Rogue Huntsman

by Xera Stark

Sure, he ran a bar, but it wasn't like people liked him. He just had good alcohol. When the past starts finding its way back to the surface though, he and his info-broker infiltrate Beacon for answers, only to find a mute kitsune and a forging introvert on their team alongside them. It wasn't bad, he just despised how much he was actually starting to care for them. (Yuri warning)

52. Unraveling

Rogue Huntsman

Unraveling

«»

"Can you only make wires?" Skyla asked, knife and fork now in her hands as she cut a carrot apart. Apparently, the fox faunus liked carrots.

"No," I answered blandly.

"So… you can make other stuff?" she asked.

How intuitively stated. It's a wonder people think she's an idiot. "I can."

"You just like wires, right? In a wire phase?" Skyla pressed, setting her knife down.

"Not a phase. Just a method," I replied. And before I gave her another chance to ask an overly simplified question, I elaborated. "Singular strands tend to be more versatile and tensile, and harder to break and sever when bundled. It's why ropes and coils work effectively."

"Oh, so you're totally into the whole 'stronger when working together' spiel. I like that in a person," Skyla said, pressing her cheek into her palm again before lightly plucking up a carrot bit with her fork.

Our chestnut-haired adopted faunus popped her small mouth open to let Skyla feed her more. Other than that, she kept a wide eyed, curious stare that bounced back and forth between whoever was talking.

Damn that gaze… it was aggravatingly adorable.

"Doesn't always work. People tend to get more in the way of each other than be of mutual benefit," I replied back, tryingmy best not to spit venom with that kid staring at me like that.

"People always let you down, huh?" the brunette asked lightly, plucking up another bite-sized slice of carrot when the young girl stopped munching and swallowed.

That was an understatement. "Not everyone." My thoughts immediately turned to one person in particular, even if she had moments where all she ever did was let me down.

She was the one person I actually depended on, in that way.

"Who's the lucky few?" Skyla asked suddenly, her eyes brightening in attention. She looked like a prairie dog whose name was just called. "Do I count? Am I in there? I bet you I'm like-"

"You're not."

"-fifth or something. But okay, that's fair too," she finished, squishing her cheek back into her hand as she fed another carrot to the fox.

That all didn't go to say I can live without depending on others. It was always grating to know I was cursed with a Semblance that functioned around the very thing I despised.

"You know," she started again, turning her amethyst eyes to me. It was alarming, in a subtle way, to be able to recognize the moments when she suddenly dropped the act and touched on a more serious subject. It was the same feeling you got when something wasn't a joke anymore. "Most people have weapons that enhance them, not limit them."

I wondered where she even managed to draw that conclusion, with the random bare bones nonsense we'd been chatting up for the past few hours. "What makes you think mine works differently?" I was genuinely curious how she came to that, and the feeling pissed me off.

Why the hell did I care about that?

"The way you use it," she explained, and it only raised a thousand other questions in my mind. And she knew that too, with that sickeningly sweet smile of hers. "When you threw that guy through the window, you pushed your Aura into him. It was the only way you could transfer your energy into the window's broken glass to fix it after shattering, using his physical body as a carrier."

My eyes grew dark beneath my hat. But a startled gaze from the young pair of hazel eyes staring widely at me immediately brought me to sever that looming shadow over my face, my hand reaching up to lift the lip of my hat.

Albeit annoyedly.

I didn't know which side of Skyla I hated more. The side she didn't take seriously… or the side she did.

"You've limited yourself to just one point on your body where you're allowed to release Aura. And in doing so, you can only do it in strands," Skyla continued, making all the right assumptions somehow. And I counted all of it to her being able to read me like a book. "Those strands are your way of threading your Aura into your surroundings. Through the air, through objects, it comes down to the same effect with whatever outcome you want it to result in. Reinforcement, weaponization, creation, temporal tampering, it all starts with that glove."

I watched her sigh, my gaze staying piercing but neutral as I attempted to glare without boring a hole through her. Not for her sake, but for the hazel eyes still staring warily at me in innocent uncertainty.

Skyla sighed. "Makes me wonder why you keep it on, if it's just a limiter." Her voice carried a genuine curiosity as she settled the weight of her head back into her hand, gaze sweeping aside.

"Maybe it's not for a good reason at all," I said, feeling the severity of my gaze fall away. The way she was piecing all this together… made me wonder if she figured all this out today. And just how terribly effective she'd be if she ever took up a job under Anoel and her information network.

All of this… It was all for Skyla's personal interest. Not for lien, not for anyone else, just her going about her day, thinking about her life. She caught all this with a glance at best.

Exactly how much was she capable of… if she actually dug for this information?

"It's from your father, isn't it…?" she asked, calmly plucking up another carrot bit.

She figured that part out too, but I blame her stalking me to their grave for that one. "Like I said, not for a good reason at all."

"But it is, isn't it?" Skyla deflected, giving me an unreadable gaze over her arm as she lifted it to feed the young girl beside us. "You wear it because it connects you with him. It's not like that bar you run, something you can't take with you. It symbolizes something. Like he used it to teach you a valuable lesson, and you're still trying to figure out how to learn it."

I felt my glove tighten beneath my clenching fingers, the fabric of Ahrulian pulling taught against my skin as Aura flooded down into the cloth. This whole conversation… all of it… made me wonder where, how, and why Skyla became this way.

Where did all of her come from, how was she so perceptive, and why the hell was she bothering to do any of this with someone like me? Someone whose first thought upon meeting her was why she had the death wish to come near me.

The first thing she did that day was spin my banter around to take control over a downward spiraling atmospheric fear. She took a situation and fixed it because nobody else was doing it, or capable of doing it.

She filled the role of the fool so fluidly and easily, it was hard to realize how much of a genius she really was. How smart she really came across as.

And this whole talk gave me even more reason to firmly believe if you had so much as a single loose seam in your exterior, this girl was capable of tearing you apart with a single tug of that hanging strand.

"It was his last lesson," I finally answered, letting the Aura accumulating in my palm recede back up my arm. With it, I exhaled an invisible breath.

"I wish I could've met him," she murmured. It wasn't like the false sympathy she gave me back at the obelisk. It was a genuine desire coming from her this time, and the unreadable gaze in her eyes slowly turned away to feed another piece of carrot to the fox. "Your glove has nothing to do with your Semblance, from what it looks like."

'From what it looks like'. Exactly what does it look like, Skyla? "You know, I haven't exactly seen you use a weapon in all this. But I bet it doesn't have anything to do with your Semblance either," I cut back. Not everyone had something that amplified that side of them, just extended what they could physically do as a person.

"You use it to extend your Aura, but also limit you. Which leaves me to question what exactly is powering your Aura up as much as it is," Skyla explained, keeping her gaze on a set of attentive hazel eyes this time. Staring at the girl with distant affection. "Your Aura gets stronger through the people around you… doesn't it…?"

I think I made up my mind about which part of her I hated most.

All of her.

And she was putting all this together… how, exactly? "And how'd you come to that?" I asked, through grit teeth.

"When I first saw you at Beacon, you were really irritable. Like the place physically made you sick," she said, her gaze slowly tracing down our fox faunus' hazelnut hair. "It looked like you were acclimating to the place somehow. And over time, you actually got more approachable."

She smiled, and the fact I still couldn't read into her made it all the more annoying. But it wasn't her perception that kept aggravating me.

It was the growing respect I was building in regards to her as a person.

That's what was pissing me off the most.

"I figured it was just the people, and you hated people," she offered, and she had every reason to believe it was as easy as that. But it wasn't. "But… you don't actually hate people, do you…? You just hate new people. You hate needing to adjust to new people, because everyone's different to you. It's not like how people are different to me or anyone else… Just, to you, everyone has a different taste to them that effects you in one way or another. Weak and powerful alike."

This was what she was putting together today. This was why she was tagging along with me. I was just another mystery to her…

And she solved it by the end of a single day, just by interacting with me.

"It explains why you hesitated down in the ocean, when the water was collapsing in. You knew you couldn't protect me, so you ran. My Aura wasn't enough to give you that kind of boost." I watched the way she blinked, talked, fidgeted, breathed, and it all came down to a single word. She was calm. Bored. Like all this, at the end of the day, wasn't what interested her. "But at Beacon, you were able to protect the entire school from a sieging Dremoha."

She'd caught all of this, and more. And I had nothing to say for it.

Because she saw straight through me.

"That leaves your restructuring of molecular bonds through backtracking time as just a capability of your Aura, then. Like what you did with that window and your glass," Skyla concluded. "It has nothing to do with the Semblance itself. Just a property of who you are as its owner, whose soul generates the aspects of that energy in your Aura… The same way not all Aura can heal as fast as others, and not all can deflect damage or regenerate as effectively. Everybody has their unique special properties…"

Her gaze turned to me when she said that, and for a split second, I managed to read a single emotion resting inside her amethyst eyes.

Intrigue.

After all she said… that was the only thing that intrigued her? Was that the only thing about me she didn't understand?

"Oh, shoot!" Skyla suddenly gasped, and I blinked in silence. Just like that… the entire conversation's mood shifted back to where it sat before. Back when it all didn't actually matter. "She ate the entire carrot already… Do you think she's still hungry?"

We both looked at the hazel eyed fox faunus as she swallowed down her last bite, looking back at us as innocently as she did before Skyla fed her that carrot.

She ate two more.

---

Arex finally took her hands off the wheel when the car pulled up to an abandoned diner, veering away from the mostly empty streets behind them.

It was rundown and boarded up. And it looked like it hadn't been used or refurbished in the past decade, considering the outdated style Arex recognized.

Her eyes drew past Kitsuki's curled up frame to lean over their two seatrests, peering through the kitsune's side window to see the brick walls crawl by as the car drifted slowly into the alleyway.

"So, this was where it… happened?" Arex asked softly, being careful not to wake the kitsune sleeping on her heated seat.

Again.

She really liked seat warmers.

"It happened in the alleyway. It was like… a radial pulse. Flash of light later, and I'm five again," Dante said.

"Just like that?" Arex asked lightly. She would've thought it'd be harder to cast any magic on him.

"You sound surprised."

"You just seemed more resilient, is all," Arex offered back, turning her gaze to the backseat now that they came to a full stop.

"Given the way my body is, I do have incredibly high resistance to magic." Putting it… lightly, she guessed. "But there's exceptions at times. While I do have my natural resistance, higher tier magics still affect me, not by much mind you. Even so, when there's magic like this involved meant to directly affect the body, it'll work only the one time and never again afterwards."

Arex pursed her lips a little as she put that together in her head. He had an adaptive immunity of some kind?

To magic too, no less?

She was a little envious, despite how little magic she was exposed to. Or, at least was consciously exposed to.

She was pretty sure she wasn't quite cut out to resist any kind of spell… or magic… or really anything remotely harmful to her body except fire, actually.

She really wasn't resistant at all.

"Despite the fact that you'll be immune to it once it wears off, assuming it'll wear off," Arex started, drifting her strayed gaze back to Dante, "it was still powerful enough to get past your normal resistances to begin with? Are we up against something that strong?"

And in this area, too? If they were even still here?

"My body's built up against high offense magic, the really destructive kind. Fire, lightning, wind, ice, you name it. Trapping magic isn't as much of a priority in comparison, so it'll work briefly. This kind of thing that happened to me is more along the lines of prankster nonsense. So either someone did this to me on purpose, or I might have tripped some weird lingering spell defense."

Arex wasn't sure where her Affinity fell into that category, or if it was any kind of magic at all. It… really didn't feel like it was.

At least, not in the way Dante was associated with.

"If there are traps, will you be able to sense them now that they're here?" Arex asked, knowing full well she lacked any kind of capabilities of doing the same.

"Unfortunately, my sensing skills are subpar compared to my partner's. At best, I only excel at detecting life within a short distance, which has been the only thing I've ever really needed in fights. Despite that, I'm pretty sure that was the only trap. Maybe," he explained, glancing out the window.

Another reason why it would've been better to have brought Inuba with him than Arex and Kit. But she at least understood why he was avoiding her for now.

Given his current state.

"I… really don't want to become a five-year-old. Or even younger, since my magic resistance is probably pretty abysmal," Arex replied, lowering her gaze as she situated herself back into the driver's seat, keeping her leg folded under herself to stay turned toward Dante. "Is there a chance there's any residual heat those leave? Or the magic in general?"

She can at least sense that.

"Considering it wasn't a landmine spell trying to blow me up to kingdom come, I don't think so," he said, opening the car door before stepping out. "Relax little bird, I'll walk in front."

Arex was still unsure why she was here, then, but she nodded her head and drifted her gaze back to Kitsuki. The white fox was still fast asleep in the passenger seat.

"GHOST, will you look after her?" the phoenix asked softly, popping the handle to her door as she pushed it open.

"That's my job, isn't it?" The AI responded courteously.

Arex smiled lightly to that as she stared down at Kit's sleeping face again, then pushed herself onto her feet as she stepped outside.

Dante walked around front and tapped at GHOST through the windshield. "And don't do anything stupid that'll mess up the car. It's from a friend, so I'd rather it be in one piece, understand?"

"You mistake me for someone incompetent. Messing with the car could hurt Kitsuki, and that would be a breach of protocol." The AI crossed her arms and appeared on the hood of the vehicle to stare at the boy disdainfully.

"I was talking about the systems, but sure, take it that way then," Dante retaliated, turning to walk off.

"Don't tell me how to do my job then," GHOST replied harshly.

They were… really at each other's throats.

"After your maker's latest blunder, I don't have much confidence in his ability. Or anyone allied to him for that matter," he said back.

Arex gave Kit one more look before closing her door, keeping the action quiet to avoid waking her.

"Come on, we've got work to do. You can fantasize about petting her and stuff later," Dante said, nodding her way as he walked into the alley.

"I'm just… worried," Arex muttered. They were in an alleyway, in downtown Vale, with a potentially powerful magic user sitting around with a possible interest in Dante. Whether that was a good or bad interest, it still left her partner in a vulnerable position. "Can GHOST drive her around while we're here? She'll keep nearby, and it'll ensure the car's not just sitting here while we walk around."

He glanced back at her, and she almost expected an irritated glare from him. But it was just a neutral stare. "Fine, she can do that. Now let's go already. The longer we wait, the worse off we are."

The car slowly started pulling out of the alleyway as Arex turned around, starting to follow Dante further into it. "I don't think I like the sound of that…"

Was he expecting to run into the person responsible?

"Figure of speech little bird, not meant to be taken literally. Now quit acting like a pigeon and calm down already." He looked back at her, and she wondered if it was to check if she was following closely or not. "I may not look it, but I'm still damn tough despite being bite-sized."

Arex frowned a little at that, not sure if he really just meant it as a figure of speech. "I can't help it, I don't like alleyways."

The phoenix looked behind them for a moment to see the path clear of any car, GHOST having driven off already. So she quickly caught herself up with Dante and fell in line behind his smaller stride, glad that it was at least a slower pace than average.

"Are you always this jumpy?" he asked.

"N-No?" Arex tried to offer, but knew it wasn't at all convincing.

She just… had bad history with alleyways.

"Just relax already, it's not as if some interdimensional demon is just gonna rip open a portal and drag us through. Unless… What day is it today?"

The girl's eyes immediately dipped to the ground as they walked, feeling her body tense up as they walked further into the corridor.

"C-Can we just focus? What exactly are we looking for?" Arex hurriedly asked, not wanting to think about what Dante just said. She was tense enough as is.

"Jeez… You people need to relax…" he said with a sigh. "Abnormal residue, slivers of floating energy, etc. Just about anything very out of the ordinary."

Arex internally whined at his first comment. She'd love to relax, she really would. But she hated alleys like this. She didn't have the same safety nets Dante did, so the only reason she felt even remotely safe here was because he was with her.

And he was actually competent in fights, or any other kind of intimidating situation.

She wasn't.

"Will I be able to see them?" Arex asked distractedly, trying to shift her focus back to the task at hand as she started paying closer attention to their surroundings.

"That you will. Stuff like this is visible to anyone unless it was specifically cloaked."

Arex slowly nodded her head as she dropped her gaze ahead of them, trying to make out any kind of glints of light or color in the shadows of the alleyway.

She was starting to think that finding it wouldn't be so easy, though.

"Where did the last one go off?" Arex asked. "The one that turned you into… well…"

She switched her gaze to him for a moment before sighing at her lack of words. "A kid."

"Around where I'm standing…" he said, stopping ahead of her to stretch out his arms before he started searching the alley floor. "But what was weird about it was that the pulse was already about halfway when it reached me and it kept expanding further outwards."

"So, you weren't at the epicenter?" Arex asked, confused. She came to a stop as she scanned the walls with a curious gaze. "As in, the pulse came from somewhere nearby?"

Was this a kind of magic that can travel through matter? Like walls?

"From what I can remember, it sort of spread out from this side." Dante moved his hands toward the wall of the diner, drawing Arex's gaze to it as well.

"If the pulse came from inside, then it might not have been targeting you at all," Arex said, roaming eyes catching sight of a partially boarded up window before making her way over to it. "Unless it was an indirect trap of some kind that stillhad your name on it, but was somehow triggered through a wall."

"It doesn't have to be specific targeting though. It could have very likely been a proximity based spell, where if someone else unfortunate enough walked through here like I did, they'd be bite size instead."

"Why would they prime the spell inside then if it gave its pulse a higher chance of missing and hitting someone random?" Arex responded, eyes peering through broken glass between a couple wooden boards to see a dark, empty room on the other side.

Other than the fact it looked creepily rundown, it didn't display anything out of the ordinary. All it did was play with her anxiety.

"Unless it was in defense of something?" Arex continued curiously, leaning away from the window again.

"I was just about to mention something like that. The way proximity spells work generally is by detection of abnormally high levels of… well, I guess it's appropriate to call it Aura now since that is basically what it is instead of the older term we used," Dante voiced back.

"So, Niro would've set off the entire block then…" Arex muttered, stepping away from the wall to make her way back to Dante. "If it was in defense of something, then it was pretty poorly designed if it gets triggered by people powerful enough just passing by outside. It only attracts attention in that event."

"To clarify, it wouldn't have spread throughout the block, just the small area around the diner. Secondly, it may have been attuned specifically for especially high Aura Reserves, like mine or Niro's. Which means someone could have been having a bit of an issue with someone really powerful and didn't have time to attune the spell to a specific Aura Frequency."

"So, it's getting more likely that this wasn't targeting you at all. And I wasn't talking about the singular pulse," Arex clarified in return, stopping beside him as she turned her gaze back to the diner. "Niro's Aura kinda… permeates a lot. It's not contained. So, if there were any other traps in the area, he would've set them all off, even if he was two blocks over."

She frowned for a moment though as she looked to the window again, fighting back the urge to bite her lip.

"We're… going in there… aren't we…?" she muttered hesitantly.

"You really need to chill out little bird, otherwise your heart might actually explode like a pigeon's from being intensely stressed out. Relax, even if there were ghosts or spirits inside, they'd sooner screw off than come into contact with us. So long as you stick close to me," Dante reassured.

She… really hoped he was right with that. "Sorry. I'm just… not good with these kinds of situations. It's hard for me to relax in them."

She'd been focused enough to be distracted from those feelings just a moment before, but they were quickly coming back with the prospect of going inside.

Dante stifled a sigh. "You have a ridiculously hard to kill, bite sized hellion on your side. What're you so afraid of?"

"T-The fact that this hard to kill hellion is with someone who's afraid of her own shadow and can't fight to save her life?" Arex offered with an awkward chuckle, nervously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she eyed the diner's dreary window. "Who also doesn't have her weapon with her?"

"What kind of weapon do you use?"

"Sword," Arex replied instinctively, voice still meek.

Dante extended his hand and instantly formed a longsword of blackened Aura with a white outline.

Arex's gaze stared down at it for a few moments as she traced its dual edge, something she wasn't used to. But, she was more confused by the color of it.

"I thought your Aura was white on the inside… and black on the outside," Arex murmured, remembering back to when Anoel showed her footage of the Drakian Hydra fight.

"My Aura used to be jet black with a white outline when I was younger. That, and it actually turns this way when I use my… special ability."

"That's… not cryptic at all," Arex replied with a slight shaky inflection in her pitch, considering she didn't know what that special ability was. "Does it have to be double edged?"

Anoel was always better with using dual edged blades. Arex on the other hand? She always… lacked in the capabilities it took to wield one.

She wasn't strong, and she definitely wasn't confident enough. So she stuck with single edged longswords, something she can actually apply some amount of leverage to from the back of the weapon.

"Ah, you're a single edge type," he stated as the blade morphed to have a single sharp edge with a very slight curve near the tip.

Y-Yeah, she felt more comfortable with that design… now that she knew she wouldn't be cutting herself with its back edge.

Something that happened a lot when she tried to block with those types of swords.

She was never really strong enough for that. Her body was always in the way of her own reeling sword when the deflection was heavy enough.

"Yeah. I'm not really capable enough to use two edges," Arex explained, gently taking the handle of the offered weapon into her hand.

It was… weirdly cold, for an energy-made weapon. And it felt about the same density as her own lightweight weapon.

Which was a good thing, actually, because the glowing sword was quickly growing familiar in her grasp.

"This is just in case. Might be something weird lingering in there. Like a ghost, or a godling," he commented off-handedly.

"Do you really think something's waiting in there for us?" Arex asked, letting the tip of the sword fall toward the ground as she drew it down to her side. For something made of energy, she was curious how he even gave it weight.

"No. Well, not really. But like I tell everyone, never underestimate stupidity," he advised, conjuring himself a sword. "Or surprises."

She… figured that was a possibility then, and they needed to be ready for it. "Better prepared than not, I guess."

She was still hoping he'd lead the way, though.

A quick swing of his smaller sword and the door fell apart in pieces, allowing him to step inside.

"Come on little bird. Nothing will bite you so long as I'm here," Dante said. His voice was almost echoing off the walls inside. "Well, they won't bite me at least. They'd still be less inclined to bite you though."

"That still doesn't inspire much confidence in me, considering you just called me little again… and you're tiny," she replied, following him in with cautious, almost ghostly, light steps. "But I guess you're still easily stronger than me, even at five years old."

"Meh… It's not so much to do with that really. I may be short, but you're still the younger sibling of an older sister. Hence the 'little'. That, and The Hound is a kickass person to quote on occasion."

She got the little part, at least. But, "I don't know who that is."

Arex kept her voice quiet as she glanced around the abandoned diner, dim rays of light slipping through the cracks in the boarded windows as she grimaced. It smelled stale in here.

And she wasn't really keen on making her voice any louder as they got further in.

"Pretty dark in here…" Dante, on the other hand… didn't share the same concern. "Hey, how good is a phoenix's night vision compared to other Faunus? Good? Bad? Meh?"

"It's… better, I guess. But that's only because we can more acutely differentiate the heat between objects and pick up heat signatures," Arex replied quietly, flinching slightly at the echo of Dante's voice through the room.

"Ah, gotcha. So do you have one of those Affinities or whatever they're called?" he asked, completely out of the blue.

Arex paused slightly in her step as she brought her gaze to his back. Was he really asking a question like that here? "W-Why do you ask?"

"Well if you're Phoenix, there's obviously something else special about you, depending on how you see or use the word special. I only learned about Affinities this week, and got attacked by a user a few days ago. So yeah, I'm mostly just curious," he said, playfully twirling his sword about as he continued walking ahead.

"Just because I'm a phoenix, doesn't mean I have to have something special about me," Arex replied in a soft tone, resuming her steps again as Dante made it further into the ruined room.

It hadn't looked like this place was used in forty years. And its interior style was even more outdated than the exterior, too.

"Back where I'm from, you'd be considered a mythical being of a high caliber. Almost demi-godish really. So of course, I'm making an assumption there's something special with you too," he stated, jumping onto one of the seats and looking over the counter.

He placed his hands on the bar-like centerpiece of the room, what she could see as kitchen supplies and a door to a back room situated just around it. From what she could see through its doorway, even with night vision, was completely pitch black.

Which really didn't sit well with her.

"I… prefer not to really think of it like that," Arex replied, slowly approaching the counter. Her eyes traced the booths lining the room by the once clear windows, worn red cushions and white tables now aged against the walls. "I'm just a faunus."

"Just a faunus she says…" the little Dante replied, hopping down behind the counter. "The people I've encountered used to say something similar. 'He's just a nobody. What can he possibly do?'. You know where some of those people are now?"

Arex was more distracted by the fact that Dante was slowly getting closer to that door leading into the back, her own body tempted not to follow as she stopped just at the counter's edge. Her only response was a little shrug.

"Well… to put it bluntly, those who were quick to make underestimations fell the hardest. Bad example, I know, but I guess what I'm saying is that you shouldn't sell yourself short," he said, glancing back at her. "There's all sorts of great things you can do. Good or bad."

She… didn't think that example fit at all. "You're starting to sound like my sister," Arex muttered, eyes falling back to the counter as she started working through her options.

If he went inside, and she stayed out here, she'd honestly feel more in danger alone in an open room than following Dante into a dark backroom. To put it bluntly for herself.

Her lips drew into a thin line before she lightly placed a hand on the counter, swinging her legs over. Her sneakers landed with a quiet tap on the other side a moment later.

She really didn't like this place.

"Huh… What might you be...?" she heard him say, and she immediately snapped her gaze up in a flare of nerves.

It was… a sphere of black that bobbed and weaved quickly through the air ahead of them. A faint glow of white emanated from various places nestled inside it.

"Y-You were serious about the ghosts…" Arex quietly murmured, eyes locking as best as they could on the little wisp.

"Not sure if this is a ghost or not... Will o'wisp maybe?" he pondered, bringing a hand to his chin. "No, not that either…"

"You don't seem at all weirded out by the… floating… black ball… thing?" Arex asked, more rhetorically than anything else. What scared her was how quickly it moved.

"Something like this isn't uncommon. Trust me, there's much worse out there." He briefly looked back at her again, then to the room. "No signs of sentience either… Maybe it's the source of the singularity?"

Arex grimaced with a sheepish smile, having happily lived in ignorance for as long as she could. She's seen what Grimm and bandits could do.

That was more than enough for her.

"Have you considered the fact that it might be luring us in?" Arex countered quietly, feeling even more dissuaded to move further in after knowing this was definitely the right place.

"No... For starters, it isn't showing signs of sentience. Secondly, if it were trying to lure us in, it would have used anything from an illusion to a sound to draw us in closer. So far, nothing has moved inside the diner except for ourselves and what we moved. No alternate sounds or noise besides our own."

Arex still wasn't at ease, but she got behind Dante's reasoning for no other reason than to try to calm her nerves down a little bit. This thing laid traps, one of which triggered when Dante was just walking down an alley.

She didn't want to see what else it could've left in wait. Especially if it was defending something inside.

"Are we going in there?" Arex finally asked, bringing her gaze slowly back to Dante as the tip of her sword pointed to the dark doorway.

"Of course," he answered easily. "If it's just a reactionary spell, dispelling it should fix this. Problem is that I needed one more person, since at this age, practical spells weren't exactly my forte. In short… I need you to touch it."

A sudden pit formed in Arex's stomach as she gulped, eyeing the bobbing ball of energy with a sudden look of apprehension and queasiness. "D-Define… touch."

"As in touch it. With your hand. And the thing called skin surrounding your hand," he explained bluntly.

S-Seriously? "Are you sure I… have to…?"

"I just need you to help out by putting your Aura into the catalyst I make. Once that's done, our Aura's will double-bond and form the entire dispelling procedure and erase… whatever this is. Simple."

Simple to him, maybe…

The phoenix bit her lip for several long seconds of thinking anxiously about this. In her head, touching this thing was out of the question. It was some kind of energy, it couldn't have been safe to touch.

But he mentioned he had a way to dispel it. And… if that solved their problem… it just meant they'd be getting out of here just that little bit sooner.

"F-Fine, just… let me know when to…" she trailed off, but she knew he probably got what she was trying to say.

"You might be a pigeon afterall…" the younger Dante replied, stepping forward into the room as he approached the floating orb. "Come on already. Let's get this done so I can go play some Grimm Hunter World."

The girl couldn't help but hold her breath as she followed him in, forcing herself to slowly step up closer to the orb as she waited for him to give her some kind of signal.

The sooner they got this done… he said. She could get behind that.

"Alright… I place my hand in first. It'll start wrapping around this thing to form the catalyst basis. Once you put your hand in, just let your Aura flow and it'll automatically fill the rest in. Then everything will be all smiles and ice cream instead of frowns and broccoli."

True to his word, his hand was the first to move, his small fingers grabbing hold of the sphere as darkened light seeped out of the area his hand held.

White and black Aura began to flow slowly, and form various patterns across the glowing sphere's surface.

"Your turn little bird."

Arex stifled her apprehensions with a firmer bite of her lip, mimicking his action, albeit much slower, until her hand was in a similar position to his. She let her Aura flow down her arm a moment later to focus out through her fingers, feeling it drain away from her and blend with the rest of the colors nesting around the orb.

It was… actually kind of pretty, the festering orange light of her Aura glowing through the orb's black and white shell.

"Liar."

The small comment almost broke Arex's focus as her attention switched to Dante, confusion forming on her face. "W-What?"

"'Nothing special', huh?" he replied, briefly flashing a coy smile. "My left foot, 'nothing special'…"

Her confusion only seemed to get worse the more he pressed it, an uneasy feeling immediately settling in her chest and stomach. "I meant what I said, though…"

"As did I," he stated back. "But you didn't need to go out of your way to try and throw me off track. It's not like I'd tell anyone else besides my partner."

"I-I wasn't trying to," Arex muttered quietly, her voice trailing off again as her gaze drifted back to the orb of light. She just… didn't see herself like that.

"I don't take any offense to it. It's understandable given your nature that you'd prefer to hide as much as possible without giving all too much away, be it a built in response, or a traumatic event."

Arex slowly closed her mouth at that, her responses dying into a lingering silence as the hum of energy filled the air instead. He… wasn't wrong about that.

"Still though," Dante continued, "life would be a little easier to live if that tiny assumption of the world being out to get you isn't there. If anything, reach in, crush that idea, and add it to the heap of trash," he spoke forcefully as he squeezed his free hand tightly. "I don't entirely know much about you, but I can tell you're a pretty cool person. And you're in good company as is. Try to relax a little more would you?"

He was right… he didn't know her very well. So, there was no way he'd know… how little of what he just said actually appealed to her. "I don't mind hiding all my life. I've sort of gotten used to it by now, so… why change that…?" Arex asked in a quiet voice, her life having already been spent in that manner of living.

"Hiding isn't an entirely bad way to live. At least, for a little while longer. Honestly speaking though? Hiding your entire life isn't any way to live." His eyes seemed to narrow at her. "It's exactly that, not living. In time, you either fade away entirely or aren't able to remember yourself anymore."

Arex honestly wouldn't mind that, a sheepish smile working its way to her lips as she cocked her head a little in thought. "To tell you the truth, that doesn't sound that bad to me…"

She wanted to forget.

Another sigh escaped the young Dante. "At this rate, I'm pretty sure you're gonna surpass Linkin Park and nab first place for being a depressing person… Listen…" he said, staring at her. "You'll say that now, but once you're completely submerged… I can guarantee you that you'll regret it and look for a way out. And it won't be pretty trying to leave."

Maybe… but she knew, even if she tried, she'd never be able to forget it. It overturned too much of her life to ever let it slip away, no matter how much she wanted it to just vanish.

The orb began to shudder, almost looking like it was about to collapse in on itself.

"Whoops…"

"T-Too much?" Arex figured, her voice getting a little high and pitchy, wanting to pull her hand away.

"Uh… Totally not your fault, practically mine given the… destructive nature of my Aura, but the dispel sort of… transfigured itself?"

"Transfigured?" Arex slowly started to draw her hand back, wanting to clutch it close to her chest as the energy suddenly started to grow rampant. "That's the opposite of dispelling it…"

"What I mean to say is… it's gonna explode."

A blast of black and white blinded Arex as it engulfed both her and Dante almost instantly. She immediately tensed her body, expecting some kind of burning sensation or force, or some kind of injury, but… there were none. Her eyes silently peered back open, immediately glancing over herself to see if anything actually happened.

She looked… fine.

"Well that ever so slightly sucked…"

Her eyes glanced back up to see Dante lowering his arm, Arex's gaze widening at the still sizzling, deeply charred burn running up his forearm, pale skin a deep red.

"Y-Your arm...!" she quickly sputtered, a small flutter of panic hitching in her voice.

"Give it a sec…"

Within a few moments, the deep red char vanished as pale skin once again covered the damaged arm within the blink of an eye.

"Like it never happened at all," he said, squeezing his hand a few times.

Her breath immediately died for a moment as she felt her panic fluctuate, falling away a moment later as she stared. She was… a little envious at how quickly he just healed that away.

And how little he even reacted to the pain, if he felt any at all.

"I guess you weren't kidding about things not being able to bite you…" Arex muttered, recalling what he said on their way in.

"I was talking ghosty goo's or whatever that might be hostile, but I guess that works too," he said, clenching his fist. "And I just realized I'm still mini-me. Great."

"It's probably just a duration thing… or that energy wasn't the root of the effects," Arex tried to offer. Her eyes quietly scanned the rest of him to look for any other injuries, but she couldn't find any.

If he had any other burns, he probably healed them by now anyway.

"Was that the… only energy signature here?" Arex asked, her eyes tracing the walls again, gaze falling over the empty shelves and blank kitchen of the backroom.

"One and only. Come on, let's get out of here."

Unlocking the door of the room they were in, Arex followed Dante out into the stifling and uninviting darkness of the diner. The younger one moved to the front door and grabbed hold of the handle, but when he pulled at it, the door didn't budge in the slightest.

"Huh… Won't… open…" he said, straining himself.

Arex already knew there wasn't any sense in her trying it, but she slowly walked herself over to one of the boarded windows and tried to get a look outside.

The… streets and alleys…

They were gone.

All she could see was a pitch black void.

"D-Dante…? Are you sure that orb wasn't some kind of transportation magic?" Arex quietly asked, voice almost drearily hesitant as she slowly backed away from the covered glass.

"Pretty sure. Why?"

"Uh…" Arex gestured lightly to the window before casting her gaze around the rest of the lightless room, eyes having failed to notice the lack of sunlight earlier. "Just look outside."

The small Dante moved from the door and into one of the booths near him, closest to the window, allowing him to peek through the dusty blinds.

"Huh… How about that…" he commented, sliding out of the booth. "Looks like we just destroyed the world."

"I-I doubt that," Arex managed to get out, her gaze spinning around the room as that panic from before started to settle in again.

"I know. That was a joke. Still though… Could it be an after effect? Or maybe a spell layered beneath the first one?" he wondered.

Arex was clueless here, so all she wanted to do was let Dante think out loud and hope he could figure a way out of this place. "I-It probably happened when the orb overloaded."

"No doubt about that…" he spoke, nodding toward Arex. "Come on, let's go back into the room briefly and see if there's anything in there."

Arex almost couldn't help it when she felt herself helplessly fall in line with Dante again, not knowing what else to do in this kind of situation other than blindly follow the one who did.

But she immediately reeled into her thoughts when she peered over the counter.

Near the doorway of the backroom, a blackened shadow quickly coalesced and formed the figure of a person, a woman.

Long, blackened hair traveled below the waist of the figure, locks braided together into a braid from just below the nape of the neck down to the black ribbon tied into a bow at the tail end of her strands, floating slowly in the air. The rest of the figure's hair above the half-braid remained loose and near shoulder length.

Two perfectly round circles of white light opened where its eyes would have been found, and within an instant, frantically moved closer to Dante and Arex, almost touching them. And she would've if Dante hadn't pushed himself and Arex back.

The small Dante shot his hand forward, but nothing happened.

"Damn it… Run!"

---

Ly and Ano were giggling like schoolgirls.

Which drew the attention of just about everyone, but the two under the spotlight could hardly care. Their countless times in Niro's bar built up a rather tough skin to the small crowd of onlookers glancing their way.

Only, this… felt different.

It wasn't flirtatious or promiscuous. It wasn't purposefully devious or sexual. It was just… teasing and tender.

Like this was the most fun in the world. And it was. Especially for them.

"Okay, listen, you need to keep your mouth open this time and not close it around my finger," Anoel complained cheekily, holding up another cheese stick. She'd long since moved her chair next to Ly's, the small table now too far a distance for her.

Ly was trying not to laugh, taking absolutely none of the date seriously thus far. "Then stop trying to stick the whole thing in my mouth!"

The thief had a stupid grin on her face as she kept resisting the urge to burst into a giggling fit.

"But what's the point if I can't get it all in?" Anoel replied, waving the dipped stick around in her delicately clasped fingers. She couldn't drop her own stupid smile, but she wasn't trying anymore.

She loved this.

"Okay, let's try this again," Ano spoke lightly, narrowing her bemused eyes with a barely managed focus. "Open up. Just take a bite this time. I won't try anything."

"How big of a bite?" Ly asked, a small giggle slipping out before she continued. "I don't trust you not to ram as much of it in as you can."

"Come on, you can trust me not to do it this time!" Anoel returned with a barely suppressed laugh, smiling behind her raised appetizer as her focus broke. "I promise. And you can take as small a bite as you want."

"You're lying!" Ly exclaimed as her finger immediately jabbed Ano's cheek, grin widening as she poked it a couple of times. "You have that dumb smile on your face and I've seen it too many times not to know you are!"

"Okay, okay! Here." Anoel broke the stick in half, placing the steaming back end down onto their shared plate next to the sour cream ramekin bowl. "Now will you let me?"

She lifted the other half up as she giggled pleadingly behind it, hand placed down on the edge of her chair to lean closer to the thief sat on her own.

"Okay, fine, go on then," Ly relented, closing the already tiny distance between them some more as she opened her mouth. The corners of it curled up as she fought against her grin.

Anoel immediately adopted her focused look again as she leaned forward, the corners of her own lips already curling as she fought the urge to do anything nefarious.

Or, at least she tried to.

Her smile broke out when she tapped the sour cream covered end of the stick against Ly's nose before slipping it into her open mouth. Her shoulders were already shaking as she giggled through an attemptedly stifled laugh.

"Y-You have a little something on your nose," she managed to get out, grinning like an idiot.

Ly tried not to choke as she stifled a laugh and chewed, trying fruitlessly to glare at Anoel. But with the position she was in, it had no effect on the info-broker.

Anoel broke down into a fit of giggles as she scooted herself closer, placing her hands on Ly's chair to help herself lean into the thief.

"Here," she laughed out softly, offering Ly an amused grin now. "Let me."

She lifted Ly's chin just slightly as she craned her neck a little, lifting her own chin to affectionately lick the small dab of cream from the tip of Lylac's nose.

Lylac recoiled from the lick as her nose scrunched up, trying to chew her food at the same time as she laughed through her nose.

"There," Anoel finished with a pop and a tiny lick of her smirking lips, leaning away from Ly again as she eyed her with amused, mirthful eyes. "I told you I wouldn't do it."

The thief only just managed to swallow her mouthful before her own fit of laughter burst into the relatively quiet atmosphere. "This is worse!"

Anoel laughed in return as she reeled playfully back, looking offended. "What? I have bad aim!"

Ly shook her head as she continued to giggle, a hand lifting up to wipe the tip of her nose as she did so. "Apparently not with your tongue!"

"Okay, that is true. But that's because I've had practice with it," Anoel retaliated with a growing smirk again, happily watching Ly's eyes and face in all this.

"Eating yogurts without spoons again? Barbaric…" Ly replied happily, as her laughter calmed down.

"S-So what? It's less to clean up afterwards!" Anoel defended playfully, moving her hands back to grip the cushions of her own chair again as she re-situated herself. "It's like a fun little mini-game if you do it right."

"Cleaning one spoon is hardly a challenge, Ano," Ly retorted lightheartedly.

"True, but I got really good at cleaning out those little yogurt cups." Anoel's voice grew lighter and airier as she giggled again, trying her best to defend her reasoning here. "And besides, I think it made my tongue a little longer too. Or maybe it just reaches farther..."

"Oh really now?" Ly asked slowly as her grin splayed across her face. "And what evidence do you have to support this claim of yours?"

Anoel's little hum immediately resonated through her pursed lips before she smiled widely, leaning back into Ly's body again to leave the support of her chair and press into her.

"Is that you asking for a demonstration?" Anoel asked playfully, the small of her back arching as she placed her hand back against Ly's own chair. She calmly but very teasingly grazed her slightly parted lips against Ly's bottom lip, fighting back another smirk.

The thief leaned into it, stifling another emerging giggle. "I thought that stuff didn't happen on the first da-"

Their waitress cleared her throat nearby. Anoel's bemused eyes glanced slightly to the side to see Sapphira pointing her gaze down and away from the table.

A strong, crimson blush adorned her cheeks with her hand curled up into a loose fist in front of her mouth in embarrassment.

The other held their tray of food.

Their main course was done.

"I-I'll bring out the wine for you to compliment the dishes," the poor girl tried to speak clearly, but her soft, light voice was dashed with an adorable squeak.

"Ah, thanks Sapphira," Anoel said, her own voice light as she leaned away from Ly and sat calmly back into her chair. "I was afraid our third course was going to take a while."

Ly was Ano's second course, obviously.

This was actually pretty fast. Maybe they were scaring the customers away?

"That's okay, I have a feeling we won't need it for a little while yet," Ly replied courteously, acting completely innocent. As if neither of them had done anything wrong.

Sapphira nodded as she delicately placed their entreés into place before the two women, looking almost shy to step too close to the two.

Especially Anoel.

The info broker rested her chin in her hands again as she gazed in interest at Sapphira's face when she stepped away. "We haven't been a disturbance, have we?"

A delicate brow rose to punctuate her point, and Anoel smiled a bit when she watched Sapphira's features redden again.

"T-The owner says it's fine," Sapphira said, collecting herself after a moment. "It's night hour, so business is slow around this time. He's keen on keeping the restaurant privately open for as long as you need though."

Anoel's lips curled into a slight smile just before she hid it behind curled fingers, humming softly in response. "You can tell him I'm very thankful for that. We both are."

Sapphira nodded again before bowing. Then she stepped away.

---

A set of double doors swung open as Arex and the small Dante sprinted down a dimly lit corridor. Something that wasn't even there before.

At the end of the tunnel was a blinding light, Arex wasn't even thinking when they both ran straight into it, finding themselves in a darkened, open room. Numerous beds and curtains filled the center of the half-circular room, and at its end hung a large spanning mirror, attached to the wall.

The two looked into the mirror from a distance as they approached it, turning their heads around to confirm the six doors lining the back area where they came from.

"You… You alright..?" Dante questioned between breaths as he looked to the phoenix. "She… She didn't touch you or anything?"

Arex's breathing was sharp as she kept her gaze snapping around, eyeing all the pathways suddenly encompassing their backs as she shook her head. "I-I'd be… a lot better… if we weren't in a horror maze."

Ignoring her comment he carefully grabbed hold of Arex's arm and looked her over, moving around her as his eyes scanned her entire person.

The phoenix's eyes regarded him as soon as he started, her mind still in a rush from the frantic way they ran away from that… thing. "I-I'm… fine. Just n-need to… catch my breath."

And she really needed to catch it with how rapidly her shoulders were rising and falling.

"No curses or anything… Good…" he said with a sigh. "If you got cursed, your sister would've tried burning me alive, and then my partner would have burned your sister. She's protective that way."

"Yeah… they both are," Arex replied, finally managing to level her breathing out as she turned her gaze back to the way they came. "I really don't like it here… What even happened to the diner?"

"Don't know… This definitely wasn't here considering the way we came in turned into this. Even more problematic…" he extended his hand once more, and yet again, nothing happened, not even a crackle of Aura. "I can't use my Aura. What about you?"

Her…? Arex looked down at her free hands as she raised them, pushing her Aura into her finger tips before igniting a soft flow of flames that encircled her palms. "Mine works…"

"Right then… I may look small as I am right now, but I'm still physically stronger. I can handle anything physical if she gets up close. Which means I need you to be ranged. Can you do that?"

"I-I-" Arex immediately locked up as his eyes turned back to her, the small flames she had circling around her hands suddenly dispersing in the same alarm her body showed. "I… can't…"

Her voice sounded as ashamed as she felt by that small response, but she couldn't control her flames beyond the small layer it had over her body.

A huff escaped the small Dante's frame. "Fine then… Can you at least do some up-close damage?"

"T-That I can do," the girl muttered quietly. "But… I've never been much of a hand-to-hand fighter."

Even Dante's given sword was gone too.

"Don't need to be. If she gets handsy, I'll grab her and hold her in place. Then all you have to do is light her up."

Arex slowly nodded to that. If she can get in close, then yeah, she can do that. She just… didn't trust herself to be able to control any fire she releases beyond her actual touch.

That was asking too much of her… and she hated that.

"I don't understand…" Dante spoke.

The girl's lowered gaze quietly found its way back to Dante, before falling on the doors again. "Don't understand what?"

"Why are you so afraid?"

Afraid…? Arex's gaze grimaced for a moment before turning confused, turning her eyes back to the mirror hanging on the wall. "Afraid of this place?"

"That's not it," he said, turning to her. "Why are you so afraid of using your own power? And why are you afraid of reaching out and connecting with others?"

Oh… so he really was referring to that…

Arex bit her lip as she felt the weight of his words settle over her, her fingers playing loosely with her sweater as she tried to formulate some sort of answer.

"I-Is it so wrong to be afraid of hurting people?" she asked in return, her volume dying with the loss of any remaining confidence.

"Of course not," Dante said, staring at his reflection in the mirror just a ways from them. "Recognizing what one's abilities can do is a great step forward in understanding one's powers and controlling them. But you… You're so afraid to use a single morsel of your power past your personal space."

That's because the last time she did, somebody she cared about died. "Can we not get into this right now?" she asked quietly, her voice falling meekly into the stale air.

"If not now, then when? As far as I know, this might be my only chance. So I'll ask now while we have time and since I'm still a brazen brat." He crossed his arms and looked back at Arex, nodding his head at her. "Did you do something terrible? Something you're not proud of?"

The loose, nervous grip she held on the hem of her sweater grew tighter as she chewed her bottom lip lightly, her eyes boring into herself through her mirror's reflection in the darkened room.

It… wasn't something she wanted to talk about.

Not to someone she barely knew.

"We still need to find a way out of this place," Arex offered quietly, still trying to turn away from the questions and just get out. She was already trapped inside a dimension. She didn't want to feel trapped into a conversation where she wasn't comfortable reciprocating in it.

"So it was someone important to you at one point… No wonder." He breathed out, shutting his eyes for a moment. "Animosity. Hate. Anger. Fear. Pain. Being an aspect of the Dark unfortunately gives me the ability to sense all those dark emotions and more, no matter how hard people try to bury it."

Arex's fingers only grew tighter as she felt herself begin to tense, really not wanting to be here anymore. Why couldn't it just stay buried…?

"It's why I caught on to Kitsuki's injury. And it's why I'm slowly but surely learning about the pain that wracks your thoughts. Not a day's gone by where I couldn't feel your pain. Your gestures and facial expressions all confirm that too."

"W-Well… you've confirmed it…" Arex replied in an almost breathless voice, turning a slow, desperate and almost broken gaze back to Dante. "Can we get out of here now? P-Please?"

Why couldn't he just let it go…?

"I don't know how to get out of here yet, so it's useless to rush," he said, then sat down on one of the beds. "So… While we've got some time in this… place, it's best I get to know you a bit more. That, and if you share with me, I'll share something with you. So come on." Dante gestured for her to sit on the bed. "Take a load off before we move on."

Arex actually caught herself glancing to the bed he gestured to, but her mind was still reeling back from him unburying emotions she'd really rather keep stuffed away. And when she turned her gaze back to the dim reflection of herself in the mirror, dark gray eyes stared back at her from the irises framed by her pale face.

Her eyes told people everything, even herself… And right now, she couldn't tell which emotion was stronger in her. Fear… or grief.

So her eyes just mixed the two colors, and that always served as a reminder of what she couldn't hide from people outside of herself.

"I'm not in the mood to share," Arex's dull voice fell in tone as she turned her gaze away from the mirror staring back at her, tracking her eyes over the beds opposite Dante.

They were in a dimension created and contained by whatever shade was following them. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that it knew they were here, so she didn't want to stick around to let it take advantage of that.

"Too shy to start? Alright then… I'll go first," he said, resting his chin in his hand. "Once upon a time, as far back as I can remember, I more or less used to be like you. I know I know, hard to imagine right? Big old Dante, who isn't scared of anything or anyone was afraid of something? Ludicrous!"

Not… really… "You don't even know if I'll share too, so why are you bothering?" Arex asked, her gaze finally falling on Dante again.

"The Fool's hope, I guess," the young Dante said. "I never liked hurting people either to be honest. Even today with everything that's happened, I still don't. I'm only able to put it aside so easily because I have things I want to protect." His eyes moved to her. "I used to kill people for a living when I was younger. All the way from age nine to thirteen. Your sister ever whisk that away from my noggin and share?"

Arex felt her gaze drift away from him as he looked her way, her arms hanging loosely at her sides now. Fingers forgetting they were even playing with the hem of her sweater. "No… she didn't." Everybody's killed somebody.

Even Anoel.

"Twenty two thousand, eight hundred and forty six. That's how many lives I ended in just four years alone with naught but a sword. Safe to say I was very good at my job. Killing people and things came to me as naturally as breathing."

Arex couldn't help but give a partial, dead smile at that, her countenance turning away from his direction again as she looked to the far wall.

He almost seemed proud of it.

She's been alive for seventeen years… and she's only taken one life away. It just so happened to be the only life she wished she could've traded with, because of how much that single life had already given her.

It picked up all the pieces of herself she couldn't gather on her own.

"And all of that was built upon a lie," Dante continued.

"Isn't everything?" Arex murmured, her hand finding its way to her arm as she grasped it lightly.

"Not everything. Where there's as many lies, there's as many truths to the world around us," he quickly answered. "'You're doing the people's work' they said. 'You're sparing the innocent and their future generations from a bloody fate' they said. Of course, the little fool that I was believed in those words. For a long while at least."

It sounded like he wasn't the only one they manipulated, with how he put that.

"It wasn't long before I figured out for myself that I was killing some of those 'innocents'. The weight of it all was so… minimal at the time. My heart was still blackened at that time, you see."

"Did it catch up to you?" Arex wondered allowed.

"Eventually. But before it did, I wandered wherever I could, aimlessly searching for somewhere, anywhere I could call home. But there was nothing. No one. Such a great emptiness formed in me, much greater than anything the vast expanse of space could ever have."

Arex wondered if that emptiness he talked about was any different than what she was feeling… Only, hers was brought about by a single person. Not thousands.

Maybe that distance was too great… to even think about for her...

"Inuba and few others were some of what I left behind. Great and terrible fears just… festered within the confines of my mind. Especially her. Always her…" His voice grew quiet with his last spoken word. "That was the biggest reason of them all. Truthfully speaking, when I stopped wandering, I actually tried figuring out what exactly would kill me. If anything could. As you can see for yourself with me standing here, nothing worked, no matter how drastic and devastating."

That almost sounded like what Niro was going through… but he never found his way back out. If he was ever out to begin with.

"I found a place. A place that was small and insignificant to any other person or group of people. And I found good people too. Unfortunately, unlike now, I wasn't much help to anyone at first when they were in trouble. People hurt people, you know how it goes. And I could do nothing. Rather, I didn't want to do anything at all. Knowing what I could do, how I could break anyone so easily… It disgusted me. And that feeling of disgust was only amplified twofold when those good people were in trouble."

"It's hard to blame you, with what you already went through," Arex replied. But she found herself only saying that to fill the long silence of her wordless responses, more than anything else. She couldn't relate… to anything he was saying.

She wasn't strong. She couldn't even pretend to be strong. She'd been weak all her life, and the only times she felt like she could get past that, were the times she spent with her.

"You asked earlier if the life I left behind caught up to me. Well, it did. A special someone, who was always kind to me, and never looked at me differently, even after finding out who I was… paid dearly. She tried saving my pathetic, worthless life. Even if I didn't personally do it, I was still responsible for the deed. My 'life' ended hers, and all because I was too afraid to swing my sword again."

Arex's breath caught quietly in her throat as she tried to swallow. That was the only part she could feel herself relate to, and it brought a sharp pain back into her chest realizing it.

Dante paused momentarily, gripping his hands together tightly as he reminisced about past tragedies.

"It's a funny thing really. People have made so many accusations throughout my life, saying I felt nothing. No pain. No shame. No remorse. No sympathy. But truthfully… I felt more than I ever cared to show, or admit."

Arex… never had that. "How did you get through it?"

"Well… I guess God, or whatever shitty providence that governs the Worlds heard my thoughts for once and took mercy on my existence of pure suffering. Whatever miracle it was, that person lived. I was completely and utterly dumbfounded. I held her hand in a pool of her own blood, felt her skin go cold, heard her heart slowly come to a stop as she took her last breath. She definitely ceased to exist. And then she didn't."

Arex didn't know if she could even call that lucky, or that it was luckier than her story. But the words only brought a numbing cold to her loosened fingers, her eyes drifting down to the ground as every little syllable flashed an image into her eyes from her own memories.

"And then Inuba found me, slapped me, pinched, and scolded me for a whole week. That was probably the most legendary bad week I've had to date. Besides getting stuck in Hell for a few days. But that's a story for another time."

"That was my Anoel, for me…" Arex replied quietly, her voice fleeting in volume. "She's never stopped."

"Scolding you?" the young Dante asked with a chuckle.

"Supporting me," Arex corrected softly, "and loving me."

"Love huh...?" His own voice lowered for the first time as he looked to his hands in his lap.

"Yeah…" Arex muttered under her breath. "She was always there for me, when I needed her."

"I wish I had someone like your sister from the start. But I guess Inuba filled out that role nicely in the time after."

"I… didn't have her from the start," Arex spoke back, her gaze trailing down to her hands as she started tugging at the cloth of her sweater again. "She ran away when I was younger. She… didn't find me again until after what happened at our home village."

"I read about that a few days ago. Bandits if I'm remembering correctly."

"Yeah… bandits," Arex said with a small, tiny nod. "They killed my parents, so Anoel had to take me in. I vaguely remember the look on her face, too, because she looked desperate to find me. We moved into the city after that."

"And? What happened next?"

"I… met someone," Arex replied simply, finally bringing her gaze over to the bed across from Dante. She was actually giving it some serious thought, but her legs were already quietly carrying her over toward it before she could. "She picked me back up after what happened, alongside Ano, and… she did everything I wasn't able to."

"It's nice. Finding someone that helps you with things you're deficient in," Dante replied, but she kept herself from looking at him.

"Yeah, it is," Arex spoke quietly, legs taking her slowly to the bed closest to where Dante sat. She silently took her seat across from him and lightly grasped her arm, keeping her gaze directed away from his. "She was everything I wasn't. Confident, blunt, unafraid to show affection or speak her mind. She… actually reminded me how kind the world can be, and took me to places I couldn't bring myself to go to on my own."

"Inuba was the same with me in that regard," he said with a chuckle. "Without her… I probably would have never realized just how wonderful the world could be. Well, Worlds, in our case."

"She sounds nice…" Arex spoke lightly, wishing her story could've kept hers with her for as long as Dante's did. "Mine was always making sure I was eating. She made sure I was sleeping alright, practically started living with me after she found out I wasn't. Made sure I was finding things I could get interested in, like cooking and baking. Turns out I was pretty good at those… so she taught me."

Arex's voice fell quiet as her grip on her arm grew tighter, and her shoulders grew smaller. "She… showed me how to live again."

"I see… Sorry if I sound insensitive or anything, but… what ended up happening?"

Arex's volume lowered, and her voice couldn't have sounded more distant than it did in her next few words. "I… fell in love with her."

"Ah… I see." The young Dante said, focusing his glance on Arex. "And? Was it going well?"

"It was, actually," Arex admitted softly. And for a moment, her hand actually moved, lifting to brush a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. "We spent a few years together, and she really did just move in with me after a little while. She was staying with me anyway, so it wasn't any different."

"Eh~ Living together like that so soon? I didn't think you were so daring," Dante tried to tease, and she appreciated it a little. But only a bit.

"I-I wasn't," Arex quickly retorted, but she kept her gaze down. "It was her idea, but… I didn't mind it. I'm pretty sure she knew how I felt about her long before I told her, because she was apparently feeling the same way about me when we first met. Before I even knew about my own feelings."

She almost wanted to laugh a little at how pathetic that sounded, but it was true.

"I… loved her, and even though she didn't have Aura, she always threw herself into danger for my sake," Arex continued, breaks starting to form in her breathless voice as she slowly started to lose grasp of its steadiness. "It… went too far one time, and I stepped in to protect her, but…"

That voice she was desperately hoping wouldn't break, fell apart. And she trailed off instead. "I couldn't control it… a-and..."

A sympathetic sigh came from Dante as he straightened himself out. "That… had to be tough… Again, I'm sorry if I sound mean or anything. I'm just… struggling to find the words is all. If there are any that is…"

Arex slowly drew her legs up onto the bed with her, wrapping her arms around them to pull her body tightly together. She hadn't talked about her past since it happened… Anoel was the only person she's ever really confided in.

But being separated like this from the world outside of here... it almost made talking about it easier.

"I… killed the girl I loved." Arex's voice fell quiet as she tucked the lower half of her face against her knees, encircling arms growing tighter as her eyes only grew more distant.

"I'd tell you it wasn't your fault and all, but I'm sure that wouldn't work for you… Though, I could easily say the same in my case given the circumstances. But, there is one irrefutable fact in it all. Know what it is?"

Arex's glistening eyes stayed down on the dusty sheets in front of her, a small shake of her head just barely tossing her hair in an attempt to answer him. She didn't need a mirror to know… just how black her bleak irises were changing to.

"I'd say 'us good people', but that term doesn't so much apply to me. In any sense, both of us were placed in crappy situations with no real option or method of escaping it. Hence why I wanted to say at first it's not really your fault, or mine, in spite of the madness being centered around us."

For Arex… she knew she was still at fault. No matter how she looked at it.

"But you have to ask yourself this question. With all that happened, all the fond memories you've gathered in that time… do you think that person would enjoy seeing you like this? Shutting yourself off from everyone because of the dreariness and despair in the world?"

Arex closed her eyes away as she tried to take a breath, but it only succeeded in shaking her to the core. "No… but it wouldn't surprise her, either…"

"Of course. I bet you anything if she could right now, she'd reach out, pinch your cheeks or something, and say 'pick yourself up and keep walking forward'."

Arex actually gave a forced, broken laugh at that, just to try to shake off the trembling of her body. "She'd probably just ask me why I haven't moved on yet, then wonder why I forgot that we're trapped in a dimension with a creepy shade tracking us."

"That's a typical Monday and Wednesday occurrence!" he said with a huff as he crossed his arms once more. "We can never forget the events surrounding us from the past. But we can't allow them to be shackles either that keep us from living. We press on ever forward, remembering them, and carrying their legacy with us in our hearts as we greet the morrow."

That was always easier said than done. Arex wished she was actually strong enough… to be able to pick herself back up like that.

"You're stronger than you make yourself out to be, little bird. Know how I know?" he asked.

Arex's face only hid further behind her legs as she shook her head again. She wasn't as strong as he thought she was.

"If you were as weak as you say you are, you never would have made it to today. You'd never have done the amazing things you do today, like baking and making all sorts cool tech! And… you probably wouldn't have trusted me enough, nor followed me in here knowing the risk."

"You're wrong…" Arex voiced, muffled by the legs she kept pulling closer against her chest.

"I'm not. Everyone gets down in the dumps now and then. Everything looks dreary and hopeless, and all those sorts of bad things," he said, kicking himself off the bed and approaching the young phoenix. "When it comes to this, I'm pretty much never wrong," the young Dante spoke, poking his finger gently at where her heart would've been through her leg.

Arex's mind was already shutting off, barely even registering the contact he made with her. Or the movements he made to get to her. "Can we get out of here… now…?"

"Let me ask you this then. If you are as weak as you claim to be, would you ever have been able to find any sense of comfort in your sister? Or even your partner, Kitsuki?"

The notion managed to crack Arex's eyes open, but it was confusion bringing that gaze out more than anything else. "How is that strength?"

"The fact you're able to connect with both of them to the extent that you do should be proof enough. If you were genuinely intent on hiding yourself away from the world because of the pain you feel… then you'd never have been able to forge the bonds you have with them so far."

It was true that Arex wanted to move on… and she was doing that through them… but, even with all that, she still felt as weak as she did back then.

She didn't feel any stronger than she was before.

"You might not see the full picture now, but I guarantee that you will once we get out of here."

She… wished she could actually believe in that.

"Now then, if I have to be the Samwise Gamgee to your Frodo Baggins, I'll do it. I'll make sure you get out of here so that you can see again just how beautiful the world is in spite of the pain you've suffered. So… how about we both go home so we can see the people we care about most?" he asked, extending his hand to her.

Arex's gaze finally registered the small movements around her, quietly falling on the hand offered to her. That last part… sounded like a nice promise.

"Yeah…" she quietly spoke, one of her tightly gripped hands slipping lose to reach out for his. "I'd like that."

---

Hopefully that cleared some things up with Niro. Skyla took it upon herself to unravel all the little hints I'd left around and compile it into an understandable summation. She didn't outright say it, but hopefully you can fill in the blanks.

Anoel and Lylac are acting like schoolgirls, still.

Arex… well, you get the picture that's been painted.

Anyway, I don't usually do this, but whenever you see Dante (or Dante-related persons), assume andy's written the actions of his character (since this is a collab between three authors, Hydra being the writer of Lylac and his other characters). So, a large majority of this chapter (andy's plot) was led by him as opposed to me. It took a nice weight off of writing the bulk of it for me, so I'm thankful to him for that. Though, I made sure it was all seen through Arex's eyes, and kept any character distinctions to her style.

I'm usually the lead, but it's always nice when this takes the bulk away. That goes as thanks to both Hydra and andy for when it happens.

One more person to thank. For this chapter, I happened to pull in Yakosh to help with the proofreading. I usually edit everything, sometimes with the help of andy and Hydra. But I agreed with a lot he pointed out, so kudos to him.

For now, Favorite and Follow this new story.

I look forward to seeing REVIEWS for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.

Cya XP

PS. This omake is the start of a multi-omake series. It also contains one of my favorite Niro quotes of all time.

---

Omake: by Xera Stark

---

'Are you in right now?'

Arex closed her eyes at that. No! No she wasn't in right now! She was very much not in right now. She wanted to be out. As out as possible.

This was supposed to be a quick 'get her things' then 'get out' visit. She didn't want to stay here.

'Yes or no little bird, I don't have time for idleness right now.'

Damn it! Arex whimpered and whined as she plopped herself down onto the bed next to Kitsuki and flicked her scroll opened, sending out a quick response. 'Yes? What's wrong?'

The two sat there… and sat there… for what felt like the better part of a full minute as they waited for his dots to finish typing.

'I don't have time to explain what I don't understand, and I can't really talk to anyone else about it right now. And since I'm certain you won't say nothing to no one about anything, you're my best bet right now. Wait, is Nosferatu in right now? And oh god… please tell me your sister's not around?'

If Niro was here, Arex would not feel so unsafe on school grounds right now. And Anoel? She was on a cute date with Lylac. Which Arex would gladly sit back and watch with GHOST back at the apartment if she had the chance.

Those two were just adorable together! She adored them. And they seemed to adore each other. Arex just wished the two would kiss already and actually mean it. Maybe even get married.

God she wanted them to get married so bad…

'They're not here. Why?' the phoenix sent back.

'I don't need him screwing with me at the moment and I definitely don't need Anoel seeing me like this. Given my current state, I'd be like an irresistible toy to a three year old child and a battery powered tool to a lonely thirty-year-old virgin, respectively. Look, yes or no, answer the question.'

Arex didn't like where this was going. What kind of tool would a thirty-year-old virgin even use that was battery powered? And what the hell was a battery?

'Yes, I'm free. But I can't just leave Kit here.' Arex responded, staring concernedly at the screen as Kit reached down and typed too. 'I wanna know what tool you're talking about.'

He'll… probably know that Kit was the one to send that.

Probably.

Arex definitely wasn't curious too.

'Fuck me- I mean, no, I'm not explaining that. That was a saying. I don't actually want you to- never mind. Swear her to secrecy, I don't care how. Cookies, pinky promise, blackmail, bondage, whatever.'

Arex glanced up from the message and gazed over her shoulder. Kit's hands pressed gently against the phoenix's arm as she watched the kitsune read the message too.

Then she blushed, and that already didn't bode well for what Arex was expecting from her subsequent sign.

"Use a battery powered tool on me for an hour," Kit signed with a growing blush, dipping her head as if what she said embarrassed her.

Arex didn't even know what that tool was. But she agreed anyway.

'She won't say a word.' Arex sent back.

'Alright. What did she- never mind. Not curious. Stay right where you are, be there in a sec.'

Wait, he's coming here? Shit. Hide the boxes! Hide the boxes!

There was a knock on the door.

Fuck!

Arex glanced up at how fast he got here, gazing over the pile of boxes she had stacked right next to where he was going to have to come in from. He had to have been out there the whole time.

Just knowing he'd be able to get her to agree to this. And agree to it she did. Just like- Arex glanced back at a furiously blushing Kit, and stared at her in confusion for a few silent seconds.

She needed to deal with the door.

Without much else to think, Arex dropped herself softly to her feet and made her way over, quickly pulling their dorm room door open.

She immediately squeaked and stepped back, a startled redness sweeping over her cheeks and face as she saw a pair of ice blue eyes staring back at her.

Long, messy white tresses fell over the girl's shoulders. Her black, button down shirt sat with a button or two undone and curved over a moderately exposed, and well endowed chest. It was wrapped in a white thin fabric coat with two long tails, the sleeves rolled up just above the elbows to show the coat's interior black lining.

Further down was a prominent pair of hips covered by a short and tight-hemmed black skirt that reached to the center of the thighs. Arex gulped as she found her eyes trailing down a pair of long, strong, lithe legs.

The kind you could stare at for hours and get wet just thinking abou-

Focus. Arex got over her internal squeal with the usual strategy she employed. Externally squealing.

Quietly, of course.

"What?" Dante asked, a soft, feminine voice falling from her supple lips and elegantly framed face. "Haven't you seen a girl before?"

D-Dante was a girl… a hot girl.

Fuck… Arex couldn't do this. Fuck this. She needed out.

Arex made a move to slam the door closed, but the window behind her sliding open caught her attention and brought her to whirl around.

Her blush spread to her neck and chest, reddening her ears straight to their tips as she saw someone in a black coat and dark pants step through, soaked.

Her first thought was Niro, but this was another hot girl… Long, smooth black hair traveled down from beneath her sharp hat, fluttering damply in the breeze from outside. When the arrival turned to look at her, Arex froze up and just stared back at the piercing green eyes staring innocently back at her.

"What?" Niro asked, her pitch so fittingly effeminate and high and… c-cute.

She wasn't prominently curvy, just lithe and accentuated. Like every little curve and contour of her body was brought out by the silhouette of her close-hugging coat and attire.

"N-Nothing!" Arex squeaked, trying hard not to look at her tightly fitted legs too. "Why are you soaked?"

"Fell into a river. Got turned into a girl. This is my life now," Niro spoke calmly, lightly, and in that cute, effeminate voice again. "Can I borrow your underwear?"

Arex couldn't do this…

She couldn't.

Another knock came from the door.

"Is Arex in there?" a new female voice spoke, an almost authoritative tone carrying it forward.

"She is. But she's going to help me first," Dante answered.

Oh god…

Arex slowly turned around just as a girl with a beanie popped her head in, eyeing her with deep, violet eyes.

"I need your help," Ray said. Her gentle, female voice came off as so not Ray but a submissive girl with long blonde hair asking for guidance.

That settled it.

Arex slowly curled up onto the floor and pretended they all weren't there.