Mizuki’s chest tightened like a fist in cold water; Yan Er wasn’t wrong—she did like Yun Shi. But…

If she said it, they’d call it favoritism, like smoke clinging to her sleeves.

Because of Yun Shi, Sham and Mai had fallen out; Mizuki and Yan Er stood on one line, and only Mizuki herself stood in the no-man’s-land.

If she stepped in, what would they see—a meddler, or a traitor?

“No need to hide it, Mizuki. I saw it ages ago. You like him, don’t you?”

“Yan Er, it’s not what you think…”

“Then what? You didn’t pull me aside to say all this for him?”

Her throat went dry; words scattered like startled sparrows.

“That’s enough, Mizuki.”

Mizuki let out a weary sigh, like fog leaving a window.

“I’ve thought it through. It was all one-sided from me. Even if you did it for Yun Shi, I don’t blame you. I blame the me who didn’t dare look in the mirror.”

“Mizu—”

“Don’t. Just… let me be alone for a while. Maybe I was never right for Sham to begin with.”

No matter how hard she reached, Mizuki could never win. She was a girl. Sham was a girl. Two lines that the world refused to let meet.

The truth of this world is a blade; it never flinches.

Soon, Mizuki left first. The afternoon sports meet couldn’t tempt her now. Left in place, Mizuki and Yan Er held their silence like rain in a sealed jar.

“Done talking, Mizuki?”

“…Yeah.”

“Then I’m leaving.”

“Wait, Yan Er…”

“You said what you came to say. You want us and Yun Shi to patch it up. I’ll tell you straight—it’s impossible. The moment pure friendship curdled into love, it changed. Love is selfish. It doesn’t share.”

Her words branded Mizuki’s mind like hot iron, the sting refusing to fade. When Yan Er left, only Mizuki remained under the open sky.

In the end, she’d moved Mai a little, but helped no one else. As for Sham—Mizuki couldn’t even find her shadow.

“Love is selfish…”

Mizuki stared at her palm like it held a riddle and breathed to herself.

If love is selfish, what do I do with loving two people? Night Phantom and Yun Shi—one woman, one man. Which road?

How do I face my own heart? What do I do?

Her feelings were a knot in wet rope. Unlike others, hers split in two. She liked two people. That was fickle. That was irresponsible.

“What am I supposed to do…”

She thumped her forehead; pain throbbed like a drum in fog.

Feelings were a maze too tight for her. She promised to help Yun Shi, yet she couldn’t let go of the Witch in the Underworld.

While Mizuki wrestled with her own shadow, Moa followed a hunch and found Yun Shi working as cheer squad.

“Oh—Yun Shi-chan—this outfit—so perfect.”

“Damn it! Don’t look!”

“Yare yare, I’m looking anyway.”

“Hey, don’t rub up on me, you idiot!”

They opened with a girls’ love skit on sight, sugar and sparks. If both were girls, it’d be “close friends.” With one boy involved, envy stung like nettles.

“Damn, I forgot—besides being stupidly cute, he’s a… super normie!”

The class’s moans said it all; despair was thick as smog. Fine, blame the world. (World: How’s that my fault?!)

Andrea was wandering the school when she stopped, eyes narrowing at the tide of faces, like scanning for ripples beneath a calm pond.

She turned, gaze drilling into the stream of people. Her hand went to her waist by reflex—then she remembered. No personal weapons in the Outer World.

“What’s wrong?”

A sweet, loli-bright voice chimed in, but the tone was playing at being grown-up.

“Didn’t expect enemies in Japan too.”

Andrea dropped a line heavy as lead.

Elena the Weapon Spirit kept silent; she could feel the air tighten.

Andrea meant she’d seen guests from the Underworld.

“Do we tell Mizuki?”

“No. I’ll handle it.”

Her face was stone, but her fingers brushed her belt. A hard, cold shape waited there… a gun.

For once, paranoia had been the right lantern to carry.

The sun bled west; dusk painted the earth in bruised gold. A whole day slipped by like sand, and students still glowed, already hungry for tomorrow. Some even crashed at school, laughter ringing like chimes.

Mizuki walked the street alone. Home meant nothing tonight. Her parents were rarely around; only her sister was there. Sometimes Sham would drift in for a free meal.

Now the house would be cold as an empty teacup. Her sister was out this week; aside from servants, it was just her.

Night pulled its veil tight. A lone schoolgirl outside at this hour was a moth before a flame, but Mizuki felt none of it. She wanted quiet, a lake with no wind. Too much had happened.

A reckless thought rose like a spark. She headed for that abandoned block. Almost no one lived there. Rumor said it was haunted; the government had warned people off the “danger zone” again and again. Mizuki didn’t buy it. She’d go see for herself.

Boom!

The sound hit as she stepped in, a shock through bone. Gooseflesh rippled over her arms. She almost backed out, but she steadied herself and pushed on. She needed a thrill to sand down the ache in her chest.

Like that, Mizuki stepped into a world she didn’t know at all…

Blood smeared the walls in wide, wet swaths, stinking metallic and raw, like a butcher’s floor still warm. Fresh, no doubt.

Fear flooded her eyes. She had walked into a door that shouldn’t open. She turned to leave.

Thud!

A girl’s body rolled out of a dark corner, bumping along until it stopped at Mizuki’s feet. She grunted, breath catching; blood leaked from her thigh. A neat bullet hole winked if you dared look closely.

“Hey, are you… okay?”

Crime flashed across Mizuki’s mind like lightning; only the underworld of gangs fit this picture.

When the girl turned her head, Mizuki’s face went pale. The girl’s did too, like mirrors cracking together.

“Sham-chan…”

Unbelievable. The injured girl was the one who laughed the loudest, the one who joked the wildest.

“Mizuki, I…”

Of all places to meet, it was here. Sham’s hands scrambled, thoughts spilling.

“Why are you here? What happened to you?!”

“I… this…”

“Tell me, now!”

Under Mizuki’s barrage, Sham’s mouth wouldn’t move.

She had imagined many things, but not this—Mizuki here, in the dark.

Mizuki had been dragged into darkness once without warning. Would she now watch Mizuki repeat it? No. Absolutely not. She would not let Mizuki step into the Underworld.

“Mizuki, listen! Whatever happens today is a dream. None of it’s real. If anyone asks, forget it. Say nothing. Answer nothing!”

If Mizuki learned how cruel the world was, Sham would break. Mizuki had already changed under that cruelty. She couldn’t stomach seeing Mizuki change too. She wasn’t Yun Shi; she couldn’t accept a dear friend turning into someone else.

“What? An outsider?”

Men stalked out of the dark, faces hard as brick, illegal guns glinting like fangs. They closed in slow, the air tightening.

“Magician, what do we do? Kill her?”

“Shut up! Touch her and I’ll cut you into pieces.”

Mizuki had never seen that face on Sham. The snarl. The killing edge. Not the Sham she knew.

Mizuki froze. Fear crawled up from her ankles like ice.

She had never known the world could be this cruel.

Bang bang bang!

Before Sham moved, gunfire ripped the dark. Bodies folded like paper dolls. A blonde woman stepped from shadow, gun steady, eyes cold.

“This ends here, Church.”

Andrea leveled her pistol, voice like frost.

Of course the Church hadn’t abandoned operations in Japan. Sham had clashed with them here to stop them.

In a broken world, how else do you speak? With guns.

“Go!”

Bang bang bang!

In moments, the fight was a storm. Andrea dove into their ranks alone and carved through them.

Heads split, bodies dropped; Mizuki gagged and vomited where she stood.

“Mizuki, are you okay?”

Sham rubbed her back, guilt biting like wind. An innocent had stepped into a forbidden room. The second time. The first time, Sham hadn’t known. This time, she had led danger to her own doorstep.

Sham Einafel felt shame like a weight on her ribs. How was she supposed to face Mizuki? How to explain? How to…

It ended fast. Andrea alone erased them all. Her strength was terrifying, at least above Sham’s.

She looked at the two girls in the corner, one trembling like a leaf. Andrea walked toward them, footfalls sharp as flint.

“What are you going to do about her?”

This time, the one dragged in was a friend of her student. That changed the math chewing at Andrea’s mind.

“I won’t let her step into our world. So please—don’t tell anyone. Only we know this happened. The others… I’m begging you.”

Sham pleaded for Mizuki’s sake. In the Underworld there was a rule, unwritten but iron: cross the threshold, and you belong to it.

Mizuki was the first new exception in over a century.

“I’ll give you this one.”

Andrea said nothing more. She turned and left, coat flaring like a brief wing.

She did it for her student. Only for that.

“Sham-chan, tell me… what are you?”

Mizuki, still shaking, stared at Sham’s blank eyes.

Between them, things tangled again, chaotic as wind through reeds.