“The one who told him about offering his body?” Hinami asks with dubious voice.

“That's right.” Makoto says with certainty “Why did he have to mention god? This means that he joined a certain religion, and not a normal common one too. Mentioning god also implies that he did contact with someone or a certain group of people, beside the people you have mentioned before. And there is a high possibility that those people understand quite well about the strange energy and the friction between Yoshida and Shindo group. They also know that the fire was caused by arson and put Shindo group as the culprit behind it. They must have convinced Yoshida that the arson was caused by his enemy somehow.”

“So there is someone who knows about the strange energy and used Yoshida to create the red world and kill the students. But what is the objective for doing so? If it was terrorism, what was the message he was trying to convey?” Hinami asks.

“To be honest, I can only figure out that much. There are so many things that we don't know. If possible, Hinami, I would like you to investigate the situation around this Yoshida guy. Perhaps, we can learn something.” Makoto says.

“Leave it to me. This is a serious issue. My father will definitely lend me strength to investigate this.” Hinami says with a confident pose.

“How dependable. I guess it's a blessing to have someone rich in their team.” Makoto says with a smile. “Anyway, I wonder how this strange power works. Would sacrificing oneself create such a terrifying world with those monsters?” Makoto changes the subject with a frowning face.

“I myself do not really know much. But I think there are a lot of conditions for it. First, the person who sacrifices himself must have that black flame covering his body. The second condition must be the school. I don't know how to describe it but your school must be quite special. From the moment I came inside, my body became tense all the time and I sort of felt passing a barrier right at the school gate. The black flame on Yoshida also suddenly burst out when he passed through the gate.” Lexar answers while looking up to Makoto.

“Oh, now that I thought about it. Why were we in white flame when we transformed? Is it different from the black flame in anyway? And what is the nature of the black liquid?” Makoto asks him.

“It seems that the energy can basically divided into two types: positive energy and negative energy. Positive energy comes from positive feeling, while negative energy comes from negative feeling. They correspond to white and black color respectively. So far, most of the humans do have positive energy inside them, and quite a few have some negative energy mixed in. Only a few exceptions have only negative energy.” Lexar answers.

“Wait. Isn't this very dangerous? Does this mean a lot of people have potential perform the same ritual as Yoshida?” Hinami interrupts with a loud voice.

“It is certainly a possibility. There are already people knowing about the strange energy and how to use it too. A disaster like what happened at your school will repeat if we do not know how to stop it. However, fortunately, people like in Yoshida are very rare. If I happen to see someone with a lot of negative energy, we can follow him and prevent the tragedy from happening again. Besides, there are many people with positive energy. Perhaps, we can find someone with potential to awaken and get them fight together with us.” Lexar says.

“…..” Hinami remains silent with a sigh after hearing.

“…..” The same also occurs with Yuuko and Makoto.

“Girls?” Lexar asks after seeing how strange the atmosphere has become.

“To fight, huh?” Yuuko mutters then looks at her hand. A white flame appears on her palm and forms a katana. “Are you telling me to fight too?” She asks the sword in her hand.

Looking at Yuuko's behavior, the other two girls also do the same, create white flame in their hand and manifest their powers. Hinami holds a hand gun while Makoto makes the a small white tornado twisting around in her hand.

“Hey Lexar.” Hinami calls the cat “Why are we chosen to have this power?” She asks while caressing the gun in her hand.

“Who knows? I do not know what criteria a person need to have potential for this power. I did awaken your power because the situation demanded so. You are free to put all of these aside and go back to your daily normal life. I will not say anything or feel bad about it. After all, you girls are just only kids and this job may be too much for you. However, I think that it is fate that you girls have this power. And it was not forcibly given you. You girls were the ones who desired it.” Lexar emphasizes the last sentence.

“Desire?” Makoto mutters as she remembers the conversation with her other self. “A new era, right?”

Yuuko closes her eyes reflecting on her pasts. Hinami becomes silent and resumes caressing her gun.

Lexar observes their reactions then jumps off the bed. He knows that those girls need some time to think as this is an important decisions. They will be risking their lives so what they need the most is the resolution to do so. He approaches the window and jumps out of the room.

………………………………………………………

*At night, in a night shift room in the hospital

A TV is switched on, showing a static scene of a well in the countryside. Corrupted sound of the wind coming from it fills the whole room. The light is turned off and the only source of light is the blue light coming out from the TV. Nobody is inside the room.

Fukawa is the nurse who has the night shift today. Due to the massive flux of injured students from yesterday, she has been busy the whole day and stress accumulated on her body. Opening the door of the room only to find that the TV is turned on without anyone watching it, she says with a loud angry voice. “Who switched on TV without turning it off? Do you know that this TV spends a lot of electricity when turning on for many hours !?” She rants on while knowing that there is no one replying her. “Geez. Such an undisciplined manner. I will complain to the manager about those trainees later.” She says to herself as she turns on the light to look for the remote to turn off the TV.

Pointing the remote to the TV, Fukawa presses the power button, but the TV does not respond at all. She keeps pressing repetitively but the static scene of the well is still showing.

“Strange. I remember this should be the correct one. And the battery is here too.” She mumbles as she checks the remote. “Fine, I will just turn off the power.” She crouches down in front of the TV, finding the socket where the TV is connected to.

The scene starts to change a hand comes out of the well. It is a long skinny hand as the skin wraps tightly on the bone. A creaking sound comes out of the TV as the master of that hand climbs out of the well.

“Hmph?” Fukawa hears the sound just after she pulls of the plug from the socket. She turns around but finds nothing strange inside the room. Thinking that it may be her imagination, she stands up and heads to the desk with a pile of documents. After taking the list of medications of those she has to check next, she exits the room and turns everything off.

Her footstep echoes the entire hallway as Fukawa moves. The sound comes loudly as it is the only noise in this hallway. Combining the dark sky outside, such a scene can send a timid person goose bump. For Fukawa, this is normal but she still finds it creepy whenever she walks alone. How can a place bustling with energy during daytime become so eerily quiet at night? She herself asks that question many time.

After a few minutes walking, she finally arrives at the destination, the medicine storage room. Just when she opens the door, a bone cracking sound is heard from behind. Fukawa immediately looks behind to see the source. “Who's there?” She asks.

However, there is no one behind here and there is no reply either. Even so, an unwell feeling swells up in her. She definitely feels there is someone behind her and did definitely hear the sound clearly. Fukawa gulps her saliva as her imagination starts creating horror images of ghosts and monsters commonly seen in movies. In her head, a scene where a white person suddenly appears behind then drags her away plays. In the next second, there is a scene where she is stabbed from behind by a man in mask. After that, a monster with long tail pierces through her chest then splits her in half.

In only thirty seconds, thirty scenarios where she was killed played in her head. Sweat forms on her forehead and she collapses on the ground. Her breath becomes rough as she feels like she experienced death so many time. It does not take long for her to realize the abnormality. If it was just normal imagination, those scenarios could not play so short and rapidly in such a short time. More over, she can feel the pain each time she was killed.

As she is panting, a hand extends on her shoulder. Fukawa freezes on the spot and tightly closes her eyes, waiting for the sharp pain to come again. One second, two second, ten second. She is bracing herself for the incoming pain but nothing happened. Nervously, she slowly opens her eyes. There is nothing in front of her but the sensation right behind her ears tells the otherwise.

A cold breath is blowing in her ear. She can even see white air flowing next to her cheek. The hand that has been resting on her shoulder is long and skinny, so skinny that she can feel the bone joints through her clothes. Her heart is beating fast as the fear reaches its climax. She is too afraid to turn back, because she knows that the moment she moves her neck, her life will end. Even she knows that her life is over, she still wants to live on for a few more seconds.

Another hand touches her body, and she starts trembling in fear. However, the owner of that hand does not pay attention to that. The skeletal hand softly presses on her throat, then slowly traces its fingers upward to her chin, slide her lips, and caresses her cheeks. After that, the hand moves down and gropes her breast. Fukawa immediately jumps up when it happens, but the hand on her shoulder forcefully presses her down.

A strange feeling transmits throughout her body. The cold white air next to her ear becomes hot enough to feel comfortable in this cold weather. Its blowing sensation tickles her skin, triggering a strange excitement in her. To further enhances that excitement, the skeletal hand fondles her breast gently, molding it into different shapes. Its longest middle finger moves up and down between her cleavage. The being behind her puts his other hand on her stomach and massages it.

Fukawa does not understand what is going on. Her mind was full of fear and anxiety a moment ago, but all of those melted away when her body is toyed with. This is basically sexual harassment, and she was supposed to feel disgusted by it. Yet she did not dislike it. She actually enjoyed instead. The emaciated hands did not look scary anymore as they soothed down the pain she experienced from those imagination and brought her warmness. Anticipation fills her mind as she starts wondering about the one behind her. However, fear still lingers as she is afraid that it is actually a monster or a ghost behind her.

"It's all alright now. There is nothing harming you anymore." A charming male voice softly enters her ears.

The nurse's cheeks slightly redden because of the intimacy of his action. Feeling relief that it is a word of a man, Fukawa finally turns around, and sees a handsome man. Although the skin is pale white, his face is full of vigor with the dandy circle beard, completely opposite of the skinny hand he has. His exquisite face full of western features can charm any young girl he makes eye contact with. Fukawa's heart even skips a beat when she sees his face. The man is wearing a black tuxedo with a red coat hung over. Although it is a weird combination, they fits the man perfectly, emitting the elegant aura around him.

Before fully assessing the man, he brings the nurse's chin near his face then kisses her lips. It is quite forceful and sudden. Fukawa puts her hands on his body to push him away, but the man circles his arm around her hip and tightly hugs her without breaking his kiss. After struggling for a few second, the nurse stops resisting then allows herself indulge in passion with the man. They entwine each other's tongue like a pair of lover.

Little does she know, some black liquid enters her mouth through the saliva. Her body becomes hot yet her eyes feels cold like when she eats the shaved ice, but that is not enough to stop her from engaging the sweet action. In the man's eyes, the black iris of the nurse slowly becomes yellow and the pupils form a diamond shape.

After five minutes, the mouths separate from each other. The man looks at the woman with a sharp eye.

"Speak your position" The man speaks with a cold voice, contrasting his previous behaviour.

"I am eternally your slave, my master." Fukawa kneels in front of him and says with a respected voice.

"It seems you have finished your operation." A strange voice cuts in the conversation.

The sound of a staff hitting the floor echoes the hallway. It is a figure covered in dark brown robe made of high quality material, embroidered with precious stones ornament. However, the most eye catching feature is the skull hiding under the hood. For unknown reason, the bones can change the shape and size at will, allowing the skull to form many expressions similar to the human face.

"The pawn preparation is completed. All that is left is to set the pieces into place." The white skin man says.

The door to the medical storage room opens. Several nurses and female doctors step out and line up by the man side. All of them have the yellow eyes same as Fukawa.

"Hahahaha......... Looks like you are eager to do this, huh?" The skeleton laughs loudly.

"Of course...... After all, the best preys are the ones most difficult to hunt after all." The man answers with a wicked smile.