Chapter 22: As the Embers Reignited

"I see, Herubetikasu? Is that how you say it?" I inquired, turning to face her with a couple of knives that I had taken from the wall, still grasping them in my hand.

"Well, you can also say it like that", She said after looking to her right with the face of someone that's filled with guilt. After I felt that I probably needed to do something to fix the awkward atmosphere in the room, I then tried to lighten the mood a bit by saying.

"What a beautiful name, it uses English letters right?"

"Mhmm, my mom gave it to me"

"...I see"

Unsure of what to say next and realizing that my previous question might have touched on a sensitive topic, my reaction veered toward the generic side. In an instant, I regretted thinking I could alleviate the tense mood I had unintentionally created.

"What about yours? Yours means longevity, right?" In my mind, I hadn't expected her to want to continue the conversation with me, and I half-anticipated being ignored if I tried. Caught off guard by her sudden inquiry, I found myself spontaneously asking,

"How did you even know?"

"I looked at your name from Hitoshi-san's notebook, well I guess you're just testing me with that question, right?", She glanced at me for a second before returning her attention to the right.

***

As I plucked the final knife and meticulously swept away the last traces of dust from the floor, the clock Helveticus had been staring at reminded us that it was already 3 PM.

Ever since I questioned her name, nothing in particular was asked or answered, and not even a conversation was struck just because my tongue slipped and stumbled upon the wrong question to ask someone who probably ended up here for the same reason that I do.

Her gaze remained distant, akin to someone who beheld the forbidden, the otherworldly. Shouldering a sense of responsibility, I reached out, taking her hand and guiding her to her feet from the sofa. Together, we walked outside to visit my house.

The rustling leaves, stirred by the breeze, caused sakura blossoms to descend from their branches, swirling and dancing along the empty streets. The wind's whispers brushed against Helveticus' school skirt, momentarily lifting it, yet she appeared unfazed.

As I slide my keycard into my keycard locker, I can immediately feel that something wrong is going to happen once I get into the house. Anxiously, I glanced at Helveticus, her eyes still seemingly entranced by the void. Even though it doesn't have the confidence that I need, it gave me the courage to just open the door and rush in if something bad is actually going to happen.

I pulled my breath one last time before I slide the card, swung open the door, pulled Helveticus inside, and firmly sealed the door behind us in which all I did in under ten seconds. Still I can't shake the awful feeling that I felt over the evening, even if Analysia told me that it is safe, It was as though something– no, someone – I both dreaded and despised would burst through that door, attempting to end my life.

"I never suspected that someone whom I killed would come back again from the dead, quite an impressive skill you got there...Ki-yo-ko-san"

The chilling words slithered through the locked entrance, sending shivers coursing through my trembling body. It was a voice I knew all too well, a voice of familiarity entwined with dread, a voice that raged in scarlet flames from the depths of its soul.

In the moment notice, the door was slammed right open, catching both Helveticus and me off guard as it crashed followed by a thunderous sound of a door smashing into the interior wall.

"F-Fuyuki-san...?" Helveticus stammered, her face paling with horror.

"Ohh, Shirori-san, never expected to see you here, let's go back together after I erased the problem that's becoming an eye sore after I stared for less than a second", He said as he turned his head around towards my direction, his grin concealing an intent too zealous to kill me once more.

"B-But, Fuyuki-san, can we wa-"

"Aren't we friends, Shirori-san?" He interjected, piercing Helveticus with a gaze full with murderous intent. Without replying back, Helveticus swallowed hard as Fuyuki-san pulled her closer.

In the span of a heartbeat, she found herself in a near-embrace, he whispered something towards her right ear. It something faint and I couldn't hear a single thing that he whispered about, but as soon as it was over, her demeanor underwent a dramatic transformation in response to his words.

"Ahh, Kiyoko-san, sometimes I admire your stupidity. I'm impressed that you didn't even suspect that I might be Fuyuki-san's spy. While acted like a wounded innocent girl, I gave him all the information about your whereabouts and your ability since yesterday", A satisfied smile appeared on her face as she was proud of her achievements.

"𝘞-𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 '', My mind questioned her sudden changes in expression, demeanor, everything that's changed since he whispered those words towards her ear.

"𝘈𝘮 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥? 𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘶𝘴 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘍𝘶𝘺𝘶𝘬𝘪'𝘴 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘢 𝘴𝘱𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘶𝘱? ...𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯?", I asked that question once, and I asked that question twice, with it, it keeps repeating and repeating inside my head.

"You're naive, Kiyoko-san, naive, foolish, a beacon of ignorance. Who can't even differentiate even the most dumbest and apparent lies that almost everyone knows since the first word is spoken!", She continued.

"You liar...", I said with a whispering voice.

"What?", She replied in confusion.

"Y-You liar! You betrayed me! Like the rest of them! You selfish, faithless, an embodiment of disloyalty! go rot in endless agony you rat! EVEN HELL CAN'T RECEIVES YOU!"

Just when I uttered those words, it was like those words, the very words that had the same tone as the words that she said to me, stabbed through right in her heart. In an instant, the smile evaporated from her face, replaced by a visage consumed by despair and hopelessness.

""You...I..." Distress rippled across her countenance, her expression mirroring my own moments prior. Oblivious to the underlying meanings behind her transformed appearance, I racked my mind thinking of another round of insults. But with a sidelong glance look at Fuyuki-san, I decided to not say anything else that would escalate the situation even further.

Right when Helveticus looked at me, I could see that Fuyuki-san, disturbed by the slow progress he was making, wrapped his hands around her stomach, and with his head on her shoulder, he said.

"Aren't you a little bit mean there, Kiyoko-san? Very well. Are you okay, Shirori-san? Want me to kill her just because she hurts your emotions?"

Left speechless by Fuyuki-san's words, Helveticus stood frozen like a statue. "Hmph, I guess, I'm going to take that as a yes"

And so, Fuyuki-san began striding toward me, his purpose unmistakable. With the weight of Helveticus' betrayal still hanging over me, I remained immobilized. Yet a realization bloomed – a thought that could possibly change this hopeless situation.

"𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘍𝘶𝘺𝘶𝘬𝘪-𝘴𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵?" Said the whisper inside my head. It was the wake up call that I needed.

"𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵? 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰u 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘤𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘣𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵", I sighed in relieved just because I got the answered to her seemingly traitorous behaviour.

"I see...I finally see it", I murmured towards myself.

"Fuyuki-san, she's not yours..."

Though it was faint, I'm sure that both Helveticus and Fuyuki heard it themselves.

"She'll be mine, She'll be under my protection for the rest of eternity! If you dare lay your hands on her, I swear that you'll be dead before you even think of that!"

Without thinking, I rushed towards Helveticus and with all my might, pushed her outside and slammed the door shut in lightning speed, with the last thing I saw on her face was a faint smile forming on her face, a faint yet the most genuine smile that I saw from her.

Perplexed, Fuyuki asked.

"What's with the mind change, Kiyoko-san?"

With a breath between words, I responded, "I just felt that someone as invaluable as her would be a waste in your eyes. Besides, she's the first person I didn't immediately decide to kill upon seeing her." I reclined against the door, my back pressed against its surface.

"I see, looks like that strategy of intimidation and mind games wouldn't work on you anymore huh?" He remarked, pulling a sword engulfed in flames out of thin air, presumably from his virtual storage.

In that moment, my reflexes kicked in. I immediately rolled over to the side as soon as I saw the sword coming down towards my position at an alarming speed.

"You dodged that? Few of my enemies could even think of such feat"

"I appreciate your compliment, Fuyuki-san!", In retaliation, I snapped my finger, to which several stakes appear out of the ground out of nowhere.

"Oho, I see now, this is your gadget's doing right?" He sidestepped effortlessly, evading every stake aimed at him.

"Can we not speak during battle, this is getting a little annoying", I retorted, rushing towards his place, with a plan in mind.

"Farewell, I guess I'm going to grant you that request before you die a horrific death this time"

As I lunged to punch his solar plexus, in an unexpected move, he grabbed my wrist and without a second of thinking, he twisted my arm, turned my body around and slammed me onto the ground.

"You know you just slammed...a girl right?" I gasped, the shock rendering my voice weak.

"What's wrong with gender equality, Kiyoko-san?"

"Your timing and topic choice couldn't be worse, Fuyuki-san"

Once again, I rolled to the side, avoiding the direct slice from his flaming sword straight to my head, with my leg in motion of sweeping him so he would lose balance and fall to the ground. Anticipating this, he lifted his right leg and stomped it to the floor where my leg is going to be before I noticed that there was something wrong and immediately pulled my leg and in an instant, and swiftly backflipped onto my feet.

Surprised by that acrobatic performance, Fuyuki asked.

"Woah, did you do acrobats exercise before you came here", Before rushing in with his sword in his hand.

"I'm as surprised as you that I can even pulled that move off"

Alerted that he was sprinting here to try and caught me off guard, I snapped my fingers once again, creating the wooden stakes that he flawlessly avoided, cut and burned to pieces by his blade. In the blink of an eye, his sword arced toward me, ready to strike.

Shocked, I thought of hundreds of things that would work to avoid his swing but before I could even think of anything, dictionaries, all lined up for it to just slow down the velocity of the flaming sword showed up out of nowhere, followed by Analysia voice.

"What a situation you're in, Master. So what do you want to do now?"

Without even thinking a single thing except survival, I quickly jumped and sprinted from the wall and landed safely to the ground while I said my intention to Analysia, to see if she could figure out the solution to my current problem.

"𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘍𝘶𝘺𝘶𝘬𝘪-𝘴𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵, 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘵 𝘶𝘱 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦"

"I understood the situation, master. I'm going to provide an escape route, please buy some more time, also I already prepared a new upgrade for your gadget", She said in a serious tone.

"I see, I guess this could be useful"

"What things could be useful, Kiyoko-san?"

Too distracted by Analysia's return, I failed to see that Fuyuki's right leg was hurtling toward my head. Panicked, I used the ability that Analysia told me. In an instant, a giant book materialized and intercepted Fuyuki's leg and adverted the blow. The force impact however knocked me to the ground.

Taken aback, he paused. In the meantime, I followed Analysia's path finder to go where the safest way to escape is. Yet, before I could even go outside safely, Fuyuki detected my movement, and dashed to my position.

"You're not going nowhere, Kiyoko-san!" He declared with a sly grin on his face.

In seconds, I grabbed the nearest curtain rod to make it as a pivot, and from there swung both of my legs to Fuyuki's face, noticing the thing that I wanted to do, he tried to grab one of my legs. But before he even do that, he heard a snap, a finger snap at that.

Aware that Fuyuki would be attuned to the sound of my finger snap, I instructed Analysia to deactivate the stake deployment. With no wooden stakes coming forth from the ground, Fuyuki unwittingly let his guard down, facing away from the true threat. Capitalizing on his distraction, I delivered a swift and final kick to his face, sending him to which knocked him down. I materialized oversized books, swiftly stacking them atop him to stall his movements.

As I stood there, catching my breath, the breeze's gentle whisper through the broken window became the sole audible presence....The peace that was taken from me, since I set foot in this school, was finally, finally, back in my grasp.