Chapter 93 - Another Bad Karma Starting Experience

The Shiroichi was crumbling apart, under the dragon's repeated assaults; as Keiko, Tadaaki, and Mizuru were having a hell of a time reaching the auditorium to reunite with Akira and CITA. Narrowly escaping multiple close encounters with the ornery beast's snapping jaws, and plumes of molten fire that flooded the wide hallways—leaving rows of half-melted student lockers, scorched walls and seared tiles in their devastating wake.

"Ah!!" Tadaaki screamed, when a stray tongue of flame lightly grazed him from behind, as they were fleeing to hide behind a corner. Just a single touch of its flame, but it was hot enough to sear a hole completely through the fabric of the seat of his pants. Thereby exposing his pair of boxer shorts underneath.

"Ara ara, Vash!" Kanna exclaimed, pointing at the smiling brown-haired girl with an eyepatch and wizard's hat that was smiling from his rear. "Is that a little anime girl's face on your underwear?!"

Vash's face grew flushed with embarrassment. "Guh! I bought it from a kiosk before I regained my senses!"

"I never woulda guessed," she said as she appeared beside him, bearing a mischievous look. "So, were you a lolicon along? Or is it that Nirvana has corrupted you beyond saving?"

"Kanna-chan, it's not like that at all…!"

She bumped him with her elbow, doubling down: "would you like it more if my face only came as high as your waist?"

"Focus, guys," Keiko groaned. Continually peeking around the corner, where there was only a final stretch of a barren hallway standing between the group and their destination. Nervously scanning for any sign of the wyvern as an eerie calm settled in the air, but for the gentle rushing of water from the overhead fire detectors.

Their surroundings were bathed in darkness, from ostensibly some damage being inflicted onto the Shiroichi's source of power. 

Further adding to the sheer dread Keiko felt in that moment, she glimpsed a shadowy-robed figure standing before the doors to the auditorium. Keiko could have sworn there was no one there a second ago, though it could just be her eyes having trouble in the low visibility.

"Th-that doesn't look like a student!" Vash said fearfully, Only now joining in noticing her presence.

Whereas Kanna was far less afraid, shouting: "Hey, you! Quit standing around! Maybe you missed it, but there's a fucking dragon attacking this place—so you'd better go find some shelter!"

Yet the figure still eerily didn't so much as budge, as though fully oblivious to what was unfolding in its surroundings.

'Or complicit,' thought Keiko warily.

"Everyone, stay back," she said, readying a chi fist as she blocked the others with an extended arm. "I think they're the one behind the monster attacks."

Kanna cut a sarcastic glare. "Oh, yeah? What gave you that impression…?"

It was then that a flash of white—a sinister smile—appeared on the mysterious figure's veiled face. "It's been a while, hasn't it? Pervy Uncle-san. Kanna-sis," they said in a familiar, saccharinely sweet voice. 

"It...can't be!" uttered Vash, at once taking a step backward as his face grew pale. His mouth trembling, and eyes wide in disbelief.

Keiko glanced first at him, then at Kanna: both acting like they'd seen a ghost.

"Ai-chan," she heard Kanna gasp.

And with that, she understood: turning back toward the mysterious figure with equal astonishment. Simply asking, "is it really you?"

In answer, the cloaked figure raised one hand that was surging with the unmistakable glow of radiating chi, to cast away the hood of her cloak and the swarming shadows that covered her face. Thereby fully revealing her identity: a cute, young-looking face that bore a milk chocolate complexion. A harsh, snarling frown and a glowering stare in one eye; the other concealed by a plain black eyepatch—her [All-Seeing Eye] [Memento].

Then proceeding with a serious air, as they gawked at this first full sight of her: "There isn't much time left before he returns."

"Who?" Kanna questioned.

"Fly Guy: he was transformed into that dragon"—she brushed a hand gently across the front of her belly—"because of this."

"Wasn't it 'Guy Fly?'" Vash corrected. "Also, that's a wyvern; not a dragon."

Ai snapped, "shut up!" Pointing a dismissive palm at him. "Nobody cares."

Then Kanna stepped forward, with a saddened look. "Ai-chan...you're the one responsible for the attack that killed all of those students?"

"Not on purpose," she retorted quickly, with a cold grimace. "It's not like I have any control over this thing. And even though I knew Akira and you all were heading here, I thought if I got here before you I could let out whatever was inside of me without endangering as many people—keeping it all locked within the dome."

"But the power that's taken over your womb has only grown stronger, hasn't it?" Vash said.

Ai nodded, looking down sadly. "Even [Fly Guy], that complete tool, was enough to stop it—even though I was only pretending to like him, because I thought he would be strong enough to deal with whatever's been growing inside of me, once it came out." 

She scoffed, biting her lip.

"I chose to stay hidden with my Stealth power, using my [Memento's] ability to see through walls to keep track of the students' movements. While Fly Guy became a student, so that he could make enough merits to feed the both of us."

Kanna then interjected, "you said he was transformed into that"—she briefly glanced at Cash, narrowing her eyes, before returning to Ai—"giant lizard thing…?"

"We couldn't do anything to stop it, while we were cultivating one day—when suddenly, he was inside me and...it started…"—she paused shortly to uncontrollably retch, prompting Kanna to her side—"absorbing...him...into my..."

Kanna was incredulous. "No!"

She nodded, with a disgusted look. "Until he was all the way inside. And, at first, I could hear him screaming. Until the voices started—"

"Don't believe a word she says!"

Everyone looked up, in shock, at the sound of Akira's voice. 

She had crept quietly out into the hallway through the auditorium doors, with CITA. Merely catching the tail end of what Ai was saying, though still it was enough to make her blood boil. Just to hear her voice again—daring to try and weasel her way back into the party.

"She can't be trusted. Not after she stood by"—her voice raised: "doing nothing"—lowering again—"while we fought for our lives at the chi trial."

Ai chuckled, rolling her eyes. "Seriously? And what could I have done?"

Kanna and Vash both glared at her.

"Something—you could have done something," Vash said. Then moved away from her, to join Akira's side. Crossing his arms indignantly. "As a party, we're supposed to stick together. Even if it's a losing battle."

Ai gawked. "But that's...totally retarded!"

Loudly scoffing, Kanna was next to flee from her side.

"Kanna-sis, not you too!" she cried, shifting her frantic gaze between them and Akira. "I couldn't risk something happening, that would cause the darkness inside of me to release. Because" —she laughed—"if that ever happened, we all would've been dead."

Kanna said nothing; only turned away, silently, with a betrayed look.

"You could've told us all this before," Akira said firmly. "Instead, you made yourself out to be a traitor. You stabbed us—me—in the back, when we needed you the most." She then turned her back on Ai, her voice fallen to a brooding low:

"It's one thing to be cutthroat, and another to just be a huge bitch."

Ai growled. "You bastard. I did all that to protect you, and now you're thinking of just leaving me here to die?" She continued to growl, gritting her teeth, looking like she was about to scream. But stopping short, upon realizing that Keiko was still standing with her.

"You won't let them do this to me, will you?" she fell to Keiko's knees, begging, with pure desperation in her voice. "Please, don't leave me here all alone!"

"Couldn't you just walk out normally?" Keiko questioned. "Unless—"

"I spoke to the fucking raccoon, so I know what will happen!" she yelled, clinging to Keiko's leg. "And I don't want to lose my memories!" Then, her expression abruptly grew fierce. "No one gets to take from me, unless I say so!"

Keiko sighed. "Am I really going to trust both Tooki-san and Ai-chan?"

Just then, the walls of the Shiroichi rumbled once more as another of the wyvern's loud cries could be heard. All eyes were upon her to make a decision, since only she had received the instructions from Tooki-san.

"Everyone…" she tiredly said, holding up her [Shiroichi Watch] as told. Then, nodding to each of the others…

Including—after a brief hesitation—Ai, who, unbeknownst to them, had acquired a watch of her own without becoming enrolled as a student, by having torn it off Guy Fly's wrist at the last second.

The watches all glowed brightly, seeming to draw together to form a single radiance that completely enshrouded the five.

Followed by pure darkness.

Green [System] text scrolled across Akira's clouded vision, showing only the words:

[Now entering the Seaspan server…]

Then, Akira Maximilian felt an icy cool wind blow across his face. A smell of fresh pine, and dirt, and...horse manure...filling his nostrils. The floor beneath him rumbling steadily, amid the creaks and groans of old wooden joints and turning wheels. A sense that he was not alone; in the company of strangers.

He let his eyelids drift open slowly, adjusting to the bright sunlight. Feeling nicely rested, as though he'd just awoken from a long nap, upon discovering that he had found himself seated in the back of a horse-drawn wagon, across from a—

"B-bear…?" he mumbled. Squinting, with uncertainty.

Staring as his blurred vision gradually cleared, until he could better make out the shape of the creature seated across from him: Closely resembling a bear in looks; with bristly blonde fur, a snout, and beady black eyes. Though garbed in a bulky, fur lined brown and blue-dyed tunic and seated like a man; his shackled paws crossed in his lap and his head hung low—lifting abruptly, to meet Akira's curious gaze. Greeting him in a voice as welcoming and warm as a crackling hearth: 

"Hey, you.. You're finally awake."