Baron laid listlessly on the floor; with his eyes closed. He could not utter a word. Bleeding. Silence.

The civilians who were witnessing this battle, kept their distances; some even going so far as to hurry away, leaving the area almost vacant of people.

After all, it was raining, and no one would want to stand in the rain. Especially not to spectate the unveiling horror at the junction.

Officer Clarke had a smirk on his face as he turned to Jin who was still on the floor. Jin's leg was bleeding from the fireball. He struggled to get up, and started staggering in the opposite direction; limping on the injured leg.

The cop knotted his brows. "You escaped from me last time. It ain't happening again!" He quickly shot a fireball at Jin.

The attack caused Jin to almost collapse, but he clenched his teeth, and quickly steadied. Luckily, this time the attack didn't set a part of his body aflames.

The officer conjured up his biggest fireball yet, this one spanning about the width of his body.

"I said you're not escaping me!" he snarled; aggression flooding in his tone.

He fired the attack from his hands, and it went darting towards Jin, who had been trying to escape.

Jin couldn't hear what was coming after him while he tried to escape, provided that the rain was falling heavily. He continued running, when out of nowhere, his instinct caused him to look over his shoulder.

He looked over his shoulder only to see a massive fireball fast approaching his edging body.

His body began to act instinctively. He quickly attempts to roll forward; in order to get so low that the fireball misses him. However, his evade was to no avail.

At the cusps of his evade, he felt the fireball collide with his back. He was subsequently sent lurching in the opposite direction of the impact.

In short, he was thrust about two meters forward, and had collapsed, falling face-first yet again.

[HP:5/10]

His entire shirt was bursting up in flames; so he, in a sitting position, quickly held the lower part of it, pulled it over his head, passed the sleeves through the rest of his arms, and tossed it away from him.

He quickly got up on his feet again, and turned to the opposite direction of the cop once more. When suddenly, Clarke smacked him to the back of his head, causing his body to tumble.

He, wearing no shirt, had fallen again. The right side of his face was against the concrete pavement. His body sprawled out on the floor.

His vision was blurred. His head started to ache—he felt as if life had been knocked out of him. He could not move from the spot, and he quickly accepted what seemed like his inevitable demise.

[HP: 2/10]

'So…this is where it all ends, huh?'

'It felt like forever although school had only closed a couple of days ago…'

The officer's entire arm combusted into flames again, and he balled his fists while looking down at the prey he was about to finish off.

'I should've listened to my friends. Not my new ones. The friends I've known since I was little.'

'I can't blame myself completely for what happened today, because I didn't know we were going to do any of this…'

Clarke pulled his flaming arm back, raising his clenched fist as high as his shoulders.

'But right after Alura kissed me…I felt as though I couldn't disobey her for nothing. What did she…do to me?'

"See ya' some day in hell, kid…"

'I would summon laevateinn but my cover would just be blown…and I don't even know if I can lift it. On top of that, summoning the thing might kill me instead…'

'I'll just…die…sorry grandma…'

The officer was about to brutally end Jin with a fatality. He held Jin by his hair, pulling him up from the ground and to his knees, to in turn allow himself to hit him easier.

His arm went launching forward, a contrail of lingering flames followed. The arm went darting toward Jin's head.

***

Ashton and Dobby sat next to each other with their bodies lounged in their seats, drinking energy drinks from cans.

"I hope Jin's doing well," Ashton heaved.

Dobby snarled, "I'm through with worrying about him! All he does is make us hide our tails between our legs all day…"

Ashton drank from his can, swallowed, and looked at Dobby again. "He's like that one kid who's always doing some nonsense, and we're like his worried parents." his voice trailed off as he drank from the can again.

"Never," Dobby sneered, "say something like that again."

Ashton grimaced, "What? What did I say?"

"You called us his parents, which implies that we're in a relationship that isn't platonic!" he snapped.

"Calm down," Ashton narrowed his eyes, "it won't happen again. I wasn't even implying anything."

"I hope you weren't…"

"I wasn't…"

Dobby's anger withers away, "Did Miss Pierce eat what we made for her?"

"The ramen? Yeah, she did."

"Okay," he drawled. He then glanced at Ashton again, "What about Jin's stupid dog?"

Ashton shook his head, "Benjamin's still eating anything he sees that can fit in his mouth. I gave him some water a while ago…"

"I wonder why he's eating like that all of a sudden," Dobby's eyebrows faintly furrowed, "I've got a feeling Jin hasn't been feeding him and that's why he's like that…"

Ashton peered at him, "You think so?"

"Yeah…"

"I thought Jin loved his dog," Ashton drank some more of his drink, "Why would he not feed it?"

"Because," Dobby hissed, "He's too busy partying—so busy partying that he can't even take care of his own grandmother and his dog!"

"Y'know, I never thought Jin would turn out to be someone to go to parties and stuff…"

"Either me…"

"I just hope he's alright."

"Ashton," Dobby looked at him, "Have your mother called you today?" curiosity sweetened his usually bitter tone.

"Actually, yeah," he replied, "She did earlier this morning. She's kinda worried about me being here at Jin's place. I think she might even come pick me up today. Have … your uncle called?"

"No," Dobby gazed at the floor. A pause. "He didn't."

"Why not?"

"He called yesterday and I told him that I was at a friend's place. He doesn't care much about what friend I'm with," he sighed, "He already considers me an adult, so he wouldn't care too much about where I am…"

Ashton could tell that he somehow became uneasy all of sudden, and began to worry. He slowly looked at him, and asked, "You okay?"

Dobby looked at him, "Yeah, I am. Why'd you ask?"

"Nothing," Ashton's eyes averted, "You looked kinda upset … but I'm sure that's because of Jin."

Dobby tinged, "Of course it is…"

Ashton heaved. "I feel like our friendship is just falling apart slowly," he paused and then amended, "Actually, it is already falling apart, don't you think?"

Dobby gazed up at the ceiling. He synced a sigh with words. "Yeah, we keep losing Tristan. I have no idea what's gotten into him. And Jin," he let out another sigh, "At this rate, we're losing him for sure as well. I just … didn't think Jin would be the one to change so suddenly."

"Yeah," Ashton acknowledged, "I feel like we might lose Jin as well. I just always thought Jin would be the last one standing strong and holding our friendship firmly."

"Well," Dobby looked at him, "He's still holding a friendship firmly," he droned, "just not ours anymore…"

Ashton frowned. Worry in his eyes. "We've known each other for so long. I don't think I can live without you guys. Dobby," he peered at him, "You're gonna walk away from our friendship too, aren't you?"

Dobby turned his head to face him. Silence. Then, he inched closer to him on the seat, and put an arm around his shoulder. "Fuck no. I'm not leaving you for nothing, pal. You're one weird guy—like really, really weird—and I'm telling you that but … our friendship is gonna last forever. When the others leave, it'll just be me and you, Ashton. Forever."

Ashton smiled at him. His cheeks flushed. "Thanks, Dobby. Then would you," he gleamed, "stop bullying me now?"

Dobby released him, and narrowed his eyes, "Don't push it…"

Worth the shot?

It became silent for a while.

Until Ashton decided to say, "The guy who came out of the portal seemed cool."

"Who? The Flint guy?" Dobby sneered upon calling the name, "I don't like him…"

"And I don't trust him," confessed Ashton.

"Yeah. You're right, Ash. I don't like him either. There's like danger associated with the guy's presence. Not that I'm scared of him or anything but … I feel like he's dangerous and Jin shouldn't consort with him and his gang. After all, Ability Runners are usually—"

Suddenly two figures appeared amidst the living room where they resided.

Ashton and Dobby's dazed eyes quickly widened in shock having seen who these two figures were.

Dobby quickly flew up from his seat lunging toward the two beings in his presence. He lamented, "BARON!? JIN!?"