DISCLAIMER:

This is technically the sequel to another story, however that story is no longer on here and it is not required to read that story first.

Nine years had passed since we lost the battle to the Phantoms.
Rain, once a hero, had fused with enemy Seth to form Heartless, who dethroned Black Death and took the world for himself. After unleashing his first attack, the world took a long time to repair in both forms.
Sometime afterwards, people were allowed to continue their normal lives, but still remained in fear of when the Phantoms would attack once again.
And when that time did come, who would be our new heroes?
This is the story of the Phantoms' next attack, and how new heroes would be born.

January 19, 2110

Ukoka Suburbs

A young teenage boy sighed to himself as he sat on a small grassy hill next to a train station. He could sense as the monorail approached, and fixed his eyes onto it as it passed. After that, he defaulted his vision back to the ground. The boy had light brown hair that spiked forward, with eyes the very same colour. He could be spotted by his brown short-sleeved jacket which had two belts wrapped around the middle of his chest.
"Sora. How'd you guess it was my birthday today?" Yuki looked over to his side, only to see no one there. "Dammit." He slowly turned his head ahead of him again. "I hate birthdays." Yuki then decided to get up from his seat and explore the suburban area he was in.

He trekked through the area, all the while trying to take his mind off of the past, but to no avail. If it were up to him, he would happily forget what happened four years ago on this very date, but he couldn't dream of forgetting. The memory would continue to haunt him, especially on this date. After walking a fair distance, he decided to seat himself again, this time on a bench. It wasn't long afterwards that he heard a loud cry.

Aaaah!

Yuki shifted his head to the area he heard it come from, and searched for it until he could make out something in the distance. He got up and made his way over there to find out what it was.

He saw a teenage girl well around his age, being cornered by an evil-looking figure. It was roughly the same size as her, and had a body of flowing purple with red eyes. Yuki stared at it for a limited while. He remembered what these creatures were. But that's not what mattered at the moment, he had to at least save the girl.
"Hey, you!" He called out to the creature. It turned his head around, and attacked. Yuki hit it with a single punch, his fist engulfed in flames. The Phantom splat onto the ground and burst into purple blood. Yuki turned his attention to the girl.
"You okay?" He asked her. She got up, and examined Yuki. She stood with a tall posture with her arms held behind her back. She had long flowing hair that was mainly orange, save for the front bangs and back, which were dyed pink, pink eyes and a pink shirt that revealed her midriff.
"Who are you?" She wondered. "What's your name?"
"I'm sure it doesn't matter to you." Yuki chuckled before walking away.
"Hey..." She grabbed his attention before he left ear shot. "Thanks for saving me."
Yuki looked back at her, but ultimatley, he didn't seem to care and continued to walk away.

Then

Yuki had to sit still and think over what had happened. "I remember those creatures..." he mumbled to himself. "Back when we were still part of the guild." Sadly, it only helped bring back more harsh memories. If it were up to me, I'd never look right at one of them again. But he wouldn't forgive himself if he knew he could have saved the girl, but didn't. Not that he's forgiven himself for what happened four years ago, of course... He sighed and slouched his upper torso, which rested on his folded arms. He had that bad feeling at the back of his mind, that type of feeling you get when you don't want to experience what happens next. "All I want..." He spoke to himself. "...Is to forgive myself."

That night

Night had fallen upon Ukoka. Yuki had since returned to the same hill he was earlier on in the day, this time lying down and gazing at the sky above. The sky was clear with the exception of a large cloud or two, and was coloured a pleasant dark blue, but still rather dim were it not for the bright full moon.

"Good, today's almost over..." Yuki relieved himself under his breath. "I don't know what I'm gonna do tomorrow, but..." He rolled over to his side and started to dig deep into his emotions. He knew he was good, but the event four years ago caused him to be resented by those who knew him, and ultimately by himself. Really, he wanted to have friends, to feel comforted by having something to look forward to. If only it he would let himself, he would gladly. But it's been four years, and that seemed all too strange for him, and a bit too farfetched.

But little did he know, that this one night, everything would change for him...

He thought he could hear distruptive sounds in the background, but they were very faint and hard to distinquish. He decided it was just his mind, and shook it off. But then, a girl found and confronted him. The same girl he met earlier on in the day.
"Hey, we have to get out of here!" The girl ordered.
"What's going on?" Yuki asked.
"There's no time to explain." She responded quickly.
"Why are you telling this to me?" Yuki wondered as he got up, staring down the girl.
"Just come on!" Kaori grabbed Yuki's arm and hurried off with him in tow.

They tried to escape the area in an effort to flee from the hazard. As they were running, they suddenly heard a crashing sound that came from behind them, letting them know they didn't have much time to lose.
"I don't like this..." The girl freaked out. "Come on, let's go!"
They tried their best to escape, but their efforts ultimately proved worthless when they were cornered by the same monsters they saw earlier on in the day.
They stared at the monsters in discomfort. "I've seen those things..." Yuki told the girl. "They're called the Phantoms."
"I know..." The girl replied simply. She took deep breaths, and reached for the bow and arrow on her back. She drew an arrow and begun to aim it, but then, a Phantom hit her from behind and knocked her on her feet. The bow and arrow shot out of her hands, out of her reach, and she was unable to get up. "No..." She reached for her weapon in futility. "Is this the end...?"

Yuki stood before the Phantoms. He looked behind him to see the girl, who could only rest her hopes in him. He took a deep breath, and cupped his hands in front of him.
"Fire... ball... cannon." He pushed his hands forward and shot out a blast of fire which made an impacting explosion and seemed to hit all the Phantoms. However, he did not have time to lower his defenses, and sure enough, two of the Phantoms came out alive. They came rushing towards him, ready to attack. Yuki gripped his sword, and with a horizontal slash, cut both of them in half. These set of Phantoms had been defeated.
Yuki rested on the floor, tired. The girl had found the strength to get up, and made the small distance over to Yuki. She kneeled down and placed her hands on him.
"Hey, are you alright?" She asked. Then, she lifted her left hand to see it was covering a bloody wound, and it seemed to be deep. "Oh no... Wait, you're gonna be okay!" But Yuki began gasping for breath, and soon after passed out.
"I'm sorry..." Kaori stayed there with Yuki's unconscious body for the moment.

January 22, 2110
Ukoka Memorial Hospital

Yuki opened his eyes for the first time in what felt like ages. How long have I been asleep? Where am I? What was the last thing that happened? These were all the first thoughts that came rushing to Yuki's head. He had the energy to at least turn his head left and right, at which point he begun to sense he was in a hospital.
"You're awake!" A friendly female voice greeted him. He looked up to see who it was, and found the same girl from the other night. "Oh, thank goodness. I thought you'd never get up! The first thing I did when you passed out was get you to the hospital. I kept checking on you to see if you were doing any better. But seriously, I was so worried about you!"
Yuki wanted to ask her something, but was concerned about whether he had the strength to talk properly. He decided to give it a shot. "But, why were you so worried about me?"
"Why?" She answered. "You saved me. And besides, I didn't wanna just forget about you."
There was a lengthy pause after that. Eventually Kaori decided to speak again. "By the way... I should probably introduce myself properly." She bowed in a traditional Japanese fashion. "I'm Kaori Koiboto. And you are...?"
Yuki decided to do the polite thing and let her know his name. After all, she was being very kind. "I'm Yuki Akuma."
Kaori sat down on the stool next to Yuki. "Hey..." She brung up a new topic. "I don't normally do this, but I could let you stay at my apartment for a while. You probably need to rest for a few more days even after you get out of hospital. Unless you have anywhere else to go, of course..."
Yuki thought deeply. He didn't have anywhere else to go. He had no home, no family... in fact, he never knew his real family. He never caught one glimpse of his parents, or the siblings he might have had. He once lived with the two friends he used to have, but not anymore.
"Hey, Kaori... is it?"
Kaori nodded her head.
"You don't have to do this for me." Yuki felt bad. "You've only just met me. You don't know anything about me. What if I was a criminal?"
Kaori chuckled, but it didn't last long before she stopped herself. "You're not, are you? Look, I know I only just met you, but I still care about you." She got up, and made her way out the door. "I'll come back tomorrow, by then you should be all better. I can show you my apartment first thing when you get out." She gave Yuki a warm, happy smile. She seemed like the type of girl who wanted to make lots of friends and enjoy life. And she was the first person Yuki met in a long time who treated him with open arms. "Well, good night!" She left.
Yuki thought it through. Did he want to do this? She seems like she wants to be my friend. He told himself. But I won't help but feel guilty.

January 23, 2110

Kaori had come to pick Yuki up from the hospital, and walked him to her apartment. The hospital was in the city area of Ukoka, where she lived, but the distance was not too long. The most they had to do was catch a ride on the monorail to take them most of the way.
Yuki and Kaori sat together on the monorail. Kaori noticed that Yuki was looking away, seemingly upset. "Hey... You alright?" She decided to ask. "If there's something wrong, you can tell me..."
Yuki turned his head to Kaori. "Are you sure you wanna do this?"
"Well, I can't turn my back now, can I?" She joked.
"I feel bad for doing this to you." Yuki continued to feel guilty. "You can throw me out onto the street anytime you want, y'know. I'll understand."
"Stop feeling so sorry for me!" Kaori playfully shoved Yuki on the arm. She decided to end the discussion there and looked out the window.
Yuki looked at Kaori for a while. She seems nice... He thought, fiddling with his hands. She's pretty, and she reminds me a bit of Sora... He sighed. On second thought, that almost makes me feel worse...

At Kaori's apartment

They arrived at the apartment Kaori lived in. It wasn't much to look at on the outside. It was cheap and basic - something a normal 16-year old living by herself would be able to afford. Not that Yuki complained, of course. That was the last thought on his mind.
She opened the door and let Yuki in, then she followed behind and closed the door gently. The place looked nice enough. She had several feminine touches she added, and it showed that she looked after the place, which established to Yuki that Kaori was mature enough to be able to look after herself.
"Hey, don't just stand there." Kaori spoke to Yuki. "Make yourself at home." She opened the blinds to reveal the view of the cityscape. "There's a second bedroom that I never used, it's all yours. You don't have any bags with you or anything?"
Yuki drew out his sword. "Uhh... Where do I put this? I can imagine it would look a bit odd having weapons around the place."
"That can go in your room, you'll be fine."
Yuki nodded slightly and simply rested the sword on the table for the time being. He approached Kaori, who was already at the other end of the room. "So, you live here all by yourself?" He asked.
"Yeah, pretty much." Kaori lowered her head by an inch. "I haven't lived with my parents for a long time..." She had a look on her face that told that she felt upset, but wished not to dwell on it. "I'm gonna make coffee. You want one?" She changed the subject.
"Okay." Yuki muttered. He rested on the couch, and turned on the TV with the remote. It was on a news channel when the turned it on.
"Four days ago, the suburbs of Ukoka saw an unsettling attack by a mysterious threat." The news reporter began, as if on cue to Yuki turning the TV on. "The investigations have been going strong since the day after, and footage has revealed no visible hazard." They revealed a few photos of the night. Interestingly enough, the Phantoms were nowhere to be seen on the photos even though they were around the area he and Kaori confronted them.
"This is not unlike another attack in the country Acarus just under nine years ago, in April of 2101. These two attacks may or may not be linked, but we also needn't forget another devastating attack that same year in June. In either case, the investigation will continue on the most recent of invisible attacks."
Yuki decided to turn the TV off after that. He sat there and thought for a while. Did nobody else see the Phantoms? He wondered. Come to think of it, the only other people I knew who acknowledged the Phantoms were my two friends. Kaori also saw them too... He told himself not to think about it too much. Kaori came in holding the two cups of coffee and sat down on the oppsite couch to the one Yuki was on.

"Hey, Kaori..." Yuki begun to ask. "How much do you know about the Phantoms?"
"Uhh..." Kaori seemed hesitant. "All I can tell you is that I heard about them when I was younger..." She didn't seem to want to tell anymore beyond that. Yuki began to sense a pattern that she didn't like talking about personal stuff about her, or the Phantoms. He would ask her if this was the case, but he didn't want to make her feel any more uncomfortable.

That night

Yuki was deep in slumber, and had a dream...

Yuki...
Huh? Yuki wondered.
Yuki... Come closer and listen...
I can't move... Yuki discovered. What do you want?
Maybe you're not ready after all... Come back later.
Not ready for what? Yuki questioned frantically. What is this?

January 24, 2110

The sun shone upon the city of Ukoka. Night was over, as was Yuki's dream. He struggled to open his eyes, but did manage to do so naturally. He looked around, lying on one side, his head rested on both his arms. I had a wierd dream last night... He recalled. I don't know what it was about... it didn't really make sense... He tried to put it aside for now. Maybe I'm just thinking a little too deep into it. He got out of bed, put on his clothes and made his way to the living room.

"Morning!" Kaori welcomed Yuki into the day. She was busy cooking breakfast.
"You want any help, Kaori?" Yuki offered.
"Don't worry, I'm almost done." Kaori answered. "But you can get out the plates and chopsticks." So that's what Yuki did.
Once it was ready, they sat down on the small table. It was a standard breakfast of white rice, grilled mackerel, miso soup and takukan pickles.
"Hey, Kaori..." Yuki grabbed Kaori's attention.
"Uh-huh?" Kaori had began eating straight away, her mouth full, but put down her chopsticks to listen.
"Did you have any funny dreams last night?" Yuki asked.
"Not that I remember." Kaori didn't remember any dreams from last night. "What, did you?"
"Yeah..."
"What was it about, if you don't mind me asking?"
Yuki thought about it more, with a confused look on his face. Not even I know what that dream was about... He thought. Did the dream mean something? He decided not to worry about it. "Don't worry, it's not important." He picked up his chopsticks and began to eat. Kaori resumed eating shortly afterward.

Sometime after breakfast

Yuki and Kaori were sitting at the train station, waiting for a monorail. Kaori had talked Yuki into coming to the city with her to hang out for the day.

"But don't I still need to rest?" Yuki concerned. "That's why you let me stay at your place, wasn't it?"
"You should be okay after three days. Are you?" Kaori checked.
Yuki thought about it for a moment. "Yeah, I guess so."
"Cool." Kaori smiled. "Come on, it'll be fun."
Yuki agreed there was no use arguing.
They sat there still for a while, until they heard someone call out in the distance.
"Make way for the ultimate being!"
"Uhh... sure..." Kaori reacted in a tone most dull. "So, anyway..." She was going to say something to Yuki until she spotted someone falling from the sky, making a loud yell all the while.
When he hit the ground, he tripped and crashed into the concrete. Yuki and Kaori stared at him for a while, before deciding not to focus on him any longer.
"I know what you're thinking." The boy got up and dusted himself off. He looked around their age, with blue hair, black eyes, a plain black shirt and a black beanie cap. "You don't feel honoured enough to be in the presence of such a superior being as me, Shoji Fujioka!"
"Subtle..." Yuki whispered to himself sarcastically.
"But don't worry, we all know you'll never be nearly as great as I am." Shoji continued. "But seeing as I'm here, I'll give you an autograph, seeing as you're such big fans of me."
Yuki and Kaori had only known this guy for ten seconds, and already they wanted to send him flying to the moon with a punch. Shoji got out a marker and proceeded to sign Yuki's forehead and Kaori's left arm. It was not very pleasant.
"But I know what you're thinking..." As he resumed talking, the monorail reached its stop and opened its doors. "To receive an autograph from such a great being, what a day to remember! Surely you'll never shower again!"
"Okay, well, see ya." Yuki waved as he and Kaori gladly walked into the monorail's interior.
"Tell your friends! They'll be green with envy to know that you had the honour to know the ultimate being in existence, Shoji Fujioka! The name that will forever go down in legends!" Shoji got louder and harder to be around as he went on. Yuki and Kaori tried their best not to pay attention and found their seats. The monorail's doors closed and it took off.
"Oh, wait a minute..." Shoji stopped to think for a moment. "Crap! I had to catch that train!" He bolted off to chase after it. "Hey! You left me behind!" He called out. He chased it for a good while before eventually it was out of his reach. "Dammit..." He sulked.

That night

Yuki was having another dream. This one was almost identical to the one from last night.

Yuki...
Darn... Not this again... Yuki thought to himself.
You know what to do next.
No, I don't know. Yuki thought in frustration. Tell me, what do I know next?
Come closer and find out.
Yuki tried walking, but had difficulty moving his leg by an inch. Just trying to walk, he could have sworn there was twenty times the gravity around him. After having no sucess moving himself even after all the effort, he came to the conclusion it was impossible. "Just tell me, what am I supposed to do?!" He yelled. At that point, the dream ended.

January 25, 2110

Yuki woke up. It was morning again. His eyes were yet to open, but he couldn't stop thinking about the dream.
This is the second time I've had the dream. Yuki thought the moment he left his sleep. What's going on?

"Bad news from the investigation." The news reporter on the TV begun. "Another invisible attack occurred last night, in Kayra. Nobody was reported dead, but 3 were badly injured." Footage of the attack played as the reporter spoke. "Even after nine years, we don't know much about this threat. All we know is that they're invisible, and have been dubbed 'The Phantoms'. We also know that the attacks have been increasing dramatically over the past month. For now, we strongly advise not to stay outside at night in an effort to avoid getting involved in the Phantoms' next attack. There will most certainly be more information on these Phantoms to come."
Yuki had not been able to take his mind off the Phantoms for the past three days. When he was part of the guild, he had normally fought the odd Phantom, but only until now had these attacks been escalating. He was worrying what would happen next, and how it would involve him or Kaori in any way, if it did. And what was behind the dreams he was having?

That night

Yuki...
Darn it, not again... If it were up to Yuki, he would make these dreams stop in an instant. He was sick of having the same dream, not knowing what was going on. "What do you want with me?"
Try and move forward. You need to find the strength inside you. That is the only way...
"The heck are you talking about?" Yuki got increasingly impatient. Then he concluded that he could only try and move once again. He tried inching his leg forward, but to no avail. It was just too hard. But he wasn't ready to give up. He wanted to move forward, to see what did await him. He tried as hard as possible, putting all his effort into it. Then, finally, he lifted his foot off the ground.

January 26, 2110

At that moment, Yuki woke up.
Darn it... He thought in frustration.

That night

The city of Ukoka was settling down for the night, and most people had heeded to the warnings and stayed inside for the night. As a result, there were very few people out tonight.
Suddenly, a purple liquid began to rise from the concrete ground. It rose, until it solidified and formed into a group of Phantoms. The Phantoms had but one thing on mind - to cause havoc upon the city. As they made their way through the area, one Phantom found somebody still out, and separated from the pack to go after him.
The man was in his later teenage years. He could feel something following him, and looked behind him to see what it was. He saw nothing, so shrugged it off. But indeed, there was a Phantom following him very closely, and it had its sights set for him. But he would find out sure enough, when he was tripped over by the Phantom, and could feel as the Phantom moved itself onto his body.
"Hey, what the hell is going on?!" The teenage boy yelled in panic. "Hey, what're you doing?! Stop! Oh, shit..." The Phantom made its attack.
"Shiiiitt!"

At the apartment

"Did you hear that, Kaori?" Yuki asked Kaori.
"It's probably nothing." Kaori yawned. "Good night, Yuki."
Yuki paused for a moment, until he made his way over to the window to look out. Then, much to his surprise, he thought he could spot a Phantom. The Phantoms? He questioned. They're gonna attack the city! He consulted Kaori at once.
"Kaori!" He called out as he made his way into her room. He chose a wrong time to come in, because she was in the middle of taking off her shirt. Yuki begun to get a nosebleed.

SCRATCH!

Yuki had three bloody marks across his face from a brutal scratch. It hurt - really bad.
"What is it, Yuki?" Kaori tried to cool herself down as he put her shirt back on.
Yuki had trouble moving past the Kaori Scratch, but tried his best to focus. "I... I saw a Phantom."

"Wait, you sure about that?" Kaori widened her eyes.
"I think..." Yuki wasn't certain, but he knew it was best to be aware than do nothing about it. "Here, come with me." Yuki lead Kaori out to the window in the living room, where he think he spotted a Phantom.
"Where is it?" Kaori searched for it.
"I dunno. They might be somewhere else around the city now." Yuki admitted. They moved away from the window.
"What do we do now?" Kaori worried.
Yuki thought about what to do for a short moment. Then, he figured he knew the one thing he could do at the moment. "We're going out there." He replied.
"What?" Kaori acted surprised. "You sure about that?"
"I don't know." Yuki looked to the ground, then back up to Kaori. "But I do know this - No matter the precautions others take, the Phantoms will find a way to launch a succesful attack. If there's something we can do to stop it, we just have to try." However, not even he agreed with himself 100 per cent, as he would rather avoid dealing with the Phantoms as much as possible.
"I'll get my stuff." Kaori nodded her head subtly, but fast. She went into her room to grab her bow and arrow, and Yuki likewise grabbed his sword.
"We don't have a lot of time to lose." Yuki took himself seriously, but seemed to lack confidence in his speech.
"Right." Kaori was also highly nervous. If they were going to possibly confront the Phantoms, there was a lot on the line. "Let's do it."

And so...

Yuki and Kaori headed for the door, and readied themselves for the operation that was about to follow.
Both their hearts were racing, as neither of them knew what to expect. If it turned out there were no Phantoms out tonight, all the better, but if there indeed was, they had a lot on their hands. They stayed silent for the time being.
After a while of suspense, out of nowhere came a figure that dashed towards them. Yuki reached for his sword and hit it in the heat of the moment. It cut in half.
Yuki was breathing heavily, and Kaori got all the more scared. "It was a Phantom." Yuki examined the halved body. He turned to Kaori and nodded his head. "Okay, let's hurry." Kaori nodded back.

They rushed to find more Phantoms to defeat, in hopes of eliminating all of them in the area. Then, they could hear a loud yell. They stopped in their tracks for a moment before starting again to see what it was. They would find a blue-haired boy they saw earlier, getting beaten by Phantoms - badly.
"You'll never defeat me! You could never even imagine of defeating me! You'll never even faze me! I'm Shoji Fujioka, the grea-" At that moment a Phantom knocked him onto the floor. This must have been going on for a while, because Shoji was battered a fair bit, but still in okay condition.
"Should we help him?" Yuki turned to Kaori to ask.
"Do we have to?" Kaori sighed.
Yuki had a look on his face that told that while he agreed with Kaori, he urged himself to do the honest thing. Even though, really, he knew there wouldn't be much satisfaction in saving this guy. No matter, he formed a flare in his hand and shot it, spiralling around to hit all the Phantoms, and then returned to him as he caught it.
"Well, what do you say now?" Yuki snarked.
"You think I actually needed your help?" Shoji laughed. "You shoulda seen me out there, I was kicking ass! You just wasted your time."
"Can *we* kill him?" Kaori asked Yuki, half sarcastic, half meaning it.
"It would be nice, wouldn't it?" Yuki smirked.
"Shuddup!" Shoji called out. "You're just jealous because you'll never be able to achieve the same amount of sheer greatness as me!" He continued to boast, seemingly to no end.
"You're pushing your luck." Yuki warned Shoji. Yuki and Kaori moved on, and set out to clear out the other Phantoms.

Twenty minutes later

Now that Yuki and Kaori had taken care of most of the Phantoms (no matter the difficulty), there was all but one left. It slowly traversed the city ground, ready to attack an innocent being when it turned its head after hearing a thud noise on the ground.
"That's the last one?" Kaori asked Yuki. "Good. I don't wanna see another one of the Phantoms again."
"Well, looks like we're on the same page." Yuki drew out his sword. "Let's just get it over with." He leaped down and struck the Phantom with a sword attack, and Kaori followed his lead.
The Phantom launched multiple swipes, but Yuki was quick to dodge. "Flamethrower Fireworks!" He called out, and countered with four punches, his fists engulfed in fire. The fourth one, which had more force to it than the others, caused the Phantom to go flying. "Okay, now!"
Kaori aimed an arrow at the Phantom, being sure to catch it while it was in mid-air, and shot an arrow frozen in solid ice. "Freeze Shot!" The arrow hit almost perfectly, and the Phantom exploded in purple blood. The two teenagers stood there, exhausted to say the least.
"If we're lucky..." Yuki was catching his breath. "We managed to stop the Phantoms before they could cause any major attacks." I hope we don't have to fight them again. He thought with worry. And I don't want to be a hero, either. I can't go around fighting all the Phantoms like it's my job, and I definitely don't want to be stuck with the role of a leader, not anymore.
"So, now what do we do?" Kaori asked, looking down at the concrete floor.
"Let's go home." Yuki replied simply, and so they both made their way back to the apartment to rest.
They didn't move too far, when suddenly they heard a deep, loud moan that sound like it came from a monster. It was enough to cause a minor quake on the ground.
"What was that?" Kaori clutched onto Yuki's right arm.
"I don't know." Yuki turned around to face where the noise came from. Then, it made another moaning sound.
"Rraaaaaaaaa!"
"Darn it." Yuki knew he had to chase the sound and confront whatever it came from. Kaori followed. Deep down, both were very afraid.

Under ten minutes later

Yuki and Kaori travelled for a while, finding themselves on the rooftops of the buildings, until suddenly they came across none other than Shoji, fighting more Phantoms (only to get beaten up).
"Just give up! You know you can't beat me!" Shoji taunted the Phantoms. "I'm practically invincible!"
Yuki and Kaori looked at each other, and let out a sigh of exhaust. They joined the battle and helped Shoji defeat the Phantoms.
"This is the second time you've needed us to beat the Phantoms for you. Don't you think there's a bit of a pattern going on here?" Kaori snarked at Shoji.
"I told you, I don't need your help!" Shoji was stubborn. "I can take on the Phantoms all by myself!"
"No offense, but we've managed to defeat most of the Phantoms here, we haven't seen you hold up against one yourself. You just get beaten up." Yuki argued.
"I'm going easy on them! I know they won't stand a chance against me so I have to play by the rules!" Shoji lied.
"Yeah, sure..." Yuki facepalmed. Then, it hit him. "You know what? Go on. Fight the Phantom over there." He pointed to the spot they were headed for. "You'll totally beat him."
"You bet! Because..." Shoji did a thumbs up. "I'm the hero!" He dashed off to fight the Phantom.
Yuki and Kaori stared at each other. "Do you think we should go after him?" Yuki asked dully.
"I would rather not go after him, but it's up to you."
"We might as well do the honest thing." He pointed his sword forward. "And besides, if the only one to stop that thing is Shoji, the city is screwed."
"You got that right." Kaori joked.
Yuki took a deep breath, and lead himself and Kaori towards their next opponent.

And sure enough, after a while they found themselves facing down a large Phantom Bat on the roof of the tall building they stood on.
"I told you, dammit! I don't need your-"
"Oh, shut up." Yuki sighed. The three set their focus on the boss and prepared themselves.
"Unleash the power of awesome!" Shoji shouted as he bolted forward and leapt up to attack... Only to have the bat knock him away, causing him to fall off the building.
"Do you think it's right to enjoy that?" Kaori asked Yuki.
"Yeah, sure." Yuki agreed. But they had no time to go off-topic, and focused on fighting the bat. "I'll keep him distracted while you shoot an arrow." He headed off to engage in a close-up battle, while Kaori drew an arrow and aimed with the bow.
After blocking its attacks, Yuki found a small opening, and struck it with its sword. It made a satisfying slash sound as the bat recieved a bloody cut, and the bat was fazed for a short second.
"Freeze Shot!" Kaori called out and shot an ice arrow at the bat. After having taken two hits, the bat let out another screeching roar, and lunged towards Kaori.
Yuki rushed to get in the way and punched the bat with a single Flamethrower Fireworks punch. As the bat was sent flying backwards, it shot several dagger-like bullets of Phantom energy. Yuki grabbed Kaori as he rolled out of the way with her.
It was at that point that Shoji had climbed his way back up to the roof. "You just got lucky!" He pointed at the bat dynamically. "I was just going easy on you that time. Now you will experience the true greatness of Shoji Fujio-"
"Do you really have time to boast now?" Kaori remarked.
"Hey, guys, this doesn't look very good." Yuki warned them, pointing to the bat charging in Phantom aura.
"So, what do you think it's gonna do?" Kaori feared as her heart accelerated.
"I don't know. Just get out of the way!" Yuki called out, so that's what they did, save for Shoji, who decided to confront the bat himself. Only for it to grab Shoji and get ready to bite him with its poisonous fangs.
Yuki saw this and punched the bat with another Flamethrower Fireworks punch, which knocked Shoji out of the bat's grasp. The bat charged towards Yuki for a suicide attack, and Yuki gave a great big swing of his sword and cut the bat into two. Once the two halves hit the ground, they exploded in purple blood.

Once the battle had ended, the three still kept their defences up, looking around for more Phantoms. Luckily, it didn't seem like there were any more left. They had succeeded, for now at least. Everyone withdrew their weapons.
"Did you see me? I was friggin' awesome!" Shoji shouted at the top of his lungs. "Not that I'm never *not* awesome, of course. Man, you should be honoured to see the great Shoji Fujioka himself in action!"
Yuki and Kaori gave Shoji an unamused stare. "Well, bye. See you again never." Yuki farewelled and he and Kaori left.
Shoji smirked. "I was so awesome."

Afterward

Yuki and Kaori had returned home and got a well-earned rest. Yuki had the same dream again...

Yuki, come closer. You have the energy.
Yuki decided to give it one last try. He moved his legs with everything he had, and much to his surprise and excitement, he managed to walk across the area. Even though the gravity still felt very heavy, he was doing much better than the times before. Soon enough, he found two figures off into the distance.
"Good. You're here." The male figure congratulated him. The male had black hair, and armour on his body. "I guess now you've officially proved yourself."
"Proved myself?" Yuki wondered. "What's going on? Who are you guys?"
"I'm sorry, we should introduce ourselves. I'm Shinji. This is Layla." He introduced them to Yuki.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. We need your help." The female, Layla, told Yuki. The two of them both looked around his age, or slightly older.
"What do you need my help with?" Yuki asked them.
"It's a long story." Shinji started. "You've seen the Phantoms, haven't you?" He asked.
"Yes, in fact." Yuki nodded. "In fact, the first time I saw them was eight years ago. And most recently, I fought them tonight."
"That's good." Shinji assured Yuki. "You may not know us, but we once participated in the war against the Phantoms less than nine years ago."
"I have heard about the war against the Phantoms..." Yuki connected.
"Well then, let's get to the point. We had an ally, Rain, who turned against us in favour for domination with the Phantoms. He combined with one of the Phantoms and dethroned Black Death, only to take over himself." Shinji lowered his head and tone of voice as he spoke. "After that, he spent the last few years mostly in silence... but he will attack again." His head shot up. "Now is the time he will attack."
"And what am I supposed to do about it?" Yuki argued.
"You have the rare ability to see the Phantoms. An ability that very few people in the world are born with, including ourselves." Shinji explained. "And normally those born with the ability also have a great potential of strength within them. A strength that ordinary people would not possess."
"But, why me?" Yuki asked, pointing to himself.
"When you fought the Phantoms, both in the past and present, we found your potential surpassed even that of ourselves. You've found yourself in the middle of the Phantom's attack for a reason. We want to pass the job of stopping them over to you."
"Me?" Yuki reacted with shock. "I'm sorry, but I don't want to for several reasons. If it were up to me, I wouldn't have anything to do with the Phantoms anymore."
"Don't worry, we understand. But this is more important than you would think." Layla added to Shinji. "We need you to gather anyone else with the ability, and lead them into defeating the Phantom's leader."
"Lead? No, I don't lead. Not anymore." Yuki shook his head in disbelief. "And even then, I... No, I just can't."
"Well, it seems you need more time to consider it." Layla assumed.
"We'll see you next time. And by then, you'll need to let us know. Don't forget, we're counting on you." Shinji bid Yuki farewell for the time being, and the dream came to an end.

January 27, 2110

Yuki woke up, the Phantoms being literally the only thing on his mind. He sat up for a moment, before collapsing back down. This is gonna be hard...

Ukoka, Shikashi
Midnight

You're back.
Yuki found Shinji and Layla once more in his dream.
"Have you thought about it?" Shinji asked Yuki.
"I don't know. It's hard..." Yuki didn't know what to do at that point.
"I understand, but I need you to know about your importance." Shinji reminded. "We need your power if we want any chance of defeating the Phantoms. We didn't succeed because we weren't strong enough. But you have a chance."
Yuki's mind was raging. He didn't want to accept, but he knew it was the right thing to do. "O... Okay." Yuki muttered.
"Thank you, it means a lot that you can help contribute." Layla congratulated Yuki.
"Gather anyone else you know has the power to see Phantoms, and together you can take on their leader. That is the only way we can stop the Phantom's Reckoning." Shinji guided Yuki.
"And who does their leader go by?" Yuki asked out of curiosity.
"We personally like to call him... Heartless." Shinji answered. "You'll find out soon enough."

After that, the days flew by, and not much seemed to happen. There wasn't as much news about the Phantoms, but indeed, people were still on edge about it. After more than a week, Yuki was just waiting for the Phantoms to do something so it could be over with. Soon enough, that's just what he would get.

February 5, 2110

Two teenage figures stood before the entrance to the city. One of the teenagers had a brown tone to his skin, light grey eyes, silver spiked hair and a grey coat with black shirt underneath. The other teenager had chocolate brown eyes, blonde messy hair, and a red short jacket with black singlet.
"Looks like this is the place." The grey-eyed teenager nodded his head. The brown-eyed teenager nodded in response.

They entered the large, bustling city, beginning their search. "It seems most of the Phantoms' attacks as of late happened around this city." The first teenager recapped. "Maybe if we're lucky, we can get more information."
"Fair enough." The other one responded.
They found a back alley, which despite looking shady and uncomfortable, they entered without any concern.
"Hey, you." Tatsuya, the first teenager, got their attention.
"Don't talk to us like that, punk." A man about their age threatened as he lit a cigarette. "What the hell do you want? Don't mess with us."
"Just to let you know, we're not scared by the likes of you. We've pretty much made a living in the streets, so don't give us that crap." Tatsuya let them know. "Anyway, we want to ask you if you know anything about the Phantoms, the mysterious creatures that have attacked lately. It seems no one caught sight of them, but we've seen and fought them for ourselves, so we know who they are."
"Don't give us bullcrap." Another teenage man responded. "If you're trying to test our paitence by telling us fairy tales like that, you're really pushing your luck."
"Don't you talk to my friend like that, you ass!" The other teenager, Makoto, barked. "You wanna get beaten up?!"
"Aww, how cute." A teenage woman laughed.
"Don't you call me cute. Trust me, this is one girl you don't wanna mess with." Makoto cracked her knuckles.
"A girl? I thought you were a guy." The woman joked. "What's with your chest, ms. flat-tits?"
"Now you're going too far!" Makoto got out her gloves, with claws on them. "Tatsuya, let's waste these guys."
Tatsuya drew his katana. "Alright then, let's do it."
They found it easy enough cleaning up the punks, at which point they got the message.
"Okay, okay! We're sorry. Just don't kill us." The first man cowered.
"So, do you know anything about the Phantoms?" Tatsuya asked once more.
"No, man. I really don't." The man told honestly.
"Okay." Tatsuya begun to leave the scene. "C'mon, Makoto, there's nothing here." The two of them left.

"That ultimately accomplished nothing..." Tatsuya admitted once they were back out in the shibuya street. "We're wasting time. We need to get serious about this. Unfortunately, all we can try is go up to people and ask."
"Hey!" Makoto shouted as she approached two more teenagers - Yuki and Kaori. "I got something to ask you." She spoke in a very rough manner.
"What do you think is your problem, going up to somebody and talking to them like that?" Kaori chasisted.
"I'm talking to you like that because I'm pissed off. Don't push your luck, you little bitch." Makoto raised her voice.
"Why don't you take your own advice, bitch?"
"Bite me!"
"Hey there. How's it going?" Tatsuya showed up and tried to break it up.
"Um, if you don't mind me asking, who are the two of you?" Yuki spoke up.
"I'm Tatsuya Kaido. This is Makoto Guererro." Tatsuya introduced the two of them. "We need to ask you something important."
"Uh huh..." Yuki decided to see where this was going.
"Do you happen to know anything about the creatures known as Phantoms?" Tatsuya proceeded to ask.
Well, whaddya know... Yuki thought. It seemed like recently, the Phantoms were everywhere he went. "Yeah, actually, we do know."
"Wait, why do you ask?" Kaori asked in curiosity.
"We're investigating the Phantom's attacks. We've encountered them recently and they've been on the news, but no one else seems to have seen them." Tatsuya described in short.
"Long story short, the Phantoms are dirty bastards and we wanna beat em up!" Makoto said rather blunt.
"You sure we can trust you?" Kaori acted suspicious. "You're on our side, right?"
"Think of it this way." Yuki talked to Kaori. "They're some of the only people we've seen so far who have seen the Phantoms. They could help us out if we let them."
"I'm not sure about this..." Kaori lowered her head.
"What, do we look funny to you?" Makoto acted offended.
"Well, so far I don't like you very much." Kaori told Makoto flat-out. "And are you supposed to be a girl? Because you look like a boy."
"I wish people would stop calling me a boy, dammit!" Makoto shouted in a fit of rage.
"She doesn't like it when people mistake her for a boy." Tatsuya cleared up.
"Hey, I think we might have gotten off on the wrong foot..." Yuki started over. "I'm Yuki Akuma. This is Kaori Koiboto. If you need help with the Phantoms, so do we."
Kaori tried to console herself and be polite. "Hey." She greeted them.

Ren's Cafe - Est. 2109

Yuki, Kaori, Tatsuya and Makoto decided to go to Ren's for lunch for the first time, and to discuss the topic of the Phantoms.
"Nobody else knows much about the Phantoms, so we should probably keep a low profile. Others might get suspicious." Yuki suggested.
"Fair enough." Tatsuya agreed. "Anyway, the reason we're here is because this was where most of the Phantom action was."
"Did the Phantoms attack anywhere else?" Yuki checked.
"We came from Junai, and there were some Phantoms over there." Tatsuya answered. "But it seems like they hang around Ukoka more than anywhere else..."
"I wonder why..."
"Why do you think no one else can see the Phantoms?" Kaori brought up. "I mean, it's funny. You'd think most people out at the time the Phantoms attacked would have at least seen them."
"I think I have an idea of why..." Yuki added to the topic.
"Huh? What's that?"
"What if, maybe... Other people can't see the Phantoms anyway? Maybe there are only a few people in the world who were born with the ability to see them... And we were four of those people?" Yuki acted like it was only a theory, but he knew it was true. He just wanted to see what the others thought about it.
"That's just silly." Kaori chuckled. "Come on, this isn't like some sort of manga. It's not like fate brought us all together or anything."
Tatsuya sighed. "We need to make some progress with this." He got down to work. "What do the Phantoms want? What's their motive? If we can find out one detail, it could help out a lot."
"Well, sorry, I'm not sure if I can help you there..." Yuki confessed. "I'm sorry I can't offer a better strategy, but to me it seems the best thing to do right now is wait for the Phantoms' next attack. If we're lucky, we can squeeze some information out of their leader."
"How do you know they have a leader?" Kaori asked.
"Again, just a theory." Yuki covered up.
"Well, thanks for talking to us." Tatsuya thanked as he got up. "But it's getting late. Me and Makoto should go."
"You have somewhere to stay, right?" Yuki asked to make sure.
"We just live on the streets. Most people know not to mess with us." Makoto answered.
"Don't you wanna stay at somewhere like a hotel?" Kaori asked.
"No, neither of us have the money."
"Hey, just wondering..." Yuki added one last thing before they left. "Will we see you again?"
They didn't answer directly, just shrugged their shoulders and walked out the door.

That Night

Yuki and Kaori were back at the apartment, but Yuki was feeling more agitated than usual about the Phantoms. Not just because they had been talking about them earlier in the day, but also because the Phantoms had remained silent ever since the attack on January 26th. They could return any time soon, and when they do, he can't be prepared enough.
"Yuki, is something the matter?" Kaori asked Yuki.
"What?" Yuki gave Kaori an unintentional glare as a result of being startled.
"You haven't gotten up or done anything since we got home. I just wanted to check and see if you're okay."
"Yeah... I'm fine, Kaori." Yuki lied. "You shouldn't worry about me."
"C'mon, Yuki, something's not right." Kaori kept asking.
"Kaori, when do you reckon the Phantoms will attack again?" Yuki got it off his chest. "The last time they attacked was more than a week ago, it's clear to me that they'll attack any moment now."
And at that moment, as if on cue, a loud, unpleasent noise came across the city and everything turned to a purple hue.
"What? What was that?" Kaori jumped.
"Let's go take a look." Yuki prompted. The Phantoms... He predicted in his thought.

Yuki and Kaori headed outside to take a better look at what was going on. "What is this?" Kaori asked, clutching onto Yuki.
"I knew it." Yuki told himself. "It must be the Phantoms."
"But, what are they doing now?"
"Hey, you guys!" They heard a voice call out to them that they heard earlier on in the day.
"Tatsuya, Makoto, you guys know what this is?" Yuki asked.
"You guys, what the hell just happened?" Shoji asked as he appeared. "Everything's, like... purple..."
"I have no doubt in saying it's the Phantoms." Tatsuya assumed. "But I've never seen them do this. Yuki, Kaori, have you?"
Yuki and Kaori both nodded in response.
"Whatever's going on here, it'll be messy once they do attack." Makoto assured.
"But, what do we do?" Kaori panicked. "Yuki, I'm scared..."
Then, it hit Yuki. The other night, when he was told to lead others into fighting the Phantoms... This was his chance. Shinji and Layla might have known this attack was going to happen, four other people who could see the Phantoms were gathered, and he had to urge himself into believing that he has to become their leader. He didn't like it one bit, and no doubt anyone else would, but he had to do it.

"Okay, this is what we're going to do." Yuki begun to speak as he drew his sword. "The Phantoms had launched previous attacks in the past few weeks, but whatever this is, it must be their one big attack. Their last resort." He predicted. "We're going to confront the Phantoms for good."
"So, we're gonna get to beat the crap out of those Phantoms? Sa-weet!" Shoji was clearly excited. "But I'll lead, because, I'm the hero!"
"Please shut up." Makoto growled. "I only just met you, and already I hate you."
"The Phantoms must have a leader. Maybe they'll reveal themselves tonight. I can't assure you anything, but if we're lucky, tonight we will make progress in stopping them, or at least find something key to stopping them." Yuki continued. "That's the best plan I have right now, but it's the best we've got. The rest will come to us."
"Well, as it stands all we can do is put our trust in you." Tatsuya admitted.
"Can everyone fight?" Yuki checked to make sure.
Tatsuya drew a katana sword, and Makoto put on gloves with claw blades coming out of the knuckles. "Yeah, I think so." Tatsuya answered.
Shoji got out his nunchucks. "Heh, the Phantoms are just waiting to get beaten up by me!"
"Come on, Kaori, all we need is one more." Yuki invited Kaori. "Think you can do it?"
She nodded and got out her bow and arrow. "Let's do it."
"Sounds good to me."

Tonight was the night the Phantoms would launch their big attack. Our five teenage heroes had to work together and hopefully stop them, as they knew it would be the only way.
"Okay, we'll split up." Yuki began.
"Please not Shoji, please not Shoji, please not Shoji..." Makoto whispered crossing her fingers.
"Tatsuya, Makoto and Shoji..."
"Dammit!" Makoto let out in anger.
"The three of you go underground through the subway. There shouldn't be any trains on the tracks." Yuki instructed. "Kaori, you come with me and explore the streets."
Kaori nodded. "Got it."
"Question..." Makoto brought up. "Why do I have to be stuck with Shoji?"
"You know what? No one should have to." Yuki sighed.
"Exactly. And I haven't even known him until now, so it's just that bad."
"Well, that doesn't matter now, we have to take ourselves seriously tonight." Yuki reminded. "If you need to for any reason, call me or Kaori. We'll exchange phone numbers." Once that was finished, they were all set. "Good luck."
"We'll try our best not to get killed." Tatsuya nodded as the three of them set off.
"I know what you're thinking. To fight side-by-side with the ultimate fighter and being, Shoji Fujioka, what an honour!"
"Can we please kill him, Tatsuya?" Makoto asked.
"I was thinking the exact same thing." Tatsuya agreed.
Yuki turned around to Kaori. "Alright, let's get this over with." And so the two of them headed out themselves, and the operation began.

Yuki and Kaori made their way through the cityscape without a moment to spare. Kaori was staying close to Yuki, afraid of when the Phantoms did appear.
"Yuki?" Kaori got his attention.
"Yeah, Kaori?"
"So, how're you feeling about all this?" She made small talk.
"Not gonna lie, I don't enjoy this." Yuki expressed.
"Well, I guess that makes two of us." Kaori agreed. A breeze came by, which got her startled. "What was that?" She got scared.
"Nothing." Yuki calmed Kaori. "Don't worry, I'm right here."
"Sorry... I'm just worrying about what we're gonna do once we do see the Phantoms." Kaori admitted.
"Well then, we'll just have to do all we can." Yuki answered straightforward.
They continued to run through the city for a while after, until suddenly, a strange purple liquid came from the ground before them, and turned into Phantoms.
"They're here!" Yuki gripped his sword ready for battle. "Alright Kaori, we can do it."
"Okay!" Both of them were highly nervous, but willing to give anything to stop the Phantoms.
Yuki rushed in to battle and hit three Phantoms with a spinning sword attack. Once he stopped, he blocked a Phantom's sphere of aura and countered with one Flamethrower Fireworks punch.
"Please, don't let me down!" Kaori said to herself as she drew an arrow, and fired three simultaneous Freeze Shots at the Phantoms that had cornered Yuki. This gave Yuki the chance to knock back the other Phantoms with a variation of the Fireball Cannon that was much more short-range, but was short and convenient to charge.
"Thanks, Kaori!"
"It's the least I can do." Kaori gave a thumbs up as she blushed slightly. "Hey, behind you!"
Yuki jabbed the Phantom that was about to leap onto him with a Flamethrower Fireworks punch. Only for a Phantom in front of him to claw him in the legs, with a claw strike leaving behind Phantom aura.
"Yuki!" Kaori called out in worry. She fired an arrow at the Phantom that attacked Yuki, which caused it to shift its attention over to her. It fired a Phantom aura sphere at her, but she rolled out of the way in time and countered with another Freeze Shot that defeated it. All the Phantoms in the area had been defeated.

"Yuki!" Kaori ran over to Yuki, who was crouching from the attack. "Are you okay?"
"I dunno..." Yuki grunted. "I think the Phantom got me..."
"Hold still." Kaori stood straight and held her arms together below her torso, her eyes shut. "You feel better?"
Yuki got up, feeling better. "Yeah, actually. What did you do?"
"I just healed you." Kaori explained. "If you're ever in need of healing just let me now, okay?"
"Thanks." Yuki thanked her. "Hey, Kaori. You're a very caring friend."
Kaori gave Yuki a friendly smile.

Meanwhile

Tatsuya, Makoto and Shoji had found the underground route that lead them into the subway, which they entered and made the steep step down to the rails.
All the while, Shoji was saying; "I know what you're thinking. To be performing heroic deeds among the greatest hero himself, what an honour! And I know you're also thinking-"
"Shut up!" Tatsuya turned around to face Shoji. "That's all you've been saying all the way up here! Unless you have something actually helpful to say, keep your mouth shut!" He scolded.
"Aww, you're just worried about how you're inferior to me in so many ways. Don't worry, everyone is. I highly doubt anyone will be better than me anytime soon. Or this century, or millennium, or lifetime, or even longer than that, because I'm just so-"
"What he said. Shut. Up!" Makoto barked at Shoji. He paused for a bit as they continued walking, but then he started right back up.
"I know what you're thinking. To-" Tatsuya and Makoto stared at Shoji with a look of pure dsissaproval.
"Shoji, over there, it's a bunch of Phantoms - beat em up!" Tatsuya pointed over to the other direction.
Shoji bolted off without question, to fight the nonexistant Phantoms. "Prepare to be owned, inferior beings!"
"Okay, now!" Tatsuya and Makoto made a run for it as they ditched Shoji.
"Hey, Tatsuya? Thanks for that." Makoto thanked Tatusya.
"I did it for both of us." Tatsuya replied.

Meanwhile

Shoji continued to run off into the direction Tatsuya and Makoto sent him on, as he prepared himself for a battle with the Phantoms.
"Those Phantoms are gonna pee their pants when they see me comin' their way! Of course, they made a bad decision going on the opposite side of me, Shoji Fujioka! I mean, I'm practically an atomic nuke for the good side. The Phantoms might as well raise that white flag right now, because they know they'll never stand any chance of facing -"
His great boasts were interrupted when he actually did confront a small group of Phantoms.
"Alright, now's my chance!" Shoji cracked his knuckles. "It's time for you to get violently pummelled, that is, if you don't run away at the mere thought of having to try and fight me in battle! I'm so great, I -" But then, the Phantoms shot a purple beam directly into Shoji's chest, paralysing him. He spat out some blood. "Damn... You just got really lucky..." He fell to his knees. "What are you, some really strong guy? No way, no one's as strong as me..." Then, he fainted, before a purple aura surrounded him and he got back up, his eyes now purple. He had been possessed by the Phantoms.

Meanwhile

Yuki and Kaori continued to travel through the city, but aside from that Phantom attack before, there seemed to be nothing of importance. "Darn it, we're not getting anywhere." Yuki concluded. "I don't know what we're supposed to do now." "Wait, so what're we gonna do?" Kaori asked in slight panic. "Hold on, I'll call Tatsuya, maybe they're making more progress over there." He reached for the mobile phone in his pocket and rung Tatsuya's contact. At that moment, however, he felt a large presence in front of him. "Hm?" He looked up to see what it was. Sure enough, in the distance was a large Phantom. But this Phantom didn't look the same as the others. It was mostly transparent, but had human bodies inside it - a total of five. "What's that thing?" Kaori got scared. "It's a Phantom, but it's different from the others." Yuki held his sword towards the Phantom. "Wait... is that Shoji?" "What are you talking about?" Kaori looked at it to find Shoji inside the Phantom. "Don't tell me they got him!" "We have to call Tatsuya and Makoto for help!" He continued to ring Tatsuya, but this time it was for an emergency. "Hey, Tatsuya, you there?" "Yuki, we... What, are yo...?" The reception was weak, being underground. "If you can make it, we need you to come up here. There's a big Phantom coming our way. It looks like it's captured some people including Shoji." "What, did the... Shoji... 'll be there as... possible." Despite the weak reception, both sides heard the majority of what they were saying. "Okay, good." Yuki hung up. "Kaori, let's go!"

Underground

"Looks like Yuki and Kaori are in trouble. And also Shoji by the sounds of it." Tatsuya informed Makoto. "We have to make our way back to them." Makoto nodded. The two of them hurried to make their way out of the subway and rendezvous with Yuki and Kaori. But then, a bunch of Phantoms dropped down to ambush them. "Fine, if that's what you want!" Tatsuya held out his left hand above him, gathering wind, until he shut his hand to seal it in. Then, he threw the same arm forward and shot the wind at the Phantoms, blowing them away with a great deal of force. "Okay, now!" Makoto dashed forward and locked onto all the Phantoms as they were blown backwards, scratching them all with slashes of electricity. Once she had finished, all of them exploded. She grinned, until suddenly a fireball rushed towards her and knocked her off her feet. "Aww, shit!" She grunted as she discovered more Phantoms. "Don't give up!" Tatsuya headed on to fight off the Phantoms with his katana, while Makoto tried to get up. A Phantom shot a homing trail of fire at Tatsuya, but he used his katana to knock it out of the way with enough precision. But another Phantom crept up on him and tried to freeze him. Makoto managed to knock Tatsuya out of the way at the right time, and they proceeded to finish them off. "Looks like the Phantoms can also use elements." Makoto observed. "There's no time to lose. Let's go!"

Soon after

Yuki and Kaori had been fighting the Phantom for a while, but it had been a one-sided beating as they struggled to stay alive. However, they were persistant, and still stood tall after all the punishment.
"What's taking them so long?" Yuki fretted. "Looks like we have to hold it off ourselves a little longer. Darn it..."
"Hold it!" They heard a voice in the distance, following by two familiar faces showing up.
"Okay, we're here. Let's kick some Phantom's ass!" Makoto jumped to it and ran towards the Phantom.
Hey, hold on a second... Something occured to Yuki. "Wait..." He stopped Makoto. "I just thought of something... There are people in there. We can't kill them." He moved ahead of her, still wanting her to stay still. "Let me finish this." He used force to cut his sword through the Phantom's leg, directly in between one person and the other, and the leg fell off and the person was freed, if unconscious. "Attack around them." They managed to outsmart the Phantom and cut off all its limbs and freed everybody. The Phantom was defeated after that. "We can't wake them up, but we can get them to hospital." Yuki was referring to the other people besides Shoji. "Kaori, can you heal Shoji?" Kaori kneeled down beside Shoji and held her hands below her chest and closed her eyes again, which healed him. He had enough energy to get up. "W...what happened?" Shoji looked around to see the other people lying on the ground. "Oh, shit. Are they okay?" "Don't worry, they're just unconscious. They'll be taken to hospital once this is over." Yuki assured. "The Phantoms must have possessed all of you and trapped you." Shoji laughed. "They could never trap me! I'm untrappable! You know why? Because I'm-" "Shut up, Shoji!" Everyone yelled at him. "I'm the hero!" Shoji finished. "Yeah, sure." Yuki sighed. "Well, as long as you're okay..." "Well done." An omnious voice told them. "I'm surprised any of you made it this far." Everyone got out their weapons and entered an offensive stance. "Who are you?" Yuki called out to this voice. "Whoever you are, show yourself now!"

"Who are you?" Yuki called out to the voice. "Whoever you are, show yourself now!"
And so he did, stepping in to reveal himself. He was a shady figure with dark grey skin, purple eyes, black hair covering his fringe, a longcoat and long pants, with a large quantity of chains covering everywhere on his outfit. He had a look of pure evil on his face. They knew, this must be the leader of the Phantoms they were searching for.
"So, I take it you were the ones who wanted to oppose me next?" He chuckled. "At least you show determination. You keep fighting, even when you know everything is hopeless."
"Tell that to my fist, why don't ya?!" Makoto shouted at the villain as she approached him. "Voy a una paliza!" The two stared each other down, until Makoto threw a fast, powerful punch right at his mug. He caught the fist just when it was a milimetre away from his face, and proceeded to crush it. "Uuuuggh... Get the hell off!" Makoto headbutted him and escaped. She shot a large, short-range burst of electricity at him, which he countered and shot back at her, knocking her onto the floor.
"Hey, that's my friend you're messing with!" Tatsuya threatened. "Don't push your luck, you peice of Phantom crap!"
"You're all so entertaining... First you think you can oppose me, and now you have it in you to insult me!" The villain brushed aside their efforts. "But don't worry, once I'm finished with you, you'll think differently next time."
"Shut the hell up!" Makoto yelled aggressively as she got up.
"You're the leader of the Phantoms, correct?" Yuki asked, holding his sword in front of him in defense. "Ask me, do you go by 'Heartless'?"
"You're a smart kid." The villain patronised Yuki. "In case you don't survive this encounter, I may as well tell you, yes, I am the leader of the Phantoms."
"Then, die Heartless!" Yuki challenged Heartless to battle.
He chuckled again. "Well, before we do commence, I'd like you to think about what you're doing for a moment." He indimidated. "By the time the battle is over, it'll be a miracle if you do survive. That's why I'll leave it up to you to decide whether you wish to tempt fate. Do you really wish to throw away your pathetic, sad lives just to fight a hopeless war? Are you about to degrade yourselves to the level that this is how you choose to seal your fate?"
"Shut up!" Yuki engulfed his whole right hand in fire, which set the sword on fire as a result, and he pointed it at Heartless.
"Well then, let's begin."

Everyone rushed forward and tried to attack Heartless, who was standing there leaving himself wide open. He used just small punches to knock all of them back, but when it came to Yuki, he grabbed Heartless' hand and flipped over him, kicking him in the back. "Now!" He called to Shoji, who bolted forward to punch him in the face.
At first, Heartless showed some hurt, but then shook it off. "Didn't hurt."
Yuki grated his teeth, and rejoined the others. "Now it's my turn!" Heartless held his hands up to charge Phantom aura and slashed his arm forward to shoot is as a shockwave. Everyone got out of the way. But then, Heartless teleported behind Shoji and sent a full force punch at his back, causing him to shout in agony and fall to his knees.
"Shoji!" Yuki called out.
"Dammit, how can this happen? I'm the greatest..." He couldn't speak much longer, and collapsed.
"Alright, I got this!" Tatsuya called and held his hand high in the air, summoning large gusts of wind to come, which he gathered in the hand and shot it forward as a spiralling bullet of wind. Heartless teleported out of the way, but Makoto shot a sphere of electricity at him at the spot he teleported to, but he reflected it and it sped back towards Makoto, knocking her down.
"Hey, Makoto, don't go out on me now!" Tatsuya rushed over to his friend's side to help her, but this left him open to as Heartless shot an arrow of Phantom aura at him which stabbed him hard in the back, and he collapsed just next to Makoto.
"This doesn't look good at all..." Yuki shook his head.
"Yuki, now what?" Kaori asked Yuki pleadingly.
Then, he could distract his mind from it no longer. The thoughts of his past came back to him - the last time he was a leader - and it made him remember exactly why he didn't want to be in this position again.
No. This is too much for me. No, I can't give up now... But... Darn it all...! Yuki decided to confess to Kaori. "I should probably tell you... I can't be a leader to anyone."
"Why not?" Kaori argued.
"I'm not telling you why!" Yuki raised his voice.
"What is up with you, Yuki?" Kaori tried to ask him.
Yuki stared at Kaori for a second. "Let's just finish this." He softened his voice again. He held his hands out right in front of him, his palms against each other sideways, and started charging up fire energy. "Fireball..." He charged up the attack as much as he could with the window of time he had.
"What's taking you so long? Don't tell me you've raised the white flag already? Well then, I guess I'll just finish it for you." Heartless taunted.
"How about I finish it?!" Yuki yelled at Heartless. "Fireball Cannon!" He shot out the large wave of fire at Heartless, who just watched it approach him, not bothering to get out of the way - as if to show his cockiness. Then, when it did come to contact with his body, he shifted his elbow to the attack, and blocked it with nothing at all. He was trying to negate it and reflect it back. But Yuki didn't give up that easily. He put more strength into the Fireball Cannon, but after a big struggle, it wasn't enough. Heartless sent the attack coming back at Yuki and Kaori and finished them off.

Heartless touched ground and saw his five opponents lying on the ground, so easily beaten.
"Looks like I win this time." Heartless smirked as Yuki struggled to get up. "I'd kill you now, but that would be no fun, to kill you so easily."
"W...wh...what are you going to do now?" Yuki wanted to ask Heartless.
"What am I going to do?" Heartless echoed. "Before I killed my father, his goal was to use the Phantoms as his tools to take over the world, to plunge the world in the darkness of the Phantoms. Now that I'm in his position, I can carry on that goal... Only this time, I'll have the world all to myself. And the best part is, I'm practically invincible, so there's nothing to stop me. To me, you're just a bunch of flies waiting to be swatted."
"No... This isn't over, you hear?" Yuki managed to stand up, albeit with a hard struggle, and drew his sword again. "I'll give it anything!"
"You're so adorable." Heartless laughed at Yuki's efforts. "I was going to destroy the city, but after this, I've lost interest. I'm warning you, however, if you do decide to get up again, I will immideantly kill you." This caused Yuki to think twice, and he stayed down much to his disgust.
"Oh well, for now I'll just settle for this." Heartless turned his attention to a monorail track. He merely stared at it, which caused part of the track to explode and collapse. "Farewell for now. And don't worry, I will come back." With that, Heartless took off. Any last energy of his sapped, Yuki fainted.

February 6, 2110

After the infamous last night, everyone had to rest themselves. There was nothing that could be done about the Phantoms at this point.

Tatsuya and Makoto sat in an alleyway, where they had slept last night.
"There's no doubt about it. The Phantoms aren't joking around." Tatsuya had long since known.
"I feel like beating the crap out of all of them..." Makoto stared at her clenched fist. "Especially that son of a bitch Heartless."
"I just don't know what we're supposed to do about it..." Tatsuya stressed. "It's gonna take a lot if we want any chance of stopping them."
"This is gonna take a lot longer than we thought, won't it?" Makoto guessed.
"And a lot harder."
Next time I see him, it'll be for Acero! Makoto thought.
Tatsuya could guess at what Makoto was thinking about. "You still miss him, huh?" He wrapped his arm around her in a friendly gesture. "Well, I can see where you're coming from."

Meanwhile

Shoji sat by himself on a bench in the street, deep in thought.
"Everyone looks at me... Everyone looks at me and laughs."
Then, as if to prove this statement, to teenage girls came by and talked about him to themselves.
"Hey, it's that guy who autographed us the other day." One of them said.
"That guy who says he's the greatest person ever or something like that? What a creep." The other added.
"What's he got shoved up his ass?"
"Whatever. He doesn't deserve recognition." And with that, they left.
"To the rest of the world, that's what I am." He observed. "They'll never know, but deep down... I'm terrified." Then, he thought about something else. He thought about Yuki. "Yuki... He probably thinks he's so great." He laughed. "They all look up to him. None of them know he's just a big coward." He let out his hostility towards him. "Yuki. I never thought we'd cross paths again, but fate can catch anyone off guard." He got up from his seating. "And just so you know. I haven't forgotten a thing."

Kaori's Apartment

"Breaking news - overnight, a section of the monorail track in Ukoka has collapsed, taking thousands of Ringen in damage with it. There is no evidence of what caused this, but the damage was devestating." The news reported spoke on TV. "One could easily assume that this was an attack by the mysterious force that has been on the rise recently, meaning that we may not be safe anywhere from them. Nobody was killed, however five people were found scattered on the ground and have had to been taken to hospital due to bad wounds. Sure enough, this is only the beggining of this new evil's regin."
Yuki buried his head in his arms. "Why did it have to be me?" He questioned.
Kaori sat down beside him. "I don't like this either, Yuki." She wrapped her arms around him. I'm sorry, Dad... She thought. I tried with everything I had, but it still wasn't enough... She was on the verge of tears. I feel so helpless.

That Night

Everybody cut their losses and went to sleep. After all, they were just looking forward to when this was in the past.

Hello again.
"Ugh, I really don't wanna do this..." Yuki moaned in front of Shinji and Layla. "I'm getting just a little bit sick of fighting Phantoms. I would like you to leave me alone."
"Oh, really? That's a shame. You'll be letting all your friends down." Shinji reacted. "Isn't that right?" He turned his head to someone else. Yuki looked there to see who it was.
"Ta-da-da-dah!" Shoji greeted Yuki. "I bet ya missed me, huh?"
"What the, Shoji? Why are you here?" Yuki took surprise.
"That's what we were gonna ask you." Tatsuya revealed himself, along with Makoto.
"Yuki, you're here too!" Kaori welcomed Yuki.
"What are all you guys doing here anyway?" Yuki wondered.
"I was wondering that too. Hey, whoever you are, mind asking us what's going on?" Makoto asked Shinji and Layla in mild frustration.
"Yesterday, you confronted the leader of the Phantoms who we call Heartless, right?" Layla checked.
"It's hard to forget that night." Yuki sighed. "It's like when you want a bad memory to go away, but you just keep remembering more and more."
"Well, don't give up so soon. You'll have plenty of chances to stop him later on." Layla assured. "We wanted to tell you all something important. Notice how when the city was taken over by the Phantoms, the five of you were the only ones aware of what was happening?"
"When you think about it, yeah, we were the only ones who knew anything about the Phantoms at all. Nobody else has seen them on the news or anything, or has any evidence about them aside from the attacks they've left." Tatsuya explained.
"There used to be more people who could see Phantoms, and the only ones who could stop them. But Rain joined the Phantoms, and we and Alice are dead. There are only five people in the world still alive who were naturally born with the ability to see Phantoms. Do you know who they are?" Shinji asked a trick question. "The five of you have been gathered here for a reason. We sought after anyone else who has a chance of stopping the Phantoms, and soon enough we found all of you, but your power exceeded even our standard. You all have to form a team and stop the Phantoms together - you'll need all the help you can get to stop them, and even if we could do anything to help, we wouldn't even be able to stand up to Heartless."
"But... But why us?" Kaori asked. "Why not anyone else in the world?"
"Because, maybe you're just special." Shinji replied. "In all seriousness, though, there's no need to ponder that thought now. You're our last hope, so give it everything you've got in this battle. Don't worry about knowing their next move, we can inform you on everything the Phantoms are about to do next, and for the time being, they seem to have their sights set on Shikashi."
"Well... Okay, for now..." Kaori was hesitant, but knew what she had to do.
"That's all we need to tell you for now, but don't take your mind off the Phantoms for a second. We're counting on you." Layla concluded.
"Yep, got it. Thanks." Yuki said goodbye.

February 7, 2110

Lunchtime

The five young heroes met up at Ren's at lunchtime to discuss their plans.

"Well, looks like there's a lot of pressure on us now." Yuki begun.
"You don't say." Tatsuya agreed. "So, what do you say we do?"
Yuki sighed. "Well, the one good thing I can say is that we know the leader of the Phantoms now. Even know he's incredibly powerful, and we have no hopes of opposing him the way we are now..."
"We're screwed, aren't we?" Makoto put bluntly.
"Not if you don't have Shoji Fujioka on your side, AKA the ultimate being!" Shoji spoke so loudly everyone in the restaurant could hear him. They noticed some people looking at their table in a reaction. "I'd say having anyone aside from me on the team is completely pointless, but putting that fact aside, we're going to have to assign a leader."
"Well, I think Yuki deserves to be the leader for a few reasons." Tatsuya elected Yuki. "Anyone else agree?"
Shoji raised his hand way up in the air, and burst out "I choose myself as the leader!"
"I know I shouldn't ask, but, why do you think you should be leader?" Kaori sighed.
"Because, I have the most charm, I'm the best at everything, and, of course, I'm the hero!" He boasted furthermore.
"Yeah, sure thing, Shoji. And what a hero." Kaori remarked sarcastically.
"Aww, thanks for believing in me Kit-Kat." Shoji clearly didn't understand the sarcasm.
"Kit-Kat?" Kaori questioned the nickname. "Whatever, I won't get myself any deeper in this." She got to the topic at hand. "But, for the record, I think you should be leader, Yuki."
"Uhh... Why me?" Yuki hesitated. "I mean, I didn't do a very good job leading the other night. Can't anyone else be the leader?"
"Yuki, no need to feel any pressure, but at this rate it's either you or Shoji as our leader." Makoto told Yuki. "And, to be honest, I'm not leaning towards Shoji."
"See, Yuki doesn't even wanna be leader! C'mon, me me me!" Shoji butted in.
"I'll do it." Yuki agreed, while giving Shoji an angry glare.
"You're just jealous of my awesomeness." Shoji chuckled, clearly only listening to himself.
"If we're going to confront the Phantoms again in the near future, we need a plan." Tatsuya brought up another topic. "The other night we had no plan because it was our first big confrontation with the Phantoms and Heartless. But now maybe we can gather something. Let's see..." He thought about what Heartless said when they met him.
"As far as his motif goes, all we need to know is that we wants to take over the world." Yuki brought up. "That's what he said to me, that he wants to plunge the world into darkness." Then he thought about the other details. "He was going to destroy the city the other night too, until he lost interest, apparently."
"So, we did manage to do something, at least..." Kaori thought optimistically.
"Yeah, but something tells me he won't go easy on us anymore the next time." Makoto stopped her.
"That's right. And we have to get stronger and better if we want any chance of standing up to him at all." Tatsuya advised.
"How are we supposed to get stronger outside of fighting the Phantoms?" Kaori asked.
"Whatever we don't figure out we'll ask Shinji and Layla next chance we get." Yuki decided.
"Well, if you ask me I say that having anyone else on the team aside from me to be absolutely pointless, but anyways, we're going to need a team name. Something that will really stand out, that will make our enemies really afraid of us." Shoji brought up.
"I don't think a team name is exactly the most important topic right now, but..."
"How about Team Shoji?" Shoji grinned. Everybody responded by shaking their heads slowly and angrily.
"See, this is why we hate you." Makoto snarked.

February 8, 2110
Nighttime

It was time to meet Shinji and Layla in the dream once more.

All five of them were in the dream. In their dreams, this place was always some sort of hallway, but it didn't seem like the far ends of the hallway lead anywhere.
"Ah, I see you're all back." Shinji welcomed them. "Are you ready for training?"
"You're gonna train us? Like, in battle?" Makoto asked. "But this is a dream."
"Even in a dream, you can still train the mind. The physical strength can come later." Shinji explained.
"Ah, that makes sense." Makoto said half-sarcastic.
"But, how are you gonna train us anyway?" Kaori followed Makoto's question up.
"Even though you're potential outshines ours, you lack experience. We can pass on some of our knowledge to you through the training." Layla backed up Shinji. "I look forward to seeing what you can do."
"This is our first training session, but I still won't hold back on any of you. When you're going up against someone like the Phantoms, there is no holding back. But don't worry, this is a dream, so at least we can't kill you. So, you ready now?"
The five teenagers looked at each other for a second before responding. "Alright, let's not waste any time." Yuki nodded.
"Very well then. Follow me." Shinji and Layla made their way through the hallway, and the others followed. Almost the second they left the scene, they were in a grassy field with a cloudy blue sky.

The training commenced. Yuki was the first to face Shinji, and the two went in a head-to-head duel. Yuki had a lot of persistance, but Shinji knew more about battle and ultimately won after a rather one-sided beating.
"Well, I'll give you this, you didn't throw in the towel too soon." Shinji gave Yuki some credit.
"Thanks, but now can you teach us some stuff?" Yuki managed to get out as he was gasping on the floor.
"Okay. And remember, this is a dream. You'll heal straight away." Shinji reminded.
"Yeah, thanks for that."
Shinji and Layla became teachers for the five teenagers and taught them some of the things they knew for now. By the end they had made some more progress.

"And another thing..." Shinji brought up. "We need a leader among the team, to make all the decisions and lead the way."
"Got 'im right here!" Makoto shoved Yuki in a friendly manner.
"That's what I was going to say." Shinji agreed. "Yes, Yuki will be the leader."
"Uh, do I have to be the leader?" Yuki still didn't like the idea. "I really don't think I make a good leader at all."
"Don't be too hard on yourself, man." Tatsuya encouraged Yuki. "We're all pro for making you the leader."
"Not me. I wanted me to be the leader." Shoji reminded. "But can we still call ourselves Team Shoji?"
"No." Makoto refused. "Just... no."
"Alright, maybe not Team Shoji, but how about Team Ijohs?" Shoji offered.
"Shoji, that's just your name backwards."
"Oh, really? I didn't even know." Shoji lied.
"We're not using it anyway."
"Okay, but how about this - Super Hard-hitting Operational Jumping Ideals?"
"And that's acronyms for your name!"
"Well, isn't this all a coincidence?" Shoji lied still.
"We're not using a team name!" Kaori shouted.
"I hate all of you." Shoji sulked.
"And we hate you, so it all evens out." Makoto mocked.

February 9, 2110

Yuki was skeptical about the whole thing. Everyone was, really, but he was greatly resenting the role of leader for a certain reason. He pondered why he had been chosen of all people, but he decided he had to put it aside for now. No use crying over spilt milk.
"Good morning, Kaori." He greeted Kaori once he walked into the living room.
"Oh, morning Yuki." She turned away from her cooking station and bowed slightly. "Uh, can you get some plates and chopsticks please?" Yuki agreed and set out the table for them to eat.
​I wanna know why he's so upset about being the leader... Kaori was thinking to herself. But I don't wanna upset him if it's something he doesn't wanna talk about. Still, I do wanna find out... She decided she'd confront him about it over breakfast.

Yuki and Kaori were eating breakfast when Yuki noticed Kaori seemed pre-occupied with something. "Is anything wrong, Kaori?" He asked in a polite tone.
"That's what I was gonna ask about you." Kaori spoke up.
"Huh?"
"Yuki, I know you don't wanna be our leader. I can respect that, but, I just wanted to know..." There was a slight pause. "Is there any reason behind that?"
"A reason? Like... what?" Yuki pretended not to know.
"You know, like something that happened in the past, or something..." Kaori was holding back a little because she was afraid she'd offend Yuki. But she had a zealous nature and was willing to find out.
"And why do you ask me this?" Yuki was getting uncomfortable.
"I don't know, just seeing as we're fighting alongside each other, I might wanna know more about you..." Kaori made excuses.
"Excuse me." Yuki got up with his plate in his hands. "Thanks for breakfast." He put the plate in the kitchen and went back into his room.
Kaori watched Yuki as he left her field of vision. Yeah, it's definitely something. She thought to herself. I wanna know what.

Yuki's trust in Kaori was beginning to wane now that she was eager to find about about his secrets. He remained silent towards her for the rest of the day, which needless to say she found frustrating. The week went by and things hadn't gotten any better between them.

February 14
Dream World

"Now, Yuki and Kaori, you'll need to work together for this co-operative attack." Shinji instructed. "Yuki, you engage in close-up combat with me. You'll be fighting me, but you're main purpose is to merely distract me, for Kaori to shoot an arrow at me from far behind."
"Okay, that should be easy enough." Yuki nodded.
"Well then, let's do it." Shinji ran towards Yuki and they clashed their weapons together in a struggle. Kaori ran to the other side.
Yuki managed to win the struggle between weapons and attacked, but Shinji countered right away. "Kaori, now!" Yuki called out, but no response. "Kaori!" Still nothing. Then eventually Shoji just jumped in and kicked Shinji from behind.

"Kaori, what happened back there?" Shinji scolded Kaori. "You were supposed to shoot an arrow at me from behind while I was distracted, you can manage that."
"No, Shinji, it was my fault for trusting Kaori in the first place." Yuki patronised Kaori.
"Just shut up!" Kaori barked. "You're the one who started this!"
"Me? I think you started it!" Yuki argued. "What's your problem?"
"Started what?" Shinji stepped in. "Explain the situation to me."
"I just wanted to know more about why Yuki doesn't want to be our leader." Kaori explained. She noticed Yuki turned his head the other way in response. "But he won't tell me anything. He's being a jerk."
"Oh, I'm the one being a jerk?" Yuki started the argument again.
This doesn't look good. No doubt their quarrel will greatly affect their co-operation in battle. In fact, it's been proven just then. Shinji thought, and decided he would help put a stop to this. "Well, I can't interfere with your problem, but what I can say is that you need to resolve it quickly." He told them. "In no less than five days, there will be an attack from the Phantoms in the city of Kayra. If you can't work together by then, it could end up messy and you will both be to blame."
That stopped Yuki and Kaori from arguing with him for the moment when they took a moment to reflect on that.
"But, Shinji, we can't afford the chances of failing a battle just because two of us won't work together." Tatsuya showed concern. "Maybe if this persists, we should drop one of them."
"I'm afraid that's not an option." Layla declined. "As we said before, we need as many people to stop the Phantoms as possible. This is not enough of a reason to drop one of your vital team members."
"Yeah, Kaori, get your crap together and stop being a little bitch!" Makoto chasisted Kaori.
"Don't you start too!" Now Kaori was arguing with Makoto. "You're the bitch here!"
"You wanna fight, right here?" Makoto put up her fists.
"Enough of this!" Shinji shouted. "All five of you must be able to work together in complete harmony, or else we will get nowhere. I have faith in you, remember."
"Don't let that faith go to waste." Layla added.
"Now, let's continue our training."

February 15
Nighttime

Unfortunately Yuki and Kaori hadn't come any closer to resolving their problem one day later. It was now dinnertime.
"Hey, Kaori, what's for dinner tonight?" Yuki asked.
"I'm having Teriyaki Salmon for dinner. It's almost ready." Kaori replied. However, she only dished up one plate.
"Uh, where's mine?" Yuki asked.
"I said *I'm* having it for dinner. I didn't say you were too." Kaori teased. "But don't worry, I've got your dinner right here." She gave Yuki a packet of nori seaweed. He stared at it for a second before slamming it back on the table.
"Okay, Kaori, we really need to talk about this." Yuki confronted. "There are some things I don't want to tell you. You don't need to know, because even though I respect you as a friend, I'm not close to you enough to let you in on that sort of stuff."
"Why is it so secret, Yuki? That's all I wanna know." Kaori defended herself. "Until you tell me, I won't cook dinner for you. That's fine by me."
"Well, I guess I have no business here then." Yuki walked out the door. "I'd take Makoto's advice, and stop being such a bitch."
"That's it!" Kaori gave Yuki a Kaori Scratch across the face.
"By the way, that didn't hurt." Yuki lied. Oh god, that hurt so much... "Well, I'm outta here." He left the apartment.
Kaori sighed to herself. "Yuki..."

February 17
Dream World

It was time for more training, and the last one before the Phantoms' next attack in two days time. After training, Shinji and Layla began to discuss the attack.

"As I told you the other night, there will be an upcoming attack by the Phantoms, on the 19th. Don't forget it." Shinji informed them.
"I don't think we can forget it." Kaori sighed.
"Now, we have a plan that we've laid out thanks to our ability to predict everything that happens in the future. Of course, the only things we can't predict are the things that can be altered. So whether you defeat the Phantoms in the end is up to you." Shinji explained. "But I digress. Let's discuss the plan."
"The Phantoms will attack Kayra at nighttime, beginning at 9:45 sharp. You should all arrive there before then and rendezvous, then travel together for the rest of the mission." Layla begun to tell them. "You will have to navigate your way to the Unmei shrine, that is where the Phantoms will be first. You'll have to hold them off right away, as they will reach the town and attack the people once they've made enough destruction at the shrine. That is all you need to know. If you fail to hold them off at the shrine for whatever reason, give chase instantly and finish them off before they get to reach town. Would you like to go over it again?"
"No, I think we'll all remember." Yuki took in the plan and remembered all of it.
"Good, well the rest is up to you. I'm sorry we can't do anymore to help, but we do all we can."
"Well, we'd be screwed without you." Yuki chuckled.
"Good luck, all of you. Remember, you all need to work together as a team, every time you fight the Phantoms." Shinji reminded, looking at Yuki and Kaori in particular as he spoke those words.
I can tell, Yuki and Kaori still haven't mended their friendship. Shinji thought to himself. I just hope they work it out and not just for their sake either.

February 19
Nighttime

Tonight was the night the Phantoms would attack in Kayra. Everyone had prepared themselves and were ready to stop them at any cost. Yuki and Kaori took the train all the way from Ukoka to there.
Yuki and Kaori, as usual, remained silent throughout most of the ride up, but Yuki could hear Kaori listening to her eMusic. It was playing "When I Come Around" by Green Day.

I heard you crying loud,
All the way across town
You've been searching for that someone,
And it's me out on the prowl
As you sit around feeling sorry for yourself
Well, don't get lonely now
And dry your whining eyes
I'm just roaming for the moment
Sleazin' my back yard so don't get so uptight
You been thinking about ditching me

Kaori turned her head slightly around to Yuki, but soon after turned back with a look of hostility on her face.
"You don't have to always be like that, Kaori." Yuki growled.
"Well, why don't you just tell me what's wrong, and maybe then that'll solve our problem?" Kaori gave it another shot.
"I don't trust you." Yuki said bluntly.
"Fine. If that's what you want." Kaori gave up. "I thought we were friends, but I guess not." She muttered as she looked out the window, not looking at Yuki.

Once they reached Kayra

"Now boarding Kayra. This train will be terminating at this stop." They heard the train driver announce over the speakers. They got up from their seats and got out the moment the doors opened up. They looked down on the view of the city from the hill they were standing on. The city of Kayra was peaceful and a lot more calm than the bustling city of Ukoka. But it wouldn't be peaceful for long if the Phantoms got a hold of it. With no time to lose, they made their way down to rendezvous with the other three.

Yuki and Kaori were just off the main city when they heard a voice calling their names, followed by those voices running up to them.
"Hey Tatsuya, hey Makoto." Yuki greeted them back. "Good, you're here."
"So, ya ready to stop the Phantoms?" Tatsuya asked.
"Well, I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Yuki looked down to the ground.
"Hey, you guys seen Shoji?" Kaori wanted to check.
"He'll probably want to make a big entrance." Tatsuya presumed.
"I'd be funny if he tripped and hit his ass." Makoto joked.
"It's me, the ultimate being!" They then heard call out, as if on cue. Shoji leapt down to the spot the others were, only to trip when he landed and - yep - hit his ass.
"Damn, I shoulda caught that on a camera." Makoto sighed.
"Well, now that we're all here, we should get going." Tatsuya concluded.

They made their way around the city and reached a path just behind the streets, which was beside a river and decorated with cherry blossom trees on the other side. They followed Shinji and Layla's instructions on where the Phantom would be. While the scenery was very pretty with the moonlight, there was no time to take any of it in.
Yuki and Kaori were walking side by side. They looked at each other for a second before turning their heads away with hostility.
"Oh, great, this is still going on." Makoto moaned. "Just make up already so we can end this freaking drama!"
"Trust me, it's not that easy." Yuki refused. "The Unmei shrine will be just a little while away." He looked at his mobile phone to check the time. 9:43. About two more minutes, the Phantoms would begin their attack. They had to hurry. "Come on." He started running faster, and the others followed suite.

Unmei Shrine

Not before long, they had reached their destination at the shrine. There were no Phantoms in sight. Yuki checked the phone again. 9:47. "Hm, that's strange." He said to himself. "The Phantoms should be here by now." He drew out his sword and held it in a defensive position. "Everyone prepare for the Phantoms." Everyone else got out their weapons, looking all around them with their weapons up.
Sure enough, a Phantom leapt out and tried to swoop on Yuki. He hit it with his sword with the right timing. Then more Phantoms came out following it. One Phantom threw fireballs, which Yuki jumped out of the way and hit it with a Flamethrower Fireworks punch from behind. One other Phantom threw another one towards Shoji and exploded once it was close enough, which sent Shoji flying in the air. He turned himself right-side up before he touched the ground, and dashed towards the other Phantom hitting it with a Wave Kick. One last one shot a streak of lightning bolts which raced across the floor, and Tatsuya ran up to the Phantom stepping out of the way of each bolt, and hit the Phantom with a spiralling uppercut using the katana which created a tornado with it, the Rising Tornado.
With the five Phantoms on the ground defeated, our young teenage warriors circled around each other on the lookout for any more Phantoms, because they knew that was just the beginning.

Once enough suspense had been built up, a large Phantom boss landed down and revealed itself, crushing the ground below it with the impact it made. It was a towering figure about four or five times the size of the five teenagers, and it a complete black skeleton that was on the outside. Inside the eye sockets of the white skull was glowing purple, and there were also white bones dangling off most parts of the body. On its back it had two big bones stretching out resembling wings, only they didn't serve that role. It had four arms, and in all of them were swords made of bones.
"That's what we're going up against?" Makoto's eyes widened. "Shit! They're not playing around, huh?"
"Let's just get it over with as soon as possible." Tatsuya pointed his katana towards it. "Everybody ready?"
Makoto nodded, and got into a fighting stance with his fists held up towards her face. "Vamos a seguir adelante!"
"It'll be minced meat by the time I'm through with it!" Shoji tossed his nunchucks into the air and held them towards the Phantom.
Yuki and Kaori looked at each other, and nodded. It was time to begin the battle.

"That's what we're going up against?" Makoto's eyes widened. "Shit! They're not playing around, huh?"
"Let's just get it over with as soon as possible." Tatsuya pointed his katana towards it. "Everybody ready?"
Makoto nodded, and got into a fighting stance with his fists held up towards her face. "Vamos a seguir adelante!"
"It'll be minced meat by the time I'm through with it!" Shoji tossed his nunchucks into the air and held them towards the Phantom.
Yuki and Kaori looked at each other, and nodded. It was time to begin the battle.

Shoji dashed up to the Skeleton Phantom, using the bones it threw at him as platforms to reach the Phantom's face and attack. "Wave Kick!" He announced the attack as it hit. "Now!"
Yuki followed up Shoji's attack with one of his. He cut through the middle of the Phantom's body with an uppercut using his sword engulfed in flames, which caused some purple blood to squirt out of it.
"Makoto, let's do this!" Tatsuya called to Makoto as he held his katana up in the air as it formed a tornado around it. Makoto hit her fists against each other and slowly, carefully separated them to reveal a charging ball of electricity between them.
"Tornado Cutter!" Tatsuya yelled as he swung forward the katana, shooting the tornado with it.
"Thunder Quake!" Makoto unleashed her attack by shooting out the electricity towards the ground. The two attacks met each other and combined, to make a big powerful attack which hit the Phantom square.
The Phantom showed some signs of damage for a second, but that was only a hope spot for the heroes as it turned out unaffected straight after and, as if to say "Now it's my turn", it shot forward a heavy barrage of bones that they had to quickly run out of the way to avoid. The bones did, however, cause some damage to the environment.
"Okay, how's about this?" Yuki grunted as he ran forward. The Phantom threw one great, big bone at him which he cut open with his sword just before it hit him. He used the bone to climb up and jumped off it. He cupped his hands forward and quickly shot a Fireball Cannon barrage at it. It hit him right in his eye sockets, stopping his vision temporarily and thus leaving himself open.
"Kaori, now, it's your turn!" Yuki called out to Kaori. "Hey, Kaori!"
Kaori was untrusting towards Yuki. She began to panic as she wondered what to do, but she knew she had to stop the Phantom. She got out an arrow and shot it out engulfed in ice, a Freeze Shot. "Alright, here it comes!" But the arrow missed, and the Phantom recovered and sent Yuki flying with a swing of the arm.
"I'm... I'm sorry, I guess I wasn't focusing." Kaori apologised.
"That's no excuse!" Yuki growled at Kaori as he got back up. "Okay, I've got an idea on what to do. But everything has to go according to plan."

"Yo, big skeleton guy!" Shoji called out to the Phantom. "You wanna piece of me?" He showed it his rear end and slapped it in order to provoke it. "You can kiss my ass!"
The Phantom shot spears of Phantom energy out of its eyes to hit Shoji. Shoji ran up and avoided the attack and punched it in the lower torso, even though it barely hurt, but he wasn't aiming for that. "Now!" He called.
Tatsuya and Makoto jumped into action and struck the Phantom with a big flurry of melee attacks. The Phantom turned its attention to them and begun to attack.
"Kaori, you ready?" Yuki and Kaori were ready for their part. "Let's go!" Kaori was supposed to use a Freeze Shot and hit the Phantom directly in its eye socket, which must have been its weakness. Then Yuki would shoot a Fireball Cannon to finish off the attack.
Kaori drew an arrow and aimed her bow at the Phantom. She knew she could do this, and she just had to tell herself not to worry about anything else at the moment. But she couldn't fire the arrow, at all. No matter how much she wanted to, her arm wouldn't move. Because she was to pre-occupied - she didn't trust Yuki as a leader. She wasn't going to put her faith in him with this plan, or anything he did. It's like they weren't even friends.
"No, not again Kaori!" Yuki face palmed. "Here goes nothing." He had to carry on and shoot the Fireball Cannon right now. "Fireball Cannon!" He shot the attack with all the strength he had, but it wasn't enough. The Phantom absorbed it with his outer skeleton, and shot it back out and it hit Yuki.

"I'm sorry Yuki..." Kaori tried to apologise to Yuki as she ran up to him.
"Why... Why won't you listen to me?" Yuki wasn't acting like himself.
"I couldn't do it, my body froze!" Kaori raised her voice.
"Stop making excuses!" Yuki barked at her. "I can't put my trust in you, because you'll just screw it up for everyone!"
"Maybe I can't trust you either!" Kaori spared Yuki no feelings. "It's like I don't even know you!"
"Why are you on my case all of a sudden?!"
"Why won't you just tell me what's going on?!"
"Ugh, you make me sick!"
"Well you make me-"
"SHUT UP!" At that point they stopped fighting and turned their heads, to see that it came from Shoji, much to their surprise.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Shoji continued. "You're not even trying. You just want to keep fighting." Yuki and Kaori looked down at the ground as they started to feel sorry. "Did you do anything personal to each other to earn this? No. You could have it worse. Even if you don't always get along, you can at least try to work together. And it's what Shinji and Layla said, co-operation is the most important part of victory."
Yuki and Kaori stood there stunned. They never would have expected something like that to come from Shoji, of all people, but if he was telling them off, they had better listen.
"I'm sorry, Yuki. I'll admit, it was wrong of me to get personal. I must have been a real jerk, huh?" Kaori acknowledged and confessed her mistakes.
"Don't worry, it's kinda my fault too. I only helped make you more suspicious. I shoulda just told you." Yuki thought in hindsight.
"No, I understand." Kaori felt embarrassed. "So, we friends again?" She held our her hand.
Yuki smirked, and they shook hands. "Friends."
"Uhh, I don't mean to ruin the moment, but..." Tatsuya called out. "We kinda need your help right now!"
"Okay, let's do this!" Kaori held up her fist ready to fight the Phantom. "Third time's the charm."

"Shoji, Tatsuya, Makoto, I want you to keep the Phantom distracted one last time. This time, it'll work." Yuki instructed. He still didn't want to be leader, though. "Kaori, you know what to do?"
"I got it." Kaori nodded.
Shoji leapt into action. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Tatsuya and Makoto followed right afterward, and they all fired non-stop attacks at the Phantom to keep it at bay. Yuki begun charging up the Fireball Cannon meanwhile, so it would be charged up and ready when it was time.
Kaori aimed one last Freeze Shot arrow, aiming for the precise spot of the Phantom's right eye socket. (I know I can do this.) She thought to herself. Once the target was lined up, she fired the Freeze Shot and it struck the Phantom right in the eye. It's guard was now down, but only for a very limited time.
"Good, now I'll finish it!" Yuki had charged up the Fireball Cannon enough for it to finish off the Phantom. "Now, Fireball Cannon!" He thrusted forward his hands and blasted the attack directly in the Phantom's body. It must not have had much strength left to fight after that, because it had slumped, and some of its bones were even broken. "Kaori, you do the honours?"
Kaori shot another Freeze Shot on cue to finish the Phantom off. It pierced the belly and caused it to explode, splattering purple blood all over the place.

After the long and hard battle, everybody relaxed in that spot, and once things had settled down they observed the outcome.
"Well, aside from the blood that's all over the place, there was a bit of damage done to the area. But, other than that, nothing was destroyed and it didn't get the chance to reach the people." Tatsuya observed.
"Well then, I'd say tonight was a success." Yuki gave a thumbs up. "Nice work, all of you did your best. Especially you Kaori, I don't think we could've done it without you."
"Hey, stop..." Kaori blushed. "Aww, thanks." She gave Yuki a friendly hug.
"Why don't you get a room, you two?" Makoto teased.
"No way, it's not like that!" Kaori got offended.
"You're saying that now, but you'll see." Makoto chuckled.
"Hey, we've only known each other for one month and there's nothing between us, okay?" Kaori closes the discussion. "Well, it's really late now, so we should get back home. You guys wanna come with us on the train?"
"That's cool, we'll catch another train. We don't have any money so we'll have to try not to get caught evading fares, and we wouldn't wanna drag you into trouble." Tatsuya explained.
"Wow, you guys must have it rough, huh?" Kaori felt sorry.
"Oh, don't worry, we've had it worse." Tatsuya reflected.
"Okay, well good luck with that. Good night." Yuki waved them goodbye for the moment as he left the scene with Kaori.

10:55 PM

Yuki and Kaori took the train back home, after having defeated the Phantom and learnt a valuable lesson.
Yuki could hear Kaori now listening to "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" on her eMusic.

I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk alone

"You like Green Day, I take it?" Yuki observed.
Kaori smiled at Yuki. "Yeah. You too?"
"Hey, Kaori, I think I can let you know now." Yuki decided to tell Kaori the truth.
"Hm?" Kaori paused her music and took our her headphones. "It's okay now, I understand."
"No. I think we've been through enough now for me to tell you." Yuki opened up to Kaori. "Well, long story short, I grew up in the Dragon Guild with Shoji and Sora."
"Wait, that Shoji?" Kaori interuppted.
"Uh huh."
"Okay, go on."
Yuki resumed. "We were all on the same team together and we were all really close. But one mission on my 12th birthday..." He reflected. "I must have done something. It was all such a blur, but what I do know was what it caused. Sora was killed because of my actions and me and Shoji disbanded and left the guild."
"Wow... That would've hurt." Kaori gave Yuki his sympathy.
"Yeah, and after all that time I still feel like shit." Yuki chuckled, for whatever reason. Kaori got a tear in her eye. "Hey, why are you crying? It's not your fault."
"I'm sorry. I'm just crying because you won't." She admitted.
"As you can probably assume, me and Shoji weren't on very good terms last time we met. I honestly didn't think I'd see him again. Sora was also his sister, so it affected him as much as it did me." Yuki elaborated. "It's been a tough time for both of us, and I'm sure Shoji hasn't forgotten either."
"I feel kinda bad though, I've just been nagging you all this time and I didn't even know it was something so close to you." Kaori regretted her actions. "You must think I'm a big jerk, huh?"
"I've known you for a whole month now, and I know you're a really good friend." Yuki encouraged Kaori.
"You just want me to feel better about myself, don't you?" Kaori got a little embarassed.
"You are a good friend. Nobody else would have let me into their house to live, for one. You care about me so much even though you never knew me before, and I think that says more about you than anything else." Yuki thanked her. He then looked at Kaori to see that she had since fallen sound asleep, resting her head on his lap. "Hey, Kaori... Thanks."

February 20

Kaori's apartment

Kaori slept in a while longer than normal. She woke up to find Yuki. "Oh, good morning Yuki." She bowed. "I guess I was really tired huh?"
Yuki chuckled. "You went fast asleep on the train last night. I had to carry you home."
Kaori blushed a bit with embarassment. "What? You carried me?" She grabbed her mobile phone to check the time. 8:45. "Oh, I should start making breakfast!" She made it halfway to the kitchen before stopping. "Oh, Yuki, you told me about your past. I guess it's my turn, huh?"
"Hm?"
"Don't worry, I trust you." Kaori smiled at Yuki. "When I was 12, my dad was reported dead in his work one day, and three years later my mum killed herself. I had no choice but to leave home and move into this apartment where I lived by myself." She stopped smiling once she explained. "So, now we both know a bit more about each other. Actually, you're the first person I've ever been able to tell, because you're the first person I've actually met since then."
"Wow... Well, I'm really sorry to hear that." Yuki put his arm over Kaori in comfort. "So, we've both been under more or less the same thing, huh?"
"I guess so." Kaori agreed. "To be perfectly honest with you, even though I let you stay with me I never thought we'd be friends. I didn't know what would happen between us, really. You see, my dad was the only real friend I had. You're the only other person in my life I could call a friend."
"Really?" Yuki was surprised to find out. "Well, I consider it an honour to be your second ever friend. You should try making friends more often."
"Huh?" Kaori blushed. "Thanks. It's nice to know that's how you feel about me." She started feeling a little bit funny standing in front of Yuki. She looked down to the ground, then back up to Yuki. "Well, I'm glad I met you. I hope we do eventually stop these Phantoms, then what do you think we're gonna do?"
The funny thing was, to both of them a future without having to fight the Phantoms now seemed a little farfetched. Of course, it would still be nice. "I guess everything will go back to the way it used to be." Yuki replied, then walked back into his room. Kaori stood there for a while dwelling on what Yuki just said.​

Meanwhile

Shoji had made his way to the top of a skyscraper in the city. He stood at the edge, folding his arms as he looked down at everything.
"Yuki..." He spoke under his breath, with a harsh tone. "I'm sick of joking around, Yuki. Next time I see you, it'll be personal."

Meanwhile

In the alleys, Tatsuya had gotten into a street fight with another street rat, only they knew each other from the past.
"I'm telling you, there's no point in fighting like this." Tatsuya wiped the blood off his mouth. "Please, just listen to me for a moment..."
"Here's my counter offer, piss off Tatsuya." The other street rat growled. "I'm sick of you being a goody-two shoes."
"You're obviously still worrying about two years ago, right?" Tatsuya observed.
"I'm a damn murderer. Where else do I have to go?" He raised his voice. "And how can the people I affected forgive me, including you?"
"I don't know. But I do know the only way to go is up." Tatsuya countered. "It's been two years, you can turn over a new leaf starting now."
"I'm sick of your bullshit!" He tried to throw another punch at Tatsuya, but stopped himself before it made contact. "Aw, screw it." He ran off, leaving Tatsuya alone in the alley.
"I worry about you, Keiichii. I really do." Tatsuya said to him even though he knew he was gone. Then he left the alley too, in the opposite direction.

That night in the Dreamworld

"Well, how did last night go?" Shinji asked everyone once they entered the Dreamworld.
"It wasn't easy, but we won, I guess." Yuki chuckled. "Actually, I'm still not sure if we did beat him."
"In that case, I would consider last night a success." Shinji congratulated them. "But don't get cocky now. Something tells me this is only just the beginning." This made everyone feel a bit more concerned inside. "We might as well tell you now, there will be yet another one of these attacks on March 18th, in the city of Junai this time. But, until then, all we can do is keep training and getting stronger."
"Ooh, Shinji!" Shoji raised his arm. "Pit me and Yuki against each other in a sparring match! I wanna show him what I've got!"
"This should be entertaining." Makoto mocked Shoji. "Yuki, burn his ass!"
"Hey, shut up!" Shoji snapped at her.
"Okay, Yuki and Shoji, let's see what you can do." Shinji agreed to the idea.

Yuki and Shoji begun sparring with each other. It started out as usual, casually attacking and countering. But then, Shoji escalated it when he started violently trying to beat Yuki with full force punches. Yuki did the same to Shoji, and before you knew it it had become a full on brawl. Shinji had to break it up by blowing Shoji away with his wind powers.
"What the hell was that about Shoji?" Shinji scolded Shoji.
"Yuki, I still haven't forgiven you." Shoji ignored Shinji for Yuki.
"Is that what this is about? You've really held a grudge all this time?" Yuki fought back.
"I'll never forgive you for killing my sister!"
"I miss Sora too, Shoji, stop feeling so sorry for yourself!"
"Come on, let's finish this!" Shoji was about to start the fight back up but Shinji blew him away again.
"I don't care what's going on between you, violence like that is senseless. Save it for the Phantoms." Shinji tried to talk some sense into Shoji. "I said it before and I'll say it again, co-operation will be vital."
"Fuck you!" Shoji ran off on everyone. Yuki ran off too in the opposite direction.
"What's wrong with Shoji?" Tatsuya reacted. "Gotta say I didn't see that coming."
"We shouldn't worry about them for now. Let's just resume with our training." Shinji tried to deflect their focus.
"Hey, Yuki!" Kaori went after Yuki to confront him.

"Yuki..." Kaori found Yuki soon enough, his back turned. "Are you okay?"
"I knew he was gonna be like this." Yuki grunted. "I can't believe him."
"Don't worry about him." Kaori tried to settle Yuki. "I'm here for you."
Yuki smiled at Kaori, but he wasn't any less angry with Shoji.
"When I lost my dad, that was really hard on me too." Kaori tried to relate herself to Yuki. "You never meant any harm, did you? I know that's not like you."
Yuki shook his head.
"If Shoji won't forgive you after all this time, he's not really your friend after all."
"Exactly. I wish I never was his friend." Yuki exhaled. "Who am I kidding? I'm the one to blame here. I haven't exactly forgiven myself either."
"Well, I know what's it like to lose somebody that close to you. They were like your family, huh? So in some sense we both lost our families. I know how you feel. And when I say that, I actually mean it."
"Well, thanks for being so caring for me Kaori." Yuki thanked Kaori. "At least I can count on you."
"Come on, we should get back to the others." They made their way back.

March 1
Phantom's Hideout

"I honestly didn't expect them to make it this far..." Heartless spoke to himself, in reference to Yuki and the others. "They may have been able to stop two Phantom attacks, but they still had no chance up against me." He decided they were nothing to worry about. "I'll wait a while and see how long they last. But for when they do face me again, I'll show them my full power. It's time to get out that Phantom Breaker again." He found the Phantom Breaker, a weapon exclusively for use with the Phantoms. "I think I'll pay some old friends a visit..."

That night in the Dreamworld

Shinji and Layla were suddenly confronted with Phantoms, which they had no problem fending off, but after that they had to meet Heartless in person.
"Did you miss me?" Heartless asked rhetorically.
"What do you want?" Shinji confronted. "You can't kill us. We're already dead."
"I know." Heartless spoke casually. "I'm here to give you a warning. And I have an order to give you."
"Who would take an order from a sick bastard like you?" Layla yelled.
"Wait, hear me out on this one." Heartless stopped her. "I understand that you help assist those five young heroes, correct?" He continued. "Well, the next time you meet them, I have something for you to tell them. Tell them to surrender to me before it's too late for them."
"No way!" Shinji refused. "I'm sure they're above throwing in the towel that easily, especially to the likes of you!"
"Well then, will this change your mind?" Heartless revealed the Phantom Breaker to them.
"Who cares about that stupid toy sword?" Layla insulted.
"A toy? You make me laugh at your ignorance. Would a toy be able to obliterate an entire city at the drop of a hat?" Heartless chuckled. "Okay, let me prove to you just how strong I am."
"Sure, we've got nothing else to lose." Shinji and Layla charged towards Heartless to attack, but he used a single swift strike of the Phantom Breaker, leaving a big trail of Phantom aura, and they were done in. The Phantom Breaker's power was overwhelming, to say the least.
"I knew you wouldn't stand a chance, but that was pathetic." Heartless laughed.
"But you don't understand. They have even more potential than us." Shinji tried to convince.
"Stop holding onto false hope." Heartless told them once more. "How about this - if you tell them to give up, I won't kill them. I'll just destroy Shikashi instead."
"NO!" Shinji barked. "What kind of a deal is that?!"
"Alright then, this is my second offer. I'll wait for them to challenge me again. Then once I easily defeat them, I'll destroy Shikashi, then the rest of the world will come after. My final offer."
"You're a sick bastard." Layla grunted. "What happened to Rain?"
"He's long gone. Trapped inside this evil body forever, and he will take part first-hand in the destruction of the world. We will finally achieve the life long goal of the Phantoms!" Heartless announced. "Until then, goodbye."

March 2
The Dreamworld

"Good, you're all here." Shinji told the five teenagers standing before him.
"Is it something important, Shinji?" Yuki asked.
"Listen to me for a moment. You may not agree with me, but trust me."
"Huh? Is everything okay?" Kaori worried.
"You all know the Phantoms are a devastating threat. Heartless is already a bad enough threat as he is. The Phantoms attack more than what you can prevent. They're on the prowl just about every night. It's not rare that people are badly injured by the Phantoms, and more than you'd like to believe, they are killed."
"So that means that we'll never be able to stop all incidents involving the Phantoms." Tatsuya gathered as he looked down to the ground. "The best we can do is make sure it ends."
"We know, It's a pain in the ass." Makoto sighed.
"We want you to give up the fight, right now." Shinji dropped the bomb on them.
They stood there for a while trying to confirm what he had just said. "But, but why?" Yuki asked baffled.
"Heartless has now revealed the Phantom Breaker to us. He attacked us last night to prove his strength. We went down with one single strike. I doubt you'd do much better." Layla explained.
"Heartless is now even worse than before. It doesn't matter if you face him, you will lose, and he will destroy the world." Shinji was clearly regretting what he was saying, but carried on. "It's over. We're sorry we dragged you into this to begin with. It was a mistake. You might as well spend the last few days on earth without the burden of trying to prevent it."

The five of them looked at each other, and ultimately decided they knew best. They chose not to argue with them any longer, and that was the end of that. The next few days everyone was awaiting the day Heartless would just get it over with and destroy the world. But they knew one thing, that they begun to regret giving up without a fight.

...

But that would be a pretty disappointing way to end it, don't you think?

"Sorry, no can do." Yuki refused to give up.
"Now, you listen to me!" Shinji still tried to stop them.
"No, listen to me." Yuki stopped him. "I think I speak for everyone when I say we don't want to do this any longer. But that doesn't mean we should give in to a creep like Heartless any time soon." He turned his head to the others. "You all agree with me, right?"
Tatsuya shrugged his shoulders. "Well, we've made it this far. There's no going back now."
Makoto seemed to agree with Tatsuya. "Well, if he's in, so am I! Let's do it!"
"You know what? You're right." Kaori told Yuki. "I don't like this at all. But that doesn't mean I'm giving up that easily."
"Well, Shoji, that just leaves you."
"You know what? Let's do it." Shoji pumped his fist.
"We didn't want to put this much weight on your shoulders." Layla admitted. "But it looks like there's no arguing with you."
"We want to thank you for your persistence. We'll start training you harder than ever before." Shinji thanked everyone.
"Well then, what are we waiting for? Next time we see Heartless, we'll finish this once and for all!"

The second battle against the Phantoms was only just beginning. And whether they quite knew what they were getting themselves into or not, nothing could prepare them for what was to come.

I don't want to seem so clingy to the past, but I still think about it all the time...

January 19, 2106
Dragon Guild, Kayra

Four years ago, Yuki and Shoji were only age 11-12, but they had always been young fighters. At this point in their lives they were in the Dragon Guild. Yuki had been in the guild all his life as he was orphaned there at birth, while Shoji along with her sister Sora joined both at the age of 7. Ever since Shoji and Sora joined they were teamed up with Yuki, at which point the three of them officially started going on missions at the guild.

Yuki sat alone in a green grassy area just before a blue river stream. He was at peace for that moment. Then he heard somebody call out his name, then they headed towards him.
"Happy birthday, bro!" Shoji congratulated.
"How'd you know it was my birthday?" Yuki chuckled. "Don't worry about it, it's not that big a deal. I don't want you guys to make a big deal out of it, okay?"
"But you're special to us, man. You're like another brother to us. A third sibling." Shoji told Yuki about his respect for him. "Y'know, we've been together for a good four or five years now. We've really gotten closer to each other. We're the three amigos!"
"We are, aren't we?" Sora smiled. "Happy birthday, Yuki."
"Hey, I'll leave the two of you alone for a moment." Shoji left them to head back inside the guild.
Sora sat down next to Yuki as the two of them looked forward at the river. "Hey, Yuki, sometimes do you feel a little embarrassed?" Sora asked Yuki.
"Embarrassed about what?" Yuki wondered.
"About how Shoji always jokes about us getting married, or something like that." Sora blushed a little.
"Well, if I did get married, it would cerntaintly be with you, and I don't find anything embarrassing about that." Yuki was also blushing quite a bit.
"D... do you..." Sora was trying to ask Yuki something, but was afraid to say it.
"You okay, Sora?"
Sora decided to say it. "Do you wanna get married, for real?"
"What, like, right now? But we're still only 12. I think we have to wait a few more years to get married." Yuki was confused.
"I meant, we can promise to each other we'll get married, once we're old enough." Sora's hand made her way to Yuki's as she said this.
"You really wanna get married?" Yuki chuckled. "Wow, I didn't think we would talk about this when we're still this young..."
"Please?" Sora assured Yuki she wanted to do it.
"I promise you, as soon as we turn 18 we'll get married." Yuki held onto Sora's hand tighter.
"Am I killing the moment here?" Shoji sneaked up on them, prompting them to stand right up, feeling a bit embarrassed.
"No, you're okay." Yuki told him.
"Well, we have an urgent mission. Some sort of invisible attack was reported a week ago, and that must be the Phantoms." Shoji informed them.
"The Phantoms?" Yuki moaned. "I hate fighting the Phantoms."
"Well, the faster we do it the sooner we can get it over with." Shoji looked on the bright side. "There's no time to lose. Let's go, I'll fill you in on the briefing." Yuki and Sora followed him to commence their mission.

Later

Phantoms had been reported attacking Kayra, and being the only ones who could see them aside from the leader of the guild himself, Yuki, Shoji and Sora were selected first-hand to go on the mission. This was before Yuki and Shoji officially joined the battle against the Phantoms in the present day, but they had dealt with Phantoms multiple times before since they were in the guild and this was not new to them.

"Well, like it or not, we gotta deal with them." Shoji told Yuki. "If there were more people in the guild who could see them, they could just take care of all the Phantom problems."
"You okay, Yuki?" Sora looked at her side to see Yuki. "You don't look very happy."
"Well, you wouldn't be happy either if you had to fight the Phantoms." Yuki sighed.
It was then that the first bunch of Phantoms revealed themselves.
"Oh, speak of the devil." Shoji prepared to fight them.
The Phantoms launched towards them and attacked. They tried countering their attacks but they were fast.
"Hold on, I got this!" Sora got out a gold pocketwatch she had and held it forward, to stop time. She didn't have long before she got fatigued from this power, so she swung her large mallet and knocked back most of the Phantoms, killing some too. Time went back to normal and they all finished off the Phantoms.
"Okay, we can't rest until we're sure all the Phantoms are gone." Yuki concluded once this fight was one. "Let's go."
"Wait, maybe we should split up and take care of them that way." Shoji suggested.
"Alright then. Shoji and Sora, the two of you go one way and I'll go the other by myself." Yuki decided.
"Okay then. Don't get yourself killed or anything, cos you wouldn't wanna get killed on your birthday or anything." Shoji chuckled.
"I know."
"Yuki? Good luck." Sora smiled at Yuki, which made him feel happy inside to have somebody who loves him. Shoji and Sora ran off to take care of some Phantoms, and Yuki did the same.

Now, at this point I don't exactly remember what happened. It was a blur, for some reason, maybe not even that. I literally don't remember what happened, only a trace of it.

"Hey, it's Yuki!" Shoji called out to Yuki once he returned. But Yuki didn't look the same. He had a very angry, hostile look on his face. And it was aimed towards them.
"Yuki... Are you okay?" Sora started to worry. "You look almost like you're mad at us..."
"Hey, you okay Yuks? Geez, what's gotten into you all of a sudden?"
Yuki maintained his angry look. Then, he did something nobody expected - he threw a big, violent punch at Shoji. And it was strong enough to hurt Shoji bad.
"Hey, what the hell Yuki?!" Shoji raised his voice. "Man, you must be pissed off, huh? What did I ever do to ya?"
"Shut up." Yuki finally spoke up. "You better kneel before me if you value your life." He used a tone of voice that sounded nothing like him. It was cold, harsh, and had not a single fragment of the real Yuki. Not to mention that is something he would never say.
"I ain't kneeling before nobody, you jackass!" Shoji yelled.
"Shoji, please stop." Sora tried to stop her brother from making it worse. "Let me take care of this." She stepped in front of Shoji and confronted Yuki.
"Yuki... What's wrong?" Sora asked him.
"What does it matter to you?" Yuki asked her with that same tone. "If you try and go against me it will cost you dearly."
"Nobody talks to my sister that way!" Shoji grunted to himself.
"Yuki, I know you would never hurt us. Please, calm down. I know you're in there somewhere." Sora smiled at Yuki again. "Come here, please." She opened her arms wide, as if to ask for a hug. Yuki stood there idle for a moment. "Please, Yuki..."
Yuki walked towards Sora slowly. But what he was about to do would change everything for the worse.
He got his sword, and cut Sora deep right down the middle of her chest. It left a big, bloody red mark, and nearly killed Sora. She collapsed onto the floor, barely alive.
"Yuki, stop it!" Shoji shouted at Yuki at the top of his lungs, on the verge of tears. "No, Yuki!"
Yuki stabbed Sora once more time which killed her for good. Then, it was at this moment, a moment too late, that Yuki snapped out of it and regained his rationality. And then he saw the huge mess he created.

January 20, 2106

Yuki visited Sora's grave to pay her respect. It was a grey, miserable day that was pouring down, as if to rub salt onto the wound. He felt terrible. And that was being nice. He felt like a monster. At this very moment Yuki hated himself more than anyone else, and he would continue to feel this way about himself for a long time to come. Shoji came up to Yuki from behind.
"I don't know what happened to me yesterday..." Yuki told Shoji. "But now I have to live with it for the rest of my life. It's something that's affected both of us. But I want you to know, I did not mean it."
"Sorry Yuki, it's too late to apologisz." Shoji clearly wouldn't forgive Yuki for a long time. "You killed my sister and the only family I knew before my eyes. I don't need to tell you that was horrid, and something I can never forgive anyone for doing."
Yuki sat on the ground, his head buried deep in his chest. "I'm so sorry." He wept. "I'm sorry to everyone. I don't think I'll forgive myself either."
"Well then, I guess I can't be on the same team as somebody responsible for killing my sister." Shoji told Yuki bitterly. "I'm out of the guild for good, and I'm not looking back. I've already made it official with the leader. If you want to do the same, go ahead, but I don't ever want to see you again." Those were the last words he spoke to Yuki before he walked away, and wouldn't see him again until the present day.

I promised I'd never forgive myself, and to this day that remains true. For the past four years, I've felt like the most miserable person in the world.