Chapter Text
The final card clattered into Kai's damage zone.
"Kai-kun."
Kai looked up to see Aichi. Simple, naïve Aichi, smiling sadly as he held his accursed deck to his chest. Where, beneath the layers of his white shirt and skin, a monstrous black seed had latched itself and taken root.
"Perhaps now isn't the best time, but," Aichi's eyes lowered, "It made me happy. To hear what you and everyone else would do for me. I really am grateful."
His words weren’t the ones Kai wanted to hear. Weren’t the ones that Kai had hoped to hear when he set out on his journey, seeking. Aichi was so close, Kai only needed to take a few steps and reach out to touch him. And yet, he stood frozen in place, face twisted in a pained scowl at the realization that he had lost.
Aichi looked up, his bright blue eyes quivering with emotion, "I’m sorry. This is how it has to be."
In the next moment, a wave of dark red miasma erupted from Aichi, accompanied by his anguished cry. The cards in his hands clattered uselessly to the floor as he crossed both arms over his chest and pressed down hard, as if he could physically will the seed to remain.
"Aichi!" Kourin, battered as she was, raced over, "Hold on!"
Her shoes clacked loudly as she ran over the uneven ground, hand outstretched, but as soon as she drew near the miasma around Aichi erupted like a detonated bomb. The resulting shockwave caused pieces of rubble to burst from the ruined floor, crackling across the remaining foundations of the Sanctuary and threatening to throw everyone off of their feet.
Kai knelt down on one knee and braced his hands against the ground, balancing as best as he could. Behind him, yelps from the others filled the air as consecutive waves of miasma billowed, but Kai only had eyes for what was in front of him.
In the center of the storm was Aichi, still wailing as dark energy exuded from him.
Kai decided then that it was time to make good on his promise.
Slowly, steadily, he inched forward. Each step that took him closer to Aichi hit him with another wave of the miasma. On the way to the Sanctuary, Kai had taken his fair share of punishment. The blistering heat of Gaillard's blue flames, the heartbreak of falling short so many times, the pain of watching those around him suffer from his poor leadership – he had had to face it all.
But nothing quite felt like the miasma of Link Joker.
It was walking on knives, it was swallowing smoldering ashes, it was dipping all his limbs in poison that ate him away to the bone - all at the same time.
However, the greatest advantage Kai had in bearing the storm was that he had weathered it once before.
“Aichi,” he called out feebly, his voice lost to the wind.
When he finally reached Aichi, he fell to the ground, nearly overwhelmed by the force of the billowing miasma. Aichi sat on his knees, back bowed forward to the point where his hair touched the floor, curled in on himself like a ball. His cries blended in with the rush of miasma, grating against Kai’s ears as he reached out with both hands.
Through gritted teeth, he grasped Aichi’s shoulders tightly and called out to the wretched Link Joker that he had once embraced.
If you need a place to be, then come. Leave him.
The miasma responded almost immediately to the offering, funneling itself through Kai’s fingertips and feeding directly into his body.
Kai was somehow vaguely aware that he was screaming from the pain, but he couldn't tell how long he sat there, digging his fingers into the thick edge of Aichi’s coat. Every second was its own eternity, each minute its own universe. By the time that Kai registered that the miasma had finally stopped, his throat was hoarse and the very fibers of his being felt like they had been split apart and reassembled.
Above them, the open expanse of the night sky twinkled prettily, none the wiser to their pains.
Kai's shoulders slouched down from exertion, nearly tipping over onto the ground before he caught himself by tightening his hold on Aichi.
Aichi himself had passed out, cold. His gently closed eyes and even breaths as he slumped against Kai's hands struck a chord of relief. Though Aichi had certainly grown and filled out over the years, Kai couldn't help but notice how small he seemed. How his flesh and bone human body managed to contain so much miasma, let alone the seed of Void, was beyond Kai.
Moments passed, filled only by the tandem of their breaths, until the sound of footsteps on rubble alerted Kai's attention.
Nearly thirty feet away, atop the ruins of the Sanctuary, Kourin stood up.
Her hair had fallen out of its tie and her legs were littered with an assortment of cuts. As she stood, she braced a hand over a torn sleeve, dripping with blood. But even so, her green eyes were stern and resolute.
---
The Sanctuary had been created by Tatsunagi Takuto, as a sort of safety.
The whole structure existed inside of a space-time singularity, a sort of corridor between the two sister planets of Earth and Cray, in a pocket dimension where the last vestiges of Takuto's power maintained every last pillar and pebble.
It just so happened that it manifested itself as if it were on the moon, positioned so that the blue eye of the Earth was always in sight.
Despite her injuries, Kourin managed to tap into the Sanctuary’s power reserve and restore the grounds just around the circular dais where the throne sat. It was haphazard and the floor where everyone else stood was lopsided and cracked, but it would have to do. They were well out of time.
Unlike the first time the seal had been done, there was very little pomp and circumstance. The four, new appointed knights, stood in their collection of dusty, ripped school uniforms at the foot of the dais. Off to the side, the three former Quatre knights stood with their heads bowed in shame.
Ultimately, their memories would have to be erased and they would be sent back to Earth. They had failed their oath and thus, had lost the privilege to remain in the Sanctuary. For the time being, they stood as mere witnesses to the knighting ceremony, too troublesome to send back until the seal was properly redone.
In the center of the dais, Aichi sat, still fast asleep against the tall-backed throne where Kai had deposited him.
There was no time to say goodbye. Not when there was no telling how strong the Link Joker seed would be the next time he awoke.
"Wait."
All eyes fell to Gaillard.
"We don't have time, Gaillard," Kourin's voice was filled with urgency.
Gaillard shook his head, "I know. I have no intention of being a hindrance to Aichi-san's will."
The former knight stepped forward to where the four soon-to-be knights stood and stopped right in front of Kai. In one smooth motion, he slid off both of the rings that adorned his middle fingers and held them out.
"Take them," Gaillard commanded with an air of finality, "And do what I couldn't. Protect him."
Kai reached out and took the rings. The metal was hot to the touch, as if they had been passed over an open flame. He carefully slid them onto his middle fingers, one at a time. They were a perfect fit. When he was finished, Gaillard regarded Kai and the rings, then around and bowed deeply to the throne where Aichi sat.
Without another word, he swiftly walked back to where the other former knights stood.
"Let's continue," Kourin ushered. "It's time to take your oaths."
Four pedestals rose from the ground.
Where knights of old performed their accolade with the touch of a sword on each shoulder, the Quatre Knights to Aichi's sanctum laid their avatars down onto the pedestals that would seal him. It was a symbolic gesture that emphasized that it was more than their lives they were offering, but rather their very beings, from Earth all the way to Cray. In return, their prisons were born.
Kai spared a glance at the three others as they set their hands on their own pedestals before following suit.
As if reacting to their changing of hands, the rings on Kai's hands shimmered and rippled the moment he touched the smooth surface. The silver metal tarnished into gilded gold and the twin blue gems shifted into a deep crimson. He watched them with muted awe until a small, scorching red flare erupted from the rings just as the transformation finished.
Kourin's eyes widened at the sudden change, but she quickly regained her bearings. "We will continue," she stated calmly," Place your hands back onto the pedestals. Devote all of your soul and energy to Aichi."
Despite the lack of decorum that accompanied the newly minted knights' ceremony, everything had gone as smoothly as the previous one.
That was, until the time came to renew the seal.
The moment all four of them set their hands upon their respective pedestals, a dark shockwave resounded throughout the Sanctuary ruins, accompanied by a rush of wind. A stroke of blue lightning echoed with thunder across the dais, causing all to flinch back. Then, the very air around them became warm, then hot, to unbearably burning all at once.
A shimmering barrier flooded out from the outer edge of the dais, flashing red and blue as it rose to the skies, filling their eyes with a blinding light. Then, just as suddenly as the chaos started, the light converged into a single point in the open black sky above them…
… then dissipated at once.
The barrier was translucent, just barely visible to the naked eye, but the steady thrum of power that emanated from it declared that it was there, loud and bold.
With her mouth agape in shock, Kourin slowly realized two things.
Firstly, that Aichi had made a mistake in choosing the first set of knights.
They were undeniably very strong, world-class fighters. But when it came to the power of bonds, there were few people who wouldn't do more for him than the new Quatre knights before her. Something that the Sanctuary itself responded to, louder than ever before all of them.
And secondly, the seal had finally been remade.
Stronger than ever and made to last an eternity of sleep.