Finally, around 5:13 p.m., the family had reached Rikka's house. Satoshi wanted to take a chance with the opportunity presented. He asks his parents if it was alright for him to stay with Rikka for a little while. Promising and coming on terms, the parents drove off, and the two made their way to the park. Their hearts were beating and pounding away. Satoshi looked over to the flustered Rikka. He decided to break the tension with a joke, a bad one, that is. "Hey, Rikka, I have a joke for you," he said as he burst into a wheeze. "What's brown and sticky?" as he crouched wheezing, he found and picked up a stick and said, "a stick." Satoshi's laughter sent an emotional rush to Rikka, laughing and tearing up. The two seemed to enjoy each other's company.
Later at the park, the two were walking around, enjoying the dimed sky, though this little romantic walk suddenly came to an end as they spotted Akito running towards them. "Damn, really?" thought Satoshi to himself with a tired look. Akito noticing the two, screamed, "Hey! Satoshi!" as he was approaching them, he yelled, "I'm going to take a detour from here, see you at home." Shook, Satoshi stood there thinking, "Unbelievable, he? Understood the situation?" The boy had no other thing more important than finding out the truth about Rikka's health. He took her to the center of the park, where they sat down on a bench, both gulping down soda.
"Do you know, I thought that today was very rough on us, especially for your birthday." as he hardened his grip on his can of soda, he said, "I'm sorry that you had to go through all of this. Because of me." His sad tone gave Rikka the strength she needed to spill some of her thoughts. "Mmm, it's fine. I enjoyed spending it with you. I wasn't sure if I could trust you, that's why I never told you the truth behind what I do." As she got up and threw away her tin can in the recycle bin, she said, "I do it because I have no other choice. You don't know what's like, but I can tell you that I hated it at first." as she put her hands behind her back and fake smiled. "But now I enjoy what I do." She turned around and said, "I'm heading home. Thank you for everything. See you some other time, Satoshi," As tears drizzled down her cheeks.
Satoshi sat there, depressed, angry, and overcome by negative emotions. He tilted his head down and said to himself, "I don't know what it's like? But do you know what's it like to love someone like you?" He cried. Teary-eyed he thought to himself, "you like it? Do you like it? Like hell you do! Like hell I do!" Tears running down his face, in the silence, he said, "I loved you, and I will always love you, but why don't you ever feel the same? For me, Rikka, you have always been my comfort." He dropped the soda can and held his head with both his hands, and cried.
Rikka, halfway to her house, met up with an older man. Smirking, the old man took Rikka by the arm and guided her to his car. Later some time, the two went into a fancy restaurant, not too far from the school. After an hour, the two came out drunk. Smiling, Rikka grabbed the old man by his arm and said, "Take me home, please, this is enough." as she finished her sentence, the older man became agitated, pulling her close to an ally he pushed her down and unzipped his pants. He whispered. "This is not enough. Get on your knees, slut." As he slipped his pants down.
Losing hope Rikka gave up and dragged herself towards the man, crying. She looked down and forced herself to lift her arm. Deciding that this was her best option Rikka looked up at him and said, "okay, I will do it." Crying, she got on her knees, the man grabbed hold of his underpants with one hand and tried slipping them down, and with the other, he grabbed her arm and pulled her up. His face was approaching her lips. She sealed her lips shut and closed her eyes. Crying, she began begging for help within her head. Suddenly, a figure had stepped in between them. Not having enough physical strength, Rikka fell onto her knees. Looking up, Rikka saw two bright blue eyes. Glancing back at her, she found herself in peace with this man. His eyes sent a comforting sense to Rikka, causing her to stare into his eyes in shock. As she came back to her sanity, the man's face became more apparent, and she soon realized who her savior was, "Aktio? What are you doing here?"
"Never mind that, how many times do I have to repeat myself now. Are you okay? Who is he?" Akito said in rage. "I'm fine, and he is a regular buyer of mine," as tears shimmered in her eyes. Akito, enraged by the acts of this older gentleman, punches him with a straight right arm in the face, causing the man to go unconscious. Seeing the opportunity, Aktio got a hold of Rikka's arm and lifted her. Running, they finally reached their school's gate entrance, exhausted Rikka tried apologizing to Akito. Still, before she could say anything, he said, "I will walk you home" as he started to walk away, he continued, "hurry up, I need to be home soon."
On the walk to Rikka's house, something never sat right to her. "Why was he there? And why isn't he saying anything?" she thought to herself while shivering. "This happened twice today," she spoke. "First Satoshi had to save me from another man, and now you. You two are really something," she said as she smiled with tears in her eyes. Akito looked over to Rikka and blushed, seeing her smile for the first time, he spoke softly. "Why was he doing that to you? And what did you mean when you said he is a regular buyer? Does he like, buy stuff from a family-owned store?" his brows drew together. "Yeah, something like that," she said with her head down.
"Be safe next time, have a goodnight," yelled Akito as he took off from Rikka's gated house. Before she could say anything, Akito was already too far. He reached the park, where he started to sense dark energy emitting from one of the nearby trees. Though feeling this sensation, Akito paid no attention to it and kept running through the park. As he finally exited from the other side of the park, a figure stood before him, causing him to stop in his tracks. "Hey?" said Akito curiously. The figure said nothing. As it finally opened its eyes slowly, the dark figure stared at Akito. His red eyes glimmered in the night. His pupils resembled nothing of a human, almost unbounded to the natural shapes of this world. Without saying a word, the figure vanished, and soon the presence that followed him disappeared along with him.
Akito standing there had no time to think, scared. He started to run faster than usual. He paid no attention to the figure itself apart from its red eyes, which resembled the fires of hell. Despite his run, Akito thought to himself, "What the hell is happening?" unable to grasp the situation, his mind raced. At the same time, his feet kept on moving. With each step, he became faster, and dark energy started to surround his body. Dark as the night, with blue outlining, this energy resembled the same force from the fight against Fujel. He was noticing the energy floating and emanating from himself. Aktio stood still, close to his house in an ally way. He looked down at his hands. Then, feeling stronger, he pondered what was happening to him. "Is this what I had tapped into against Fujel?" he questions himself as he raised one arm to his face and said, "This feels strange but amazing. Is this what Merlin is after?"
The longer he stood, the more the energy began to vanish. As he calmed down, his body became normal again, the energy release had stopped, and he felt a bit worn out. Walking inside of his house, he got greeted by his worried parents, "where were you? We kept calling you. Did you not receive any of our calls?" His father spoke as he stood by the entrance. His mother hugged him, said, "at least you are okay."
"I was on my usual run, and I'm sorry, I left my phone in my room to charge." He spoke as he nervously laughed. "It's okay, go get in the shower. You kind of smell." Said his father with a relieved look. "Yeah, I will take a shower in a minute." Akito replied, but he soon realized what his father said about his smell, "hey! Wait, what do you mean I smell? I don't smell! Do I smell, mom?" He said with an irritated look. Ichika nodded her head and said, "maybe just a little." Then, the three burst into laughter.
After the shower, Akito came out of his room and waltzed into his brothers. Nervous to tell him about the situation, he whispered, "Satoshi, I have to tell you something." to no reply, he repeated himself. Instead of a response, a groan under the blanket came out, then finally, Satoshi spoke, "leave me alone for now." Akito, with a petty attitude, said, "you need to hear this." and with a minor look, he walked over to his brother and yanked his blanket off of him. Akito, with the blanket in his hand, saw his brother cramped into a ball, crying. "Satoshi, what's wrong?" asked Akito, but his question got met by anger. Satoshi grabbed his blanket out of Akito's hand and threw it over himself again. Akito, confused, said, "I'll leave you alone." and walked out of his room.
In his bedroom, the thought of Rikka never left his mind. Thinking about the possibilities and the "what if's" he stood up and walked over to his drawer. Opening the top, he took out Merlin's note. Curious about how it summons Merlin, he wanted to give it a try but stopped his actions and thought to himself, "what if she uses me?" Thinking, he decided to put back the note and head over to his computer to do some more research. Browsing through the internet, he came across an article relating to ancient magic.
The article read: "Magic was the source of power in the medieval era of Arthur's rule, for said power to be harnessed it needed an energy source called Mana. Mana was the source that manipulated and manufactured magic in many ways. But the books recorded only a person of that era to use and manipulate magic. Merlin, the mage of that era, stood by Arthurs side and granted him a magical sword that led them to victories, though not much is recorded from there." Deliberating, he became confused, Akito laid back onto his chair and said, "ugh, I don't understand none of this." Looking back onto his bed clock, he saw that it was late at night and remembered that he had school tomorrow. Out of rush, he stood up, turned off his computer, and made a jump into his bed.
In the morning, Akito seemed half-dead walking into the bathroom. Turning on the light, he saw a dark figure standing in his restroom. Confused, he started scratching his eyes, and before he could open his eyes wide, the figure had disappeared. 'What the hell was that?" he asked himself. Not giving it a second thought, he went on with his routine. At school, Yui and Kazuto were standing by the entrance gate. Akito looked over to his brother's side, only to find him taking off into the distance. He stopped and pondered, "that's weird. He hasn't said anything all day."
He caught up to the two, and Yui greeted Akito softly, "good morning." He looked over and replied, "good morning, bestie," with a blurred look. Finally, Kazuto spoke and reminded Akito about the information, proposing to go to the club room.