2

Since training went… well… rather normal for me, I had a heavy feeling weighing down my chest. 

Because of the fact today was just a normal day…

I wonder why it's making me feel bad this time though…

I sighed as I walked down the seemingly never ending corridor full of black doors and the other side open to the autumn air outside. 

Wasn't I more than used to this after six months? 

So why is a tear falling down? I asked myself as it slid across my cheek and fell onto the marble flooring below. 

Most of the time those snickering students annoyed me more than anything. And I'd attack M.K with vigor whenever we'd duel.

But today, my heart wasn't in it at all.

I just stood there while everyone delivered blows both physically and emotionally.

But why?

Why was I allowing myself to do that?

I had more pride than that. Even if I was a useless airhead. No one had the right to just knock me down for the fun of it. 

Once again a sigh escaped my lips.

"Oh dear… that doesn't sound good." 

"...!"

I stopped walking and turned around. Though the heavy feeling remained in my chest, a genuine smile grew on my face at the sight of the much taller man walking towards me.

His eyes were both obsidian colors, erasing the borders between the irises and the eye all itself. But despite what most would consider a frightening thing, the sparkles of light inside them made my shoulders relax.

"Harry!"

My reflexes worked faster than my brain, and before I realized it, I was running towards the man they called Harry Sakami, my arms wide open.

Harry laughed as I barreled into his torso, digging my face into his ribs. "Wow, I didn't realize you'd miss me that much!"

I dug myself deeper into him. "It's been a month already!"

Harry chuckled, his large hand ruffling through my hair. 

"I know, I know. Sorry about that. I thought about you a lot, though. But… what's wrong? I'm getting the sense of embarrassment and frustration…"

I finally backed away from the hug, looking down at my feet as I kicked them, my hands held together behind me. "It's nothing too bad…"

Just the normal routine of people thinking I'm a monster in some new shape and form. 

Just another day of people questioning my existence.

Just another day of people wondering how my "family" isn't embarrassed by me…

Just another day of M.K beating me up from a hatred I'll never understand because he refuses to tell me…

But of course I kept all that inside. Because why whine about things that won't ever change?

And also, Harry knew exactly what I was feeling. Just from our hug earlier, he could absorb my emotions, and feel them as his own. 

"M.K at it again?"

And just like that, he guessed exactly what it was. Or… one of them anyway.

"How many times do I have to tell him— ugh, okay, let's go get some refreshments." Harry bent over, almost all the way, so he could press his forehead against mine. "It's gonna be alright, okay?"

His face being so close to mine I was forced to look back at him. I hoped he didn't notice the tears staining my eyes, but I knew better. 

At least my sort of oldest brother was back after a month of monitoring the frontlines of battle between our sister church and the Harry's Hobogoblin brethren.

Knowing how I really felt made him the only one here who knew who I really was. How I really felt. 

Despite our very rocky first days of introducing ourselves to each other by the wishes of Lady Katayama, we'd come to love each other like family. 

But even having my big brother back couldn't get rid of the weight on my chest. Which was a first for me.

I wonder why…?

****

Meanwhile… in a plane of existence between what normal beings can and cannot perceive, lived two essences of souls. 

One, a studious Gnome. Spectacles perched on the end of his nose, his black stringy hair falling over his eyes. He sat with his legs crossed, taking slow, deep breaths. For a long moment he sat there, his consciousness somewhere else far away.

It wasn't until what seemed like five minutes passed did his brow crinkle and he let out an exasperated sigh. "Damn it, I can't get through again! I know she was calling me earlier…"

It seemed he was speaking to himself, his voice echoing around him in an eerie melody. Until a voice from seemingly nowhere spoke out, his voice coated with frustration.

"In all these six months have you still learned nothing?!"

The Gnome bared his teeth. "Look, I know how it is at that citadel. Even if she's not physically calling to me, her heart is. And right now it feels heavy and lost."

"I wonder why! Maybe it has something to do with a certain ignorant fool draining her will to live today just to 'chat with her'."

"Look here I—"

But the Gnome snapped his mouth shut. He knew the voice talking to him wasn't wrong. That he'd been here in this desolate plane of existence just as long as the Gnome, and with far more expertise on the matter of how to traverse through the different levels of the world and its universe.

I can't stand this feeling though… The Gnome placed a hand to his heart, gripping his shirt for dear life. She's alone… even when she puts up a farce to me to make us all think she's happy.

Lately, that farce had been slowly deteriorating. And the Gnome had no idea why. It worried him to his very core. Not only would he have no connection to the rest of his friends at the citadel if she withered away, but to this powerless girl as well. 

Losing connection with Iris…

Why did that scare him so much? After all, he'd only been able to come to know her through their dream visits. Or when she asked to communicate with him consciously. Neither seemed long. In fact, each visit felt only like a single moment. A fleeting time to admire how much she'd been recovering.

Her face was no longer sunken, but round and youthful. Her pink eyes were no longer empty and dead looking, but sparkled in the lights of her room. A genuine smile greeted him each time he came to see her. And her body started filling out her school uniform for the citadel, instead of it enveloping her like a blanket.

But now… was all that time spent gaining strength receding? 

What would come of this awful feeling in his chest?

"Please be okay, Iris…"

"Perhaps it's not Iris slipping away from us, hm?"

The Gnome clicked his tongue in annoyance. "What is it then? And stop sounding so smug already! I don't know everything like your celestial body or some crazy nonsense like that. Just go ahead and tell—"

"Alright, sheeh. Hehe. Well, as I was trying to say, before you so rudely interrupted. Iris isn't fading away. Well, not her part anyway."

The Gnome's head shot up. "You mean it's running out?"

"Afraid so. Looks like I'll be all alone here, left to talk to nothing but this void around me. Tsk, what a shame. Just as I was starting to get used to you too. Humph, pity."

"No… no no…"

The Gnome, despite not having a physical body at the moment, felt like he couldn't breathe. "B-But, I don't even feel anything.  You… you said it yourself I had a year!"

"Yes well, it seems Iris's strength can only go so far when holding three souls inside herself. I don't require much energy at all, of course. But it seems your lack of physical form is a constant drain on her heart. Such a drain in fact I'm afraid it may kill both of you in the process. And so, I've decided to speed up things."

"Why you—!" 

The Gnome stood up, his nonexistent blood boiling. But he knew it was pointless. He was angry at just a voice after all. Veins popping from his forehead, he clenched his fists. "How could you?! You know I have to get back, and why! You hate them as much as I do, why would you try to stop me?"

His voice echoed around him, swirling around his ears and disappearing into the void of white. 

"Tell me," the voice rang out, sultry and full of arrogance, "what good would it do to kill Iris as well? Because if you stay six months more… or three even, you risk destroying her entire heart. I wouldn't die, of course. So there's no benefit for me to do this. But there is one for her. Someone who can withhold three souls in one body isn't something we should risk after all."

The Gnome wanted to fight. To cry out how wrong this voice was…

But it was impossible.

He knew, and so did the voice. They both knew just how special Iris was. Not just because she housed their souls in the center of her body. But because of the things he saw that night. 

That night he first met Iris still was so vivid in his mind. What happened. What she did.

But that's exactly why I have to get out of here!

He knew what the church was intending all along. Why they placed him in this torturous prison to begin with.

Sure it was easy to blame his temper. Or his dark past.

But in truth…

If he was back inside his body… back at the citadel…

All hell would break loose.

"Three months you said?"

"Hm?"

"Three months!" The Gnome lifted up his chin. "That's what you said right? That's all the time I have left?"

"Yes, so to speak."

"Then I'll just have to work harder with the team."

"Good luck with that then," the voice sounded close to losing it in laughter. "If six months hasn't borne any fruit, I doubt three months will. But kudos to you for trying."

"Shut up already. I'll do it, alright! And when I get out of this place… all hell is gonna break loose."

It was time to change things for the Shapeshifter kingdom. Hayato was tired of serving a Church lying to the people, and their Warriors at the citadel, about the true purpose of anything. 

It was time to reset the clock on the current state of politics.

It was time he made sure Iris was protected properly.