Akari looked away as she spoke into the phone pressed to her ear.
「…You’re not… mad? At me, for asking such a selfish favor like this?」
Some things are easier to say through a device than face to face.
That was true for Rui as well. Even though she stood close by, she still spoke toward the phone near her lips.
「I understand why you would hate me. And I know… how much you care about him.」
After everything Akari had revealed, it was clear her feelings went far beyond familial love.
When she looked up, Rui was staring ahead, eyes locked on the approaching knights steadily closing the distance.
「If he’s trying to throw his life away, then it’s my fault. I pushed him to it.」
「…No. That’s not true.」
Akari shook her head slowly, recalling the conversation between Setsuna and Aoi back in the hospital room.
「Sure, Aoi was broken. But… he was trying to stand back up again. So he could be with you.」
Rui’s eyes widened ever so slightly as she turned toward Akari.
「The fire in Aoi’s heart, it was still burning.」
Even if it had been battered by cold rain.
For a brief moment, their gazes met and blended. Then, as if on cue, both girls lowered their phones.
Akari turned toward those blazing sapphire eyes and spoke clearly.
「But now… Kokujou Lilia is trying to snuff that flame out. That’s not okay. I won’t let it happen!」
「Right.」
The tainted wind howling through the streets felt as if it could carry that cruel woman’s laughter at any moment.
The marching dark knights halted their rhythmic stomping and raised their weapons.
Nine, no, over ten of them.
Despite their massive builds, they moved swiftly, encircling the two girls and cutting off any escape.
And that wasn’t all.
From behind those towering bodies, more reinforcements appeared.
Black-clad shadows emerged from every direction along the wide avenue.
Knights with crimson lights glowing like eyes within spear-shaped slits slowly advanced.
These were the same knights who had so effortlessly overpowered Akari before.
And yet…
Now, a faint, all-too-human tension hung in the air around them, disrupting their otherwise mechanical presence.
As if… they feared that golden hair fluttering boldly in the wind.
「I’ll make it in time. I promise.」
At Rui’s words, Akari nodded.
From the inner pocket of Rui’s uniform, two blue lights shot out.
The glowing keys orbited around the two girls in streaks of radiant energy.
The soldiers instinctively stepped back.
One key let loose a blast of blue lightning.
The shockwave struck a nearby car, sending it bursting into flame.
Then the second key glowed intensely, releasing a wave of searing cyan heat that surged through the air.
To Akari, the light and heat were comforting, soothing, even. She only narrowed her eyes against the brightness.
But those struck by the radiant blast had to plant their feet firmly into the ground just to keep from being blown away.
The keys spun faster and faster, each rotation expanding the sky-colored blue around them.
None of the soldiers could move in the face of the power still yet to be unleashed.
And no one understood better than they what that meant.
「You… have the same eyes as Aoi.」
The words left Akari’s mouth effortlessly, like gazing at a breathtaking vista, nothing caught in her throat, no hesitation.
Rui narrowed her almond-shaped eyes slightly, her voice tinged with weariness even as her firm stance declared unwavering resolve.
「But that’s something… you can’t forgive.」
Maybe so. No, undoubtedly so.
But Akari had no intention of arguing against it.
She simply said.
「There’s no such thing as eternity. Time doesn’t turn back. That’s why I want to live each second without regrets. That’s why I like Aoi, for choosing to live like that. And if you choose to live the same way… then I have no right to condemn you for it.」
The wind seemed to carry her words forward.
Rui nodded slightly, murmured her thanks, and then closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, those were not the eyes of a girl.
They were the eyes of a warrior.
Rui spoke, voice ringing with force.
「――Resonate (Howl)!!」
The keys blazed past their threshold, light flooding Akari’s vision in a wash of azure.
The brilliance of the sky itself melded with crystalline blue light,
And at the heart of it all stood a single girl, proud and unshaken.
「Incredible…」
She was, too, a spark that ignited the heart.
The sky, the lightning, the flames, every shade of blue that painted the world around them looked like a flame roaring from within her soul.
Akari, chest tight with awe, gazed up at the thunderous display.
This was it, the pulse of power beyond reach, beyond compare. The heartbeat of humanity’s summit.
Overwhelming talent. Ruthless perseverance.
All of it had been crushed, again and again, by the poison of Kokujou Lilia.
But now… that chain had shattered.
Saotome Rui.
Born at the end of a story warped by an ordinary boy, she was a singularity that should never have existed.
The strongest anomaly.
Was her breath like the pride of a dragon coiled atop a golden throne?
Or the fierce will of a dragon beating its wings skyward from the muck and mire?
No, it was both.
And the girl bore them greedily, without hesitation.
Now,
《Like no other》
The brilliance of unparalleled genius,
《Inflexibility》
The fire of unyielding defiance,
《《Caution》》
Together, they wrote the next page.
A story longed for by many who do not exist in this world.
《《Access》》
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