"We don't die for our friends, we live for them."

  — Erza Scarlet, Fairy Tail

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  This body was identical to Yuriko's, though much younger, almost like a grown-up Saya.

  This was Roy's solution: utilizing the power of the Evil Pieces. He had pletely restructed a perfect body for Yuriko.

  However, because so much magic was used in the restru, Yuriko was siderably weaker than Saya.

  "Mom!!"

  Saya cried tears of joy as she saw her mother truly revived, rushing to embrace her.

  Under Saya's watchful gaze, Yuriko slowly opened her eyes.

  "Mmm..."

  "Is this heaven?" Yuriko murmured, looking at her daughter with fusion.

  Her st memory was of taking her own life with a gun.

  "Mom... Mom, you're okay! That's wonderful!"

  "Saya? Is that you, Saya? Did you die too?" Yuriko asked, still disoriented.

  Saya giggled. She had never seen her normally serious and posed mother so bewildered.

  "Mom, you're not dead! None of us are!" Saya expined.

  Finally, Yuriko's mind cleared. As she stood, she suddenly felt a chill and instinctively hugged herself.

  Saya quickly removed her jacket and offered it to her mother.

  After putting on the jacket, Yuriko took a look around. Her eyes fell on Roy, and she instinctively k.

  "Master!"

  Yuriko addressed him respectfully, then looked surprised at her own as. Why had she bowed to this boy? And why had su embarrassing title escaped her lips?

  Roy wasn't surprised. As his servant, she was bound to him.

  "Mom, Roy is the one whht you back!"

  Saya expined everything that had happened.

  "Eh? Roy... I see!"

  Yuriko finally regained her posure.

  She k again before Roy. "Yuriko greets her Master!"

  "Mm."

  Roy nodded and helped her to her feet.

  He then turo Yuriko's inal corpse, enveloping it in demoniergy. Within moments, the body was pletely obliterated.

  Now that Yuriko was revived, there was no need for her old body to remain.

  Yuriko felt a strange sensation looking at her former self. Her new body was younger; if she walked alongside Saya, they would surely be mistaken for sisters.

  Prompted by Saya, Yuriko expined why she had chosen to end her life on the rooftop.

  It turned out that someohin the Self-Defense Force had been bitten but hadn't reported it. When a rge horde of zombies attacked, this betrayal, bined with the external assault, led to the fall of the Takagi estate.

  Yuriko had fled to the rooftop, trapped with nowhere else to go, and ultimately chosen suicide.

  Saya fell silent, abs her mother's words.

  "Alright, now that this is resolved, let's move on!" Roy decred. "The only o is Shizuka's friend, Rika Minami... Shizuka, do you know where she is now?"

  He turo Shizuka.

  "Hmm... I don't know her exact location, but I remembered Rika's phone his m!" Shizuka said with a cheerful smile.

  "Saya, let Shizuka borrow your phone," Roy instructed.

  "Oh!"

  Shizuka accepted Saya's phone.

  "Eh... this is one... this is two..."

  Roy sighed, watg Shizuka's ditzy attempts to operate the phone. She was adorably clueless.

  Saya and Saeko also exged exasperated gnces.

  *Ring! Ring!*

  The call ected.

  "Hello?"

  A woman's voiswered. Shizuka excimed in delight, "Rika! Thank goodness you're alive! I'm so gd!"

  Rika's lips curved into a smile at the sound of Shizuka's voice. She was clearly relieved as well.

  "Where are you now? Are you at my pce?"

  "No, we left there. Oh, and we borrowed your car!"

  Shizuka chattered away, lost in the reunion.

  "Ahem... Shizuka, please ask her for her location," Roy interrupted, finally losing his patience. He wasn't sure if the events would unfold as they did in the inal story, with the nuclear EMP disabling all eleics.

  But to avoid any unforeseen plications, it was best to locate Rika quickly.

  Shizuka stuck her to pyfully.

  "ht! Rika, where are you now?"

  "Is there anyone else with you?" Rika asked, having heard the otion on Shizuka's end.

  "Yes! Roy- is proteg me!"

  Rika uood immediately. Knowing Shizuka as she did, she knew her friend would never have survived this long without prote. She felt a surge of gratitude towards the person who had kept Shizuka safe.

  "Rika, tell us your location quickly so we e and rescue you!"

  "Shizuka, it's okay. Knowing you're safe is enough for me. It's very dangerous out there, so please don't e looking for me!"

  ed for Shizuka's safety, Rika refused to reveal her whereabouts.

  "Eh, Rika..."

  Static...

  *Bang!*

  A brilliant white light fshed across the sky.

  The li dead. Shizuka looked at the phone in her hand.

  Smoke curled from the device. It was clearly fried.

  "Could it be...?"

  Everyone looked towards the sky.

  A white ring expanded across the heavens, brighter than the sun.

  "It's a nuclear attack," Saya said grimly, reizing the telltale sign.

  "Eh?" Shizuka looked at Saya with fusion.

  "When a nuclear warhead detonates in the upper atmosphere, gamma radiation causes the air molecules to scatter eles..." Saya expined, her expression grave.

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