A/N: Listen to "The Lonely" by Christina Perri. If Rei had a song to describe her, it would be that. Possibly play it after reading this chapter. Also, am I the only one who thinks the Toaruverse has gotten very complicated? Kind of makes it overwhelming to keep track of everything…To the person who is writing that rewrite fanfic, I salute you. Good freaking luck.

Chapter 27:

One day she was passing by the playground on the way back to her house. She decided to go on the swings, relishing the little bit of freedom and fun ever since her parents got alarmed at her for some reason. That same day she saw only one other kid there: a boy. She only knew the kids in her class nowadays, and he wasn't one of them. She swung next to him, not speaking to him and him not speaking to her.

She was sitting in her grandpa's lap. She leaned against his chest and fell asleep right there as he put piano music on and it drifted through her home.

Someone had gifted her a very frilly, Victorian-style dress. She didn't think she would like it, but when she put it on it felt magical. She felt powerful. It suited her personality and her face and her hair. She loved it. From then on if someone gave her clothing, she asked for the same kind of dresses.

人

Then the memories stopped flooding for just a moment and Rei was back in her painful reality. Accelerator was still sitting next to her, his face looking on what was most definitely a horrific bloody mess.

"Sensei? How long have I…?" Pain. So much pain. Rei noticeably winced.

"The ambulance should be here soon. Stop falling asleep, damn it! Even the brat listens better than this and she's like half your age!" His hand was still touching her head, trying to do damage control. But there was a lot of blood and forget a concussion, the support had probably crushed Rei's skull to some degree. Accelerator knew how to control blood flow, not how to repair skulls. What she needed was a doctor.

"I still…need to tell you." Rei coughed once more. Blood was seeping through her lips.

"You don't need to tell me anything."

"Yes….I do." She tried to look at him, but she wasn't quite sure where he was. "Because I finally know…who I am. Was, rather. Ha. Ha. Wouldn't…sensei like to know?" I'm…the shell of the girl I once knew.

"Sure, but maybe once your shit is literally together, you know? You're kind of like Humpty Dumpty right now, but bloodier."

"Not…'Vector Change'…That's not…my original ability. It was 'Ability Tag'... By chance have you heard of it, sen…sei?"

"No idea what you're talking about. I think you just need some rest. And stop calling me 'sensei'! Now's not the time for formalities either. You're clearly dying and you're wasting breath on a title."

"Wouldn't be the…first time I was dying."

"Come again?"

"That is for another time…But…'Ability Tag'…it's the ability to…witness anyone else's ability and 'trace' it…to copy however many you want, although your capability matters-" Rei paused for another cough. "…Then tag all of them and store them in your mind with…the rest…of them. And then…no matter how long you wait they will not rust that much, because after all you tagged them and preserved them in the drawers of your mind…You would have to…manually…remove them."

"…" Accelerator had no words for what she was saying.

"In the past…I was very good at my ability, you see…I was indeed…a level 5…just like Mi-chan sensed. And here I thought she must be mistaken…Maybe there is something perceptive in technology that even humans can't intuitively feel…Ha..."

人

It was another glorious day where this small girl could walk home from school. She was happy! It meant another day to spend ten minutes at her neighborhood's playground! As she entered, though, the girl saw a young boy charging the same boy she saw that other day. He had odd white hair, the girl didn't really realize that before. The young boy fell down despite the other one not even taking a step towards him. He scampered off quickly after that, yelling that the other one would be sorry.

'It must be his ability.' The girl thought. 'I wonder what it could be.'

And it was at that moment that she became entranced with him.

人

"Man, what will it take you to shut the fuck up? Shut up! Shut up already! Eh, Yomikawa, how much longer? I can't take her yapping anymore!" He talked into his mic.

Rei didn't pay any heed to what kind of response whoever it was on the other side gave. She continued talking. She smiled faintly at Accelerator who just plainly did not know how to respond to her situation, his face going through several variations quickly. "Hey, Accelerator-sensei…Did I manage to become a special person for you? Mi-chan…she's precious…I won't argue that…I can't compete with that…but did I…at least show you…that more people outside of your bubble can love you? Sensei deserves it…" Rei heard sirens, but wasn't sure where they were coming from. Or were they also part of one of her new-found memories?

"What are you talking about?...Damn it Ryuuzaki, don't close your eyes!"

人

How old even was she? Clearly not in middle school or preschool, but it was so hard to tell what exact age. Youth had clearly blessed this girl. Sometimes her mother would talk to all the others in pride over it, as all mothers do with their children in some form or another. However old she was, this girl skipped down the street humming a happy tune. As she reached the door of a house, she bounced as she rang the doorbell. A middle-aged woman opened the door and smiled at her. As the door opened, the small girl could see two other girls her age sitting at the dining table and attentively look to the door when it opened, obviously in wait for her.

"Mi-chan! Rei-chan! Let's go plaaaay!" The girl bounced, her long brown hair bobbing up and down with her.

The two girls got up and excitedly ran out of the house, with Rei-chan saying goodbye to her mom.

After a couple of hours spent on the playground, they all decided to explore around. Although they weren't exactly supposed to do this, who can stop a kid from exploring? And it was a good thing they had, too, for it was loads of fun.

"Ne, we should get going home soon. Parents don't want us out till sunset." Rei-chan said. She had short-medium blonde hair that had curved bangs and was slightly curved at the end (her mom said it would be the totally cute new style for Japanese girls).

"Awww…" Mi-chan said. She had medium length light brown hair that wildly flayed at the end and had uneven bangs. Her parents were currently outside of Academy City, and the other two girls' mothers always shook their head when they saw her hair. They always joked about gifting her hair clips. But, despite being so young, she showed a lot of promise with her developing ESPer ability, so they really couldn't see her as a mishap. She looks an awful lot like the Mi-chan I know right now...

"Today went by so fast!" The girl with the long brown exclaimed. "I wish it wasn't over."

"What if we play one game of hide and seek and then leave?" Mi-chan suggested. "I don't think a few minutes would matter."

"Oh, good idea!" The other two eagerly nod.

It was the girl's turn to count. "Twenty, nineteen, eighteen…." When she was done, she weaved through the nearby alleys. She almost walked past a metallic box before hearing a sneeze.

"Rei! Found you!" The girl called out happily. "But you know you shouldn't do this. What if you get cut or get germs from such boxes?"

With ease Rei threw off the box. It soared through the air, clanging on the ground. It made the girl worried sometimes that Rei didn't really bother control her strength. It was truly admirable that Rei had the agility and strength that could beat athletes within short time-probably by high school if she kept up her diligence and training. But, at the same time, without self-control anyone near her could easily get hurt.

"Don't worry, I won't get hurt! Now let's go find Mi."

As they strolled, they kept silent in order to look out for their friend. They had met her through their school, but the two had been hearing rumors that Mi was going to go to some place even better because she was truly 'gifted'. They hadn't asked Mi yet if those rumors were true because they didn't want it to be, but they still enjoyed her company and wanted to have playdates for as long as possible.

"Found you Mi-chan!" Rei called out. Mi was standing behind a slide in the playground.

"Aw, I thought I was doing a good job this time! Anyway, I have a doctor's appointment now. Wanna walk with me to the hospital?" Mi asked.

"Are you sick, Mi-chan?" The girl was concerned.

"No, but a couple of doctors and scientists wanted to talk to me about my ability. They said they are interested in how it works and want to give me a check-up so the electricity isn't actually hurting me or anything."

As they walked to a side entrance of the hospital, they saw a doctor waiting there. Mi recognized him and they went inside the hospital together. But before that happened, the girl saw a faint glint of some emotion in the doctor's eyes. It looked almost…too warm. Like when adults act way too happy around children to trick them. But the girl never said anything to stop them.

In fact, shortly after that the playdates grew sparser as time took its course. That on top of her parents soon forbidding her to go outside of the house unless necessary limited her time with Mi. Mi grew distant, and even though the memories were back, they were just as weak as anyone's when trying to recollect their early childhood.

I wonder what happened to her. We just grew apart. I wonder what she is doing know and where she is. Would she remember me?

This girl lived with her mother, father, and grandfather. The rest of her family was overseas, except for the rest of her grandparents. They were all dead except for her mom's dad. Although he was elderly, he spent a great deal of time and energy with his granddaughter. He had no medical conditions and the girl loved that he was not yet frail and took advantage of it. The grandfather's hair-whatever remained anyway-was all white or grey. He was slightly pudgy- as most grandfathers are- and he couldn't read a thing or even watch the TV without his glasses. In short he was the most typical grandfather, and the girl adored every minute with him. Once a businessman, he took up the piano as a hobby. On special days he would play the grand piano in the house, and on other days he would pour through his endless piano music on CDs and play something on the stereo. When it rained the girl loved sitting in his lap, her head against his upper chest while the music rang through the house.

Even though the grandfather had come to the City relatively old and he was most definitely not a student in Academy City's curricula, he managed through his connections to obtain some of the medicine to create his own personal reality. After all, what was he supposed to do with the money now that he was too old to really travel but fit enough to not be bedridden? For brief periods of time, he was able to watch other people-like his children who were once college students in the city- and copy what they did. He could feel their AIM and trace it to recreate the ability. He called it 'Ability Trace', but just like using tracing paper on drawings, it was weak. The abilities barely held. Whatever he copied only achieved level 2 at best, and he could only keep 2 in his mind at a time.

His daughter and son-in-law both had abilities of their own. His son-in-law was an electricity manipulator. He was level 1 but did well in his actual academic exams to become a scientist anyway. His daughter, on the other hand, was a level 3 in regards to acid manipulation, able to control liquids to make them deadly or a very good soup when she cooked. Sometimes the son-in-law would joke that level 3 means average and thus her cooking was average, which led to no happy endings. The daughter used to be a journalist, but grew tired of the fast-paced and thin-living lifestyle to keep it up after she had had her own daughter. Besides, with all the scientific breakthroughs, science journals would be more useful than a newspaper in Academy City anyway.

Now the girl had no siblings, so by default she was the child everyone threw all their affection upon. When she started preschool and began the curriculum to become an ESPer, it was first thought that she was good at manipulating wind. One windy day, she was playing in the garden. The wind blew towards her, and as her mom came outside to play with her, the girl redirected the wind to her and made it even stronger, shocking the mom at first. But of course, it was still a happy moment because it was the growth of their precious gem into someone stronger.

That is, until the day the girl was sitting on her grandpa's lap and she dipped her hand in his cup of water and turned it basic and bitter unknowingly. The grandpa spit it out, startled that she had two abilities. It didn't take much time after that that she began to show her wind prowess again, able to control winds almost second nature despite being so young but right after that turn her water acidic. She even started to tag her father's electric ability and even accidentally short-circuited the TV. In short, the girl had inherited a stronger version of her grandfather's ability as well as her mother's ability to grow into a stronger leveled person. Her father, eh, he shouldn't quit his day job.

This most definitely did not go unnoticed by the schools. They dubbed her power as 'Ability Tag'. Soon the family started receiving calls and letters of scientists and politicians and even military officers wanting to meet the girl and to see what she was worth. These calls and letters, and even the father's friends started making requests to do low-key, "perfectly ethical" experiments on her and maybe even collect her DNA. This girl was like the equivalent of a stem cell among ESPers. So much potential to become anything she wanted just by observing and practicing. And, if she chose to do so, she could forget something and start all over. She could reprogram herself at that, how attractive! Some said she would herald change in the field if someone could just please understand what made her tick.

The family got paranoid. Anyone out there could be out to draw their daughter in and ruin her life in the name of what they called science and progress but was really their own selfish desires manifesting. They limited her time outside, thoroughly upsetting the girl.

She was feeling trapped in the cage. Her parents knew what this was doing to a girl of her age, but it had to be done. They would rather have her alive. Her father for sure knew that only bad could come out of letting her meet anyone or take any tests. It wasn't like it was all good keeping a child at home, though. Not letting her go on vacations, not to the neighborhood playground lest they get harassed, not even to the grocery store sometimes. They were sure they had done some permanent damage to her psyche.

The girl never fell in love, held a part-time job, or went to an amusement park after her new ability was stamped on her ID card. But she did have all the time in the world to learn from books, slowly creeping up her way through the school rankings, even from elementary school. She even became proficient at silly things like multiplayer online games, a thin way to socialize but one she took nonetheless. The girl had no more friends, except for one: Rei Ryuuzaki, her childhood friend.

The Ryuuzakis were good friends to this girl's family. The parents had been friends since their college days and decided to stay in Academy City together. They frequently went to each other's houses, but even then the girl was not satisfied.

The Ryuuzakis' daughter, Rei, pretty much held the life that the girl always wanted. Friends and a decent academic life and ability level- although it would never be a match for Rei, but she would happily trade it off for a chance outside the cage. And she could go outside! What the girl wouldn't give for that! The girl loved her friend to death, but even then she felt envious. It stewed within her for a long time. She never maliciously acted upon it, but because she never truly vented it out, it just ate at her inside with the rest of her troubles.

The girl grew up like this for several years, right up until she began her first year of high school. When she and Rei were both level 4s.

That is, until the girl became a level 5. Hell broke loose then.

人

"Take the girl to District 7!" a voice yelled. Someone brought out a stretcher and took the crippled body into the ambulance.

"Accelerator! Come, we'll take you there!" Yoshi's voice called.

人

This girl's 15 minutes of fame in the limelight lasted for days, really. News channels were fixated on her for 3 days. It was suffocating the family. They knew this might happen and stocked up on groceries and life necessities earlier in the week. Windows shut, no going out. It was as if they were moles.

Sometimes the girl had trouble sleeping. After all, everything else was a problem too so why not her sleep get disturbed too? She would go downstairs and hear her parents and grandfather talk of moving out. By now even she was old enough to understand her fame. No one in the government would willingly authorize them to leave and give. They would come up with excuses for sure. They were trapped.

"We could try and flee though," the mother said through hushed whispers as they were unsure if they were being listened to or not. "Randomly, so they don't expect it. And definitely not formally."

"But if we get caught we'll get in serious trouble." The grandfather said.

"I am not sure how our current state is any different. Could we try and apply for asylum?" The father asked.

These discussions grew from joking to serious enough that the Ryuuzakis were even brought in on it. Rei and the girl were aware of the plan, but were deliberately not given the bulk of the information of the plan should something go awry and they get interviewed by police. They were only given instructions given to how they must carry themselves. The rest was up to the grown-ups and Lady Luck herself.

On one of the days coming up to her leaving, the girl finally had enough. When the rest of her family was napping, she went outside. She toured the alleyways of her childhood games of hide and seek, went to the playground despite being far too big for any of the equipment, and even went to a convenience store to buy random things with money she took out of her grandfather's wallet.

It was like she wasn't even given a happy childhood. She should have never wished to ever become a strong and powerful ESPer, one that would change the world. She sure as hell got it, but at a very heavy cost.

While walking the streets, she had come across a very strange group of three boys. They looked like a group of travelers.

"Uh, excuse me." The boy in front of the group approached Rei. "Do you know where the Mei Hotel is? We are kind of lost…" He nervously laughed. He had short, disheveled brown hair and wore a long sleeved black shirt with plain blue jeans.

"Oh yes, it's just…" She pointed in the direction the group should head before realizing she had all the time in the world to give them a personal tour of the entire city. "Actually, I'll take you there myself. It's nearby, just got to take a few turns, though. So, what are your names?" She asked.

The boy who had asked her replied, "Syaoran." He smiled.

Huh, interesting name. It sounds archaic.

The other two responded. The one with blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes said, "Fai, madame." and did a small bow. Wait a minute, that man…wasn't he the same one that was my coworker at Croquet Burger? The one with short, spikey black hair curtly said, "Kurogane." He wasn't nearly as polite. The girl saw that Fai was carrying a totebag that had several happy-looking anime characters on it that said "AKIHABARA" even though they were not in Akhibara. She could have sworn she saw the totebag squirm a little.

"Ah I see, my name is…" The girl told them her name.

人

Wait a minute.

This whole time….What is the name? Why haven't I heard it? Even when she said it I heard nothing.

I remember nothing.

I remember everything now…except for the name?

And wait…if that girl is Rei…then who am I?

Why can't I remember?!

Name,

My name,

Can I remember my name?

What is it?!

人

The girl enjoyed talking to Syaoran on the way to the hotel. He responded that they were currently on a world tour of sorts and would only be staying in Japan for one more day. All the tour books recommended stopping by the world's leading city in tech. But she didn't particularly care for their story so much as she had the opportunity to hear it. They were nice and it had been so long since she had felt the sun on her back like this.

"Well, here it is." She said as they reached their destination. It wasn't a posh 5-star hotel but it certainly looked comfortable enough. "It must be nice to travel the world." She said.

"It depends. After a while it can get pretty tiring." Syaoran replied, as if he was always going on one without ever resting at home.

"Ah, well it was a pleasure to meet you." The girl gave a little bow and Syaoran and Fai followed suit with Kurogane too busy looking around to give any time to goodbyes.

"Likewise madame." Fai said. "May we see each other again."

"Goodbye and thanks for the directions!" Syaoran said.

"Bye!" She waved, walking away from them. Syaoran and Fai waved back.

人

Her parents were furious. She had stayed out for a little too long. Their anger quickly dissipated, though. The time to escape was almost nigh and soon enough-if all went well- it wouldn't even matter if she had stayed out.

Her parents packed light. All their money and savings were put in the several pockets of the clothing they purchased specifically for this moment. Rei did the same, splitting up some of the valuables in her pea coat. The Ryuuzakis planned as a sort of guide and guard combination. They took none of the valuables but stuck around in order to sniff out for danger and also make it less suspicious when they all walked together outside in public. It would be safer to create the public image that they were just having a fun gathering rather than running for their freedom.

Rei's mother was just like the girl's in that they had the same ability and were at the same level. The father could generate force fields- a level 3- and Rei had donned what the girl constantly teased and called a "battle suit". Rei was wearing what looked like a red and silver long sleeved tunic top with red tights and silver and black boots and forearm-length gloves. She even had aviator's goggles to prevent her eyes from drying out. The entire garb was fire retardant, would wick sweat, and was made to be as aerodynamic as possible to avoid any issues with agility, but Rei's boots and gloves were made to protect her hands and feet in case something heavy stepped on her feet and to prevent injury to her hands. Normally when she trained her top was a dress in that the ends were not straight but more frilly and strayed away from her body- because if she could be fast in that, she would be fast in anything. But this was a serious matter, and every second mattered, so Rei chose the dress she tested in. The girl constantly thought she had never seen anything more badass yet silly at the same time, but she let the thought go this time. The girl herself wasn't going to wear anything different. With her ability she never had to wear specific clothing when testing. She just wore a black track suit under her pea coat, tied her hair into a single and long-length ponytail, and wore the fake plastic glasses the Ryuuzakis gave her-the father was an optometrist- as a disguise so the general public would not recognize her.

She buttoned up her pea coat and turned to face a ready Rei. Both nodded in anticipation.

"Ready?" Rei asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be." The girl responded. "Listen…" The girl took a step forward. "If I do leave here, I can't ever come back. I don't think I would be able to communicate with you after today."

"I understand. It's sad, but I know what you have to do. Maybe one day I'll come to the outside world, and I'll find you for sure if that's the case!" Rei gave a weak smile. "But…I just want you to be happy, cause you know? You haven't really had that chance in a long time." Without warning she hugged the girl. "I'm going to miss you…!" She said her name again and started crying. "I don't want you to go! I wish you had something normal, like invisibility, or actual ESP, or literally anything else! Why did it have to be like this?" She whimpered a little. As quick as she started crying she stopped, wiped her tears and pulled away. Rei gave her a serious look. "Hey, do you think, if reincarnation exists, we'll see each other again? Or…or…or maybe there is an alternate universe somewhere else where you don't have to leave and we don't have to face any of these problems?"

The girl was slightly unprepared for such a thought, but she seriously pondered it for a moment anyway. Then it was her turn to hug Rei.

"We will meet again soon, Rei-chan. Ryuuzaki Rei, we'll be friends in every life."

人

And yet everything ended up going so wrong.

The fathers had already started the plan. They were to leave their own respective houses at a different time and then meet up at a location. The mothers would stay behind and just chat and cook and play calm. Then, after another set time, they would take the girl's grandfather with them to a different location and the two groups would meet with the girls trailing close behind.

BAM!

Before the moms could even finish fake cooking, 5 men burst down the house door, all dressed like thugs.

One of them shot the grandfather in an instant. He died wordlessly with his eyes open in surprise as he fell to his knees. The girl had never heard her mother scream so loudly.

"Oi, …!" One of the called out the girl's family name. "We found out about your little plan. And now you have a choice! Either come with us and you'll still have your lives OR try and escape and die for sure."

The other four surrounded the mothers, taking little heed to the children in the living room next to the kitchen for now. Two of them welded beating rods. One gave out a noticeable electric spark. The other one and the speaker both carried guns.

They didn't even wait for a response.

It was over before it even started. The entire kitchen was covered in blood, but most specifically the floor. All that was left were corpses.

"Mom!" Rei screamed at the top of her lungs. The other men then turned their attention to them.

The girl braced herself. The deaths shocked her, but if they didn't react fast now, they too would join them. She inhaled as the two men with the sticks approached her and the other two aimed their guns. She looked into her mind for the ability she had used on occasion, taught to her by a former friend, and let loose her power.

人

The day the boy inadvertently showed his ability to the girl, she couldn't stop thinking about him. She wanted nothing than to be his friend and even learn from him. But she had to wait for the opportunity to walk home by herself. That itself would take days, but to wait for the right moment to talk to this strange boy? The girl promised herself that she would do so the first time the opportunity arose, no matter how scary it would be.

It happened. Two weeks later, she was able to go back on her own. He was there on the swings. The boy with the extremely pale skin was looking down and wasn't really even swinging. If the girl didn't know any better-which she didn't- she would say that he looked very lonely. Where were his parents? Was he trying to take a break from something else as well?

She walked through the wood chip and sand floor of the playground to straight in front of him. He looked up at her silently. "Hi." The girl said. "Could I play with you?"

"…Why?" The boy's question sounded tired of having to interact with people. He sounded like he never got any honesty.

"Because," the girl started, "…I…" She got nervous before straightening up, "I saw you the other day and think you're cool and I…I just wanna be your friend!"

The boy stared wide-eyed at the girl. It was then that she noticed his ruby red eyes. The girl thought they were beautiful.

The boy had never really heard what she had said before. He had to be on guard. Who knew who would end up hurting him next? Someone would come asking him something for their own gain.

Just like the girl.

"Are you sure that's what you really want?" He asked her.

"Yes!" The girl asked immediately. "I want you to be my friend! And I want to learn from you!" The girl gave a pumped-up pose. "My ability can learn others! So could you please teach me the basics of whatever you have as well as be my friend? I just think it's really cool and I would like to be just like you! If you want, I can also call you sensei!"

He blinked several times in response. Her energy, her pose, her questions and requests, it was all just so much to take in all at once. Or rather, he wasn't sure if, given more time, he could get used to this girl.

"…Okay." He nodded hesitantly.

"Yes!" The girl jumped in joy. "Okay, what's your name? I'm…"

"….." The boy responded.

Hah…So that's what his name is…

"Okay then, ….! What should we do first, friend? Swings? I think so!"

人

"Yeah like that." The boy and the girl were standing on opposite ends of a swing. The boy would push the swing gently towards the girl and the girl would send it back to him without touching it. This was after several shows of what he could do. The boy had to admit- although he would never admit it out loud- he enjoyed the girl's amazed expressions whenever he did anything. And, what he didn't expect was that the girl was telling the truth in regards to what she could do. In fact, she was a fast learner, if it wasn't for the girl showing him how she could control the wind in the beginning before any teaching, he would have thought he had found someone like him.

They didn't meet regularly as the girl's parents would only let her walk alone on a whim or due to pity, but the boy promised to be at the playground from a certain time every day regardless of weather despite the chance of the girl not even showing up. He waited every day at the same time for a month. They trained and talked about the little things. She told him that she could rarely go out of the house. He told her that he was constantly being called by scientists because they were interested in him as well and that he had no friends or family. Everyone was as on guard with him as he was with them.

They trained well together. After moving on from swings, they escalated to stones, cans, trash, even hiding and pushing bullies from a distance. They would giggle together when such a thing would happen.

But by the end of the month the boy had to tell her he would be changing schools. He didn't go into too much detail, but the girl was saddened nonetheless. Once again she had no one new to talk to. But, whenever she got the chance, she would practice her newfound ability for years to come and never even considered 'un-tagging' what she created. She never forgot the boy and always fondly thought of him until the end.

人

Just as the bullets were unleashed and headed for the two, the girl focused and deflected them immediately, severely injuring the two from fighting any more.

"Shit, the girl got in contact with that Accelerator boy! Get her!"

'Accelerator-boy? Are they referring to …?' The girl had heard of this Accelerator through rumors at school. He was going through the rankings rather quickly. She had always wondered in the back of her head on whether it was the person she had once knew or not because what she had always heard was….very disturbing.

In that moment while distracted, Rei got electrocuted. She screamed, falling down and gasping for air.

"Rei!" The girl cried out loud. She charged the electromaster in rage but ended up getting caught by one of the other men. She felt a sharp pain on her back and head as one of the bats was rammed into her and she collapsed in the same pool of blood, staining parts of her coat. Everything she saw was bright as the man kept hitting her head hard. "No!" Her eyes teared up a little as one of them men kept beating her back, but she could make out that the other 2 were ganging up on Rei who was still recovering from the electric shock. She reached out one of her arms and tried to reach out her hand as if she could pull Rei away from harm. It was then that a miraculous thing happened.

"Don't…hurt…her." Ryuuzaki's mom whispered. Suddenly the blood changed in color and the blood in contact with the man's boots starting hissing. He gave a shrill shriek and a string of curse words as only the blood he was in contact with became so acidic that his boots disintegrated and began eating away at his feet.

"Darling, run away with Rei." The girl's mom sputtered, waking up. "Find…your father. Go…Please. Live…on."

"Yes, dear." Rei's mom added. "Please…live on."

As the girl got up, she almost fell down in shock again. "No…No…No!" She screamed.

In the distraction, Rei got her bearings and punched the two simultaneously that they cracked the opposing wall and fell out of the house. She grabbed the girl's hand, punched a giant hole in the house, and began sprinting.

Both were in tears, but they had no choice but to keep running.

人

When they met up with the fathers, their status showed it all. Sure, people noticed them all running like lunatics, especially with the girl's blood-stained clothing, but no one really paid any mind or even cared.

Running on adrenaline, they all headed towards one of the main drawbridges. They had many options to escape from here. With Rei's speed, she could pull the girl along the water as if they were running on it and later she could come back for the fathers. Rei's dad could generate a force field that would give them oxygen while they tried to get to the non-Academy City side of the bridge. Or they could commandeer a boat and try their best not to act suspicious, but that part at this point was probably not possible. However, with the majority of their plan not only botched but horribly fucked up, all of them were in shock.

But even then, Academy City would not let them have their own way. They had sent a small infantry to surround them. And they were merciless.

With the fathers' abilities, they didn't last long. The girl saw them getting slashed down in front of her, even the force fields rendered useless. No…No…I don't want to remember this again.

'Live on.' Those were their dying words. No…No! This can't be!

Soon enough it was Rei and the girl back to back, their eyes steeled and ready to take on the world. But even with so many...and the girl's still developing-competence at that ability…it wasn't enough to protect Rei. The guards engaged in both physical and gun combat in order to distract the two. And it had worked. The only way for Rei to fight was to separate from the girl and move fast, knocking out as many people as possible. But…the soldiers just kept coming, and the girl couldn't keep track of it all.

Rei was lying stomach-first on the ground. The girl was the same. The soldiers had their guns trained on them, but one of them was communicating with someone on the radio to figure out the next course of action.

Rei gingerly reached her hand out to the girl's and she did the same. The girl could barely see Rei's eyes in all the blood and her bangs covering them. Rei tried smiling. "We…didn't make it."

"Don't say that…please, Rei-chan."

"….. just promise me…Live…on. I change what I said about us reincarnating. If one of us survive from this, we will see each other in the next life, but we should live this life guilt-free anyway. Live it to the fullest…until we see each other again. So, jaa matta,…..You were the best friend I could ever ask for."

人

Everything else after that was bright light. The girl was trying to get her bearings. She felt like she was in the arms of someone. This memory was still hazy, it was most definitely forming, but it would take time for it to fully come back. Ah, I can't remember all of this quite yet…

"Watanuki…What can we do?" A boy said. The voice sounded familiar.

"To get something, you must pay the correct thing for it. Not a single thing less. Not a single thing more."

"I…have an idea." The voice was the girl's. "All those people…they died for me to live on. I can't…die now because of all these injuries. So take everything I know. Take all my memories. Don't give them back... Just let me live. And…give me my friend's namesake. Make me think my name is Ryuuzaki Rei. I'll always live not knowing who I truly was. I won't be living my life anymore. The level 5 ESPer won't exist anymore and she would have disappeared as quickly as she came in, right? In that case…I have essentially died anyway, right? It works."

"But…she will have no method of obtaining them back?" The person argued. This was a different part of the conversation. "Watanuki, change them into feathers and we will spend our time to get them back for her! We will exchange our effort for what took her effort to build."

"That would work on a couple of conditions. In order to make the balancing work: first, she will never remember her real name or age again. Those feathers will never come back to her. You can find them, but they will never be able to return to her. Second, you three will have to make sure all the paperwork goes smoothly to reintroduce her to her home. I will not just rearrange the course of this to make it so, that will be the result of your effort. We don't want anyone making a connection to who she once was. And third, she will have to endure some more harm. It will be…well, you'll see…"

"We'll help you, no matter what, okay? So don't worry." That was another voice and the last fragment of that memory.

人

The familiar girl in the Victorian-era dress turned around and looked directly at 'Rei' in her mind. Ah, so you see. I am just the former shell of you. What you knew was gone, but your AIM field always remembers a piece of you…the root emotions of you...and so I stayed. And with each memory gained I grew stronger. The dress, the personality, the memories…I really am not good, nor evil. I just tried my best at living. Really…I am not 'Dark', okay? Really... I am just you. So, the girl smiled, did you finally get your answer to the past? It might not have been expected. Haha! As if you really wanted to know! Maybe you want to take your ignorance back! It was bliss right!? But live on, you have to live on!

"Live on," her mother said.

"Live on," her namesake's mother said.

"Live on," her father said.

"Live on," her namesake's father said.

"Live on," the real Rei said.

Live on.

Live on.

Live on.

Get me out of this Hell...