"We need to spar." I said.

"What ? Why ?"

We only had met yesterday but I could tell Isamu was a nice kid. He could be a bit meek, but once he got a bit of momentum he became quite the motormouth, it could be pretty annoying but it was also a bit endearing. But most importantly he was genuine, he wore his emotions on his sleeve and I could tell he wasn't going to shaft me unless his hand was forced. The fact he was for now the only human being I met that wasn't actively hostile also helped. I wouldn't let him go to his death.

"We can't stay holed up in here forever, at the very least we need to explore our surroundings. So I need to know if you will be able to hold your own in a fight."

"I-I don't know. I mean, I fought once or twice before but that's it."

"That's why we need to spar. Now come on, don't worry about hurting me, I'm confident I can easily handle you, give it your best."

He hesitated for a few seconds before making his decision. He ran at me winding up his arm. What followed was perhaps one the wimpiest, most telegraphed, and overall terrible punch I had ever seen. I was pretty sure that if it actually landed his wrist would receive far more damage than my face. Obviously I didn't let it, it passed by my head harmlessly and continued a bit on its track. Now that he was overextended. I grabbed his arm and swiped his legs.

He landed unceremoniously on the floor.

"You told me you fought a few times before." I said sternly.

"Yeah, I didn't say I won." I was willing to bet they were more one-sided beat-downs than real fights, but at least he was willing to fight, he did try to jump me when we met.

I sighed.

"Alright, I'll at least teach you how to throw a punch. First put your arms in this position."

What followed were three horribly frustrating hours where I tried to impart the basics of fighting into a kid who could probably get mauled by a toddler. Indeed, if there was something I learned about Isamu it was that he had no natural talent for hand to hand combat whatsoever.

It may have been hard but I was now confident he could punch someone without hurting himself, and put up a halfway decent guard.

That was the bare minimum, but it would have to do. I had plans for today.

Once he had recovered enough I started explaining.

"Like I said earlier we can't stay here forever, this place is a death trap. We need to get out of this district to find one more civilized. I want to go and see if we can find any exit to this place."

"Nice, I-I agree. The furthest away from this place I am the happier I'll be."

"You're coming with me."

"Wait what? Why? You saw how much I suck at fighting! I'd get killed out there, it's better that I stay inside, no?" he protested.

"I can't leave you alone here. If someone comes while I'm away you're dead. We will certainly have to fight if you come with me, but I taught you enough to at least buy the time needed for me to rescue you. I'm not leaving your side until you're good enough to win a fight."

"Oh-uh-alright..." He was worried of course, I couldn't blame him for that. But he needed to get out too, the fighting experience he would inevitably need wasn't something I could give him in the shack (I wasn't calling this thing a house).

We left the place near noon.

The roads were still as shitty as yesterday, but at the very least people were less likely to attack now that there were two of us. The only problem was that Isamu was constantly fidgeting under the stares of the locals. I couldn't exactly blame him for that but it needed fixing, so I went into a small alley out of sight to talk to him.

"You need to calm down Isamu, everyone can see you're scared." I said.

"What?! Of course I'm scared! Have you seen those guys? I'm pretty sure every single one of them were contemplating various ways to kill the both of us!"

"That is why can't afford to look scared. Confidence is a strength in itself. If people believe you are confident in your strength, they will believe you are strong." I explained.

"But I am weak! You saw how terrible I am at fighting. If someone decides to attack I'm dead anyway… I should have stayed in the house. At least then I wouldn't have been a burden." He then started to ramble.

"Look, when push comes to shove, I'll make sure you survive. But right now, you need to follow what I tell you to do, alright? Do you think I've always been as good a fighter as I am? Hell no. When I was your age I'm not sure I would have even been able to beat you. But in a few years I managed to get myself to the spot I am today." I calmly explained.

"Dead?" Smartass.

"No. What I mean is that I will teach you to make sure you get as good as me. But for that I need you to do what I say. Understood?" I tried to speak gently but firmly. No sense to bully him into compliance, I needed him to respect and follow me.

He nodded

"Alright…fine. I'll…do my best." He said weakly.

He still seemed uncertain, but it would do. We resumed our walk through Zaraki, this time Isamu was trying his best to remain dignified. And failing. You could tell a mile away it was only a façade. I wasn't going to correct him again. I didn't expect to pull off that kind of poker face instantly, just that he tried. It would come with time.

Considering I went South yesterday, my goal was to continue on this path until I found something worthwhile or we were short on time. Having a base of operations, as shoddy as it was, was something important and I needed to keep in mind the time it would take to get back. Maybe it was foolish. There was also merit in moving continuously, especially since there was nothing to the shack in the first place. But I simply didn't feel safe doing it.

I was pretty sure Lisa would have picked apart this choice before explaining to me why my various biases were clouding my judgement in that particular regard. I wouldn't even have been able to get mad.

I missed her.

Sure, Brockton Bay had been terrible but at the very least I hadn't been alone. Isamu was nice, but he was more a desperate bid to find a semblance of stability than anything. It didn't help that this place showed scenes that could easily compete with the Slaughterhouse's once in a while. It seemed some people fancied themselves "artists" around here. I just hoped my skills would be enough to fend them off.

Thankfully after about 2 hours of walk we had hit something: a 3 meters high stone wall that stretched out as far as I could see. It was near immaculate, which sharply contrasted to its surroundings. That was good. Very good. It was the first stone construction not in disrepair that I found. That meant that there were people that had made this wall and maintained it. And they were presumably on the other side.

Now all I had to do was cross it.

"AAAH!" Isamu screamed in pain.

I turned to him. He was clutching his hand as if it had been burned, his face scrunched up in pain. I took a look at his injury. That was no burn, it was as if the first few layers of skin had simply disappeared.

"What did you do?" I said urgently.

"I-I just touched the wall. Nothing else I swear!" he said in a panicked voice.

I picked a piece of wood on the ground and touched the wall with it. The surface of wood in contact with the stone was disintegrating, and fast enough that by steadily pushing it I could see it shorten to half its size in a few seconds.

Fantastic.

I left my stick and went to bandage Isamu's hand. I had picked up some pieces of cloth from my victims yesterday. It wasn't gauze, but it would at least limit the chance of infection.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yes…I'm fine. What was that? I…I've been burned before. I died in a fire. But this…" He looked troubled. But dead in a fire? As far as ways to die go, this was quite far on the painful end. To die like that at his age…

"The wall disintegrates everything it touches. I don't think you would have ever met something like that before." I answered. That dubious privilege was reserved for those deep into the cape life.

"Disintegrate? What does that mean?" He asked.

"Reduced to dust. Imagine all the components of you hand, beyond even what you can see, being pulled apart. That's what happened."

He shivered.

I turned my attention back to the wall. We obviously couldn't just climb it. It would eat through any kind of object we would use. There were other options though but I wouldn't take any risk. My experience told me to never take chances with shit like that unless you didn't have a choice. If this wall was made to deter anyone from climbing it, a reasonable guess considering it disintegrated trespassers, why would the builders have ignored other ways to cross?

I picked up a rock and threw it to other side of the wall.

It disappeared in mid-air. Just above it.

I could guess it would extend below the ground too.

Was there really no exit?

I climbed the closest shack.

The wall stretched out beyond the horizon in a slight outward curve. An absolutely gigantic circle. And we were outside.

Inside there were more slums. As far as the eye could see. There seemed to be no escape from it. Was there even a way to go further in?

I climbed down. Isamu was waiting for me, still holding his bandaged hand.

"So, what did you see?" He asked.

"Nothing new beyond the wall. There's just more of this." I made a general gesture towards where we came from.

I considered our options. We could follow the wall to try and find a gate to go towards the center of this place or stay in this district. To be fair that wasn't a real choice. No way I was going to stay here for the rest of my unlife.

We needed more information on our surroundings. But how to get it?

"Well well well well well…what do we have here? A bitch and her small pet."

I turned around. Three thugs were approaching. They didn't look like much but they were armed with knives.

"Hey Jin." Called the tallest of the bunch "What do we do with bitches?"

"We break them." Answered the named Jin with a raspy voice.

"Isamu, stay behind me." I called. He obeyed.

"Ooooh, look at that! Mommy wants to protect her baby chick." They laughed. "Don't worry we'll make sure he is alive long enough to watch." Absolutely revolting.

I just stood there, feigning restrained terror.

Jin was the one on front and he decided to get up close and personal. His weapon was sheathed on his belt as he was confident of his superiority.

He went to punch me.

I deflected his punch in the direction of his body, picked up with my other arm the knife I hid beneath the belt of my robes and plunged it in his throat.

Several gasps later and he was dead on the ground or soon to be.

His companions were slack jawed. They clearly didn't expect me to kill the man, never mind so fast. And then they…laughed?

"Bwahahaha! Did you see that?! That was awesome! Jin-heh-just went like he was hot shit, and she-hehehe-just killed him like-snrk-that!" The tallest looked like he was barely holding it together. The other one, a small stocky guy was just smiling, trying to stifle his laughter.

"You know what?" The tall one continued. "I like you! Jin was getting on my nerves lately anyway. I was probably going to kill him one of these days."

"I thought everyone got on your nerves." His comrade pitched in.

"Well yeah Juro, but that doesn't mean I hate everyone equally you little shit!"

Juro rolled his eyes in response.

"Anyway." The neurotic one continued. "My name's Arai, nice to meet you! And you are?"

I debated in my mind the merits of telling this guy my real name when my thoughts were interrupted a few instants later.

"Hey! I asked you a question dipshit! I just started liking you, don't make me regret it!"

"I'm Taylor."

"Nice to meet you Taylor! Now why don't you ditch this worthless kid and join us? It'll be fun!"

I looked behind me. Isamu was staring at the pool of blood near the dead thug, seemingly in shock.

"No." My answer was without hesitation.

"Big mistake girly. You let down a great opportunity." He replied.

He drew a knife and nodded at his comrade who went to circle us, probably trying to get to Isamu. As Arai started approaching I drew another knife from beneath my robes and readied myself.

He started running. He was fast. In a few seconds he was on me. I couldn't backpedal or I would inevitably hit the wall, so I dodged to the side.

I had never been that good with knives, preferring the less lethal option of a baton, and I was regretting it. Arai was good. His technique was pretty rough, the mark of someone who had to learn on the fly, but effective nonetheless. He was extremely aggressive, forcing me to constantly move, but I had to be careful of not getting too far from Isamu or the other guy would get to him while he was defenseless.

I took a cut on my thigh, then on my left arm, blocked another swipe, attempted a body shot. He finally relented a bit.

I couldn't afford him to dictate the tempo of the fight. This time I went on the offensive.

My technique was not as rough, but sloppy. I tried to compensate by preventing him from attacking altogether, keeping him on the defensive.

It didn't work that well.

"Hahahaha you got spirit girly! I think I'll show leniency and give you another chance to change your mind when you're bleeding on the ground!" He said joyfully, smiling all teeth.

I didn't reply, I didn't want to waste my breath on banter in a situation like that.

We continued like that, a few shallow cuts exchanged and then we stopped. Gauged each other, thinking about which one of us was going to make the first move.

And then I heard a cry.

"You little bastard! I'm going to kill you!"

I turned my head to see Isamu on the ground, the other thug had a knife in the shoulder and was on top, punching Isamu repeatedly.

Fuck! I had been too distracted to notice that.

And now I was too distracted to notice Arai attacking. I turned just in time to barely be able to dodge the stab, leaving a deep gouge in my side rather than a full-on disembowelment.

I grabbed his extended arm and pulled, allowing me to knee him in the chest.

I then kicked him away and ran towards Isamu with the few seconds I gained.

Isamu was desperately trying to protect his face while the thug was wailing on him.

I picked him up by the neck of his rags and threw him to the side.

He fell face first on the wall.

"AAaaaAaAAArrnNHhhgrrRh!"

The scream was absolutely horrific. White smoke was flowing from where his face and hands were disintegrating.

In the end he fell to the side and somehow managed with the last of his strength to slightly roll away. Despite his arms reduced to bloody stumps and his face having been shorn away, he was still breathing.

Isamu threw up.

For my part I had gotten used to that kind of thing, so I focused back on my previous opponent.

Arai was standing in place, seemingly fascinated by the scene.

I wasn't going to let him get back to his sense.

I rushed him.

The moment he saw me he prepared himself to stab when I came in range, and I did the same.

He blocked my swipe and I grabbed the hand he was going to stab with. I impacted with him and we fell to the ground.

We both lost our knives and the fight degenerated into a mess of limbs. Both us trying to gain the upper hand on the ground.

It was dirty. Barely any skill was involved. I scratched his face, he bit my arm, I threw dust in eyes. It was just a mess.

I managed to get on top of him. I hit him again and again and again and again and again.

His face was bloodied beyond recognition. His nose broken beyond healing. Blood was flowing from several places where the skin had simply given in. I doubted he was even able to see in this state.

In an act of desperation, he managed to grab a rock and smash it on my injury.

I fell to the side, surprised by the sudden pain.

I recovered quickly but he tried to go on the offensive.

He tried. Severely concussed, nearly blind there was little he could do but crawl on me, desperately reaching for my throat.

I grabbed the rock he used and hit his head. He went down.

"pleaaase" he rasped out.

I ended his misery with another hit.

It was done.

I slowly got my breath back, letting myself destress.

I got up and picked up both our knives before going back to Isamu.

He was sitting on the ground, clutching his head.

That had probably been the first time he had seen something like that.

I knelt down to his level.

"Isamu." I called. No response. "Isamu, show me your face." I insisted.

Slowly he relented. The brute had done a number on him. Thankfully his nose had not been broken, but he would have a lot more than a black eye. Worse even, his eyes had a faraway look. Tear tracks marked the blood on his face.

I gently tried to clean his wounds with what I had.

"How?" he asked.

"Hm?"

"How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Do what you did. You didn't even flinch when you killed that man. When that guy was burned by the wall you just…stood there and went to the next one. It took all I had just to stab someone. Just…how?"

I knew what he was talking about. In my beginnings I needed bugs to hide my nervousness. But over time it just wasn't necessary anymore. I grew used to approach those things matter-of-factly.

"You just get used to it." I said.

"Get used to killing? That's…terrible." He looked down.

"Yes. It is. But sometimes you don't have choice. Sometimes it's kill or be killed." I said carefully.

"You…killed a lot of people…didn't you? Did you always need to?"

A very hard question. I indeed killed a lot of people. Most of them were the Slaughterhouse clones of course, I didn't regret killing them for a second. There were also the death I caused as Khepri. I refused to admit I had been responsible for that, or to think about it for that matter. I did what I had to do. But three came to mind. Did I really need to kill them?

"I…Yes, there had been no other option. Look, I'm not asking you to be able to kill on command, but you need to be able to do it in time of need. You will look back on it, perhaps regret it, but at that moment remind yourself that you had no choice. It was your life or theirs."

It was harsh and probably bullshit but it would make him feel better. And when the time came, when he would be directly responsible for someone's death, the blow would be lessened.

I got up and extended my arm to him.

"Alright, come on. We're going back."

He grabbed my arm and I pulled him up. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

"Shouldn't we…bury them?" he asked.

"Do you really think that they're worth it? Besides, aren't we already dead?" I said half jokingly.

"Heh…Alright, let's go…"

The trip back was strangely uneventful.

The next one wouldn't be.

Neither the one after.

In the distance an inhuman scream could be heard.


A.N.

Alright. It's done.

I apologize that it took so long to come out, for a few weeks I had my finals so I had to concentrate on that. And after finishing the chapter I realized that my pacing was complete shit so I had to push half of it to future chapters and write something else. Thankfully it also means that part of next chapter is already written.

On another note I played the LISA games, and oh boy that was something. Easily one of the best RPGs I ever played. And more than that it stays with you. You don't forget it for a while. So, yeah, there's a good chance it will bleed into this story once in a while. Nothing overt of course, this isn't a LISA crossover, but I'll take inspiration from it.

Thank you for coming back to this story even after all the wait. Don't worry the next chapter should be coming very soon.