Mahori Aki stepped forward,"What are you two babbling about?"
Kavato stiffened, rubbing the back of his neck with a nervous chuckle. "Oh, nothing."
Mahori aki: "How about some intensive training, then?" Mahori aki said, placing hands on both their shoulders.
Mahori aki transform into tiya while they are both in their purple uniforms, but something strange is going on: tiya has a cold eye.
Mahori Tiya stepped beside him, her white hair catching the dim light as she folded her arms. "It's a form of mental training. Completely safe." Her tone was calm, but something in the way she held herself sent a ripple of unease through the group.
This spell induces an experience that one wishes they'd never have to face but might encounter in the future. You'll have to risk your life to emerge victorious. Most people will fail. I use this spell on opponents who are weak and large in numbers to lose their will. Don't worry I will not go to that extent.
Kiyoshi: But if it's just a mind game, how can our lives be at risk?
Tiya's gaze darkened. "You'll forget this conversation. Forget everything real. You'll only remember the events leading up to the situation you're thrust into." Her voice lowered, heavy with warning. "Inside the spell, everything is real. The pain of a wound, the heat of battle, the weight of fear. Victory isn't always about defeating an enemy—sometimes, it's about surviving. And remember… the pain you feel will be real."
The air thickened with tension. The crackling fire cast long, dancing shadows over their faces, each lost in their own thoughts.
Then—
Kiyoshi clenched his fists. "I'm in."
Kavato exhaled sharply, then nodded. "Count me in too."
Sakura stood still, her violet eyes burning with resolve. "I want to be stronger. I'm in." A beat. "But promise me—no tricks."
Tiya's expression hardened. "This is serious, Sakura."
Sakura didn't flinch. "I know. I'm in."
Daishi grinned, cracking his knuckles. "Me too, me too!"
With a slow nod, Tiya raised her hands. "Then brace yourselves."
As the spells took effect, they found themselves in a mysterious, dark realm.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
Kiyoshi gasped, his hands flying out to steady himself—but there was nothing. No ground. No sky. Just an endless void pressing in on him.
"Where—?" His voice echoed strangely, as if the shadows themselves were mocking him.
Then—
"Kiyoshi! Where are you?"
His heart lurched. Sakura.
"Sakura?!" He spun, squinting through the gloom. "Is that you? Where are you?"
A figure stumbled forward, and his blood turned to ice.
Sakura limped toward him, her body riddled with arrows. Blood dripped from her lips, her nose, a deep gash splitting her abdomen. Her fingers trembled as she reached for him.
"Kiyoshi… please… help me… heal me."
His breath came in ragged bursts. No. No, no, no—
She fell in front of him cover in blood.
"Heal! Heal, damn it—!" His magic flickered weakly, useless against wounds this severe. Panic clawed at his throat. "We—we need a real healer, someone stronger—"
Then—footsteps.
Armored figures emerged from the darkness, their faces obscured by steel helms. Thirty. Maybe more.
At their head stood a man with a voice like grinding stone. "Is she dead? She was always a troublesome one."
Rage ignited in Kiyoshi's chest. He stepped between them and Sakura, his hands shaking—not from fear, but fury. "You won't lay a hand on her."
The commander laughed. "Step aside, boy. Unless you want your head separated from your body."
Kiyoshi bared his teeth. "Try me."
Steel clashed. Screams filled the air.
Then—
A whistle. A thud.
An arrow sprouted from Sakura's neck.
Time stopped.
"Sakura—!" He was at her side in an instant, cradling her as her body shuddered. Blood soaked his sleeves, his hands, his soul.
Her tears glistened in the dim light as she whispered, "Kiyoshi… I want to be with you. Please…"
His vision blurred. "No… no, no, no—why? WHY?!"
Her fingers brushed his cheek. Then, so softly he almost didn't hear it—
"I love you, Kiyoshi."
Her hand fell.
Her breath stilled.
And something inside him shattered.
Grief turned to fire.
His tears evaporated in the heat of his rage. His sword trembled in his grip—no, not trembled. Thirsted.
The armored men hesitated.
Too late.
Kiyoshi moved like a storm, his blade carving through them like wheat. Bones cracked. Blood painted the earth. He didn't feel the wounds they landed—didn't care.
The commander snarled. "End him!"
"Sir, he's too powerful—!"
"It's not that he's strong," the man spat. "It's that you're weak."
A massive hammer wreathed in magic slammed into Kiyoshi's ribs.
The world spun.
He crashed into a tree, his body broken, his breath ragged.
Move. Get up. Fight—
But his limbs wouldn't obey.
Then—her voice. Not from the darkness around him, but from within.
"It's all because of you, Kiyoshi." Sakura's ghostly whisper coiled around his heart. "I was here because you brought me. I chose to protect you. I believed you'd save me… but you let me die."
His vision blurred. Blood and tears dripped onto the cold earth.
"It's your weakness that brought me here. You bear the weight of my death alone."
His fingers twitched toward her lifeless form.
"I'm… so sorry…" His voice was a broken thing. "Please… forgive me."
And then—
Darkness took him too.
In the suffocating silence of his shattered mind, Sakura's voice curled around him—soft, broken, and so unbearably real.
"It's all because of you, Kiyoshi."
Her words were a knife twisting deeper with every syllable.
"I was here because you brought me. I chose to protect you. I believed… you'd save me." A shuddering breath, as if even in death, she was fighting to speak. "But you let me die."
His chest caved in.
"It's your weakness that brought me here."
Each word was a brand, searing his soul.
"You bear the weight of my death… alone."
Kiyoshi's breath hitched.
Tears—hot, relentless—spilled from his lifeless eyes, cutting through the blood and grime on his face. His trembling fingers reached for her, trying to brush against her cold cheek, tracing the stillness where her smile should have been.
"I'm… so sorry…" His voice was a shattered thing, barely audible. "So… sorry…"
A sob clawed its way out of his throat, raw and broken.
"I shouldn't… have been with you." His forehead pressed against hers, as if he could will warmth back into her. "I was holding you back…"
His body shook with the weight of it—the guilt, the love, the unbearable wrongness of a world where she no longer existed.
"Forgive me…"
A whisper.
A plea.
A final surrender.
And then—
Darkness.