Now it was Raven and Violet wandering through the twisted beauty of Blossom Dark Forest.Blackened trees loomed like skeletal giants, their bark gnarled and cracked, dripping with sap as dark as ink.Despite the haunting atmosphere, delicate blossoms—white, crimson, and violet—floated down in slow motion, dancing through the gloom like lost spirits.
Naturally, Violet found romance in it.
"This place is oddly similar to us~" he mused with a sly grin, brushing a blossom off Raven's shoulder."How about a proposal roleplay here~ Just a roleplay, I promise~"
Raven didn't miss a beat.She raised her middle finger without even turning her head."Fuck you, Fauna-man."
Violet nosebleeds on the spot, but that only fuels his enthusiasm. He clutches his chest dramatically and continues his monologue anyway:
"You are as beautiful as Doom, my lady... the epitome of destruction and deadly physique... I would die happy under your heel."
Raven scoffed—but something about his tone made her pause mid-sentence.
"…Okay. That's not a half-bad li—"
CLAP. CLAP. CLAP.
Slow, sarcastic applause echoed from above the tree canopy.
Four figures stood on the thick branches overhead, cloaked in deep grey and midnight blue. Their movements were tight. Coordinated.Each bore a metallic badge, shaped like a spiraling arrow twisted backward.
The Inversion Band.
A name well-known across the region.A team infamous for one thing: Reflecting enemy attacks and twisting them back with brutal efficiency.
Their leader, a sharp-jawed woman with silver hair tied in a braid, smirked down at them.
"Violet. Raven. We picked you two because you seemed... fun. Dumb, sure. But fun."
Violet grinned, blood still dripping from his nose.He casually twirled a blossom between his fingers and looked up.
"So you know about our group, huh?" he said. "Which means you're the tacticians. You did your homework. Good."
He cracked his knuckles, his flirtatious tone gone.
"And I bet you know our abilities too."
A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.
"No problem.We'll just change them."
Raven exhaled sharply, already summoning a dark spark in her palm.
"Looks like we'll be the dumbasses who break your little mirrors."
One of the four members from The Inversion Band chuckled, standing confidently on the crooked tree branch, the black blossoms falling around them like a cursed snowfall.
"You think we only studied your powers? No, no... We studied your brains, or lack thereof."
Raven rolled her eyes. "I have no problem slicing up narcissists. Especially ones who mistake 'mirror magic' for actual strength."
Another one from the enemy group, a girl with a cracked porcelain mask, smiled eerily. "Cute bluff. But let's see how you two handle when your own moves come back to haunt you."
Violet grinned, flicking his wrist as a strange spiral vine bloomed from his palm. "Well, I don't mind watching myself in action… but a reverse kiss isn't what I had in mind~"
Raven groaned. "You're lucky I'm used to stupid. Otherwise I'd have left you to die here."
Violet's smile widened. "Oh? That almost sounds like care~ Maybe after we defeat them, you and I—"
Raven raised her fist surrounded with black-violet energy. "Finish that sentence and I'll reflect your face into your own stomach."
The group from The Inversion Band laughed, the air growing tense as the blossoms swirled with malevolent energy.
The leader of the enemy team stepped forward. "Enough stalling. You two are separated from your main group, your compatibility is garbage, and we're ready."
Violet's eyes narrowed. "Then get ready for disappointment. Because tonight, the flowers bloom backwards."
Raven cracked her knuckles. "And the only thing getting reflected is your dignity."
Battle Begin.
The moment the enemy launched their first projectile—an arcing whip of mirrored energy—Raven didn't even flinch. She stepped forward and punched the ground, sending a shockwave through the dark earth and flinging petals like razors.
The mirrored attack rebounded off the closest enemy's shield and shot toward her—but she was already gone. Raven had moved with raw, fluid speed, ducking low and closing the distance with her fists up.
"You want reflections?" she growled, uppercutting the masked woman. "Then reflect this!".
The woman staggered as her mask cracked further, shocked that Raven had physically bypassed the reversal aura. But it wasn't that she didn't care—it's that she didn't hesitate.
Meanwhile, Violet had vines slithering along the bark of the trees, coiling and creeping behind the other three enemies. He waved casually, tossing a glowing orchid in the air. "See, normally I'd trap you in a maze of petals, but... new move today!"
He snapped his fingers.
POP! The orchid exploded in a burst of light, momentarily blinding the mirror team. One tried to reflect the explosion—only to realize it was not a direct attack. It was light and sound—illusions. A fake move. And their reflection aura did nothing.
"New strategy," Violet said with a sly smile, "Randomized signals. So your reflections? Kinda... irrelevant."
The second enemy lunged at Violet, only to get tangled in his thorny whip. "You knew about our powers..." the enemy hissed, struggling.
Violet leaned in, flower in his mouth like a teasing matador. "Did you think we were dumb? Nah. We're just dramatic."
Raven, meanwhile, had dropped her jacket. Her arms were bruised but gleaming with force-enhancing tattoos as she began using her fists to break through the reflection shields—not with magic, but with pure relentless impact. One of the enemies tried to reflect her strike—only to be overwhelmed by the second, third, and fifth punch that came with no delay. Like a storm.
"I don't need swords to kill," Raven muttered, eyes locked on the last two standing.
"Yeah..." Violet added, floating above with vines coiled like dragons behind him, "And I don't need brains... when I have beauty and backup."
The leader of The Inversion Band fell to a knee, coughing blood. "You two... were supposed to be the weakest..."
Raven flicked a drop of blood off her fist. "You chose us because we were dumb. You didn't realize... we were the ones who didn't need plans."
"And that makes us the worst match-up for strategists like you," Violet finished with a wink.
The enemy team fell—not dead, but thoroughly defeated.
And from above, somewhere unseen, Kiyomi—watching through one of Akemi's scouting drones—smirked. "They're idiots... but damn, they're our idiots."
The battle was over. The four members of the Inversion Band lay defeated, sprawled across the twisted terrain of Blossom Dark Forest.
Violet dusted off his coat while Raven exhaled, cracking her neck.
"Finally. I was about to fall asleep," she muttered.
The forest was silent now, blossoms gently falling like ash.
But just as the tension began to ease—Something shifted.
The air grew cold.Still.
Two new figures emerged from the tree line, walking calmly—almost ceremoniously—through the darkness.
Both wore faded cloaks and conical straw hats that cast shadows over their faces. Their auras were… empty. Devoid of intent. No aggression, no emotion.
Just silence.
Violet froze.
His grin vanished instantly, his instincts screaming."Something's… off," he muttered.
The next moment—
SHLKT.
Raven's body was torn in half.
Blood hit the ground before she did.
Her upper half slid sideways with a heavy thud, her face still registering confusion.But thanks to her regenerative ability, she was already stitching herself back together with hissing black tendrils of energy.
One of the two strangers took a slow step forward.
His badge glinted faintly in the light.
Kazuma.
That was all it said.
"She can regenerate," he said simply, his voice flat. Cold. Like reading a weather report.
The other figure simply nodded.
Then—without warning—Kazuma raised a hand, and mirrors shimmered into existence, surrounding him and Raven in a shifting cube of glass and distortion.
A mirror dimension.
But what he didn't expect…
Was Raven's grin.
"Bad choice," she muttered, eyes glowing deep red.
Negative energy.It fed on space tension—and inside a mirror dimension, where reality itself twisted and bent in every reflection—her power only grew stronger.
Outside, Violet now stood across from the other figure.
No badge. Just a word etched into his blade:
Void.
His stance was traditional—samurai-like, but with a stillness that felt alien. The kind of presence that didn't threaten you... it simply waited for your death.
Violet sighed, shaking off his jacket.
"Man… I've got ladies on hold," he muttered. "Let's make this quic—"
WHOOSH.
A flash of steel nearly took his head clean off.
Violet dodged just in time, staggering back with widened eyes.
"—NOT this quick!!" he shouted.
Another slash. Then another.
Each one was silent, almost like reality itself was cutting rather than the blade.
Violet grinned, eyes glowing green now, vines starting to sprout from his sleeves.
"Alright, katana-boy... Let's dance."
Void's blade sang through the air—fast, clean, utterly silent. Violet barely tilted his head in time, the sword grazing a thin cut across his cheek. The petals and vines around him reacted instantly, coiling into tight defenses as he leapt back, spinning with practiced agility.
"Alright, alright! Samurai plus silence? What are you, a depressed katana ad?" Violet quipped, summoning a field of glowing purple lilies around him. Their scent? Toxic. Their petals? Razor-sharp. "You're lucky I'm into mysterious types!"
Void didn't respond.
Not with words.
He simply vanished—blinked through space like a slit in reality opened and closed.
Violet's eyes widened. "Oh f—"
CLANG! The sound of metal rang through the forest as a barrier of thorns intercepted the strike. Still, the sheer force of it knocked Violet back several feet, skidding across the forest floor.
Meanwhile, inside the mirror world...
Kazuma stood still, unmoving, arms tucked into his flowing sleeves. Raven staggered up, her torso still regenerating, sinew stitching together slowly but visibly. Blood dripped down her chin, but her grin was filled with malice.
"You locked me in here thinking it'd help you?" she rasped, fists clenching. "Bad move, glasses-boy."
Kazuma adjusted his conical hat, revealing nothing of his eyes. "I am aware. I wanted to see it. The thing they all whispered about…"
Raven tilted her neck, her spine cracking audibly. The black-blossomed trees of the mirrored dimension twisted and pulsed unnaturally around her. Negative energy flowed like ink from her skin.
"Then keep watching," she whispered.
A blast of black aura erupted from her, shattering chunks of the mirror world into shards, creating sharp floating fragments orbiting like blades. She didn't rush. She walked.
Outside—
Violet was panting, small gashes covering his chest and arms. Void stood completely still, his blade dripping with sap and blood.
"Alright…" Violet coughed, "Time to stop joking."
He raised one hand. A single, massive flower bulb emerged from the ground—bulging and pulsing like a heartbeat.
"Y'know why I'm S-Class?" Violet whispered.
Void tilted his head—his first reaction at all.
The flower opened.
And screamed.
Void flinched, barely—just as dozens of bloodroots shot out in all directions, trying to impale from every angle. Violet, nose bleeding again, smiled. "My powers? They don't care about reflection... because they're alive."
The screen splits—
Raven roars in the mirror world, using pure negative force to rip through the dimensions—
Violet grits his teeth, commanding his garden of pain like a maestro with madness—
And both whisper, at the same time, like a curse:
"Break."