The brush made its way through Tamaki’s hair. She looked into the mirror, noticing her valet’s change in expression. Kaori seemed content with herself while doing her daily morning routine.

“What did you discuss with Charlotte that put you in such a good mood like this? If that’s even the reason at all. You normally wouldn’t look so pleased in the early morning like this, Kaori.”

“Hm. You might hate me more for saying this, but what if I told you that we aren’t so different from those two—”

Her words made Tamaki jerked her head forward, but quickly regretted as her hair pulled on her scalp where Kaori was still brushing.

“Wha… you were still thinking about those guys?! I completely blocked them from my mind after we didn’t have to deal with them anymore.”

“Perhaps you shouldn’t have, chief. We could learn a lot from their mistakes.”

“Yeah… for example, not being a criminal...” Tamaki lowered her head, “Anyways, can we not bring them up again? I really just don’t want to think about that event anymore.”

“As you wish.”

As her hair was free from any knots, Tamaki took in her appearance in full as she stood up facing the mirror. Today was the day where she chose to wear her earrings, each fitted with a red gemstone that glinted during every pass in the sunlight. Today was one of the most important days in her life.

“Kaori, do you think I’m ready?” Tamaki said in a softer tone.

“I say you have more than enough experience that will allow you to do well.”

“But even with two days of rest, I still feel mentally unprepared…”

“Remember what you always say, chief. Just be in the moment. Presence is what only matters, correct?”

I’m such a hypocrite… I can’t help but worry about what would happen. What if I can’t get in…? What if I… just can’t handle it?

Tamaki could feel her hands trembling. It wasn’t necessarily just due to uncertainty for the future, but also the fact that she will be completely alone for the first time in her life.

・・・・・

The smell of a familiar flowery fabric was the first thing he experienced as Riki woke from his sleep. An overhead chandelier reflected the light coming from the window to his right that illuminated the room’s interior. It was strange how the scenery changed so quickly after breathing in dusty air.

“Am I having déja vu?”

The scenes from the last time he was conscious played back once more in his mind. Aoi. That’s right. Riki stretched out his arm and concentrated. He imagined a sphere within his palm, remembering the heat on his face as he took a closer look. The light would illuminate the floor beneath him in a light-blue hue. And then… nothing happened. He tried one more time, this time straining his arm and thinking about the sun in the sky. Nothing happened. Any more attempts lead to nothing.

What the heck. Am I doing something wrong here?

Riki took a deep sigh. What did exactly happen that allowed him to form a sphere of light within his hand? Whatever did occur, it was more of an involuntary reaction that he had no control over. He couldn’t exactly replicate the same conditions from that time.

And how much time passed since that moment anyways?

It was safe to assume that Asimov was no longer a threat to the city. Thankfully, there weren’t any casualties on the way to imprison the physicist. But that probably might’ve been a result he didn’t want. Riki remembered him saying about a plan that he relayed to Charlotte in order to rescue that white-haired girl. Could he have been serious about that? There was no point in looming over it. First, he has to focus on the present.

Riki swung his legs over to the side of the bed, analyzing the high-classed room. The space might’ve seemed like Tamaki’s household, but there were some slight differences to the architecture. Outside the window confirmed that where he was now was not the same place he had woken up to earlier, and it definitely wasn’t the same inn either. The question was, where was he right now? The only way to know is to see what’s on the other side of the door.

With one turn of the door knob, the warm colors of the walls unfolded before him. On both sides, the hallway stretched as far as his vision could allow him. Each direction was filled with paintings of landscapes that somehow blended in with each other.

This isn’t an inn, it’s a straight up mansion.

As Riki trekked his way through the corridor, he heard the sounds of sobbing. There Tamaki was in the main foyer at the end of the hallway, in her valet’s arms covering her face in fear that anyone would see her vulnerability.

“There, there. It’s okay. You did a good job out there. You were really nervous, but we all managed to get through this together.”

“That’s not it…”

“I know. You don’t need me to repeat it out loud. We worked hard together over these past couple of years.”

“...Don’t leave me.”

“...I won’t.”

“Don’t… leave me… Like how Komiya left…”

“I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

It was another one of her fits it seemed. As Riki glanced at the two, the first thing that caught his eyes was the red shimmer below Tamaki’s ears. She was finally wearing what was rightfully hers. He thought it accented her red-eyes well, and justified all of the trouble of retrieving them. However, the sounds of his own footsteps made her jump and immediately rubbed her eyes from any tears.

“Oh, Riki! You’re awake...”

・・・・・

“So you finally have your own ability, huh? Oh, I guess they call it ‘Aoi’. How does it feel?”

“Feel?” Riki didn’t exactly feel any different from the time before he almost got annihilated. If anything, his whole body was sore. Luckily, the three now sat on velvet chairs that eased any sense of discomfort.

“If anything, I’m excited but also kinda disappointed.”

“And why’s that?”

“...I can’t for the life of me create one of those light spheres again.”

If anything, Riki didn’t choose to have an Aoi that creates light, but he should at least be able to use it.

“Hm... that is strange.” Tamaki said, placing her index finger on her lip and tilting her head, “I’m not sure how I can help you with that…”

“...Any pointers or anything?” Even Riki himself can feel that he was getting impatient

“I’m not really sure, it’s much like describing how you would move your arm. ‘You just feel it’ is the best way of describing it.” she said, moving her arm up and down.

“You got a point, I can’t really argue with that… And so, what happened in the end? I’m pretty sure I passed out before seeing

*Sigh* “Such a pain…” Kaori crossed her arms.

“Such a pain indeed.” The two raised a gaze as if they were tired of explaining everything to an absent minded person.

I’m really that much of a liability aren’t I?

The military police took care of everything else after those two from Azure handed Asimov over to them. The underground particle accelerator was closed off by them. Charlotte, however, was not convicted of any felonies as the military police reasoned she was merely under the control of the physicist. Though, her current whereabouts as of after the incident were unknown. Luckily, Azure kept the fact that Riki, Tamaki, and Kaori were involved under wraps. If they had not, then there would have been no end to the questions the military police and private investigators would ask.

“It’s been around two nights. It’s good that I had that time to decompress from the chaos. And you’ve been snoozing in my family inn. You know, the correct one that we have should’ve been in this whole time.”

“Two nights… I slept for that long?” At this point, Riki’s concern over his location disappeared as he was introduced to another surprise.

“Right, so technically it’s been a full week now since I’ve met you, isn’t that crazy?”

Oh yeah. It was one week ago that the two had asked him to go on a search for her earrings. And he had overslept on the first day. When Riki apologized, Tamaki only scolded him and explained to him why they didn’t had a lot of time back then. That reason was what again?

“Hold on, didn’t you say something about an exam that would take place… like today?”

“Oh, so you do remember me saying that? It’s funny. You see… the purpose of the exam I was talking about is to be granted permission to join a certain little agency. An entrance exam of the sort. And that agency... is Azure.”

Azure…?!

“Seriously? So you were actually intending on joining the organization this whole time?”

“Yes, and sorry. I had to lie that it takes place in the middle of Fallway. I didn’t know what would have happened if the proctor figured out that I gave away information like that…”

“C’mon you can tell me… I have an Aoi, now right?”

“...I can’t. Even if you do have one now, I still cannot. Unless you decide to join the organization yourself and take it with me. But that would mean an opportunity cost, sacrificing your one and only chance to go and rescue that girl, let me remind you.”

Rescue… Oh that’s right. I completely forgot. Asimov had whipped up a plan to rescue her and he gave it to Charlotte so that it wouldn’t be lost. But I don’t think he said anything much else besides that so I have no clue what this plan even is.

“In fact, I do not want to be late for the exam right now, at least for the examination proceedings. It’s already close to 9:00. Might I also explain everything about this exam as well if you are so curious?”

This was certainly a blow to his state of mind. Tamaki’s verbal jab made Riki sink into his chair.

“How about you see for yourself?” Kaori asked, grabbing the attention of the two.

“Eh?” Tamaki’s eyes flashed before they narrowed into a stare, “What do you mean ? Don’t tell me it’s about the thing you can’t talk about...”

“Yes. Riki, I’m sure it will be well worth your time to go with us and listen in. And once you do go, I know you will only have one option left…” Kaori’s ominous words left him feeling on edge. What exactly did she mean by that?

“...Fine, I’ll see what this exam is all about…”

・・・・・

“What should we have for lunch?” Oluka asked, kicking her legs up into the air as she laid on her stomach on her air bubble.

“Beats me. Though, I could go for some udon right now.” Katou shaded his eyes from the overhead light of the Sun, “*Sigh* Just when we finished up a job… Why did the Director have to go and ask us to help out on another one?” The two stared off into the distance on an overlook residing over Fallway. The orange hue of the buildings was enough to put the two in a trance of amazement. Only few know about this part of the city due to the fact that it’s a ways off from any main pathway.

“Who knows… but at least they have a cafeteria when we come back…”

“That’s when we come back, in like a couple more days. I won’t be surprised when the Director is the one to get arrested for bringing people into malnutrition.”

“That won’t be good… No that won’t be good at all... because I’ll lose the one source of income I have and be homeless…”

Not even one second later after expressing her predicament, the sound of footsteps caught the two’s attention.

“Oh?”

“Ah.”

The five stared down at each other. They didn’t think that they would see each other this soon after such a conflict. There was a good five seconds of silence before Tamaki questioned why Katou and Oluka were by the overlook.

“Don’t tell me you two are running the entrance exam...” she said with her brows bumped together in a scowl.

“The what now? You think I really have time to idle with a bunch of newbies like that?”

“Oh, if you don’t even know about the exam, then why are you two here—” As if to answer her, another voice echoed in the distance and overpowered her question.

“Oluka, Katou. I’ve realized that you finished a job recently, but you two must not forget that you also would be aiding in another task… oh?” The new voice came from the nearby staircase leading up to the overlook. From there, the party caught a glimpse of a man walking with a tall, erect posture. The man had short crop hair, wearing glasses over his stern eyes.

“Kaori… and you are Tamaki, correct?” he asked.

“Yes, that’s me.”

“I see. And this young man standing beside you must be...”

“Riki.” A sense of nervousness came over him. Somehow, the man’s posture and demeanor made Riki inhale a deep breath and blew out slowly. This must’ve been the exam proctor.

“Hm. I see now. I heard of you from the reports Katou and Oluka made. Anyways, let’s not waste anymore of our time shall we? My name is Keijin. On behalf of the director, I welcome you, Tamaki, to this exam… is what I would normally have said, but there had been an emergency that required it to be postponed.”

“Emergency?” Tamaki’s response made Keijin cross his arms, drumming his fingers on his sleeve.

“Right, guess I would have to explain it. This will be a semi-long story. Our info broker sent eye-witness reports of a certain man within the abandoned county of Sozuraka. And there is a whole lot of mystery surrounding this man. There have been many reports of this man’s appearance throughout many different regions, yet his whereabouts are always unknown. He works behind the scenes to accomplish his goals and has been active for many years. In fact, many times, the military police find remnants of his actions. Yet, we still don’t know this man’s goals.”

“That’s why you postponed it? So you can take down this person?” Tamaki took a glance at Kaori, who stayed silent. Somehow, she had already known about this and decided it was best to not speak about it.

“Not exactly. Waging any type of war will always result in unnecessary casualties. That’s why we refrain from taking an action against anyone. Not unless it is absolutely necessary. However this is one such perfect example. In addition to the previously mentioned items in their report, it was said that there was an innocent civilian that was seen to be abducted.”

A civilian?!

“We have yet to know why such a man would need to take an action on an ordinary civilian, but either way, we must assume they intend on bringing harm to them. Whether it be tortue for information, human trafficking, selling their organs on the black market… we must not allow the likes of him to perform his activities on an innocent civilian.”

“...Who is this info broker?” Riki asked, with a gut feeling that he already knows the answer to his own question, “It’s the maid, Charlotte isn’t it?”

“That’s right. She was the one to relay all of this to us.” Keijin said, “At first we couldn’t trust her considering she was a servant to a criminal, but after confirming the information, we immediately sent out three members to handle it. Two of which you already know.”

“Kaori… how did you know about this already…?” Tamaki asked, “Don’t tell me it was when Charlotte asked you to sit with her?” Her guess was confirmed as Kaori nodded her head. Meanwhile, Riki made his own guess as to who this civilian was, though at this point, it was quite obvious.

Asimov personally told me to meet with Charlotte back then… this civilian… it’s definitely her.

“Listen Katou, Oluka, Kaori, Tamaki, and Riki. The report you gave Azure was especially ominous. What was Asimov saying, about people that can influence the very fabric of our world… was he just mentally crazy right then and there? Or was he perfectly serious? ...In such a world, it is when matters appear to be going well that one needs to be most on their guard. Bear that in mind. In this operation, we will conduct an independent raid. Our primary objective: to rescue the civilian and make it out alive. Of course, I cannot allow any outsider to take part in this operation unless they are willing to join Azure initially.”

“Wait hold on Keijin.” Oluka interrupted, raising her hand, “It sounds like you are personally inviting them to this. Are you sure about this? Katou, say something.”

“Hmph.” Katou only “It doesn’t concern me. Let them go on a suicide mission for all I care.”

“Ugh.” Oluka turned her attention to Keijin, who only adjusted his glasses.

“I can tell at a glance of a person’s resolve. I wouldn’t have said those words if it weren’t for me noticing the flame in their eyes.”

Riki took a deep breath then steeled himself. One thing was certain. He will finally be able to take action for once ever since he came into existence. But more importantly, to be granted the opportunity to answer his looming questions. Why was he so drawn to that white-haired girl in the first place? Why was he so dead set on rescuing her? Perhaps, it was because that was the first time he saw anyone so vulnerable before. The look in her eyes felt as if they were a call for help that he couldn’t answer on that day, like an incomplete puzzle waiting to be solved.

But now I could actually do it this time… if I join Azure as well.

“Of course, I’m going to rescue her.”