Ail

This morning, I was pretty frantic. I had to get ready to help GRIS perform their last live performance. I practiced my butt off, but I was still really nervous. I had never done something like this for someone before, and I had certainly never thought I would perform onstage like this. I was worried I wouldn't do well...

... But what happened after we finished getting everything ready made all of my worry seem like a joke. If I had known what was going to happen next, the live performance would be the least of my problems. Of course, if I actually could predict the future, I would've probably known how to handle my current situation better.

I mean, how was I supposed to know I would end up trying to protect Raena from a huge mob of angry and confused students? Yes, that Raena, the one thought to have been "haunting" the Lake of Death, drowning anyone who dare venture near.

It would be crazy even for a normal person to help someone like that. But for someone like me, the intimidating-looking loner, to lend her a hand? Ridiculous. Plus, she's a total stranger to me, right...?

... But, of course, that isn't true. None of it is; I know that much now. Raena's no killer, and she definitely isn't a stranger. She's Tear... my best friend. And I'll prove her innocence, no matter what!

--

Raena continued to sob, resting her face on my shoulder, finally accepting my help.

"We have to get out of here." I told her calmly, petting her head to comfort her.

She looked up at me, her face wet from crying.

"Before we do anything else, we have to find a way to escape soon, before someone decides to check this room." I said, gently wiping a tear off her cheek.

"Y-yeah..." Raena said back, rubbing the rest of the tears off her face, deciding to stop crying. "But from where? The windows?"

"Good idea. Let's see..."

I tried to open the windows, but they wouldn't budge. I noticed they had keyholes on the bottom side, so there was no way we could unlock them.

"Jeez, isn't that just perfect! And it's not like I can smash it open, since it'll make too much noise..."

"Isn't there any other way we can leave this room?" Raena asked me worriedly.

"Hm..." C'mon, there's got to be some other exit in here! If not the door or the windows, then... Nngh, isn't there any other way out of our classroom...?

... Wait, our classroom!?

"That's it!" I exclaimed. "There is one other way!"

"R-really?"

"Yeah. And we were lucky we ended up in our classroom, of all places."

It took her a while, but Raena eventually figured out what I meant.

"A-ah! Of course!" She pointed toward the whiteboard. "You mean the secret passage behind there, right?"

"Yeah. Looks like it's our only ticket out of here!"

I went up to the board to open it, like usual. Except...

"... Huh? It won't open!"

"W-wha?! Why not?" Raena asked in horror. "W-we never had a problem opening it before..."

And why now, of all times?! Something doesn't seem right about this...

All of a sudden, the classroom's door was swung open by someone.

"Darn it, someone found us!"

And of all people, it had to be...

"... C-Chelsea!"

"Figures you'd try and hide here of all places..." Chelsea uttered, entering the room slowly. "... but it all ends now. You'll pay once and for all, Raena!"

"A-ah..." Raena hid behind me, shaking in fear.

I've never seen Chelsea so angry before. But it doesn't look like that's the only emotion she's feeling right now...

"Chelsea, wait!" I said to her. "Are you absolutely sure Raena's the one who killed your friend? You're not lying or anything... right?"

"Ail..." Chelsea responded, forlorn. "Do you not trust me...?"

"Well, um... I-it's not that, but Raena i-..."

"... I know. You got along really well with her, right?" She stated, finishing my sentence for me. "But don't let her fool you; she's not what she seems!"

"A-Ail..." Raena clutched one of my arms, looking at me uneasily. "I-I..."

I gently patted her head. "Don't worry, it's okay." I said to her softly. "I believe in you, Raena. I always will, no matter what anyone says."

"No, Ail! Don't let her manipulate you!" Chelsea called out to me.

"I'm sorry. It's true that there might be someone trying to manipulate us, but I'm sure it isn't Raena!"

"... Nothing I say will change your mind, will it?"

"No."

"Then, I guess there's no choice..." Chelsea took out a small, charm-like object from her pocket, and held it close to her heart.

"Huh? What's that?" I asked in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"Olympic!"

Suddenly, Chelsea's body began to glow with a strange light, and bands started to appear around her wrists and legs.

"W-what is this?!" Raena exclaimed.

When the glowing stopped, I was able to see her new appearance; her outfit changed to one that a gymnast would wear.

"I'm not powerless like I was before, Raena!" She stated, her fists shining with a blue light. "They told me you came back to cause more trouble, but I'll use the power they gave me to stop you!"

"'They'?" Raena uttered. "Who i-..."

"That's none of your concern!" She ran toward Raena, preparing to punch her, but...

... I stopped the punch just in time with the wide part of my sword.

"O-ow..." Chelsea said, her hand in slight pain from the recoil. "A-are you seriously planning on fighting me, Ail?"

"I don't want to, but..." I pointed my sword toward Chelsea. "... if it means protecting Raena, the-..."

"Wait, Ail." Raena interjected. "Put your sword away. Please..."

"Raena..."

She took out her paintbrush, and held it toward Chelsea. "This is between me and Chelsea, so I'll handle this..."

Raena tried to look confident, but I could tell she was scared.

"I-I'm not afraid of you!" Chelsea bellowed, also trembling a bit. "I-I don't care what kind of weird power you have! I'll still beat you..."

They've convinced themselves they're ready to fight... Even though it's obvious they're both scared and would rather run away...

"Take this!" With the power of her other charged-up fist, Chelsea shot an energy blast at Raena.

"Y-Yellow Paint!" Raena quickly used her brush to lift part of the ground up in the air to block the blast.

"I'm still not done yet!" Chelsea yelled, running toward Raena again.

"I-I've gotten stronger, too! Here's one of my new techniques!" Raena held her paintbrush behind her. "Watercolor Paint!" She brushed the air in an upward angle, creating moist, multi-colored paint on the ground.

"Wha-..." Upon stepping in the paint, Chelsea tripped and fell to the floor. "... Argh...!"

Before she could get back up, Raena held her paintbrush to Chelsea's face.

"N-no..." Chelsea looked at her in horror. "W-what are you going to do to me...?"

"... Nothing." Raena moved the brush away from Chelsea, and put it in her pocket, returning it to emblem form. "I'm not going to do anything to you."

"H-huh?" Chelsea stared at her in confusion.

"That day, at the Lake of Death, you saw me push Taffy into the lake, right? But I remember seeing you push her in, Chelsea..."

"A-are you out of your mind!? Why would I do something like that?! Taffy was my very best friend!"

"I know. That's why I could never believe what I saw. I-I could never believe you would ever want to do something to hurt Taffy..."

Chelsea didn't respond.

"But what I do know is that Taffy really wanted the two of us to be friends. She wouldn't want us to fight each other..." Raena offered her hand to Chelsea, to help her up. "... that's why I don't want to hurt you, Chelsea."

She simply stared at Raena, apparently taking in what she said to her.

Raena... So this is your way of 'handling this', huh?

But Chelsea shook her head vigorously, slapping Raena's hand away from her.

"N-no! You're just trying to trick me, aren't you?!" Chelsea exclaimed, getting up on her own. "I won't let you have your way!"

"N-no, I..."

Before she could say anything else, Chelsea punched her, sending Raena to the ground this time.

"Raena!" I called out.

Chelsea bent down and grabbed Raena by her shirt collar.

"Y-you... Y-you'll pay for what you did to Taffy..."

She prepared another fist, and hit Raena with it... very lightly.

"Y-you'll pay... for what you did to Taffy..." Chelsea let go of Raena, tears starting to form in her eyes. "G-give her back! Please! I-I miss her so much..."

Chelsea continued to do nothing but sob.

Chelsea...

"RREEEOOOAAAR!!!" A piercing cry abruptly filled the room.

It came from a large, dark mass towering over us. It was...

... a monster?! But why...?

Without warning, and before anyone could do anything, the monster proceeded to gobble up Chelsea.

"Chelsea!" Raena screamed, reaching out her hand toward Chelsea.

The monster began to counterattack, but I pulled Raena away just in time before it could hit her.

"Be careful, Raena!"

"B-but, Chelsea...!"

"It's okay, we'll just defeat this monster to get her back!"

"Where did the monster come from?" She asked.

Good question. Both the door and windows are unharmed, so where...?

As I was in the middle of thought, I noticed something shattered on the ground. Something familiar...

"... the whiteboard? But why's it here?"

I looked at the back of the room where the board should've been, and noticed the tunnel entrance that was closed off was now gaping open. Which means...

"The secret passage." I stated. "That's where it came from."

"W-what?!" Raena responded, alarmed at my statement. "But how did end up in there?"

"I have no idea..."

"RREEOOAAARR!!!" The monster howled, attempting to devour Raena this time.

"4-Beat!" I stopped it by slashing at it with my sound-pulsed sword.

"Why did it try to eat me?! It already took Chelsea!" She said in confusion. "The other monsters only attacked us normally after taking one person..."

"... Ah. Now I understand."

"Understand what, Ail?"

"These monsters get their power from the people they take over, right?" I told her. "Doesn't this monster seem stronger than the others?"

"U-um... What are you saying?"

"The teachers must've realized how strong this one was, and tried to seal it off in that weird room. I'm sure they stayed in there to keep watch over it, too."

"Is that why the entrance wouldn't open?"

"Yeah. But since the monster is here now, that must mean..."

"...!" A look of horror appeared in Raena's face. "O-oh no... The teachers are...!"

"We have to defeat this thing now! If this thing is let loose, it might try to devour even more people!"

"R-right!" She took out her paintbrush, trying to put on a brave face. "I-I don't want anyone else to get hurt. Not anymore..."

Could this strange monster be the cause behind everything?

"Ha ha ha..." An unfamiliar sounding laugh echoed throughout the room.

"Huh? Where did that come from?!"

"RRRAAAHHHAAAHHHAAAHHHAAA!!!" The monster bellowed.

The monster's eyes started to glow a sinister red, while it opened its maw up wide.

"DE... VOUR... EVERY... THING!!!"

The monster closed down its jaw on us, me barely able to keep it from eating us with my sword.

"E-ergh..." I said, struggling.

"Ail! G-Green Paint!"

Raena shot wind at the monster with her brush, but her attack simply disappeared into the void of its stomach.

"Purple Paint! Red Paint! Blue Paint!" She desperately shot paint to try and stop the monster, but nothing worked.

Eventually, it began to clamp down with even more force, making it harder to stop it.

"C-can't... h-hold on..."

"A-Ail!"

"RREEEOOOAA-..."

All of a sudden, the monster was shot with an energy blast, sending it away from me and Raena.

"W-we're saved!" Raena exclaimed. "Thank goodness..."

"Yeah, but who did that...?"

There, standing next to the door ajar, holding an energy cannon in his right hand, adjusting his glasses, was... one of the last people I would expect to come to our rescue.

"T-Tech?!"

"Are you both alright?" He asked, casually walking up to us.

"H-how... How did you...? Why do you...?!" I was so confused, I didn't know what to say.

"There's no time to explain." Tech said sternly. "Here."

He handed me something.

A... data disk? "What's this for?"

"Make sure you check its contents when you have the chance. It's very important."

"RREEEOOOAAARR!!!"

"You two have to get out of here now. I'll take care of the monster."

"A-are you insane?! We're not leaving you here by yourself with that thing!"

"There's something more urgent you need to take care of, Ail. Stronger and stronger monsters like this one will keep on being created, unless they're stopped at the source."

"The source?"

"The monsters, the power Chelsea gained, and the incident concerning Raena..." Tech explained. "... were all caused by the manipulator."

"W-what?!" So there really is a manipulator?

"Right now you need to focus on escaping. You ran away with Raena because you wanted to save her, right?"

That's right, I promised I would save her and prove her innocence. And if I stay here any longer, I might lose any chance of doing so...

Tech shot a big hole through one of the windows. "... Go."

"Okay. I'll leave things to you then, Tech."

"B-but..." Raena tried to protest...

... but I grabbed her arm and ran toward the escape route Tech created.

"Promise me you'll make it through this, alright Tech?" I told him, before me and Raena jumped through the hole leading outside.

"Hmph..."

Tech shot another blast, which sounded like it caused some debris to fall from the ceiling. I looked behind me, and noticed he had blocked off the exit he made.

"TECH!!!"

"You really are too nosey for your own good, Ail. But I guess that's not such a bad thing..." I faintly heard from the classroom, before I heard the sound of the monster devouring something again...

--

I ran as fast as I could, dragging Raena with me, to the area behind the school.

I got out my moped, and started prepping it to go like usual.

"Didn't think I'd be using you for something like this..." I said to the moped.

"T-Tech..." Raena uttered, sobbing.

"Calm down, Raena. We have to get out of here."

"W-where are we going to go?" She asked me.

"For the time being, anywhere but this place." I gave her a vague response.

There's a lot of things I don't know about still; a lot of answers left unquestioned... I hope that data disk Tech gave me will finally explain everything to me...

I got on the moped, and started the engine.

"Let's go, Raena."

"U-um, okay..." She climbed aboard, but unlike the other times, she immediately grabbed me by my waist.

I suppose the engine noise is the least of her worries now...

"Hang on tight..." I left the bike area and drove off away from the school...

... at least that was my intent, but I was stopped by a pillar of fire shooting out of the ground. I floored the brakes, barely dodging the flames.

What the heck!?

"And just where do you think you're going?!" Said a voice with an extremely angry tone.

"W-who...?" Raena mumbled.

It was kind of dark, and the fire had already disappeared, so I couldn't tell who it was right away. But the voice sounded extremely familiar. It was...

"... chef boy..."

"You'll pay, Raena..." He stated indignantly, with a scarily unfamiliar expression on his face, which matched his tone of voice. "You'll pay for what you did to Taffy!"

"Taffy?" I said in confusion, as me and Raena got off the moped. "What does she have to do with you, chef boy?"

"Raena, you know full well what my relation is to her, don't you?!" He exclaimed, ignoring me.

Raena didn't respond.

"You must have realized it right away... as soon as you heard me say my last name on the day you transferred."

His... last name? What was it again...? He calls himself "Master Chef" all the time, so...

"... Fesch." Raena uttered. "I-it's the same last name as... Taffy's..."

"Taffy's?! Then that means..."

"That's right." Chef boy said. "Taffy is my younger sister!"

N-no way! Taffy and chef boy are siblings?!

"I transferred to this school in order to get my revenge on you, Raena..." He explained, pointing his spatula at her. "How dare you pretend to be my comrade!? You'll pay for taking my sister's life!"

"I-I..." She stammered, hugging herself in fear.

I decided to respond to the situation by standing in front of her and pointing my sword at chef boy.

"Please step aside, Ail." He told me, in a calmer tone. "I won't question your loyalty to... her, but I do not wish to fight you. All in all, I have and still consider you a friend of mine."

"Heh, thanks I guess." I answered. "But I won't let anyone hurt Raena, no matter who they are. Even if it's you... Barry."

"Ail..." Raena said weakly.

"So, you insist on fighting me, then?" He asked.

"That all depends on what you decide to do."

"... Very well. It doesn't seem like engaging in anymore conversation will accomplish anything, so..."

We both began to charge power in our weapons.

"We'll just let our weapons do the rest of the talking!" I finished for him.

We ran toward each other, our weapons at the ready.

"Hot Shot!" Barry yelled, releasing the first strike.

I swung my sword at the attack to send it away, then... "Sound Wave!" I released my own technique.

"Flame Pillar!" He made another column of fire in front of him to block it.

"S-stop it..." Raena whimpered.

As soon as the flames dispersed, we both rushed toward each other and clashed our weapons together.

"S-stop it!" She cried out.

We both stood there, struggling to free our weapons so we could have a chance to strike at the other.

"S-somebody please... STOP THIS!!!"

As soon as Raena screamed, someone came and grabbed Barry from behind.

"Mac?!" I said in surprise.

"What are you doing? Release me!" Barry exclaimed.

"You need to hurry and get out of here!" Mac told me. "Before it's too late, Ail!"

"What? How come you're helping me?!"

"Tech told me everything! You need to take Raena and flee, before..."

A mob of people appeared behind us, from the bike area where we were earlier.

"Go, Ail!"

"R-right." I put my sword away and got back on my moped.

"M-Mac, if they find out you're helping us, you might get in some serious trouble..." Raena got on the moped as well. "You need to escape, too...!"

"It's alright..." He uttered.

I started up my moped again.

"I won't let you get away, Raena!" Barry yelled, me not realizing until now that he had been charging his weapon.

"The both of you are my good friends!" Mac continued. "And I would do anything to help my friends!"

Barry pointed his weapon at us. "Jalapeño Ca-..."

"... Take care... buds."

Mac turned Barry around, so the attack hit him instead of us.

"MAC!!!" Raena screamed.

I said nothing, driving away as fast as I could, not stopping to look back.

There wasn't any point in rushing though, as the mob had stopped following us.

"Ah, a fire's started!" "We have to put it out before it's too late!" "What about Raena...?" "It's too late; she's already gone..."

Mac...

End of Chapter 15...

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Writer's Comments:

Tear is Raena. Tear is Raena. TEAR IS RAENA.

I can finally say that without having to hide it anymore! It feels so weird! (You have no idea how many times I almost accidentally wrote Raena's name as "Tear"...)

For some reason, I had a harder time writing this chapter than the others, even though there wasn't as much fighting in this one as there usually is. Honestly, it was mostly becuase of laziness, though. Heh...

I'll admit that this chapter isn't the best one I've written, but I think it turned out decent enough. It's definitely better than the original, that's for sure...

Actually, this chapter ended differently than I thought it would. I think it's better this way though, since it's less cliffhanger-ish now. I guess cliffhangers are to be expected though, since we're reaching the end of this series. Only 3 chapters to go!

- CS-Masyet

P.S. Oh yeah; remember in chapter 9 I said that I kind of combined two chapters back then? The truth is, in the previous version, Ail found out Tear was Raena during the part where they visit the Lake of Death. Her flashback of Taffy was actually moved from there to the new version's chapter 14. So this time, it's this part that got split into two instead of the LoD part. (In other words, this chapter and chap 14 used to be the same chapter in the original.) I didn't mention it before, but there was actually a bit of new stuff written for chap 9 because of the switch.

I hope you found this piece of trivia interesting!