Chapter V

He Who is Lord of the Flies

"So, they changed the vacation spot to Arubi Island? But Raizen settled on Okinawa a year ago."

Mitsuru's eyes turned upward upon hearing Kotori. That other person who frantically spoke to him last night mentioned that island. He got up from slouching by the wall in [Fraxinus's] control room.

Mitsuru asked, "Is there anything special about Aruba Island?"

Kotori shrugged. "It's a popular destination to go to in the summer, but other than that and occasional hurricanes, no. You know something about it?"

"…Someone mentioned it when I was inside the…shadow realm. He made it sound important but didn't elaborate." As Mitsuru revealed that, she noted it on her console. "Why did they change the destination?"

Shido crossed his arms as he tried to remember. "The school sent the announcement to families...oh right! They received an offer from the Cross Travel Corps. The agency would cover everything if the school promised to promote them during the trip."

There was something sketchy about that deal. Mitsuru thought the trip must have been cheap and shoddy, but Kotori faintly recognized that name.

Kotori turned away from her control panel. "Let me look into this agency for a moment," she said. Cross Travel Corps was relatively new, and in the middle of summer, covering a school trip would surely have been costly and risky for them.

Shido turned to Mitsuru, asking, "You mentioned earlier about someone telling you about Arubi Island. Who was it? Was there anything else he told you?"

Mitsuru nodded his head. "There was a little more. I don't know who was talking to me. He barely said anything, but I heard that there was someone like me. Then he told me that I had to control…something. There's a lead there somewhere," Mitsuru muttered with building excitement and anxiety. "If I could come along on the trip, that could lead me to something—answers," he muttered in that last part.

Kotori called to them as she brought up her screen to the main one. "So that agency, Cross Travel Corps, is owned by D.E.M.''

"The tech conglomerate?" Mitsuru recognized that name.

"Yes, they're the largest Realizer producers, so they have strong ties to many militaries around the world. Case in point: the A.S.T. that chased you two a couple of days ago. Shido, it's like only Raizen High got that offer. It's sponsored nowhere else."

Something dubious was going on.

On the day of the trip, Fraxinus would be on standby off the coast of the island. "Since everyone is gone, where am I going to be? Do I just sit here on [Fraxinus]?" Mitsuru asked, subtly hinting at his discontent with that.

"The best thing to do would be to keep you on the ship. I can't have an anomaly running amok. By the way, those tests. Reine should be here by now. What's taking her so long?"

At that instant, Reine walked into the room.

"Mitsuru, Shin, could you come with me?" As brief as that, she turned around and left. The two gave each other a slightly confused glance. Mitsuru shrugged and followed; Shido followed as well shortly after.

(-)

"What?!" Shido immediately backed to a wall.

Mitsuru stood, disconnected. "Why, Ms. Murasame?" he asked in a disturbed manner, barely finishing processing what he heard.

Both of them had been directed into the interrogation room, where Reine suddenly told them to kiss each other.

"Since sealing is the only method effectively employable against Spirits, I found it best to use this moment to see if it would work. You and Shin have had sufficient interaction with each other, and if it doesn't work because your levels aren't high enough, we could at least identify that to be the case." Reine spoke coldly, completely opposite the two young men.

Even Mitsuru's originally calm demeanor chipped as he began to sweat and tremble.

Shido looked at his hands and covered his face in shame.

There was all the talk about being young and being unsure of one's true feelings–

No, that's not how it works! I know who I like! But if this could bring some closure to Mitsuru's overall paradoxical existence...

"Screw it. Shido, I'm closing my eyes!" In ecstatic mania, Mitsuru hollered out.

"What! You're going with this?! Reine, please, is there nothing we can do, li–like an indirect kiss at least? Is this necessary?!" Reine gave a nod and added,

"If it makes you feel better, we won't reveal your past for a month."

Shido only grunted. So, this was it.

"Come on. It's like a vaccine, you know. You gotta do it for…uh-uh…the greater good. We close our eyes. One…two… done." Mitsuru jumped up and down with a trembling face. His eyes were closed, and his heart pounded with such force that his ears felt the pressure.

Sure, there was the risqué thought of kissing another boy, but Mitsuru thought of the possible aftermath. What if this did do something to his powers? Mitsuru hated processing these frantic moments.

Shido counted down to zero.

Here goes nothing, he thought as everything seemed to collapse into a final singularity.

Mitsuru frantically wiped his mouth. With crazed wailing, he spat into his shirt while jumping around. He could see himself making jokes out of this for days with his friends. But it was over. He started checking for signs of change. Was he beginning to feel sleepy? Was he beginning to fade?

"Shin, are you alright?" Mitsuru turned back to Reine and Shido.

He had tripped over, staring at his hand. From his lips, where they had touched, Shido was bleeding.

(-)

Mitsuru paced around his room, trying to connect the dots. It was definitive, through the most sure-fire method, that he wasn't a Spirit.

Then what was he?

Luckily, in a few days, he'd get to go to Arubi Island. Perhaps he would find something or someone there; that was what he believed the mysterious other voice asked him to do.

What if that's not what I'm supposed to do?

"Damn it!" Mitsuru flailed his arms wildly, releasing the endless tension in his muscles. What was that purpose? It could just be a big ass lie, some "purpose." He went to get water, hoping the refreshing feeling would ease his mind.

Mitsuru instantly recoiled the moment he touched the doorknob. It was frigid. Outside, he heard the small girl, Yoshino, talking to her puppet. He twisted the knob with the tips of his fingers.

The door opened to the same abyss familiar only to him.

Again. Why do I always end up back at this hellhole? In the distance, he saw, again, the specters of the dead ebb and flow. He walked right through them, but they still did not react to him—until they all froze.

Suddenly, their heads or counterpart appendages turned to him. The crowd, from the biggest and smallest creatures to mundane people, stared at him with lifeless gazes. It was startling at first, then terrifying.

Do something, anything. Disappear already! Mitsuru kept spinning around as the ghosts turned into blurred masses. He discerned a violent presence among the specters as if they would attack at any moment. They abruptly disappeared.

"Okay, okay…" There was no one around him. There was no sound but his breathing. There was nothing but him…then a person. Far, far away, a ghost stood. When Mitsuru saw that ghost, his whole body paused. Then he began to walk. Then he jogged. Then he ran without thinking of what he was doing, but the more he ran, the more this person left him–

Mitsuru was back in the apartment at the precipice of the large stairwell. He began to teeter over, but Tohka quickly ran up and seized him by his shirt, pulling him back.

"Why were you about to fall over, Mitsuru? I didn't see you coming down," she asked him with puzzlement while looking behind him to understand where he had come from. Mitsuru looked at her with equal perplexity. His head hurt, his heartbeat quickly, and chills went down his spine. Mitsuru stuttered, "I don't... I don't…know."


"Only a couple more minutes until we get to Arubi Island." Under Kotori's allowance, Mitsuru could be on the island under the watchful eye of [Fraxinus]. He managed to come along on the flight thanks to false paperwork for "special circumstances." To summarize, Reine had a little brother that she needed to take care of, and she had the money to pay for his expenses.

For the duration of the flight, the closer they got to their destination, the more anxious he became. Reine turned over, seeing his fingers rapidly tapping and his eyes wide. They were soon about to exit the plane.

"What's the matter?"

Mitsuru shook his head as if exiting a trance, muttering, "Nervousness, I guess. I feel uneasy. This place isn't right."

This unease heightened once they landed. Even though the ocean was bright blue, the mixture of sunlight and clouds in the sky signified a bright and cheery summer, and a crowd of excited students was around him, he couldn't help but look all around as if eyes were on him like a ring of ghosts.

Where are they going? As the group rallied around the teacher with brown hair and glasses, Shido and Tohka ran the other way. Soft winds began flowing from the sea.

Mitsuru caught one thing as the group walked away from the airport. A woman with pale blonde hair and a camera, the photographer for the trip, gave off a strange presence.

(-)

A wandering brutish demon snarled as it trudged slowly behind. Even out in the open, it was unnoticeable, for its body was see-through. Its being wished to lunge at the party and tear it all apart, but it had been commanded not to. Likewise, invisible and lanky sickle-wielding shadows stalked, unseeable to those without insight.

One of these invisible entities trailed behind a pair of students with blue and plum hair. As the winds blew more furiously, the two rushed to low ground for safety. Still, the plum-haired girl was unlucky, for she was assaulted by three trash cans that knocked her cold to the ground.

(-)

Within the storm, the Spirits Kaguya and Yuzuru Yamai raged in a furious duel. Yuzuru sent out [El Na' ash, latching the chains around Kaguya's giant spear, [El Re'em].

"Idiot! You cannot control the fury of the Storm!" Kaguya yanked like a bull, flying downward and swinging her sister to the ground. As they both bore their weapons against one another, the

whirling winds around them dissipated. They then threw their weapons aside. "But I will admit, your effort was valiant."

Yuzuru, finding her sister's act humorous, responded, "Scoff: Yuzuru does not accept sordid compliments." She could see that Kaguya was agitated by this.

"Hah, very well. You'll die an ignominious death from my, the True Yamai's, mighty Sturm Lanze," she gave with strong confidence as a smirk rolled over her face—a cool smirk.

"Clarification: May Kaguya explain for the thirtieth time what a 'Sturm Lanze' is?"

Kaguya's cheeks turned red. She clenched her teeth from frustration and stomped.

"How don't you remember at this point, Yuzuru?! My Sturm Lanze is incorporeal but corporeal, imaginary yet real–"

"Interrupt: 'Abstract and clear.' Therefore, there is no 'Sturm Lanze,' and Kaguya has dropped her chuunibyou act."

This made the excessive girl livid. If it were a scene in an anime, surely fumes of smoke would shoot out of her ears in rage.

"How dare you interrupt my speech! You'll pay for your impertinence in blood!" Kaguya got low and lunged forward with fury. Yuzuru did not show this same passionate anger, jumping forward with grace. As the winds howled once more and they were about to resume battle, someone screamed at the top of his lungs,

"Stop!"

They both froze, centimeters from landing their blows. Turning their heads down the hill, Kaguya and Yuzuru noticed a human boy with an unconscious girl on his back. It was unexpected that their winds did not dispel the mortals far away.

"Why have you interrupted our sacred duel?! This is a sin worthy of eternity in Purgatory!"

"Uh…I saw that you two were about to fight each other, but...you guys shouldn't fight!" he mustered out. They stayed silent, retracting themselves from their interrupted strike. Unprepared for such a situation

"Scrutiny: Who are you, and why come here?" The boy timorously explained his and the girl's foolish separation from the rest of the humans.

Something clicked in Kaguya's mind. This was an opportunity. Yes. Instead of fighting, we can...

"Yuzuru, for all of our ninety-nine battles: twenty-five victories, twenty-five losses, and forty-five draws, there's still one thing we have not competed in."

"Inquiry: What is it that Kaguya proposes?"

"A battle that does not require us stabbing each other in the hearts but swaying the heart of another. I propose that we let our final battle be determined by this mortal," Kaguya pointed her finger at Shido with resolve, "and the first to woo him wins!"

There was rustling behind the trees as a gecko snuck up and ate a cricket.


While all the other students were touring the island, Mitsuru insisted on staying somewhere inside. So far, he had been tormented by the unbearable, incessant feeling of being watched. The room was at the very end of the hall, closest to Reine; he was left to himself.

I should have just stayed with everyone. Being the only one in the many rooms on the hotel's empty fifth floor was a mistake. He had locked the door and shut the blinds. Why did I tag along just to hide in a hotel?

The air was cold and quiet. Ambient sounds—the rustling of the carpet and the blowing of the AC—filled the vacuum.

If there was something important on Arubi Island, the other person might have been here as well. It was just a matter of initiative, Mitsuru contemplated. If he wanted answers, he needed to expose himself. Huddling would have done nothing, yet that was what he was doing right now.

He was never one to assume someone was behind him or that his reflection would move on its own, but…those ghosts looking at me. From their dead eyes, he sensed that they were hostile, just like the raven knight.

Don't let it get to you. He lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. He let a tune from his memory flow into his fingertips. The fingerings came naturally with a steady pulse. For a moment, his mind escaped from the dread as he visualized his fingers dancing across the keys in his room. Then, just before the last measure of the song, he felt the paranoia return. Glancing downward–

"Fuck!" Mitsuru kicked and screamed. I saw that!

He saw it. The shadow of a hand slid from the edge of his feet down under the bed. He couldn't take it anymore. Mitsuru jumped off the bed as far away from it as he could, scrambled for the doorknob, screamed all sorts of curses as he fumbled, then bolted out. Surely there was nothing in the dark underbelly of the bed.


Yuzuru and Kaguya were standing outside the bathhouse as the sun was setting. According to this Reine person, they would have to lure Shido into a trap, a position he was not prepared for. There, at his most vulnerable, Shido would be smitten with the Yamai twins. Before he arrived, they had dubiously waited for most of the students to enter. They swapped the signs that labeled the gendered hot springs.

Someone else arrived first. A boy with long and messy brown hair in long, big shorts and a gray hoodie ran out of the hotel. He was tired and gasping for breath, and his eyes were dilated.

"What are you doing here, mortal? I had all the other men accounted for. You couldn't have slipped past my Abyssal Eye." Kaguya struck an awkward pose before returning to her akimbo stance.

The boy gave a tired and bewildered look as he reflexively drew back from their voices.

"Observation: Why did you run out tired?" With light surprise, as if just noticing that they were twins, he looked at Yuzuru.

"Um…uh…I just–I just had…a…moment. It's no-no–nothing. I just had to…go for…a walk. Sorry." The boy shakily answered. He then trudged away timidly.

The Yamai twins stared at him for a moment. They both sensed it—this cold air that surrounded him…and one that followed him.

Those two are Spirits. Mitsuru noticed the feeling they gave off, seemingly without too much thought or care; he felt worn out and desperately needed a break. Somehow, in the open evening where the warm hues blended into the sky, there was serenity.

(-)

Tohka walked towards the baths, crossing paths with a little child.

"Oh? Are your parents not around?" A girl with plum hair stopped in front of him, bending down to match his gaze. He looked far too young to be unoccupied out here. He looked up at her with a blank stare.

"I need to pee." His gaze turned away from her and back straight ahead. He was short, shorter than Yoshino by the whole length of Tohka's finger, she assumed. He wore a strange, oversized coat outside, the same one the chemistry teacher would wear during labs and Reine wore while at school. It was so big that it touched the ground, and the sleeves draped over his arm.

"Ah, okay. There's one inside the hotel up there." She pointed, and he gave a tiny nod as thanks before continuing to walk.

She made her way towards the hot springs. Tohka had never talked to a child like that before, but she had picked up many similar interactions while running errands. Going through that experience made her proud.

After setting all of her clothes into the locker, Tohka grabbed a white towel before slamming the sliding door open. With excitement, the girl ran and jumped, hitting the refreshingly warm water with a flash.

She was first. Wiping the water from her eyes, Tohka saw three people in front of her. The Yamai twins...and Shido. She and the latter stared at each other for a moment before screaming.

(-)

"[Princess] has just entered the bath. What? Of course, I'm not going to enter!" Ellen Mira Mathers "quietly" objected.

For the whole day, she had been following the Spirit, right up to spying on a bathhouse with binoculars behind a bush. Her heart almost dropped when her lens focused on the trio of students led by Ai Yamabuki. Those three were the bane of her existence. Once Westcott's plan came to fruition, she would have a cruel punishment just for them.

{Westcott's word is absolute, though why he would want a legion of [Bandersnatches] is beyond me,} Paddington spoke. That was true. Ellen remembered Westcott's cryptic warning after he had read the letter. There was nothing notable that had occurred so far. If she had the opportunity to do so without exposing her guise, Ellen could have easily dispatched [Princess] with little effort.

She heard the mumbling of a boy walking past, and she felt something that stopped her breath for a moment. Waiting for him to move on, the Wizard slowly looked up. He was a boy with disheveled brown hair and a light, sluggish promenade.

She paid no mind, but a coldness followed him. When he passed by, that cold sensation rushed through Ellen, bringing her to instant alert. It wasn't just a breeze, for Ellen felt the Maryoku in her body become agitated.

Was that because of him?! That coldness—no, not a Spirit. Ellen quickly ordered the [Arbatel] crew to direct three [Bandersnatches] within the proximity as she slowly trailed behind him. Perhaps this was what Westcott foretold. Ellen knew this boy's capture would prove useful.

{Why are you going after some scrawny kid? [Princess] is just behind us!} Ellen wasn't worried about that. [Princess] would not be anywhere any time soon.

With no eyes around, she quietly pursued the boy, preparing the [Bandersnatches] to ambush him. The lingering cold in his path further confirmed her senses, and he was now in an isolated space. Ellen brought her hand downward, signaling the automatons to move, but the ambush did not happen.

What?! She whipped her gaze toward the window of a nearby building, where one of the [Bandersnatches] was supposed to be. The only thing she saw was its trembling hand, leaking sparks and green electricity before collapsing in its destruction.

The puppet had been crushed by a massive black blade. A brutish black knight—massive, ancient, and hollow—stood just at the tip of the room's sunset. It backed away from the window and disappeared into the dark.

{What? Where did our [Bandersnatches] go? Mathers!}

"Shit!" she cursed under her breath. The Greatest Wizard would have to do the job herself, but looking back at the boy, he had already disappeared. She needed to report this sudden intrusion immediately.

(-)

Shido terrifyingly hid behind Tohka.

What were they thinking?! The Yamai twins tricked him into entering the girls' bath, and Tohka was the only one willing to help him.

"Nothing! Nothing is wrong. I just…wanted to see a kinako bread-shaped cloud! Look!" As Tohka diverted the other girls' attention, Shido made his escape. Running towards the edge–

It's a cliff drop! The waves smacked the jagged rocks meters below him like devilish nature. He was going to turn around and tell Tohka to cover him as he moved towards the men's bath, but then he felt her bump into him.

Shido felt him teeter over. His left foot slipped forward, and he began falling into the sea. Shido screamed like a child right up until he collided with the water.

Upon hitting the water, the shock began immediately. The force upon impact surely shattered a bone or two…or many. He shouldn't have fallen belly-down. On top of that was the icy water. It was like being teleported into the Arctic. His broken and frozen body couldn't move. This was it. He would die, his body unseen, his dignity somewhat intact in the eyes of women.

But whatever gods were out there, they had blessed him.

Kotori's power of regeneration burned within him. It gave Shido just enough warmth to feel a slight strength in his limbs. He kicked and flailed slowly for many minutes before reaching the shore as the sun dropped below the horizon.

As he hit the land, Shido instantly sprawled in the sand. It was still warm enough from the summer day, so he rolled over it, coating himself to dissipate the freezing cold. It wasn't perfect, but it would get him by. The shore was far from the hotel, and the night sky had taken over.

Slowly walking up the steps with clacking teeth, Shido made the long trek back. Upon reaching the top of the steps, Shido noticed someone on a bench underneath a streetlamp.

Mitsuru sat still, rhythmically petting a dog that slept on his lap while he was half asleep. Looking up, his face showed surprise at seeing Shido nearly naked and shaking from the cold.

"What happened to you?!" Mitsuru got up and walked over, unable to apprehend the situation. "What? Did you try skinny dipping?" Shido only shook his head.

Mitsuru did not know how long he had been sitting on that bench, but it was the moment of relaxation he needed. All those thoughts of being trailed disappeared before he knew it. When he went to sit on that bench, an angry, growling dog appeared, and its leg was broken.

In trying to calm the dog, Mitsuru was bitten by it. Yet he continued to comfort the dog, unafraid of death as his burdensome consciousness receded. The rage from the dog faded away, and a black fog exited the dog before fading as it traveled up his arm. They had been sitting on the bench for nearly half an hour.

Where did the dog go? Mitsuru looked back at the bench. It had long since passed on. "Alright, tell me your room number."


He sat in a morning cafe.

Though he sat by the window and ordered food from the children's menu, he did not need to eat and only did so to blend into the crowd. He chose a spot far away as two girls walked through the door. They were twins with orange hair. He watched them walk by while amicably conversing with each other.

Though they argued about which dish they liked better, the boy's well-trained eye caught the hidden chuckle of one twin's reaction to being teased. The other secretly nodded in agreement with the first one's rambunctious points.

He saw, in their eyes, the nature of the Hurricane Twins. Neither would bring their Angels to the other's throat if she was given the chance.

He "ate" his food. He stood up and went to pay for his "meal" before departing.