Gou, if he'd had time to think about it just a bit, would say that he saw it coming. But he didn't, not really. From the moment Rio said "If I truly have a sin" Gou knew the next words were to be "Ken Dan." But he didn't foresee it, not really, because hoping desperately for someone to not say that one thing leaves you open to surprises.

He didn't try to fool himself that Rio hadn't said it, or that he didn't know Rio's intentions. As he climbed the steps to Rinju Den, he reminded himself that he absolutely could not say anything to Rio that Rio could take to imply that Gou was trying to change Rio's mind.

Trying to change Rio's mind might bring up memories of the last time they were on the same side. Something Gou definitely did not want to bring up, yet he was absolutely certain it'd pop into both of their minds sooner or later.

As Gou reached the last of the stairs, he had to take a minute to just stare. What had seemed like an unbreakable fortress a few days ago was in ruins, still smoking faintly from the fire that had destroyed it. Rio was sitting at a spot a ways off from the ruins and Gou wondered how Rio could've beared to do it. But he hadn't been the one to make Rinju Den his home after betraying everyone he knew who gave a bit of a damn about him.

Must have been galling to have had them proven right and you wrong.

Mele turned to him as he stepped onto the grounds proper, but, though he was sure Rio had to have sensed his presence, Rio didn''t move. Typical Rio.

As he approached the place where his friend was sitting (on his mantle?), he wondered what he could possibly say as a greeting. The last time, it'd been as enemies. And they weren't exactly best friends or even friends anymore.

"…Yo."

Rio didn't reply. Not that Gou blamed him.

Only because he had known Rio so long did Gou see Rio's slight inclination of the head. Mele, on that command, decided to take a walk around the ruins.

"So this is it, huh."

Rio turned to look up at him, but Gou turned his gaze away, to somewhere at the corner of the former Rinju Den. Tried not to literally smack himself for bringing up the one subject (one of the subjects) he'd wanted to avoid.

Gou stuffed his hands in his pockets and wished Rio would say something.

"You were right."

Funny how Gou knew Rio would say that yet when Rio did, Gou couldn't think of a response. Though that was getting to be staple with Rio, these days. When Gou looked at Rio out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rio had turned his head back to facing the ruins.

"That doesn't matter." Rights and wrongs didn't matter anymore, not to Gou, not to Jan, not to Miki, not to Ken. It'd never mattered to Mele. Gou wasn't certain why it mattered to Ran and Retsu, why it mattered to Rio. But because it did, Gou would not question it, and Mele would, as always, follow Rio unquestioningly. Although it was kind of pointless to question that which you already knew.

The silence stretched on for a long time, longer than either wanted to leave it, yet neither could think of the appropriate thing to say. Rio was a stranger to Gou now; so much had changed in the years Gou had been out of his mind. Gou could no longer predict Rio any more than Rio could remember the normal, everyday Gou that he'd forgotten. There was no more to discuss than recent events, which Gou was trying not to mention and which Rio was trying not to think about.

Gou stuffed his hands in his pockets. "You still owe me—"

"I've thrown it away."

Rio didn't even snort as he said it. Gou had to wonder at exactly when Rio became so humorless. Must have happened sometime between getting headfucked and getting mindfucked.

Gou was not going to suggest a spar. While that seemed a good way to pound out whatever seemed to remain between them, it just didn't seem...appropriate right now.

Especially when Rio was...injured?

"Rio—!" Gou said abruptly just as Rio twitched the corner of the mantle over the part of his leg that had been, for a moment, exposed.

"Just a burn," Rio said quietly. "I was careless."

Gou couldn't bring himself to say what he meant. "...Retsu and Ran aren't to fight you if you're injured."

"They're not going to know." Rio looked sharply up at Gou, cutting off Gou's protest. "You're not going to tell them."

"That's not—"

Rio snorted. "I can beat them both without any effort. They're not going to—"

The moment Rio cut himself off, Gou realized just how gratuitous his protests were. Rio's recent injury made no difference whatsoever in the Ken Dan he had every intention of losing.

It was hard to tell who sighed. Maybe it was both of them, an expression of the heavy burdens they bore. Gou couldn't help but feel his was the heavier. After Rio had made his peace with himself, Gou was the one who was going to have to live with Rio's decision. But Rio—

"I know you know the reason, Gou," Rio said, looking at something at the ground that must be irrepressibly fascinating, "...It's only right."

Gou looked up at the sky so he didn't have to look at Rio pretending to be pious. After all of this after all of this, Rio was concerned with what was right?! Gou would've punched him if he didn't think Rio wouldn't punch him back.

Gou closed his eyes and forced a deep breath. Because he did know. Guilt for your very existence. Wasted potential. The feeling that someone, something, out there was making an entire cosmic joke of your meaningless existence. In a faraway lifetime, Gou, after all, had had to return to the orphanage while Rio went down the hall of the dojo to the room his bed was in. Miki had held both of them when they couldn't bottle it all in anymore, when tears refused to obey your will and betrayed you and tricked your body into betraying you too, when training wasn't enough to take out all of your anger at mom and dad who shouldn't be dead they promised they promised they'd come back but they didn't why whywhywhy the world on. In Rio's case, it had been true. An instrument, a puppet for a demented immortal's games.

There were some who weren't strong enough to take that. There were some, like Rio, who only wanted a bit of closure. He'd been seeking it all of his life. Only now was he taking it in his own hands, on his own terms. Gou just wished Rio had at least thought of those left behind.

Rio looked up when he heard Gou move and sit down in front of him. The sight that met him was a cupcake held under his nose. "Kore wa? What's this?" he asked, taking it.

Gou didn't answer, and instead turned to call out behind him, "Mele! You come too."

Mele came out of hiding from behind a still-somewhat-standing column and when she joined them, Gou gave her a cupcake, too. Holding his own confectionary in his hand, Gou fished a candle and lighter from his pocket and stuck the candle in Rio's cupcake.

After lighting it, Gou looked up at Rio's face, framed and highlighted by the flickering candlelight and the setting sun. "Happy birthday, Rio."

Rio stared at the flame a moment, and then leaned forward and blew out the light.