"What are you waiting for?" Levi yelled. "Run!"

Aldrich groaned loudly before turning on his heels and taking off, his chainmail clinking as he ran.

The doll began to count down. "60, 59, 58, 49..."

"You just skipped ten seconds!" Levi pointed out.

The doll ignored him but finished the countdown normally. At 'one,' all of the yurei vanished, in pursuit of Aldrich.

The doll turned to Levi as he moved to follow. "Fair warning, if you cheat and try to help him in any way, he loses and you both die."

Levi glared at it silently before running off.

×

Aldrich ran as fast as his feet could carry him, his mouth wide open, trying to fill his lungs as much as possible. It wasn't helping much though. He could feel himself slowly losing speed.

His heart dropped when he heard the ghostly screams of the yurei horde. They had begun to give chase. Had it already been a minute? He could've sworn he had ten more seconds.

He spotted two figures in the distance walking towards him. They got more visible after a few seconds. Veliona and the little girl, Momo. He slid to a stop right beside them.

"Why are you running?" Veliona asked. "And where's Levi?"

Aldrich didn't have time to explain; he slid her dagger out of its sheath. She gave a small cry of confused protest, but Aldrich had already started running again.

"Sorry!" he yelled over his shoulder. "I'll return it in 3 minutes!"

Veliona and Momo stood there for a few seconds, watching his receding figure. Then suddenly, she felt a cold wind rush past. She squinted a bit and was surprised to see the whole horde of yurei come into view.

"They must be playing a game," Momo suggested.

"Let's chase after them," Veliona said to the little girl, who nodded in response.

She took one more look in the direction they were originally heading before following Aldrich.

×

Aldrich had made a split-second decision to grab Veliona's dagger. Stopping to talk to her at all had allowed the yurei to almost catch up with him. But the chance of him outrunning them on foot was close to zero anyway, so he made the right choice.

He stared at it as he ran. It was an intricately designed weapon; he remembered Veliona mentioned she had bought it in Yumekawa. From that merchant Yuiitsu had wanted to meet so badly.

A random, worrying thought popped into his head: What if there was more to opening rifts than he knew? He had never actually asked Veliona for an in-depth explanation. He stretched his arm out and began to slash with the dagger.

Nothing.

"Oh gods, just my luck."

The air around him grew colder; the yurei were getting a bit too close for comfort. He took a sharp left and found himself staring at a dead end. He flipped around and pressed his back to the wall, the yurei slowly approaching.

He slashed the dagger through the air repeatedly. Still nothing. He paused, remembering something. Veliona might have mentioned something about picturing where you wanted to open a rift to.

He wasn't really familiar with this village though. He racked his brain, where could he go that the yurei couldn't follow? He slashed again, envisioning the first idea that came to him. To his relief, a rift opened. The yurei began to speed up at the sight of the rift, but it was too late. He had already stepped through...

And then he was falling. It had seemed smart at the time but plummeting towards the ground from twenty feet in the air, he was having second thoughts. At least there were no yurei in sight.

He hadn't fought many ghosts, so he hadn't been sure whether they could fly or not. It didn't seem like they could, much to his relief. The feeling didn't last long since the ground only kept getting closer. The rushing wind whipped at his face.

Seconds before he hit the ground, he opened up one more rift which deposited him right above the ground. It wasn't a comfortable landing, and he was sure he had heard at least a few bones break, but he wasn't dead.

×

Levi had met up with Veliona and Momo, chasing after Aldrich. The three of them watched as he tumbled through the sky in a very stupid attempt to evade the yurei.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"I have to hand it to him," Veliona commented. "It's a novel idea... to say the least."

He opened another portal which exited right above the ground. The three of them jogged up to him. Hearing their approach, Aldrich lifted his head slowly with a groan.

"Congratulations," the doll announced. "You win."

Aldrich replied with a very unenthusiastic cheer before letting his head drop. Levi dropped to his knee and placed a hand on Aldrich's shoulder.

After a few minutes, Aldrich stood up slowly. He stretched and was surprised he felt completely fine. Levi had done the same thing for Andrius back when they first met. He thanked him.

"Okay, game's over," Levi turned to the doll. "You lose."

"But there's one more game to play." The doll giggled. "We always play at least two games, don't we Momo?"

The little girl nodded from behind Veliona.

Aldrich wasn't having it. "Oh, no no no. We never agreed to a second game."

Levi placed a hand on his shoulder. "Fine. But this time I pick the game."

The doll bounced from side to side. "Hmmm... fine. Fair is fair."

"We're doing a coin flip. Heads or tails?"

Levi borrowed a coin from Veliona. The doll complained about the game not being that fun but chose tails in the end.

"So let me get this straight. We're placing our lives on a coin flip," Veliona said.

Levi nodded. He took a deep breath before tossing the coin into the air. The coin flipped in the air a few times before descending. It didn't stop spinning when it hit the ground. It continued, slowly decreasing in speed until it was just on the brink of tipping to either side.

It almost seemed like it was going to land on tails until a light breeze blew in and toppled it over onto the opposite side. The three of them gave a loud sigh of relief in unison.

Levi turned his attention back to the doll. "You lose."

He was a second away from plunging his hand into the doll when Veliona stepped between them.

"Wait," she said. "What exactly is going to happen to Momo now?"

"She'll finally cross over."

The answer hadn't come from Levi. It was Yasuo; he sheathed his katana as he walked up to them. "She'll finally be with her family. Her real family."

Momo gripped at Veliona's trousers and stared up at her, eyes wide. "Dying hurts. I... I don't wanna die again."

Veliona didn't know how to reply. So Yasuo stepped in, kneeling down to be eye level with the little girl. He placed a hand gently on her shoulder. "This won't be like that at all. Trust me."

Momo's eyes had begun to tear up. She tried blinking the tears away and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "It won't hurt?"

Yasuo shook his head. "You'll be going to a better place. A place filled with warmth, laughter, and endless adventures. Your grandparents are already there, waiting for you."

Momo stood silently for a few seconds before nodding her head with new resolve. "Okay, I wanna go see grandma and grandpa."

Yasuo gestured to Levi to go ahead. Levi plunged his hand into the floating doll. He felt his palm close around something. A familiar feeling. He pulled his arm out and the doll dropped limp to the ground. Its voice silenced forever.

"Good riddance." He heard Aldrich comment.

Levi placed the fragment on his chest and felt it seep into his being. His whole body began to buzz as it joined with the other fragments he already contained. And then, a familiar voice he hadn't heard in a while.

[What the-... how long was I asleep for? And where the hells are we.]

Levi smiled to himself. "About time you woke up, you lazy ass."

But their reunion would have to wait. As soon as the doll had dropped, Momo had begun to glow. Slowly her body began to dissipate into the darkening sky. She turned and gave Veliona one last hug.

And then she was gone.

Veliona's now empty hands fell to her sides. A tear had begun to run down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away and cleared her throat. "So uh... that's it? It's all over now?"

"Yes...," Yasuo answered, looking at the setting sun. "It's over now."