Not a trace of Orochi remained. Not a scrap of dirt stirred.

  Darius didn't slay the dragon. He unmade the dragon.

  Erina heard Akira exhale sharply at her side.

  "So that's Absolute Zero in action," muttered Akira. "All of us working together couldn't put it down, and all he needs is two seconds…"

  The ends of Darius' coat settled. The fractal markings faded, and black gave way to white. He raised his head and looked at them. His expression was grim and set, but Erina couldn't tell what exactly the emotion on his face was. Anger? Determination? Or something else?

  Darius' coat glowed to life. White light enveloped him, brighter and brighter, and then he was gone. A comet took flight from the remains of Fukushima, streaking across the sky under the clouds.

  "O-Orochi eliminated," mumbled Erina. "Other combatants disengaged." She let out a long breath. Finally, some of the tension in her heart started to unwind. "What now?"

  "Hey," said Akira. "It's me."

  Erina turned, but Akira wasn't facing her. She was looking the other way, phone at her ear.

  "Get Aoi on the line. Aoi? That you? Yeah." Akira looked in the direction the comet had gone. "So you saw him too. That's right, from Fukushima. Orochi's dead and they're to blame. Get in touch with the other lieutenants on my authority. At a time like this, you know how to sweet talk 'em into moving. Mobilize everyone, the lot of us are headed to HQ. You heard me. Exactly. I want his head on a spike. Yes, I'm sure. Get to it."

  "Akira?" said Erina as she hung up.

  "We're not letting it end here," said Akira. "Skulking around on my grounds, raiding your labs, stealing our loot—the Association's got their comeuppance long overdue, wouldn'tcha say?"

  Those golden eyes fell on her. Erina slowly nodded. "Yes. And…" She gazed out at the arctic landscape. "I need to ask him something too. But Asayuki-san took the motorcycle, and there's three of us. How are we going to make it back?"

  "Run," said Akira simply. At Erina's blank stare, she added, "Or fling yourself. You can magnify vectors, can't you?"

  "Not across a distance like this," she said. "If we had a car, I could magnify its speed to get us there quickly. But unless you plan to carry us all on your back…"

  "Leave it to me," said Lazarus.

  Erina blinked. Why did her mother's voice suddenly sound so grave?

  The air crackled. A clap of thunder split the air, scorching the street, and in the blink of an eye, Lazarus was on the other side of the world with Erina and Akira tumbling out after her.

  "Was that—?" Erina shouted, then hesitated. She couldn't hear herself. When the ringing in her ears stopped, she tried more quietly, "Was that your way between the sides?"

  "Hell," spat Akira, "couldn't give us a little more warning before you pulled that?"

  "Why are we here on the Surface?" asked Erina. "Are we looking… for… a vehicle…?"

  Her voice died in her throat as she looked at her surroundings.

  On the Surface, the howling wind continued unabated. Heavy rain fell in unrelenting sheets. Trees bent and swayed with the punishing gales under a gray sky. Erina expected to see an empty city, perhaps. One where the streets were empty, save for the persistent rush of water. Where the people had taken to sheltering within their homes and waiting for the storm to pass.

  Erina didn't see that.

  All she saw was desolation.

  Wooden houses lay flattened like matchsticks. Vehicles were strewn about the street, toppled onto their sides or inverted entirely with windows cracked and shattered. Everywhere she looked, Erina only saw more destruction. Where buildings should've stood, all she found were the broken pieces of them. Finally, the distant sound of a blaring horn met her ear, drowned out by the rain striking the debris-ridden earth and the screaming gale pulling at her hair. The city looked as if a raging, tempestuous hurricane descended upon Fukushima and razed it to the ground – because that was exactly what happened.

  This wasn't a city.

  This was a ruin.

  "Miss…?"

  Erina gasped and whirled. It was a soft, fragile voice. It cut right through the noise.

  It was a young girl. She couldn't be any older than eight. She was soaked to the bone, covered in grime as the dust of a collapsed building stained into her dress with the rain.

  Erina shivered, but not from the cold. Even as she stared right at her, there was a horrible, vacant emptiness behind those eyes.

  "Mama is at home," said the girl quietly. "She told me to go first, but home fell down when I left. I wasn't able to move the stuff on my own. Miss, you can help me, can't you?"

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  A wave of dizziness crashed over Erina. Her feet slipped, knocked out from under her by the constant rush of water pouring along the street.

  Gloved hands steadied her. Lazarus didn't look at her daughter as she kept her up on her feet. Those stark silver eyes didn't look away from the lost girl for a single second.

  "I'm sorry," she said.

  Lazarus swiped her hand clean through the girl's head. A faint outline of a disc, fleeting and indistinguishable in the rain, faded between her fingers.

  The girl fell instantly. Akira caught her before she hit the ground, gently lowering her onto a piece of rubble above the rushing waters underfoot.

  "Mom?" said Erina.

  "She'll be out for about five minutes," said Lazarus. "I took her memories of the last minute or so. She won't remember seeing us. Erina, once we have a truck, I need you to—"

  "Mom!" This time, she got her attention. "What are you doing? We need to help her."

  "We have to chase Darius."

  "That doesn't matter!" Distantly, Erina couldn't believe they were talking about this at all. "People are hurt. We can't walk away from this. We need to help. Look around us."

  "Look around us?" repeated Akira. She gave Erina a hard look. "You're the one who needs to take a closer look."

  Erina bristled, but did as advised. The sight of a shattered, ruined city met her eye.

  "She's just one girl," said Akira. "But this city's got a population you gotta measure with at least five zeroes at the end. You think everyone else got on a bunch of buses and hightailed it out in time? Fat chance." Akira looked out over the scenery herself. She finished bitterly, "They're all still here."

  Erina's head spun. She couldn't wrap her head around it. If that was true, then that would mean… Every pile of rubble… Every crushed building, as far as she could see under the pouring rain…

  "The three of us are a drop in the bucket." Akira's words sounded like they were coming from the other end of a long tunnel.

  "We're mages," said Erina numbly. "We… we're more than that. We c-can…"

  "We are three people," said Lazarus evenly.

  Erina felt the joints in her neck pop with how fast she turned to Lazarus. But as green eyes met silver, the fire died down in seconds. Lazarus' gaze was filled not with detachment or coldness, but with an uncharacteristic weariness—as if she had been here before. Suddenly, Erina remembered just how many years Lazarus truly lived, and who she served for those thousands of years.

  "That's… not fair," said Erina. She couldn't think of anything else. It was a weak, childish protest even to her own ears. "If we can't do anything about this, what's the point?"

  A new surge of vertigo hit her. This was because of Aileen's final gambit to slay Orochi. Aileen's total outpour of magic had distorted the world so severely, she created mirror hurricanes on both sides of the barrier.

  If Erina and the others were stronger, they could've brought down Orochi without Aileen's help. If they got Darius' disc to him in time… if they stopped Darius and Asayuki before they freed Orochi… if only, if only, if only—

  "I ain't sayin' we're doin' nothin'." Akira's sharp tone brought Erina back to reality. "The family will swing around. A disaster like this takes the government time to muster up a proper response. That gap of time, when people need boots on the ground right this second, is where the yakuza belong."

  "They'll… help?"

  "Not all of us are in the business outta the goodness of our hearts. But when shit hits the fan, it's in our own best interest to intervene. It's the perfect window for the yakuza to build some rep—help the people, brag about the money we spent, crowdfund a big pile of goodwill." Akira stepped up close to Erina and clapped a hand on her shoulder. "This isn't your responsibility alone. I'm here too. I'll handle this. I promise."

  Those amber eyes burned with a strong conviction. Transfixed, Erina found herself nodding along.

  Akira closed those eyes and turned aside. "Yeah. What's more, we still got our work cut out for us. Don't forget who's really to blame for all this. It ain't Aileen, and it ain't any of us standing here right now."

  "You mean those two?" said Erina.

  "Them and the whole ass org they're sittin' on top of. They're the bastards who popped the big fucker outta the bag in the first place." Akira ran a hand through her hair, raking the water from it. She looked at Erina. "In the family, we talk big about honor and tradition, but I'll tell you: we don't always adhere to who we used to be. Still, there's two things I stick to like glue. The first is to take in those the common path won't. Protect the people in the places the law don't reach. The second…" A grin crossed her face. "Is to plunder the rich, and hit stuffy elite bastards with the big ass sledgehammer they call karma. This ain't over, and we're not letting them get away. We're bringing a disaster straight to their doorstep. Riches, power—who cares? That's what I'm in the game for. Since day one."

  Erina drew a shallow breath. Drenched in rain, buffeted by the wind, chilled to the core by the icy water—all the same, it didn't change her thoughts in that moment.

  She was glad to call her leader.

  "Yes, sir," said Erina.

  Akira's grin widened. There was that spark in the girl she took in.

  The low growl of an engine turned their heads. In the time they spent speaking, Lazarus had already commandeered a truck.

  "Over here!" said Lazarus. Blue electricity crackled over the wheel as she motioned to the back of the truck. The Finger already sat in the passenger seat, securely belted in. "I swear, did cars get easier to hack since the last time I saw one? Anyway, get in!"

  "Is this really okay?" said Erina.

  "Bigger fish to fry right now," said Akira. "Which, by the way—you're coming with us?"

  Erina needed a second to process that. Akira sounded more confused than she expected. "Yes."

  Akira looked at her incredulously. "We're headed to the big fucker, slayer of the Great Witch himself. You're not coming with this time."

  "You can't expect me to stand by," said Erina quietly.

  "I won't—"

  "Let her," said Lazarus. "Take a good look in those eyes."

  Akira did. Amber met green.

  "Do you think either of us could convince her to stop? If this is what we're doing, we're best off going together and having each other's backs."

  Erina's face had always been stiff—the kind that barely showed emotion, with a voice to match. But for the ones who knew where and how to look, that fierce, electrifying green betrayed everything.

  A wry smile crossed Akira's face. The timid, shying girl was beginning to blossom into a will of her own, accepting all that may come as the price of that choice.

  "Then what are you waiting for?" she said. "Get in and buckle up! Lazarus, send us back into the Reverse and floor it! Erina, accelerators! We're counting on you to get us there on the double!"

  As lightning struck a second time and the green rings sent them rocketing along, Erina's mind wasn't there. It was far, far ahead, thinking of their destination.

  Nobody said it aloud. Akira bantered loudly, and Lazarus bantered right back as they drove. But Erina could feel it in the fleeting gaps when neither spoke, rumbling deeper than the engine or the bumps in the road or the muffled wind rushing by.

  They were leaving behind desolation and heading towards what could very well be destruction. This was open war on the institution that defined the boundaries of reality. No matter the outcome, nothing would be the same again when the dust settled.

  A glimpse made Erina's heart skip a beat. She hurried to the window, looked back the way they came, but what she sought was certainly long gone. It likely never existed at all.

  But, for a single fleeting instant, Erina could've sworn she saw the figure of a witch, alone amidst the pouring rain, watching her other self race off towards the crossroads of her life.