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Chapter Text

"Ahaha! You really believe you'll be able to catch me even after your previous fails, Tenma?! You must me sick in the head to think such~!" Kamishiro teases at me.

I scoff. "You just don't have any faith in me." I hiss.

He crosses his arms. "All the other heroes have given up, why haven't you?" Kamishiro sighs, still smiling.

"I don't give up that easily." I mutter, shutting my eyes without realizing the quick mistake.

I instantly realized what I just got myself into when Kamishiro quickly tied my arms together from afar. He had powers, of course.. What a cheat!

"H-huh!?" I gasp, opening my eyes again.

"You always lose focus at such terrible times~" Kamishiro grins, placing a single finger under my chin.

I lift my head away from him but it was no use. I was tied up with a supervillain ready to attack or well, do whatever the hell he was going to do..!

"Akito, Mizuki, or Shiho will help me! I'm sure of it!" I snap.

"As if they'd even realize you left. If you haven't noticed, they've lost all interest in your conversations!" Unfortunately for me, apart of Kamishiro's powers did not only allow him to move things but also allowed him to manipulate other's into believing a word he said.

It was very unfortunate.

Kamishiro pulls out some sort of device I assumed he made since he was crazy smart with mechanics. He clicked a button and spoke into it. "Toya, Tenma has been caught as of now. If you could lend a hand in this?"

"I'll be right there, Kamishiro." It was Aoyagi's voice.

Aoyagi was another villain. For some reason, he had a dragon which I assumed he trained as his own. It was really the only special thing about him other than him physically being able to speak to it.

"I can't believe it was this simple to capture you! Fufu." Kamishiro says.

I grunt. "You got lucky, that's all.."

"Hm, is that so? Today must be a fantastic day then!" Kamishiro adds.

A frown appears on my face. I shake my head. "Somebody will rescue me! I know they will!"

"I wouldn't set your heart on it, Tenma." Aoyagi says, flying down with the dragon as per mentioned.

"Aoyagi..." I mumble.

If I hadn't said before, Aoyagi used to be a hero too only to have switched sides for an unknown reason.

"It's been awhile since we've spoken, hasn't it?" He deadpans.

I sigh. "It has."

"Enough chit-chat you two! Toya, we need to take him there before a citizens sees." Kamishiro intrupts.

"Right, my apologies, Rui." Aoyagi sincerely says.

So formal... and for what?

"How far are we from 'home'?" Kamishiro asks.

"About a mile or two, so not too far." Aoyagi responds.

Kamishiro uses his powers to set me on Aoyagi's dragon and sits next to me. Aoyagi hops on and within minutes we take flight. It was strange flying. Of course, I had been in air before but never with villains.

"Apparently there's a new villain in Wonderland," Kamishiro blurts out.

"Oh? What's their name? Maybe we could recruit them," Aoyagi asks while also suggesting.

"Uhh, I believe her name was Emu Otori." Kamishiro says.

Aoyagi hesitates. "I believe I've heard of her,"

"Yeah, her powers are kind of like mine I guess just without the manipulation tricks. She can control things with her power." Kamishiro explains.

I tilt my head. "I thought your powers were super rare?" I mutter.

"They are, but there are very few individuals out there with a similar power. Otori being one of them." Kamishiro tells me.

I nod, once again becoming silent. "Alright, we're here." Aoyagi smiles, jumping off the quite tall dragon.

Kamishiro follows and uses his magic to bring me towards him. He did it so effortlessly, it was shocking.

The entrance looked like a giant empy cave while when we entered, it was entirely different. It was like hidden. I didn't blame them, they were illegal around the land.

"What the hell?" I gasp.

"Impressed?" Kamishiro smirks.

There were machinery everywhere, likely from Kamishiro. Since it was still slightly a cave, there were crystals and gems that shined. The walls were mixed with white granite and stone which gave it a nice color. It was very big inside too.

"You guys did all of this..!?" I yell.

"Mhm, well, Nene and Kamishiro designed it and built it." Aoyagi says.

"Kaito had the gem and crystal idea!" Kamishiro adds onto the sentence.

Nene and Kaito, they were both villains. Nene Kusanagi had the ability to control a giant robot which I presumed Kamishiro made.

"Oh! Rui! Aoyagi!" It was Kaito.

"Kaito, hello!" Kamishiro greets, hugging Kaito and completely forgetting that his powers had me in the air.

I face plant onto the ground and groan. "Ow-"

"Oh, right, sorry." Kamishiro chuckles.

"I see you caught Tenma?" Kaito says.

Aoyagi nods. "Rui did." He hesitates. "Speaking of which, Rui you should probably lock him up."

I freeze. "Ah, right. I'll be right back." Kamishiro says, now picking me back up using his powers.

Red swirls outlined my body as Kamishiro brought me to a strangely well-designed cell.

Kamishiro opens the door to the cell, dropping me in and sighing. "I wouldn't get too comfortable as I do plan to test what powers you have later on." Kamishiro says, leaning up against a wall.

"Are you not going to untie me?" I question.

"I forgot about that, hold on." He twirls his fingers causing more of the red sparks and swirls to appear and suddenly the rope disappeared.

"Thanks, I guess..?" I chuckle.

"Since I suppose you'll be here for quite some time, feel free to use my first name." Kamishiro, or now I should say Rui mutters.

"Oh, uhm, yeah same here." I say.

Rui sighs before sitting down onto the ground. "I don't think we've ever had a civil conversation, Tsukasa." Rui murmurs.

I nod. "Why would we? We're enemies, aren't we?"

"Toya used to be a hero, he was my enemy. Now I speak to him everyday. I wouldn't necessarily say that we wouldn't ever have a civil conversation between you and I?" Rui shrugs.

"Why did he become a villain anyway?" I ask.

Rui hesitates. "We originally kidnapped him and were able to change his opinion on villains and heroes." He says.

I frown. "That's-... terrible!"

"I could give you how we changed his opinion, and how it may change yours if you'd like, Tsukasa." Rui suggests.

I shake my head. "Yeah, no thanks."

"Worth a shot," Rui chuckles.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Tsukasa's POV

It felt a little strange to be at your enemies house. Especially when he said he'd do whatever you desired but instead it went the otherway around.

Rui probably used his manipulation powers on me and I hadn't even noticed. Now, you're probably wondering, "well Tsukasa, why is that such an issue that he manipulated you to be at his house?"

It was an issue because I barely knew the guy and it wasn't long ago that he not only kissed me but that same day threatened my life. I could die here. 

His room was quite modern. It had robots and mechanics everywhere. There were balloon animals and just random circular balloons scattered everywhere. Boxes and books flooded the walls. There was also a computer on a desk that had tons of papers. The computer seemed like it hadn't been used in a few days as it was cold and dusty.

Rui was working on some drone of his that seemed to have malfunctioned. "I didn't expect your room to be such a mess," I mutter.

He turns to me. "How kind of you to say," Rui irritatedly says.

"That was a compliment I swear," 

"Yeah, sure it was." He rolls his eyes a bit before returning to the drone's mechanics.

I sigh, sitting down onto a couch he had in his room. I didn't see a bed anywhere so I assumed that was where he slept unless this was just his little workshop area.

I freeze at the sudden noise of a beep that came from the drone Rui held. He smiles. "There," A chuckle escaped his mouth.

The drone flew up into the air and Rui seemed proud of his success. "What was wrong with it beforehand?" I ask.

"One of the wings broke off and caused it to crash, some kid thought it'd be funny to run over it with his bike as well. It was a quick fix though." Rui explains.

A quick fix huh? That took half an hour.

"Kids really are just assholes in the kingdom aren't they?" I say.

He nods. "A majority are, though I have met a few who were intrigued to speak with me; and this was while I was in the villain's costume." 

I was shocked to hear that. Did the parents of these children seriously not care if they spoke to a literal criminal?!

"That's a bit concerning.." I mutter. 

Rui chuckles again. "Don't worry, I didn't hurt them or anything. I told them it's best for them to keep their distance from heroes and villains, that way they won't get caught up in this stuff." 

I lean back onto the couch and sigh in relief. "Be honest, have you ever actually hurt a kid before?" I question him. 

I was curious to know whether he had or not. Even if he did, it wasn't like I could change the past without powers of time travel, which were extremely rare.

"Out of my knowledge, no I haven't. Unless you consider you a child since you're still a minor." Rui replies.

"You're the same age as me, aren't you!?" I yelp.

He nods. "I am, but you're more childish than me."

I scoff. "As if you aren't immature!" 

Rui shrugs. "You've got me there, but I don't see why it matters." he says.

I push my legs up to my chest and rest my head on my knees, shutting my eyes. "Tired so soon?" Rui says, laughing a bit.

"It's pretty late so to answer your question, yes I am tired." I keep my eyes shut.

I was exhausted. I hadn't used my wings in awhile and using them today wore me out. People assume having the ability to fly by birth is so eash but in reality it's just another muscle needing to move that makes you ten times as tired than before.

"If you'd like, I can go grab a mattress so you can sleep. I'll probably just sleep on the couch," Rui yawns.

I lift my head and nod, opening my eyes slightly. "That'll work," I mumble.

I close my eyes again and fall asleep for a little while. That was until Rui returned saying he apparently didn't own a mattress anymore. "How the hell does a mattress just disappear?" I ask.

"No idea." He laughs.

It was only until about midnight that we decided to just sleep on the couch together as it'd be simpler. I slept on the right end and he slept on the left. Although, I would be kicked in the face quite a lot based on his height. 

To my surprise, that didn't happen. Apparently Rui was one of the people that slept with both legs up to their chest. I did the same, it was just natural instinct for me. 

-

Rui's POV

I woke up randomly at about two in the morning to find Tsukasa next to me. How did that happen? No idea. Did I care? Not really. I was tired and cared more about sleeping than where the hell Tsukasa was at.

It was only at about 8AM when I woke up a second time, realizing what had happened. I couldn't move from my place as his head was rested softly against my chest and his arm wrapped around me. 

"Tsukasa-kun?" I whisper.

Nothing.

I try to wake him up and he stays completely still, snoring with little sighs. There wasn't much I could do than just sit there or to go back asleep.

I stayed up because of the solid reason of us having to meet up with the others at noon. 

Tsukasa woke up at 9AM and gasped realizing what happened. "Oh my god- I'm so sorry-!" He apologizes, moving away. 

I sit up and chuckle. "No need to apologize," I mutter.

Tsukasa seemed embarrassed at such a mistake. "That is a massive need for an apology!" He frowns.

I shake my head. "In my opinion, it is not."

"Well that's probably because you're insane." He blurts out.

"Probably," I shrug, still grinning.

Chapter Text

Although, I wasn't sure if Rui would be able to keep them asleep as we escaped. I'm sure it's fine...

Chapter Text

I stayed close to Rui as we left the palace. I couldn't risk anything again. There were still battles between the villains and guards but all I knew was that we needed to get the gemstone to safety.

"Tsukasa-kun, are you alright?" Rui asks as he pulled me aside. Nobody seemed to notice our absence which gave him the perfect chance to speak with me.

"If I weren't, why would it concern you?" I mutter.

Rui chuckles before leaning towards me for a hug. I push him away as I didn't have much appeal to touch right now. He scoffs. "It's only a worry for me because you do seem a bit distraught. Perhaps it is because you're upset about the loss of the home you had only ever known?"

I was speechless at his (correct) assumption. It wasn't often that I surrounded myself with people who could guess exactly why I had been upset. Maybe he was able to always get it right from his powers? He could manipulate the mind so maybe it related to that.

I avoided eye-contact as much as I could but he forced us to lock eyes by lifting my head to face him. "I know how hard it must be to see your home get destroyed like this, but trust me it's for the best." he says.

I hated that he was always right. For the span of a month that I've known him, he knew everything about me. Of course, I knew him for a while now since some how I was his vassal but it still was a surprise to me.

I stayed quiet. I didn't have the words at that second. I searched for them but couldn't grasp them whatsoever.

"Tsukasa-kun?" Rui blinks a few times. I never realized how long his eyelashes were, it genuinely surprised me. Now that I thought about it, his movements were much more feminine rather than masculine. No matter how the public described him, he always was the opposite to what people said.

"Tsukasa-kun?" Rui repeats.

"S-sorry." I murmur, glancing downwards.

Rui places his hand down to my shoulder and sighs. "You don't need to apologize all the time, you know?"

I frown. "Why shouldn't I? I have a reason to say sorry," I state.

"Do you though?" He says, "In my opinion it seems more like a response that you'd often say in the past, more like a trauma response."

Trauma response?

I didn't have trauma, right? I mean not trauma that I was aware of? "Trauma? I don't have-"

"At what age did they start forcing you to train?" Rui snaps, removing his hands from my shoulders and putting them to his side.

"Age seven, why?" I cross my arms.

"When you made a mistake, did they hurt you at all?" He asks.

I hesitate to think about it for a minute. Anytime I had made a small mistake while training as a kid they would smack me and yell at me. I guess that could count. "Yeah? But how would this relate to-" Rui cuts me off.

"How much had you apologized during those incidents?"

"A ton, but seriously how does this relate!?" I grunt.

"Whenever you made a mistake you'd apologize and that has interfered with you now. It's a trauma response." Rui explains to me.

"Oh."

How hadn't I realized it before? God, I really was stupid.

"How messed up was the kingdom for you not to realize that?" Rui sighs.

I shrug. "We were taught to believe whatever they said," I mutter.

"And nobody found any wrong in that?"

I shake my head. "Why are you full of questions?" I hiss.

"Oh! They're over here!" A voice chimes.

It was Mizuki. They rush over to us with a smile. "Why'd you two leave!?" They ask.

"I needed to have a private discussion with Tsukasa-kun," Rui answers.

"Oh, alright, I just thought it'd be best for you to know that Kaito found somewhere to hide the gemstone and that a majority of the guards surrendered." Mizuki tells us.

"That was quick, why did they surrender?" I mutter.

"According to Shiho after we had left the castle, they had saw Kamishiro and stepped down out of fear." Mizuki seemed happy to explain that.

"I don't think you have a very good reputation here, Rui." I joke.

"I wonder why!" He laughs.

Chapter Text

It wasn't like we had medicine for that either. If we were vomiting then we'd just need to get over it. Tsukasa suggested for me to rest but I couldn't just rest when the royals could attack any moment to retrieve the gem!

"You won't get better if you don't rest!" Tsukasa snaps.

"I'm not tired!" I sounded like a child refusing to go to sleep at night.

Tsukasa grunts. He stumbles over to me and looks up. He was shorter than me, which gave me a bigger advantage to stop whatever he was about to do.

"If you don't rest you won't be able to fight in battle." He says, crossing his arms.

I sigh. No matter how hard I fought, he wouldn't give up. I push a strand of hair behind my ear before leaning towards Tsukasa to hug him.

"Eh–!?" Tsukasa gasps, freezing in place. I bury my face into his shoulder. It was a bit of a pain to bend my back like that. 

I stand up straight once again before crouching down and grabbing Tsukasa by his legs and having myself stand back up to carry him all the way to my room bridal style. Each villain apart of this group got a bedroom incase they needed somewhere to hide so it always was useful. I found his expression quite funny due to him being completely argumentative to this. "If I'm going to sleep that means you are too." I say.

"WAIT WAIT WAIT! I DIDN'T AGREE TO THIS!" He cries. I chuckle at his response.

We reach my room and I open the door with a struggle. Tsukasa seemed to have given up on fighting when I plopped him down onto my bed. "You're the worst." He whines.

"You can say what you want, but just remember that if you hadn't bugged me about needing rest this wouldn't have happened... oh how terrible it must be to sleep!" I groan with sarcasm.

Tsukasa scoffs before resting his head on the pillow with some aggression. I chuckle quietly, laying down next to him.

"What is it with you and doing strange romantic things?" Tsukasa asks.

"Hngh, just shut up and go to sleep, Tsukasa-kun." I mumble, wrapping an arm around him.

"Fine," He grunts, shutting his eyes and burying his head into my chest.

I found it silly how one could do something like that so easily. Did I mind the affection? No, I liked his touch actually. I valued it at any chance I got.

It only took Tsukasa a couple minutes to fall asleep. I was still awake, cautiously waiting for me to have to get up and vomit in a trash can.

It surprised me that Tsukasa warmed up to the villains this quickly. I wouldn't have trusted a word we said. The reason being that we lied.

As much as I hated to admit it, the entire "The king stole our precious gem!" thing was a lie. We came up with it for Toya and reused the idea for Tsukasa. Shiho just happened to know what we were up to and made a deal with us. A deal that she couldn't repay.

What we really wanted was power. Of course, that's what everybody wanted! Even if I was a noble, I ignored every ounce of royalty in my blood. I had power, unneeded power. I wanted to be king. Not a noble. I needed more than some stupid money and land.

I was still wounded as a child which also related to my anger towards the kingdom, but the gemstone wasn't the truth. Yes, the gem did give powers, but was it ours in the first place? Absolutely not.

It was a criminal attack. Now with the royals being dethroned, we can takeover the kingdom. We can control everything in our reach..

Tsukasa yawns before resting his head to be still. He looked peaceful. It hurt to know that after today he and the other heroes would have no choice but to be peasants for us. If we felt nice enough, we could force them to be vassals, but that's too royal like. We wanted pure anarchy.

I move a strand of his hair behind his ear. If only Aphrodite could lend me him to be my own, then he wouldn't have to be a peasant or any of the sort. Something deep within me felt like I was wrong for lying. I couldn't turn back now. There wasn't any way that would allow me to return back to a good place.

I sigh, moving a bit closer to Tsukasa and shutting my eyes. I was comfortably laid there. I never thought of myself as someone who enjoyed physical touch, but with Tsukasa it was different. It was like I wanted to be with him forever. I wanted him to be in my arms without consequence. Emotions are difficult things, huh?

Tsukasa sniffles a bit. My eyes flutter open. He looked rather uncomfortable. A nightmare possibly? His face was a bit red and blushed too.

I had learned a spell a couple months back. If someone nearby was having a dream or nightmare, with a simple spell, you could see it. Though, it wouldn't change whether it was a happy or bad dream.

I was curious to know what he could've possibly been dreaming about. But passing through anothers dream was a dangerous and risky thing to do.

"W-wait, Rui–" Tsukasa mumbles.

He sleep talks? Curiosity spread all throughout my mind. Apparently I was associated with this dream?

There was a high chance of him forgetting his dream when he awoke. There was no way I was going to miss out on this. Plus, it'd be quite funny to see what he dreams of.

It only took me a couple seconds to decide whether I were to do the spell or not. I decided not to. It'd be funnier to mess with him when he woke up if he did remember it.

I shut my eyes again and fall asleep.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

I flip the paper over and there was the map to where the Administrative Control's location was. Underneath the kingdom? Why out of all places did they put it there?

I grunt, folding the paper into its previous form. I walk out of the room and back over to the group. "I got the map, but the unfortunate news is that it'll be a struggle to get there."

Keiko goes quiet before shrugging. He sighs and sits down in one of the chairs. "Look, Kamishiro, I am giving you a once in a lifetime opportunity here and you're just throwing it away! Think for a second, wouldn't it be nice to–" I cut him off.

"I'd rather be the one in harm than the people I care most about be." I snap.

Keiko scoffs, twirling a pen around until it fell. "Weren't you also the one who lied to those people? Didn't you lie so you could control the kingdom and make them your peasants?" he grins.

"Yeah, but–"

"Then I don't see why it matters to you if we kill them or not." he mutters.

"I changed my mind about what I'd do to the kingdom. I don't want anything to do with it. Meaning, the villains don't plan on doing anything to the heroes. I suggest you shut the fuck up, alright?" I snap.

"Hmm.. I don't see why I should." Keiko chuckles. "I mean, I could ruin your friendships with everyone by just exposing the fact you and the white knight were making out in your room,"

How the hell...?

"One, we were just kissing, nothing more, and secondly, how do you know that?" I state.

He doesn't answer. I wanted to know how he knew, but I doubted that he would say anything. Not one person knew about me and Tsukasa's relationship or anything related to it. I mean, Nene knew a little bit, but not a lot.

Keiko leaves the room, completely silent. I hope the others are alright.

"Ngh, that's not what we're talking about right now... How the hell are you a fairy?!"

"Some witch turned me into one, I'm used to it though." Ena explains in the shortest amount of detail possible.

"If I had known Ena was your sister, I would've reunited you two a while ago." Mizuki adds.

"I just never brought it up because I doubted you knew him." Ena mutters.

Tsukasa, Shiho, Toya, and Miku looked completely lost.

"Guys we're getting distracted. The more time we waste, the less time we'll have to spend on saving everyone." Tsukasa grunts.

"Sorry, Emu, you know where the fairy's live, lead the way." I say.

Emu nods without question. She walks away and everyone follows. Geez, if only Tsukasa and Mizuki had that much obedience.

Chapter Text

I would say that it was a pretty unfortunate situation to be in, but did that stop people from enjoying themselves? Absolutely not.

"You're here to try and speak with Kamishiro too?" A fairy with pink hair says. I was surprised that she knew English.

Wait, what did she mean by 'too'?

"Does someone else happen to be here that needs to speak with Rui?" I ask.

She nods. "Kanade Yoisaki! She came here urgently asking if she could send a message to someone named Rui Kamishiro."

Miku looked shot in the heart once hearing the name. "K-Kanade?" Miku mutters.

Wasn't Kanade the girl that someone spoke of earlier when we went to get the map?

I brushed it off. All I needed to focus on was how to send the message to Rui. That was all.

"Would it be alright if we go ahead and send the message to Rui?" I questioned her response.

"Yep! Whoever is sending the message, come along and follow me!" she replies.

Chapter Text

Rui’s POV

My head ached, a lot. Despite my great and successful attempt at escaping, I still felt uneasy. I wasn’t sure how’d remove myself from their control. If I even fell asleep for a few minutes, they’d know and immediately use it for wrong. It wasn’t a good idea for me to faint now, I had to stay awake.

Nene and Kaito seemed to notice as they continued to look at me weirdly. I sigh. I would be fine if I hadn’t allowed myself and the others to get captured. It’s ridiculous. I knew very well that they were coming and I didn’t do anything about it other than write a dumb note. Now here I was, sitting in a ventilation system waiting for Tsukasa and the others to arrive. 

I wasn’t actually sure if they would arrive. I mean, he figured out how to get in contact with me so if I was right, he’d be able to let me know. I was still a bit thrown off by the fact Kanade tried to send a message. She hated me, but that couldn’t be why she tried. “Rui?” Nene mutters. 

I blink a couple of times, regaining focus. “Hm?”

“Are you alright?” she asks, frowning.

Her worried looked made me guilty. Why did I feel guilty? I didn’t do anything wrong? Then I remembered. I did do something wrong. 

Tsukasa Tenma, someone I cared deeply about was being lied to by me. In the beginning he had no idea that I was a noble in the kingdom. I’ve only just recently lied to him about the whole kingdom–villain thing.

I also told him that I believed Saki had died. If she really did die, I wouldn’t even be in such a situation right now. The thing was, she didn’t die. The medical clinic in the kingdom did everything to stop her from dying, she ended up living, except, under their rules. 

Because of her willingness to join the villains, she was put down multiple times throughout the classes. Even if she originally was a samurai, just like Tsukasa, she was put down to a peasant ranking. The reason being because she was a terrorist to the kingdom. Even if she did switch sides, that didn’t stop them from recalling her past.

Poor Tsukasa doesn’t even know his sister is alive. I would tell him if I was allowed, but to my stupidity of exposing my identity, I couldn’t. I practically made a deal with the devil himself. I made a promise to the king that if he didn’t put us forth to our demise, I would never tell anyone about the illegal deranking of Saki.

Although that may be a selfish return, I couldn’t risk having anyone killed. Especially not after Honami’s death. 

Honami, a young girl, close to my age. She had light brown hair and casually wore red. She had the death led by Toya’s own remarks. At least, that’s who the kingdom blamed it on. 

Toya Aoyagi, a recent member of the villains, also known as the kingdom’s first ever black knight. A knight that has the ability to communicate with unwilling species while also having an option to practice dark magic. The kingdom despised such a person. Toya wasn’t like anything they said or anything for what the title ‘the black knight’ stood for. His personality was far too kind for it. 

But, the kingdom blamed every silly mistake on him. They gave him the role of a black knight just to criticize him. It came to be no shock of why he joined our side. 

I’m getting off track again, aren’t I?

“I’m fine.” I mumble as a reply to Nene’s unanswered question. 

“Are you sure? You don’t look fine.”

I open my mouth to speak before swallowing down my dreadful words. I couldn’t say anything. She had the right to be concerned.

“Yeah, no need to be worried. I swear to you that I am okay.” I fake a smile. 

I look around to see where Kaito was, he wasn’t with us. “Where’s Kaito?” I could feel my heart thump faster. There were a million answers to such a question. 

“He went off to look for weapons,” 

I gulp. He could be killed!

Nene sighs before placing a hand on my shoulder. “I know that look, stop worrying so much, alright? He’ll be fine, plus he’s literally beaten both you and Emu in a fight before! With his bare hands!” She exclaims.

Even then he could’ve just had pure luck. Right now, it was a serious life or death situation. What if I lost control and killed Nene and had Kaito forced to fight me? At my full strength!

“Well, what if–” I get cut off by the sound of an explosion. 

“Emu! I told you not to blow up the wall! Were gonna get caught!” Tsukasa snaps.

Wait.

Tsukasa?

Without even thinking, impulsively even, I jump out of one of the nearby vents. Because of it being a large building with a lab facility, they needed large ventilation.

“Wh– RUI!” Nene shouts.

Tsukasa focuses his attention to me. He seemed surprised I was even alive. I rush over to him and hug him. It had only been a week since I last saw him in person, but even then it felt like forever. Nene ends up jumping out as well. She walks over to Emu.

Toya, Akito and Miku were there. Wait a second, Miku’s here? She rarely involves herself in a situation like this. I let go of Tsukasa. He frowns. “Jesus christ, I thought you were about to squeeze me to death!” 

“Aww, but am I just not allowed to miss you? How saddening.. I suppose i’ll never hug you again..” I say with a very obvious tone to guilt trip him.

“Stop that!” he snaps.

I chuckle, walking over to Miku. Someone was behind her but I didn’t dare try to speak incase of individual issues. I couldn’t see anything other than an outline of their gray-ish white hair. It reminded me much of Kanade.

“I see you’ve actually decided to join us this time,” I say.

Miku sighs. “Unfortunately..” 

“I take this is your way of finally accepting the villain title?”  

She shakes her head. “No, if that was the case, I would’ve helped explode the wall, but I didn’t. I prefer the title of a vigilante instead as of recently.” Miku exclaims. 

Vigilante? 

“Isn’t that just what the heroes do but without legal confirmation?” I ask.

She nods. “It’s not as bad as you think, I understand if you feel betrayed by this but–”

“No, it’s alright, I can’t necessarily choose what side you’re on.” I sigh. “It’s a better title for you actually, I don’t think the villain thing fit you well.” I interrupted her. I genuinely felt upset by such a switch, but it’s not my choice. “Also, who’s behind you?” 

Miku gasps a little before shaking her head. “N-Nobody? Why?” 

I chuckle in response. “If they don’t want to reveal themselves that’s fine, but there’s no need to lie about it.” 

Miku frowns, placing a single hand on her chest and taking a deep breath. “I just don’t think they feel comfortable around you, specifically.” 

Me? I suppose I have made quite a few enemies. “I can see why they wouldn’t be comfortable with me, but you can let them know that i’m unlikely to hurt anyone who is an ally with the ones I care about.”

Miku looked to the right as if she thought that was a total lie. I mean, it slightly was. When I was fifteen and younger, I wasn’t the nicest person. 

“I can ask them if they’re okay with revealing themselves, just give us some privacy for now..” Miku mumbles.

I nod. “Alright, I need to go find Kaito anyway,” I grin.

I walk back over to the rest of the group. Emu was being scolded by Tsukasa for exploding the wall despite not a single guard or scientist realizing it. “I’m sorryyyy!” Emu whines. 

“Well don’t be so careless—!” I cut him off.

“Tsukasa-kun, leave her alone.” I snap.

He sighs. “But–”

“Leave her alone.”

Tsukasa crosses his arms in anger. I didn’t think he’d react in such a childish way to a little explosion. “I need you to come with me to find Kaito anyway,” I tell him.

“Wait, is he not..?” Tsukasa lookings around. “I swear I saw him.”

“He went to find weapons, but you’re all here now so I suppose it’s best we find him.” I explain.

“Is everyone looking? Or just me and you?” Tsukasa asks.

“I think it’s best we send four people out to find him, two including Tsukasa and Rui, the other two can be Akito and Shiho.” Someone says. I glance over to see a fairy. It was rare to see them out in the open, especially one that can speak english. They kind of reminded me of Akito.

“Speaking of which, I don’t think you and I have met?” They mutter.

I nod. “I don’t believe we have, I’m Kamishiro Rui, feel free to call me Rui.” 

“I’m Ena Shinonome! Ena is also fine!” she smiles.

“Got it, I assume you and Shinonome-kun are related then?” I look down at them.

“Mhm! We’re siblings! But, enough time wasting, is everyone fine with that arrangement?” She yells.

Everyone focuses on her. “I guess so, I mean, it makes the most sense.” Tsukasa says. “Shiho has good sword skills, Akito is fast, I can fly, and well, Rui was obvious.” 

I hated that I seemed to be the go to for everything. I also hated that I was apart of everything. I was the reason for so much. I would rather be known as a side character than a main, but that’s not how a historical moment happens, right?

“While we look for Kaito, everyone else should try and look for any other people who were captured, an example would be Asahina Mafuyu.” I add.

“Mafuyu?” A soft voice murmurs. It was familiar. More familiar than it should’ve been.

Kanade Yoisaki, she was the hidden person, wasn’t she?

“Right now, that seems like the best plan.” Akito says.

It didn’t take long for everyone to leave on their own. Me, Akito, Tsukasa, and Shiho all waited for everyone to pass by. “Are we splitting up, or going together?” Shiho asks.

“I suggest we go in pairs, two per look-out.” Tsukasa says.

I hesitate. “That’ll work for the best, that way if anyone does get captured, it’s not everyone.” 

We all agree to it. The groups were assigned as this.

Rui (me) and Tsukasa.

Akito and Shiho.

They worked out pretty decently. Me and Tsukasa went down an entirely different hall way than the others. If Kaito was anywhere, it’d be in the fighter section. I had found the area by mistake earlier after escaping. 

“Isn’t it suspicious that the guards didn’t come running for us?” Tsukasa mumbles, breaking the silence between us. 

I turn my head to him. “I mean, not really. I figured out how to escape earlier and kind of knocked out or killed, it’s one of the two, most of them.” I explain. “They probably thought I found a way to get out or something.” 

“I guess that’s true, it’s still a bit sketchy though.” Tsukasa stops in his tracks. He looks around for a second before grabbing my arm and stopping myself from continuing. “I think I know why now.” 

I look behind us. Uh oh.

There they were, at least twenty guards, maybe more. One person stood out to me though. Directly in the middle of the large group was Keiko. The same person who tried to experiment on me. The same person who successfully knew how to control me.

For the love of god, a man I knew didn’t exist to me, a man who gave me nothing but hell and pain, I prayed that Keiko didn’t find a way to gain control of me while still conscious. I didn’t even believe in God or at least not the Christian’s God. 

Tsukasa’s POV

It wasn’t often that Rui begged for me to run away from not only him but anyone around us too. It was a chance that was certain to never happen. It was certain to never happen until today. This exact moment. A moment I didn’t think I’d ever experience. 

“Tsukasa-kun,” Is how Rui would’ve started off, but instead there wasn’t a ‘kun’ after my name. He said my name as most did, the way I never thought I’d hear. He’d always refer to people with ‘kun’ at the end of their names, but not this time. As much as it pained me to hear the beginning of the sentence, I knew nothing good were to arrive from it. “Tsukasa, please.” Rui mutters. “I’ll never forgive myself if you don’t start running.” 

What did he mean by that?

“I’ll never forgive myself.” Why would he say that? He surely wasn’t going to hurt me, right?

“Rui, what do you mean by that?!” I snap.

No response. He just.. Looked at me. Nothing was said. I just knew that I’d be hurt more than I was meant to if I didn’t start running. So I ran. I ran faster than I knew I could.

I rushed into some.. Laboratory? 

I didn’t see anyone inside, so it seemed safe. A giant window viewed another room. Inside the room was some electronic handcuffs or something strapped onto the wall. It looked like it was made to hang someone by their arms. A way to stop all blood pressure from going to their hands. It was a technique that stopped people’s abilities.

On the glass of the window was a splatter of blood. Maybe somebody was in here?

I walk around to see if anybody was visible. Nothing.

It was a little concerning to be honest. Nobody would’ve expected something like this anywhere. I frown. This could be a safe place to hide at. For whatever Rui had been hinting, I was sure that it’d be a good idea to hide rather than to wander around. 

I walk into the room that had the viewing of the opposing side of the window. It was most definitely blood on the glass. I noticed a few strands of purple hair that lied across the floor. Was this where they kept Rui originally?

If I was right, that meant the blood was likely his. Although, it could be someone else’s blood that was spilled because of Rui. I didn’t really think that he’d throw them against glass? No, actually, he didn’t. The glass would’ve shattered if he had. 

I freeze by the sudden sound of a voice. Someone was in here. They weren’t speaking though, they sounded.. Scared? A faint gasp was heard when I started walking towards the sound of choked sobs. They were underneath a towel.

I move the towel away to find a girl who looked about seventeen with purple hair. She had tears rolling down her face. She looks up at me and yelped. “D-Don’t hurt me! Please! I–” 

“I’m not here to hurt you, are you alright?” I ask, kneeling down to reach her height. 

She gulps. “I–” 

“I’m Tenma Tsukasa, I’ve been given the title of a hero and are paired aside the villains as of recent. I can assure you that I have no intentions of harm.” I place a hand on her shoulder which she jumps a bit from. “Could you at least tell me your name?” I ask.

She nods. “I’m Asahina Mafuyu.” 

My mouth drops open in shock. Asahina Mafuyu? Wasn’t she..

. . .

“While we look for Kaito, everyone else should try and look for any other people who were captured, an example would be Asahina Mafuyu.” Rui added.

“Mafuyu?” Kanade murmured quietly trying not to give much attention to herself.

“Right now, that seems like the best plan.” Akito said. 

. . .

On my hunt for Kaito, I ended up finding Asahina. “Y-You’re Kanade’s—”

“Kanade?” Asahina mumbles.

I nod. “She was your friend, right?”

“Yeah, I suppose she was.” 

“She’s here right now, just not with me. I would bring you to her but it isn’t safe.” It isn’t safe because the person I love is probably losing his mind right now.

“Oh.. They switched out the controlling pad for Kamishiro, didn’t they? That’s why I feel free..?” she says.

What?

“How do you know who Rui is?” I ask.

“I was visible to all my actions, I just couldn’t say or do what I wanted. Kamishiro, they did everything in their power to take control of him and if they swapped out the panels they can now take control over him.” 

WHAT?!

That’s why he wanted me to run. He didn’t want to hurt me. He didn’t want me to die from his hands. 

Toya’s POV

I was feeling a bit anxious. Not because of the current situation, but because I knew that if they figured out how to control Rui or are using the controlling option over Asahina, then Akito and the others.. They’d have no chance.

I couldn’t risk losing anyone. Especially not Akito. I’ve known him all my life and for him to die now would be a heartache to deal with. It wasn’t like I was in love with him, no.. or maybe? I don’t know. I felt a certain way around him that I did with no other.

If I were to lose him, i’d probably struggle to stay alive myself. “Toya? Are you okay? You look a bit worried,” Kaito asks.

Wait.

Kaito?!

“When did you get here?!” I mutter.

“A few minutes ago, I noticed you guys were here finally and joined the walk! I’m not sure why Tsukasa, Shiho and Akito aren’t with you though.” He explains.

“They’re not with us because Tsukasa, Akito, Shiho and Rui went to find you.” Miku says.

“That’s– not good.” Kaito cautiously looked around. “I’ll go look for them, you guys can stay here,”

“Could I come with you?” I utter. “I feel a bit anxious as if something bad is about to happen, and I can’t risk anyone getting hurt.” 

Kaito nods. “Of course, just be aware that you will have to fight,”

“I know.”

“Okay!” 

—

It was only an hour in that we found Akito and Shiho, Rui and Tsukasa were nowhere to be found. Akito did mention something though that caught everyone’s attention. “I think I saw a bit of red light coming from a hall, so that could be a sign of Rui and Tsukasa, but that could also mean Rui had to use his powers.”

“That can’t be good.” Shiho frowns. 

“They were testing things on Rui I believe, he was talking about it a few minutes before I left to find weapons.” Kaito mentions in the most casual way ever. I had a feeling this wasn’t the first time he’d dealt with the Administrative Control.

“If they were testing things on him, that would mean that they have the ability to take control over how he uses his ability and his thought process, correct?” I ask for reassurance.

Kaito nods. “Yeah, so we need to be cautious, while at the same time be concerned for Tsukasa.” 

We all agreed to walk down the hall Akito said he saw the red from. On the way down, we noticed a large and disturbing amount of blood. I wanted to think that it was just from defense. 

“Tsukasa?! Rui?!” Akito shouts.

“I don’t suggest yelling, it’ll only get us caught.” I mumble.

“Right, sorry.” 

We continue walking before finding an open door. It was to a laboratory. We enter it to find Tsukasa, but no Rui. He was with some teenaged girl who looked like she was ready to end her life already. Kaito seemed to know who she was though. “Mafuyu?” He gasps, rushing over to her.

“Oh! Kaito! Wait, did you guys find him?” Tsukasa asks.

“He technically found us, but sure.” Akito chuckles.

Tsukasa had a guilty look printed on his face. I walk over to him, pulling him aside from the others. “You don’t look okay, did something happen? Where’s Rui?” I mutter.

He sighs. “I’m fine, Rui just– the A.C, they took control over him and right before he told me to run and—” I hug him. 

“I’m sure there’s a way to fix this, okay?”

He sobs a bit, loosening every tight grip he pressured onto his body. “I know, Asahina said all we needed was to destroy the control panel..” 

“Then that’s what we’ll do, for now, I believe we should go back to the others.” I say, lowering my voice a bit. 

“Alright,” 

We head back over to the rest of the group. Group as in Shiho, Kaito, Akito and Asahina. “So that’s all we need to do? Sounds easy enough,” Shiho smiles.

“Except it isn’t, we need to make sure Keiko is distracted at all times just to take it right out of his hands.” Asahina rests her head against the wall before stretching out her arms. 

I assumed that they were talking about how to fix all of this. I mean, that’s the top priority right now. “We’ll need a sacrifice just in case, someone who is willing to die because they would want to stop this. Just by breaking the panel, you can get severely hurt.” she adds.

Akito glances over at Tsukasa. Tsukasa gasps, “I AM NOT—”

“Shut up, you’ll get us caught.” Akito snaps. “I didn’t say we would be using you, but i’d like for you to be our distraction.” 

“Huh?” Tsukasa deadpanned for a second. “So, i’m bait? How would that– what?”  

“Toya, can you call up the others to come here, I have a plan in mind and we need Nene and Emu for it.” Akito completely ignores Tsukasa.

“Yeah, I can.” I press the button that was set against my ear. Rui had made everyone an earpiece so we could all communicate a week ago before he got captured. The only unfortunate thing though was if Rui had the ear piece, he’d hear us. I doubted he did though, he likely had it confiscated. 

“Nene? Or anyone really, where are you currently?” I ask after hearing the beep that let me know someone was on the other end.

“Oh, Toya! We’re still where we were. We found some room with a few weapons and wanted to see if we could gather anything useful!” Mizuki replies.

I sigh with relief. I was glad to know they were at least alive. “Alright, I need you guys to come down—” It cuts out. I hadn’t realized that Akito had shouted for me to get out of the way. I didn't even see the red strike that passed right by my head. I didn’t see it until I felt Akito shove me out of the way. I wasn’t the one who got hurt. Akito was.

“AKITO!” I shout, slightly dragging myself over to him. Everyone else had their swords and weapons drawn. I couldn’t think straight. Not at all. The blood that was meant to be spilled from my body instead set loose from his. I could hear my heart beating for the first time in a while. I wanted to cry. That I did.

How dramatic of me. 

“Awh, crying over your stupid boyfriend, yeah? That’s unfortunate.” A pathetically, annoying, and aggravating voice snickers. 

I look beside me. There in the doorway stood Rui. I realized that everyone else was filled with fear. Even Kaito for once in his life. Nobody had ever been able to knock Akito out. Not one single blade had the chances of touching his skin.

It wasn’t that he was just passed out, no, it was that he was nearing death. A sorcerer of dark magic had the ability to do whatever they desired. Rui always limited it. He never allowed himself to go close to dark magic. While under the control of the A.C, he had no choice but to use whatever magic they applied to him. 

“Akito, I–” I choke on a sob slightly. I don’t think I’ve ever cried as hard as I was right now. 

He did one of those stereotypical things people did in theater. Shoved their loved ones’ away and then being the one to get shot. There was no chance that either of us would’ve lived. One would die and the other would live. It was unreasonable to be crying, why am I crying? He hated me. 

No.

He didn’t hate me.

You heard him the other day when you had fainted. He said he loved you, didn’t he? 

Just let him die, Toya! This shouldn’t be so difficult!

Rui, when he was near death, Tsukasa didn’t give up to save him. Why should I give up on Akito when I know he cares? I lean towards him to try and stop the blood with his cape. He certainly wouldn’t be happy with the blood stain, but that doesn’t matter. His life matters.

“Toya, please, don’t waste your time, I’m fine–” he tries to sit up before grunting in pain. I knew damn well he wasn’t fine. 

“You’re not fine! Just sit still–! I-I’ll get a fairy to heal you Akito, I–” 

He couldn’t bare his judgment. “I’m fine, I swear to you, i’ve had worse injuries,” Akito places his hand in my hair and ruffles it a bit.

“Could you two stop being so scared for Akito’s life and actually fight?” Rui frowns. 

I glare at him. “I wouldn’t be worried about him if it weren’t for you.” 

Rui gasps quietly before bursting into laughter. “Wooww, okay. Him jumping in front of you to save your life isn’t my fault.” 

I realized that Tsukasa had ditched us. Shiho, Asahina, and Kaito stood quietly behind a wall. I was surprised Rui hadn’t noticed them yet. “You know, maybe i’ll just, kill you too.”

I gulp. “You wouldn’t dare to hurt me. You swore you’d never hurt me after that day.” I hiss.

“But I didn’t apologize, did I?”

He didn’t ever apologize. He didn’t even care. He only cared about it when Saki had left. Not a thought raced through his head while he slit my wrists. He just did it without thinking. All I said was, “okay,” and I was hurt. Hurt by someone I now hated. 

He was the reason for all of this. If he wasn’t a villain, I’d have a happy life with my friends and maybe then me and Akito would be grateful for even being alive.

But no.

He just had to get a stab wound as a child and cause everyone in the world to suffer. “Maybe this is why Tsukasa left, he left and didn’t even try to save you.” I snap.

Rui frowns. “As if Tsukasa’s decisions even affect me.” his voice cracked. 

I stand up and look at him blankly. I wasn’t just angry, I was pissed.

“You know very well that anything said about Tsukasa is always a dreamland for you. You spoke of him so kindly and said you’d love him for as long as you could. It’s impossible for you to say you don’t care for him, even if you are under someone’s control, you know damn well you care for him!” 

Rui chuckles. “Oh, how lovely.”

.

.

.

“ How lovely, how lovely, how LOVELY!” I could tell he wasn’t himself. Not one bit. Nobody, not even someone as insane as he is, would say such a thing. This wasn’t Rui. Not even his body. It was a fake, a disguise. 

Akito in reality was alright, he just was phased by the illusion. I look over at the others. They were frozen. They looked scared. Scared for their lives. “Kaito, Shiho, it’s not Rui! It’s a disguise or something–!” I shout.

Kaito blinks a few times before realizing the few green pixels that could be seen by the disguise. Their ability was reality alteration. A power that lets them disguise themselves and the world around them as something completely different, but one touch and it disappears.

Kaito cocks his gun back before shooting at the other. Whoever was pretending to be Rui was clearly not good with dodging bullets because they immediately were shot down. “Ngh– god dammit!” 

Kaito grins. “So that’s why Tsukasa ditched us, he knew it wasn’t Rui, just a distraction.” 

I nod. “That makes this much more understandable.” I look over at Akito, he still had a hole in his stomach, but he seemed painless. “Akito?”

He struggles to stand up. I rush to his side, he would’ve fallen if I hadn’t. “Sorry..” he mutters.

I shake my head. “It’s okay, I’m just glad you aren’t dead,”

I help him regain his balance before finding a few bandages in the room. I figured it’d be best to wrap them around his wound. He thanked me for it, which I took into great consideration. Everyone else had went to search for Tsukasa, leaving us both here alone. I finish wrapping up his injury and sigh, relaxing just for a second. I didn’t get a single relaxing moment since we arrived. 

“Toya?” Akito mumbles, catching my attention. 

“Hm?” I tilt my head to the left. 

He takes a deep breath and exhales slowly. “I know this is random and probably not a good time, but I—”

“I already knew that, Akito. I overheard you the other day when you, Tsukasa, and Mizuki were arguing about relationships.” I say.

Akito goes wide-eyed. “How did you know that, that’s what I was going to say?” he smirks.

“I know you too well to not know,” I chuckle. “And if you were hoping for my response on it, I like you too. I know heroes and villains aren’t a good combo but–” 

“Tsukasa and Rui are dating, it can’t get much worse from there, so if you’re going to ask, then my answers yes.” He smiles. “If you get me pancakes soon, it’s been far too long since I’ve had some.” 

I laugh and then place a hand on his shoulder. “I’m not sure why I thought you hated me, it seems to be quite the opposite..!” I lean in to hug Akito. 

He grins like a happy cat before returning the hug. “Okay, okay, the others probably need us by now, come on.” he shoves me off lightly and stands up. Akito grabs a hold of my hand and drags me out the door. 

“Wait–!” I gasp with a tone filled with laughter. 

It’d been a while since I had so much fun. I wish it would have lasted longer. It didn’t though. Nothing good ever lasts. I was struck with the devious fulfillment of fear by the site of Emu on the floor, scared for her life as Rui held up her battle-ax, close to slicing her into two. This time, it was Rui. 

Tsukasa’s POV

Directly After Tsukasa Ditched The Others

It was obvious that the Rui in the laboratory wasn’t him. It was a fake. There was a few glitch particles from their powers leaking. They clearly didn’t master their ability yet. Which is kind of strange, I mean, why would they allow someone without a fully mastered skill to fight? 

Yet again, these people were kind of evil and oblivious on how to properly fight.

I saw Nene and Emu on my way out of the room. Both glowing with their neon outfits. Emu’s was pink and black, while Nene’s was green and black. Both were based off a virtuality experience ability they had dealt with.

“Oh! Emu! Nene!” I smile, rushing over to them.

“Shut up! Rui is right there!” Nene hushes me.

I freeze and then look around the corner. She was correct. This time, it turned out to be Rui, not some fake. I knew that look. He obviously was planning to hurt somebody. I mean, when doesn’t he plot to kill someone?! It was practically what he was known for, so obviously it was always a concern. 

“Sorry–” I whisper, looking back at them. 

“It’s fine, but we have to be more cautious, you know?” she mumbles.

I nod before quietly pulling out my sword. It wasn’t the most quietest thing to do, but it was better than not having a weapon. The only unfortunate thing about me doing that was that Rui had been extremely close by. Not like a seventy-five feet away, no, he was close to us. He was sure to have heard it. I mean, there wasn’t any doubt he didn’t hear it. I would be the one to blame if he did. 

“So, what’s the plan?” I ask. Emu hesitates. So does Nene until she realized something I knew I wouldn’t end up liking. 

“I have an idea,” Nene crosses her arms. “So, Tsukasa, you’re aware that Rui likes you, right?” 

I frown. Why out of all times would she bring that up? “Yeah, I am, but why does that matter?” I mutter.

She looks over at Emu and then at me again. “This is probably a really sickening idea but–” her next words made me want to kill myself more than anyone had wanted to kill me. 

I knew exactly what she meant, and I don’t think I ever denied something so fast. “Absolutely not!” I yelp.

“Please? It’s the best thing to do for now, and–”

I cut her off. “No! I already–” I shut myself up immediately. Rui was bound to hear us. “Alright, fine, I’ll do it, but on one condition,” I say with a whisper. I couldn’t risk us getting caught. To be more specific, I couldn’t risk Emu getting caught, especially since her powers were similar to Rui’s.

They both look at me, waiting for me to finish my sentence. “If you guys just stop considering everyone ‘heroes’ or ‘villains’. It’s a weird request, but think about it, when is the last time we attacked you guys? It’s been a while, right? It’s best to say were more of so allies than enemies.” 

“I guess so, honestly, I thought you were about to ask us if we would just kill ourselves or something.” Nene glances at Emu. 

“Why would Tsukasa-kun ask us to do that?” she seemed oblivious to everyone’s past with each other. 

“Nevermind then.. So you’ll do it?” Nene tilts her head. 

I nod. “I will, and if I get injured through this, you better be the one paying for the hospital bill.” I half-jokingly say. I was sure to get hurt, I just hoped it wouldn’t be a permanent injury. 

I take a deep breath before walking out into the hall, slightly holding back my words. I was a bit scared to be honest. It wasn’t everyday you put yourself in this situation. Actually, it might be the only time I’d experience this. 

“Rui?” I mutter, trying my best to sound friendly. He turns around to face me. 

“Oh? Tsukasa-kun?” he grins. “I swear I told you to run..” 

I gulp. He was much scarier when you knew he didn’t have control over his own actions. This wasn’t him at all. Yeah, it’s his body, but he isn’t the one in control. 

“I realized that I shouldn’t have just left you here.” I lie. 

Rui’s smile turned into a relaxed expression. “Really?” his voice sounded genuine, yet again that could just be him using his powers on me.

“Mhm, I couldn’t bare to see you forced into that kind of stuff. It’s kind of traumatizing, you know?” I assure him. I wasn’t good at reassuring people, but I think he actually trusted me. I thought he did because he hugged me. Somebody who is trying to kill you doesn’t typically hug you. 

His eyes were dimmer than usual, but not red as described as someone under their control. Was he himself again? I hope so..

“I’m sorry that I didn’t come back immediately,” I mumble.

“That’s okay, all that matters is that you’re here now,” something about him felt uneasy. Something didn’t seem right. He was acting like himself, but could that just be a disguise? 

I sigh. Whatever, even if it is a disguise, I can at least enjoy this moment.

The idea Nene had in mind wasn’t the most appealing idea. I look over to where me, Nene, and Emu once stood. They were both carefully watching. Emu even gave me an energetic thumbs up. I smile. A genuine smile. 

“Rui?” I start off, looking up at him, despite me still being in his arms.

“Hm? Is something wrong, Tsukasa-kun?” he tilts his head, still smiling, softly. 

I take a deep breath. “Your eyes, they’re not as bright..” 

He looks at me funny. “What do you mean? They should be normal, I–” 

I interrupt him. “Well they aren’t! And there isn’t any need for you to lie.” I frown. 

Rui looks down the hall and then at me. He definitely spotted Emu and Nene. “I see, this is just a set up, isn’t it?” I mumbles. 

“Huh? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I wasn’t good at lying. Not one bit.

Rui chuckles slightly, before pushing me to the ground. He grabbed a hold of my arm and pulled it back, stretching it as far as he could. Was he trying to dislocate my arm?! He sighs. It didn’t take him long to harshly step onto my back, likely to be another way to hurt me or something. I did know that it hurt. I knew it hurt because of the amount of pain that fled my mouth in a horrid scream. 

I wasn’t sure of what was going on, but I knew I heard footsteps. Emu and Nene. I knew it had to of been them. I mean, why else would Nene be the one closest to me, yelling at Rui and struggling to remove his grasp? 

“Rui! Stop it!” she snaps. I tried using my other hand to free myself, but it just wasn’t working. It didn’t help that I could feel my head becoming light. I could feel myself becoming weak. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything. 

“Nene, I know you hate him! Just admit you’d prefer this over anything else!” Rui says.

“You don’t hate him though! Meaning you have no right to be the one to do this!” Emu cries. I was sure that I was about to faint or something. I don’t know. 

Then it was complete silence. I could still see motion, I just couldn’t hear. 

I feel the grip loosen on my arms, and the pain on my back leave my body completely. Maybe i’m dead and are seeing the last seconds of my life. No. Don’t think like that. Something like that couldn’t kill you. If being shot multiple times didn’t kill you then a simple thing like that wouldn’t kill you either. 

“I–” I hear Rui gasp. I heard the faint sound of somebody dropping to the floor. Was he crying?

I struggle to sit up, and are able to do to the help of Nene. She looked a bit upset. It looked like she was also crying. Wait, where’s Emu?

I look around frantically. All I saw was her ax shoved directly into her chest. She was on the floor and Nene looked traumatized. Rui looked, scared..?

Nene rushes over to Emu, sobbing without hesitation. She shakes her a bit. Taking the ax out would only cause more harm. It’d allow the blood to continue spilling. “E-Emu?” She touches her face slightly. 

I look back over to Rui. His eyes, they weren’t dim anymore. They were the normal color I saw them as. “Are you–” I stop myself. Saying anything could trigger something. Rui didn’t move, speak, or anything. He just cried. I haven’t seen him cry. Not ever. For the past few weeks, he hadn’t cried. Not one single tear fled his eyes. That was until now.

“Rui, did you do that?” I ask finally, keeping my voice at a low tone.

He gulps before nodding. “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t–” he cuts himself off by choking on a sob. I get up and walk over to him. “I didn’t have control, I–” I hug him. 

“It’s not your fault.” 

Rui blinks a few times. “But–”

“No, it isn’t your fault. They controlled you, they forced you. They made you kill her and probably so many others without you being able to stop it from happening.” I explain. “Yeah, maybe Emu is hurt, but a fairy is here, they probably can heal her.” 

Rui tenses a bit as if the words, “Emu is hurt” turned into, “Emu is hurt because of you.” I didn’t appreciate that he probably killed her, but it wasn’t anything he could control. 

I pull out of the hug and face towards Nene. “Nene? Are you okay?” I ask.

“G-go get Ena… Please.” She begs. 

“Okay, i’ll be back, Rui, I’m not trusting that you won’t lose control again so you’re coming with me.” I say.

He nods, standing up. His body was a bit shaky. “I’m so sorry, Nene..” he mutters.

“The only person I want an apology from is the Administrative Control.” she hisses.

“I think we all do, if it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be here right now.” I add.

Rui lets out a shaky breath before grabbing my hand. “We’ll be back, try and make sure she can at least wake up, okay?” he says.

Nene shakes her head up and down. “I’ll try my best.” 

Akito’s POV

My chest hurt, actually no. Everything hurt. 

Everyone else left to find the others. Toya stayed behind though. He wanted to make sure I was okay. I mean, I appreciated him for that, but really anybody could’ve–

“Akito,” he says, stopping in his tracks. Before this, we had just left the room to find everyone else.

“Yeah?” I reply, looking over at him. 

I realized that he didn’t have his dragon. Did he even bring him? I doubt it. I mean, he cared too much about that thing to drag it here. It was odd seeing him without out the other though.

“What you told me earlier, uhm.” he stops himself. 

“If you’re going to ask if I was being serious about it, I was.” I mutter.

Toya goes silent. I don’t think i’ve ever heard him so quiet before. I mean, he wasn’t usually the loudest person, but not the quietest either. It felt strange. This whole situation was strange. I didn’t understand how we could be associated with this just because of the villains. I suppose they can’t even be considered villains anymore. 

“It’s just weird. I thought you hated me.” he says.

I tilt my head in confusion a bit. “Why would I hate you?” 

He shrugs. I don’t think he had a reason for it. He probably just assumed I did because he switched sides. I was a bit angry with him for that, but I understand his reason for it. Here I am, doing the same exact thing too. 

“I don’t know, I just thought you would’ve.” he mumbles. 

I sigh, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t hate you, and even if I did, I would come running back and you know that. I don’t hate you, and I don’t think I could hate you.” Toya smiles a bit. It’d been a long time since i’ve seen him smile that way. Especially if it was during a time like this. A soft and kind smile, one that anybody could trust. 

“I’m sorry that I doubted you.” He mutters, still keeping the stupid grin. 

I knew what that smile meant now. 

A smile anybody could trust. A smile someone could believe. It wasn’t at all a truthful one, just a smile to make me think that he agreed to my speech; even when that belief wasn’t true to his opinions. 

“You don’t need to lie, you know.” 

“Huh? Why would I be lying?” he sounded doubtful.

“That smile, it just makes me think you’re not being truthful. I don’t mind if you think I hate you, I just want you to know that I don’t hate you. That’s all I wanted out of this.” I explain.

.

.

.

“Oh.” was all he said. 

‘Oh’ was all he could get out of that. Not a, “sorry, I shouldn’t have lied” or, “Okay.” all he said was “oh.”

It didn’t make me angry, it just made me think it didn’t matter to him. I knew it mattered to him though. If it didn’t, he’d be keeping that dumb smile, but he didn’t. His expression switched to a saddened one. “Is that seriously all you have to say about this?!” 

“No, I just didn’t want to say the wrong thing.” he mumbles.

“Oh.”

Now I’m the one saying ‘oh’...

God dammit.

Tsukasa’s POV

For some reason, Rui wanted to lead the way. Something still felt off about him. Maybe it was the fact he could turn under their control any second, or possibly it as from the idea that— No. Tsukasa. Don’t think that way. Nothing’s wrong. 

“Tsukasa-kun? Are you alright?” he asks, stopping in his tracks. He had a startling look on his face. I don’t even know why it startled me, it was just a rested concerned face. 

“Oh, uhm, yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” I smile, placing both hands on my waist. 

“You just look uncomfortable, if it’s from me I..” I broke off his sentence. 

“No, it’s not because of you, don’t even talk like that! I just—I don’t know..” I say, sighing. 

Rui frowns, grabbing my arm to stop me from walking away. “Why are you—.” he cuts me off by turning me around to face him.

“Look, I don’t need you to lie, alright? I know it’s because of me, I know that you’re uncomfortable around me. You don’t need to lie because you believe it’ll be beneficial to do so. It won’t be beneficial, and you know that. I’m not going to stand here and believe every lie you’re telling me.” he snaps. I blink a few times, processing everything he just said. “Please, if you’re uncomfortable around me, just say it!” 

I swallow my air. I couldn’t understand how somebody could be so harsh but kind all at the same time. I didn’t have the ability to process that. I don’t think anyone could have that ability. “Okay.” I mutter. “I guess I am a little uncomfortable at the moment, but it’s just because of what just happened! It’s a natural body instinct to become uncomfortable! Especially after seeing your—” i stop myself. What was he to me even? Did we ever confirm– yeah.. We did? But, do I seriously want to date someone like that?

“Seeing your what? What were you about to say? Hm?” Rui hisses. 

I groan. “Why does it matter!? The point is–”

“No, the point isn’t what I was asking. What the hell were you about to say I was to you?!” 

“It’s just a stupid label! Why does it matter?!” I shout. 

“Why does it matter? Right, so why does it matter that we’re dating? That is such a dependable question!” his voice lightened in pitch despite it still being a harsh and angering answer.

“I– I don’t know, Rui! Okay?! Everything that has happened just… It’s painful!” 

Rui gasps slightly. “You hurt so many people, It doesn’t even matter that you were under their control, you still have hurt people in the past! You— you slit Toya’s wrists! How much do I need to bet to say you probably didn’t even apologize either?!” I wasn’t thinking about what I was saying. Not one bit. Something so little could trigger him. For goodness sake, he’s insane!

“So that’s how you think of me? Someone who decides to hurt people whenever he wants?” Rui chuckled a bit. I mean, why wouldn’t he?! This is Rui Kamishiro we’re talking about! A mad man! “If that’s all you consider me to be, then why don’t I act just like that!?” he grins before tightening his grip on my arm. 

I wasn’t sure of what happened next. All I remember seeing is red, a kind of electric sparkled red. It reminded me much of Rui’s powers. Right.. That’s exactly what happened.

He grabbed my arm, used his powers, and sliced my arm clean off. The person I trusted with my life. He.. He hurt me. I immediately drop to the ground. 

I shouldn’t have ever associated with this job, or even brought myself to do this. If I would’ve just left him to suffer alone, I’d be fine. If I never allowed myself to get kidnapped, I’d be okay.

But no.

I switched sides, destroyed my home, and then went to save the people who persuaded me to do that. 

Hell, they probably lied. 

The whole “kingdom took our gemstone” thing was probably a set up.

Maybe Rui payed Shiho or something to go along with it. 

I don’t know.

I do know that I can’t trust the villains.

Not one bit.

Not ever.

Not even Emu or Nene, or Kaito, or any of them.

Only Akito, Mizuki, Len, and.. Saki.

Why wasn’t I allowed to see her in the hospital..? Why wasn’t there a viewing the day before her funeral? Why didn’t I ever get to see her? I don’t get it. 

I glance back at Rui, I still couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. Why would he hurt me for something like that? He wasn’t like this. He couldn’t have possibly been in control, maybe it was some lie or—

“Tsukasa-kun.” He interrupted my thoughts. 

I squeeze my eyes shut. I was scared. I was actually scared. He could hurt me again. He could do anything that caused pain to me. What am I supposed to do?

“Wh-What the hell do you want?” I grunt, attempting to stand up. I struggled. I mean, trying to stand up with the support of one arm? Extremely hard to do.

“I didn’t mean to..” he had a saddened tone in his voice, yet again, this could just be him attempting to guilt trip me.

“How do you accidentally –” I cough. It wasn’t just a cough though. It was blood. I coughed up blood. I reopen my eyes.

Rui drops down to one knee, resting the other leg firmly on the floor. He looks at me, teary eyed. “I don’t know, just—” he stammers. “I don’t know why I did it, but that doesn’t even matter right now,” he sucks in his breath before moving a bit closer to me and picking me up. Similar to how he had a few days ago when we were all happy; we hadn’t dealt with any issues except the kingdom stuff.

I wasn’t even sure of what happened next, nothing came to mind. It was just, dark. 

Nene’s POV

“Emu, it’s going to be okay– just–” 

“No, Nene, it’s okay..” she mutters, smiling a bit.

I couldn’t lose her. Not now. Not ever. If I wanted to lose anyone it’d be Rui. He did this to her. He hurt her. They should’ve been back already.. Where are they?

“They’ll be back soon, please— hold on!” I beg.

She didn’t listen. She just grinned. “Nene, I can live from this– I–”

“No, you can’t!” I snap. “And you know you can’t! Stop trying to act like you can heal yourself or something!”

Emu frowns. I noticed that she was crying. I mean, who wouldn’t cry in this situation? She was about to die. I couldn’t care for anything else right now other than her. I couldn’t lose her. Not yet. She’s just sixteen. She can’t die. She can’t.

“I’m so sorry Nene.. I just wanted to help, I didn’t–”

“Save your breath, I can’t have you dying like this. Please?” I mumble. I could feel the tears roll down my face as I held her close. So close I could hear the choking of her sobs that she tried to hide. 

Right now, I wished I had the same ability my mom had. The ability to heal. But I didn’t. Why didn’t I have powers? Why was it just me out of everyone here that didn’t have powers? Why was I suffering with this? If it wasn’t for Rui, everything would be fine. I’d be happy, not crying right now.

If I hadn’t ever saved Rui from that stab then Emu would be okay. I would be okay. Tsukasa and the others would be okay. It was all Rui’s fault. Everything was his fault. 

No.. Nene.. it isn’t his fault. 

It’s the Kingdom’s fault. Not Rui’s, not mine, not Emu’s, not Tsukasa’s, not Kaito’s, not anybody’s fault but the Kingdom’s. 

I turn around after hearing footsteps. It was Mizuki and Ena. “Nene! Is everything alri—” They cut themself off. “Oh my Athena..” 

I swallow my cries. “Please..  Save her..” 

I move away from Emu while Mizuki and Ena try to figure out how this even happened. “It was Rui, he was under their control, but then wasn’t and tried to dislocate Tsukasa’s arm, and–” I cough. “He grabbed Emu’s ax and shoved it directly into her chest..” I explain.

“That motherf–” 

“No, it wasn’t his fault. Someone used dark magic on him. It wasn’t just that they took control, it was that someone from the vent sprayed some sort of mist onto him when he wasn’t looking. There’s little particles of it on the floor.” Ena flies up. “I can fix Emu, it may be a while until she’s fully healed though. I suggest removing the ax first.” 

Mizuki nods before assuring Emu it’d be okay. Her response was a nod. 

They slowly pull out the ax and a horrific screech escaped Emu’s mouth. “I’m sorry! I know, it hurts!” Mizuki finally got it out and threw it to the side. 

It didn’t take long for Ena to immediately heal her. It was only five minutes that it took for her to be completely healed. She’s going to be okay.. I thought to myself.

—

Mizuki and Ena stayed with Emu out in the hall while I went to find Tsukasa and Rui. I wasn’t sure what way they went, but I knew for sure that I didn’t have a good feeling about them going with each other right now.

“Rui?! Tsukasa?!” I shout, ignoring every single thing that could interfere. An example would be a guard!

I didn’t hear anyone respond for the longest time. I didn’t see anyone either. I was a bit concerned. “Rui?! Tsukasa?!”I shout once more, this time dragging out the vowels in each name.

“Nene?” A voice muttered. The voice sounded a lot like Rui’s. Except, it sounded like he would’ve been crying. I was happy to at least get a response. 

I rush towards where I heard it. I found Tsukasa lying up against the wall, and Rui next to him, completely worried and out of breath. That wasn’t the only thing about it though. Tsukasa, his arm, it was gone.

Don’t tell me…

“What happened..?” I ask, slightly scared of what his next sentence would be.

Rui explains what happened, but I was sure that he was lying about a lot of it. He told me that a guard came by and attacked them. They would’ve easily beaten a guard. Especially Tsukasa. “You’re lying, aren’t you?”

He frowns. “Was caught red-handed, huh..?” he sighs, wiping away a few tears before looking at Tsukasa and then turning back to face me. “I got upset with him, and.. I didn’t feel okay. I didn’t feel mentally okay, I mean, when am I mentally okay? But it was different. I felt like how I did when I lost control, before the A.C even happened..” he explains.

“You’re kidding?” 

Rui shakes his head. “I didn’t mean to hurt him. It was an accident..” 

An accident? Really? Ripping off somebody’s arm is an accident? 

I didn’t say what I wanted to say. I didn’t even reply. I walked over to Tsukasa, tried to pick him up, and when I did, I ran. He was a bit heavy, but I could carry him for a little while.

“Wait, Nene!” Rui shouts.

I ignored him. He was clearly dangerous and not to be trusted. I didn’t know how much blood Tsukasa lost, but surely he had enough to live. Or so I hoped he did. If he didn’t live, the villains would be hated by everyone, more than they already were. I turn every corner until I saw Toya and Akito. “Toya, Akito– help! Please..!?” I gasp, catching my breath as I gently let Tsukasa down onto the ground. 

His eyes twitched a bit. He definitely fainted, but his body was close to fail the point of living. That’d be very unfortunate.

“Who did this?” Toya asks sternly, crouching down to get a better look at Tsukasa. 

“Rui, he–”

My sentence was broken off by Akito. “I’m going to kill him.” he didn’t even hesitate. 

“What?! You can’t just–”

I was cut off, again. “I can, and I will. If he can’t stop hurting people, then he doesn’t even deserve to live. He’s the problem, can’t you see that?!” Akito snaps.

Oh.

It was true. Rui didn’t stop, and wouldn’t unless someone did the same to him. “Akito, you’re hurt, we can have Kaito do it.” Toya says.

“No, I want to do it.” he mutters.

“I don’t mind doing it, plus, he’s right, you’re injured.” Kaito suddenly appeared from literally nowhere. 

“When did you–”

“Enough questions, Akito is right about Rui being the problem. As much as I don’t want him to die, it seems to be our only solution as of now.” Of course, I got interrupted again.

“I’m surprised you agreed so quickly.” Toya smiles.

Kaito sighs, grabbing his gun from the holder on his belt. “Are we confirming this or not? Because I’d like to finish this up so I don’t have time to feel pity and back out of it.” he adds.

“Well hold on!?” I gasp. “Are we seriously going to kill him!? Think, he’s the reason the villains and heroes are even united!” 

“If he was dead, there wouldn’t be a need to unite us.” Akito grunts.

They were serious. How could they come up with that so quickly and agree to it all in the same minute? It wasn’t right. Plus, Rui would very clearly win that fight, especially if he was under the A.C and some dark magic’s control.

“Fine, but if you guys get hurt, i’m not saving you.” I say.

“Then it’s agreed, we kill Rui, and everything goes back to normal!” Akito smiles.

Toya looked devastated by this. “If we kill Rui, Tsukasa will be upset, that is if he lives.” he mumbles.

“He’d be angry with Rui for, well, you know.” Kaito says.

“Not necessarily. He’s an extremely forgiving person, especially to those he trusted, no matter what the person did, he’ll always find a way to forgive them. He loves Rui, more than anything! We can’t just kill him!” 

“That is true, but would you really prefer to have Tsukasa be happy rather than the world?” Akito asks.

Toya hesitates. “It’ll sound selfish, but I would. Think about it this way, we can remove Rui’s powers, and everything will be okay.” he claims.

We could do that. “Wouldn’t he have to agree to that though? There’s no chance we could successfully force him into that.” I say.

Everyone stops for a minute. They probably realized that as well. “That’s true, but I think he’ll accept.” Kaito was the one to have finally spoke up. “I don’t think he’s willing to continue.. Whatever you call this situation.” 

I nod. “Alright then, I know where he’s at, you’ll just have to be careful.” I tell them.

Everyone agrees. We knew where everyone was right now except Kanade and Miku. That probably would’ve been helpful to know where they were actually. Despite Miku not having an ability, she’s still helpful in our part. Kanade is too. 

I had a lot of doubt about this. More doubt than I should’ve had. Maybe I had doubt because Rui wasn’t acting how he typically would. It was way too obvious. I was surprised that Tsukasa was oblivious to it. I mean, they talked with each other the most and yet he was the person who fell for it. 

I didn’t understand how he allowed himself to be fooled by that. “Is Tsukasa going to be alright?” I ask.

“He should be, once Mizuki and Ena get here–” Toya gets cut off by Mizuki rushing towards us. Emu was there too. I wasn’t sure where Ena was, but she was definitely somewhere.  

“Nene-chaaan!” Emu shouts, rushing over to me.

She charges straight into me, causing me to crash onto the ground. “Emu! Jesus christ–!” I sigh. “Im glad you’re okay.” 

A change in discussion for sure, but did I care? Not really. I was just happy to see her. I didn’t think she’d even survive that. It was nearly impossible to survive something so violent. I stand up as Ena flies over to Tsukasa. She was definitely getting better with her wings. “What happened to him?” she asks, turning to me.

I frown. I disliked the topic, but went ahead to explain it anyways, including every little detail I could. Ena and Mizuki looked scared, shocked, or even just panicked by this. “Rui, he.. did that..too?” Mizuki stutters.

I nod.  “Mhm, if you could–” Ena shuts me up. 

“I can’t heal an injury like that. Nobody can, unless they were born with healing powers, but that’s rare.” She explains.

What?!

“You can at least make sure he wakes up, right?” Toya seemed genuinely concerned now. 

Ena didn’t seem very sure. She glances to the side and then back at Tsukasa. “I can, but it’s certain that it’ll wear off within a few months.” 

“Meaning, he’ll die when that time arrives.” Akito finishes off. 

“Nene, your mother, she has healing powers, right?” Kaito asks.

I nod again. “She does, but I doubt she’ll help.” I didn’t talk to her all that often. I only spoke to her when I needed help. 

“She saved Rui, one of the most known villains, i’m sure she’ll save Tsukasa.” Mizuki smiles.

I swallow down my air. I told my mother that her healing Rui was the last time she’d ever need to heal somebody I cared for. Why would she save Tsukasa? He threatened her life, right? I don’t know. I mean, he is technically apart of the White Knights, but even then… 

Would it be worth it?

I shake my head before taking a deep breath. I can’t just leave Tsukasa here to die. He can’t die. If were keeping Rui alive for Tsukasa, then why would we want Tsukasa to die? It wouldn’t make any sense. 

“Okay, i’ll ask her..” I say, finally agreeing to such a suggestion. 

“Wait, really?!” Emu gasps, hugging me tightly. I smile while allowing a sigh to escape the crevices of my teeth. 

“Only because I don’t want us to kill Rui. If we have Tsukasa dead, then Rui wont ever agree to letting us get rid of his powers. If Rui doesn’t get rid of his powers, then we’ll have to kill him, so in my mind, it makes most sense to save Tsukasa.”

Everyone nods, except Ena, as she was focused on trying to use her healing magic to wake Tsukasa up. It works.

He sits up, gasping for air. “Rui!?” He yelps. Kaito crouches down and places a hand on Tsukasa’s shoulder. He lifts a soft smile. I saw Kaito as a father figure, strange right? He was always so caring to us, especially to the heroes. Even when we did something that is unarguably wrong, he always comforted us. An example would be when Rui had slit Toya’s wrists and went into a panic attack because he thought that he was the reason Saki left. (which he was..) 

“Tsukasa, you’re safe now, you don’t need to worry about Rui for right now.” He says with a lower voice than he was speaking with just a few minutes ago. 

“H-he’s–” Tsukasa gulps, wiping away his tears. “He’s alive? Right..?” 

Why did he ask that? Rui literally ripped off his arm, why would he—

“You guys didn’t actually kill him.. Right?!” He coughs. 

Did he hear our conversation?

“We didn’t kill him Tsukasa, and we don’t plan on doing that either. We decided it’d be better to just remove his powers. Is that alright?” Kaito mutters.

Tsukasa nods slowly. “Mhm..” he hums.

I don’t think I had ever seen him so scared before. Part of his fear was from what he just experienced and the other was from the idea we had killed Rui. Why did he care for Rui still? No clue. 

Probably for the same reason I still care for him…

Kaito removes his hand from Tsukasa’s shoulder and stands up, appointing his hand out for Tsukasa to use as support to stand up. Tsukasa reaches his only hand out to grab Kaito’s hand and stumbles to his feet. “Thank you..” his voice was a bit shaky. He sounded traumatized. 

I mean, out of everyone, he should be the most traumatized. His supposed boyfriend not only tried to kill him, more than once, but also ripped off his arm, stabbed his friend, and lose his mind all right in front of him. 

“Where’s Miku? An–and Kanade?” Tsukasa asks.

“They’re alright, Kanade went to go find Mafuyu, they ran off from the group by mistake and Kanade wanted to make sure she was okay.” Kaito explains.

He nods. So that’s where they went. Tsukasa asks one more question. “Do we know where Rui is?” 

The last place I saw him at was that hall. He probably left in search for Tsukasa and I. “We aren’t exactly sure..” Toya says.

“That’s… not good.” Tsukasa sucks in his breath. “I mean, I could be used as a distraction to get his attention and–” Akito cuts off his sentence.

“Would you rather be completely armless or still have at least one?” Akito frowns.

“Sorry.” 

“It’s fine, but you can’t just go putting yourself as bait like that you know?! Eh? What happened to the brave and ‘I can do anything’ Tenma Tsukasa we know?!” Akito places a single hand on his hip and glares at Tsukasa.

“Well, you didn’t have to watch your..” he hesitates. “You didn’t have to watch someone you care about kill your friends, rip off your arm, and admit to slitting your friend’s wrists!” 

He didn't say boyfriend..? That's… weird..?

"He told you about that?" Toya murmurs, hiding his arms a bit. 

"He admitted it when you guys captured me." Tsukasa says. "Did he even apologize for that?"

Toya shakes his head, pulling down his sleeves to hide his arms. He likely did this out of discomfort or something. I don't know. "He never did.. I wish he did though, or I wish he would at least."

Tsukasa sighs. He walks over to Toya and hugs him, causing Toya to freeze a little bit. "If we get out of this alive, I'll make sure he apologizes, with intention too."

Toya grins. "Thank you, Tsukasa, but you don't need to do anything. It's in the past, and I suppose I forgive him. He hasn't done anything like that to me since." 

Now, that he was lying about.

A month ago, or well okay, a while ago, Toya and Rui had to be on a mission together. I mean, Kaito typically figured out the best fitting partners for a mission based on abilities, so this worked out the best. 

During the mission, Rui apparently killed a baby dragon by mistake, something like that. Toya loved dragons, and still does, he has a dragon. Baby dragons are typically thrown into the woods by the gods, or from what somebody told me, dragons who are considered 'evil' are thrown into the forests, left to suffer and die.

While they were doing the mission, the dragon popped out of a bush, scared the living hell out of Rui and he killed it out of freight. A stupid story, really. 

That didn't go very well between Rui and Toya though. Toya rarely, if ever, snaps at people. This specific thing though, it pissed him off more than it should've. 

He snapped at Rui and they both argued or fought, I wasn't sure. Each story was different. I did know though that Toya came back with his arms and neck covered in cuts. The cuts were extremely deep and a blade was more than likely the cause.

The only reason I knew Rui did it was because he was the only member other than Miku of the villains who carried a blade. 

I think Toya just chose to forget about that though. I don't think that it was because of what Rui did to him, but because of what happened to the dragon.

I was happy he at least cared for the animals. Especially endangered ones.

I just wish Rui did the same. He cared for plants, but animals? Absolutely no care. 

I hop back into reality by the sound of a crash. I turn around. Rui stood there, shaking a bit, tears rolling down his face and a small smile. 

Speaking of the devil…

"You wanted to fucking kill me..?" he mutters. 

He heard that entire conversation… didn't he? He was in the vents… and we didn't even realize it.

Chapter Text

Nene’s POV

He was there the entire time. How didn’t anyone realize? I don’t understand. Surely he heard the part where we decided we wouldn’t kill him, right? 

“Rui, I– we aren’t going to kill you. It was a suggestion, but we aren’t going to follow through with it.” Tsukasa mutters. 

“Even if it was just a suggestion, if you didn’t have any other ideas, you would’ve tried.” he hisses.

There wasn’t much to do in this situation, especially when you were certain to be fighting with your friend, somebody you knew since childhood. “We aren’t going to hurt you.” I say. “I promise.” 

“I’m not a stupid kid, I know you don’t mean that. I know that you agreed to the idea too.” he snaps. “I don’t care whether you’re hurting me or not in the present idea, i’m just terrified that everyone here is going to try and kill me! I mean, who the hell wants to die from everyone they care about? Huh?” 

Manipulation, wasn’t it? 

He was trying to use his ability to not let us kill him. 

We weren’t going to do it anyway. He didn’t have a reason to use his ability. 

“Rui, I swear to you that we’re not going to—” Tsukasa was cut off by Rui shoving him against the wall and pining his hand above Tsukasa’s head, leaving the boy cornered. 

“Swear to me? You, swear? I don’t even know if I can trust you anymore. Maybe a few minutes ago you acted like you cared, but from what I remember, earlier, you just didn’t care at all!?” 

Why was he acting like this? He never acted like this. Not ever did I see him yell at someone like that or snap, or whatever the hell it’s called! “Rui, that’s enough.” A voice says. 

It was Kanade. A girl with silver silky hair, almost white even. Her eyes were blue. Her ability was teleportation. Every thirty minutes, she was allowed to teleport.

“Kanade?” Rui stumbles his words. The pissed off face he had before quickly faded into a surprised, but also sad one.

“I came along to make sure everything would end out okay, not just for Mafuyu.” she says. “You need to calm down.”

Rui sighs, moving away from Tsukasa and resting against the wall. “What happened for him to react that way? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him do that.” Kanade asks me. 

I shrug. “I don’t know, I haven’t seen him bust into a screaming fit so easily like that.”

“Are we sure he isn’t still being controlled by the A.C?” Kaito asks, budding his head into the conversation. 

I shake my head. “He would’ve attacked us in an instant instead of yelling at us, there’s no way he’s still under their control.” I cross my arms.

“That’s true.. What did Tsukasa do exactly for him to, well you know.” Kanade mumbles.

I shrug again. “Hard to say, he hadn’t said anything about it, and Rui tried lying to me about it too. I don’t think we have any idea on it.” I explain.

“Hm.. Maybe we can find something out through Tsukasa then?” Kaito suggests.

“That sounds like the safest idea,” 

Tsukasa’s POV

I was still scared. Terrified.

I wasn’t processing anything and my brain just couldn’t focus. 

Rui shoved me against the wall the same way he had in that cell when they captured me.. Except, this time he didn’t have a knife.. And he didn't kiss me this time either. 

To think that was barely a few weeks ago. “Tsukasa?” Kanade walks over to me. “Could we talk to you for a second?” 

I nod. “Mhm, go ahead.” 

Nene and Kaito walked behind her. I didn't understand how someone who seemed so fragile could be a leader against others. How did she shut down Rui so quickly? Hell, how did she even surprise him!? He typically knows when someone is nearby!

“I just want to know, and you don’t need to respond if you’re uncomfortable, but why did Rui rip off your arm?” Kanade asks, tilting her head slightly. Her tone was lower than it was when she snapped at Rui. 

“Oh, erm.” I hesitate. “Rui and I, uhm, we got into an argument about our relationship and–” 

“Wait, so you two are actually dating? I thought it was just some false rumor or something,” Kaito smiles.

“Yeah, we are.. Uhm, I think? I don’t know. Anyway, we argued about whether I could even consider him my boyfriend after everything that happened and he freaked out.” I explain. I couldn’t lie about something like that. To think that was only a little over an hour ago too..

“And so he got mad and did that?” Nene points to where my arm was supposed to be. It stung. Both emotionally and physically. 

“Yeah.. uhm, could I have some personal space?”

I knew I wasn’t acting like myself. I wasn’t that energetic and ‘I can do ANYTHING’ person. I was drained, scared, traumatized. “Yes, of course.” Kanade says, walking away. The other two follow her. 

“If you need anything, let me know, okay?” Kaito smiles.

They left to go speak with the others. The others except Rui. He kept looking at me, probably feeling an extreme amount of guilt. I sigh. I can’t just not talk to him, I’d have to speak with him at some point!

I grunt under my breath and walk over to him. He glanced down at me before saying, “What do you want?” 

I keep a settled face. “I just want to talk. Without harm.” I say.

Rui tried to hide his smile. I suppose he did want to have a chat. I mean, I felt guilty too. I couldn't just live knowing that I hurt him and that he hurt me. He had every reason to hurt me, but just not that way of hurt. 

“Is that alright with you?” I mutter.

He nods. “I’d prefer it actually..” he chuckles a bit.

“Good, but for now we should probably head home, there’s no point in staying as we have gathered everyone–” I shut my mouth when I realized neither Miku, Shiho or Mafuyu were here. “Wait, where’s Miku, Shiho and Mafuyu?”

“Over there, I saw them when I was in the vents.” he coughs. 

I smile. “I’ll go ask someone to go get them,” I say with a fairly friendly grin, running over to Akito and Toya to ask them. They quickly agreed. 

“Yeah, sure. We should get going anyway, we don’t want anything worse to happen, yeah?” Akito holds his stomach as he spoke. Maybe the wound still hurt? I don’t know. 

I rush back over to Rui. “Akito and Toya are getting them, so no need to worry!” I laugh.

“Alright..” he goes silent.

I never realized how bright the streaks in his hair were. No, they weren’t that bright.. It was just that I didn’t even realize that he was genuinely happy to talk with me again, in a normal tone too. 

“Okay, I think I should wrap up this little get together party, yeah?” A slightly familiar and obnoxious voice says. Their voice was masculine and with each spoken word, it reminded me of the king. 

“Keiko..” Rui mutters under his breath, jerking forward. “Tsukasa-kun, we need to get out of here immediately.” 

I freeze. Wasn’t Keiko the name of the king’s son?

“Wait, Rui, who’s Keiko?” 

Rui frowns. “The same guy who has the ability to control me. The head leader and elaborator of the agency, Keiko Shiraishi.” he says, add enthusiasm to his name. Either Rui was about to have a splendid time beating this guy’s ass or he was about to be the one we’re meant to attack…

“Ah, Kamishiro! There you are~!” Keiko smirks. 

It didn’t even take a moment of hesitation for Rui to blast the guy into the wall. Kanade seemed to realize who the guy was and immediately grabbed the remote control he had dropped. “Rui, over here!” Kanade raised the remote up and went to throw it back over to Rui. 

Rui quickly rushed over to catch it and successfully did so. It was like they had done this before. Mafuyu was under their control and is Kanade’s friend, maybe they tried rescuing her? 

“Tsukasa-kun, do you have your sword on you? Or anything metal?” Rui asks.

I nod. “I think I have my sword–” I check my waist band. Nope. I didn’t. “Nevermind.” 

Rui sighs. “If this thing comes into contact with any sort of metal then it explodes. There are entirely too many functions for it to work. Of course, it’s a newer model though so that might’ve changed..” Rui ranted and ranted about how it worked.

“We don’t have time for this. Just– destroy it or something!” I snap.

“Right– sorry.” Rui uses his powers to just easily disintegrate it. “That shouldn’t have worked.” he says.

“Huh?”

“The remote, they have an anti-power spell set on it, my powers shouldn’t have disintegrated it.” He explains.

“So, that’s a fake?” 

He nods. “Meaning, he still has it.” 

“Oh shit.” I frown. What were we meant to do? And why hadn’t the other remote been used yet?

“You see, I don’t even have the remote on me,” Keiko smiles.

Trying but also failing to be devious and mysterious. How pathetic. “Yeah, meaning it’s still in your office because I killed off both your main and back up guards and scientists.” Rui claims.

“Oh..” 

How do you not realize the amount of dead bodies surrounding the halls? That’s certainly confusing. I mean, unless he did have more. Who knows.

“How do you know that was all of them?” Keiko chuckles a bit before forcing himself not to collapse into embarrassment. “What if I have more?”

“I doubt it. You were more concerned about how to kill all of us than who you had left to complete that job, there’s no way you would have had time to hire more.” Rui says, crossing his arms.

“You’d be wrong then. Since this organization works with the kingdom, we’d be allowed to ask for the other knights to help us. Would Kagamine Len, or Saki Tenma sound familiar?” 

I gulp. Saki was dead, he knew that right? 

“They are familiar, but you can’t just pull Saki’s name out like that. If you knew, she died a few months ago. There’s no possible way you could’ve had the knights help you if you said a dead person was helping.” I mutter.

“Oh right, I forgot! You’re the brother of her, yeah? Why don’t you ask Kamishiro here what really happened.” he smiles.

What does he mean by that? Saki was dead, I saw her die, she died in my arms. What did he mean by ‘what really happened’ and why would Rui have any association with it?

“Rui?” I look over at him. He stayed silent, keeping a guilty look on his face.

“Saki is dead, and you can’t try to say otherwise. Unless you figured out how to revive people, you didn’t need to bring up her name.” Akito snaps. He never had much care for my family, but I guess he did now? I don’t know. Everything was confusing. So much was happening all at once.

“She’s not dead.” Rui finally says. “Her death was faked by the kingdom. If she died, there would’ve been a viewing. If she had really died, then why did I see her working in the kingdom?” 

I gasp a little, but stayed quiet enough not to be heard. He was kidding, right? 

He knew where Saki was, he knew she was alive, and he didn’t say anything. He didn’t even think to tell me. “Is that true..?” Mizuki murmurs.

Rui nods. “I didn’t want to say anything because I had made a deal with the king that if I didn’t tell anyone–”

“Okay, enough talking,” Keiko interrupts. “Here’s the deal, if you want all of this to stop, maybe even get Saki back, then you’ll have to turn one of yourselves in. No trials, you’ll be put to the death sentence immediately.” 

Rui sighs before looking over at me. “You know who he wants, right?” He whispers.

I frown. “You’re not dying. If anything, I should–” 

“No, you know very well you're not the one who needs to do it. You haven’t committed several crimes. He wants one of the villains.”

“I’d consider myself a part of that group.” I place a hand on his shoulder and smile. “I’m basically half-way dead already.” I laugh quietly, glancing down at where an arm should be.

“No you’re not–” he was cut off. 

“I’ll do it.” The room filled with silence. It was Mafuyu. Wasn’t she under their control? They could’ve sentenced her to death then.

“Hmm, that would be an exceptional offer, but I want a villain, not somebody I already controlled.” he grits his teeth, forcing an obvious smile. 

“I’ll go then.” Rui’s face was calm, collected, even resentful all at the same time. “If you want a villain to put to death, it might as well be me.” 

I grab a hold of Rui’s arm. “You’re not going. You aren’t dying, Rui!” I tighten my grip on his arm. “If you die, I’ll– I’ll kill myself!” 

He gasps a little, turning his head to face me. “Tsukasa-kun..” 

I kept my mouth wide open, ready to scream out whatever I could. I couldn’t have him put to a death sentence. I don’t care if I had a goal of killing him before I was capture. I can’t bare to see him die. I’d break down, I’d probably end up hurting myself in the end of it. “You aren’t dying, and that’s final.” I mutter in a slight whisper. His expression didn’t change. His smile was faded, his sparkling eyes were hidden. He didn’t care if he died, did he? Then why did he freak out when he found out our original plan was to kill him..?

“You can’t just order me around.” Rui scoffs, grabbing my arm with his free hand and releasing himself from my grasp. I held back a yell. I could scream if I wanted, but that’s unnecessary. 

“I can, and will. I’m older than you!” I hiss.

“And yet you’re always the one being comforted in my arms. You don’t seem very dominant against anyone but a child. Hell, maybe not even a kid.” his voice was low and soft. Something so harsh, yet said so peacefully. 

“Y-You’re an ass, you know that right?” I grunt. I lower my head and frown. I couldn’t stand his stupid voice and expression anymore. “I’m not letting yourself get killed. If you die, I’ll kill myself. If I kill myself and Saki finds out, she’ll hurt not only herself, but those around her.” I grind my teeth a bit. It hurt, trust me, it hurt a lot, but the anger I felt couldn’t even be expressed.

Rui stayed silent. Everyone around us seemed cautious of this. “Rui, you can’t die.” Akito murmurs. “And that’s saying a lot if it came from me,” 

He turns to face Akito. “You’re just saying that for Tsukasa’s sake. You don’t actually care, do you?” Rui smiles a bit. An insane, but likable smile. “It’d be really funny to see you and everyone else in this room tied up against the wall, wouldn’t it? Maybe even about to fall from a height that they break every bone in their body!” I could tell he was going to do just that.

“Kamishiro, your time is ticking~! What is it? Are you going to sacrifice yourself or allow someone else to do it?!” Keiko was ecstatic. 

Rui chuckles. “How about neither?” Rui immediately shot at him with his ability, knocking Keiko straight into the wall. So that’s what he was doing.. He wasn’t going to follow through with the ‘turning yourself in’ thing. It was to distract Keiko.

“Eh?! Was that some sort of foolery against him?!” Mizuki gasps. Their mouth was led agape. 

“I waited for the perfect moment to get him distracted. The moment he lost all focus on his surroundings just to care more for the stupid death sentence, the idea of shooting him into the wall exhilarated my thoughts of fun.” he grins, releasing my arm. It’s strange not being able to say it plural. 

“I guess that makes sense.” I look to the side, a bit guilty of using myself as an excuse for him not to kill himself. 

“We should probably leave before he wakes up,” Shiho says.

I nod. Rui grabs my arm again, lightly this time. “Hold on, I don’t think that knocked him out.” I glance over at him.

“That should’ve at least gave him a concussion, surely he had fainted!” I say.

He sighs. “Everyone else can go on ahead, me and Tsukasa should probably make sure he’s actually passed out!” Rui’s voice was eccentric; it had that weird tone that makes you suspicious of someone.

“I can come along just incase!” Emu smiles, but that smile fainted into a frown. 

“I don’t think it’s right for you to get hurt anymore than you already are, besides, me and Tsukasa need to talk about something private.” Rui exclaims. 

I look at Nene as a sign of ‘help, i’m scared.’ She shook her head, crossed her arms, and gave me the most annoyed face ever. God, why was she so stubborn? I knew what he wanted to talk about, but why lie about it? It didn’t make sense to me.

I scoff. “W-well what if he uh– takes control of you again?!” I stammer as an excuse.

“He won’t be able to do that anymore. I had Miku use one of my bots to get the panel and destroy.” Rui had every excuse panned out in his head for a response. He knew exactly what he needed to say. 

“Oh uhm– what about–”

 Akito cuts me off. “If you’re scared, you can just say that.” he groans.

“No– Tsukasa Tenma, a future star as a warrior of this fine world is never scared!” I place my hands on my hips, pick-pocketing every stand point of why I was superior and why I wasn’t scared. (I was most definitely scared.) 

“Come on, we don’t have a lot of time before he wakes up if he did pass out.” Rui drags me towards the hall. 

I look back at Nene and she giggles. Mizuki noticed my terrified expression and followed along with Nene. “Have fuuuun~!” Mizuki smiles. I was a little scared. I mean, the last time I was alone with Rui, he ripped my arm off. That is most definitely not something that happens on a day-to-day basis. 

Rui stopped walking and waited for everyone to leave. They did. Rui quickly turned to face me after. “Tsukasa-kun,” he says.

“What is it that you need now?” I furrow my eyebrows. I hated speaking one-on-one with somebody. Especially Rui, because I knew that (usually) nothing good came out of it. 

“Geez, no need to be so rude. I was just trying to start up a conversation.” Rui looks to the side. “You know I didn’t ask you to stay behind just because of the whole Keiko thing. I know well that he for sure was knocked out from that.” 

Uh oh. 

Please.

Please don’t be about.. THAT!

“If you don’t want to talk about the relationship thing, that’s fine. I just–” he goes quiet. “Nevermind.” 

I blink a few times, processing myself back into reality. “Nononono, what was it that you were going to say? I’ll listen.” I focus my entire attention on him.

Rui smiles. “There’s the warrior I know,” he chuckles quietly. “I just want to confirm that you fell out of love or something. From what you told me earlier–” 

“Huh? What are you talking about?! I haven’t fallen out of love! I just was a bit cautious because of everything! I still like you, Rui!” I snap.

Why would he think I didn’t– Nevermind. I know why.

“You’re being serious, right?” he asks. I nod to assure him that I’m being truthful. 

“I am, please don’t leave me ever. No matter what harm you’ve done to me, I don’t care. I love you and nothing can change that.” I grab his hand. This reminds me of Romeo and Juliet a bit too much. 

“I believe you.” Rui smiles. I was glad that he believed me. His voice sounded genuine, so I knew he hadn’t lied. I just stood there, looking up at him. I could tell him everything if I wanted..no.. I have told him everything. 

He grabs my hand and puts it up to his chest. “I’m sorry for hurting you. For everything.” 

Geez, what a change in mood..

“It’s alright, I know you didn’t mean to do any of it. Plus, Nene’s mother can heal the arm part, right?” I grin. 

Rui hesitates. “No? Who told you that..?” he tilts his head a bit. “She can stop the blood from coming, but she can’t regrow an entire arm,” 

Now that’s just embarrassing. I could feel my temperature rise from the lack of enjoyment. No, Tsukasa, there’s no reason to be panicked over being embarrassed. You should focus more on your arm than that. “Why would you say that!? Now i’m embarrassed, thanks Rui.” I frown. That was not what I wanted to say.

“Fufu, there’s no need to be embarrassed, here–” Rui chuckles quietly before placing a single hand on my chin gently and kissing me quickly. I would’ve preferred a warning, but whatever. 

“R-Rui!” I yelp.

“My apologies, Tsukasa-kun.” he turns away and walks towards the exit. “You coming?” 

I nod. “Yeah, sorry.” I mutter. 

Nene’s POV

I didn’t know what was taking Tsukasa and Rui so long, but it bothered me. Apparently it bothered Emu too. “Nene-chan, do you know what’s taking Rui-kun and Tsukasa-kun so loonng?” She whines.

I shake my head. “I don’t, but I’m sure they’ll be back soon,” I smile. I loved Emu. She was always so cheery and kind. She brightened everyone’s mood. Despite her violent actions when in battle, she was super caring. I think she saved someone she fought in battle once before. She was just that kind. In my opinion, she wasn’t that good of playing the role of a villain.

Nobody deserved Emu. She was entirely too sweet for anyone here right now. Maybe Tsukasa worked out for it, but even then he was still mean and rude like everyone else. Hell, even i’m like that. 

“Sorry to keep you guys waiting!” Tsukasa says, rushing towards us. He was dragging Rui along with him. 

“You didn’t keep us waiting at all, honestly, I considered going on without you guys.” Akito mutters. He didn’t seem to like Rui or Tsukasa all that much. 

“I’m glad you guys are here now! We can finally go-go-GO!” Emu giggles. She had the silliest of phrases. I always enjoyed them too. 

Why do I keep rambling about Emu? 

Everyone continues to walk. Apparently Toya left his dragon or something at a certain place so a majority of us could get out of there. Rui and Tsukasa had the ability to fly on their own. Emu and Ena did too. Rui and Emu could because of their powers. Tsukasa and Ena could because they had wings. Everyone else.. They would have to either walk or use Toya’s dragon.  

“How far are we now?” Miku asks. 

“About two miles away,” Toya responds. 

I sigh. Why did he land so far away? During the long walk, everyone separated into either trios, duos, or solos. Miku, Shiho and Kaito walked together. Emu, Tsukasa were a duo while Mizuki, Akito, and Ena, all three of them were arguing about something stupid. What remained was the duo between Kanade and Mafuyu, that is if you exclude me and Rui. Toya followed behind Akito a bit. 

“It’s been a bit since we’ve had the opportunity to talk one-on-one, yeah?” Rui chuckles.

I try to avoid eye contact. “Yeah, I guess so.” my words were muffled. I didn’t necessarily want to talk with Rui, but I also wanted to set things right between us after.. That.

“Did I miss anything new? You and the others have been chatting quite a bit without me because of, well, you know. I’m curious to know the update!” He acted like he didn’t have blood splattered on his face or on his clothes, or hands, or really anywhere. 

“Not much, Emu was scared that you and Tsukasa had gotten hurt earlier if that’s anything?” I say. Why was I still going on about Emu? 

“That’s.. Cool? I’m not exactly sure what i’m meant to say to that.” Rui admits. I mean, who would know? “You seem to talk about Emu-kun a lot, why don’t you tell me about you and her’s friendship,” 

I scoff. As if i’d tell him anything..

“Well–” No, Nene, you idiot. “I like being her friend a lot. She’s caring, kind, and sweet! She’s always there when you need someone to talk to and–” Seriously? 

“You like her, don’t you?” he lets out a soft chuckle after his sentence. 

“Huh? What– no i–” 

“It’s kind of obvious. Nobody rants about their friend like that. Not to mention your face goes red when you’re around her.” he caught me red handed.

“I guess I do.. But don’t go telling everyone about it!” I snap.

“I won’t, I won’t.” Rui sighs. “She definitely likes you back by the way,” 

I glare at him. “You can’t just blurt that out so casually!” I gasp. 

Why was he acting like me liking Emu was worth as much as a pebble you’d find on the ground? I didn’t do that when he told me he liked Tsukasa, so why should I be getting the same judgment?!

“But seriously! You can’t just say that like it’s nothing!” I shout in a whisper.

He shakes his head. “It’s not my fault you’re too scared to tell her,” 

I frown. “Whatever.” I cross my arms. I couldn’t stand him. Rui chuckles a bit. He gives me a weird look. “What?” I wasn’t sure why he had that funny expression on his face. I did know that he had a stupid idea. 

“Ohh Emu-kun~!” Rui chuckles, rushing over to Emu and Tsukasa. 

“Eh– Rui! No!” I yelp. 

Rui’s POV

I thought the idea was kind of funny actually. I mean, surely it’d embarrass Nene, but it would be hilarious. I’ve dealt with entirely too much seriousness. Is that a word? I don’t know. 

“Oh! Rui-kun! Hi!” Emu smiles.

Tsukasa looks at me and sighs. “Speak of the devil himself,” 

“Were you talking about me?” I grin. 

“Yeah, I was telling Emu about how much I hate you.” his voice had obvious sarcasm.  

“I wouldn’t blame you,” Nene frowns, walking over to both of us. 

“What put you in that mood?” Tsukasa laughs, shoving one of his only hands onto his hip. I felt bad for ripping off his arm. It wasn’t on purpose. I didn’t want or mean to. Honestly, I wish I could replace— That’s it!

“Rui’s being a jerk again..” Nene scoffs, shrugging.

I chuckle. “Hehe, well, I just wanted to come and tell Emu-kun something~!” 

Tsukasa gives me a weird look. He raised and eyebrow and glared at me. “That voice makes me think it isn’t anything good,” he finally says.

“Awh, why do you doubt me so much, Tsukasa-kun..!? Woe is me.. I cannot believe what I am hearing..” I joked. It was obvious that I was trying to guilt trip him in a humorous manner. I place my hands against my chest to represent my pain.

“Tch, don’t even try that on me! I know your tricks and foolery!” Tsukasa smiles.

“Ah, worth a try.” I sigh, still smiling. I return my hands to my side. “So, what were you two talking about?” 

Tsukasa’s face turned red. “Uh– well–” 

Nene rolls her eyes. “Probably about what happened back with you two when you told him to stay behind,” 

Emu shakes her head, smiling. “Mm no. I was asking Tsukasa-kun what he and Rui-kun had been doing the day you and Rui and Kaito had all got captured! You know, before we went to get taiyaki! I wasn’t sure if that whole notebook picture thingy was a bluff or not, so I was curious~!” she giggles.

I freeze. “Don’t tell me you told her Tsukasa-kun—” I gulp, still keeping a smile, trying my best not to follow through with embarrassment. 

“I was just about to, but you came to the rescue.. If you can even call it that..” he answers.

I sigh out of relief. I mean, i’m sure she’d understand, but still. Not to mention, he would’ve said things completely different than from what happened. “You guys are weird.” Nene says.

I stare at her. “How come?” I cross my arms and smirk, hoping to know her answer.

“By what I just heard–!” She snaps. 

“Oh? Is something wrong with just us kissing, hm? What else would you have possibly thought?” 

“You could’ve been trying to kill him or something. I don’t know! You’re the crazy one here!” she was flustered by the teasing. “Why are you so worried about it anyway–!?” 

I wiped the smile off my face immediately. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to uh– you know what, why don’t you and Emu-kun walk together? Me and Tsukasa-kun will leave you alone,” I suggest.

“Oo! I’d like that! Come on Nene-chan!” Emu giggles again, grabbing Nene’s hand and dragging her forward. 

“Huh– Emu wait–!” 

I laugh. “I don’t understand how Emu could like Nene. Nene is always so.. Grumpy.” Tsukasa mutters. 

I shrug. “She’s not always like that; she’s just been having a hard time.” I tell him.

Tsukasa sighs, holding onto his side. “Is something wrong?” I ask.

No response. He just continued walking, looking as if he were in pain. “Tsukasa-kun?” 

Once again, no response. We were the farthest ones behind the group. I wasn’t sure why he acted hurt, but clearly something was wrong. “Rui– my side.. It burns..” he finally spits out. I tilt my head slightly. Where would he have burned his side at?

I move a bit closer to him, grabbing his arm so he would stop in his movement. “Eh, Rui!?” he gasps.

“We can catch up.” I assure him. “Can I check to make sure you’re alright?” I ask. I didn’t want to end up finding out he had been burned harshly and walked all that way. That’d only worsen the situation. 

Tsukasa nods. “Yeah, but if i’m injured–” 

“I’ll carry you then. I can’t risk it getting infected, you know?” I smile. 

Tsukasa stammars his words. “Huh?!” 

“What would you rather me do? Hm?” I cross my arms before crouching down. “So can I?” He nods a bit. There wasn’t a lot he could do if he did end up being injured. I mean, of course, he had a lot of injuries currently, but a burn would only make the pain worsen. 

I carefully lift up the side of the shirt that he told had burned. He wasn’t lying when he said it was burning. I wasn’t sure as to how he had even gotten burned, but it was definitely recent. “Is it bad?” He asks. I stay silent, but slowly nod in response. “That’s.. Not good.” he mutters.

“Alright, uhm..” I hold my breath. “Whatever caused it had to of done it recently. The burns look like they only happened a few minutes ago or something.” I stand up and sigh. There wasn’t much to do in this situation. Either I carried him until we got there or he’d have to walk with the pain.

“Were you around any fire? Lava? Anything burn-worthy?” I question.

He shakes his head. “Not that I know of. I don’t think I did anyway?” he replies, lowering his head a bit. 

“Hm, I don’t think anyone in the group can do that either..” I cross my arms.

Tsukasa gasps, grabbing my arm and dragging me behind him. He crouches down and I follow. “Tsk, seriously, Kamishiro? You should know better than to duck.” A slightly echoed voice mutters. They sounded annoyed. We stand up and there they were. Seiryuin Sakurako. She had the ability to light things on fire. I had a blank memory of how I knew her, but she seemed important.

“Seiryuin..” Tsukasa grunts. 

She could also fly. She was part phoenix, meaning she had flame abilities and wings. It was rare to see her. Wait, how did I know this stuff?

“Hehe, seems your acting career didn’t pan out, Tenma.” she snickers. 

Acting career? What did she mean by that? Were the others okay? 

“What the hell do you mean by acting career?! I’ve been a true warrior to the kingdom since I was seven! I’ve never once thought about those stupid– no, they were smarter than me.. But I’m not anything like those theatrical people!” he snaps.

“Oh, my apologies, i’m thinking of the wrong universe, silly me..” wrong universe? “How could I have made such a mistake… the Tenma from that world has an arm!” she chuckles.

“Whatever you’re trying to say won’t phase any of us, Seiryuin.” I say.  

Seiryuin flies down and smiles. “Hmm, maybe if I send you to that world, you’ll see just how happy you could be, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll stop what your doing.” 

I grab a hold of Tsukasa’s hand and refuse to let go. No matter how much he struggled. “R-Rui! We can run!” 

“We can’t, there’s no use. She can fly faster than anyone. Faster than Toya-kun’s dragon even!” I tell him.

I wasn’t even sure of what happened after. I just.. Woke up. I woke up in a grassy area. There were trees, a stage, an actual clear and sunny sky.. There were white tables too. The stage had a big fainted rainbow on it. It looked worn out. 

I struggle to my feet. “Ngh.. God dammit.. Where..?” I blink a few times and turn around. A guy who looked about the same height as me, had similar hair except it was styled differently, had the same eyes, same skin color, and— No. he wasn’t anyone. He was identical to me. 

“What in the world..?” He mumbles, slightly stepping back. 

I glance around. Tsukasa was no where to be seen. I hold my breath. “Where’s Tsukasa-kun?!” I snap.

The boy shrugged, he was shaking. “I– I don’t–” he hesitates. “This.. how do you know Tsukasa-kun?” he mutters. 

I sigh roughly. “I’m dating him, that’s how! He’s also my enemy.. And.. you know, whatever!” I frown.

“Ruuuii-kuunn!” a high pitched and familiar voice chimes. I turn around to see who it was. It was Emu. Except, her hair was cut short and she was in a completely different outfit. 

“Huh?! Two Rui-kun’s?!” she gasps.

I look back to face the doppelganger of mine. “You’re name’s Rui?” I ask. He nods.

“Rui Kamishiro, it’s… pleasant to meet you..” he was hesitant. 

Rui Kamishiro? But, thats me? How is that possible..?

“You’re lying, aren’t you? So I don’t kill you, right? Pretending to be me, putting me in some weird place! You and seiryuin did this, didn’t you!?” I shout.

“I didn’t do anything! You just appeared here, alright?! And if anything I should be saying that you’re lying!” he stammers. 

I groan. “I could kill you right now!”

Rui, or according to him, that was his name, gasps quietly, freezing in place. “K-kill me..?” 

I nod. “Yeah, thought you would’ve known.. Anybody does.. Tch.” I grunt. “I’m one of the most wanted villains, everyone knows that.” 

“Rui-kun hasn’t killed anybody!” Emu yelps. 

.

.

.

“This isn’t my world.. Is it..?” I say, finally hitting that realization. He really was me. Just a different version of me.. A version who’s never killed a single person..

“Sorry for being late I ran into this guy who– what the hell?" A boy who had the same hair, voice, eyes, whatever else, as Tsukasa gasps. He looked surprised.

"Tsukasa-kun!" Emu cries, rushing behind him.

"There's no way that this is even possible? I mean– another universe?" Rui or well me? I don't know, I'll just say Rui; chuckles.

"I mean, I ran into some guy in a knights' outfit and he looked like me, sounded like me, and had the same name as me so it is possible apparently." The guy I believed was named Tsukasa explains. "He was missing an arm though,"

"But Rui-kun number two is saying he's some criminal!" Emu says.

"Ignore her, but uh– you met someone who was— well, you?" I ask, walking towards him.

Tsukasa nods. "Yeah, he said he was looking for Rui or something," 

"Where is he now?" 

"I saw him over there, sorry if it's not that helpful–" he sounded hesitant. I mean, he did just find out I was a criminal so it's a realistic reaction. 

"Thanks," I ran over to where he pointed and there I found Tsukasa, the one from my world. 

"Tsukasa-kun!" I smile, shoving him into a hug.

"GAH! R-RUI!" He yelps.

I laugh. "Sorry, sorry." I stumble to my feet and lend my hand to him. Tsukasa grabs it and stands up.

I sigh. "I don't think this is our universe. I met another version of me here or something, and another version of Emu, and you." I murmur to him.

"What the hell did Seiryuin do?!" He snaps.

"I'm not sure, but we need to figure out how to get back soon." I grab Tsukasa's arm and drag him back to where the doppelgangers had been. 

"Oh, he's back." Rui mumbles.

"Where else do you want me to go, huh? To hell?" I grunt.

"Damn, this version of you seems a little violent with his words, huh?" Tsukasa, or the other Tsukasa jokes.

"He's usually like this, unfortunately. The way we started dating is so much worse too." 

Okay, let's just name them with numbers. I'm Rui #1. The other one is Rui #2. The Tsukasa I know is Tsukasa #1. The one I don't know is Tsukasa #2. 

"Wait, you're dating?" Tsukasa #2 sounded surprised. 

"Yeah? Are you guys not…" Tsukasa #1's speech fades off. 

"No, uhm.. we aren't, but I–" Rui #2 sucks in his breath. "Whatever, it doesn't matter." 

"If you're gonna say that you both like each other but aren't sure how to tell each other then just say that," Tsukasa #1 says. He most definitely didn't think about his words.

"Huh!? N-No, I– uh–" Tsukasa #2 looked flustered. I mean, his crush was just exposed, in front of his crush. Who wouldn't be embarrassed?

"Emu, why don't you entertain them, yeah? Me and Tsukasa need to have a talk." Rui #2 mutters, grabbing a hold of Tsukasa #2's arm.

"Okie-dokie! Have Fun!" Emu giggles. 

Rui #2's POV

If what that other Tsukasa said was true, that Tsukasa liked me back–

No, Rui, don't think like that. I doubt he does. He's probably straight anyway. 

"Rui, if it's about what he said—" I cut him off.

"Look, Tsukasa-kun," I sigh. "I don't know how you'll respond to this, but what he said is true, at least for me. I like you, like a lot. I kind of was hoping you'd be the one to admit it, but I don't think you like me anyway. I don't—" 

I have a feeling he was upset I had cut him off because he immediately cut me off with a kiss. It was quite humorous because he had to go on his tip-toes, grab my jaw, and pull me down so I'd reach his height.

This is happening. He's kissing me.

Tsukasa pulls away and smiles. "No need to continue your sentence." He chuckles. "Why would a future star like me reject such a fine man?!" 

I grin. "I see how it is, only doing it because I'm hot, okay." I joke.

"Come arrest me for it then, Mr. Criminal," 

I scoff. "Okay, enough of that, what's your answer?" I ask.

Tsukasa groans. "Clearly I didn't make it obvious enough, my answer is yes."

I smile. I found it entertaining to see him get so upset. "Yay! You did it!" A voice cheers from Tsukasa's pocket. 

"God dammit– Miku!" He grunts, pulling out his phone from his pocket. 

"Wah! Sorry to interrupt!" She cries.

I shake my head. "It's alright, Miku-kun,"

"I'll be off now! Hehe!" She disappears from the hologram she once was. 

"I wish we would've asked her about the duplicates of us." Tsukasa says.

"I think Kaito or Meiko might have a better idea on that," I cross my arms. "For now, I think we should ask them about their lives first. I mean, I'm curious; why is the other one of me a criminal? Why is yours a knight and dating said criminal? It doesn't make sense." 

Tsukasa nods. "Yeah, I guess you're right.. Let's head back then." Tsukasa smiles, grabbing my arm before dragging me back to the others.

"Hey–!" I gasp.

Chapter Text

Tsukasa’s POV

It didn’t take long for the other two to come back. I mean, I wouldn’t have expected it to be that long. I did feel kind of guilty for basically exposing them.

“Sorry for the wait,” Rui, or, well, the other Rui says.

“It’s fine,” I mutter.

Everyone was quiet. It was an awkward silence. Well, in this situation, who wouldn’t be silent?! There’s basically a duplicate of yourself in front of you except they aren’t you and– whatever it’s too difficult to explain. 

“I don’t understand, how– if what you said is true..” Tsukasa, or I’ll just use last names for the ones from this world, Tenma starts off. “Then, what was your universe like? What happened?” he asks.

Rui and I exchange looks, a bit hesitant to explain. There were a million possible answers. “Well, it seems pretty fictional based on how this place looks, but basically there are sides, heroes and villains. The heroes are typically knights for the kingdom, I was one of them. Rui, Nene, Emu, Kaito, and some others are villains. Each person has a power, or most of them do. I can fly, Rui’s– is complicated, Nene doesn’t have one, Emu’s is similar to Rui’s and Kaito can never miss a target. Kanade can teleport, Akito has a higher speed, Mizuki doesn’t have any, and that’s all I can think of for now. Oh! And Toya, he can speak to animals! Specifically mystical ones!” I explain.

Kamishiro and Tenma look at each other and then at me. I did sound kind of strange coming out of my mouth now that I realized it. “What do you mean by, ‘Rui’s is complicated.’ and ‘Emu’s is similar’?” Kamishiro questions.

I hesitate. “Mine and Emu’s are complicated because it isn’t technically known what the power does other than an extra ability aside it. It’s basically magic that can be used at any given moment if you know spells and stuff, its weird. The side ability are different for each person with it. Mine allows me to manipulate others’ thoughts and choices.” Rui tells them.

“Seems like you’re still a manipulative person, even in a separate universe.” Tenma grunts.

“I mean, is that necessarily a bad thing?” Kamishiro grins.

“YES!” 

Kamishiro laughs. I wasn’t sure as to why they wanted to know this stuff, but I don’t think it’d be helpful for them anyway. What are they going to do, turn us in to the police here despite us being unknown people? They couldn’t do anything. 

“So, uh, how did.. You two happen?” Kamishiro asks. 

I smile. “Weird story, but basically I got captured by the villains, something happened that I will not say, and then I joined the villain’s side, and some other stuff. That’s basically it.” I ‘explain’.

Rui sighs. “You could at least give details, basically the villains captured him and then was basically forced to switch sides. After that it just happened, nothing really was the start of it.” That was literally what I said, just with bigger words. 

“Oh, okay. How’d you end up here?” Tenma asks, crossing his arms. I frown, realizing I can’t even do that. What does a man need to do for an arm, yeah?

“That’s something you don’t need to know,” Rui hisses. 

I blink a bit. Why couldn’t we tell them? “Rui, come on, I don’t think it’d hurt to–” He cuts me off.

“We need to get back to our world before anything else happens. Who knows what will happen to Nene or Emu or– any of them!” 

“Oh,” I mumble.

Everyone stayed silent again. I hadn’t realized that Emu had left. “Rui, you made  a time machine before, surely you can help them, right?” Tenma smiles.

Kamishiro shakes his head. “The time machine wasn’t on purpose, I doubt I would have the ability to send them to another world. If they gave me knowledge on how they came here, I could maybe fix something up.” 

I walk over to him and take a deep breath. “Please? I’ll do anything for us to get sent back home.” I plead. I wanted to leave this place, even if it seemed normal, it wasn’t where I belonged.

Kamishiro sighs. “Okay, but I can’t say it’ll actually work.” 

Toya’s POV

“Alright, were here!” I smile. It had taken long enough just to get here. 

“Finally, why did you go so far?!” Mizuki complains.I shrug. It was probably so we wouldn’t get caught, but that ended up failing. Everyone crowded towards me. Everyone but Tsukasa and Rui. Everyone but those two. They weren’t anywhere to be seen either. “Can we get going now?” Akito asks.

I hesitate. “No, not until we find out where the hell Tsukasa and Rui went.” I mutter.

Mizuki glances around. “Weren’t they just with us..?” they say. I shrug again.

“Me and Emu just saw them not even ten minutes ago, they couldn’t have gone very far, right?” Nene claims. I mean, they probably were nearby, but I don’t think Tsukasa would agree to leave the group behind. 

“Why don’t we split up and look for them?” Kaito suggests.  Everyone agrees. Despite splitting up not working for a few of us typically, it was the best option for now. 

These were the groups.

Me and Akito.

Nene, Shiho and Emu.

Mafuyu and Kanade.

Kaito and Miku.

Mizuki and Ena.

—

“Toya, I have a question,” Akito says, disturbing the silence a bit.

“Hm? What is it?” 

He sucks in his breath. “Uhm, look, about–”

“Nevermind, I don’t want to answer it.” I snap.

“No, no, don’t worry about it. I just wanted to ask you why you never told me what the kingdom had been doing. I would’ve helped if you had said something.” 

I frown. “I didn’t want you to lose the only home you ever had, okay? Stupid reason, I know.” I explain.

“Seriously?! That’s the reason? I don’t care for the kingdom or anything like that!” 

“You don’t care now, but before you found out you would’ve never agreed to what you did.” I say.

“Toya, I promise you it wouldn’t have bothered me.” he grins. I knew he was lying. He didn’t want me to be concerned or worried about that.

“Okay.” I mumble. That’s all I could say. I didn’t know what else I could’ve said. 

There was a short silence, it felt long though. Things didn’t feel right. I didn’t know what to say, but I typically did. That was the problem. I wasn’t myself, was I? His question wasn’t even about the kingdom, it was about why I hadn’t been myself. If I acted normally, I would’ve stayed with the heroes. But I didn’t. 

I made all sorts of decisions that affected everyone. Usually, I wouldn’t do that. It was weird. Why was I acting like this? No, why was I even thinking like this? It’s pointless. 

Just focus on trying to find Rui and Tsukasa. Nothing else. It isn’t that difficult. 

“So, uhm, where do you think they went?” I ask, breaking the awkward silence. 

“Not sure, usually we’d have a lead, but there’s no trace left of them. Its like they just disappeared or something.” He answers, sitting on a nearby log. 

“Rui doesn’t know any teleportation spells either,” I add. “Maybe they ran into somebody and we just didn’t notice?” 

“Maybe.. We should go back to the lab to see if they went there.” he suggests. I nod, beginning to walk away. “Wait, Toya.” I turn around to face him. He was standing now, having red flushed cheeks and a smile. “Come here for a second,”

I walk over to him and he grabs the collar of my shirt. “Huh?!” I gasp. Akito pulls me closer to him. I was a little scared, but it was Akito, he wouldn’t hurt me, right? And he didn’t. I was extremely wrong. He kissed me. I pull away after a few seconds. A few seconds as in a minute or two. My head felt light. I was, what? 16? And only now had my first kiss, embarrassing.

“Let’s go find Rui and Tsukasa now,” he lets go of my shirt and instead grabs a hold of my arm, dragging me all the way back to the lab. 

I don’t even know what just happened. 

Rui’s POV

My head was itchy. I didn’t know why either. I was sat in Rui’s garage or something like that. There were balloons everywhere and it was just a total mess. He definitely was skilled with mechanics and robotics though. 

I could tell that he was because of the large amount of robots and machines left in his room. I mean, I don’t blame him, but he could at least organize a bit. I have no room to talk actually…

“So, you’re skilled with robotics?” I say. 

He turns towards me and nods. “Yeah, i’d like to assume you are too, but I can’t exactly be sure.” 

I nod. “I am. I focus more on my ability and violence though. It’s not often I get the chance to make something.” I explain. It was true, I never really had enough time to build what I wanted.

“That’s unfortunate..” Rui sighs. “If you want, you can scavenge around for stuff to make something. I’m not sure if it’ll help you in your situation though.” 

I smile. I don’t know why I was talking to him like some stranger. He was basically me, just from a different universe. “Do you have anything that could uh, make something like this?” I pull up a photo on my phone and show it to him.

Rui grins. “Hehe, it’s for Tsukasa-kun, right?” he mutters.

I power off my phone and set it on the desk. “Yeah, I feel bad for…” I hesitate. Did he really need to know that I caused Tsukasa’s.. Uhm.. lack of an arm? 

“I think I might have some materials for it. If I don’t, just let me know.” 

“Ah, okay.” 

—

It didn’t take long for me to give up on looking. His room was so messy you couldn’t find anything. How did he live here?! 

“Can’t find anything?” He asks, glancing over at me.

I nod. “Yeah, your room makes it a bit difficult..” I chuckle nervously.

“I’m aware,” Rui smiles. “I’m sure SEKAI might have something left over from when I helped Len build something..” 

SEKAI?.. What the hell was SEKAI?

“What does that even mean?” I blink a few times. I didn’t understand what he meant by that. He did mention Len though. I definitely knew who Len was. 

“SEKAI? Does your universe not have one?” He tilts his head a bit. 

I shake my head. “I’ve never heard of it.”  His eyes widened. Clearly that came as a surprise to him.

“We’re taking you to it then,” he says, grabbing my arm with one hand and picking up his phone with the other. 

“I’m still shocked you’re not scared of me.” I murmur trying to completely change the topic. I was a little scared of where he was going to take me. 

“Eh, I don’t think you’d hurt me. If it’s what I believe, that if one dies the others die, then I doubt i’ll be harmed.” he smiles, pressing some button on his phone. I wasn’t sure as to what happened, nor did I want to know. I mean, out of all things, I didn’t expect to faint just by a single press of a button. 

—

“Is he alright?”   A high pitched but kind of familiar voice asks.

“I’m sure he’s fine,” it was most definitely Rui there with them. 

I open my eyes to find, of course, Rui, but also some girl with blue hair, some weird clown-ish outfit and pigtails. I could describe her in a million different ways. I found it strange how she reminded me of Miku a bit. 

I blink a few times before realizing where I was; or, that I wasn’t where I originally had been. “Where am I?” I ask, a bit hesitant. 

“You can figure it out yourself, i’m sure of it.” Rui smiles. God, I hated him, even if we were the same person. 

No, we weren’t the same person. We might be considered the same person because we were basically just different versions of ourselves in different worlds, but still, even then we were different. He was normal, I was not. That’s the fastest difference I can come up with.

This was so confusing.

“Hi! I’m Miku~!” The girl with the bright blue hair says. 

Had a feeling it was her.

“I guessed that you were the same as her.. It was just the outfit and expressions that threw me off.” I frown. It was strange hearing her voice in such a cheerful tone, usually it sounded plain and careless. 

She lends out her hand and I grab it, allowing her to pull me up. I think I could’ve died when I saw how colorful the rest of the area was. It didn’t seem real. I mean, even for me, it didn’t seem realistic. There was a flying train, a ferris wheel, moving plushies.. It was making me feel delusional.

“So this is the guy you were talking to?!” A young boy with yellow-blonde hair chimes.

“Yeah,” he sighs. “I’m sorry for randomly shoving you back into my pocket, I couldn’t risk anything.” 

I cross my arms. “Huh?”

“Oh right, I should explain.” Rui smiles. “This is a SEKAI. A world made of someone’s feelings; for example, this one is made up of Tsukasa’s feelings. The ones inside of the SEKAI are virtual singers. They can pop out of our phones!” he explains.

“Pop out of our phones..? Like they can see everything you do and you wouldn’t even realize?” I mumble.

Rui freezes. “I didn’t even think about that..” 

“There’s been a few times that me and Rin have done it! I wanted to talk, but you turned out to be busy or something, i’m not sure what you were up to but–” Len goes on and on before Rui had cut him off. 

“Uhm, what exactly did you hear..?” He sounded nervous. I could see a few drips of sweat linger down his face. 

“Uhh, I think you were crying? You were saying something about WonderlandsXShowtime! I didn’t want to intrude though!” Len says. 

I chuckle. “Yeah, definitely crying.” 

“I probably was. Was it around the time I was asked about leaving WonderlandsXShowtime to become a director for–” Rui stops. “Nevermind actually, I know exactly what you were talking about.” 

“Oh! Yeah! It was around then!” he smiles. “I wasn’t sure on what to say so I went back to SEKAI.” 

I groan. “How is any of this supposed to help us?” I ask.

“Well, they might have an idea on what we should do.” Rui says. His voice irritated me despite his voice sounding the same as my own. 

“Hmm, well, how did he get here anyway?” someone else mutters, walking over to us. It was some guy with blue hair, he reminded me of Kaito. His voice sounded similar too, so maybe it was the same person, just different universes? I don’t know.

“Oh! Kaito!” Len gasps with a joyful tone. It was definitely him.

“Hehe, hello,” Kaito grins. He wasn’t anything like the one I knew. He sounded more cheerful and kind rather than some mean–or however you’re meant to describe him–person. “So, Rui, if I can call you that, how did you get here?” 

I frown. I didn’t want to answer that question. “Me and Tsukasa and the others, we had just left that lab place. Then Tsukasa said he felt something burning on his side, I check it, he was burned by something, and then Seiryuin, not sure if you have one of her here, but she basically ‘teleported’ us here.” it was short detail, but did that matter? Absolutely not. 

“Seiryuin? Isn’t that one of the actors in PXL?” Kaito asks Rui, or the other Rui. 

“Yeah, we did a show with her group recently,” Rui glances over at me. “I’m confused now, what do you mean by ‘teleported’ you here?” 

I shrug. “If I hadn’t already explained, everyone in my world, or majority of people, were born with an ability. That ability could go from teleportation to a completely nameless one where you can control anything just by flicking your finger. Seiryuin, got mixed in between fire and teleportation, allowing her to teleport anyone to a different universe. It’s of course a strange mixture, but it works. Kanade also has teleportation, just not as extreme as Seiryuin.” It sounded like nonsense coming out of my mouth. 

“Geez, that’s a lot to remember..” Miku whines.

Kaito shakes his head. “I think I know how to get you back, but it’ll be a bit difficult. What’s your ability?” he says.

I hesitate. “I can control anyone’s thoughts, as well as cast spells and things like that. All really fiction.” I explain.

“Ah, so this’ll definitely work.” Kaito seemed a bit too familiar with this. 

“Hold on, before you do anything, i’ll need an explanation or something.” I snap.

“I’m aware, Rui.” Kaito chuckles. I didn’t have a good feeling about this. 

Tsukasa’s POV

My head hurt. Still. It seemed to always hurt. There wasn’t a time where it didn’t hurt. Why did it hurt exactly? Who knows. Honestly, it could be from the amount of exercise i’ve had in the past two weeks, or maybe it was from my arm being ripped off, it also could’ve been from the times Rui threw me against the wall. I wasn’t sure.

“So, do you want to be a star?” Tenma asks, looking at me. It was weird hearing my voice come from another individual… I shrug. I wasn’t sure. I didn’t have an answer to his question. I wanted to become a famous warrior, yes, but I had doubts about it. I was know in the kingdom but that didn’t help.

“Eh, I don’t know. I wanted to be a famous warrior, but never believed I could do it.” I say.

Tenma gasps. “WHAT?! REALLY!?” his loudness hurt my ears. “How are we the same person!?” 

I shrug again. His yelling only worsened my headache. “How am I supposed to know that?” I felt sick. I felt like I could spit up vomit any second. My head spun, but that didn’t stop me from staying awake and ‘healthy’.

“I guess that’s true..we must have at least one thing in common!” he places his hands on his hips and grins.

“I mean, I do say I always succeed and stuff. I try to act brave when in reality i’m scared, is it the same for you?” I didn’t realize how much I was rambling.

“Yeah! Same here! Good, we found a similarity!” he laughs. “Ha ha ha!”  His voice was obnoxious. Was I really that loud? His voice was excruciatingly loud. But what, him wanting to become a star? It sounded impossible. 

“Look, if you’re thinking that my dream to become famous is impossible, but–” How did he know what I was thinking? “Look, I don’t care if it sounds impossible, but I seriously want to at least try!” he sounded upset. I didn’t think something so little, bothered him so much. I’m starting to sound like Rui, aren’t I?

“No, I never said that it was impossible, it just seems unrealistic, you know?” I murmur. I didn’t want to sound rude. I felt bad actually. Did people tell him it was impossible often? 

“Sorry.. Uh, anyway! Me and my friends have to go rehearse so you can come along if you’d like! It’s in SEKAI! But, im not sure if you know what that is.” 

“I don’t but whatever, i’ll watch you guys rehearse.” I scoff. I didn’t feel good, and where they rehearsed probably was going to be chaotic, which I didn’t want. I would’ve been forced anyway. He pulls out his phone and clicks some file. I wasn’t sure with any of this. 

And I was right to be unsure of it. 

—

I woke up in some colorful wonderland. There was a flying train or something. My head hurt. Still. Of course it hurt. When hasn’t it hurt? I frown, standing up. Tenma, Rui, Kamishiro, Miku, and.. Kaito? All stood around me. 

“You alright?” Tenma asks.

I grunt. “No, my head hurts.”

“Still? Hasn’t it been hurting for the past couple of days?” Rui says, placing a hand on my shoulder out of concern. 

“Rui, i’m fine! I’ve just been sick, that’s all!” I sigh, hugging him, or attempting to hug him. He catches my balance and places a hand on my head.

 “Oh my hades– you’re burning up–!” why was he worried? 

“Rui, I swear i’m fine!” I holler. I felt gross. I felt like I could puke any second. And I did. I coughed and it all flew out of me. Everything I had eaten in the past few days, was now out of my mouth. Except it didn’t just go out of my mouth, no, I had still been hugging Rui, or well he had his arms around me. The vomit was all over him. He stood there, looking disgusted but scared at the same time. I was a bit scared too. Scared I was about to die. 

“I-I’m so sorry, Rui–!” I yelp, moving away instantly. “I–” 

He frowns a bit, but he didn’t at all seem upset. “It’s fine,” he mutters. 

“Are you sure, I–”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” he sighs, shoving me away a bit. I don’t blame him for doing so. 

“If you want, I can go grab you some new clothes.. If that helps at all.” Kamishiro suggests.

“No, it’s alright. I would rather suffer than for you to go through that trouble.” Rui smiles. It was like he had absolutely no care for what just happened. I would be extremely upset if I were the victim of that, except I wasn’t. I was only the cause of it.

I felt more than a little guilty. I ruined his entire outfit and yet he still refused to change his clothes. I wanted to blurt out another ‘sorry’, but I was sure he’d just refuse it again. Honestly, I could just think of that as unintentional revenge, but I felt too sick to even care.

“So, where exactly are we?” I ask.

Tenma went on to explain. “Basically, it’s an alternate world created by feelings, for example, this one of made up of mine!” he smiles.

I had a disgust for all the colorful pastels, but at the same time it was slightly pretty. That could’ve just been from me being sick though. It didn’t seem at all realistic. Yet again, the world I live in isn’t realistic if we put it by the laws of this universe. 

“It’s certainly an interesting place!” Kamishiro’s eyes became wide and he smiled. He looked insane or something. “Fufu~, if only Tsukasa-kun would let me–”

“No! Absolutely not! You aren’t dissecting anything!” Tenma furrows his eyebrows. “If you even get close to the plushies I’ll force someone to take untitled off your phone!” 

I blink a couple of times. “Awe, but you’d seriously go that far just because I wanted to ‘help’ out the plushies!?” Kamishiro adds hurt into his tone. I could tell he was trying to manipulate Tenma.

“How the hell is taking out their insides ‘helping’ them?!” Tenma frowns, crossing his arms. I was still extremely jealous of that other arm he had. 

“I can tell i’m not the only strange Rui in existence, got it.” Rui says, chuckling to himself. He aimed it towards me a bit. 

The smell of vomit coming off of him only made me want to puke again. The smell was so bad. I couldn’t remember me hating such a smell, but I certainly did hate it. I felt really bad still, guilty even. “Yeah..” I respond to his original speech. I wasn’t exactly sure as to what he said, but I could’ve made out a simple sentence like, “Im not the only strange one.” or something like that.

I wanted to apologize over and over again for what I did. Yet again, I never did apologize for anything I did to him in the past. I used to cut him up pretty badly before we became on good terms. I mean, it was my job! I was commanded to attack him and I did. I was a knight for the kingdom, not some peasant. I’d hate to be a peasant.

Then I remembered Saki. 

The sweet girl who I thought was killed by the guards, but actually wasn’t. The kind girl who was my biological sister. The girl who Rui knew was live. He knew she was alive, and didn’t even tell me.

“I already told you, Rui, you can’t–” I focused back into reality after hearing those words. Even the sudden speech of his name pained me. He was right there, possibly talking to me. He was dating me too! Why couldn’t I bare to hear his name?

I wasn’t sure of it at all. I wasn’t sure as to why I felt hurt after hearing my beloved’s name. No.. Beloved wouldn’t be the right word to use.. He’s an evil man who kidnapped me. He kidnapped me, possibly manipulated me to switch sides, threatened to kill me immediately after comforting me, and he ripped my arm off. All of that happened within the span of a month or something. 

I couldn’t keep track of time. Not ever. I didn’t even have my phone on me. Why would I? Rui confiscated it when he captured me. Why the hell would I have my phone? 

“Tsukasa-kun?” Rui says, tapping me on the shoulder lightly. I turn to look at him. My heart raced. It didn’t race from a positive thing either. It raced because I was scared. 

Rui had harmed me so much that I grew fearful of him. I was scared that he’d hurt me again. Scared that he’d do something far worse than just hurt me. I was scared that he’d kill me. 

“Tsukasa-kun? Are you alright?” Rui repeats himself. 

I gulp. I wasn’t even aware that Rui was holding onto me tightly. He had my head close to his chest. I could hear him breathing. “It’s okay..” he kisses the top of my head. 

What? 

How was he aware of—

I was in a panic attack. I couldn’t catch my breath. My chest hurt. My stomach hurt. Everything hurt.

“R-Rui,” I choke on my words. 

“Shh, it’s alright,” He runs his fingers through my hair a bit. “It’s okay, Tsukasa-kun.” he whispers. I cough. I could still smell the vomit on his clothes. He must’ve taken a few layers off because it wasn’t covered in puke. I felt safe around a murderer. God, Tsukasa you need to figure out if you love him or not.

“It’ll be okay, Tsukasa-kun.” 

The words stung my heart worse than a bee-sting. I loved him, I really did. How could I love somebody like him? 

“Rui, it–” I gulp again. “It hurts..” Rui smiles a bit, hugging me. Why was he smiling at my pain? I couldn’t breathe and this was how he responds? 

“Try taking deep breaths,” he kisses the top of my head again before pushing me away a little bit to look at me. He kept his hands on my waist so I couldn’t fall. I couldn’t feel anything. 

I take a deep breath, and continue to do it multiple times. I felt a little calmer, but it definitely wasn’t any better. Rui kept that stupid smile. “Can you tell me what’s wrong?” he says in a quiet voice. It was like I couldn’t even hear the yelling in the background. I turn my head to the left. How could I tell him that he was the reason? “I–” I cut myself off. I didn’t know what to say. I squeeze my eyes shut. 

“I’m not going to be upset with you, I just want to know if I’ll be able to help.” Rui softened his voice, but to me, it sounded like a threat. It sounded harsh and mean. His words made me want to cry. Not a good cry either. 

“You won’t be able to help!” I snap. Why did I snap? Why did I do that? He’ll hurt me. He’ll do whatever he can do hurt me!

“..?!” Rui was speechless. He didn’t know what to say. 

I hyperventilate. “I–I–” I don’t think I’ve ever stuttered so much in my life. I hated stuttering. 

“Imsorryimsorryimsorryimsorryimsorry!” I sputter, covering my face. I didn’t feel like the hero I said I was. 

Rui panics a little. “N-Nonono, it’s okay!” he moves one of his hands to my cheek and the other to my back to make sure I didn’t fall.

“You don’t have to lie, Rui!” Just stop talking Tsukasa!

“Im not lying, Tsukasa-kun.” he pulls me closer. I was shaking. 

He’s going to hit me.

He’s going to hit me.

He’s going to hit me.

He’s going to hit me.

He’s going to hit me.

I stop breathing. Rui brought his face closer to mine and kissed me. 

I couldn’t remember the last time I felt so scared. He was trying to calm me down, but I just was scared. Rui had pulled away and looked at me a few seconds after. I wasn’t sure why I couldn’t respond. 

“I won’t hurt you, okay?” I still didn’t trust those words. I couldn’t comprehend that he wasn’t going to actually hurt me. “I know I have before, but I swear I won’t do it again. Not ever.” Was he serious? After every stupid thing he’s done, he only now said that? 

Hell, he probably won’t even keep his word.

“Can you just leave me alone?” I murmur. 

Rui hesitates. It was an awkward silence between me and him. I could still hear the distant yelling from the other two. I mean, they were arguing over something stupid. “Yeah.” Rui finally answers. He ends up walking away after responding. I was grateful. 

Kamishiro ran over to me. Apparently they were done arguing. “Are you alright?” he asks. I don’t respond. I didn’t want to respond. “Tsukasa? Are you alright?” He asks again. I stayed quiet. 

“What’s the matter with him?” Tenma questions, rushing over to us as well. Rui stood over by Kaito. 

“Not sure, I think something happened between him and the other me or something,” Kamishiro claims. 

I nod. “I don’t even know what happened. I looked at Rui and I went into a panic attack. I was scared. I was terrified of him. I thought he was going to hurt me after I had snapped at him, but he didn’t and–” Tenma cuts me off. 

“Back up, back up, what now?” He tilts his head slightly. “Hurt you? Why would he hurt you?”

I shrug. “Maybe it’s because he slit Toya’s wrists and threatened to do the same to me. Maybe it’s because he stabbed Emu and tried to dislocate my arm before tearing that same arm off ten minutes later. Or maybe it’s because he was the reason I destroyed my own home and thought my sister was dead. Actually no, maybe it’s because he hid the fact that my sister, Saki, was in fact still alive!” I spilled it all out. I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t. I hated Rui. I fucking hated him.

“You know damn well I didn’t mean to do any of that.” Rui snaps as he walks back over to us. 

“So hiding the fact Saki is alive was an accident?! Lying about the kingdom’s past was an accident?! Ripping off my arm was an accident?! All of that was an accident to you!?” I hiss. 

“I– No, I don’t think they were accidents, I just didn’t mean to lie to you so much.. Or hurt you so much.. I didn’t mean for any of that to happen, Tsukasa-kun.” he says.

“I don’t care if you meant it or not, you still did it!” I frown. “And I don't even think you have the right to call me that.” 

“..Really? That’s seriously how you’re going to respond?” He chuckles. “God, if my powers worked here, you’d be dead in a second.” 

“H-Hey now, let’s not get violent–” Kaito says, before Kamishiro had lent out his arm to stop Kaito from breaking up the argument. 

“It’s not like they’ll be able to physically harm each other here,” he mumbles.

I sigh. “Rui, I don’t want to fight you. Not physically or anything in between. I just want you to stop being so ignorant!” I grunt.

“Ignorant? If i’m ignorant then you’re much dumber than I am,” 

“He means that you’re being ignorant to your actions, you’re being oblivious and blind.” Tenma explains. I nod. He was right. That was exactly what I meant. I wanted Rui to stop acting the way he did. I wanted him to at least try to be a good person. 

I freeze by the sudden motion of tiny triangles and a small light come from the far right of us. A girl with greenish-gray hair appeared. She looked like Nene. “Sorry for being late, I– what the hell?” She gasps as soon as she sees the duplicates of her friends. 

“Oh, Nene!” Tenma smiles. I hated how he could change moods so quickly. 

“Hi..?” She sounded confused. “Who… what?”

I wave slightly before looking Rui dead in the eyes. He smiles slightly. He looked extremely uncomfortable. I didn’t really care though. “Hi, I’m Tsukasa Tenma!” I put on a smile.

“Did you hire people to pretend to be you or something?” Nene asks Tenma and Kamishiro. 

“No, they’re actually from another universe.” Kamishiro blurts out. He had no shame.

“Huh?”

“We’re from another universe, I can describe our world for you if you’d like!” Rui says. His expression gave me a little bit of fear. 

“Uhm, yeah, no thanks.” Nene walks over to some yellow haired girl. She looked a lot like Len.

“Geez, she’s just like our Nene, isn’t she?” Rui mumbles to me.

Weren’t we literally just arguing?

“Yeah, kind of.” I sigh. I didn’t really know what to say at this point. 

Rui’s POV

I cross my arms. I felt like shit. I really was a bad person, wasn’t I? Not even Tsukasa, my own lover, liked me. He hated me. He was scared of me. He thought I was the worst thing in existence. And I was. I was the reason for basically all of his trauma or something like that.

I wanted to move on from the topic, I really did. I couldn’t stand another second of it. “Geez, she’s really like our Nene, isn’t she?” I mumble to Tsukasa. I didn’t care if we were just arguing.

“Yeah, kind of..” he didn’t sound very intrigued. He sounded more upset and bored than intrigued. I didn’t know what to say. Who would? 

“Rui, if you’re going to hurt me again, just do it. I’d rather not argue anymore.” Is what Tsukasa said. I didn’t ever want to hurt him. Any time I had hurt him, it wasn’t ever intentional. After all of the kingdom and Keiko stuff, I hadn’t been thinking straight. (Quite literally, I had a boyfriend..)

“I’m not going to hurt you, and I don’t plan on doing that anytime soon.” I murmur. 

Tsukasa glances to the side. He obviously didn’t trust me. I wouldn’t either. “Okay..”I decide not to continue the conversation after that. 

Kaito walks up to me. “So, how do I act in your world?” he asks. He clearly knew what was going on. 

“Definitely cautious, you’re kind of violent, you can shoot a gun really well, uh–” I get cut off.

“I think that’s enough actually,” he chuckles nervously. God, always ruining a conversation, aren’t you, Rui?

“Ah, okay, my apologies.” I turn away. I didn’t want to hurt anyone else, especially not people from a universe I don’t belong in. 

Maybe I should just disappear.. It’s not like anyone would care. They planned on killing me anyway, plus Tsukasa hates me! 

I brush away the thought. Don’t think that way, Rui.

“Seems like Emu can’t make it, she ended up throwing up after seeing the large amount of blood on uh.. Other me’s clothes,” Rui says. It still came by as weird to me how I seemed to be the only violent one. 

I didn’t like being violent. 

I didn’t like it at all. 

Not one bit.

I hated it.

Hate.

I disliked the word hate. It had been used around me so much recently, it made me sick. This was the only reason I knew I could use the word. I hate how violent I am.

“That’s disappointing..” Nene sighs. “Im going to go stop by her house to make sure she’s alright,” she disappeared within seconds. 

The other Tsukasa shrugs. “Eh, not like it matters much. Emu’s the lead in the play so we wouldn’t be able to perform without her.” 

“It’s kind of unfortunate for me, I wanted to make sure that she was alright with being thrown into the air,” Rui complains. 

So definitely insane, just not as much as I am..

“What, I thought that idea was reserved for me?!” Tsukasa, the one from this universe, shouts.

“It is, but specifically in one scene, Nene, who plays the Liera, the witch, uses her magic to allow Emu to continue her journey. Which just so happens to have Emu be airborne!” Rui explains.

So they performed shows?

“I wonder if my wings work here,” Tsukasa mutters. This time it was the one I knew.

“Eh? You have wings?!” Rui had this excited look on his face.

“Don’t even try to test anything on him!” The other Tsukasa snaps.

“I’m fine with it, Rui tests things on me all the time!” The one I knew says. This was hard to keep track of. I processed maybe 50% of the conversation.  

“Well, my tests are reasonable—”

“Mine are too, the reason being that i’m curious!” Rui chuckles manically. It wasn’t as much as I would, but it was a close comparison. 

“You’re not touching Tsukasa-kun!” I hissed. 

Rui sighs. “Oh, woe is me… I can’t believe you’d think I’d ever dare to hurt him!” he was obviously trying to guilt trip me. 

“Rui, you don’t own me or anything, I’ll allow it. He’s just curious about my wings, right?” Tsukasa pulls his arms out. 

“Yeah! Rui won’t hurt him! He never hurts me, so I don’t see why he’d do the same to another version of me!” the other Tsukasa cries.

I scoff. “Alright, then.. Just.. Don’t try anything weird!” 

“I wont! I swear!” He smiles.

They both go somewhere else that I wasn’t sure of. All the colors in this place still hurt my head. “Kamishiro, about you and uh Tenma–” Tsukasa begins.

“Look, if it’s about me and him dating, it might not even last, I..” I stopped talking when Tsukasa’s face flushed red. “Are you..?”

"N-No! I'm not blushing at all! I-If that's what you're saying! You just—" He frowns. "You look entirely too much like Rui!"

"Obviously? I am him, just from another universe." I say. I mean, it was obvious, right?

"Ah! Speaking of the universe thing! What's your universe like?" He asks, changing the topic completely.

I let out a small sigh. "Well.." I went on to the entire story. It wasn't very pleasant to actually hear it described, but it's fine.

By the end of it, he looked like he wanted to puke. Oh right, I was still covered in Tsukasa's throw up, ew. 

Mizuki’s POV

Ena and I found nothing. We weren’t able to find a single trace of Rui or Tsukasa. “Mizuki, do you think Rui’s violent?” Ena asks straight forwardly.

“Eh? Why that question?” I mumble. 

“Sorry, It’s just, I don’t think he’s as bad as people make him out to be.” She says, crossing her arms a bit. She was sat on my hand.

“I mean, I don’t know him very well, but he seems a bit dangerous if anything.” I tell her. I knew that wasn’t true. I didn’t see Rui as dangerous. Not ever could I. I knew Rui. I knew him more than I should. 

I knew Rui when we were younger, but he doesn’t recognize me anymore.  Probably because I transitioned. I went from a weak boy to me now. He probably remembered me from then, but just not that it was me. 

“We should continue looking for Rui and Tsukasa,” I mutter.

Ena sighs. “Fine, fine.” she frowns.

.

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