Twelve Months Ago | Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
White-petaled paths meander past irises, camellias and cherry trees. Waves of tourists drift through—until a delicate rose mirage settles and they fade like afterimages, leaving the garden to itself.
Mai twirls down the path in a black sun-dress, equally black over-knees and scuffed sneakers. Lucil lounges beneath a cherry tree— white shirt, crimson cardigan, black trousers, red sneakers— arms folded, while watching cherry blossoms fall.
Mai stops beside him, breathless. "I love it here."
Lucil nods. "One of the city's quieter miracles."
She tilts her head. "Lucil?"
He glances over, inspecting her outfit. "That dress… reminds me of someone I met several lifetimes ago."
"You're not even trying to hide it." Her eyes sparkle. "The whole rebirth thing."
"Why should I hide it?"
Mai's laughs. "When I was younger, I thought you were making it up— stories of the Reaper of Atlant, a 'mass-murdering maniac', Tuscany duels, or ancient Egypt— civilizations lost to human history. It all sounded so insane."
Lucil shrugs. "My life's been fractured into too many pieces."
She gazes into an unfurling blue sky. "What's the oldest you've ever been?"
"I never made it to twenty-four. Every cycle ends before that birthday. Sometimes I'm eighteen; sometimes I die at seventeen." He smiles ruefully. "Perhaps that's why wisdom still slips my grasp— I've always died a child."
"I don't think you lack wisdom." Her expression softens. "Does the cycle bother you?"
Lucil steps closer, hands in his pockets. "Dying doesn't bother me. Endless beginnings don't bother me. Life is a gift; I try to enjoy each day. What weighs on me is killing— over and over— and never finding the door out. No escape from this curse!"
Mai's voice is tentative. "Have you ever thought… just leave the clans? Live an ordinary life?"
Lucil's gaze drifts across the flower beds. "Do you know how magnets work, Mai?"
"Opposite poles attract." she replies.
"Picture me as the negative pole, my enemy the positive." He takes a cherry blossom petal, lets it fall. "Even if I walk away, the pull remains. He comes. He kills my family. I retaliate with wrath. Fate reconnects us, drags us back into the same orbit. Sometimes, there's no logic— only the gravity of hatred."
Mai studies him. His smile stays gentle but behind it she glimpses a depth of sorrow that no rebirth has erased— an endless loneliness.
"Brother." she asks softly, "If fate hurts this much, why not fight it?"
Lucil exhales. "I am fighting it now— and everything seems to work." He looks up to the sky. "But in my last life, I tried the same. It held— until a new apocalyptic foe appeared. He killed everyone I loved… even hunted down a girl who, like me, carried this curse of rebirth. His ideas still spread through the mage world." A shiver racks him. "If I'd never defied fate, maybe none of that would've ever happened. Maybe this maniac would have never existed— but Mai enough is enough!"
Mai shakes her head. "Tell me the truth."
He forces the words out. "Every time I rebel, catastrophe follows. People die."
"No." Mai steps close and pinches his cheek— playful and firm. "You do care about this world. That's why you never give up. Even your enemy— Silver, right? He doesn't let civilians die. Just like you! That's something that connects you two."
She wraps her arms around him. "You're a mage, yes, and a killer when you must be but you're also my brother. So listen: I promise I'll do everything to break this cycle. One day you'll turn twenty-five— thirty, even forty— and I'll still be here. We'll start new chapters: you with Riel, me with… who knows? Maybe we'll raise kids in Japan, or England, or the Three-Island States."
Lucil chuckles. "You have a vivid imagination."
She hugs him tighter. "I want to help you, because you trained me, protected me. Even if I'm a tiny arc in your long story, I owe that to you."
He eases back, seriousness in his eyes. "If you're ever cornered— I can gift you a spell but know this: using it means we'll never meet again. It's a goodbye in advance."
"Why so grim?" she whispers.
"The spell came from the first rose mage— the woman I truly loved— coincidentally also named Mai. The Blind Rose. My memory of her is… eternal." he says; melancholy in his voice.
Mai's eyes shine. "When I'm ready, I'll use the spell but we will meet again despite that! PROMISE!"
"Then say it with everything in your heart." He inhales, reciting each word like a vow.
"Rosen World—Infinitum Aurealis."
Mai nods, sealing the syllables inside her soul.
Present Time | Estate of the Red Dragons
The once-elegant estate is now in a wasteland of craters. A sphere of scarlet light stands— shielding Aki, Reijou and Yamashi.
Yamashi's voice quavers. "Our domain collapsed… what was that!"
Aki's face drains of color. "Master Ryujin— he's barely standing."
Reijou reaches for him but the crimson barrier repels his hand with a hiss.
"Yamashi, drop the shield!"
Yamashi shakes his head. "No. Lady Mai chose this fight— interrupting will kill us all."
Aki and Reijou fall back, hearts pounding, forced to watch.
Mai staggers, breath rasping. Her right arm hangs useless, abdomen slashed open. She presses a trembling hand to her wound and a rose ignites in her palm.
"Flaming Rose."
She brandishes it in style, searing her lacerations closed. Smoke curls from scorched flesh, and she barely stifles a scream.
Across the crater, Ryujin looks scarcely alive— skin gray, eyes sunken— yet hatred keeps him upright.
"Necrosis— Se Re Voir."
Black rot crawls across his wounds, cauterizing him in poison. He lifts his ruined spear, now bleached bone-white.
"A last clash, Mai." he rasps. "Come!"
The spear darkens to pitch. Mai's greatsword flickers, falters and dissolves into dust. Mana gutters inside her like a candle in the wind.
This would be Lucil's cue, she thinks— head tilting toward the moon, now blood-red in her vision.
Crimson petals drift down— Lucil's color, not hers. Her pupils bloom into rose shapes, and a glowing tattoo unfurls across her back: a sapphire rose wreathed in shifting petals.
She whispers, voice trembling:
"Rosen World—"
Crimson red petals— Lucil's petals— seal her wounds. Warmth floods her chest and in that warmth she sees her— the Blind Rose, the mage of Lucils legend: crimson hair, empty eye sockets blooming with roses, crimson wings billowing in ethereal wind. The figure presses a hand to Mai's heart; comfort overwhelms her and tears spill unchecked.
"—Infinitum Aurealis!"
Blue petals burst from the ground, chased by crimson ones. The twin colors weave upward into a swirling helix that engulfs Mai, then expands— an aurora of roses bursting from the ruined garden.
A flicker of memory strikes her mind: Lucil standing atop a mountain meadow beside that same woman, looking over a valley of rainbow flowers.
Don't forget the magic we forged, the woman tells him.
Lucil nods, and the vision fades— leaving him holding a weapon of shimmering light.
This weapon blossoms in Mai's hand— long, single-edged, its metal a deep violet that shimmers between blue and red. Rose petals spiral around the blade. On the hilt, a precise engraving glints:
Mai — Rose Mage.
She lifts the sword; it feels as natural as breathing to her.
Ryujin's eyes widen. "Impossible—"
Mai answers without looking at him, gaze tilted toward the crimson moon. "Break this fate, Lucil. Promise me."
Then she meets her father's stare. "It's time, Father."
Ryujin's voice cracks as he shouts into the night, "Rei! One last order— eliminate the White Dragons!"
Black shackles tear open a gate in the atmosphere. From its shadows a woman steps forward— dress midnight-black, arms half-rotten, eyes empty voids. Chains crumble off her wrists. It is Rei, yet twisted, bound to necrotic magic. In a blink she vanishes— warped.
"Sorry, Mai." Ryujin murmurs. "I'll fight to the end but if I fall, she must finish my destiny."
Tears glint in Mai's eyes. She turns to the surviving clan members— Aki, Reijou, Yamashi— standing frozen behind the fading shield.
"Lucil and Silver will handle this fight." she says. "I will end this, Father!"
Ryujin exhales a strange laugh. "So my daughter is unyielding, yet sentimental."
Mai's hands tremble from all she has seen but she steps forward, sword staying steady.
Yamashi, Aki and Reijou watch in stunned silence as father and daughter charge.
Steel meets violet blade— spear against sword. The new blade slides through the spear and cuts it like butter.
Mai's tears spill. "Rosen World — End of Roses!"
Petals— red and blue—spiral upward and intertwine. The blasted garden erupts into sudden life: grass knits green, roses bloom in twin colors across the whole estate— mightier and taller than before. Mai's final stroke falls.
Ryujin spreads his arms in surrender, finally able to accept defeat. "You saw through my bluff. My mana is spent. Magnificent, Mai."
The violet blade passes in a straight, clean cut. Ryujin's body scatters into rose petals drifting on the night breeze.
Mai whispers, "Sayonara." and coughs blood. She drops to her knees; the sword remains, glowing faintly in the grass.
"Why couldn't you let go of revenge?" Her voice finally breaks. "Why did it end like this? Lucil— please give Mom the peace we couldn't."
The crimson shield collapses. Aki and Reijou stare, speechless. Yamashi rushes forward and catches Mai as she slumps.
"Lady Mai!" steadying her trembling body.
"Lord Lucil… She did well." Yamashi murmurs into the nights sky while looking at her.
Aki and Reijou sprint across the garden.
Aki's voice cracks. "She— she killed our leader."
Reijou's lips tremble. "He—"
Yamashi finishes his thought. "An entity now walks free. We have to stop her."
Aki hesitates. "Why? Rei will crush the White Dragon clan for us."
Reijou's eyes widen. "No— the black chains that bound her body and mind vanished with Lord Ryujin. If Rei succeeds, she'll keep going. Without restraints, she could tear Tokyo apart."
Realization chills them all. Aki regains his footing first. "Leader… why? THIS IS MADNESS!"
Reijou squares his shoulders. "Yamashi, take care of Lady Mai. Aki, with me—we'll aid Lord Lucil."
Mai's wounds are healing— slowly.
Yamashi nods, tightening his hold. "If we survive, what then?"
Aki meets his gaze. "Our leader is gone but we already have a new one." He gestures to the girl in Yamashi's arms. "She's right here."
Reijou nods in agreement. Without another word, he and Aki sprint from the shattered estate.
Left in the silent ruins, Yamashi feels Mai's pulse steadier with each breath.