"I kept my promise." He looked up to face two figures who had just appeared. "So now will the Children of the Night leave my team alone?"

"Funny you'd call us that." One with blue-grey hair chuckled. "However, our team name is The Excellars. Surely, as a fellow captain, you'd prefer it for your team to be referred to properly too, no?"

"I thought you'd say that." He mirrored the other's amused expression. "If I called you by your team name, then I'll be giving the rest of your factions the green light to continue harassing us. The so-called vampires of Vamptym and the wanna-be werewolves of Tsukigami are all becoming a pain to deal with."

"Like the freaks of Zanark Domain are any better. Grrr." The other with bushy, coral-pink hair growled, though he didn't seem to mind the half-hearted insult that much. "You guys cause more trouble than we do. And you're the late-bloomer here."

"That just means you admit that, even before I awakened as one of you, I was still stronger."

"... As we agreed, the Children of the Night will no longer target those in Zanark Domain."

"Oi, Vanfeny!"

"Such is destiny, Garsha." Sharp, green eyes narrowed. "However, bear in mind that this is simply a truce. It is not a partnership."

"Hah! Zanark Domain partners with no one anyways!"

"The hell do you have going on with Raimon then? Grrr." Dark blue eyes looked at him in confusion.

"My personal ties have nothing to do with them." This time, the pupils that narrowed were blood red. "Which was why I told you to keep whatever problem you have with me with just me."

The one named Vanfeny let out a huff. "The Avalons, unlike other adults, hold a special place in the heart of the Children of the Night. Both me and Garsha are not the only ones to be... offended by their favoritism of you."

"And the fact that you weren't the one to finish off the old man wasn't known by everyone until Saru told us in our past meeting with Feida a couple of months ago. Grrr." The one named Garsha scoffed. "If it weren't for him, we'd still be thinking you have their kid brainwashed."

Well, he has brainwashed people before, so he supposed that was a fair accusation. "I didn't have to. That kid stuck to me like glue all the time since she first met me."

"Except for the years that she didn't. Grrr."

"Details." He said, giving an uncaring shrug. "Fact is, even after returning her memories, she chose me over you."

"... Be mindful of your words, Zanark. You are not her true brother."

Like anyone in this world is. She's an only-child. Sometimes, he wondered if he was the only one that remembered that.

(He refused to admit that sometimes, just sometimes, he forgot too.)

~~~~~

Yuuichi watched as the two strangers disappeared, leaving Zanark alone in front of the grave. He exchanged glances with Masato before walking over to him.

"Zanark?"

Red eyes wandered over to him before going to the man behind him. "Done with your talk?"

"We are. Thanks."

"Didn't do it for you. But you're going to have to get along if you plan on becoming in-laws."

Masato sighed. "We're aware."

He couldn't help but chuckle at that reaction. Then, he eyed the remains of the cottage, above which the two strangers stood before. "Zanark, if you don't mind me asking..."

"'Who are they' is what you want to ask, right?" He huffed, never letting his smirk drop. "They're Second Stage Children too. Not from Feida, though. They're called the Children of the Night. As the name suggests, they're activities are usually carried out when the moon's high. Those two were their leaders."

"Should we be worried about them?" Masato asked.

"Seeing as how they refused to take the vaccine, what do you think?"

"Huh? But I thought Feida and Zanark Domain were―"

"We've gotten to the faction-less ones, including the ones in the underground. Well, I say that, but in the end, Feida's the one sheltering them, so they're not faction-less anymore. The Children of the Night are literally the only ones left."

"Why did they approach you?" Yuuichi decided to speak up again. "Wouldn't it be safer for them to stay hidden?"

"That's the funny part. They've never hidden. They always have something going on, whether it's to my or Feida's or the old farts of El Dorado's knowledge. The scary part? No one will notice what it is until they want it to be noticed."

"Sounds like you've been dealing with them for a long time." Masato muttered.

A tongue click came, and for the first time that night, they saw something other than amusement in his eyes. "Longer than I could remember."

~~~~~

The last person she expected to be greeted by the next morning was her brother, he was sure. Especially with him carrying the breakfast that her friend had originally left to get for her.

"Kimiko..."

"Masato-nii."

"..."

"..."

What the fuck. Were the three words that crossed both their minds at the exact same moment.

I know what I told Yuuichi, but damn, I didn't think it'd be this hard...

I told Kyousuke that I don't really care about what they think, but now that he knows everything about last year...

Thank god she doesn't have her mind reading powers anymore.

He didn't know what he'd do if she still did.

At least it's just him here, and not with mom and dad.

Just like how she wouldn't know how to react if they were.

After another moment of agonizing silence, it was the man that let out a cough to break the tension. "So... How was treatment?"

She shrugged. "I've been a lab rat for a while now, so it's nothing too bad. Just boring for the most part."

"Wording, please."

"Experiment!"

He sighed, but managed to let out a chuckle afterwards. "At least I know you're doing alright."

"Yeah, but on the other hand..." She took a second to look at him closely. "You look like you haven't been getting any sleep for the past week."

"... You're not wrong." He sighed again. "Listen, Kimiko. I know that it's only eight in the morning, but I can't leave this for another second longer. I need to talk to you. Like, really talk to you."

She bit her lip in hesitation, but eventually took a deep breath. "Well, I can't exactly run forever either. I'm all ears."

"I'll be blunt."

That's a first.

"I genuinely... have no idea how to make this up to you." He let out a groan. "I'm sorry. I really am. For everything. For... For not noticing those kids bullying you, for agreeing to put you through that training, for... for leaving you alone at home... I'm sure there are other things I did that I can't name at the moment―"

"Masato-nii, those aren't the things you need to be apologizing for." The words came out before she could stop herself.

"... You're right." He nodded slowly before holding his head up to meet her gaze. "I'm sorry for lying to you that day."

They simply stared at each other for a while. The man wanted to turn away, partly because of shame and partly because of awkwardness, but he kept their eye contact steady. Meanwhile, the girl before him had a blank look on her face, showing no signs of any emotions felt towards his apology.

"I..." He couldn't help starting again. "I really hope it's not too late for me to say all this. I want to do right by you as your older brother. I don't know how I could make up for the past, but starting now, I won't go behind your back anymore. I promise."

After another moment of silence, she finally opened her mouth. "You're not going to lie to me again? Even if you think it's for my own good?"

"I won't."

"Okay..." She nodded to herself, before putting more certainty into her voice. "Okay. I believe you. And let's just leave that whole Teikoku thing behind. I got back at you that same weekend anyways."

He blinked. "A-Are you... sure?"

"Yeah." She sighed. "I don't like it, but I know that you all did that because you wanted to put me in a situation that would pressure me to reach the limits of my power. The training menus you came up with weren't able to take me that far. Teikoku did."

"Kimiko..."

"I just... As long as that's it. As long as you don't put me in that position again on purpose, I'm fine."

"That position, huh..."

"Kyousuke meant the world to me. You all know that. And, he still does even now, and probably forever until I die. You promised that I'd get to spend that birthday with him no matter what regiment I have, or when I have it, or where... When Kidou Yuuto-san said that he was ordered to keep me there anyway, that... That hurt way more than the training itself did..."

"I saw that..." He could only hang his head. "You thought that if you went home, we'll just send you on more trips without a care, right?"

"Not just that. I..." He could hear her swallow. "There was a point where I thought that you were actually trying to keep me from seeing him again."

He snapped back up. "What? No! We have no problems with that kid, why would you...?"

"Because Shuuya-nii's influence as Ishido Shuuji was growing faster than we thought, remember? He was appointed as Holy Emperor, and at the start, his power was growing only bit by bit. But then, the votes for his second year came in, and everything started getting crazier! I thought... with how protective everyone is..."

They wouldn't allow her to meet with anyone that wasn't under their control.

His heart sank, realizing how likely that scenario was. Hell, the only reason she was allowed to visit her friend again the following weekend of her disappearance was because they needed to keep her happy. They didn't want her to pull that stunt twice. And with her abilities back then, they feared that she really could erase any and all traces of her existence if she wished to.

"I felt that you all betrayed me. So I wasn't going to allow you to separate me from the one good person I had left in my life."

"I... understand." They really fucked up.

"Masato-nii... Are you going to tell the others about this?"

Part of him told him he should in the hopes that they'd understand her point of view, but the other part of him couldn't shake the feeling that it was going to be futile. And parents being parents, they'd probably find a way to turn her words against her too. Sweet talking her into following what they say anyways.

And no matter how stubborn she is, she's still just a kid.

After contemplating it, he looked up and met her gaze again. "Do you want me to?"

She let out a small smile at that. "Keep it between us?"

"Alright." Ah... And maybe... "Kimiko?"

"Hm?"

"You know that I work in Raimon now, right?"

"Yeah? What about it?"

"Well, while you guys were in space, I've been looking for an apartment to live in so I won't have to take the train to work everyday... Since you're going to go to that school starting April... When we get back to our timeline, you want to come live with me?"

She blinked. "Your own apartment? What about mom and dad?"

"They want to stay in the city. Makes sense though, since their work is in that area."

"Where's the apartment?"

"It's not too far from the riverbank. A bit to the south of town."

"Shuuya-nii's place is closer to the shopping district..."

"Yeah, I chose a place that's a bit further away from him on purpose. While we both got jobs relating to soccer, I'm just a trainer while he's the chairman of that association."

"To avoid scandals about bias and nepotism, huh?"

"Yeah."

"I see." She nodded. "Alright. I'll go with you then. It'll be easier for me to find company too whenever you have to go abroad for something."

"I thought so too." Finally, he felt relaxed enough to let out a smile. "And Kimiko?"

"Yeah?"

"I really am glad I adopted you."

Her eyes widened by a fraction, but the smile she gave him after was brighter than any he'd ever seen before. "Me too."

~~~~~~~~~~

I know everyone's waiting for when Kyousuke and Kimiko will finally talk about that scene, so I'll just let you all know that chapter will be up after the next one.

The reason is because... Well, let's just say that they both have more immediate things to sort out at the moment. Kimiko with Masato, and next is Kyousuke with Yuuichi about a thing or two.

See you guys in the next one!