and their fingers interlocked.

"It's going to be all right, Juna," he replied. "As long as we're 'together in spirit.'"

"That's right," Juna agreed. "Because we're Class VII. And as long as we share that bond, we'll never give up."

THE END