Chapter Posted: 16/02/23

Author's Notes:

Hello, friends. Two announcements to go through.

First announcement, and pay attention please: I have begun the process of re-writing chapters 1 through 11. Chapter 1, at the posting of this 16th chapter, has been re-written, so if you haven't seen the new version yet, go check it out.

I understand this is in contradiction to what I earlier said about not re-writing them, but it's so difficult to read through and written so poorly that it's actively hindering some plans and concepts I want to execute going forward in the story.

Second announcement, I have slightly ret-conned Kane's presented name in the story. In retrospect, it is utterly ridiculous a trained Assassin would give his full, real name on an active mission he's on. He is now known to most of the students and faculty as "Kane Murray," but "Skor" remains his real last name, and this change has now been reflected across ALL the chapters already to maintain some consistency.

Now, at last, I wanted to reply to my reviewers. First off, hello there! So glad you could join me, and that you'd take the time to read and respond and leave your thoughts. It means a lot to me!

Xealchim, I am aware my OC is incredibly cringe in the first set of chapters. Trust me, I'm on a mission to fix him up so that he speaks, talks, and actually acts not just like a human being, but at least like an Assassin. The re-write is underway, and I've taken to letting other characters in the newer chapters call out his earlier, more questionable characterisation. The character interactions are the second most fascinating thing to me when it comes to writing this story at the moment, so I want to put in the proper care and effort into Kane's earlier interactions and characterisation.

Guest W, your comment fascinates me, as the idea of an overpowered character that steamrolls over everyone else was something that interested me as a kid, but over the years I learned that having a character actually have understandable limitations, and evolving above and beyond them, is a far more interesting struggle to read through for me. Yes, Kane did get a little bit of a reality check, but you have to remember that, until only Chapter 13, he didn't even have a Sacred Gear. He was just a regular guy with some extra Assassin training, and a young Assassin at that. Now, there are encounters I want to re-do and allow Kane's actual physical skills and prowess actually shine through in the re-writes, but going forward beyond Parable 1, I hope that the events within Parable 2 will pull you back in. The pieces are being set in place, and Kane just might have an ace or two up his sleeve.

Onwards to the chapter, now!
- Your buddy, InGen.

His legs felt as if fire were eating away at him, as every single cell in his arm seemed to be screaming in pain. Running non-stop, desperately trying to get away from the fallen angels that ambushed him, Kane could barely breathe, his lungs feeling heavier than any boulder on the planet. After a generous amount of time and distance, enough that he felt he was at least even a little bit safe, Kane found himself back in the suburbs of Hadano, the school still a good twenty-minutes' walk away.

'There's no way I can make it there like this… I've got to minimise the damage...' He reasoned, as he slumped down next to a wall, left arm entirely limp and hanging. The morning was still quiet, no one around on the streets to bother him. He shuffled his duffle bag from his back using his remaining good arm, placed it next to him, and pulled out part of the bed sheets that Kane had taken from his apartment. Using his teeth and his right hand, he began to systematically tear out a narrow, diamond-shaped strip from the sheets. He tied the two ends together, and wrapped it around his neck, carefully taking his limp left arm and putting it inside the make-shift sling. While he did so, every single nerve cried out for mercy and relief, but Kane grit his teeth and ignored it as much as he could.

My deepest apologies, human. This device was originally intended to be worn by Isu combatants with specialised armour and augmentations... you are the first in your species to be able to use True Dawn's Reckoning.

Kane gave an exasperated sigh. He was well aware that using Pieces of Eden had grave effects on humans... he did not expect injuries as substantial as this. Dislocated arms may be not entirely unfamiliar with him, but he did not want to face these kinds of wounds every time he used his Gear. 'There's no way I'll be able to use this. You picked the wrong guy, mate. Just take this out of me and let me get out of here.' Thought Kane in a factual manner, and logical manner, but his logical pleading would fall on deaf ears:

Removal of the Edenic Gear will cause a great distress upon your mind and body... in this current moment, you must master it, build resistance and strength to its effects. It's your only way out, even if you want to remove it from your being.

Kane awkwardly wore his bag on his back once again, and took a stand. He looked upon the path ahead of him, realising he wasn't as far from Kuoh as he thought. 'You can't expect me to use this thing... I'm going to break my arm if I use it even more than once. They're going to fly off entirely if I use it more than twice.'

Where there is a will, there is a way. Utilise what is available to you, you are a Hidden One, distinguished among your kind. Act like it.

Every bone in his body aching, Kane began the trek back to Kuoh. Aurei was right. Kane knew too well that he was just human, but he wasn't powerless. He had some idea of who could help...

The door to the student council office creaked open. Kane had decided that he would go to his class in a minute, but he had to drop off his bag first, and then visit the infirmary. He was a little surprised to see a complete entourage of students inside, sitting on ornate chairs in a small circle, with none other than the president herself at her embellished desk. They all turned to look directly at Kane, somewhat stupefied at his sudden presence.

"It's alright, he's aware of our existence. Kane's just here to drop off some things in his room." Sona addressed the council, noticing the worn and beaten bag around his back. Kane gave a slight nod, and waved with his good arm.

"Hello. Call me Kane. I won't bother you all, please continue." Kane said, polite as he possibly could. The strain in his voice was very, very apparent however.
"Uh... you alright, man?" A blond boy asked from the crowd. Saji. Kane recognised him as the one who he had met his first day here.
"Yeah... I had a little accident. I'll be fine." He answered curtly. He swiftly ambled over to his little room, as he heard a few indiscriminate whispers amongst the councilmembers. '"Our existence?" They're all devils? Guess I shouldn't be surprised at this point...' He wondered as he awkwardly shifted his bag off his back, and placed it gently by his sleeping quarters' door.

Just as quickly as he had come in, he swiftly left the room, but just before leaving through the door, Sona called out to him:
"Kane-sama. At the end of the day, please return here as early as you can. I have some matters to discuss with you, regarding your Gear." Sona asked him, to which the quiet chatter quietened down entirely. The silence weighed on everyone, as Kane said nothing in response for a while, standing still.

"Okay, sure. I'll see you then, senpai." He finally answered, monotone. He closed the door softly, and made his way to find the nurse's office, incomprehensibly exhausted. 'Seems like she might have the same thing in mind as I do.' He wondered, as he passed by hall after hall, corner after corner, at every moment reading the signs above wings and sections to make sure he was on the right path. He finally found himself at the infirmary, and entered gently, poking his head through the crack in the door.

"Is the nurse present?" he asked, scanning the room. The infirmary was tiled white, with teal-tinged fluorescent lighting coating it in a somewhat discomforting glow. The nurse, adorned in white, gently smiled at Kane, her aura somewhat counteracting that of the lighting.
"Yes she is, come on in." She said, carrying a few medical equipment on a silver tray in her hand, as she placed them down on a desk nearby. Kane entered the room, and as soon as the nurse saw his sling, she rushed over to his side. "Oh my goodness! What happened to you, young man?!" she exclaimed.

Kane gave a sheepish smile. "I fell down the stairs at home... must have hit my arm the wrong way on a few flights. I think it's dislocated..." he told her, somewhat unconvincingly.

Kane was told to lie down and rest on one of the open beds, as she left to go analyse the scans. "Huh... school's so rich they have literal x-ray machines for the students... that's crazy." Kane thought out loud. He gazed out the window towards the hills he had been in only an hour or two ago, a smoke carrying in the air in the distance. She had taken him into one of the rooms such that he could get scanned. She returned not long after, with an image of Kane's left arm.

"So, it seems you might have faced a lot of direct pressure head-on into your arm from a frontal direction; the elbow and shoulder have both been knocked out of their place in these directions..." She began to explain. "I'll try and set up an appointment at Kanagawa Hospital, so they can- h-hey! What are you doing?!"

Kane decided not to wait for her to finish, as he carefully grabbed his shoulder and placed it back into its socket. He just needed to know which way it was dislocated exactly; placing the joints back into their rightful place was something Kane was already trained to know. The shock of pain that emanated through his body, though? That's something he never acclimated to. He gasped for air, out of breath, reeling from the throbbing ache.

"Please, kangoshi-san, do you have any quick-acting painkillers?" Kane asked weakly.
"You should not be doing that on your own! It can damage the nerves! Are you out of your mind?!" She yelled at Kane, to which he winced. Noises seemed much louder than usual to him right now. She began to look in the cupboards in the room, saying: "I think I have some rapid-release aspirin..."

She pulled out a bottle, took out a single capsule, and filled a flask with water, giving both to Kane. He drank it with his good arm, took the capsule, and waited for a few seconds. Right after, he placed his forearm back into his joint at the elbows, grimacing the whole while. The wind had been knocked out of him entirely, and he slumped back into the bed. 'All this because of just one punch in the air... unbelievable.' Kane thought to himself. The nurse was utterly dumbfounded.
"You. Are. Crazy. You better not do anything else insane. Rest up here for a little while." She demanded, and Kane nodded in understanding. "Tell me your name, so I can record you for the patient registry."

"Kane Murray." He sputtered, a slight smile on his face.

Kane awoke to a light, peachy glow that had overtaken the infirmary. He had fallen asleep soon after he fixed his arm, but had done so entirely on accident. He jumped up from the bed, and immediately winced from the pain of doing so quickly. He shook it off, and left the infirmary.

'Missed another day at school... at least they know it wasn't my fault this time. Well... it kind of was...' He mulled. The halls were much quieter now, ever so darker. He had come to love this time of the day here at Kuoh, there was something otherworldly about it. He made his way back to the student council office, taking his time to appreciate every second of the trek there. When he had arrived, he gently opened the door, checking to see if there was anyone inside in-case he interrupted them again.

Inside, he saw two girls: Sona, as well as another girl he had seen when he came earlier in the day. She had brilliantly white hair, just like Kane, but was not nearly as pale, and her hair seemed much more voluminous than his, long and plentiful, but cut at the front into bangs that reached to her eyelashes. There was no one else but those two, so Kane entered inside.

"Who's there?" Sona asked out loud. Her back had been facing the door, so she couldn't see.
"I believe... that's Kane-sama." The white-haired girl answered Sona, motioning towards Kane to come towards them.
"Yeah, it's me. You wanted to speak to me, senpai?" Kane answered as he followed the girl's suggestion, ambling on over to them. Sona had held a book in her hand, and had her free arm stretched out in an interesting pose. Kane assumed that she and the other girl must be practicing some demonic magic of some kind, but Kane, strangely, felt no uneasiness at this, as if it's almost become a regular happening in his frame of mind.

Sona, concentrating on the book, did not even look at Kane, as she spoke: "Yes, I expected you to come earlier, but now is fine too." She finally closed the book, and handed it off to the girl, as she barely grasped it. She went to put it away at Sona's desk, as Sona turned to face Kane, as she asked him: "Are you alright? I saw your arm was in a bad shape earlier today." It was not the question Kane had expected, as her face seemed quite stern all the same.

"Well... uh, it's alright for the time being." Kane caressed his left shoulder lightly, continuing, "I had injured it earlier this morning, on my way back from a church." Sona raised her quizzically at the mention of a church.
"Interesting, the only church in the town has been abandoned for some time. Why'd you go all the way there?" She asked him. The girl who took Sona's book back had joined her by her side now, eagerly listening in as well.
"There was a girl who I crossed paths with... she needed help finding a church, any church really. Hyoudou-san was also with us, but he left before actually arriving there." Kane explained methodically. "I wanted to see what was up with that place... it's so far from town. I thought that, with Templars in mind, it might have been related to the raid on my apartment. I ended up getting attacked by a pair of fallen angels, believe it or not. One of their names I caught, Raynare, I think it was." Sona stroked her chin in thought, as she turned around to return back to her desk, and turned around to face Kane again as she leaned on her desk. In that moment, with the light pouring in from the afternoon skies behind her, Kane couldn't help but think that she looked stunning. 'Intrusive thoughts and all...' He thought to himself, shaking off the feeling.

"And you fought them? With your Sacred Gear? With True Dawn's Reckoning?" She asked, ever more intrigued.
"Well... I tried. The golden bastard told me to hit the air with them, and I did, and that nearly broke my entire arm. Sent the winged fellas flying, though."
"You struck the air...? That is what injured you? What happened exactly? How did the angels go flying away?" Sona's eyes shone in the tangerine glow. It was clear to Kane that she wanted information, and as much of it as possible.
"I... well, not entirely sure. Aurei-san told me that it was a kinetic... something. A weapon of some kind. I'm guessing I converted some energy out of me? The air? Something like that, and that was what hit the angels... sent me flying back too..." Kane posterised. He didn't exactly know how to describe what had happened, as he didn't remember one-to-one what had happened, considering fight-or-flight took over him at that moment.

"That is fascinating... your gear, True Dawn's Reckoning is what you called it before you passed out yesterday, seems to be an elemental type gear. Instead of using ice, fire, and other elements, you might be using direct kinetic energy instead and channelling that into focused blasts..." Sona explained, as the other girl seemed to be a little lost in the details.
"There was something else... the angel known as Raynare tried to impale me, and when my gauntlets made contact with her lightspear, it blasted both of us away. It knocked the bloody wind out of me... but it didn't necessarily hurt. Though..." Kane explicated further, but Sona, with no patience within her, egged him on:
"Yes, yes, go on!" She exclaimed.
"Okay, okay, I will! So... to actually bring out True Dawn's Reckoning, I was told I had to hit myself, really hard at that, and that was what will awaken it... yeah, that's all that had happened. It faded away back into nothing by the time I escaped, at that point I wasn't really focusing on it anyways." Kane finished. Sona looked off into the middle distance, a sense of wonder and joy plastered across her face.

"Absolutely fascinating... elemental type? Counter-based type? The possibilities are endless... you really have something else up your sleeve, Kane-sama. Perhaps an amalgamation of different types? Or is it purely an element-based gear that I am misconstruing... what if it's an artificial gear... did the shockwaves pertain to light? To sound? Did it have a physical effect? Did it push the angels away with force or something akin to explosions? Did it cause chemical reactions, anything of the sort? Did it..." She implored Kane, endless in her questions. At that point, the girl who had been listening between Kane and Sona this entire time spoke up in a flurry.

"Buchou, p-please relax! Calm yourself, you're driving him a bit crazy here!" She exclaimed, or attempted to. Her voice was almost as light and airy as Asia's. She was entirely right, though. Kane had been massaging his temples. He grasped the basic concepts, but understood almost none of the finer details Sona was muttering to herself about.
"She's right... and I've got nothing else to say either. That was it, and then I returned to school, put my arm back into its place." He expanded. Sona and the girl looked at him gobsmacked.

"Your arm... back into its place? You dislocated it?" They both asked in unison. On the white-haired girl's face, a sense of horror, but on Sona's, she only held an expression of utter intrigue.
"It was that powerful... this is truly an amazing discovery. Kane-sama, tonight, we must try to invoke that gear out of you again." Sona added, her tone in an almost giddy form. Kane was not the least bit amused by the suggestion, though.
"You want me to use it in front of you? Again? Are you listening to me? This thing HURTS to use!" Kane burst out.
"I may have an idea to mitigate the damage... but I need time. Momo-chan, please request Tsubaki-chan to come here at once. We need to make sure that we can build that pocket out of the Dimensional Gap by tonight. You'll find her in the library at this time." She commanded the girl known as Momo, who gave an affirmative nod, as she jogged out to grab Tsubaki. "It'll be some time until then. You must be exhausted... you also look like a mess." The comment had hurt Kane a little, but he was well aware of the fact all the same.

"Yeah, not taking a shower for three days and getting into a brawl for two out of those three days will do that to you. Are the school gymnasium's showers open?" Kane asked her.
"At this time of day? Hm... probably not. You could try the Occult Research Club's meeting room?" She suggested to him, and now it was Kane's turn to be gobsmacked. "Rias-chan and her peerage are currently not there, they have left the school grounds to capture a stray devil. The shower there should be free for you."
"You're joking. You're joking with me right now. You want me to take a shower in THERE?" Kane asked, in utter disbelief. He looked at her, then looked at himself at his shoes, then back to her, just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.

"They have one, yes. Rias-chan came to me personally to make sure it was permitted. I granted her request... reluctantly." She answered in a matter-of-fact tone. Kane opened his mouth, then closed it again. It was probably going to be the only place to take a shower at this time, and he needed one badly... He turned around to return to his bag that he had left earlier in the day, unzipping it, and taking out an orange, that he ate whole. He took out another, and once he was done chewing, he ate that one whole too. "You must be hungry. You didn't get to eat today?" Kane shook his head.

"Dropped my groceries at the church. Was too busy running." He spoke after finishing his oranges. To this, Sona gave a warm smile.
"I've got an idea in mind that I think is beneficial for us both: I love cooking, and you need to eat." She told him. It was probably the most mellow thing Kane had heard from her yet. A welcome surprise nonetheless, Kane said:
"By all means, I'm so hungry I could eat a horse." To this, they both chuckled lightly. Kane stood up to leave the office, telling Sona, "I'll see you in a bit, I guess, senpai." waving her goodbye, as she returned the same, albeit absentmindedly, her mind deep in thought elsewhere.

He had not felt the touch of water on his skin for so long, that at the first instance of turning the shower on it felt like Kane had reached the seventh level of heaven already. It wasn't the longest stretch of time that Kane had gone on without taking a shower; there were previous missions he had to undertake that put him in a grimy situation for a week, maybe two weeks, but at least then he didn't have to look presentable for a damned high-school out of all things.

Kane didn't have an incredible amount of hair to particularly careen through with the shampoo at the moment, but it had grown out more than he usually likes it all the same. He let the fingers course through the follicles, feeling at ease that he no longer had to deal with the grease in them. He leaned back on the wall that faced away from the glass encasing, letting the water wash over him, at least for a little while, in this moment of tranquillity. After rinsing up completely, and finishing his shower, he wrapped the towel he brought with him that he recovered from his apartment. He was glad it wasn't as dirty as he first thought; he found it still inside the wardrobe. Else he would have had to use the one that was already here... and he did not want to know where it's been.

Unfortunately for Kane, the moment of tranquillity he had enjoyed so much was very much brief, as he heard the front door of the Occult Research Club meeting room unlock. He quickly tied the bathrobe around him his lower body, and prepared for the inevitable embarrassment. He did not expect them to return this quickly. Indiscriminate chatter could be heard on the other side, and in the moment the key turned, and the door began to swing open, Kane already had an idea of who was going to greet him: 'Nearly bloody everyone.' He bitterly thought to himself.

The Occult Research Club all entered the room, everyone explaining to Issei seemingly various aspects about... something, though Kane never got to hear what, since almost immediately everyone stopped and stared in incredulous confusion at a pale young man standing in front of them on the other side of the room with nothing but a towel on.

Kane, with an even, steely expression, trying his absolutely best to maintain neutrality, simply uttered, "Lovely afternoon to take a stroll, isn't it?" Out of the entire Occult Research group, only Akeno seemed to find it funny, punctuated by a stifled chuckle from her.

Issei yelled at the top of his lungs, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"
Kiba remarked snidely, "I can't believe this guy... he broke in to use the damned shower?"
Koneko, as expressionless as ever, simply said, "You shouldn't be here, Kane-sama."
Rias, in indescribable irritation, stepped forth, and mirrored the other three's responses, "You aren't a part of this club, nor my peerage. You shouldn't be here. What do you think you're doing, exactly?" She asked in evident displeasure.

Kane shrugged his shoulders, and put a new t-shirt back on, opting to not wear the school uniform at this time. As he did so, he said, very matter-of-factly, "Gym's showers were closed. This was the next best spot."
"You. Are. Unbelievable. So, you're just going to barge in here and use our property without our permission? Somebody ought to teach you manners... how in the world did you even get in here?" She asked him, barely able to contain her rage. In response, Kane pointed to an open window down near the corner of the room.
"You left that unlocked. Wasn't too hard to get in that way." Kane entered back into the shower, and as it was steamed up, used the opportunity to wear a pair of fresh jeans as quickly as he could, and entered back out. He dried his hair one more time with the towel, packed everything in his bag, and proceeded to leave through the door which Rias' peerage entered through.

"So that's it? You're just going to insult me and my friends one day, and then barge in here the next and use our property whenever you please?" Rias asked, as everyone stared at Kane passing by them towards the exit. Kane stopped for a brief moment and looked directly at her to answer.
"I've got nowhere else to go. I'm really am sorry, Rias-senpai. I didn't actually expect you all to return this quickly from... looking for strays, I think that's what it was?" Kane responded, as even-toned as ever. His neutral expression during this entire exchange was something Akeno found great comedy in, finding it harder and harder to stifle her laughter. "I'll use the gym's showers next time. Sorry for the bother." He began to walk off again, before Rias caught him by his arm.
"Wait..." she said softly, and then gave a deep sigh. "You can use our shower, just ask us first, damn it." Kane was surprised by her change in attitude, but he assumed she remembered his current nomadic situation. He looked her and nodded, before she let him leave for good, bag and clothes in hand.

The room fell into a slightly awkward silence, and Akeno finally burst out in a fit of giggles. "He sure is something, huh, buchou?" She asked in between her sniggering.
"A piece of work that's what he is..." Kiba muttered under his breath.
"I really don't get that guy." Koneko commented.
Rias simple gazed on at the door, long closed shut after Kane left. She looked back towards Issei, a militant expression on his face the entire time Kane was in the room, and smiled at him. She was glad that at least Issei was obedient.

He didn't feel nearly as uncomfortable as he thought he would feel. Something about his time at Kuoh has made him expect almost anything happening, so the notion of standing there half naked in a bathrobe in front of the Occult Research Club didn't seem to faze him anymore. Kane wondered if that was really a good thing.

He clasped the handle to the door to the office room, and entered inside. It was now much later in the afternoon, nearing evening, and Kane was still left indescribably hungry. The imminence of sunset painted the room in a vermillion shade, and within that glow Kane saw Sona, Momo, and now Tsubaki, standing together 'round a geometric shape, pulsating yet incomplete, formed on the floor of the room. "I see you are all busy. Hello again." Kane announced. They all turned to him, the azure geometric shape disappearing as they did.

"So happy you could join us, Kane-sama. Please refrain from speaking for a few moments, the spell is almost complete." Sona asked him quite polite, and Kane obliged, giving a single nod. He stood back, taking place by the wall, and leaning on it as he watched the three girls chant a language he had never heard of before, as the flow of the seal on the floor began to once again form, more complete than before. It went away again just as promptly as it appeared. They gasped in frustration in unison, and tried again. And again. And again. And on the fourth try, the spell finally seemed to register, and the seal on the floor was now complete. He wondered if there was a reason Sona's were always blue, and Rias' always red.

'Wonder how many colours there really are...' he pondered, but as he did, the three girls took several steps back, as the very concept of colour seemed to pull itself apart above the centre of the magical seal. A maelstrom of indescribable colours, in the shape of a crack in reality itself, presented itself to the four in the room. Kane stepped forward to join the girls, asking, "At this point, not even surprised devils can tear open holes in the fabric of reality." To this, Sona flashed a prideful smile.

"Only some of us can do this at will." She said, a smug aura surrounding her. "This is a pathway to the Dimensional Gap, which I'm sure Rias-chan has explained to you."
"Actually, no, she hasn't. What in on God's green Earth is this shit?" He asked, but immediately recognised his mistake as the three girls winced.
"Please, don't say that, Kane-sama." Tsubasa asked him.
"Sorry, habit... and it's nice to see you too, I guess?" Kane said, partly joking. Tsubasa simply rolled her eyes at him. Momo look at them both, going back and forth between them in their curt exchange.

"Excellent, now that the greetings are done... the Dimensional Gap is an unreality that exists in between planes of realities, dimensions, and anything else you can name. It's an unforgiving realm that will tear anything and anyone apart in there... unless they are under protection of certain types of magic... such as demonic magic. Like the one yours truly has used to open this pocket of the Dimensional Gap open to us." Sona explained, self-assuredness abound. Kane genuinely was very impressed, however.

"Hm... Rias-senpai had told me she would not be able to train me, though. So how can you suddenly open up this uh... pocket dimension, for you to see what my Gear can do?" Kane asked her in a deliberate fashion. Sona pressed her glasses back in pace.
"Rias-chan is not very happy that she had to offer a contract to an angel of all things just for you to participate in the Rating Game. That, and she still hasn't entirely mastered creating personal spaces in the Dimensional Gap outside of what is actively available... like for Rating Games." She explained to him in turn.
"Oh... I see. So Rating Games also take place in here..."
"Yes, and that's why it's good for you to get used to it. As a human, you should be under more stress in there than us devils, so the more experience the better. Besides... I'm not training you. I just want to see what your Gear can really do." As she said so, she beckoned him to go on in, before entering into the rift herself, as Momo and Tsubasa followed her in turn. Kane looked into the violent storm of colours tossing and turning before him, took a deep breath, and jumped inside.

A weightless feeling, an indescribable touch upon his whole body, and in a second that seemed to last forever, Kane found himself on the shores of a rocky beach. The waves seemed to crash in, appearing in from a nothingness he could not even perceive correctly, upon the stony shore. The ground was cracked and worn, but miraculously flat and organised. Kane peered up and around him, and saw that same mass of shifting, turning, flowing colours that defy description all around him, surrounding this little enclave of familiar earth and water, intertwined.

Kane looked at his hands, to make sure that he was, indeed, still in one piece. His arm ached still, but no longer as much; the waves of pain he endured that entire afternoon seemingly slowed down to an aching pulse that appeared every so often. He looked forward ahead of him, the three girls looking in wonder at the colours as much as he was.

"I never did get used to this place. Momo-san, Tsubasa-san, please step away and into the sidelines, and begin taking notes immediately." Sona commanded them both, as they immediately heeded her, devilish wings bursting forth from their backs as they flew off to the side of the platform, bringing out two notepads from seemingly absolutely nowhere, and stood ready to record and write. In their wake, another blue seal appeared around Sona, smaller and more compact in form, but even brighter than the one that opened the gateway to this dimensional rift. "Kane-sama! Please, pay attention closely."

Kane did as she asked, and gazed back at Sona. He was not sure what was about to happen, but took a defensive stance all the same. "Sona-senpai, what do you want me to do now?"
"In the Dimensional Gap, causality is only loosely followed. The physical experiences from within your own body, such as reception of pain, may be dulled, or delayed. You are free to use True Dawn's Reckoning. Please, would you be so kind to call upon it right now?" Sona asked, as her hand began to glow the same cerulean glow, a mischievous yet calculated look in her eyes.

Kane did as she asked, remembering how Aurei had told him to summon his Gear. He struck himself, this time using his right hand straight into his gut. The impact, he could feel. However, there was almost no pain, no sting, no reeling from it. Just like that, True Dawn's Reckoning appeared in its usual form, in the same was as before. The attachments dug into his flesh, and yet he only felt a minor sting, as if they were only four sets of tiny needles piercing him. Looking at his gauntlets upon his legs and arms, and then looking back at Sona, he said, "Okay! What do I do now?"

To this, Sona answered by positioning into battle stance herself, stalwart and ready, now holding a sizeable magical seal in front of her, facing towards Kane. She grinned, giddy about the data she was about accrue from this encounter. "Now? Now, Kane-sama, hit me with everything you've got."