The road back home was almost empty.
The streetlights were beginning to turn on one by one, and the city took on that ambiguous tone that belonged to neither day nor night. Haru walked with his hands in his pockets, his pace steady, his gaze fixed ahead.
Now that there was no one nearby, the silence felt different.
"At last we can talk normally", Nyx said, without whispers or modulation. "Open spaces are wonderful."
Haru didn't respond immediately.
He walked a few more meters before letting out a breath.
"Hey. You say that like I was holding you back."
"You were", Nyx replied. "In your own way."
Haru tilted his head slightly.
"Pretending to be an AI was your idea", Haru replied with a reproachful expression. "Besides, I told you I didn't want to draw attention."
"And yet you attract it", Nyx pointed out. "Especially today."
Haru thought of the classroom.
Of Aoi, sitting beside him.
Of Reina… and how she hadn't recognized him.
"It was uncomfortable", he admitted.
"It was funny", Nyx corrected. "You should have seen your face. Hopeful and a little nervous."
Haru frowned.
"Don't start."
Nyx let out a brief, soft laugh.
"I won't. But I remember that when we met, I told you she wouldn't remember anything that happened."
Haru kept walking, attentive.
"That's true. But you can't blame me for still holding onto some hope. After so many years, I finally found her."
"But…?", Nyx said, anticipating the words.
"But I never imagined she would become one of them."
"A magical girl?", Nyx asked without hesitation. "As far as I know, Ciel is the one in charge of this sector."
There was a brief pause.
"If you ask me, they're beginners", Nyx added. "I estimate they've been at it for less than three months."
Haru considered those words.
"If that's the case, then I can still make her leave that group", he murmured, frowning. "I can still save her."
Haru began to run.
He turned into a narrow street, moving away from the main avenues. The houses were lower there, older. Some looked abandoned, others barely standing.
"I don't think it's as simple as you believe", Nyx continued. "Besides, we're close to achieving our objective."
"Destroying the origin of the Echoes…", Haru said.
"Reaching the origin", Nyx added. "And then we'll eliminate the Kalin."
"I just hope we can do it in time."
The house appeared at the end of the street.
Small.
Old.
The paint on the facade was worn, and the front yard was little more than a patch of dirt with weeds growing chaotically. Haru opened the rusted gate and moved forward without stopping.
"Nice place you chose for our hideout", Nyx commented, somewhat disappointed.
"It's what I could afford", Haru replied with a sigh.
Inside, the house was almost empty.
An old sofa.
A low table.
A functional kitchen, without decorations.
Haru left his bag near the entrance and took off his shoes. The silence wrapped around him immediately, dense, comfortable.
Nyx didn't speak for a few seconds.
"Hey, Haru", she finally said. "Remember that when the time comes, you'll have to make a difficult decision."
Haru's body tensed slightly.
"I won't let what happened in Osaka happen again."
"You had no choice. Telling them the truth only accelerated the process."
Haru closed his eyes.
"Let's not talk about that."
Nyx fell silent.
She didn't insist.
She didn't push.
Haru went to the kitchen and prepared something simple to eat. He barely tasted the food. His mind was elsewhere.
On the Echo from the night before.
On how Echoes of that level already existed in the city.
"Last night you let an important prey go", Nyx said, breaking the silence.
Haru placed his hands on the countertop.
"It was a gesture of goodwill."
"You can't afford to waste prey", Nyx added.
Haru didn't respond.
The light outside faded completely, leaving only artificial illumination.
Night had fallen.
Haru felt the change before it happened.
A weight in the air.
A faint, but unmistakable distortion.
"How timely", Nyx said. "I think duty is calling, Haru."
Haru looked up.
"I know."
He straightened calmly, as if he had already made the decision beforehand. He walked down the hallway and opened a hidden compartment in the wall.
Inside was the belt.
Black.
With dim red lines.
He held it in his hands for a few seconds.
"Come on, Haru!", Nyx said. "It's time for the knight."
Haru put on the belt and adjusted it.
The click echoed through the house.
Then he attached the device he was still carrying.
"TRANSFORMATION!"
The red lines began to glow.
There was no explosion.
There was no thunderous noise.
The energy spread like a long-contained sigh.
Haru closed his eyes.
He felt something inside him relax.
The constant tension.
The excessive caution.
The voice that always said no.
His posture changed effortlessly. He straightened up, and his breathing became deep and steady.
"Are you ready, Execrator Knight?", Nyx murmured.
The armor began to form, piece by piece, until it completely covered his body.
An armor that responded to his will.
When the visor closed, Haru opened his eyes.
The reflection the window returned to him was different.
It wasn't cold.
It wasn't distant.
Confident.
The Execrator Knight took a step forward.
His gait was firm. Elegant. Almost theatrical.
"It's showtime!", he exclaimed, striking a pose straight out of a tokusatsu series.
Nyx laughed softly.
"Exactly."
A kind of black mist enveloped the device and drifted away, condensing into a small black sphere.
Nyx's form was irregular, as if that mist concealed her completely, revealing only two bright red eyes.
The knight raised one hand, flexing his fingers as if testing the air. Then he turned toward the door.
"It's time to…", he added. "Stop pretending."
He went outside and, in a single motion, ascended to a nearby rooftop.
The nocturnal city stretched out before him.
Lights.
Shadows.
Nightlife taking over the city.
The Execrator Knight rested one hand on the railing and observed.
"They want to purify them", Nyx said, floating near him. "We want to cut the problem out at the root."
The knight tilted his head slightly, noticing a shadow beginning to slip through the alleys.
"I see the night has been kind to us."
Nyx remained silent for a moment.
"Don't lose it this time."
An invisible smile formed beneath the helmet.
"Do not fear, partner", said the Execrator Knight. "It's time to raise the curtain."
With a swift movement, he leapt from the railing, vanishing among the city's alleys.
The hunt had begun.