Suichi smiled as he recognized the pink haired girl from the concert. She remembered who he was, and he remembered who she was just without the name. He scratched the back of his head and in the process ended up petting Whisker accidentally. It was impressive that she managed to touch his shoulder with the cat draped over his shoulders. "Well, I could say the same to you. Uh... Um... I never got your name at the concert."

He felt a bit embarrassed that he responded so awkwardly, but it was too late now. He hoped she responded positively to his awkward response.

---

Kyoko stood up from her first lecture of the day and turned toward the door when she saw a familiar face looking over notes. That was the girl who hugged her suddenly at the concert. She stepped in front of her and pointed. "I remember you! You're the hugger from the other day!" She paused a moment recalling the girl's name. "Mayumi, right? Great to see you! I see you made it safely to the shelter after the spacequake alarm went off."

She tipped her finger to her nose thoughtfully. "I see you're in the same class as I am, want to study together? I'm generally pretty busy, but I run a big study group that you could join. Mostly they're friends from other clubs, but you would definitely be welcome."

"Kehe, isn't it a bit rude to ask for a girl's name on the second time you meet?" Yoshikuni said, keeping the smile on her face. She moved her hand to pet Whisker's head, taking a moment before focusing her attention on Suichi again "My name is Yoshikuni. Now we both know each other's name." She said and moved her hand away from Whisker's head.

Looking around, she spotted a girl that appeared to be sleeping "Seems like we might accidentally disturb her rest. How about we go to somewhere we won't have to worry about that, Suichi-kun?" Yoshikuni asked, taking a hold of his hand and slowly leading him towards the door.

(Collabs FTW! Courtesy of myself and Nim.)

Suichi's eyes shifted away from Yoshikuni expressing his embarrassment clearly. "S-sorry." He didn't like being seen as rude when he spent most of his time being polite and kind.

His eyes returned steadily to her as her comment about being rude seemed to be the extent of her reaction to him. He glanced briefly at the girl that was mentioned and nodded. "Sure, I like the sound of that." He hadn't expected to have his hand taken so suddenly, but he had no plans on fighting her and let her lead the way.

Yoshikuni started to lead Suichi out of the classroom and couldn't help but giggle a bit "Tell me, Suichi-kun, were you raised here? Because I moved here a couple of years ago." She said as they walked down the corridor. After a couple of moments, she let his hand go and made sure he was still following her by looking at him every few seconds.

Whisker yowled once in complaint about the moving around. While the cat managed to stay on Suichi's shoulders the entire time while moving, the cat didn't like him walking around a lot. Suichi simply rolled his eyes at the cat before responding. "I've lived here all my life. My dad owns a flower shop and my grandfather was the one to found it."

He felt her hand leave his and he continued to follow. She looked at him every few moments as if she was worried she'd lose him. "Where'd you move from? Not many students transfer in to Raizen." His curiousity had be piqued.

"I moved here from a small town after it got hit by a spacequake. With most of it devastated, the people just decided to leave it instead of trying to reconstruct it." She said and let out a small sigh, before coming to a stop at an empty spot in the corridor and then turned to look at him "Suichi-kun, why'd you leave me so suddenly yesterday? I felt a bit sad. Even though we just met, I couldn't help but feel that way seeing I was alone at the concert and you came to talk to me. That made me feel so happy!" Yoshikuni said and did a little spin of joy on the spot, thinking about yesterday.

Suichi shoved his hands into his pockets, clearly uncomfortable talking about yesterday. "I'm sorry, I had made plans with a really important friend of mine that I realized would get lost in that crowd. I found her and then the spacequake alarm went off after some jerks came up to try and pick on her."

"Its fine. I was just slightly sad, thats all. But now that I've got to see you again, everything is great!" She said and looked around "I know it might sound a bit odd, but could I come to that flower shop you work at later today? My grandma has a birthday tomorrow, and I think a couple of nice flowers would make her birthday be a lot better." Yoshikuni said, thinking up about an excuse to meet him later today. It was really nice that she could finally have something to do other than just work, be at school or go about and feed of peoples shadows. It was becoming a rathe dull and boring daily routine which she knew had to stop.

Suichi grinned. There wasn't much he loved more than flowers and other such plants. "Definitely. I can help you pick out whatever bouquet you'd like, or even get you some potted plants and tell you how to take care of them. I know quite a few that are great for birthdays!" He was about to start a long winded speech about the various types of flowers that tended to be great birthday flowers, but he held back for fear of boring Yoshikuni. "We're open until sunset on most days."

"Yippe! Thank you so much, Suichi-kun!" Yoshikuni said and did a little hop of joy while grabbing a hold of his hands again. She then gave him a wide smile before letting go of his hands once more and looking up. A moment later the bell rang, and they needed to head back to class "It seems like our free time is up, Suichi-kun. Come on, we don't want to be late!" She said and begun doing a quick paced walk to the classroom.

Suichi bobbed his head up and down excitedly as Yoshikuni hopped with joy a bit before grabbing his hands again. Then the bell rang and the reality of classes came back to them. "Right. Being late is not a good thing." He began to follow after to the classroom as well. He was now looking forward to seeing her again at the shop. Class moved by a lot quicker than normal thanks to this excitement.

Tenguu City University

Bing!

Bong!

Bong!

The familiar sound of the PA-system being fired up rang out over the campus and inside the buildings. Apparently there was some kind of announcment underway.

"A-Ahem![ Good day, everyone! This is your principal speaking." It was the principal, as he had mentioned, with his elderly and raspy voice calling out for all to listen and pay attention. "Due to a certain and sudden unscheduled visit from a very important person, afternoon classes are hereby cancelled. Instead, I'd like you all to head for the auditorium after lunch. We'll be having a very special guest giving a lecture, demonsration and Q&A, so please make sure you show up. Thank you, that is all."

The PA-speakers fizzled out and silence reigned over the university grounds for a bit.But the sound of talking, walking and other noises soon returned, filling the air with ambience and a semblance of reality once again. IT was unusual for the otherwise punctual and very straightlaced principal to disrupt classes and seminars like this, in fact, in the past five years it probably hadn't happened even once. This meant that whoever this guest was, he or she was likely someone of either incredible importance or unfathomable influence... Or maytbe both.

Still, the gathering wasn't going to happen until after lunch and there were still about an hour or so left untilö then, so people still had time to get ready, eat, chat and do all the other things they wanted or needed before heading to this mystery lecture.

---

Raizen High

"Everyone, please quite down." Ms. Tomokuma gently tapped the desk at the front of the classroom with her small bundle of textbooks, drawing the attention of the class. "This is a bit sudden, but apparently we have a new transfer-student today."

A wave of murmurs and surprised voices rolled over the class briefly, before the teacher feigned a cough to silence everyone once again.

"So, uhm, pleasecome on in." Tomokuma-sensei called towards the door, which slowly slid open.

Stepping in through the now open doorway was a girl - a very pretty one at that - with long, silky blonde hair that flowed behind her, incredibly fair and umblemished skin and clear, sharp blue eyes. She was of average height but had a rather curvaceous build, judging from the tight-fitting Raizen uniform. She walked with a slow pace, yet her movements were refined and graceful, like those of a well-bred young lady of the upper class in society.

She stopped infront of the blackboard and turned towards her new classmates, who were staring at her. A friendly, yet somber, smile was on her lips and she bowed slightly before them al..

"Greetings." She said in english. "My name is, Karen Kuromori." She said this in japanese and turned back towards the blackboard, grabbing a stick of chalk deftly. She wrote out her name, both in kanji and roman letters, before setting the stick down and turning back to her classmates. "It's a pleasure to meet you all. I hope we will get along."

...

...

...

...

A brief few moments of silence and then...

"URYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

A deafeniung roar of excitement from both the males and female students of the class resounded, shaking the walls of the classroom. Excited chatter and a figurative bombardment of questions rained down over the new student as she stood at the front of the classroom, smiling calmly as if she was used to this happening. Tomokuma tried her best to make the class settle down, but with the overwhelming influx of comments, inquerries and praise, it was hard to get a handle on the students.

"Fufu, such a lively class." The girl laughed lightly, holding a hand infront of her mouth to cover her little comment.

---

The Room of Light ((Links go to Gelbooru, which is NSFW!))

"Such a rude girl"~" The other, silver-haired Spirit said as reika continued to poke at her soft cheeks. Her eyes were closed, but one of her brows were twitching, likely from annoyance. "Yes, you look very amused." She added when Reaper stated that she found the situation funny, even with a face made out of stoone.

The other, slightly shorter Spirit, raised her hand and - all of a sudden - there was a large distance between herself and Reika. It was if she had displaced herself, or the Repaer, or both - or perhaps just created space - so that they would be seperated. Gently rubbing her cheek at the same place that Reaper had repeatedly poked her, she let out a slight sigh and then looked up at the Spirit she had invited into this strange place.

"You are quite a handful, you know?" She finally stated while cupping her hand and resting one cheek in it. "Skulking about at night, claiming peoples' lives, causing a ruckus in broad daylight and now you've got your own little fan club to save you when the AST shows up." The Spirit said, almost as if she was fully aware of what Reika had been doing up until this point. "My name isn't Wall-chan, so please refraim from calling me that from now on, hm?" She added with a soft smile. "The humans call me 'Mirage', but we both know that's not my real name... Just like your name isn't really 'Reaper' or 'Reika'."

When she said this latter part, she had an almost mischievous smile on her lips and her eyes were sharp and honed in on the other girl, as if testing her in some way. But why? And how+ And maybe most imprtantly, for what reason...?

"So Wall-chan is....Mirage-chan then?"

Reika crossed her arms in thought, letting her black scythe float next to her. If she had been startled by the sudden amount of distance put forth between the two Spirits, then she didn't show i-....actually, she never really did show any kind of emotion. At all. Whatsoever. Still, that crippling factor wasn't enough to sate her growing interest into the other silver-haired girl.

"If Mirage-chan has no name...but Reika has Reika....can Reika call Mirage-chan Mirall? It's "wall" and "mirage" together. Reika is clever."

Clever. Right.

After Yoshikuni heard the new girl being introduced, she felt like saying something when suddenly the entire class became rather excited about the new girl. Deciding that the humans were very stupid at sometimes, Yoshikuni merely smiled at the new girl who introduced herself. She didn't feel the need to do the same, as she felt her voice would not be heard under all the noise, and figured that if the girl wished to do so, then she could always approach her later on.

Slightly leaning back in her chair, Yoshikuni hoped all the noise would calm down soon enough, though she realised that as long as the people remained the way they are, then the current situation isnt likely to change soon. Its not like it irritated her too much, as it was a pleasant change in her eyes to see everyone so lively, its more that she wished that they would have better reasons to be like that rather than be excited over a new girl in their class.

---

Chou was still somewhat tired as the new girl, Karen Kuromori, introduced herself. She closed her eyes and counted to three, and indeed, the wild excitement over the new girl had come quickly. She herself decided that it would be rude to not introduce herself, so she stood up, but after thinking about it for another moment, she realised that she wasn't capable of introducing herself.

Looking around, she saw a few other students that also stood up from excitement, so Chou decided to sit back down, figuring that once Karen decides to meet all the people in her class properly then she will be approached by her. It certainly looked like Karen had an outgoing personality from her initial introduction. She just kept looking around a few more moments before moving to draw random things in her notebook, waiting for the excitement to be over.

Mayumi had only made it a few steps from the door when someone walked in front of her.

"Eh? Huh?" she said, before realizing who the girl in front of her was.

She resisted the urge to squee as she listened to what Kyoko said.

"Ah... yeah. Yep! Made it to the shelter just fine!" she said, laughing nervously.

"Eh... studying? Well..." she thought about it. When it came to studying, Mayumi prefered doing it herself, because that was when she could concentrate the most.

Buuuuuuuuuuut... did she really want to turn down an offer from her cute kouhai?

"Well, sure, I guess. Um... but I don't study well with groups. I tend to get... distracted."

She said that with a hint of mischief, looking straight into Kyoko's eyes.

Raizen High School

With much strain and effort, Ms. Tomokuma managed to subdue the uproar in her class and quiet things down. A rolled-up text-book may or may not have been used in order to quiet the more rowdy students, witness testimonies differ... Aaanyway... With things having settled down, class proceeded as normal, though whispering and glances were sent and spread throughout the lecture, meaning that most people probably weren't paying attention to the subject at all. Well, at least not most of the class ... The new transfer-student was such an exception, sitting quiet and straight, with good posture and a warm smile on her face, looking with great focus straight ahead at the blackboard and teacher as she tried to salvage the lesson.

The bell rang soon enough though, and while Tomokuma-sensei tried to remind everyone that a test was coming next week and that everyone should review and study the material they had just gone over in preperation, the students had other things on their mind. Almost immediately after the bell's ring, the class were on their feet and swarming Karen's desk, asking hjer questions about everything from what she liked, where she came from, where she was living, if she liked guys with or without facial hairs to things like if she was a natural blonde, what her favourite color was, if she was into any particular hobbies and so forth. And despite being bombarded with questions and attentions from all sides, the young, pretty girl didn't seem to mind - merely smiling and politely answering the questions, occassionally giggling.

She seemed to have become very popular in an instant!

Although, part of that could likely be attributed to her being a new addition and unexpected addition to the class, and another part could probably be attributed to her looks and seemingly friendly and charming persona. This did however mean that unless you wanted to brave the circle of people who had surrounded her and were asking her silly things one after another, you weren't likely going to get to talk to her... Unless you caught her in the hallway or at lunch. Oh well, there was always tomorrow! ... Right?

---

Distorted Space

"Mirall...? Clever...?" The spirit known as Mirage looked at Reika with... Let's just call it apprehension.

She shook her head and wagged her finger, signalling that was not going to be an option.

"If you must call me something, call me Mei. That's what I call myself when I mingle with the humans." She said this as if it was a chore, a nuisance that she needed to be labelled or designated with the concept of a name. Then again, without a name to call her by, it would be quite hard to have a proper conversation... Unless she desired to be called Wall-chan for the remainder of their little meeting, and that she did not.

"Let's move on to something mrore interesting~" The spirit said, smiling as she clapped her hands together infront of her. "Let me ask you some questions. When you give a good answer, I'll let you ask me something in return, okay?" Her smile was still there, but her eyes seemed to be doing something else... It was almost as if they were trying to bore holes into Reika, so as to see through her "This way, we'll get to know each other in a fair way, right~?" She didn't wait for a reply.

"First question" Mei spun around dramatically, like a twirl that a magical girl would do during her transfomration sequence. Then she stopped and pointed towards a spot in the empty, luminous space - and where she pointed, a large, white canvas appeared with text on it. ANd just in case Reika couldn't read, Mei also stated the question that was written on the canvas verbally. "What do you think of humans, Shinigami-san?"

After the new girl had gotten a seat and Ms. Tomokuma had managed to get everything calm again, Chou rose her head a bit and eyed the new girl for a moment before turning to look at the board again. She felt like the rest of the class wasn't paying any attention and that everyone was thinking and peeking at the new girl. After the class ended and it was lunch time, Chou headed out of the classroom with her bag and went to a more private place, where she could eat her lunch in private.

---

Yoshikuni couldn't help but slightly giggle at all the stares and whispers that surronded the new girl. Not a moment after the bell rang and the new girl was surronded with many boys and girls from her class. Letting out another giggle at this, Yoshikuni decided now was a good chance to act big. Inside a school, where she new the AST will not attack her due to all the civilians.

Walking outside the classroom while sending a wave from her hand towards Suichi-kun, she would appear to be following another girl from her class, except Yoshikuni suddenly went inside one of the now empty classrooms. After ensuring no one was around, she closed her eyes "Come forth, darkest of the cloths, the robe that casts shadow on all, Laila." She whispered to herself, and soon enough her clothes would vanish in a blinding light and instead a dark hoodie would appear instead, being large enough to cover her up to the same length as her regular skirt. The hood was placed on her head and concealed her pink hair perfectly, and her face also became covered in a shadow.

Opening the door of the classroom, she stepped outside and walked slowly, with many of the students looking at her, wondering where did the mysterious girl came from. Suddenly she stopped in the middle of the corridor and raised her hand "Come forth, Shachor!" She said, making the students around her be even more curious as they formed a circle around her. She smiled as the staff appeared out of her own shadow and went into her hand, which she instantly spinned. All of the students around her would suddenly be stunned as their shadows went up their bodies, grabbing them and immobilising them.

Approaching the circle, Yoshikuni kneeled and touched the many colliding shadows of the students before putting her fingers in her mouth and then standing up, looking at all the students who could not see her face "Delicious." She said, now making her voice more high pitched than before to ensure no one accidently knows who she is. She then brought herself closer to one of the boys and allowed herself to slowly start consuming the shadows of the students, knowing AST agents will not dare act in this situation, seeing the amount of hostages she has and the fact its inside a building.

Suichi simply rolled his eyes, it seemed that Yoshikuni had similar feelings about the reaction to the transfer student. He simply didn't understand why people got so excited about them. Transfer students weren't all that rare. Things like that happened all the time. Yoshikuni left the room and waved at him. He wondered why she did that, and simply shrugged. A few minutes after she left, he felt Whisker tense up suddenly and shortly after a couple cries of shock came from the hallway. He blinked half wincing and stood up. He stepped outside to see exactly what the noise was about and saw a Spirit enveloped in shadows consuming the shadow of a fellow student.

Then he himself tensed up. What to do? He could run, that would be the smart thing to do. He couldn't do it though. His fellows were getting hurt and there was no way he could leave them. "S-stop! Why are you doing this?" He winced internally, knowing it was a stupid question. He sometimes wished he could act more confidently all the time instead of when he felt he had no choice.

---

Kyoko smiled as Mayumi responded. "Great. Getting distracted is alright... we do that plenty, although we to get right on track after." She paused as she thought a moment and then giggled. "One of my friends, Inagi, he says that study groups are twenty percent study and eighty percent group. He likes to say silly things like that."

She looked up towards the announcement speakers. "Weird that they request students to go to the auditorium... Can it even hold everyone on campus? Well, whatever it is... I'm curious. Want to go together?"

She already had started moving there, hoping that Mayumi would follow along, she certainly was one of the most interesting people she had ever met.

Aww, Kyoko didn't get it. Mayumi pouted dejectedly. It was a shame, because she was really looking forward to her reaction.

Mayumi guessed she wasn't blunt enough, or something. That was probably it. Well, maybe she got there she could...

She was interrupted by the speakers coming on.

We have an auditorium? Huh.

Mayumi was surprised at that. She'd never really explored the campus; she was too busy spending her free time in the gaming club room. Oh well.

She followed along after Kyoko. After all, she actually knew where it was. Unlike herself.

---

"Tch." Kouhime hissed.

She was just in the middle of a song, and at the same time in the middle of a chapter, when the PA system caused a drove of people to pass by her. And that was too distracting.

Whatever.

She stood, putting her book back into her bag, before heading with the crowd. She guessed that, with everyone moving as one, something interesting was about to happen.

With her eyes closed, she felt as the shadows were slowly consumed by her own shadow. It felt so good for her, and it was a very tasty meal too. But suddenly she heard a voice that she knew. It was Suichi-kun. Of course, there was always the chance of suddenly encountering him, due to the fact they were in the same class, but she wondered why had he tried to speak up with such a silly question instead of just run away.

Rolling her eyes underneath the cover of the shadows, she pushed the students to the side to be capable of clearly seeing Suichi. With her shadow still in contact with the circle of students, the shadows of the students would slowly vanish, making them become paler at each passing moment. She lowered her staff and the binding shadows would lower themselves from the students, releasing all of them. All of the students that were previously captured would feel that they are dizzy, with some even collapsing to the ground and a couple becoming unconcious.

Taking slow steps towards Suchi, Yoshikuni wondered what to do with him now. If she devoured his soul, then that would mean she won't see him later today, which wasn't something she wanted too much to do. But if she didn't do anything, it would appear extremely odd too. Moving to stand in front of him, Suchi would still be incapable of seeing anything due to the extremely dark shadow covering her face "Why am I doing this, you ask? Simple. I need to feed to survive." She replied with the high pitched voice and approached to put her left hand on his face while Shachor was held firmly in her right hand.

---

Screams. Those were never good. Getting up from the little private corner she had found to herself, Chou started to run in the direction of the screams before seeing it with her own eyes. A spirit. And the spirit was holding several students hostage. She quickly turned to take cover behind a locker and activated an earpiece by pressing it. Taking another glance in the direction of the bounded students, she begun counting how many there were captured "We need to have a spirit alert and evacuate everyone from Raizen Highschool. There is a spirit here that has students hostage." She said and suddenly noticed as the students were released and several fell to the ground.

"The hostages were released, but it seems the spirit is heading towards another student. And I have a confirmation on who the spirit is. Its Shadow. I need backup and my CR unit brought to me. I'll keep an eye out and a low profile until you can secure the area." Chou said in a clear but silent voice, one that would still be detected by the earpiece and not by anyone else in the corridor.

Suichi's heart pounded as she stepped closer to him. He had no idea what her abilities were, so running away would be a terrible option, but the way she moved it didn't seem like she wanted to attack him. She seemed to be holding herself back. The dark shadow over her face definitely scared him. Whisker licked her hand as it touched his cheek. Somehow, he manage to stay still even though he was a bit tense. He had nowhere to go, he couldn't figure out what to say, and he had no idea what to do.

Yesterday it was the Reaper... today it's Shadow. What a busy week so far. He then felt that familiar sensation, that desperate calm that always washed over him when he felt he was in a corner. He calmly and carefully took her hand with his own left hand and steadily removed it from his face. He looked the Shadow in where he thought her eyes would be. "And now that you've eaten... what do you think you'll be doing now? I'm sure you're aware that the AST will come. What will you do then?" Whisker yowled once as a complaint about the hand being removed.

Somewhere in the back of his head, Suichi was amazed at how calm he could act when pushed into a corner, although he hated the aggressive actions that he made in previous scenes when he was in-the-zone.

He then looked at the students behind her. "And what about them? How badly does your 'eating' hurt them?" He needed information. If he learned as much as he could then he could come to a decision.

---

Kyoko felt a bit puzzled about why Mayumi looked dejected for a moment. Then she remembered when they first met and laughed. "OH! I see what you mean. Hahahahaha! How silly of me. I guess that can cause some trouble... but we'll have to see won't we?" She giggled a bit and smiled.

Kyoko led Mayumi the entire way to the auditorium and found a seat right near the middle. There were quite a few people around here, and she puzzled about why they had to announce something like this. They could simply send emails and stuff like that.

If Reika felt at all intimidated by Mei's hard stare...then she obviously didn't show it. Really, one would think that the silver-haired Spirit would have noticed by now that Reika was as stoic as brick wall. Ironic enough. Reika did blink in surprise when Mei started spinning around like a magical girl right in front of her eyes.

"....did Mirall Mei make a contract?" she asked innocently, the movement reminding her of a manga she had read earlier in the library some days ago.

"What do you think of humans, Shinigami-san?"

Reika glanced over at the wall of text then back at Mei than at the wall of text then back to Mei again.

"Humans? Humans are....confusing Mirall-chan."

Mirage looked at the Reaper for a long, silent minute after she heard the spirit's reply to her first question. Judging by her sour expression, it was blatantly obvious that the answer that Reika had given was either not satisfactory or not what she had wanted to hear. The canvas and the letters that spelled out the question vanished into thin air, as if they had never been there in the first place. Mei turned her head and sighed, looking at the Reaper from over her shoulder - having now turned her back to her. Her eyes were half-closed and she looked quite bored - unlike the chipper and smiling way she had been before, this almost seemed like an entirely different person, or perhaps the other side of a coin.

"That's it? They're confusing?" Her voice was now as monotone as Reika's face. "So you kill them because they confuse you?" She asked, disinterested.

Reika tilted her head, confused on Mei's initial words and reaction towards her answer. What was she expecting? Certainly nothing too deep or philosophical unless it involved Death...

"I thought Mirall-chan would like my answer? Would Mirall-Mei prefer if I said that humans needed to be judged for their sins? While it is true that Reika finds need in this world to punish the wicked and slay them, certain events have Reika to think...otherwise."

Mei sighed again.

"And how do you decide who to slay? What is it you base your judgment on?" She cupped her hand and rested her cheek in it, looking towards the Reaper as if she was looking at a dog that was chasing its own tail.

Reika blinked once, as if genuinely surprised of the other Spirit's actions. "Reika judges those who are naturally not fit for this world or its society. People who cause trouble for no reason than to better themselves. I suppose you could amount them to cliché "bad guys" such as robbers and serial killers. However, Reika also slays those who she knows death would become a much less painful existence than continuing to live. However...."

The Spirit paused. "Reika has already said that these actions have led me to to reconsider their meaning. Recent events have made Reika question the purpose and worth of her goals. But are humans not created simply to die?"

"Ho~ooooooh?" Mei let an elongated, overly dramaticized syllable.

Suddenly, Mirage was right in front of Reaper, even though it didn't look like she had moved a finger. She was just... There, an inch or two from Reika's face, smiling now. It was not a good smile though.

"But if you question what you've done up until now... Doesn't that mean that all the lives you've taken so far were just a waste~?" She said it in a playful manner, but she looked more like a villain than anything else as she said it. "Humans live short lives, you know? If you kill them, and then regret it, doesn't that mean that you're the one in the wrong, hm?"

"....you did not answer Reika's question, so Reika will ask once more. Are humans not created to die inevitably?"

The Spirit did not flinch away from Mirage's sudden closeness to her, a brief flicker of her eyes being the only indication that she possessed any feeling or emotion at all. "Reika does not want to cause ill omens between one that is like her, and so I do not seek to find reason to judge you. However, Reika would request that you please answer my question first before I answer yours."

A pause.

"Or, is Mirall-Mei one of those people who like to answer questions with more questions?"

Mei's face turned sour again.

"I'm a person who wants answers when I ask a question." She said in a bored tone.

The distance between Reika and herself extended again, now with Mirage being several feet off from the Reaper once more. She looked at her fellow spirit for a bit, an awkward silence that seemed to last for a long, long time. Then, finally, she sighed again and gazed at Reika's face.

"For a grim reaper, you sure are a very dull girl." She said off-handedly. " "Well, whatever, I've had enough of you. Why don't you go back now? This has been a complete waste." Apparently, Mei was not satisfied with her encounter with the Reaper.

And Reika didn't have time to protest, as a tear or zipper-like hole opened right behind her and literally sucked the spirit out of the room of light, ejecting her back into the dirty alley from where she had entered. The hole closed almost instantly behind her, disallowing the spirit to try and regain entry into the strange dimension.

Reika blinked, looking around and taking in her new surroundings. Wait, they weren't new. More precisely, it was the exact same location the Spirit had found herself wandering the night prior. Except it was day time now? Walking up to the bricked wall, Reika got the feeling that there was more to that other Spirit than initially let on.

Oh well. Reaching out, she gently flicked the bricked wall, flaking off some small chunks.

"So you live in a space that distorts time? How interesting.....Reika would very much like to meet you again Mirall-chan. Please though, maybe deposit me at a more suitable time frame? Reika is late for school."

With no more words spoken, the Spirit returned back into her normal clothing and proceeded to take the long walk back to Raizen High. What a strange girl Mirall was...

Darn. She hadn't reaped anyone at all in the time stolen from her. Oh well.

Feeling her hand be removed indicated one thing for Yoshikuni. Their shadows were touching. So her shadow started to slowly feed on Suichi's shadow, not wanting to make him be seen as an exception "Well, I am fully aware the AST will be coming. It's why I've done this within a building with so many civilians. The AST never enter a building, let alone one with civilians." She said before looking around, mainly at the windows. She was wondering is the AST was already waiting outside or not. She figured they will find out soon enough.

"But I must say, you have quite the courage. Speaking to someone who can make you unconcious. I can't really say that about your shadow though. It has a rather dull taste." She said and then took a step away from him. His shadow was still there, just in a shade of grey instead of pure black "As for the state of the other students... They will all be fine within a few hours. As will you. Now if you don't mind, I'd suggest running away." Yoshikuni finished speaking with the high pitched before turning to face away from Suichi.

Looking around, she begun walking in the opposite direction from Suichi, going between the several weak and unconcious students. After taking a couple more steps she spotted a girl hiding behind a locker. Figuring the girl was most likely just hiding from her, Yoshikuni kept on walking away from Suichi, keeping her staff close to her and a bit more important, keeping the lower edge of it close to her feet. She didn't want to be caught without a chance to protect herself, even if she knew that if she used her powers too quickly one after the other it might not be the best of choices.

---

Chou kept watching the odd duo when the spirit appeared to have taken a liking to him and spoke to him. Then she decided to look at the boy and thought she knew him from somewhere. Deciding that it doesn't matter and that she probably knew him from her class, she realised that the spirit had left the boy and begun to walk in her direction. Unsure of what to do, she decided to stay in her spot and wait, and hopefully the spirit wouldn't notice her. Without her equiqment, she was basically just like anyone else.

Shadow came and looked directly at her for a moment. At least, it appeared as if the spirit was looking in her direction, it was impossible to know beneath that shadow that concealed her. And then the spirit kept on walking. Letting out a sigh of relief, Chou took this chance and made a sprint to the staircase, going down them as quickly as possible before heading outside of the school. She didn't look around to see if the AST was already there or not, but she knew that she couldn't tell them to bring her the equiqment to there.

After a few more minutes of running outside of the school and reaching a spot behind one of the building, Chou looked around. It appeared as if no one else was around, so she touched the earpiece once more "This is Chou. I have left the building after seeing Shadow start to move again. I believe there are still civilians in the building so act with caution. I am hiding behind the building now, and will wait for my equiqment if someone can bring it to me.

Suichi felt weakened as their shadows touched. He arm flopped gracelessly to his side as the strength left it. He was surprised at how quickly it happened. He felt happy that the students would be OK in a few hours, but the Spirit was a concern. He followed after her as she walked away from him after the girl hiding in the locker left. He had to push the initiative. "What if I told you, that you didn't need to consume people's shadows to survive. What if I could help you live like a normal human being. No need to hurt people. No need to worry about the AST. I know that you Spirits look different when you're in human form. I can help you."

He was glad that none of the students around them were conscious enough to understand what he was saying. He understood the need to keep his Ratatoskr status secret. Whisker licked her paw nonchalantly as Suichi spoke. He reached out his other hand towards her with an honest smile. "What do you say? Wouldn't it be nice to live comfortably alongside us?" Even though he knew some of her powers now, Suichi wasn't afraid of Shadow. If she had meant harm, he was certain that she could very easily inflict it.

Stopping in her tracks, Yoshikuni wanted to let out a sigh but stopped herself from doing so "Just because you say that I don't need to do that doesn't make it true. You have no idea if my shadow, which requires often meals, will become a regular shadow if I become a human. For all you could know, if I turn into a regular human then you will be sentencing me to death, and after a few days find only my clothes and a slowly fading shadow, which will be unable to move. As long as you do not know for a fact that won't happen, then I can't accept any offers any humans give me. You or the AST that are waiting outside." She said and then resumed walking.

After taking a turn to a staircase, she begun heading down, trying to fully figure out the situation. If she had been able to create a clone then she could escape with ease while the close is seemingly killed, But she could not create any clones, meaning she had to try and find a different way. Obviously the best chance she had was to transform back to her human form and go out with the many people that are taken out for their safety, but as long as Suichi followed her, she couldn't do that either. She stopped in the middle of the staircase down and looked up and down the stairs, seeing there are no windows there and figuring this is currently the best spot for her right now.

---

A few moments of waiting and a couple of AST agents approached Chou and informed her of what their current orders are. They needed to evacuate the civilians and once that was done, they were instructed to lure Shadow out and then take her out, because they did not recieve clearance for operations within the buildings. Slightly irritated that she could not go and track the spirit down within the building again, she didn't argue but decided to do as she was told while putting on her CR-unit.

After informing the teachers in the school to help clear the buildings out, Chou decided to go and start the second part of their operations without waiting for the approval of her commander. While on her way to the last place she had seen the spirit at she heard in her earpiece that they were clear and that the operatives that were chosen have entered the building where Chou last reported the spirit was at from different directions in an attempt to make tracking her down quicker, and the first operative to track the spirit down was supposed to activate a small "Distress" signal from her CR-unit, to allow the agents outside to track her down from within the building and follow the signal, thus being ready to shoot the spirit the moment she takes a single step outside of the building.

Heading up the stairs, Chou managed to reach the corridor she last saw the spirit at but she couldn't spot the spirit there anymore. Wondering if she had gotten much further, she decided to wait a moment before continuing in the corridor and tracking Shadow down.

“…I am late.”

That much was known to Reika already, but the Spirit girl had taken the extra time to quickly stop by her establishment and gather her books. After all, she had obviously not taken the time to do so prior to the night before. One shower-humans seemed to hate natural smells-and a quick scan of her school materials was soon completed and the white-haired girl headed out the door and towards the high school.

The lonely walk was relatively quiet, and rightly so. Classes had begun hours ago, and there was no doubt that the teachers would question where Reika had been. Actually, it would be more like concern, as Reika rarely, if ever, missed a school day.

She was going over excuses to give in her mind-the one about helping the stray cat seemed to always work for some reason-when she faltered just slightly in her step. A familiar presence put her on high alert; before she understood the strange feeling, she had already commenced a dead sprint towards the high school.

By the time she had found a secluded, shaded tree, placed her materials down, and transformed into her Astral Dress, she knew immediately what was it that needed to be dealt with.

A Spirit.

Suichi followed a little long. He couldn't just give up yet, he still had one last thing to say before he left her. "You'll never know if you don't try. If you want to find out, I'm here every week day. Unlike the AST... I don't want to hurt or kill any of you. I definitely won't force you to make a decision." Whisker yowled once as if to express agreement with Suichi's statements. Suichi would normally have sighed at the cat, but fortunately he still was in-the-zone.

He smiled with a friendly expression as she started heading down stairs. "Good luck, stay safe." With that he turned and headed back to the hallway where there were still collapsed people on the floor. He checked to see if they were OK, and while they were definitely not in great condition he could tell they were alive. By now, he had come out of the zone and sighed with relief. He hadn't done or said anything embarrassing. He was grateful about that fact. Whisker hopped off his shoulders and wrapped around his feet purring madly as he went from student to student making sure nothing serious was done to them. He grumbled at the cat for being troublesome and in the way.

He moved them carefully, so they weren't all crumpled uncomfortably on the ground and put them in a seated position against the wall.

After she saw Suichi turn back to the corridor and leave her alone, Yoshikuni let out a small sigh of relief. That meant that she had a bit of space, unless the AST suddenly got permission to act within the building, which she slightly doubted. Looking up the stairs and down, she could just barely hear Suichi's footprints from above her, as well as a pair of footprints from the corridor below. Wondering who could possibly still be within the building, she decided that she did not wish to find out.

After going and kneeling in the small area in the staircase between the floors, she closed her eyes and raised her hand. She didn't want to destroy anything, but she also needed a distraction, even if it mean a bit of a break from school. Wondering how the AST would react to it, she focused on something for a bit, and before long, the Spacequake alarms would be heard. She would also use the chance to get out of her astral dress and go back into her school uniform. After ensuring there was no trace, she started heading up the stairs, figuring she pretend to want to help with ensuring the safety of the other students.

A moment later she went and touched Suichi on the shoulder "We need to get out of here, so let me help." She said, before noticing an AST agent appear from behind a locker and begin to help move the students with much more ease.

---

Chou stopped in front of a bunch of barely concious and a couple of unconcious students and placed her hand on her earpiece. Before she could begin speaking, however, she spotted a boy talking to someone she couldn't see. Moving to hide behind a locker, she glanced as he approached the students and begun to move them. She was about to take a step out of her cover to go help before a Spacequake alarm had begun.

Touching the earpiece and activating it, Chou waited for a moment before hearing a request to hear any reports about the spirit and to evacuate the building due to the Spacequake alarm "I am within the building, and there are victims of the spirit here who are unable to move properly. I'll move them to safety and get out of danger as quickly as I can." She notified her superiors, who went to grant permission to enter the floor Chou was at to aid the evacuation.

By the time Chou left the hiding spot, there was another girl that appeared to want to help "Go to a safe area. Now." She instructed the two before grabbing a couple of students and using her CR-Unit to make her movements lighter and thus faster, to be capable of moving the students quicker.

---

On board the Franixus, Kasumi listened to how Suichiro talked to the spirit, nodding as he tried to lure her in to meet her again. Unfortunatly, it appeared to have a different reaction from the spirit, as moments after Suichiro finished talking, a spacequake alarm had begun. Kasumi immediatly approached the mic and spoke "Suichiro! Go somewhere outside and out of sight so we could pick you up! The AST will be able to verify the safety of anyone inside! I want you to be ready to try and be on alert for anything that may happen. Seeing this is the second spacequake to occur within two days..." Kasume paused her talking while taking a look at where Mayumi was. She was safe and sound in the university. Obviously they would hear the Spacequake alarm too, but the commander hoped that nothing bigger would start to happen from this.