Chapter 12

Unbound

"You don't need to worry about a thing, we'll get started immediately."

Mother of Jesus, how did he even get in here? Hell, this cannot be him… I must have sustained brain damage from Ayase's glass after all. It is impossible for the leader of the Funeral Parlor to be here in front of me, apparently brought in by the very people who are supposed to be turning me against him.

"This place is really strict on time, so we have to hurry."

Yet here he is, smiling earnestly as he gives a thick pile of papers to the GHQ guard who accompanied him. I can guess he isn't having a hard time faking his good mood as the soldier walks away… this reckless bastard must be laughing his ass off inside his head.

Wait, what? That sound just now was the door from my side closing behind me! Judging from the footsteps fading away, I assume the guard tasked with keeping an eye on me has just left as well… but why would GHQ do a thing such as leaving me alone with him?

Ah, I get it. Gai is winking at me from the other half of the room, hinting it was somehow his doing. He is sick, I'm telling you, sick! The son of a bitch has infiltrated this place twice already, and he is familiarized enough with the building's layout to know that the security camera recording us is positioned right behind him and thus is blind to his facial gestures.

Hey, now that I think about it, he has also mobilized armed forces inside Tokyo a couple of times as well – even going as far as sneaking Ayase's Endlave among them. How does he even do that? Despite my contempt for the Anti-Bodies, I do not think they're incompetent enough to be fooled by an amateur when they have Scarface in their ranks.

Today more than ever before, I believe that my friend is a certified badass.

"I wonder if it's safe to speak already."

No way! He can't be in contact with Tsugumi even inside here, can he?

"All right. Everyone, get on standby."

Holy Lord, he switched his tone from Mason to Tsutsugami 'Steel Balls' Gai in an instant.

"You're looking good."

And now he relaxes his posture and lets his hair long loose while he addresses me with sarcasm. Ah, damn it… I admit I deserve a sermon from him.

"Did you bring pasta this time?"

Yet I still crack a joke at him, hoping to lighten the mood. And lighten the mood I do, seeing how my friend is forced to suppress his laughter in a failed attempt to stay in sermon mode. He regains his composure quickly, but is still smiling at me as he speaks.

"Ayase says she is not amused."

Ugh! Who'd have imagined it, Scarface was right… just thinking of Ayase's wrath is enough to give me the shivers. Gai seems to be having his share of fun watching me cower in fear, though... he must be mad at me as well, and rightfully so.

"I know; I fucked up. I'll let her get back at me if she wants to, but for the love of God please unplug her from her Endlave before she does."

I remember having seen another craft for her to drive among the vehicles back in the Parlor's headquarters, so if Gai is mentioning her it means she is piloting it right now, which in turn indicates that shit will get serious in no time. Therefore, I'd better calm her down a little before we meet, or else she might kill me before Scarface does.

"Tsugumi wants a piece of you, too."

Ugh… my heart. Don't mention her, please – I still feel like shit after what happened with my discovery about Funell's birth. But man, is he serious?

"Did she say that?"

I ask, to make sure, and Gai laughs at me in return.

"No, but I've got a hunch."

Fucker.

"Back to business, Shu, we're getting you out of here."

Ah, right, I'm still in enemy hands… Gai's sudden arrival made me forget.

"Before that, I must ask… how did you get here?"

My curiosity still gets the best of me, despite the fact we have no idea of when the guards will return to watch over us. Gai smiles in a way I've never seen him before, however, making me think my eyes must be going bad, for they tell me that his expression is one of nostalgia. Why would he look like that?

"You have a wonderful mother, Shu."

WHAT?!

"Wait, you don't mean that - !"

"What I said about her requesting my assistance was for real."

My mind is full of fuck. I won't ask questions anymore.

"She is safe now; you don't need to worry about her. I'll tell you everything once we get you out… we're short on time."

Gai catches wind of my mental state and changes the subject to more pressing matters. Good, this is better… I must think of something else.

"I'm all ears, then. What's the plan?"

I ask my commander for the mission briefing – I need to know our course of action. He is quick to proceed, drawing closer to me.

"If we are careful, we might get you out of here without firing a single bullet. Just stick to the plan and – "

Um… this is bad. He suddenly halts midsentence and his expression immediately turns dark, making me know that Plan A has just gone to hell.

"Tsugumi, are you certain of this?"

He sounds agitated – something I had never seen him do before. I stand there in silence, still waiting to be told what to do: I'm still handcuffed, so I have little room for taking independent action. God damn it, I'm completely helpless even though Gai is right here with me in the very same room.

"Inori, wait! Don't – "

Ah, shit, not her! That girl is drastic in her actions, there's no telling what she'll –

"SHU, DRAW YOUR VOID NOW!"

Gai screams his orders at me to emphasize how urgently we must get going. As I reach for my chest with my bound hands, he hastily takes his suit's jacket off and grasps the chair he was sitting on. At the same time I grasp the core of my own soul, Gai jumps back to a corner and envelops both the chair and himself with his jacket to take cover behind them.

As soon as I pull on my Void I understand why he was so desperate in protecting himself. The same way it happened with Inori and Kyo's Voids, a massive surge of light emerges from me. Unlike how it went with them, however, the power I release lashes out in all directions and utterly wrecks the entire room.

Pieces of glass and debris are sent flying everywhere – even the door behind me was blasted away by the impact, and needless to say, the handcuffs I had on me have banished from existence. I rush towards Gai's direction to confirm he is safe – and luckily so, since parts of the floors above us commence falling where I was standing just a moment ago.

"Holy shit, Gai! Are you alright?"

I crouch before him and take the ruined chair he was protecting himself with away from his grasp. Gai gets up quickly, miraculously unscathed. The metallic furniture, despite having been completely destroyed, somehow succeeded in shielding him from the impact and so did his glass-incrusted jacket in keeping the crystal shards away from him.

Hell, he made it only because he was the farthest away from me he could – had he stood even a meter closer, he'd have been instantly killed. I grab his shoulders and help him up, which makes me realize something about me has undergone extreme changes.

Gai was as light as a feather, or so did it feel like. I look at my hands searching for the Void I took out, and realize that my hands themselves are the ones that have transformed into something else. Or rather, it is their composition that is different – they both of them seem to be made out of pure green emerald.

"Start the operation immediately; Ayase's team is to rendezvous with Shu and me while Ogumo's provides as much cover for Inori as they can."

I'm opening and closing my fists to test my upper limbs' flexibility as Gai gives orders to his forces. Part of me is surprised in seeing that both my arms are affected by the transformation all the way up to the shoulders but still move normally, while the remainder of my consciousness attempts to listen to Gai.

"Shibungi, you are to join Ogumo in the fray; Inori must be kept alive at all costs! Spare no resources or efforts to save her, I repeat, her survival is imperative to win the war!"

God damn it, Inori! Agh, why is her sense of danger so broken? I can't believe this!

"Take my Void out, we have no time."

Gai turns to me and orders me to materialize his spirit. Not losing any time, I immediately do as he says, and something extremely unusual happens. The light characteristic of Voids being drawn gushes around us and messes the room even further, but the feeling of holding it in my hands is entirely different from the two Voids I've held before.

At first sight it seems like a high-end submachine gun, but for some reason I feel as if I could dematerialize it and, macabre as it may sound, store it inside of me. Gai doesn't let me test if doing such a thing is possible or not, though, as he quickly grabs his Void from my stone-hard hands.

I let go, allowing him to take it and waiting for further orders, but before he can even open his mouth, a guard enters the room from behind of him. Gai immediately turns and opens fire at the guard, utterly obliterating him with his Void's absurd firepower. Similarly, I can hear footsteps rushing behind of me.

I follow my comrade's example and turn throwing a punch in the now-inexistent door's direction, from where a second soldier was closing in on us. Even though we are far from each other and thus my hit does not land, a blast of transparent force strong enough to visibly distort space itself shoots from my fist and – fuck!

The bloody spectacle before me is nasty enough to make me avert my eyes immediately. Fucking shit, dude… he exploded. Literally. I just burst a man to pieces, and the gore of his remains is splattered against what's left of the wall behind him.

Ugh! I feel ill… I killed him. I more than killed him – his bone and flesh were pulverized to such a degree that it is hard to recognize he was even human before. Even Gai seems shocked after witnessing my Void's destructive power, and – bleugh!

Agh… blugh… damn it… I'm puking. Gai is opening fire again at something I can't even see from down here on the floor, most likely other people, which doesn't help in making me feel any better.

"Shu, get a hold of yourself! We must leave!"

Easier said than done, bastard! I had seen people dying around me before, but annihilating a living being to make it deader than dead is a first to me!

Gai grabs my rocky hand and forces me to follow him. God damn it! I'm not a soldier like he is; I still can't handle killing others as coldly as he does. But here I am, in the middle of what has suddenly become a full-scale battlefield with the roaring sound of bullets being fired everywhere and explosions going off with all their might.

As we crouch and run through an open corridor while taking cover with its edge's wall, we stumble directly into a trio of soldiers taking a turn towards our direction. I don't know how – surely because of my Void's influence – I react faster than they do and strike with my fists again. The result is the same as with the man I killed in the other room, but made bloodier threefold. Their shapeless corpses are blasted away as their blood and organs are splattered everywhere throughout the floor, walls and ceiling before us.

I halt my advance and lean against the corridor's thick border for support as I begin feeling nauseous again, but Gai reaches for me and forces me to keep going before I vomit.

"This is combat's true nature, Shu! You can suffer from shell shock all you want once we're out of here; right now you have no choice but to keep yourself in one piece!"

I know he is right, but maintaining my psyche intact after witnessing the horrible aftermath of my actions is no walk in the park. During the fight when I was given the Void Genome, I wielded Inori's sword only to tear Endlaves down; here I am killing people literally with my own two hands.

"Shu, listen to me! Inori charged alone and even now is in much more danger than we are. If you hesitate and we don't make it to her in time, she will be killed!"

His words hit me like a hammer, and swiftly make my resolve stop wavering - the mere thought of having Inori die because I was captured and she attempted to save me is unbearable. My recklessness is what brought about this situation, and so I must take responsibility of my mistakes.

Even now, I feel no malice towards the men fighting against me; I understand they also have their own homes they want to return to rather than dying in foreign soil. Despite being in opposite sides of an armed conflict, I still value each of their lives.

However, the fact that they are pointing their guns at the woman I love is enough to make me stain my hands as much I need to protect her. Therefore, I will hold down all of my mercy and fight without truce.

Gai suddenly stops running just as I steel my resolve to fight, taking me aback.

"What's wrong?"

I ask, fearing something has happened to Inori.

"We're in position, Ayase; prepare to enter the building."

His answer isn't directed to me, which takes some worry off my shoulders. We are in a fairly spacious area inside the structure, so it makes sense Gai would want Ayase's Endlave meeting with us here.

"Shu, break that wall."

Heh… I feel like if I were siege equipment, seeing how Gai points at the solid stone before us and confidently states his order. I comply, running towards it to then punch it with my Void's full power.

The wall is breached by the force's impact, sending its chunks of debris into the air; some of them bounce off Ayase's cloaked craft waiting for us in the spiraling road surrounding the building. Who'd have thought a war vehicle would enter right through an opening made from the inside by a teenage battering ram? The GHQ must've not seen it coming.

Ayase is quick to move in front of us to provide us with cover from the bullets still being shot inside the Headquarters, and while she is doing so I sneak a peek to see what's going on outside. What I see there is nothing but madness – there are over a dozen vehicles of the Funeral Parlor fighting against the Anti-Bodies in their very own home turf, engaging only in vehicular combat to avoid being shred to pieces by the alarmingly increasing number of Endlaves being deployed against them.

Gai's forces have no means of fighting back other than firing with personal rocket launchers at their pursuers while filling the entire place with smoke bombs to hamper their field of vision.

There is no way in hell Gai's men will hold out against the Anti-Bodies' overwhelming forces for long, since the number of infantry, trucks and Endlaves joining the fight is steadily growing while the Parlor's numbers and ammunition can only diminish.

If the fight is happening outside, however, why are there gunshots inside the building?

"What did you do to Inori?"

Ah, God damn it. Ayase's voice coming from the Endlave's speaker gives me an answer through my question.

"Is she the one fighting inside?"

I ask to confirm, and Gai nods in Ayase's stead. The Endlave's hull suddenly opens before he elaborates, and a small girl I have become somewhat familiar with emerges from it.

"She infiltrated the building together with Argo; they were supposed to rescue one of our comrades being held captive in the prison underground."

Kyo explains part of the situation as Ayase makes the Endlave kneel for her to safely jump down to the ground where Gai and I stand. The walker's speaker sounds again, meaning Ayase is taking on the conversation.

"Yet she disobeyed Gai's orders and split ways with Argo to get to you."

Kyo quickly comes to my side and hands me a communication transmitter like the one I was given back then inside the tunnel. I attach it to one of my ears, and then ask the question that has been bothering me.

"Why would she do that, knowing Gai was already with me?"

It is Gai himself who explains this time.

"Tsugumi caught word that Keido Shuichiro rejected Segai's plea to recruit you. He intended to have you executed without facing trial."

What the fuck!? Keido Shuichiro is Haruka's brother! My own uncle ordered my death? Hell, I knew he was in Sephirah's upper echelon, but having his own nephew killed without so much as looking for an alternative is bullshit!

"Man, I'm claiming his head."

I'm pissed off now, and I make it show.

"Hold your horses, Shu; that will have to wait. Take my Void out for now; we must buy Argo some time while he liberates Kenji."

Kyo intervenes as she brings my hand to her chest without even asking why both my upper limbs are made out of stone instead of flesh now. But uh… this is weird. I can feel my palm resting against the ironing board Kyo calls bust, but her Void isn't coming out.

"Look at her eyes."

Oh, so that matters? I follow Gai's advice and, surprisingly, it works: the bright light of a soul being drawn emerges from her in an instant, and her shield-shaped Void materializes in my hands easily.

Now that I see her directly, I realize Kyo is blushing awkwardly.

"Pervert."

Ayase loses no time to say her favorite word. Just so you know, Aya-nee, it was Kyo herself who put my hand where it was… I am not to blame this time: I stayed there just touching her because I ignored eye contact was necessary.

"Let's get moving."

Gai brings us back to our senses, making Kyo and me to follow his lead while Ayase parts ways with us. She heads in the opposite direction, wreaking havoc with her vehicle and thus attracting the enemy aggro to her instead of us and, perhaps, also away from Inori somewhere inside the building.

"I have secured Kenji."

Argo's voice speaks through the transmitter. He is insane… I can't believe he broke through this place's security alone. I'm guessing all the attention Inori attracted made it easier for him to sneak around.

"Good. Rendezvous with us in the first floor; we will be waiting for you there."

Gai tells him where we'll meet. Kyo, he and I increase our running pace as we see a stairway in the distance. We stick close to the wall and Kyo deploys a defensive field drawn from her Void to defend our flank while Gai keeps firing at those who approach us.

A number of Endlaves has been deployed inside already, and are currently engaging Ayase in the distance, but can do naught but look at her fight them off. The resistance we encounter steadily grows stronger; it is only because of the protective aura emanating from Kyo's shield that we have not been killed yet.

Since she is holding her Void in front of us and Gai is shooting from behind my shoulder, I find myself only able to wish my comrades good luck as I press forward with them. The firepower aimed at us is too intense now, and raising the shield even a moment for me to attack would be a potential invitation for lethal injuries.

The sound of bullets bouncing off the barrier protecting us is deafening, and its repetition is frequent enough to make it seem as if we were under a storm of metallic hail. We persevere through it all and eventually force our way to the stairs, where a large detachment of infantry is entrenched and ready to fight us.

They open fire at us immediately, but Kyo hastily takes something from her pocket belt and throws it at them in return, which then explodes furiously and kills the majority of the soldiers. It was a grenade, I presume, and so I must take mental note that grenades are damned dangerous weapons.

We reach the stairs, and Gai executes the wounded soldiers who survived the blast as we pass by. Despite their attempts to fight back, Kyo skillfully blocks their gunshots with her shield while her commander delivers the coup de grâce.

Once again, I am reminded of how dreadfully powerful Voids are – armed with only three of them, my allies and I have already killed well past two dozen soldiers despite being outnumbered and surrounded in their own territory. Now I understand just why Gai came to rescue me… even if we had not been friends, he'd have done so anyway just to get his hands on the undisputed ultimate weaponry I have access to.

It was his obligation as the Funeral Parlor's leader to secure the Power of the King, and for that reason so many of his soldiers are putting their lives at risk for me this night. Therefore, I'll answer in kind for their efforts.

My resolve is as solid as my arms now that we arrive to the headquarters' first floor, where at least a whole platoon of Anti-Bodies is waiting for us. Kyo plants her shield before us and takes all of the fire, but footsteps quickly approach behind us from above the stairs as she does.

This is very bad. From what I have observed of Kyo's shield, I can tell she can only defend a 180° angle. We made it alright before due to the walls preventing the Anti-Bodies from surrounding us, but now we're caught in an attack from two opposite fronts. There is no way Kyo will manage to defend us this time.

Gai takes notice of our situation as well and rushes to shoot at the soldiers approaching from above while Kyo's Void absorbs the fire coming from our front, but my judgment tells me my friend will fail in keeping the enemy at bay this time.

The footsteps are too many and too close to us. Having not much choice, I take Gai's leg and pull him off the stairs. He seems surprised, as he just barely manages to soften his fall, but I had no time to wait for him. I unleash my Void's force against the upper floor again and again, making stone and steel fly about chaotically.

The debris threatens to fall on us, but I keep punching to the air with all my might, making the blasts of energy blow everything towards the troops in front of us instead of letting it land upon our heads.

Neither of the two enemy units seems to have expected that, as their screams of horror fill the area in a matter of seconds. The platoon in the first floor stops shooting, and the squad coming from above is now dead, as far as I can tell, after having been crushed to smithereens together with a good chunk of the building.

Unfortunately, my actions are counterproductive; the Endlaves Ayase was keeping busy have now deemed me as a more dangerous threat than she is, and are now quickly moving to our direction.

I don't know if Kyo's Void can take it against those. Perhaps it can deal against their bullets and missiles, but if they get us in close combat we are done for. Fuck, this is bad. They're firing at us, keeping us pinned in position. We cannot run, and there is no upper floor for us to retreat to either because I just destroyed it.

"Gai, I'm here!"

Talk about bad timing, Argo. He reports to us via the transmitters, but we really aren't in a good shape to help him out.

One of the Endlaves is about to reach us for melee, and so I prepare myself to strike back at it with all I have. Chances are I'll get a hole punched into me by one of its bullets, since it hasn't stopped firing at all, but I have no choice other than taking the risk.

Or so I thought. A rocket hits the Endlave square in its head, taking it off-balance and making it fall down before it reaches us. Argo has just taken a level in badass, having saved us from the impending doom with a well-placed RPG… he somehow turned into our reinforcements rather than our target to defend.

JESUS! He throws a number of smoke grenades – I can't tell if three or four – and he runs right through the newly formed blind spot in the Endlave's field of vision. The walkers haven't stopped firing yet, but he braves the inferno anyway. Kyo and Gai don't let him take his chances, however, as both press me forward to regroup with him.

He is one lucky motherfucker, as Ayase rejoins the fight and saves our asses from a second Endlave about to squash us like insects. She attacks it with her full fury and utterly wrecks it with a succession of melee strikes, making me pray to God Almighty she'll never get mad enough at me to do the same.

As I am promising inside my head I'll be a good boy, Argo and a traumatized-looking young guy I hadn't seen before take cover behind Kyo's Void. I must assume he is the one Argo was tasked with rescuing. Kenji, was it? Wait – he is not the guy Scarface mentioned, is he? The one that shot the little kids… I thought he was just making things up, but seeing how this guy seems to be out of his mind, I'm beginning to doubt it was all just a lie.

"How is he, Argo?"

Gai asks about the guy's condition.

"Not good; he was tortured quite badly."

I can see that; he looks fucked up.

"Gai! I can't hold them any longer!"

FUCK! That was Inori's voice just now, speaking in anguish through the transmitter!

"You fool! Where are you? We'll go to you immediately!"

Gai himself sounds desperate as well, urging her to tell him her whereabouts.

"In the roof; I'm pinned."

I look up and see the starry sky far above us. Just until now did I realize this place has an open roof, but knowing that is useless right now- this place is fucking huge, and thus Inori is well over a hundred stories higher than we are; we have no way of reaching her on time.

Fucking shit, what are we supposed to do!? We've made it this far and have even regrouped with Argo and Kenji, but if Inori dies, then what would it have all been for?

"We are right beneath you, Inori… you have to jump."

I think I heard Gai wrong.

"Gai?"

Even Inori is questioning him.

"We have Kenji with us, so Shu will save you. Believe in him."

Holy God, he is serious.

I can hear gunshots ringing from above, meaning Inori is under fire even now. She takes a moment before answering with a question.

"Is Shu hearing this?"

Fuck… I don't like where this is heading to. The tone in her voice makes it seem as if she were preparing herself to say farewell. I suppress my fears and force myself to answer, not letting them hold me back.

"Yes, I'm right here."

The next few seconds feel eternal. I hear Inori draw breath from the other side of the line, and then she utters three words alone.

"I love you."

She jumps.

I react immediately – I grab Kenji and stare directly into his eyes as I place my hand on his chest, forcing his Void to emerge as fast as I can make it go. It is out in an instant, and despite the fact I have just made contact with it, I already know its function: this Void can annul the pull of gravity.

Kyo throws her Void at me as I run forward, which I catch moments after firing at myself with Kenji's gun-shaped Void. I dematerialize Kenji's Void and store it inside of me, like I had felt it was possible to do with Gai's, so I now have a free hand that I use to strike against the ground beneath me.

The force exerted by my Void impulses me upward with tremendous speed towards Inori. A full squad of Anti-Bodies fires at me from below, but my senses right now are on fire due to seeing Inori falling from such altitude, enabling me to react in time to deploy Kyo's defensive barrier beneath me.

I bring Kenji's Void back to existence and shoot at the girl falling towards me. Gravity stops pulling her down, but she still has the momentum she had acquired on the few seconds of free fall. I have to catch her to stop the fall, or else she will splat against the floor below anyway.

We make eye contact, and it dawns on my mind that she is smiling at me. Visibly exhausted and covered in wounds, Yuzuriha Inori is happy from the bottom of her heart to be seeing me again.

I reach out to her, ready to extract her Void to end the fight once and for all, but… I won't make it. From the corner of my eye, I can see a sniper aiming at me from an angle I can't cover with Kyo's shield. If I move it from beneath me, the bullets being fired from below will end my life in an instant. All I can do is helplessly watch as he aims for my head, ready to pull the trigger before I reach the girl I have to save.

My pupils dilate from the sight occurring before me, and my lungs release all the air contained within them. Behind the soldier mere fractions of a second away from killing me appears none other than Scarface, pointing a gun at the man's head.

"Please, do not interfere."

His words finish me off. I cannot believe it, and for a moment I am convinced that I misunderstood them because of the distance – there is no way my heightened senses would have caught what I thought I heard. But his actions prove otherwise.

The echo of a single bullet being shot rings in my eardrums as I witness Scarface killing his own subordinate to allow my survival. As the man drops dead to the ground, I come into contact with Inori to stop her fall and quickly fix my eyes back on hers. My hand is already in her soft chest, and a massive column of light erupts around us all the way into the sky.

Everyone in the vicinity must have been blinded by its radiance.

Powerful threads of silver swirl around us majestically as Segai Waltz Makoto repeatedly screams the same words from the depths of his lungs:

"BEAUTIFUL! THIS IS BEAUTIFUL!"

Inori wraps her arms around me as beautifully as Scarface makes it sound. I answer in kind, and the two of us remain there in silence. Nobody is firing at us anymore; the spectacle before them is too grand for anyone to interrupt.

"Shu… can I believe in you?"

Inori softly asks a question to my ear.

I give the sincerest of all smiles I have ever had as I reply.

"I love you too, Inori… Of course you can."

She embraces me dearly, encouraging me to take my words to action.

A circle of blue light forms above me as I rotate to face directly to the ground. I use the circle as a platform to impulse myself downwards, straight to the still-frozen battlefield.

The Endlaves quickly react to me and fire their missiles all-out at us, but by this point they have already lost their chance of killing Inori and me – Scarface gave this battle's victory to the Funeral Parlor with his own hand.

I skid and dodge using the circles of light, cutting my way through the missiles in a sea of fire and explosions. Inori's Void alone is enough to defend us both - having no further need for it, I even stored Kyo's shield inside of me to have an arm entirely dedicated for my girl while I use the other to rip the Endlaves apart.

The remaining Anti-Bodies scatter in horror and flee, unwilling to fight against the monstrosity of a weapon they had just witnessed being drawn. I spare the infantrymen, seeing there is no need to end their lives, but continue unleashing the wrath of Inori's sword on the fleeing Endlaves.

One after another, every single of the war machines is destroyed beyond recognition by my relentless attack as I swiftly move through the air, not stopping at anything before me.

We are regrouped with Gai and the rest in a matter of minutes, having entirely turned the tide of battle simply by being reunited with Inori, and Gai gives the order for the rest of his forces to retreat; a task made easy by the Anti-Bodies' utterly broken morale.

After running outside at a brisk pace, Shibungi picks us up in one of the Anti-Bodies' very own transports and drives away from the fire-scorched battlefield where Inori and I confessed to each other.

The two of us sit together with our comrades, finally having a moment's rest while Shibungi drives towards the rising sun. Both of us made it alive, despite the terrible odds against us, and even went as far as firmly establishing our relationship in the midst of battle. By all means, this was a night I will never forget.