The sun rose once again, shining light inside Aloysius's room. He got up with a yawn and squinted at the Sun. He closed the curtains and went to the bathroom to do his routine. He put on a white shirt and the regular blue jeans, again. This time, Aloysius took off his necklace and left it in one of his empty cabinets. He opened his door and no one was waiting for him there. Aloysius ignored it and strolled towards the cafeteria. He sat down at a table and found a coin on a piece of paper. Aloysius clutched the coin and read what was written on the paper.
"Hey, we ate breakfast before you because Mirai and I had some business to do. I mean, her slim body and bust are just so. Haha, I'm just playing with you, anyways, if you have an emergency, run to my dorm." was written on the paper as Aloysius stared at the paper blankly, crumpled it, and threw it in a trash can.
Aloysius took the coin and chucked it somewhere. His breakfast was brought to him, but it was just a plain PB sandwich. Nothing distinctive was made for him, but Aloysius didn't mind and ate his sandwich. Students kept arriving in and ordered their breakfast with a variety of currencies, Yen, Sol, Dong, Pound, USD, Quid, etc.
"So many students from different countries, I wonder how this academy is still here." Aloysius thought as he nibbled on his breakfast.
Mirai was in Tuomo's dorm with him, she wandered around, expecting something. Tuomo perched down on his bed and watched as Mirai observed with curiosity in her eyes. She stopped her movement and reached for a chair. Mirai sat on it and stared at Tuomo blankly.
"So, what do you think of him?" Tuomo asked Mirai.
"Nothing more than a classmate," Mirai said as she rolled her eyes.
"He's pretty much useless, but we need to protect him before the circumstances get dangerous." Mirai thought.
"Mirai, give up on me, I already told you the first time you said it. 'I don't need it'. But, thanks for the nickname you gave me, I appreciate it." Tuomo thanked Mirai as he slightly smiled.
Mirai chuckled and questioned, "What are we going to do about the danger?"
"Defeat him, it's two-on-one after all. The last resort would be to grab the attention of the other guy." Tuomo planned as he got up.
Tuomo reached for Mirai's hand, she took his hand. But instead of getting up, she embraced him with a warm and tight hug.
"Okay, this is last time, now please let go," Tuomo asked politely.
Mirai slowly retreated and stepped outside with a smile.
"Now that he's here, what do you think will happen?" Levi asked.
"I'll leave that up to the both of them, but he will inevitably need my aid." Tuomo deemed.
In the cafeteria, Aloysius had just eaten his breakfast. He got up and walked, blankly, towards the exit leading to a corridor of endless doors. As he reached for the knob, students started to scatter. Aloysius looked around and saw that the lights were flickering. Aloysius continued to open the exit, but soon, everything went dark.
"Well, crap, blackout I guess." Aloysius thought as he sighed.
Not only was the cafeteria dark but as well the other hallways, with some other rooms as an exception. In time, the entire wide cafeteria went from a roaring heap of students to a cold desert. It was so quiet that even the drop of a paper clip could be heard. Not to mention, the silence was eerie as it was sudden.
Aloysius didn't fear anything, after all, the chances of that would be 5 out of 100. He continued to turn the knob to reach his dorm. As the latch slowly came out of the lip, making clicking sounds, Aloysius heard tapping. He stopped and turned around. He looked thoroughly in the darkness but couldn't locate the source of the noise. Aloysius put the thought in the trash and continued to open the door.
"How long will it take you to open the door?" a voice echoed through the walls of the cafeteria.
"I'll do you one better, how long will it take you to kill me?" Aloysius said.
"Guess that guy wasn't wrong," he thought.
"Huh, that guy's always ruining the surprise," the male thought.
"Name's Tatsuya Marr, and you?" he asked.
"Aloysius Nichols," Aloysius responded.
Tatsuya marched towards the center of the cafeteria. He clenched his fist, summoning a mantra enchantment around it. He knelt down and aimed his fist at the floor. His fist then plunged into the black and white marble floor, creating a small and deep crater. Tatsuya took out a lighter from his pocket and crushed it. He tossed the remains down in the crater, resulting in a glowing red flame.
"Strontium is convenient at times like this," Tatsuya said with his face revealed by the light from the flame.
Aloysius finally turned around to face Tatsuya. His decision to leave his necklace in the drawer subsequently became Aloysius's regret.
"You sure did send a shiver down my spine," Aloysius said sarcastically.
"Your thema?" Tatsuya asked.
"Don't have one," Aloysius responded.
"This is gonna be easy then," Tatsuya thought as he smirked.
Aloysius jogged to the center where the crater was. He stared at Tatsuya blankly and offered a handshake. The outcome wasn't one that Aloysius desired.
"You little sh-" Tatsuya paused and struck Aloysius's hand with a mantra enchantment, shattering the bones inside.
"Motherfu-!" Aloysius held in his scream as he felt the shards of bones pick at his veins and pierce through the muscle fibers.
"You're lucky that your hand escaped intact," Tatsuya said.
"Ah, ah, I . . . didn't . . . know you could . . . do that," Aloysius grunted as he paused each time.
His hand was as flimsy as paper, each time he moved a muscle, pain greater than being shot was felt. But Aloysius didn' scream, not even a peep was made from him besides his grunting. He knew he was going to die, but he kept in mind that today wasn't the day. Aloysius scanned the cafeteria, but it was pointless due to how dark it was. He kept going from thought to thought, what if he was going to die, what about his crushed right hand? But he kept calm as his brain raced through every worry. On the other hand, Tatsuya kept worrying about something. As he repeatedly tapped his foot on the ground, he worried about him.
"I really hope he doesn't come, but the only way to make sure is to finish this nice and fast. He won't mind if I did him favor, right? Oh, why am I worrying, I literally have the upper hand against him." Tatsuya thought as he occupied his mind with worries.
"I think I'll do this another way, sorry Mirai." a person thought while in the shadows.
Tatsuya stepped closer towards Aloysius, he moved his hand towards his neck. His plan was to strangle him and then blow his head off. Aloysius meanwhile stood there, clueless as his hand got closer. Then, with the strength of a shark, Tatsuya's hand clenched and tighten around Aloysius's neck.
"Shh, this will be over nice and quick," Tatsuya said as he readied to plunge his mantra enchantment into his face.
Leaping from the darkness was Tuomo in a suit of gray and navy blue. His mouth and nose are also covered by a gray mask. Tatsuya then noticed the dark blue scarf that tagged behind. Right before striking Aloysius's face, Tuomo's ninjato sword blocked Tatsuya's mantra enchantment.
"Sutopenite? How did this guy get his hands on that?" Tatsuya confusingly thought.
He then drew back his mantra enchantment and tried to understand what had happened. Tuomo didn't wait for an answer and dashed towards Tatsuya. He had moved so fast that it had seemed that he teleported.
"Die now!" Tuomo cried as he swung his blade. Tatsuya barely escaped his slash and stumbled on a table. Tuomo saw his chance and dashed once again. His sword swung down but then blocked by Tatsuya's mantra enchantment.
"I won't die that easily," Tatsuya grinned as he used his right arm. He managed to muster enough force to push him back and stood up, with eyes of fury.
Tuomo got pushed down on the floor but he put on a grim smile behind the mask.
He sheathed his ninjato sword and closed his eyes. Tatsuya marched towards Tuomo as he prepared to end, what seemed like an easy duel. Suddenly, Tatsuya was knocked out by a figure wearing all black and white.
"Shh, you're not dead, but, in my world, once again." a familiar distorted voice said.
"Where am I?" Tatsuya thought as he slowly got on his feet.
The area was total blackness, not a ray of light was shining through the sky. He looked down and saw that he was on a body of water. The reflection he saw was normal, but slowly, he morphed into a young woman who had long black hair tied up into a ponytail with a big bow.
"Akio?" Tatsuya questioned in thought.
"Remember the first time you were in this mess?" the guy asked Tatsuya.
"You, didn't you say you wouldn't interfere back at the airport?" Tatsuya said as he gritted his teeth.
"Did I? Huh, I just didn't want to go through the trouble of getting his attention." the guy said with a smirk behind his black mask.
"Oh yeah, that reminds me, I'll let you out if you guess my thema, but I'll go first," he said as Tatsuya reluctantly agreed.
"Gula Archive, your thema is Auxilium, isn't it?" he said with little effort.
"Okay, my turn. You are, Superbia Archive, thema is Imperium!" Tatsuya confidently said.
"Wrong!" the guy taunted. He clapped his hands as he walked in circles.
"When will you learn? I mean, I'm not even using my thema." the guy revealed.
"What? Then are you an Arbitrator or Paladin?" Tatsuya asked.
"Don't compare me to those fools, they died because of their stupidity, if only they read the situation would they still be alive." the guy laughed.
"So, Paladin Biblia, Liber, Kashi, Akasaka, the others too, dead?" Tatsuya worried.
"Blame it on Michael and Toshi, they were the ones who called the shots." the guy said.
"I want to see it," Tatsuya said quietly.
"Excuse me?" the guy said.
"Nevermind, killing you would be better," Tatsuya said as he summoned mantra enchantments on his fists.
"Now we're talking," the guy said as he took out a machete.
"Show me what you got, Tatsuya Marr." he thought as he dashed.
"One more thing, call me Kazios, it'll be easier than referring to me as 'you'," Kazios said as his blade collided with Tatsuya's enchantment.
"Fine by me, Kazios," Tatsuya said as he forced Kazio's blade away.
Tatsuya charged at Kazios, and with unimaginable strength, aimed and thrusted his fist at Kazios face. Kazios, who was standing still, caught Tatsuya's fist. Although his face wasn't visible, Kazios put on a smug face as he had his hand wrapped around Tatsuya's fist, tightening his grip like a boa constrictor. To his surprise, Tatsuya couldn't move his hand, nor could he remove his mantra enchantment, as Kazios strength would pulverize his hand. He only had one option, it was to attempt a hit on Kazios, bare-handed. Tatsuya aimed for Kazios lower torso and struck him hard. Nothing happened but his hand went through Kazios. Smoke emitted as he pulled out his fist. He looked up at Kazios who just stood there as he toughened his grip more and more. Tatsuya had no other choice but to transfer his mantra enchantment to his other hand. He braced himself for the sudden pressure that he was bound to feel. He moved the enchantment to his other hand and felt nothing. Confused, Tatsuya looked up and was met with a machete. Luckily, he was agile enough to block Kazios's blade.
"Stop hiding! There are others out there! I know it so, why do this?!" Kazios yelled at Tatsuya.
"I don't want to be killed by him. My life is on the line right now, and so are theirs. If one of us kills him, we won't have to worry. Although some of us do it for the sake of their connected soul." Tatsuya explained as he got ready to strike again.
"You guys just piss me off, to think you were cowards," Kazios said as he took out a falcata sword.
"New sword huh," Tatuya commented as he started to sprint.
"Yes, I made it with some help from my other allies. It's made out of the hardest material ever created." Kazios grinned as he got in position.
Once again, the two and their weapons, collided with each other. Kazios's falcata sword flew by and scraped Tatsuya's mantra enchantment. Landing on the floor, Tatsuya then turned around on a single step. He hauled his fist and bashed Kazios in his arm. His fist went through Kazios like wind and Kazios noticed Tatsuya's goal. Raising his leg, Kazios rammed his foot into Tatsuya near his lower torso. Tatsuya slumped to the ground in immense pain and unsummoned his mantra enchantment.
"You clever bitch," Tatsuya murmured on the floor.
"You sure know lots of curse words. I might have to cut your mouth wide open to assure that you can't even vocalize again." Kazios replied as he crouched down near Tatsuya.
"I don't want to end your life you know. But I would've killed if I had the chance. So I'll let you go on a whim, of course, I'll let you have a dream." Kazios said as he stood up.
He raised his hand above Tatsuya's face and within seconds, snapped. Tatsuya was soon in a state of sleep while Kazios walked away from him. Everything soon dissipated, even Kazios. The black space was soon gone and Tuomo got up from the ground of the cafeteria. He saw through the windows that it was morning. The light started to shine through as he realized that the students were still sleeping. Tuomo turned around and found out that Aloysius had already escaped. He knew someone was still hiding.
"Mirai, you can come out!" Tuomo's voice echoed as he called out for Mirai.
Mirai came out from a dark corner and was relieved to see Tuomo in his regular attire. Tuomo moved his towards the direction of the exit and walked to it. Mirai nodded and followed Tuomo. As they were walking, Tuomo put on a sinister smile.