Chapter 20: 1-E Incident, The Impossible Quest

Half a Year Prior, in Hokkaido, the Start of the 1-E Incident…

The lodge itself was beautiful. There were multiple European-style large houses meant for each class rather than different genders, with the teachers locking their common bedroom doors once everyone was in to maintain separation. The bottom floor of the lodge was where they would lounge and muck about, while also being fully equipped with skis, snowboards and the like. At the moment, the whole grade was returning to their lodges after a very long day of skiing and enjoying the environment in Hokkaido. Their class teachers had yet to return, however, as they would come at the last moment to make sure everyone was back.

Most groups would enjoy the fact that they get a whole 20-person ski lodge to themselves, especially one separate from the others due to a technical error, but not Class 1-E. Sakuna sighed in remorse at seeing his classmates stay so far away from each other, despite living under the same roof. Most people were sitting by themselves to catch up on their phones, while certain gangs were still together.

"This is boring," Yuko whined to her posse as she set her skis against the wall, stripping herself of her parka. "Why did they put our lame class together?"

Susumu shook his head. "Can't help it, all our friends are in other classes. Damn that 'technical error', can't our school be proficient enough to tell them we have 5 classes in a grade?"

Yuko beamed at her boyfriend. "At least I get to stay the night with you, darling!"

That may have been concerning to Sakuna, but he'd long since stopped ratting out Yuko's shenanigans.

Sakuna, being the president, did a quick head count of everyone in the lodge mostly to keep himself busy in that toxic environment. Counting off the heads, he confirmed that most of them were there, save for three. Itawari, Tanaka and Iwata were left, but knowing their little love triangle it wasn't surprising to see them late. Distantly, he noticed Natsuki talking to Hayate Chiba so positively, the latter not bothering that the already short girl was still looking down to make eye contact with him. He couldn't help but sigh wistfully as he looked at her interacting with their fractured class so easily.

The door barged open, shattering his focus to the front. Noboru, Kenta and Hana heaved and gasped as they stumbled into the lodge.

"Got lost?" Sasaki sneered at them. "Well congrats, you're back."

"N-No, somethings wrong!" Noboru cried out, sending everyone to alarm. "Hana-chan saw something!"

"I… it's…" Hana muttered, clutching a hand to her chest.

"Oh, what's this?" Yuko sneered at Hana as she stood up and sauntered to the panicking girl. "What's got a slut like you so scared?"

"Not the time, you bitch!" Kenta cried out at her.

Hana, however, paid no attention. "There were… people, kidnapped people," she muttered, looking down despite having Yuko towering over her. "T-they were being cut apart and –"

The glass shattered. Hana thudded against the ground. Yuko remained still as she watched something red drain from her head. The world drowned out as she looked upon the lightless eyes that remained open in Hana's head with that same red fluid seeping through the floorboards.

"Get down!"

It was Natsuki who acted, pushing Yuko down to the ground and out of the view of the shattered window. However, just as everyone began to scream out in shock, Natsuki immediately waved to everyone.

"Bend down to the ground now! Find some cover if you can!" She clarified. "There's a sniper!"

"S-Sniper?!" Eguchi cried out, immediately cowering down as asked and hiding before the couch she was sitting on. Thankfully the class wasn't so discordant as to ignore her urgency, so they all promptly sunk to the ground.

"What… what the hell?!" Sasaki remarked, still crouching the ground. "Tanaka… what the hell is going on?!"

"Everyone calm down!" Natsuki cried out, still pressing an uncomfortably still Yuko against the ground. "I…" She looked up at the shattered window. "Let me check."

Before she could do anything, Sakuna heard a faint cough-like sound, only for Natsuki to suddenly call out some kind of metallic creature with pink hues and arrows across its body. After a punch from that creature, Sakuna noticed a joint of metal right before Yuko. A bullet was frozen in its tracks right before her. Yuko looked up at the near end of her life and started breathing harder than she ever had.

"What… why…" Yuko muttered, tears appearing in her eyes as she shivered under Natsuki's grasp. Natsuki immediately used the creature to flick the bullet away.

"Yuko!" Susumu cried out, only to stop as Natsuki raised a hand to keep him away.

"The way it bent…" Natsuki scowled as she kept her focus on the window. "Shit. This is a Stand User. Everyone, we need to leave now, but stay out of the sniper's sight!"

"No, you speak first, bitch!" Sasaki yelled out. "What the hell do you know? What's that thing behind you?!"

Natsuki froze and looked at Sasaki. "You can see it?" Just in kind, the figure appeared over her once again.

"Yeah! What the hell is it?!"

"… who else can see it?"

Sakuna, being wary of raising his hand too far to be seen by the sniper, raised his own hand. Surprisingly, more hands were raised, leading to everyone in the class raising their hands. Natsuki even looked down at Yuko who nodded at her.

Natsuki looked at everyone and let out a sigh. "Damn Wallace… but the Perfect Human didn't take your Stands away? He saw this coming, then?" She shook her head. "Never mind, I'll answer your questions later, Sasaki. For now, all you need to know is that these people and I have superpowers. We can't stay here, we're sitting ducks."

As if on cue, the front door cracked, making everyone in the class whimper away from it. Natsuki patted a still-frozen Yuko's shoulder and crawled closer to the door, watching out for the open windows. With a blast, the door caved in to reveal a man with back-length blonde hair casually sauntering in, wearing a bloody butcher's apron over a red parka. He shivered as he rubbed his palms against each other.

Upon closer inspection, it was clear to see that something was so terribly off about the person. His right eye was green and his left eye was black. Oddly enough, both eyes seemed to be differently shaped as well, his right seeming round and his left more almond-shaped. His nose was small but left too long of a fulcrum to reach his lips. He seemed to have a creepy smile pasted permanently on him. His jawlines were deformed, seeming too straight to be normal. Looking at the class, the man flashed a toothy grin, revealing different shades of teeth within his mouth.

"T-that's…" Noboru whimpered. "H-he was cutting those people…"

"Haa… to think a buuuunch of kids saw us," the man remarked, removing his thick fur gloves to reveal black rubber ones underneath with a scowl. "We don't know how you slipped through Hideo's robots, but I'm suuuper glad, you see." His grin turned toothy yet again. "Your organs must be fresh. They will catch us a gooooood deal for sure."

Natsuki immediately summoned Sweet Victory, keeping her Stand as low as possible. She charged at the man while staying low on the ground.

The man only grinned at her approach. "Janice?"

A bullet was heard and a hole appeared in the wood of the wall, a freshly steaming bullet now laying before the man in question.

"Get as close as you like," he grinned at her. "Janice only needs to see you through that hole. Dooooon't underestimate her," he leaned down. "I'd love to see your blood splattered on the ground."

He blinked, then looked past her at Hana's still-bleeding corpse. "Just like that!" he cheered out. "I meeeeaaan, it's such a waaaste. Good pieces there, she would have sold so weeeell… but I can do with what I've got. Lego House."

With a grin, the man summoned a large-faced lady with strings connected to its fingers, having it aim two fingers at the crowd in the building. With a laugh, it shot something at one of the students. Natsuki looked back to see Nyoko Omori having held her hand out before her in reflex, only for a string to catch in her wrist and constrict, severing her hand from her arm.

"A-ah," Nyoko gaped at the gushing blood from the stump of her right arm, shivering as she watched the blood flow. "Ah, AAAAHHH!"

She clenched the stump of her arm frantically, hoping to mitigate the blood flow, but then shivered as blood spilled out to her palm. She unwillingly took off her hand to see the smear of blood on her and yelled yet again.

"Hahaha!" The blonde man cried out, lifting up his hand to reveal Nyoko's severed hand with him. "This is a fine piece! The nails aren't trimmed well, but the skin is oh so fine!"

Nyoko shivered as she watched her severed hand be rubbed up against that man's face, smearing him in her own blood, then gaped and hung low. She shivered the whole time as she clenched her stump, clearly dazed from everything.

"… you're sick," Natsuki rebuked.

"Please," he shrugged. "It's only a matter of finding the finest pieces. This is just business…" he grinned again. "Only a liiiiittle personal, you see. I just looooove these pieces, after all. I might take some for myself."

Natsuki nodded to herself and covered herself in Sweet Victory. She dashed to the wall between them and the sniper, Janice, and willed her Stand to cancel gravity and send her flying up. Using the wall as a guide, she looped through any exposed paths and finally reached the man's side.

Suddenly, Lego House appeared over his shoulder again, shooting at Natsuki. She immediately used her Stand and punched the air, forming a shield of frozen air that deflected the incoming strings. Dodging under the Stand, she kept charging. She finally got close enough to rush the man, grinning as she summoned Sweet Victory.

However, as soon as she landed her punch on his stomach, the man's torso unravelled in another array of strings. Natsuki paled as his internal organs exposed themselves as he split apart, giving her a prime view of the man's stomach exposing itself and his intestines unravelling.

"HAHA!" The man cried out as his body parts split apart, holding onto each other with lines of string from his Stand. "You're good! But not good enough to land contact on me!"

Grumbling, Natsuki balled her Stand's fists and punched the air again, shooting out balls of frozen air at the enemy. The man easily contorted his string to dodge those attacks.

"And now…" the man's detached face grinned. "For the harvest!"

Using Lego House, the man shot out another series of strings at Natsuki. Natsuki immediately took to the air to dodge the attack, not wanting to risk any contact with the limb-severing string, but didn't see the person hiding behind her.

Kiyoshi Nakajima silently screamed as that string moved away from Natsuki and quickly approached him instead. Watching Natsuki's motions, Kiyoshi jumped high up as well, dodging the string.

"No!" Natsuki cried as she looked back at him.

As soon as he landed, Kiyoshi's heart leapt in his chest as he looked out at the window right in his path. He barely saw a figure aiming something at him.

He was going to die. If Natsuki was right, this sniper had superpowers relating to bending her bullets somehow. No matter how he dodged, he couldn't avoid his approaching death.

But he didn't want to die.

Frantically, his heart leapt in his chest as he dove away from the wall and scampered away, lashing his hand out in defence. The bullet flew from the sniper's gun and shattered the glass once again.

Kiyoshi blinked. No, he couldn't. He should be dead. A bullet wouldn't give him the time to blink, after all. But he blinked again. He still saw the ground he crouched against. He looked down at his hand, and save for the grey wisps surrounding it, he could see it well. Ah, he was a ghost. But wait… why was there a paintbrush in his hand?

"K-Kiyoshi?!" There it was. They're now mourning him like they mourned Tanaka. "Where are you?!"

But that surprised him. They couldn't see him? He stood up and looked to his other side. He was shocked to see a puncture from a bullet lying there. Looking down, he noticed an easel of grey on his other hand. Moreover, that grey aura on him covered his whole body.

"I'm fine," he called out to his class, but nobody listened.

"That was… unexpected," The blond man still hovered his pieces in the air regardless of him. "Never mind, you are all still available for harvest!"

"You…"

"Hmm?"

The rest of the class looked further back to see Nyoko still holding her severed hand, but now scathingly looking at the man. "You harvest people for body parts and organs regardless of their wishes… and you tried to do the same to me?"

Wisps of red rose over her body. It emerged stronger from the wounded stump on her arm. Natsuki, sensing something dangerous, quickly dashed away from her path.

"You will pay."

A monstrous vampire-like figure appeared behind her and sneered at the man. Slowly, the Stand approached the blond man. Scowling, the dissected man used Lego House to cut the Stand, but the Stand simply phased through. Bullets appeared against it as well, but once again, they simply phased through. Blood in the Water quickly approached a now hesitant blond man, immediately grabbing the broken-off part of his right hand. Holding a knife in its hand, the Stand severed the string connecting to it. With a cry of agony, the man immediately pulled his body parts back together, finally reappearing as the patchworked man he was. However, it did nothing to return the hand in the Stand's own. With a grin, the Stand crushed the limb, turning it into a red mist that travelled back to Omori with the Stand. Omori watched as the same red mist reappeared over her own stump, somehow regenerating it into a new hand, almost as if it had never been cut off in the first place.

"Graah!" The man cried out as he clutched his own bleeding stump, holding Nyoko's severed hand with it as well. Meanwhile, Nyoko stood up, flexing her now regenerated arm, glaring at the man.

"You… youuuu!" The man cried out in agony. "Lego House!"

Forming entire arrays of string that covered the entirety of the class, the man cackled as he raised his arm to the air, ignoring how blood still spurted from his stump. Natsuki immediately formed a wind shield around the class, but it could not expand far enough to cover everyone in the class. She braced herself to hear several screams of agony.

However, it was one boy who ran, who didn't have to crouch, under the string and reach him.

"I!" Hayate Chiba cried out as he made a mad dash for the man. "Will be Giant!"

Pushing into the man's torso and smashing both of them out of the house, the group of students felt a gush of wind rushing through them. Being closest to it, Sakuna stumbled out of the door as well, only to gape as he watched a giant wind monster as tall as a tree holding onto the same man that tormented them while easily swallowing up any bullets coming their way from the sniper and tossing the man to the location of the sniper with ease.

Once they were clear, the wind dissipated and Hayate slumped to the ground, Sakuna shivered, not knowing what exactly they'd gotten themselves into.

"What… what the hell was that?" Kiyoshi stepped out as well. Sakuna looked back to see the rest of the class had followed him out.

"… you're alive?!" Azumi pointed out in alarm.

"Y-Yeah, I, uh…"

"You unlocked your Stand, most likely," Natsuki supplied, finally gasping as she sat herself down on the snow. "I know you all have questions. But what Nakajima-san, Omori-san and Chiba-kun did, you are all capable of." She briefly looked back at the house. "Tanaka…"

The entire class looked down at that. One of them had actually died under their noses.

Natsuki nodded and looked up at everyone. "Everyone, listen up!" she yelled out, standing up and dusting the snow off her hands. "Let me tell you everything you need to know about Stands right now!"


Half a Year Later, at the Hyoudou Household...

"Well then," Daichi Bushida steepled his fingers and leaned in on his seat before the dining table of the Hyoudou Household. "What the fuck just happened?"

"Hanako is in Asia's room," Issei said, twiddling his thumbs behind the shield of the table. "I'm just glad we got to her in time."

Nearby, Sakuna nodded in understanding.

After Hanako was found poisoned, the rest of Class 2-E moved into Issei's house for a meeting. After they marvelled at his mansion, they all sat at the table which surprisingly held enough seats for every single one of them. Noboru even commented on how he had a super hot maid, only to earn him a scathing glare from the maid in question.

"I wish you told me you were inviting guests," Raynare muttered, standing over the others. "I would have prepared something for you all."

"We're not here to hang out, Raynare," Issei chided her. "Our classmate was just poisoned by her best friend and we're trying to find out why."

Raynare deadpanned at him. "You already know why I don't care about that."

The thud of a door caught their attention. The class altogether turned to the door to find Asia carrying Hanako, letting her hang off her shoulder.

"Aia…" Hanako muttered, looking up and revealing red-streaked eyes. "What happened to you…"

As Raynare rushed to help Asia, they both set Hanako at the seat on the head. Hanako immediately slumped onto the table, resting her head on her arms. The rest of the class stayed silent, watching Hanako wallow in her own grief. She leaned her head to expose her face to one side, revealing a hollow expression that bore neither frown nor tears.

"… can you tell us what happened?" Azumi approached her, leaning down to her and rubbing her hand on her shoulder. "Take your time, it's okay."

Hanako stayed silent for a while but slowly nodded. "Aia… said she poisoned me," she muttered, forcing everyone else to lean in to hear her. "She poisoned herself too… but she wasn't scared for some reason. She said…"

She slowly sat up on her chair and looked at the rest of the group, speaking louder. "She said she was working with the Itawari group and that they were the ones responsible for the theft of the corpse."

Daruma scowled. "So she was playing us this whole time?!"

"No!" Hanako immediately chided him, smashing a fist onto the table. "Something happened to her. I don't know what."

"It's happened to Reina-san too," Sakuna admitted.

"How do you know?" Daichi narrowed his eyes at their president.

"It's my business to pay attention to the people in my class. They covered themselves well, but there was still something off about them. I also visited someone when I got the chance."

"Me," announced Chimon Tabata, who was sitting in the back of the room. "He… snuck a hair from Aia to me."

"Are you feeling better now?" asked Hayate Chiba, who hopped off his chair and approached him as well. "You were ill, weren't you."

Chimon smiled and shook his head. "I'm better. I think it's just something about the new school. I'll get used to it, don't worry. In any case, I used Visions They Say on Aia's hair."

The group turned to Sakuna. "What did he say?" Fumihiro asked.

Sakuna nodded and stood up.

"Death will come for all.

Rebirth will come for all.

Our Class will be reborn.

Our World will be reborn."

Chimon grimaced, looking down in shame.

"That it?!" Fumihiro cried out. "Nothing about how we can beat these guys?!"

"If we're looking at Chimon's prediction literally," Kairi Maki, the red-haired girl, spoke. "Then there isn't anything we can do? But… that can't be right, can't it? What does it mean by Rebirth? Is that the way for us to win?"

"But seeing how it ends…" Noboru muttered, biting his lip. "What did you get us into, Kenta?"

Suddenly, the bell rang, sending the group into alarm. They looked through their members and found that everyone that needed to be there was there already: excluding Aia Ito, Reina Endo and Kenta Itawari. Issei stood up, pulling attention to himself, and nodded to Raynare. With a nod in return, Raynare left the room to check the door.

"Seriously, why'd you let your maid listen in on us?" Hoshi Eguchi scolded him. "And wha' if an enemy's at the door? What'll she do?"

"She knows about Stands, she learned about them with Asia," Issei clarified. "And if it's an enemy, Raynare will take care of it. She can't see Stands, but she's not weak in any way."

The group hear the door to the room opening again, Raynare walking in. "This guy's saying he's with you all?"

That sent the entire group into alarm. The entire class stood up and held their tongues ready to call for their Stands.

"I mean you no harm, I promise!" a familiar voice called out from past the door. With raised arms, the figure of Kenta Itawari appeared before them. "I don't want this! Please, let me help!"

Nobody let down their guard, especially Hanako who hissed at the boy.

"It's… it's all my fault," Kenta admitted, falling to his knees and prostrating before the entire group. "But I can't stop it! I'm so sorry!"

"Shut up and tell it straight, idiot!" Daichi roared, sending Kenta to jolt away from them back to the balls of his feet.

"Y-Yes, I'll do that." He rose to a stand again. "Aia Ito and Reina Endo… there's no easy way for me to say this, so I'll be straight. They're dead."

Hanako bristled at the comment. "The fuck did you just say?"

"It's not just them," Kenta confided. "Janice, who I thought had lived, is actually dead. My mother and father both. Who knows how many employees from our company." He balled his fists in frustration. "The… The students from Alliance who died in that plague that spread in our last month. Itawari Pharmaceuticals created that plague and intentionally poisoned our old school."

Kiyoshi, normally soft-spoken, was the one who roared next. "What?! You did that?!"

"Not me! But… no, I didn't want it, but… ahh!" Kenta frantically rubbed his scalp and pulled at his hair. "Why did this happen why did this happen why did this happen – "

"Kenta!" Noboru cried out, forcing the boy to snap out of it. "Be straight with us, man. You're saying they're all dead? But we saw them, didn't we? Your Mom and Janice, when we visited your house."

"Yes… that is…" Kenta murmured, looking down in shame. "That is… my Stand."

Noboru blinked, taken aback. "I… I thought you didn't have one."

Kenta grimly nodded. "Gangster's Paradise… that's what it calls itself. It… it thinks independently of me. I can't control it. If it kills someone, even if it stabs their corpse, it's able to bring that person back to life as its own puppet." Kenta sank to the floor, leaning against the wall next to the door. "Aia-san and Reina-san were killed before my eyes by Janice and my mother, and they then walked right up to me with blood all over themselves like nothing happened.

"They are all expecting you already. They're functionally immortal, so you cannot defeat them. They merely need to die enough times until they can finally get a leg up over you all, and even if one of you dies at their hands, you will join their forces. They can see through me, so they already know I'm here asking you this. It's… It's my Stand, right? So it knows everything I know.

"Please, all of you," Kenta raised his head to them with tears in his eyes. "Run. Don't fight them. Please… you're all the best thing that's happened to me. I-I don't want to see you all die, so please run!"

The rest of the class looked at each other, frowning at the situation. "Rebirth…" Fumihiro quoted, unconsciously tracing the scars on his cheek. "They're talking about Rebirth from the Stand, then?"

Chimon gaped at the thought. "There's… there really is no way out. We will all die."

Issei looked at the group of students succumbing to their fate, balling his own fists. He looked back at Raynare and Asia. He'd done so much for them already, would he really be turned into some puppet for his effort? At least they would be safe. They aren't human, so this Gangster's Paradise wouldn't work on them.

Or would it?

The thought of such a thing terrified him, momentarily providing relief to the idea that Stands and the Supernatural are so far apart. If Gangster's Paradise killed someone with supernatural ties, everything he'd worked for would fall for naught.

But if the Devils and Fallen Angels remained on the other side, then maybe they would stand a chance. If Humanity were to fall to this one Stand, then it would fall to the other races to help restore them. For that to be done, however, Issei had to do what he could to delay any possible conversion within the Supernatural.

Feeling someone patting his shoulder, Issei looked back to see Raynare leaning toward him. "Let me know if you need any support from the Fallen," she whispered to him. "If you give us enough samples, Azazel-sama might be able to learn something from these abilities."

"You heard me the first time, Raynare." He looked straight, maintaining his stubbornness. "If I tell your kind about Stands now, then you're going to start watching us. With something like Gangster's Paradise, I don't need to tell you what that will result in."

"… War." Raynare completed it for him. "What will you do, then?"

Issei looked back at her again. "Keep yourself and Asia away from combat. I'm still human, so I'll go."

"You know about the Supernatural, you fool. If you turn to their side, you will hand them this information."

Issei frowned, seeing her point. "… can you make me forget it?"

"We don't know how powerful this Stand is, Issei," Raynare shook her head. "A mere memory wipe is basic magic and can be easily reversed once they find magic users among their ranks, not even accounting if the conversion process will return the memories. In fact, who knows that they don't know about us already?"

"But… but we need to do something," Issei cursed to himself. "Look, you both stay safe. As long as they don't have the power of other races, it will be fine. Even if I die… I'll be glad I died for your sake."

"You will tell them about us. Your wish to keep these worlds apart will fail in the worst way possible."

"I know." He just didn't need to see it happen.

"… How selfish." Despite her remark, Raynare smirked. "How Human, I must say."

Issei smiled, hating himself for it.

"Soooo, anyone notice Kenta leaving?" Sakuna called out to the group. "Because he's not here anymore."

"There's a note lying there!" Hayate called out, dashing to the spot and picking up the small slit of paper. Unravelling it, he read: "If you still want to come, they're expecting you tomorrow at the main office."

Crumpling the note, Hayate focused a little then opened his hand to reveal the note having turned to dust. Smirking to himself, he dusted himself off.

Sakuna returned to everyone else. "Theeeen… who's going and who's leaving? I'll set up ballots for everyone, just write your name and your vote on there. I don't want anyone being influenced by anyone else, so dooon't dare tell your votes."

In mere moments, everyone in the group was given ballots and their votes were written and handed off. Once he was done counting them, Sakuna smiled. "Looks like everyone's in."

"Of course!" Fumihiro cried out, slamming a fist into his palm. "Impossible this may be, but we're a team, aren't we?!"

Hanako nodded. "I still need to talk to Aia."

Daichi and Azumi nodded at each other, briefly holding each other's hands.

Hayate grinned. "I finally get to go Giant again!"

Daruma Kaneki chuckled. "Of course, a perfect one such as myself must join such an endeavour to avoid a world without my grace!"

Nyoko shuddered at the thought of having to be hurt again but resolved herself. Those people needed to pay, after all.

Noboru and Hoshi said nothing, still looking at the spot where Kenta had left.

Susumu Hino remained oddly quiet, but that was par for the course for an android body.

Kairi Maki was already grabbing a now frantic Kiyoshi Nakajima, crying about how she'd challenge everyone in that company to victory.

Chimon looked down. He couldn't do much, but he had no desire to leave his class to die by themselves. He was the most convinced of their eventual death, but if he were to die, he'd rather die standing tall.

Asia hummed, nodding to herself.

"If I may interject," Issei called out. "I want to change one of the votes."

Sakuna shook his head. "We maaade our choices, stranger. Don't spit on us like this."

Issei cursed under his breath. "No, it's just… Asia," he turned to the blonde girl. "Please don't join us."

The class was rendered silent at that. They turned to the blonde girl, wanting to see her reaction.

"… why?"

Issei bit his lip at the disappointment in her eyes. "Please, Asia. You're not… you know." Pursing his lip, he picked himself up again. "I don't want to risk a being like you joining them."

Azumi quirked a brow. "That sounds so wrong…"

"Look, she understands it, okay! Think of Gremory-san, Asia. Won't she worry?"

Asia blinked, understanding what Issei was talking about. "But… But you're going to join, Issei. I… I want to – "

"Please."

Asia's breath hitched at Issei's insistence. She really did want to join them, but if it was Issei, the one who saved her, telling her to stay back…

"I agree," Fumihiro called out. "In fact, I vote that Issei Hyoudou doesn't join us either."

"What - You can't say I'm not one of you anymore!" Issei cried out. "Not after all this!"

"Yes, but have you discovered who you are yet?" Fumihiro shot back. "Remember what I told you that day? Find yourself, and you'll be satisfied with your decisions."

Issei fumed at his words for a moment, then looked back at Raynare and Asia. He remembered how much he'd suffered to save the two of them. He knew for a fact he'd go through all that to keep them safe a second time. They were his horde, after all.

Issei walked up to Fumihiro, looking up at him while entering his personal space. "I know what I fight for," Issei retorted, unwavering. "I will not regret this."

Fumihiro looked down at Issei, holding his gaze and studying the determination in his eyes. After a few seconds, he was satisfied and nodded. Stepping back, he looked at Asia. "Can you do what he did? Can you find a reason to fight, even if you don't know yourself?"

Asia wanted to speak, but the words stuck in her throat. She still felt the impact of Issei's insistence on keeping her away, and while she knew he said so to keep her safe, she couldn't help but feel dissatisfied with it.

Yet… this was Issei's request. She couldn't be so selfish as to place her own hopes before someone else's request.

"… I'll stay here," she murmured, looking down in defeat.

Fumihiro closed his eyes in defeat as well, nodding at her acceptance. "Before we continue, however," Fumihiro continued. "When we go tomorrow, everyone wear your Alliance uniforms. We need to show Kenta that we've not forgotten him."

Everyone nodded at Fumihiro's request.

"And on that note," Fumihiro continued. "I believe this is time for me to bring this out."

Fumihiro Sasaki walked to his bag and opened it, pulling out a plastic-wrapped object from it. He immediately turned to Issei and handed him the object.

"For tomorrow, you are one of us," he said, a slight grin appearing on his features. "Feel free to keep the pants."

Blinking in confusion, Issei opened the package and saw what was inside. A white shirt, a dark beige blazer, a maroon sweater vest, a red tie and a pair of blue pants. The same blue pants that everyone in the class wore to school every day.

"This is…"

"An Alliance High School uniform," Fumihiro said, offering another similar package to Asia. "My little sister likes sewing clothes, so it was merely a matter of getting your measurements. Aia helped with that before… you know."

A moment of silence was shared for Aia and Reina, but Sakuna was the one who broke the silence.

"Now that that's done, congratulations, both of you, on making it to our family. Anyway, all of us except Argento-san are skipping school tomorrow. Everyone rest up as much as you can today.

"Tomorrow we lay siege to a zombie apocalypse."


The middle-aged couple were laughing together as they had dinner. Their son had to leave for an emergency at the last minute, but it wasn't as though they had any control over him after all. Together, they drank the fluid in their glasses with gusto.

This near-romantic moment was broken by a sudden rap on the door. Looking at each other questioningly, knowing that their son's arrival would be informed to them, they warily went to the door and checked the peephole. It wasn't a man they recognized, so they sent a quick signal to the main database to run facial recognition on him.

Despite this, they opened the door and greeted him.

"Hello, this is the Hino household, yes?" the man asked, taking off his fedora. He was wearing a business suit with a loosened tie, clearly having returned from work and stopping there on his way back home. "I'd like to talk to your son, Susumu Hino."

"I'm sorry, but what business do you have with our son?" the father asked. "He is not at home either."

The man smiled. "I'm not talking about his android body, you see. I mean to interact with his real body instead."

The two immediately shot a look at each other. Looking back, it became exceedingly clear who that was. "Kenta Itawari has already told us about Gangster's Paradise," the father announced. "There is no reason for his father to be here if not to kill Susumu and add him to your ranks."

Homura Itawari shrugged. "I can't deny that. We already anticipated my son's rebellion, but we do all this for him. And I truly do mean you no harm. Just a moment of sleep, and you'll be all the better for it."

A clunking sound appeared behind him, forcing the resurrected man to turn back. Susumu Hino's android form stood there, glaring at him with folded arms. "Better? How?"

Homura nodded at Susumu's presence and continued "You won't have a heartbeat anymore."

There was no response from him, although he stood up straight.

"I know everything my son knows, so of course, I know the reason you sequester yourself to your android body in the first place. I'm sure you know that this heartbeat that terrifies you so won't be functional anymore after you die. While most of us resurrected choose to keep our hearts beating, you can certainly continue after willing your heart to stop."

"Is it truly worth it if I'm not myself anymore?" Susumu countered.

"Please. As if you care so much about your own self. Your consciousness will remain within your body, undying, unfettered, free.

"Do you know the reason why we wish to hand the world to Kenta on a silver platter? It's because Kenta has already seen the vice of this world. Parents, myself, who never cared for his holistic growth. A school that undervalued him because of his moderate returns despite his name. A class that was so discordant that it took a life-or-death calamity to finally bring them together. In our world, none of this will be true for anyone. As we reign Kenta our leader we will all unite under him. No more poverty, no more sadness, no more sickness. The dead shall see the light once more."

Homura sneered at Susumu. "In our world, Yuko Kuroki would not be dead."

He felt the room tremor. He smiled, those words certainly had the desired effect.

"Join us, Susumu Hino," Homura Itawari continued with an extended hand. "And we promise to bring Yuko Kuroki back to life."

The room remained silent. A sharp hissing sound appeared, and Homuro smiled as he looked through the door and saw a panel in the wall opened up to reveal a hidden staircase leading to a basement. The android bodies of Susumu's artificial father and mother stood there, bowing and expecting his entry. Nodding to his victory, Homura Itawari waltzed into the house that would no longer be strange to them.


A/N: I've decided on a new routine. Between this story and Re Teyvat, I'm going to push out monthly uploads. While it's true I'll have my chapters written out before this, it's better for me to stockpile my chapters for a rainy season in the future. I'm pretty sure you all hate how iffy my upload schedule is, so until I can reasonably fix a schedule for my writing, I'll keep myself to monthly uploads. As such, I'll be uploading a chapter of Re Teyvat next month. The Red Star will be updated the month after that. At some point in the future, I'll probably upload both of them at the same time, so you can await that day.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, though. I did think about setting the 1-E incident as a side story instead of affixing it to this one, but since this arc focuses on the 2-E members, it's better to experience both stories together so you can properly relate to them all. The chapters will be a little confusing, though. You'll have to read through two different fight segments, the first being the 1-E incident and the second being the Itawari Pharma event that's coming up.

You might not like how I'm handling Asia in this chapter, but keep in mind that I'm not excluding her for no reason. Think about the last chapter where I showed some of her flaws. Like I've said a long time ago: I don't believe in bashing, I believe in character growth. Asia needs to grow, and I'd hate to see people leave this story without seeing how I'll help Asia along in her development. So please, don't consider dropping the story because of Asia being excluded from the group. She'll make her name soon enough.

Speaking of joining the group, Issei and Asia are now 'official' members of 2-E! I've always highlighted how the blue pants set 2-E apart from the other classes in Kuoh. Why the blue pants? The girls of 2-E didn't like how short their main uniform skirts were, so they wore their previous school's blue skirts. The boys just tagged along to set a precedent for their class. I've explained this in the first chapter, but it's been a while, so it's easy to forget. But with Issei and Asia acquiring Alliance uniforms, they're now considered part of the main group. Let's just hope they remain that way, shall we?

I won't put up any Stand Cards for this chapter because I haven't fully established the abilities of any new Stands yet. Please wait for the following chapters to review them.

I've never been to a ski lodge or a pharmaceutical company before, so please excuse me if I make errors in my depiction of them. Let me know if there are any, though. It'll be good for me to know about it.

ChatGPT is such a huge blessing for writers, honestly. Think of it like this: Normally, if writers want to research something, they'd have to sit on Google and open links and figure out the best approach to take for their writing. With ChatGPT, you get the AI to do that for you, and you just get the results in an instant. Yuko Kuroki's name came from ChatGPT. Some of the upcoming Stand Names and other character names are all from ChatGPT. I'm honestly planning on capitalising on this resource in my coming chapters, although I might not need it as much after this arc.

Finally, keep in mind that the story will shift in a drastic way in the future. Despite Issei's efforts, War is going to begin very soon.

No reviews that need replies are there, but please feel free to leave a comment! I'll see you next chapter.