"And now, everyone's doing their best to train for the upcoming match with the hope that they'll set you free if they win." Kimiko finished with a sigh. "That was the longest storytelling I've ever had to do. Never going to do that again."

"That's not an option." Her navy haired friend whacked her over the head for that. "What my fake did, the stones, the cannon, Mizukawa-san and... and..."

"Potomuri?"

"Yeah! And most importantly, the state of the entire team! How the hell am I supposed to know about it all if you don't tell me?"

"You could just... you know... be there."

She smirked as he gave her an unamused look. No words needed to be said. She could hear his thoughts perfectly.

Fuck. You.

"But all that aside, this is great!" She stretched as they made it up the steps. They made it back to the hall that she first came through. "We can go back to the train and let everyone know the good news! Then, we can fight Faram, win, and―"

"I'm not leaving."

She froze right as they reached the door leading out to the docking bay. The exact same one that she had teleported herself to. Turning around, she saw him with his head hung low as he walked towards the edge.

She shook her head and followed after him, standing just a little bit further back. Her mouth opened to ask, but the words remained stuck in the back of her throat. So, she closed it and waited.

With his gaze cast downwards to the city (the train station), he let out a sigh. "I can't fight them. Not after all of this. I know that, by the tournament rules, Faram would be fine. They'd be in second place. Between the two, Earth is the only one in any real danger of being taken over... But..."

A frown made its way to her face. "You grew attached to the people here when you went out exploring, didn't you?"

"You know about that too, huh?" He let out a wry smile. "Yeah, and some of them are pretty attached to me too. All the kids I met in the slums... and some others I talked to in town." His gaze went to the castle. "The guards, chefs, and general staff... I've basically become one of them, Miko. They're my friends as much as all of you guys are..."

"Not me though, right?" She couldn't help the urge to tease. It had been way too long. She hugged his arm and looked up at him with a wink. "I'm your childhood best friend. I'm special!"

"That's... Yeah... Yeah, right. You are."

She sweatdropped at his weak reply. "I'm kidding. You didn't have to agree to that."

"No, no, no. You're special. You go above and beyond anyone else on my list." He muttered something inaudible while rolling his eyes slightly. "You're the only one that can fry my brain like this."

"At this point, I'm surprised it's not overcooked yet."

"I never said it wasn't."

"Oh, oops." She chuckled, not bothering to apologize. Why would she when this has always been what they were like? "Well, you have too many brain cells anyways. A few burnt ones won't do anything."

She gave him a slap on the back, but immediately regretted it afterwards.

"Fuck, ow―!"

His eyes were on her in an instant. "Your hand...!"

As if the bandages it was wrapped in weren't telling enough, it had a black spot on it too. Specifically, in the area where she held her gun, where she was shot... again.

"Yeah, my right hand's had the worst luck lately―" She hissed when he accidentally grazed it.

"S-Sorry..." He avoided touching her palm as much as he could as he examined it. When he rolled her sleeve up slightly, they could see a bit of her skin underneath the wraps being redder than normal. "Speaking of burns..."

"Yeah... To think, it was just healed from the volcano incident too."

"The volcano what?!"

"Before you panic, no, I didn't touch lava. We were walking near a vent, and when the gas was released, I was a bit late to put up a shield to protect myself."

"And then you got shot... twice..."

"Four times, technically, if you count the shots I took to the chest."

"Don't remind me." He sighed, finally letting her hand go. "Please get Kamata-san or Aoi to look at it. I don't know how bad it is, but you definitely, at the very least, need those bandages replaced."

"Fine..."

"Why the heck does that armor only go until your wrists, anyway?"

"Because I don't like wearing gloves."

Her armor is her shirt after all. If they had extended to her fingers, she'd be wearing a full body suit. It took a lot of begging to make it a two-piece outfit too, with her pants being made out of the same material.

"... Fair enough." He pointed at the thing he was currently wearing. It was the same one that she had spotted him go into town with, to help him blend in with the locals. "This thing's got so many layers to keep out the cold."

"Cold?"

"The climate here is a bit colder than Earth. I noticed it when I first got here, it just constantly feels like mid-autumn... Though it could also be an effect of the black hole blocking the closest star."

"Huh... I barely noticed. Then again, my armor is cold-resistant just as much as it is heat-resistant."

"You should at least feel the cold in your hands then. And your head."

"That's true. Hm... Maybe I don't feel it because I'm standing right next to you."

"Wh― Huh?"

"The human body does generate its own heat."

"Oh... Yeah, sounds about right." He muttered something else under his breath that she wasn't able to catch before turning his gaze back to the city. She thought he wanted to remain in silence, but he started another conversation instead. "Miko, how did you know about... everything? About everything that happened here without me telling you anything yet. Heck, without you going through my memories yet. Unless you did that while we were still in the prison..."

"No, I didn't. Because dealing with other people's brains is a delicate process, no matter how many ampules I took, it still would take quite some time and focus to look through a month's worth of memories." She leaned further into his side, nearly making him fall over from the sudden weight. "This is uh... This isn't my first time on this planet."

"Huh?"

"I used the time bracelet to travel to the future, and then used your tablet as an artifact to track you down with Zanark's sphere device. I saw everything physically... not in your memories."

"Y-You were here?!"

"Yeah. Multiple times."

"Why didn't you say anything? You could've come to me when no one else was around, right? When I was in my room alone, or when I was walking around town..."

She shrunk at that question. It's not like I didn't try... "I wasn't allowed to."

"What? Why not?"

"It's..." She paused, considering how much she should share. She really didn't want to go over everything again, but...

"Miko?" His eyes were shrouded in worry.

If she said something wrong, he'll worry too much. But does that even matter? Hasn't he done enough? Even if he won't fight in the finals, can't he come home?

"Kimiko." He called out to her again, this time while snapping his fingers in front of her.

She didn't react to it and instead looked dead into his eyes. "I―"

Just as she got the courage to tell him everything, she was interrupted by familiar noises. Looking back, they found the dark purple Pixie flying around them, trying to get their attention.

"Oh fuck, not you again."

He turned to her. "You've seen it?"

"He's the one that purposely led me outside while you got kidnapped... He also appeared in my dream like Tenma's Pixie did in his."

"Your dream?" He felt his own eyes widening tenfold at that. "An accomplice?"

Before he could ask any more questions, a bright light engulfed the little creature and the alien man that only she had met before appeared in front of them. Tsurugi was rightfully shocked to see someone who is nearly a mirror image of himself for the second time in his life (and within the same month too).

"My name is Acrous. Tsurugi Kyousuke, there is something you must know. I am the late king of Faram Obius, as well as Lalaya's father."

"Father...?" I thought you were Lalaya's pet...

Kimiko's irritation quickly dissipated when she read his mind. He pinched her elbow, telling her to keep silent. She could only just barely stifle her laughter.

He paid neither of them any mind. "There is a way to save this planet."

"What?"

They exchanged glances. Her friend had a look in his eyes, like they were asking her to check if they could really trust his words. Her own eyes flashed purple as they quickly scanned over the alien's thoughts.

The conclusion she came to made her give in, though reluctantly. "Fine. Let's hear it."

~~~~~

As soon as she teleported back to the train station, Kimiko spotted Tenma on top of the sight-seeing deck. He had a determined look on him, one far stronger than she had ever seen before.

All to save the galaxy and his best friend, huh... She inwardly clicked her tongue. God, I wish I could tell him.

"Kimiko?"

It seemed that she had been staring for too long. She gave him a strained smile. "Hey, Tenma. What's it like to see the black hole up close?"

He smiled sheepishly. "It kind of makes me nervous..."

"Really? It didn't look that way to me."

"Ahahaha..." His expression suddenly changed to a serious one. "Kimiko, did you..."

"Find Kyou?"

He nodded.

She looked away for a second, considering her answers. Ultimately, she decided― "No luck."― that a few more lies meant nothing. She's gone on for this long already anyways.

His eyes widened at that. "Even you can't find him after using the ampules?"

"Not that I can't find him. More like, I couldn't find a chance to meet him." She shrugged. "The place was tightly guarded. There's a lot of infighting in the castle. I could sense Kyousuke somewhere in the castle, but I couldn't get close enough."

"I see... That's a shame..."

"Yeah..." Before he could say anything else, she faked a yawn. "I'm going to head inside now. Don't stay out too late, Tenma."

He gave her a wry smile. "Don't worry, I'll be inside in just a minute."

"Alright. Night."

"Night!"

She entered through the meeting car and turned right to head for her room. But just before she could take a step, something within tugged at her in the opposite direction. She followed the feeling until she reached the dorm car right before the cockpit.

His room.

She hesitated slightly. What was the point of coming when he wasn't even there? Unable to answer herself, she let out a sigh and opened the door anyway.

Nothing had changed since her last visit, which was strange as she had been avoiding the place since they left Sandorias. She had half expected the room to be in a bit of disarray with the fake's visit, but instead, it seemed as if no one had been living in it at all. Then again, it could just be that Kamata cleans the place really well while they spend their time outside.

She side-eyed the large poster of her cousin that he had, wanting to both laugh and cringe at it. She still found it funny how much he looked up to him, but that was also exactly why she couldn't bring herself to tell him that he was the Holy Emperor. Those were... not good times.

She sat on the edge of the bed and let her eyes wander around. They eventually landed on a familiar book placed inside the wall-shelf. Her eyes glowed and the book flew out of its place, landing on her lap.

And with that, the last of her power boost was gone. She could feel herself growing weaker. She let out a sigh of relief, but it was quickly followed by a coughing fit. With her finally relaxing, her body was starting to feel the strain of using so much power.

Ah, geez. Better not do that too often. She let out another sigh, letting her head fall onto the pillow as she held open the book above her.

As she flipped over the book, carefully to not drop it on herself and put too much pressure on her injured hand, she let her mind wander to each of the moments that they took the pictures.

Some were from their initial meetings when they were toddlers, some were of the times they hung around the hospital, and some more were of the various spars they had in the park. She remembered it was his brother's idea to leave a few pages blank so that he would be able to fill them in himself, but other than the sleepover for his eleventh birthday, there weren't any photographable moments after giving him the album. At least, not that she remembered.

Which was why she didn't expect to see three pictures she had never seen before when she flipped past that birthday.

One was almost incomprehensible with how dark it was. The only thing that let her understand what it was was the fact that she had been to the place so many times that she could recognize the outline. Her best friend's home, with both his and her silhouettes just barely visible through a window. She scoured her own memories to remember if she had ever seen anything in his memories that could explain its existence. Oh... They timetravelled to help her continue soccer early on in their last crisis. Right.

The second one, she remembered Akane taking the picture when a lot of Raimon decided to visit his home on their day off. She was wearing his red shirt as they all watched one of her cousin's matches.

And the last one was from the first match of Ragnarok. After getting bandaged up, they headed for the changing rooms, but before anyone could actually change, all the managers barged in to take a picture of her in uniform. Her friend had just taken off his captain's mark, so she took it off his hands and posed with it on. Afterwards, she only (reluctantly) took it off when she was led into the labs because they needed to inject her on her upper arm.

A knock on the door made her jump, nearly dropping the book on her face. Putting it to the side, she sat up and called for the person to enter.