1

Darkness enveloped Sana as she waded inside the void. Feeling nothing but a heavy feeling in her heart, she tried to hide herself from the impending danger. She cannot see anything, but she knew there was something there, looming and watching her.

Ready to pounce and consume her.

In response, she flailed her arms around, hoping to stave it off.

Then, her eyes opened, and she found herself staring at blackness. One that was not as dark as the one she just experienced, and she can make out some outlines of structures.

Having regained consciousness, Sana picked herself up, rubbing her eyes in the process. She had barely taken a few steps when she stumbled, retching at the foul odor that attacked her nose. All around her, the heavy weight pressing her down remained.

"Big Bro! Hikari!" she called before grasping her chest.

When echoes and a cold breeze were all she got for a reply, she shook.

"W-where are you..."

Her cries were weak, and she felt a sharp pinch on her chest.

Never had she felt this lonely, this helpless.

She was all alone in a room surrounded by brick walls like the interior of a castle. Just a while ago, she was at home, so how did she get here?

Somehow, the place felt familiar. She cannot quite put her hands on it, but she thought she had been to a room like this before.

A creaking noise alerted her to her surroundings, and she once again stumbled, almost landing awkwardly after slipping against the uneven surface on her feet.

With every step she took, her mind throbbed along with her heart. She clutched her head as if it can suppress the pain. However, the sharp sensation only pierced her head more, and she found herself on one knee before she can even exit the room.

"A...ahhh!"

Her scream was more like a forced whimper. Yet, in the midst of that pain, the scene in front of her became even clearer and more familiar.

The despair-laden surroundings, the foul stench of death, and the heavy pressure all around her. She had felt everything before.

It was just like the scene in her dreams, the ones where she was saved by the two heroines. Hikari was with her in them, and they were faced with...

She turned around, and her body leaped back in reflex. Along with a shout, she found herself lying flat on her back before sliding away from the thing she saw.

A shadowy figure.

With limbs stretching long and dangling in the air, the shape of pure darkness looked at her. She shuffled her feet as she desperately tried to crawl away.

The thing let out a low groan before it was joined by others of its kind.

"S-stay away...!"

The shadowy figures continued approaching. To make matters worse, more of them started appearing from the walls while the room became filled with a chorus of groans and screeching sounds.

They moved slowly, however, and it gave Sana enough time to get back to her feet. With a sudden burst of strength, she turned her back on them and made a run for it.

Nothing else was on her mind but to get away from those things. She did not know what those were, but they were never going to be good news.

Her heart raced along with her feet to the point where it made her unable to even scream as she ran off to who knows where.

Up the stairs. Down the tunnels. Past the dark hallways and the scary-looking doorways, many which looked broken down from old age.

Sana had no direction in her mind, and she ran purely on instinct just to get away from those things. Unfortunately, their maddening sounds continued haunting her no matter where she went.

They seemed to be everywhere. The maddening crowd seemed to follow her relentlessly.

Feeling tired after fleeing for so long, Sana collapsed onto a wall, her rapid breaths and clammy hands urging her not to do so. She squinted her eyes in an attempt to look around the area she had found herself in.

"A...Ah!"

Her scream came in the form of a repressed shout as she stumbled forward, her petite hand on her chest. Her heart pounded in a way she had never experienced before, to the point where her own breathing struggled to keep up.

"Help... Help...!"

She fell flat on the ground, her energy spent from the run. Strangely enough, the chorus of growls and skittering noises disappeared. While she expected one of the lanky monsters to catch up to her, it never happened.

Instead of them, her eyes saw something different. A far different shadowy figure loomed over her.

It was completely unlike any of the thin monsters that she had seen before in spite of giving off the same sensations.

Like them, it gave off the sensation of fear, of a swirling loneliness that threatened to swallow her whole. However, it made no noise whatsoever.

The air in the room became unbearably cold as the shadowy mess of colors, form undefined, began taking form...

A person.

A faceless person, one that's barely taller than her.

"Not yet. Don't let me go, Big Bro... Save me...!" she called into the void, her eyes unable to look at the thing that floated over her.

"Big Bro... Hikari... Big Sis... Anyone..."

Silence was fate's response to her. No Kazuki, no Hikari, and none of the girls in her dream.

Wearied and in despair, she clutched her chest. Before she can let out another shout, her voice failed her, and the world faded to black.

2

"Ughhh..."

Asuka blinked before pushing herself up from the ground.

"What an awful day," she grumbled. She touched her hair only to find that the pin keeping her hair bun together was gone. Along with the crumpled state her dress was in, it only served to worsen her already foul mood.

"Tch! Those two people... Don't they ever talk to Sana again!"

Her mind still furious about what transpired in the house, she was completely oblivious to her surroundings.

She dusted off the dirt on her clothes before groaning at the frayed sides of her short heeled shoes.

Then, she stopped.

Her eyes darted from one corner of the hallway to another. She touched the stone walls, blinking in disbelief.

She had no idea where she was, but wherever it was, it can't be any good. She somehow landed in the middle of a hallway that she'd never seen before, with a worn down carpet laid out, as if it was guiding her somewhere.

It was also then that a sulfuric smell entered her nose.

Has it always been here? She thought before coughing multiple times, her body unable to bear the foul smell.

The whole atmosphere of the place was something that she had trouble bearing, and she quickly lost her balance, collapsing against one of the stone walls.

She shouted in disdain, but all she got for a reply was her own voice echoing against the walls.

"Yura! Yura!"

Her repeated calls grew softer and weaker the longer they went on. With her trusty assistant absent and unresponsive, her voice shifted from anger to desperation. From then, it turned to fear.

"Oh my God..." she muttered. Like a while ago, her heart continued palpitating but for a different reason this time.

Then, an unpleasant noise entered her ears, causing her body to stiffen up on high alert.

It was faint, but she recoiled at the thing she just heard.

It was like growling. A low rumbling that traveled along the walls. The sound repeated twice before it was no more.

She was unable to see the source, but she knew something was there with her. She stood back up with much effort and nervously took a step forward.

This is nothing. I don't need Yura. Ghosts are nothing against someone as strong as I am.

Feeding herself with those thoughts, she found the extra confidence to take the next step, and another. She smiled after taking those steps. Along with further clenching her already stiff fists, she finally felt brave enough to look ahead.

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Nothing.

There was nothing awaiting her, even in the direction of the growling. While she expected some monster from the depths of her imagination, the path ahead was completely empty.

Seeing this, the scowl on her face was back, and pushing forth with all of her mental fortitude, she tried to forget what she was like a few seconds ago. It did not take too long to turn that feeling of confidence into anger.

Nothing happened. She heard nothing.

She decided to focus on the more important thing at hand: her imploding relationship with her daughter and those two pests that complicated things.

The events a few days ago was nothing compared to this one. As a parent, it's her job to correct Sana. This time, no matter what happens, she would exercise her right and force Sana to see the doctors... or maybe an exorcist was what's needed.

Whatever happened, it's clear that her daughter was too far deep into this. Something happened when she's away, and she promised herself that she'll never make the same mistake again.

The, the growling returned with more intensity, and all those thoughts meant to toughen herself up evaporated in an instant. Her instincts kicked in, and she scampered forward, leaving echoing screams in her wake.

She stumbled and picked herself up in irregular intervals in her mad dash to escape from the creeping darkness. Alas, what started as a throbbing feeling that trailed her from behind became an agonizing sensation coming from all around her.

She swung her head to the side, only to look at walls that seemed to house evil spirits. The moment she stared up the ceiling, her eyes shut out of reflex, her body thinking that something will jump at her from above.

That was the true extent of this place's terror. She cannot describe where she was, and she was not even able to see whether those creatures continued to pursue her. Yet this place's attack on the mind was something else.

People have said that Hell was an allegorical location. Instead of the traditional lake of fire, it was existential torture, an idea that had been floated to Asuka by members of her audience. A lingering feeling of hopelessness, the eternal separation from the strength to face tomorrow.

Such was the void that she thought she felt before running herself into a wall.

"Damn!" she finally cussed, massaging her nose after the fall.

She found herself in a different area. Gone were the narrow corridors, and in place of them were statues lined up, their heads supporting a long ledge that stretched as far as her eyes can see.

Looking back, she thought she saw monsters. Lanky bodies moving towards her, with their arms that swung like pendulums.

She continued running forward. With no destination in mind, all she wanted was to get as far away from those demons as possible.

"Ack!" she shouted when she tripped once again. Something must have tripped her, but she failed to see the assailant.

Her ankle flared up as she grabbed onto it, daring not look back for she might see the hideous form that she never wanted to see.

She curled into a ball, shivering and frantically chanting for help.

But the monsters never came. There was nothing that lunged onto her or dragged her down to the depths of the abyss. Instead, the next thing that she heard was a voice.

"Mrs. Kurashiki?"

The unfamiliar female voice came from one of the ledges above her.

The whimpering Asuka slowly raised her head. For all it was, it could be a trap, a machination of the evil that stalked her. Yet, she took a chance and blinked repeatedly at the petite figure who called out to her.

"D-don't come!"

"Please calm down. There's no one with you."

"No... one?"

She wiped her wet eyes repeatedly until they started to clear up. Admist the dark red tint of the world, she finally made out the shape of the one calling her. She also confirmed that there was indeed no one else in the hall with her.

Was it all her hallucinations?

"It really is you, Mrs. Kurashiki! Thank goodness you're okay," the person from the ledge called out again.

"I'm not exactly okay, but..."

"Can you get up? I don't think I can get down and pick you up. Sorry."

Asuka gingerly stood up, taking a while before getting her balance. It was then that she saw the person talking to her.

Peering over the ledge above was the girl with pigtails. Sana's classmate and best friend, Hikari.

When they made eye contact, Hikari waved at her before pointing to a series of tall stairs that formed a way up.

Just more things that Asuka missed the first time around due to her panic.

"I-I'll be right there!" she stammered before taking a deep breath. Visualizing her path through the stairs, she prepared to make those exhausting steps.

3

"Haaaaah!"

With Kazuki's shout came shots from his shield. Rather, the crossbow form of his shield, the form his Armament unlocked after syncing with Miki Amagi.

The arrows of light pierced the lanky Nullity, stopping it dead in its tracks. It twitched in place before falling and crumbling into dust.

Three more Nullities fell against the barrage of energy arrows.

However, Kazuki paid them no heed. He ran past them as fast as he can, all eyes on the staircase that sat at the end of the hall. His shield returned into its base form in the middle of his running, but even that was something that went unnoticed.

All he had in his mind was the general direction of the readings. Four people were with him inside this Fragment.

Hikari, Sana, Yura, and Mrs. Kurashiki. That's four.

The worst part was the fact that they were quite far from each other the first time he checked, and that was several minutes ago. He cannot tell which was which, but with all four being very far from where he was, there was no time to waste.

More Nullities appeared in front of him. The lanky creatures moved like slimes and emerged from the walls and the floor.

"Begone!" he shouted.

He did not even bother activating Assimilator's Core. He only had his shield spread its magical extensions before bashing it on one Nullity that was barely formed. He ignored the rest even if the horde of screeching and skittering noises trailed him.

The stairwell lay within a few steps' reach, and he would be closing in to one of the readings he had sensed.

"Assimilator's Core!"

The shield on his left hand glowed, and instead of transforming into the crossbow, it now turned into the pronged gauntlet, the proof of his bond with Yui Kimura.

The gauntlet released sound waves that sent vibrations all over the hallway. With that, he eliminated the Nullities, all small fry that disintegrated in the face of the destructive waves.

With the enemies out of the way, he went on his way, going up the stairs.

In addition to civilians being in proximity of Nullities, another thing continued to bother him.

The layout had changed, but there was no doubt about it.

This was the Fragment that appeared in Samsara, and after the inciting incident at the Kurashiki residence, it all but confirmed a suspicion.

The remnants of the Magna Arbiter's power, the one thing they had been trying so hard to look for, were within Sana.

All the more reason for him to hurry before someone from Euphoria would get wind of the situation at hand.

What else could he have done? Did he make a mistake and not suspect Sana sooner?

Not that it mattered at this point.

As he continued hurrying towards where he had sensed the people, he wondered how things would turn out depending on the person he'd encounter.

Hikari would be a relief, and so would Sana. Yura would be fine, but if it's Mrs. Kurashiki...

He gulped, feeling the wind of uncertainty run its course through his body.

Truth be told, that was one nerve-wracking confrontation. Not long ago, he found himself filled with anger, all in disbelief, but it took everything he had to stand up to Mrs. Kurashiki. Likewise, he was thankful that he did not have parents like her.

However, he shook his head, refocusing on the most important concern now. Racing through the hallways that awaited him, Kazuki readied his trusty shield. Whether it was Hikari, Sana, Yura, or Mrs. Kurashiki he would find first, the goal should be the same: save them.

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