It has been 12 hours since our showdown against the 4th Champions of Chaos, Kitsuneki. I've had enough resting after that long showdown. Who would have known that Yumiko, of all people would be the one to finish off that Chaos Shogun? I was surprised when Yumiko revealed herself to be disguising as Ethereal after all this time. Then I wondered, was her clone really being serious about whatever happened that time?

I tried asking her about it but she only responds, "It's up to your imagination, White."

"Well that's not informative at all..."

She then replied, "Why should I tell you everything? That will only be disadvantageous for me."

"After all this time, I thought you turned a new leaf after being tricked by Kitsuneki."

"I've always been planning to trick him back, White. I just haven't had the opportunity. And I owe you one for that."

"You owe me? What did I do?"

"For making me realize that I'm not the only monster around here."

Then I retaliated by saying, "But...Isn't Blanc more of a real monster than us?"

Yumiko laughed and said, "True. But she is a monster disguised as a human. You on the other hand, are keeping a monster inside. My monster however, perhaps it's already gone after last night's ordeal. It's all thanks to you ravaging me in that draconic form."

"So basically...you just told me that you also experience whatever the heck your clone experienced?"

"It's up to your imagination." Yumiko shrugged and leave me behind as she continues to look around the place.

"Up to my imagination..." I grinned for a bit after that.

Of course she's trying very hard not to get sappy at me. That's just her being herself. Not a façade. That's Yumiko Ileana Pavlova. She's not just The Fallen Trinity. She now also calls herself as The Blue Moon. Not that I know of a reason about that aside from the scenery we saw last night. I guess I was kind of surprised to see her use that chain whip of hers to grab a spiritual version of the moon. That's how strong was her at that point. It's only a matter of time until she completes her chain whip. Until then, I have no idea what she's planning about the moon.

Putting that aside, today would be our last day here in Nihon before we will take off back to the port tomorrow morning and return to Infinity Academy. A lot of things had happened throughout the holiday. Most of it was not a good memory but at the very least, I had a great time.

"White!" Ethereal called me from afar.

I went to her and greeted her, "Hey, Ethereal. How are you?"

"I'm fine after that long rest. Who knew that they would end up restarting the Invitational? And the best part..."

"You won."

"Most certainly!" She showed me her medal that was hanging on her neck.

"So you didn't win the Mikazuki Blade or anything, right?"

She shakes her head and said, "Actually, I did get the blade. Apparently someone founded it last night. I don't know what happened but it happened."

I whispered to myself, "Yumiko..."

It didn't take me a long time to think what exactly happened after the fight against Kitsuneki. I guess Yumiko handed it back to the government after she...absorbed everything that the blade has. Now The Mikazuki Blade is just like any other blade. I guess that's for the best.

"I guess today would be the last day you guys are staying here, correct?" asked Ethereal.

I nodded to her as I continued to look around the shopping district that we were in.

"I'm going to miss this place..."

"Me too..."

"You too? What do you mean, Ethereal?"

"This is my last assignment before I can have enough money to go on a different land. I did told you that I'm planning to go around the world, right?"

"Yeah, you told me about that the other day...with Zenith."

"You're right...Where is she anyway?"

I didn't really look at Ethereal as I was answering her question, "I don't know, maybe she's with Yumiko or something."

"Really? I'll look for her then." Then, just as she was about to leave me, she whispered to me, "You have my blessing, 'little brother'..."

I was flustered by her words and said, "Get lost already!"

She laughed and waved at me, "Well I'll be seeing you around."

I wasn't really being honest to Ethereal when we were talking about Zenith. Especially now that everything about her that she supposed to know was actually non-existent thanks to Yumiko's clone. But that's not the only reason why. There was more to it than that. It was just this morning when we had breakfast at our hotel.

-

We were having a fresh Nihon breakfast cuisine until I noticed that Zenith wasn't at the table with us.

"Have you guys seen, Zenith?"

Recordia then replied, "Recordia sums up her account on Zenith, Recordia was with Zenith this morning. Zenith says she needs some time to prepare for breakfast."

"But what's taking her so long then?"

"Recordia doesn't know. Recordia said that as she shakes her head."

"I'll go look for her..."

Yumiko suddenly interrupted me, "Don't do anything stupid up there."

"We don't have time for nonsense, Yumiko."

"But 'you' can stop time." She grinned at me.

I ignored her and went looking for Zenith at her room. I tried looking for her at her room but she wasn't there. I tried looking around the hotel until I stumble upon a familiar smell. No, it wasn't the smell of a snow or anything like that. It was the smell of gunpowder. After all this time being bothered by Yumiko, I would definitely be familiar with the smell of gunpowder at this point. But this smell wasn't the normal smell I usually got whenever Yumiko was around. It was very different. Now how was that possible? Beats me, but I followed the smell to wherever it was coming from. It finally leads me to the rooftop of the hotel. Zenith was standing all alone looking at the scenery of Nihon from the rooftop.

"Zenith, there you are."

She turned her back just as she heard me calling for her.

"I've been looking for you. You haven't eaten breakfast, right? Come on, let's go."

Then she suddenly asked me a weird question, "Who are you?"

I'm not sure if I said anything wrong but got close to her and told her, "Oh come on, Zen. We already did this scenario before. And it was way during that snowstorm..."

"No...Who are you? How do you know my name?"

It was at that moment where I noticed that something was definitely not right. I tried to reassess the situation...

"In any case, everyone is waiting for you downstairs...Just...go down and eat."

"Whatever..." She walked pass without even looking at me.

I know something was up. But I couldn't really tell what was happening.

-

I kept thinking about it even until we finally got into The Absolute Cruiser.

Unexpectedly, someone else come toward me as they noticed I was feeling a little bit down.

"Is something wrong, White?" An auburn haired girl talked to me.

"Lala?" Apparently it was my Cardinal, Lala Magnetite.

One of her eyes was covered by her hair bangs. She talked to me, "I heard from Lin about what happened..."

"...she told you everything?"

"I don't know...is becoming a chaotic draconic monster apart of that 'everything'?"

"She did tell you everything, huh." I sighed. "I should have asked her to keep it a secret."

"It's no longer a secret for you to hide, White. In any case, I heard about Zenith..."

"She told you that as well..."

"I'm not anyone to be judging about your relationship but it looks like she's not the same as we used to know her, right?"

I quickly glanced at her as I heard she said that. I asked her, "What do you mean, Lala?"

"Let's cut to the chase. She was cursed by a Phoenix before she even met you right? But then the other night, the bird was extracted out of her."

"Yes. And where are we going with this?"

Lala wondered, "I'm just theorising but her memories when she was cursed by the phoenix has been erased from her. The only thing she knows now is that she grew up and now she's in Infinity Academy. A reset...I think."

"That might the case...but that's not explaining how she's not panicking about this. She was still a child when it happened. How can she be so calm about it?"

"That maybe because the thing inside of her was keeping an eye of her as well."

"Inside of her...you mean whatever she had when she ate an Infinitum Crystal..."

"Precisely. Her infinitum energy was quite different than the last time I felt. Have you checked it yet?"

"No I have not. Is it really different than her snow ability?"

Lala shakes her head and said, "It's very different, White."

"How do you know all of this?"

"Let's say..." She brushes her bangs to reveal her covered eye and continued, "you two aren't the only who has a dragon inside of them..." Her previously covered eye transformed into the familiar draconic eye that I've known.

This is no longer a secret, huh? I guess we're not alone then...There are probably more of them somewhere and it might as well be right under our nose. It's only a matter of time...and space before we see the others. Let us see where the future will take us.

TO BE CONTINUED