Right after Basara and Mio left the room, Basara's phone rang. It was a call from his father, Jin, so Basara answered it
"Hey, Basara. I heard what happened. Are you and the girls fine?"
"Yeah. Luckily, no one got hurt, but they managed to burn down the house. How did you hear so quickly anyway?"
"Ah, we'll take care of the house when we get back. As for how I knew… it's because similar attacks happened everywhere, so it wasn't hard to guess our house had also been a target. Hero villages, cities in the demon realm, even divine temples were attacked. Those attacks were more like messages than anything else."
Basara was surprised. So there were other attacks like the one to his house? Mio couldn't listen to what Jin was saying, but she could make out the gist of the conversation.
"What? So if similar stuff happened in other places… then is it the work of some kind of group?"
"… I suppose you're already involved, so I might as well tell you the story. It might be a bit long, so tell me when you're ready to begin."
Basara called Mio over and they went somewhere private. Basara then put his phone in speakerphone so she could also listen and told his father to start the story.
"This is something from back at the time when there was still a war going on. Most people you ask will tell you about three forces in this war: demons, gods, and heroes. But there was actually a fourth one, unofficially called Reapers. They got that name because they were basically the grim reapers on the battlefield."
"Wait, if they weren't with the gods, demons or heroes, then who were those Reapers?"
"They were a little bit of everyone. They were basically the rowdy bunch that didn't really care about the war, just wanted to fight and profit. You could find anyone there, assassins, mercenaries, even renegades from demons, heroes and gods alike. That lack of unity is one of the things that made them strong, but it was also one of their weakness, along with the fact that they'd happy betray each other. The banishing of the Reapers is one of the things that marked the start of the end of the war."
Basara could understand why they were considered the fourth force during the war. Just the fact that they had people from all races already gave them an advantage and, from Jin's explanation, Basara couldn't imagine anyone weak was able to get in the group. But where had these people been until now?
"They were defeated by something that could be considered a joint operation between the other three forces. Though there was no official alliance, just a 'leak' of information that allowed them to team up against the Reapers. A lot of people died or were gravely hurt, but in the end the Reapers were banned to another dimension. Some thought they'd never come back, while others wondered when they'd come back. I guess now we know who was right."
"Do you think they attacked because they want revenge?"
"Hmm, it's hard to say. It is a possibility, but I wouldn't bet on it. Also, these attacks were nicely organized, which is just not something the Reapers ever did. There's a pretty nice chance that something changed with them in the time they were banned. Still, they should still be just as strong, if not stronger than they were, while most of the powerful people from the other forces are gone. Unless everyone works together, it's not hard to imagine the Reapers killing everything on all the realms."
Both Basara and Mio realized what Jin meant. Even back during the war, when Basara's parents, Mio's father, and other legendary fighters, were walking around, not one singular force had enough strength to drive back the Reapers. Working together, for as hard as it might seem, looks to be the bare minimum requirement for survival now.
"By the way, can you tell me who attacked you guys? Maybe I'll recognize them, or at least it'll help identify the current forces of the Reapers."
Basara told Jin about the twins that attacked the Toujou household. Jin listened attentively and, once Basara was finished, said:
"I don't recognize them. It's possible that I just didn't know about them but… considering you said they seemed to be about 15, maybe they were born in the other dimension. The Reapers were banished before you were born after all, so that's the only thing I can think."
"You really think so? That they might have been born there?"
However, it wasn't Jin's voice who answered, but actually female voices. For some reason, they seemed a bit nostalgic to Basara, though he couldn't associate the voices with any faces.
"As long as there's a man and a woman, anywhere can be easily repopulated."
"Oh, aren't we testimonies to that."
"H-haha, w-why are you two glaring at me? A-anyway, Basara, I'll call you some other time, stay safe. Ah, before I forget, I left something for you on the train station, better pick her up before the spell to keep people away wears out."
Jin finished the call before Basara could ask anything. Even Mio was confused by everything, but they decided it would be best to head for the train station and see what Jin meant.
Basara was able to correctly guess which train station his father was talking about. Basara and Mio headed in, even though there was no one there because of the spell Jin had mentioned.
On the deserted station, Basara and Mio found a green haired girl knocked out. They knew who she was, as they had already met her before during a certain incident. It was a girl from the hero clan called Anna.
To simplify a long story, Anna had started out as an enemy of Basara, but after a lot of things happened she ended up teaming up with him. More stuff happened and the last time Basara had seen her she had decided to travel around for a while.
Although Basara was curious why Jin knew where she was, and also why she's knocked out like this, he decided it was best if he woke her up first.
"Hey, wake up."
"Mmh."
He tried shaking her, but it didn't seem like she would wake up like that. Even Mio tried, but it didn't work. They both even tried shouting in her ear, but nothing.
"I don't know who knocked her out, but they did a really good job at it."
Mio said half-jokingly, and Basara honestly had to agree with her.
"Maybe we should take her back to Chisato's apartment. Maybe there's some sort of magic or something that's keeping her unconscious."
After trying all they could think of, Basara proposed that. Either Anna had been the heaviest sleeper out there, or something was keeping her from getting her consciousness back. At least that's what they guessed.
Mio helped put Anna on Basara's back and so they walked back to Chisato's apartment. Luckily, they weren't that far away and somehow weren't questioned as to why they were carrying an unconscious girl around.
"Oh, Basara-san, Mio-sama, welcome- what?!"
Maria almost couldn't contain her surprise, and that ended up calling Chisato and Celis over. Zest, Yuki and Kurumi didn't come, so maybe they were out? They actually were, but Basara didn't know at the time.
Basara explained to Chisato how they had found Anna and asked her to take a look to see if there was any magic at play or something.
Mio and Maria helped Chisato. It seemed that Chisato and Maria had been talking for a while, so while they couldn't be called friends yet, they at least didn't seem like strangers. Mio mostly kept herself silent and did what was asked of her, but Basara knew things wouldn't work out if he couldn't get them to at least talk with each other, but he also knew he shouldn't force things.
Basara was inevitably left with Celis. Even though she wasn't one of his lovers, things were a bit awkward because of what happened last night, but he still tried to start a conversation.
"I guess I owe you some apologies as well. You were just supposed to keep an eye on us, but ended up getting involved in this mess, I'm sorry for that. And also for what you had to see yesterday."
"Well… don't worry about it. But really, you have a harem of girls, why did you figure you needed more, and that you needed to hide her from the others?"
Celis sounded irritated, for some reason. Basara even felt a bit intimidated.
"T-things got complicated really quick. I know I messed up, but I didn't want to hurt anyone."
Basara seemed really down. It was clear he regretted what had happened, so Celis told him it was fine, but that he should show that to the other girls.
"By the way, who is that? … Is she another girl you were hiding a relationship with?"
"N-no" "actually, except for the hiding part, you could say- geeh" Basara threw one of the couch's pillows at Maria and pretended she had never spoken a word as he continued. "She used to be an enemy, but then we started working together. It had been a while since I had last seen her."
Basara didn't seem to be lying, so Celis let him go. Not long after that, Chisato said she had finished looking into what she could and then reported what she found.
"Well… there doesn't seem to be any magic or anything of the kind keeping her unconscious, even though we tried everything we could think of to wake her up. From what I could tell, she just got hit in the head really, really hard, so just give her some time before she wakes up."
Since Chisato said so, there was nothing they could do but wait. Luckily, it didn't take more than ten minutes after that for Anna to start waking up.
"Ow, my head. Where…?"
"Oh, you're finally up."
Basara explained to Anna where she was and how they had found her. Since this wasn't her first time in Chisato's apartment, she was able to get used to things pretty quick.
"So, what do you remember? Do you feel strange somewhere?"
"I remember after we parted ways, I was traveling for some time and then I met… I can't remember. My head hurts. Also, I feel weak for some reason."
When she tried to get up, Anna almost fell down, but Basara was able to catch her and make her lay down again. Chisato said she was going to try to look a bit more into it now that Anna was awake.
For now, at the very least, they were save. But some more trouble was brewing just around the corner.
This was just the start of a new war, one that came from the ashes of the previous one.
