Shibuya Crossing seemed to breathe in ragged bursts.
The cracked asphalt still smoked beneath their feet, flickering lights from shattered billboards cast intermittent reflections on broken glass and bent signs. The air reeked of burnt metal and blood. The skyscrapers stood motionless, silent spectators to the scene.
Hayashi Seiji walked through the dust, his coat fluttering lightly around him.
His eyes were locked on Azrael, who hovered mid-air like a fallen god.
In his hands, Hayashi held his twin pistols: Elcrist and Twisty.
— "Distance: optimal. Aim calculated. Pull the trigger now." — Elcrist whispered, voice composed and razor-sharp.
— "Nooo, not the heart, how boring! Let me choose the spot, come on! The liver explodes better!" — Twisty giggled, voice hysterical and unhinged.
Hayashi ignored them both and fired.
A bluish shot tore through the air and struck Azrael in the shoulder. The being staggered slightly, his violet aura flickered. He didn't look wounded—just... annoyed.
— "You." — Azrael hissed. — "Hayashi, the fallen guardian, from the invincible Remembrance. Look at what you've become."
Hayashi didn't reply.
His right hand trembled slightly, but not from fear—from exertion. Every movement hurt, every breath scraped his lungs. But he would not retreat.
Kairo stared at a flickering digital sign, until a message appeared:
"Subject: Hayashi Seiji – Memory Drift 20% – Curse of Oblivion in progress."
"This is a joke, right? Not him too!" Kairo slammed his fist into the asphalt.
"What the hell is Memory Drift??" he yelled.
Azrael tilted his head slightly, a slit in his mask focusing on Kairo.
"Don't you get it, Kairos? I thought you were smarter than this!"
Kairo couldn't focus.
He started piecing it together, bleeding and nearly collapsing.
Hayashi kept Azrael in his sights as the masked man raised his hands in a theatrical, ominous gesture.
— "The Memory Drift, also called the Curse of Oblivion," Azrael said, sending a chill down Kairo's spine,
— "Those afflicted slowly lose their memories as the percentage increases, dear Kairos."
Kairo now understood. His thoughts turned to his mentor.
— "And what happens when it hits 100%?" — he asked, his voice barely a whisper through the pain.
Azrael stared deeply.
— "The subject becomes a shadow of themselves. But they won't be passive. They'll crave memories—under my command."
Azrael clenched his fists in a show of dominance.
— "They will become my corrupted Hounds or mere beasts of destruction."
Kairo groaned again, falling to the cold asphalt.
— "KAIRO!" Hayashi turned toward the boy, gritting his teeth.
Kairo writhed in pain, his forehead burned like fire.
Then two shots tore through the sky.
One bluish, the other crimson red.
Azrael deflected them both with his blade mid-air—barely.
Hayashi hadn't pulled the trigger.
So how had those shots been fired?
— "Alright, I've had enough of this depressed little god," Twisty's voice rang out, no longer joking—more like a different Remembrance entirely.
— "You can do whatever you want. Erase the world even."
Her tone was still high-pitched but now deeper, distorted.
— "But if you dare touch, look at, or harm Hayashi or my favorite apprentice—or use me to infect Seiji—"
Twisty transformed.
The pistol grew larger, the barrel glowing like a charged reactor ready to fire a devastating beam.
— "I WILL END YOU, AZRAEL!" — her robotic, dystopian scream echoed as a crimson energy beam began charging.
Hayashi didn't move.
He knew Twisty, for all her madness, was part of his family—even if just a Remembrance trapped in a futuristic gun.
Elcrist followed suit, her barrel also growing to match her sister's.
— "Still noisy, sister. But if you're pulling your ace, I can't stand by and watch."
She too began charging a bluish energy beam.
— "Guess we're all in agreement, huh, girls?" — Seiji sighed as if bearing the weight of a thousand annoyances.
Azrael began charging his own violet wave of energy from his palm.
— "You think you can defeat me?"
— "Oh, I don't think we'll beat you. I know I'll blow a hole in that disgusting gut of yours, you son of a bitch," Twisty snapped.
— "Elcrist, you ready?"
— "Always with style, sister," Elcrist replied coolly.
— "GALAXY BANG!"
Their voices and Hayashi's echoed in unison as the twin energy beams burst forth.
— "I hate amateurs," Azrael snarled, unleashing his power against the two blasts.
A blinding explosion followed.
Kairo shut his eyes to the light.
— "Am I crazy or... do those pistols talk and have a will of their own? What the hell is going on in this world?" — he thought.
Then... silence.
Hayashi stood, breathing heavily, pistols still in hand.
Alive.
But Azrael floated above him. Alive. And without a scratch.
Kairo was on his knees.
Blood dripped from his mouth, but his eyes still burned. Hurt, but unbroken.
His silver katana trembled on the ground, his aura vibrating like a strangled note. He watched Hayashi fight, and inside him, a silent scream grew.
Azrael dove, shadow blade in hand.
Hayashi blocked with both pistols, rolling aside onto one knee. His katana, still sheathed, seemed to wait.
— "The sword still sleeps, huh, Master?" Azrael croaked. — "Waiting for him to wake it?"
Hayashi spat on the ground.
— "Shut up."
Azrael laughed—and the sky shuddered.
Meanwhile, a few blocks away, Riven landed in front of Aenna and Lyra.
His Boken glowed with a crimson aura, crackling. His eyes burned with adrenaline and fear.
— "Keep running." — he said. — "I'll stop this thing."
The Shadow crept forward.
A black, shapeless mass with liquid limbs and glowing ember eyes.
A tentacle launched toward Riven's eye.
His heartbeat raced.
But his breath remained calm.
With reflexes honed over years of training to match his rival friend, Riven deflected the blow.
The creature halted, growling gutturally.
Riven stood between it and his friends.
— "Riven, what the hell are you doing, you idiot!" — Lyra screamed. For the first time, truly worried, her silver eyes fixed on him.
Aenna instinctively clutched her pendant.
Without turning, Riven snapped back:
— "Tsk! Not even a thank you, sarcastic violinist?" — he smirked, bracing himself against the growling creature.
Gremit, watching from a rooftop, chewed on nothing.
— "That kid impresses me. I'll enjoy ruining him."
The battle ignited.
Riven struck fast and sharp, but the Shadow regenerated with each blow—like hitting mud. Still, Riven didn't back down. He couldn't.
— "That idiot's going to die, isn't he?" Lyra muttered, wide-eyed.
Aenna said nothing. Her heart trembled. And with a whisper in her mind, she asked:
— "Kai... where are you?"
Back in Shibuya, the fight raged on.
Energy blasts, blade clashes, the stench of iron filled the air.
Kairo watched these two forces collide.
One shaped by training and experience, the other—pure destruction.
— "Master Hayashi..." — his voice rasped as he tried to lift his katana.
But the world dulled. The gunshots, Twisty and Elcrist's voices, the screech of steel—all faded.
Kairo collapsed on the concrete, exhausted.
— "Kairo!" — Hayashi turned in alarm, only to be forced back into battle by a sword strike. He blocked with Twisty.
They faced each other again.
— "You should focus on the fight, not your unconscious student, Hayashi. That's why you're weak. Too many happy memories. Too many emotions."
And then... silence.
In the crossroads. Inside Kairo's mind.
Everything vanished. The pain. The noise. The world.
He opened his eyes. No longer Shibuya. No more blood.
He was sitting in a white gazebo. The wood was intact, scented with cherry blossom.
Above him, a clear sky. Petals fell like silent snow.
All around, an endless desert of black sand surrounded the gazebo.
Then he heard it.
The sound of falling sand.
— "You passed out, huh, little Kairo?"
She was there.
Silver hair. Silver eyes. A porcelain teacup in her hands.
She looked at him like she already knew everything—as if she'd been waiting forever.
She lifted her gaze with those piercing eyes, twirling a lock of hair.
— "You've finally arrived." — she said, her voice sweet, playful. But beneath it—a deep, ancient concern.
Kairo tried to speak, but the words caught in his throat.
— "Who... who are you?"
She sipped her tea, then looked straight into his eyes.
— "My name is Lethe. And you, Kairo... you're about to make a choice. A very important one for your story."
The wind stopped blowing. Petals froze mid-fall.
And time... waited for his answer.