Saku ducks just before the glowing red beam hits her. Part of her kimono is struck and burns away, but she herself is unharmed.

  Saku: “Are you insane?! How dare you defile my beautiful kimono like that. I will wrap your corpse in my cherry blossoms and never let it out again.”

  Saku begins to dance. With her fan, she once again summons a massive amount of cherry blossoms. This time, she splits them into two large spheres.

  Saku: “Prepare yourself for your cherry-flavored end.”

  She hurls the cherry blossom spheres at her opponent. They dodge quickly and run up the spiral staircase. With a controlled dance, Saku reconstructs the spheres and throws them at him again. This continues for the next few minutes. The tower has many floors, and on each floor there are many corridors through which her opponent could easily escape. Saku is still standing at the very bottom, in the center.

  Saku: “Are you stupid, or do you have a plan? Why don’t you just run away through those corridors and disappear?”

  ???: “Why would a hunter run away from his prey?”

  Angrily, Saku releases many small waves made of cherry blossoms. She doesn’t aim directly at him, but fires them in his direction. With skillful evasive maneuvers and precise shots, the mysterious opponent is not touched by a single blossom.

  Saku: “[Those shots are way too strong. My cherry blossoms burn instantly when they come into contact with them. Either I mobilize a very thick wall of cherry blossoms as protection, or I have to be fast enough to dodge.]”

  He continues running up the tower, occasionally firing single shots. Saku tries to create thick walls of blossoms, but they only last a few seconds before being destroyed. Still, the wide space works in her favor, as she can perform large-scale dance movements and summon far more blossoms. Even if they are destroyed quickly or aren’t very offensive, their sheer number can become dangerous.

  ???: “That looks like a pink pool.”

  Saku: “If you’re already saying pool…”

  Saku stands on a large wave of her blossoms and rises into the air with them. It really looks like she’s surfing—just without a surfboard. As she ascends, she moves her fan and releases an enormous wave of cherry blossoms. Even her opponent’s two shots do nothing, and he is engulfed by the massive wave. He doesn’t die, but he is washed all the way back down. His head hits the ground.

  Saku shapes her blossoms into a staircase and walks down slowly.

  Saku: “Unlike you, I don’t have to take that ridiculously long spiral staircase. I just make my own.”

  She notices that she has pulled down her opponent’s hood with her cherry blossoms. Curious about his face, she steps a little closer.

  Saku: “[His voice already sounded kind of handsome. Maybe his face is too?]”

  She looks closely and discovers something disturbing. His face looks normal, and he has no other abnormalities, yet his face still terrifies Saku.

  Saku: “How… h-how can you be here? We killed you back then. Before this whole conflict even started. What the hell is going on?”

  Standing before her is a boy with the exact same face as the hitman through whom they had learned that the Taira family was behind the murders. He also has the same face as the murderer of Saku’s mother.

  Boy: “Sorry. I should introduce myself first. In that regard, I’m more educated than my brother. My name is Kuro. My brother’s name is—or rather was—Shiro. We are—or were—twins.”

  Saku: “You were twins… That means…”

  Kuro: “Yes, that means I want revenge for my brother. He was chosen to carry out that supposedly important mission, but he failed. It was better that you suffocated him, otherwise something worse would have awaited him.”

  Saku: “How do you know that I suffocated him?”

  Kuro: “Telepathy between twins.”

  Saku looks at him skeptically. Magic in this world makes many things possible, especially when blood is involved, but what Kuro is saying would be more like a miracle.

  Kuro: “Hahahahaha, I love messing with people. Of course there is no natural telepathic connection between us or twins, but our shared Birth-Protection comes close to a connection.”

  Kuro: “It’s called Birth-Protection: Two in One. Sometimes twins are born who share a Birth Ability, Pet, Object, or Protection. The important point, however, is that each only possesses half the strength. Our ability allows us to always see, smell, taste, feel, hear, think, etc. what the other sees, smells, tastes, feels, hears, thinks, etc. We basically share everything except our bodies. That’s why I know who killed my brother and how he was killed.”

  Saku listens obediently as he explains everything in detail.

  Kuro: “Through his death, I basically got everything for myself. We trained our senses and everything else so that we could function even with half, but now I have the premium version of everything, if you want to call it that. To this day, people research how exactly magic works in our world—where it comes from, how we negate it, what form it can take, and so on. The only form we know are innate abilities. I don’t know why Im explaining you that. Now I also have a complete soul and magic, so I am automatically stronger. Take this pistol, for example. It runs on my magic and soul. The stronger my magic is—meaning the more of it I have—and the stronger my soul is, the more destructive the shot becomes. It used to be normal, but now…”

  As a demonstration, Kuro fires a shot into a corridor. The shot passes perfectly through, but it is correspondingly enormous.

  Kuro: “What makes a soul strong, I don’t know, but apparently our two soul halves together were very strong. Of course I’m sad about Shiro’s death, but he gave me a power-up.”

  Saku: “Are you done with your explanation?”

  Kuro: “Don’t be so cheeky, Sakiko girl. You killed my brother. I’m already not your biggest fan—don’t make me hate you.”

  Kuro draws both of his pistols and prepares to fire.

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  Saku controls her remaining cherry blossoms and rises from the ground. Once again, it looks as if she is standing on a wave, without a surfboard or any other support.

  Another battlefield is approaching its climax.

  Naki: “Second Sword: Ratio.”

  Naki fires his second sword, but he misses. Eisen’s body grows hotter and hotter, and more steam rises from it. As the heat increases, so does his speed. Naki fires his second sword, Ratio, again. This time, Eisen deflects it with his axe.

  Eisen: “You’re not getting my new heart. It belongs to me alone.”

  Without his left arm, Eisen has to use his weaker right arm. He charges forward and tackles Naki hard. Immediately, many axe strikes follow, which Naki blocks with his sword strikes in great agitation.

  Naki: “You’re probably thinking, ‘Let’s shift up a gear,’ right?”

  The ground beneath his feet gives slightly as his body changes. Spine, joints, muscles—everything becomes more flexible, longer, more fluid. The Serpent Body was not a state he actively controlled. It was more an instinct that took over once Naki was truly in the fight. Eisen raised his axe and smashed it into the ground with brute force. Stone shattered, fragments flew. The heat radiating from his body made the air shimmer, as if the world itself were melting. Steam hissed from the open sections of his chest, where the new heart was beating.

  Naki: “[He’s getting faster. No… he’s burning himself just to catch me.]”

  Naki slid sideways, his body bending at an unnatural angle. The axe rushed past him by mere centimeters. Even so, the air pressure tore at his skin. Blood dripped onto the ground and almost instantly evaporated.

  Eisen: “Stop dodging! Fight properly! I want to show you how strong my new heart is.”

  With a brutal step forward, Eisen slammed his axe into Naki. The impact hurled him across the hall. Naki crashed into a pillar and felt something crack in his back.

  Naki: “[Breathe. Move. If I stop, I’m dead.]”

  Before he even touched the ground, his body twisted again. He caught himself with his feet against the wall, pushed off, and landed behind Eisen. His sword cut through the air, but Eisen turned faster than expected. Metal crashed against metal. Sparks rained down.

  Eisen: “Too slow.”

  The axe hit Naki in the side. Not a clean strike—more like a brutal blow away. It was enough. Naki was thrown again, sliding across the floor and leaving a long trail of blood.

  Naki: “[His right arm is weaker… but he compensates with heat and mass. If I keep attacking head-on, I’ll lose.]”

  The black circle behind Naki pulsed. The five swords trembled slightly, as if they were about to dissolve.

  Naki: “[Not yet. I can’t waste them.]”

  Naki stood up again, slower this time. His legs trembled, but his gaze remained sharp. Eisen stepped forward, each step causing the ground to glow. His metal skin was cracked, glowing red beneath. The heart in his chest beat so hard that Eisen began to vibrate with each pulse.

  Eisen: “Do you feel it? This heart gives me everything. Strength. Heat. The power to make my sister proud.”

  Naki: “It’s eating you from the inside.”

  Eisen laughed. A hoarse, distorted sound.

  Eisen: “Then at least I’ll die as myself.”

  He charged again. This time, Naki waited. At the last moment, he dropped down, slid under the axe swing, and drove his sword into Eisen’s side. Not a deep stab—but deep enough.

  Steam exploded from the wound. Eisen roared, whether from pain or rage was impossible to tell. He blindly kicked backward and hit Naki in the chest. The air left his lungs.

  Naki: “[I can hurt him… but it’s not enough.]”

  Naki rolled away and came to a stop on all fours. For a moment, he no longer saw Eisen as a human. Only as something burning, unstoppable.

  The black circle behind him became fully visible again, more stable. Eisen raised his axe, his eyes glowing.

  Naki: “This will be our final exchange. I can feel it.”

  Naki: “Second Sword: Ratio.”

  He lets his first sword fall and grabs his second sword, Ratio. With a direct thrust, he rams the sword into Eisen and seals the second level.

  They move at the same time and collide once more, but this time even Dorothy understands that she can do nothing. She knows her yellow paths would only get in the way—and she is even a little afraid to enter this fight. The level of this battle is far too high for her to keep up in her normal state.

  Naki and Eisen smash through a wall and land in an adjacent room. In the middle of their heated fight, Naki notices a woman. She is hiding under a desk. From the looks of it, she is a Crow Guardian who hid here from Kiyotara. With several skillful sword strikes, Naki redirects the fight away from the woman.

  Naki: “[If I hit correctly, I might be able to kill him.]”

  Naki now fights low to the ground. Crouching, he dodges attacks and launches his own from below. With one arm missing, Eisen cannot react as well and loses the close combat. With one sword thrust, Naki pushes him back into the hall where the fight began, and with a second thrust, he stabs out his heart.

  Naki: “[Because of the sealed levels, I will lose something as well.]”

  At the same moment, the red color fades from Eisen’s skin, and he cools down. He cools down very quickly.

  The heart hangs on the tip of the sword. Naki slams it into the ground, destroying it.

  Naki feels something happen inside his head. His brain tightens—if that’s even the right word—and he senses a kind of small smoke that rises into the air and disappears. What Naki has lost is not entirely clear, but since it was only the second level, it should not be anything too important. If it had been the third, he would have lost something from his body.

  Eisen is dead. His body disintegrates due to the sudden temperature difference. Out of respect, Naki does not step on the decaying remains.

  Dorothy: “B-Br-Br-Br-Brother… N-Noooooooo. You deeeevillllll.”

  She wraps her brother’s remains with her yellow paths and embraces them. Next, she pulls a syringe from her sleeve and injects it into her neck. As the substance enters her body, horrible veins appear on her face, bulging wildly. The corners of her mouth curl upward.

  Dorothy: “Now it’s my turn.”

  She sets aside the bundle containing her brother and uses her yellow paths as additional limbs. She moves through the hall with them, attacking only from dark corners.

  Even though Naki is injured, Eisen’s speed was far higher than his sister’s, but the syringe still worries him. He notices that she is becoming stronger and wilder.

  Dorothy: “You know, on one hand I pity you. If I had a brother like yours, I’d probably wander through life just as confused.”

  Naki: “What are you talking about? If you mean Najun, then shut your mouth.”

  Dorothy: “So brave. Defending him without knowing what kind of person your brother really is. That’s really cute. But your sweet relationship is wrong. Completely wrong. Unlike the relationship with my brother, whom you just killed.”

  Naki and she clash repeatedly. His sword cannot get through the yellow paths, but her paths also cannot seriously injure him—unless they were to wrap around him and strangle him.

  Dorothy: “Then I’ll tell you something I know about your brother that you don’t.”

  Although Naki intends not to believe anything she says, he listens carefully.

  Dorothy: “Your brother killed your youngest sister.”

  That sentence stops the fight for a brief moment. Naki stands in the middle of the hall, staring at Dorothy with crazed eyes. Of course he doesn’t believe her, but throwing out a sentence like that in the middle of a fight is too much for Naki’s psyche.

  Naki: “Do you think I’d believe such nonsense? You’re dumber than you look.”

  Dorothy: “You’d better believe me. He killed your sister.”

  Naki: “No. No. Shut up.”

  Dorothy: “If I’m lying, then why do I know she was unconscious in the hospital after a fight with some strange bird? Why do I know you have a closed-off area because of that? But on the other hand, your sister was also terrible. She was the one who knocked you unconscious and then tried to kill Najun. He defended himself out of necessity, but after that, he was clearly the murderer.”

  Naki: “Noooooooo. Someone needs to cut your mouth off.”

  Dorothy: “He thought he was doing her—and the family—a favor. Such a stupid boy. He longed so much for recognition, especially from his father, from what I could read.”

  Dorothy: “Oh right, I haven’t told you yet. I have an ability that lets me read people like books. I got it shortly before we attacked you back then. That’s why I have so much information about your little murderer brother.”

  Naki looks down at the floor. His belief that his brother didn’t do it is still there, but it is definitely weaker. Dorothy knows too much for it all to be made up. But for Naki, it cannot be true. Never.

  Dorothy: “Wait a second… You killed my brother. Why am I giving you therapy? Ahhhh, you devil, you distracted me.”

  She swings around again with her paths, but Naki is still just standing there, staring at the floor—an easy target. Fortunately, he dodges her attacks, but his offense is gone. This supposedly impossible revelation has shaken his entire world.

  Naki: “[Najun… Is it true? No, that can’t be. He loved her so much. I also don’t believe she was a monster in reality. No, that can’t be true. Or… maybe it is?]”