The silent night was born after Mai had finished shopping, and walking on her way home. The rain from earlier had stopped since then, and the small girl navigated the cold autumn streets by herself, carrying two large bags in each hand. She passed in front of a small French café, and put down her bags. After checking her wallet, she sighed, before a man put a ¥2000 bill in front of her. She looked up, to see Ayaza smiling under the blue moonlight.

(Opening here)

"You didn't have to do this." Mai said, sitting inside the warm café with her bags by her feet.

"Hey, don't say that kind of thing. I was the one who gave you the money by my free will." Ayaza said, using a spoon to feed himself a little bit of his tropical fruit parfait. His spine tingled as he swallowed the sweet, but cold, cream that was layered on top a variety of exotic fruits. "You didn't have to invite me to join you as well. But I appreciate the sentiment."

"You sound a bit like Kinjuzo..." Mai muttered under breath, taking a sip of her warm tea. She fed herself a slice of her dark chocolate gateau, and her face lit up with joy. "Ah... I love this place."

"Kinjuzo...? Ah, yeah... Yza's split personality." Ayaza said, hiding his smile behind the tall glass of ice cream. "It's a shame he "died"..."

"Eh?" Mai perked her head, looking at Ayaza. "You... you said died in a weird way."

"Oh, did I? Sorry." Ayaza laughed, putting some more of the parfait into his mouth. "I didn't mean to... I guess I'm not used to saying Yza is dead... when he clearly isn't..."

"You keep mumbling... Could you speak a little louder?" Mai asked with a polite tone.

"Sorry, sorry." Ayaza sighed, chuckling nervously and looking the other way. "I guess I'm just nervous... I mean, I'm talking to a girl... a cute one no less."

"If this is your lame attempt at flirting then it's not working. Idiot." Mai said deadpan.

"N-no! I'm just speaking the truth, I promise!" Ayaza exclaimed, flailing his arms around.

"The truth, huh? I didn't guess for you to be the lolicon type." Mai snickered.

"Wow, a self-aware tsundere..." Ayaza muttered dejectedly.

"I'm not a tsundere, idiot." Mai clicked her tongue.

"Call me "idiot" once more then, tsundere-chan." Ayaza smirked, slamming his fist on the table.

"Hmph... you're just mocking me." Mai crossed her arms and looked away.

"Haha, yeah. Just pulling your leg." Ayaza said, eating one of the fruits on his parfait. "Man, this café has great food... I should come here more often."

"Yes... this place is very special to me. It's where me and Kinjuzo went on our first date." Mai said, taking another bite from her decadent cake.

"How ironic... if an outsider didn't know any better, they would probably assume we were on a date." Ayaza said, licking his lips.

"No, they'd think your some kind of pedo or lolicon." Mai said bluntly.

"Ouch..." Ayaza looked defeated, before laughing. "Though, your body is seriously underdeveloped for a eighteen year old..."

"Hi, police, this man has been checking out my body for the past ten minutes." Mai said with her phone next to her ear.

"Woah, woah, woah, it's a joke! Don't call the police on me!" Ayaza exclaimed.

"It's a joke too. Calm down." Mai stuck out her tongue and put down her phone. She let out a small "hmph" and looked away from Ayaza.

"What... what did I do to offend you..." Ayaza said.

"You're a sick pervert, Ayaza..." Mai said with fake tears in her eyes. "Staring at my petite body while I'm defenceless... shaming this pure girl with your lecherous eyes... do you have no shame as a much older, much more developed, both mentally and physically, male? Checking out my poor, underdeveloped body like if it were a child, and deflowering me in your twisted imagination..."

"You... you..." Ayaza was searching for the right insult at this moment, before a light clicked in his mind. "You self-aware piece of loli garbage... I'm younger then you, damn it!"

"Might I remind you who decided to hand me money in the first place..." Mai deadpanned. "If I didn't know you, I'd be screaming you were an old man trying to cohort me back to your house to perform lewd acts on me."

"You're no tsundere... you're just a pervert freak like Yza..." Ayaza muttered.

"I did a lot of research for my crush..." Mai mumbled, covering her blushing face with her hands.

"Back to tsundere in a matter of seconds... why don't you grow twintails already?" Ayaza asked.

"Y-you didn't hear that, idiot!" Mai exclaimed, eyes watering up with fake tears again.

"Answer the question... I'm actually kind of curious on why you have your hair like that."

"J-jeez... I might be self-aware, but I'm not going to the length of going full tsundere." Mai said. "Plus... I look better with this hair, anyways."

"I'd think you'd look good with either." Ayaza smiled.

"Are you sure you're not trying to hook up with me?" Mai raised a brow. "If so, I have a punk younger brother in the yakuza ready to whoop your ass at any given moment if you try to make a move on me."

"I doubt he could do anything to this body..." Ayaza muttered under his breath. "A-ah, sorry if it came off that way... I actually don't have any interest in you, believe it or not. I just say things how they are."

"What did I tell you earlier? Stop muttering..." Mai sighed. "You still that crush on Aya?"

"You haven't heard?" Ayaza asked.

"Eh?" Mai replied.

"Aya died." Ayaza said, looking away.

"I-I..." Mai stuttered, shocked at the sudden news. Her tongue began tripping over itself as she tried to utter the right string of words to reply in this situation.

"Save your breath." Ayaza said. "It was a long time ago. Back in November last year. Someone came into her house and killed her... and I was there to witness each painful moment..."

"I'm sorry..." Mai said, feeling her stomach churn. She held it and swallowed a lump in the back of her throat.

"Don't worry about it." Ayaza smiled. "I got over it. You didn't know her well I imagine, so of course you didn't know."

"Still... it's disturbing to find out someone I talked to died in such a tragic way..." Mai mumbled. "It also made me realise... how similar we were. Both of the people we liked died..."

"I don't think you can relate to what I felt." Ayaza said coldly. "Because in the end, we both got a happy ending... you're just blissfully unaware of it..."

"Sorry, could you repeat the last part? I didn't hear it because you were muttering... again..." Mai sighed.

"Bad habit, sorry." Ayaza laughed slightly. "I said that just because we were put in similar spots, doesn't mean we felt similar things. Far from it, in my opinion."

"What do you mean?" Mai raised a brow.

"I got past my sadness quickly. What about you?" Ayaza asked.

"Well... not me..." Mai said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Yeah, see? A difference straight off the bat." Ayaza said, eating some more of his parfait.

"I guess..." Mai mumbled. "Let's talk about something less..."

"Heavy handed? Okay." Ayaza said, putting down his spoon. "Uh..."

"And like that, we ran out of things to talk about." Mai said, sipping some of her tea.

"Haha... well, there was this one thing." Ayaza said, scratching the back of his neck. "I wanted to ask you a question... and that was part of the reason I was trying to find you."

"So... it wasn't a coincidence we ran into each other?" Mai raised a brow. "I'll be honest, I never took you for the stalker type, Ayaza. I thought that was Kazue's thing."

"I wasn't stalking you!" Ayaza shouted, banging his head on the table. "And... don't mention Kazue... who knows what that girl is up to since Kaiko died."

"Trying to find the person who killed him and then murder them brutally as revenge for her "Kaiko-sama" then ending her life too to join him in the afterlife. She believes they'll get married in Heaven." Mai said.

"Either that was a stupid good bluff or it's the cold, harsh truth... I'm leaning on the latter." Ayaza said.

"She actually told me in a text message." Mai said, showing the conversation on her phone to him.

"Wow... you have her number..." Ayaza muttered.

"I had to get the details of the girl who managed to get into top 32 with Murakumo of all things. It should've been a 99.99% chance against her making it but against all odds she made it work, and even beat Kaiko's Link Joker to boot." Mai said. "She is... an interesting one."

"So you just wanted the details of a crazy lady who's only relevant because she used Kumos and got a top with it? Okay..." Ayaza deadpanned. "Actually, I should be grateful we're the only customers in here right now..."

"Yes." Mai said. "Why would you be grateful?"

"Well... you know what, never mind." Ayaza said. "Say, I don't have your number. Wanna trade contact details?"

"I'll give you my Twitter." Mai said.

"You're cruel..." Ayaza sighed.

"I don't trust loli underage fetish stalkers that easily." Mai said, before sliding her phone to him. "Just kidding. Here's my number."

"Thanks...?" Ayaza raised a brow, typing in her number and saving it. "Let me put my contact in your phone."

"Okay." Mai said, watching Ayaza put his phone number into her device.

"Done! Now I can call you whenever I want." Ayaza grinned.

"Stalker." Mai said.

"I'm just trying to be friendly..." Ayaza sighed. "So, Mai. About earlier."

"What about earlier?" Mai asked.

"I wanted to ask you a question." Ayaza said.

"If it's "do you want to go out with me?" it's a big fat no." Mai said.

"No..." Ayaza took a deep breath and smirked.

"Huh?" Mai tilted her head.

"It's not a question, on second thought. I was going to convey it as a question, but I think I'd rather demand it from you instead..." Ayaza said with a serious voice.

"Well, hurry up. I don't have all day. I need to get back home or else Dax is going to starve." Mai said.

"Yeah... about Dax..." Ayaza said, looking down at Mai's phone. It began to rang.

"Speak of the devil..." Mai mumbled, picking up the phone. She answered the call, and pressed her phone against her ear. "Yeah, Dax?"

"Sis... don't come back home..." Dax wheezed on the other side, coughing viciously. "It's... on fire..."

"What?! What happened?!" Mai exclaimed, standing up. "Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine... I got out before it spread everywhere..." Dax said, watching the apartment complex emblazoned with pitch black flames. "I don't know what happened... or if this is even possible..."

"Dax?" Mai whimpered, sitting back down weakly.

"But there's black flames... billowing red smoke..." Dax said.

"Huh?! That... that should be impossible! Black fire can't exist! It defies the logic of science!" Mai exclaimed.

"Or does it?" Ayaza said, looking at Mai closely.

"It does!" Mai exclaimed. "How can you create black fire? It's impossible!"

"You know what else is impossible?" Ayaza asked.

"What...?" Mai gasped and fell to her knees, dropping her phone.

"Sis?!" Dax exclaimed on the other end.

"The summoning of Gyze." Ayaza said, his right hand crackling with black flames.

"Wha... who... why..." Mai whimpered, her fragile body shaking as she looked up at Ayaza, who loomed over her with his hand covered in fire pointing at her. "Gyze...? Fire...? I..."

"My demand for you, Mai... is to become the vessel of Gyze." Ayaza exclaimed, a burst of flames roaring from his hand and barely brushing Mai's pale face. A quiet squeak escaped her lips, while she began suddenly urinating on her underwear and skirt in fear.

"Sis?! Sis?!" Dax exclaimed through the phone, which made Ayaza pick it up and end the call.

"I wonder where all the waiters and waitresses went... oh wait. I killed them with these flames." Ayaza snickered with a face of pure cruelty, completed by wrinkles of sadism. He knelt down next to the traumatised girl, and scooped her up, black flames enveloping both of his hands and transferring to Mai's body, which wrapped around her and held her in place.

"Please... no... stop... Dax... fire..." Mai mumbled under her shaky breaths, trembling like a stray cat in Ayaza's arms.

"Don't worry. These black flames don't hurt." Ayaza said, carrying her through a portal which was blazing with the same black flames around the edges. "I just need to make sure you'll be a good little girl and not run away from your calling as the one who will return everything to zero."

"Stop..." Mai whispered, before being submerged into a metal box filled with a thick, gooey substance. It was blue and green in colour, and slimy in texture. The sticky goop slowly covered her as she slowly sank to the bottom, where she closed her eyes and fell into complete silence. Ayaza slid a glass panel over her, and put on a mask. Soon, black flames devoured his body, and turned into a hard cloak which hid his identity. Walking away into the darkness, he stood on a pillar and let it rise up to the very top.

"The resurrection of Gyze shall commence within eighty-seven hours."

(Ending here)

Next time on Z World:

#42: Shattered

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