—Dai’s POV—

It’s been almost a week since that school incident happened. 2 days later I decided to go to Misato’s funeral and because all the soldiers that saw my face died, no one was suspicious of me. I didn't stay too long there and only talked to the parents while guilt was trying to overcome me; they were talking with the person who killed their daughter, saying:

“We’re so happy our daughter had a caring teacher like you.”

Fuck. I was holding every single emotion back at that moment and just answered:

“I only did my job.”

I couldn’t say more. I couldn’t say less. I didn’t deserve those praises.

Before leaving, I gave them a small box containing an envelope with 10k yen and 3 omamori, charms meant to bring good fortune or ward away evil…ironic. It was also meant as a thank-you gift for the wristwatch and they said I shouldn’t have to but I insisted, it wasn’t much but I hope it was enough to express my gratitude. Then, I gave my condolences one last time and went home, which I didn’t leave for the next few days.

—4th October 2026—

These days I wasn’t able to sleep since I always had nightmares about the students. I couldn’t save them, I contributed to that massacre. I was alive, they weren’t and now I was rightly tormented by them.

‘That day I shouldn’t have been at work, I was there just because another teacher was missing…’ I thought and I tried to think on the bright side. The situation could have been way worse if I didn’t intervene, but every time my mind returned to the image of Misato and the other students I killed, then what Nysilia told me

‘So I wasn’t actually evil in my past life and that “Nylict” thing she said was a lie? Then what is the point of having these powers? Surely, I can’t use them to save someone! Maybe they’ll help me find my memories, but even for that, what tells me they won’t be false?’ while I was still thinking, the door of my bedroom slowly opened, it was Nysilia. That surprised me since she didn’t seem to care the previous days and only now decided to enter my room.

“Still depressed over what happened?” She said as she came closer, looking at me, as I was just laying on my bed, while she had an expression difficult to describe, she didn’t seem sad nor happy.

“Are you here just to joke? If so, I’m not in the right mood.” I said with a bit of anger.

“I know I know. I’ve been worried, that’s it.” she said and I promptly replied.

“You were worried? How kind of you.”

At first, she pointed a finger at me, about to do something but she probably reconsidered and lowered her arm, let out a sigh and after a second of silence said: “Let’s go out.”

“Uh? What?” That caught me off guard.

“You heard that right. We’ll go to a coffee shop not too far from here.”

“Wait I didn’t say I wa-” Without letting me finish, she threw me off the bed and ordered me to get dressed, wash my face and fix my hair.

“What are you? My mom?” I said sarcastically while getting up.

“You’re lucky I’m not.” she joked “Now go, I’ll wait for you but my patience is limited.” she said before going to the entrance of the apartment.

I slowly got up and went to the bathroom to wash my face, while doing that I noticed that those rhombus symbols I had from the start on my palms disappeared, when did that happen? I don’t know. I was too occupied with being depressed to notice it (not that I wasn’t feeling that much better at that moment). After fixing my hair, which was starting to become unmanageable, I went to my room and put on the first white T-shirt I found in my wardrobe, same for the blue jeans and since it wasn’t too cold outside I just put on a grey lightweight jacket. Then, I reached Nysilia, who was waiting for me at the entrance of the apartment, leaning her back against the doorframe and I remained looking at her for a moment because she had different clothes than usual; a pastel blue baseball cap, pastel green t-shirt, that seemed slightly bigger for her, a pair of pastel pink leggings, white sneakers. Plus, her overall appearance seemed to have changed, now looking more like my age, when before she looked a bit younger.

“Why are you staring?”

That question woke me up “Nothing, it’s just…weird to see you dressed differently than usual.” I quickly sat on the ground to put on my shoes, just a generic brand of sports shoes that I also used during my training, because of this they were really ruined. WhenI got up, she asked

“I wanted to change a bit. Do you like it?”

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I scratched the back of my head at that question “Yeah, I guess…”

She got closer to me and karate-chopped me on the head.

“Ouch, why did you do that??” I asked surprised and brought my hands to my head, that move from her seriously hurt.

“ ‘Yeah, I guess’ What kind of answer is that? You have to be more sure!” she explained.

“Ok ok, yes, I like your outfit.” After I said that, a small but genuine small brightened Nysilia’s face and she nodded satisfied while saying

“Yes, it’s good now.” she suddenly took my hand and ran outside dragging me with her, I didn’t even have the time to close the door of the apartment.

The coffee shop she wanted to go to wasn’t too far away from the complex I lived in and we were there in no time. We went to the counter and ordered a cappuccino for me with a croissant and black coffee for Nysilia and took our seats at one of the coffee tables.

“Why did you want to go here?” I asked her

She shrugged her shoulders “I just wanted for you to go out a bit.” she looked me in the eyes “What happened, it happened. It can’t be changed.”

“Mhp…” I looked away “I know but…are you sure black auras are impossible to cure, or something like that?” I asked while my hand were under the table and closed in a fist.

“...Maybe there was.” she simply said and I immediately looked back at her, with a spontaneous “What?” that came out of my mouth.

After another pause, Nysilia resumed speaking “Black auras didn’t always exist, it was a consequence of the 3 Gods falling into a deep slumber after a war against Zonnikies and since they were still the ones maintaining the order of things, their fall brought the Black Auras, which is not a pure, like that red and blue ones. In the past years, a cure was found, but the inventor escaped with it and that’s how we are in this situation.”

“...Is all this situation, also related to my memories in some way?” I asked and she didn’t immediately answer, but when she did, she just nodded.

“And what’s my role in all this? If I’m not some kind of evil being that must prevail over the good hero, then what do I have to do?”

“You’ll soon know. Really soon.”

“…can I trust what you’re saying?” I asked while looking at her “Aren’t you trying to lie again?”

She shook her head “I said I would have stopped lying to you and that’s what I’m doing. It is up to you whether you want to believe what I say or not.”

We stopped speaking when the bartender brought us what we ordered and we continued staying silent while I was eating and Nysilia was drinking her coffee. Once we both finished I asked “Is there something else you lied about in the past?”

“You mean apart from all that story about you being the worst human possible and called a Nylict? No, that was the biggest and only lie I told you” she replied.

The way she talked so calmly about it pissed me off a lot.

“...Ok, that’s enough. Let’s go h-” As I was going to get up, Nysilia stopped by putting her hand on mine.

“I have something else to say.” she said and looked serious, so I remained on the chair.

When she saw I wasn’t going anywhere, she started saying “I know you don’t trust me and I understand your reasons. From the first day, I treated you badly enough and I was never sincere with you, I’m truly sorry for this.” She turned my hand around and put something in it, it was a silver ring with a turquoise-coloured phrase engraved in it, but it was written in incomprehensible language. She then said, “I know it’s a bit late but …happy birthday Dai.”

I was at a loss for words, but I didn’t have the strength to put the ring on, still thinking about Misato and the watch she gave me, that unfortunately got lost during that battle in the school. Nysilia saw I was in difficulty, took the ring from my hand and put it on my ring finger.

“Remember” she started saying “You can’t change the past…but if what you want is some kind of forgiveness, then don’t forget her and the other people that died. Their souls will always be alive if someone thinks of them, doing that will let them live forever.”

Hearing that made me feel at ease. Obviously, I wasn’t feeling immediately joyous but just the fact she tried to make me feel better was comforting, to say the least.

“Well, time to go” She got up and stretched a bit “These chairs aren't that comfortable…”

I got up too and went closer to her and without saying anything I hugged her. Obviously, she didn’t expect that and was a bit embarrassed

“Thank you” I simply said and shortly after hearing that, she hugged back. I still hated her because of how she played with me but in my state, I felt like a hug is what I needed the most.

We were so close and now that I was feeling her heartbeat, I knew she was truly alive just like me, and not like when I met her the first time when she looked like a dead body being controlled by someone else. We stayed like that for some seconds and when we heard someone giggling, we quickly got away from each other and looked around, everyone in that place was looking and smiling at us. We both got a lot embarrassed, left the money on the table and ran away from the coffee shop.

After that, we continued walking without saying anything or having a precise meta in mind. The embarrassment was palpable, with my face being a bit red and Nysilia her head slightly down with the visor of the cap covering her eyes; but suddenly she broke off the silence

“Your shoes are all ruined, let’s go buy you a new pair.”

“Uh? That’s fine, I don’t need them…”

“Did you look at them? They won’t last for another month at best…” she said, trying to convince me.

“Then I’ll just keep them until-” While speaking I bumped into a girl’s shoulder by accident and when I looked at her to say sorry, something felt familiar about her. Her face, her brown hair, the only things that looked off were those weird purple eyes, then, without an actual connection, I remembered about that Sophia from those articles I read while I was at school. The girl was just staring at me, waiting for something, probably an apology, but suddenly Nysilia confirmed a part of my worries through telepathy.

‘She isn’t Sophia, she is just someone who’s using her body and to be more exact…she’s the Zonniki who is targeting you…and probably the same one who caused Misato’s black aura.’

Hearing those last words was enough, that girl was the prime cause of the massacre and now that I found her I was seriously pissed off.