The dusk came deep from the outside of the mansion, and so does Rine's accidental slumber because of tiredness. Since he fought a formidable enemy barehanded, thus his body got almost worn out.

Unaware, He then opened his eyes after gaining consciousness. "Uwaa~"

He doesn't remember anything for a second there, wandering his eyes inside a medium sized space. Possibly, someone's bedroom.

From beside him, an unknown object was bulging from the blankets that intruiged him a bit.

"Wait, What if its..."

Thus out of curiosity, his fingertips lifted up the blanket whom he thought to be someone.

His hearts throbs as the tension progressed.

"This is more like the scene of an anime which the main character wokes up and see their heroines sleeping with them. But it can't be Rei isn't she?"

And so he completely disposed of its concealment, expecting if his guess was right, but then, on the contrary, it is a long pillow all along.

"... Gah-"

He couldn't believe himself to expect those things out of the blue "Ugh... I'm wrong! Totally wrong! I suck too much for thinking things!" Or so he thought...

A pair of arms wrapped to his body and grabbed it tightly as it could.

"Rin!" shouted its voice.

"Eh? Rei!?!?"

Rine's reflexes couldn't react fast and Reika had already locked him onto her grasp.

She directed her lips onto his ear and whisphered. But the tone of her voice doesn't seem cheeful

"I'll give you three seconds to fall back now, before I mince you with my Procure." warned the girl.

"Why would you have to do that in the first place? Its me, Rin."

"Rin huh? I just got deceived a while ago, and you'd really think your words could subdue me?"

She moved her arms onto his neck and began restraining his breathing.

"Now choose. Go away, or die?"

Thus Rine have left no choice but agreed to go away falsely just to lead her guard down for a moment. And she let him go, opening the chance to grab her arms and stop her entirely.

"You greedy Holders! You took everything from me once, and I won't let that happen again." her violent response.

"What's with you, Rei? This is me ok. You don't have to be so alarmed!"

Thus Reina's eyes widen because of extreme anger. "Then get out of my sight and never come back here!"

"But why? Why are you pushing me away like this? I have spent my whole life, finding you from nothing! I don't want to turn back again."

In a quandary of two emotions swirling around the atmosphere, no one couldn't choose to give up. They had their own sides, their opinions which has yet to be heard. Their inner sorrows were slowly showing up, no until a bother came entering the room without further ado.

He Shouted at them."Tch. Shut your frickin mouths, I'm trying to sleep! Just what are you doing in here!?"

But he saw these two at the exact moment we overlapped each other on the bed and had thought of doing such shameless things that only couples do.

"Oh, I see... You two seems having a good time after your first meeting eh? Unbelievable."

"No No No, You misunderstood something-".

Reika then took the opening and grabbed Rine, throwing him back. "Stop pretending already!"

"Whoa wait up, wait up. Beating your beloved Rin won't help your anger issues"

"But how am I supposed to calm down!? Even you have been decieved!"

Their little arguments have taken a long turn of denying each others' points thus alarmed the whole household. They were peeking through the door while watching them.

"Ugh! Settle down, Please! " adjured Matsuo to his exasperated sibling.

"Tsk. Fine! I'll hear you out. But if ever thid guy took a wrong move, make sure to clean out the mess I might make." replied Reika, with an edgy bravado.

Then the poor Rine has escaped sudden death.

They went downstairs and discussed their concerns on the mansion's dining room. The dining table seems enough to handle five persons at once, yet the free space of the room is too wide with huge windows on its side, enough for seeing the full moon, hanging onto the starry skies.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Thus their discussion have ended in mere minutes and left Reika's boldness defeated after knowing the truth.

She started to stutter as embrassment grows onto her thoughts. "A-Ah- I-"

"I deeply apologize for threatening you earlier! I'm sorry for being dumb and moved without knowing anything."

"Don't worry about it. Its natural for people to react like that whenever they sense dangers around." replied him timidly.

"Well, anyway. This is the first time you two met right?" meddled Matsuo on the two.

Fine got confused from what he said and asked. "First time? But we've already talked once at school."

"Nah. This is actually the first time..."

Matsuo, then put his hands and started to talk. "You see. My sister doesn't like to socialize from anyone at the school. She found it very difficult, especially when the whole school began recognizing her as one of the intellects throughout the school. Possessing this cute face of hers and wits does feel bad for her, yet she loves studying otherwise, So..."

Matsuo paused for a moment.

"So..."

"She had to lie about everything."

His tone of voice doesn't seem dubious. Matsuo's expression right now isn't typical from the Matsuo he knew from the campus.

"Lie about what? Do I still know nothing about you two?" He asked.

"Well, Uh... How could I say this..."

"The ones you were seeing at school lately... Its was just the power of Reika's Procure. She could cast a copy of our shadows and make them look like us. And then, we usually use them to attend school whenever we had to go in absence."

They weren't supposed to say this to anyone, but since Rine is already confirmed to be legitimate, then there's no point of hiding the truth from him, thus his expression couldn't hide his shock.

"Shadows? Only excellent Holders could cast shadows, in exchange of a worth a day's mana right?"

Matsuo answered. "Yeah. I have heart about that too, but that's not the case."

"Because she wis the Holder of Eternal Darkness itself."

And once more, Rine's thoughts had blown out after the big revelation.

"Hm? Why are so surprised?-" queried Matsuo while gazing at Rine's astonished face.

"Of course I would be! Who wouldn't be this surprised if you had this direct contact on this Legendary Procure!"

"Ugh. Enough of this serious talk now. It is been a while you two had quite a chat, so you should have fun instead."

Matsuo rose up from his seat and took his exit. "Well, this is the moment for you two though, byebye~"

"Hey wait-- Tsk. He ran away." Spoke Rine with a slight glum.

"I wonder what is with him today? The Matsuo I usually see at school doesn't have any kindness." He continued.

"U-Uh... He told you about you my Procure right? It was just his shadow which attends the school everyday."

"As you have heard from my brother, I dislike talking to people that much, so I had to make copies of ourselves to attend school. Unlike him, I attend my school sessions regularly, but I always mess up socializing, that I had to hide and let my shadow do the things for me at the surface while I'm doing my written works."

Rine touched his chin as he gaze at her."Hm... So that's what he meant by shadows huh. But what about the incident earlier? Was those fakes too?"

Reika nodded back. "Yes. We were suspecting that guy as one of the agents of a certain organization who wants to eliminate us and take the artifact we possess."

"Artifact you say... Was the sixth shard wasn't it? I have read and heard so much about them from my Grandpa. The legends says that a single one of them could even change the natures of the world itself."

the girl partially agreed "That was the probable cause. So we had to expose that guy and his motives on that right moment, but who would've thought you'll show up and entirely ruined both of our plans."

Rine chuckled "Well, I guess I'm sorry? Haha."

She giggled back cutely. "I don't mind it though. The issue it already finished and it is thanks to you, that he scrammed back to his own cave."

Hence the two smiled at each other. Those smiles they never had for a long time. Those smiles Rine had longed for all this time.

"Well, it is been a while since we had talked, but I'm glad you're doing great this far. Sadly, I have to go home now. I'll be doing my part-time tomorrow."

Standing up from the seat, Rine had no regrets from coming in here at the first place. Their fun chat unseemingly short, but its worth a while after seeing his secretly loved friend's fine condition.

"Eh? You're already going? The night is still early."

Rine smirked "Don't worry. I'll pay you a visit tomorrow."

Thus Reika replied dejectedly "Aw. Fine..."

And so Rine waved goodbye, despite gazing at her dispirited exoression is pulling him back.

Walking outside the dining room lead him to an endless threads of paths before taking the exit. The mansion has a lot of staircases which has relevance to each other's appearance. It is enough for a single person to get lost after taking several floors without looking back.

He scratched his head. "Was the house like this when I came in?"

Hopefully, a middle aged-man in a butler's uniform happened to pass by the hallways. It was James, going out from one of the rooms.

"Ah... Mister. What a great time to see you wandering by. Is something troubling you?"

"Uh... I was actually on my way home, and I forgot my way back to the exit." answered him, dumbfounded.

"Hm... Well, I you wouldn't mind, I could guide you to the exit right away." offered the butler as he lend me a hand.

"Wow. That's a great help then."

And so he lead the way from the staricase to the right side that also guided us to another selection of tracks toward the ground floor.

But it feels like they were just looping inside the mansion, despite arriving down floor by floor. Rine noticed it right away, as every floor is always relevant from the past ones.

"Hey, sir. I was just Wondering if how many floors was this house when it was built? I kinda feel like we were just circling around here forever"

"Its alright Mister. This mansion is indeed confusing for the newcomers, since the floors is completely similar from each other. But worry not, It only has four floors to explore within." chuckled the old man.

"Is that so? Then I should make a map of it some time. I might get lost again the next time." jested Rine.

Thus a minute or two and they finally arrived at the ground floor. Rine is quite exhausted from taking a number of stairs before having his leave from this house.

"Phew. I didn't thought it'll be this tiring..."

He took a breather while leaning closely at the outside walls.

"Haha. You'll get used to it soon enough." the old man jokingly cheered him up.

"Well, thanks for guiding me back here, Sir James."

James nodded back "Its my pleasure to help you then, our dear guest."

And as soon as he regain his breath, Rine had soon left the gates of the bizarre residence and went his way back home, directly going to bed while humming his joy onto the air.

"My, what an amazing day." he thought to himself as he nuzzle at the pillows against him.

Soon the drowsiness began to consume his thoughts, thus taking him to the dreamland, unaware...

| -Unknown- |

Meanwhile at a far distance. Just by a harbour on Tokyo, a man on a cowboy hat, with cigar hanging on his mouth, emerged at the dark corridors of the area.

"Ah~ How I've missed this bright city of Tokyo~"

He took off his hat and felt the wafts of air hitting through his cheeks, feeling the refreshing scenery, after going back to the city he have left for a long time.

"I guess, this is the right time for a great introduction~"

And as soon as starry nights flickers from above the plaza, a curtain call brewed the winds of Tokyo.