Two and half a year ago, two girls had met each other. Friendship bloomed between them despite their complicated situation, and before long, that friendship transformed into a promise.

“Let's be there for each other, Celia.”

A promise, perhaps not that pertinent to others, yet bore a surprising amount of depths to the two girls.

◇

“...Who are you?” Celia said, looking straight at the fake-Rin's back.

Her breath hastened as she was still recuperating from her exhaustion. Her body heaved up and down slightly despite herself and she appeared to really need to rest for a little while. Despite this, her eyes didn't leave Rin's figure.

“W-what do you mean?” Ursa responded, trying her best to not panic. “I'm Ri—”

“—You're not!” Celia cut her off, her glare intensifying.

She didn't have any basis for it. She didn't even know why she sounded so sure about herself. The person in front of her looked just like Rin and came through Rin's house. That was already enough proof to identify someone. What's more, what Celia saw, heard, and touched all corresponded to Rin herself. At most, it appeared just a little weird.

However, Celia just knew it. Every time she looked at the person in front of her, she just knew it. It felt so wrong, you may as well say it was completely obvious for her. This person wasn't her friend.

“Who are you!?” The orange-haired girl repeated herself loudly.

At that, Ursa twitched and finally stopped her 'game'. “...And here I thought I had a talent for acting. I guess not.” She said, turning her head to Celia all the while still maintaining Rin's appearance. “What gave me awa—”

“Where is ‘She’!?” Celia, on the other hand, didn't seem to care one bit about Ursa's words (despite the fact she asked her name). All her focus was concentrated on the real Rin.

Celia was angry.

And believe it or not, even the real Rin herself would let out a cry of surprise if she saw this scene. After all, Celia was never the type to be angry. She was a really cheerful girl. She raised her voice sometimes and she might sulk here and there (just like any other human being) but, never to this extent.

Her facial expression was practically screaming she would punch someone if she was to be contraried any further.

Though, strangely, or perhaps not so much, that made Ursa smile a little. “...And why should I tell you that?” She spoke while wearing a nasty smile the real Rin would never express.

Intimidation suddenly came down on Celia—No, it could even be said to be a devastative killing intent. She felt all her movements stiffen up in an instant, her breathing got stuck in her throat and she had the impression even her heart stopped beating. Everything went still and her eyes got stuck on the fake Rin's body.

Ursa was in the process of showing who was superior. And she succeeded wonderfully.

An unbelievable amount of fear assaulted Celia. An amount a normal girl should never have to endure. An amount that would make her undoubtedly scream, were it not for the fact it already paralyzed her. An amount that made her consciousness blur.

“Well, this is disappointing.” Ursa pronounced as she approached Celia. “Can't you put up more of a fight?”

The blonde quickly let go of her acting play and switched to just ‘playing’ with Celia. Though, it seemed like the orange-haired girl couldn't handle that. One look at her current expression and Ursa already assumed it was already over.

That was to be expected. Contrarily to Rin, the Celia of right now was nothing more than an ordinary person. She was an Elite, yes, but a new one. She wasn't geared or even trained enough to be able to face the underworld, let alone Ursa, one of the people you'd normally pray to never encounter.

“What a pain.” Having realized that, Ursa grew flustered. “How should I deal with this?”

With Celia standing paralyzed in front of the blonde, the woman tried to rack her small brain to find a solution. Were it any other person, Ursa could have chosen to kill, beaten up, or left things as it was.

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However, Celia was Rin's friend. If Ursa left things as it was, there was a chance the orange girl would link up to ‘unchained’. Killing the girl was also off-limit. The blonde couldn't begin to imagine how Rin would react if she did that.

All in all, it was apparent Ursa had messed up. In the first place, impersonating someone was a really bad idea. Only god knows what passed through the blonde's mind for her to think it would be fun.

She reaped what she sow—or so the saying goes. Now, she needed to find a way for Celia to somehow forget this event. Otherwise, Rin's connection with 'unchained' might be exposed, among other things.

And what did she come up with?

With an awkward yet natural movement, she punched Celia's cheek with enough power to send the girl flying. In an instant, a dent was made on a nearby wall prompting a small curtain of dust to rise. The orange-haired girl's body could be seen there, motionless and with a bit of blood on her head.

“—Welp, time to play dumb!” Ursa pronounced turning around.

She didn't hesitate a moment before she began to run away from the place. Part of her strongly wished the shock of her punch would have made Celia forget everything. Of course, not that she would ever confirm it.

‘The responsibility now lay with Rin!’, or so she thought with panic on her face.

As a side note, all the previous passersby were already nowhere to be seen. One of the benefices of having a strong killing intent was that it was easy to scare people away. And even if some remained, they would surely hide away somewhere.

Nonetheless, Ursa just hurried to get away from the place.

...At least, that's what she intended to do.

“....Where is...my friend...!”

The weak voice she heard from behind stopped her in her track. Sure enough, seeing Celia already back on her feet surprised her a little. She held back earlier, of course, but not enough for the orange girl to recover this quickly.

“I may not look.... like it but...” Celia pronounced between rough breaths. “I'm an Elite, too. I can fight!”

Ursa's eyes widened a little. Strange energy was hovering around the orange girl, seeming to heal its recipient with great speed.

‘That's not Aura, right?’ The blonde questioned internally, her curiosity picked. ‘Is that her singularity?’

“I'll ask you again,” At some point, without the blonde's awareness, Celia's exhaustion seemed to have disappeared. “Where is Rin!?”

Ursa let out a chuckle at that, before she replaced it with a wide mischievous grin. She didn't bother responding this time, she simply let out her enormous killing intent. And exactly like before, Celia became paralyzed.

...But only for an instant.

With a renewed determination, her bright red eyes matched Ursa's blue one without stepping down.

The blonde chuckled further. It wasn't as though Celia wasn't scared anymore. Ursa could perfectly see the gleaming of fear inside the girl's eyes. However, more than that, she saw something else. She saw the girl's desire to see her friend.

“If you really want to know,” The blonde replied, finding things becoming interesting. “Make me talk!”

With those words, Celia forced her body to move. Slowly but surely, she began to take a stance. A stance she had learned from someone. From someone she respected and loved.

Seeing that, Ursa grinned further, ‘This will be fun, after all.’

Thus, for the first time, for as long as she could remember, Celia fought.

Not for herself, but for Rin.

◇

*Pant* *pant* Ursa's breath could be heard around the area, fifteen minutes later.

The blonde had a pleasantly surprised smile on her face.

Naturally, as reality dictated it, Celia had absolutely no chance of winning. Her stats and experience were all below Ursa's by an enormous amount. And the current scene displayed just how powerless the orange-haired girl was.

Her neck was being squeezed by the blonde, making her border around suffocation. Although none of them were fatal, her body showed a certain number of injuries that weren't good to look at. Naturally, the sight of blood was also abundant. Celia was in a bad state.

Yet, this was far from what she should have received.

And that was the reason for Ursa's smirk.

Under normal circumstances, an opponent of Celia's level shouldn't have taken the blonde more than a second to take care of. In this situation, however, not only did Ursa take more than ten minutes but she was also exhausted. An outcome few would believe in.

Someone who was dangerously nearing the highest rank of an Elite and even got the title of ‘Reality crusher’ was struggling against someone who shouldn't have even reached Rank III? As a joke that would work well to make everyone laugh.

“You're...” Ursa began as she held up Celia's body by the neck. “You're pretty resilient. Those were Rin's move, right?”

The blonde talked a little while she tried to regain her breathing. She got over the previous fight in her mind, which made her chuckle by inadvertence. There were two reasons Ursa struggled so much against the orange-haired girl.

The first was the singularity of healing.

Really difficult to deal with considering it made damage completely irrelevant. No matter how strong Ursa's attack was, Celia would heal herself up immediately after. And more than that, rendering the girl unconscious was completely impossible.

“Tell me, Celia,” Ursa continued in a rarely serious mood. “Why are you so determined?”

The second reason was that Celia never gave up.

Sure, her healing ability helped her recover from any injuries and even lessened her exhaustion but that was all. It didn't give her any boost in power or anything of the sort so every time she came toward Ursa, she would get beat up without being able to counterattack.

What's more, ‘recovering’ from any injuries didn't mean she didn't ‘receive’ them. Ursa did hold back at first, but as the fight advanced, she became more and more serious. Which meant that Celia should have experienced a terrifying amount of pain.

Yet, the orange girl would always stand up and fight again and again. Her mental exhaustion should be at the maximum and her hope should have been crushed already. Yet, the girl would always charge with the same determined gaze.

“Is Rin really that important to you?” Ursa asked, letting go of the younger girl.

Celia bent down to her knees as she was finally released. She coughed for a little while from the pressure her neck had experienced before her vision returned to her.

Weakly, she returned her gaze to Ursa.

“Important?” The girl repeated while clenching her fist. “Rin is... Rin is the strongest person I've ever met!”

She announced as she slowly got back on her two wobbly feet. Her sense of balance was already messed up at this point but it didn't seem like she cared.

Her singularity seemed to have already reached its limit but she didn't care.

“Such person asked for my help.”

Her chance of winning was nonexistent but she didn't care.

“I...”

All she cared about was the well-being of her absent friend, of her one and only irreplaceable friend. All she thought about was of the person that was always there for her.

“I can't let her down!”

◇

Around two and half a year ago, one girl cried at the border of Myriad City. She cried because she didn't have anything. She cried because she lost everything. And most importantly, she cried because she couldn't remember.

“...Hey, why are you crying?”

And at that same time, a certain black-haired girl found her. A girl who, unlike herself, seemed to have a resolute goal. A girl who left everything behind because it was necessary.

That black-haired girl's situation was different from hers. Yet, at the same time, it was strangely similar. And before, she even knew it, the crying girl found herself attracted to the other.

They say coincidence is another word for fate and destiny. The crying girl couldn't have agreed more. It felt as though life itself wanted her to meet the black-haired girl. That was the greatest thing the crying girl ever obtained.