Foreword:Well, it's 8/8. And a one-year anniversary to this story. I gotta do something.

In other words, sorry for the wait, totally didn't realize the time was this late, and to make up for it here's the big update y'all have been waiting for.

Volume 1 rewrite details in the Afterword.

And Chapter 8, of course. Hope it's enjoyable.

Chapter 8
Once again, his choices can only lead to regret.

It was always that question.

–"Could you kill?"

No matter how I looked at it, killing was the optimal solution to many, many problems. Whether it was through directly murdering someone or indirectly by scapegoating them for your own purposes, killing always led to benefits in Orario.

If you killed monsters in the Dungeon, you could get money. If you killed criminals in Orario, you'd be showered with bounty money or lavished with praise for "carrying out justice". If you killed adventurers in Orario, you'd be able to loot them and even collect the hits put out on their head (if there were any).

As a Level 3, it was so easy for me to kill someone else that it was almost laughable how I hadn't yet. With my grip alone, I could shatter bones if I wasn't careful.

And so, even though my answer to that question had always been "no", I knew just how empty my answer was. One day, I'd run into a person who would force me to fight with everything at my disposal, and at the end of it, someone was probably going to end up dead. And I would definitely try my hardest for that someone to not be me.

It wasn't as if I hadn't seen death. But knowing that you were the direct cause of someone else's death was entirely different. Once you killed and stepped past that line, you couldn't go back.

It didn't matter if I justified it in the name of a cause, or in the name of self-defense, or as a necessary action. In the end, I was the one who killed and stepped past that line.

And so, even though it was always that question, it shouldn't have been.

Rather than "Could you kill?", the question I should've asked myself back then, and even now, was "Would you regret it if you killed?"

And to that, I had no answer.

~~This is a Line Break~~

There were 10 enemies.

"I thought Evilus was wiped out?!" Hackard's voice held a mixture of shock and horror.

"It doesn't look like it, Maris-san." Louie drew her knife, a grim expression twisting her features. "You should probably be careful. I don't know what these bastards will try, but…"

Stay on your guard.

I met the first attacker with an angled swing. The flat of my blade slammed into his ribs and he collapsed to his knees with a groan before I kicked him in the face and he fell over. The second attacker was nearly lifted off of his feet as I sidestepped his vertical slash before retaliating by bashing the handle of my sword into his chin. The third attacker tried to slice at me horizontally, but it was easy enough to just quickly step out of range before grabbing his sword, pulling him in, grabbing his head, and slamming it into the ground.

A quick glance told me that both Louie and Hackard were easily dealing with their opponents. Hackard's sword whistled through the air, launching all 3 of her attackers back down the street with a single swing. Louie's knife flashed silver, carving through 1, 2, and then 3 people as I backhanded the last member into the closest wall. He hit the wall with a THUMP and didn't get up again.

The fight–a light scuffle for us, really–was over as quickly as it had begun. All three of us were at Level 3, after all. 10 Level 1s weren't even close to being a match.

At least, they shouldn't have been.

"... For my brother… for my brother… my brother… for..." I watched as one of the fanatics slowly swayed and stumbled to his feet, mumbling the same line under his breath the entire time. He tore open his robes, revealing what looked like a shard of crystallized flame strapped to his shirt, and my instincts screamed. "For my brother Zel, I freely embrace–"

I moved.

My hands automatically reached out, grabbing both Hackard and Louie by the straps of their armor and bag as I pushed every single bit of strength into my legs to hurtle down the alleyway in a burst of speed.

Not a second later, there was a muffled WHUMP, a gristly splattering sound that echoed through the area, and a spray of dust from the entrance of the alleyway. The entire alleyway shook with the impact and the faint sound of crumbling buildings could be heard.

"W-what just–" Hackard's exclamation was interrupted by a series of absolutely deafening THUMP-THUMP-THUMPs as the ground trembled, a noxious cloud of dust billowing out of the entrance as rubble erupted from the entrance, shotgunning into the buildings across the street.

The smell of burning flesh filled the air, and I sucked in a deep breath, doing my best to hold back the surge of bile.

Hackard, on the other hand, collapsed to her knees as she threw up the remains of her lunch. Louie gagged violently as well, her breathing heavy and uneven.

"W-why would they just…"

Suicide bombers.

It was one thing to hear about something like that. But seeing it in action was another thing entirely.

I shook my head violently as I squeezed my eyes shut. This wasn't just a simple retrieval quest anymore. Things had escalated into a full-out battle between Loki Familia and the enemy.

The enemy isn't as simple as we thought. Deimne's words echoed through my head again.

Who was the enemy here? Evilus. They were after the orb as well. But he hadn't said "the situation is more complex than we thought." No, Deimne's warning had most definitely been about 'the enemy'.

What was the enemy?

If I followed the train of thought that had led me down this path, then the answer was easy and obvious. However, the conclusion I arrived at was anything but.

It was a familia. And most likely, one that operated in full Guild officiality and approval.

Evilus had been eradicated 5 years prior. Deimne's maneuvers and Lyon's rampage had disassembled an entire coalition of familias run by gods and sent them back to Heaven.

But these recent events had a connection between them.

Ganesha Familia had been sent to take a request from a Guild liaison, which was Fels. That request involved retrieving that orb from the 30th Floor and bringing it to the next chain, Hermes Familia. However, partway through there had been an organized attack, with even Loki Familia becoming involved. And now, just as the orb had made its way to Orario and the surface, Evilus had struck.

Coincidences were uncommon, but a string of events that followed after wherever the orb went wasn't a coincidence. If the enemy had released Evilus onto the streets and organized themselves to the extent where they were willing to pick a fight with Orario's strongest familia, then no doubt about it; there was at least one familia covering for everything behind the scenes.

"Incoming!" Louie's cry reached my ears. Reaching into the holster at my side, I flicked my wrist and the throwing knife soared through the air, stabbing through the hand of the white-clad person rounding the corner and pinning him to the wall.

As the 3 of us passed him, Louie's knife lashed out in a metallic arc, taking off the man's other hand and preventing him from reaching the detonator set on his waist.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Tuning out his cry of pain, I reached for his robes, tearing them open and yanking out the stone that was attached to his chest.

There was one last thing that proved my theory. Evilus wasn't coming at us with regular explosives–they were coming at us with the fantasy equivalent of dynamite.

Inferno Stones. Gathered from Flame Rocks on the 44th Floor, these drops were known for being dangerously volatile. Just one of these things could rival one of Andromeda's Burst Oils.

At least the detonator wasn't anything special. It was just a jury-rigged flint-and-steel contraption designed to spark when the string on the detonator was pulled. No fail-safe mechanisms, so I pocketed the explosive and the setup. As long as I didn't pull the string, there wouldn't be any problems.

There was definitely someone backing them. A Level 5 adventurer and someone who could easily procure dozens of Inferno Stones–a familia in the B ranking, at the very least. Of course, there was always the possibility of that familia concealing their ranking like Hermes to avoid attention… but then that made every single familia in the city suspect, aside from Hermes, Loki, and Ganesha, so that sort of deduction would be pointless.

Even if Deimne and the others were Level 6… were they really prepared to take on people who were willing to throw away their lives just to get a cheap shot in? Deimne would probably leave a couple of them alive for interrogation or something similar… which is exactly when the chance to strike would come.

And the situation wouldn't help if those plants… or worse, that Level 5 Tamer showed up.

The ground shook again, and my gut lurched. We were running out of time.

My pace quickened as we approached North Main and I pushed forward into a sprint, skidding out into the street and sliding to a halt as I registered the group of Evilus remnants standing in front of us.

There were triple the number of the group we encountered earlier. And if every single one of them was equipped with an Inferno Stone...

Beside me, I could hear Hackard gasp as she burst out of the narrow alleyway. Louie gaped as she saw the 30-something enemies right in front of us.

With various cries, they rushed the 3 of us.

The first wave didn't get very far before my hands found their way to the throwing knives. The blades tore through the white-robed attackers, finding their way into arms, shoulders, stomachs, and legs and causing the entire first wave of attackers to crumple to the ground. The stragglers that did reach us were quickly beaten backwards by Hackard's sweeps and Louie's punches.

Once again, this group was only Level 1; not even close.

As their battlecries turned into screams of pain, however, the second wave pushed past them, running to meet us in close-quarters combat.

In response, Louie held up the Inferno Stone that–

It occurred to me that the explosive contraption I had stored on me safely earlier was now missing and currently in Louie's hand.

As I watched, she jerked the string sharply and threw it at the enemy. A split second later, a wave of blistering heat and a fireball hotter than the sun roared towards us.

There wasn't even enough time to run.

~~This is a Line Break~~

"Is everyone… fine…?" Hackard's voice, though weak, could clearly be heard amidst the ringing silence.

"We're... all... alive." Louie's response was a little wheezy, but otherwise she sounded fine. "Hiki… gaya-san…?"

"I'm... alive," I managed to cough out as I slowly sat up from the ground. I was largely unscathed, aside from several light singes on my clothes and backpack. The rest of my body had been largely untouched, if slightly burned in some places. Nothing a potion wouldn't fix.

From the looks of it, Louie was similarly untouched, while Hackard was mildly singed.

The rest of our surroundings were less lucky.

It was really hard to say if Orario would continue to have a North Main after this… given that all the buildings on either side of the streets in front of us had been blasted to smithereens.

That was to say nothing of the splatters of blood and the 30-something still-burning… bodies, if you could call them that. Not even those advanced identification programs would help in this situation; the flesh had been roasted and fused together to the point where there was nothing recognizable at all.

I swallowed the bile welling up in my throat.

"Oh gods…" Hackard wobbled back and forth, trying her best not to be sick again. This time, Louie was the one emptying her stomach out onto the side of the street.

Beyond the smoke, however, I could see more white robes filing out into the street, no doubt thanks to the explosive commotion we'd just caused. More like Louie, honestly. It was all her fault.

"Come on, let's go!" Before we could duck into the alley on the opposite side of the street, however, the ground trembled below my feet.

My eyes widened.

It couldn't be–

CRACK

"Hikitani, duck!" Hackard yanked me backwards by the straps of my backpack as a volley of green blurs shot out from beneath my feet, narrowly missing my face. "Those are–!"

With a slow creaking sound, 3 bulb-shaped heads rose from the underground, undulating in the air like snakes before splitting open with a sticky SPLURCH, revealing crimson petals and ivory teeth.

The man-eating plants had returned.

"Shit… shit!" Louie cursed under her breath as she unsheathed her knife.

"There they are! Kill them all!" Another one of them yelled. "Revenge yourselves, brothers and sisters, and forget not that even in death there shall be salvation!"

With cries, Evilus pressed forward towards us even as the plants snarled and shot another round of tendrils at our bodies.

"Hikitani, got a plan?" Hackard asked as we fell back into the closest alleyway.

I didn't hesitate to reply.

"Yeah, I do."

~~This is a Line Break~~

"Is this seriously the best plan you have?!" Hackard shouted at me as we tore down the narrow alleyways. Louie was dutifully following a few paces behind, and even further behind were the Evilus pursuers and those plants.

I responded by lifting my foot and executing a fluid turn without sliding to a halt, sharply dashing down the new detour with Hackard and Louie copying me perfectly. It wasn't long before green tendrils blurred in from around the alleyway and a familiar flower-like head emerged.

A look passed between all three of us.

Engage?
Engage.

We turned backwards.

"ORA!" With an overhead slash, Hackard intercepted most of them, cutting them down midair. A stray tendril managed to escape, but a quick lunge and slash from me left it writhing on the floor.

The plant hissed at us with annoyance–right before Louie's thrown knife embedded itself into its mouth.

"Damn, I missed!" The chienthrope hissed in frustration before jumping backwards to dodge the 3 tendrils which stabbed into the ground where she just was.

"On it!" With a hefty swing, Hackard's sword cleaved upwards, slicing through the plant's jaw and causing it to crumble into dust with a roar.

It wasn't long before the sound of pounding footsteps grew louder and louder, and the 3 of us quickly began moving again.

We'd run, we'd make a sharp turn, deal with the fastest pursuers, and then keep running. The current plan was to repeat that until we managed to either shake off our pursuers or reach Twilight Manor, at which point Loki Familia's executives could take over.

However, there was a problem.

From the sky, an Evilus member dropped down with a triumphant yell, landing on the ground with a hefty crunch before drawing his broadsword. "Found yo–"

He didn't get to say anything else before I backhanded him into the wall and continued running without breaking a pace, both Hackard and Louie following behind with Hackard slamming a fist into the ramshackle wooden hut to our right to collapse it and hinder our pursuit.

Even if we could take out the Level 1 and 2 grunts with no problem, they still had enough firepower packed on them to deal some serious damage if we got close. The only reason that we hadn't been swarmed with suicide bombers yet was because the ones scouting from the rooftops weren't the ones that had spotted us from earlier.

It was entirely possible that Loki Familia had already been swarmed with Evilus bombers and man-eating plants. If that happened, then even the executives would have their hands full with protecting the civilians.

If that Level 5 Tamer showed up on us while we were still making our way there, we'd be finished.

I couldn't let that happen.

A flash of movement caught my eye, and I raised my sword, ready to intercept.

"Hi...kita...ni…?" Nord, bloody and broken, cradled a single figure as he limped towards us shakily. Before he could say anything else, he collapsed to his knees.

"Raul-san?! Raul-san!" Hackard dashed over to him while I moved over to where Nord had fallen. Then, she blanched. "Hikitani! Raul-san and Aki-san… their injuries..."

A chill ran through my heart at the sight in front of me, and I moved.

"Louie, keep an eye around us."
"Yes."

Nord had several slash wounds, spearheads sticking out of his shoulder and stomach, and several black bruises. His hair was singed and parts of his skin were reddish and raw, no doubt from being hit by the Inferno Stones at close range. At a closer glance, his wrist was also broken and he had a cut on his arm that went down to the bone, white glistening out amongst the red blood and pinkish muscle.

But that paled in comparison to what had happened to Autumn.

A massive, gaping slash wound ran from her shoulder to her waist, layers of red and purple interspersed with the occasional yellow-white softness of what could only be fat peeking their way out of the slit in her clothes and body. There was also a thin cut on her head with several heavy bruises and a lot of blood, along with purple and blackened burn wounds that covered a large part of her body. She must've taken several explosions at point-blank range. And her arm was dislocated, judging by the way it hung from her body.

Holding back a grimace, I knelt down and began pulling the necessary supplies from my backpack. The orb was still there, safely nestled between the bandages and the rubbing alcohol.

Orario didn't have a first aid kit, and Anya's medical training amounted to "pour potions on it until the problem goes away", so I had been forced to construct my own. Potions were good, but for situations like these, I couldn't just pour them on and hope everything could be solved.

"Hackard, lay them both down on the ground flatly." Hackard complied and I set to work. First, I poured High Potions on the more serious injuries–that is, the burns, which I didn't have ointment for, and the slash wounds on Autumn's body and Nord's arm. Hopefully that would heal it–at least a little, if nothing else–and I wouldn't have to stitch it back together on the spot.

"Who… who could do this to them?" Hackard breathed in shock as she stared at their prone and unconscious bodies.

It was a good question.

I didn't like the answer.

The dislocated arm mandated a reset. So I grabbed her arm, positioned it to the side, and braced my feet against her before tugging her hand towards me. There was a light clunk as I continued to pull, and once it was finished, I checked her shoulder. It was fine now, I suppose. As for Nord's wrist, all I could do was wrap it really, really tight. There wasn't time to splint it.

For the other, smaller wounds, I had no choice but to pour a regular Potion on it before bandaging it. I didn't have time to heal everything, so I had to prioritize. I left the spearheads alone for now; pulling them out could just result in more problems. I'd leave it to actual professionals to figure out the problems.

With that dealt with, I turned to the actual problem at hand. It wasn't hard to guess what had happened; most likely, Nord and Autumn had been cornered by Evilus, chosen to fight, then gotten blown up and ganged up on.

Even then, though, that didn't make sense. No one on Evilus's level could've dealt that slash wound. Level 1s and 2s would've never been able to cut through a Level 4, armor and all, in one single slash like that.

Level 4. That Tamer was here, on the surface. This was Rivira all over again.

A Level 5. An impossible gap that no Level 3s or 4s could surpass.

"Hikitani, what're you doing?! We can't stay here!" Hackard's words broke me out of my train of thought, and I realized that I was dawdling.

That's right. We couldn't stay here.

If we continued to stay on this battlefield, I couldn't guarantee that either Hackard or Louie would make it out alive.

"Hackard, Louie. Take Nord and Autumn and get them to the Dian Cecht Familia." At my words, Louie's mouth dropped open with an expression of shock.

"The–the Dian Cecht Familia?! That's halfway across Orario!" she spluttered in protest.

"That's why you should hurry." Nord had literal spears sticking out of his body, and Autumn's slashes weren't going to be closing anytime soon. I didn't have the time to stitch it.

"Hikitani…" Hackard was frowning. As I turned away to leave, her hand caught my wrist and held me there. "Where are you going?"

"Twilight Manor.." Once Loki Familia had taken the orb off of our hands, this battle would no longer be my problem. It might've seemed a little cold abandoning Loki Familia to the enemy, but I had no interest in repeating Rivira. Dealing with Level 4 and above enemies was already way above my weight class. I didn't want to run into anything else.

"No." Hackard's whisper was almost silent enough for me not to notice, but when none of us replied, she said it again. "No. You aren't going alone."

"The orb needs to be delivered." I moved to shake her hand off, but her grip didn't waver. "And you saw what those zealots could do. If they found out that we have it..."

Evilus, those plants, and that Tamer had immediately appeared and attacked Loki Familia as soon as they had returned to the surface, right after the Rivira incident. The only reason the 3 of us were still alive was because no one suspected that we had the orb–only that we were random people to be killed. The majority of their strength was probably on Loki Familia, the prime candidate for safeguarding the orb.

If that focus and their numbers were concentrated on us, it went beyond saying that we would die.

Hackard seemed to back off for a moment before steeling herself and shaking her head.

"I'm not going to let you go alone. It's not safe." Her words were kind and caring, but they were pointless. No matter what she said, I wasn't going to let them stay on this battlefield any longer, and I wasn't going to be bringing the battlefield to them, either.

"I'm not coming with you. This is too important for that, Hackard." She winced at my words, but even then, she refused to let go. "Nothing's going to be resolved until Loki Familia's received the orb, and nothing's going to change if we just flee further away from where it needs to go."

"That's not what I meant." Her grip on my wrist tightened to a painful vise. "You know what I mean, Hikigaya."

I knew what she meant.

"Let us come with you! We're both Level 3s; we're not burdens on a battlefield!"

But that was an idea which I had thrown away from the very start. No matter what happened, I would never consider that choice of putting my party members in further danger ever again.

Maris Hackard had made a choice. It was a choice that a hero would make. It was a choice that emphasized caring and kindness. You're not alone, is what her choice said. I believe in you. Her choice was earnest and honest and it hoped for the best out of everything.

Heroes, trust, belief... I'd already given up on all of that.

That was why I could never follow that way of doing things. The world wasn't that gentle. That was why I would stick to my own methods.

Despicable, callous, cruel. Cold-hearted and calculating. I knew better than anyone else what my own choices did. They hurt people and pushed them away.

But it was the right choice.

Because the other option had been proven wrong.

Maris Hackard had made her choice, and she would stick to it to the very end. So I'd do the same.

"No one's a burden on the battlefield if they're dead."

At my words, she flinched, her grip slackening and sliding off of my wrist.

"Were you hoping to run in with your sword and slash at everything in sight and hope that that would somehow solve the problem? Do you really think that you have what it takes to stand up to something that could leave Level 4s like this, Hackard?"

"I… I–"

"You and I both know just how big that difference is." Even though I was stating objective facts, however, that wasn't enough to stop Hackard. She wasn't the type of person who cared about numbers or about chances. She was someone who cared about what had happened to those around her. "It took 4 Level 3s to hold that Tamer back for less than 30 seconds, and by the end of it, I was nearly cut in half. We're not good enough to stand on that level."

"... What about you, huh?!" Hackard's hands clenched into fists, and as she glared upwards at me, tears pooled in the corners of her eyes. "You think I want to stand on that level?! You're going to die!"

"I'll be fine." The words might've sounded hollow, but I understood the truth in them. It was a fundamental fact: no matter what happened, Hikigaya Hachiman would still come out of the problem alive.

"... That's what you say. You say that every time. Every single time." Hackard's fist slammed into the wall nearby, and the stone shattered beneath her blow. "Always, every time, every single goddamn time! You'll say that no matter what happens! You'll say that even if you were nearly cut in half and almost fucking died!"

There was a silence before her shouts gave way to a faltering whisper.

"Do you… do you think that Chris gave up his life for this?! Do you think that he'd approve of what you're doing?!"

Chris… a name I didn't want to hear again. A name I didn't want to remember. A name that only Hackard could bring up around me.

The outcome of the wrong choice.

It was her last, desperate effort to stop me from going.

… I really hated myself sometimes.

"Schwartz is dead, Hackard." At my response, she visibly recoiled and nearly fell to her knees. It was only Louie's support that kept her standing. "He made the wrong choice and he paid for it."

He wasn't the only one.

"That's the only reason we're still standing here, having this pointless argument while our allies are bleeding out right now. Enough is enough. I'm leaving. Take these two to the Dian Cecht Familia."

With a turn, I began to move towards the Twilight Manor, but a hand caught my sleeve and held me there. Her grip pinned me in place, and even though we were both Level 3s, I couldn't move away. The weight felt heavy enough to crush me.

"I'm sorry." Hackard's voice was a whisper that flitted in the wind. "Please… don't die."

She stepped away, and like water, the strength in her grip flowed away and her hand slid off of my sleeve. I couldn't turn around.

I could only keep my eyes forward.

"I'll be fine."

But even though it was the truth, it sounded emptily hollow.

Afterword: Yow. It's taken a while, but we're finally back. Heh heh heh… life's been busy, and I've been lazy, so apologies for the many-month hiatus.

Details regarding updates:
- Rewrote Chapter 2 & 3 (again, yep). Tried fixing some inconsistencies and logical gaps to help ease the reading experience.
- Rewrote the rest of Volume 1(barring Chapter 4.5/Omake and 10.5/Interlude-Omake). That is all of Volume 1, mind you. I updated Hikigaya's first encounter with Ryuu for a more plausible scenario, because in the original… man, that was just terrible writing. He thought himself genre-savvy and went out to look for her. No self-preservation whatsoever, and Hikigaya is known for his self-preservation. Yeah, there's a good reason this is my first fanfiction, isn't it?
- Changed Chapter 8's opening for a more realistic monologue following the whole Lyon-tries-to-kill-Hikigaya fiasco.
- Added an extremely small but in my opinion very significantly nicer touch to Chapter 10.

Finally, I never paid attention, but I accidentally hit 100,000+ words during my last update and I forgot to address it. Yay! Let's go, guys!

As for my half-a-year impromptu hiatus, I'm sure that no doubt this chapter's quality has dipped. So apologies in advance if it wasn't up to your satisfaction, and let me know what's no good.

Thank you for following me on this 1-year journey. I hope you will continue to read as I update sporadically as school starts. A more comprehensive afterword for the end of the volume will be prepared.

In a while(undetermined when, sorry), crocodile,
Oreo the Cookie