"Mm..."

I begin to come to following my plummet to the...

(I'm...alive!?)

I attempt to get up, but something is pressing me down.

!!!!

"HISASHI!!!!"

His body, still in its empowered state, lies directly over me. He is...is skewered by many pieces of fallen debris. He must have...shielded me with his own body.

"HISASHI!!!"

I quickly get out from under him and start removing rubble away from his body. I attempt to remove the debris from his body and tend to his wounds with my cloak.

"Come on, Hisashi! Stay with me! You're stronger than this! You can't die!"

Hisashi opens his eyes.

"It's..." he begins to say, "too...late f...for me..."

"Come on, don't say that!"

"It...is...the curse...of being...a wind...to...one...We...age sl...ower...than all..ot...hers...but...we...heal...slo...wer...too. I am...beyond healin...g...Ore...n."

"Please, don't speak. We'll get you patched up, I promise!"

"Li..ar..." he says, and smiles.

I begin to break out in tears.

"You've been...a good friend." I say to him.

He...smiles...then lifts up his star pendant.

(It seems...) Hisashi thinks, (the world...isn’t as vast...as I once...believed. To think my first...and my last...true friends…were both...illusions.)

And with a smile, the wind that has guided me towards a new path dies out.

His grip on his star pendant breaks. It drops and shatters.

Sobbing, I cradle Hisashi's head in my arms and hold him against my chest. My communication crystal falls out and breaks, revealing what I had recorded.

"I would like to dedicate this recording to my friend Hisashi and my sister Sueka, who gave their lives to protect me."

No matter where I go.

Without you I'm forever lost.

But one day I know we'll meet once more.

Whether we're a thousand days apart,

Or do not meet within the year,

You'll always be in my heart.

I weep over Hisashi's body, then slowly rise to my feet, holding him.

"Adios..."

"So, it's over." I hear a familar voice say.

Yamiso.

I look over to see him and Crystal gazing at me. So...they've made it..out.

Carrying Hisashi, I struggle to walk over to them.

That is...until I collapse, exhausted.

.....

.....

(Well, you made it through. You are actually quite full of surprises.)

"Mmm..."

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I open my eyes but see nothing but a pale light above. I am in the void world once again.

(So, you succeeded.)

"You can't call what has happened a success. I couldn't save anybody. I...failed."

(Small victories, I suppose.)

"How can you call that a victory!? I'm glad to know that Hisashi wasn't the assassin he attempted to be, but in the end, I couldn't do anything! I couldn't save anyone in Terraz, I couldn't save Sueka, and I couldn't save Hisashi!"

(You're setting your expectations too high.)

"If you won't say it, I'll say it. Here it is: I. Am. Weak!"

(...)

"I thought I could make a difference, but in the end, I couldn't do anything at all! Ultimately, the only one who really got saved was me!"

(What did you expect? You're fighting people without any true rhime skills of your own.)

I let out a sigh.

"Honestly, in the grand scheme of things, maybe I was in way over my head from the start. Protect Sueka? She was by far the strongest girl I know. Protect Hisashi? If he could singlehandedly take down Chates in an empowered form like that, why would he need protecting? All my subtone can do is provide clairvoyance, and look what good that has done."

I continue to wallow in my sorrows. A silence follows.

(Your subtone isn't clairvoyance.)

"What?"

(You don't have the power of clairvoyance. Never did. Well, not naturally, anyway.)

"What do you mean? I know I saw accurate visions!"

(Perhaps, but I will say it again. Your subtone isn't clairvoyance. Clairvoyance doesn't heal physical wounds.)

!!!

I touch my arm. Sure enough, it's fully healed.

(Truth be told, I expected more from you. I gave up some of my power for you, to no avail. But even so, I honestly believe you have potential.)

(Honestly? Truth be told?)

"Voice...who are you?"

(I'm sorry, but I don't want to kill the suspense.)

"WAIT!!!"

I rush towards the light and, when it disappears...

I am lying in a bed. A white bed. A hospital bed.

I look around me. This is the hospital where Sueka was before. I look down at my right arm and see Crystal sleeping soundly at my bedside.

To get answers, I rouse her from her slumber.

"Hey, Crystal, wake up."

"Mmmmmmm......."

She rubs her eyes and yawns, then looks at me.

"Oren, you're alright."

"I suppose so. How about you?"

"Ah yes... I guess I should...bring you up to speed. You've been out for three days. I guess everything finally caught up to you. As for what you've missed, I'll tell you. Following the disappearance of Chates and Dodge, everyone who was in a coma got their rhime back... miraculously."

Thinking back on it, that must have been because of the rhime shockwave after Hisashi...

"Hisashi! What about him!?"

She remains silent for some time, then finally utters,

"Hisashi was dead in your arms when we found you both. He died from loss of blood because of his injuries."

I look down at my hands, fighting back the tears.

"The fault wasn't yours. There was an autopsy, and we learned that he drank Asp snake poison. I'm surprised he survived as long as he did. He should have suffocated to death within minutes."

"Why would he do such a thing?"

"Mmmmmm.... My guess, is that he did it to awaken his harmone."

"Har...mone?"

"You're aware that people can summon halls, and, when they do, they can utilize their rhime techniques more easily, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, the truth is, the power one can use in their hall is only a fraction of their true power. This 'true power' comes in the form of a harmone. You might think of it as one's 'ultimate mode', so to speak. Of course, awakening it is rather difficult. Over the past 3000 years since this age began, only about 1000 cases of people awakening their harmones have been recorded. And, of those 1000 cases, about 99% of them died immediately following their awakening."

"Okay, and how does one awaken their harmone?"

"Let's just say, you're more likely to awaken it if you don't know the procedure. Leave it at that."

I look down at my hands again and check to see if my formerly broken arm still works.

Your subtone isn't clairvoyance.

(Then...what is it?)

I look over to Crystal and see her holding out Hisashi's star pendant. From the look of it, it's as good as new. I take it into my hand and...COLD!!!

Before it hits the edge of the bed, Crystal catches it.

"I took the liberty of fixing it with my ice. As long as I'm alive, the ice will never melt."

"Thank you."

I look at the star pendant a bit longer, then take mine out.

"You might think you didn't save Hisashi, but the way I see it, you did. Not very many people would attempt to awaken their harmone for somebody else. And I can only guess that the situation could have gotten worse if he didn't make his sacrifice."

(I...saved him? It's nice to know somebody thinks so, but I am not convinced.)

I start to slowly get out of bed. As soon as I stand up, I nearly fall. Luckily, Crystal catches me in time.

"Let's go."

"Go? Go where?"

"She is waiting." Crystal says, faintly smiling.

!!!!!

Although Crystal keeps on telling me to slow down, I attempt to get to her room as soon as possible. Outside of her room, I see Yamiso, leaning against the wall.

"Come on, miss, won't you please reconsider?"

"I said no!" I hear a familiar voice say.

But what I heard next broke my heart.

"I only have interest in dependable and trustworthy men!"

Then, a boy about my age, who was speaking to her, walks out of her room, clearly disappointed. I let go of Crystal's arm and walk towards the room.

Kon. Kon.

"Come in."

I open the door and see her.

Sueka. Fully healed.

Her skin color is back, rosy as ever. Her breathing is normal. It's the first time in a while that I've seen her hair straightened. It's as if everything that happened to her was all but a distant nightmare. But I know that isn't true. It was all too real. And it was all my fault.

She looks up at me and breaks into a smile. I walk over to her bedside and put my hand around hers.

"BROTHER!!" she yelps, hugging me.

Given the cirumstances, I don't know what to say. So, I do the only thing I can think of.

I hug her back.

This causes Sueka to blush, then hug me even tighter. Normally, her strength would hurt me when she does this. But this time, I feel no pain. All I feel is guilt. The guilt of losing her. The guilt of hurting her. The guilt of lying to her. All this comes back to me in this one embrace. But, I don't want to let go. I can't. For I feel that, if I was to let her go, I would lose her again, forever. Although she doesn't say anything about it, I know I am crying. Crying and quietly repeating "you're okay," "you're okay."

Crystal and Yamiso choose to leave us at that time.

"To think things would end up this way," Crystal remarks.

"Yeah....You know, he isn't that weak after all. Just a little. At least he's got balls."

When they leave, I let go of Sueka, and we begin to talk.

The majority of the things we say to one another are apologies. But, throughout the entire thing, her words about wanting a dependable and trustworthy man continue to haunt me. I'm neither. I know that. I've been thinking about what I am about to say for a little while, but now that I've heard those words, I...finally know.

But this time, I want to hear her opinion.

"Sueka, there's...something I wish to discuss with you."

"Yes?"

"Before I say what it is, I will say this. I won't keep secrets anymore. And, the truth is, I want you to be by me through all the good times and the bad times. I don't know if my decisions will always agree with yours, but please, don't leave me."

Sueka blushes more and more with every sentence. When I am finished, all she does is nod her head.

"Alright, here it goes...I was thinking..."

The two of us leave the hospital to catch up with Yamiso and Crystal as quickly as possible. However, before that, Sueka and I visit Hisashi's wake. His students are all there, most of them crying. Some question when Hisashi will wake up. Others try not to cry, only to burst into tears immediately. Mai is no exception. When the wake ends, we say our goodbyes and wish each other good luck. I promise Mai that, one day, I would meet with her again. It was...something she thought Hisashi would have wanted.

While on my way with Sueka to look for Yamiso and Crystal, I remember everything that has transpired. Although I didn't tell him, I promised Hisashi that I would attempt to make everything as peaceful as I could, and this decision should have me achieve that. Above all else, I promised to never give up. When we finally catch up to them, they are about to leave New Vegas by train.

"Wait!!!"

As I run towards them, my two thirds of the star pendant, now strapped to the hilt of my sword, ring loudly.

Kin! Kin!

"Now what?" says Yamiso with a hint of annoyance in his tone.

I walk up to them, then go into an ojigi bowing position.

"I beg of you! Please... MAKE ME AN OFFICIAL KEISETSU MEMBER!!!"

"What!?" both of them say at once.