"His faith, though absolute,
fractured the glass.
And onwards,
the water's ripples would forever move on and on and on and on and onー"
"Seia, you're writing a fit." Niya peeked over the small blonde's shoulder, eyeing the sketchbook filled to the brim with "and on" all the way to the bottom.
The fox eared blonde flashed a smirk keeping her red crayon pressed against the edge of the drawing. "Aren't you aware? Tonight is the night of the last day."
Night of the last day.
The crowds of masked individuals were plentiful. Kimono dresses students as far as the eye could see, but none saw the masked within masked students-that was Faux Tea Party. Infiltrating in plain sight wearing fox masks adorning with red symbols on the cheeks and forehead was the first squad; consisting of the usual two foxes: Niko and Yukino but joining them was Chinatsu following the rear and even Kaya, armed with a modified version of Sariel's first uzi. The gun was painted completely white with a blue stripe on the side similar to GSC color scheming. Weapons had names and this one was called "Holy Orders: Be Just" since it was a weapon made for righteous cause.
The rest of the party used more concealed weaponry but Chinatsu carried her usual Mauser pistol tucked in the pockets of her duffle bag rather than on her person. In hand, she carried a five shot revolver that was plastic looking more like a toy.
The duffle bag she carried was lightly weighted since all the bombs they planted in the city were set. Together the group stopped by a lamp post to look like a clique of friends loitering around to the crowds of masked students walking about.
Niko was the first to celebrate. "That's that. Do you think Sensei gave us the easiest job because he doesn't trust us?"
Yukino took out a small transceiver. "Not quite yet. We still have to regroup with him before Attack Team arrives." She switched the radio on and brought it close to her mouth.
"This is Fox 1. Faux Tea Party has finished deploying the fruits of the holy spirit. Requesting Rebellion One's location."
On the other end was Nagisa's nasally voice amongst the static. "Tea Party here–he hasn't given us an update on his location and won't respond. He may still be in one of the restaurants. You have to find him quickly before you're separated too far."
Lying on a hill overseeing Hyakkiyako and Shanghaijing city was a pristine white table set underneath a lone tree. A table where Nagisa sat drinking tea and partaking in sweets while Hanoko and Koharu used binoculars to watch the city and all roads leading into it. A circular wall surrounded dense buildings packed inside the center and circling the perimeter were smaller towns and plantations. Ever since Shanghaijing and their merchants had merged with Hyakkiyako, the school had become entirely self-sufficient as well as the main exporter of goods through all of Kivotos.
Behind Nagisa were 3 rows of mortars and this time they were going to be used to send a message to Hyakkiyako Sensei: "Go to Hell".
Another transmission came from the radio, this time from the third team. From the static came Hifumi's innocent voice. "Uhm, Nervous Vanguard to everyone. We're spread out and in position. So far we haven't seen any ninjas."
"No ninjas here!" Hanae cheered.
"Things are calm…" Serina said.
"Too calm… haha! I always wanted to say that line." Aru laughed.
"All clear. Uuu… Why couldn't we be the detonation team." Mutsuki groaned.
All that was left was to wait and announce Attack Team's arrival. Nagisa took a donut and bit out of it wondering where Sariel was hiding. He wasn't dead, he wasn't going to die so easily.
The reason Sariel couldn't respond was because he was climbing a stairwell. He burst open a door and reached the rooftop of an office building he walked into. Tricking the female workers behind the counter was easy, all he had to say was that he was staff and was requested to clean. Being children and most of all female, they believed his shoddily crafted lie.
In his own world he would never think about doing this. He could do anything in Kivotos, anything he pleased and whatever pleased his freedom. The wind blowing on his back and seeing everything from above, the rich in his own world lived this experience every day. Being a step above commonfolk was a drug and it made sense, now experiencing it for himself, why corrupt men behave so.
On a tool belt was his second Uzi named "Holy Orders: Be Dead" and painted in a red and brown color scheme to match with his burgundy kimono. The weapon was fitted with a suppressor and scope since he wasn't a good shot.
He moved from the edge and crouched behind the building's box HVAC before finally responding to both teams. "This is Rebellion One. I'm in position to command. Faux Tea Party, when the attack starts, detonate the fruits of the spirit then regroup at the castle's bridge. I'll meet you there."
"Understood." Fox 1 answered.
He turned off his radio and smirked. The sabotage plan was simple, a two pronged attack. First Attack Team was to act as a distraction drawing in Hyakkiyako Sensei's attention to consolidate all his forces towards the front. Prefect Team was the Trojan horse in a sense, merely giving the illusion of an all out attack on the city. He had Faux Tea Party plant explosives around and planned to set them off during the attack so Hyakkiyako's forces would split from the front line looking for him and relieving the pressure off Prefect Team. But the Nervous Vanguard would intercept these forces–simple divide and conquer tactics. All the while Hyakkiyako Sensei would have no clue about him in his disguise making his way straight to the castle pretending to be one of his guards.
"..."
Nothing needed to be said, not until Hyakkiyako Sensei was dead.
"..."
The drive to Hyakkiyako was tense. Hina had her sights occupied outside the window the entire ride there. She watched long stretches of land, nothing but grass and farms–something entirely foreign to the main city's industrialization. Millennium, Trinity, and Gehenna were all in close vicinity but Hyakkiyako and the illusive Abydos were far.
"Something on your mind? If you have any hesitations, clear them up now." Sena said in her usual deadpan tone. This caused Hina to sit back up in her seat. She glanced at the window's reflection where she could see Iori, Azusa, and Kayoko in the backseat. And somehow sleeping was Ako, wrapped in a blanket and snoozing on this ride towards what could be their deaths.
But Iori smacked her awake. "Wake up sleeping beauty, are you aware we are in the fight for our lives?" She angrily hissed.
Ako responded with a middle finger and closed her eyes again. Azusa could feel the animosity between the two and being the only Trinity student among this group of demons made her awkwardly stare at her feet.
Sena pressed her foot on the pedal. "I'm speeding up. Prepare to jump once we cross into the city. And Hina,"
"Hm?" Hina shot her a side glance.
"Don't forget what sensei taught us." Sena then stomped on the pedal, reeling the truck forward.
The scenery outside all became a blur save for what was ahead of them. Students jumped and ran out of the way and Sena swerved around those that were too shell shocked to move. Not all were oblivious to what was going on however, some of the masked students drew their rifles and fired at the invaders, specifically aiming for the armored tires. They crossed under the city's wall then using an arch bridge as a ramp, the speed launched the truck high up over the crowd gathered by the entrance of the city.
"Now!" Sena shouted.
Hina was the first to jump out of the truck while it was in midair, followed by the rest of the team performing the same acrobatic feat.
"Attack Team has crossed into the city!"
"-Hyakkiyako students are mobilizing, but still no sight of ninjas!"
"Detonating in 2 minutes!"
The transmissions on her radio were chaotic along with the varied shouts of students and screaming. For the first time in a while cracks erupted on Hina's horns.
"This is the roar of a dragon!" Kayoko fired a howling bullet into the sky causing the crowd of students to halt and cover their ears under the echoing roar.
"Rooooaagghh!" Similarly Hina would roar, pressing the trigger fully on her machine gun unleashing bullets that fanned outwards and cleared most of the crowd in their way, innocent or otherwise, everything was caught in the blast. The magazine was empty once she landed.
"Ignore these guys, we'll pass through every opening there is!" Kayoko said while reloading and taking the front lead of the team. Sena's truck swiveled around and rushed past them on their way further in the city.
"They're getting away!"
"Stop them! They're trying to get to the castle!"
Hina could faintly make out some of the orders Hyakkiyako's masked students commanded. A row of minigun wielding students soon blocked their rush and they scattered to use abandoned snack stands as cover.
"Hina!" Kayoko exclaimed.
Hina slugged her machine gun to stand upright and used her foot to switch the lever down. "I need to reload!"
"Outta our way!" Iori dashed out of her cover and came to a skidding halt, firing a piercing bullet that managed to strike down two students. Then expended two more bullets to rend the rest. But this distraction gave enough time for two students to emerge from an alleyway with dragon head shaped cannons. The cannon's mouth was already lit aflame and primed. However an even louder explosion from deeper within the city buildings shook the ground. The two students hesitated and that cost them when Azusa easily shot down their armaments.
Once their weapons were reloaded, they continued advancing as fast as they could.
"Can nothing stop them?! It's just a couple of Gehenna–agh!" An RPG wielding student fell forward and the partner beside her turned around only to see her own squad mates. A canister would launch from someone in her own group, hitting the ground before disbursing smoke to cover the entire field.
"C-crap! Do we have a traitor in our midst?!"
"Split up! They're attacking from both sides!"
"But then Prefect Team will be—ah!"
A loud bang shot her aside for Niko to pass by. "Well she fell quickly. I'm over here, let's hurry!"
Faux Tea Party would pass through this smoke taking out most of the students on their way to find Sariel, and with most of the blockers taken care of, the Attack Team didn't have to stop their advance.
Sariel watched smoke and flames fill the air. He watched the explosions set off and buildings fall along with students scattering on the streets like ants from this height. Furrowing his brow, he said on his radio, "Detonate the second wave of bombs." Then turned around to re enter the building and descend the steps.
"Damnnit!" Mimori saw the explosions from outside the window. Hyakkiyako was set on fire once again and this time it seemed to be permanent. She hurried back to the throne room, sliding the door open and closed, first bowing to the Sensei that sat cloaked on the chair before speaking. "Hyakkiyako is burning."
"I am aware of that." The hooded cloaked man had a deep and deathly tone of voice yet he spoke rather freely. His words instilled fear even to his subordinates despite being a plentiful talker. His throne room was an enclosed space at the top of the castle. Yellow lit lamps gave his personal area a warm feeling but this wasn't a warm place since in the center was a table where his council consisting of the smartest minds sat. Seia, Niya, Kuzunoha, and Chise all partook in a game of mahjong seemingly having no care for the school falling. After all, they had already seen it.
Hyakkiyako Sensei stood up slowly, keeping his hood on. "I already sent Michiru and Tsukuyo."
A blonde and tall fox-eared student standing by as his guard raised a brow. "And you'll be joining them? What if the sabotage man hurts you?"
"That's just the nature of my work. I'm going to get hurt but I'll make him hurt more for even THINKING about crossing me. I thought helping him might get him off my back but I guess stubborn students need correction."
Chise closed her eyes upon discarding another piece in her game. "You have our blessings, Sensei"
Within an instant he went from the throne to Mimori's side, starling only her, then made his way down from the castle.
Another set of three explosions set off in the city making more buildings collapse and the skies to cover in smoke from the fires starting to spread further. After defeating another group of students in the way, Hina crouched down behind rubble to reload and catch her breath after handling her gun so wildly.
"Doesn't seem to be anymore in our way. We have a clear path to the castle." Kayoko readied a full magazine in her pistol.
"Not entirely." Iori set her eyes on another wave of students, but rather than running to stop them in a hurry, they marched in a line. The group of minigun students split evenly allowing a cloaked figure to step forth. Hina's eyes widened in horror recognizing the black cloak he always wore. The same cloak he wore when he attacked Gehenna and killed Satsuki. Such a man though mortal had an overwhelming presence because of his actions.
Hyakkiyako Sensei lowered his hood unveiling his brown hair and golden eyes. His fox ears twitched in excitement and he couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear. "We meet again, huh? To tell you the truth, I've been waiting all my life for you to come back with that look in your eye."
Kayoko kept her glare on him which was an attack in itself, but Izuna chuckled. "Fights like this are what I live for. Fighting to kill each other because nothing else matters anymore! I took your sensei from you and this world took the rest of my humanity from me."
A holographic projection of Ako suddenly materialized next to Kayoko. "Someone like this doesn't deserve to live. It disgusts me that adults like him exist. Don't hold anything back for me, okay?"
Ako dissipated and Kayoko felt her sense heighted. "Okay." She raised her pistol. "This is the–"
A flying ninja star cut through the air and Iori intercepted the hit, getting the thrown weapon lodged in her arm. Azusa unloaded several shots that Izuna zig-zagged past to close the distance. She moved like Wakamo, perhaps even faster since in one motion she was able to disarm and push Iori aside like she was nothing more than furniture in his way.
Kayoko saw the shine of his wakizashi and being forced on the defense, she leaned back into a somersault to avoid the slash and drew a second pistol from her thigh holster. Izuna did the same, dual wielding a type 100 submachine gun and blade. Bullets flew, casings fell, and with stylish flips and clashes, the two seemed to be matched in skill and locked in a gun duel at close range. Kayoko would shoot while doing cartwheels and rolling, Izuna would spin and flip while shooting a barrage of bullets making Kayoko retreat back to a wall.
She ran up alongside the wall avoiding his slash, then kicked herself off to flip over the fox student. But Izuna dropped a smoke bomb and reappeared behind where she landed. He stuck the barrel of his gun on her back and unleashed the rest of the magazine there. First bruising her back then causing blood to fly when she was weakened enough for the bullets to pierce skin. "One down." He kicked her over to finish the job.
"Tch!" Iori scoffed, being pinned down by Izuna's group of students. She couldn't recover quickly enough when Izuna brushed her aside and now this fight was left to, "Hina! Azusa!"
Again, Izuna would zig-zag her way towards Azusa and the girl braced herself expecting him to do the same thing he did with Kayoko. Surprising her was the fact that he came to a complete stop and blew bubbles from his mouth, but of course these weren't any ordinary bubbles. On contact they chained an explosion in her face that deafened all sound but the ringing in her ears. She staggered and dropped her gun–a mistake as Izuna was able to flip his gun to hold by the barrel and bat her head with the stock. He kept hitting her over and over until she lost her footing and fell to the ground with a battered head bloodying her white hair.
"Hina~!" Izuna spun to look at the frightened child hiding behind her cover. Cracks further spread on her horns and halo.
"Grrraaahhh!" She emerged from hiding with her machine gun aimed but her finger was too stiff with fear to move.
"Look at yourself, you haven't matured a bit!" Izuna flipped up then landed perfectly perched on the tip of her weapon. The fright in her gaze said it all. Nothing had changed from the first attack to now, she hadn't gotten over the assassination that took her Sensei's life. It was so sudden. One moment she was talking with Satsuki in the cafeteria and the next a bullet hole appeared on his forehead.
She imagined Izuna killing her the same way.
Then a voice came from her radio. "Hina, drop the gun and dodge!" It was Sariel's voice but it wouldn't crack through her fear.
"Hina!" He repeated louder trying to break through her fear but she was face to face with a demon more fearsome than any Gehenna student could ever be.
Izuna spun his wakizashi. "So that's the one leading this operation. Tell him it's far too late for goodbyes!" He lunged and thrusted the weapon as deep as he could in Hina's neck, by passing the sturdiness students had and drawing blood on the first strike. She fell back vomitting blood as she fell. She wanted to scream but her throat was clogged.
"No! Damnnit!" Sariel threw the radio deep into the alleyway he watched from. That was the last student he could get ahold of, the others wouldn't respond and were presumed defeated. How did such a perfect plan go so badly, he thought? Everything was in order. Were the ninjas just this powerful compared to him?
"Hey, fox mask!"
He flinched when he heard a Hyakkiyako student call him. "What are you hiding there for? The battle is this way."
He turned around and staggered a nod, forced to follow this student to where Izuna gathered the defeated members of sabotage. It was here he saw a tall student wearing a red demon mask with wild white hair that extended down to the ground, dragging a bruised and battered Kaya to the center. Yukino was defeated as well, holding up her hands as a student nudged her along, keeping the shotgun to her back.
Seeing his students so defeated made his heart sink. It dropped to a new low when the crowd of armed Hyakkiyako students parted for Michiru, dragging a bloodied Hifumi by her hair. Her halo was fading in and out, thankfully she wasn't dead, but seeing it scattered any coherent thoughts from forming. The only semblance of an idea he could muster was escaping. He needed to make a break for the castle and end this battle by killing Hyakkiyako Sensei even if it cost his student's lives. Killing was all that mattered. Izuna here was just too strong of a boss to defeat at his current state.
But then.
"Okay!" Izuna clapped his hands twice. "I want to thank our visitors for making my party an explosive event. I specifically made this celebration for you."
"N-no way!" Sariel's heart slowed.
Izuna continued. "But now it's come to an end, don't you think? The best part of a masquerade ball is walking outside with someone and taking off your masks to see who was behind the persona. Here we see Trinity and Gehenna students working together, who could've imagined? And SRT, and even an official from the GSC!"
Though he was being needlessly dramatic, Sariel could feel the deathly intent behind every word. "Now what about you all?" He turned around to the armed Hyakkiyako students all wearing various masks. A crowd Sariel was disguised within.
"Niya ordered me to end this party so... I command you to take off your masks."
Sariel's heart stopped briefly knowing Izuna had successfully countered every tactic he had at his disposal. Izuna was too crafty an individual. Sariel thought about drawing his gun and attempting to just kill him right here and now, just going for the small opportunity. Though the chances of that happening, or even getting close were impossible. In his mind he screamed curses, "Why you bastard! I'll kill you! I'll kill you from beyond my grave if I need to. Rio didn't have to die—You're the one causing everything wrong in this world!"
One by one each student carelessly dropped their masks unfazed by the order. But Sariel hesitated, his hand trembled as it rose to his face. Behind his mask was pure seething.
"The GSC President trusted me. I'll gun down everyone here if I need to, just to kill you–!"
"Up there! It's the Saboteur!"
Suddenly all eyes were drawn above to what looked like a carbon copy of Sariel in his gothic outfit. The mask this student wore however, was that of a tiger. She had her arms outstretched in a T-pose as if this was something grand.
Izuna pointed to the student on the rooftop, "How cocky of you to reveal yourself to me this way. Everyone, get him!"
They fell for it?
Sariel watched this mysterious look alive take off running while the entire crowd switched priorities. Izuna kept his priorities on finding members of the sabotage club, pulling aside students and ripping their masks off looking for more of Sariel's students. In this chaos, Sariel slipped away back into an alley. He shot the edge of a manhole covering so his fingers could slip underneath and lift the covering allowing him to descend into the sewers in hiding.
Running and hiding, that's all he could do. Sariel fell to his knees in this stinky green sewer of the underworld. With no one around to hear, he punched the ground and swore endlessly. "Damnnit! Damnnit! I'm supposed to be winning, why am I losing all my battles!? I made the perfect sabotage! This is what the president wanted me to do right?!"
Echoing footsteps caused him to flinch, not that he was going to have any way to run if Hyakkiyako found him. He lifted his head up and saw the lookalike stop at a distance, but still close enough to make out the finer details such as her fox ears lowered behind the headdress and hints of red on the edge of her cut black hair.
"Don't shout so loudly, they might find us." She said,
She was good at escaping compared to himself. Nonetheless, she had her own opinions to share. "I warned you about the forces you are dealing with. The way you carry yourself makes for easy pickings."
"Shut up bitch! I would've won if I had more competent students." He counted on his fingers. "Mika, Saori, Mashiro, hell–even Hoshino would give me a better starting hand."
"A winner wins despite the odds against them. Rio never lost, and Satsuki never lost. Alter Code: F still persists as well as Satsuki's ideas. But you–you are a loser."
Sariel lunged for her neck, wrapping his hands around as hard as he could. These students were much stronger than him and this probably didn't hurt her in the slightest but he didn't care, it was the action that mattered. "I'll kill you too if I need to! So why don't you make yourself useful!" he swung his fist punching off her mask and actually making a student reel back from the blow.
His fist was kept raised for another punch but after seeing that which marked her face, his rage seemed to vanish on the spot. "Your face…."
The result of too many Senseis in this world. The entire right side of her face was scarred red. No, half of her whole body was.
"What happened..?" Curiosity took over Sariel's frustrations.
"The only time I managed to be captured was by Hyakkiyako's hands. They took me to prison where Hyakkiyako Sensei tortured me for information and to work for him as an informant. I was waterboarded, pricked with needles and left to burn near a fire. One day someone opened my cell and allowed me to escape, so I went to Rio. But he experimented on my body." Wakamo lifted her skirt a bit and lowered one knee sock to show where the prosthetic leg connected with her flesh. "Gehenna Sensei was kind enough to have me around but I faced his alcoholic rage the most. He forced me to drink so much back then…"
"Wow…" Sariel frowned.
"You and Nagisa are the only Senseis kind to me, but you are also losers. Losers have qualities that winners don't. You can afford to make mistakes and recover from it. That's why I saved you. So if you're certain about what you're doing," She turned and pointed further down the sewer tunnel. "You can get to the castle there. The last manhole will take you outside the steps."
"And what will you do? Are you going to follow me?" Sariel asked.
Wakamo shook her head and slowly walked past him. "I'm going to stop Izuna once and for all."
"But you'll be killed! He can't be defeated!"
"I feel so numb to everything but my love for Nagisa. It is the least I could do to ensure the students under your wing survive and won't end up like I have. That way, you and Nagisa won't have any grave regrets." Wakamo flashed him a smile before climbing the ladder up.
He made the choice to continue down the sewer aiming to end this long battle Izuna had between senseis once and for all. Following Wakamo's instructions, he was taken outside the castle nearby the steps that lead up to it. With most of the students gone fighting, he was able to enter without someone to stop him on his ascend to the top floor. The entire trip was eerily quiet save for his footsteps and the jittering of his Uzi's inner parts.
Prepared to kill, he readied his gun before sliding open the door to no fanfare. His immediate eyesight made contact with a student and he pulled the trigger on sight, spraying across Niya, Chise, Kuzunoha and Seia. They weren't really the most durable students, and blood painted the walls and ceiling after the magazine was nearly empty. A click erupted from the gun and he dropped the magazine to load in another, and began unloading a second barrage of bullets that littered this group with holes. The constant recoil pushing against his arms started to sore but he pushed on until the gun was emptied again.
Letting out a deep breath, he dropped his gun and leaned back on the door. It was over, Hyakkiyako Sensei, whichever of these girls he was, he was dead in a bloody bath. Chise's head was sliced and the upper half was folded over like a peeled orange. Whatever bits of skull keeping her face intact was gone leaving her brain exposed to the elements. A chunk of Niya's head was missing, replaced by bullets lodged into her head and eye socket. A waterfall of blood poured down to her lap. Seia and Kuzunoha, being small, were ripped apart more than the other two. They didn't even resemble a person with so many holes littering their faces.
Sariel wanted to throw up looking at his own paintings. But he would hear all four sit back up at once, reanimated and moving again. But how? Scarred and erupted with so many emotions at once, he slowly backed into the corner of the room. "No… no… no…"
"How rude of you to interrupt our game. The least you could do was knock first." Seia was speaking even though her jaw was dislocated.
"We only have ourselves to blame. We were expecting him to arrive any day now." Chise still spoke in complete sentences even without her brain connected to the rest of her body.
"Well we can consider this game wrapped up. Let's start another game." Niya… how…
"Xavier was it? I'm sure you have many questions, especially regarding Alter Code: F." Kuzunoha seemed to be a mind reader, or omniscient to figure that out.
Sariel placed a hand over his rapidly beating heart. "Why aren't you dead? Is Hyakkiyako Sensei the reason you're still alive?!"
"Alter Code: F is the reason we persist." Seia answered.
"What is Alter Code: F?"
"Why, it's the end of the world."
Sariel slammed his fist against the wall. "I know that already! What specifically is it?! What was Rio planning to do and why? How can I prevent it?"
"That's a lot of questions. I suppose we have reached the point where it's time to answer them all." Seia said.
"I agree." Niya chuckled. "So if you will, Seia, Kuzunoha. Start from the beginning."
The story of future and past began, "The idea of Alter Code:F came about when Gehenna Sensei arrived in this world. Much like the other senseis, he knew of the future that was to come however his foresight extended much beyond the Eden Treaty Rio manipulated."
A story beyond the Eden Treaty? Sariel didn't see anything in the game past that moment. It could be said that was where the Blue Archive story ended with smaller scaled stories occurring afterwards. There were no hints about there being a Volume 5, and as for Volume 2's continuation… Well Rio was long past dead.
"Gehenna Sensei got to strategizing a way to prevent the end of our world due to a sensei from the future. The next journey for us students wasn't some hiccup in the way we govern ourselves. The next journey was the end, the Final."
Then it started to click in. Gehenna Sensei being Japanese, working together with Rio and preparing students not for the Eden Treaty but for what was ahead. Gehenna Sensei was always several steps ahead because he was a Japanese Blue Archive player, and experienced what many wouldn't get to until months or even years later.
But with this being the end, did that mean Blue Archive was a failure?
"But Gehenna Sensei couldn't figure out a solution, especially when so many things were out of his hands like us students. Being a teacher in Gehenna, he could only command them. Trinity's students were hostile and Millennium's students were deathly loyal to Rio. This was no longer a game where he could control all the pieces. He switched focuses on trying to escape from this world but to build a machine like that he needed Rio's help. The conflict between them grew because Rio didn't want to leave this world."
He intended to stay forever. Sariel rubbed his chin figuring that's why Millennium continued Alter Code:F even after his death. He wanted to get to the other side of whatever this final chapter of Blue Archive was.
"Rio hired Hyakkiyako's hand, Izuna, to kill him to prevent him from figuring out how to leave this world. The deal was that he'd take the blame for the aftermath but being a schemer, he organized the Total Ninja Death propaganda campaign to absolve himself of all the blame. And if students wanted to kill Izuna, that'd be another sensei out of the way."
"Izuna is Hyakkiyako Sensei?!" Sariel blurted out, surprised that his enemy had been beside him all along. Everything started to make sense. The sabotage on Rio specifically. Sariel himself truly was just a small pawn in this war between senseis, how did the GSC president expect him to combat the battle of wits?
"Rio's plan was to awaken several raiding monsters. Hieronymus, Binah, Chesed, and Hod; pulling them from the future to present, and by defeating them all he would force the appearance of future Sensei. Think of it as a king piece put in check. Rio would've had the initiative strike, using all of Millennium's students to defeat him and win. However, Rio is dead and many students are not confident without a leader."
Gehenna had given up, well aware of their fate. Trinity was clueless of what was to come. Everyone knew the implications, the world was screwed no matter how hard everyone was going to try.
Sariel lowered to the ground. "There's nothing I can do… Why was even brought into this world?"
Kuzunoha chuckled at his plight. "There is one thing you can do but the outcome of whether it succeeds depends on the students that trusted you up to now."
Sariel clenched his fist. "I'll do anything."
"Anything?" Kuzunoha let the word sit for a moment before speaking up again. "I'm going to send you to the future where you'll see all of the events before they happen. Are you prepared to see what awaits you on the other side?" She extended her hand.
"Yeah, to save the world." Sariel moved close and grasped her small hand. Nothing happened at first, then a sharp pain tightened around his body making him blackout instantly.
When he woke up, he felt sand on his back and the twilight sky full of visible stars. Rapid shaking spurred him awake and he sat up surprised to see Arona's face in this unknown location. His surroundings were flat sands and vast ocean behind. A red gate stood ahead of him and sitting cross legged on top of it was Kuzunoha wielding a thin pipe close to her lips.
Clearly he wasn't inside his phone nor was Arona, somehow materialized in this dimension. By the way she looked at him, accepting Kuzunoha's offer seemed bad.
Despite being far away, he could hear the white fox's voice as if she was standing beside him. A black portal opened in the gate, a portal of stars and endless space. Kuzunoha answered, "Past this point you'll be sent to the future where Alter Code:F unfolds. Death, sorrow, tragedy, you will experience all several years of this final at once. There's a chance you might not return the same, or at all. So I'll ask you again-"
She stood upright. "Are you prepared to face the other side?"
Arona gripped his shoulder. "Xavier..!" For the first time she called him by his name.
Sariel practically ignored her, more accustomed to students calling him Sensei, Sariel, or Saboteur leader. His past persona was gone. He stood up and slowly approached the gate. "I have to do this. The GSC president entrusted me with the mission to save the world."
"W-wait! This isn't what she would want you to do!" Arona cried out and dug her fingers into his sleeve. "You don't have to save the world anymore, we can go back to Schale and work peacefully!"
"My work here is unfinished. I can't live peacefully knowing the end of the world is approaching." He pulled her arm off to continue moving toward the gate.
Arona wouldn't let up however, latching onto the back of his kimono. She tried planting her feet in the sand but with him being much taller than her and stronger, she was being dragged instead. "It's a lie! She's lying to you and the president was too! You don't have to do anything of this anymore–please just don't go!"
"Get off!" Xavier forcibly pushed her away. "You heard Wakamo, I'm a loser! I couldn't do anything right and ended up getting my students nearly killed by Izuna. I finally have a chance to do something right by going through there and going to the future so I can prepare myself for the final battle that's coming. Let me have this satisfaction. Let me do something right for once!"
Arona couldn't see past her eyes full of tears. She wiped them away as best she could but her emotions kept pouring out. "You did everything right, you did the best you could and that's what matters."
"I was barely a factor to anyone. Even you let yourself be manipulated by Rio. I'm going away. Don't attempt to stop me or I'll hurt you." He turned around and started running.
"Come back! Xavier!"
Her shouting plea for him to stay was the last thing he heard, running and diving into the portal. Upon crossing it, a blinding flash of light emitted from the portal and engulfed the world in white.
