"Bye-bye! Come again soon." Gachi waved to the last customer leaving. Once the door closed and the act was over, she turned, dropping her perceived optimism. "Do we have to smile all the time? My cheeks hurt from holding it all day."

She watched Pro run across with a mop on the floor, and Luka hastily went from table to table wiping them off with a damp cloth. Within two days they were already accustomed to the business and Lutz gave them defined roles fitting their appearance which were good maid, bad maid, lead maid and accountant. The last role was for Kyokai, often left to count and sort payment since he wasn't a pleasant sight to the otaku customers who often visited. Afterwards Kyokai received a beep from his phone and opened it, his brows furrowed.

"What is it, Kyokai?" Gachi curiously asked while peeking from behind the front counter.

"Maine's looking for us. If we're done here, we should get going." Kyokai stood up and motioned for the others to follow him to the changing room, switching out of their uniforms and departing from the cafe ready to close for the afternoon.

All of Murakumo gathered in the backyard of Cocoa's mansion now pristine with newly grown white flowers in place of the purple bloom they cut down. The winter had cleared and subsided and the sky was free of clouds and despair, either a coincidence or the result of many more dragons in the superdimension being defeated. Kyokai gave Lari and Naoto all the data he had collected and analyzed and both magic analysts found out the location of the dragon holding that realm together, they titled these dragons 'hightier dragons' for having a higher power than normal dragons but not completely intelligent like true dragons. They would also be investigating a newly made tempest formed out of nowhere that just happened to be on the route they were going to take towards the hightier dragon.

Once outside, Gray slid the door closed, and accompanied by Yellow, both maids hurried to the leaderless group. The maids saw floating command prompts and windows displaying information they couldn't decipher all around Lari and Naoto who were sitting at the roundtable in the yard. Nonetheless they interjected into their focus.

"Mistress won't come out of her room again!" Yellow cried.

"We fixed her door but she locked it using a magic seal this time! Maybe someone can convince her?" Gray added.

Maine was the first to groan with her wolf ears lowering in response. "You can't be serious."

"Who cares? Not like we need her to lead us anyway. We have Luka and Kyokai for that, and they're way smarter!" Said a proud Gachi.

The two she named were the strategists of the group, able to put together a plan within the heat of things but she was overestimating their skill. With a straightforward mission like this, they didn't have any elaborate strategies other than to proceed cautiously and to fight smart on their way to the hightier dragon. The party was to split in two. Pro's group with Luka and Gachi were to take the route towards the tempests and the hightier dragon while Maine and Remy were tasked with distracting a horde of dragons away from the tempest.

Kris and Kyokai stayed on the outside to monitor from a screen Naoto had broadcast on his laptop. This was going to be their biggest expedition yet. "Remember everything I taught you. Protect each other and don't forget the blade is your closest friend in battle." Kris said.

Kyokai was quick to try and cheer him up. Warding away any despairing thoughts he had deep within. Finished with their preparations, Lari looked at Maine asking one last time if she was ready and when she nodded, Lari swiped her hand across one of the floating windows and shouted 'Transfer!". Maine's and Remy's bodies started to thin out of existence. Now able to see how it looked to others, Pro had a hard time describing their bodies flattening out and going two dimensional before vanishing. If she tried then her explanation would be a salad of words that didn't connect with each other. Shaking aside that thought, she looked down at her phone in her hand and envisioned Paradise Shinjuku then transferred.

This time she was taken to a completely new area surrounded by buildings on both her left and right. An alleyway, and straight ahead led to a small plaza of shops, all abandoned and built with mixed debris wreckage. A transparent window appeared beside her displaying a flat map of the area and a red dot representing where she stood. A red line was drawn from her to what looked like a bridge while Lari's voice spoke from the window. "Can you hear me? You'll need to be quick managing that tempest ahead. There's a lot of dragons outside that alley and Maine won't be able to keep them distracted for long. They have incredible senses and will sniff out the despair around that area."

Pro tried to grab the window only for it to fizzle out and she quietly replied, "Alright."

She, Luka and Gachi drew their respective weapons; an estoc, a longsword with a white handle and exquisitely designed cross guard, and a katana with a straight blade, but Gachi quickly clarified it to be a tachi.

They hurried on into the plaza where their eyes immediately caught a ginger haired boy tied up in rope and paler than ash lying at the door of a building. They didn't know how many days he'd been stuck here but it looked like quite a while. They noticed his uniform then a lightbulb turned on in Gachi's head.

She smacked her fist in her hand "That's Rei Valor… something. Why is he here? Is someone else in the school trying to kill students?"

Luka rubbed her chin. "This looks like a trap. Should we wait for the culprit to reveal themselves or take their bait head on?"

"I'll get him!" Gachi ran towards the fainted ginger with her hand wrapped tightly around her weapon and scabbard. Just before she reached him she hopped back preemptively avoiding an attack from above. Judith, known as the stranger to them, armed with heavy metal gauntlets almost crushed Gachi beneath her fist that left cracks on the ground where she struck. The loud rumble woke Rei from his trance and he saw the whole sneak attack fail. Though dead tired, he had enough energy to mock. "Haha you suck Judith!"

"Judith huh?" Gachi drew her sword and struck steel against steel. Sparks flew off their weapons as she and Judith recoiled back from their immediate clash. "It's like we're rivals by the amount of times we encountered!" She lunged her sword only for Judith to deflect it away with a punch and pulled her other fist back.

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Gachi grinned and twisted her back foot to stiffened her stance to guard for Judith's second punch.

"Shut it!" Judith's fist tore through wind but it was slow enough for Gachi to change pace and dodge to the side out of range. She was still able to feel the force of wind from her missed attacks and retreated further as Luka and Pro moved to surround Judith from both sides.

She wouldn't notice their plans to attack from three sides and she didn't need to. Summoning her link sign, not a claymore but now a zweihander, she swung the heavy sword around from her back hitting all three away even when they blocked in preparation. All it took was one hit and they struggled to recover from the recoil she inflicted. Their weapons bending under the weight of her strength, they were left on the ground for a solid minute. They couldn't tell whether it was magic or pure strength that left them staggered; that minute was all she needed to walk over to Rei, raising her foot above his head.

"What?! You're going to kill me?! This wasn't in the agreement!"

"No need for a hostage, even a fake one. Your pickup lines weren't too bad. I might miss you saying them." Judith's calm reply made Rei close his eyes accepting fate. At least the girl killing him was hot.

But Pro interrupted, trying to buy time to think of a plan. "Wait! Why are you doing this? What does he have to do with the dragons and this world?"

Judith smirked and moved her leg away from his head, instead, placing her zweihander by his neck while she turned to face Pro. "Listen closely! You're in the way of me and my team trying to get rid of despair. There's no one else here but you so I'm certain your involvement here has something to do with changing world consciousness. Adding even more despair where there was none."

"You've got it all wrong!"

Judith still protested against any sort of alliance between them. "This world gives us a chance to change our own how we see fit. Your dreams and mine are not compatible."

"Nn…" Her choice was set in stone and nothing was going to change that. They didn't know this world had that kind of effect on the real one, to reshape it as they wanted to. As far as Murakumo was concerned, the dragons were their only threat. Dreams, changing the world, or violently killing as they wished, those were secondary and barely half a thought in their minds. With their time gone and their opportunity to strike getting shorter, Pro looked at Luka in the corner of her eye and winced after realizing she too didn't have a plan to save Rei. The second death they couldn't prevent, this time, a real student from their school.

Suddenly Rei shouted, "From above!" and their heads all turned to verify what hostile was coming. Something fast that fell on Judith who managed to move away from the attacker. The strike struck the ground creating a massive cloud of dust from the crater made in her place.

Rei coughed and hacked and squinted to open his eyes to see his savior as the dust parted, "Cocoa!?"

Armed with a polearm, she dashed forward swinging overhead. "Don't run from me bastard!"

Judith raised her sword to block the strike but on impact, the staff broke into 3 sections and Cocoa maneuvered the changed weapon like a whip and thrusted it towards the ground, summoning thunder to blast her away. Judith crashed into a hedge of dying leaves getting her poncho stuck on the branches. She took it off and darted away from another strike of lightning from above. Now her school uniform, a blue colored uniform was exposed but the group was too far to get a good inspection. Judith would make her escape the same way she did last time, backflipping on top of a building and getting away.

Cocoa swiped her arm. "Agh! Lari, let me chase her down!"

A window would then appear beside her telling her no. "Retrieve Rei, Cocoa."

The battle looked to be over until a second window appeared beside Pro with Naoto talking on the other side. "Bad news, Pro--"

"Pro! You gotta run there's a horde of dragons with big mouths coming your way!" Maine screamed, nearly piercing her ears. Even Rei heard it from far away. Immediately after their warnings the ground rumbled and shook under the weight of a flock of pink colored dragons with their bodies mostly composed of her long snout and gaping mouths. Their legs were short, stubby even, but they were faster than any ordinary person especially when grouped together.

Cocoa picked up Rei and was transferred out just as quickly as she transferred in. As for Pro's group, they were left to run screaming. Running down the only path ahead, another alley, then being swarmed from behind by the pink wave that swept them up and away. Luckily they weren't trampled, managing to flip up and cling to the dragon's back. The swarm of dragons moved like a pack of wolves and for the meantime they hadn't picked up the group's differing scent. Pro held onto the dragon's back until they were crossing the bridge they needed to go on.

She looked off the edge seeing a river below and it didn't look shallow. "Jump!" She screamed for her teammates to take the same leap of faith below, descending into water then darkness.

During that brief time in pitch black, Pro heard the masked girl's voice speak to her through unknown means. "Quite brave to face a true dragon after your bloodshed. However I need you to do less than kill it with your unrelenting power. Use this card like you would with many others and capture it."

Just like when they transferred, their bodies would be twisted and taken to another location. It was sudden they found themselves in an underground cave lit by the reflection of puddles on the ground. Their communication with anyone from the real world were cut, Luka assumed by there not being any indication or warning of where they were or what the hightier dragon was from Lari or Naoto.

They moved on to see for themselves and emerged from the tunnel to an arena of sorts. Standing in the center of the soon to be battlefield was a light grey dragon standing on its hind legs and using its wings as a cloak. Accenting this pale dragon was a purple line going from the single horn on its head down its back and tail, as well as painting its inner wings and claws. The way this dragon stared down at them with sharp red eyes, it had a conscience, and was waiting like it expected them. Its mouth didn't move when it spoke out, its voice similar to a wise old man and echoing off the smooth stone walls.

"Dragons slayers such as yourself have no future. Depart now, that is my only warning to you."

Pro took out a new link sign from her pocket. There was no picture but holding it, she could tell it was aching for power to devour. She pointed it at the dragon and saved the interrogation for later. "Give us your power." Not an inch of fear was heard in her tone.

The dragon's mouth cracked open slightly "Not even your human ancestors were this prideful. They came to me in the past and bowed their heads respecting the differences in power between man and master." Insulted by their presence, the dragon opened its wings "You stand in the ruler's domain. Either I kill you or the next dragon will. Either way, your fate is in my hands."

There was no need to exchange further words. The battle would decide whose fate is who's, and the humans standing in front of the beast had no intention or thoughts of losing here. The battle would end as quickly as it began, a duel between dragon and dragon slayer--the result was always the same as prophesied in many ancient texts and still a fate that persisted today. In one fell swoop they fell the dragon in a brutal fashion. It was the scariest Kris had seen the council and he wished he hadn't watched their battle that ended in the dragon's demise.