Mary turns away, while Mirei stares blankly at me, seemingly at a loss for words. Unable to look her in the eye, I turn to Mary. Right as I do so, however, I’m met by a shin crashing into my head, knocking my consciousness from Mathais’ body.

I awake outside the theater, sprouting dozens of vines instinctively. I search with rapidity, but there are still no signs of life in the small clearing surrounding the theater. Therefore, I wait, ruminating on how calculated Mary is. We hadn’t discussed her knocking me out to give me a head-start on the outside; I have to give her credit for her quick wit.

Despite that, I’m concerned with how long they’re taking. Did Mirei do something to her? Is Aku awake? While I ponder, a group of people march into the small clearing- several of them wearing tactical vests and clutching small, cylindrical objects as they approach the theater.

Just as several of them launch the objects toward the apex of the theater, my vines spring forth. I snatch the small, rusted gray canisters out of the air, and lay them neatly in the dirt. The group stares at my various vines, halting all movement. One of the men nods at me, while several others hurry toward the side of the theater.

“You must be JC,” the man says. “We’re on your side.” As he talks, the others prepare to throw their projectiles at the theater. Moving swiftly, I throw them onto the ground, causing one of the canisters to explode upon hitting the earth. My vines are blown apart, and like clockwork, I sprout several anew. Poised to attack, I observe the others in the group, who seem content to stand back and watch my movements. Despite several of their own lying in a bloody pile, burning in the flames left by the explosion, nobody is attacking me.

“Stand down,” a stern voice calls from the forest, in the direction the group had come from.

I instantly recognize the voice. The thin, bespectacled man enters the clearing, surrounded by another dozen vest-donning people.

“We do not wish to engage with you, JC,” he says. “You may want to erase us from this world, and that is fine. But first- please allow us to help you.”

“Help him?” Mary’s fiery voice calls out from behind me as she passes fearlessly over the threshold of the theater onto the grass, Mirei in tow.

“You’re that Professor,” Mary continues, staring daggers at the man I knew well. “The scumbag that brainwashed an entire cult of people. Kaiser, right? What do you want with JC?”

“As I said,” the Professor calmly explains, “we want to help him. Believe it or not, we are rooting for JC in this battle. You could say we are very close to his wavelength. His use of forestry, of nature itself, to save the earth from the coming threat coincides with what I’ve preached for years. It’s clear that JC is the one that will save this world, as well as the real world in which our memories came from.”

“Then why are you trying to burn down the theatre?” Mirei challenges, watching as several other cultists approach the building with canisters.

“The more worldly architecture there is, the less room we have to spread forestry,” Kaiser responds plainly, not blinking an eye at the girls.

“That’s what you did all along, isn’t it?” Mary presses angrily.” The wildfires that wiped out entire towns… you did that yourself, didn’t you?”

The Professor leaves his stern gaze on Mary, refusing to answer her. “You knew, didn’t you, JC?” Mary says, turning to my vines. “We didn’t see it in your memories, but you figured it out, right? You and Gabriel… that’s why you left the group, and you were scolded for abandoning God- what a complete farce of a group!”

“JC, you’ll have to excuse us,” Kaiser mutters. “We cannot stand idly by while these girls, your enemies, smear our name.”

My vines snap into action as he finishes, while the group pulls guns, knives, and explosives, and turn in unison on the girls. Just before the attack begins, countless rounds of gunfire rattle off, spraying bullets over the cultists. The gunfire, coming from high up in the trees surrounding the theater, avoids the girls, but does not discriminate between the cultists and my vines.

As I’m torn apart, I send new vines to collect the girls. I swiftly pull them away from the crossfire and into the forest, just as the theater is firebombed from several sides.

Struggling to keep my consciousness despite my torn vines, I continue towing the girls, until only the rising smoke can be seen in the distance. We come to a stop at a fallen tree, and the girls take a seat on its trunk, several meters apart from one another. They spend a minute or so catching their breath, before turning toward each other.

“Seems like you instructed your goons to hold back this time?” Mary jabs, raising her eyebrow at Mirei, who looks down with a blank face.

“I just asked them to wait quietly to see what might happen.” Mirei’s voice is clearly affected as she answers, unable to look at Mary.

“Does that have anything to do with what happened to the Irish bandits you sent to kill me?” Mary continues, her voice quivering more with every word.

“No…” Mirei answers in a mumble. “And it isn’t as if I gave them the order myself. They were just on the same wavelength as me, so they understood what I wanted.”

“You’ve got some nerve, saying that to my face,” Mary growls, standing up. “Anyway… listen, JC- we talked a bit and decided we won’t try to kill each other anymore.”

Unable to respond, I simply perk my vines up at her words, while she takes a few steps away from the fallen tree, her back turned. “It’s not exactly a truce, but a concession that we won’t be able to reach your wavelength unless we try to get on the same page ourselves. It’s probably only because of your ‘tuning’ that we’re able to even see and talk to each other. You serve as a bridge, isn’t that right?”

At her words, I shift my gaze to Mirei, who smiles weakly. “I told her what we talked about at your apartment, back in my world,” she says softly, without any trace of her prior disdain.”

“Anyway,” Mary continues, rolling her eyes, “Mirei still feels a strong desire to prove that her strength from the last world is intact, and I feel a strong desire to kick both of your asses for turning this whole world into a battlefield for our wishes and emotions to wage war.”

Taking a breath, Mary turns back toward Mirei’s sullen figure. “Especially considering my father was caught in the crossfire, and I had to spend my last moments with him, a false version of him at that, watching him die. I’ll never get that reunion back. I’m not going back to the real world, so all I’m left with are my memories of him, and that final false meeting.”

“At least you had that,” Mirie mutters, biting her teeth as she averts her eyes.

“What?” Mary spits, taking a step closer to her.

“My father doesn’t exist in this world,” Mirei replies, her voice shaking. “Probably because I killed him in my world. It was because of my trust in JC and his plan that I did that, and now I don’t have my father in this most important world. I’m allowed to be bitter about that too, aren’t I?”

“Did you not do that by your own choice?” Mary shouts, waving her arm angrily. “Weren’t you acting on your emotion and finally rebelling against the man who took everything away from me?”

“Yes, that’s right…” she whimpers, tears dropping from her eyes. “Rather, I’m the one who took everything from you. And I’m sorry. That’s why I want to win for you. So that you can see your father again, in real life. I don’t want to follow JC’s lead, anymore. I want to use my own power to save you.”

“There’s no hope for me,” Mary replies with a sullen look, her angry demeanor vanishing. “You still have my heart. All of it. I don’t have anything. If you couldn’t return after winning in such a convincing manner, how do you expect me to be strong enough? It’s only because this is a dream world that I’m even alive and moving, right now.”

“How do you know all of that is true?” Mirei asks, finally turning to face Mary while sniffing and wiping the tears off her cheeks.

“Perhaps I could shed some light on that?” A voice rings from the trees just beyond my line of sight. My consciousness instantly cuts out, sending me back to my body in the prison of vines.

Through blurred vision, I discover a slender girl with dark hair and tan skin approaching with a weak smile on her face.

“It’s been a while, JC,” she says, brushing her long hair out of her eyes.

Her words pierce me like a dull knife as discomfort spreads through my chest and stomach.

“I don’t mean to be rude,” I mutter, trying to blink my blurred vision back to normal and bring life back to my numbed arms and legs. “But, what business could you possibly have with me… Genevieve?”

“I wanted to see you,” she says plainly. “To talk to you. You should know that I don’t have any ill-intent, right? Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to reach your wavelength and come to you.”

“That doesn’t explain why you want to talk with me,” I respond in defiance, looking at her suspiciously.

“Because I want to help you, Jean.”

At the uttering of my name, my ears incur a sharp pain, and nausea fills my head. “Why…”

“Because,” she says softly, stepping but a few strides away from me. “I know you better than anyone in this world. I know what kind of man you are due to our time together, and now I’ve even seen your memories, thanks to Worldbeaters.”

I close my mouth, not trying to hide my scowl as she finally stops in front of me. “There’s so much you didn’t tell me about your past,” she whispers. “It’s hard to believe. You went through so much. And still are, I’m sure. Because I hurt you even more. We all did, and I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do to take it back. But I can devote myself to helping you win this. All of us feel the same, Jean; we all want to help you.”

“Our interests just seem to align,” I interject. “That’s all it is. You’re all cheering me on so that the gospel you’ve preached might come true in this world.”

“That’s also true,” she admits, smiling. “I can’t deny that it’s convenient for us. This is what we’ve been prophesying all along; the time for the earth that God created to protect him from…” she stops, glancing back at the ever-growing singularity in the sky. “…that.”

“Right, so you’ll use it as an excuse to burn more down and spread forestry, in the name of protecting the earth and God within it.”

“Your world turned into a forest on its own, didn’t it?” she prods, raising her brow. “I think that says a lot about what you subconsciously believe.”

“You don’t know everything just because you’ve seen my memories,” I mutter, looking away from her.

“I do know you, Jean,” she pleads, squatting down to my level. “That’s why, even if the rest of them are doing this for their own purposes, I truly am acting on your behalf. We shared a very real bond, and now that I’ve seen things from your perspective, I understand how things could have gone differently. And I want things to go differently, now.”

“What exactly are you saying?” I ask, looking her in the eye with no emotion.

“Win the battle,” she declares, standing up tall. “Defeat the girls, defeat Aku, and gain his power. Let the rapture come upon this world so that God may build it anew, and return with Aku’s power. Use that power to take my consciousness back to the real world with you. It should be possible for two consciousnesses to return, right?”

“Why would I…” I mutter, a stark bitterness compelling my head to hang low.

“Because I can return to my body, with all these memories, and this new perspective,” she replies in a voice so gentle it makes me want to vomit. “To be the ultimate support for you. The real me will remain ignorant and stick to what she does know. But I will never betray you again.”

“That’s…” I mutter, all composure gone as I fight back tears born by anger. “That’s so unfair. Even if it is possible to transfer a loose consciousness into another body, why would I do that? Why would I throw away my principles now? I’ll let the real you live with her choices, and I’ll live with mine.”

“But… won’t you continue to hold disdain for me, deep in your heart?” she pleads, dropping to her knees as tears well in her eyes. “Won’t you continue using me as motivation to be stronger, and safeguard your heart? I don’t want that, JC. I don’t want you to protect yourself from pain, and never experience happiness as a result!”

I refuse to make eye contact as she clutches the dirt at my knees, her tears falling on her knuckles like raindrops.

“Don’t throw away your future for your self-righteous duty to your work and your parents’ legacy!” she continues. “I understand… I know that’s what you were doing all along. You were acting out of a sense of duty. To confirm your purpose in living… I get it! I understand you, and the root of your dreams! So, please, accept me!”

“You’re… kind.”

I lift my teary eyes to her level, delivering a soft smile.

“You’re truly kind,” I continue, my smile turning cold. “Don’t worry, I won’t hate you. I won’t need to say any of this to the real you, but our hearts can never be on the same wavelength again. So, find your own happiness. I can’t promise I’ll find mine, but I’ll do my best to fulfill my purpose. Right now, that is my happiness.”

“I… understand.” Her voice fades as a soft wind comes over us, bringing with it a storm of dead cherry blossoms that lift her and, like a soft wave washing over a shoreline, carry her off quietly into the woods.

I immediately shake my head, hardening my heart and refocusing. My body and mind are as weary as ever, but I can’t afford to rest now. I have to dive back in.

My consciousness resurfaces in the body of Mathais, but it is Aku in control of it.

“It is possible for both of you to return, in consciousness, to the real world,” he says. The girls stare at him in shock, motionless.

“Conditions would have to be met, such as what we just discussed regarding your hearts,” he continues, fixing his gaze on Mirei whose eyes are cast downward. “It would, of course, mean that JC and I would not make it back. We would either fade to nothingness with this dreamscape, or disappear into the stars.”

“Why are you telling us this if it could mean your own demise?” Mary asks, struggling to maintain her usual attitude.

“Certainly, I do not wish to disappear,” he says with a grin. “But I do wish for the most deserving to return to the real world with my power. This place was constructed partially for that purpose, after all. That is what this contest is.”

“But then…” Mirei stammers, her eyes darting around the ground as if she knows I’m watching from the same eyes Aku is. “What does JC want to happen? You said he wants to erase you. So, he plans to return by himself, with your power?”

“That is what it seems,” Aku says, folding his hands. “You will understand better after viewing the last showing. He probably isn’t too happy about me telling you any of this, as it is.”

The girls’ faces turn still as they look at each other. Eventually, Mary gives a hesitant nod, which Mirei slowly returns.

“Let’s hurry and keep going, then,” Mary declares, striding ahead while Mirei clenches her fists and follows. “To the last theater.”