Kibishi's POV

  Mato's Office

  I lifted up Jir's lifeless body and carried her all the way back to Mato's office.

  I couldn't tell for certain, but Jir's energy was extremely low. Her whole body was cold, and she shivered every time I took a step in the hallway. Something about this coldness was very familiar to me.

  Well, that was because I had felt that type of coldness before.

  Right then, Mato was analyzing Jir's body and had been patching up her wounds on one of the doctor's beds.

  Some of her skin had frostbite that wasn't shown before. But her fingers showed it the most.

  "Mm... a 4th degree frostbite, huh. That monster must've dropped the room temperature by a whole lot to have your fingers this bad, Kujira," Mato answered in a deep voice. It wasn't the pyful or childish voice you would normally hear.

  Mato lifted up Jir's bck fingers and analyzed them some more.

  "The monster must have some kind of ice element to it. I don't know how or why, but that must be it," Mato pced his fingers down and put his hands in his white coat.

  "Tell me, where are the others?" Mato spoke gently yet sternly.

  "Fighting out there right now..." Jir whispered.

  "And you let them fight alone?" Mato asked.

  "I didn't have a choice. Kuma ordered me to find this pce while fighting to protect both Tao and the soldiers that came with us..." Jir lowered her head and held her left arm, which had some bck spots from the cold. It must have been frostbite as well.

  "Wait. You left Tao there by herself?! Also, David and Riley with that monster?!" I stood up and faced Jir with anger.

  "I-I told you, I didn't have a choice!"

  "You could've-!"

  Jir stood up and stared daggers at me.

  "Now listen! You know damn well as I do that there's nothing I could've done with that Monster! Not with those people holding us back!"

  Jir gripped the colr of my clothes.

  "Don't you dare think that I ran away! Some things need to be done for our survival! Don't you EVER forget that!"

  Jir let go of me as her hand shook a bit—no, a lot.

  "What a joke. None of us could beat them at this rate..." Jir whispered and sat back down.

  "..." I looked at the floor in frustration.

  "Okay, did you two get it out of your system? Good. Now, we can strike back," Mato slowly came closer and stood in front of me.

  "Kibishi. Take this." Mato took out a brand new knife from his white coat.

  "A knife?" I whispered.

  "I've been wanting to give it to you since you were worried about your Reaper powers. This new weapon can help you get better at controlling it. To make a long story short, there's a mini code that will cause your super code to warn you when you're using too much power," Mato expined.

  "I still don't understand."

  "It's fine if you don't. But remember this. The power of death is yours and yours alone. Use it as YOU see fit. It doesn't have to mean the end of all things."

  I looked at the knife.

  I gripped it tightly as I remembered what that man had said to me as well.

  The power is mine to wield, huh...

  Jir flinched a couple of times and caught our attention. Mato's and mine, I mean.

  "Right. Let's patch you up, Kujira. And then, you can tell us what happened," Mato smiled and rushed towards his desk that had a first aid kit.

  I looked at Jir with sadness.

  Now that I thought about it, she had seemed in pretty bad shape. It wouldn't have made sense to be that way if she had run away.

  Another fw of mine. I jumped to conclusions too fast. I needed to stop that.

  If I wanted to view Jir as a friend, then I would have to be fair. I would start doing that after her wounds got treated.

  A few minutes ter...

  Mato did the st wrap with some tape you used to cover deep wounds.

  I forgot the name of it, though—ah.

  Compression bandage. I think they're called that.

  But anyway, leaving that aside for now, Jir seemed fully bandaged up from her chest to her arms. It wasn't covering her whole body, but the most important parts.

  Like, for example, her arms, her chest, some on her thighs, and a little on her neck.

  Jir was even wearing her super code over them, too.

  So, all in all, it seemed like she was ready to talk. At least, I hoped so. I didn't want to rush into things, but we couldn't rest now.

  "Thank you, Mato..." Jir smiled at Mato.

  "No problem," Mato nodded at Jir as a response.

  "Gd you're doing okay, Jir," I said gently while sitting next to her.

  "Thank you," Jir turned and smiled at me while looking a little tired. "And you want to know what happened, right?"

  "Yeah, if you don't mind. Sorry, but..."

  "It's okay. You're worried about everyone else, Kib. Plus, it wouldn't be right to at least expin some things," Jir adjusted herself to sit up straight on the bed.

  "Can you tell us what happened out there? How did you manage to escape without having the monster follow you here?" Mato asked as he pulled a chair and sat on it, with its back to him instead of behind.

  He used the back of the chair to rest his arms.

  "Sure. I'll try my best," Jir whispered and held her head. "Just let me... think for a moment..."

  It seemed like Jir was trying to calm her head down.

  Wrong!

  Oh? Never mind, her eyes were glowing fully yellow.

  "Jir?" I whispered.

  "I'll show it... to you two instead of talking. That's way faster and less.... time.... consuming!"

  Tap. Tap.

  Jir reached out and touched each of our shoulders. I wanted to call out to Jir's name once more, but before I could do that, my eyes started to feel hot.

  And, without any warning, my whole vision suddenly turned yellow.

  "Whoa!" I shouted.

  The whole world around me was spinning. It was like I was sliding down the sun. But no, it wasn't that hot. It was stinging my eyes, but not enough to close them fully.

  Soon...

  My whole vision turned pure white....