On the first page of this story, the future seemed so bright. Then it really turned out to be so evil, he doesn't even know why he's still surprised. Everyone has their wicked schemes and some take those to new extremes. Now there's gravel in his voice, the world crumbled down from his fight. In this lopsided tug of war, they'll always win, even if he's right. Since he's been fed fables from their head with violent words and empty lies. It's sick that it's these type of battles that keep him satisfied. In everyone's eyes he will always be their hero, even if he's lost his mind...

He was going to follow this through, even though he was crying. He'd even go through a world of darkness, even if there was no one to light his way. He would go past the future, there is nothing in this world that can bring his spirits down, no matter how agonizing the pain might be. Even if it'd seemed like everyone vanished into nothingness, he still could see the beauty of a fleeting dream. No one could share in his pain because they were scared. No one could do anything help him out at all. No one could run so hard and know their heart was breaking. He wanted to live innocently and never look back. Everyone just when their way and just left him on this lonely trail. At least he could imagine beautiful dreams and chase after them... only for his lonely heart. He was prepared for a bleak future, he had to become strong and perhaps the pain, the strings of destiny and the despair would all become intertwined.

God bless him. Please. Don't let him become a monster. Not now. He was like a rose thrown into a violent breeze, his petals were scattered through to the wind. He had stumbled and fallen into darkness. His dreams and hopes were buried under his doubts and fears. He had to change and pull the strings of destiny, it was his wish after all. But then again, only God knows everything. So maybe he's a masochist, he tries to run but he doesn't want to ever leave. All of them can just watch him break down, it doesn't matter him, he can't feel anymore pain. He'll keep fighting until the walls go up in flames, smoke with all his memories....

---

Karashima City - City Borders
Kiku Kunazumi
Early Night
"So this is the city full of wraiths? Huh, seems like it." His voice came out as a quiet and raspy whisper. The young man sat on top of a sky high building with a pale moon behind him. The place was a wreck, cracked glass on the floor, broken down doors, wooden panels covering broken windows, smoke was all over the sky. The roads were pretty much abandoned, the trees were basically shriveled up little branches. It was like a zombie apocalypse had it twice and came back to deal the finishing blow. The wind blew between his hair, the brown locks being pushed forward by the invisible force as they floated in the air. He let his legs dangle down the building, with the soul gem in his hand. What would happen if he dropped from here? Would he really die? Huh, that would be a funny thought. As he watched his accessory glow in a light teal, feeling the energy emitting from the gem, he wondered would there be anymore Magical Fighters coming along to this city? He can't waste anymore time then, he jumped down into the fray below. Landing gracefully, like a servant bowing down to his master, he glowed teal colour as his casual clothes changed to his battle uniform.

"Hmph, this will be easy." The teenager muttered out, glancing around, there was body next to him, fresh and cracked piece of jewellery lied by it's hand. Headless it was, a white gun laid by it. Poor sucker, their poor rookie ass was put out of commission... permanently. The wraith was around then. As he stood on the rugged road, he closed his eyes and inhaled the cursed magic around him. The moon shone brighter, the stars hidden by the dark clouds starting to form. He could smell a storm coming along, a common occurence for a city with such a high level of despair. Looks like he had some cleaning up to do. "Haha, this is going to be so much fun." With that, his covered himself with his cape and disappeared into the darkness.

"A new magical boy?"

Komei's attention was once again redirected from the dead body of Kyubey to the open briefcase that was lying in a table in front of him. Grabbing one of the stacks of bills that were inside the briefcase, he proceeded to bring it closer to the foot lamp that served as the only light source in the lugubrious apartment and then he started to count it, still aggravated for the sudden appearance of the incubator having interrupted him and making him start all over again. Not more than a few seconds later another body of Kyubey personified itself in the room and walked towards his previous body, which had just been smashed with an empty bottled by Komei, who reacted violently in response to the sudden appearance of the creature who came just to say that new magical boys were arriving in the city.

"You don't seem much interested in the matter, Toshi san. The competition for grief cubes has been risen, aren't you going to do something about it?"

Komei didn't answer immediately, instead he took his time to finish counting the money. When he was done, Komei retrieved a package of cigarettes from the front pocket of his blueish shirt and a lighter from the pocket of his jeans and spoke while he lighted it.

"How may times have I told you to call me Mister Toshi?"

Kyubey finished eating his previous body and was about to call on Komei's insolent way of missing the point but he was interrupted

"Many magical boys appear all the time. About half of them succumb to despair, other half dies to the wraiths in their first battle and the other half doesn't last more than a month. What is the difference in one more? The enemy are not the sapphire doppelgangers but the movement of the galaxy, it all comes down to fires and vacuum, fire and vacuum..."

"You are being nonsensical again. Truly, when one looks at your mental state I wonder if the real miracle isn't the wish that I granted you and not the fact that you haven't fallen into despair yet."

"Oh, is a being devoid of emotions qualified to criticize anyone's mental sanity?"

"Regardless, you are still bound by your contract to eliminate the wraiths and you need to purify your soulgem."

"I get it, I get it."

Komei finished the cigarette and used magic to clean and heal his lungs before grabbing a biker's helmet and stepping through the main door, ready to hunt wraiths for the night

At Mirical Park, a young peculiar boy had met with a peculiar boiorganic white squirrel. The boy was walkimg around the edge of the Mirical Park fountain, placing his hands out for strategic balance, pretending the rock wall was a tightrope. He sang happily as the creature explained to him some very important details.

The squirrel talked relatively emotionless and spoke in a smart and astute tone. "I sense more magical boys. It would seem your wish is indeed coming true again. Once more Magical boys are passing through the cities boundary. I sense their power. ... Junko! Listen to me, I won't explain this again."

The boy called Junko turned to look at the squirrel. He was nibbling on a blue icicle pole, lemon to be exact. He was stilling walking along the wall, only backwards.

"Aww yeah! I'm glad I'll have more friends to play with, I hope they're tougher and cooler than the last batch, I mean, the last guy I met decided to go and get his head bitten off. He was a silly guy." Junko turned back around and continued walking along the rocks a few steps, but then jumped off. "Kyubey, here's a present, I collected this a few hours ago, I beat a wraith that looked like a really really big whale!" He placed his other hand on his chin. "Or maybe it was a mermaid? Hmm" the boy finished off his snack and threw some black cubes to the squirrel known as 'Kyubey'

"You're a strange child. But you're effective when it comes to defeating wraiths. I have some buissness to attend to. If you'll excuse me." Kyubey scurried into some bushes and disappeared. Junko decided to wave bye. "Cyaaaaa! Kyubeeeey-Saaaaan!"

"How many magical boys are here, Kyubey?"

"Numerous, Chiyoko-San."

Chiyoko sat on a fence, balancing himself on his hands. He idly stared at the white magical cat-bunny named Kyubey. Whatever it was, Chiyoko didn't know, but he didn't need to. A strand of light brown hair went over his eye and he dropped off the wooden fence, bringing a hand up to brush away the strand of hair. He looked at his surroundings. Karashima city. An abandoned city full of wraiths which in turn attracted more Magical Boys, turning into more wraiths. A vicious cycle. The city didn't look inviting, either.

"Thank you for the information, Kyubey-San. Take care."

Kyubey walked off to who knows where, disappearing from view. Chiyoko threw his Soul Gem into the air and caught it, glowing silver. A set of armour materialised on Chiyoko, now a knight. His cape circled around him and he was launched into the air, taking flight. 'The feeling of wind rushing by...It'll never get old.' He thought. He started descending, until he finally landed on the ground.

He spotted a boy nearby. He looked like a similar age to Chiyoko, but that didn't matter. What did matter was the fact that only dead people, wraiths and magical boys came here. He wasn't dead yet, wasn't a wraith yet so he had to be a magical boy. Sneaking wouldn't be a very good course of action. His armour was loud and if the magical boy had working ears, they would hear him.

Wait...No, this was Mirical Grounds. The center of the city. It was the safe haven from everything and he would have to play it safe and act like a cosplayer.

Pulling up his visor, he yelled "Hello!" He grasped his large broadsword just in case, preparing to pull it out at a moments notice. "Are you friendly?"

"If I book it now, I probably have time to fight maybe one more Wraith, then I can get home and maybe finish half my homework, then sleep, and then maybe finish the other half on the way to class...and before the bell rings."

The white haired boy sat on the edge of a building, his legs swinging freely. Haruka leaned forward somewhat, staring intently at the sky. He sniffed the air, and then let out a sneeze. Aw man, was he coming down with something? He would hate it if he got sick now. He rubbed his nose absentmindedly, sniffling somewhat as he tried to figure out how much time he had left. He knew his mom wouldn't be home for some time, his dad had taken his adorable little sister Kaname out shopping and would be on their way home soon, and he was sure his older brother Koji was probably going to stay over at his girlfriend's house again. He felt the slightest pang of jealousy, taking a folded up letter out of his pocket. Sure, risking his life on a daily basis was no issue, but giving a tiny piece of paper to a certain girl in his class was out of the question. He let out a groan as he pocketed his love letter. Man oh man, he really needed to man up.

Junko was minding his own business at the park when a boy in knights armour decided to attract his attention. Now, Junko is not an idoit, he knew this boy was one of the magical boys Kyubey talked about. Yet he decided to play dumb to make things more interesting.

"Hmm? Oh Hai there mister!" Junko waved hello to the unfamilliar boy, he noted his shining armour, and that the boy was clearly grasping his sword to strike.

"What's with the costume? Are you some kinda cosplayer or something!?" Junko clenched his fists and grinned, with a sparkle in his eyes he then asked.
"What Anime are you cosplaying from? You look sooo cool! I didn't think anybody else in the Mirical Grounds watched anime!"

The night was uneventful for most. A bland one for most, the clouds were rolling in covering the pale moon with little effort. Soon, a small shower decided to cry upon the city, drenching it's shopping citizens and other people caught in it's torrent of liquid. A young man caught the raindrops and let them slide through the gaps between his fingers. "Kyubey... Where is it?" A white mammal appeared from the shadows with it's red eyes gleaming jewels. "To the south. You know are you sure about this? It can get you killed." He was left without a response as the man ran down the street. Splashes of water littered the street, his feet becoming more soaked with every step. He kept on running, on running and running. His hair was drenched. Standing in front of the abandoned junkyard in the outer city, with a sense of determination he prepared himself. "This time... I'll finish you!" He declared, his body glowed white with an equally white gem appeared on his head. Jumping into the fray, he prepared himself to finish this off once for all.

---

It was raining and strangely enough he had no luck finding the wraith that killed the Puer Magi from earlier. Kiku grumbled, it was such pain to track down one wraith. Cracking his neck a little, he sighed a little. His hair was getting wet as the droplets fell to the concrete from the brown silk. "Hah... And here I was hoping to get another Despair Cube today." He stood in the cold wet rain, even though he couldn't feel it. His face was bored, lifeless as he walked around a little. But he only got to take a few steps before being distracted. It was understandable though, it was something everyone in the city noticed. Most people passed it off as one hell of a lightning strike but Kiku knew better. It was the birth of a new wraith.It was unmistakable, that flash of a bright light. Puer and Puella Magi will come by soon. He had to get there first before anyone else did, that wraith was his! Seeing from that flash it was a powerful on too... In the direction of the junkyard we bounced off too.

There was something stirring in his soul... like an impending doom was approaching.

"Okay, here is the plan..."

Komei was standing on the top of a building from which he was able to look down to the junkyard and the incredibly powerful wraith that had appeared just a few moments ago. While he could attempt to take on the wraith alone, the subsequent use of magic, not only during the fight but the following healing of wounds, would not be worth the grief cube. So for that reason he had assembled his team of advisors and experts to aid him in this matter, although for anyone witnessing the scene it would look like as he was talking alone and shouting to himself.

"...The kid will serve as a DUMBASS magnet..."

Toshi pointed the kid in question, another magical boy who was running through the streets in the direction of the junkyard.

"...he will weaken the wraith. Then I'll be coming from behind and I'll thrust my mighty blue fist. Any questions?"
"..."
"You know it was rethoric, I didn't have any intention of answering any question"
"..."
"He can actually keep the grief cube. It will be a good way to keep him in debt with me and I have a pair that I've yet to use."
"..."
"Because I'm obligated by the contract, idiot."

Just a few seconds later, the younger magical boy had arrived at the junkyard and about to initiate combat. Komei was resolute to just obserb and wait the scene, however for some reason he looked up to the ski, to the rain that was falling, and he started to scream as if he had got his arm cut. After this, he casted the magic of his soul gem and transformed into his magical form. He hastily put the biker helmet, which, imbued with magic, had adquired a blue color with golden ornaments, and jumped off the building. The junkyard was a bit far for his jump to reach, but making use of his ghosts to impulse himself in mid air coupled with the teleportation he reached his destination and made a crash landing right in front of the kid, unharmed thanks to the armor. He stood firmly and faced the kid with his arms crossed.

"Do you believe in miracles?"

He then turned to face the wraith and raised his fists

"I shall assist you in your trial"

Before the magical boy replied to him, there was a bright clash of light, it had to a coincidence, as it began to rain, a sign if saddness for Junko. He looked in awe at the splendore of light. Although it was not a sign of grace or anything goodwilled, but a sign of tradgedy and dispair.
Junko placed his palm out in the open to catch some water droplets, he then focused his attention to the water that splashed against his hand.
"Hey mister, don'cha got somewhere to be right about now?"
He closed his hand into a fist. "I'ma go. The rain temds to piss me off..." Junkos' entire demeanour had shifted, from a carefree young boy, to an adult who has clashed with many hardships. He left the other magical boy to his own company, whilst he snuck off to see what new wraith had spawned.

It was in the Junkyard, a mighty wraith of hate had transmogrified in this area...
Junko concealed himself in the darkness whilst he watched two new magical boys appear.
"More friends... Aha... Ahaha... AHAHAHAHAHA!"

Chiyoko was going to respond to the bystander when he saw the bright flash of light.
"Yeah. Yeah I do. Take care, sir!"
A Wraith was born and it needed to die before it killed civilians horribly and terrifyingly. Pulling down his visor, he gripped his sword tightly before running off to the light, not paying attention to the boy sneaking off. When he was certain no civilians could see him, he launched himself into the air with his cape and flew to the bright light.

Gliding down, he dropped to the ground at the Junkyard. The Wraith was born here, out of hate, curses and anger. He pulled out his sword as his armour was hit by rain, sliding down before hitting the changed grounds. He took notice of two other Puer Magi. "Hello, comrades." He nodded curtly before looking at the Wraith. Ugly, scary and all around full of hate for everything. Aka, standard fare.

The flash had meant it was at least a little bit powerful, though. The cubes would be all the sweeter.

"I have come to purge you of your sins, wraith!"

Solemnly through the streets Sakura walked through the rain; water rolling down her slender face in small streams. Her face was rather expressionless as she looked down at the ground before her, hands stuffed in pockets and closed off to the world around her. She was deep in her thoughts, hardly paying attention to the surrounds except making sure to move out of the way of anything that might obstruct her walking. Thoughts filtered through her mind, mostly of the past and the painful memories that reside there. She shook her head, water splashing off her face and hair and along with it the thoughts. She let a soft sigh escape her pale pink lips as she finally looked up to realize where she was. Apparently she had walked all the way down town before she even noticed. 'oh well' she thought, remembering she needed groceries anyway. Looking around the street for any store open a sudden flash of light caught her eye in the distance.

Most would assume it was a lightning strike during this weather, but Sakura knew better, any magical person would. She silently thanked whatever God there was and immediately dashed in its direction; She needed the distraction.

Sakura dashed down an alley way, up a fire escape to the roof and from there she hopped from roof top to roof top until the Junkyard lay only across the building she stood upon. Looking around to make sure the area was clear she jumped from the roof, down two stories and landed in a roll to reduce the impact. Using the roll as momentum she eased into a stand through the roll and ran into the junk yard. Finally she had found the wraith after making her way through the junkyard. Looking around she saw a few magical boys standing around the wraith, seemingly ready to fight.

Sakura never really knew why she was the only magical girl, or at least the only one she has ever seen. They were always boys. But the thought never kept her up at night, Activating her Gem she transformed into her magical girl attire, her body getting wrapped in a seeming school outfit with skirt and top, her hair tied back in a ponytail aside from the bangs that framed her petite face. Suddenly a slender crescent scythe appeared spinning in mid air at her right until she quickly snatched the weapon with ease and rested the long pole across her shoulder casually.

Empty. Rotten. Empty. Bingo. This city was a pretty good haul; within a few hours of entering Karashima, the boy had already filled his bag with scavenged supplied. Tinned food, bottles of water, Hell even unopened packets of cigarettes; people in the city were wasteful, perhaps a symptom of the despair that hung so thick in the air. He moved on to another bin, pulling apart black sacks and rummaging through the detritus. It wasn't as though he really had to anymore and he would not find the one item he really craved there, but it was somehow comforting; a throwback to simpler, if no less painful days. Or maybe he was just a filthy bastard, who knew? Unfortunately he wasn't left alone to his dumpster diving. 'There is a better way to sustain your body, Souta. Why do you insist on finding material nutrition when you can just hunt for Wraiths? I thought that was why you came here.' The speaker was a small white and pink... cat... thing; even after four years of being followed by it, Souta still wasn't sure what Kyuubey was. He had heard a dozen conflicting theories, came up with a few himself; the current favorite was that Kyuubey was in fact God, come to Earth to test their souls. Or some such shyte. At any rate the furball had his uses, even if he never shut up. 'Go to hell, I live for this. I'd take a steaming pile of rubbish over your Wraiths any day of the week.' That said, his situation was getting desperate. As the catsquirrel said, Souta had only traveled to Karashima to hunt more powerful Wraiths; his supply of Cubes was at an all time low and pickings had been few and far between in the mountains. As much as he hated to admit it, Souta needed to go for the first Wraith he stumbled across or else he may lose his chance.

Thankfully, the big city being what it was, a Wraith was soon born amid a flash of lightning. He sighed deeply, not wanting to get involved... Other Magi would be racing to ground zero, causing contention and maybe even a fight over who got the kill. Politics he would rather avoid. Still... he needed that Cube. Summoning up his energy, Souta leaped up to the nearest rooftop and hopped from one to the next in the direction of the lightning strike. Kyuubey had done what he always did when things got dangerous, vanishing into a back alley. Not that Souta particularly cared; he was always one snarky remark away from dicing his so-called companion anyway. As he darted across the cityscape, he became aware of other sources of magic, faint but distinct; most likely other Magi converging on the prey. Fantastic; maybe they'll make a battle royale out of it... He didn't like exposing himself to this many potential threats, but it could be days before the chance came again.

Interestingly enough, it was a junkyard; the sort of place Souta felt most at home. His eyes glittered behind a layer of grime as he surveyed the goods on offer, the potential for this place... I might set up camp here once this is over. But in the meantime... A number of others had already arrived, more than he was comfortable with. Still, a large enough Wraith should yield enough Cubes for all, assuming the others were willing to share. Clasping his Soul Gem tightly Souta allowed the magic to flow through him, transforming into his Magi form. After taking a moment to adjust his bicorne, he leaped down from the last rooftop and landed between a few others, one sabre drawn and resting on his shoulder. 'I'd say hello, but formalities can wait.' One of the other boys dragged at his eye though; very effeminate, almost as if he were a real girl. Impossible of course. Probably just a crossdresser; Kyuubey contracted all sorts.

Puer and Puella Magi... He knew it. The young man eyed the fellow fighters. Kiku was there too of course, watching as the others arrived, almost surprised that a girl appeared. There weren't many girls, only a few left in the world he believed. He moved his hazel eyes to the Puer Magi in the center. He seemed... a bit old. Perhaps in his early twenties, not only that he was much taller than the second tallest Puer Magi there! His muscles were built and legs.... They were extremely muscular and built. He seemed to have chocolate brown hair, though most of it was tied up into two twin hair buns, adorned by a white material, covering each of them completely. He also had some spiked bracelets... Perhaps he was a punk rocker? Of course, he could just be a human who just wondered here through an accident.

He then turned his eyes to the wraith ahead of him. Holy Madoka, it was huge. It seemed to have a doctor motif going for it. First off, a metal plate covered it's face, meaningg it was unique, meaning it was really powerful, secondly, it had a SYRINGE. A SYRINGE. He was so screwed. Thirdly, there was that huge scalpel it had. Yeah, one cut and they were all dead. Of course, the Puer Magi in the front didn't care. He looked around at the fellow Magical Fighters. "Are you here to help me? Don't bother, just stay out of my way." Was the cold response they got before he charged at the huge wraith, however, he was only knocked back by the giant syringe and smashed into a pile of rubble, seeming to be crushed underneath. "H-hey! Watch out!"

"You can't help it." A sharp, almost inhuman voice spoke. A white mammalian creature appeared from t. "He knew this could be the ran result but he still came here anyways"

"K-kyubey!?"

"He's taking on a responsibility that no one else will as such, he's gone this far, there is no turning back." With that another magical boy appeared. A tall one and very striking crossed-shaped scar on his left cheek. Dressed in midnight black, he wore a stained white headband that held a gem at the back, contrasting with the pure black he was wearing. His build was that of a young teen naturally and with him was rather large broadsword, larger than his body. "Hmph, this one is mine. I'll kill it." With a confident grin plastered on his face, he jumped high into the air and swung downwards. Of course, this wasn't an ordinary wraith and tried to retaliate firing multiple different blobs of green. Too bad those blobs of green were horribly misfired and the boy able to dodge them with ease, unfortunately for our other Magical Fighters, shot were fired at them as well. "Holy..." Kiku had to slice one in half with with the blades on his feet. "Gross... Hey... What the.... Watch out, these things are.... alive!" He could only point out before he back flipped away from the green blob, shaking off any remains on his blade in the process.

Back with the boy in black, landing as he did nothing but smirk as he slashed the beast in half,,, vertically. This magical fighter isn't stupid though as he started to hack away at it, making sure it was destroyed. One hit, another hit, one more for good measure. Of course, there's no kill like overkill, so he stood at the remains and fired a point blank fire blast that lit up the dark sky briefly and caused a pretty big explosion. "Okay, problem solved! Are you all okay?" His toothy grin was obviously convinced that the enemy was finished. Seemed like the blobs had disappeared too.

Y'know if one said that it was over, Kiku would agree... for a moment. It was only a second that he let his guard down. That's all that was needed. In one quick slice, a head was on the floor and it wasn't Kiku's. The body in black fell to the floor, limp and motionless. Wait... where the hell was his soul gem!? It wasn't cracked. Crap! If any Puer Magi was fatally injured and didn't know about the soul gem secret they would fall into despair right!? This guy had to know about it! Kiku prayed to his non-existent god that the guy did know. His prayers weren't answered as the junkyard was filled with a black and soulless light.

Magi above the age of sixteen were pretty rare; most were contracted about the same age as Souta, in their early teens. He risked taking his eyes off the Wraith for a moment to scan the others; a couple of young ones, a few his age and older. But the one in front was an aberration, in his late teens to early twenties. Most Magi died or gave in before that age, which implied that he was either very powerful or just dumb enough not to understand his plight; perhaps both. Besides, that prissy hairdo did him no favours; the man was clearly just an overly muscled Chun-li crossplayer. Souta took a careful step backward, unsheathing his second sabre and making ready to move. The Wraith was his primary concern here, not some random perv- Before Souta could even finish insulting the Chun-li fan, the other Magi had gone and gotten himself killed... Just an idiot then. Fair enough...

Taking the fool's demise as his cue, Souta took a step forward and took a breath to speak when he was cut off by the entrance of yet another Puer Magi. For the love of God, this is taking the piss... How many morons are there in this city..? Dressed in deep edgy black and with a certain cockiness to his manner, this idiot was clearly going to die. Souta turned to the others as Mr Confidence stepped forward, oversized sword in hand. 'I give him odds of one in thirty. Any takers? I'll bet a bottle of brandy?' From the looks of them, he doubted any of the others would approve... But it wasn't as though he wanted to make friends here. If a bit of morbid humour convinced them to leave him alone, then perhaps Souta could nab his Cubes and leave this hive sooner than expected. Regardless of their response, he ignored the others and watched the idiot with vague curiosity. The attacks sent his way were easy enough to avoid; a little lean here, an elegant pirouette there and the blobs sailed past harmlessly. Unfortunately, it appeared his bet had been wrong, the idiot in black swaggering back toward them, the remains of the Wraith lying in a pool behi-HOLY SHIT! Souta didn't see the attack that took the black Magi's head, but damned if he didn't feel it, staggering back from the sheer shock.

He recovered his balance, switching back into a combat stance as the corpse hit the floor. Fanfuckingtastic... he thought bitterly. Not only had the fool failed to properly finish the first Wraith, he had also set his own collapse up perfectly. Now the assembled Magi had not one, but two fresh Wraiths to fight and one had already proven its own resilience. None of the others had moved yet, prompting Souta to take the lead and dart forward. He gave the new Wraith a wide berth, using the piles of scrap to leap from peak to peak and get behind it, aiming for the wounded one. As he neared, he looked back over his shoulder to the other Magi. 'If you want these damn Cubes, back me up!', he roared, trying to galvanise them into action before they got themselves killed for gawping.

So many magis had gathered in matter of seconds in the junkyard. Komei himself, the kid, the metal man, the shinigami, the soldier and counting with Junko, who had a uncouth tendency to spy from afar, reason why Komei never got along with him despite working in the same city for a long time, they went up to six.

"Not enough."

The voice was right, the chances weren't enough. When a dice is rolled fate dictates that a number from 1 to 6 must come, so no matter how many time the dice was thrown and rolled, any number superior to six is nonexistent and thus they equal to zero. A masterfully logical reason of why the seventh magical boy to appear was bound to regress back and reset the numbers to an original pool. As time is divided in multiples of 6, 24 hours, 60 minutes, 60 seconds, Toshi would only need to count in multiples of 8.64 starting the 1.44 second since the seventh magi appeared from 608.33 (rounded to the closest centime) backwards and once every 1.12 seconds to calculate the moment, between the 70th and 71th tick, that would cause the regression.

Because Toshi was too busy doing the calculations inside his head, he barely payed attention to the words of the people around him, a person cannot preform two mental task of equal difficulty and listening and comprehending the sounds around him were too demanding. He tried to autotomize his motions as much as possible, he dropped his shoulders and head and let the arms fall to a point were he could not feel them, having cut the nervous connection to the arms and now being just dead weights. Komei teleported a meter backwards to let one of the green blobs hit his image and then he feinted through the blobs that were aiming for him and just by swinging the arms like flails he launched back any that tried to attack him.

When komei finished counting, unsurprisingly, nothing happened. But now his whole body felt lighter than usual, the stiffness had disappeared and the armor felt like if it was made of cotton. He finally looked around and to his surprise some moments later the seventh magi got his head cut by the wraith, that wasn't what Komei meant about regression to zero and that nonsensical stuff. Komei jumped immediately to crush the soul gem of the boy, but it was too late, it went into despair and formed a new wraith right in front of the group. The armor was getting heavier again and the soldier stepped forward and said

soldier said If you want these damn cubes back me up!

"The cubes are all yours, kids, but the glory shan't"

Komei jumped forward and used himself, one of his ghost, as a platform to impulse himself high in the air and then again another ghost to impulse himself back to the ground to finally teleport on the syringe wraith to punch with all his weight

"WYVERN!"

The punch connected, indeed, but the only thing he had managed was to anger the wraith more than damaging it, so Komei teleported and jumped back to the group and extending one arm to them he said

"Who's up for a ride?"

Chiyoko swore under his breath as the seventh Magi, dressed in black, was killed. He was, however, observant as he noticed the soul gem wasn't destroyed. A second wraith appeared. Two wraiths? More danger, double the chance of death, twice the chance of wounds, two times the magic needed...And double the grief seeds. Grinning, Chiyoko launched himself in the air and glided around the newly formed wraith, slowly descending while holding his broadsword in both hands.

When he did come down however...

"Knights Honour!" Channelling the lights around him like the shining scrap metal, he sent an arc beam towards the second wraith, straight down the middle vertically, followed up by him dropping at high speeds and slicing through the wraith. Hopefully this worked, but with all the failures in the past that he barely survived, Chiyoko jumped backwards and away, glaring at the wraith.

"Yeah okay! Just save some of the wraith for me, I need to take care of the new one!" He yelled out to his fellow Puer Magi. "You can thank me later for dealing with the thing that would have killed you while you were distracted..." He mumbled, jumping in a circle around the wraith he attacked.

Okay, this was getting crazy. What the hell? Why is it not even taking any damage!? Kiku eyes were amazed, something like that was so strong?! Then there was the other wraith, it was... scary alright. Floating knives, hammers and even spear were it's weapons. It's head was now a dark metal helmet, that had a clowns body. A clown in a knight's armour. Ah fuck. He was so screwed. Well, he could run away... But who is going to do that, the more the challenge the more the fun. Oh well, if he got killed then so be it, let's challenge god now shall we? His face turned into a mischievous smirk as his back straightened. That wraith with the syringe was his! With a sliding kick, he tripped the wraith under it's own feet as it fell to the ground with a loud crash. "Here's a present for you!" He did a backflip that launched the enemy back into the air and with a loud roar he started to kick viciously multiple times before doing a reverse thrust kick to send it into a pile of rubble. "Hmph. Wh-what?!" The wraith got back up with no scratches, well that was a surprise. "No damage!?" This wraith was a tough one, then he heard umfamiliar footsteps.

"Try observing what type of wraith it is before you attack next time." It was that man from earlier. Wait, he's still alive? In blue, he gave a glance to his younger fellow Puer Magi, as if they were nothing. "It has a doctor motif, this means it has healing powers. So small blows like that aren't going to work. You have to attack with burst damage." Kiku gave a skeptic look, who the hell does this guy think he is? Before he could retort, the man just charged at the wraith the same it he did before, this time he wasn't knocked back but he sent a huge powerful blow to the wraith's midsection. The wraith seemed to be weakened and looked like it winced in pain. Then Kiku realised the man's hand were embued with a white glow. With a fierce right hook and then a earth-shaking uppercut, the Puer Magi started to glow black and had forced both of his palms into the wraiths' midsection as black liquid spurted out like ink. Then a blue energy started to appear, "KIKOSHO!" then it enveloped the wraith and the man before a pillar of cobalt energy burst into the sky. A man stood there, holding black blocks with an indifferent look on his face. He turned around and deflected an incoming flying knife with a bare fist. "Hmph. You won't give up will you?" The voice was annoyed alright.

Kiku was stunned this Puer Magi was powerful, he had to move out of the way, since he started to dash forward at the other wraith. He started off with a bicycle kick, smashing his feet while in mid air at the gigantic being's torso. Then he spun upside down, legs outstretched like a helicopter, his feet glowing a dark purple, which connected against the knight, to which he transitioned into series of kicks that spun upwards in a clockwise motion. The final kick lifted the being high into the air, seemingly stunned and immobile and with a fierce howl the Puer Magi smashed his leg onto the wraith making him and the creature down fall straight down. As they hit the floor, the ground shook violently as a shockwave of violet energy flung upwards and then plummeted straight back down, engulfing the area in a royal purple light for a momentary period.

Kiku couldn't really see what was going on... The Puer Magi came back out of the light that lingered with his hands balled into fists. "Any second later and you all would certainly be dead." He told them all in a stern and cold voice. Kiku looked around, the bodies of two boys laid there... Wait? They were breathing? Aren't they dead...? They were wraiths right, so they shouldn't even be alive. "You're probably wondering why they're still alive right? You see most fo the wraiths we fight are familiars that give grief cubes. However, find the original and they'll turn back into the magical boy they once were. They still can turn into wraiths however and that can gives us plenty of energy for our quota." Kyubey stood among the chaos, as if it were something easy or normal. That bastard... So if they turned into wraiths, they could turn back into them again?! So they're stuck in an endless cycle!? This isn't fair! "You knew this right? Didn't you Chunki?" Red eyes were now focused on the older magical boy.

"Hmph. It wouldn't make any difference right?" He then walked over to a young boy, the one on the floor with a white labcoat. He searched the body, checking to see there was something important. Ah, found it. He held an emerald gem in his hand. The kid's eyes, were sleepy, half awake. "Hey, mister what are you doing to my gem there...?" Chunki looked indifferent as he examined it. "Healing powers huh? Interesting." With that, the green stone was smashed into pieces and the young boys eyes widened and turned lifeless. Kiku's mouth was wide open, to do something so cruel... A kid that was too... It was far to evil even for him. Then he walked over to the swordsman in black and smashed his foot on the white gem, crushing it to pieces. Kiku swore he heard a pained gasp. Before Kiku could even say anything the man spoke "Now to all of you...You're all here because of these things right?" The man held out the black cubes they all were yearning for... And then he threw two to each of them. He even threw some to a young man spying from afar.

"That should be enough to purify a fully tainted soul gem. Tell me... Are you all selfish or selfless magi? Actually... If you're selfish then get out of here and this city. If you're not, it doesn't matter, you shouldn't be in here anyway. Listen, three months from today... Something... I don't know what it is... But I know's it's called Warlpurgisnacht, it'll come to here... That's the reason why the wraiths are so strong here. I don't know what will happen when it arrives but I know it won't be good. I'm giving you three months to harvest as many of these as you can. Please, leave afterwards." Warlpurgisnacht.... Kiku's heard of it before...