Chimera prowled around the edges of the antique shop as Mayu explained her plan; it seemed to him to be something along the lines of recreating a situation that had solved the problem in order to create a solution, which was one of the most ridiculous rationales he had ever heard. If this was the result of the training Haruto's mentor had provided, Chimera was not impressed.
"You want to do what?" Haruto was saying.
"The Sabbath was how Fueki reached all the Gates in the first place," Mayu said, stumbling slightly over her mentor's name. She didn't attach an honorific to it, or a title of any kind; Chimera was fairly sure this held some sort of significance, given the half-defiant expression that flickered over her face so quickly he wasn't sure he'd actually seen it as she said the name. "I'm not saying we recreate the entire thing, but we could reach the entire city simultaneously."
Haruto, despite his clear exhaustion, was sitting up straight, peering at whatever Mayu was pointing at with interest. "We still need the same power source," he said. "And a focus." He reached around her and tapped his finger on what Chimera could now see was one of Fueki's books.
"The connection was the first part of the ritual," Mayu said, which didn't answer Haruto's question. "See, here." She flipped pages back and forth, and Haruto nodded.
"The power source," he said again. Chimera had a sneaking suspicion as to where Haruto was going with his question, and he sighed.
Finding that he still held Kosuke's soul changed matters; Chimera couldn't abandon Kosuke's body without knowing if Kosuke's soul would be trapped in it. He'd snapped the connection between the two, and he knew that if he left the body, it would die. Leaving Kosuke's soul tethered to a decaying organic husk was a deeply repugnant thought, although Chimera wasn't sure he would have cared enough for it to affect his actions even a few months ago.
As far as Chimera could tell, Kosuke's soul was intact, despite Chimera's attempts to break through it on more than on occasion. He still hadn't been able to speak to Kosuke, and any attempt to enter Kosuke's real Underworld just put Chimera back into the featureless box from which he'd tried to escape the day of the Sabbath so few months ago. He'd tried to approach Haruto with the situation, despite Haruto's peculiar reaction to Chimera's attempt to return his feelings, only to find Haruto thoroughly distracted by first a fight and then a severe lack of mana.
Chimera had, for the first time that he could remember, voluntarily siphoned mana into another living being. It had been tricky, and the matter hadn't been helped by Haruto's friend demanding to know what he was doing. Haruto's friend had insisted on calling Chimera by Kosuke's name, even after Chimera had corrected him. Haruto, predictably, had woken from the mana transfusion only to jump headlong into the next crisis, and Chimera was dismayed to discover that his own feelings on the matter had inexplicably shifted from irritation at the waste of resources to affection for Haruto and his bizarre behavior.
"Chimera?"
At the sound of his name, Chimera looked up. He'd ended up staring out the front window at his bike reflecting the afternoon sunlight. "What?"
"Would you?" Haruto pressed.
"Would I what?" Chimera had no idea what he'd asked to begin with, and the wary expression on Mayu's face in conjunction with the entreaty on Haruto's set off mental warning bells.
"The ritual," Haruto started, and Chimera resisted the urge to bury his face in his hands. It was a very human gesture, and he was not going to mimic it.
"You want me to be a power source," he said flatly, fairly sure he was correct. "Because you're going to be the focus."
"Technically Koyomi is the focus," Haruto said, which was essentially the same. Chimera bared his teeth at Haruto, and when had he started referring to the man by his given name in the privacy of his own head.
"You're the conduit for the ritual to reach Koyomi," Chimera said. "Don't split hairs with me. Besides," he added, when it looked like Haruto was going to argue with him anyway. "You're still connected to all of them, or you wouldn't react so poorly every time one of them hatches."
"The ritual needs four wizards to act as the initial power source," Mayu said before Haruto could so much as open his mouth. It was a commendable effort to keep the conversation on track. "I'd be one. If Mr. Yamamoto and Yuzuru agree, then we need one more, and I think you're close enough for it to work."
"The original ritual," Chimera said. "Its intent was to drain the wizards completely."
"That's the interesting part," Mayu said, and Chimera revised his opinion of her upwards. He hadn't seen her display practicality to quite that high of a level, in the sense that the life of a fellow wizard became a resource to be used. "There are supposed to be safeguards to keep a power source from being fatally drained. Fueki altered the ritual to bypass them, in order to get more power."
Chimera's opinion of Mayu went right back to where it had been to begin with, albeit with some appreciation for her ability to ferret out useful information. "What about the focus?" he asked.
"I…" Mayu glanced at Haruto, chewing on her bottom lip. "I'm not sure. There weren't any safeguards for the focus with the Sabbath, because Koyomi was receiving all the mana."
Another human gesture hovered at the edge of Chimera's conscious mind; this time he wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose. He kept his hands firmly where they were. "You could die," he said to Haruto.
"I don't think I would," Haruto said, demonstrating once again his lack of self-preservation.
Chimera was of the opinion that Haruto was a remarkably poor judge of personal risk, and said so. Haruto responded with wishful thinking and zero concept of a safety net. Chimera snarled at that, and stalked off to the other side of the shop.
"You're still contracted to me," he said, finally, stabbing a finger towards Haruto. "I can't collect if you're dead. I don't want –" His throat closed off, and it took him several moments to clear it. "I don't want you to die," he said, finally. Worry about someone else's survival was a new experience for Chimera, and he wasn't sure he liked it.
Haruto crossed the floor on feet that were less steady than he was trying to let on – Chimera knew him well enough by now to be able to tell – and wrapped his arms around Chimera in what was supposed to be a comforting hug. "It's going to be okay," he said. "I'm the last hope."
"Don't give me that line," Chimera said, but he was holding onto Haruto tightly enough to make his arms ache. "That's a ridiculous line."
"It's the truth." Haruto pulled away, gently. Chimera didn't want to let him go. "Everything is going to be okay," Haruto said again, and Chimera wanted to hate him for the lie. "Will you do it?" Haruto asked, and Chimera remembered that Mayu had wanted to substitute him for a wizard providing power to the ritual.
"I'm low on mana," he said, dodging the question. It was technically true, even if he'd eaten the remains of the Phantom he'd found Haruto fighting, in the sense that low meant not completely full rather than running out.
"I can," Haruto started.
"Are you out of your mind?" Chimera snapped, and Haruto flinched back with a hurt expression. "Fine," Chimera said, just to make it go away. "I'll do it." He regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth, but the way Haruto's face lit up was almost enough to quiet his reservations. "If Yamamoto and Yuzuru agree, I'll do it," he amended.
Haruto hugged him again. Chimera did not feel that it was the appropriate response to his enabling Haruto to carry out a ritual that was likely to kill him.
"I still think you're going to die," he said, the words coming out sulky.
"You're being overdramatic," Haruto told him. An accusation of melodrama coming from a man who ran around making flashy entrances and declaring himself to be the last hope was untenable. Chimera spluttered.
"You have no room to call anyone else dramatic," he said, and Haruto started laughing. Chimera was not amused.
To Chimera's quiet disappointment, not only did both Yuzuru and Yamamoto agree to assist with the ritual, but Mayu talked both of them into an attempt at sunset. Chimera eyed the sky from the window, concluding that they had a few hours of daylight left at best, which left Mayu scrambling to set up the necessary components. Haruto tried to offer help; Chimera, exchanging a look with Mayu, talked him into lying down for five minutes instead. By the end of the five minutes, Haruto was deeply enough asleep that he didn't so much as twitch at the noise of Mayu running in and out of the shop.
Chimera provided no assistance to Mayu either; he remained with Haruto, watching the sun slowly sink toward the horizon.
"It's time," Mayu said, finally, standing over him with a distinctly ominous air.
"Who's directing the ritual?" Chimera asked. They were still a person short, with four of them as power sources and Haruto as the focus.
"I am," Mayu said.
Chimera was absolutely sure that the physical distance he remembered between where the wizards had been restrained and where the center of the stone circle was located would be enough to prevent Mayu from adequately directing anything. He shook his head; when she failed, the ritual simply wouldn't work, and Haruto would be safe. "Haruto," he said, and set about trying to wake Haruto up.
Mayu's preparations, when Chimera loaded a still-groggy Haruto onto the back of his bike and followed her, included both acquisition of the Eclipse ring and relocation of the seals that had channeled the wizards' mana during the false eclipse. She had relocated them to just outside the stone circle, facing outwards rather than inwards.
"We're not focusing inwards this time," she said cryptically, when Chimera pulled his bike to a halt beside hers. He hadn't even known Mayu owned a motorcycle, much less that she knew how to drive one. The sun was low in the sky, but still clearly visible, and both Yuzuru and Yamamoto were waiting. "Is everything in place?" Mayu asked.
Chimera expected Yamamoto to answer, but it was Yuzuru who affirmed that all the components had been set up as Mayu had requested.
"You know what to do?" Mayu asked Haruto.
He removed his helmet and nodded, looking at least alert. "I'm ready," he said, and climbed up onto the altar at the center of the stone circle.
Casting a glance over his shoulder, Chimera allowed Mayu to guide him to one of the seals. He half-expected the manacles that had accompanied the Sabbath, but Mayu just positioned him in front of the seal with his back to the pillar in front of it. "You don't need to do anything," she said, sympathy in her expression. "Just – let the ritual happen. Don't fight it."
Chimera didn't want her pity, or her sympathy. He wanted Haruto to not pull stupid self-sacrificing stunts, but he'd given his word and he wasn't going to back out. "Is watching people you care about do things you don't like part of being human?" he asked quietly, not sure if he wanted Mayu to hear the question or not.
"Oh, Chimera." The look of sympathy deepened. "We trust each other, to do the right thing. We all have to make our own choices, in the end."
"I don't like it."
"I know," Mayu said, and left him standing alone.
The sun dipped lower, a cool breeze springing up. Chimera felt it across his skin, and knew with sudden unshakable certainty that it was a premonition of failure. Stupid human brain, he tried to tell himself, but he was afraid. He could hear Mayu's voice behind him, too low to make out any words, and Haruto replying. Chimera clenched his jaw – and he now thought of it as his, rather than borrowed, came the unbidden thought, Kosuke's soul or no – and pressed his hands against the column behind him.
"Here goes," Mayu said from Chimera's left, and the setting sun went out entirely.
Chimera felt the web of the spell clearly; it reached toward him, creating a siphon to pull mana from his core and funnel it to toward the creation of a network that mirrored what Fueki had done. He gritted his teeth and consciously willed himself to let it happen, let the mana drain out of his body. It was difficult at first, when his every instinct screamed at him to pull away, but he kept the channel open.
The precise instant when spell pulled Haruto into the network echoed through Chimera, threatening his already shaky control for a brief second before he found himself swept along in its path. He was a spectator now, not a participant, and he had no more say in directing the flow of energy than a twig swept along in a flood. Haruto was the central focus now, each move he made resonating back along the web.
In the back of his mind, Chimera understood and noted that he had no sense of any of the other three wizards networked into the spell; he was only aware of Haruto and then of the Hope ring. Haruto scanned it across his Driver, linking it into the network. Its energy poured out, traveling along the pathways enabled by the darkened sun. Through Haruto, Chimera felt Hope encompass the city.
Each Gate was a single cracked drop, sealing itself back together. Alone, an individual Gate was nothing more than a brief impression, but there were hundreds. Chimera's awareness was buffered through Haruto, but it was a strain, a weight that kept getting heavier with each passing second, and he was still locked into the ritual.
Gate by Gate, Hope sought out and repaired one broken Underworld after another, keeping a feather-light touch on every healed Gate and brushing over the rest of the population. Mana from the Gates in the network, given freely, propelled Hope while the stream of power from the center of the ritual began to falter. Chimera felt them for the first time, distantly, struggling to find more strength to keep the spell going.
Chimera was distracted enough by his own discomfort that he almost missed the subtle but steady dissolution of the Hope ring. He felt Haruto slip, first, and his awareness shifted up to the source of Haruto's abrupt attempt to break off the spell. What are you doing, he thought distantly, but he couldn't get his mouth to form the words.
Haruto, don't let it stop.
The voice echoing through the edges of Chimera's mind was familiar, and he strained to hear it more clearly.
"If I don't stop it, you're - you're going to be – there won't be anything left." Haruto's voice was as clear as if he'd been whispering directly into Chimera's ear, and Chimera felt almost voyeuristic; Haruto wasn't speaking to him.
It's okay, Koyomi said. Everything's going to be all right.
With a flare of energy, the ritual surged forward, moving rapidly from one Gate to the next until it had reached the edge of its range. The network of mana shone brilliantly for the briefest of seconds, and Chimera's senses were entirely overwhelmed. He lost his awareness of the ritual, of Haruto, and hung onto his sense of self by the thinnest of margins. He felt something in him seal itself together and then a weight he hadn't known was there until it dissipated was gone.
Chimera came back to himself with a jarring thud as his knees hit the ground. He felt light and insubstantial, and his body wouldn't quite obey his commands. His palms smacked into the stone a second later, and the second thump nudged his brain back into place. Chimera shook his head, the lag between mind and body falling away. He felt scraped raw in a way he couldn't define, exhausted and empty around a sense of accomplishment that lasted all of half a second before he remembered that he was not alone.
"Haruto!" Chimera scrambled to his feet, running around the column toward the center of the stone circle. Distantly, he noted that the other three wizards, but he couldn't have said if they were still moving or not. His attention was focused on the figure on its knees at the center of the altar. Haruto tipped slowly sideways, and Chimera caught him just before he collapsed completely.
"She's gone," Haruto said, words barely a whisper.
"You're still here," Chimera said. He brushed the hair out of Haruto's eyes. "You're still here, and it's fine. Everything is going to be fine."
Nothing was fine. Haruto was pale, the circles under his eyes standing out like bruises, and Chimera could feel his heart struggling to find a rhythm. Chimera reached deep inside himself, finding one last flicker of untapped mana, and fed it into Haruto. It didn't seem to help. Chimera gave up, breathing hard, barely clinging to consciousness through the mana drain, and held Haruto closer.
The Hope ring slipped off Haruto's finger, clattering across the altar. The stone was gone, leaving only the setting behind, and as Chimera looked at it, the setting dissolved into so much silver dust. Even the dust blew away, glittering in the final rays of the setting sun.
"She's gone," Haruto said again, and Chimera could feel the pain rolling off of him.
"I don't know what to do," Chimera whispered. A hard knot pressed against his thigh, and Chimera remembered the Joy ring. He pulled it out, the setting catching against his pocket, and slipped it over Haruto's finger. His thoughts whirling, Chimera didn't know if he wanted to give Haruto a reason not to let go or to make his last moments easier, but he scanned the ring across Haruto's Driver with unsteady hands. The Driver chanted, leeching what little mana Chimera had managed to pour into Haruto, but Haruto's expression eased.
The emptiness Chimera had been afraid of wasn't there; Haruto just seemed calm, eyes closed. If Chimera hadn't been able to hear the ragged edge to his breathing, he might have said Haruto looked peaceful. He knew the difference between peaceful and dying, though, and he gripped Haruto as though it would make any sort of difference at all.
Chimera, came a familiar voice, and the cold night around him fell apart.
The glittering darkness surrounding Chimera wasn't quite Kosuke's Underworld; it had edges and undertones of something else, an overlay obscuring memories. Chimera stood, slowly, and turned around to face the person who had called him. Kosuke stood behind him, wearing the same clothes he had been the day he'd broken the Beast Driver and tried to set Chimera free and smiling. Chimera didn't know why he was smiling; there was nothing to smile about.
"Chimera," Kosuke said again.
"Nitoh Kosuke." Chimera flexed its wings, stretching them to their fullest potential, and drove its claws into the ground. After so many months, wearing its own body felt strange, the skin simultaneously too tight and too loose.
"This wasn't what I was expecting," Kosuke said, grinning. "But it's been a hell of a ride."
"What?" Chimera tilted its head to the side.
"I've been watching, you know," Kosuke said.
"Watching what?" Chimera sat back, the movement sending eddies through the glow. It could almost see the hidden memories, familiar people and places so close to being recognizable before they sank back into shadow.
"You." Kosuke put his hands on his hips, framing the Beast Driver. It was intact, shining through the dark. "You, and Haruto," he amended.
"You're still alive," Chimera said. Kosuke's soul could go back to inhabiting his body, then, giving Kosuke his life back. Inexplicably, Chimera felt a pang of loss overlaid with guilt; he had no right to Kosuke's body, he told himself, and he'd been trying to escape it for months.
"Not exactly," Kosuke said. "I have to go." He rubbed at the back of his head. "Next big adventure for me, right?" He grinned again, but there was a nervous edge to it.
Chimera stepped forward, folding his wings around Kosuke before he could flinch backwards. "You're a very interesting human, Nitoh Kosuke," he said, and the tension melted away.
"You've gotten very touchy-feely," Kosuke said, but he didn't move. "It's not all bad, you know. Being human."
"I'm not human," Chimera said automatically.
"I mean," Kosuke said, scrubbing his fingers through his hair again. "I don't mind, if you keep using my body. It's not like I need it anymore."
"I missed you." Chimera had kept his thoughts of Kosuke deliberately suppressed; he'd gotten attached to his human host, which had in turn made it easier to get attached to other humans, but Kosuke had been first. Losing him had been harder than Chimera had thought it would be.
"I know," Kosuke said, in a rare expression of calm and quiet. "I'm going to miss you too." He paused. "Look after Haruto, okay?"
Chimera opened his mouth and closed it again, his wings folding flat against his back. He couldn't look after Haruto; not any more. "I," he started, and his throat closed. "I don't think I can," he said.
"Everything is going to be fine." Kosuke reached up, stroking the underside of Chimera's jaw. "I'll see you around. Maybe."
The bright-edged darkness shattered, and Chimera blinked his eyes open to a familiar ceiling. He was in Haruto's bedroom in the antique shop, lying flat on his back. Sunlight shone through the window, illuminating little flecks of dust. Chimera watched them drift for a few seconds, half-mesmerized, until the sound of the door opening startled him into bolting upright.
Shunpei flinched backwards, nearly tripping on the floor and catching himself on the doorframe at the last second. Chimera wavered on his feet, banging his calf painfully against the edge of the bed before he found his center of balance and glared at Shunpei.
"Oh, good, you're awake," Shunpei said, recovering first.
"I don't sleep," Chimera retorted, except that in Kosuke's body he did, and he was clearly still in Kosuke's body. It felt comfortable around him, and he knew as soon as he thought about it that he could slip free of it at any time. He didn't want to, though, not quite yet.
"Sure," Shunpei said agreeably, and Chimera couldn't tell whether the boy was trying to be nonconfrontational or passive aggressively sarcastic. "There's a Phantom and a pack of Ghouls," Shunpei said, giving Chimera a sense of surreality. "Mayu said she could handle it, but she's pretty tired after, uh, everything, so I thought if you were awake, you might, um. Want them."
Chimera wasn't entirely certain he wasn't dreaming still.
The Phantom turned out to be loud and obnoxious, more posture than aggression, left over from Wiseman's attempts to create Wizards instead of the aftermath of the second Sabbath, and Chimera dispatched it with almost insulting ease. Its mana filled the void inside of him, though, and the Ghouls were a satisfying bonus. Not until Chimera had finished replenishing his mana stores did it occur to him that Shunpei had completely failed to mention Haruto.
The nagging sense of unreality had faded along with the influx of mana, leaving Chimera feeling grounded and fully awake, and he made the return trip to the antique shop with a not insignificant sense of annoyance blanketing a persistent feeling of trepidation.
"Where is he?" Chimera demanded, pushing the door open.
Mayu looked up from a mug of what might have been coffee but on second scent turned out to be tea, and blinked at him as though she had no idea what he was talking about.
"Haruto," Chimera clarified. "Where is Haruto?"