Chapter 1
The next day in school, Issei has them gather at the base of the mountain. Ayako is already there and drinking a can of tea. Gai asks if she was okay, and she said Issei healed her up even though she's still a little tired and thanks them for helping them. Gai then says that Shinji was the one who carried her, but Shinji says she was the only one who knew what was going on and if she died he wouldn't find the way out (he's being Tsun). Ayako smiles and says then she retracts her thanks.
Issei then tells them they’re going, but when Gai tries to go up the stairs, Issei holds out his hand and says that the temple is in use. Shinji then said was what the point of them coming here, but Issei holds out his hand and creates glowing squares that fly and attaches to everyone. They suddenly feel weightless for a split-second after and the room around them has changed.
When Shinji grabs him by the collar and demands to know where they are and what he did, Issei knocks his hand aside and explains that they are in Copenhagen during the morning hours, while no one is around and that they arrived due to his PSI Power, Teleportation Marker. Gai asks if it’s like what Ayako did to kill the thing attacking them, so he decides it would be best if he explained from the start and tells them to pull out their cards.
When they do, he gives them the low down on the Psyren cards, explaining the nature of the game by stating when it first began for him. His first time, before the rumors of the cards spread, there were over a thirty people and only five made it back and explains that he's been looking into the increase in Sudden Death Syndrome around the world and figures that it's a global issue. Shinji then thinks to himself that it's basically worse than the HGW, before asking how they were expected to survive it going in with no information or warning.
Ayako speaks and says that by the time she got involved, Issei had been there to save her but no one else made it. Since then she's been training with his brother and Otoko, who is the daughter of the owner here, before showing off her Burst and explains that if they went through the fever then they should have the power too. Shinji thinks on it for a moment, but decides he wants out after a brief memory of what happened last time he got power (Gilgamesh) and it turned on him.
Otoko comes in then and states bluntly that there is no out. Those who don't play and ignore the buzzing die as well at some point from a brain aneurysm. The only way out is to survive, and to do that they must develop their PSI. She then gives the three classifications for PSI that they know of: Burst, Trance, and Rise.
Ayako demonstrates Burst, explaining that she basically concentrates on gathering up energy in her body into a ball and thinking that she wants to make it destroy something, so it explodes. Then she demonstrates Trance and states she pushes energy into her thoughts and then visualizes it going into their heads like a cloud, pushing her thoughts to them. She also shows Rise by lifting the entire table up from the end, before Otoko tells her not to break it.
Issei also adds that from what they understand, some people are better than others in some fields. Ayako is balanced in all three, but her specialty is Burst. Issei uses a hybrid form by combining his Burst and Rise to heal others. He also explains his Teleportation Marker technique let’s him lay down a marker that remains in a place and then fix smaller ones onto targets and the teleport there. He states since today is a Sunday and the store is closed, they'll begin training at once since most people are called back in two week intervals.
Chapter 2
Several hours have passed and Shinji is straining against the chair after being tied up with tape and being told that they had to just use Telekinesis to knock a can off a table while the others watched. Issei has left to get back to the temple, while Otoko is in the back handling inventory for tomorrow, leaving Ayako to watch them.
Gai says his head feels like it’s on fire as the air in front of him trembles and then breaks. Ayako tells him to try picturing the can being something he wants to hit, like vision training, or that he’s already succeeded in knocking it over and push the energy into that. Gai does so and a hand shapes and knocks the can down, leaving him to pant and then cheer. Ayako lets him free and tells him to go and get some rest because it strains the mind here and then Gai leaves, telling Shinji he should get better.
Shinji is pissed that the idiot got it before him and says Ayako must’ve done something to make it easier on him. Ayako says he’s not doing well because he keeps talking too much and complains every time he fails, and if he would put that focus on his training he’d get it. When Shinji starts yelling because he thinks she’s looking down on him, Ayako tapes his mouth shut. She says it’s to help him focus as she stands there, twirling the roll on her finger while smiling. Now if he wants to get it off, he’ll have to use his telekinesis.
He tries, thinking about how he shouldn’t have gone out of his way to save her, but fails again after about ten minutes. Ayako, who is now sitting on the table and drinking, hears his grumbling through the tap but states she can’t understand if he’s hungry or wants to use the bathroom, and that he’ll need to speak up in an attempt to motivate him.
Shinji yells at her inside of his head while concentrating and wanting it to get through her head that he can’t do it. He feels the thoughts being carried like a cloud slipping out of his head and into hers. Ayako, who was rocking in her chair, ends up tipping over and holding her head. The tea cup breaks and Otoko comes in to see what’s happened.
Ayako says he was yelling in her head, but Otoko says that impressive given that most the their telepathy is weak at even that distance, explaining it gets static-like interference at longer than a few feet. Shinji is breathing heavily through his nose and thinks it feels like his head is murky, like water slowly filling back in a hole and Otoko tells him to go home and get some rest. He leaves out with Ayako walking him out on the way back, but he tells her off.
She explains that she pushed him because he tries harder when someone does that, and she doesn’t want him to die like she’s seen so many others. She even mentions that she went around trying to save the other people who were in the game before they arrived and exhausted herself before she found them. So she thanks him again because she probably wouldn’t have made it without him, and would have left her family even more worried. Shinji goes silently for a bit and then tells her he’ll go home by himself.
Chapter 3
That night, Shinji is in the Matou Library looking through the magecraft tomes his grandfather had. He is trying to relate the two different powers because unlike the events of the HGW, he can’t rely on anyone to save him this time. He states he had gone over them all before he was a child, stealing the key from his father (who drowned himself in alcohol after the previous HGW) and reading it in hopes of being a magus, only to learn he didn’t have circuits and Sakura was the new heir. That’s when he started to hate and abuse her, but she never said anything against or fought back, only pitied him—despite going through hell herself—and it made him feel worse than he needed to be pitied by someone like that.
The first one he relates is Rise. He states the principles are similar to the notion of self-reinforcement principles in that they push the body to its limitations, and it would probably be closer to what Emiya does. He then thinks this is the sort of thing that heroic-idiot would be better suited at and wishes that he was there instead—risking his life.
He then goes over Burst, citing that something like Telekinesis would be to soak an object with prana and then maneuver it, except that the way they’re doing it is basically different considering the hand that Gai made and it looked like it was using the air itself as a medium. Not to mention something like Ayako’s burst doesn’t make sense by those standards.
Then he thinks about Issei’s Healing abilities that they state are a hybrid of Healing-Rise and Burst, it doesn’t make sense due to healing magecraft of that nature being listed as Flow and Transferring of Power, while the closest he can label Teleportation Marker is Displacement Magecraft (Flash Air), and that doesn’t begin to cover how their souls are pulled into the future.
He realizes that Psychicer is probably the most accurate tome in the end, because a psychic according to the books references people born with a mutation that allows the brain to comprehend a channel or common sense not normal. Since the soul is anchored by the brain, it’s very likely that having their souls exposed the atmosphere and then put back into their bodies caused that mutation in them.
Shinji then states that even if he can’t accurately classify it, he can use the principles and theories behind them to improve his abilities. Trance would be closer to Mental Interference, so if he worked using principles from it then he could probably improve quickly.
The hours pass and he grows tired before he shuts the book and goes to his room and showers. When he comes out, he sees that Sakura has left him more sleeping pills and some medicine in case he was sick on the dresser. He notes the bottle of water is still cold.
He thinks for a moment that, despite everything he’s done, she’s still going out of her way to look after him since he was in the hospital. His thoughts go to it being pity, but he then recalls that she smiles more now that Zouken is gone and relates it to unwarranted gratitude since he killed Zouken strictly for all the shit he had given him and calling him useless. He pops the pills and goes to bed.
Chapter 4
Shinji is watching as they train in the temple with Issei’s brother, Reikan, a few days later. Otoko is at work and Ayako is at Archery Club since its after school. He has cleared the use of it so that they can spar in privacy and doesn’t go easy because Issei will heal them. Shinji still has bruises since Issei is taking his sweet time because he laughed when he learned that Issei had to talent in anything other than healing and teleporting, despite all the meditating he does and karate he practices. He makes a note to never mock the healer to his face again.
When he see’s Gai is lasting longer and Reikan notes he’s pretty good at Strength-Rise, Shinji also notes that he’s improved his Burst to the point he can make the hand faster now and have it linger for a few seconds longer without any problems. He has a moment of petty jealousy because his attempt wasn’t getting better (he could just barely reach the can with telekinesis), so he decides to shift his attention creating a connection—a line made of prana that can be used as a conduit to transfer his thoughts. It fails apart too quickly and he shifts his attention back to Gai after hearing him grunting after getting knocked across the room.
Reikan then gives him the slow clap for his effort and turns to Shinji to tell him he should train his body too and to get onto the training mat. Shinji states he still has bruises, but Issei heals them in seconds and says he has no right to complain. Shinji says he’s enjoying this, but gets up to go.
Reikan then tells him this time, to make it interesting; he’ll use his Telepathy to tell him where he’s going to move. He does, but Shinji can’t hit him as he dodges and then hits back. Reikan tells him to sharpen his senses because his judgment is too slow in battle and he isn’t reading him, noting that he isn’t even increasing his strength to hit Shinji. If he can see it coming then he can respond faster.
Shinji tries to focus on his eyes and ears, strengthening his perception and sharpening his hearing. It allows him to avoid when Reikan tries to grab him, but then Reikan pulls off a sudden Rise and disappears from his view, and the only thing alerting Shinji is that he hears the soft tapping on the wood behind him before he turns and Reikan stops his fist an inch from his face. Shinji falls back in surprise and lands on his ass.
Reikan gives him a slow clap, saying that he’s at the starting line and it’s probably a good balance that they have. Gai is all muscle and speed, but can’t sharpen his responses, while Ayako is balanced but her focus is on Burst, and if he can master his Trance, they’ll be able to help each other survive.
Chapter 5
A few days later, the call for Psyren comes in. It’s been a little over a week instead of two like they said. While Shinji has been training on trying to strengthen his Telepathy and a connection to strengthen the quality of the voice (early Mind Jack), his Burst is horrible and Trance won’t do him much good. Ayako grabs Shinji and brings him along to Issei so they can use the Student Council Room to watch their bodies, having cleared it. He also hands them power-bars and bottles of water, explaining that he has no idea how long they are going to be there and reminds him that the cards register every non-living object on them so they have it in the future. They sit down and all call the number at the same time, leaving them to jump into the future.
In this time, they find that several people are there instead including Kane, Yukika, & Kaede. Gai flips out because of how dangerous the place was the last time, but Ayako tells him that it won’t do any good. Shinji ignores when Ayako tries to explain to everyone the circumstances of Psyren, not having faith they’d believe her because it sounds ridiculous. Instead, he looks out and sees what looks to be a familiar landscape and then calls Gai over to point it out. They realize that they’re in the same place there were before, only since there the ruined cityscape has been turned into a silvery desert.
One of the other guys tell Ayako to stop kidding around about their circumstances, but Shinji says if they doubt what they say then they can go for a walk if sitting around won’t get them anywhere. They do, and Ayako says he sent them to their deaths, including the track girl trio, causing Gai to punch him for it and then run off to keep Kane safe.
Shinji points out that the vision from before hadn’t come in and they don’t have any proof they can offer when they need to conserve their strength, so when either Alfred or the monster they faced before shows up it’ll give Ayako a chance to prove it right by sniping it. She points out that some of them will still die, but he states they were warned and they made their choices. He was going to survive to clear the game, and if that meant sacrificing those who won’t listen then that’s all there is to it.
Naturally, the Sandworm comes out and kills a few of them. Ayako, not able to just sit there and watch, so she leaps out to go help, crossing the distance faster than they could blink and leaping into the air as if flying. Shinji realizes just how tired she had been the last to have failed before doing that.
She fires at it a spread shot and the explosions knocks it aside and forces it underground while the others keep fleeing and get scooped up one-by-one while Ayako tries to get a shot but can’t. Shinji realizes from atop his point that it’s only going after those who walk across the sand and tries to yell, but it won’t work. So he tries to Broadcast, picturing all of their heads and forcing his thoughts out to them and they scramble for purchase, but the response he gets back from Ayako is frail because of the distance until she gets close enough again and states its probably only because both the atmosphere and his talent in trance it made it that far.
That’s when they receive the vision from Nemesis Q telling them to kill the Sand Worm to clear the round.
Chapter 6
Ayako takes the high-ground to get ready to snipe it when Shinji connects with her with Telepathy. Looking at Gai with Kane on one building outcropping and the other track girls on another, he notes no one here has as strong a weapon to do it but her. She states she’d need to find it first and the core somewhere inside of it. Since her ordinary shots couldn’t do the trick she’d need to use her Azusa-Yumi: Eclipse, but it uses up so much Burst Energy she’d only get one shot and all her concentration, so she can’t sharpen her senses.
The head of the track girls, on a building with the other, call out to Ayako and demands an explanation. Ayako holds a hand to her mouth to tell her to be silent. She keeps yelling, so Shinji sends a telepathic signal for her to shut up so Ayako can concentrate. She wheels on him and yells that he set them up to die while the other girl begs her to settle down, riling the other survivors into yelling at him as well, but Shinji Broadcasts that they were warned and that they made their choice and walked out on their own two feet, which they would have done anyway, but at least now they know the clear condition so they should shut up and let her concentrate.
That’s when he sees something flying close as they yell, a bunch of dog-sized wasps without eyes start coming in and Shinji points them out Ayako gets ready to shoot them down when they fire their stingers like harpoon and they spear through several of the survivors—including the two track girls who were yelling. Ayako fires another spread to intercept some of them but the others dodge. And when one group climbs down to run for the building again, the Sandworm snaps them up and Ayako takes another shot at it and the explosion makes the wasps towards the spot.
Then Kane screams and points in horror as the other two track girls turn to crystal and shatter from the spears and Shinji sees that they suddenly aim for her. He quickly realizes that they must be using the vibrations in the air to determine where they strike and sends out another Broadcast, feeling his head starting to space out that tells them all they’re tracking them by the noise they make—all the screaming attracted them.
They aim for her, but Gai covers her mouth and Ayako yells to draw their attention. When they close in on her and shoot, she fires another spread and starts panting. That’s when Shinji spots one that’s slipping through the smoke to fire from behind and he ends up yelling by reflex as it fires. She turns and fire, and while the shot hits it the lance continues towards her and time freezes for Shinji as he realizes she’s going to die before she brings the gauntlet of the wrist-mounted crossbow to deflect it and it lands onto a piece of stone that crystallizes.
He sighs in relief when he realizes that she must have used Rise on her senses and figures that they can’t affect a Burst when he feels a strain on his brain from all the yelling and his Sense-Rise. The surviving wasps have lowered themselves to the Sand and started feasting on it and Gai decides to head back to the building Shinji is in for shelter, stating he’s faster than the worm and they need to be sheltered. He does so and the worm chases behind them, knocking into a outcropping that shatters and hits them with a spray of debris that he can take (he’s strengthened) but it knocked him down as he tries to cover her.
Ayako blasts the Sandworm again and grabs them both, hopping back up to the building. One piece of rubble hit Kane, leaving her bleeding from a head-wound, and Shinji sighs as he took in the look of everyone. They were the last survivors.
Chapter 7
Ayako looks over her wound and says they need to get her to Issei, meaning they need to kill the worm. Shinji asks if she can kill it in her current condition, noting she’s exhausted her strength trying to help the others. She says she has enough for one big blast but she’ll be spent afterwards, so they only get one shot.
Worse, Shinji notices and then states they’re eating the sand and its forming a crystal at the tip of their hinds, meaning they’re reloading. It would be suicide to have to deal with all of them and then the worm. So they would have to do it all at once.
Shinji tells Gai he will act as bait, running along the sand and yelling at the top of his voice to catch their attention since he can use Rise. Ayako will remain perched in a position where she can charge her Burst, and when they reach a clear point she can fire and kill them all at once. That way they’ll clear the game and can get Kane help.
Ayako reminds him that she can’t use Sense and the Eclipse, and a badly-timed shot will catch him in the radius. Shinji states he’ll tell her when to fire, but she can’t hesitate. Ayako flat-out states she won’t because she can’t trust him after how many people he threw away.
Shinji doesn’t blame her for thinking that on a inner note, stating that he had done it twice now. Gai says he doesn’t care as long as they can get Kane to safety since she lost so much already, but Ayako doesn’t want to kill anyone else and thinks they need to come up with another plan.
Shinji doesn’t think they have that long. They can’t track the worm when underground and if it leaves the area they can’t clear the condition fast enough to save Kane, but he needs some way to prove it. He then remembers the connection can transmit memories according to the books, wondering if that included as they were being made in short-term, and tries to forge it. It works because of the environment and he links it to her, transmitting his vision as the memories are currently happening.
He then states he’d been practicing because he doesn’t want to die here, so he’ll make the hard calls if she can’t. He then jacks into Gai’s mind as well and tells him to go at half his top running speed and yell to lure them in, stay ahead of the worm and herd them together. When Ayako fires the shot, he’ll send the message for him to jump away at top speed and he should escape the blast. Gai tells her to do it, stating he won’t forgive himself for letting Kane get hurt after she lost her friends too.
Gai runs and yells at the top of his lungs as Ayako sits on the rooftop and forms her weapon, while Shinji acts as both a lookout and sounding board, his enhanced visions and perception along with the connection allowing Gai to see how the Wasps are moving.
The bow and energy churns with power as the arrow whirls while nocked, Ayako’s burst energy pouring into and compressing. She says it ready, and Shinji tells her to take the shot while sending the message to Gai to take off.
She releases the arrow, putting her hopes into his ability to dodge. It streaks through the silvery sand and all that power is released the moment it touches the surface. It expands, shifting the wind from the sheer force as it evolves into something vast—an eclipsing white sphere of pure destruction that swallows everything it touches in a radius that could encompass a stadium.
Ayako collapses where she stood. She falls onto her knees and grasps for breath. It seems it really did take everything she had, and that wasn’t much from the way she spoke after all those previous shots. He could only imagine how big it would be at full power, and the thought makes Shinji glad she is on their side.
Ayako calls out and asks if Gai made it as the eclipse shrinks. He doesn’t see him, but sees that the core of the Taboo was exposed and cracked, but not broken. If it goes underground they would lose and be stuck there, but Ayako can’t take another shot.
Cue Gai roaring as he leaps out of the sand in fury, slamming his fist into the core bare. It breaks against surface, only cracking it, and the worm prepares to dive underground. But Gai yells again and his burst shapes around his fist as he brings the good hand down and smashes it thoroughtly, causing its form to smoke and fall lifelessly, leaving him standing over it as blood from his broken hand soaks the sand and his other is the fist of a gorilla in a bluish-outline.
The world shifts and they go back into the past, where Issei says he’ll start healing them, but Gai tells her about Kane and Ayako mentions the other two track girls are dead.
Interlude 2-1
After Shinji and the others have healed and gone home, the veterans meet to discuss what they’ve learned. Issei mentions that he healed Kane’s wounds and explained things, but she's in shock and the bodies of her friends have been taken by the city’s morgue as another case of the Sudden Death Syndrome, one of many today. Otoko notes Ayako secluded herself and cried over her failure, while Gai looked like he was ready to punch something, and they note its odd that Shinji was the only one who wasn’t moved by the death.
Issei claims he's always been cold and abrasive, but his judgment was sound and logical for the circumstances. They would have done it with more caution, but it wasn't wrong. They also note that 'Kill' missions were somewhat rare and usually when they went through them they were stronger. Comparing it to the change in the mission Ayako had, from scouting to a rescue, they couldn't help but wonder if something was moving faster with Nemesis Q and the best they could do was be ready.
Interlude 2-2
In the future, Sion has been tracking the worm’s movements as she looks over the destruction. Her fingers run through the sand and note it’s the same base material that is used in construction, reasoning that the worms and wasps are both Scrapper-class Taboo and that if they were transmuting the concrete here into raw materials then they must be planning on building something nearby or in the process.
Even now, ten years after she has lost everything and Atlas has failed, she continues to move on and keep herself busy, searching for a way to fulfill her duty as the last member of Atlas and try and unravel the mystery of Akshayavat.