[color=c0c0c0]"I ... cannot ... ensure ~.`// safety ... for long."[/color]

Aki hastily turned his attention to the portal. As far as he could tell there weren’t any obvious signs of it collapsing. Not that he was willing to take any chances. He wasn’t going to wait around any longer.

[color=82ca9d]“This isn’t going to be the last time we see each other, huh?”[/color] he looked back flashed a tired, resigned smile. It was less of a question and more of a bitter statement. As much as he wanted to, Aki knew that he could never leave the knowledge of this dangerous, alternate world behind, nor could he simply ignore the fact that he could now summon a humanoid representation of his subconscious. Yeah, all that deep insecurity stuff was something he’d prefer to continue repressing.

[color=82ca9d]“I guess you’ll call us when you need to… I’ll see you then.”[/color]

And with that, Aki stepped through the portal. He emerged at the base of the clock tower, the place that bastard Yamamoto dragged them to and kick-started the fight for their lives. He briefly raised his hand to eye level. The remnants of surging power from when he crushed that card still lingered. Aki quickly shook himself out of that daze. He was never going back there, missing students and endangered classmates be damned. How much time had passed since they entered? An hour? Two hours? It seemed like a lifetime and a half. He made his way back to the art room to collect his things and head home. No more magic talk. After today, every thing would be back to normal, back to the peaceful school life he had always wanted.

[i][color=82ca9d]Back to pretending.[/color][/i]

Aki grimaced and kept walking.