It was some time after the Thelen Kryne mission. I sat in my apartment curled up on the floor with a cup of black coffee in my hands. The rain had lingered for three days, and the sun had not been seen for a week before. Everything about me was unkept: my hair, my clothes, my face. I looked more like a creature from a paranormal activity movie than a human being. I stared at the reflection of my dead eyes in the large window that filled the main area of the studio.

  It wasn't supposed to be this way... That little girl didn't deserve that... This isn't right... I wish I could go back and fix all of this...

  The rain had stopped; I didn't know for how long. I forced myself up off the floor and made my way into the bathroom where I tried every trick in the book to not look like a corpse. After I only looked half-dead, I stepped out the door and started for the convenience store nearby. Eclipse would send me boxes of pre-measured food for my meals, so I never needed to leave my lair unless I was on a mission. Despite this, I would sometimes venture out and try to act like a normal person going shopping: it was something of a break, almost relaxing.

  The workers and other patrons of the store had no idea that a monster walked among them. I passed through the aisles unnoticed even though time flowed normally. Once I had everything I needed — I was making curry, I faintly remembered liking curry and wanted to try to make it — I made my way outside, but something was instantly wrong.

  The streets before were lively, people taking advantage of the lull in the storm to go about their business. The street before me was abandoned. I looked around for any sign of life and traced up a building. At its peak, I saw a flash, and my leg seared in pain: a sniper.

  I fell back and pulled myself into the store. The pain grew exponentially with every passing second; I knew they had hit an artery. I focused as much as I could as my head felt lighter and lighter from blood loss. As I was about to pass out, the pain stopped. I opened my eyes to see the front of the store from the inside, one minute or so earlier.

  The migraine hit me instantly, and I covered an eye in an attempt to dull the pain. After years of trying to hone my ability, it still came with that penalty. I knew what awaited me out the door, and I couldn't stall for time to clear my head enough to freeze it. I turned and quickly sneaked out the back. I entered a maze of back alleys and tried finding a good route back to my apartment.

  One of the last crime bosses must be really desperate to have us off his back.

  I found a squad of grunts on patrol nearby and walked up to report the sniper when I was stopped by a voice on their radio.

  "Target avoided the kill zone. Likely in the back alleys. Stay vigilant."

  In a moment everything became clear. I had crossed the line. Someone was rendering my termination. I was the target.

  I took off through the alleys with my head still splitting down the middle. After a few minutes of maneuvering around squads of grunts, I came to a sudden stop to avoid someone who had stepped out for a smoke. That stop ended up saving my life because as he stepped where I would have been, a crack rang through the sky, and his head became a balloon of pink mist. The sniper had found me again.

  "Fifth squad, infiltrate at 6th Avenue and F Street." barked one radio close behind me. "Second squad, stand by for exfiltration at 9th and L."

  I ran faster than I had ever run in my life. I prayed that I could build up enough concentration to freeze time and escape. I narrowly escaped death two more times when I juked around a black cat and avoided another sniper shot and when I narrowly bounded over an Incinerator as he fired up his weapon. Eclipse was pulling out all the stops short of another Number to take me down.

  I found a hole in their web and ran for the exit. As the walls gave way to an open street, I found that everything had been a trap from the beginning. Armored trucks and walls of grunts stood where my freedom should have been. Unable to do anything with my ability, I turned back to see that I was trapped like a rat in a cage. They rushed me and forced me to my knees. Out of one of the trucks, a woman in a black skin-tight uniform stepped out. Her red hair seemed to burn despite the rain dousing it.

  "Number 9," Captain Ryder started. "What ever are you doing outside in this dreary weather?"

  She knew the answer just as I knew what was happening.

  "Unfortunately, it seems Eclipse no longer requires your services, Number 9. Number 12," she ordered.

  She walked out with her rifle over her shoulder. The rain weighed her blonde hair down as it had the Captain's. Her body suit hugged every curve of hers while her armor hid it all. She cracked her twisted and prideful smile as she walked up with a second sniper.

  "Hello, Number 9," she jeered. "Sorry you had to come to the end all tired." She pulled her pistol from her thigh and put a hole through the second sniper's head. "Dumbass here," she shot his dead body several times, "must have gotten scared and took a premature shot. That's really the only way you could have known about our little set up. Even your ability isn't flawless like mine. You were supposed to have a merciful and painless death — two simultaneous rounds to the head."

  "Number 12, if you're quite done," the Captain interjected. "Render his termination."

  "With pleasure, ma'am," she walked up and put the still warm barrel against my forehead. "It's funny, really," she started as I closed my eyes trying desperately to concentrate. "All those years spent chasing after you trying to be the best student and assassin that Makarov and Eclipse had to offer, and this is how it ends." She chuckled. "Do me a favor, Number 9: die."

  The rain stopped, and everything went silent.

  * * * * *

  Unlike the last time I saw her, she wore an expression of determination. No tears flowed from her eyes, and her stance was as solid as a mighty wall. Something had possessed her to come back into the evacuated stadium, grab a bow and arrow, and take a shot at someone she probably knew nothing about. This was unlike anything I had ever known her to do in the past.

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  I could feel my ability slipping as the headache returned. Before I lost control, I put deep cuts into White's tattoos, effectively making him useless to his team. The pain grew to a migraine as time resumed and I landed on my back.

  "Shit!! Agh!!" White wailed. "Shit! SHIT!!"

  His screams filled the air, but I couldn't even open my eyes to see what was happening. I felt like my eyes were being stabbed and my ears had drill bits driving into them. Aside from the fact that I was on the ground, I didn't know anything about what was happening. In between the waves of agonizing pain, I heard an order get barked.

  "Sato, to hell with this! Bring the fucking house down!"

  Shit, it's only getting worse. I need to get them to safety.

  Through the pain, I managed to get my ability activated. It took everything I had to get up and make my way to my friends, but as I got to them, I turned back to Grey. She was stepping back and in the middle of a fall. Whatever was coming, she probably wouldn't be as fortunate as the rest of us; she might not get out at all. Her ability was good for target elimination, but infiltration and exfiltration were always her weak points.

  Something tells me I'll regret this, but at least I can repay her for saving me.

  I slowly dragged myself to the stands and climbed up them. I pulled Grey's body down the stairs and through the corridors. Bodies of White's group littered the ground, hopefully only unconscious, but it hardly mattered compared to the lives of my friends. The two of us finally made it to an exit to see that there was no one there. I couldn't even hold myself up anymore, and I collapsed.

  I've got to get back. Shit, I'm fading. Let go, let go. I don't know what would happen if I passed out while using my ability. I can hope it'll be like sleeping, but I don't want to find out now. Shit, I'm in so much pain.

  The ground beneath me shook. Yelling blurred and warped all around me. The quaking was interrupted by the feeling and sound of shattering. I could only infer that the stadium was coming down. I struggled to force open an eye. I could only make out two figures deep in the corridor back on the field, one standing above the other on their knees. Who they were escaped me as my eye shut up again on its own. The pain swelled as if my head would explode, and I felt myself losing consciousness.

  No, no! Don't black out! Come on! They need you! Don't—!

  * * * * *

  I guess that's it...

  I escaped death and came back just to die in a man-made earthquake...

  Unbelievable...

  Something is soft... comforting... lavender?

  "—mi! Ishigami!"

  Who is that?

  "Kazuma!"

  I'm sorry, everyone...

  I let you all down...

  I let you all die...

  "Time to wake up, killer."

  I jolted awake and sprang up in an unfamiliar bed and room. All was white; it was almost blinding. My head spun as I tried to look around — white sheets, white curtains, a nightstand with flowers, a chair with an empty tray, needles and hoses in my arms, mechanical whirling and beeping. Everything started to come back into focus.

  Cuts and bruises splotched my arms, and I could feel similar pain throughout my body. The machines almost seemed to talk to each other, exchanging their own type of language as they spoke intermittently. I eased myself back onto the pillow and sheets. The softness seemed to engulf me. Somehow, I survived again. There was a clock on the wall across from me that read 11:07am.

  Wasn't it after noon when they attacked? What happened to them? What happened to my friends? Can I even move? I have to find them.

  I sat back up and tried to work my legs out to stand. As I had thought, they matched my arms. I struggled to stand, grabbing the monitor and IV stand. The floor was cold on my bare feet. As I unsteadily took a step, I heard a voice from behind the curtain.

  "Ishigami? Are you awake?"

  "Y-Yamato?" I asked almost in disbelief.

  "Yeah, it's me," he clearly painfully chuckled. "It's good to finally have someone to talk to."

  He made it, he really made it. They didn't all die.

  I swayed as I made my way to the curtain and slowly pulled it back. The rest of the room lay in front of me and Yamato rested on his bed with the covers pulled up to his chest. He looked over at me and gave a smile literally through the pain.

  "They told me I just appeared on a stretcher," he continued. "They said it was miraculous enough that I was there: they wouldn't have been able to do anything if I had gotten there much later." His face took a deeply solemn turn. "I don't know what your ability is, but my now-smaller gut tells me you're the reason I'm here today. I'll never be able to thank you enough," he choked in tears.

  I felt tears coming to my eyes as well as I tried to crack a smile. In my past life, Yamato's death was one of my greatest regrets: after that first kill, it became easier and easier until...

  "I'm glad you made it," I finally replied.

  "Kazuma, you're awake!" a calm and relieved voice came from behind me.

  I turned back to see my mother standing in the doorway. She was still in her scrubs despite her shift normally ending hours before. Tears began to fill her eyes as well, and she rushed over to help me back to my bed.

  "Mom, why are you still here?"

  "You really think I would go home after what happened? I haven't left since I saw it on the news three days ago."

  "Three days?! I was out for three days?! Where is everyone else?! Are they safe? Are they alright?"

  "Yes, sweetie, they're fine. Now that you're awake, everyone... Everyone is fine."

  "Why do you say it like that?" I asked.

  "Sweetie... I —"

  "Zuzu!" a teary voice called out as my sister launched herself to my bedside. "Thank God you're awake! I was so worried!" Her voice cracked several times and her body shook.

  "Thanks, sis. As you can see, I'm fine. Now, please don't make it weird."

  "Yui, let your brother rest," mother said as she half-pulled her up.

  It was as my sister was lifted from my body that I saw that everyone was not fine. She was shaky, more so than someone emotionally distressed. She was like a leaf in a hurricane. Mother had to almost hold her on her shoulder. I noticed the crutches that had been thrown by the wayside at the door, and I noticed her garments that matched mine as well as her casted leg.

  "Sis, what happened?"

  "This is nothing, Zuzu. You're safe, and that's all that matters to me."

  "Mom, sis," my voice grew cold and forceful. "What happened while I was out?"

  She was stunned by my shift, and the room went quiet. Through the deafening silence, the TV in our room turned on and was already tuned to the local news. The anchor spoke, but nothing coming out of his mouth made sense. All I could see was the headlines at the bottom.

  Experts baffled by 5.6 magnitude earthquake.

  Searches continue for survivors of Crescent Stadium earthquake.

  Authorities investigating mysterious CCTV footage of Crescent Stadium.