I specifically remember adding to this chapter for that one reviewer who asked for Shun x Alice.

"Through mountains high and valleys low,

The ocean through the desert snow,

We'll say goodbye to the friends we know,

This is our Exodus…"

"Exodus 04", Utada Hikaru

On the way to school that following Monday, Dan was running. He was in a huge rush, coupled with the excitement he felt.

"Dan! Please slow down!" Said Drago, who was in his jacket pocket. "You're making me sick!" Dan slowly paced down to a walk. He laughed a bit.

"Sorry there, Drago. But I have to see Runo."

"Runo-sama?" Dan had come to realize that Drago would call literally anyone "-sama" if he knew them. For example, just earlier today, when Dan was eating breakfast, Drago was in his pocket. Dan's mom was cooking, and Drago said to her, "Thank you for the meal, Honored Matriarch-sama" (presumably for Dan, as he didn't say "Itadakimasu" when he began to eat).

Dan nearly freaked out at that moment, as he hadn't told his parents about Drago yet (nor did he plan to). And then Miyako just continued to cook, as though she didn't hear Drago's incredibly deep voice. The fact that Miyako didn't hear Drago was less disturbing than the fact Drago called her "Honored Matriarch".

"Just call her Runo." Dan said to the marble.

"Very well." Drago stayed silent for a few moments, before asking, "What is it you need to see her for?"

"Well...you. She's as much a part of this as Marucho and I. Who knows, maybe her beast is already with her."

"I doubt it..." Drago whispered to himself.

"What was that?" Dan asked.

"Nothing." Dan shrugged and continued on his way, humming a short tune before stopping at his school.

"Listen, Drago. I have to go to soccer practice, so you'll have to wait for a bit in my locker." Dan told him. "Now don't worry, it's just a dark place with no way for you to escape. You should just calmly do...whatever it is you beasts do."

"I shall wait, then." Drago firmly said. Dan took that as a sign that it was okay to do that (he was silently praying that this wasn't considered animal abuse) and walked inside the building.

When Dan was 7, a classmate's mother died, and the school responded by decorating the entire school in pity messages-which sucked because at the end of the day, Dan's class had to clean it up. Honestly, what he was looking at wasn't on that grand of a scale, but it still let him know something was wrong.

For one, there were waaay more students than usual for so early in the morning. Two, most of them, especially the girls, seemed sad.

"Erm..."

"Ah, Kuso!" Dan turned to see a teammate of his from the soccer team, Minamura Kouichi. Kouichi walked over to Dan. "I just thought you should know there isn't any practice today. I just found out myself."

"...Why?" Dan questioned.

"Well there was this girl on the Kyūdō team. She got injured over the weekend pretty badly, and now everyone is just praying for her together." Kouichi informed. "Turns out she was really well known."

"I've never heard of her." Dan spoke. He rubbed the back of his head. Kyūdōka, hm? It didn't feel like a familiar term to him.

"Same here. But apparently she was this hot shot. 5th dan or something like that." Kouichi said. "I'm just gonna pray a bit and then head on out to the field for some practice."

"Okay. I'll be out there soon." Dan had zero intention of staying around for long, but he still had to pay respects. After Kouichi walked away, Dan maneuvered himself through the crowd towards the classroom the student was in.

'Odd...' Dan thought. 'They were in my class.'

"Kuso-kun!" He heard someone shout from behind him. He turned slightly and saw Runo's friend running up to him.

"Hm?"

"K-Kuso-kun...I have something big to tell you...we...need to go in private." She said through heavy pants (did she run from somewhere?).

"What is it? It can wait right? I wanna pray for this person."

"Kuso-kun, it's about...Runo." That got his interest.

"What is it?" The girl only motioned for him to follow her as she walked out of the crowd. Confused, Dan followed her until they reached the Kyūdō dojo. By the way, what was her name? Asumi? No, that wasn't it...

Dan was really bad with names.

"Kuso-kun," The girl said after walking inside. "Runo is in the hospital."

"What?!" In addition to wondering about her well being, Dan got a feeling that the beasts had something to do with it.

"We...We were at the mall on Saturday and she was telling me about your history together...and then she blacked out and was hitting her head against the table." Dan clenched his fist. He felt like that behavior was familiar. "Then this girl came out of nowhere and said she would help her. And she touched Runo's head and she also blacked out for a short time. But they regained consciousness. Runo said that the girl was the Australian girl you used to play with...the girl said she had to "take the light" from Runo. Shortly after they both began to speak in another language. And then Runo fainted. I didn't know at that time, but she slipped into a coma. The Australian girl said she felt sick and ran away."

At this point Dan was squeezing his eyes shut tightly as he faced downwards. He knew what she was going to say next.

"The doctors said she had no reason to do that. Fall into a coma, I mean. They're not even sure if she'll wake up."

"Stop." Dan whispered, squeezing his fists. "It's...too familiar..."

"What? Are you saying...?"

"It's happened before...It wasn't supposed to happen again, but!" He quickly turned towards the door and ran out.

"Dan?" Drago asked. He had been silent in his pocket.

"Even Julie's aware...now Runo's back in coma..." Dan was muttering to himself as he ran away from the school. "This is bad..."

"Has this happened before?" Drago asked.

"Yes." Dan answered. "Back when we first began to play our game. It was...I'll explain later. For now, we have to get to Marucho."

"Why?"

"Don't question me."

"Fairest Queen of light. I command you to tell me of the prophecy you have seen." Shun was stern in his tone of voice. Runo closed her eyes as she swung back and forth on the swing set.

"Hm...The God Lars Lion has spoken to me and given me a vision of your downfall." She said jokingly. "It involves the Kingdom of Darkus. You may want to watch out."

"Quit your joking!" Shun yelled. The two of them were alone in the park. Shun had called Runo alone here. "What has Lars Lion showed you about the alien invaders?" Runo sighed as she made herself slow down.

"Why must it always be about that? How do you even know I received a vision?"

"Don't worry about how I know. Tell me what you saw." Runo relented under Shun's glare.

"Fine." She closed her eyes again, trying to get back into her peaceful world. "Lars Lion showed me a young man. Maybe in Junior High. He was working with some person...on something. He said to the person, "Will this be enough to invade?" And the person replied, "Yes." After which, the young man left and went into a room of blue. A young child, older than us but younger than him, was stubbornly sitting next to a older man." There was a sharp change in Runo's voice as she spoke next. "The older man wanted to know if a planet was good enough. He asked the young man, "Is this world suitable? Is there no resistance to our coming?" And the young man replies, "Sire, no. All we have seen are wild beasts who would be of no problems to us. Several scouts have said they have also seen young children, but have produced no evidence as to these sightings, and after scourging the planet personally, I have found no homes or anything suggesting sentient life. It is quite a mystery as to what had caused all of those previous scouting ships to disappear." The older man seemed pleased at hearing that. He then says to the young man, "Prepare to invade and establish the first colonies. Whatever it is that's out there, it cannot beat pure numbers."" Runo coughed and opened her eyes, holding her head.

"Ow..."

"Are you okay?" Shun said. He seemed to be digesting the information.

"Y-yeah..." She flinched and began to hold her head. "I just...feel a little sick..."

"Do you need me to...?"

"No!" Runo smiled. "I-I'm fine...I think..." Shun stared at the younger girl, before getting distracted by the fact that his stomach did a double take. He had to cover his mouth with one hand, and hold onto a nearby pole with another just to keep himself up.

"...Idiots. Summoning their beasts when we aren't even together..." Shun muttered as he recovered. "Come on, Runo. Let's go-" He stopped when he saw that Runo had fallen onto the ground. Her eyes were closed. She wasn't moving.

"R-Runo?" Shun ran over to her and shook her. "Are you okay? Hey, wake up Runo. Runo. Runo, wake up!" She didn't wake up.

"Shun?" That soft voice snapped him out of his daydream. The 16 year old turned around to see a certain auburn haired girl standing behind him. "Are you okay?"

Shun nodded. "Yeah. I just..." He trailed off, before picking up his sentence. "I was just remembering something."

"Is it...?" Shun nodded.

"Yeah."