A scene out of common understanding. Something that couldn't be comprehended however much it was looked upon.

"What...?"

Gray's eyes were wide open in shock.

The stringent smell of iron settled in the air, cloyingly thick. The stark sight of red blood, splashed everywhere around.

Everywhere, that is, but near him or the woman standing in front of him.

It was a scene that Gray couldn't understand. No, that wasn't true. He understood it intellectually. Somehow or another, the two men had been killed. What made the scene out of his understanding was a single factor: the woman standing in the middle of this scene from hell.

Her back was turned to him still. Somehow, she had managed to remain completely unaffected by the blood and gore, her long white hair still pristine.

As for the man who had been approaching them with a bookshelf and the other who had been standing back near the door...

Scraps. That was the only way to describe what had happened to them. Absolutely nothing was left of the two but scraps of fabric where they had been standing and blood smears. Even bones and organs were missing.

Shock. Awe. Disgust. Gray didn't know how to react to the scene before him. Since he didn't know how to react, his body moved on his own. Gray got to his feet and walked around to look at the woman before him.

She was standing there, her hand raised as if she had just swung it across the air. A seemingly casual stance and action, yet the result...

Gray shifted his gaze from the woman back to where the men had been standing.

-Destruction. For a distance so long that it blurred into darkness, there was a giant gap. He would have thought it was caused by a monster, some being that had clawed away at the very fabric of space if not for the fact that it was impossible.

Impossible, yet it was there.

The woman turned to look at Gray. Like the first time they had met, she was staring into his eyes.

-Crimson. He had thought it beautiful, when he saw those eyes for the first time. Enchanting, even. Yet, seeing the destruction that the woman had undeniably caused, the monstrous strength and ability beyond imagination, Gray thought they were eerily like the shade of blood.

But somehow, in spite of that...

"You need no longer be afraid."

...Looking into those ominous eyes, he could only find them beautiful.

A huge tremor.

Gray was broken out of his trance and looked around to see what caused it.

With the woman's action to kill the men, the foundation of the building had been destabilized. The already fragile ceiling and walls were swiftly crumbling, their deterioration vastly accelerated by the sudden lack of support from the underground area.

-Was it because he had been enchanted by her appearance or because he instinctively realized she was his best chance at survival? Either way, Gray turned to the woman and grabbed her arm. "We have to go!"

She looked into his eyes like she had since they met and then nodded. "Then... hold on tight."

"Hold on tight? What are you-" Those words were all Gray had time to say before he felt himself flung into the air.

Vertigo, freefall, the feeling of wind blasting against his face...

He couldn't protest, squirm, or even react to the sudden change. All he could do was try his best not to vomit from the sudden lurch to his body.

The next thing that Gray knew, he had been placed on the ground. He staggered on his feet, fixing his vision at a firm point in the distance to get rid of his nausea.

Somehow, he was outside. Like where he had found himself initially, the area around him was a hilly field with waist-high grass. But unlike before, that building he saw back then was a tiny dot in the distance. He could only recognize it because of the gathering dust cloud around it, no doubt an after-effect of its collapse.

The woman was standing nearby, but Gray only idly noticed that. His mind was still trying to make sense of what he had just gone through.

He remembered walking to school. Along the way, he got a call and dismissed it, followed by an empty text message. When he had checked that, he had found himself in this place that his phone said was close to campus, and yet was unrecognizable. Afterwards, there was the whole series of events with the woman and her kidnappers.

Surreal. Everything that had happened seemed to be too dreamlike to be reality.

Gray shook his head. "I must be dreaming."

Right. He woke up early that morning and he had spent a few days in a row staying up late working on his final project. So then this was probably just the consequence of that. If he closed his eyes and went back to sleep, he should wake up back at his desk.

Forcefully reassuring himself of that fact, Gray tossed his bag aside. That done, he laid down on the ground and closed his eyes. Because of the physical and mental fatigue from recent events, he immediately fell asleep.

A strange scene. In the middle of the hilly grasslands on the outskirts of the Human Realm (Newark), there was a young man and a young woman. That fact alone wouldn't have drawn much attention, but the fact that the two were so different would have.

The young man's appearance wasn't out of the ordinary. Indeed, his spiky blond hair and fairly handsome face weren't uncommon among the populace. His clothes, however, were. It was an attire not seen anywhere in the world of Wyrd.

A black shirt made of a cloth that was too soft to have been woven by hand and yet carried no mark of magic. Pants made of a blue material both durable and comfortable. And then, by his side, a bag meant to be worn on the back that was made of an unidentifiable material sturdier than cloth and yet weaker than metal, fastened shut by fastenings that seemed to be metallic, yet were not.

His equipment was too strange, enough that he might have been mistaken for some eccentric mage or alchemist if not for the distinct lack of any magical prowess and the telltale energy it displayed on his body.

As for the young woman, her appearance was out of the ordinary. While white hair at a young age was not uncommon due to the effects that using magic had on the body, when coupled with her crimson eyes they created a striking appearance. Adding on her beauty which could charm kingdoms and her tattered clothing, it was impossible to not look at her.

Were any to catch sight of the pair by chance, they might have thought the man to be an eccentric young noble and the woman his slave. Particularly due to the position they were in.

The young man was fast asleep, and the young woman was allowing him to use her lap as a pillow. Whether this was done after the man had fallen asleep or was discussed beforehand, only the pair would know.

But that did not happen. Miles away from even the nearest frontier village of the Eternal Kingdom, there were none to disturb the pair.

And so they remained, the man in quiet slumber and the woman maintaining a silent vigil.

The young woman with white hair gazed at Gray's sleeping face and brushed off some dust that had gathered on his hair. How strange. To think I would wake up once more...

She should not have woken up. That was her expectation. Or if she had, it would have been in a state where she was only half-aware. A state just before her death.

A horrible fate, but one that she had accepted. Being rescued from her fate was an impossibility and one that she no longer even considered.

After all, even the most righteous of men and women would have ignored her.

But he had decided to try. He had freed her against his better judgment.

Why?

There was no possible reason or purpose for doing so. If anything, she held more worth incoherent and unconscious. Whether for her body or her magic, either should have been more valuable.

It was common knowledge. People- no, tools such as herself... there was no need to consider it.

But he did.

Why?

The question kept echoing in her head, and no matter how much she turned it over, she couldn't figure it out.

Naivety? That was not the case. He had understood the ramifications of his actions and said as much to her.

Pity? That was not it either. She knew pity, and what he had shown her was not it.

Why?

She had sought the answer in his eyes over and over but it seemed that he himself did not know.

...Then foolishness. Yes. It must have been that. Only a splendid fool would attempt to free a broken tool like herself.

Foolish. The young man had freed her without knowing the layout of the building or even being able to defend himself. It was a mystery of how he had been able to break the seal placed upon her, but it was evident that he was weak.

And oh so weak he was.

His body did not contain a shred of magical prowess and was weaker than an average toddler. His stamina was poor, and his physique was nonexistent. But in spite of that, in spite of his self-incrimination at choosing to free her... he had never left her behind. Instead, he had armed himself and taken her by the hand in an attempt to escape.

What could you call such a person but a fool?

...And yet, that foolishness was charming in its own right.

-She did not know his name. She did not know his origin. And she did not know why he was in such a deserted area to be able to encounter her.

But she did know that he freed her against his better judgment, and that he had done so while being so vulnerable that a glare from a lowly monster could cause his death.

Staring at the defenseless face below her, the white-haired woman said, "A fool. But then why...?"

A strange emotion. Was it intrigue? Happiness? Admiration?

She did not understand, but she felt like she could if she stayed by his side. The answer to a question she had long since pondered...

She, who had given up on life, and he who lived on the verge of death. A meeting that was by chance, and yet must have been fated.

Even if he chose to throw her away in the end...

"For someone like you, I do not mind devoting the rest of this life."

...she softly swore to give him her all.

-Dreaming. Gray was dreaming. It was a pleasant sort of dream, one he hadn't seen in a long time.

He was back in high school. A nostalgic setting that was tinged in colors of happiness within his memories.

Lunch time, right after band practice. A commonplace setting that he had seen countless times. Familiar faces he had long forgotten were around him, but in that dream he had eyes for only one person.

A half-remembered image. A girl with a kind smile. Flashes of golden hair the color of honey and eyes like the sea.

I'd forgotten.

How long had it been since he had last seen her? His best friend who knew him better than he knew himself. The one who had been at his side since before he could remember.

He called out her name as usual.

-Of course. In the dream, he had yet to realize it.

She smiled, tilting her head softly to the side and replied. A usual greeting in return. That was what he remembered happening, and what had happened.

...It was a long time ago. As usual, she spoke her words and gave him a radiant smile before sending him off. That was how it went. They got along extremely well back then.

So then... why did you try to forget her?

The one who had been by his side through thick and thin, the one who was always more concerned about him than her own self.

What was her name again?

If I remember right, her name was...