XCEL

Ruri Karakusa thundered over the newly constructed bridge spanning the endless white void. Despite the destructive currents of psychic energy that surged between the fragmented islands, Rinkaku Harigane's construct held fast. On the island ahead, a boy no older than ten, a victim of this horrific incident, had curled up into a ball on his side, sobbing and shaking.

Rin clung to Ruri’s back for dear life. For now, he rested, restoring himself through the surrounding psychic energy. He forced his third eye open, allowing the arcane electricity to flow in. It was more than plentiful in this storm. His construction technique was still new, imperfect. Rin grit his teeth. He needed more practice. Stone Tower Penitence Cell, the prison he had used on Bango, was rudimentary at best. Golden Gates’ design was cleaner, but far more taxing: the scale contributed to that as well.

The Rejected stood around the child in a circle, strangely hesitant to execute their prey. They twitched in place, muscles rippling in grotesque pulses. They screamed at one another, and yet did not move. Something about this child, the aura he projected, kept them at bay. The Rejected both towered and cowered before him.

That aura bought them all the time they needed. An empowered punch from a charging Ruri took out the first. The blow struck the side of its head, embedding the monster in the dirt. Rin had leapt off his back and dove down next to the child. Crouching, he picked the boy up by the shoulders. “C’mon, kid. We’ll get you out of here.”

Aggravated, the Rejected unleashed a collective roar, an aimless rage. Rin felt himself share in their madness, a wide grin stretching his mouth.

Box Technique: Cocoon

囲箱技「繭」 Isōgi・Ken

Rin cast two cube frames around himself and the child both, one frame nested inside another. The frames solidified; a transparent barrier. The Rejected’s fists slammed against the box, but the sides held fast. The heavy thuds failed to echo, muffled by the vacuum. Rin touched deftly at the outside frame, touched his palms together then flung both hands outwards.

Expansion

展 Ten

The outermost frame abruptly ballooned to twice its size, catching the Rejected in its path and scattering them across the plane.

Rin looked up just in time to see Ruri approach. The child was still clinging to Rin’s jacket, face buried deep into the material—anything to avoid looking at those infernal horrors again. He snapped his fingers to get his attention.

“Take the kid and get the hell out of here.” Rin ordered. Ruri gently took the boy’s hand, but looked back.

“You worried about me?” Rin sneered and shooed them away. The Rejected had already risen, and were lumbering toward him. “What are you waiting for? Go!”

Ruri nodded, though their eyes did not agree. In one swift motion, he picked the child up and swung him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Rin waited until they had reached the bridge, disappearing from sight. Even with the one Ruri had taken out, he was outnumbered five to one. Rin grimaced, and tried cracking his knuckles. Rin quickly regretted that decision; a sharp stab of pain made him realise he’d dislocated one of his fingers. The Rejected drew closer. The excitement of the area hung like static, and Rin’s third eye throbbed.

Voices; a hundred thousand voices exploded into sound. Words, powerful words, began to etch themselves into his mind. His field of vision widened, the contrast and vibrancy deepening. Unlike before, he understood these voices. The words rippled down his spine, tingles of impulse touching every nerve down to his fingers and toes. These words were meant for him. Where they came from, he didn’t know, but he knew what they were. The only thing left for him to do was actualise it. Lowering himself into a fighting stance, Rin’s eyes narrowed. Then, he spoke the mantra aloud.

“Font of all knowledge, check my flow.”

Psychic energy surged through his third eye, and the next few moments were a blur.

Rinkaku Harigane did not think, he only moved.

* * *

“It’s Hakana. I’m coming in.”

Hideyori pushed the door open, hat tilted low. Following his knock, he hadn’t heard a sound. The boss’ psychic signature still lurked beyond the door, so he wasn’t going to waste time awaiting invitation. For some reason, this office was the one room in Nowhere whose location never changed. All corridors seemed to lead here if followed for long enough, it just might take you some time. Hideyori closed the door behind himself, but still didn’t take his eyes off the floor.

“I was wondering when you were going to show yourself,” boomed Gus Ishimatsu. Sat at his desk, the man leant forward, supported by his elbows. Both hands were clasped in front of his face, shrouding it from view. He was topless, his shirt and jacket folded over his desk. Thick bandages stained with a dark crimson bound much of his exposed skin. Where there weren’t bandages, there were hefty bruises.

This was a man in recovery.

A woman stood directly behind him, her hands working on his back. As opposed to its usual erratic state, psychic energy flowed through her in a smooth current and across Gus’ body. The man’s body was warping slightly, skin and muscle undulating with a smooth, almost glass-like finish.

The woman had the same colour hair as Hideyori, a blond so ashen it seemed almost silver under the right light. Hers was shorter than his, cropped in a neat fringe above her brow-line. Her eyes were unfocused, glassy; her expression, left rather lacking. Hideyori recalled her name, Kiyosumi Sakazuki. She hadn’t made a name for herself, and for good reason. She was an anomaly among their ranks: one of their only personnel to awaken a Third Eye without the aid of the Excel Ritual. She had been working for the organisation beforehand, a psychiatrist at one of JPRO’s private clinics. Once her unique talent had been made known to the boss, however, she was quickly taken off the radar. That was all he had heard, anyway. After all, the two had started working in JPRO’s upper echelon at around the same time.

“Is this a bad time?”

“The opposite.” Gus cleared his throat and looked up at Sakazuki. “You’ve done enough for today. Leave.”

The woman bowed and excused herself, walking past Hideyori with an upright grace. His remaining eye couldn’t help but track her across the room. “Any better?” He asked.

Gus made a pensive growl and rolled his shoulder. “Not better enough.” Tearing off some more of the bandages as though they were prison shackles, he tossed them aside and picked up his shirt, stepping out from behind his desk.

“You need to give yourself time to recover,” Hideyori cautioned. “That… thing did a number on you. You fell from what was most likely hundreds of feet, way higher than the skytree itself. Everyone was gathered around that crater you made on impact. I’m amazed you survived.”

Gus, in the middle of buttoning his shirt, looked offended. “Do you really think me so weak?”

Hideyori chuckled. “That has nothing to do with it.”

Satisfied by the answer, Gus nodded with a reluctant smile and turned to face the window. “You’re right. That wasn’t fair of me at all. I was not weak. Rather, that Ashinaga was incredibly strong. You could say the difference was…” He put out his hands and drew them vertically apart, “like heaven and earth.”

“Seems the Tyrant's influence on your stamina came to bite you in the end after all.” Hideyori lit a cigarette. “You managed to destroy it, but even Overpowering all its tricks wasn’t enough to stop you from falling.”

Gus scowled. “I told you to leave, didn’t I? How much of our bout did you see? All of it?”

“Naturally.”

“Of course.” Gus chortled. He’d since finished with his shirt, and was doing the final button on his jacket. “You see,” he sighed, “this is why I can’t trust you, Hakana. You never follow orders, do you?”

Hideyori’s eye widened a little. “I don’t know what you mean, boss.”

“Is that right?” Gus arched an eyebrow. “No matter. Undeniably, no matter your motives, you get results. So long as that doesn’t change, I couldn’t care less.”

Silence elapsed between the two men, until Gus offered another observation. “Ashinaga. He could have killed me at any point. Did you notice that?”

“I thought it strange.”

“As did I. No words of wisdom? No doubt you’ve been analysing the scene ever since.”

Hideyori nodded. Indeed, it had plagued his mind increasingly as time passed. Most of the previous night had been dedicated to re-visualising the fight against the phenomenon until sleep had damn near pointed his own gun at his head. “I think this encounter was a warning, not a punishment. He was very particular about the language. Ashinaga doesn’t want you dead. If he did, you would’ve been struck down before you’d had a chance to fall. He wants you to stop.”

“Is that right?” Gus mused on that for a moment. “I refuse.”

Hideyori nodded. “I surmised as much. It’s… contradictory, though, isn’t it? If he wants to put a halt to your plan, why not kill you?”

Gus folded his arms. “Tell me.”

“You out of the picture seems an undesirable outcome, hence his aversion from an otherwise simple solution.” Hideyori held his chin for a moment. “I do have a theory.”

“Go on.”

“Your psychic energy—the sheer amount of it—is unbelievably concentrated.” Hideyori stated this without a hint of flattery. The fact even he found it difficult to stand in the man’s presence for long was testament to its magnitude. “Phenomena are made up entirely of psychic energy. It’d be natural to suggest it being a life force, of sorts.”

Gus’ brow furrowed, but Hideyori wasn’t finished. “Like it or not,” he said, “you’re aware of the idea Ashinaga represents: the idea of height, of falling. It doesn’t matter whether you acknowledge it consciously. Phenomena feed on the unconscious mind. The very fact you’re aware of it, as well as the rest of humanity, is what gives him strength.”

“So,” Gus concluded, “if I were to die, then that would be a blow to him as well.”

Hideyori nodded.

“That means they’re not a threat.”

“Only so much as you allow them to be. They shouldn’t stand in the way of your goal. At least, based on what I know for now.”

“What about Rinkaku Harigane? You told me about his psychic energy the day you met him, didn’t you. I felt it myself. It has the potential to rival my own, given time.”

“I suspect you and him both represent threats to them, yes. I imagine they’ll have made contact with him as they’ve done with you.”

“Excellent.”

“Why’s that?”

“This situation is in our favour. These phenomena cannot afford to eliminate me, lest they cripple themselves. It won’t be long until Harigane figures that out for himself. I won’t make the mistake of underestimating the intellect of Katsuro’s son. Until then? We have the upper hand.”

“About Harigane, in fact,” Hideyori added. “Another distortion opened today.”

“Interesting.” Gus noted. “Where?”

“Kawarajima Park, Chiba city. Techukara picked up traces of Harigane’s signature headed that way, along with another. I think they’re going to try and put a stop to it.”

“And you’ve done something about that?”

“Plan’s underway; team’s on standby.” Hideyori grinned. “Gave the Meguru the starring role, too. Kind, aren’t I? Thought it was about time he lifted a finger.”

* * *

My conscious and unconscious mind are so beautiful. I am the world, and the world is me.

The reject directly in front lunged for his head. Rin took a breath, eyes closed, and flattened his hands. A sudden wide gesture preceded the thin frame between his fingertips, a horizontal guillotine. The reject fell apart, bifurcated at the torso. Two more approached from either side with horrific roars.

Rin snapped his fingers, and captured a frame around himself—a technique he had christened “Bypass.” The rejected phased through the intangible frame and collided with one another. The crunch of bone followed the sick rending of bloated muscle; their momentum was no match for their mortal skeletons, both of which shattered like glass.

Two remained. Rin cancelled Bypass and turned around. The fourth reject came at him swinging. Rin weaved past the assault like a boxer on speed, psychic energy crackling through his legs. The moment he stepped forward to deliver a blow to the gut, however, he thought of Ruri and the kid.

Would they be able to get out of the distortion safely?

In his hesitation, his flow shattered. Rin felt blood drain from his head, as black spots burst behind his eyes. He slumped forward and would have fallen if the reject hadn’t driven a blow into his diaphragm. The impact sent a violent convulsion through his abdomen, and he coughed up a spray of blood.

Rin crumpled to the floor. Winded, his chest heaved with no reprieve. No longer able to experience triumph, the reject roared in fury and raised its fists high to bring down the hammer.

Only, the hammer never came. A sickening squelch followed the shrill whistle of movement. The bouncy ball tore a hole clean through the reject’s eye and out the back of its skull, hit the trunk of a tree nearby, then arched back through the air to land in a certain man’s outstretched hand. The reject teetered backwards, then hit the ground with a tremulous thud.

A certain someone approached. Rin grit his teeth and looked up.

“How’s it going there, couz?” Meguru Yoha looked beside himself. A hand combed flippantly through thick black hair, the other stuffed into the pocket of his open suit jacket. “Looks like you’re in a bit of a jam!”

“You—” The moment Rin laid eyes on the man, a wave of unexplained dread washed over him like cold ocean water. He shivered.

“Why don’t we have ourselves a little bet?” Asked Meguru Yoha. From somewhere Rin couldn’t see, he flourished a hundred-yen coin. In the glow from the purple sheet lightning, the three digits on the brass gleamed. “Heads say I deal with ugly over there first. Tails?” His gaze narrowed. “I deal with you.”

One hand flipped the coin; he caught it in the other. Rin held his breath.

“Heads.” Meguru grinned. “Lucky you!” He started walking towards the final reject, cracking his knuckles. “You’ve got until I kill this guy to take the Ascension Blade out of your ass and hand it over. At least this way, I won’t have to take it off your corpse.”

* * *

“As always,” Gus Ishimatsu admitted, “I’m impressed with your work, Hakana. You don’t follow my orders, but what good are they? You still get the job done, and efficiently at that. The organisation wouldn’t be where it is without your expertise.”

Hideyori acknowledged the praise, though couldn’t help his skin from crawling. “There’s one final matter.”

Gus' eyes narrowed.

“Our deal,” Hideyori stated. “I work for you for her sake. I know you haven’t forgotten. You agreed to tell me where she is.”

The CEO's face split into a grin. Hideyori felt his jaw tense.

“All this time, and you’re still holding out hope?” Gus shook his head, "It’s a funny thing, hope. I never took you one to hold onto it for long, but I suppose I was wrong. You continue to surprise me day after day, Hakana.”

“Where is she?” Hideyori repeated, louder this time, his eye widened.

“Do you really think I’m going to surrender my end of the bargain when you’ve left your job half-undone?” Gus smile warped into a sneer. “Get me the other half of the blade. Then, we’ll talk.” The sneer descended into a scowl. “Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal.” Hideyori lowered his head. His jaw was starting to ache. “I’ll be going now.” He turned and made to leave, fresh cigarette already in-mouth.

“New orders,” Gus called out to his back. Hideyori stopped. “Dr. Chisori told me another prototype’s been finished. Go and see him. I want it stabilised and deployed as soon as possible. If Harigane and the other children are investigating the distortions, I see an opportunity for product testing. Don’t you?”

Hideyori tipped his hat low over his eyes. “Roger that.” Shoving the doors open, he waited until they’d swung shut before he snapped another moment into his palm. It shattered in his grip, revealing an ornate katana. Hideyori traced his finger along grooves in the scabbard, tracing the name Masayuki Miren.

“I’m going to find you,” he swore. “I have nothing left to lose.”