High school student Kaito rewinds time to save his childhood friend IRyS, who was supposed to have died.
Just as the world is consumed by the Void Mist and all seems lost, a black-winged angel named IRyS falls from the sky before Kaito's eyes. Called the 'Savior,' IRyS was betrayed by the people she tried to protect. They branded her a demon's pawn, and they killed her.
In his moment of despair, Kaito screams—and a black clock appears in his hand. Trapped together in a frozen moment, IRyS asks
Hollow Reload: Saving the Dark Angel - Blood Oath and the Decision to Reverse Time
The smell of blood.
Iron and salt mixed together. Lukewarm.
Cold concrete bites into his cheek.
Kaito's face is pressed down. Into a dark red puddle. Iris's blood spreading.
Warm.
Sticky.
"Why?!"
He screamed.
His throat tears.
Shunya doesn't answer.
But the hand gripping Kaito's hair trembles. Just slightly.
"...There's something I want to protect... I have..."
A voice squeezed out.
Same words as before. Nothing more. He says nothing else.
Kaito clenched his teeth.
His molars grind. A grating sound.
The taste of blood spreads in his mouth.
(Something he wants to protect, huh.)
He tried to lift his head.
Shunya's hand presses down harder.
"...Don't move."
An order.
A voice like iron. But Kaito's scalp could feel it. That hand was trembling.
"Hey, take a look."
The Pendulum leader laughed.
He kicks Iris's stomach with his toe. Where she lies fallen.
Thud.
"...Ngh."
Iris's body jerked.
Her white clothes are already crimson.
Silver-white hair spreads across a sea of blood.
Vacant purple eyes.
No focus. Not anymore.
"Our Savior would be shocked to hear this. This thing is just bait. Bait to draw the mist."
The man crouches down.
Grabs Iris's hair. Roughly.
"The Mist Return ritual... success or failure, the Savior dies either way. The mist veins drain them dry."
Inside Kaito's head, something broke. With a sound.
"...Shut up."
His voice shakes.
"Her very existence is the source of the Void Mist. Pendulum just speeds up the mist's release. By killing her."
The man grinned. A nasty smirk.
"In other words, the Savior is meant to die."
"Shut uuuuuup!!"
He screamed.
Every muscle in his body screams out.
But he can't move.
Shunya's restraint is iron-solid.
His arms. His legs. Not a single finger. Nothing moves.
Tears overflowed.
He couldn't stop them.
They fall into the puddle of Iris's blood. Drip. Drip.
(Again.)
(I can't do anything. Again.)
The time before.
And the time before that.
I just watch. That's all.
Inside his pocket, something trembled.
Click...
Click-click-click...
Le Revol Noir.
The black watch's hands are spinning backwards. Violently.
The vibration travels through his thigh.
Hot.
In this freezing warehouse, only that spot burned. Like fire.
Kaito desperately moved his right hand.
Slips through Shunya's restraint. Just barely.
Trembling fingertips touch the watch in his pocket.
He looks at the face.
On the jet-black dial, white light rises.
"Don't give up yet."
The letters glowed faintly.
The silver hands accelerate faster and faster.
(This is—)
(I can still redo this.)
Something ran through Kaito's entire body.
Not despair.
Something darker. Hotter.
Rage.
Resolve.
Obsession.
(I won't let it end.)
(Like hell I'll let it end here.)
Shunya noticed the anomaly.
"...What is that light?"
Gray eyes widen.
Kaito poured strength into his right hand.
With everything he had.
As if crushing it.
Crack.
The watch glass broke. He heard the sound.
The next moment—
The world warped.
His vision bends. Twists.
The warehouse walls melt. Flow.
Shunya's face stretches out.
An expression twisted in anguish.
The scar under his left eye.
(I won't forget.)
Kaito forced his eyes open.
Iris fallen.
A sea of blood.
White clothes.
Purple eyes staring at Kaito.
Her lips moved. Faintly.
"...I'm sorry."
He couldn't hear her voice.
But she said it.
(No.)
(I'm the one who should apologize.)
The world begins to spin backwards.
Colors peel away.
Sound vanishes.
The Pendulum men's laughter grows distant.
Shunya's pained face grows distant.
Everything is stripped away.
Darkness.
A falling sensation.
Falling endlessly. Deeper and deeper.
To the bottom of time.
Kaito made a vow.
(Next time.)
(I won't let Iris die.)
(I'll expose the truth of Shunya's "something to protect.")
(I'll tear him away from Pendulum.)
(I'll see with my own eyes if the Mist Return ritual's truth is a lie or not.)
In the darkness, memories resurface.
Six years ago.
Hikage Shrine.
Under the big camphor tree.
Young Iris was laughing.
Before she started looking so sad. A girl.
"Let's pinky swear."
Her pinky wraps around Kaito's.
"Promise. Protect me, okay."
"Yeah. I'll protect you."
Kaito said that.
He couldn't protect her.
The first time.
The second time.
The third time—
(No.)
(The third time isn't over yet.)
He wipes his tears.
In the darkness, he clenched his right hand.
The feel of the broken Le Revol Noir is gone.
But the heat remaining in his palm— that, he could definitely feel.
(This time, I'll stop it.)
Consciousness cuts out.
—Beep-beep-beep.
An electronic tone.
Kaito woke up in his bed. At home.
A ceiling he knows.
A smartphone alarm he's used to hearing.
Morning light streams through the gap in the curtains.
"...The third time, huh."
He sits up.
His body feels light.
No wounds.
He opened his desk drawer.
A jet-black pocket watch— Le Revol Noir.
Not broken.
The glass. The hands. Back to normal.
The silver hands begin ticking slowly.
Towards today.
The day before Iris dies.
Kaito gripped the watch.
A cold sensation.
But deep inside, he felt it. A faint heat still lingering.
(This time is different.)
(I'll make Shunya an ally.)
(I'll find his "something to protect" and drag him in.)
(Whatever it takes.)
He stands up.
Opened the window.
Morning in Tobari.
The port town's sea breeze sways the curtains.
The tragedy hasn't happened yet.
Iris is still alive.
"Let's go."
Kaito quietly left his room.
In his pocket, Le Revol Noir trembled. Faintly.
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