Part 1

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The boy's eyelids were heavy. 

—Oiii Are you okay?

—...

A female voice reached his ears, but he couldn't answer her.

—It was a... Tough. I hope you're not...

"What's going on?"

The boy's consciousness shut down again.

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Philip's eyes slowly opened, but he still couldn't see anything. He immediately felt a headache and nauseous. He couldn't remember anything beyond the fight he had with Willo and was surprised that he was still alive.

"Wh...where am I?"

She felt a sharp pain in her head, and when she wanted to hold her head to see if she could mitigate it a little, she heard a metallic noise and her arms wouldn't move.

"What?"

Chains held her legs and arms tightly on either side of her body, made this way, surely, so she couldn't activate the element 347 gauntlets. His feet were missing the slippers with thrusters, and he was sitting on a hard metal chair, which he was not going to be able to break no matter how much force he put into it.

Completely immobilized and unable to escape. He tried to scream, but a rope covered his mouth, preventing him from doing so.

—Oh, you woke up. I was starting to worry, I don't want to have to sneak a lump around.

The humidity in the place was very high and there was the sound of leaks. Light filtered through a small rectangular window at the top of the wall in front of him.

The room was full of boxes and tools, he was in the basement of some house in a residential area and in the corner of that small basement was the person whose voice came to him.

—Hey! You found me!

Dressed in casual clothes that were a bit too big for him, was Willo. He was eating a biscuit while watching him.

He made some strange noises as he tried to communicate with her.

—Oh, right. You still have that in your mouth.

Willo finished eating his biscuit, picked up a knife from beside him, and got up to go to Philip's side. He stood at his side, bringing both the knife and his face close to him, whispering softly and seductively as he ran the knife slowly across his chest.

—I'll take that out if you promise not to scream, okay? I don't want blood in my basement.

Philip nodded, and she cut the rope from his mouth. At that moment...

—HELP...!

He tried to scream, but she put the knife in his mouth. Willo's gaze darkened.

—Be careful what you try to do, you piece of shit. You're not alive because I want you to be.

She withdrew the knife and he, after coughing a little, replied in an exhausted voice.

—Then why am I alive?

Willo stands in front of Philip and lifts his chin to look at him over his shoulder, contemptuously.

—Hmph. Thank your blond friend. He begged me to leave you alive at all costs, and since I owed him a favor, I agreed.

"Bill Huh?"

—Have you known Bill long?

—A little over half a year. He's been helping me get the Eyre stones.

—Ah, I understand.

"This is no time to think about what Bill's done, it doesn't make sense."

—You want the stone, don't you? I'm sorry, I'm not giving it to you or anyone else.

Willo's face tightened, and then he grimaced wryly.

—So you're going to force me to use dirty methods, huh?

—You're going to kill me to get the stone from me? Bill will be very disappointed, won't he?

—There's no need to kill you so quickly, I have methods before it comes to that.

She hugs Philip from behind. He feels a strong pressure coming from her, a pressure that moves all over his body until it ends in his hands. Two black spheres appear there.

"These chains, this chair. Shit!"

Willo whispers flirtatiously in her ear.

—Nee. You don't want me to start tickling you, do you?

He could see the intentions behind that mischievous grin. His body trembled slightly.

—I won't give you this stone.

—You're pretty brave.

A pause. She turned around, sitting on his lap and laying her head on his chest.

Willo's unpredictable attitude put Philip in check. Whichever way he turned, he didn't know what reaction might come from this girl. Confronting her could perhaps get her to reveal information, though that path was undoubtedly the most painful.

—AAAAAAAAAAAAAGHH.

Electricity coursing through her body. Dark energy invading her blood. Evil building up in his seal.

—Please, Philip. Tell me your wish.

The boy's consciousness began to fade, mingling with a memory of him. One in which he heard very similar words.

Did Willo say them, or was it just a hallucination?

Everything went dark.

 

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—Philip, what is your wish?

—Huh?

It was a sunny summer morning. A boy of about 15 years old was accompanying a girl, a little older than him, to a large river of crystal clear water that was about a hundred kilometres away from the city. They planned to spend the whole day there.

The boy was surprised, not by the question, but by the way the girl asked it. She didn't usually address him that way.

—What do you mean?

—The thought came to my mind, how beautiful it is to have a dream and to move forward to fulfil it. Something so wonderful that it could be considered a fantasy.

The boy looked straight ahead and lowered his head, with a serious face. He was thinking sincerely, he didn't take his friend's words as a game.

—I...

The girl tilted her head as she noticed how hesitant the boy was.

—I don't have a dream.

He didn't want to look at the girl's face again, he felt embarrassed.

When he looked sideways, he could see her smile.

—I see. In that case...

He slowly raised his head.

—Can I give you my dream?

The girl's smile became a little sombre.

Part 2

Philip started coughing loudly. He could feel his insides churning and burning. Nausea, pain, burning, stinging. He could tear his skin off with his fingernails if he had the chance.

—You understand, don't you? Hand over the stone and go back to your miserable bourgeois life. You don't want to go deeper into the darkness. That's where we demons belong.

—...

—Go. Lift up your head and go back to your family. All you've done is take down a demon who could contribute to the destruction of this whole world.

—Willo...

She lifted her torso and separated herself from Philip's chest. She rested her hands on his, on which the black spheres were no longer there. Her eyes were colorless.

—Give me the stone.

—No. If I don't get my wish, nothing that's happened so far will be worth it. I won't be able to avoid another 21st June. I won't get my freedom.

She clenched her fists, clawing at Philip's chest.

—Why, why are you like this?

She reached out to Philip again, this time to touch the seal on his arm.

—You leave me no choice.

Again the dark energy began to course through Philip's body. He spat blood and began to convulse.

Soon his body stopped. His eyes remained closed.

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—Huh? —What?

—It's something I can't fulfil, several things prevent it, but it's something I don't want to leave behind no matter how impossible it is for me to make it happen.

The boy swallowed, deeply curious about where she wanted to take the conversation.

—What is it about?

The girl's smile grew bigger but then disappeared. She looked down with a melancholy expression.

—What do you think about psychos?

The boy held his chin, trying to think, but it didn't take him long to answer.

—I don't have a definite opinion about them. I know several who are very good people, but I also know that there are others causing quite a lot of trouble around the world.

—Exactly. That's the point. It's not that they're bad or good just because they're psychics, just as humans are. It's about the individuals. If everyone understood that, everyone could live better.

—I feel the same way, although I understand those who hate psychics. While the bad guys are isolated individuals who don't represent everyone, a bad psychi can do far more damage than a bad human. It's normal that there is so much fear and suspicion, we don't know the limits of dark energy.

—That's true.

The girl's expression darkened, but she clenched her hands and teeth and continued speaking.

—Still, I want to end the hatred, the fear. To eliminate all barriers that separate humans from psychis, humans from humans and psychis from psychis. I'm not saying something utopian where nothing bad happens, but a world where everyone can live together without fear or contempt for the other.

The boy could not hide his surprise. Something inside him had changed thanks to those words.

The girl whispered something...

Part 3

—That is my wish

Philip, with eyes devoid of all color and a voice devoid of emotion, spoke.

—What the fuck are you talking about? —In front of him, the girl with long black hair and slanted eyes responded with an aura of hostility. What kind of wish is that?

—Mine, the one I'm going to get thanks to the Eyre stones. And neither you nor anyone else is going to stop me. That's why I won't give you the stone.

Philip changed his expression and stared into the girl's eyes with deep determination. For him there was no second choice, he had already decided to get the three stones. He could not back down, the girl in front of him was a tiny obstacle next to his willpower.

But there was one thing he obviously had to bear in mind, he was chained, he could not escape her clutches. If he said anything out of place, he could die. The first step was to avoid that.

—Then there was no other option.

The girl's head dropped, her hands began to shake. It was a warning of what she was about to do. He interrupted her, speaking very softly.

—Wait a second.

—What?

Philip made a "shhh" to stop Willo from shouting any more. He began to look up at the ceiling of the cellar, which was just below the main room of the house.

—Is there anyone in this place right now? Any family members? —he whispered.

—No. My father... He's not here and my mother is in a hospital. I don't have any other relatives.

—So no one has access to the house?

—I just told you no.

A hint of anger seeped through Willo's nervousness. He kept looking up.

—Then someone entered the house.

—What? —Don't try to trick me to get your way. Either you hand over the stone or you're dead.

This time she whispered those words.

—There are several of them. I'd say about six. Did you make sure at all times that no one was following you?

—When I brought you in, yes, but then I went out a couple of times to do some shopping, and...

—So that's it. You never hid your identity in combat and just by meeting you on the street they could track you here. Or even without that, just finding your name and looking up your address was enough.

—Ugh. I don't believe you. You're messing with me.

—Okay, don't believe me, but we're both going to die here. Or if by any chance you manage to escape somehow, you'll lose my stone. You have to set me free, let's escape together.

—Huh? What do you say?

Willo's face twisted. She was too nervous to think clearly, Philip takes advantage of this weakness of hers to break her emotional defence. She doesn't want to kill Philip so as not to disappoint Bill, but if Philip tells the truth, they could both die or she could lose the stone. She has few options and that makes her even more nervous.

—They're slowly making their way here. I bet they're Brotherhood RG.

—Ah.

—Are you stupid? React the fuck up and release me, we must flee this instant. None of us are better off in a fight in such close quarters against these guys.

Tap

A thud sounded above them. Philip looked Willo in the eye, firmly. She pressed her temple with her index finger, trying to ease her headache.

—All right, I'll do it!

She held both ends of the chain with both hands and a stream of dark power shot out of her palms. The chain slowly cracked until it broke completely. Philip released his arms and stood up from the metal chair. He pulled a handkerchief from one of his pockets and covered his mouth and nose with it. He unfolded his element 347 glove and turned to Willo.

—We have twenty seconds, can you fire some of your power into that front window?

—How?

—Just do it!

—O—okay.

A dark sphere appeared in Willo's right hand and a dark beam shot out of it.

Philip pointed at the same spot where the beam was directed, imitating a pistol with his fingers. The glowing silver metal glove lit up and a thin line of light shot towards the dark energy in the window.

BOOM

It was already dark, probably after curfew had begun. The small explosion revealed that above them was the courtyard of the house a few metres from the pavement, where luckily there were no passers—by.

—My propellants? —Philip asked.

Willo pointed to some boxes on the side, Philip walked over, found the white trainers. He put them on and walked over to the crater that used to be the courtyard of Willo's house.

—Let's get out of here.

—Y—yes.

Philip activated the thrusters on his shoes and they both flew out of the house.