EPISODE EIGHT: EMERGENCE

Shimin's eyes darted at Jenna, Jenna who was there without Momoko around because Momoko had a meeting to attend. A meeting Jento had called. Shimin stared at Jenna for a split second before she stood her ground on the crumbling rooftop of the unfinished building, further away from the school. How did these unknown people manage to hurl boulders all the way into the school from this far? The surface cracked around her boots, but she didn't move. Her chest lifted, steady and sure, as she called out.

"Moichi!"

Her star appeared instantly, loyal as shadow to flame.

Around her, the rest rose. Spirits lined beside their agents, their presence thick enough to choke the air. Kagaro raised his hand in one sharp gesture. That single motion sealed it-his silent command. The start of their counterattack.

Satar's gaze hardened. Hibiki's body tensed. The scars between them weren't gone, but neither argued. Not now. Both obeyed the orders given, past grudges buried in the moment.

The team shifted closer together. Each one readied, eyes locked forward at the storm waiting for them.

"You kept saying you didn't know his name," Shimin had asked Jenna once before the training session began. "But you call him Hibiki. Isn't that it?"

Jenna shook her head then, slow. "It's not his real name. Hibiki's... what I gave him. In his own world? There's no Hibiki. He never told me the real one. Not even me. He says the other stars call him Hibiki too, because he told them that name."

The answer had stuck.

Now Hibiki's wings cut skies like thunder, moving faster than thought. He reached Jenna and swept her up from the turmoil, holding her against the collapse of steel and dust. Another explosion ripped the rooftop apart, hurling them wide into the haze.

Dust cleared. The three invaders hovered with cruel patience, their bodies outlined in pale aura.

Kagaro's voice broke the silence, hard and clipped. "Strong, yeah. You guys might be strong. But against spirits? You can't win."

A voice answered him-a woman's. Clear. Human.

"I am Liza. And we are A-Type Jenemes," she said. The name dropped like stone.

Kagaro stiffened. Unease bled into him. The voice didn't fit. Jeneme mouths weren't meant to sound human.

Two others followed, speaking steady. "Yuzu." "Hito." Names as sharp as knives in the air.

Liza spread her arms wide, her cloak slicing open with the wind. Green boots shone beneath. At her waist, glinting metal. Flying gear. Familiar.

Shimin's heart sank instantly.

Liza moved and the pressure hit them all. Oxygen ripped out of lungs. Hibiki flung backward. His wings dimmed in the distance. Jenna screamed after him but her body betrayed her, dropping hard onto the ground as Kagaro's body smacked stone nearby, motionless.

Jenna reached with her trembling arm, fingers barely holding in her chest, reaching for her star-her shoulder badge, but her body refused strength. What was this aura? This strength? The lady had barely moved, and it had sent her and Kagaro to their knees and below.

The city below was a mess too. With boulders falling around from the rooftop, they frantically began clearing the area, running to save their lives.

Yuzu's laugh cracked low. He shifted one wrist and air coiled shut around Shimin's throat. She wheezed, hands clawing at nothing, choking. Her knees gave way.

"Moichi!" she rasped.

Her star shimmered, metal twisting into sharp machine lines until the weight of a gun pressed into her grip. Her arms buckled but she held it anyway, finger pressing hard on the trigger. Bullets showered the sky.

They pelted Yuzu's chest. Sparked. Echoed. Smoke hissed from the rips in his cloak.

But he just smirked. Eyebrows raised. "That's it?"

Shimin's chest burned.

Hito spun silent, eyes fixed on Yone. A flick of his wrist sent a surge of air that cracked across Yone's ribs and leg. The pain tore his knee to the ground, teeth grit against the scream.

And then-Satar's shine, reforming. A sickle, sharp, the single weapon Yone knew how to hold.

He forced himself upright. His muscles split fire through his injured body but he lunged anyway. Blade arcing, sickle aimed at Hito's jaw.

Hito sidestepped so light it mocked him. Yone followed, arms pulling the blade down in relentless strike after strike. Hito spun back, always one step free.

Kagaro stirred then. Anisole's body swooped fast, air cutting through rubble. Anisole had stayed in his true form outside the star item for too long. If he didn't turn into a weapon now, they would be in trouble. The world must not see a celestial body out for so long, one from a lesser era as they say, no matter eyes of the people or eyes of nature. Kagaro's breath hissed through his teeth. His voice sparked with the command.

"Sky whip!"

Anisole stretched, transformed instantly into length of black coil. Kagaro's grip held firm. He yanked himself upright and snapped forward again, whipping through the clouds until the crack echoed through Liza's grin.

Kagaro aimed dead at Liza. "Stay away. From all of them."

Rubble shivered as Yone lay half-prone, his chest thudding shallow. His eye swelled painfully beneath the bandages but it stayed open, darting over what broke before him.

Shimin slumped on Kagaro's shoulder, blood staining her lips. Jenna. Jenna crawled weakly, her palms shredded as she tried to drag herself forward, her badge still fixed in her fingers. Hibiki was gone. Forced to be sealed by these people who called themselves the A-Type Jenemes.

And then Liza appeared before her. Boots down. Smile sharp. She leaned low, her palm snapping the badge right from Jenna's hand.

Her covering voice dug low. "A waste of time. This?" She dangled it higher. "This scrap is all that keeps your kind proud. Star bearers."

Jenna's breath came ragged. Her arm shook. But she didn't let go. She grasped weakly at Liza's leg.

Liza frowned. "Tch. Still trying?"

Her ankle twisted to shake her off. Jenna tightened her grip, nails ripping skin as she refused. "Not letting..."

Yone's body jolted against the ground as rage burned into his throat. His fist hit stone so hard plaster cracked away from his arm. His voice thundered across.

"HEY! WHY?!" His cry split raw. "Why the hell are you doing this?!"

Liza ignored him.

Yuzu crouched instead, settling in front of Yone with disdain carved into his eyes. "You're broken." He scoffed. "You think spirits make you some kind of gods? What are they but dead filth chained to you?"

Yone's breath heaved.

Kagaro's voice snapped harsh. "That's enough." He shoved Shimin aside gently and stormed across the rooftop. His eyes drooled fury, sweat dripping hot down his temples. "That's crossing it."

Yuzu grinned in his face. "Hit a nerve?"

He pressed his boot down hard on Yone's injured arm. The scream burst out before Yone could suppress it, deep and vicious.

Kagaro's whip blurred. His boot slammed on Yuzu's chest, pinning him down, dragging him to the ground with quake of fury. His voice growled down inches from his enemy. "Now? How does this feel?"

Yuzu gasped against the pressure, spitting blood but grinning still.

"Anisole!" Kagaro roared, whip cracking loud as rubble tore away from Yone's body. Fragments fell loose, freeing his trapped leg.

Yone wheezed but rose to knees eventually. The sickle still firm in his hands.

Kagaro's chest heaved, his glare cutting steel. "You insult us, you insult them-you insult Yone..... you pay."

Yone leaned beside him, smirk faint across pain. "We're not alone. Not ever."

The pressure in the air shifted.

Flames tore suddenly across their sides. Satar appeared, drawn quiet but fierce by her bond to Yone. Hibiki's form answered Jenna's desperate breath yet again. The bond between him and his master was stronger than a stranger's force seal it would seem. Together they stood.

The rooftop skidded under the sudden surge of weight. Hibiki's glance alone cracked the air. A single pulse of his body sent Yuzu and Liza back against the edge of the concrete, spitting dust into storm clouds.

Satar slid to Yone's side, her eyes catching his and holding. "You feel it now...?"

Yone swallowed through grit. "I feel everything."

She smiled dark, turning her voice louder, aimed at the broken figures across.

"You think every fight weakens us? You're wrong. The more you fight a star-the stronger we become. Defeat us once and we only return harder."

Her laugh was wild. It stung against their ears.

Yuzu hissed. Hito's lips curved.

Then all three shattered away at once in smoke, dissolving into the air.

Quiet sank.

Yone dragged himself until his knees bukcled and kissed the stone. His whisper cut sharper than shouts. "Who... the hell were they?"

No answer.

Just the broken sound of rooftop wind.