“Alright. So, to explain properly what that thing we entered that night… It's called a Shrine, as you know, but here is what it really is: it's a stronghold.”

“A stronghold? As in something used to guard something else?”

“Indeed. And you can guess what it was it was protecting, right?”

Ariyama didn't even need to think back to that night – which he was especially thankful for – because he already knew.

“The sword…”

Matsune nodded solemnly.

“That sword is what's referred to as an ‘Enchanted Tool’, as I'm pretty sure you know already. And the knight and all those creatures that attacked us–”

“They were guarding it. Yeah, you told me this already.”

Dammit, there was that unnecessary venom in his words again. He wasn't exactly happy with Matsune Sasya, but he didn't want her to hate him.

“Alright. Sorry. I'm also a bit fuzzy on the details of the… incident. Anyways, when we were trapped in the pedestal room, then attacked by those guards, and you touched the sword for the first time, you exploded – if that's the right word to use, I don't know – in light. Care to explain what you witnessed during that?”

Ariyama crossed his arm, licking his dry lips. He didn't want to think back, but he knew he had to, and he couldn't keep it sealed in the back of his memory forever.

“Well, when that happened, I felt this crazy heat. Next thing I know, I'm floating in some white void, with this pleasant warm feeling. Then I wake up in a sort of interrogation room, with two chairs and a table, everything white. I sat at one chair, and at the one opposite, there was a blinding silhouette of me… I think. It used words like ‘Enchanted Tool’ and ‘Pilgrim’, then said its name was Idolseus. We… made a deal to save you and when we shook hands, I was brought back to the room, with his white aura and a powerful sword.”

As he explained, Matsune tapped her chin thoughtfully, nodding along the way as if saying, ‘yes, that's what I expected’.

As Ariyama finished his explanation, Matsune nodded one last time.

“Right. Well, lucky for you, I can explain that for you, since–

"– you went through the same thing?”

Matsune stared at him in disbelief.

“That happened when I touched that sorry, which is an ‘Enchanted Tool’, yeah? And your silver bracelet is one too, right? Sorry for interrupting you again, by the way.”

Surprisingly, Matsune smiled weakly.

“Well, well, well. We have a genius on our hands, here. Good catch, Ariyama-kun.”

That spark – just an ember – of the old Matsune elicited a small bark of laughter from Ariyama, despite himself. It was brief, but it felt good.

“I mean, I'm not an idiot. I saw how you used that purple chain thing to fight the knight. And I saw its origin was from your bracelet. It only made sense. As a matter of fact, do you have it on you?”

Matsune pulled up the sleeve of her leopard-print jacket, showing the spotless silver bracelet, ornately designed with twisting vines and small blooming flowers, fastened around her right wrist.

“I've always worn it, and I won't stop.”

“So, am I right? About it being an Enchanted Tool?”

“Spot on. As you can see, ‘Enchanted Tools’ can vary from a whole sword to a pretty little bracelet.”

“Clearly. Although technically, it's more like a broken sword. Half the blade is snapped off, after all.”

“Hmph. Speaking of which, do you still have it on you?”

Ariyama averted his eyes instantly, his heart beating faster.

“Um, not on me. But over there…”

He nodded to the prayer shrine that was on the opposite wall to his futon. Behind it, in a little gap in the floorboards he'd discovered when he was younger, the rusted and damaged Enchanted Tool was stored haphazardly. If anyone even looked at the shrine at the right angle, it'd be visible. Not the best place for such a clearly important item.

But Ariyama had been scrambling in a hurry to hide it after the incident.

He had a flash of memory as he thought back, the drowning from lack of air, his heartbeat thundering in his ears, his hands spasming and unable to even lift the sword, even if it only weighed maybe three or four kilos.

His stomach churned and he winced in annoyance. He swore he wouldn't think back too intently ever, but here he was doing just that.

It's all Matsune's fault.

No, not her fault.

If he had anyone to blame, it was him. He had opened the Shrine Gate after all. But if there was a day when he was feeling slightly less terrible, he would blame Jack Hayakawa. What were the actual chances he would choose a Shrine as a location for a random meetup? For all Ariyama knew, Jack was informed about Enchanted Tools and Shrines too, but was just not as equipped as Matsune.

A thought sparked in Ariyama’s mind.

Maybe Jack wanted that sword for himself, maybe because he didn't have an Enchanted Tool yet. And he took a whole group at such a random time as backup?

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Screw that. Even Jack, if he actually did know about the guards, would recognise that a group – even if it was a big one – of teenagers wouldn't be able to do jack shit.

But those eyes.

That quivering lip.

He was either scarily inept and unknowing about the risks he was taking, or he truly was innocent.

Realizing he was spacing out again, Ariyama snapped back to attention. Matsune was looking at him with badly-masked pity.

Dammit. Was this what he really wanted? Yeah, now people wouldn't be going after his money, since they were all fucking dead.

What an idiot had he been?

He wanted to bash his own head in that moment, maybe as some recompense for the families he'd ruined, but that was nothing new.

“Ariyama-kun? Am I OK to continue?”

Matsune's soft and caring voice cut through his self-deprecating thoughts like a knife through butter. Locking gazes with her again, Ariyama nodded hesitantly.

Matsune reached out and gently took hold of a lock of his hair. The patch that was bleached white.

“I've heard of some particularly-strong powers that can cause physical changes to people, even if miniscule. This must be from when you first tapped into that light.”

Ariyama nodded in affirmation, but really he wanted to focus on another topic.

“Tell me. Tell me about that person, or people, who told you to come here.”

Matsune looked a little uncomfortable answering that question, but she must have recognised that she was supposed to answer his queries, and so she straightened up.

“The people who told me that – along with myself – are from what's referred to as the Pilgrims’ Society.”

Pilgrims’ Society? There was that word again, the one Idolseus had mentioned. But hadn't he referred to himself as a Pilgrim, as opposed to it being the name of some secret association?

Matsune continued on, answering his unspoken questions.

“That silhouette that you saw in that all-white room is known as a Pilgrim. I know I don't have all day here, so I won't get into the specifics, but just know that there are Pilgrims, who are spirits tied to the Tools, and there is the Pilgrims’ Society, which is more named after them than anything else.”

“And this ‘Pilgrims’ Society’?”

“To put it simply, just like you and I, there are many, many people who also know of this world's untold truths. Three hundred years ago, they combined into the global organization known as the Pilgrims’ Society. It governs the laws and regulations of all Tributes and magic-users worldwide, with different branches for each country, like the Japanese branch here, or the Germany branch or the English branch.”

Ariyama, his brain hollowed out from a lack of usage for the last three weeks, was having trouble sorting through this cluster of info, but he tried to keep up.

“Alright, I got you. Just one last main question: you said there's tons of people outside of us two who know all this too, so does that mean there's people who also have Enchanted Tools?”

Matsune nodded.

“The statistics are outdated, but from what I can remember, we have seventy registered Tributes – that's what we call people with contracts with Pilgrims – as part of the Society here in the Japan branch, and then eighty-eight in the whole country, including unregistered Tributes.”

So that's eighty-eight people who've gone to a Shrine and retrieved an Enchanted Tool?”

“Yes. But as I said, that data's probably outdated. It's been a few years, so there may have been some who died, or new ones who popped up. Clearly, you're one of the latter, and as I was an official member of the Society who happened to be with you when it happened, it fell on my shoulders to explain everything to you and indoctrinate you.”

All of a sudden, Ariyama felt something snap in him. Was it what she said, or how she said it? I didn't know. All he knew was that he was suddenly angry and that's all he focused on.

His fists clenched the sheets of his futon as his jaw flexed with anger.

“Indoctrinate, huh? Hey, let me run this by you: what if I never wanted to be a part of this?”

His voice rose.

“And what if – and I know this may sound inconceivable – I just wanted to deal with the shit that's happened on my own, without knowing all this extra information. In fact, if this is all some huge secret magical society, why tell me everything instead of keeping me in the darkness, or wiping my memory, or killing me or something…”

Matsune reached out and he flinched as she put a hand on his arm. It must have been hard to keep her emotions in control when she was dealing with him, who himself knew was definitely not in control. But he needed to speak his mind either way.

“Ariyama-kun… The reason I was told to tell you is… since not only were you exposed to such supernatural horrors, but you also contracted with a Pilgrim, it's in our laws that you need to be a part of our world now.”

Even more rage boiled Ariyama's veins. He shrugged her hand off him.

“Oh, is that the case? Wow, great to hear. Hey, here's a thought for you, Matsune. You know I didn't want all this, right?”

“Of course you didn't, Ariyama-kun, but I'm afraid–”

“And so why am I forced to go through more? What, do I have to experience things like that night over and over again for the rest of my life? Screw that. Honestly, I'd rather kill myself.”

“Ariyama-kun, please don't say that to yourself–”

“Oh, shut up, will you? JUST SHUT UP! My friends are dead, and they were your friends too! So why am I the only one who cares, huh? Has this life you've been keeping secret from us made you jaded? Do you feel nothing about them being dead, is that it?”

Ariyama breathed heavily, his fists clenched so tightly they hurt, his jaw aching from his perpetually-gritted teeth.

His vision was blurred from his outburst, the blood slow to reach his head. But as his vision cleared, he saw one thing in particular.

Matsume, still sitting next to him.

And she was crying.

Her breath came out in sobs as her slight shoulders shook and her lip shook. Thick tears ran down her face, her eyes red and alight with anger and grief and a thousand other emotions.

Ariyama instantly felt bad. This was the first time he had ever seen her properly cry. And he tugged at his heart in a way he didn't like. Even though he had focused on not being like everyone else and becoming one of the hundred boys who had asked out Matsune Sasya, did she really still have this effect on him?

He didn't have a problem admitting she was a beauty to look at, be it when in sports gear and her hair in a ponytail on the track, or poised in full and proper uniform while in class. But did she have some hold over his emotions like she seemingly did with every other guy in the school?

It was almost scary, but now was the time to be chastising her. Especially not when he had already drawn her to tears.

Matsune glared at him with those mixed emotions in her eyes.

“I… Dammit, I can barely stand it too, OK? Yeah, they were my friends, and that's why I'm devastated over them not being here anymore. I understand that you don't want to be a part of this life, Ariyama, and I wish I could walk away too, but I can't. We can't. Especially since we both have contracts with Pilgrims, we are stuck where we are. So now you can either do the smart move and get registered with the Society, or basically become a fugitive and go unregistered. I would say it’s up to you, but I promise you, I won't let you make the wrong decision. You're part of all this now, whether you like it or not, so I'm going to make sure you join the Society with me… And when we get to that stage, we can talk about… e-everything that's… happened… oh God.”

She broke down, sobs coming from her throat as she covered her face with her hands, not doing a good job at hiding the tears that ran down her red face.

His features softening and a cold breeze running through his body to cool his anger, Ariyama's face fell with regret. He hadn't been fair to her, it was as simple as that.

Gently, he shifted closer to her and, tears brimming in his own eyes, wrapped his arms around her shaking form in something that felt like it was a hug.

Nothing was going to be the same again, he knew.

But maybe, just maybe, he could adapt and actually do something about it.