Hazama/Terumi appears!

Someone was standing at the entrance of the sliding door that Jin was blown through by Bang in the large room.

But Jin did not know who it was.

He could at least make out someone. There were two legs, a torso, two outstretched arms, a neck and a head on top of it.

Although he knew it had a human shape and he knew he could hear voices coming from it, he didn’t know 'what' it was. It's as if his vision had gone blurry and he couldn’t distinguish anything.

"At any rate, aren’t you cruel? I was the only one left behind. I'm still pretty hurt."

The person spread his hands around his shoulders and came towards Jin with a leisurely gait.

Jin gripped the scabbard of his sword tightly and stared at the 'someone'.

“Who are... you?”

Jin asked sharply and with caution. 　 The person paused as he entered the room.

"Who? Hmmm, this is troublesome. I don't know how to explain it... Oh, yes, I had a name, didn't I? It was Honoka, Lieutenant. Do you remember? Ohhhh, I hope so!"

Honoka.

Yes, that's the name of the boy soldier that the Duodecim forced on him when I left for the war. He was shorter than Jin and spoke without a sense of urgency, but once he started talking, he couldn't stop. However, when faced with dangerous situations, he cowered in fear and backed down.

On the battlefield and in the encampment, he was often worried about Jin's condition and was also busy with other chores such as making tea and fetching luggage.

He was there, however...

(What did he look like...? Why can't I remember?!)

What color was his hair? What color were his eyes? The color of his skin. He had assumed he was small, but he wondered how far his head actually stood in comparison to Honoka's. Even his voice. What was his voice like?

Jin's thoughts are jumbled and he can't put them together.

Honoka smiled at Jin as he stood there, unsure of what to do.

"Well, I don't really care what was I called.”

He shrugged his shoulders and walked nimbly to Jin's side.

"Even so, it's wonderful. To beat that Tenjō all by yourself like this. 'Jin Kisaragi', you are a 'hero'!"

Honoka spread his arms high and wide, speaking in an exaggerated manner like a stage actor.

“The war is now over. Well, it sure lasted for a long time. But, it's a shame, isn't it? So many people fought and fought and fought aaaaaaand... then died. For freedom and peace!! Oh, so many people gave up their lives......."

This person called Honoka enunciated from one end to the other.

He turned around and faced Jin, holding out his arms. It was as if he was holding the corpses of the many lives that died in this war.

“And then! The people of Ikaruga did not win their freedom and peace. They paid the price of so much death... It's sad, it's really sad."

"You..."

“But the war is over! I am glad! I am so glad!”

“Who the hell are you?!!"

(Wrong. I don’t know him. I don’t know that man who's named Honoka.)

Jin asked himself as he slipped his hand onto Yukianesa.

At that moment, a dull thud struck Jin in the chest.

“Wha…”

Unsure of what had happened, Jin looked down at himself. A black snake's head was sticking out of his chest.

“Gah…”

He tried to say something, but his voice wouldn't come out. He tried to grip his sword, but his hand wouldn't move. It wasn't just his hands. He couldn't move his legs or his neck either.

Honoka... No, 'someone' walked up to Jin, who was trapped by the snake that had bitten his chest. A disgusting smile, like a crescent moon, clung to his mouth.

"But, you... you shouldn’t have gotten involved where you didn’t belong. "Jin Kisaragi..."

The tone of his voice changed drastically.

As soon as he did, Jin recognized the man in front of him clearly.

A tall man. He was wearing a black suit and a black hat. His hair leaked out from under the hat and turned out as green.

From the mans outstretched arms leaked a black chain that moored to the head of the snake that was biting into Jin's chest.

"You are...!"

Jin glared sharply at the man he had finally been able to see.

Overlapping the man in the suit, he saw a humanoid figure that looked like a mass of black shadow. The shadowy humanoid form had numerous green cracks running through it.

An unpleasant sensation spreads through Jin, one that he has never experienced before. This feeling is the same as the one he had when he saw the lines from Karenjina connecting to... "evil".

Forcing his immobile body to move, Jin tried to grab the sword, Yukianesa.

The double figured man bent over and laughed in amusement.

"Hihihihihi, as expected from the 'Power of Order'. Amazing, truly amazing!”

He wondered which of the two figures the coarse language was coming from. The sarcastic voice still laughed.

"Anyway, thanks for your help, Jin Kisaragi. I'm going to retrieve Tenjō’s body now, if you don't mind me."

With Jin in its grasp, the mass that made up a man in a black suit and the shadow with green cracks walked past him and lifted the fallen and motionless corpse of Tenjō onto its shoulders.

Then he looked back over his shoulder and smiled. He smiled with a crescent-shaped mouth.

“Oh, and... your 'memories' as well."

────。

─────────────────────。

Blazblue: Spiral Shift (Chapter 6)