Ending Theme 1 / Void / Sou ver.

"I watched her die as a sacrifice to call upon Yveltal three years ago."

Mei planted her face into her hands. No, those eyes were Sage's, not the hooded figure's. Not the one who chained her up and placed her friend Sayo in the core of the blood pentagon. Not him.

They had formed a circle around her, around Sayo; the girls took centre stage in the performance ritual, helpless protagonists fractured in the prologue. The mumbling figures shifted, whispers exerting centripetal forces on the duo as cackling, orange flames lit up on melting wax. They'd parted to form another circle, and they'd shuffle in opposite directions.

Ka—

Eyes bulged. Hands sprung out of sleeves, groping at fine, blue hair. Few hesitated. One tried to flee; another stood solemn.

Go—

One felt agony; another, a decaying gloom. It took two to scream, two to loose their voices to the wild air, the capricious blazes; it took two to lose a unified voice.

Me...

The rest was but wild and whirling words. Words, words, words, seeking to dominate, to oppress the suppressed, to suppress the oppressed...

Chatter, clinks, clanks, canker breeds at the heart of human society. Mei shut her eyes, blood pounding in her ears as she recalled the barbarism spilled out of their barred cages, flooding civilisations with primal desires.

To eat, to drink, to be merry with killing or being killed. To have all authority or none. To invoke all carnalities.

Mei saw it all. Everything seemed real, and the girl beside her—

"Sayo seems very real, but not." She remembered Jade telling her that many times and she would deny it at times. Sayo no longer there, Sayo hallucination. My mouth dry. Sayo! My mouth dry again.

The circle was no more. The poltergeist messing her mind, throwing thought-furnitures about had vanished with a sliver of light. It had been fine for a while, then, cyclically—

Kagome... Kagome...

Thoughts grew verbal. Words grew physical. Actions grew emotional. Mei felt it then, a feeling like the fall of a Spearow. She needed no augury. She was a minor character of her life, dreaming to be the author; but fate seized the pen first, and omens took the typewriter. She was left with no tools apart from metaphors and imagery to onomatopoeia.

And it was translated into the present. Like all other translations, some meanings would be lost, misinterpreted, entirely omitted.

To call her a fountain maiden was an understatement.

After much coaxing from Jade and Sage, and Mei'd taken her medicine, she calmed down. It was a gradual process, but she felt better. It was obvious she wanted to avoid the topic since the beginning so no one probed her.

Sayo, again. Jade latched her vision onto Mei, hoping to re-enter the trance, to see and stop Sayo. But Restore didn't seem to work. Is she a sprite? Or a piece of memory?

"Have you ever wondered about what went on in your life before you came here?" Sage asked the others, obtaining a nod from Jade. "There has to be a memory trigger. I think that's why Mei remembered."

"I think we should find what our true identities are. There might be a link that makes us the six players of the game," Titan said after piecing things together. "We should split up to find out about ourselves."

Ferro nodded and left with him. Clay and Rain glanced at each other and decided to sleep. Ria returned to her spirit form in which she cannot be seen. Jade took Mei back to rest after convincing Sage that she could remove all the chlorine gas with her Singularity.

In just a few hours, five students uninvolved in the Healer Killer game were dead. Sage shuddered and shook his head vehemently.

"I'll go find my band mates. It's been some time since I've seen them," Sage said and walked off to Foncrise City. He thought back to the four letters, MWVM, and asked himself what they meant. His guess would be that they were initials, but what did they represent?

May We Value Money? Probably not. Might, Will, Virtue, Mortality? No, not that.

Thoughts cluttered his mind. He whipped out his phone to call Lynx, not at all surprised when the boy didn't answer. It was late at night after all. He tried to contact Alain, but the boy who would always pick up his phone after the third ring did not do so this time.

Have I been too absorbed in this chaos that I neglected them? Did they block me on Disschat? Are friends so... meaningless?

He thought he had gone wrong somewhere. He must have done something wrong. He clicked on Gin's name and waited.

"Hello? Hello, Gin? Please pick up!" Sage cried.

"Sage, what's up?" The vocalist's voice crackled in the speaker.

"I hate myself. Why aren't any of you picking up? Did I do something wrong?"

"Chill, bro. Where are you right now? I'll get over and we'll talk."

"Talk? What's there to talk about? Is this because I've become too toxic? That's why you are all ignoring me, right? End of."

"Did you use your Singularity? Sage?" The voice was quiet. It was then Sage realised it was early in the morning and Gin's roommate, Nick, was a brute not to be messed with. According to Gin, Nick hated it when people were noisy and he woke up because of that. Maybe that's why the boy lowered his volume.

Sage visualised the boy, water dripping from his long eyelashes, spiky black hair like a mare's nest as if after a swim, brown eyes full of fire. It just looked as if Gin had a dip. A dip in blood? In chilly waters? Gin was smiling at him. Deviously? Knowingly? Sage could not tell.

Did I use my Singularity? Sage froze at the thought.

"I think I used it accidentally."

"What shadow did you detect?"

"A pistol and bullets under a bed." Sage sucked a breath. This sucked a lot. Why did he even do that? He could have avoided this strange feeling.

"Okay, is Blade with you right now? I'm coming."

"He's here." Sage narrowed his gaze. "Huh?"

"GPS, bro."

The line went dead.

Sage released the Gallade from his Poké Ball and the Pokémon glanced at him.

"Yo yo yo! Cheer up, herb-herb!" Blade's teal head crest hit the boy's chin as the Pokémon leapt onto the boy, feeling Sage's warm embrace.

"Shut your trap... and get your horns off my chest, horny boy!"

Blade rolled onto the floor, coughing, when the boy pushed him away.

"Why don't we give your Shitshit a little call?"

"Fine. Just know we're purely best of friends." Sage chose his words carefully.

Do best friends keep dangerous secrets from each other though?

He dialled in Zayn's number on his phone and placed it against his ear. His frown was gradual. "He's not answering."

The Gallade paused and leant against a brick wall in the alley, right beside the climbing ivies. "I wonder if he's betraying you by sleeping in with a boy. Maybe a man—does he love older males? You know, Valencia can become Wyatt and..."

Sage shrugged and sighed. Surely Zayn wasn't as indecent as Blade thought?

"You gotta be kidding me, Blade Pokémon."

「」

Ciara flipped onto her belly before eyeing her roommate. She had had trouble sleeping, and seeing Jo up at two in the morning wasn't normal either.

"Hey," the videographer whispered.

The girl with gloved fists stiffened and glanced at Ciara. "You're still awake?"

"Uh-huh. What are you doing?"

Ciara watched as the girl flipped her long, mahogany hair to reveal her profile. Jo held onto a pair of skate boots and bit her lips.

"Was it right that I chose boxing over skating?"

"If you love it more, yes." Ciara blinked. Just what went on? She needed to use Lie Detector. "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yes. It's just, I had a dream. Terrible one." Jo bit a nail. "I was there. I forgot my skates, left them there, returned there to take them. And it's there... I saw it."

"What do you mean?" Ciara detected no lies, only truths. Superficial stuff, really, not yet past the permafrost.

"I... It's fuzzy. But there was light. Many hooded figures. Laughing, chanting something, praying to Arceus."

That night. Ciara frowned. Jo remembers that night.

"Jo, it sounds like a ritual."

"A r-ritual. Yes, rite. And I saw..."

"Who did you see?" Ciara felt a lump in her throat. Clouds drifted like phantom blades slicing the moon. Jo opened the windows and smelt the empty air. Ciara never let the gaze shift away from the boxer.

Not even as she turned to fully face her. Not even when her lips parted once more.

Not even when the syllable dropped like a pin in a puddle, sending ripples to the psyche.

"You."

「」

Find out who I am before Noryuku? Zayn gripped his phone and squinted at the screen. Why would Amity send me that?

"We have reached the prison." Venom filled the woman's words as she got off the bus, then beckoning the boy to follow. Her cloak flew in the wind. Turning on her heel, she puckered her lips. "We're going to see someone."

"Xerosic?" Zayn hopped off.

"Don't speak his name." Valencia pushed the iron gate open, the bars adorned with graffiti and expletives. A hallway led them to the scientist's cell and a cop stood on guard, appearing very straight from head to toe. From afar, he looked like a thick black vertical line. She settled down in front of the glass that divided her and Zayn from the man in orange clothes. She leant forward and glared at his eccentric hairdo which looked like a flame bursting out of his head. A tiny window at the top of the wall behind him sent bars of light into the room.

"Why did you come? How is my Chandelure doing?" The man's gruff voice hit her and she flung herself back, placing a folded left leg on her right knee.

"Your Pokémon is doing a great job at screeching. More often than before."

"Did it help? The screeching?" Xerosic's grin unravelled gradually.

"Free me from that Destiny Bond. Free the devil inside me."

"And where do you suppose he goes?" The man scratched his chin and glanced at the boy with yellow hair. "Winner! Winner! If I had the technology, I could pass on his soul to that boy."

"No. The devil must be contained. There can only be one me."

"You're the core. The Original. DID doesn't work that way. There's no devil! It's all very scientific, religious whore."

Zayn remained silent as he watched the two adults spew acid at each other. The religious, superstitious woman saw Wyatt as a devil, and the boy knew it was true. He heard it himself. If the truth could be prevented from spilling, maybe even that suggested action would happen. Strangely, even though Wyatt believed in science, he believed it was the work of the Chandelure's Destiny Bond and gave evidence of the Pokémon's coincidental screeching to support his stand. To Zayn, it was purely coincidental so he simply played along with the alter ego.

"Val—" Xerosic began and Zayn looked up when the glass shattered. The Chandelure's morbid cry was soft.

"It's Wyatt, ya hear, son of a bitch? Some call me the Protector. But I want a body of my own! Fucking give me one now!" The adult beside the boy threw the cloak off with a bloodied hand. "Don't mess with me."

Zayn turned to the door. The cop did not move at all. Zayn frowned, got up and poked the cop. The man in black fell to the right, his head rolling off his body before blood pooled.

"I killed him. Congratulations for discovering!" Xerosic smirked. "That is the power of science. Marvellous. Heard of moments and centre of gravity?"

A hand gripped the scientist's collar and yanked him forward. Wyatt gritted his teeth and sank his incisors into the man's arm. Ejecting the sharp whites out of paling flesh, he growled, eyes brimming with menace. "How's that for a motherfucking asshole?"

Xerosic hissed before retorting, "I heard the girl singer was beautiful, a witch! A mass murderer! What a Primarina."

A crack resounded and a swish slithered across the air. The man's legs quaked as he coughed up a thick, scarlet liquid. Another crack, then the sound of something hitting the floor. His hands shivered intensely as he collapsed.

The Chandelure no longer cried.

"Zie cries probably because zie detects a change in atmosphere," Zayn mumbled as he watched as the adult smashed the Poké Ball and the Ghost-type made not a sound as zie left the area.

"Oi, Snipey." The adult pointed at the window where a shadow shifted. "It a Snipey!"

"You are Madame Valencia now, right?" Zayn furrowed his brows. "Please tell me you are—"

"Z, let's go kill Snipey!" She exclaimed.

"We have another one." Zayn sighed. Is it because this is her first time seeing someone die in front of her? It must be overwhelming. But why not Wyatt? Damn Protector.

"Huh? I was not 'another one'. I is Ulysses and I is six!" The woman squealed and pulled the boy's sleeves. "Kill Snipey!"

「」

A black tuft emerged from the corner. The boy had an iced drink in hand as he ambled over to the drummer.

"Chill, bro. What's up with you?" Gin patted Sage's shoulder.

"You think we'll be next?" Sage did not look up.

"We don't have a mascot. We're not an idol unit anyway." The vocalist shrugged. "But I haven't see Lynx and Alain for a while. You don't think...?"

"It's possible." Sage glanced at his friend. "It's so possible."

A brown-haired brute entered their vision, waved at them and took a seat beside Gin. "I was looking for you."

"What?"

"There was a letter for you." He handed Gin the envelope and watched the boy tear it.

"A newspaper article?" Gin unfolded the grey paper which was slightly yellowed at the edges. "This is from three years back. The Case of the Exitium Cult?"

"I watched her die as a sacrifice to call upon Yveltal three years ago." Mei's words came into Sage's mind.

"Do you remember anything about your lives before Noryuku?" Sage snatched the article. The church had burned down though. It was impossible for the cult to revive.

"I must still be a Wushu master," Nick said. "Does that even matter?"

"I remember working as a barista." Gin pressed his temples. "The café was near the church."

"Then where was I? Who was I?" Sage asked himself.

"I'm out of here. I swear if you're some lunatic, I won't be here for long." Nick got up and shuffled his feet, leaving the two Emo-Senpai members on the bench.

Gin turned to Sage. "You can't remember? I know Danny and Alain because we were from the same school."

"And me?"

"I think you were quite... devoted to Arceus? Always saw you going to the church back in Anistar City. You mean you don't remember?"

"Some amnesiacs take a longer time to recall." Sage crossed his arms. He felt Blade stare at him intently.

"What?" Sage thought in his mind.

"Do you remember me being your starter? I was a Ralts then."

"Right, I guess I remember that." Sage gazed at a falling leaf. "But Gin, I don't see myself as someone religious. I don't think so."

"Then I don't know. Whenever we talked to each other, you avoided everything regarding the church."

"Hey, let's go to Kalos. Maybe if we go back to the beginning, I can remember something."

Maybe the six of us were directly involved in the Exitium Cult incident? Sage's dark brown eyes never left the leaf. What about the other students?

"How about now?" Gin suggested.

"Sure," Sage said. "How do we leave without a helicopter though?"

"We can have a Surfing Pokémon." He eyed his friend's puzzled look. "Actually, you should be glad I'm here. You can ride on me."