A projectile exploded in the sky, echoing as if through the mountains…
In truth, it was the Berta twins holding a training session.
Behind the house, on the small lawn that ended at the sidewalk of the DSSP Plaza, there was a compact training court—used both for sports and for Sefira practice.
Kimisu walked along the side of the house until he finally reached the twins training in the back.
[The have been conjured!]
Two red screens floated behind Erika, who was surrounded by a thin, stable line of pink energy. Her eyes shone intensely.
[You have regulated firing power to 0%]
Another red screen announced this to Erik; he was outlined by a yellow aura as he reloaded a .38-caliber revolver, smiling as he walked toward his sister.
The long barrel of Erik's weapon acted as an energy catalyst—it could reduce or amplify the power of a shot. In this case, the output was set to zero so as not to injure his sister.
Spinning the cylinder, he switched chambers before firing again.
The shot echoed through the neighborhood, leaving behind a yellow mist of energy.
From the screens behind Erika, two long chains with blades at their tips extended into the air. One chain stretched forward like a bridge, forming a path Erika faithfully followed.
The other, however, shot straight toward Erik.
Anticipating it, he dodged and aimed, firing at Erika as she ran atop the steel chain—as if it were a solid surface for movement.
'She has excellent balance…' Kimisu thought, crossing his arms as he observed the training.
Once the shot was fired, the chain that should have struck Erik twisted, interfering with the bullet's trajectory.
Erika leapt over her brother, both chains wrapping around her to shield her from the shots. Erik, however, chose to retreat, knowing his sister's objective.
When she landed, Erika rushed in to engage her twin in close combat. While she was still regaining her footing, Erik aimed and considered firing, but instead raised the barrel slightly—anticipating her next move.
Springing up with explosive force, Erika sharply dodged the shot.
Closing the distance, Erika entered a risky hand-to-hand exchange. As she threw direct punches, Erik dodged and fired point-blank shots—blocked by the chains or avoided by her movements.
With the barrel of the gun aimed at her forehead, Erika grabbed Erik's arm from the outside, gaining the upper hand for the moment.
Pressing the advantage, she forced his arm downward, nearly rendering it useless.
She persisted, trying to land blows to his face while Erik deftly evaded, attempting to pull her back and create the distance he needed to escape.
Using his left hand to block, Erik halted her momentum. He wrenched Erika's arm back, drove his weight forward, and hooked a leg behind her knee to break her stance.
She tried to cling to his arm to rise, but took an elbow to the collarbone and was slammed hard to the ground.
"Oof…" Kimisu felt the pain from afar.
When Erika opened her eyes, she saw the barrel of the gun pointed at her forehead.
With a nervous smile, she asked, "Do we call this a draw?"
"No… You would've died in that situation."
Erika still had some confidence—the blades of her chains were circling Erik, aimed at vital points: heart and head.
"How? We're still fighting—"
Before she could finish, Erik fired at her forehead. The projectile dispersed into particles of energy without causing harm.
"Like I said—you would've died long before that."
'The shot fires, hits the target… and only then produces the sound,' Kimisu analyzed as he watched Erik help his sister up. 'Izumi is being watched over by someone very experienced…'
Thinking of Izumi reminded him why he was there. Stepping fully out from the side of the house, Kimisu found a small veranda; Kinney and Izumi were there.
Clapping in approval, Kinney exclaimed,
"Very good! Very good! Erika, you need to improve your dexterity with the chains—" the twins' supervisor said, but the girl protested.
"If I'd used Berta, I would've won!"
"If you used Berta, Erik would've used it too. He won without it—why wouldn't he win the same way?" Kinney countered, leaving the trainee frustrated.
"Sis… go for disarms," Erik said, dissolving his weapon into a red screen. "You had chances to fling my gun away with the chains… Use your head more."
"Use your survival instinct, not your winning instinct," Kimisu added, drawing their attention.
Sweaty and out of breath, the twins looked him up and down. Kinney smiled faintly.
"Other than that, you'll improve with time."
"Kimisu!" Kinney exclaimed, raising his arms.
Before he climbed the steps, Erik extended a hand to greet Izumi's master.
"Erik Von Berta, member of Squad Zeta," he introduced himself.
"Kimisu Hinode, master in charge of Izumi Kairen."
At the same moment, Erika glanced toward Izumi—seated on a light-gray couch, legs crossed, deep in meditation.
He was practically inactive.
"Erika Von Berta…" she introduced herself to Kimisu.
They exchanged a simple nod.
Climbing the steps and entering the veranda, Kimisu shook Kinney's hand before approaching his apprentice—lost in his own thoughts, oblivious to the world's voices.
Izumi saw only energy, felt the circles increasing their rotation as his focus reached perfection.
He drew a deep breath, felt the air fill his lungs.
A blue aura surrounded the storm; though it created turbulence, Izumi maintained the calm Kimisu desired.
'Touching him now will reactivate the brain and could cause a loss of progress…' Kimisu considered as he watched, but he had no other choice.
Crouching in front of him, he waited for the rotation to complete its final cycle before acting. Placing his palm on Izumi's right knee, he called softly, "Izu-kun… shall we wake up?"
Izumi's three energy discs stopped abruptly, then gradually resumed their rotation—smooth, accelerated, and natural.
Izumi opened his eyes. Kimisu's prana revealed his master's presence in a soft pink hue, close to the color of cherry blossoms.
That presence—and that voice—were unmistakable to someone who admired him so deeply.
"Kimisu…" he murmured, joy filling his heart.
"You put everything into practice, huh? And it looks like it's working," Kimisu said, smiling with pride.
Nodding, Izumi shook off an inner ache and soon overcame it.
"Yeah… but I still have things to improve."
"We all do," the master replied, standing up. "Come with me. Let's take the next step."
Glancing aside, Kimisu saw Kinney and the twins watching them curiously—but he hardly cared.
Descending the steps, he pulled a white mask from beneath his suit—one he had been forced to wear. It was white, resembling a kitsune's face, with pink stripes like cherry blossoms.
Following him, Izumi noticed the mask being put on with care, and a vague memory surfaced.
It was a cold morning. Snow covered the Michizane Clan's vacation reserve—a vast private forest owned by the Japanese clan.
Izumi searched the house for his father but couldn't find him, so he followed the brick path to the statue of the family's most important descendant: Satoru no Michizane, one of the first eleven Rank S Sefiras.
The one who had entered the domains of the kings and managed to seal their sovereign actions.
Below the statue, paying reverence, stood Izami—speaking with a peculiar figure wearing a white hanfu beneath a pale-pink haori…
When they noticed the boy's presence, that man vanished with the wind, leaving only drifting snow behind.
Curious, Izumi had given that man a name…
"The man with the kitsune mask…" he murmured, seeing his master's prana form the nearly perfect outline of the mask.
"It was a good nickname, actually," Kimisu said, his voice muffled by the mask.
Turning his back to the house, the master's hands were imbued with dense pink energy, forming near-blades. Gesturing through the air and leaving trails of prana, Kimisu sliced downward—then cut from left to right.
[Dream Art: Rupture]
A red screen, charged with Kimisu's pink aura, appeared at his side.
Suddenly, space tore apart. A portal—with a star-filled center—was surrounded by an intensely rich, crimson mana: a true and pure spatial rupture.
Izumi could see that energy—it pulsed, almost like a heart.
"The dream art was developed to connect the domains to the world of Yetzirah… When this happens, the linked demonic domain is sealed, and a shortcut is created just behind this portal."
"This is…" Izumi murmured, fascinated.
Leaning on his cane, he cautiously approached the epicenter of energy.
"The domain of dreams… the world of formation, Yetzirah. Where angels surround us. Shall we enter?"
It would be Izumi's first contact with the world of angels. The place where only space exists…
Reality beyond the world.
And also the place where humans stood closest to the Demon Kings…
With his first step, Izumi moved toward conditional freedom—the false truth, in search of virtue.
Little by little, he remembered why he wished to become a Sefira.
Little by little, he understood the reason for his blindness…
Little by little, he accepted his own truth.