Hours had passed, but Riku L. had lost sense of time. The explosions and screams had died down a while ago, but Riku was more focused on burying Reina and Makou's bodies. He held the sleeping Gina and Haruto in his arms protectively as he looked down at the graves. "I promise I'm not going to let anyone hurt them..." He muttered. They were far away from the slums now, where he and Artemis always trained. He buried Makou and Reina right at the edge of the plateau.
Riku sighed as he stood up, stepping away and turning his back on the graves slowly. He started walking, his eyes glued to the ground, but he stopped as soon as he had started, noticing two pairs of feet on the ground a few feet in front of him. He looked up to see Artemis and Konba, sad looks on their faces.
"Riku..." Aretmis started.
"Don't. I'm fine." His eyes darkened. "I will...be fine..."
Konba frowned and sighed. "We have some stuff to talk to you about, if that's okay with you."
"Fine, just let me put the kids somewhere they can sleep peacefully." Riku responded.
"Leave that to us. Just follow." Artemis turned, walking toward the town. Riku began following and Konba followed behind him, walking through the ruins of the slums. Thankfully, not many people died, but Riku didn't know how or why. He expected the streets to be littered with bodies due to the several heroes that had attacked, but he didn't say anything. Instead he watched Artemis' back as she walked, wondering where on earth she was taking him as they slipped through several different alleyways. Riku stopped however as he saw Artemis slip through a wall. "What the..?"
"Don't stop, someone might see." Konba then lightly pushed Riku through the wall, Riku almost tripping, but he stopped himself, not wanting to wake or hurt the kids.
"So it's an illusion..." He thought and looked up, seeing Artemis waiting.
"Stay close please. We don't need you getting lost, alright?"
"Alright..?" He gave her a confused glance as he walked a bit closer to her, Konba finally appearing through the wall and following a bit closer as well. Riku began thinking a lot about his magic while they continued to walk through several more alleyways.
Riku could "glitch" and make his enemies attacks go through him as well as change the location of his body to anywhere he could see. He could fire plasma like beams that, when hitting a living entity, would only hurt it as if they were hit by a beam of light, but if he hit something non-living, he could do several things from there. He could choose to erase it from existence entirely, break it down and turn it into energy for himself, or break it down and store its materials for other uses. He could do practically anything with the materials he stored, like alchemy in a way. For example, if he had enough metal and wood, he could make a weapon from them. He could even change the materials of something he touched and swap it out with a material he had stored. He didn't even have to fire a beam at said objects to do any of these things; simply touching it with his magic would be enough, which is why he was able to incorporate his magic into the training blade gauntlet before. He decided to call this magic power, "Editor".
After a while, Riku groaned. "How far is this place? And why are you two being so secretive..?!" He whisper-yelled.
"You'll find out when we get there." Artemis said cold and harshly.
"Y-Yes ma'am..." Riku was silenced, surprised at Artemis' sudden hostility. "Why's Artemis acting so different..?" He thought to himself. Konba chuckled behind them as they continued to walk. They walked through what seemed like a labyrinth of alleyways for several minutes, but Riku could sense some kind of magic at play here. Before, he couldn't sense magic at all, but now that he had magic, he could sense it unusually well. He could sense the entire labyrinth of alleyways was made out of magic. "I wonder if I could use my magic to affect this place in any way..." He thought to himself curiously.
Riku continued following the Artemis until she went through another wall. He hesitated, but walked through it as well, Konba doing the same soon after. When they entered, Artemis was leaning on an open door. "Inside. Let's go."
Riku stopped at that point, glaring at her. "No. You're going to explain to me what the hell's going on before I take another step." He held the children just a little bit closer.
Artemis sighed. "Everything will be explained pretty much the instant you step inside." Artemis looked into his eyes. "Please, we're not going to hurt you or them. I promise." Riku hesitated still, looking back at Konba. Konba held his hands up, all the weapons he had on him falling to the ground and he walked over to stand beside Artemis. Artemis too, opened up her cloak, dropping all the daggers on her, unhooking the wrist blades she had on, and dropping two katana strapped on her hips, then kicked them all to the side.
Riku sighed, having his magic ready just in case, but walked through the opened doorway slowly, walking down a dark hallway and then being blinded by the bright light inside. He shielded his eyes, sensing hundreds of different magics inside. He slowly moved his arm to see hundreds of cloaked figures, drinking, partying, and having fun, each and every one of their cloaks a different set of colors. He blinked, staring at the giant space in front of him. It looked like a giant pub, the biggest he'd ever seen. Some people were as plain as the eyes could see, and others looked like they came straight out of some kind of anime.
"So bright...and...colorful..." He hadn't even noticed Artemis and Konba standing right beside him. Artemis clapped her hands, and when no one stopped, she sighed and fired one of her stars into the air, making a few people jump and others just looking over, seemingly used to this by now. Soon enough everyone had stopped what they were doing. Riku didn't know why, but everyone was staring at him specifically, all looking bewildered, amazed, shocked, relieved, and some even had tears of happiness. Riku could only return their looks with a look of confusion.
Artemis spoke loud and clear for everyone to hear. "I know what you all must be thinking, 'Our leader has finally returned! We're going to have a chance now!' But this isn't him!"
Riku stared at her in shock. "Lea...der..?"
"But we do still have a much bigger chance! This isn't our Riku, but he is still Riku Fumiya!" She lightly patted Riku's back. "Just as amazing as our real leader." She gave him a smile.
Riku wanted to return it, but was utterly confused and bewildered. "F...what the hell haven't you told me..?!" He questioned internally.
The crowd hesitated, but began cheering and clapping one after another. They seemed to trust Artemis and heavily respect her. However, a man suddenly spoke out. "Who are the kids?"
Riku snapped out of his confusion and held them protectively. "They're with me! If anyone has a problem with them you can take it up with me..." He growled, his magic aura starting to leak out.
They all paused and looked at one another and then Riku and started laughing. "You sure that's not Riku?! Sure acts like him!" One shouted as he laughed.
"As I mentioned, he's still Riku, just not our Riku." Artemis giggled as she ruffled Riku's hair. "It's alright, you can trust us. I promise." Riku hesitated, but slowly backed down.
"Holy shit! His legs!" One of the people in the crowd suddenly shouted. Riku looked down and noticed the now blood soaked bandages around his legs. He had bandaged himself up before burying Makou and Reina, but not very well. His legs wobbled and he fell into a sitting position, grunting.
"Where's the healers?!" Artemis shouted, kneeling at Riku's side. Four people ran over the moment she asked that, all holding their hands over Riku's legs and a green light slowly enveloped them. Riku winced slightly, but he could feel the wounds in his legs closing, the bandages on his legs turning white again.
Riku stared at his legs in awe, looking at the four before him. There was one that stood out to him: a woman with long red hair, green eyes, and a gorgeous face, figure hidden by her bright green cloak. "Hello, um...new Riku? I'm Altea, the head healer here. My power is pretty much to turn back time on any wounds inflicted on people, so no infections occur after the wounds are closed and any blood lost is completely sucked back into the body." She smiled shyly. "These three essentially enhance my healing magic with their's."
"I...see..." Riku continued to stare at his legs before unwrapping the bandages. His wounds were completely gone, like they were never even there, nor was there a trace of blood.
"Aww, who are these cuties?!" Altea hopped up suddenly and got uncomfortably close to Riku, looking at the children he was holding.
"B-Back up please..." Riku muttered.
Not hearing him, she gently ran her fingers through the children's hair. She frowned suddenly however. "They've suffered loss..." She moved her hand from their heads to Riku's, looking into his eyes. "As have you..."
He froze, tears leaking from his eyes suddenly, everyone in the crowd growing silent as they saw this. "H-How do you..?"
"Her magic allows her to see all wounds, physical, mental, or emotional..." Artemis muttered.
"Though she can only heal physical ones..." Konba frowned.
Riku grimaced, closing his eyes as he remembered the bodies of the two parents. He suddenly felt warm however, other memories flooding his mind, the happy memories he had with the family. He opened his eyes, Artemis hugging him and the children from behind and Altea hugging him and running her fingers through his hair. Riku looked down at the children in his arms, seeing smiles on their faces as well as they slept, but tears also stained their cheeks. Seeing this, he hugged the two children, closing his eyes.
Everyone in the crowd kneeled, including Konba. Shortly after, Riku felt a hand on his shoulder and looked back, seeing the golden silhouettes of two people: Makou and Reina. He wanted so badly to hug them, but he couldn't move his body. He looked forward, noticing the golden light coming from the bodies of everyone around him and the children, all their eyes closed. "Remember your promises, kid." Makou's voice rang in his mind. He could feel Makou's and Reina's warm smiles before the silhouettes faded, as well as the golden glow coming from everyone.
Riku now understood that they all combined their magic so he could have one last, short moment with the two. He looked at everyone around him, everyone opening their eyes and looking at Riku with kind smiles. He felt a warmth in his heart, know that these people at least, if no one else, were people he could trust.