Hanabei Mina. The woman who stood in front of Nikko and Daisuke was the person who wiped out the previous Mabaroshi SCS unit. Her physical appearance alone did not seem like it could accomplish the task of murdering over 250 other spirit chasers, but she had a rather strong aura. Nikko could feel it even from where she was standing.

“Mmm, perhaps I was responsible for such a tragic event,” Mina smirked. “How many fell by my hands again? Was it… 264?”

Daisuke remained silent.

“Oh, my bad!” Mina covered her mouth with her left hand in a sarcastically shocked expression. “It was only 263. I left just a certain someone out of the killings.”

“Are you here to make it 264?” Daisuke said, reaching for the hilt of his blade.

Mina’s smirk grew even more twisted as he said it. “Precisely.”

In blink of an eye, Mina teleported directly behind Daisuke and swung at him with a katar that extracted from above her right wrist. Daisuke parried the attack perfectly with his katana and leapt about 3 metres back. Startled, Nikko backed off quite a distance from Mina.

Mina turned her head to face Nikko. “Don’t worry girl, I don’t intend on hurting you. Yet.”

Daisuke repositioned his stance. “Why do you show yourself now, after all these years?”

“Oh I wasn’t supposed to show myself at all, actually,” Mina said. “Until I felt the presence of the girl,” she pointed her katar at Nikko.

“Y-You wanna eat my spirit too?” Nikko asked bluntly.

“Hmph,” Mina lowered her katar. “Let’s just say… with that spirit capacity you possess… do you realise how much spirit energy you’re capable of abusing?”

“I will not allow her powers to be used in the wrong way,” Daisuke said firmly.

“Perhaps you won’t… but you can’t to do anything about it once you’re dead, isn’t that right?”

“Don’t take me lightly.”

Mina pounced at Daisuke with her katar once again. Daisuke dodged to his left and threw a strike at Mina, who dodged as well. The two exchanged attacks as Nikko watched from afar. I… I need to help him.

Nikko scanned her surroundings to search for a potential weapon, but all she saw was a single slipper by a drain. She approached the drain and reached out to the slipper. Suddenly, a dense fog emerged from he drain. The distorted sky darkened, and it grew colder by the second. Nikko jumped back. “This is…!”

Daisuke, who was still sparring with Mina, noticed the change in atmosphere and yelled at Nikko. “Sugimura!”

Yelling could not help her from where he was, and soon, not one, but 6 Vallista crawled out from the darkness and moved towards Nikko. “H-Help!” she screamed.

The mini alternate space that was created caused a rift between the mortal and alternate realm, and opened a gateway connecting the space with the internal realm, a dimension where the Vallista spawned.

“Dammit!” Daisuke cursed as he blocked another strike from Mina.

The Vallista were quickly surrounding Nikko, and all she could do is crouch on the spot and watch in horror as the monsters closed in on her. She was so terrified that her own voice began to fail her.

Daisuke tried to get to Nikko, but was interrupted again and again by Mina, who sent waves of attacks one after another. Daisuke did not want to lose the person he’s meant to protect like this. Neither did he want to lose his own life like this. “Sugimura!” he yelled out once more.

Nikko couldn’t respond. The Vallista were within touching distance of her. They stared down at her, into her eyes, into her spirit. Nikko felt strange, as if her life was being drained out of her body. Her vision blurred. Her strength was leaving her body.

“This… is not… what I want.”

All of a sudden, the pressure of attacks on Daisuke halted, and Mina vanished from his line of sight. “W-What?”

Daisuke turned to the cluster of Vallista that surrounded Nikko’s body. The Vallista froze, then backed off. What Daisuke saw next was beyond his imagination. Nikko knelt unmoving on the ground. Mina crouched behind her, with her katar pierced through her chest where her heart was located.

“A-Ah?” Nikko gasped as she turned her head to look at Mina. Mina had a look of despair on her face, as if she was about to break down. Her eyes… were not red anymore. They were a natural shade of dark brown. Nikko’s vision blurred once again, and eventually she lost all consciousness. Mina slowly pulled her katar out of Nikko’s back, rose to her feet and took one last look at Daisuke, before falling backwards and disappearing into her own shadow.

“Sugimura!” Daisuke yelled as he dashed towards her, hacking and eliminating the 6 Vallista that stood between himself and Nikko. He dropped next to her and took hold of her gradually collapsing body as the surrounding atmosphere reverted back to normal. Nikko laid lifeless in Daisuke’s arms.

“Sh-t,” Daisuke tried to sound calm. “Dammit… I failed you. Mina… I had no idea she would appear.” He pressed on the circular panel on his belt and spoke, “Sekai, get a portal ready. Now.” Daisuke let go of the panel and held Nikko’s head up. “You’re coming back to the alternate realm with me to be resurrected. After all, Mina was once a spirit chaser.”

A portal opened up next to Daisuke. He picked Nikko’s body up and entered the void.