A 15 year old Hyde left the shopping gallery with his friend Tsurugi.

"Haha! That was fun wouldn't you say?" His friend said

"Eh, Not bad I guess" Hyde shrugged.

The boy looked at his bags. A cookbook for autumn meals, a new broom, some groceries, everything he needed to buy for a planned trip before being dragged here.

"Did you use this time just to do your errands?" Tsurugi asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Eh, two birds with one stone. Plus like I said, it wasn't bad."

The boy normally kept things to himself, often doing things alone. But when he had a friend like Tsurugi, he just went along for the ride with his antics. How did he even become friends with the guy anyway?

'Or right, he kept on persisting me to hang out with him til I eventually said yes' Hyde gave a small grin.

"Tsurugi. Thanks…" Hyde said, looking away.

His friend responded with a huge smile.

"Anytime. We're still young Hyde. Never hurts to live a little. That includes opening up and making more friends." Tsurugi patted his shoulder

Hyde got what he was saying, but part of him still felt aloof to it all. Still, he could not deny that this shopping trip was a lot more fun with a friend around.

"I'll think about it"

Current Area: Shopping Gallery

Deciding to take a breather, Hyde makes his way to the shopping gallery. Normally this place would be bustling with people but in the Hollow Night, it felt barren and empty. He fought and emerged victorious against Vatista, but he knew that he'll need to put on his A-game if he wants to make it to Paradox

He ponders a bit about his history with the shopping gallery. Since this place was close to his house, he would often make his shopping rounds here for groceries and other household items. There were also the times Tsurugi would drag him here to hang out which he did enjoy, despite his persistence. He would then remember the times he'd take Orie here sometimes after to just walk around, chat, and enjoy crepes.

'I wonder what those two are doing right now? Sleeping hopefully. I'd hate it if they got involved with this too…' Worrying wouldn't change anything so he kept walking.

'In other matters, my hand has been acting up' Hyde felt his right hand and reflected on how it acted during his fight with the Autonomic Nerve. It felt like his hand just moved on its own and on those occasions, it moved to protect him. From blocking against her barrage, to blocking her beam, maybe it's just a special ability of his EXS.

'I don't think I should count on it all the time, For all I know, it might not protect me when I really need it' With his reflection done with, Hyde pressed on.

On his way, he came across a girl around his age. She had short, green hair and wore a gray, two piece waistcoat with a pink dress underneath. At the moment she was wearing headphones and seemed to be off on her own little world.

"What the? Hey, you there. Can you hear me?" Hyde asked. He thought it'd be a little dangerous to be dozing off when voids could appear at any moment.

The girl in turn looked at the teen with an annoyed expression.

"What? Yeah, I heard you. I'm not listening to music. Wearing headphones is perfect when you want to pretend you can't hear anyone and just ignore them. Just like how I did with you right now." She responded with a laugh

'Wow, that's mean' Hyde thought with a frown.

"The hell'd you just say?! You didn't look like a bad kid, so I was gonna warn you that it's dangerous out here. I guess I should've minded my own business." He said, crossing his arms.

The girl closed her eyes and nodded.

"Exactly. This is a night when you won't know who'll attack you, and from where. What kind of idiot would plug up their ears and walk around listening to music? You'd totally die. Like in an instant. Of course I'm strong, but I'm not so cocky that I think I'm the best" she said matter-of-factly.

It did make sense to Hyde. Linne warned him to always be on alert during the Night and Wald would tell him to be ready to fight at a moment's notice.

"Yeah, I guess. Heh. Well that's a relief. So what are you gonna do? We met on this Night. You want to show me those skills you're so proud of? Personally, I'm not really into battling girls"

Hyde probably shouldn't push his luck but he knew that wielders draw themselves to one another so he might as well know ahead of time if a battle was about to start.

The girl in response took a good look at him and noticed the red blade over his shoulder. Hyde felt a little unsettled with the staring.

"Yeah, sounds like fun. I guess you'll do for now. Be honored, sacrifice of the Night. I will turn you to rust- I mean, a stain on my whip" She said with a grin.

She was probably putting up an act. He could tell that this girl wasn't a bad person and just wanted to test out her skills on him. Hyde assumed that she also recently became an In-Birth. Well he could use the experience. He only had one battle so far and it was adjusted for him.

"Yours is… a whip? Pretty interesting weapon. I don't know much about my sword personally, but it's supposedly a 'Legendary Demon Sword' That's been passed down." Hyde looked at Insulator.

Linne even told him that if at its full power, it can flat out erase EXS thrown his way, but he didn't know if he could actually pull that off.

The girl gave a haughty smirk while showing off her whip. "Yeah. My Whip's a pretty big deal, too. It's famous and rare and everything" And as if that wasn't bizarre enough, it was actually a snake that transformed into the whip. The snake gave a little 'Moo' as if telling Hyde it's strong.

"What the? Is it really that famous? The Demon… Whip of…? Or like, the Holy Whip- The Evil… hm… The Whip of Evil?" The swordsman tried to come up with some creative names for the whip. Judging by her disgusted expression, she probably didn't like that.

"Because you're a whip user, a long whip user… a whip user.. I'm a swordsman since I use a sword. So you'd be a whipper? A whip snapper? A Whippersnapper!" He thought he was clever saying that but…

"Argh! That's it! I'm going to beat you so badly right now! Consider it an honor that Miss Phonon will be testing out her whip on you!" She said, having enough of the boy's antics

"So your name is Phonon then. Name's Hyde Kido and yeah, enough talk. Let's see what you're made of!"

IMMORTALIZE

Hyde versus Phonon

This battle was going to be tricky. Because Phonon uses a whip, it means rushing in will be difficult with her long range. So he'll start with-

"Orbiter!"

Hyde shoots his projectile and begins rushing in. Phonon in response fires her own projectile, a purple burst of energy to cancel the Orbiter and begins to prepare her strikes.

Hyde weaves and dodges each lash and was about to strike when the whip began to wrap around his neck

"Ameteur"

Phonon dragged Hyde down and tightened her grip on his neck before kicking him away. Hyde stroked his neck, feeling a little sore, but didn't let that stop him.

'Okay, that didn't work, guess I need to think of something else.' Hyde began to concentrate his EXS as he tried to think of a plan.

"You think I'll just let you do that?"

Phonon dashed towards him and fired off a series of lashes, leaving a purple trail behind them to show how swift they were shot. Hyde's hand instantly blocked each strike.

'She seems to be the kind of girl that wants to be on the offensive. I think I know what to do.'

Hyde continued to block her strikes and read her movements which in turn caused Phonon to get more annoyed.

"Are you going to fight or what? Don't tell me you're that weak?"

Hyde knows not to let taunting get to him. He learned the hard way what that led to with Paradox. That's when he noticed Phonon leaping in the air and preparing for a projectile.

'Now!'

"Craver!"

Using the blunt side of the sword, he countered with a lift-slash, leaving a massive red trail from the attack. It struck Phonon square in the chest as she was sent tumbling down.

"Pah! Lucky shot. Guess you got some skill after all." Phonon dusted herself off and began to go on the offensive again.

The fight would continue to go on for a few more rounds. Phonon would keep up the pressure with her whip lashes, Hyde would block and clash projectiles from each other, but all the while reserving his strength. It led to Phonon eventually starting to tire out, which was just the opportunity he needed.

"You are strong Phonon, but I think we should wrap it up here" Hyde said in genuine praise.

"Oh yeah? And what could you do?" Phonon goaded, since he was on the defensive for most of the fight.

"Oh I have my ways. Shadow Scare!"

Hyde stabbed the ground, confusing Phonon before a dark red flame formed behind her. She would have dodged, but her onslaught made her tired and unable to react in time. The blast struck her from behind and sent her flying towards Hyde.

"You did good"

Hyde said that as he dashed towards Phonon and stopped her momentum with a knee to the gut, knocking the wind off the girl.

Phonon slumped on her knees and tried to catch her breath. Hyde in turn, pointed his blade at the girl, signaling the end of the battle.

"It hasn't been long since you became an In-Birth right? I get ya. Why don't you quit before you really get hurt." Hyde said. He was worried Phonon might get in over her head if she lost to him while he's still inexperienced.

"As if! I may have lost to you now, but just you wait, I'll get stronger and I'll show you just how much of a badass I will be" Phonon scoffed, still struggling to catch her breath.

Hyde sighed. "If you say so. Just know that other In-Births are not going to be as merciful as I am. Hope you'll know your limits before things really get bad"

With that, Hyde bonked her on the head with the back of his blade, knocking her out.

Hyde gave a deep breath and dissipated Insulator.

'My first real win as an In-Birth. But I can't relax yet. I know Paradox will be much stronger than this.'

He looked around. Good, the area wasn't damaged from the battle. He quickly took Phonon to a safe part of the Shopping Gallery and placed on a bench.

'Linne told me that places with less dense EXS are unlikely to attract voids. She should be safe here'

Before leaving, Hyde saw the bonk left a pretty sizable bruise on her head, causing him to feel bad. He pulled out a pain relief patch and placed it on her forehead.

'There, that should do it.'

The whip on her hand turned back into the snake and looked at Hyde with a worried expression.

"Take care of her okay?" he said

The snake gave an affirmative 'Moo!' and guarded the girl as best as a little snake could do.

With that, The wielder turned his sights ahead and kept moving.