There were footsteps of someone walking on the wet ground under the cold moonlight.

Whose sound of every stomp was light and soft, from a girl wearing black shoes and thigh-high stockings as well as her pleated skirt in the same black as her uniform and robe, stood out among the numerous police officers around the abandoned public cemetery.

But strangely enough, everyone was absorbed in none of those, other than the thing she put in front of her face… A whole mask with no eye openings or anything. Just a flat white metal plate that glistened slightly, beautifully patterned with two blue lines that resemble fox whiskers on the cheeks.

An appearance that seems to be deliberately made to stand out and be in the spotlight.

“A great carrier…”

One of the officers, who noticed the figure, murmured, despite the fact that he was being spoken to by another quite attractive young woman, dressed just a little less eccentrically, as well as a face that was not covered by any metal plate… Which caused her to feel irritated and ask, “Are you even listening to me?”

“Ah… I’m so sorry, lady Kamiko.” The police personnel bowed in guilt.

“Yeah, I hope you do. But as I said before, only scout out these people's locations and do not engage in combat, you hear? None of you need to put your life in danger for something that is beyond your reach. Oh, also don't forget to call when that guy with the burns wakes up. Do not let anyone speak to him before we do… And… I guess that is all.”

“Understood!”

The cops responded loudly, even though his gaze remained fixated on the masked girl behind the woman named Kamiko, just a second before he finally walked away from them both.

“So… Sage, have you made sure that there are no more fires burning around?”

“......”

The question from Kamiko that was thrown with only her eyes to the side was answered with nothing but a nod by the other girl, so she then responded with her gaze that eventually moved completely to the masked one.

Heaved a sigh of relief as she said, “You’ve done well… Good work, Sage.”

A mere simple sentence, somehow felt to be as warm as that of an older sister looking at her own younger siblings.

Just like how the silence that came afterwards was no less warm, though not even a word was uttered from either of them… Only before someone came to interrupt.

~~~~~

“Oi, Kamiko… I've checked everywhere. Apart from the one whose head was cut off, there are no other casualties.” For it was yet another person, clad completely in black that approached the two of them.

Quite a tall and muscular man, who waved his hand as he walked closer… But such friendly nature instead seems to have triggered the person he just greeted.

“Don't talk to me so lightly, you dumb fuck! You'll ruin my image to these people!” Kamiko whispered with a flat expression, as if she hadn't just said the bad word from earlier.

“Wha– But you are the one who always– Oh, you’re right… Sorry. These people do seem to respect us for some reason, though I don’t really know why… I mean, it's easy to think of yourself as superior to them because of that, I know that much. But, anyway, what do you think? Is this the work of another pyrokinesis great carrier we're dealing with?”

“I don’t know… Until we can ask the burned victims, we won't be able to say for sure. Sage’s power can only speed up the regeneration rate, at least for now… Still, she cannot wake up someone who has fainted. But if you ask me personally, from my experience with Albert's case, this has too few casualties to be reasonable enough…”

“Was what happened to Albert really that bad?”

“You think? We’re talking about someone who can shoot fire from his hands… You know what? Since you have given me doubts, I suggest you to fuck off, go check the surroundings once again.” Kamiko waved her finger at the man to stop him from interrupting her immediately.

For then with a confident tone she continued, “But instead of tracing down the great carrier, try to find the real cause of the fire first. Don't let it be that we are just wasting time in this place… Is that clear enough?”

“Oh, yeah, nice… Hell of a good idea if I have to be honest.”

“Seriously, Raymond, I'm going to cut your tongue for the next time you talk to me like that… In front of these people. Anyway, Sage, you go with him for this one.”

The masked girl nodded again in response to the order before following the man called Raymon, close from behind.

~~~~~

“I’m alive… I'm still alive…”

With such a very heavy breath, Daniel pushed his wobbling body to continue going along the narrow and gloomy lanes, toward his grandfather's house which was still in the distance… At the same time as he seemed to be trying to ignore the thousand questions, swirling about in his jumbled thoughts, concerning how he could be here walking and not there lying dead.

That he didn't even really remember how he had gotten halfway to his destination without remembering anything that had happened before, other than how he should have been dead from being stabbed through the heart by a sword and the only reason of why he really wanted to keep going, was the urge to not make Deo and Fanya upset over his own death.

That’s all and nothing else the boy was worried about… Even until he finally closed the door of the house from the inside and with what was left of him, Daniel managed to drag such a weak body of his own towards the sofa before he then unavoidably passed out.

“Don't die, Daniel!”

A voice from the boy's head suddenly jolted him up from his deep slumber… For it was a fuzzy visage of a girl that appeared to be wailing, pleading for him not to fall asleep any longer.

An illusion that Daniel himself created as a mere response to the dread and anxiety he just felt throughout his unusually broadened collapse… But despite everything, he was just truly lost in the familiar face and voice from before.

“Was that my sister? Or maybe… Fanya…”

The two girls' faces and voices were indeed the closest thing Daniel could ever remember from the brief jolt as he wondered alone, in the empty living room where he was currently sitting on the dusty floor right next to the sofa.

Then his eyes slowly looked up at the ceiling, as if expecting that someone up there would notice him who was still confused… Perhaps not only seeing Daniel, but also explaining to him about what really happened after the sword pierced his heart, so that he could stay alive like he was now. Because he didn't remember anything until he regained consciousness while going home under the dawn light.

And after realizing that he certainly wouldn't obtain any answers from above, his eyes went back down to see his blood-stained hands just from the night before… Daniel decided to stand up and try to walk slowly to the bathroom to clean himself up for good.

But before handing over the job to the warm water, the boy stood in front of the mirror in silence to look at the mess on his face. And how his black shirt had a tear in the center of his chest, which he needed to remove to reveal something that made his heart race a little bit… Because no wounds remained anywhere, neither on his chest nor on his stomach.

The holes, tears and stitches were all gone, leaving only dried blood stains on the surface of his skin. This only left him with two plausible possibilities:

Either something supernatural had cured him of all his wounds, or he was no longer the person he thought he really was… But that could only be proven by one thing, so Daniel stretched his hand up to his shoulder, reaching for something he couldn't feel but was sure should have been there all along… The magical blue sword of his own.

Raised high and then slowly descended until the tip touched the ground… Instead his attention was drawn to the reflection of his own eyes, and quiet fell in the warm mist.

“Shit…”

~~~~~