No one's POV

(Dreamscape)

When Ryuu woke up, she was sitting in the darkness. It was a familiar darkness. This was the darkness that had tormented her for the past five years. This was the boundary between life and death where she had been stalled. No one was beside her. That person was gone. She felt that was a pity. She did not know why. She could not remember anything. But her cold hands struck her as sad.

Suddenly, light pierced the darkness. Beyond the light, she saw her irreplaceable companions. Astrea Familia.

Ryuu: Alise...

Alise, Kaguya, Lyra, and all the others were standing with their backs to her. No matter how she shouted, they would not turn toward her. Ryuu knew that. The gulf between her in the darkness and them on the far shore of the light was too wide. Suddenly, she realized she could walk forward. She could walk out of the darkness. She could walk to the source of the light, to the place where the companions she longed for so deeply were standing.

Joy filled her.

No matter how much she called to them or how bitterly she cried, they would never turn toward her. But if Ryuu walked toward them, they would welcome her. At first they would be angry. Kaguya would scold her and Lyra might crossly pull on her ear. Maryu and the others would probably push her around. Alise would definitely stick her finger in the air and give her a half-baked sermon.

Ryuu: I'm finally joining you guys...

And then, she was certain, they would break into smiles. They would all gather round to welcome her back and praise her for how she had soldiered through these five years. They would throw their arms around her shoulders and stroke her head. Her wish would finally be granted. Her sins would finally be atoned for. She would finally be able to pass away. Ryuu began walking toward the light, searching for salvation. One step, two steps, three steps. She passed the boundary of the darkness. Only a little farther now until she reached the distant shore—

Alise: You can't. Don't come any closer, Lion.

At that very moment, one of the forms that had never before turned toward her finally showed her face.

Ryuu:—

The red hair swayed and the green eyes pierced Ryuu. She had been seeking the light, but now her feet stopped.

Alise: Lion, you can't come here. We won't let you.

Ryuu: Alise...?

The eyebrows rose in flat rejection. The lips that were always so just denied her. Alise spoke as if she were trying to make Ryuu realize something.

Alise: You must not run away. Especially from him. You owe him that much.

Alise's gaze skipped past Ryuu into the darkness beyond. The monster's horrible roar pounded against Ryuu's back. It was the same roar of despair that terrified her, robbed her of the mask of wind, and turned her into a wretched elf. But within that hair-raising roar was the sound of resistance—a brave war cry like raging flames.

Alise: Don't you see? If you come here, you will regret it!

Alise's powerful voice made Ryuu's hands shake. Finally she was able to go beyond the light where she had so longed to go, but now she was beginning to question her decision. Her dried-out heart that yearned for her friends was competing fiercely with the mad desire to seek out that battle cry of flame.

Ryuu: I can't do it anymore...

Ryuu's voice was quiet now. To stop the fight in her heart, to give up on everything, she spoke in the unfeigned voice of her heart.

Ryuu: I just can't, Alise... I can't fight anymore. I can't resist the past.

The Skull Reaper. It was the beginning of everything, the source of all misfortune. A symbol of the past that tormented Ryuu. She knew that if she returned to the darkness, harsh reality awaited her. It terrified her. She was crippled by her fear of facing the past. Ryuu gave a miserable bleat and hung her head.

Alise: Liar.

But Alise responded with a single word.

Ryuu:—

Ryuu opened her sky-blue eyes and looked up. Her friend's face was before her, with its firm gaze that saw right through her.

Alise: You claim you don't want to lose hold of justice. Your justice is screaming at you not to lose Sora. The boy we all Astrea Familia fell in love with.

Alise did not explain anything. She did not admonish Ryuu. She did not lead her. She simply presented her with the truth. Her words shook Lyu to the core, sending out ripples in her heart.

Alise: Justice is still alive within you!

What was "justice"? What was "right"? Ryuu had never known. She had never been able to find an answer. All she knew was that Astrea had told her to forget about justice. She assumed that she had lost all right to it. But Sora had told her something different.

He had said she still had justice within her.

Alise: Our Familia sought peace and harmony. Even now, our new Familia outside this very city of heroes is still making everyone happy!

Now Alise, too, was confirming Ryuu's justice.

Alise: You never once forgot that. You always stuck to your guns and did the right thing, just like I knew you would.

The words of her Hero and the girl linked up in her mind so that finally she understood their meaning.

Alise: 'Cause that's your Justice, Lion. Hope for a brighter future. Your justice—your hope has not died yet! It lived on within you and within him.

It was true. The justice Ryuu had been seeking since the day her companions died was hope. When Syr saved her, she decided to live so she could make sure the justice of her companions was fulfilled. She wanted to believe that what Astrea Familia had bequeathed her would connect to hope. She wanted to believe it would bring order and peace to Orario and smiles to the faces of its people. Ryuu had been pursuing that vision since the day they died.

It was like Sora had said: Ryuu had brought them help and salvation and hope. Ryuu's actions had led to hope for someone. That's what Sora had been saying all along. There was no such thing as universal justice. But this was Ryuu's justice. A hope that illuminated the future, not the past. Finally, finally, Ryuu realized what the justice that lived within her meant. As she did, the other members of Astrea Familia turned toward her, as if to compound the change in her heart.

Lyra: You wanted to finish what we started, right? To make our effort count for something. Then your path lies with our beloved Hero.

Maryu: Just think about how many people you helped! And that includes Sora. The person you help most!

Ryana: Remember all the smiles you put on their face. And the smile you always put when you are around him.

Ryuu: You guys...

Neze: Justice doesn't have a right answer. Just like Sora said, every one of us has our definition of Justice.

Asta: You have to came up with an answer of your own. Yours is the same with Sora.

Iska: And that is hope! The hope you and Sora posses.

Noin: Yet you convinced yourself that you'd given up on Justice.

Celty: How very "Lion" of you.

Kaguya: Go. Get outta here! You have a monster to slay? And besides, none of us here are ready to see Sora just yet. I personally not ready to hear his answers.

Next to Alise, Kaguya shooed Ryuu toward the dark.

Lyra: Good luck, Lion. Make sure Sora doesn't die.

Lyra smiled spitefully, her hands laced behind her head.

Neze: Hang in there. Both of you.

Asta: Don't run away!

Iska: Do your best.

Ryana: Beat 'em!

Noin: Show it who's boss!

Maryu: Go kick its ass!

Celty: We'll be rooting for you!

Each of her familia members had their own words of encouragement for Ryuu. Unable to bear their words and kind gazes, Ryuu frowned and shouted back at them.

Ryuu: I... I've wanted to apologize for so long! I wanted to say sorry to you all!

At long last she spoke the words weighing on her mind. This was the true wish she had harbored since the day she lost everything.

Ryuu: I stood by and watched while you died, and I didn't do a thing. I wanted you to judge me! I wanted you to blame me and curse me and condemn me!

On the far shore of the light, neither Kaguya nor any of the others spoke a word. They simply looked back kindly at her as if to say, But you knew! Yes, she did know. She knew they would not have blamed her. It was only Ryuu who could not forgive herself. She could not accept her past. By thinking of it as a crime, she was trying to punish herself so she could stop suffering. Ryuu's fists relaxed and hung limply at her sides.

Alise: Lion!

The voice of the girl she loved so dearly rang out high and clear.

Alise: What does justice mean to you? The hope in your heart. What's it telling you?

Ryuu's throat quivered. Before she realized it, she was weeping uncontrollably. Desperately holding back her wails, she answered with her truest desire.

Ryuu: I want... to be with him...

Not the gentle light on the far shore, but the depths of darkness where cruelty awaited her. Not by the sides of Alise and the others, but by the side of her Hero who was alive now.

Ryuu: I want to go back to the tavern with him...to where Syr is!

Not to the past where her familia was, but to the future. Alise smiled. Her smile was like the sun telling her she had done well.

Alise: Lion, you must not run away from him! You must not let go of your feelings for him! So don't lose to the other girls!

Ryuu smiled. Tears rolled down her cheeks. There was no sorrow in her sobs, and no darkness. She turned her back on her companions and walked toward the darkness.

Alise: We will meet another day, Lion. Take care of yourself.

Their words sent her softly on her way. She would go, and come back one day.

Ryuu: I'll see you later... I loved you, my dear friends.

(Reality)

Ryuu:—!!

Ryuu opened her eyes. The first sensations she felt were a burning pain and a will-crushing lethargy. Then the loneliness of having been left by herself. The warmth that had enveloped her was gone. Sora had vanished. In his place, in the darkness at the end of the passage, was a fierce song of battle. Sora had not given up in the least. He was thinking of Ryuu and trying to fulfill her hopes. He did not want her justice to be lost.

Ryuu: Sora...!

Ryuu drew together her strength and made a fist. She knew what she had to do. The vision was gone. The hallucination had vanished. Alise and the others were nowhere to be found. Perhaps everything she had seen on the far shore of the light was no more than a delusion that suited her own fancy. Still, they had taught her something.

Justice was alive within her. She must not throw it aside. She must seek hope. Ryuu planted her shaking hands on the ground and peeled herself off it.

Ryuu: Aaaaaa...!!

In the pool of blood, she gave a newborn cry. She broke with the self that had huddled in the shadow of her departed companions, imprisoned by the past, and gave birth to a new self. She had to face it. She had to face that past she had hid from for so long. She had to fight. She had to fight the symbol of her past she had feared all these years.

The Skull Reaper, the monster of calamity, was her past personified. If she wanted a future, she had to overcome that past. If she was determined not to lose anyone else, and to live out her justice and hope, then she had no other choice.

Ryuu: Aaaaaaa!!

She stood up. She grabbed a weapon from the pool of blood—the skeletal sword of a spartoi—and thrust it into the ground. Pushing the pain away, she took a step forward. That step gave birth to another, stronger step. She called forth the strength to move ahead. Ignoring her screaming body, Ryuu walked down the dusky path. She walked toward the song of battle.

Toward the place where the roars of the monster and the war cries of a two humans and one Spirit reverberated. Beneath the phosphorescence that illuminated the darkness, Ryuu threw herself toward the place where calamity and cruelty waited.

Skull Reaper: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Beyond the passage, a fight to the death was under way. In the center of the room, the monster and the two humans along with one Spirit Girl were clashing, intent on killing each other. Sora and Slyphid were crossing their weapons with the Skull Reaper to create and opening for Bell. Where did that strength come from? It was as if he was literally pouring the last dregs of his life itself into their fight.

Sora had pulled the monster into a pure contest of strength. With the gleaming twin swords in both hands, he was fending off every pilum the monster shot at him as they ricocheted relentlessly off the walls, floor, and ceiling.

With his super human speed, he could easily counter the enemy's pila. He had faced a storm of those murderous swallows before, and now Kanshou and Bakuya knocked down the barrage of evil pila without missing a single one.

When the Skull Reaper, with its hatefully joyous roars, shifted to close combat, he noticed the white haired rabbit and the Spirit Girl charging in. Bell grip his Hestia Knife and Sword, while Slyphid grip her divine spear. It was a high-speed weapon with a double edge. By alternating between the dark purple blade and the dark crimson one in his right hand, Bell successfully shut down the monster's hit-and-run strategy. With that opening, Slyphid had slash its tail and slice off some of the lizardman scales.

There was a regular pattern to his enemy's jumps now that it could not move with complete freedom. With their instincts, Sora, Bell and Slyphid had registered the relationship between the angle at which it landed and the time needed to prepare for its next jump, and by doing so they managed to withstand the savage attacks.

Determined to use his earlier loss as the basis for victory this time around, Sora roared and launched a counterattack. The swords and the scythe flashed crimson-white, drawing countless arcs through the air. Sparks swirled amidst the deafening clatter. It was a circle dance of fiercely clashing light. To Ryuu, it looked like one raw life force being hurled against another.

Slyphid:—!

Bell: Ms. Ryuu?!

Sora: Hmph! So she finally came!

The three had noticed her presence. At the same time, the Skull Reaper twirled around and looked straight at her. Her chest shuddered. She could not hide it. Her trauma creaked with fear. But now there was something that scared her more than having her past wounds opened afresh. That was the prospect of once again losing something irreplaceable. For a brief second of concentrated time, her heart was calm. This perfect stillness was followed by a tempestuous gale wind. This was the wind of her will driving her forward.

Skull Reaper:—!!

Ryuu leaned forward and took off running. She kicked off the ground, danced through the air, and landed a terrific blow on the astonished Skull Reaper. She plunged the blade of white bone into the monster's raised right arm, above its protective armor.

Ryuu: Sora! I...can't be the elf of the lake.

Knocked aside by her enemy's forearm, she hit the ground rolling and shouted at the dazed Sora. Since he liked heroic tales, she was sure he was familiar with the one she'd mentioned. Elves respected the story greatly. Young elven girls dreamed of living that story. But Ryuu was rejecting it. Sora stared at her.

Ryuu: I will not allow those who I care about to protect me while I sit by and do nothing! I will not let you walk into the jaws of death alone! This time, we'll do it together!

Sora: So you finally