It took a while, but the match finally reached its end.
Both Akira and Aymar were down to their last sliver of health. Akira had pushed Aymar to the edge, and Aymar had done the same to him. What started as a fight had turned into a stubborn stalemate of parries, blocks, and last-second counters.
Yuma sat forward, elbows on his knees, irritation slowly eating at him.
At this point, it didn't even feel like they were trying to win.
It felt like they were dragging it out on purpose.
Then Aymar missed a parry.
The opening lasted less than a second.
Akira took it.
His blade struck cleanly, and Aymar's final strip of health vanished.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Yuma stared at the screen as the tension finally snapped. Keisuke blinked once, then smirked before letting out a laugh of disbelief.
"No way…" Keisuke muttered, still laughing. "He actually won."
Had he made another bet with Daya, he would have lost for the third time.
Yuma shook his head softly and leaned back.
"Akira wins," he announced, his own shock still lingering on his face. "Both the game and the argument."
He had believed Akira could win.
Just not like this.
Akira wasn't the type to waste his time on games, but somehow, that made the victory feel more poetic. It didn't matter how much Yuma thought he understood him. There was always another hidden side to Akira waiting to appear.
Yuma glanced toward where Daya and Kae had been standing, only to realize both of them were gone.
For a second, he wondered where they had disappeared to.
Then the conversation in front of him pulled his attention back.
"I won," Akira said coldly, setting the controller down. "So tell me the truth."
Aymar looked at him plainly, unimpressed.
"Start with an actual question," he said. "I'm not giving you my whole life story."
Akira sighed through his nose and rolled his eyes. For a moment, he stared at the floor, thinking.
Then his gaze returned to Aymar.
"Basic stuff first," Akira said. "Where did your powers originate?"
Aymar's face twisted.
"What are you saying?"
Akira didn't waver.
He kept his eyes fixed on Aymar, his expression calm but sharp. Yuma quickly realized Akira wasn't asking for another general explanation about conduits.
He was testing him.
Trying to see if Aymar's story would hold.
"Dawg, what do you mean?" Aymar asked, shaking his head slightly.
"Explain it to me," Akira said. "How did your elements come to be?"
Aymar stared at him for a second, then sighed. His eyebrows lifted briefly, exhaustion crossing his face like he was tired of repeating the same answer.
"As I told you before," Aymar said, "a small battle between the Water and Fire royals gave enough energy to my element."
He paused when he noticed Akira's eyes narrow.
"What?"
Akira studied him in silence for a moment.
Then he said, "You said Air last time."
Aymar froze.
"What?"
Aymar looked on with confusion, unsure himself.
Akira didn't repeat himself.
He didn't need to.
The silence did the work for him.
Aymar stared back, then slowly tilted his head, pretending to think.
"Maybe I did…"
His tone stretched the words out with forced casualness.
"To be fair, you were about to kill me, so I probably just said whatever out of desperation."
Akira's eyes sharpened.
"Kill you?" he repeated. "Moments before that, you were ready to fight back at the fountain without knowing what I was capable of."
Aymar's playful expression faded.
His lips pressed into a thin line.
"I was bluffing."
Akira tilted his head slightly, then jerked his chin up, silently telling him to continue.
Aymar sighed.
"Dude, if we actually fought, I was going to run into the crowd and hide until you lost me."
Yuma's mouth slanted slightly.
That was not the answer he expected.
Aymar continued, his tone growing more serious.
"And if Daya found me hurt, let alone dead? Killian wouldn't be the only one hunting you guys."
The room quieted.
Yuma looked at Aymar with a faint mix of disappointment and understanding. Calling him a coward felt easy, but when he thought about it, Aymar's plan made sense. Three strangers had suddenly appeared and said his name in public. He didn't know their abilities. He didn't know their intentions. And he clearly didn't want to draw attention to himself.
Yuma probably would have run too.
Akira stared at Aymar for a long moment.
Then, without another word, he stood and left the room.
Aymar's eyes followed him, confusion flickering across his face.
Yuma watched Akira go, just as confused.
Keisuke cleared his throat.
"Uh…" he said awkwardly. "I'm gonna go."
Yuma blinked at him.
The announcement was completely unnecessary.
Keisuke left anyway.
Aymar looked after him, then glanced at Yuma before giving a small nod and walking off as well.
Soon, Yuma was alone in the living room.
The silence stretched around him.
He didn't think about much. He didn't feel like chasing anyone down either. Whatever Akira was doing, he figured he would find out soon enough.
Just as he started to sink deeper into the couch, footsteps returned.
One by one, everyone came back.
Akira must have gathered them quietly while he was gone.
Yuma sat up and looked around the room, trying to figure out what was happening. Keisuke returned to his spot beside him, and Yuma leaned closer.
"What's going on?" he whispered.
Keisuke only shrugged, clearly not wanting to answer out loud.
That told Yuma nothing.
His eyes moved across the room until they landed on Hiroshi, who stood nervously near the back. He towered over nearly everyone, but somehow still looked like he wanted to make himself smaller.
If Hiroshi was here, this was probably serious.
Akira stepped to the front of the room and cleared his throat.
"Firstly," he began, "I apologize for my behavior earlier regarding Aymar."
No introduction.
No warning.
Just straight into it.
Aymar looked at him the moment he paused. For a second, he seemed unsure what to do with the apology. Then he waved one hand loosely.
"Yeah…" Aymar muttered. "My bad too."
A quiet pause settled between them.
Then both boys gave each other a short nod.
It wasn't warmth.
It wasn't trust.
But it was something.
Akira turned back to the rest of the group.
"Now that that's done, we need to act as a team," he continued. "You already know why we need to stay together and prepare for possible attacks."
He gestured toward Aymar and Daya.
"But that becomes difficult if these two don't have a way to move around normally."
Akira reached into his pocket and pulled out two school IDs.
The cards had no photos, but the school logo sat at the top, with Aymar and Daya's names printed beneath it.
Daya pushed off from the wall, her eyes narrowing slightly as she looked at the empty card.
Aymar stood too, leaning closer to Akira's hand.
"Why are they empty?" Aymar asked.
"I don't have enough information on you two," Akira replied, placing the cards on the table. "So I need you to fill in what matters."
His eyes moved to Aymar first.
"Last name."
Aymar's expression changed.
Only slightly.
But Yuma noticed.
So did Keisuke.
Daya looked uncomfortable too, her gaze shifting toward Akira's face.
"Do we need to?" Aymar asked carefully.
Akira's eyebrows furrowed.
"Yes."
The answer was flat.
Aymar looked down at the cards for a moment.
Then he sighed.
"It's… Idris."
His voice carried something bitter when he said it.
Disgust, maybe.
Resentment.
Something old enough to leave a mark.
"Daya can use my last name too," he added.
Yuma and Keisuke exchanged a quick look.
There was a story there.
Aymar clearly hated that name, and Daya's silence made it obvious she knew why. No one pressed him. Whatever was behind it wasn't something he wanted dragged out in front of everyone.
Akira seemed to sense the shift in the room and moved on.
"Good enough. We'll get your photos for the IDs after this. Next, birthdays."
"November 25th, 2007," Aymar answered first.
"June 16th, 2007," Daya said soon after.
Akira paused briefly at Daya's answer before nodding.
He picked up the cards and slipped them back into his pocket.
"That's all I really need. I can fabricate the rest of your information and background from here."
His voice trailed slightly as he pulled out his phone.
Aymar's expression brightened with curiosity.
"Why not fabricate everything?"
Akira looked at him like the answer should have been obvious.
"It's more believable with some truth sprinkled in."
Aymar opened his mouth, probably to say something annoying.
Akira didn't give him the chance.
He waved his hand once, ending the meeting, then left for his office.
The rest of the group looked at one another for a moment.
Then, with no better option, they dispersed too.
Yuma had expected more from the meeting. Some grand plan, maybe. A warning. An order. Something dramatic.
But apparently, that was it.
With nothing else to do, he headed back to his room and decided to sleep off the rest of the day.
***
Cold flames swallowed his vision.
When Yuma opened his eyes again, he found himself somewhere new.
It wasn't the wreckage of the burning house anymore, but somehow, he could tell it belonged to the same place. The same inner world. The same strange space Serapheria always dragged him into.
Only now, the ruined home was gone.
In its place stretched an empty garden.
The soil lay exposed and dark beneath his feet. When Yuma looked down, clumps of dirt clung to the bottoms of his shoes, damp and heavy, like the ground itself wanted to hold him still.
He lifted his foot, shook some of it off, and sighed.
"Serapheria?"
No answer.
Yuma looked around the empty garden.
Nothing.
No fire.
No wreckage.
No voice.
No sign of her.
Annoyance settled over him quickly.
He started walking, scanning the garden for any hint of why she had brought him here. The place seemed endless at first, stretching farther than it should have. Every step made the dirt pull at his shoes. Every breath felt colder than the last.
He wandered for what felt like hours.
Then, finally, he turned around.
Serapheria was sitting on a couch.
Three steps away from where he had started.
Yuma stopped.
She sat there comfortably, watching him with quiet amusement, as if she had been observing the entire time.
Yuma stared at her.
Then he sighed and shook his head.
"You were there the whole time?"
Serapheria smiled.
"Obviously."
Yuma walked back toward her, irritation clear on his face.
"Why didn't you just call my name?"
"You looked like a little duckling wandering around," she said, holding back a laugh. "It was cute."
Yuma rolled his eyes and dropped onto the couch beside her, sitting in the barren soil.
He leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. He wanted to ask why he was here, but before he could find the words, Serapheria answered.
"Someone has been watching you lately."
Yuma's body went still.
Slowly, he turned his head toward her without lifting his posture.
"What?"
Serapheria faced forward, her expression no longer playful.
"I can't sense them clearly," she said. "But someone is there."
The garden seemed quieter than before.
Yuma straightened slightly.
"What do you mean, someone?"
Serapheria's eyes slid toward him.
"Someone in the dark."
A cold pressure settled in Yuma's chest.
His first thought was Killian.
It had to be.
But the fact that Serapheria couldn't sense him clearly made the possibility feel worse, not better. Killian was already terrifying when they knew he was coming.
Something watching from the dark without leaving a clear presence behind was different.
Yuma swallowed.
"You're sure?"
Serapheria didn't answer immediately.
That silence unnerved him more than anything she could have said.
Then she nodded once.
"I'm sure someone is watching. I just don't know from where."
Yuma opened his mouth to ask more.
Before a single word came out, the garden vanished.
His eyes opened to morning sunlight spilling across his face.
For a moment, he lay there, groggy and confused.
Then everything came back.
The garden.
Serapheria.
The warning.
Someone was watching him.
Yuma groaned softly and sat up, frustration tightening in his chest. He had missed his chance to ask more.
Still, one thing was clear.
Akira needed to know.