A little past midnight, Saito gently shook Louise awake. "It's time," he said. "Already?" She asked, a little disappointed. "It's been so nice here..." "I know," Saito sympathized. "Hopefully we can come back soon. But first thing's first: we've gotta break into the airbase." The girl nodded, stretching her arms out in an attempt to wake herself up.

The duo was met by Keiko, who had prepared coffee and walked them to the door. "Please be careful, whatever it is you're doing," she said, hugging her son. Saito nodded, "We'll come back, I promise." Keiko then turned to Louise, surprising the girl by bringing her into a gentle hug as well. "I know you don't understand me," she said, looking into the her eyes. "But please, look after my son? He tends to get in over his head."

Louise seemed to get the meaning however, and gave a smile with a nod of affirmation. Saito slightly rolled his eyes as they walked away from the house. "I get in over my head? Oh, the stories I could tell you, Mom..." he muttered. Louise elbowed the boy playfully, "I heard that."

It took nearly a half hour of walking, but they presently made it outside the Iruma Air Base. "Looks like they have a guard in place," said Louise, looking towards the gate in the road. "That figures," Saito replied. "There's probably rotating security patrolling the perimeter too. We'll have to get the timing right if we don't wanna get caught."

Making their way down the fence line, Saito brought out his knife to cut through the links. "Is it that time, Partner?" Asked Derf. "Just about," the boy replied, making a cut. "I'm just glad you're strong enough to slice through this metal." "An enchantment was placed when this weapon was forged," the knife explained. "Whoever set this up clearly wanted ya to have the best."

"Siesta and the Academy staff had it made for him," Louise remembers fondly. "That explains it," Derf replied. "I can definitely feel the love that was put into this form." "Can switch into other weapons at will?" Asked Saito, slicing another link. "Well to put it more accurately, my essence only transferred into your runes after the Dragon destroyed my physical form," explained Derf. "I thought I was done for until I suddenly woke up in this knife. Personally, I don't wanna chance it trying to switch into something else."

"Fair enough," the boy nodded, slicing through the last bit of link. "Alright, that's it. Let's get going." Saito and Louise hurried across the grassy field, eventually making it to the runway. "Let's put our cloaks back on," suggested Louise. "They're dark and will help us blend in with the night." "Good point," Saito reached into his bag and removed his Chevalier's Mantle and Louise's Academy cloak.

"Which one holds the planes?" She asked, putting her hood up. Saito peered through the dark and pointed across the runway towards a hanger. "That one," he said. "With any luck, the one we need is already prepped and loaded with gas and ammunition. All we have to do is use your World Door to take it back with us."

They hurried towards the hanger, hiding against the wall to avoid potential detection. "But still, I've never made a portal that big," Louise replied worriedly. Saito took a breath, knowing it would come to this. "In that case, we'll have to use my Lífþrasir runes," he said.

"We can't!" Exclamed a shocked Louise. "Using that power-" "I know the risk," the boy replied. "But right now, we've got no choice." "Saito, you barely survived the last time you enhanced a Void Spell," Louise grabbed onto his jacket, looking into his eyes with fear. "I've almost lost you twice already, I won't let it happen again!"

Saito gently took the girl's hands into his own. "This won't be like with the Pope's magic," he assured. "All we need is a portal big enough to get the plane through. Five or six seconds of using the runes at most, I can definitely hold out that long."

"Are you sure?" She asked hesitantly. "Like I said, we've got no choice," Saito replied, looking around the corner. "Coast is clear, now's our chance," he said. But before he could continue forward, Louise pulled him back into a passionate kiss. It was unexpected on his side, but he quickly reciprocated with passion of his own. After a moment, the two separated, gazing into each other's eyes.

"You'd better not die on me again," Louise said. "Or I swear to Brimir, I'll kill you." "That doesn't even make sense!" Saito laughed. "You can't kill me if I'm already-" "Y-you know what I mean!" Louise retorted, blushing and looking away slightly. "There's so much we still haven't done. And now that we're together..."

"I know, Louise," Saito said quietly, his hand caressing her cheek. "I'll tell you what: once this dragon's taken care of, we'll go on a real date. Assuming we live through it, of course." "Of course we will!" Louise smiled brightly. "When the two of us work together, nothing on any world can stop us!"

The boy nodded confidently, and the two rush into the hanger where a row of fighter planes sat ready to be deployed. "This is it," said Saito, singling out the aircraft from before. "Climb up into the cockpit, I'll get the chocks out of the wheels." Louise hurried up the ladder as Saito made his way around the landing gear and began to pull out the rubber blocks.

"Hey you!!" Saito immediately froze, a beam of light hitting him from behind. "What do we have here?" Said an all too familiar voice. The boy didn't dare turn his head, lest he be recognized by the one man he feared most of all. His former drill instructor, Sergeant Ishii Watanabe.