It was a mixture of hot and cold. The flames were all too encompassing and yet, no matter what, the ice did not feel like they were melting as far as he knew. It was strange for him to think that he would experience the extremities of both polar opposites of temperature at the same time. But, eventually, the heat overwhelmed even the frigid coldness as Riki felt the ice eventually thaw through his clothes.

When he was given his vision back, he saw the white-haired girl once again had her eyes closed. She had lost consciousness without so much of a full minute after waking up. Riki was completely devastated by the fact that she protected him and Kirk at the expense of her own well-being. And this time, he finally recognized who the perpetrator was. The shock of which caused him to jump up in reaction, but was only met with a sharp pain in his right thigh as a result.

What the hell is this… What the hell?!

“Just who the heck are you?!” Riki has yet to know the names of the two responsible for the harm done to the girl, but their faces are burned into his memories. There’s no way he would forget what had happened on that day.

“You just asked for one girl’s name, and now you’re trying to ask another girl, huh? How bold of you~.”

“...I don’t even care anymore. I just want you to leave that person around your arm alone. Right. Now.” Riki demanded, forming an energy sphere in his hand and aiming towards Mary’s head. As far as he knew, this might’ve been the only chance he had to take down her, and he didn’t want to live with regret.

“Jeez, does everybody today have an Aoi, nowadays?” Said a voice behind him. Kirk, who had witnessed three forms of abilities in a single day, sat up and examined the one responsible for the destruction of the carriage, “So then, Lady who is responsible for the harm of the other lady, You’re from Akai, aren’t you? Just judging by your clothing.”

“Ahaha, this man knows their geography. It’s true, yes. That is my hometown.”

“And here I thought that the people there swear not to commit any misdeeds. Why did you go so far as to burn that girl?”

“You shouldn’t jump to conclusions like that. She brought it upon herself—”

—!

Her vision flashed. Mary strummed her pipa just in time to block Riki’s energy sphere he launched with a koi flame, cutting her off mid-sentence.

“...Let her go.” he repeated. It killed him that he was in no condition to back up his demands, as any movement of his lower body resulted in a stabbing pain. Not only that, but he felt a pressure from her, marking her as no ordinary human being.

“You really are nearsighted aren’t you? Do I really have to go and explain everything?

“I’m not joking, let her go.”

“Ah… poor child. You know nothing of this world. If that’s what you wish. What if I told you, that this girl is integral in finding out the ‘truths of the world’?”

“...What?”

“Teehee~ Now we’re talking. That was an expression that Yui would always use. This individual is necessary, because her Aoi is able to create ice, basically freezing things as you have experienced first-hand. But it’s not just things, at least with a certain artifact of some sort based on Take-san’s knowledge.”

“...Artifact?”

“The Sword of Tsurugi right here is one such artifact. Well, this may be such a thing. I’m not sure myself though, all of that talk is way over my head.” Mary swung her pipa round her back in exchange for her xiao. “Take-san believes that these things can affect what an Aoi can do, slightly altering their abilities for better or for worse. きみ, do you know what the bottom of the sea holds?”

“...Huh? Are you going insane too?”

“いいから. It’s cold, dark, and scary. Yet, that’s where we found it: one of the ‘truths of the world’. A key to unlocking this whole Aoi phenomenon that we have. And yet we lost it, forever. We’re not going to make the same mistake again. With the combination of this girl’s and this sword’s powers, we are going to cut the essence of life itself…”

Initially, it seemed that she was spewing nonsense to him. But even with no context to what she was saying, what she was talking about seemed vaguely familiar to him.

Is that really her goal? Even Asimov, a physicist, couldn’t even figure out where Aoi comes from. How can she do it? ...Unless... He did talk about a strange thought experiment from what Tamaki told me during the Science Conference… something about like 4D objects… key… key? Where did I hear that from again?

The word key suddenly weighed heavier in Riki’s mind. During one of his visions, a voice told him to take a key and prevent something from happening without any further explanation. When he remembered this, his gaze sharpened and caused Mary to become wary of the young man.

“Urgh, perhaps I revealed too much information… Yui, you influenced me too much.” Mary said, staring at her xiao. Just when Mary brought the end to her lips, she paused. A look of concern made its way onto her face.

“...What?! I can’t... move my xiao?!” she said, exerting her arms as if the flute was bolted to the air.

Seeing her struggle, Riki realized what this meant: it was the work of somebody’s Aoi. And there was only one person he knew that could have done that. The sound of dirt and gravel being crushed emanated behind him. And then he heard a voice within his mind.

“On your right.”

He turned his head around to find an armored vehicle hundreds of years past the steam carriage hurtling into the scene. There, on the roof, was Kaori kneeling and wielding a sniper rifle. Well... just the scope of a sniper rifle. The intense wind blew her silver gray hair back, making her appear more badass, at least to Riki. And just then, two figures jumped out from the sides of the vehicle, the both of them landing without an issue and rushed to their location.

Mary reluctantly let go of the xiao and while tightening her grip on the girl, she pulled her pipa from her back at the same time.

“Rewind.” One of the figures said as they approached Mary at blinding speed.

Knowing she was about to be attacked, Mary jumped back just in time to dodge Katou’s blade. But to her dismay, she realized his blade swung not with its sharp end, but with the back side and made contact with the white-haired girl. In a matter of seconds, every burn mark, laceration, graze, and all other wounds on her skin disappeared without a trace left.

“Tsk, these Azureans…” Before the swordsman can continue the battle with her that the two had put on hold last night, Mary strummed her pipa once again. A massive wave of koi flames emerged that lit the sky and casted a shade of blue over the field. Katou jumped back as to not stand in the center of the wave where he could get blindsided.

“You okay, Riki?!” A familiar voice behind Riki called out to him that must’ve been the second figure that jumped out. He looked to his right to see Tamaki, now sporting a ponytail and a rather classy suit.

“T—Tamaki?! I thought you came from a noble family! What’s with the getup?!”

“Huh? I’m not from a noble family, that’s not what you call noble. Plus what does that have to do with anything?! At any rate, Oluka kindly gave me these clothes so that my uniform wouldn’t get dirty.”

“—Alright but, what are you doing here?! You’re going to get burned if you stay here!”

“...Have faith in me, please.” Tamaki gave Riki a calm smile that he had never seen before on her, “After all, that’s the girl you found to be pretty, right?” she said, looking at the white-haired girl in Mary’s arm.

He’s right. She is rather pretty, I have to admit.

Faced with her strong spirit, Riki shook his head, abandoning all thoughts of stopping her. As the sea of fish koi made their descent, diving towards Katou, Riki, and Tamaki, the three readied themselves.

“Really, I thought I was going to be the one questioning if you can survive here, but I heard you can control your Aoi now. Now we’re both even it seems!” she said as multiple flames barreled toward her. Too busy dealing with fire of his own, Riki couldn’t spare any time to help her. But one second later revealed that his help wasn’t needed as Tamaki stepped to the left and dodged all three without any effort.

“Why... Why can’t I hit this girl?!” No matter what, anything Mary threw at her was useless as Tamaki casually side steps, turned, and ducked each and every koi flame.

“Hehehe, I have to thank Oluka for her air bubble. I didn’t think it would work, but the plan is actually working so far.” Thanks to her hint, Riki squinted and finally saw the slight refraction in the blue light surrounding her. With Oluka’s Aoi, Tamaki extended her ‘range’ to see into the future due to the fact that she was always in contact with the bubble. She only had a tiny window of opportunity to dodge the flames, but the restraint hardly posed an issue by seeing where they themselves would come into contact against the surface of the bubble.

Witnessing all three fending off against the wave of koi flames, Kirk can only watch with his mouth agape. Not once had he ever seen such a show of supernatural powers in front of him before.

“You guys are definitely from Azure… I never thought I would have the opportunity to see actual Stargazers at work...”

“That’s right.” Tamaki responded, “Well, actually I’m not in Azure technically. The specifics are complicated.”

“...Either way, why are you guys here, or at least, how’dya know where to find us?” Kirk asked, but she left him without a response to shift her attention to the flames, confusing him because it seemed she didn’t need to focus. Before turning to the swordsman for his answer, Kirk felt something fuzzy brush against his arm.

-Woof!

He looked to where his hand rested on the ground to see a dog staring back at him with its tongue hanging out.

Alright, this has been a weird day so far.

“Katou!”

“Way ahead of you, woman!”

Tamaki and Katou called out to each other to execute the second act of the plan. The distance between them rapidly closed as the two sprinted towards the source of the music. Backed into a corner, Mary hesitated for a moment before stopping the tune, and thus despawning every single koi flame. She had no choice but to use her trump card.

“...It seems that I have to use the Sword now.” she said, swinging her pipa around to reach for the black handle behind her back. The sight of which caused Katou’s heart to skip a beat; that was the one thing he could not let happen.

“—! Don’t let her grip the sword!” Even with his speed, however, he won’t be able to overcome the distance in time.

“Kaori!” Tamaki yelled as she turned her head around. Over on the vehicle’s roof, Kaori looked into the sniper scope she was holding in one hand, and the other hand was repeatedly flicking a .22 long rifle bullet suspended in mid-air. She had a clear line of sight of the sword with no obstructions.

“If I hit this, they better hire me on the spot.” Kaori said, sighing. As the timer reached its last second, she gave one final flick, launching the bullet to traverse through the air. In an instant, Mary felt the sudden impact of her hand, sending blood backwards and causing pain to reverberate throughout her arm.

“—Khh…! This… doesn’t bother me—!” She breathed raggedly as she fought through the shock, plunging her wounded hand onto the sword’s grip. The moment she did, everyone else on the field held their breath. They lost the encounter.

Focusing in on the sword combined with her Aoi, Mary did what she had said she would do: cut the essence of life. Gradually, everything surrounding her began to chill, and she felt all of the heat coming into her own body. At the same rate, everything around her slowed until time itself came to a halt.

“Take-san was right—” Mary immediately coughed, spewing a small amount of blood on the ground and dropped to her knees. Ugh… I can’t use this a second time… I feel like I’m going to overheat and at the same time, I feel myself tearing apart!

Her body convulsed before she forced herself to stand back up and look at the outcome of the blade’s ability. Riki, Tamaki, Katou, Kirk, and the armored vehicle were all completely stationary, frozen in place. Mary thought she would be excited to use a sword in legends she would always hear about, but she only felt conflicted about having to use it in such a fashion.

Take-san said something about stealing energy from the expansion of the Universe, but that is way over my head… At any rate, I cannot deal with Azure any longer so I’ll let them have their fun here. Of course, the main event hasn’t even started yet. I’ll be looking forward to that~.

Mary gave one final look at everyone before turning around and walking away while carrying the white-haired girl in her arm.

・・・・・

Before everyone knew it, Mary alongside the white-haired girl had somehow disappeared without a trace. One second, she had her hand on the sword, and the next, she was just… gone. For such a move that they needed to prevent, it was quite an anti-climatic aftermath.

“In the end, she went ahead and used it. The sword of Tsurugi.” Katou said.

“Wait, hold on. Isn’t that bad? Is she going to attack us like at any moment?” Tamaki asked, shifting her head around to search for any threats.

“Most likely not. With that injury to her hand and the added effect of using the sword, I think Mary would use the opportunity to escape instead.”

Hearing his words, Tamaki dropped to her knees and exhaled a deep breath. Because of that, the bubble around her popped, sending a small wave of dust around her. She shook her head and suppressed her urge to completely collapse on the ground. In doing so, she was able to appreciate the fact that she had come out of the situation unscathed. But now there were new matters in her hands as she remembered there was an unfamiliar face.

“Are you ok, sir?” Tamaki asked Kirk who remained motionless and had a baffled look on his face after witnessing everything. Meanwhile, Cavall didn’t let up its playful jog one meter around the man.

Slowly, he reached for his pocket, and took out a pair of glasses that had been slightly chipped in one frame. The sight of which caused him to groan, but he pushed it up his nose regardless.

“...I can supply you a new pair of glasses if you so wish.”

“Is that so?” he grunted, “I know it’s probably ordinary for you guys, but having your personal carriage completely blown apart, and seeing superpowers like that just gets to you.”

Whether he himself was dreaming or not seemed ambiguous to him now. Of course, all Kirk had ever known in his world was working with mechanisms and a daily, calm commute. Not once had he ever had an accident that had him come close to an explosion leaving him bruised and battered.

“Is that carriage,” A new voice said, “made from Chordia?”

“...Who’s talking?”

Exiting out of the armored vehicle, was a man whom Kirk thought to be the leader of this encounter by his looks and body language.

“My name is Keijin, sir. Pleasure to meet you on this fine morning.” The man said as if the occurence just now didn't phase him at all.

“...Kirk. And yes, it was Chordia made. So you’re the mastermind here? Mind explaining what the heck is going on?”

“First I should apologize for the damage done on your vehicle. We will cover all of the necessary expenses.”

“Right… thanks…” He was glad he wouldn’t have to pay for something that wasn’t his fault, but having this all just not happen would have been a lot better.

“Second, I do owe you an explanation, bear with me. We are from Azure and currently tasked to rescue that girl from the hands of a man. But it turns out that a second person was alongside such a man, and so I made a gamble to see if we could solve this case here and now. But of course, it seemed that luck wasn’t by our side. Because this temporary operation failed, we would have to undergo our main operation: the raid of Sozuraka. We know that region is where the enemy had taken that girl you found. And that’s where we’ll be launching our attack. Before that though, we need a place to rendezvous and it just so happens that Chordia is just right next door. And, I’m afraid to say this. Unfortunately, none of us are quite too familiar with the area.”

For a leader to explain their next plans to a random outsider, Kirk assumed it wasn’t from a whim. It more or less must’ve been an indirect plea for assistance.

“...I see, so in short, you want me to act as a guide there?”

“Precisely.” The tone of Keijin’s voice and the unchanging expression he had, both convinced Kirk that the man was not joking. The fact that he was so confident in expressing his reliance on Kirk caused him to feel conflicted.

“Just what kind of organization have their members force people outside to help them in their work like this?”

“Haha. Rest assured, not everyone does what I’m doing right now. It’s just that I don’t have much of an option. Oh, and I forgot to mention something.” Keijin said, causing Kirk to raise an eyebrow, “I also need a guy that’s familiar with vehicles. A mechanic, if you will.”

At this point, there’s no way this couldn’t have been more coincidental to him.

“...This fellow’s like something out of a bad dream. It’s like you planned me being here so I would have no choice but to join in after removing my one and only escape option.”

“Hm? No, to tell you the truth, I really had no idea someone would get mixed up in the crossfire here. I knew our target would manage to escape on the path here as well as our enemy would go and apprehend her. A Chordia citizen was not something I foresaw.”

Oh really now? Kirk thought.

“Don’t worry, you have the right to refuse. And if you do, we’ll still gladly offer you a ride back home alongside the expenses I mentioned earlier.”

“No, that won’t be necessary.”

“Oh?”

Yes, he may regret what he’s about to say in the future, “Honestly, why not? I got a lot of free time. It’s not like you get to experience this in a lifetime. If Sozuraka is your destination, then I can show you a few vantage points in Chordia.”

“Hmph. I know I can trust a man when I see one. I’ll hold a meeting for everyone to explain all of the details in summary inside that vehicle. Hope it won’t be so much of a culture shock.” Keijin said, grinning.

“Yeah yeah. Just don’t forget the fact that my carriage was obliterated…”

-Woof! -Woof!

“And can you do something about this dog?!”

・・・・・

“Umm, Kaori? I think you can get off of the roof now.” Tamaki said, looking up at her valet who was enjoying the view from the top of the armored vehicle.

“Yes chief.” she responded, standing up, “But that was the coolest experience riding on top of a moving auto like that. You should try it sometime yourself.”

“Wha— ...How about no?!” In that instant, she thought of every single variable that could get her killed: hydroplaning, overturning, getting blown to smithereens...

“Haha, I somewhat expected that answer.”

“What do you mean by that? I don’t ever recall you being this action-centric before.” Tamaki said, pausing, “Oh wait, there was that one time when we were getting chased by wolves…”

“Right. More importantly, shouldn’t you be checking up on someone now that you have the chance?”

“Ah! Oh, I almost forgot! Thanks Kaori! Sorry but I hope you can get down from there without any assistance.” With that, Tamaki ran back, leaving her on the roof to once again enjoy the scenery for a couple more minutes. She was glad though. The person she served wouldn’t have jumped into the front lines like that before. Kaori watched as she ran to Riki without hesitation in her step.

Judging by his response earlier, Charlotte really did successfully manage to sacrifice herself to secure Riki’s memories. Tamaki thought. That’s great. So now there’s only one thing left. Right, I wonder how Riki feels about the fact that Chordia will be our base of operations. Since that is his hometown supposedly.

“Here’s some water from Katou’s bamboo flask. I know it’s not much but you must be at your limit.” Tamaki said, holding it up to him. But rather taking it, Riki only stared at the remnants of the destroyed steam carriage having only one thing on his mind. He despised his weakness in the face of the girl who had saved his life. Returning the favor was not a choice, but a necessity.

“Listen Tamaki.”

“Eh?”

“I’m going to get all of my memories back. Every single one of them.”

“Your memories? Well of cou—"

“But before I can do that, I need to rescue that girl—!”

「My hand… Do not let go of it.」

I still remember that line in that vision back then. Why does it feel like that’s what she said when she reached out her hand just now?

“...What are you Riki, a knight in shining armor? Sheesh. You hardly ever say things like that, but when you do, It sometimes hurts me on the inside.”

“Laugh at me all you want, it's not like I have anything going on in my life right now."

“Oh, c’mon. Don’t be so pessimistic.”

“It’s not that, it’s something else. I do remember something. Before when I walked into that inn all that time ago.”

“Huh? You do?!” Tamaki yelled out. If that was true, then that would be more than what she hoped for.

“That I was an empty, hollow person.”

“...Er, huh?”

“I failed, badly. Two times now. Or really I guess you can say three times. I let Charlotte down yesterday, and now I failed that white-haired girl just now. And yet it definitely feels like these aren’t the only times that I let people down.”

“...Just what exactly happened?”

For some sort of reason, I can’t shake off the feeling that I failed at something over and over again. I guess it’s real but I can’t exactly remember what though…

“What did happen?” Riki repeated. As he stared off into space, he only thought about just how powerless he could’ve been all his life. But at this point, he swore to himself that it will change. He will succeed at something in his life no matter the cost.

Riki took the flask from Tamaki’s hand, brought it to his lips, jugged the entirety of it, and screamed in the air.

「Try, try again.」