I heard a wild howl in the distance. Wickham wasn’t the only power in this forest, and my victory against him was unlikely to go unnoticed by other Wychwood metafauna. It wouldn’t be long until this clearing was swarmed with his most ambitious rivals. I had to get out.

But first… the girl.

I’d seen her a few times in class, though I couldn’t say she made an impression. It wasn’t clear why the spider selected this Seitojin girl for his lure, although I would have been hard pressed to pick anyone better. It wasn’t like I…

I shook my head. That was not a productive line of thought, least of all in the gloomy heart of Wychwood. Instead, I cut away the webbing from her slender frame. Her already small figure had been withered into a dismal state by Canopy Weaver’s venom, and what little remained of her slacks and shirt clung only to where the cloth hugged her skin. The rest were frayed to nothing.

Her body bore a tattooed network of black lines—striking even against her dark complexion—that radiated down from a point near the base of her skull, then splintered further into gossamer threads with barely more than a hairs breadth between them. This was her Shadow Marking, a kind of arteware embedded into a person’s flesh that allowed them to Shift at will. That meant she was training as a Shade, though I didn’t realize the process finished at such a young age.

She was currently unconscious, a consequence of Weaver venom coursing through her veins. Her Vital Net could clear it out… within the next eight hours. They would be lucky to have a few minutes.

Thankfully, a burst of Vital Energy was often enough to remove debilitating artes, and Nova so happened to offer Wolf Stims at cost from the student shop. I pulled one from my satchel and applied it to her exposed torso.

She lurched to a sitting position with a pained cry. After a second of frantically glancing about, she fixed eyes with me then reluctantly said, “Seishin?”

I nodded. “You’re Susumeru, right? Can you get up? We don’t have a lot of time.”

“I… I think so.” The girl struggled to her feet. “What’s going on? Why did the maho-ju attack me? I’ve never even been in a forest before, let alone this one.”

“It seems like he”—I motioned to Wickham’s shattered body—“uh, thought we were friends, or something. N-not that there would be anything wrong with that.”

“You think so?” Susumeru blushed and turned around. “Y-you can call me Tsumi… if you want.”

“Of course Tsumi.” I grinned. “A cute kid like you deserves to be very popular, I think.”

Tsumi glanced back at me and smiled.

A crack of thunder rippled through the forest. The girl flickered in place, suddenly a woman. No longer frail, but full and proud, with a warm smile. She flickered again.

Now a corpse. Her once kindhearted eyes were vacant. Dried blood poured from her torn out throat.

Panic. A ripple passed through the world. Tsumi was a girl again, kneeling over the ruptured half of Wickham’s head.

“Hey, what do you think this is?” Tsumi said. “I think it’s glowing. Some kind of tag, maybe?” She plucked a small stone from the sticky mess of Wickham’s remains.

“Tsumi?” Something was wrong. The girl stopped halfway to her feet, a shining pebble pinched in her fingertips. I took a step closer and could hear a pained gasp caught in her throat. A sickly yellow light flowed through the markings on her skin.

“Maia.” Tsumi coughed. She continued in ragged breaths. “The world… my hand.”

Tsumi’s hand began to unravel in a horrifying display. Twisted threads of yellow and black mist spiraled away to reveal the flesh beneath. Muscles and tendons convulsed in the open air as the effect slithered up her arm. Tsumi whimpered in pain.

I ripped the stone from her, and without thinking smashed it into an exposed rock. I hit with enough force to shatter the makeshift anvil, and even with my Vital Net absorbing the impact bones shattered in my wrist.

I pulled back my hand, and saw the yellow stone embedded deep in the rock. That would have to be good enough. I turned to Tsumi. Her hand was covered in a layer of fresh skin, still pink and raw without the Vital Energy to fully recover.

Young Seishin!

Thunder shook the world.

The forest around us roared with primal fury.

“Tsumi! It’s time to go!”

Hitori! Wake the hell up!

A violent crack hammered the world, irregular bursts of machine gun fire in close quarters. The world dissolved into chaotic splinters of sight and sound.