Yahiko's eyes as opened and the hook of the shock made him harder to breath. The cityscape sprawled beneath, a haze of glass and steel, completely eclipsed by a new, grim reality.
Akashi remained, a statue a few feet away against the bruised twilight sky.
Down in the veins of the city, a dusting of movement coalesced into something priorly recognized as horrifying and recognized now for its grotesque purpose.
Olive-green military vehicles, looking like discarded toys from this height, were methodically blockading the main roads. They weren't practicing this time. The drills were over. This was the real thing.
"So that's it," Yahiko breathed, the words tasting like dust. "The drills… they were never for our safety. They were for this. To lock us in."
Akashi didn't turn. His red eyes were fixed on the scene below, tracking the movements with a weary, practiced understanding that sent a fresh chill down Yahiko's spine.
A cold, hard knot settled in Yahiko's gut. This was bigger than their school, bigger than their neighborhood. This was a systemic, planned response. As the sheer scale of it sank its teeth in, another, more intimate horror began to dawn. It was a hollow ache, a phantom limb of the mind. Something was missing. The day's terror had scooped out a part of him, and he was only now feeling the empty space.
They turned from the vista and moved deeper into the woods, the crunch of their footsteps the only sound in the heavy quiet. It was Akashi who finally shattered it, his voice a low, careful monotone.
"Hey. Did Mina ever mention having any problems with anyone? Any enemies?"
Yahiko stopped walking. He blinked, his brain stuttering over the name. "Sorry… who's Mina?"
The forest itself seemed to freeze. Akashi halted mid-stride, his whole body locking up as if he'd been shot. He turned, slowly, deliberately. The look on his face wasn't just surprise; it was a raw, gut-punched disbelief. "What did you just say?" he asked, his voice dangerously soft. "You forgot Mina?"
Yahiko took a stumbling step back under the weight of that stare. "I—just, let me think—" he stammered, mentally grasping at fog. "Is she… one of the girls from class? Or, wait, your girlfriend or something?"
He never saw Akashi move. One moment he was several feet away, the next his hand was clamped around Yahiko's face, fingers digging into his jaw, forcing his head back. "Don't," Akashi snarled, his voice a raw, frayed wire of anger and something desperate. "Don't you dare joke. I'm talking about Mina. My sister. The one I have to avenge."
Yahiko's hands flew up, scrabbling uselessly at the iron grip. "I'm not joking! I swear, I don't know! I don't know who that is!"
Akashi shoved him away, a violent release. Yahiko stumbled, his feet tangling in the undergrowth, and landed hard on his backside. Gasping, he looked up to see Akashi fumbling in his pocket, his movements jerky. He pulled out the small wooden doll, his knuckles white around it.
"Hakaze," he commanded, his voice trembling with the effort to control it. "Use your magic. Dig around in his head.Now."
"Akashi, bro, please, just calm down!" Yahiko pleaded, pushing himself up onto his elbows. "I don't remember her! But if it's true, then… god, I'm so sorry."
The doll glowed with a faint, steady light. "Well, that's to be expected," Hakaze's voice chimed, infuriatingly placid. "He just survived a direct encounter with the Eyes of Death. Short-term memory loss is a common side effect. Like a concussion."
"I shielded him!" Akashi shot back, gesturing wildly at Yahiko. "My aura was around him before the whole thing even started! How is this possible?"
"The manifestation's power was unprecedented. Or perhaps there's another variable we're not seeing," Hakaze mused. "The 'why' is a mystery for another time."
Yahiko crawled forward, his voice thick with desperation. "Okay, fine, I've lost something. How do I get it back?"
The doll was silent for a moment. "Well, it's simple, really," Hakaze said, her tone shifting to one of casual, brutal finality. "You just have to become a mage, too."
Akashi flinched as if she'd slapped him. "Hey! Don't say it like it's nothing! I'm not dragging him deeper into this!"
But Yahiko was already meeting his friend's horrified gaze, a strange, cold resolve crystallizing in his chest. "I don't care," he said, his voice firmer than he expected. "That's my memory. My friend. I'll do whatever it takes to get it ba—"
A sharp, piercing whistle cut through the air. A spear of solid, glistening blue ice shot from the treeline, aimed with lethal precision straight for Yahiko's chest. Akashi was a blur of crimson motion. He slammed into Yahiko, throwing them both clear. The ice spear struck the earth where Yahiko had been kneeling, and the world exploded into a sudden, silent winter. A wave of biting cold radiated out, flash-freezing the ground, the ferns, the very air, leaving a perfect circle of glittering white rime.
From the shadows of the pines, a man stepped out. Dressed in dark, tactical gear, he seemed to bleed cold, a shimmering blue aura clinging to him like a shroud. The temperature plummeted. Frost crackled over bark, and a fine, eerie snow began to drift down around him.
A fierce, wild smile split Akashi's face. It was all teeth and no warmth. "So you finally showed your face. Good. I've been itching to pay you back."
He tossed the wooden doll. It arced through the frigid air and Yahiko caught it against his chest. "Hakaze! Tell him everything. Walk him through it. Get his memory and his magic back." He cracked his neck, crimson energy igniting around his fists like contained lightning. "I'll keep our icy friend here entertained."
Akashi launched himself forward with a roar. The ice mage twisted aside, the crimson-enhanced kick meant for his head instead connecting with a pine tree, shearing it in half with a sickening crunch. The forest erupted into chaos. Scarlet flashes of power met shattering walls of ice. The air thrummed with concussive blasts that shook the ground.
Yahiko stared, frozen, until the doll's voice cut through his stupor.
"Yahiko! Listen to me! If you have a stone on you, any stone, grab it. Now!"
His hands, numb with cold and fear, slapped at his jeans pockets. Nothing. Another shockwave from the fight threw him off balance. He stumbled back, shoulder smacking into a tree trunk. The impact jarred something—a smooth, familiar weight against his sternum. His necklace. He yanked the cord, snapping it, and clutched the single, grey river stone in his palm.
"Yahiko! Repeat these words. Exactly as I say them. Do you understand?"
"Y-yeah," he choked out, squeezing the stone so hard it bit into his skin. He screwed his eyes shut, trying to block out the cacophony of destruction, focusing only on the tiny voice in his hands.
"Say this: O Great Trees, grant me your power. Power that I may shape my will. Great Tree, grant me what I wish."
Yahiko drew in a ragged breath. He pressed the cold, smooth stone to his forehead, pouring everything into the words—his confusion, his fear for Akashi, the hollow ache of his stolen memories, the desperate, clawing need to know.
"O Great Trees, grant me your power! Power that I may shape my will! Great Tree, grant me what I wish!"
The world didn't just go dark; it un-made itself. Sound, sensation, gravity—it all dissolved into a vast, silent nothing. He was a speck of consciousness adrift in a void. The only thing that existed was the stone in his hands, which began to pulse with a deep, vibrant, living green. It grew brighter, hotter, until it was a tiny, captive star between his palms. Then, without a sound, it shattered.
The released energy didn't burn; it flooded him. It was a torrent of pure, verdant life, surging up his arms, filling his chest, rushing into the empty spaces in his mind. It was terrifying and exhilarating, like remembering how to breathe after a lifetime of suffocation.
His eyes flew open. Hakaze was calling his name. Akashi was being driven back by a relentless volley of ice daggers.
And in Yahiko's mind, a face bloomed into perfect, painful clarity. A girl with hair as white as fresh snow and eyes the color of a deep, piercing sky. Mina.
A wave of emerald light erupted from him—a silent, expanding dome of pure energy that washed over the clearing. Where it passed, the frost vanished, the frozen earth softened, and the unnatural snow turned to harmless dew. Both Akashi and the ice mage were thrown back, their duel forgotten in a shared moment of stunned shock.
Yahiko got to his feet. The world felt different. Sharper. He could feel the sap singing in the trees, the latent life in the soil. He picked up the doll, his voice now steady, grounded.
"Hakaze... I think I understand now."
His gaze, clear and intent, found the ice mage. A shimmering green aura, the color of spring's first leaves, flickered to life around his form. The potential had been a seed, and his will had watered it. He had remembered his first wish. Now, it was time to fight for it.