CHAPTER 55: CHILDHOOD GIRLFRIEND

The Moonlit Sword sliced through the night air, closing the distance, then paused at the edge of Jun’s ruined window.

Behind him, the remaining three swords were still chasing Kai, Goro and Rei.

Before Haruto could even fully dismount his sword, Jun was already there. His friend was a complete mess. Tears streamed down Jun’s face, mixing with the grime and dust that now coated his room. He launched himself at Haruto, clinging onto him like a desperate lifeline, his body trembling uncontrollably.

"Haruto! Oh my God, Haruto!" Jun’s voice was a frantic, high-pitched wail, filled with a raw mix of terror and disbelief. "You... you came! And... and those swords! You have powers! Real powers! Like... like in the anime! It’s all real! Superpowers exist! I knew it! I just knew it!"

Haruto stiffened as Jun’s scream tore through the night. In an instant, he was at his friend’s side, hands gripping Jun’s trembling shoulders, "Hey—hey! You okay? What happened here!"

Jun was far too overwrought to listen. He pulled back slightly, still clutching Haruto’s arm, his eyes wide and bloodshot, but now alight with a frantic excitement that bordered on manic. "Those swords! Are those your power? Is that what you can do? Summon glowing swords from the moonlight?"

Haruto hesitated, glancing at the Moonlight Sword he was still standing on, and the other three still engaged in skirmishes afar. "Yeah," he admitted, a slight edge of weariness in his voice. "Something like that."

"Amazing!" Jun practically shrieked, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Then mine is... is a shield! A totally unbreakable energy shield! I just... I just wished for it, and it came out! A green one! It can hold them off! I think... I think it can hold those guys off for like, ten minutes!"

Jun gestured wildly at the shimmering green dome that still encased them, vibrating faintly with the strain of resisting the continued attacks from the three figures outside. His voice was breathless, almost giddy with the sheer wonder of it all.

Haruto just grunted in response, a noncommittal sound that did little to acknowledge Jun’s excited claims. His gaze, however, was no longer fixed on his friend. It had drifted past Jun, coming to rest on the white-haired girl who was still partially slumped against the far wall, her delicate features pale, her pure white hair fanned out around her like a halo.

She was slowly pushing herself upright, her pale white eyes, still half-lidded and distant, now fixed on the glowing green shield around them, a faint flicker of comprehension passing through their ethereal depths.

But when Haruto saw her. The elegant curve of her jaw, the almost translucent quality of her skin, the way her impossibly white hair framed her face. It was a face he had only ever seen in faded photographs, in hushed whispers, in the most painful corners of his memory.

It was as if an invisible force had struck him. He froze, his breath catching in his throat, his sophisticated composure shattering like fragile glass. His eyes, usually so sharp and calculating, went wide, completely unfocused, a dazed, almost reverent awe settling over his features. The cool, calculating demeanor he usually maintained, even in the face of imminent danger, vanished entirely, replaced by a profound, almost childlike stupor. He was utterly, completely stunned.

Jun, oblivious to the profound shock seizing his friend, saw Haruto’s blank stare and chuckled, a nervous, high-pitched sound. "Right? She’s beautiful, isn’t she? Like, out of an anime! I know, I know, don’t get all goo-goo eyes, but yeah, she’s amazing. I mean, look at her hair! It’s just like Aria’s in ’Celestial Seraphim’! But anyway, never mind that, the important thing is, I saved her! I really did! With my shield!"

Jun puffed out his chest, a flicker of pride amidst his fear. He interpreted Haruto’s stunned silence as typical male admiration for a beautiful girl.

Haruto didn’t respond to Jun’s self-congratulatory ramblings. He simply pushed past his friend, his gaze never leaving the white-haired girl. He moved slowly, deliberately, as if in a trance, his Moonlight Sword still hovering beneath his feet, its glow casting long, dancing shadows across the devastated room. The air around him, which had been thick with tension, now hummed with a different kind of energy, one of profound recognition, almost disbelief.

He reached the girl, who was now fully upright, her pale white eyes watching him with a mixture of wariness and a distant curiosity. Her Lumina power, though weakened, still pulsed faintly around her, a protective aura. Haruto stopped just a few feet away, his expression a complex mix of shock, longing, and a pain so deep it twisted his features. His voice, when it came, was barely a whisper, hoarse with emotion, devoid of any of his usual casual confidence.

"Yuki?" he breathed, the name a sacred utterance. "Is that... is that really you, Yuki?"

It was a scene ripped straight from a shonen manga, though Haruto, currently wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of Yuki’s quivering lip, wished it were just fiction. He recognized her, of course. How could he not? Even with the years, she was undeniably Yuki. His childhood friend. The girl with whom he’d once shared scraped knees, whispered secrets under starlit skies, and the innocent, uncomplicated joy of youth.

The girl’s eyes widened in shock—how did Haruto know her name? The pale light washed over them as she studied his face, her breath catching. Slowly, recognition dawned. Those sharp eyes, that stubborn jawline...

"It’s you," she whispered, memories flooding back.

A strange, almost forgotten feeling stirred within him, a mix of nostalgia and a nagging sense of incompleteness. He knew they were close, intensely close, but the specifics of how they’d met, the vibrant details of their early bond, remained frustratingly elusive, like trying to grasp smoke. His mind, for all its sharp edges and quick deductions in the present, drew a frustrating blank on those formative years.