Gojouno Kaguya prided herself a realist.
Because of this, she felt it a forgone conclusion that she often butted heads with her polar opposite, that idealistic elf who seemed to think justice meant saving everyone. That was far too brainless for her to ignore. Quite simply, it couldn't be more wrong.
It wasn't possible to save everyone.
If it was, this world would be a lot kinder.
There would always be someone drawing the short end of the stick, and whether it was through a lack of luck or skill, a sacrifice was guaranteed.
Ryuu, foolish girl that she was, could galivant through the masses, saving as many as she could, believing she could make a difference. But while she was doing that, she was just ignoring her own hypocrisy, that by choosing a winner, she was also automatically choosing a loser. And this would happen regardless of popular opinion, without everyone being consulted, and all those involved remaining blissfully unaware until it was too late...
Yes.
Kind of like right now.
The dissonant ring of metal clashing against metal made Kaguya realize something had gone horribly wrong. There was also an odd sensation just barely tingling along the length of her arm, but she ignored that in favor of the far more pressing issue.
She had been standing upright not too long ago, hadn't she?
Now, she was nearly face down in the dirt.
Why had she willingly allowed her body to be placed in such a state? And why in Astraea's name was it so jarringly difficult to lift up her own head? Her neck felt far too stiff, like thousands of weights were boring down on it without relent.
Kaguya tried looking up from her prone position.
It directed her to the flurry of commotion happening not even meders away.
Multiple figures moved about, constantly shuffling to-and-fro like a game of keep-away, only it wasn't so lighthearted. They numbered around five, yet only one of them truly grabbed her attention – a girl whose crimson hair never stopped dancing as she pivoted, ducked, and seized forwards amidst the scores of blades swung wildly at her person.
"Seyyahhh!"
But no matter how they bunched up, Astraea's captain did not give an inch of ground while combatting them. Graceful to their sloppy, quicker and faster to their paltry, Kaguya just found herself watching Alise as she fought, expertly weaving around each of her attackers. Speaking of...
The four of them were all males, and Kaguya felt something grab at her chest at the sight of them. It wasn't immediately clear what or why this was.
Either way, the sudden surge of negativity that raced through her was startling, but not nearly as much as the dissonance that came with the fact that there was no immediate recognition to be had, none that she could see at the ready anyway.
But that jarring contrast would have to wait.
In every single one of their hands, there was the same weapon.
This wasn't so much a clue but an oddity, especially because of what form the weapons took. Daggers. Obsidian-like daggers continued to flash like lights under the Dungeon ceiling's artificial sky. Even stranger though, and it sent a confusing tingle down her spine, another color occasionally revealed itself amidst the black-stained steel's ceaseless trajectories.
A pale, sickly green.
If anything, it reminded her of—
"Gfffgfbbwh!?"
A tortured sound abruptly sailed raw and scathing through the open air, and Kaguya found herself immediately latching onto the only thing capable of making it.
She doubted her vision when she did.
Kaguya could only stare uncomprehendingly at the beautiful crimson-haired girl whose expression was now completely twisted with pain. And then at what was behind her – seemingly reveling in the attention afforded to it – the black handle that stuck out precariously from one shoulder blade.
Alise gasped unevenly as she tried and failed to look back at the blade inside her. The action just ended up robbing her of her balance instead.
Kaguya's mind creaked.
The sight of her slumping inelegantly to the cold rocky ground with that horrid black steel jutting upright, so cockily, as if it had any right to, caused a hot anger to wrap around her body like a cocoon. By all accounts this feeling should have extended towards the individuals who were responsible, the still faceless goons standing about, but that was not what was running through her mind.
What the hell was SHE doing?
That question dripping with self-immolation was directed at herself, the girl who was uselessly and incompetently watching this all from the ground as if it had nothing to do with her.
Kaguya grit her teeth.
Get your ass up, you lazy piece of shit...!
She forced her body into overdrive.
Heart thumping atrociously loud, Kaguya tucked her knees inward to leap to her feet, simultaneously reaching to slide the katana from out of its sheath. She did this all in one fluid motion. She definitely did. In fact, there should have been no reason why she wasn't already attacking the threat. That was why, in a twist that baffled her to no end, it was extremely strange when absolutely none of that happened.
Arms glaringly remained planked on the rough dirt.
Kaguya's heart started to sound off kilter.
It was as if to musically orchestrate the inescapable wrongness blaring into her skull.
She couldn't move.
Like it was numb, as if it wasn't even there – that was her body's state right now. Why in this godly plane had it taken her this long to notice? Questions piled up, a discordant feeling of dread sloshed around gregariously through her, along with a singular epiphany, one she didn't want to consider – hadn't wanted to. But there was no other explanation. This situation, this defective state of being, it was surely...
A brown leathery gloved hand reached for the knife in Alise's back and yanked it out without any hesitation.
Her friend's brittle cry of agony was like a slap to the face.
Kaguya didn't look away. It was more like she couldn't, wouldn't allow herself to, even. Gaze shifting to the arm the vile glove it was attached to, and after that, finally, at the person's face, she found herself sucking in a horrendously sharp breath.
The old adage, that ice was somehow capable of creeping into one's skin, a feeling she had never once understood – it was horribly familiar to her now.
And as if in some part aware of the freezing temperatures smothering her heart, the ecstatically grinning cat-man started laughing. The deeply unsettling pitch echoed clearly through the air that allowed it.
It was merry, it was joyful, and it was why Kaguya didn't have any problem calling it deranged as well.
A name came to her, even if the last thing she wanted to do was remember it. But that wouldn't happen, not with what he had done to be lodged in her mind in the first place, what he and others like him will only continue to do.
There was no forgetting the unofficial captain of that twisted Familia, one of the many that defected away from order and civility, the prospect of chaos seeming much more delectable.
And that was their business.
Chaos.
And this eerily smiling monster in human skin, too, knew of no other way to live as a member of Evilus.
"It worked! It actually wooooooorrrrkkkkeeeddd! I almost don't believe it! Please tell me you all really look that pathetic! Please tell me those absolutely petrified expressions on your faces aren't just for show! HAhaa!"
Like a lunatic, Jura Halmer trembled with undeniable glee. That he looked so genuinely sated, so satisfied, filled Kaguya with such an intense amount of disgust. The man looked not of an adult, but a child playing a game, hooting and hollering after finally managing to snag a round.
He spun around, looking everywhere he could, as if to savor the expressions of all the losers that had been caught in his trap.
Kaguya's insides squeezed.
Men, around a dozen, stood with weapons ready, all similarly dressed in those same rugged animal pelts and thick leather. It was makeshift clothing, the outfits of those that wouldn't dare be seen in broad daylight purchasing any other gear for a bounty would be placed on their heads within the hour.
Kaguya gave this the idlest of thoughts however, same with the all too familiar dagger being in the hands of more than just one. She also tried to ignore the expressions on their faces, the sheer relief there, and then the even more revolting and ominous emotion simmering impatiently beneath.
It made her sick.
Still, she barreled past it all, until she made it to the myriad of forms half-hazardly sprawled at their feet.
It hadn't been just Kaguya.
It hadn't been just Alise.
Looking so weak and helpless it pissed her off were the rest of Astraea Familia.
It should have relieved Kaguya that they were all alive, that they were all blinking and breathing. It didn't, not when they didn't make so much as a peep, not when she noticed the grimaces etched into each of their expressions, crumbling hope that seemed to seep away by the second as the situation was slowly dawning on them.
She wanted to pause that hope, keep it burning, even if it wasn't like her at all.
She couldn't.
How could Kaguya when she wasn't even able to muster up the courage to open her mouth, to say anything, anything at all to somehow cement the belief even to herself that she wasn't helpless?
In the midst of this, Kaguya's eyes landed on Ryuu, and her immediately lurched in her chest. But this was not brought on by sadness or despair. No, she wanted to smack the girl upside the head.
That stupid idiot...!
Ryuu had that look in her eyes.
It was the smoldering, all too familiar look of that elf, who had just seen an injustice happen before their eyes and would not even think about letting it go. No amount of pleading or common sense would be able to convince her otherwise. That, along with a glare hot enough to catch fire, was written ever so clearly on Ryuu's face as she stared at the gasping Alise.
The dumbass was seconds away from saying something incredibly stupid.
"Heehee, not bad for a back-up plan, eh?" Jura said with his nigh elated face, swishing something in his hand.
It was the reason they couldn't move.
Not the infamous whip still tucked away at his side, but another weapon.
No, it couldn't even be called a proper weapon.
Tinged with an all too unpleasant green, one Kaguya knew very well, had been forced to become familiar with, it was nothing more than a cowards' crutch. And those poisoned cowardly fangs that were currently slick with all their blood, Alise's too, the girl even now trying to stifle her pain...
This didn't do anything to soothe the trembling elf. And on cue, Ryuu's lips opened up in a snarl, seemingly no longer able to keep herself in check.
"Honestly, I must say I'm rather perplexed, Jura. Being the veritable cockroach that you are, I had assumed you had tucked yourself away somewhere, perhaps even to cry in the fetal position... Apologies, that just now was a lie. I was actually hoping that you kindly got yourself impaled. Ah, but don't feel as though you've lost your chance. Feel free to do so. I don't mind waiting."
The surroundings stilled.
The wide-open space had in that instant become as silent as a grave.
Her comrades' expressions, almost tangible in how much horror they belayed, would have been amusing if not for the situation, not to mention Ryuu's hanging jaw especially. Naturally, they were all staring at Kaguya herself, who just couldn't help stepping over Ryuu's rage at that crucial moment, just before it exploded.
I've really done it now... Without any real mirth, Kaguya smiled.
Rudra Familia as a whole looked equally as gob smacked, as if they simply didn't know what to make of the kind of girl suicidal enough to do what she just did. They shuffled and exchanged looks, right before gauging the expression of the person who had gone just as deathly silent.
And Kaguya couldn't say she knew how to take the long-suffering sigh that escaped the cat-man.
"You know, Gojouno... I'm actually glad it was you," Jura said in what might have been a wistful tone.
Kaguya didn't even get the time to ponder that.
The bottom of her head abruptly exploded in pain. She didn't even realize she had been kicked until flat on her back, loudly expelling breaths into the air. And the inconsistency that she had so obviously been on her stomach before too, also was slow to come to her. Was it because both her jaw and base of her skull felt like they were on fire?
Kaguya didn't know.
Jura had long vanished from view, the far-reaching ceiling of the dungeon taking his place. Even then, she couldn't be sure. Vision dipping in and out of focus, focusing on anyone thing was a challenge.
Her hearing was a different story.
A clamor of noises so closely resembling her name slipped through the muddled haze and into her subconsciousness. Kaguya instinctively wanted to rise to meet them, even if her brain could not readily find the reason why such a thing was necessary. The strength required to do so, however, was the far more pressing issue.
It was fleeting, just like her sight as a fast-approaching darkness began encircling her vision.
A boot slamming into her midsection woke her right up.
It was such an unexpected action, yet so ironically expected of the person who had done it, that even with her body seizing in pain, Kaguya couldn't have prevented the gasp-like chuckles that came out her mouth.
"...Tch. Annoying bitch. Don't teeter off just yet, Gojouno. We've still got things to do."
She slid open heavy eyelids to find the cat-man's grin looking down at her. No; she couldn't call it that. Calling it a grin was an insult to the facial expression. That was the only way she could define the cruel, twisted sneer painting his face. And it only seemed to grow viler by the second as he looked her up and down.
"I'm sure I could enact my sickest fantasies right here and now, and you, the insufferable bitch that you are, would make it your life's purpose to not react in the slightest. Oh, and as much as I want to, to try to pry that unbreakable heart of yours wide open, just for the sake of it, just to see if I can, I...!"
A shiver seemed to rock Jura's body as he suddenly quieted.
"No... I don't think I will. Instead..."
Without warning, the man got a lot closer, and any disgust Kaguya might have felt was put on the hold as a violent prick of pain stabbed into the base of her scalp.
With a disturbing giggle, Jura yanked at her hair, forcibly bringing her face upwards, and it cut off any attempt she might have had to look away. Kaguya was tempted to spit on him, if only for touching the one thing about her she didn't despise her parents for.
But such trivial resistance was dead and gone from her mind at the question that was so innocuously floated by that cruel voice. "...Hey, tell me Gojouno, who do you not want me to hurt?"
She forgot to think.
"HAHAHAHAHAAAA! SHE ACTUALLY DID IIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!"
Jura slammed her head down into the ground, and despite the imaginary stars that sprouted from darkness that was her own mind, and the abrupt numbness that followed all too swiftly, she didn't feel any pain. Not a bit. Kaguya didn't even taste the would-be grotesque flavor of blood and dirt travelling down her throat.
None of those physical stimuli even remotely registered.
Instead, an invisible, slow reaching rot squeezed her heart with thousands of barbed coils.
"...w-wait," a weak voice pitifully said.
Her own.
But the words reached no one.
They certainly didn't stop the footsteps from getting farther away from her and closer to someone else.
Kaguya looked up, and she saw what she did not want to see. Jura walked eagerly to the person, the one she had just condemned because she wasn't thinking, hadn't been able to, was the worst hypocrite alive for being unable to do the one thing she mocked Ryuu for. Even though Kaguya was praised for it, was known for it, she couldn't even use her head the one moment she needed to.
She just... reacted. She couldn't even stave off the kind of instinctual reaction only a child fell for. She didn't mean it. She wanted to take it back. But saying that implied she had meant to look elsewhere, that someone else should have been chosen in place of that person.
Kaguya's breathing suddenly got louder, heavier.
Yes; regardless of intentions, regardless of fairness, a sacrifice was made, and she was the one who had naively led someone headlong into it.
"Big bad Red herself, eh? Wow, didn't expect that one! HEEHEE!"
As Jura stopped before Alise, darkness threatened to swallow Kaguya whole.
"What do you have to say Lovell? Gojouno there just fucked you over. How does that make you feel? How big a wound did that just open in your noble heart? Hey, you gotta tell me. Don't leave anything out." The man was intermingled with impish giggles. His glee at the turn of events couldn't have been more obvious.
And Alise...
Alise didn't look good at all.
The girl was incredibly pale, and the blood she lost, hardly inconsequential, was made increasingly more obvious in the stains of red that surrounded her person. She was already hindered, unmoving like the rest of them, but, regardless, it was such an Alise, even with a visage wracked with sweat, that took a quivering breath.
"Do... as you wish..."
Jura was already laughing at the resigned words of the girl who couldn't even lift her head off the ground.
At least, until Alise did raise those emerald orbs.
"But... it doesn't matter. Even putting a dent in my heart... I won't allow it. This... This isn't spite, Jura, or anger... Justice... it means so many different things... and right now... it means saying the words... we're back... to our goddess, with everyone. And I... can't do that if I break... So I won't..." Those were the words that were said with a smile that had not given into the situation in the slightest.
"..."
Even when the Familia first started and it was just the two of them, Kaguya had always thought of Alise as powerful. She was something of a combat prodigy after all, and she worked harder than anyone to Level up.
But being powerful wasn't what made her strong.
That came from somewhere else. And Kaguya stopped trying to figure out where once she realized that Alise's soul was just that blinding all on its own. She didn't look to others for anything. She grasped what she desired within herself for the sake of others.
And it made her shine radiantly as a result.
Kaguya's vision blurred.
She wasn't losing consciousness, nor had the dungeon's faint lights dimmed. Wetness teased at her eyes, and she could no longer feign ignorance as to what it was. Silent and stifled tears fell. Something like crying... she couldn't even recall when she had last done so.
But then they fell down even more when those impossibly clear green orbs looked her way.
The words "This isn't your fault" weren't voiced in the slightest, but it wasn't necessary, not on the face that didn't have even an iota of betrayal or discontent.
It was the look of someone who thought it only right to fall on a sword so no one else had to. Such a thing, accompanied by an expression of utmost tenderness, shouldn't have been allowed.
It really, really...
Blood began to trickle down Kaguya's bottom lip.
"I didn't think it was possible to despise you even more than I already did, Lovell."
Jura's voice, almost muted by a heart cracking loudly in several places, her own, came out with such simmering finality that it left no room for doubt as to his feelings at the moment.
"I would say this is going to hurt me a lot more than it will you... but who would believe such a bold-faced lie... kindly suffer and then die screaming, you stupid bitch."
The cat-man didn't even need to snap his fingers or do anything of the sort.
The group of four closest to Alise instantly took that as their chance to scuttle forward, hurriedly sheathing their weapons. They wouldn't need them for what they were about to do – that was written all over their disgusting expressions now dripping with eagerness. Horror barreled into Kaguya like a hurricane, and then at the hands that reached out without qualms.
"Stop..." she said from her front row seat.
That kind of futile opposition... not a thought-over riposte or anything close to it, but rather just the instinctual words of a victim. It was the reaction of someone so irredeemably weak. That was the only kind of resistance Kaguya could muster up... and words could not describe how much she intensely hated herself for it.
Closer and closer the hands got.
Juuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Unvoiced yet red hot, her scream burned to the point where it could have just as easily been sent flying – hoarse, ugly, and piercing into the cold open air with how deafeningly loud it was in her own head.
Or maybe that was Jura's sudden crescendo of cackling laughter?
Or was it the rage-filled wailing of the feminine voices she had come to know?
Kaguya couldn't decide, couldn't think of a way to decide. Yes. She couldn't think. Her vision blanked in and out, on and off, like someone was covering her eyes without her say-so. As such, and with her sight blurring, each tear ridden blink had Alise vanishing, returning, and vanishing from sight again and again, with each time making Kaguya terrified that they would be the last.
...Oh.
She was terrified, scared.
She was scared of this situation.
She was scared of the malicious looking backs that had nearly reached Alise.
She was scared of being as weak as when she had been trapped in that lonely manor.
She was scared of the future that awaited several minutes – no, even several seconds from now. But more than anything else, Kaguya was scared that she was scared. There was no longer any use pretending she wasn't. She was, without a doubt, completely and utterly—
"Well, that's far enough I suppose."
Kaguya's heart started to beat extensively loud in her chest.
The voice that suddenly echoed, male, was different from any of those present, and it caused the scene in front of her to freeze. It certainly wasn't Jura's, and it most definitely wasn't that of his cohorts.
Kaguya knew this.
She knew this because she had heard the voice before.
It wasn't intimidating. Wasn't commanding either. Instead, it treaded the line between indifference and casualness. But it was different, so very different, and that was why she couldn't believe that she had forgotten all about it until now. Just as she had somehow failed to notice the figure that appeared in tandem with it.
Someone now stood impossibly close to an Alise who had been surrounded by those who wanted to break her.
No.
He was standing in between them as if he had always been there, as if imagining anything different was the true illusion.
That was the only conclusion Kaguya could come to with the jarring difference between what was and what had surely been. This discordant confusion gripping her had nowhere to go, and so she just did what everyone else in attendance was doing and let instincts take over.
Yes; joining the widened eyes and parted mouths, Kaguya stared dumbly at the masked blond now standing almost shoulder to shoulder with an Evilus member almost a full head taller than him.
"Y-You! How did—!?"
The speed with which the four men nearest reached for their weapons were definitely worthy of their high statuses, being the Three's and Four's that they were.
That being the case, it seemed a matter of course that Kaguya was seconds away from witnessing the moment in which they leapt forth and attacked with the enigmatically present blond doing the same, even though his true capabilities were still completely shrouded in mystery.
But.
Movement, attacking, battle...?
Such a rationale spectacle didn't happen in the slightest.
Because it was over before it even started.
One of the four, despite the hands that were touching his weapon's handle, never even pulled on it. Kaguya found this strange. No, what was stranger was the man wasn't even looking at his opponent anymore. He was far too distracted looking downward. But his gaze was not on the conventional looking mace at his side.
"Oh, did you finally notice?" a voice asked, somehow sounding both kind and cruel.
The Rudra affiliate shivered in response.
Two things became apparent to Kaguya's brain in that moment.
The first, and the reason why she suddenly doubted her eyes, was the fact that the boy was not empty-handed.
The second was the very cruel line that now marked the taller man's exposed chest.
Color fell from it in the next subsequent moment.
Dark, wet, and thick liquid began to drip out from the man's now open wound with startling quickness, and the blood that stained the ground did not show any signs of calming down.
Something sturdy followed.
Kaguya could only blink at the sight of a man shooting bulging eyes at the ceiling from his new position on his back. He made no attempts to get up from the ground in which he lay. His expression and unintelligible croaks, however, clashed with this.
But no sooner than she could blink, the one garbled cry of disbelief tripled.
Three other Evilus members just as succinctly hit the floor.
It was surreal:
The way her captors were now staring uncomprehendingly at their unresponsive bodies, no, the specific parts that were somehow cut and slightly bleeding. It wasn't a fatal wound. Not even close. But because that didn't matter, because the unfathomable stupor they were experiencing wouldn't just be disappearing because they wished it, she knew they would not be getting up any time soon.
And it was also why Kaguya knew there was no way Rudra could have ever expected the situation to unfold like this.
Not this reversal that just didn't seem possible.
Her teammates by chance caught her eye and... it wasn't even anything they were doing. It was actually something they had been doing but now weren't.
Their faces that had been pinched with unbidden fear, Kaguya couldn't even begin to describe the dissonance of seeing all that tension practically erased from them.
It was as if a certain someone had stolen it all away.
And that someone continued to casually spin an all too pointedly poisoned knife as if it had nothing to do with him.
"W—... Wha... W-What the fuckkkkkk?!"
In what seemed to be a delayed reaction, Jura's whip cracked the air loudly as he jumped backwards. His own green tipped dagger hadn't been stowed, but rather gripped tightly in his other hand in a defensive position. And of course, his frantic gaze was cast forward at the only one capable of taking it at the current moment.
The blonde man with the drawn-on smile waved.
"Y-You bastard—where did you...?! No, how are you even...?"
In not quite so little or many words, Kaguya was wondering the exact same.
She wasn't sure of a lot of things the moments before their... ambush, but she vividly recalled the most flashily dressed one among them being the first to hit the ground, courtesy of a flying something from the forest. And that something had surely been...
Kaguya couldn't refrain from swallowing, making her realize just how barren and dry her throat was.
What did it mean that the boy was now holding what was obviously one of Jura's poisoned daggers?
The blonde didn't answer any of these questions, and Jura growled when it became clear he had no intention to. Beyond the fact the mask was looking Jura's way, it wasn't even clear he was paying attention.
Despite this though, as if his discontent was a mere change in the seasons, Jura started to chuckle.
"Does any of it matter?"
He cracked his whip left and right.
"We still have you outnumbered. Who cares that you somehow got your hands on some of our stuff? And getting a good look at you, aren't you, like, hella weak? What the fuck is that outfit, ripping everywhere?"
Jura nearly doubled over with giggles.
"Aren't those just fucking dress clothes?! What Level are you anyway? Can't be very high if you have to pull tricks like this! Aren't you just the most unfortunate bastard of all time? Do these bitches even know you? I've certainly never seen them with a blond male on the surface. ...Ha? Are you actually just some stray whose party got slaughtered? Hey, you are, aren't you? Don't tell me that's it?! Hahaha!"
As the cat-man continued to uproariously laugh, growing more and more satisfied with his own impassioned dick measuring, Kaguya was starting to become concerned as to what the boy's plan of action was.
He... was just standing there.
She could see his chest rising and falling. Beyond that, he would occasionally twirl the knife he was holding in one hand. Even so, the silence on his part just continued to stretch on. He couldn't be frozen in fear, could—
Eh?
Very subtly, to the point where Kaguya thought she had imagined it, that mask suddenly looked at her.
Even then, there was no way to know if those black formless eyes were looking at her in particular, but soon it no longer mattered if she was the recipient of that gaze or not. Regardless, what he did next confirmed in the clearest way possible what his lack of saying anything meant, and that it was in no way indicative of him being intimidated by the Evilus member not even a few meders away from him.
And Jura's laughter suddenly ceasing, might have been him reaching the same conclusion.
What the boy did was simple, childish even. Looking Kaguya's way, and with the other hand that wasn't holding the knife, he mimed a particular gesture with it. His fingers and palm opened and closed incessantly, and if it wasn't obvious enough, he unashamedly began to jab in Jura's direction with the knife's edge.
Not a single word was said, and she still felt like she knew what he was saying:
This guy seriously isn't going to keep droning on like this, right?
Kaguya felt her lips twitch.
"Haahhhh?"
Jura did not feel the same amusement. His lips noticeably pulled downward, and not a single trace of his earlier cocksure amusement could be found on his face.
Saying he looked angry was too vague, too general. Such an expression was closer to madness, as if he was seconds away from jumping several levels up from what he initially planned to do with his all too cheery mood. This was even more obvious, concerning too, when the cat-man started to tremble.
"You're... mocking me? Me? Really? Okay... Let's see if you're still having fun a few seconds from now. You know, I'm glad that black demon didn't rip you and them to shreds. Really, really glad. It would have been too quick. Too painless. I can take my time now. You thought what I had planned for these girls was bad? Heehee. Beg all you want, I'm not gonna stop until you're reduced to a quivering mess, on your knees, screaming, pleading for me—"
The mask whipped towards Jura at speeds that even caused a flicker of surprise to appear on the man's face.
He recovered quickly, and his grin turned wolfish. "Ha! So you finally under—"
"Are you... like, propositioning me right now?" a nigh-perplexed voice asked.
The oppressive quality in the air flickered.
Kaguya felt her jaw fall.
Jura's face scrunched up undecipherably.
It was only after a very stifling five seconds of opening, closing, and opening his mouth again and again that something barely intelligible finally come through, like his brain was whirring with great difficulty trying to come up with a response to what he had just heard. And even then, after what felt like forever, it was simply...
"...Huh?"
All that killing intent had vanished from the murderer in an instant.
But the boy hummed through it.
"No, no, don't look like you're about to have an aneurism, I'm just... surprised you swing that way? I mean, with what you were saying and doing earlier, I could have sworn... huh, well I suppose it doesn't really matter. I guess there are just all kinds of bandits these days. Ah, I'm rambling. Look dude, I'm really flattered, but I'm not into guys. Sorry."
Kaguya's concussion was more serious than she thought.
That was the only way to explain the auditory hallucinations her ears were providing her. And it wasn't even that far-fetched either. Drop-kicked a few meders via a kick in the skull would do that.
At least, this is what she was thinking until she got a look at her companions...
Oh my gods I'm not hallucinating...
Otherwise, Kaguya didn't think it was possible for strait-laced Ryuu Lyon to look so ineffably lost. The sheer depth of the elf's flabbergasted visage... it very much couldn't have been because of anything else.
And the reason Kaguya knew this was the girl's expression was scarily similar to when Lyra laughed herself to tears explaining to the elf that cute, green-clothed fairies didn't actually have anything to do with why a man and a woman suddenly found themselves with a baby.
That was the kind of face Ryuu wore right now.
Perhaps Kaguya should have questioned it a bit more, surveyed the others too, but she forgot to do even that as the conversation between masked boy and cat-eared man continued to escalate.
"Are you—are you being serious right now?" Jura looked like he had reached the tipping point of something, most likely his sanity. Also... Kaguya was made to wonder if he realized just how incredulous and weakly devoid of confidence his voice sounded.
"Yep," the boy answered, popping the 'p'. "Men don't do it for me at all. Checked and everything." There was a brief pause that ended with a little chuckle from the boy, as if he was thinking of something funny.
No, even with that extra tidbit of information...
Kaguya was not sure how she was supposed to react to that.
What even entailed the process behind—no, no. She couldn't get distracted. It would be all too easy to space out and do so. Though, she was all but sure that Jura had not meant it in that way when asking his question. He definitely couldn't have.
Red began to seep into Jura's face.
It wasn't shame or embarrassment.
"Wh-What the actual fuck are you blathering about, you crazed piece of shit?! Do you really want to die that badly?!"
Someone started clapping.
The boy was, having suddenly reversed the knife's handle, looked at Jura.
"Wowwwwww, okay. So just 'cause I wouldn't have sex with you, its death? Well excuse me for not jumping at the chance to fornicate with a cat-eared forty-something with a dick. Some of us have standards you fucking pedophile."
The rippling indignation of the content of his words clashed jarringly with the dryness of the voice carrying it. Not to mention the mask's off-putting smile...
What was actually happening right now?
"What the fuck is happening right now?!"
Kaguya didn't know how to feel about reaching the same wavelength as her captor.
"A-... And I'm not even close to forty, you... you... you braindead fuckwit!"
"Don't worry, I believe you. That's what dog years are for."
"ARGGGGHHH! THAT'S IT! I DON'T FUCKING CARE ANYMORE. I REALLY DON'T! GROUP UP AND KILL THIS... THIS... THIS THING! I WANT HIM DISCARDED ALL OVER THE PLACE IN THE MESSIEST FUCKING CHUNKS POSSIBLE! FINISHING BLOW GETS A WHOLE BOTTLE OF SOMA—ON ME!"
The change that caused was electric and dirt and dust kicked up like an explosion.
The seven Rudra Familia members did not need to be told twice, not as steel sang and blurred, several weapons being unsheathed and already swinging towards just one person, all in a singular instant. And it was a matter of seconds – no – even less than that before the distance between them disappeared completely.
Even Alise had trouble dealing with four and then a subsequent fifth. This many, all being 2nd tier adventurers that which transcended what it meant to be human, there was no way this masked enigma would be able to fare any better. And it was exactly as she thought. It took no time at all for a sword lodged itself deep into his neck.
Or, that was what would have happened if the blade hadn't stopped just shy of making contact.
Un-concerningly, the mask leaned away from it as if it were a minor annoyance.
"All kidding aside though, you guys don't really have time to deal with me at all, do you?"
The flippant casualness in his voice was gone.
Jura hadn't told his men to stop.
That was not the reason a blonde-haired head wasn't rolling in the dirt right now. He wouldn't have even been able to get the order out quick enough even if he wanted to.
It was not a sudden bout of kindness from the boy's attackers either.
No, they only stopped because they were left with no other choice.
Jura's ears twitched, no doubt hearing it first.
And then Kaguya and everyone else.
Because in that instant the forest started screaming as if alive.
"RYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Kaguya's vision shook.
A sinister and oppressive feeling wrapped around her insides like a coil and squeezed.
There's... no way.
How was it?
How was it that she couldn't even see it yet and be this terrified? But that was inconsequential. Her mind was presently filling in the gaps for her, against her will. Two crescent shaped infernos radiating the intent to kill. Carried by a body jet black. Sleek with unimaginably sharp claws.
"Y-You're fucking with me! How can it still be alive?!"
Jura's face was far from its usual color as he faced the forest.
And then a second sound rang out.
Kaguya's heartbeat felt like it had disappeared entirely.
From the completely other end of the forest, screaming in tandem with its other, such a similar terrifying noise plagued the ears of all those in attendance. And the situation further seemed to descend into insanity. A third one sprouted up. A fourth, fifth, and sixth. If any more had joined the cacophony, Kaguya had already lost the will to notice.
The impossible array of the ravenous screeching only continued to overlap with each other, as if drawing strength from its kin. And it only further turned the already foreboding forest into a singular chaotic entity, capable of turning all her nightmares into reality.
Yes, this was a nightmare.
There was no way it wasn't.
Yet Kaguya couldn't so readily believe she would wake up like nothing happened. She would have to see this through to its arduous end. Her mind cowered, crumbling bit by bit by the mental image that those several impossibly-present Juggernauts were seconds away from bursting from that tree line and—
Someone laughed.
"Wow, you really fell for that?"
.
. .
. . .
A wet squelching sound licked the air.
Kaguya strained disbelieving eyes.
An exuberant amount of blood shot from Jura's mouth, and the cat-man cast feverishly frantic eyes to the blade buried in his side, before slowly cocking his head to the only one who could have done it, the one still holding the weapon within black gloved hands. He could barely manage even that though, but he should have definitely been able to see the face of his attacker, right before unceremoniously slumping to his knees.
That mask just sanguinely grinned back.
"Y-You—gfffffbleaahhh!"
Speaking proved to be impossible for the man as the blond boy suddenly ripped the knife from its fleshy prison. Jura immediately splashed the ground around him with red, to which he immediately fell face-first into.
Footsteps unhesitatingly crunched on the dirt.
The boy was now standing in front of Jura.
"Saying it should have been easy to differentiate an electronic feedback from the real thing... well... perhaps that's too cruel, huh?"
Jura's features, dyed in his bloodied viscera, rose. The man looked terrified. "Who... who the hell, are you?"
Kaguya knew she would never forget the sight of the boy dipping his mask in a mocking bow, right before his arms fell neatly into etiquette as well. And despite their boss' state, not a single Rudra member rushed in to aid him. They were likely just as stricken as her. With awe? Terror? It was likely both. Regardless...
The boy introduced himself.
His voice was merry.
"I'm the unlucky bastard who got the call for help. Let's get along."
Seconds passed after that.
Or perhaps it was minutes.
Kaguya didn't know.
She did know that a weak noise eventually escaped past her lips.
That it was actually laughter wasn't something she had been immediately able to place. But it was. Weak, nervous, and haggard, yes, but laughter all the same, in a situation where it probably didn't make an iota of sense.
But she found no matter what she thought, how her heart was still beating out of her chest in confusion, disbelief, and about a thousand other emotions, she found this tired amusement absolutely rooted in place.
Her realist mindset, it seemed, was still far too weak.