Editing BlazBlue:Phase Shift 4 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 2===

Take-Mikazuchi had disappeared from the city, and everyone moved on to working to restore the ruined townscape left in its wake.

Like afternoon shifting to night, the atmosphere in Ishana took a turn. Most people who had been busy frantically clearing rubble and tending to the injured were now focusing on a different kind of work. Instead of gathering construction tools and medicine, they were stockpiling weapons and armor. They were looking at maps of Eurasia instead of at maps of Ishana.

The war against the Black Beast had resumed, and this wasn't the time to be dedicating time and manpower to restoring the Magister's City of Ishana. After all, Ishana might disappear before they finished rebuilding it.

Tension was building among the army that the Mage's Guild and the Orbis Librarius Norma had worked together to raise at their Joint HQ, and that tension was rippling out to cover the rest of the island.

Numerous days passed like this, and one night, Celica was walking down one of Ishana's cobblestone roads.

The sky was cloudless and the distant moon was plain to see. It was a full moon tonight, and its swollen, yellow-tinged form looked like a lemon in the sky. The breeze felt cool, and while the barrier wrapping around the island blocked most of it off, the faint smell of the sea was refreshing.

It was late enough that the date was going to change before long. Hardly any houses had lights on anymore and all the shops were closed, but the glittering lamp posts in the city of sorcery kept the streets bright just as they should, holding the darkness at bay and relieving the sense of silence.

This area was on the edge of town, and the port where the army was busy preparing to depart was in the opposite direction, so no one else could be seen walking around here. The footsteps Celica heard were hers alone, and the shadow she saw swaying in the light of the street lamps was hers too. For some reason, she found that really refreshing.

Right now, Celica was indeed alone. Nine and Valkenhayn weren't with her, and even the Orbis Librarius Norma agents who had been tailing her since she had returned to Ishana were nowhere to be seen. Even Nirvana was absent. Celica was alone for the first time in a very long while, and like she was following directions from someone she couldn't see, she was headed for the hill overlooking Ishana.

She knew from the start who was on the hill. The last time she had been drawn to this hill and felt this person's presence, she had mistaken them for someone else, but now she could easily tell the two apart.

Walking clear of the rows of buildings, she winded her way along the promenade until she got to the hill road hidden from view by grass, then followed it to the crest of the hill. There weren't any streetlamps on the hill, so she used magic to make a tiny dot of light on her fingertip. The grass made a crunching sound as she walked across it. Having put some distance between herself and the lights and buildings of the city, the sky seemed to suddenly expand around her.

She felt great.

Drinking in the cool night air, Celica took a few more steps and called out to the white shadow standing at the summit.

"Good evening, Hakumen-san."

She was relieved to see it was exactly who she thought it would be. The wind smelling of grass and soil caressed her skin as she naturally broke into a smile.

Celica heard a crunching of the grass much heavier than the one her feet had made, and his wide shoulders turned halfway around as he looked back at Celica.

Long silver hair swayed in the wind as the expressionless white mask looked at Celica.

"...You're alone. What of Nirvana?"

Hakumen's puzzled voice reverberated from inside the mask.

"Onee-chan said she needed her up at the Mage's Guild for two or three days. She said she needed to examine her or something."

Answering with a laugh, Celica walked over to stand next to Hakumen.

Hakumen stood there facing her with his upper body turned toward her all the way until she stood next to him, then he turned back to face the city again. The cool breeze spiraled between their legs before blowing past them.

"You guys are leaving tomorrow morning, aren't you?"

Celica asked him casually, with her hands clasped behind her back, her head held high, and the night scenery of Ishana reflected in her wet soil-colored eyes.

She could see countless ships anchored in the harbor from up here. They weren't ships meant to ferry passengers. They were warships, made to carry far more people and equipped with large-scale weaponry.

Hakumen responded with neither words nor even a nod of the head, but Celica knew that his unwavering silence was affirmation.

"You won't be coming back in one month, will you..."

She was trying to keep her tone light, but Celica couldn't stop her voice from coming out a little weaker than it had been a moment earlier.

One month wasn't a short amount of time. That wouldn't be so bad if they were just going off to some random place for a month, but the so-called ‘one month’ that Hakumen and all the rest were headed to tomorrow was like a deep, dark swamp to Celica.

"Returning after only one month is merely the worst-case scenario."

Hakumen's voice, just like his body, didn't waver in the least.

If they had any strength left at the end, they planned to stay and keep the Black Beast in check for as long as they could, even if they could only keep it up for one day longer. That was the duty of the expeditionary force that Hakumen was going to lead.

Celica thought she had a good idea of just how reckless and perilous a task that was, but she also realized that she could never fully understand it. She was keenly aware of just how much of a difference there between what was she could do and what Hakumen could do.

"You'd better come back, okay?"

"Of course I will. This won't be the end."

"Yeah... of course not."
 
They weren't setting out with plans to lose their lives in vain; they were just going to buy some time. In one month or a little more, they were going to come back to Ishana.

Celica couldn't believe that that would be the case, so she smiled as the sorrow threatened to overcome her. It was the dead of night, but lights were still flickering across the harbor. The ships were still being loaded with supplies for tomorrow morning's departure.

The ships would set sail and eventually make it to the continent, and from there a horde of extra-large cars would take them on a seemingly endless expedition heading southeast. Finally they would arrive at a field near the cauldron where the Black Beast was most likely to appear next and lie in wait to ambush it.

(The Black Beast)

Celica thought those words in a mutter, as if she was whispering in her own head.

How many times had she witnessed that monster made of Seithr and cloaked in fear itself? Four... no, just three times. The first time she didn't see it herself because she escaped to safety before it showed itself in full.

Celica clenched her teeth together a little too hard.

"Hey, Hakumen-san. We haven't really had a chance to talk about it yet, so there's something I want to tell you while I still have the chance."

As she spoke, she turned to face him so sharply that it seemed like she was about to break into a sprint. She shook off all the sappy emotions she had been displaying up until just now and looked right up at Hakumen.

In response to her pleading voice, the white mask met her gaze, silently urging her to continue. Keeping her gaze steady, Celica slowly and purposefully spoke one word at a time.

"The truth is, I saw him. I saw Ragna."

There was a big difference between keeping that fact hidden in her heart and putting it into words to get it off her chest. The instant she put what she was thinking into words, Celica felt a rush of warmth well up in her heart.

She clasped her hands and squeezed them together like she was trying to see what they felt like.

"I think it happened when the Black Beast teleported with Take-Mikazuchi. In that moment, I got stuck inside the Black Beast. Everywhere I looked was pitch black and I was all alone."

Just as Celica was being crushed by the loneliness and fear within the suffocating darkness, she had felt something pull on her arm.

Her hand could still feel the body heat and texture she had felt at that moment. It was neither a dream nor an illusion, and it wasn't a simple intuition or a mere presence either; it was Ragna, in the flesh.

"Ragna found me. He protected me, and he saved my life."

Celica set her overflowing emotions ablaze, and Hakumen's entire mask was reflected in her eyes.

Hakumen looked silently into those eyes. From beneath the mask that betrayed no emotions came a question, asked in a low voice that sounded like he was being crushed to death.

"...Did he... say anything to you?"

"Ragna saved me but stayed inside the Black Beast himself. He said he still had something to do. And... he said it was something he had to do on his own."

That being the case, she wondered if Ragna was still inside the Black Beast at this very moment. Maybe he was fighting something all alone right now. Thinking that, her legs started trembling terribly. She wanted to give into her impulses and just start running. She knew there was nothing she could do, but she just wanted to run right to where Ragna was all by himself.

Suffering from the same impatience as Celica, Hakumen, standing right next to her, turned his mask away from her and lowered his chin as if in deep thought.

"Ragna the Bloodedge..."

He muttered like he was tracing the words with his voice. His voice was faint and detached, like he was dominating the emotions he was supposed to have for that name.

Celica let out a short ‘ah’ sound. She had remembered something.

"I almost forgot, Ragna was with a woman too."

"A woman?"

"Yeah. I only caught a glimpse of her, but she was small and had silver hair. Her left eye was covered with an eyepatch, but her other one was red."

Hakumen's attitude changed palpably, like something was stirring within him. They had been standing in a refreshing night breeze, but now there was slowly smoldering anger mixed into the air as well.

"...Then, that woman... is inside the Black Beast..."

Bitterness the likes of which Celica had never heard from Hakumen muddied his voice. If he had a human face, he probably would have been scowling menacingly and grinding his teeth together.

Seeing Hakumen quietly losing his temper before her, Celica tilted her head slightly to one side.

"You know that girl too?"

That's what it had sounded like to her.

Hakumen kept his silence for a few seconds before answering solemnly.

"That woman is the heart of the Black Beast."

The heart. Celica had no idea what he meant by that. She tilted her head even further and looked at him blankly. Was he talking about the organ in a living creature that enabled all of its bodily functions, or did he mean it in a more metaphorical sense?

Before she could ask him to explain what he was talking about, Hakumen looked off toward the distant ocean as if he could no longer see her.

He kept silent and stared into space as he lost himself deep in thought.

"Hakumen-san?"

Turning at the waist to peak at Hakumen, Celica called his name. Hakumen was silent for a little while, but eventually he responded.

"...Nevermind. We'll finish this another time."

No sooner had he said that than Hakumen turned on his heel and set off, flattening grass beneath his feet. His broad shoulders and flowing silver hair caught the moonlight as he passed through the black of night, making him look like the very moon itself.

"Return to your home. I'm leaving too."

"But-"

She wanted to ask him about what he had just said, but she suddenly changed her mind and stopped her question short.

Hakumen had said 'another time' just then. He never lied. That meant she would just have to wait until the not-too-distant future of a little more than a month from tomorrow before that 'another time' arrived.

"...Are you going to take me home?"

Celica skipped over to Hakumen's side as he stood there waiting with his back turned, the moon hanging in the sky high above his tall white form.

He turned his attention to Celica for a brief moment before setting off at a walk, and Celica followed behind him. Hakumen's footsteps, which he kept in pace with Celica's, were his answer.

"Thank you, Hakumen-san."

Hakumen didn't look at Celica this time as she smiled at him.

The night breeze brushed over both of them as they walked side-by-side. Only at a time like this, with the moon watching over them from on high, can the passage of time feel gentle and calm for a change. It felt like this moment might last forever.

The eastern sky was turning gray as the night began to give way to morning.

When the sun was fully above the horizon, the ships left Ishana.