A boy sat on a wooden chair, voice low and urgent. "Master Abyssion has gave us permission to enter now," he said. "Your work is simple, Black Papermoon: just somehow touch Michi so the anti mind manipulation protection layer places on him, okay? Take Furin and Zudor with you so they can support you."
Black Papermoon rose, cloak whispering. "Sure. I am going then, Shin. Protecting Michi is our main mission and finally we can interact with him too."
Furin's tone clipped. "Don't say anything more, okay, Zudor? Michi doesn't need to know the cause of anything now. This is an order from Master Abyssion."
Zudor nodded slowly. "Hm hm. Don't worry. I'll keep my mouth shut."
Michi, Airi, and Apollo left Euromia city to return to their home with sad hearts full of Henu's memories. The road stretched wet and empty before them; each step seemed to echo the things they had lost.
On the road they noticed three hooded figures standing before them. Michi stopped and frowned. "Who are you all?"
The hooded figures—Black Papermoon, Zudor, and Furin—unhooded themselves. Black Papermoon's face was calm as he stepped forward. "Michi, I know you have so many questions but we don't have the time now. Please, let us protect you from an upcoming danger."
"What danger? Which danger?" Michi asked, voice tight with curiosity and fatigue.
Furin's reply was blunt and unreadable. "Something you can't think now."
Zudor's voice was urgent. "Just let us touch you, Michi!"
Airi and Apollo exchanged suspicious looks, eyebrows twitching, and glanced at Michi who was blushing with the sudden attention. Black Papermoon reached out and, gently borrowing Michi's right hand, moved to touch the place where the protection should take hold.
Then, in a breath-chilling instant, Furin and Zudor placed their knives at each other's throats, teeth bared in a grim sign of resolve. Tiny wet drops appeared as if a threat hung in the air. Michi, Apollo, and Airi recoiled, shock rooted on their faces. Even Black Papermoon's steady composure faltered.
Suddenly Airi and Apollo's eyes turned black. Blood pooled at the corners of their mouths as terrible smiles spread across their faces. "Oh no no no, don't try to ruin my fun now," a voice—Airi's? Apollo's?—said with cruel amusement. "Get lost or your friends will die. I am very merciful today so get lost."
Black Papermoon stiffened as the air thickened with menace. "We come here prepared to die as well, Fengxi!" he said, naming the unseen force they had come to guard against. Airi and Apollo screamed in a sound that was part pain, part rage.
Michi could only stand frozen, confusion and fear tangling in his features. A dozen small events braided together: raw fear, the glint of blades, the sudden change in his friends. "Michi, help me restrain Zudor and Furin, please," Papermoon ordered.
Without asking, without a second thought, Michi opened his grimoire. Power answered like a cool tide. The knives slid from Furin and Zudor's fingers as if pulled by unseen hands. Apollo and Airi's screams rose shriller, frantic and close.
Black Papermoon did not hesitate. He drew his sword and the blade whispered in the air, summoning a dark cloud that shimmered and coalesced before Airi and Apollo. The cloud shone with a ghostly light; Papermoon shaped it and pushed it toward them, a calculated force meant not to kill but to subdue. The cloud struck; Airi and Apollo crumpled with soft thuds, dazed and hurt at their necks.
Before Michi could process what had happened, Black Papermoon pressed his palm to the back of Michi's neck. A sudden warmth crawled up Michi's spine; his world narrowed like a lens. He felt himself sinking, consciousness slipping as Papermoon's touch blurred the edges of his sight. Michi passed out.
Papermoon gathered Zudor and Furin, who were steady now and breathing. He did not linger. "Call Shin now and say quick," he ordered, voice taut.
Black Papermoon touched Michi's forehead mark. The mark responded—liquid gold spilling outward—and a glow wrapped Michi's body. The light swallowed him for a long, heavy moment, then settled like a soft armor that hummed under skin.
Shin arrived with a quick step, taking in the scene with a glance that turned worrying into action. "I didn't expect Fengxi will come," he said, nodding at Papermoon. "Well done, Papermoon. Now it's my time to erase their memories before Fengxi can harvest them for information."
Shin muttered an incantation and laid hands on Michi, Apollo, and Airi. His magic flowed in quiet threads, unweaving recent moments and sewing new ones in their places. The change was precise, surgical to the mind; shocks softened, edges dulled, threads of terror slipped away like smoke.
"Job done, Master Abyssion," Shin announced, voice formal and flat. Then, as if the road itself had been a stage set to be cleared, Shin, Papermoon, Furin, and Zudor vanished from sight. Before he disappeared, Black Papermoon's eyes found Michi once more and he spoke, voice gentle though hurried: "We will meet you, Michi. Be safe."
Time passed. The river's murmur filled the space where memory had been a knife. Airi woke first and blinked up at the sky. She saw Michi and Apollo sleeping, curled close, arms wrapped around one another as if to keep some distant cold away. The sight burned red on her cheeks; something unspoken flared and made her act without thought.
Airi's face went bright with emotion and she chanted a spell, voice low and fierce. The air answered, pressure building until it burst like a held breath. The blast knocked Michi and Apollo from the bank and sent them tumbling into the near river with splashes that smelt of algae and cold shock.
Michi erupted from the water, lungs burning, and a sharp, ridiculous yelp escaped him. "Ouch! Something's biting my left buttock!" he cried, half in terror, half in absurd indignation.
Apollo surfaced and sputtered, clinging to the riverbank as water ran from his hair. Both of them hauled themselves out, soaked and blinking at the world as if the sudden dunk had washed away the last remnants of the night's strangeness.
Airi and Apollo's laughter—light, teasing, dangerous in its relief—bubbled between them. "Don't move, Michi," they teased as they wiped water from their faces. "This will be our dinner tonight."
"Ok, ok," Michi said quickly, rubbing the sore spot where the fish had latched on. "But hurry or this fish will make my butt his dinner fast."