The moment of failure burns brighter than any other memory.
All the more so when it is the death of someone precious.
The central district, home to the Valhalla Lumia Branch.
On the parade grounds lined with equipment of every kind, Yujin clenched his fist.
The image of Leila, drenched in blood, had flashed through his mind.
It might have been easier if she had blamed him.
The sight of her closing her eyes as though she had not a single regret — just recalling it was enough to make his chest ache.
*I will never let her meet the same end.*
He would change that future. Without fail.
That was why he had come this far.
Having steadied himself, Yujin absently slipped a hand into his pocket.
His fingers closed around something the size of a playing card.
The self-defense pistol Leila had given him.
Holding it, he felt a calm settle over him, unbidden.
*Have I been leaning on this without even realizing it…?*
Finding comfort in something so small.
Perhaps he still hadn't fully escaped the sensation of death.
Yujin smiled bitterly at his own condition.
And yet, without thinking, he found himself gazing west — the direction Leila had gone.
Then, faintly, the words they had exchanged in her room drifted back to him.
*—I've been thinking there may have been some outside interference.*
The careful, tentative possibility she had offered.
Why was her voice surfacing now, of all moments?
He had the feeling he was missing something important.
But just as he reached for that thread—
Someone approached, calling out to him with a bright, energetic voice.
"Commander! I've finished checking, I have! No problems with the equipment, there aren't!"
"Ah, Yubina. Good work."
Yujin had been moving as a pair with Yubina.
Their assigned role: positioning the necessary equipment where it was needed most.
Yujin, with his authority and knowledge as Commander.
And Yubina, possessed of extraordinary strength — they made a fitting pair.
With this, their preparations were nearly complete.
All that remained was to drive out the black Erosion Species within the city, then hold the line against the Erosion Species' assault until reinforcements arrived from headquarters.
*We can do this. We have to.*
As Yujin quietly checked the time—
Yubina, who had been tapping at her terminal nearby, furrowed her brow.
"Hm, something's off…."
"What's wrong?"
"Ah, Commander. I haven't been able to reach the other teams for a while now. I'm not sure if there's a problem with communications itself — could you check on your end too?"
"You can't get through?"
Of all the times for something like this to happen.
Yujin pulled out his own terminal and tried calling the other teams.
But no matter how long he waited, the call never connected.
An unsettling feeling, as though the signal itself had been cut off.
His expression grew steadily more rigid as he stared down at the screen.
*This didn't happen last time.*
Thud.
A dark premonition — his heart lurched hard.
*Something is going wrong.* The feeling tightened around his throat.
He needed to assess the situation as quickly as possible.
Yujin collected his thoughts and turned sharply to Yubina.
"Yubina. We need to find the others, now. Something is wrong here."
That was when it happened.
CRACK—!
A bolt of lightning, erupting upward from the ground.
Moments later, the rumble of distant thunder rolled through the air.
A power unmistakably Leila's, recognizable to anyone.
Something that should not have happened — and both Yujin and Yubina's eyes went wide.
They didn't know the details, but they had to get over there immediately.
For one instant their eyes met, and they nodded in unison.
"Climb on, you should!"
"Yes!"
Yujin didn't hesitate — he climbed onto Yubina's back.
Being carried by a girl a full head shorter than himself.
From the outside, it must have looked rather undignified.
But this was not the time to worry about appearances.
"Wh— what was that just now?"
"Was that lightning?"
"Why did the terminals suddenly go dead?!"
Whether it was the blinding bolt visible from anywhere in the city, or the sudden citywide communications blackout — the atmosphere throughout the streets had turned frantic and unsettled.
But even as Yubina leaped from rooftop to rooftop with him on her back—
Yujin kept his eyes narrowed, fixed only on their destination.
*What in the world is happening….*
His mind was in turmoil.
Had the black Erosion Species appeared ahead of schedule?
If so, was Leila in combat with them right now?
But then what explained the sudden communications failure…?
Questions piled on top of questions, none of them resolving.
In the end, only one conclusion remained.
He had to see with his own eyes what was happening on the ground.
Yujin's expression hardened as he gripped the card in his pocket.
"Ah — over there!"
Yubina suddenly raised her voice, having spotted something.
At the same moment, Yujin snapped out of his thoughts and looked down.
There, in the faint darkness below, someone lay collapsed on the ground.
He needed to reach Leila as fast as possible.
But Yubina clearly couldn't ignore the fallen figure.
Yujin read her intent in an instant and spoke.
"Yubina. Set me down nearby."
"C— Commander?"
"I won't be much use in a fight anyway. I'll check on them and follow right after."
Yujin was a figurehead when it came to combat — that was simply the truth.
There was no reason for both of them to stay behind for someone who had fallen.
It was far more rational for Yubina to go ahead and join Leila.
"Hmm…. Understood, I suppose. But please, do avoid anything dangerous?"
"Yes. I'll catch up shortly."
She seemed to understand the logic well enough.
Yubina hesitated for only a moment before dropping to the ground, setting him down, and sprinting off toward where the lightning had struck.
Alone now, Yujin approached the figure collapsed in the darkness.
If they were still breathing, he needed to get them to the infirmary quickly.
As the distance closed, his foot came down on something wet.
*This is… blood?*
A thick, iron smell that stung his nose.
A dark liquid clinging stickily to his shoe.
Yujin took out his terminal and switched on the flashlight.
And at the sight before him, he couldn't suppress a sharp intake of breath.
"Dahlia…?"
The one who had fallen was none other than Dahlia.
The sharpshooter of the Rabbit Hole Squad — who had left with Leila to inspect the barrier.
His stomach dropped cold. He rushed forward and grabbed hold of her.
Up close, her condition was unmistakable.
She lay collapsed in a pool of blood, completely limp, without the slightest movement.
Yujin carefully took Dahlia's hand.
There was no warmth. Only cold, and no sign of life.
*This is….*
He was already too late.
No pulse at her wrist. No breath.
The blood pooled beneath her made her condition undeniable.
Why. Who. How.
At this point, bringing her to the infirmary would mean nothing.
For now — leave Dahlia here.
Yujin rose to his feet, his jaw clenched tight, grief pressing down on him.
"Leila…!"
His mind was in chaos.
He gripped the card in his pocket with all his strength.
If Dahlia — her own squadmate — was in this state, what about her?
He was nearly out of his mind with worry for Leila.
But Leila was strong. She had to be all right.
As long as she was there, they could manage somehow.
Yujin moved quickly in the direction Yubina had gone.
*Anje. Promina…!*
But the nightmare did not end there.
Following the sound of something detonating, he ran—
And found Anje and Promina, collapsed and bleeding just the same.
Still as broken dolls with their strings cut.
Yujin arrived at his destination with his lip bitten bloody.
"Hah— hah…. Yubina — Leila…!"
He had run until his body went numb. The place he arrived at was the dormitory.
Where the Valkyries were staying — the same place he had been indebted to just two nights ago.
But it had been half-destroyed, as though an earthquake had struck.
"AAAAAAH!"
"No—?!"
The devastation looked as though artillery shells had fallen on it — and before he could even process the shock—
Yubina's scream tore out from somewhere inside.
Then a powerful impact that seemed to shake the very ground.
Yujin stumbled, nearly falling, and forced himself through the doorless entrance.
CRASH!
And as he stepped inside, something crossed his path—
A shape hurled through the air, slamming into the nearby wall.
It was Yubina. Battered and torn.
"Gkh—!"
"Yubina!"
Had she been fighting desperately against something?
Her entire body was a wreck. She curled in on herself, shaking with pain.
It had only been ten minutes or so since they had separated.
And in that short a time, she had been reduced to this.
Yujin rushed to her side.
"Are you all right?"
"Hgh, ngh…. Commander…."
"What happened here?"
"Run… get away…. There's — an enemy…."
"There's an enemy?"
Yubina had no presence of mind left to maintain her usual speech affectations.
She simply nodded in answer to his urgent question.
The pieces clicked into place in Yujin's mind.
The sudden communications blackout across the entire city.
Three members of the Rabbit Hole Squad, dead in the interim.
And now Yubina, broken in front of him.
*There's an enemy capable of neutralizing the Rabbit Hole Squad in an instant…?*
Something had changed — something that hadn't happened before his Regression.
A variable he had never anticipated. Not even close.
Yujin broke into a cold sweat at the wrongness of it all.
And then one thought cut through everything else.
*Leila?*
His heart plummeted.
No sounds of fighting came from inside the building.
No sharp crack of lightning. No dull thud of a Nail Gun.
Then where was she right now—
He couldn't hold back any longer. Yujin pressed Yubina urgently.
"What happened to Leila? Is she safe?"
"Ngh, hk…. Commander…. Lei— Leila…."
"Yes."
"She was… taken down by the enemy…. When I got here, she was already collapsed, bleeding…."
"What…."
"So I wanted to… get revenge…!"
Yubina was crying.
Her fists were clenched tight, as though she despised her own weakness.
And in that moment, the presence of someone nearby made itself known.
Click. Click.
The sound of heels striking the floor.
Yujin's gaze snapped toward it on reflex — and from beyond the darkness, a woman's voice reached him.
"Had enough of a rest? Then why don't you tell me where that Commander of yours is? I'm starting to get bored."
A voice he had never heard before. A stranger's.
But Yujin felt a chill crawl up his spine.
Instinct screamed at him to run.
Moonlight seeped through the cracks in the ruined building.
In that faint light, the woman's silhouette took shape.
"Oh my."
Her appearance was strange.
A tall woman, wrapped from head to toe without a single patch of bare skin showing.
Her face in particular was wound all over with strips of black cloth, like bandages —
leaving nothing visible but her eyes and lips.
Her glowing red eyes blinked once, and she stopped walking.
Then she looked at Yujin and bared her teeth in a slow grin.
"Ah. So it's you."
"—?!"
*Dangerous.*
A smile like a predator fixing its gaze on prey.
The woman carried the air of a savage, hunting thing.
But he could not retreat. Not here.
Yujin gripped the card in his pocket hard, stepped forward to shield Yubina, and called out to her.
"Why did you attack the Valkyries? Bringing a Valkyrie to death is a capital offense — a crime no human being can be permitted to commit!"
"Oh, is it? There's a law like that? I didn't know."
"…."
"But it can't be helped."
The woman of unknown identity let her eyes droop in a show of mock sympathy.
Then, as though she were genuinely frightened, she wrapped her arms around herself—
and spoke to Yujin, clicking her teeth together.
"You're a Regressor, aren't you?"
"What…."
"Dangerous. To think there's a monster like you in Valhalla. No matter how carefully I plan, what if you just undo it all and go back to the past? Aah, aah… just imagining it terrifies me…. Tell me — how many times have you come back? Did you already know what I was going to do today? I was so scared you'd found me out, I was…. But I had no choice. If I don't cut it down before it can take root… aah, but I'm still so scared! Something like you should never have existed!"
She spoke in a rapid, unraveling torrent, as though she had come apart at the seams.
Just how deep did her fear of Regressors run?
Breathing in ragged gasps, the woman clawed at her own body.
But Yujin had no room to react to her words.
Because he had finally understood why all of this had happened.
The deaths of the Rabbit Hole Squad and Leila.
The city that would be swallowed by Erosion Species before long.
All of it — aimed at him. At the Regressor.
As though refusing to accept reality, he asked her.
"How could you possibly know that—"
He had only spoken of being a Regressor twice.
Once in Leila's room.
Once in the Commander's office, to the Rabbit Hole Squad.
Just those two times.
So how did this woman know that Yujin was a Regressor?
The trembling woman stopped dead at his words.
A dramatic shift, as though her emotions had been violently inverted in a single instant.
Then her lips stretched wide — wide enough that her smile seemed to reach her ears.
"I wonder?"
An answer that had no intention of playing along.
From between the strips of black cloth, those ominous red eyes glittered.