Lilith wrapped her arms around Mari bringing the sobbing girl closer with one hefty squeeze the crying had lessened to a soft wail, Mari couldn’t see through the stinging tears but the warmth of her embrace was more comfort than any number of rousing speeches.

The patter of heavy footsteps grew louder as they approached, raising her head from Lilith’s chest Mari gazed upon an awkward-looking Hideto.

“Crying little girls aren’t your forte are they?” Mari said drying her eyes.

“Hit the nail on the head, shameful really having grown up with three little sisters.”

“Setsuna, Mei and Yukina correct?” Lilith said

“That’s them, my tragically foolish little siblings.”

“You probably have a million questions, don’t ya Riri?”

“Sure I can think of a few.”

“But this is hardly the place” Hideto snapped his fingers

Hinamori appeared behind in a flash of blue light it had been quite a while since Hina had made an appearance and it brought a soft smile to Mari’s tear-stained face. She was carrying a bouquet of white roses in her arms.

“Long time no see Mari.”

“It’s nice to see your face again, Hina.”

“Yay happy reunions, let’s get moving girls.”

Hideto reached into his pocket and pulled out a purple Reisen crystal beckoning us to gather around him, Mari had zero clue what he was planning but despite everything Mari had grown to trust the narcissistic, capricious, one-armed Prince.

Engulfed in blinding blue light Mari closed her eyes as waves of nausea washed over her no matter how accustomed she’d become to her new home teleportation magic would never sit right with her it always left her vomiting her lungs out.

Once she had enough time to get over her sickness she took scope of her surroundings as she staggered to her feet while excepting a hand up from Lilith, it took a moment to register their location but when it clicked an overwhelming sense of anxiety fell upon her.

“Where are we exactly?” Lilith asked

“You want to fill our little Princess in, Mari?”

“Why the hell did you bring me here?”

Mari stepped forward scanning her surroundings with a solemn expression, the longer she looked the more she felt like she might fall apart, this was a place she never wanted to return too and her righteous anger had wavered in the face of her sobering reality.

“Riri...”

“Ha Ha Ha Ha”

“Oh this is too fucking rich, God you really are one of them aren’t ya? What were you intending on accomplishing by bringing me back here, Hideto!”

“Softball question, but alright I did promise to answer any questions, There’s a great chance that we’ll all be dead within a few days, and as somebody who has been in more death battles than I care to admit a piece of free advice, you don’t want to enter a battle with distractions weighing you down. So take this opportunity to say your goodbyes to her.”

“I..fine...” Mari sighed

“Follow me, Lili.”

As we made our way to the graves I told Lilith an abridged version of the events that led me to the academy leaving out the true horrors of the night, I told her that the village was raided and that I was the only survivor and that Hideto found me and brought me to the academy.

Mari steeled herself as they arrived at Shinobu’s grave it was undisturbed and just as they had left it

Here rests Shinobu, taken to the goddess far too soon

1207-1227

Hina handed the flowers to me as I fell to knees gently placing the gorgeous roses at the base of her tombstone, Closing her eyes Mari breathed and the world seemed to fall away it was just her and her memories, He was right she couldn’t be shackled with any distractions if she wanted to survive the forthcoming onslaught.

“Okay Hide the second question, why couldn’t you save her?”

“There’s the one I’ve been waiting for her, the answer is simple, I just couldn’t do it”

“See erasing someones time and reversing their time are different I can rewind someone out of existence but for bending time in general there’s a limit, the maximum I can push it is three hours or so, a day or more had passed by the time I made it to Shikishima.”

“It's true Master could only rewind time for a few minutes when he first awakened his right, but through consistent diligent effort he’s pushed it to its upper limit,” Hina added.

“Third and finale question,” Mari said standing up and dusting herself off.

“Why did you leave your family? I bet it has something to do with your missing arm too, Not only were you born into royalty you were the firstborn and a genius in many respects your role as heir was all but secured? You’re strong Hideto so strong that it boggles the mind, you clearly care about your siblings, so I’ll ask again why to leave?”

“You girls go straight for the jugular don’t ya.”

“Master you don’t need to tell them...”

“It’s fine Hina it’s not some great secret the Head Mistress knows the full story and Mr Blademaster, Former Assassin Azalie and Miss Calliope know bits and pieces.”

Hideto beckoned us to take a seat as he raised the gourd he was never seen without to his lips and drank deep, his lackadaisical expression vanished and his eyes soured turning forlorn. “I left my family seven years ago two whole years before my family declared war on the entire continent, but I had already decided that I would never succeed Father as King decades before that.”

“Here’s the Tale of the piece of shit Prince who ran away.”