"What did you say?”

Miko who was inside his dorm room was shocked as he listened to the report he just received from Yota.

“Last Night a battle between Jin Makoto and Andre Bernard destroyed the entire 3rd district. Currently the entire area is nothing but a sea of lava and black flames.”

Yota repeated his report.

“Jin and Bloody Justice…?”

Miko had a pondering expression as he thought about what he heard.

“Who won?”

He asked.

Yota shook his head.

“No one knows. There hasn't been any sightings of either of them since. There have been thousands of people reportedly reduced to ash so they might have perished as well.”

“No. Jin isn't dead. I can tell.”

Miko remembered his interactions with Jin Makoto. He was someone he couldn't see through.

He was like an abyss that could devour everything around it.

Miko couldn't believe that someone like that would die so easily.

As for Andre Bernard’s fate Miko could only guess.

“Thanks for the report.”

Miko got up and slapped the sleeping Ishma awake.

He turned to Yota as Ishma started choking him from behind.

“Did Bloom come to the academy today?”

“Yes. I saw her this morning.”

“How's her facial expression?”

“She looked like she was distracted by something, very absentminded.”

“Then Jin hasn't contacted her as I expected.”

Miko said with a nod.

(This would be the perfect chance for you to approach her, you know. She's obviously troubled and in need of someone to console her.)

Tiamat's voice suddenly echoed in his mind.

“Hearing that from you is kinda weird you know.”

(I'm just giving you some advice to help you seize your little flower.)

“Well, thanks but I'm good. I'm not above taking advantage of a woman but not when it's a woman I really like.”

(My, you actually have some morals.)

Tiamat sounded genuinely surprised.

Miko didn't respond to her teasing and spoke.

“What are you doing?”

(I'm having a bath. The baths in this city is something else.)

“Is that so? We should experience them together when I get back.”

Tiamat started laughing.

(I don't mind…..Ah, I just remembered. Edward left in a hurry this morning to find his brother. Apparently he wanted to confirm the conditions of Andre Bernard and Jin Makoto.)

“Are they alive?”

Miko asked.

With Tiamat's abilities determining if someone was alive or not was a snap.

(They're alive. The fight between the two was pretty exciting, but they went overboard. Bernard is in critical condition, as for Jin Makoto he's already fine.)

“Oh? So Bernard lost?”

(Well, you can say that. It's just that Jin Makoto was too much of monster for him to handle. It was a bad match up.)

“I see.”

(How's your school days?)

“Not bad. We crushed a couple cliques recently and put them under our control. For now I'm just laying back until the tournament starts.”

Miko said as he dragged the kicking Ishma out of the room and towards his classroom.

Regis was laughing at her while following them.

“When Edward comes back tell him to avoid Jin if possible.”

(Avoid him?)

“Something's going on with him. There's a high chance that he's falling apart and edging towards the brink of insanity. With him being unstable it's best to give him space.”

(Are you talking from experience?)

“……..”

Miko didn't say anything and just walked towards his class.

Later that evening.

Bloom who was ending home from the academy walked down the streets absentmindedly.

“Jin…..”

She called out his name with a sigh.

“I appreciate it if you didn't sigh after affectionately calling my name.”

“?!”

She quickly turned around and saw Jin standing there dressed in loose fitting clothing.

However his normally messy hair was tied with a rubber band and only a little dropped in his face.

Bloom knew that this hairstyle meant that he was in his killer mood.

“Jin, where have you been?!”

“Here and there.”

Jin answered casually.

“Here and there? I've been searching for you for so long! There's tons of things I wanted to ask you about!”

She marched forward and moved to grab him.

*Pah!*

But before she could Jin slapped away her hand.

“…Eh?”

Bloom stepped back and held her hand.

“Jin?”

She looked at him with confused eyes.

“Sorry, but don't touch me at the moment.”

He said with a cold smile.

“…O-Okay.”

Bloom stepped back and looked at him as if she was looking at a stranger.

“First of all let me say that I'm the one who massacred everyone at that hospital that night.”

“?!”

Even though bloom had long known that Jin was the culprit, hearing it from him directly still shocked her.

“Why?”

“Don't ask questions you already know the answer to. I was ordered by the Pillars.”

Bloom said nothing.

Like Jin said she had long knew the reason he did what he did, but she just couldn't accept it.

“Jin, let's get back at them! I'm sure that if we borrow Miko's help we can free you from their clutches!”

“……..”

“Say something!”

Jin still didn't respond to her. He just looked at her indifferently.

After a while he finally opened his mouth.

“Bloom, you really do love me too much.”

“What?”

Jin sighed and spoke.

“Listen to me, Bloom. I do not love you and I never will.”

“?!”

Those words were like swords stabbing into Bloom’s heart.

“W-What are you talking about?”

“I'm not a fool. I know your feelings towards me, I've always known. I just chose to ignore it. But I think now is the time for me to do the right thing and reject you.”

Bloom didn't say anything but Jin continued regardlessly.

“Let me say it again. Bloom Newgate, I don't love you and I never will.”

“……..”

Bloom stood there silently and motionless like a statue.

Jin stared at her for a while before turning his back to her.

“Also I'm leaving Silver Crow, I've never really cared for it anyway. You can do whatever you want with it from now on.”

He started to walk away.

“…..Wait.”

“I will not.”

“….Please don't go.”

“I'm already gone.”

Bloom’s entire body started trembling.

“Jin! You can't do this! You can't just walk into my life and save me from the pit of despair and just cast me away!”

She took a step forward.

“Take responsibility damn it! If you were going to do this from the start, then should've left me for dead back then!”

Jin didn't reply and just continued walking.

“Are you really going to just leave me?!”

Bloom fell on her knees as tears flowed down her face.

“Fine! Do what you want Jin Makoto! But know this!”

She wiped the tears from her eyes and got to her feet while biting her lips.

“Bloom Newgate may break down now but not forever! Whether you care or not I'll come back bigger and better!”

Her tear-filled eyes were burning with determination.

“I will free you from your curse and make you regret breaking my heart!”

Saying so she stormed in the opposite direction of Jin. Tear drops hit the ground as she ran.

When she was no longer in the vicinity, Jin came to a stop.

He sighed.

“Forgive me, Bloom.”

“Hmm….so you did hurt her on purpose.”

Jin looked in front of him and saw Kaido standing at the end of the street.

“Were you eavesdropping, Kaido?”

Kaido shook his head.

“I was passing by and came across a somewhat interesting scene. Since my favorite thing to watch are soap operas, I just couldn't divert my eyes away from the drama.”

“Isn't that eavesdropping?”

“Really?”

Jin laughed when he saw Kaido tilted his head to the side while remaining emotionless.

“So why did you go out of the way to hurt the Gravity Queen?”

Jin looked at Kaido for a while before answering.

“Well, I guess I can tell you.”

He sighed before continuing.

“I'm sick. Not physically but mentally.”

“So you're losing your mind?”

Jin nodded.

“It's not the first it happened, but recent events have caused my mind to become a bit too unstable. Its reach the point where I black out at times and wake up at strange places drenched in blood.”

“….Sounds troublesome. But why not tell your comrades?”

“Because I know that they can't help me in anyway. But with their personalities they would truly try, and if that happens there's a high chance that I might accidentally kill them.”

“I see. So to avoid that, you're pushing them away.”

Kaido said with a nod as if he understood something.

“You're an idiot.”

“Well, I won't deny that.”

Jin said with a dry laugh.

“But my insanity isn't the only reason why I'm driving them away.”

“What's the other reason?”

“I'm most likely going to die soon.”

Kaido remained silent when he heard that.

“Your reason for thinking that?”

“You know about the power that exists inside of me right?”

“The Eclipse Element?”

“That's right. I was born with the elements of the Night and day, when these two elements fuse together it forms the Eclipse Element. This element doesn't follow the laws of the world, in fact it feeds on them. This corrosive element is dubbed by the Pillars as the power that could one day destroy the world. But to me that's just an exaggeration.”

“What does your power has to do with you dying?”

Kaido asked.

“Everything. I'm also an infected, you know. Our abilities are easier to go berserk than the average person if we experience too much stress.”

Jin smiled and said-

“My power has devoured over 30 percent of my organs and is continuing to do so as we speak.”

Even though Kaido’s face was still emotionless, his eyebrows twitched.

“That is unfortunate.”

“It is.”

Jin smiled wryly.

“So what are you going to do?”

“Well, I would like to threw everything to the wind and challenge the Pillars to a battle of mutual destruction, I mean I can't die leaving those guys alive right? But unfortunately I still need them at the moment to complete a task.”

“Is that task more important than your life?”

“Most definitely.”

Jin answered almost immediately.

“Then again I ask. What are you going to do? From your behavior and tone it seems like you're planning on disappearing.”

“Bingo.”

Jin gave Kaido a thumbs up.

“I'm finally going to be able to accomplish my goal and enter eternal sleep. Well, not eternal, but I'll go into hibernation for a while. That's the only way to stop my blackouts and my power from harming me.”

“Then I guess we won't see each other for a while. Not that I mind.”

“Well, you still have Miko to play around with.”

Saying so Jin turned his back to Kaido and started walking away.

“Wait, why did you tell me everything?”

Kaido couldn't help but ask.

Jin answered without stopping.

“Believe it or not, I considered you a friend even though we only mostly just fought each other.”

Before Kaido could reply Jin had already flown off using Hermes Sky Boots.

“Friends?”

Kaido turned around after staring into the Night for a while.

“I seriously can't get him.”

That night Jin Makoto disappeared from the world and didn't reappear until it was time for him to signal the beginning of the final battle that this city would witness.