NEXT (An ILLIT Fan Fiction)

Thirteen

(Minju's POV)

"W-We need to stand up. O-Otherwise, the whole country...will fall...here," I told Yunah and Wonhee while struggling to rise. "T-There's no one to protect everyone...other than...us!"

"Y-Yeah, right, Minju-yah," Yunah replied, coughing a few times before breathing in some air. "S-Ssaem fought...by himself before. T-There are three of us...so we can do more," she added.

"T-That Devil still has to pay...for what he did to my little sister," Wonhee mumbled, glancing at the unconscious Iroha once before standing up by herself. "So I'm gonna give my A game this time," she added.

"Ahahaha. Your energies are all spent, little girls. Do you think you can still put up a fight?" the Devil asked.

"Possibilities. We all believe in it," I amswered, catching my breath as I raise my necklace.

"Possibilities, huh? How funny hearing it from such a weak-willed race," the Devil chuckled as he grabbed me by the neck, strangling me.

"MINJU-YAH!" Yunah yelled out after I got thrown away to a nearby wall.

"Ack...!" I yelled out in pain after vomiting some blood.

"This is getting lame so, let me finish you all," the Devil commented before conjuring an enormous fireball in his right hand. "Bite the dust, girls," he added.

Is this...really...the end? I thought, biting my inner cheek in despair.

However, as he was about to throw it to us, I saw Iroha's body shine all of a sudden, releasing a shockwave that snuff out his fireball.

"W-What the---" the Devil said, turning to face Iroha, just to be thrown a few hundred meters away from us.

"UNNIE! A-ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" Wonhee asked as she and Yunah went to check me out. "ROHA-YAH!" she yelled out after seeing Iroha rise as if waking up from a well-earned sleep.

"W-Wonhee Unnie?! Erm...what happened to all of you?" Iroha asked us, clueless about what happened.

"We just got...a little roughed up, I guess?" Wonhee replied, giving her a slight smile.

"Hmmm. It must be his doing, I guess," Iroha commented after taking a good look at the Devil before standing up.

"Ahahaha! So you finally woke up from your deep slumber, Hokazono Iroha!" the Devil laughed. "Or should I say, The Fool?"

"The Fool?! It was Iroha all along?!" I asked.

"What do you mean by that, Minju-yah?" Yunah asked.

"It's not a widely known story but, during the Red Monday Incident, the Devil unleashed an attack that was about to kill at least half of the world as his last ditch effort. However, a phenomenon occurred and cancelled that magic," I explained. "Upon careful investigation, a hypothesis was made, saying that the Fool, the only Major Arcana that has the power to nullify magic, has appeared. I thought of it as a hoax, to be honest."

"Well, it happened just as Minju Unnie said," Iroha confirmed. "However, since I was a child back then, the backlash affected my memories. That's why I forgot everything about it until now," she added, pouting.

"I already knew that you're special at a glance but still, I can't help but get surprised, Roha-yah," Wonhee commented while patting her head in approval. "No wonder why Death likes you so much," she added, smiling.

"Erm...shouldn't you be worried instead of getting impressed by that, Wonhee-yah?" Yunah asked, worried.

"Yeah, right," I seconded.