Archive of Our Own ^beta

I hope you enjoy it.

"Could you...do something for me?... Please."

A soft quaking voice whispered.

The room fell back into its ambiguous silence. Still and static as neither person occupying the space warps the set atmosphere with words or actions.

The woman's eyes softened. She whimpered, and upon her soft plump lips, a solemn smile began to form.

She nor he had both still said anything. Yet, within that stark monotone room, she felt a growth of relief.

A short pause was taken to formulate her next words. Then, within the following moments, she told the sole person overshadowing her the selfish request.

______________

"Papa I'm home!" Called out the fluffy hair blonde dressed in a white komono and peach pink andon bakama(tube skirt). She was very short in stature thus incapable of opening up the yards gate without standing on her tippy toes.

Once she crossed past it, she ran towards the familiar figure of her father, with short black hair tied up into a tiny ponytail.

Her teacher stopped at the gate. The gentle tone of her voice follows right behind the daughters as she also greets the lanky man with a clement “Excuse me.”

When the bold-cut woman bowed, the father responded with a grunt but not before halting his daughter who burst past him with a leisure smile.

It was not long after reaching the tiny patch of land with a rigidity house built in the middle that the blue-eyed child saw him.

"What's this?" He asked with her collar within his grip. The tiny girl squeaked, then cocked her head containing those large blue eyes towards him, feigning innocence as she focused on him with a probing bright smile.

The father sighed then looked towards the middle school teacher bound in a light and dark brown kimono.

"I'm sorry for coming here, Mr. Ryuuji," The woman said with a soft smile. "but it was necessary to notify you about the school's field trip next week. We gave each student a letter to deliver to their parents but it seems Esther has been losing hers for the past two weeks now."

The father side-eyed his mischievous daughter.

"Is that so?" He posed the simple question to her rather than the teacher.

The teacher knew this but still responded.

"I've come to know that even girls are into ruff housing nowadays" Uiharu shook her head with an accepting smile. ", and that Esther is known as the queen of the school also because of it." She shrugged then sighed. "Even knowing her for this long, that came as a big surprise, but there hasn't been a problem pertaining to that issue, in fact, the boys have calmed down sum because of her," Uiharu explained, and Esther saw this as her chance.

"Yea, yea. And It's not like there is so much of a problem with notifying you now. The trip isn't until next week. The school only needs parents' permission beforehand for safety and organization reasons, you know."

Watching his daughter's flimsy excuse, Ryuuji raises his brow; At which Esther chuckles a nervous laugh. But not long after he let her off the hook and she brushed fully past him while leaving behind the words "starting dinner." as she ran up the wooden steps.

Ryuuji then rubbed his neck and gave another of his notorious sighs. Uiharu tittered while listening to it but before Ryuuji could turn back around, reaffixed her facial expressions.

"You do remember I gave you permission to whack her, right?" Ryuuji said, walking towards the gate.

"I do, but she hasn't done anything that is deserving of a head chop...yet." Uiharu simpered as she handed him the permission slip.

"She's just going to do things like this again if you don't do something."

"It's no trouble to me. I love spending time with her. Having someone as influential as Esther on my side means the misfits and the star children have a bridge between them. That's something every teacher wants"

"Sigh, whatever. As long as you know she is also one of those misfits. Thanks again." He gestured a half-assed 'see ya' with his hand before leaving from the gate. But stopped when he saw Uiharu inching her hand out to touch him.

"Hmm?"

He glanced at her but she waved him off.

"Never mind. It's not something so important. Besides, I'm going to come straight here tomorrow morning to take the letter from you."

"Sure. Just stop coming so early."

"I'm a teacher, you're asking the impossible." She laughed then left along the dirt road.

Ryuuji left before seeing her off and entered the house. slumping his body to the floor at the foot of the dining room table and letting out a short yet lengthy breath as he looked towards his daughter whose expression he couldn't see.

Taking a while Esther finished cutting up some green onions. She scooped up the finely cut slices with the help of the knife then transferred them to the big pot.

"That was quick." She said turning off the simmering heat and using a ladle to pour some miso soup into the two clay pottery bowls.

"Oh, by the way, I cooked more than usual so we're eating all this tonight, ok?"

"Fine by me." Simply replied Ryuuji; Which caused Esther's brows to furrow, but she didn't let what amounted to a light provocation affect her. Instead, she withheld the tempting sigh wanting to escape, and sauntered towards her father with the final piece of this evening dinner.

This is how her father has always been, and though she had long ago accepted that, as his daughter, she still wishes he wouldn't be so reserved.

Minutes passed, It had taken them a while but they finally managed to eat off the entire pot of miso soup, rice, and stir-fried vegetables.

After this, Esther forced her father to wash the dishes and clean the house while she did her homework. She finished in record time, so left to meet up with her friends and watch a puppet show at the theater before returning after a few hours of procrastinating.

From the way her room was illuminated, Esther could tell it was already morning. She stretched her limbs and shimmied out of the futon, vocalizing a small yawn as she then rolled up the bed and put it away.

Adjacent to her room was her father, but since it was a bit too early to wake him up, she went straight to the bathroom then the kitchen for the necessary accessories to brush her teeth, ending up in the backyard as she sits on the deck and does the daily morning hygiene.

Understandably this was her favorite spot to overlook when brushing her teeth or hanging out with her friends and father.

It was, to her, the one section of the small patch of land that didn't hold anything back about her father's true deposition. There was a small fishing pond in the center-right with three different species of fish, a tiny farming garden that uses that same fish water, located in the upper corner, and one of those birth trees that, as the name implies, was planted when she was born.

The tree itself was nothing special and was about a foot taller than her in height, something her father explained was mostly caused by the added nutrients.

Esther spit out the paste and rinsed her mouth out with the cup of water. Then walked towards the kitchen to put away the things and pick up a knife so she could gut and clean some fish.

She prepared them with a simple serving of white rice, and went back to the deck so she could eat her breakfast in silence; Where shortly after finishing, she heard a knocking sound at the front door.

"Morning." Esther smiled and gestured her teacher inside the house.

Ms. Uiharu followed Esther and was asked to wait in the dining room, leaving behind the words "I'll go wake him up." as she travels to her father's bedroom.

Esther slid open the door and walked up to his bedside, attempting to wake him up with slight jabs at first but when he rolled over and hid his head, she jumped onto the futon and shocked him awake.

This was nothing new in her daily routine of waking him up. Just as always, Ryuuji announced he was awake with a drawn-out groan and after staring at the ceiling for a short while, glared at his daughter with a face that read he would throw her at the wayside.

But that was less effective than his continuous head chops, which she felt would crack her skull if he went past five.

Esther grabs at his hand and dragged the reluctant man to her teacher.

They found the permission slip but moments before her father could hand it to Ms. Uiharu, Esther left for the bathroom, leaving behind the lines "Wait for me" and "Go eat breakfast."

That wasn't a big deal for the two adults so they did just that and sat at the table.

"This makes me wonder, how are your mornings when Esther isn't around?"

The silence was broken as Uiharu started up a conversation. She giggled then rested her head in the palm of her right hand.

"I get my full hours of sleep if that's what you're asking. Esther is only so punctual because of your influence. Or was that supposed to be a jab at my body features?"

"Mmm, both. But I was more leaning toward your diet. You keep saying you eat enough but even Esther questions that statement."

"I would have collapsed long ago if it wasn't true."

"Maybe, but you need to switch from 'enough' to a good amount."

"Too much of a hassle. An overly full stomach is bad for my job."

"I could offer you a position as a teacher."

"...Do I look teacher material to you?"

"No." Uiharu shook her head and laughed at his facial expression. "Still, it doesn't change that you are a good educator. Esther is at the top of the class and is very knowledgeable about things I haven't even taught yet. Besides, if you can raise someone as exuberant and bright as her, then I'm sure the children are in good hands and would love you." She smiled faintly.

"You seem to be forgetting important info. Esther's a weird kid, that's pretty much all there is to it."

" "Weird."? What I mean thing to say about your daughter." Esther interrupted. She walked towards the stove in different color scheme clothes and began making some onigiri rice balls. "Anyway, I think you should pick it up, which means I can watch you." She remark then packed the six rice balls into her provisional bag.

Esther and Uiharu left right after and Ryuuji remained home, eating breakfast as before, before going straight to work.

×                                                ×

Esther arrived home with her friends after a half day in school. She was strolling along the fence when she saw the figure of some unknown person standing at their door.

Her friends gawked. They haven't seen someone as handsome as that—Only second to Esther's father.

He was a foot taller than her father, with straight shoulder-length blonde-brown hair and extremely sharp facial features; Wearing, what seemed to be, multiple layers of clothing that fit into each other seamlessly. The outside layers, the only ones that were really exposed, were a fancy black and light gray kimono under a completely gray overcoat(haori) with golden-like fish scale patterns at the sleeves.

Esther cautiously approached the man, after struggling to open the gate, and announced to him her presence with some light throat clearing.

"Can I help you?" She asked after meeting the man's sharp gaze.

The man straightened himself and smiled.

"Hello there."

He shook his head 'yes' and then moved it around to observe the premises. "I'm looking for a friend, Ryuuji. The village folks told me he lives here." He said while crouching to meet her level.

"...A friend?"

"Yes," His ha-ha fades into another smile. "We knew each other from way back when."

"Huh. I figured he didn't have many friends apart from the people in the village, but it's good to know he actually does." Esther tilted her head and chuckled.

"May I ask about your relation with Ryuuji?" The man asked inspecting her.

"I'm his daughter."

"Oh, really?" The man's eyes squint, inspecting her even more. "...."

Esther looked at her friends and turned back around. Which then prompted the man to lean his head outwards.

"Those your friends." He asked, waving at them, and they waved back shyly, completely captivated by his radiating charm.

"Yeah." Esther chuckled after ushering them inside following the inviting open door gesture. "Look, I've kept them waiting too long. Papa isn't here right now so maybe come back later." She said before she too followed, when.

"Hmm. But He's coming soon, isn't he? "

The man's words stopped her.

"Yea. I would invite you inside Mr. but the thing is, you are still kinda a stranger to me. Your right, papa is coming home soon, and I do understand wanting to surprise him at his home but I've been taught to not let odd folks enter the house. I hope you don't take it the wrong way?" Esther said playing with the door.

"Come now, little girl." The man also chuckled then slowly faded it away. "Why would I."

He took a brief pause to take a breath, and once more, grabbed the girl's attention with his sharp piercing gaze. "It's completely understandable. But can I at least-"

"Well now, isn't this a surprise."

Esther's eyes shot to the familiar figure of her father, and the man's orbs followed.

"...Ryuuji..."

Ryuuji was at the front of the gate, gazing at the man with an unamused look as both his hands were nestled inside the opposite sleeves of his black and white kinagashi kimono(just another name for male kimono).

"Sigh. Esther, go ahead inside. You, follow." He said simply before walking off.

The two walked to the edge of the village, near the backyard road leading up the mountain.

Ryuuji stopped beside the tree and the man sat on the rock a few feet behind it.

With his back facing the man, Ryuuji spoke first.

"What is it...Pride." He said with the same tone as always.

"There are only so many rumors going around about us, even in the organization, so using that information to identify me isn't that impressive, sloth. Changing your hair color is one thing but your eyes are a dead give away too. They are one of your character-defining traits."

The man reciprocated, although not the same.

"You went through so much effort to keep your exact location ambiguous, having the organization's letters sent to a post office weeks away and having it surrounded by several other villages near and far, but with just a single glance I already knew who you were." He continued.

"And? Do you want to be flattered for that?"

The man couldn't see it but Ryuuji gave an utterly theatrical eye roll.

"Sigh, enough with the chit-chat, or else I'm off," Ryuuji said jadedly.

"Oh." The man's brow furrowed. He squinted his eyes and glared intensely at Ryuuji. "I would think carefully with what I say, sloth." He said with a slight pause.

Ryuuji didn't side-eye the man, as his gaze remained fixed staring off into the distance.

"Well, tell me, why are you here? The how is less important than the why."

"Chi! To keep it brief, the organization is calling for all sins to assemble. Seems Wrath betrayed them after a mission to kill some kid. There is no official confirmation of it but, considering four of the organization's outposts got slaughtered, ...well, there are only two likely scenarios. And they believe, with absolute certainty, it's her and not some other group."

"Even for being fairly new to the organization, the little information Wrath knows is enough to put a decent dent in them."

"Yet they chose to hide rather than send us out. How utterly pitiful." He sneered.

Ryuuji gleamed at him, with a slight movement of his head, his hands still positioned comfortably in his sleeves as he made the slight movement.

"They're just playing it safe. The information Wrath wants isn't something that she can get by playing nice with the organization. That's why they sent another sin to inform the other, and also why they had you kill your messenger. No loose ends. All for the sake of controlling the damage."

The man traced his eyes to Ryuuji's.

"Well, depending on how you interpret the subtext." He said while leaning forwards and posturing both hands to rest on his thighs ."Regardless, whether you are on the job or not, you must be able to read a situation fully to find out its true objective." He side eyes, but still held steady eye contact. "It is the reason why we're still alive in spite of our line of work."

"Indeed..."

Ryuuji saw the man's shoulder flex.

His right foot inched along the dirt.

The man's sleeves rustled.

"Or we would have died otherwise." His arm twitched.

Then—

Four passerby's descended from the mountain. Buckets in hand as they converse.

The man lazily stood up. Breathed a light sigh then turned around to leave.

"We should end it here. While I found this meeting informative, I have to meet up with the others."

That was said before he left; And now alone and no longer gazing at the man's idle back, Ryuuji slipped his hand from out his sleeves. An action that revealed a compact farming tool—the nobori gama sickle— within his right hand.

"Damn it all." Ryuuji silently cursed before leaving. He strolled along the dirt road and visited two places before going home.

Unsurprisingly Esther wasn't home. Ryuuji went to the kitchen and put away the foodstuff that he brought before moving straight to the deck after he served himself out some food Esther had cooked.

-◆◆◆-

"Are you awake?"

"...."

“Geez. Why exactly am I being rejected by this thing?”

“Alright____"

"H-Hey. Why are you so quiet? Give me some kind of rebuttal, you!"

" .........."

"Gah—!!! When a girl wants to talk to you about her problems, that doesn't mean she's complaining. It just means she really trusts you."

"I'm not interested. And I'm tired. My head hurts and my body aches from carrying you around most of the day, so I'm taking a break."

"Even though you had the pleasure to be graced by such a beautiful girl, you still choose to act unsociable. I find it to be endlessly vexing; but....sometimes those who don't socialize much aren't actually anti-social, they just have no tolerance for drama and fake people. And that I can relate to."

"Is that so…?"

"I have a request to make though?"

"I'm not taking any more of that stuff. And, no, I am not cooking tonight, tomorrow is already my day."

"C'mon—"

"No."

-◆◆◆-

×                                                ×

Time flew.

Esther felt something rustling her awake. She opened her eyes and saw the pale, light-up, figure of her father standing beside her.

That's when she realized how dark the place still was.

She mumbled a groan then slackly pulled out of bed, rubbing her tired azure blue eyes as she drowsily followed the illuminated figure of her father as he carried the house lantern to the kitchen.

There was a buffet of breakfast set on the table; A scattered array of starch, protein, and vitamins. There was a bowl of rice on one side, boiled tomatoes on the other, steamed vegetables, fried egg, and a small stack of grilled meat and fruit skewers at the bottom.

Staring in disbelief at the steaming servings, Esther looked towards her father; Who seemed to have smoothly slide away somewhere.

When he returned there was a light luggage of things in hand; A wooden box and two leather bags.

He set them down and sat down beside Esther to eat. After they finished, Esther followed her father out of the house and across the village, where she halted mid-stride at her teacher's house.

There was a slight pause but Ryuuji gestured her inside. She walked past the gate and took to the door.

Esther knocked, then after the fifth, the teacher answered. She was dressed in a simple brown indoor yukata.

"Esther?"

Though confused, Uiharu fully opened the door. She stepped beyond the framing and looked outside, towards Ryuuji at the gate, then back at the seven-year-old child. Confusion no longer a tinge written on her face.

"What's going on?" She asked to a slouched head Esther.

"Can I... Come in?" Esther asked, and with little hesitation, Uiharu assured her inside.

The moment the door closed, Uiharu felt something charge into her stomach, and before she knew it they were both slumped to the floor, Esther tightening her grip on her clothes as she began to whimper.

Tears soaked through her defense like paper, melting into her form as she let the heat from her skin warm Esther's body.

Stealing her breath, Uiharu said nothing.

Esther softens her voice to speak. The words that came out at first faltered into an unintelligible croak. She then stole herself and spoke again.

"I'm sorry..."

"For what?"

"Haah...messing up your clothes."

Uiharu chuckled and replied. "Is that really what you came for."

"....I'm going away. Papa received a letter about my grandma's condition."

I see, Uiharu now caught on.

"That's alright." She whispered. "You have to go."

She tried not to sound hoarse. The briny drops were still coming. Not as rapidly but still.

Uiharu folded her hands around Esther's torso, drawing her in closer to ease the heart that beats within.

"I don't want to leave," Esther said once, then again more deeply. Uiharu felt her(Esther's) eyes begin to well up, tears were once again eating through her defense.

Esther's body continued to shake, crying for the missed time she will never make back. So, Uiharu pulled her head back, wiped the tears, and ran her hand through her silky blonde hair, hoping the simple gesture can bring some kind of relief as if it was a forgotten dream.

"Don't worry," Her mouth paints a soft smile. With each soft touch of her hands, more tears fell. "you'll only be away for a short while." She nods before folding Esther back in her arms again. "What say you and I have another sleepover again?"

Esther's form flickered in the illuminated darkness. She shook her head 'yes'.

Watching her student break down right before her eyes was an unidentifiable feeling. In truth, Uiharu was still such a kid—an only child to two loving parents, still growing into her adult body. She wanted to be stoic, a shoulder for Esther to lean on, but her face couldn't help but become craggy, suspended between grief and panic.

This is why she was thankful Esther's face was hidden within her clothing.

She can take the emotions that are swirling inside and put a stopper on them, not to let Esther hear any sound that may leak out about her true feelings.

"Everything is going to be alright."

"...…Thank you."

×                                                ×

Ryuuji waited outside by the gate. The air is still cold and strong even when considering the time in the morning.

As soon as Esther leaves Uiharu's house they are going to leave the village. By his estimate, it should take them three and a half days to reach the nearest town instead of a week. Just enough time for things to get ready as per the letter he sent after meeting Pride.

After which, they would be running on limited time to reach the island of Gakuen Toshi since Ryuuji isn't certain of where the organization's hideout is located.

It would just come down to the matter of running into Wrath and the other sins by then. Suffice it to say**,** If either party gets their hands on Esther, this normal life of his would be considered very much over.

Esther caught sight of her father looking up at the moon. The chirping of insects brought a mysterious melancholy with them as they danced alongside the cold wind.

Her eyes were no longer flush. They were poise, calm, and tranquil as she turned around and waved goodbye to Ms. Uiharu one last time before leaving with her father.

The hills they traveled across were a friendly one, a path already laid out before them to tread through. Whenever the time to rest came, they would venture deeper into the mountains and set up camp where their only source of food was the dried meat Ryuuji had procured the day before departure.

They continued on doing so until they reached the closest town of Niigata.

It was early morning. The sun had just risen and yet the streets were already buzzing. This was far from unlike their backyard village but Esther was too overcome with exhaustion to become elated. Right now she only wanted two things-some rest and a very hearty meal.

Esther steels herself to keep moving and follows her father through the town and up a hill to some inn situated at the foot of a mountain.

It was the only one positioned at the edge of town.

She and Ryuuji walked up the wooden steps and stopped right at the entrance, a thin petite blonde woman with curls at the ends swept inside the doorway when they entered inside.

She paused after noticing them, then with a carefully composed manner, sauntered towards the tinny youth.

"Hey little one," She spoke gently, squatting in front of Esther with a bright engaging smile. "What's the matter?" She asked, but Esther stuttered out an "E-eh?", confused.

Ryuuji answered in her stead, saying "She's with me." but nothing more.

Matsuri's face blossomed into bewilderment, her gaze shifting from Ryuuji then back to Esther.

"Mmm." Esther shook her head 'yes', nervous, under the scrutinized inspection.

Matsuri shot up to her feet in response to the shocking validation.

"Hold on, " She pleaded. Her hands raised slightly to indicate the begging gesture. She took a staggered step back, her hands and mouth moving animatedly as she tried to make sense of the situation. "wait...don't mean to tell me!"

"No," Ryuuji responded, deadpan.

"I'm his daughter." Esther clarified sensing the massive misunderstanding.

"Yomikawa!"

After a few moments stunned in silence, Matsuri shouted. And in the ensuing arrival, she paced herself from Left to right within the entrance doorway.

"You two look nothing alike!" She spat straight at Ryuuji, unclear on how to feel.

"She can take after her mother, you know."

"I mean, Yea, true...I guess, but, you would think your features would stand out the most."

"That's not how It works." Ryuuji reasoned, and—

"What's up, Matsuri?"

That's when Yomikawa reached. She looked upon Ryuuji and said "Your room is still how you left it." before moving on to the little blonde girl.

"What's up, sweetheart."

"That's his daughter."

"...WHAT!" The woman dressed in brown gasped.

"Yeah, right."

"Ughh." Ryuuji sighed, tired of the situation. He laid down the wooden box and exited out the entrance.

"Huh? Hey, wait, where are you going?!" Yomikawa shouted, stopping him.

"There's something I have to do."

"You can't just drop your daughter off on us like this and leave without saying anything!"

"I'll be back later," Ryuuji answered plainly, leaving the grounds without a second look.

"What kind of father does that to his child?" Matsuri spat out and turned her attention to the little girl.

Yomikawa swerved around and sighed. "Well, there is nothing we can do about that." Then paused hesitantly as if getting a sudden idea. She then nodded her head once then tied her hair up into a ponytail before directing her attention towards Matsuri.

"I'll put away their stuff and wash her clothes," Yomikawa said while picking up the wooden box. " Matsuri, since you haven't bathed yet, take the kid with you." She insisted then left.

And so did the two blondes, as Matsuri agreed with a playful "Yes, ma'am.".

Matsuri was still in the changing area, as due to the complexity of her clothing, while Esther entered passing the curtain across the entrance; The bathing area was way more spacious than their minimum room back home.

A lineup of stools and buckets parallel the number of washing stations at the front wall, with two wooden box reservoirs at each end.

Esther scoop up some water from the closet reservoir using a bigger size bucket, then after sitting at a washing station and using a smaller size bucket, douse herself with the water from it.

She released a relaxed sigh and let the unrhythmic dripping of water put her in a soothing trance.

That trance broke immediately after.

Esther heard the sliding door open and closed, followed soon after by the curtain fluttering. When she looked up, from her hunched posture, she saw the slender physique of Matsuri, stark naked, with something of a small splotch scar a little ways above her chest.

"Is it distracting?"

Matsuri saw that Esther was staring directly at it and so she asked. She also peeked at it, wondering if she should tie a cloth around her neck to hide the scar.

"Uhm, no!" Esther flashed her eyes away in embarrassment. Her head once more hanged, but this time for a sheepish reason. "S-sorry. That was really rude."

"You don't have to apologize." Without showing any slight sign of being affected, Matsuri smiled. She placed her hands on the said area then closed her eyes.

"They say scars are trophies to be proud of, you see. And though that rings true for all warriors and most men, the same applies to me. I adore my scar," Her eyes drifted open. "because if I had never gotten it I wouldn't be where I am. All the mistakes, scars, and regrets you have in life, are what make you stronger and form your strife. Never be afraid to be the person you want to be. The one thing I know is that we all desire to be free." And the glimmering brown orbs brimmed with even more confidence.

"Can I ask what happened?"

"Umm, It's something of a gritting story, nothing a kid like you should hear."

"I can handle it I'll have you know." Esther reacted with a childish pout, which then made Matsuri laugh.

"Enough said. Now c'mon, let me wash your hair." Matsuri said, shifting a stool behind Esther and soaping up her hands; A barely audible 'Mmm' leaving Esther's mouth as Matsuri massaged her scalp.

Matsuri finished and pail up gulps of water to wash away the soap. She did that several more times, and, after doing the same for herself but at the hands of Esther, entered inside the single large bath at the end of the room.

Matsuri let slip a barbaric moan as she stewed in the bath with Esther; both blondes leaning against the wooden edge in different comfortable postures. Esther's shoulder-length fluffy hair was tied up in a neat bun while Matsuri's curly end side bangs were tucked behind her ears.

"Haaa," Esther relaxed. " This feels amazing." She gushed as the water soaked in her skin ease her muscles and joints. "I feel like I'm melting and becoming one with the water." Her voice quaked as her body loosen.

"Yomikawa's herbal blend tends to have that effect. It's especially amplified tenfold when it's your first time."

"This is so unfair. I wish we had this back home."

Matsuri chucked at the complaint. "Well, I can drop down a list of the ingredients for you, but even I am unsure where Yomikawa gets the products from."

A set mix of emotions danced their way through Esther's expression, starting with excitement and ending with contentment.

"That would mean they're expensive," Esther said, and Matsuri repositioned her head, gazing at her confused though she seemed resolute.

"I guess, but you deserve to be spoiled,...err." Matsuri paused, realizing she doesn't know the girl's name. "I didn't get your name." She asked and Esther answered with a small giggle.

"It's Esther."

"You deserve to be spoiled, Esther!" Matsuri shouted, shooting up from out of the water. "And, since It's my turn to make breakfast, I'll start it off with a giant feast." She then stepped out of the bath and announced.

Esther leaned off the wooden edge, changed her confused face to a stifled laugh, and then shifted her gaze to the grinning short hair blonde.

"Can I help?" She smiled, and after a quick back and forth about who this was for and that she was a guess, Matsuri agreed.

×                                                ×

They left for the kitchen after dressing up in some clothes, Matsuri in a white and blue kimono, and Esther in a white and (peach design)pink.

Matsuri watched on as, surprisingly, Esther was able to move around the kitchen and keep up with her at a relatively fluid speed. Performing all sorts of elaborate feats that Matsuri herself had to require the added contributed commentary of her senior, Yomikawa, to help execute.

When they were finished they rested each plate across the dining room table and sat themselves on the sofa alongside Yomikawa.

"Itadakimasu!" They all said, throwing arms around the table to take a sample of each variant dish. Well, only Esther that is. The others, mostly just Yomikawa, watched on with subtle intrigue while they ate.

"I never take you to have that big of an appetite," Matsuri said, reaching her arm across the table for a crisp shrimp(tempura).

"Shoarry." Esther apologized, her mouth full. She had just eaten an egg roll with a sum of rice, natto, and pork.

"That's alright, Esther." Yomikawa smiled, taking a slow sip of the green tea and letting the warm, sweet-tasting herbaceous drink move down her throat. Her face was surprised at how differently it complimented the meal.

"I wish I knew this beforehand," Yomikawa whispered to herself. "At least there's the plum rice ball." Her feet wiggled at the devious idea.

"How long are you going to mumble to yourself? Why are you mumbling to yourself?" The oldest blonde asked.

"Just complimenting the chief," Yomikawa said then did just that. She rather not stroke Matsuri's ego but, oh well.

"Hehe. I had the perfect sous chef by my side."

"Indeed." Yomikawa bounced her head. "You have some talent."

"Oh no, I feel like I haven't had much practice. "Esther answered with a slight blush and continued on eating.

Ryuuji was walking through the grassy and rocky plains of the mountain behind the inn. He treads up and down fallen trees and hopped from rock to rock to reach his destination.

An eroded tree stump atop a tiny cliff where stacks of rocks and rubble, overgrown by nature, lay underneath.

Ryuuji took his time and climbed to the bottom of the slope. Then, after carefully moving away the rocks stacked upon one another, starting from the ones atop, pulled out the wooden box hidden within and opened it.

This was his clothing when going on missions— A neat assembly of neglected and tattered black shinobi clothing and samurai armor.

Which thus dubbed him the moniker: The invincible walking fortress, Sloth.

Once Ryuuji finished appraising the condition of the amour, he stacked only them back in the wooden box, leaving behind the shinobi upper and lower garments to degrade, while he hiked his way back to the inn.

When Ryuuji arrived it was late afternoon.

"Glad to see your back," Yomikawa said sitting on the side porch. "Took you long enough though."

"Mm." Ryuuji grunts in response.

"Oh, if you're looking for Esther, she left with Matsuri to pick out clothes. Those two seemed to have bonded already."

"It was inevitable."

"You not worry she might be a bad influence?"

"If I did I would have never come here."

"Sure, sure." Yomikawa laughed and wandered into the kitchen. When she returned there was a tray of food in hand. "Most of everything is finished off, but there's still some rice balls, tofu, and tempura left over."

She set it down at the table and flopped on the left side, her elbow resting on the wood as she sat disorderly.

"You let Matsuri cook?" Ryuuji noticed the red specks in the onigiri.

"It was her turn. But relax, Esther helped out as well." Yomikawa said with a very composed expression.

"How long?" Yomikawa asked Ryuuji as he ate.

Ryuuji swallowed the chopstick of rice with a gulp of shiso juice before answering.

"We should leave by tomorrow afternoon." He then took a slice of Tofu and ate it.

Yomikawa sighed and leaned her cheek on her fist.

"That quick, huh? I really wish you had brought her here sooner, she's a treat to have around." A deep smile made its way onto her face, then morphed for a slight chuckle. "I Still can't believe you have a kid though."

Ryuuji stacked up the last of his plate when Yomikawa said that. He unfolded his legs and stood up.

"You're heading out again?" Yomikawa lazily shifted her gaze from the plates to him.

"I'll be back later tonight."

Yomikawa sighed, then took the tray to the kitchen while Ryuuji made his way to the bath first instead.

To resupply, was one of the reasons why he was here at the marketplace. The weeks worth of food that he had purchased would only last him and Esther two days.

Ryuuji left the food stand with his newly acquired goods, now packed within his wooden box, as he then steered through the crowded streets to a clothing shop for a new attire.

He purchased a blue haori, with white triangle designs at the edges of the sleeves, a gray tattsuki bakama hakama— A form of hakama/ pants that has its leggings strapped below the knees, and two fingerless black tekkōs, similar to Byakuya's from bleach, that extends above his elbows. As well as a shihakushō wear(soul reaper clothes.)

These five pieces of clothing will combine well with his samurai armor; A Dou for the chest, a Suneate for the shin, a Kote for the sleeves, tekkō for the back of the hand, and a Nodowa to protect the throat.

After packing them up, Ryuuji went to a bar next.

He was waiting on a certain shipment of a product that only gets delivered late at night. A special type of drug that keeps people active from dawn to dusk. It is only exclusive to the military but some brothels take the risk of smuggling them in for extremely high-paying customers.

And since the bar he was dealing with was even more of a shady business, Ryuuji didn't get one for a cheap price. He then ventured upstairs, to complete his main reason for coming to the marketplace.

Two men standing guard at a door when he journeyed deeper inside. There was a small scuffle among the guards but after he stated his name and his business and waited for some other people(more women than men) to exit, Ryuuji entered the room.

Void, but not for the existence of one person.

He was a slim-looking fellow with obviously bleached hair and finely toned muscles.

The man sat on the floor with an assortment of Sake scattered around him, his black andon bakama buffed out at the waist as he had his legs folded into each other.

"Yo." He greeted Ryuuji with a raised hand. "You really got here fast. I was expecting you within at least four days' time."

"I take it everything has already been set up then?" Ryuuji asked for confirmation while still standing at the door.

The man poured himself a drink of Sake and swirled it around, slightly rotating his neck in the process as to work to ward off any knots that might be present.

"My two most trusted subordinates were sent out immediately after reading your letter." He groaned and took a small sip of Sake just before continuing. "They haven't arrived yet but by the time you leave Niigata for Gakuen Toshi they should, probably, by then, have affairs in order." He said with a final swig of the Sake.

But before Ryuuji could voice his displeasure, the man spoke once again. "Don't worry," He swatted away with his free hand and his black and grey haori danced along with the rhythm. "I take my job very seriously, and so too do Eztali and Musujime."

"The passes?" Ryuuji asked, and with an 'Oh, hold on.', the man got up and traveled to the back of the room for a black and yellow box. Then when he opened it pulled out three envelopes.

"Two passes, just as asked." He returned but this time standing in front of Ryuuji, handing him two of three envelopes before crawling back to his seat.

"My first contact will be visiting the Shima tavern every afternoon for lunch." He said, writing out something on the sushi board with wasabi sauce.

"Follow him discreetly and he'll lead you back to his inn, where, you would then show him this slip," The man then gave Ryuuji the separate envelope. "and tell him a password. After which he would then sail you across the ocean to the coast of Gakuen Toshi where you will enter and meet my second contact. Do that same procedure and he should set you up with a new identity, no problem." He explained, erasing the words with the help of some sushi.

"Well then."

Ryuuji packed the envelopes away and with only a throw-up hand gesture moved towards the sliding doors, when...

"Not so fast."

The bleached hair man stopped him.

"You know, you're very cruel. After everything we've been through, your leaving just like that?" The man wondered with his Sake glass raised. "Come on, this is our final time."

Ryuuji did not reply.

"Gakuen Toshi is a city established outside the Shogunates rule. There are only so many reasons why one would go there." Tsuchimikado reasoned out. "Hey, just like always, I won't ask any questions. Just have a drink with me. That's all." Then finished off.

"Tch." Ryuuji clicked his tongue, annoyed at the setback. Tsuchimikad chuckled at the curt response and poured out a second glass of Sake. He then handed it to Ryuuji, who then sat in front of him.

"Our partnership might be one you don't think fondly of, but I and my sister owe you a lot, thus I am grateful I can help you on this personal matter, so, cheers."

"You think too deep into things but whatever."

*Clank*

They both knocked their cups together and then drank.

"So, how does it taste?"

"I don't have a tongue for liquor." Ryuuji said, and Tsuchimikado sighed.

"Apparently. This is the best of their stock. Imported from some major town that the Shogunate himself acquires his liquor from." Tsuchimikado explained with rambunctious vigor. Only to receive an uninterested 'Mm.' as a reply.

"At least fake your enjoyment." He slumped, dejected. "This is our final goodbye. Neither the Eye nor I will be able to get to you once you enter Gakuen Toshi so, the least you can do is humor me."

"Don't think I am so careless, Tsuchimikado." Ryuuji shoots a cold glance at Tsuchimikado before downing the cup of Sake. "I know what you're after, so I'm going to tell you here and now, I am not divulging anything." He said in a thick undertone and glared at the blonde.

Tsuchimikado chuckled with hearty laughter. A direct refusal, straight to the point, as always.

"Fine, fine, I won't press you for any information on the eye." He agreed and the two went back to drinking.

Esther sat on the floor, in Matsuri Himegi's room, in the dead of night. She was having her hair brushed, as it was, according to Yomikawa, time for her to sleep in now.

"Your hair is really gorgeous;" Matsuri complimented. "wispy and silky in both look and texture." She elaborated as she did her fifth brush stroke.

"You think so?" Esther dipped her head and bashfully asked.

"I wouldn't lie. It's way better than mine."

"Why would you say that?" Esther adjusted her head, slightly.

"My hair only looks this way because of constant treatment," Matsuri explains as she starts to braid. "Truth is, they are mostly limp and sparse due to past circumstances. The next day, tomorrow, you will see how cut and frizzy my tips are."

"Uiharu said that every hair requires its own special kind of treatment. No one shampoo is universal."

"Uiharu?" Matsuri asked with a dainty head tilt.

"My teacher," Esther answered, and Matsuri asked the same question again, but worded differently.

"Your teacher?"

"Mm-mm. She's the one who picked out all my clothes too, so she knows a lot about style."

"...Huh?" Matsuri shook her head in realization. "Well." She smiles with a different kind of softness. "She does have a fine sense of fashion. Are there any your mom picked out? I bet she had a fine sense of fashion as well."

Esther pursed her lips. "Actually, I don't know anything about my mother." She said in an uncharacteristically flatten tone. Esther had tried asking once when she was a bit younger. It was her first time ever seeing her father's eyes that cold; Dark and gloomy and slightly resentful. Almost as if worn out.

Matsuri's breath then caught. She just treads on dangerously unstable ground.

"He will tell you when he's ready." Matsuri reassures her, mannerisms composed; ' Yomikawa was the same way back then—Hopefully before he's on his death bed though, she said to herself.'

"Just, give him some more time." She then finished the two braided ponytails.

"It is not as elaborate as Yomikawa's," Matsuri handed Esther a mirror. "but it should be great in protecting your hair and stopping it from tangling or breaking."

Esther sat there, admiring the comfy yet tight hairstyle. Then, feeling it up a bit, asked.

"You and Yomikawa seem to have known him for a long time."

"Speaking of a couple of years, yes. But I only got acquainted with him through Yomikawa. Before I got taken in he already used to frequent the inn at times." Matsuri then, out of nowhere, tilted her head. "You know, I'm surprised he doesn't do the same for you?"

Esther looked at Matsuri's face from the reflection in the mirror. Confused as to what the wondering expression and question really seemed to suggest. But, even before she could say anything, Matsuri quickly clarified.

"Dyes your hair." Matsuri looked directly at the mirror and said, "It's a risky thing not to do for someone so young. Especially since you are a girl. The boys are in a whole different situation but other children would tend to discriminate."

"Hmm? I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I suppose you don't, you seem as pure as they come. Maybe your father wanted you not to hide who you really are." Matsuri's eyes then suddenly sparked saying 'Damn.' "If so, I gotta give him credit for that. Maybe he isn't as bad of a person as I thought."

"I am sensing some really bad blood between you two."

"Yomikawa says he can't help it but I know that is not true, he is purposefully insensitive towards me!" Matsuri bellowed, standing up, her fist clenched and eyes seething with anger.

Yomikawa waited for Ryuuji to return.

Since he would have to pass through the main hall to get to his room, she sat on the porch outside the dining room area which has a perfect viewing of the miniature woodland of holly trees and native shrubs when the sliding doors are open.

"Wanna have a drink with a sexy lady." Yomikawa greeted the lankily built man. "There was no way I wouldn't have known." She then added on, basically telling Ryuuji what this was about.

Ryuuji sat beside her and, without a moment's delay, Yomikawa shared out the alcohol.

"Wearing that same expression as always. Yomikawa joked, then took a sip of the sake. It was from her secret stash, stronger than normal but still holding that moderately mild yet fruity-rich aroma.

"You're making me feel self-conscious about my taste in alcohol, you know." She pouts, sporting a small delighted smile.

"That's bullshit." Ryuuji retorts, and Yomikawa then chuckles, her laugh turning into a flattened straight-line smile as her gaze strays to the clear liquid in her cup. "I'll miss this."

Yomikawa then breathed a small breath out. There was a slight pause.

"Hey," She mumbled. Her gaze now transfixes to Ryuuji. "promise me, you will protect that girl. I realize how stupid that sounds, but it's all someone who possesses no power can say."

"...Sigh. At the time I was skeptical but, if you knew how bad of a character I was, why did you let me take up residence here?"

"Hmm, I guess you could call it misplaced guilt."

"Really? What a naïve shit."

"Ahahah~, maybe, but I don't regret my choice." Yomikawa then moved the clay-molded cup to her lips and downed another sip of Sake.

"I may not agree with your life choices; It takes someone strong to feel the sting of the dark side and remain steadfast, but something good came out from that dreary path. And that's little Esther, so I respect that. I just want that child to live freely, to learn and love who she wants to love, I want her to be told about all that reality is and how to choose the side that is loving and healing while still exploring and taking risks. If your path demands you walk through hell as if it's your own place, then her's should be adjacent. Facing your struggles can be a lonely road, trying to be stronger can be a tough road, and reaching for your goal can be a hard road, but as long as she stays true to yourself, it will all be worth it in the end. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"You really do love your sentimental stuff," Ryuuji mutters mid-sip.

Yomikawa chuckled.

"Always the stoic Ice king." She shook her head. "But you're right, that's enough. I would rather not leave things on that sad a note."

"Didn't mean it like that," Ryuuji complains, understanding.

"There's no other way to interpret it." Yomikawa teased him and he sighed defeated.

"Ryuuji," She said in a now reserved tone. "you two look good together... odd, but good." She smiled then held up her cup for a toast, and just like that the two sat in silence as they drank.

The next day came too like clockwork and with an overly generous serving of food by Yomikawa, it was now the afternoon.

Ryuuji just left the bath and now started to get dressed.

He wore the shihakushō wear first, putting on the Dou chest plate over it, then the tattsuki bakama hakama which he attached the Suneate to for shin protection. Next was the tekkō and Kote which were sheltered under the shihakushō wear sleeves for arm shields, and the Nodowa for neck guard.

All these fit into each other seamlessly, and he wore the blue haori over the shihakushō to complete his wear.

Once he strapped on his katana, a full black blade with a wave style design and oval shape tsuba, unto his left waist, he left the room.

“Well then, I’m off,” said Esther as she gave a deep bow before pacing towards Ryuuji, outside. She was dressed in a full yellow short sleeves short kimono underneath a purple haori with a short pink cord attached to the collar of the garment. Matsuri had also tied her hair up into a fluffy side ponytail with the bangs swept to the right side of her face.

Esther enjoyed the way the forest scenery subtly changed, from darkly bewitching and ominous at night to visually dazzling and bright in the sunshine. She bore witness, multiple times, as the sun was no longer illuminating the sky and the darkness of night no longer hindering as the sun began to rise.

On the few frequent stops, Esther would just listen and watch how the leaves move in the breeze, and how the many clouds that drift by take on myriads of shapes.

Their journey would sometimes take them off road, and so when they stumbled upon the block road path filled with mud, leaves, twigs, and logs, collapsed maybe because of soil erosion, they did not hesitate going into the mountains.

—Which was where....

"So,"

—While scaling amongst the thicket of trees and rocks.

An overly familiar voice spoke out to them.

"We finally meet, sloth."

It was hard to tell if there was any malice underlying that stranger's words; However, Esther thought it best not to determine such as it would only be superficial.

She watched the man's smile deepen, as he enthusiastically rose up from his seated position atop the slope and stretched and cracked his four limbs and joints.

The individual was slim and tough-bodied. A young man with unkempt jet-black hair that jutted in all directions.

Most of his clothing was yellow, except for the thick red cord tied around his waist and the gray tattsuki bakama hakama.

Partnering with those, he had scars of different kinds littered across his midriff and arms; Which, due to the light clothing of a short sleeveless haori, which was cut halfway to appear small, and Dou and Kasasuri samurai armor, which covered his chest and hips, accentuated his awe-inspiring body build even more.

However, it was the two intricately designed gauntlets—engraved with weird tribal symbols that extend up to his forearms —that left the biggest impression.

'Were those supposed to be ceremonial?'

The man lowered his weapons slightly.

Esther tried to focus her lines of sight to examine them but, the glittering points of his tightly fitted gloves cached the light of the setting sun as they fist bumped them both into each other, causing a short but high pitch clang to reverberate within the forested space.

They glowed like a rising dawn.

"Let's see, 2,000 from 34? That would give...1,966. Alright,"

And, he then after.

"Let's begin." With an uncontained swell of delight. "Show me just how dangerous a warrior, the reaper of death really is." Festively grinned and ambled down the slope.

Power radiated from his smile. But, no soon after uttering that—the sound of his light footsteps halted.

“Going back to the topic at hand...."

The distance between him and them was still far from arms reach.

His head suddenly tilted, an impromptu "Mmm" let slip from his mouth, and, with his eyes quietly closed, he then continued.

"We shouldn’t be doing something as foolish as this with that kid so nearby." He told Ryuuji, and in the next moment, opened those dull blue-black hue eyes.

As if the spirit of time refused to proceed, Ryuuji was stuck unmoved, wearing an icy glare, and a deathly serious gleam. But the man did not wait for his reply.

“In the first place, you can't protect her if you can't protect yourself. That's why you must have her relocate, even if you don't want to. Besides, as things stand, an exchange between us would most definitely result in her becoming an indirect casualty."

It was like finding out why the sea was colder than the land in the summer.

“Jeez, you guys are so carefree."

With that said, Ryuuji could only sigh. He paused for a fraction of a second, then gave a curt response.

"Fortunately I’ve only had the displeasure of only working with one of you." He said tonelessly. Which, in a way, made the man's mouth boldly twitch upwards.

“–––––”

Esther felt her brows reactively skewer at that. Something inside of her soul cracked. However, it was not so simple. What it was that made her recoiled was a tad bit different from the norm expectancy; And because of that, she became swept up in the two's ubiquity of a conversation.

"Well, while I was basically in the same predicament, I can't really say the same. How to put it…? Even if you ask Lust herself, that was the worse torture."

“Probably because you chatter all the time, but never speak of anything real. To her, that kind of thing must have been like wasting time at a book sale for the entirety of your day off.”

“Dohohoho,” The stranger laughed mirthfully. "I see." His mouth spoke softly but with great ardor. "But I'm sure she detested the deed itself. We all have to do things we really don't want to."

letting the warmth of the sun seep into his skin, he did not allow himself to be frozen by Ryuuji's stern glare.

"Right,” Ryuuji responded, and the way the man tilted his forehead in puzzlement made Esther's forehead twitch even more.

“I am aware that I'm saying something strange, Y'know.” The man with jet-black hair gazes down at the golden-yellow armaments he currently wields. His behavior didn't change in the slightest. But, there was an obvious difference in tone.

"Dead or alive," His voice rang out, clear as water. "those were the orders for the both of you. And...In all honesty, between the two, I only care about one. The fight between us may be unavoidable, but I refuse to yield up a child to them. Know that. I’m also not going to let that little kid survive on her own. That isn't something I would do. The organization will be angered but that just works for my betterment."

He crossed his arms and gave a complacent smile.

"So irritating,"

In regards to it, Ryuuji's brows creased as he muttered under his breath.

"...But, now is not the time."

With his messy hair let down, he turned his attention to Esther Without looking away from his opponent.

'Eh...? You're really asking—'

Esther thought to say, but no words were said. She hid her anxiety in her heart, as she turned around and left(With the travel box in hand). Her mouth sealed and palms clenched, while her face, was the picture of affirmation.

Two people were left atop that incline.

Their feet were firm and their eyes were steady.

"It may be hard to believe, but this—"

"Just shut up and let's fight."

Squaring off against each other,

Sin vs Sin

Colleague vs Colleague

The invincible walking fortress against The unrivaled one-man army.

Aka,

Sloth vs Gluttony

"――!! "

The first to move was, without a doubt, Gluttony.

Not a shred of nervousness could be felt as he took a powerful step forward— Then, a titanic BOOM later, closed the distance in-between Sloth and him to the range of a thrown fist; that shining unadorned weaponized fist.

Both charge and swing were within sync.

The sublime golden Weapon was aimed at Sloth's skull.

But,

*SHIIN!*

In a counterattack so fast it looked like a flash, Ryuuji's black blade created a defensive vertical guard the instant it was being unsheathed.

—And it had, unsurprisingly, met nothing; As, Gluttony's daunting yellow figure was instead suspended in the air at his empty right-hand side, and, raised over his head, ready to strike him down with an aimed left foot targeted in the nook of his neck.

There was no time to twist the sword or move his right arm.

The instant the high-pitched cry―like the screeching of metal―subsided, that's when Gluttony's kick struck; With enough force to tear into the ground and thus cause an immediate pop-like sound on impact.

"―Gngh!"

Yet, Gluttony was the one who reflexively cringed—An odd pulse as though reality itself was bent resounded around that specific area; Then, within just a moment, a single breath, his leg was forcefully pushed off.

That’s what gave Sloth the opportunity to retaliate—Thus, he spun on his heel and swung the sword in his left hand, while it was still in its reverse grip. But by then, their positions were already divided by several paces; and Gluttony, after utilizing the opposing momentum, in a special manner, regained his balance mid-air and landed on the ground in a series of short, quick flips until he was then launched from a nearby tree.

And, in the next moment—Bounced and bound to another; constantly weaving through tree after tree, and repeatedly violating the space centered around Sloth with multitudinous creaking quakes, again and again, one after another.

Even so, the obvious outcomes to Sloth's blind spots never came.

“—Kh—!”

At least—That was, only until Gluttony briefly made contact with the surface of the ground and threw a giant hidden log; Whereupon everything where Sloth once stood, scattered, shattered, and turned into rubble the moment of impact.

Long string clouds of dust floated around the surrounding area.

Debris' flew like shining blades, and Sloth's left side was struck in retaliation, covered and wounded, ever so slightly with dirt and scratches.

When— Gluttony appeared right beside him, bursting through the dust cloud from his right flank with a flying right fist; Which, angled straight towards his face.

And yet.

Though he is unable to evade it unless by a hair's breadth—Sloth gnashed his teeth, hoisted his free arm (to act as a guard), then riposted, improving his stance at the same time, for accompanying the sharp yet sprightly blade thrust.

That, at this point, aimed for the golden chest plate.

“___GI!!!”

Only, the one who vacated the vicinity was indeed Sloth's lanky figure.

A force slammed into his abdomen; executed by an irregular postured kick by Gluttony, that sacrificed both balance and a cut upon the chin concurrently.

The impact of which, blasted Sloth against one of the many thick trees.

“Arghh!”

And then, dropped him onto the ground. Losing his breath for a moment and inadvertently coughing violently as he fought the innate reflex to vomit.

However, such a thing was a prime opportunity to seize a window.

The sound of trees creaking reached sloth ears.

Who knows when he did roll to get back on his feet, but Sloth scrambled into a sprint while shifting the katana in his left hand to his right.

Be that as it may, the field in front of him was stained with the same earlier disaster.

An ear-splitting noise immediately assaulted his ears following impact.

His Vision became obstructed.

The shards, like knives, sliced at his skin.

And, the tremendous storm of dirt, rubble, and splinters erupted out, forming atmospheric fallout that constricted around him like a live snake.

That is to say, the perfect condition to meet Gluttony's crusade.

It showed when Sloth spotted Gluttony coming from amidst the thickest point in the cloud debris, right ahead of him, instead of the obvious exposed areas.

Dust around the outline, bursting through the cloud while sliding along the ground with one leg outstretched.

There was no mistaking this was targeted at his ankle.

Thoughts moved at high speed. But, without even a pause, Sloth's katana attacked with a powerful diagonal slash.

That—the abnormal movement Gluttony's body followed didn’t take seriously, and dealt the core of Sloth's face with a wind-up drop kick.

Sloth flew into the air as a result. The earth mercilessly battering his body as the momentum carried him down onto the ground several more times.

His mind felt dizzy.

His body cried out in pain.

But his ears still picked up the tree's creaking, Once again.

Sloth was barely able to avoid being fully caught by the giant closing in tree log.

He had leaped backwards.

The shape of the wooden trunk split, complexly, upon impact, and a cloud of dust, rubble, & splinters, puffed up and coated the entire area.

He had not escaped unscathed; the shrapnel created by the attack furthermore pummeled his body and greatly tattered clothes.

However, his conjecture was confirmed.

Something, silhouette-like, emerged from behind him----Their arm raised at chest height as if ready to protrude outwards with an uppercut from their left fist.

And so.

Sloth reacted to the movement, but perhaps he was too quick thinking about the release as his sword missed the chest and uppercut arm; The white-blue shining tinge of the blade slashed through the darkness and burned in the hopping backward sight of Gluttony's near instant withdrawal, but only for an instant.

Without hesitation, Sloth leaped out in response, drawing in nearer on the turned-around pursuer's heels as they exited out into the clearing while Gluttony, still, continually dodged the barrage of killer strikes, even by a mere hairsbreadth.

And that rhythm followed through, up until Gluttony reached within the proximity of an erected tree. The katana attack from Sloth's unblemished blade was successfully dodged and the slender shaft beheaded the tree as if it were tofu.

*BAM!!!*

The sound echoed throughout the area.

A storm of wind bellowed up beneath the trees, and a small dust cloud began to hang. But, Gluttony made no attempt to defect to a third or fourth tree, nor did he land on the ground to throw another(Fourth) broken-off tree.

Instead—Sloth focused his unfaltering eyes on the movement ricocheting straight toward him.

He scrambled to his feet, and, Just as the golden fist was about to pull back, lashed out with a horizontal sweep of his blade; Even though he clearly saw the Gluttony silhouetted man react by defending with his other golden gauntlet.

Of course, a clash resulted and both figures disappeared with a crash somewhere further down along the ground.

But, there was just one expectation that was overturned. Sloth cleaved through Gluttony's left-handed block, and severed off his head; In that one single move.

Preventing the calamity caused because of the differences in their physique and size was just not within the exception.

'This might actually be pretty bad.' Ryuuji thought to reconsider. Try as he might, there was no desperately fighting the convulsions that overcame his body. It would be a hyperbole to say he was utterly incapable of standing, but the meager movement to heave himself up to one knee clearly bristled him in pain.

Even so, Ryuuji thought it was fine. He had not made it this far in life without enduring afflictions. He hoisted to his feet, a gasp mixed in with a pant squeezed out from his throat, as he lurched himself forward, through the unease, resiliently, to lean against a nearby surveyed tree surrounded by both shade and moss and slump towards the spot.

-◆◆◆-

"Ha. Ha. Ha. I can't stop laughing at your joke."

"Hmph. Typical response. People who understand sarcasm well are often good at reading people's intentions. They understand that the other has something else in mind."

"Have you ever considered that you just suck?"

"You might think that, but to me, there is no greater lie."

"Sure, sure, we'll go with that."

"You know, females are better at reading even the smallest facial and verbal emotional expressions when compared to males."

"Stop psychoanalyzing me."

"You should be more honest with yourself. Experts say people who hide their feelings usually are the ones who care the most."

"...."

“Ow ow ow ow! O-Of course, I already knew you'd do this! You can judge a lot about a person's character by how they react and what they react to."

"I'm still not stopping."

"Please!! I give, I give, I give!!! They were only words!!!!!

-◆◆◆-

By the time Esther returned, the light connecting to the earth and trees was a deeper shade of orange. She had tread her way across the forest, from the very bottom of the mountain to right back here, sometimes after hearing the last bombardment.

That was when—she caught a glimpse of something in her peripheral vision.

There was no mistaking it was right in front of her, neither running away nor camouflaging.

It had simply bunkered down and made its huge body lying there it's home, almost as if lying in wait for the prey to come to be eaten.

Staggering, she tried to touch the surface of her clothes, Esther felt herself gripped by a chill and found herself wondering...but, she knew enough to understand.

That man from earlier had died and it had been due to her father giving the killing blow.

Her own breathing became erratic. Her hand started to tremble. She wanted to go, run, run, run away, immediately run away, at full speed; She had to, she needed to...However, her body couldn’t move. As if choked by a tight collar, she couldn't turn her head in another direction.

"Don't look at the dead body," Ryuuji told her passively. And, with the feeling of her blood burning as if on fire, she awoke; cold and unpleasant, while drops of sweat dripped from her palms.

Without much else, he then pointed her to the sky, and she took it as a sign to collect fire food.

Before long, the sun had set, and night arrived. The silver moon shining quietly within the night sky overwhelmed the likely millions of stars sprinkling the heavens, as it was both cloudless and close to being a full moon.

Esther used said time to cook a simple hearty meal, rehydrating some dried meat in a miso paste broth and adding it to a hefty portion of rice, complimenting the entire dish with one half of a soy-marinated egg and a side of pickled radish.

The finishing touches were just the beverages, which both drank dissimilarly, apple cider for Esther and green tea for Ryuuji.

She cleared the bowl in her diminutive intense way, until finally, it was empty. While her father ate every piece of the meal after taking micro sips of the green tea, staring at the cackling fire, patiently, like clockwork before he did it all over again.

There was only one sentence that he communicated to her.

Thus, with a pain in her chest, that felt as if she had been stabbed with needles, she complied to him, and somehow dragged her brain to forcibly enter a shutdown mode; her consciousness fading away dreamlessly.

And with that, the night ended.

Ryuuji's expression changed the moment he felt like he sat upright. His shoulders hurt and his legs were sore. His aches and pains were negligible now, but his face hurt a little more than the rest of his body.

Walking around, he collected some firewood, then prepared bean paste and tofu onigiri for the go. And, in the span of time it took him to construct those, and brew some green tea, Esther came to.

She neglected to open her eyes.

The collected twigs of firewood crackle and flickered under the intense heat of the kindling flames.

The only announcement her father gave came in a clear and gruff-like voice.

"We'll be setting out soon."

Not a single word was said afterwards.

Her father just handed her a clay mug of green tea and the two different kinds of onigiri balls, before gazing back at and tending back to the campfire. Because, although it was still dim and dark, both Esther and Ryuuji could tell, from the light seeping between the leaves of the trees, that the place was indeed daytime.

Esther drank down the entire glass of green tea after scarfing away the two types of onigiri. Its taste was bitter and pierced her tongue with an odd grassy, nutty stimulant.

Trying to deny her brain the blunder, she paints herself a portrait of Yomikawa's bath house while she ruminates on several batches of toothpaste—it truly was a fraud product.

Without turning around, Ryuuji vanquished the fire. The air dropped in temperature but the surrounding thick forest didn't descend into absolute silence.

Esther was aware of what she was feeling, the moment of their departure, but she wanted to vanish that frisson of glee before it shadowed over her heart and took place on her face.

Their location to their destination wasn't remotely nearly close. It took them two weeks to reach the closest village. The journey to the seaport was a 30-day long trip from there at a normal pace, but Ryuuji believed they could make it in less than half that time.

The evening went by without event, and so did the next day and the next, as they advanced through their difficult journey. As Ryuuji treads across the multiple land surfaces covering the earth, he tries to think of ways on how to magnificently endure to continue their journey.

He pushed forward silently without rest until the sun fell from the sky. The fact that nothing was happening only made Ryuuji even more uneasy.

They continued on their hurried journey, for 3 days, until finally, they crossed into the borderland of Chifu, beyond which was the destined seaport.

The road leading to the port area was twisted through densely grown flowering plants.

Despite them having the option of ending their long travel at an Inn, Ryuuji, and Esther stayed on the mountain that gazed at the vast commercial hub from its cliff edge.

The still early afternoon passed and it progressed to late morning.

Confirming that it was time, Ryuuji stood up, brushed away the dirt and leaves that clung to his body and descended down the hill.

They entered inside the crater topography landscape that linked and conjoined into the seaside, then headed a straight path for a tavern.

The whole afternoon they spent time there, until evening, when they swapped their position to a close by Inn.

For three day's this progressed. And, only on the third did they make a single deviation.

They approached a separate housing area after a short while staying in the tavern.

The particular house had only one level.

Ryuuji knocked at the door and a middle-aged man with a scanty combover answered. He was dressed in a light-ish brown and pink criss cross kimono.

“O-oh, hello. You are...?"

He peaked a small amount of his body through the sliding door frame.

"What is this?" Ryuuji said in displeasure, squinting his eyes into a single line the instant when their eyes met.

"Eek!" The man jumped, and, at the same, Ryuuji clicked his tongue. He showed clear signs of frustration, scratching at his head and cursing out Tsuchimikado's name in his thoughts. Then, just sighed and did the final first contact procedure he was told about.

After which point, in recognition of it, they were both invited into the probably just moved-in home, as it showed no sign of human individuality. There was no particular style of painting or any sense in the color scheme of tatami. Everything clashed with the interior. And the only thing that showed Esther any modicum of a spirit was the stack of dried flower plants on the table.

"When do we leave?" Ryuuji asked once everyone was inside the living room. He crossed his arms and rejected the offer of some green tea, then leaned himself against one of the walls the moment after Esther responded the same.

The combover and skinny man, Rakuoka, sighed and glossed his hand through his greasy black hair. His words sounded nearly like a whistle, while also his shoulders reformed, back to their original slouch-like posture.

"If you don't have any immediate luggage, I guess we could go now." He said.

Ryuuji closed his eyes and considered something for a while. Afterwards, he and Esther followed Rakuoka out of the house and then down to the sea harbor.

However....

"Hou, well aren't we brazen."

It was close to the end of that path, that the atmosphere changed.

"Was this meant as an invitation, Sloth?"

They heard a female voice call out to them from behind.

Ryuuji did not budge.

Esther and Rakuoka might not have known the full details of the predicament, but both their hearts froze over at the mention of that name.

Esther's instincts screamed at her and commanded that she not look, but without even needing to, she already knew the answer to the said burning question.

Her head, along with Rakuoka's, rattled in that opposite direction.

There, the woman stood, sticking out amongst the bustling crowd like a wild yet majestic beast.

She had a very well-defined musculature, especially in the arms and legs areas, even for a woman with a topknot tone body physique. What presumed to be tribal tattoos, in the form of blue-gray wind blows, chasing after large particles of sand, ran across her bare legs and feet; with the other different variants of black marked tattoos located on both her left and right shoulders.

Her long voluminous flame chocolate brown mahogany hair stretched down to her back.

The clothing she wore was distinct and very revealing, featuring an attire that was unlike any other, let alone any social standing of a woman. A thick form-fitting leather garment barely covered her well-endowed ample breasts, as it exposed a modest display of her center boobs visage. Crimson loincloth seamed into the underboob hemlines and framed over the lower half of each rib cage, while a crisscross pattern of the same pair connected to another brown leather garment, around her neck, which was an extremely low-cut cropped neck-shoulder pad armor.

Her traditional stylized loincloths were of a red, blue, green, black, pink, and yellow theme, and tied around her waist via a thick leather belt with two straps and two golden uniquely carving jewelry.

But, just like the tough-bodied young man, those weren't what would stick out the most to anyone observing—With sturdy chains wrapped around her forearms, and clipped to the end of each armlet on both of her upper arms, the woman wielded two, far too rough and far too thick, sharp chain-sickle-like-emerald-sculptures, that were the entire length of an average person arm.

Both Esther and Rakuoka lightly gulped. Staring down the woman was similar to staring down a hungry wild animal.

Esther had both forcefully suppressed her questions and uneasiness, in their hearts, and shied away from those luster eyes, dwelling with a fierce will that could seemingly cut through a boulder.

The woman continued, glossing over whatever she meant like the manifestation of a faint wind blow.

"That is both frightening and egregious. But, while it does put your actions thus far up for debate, I'm just grateful you save me the hassle. So?"

Ryuuji said only one thing in response, but it was not directed at the towering figure or at Esther.

"I'll meet up at the harbor." He insisted.

But, Rakuoka didn't run off with Esther. Time ticked by as time normally does but neither one of his legs moved, flinching or otherwise.

"No." Rakuoka coldly replied. "You shouldn't trust me, not after everything I've done." The man was beyond scrawny, yet he burst out that bizarre statement in objection.

Ryuuji internally sighed.

'……How troublesome'

Is his face maintaining that same anxious smile, has large tears started appearing or is he holding them back? Only Ryuuji didn't bother to learn the answers to those questions as he kept his gaze forward, on the cardinal sin of Envy.

He simply spat the following words:

"Don't flatter yourself, small fry. Just shut up and do your job, plain and simple."

And Rakuoka, while holding Esther's hand, gently stroked his patched hair then looked to her face before—

"———Huh?"

She and Rakuoka were both forcibly swept away to the side and able to escape the incoming thick sickle-like emerald sculpture.

It collided with the ground and a heavy crash billowed out a short-range behind them.

Perhaps because Ryuuji used the wooden box as an opposing weight, to swing the two off to invade another space, it had intercepted the attack and was subsequently torn through, in midair.

But that guess was but after the delayed realization.

A flurry of men and women screamed. The crowd of people, spectating or otherwise, descended into chaos and panic and then scrambled for a far away safety.

"I see,"

Ryuuji was protesting vehemently with his eyes, while the woman cracked a wild intimidating grin.

"This is certainly intriguing." She remarked, and maybe she had sensed the fact because her next words were directed at Rakuoka. "Anyway. If it is a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get. However, you're looking rather pale. So how about you stop talking big, now isn't the time to grow a spine. Leave before you get hurt."

"You heard the woman. Pick up the passes and go with the brat."

The two mercenaries did not count the other two among themselves.

Rakuoka's face contorted with disgust and Esther flinched then cast her gaze aside. Both turned away from the scene—Rakuoka trying to stop his legs from trembling and Esther attempting to keep her breath in check—knowing, whatever happened next would be intense.

"You are a hard one to figure out."

The stage was now set.

"But still, shouldn't you have said something touching at the time." Envy complained idly, her hand still outstretched, grasping at the chain end of the chain sickle that she threw earlier.

"Something touching...Like what?"

"Like, 'When this is over, I promise to treat you right' and stuff."

Both opponents defied one another.

"...Your jokes are as unfunny as Lust's."

"Hah. That corny?"

On one side stood Sloth, "More so annoying."

And on the other, "I think there is a fine line." that Wardancer of a barbarian tribe, nicknamed—Natural Born Slayer.

The attack came from behind at midriff level.

The amount of time that actually passed was Imaginary.

There was a whooshing whistle sound and the smaragdite weapon flew overhead since Sloth had already moved in response to Envy's retreating right arm and reached toward the ground, almost on reflex.

But

However,

That was when the towering stature rotated her well-built body.

An unpleasant tension filled Ryuuji's entire being.

Envy instantly twirled, both her body and right wrist, to simultaneously reel in the quickly approaching emerald sickle then swing down a galantine attack with the other.

The Sickle bewitchingly shined in the faint sunlight.

It aimed to split open his skull in earnest.

As such, Sloth, who was on all fours from a half-sitting stance, quickly widened the distance between him and it. But not so far off that in the next instant, he couldn't feel the ground ring across the deafening roar when it pierced through.

Even so—

"Heh~"

—An immediate whizzing sound still followed anyways.

Or so he thought.

However, what filled Sloth's ears at the moment right now was that obscure sight of the left dual scythe-shaped blade eating its way through the many stock-still obstacles of infrastructures, cutting――straight towards his eye level.

That of course couldn't reach Sloth.

It was out of range.

And yet, still—Ryuuji bolted into a left passageway.

It was, because, that had caused two stories or more buildings to fall, debris together with other equipment to scattershot as well as rain down, and dust clouds to billow up.

In spite of that, Envy remained unharmed.

Via the entrance Sloth kicked out of, he circled around to her precocious back. After which, and with a bit of effort in his left leg, he then launched himself at.

The soil where he once stood rumbled in response.

However—

“HNNN!!!!!”

It was only for a moment that that overlapped with his grunt.

—Who anticipated who's movement first, and with how much difficulty?

Everything happened almost as if within the same instant.

Envy displayed movement that spun on her axis; then, swung another attack that ignored the many sturdy hurdles.

While, at the same time,

Sloth breathed, orientating his katana held by both hands at separate points in the centerline of his face, and put himself on guard, this time as well, to cleanly evade the first strike and take the second; that was executed faster than one could breathe.

Nothing surprised him more than it did not snap. Maybe it was because he had already closed a substantial amount of distance, or for the reason that, when considering the tilted angle, both claws swung for his throat.

Either way...

Sloth could just barely elude the first strike by concurrently ducking down while taking on the blow at a slope-like degree angle. So for the consecutive, he forgoed his footing, leaping back in one moment, then in the next, catapulted through a wooden screen panel.

The bruise and cuts came right afterwards.

"GOU-!! "

He'd burst through the shop's back wooden wall, slammed into another, glided over the ground for a bit then rolled along the road in no time at all before coming to a stop.

The violent crash shook his voice once more, whilst the pain that flooded through his fingertips and radiated within his arms, still festered.

Quite frankly, his muscle did seize up; Yet—

"Tch!!"

—that was not of his highest concern.

Sloth noticed masses of different kinds of debris howling fiercely in his direction.

A strong feeling of desperation ran down his spine.

However, he did not linger for far too long. Without even the slightest inkling of any grace within his movements, Ryuuji jerked his body over and used his own momentum to recover to his feet.

*BAUFF!!!*

The scattershot did not find flesh.

The only injury his brain could perceive was the muscle strain his earlier gambit had caused.

He just continued to run; a step-by-step advancement forward, even while seeing Envy exiting out of the slight dust cloud and soon after giving chase.

That she already moved at high speed and fought against Sloth.

With a smooth use of the weapon's dual weight, Envy performed numerous theatrical Bo Staff and Nodachi-like practice swings that flowed and chained into each other alongside her stride.

He perceived it all, but he did not try to evade it.

Because she never extended either of her chains. Or so it was, even if only temporarily....

Her maneuvers took but a moment to execute.

She kicked off of a wall then leaped into the air———And, from the centrifugal force guided swings, repeatedly pummeled into the dirt ground without mercy.

Even so, though the continuously landing downward slashes covered a substantial distance, Sloth still charged straight towards the wooden bridge on his left situated over a deep canal.

The sounds of the heavy strikes were expeditiously approaching.

Silence abruptly followed.

And—

—The left emerald scythe reflected a sharp glint coming from his right.

Ryuuji was practically halfway across the bridge when that wide grand sweeping attack swept across the area. With which, both wooden guard rail and fabric scattered in the resulting strong gale.

For how frantic the dodge was he at least was able to utilize the upright inertia and descend the rest of the way down.

There was zero need to hesitate.

When his body left the wooden bridge and his feet touched the dirt ground, he threw himself into a full-on sprint that stretched considerable amounts of distance just in half steps.

It goes without saying that Sloth obviously lost sight of Envy. But that did not change the fact that Envy had looked unmoved.

As self-evident in the way she inexorably trailed by, leisurely walking right past him--from his hidden position inside a two-story building--whilst leaving behind faint trails of dust clouds as the bright green sickle-like weapons spun from their respective chains on both her right and left sides.

However, this is exactly what Ryuuji expected of the enemy. And although certainly he hadn't been spotted, he nevertheless jumped out from the second-story window, then, after he landed, dodged the attack traveling alongside his sternum and torso, by jumping backwards.

Shards of building debris thundered across its proceeded trajectory.

Yet—Still, after taking off immediately towards Envy after he resuscitated himself, Sloth stride never broke; not even when the second(right) sickle-like weapon flitted in range of him, and the propelled Shards of building debris bit into his left cheek, did his pace brought on concern——He just knelt to his hands and knees, and crawled forth like a quadrupedal beast until he sprints past the connected chain. And,

---*BANG!!!*

That sound echoed behind him.

But then a shadow wafted passed him as if cutting through his thoughts---Envy....used the now planted blade to overtake him, then in the next instant, swung the other serrated blade.

“—IT!!!"

Facing that, Sloth could only make one snap decision.

So…

His feet left the ground before the rock-hard weapon connected with his back.

His entire body was sent immediately skidding across the ground, like a pebble over a small body of water, however, that one simple movement allowed him to evade the resurged second attack. And as a consequence, he ended up gaining a substantial amount of distance.

But where he tapered off to wasn't a distance where he could call assured safety.

Blood dripped from his face where his head clashed with the ground repeatedly, inhibiting the view out of his left eye. His perspective was still skewed and his vision was still blurred, but Sloth still clicked his tongue, because Envy, who stood confronting him and had her right-handed weapon reeled backward at a sharp angle--held slacked by the tethered chain, did not have her right hand injured.

Infract it was completely unscratched, unlike Gluttony's.

The process to stabilize her posture happened in that instant.

It was simple enough, but it was what followed afterwards that made Sloth wonder if it was imagery.

For the fraction that he did see Envy regain her footing and taut lightly on the loose chains, she stepped forward the slid back leg, lowered her center of gravity, then pushed off, forwards, as if lighting itself had struck.

And as though it was just a casual thing—Envy's agile feet took refined, complicated geometrical steps, and both her emerald blades came out like a flash.

But the short-range extended strikes were not aimed at him, her adversary.

The blades of destruction sliced through everything in all directions. They struck again and again, slice after slice, unrelenting as sprays of rubble and products exploded out and got thrown into the distance and ultimately scattered as its own attack.

"—Ngh!"

Sloth forcefully parried one of those objects with the back of his free arm whilst he also hurriedly avoided the other flying object.

That had indeed sealed his movement. Right up until his vision completely got obscured.

He turned left to enter a passageway for cover,

However—

"!"

— He had to immediately kick the ground to barely escape the swerving curve jaw of death hurtling towards him at a sharp angle due to the assistance of a nearby shop pillar bending the chain.

The emerald crescent blade swiped the blood streaming from his head wound.

But, that he moved back to his earlier position didn't mean he was open to the second attack coming, diagonally, for his back. Sloth jumped out of the way—two, three, four, five, seven times before he fully escaped that and the follow-up flurry of mid-close range crosscut counterattacks.

But when he stood up from his knelt position, Envy had already moved to cross the slightly widen gap.

Sloth concentrated all his senses on her.

He gritted his teeth, breathed roughly with his shoulders, and made absolutely sure he didn’t blink.

Her wrists maneuvers retrieved the lodged customized crescent axe blades.

Loud whizzing sounds ranged out from the extended chains when they coiled and twist around her body; her abdomen, neck, and calf—then, the next attack came swinging from her right foot, kicking backwards, over her head, as a gravity-guided hook attack.

The angled diagonal axe blade targeted at torso level.

*Shing!*

---*Boom!/Slice!/Boom!*

“GAUUUUUUUUHHH----!!!”

Went the sounds of the right emerald blade slicing through the air and colliding into the ground an instant after the explosive noise pounded at Sloth's feet and he just as quickly widened their distance.

....And yet — A blood-curdling scream was mixed into the cacophony of sounds. Drowned out, but still there, as a trail of brilliant scarlet danced in incompliance to the burning pain of his missing forearm.

His skin and eardrums vibrated like a shock from a foreign land hot pepper.

He felt a slime of bile stuck in his lungs and throat. His field of vision became fuzzy, as did his consciousness; however, as suddenly as his legs touched down, he snapped back to his senses.

There was no time for wasteful movements.

He was one step faster than Envy who torqued her kicked leg to "release" the rather unembellished chain.

Thus, after plunging his katana into the dirt, he unhesitantly threw a kick that shattered the staked silver blade.

The shards scattered in her direction. And instantly after that moment, both his limbs and hers moved simultaneously.

Sloth flew across the ground like a samurai's released arrow, gripping the broken sword in hand, whilst Envy deflected the fast incoming shards with sharp and concise movements.

Sloth eyes didn't deviate for a second.

He simply gazed straight ahead, almost as if not looking at his target; even in spite of her giving up defense for offense as some of the later shards scored a direct hit and ripped into her flesh.

That said, however, though visibly in anguish, Envy's expression remained unconcern, as the quick offensive actions also calculatedly protected her vitals.

His attack left a lot to be desired, but in the length of a second, two simultaneous attacks came at him at freighting speed.

--4--

The deadly left claw lashed out and targeted his neck to sever his head from his shoulders whilst the next target was aimed to bisect his midsection area in one stroke.

--3--

He took another small step forward, adjusted his forward-leaning posture backwards for his next strike, and threw the broken blade towards his rising priory swung left leg.

--2--

And in that next moment, after both came into contact—the broken blade disappeared as a flash of silvery bright light.

The blades had already closed in on him to the point that he could not dodge in any direction.

—Two colors of crimson clashed in the mid-summer evening.

—A thunderous crash ranged out

Both attacks sliced through flesh, but while Sloth lost his left leg, Envy had the right side of her neck deeply lacerated.

His movements would have been sealed if he had not purposefully slung himself backwards.

Fresh blood spewed from both fatal wounds; However, in spite of that, Envy maintained her stance and gave a smile that made his single exposed eye narrow to a single line.

"... ... shit ... ..."

He cursed.

She ignored his meaningless attempts at a sneer, and she spoke.

"Ha—hi. Well played, sloth." She coughed. Releasing her hands from the extended chains her body finally swayed. A soft “Ah” escaped from those bloody thin lips but she did not once stare at the blood splattering onto the dirt.

Her eyes did not flinch in the slightest.

"I managed to avoid a direct hit, but. . .at this rate. . .I'm going to . . . die. . .Cauahg, Caah."

At the borderline of death, Envy said her final words…

As she looked at Ryuuji her hand moved to put even more pressure on the wound, as if to extend that moment as much as possible.

" . . . I wish I could have also faced Wrath, but. . .getting angry about that is pointless . . . I can't move forward with pride. . . unless I believed that." Envy's expression did not enact someone on the brink of death. She took a deep breath and with a ridiculously broad grin, that showed no regret, she fell.

Ryuuji couldn’t care less about Envy's sentiments.

"Haaah...Hahh...ha."

There was a psychological reason in addition to the physical.

However…

-◆◆◆-

"____"

"We did it."

"What……?"

"Sigh. At least you're mature enough to tolerate."

"...Heh heh~ It’s honestly adorable that you think you can hide anything from me ❤”

"I want to object, but I'll probably just end up getting kicked."

"Oh, stop messing around. Not arguing or fighting in a relationship represents a lack of interest. It is said that people who care about one another tend to argue sometimes, you know."

“…That judgment was truly horrible. How should I put it, do you just have bad taste?"

“Not to worry. The same as you, I find that kinda iffy. Rather, it really only counts when it's just you involved."

“I don’t want your meaningless praise.”

"Very well. But I don't think it applies to anyone but you though."

"The way you just blurt out whatever you think. Seriously, why are you so into this psychology stuff."

"A truly contradictory reason. Different from yours but get's the same results. Knowing the methodology in which kicks off the orientation of the human mind, and the motion of emotions being displayed, different from other individuals, is after all, a mindful skill. For example, some say, someone who becomes angry easily, over silly things, subconsciously desires to be loved, and that how being nice to someone you dislike doesn't mean you're being fake, but instead, it means you're mature. All lessons given from experience. An emotional piggy bank if you will."

“Whatever, do as you like. You remain to appear so bright and kind that it actually seems grotesque.”

"W-Wha...I don’t want to hear that from you! Someone who is twisted because he so stubbornly denies the desire within him!”

"I'll do as I like."

"Hmph. You'll have nothing but trouble, you thickheaded asshole."

"Fine then—Aaaah...!!!"

"Now. Let's grab something to drink."

"Why do you always go for the shin, you brat of a woman!!"

"Excuse me, Mr. Pot!!"

-◆◆◆-

He could not let that interfere.

“Fuck…” Ryuuji cursed. The sinews in his arms, legs, chest, and neck were tearing apart. Blood dripped steadily from both missing extremities.

There was no longer any masking the unnatural fatigue.

The violent pain ran through the joints at his arms, legs, and shoulders as right as rain,....but somehow, by taking in a deep breath and putting the rest of his strength into his two remaining limbs, Ryuuji gathered all of the energy he had left to make it to where his fight with Envy first began.

That same place was where he had left his traveling box.

With all of his spirit surging out, he hauled that special drug out and guzzled it down in all its uncut entirety.

He had no time to dilute it as he was taught by Lust.

The pain that had been killing him since his fight with Gluttony had reduced down. The static in his head lightened, and the sinews that were torn apart from unnatural overuse started to regain their dexterity.

Ryuuji was filled with such sense of strength.

But all in all, he was hasting his death.

The ground below stenches his nostril with the overwhelming scent of iron.

He tied off the source of erupting liquid, found a nicely sized piece of wood to use as a crutch, and with shaky footing, made his way to the harbor.

However, beyond the series of ships, crates, and imported and exported goods, Sloth found undoubted signs that a fierce fight had taken place.

The large space was encompassed with numerous craters and staked blades of many kinds.

A ridiculous amount of blood mopped the cobbled stone floor.

And in the center of the entire carnage, knelt the beheaded corpse of their smuggling guide, Rakuoka.

The middle-aged man's brown and pink criss cross kimono was torn and tattered.

An executioner's yarai was impaled through his chest, and a horizontal wound sliced through both his eyes.

His body's appearance might have been strangely twisted—the muscles of his arms, legs, and torso now rugged, boorish, and bulging—but that face, reflected off of that oddly shaped broad blade, resembled his familiar facial features.

Ryuuji's face remained the same as always as he steadily followed the bloody footprints leading a way to the pier of a massively triumphant cargo ship.

Any malice, no matter how strong, would vanish here.

Any desire to kill, no matter how great, would be useless in the face of this.

Because—either way, it did nothing to change what had to be done.

Sloth climbed up the boarding ramp and stood on the edge that led to the main deck.

Of course—

“—Hmm, so you survived.”

—Upon noticing his arrival, the multiple layers of clothing figure of Pride smiled fearlessly as a greeting.

"...."

That much in itself was fine.

“What?"

“What is this?”

But—It was the 10-year-old girl tied to the steps of the highest quarterdeck, which connected to the poop deck, that was tasteless.

“There is one more major hurdle to clear before your home stretch free."

Esther, who sat on the base of the steps, was passed out.

Pride stood directly beside her. And, with the use of the steps framing as a support, his fingers aligned themselves on her lower jar and shook empathetically.

"We can't have that with the way you are now, can we?"

“Nn…”

Esther stirred awake.

Trembling in fear was a logical response.

An audibly sniffled like whine escaped her throat once her eyes met those vile and shameful ones.

Pride's smile widens each time at that faint noise.

His options were limited.

From the start, this was an exchange that had a complete disregard for subtleties.

Several try sounds bellowed at his feet.

"No, Papa!!"

Sloth took off his haori and Dou chest plate with struggling awkwardness first. He then unclipped his Nodowa neck guard and took off his tekkō and Kote arm guard, as well as the shihakushō wear and chainmail armor, thus leaving behind his naked upper body.

Countless scars, bruises, and puncture wounds were carved into his pale delicate skin. Some are very old and some are fairly new.

Esther took a shallow breath...

She did not recoil, but her tears swell and her lips stopped their trembling.

"I have to say," Pride said, releasing his grip. "You are full of surprises. After knowing how your technique works, you shouldn't be a threat." He moved about two tatami matts away from Esther. "Yet here you are."

Dull thuds rang out at each step he took to rendezvous at the main deck.

"I’m not a big fan of people who rely on physical ability. Especially those who can bolster unimaginable strength. I don’t like them. That hulky slugger was the scope of physical potential and he solely relied on half-baked strategies that were dependent on pure physicality. Dealing with people like that pisses me the hell off. I absolutely despise those types of people. I am ashamed that I had been caught off guard by that roach, but I still managed to easily finish him off. Not with physical strength, but ingenuity."

"That said," Standing eye to eye, Sloth glared at his enemy. "If I were forced to choose between strength and technique, I’d take strength in a heartbeat, since advanced tactics are useless against unscalable force. Because that is all life is.

As if feeling that this truth couldn't change anything, Pride's expression became fiercer.

"Physicality, strength, and power triumph all." He directed those words not at Sloth, but instead to Esther. "It taught that short hair teacher of yours a lesson—in her final moments."

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Huh?"

For a moment Esther didn't understand what that man had said.

Those words were just a murmur so perhaps she had heard them wrong.

But, of all things, why even interpret them that way?

She still hadn't given Uiharu her flowery headband birthday gift yet. So why stumble onto that conclusion in a situation like this!?

Those words sounded so cold.

Those words sounded so sorrowful.

Those words engraved themselves in her brain like a tattoo.

Those words pricked at the deepest part of Esther 'self'.

They hurt.

"A..."

She tried to find the right words, expressions, and or emotions to say.

But that was hard.

Esther's lips trembled as they once did earlier.

In the end, she realized that the right words to say didn't exist. That the right expression to display wasn't enough. And no matter the sorrowful emotion nothing could communicate this gaping black void in her heart.

Yet—

"AAAAAAAAAaaaAAAAAaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

—She screamed.

Unexpectedly, she cried out.

Ryuuji saw those brightly blue eyes, once filled with happiness, peace, pleasure, order, and purity all mixed together, fall into chaotic disorder.

Against cynicism, they might as well all but dissipate like a mist.

Her voice seemed so fragile, so helpless---the vulnerability of an irrepressible emotion.

Her very being broke into pieces.

And...

A light smile appeared on Pride's countenance. It was as if he was saying 'Fight me with everything you've got.'

"On a scale from 1-10, how badly do you hate me?" He asked.

And Sloth spoke his answer.

"I'm hovering somewhere in the high thirties." Calmly and with not much emotion. "But truth be told I don't exactly hate you. If I’m being honest, I'm just not necessarily excited about your existence."

And to that, an inaudible chuckle left Pride's breath.

"Ha ha ha"

It created a stillness that percolated as it continued. It was low, scratchy, and indecent until his too voice was moist.

"Don't look down on me...Don't you dare look down on me you pompous shit!!!!! You know nothing about me, fucker!!!!! You know nothing!!! So stop looking at me with those sure eye's. I've always fought whilst putting my life on the line. I won't lose to a guy like you."

That repulsive, hate-filled fury dripped through Pride's teeth with ambiguous intensity.

“I’m going to enjoy killing you.” Pride spat.

“—Unfortunately, that’s impossible.”

But Sloth replied with no great solemness or vulnerability in his voice as if to stamp out and trample that sin's way of life.

This was a fight between two sins born within darkness.

Both men saw the other as friends that blocked each other's path.

The invincible walking fortress Sloth vs Thousand Blades Pride.

The third battle began.

That said, Pride was not the one who made the first move.

A great thunder-like crunch noise burst out as Sloth vanished from the edge of the boardwalk as fast as a blur.

He did not need to think twice about his actions.

There were thousands, no, tens of thousands of unique blades erected all about this ship.

The scene was very reminiscent to that of the harbor where many of the blades were of Eastern and Western descent.

None amidst them was simple to use.

He could not call forth the defensive support of his power nor did he have any weapon on himself to utilize.

It did not matter to him that he was playing into a trap.

Sloth knew only one thing; thus, after his landing in an area that was not in his immediate vicinity, he drew a weapon known as the Katar, that was positioned at his left hip.

Just like that, he was able to defend against 3 of the several thrown Kogai's fired silently from Pride's sleeves.

"Ku...ah—!"

But the block also obstructed his vision. And in immediate succession to that, a swung kawanaga hooked into his right armpit and pulled him into a jabbed Brandistock.

His body quivered

His abdomen roared.

Blood trickled off of the three invading metal prongs, but that sudden burning pain had flashed through his mind for all but an instant.

—The kawanaga rope was cut with the Katar.

—Simultaneously as that same time, the power in his remaining leg was also released and he leaped backwards at an extremely high speed.

That latter action created a heavy indentation at the spot where he once stood.

Even so, Pride did not seem concerned in the slightest.

"C'mon."──

The situation reflected a vicious smile upon his twisted face.

Pride dropped both the Brondistock and the Kawanaga rope before his left hand went for the Voulge slightly behind him.

──"I thought you of all people would grasp from this situation my one iron rule."

Although Sloth had no way of knowing of the complex pattern the many blades were arranged in, it is obvious the result was constructed to constrict melee combat.

"──Shit!"'

Sloth drew in a sharp breath at the rush assessment after the fact.

"──!!!!"

But also because he nearly avoided the 7-9 blades that were batted his way.

He had not bitten through his tongue.

Given his unsteady landing after his scrambled movement, he was very lucky he only got a couple of shallow wounds from the surrounding erected blades.

Sloth didn't have any time left.

The muscles of his lower body gnawingly creaked.

Right when he hurriedly jutted his body upwards, in spite of the stinging pain──

“Gh──!”

──That was when the attacks incessantly came.

Esther's cries were louder than his.

The sound of flesh being sliced was just short of a second to Prides laughing,

From all directions, swift and clean strikes cleaved off little pieces of Sloth's flesh via the use of any of the nearby surrounding blades

"------ gaa!!!!”

──Pride used a Tanto, a Butterfly sword, a Scimitar, a Kapinga, a Shotel, a Koujang, a Kris, a Fuetso, a Satsumata, and many, many, many more other sharp-edged weapons. And all the while, Sloth had his arms slashed, legs cut, shoulders sliced, chest hacked, stomach lacerated, back scored and etc and etc and etc.

But none of those wounds were fatal.

Despite the simplicity of Pride's actions, the scene took on a new form of "death by a thousand cuts" torture.

Sloth could not evade the clean cut for his left cheek by leaping in one moment nor could he do the same for the next aimed at his torso by ducking.

However, his options were not limited.

Pain did pin him down for the most part, but Sloth had finally managed to dodge.

His actions were curt.

He activated the vibration functions to reinforce his leg and sent the weapons in front of him to explode outwards.

*BOOM!!!*

There was an instant of an opening when Pride leaped backwards, hence why he immediately moved to close their distance in a single breath—His mouth opened wide, ready to sink his teeth into the other sins flesh.

And yet—

"Papaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!"

Gyehahahahahahahahaha!!!”

“...Hngh!?”

—Pride's eyes were the ones that flashed most with confidence and resolution.

The Kanetsura's Mito-No--Kami used the ship's Mast (the pole that holds the sail) as a vice to swing the weapon from behind for Sloth's neck.

Blocking the slice with a weapon wasn’t an option as he had none on him to speak of, and planting his leg as a crutch to launch himself into the sky posed an unnecessary risk.

His best tactic was to dive.

He knew that. However, it would not escape him from this certain death.

The air quivered near his right ear.

—Chang!

—Crash!!!

“Nnr!”

But he only felt pain and impact from colliding into the floor and the surrounding staked blades.

There was no reason to apply a rationale as to why or how.

This resolution was done neither by him nor by Pride.

“If you get ahead of yourself,"

“………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

All expression vanished from Sloth's face.

Those words did not seemingly come from the empty sea breeze air.

The cold as a cadaver voice, "I might end up killing you dully, you sea urchin swine." belonged to none other than the cardinal sin of Wrath.

....mean eyes, Esther thought would be the actual accurate description of the woman.

Her elegance and grace suggested a good family background. On her face was a beautiful smile. But inside her brown iris was a bottomless darkness.

She was slender and tall, with sharp brown hair that was accentuated by four small flowerily hair clips. She wore a ronin kimono-like type of clothing where black, red, and gray were the predominant colors.

She was also unarmed. Equipped with not a single blade on her person. Same as the spiky raven-haired boy dressed in an all-brown kimono right behind her.

"Ho? So you're her, huh? The true bearer of her name." Pride said, seemingly glaring at her with eyes that gave the sense they were gazing at filth.

“That would explain most of it, no?” Wrath remarked with a slight head tilt. "But why does a filthy lap dog of the organization care?" Her smile ran from cheek to cheek. "The Eye's dead. And you all still chose to come after Sloth in spite of that knowledge."

"Learn your place, you fucking bitch!!"

All pretenses were dropped.

Nine-styles Wrath went up against Thousand Blades Pride—The death match commenced.

"....."

However, Esther's sight was locked onto the newly arrived figure who just stepped upon the quarterdeck.

He had glossy raven hair and eyes that were just as blue as the ocean.

"...You're alright." He sighed with great relief.

But he was not her father.

Before she could say anything, the spiky-haired teen brandished a small blade and hurriedly moved to cut her hands free.

Then he crouched at her feet and outstretched his hand.

But...

"Why?"

The wind carrying the salted Seabreeze actually felt cool against her wet cheeks.

"Everything is so...." Her voice came out unrecognizably emotional, but Esther paused in silence to find her determination. "What did I do to deserve this?" She clawed at her head, dazed. "Any of it!!? Why do I have to give up my life back at home??!!! Why did Uiharu have to die???!!!!!!! Why?!!! Why??!!! Why????!!!"

Each word hacked away at the tenuous emotional barriers she nurtured.

Her body felt lethargic.

Her consciousness was fading in and out.

"I....can't." There was no longer any sense of impending danger in the face of that which threatened to swallow every part of her, "...I can’t take it..." bad and good until all that was left was a human-shaped shell too numb to feel pain anymore.

"......"

"......"

Silence enveloped the wooden quarterdeck.

Just how long it had lasted did not matter.

“...I should’ve...” An unbelievably unpleasant expression raced across that boy's face. "No. There shouldn't exist an excuse. Even if there were anything I could say it would come off as nothing but half-hearted and irresponsible. I… I knew what would happen." He tightly clenched his fist. "That know it all bastard was just using us for his own end and we let that happen knowing what would follow. And, amidst everything...I cowardly felt the need to mentally protect myself from thinking about your suffering and anguish. I chose not to think about it. I'm sorry. I am so sorry for hurting you, and I'm sorry for what I have to say next, but...I need you to understand—" That's when he took action. "Though it’s impossible to believe the words of a stranger," With his hand poised outwards towards the main deck. "that man isn't your father!!!" He spoke such words with great conviction. "He killed both your parents. My brother, and your mother!!"

“........M—O—T—H—E—R........”

Esther's body froze.

Her mind went almost entirely blank.

…Why do I feel uneasy?

Her brain refused to comprehend both the information and the situation.

She was only feeling the cruel bite of isolation; like there existed an ever-present reminder that she was a failure on every front.

She could not keep up.

People describe her as kind-hearted, but she was neither wildly naïve nor dangerously parochial.

What dwell in her heart was the desire for a singular wish.

But life already had a firm grasp on her.

Sloth read the situation right.

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Wrath was toying with Pride.

Multiple metallic noises burst out at such short intervals that they had all sounded like a singular whole.

When it came down to it, that was the best description.

Every strike was clashed and repelled.

Each time Pride made a swing with a newly acquired blade, Wrath would reach out for a different staked weapon, disarm him, then switch out for another to meet the next attack.

But it wasn’t as if she did not want to kill her opponent.

Nothing clouded Sloth's eyes.

He clearly saw Wrath pin Pride's body in place with her left foot and attacked his calf, abdomen, and jaw whilst dual-wielding two wooden Tonfa's

This was just a pure contest of strength. So only blunt weapons were used to attack Pride's body.

Wrath deflects all of Pride's attacks, parrying every thrust and every slash—sometimes with a high guard and sometimes with a low guard, wholly dependent on the targeted area.

And that made Pride bear a grudge.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrr!!!”

The Kamabo Pride wielded emitted a silver shine when it traveled a diagonal line along Wrath's Dadao.

But the impact sent a mass of blades flying outwards.

It would have been dangerous if Wrath had not escaped out of range by circling behind him──and was able to parry the Hozu hi Yari that was swung from behind.

This was the one time Pride had gained ground.

Even so, whilst facing the streaming momentum of the counter-attack, Wrath braced her right leg and mercilessly shot away at Pride's ribs with her left.

"Arghhhhhhhhhh!!!!"

Hate shrouded his expression. But he broke his fall, grabbed a nearby weapon, and sprang off even faster than Wrath.

And yet, all his slashes sliced through nothing, again and again, as the many streams of attacks were locked in every encounter. Meanwhile, there were multiple invisible attacks fired from Pride's sleeves and feet; however, even those too were deflected with great ease.

In an instant, Wrath hooked Prides swung Naginata with a Kama in one hand, curved its course upwards, and struck Pride's exposed back with a Jittei held in the other like an iron mallet.

There was a flash of light, as Pride's swung war fan fired more than just several hidden blades.

But the Hotosogi Wrath kicked up blocked them all.

This place was like an intricate maze of exotic weapons in all directions.

──The Khopesh Pride pulled out shrieked, cleaving the air apart.

──The Manrikigusari chains Wrath picked up roared, screaming with the wind.

The encounter came fast and hard.

In that swift moment of a collision, the chain countered Pride's upward momentum, wrapping around his neck, arms, and the hilt of the blade in a surprising blur of motion.

But that was not the end.

“It’s over for you.”

There was no elation or hatred in her voice.

Wrath's stomp on the extended chain forced Pride to drop to his knees.

Her right hand naturally reached for the Nodachi on the left. Then the final attack pierced through Pride's neck with the speed and form of a lightning bolt.

“…Uuh…”

Everything was swallowed up by the sound of victory. Or more accurately, the stretched-out noise of choking on hot blood.

There was nothing more left for her to do.

“…That thing your feeling." So of course, her words could only be directed at one singular person. "That's the same fear my family felt."

She was no longer staring at Pride. And what's more, she was once again empty-handed.

Sloth stood himself up with the support of the spar of the ship.

His lungs and his heart and his limbs and his brain wanted to rest.

"I don't give a damn."

He was beaten up, scarred, and ragged.

While Sloth's body was covered in cuts and bruises, and barely had any part of his flesh not cleaved off, Wrath was untouched.

"Smells like a lie."

His quivering muscles, creaking bones, and boiling cells all cried out to him in pain.

The invincible walking fortress Sloth faced off against Nine-styles Wrath.

The final fight went full force, with the mock seriousness of a thunder god's rage.

"Gwah—!"

That was to say, a clear hostility underlined Wrath's attacks.

There was a flash of light at one point, as one of the nearby blades sliced into his back.

Then── A great Impact that struck his abdomen instantly followed.

“Uwah!”

The fierce force of the fist caused heavy convulsions. Calling that tremendous strength “destructive” would not be too far off.

Either way.

It knocked the breath out of him and he did not have time to even move his limbs before Wrath pinned his neck to the floor of the ship with a Sasumata in one hand, then fired the spearhead bit of the shobo into his stomach more than 4 times with the other.

“Aaaaaaaaagh!!”

And that was all it took for his consciousness to flicker in and out; but perhaps it was by the miracle of him swallowing down the intense sourness of stomach acid, that he came to just in time to notice that he had been thrown across the ground.

That in itself was still an attack that was more than capable of cutting into his body from different angles. And that his neck or major arteries hadn’t been sliced by the impact rang another ominous grunt from out his throat.

“...Hngh!”

"Get up."

The pain spread and grew.

"We aren't done yet."

White wisps of his breath exhaled from his mouth.

Wrath did not even wait for him to fully form a fist around a nearby blade, as she immediately charged straight towards him at full speed.

There was no clash of metal. But from since the moment that he had moved, Sloth was not able to defend at any single point.

Wrath switched from bare hands to knives, she used a metal staff that segmented into 6 sections, a hard whip sword ribbed with iron bamboo-sectioned rods known as a Bian, and a pair of short flails nunchucks.

It could be a spear, a chain, a sword, or a sickle. Wrath's combat skills showed their results; She had first started off the fight empty-handed, but now she was wielding every blade picked up with such great proficiency that it formed a strange harmony.

Calculating the trajectory of her attacks did nothing.

He was covered in a very deep crimson red all across his body.

Wrath twisted his wrist and shifted her weight, using the momentum of her solid tackle to throw him over her shoulder.

“Gwaaaaahhhh!!"

He crashed into the wall, leaving behind a large red blotch on its surface.

Even so──

"You deaf."

──Events repeated just like before.

However…

"Stoppppppppp!!!!!!!"

This time something else happened.

Two people stood amidst the graveyard of blades surrounding the main deck.

The girl was tiny, petitely build, and had a pathetically uneven look to her visage.

The boy was 2 times her length and while not having the exact same expression, his face too was wavering complexly.

That said it all

"Hey—"

"Don't you dare, for one moment, lecture me—!!!!"

*Squelch.*

“Eek… aaah…!!”

Wrath's extended left hand twisted around Sloth's slender neck, whilst her right hand remained completely stationary in the air, hovering over an oddly designed shark tooth blade.

“Aah… aah.”

She constricted him with a quiet yet clear intent.

"You are either on my side, by my side, or in my fucking way. Choose wisely."

It did not look like Esther nor the boy were anywhere near Wrath or the ship's spar. But Wrath clicked her tongue as she gave a glance behind, at the boy.

Cautiously avoiding the staked blades, metal scraps, thrown down haphazardly, and strategically placed blunt weapons scattered about the ground, he drew near them both.

"You'll never understand until it happens to you. You already got what you wanted, so don't you dare try to dissolve away my conviction with those naïvely dumb platitudes!!" She venomously spat, then silence befell the main deck.

"...I admit it. You're right." But only for a while. " At the end of the day, I'm nothing but a selfish person. Who am I to take this away from you? I'm not perfect. My intentions aren't pure, and my gut finds it really hard to agree if this is even worth it. I've got nothing but my heart steering me here. But...this isn't just about my guilt or this girl's well being, I'm also worried about your state of mind. What will happen to you if you complete this journey? Will you remain stuck in this current internal predicament forever, or worse, digress into an even worse state. To be frank, it's stifling. To be honest with you, it's nauseating. I just don’t want to lose the current you!!"

"Don't! Don't do that. What the hell do you know about me!! He's a murderer, no matter how beloved he is to that girl!!! He is the cold-hearted, sadistic murderer who had killed both her parents and my family without a second thought!!! He is a monster without a conscience and he deserved this pain, this agony, this feeling of weakness…I'm not the good guy, remember? I take what I want, I do what I want. I don't do the right thing! Can I still have peace?? Can I still have happiness?? Just stop already with that kind of talk. Seeing all that I have killed, those who had their family members taken then died left with nothing—that doesn't matter. I have destroyed and uprooted many people's peace. This is the sins of the treacherous deeds I have committed. The seas of dead bodies, the lost Children who I have not even mourned...This is retribution. I have long since cried all of my tears. All that is left is just anger."

Letting loose an excited yet guttural scream, Wrath grasped the shark tooth weapon then swung it down from overhead.

"Noooooooooooooo!!!" Esther cried out in a shrill voice.

"You're not pure evil."

Though—it had been stopped in the next instant.

Delicate fingers folded around Wrath's hand.

If the blade had been a bit longer then it would have made contact with Sloth's neck.

The boy gently aided her hands back upwards.

"No. I'm much worse." Wrath says as she bites into her lips. "The person who I once was and the person who I needed to be were two different things." Her hand trembled in his grasp. "You shouldn't trust me, not after everything I've done."

"Even then, you are presented with a choice." He retorted firmly. "Look, I'm not asking you to move on, to let go of your anguish, or to get over your grudge. This isn't about considering forgiveness or reconciliation. But because you deserve peace, you need to completely collapse that notion that your past is a life sentence. It is a lesson. You can't change what has already happened, so don't waste your time obsessing over it! Focus on the future!!"

"My life. My choice. My mistake. My lesson, not yours. What? If I reject your proposal, then are you going to go side with them? If that happens, you will die. "

"Don't mistake my kindness for weakness! Make excuses or make changes. The choice is yours. So choose, Misaka!"

"........You are a real piece of trash."

A smirk appeared on both their faces.

"I'm often told that.

"You're an aloof idiot."

"I've also been called that, many times actually; mostly by a mean-spirited brown-haired girl."

"I'm actually ignoring you."

"Eh.....ah, sorry."

Silently, Wrath got up. She took a step away from Sloth.

"......Um......"

And at that moment, noticed Esther nearby.

“I get it, I get it. You care for your family to a reckless degree. But understand this, he is a weapon, a killer. Do not forget that. But I'm sure that will not change your nature."

The exchange only took a few seconds. But Esther had felt much more energy than the dissatisfaction held in that voice.

"Stop that."

“Ow! W-What!?”

That had, at least, subsided when the spiky-haired boy spoke.

But....

"Keogh—Oeugh!!"

Esther shook her head to disperse that thought.

"Ha. . . . . . Haaa. . . ha. . . haa!"

The sound of a pained breath reached her ears.

"Pa......pa."

Blood pooled below where he lay.

Slowly, her hand moved, reaching for his form that was near the verge of death.

Their eyes met. And, trying her hardest not to squeak, she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Is....it true?"

A part of her hope this was just a dream. A dream not grounded in reality.

"Yes."

Suddenly, Esther's gaze froze.

"Why?" She asked, her face on the verge of tears. That deep, hoarse voice was unintelligible; however, he, (her 'father') must have immediately ascertained at what it was she had desired, as he unhesitantly and coarsely answered.

"I was . . . ordered to."

At that pain, she slid to the ground, not caring about the blood, flesh, or blades scattered all about.

Esther lifted her face, her disposition now unabashedly broken.

"And me?"

Those words were the calm before the storm.

"I . . . just. . . just felt like it . . .There was no meaning . . . or reason. . . to it."

Tears flooded down her cheeks.

"... ...No... ..."

She could not keep that ruined glare from showing on her face.

"That's the . . .truth."

Her thoughts fell back on something Uiharu had once said to her.

"No."

["The true mark of maturity is when somebody hurts you and you try to understand their situation instead of trying to hurt them back."]

But what dwell in her heart was an extremely rare emotion.

One that was, for her, a mixed blur that was rarely pure and never simple.

Her quivering left hand reached out toward the eastern obsidian weapon.

Her father and she were truly different in every respect. This was obvious even back then when they took in that malnourished potbelly dog.

She grasped the knife, yanking it out of the wooden deck.

As the Misaka girl had said; he was the cold-hearted, sadistic murderer who had killed both her parents without a thought. He was a monster without a conscience and he deserved this pain, this agony, this feeling of weakness.

"HHRRRRRGGGH.…!!"

… But…

He was the one who raised her. The one who taught her everything she knows and the one who gave her the ability to smile.

…That's right.

“…Nnnn!!”

At the end of the day, he was her father. He was not perfect by any means but she owed to him everything.

Because of this, he was worth it.

Because of this, she chose a route that would not end in a nightmare.

Her palm let go of the oddly designed weapon. Then tightly, grasped Ryuuji's hand, as if in a prayer.

She knew this was a selfish way of looking at it.

Though his hand had previously brought countless people to despair—to her, that large hand was that of her fathers.

Some might question that.

Some might call that ignorantly guided.

She knew she was being soft.

She did not mean for this to come off as if mocking them for it, but— She was fine with those resentment-filled voices.

However...

".......ah?"

Esther's thoughts had ended there.

Her face went pale, and her mind went blank.

She turned to face her father.

The reason behind it was—In the wake of her impatience and anxiety, she had just now noticed Ryuuji's hand hastily losing its warmth.

Ba-dum. . . ba-dum. . . ba-dum. . . ba-dum. . . ba-dum. . . ba-dum.

“Oh no..."

Simply put, he was losing blood at a really fast rate.

Ba-dum. . . ba-dum. . . ba-dum. . . ba-dum. . . ba-dum.

The fact he could still be conscious was a miracle above mystique.

"....Papa..."

Cold sweat poured from her body.

Ba-dum. . . ba-dum. . . ba-dum. . . ba-dum.

"Papa, you can’t...leave me."

Her voice broke.

And still, she received no response.

Ba-dum. . . ba-dum. . . ba-dum.

With tears in her eyes, "ghh...papa...I won’t be able to bear it..." she murmured desperately.

Even so, Ryuuji did not speak.

Ba-dum. . . ba-dum.

-◆◆◆-

"……."

"Honestly speaking, I never really did understand your obsession with wanting to understand people. What is true happiness? Are emotions rational or irrational? And, what is the best way for a person to attain happiness? Jeez, what's with you? Why waste your time indulging in such nonsense? No, that's not the problem. Rather I should just say It seems too much of a hassle to take upon oneself."

".…I thought so.…Don’t you think that's being kind of unreasonable? You and I both know Emotional pain leaves deeper scarring than physical pain. I’d find it scarier if there were no route rhyme nor reason behind people's actions. There is nothing more terrifying than that which cannot be ascertained. You just don't understand how a woman's heart works."

"…Maybe I'm just tired. Yes, I guess I admit it, the world is full of monsters with friendly faces and angels full with scars, but that doesn't mean I can let my guard down. I'm a simple person who sees heroes and princes on white horses as nothing but ideal dreams."

"You might think that yet despite all of that and against all odds everyone craves to carve out a place for themselves, they are all instinctually searching for someone or something or just a sense of belonging and love to make their existence bearable; and in the end, they'd manage to form something akin to family. Yes, it is strange and unnatural and might have some fucked up dynamic to it but there is nothing wrong with trying. Every person needs a harbor, a secure attachment of love because without one we'd be in such pain, so lost, and shutting down. Then life becomes a torture we are expected to endure, surviving, but not living."

"Perhaps I just don't dream much."

"So that's your conclusion then?…….Well, are those features of yours really a product of your upbringing?"

"……."

"Sigh. That's the problem with you, you refuse to embrace hope. It's annoying..…But, If you wish to suffer to the bitter end, I wish you the best of luck in your extremely, extremely drawn out and merciless fate. One that will make you fervently plead for a rapid end to your life. This is the only thing that comes into my mind...but I don't know why it is. Think about the path you should take from now on and choose it yourself…Unexpressed emotions have ugly ways it will come forth later in."

"……."

-◆◆◆-

'. . . I see, so this is death. . . Everything ends. The thing I desired most. . .The thing that's been lacking in my life. . . The thing I've truly wanted. . . aah, damn. I'm a fool.'

. . .Ba-dum. . .

"Papa...." She called out to him once more.

And once again, nothing but silence flowed between them.

Sound vanished.

Hot tears spilled from her eyes.

"Papa," Esther whispered his name against his hand pressed to her forehead. But he was already gone.

“Ghgaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!"

She cried in anger. In resentment. In pain and in confusion. But most of all, she cried in earnest.

Her hands held his steady as her heart broke into many tiny pieces.

She made no attempts to wipe those tears from her cheeks.

Esther did nothing but simply cry.

'…What an ugly and miserable way to die.' Wrath clicks her tongue as she watches the scene with a darkened disgusted and irritated expression.

The boy named, Kamijou Touma, said not a word.

While she watched the heartrending and genuine scene— Wrath pondered somewhere in her head a really old conversation between her and Greed.

["......"]

["Do you regret it?"]

["....No."]

["Good. There is already a special spot in hell for us both. We might as well welcome it with open arms. Remember what you said, whatever it takes."]

["I know, and I have no complaints. It doesn't matter if they are innocent or guilty; man, woman or child, as long as I can get my revenge, then anything is worth it."]

If she had kept on following that line of thought, then that was a recipe to make the dysfunction become functional.

'......Thinking about that is meaningless.'

She abandoned her thoughts; to this time watch the young girl before her.

She was a girl who had defeated the filthy monsters.

'If only she wasn't the daughter of 'Miss breast-only sow'.'

It was a wish that couldn't have possibly been granted.

Mikoto let out a slow breath.

“…..”

My enemy…

Certainly has become pathetic.

Hair nearly as white as snow. Skin even more delicate than the fairest of the shogunates maidens and blood-red eyes that were telling of a stuffing story underneath. That was sloth. The organization's top mercenary.

But now...

Before her eyes, Mikoto watched that young girl cradle his bloody body, spewing out sounds that no longer formed into words.

And...

For whatever reason, She felt like stroking her head.

'To think that all of this was made possible because of a kid.'

No, there was a clear line there.

She had devoted everything for this moment. She had lived with the resolve to sacrifice everything for this moment.

Her heart felt uneasy for two reasons.

But she was already resolved to everything.

Mikoto let out a long breath after thinking through all that.

Greed had kept his promise.

And

She too had kept hers.

So in this case…She was the only one left standing.

—Wrath; The true bearer of her name.

For now, this is pretty much it for this story.