Chapter 37 – A World Without The Sun 【Part 2】

The world went silent.

【Kenji PoV】

The flash of blue light was gone. The air in the clearing tasted like ozone and nothingness. Where Ryuuji and Siegfried had stood, there was just empty space. A patch of dirt. A few trampled leaves.

He was gone.

My best friend was gone.

Daisuke stood beside me, a mountain carved from disbelief. His mouth was a hard line. His fists were clenched so tight the knuckles were white. For the first time since I’d known him, he looked completely lost.

My own heart was a frantic drum against my ribs. I took a step forward, my boot sinking into the soft earth where the rune had been. It was just dirt now. Cold and empty.

“What… what just happened?”

My voice sounded small. It was a stupid question. I knew what happened. A trap. A teleportation circle. The kind of thing you read about in fantasy novels. The kind of thing that was never supposed to be real.

Reina drifted past me.

She moved like a ghost, her face a pale, blank mask. She didn’t seem to be breathing. She knelt in the dirt, her fingers brushing the ground where he had vanished. She was searching for something. A trace of him. A spark of magic.

There was nothing.

I had to be the leader now. Ryuuji wasn’t here to see through the chaos and find the simple, correct path. It was up to me. I had to be the hero he thought I was.

I took a deep breath, trying to force the panic down. Think. Analyze. What would Ryuuji do? He’d look for the logical answer.

“It was a magic trap. A teleportation rune. It must have taken them somewhere.”

Reina didn’t look up. Her shoulders were shaking.

“He took him.”

Her voice was a whisper. It was the coldest sound I had ever heard. It wasn’t a sound of grief. It was the sound of a verdict being delivered.

“Siegfried took him.”

I shook my head, trying to clear the fog. That wasn’t right. Siegfried was a scumbag, but he was just as surprised as we were. He got caught in it too.

“No, Reina. They both got caught in the trap. It was an accident.”

She looked up at me then. Her eyes were not the eyes of the girl I knew. The school idol. The kind, popular Reina Inoue. They were flat. Empty. Like looking into a deep, frozen lake.

A single, perfect objective was forming in that cold emptiness. And it terrified me.

She stood up, the dirt falling from her fingertips. Her body was stiff, her movements jerky, like a puppet whose strings had just been cut.

“I’m going after him.”

She took a step toward the empty patch of ground. Then another. She was going to just run at it, as if she could force the trap to reappear through sheer willpower.

This was wrong. This was a bad plan. We couldn’t just rush in blindly.

“Reina, wait! We don’t know what that was!”

I moved to block her path. I put my hand on her shoulder. It was a gentle touch, meant to be reassuring. Her shoulder was rigid under my palm. Hard as stone.

She looked at my hand. Then she looked at me.

“Get out of my way, Kenji.”

The voice was still quiet. Still calm. That made it so much worse. A shiver went down my spine. This wasn’t Reina. This was someone else. Someone dangerous.

“We can’t just run in blindly. That’s what Ryuuji would tell us. He’d want us to think. To make a plan.”

I was using his name as a shield. It felt cheap. But I was desperate. She was spiraling, and I had to pull her back from the edge.

It was the wrong thing to say.

“You don’t get to tell me what he would want.”

She shoved my hand off her shoulder. The force of it was shocking. I stumbled back a step, my boot catching on a root. Daisuke moved to my side, his expression grim. He saw it too. The danger.

We were standing in her way. We were obstacles.

“Reina, please. Just stop for a second.”

Then, she broke.

The cold fury in her eyes melted away. The rigid posture collapsed. Her shoulders slumped. She looked small, lost, and completely shattered.

A single tear traced a path down her cheek. It was a masterful performance.

“You’re right.”

Her voice was a broken whisper. It was the voice of the girl who had lost her locket, the girl Ryuuji had spent all night helping.

“I’m sorry. I just… I can’t…”

My heart ached for her. The tough act was gone. She was just a girl who had lost the most important person in her world. My own fear and confusion felt selfish in the face of her pain.

I was a sucker for a damsel in distress.

“It’s okay, Reina. We’ll get him back. I promise.”

I stepped forward and put my arm around her shoulders. She leaned into me, her body trembling with sobs that didn’t make a sound. She felt so fragile.

I had to be strong. For her. For Daisuke. For Ryuuji.

I had to be the hero he always saw in me.

The stew was tasteless.

【Daisuke PoV】

It sat in the wooden bowl, a lukewarm mix of meat and vegetables. It was just fuel. Nothing more.

The room was small. Stuffy. The air smelled like old wood and stale ale. Kenji was pacing. He did that when he was thinking. His boots made soft thudding sounds on the floorboards.

He talked about plans. About the mayor. About legends and old maps. His words were good words. Smart. He was a good leader.

I grunted.

He looked at me and nodded, as if I had said something profound. I hadn’t. I had just agreed. A plan was better than no plan.

Reina sat on the edge of the other bed. She was quiet. Too quiet.

She had cried on the way back. Kenji held her. I walked behind them, watching the path. The trees. The shadows. Any new traps.

I owed Ryuuji.

The math study guide was still in my pack. His handwriting. The neat, careful notes that had saved my spot on the kendo team. He had asked for nothing in return. He never did.

He was a good person. The best.

I had to get him back. It was a debt. A simple fact.

Reina was not crying anymore. She stared at the rough wooden wall, but her eyes were not seeing it. They were seeing something else. Something far away. Dark.

She was not sad. Sadness was soft. This was hard. Sharp.

Like the edge of a new sword.

Kenji kept talking. He was trying to fill the silence.

“First thing in the morning, we’ll talk to Pedro. He has to know something. There can’t be a dungeon entrance this close to town without some kind of local story.”

I grunted again. It was a good plan.

Reina’s hand went to her wrist. She touched the small, silver bracelet. The sun charm. Ryuuji had the moon.

Matching.

Her expression did not change. But I saw it. A flicker in her eyes. It was not grief. It was not hope.

It was the look of a wolf who has caught the scent of blood.

I had seen that look before. In the kendo hall. Right before a final, decisive strike. It was the look of a hunter who has already decided the outcome of the fight.

Kenji didn’t see it. He was too busy being a hero. He saw a friend in pain.

I saw a weapon being sharpened.

The silence in the room stretched. Kenji finally stopped pacing. He looked from me to Reina, his face full of a desperate need for us to be a team. To be strong.

“We’ll get him back. Together.”

Reina finally looked away from the wall. She looked at Kenji. She gave him a small, sad smile. It was a lie. Her eyes were still full of that cold, sharp light.

“You’re right, Kenji. Together.”

She was the real trap.