The silence pressed in from all sides, so heavy a pin hitting the floor rang like a bell.

Uneven breathing leaked from the room, a thread of dread in it, and it slowly drew footsteps closer like a wick drawing oil.

This was a condemned block, old concrete split by scars that looked ready to rip with one wrong breath.

Two gunmen stood back to back, nerves taut as bowstrings, cold sweat pattering onto the dusty floor.

"Hey, why's it so quiet...?"

"How should I know? There was noise five minutes ago."

They were bracing for someone; with faces white as paper and bodies shaking like leaves, their foe clearly wasn’t ordinary.

What could scare them this badly?

Because of who they were: combat hands of the Church from the Underworld, sent to Japan, ambushed hard in the dark.

Worst of all, the enemy was alone, and she moved from shadow like a knife in water, giving them nothing to grab.

Time crawled. A few crows fluttered in, their caws rasping like rusted hinges, and the noise unknowingly eased their tight nerves.

"Guess it's fine now..."

They relaxed for a few seconds, a loosened knot that cost them everything.

Swick!

A short blade flashed and punched his heart, and he toppled, blood blooming like a crushed rose.

"Ahhhhhh!"

The other snapped, spraying bullets wild, muzzle jerking like a mad firework at every shadow he feared.

He kept shooting wherever danger could be, because fear gnawed his spine like cold teeth.

Soon the magazine ran dry; the trigger clicked on emptiness, a dead metronome that gave him nothing.

Panic broke him. He ditched the gun and clawed for a knife at his belt like a drowning man.

Bang!

Before he found it, a round tore through his chest, and his story ended on the cracked floor.

"Took an hour in all. Not bad."

A clear, childlike voice chimed through the ruin, and a blonde woman eased the gun down and walked toward the bodies.

"Using someone else’s weapon never feels right in the hand."

She sounded like she was talking to herself, or to the pendant at her throat that caught light like a small moon.

"Call it confidence or call it arrogance, which is it?"

"Either way doesn’t matter. What I came to do is done."

Andrea had come to this deathtrap by choice; she’d heard the Church’s Underworld spies were moving in Japan.

She couldn’t tolerate that, so she spent the day dancing blade and shadow against the Church, bright and dark.

She scooped up the enemy’s weapons, then headed for the next likely den before flying back to Britain.

At the doorway, a girl stepped in her path, eyes holding a deep smile like a lake with hidden depths.

From that gaze, Andrea knew she wasn’t ordinary.

"Asagi Renka, is it?"

Andrea still recognized her.

"No wonder they call you a Swordmaster; your eyes are sharp as ever."

"What do you want with me? I don’t remember us being close."

"Heh. I came to discuss business, of course."

Whatever Asagi Renka was plotting, no one could read the board.

…

Afternoon events were about to start, and the students’ heat hadn’t cooled; excitement lay plain on every face like dawn.

"Hey, hey, Yun Shi, you looked pretty good dressed as a girl~"

"Yeah, I almost forgot you’re actually a boy~"

"Amazing, how’d you do that makeup? I couldn’t tell at all~"

"Yun Shi is just too cute~"

Hemmed in by girls, Yun Shi felt a mountain on her shoulders; every time she tried to speak, another wave cut her off.

By the way, she’d already changed back into the boys’ uniform, because the cheer-squad dress was mortifying.

She wasn’t about to strut around with that banner of shame.

"Um..."

She wanted to talk, but the chance kept slipping like soap in water.

What was this, anyway? One day in a dress and suddenly she was mobbed like a pop idol, and they even looked thrilled?

It never used to be like this...

"Can we not bring that up..."

To her, cross-dressing was pure humiliation; the fact she didn’t die of shame felt like mercy, so why did anyone like it?

"Why not? You’re adorable, Yun Shi!"

"Yeah! Even I’m jealous—damn it, why are you a guy!"

"This is your fault; I think I’m turning!"

The last line came from a boy, half joking and dead serious.

It was obvious her cross-dressing had worked a little too well; truly, congratulations... like hell.

Yun Shi hated the result with a passion.

Her heart lived as a boy, her clothes screamed boy, but her body was a girl’s; how was she supposed to swallow those lines?

"Well, isn’t that a good thing? At least you’ve become someone people like, right?"

After the crowd drifted off, Yun Shi sat with Mizuki in the tree shade, idle talk circling back to this.

Maybe because Mizuki had comforted her and she’d cheered Mizuki on, Yun Shi found herself leaning on her a little.

With other friendships tight as knots, only the one with Mizuki stayed soft.

"It’s not good at all. The kind of ‘like’ I want isn’t this..."

"What kind is it?"

"How do I even say... I never planned on being popular in high school, and now it flipped overnight..."

It was true. Since Sham’s prank on day one, Yun Shi had given up on being liked by girls.

But today had gone off script.

Mizuki fell quiet at that. She remembered that no matter how things changed, this person hadn’t been welcomed before.

"You don’t have to worry. Just remember this—someone will genuinely care about you. That’s enough."

For example, she herself cared, too much to hide; she really liked Yun Shi.

She just didn’t dare confess; if she could... she wanted to say it.

"Why do you get to comfort me? You’re just Mizuki."

Yun Shi puffed her cheeks, a tiny sulk like a cat scratching.

This girl... unbearably cute.

Mizuki’s heartbeat thumped like a drum; she was one breath from spilling everything.

It was her first time feeling this for a boy, and she was the one pursuing, which left her a little lost.

She happened to like her, so she’d just have to admit it.

"Ahem. Yun, are you in any events?"

Mizuki tried to change the subject; if she kept staring, she’d blurt her heart out, two names and one truth included.

"Three-legged race. That’s my only event. But I don’t have a partner now..."

She’d planned to team with Mai, and even after they started getting along again, that held.

But starting today she hadn’t seen that yuri girl at all, like she’d vanished, so maybe they’d forfeit.

"No partner? Then pair with me!"

"Oh... okay."

Seeing Mizuki that eager, Yun Shi agreed without thinking. Was the three-legged race really that fun?

She had no idea Mizuki joined only to be tied to her at the hip.

Maybe it was a trick of the heart, but Yun Shi felt Mizuki was like Sham used to be.

Same scene, different person.

"Great~ I’m really looking forward to it!"

Mizuki beamed like fresh sunlight, all energy, so bright it eased the eyes.

Yun Shi couldn’t help smiling, a small, rare curve like a petal turning.

Mizuki stared, dazed by that seldom-seen smile, until Yun Shi gave her a strange look and she laughed it off.

If possible, she wanted to see that smile forever.

Right then, she wished it from the bottom of her heart.

"That’s about it. I’m heading off."

Halfway through, Yun Shi had business and left first; Mizuki wandered, bored, and happened to meet Andrea coming back to campus.

"Miss Andrea, where did you go?"

"...I need to tell you something, Mizuki."

Andrea’s face was all seriousness, no mischief, and Mizuki knew it was Underworld business again.

She led Andrea to the same tree shade where Yun Shi had sat, and took her previous spot.

"I may not go back to Britain."

Andrea kept it short. One line.

"Meaning... what?"

Mizuki didn’t get it. She’d thought once the school event ended, Andrea would return to Britain, one of the fronts against the Church.

"I changed my mind. I’m not going to Britain. I’m going to Italy."

"...That I understand even less. Why Italy out of nowhere?"

"Stupid Mizuki, because what’s happening there matters more, of course."

Elena the Weapon Spirit, silent until now, cut in.

"Mm. Right. I think Italy suits the fight against the Church better. If nothing changes, I leave in a few days."

"Whether you come with me or stay home, that’s up to you."

Andrea sounded casual, but she was pressing a choice into Mizuki’s hands like a blade across a palm.

Italy would be a strange battlefield where survival wasn’t promised, but she was also giving Mizuki a way to stay in Japan.

Since the choice was Mizuki’s, Elana kept out of it; she wouldn’t put her master on the spot.

"Do we have to go? And... will she go too?"

"Of course. She has no reason not to."

"...All right. I’m going."

"Think it through. No regrets allowed."

"I have. I won’t regret it. I’m going."

Mizuki knew she was awful, leaving the closest person—Yun Shi—for the Night Phantom.

But she couldn’t leave the Night Phantom to fate, no matter what.

Mizuki walked the track alone, quiet as dusk.

She looked up and saw Yun Shi across the field, talking with classmates about something that looked official from her face.

Mizuki sighed and didn’t go over.

Yun, if I could, I’d hang my heart on you alone.

But I can’t abandon the other her. I’m really no good.

Even so, I still want you to like me.

Am I... the worst kind of woman?