Red turned around as the footsteps of his comrades closed in on him.
Then he flashed a frightened smile beneath their disapproving glares.
"Yeah, I'm sorry. That was… very dangerous."
"I'm glad you know," Yon replied.
Then their eyes drifted toward Cosmo's back as he seemed to offer a silent farewell to the now‑empty field before turning and approaching them.
"Say, I've never said this before…" Red began. "...but could our Captain be just a bit…"
"Cool, right?" Yon finished for him. "It's strange, but this might be the first time it actually makes sense to think that way."
Tyson groaned before dragging a palm down his face.
"Please don't ever let him hear that. We'd never hear the end of it."
After a moment of imagining their Captain's inevitable smugness, they silently but unanimously agreed.
However, when the moment arrived, Cosmo approached with a bland expression. It betrayed no emotion besides an expectant gaze directed at Blue, who was pointedly looking away from him.
"What is it?" she asked, still refusing to turn.
"It's reasonable for you to hate me for that…"
"I don't."
"...but I'd rather you let it all out now before it comes back to bite us later."
"I don't hate you, okay?!" she burst out. "I just don't know how to feel!"
"..."
"It's not like they were real. I was just dumb enough to pretend they were, so I could keep feeling normal. And now… I can't turn it off."
"Blue…"
"So if you don't regret doing that, then stop trying to make me feel better like this. It won't help at all."
Cosmo had nothing to say to that. If anything, it was good that she felt the way she did. And it would have been even better if she had mourned the three that had shattered along with the zone.
A naive Blue like that would still be the same Blue they'd lost to the spire that night.
Except for one thing.
"Eh? What the–?"
His tone shifted abruptly, and she couldn't help but perk up as he leaned closer, as though something on her face had caught his attention.
"What's going on?" Red asked, unsettled by the sudden peculiarity.
"No way… She bloomed!" Cosmo exclaimed, his senses finally registering something he hadn't noticed before.
""What?!""
At his insistence, Blue reluctantly explained the oddities that had emerged from her Authority during her cycles.
It was logical to be shocked, since a bloom was what Cosmo had named as the Nebula's short‑term goal, something he intended for them to achieve before revealing their true end goal.
It was a monumental internal phenomenon that dramatically elevated an Eminent's overall status while enhancing a specific aspect of their arsenal.
Incidentally, it also served as the most concrete proof that an Eminent had surpassed their prior self.
According to him, that was what it would take to ensure they were truly ready for the responsibility they had unknowingly accepted when they joined him.
"I knew time passed differently inside the zone, but this is still way too early." They watched as he unconsciously slipped back into the habit of muttering his thoughts aloud. "From the looks of it, her body was remade in a rush, along with the intent I left to monitor her life force. If it was forcibly altered without my will, then it must have bonded with her subconscious on its own. That's why it felt like she truly died..."
"Cosmo?"
"Ugh… congratulations, I guess."
"What's that reaction supposed to be?" Yon protested on Blue's behalf as Cosmo seemed to only half‑mean his praise. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you sounded jealous."
"Well, of course I'm jealous. I was hoping you guys would reach it before I did, but I didn't think it'd hurt this much."
"Wait, does that mean…"
"Yeah, I've never bloomed before."
"Eh?"
"Hm?"
"..."
"..."
"""Huh?!"""
…
"The loan, Dina."
"Bull! There's no way that's today!"
"You said you'd pay me back the next day, and that was yesterday."
"Fuah, you can't blame me for that, Sauer. I've protested the need to pay for on‑field special tools multiple times. As a specialist. It's a lot to afford."
The fellow commander complained shamelessly as she excused her blunder. Then she nudged him repeatedly with her elbow.
"Come on, how about you let this one slide, huh? I know the payout from that Lumevale dispatch must've been spicy, eh?"
Sauer could only sigh before finally committing to a harsh decision. "Four percent interest per day."
"No‑no, wait! I was kidding! I promise I'll have it by tomorrow. Besides, you owe me! I let my little sister help you out with one mission, and now she's stuck quarantined with the Qinghua branch until further notice."
"'Help' is an overstatement. Besides, that was Kenya's own fault. Now, can you get to the reason you called me?"
"Uh, the Captain's looking for you."
"Master? That's odd. At a time like this?"
"Look, I don't know either. The door's been open for a while now, so you'd better hurry."
He grunted before leaving her quarters, ignoring her voice as she shouted after him.
"Thank you, Sour– er– Sauer! I promise I'll pay you back the day after tomorrow, okay?!"
The base of the Yoru branch was dull that day, with most of its officers accompanying the Lucien branch on a joint campaign to Ha'atvashot, a dying boundary.
Sauer had missed the dispatch by the time he returned from Lumevale, and there hadn't been much else to do except a few minor missions here and there for the past few months.
However, for his Captain to summon him specifically outside their scheduled lessons meant something unusual was at hand.
When he opened the door to meet the Captain, he took a breath before stepping into the dark hall.
No sound accompanied his footsteps, and it didn't seem like anyone else was present.
But he acted as though that was far from true.
One… three… two steps to the right… jump a meter high… land and vault… one centimeter off… two below…
He had to perform all manner of maneuvers as he navigated the darkness. This was what it meant to meet with the Captain as his protégé.
Because in the darkness, an uncountable number of cuts were being executed at every moment. Failing to evade them as he advanced meant certain mutilation.
After a final step, he halted, and a single lamp flickered to life between them, creating a small circle of light amidst the void.
"You only 'died' five times this round, and it seems you have yet to break the habit of thinking far too much. Regardless, you have improved significantly since our last meeting. I'll have to adjust the patterns slightly for next time."
"It's been a while, Sensei." Sauer bowed as his master finally revealed himself.
"Has it?"
"Yes. As I recall, by the time you returned from Ra'Pert, I was already en route to Lumevale, so we never met for our scheduled lesson."
"..."
"Is something wrong?" Sauer asked as Yoru examined him for a bit too long.
"Ink… stains your heart," he said. "Did something happen?"
"Nothing escapes you," Sauer sighed. "It's nothing too serious. I was simply foolish enough to turn a Shadowbeast into my peer."
"And did you claim victory?"
"Officially, yes. But it doesn't feel like it."
He had even lamented the end of that behemoth, and to him, their battle had concluded without a true victor.
It was wholly inappropriate for him to feel that way, yet he couldn't help but consider a win against a weakened opponent a hollow one–lifeless as the Shadowbeast might have been.
After all, it wasn't an end that proved his strength, but his weakness.
Yoru seemed to picture the predicament before striking Sauer with a sudden chop aimed at his head.
Sauer was startled, but he managed to block it.
"You are correct about one thing…"
Sauer blocked another aimed at his torso.
"It is wrong to feel that way, but not for the reason you think."
He continued striking from different angles, and Sauer was forced to block them in rapid succession, though the increasing speed was concerning.
"To fight is to live. That is the simplest way to view battle. But between warriors, it is the means by which we pit our ideal realities against one another. So yes, even if your opponent was not fighting for its life, its desire for a reality in which you die and it continues marching forward is just as real as any other."
"Real?"
"Weakened as it was, did it cower and hide? Did it make excuses? Did it falter when it was meant to kill?"
"…No," Sauer answered after a moment. "It fought with everything it had."
"That alone is worthy of acknowledgement. And if you question the outcome had it been whole, then all you must do is grow. Grow strong enough that the question never arises again."
After the final chop that Sauer caught, Yoru ceased his attacks, and Sauer finally wore a look of resolution.
"Yes, Sensei."