Dimensional Descent

Back when the Metamorphosis first descended, Leonel remembered thinking that this was really the end and that this would really be how he died. He had already concluded that the Paradise Islands had fallen and his father was dead, and now he was certain that he would follow not long afterward.

In those moments, he felt lost and alone. He remembered the only thing he had wanted in those final seconds he thought he had was for Aina to look at him, to just spare him one glance as that portal-like wormhole approached them.

He remembered feeling as though his heart was being stabbed through because even then, even when there was nothing else to live for, the girl he had chased for four years didn't even want to look at him. Even now, he could remember how each individual strand of her hair had fallen to the back of her head before he was sucked away and completely lost consciousness.

However, what he hadn't known was that Aina didn't look him in the eye because she couldn't. In those moments, she thought that Leonel was dead, that she would never see him again.

It hurt for Aina to admit any of this, but she gritted her teeth and did so anyway. She felt that she had to…

"… When I saw you came out alive, I was the happiest I had been in a long time. But, I felt that I didn't deserve you, I had done such a horrible thing all because I couldn't open my mouth to speak, so I did something I thought would make you hate me… And I killed Conrad in the most gruesome way possible."

Even now, Aina could remember Leonel's smile fading from its usual bright ray of sunshine. That was the moment the thing she did 'for' Leonel became twisted and dark, so much so that she had a hard time even looking at herself.

"… I realized soon after that what I did was wrong. You had been going through a tough time back then, adjusting to a new world. And, instead of supporting you like I should have, I gave you another dose of trauma…"

Aina didn't realize how bad it was until Leonel went out to fight those A-grade Invalids all on his own. He was suicidal and it was her who had pushed him to that point.

that Mayan girl, his guilt having become far too much. But, this wasn't something Aina learned until much later, so the guilt

Leonel's death not just once,

things got any worse.

you got when they disrespected me, even to the point of not caring about the deaths and

expressing that in words, punched you in the chest to wake you up from your anger. I was just

the hardest to say. Even compared to the others, she found that she was almost dying on the inside piece by piece as she said them, but she refused to repeat her

a deep

Arc Zone we entered. Back then, I didn't know what to do and I felt like I was making mistake after mistake. Not even the small kinds of

the fact I knew

might make a mistake in deciding exactly what the quests and main mission were, but it would never make a mistake in something so fundamental

he didn't mind. The time they spent in the Zone had brought them closer together and he had already put his rose tinted glasses back on.

he had never thought that the truth

it happen but this was the very first chance we seemed to have. I never seemed to have trouble talking with you in class about

right, we grew a lot closer, but I still felt a

you teleported me away, the fear of being found out by you fueled my anxiety even more and it made me shut down the possibility

the truth about a lot of things,

I didn't trust you because I couldn't even trust myself. I made so many

her tears, they