A/N: Contains mentions of rape, drugs, and drugs addiction be advised. Yeah good fucking chapter ahead…

On a quiet evening on Rhodes Island, where noise was at a minimum despite the fact that it was the weekend, Shining and Nightingale were relaxing in their quarters. Shining had prepared a full pot of tea and some cups. The white-haired sarkaz sipped her cup with pleasure as she read a book. The other sarkaz seemed to be listening to music with her headphones on and eyes closed.

She took them out after a while, apparently reaching the end of her album.

Shining: You've been listening to this all afternoon Liz...

The white-clad sarkaz smiled a little embarrassed.

Nightingale: Sora's latest album? Hehe... I was looking forward to it. I even pre-ordered it...

Shining: I don't think it's my style. But she does seem to be a good artist.

Nightingale: You only listen to classical music anyway, nothing else would be your style. But Sora's music really touches the hearts of many people.

Shining: Hm. It makes me think it's pretty quiet for a Saturday night. You should have heard a drunken scream by now.

Nightingale: I would have gone for a drink myself earlier in the evening. But the good doctor isn't here to open the bar this weekend if you recall.

Shining's eyes widened at the moment.

Shining: My brain didn't connect the fact that the bar was closed with the fact that Sir Sebastian wasn't there...

Both sarkazs turned their eyes to the door when they heard it open. And of course it could only be the third person in their dorm, Margaret Nearl herself. The kuranta walked in with a slow, tired step. Her face seemed frozen and emotionless. She seemed to take a few seconds before noticing the two sarkazs.

Nearl: Good evening girls.

Nightingale: I can't wait until the doctor gets back...

Said the blonde haired sarkaz almost as soon as she shook her head left and right. As soon as the doctor's word was mentioned, Nearl's horse ears perked up on top of her head.

Nearl: Huh?

Shining: I agree with Liz. When the doctor's not around it really does feel like your soul is gone.

Slow to respond, the woman looked at herself in a mirror that was lying near the front door of the dormitory, to see that she really did not seem to reflect any emotion at all, which surprised her.

If Sebastian had managed to make the radiant knight disappear and Margaret Nearl reappear, then all his efforts were wasted when the kuranta no longer felt the presence of the good doctor.

She sighed and walked over to the couch before sinking down on it next to Shining.

Nearl: It's been a month... A month since he left... The worst part is that I'm not even allowed to go see him...

Shining: He didn't come back the other day?

Nightingale: He was here for about ten minutes because of an accident.

Shining: Oh boy...

Nearl: I missed him by a few seconds that day.

Shining: A lot of people miss him.

She says with a smile.

Nightingale: The pool reopened for your morning workouts though... So you really miss him emotionally.

Nearl: Of course… It's not like I just share workouts with him...

The poor kuranta looked sad and stuffed her head into one of the couch cushions.

Shining looked at her friend and could see that her tail was in a mess, with some of her hair in a tangle.

Shining: Don't you clean your tail anymore?

Nearl: He was the one doing it... I don't know how I can do it alone to be honest...

Nightingale: See, I told you it was him.

Shining: I get it Liz... I owe you another album. Oh my poor Margaret...

Even though Shining expressed her regret for Margaret, she was careful not to say that she too would do anything to see the good doctor return.

Nightingale: Margaret, are you sure it's not your season starting early that's making you have these thoughts?

Every part of the kuranta stiffened and she immediately scrambled to her feet, red with embarrassment.

Nearl: Of course not, there are still two months to go before the kurantas! A-and why would I think about the doctor during that time, right?

Shining: Which reminds me, the participants of the Kazimierz major will be revealed soon, right?

The kuranta returned to her seriousness because the situation was now no joke.

Nearl: Hm. In a week on the internet lists.

Nightingale: How will it work for Maria?

Nearl: The Nearl family still has that little piece of influence. She won't have to participate in the selection phases. I am too. I got my confirmation letter.

Shining: But you are still exiled, no one will let you participate...

Nearl: Sebastian has a plan. I would use an alias and hide my face. He did say he would participate, but I still don't know how he's going to do it...

Shining: He'll figure it out somehow.

Nearl: I hope he's done with the L.G.D. soon...

Said the kuranta thinking about her friend as she put her head back into a pillow.

Shining: Don't worry. I'm sure he's doing fine.

Ch'en: ...

Sebastian: ...

In a police car, in one of the alleys of Lungmen when it was almost eight o'clock. In the car were two people. A giant who by some miracle had managed to get into the car, sitting in the passenger seat. And a lung, who was furiously tapping her fingers on the steering wheel, a vein showing on her forehead proof of the fact that she was very angry. The rain was pouring down on the city. While the two companions of misfortune remained in the car.

Sebastian: It could have been worse-

Ch'en: Shut the fuck up!

The windows shook from the power of the lung's voice. Sebastian sighed.

Sebastian: What? Is it my fault we're here?

The lung turned to him with an angry look.

Ch'en: You think it's your fault that we're here? No really?!

Sebastian: Can you tell me what I did wrong maybe?

He says while clapping his hands on his thighs.

Ch'en: Between the fact that you smashed Wei Yenwu's car to bits or the fact that you humiliated him during one of his most important meetings?

Sebastian: I did that?

Suddenly he remembered when he had saved a girl by crushing a car.

And what about the meeting he ruined?

He began to search through his memories.

It was all happening a few days ago. Sebastian was there as a simple guard, since he might have been able to help out at the annual meeting of the Lungmen shareholders. In other words, the most important event of the year for Wei. Sebastian stood there impassively, like any good guard.

Until his phone started to vibrate.

He picked it up and saw the call.

Sebastian: Yes. What do you mean she's hurt?! Is she bleeding?! I'm coming!

His face had broken down and drained of color as the call came in. Everyone had turned to him because of his excessive voice.

He put his cell phone away and immediately burst through the exit door to leave breaking it down completely.

Sebastian: You can't understand...

Ch'en: Really? You kicked down a door in the middle of Lungmen's important people, all to go and see Misha who only had a scratch.

Sebastian: When Gavial called me she said it was bleeding a lot! You don't believe it, she had cut her eyebrow!

Ch'en: You told me she didn't even cry!

Sebastian: But I cried, you can't imagine how scared I was! Anyway. So why are we both here and I'm not with Nao or Hoshi who are my usual partners!

Ch'en: Because I'm supposed to keep you on a leash like my fucking dog! But since you decided to just do shit it falls back on me !

Sebastian: If you really want to put me on a leash, you'll have to get me really drunk.

She started to blush slightly at the implication but still full of rage.

Ch'en: Can't you stop your dirty jokes for a few fucking seconds?!

Sebastian: And you can't stop blaming everything on me every time!

Ch'en: You'll see what you'll see fucking asshole!

The two of them started to fight like cats with their arms. The heat sticking fog on the windows and their movements making the car shake left and right their screams echoing outside.

On the main street a mother and child passed by the alley, sheltered from the rain by the mother's umbrella. The young boy looked into the alley and could see the car shaking left and right with screams coming from inside.

Child: Mommy... What are the man and the woman doing?

Mother: N-nothing. Come on, we have to go home.

Breathing heavily the giant and the lung stopped fighting, the day was well underway.

Sebastian lowered the windows on his side to clear the heat and the fog.

Ch'en: Are you done...?

Sebastian: I don't want to fight with you.

Ch'en: And I want to beat the shit out of you... it's been years since the last time I was given this task.

Sebastian: Relax. I got it a week ago.

Ch'en: Not me.

Ch'en rolled down the window on her side, resting her elbow on the side as the rain began to subside slowly.

Sebastian: Did you take your meds?

Ch'en: ...

Sebastian: Ch'en...

Ch'en: What's wrong with you - OUCH!

The lung turned to the giant feeling angry because of the pain she felt in her neck. A pain caused by the needle of an injector that the good doctor had in his hand.

Sebastian: I don't mind if you don't take it in public, or if you keep it a secret. But I didn't bother to get you a treatment for nothing...

Ch'en: I don't need it...

Sebastian: Do you want to die? Do you want to turn into a black crystal statue in front of Hoshiguma after months of agony? No. Then... Take it. This. Fucking. Treatment.

Ch'en: Don't bring Hoshi into this...

Sebastian: I too don't care about dying personally. But for the others our lives have value. I'm sorry if this hurts you, but Hoshi will mourn you if you die, and that's the truth. So if you don't want to take care of yourself do it for her...

Ch'en: Always with the big talk... Take off your fucking white knight armor for once...

Sebastian: Seriously you don't want to go back to where we were after the battle against the reunion? You've been making my life hell for a month now and I don't even know why.

The lung started to look sideways guiltily. She still wasn't ready to give the reasons for her hatred that Sebastian couldn't remember.

Ch'en: ... Maybe-

Radio: Attention all nearby units, we have a 10-4 on the seventh, repeat, 10-4 on the seventh.

On the street across from which the two's car was facing, a race car sped along the road, far too fast to be legal. With two other police cars too slowly behind.

Ch'en: Car one we're on it.

Said the lung, taking the radio. Sebastian got out of the car immediately.

Sebastian: It was a FGE zentorno, you have no chance to catch it with this car, I'll take care of it.

Ch'en: Tch. Let's see if you can do it...

He began to bend his legs, and started to run. Without using the combustion of his cells, he was already able to run at a speed that was much too fast to be biologically possible for most people.

He began to zigzag between the cars on the road running as fast as they were. When one of them started to drive straight towards him and he couldn't get past it, he just jumped over it.

Eventually, he arrived at the side of the sports car. Inside he could see a man with a gun and a balaclava. The code indicating that he was the suspect in a robbery. Sebastian ran to the side of the window. Then he knocked against the window.

The driver looked at him with wide eyes, and then with a sudden movement of the wheel the robber tried to run him over. But Sebastian only jumped in the air to dodge. And the only effect of this acrobatic move was that the car turned over because of the speed.

With a crash the race car stopped in the middle of a street. Passers-by looked on as Ch'en's car arrived. She got out and looked at the passers-by.

Ch'en: Back off! This is an L.G.D. case!

Sebastian approached the car as the robber got out.

Confused, he pulled a strange device from one of his pockets and threw it at Sebastian. The giant quickly recognized it as a grenade with originium.

The giant's eyes widened, then he grabbed the grenade between his two gigantic hands.

An explosion sounded, muffled by the doctor's skin, flesh and bones. A light was released from the gap between his hands, along with a light cloud of dust.

Sebastian let out a deep sigh and spread his hands, dropping shrapnel onto the floor. His hands revealed themselves without a scratch.

The crowd, which had jumped back in fear, froze in surprise.

The giant stood up and brushed the dust off his shirt that was sent by the shockwave of the grenade.

Sebastian: Is that all you got?

The robber who had regained his senses took a few steps back, absolutely terrified of the monstrosity that had risen in front of him.

The Rhodes Island doctor began to walk towards him with the goal of stopping him in his tracks.

The robber looked around trying to find a way out but he found nothing. He had his back to the wall, with a man who was about to kick his ass.

Robber: What the hell...

He took an object from his pocket, which he revealed to be a pill, which he swallowed just as soon.

The man in the baclava began to convulse and scream. Then he began to breathe heavily as he looked at Sebastian, his eyes bloodshot.

Sebastian approached him without being too afraid. Then he was surprised by the amazing speed of his enemy who gave him a lightning punch on the side of the skull. Sebastian's one hundred and fifty kilos flew like a rag doll and crashed into the hood of Ch'en's police car.

Whatever he had just taken, this robber's strength had increased significantly.

Sebastian grunted and got up slowly from the pain.

Ch'en immediately drew her two swords sensing danger, when she saw a person capable of dealing such a blow to Sebastian.

The lung looked at the crowd who didn't seem to mind standing there and watching the scene.

Ch'en: Get out of here!

Only a few left while others started to film the scene with their phones.

Sebastian: Leave it to me...

He said, raising his hand towards the lung. Before standing up on his two feet. He removed his heavy grey coat revealing an arsenal worthy of an executor, his sword being the only thing missing, and then he cracked his arm joints, ready to give out a little fight at least. The man in front of him seemed to have lost all reason after having taken this drug.

He began to attack Sebastian again, with a simple punch, but having lost the surprise effect, the giant was able to swivel his torso to the side, to dodge the attack, while adding even more momentum to his blow.

With a fluid movement, he seemed to swing a weight from his leg that took support on the ground to his fist that fell to the sternum of his opponent.

Ch'en blinked to see something unusual.

Sebastian seemed to be using martial arts.

Not a style she recognized, for good reason, it was the martial art his master had taught him and he had hardly ever used it simply because it made him fight against his instincts. But he had quickly realized that his instincts had to give way to efficiency once in combat. What the lung had noticed in some ways. She couldn't help but notice how the emerald-eyed giant seemed to take more and more on himself with each fight, trying to use each skirmish as a lesson for himself, all of which betrayed the sign of his desire to progress and improve.

His enemy did not remain a helpless, seeming almost insensitive to the pain, the robber grabbed with both hands the arm of the giant and lifted it in the air to smash it against the ground by making it pass over his back.

But with this slowness it was for the giant only a mosquito bite in equivalent of pain.

He only had to lift his leg to give a right kick to the skull of his opponent. And a kick with the strength of the giant even for a temporary superman was like a lightning strike from a god. The robber stumbled to the carcass of the race car as the giant stood up under the flash of the phone cameras, taking advantage of his momentum to jump on his two legs.

Disoriented, the robber pressed himself against the carcass, Sebastian walked towards him and punched him in the sternum, breaking it completely and resounding like a sound from the depths of the underworld.

Then, as the fight seemed to be over, he kicked the side of his opponent's leg, making him turn on himself.

Sebastian having now a view on the back of his opponent took a pair of handcuffs that he had in his pocket and made them turn around his finger before attaching them to the wrists of the criminal with speed and fluidity.

Ch'en reflexively put her hand on her handcuff case to see that it was empty and she sighed in annoyance.

In a last burst of consciousness the robber turned towards the giant and gave a headbutt, but the doctor had already raised his fist to smash his skull and plunging the criminal into unconsciousness.

He grabbed him with his arm and began to carry him over his shoulder like a bag.

The crowd around him shouted as he raised an eyebrow at the realization that he was being filmed. Then he started walking toward the lung who was sitting on the hood of his car. Sebastian opened the back door and threw the man in, then seeing that the road would be completely blocked, he approached the ruined sports car and with one of his hands grabbed the metal bending frame and put it on the sidewalk allowing traffic to flow again once the police had moved.

Ch'en: Are you done?

Asked the lung who was clearly bored for a while.

Sebastian: It's ok, you can take him away.

Ch'en: Well... We'll do it the usual way, you take him into custody while I do the paperwork-

Sebastian: No.

Ch'en: What?

He raised his wrist to show his oripathy monitor which displayed the time. Showing that it was 9:00 p.m. or so.

Sebastian: It's Sunday. I don't do overtime on Sunday.

The lung looked at him, then a vein appeared on her forehead.

Ch'en: What is this bullshit! Get in the car now, that's an order!

Sebastian: You're not my wife yet, so outside of work you can keep your orders.

He said as he started to leave with his hands in his pockets.

Before he started to bend his legs again, to jump and disappear from the scene.

Ch'en turned away to see that the coat disappeared, same with the sword.

After all he had projects this evening.

Further into Lungmen a large stone building stood in the middle of one of the city's squares. The bells of the cathedral were ringing to announce the evening mass. Getting out of a car, the emerald-eyed giant hurried up the steps to the church to enter through the heavy wooden doors. He made himself scarce when he entered, someone else even arriving at the same time as him. Yet everyone in the cathedral turned their eyes to him.

The assembly was made up of many races, but mostly Sankta, who were the ones staring at him. Some widened their eyes in incomprehension, some frowned, and some just hurried to look away.

He didn't know why, but it was as if the sankta had sensed his presence.

He couldn't throw the stone at them for looking at him strangely considering the fact he looked exactly like the big ass dude on the stained glass of the church.

Sebastian walked silently to a vacant chair and joined the congregation for the rest of the service, which passed without a single event. The giant paid little attention to the glances that were occasionally thrown his way. When the mass was over the giant went against the flow of those who were leaving to get closer to a person he had spotted. The nun had her back to him, walking straight ahead, until she felt the presence at her back, and the two white bear ears on top of her head twitched. The nun stopped walking and so did the giant.

Skullshatterer: Do you often follow young women without them knowing it, Doctor of Rhodes Island?

The young woman's head turned toward the doctor, her two blood red eyes meeting the gaze of the two emeralds.

The good giant laughed slightly.

Sebastian: Please stop, you're giving me the image of a stalker.

The ursine turned completely towards him while there were only a few steps that separated them.

Skullshatterer analyzed the giant's posture. Although he appeared confident she could see that all his nerves and muscles were tense, which no one else could see. He had probably gotten that close to test the bear to see if she was hostile. This made her smile slightly in the corner of her mouth. Come on... Just a little joke...

Irina at full speed gave a punch to the doctor at the level of the skull but this one of a fast gesture dodged whereas of the sweat percolated of his forehead.

The ursine laughed and removed her fist making the good doctor breathe a sigh of relief.

Skullshatterer: Relax doc...

Sebastian: Not nice to scare me like that...

Skullshatterer: It's strange to see you here. Do you have something to make up for?

She asked, raising an eyebrow as she removed her itchy nun's veil to sit in one of the pews when hardly anyone was in the church anymore.

Sebastian: Hundreds and hundreds of things. But that's not the most important thing.

He grabbed something from under his heavy gray coat and tossed an envelope to Ursin, who caught it without difficulty. She opened it and could see an ursus passport and various papers marked with the seal of Rhodes Island. Opening the passport she could see her picture on it, even though she didn't remember ever having a passport photo taken, along with fake names on the passport.

Sebastian: A new identity. And everything is arranged for you to go up to Rhodes Island.

The ursine smiled.

Sebastian: If you want, of course.

Skullshatterer: Huh... Of course. I'll come along.

She looked at him.

Skullshatterer: You look surprised.

Sebastian: It was easier than I thought. But it looks like you've already made up your mind.

Skullshatterer: I've been hanging around here for a month. Of course I thought about it. I guess I needed to get blown up to realize that the reunion was wrong.

Sebastian: Surprising.

Skullshatterer: That's it?

Sebastian: I got someone to listen to the voice of reason. That's pretty good. So I'm not going to make you feel bad about the fact that you were wrong in the first place.

Skullshatterer: Do I get a treatment?

Sebastian: Free, same with housing if you work for us. Any job.

Skullshatter: Really? Just that? Even if I'm a cleaner I get a salary?

The ursine scratched her head before putting her veil back on. The giant because of the action diverted his gaze to her bear ears and made him want to touch those soft, warm little ears-

He shook his head left and right before going too far.

Sebastian: Yep.

Skullshatterer: Behind you.

Sebastian: What?

The giant turned and was surprised to see the archbishop right behind him, with four other nuns watching from behind a pillar. He was startled to see the old man, simply because he had been unable to sense his presence. Immediately Sebastian cleared his throat and lowered his head.

Sebastian : Father.

Montsut: Sebastian... I am surprised to see you at mass.

Sebastian : I was coming to pick up my friend my father. So I thought I would join the congregation. Did you receive my gift this week?

Montsut: Of course... With this generosity you help the parish a lot... May God bless you. And be careful my child... The streets are getting less and less safe.

Skullshatterer : Father, excuse me but I don't think I have a change of clothes-

Montsut : Keep the clothes Irina. I am giving them to you as a departure gift.

Skullshatterer : Thank you father.

She said while lowering the head in sign of gratitude. Then she turned to the giant.

Skullshatterer: One second please.

The young ursine left and joined her friends who were hidden behind the pillar.

Skullshatterer: Girls... I have to go.

Stella: Hooh... You're leaving Irina already? What a shame.

Veronica: Hm. It's okay as long as you're doing well out there. But feel free to come back and see us.

Skullshatterer: Don't worry about it. I'll be back soon.

Said the bear with a smile.

Dorothy: Damn, he's hot, your friend...

They all turned to the vouivre, and Irina sighed before closing her fist to gently tap the top of the vouivre's head to punish her in some way.

Skullshatterer: Come on bye girls.

Alma: Try to find a guy like you wanted...

Skullshatterer: Heh. I'll try.

The ursine left with a smile on her lips, giving the old man one last wave before leaving with the giant.

Sebastian: So what did you think of your little internship with the nuns.

Asked the man as the two walked down the steps of the church square.

Skullshatterer: I made some friends, that's not bad. I've been around the city a bit too and I have to say it's pretty cool.

The ursine and the giant arrived in front of a car parked in the vicinity of the cathedral, and Sebastian took out a key to press a button and unlock it showing that it was his.

Skullshatterer: Wow... that's some car.

Said the young woman as she approached the machine looking carefully at the model among other things, revealing the certain attraction she had for car mechanics.

Skullshatterer: it pays well your job... Is it with seniority?

Irina grinned with a small desire to annoy the good doctor of Rhodes Island.

Which she didn't even understand why. Just seeing him, having the opportunity to talk to him gave the young woman an irrepressible desire to annoy him. To see his little embarrassed smiles or every reaction he could give.

Sebastian: I bought her with money I embezzle from mafia deals first, and second, go ahead and call me an old man!

Skullshatterer: Old man.

Sebastian: I'm hurt. And I'm not even old.

Skullshatterer: Yeah yeah, instead of being forty you're thirty...

Sebastian: I'm nineteen!

The giant who was getting annoyed at being called an old man took out his wallet and with a passport of ursus he gave it to the young woman.

Skullshatterer: Sebastian Petrenko born October 5, 1073... I was never very good at math, but that's 23 years and not 19...

Sebastian: I've been in Chernobog for four years in a cryogenic chamber, since I didn't age in there nobody counts me those four years...

The young woman looked at him almost incredulously. She could easily imagine him fifteen years older. But in fact he was not so much older than her. In fact, it gave her a whole new perspective on the doctor. Irina began to smile.

Skullshatterer: Wait you're embezzling money from the mob?

Sebastian: It's pretty easy to do, I can't use it to help Rhode Island since yknow, dirty money so that's how I make money that I use personally...

Skullshatterer: Well you have good taste in cars.

Sebastian: I took the only one I could get my legs into comfortably.

He walked over to the right door and opened it before pulling out a bag from a clothing store.

Sebastian: Here. I thought you might like to put on something other than your reunion boss clothes, or even if they fit you well other than the nun's clothes.

The ursine approached the giant and clasped her hands together in a prayer position before pressing herself against him with an innocent look far too close to not bother him.

Skullshatterer: You were really looking at me with those depraved eyes, me the poor and innocent nun... Your head filled with those ungodly thoughts...

The giant started to blush intensely before looking away and pulling the young woman away from him.

Sebastian: Shut up, take the clothes in the bag and change in the car.

He held out the bag which the ursine grabbed with a big smile.

Skullshatterer: You know what, I love the look on your face when you are embarrassed. I feel that we will get along well.

She said, lightly tapping the giant's arm, half laughing.

She took the clothes and got into the passenger side of the car but left part of the window open, enough to sneak her head in and look at the giant who was leaning against his vehicle looking straight ahead.

Skullshatter: Wow, they are all my size.

Sebastian: I have a ruler in my eye...

Skullshatterer: So you could have gotten me a thong... Underwear would have been nice on top of the rest.

The giant almost choked on his own spit before looking through the small gap in the window to see those almost evil blood red eyes.

Skullshatterer: you look so bad with that little red on your cheeks... I love it~

Said the young woman still enjoying abusing the doctor who did not seem able to defend himself in any way.

He did not expect to see her act like this. And to be honest she was also surprised to show this new side of her personality.

Sebastian: If you want it you'll get it by yourself...

Skullshatterer: That makes me think I'm curious about the fact that you managed to get a picture for my passport.

Sebastian: I just remodeled your face in 3D software since I could remember it pretty well.

Skullshatterer: I marked you so much that you remember every inch of my body and every detail of my face... It's quite romantic... Could it be love at first sight doctor?

This time he didn't even bother to answer, leaving that little trace of red on his cheeks sighing desperately.

Okay, Irina said to herself.

The more she did it, the more she loved to embarrass the good doctor.

His expression so embarrassed, so innocent, in the middle of all these feelings, it made her heart beat with the same amount of adrenaline as after an intense fight. An addictive feeling...

The doctor himself was surprised. This kind of baseness wouldn't be supposed to make him blush so much, and yet he was enormously embarrassed.

Skullshatterer: Seriously, you have good taste, doc.

The young woman got out of the car fully dressed. She was wearing black mini shorts with black tights underneath, camouflaging her originium crystal lesions along her long, thin, model-like legs. One of the main attractions of the young woman besides and she knew it, it was her legs and her thighs. Then as much to put them in value. In top she wore a white t-shirt rather long and ample but nevertheless with the good size in the collar, as well as a black leather jacket. And as shoes a pair of boots of the Colombian army a little retro, of which she had not tightened enormously the laces to give a relaxed look. Honestly, she was satisfied, that's how she would have dressed herself… With a few good ideas like the light scarf to hide her originium crystals on her throat.

Skullshatterer: I look good in them, don't I?

Surprised by her ability to choose the right selection of clothes, the doctor simply nodded.

Sebastian: Like a glove. You'll match your sister. Come on, I'll take you.

The giant walked to the side and climbed into the driver's seat, soon joined by the bear, and he noticed that she had kept her old clothes in the paper bag, which she put back behind her seat as the good doctor started the engine roaring.

Sebastian: You're keeping them?

Skullshatterer: Yeah. Who knows, I might get a costume for the next Halloween. And if they fit me that well, I might just wear them usually.

Sebastian: You dress however you want.

The giant started to drive through the streets of Lungmen.

Sebastian: Lyudmila found you, didn't she?

The young woman opened her eyes wide in surprise.

Skullshatterer: How did you know?

Sebastian: While I was beating up some assholes in the streets to help a girl, she came up to me and tried to kill me. I was the one who told her where you were.

Skullshatterer: Huh... Thanks. It was good to see her. It really helped me to think about some things.

Sebastian: Relieved to have seen the woman you love?

He says with a smug on his face trying to get back at the bear, still focused on the road in front of him.

Skullshatterer: Nah. Women aren't really my thing. But Lyudmila is the only friend I've made in a long time. Why, interested in ursines Doc?

She said, turning completely to him. That slight smile, the mark of her joke, was enough proof for the doctor not to be fooled, so that red on his cheeks was a sweetness that Skullshatterer could not enjoy, which disappointed her a little.

Sebastian: It depends. There is one ursine that I particularly like. But I don't know you well enough for that.

This time he kept an Olympian calm. And it had to be said that such a serious and direct answer was even more disappointing. This answer even hurt a little strangely...

There was a silence for a few seconds, until the rain started to fall again.

Sebastian: Again?

he murmured, looking outside.

Sebastian: The weather control tower is screwing up again, they already gave it away two hours ago...

Skullshatterer: The one in Chernobog was stuck on cold and snow...

Sebastian: Here they didn't throw any snow, but still, they keep throwing rain right now. And they haven't announced it for three days now.

Skullshatterer: Yes, there must be a problem.

Stopping at a red light, the giant took a second to instinctively look to his left. He could see a lung who was also driving, but she was staring at the giant while breathing heavily. So fixated was she in her internal crisis that she didn't even notice the light turn green.

Skullshatterer: She was looking at you like a piece of juicy turkey.

Sebastian: We're in the middle of Lung season. And they have it hard, like the vouivres or the dracos. That's why the city is a little bit in chaos right now.

Skullshatterer: If the majority of the population is Lung it doesn't surprise me. But then again Rhodes was here for a whole month?

Sebastian: Yep.

Skullshatterer: How come?

Sebastian: Long story. But basically, Wei Yenwu found a loophole in our contract that requires me to work with L.G.D. for a while.

Skullshatterer: So you became one of them.

The young woman began to grit her teeth. Her mind filled with bitterness at the mere thought of hearing about the L.G.D.

Sebastian: I know I know. I wasn't too keen on the idea of working with them at first either. But they're actually pretty cool, and they helped me find out that their members who were throwing pogroms in the slums are a secret group of their own.

Skullshatterer: Do you have their names or any other info on them? I've been in a church for a month now and I feel like cracking skulls.

Sebastian: They were buried alive in unmarked graves in the desert after having all their nails ripped out and their tongues cut out.

Skullshatterer: How do you know?

Sebastian: I still have the shovel in the trunk.

The young woman gave him a shocked look.

Sebastian: Don't look at me like that. I may hit a lot less people than the reunion, but I'm meaner than any of you when I get my hands on someone I really hate.

Skullshatterer: Then I can sleep soundly.

Irina took a moment to look at the giant. The reflection of the city's holograms illuminating his face and every feature. Revealing the fact that he had no wrinkles caused by age. Showing that he wasn't old but just looked like. And then it was mostly his eyes that she was looking at, focused on the road ahead, she could admire how perfectly emerald green they remained no matter how brightly they were lit. In a way it was beautiful. Seeing his ebony hair seem to almost make her head disappear in the darkness and remembering her snow white hair and blood red eyes, she thought they were perfect opposites.

Her eyes used to be just like Misha's, but with time and the overuse of her body strengthening arts, Irina had turned her irises into a blood red. Her arts now being activated constantly at a low enough level to not aggravate her oripathy. And honestly, no matter how hard she tried, she didn't think she would be able to turn them back to their natural colors. Even if it was one of the only things that differentiated her from her sister physically speaking. Her eyes, the twenty centimeters more than she was and her shape was closer to that of a woman than a child.

Well...

She lowered her head and looked at her chest, which seemed almost non-existent to her taste.

She still had some time left before she finished growing completely... And finally stop looking like a child's larger clone.

But then she looked back at the giant.

That was it, the two of them were rather opposites.

And sometimes opposites attract.

Irina blushed as she thought about it and then looked away.

She was not supposed to think of that!

She said to herself. Not with a man who looks so much older than her.

It would be indecent.

Right...

Indecent...

Sebastian: You were saying about the lung woman just now, yet from your reactions I'm starting to wonder if the ursine season had ended a few days ago.

That slight smile in the corner of his mouth. And like a weapon turned against itself, it was her turn to blush like the good doctor had done a few moments ago.

Skullshatterer: Shut up... I don't want to fuck an old man...

Sebastian: Stop calling me an old man!

Skullshatterer: Nah~

Sebastian: Alright. If I'm an old man, then maybe I'll take you to high school. You'll be at your place.

The ursine flinched at the thought of going back to school.

Skullshatterer: But seriously, are you even old enough to drive?

Sebastian: If you count the years I've been in the fridge, yeah. I don't have a license anyway.

Skullshatterer: Is this a joke?

Sebastian: Nah. I was too lazy to take it.

Skullshatterer: God...

As her eyes began to wander again, this time they landed on a strange object on the dashboard that she hadn't noticed until now. But a familiar object. She picked it up with one of her hands and immediately recognized one of Misha's talismans. As well as the fact that this talisman had the giant's name on it.

Skullshatterer: Nah... Did she make you one?

She said with a smile.

Skullshatterer: How is she?

Sebastian: Wonderfully well since she's been eating her fill, getting treatment and being in a healthy environment. I just saw her a few days ago. Even if it was because she had injured herself...

Skullshatterer: What did she do to herself?

Sebastian: Nothing, she was playing with one of her friends and then she fell and cut her eyebrow on a corner of a piece of furniture. It's not much, but she'll have a scar.

He raised a hand from the steering wheel and pointed to his eyebrow, specifically the scar he had.

Sebastian: Like this.

Skullshatterer: Hm, it will match you. And if she's okay then everything's nice...

Sebastian: She also started to call me dad.

He says during a blank. Suddenly, wanting to clear this from his conscience.

Irina looked at him and met his uncertain look.

Skullshatterer: Hm.

Sebastian: Is that all?

Skullshatterer: To be honest I was kind of expecting it. If I've seen it before, Misha grew up never having seen her father. I can't blame her for finding a surrogate father figure when she has a good one available.

She said with all seriousness as she looked at the giant.

Skullshatterer: As long as you keep her happy and safe, you can even adopt her if you want.

The giant was pleasantly surprised.

Sebastian: Maybe not adopt her... But I will continue to take care of her.

Skullshatterer: And then if you want...

She approached him to whisper something in his ear.

Skullshatterer: I can also call you daddy if you want~

The tone she used could not be described as anything but erotic...

The giant's heart almost gave out for a moment because of the ursine's suddenness, a horn sounded as the good doctor was almost caught in an accident.

The giant was redder than ever as the ursine laughed at the top of her lungs, he calmed his breathing because of his panic attack and managed to drive straight.

Sebastian: Please... Anything... But stop it...

The young woman calmed down, wiping away one of her tears of laughter, looking out the window.

In fact now, almost no one would have been able to tell that they were mortal enemies not so long ago.

What a pleasant surprise...

She noticed that the car was starting to slow down and stop in an alley.

The giant took off his safety belt and turned off the engine before getting out, followed quickly by the ursine.

Skullshatterer: What do we do?

Sebastian: That's up to you Irina. I was going to go for a drink in my friends' bar, you can come with me, or if you go in the opposite direction and turn left where the carrot-shaped statue is and go straight on, you'll arrive at Rhodes Island. Just go back through the civilian wing with the papers I gave you and everything will be fine.

The ursine seemed to look at him strangely.

Sebastian: What's wrong?

Skullshatterer: Nothing... It's just that it feels strange to hear my name...

The giant sighed.

Sebastian: You left the meeting and there's little chance they'll let you back in. So maybe you should drop Skullshatterer, for Irina. And the second one is much more beautiful than the first one.

The ursine lowered her head, seeming to think about her next destination.

Of course she was dying to join her sister...

But maybe ...

Irina: I think that-

?: Help! Help!

A few blocks away through the dead silence of the night in this part of town the good doctor and the ursine both heard the desperate cries of a young woman in the distance.

Irina looked at the giant and as she expected from the white knight when he heard a damsel in distress, it didn't take even three seconds since the cry had sounded for the giant to start running in the direction of the one who needed help.

Irina: It would be beautiful in a tin suit of armor in Kazimierz...

Soon the ursine started to run after him.

She clenched her teeth with all her might.

Gangster 1: Ouch! Damn this bitch bit my hand!

?: Help, help!

Screamed the young woman with all her strength before being silenced by another gangster.

The girl caught her breath in the middle of the dark night.

God only knew the chain of events that had resulted in her being surrounded by criminals, with two of them tackling her against a wall, and two others looking at her with big sick smiles.

Gangster 2: Don't tell me you feel pain Liu... Come on baby... Relax... You're infected, we know how desperate you are...

He said as he began to caress the bare skin of the young woman's thigh touching the blue oripathy crystals she had. To feel the skin of this man against her own made her want to vomit...

She had come a long way from Siracusa... All she had to do was get exhausted and go down the wrong alley to be picked on by all those gangsters. She noticed that one of the gangsters took a white injector with a seal of a red dragon and injected it into his arm and shivered before laughing. He turned to his colleague.

Gangster 3: The way she's young, do you think she's still a virgin?

Gangster 4: I hope so, it's always funnier when you see them cry and watch that little trickle of blood come out of them when those whores thought they were doing it with their first love or something.

Gangster 3: Come on gal, resist more, it turns me on... I can't wait to see how tight you are...

He began to remove the belt of his pants and the eyes of the young vulpo widened.

Of course there was no doubt for her what she was about to undergo. That's why she froze for a second. But she had already faced ordeals and death, then her instincts pushed her to fight, she tried to move her arms or to shout even more but without success, it is when she felt the hand of this disgusting man settling on one of her breasts that the young vulpo gave a kick in the apparatus of the one who tried to rape her.

He pushed a big cry of pain and made some steps backward under the laughter of his colleagues. Mad of rage the man made a step forward and struck with his closed fist the vulpo in the face. The young woman remained a poor girl who had left high school not so long ago. Her head hit the brick wall behind and she fell unconscious. The other two gangsters released her just as soon.

Gangster 4: Damn you, I wish she would have struggled while I made her a woman.

Gangster 2: What do you care, they're gonna send her to the mill anyway once we're done with her. They'll make her a woman there until she gets pregnant...

Gangster 3: I'm going to break that bitch's legs and make sure she never feels pleasure again...

He said as he began to lay the girl on the floor.

Gangster 1: Wait. Remember, when you catch a girl you have to give her a dose.

The first gangster gave a syringe to the one who was preparing to abuse the young woman. He sighed and stuck the injector in the young woman's arm but when he was about to press the button, he stopped because he felt that his back was covered with liquid.

He turned around to see that they were all covered in a thick red liquid with a sound like a balloon bursting.

Everyone could see that a gigantic man radiating red lightning was standing in the alley. His fist in the air was standing right in front of the place where the fifth gangster was... Where only shoes and ankles remained, the rest of the body having been pulverized.

The giant approached the rest.

His overdeveloped hearing had allowed him to hear everything. And now his mind was clouded by rage, not by the desire to kill.

But by the need to kill.

He had never considered himself a sane man, and that's why he needed to slaughter these men to quench his anger.

He clenched his fingers in rage and sped toward the man who was standing over the young vulpo. He didn't even have time to blink as the giant grabbed him by the skull and lifted him into the air as if he weighed nothing to use him as a flail on one of the men nearest the wall. The giant's strength was more than enough for him to reduce the man he had just hit to a red jelly spread against the wall. And the one he was holding in his hand didn't die instantly, instead his spine was shattered when his back made contact with the wall. His back suddenly made a 90 degree angle with a huge scream of pain as he fell to the ground with the giant dropping him.

The fourth gangster had stuck to the wall in fear and seemed to look for a weapon on him for a second. The giant gritted his teeth in pure rage and kicked his enemy in the middle of the chest. His boot went through the gangster's rib cage and shattered the brick wall behind it. The gangster spat out blood before dying out after a few seconds. The fourth gangster began to flee at the same time Irina arrived, a slight black mist emanating from her skin due to her arts. She looked around quickly and it didn't take her long to figure out what was going on. But she was surprised that the doctor would go on such a rampage even for such a dark situation.

She walked through the pieces of flesh before approaching the giant.

Sebastian looked at the young woman passed out on the floor and put a knee on the ground before examining her. His gaze inevitably landed on the syringe stuck in her arm.

Like an echo of the past, memories came back to him.

Memories of his life in Russia. A chapter of his life that he would have preferred to forget. Where Yuri had died, only to be reborn as Sebastian some time later. And all of this was his fault... To escape from reality because he was too weak to face it...

Sebastian clenched his fist as hard as he could, his anger already seeming to be at its peak, yet growing even stronger because of that damn syringe and the horrible memories it brought him.

Carefully he removed the syringe from the young woman's arm and put his hand on the kazimierz dagger he had under his coat to call upon his arts, first healing the syringe sting before making the blood that was leaking from the young woman's skull disappear, then making the wound itself disappear.

Irina: Doc, he's leaving...

She said, pointing at the last gangster who ran away.

The giant's eyes turned red with rage and his canines lengthened, moving so fast that he seemed to disappear for a moment, the concrete where he was fractured and with the side of his hand when he reappeared behind the gangster he sliced both his legs making him fall to the ground.

The man screamed in pain, the drug in his system blocking the pain enough to not render him unconscious, but letting enough through that he felt the worst thing in his life. Normally Sebastian would have killed him by now. But now he felt even angrier. The gangster pathetically pulled a knife out of his pants pocket, but Sebastian grabbed his arm to bend it in the opposite direction to the natural one. Before quickly doing the same thing with the other.

His enemy was crying in pain and had made the most infamous screams that Irina had ever heard. Even during chernobog.

Sebastian didn't let him continue. He put his hand in his enemy's mouth before grabbing the rest of his skull and ripping off the entire upper part of his head. The upper and lower jaw separated like splitting a log in half, but with his hands, leaving the gangster screaming in mortal pain choked with his own blood.

The giant dropped the piece of corpse in his hands and with a sudden gesture dropped the blood on his hands.

Irina: Damn it...

Sebastian: Is she okay?

The ursine turned to the young woman and cocked her ears.

Irina: Her heart is beating and she is breathing.

She took a second to look at the carnage as the giant took the young woman in his arms as she was still unconscious.

Irina: And you do this a lot at the L.G.D.?

Sebastian: This is the second time I've come across this in the whole month. And not as badly.

The ursine picked up the injector from the floor and examined it.

Irina: But what did they want to put in his blood...

Sebastian: Probably some shit to make her immobile and docile and addicted. That's what mafias do when they take a girl and send her to the brothels.

Irina: I don't understand, prostitution is allowed in Lungmen, right? So why would they do that to a girl like her?

Sebastian: Different reason. It's mostly for rich people who want special things. Kids, pregnant women, or some they can just beat up or kill in their beds without anyone taking notice.

As the description of the giant continued, Irina felt more and more disgusted. She hadn't grown up with this kind of problem as an infected outcast. So for it to come to her all of a sudden, she could only be disgusted at the problems that society has among the uninfected.

Irina: Monsters...

Sebastian: Now you understand why I'm so angry.

Irina: What shall we do?

Sebastian: My friends' bar is nearby. And I can't give this girl an exam here.

Irina: There are only two seats in your car...

Sebastian: She'll fit in the trunk...

The bear laughed, feeling more relaxed thanks to the doctor's joke. But soon she was shocked to discover that it was no joke. The giant had put the young woman in his trunk as if he had just kidnapped her before driving through the streets of Lungmen for a few short minutes.

Irina looked at the doctor and felt sick for some reason. She didn't even know why, but she wanted to make him laugh, or make him blush with embarrassment again, whatever it was but not that face...

The face Sebastian was making looked like the face of the policemen who had worked for thirty years in the juvenile protection squad.

The kind of face of a person who could never smile again in their lives because they had seen so much horror.

Irina didn't want to see that expression on the good doctor's face anymore.

Maybe she really had become addicted to his embarrassed face?

The young woman's thought bubble burst when the car stopped again in front of a bar called the World's End, her gaze fell back on the giant's face and she could see him frown.

Irina: Is something wrong?

Sebastian: I don't hear anyone... No music... Lights on and the door wide open...

The ursine took a look and concentrated her hearing and confirmed the giant's words. Instantly she could understand that something was wrong, just as she could hear the giant's heart start to beat much faster showing that he was stressed.

For a thought crossed her mind.

He pretended to keep his cool and got out of the car before going to the trunk and pulling out a vulpo that was still passed out.

When she woke up he would have to apologize about that.

With a quick step he approached the bar. And opened the door with his foot and hurried inside it did not even take a second for him to notice that there was no one there of course. But above all it was as if a fight had taken place here, or at least as if someone had fought for having made a mess of everything in the bar. The giant frowned and felt his heart racing.

He left to put the young woman on one of the benches of the bar while Irina returned also analyzing the surroundings.

He thought he smelled something strange, and hurried to search the other rooms quickly.

Sebastian: Exia! Where are you!

There were a few traces of blood here and there, so it didn't take long for Irina to realize that the giant was worried about one of the usual occupants of this place.

He returned desperate to find no trace of them nearby, or anything reassuring.

Irina: Seb! Come and see!

The giant went to join the ursine in the main room of the bar, and she was crouched near a bench.

Irina: I found something.

Sebastian walked over and looked in the same place as the ursine to see a strange device, a kind of gas canister. He grabbed it and looked around to see a broken pane of one of the windows, connecting the two he could tell that someone had thrown this inside the bar from outside. He brought the mouthpiece of the tank up to his nose and took a breath, the billions of receptors in his nose allowing him to identify the chemical compound.

Irina: What is it?

Sebastian: Soporific gas... Not the kind used in the market... It must have been made by an independent chemist... Thrown out of the window to render everyone inside unconscious and to be able to remove them without any problem... But one had to resist the effects of the gas for a while to cut some of the assailants to pieces...

The giant came out of the bar to see the tire tracks on the road at the start. A quick glance and he could easily see in which direction they were going. But he also noticed that there was a woman sitting at a bus stop. He hurried to walk towards her to ask her questions, and was quickly surprised to recognize her. It was the beautiful blonde kuranta he had seen at the market and who had given him his knife. The young woman turned to him when she heard him arrive.

Sebastian (Kazimierzan): Good evening ma'am, excuse me, do you have a moment to spare?

Satawli (Kazimierzan): Oh it's you! The man from the market with his daughter!

She looked at him but Sebastian sensed something was wrong with her eyes.

Sebastian(Kazimierzan): It's me... Excuse me, did you see something happening in the bar across the street?

Satawli(Kazimierzan): Absolutely not.

Sebastian: 'Fuck it.

Satawli(Kazimierzan): Because I'm blind.

That's when he realized what was wrong with her eyes. Her pupils did not dilate in the light or in the dark.

Sebastian (Kazimierzan): ... Oh... My apologies, I didn't notice...

The kuranta laughed slightly.

Satawli(Kazimierzan): Don't worry sir... I'm quite proud of my ability to camouflage this.

Sebastian(Kazimierzan): So can you tell me if you heard anything?

Satawli(Kazimierzan): I just heard voices in Yenite... I was hiding at the time... There was a lot of ruckus... Excuse me, I already have problems with lungmenite so yenite...

Sebastian(Kazimierzan): You didn't hear any words that they repeated?

Satawli(Kazimerzan): Oh yes... They often repeated... A word... Cangpu? Or Cangku?

The young woman gave her best imitation of what she had heard and Sebastian began to think.

Sebastian: A warehouse... It's better than nothing...

Irina: Any interesting information?

Sebastian: Almost nothing... Damn it...

He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and his stress being already at its maximum he hurried to pick up the phone without even looking at who was on the other end.

His heart stopped when he heard the voice on the other end.

Exusiai: Seb... help...

Gangster: Huh? What the hell is that?!

He heard a blow being struck, a cry of pain from the sankta that emptied the force into the giant's body to such an extent that he almost dropped his phone.

Exusiai: Street bei-*CRACK*

The call ended immediately, the phone on the other end broken.

Sebastian despite the panic that could be seen from the large drops running down his forehead, put the pieces of the puzzle together. Warehouse, beifong street, the only street that had a similar name in the direction that the vehicles left in front of the bar. At least he knew where it was because there was only one warehouse on that street...

Sebastian's heart began to beat again, so fast and so hard that some of his veins turned black and his irises turned red. His body in panic began to prepare for battle.

Sebastian: I know where it is... Irina, watch over the kid in the bar in case she wakes up.

He didn't even wait for the ursine's answer.

Creating a spout of air, he disappeared instantly generating the same noise as a jet plane.

The bear sighed, feeling slightly left out.

Then she was not a baby sitter, so she was not thrilled with the idea of babysitting a kid.

Suddenly she frowned.

Were there still buses at this hour?

She turned her head to the left towards the kuranta and...

She too had disappeared.

Without a sound she was gone, on the bench of the bus stop only golden flower petals remained...

Irina: What…

A few minutes ago...

Emperor opened his eyes again after a long, artificially generated sleep. He looked around to see the light of the moon shining on him... He was tied up with a rope... next to him his other employees also tied up... But already awake. A little further on Lappland was wrapped in heavy chains, because her strength far exceeded that of the other members of Penguin Logistics.

The pinguin emperor watched the white-haired lupo get kicked by the gangsters, before she raised her head to spit in the face of one of the mobsters.

Lappland: Your mother the whore hits harder than that...

She said with a smile. Not seeming to feel the pain, and deserving a bludgeoning all the more from the mobsters... Texas looked at the scene, clenching her teeth with all her strength but powerless.

One of the mobsters this one a little better dressed than the others approached the penguin smiling.

Leader: Ahhhh! Mister Emperor you are finally awake! My apologies for all the theatrics, I'm actually a big fan of your work-

Emperor: Cut the crap son. I'm not the one you're going to feed your bullshit to.

Any semblance of sympathy that the leader seemed to want to show fell away quickly.

Leader: Good. Because honestly, you're doing shit, you little birb. You wonder why you're here?

Emperor: It would be nice to know.

Leader: Everyone who wants a piece of the pie in Lungmen knows what you did to the Siracusans. But you see, me and my superiors would like a piece of the pie too. But we don't really want you to come and get us. So we'd like to offer you a deal. For once, you turn a blind eye to our activities, and we'll let you walk away with a good share of the profits from this neighborhood-

Emperor: Go get fucked by a wendigo.

The mobster stopped smiling completely and crossed his arms.

Emperor: We didn't risk our lives against the Siracusans for fun. We did it because we don't think you have any business being in this city, crushing the people who live here for money and power.

Leader: Well...

He grabbed a miniature crossbow from under his jacket and pointed it at the penguin's skull.

Leader: I was really hoping you would say no...

Emperor looked at the weapon of the man in front of him and thought that his end had finally come.

Except when he heard something to his right... Just a whisper...

Exusiai: Seb... help...

For a moment the penguin was the only one who believed he had heard this... From the corner of his eye under his sunglasses he could see that the sankta had her phone hidden in her bound hands that she had somehow managed to retrieve.

But after a quarter of a second one of the other mobsters who was watching the scene with a crossbow in his hands began to frown, before hurrying over to the sankta to kick her. Now all attention was drawn to her. Exusiai fell heavily to the ground and started coughing from the pain, the phone still in her hands.

Mafioso: Who is the idiot who forgot to search them?

He reached for the young woman's phone when she had just stopped coughing blood.

Exusiai: Bei- Street!

The mobster grabbed the young woman's phone in a rage and blew it up by throwing it on the ground and stepping on it.

Mafioso: That bitch was making a call!

The leader frowned and fired a crossbow bolt into the young woman's leg, causing her to scream in pain.

Emperor gritted his beak, Sora seemed more and more desperate, Croissant tried to escape from her bonds, and finally Texas began to furiously insult all the mobsters in front of her more agitated than ever.

Unluckily her mouth was blocked by a piece of tape.

The one who had caught her using her cell phone bent down to the sanktah's level and grabbed a strand of her hair to raise her head and force her to look him in the eyes.

Mafioso: Look at me you bitch! Did you think someone would come and save you?! Huh?!

The young woman had tears in her eyes. From sadness and pain. Her eyes fixed on the back of the gangster's head. On the roof of the warehouse was a canopy that flooded the room with the light of the moons. And it was towards the latter that Exusiai's gaze turned...

Even then, she firmly believed that her time had not come.

That he would come to save her.

That's why she started to smile in spite of the pain when she saw the sky turn red.

Mafioso: What are you smiling about, bitch?

Splitting the sky in a single second, a black and red figure came crashing through the canopy with such a crash and energy that many people were swept away, the walls themselves threatening to fly away.

The poor fool who had the idea of attacking the sankta fell to the ground in an incoherent mass of tiny pieces of flesh sliced with unfailing finesse.

When the tension subsided enough to understand what had just happened, everyone was surprised to see this figure descending from the sky, radiating a red light. Colossal more than any man. His back was the only thing shown to the rest of the room, a back that bore only a Rhodes Island logo in black on the gray background of the heavy coat.

Sebastian had just arrived, his sword in hand, and the only person who had his attention in this room was the sankta in front of him...

At first he had a smile to reassure her, which worked as soon as her eyes landed on his emeralds. But soon the doctor noticed how bad the young woman was.

His already high level of irritation suddenly rose to a new level. His irises turned blood red and his face subtly changed structure to take on a more bestial appearance.

When he turned to the mobsters he let out an angry growl, showing off the ferocious predator's canines he had.

Then, as if the surprise wasn't big enough, another person joined the party.

Next to the giant, out of nowhere, another sanktah suddenly appeared.

Even if this one had inherited a bit more of the sarkazs' features...

Mostima had arrived, making the members of Penguin Logistics go wide-eyed. Especially the santka who could hardly believe her eyes...

Exusiai: Mosti...

The fallen one turned her gaze to the other sankta, a certain joy at seeing her again coupled with a certain anger at seeing her hurt and with a bitter and meaningful smile said:

Mostima: Hi Lemu, it's been a while...

Even though two seconds had passed since the giant's irruption, it was enough time for the mobsters to all raise their crossbows towards the two intruders.

Mostima: I can't stop time now...

The giant sighed understanding the message and as all the mobsters started shooting, he pushed the fallen sanktah behind his back and raised his arm in front of his head. All of the crossbow bolts went into the giant's body one by one and it took a few seconds before they stopped firing...

The giant remained upright, despite the blood running down his body.

He glanced at Exusiai who was behind him.

Sebastian: Which of them did this to you?

The men in suits jumped as they realized their target was not dead. The sanktah pointed at their leader who felt a chill down his spine.

The giant gritted his teeth and gripped his sword tightly, before throwing himself forward, making do with the pain.

A simple side step was all the poor bastard needed to dodge the attack, but he was seized with fear and unable to dodge.

Sebastian sliced through his enemy's legs, with the perfect slowness to make him feel the pain. But quickly enough to drive his sword into his enemy's chest and impale him on the ground.

The man began to scream in pain, the fear spreading to the mobsters, some of them tetanized, others reloading. But the giant needed to vent his anger a little more. He grabbed the mobster's head and planted it on the edge of the blade killing him instantly in an even more brutal and intimidating way, slowly pushing the face against the blade under the desperate crises of the leader.

Mostima used one of her scepters to launch a wave of space distortion towards the mobster's crossbowmen who had reloaded to smash them to pieces because of the power. Sebastian took his sword and threw it over the warehouse door fracturing the rocks and knocking them down to prevent access from outside. The sword and rocks fell down right next to Lappland, who despite the chains had gotten up to kill the two men who were kicking her. The lupo felt rage at first because of what looked to her like an assault, then she began to smile when she saw the look on the giant's face.

It was not an attack but a gift.

It took less than a second for the lupo to take the sword so kindly given and slice her chains on it to finally free her arms. She immediately threw herself into the fight with a demented smile on her face.

If she had been given such a gift even if it was for a little while she had to give her most magnificent performance...

Sebastian him with a lively movement turned to the group of mobsters who had not yet reloaded but was ready for the fight. One of these poor fools even had the idea to run with a sword straight towards him. Sebastian opened his coat wide, showing the arsenal of war with which he was walking concealed, and he took his throwing knives to throw them at the skulls of his enemies killing them instantly. He threw two of these knives much less violently behind him towards the young women so that she could cut their ropes which they did very quickly.

His enemies not being all dead in the group he had just fought against, he took his handgun and five shots rang out as well as the sound of five bodies falling to the ground.

Exusiai: Seb!

He turned his gaze towards the young woman who saw her pointing to a corner of the warehouse where the mobsters from outside had returned. Mostima being too busy fighting the rest of the enemies with Lappland. The giant sighed. He moved in front of exusiai like a human shield again throwing his handgun behind him for her to catch. The sanktah began to shoot at its targets. Then seeing that the targets did not diminish, Sebastian, who continued to let himself be transformed into a Swiss cheese, began to be traversed by a red light that crossed his body from bottom to top, he began to emit a strange noise and as the frequency of the impulses increased an almost artificial sound escaped from the doctor's body, the arrows, bullets or other metal projectiles inside his body were expelled by the magnetic currents at a speed much higher than that of the bullets of his gun.

By directing the magnetism well, all the projectiles were directed into the corner of the warehouse. And then it was the mobsters' turn to be turned into cheese as blood began to trickle down the giant's body with all the holes left empty.

Everyone else turned their attention to the giant and the thunderous noise he had caused, one wall of the warehouse even collapsing to block the small door they had entered through.

Lappland and Mostima finished dealing with the remains of the mobsters while the giant looked at the sankta.

Sebastian: I was worried...

She still seemed surprised by his human railgun trick.

Exusiai: How long have you been able to do that?

She said almost offended, imagining how many times this ability could have gotten them out of trouble on Rhodes Island...

Sebastian: This is the first time I've tried it...

He got down on one knee and examined the wound of the sanktah who was still lying there.

Taking his knife in his hand to use originium.

The young woman began to smile as the pain began to show from the drop in adrenaline. It was because of this pain that the giant used his arts, and healed the young woman. He began to pray as he brought the hand that held his knife closer to the wound, pointing two fingers at the wound.

Exusiai took the giant's other hand in hers, intertwining his fingers with those of the giant and began to recite the prayer with him.

The pain disappeared, so she didn't even feel it when the giant withdrew the arrow.

Slowly the flesh regenerated, the blood disappeared, and even her tights were repaired by the doctor's light arts.

Slowly she directed her eyes to the two emeralds, and her hand holding the giant's came up to the man's face to caress his cheek. The touch of the sanktah's soft skin calmed the giant's mind, his dagger burning him less and less, his skull and face returning to a more human shape, and his eyes returning to emerald.

Sebastian: I was really scared... When I saw you weren't at the bar... You can't even imagine how much you scared me...

Said he laughing, even if the tears were not so far from appearing. The young woman, despite the small feeling of her heart that seemed to tighten and hurt, she felt rather amused...

Exusiai: I was sure you would come.

But mostly she had little desire not to show her huge signature smile to the doctor, who seemed to sorely need it.

Their little look at each other continued for a while.

Until someone started coughing.

The two who shared the look of lovers blushed to turn to the rest of Penguin Logistics.

Mostima: Are we disturbing you...?

The sankta looked carefully at her fallen counterpart. Paying attention to every detail... In an attempt to find out if this was a dream or reality.

Exusiai: Mostima...

Mostima: Hi Exia... It's been a while...

Exusiai: H-how? Why...? Are you back?

Mostima: We can talk about it later... Just the two of us. But let's just say that to make it short...

She looked at the giant with a smile.

Mostima: A certain big man convinced me to finally find you.

He gave a slight smile to Exusiai, when she seemed the most incredulous.

Sebastian: I seem to have asked you to reconnect the bridges for good earlier...

Mostima: I thought about it... But I didn't expect you to call me in a hurry a few moments ago because our friend the apple pie was in danger. You should be happy that I'm able to stop time... Otherwise I'd be here in fifteen minutes.

Sebastian: Yeah yeah, glad you're here.

The giant heard small footsteps approaching him, so he looked down two meters to see Emperor calling out to him in his deep, sweet voice.

Emperor: Yo doc. Long time no see. Thanks for the help. Without you we'd be six feet under.

He looked at all the doctor's wounds, trying not to look surprised that he was still alive. Despite all the stories Exusiai had told about his exploits it was still hard to face the fact.

Sebastian: Hm. You're welcome. Who are those guys? They're not Lin's men...

He grabbed two of his chlorophyte vials, uncorking them and spraying himself with them. His wounds were too severe for him to use his arts.

Emperor: No idea.

Sebastian: Yenites apparently... But they could be newcomers? A branch of the triad that's moving in?

Emperor: Possibly. But-

Texas: Hmmhmmm!

Everyone turned to the lupo, her mouth necessarily closed because of the tape on her face. In fact, they noticed that no one had thought to release her. Maybe that's why she looked so angry.

Sebastian felt his teeth protruding into his mouth, so he quietly opened it and to everyone's astonishment tore out his vampire-like canines, throwing them to the ground before closing his mouth.

Lappland hurried to untie her favorite lupo with the giant's sword. The emerald-eyed colossus looked at the other members of Penguin Logistics, with Exusiai remaining at his side.

A redheaded Forte was the first to decide to make the first move, she approached the giant and greeted him with a smile.

?: Heyo! The name's Croissant! So you're the famous Boss of Exia hey? You look even more badass in real life!

The giant smiled at the young woman's enthusiasm and glanced at the sanktah.

Sebastian: But what did you tell them about me...

Exusiai: A little bit about all our operations or some funny stuff... But I haven't told them the story about the mountain with specter and andreanna...

Lappland: The story of the mountain...?

She says a little curious.

Sebastian: Three times nothing...

Croissant looked carefully at the giant surprised by the fact that human canines had grown back. But also paying attention to every little detail of his body. Giving Exusiai a small smile, proving to her that she had a good taste... Making the sanktah blush slightly, and making her pay little attention when the giant shook the hand of the forte young woman while greeting her.

The giant began to look at the other young woman he had not yet met. He seemed to frown as he looked at her and the young blonde woman flinched somewhat startled.

The doctor's performance had been more than enough to intimidate her, despite Exusiai giving him the reputation as a pleasant man. But when she noticed that he was looking at her, she approached him and decided that it was time to introduce herself.

?: T-thank you for saving us doctor! My name is Sora! Sora the idol!

She struck a pose at the end of her introduction, the room almost seeming to light up suddenly, the young woman trying to keep her idol appearance. And it worked well, but the doctor kept looking over the young woman's head.

Sebastian: Nice to meet you Sora...

He looked at Exusiai.

Sebastian: You didn't tell me you were working with another sanktah...

He said in a low voice, but everyone heard. Emperor jumped out of surprsie and so did Sora.

Sora: B-but doctor, I am a lupo...

She said, raising her hands in front of her, looking a little insecure. The giant frowned and looked at the young woman.

Sebastian: So what is this...?

The giant moved his hand and seemed to flick it over Sora's head, a noise sounded though, and Sora felt a very slight pain and took a step back.

The panicked young woman turned to the penguin.

Sora: Boss, did it deactivate itself?

Emperor: Nah... It's still on... But you can let go. Really doctor you are always full of surprises...

Said the penguin.

The lupo looked unconfident as she tapped her scepter, her ears and wolf tail disappearing to slowly reveal a pure white, glistening halo and a pair of wings of the same color floating down her back.

The other members of Penguin Logistics looked on intently as the idol rarely showed her true form.

Of course, she had done this before in front of her colleagues with whom she basically shared her life. But not in front of a stranger... This secret was perhaps one of the most jealously guarded she had.

But Sebastian didn't see any change.

Exusiai: It's supposed to be a secret doc...

Sora: How did you know...

The cogs in the giant's head finally began to turn and he seemed to have an epiphany.

Sebastian: Excuse me but do you use illusion arts?

Sora: Yes... It's useful commercially and to hide my identity...

Sebastian: I see... Illusions don't work on me.

Sora: What ?

Exusiai: Since when?

He pointed a finger at one of his eyes.

Sebastian: It's because of my eyes. I don't see light the same way anyone else does. So I am unable to see illusions.

Curious, the idol made a little rabbit appear between him and her. Not only was he looking at her through the rabbit, which he didn't seem to see, but his illusion was not reflected in his eyes. Lappland approached the doctor.

Emperor: Could you keep it to yourself doc?

Sebastian: I'll be as talkative about it as a dead man.

He saw that Lappland was getting closer but he didn't pay attention, the young lupo stood on her tiptoes and took the giant's face with both hands before opening her mouth and bringing her face close to his.

She stuck out her tongue and licked a part of the giant's face at the level of his mouth and a part of his lips.

Everyone's eyes seemed to pop out of their sockets at this scene.

The lupo had a slight smile in the corner of her mouth. The blood that the giant had left on his mouth by having torn out his canines was now on the tongue of Lappland.

In fact, if Mostima was muttering an oh my god and Croissant was about to explode with laughter, the giant was frozen like a statue, his brain not being able to process the information.

He jumped back in a flash, sticking himself against a wall, his face redder than ever, embarrassment showing in full daylight.

Sebastian: But why did you do that? !

Exusiai was trembling because of various emotions. Lappland smiled stupidly and licked her lips.

Lappland: You have the blood of a beast doc... I love the taste...

Sebastian: 'I really have a problem with crazy women...' But you're totally smitten!

Lappland: Yep.

Texas watched the scene and gritted her teeth.

She was jealous.

Of course she was jealous, she hated the idea that the woman she loved was licking another person's face...

First Exusiai? And now it was Lappland's turn?

No. She must have been imagining things...

Lappland was just completely crazy and she had done this to piss off the giant because he seemed to make little effort to contain his violence. There... Texas thought she'd better not be imagining things.

The main door of the warehouse began to shake. As if someone was knocking against it. Drawing the attention of the giant and basically all the rest of those present here. In a flash, Sora camouflaged herself as a lupo and everyone prepared to fight. Sebastian approached the wide door of the warehouse ready to fight.

Emperor: Those outside must have called for reinforcements.

Sebastian: Lapp. My sword.

The lupo threw it to him and he caught it in mid-air before stretching his shoulder.

Sebastian: It will be more open than here and I have my sword, I'll take care of it. Mosti, can you give me a hand?

Mostima: Not much... I threw everything I had in terms of time to get here not too late. I can just throw a few bursts but that's it.

Sebastian: Better than nothing.

Sora: W-wait doctor, you're not going to fight again you're barely healed!

She said while looking at the doctor's body, the arrows' impacts were still there, on the epidermis, bleeding very slightly but still very visible, the chlorophyte not being miraculous.

The giant started to smile almost like a proud and confident child.

Sebastian: This won't be my first rodeo kid. I hear two crossbowmen, I should be able to handle this one on my own in the end.

He twirled his sword in his hand and drew back his arm to send it against the door, the wind generated by its force being enough to sweep the rocks and open the door a great deal.

This time all the members of Penguin Logistics were lucky enough to witness the strength of the doctor at work. In fact, even Lappland seemed to be taking notes. For despite his injuries, Sebastian seemed to retain 100% of his fighting ability, taking down his enemies one by one so quickly and masterfully that one could only admire him. Emperor looked at Exusiai.

Emperor: This man is a monster...

Exusiai: Maybe... But this monster is still a special man for me...

Finally able to call upon her arts, Exusiai summoned an assault rifle which she used to good effect against the giant's enemies. When the last of their enemies fell, Exusiai walked over to the doctor's side, who was breathing heavily and slightly exhausted from his day.

Sebastian: Thank you...

Exusiai: Hey. I'm with you, right?

She said with her weapon on her shoulder before raising her fist towards the giant. The doctor smiled and slammed his fist against the young woman's.

Sebastian: Yep. And I'm glad...

Emperor: Thanks for everything doc. Now we just need to get back to the world's end...

Sebastian: Don't move.

The giant approached a black mob car with tinted windows, big enough to hold the whole group and from which music was coming out...

Mafioso: I'm a barbie girl! In a barbie world wohooo-

*clunk*

The man who was at the driver seat suddenly turned to the driver's side door which had been suddenly opened. The music was loud enough that he couldn't hear what had happened.

The giant first made the face of someone who was about to smash his skull in before frowning and looking at the car radio. He moved his arm and turned it off immediately, before punching the mobster in the face and grabbing him by his clothes to get him out of the car. With a quick movement he hit his head against the hood, knocking him out... or killing him... but in any case he left the trace of the mobster's face on the metal. Noticing on his neck, a strange yet familiar dragon tattoo. He let the poor bastard fall to the ground and signaled to the rest of the group to approach as he got into the car, keys still in the ignition.

Exusiai went ahead with the idea of sitting next to the giant, but unfortunately for her, Mostima used her arts to slow down time just a bit and get in next to the giant. She didn't really understand, but made a sad face. Sora Croissant and Emperor moved up to the next row, and Lappland Texas and Exusiai moved up to the last row. They set off towards the Penguin Logistics base, the journey being punctuated by the sudden change of songs on the radio, under the noise of the arguments between Mostima and Sebastian who couldn't agree on what they should listen to. When you saw them it was hard to believe that they didn't know each other for a while. But Sebastian seemed to rediscover the fallen sanktah who seemed to know his tastes already.

In the back of the car Exusiai was still looking at Lappland. Still a little bitter from his little action earlier.

Exusiai: Hey Lapp. Are we friends?

Lappland: Hm. Yeah... I think...

Exusiai: So please don't do this to me, don't do this to him.

Lappland looked at the sanktah instead of the streets of Lungmen, Texas only looking from her peripheral view. But both could see the most serious look Exusiai had ever worn on her face. It didn't take long for the white-haired lupo to understand the implication. She wanted her to get away from the man she loved... Lappland started to smile.

Lappland: Yeah...

Texas discreetly put her hand on the thigh of the other lupo. Deserving a look, their code being understood by each other... Texas thought to herself that at the time if the other lupo really wanted to fool around with someone else, then she should show her that she was her.

The doctor stopped the radio channel when he seemed to hear a vaguely familiar voice on the air. Mostima too stopped struggling recognizing the song.

It was Sora's voice on the radio. In fact one of her most famous songs...

The giant took a few seconds before noticing that it was the voice of the young woman. He looked at her and amused she nodded to confirm that it was indeed her.

Emperor: Is this the first time you've heard our friend the doctor?

Sebastian: Yeah... I don't often listen to modern music...

Mostima: You're probably the youngest person in this car and yet you're the one who acts the most like an old man...

Sebastian: Fuck you...

The fallen one laughed slightly while the giant was silent and seemed to listen to the music with attention. One moment his fingers even began to dance to the rhythm of the song on the steering wheel of the car. The lupo ? sanktah ? We'll just say lupo now no matter what happens when I talk about her.

Hm hm.

Where was I... Oh yes.

The lupo looked at the giant and blushed slightly.

Sora: Do you like it...?

The young woman asked uncertainly... It wasn't false embarrassment actually, Sora hated asking strangers for opinions on her songs because she thought she would often come across as pretentious... The giant began to smile even wider as the chorus started, and Exusiai and Croissant began to sing.

Sebastian: Honestly kid? Hats off...

She smiled with satisfaction... But also still a little embarrassed and red...

Emperor: And I-

Sebastian: Not a fan.

The penguin started to pout badly when he heard the opinion about his music.

Exusiai: You know Doc, you call Sora a kid but she's four years older than you...

Everyone started to look at either the giant or the sanktah except for Mostima when they heard the revelation about the doctor's age.

P.L: But why does he look so old-?!

The giant slammed on the brakes, making the tires squeal, and then looked back with an angry face.

Sebastian: I'm warning you, the first one who calls me old will get back at the bar walking.

Everyone fell silent. Then the giant, as he put his head back in place, seemed to notice something in the not so busy street they were in.

Next to a clothing store, a man with a shady look was walking strangely through the streets. Seemingly staggering and just out of this planet. Another junkie anyone else would say. But Sebastian noticed a cylindrical object in the man's pocket.

So he put together the few puzzle pieces he had to make sense of it. He abruptly got out of the car and approached the man, the members of Penguin Logistics wondering what he was going to do. Then suddenly the giant hit the junkie in the face, smashing his head against the wall and sending him to the ground with a grunt of pain. An object fell to the ground, a plastic injector with a red dragon logo, the same as on the injector of those who wanted to rape the vulpo earlier, and the same dragon as on the neck of the mobster earlier.

He looked the junkie in the eye as he squatted to get a closer look.

Sebastian: Where did you get that?

Junkie: I-I know no-

Sebastian grabbed him by the head and slammed him back against the wall.

Sebastian: You talk back to me one more time not the way I want and I'll kill you. Is that clear? Now tell me where you were sold this.

Junkie: 36 Zhang Huan Street! Apartment seven!

The giant hit him one last time making him unconscious. He looked to his right to see a man who was barely a meter away from him, holding several clothes that he was bringing into the store. The poor man was paralyzed with fear, while Sebastian stared at the brand new white shirt that the man was holding among the clothes. While his was completely pierced by arrows.

Sebastian: How much for the shirt?

The man immediately handed him the hanger.

Salesman: You can have it for free!

He said before leaving hurriedly.

The giant took off his torn shirt quickly, the young women in the car watching intently as their eyes were drawn to the giant's skin. A back whose muscles seemed carved from marble to mimic a god. A back covered with impressive scars with the huge tattoo of an ursus eagle that seemed to have been made over the scars...

Or rather this one would have reappeared on the scarred skin...

Exusiai began to blush intensely, because even if she could only see the back of the man she loved, the view she had was already pretty good... Of course she had seen several times that he was rather muscular. But now she could really see how muscular he was.

Sora: Is it me or it's getting hot in here ?

Croissant: Damn, Exia, for the first guy you've got, you're lucky...

Mostima: I will never get tired of this view.

Texas looked at Lappland to see her also looking at the doctor. She frowned and discreetly took the hand of the lupo in hers.

The ice queen as Exusiai called her felt her animosity rising towards the doctor.

He came from nowhere, like a flower, made the proud and the monster, attracted the attention and played the playboy.

The little show lasted only three seconds before the doctor came back to the car and re-tied his tie. He stopped at Exusiai who was still looking at him blushing red.

Sebastian: Pervert...

He said with a smile before making his way to the passenger side, as the young woman turned even redder.

Emperor: Do you often beat up junkies to steal their drugs doc?

Asked the penguin not being distracted by the doctor's strip tease and wondering why he was doing it.

The giant presented the injector.

Sebastian: I've seen other guys in town with these injectors, the mobsters had this dragon tattoo on the back of their neck. So I'm just gathering evidence. I have a feeling I'm going to need it...

The car stolen from the mafia stopped on the street at the world's end, the group of Penguin Logistics quickly getting out to approach it. Mostima took a deep breath.

Mostima: It's been a while...

Exusiai Texas and Lappland entered first followed by the doctor and the rest.

Irina: So you're finally back-

The ursine who was sitting on the bench looking at the still sleeping vulpo turned her head towards the entrance and froze when she saw the members of Penguin Logistics.

Just like the two lupos and the sanktah.

After all, a month ago the ursine had nearly killed all three of them.

The giant walked in and looked at the four young women who were paralyzed.

Sebastian: Ah. I may have forgotten to mention that...

All four of them raised their fists ready to fight and Sebastian raised his hands and shouted to stop standing in front of Irina.

Sebastian: Calm down, calm down! I can explain everything!

Irina: You brought me to their bar, doc?! You can't be serious!

Exusiai: What is she doing here?!

Lappland: Ahahahahahhah! Let's go for round two bitch!

Texas: Doc...

The other members of P.L didn't understand the situation, in fact nobody had described Skullshatterer's face to them.

Sebastian: Girls! Calm! The fuck down!

Exusiai: She almost killed us! She killed you!

Irina: I killed you?

Asked the ursine, raising an eyebrow at the giant.

Sebastian: I was declared clinically dead after our fight... W also tried to kill me! Lappland too! So put your fists down and let's talk! We are soldiers fighting for a cause we think is right! We must not let hate and vengeance blind us! Irina is not so different from me! She hurt us before, I hurt her and her men! If we think about revenge we will only end up all dead!

Irina decided to trust the doctor and did so, lowering her arms and showing her good faith. Exusiai did the same when she saw this, already bathing in her trust for the doctor. Texas seemed hesitant and Lappland didn't seem to mind, really wanting her fight.

Exusiai: Seb... What is she doing here...

The giant looked at the ursine thinking that she might want to answer on her own but she nodded understanding his intention.

Irina: I decided to leave the reunion. It was the doctor who offered me a way out...

The sanktah frowned.

Well, more like the eyebrow that the lock of her hair was showing.

Texas: Rhodes Island often hires former enemies...?

She said, still sounding a little angry. After all the ursine in front of her had almost killed the two people she cared about most.

Sebastian: More often than I would like.

Exusiai: Can we really trust her?

The giant looked at the ursine.

Sebastian: Maybe. Only time will tell.

The young woman felt hurt at the time. But at the same time she couldn't really blame the doctor for not completely trusting her. After all, they had both brought each other to death's door.

?: Hmm...

A slight sigh was heard from the back of the bar, revealing itself to be the drowsy young woman. The latter started to move a little. Immediately the giant began to approach her and started to take care of her, driven by his doctor instincts.

Sebastian: How is she?

He asked as everyone had finished entering the bar, Texas pulling Lappland's hand to take her away from the inquisitive eyes. Exusiai approached the scene a little, Croissant to clean up a little of the disturbing stuff with great efficiency. Sora sat down on a bar stool. And mostima... Had tons of food in her arms.

The giant gave her a dirty look, because she could use her gift of stopping time in other ways than to go around the fast food restaurants of the city.

Irina: She was whispering things in her sleep. I think she was talking about her parents. It was Siracusian I'm not an expert.

Sora: Doctor, do you want me to interpret for her if she speaks Siracusian?

Mostima: The day you come across a language that the doctor doesn't already speak you'll be lucky Sora...

Sebastian: I'll be fine kid, thanks.

The uncomfortable ursine turned and was surprised to see the sanktah in front of her. Although slightly smaller than the ursine, she was still intimidating. Then Exusiai raised her hand to shake it.

Exusiai: I'm glad we're on the same side...

Said the sanktah her voice full of irony. Irina smiled embarrassedly and shook the sanktah's hand.

Emperor: Doc. You bring a girl who almost killed three of my employees and another one knocked out in my bar. I'm willing to let the first one go, but please tell me you didn't knock that vulpo out...

Sebastian: She was being mugged in an alley, those fuckers smashed her skull against a wall... I was lucky to be able to treat her.

The vrulpo seemed to be getting more and more agitated in her sleep, murmuring things.

Sebastian took a bar rag and began to wipe the sweat that the vulpo was developing.

Sebastian: Where are the wolves...?

Croissant: Probably off in a closet, fooling around...

Sebastian: I see...

As the giant folded the cloth, the vulpo opened her eyes slightly, at first blinded by the light. Two big caramel colored eyes. She let out a grunt as she woke up and slowly opened her eyes again. The first thing she saw was a head devoid of animal features, obscuring a light and giving the impression of a halo around said head. The young woman looked at the large emerald eyes and the reassuring smile for a few moments.

Had she been saved? Who was this man...? An angel? Or rather a prince charming...?

He was handsome, she even found this man beautiful, as if straight out of a fairy tale.

She could feel herself standing still and blushing as she couldn't help but look away from the man's face.

*badump*

Almost paralyzed, before her brain came back to logic, and she jumped up to throw herself to the back of the seat, finally remembering the last position she was in.

?: Where am I?! And who are you?!

She asked in a panic with a slight Siracusian accent while looking at the other people in the room. The young woman almost fell over feeling her whole body heavy and her head light.

Sebastian: Easy, you've taken a nasty blow to the head. You'd better not get too excited. I'm Dr. Sebastian. Do you remember your name?

?: Angelina... Angelina Ajimu...

Sebastian nodded his head in satisfaction.

Angelina: What happened to me?

Sebastian: You were attacked in the street. You were knocked unconscious but someone saved you before you could be hurt again.

The young woman looked up with hope.

Angelina: Who saved me?

Irina pointed to the giant as he smiled a little embarrassed.

Angelina: Thank you so much doctor!

Said the young woman enthusiastically, her fox tail wagging with energy. Finally maybe he really was a prince charming. Angelina blushed. Once again looking at the face of this man as if his look petrified her.

*badump*

Was it her heart?

Was it her heart that Angelina felt beating in her chest so strongly?

The young woman put a hand on her heart and she felt it beat harder than ever.

Because of this man...?

Angelina: 'Mom... is this love at first sight...?'

For once Angelina felt like the high school girl she was. Falling in love almost without reason and far too quickly to be the decision of a fully grown woman...

Maybe she should stay there to see if she could really develop these feelings...

Sebastian: Good to see you're okay... And you're welcome... You're lucky we could hear you scream.

The giant stood up from the bench, causing a drop of cold sweat to fall down the young woman's forehead as she realized that her savior was monstrous in proportion to a normal man.

Sebastian: What were you doing here Angelina? Are you a Siracusan? Lungmen is a long way from your country...

The young woman's fox ears lay on top of her head.

Her good mood did not last long. For she remembered why she was there in the first place.

Her hands under her heavy gloves began to ache as she remembered.

Angelina: I had to flee my home in Siracusa...

Sebastian: Because you are infected?

Angelina: Please don't call the police!

Sebastian: Relax kid. You see the ursine there?

He didn't even have to finish his sentence when Irina pulled down her scarf to show the crystals on her neck.

Sebastian: And there's another one coming back soon... I'm part of Rhodes Island.

Angelina: Really? Maybe my luck is finally turning a little bit on my side... I'm busy doing odd jobs as a messenger and carrier from town to town... That's why is was brought to Lungmen… Why did you bring me here...? I mean, it looks like there was some fighting here...

Sebastian: Long story but while you were out I also ended up looking for the people who own this bar.

Angelina: ... Is that Emperor right there...?

Emperor: In the flesh.

The vulpo's tail began to wag even more as she met the greatest musician of the moment.

Sebastian slowly approached the bar where Sora was while Croissant had just finished cleaning up. Exusiai started to chat with the new Angelina.

The giant looked at the young woman in the distance.

She was really cute.

Poor girl, he thought. Forced to flee Siracusa, who was far from kind to the infected, to get here, only to be raped in a dark alley by junkies. He felt compelled to come to her aid.

The young woman looked into his eyes suddenly before blushing and looking away as the doctor was challenged by the lupo at the bar.

Angelina had the image of the doctor's face imprinted in her brain. That face, such strong features, that could look so frightening if only he moved his facial muscles to do so, and yet a face that was as reassuring as a blanket on a stormy night was the one the doctor wore. In a way it reminded him of her father's face... Those kind of figures that are so comforting that you would think nothing could happen to you as long as they are there.

But the doctor was different from her father in many ways.

She looked at him, trying to decipher him... But she couldn't easily. Then she turned to the ursine who was standing nearby.

Angelina: Why did he decide to save me...?

The ursine shrugged her shoulders.

Irina: This guy is a knight in modern white armor.

Exusiai: She's not wrong... whenever there's something good to do, he'll do it without hesitation...

Angelina: Really?

Irina: He helped me a lot, while I hurt him and his friends a lot...

Exusiai: I've seen him do a lot of crazy things, like the time he went through a room with acid leaking from the ceiling that could melt flesh to the bone to get out a scientist who was responsible for it and shielding her from the acid. Or even all the other times he took fire or explosions to protect others...

The vulpo listened in complete awe. To be honest, who would expect to see that kind of people nowadays... Those who would do good just to do good...

She was in awe. In fact, he was like the heroes of children's stories.

Maybe she could see some more of these adventures...

Sora: Do you want a drink doc?

At the time she didn't even think about the good doctor's somewhat ridiculous age. In fact, he looked old enough to be a father, so she didn't think alcohol would be a problem for him.

Sebastian: Can you pour me one? I warn you I'm pretty demanding, sometimes I serve drinks too.

The lupo began to smile, this time more confident in her talent as a barmaid than as a singer.

Ironically...

Emperor: Go ahead doc. Texas usually mixes the drinks, but I guarantee she'll serve you a drink you'll like.

Sebastian: Oh oh...? So you know what, give me an old fashioned. A good old fashioned.

Sora: I see...

The lupo analyzed him with attention trying to see the tastes he could have and to see how she could prepare him his cocktail.

Then after two seconds she took out a whiskey glass and put in it a cube of ice, some syrup, some angostura bitters and then finally she took out a bottle of bourbon and when she saw the giant smiling she could understand that she had made the right choice and she mixed the whole thing while the good doctor was relaxing. She finished the cocktail with a slice of orange and served it with a proud smile.

The giant immediately took a big sip and smiled.

Sebastian: Okay, you do your drinks as well as your songs I admit.

He took another good sip under the satisfied look of the lupo.

Sora: You want to try to serve me something? You said yourself that you were making drinks...

The giant looked up at the young woman with piercing eyes at what he seemed to spot as a challenge. Something he didn't expect from the lupo. He stood up and came behind the bar.

Sora: Something sweet and not very strong.

The giant immediately put himself in battle order and quickly prepared his cocktail. He didn't make any impressive gestures to impress the gallery and just tried to make a good drink.

After a few seconds he put a blue glass in front of Sora.

Sebastian: Here, a blue fairy.

The young woman tasted and smiled.

Sora: I admit that I am defeated...

Exusiai: And isn't that the stuff Nightingale usually takes?

Sebastian: Yes. But she takes it five times harder.

Exusiai: Really...

Sebastian: She can hold her liquor far better than she looks.

The doctor took the full injector out of his pocket and looked at it carefully.

Emperor: What are you going to do with it?

Sebastian: I can analyze the drug in there with my blood if I inject it without suffering the effects.

Emperor: Are you going to put that shit in your veins?

Sebastian: I need to know what I'm dealing with. So no other choice...

He injected the stuff into his right arm before taking another sip of his drink with his left hand as he closed his eyes and began to analyze the drug with his cells.

A few seconds passed, and his finished drink was shattered by the doctor's steely grip. The veins in his body began to pop out and the temperature rose a few degrees from the fury the giant felt. He began to growl and grit his teeth.

Sebastian: Son of a bitch...

Sora: Doctor...?

Irina: Are you ok doc?

Sebastian: Sorry about the glass... This stuff... it was made by an expert chemist. It stimulates the areas of the brain related to pleasure, but even more so the areas related to addiction mixed with anesthetics. This stuff is literally made to give the illusion of pleasure and get you hooked on the first dose...

The members of Penguin logistics looked away at the revelation the doctor had just made.

Irina: But why would they want to put it in her blood?

she said, looking at the vulpo woman who raised an eyebrow.

Sebastian: Remember what I said about brothels? Giving her an addiction to that shit would have been the best way to keep her under control and prevent her from running away because she'd always stay to get her fix.

Angelina: They wanted to make me a prostitute...?

Sebastian: I guess so.

Angelina: God...

Sebastian: I've been working for the L.G.D. for a month now and I've never seen anything like this. But then again, I haven't worked homicide this week.

Emperor: Neither have we, and even more so for these mobsters, they look like they've just appeared and yet they've been here for a while considering their power.

The giant stood up and apologized to Sora again for the drink before moving to a part of the bar visible to everyone else where a corkboard was hanging on the wall, the kind you'd see in movies or TV shows to connect elements of an investigation.

Sebastian: Can I use that?

Emperor: Go ahead...

He took a piece of paper on which he drew the dragon symbol and hung it on the board, along with the empty injector, which he held together with a piece of red string.

He looked to the back of the room to see that Lappland and Texas had returned, smelling falsely of sweat and Texas' hair was slightly messed up.

Sebastian: So is everyone there? So we know these Yenites haven't been around very long, they start making this drug by experts and spreading it around the streets to help their business, maybe the same people who did that sleeping gas. They are discreet enough not to have been spotted by the L.G.D., and at the same time have enough information to know that you are a danger to them. Not to mention the budget they have.

Emperor: They're already veterans though. A triad of Yen trying to expand? To Lungmen?

Sebastian: It must be small enough that it can't expand into Yen's territory and therefore target this place too. As a side note, I also have the address of an outlet for this crap.

He says while hanging another piece of paper on the board.

Sebastian: That should help us to go up the chain little by little. I intend to visit it as soon as possible. But let's get it straight right away. I intend to take them down. Who is with me. Emperor?

Emperor: We're good Samaritans. Lungmen is already in trouble, so we're not going to let them take it out on the city. We're with you doc.

Texas frowned and felt it was strange and almost silly to agree so soon to get into a gang war.

Sebastian: Irina?

The bear looked at him and sighed.

Irina: I was hoping for some quiet time before I was thrown back into hell... But I owe you this, Doc. I am with you. But tomorrow I'm going to see my sister for a moment.

Sebastian: Okay. As for you...

He says, looking at the vulpo.

Sebastian: I can give you money to get a hotel room or to get away from this city. Be careful on the streets.

The young woman seemed a little disappointed in a way. In fact, at the time, she thought that if she was going to go up in a fight, it would be with the man who had saved her at her side... that Prince Charming white armor.

Angelina: W-wait, I want to help you!

Sebastian: They almost had you once. Are you sure you want to take them on?

Angelina: They got me because there were so many of them against me and because I was exhausted from my trip to the city! I am a more than competent caster!

she said, glowing with pride and determination. The giant raised an eyebrow so she thought she had to prove herself. She looked beside her and thanked the doctor for the fact that he had obviously remembered to take her arts scepter when he found it on the street.

She grabbed it and it began to emit blue flames, the giant was surprised at first, and even more so when he began to fly off the ground as if gravity had no effect on it. The vulpo stood up and smiled with her eyes closed, proud to show the ability of her arts.

Angelina: I could even do it on objects weighing several tons and crush them to a pulp!

Sebastian: Okay, okay, I'll take your word for it... Can you get me down, please? I think I'm going to be sick...

He suddenly fell to the ground with a crash and a laugh from Lappland and Irina...

Sebastian: Thank you. But why do you want to join us?

She began to blush intensely. She was now acting more on instinct than anything else and had offered herself without really thinking, so she hurried to find another reason.

Angelina: You know what they almost did to me, and you're going to need all the help you can get, so I have to help you, what they did to me they could do to other people if we don't stop them and fast.

The look of determination in her eyes and her speech was enough to convince the good doctor. After all she was far from being a novice in combat... She had already killed.

Sebastian: At least you seem to be aware of what you are saying...

He walked over to her and raised his hand to shake her hand.

Sebastian: I am already looking forward to working with you, Angelina Ajimu.

The young woman raised her hand slowly and smiled as she shook the doctor's hand.

Irina: Doc, we have a problem...

Sebastian: What do you mean?

Irina: Don't you have a job...?

The giant looked at her.

And he remembered that unfortunately he was not unemployed...

Sebastian: I'm going to call Ch'en and tell her I've tested positive for Higashian fever... that should give me a week's worth of free time.

Irina: Are you going to fake a test?

Sebastian: It's easy for me. So there you go. One week. In one week, all those mobsters will either be out of this town or dead on these streets.

He said for a second, radiating the aura of the leader he was.

Sebastian: Good. I'll see the rest in the morning...

Irina: What are we doing tonight?

Sebastian: What I was originally planning to do...

Irina: Huh?

Sebastian: To drink here to occupy my Sunday evening.

What he said was slightly disappointing to everyone.

Ch'en: Hm. Hm. Yeah... You're not fucking serious? Can you send me a scan or the picture of the test?

The lung took the phone away from her ear to look through her messages, the whiteness of the screen almost burning her retina in the darkness of the room, mixed with such fatigue that the bed she was lying on seemed to suck out her soul.

She looked at the pictures to see a positive medical test paper.

Ch'en: Damn it...

She took the phone back to her ear.

Ch'en: Yeah, it's okay... I'll tell Nao... No no don't worry if you leave your partner with Mike, they get along fine too. Hey I told you, it's not a big deal for us. Just take care of yourself, get some rest and don't hesitate to call anyone if you really don't feel well... N-no I'm not worried about you! You know what you can go die! A-and go see a doctor!

She hung up and put her phone down roughly on the nightstand, blushing furiously. However she calmed down when she felt an arm under the blanket around her waist...

Hoshiguma: What's going on?

Ch'en felt the warmth of the skin on her back and on the cold of her originium crystals as the oni placed a few kisses along her neck and on her head.

Ch'en: Seb just called me, he has the Higashian fever...

Hoshiguma: Damn... But don't worry about him. He'll probably be fine...

Ch'en: I'm not worried... It's just that...

Hoshiguma: You worry about him... It's okay if you say so...

Ch'en started to blush as she felt Hoshiguma's hand caressing her thighs. Even though her face was red as a tomato, it was not related to the close contact.

Ch'en: Maybe... My sister had caught Higashian fever when she was little and she spent a month between life and death... I don't want the same thing to happen to him...

Hoshiguma: That's cute~... Why don't you tell him directly...? You've been fighting with him for the last two weeks...

Ch'en: Nothing... It's just that my season... it's getting to my head and I find myself being a bitch to him...

Hoshiguma: Don't worry... I'm sure you'll get close to him...

The taller of the two began to smile. Slowly but surely she was getting closer to the man and the woman she loved the most in this world, and her plan to get the hearts of both of them was becoming more and more real.

Already there, under the pretext that it was the season of the lung, she had managed to get closer to her even more, now it only remained for her to get closer to the giant, and the triangle would finally be formed.

The hand of the oni began to caress higher and higher until it touched the originium crystals.

Hoshiguma: Did you take your medicine?

Ch'en: I take it every day...

Hoshiguma: I want another round.

Ch'en started to blush intensely.

Ch'en: But is it my season or yours?!

At the bar of Penguin Logistics the atmosphere had improved greatly, as the evening passed everyone had become uninhibited, some with alcohol, others with fatigue and with some music.

As if the sanktah had a talent for getting along with the leaders of the reunion, she seemed to get rather close to Irina, the ursine thanking the doctor for keeping quiet about her age so that she could enjoy the drinks at the bar. The young woman with white hair getting closer to Angelina with whom she shared the youthfulness for lack of sharing the love for alcohol given by Patriot and his men who were not too looking about the age to drink...

Mostima discussed a lot with Croissant, exchanging on what had happened during her absence.

Lappland and Texas stayed in their corner, kissing discreetly when nobody was looking.

At least as discreetly as they thought they could.

And Sora was chatting with the good doctor about music, bar stories, and many other things they seemed to share surprisingly.

Emperor had gone fishing for information, leaving the bar in the hands of the others.

At one point the good doctor with a laugh that he shared with the fake lupo, he got up and walked to a piano at the back of the room attracting the attention of the others.

Sebastian: Irina tomorrow can you do me a favor? I made some calls so that your sister could get you several treatments for oripathy when she sees you.

Irina: Okay doc... kay... he's got one of those asses...

Exusiai: I know...

Said the two young women who were already starting to be much too honest because of the liquor but luckily for them the giant did not hear them.

He sat down at the piano and Sora turned down the music on the jukebox while Exusiai remembered something.

A dialogue she had had with Closure. When Exusiai had asked why there was a piano that no one was using at the honey moon Closure revealed to her that the piano belonged to the doctor before his amnesia. That he was a wonderful pianist and that he often played with the former queen of the sarkaz as a duo when she played the violin. The vampire just wanted to see if the giant was still able to play...

But too bad for her, Sebastian almost never had the courage to play in public alone. A courage that a challenge from Sora and alcohol gave him.

He started to play a few notes, and immediately got absolutely all the attention on his performance. He played well... And after a few seconds, he even started to sing.

The lyrics of the song mixed with his voice, which sounded a hundred times more beautiful while singing, was enough to make Sebastian look like an international star as he was so captivating, and enjoyable to listen to.

Sora managed to remember the title, Dangerous woman or something like that... A love song, but that the giant seemed to sublimate.

The few minutes of his performance seemed at the same time like hours of pure pleasure but at the same time only a few seconds, short and still needing for more. When the giant stopped singing he opened his eyes again and looked at the others in the bar.

Texas just seemed to be above it all, while Lappland was listening attentively. Exusiai was rather red at seeing yet another quality of the man she liked more than anyone else, Irina was simply paralyzed with wonder, Sora was in awe and Angelina was blushing red as her clothes. Mostima listened attentively, a nostalgic smile on her lips.

Croissant: You sing well doc...

She was the one who remained the most neutral exclaimed in front of the doctor who never seemed to be short of qualities.

Sebastian: Thank you.

He took another sip of his drink feeling his throat dry.

Sebastian: Anyone want to sing with me? I'm a little lonely.

Without hesitation Sora immediately raised her hand and offered herself.

Texas looked at the scene with attention. But what was Sora's problem? It wasn't like her to act like a fangirl for someone so much... Well, for someone else besides Texas herself.

But unfortunately for the fake lupo Angelina offered herself right after.

And Exusiai also got up to go and sing with the doctor, but Mostima signaled her to come to the exit door. To discuss.

The sanktah felt somewhat disappointed, after all the doctor was looking at her with interest, if she had offered, he would have definitely wanted to sing with her.

Leaving Sora and Angelina to argue, the two sanktah left the bar to talk outside. Exusiai was shocked to feel the cold of the night only to realize that it was actually quite warm inside the bar. Mostima leaned over a railing and took a deep sigh.

Mostima: You're probably wondering why I disappeared...

Exusiai sobered up immediately. Understanding how important the subject was.

Exusiai: I have a billion questions... Why you left... Why you came back... Why you know the doctor... And what happened to my sister...

Mostima: You know how I am... I still need my freedom... I wanted to see the world... As usual...

The other sanktah leaned on the railing like Mostima and laughed as tears streamed down her face.

Exusiai: I'm so stupid... I thought for once you could finally stay in one place...

Mostima: I can't let people get attached to me-

Exusiai: Shut up!

Mostima was surprised to hear this excess of fury.

Exusiai: You say that, but do you really think I'm not already attached to you? Just like all the others! You say that but you just like to go away and hurt others! You just have a heart of stone so you don't mind leaving those who love you behind!

The fallen one looked away, not daring to meet the eyes of the smaller sanktah.

Exusiai: You don't care about anyone. That's why you disappear every time... Don't give me your song...

The fallen one turned to her abruptly.

Mostima: Stop. Lemu... I care... about you...

She said embarrassed.

Why was it so hard for her to get the words out of her mouth...

Mostima: That's why I came back...

The sanktah seemed surprised.

Mostima: I think... I think I want to stay for once.

Exusiai: Really...?

Mostima: Thank the dear doctor... He made me realize that. I've been running away too much. I'm tired of running... Running away from you... Running away from your questions, from our past. I feel like that's all I've ever done in my life.

Exusiai: Will you finally tell me what happened?

Mostima: Ask me anything you want.

The two sanktahs turned and Exusiai was more surprised than ever to see a new expression on Mostima's face. She too looked like she was about to cry. But above all she looked honest, tired, and determined.

Mostima: You are the only one I really count on... I promise to tell you the truth... No matter what question you ask.

The young woman already knew what question she was going to ask.

Exusiai: Mosti... What happened to Lemuen?

The fallen woman took a deep breath.

Mostima: Lemuen is dead.

Exusiai lowered her head, her eyes hidden by her hair, deep inside she already knew. The fallen one seemed to have trouble speaking.

Exusiai: ...How?

Mostima: I killed her...

Exusiai looked up abruptly, tears welling up in her eyes of pain. Mostima herself started to shed a few tears.

Mostima: It was an accident... I didn't mean to...

Exusiai: Tell me why you killed her!

She said as she gripped Mostima clothes.

Mostima: We were on a mission... We were supposed to assassinate Queen Theresa... We got massacred by her bodyguard... I asked for a retreat but your sister refused, we fought and the shot went off by itself I swear I didn't mean to-!

While the voice of the fallen one was getting more and more broken down by emotions, Exusiai took the momentum and gave a slap with all her strength to Mostima making her move back a step and shocking her.

Exusiai raised her other hand and hit Mostima again, smearing her tears on Exusiai's hands that were turning red from the slaps. The fallen one let herself go, thinking that she deserved this punishment, after all, how long had she hidden this horrible act...

But after a while her slaps stopped. And Exusiai... Took Mostima in her arms and hugged her warmly, crying on her chest as they both fell to their knees.

Exusiai was mad with rage.

How long had she kept this from her. The murder of her own sister... She who she considered her friend. And yet...

Exusiai remained Exusiai.

A kindness so immense that the whole world could only admire her. She would always be ready to forgive anything, to anyone... that was Exusiai. An almost divine forgiveness.

The fact that she had killed her sister?

She was willing to forgive her.

The fact that she had hidden from her for years by being her friend?

She also wanted to forgive her. Because Exusiai wanted to forgive her friend everything...

Mostima began to cry even more, putting herself to embrace the sanktah. After all these years, she finally felt a weight being lifted from her heart.

Exusiai: Did she suffer?

Mostima: No... I'm sorry...

Exusiai: It was the war... You didn't do it on purpose...

The red-haired sanktah looked up at the starry sky, which was unaffected by the lights of Lungmen.

Exusiai: I'm sure where she is she doesn't blame you... For being afraid to tell me...

Mostima: You don't have to forgive me...

Exusiai: Mostima... You have always been like our second sister... You too have must felt so sad about what you have done... This whole story has already caused enough suffering...

The blue-haired woman squeezed as hard as she could.

Mostima: I'm so sorry... Thank you... You are the most wonderful person I have ever met... You know that?

Exusiai: I know I am... it has to do with the doctor...?

Just when she thought the worst was over, Exusiai and her terrible clairvoyance asked the fateful question.

Mostima: The doctor... was Theresa's bodyguard.

Exusiai suddenly gasped in surprise.

She made the connection. The squad was being slaughtered, so her sister was dead. Massacred by the doctor...

By the man she loved.

The sanktah squeezed a little harder.

Mostima: The squad had left me for dead, he was also the one who saved me and allowed me to join Laterano again. Don't blame him-

Exusiai: I don't blame him... How could he know that he is responsible for my sister's death? He can't even remember his parents... They had fallen against each other on the battlefield... And you heard what he said... Soldiers shouldn't hate each other... He surely didn't hate Lemuen, why should I hate him. Should I really hate him for something he can't remember?

Mostima began to smile very slightly. She already had an idea why the other sanktah was so quick to forgive this man.

After a few moments, the two sanktah separated. Exusiai began to watch the rain fall, sheltered from the weather by the bar's porch.

Mostima: He loves you.

Exusiai almost choked on his own saliva when she heard the other sanktah turning madly red...

Mostima: I can tell. You have no reason to be embarrassed. You too, right?

The sanktah looked at the sky.

Exusiai: It's true... I love Sebastian...

She was slightly red. But at the same time she told herself that she had no reason to hide anymore. If the fallen one was going to put her cards on the table, then maybe she should do the same.

Mostima began to smile. Hiding a certain bitterness.

Mostima: I see... Good, he is a good man. You two look good together...

The other sanktah didn't need to turn around to look at Mostima.

Exusiai: And you, do you love him?

The blue-haired lady gasped.

Mostima: Why do you ask?

Exusiai: You said you would tell me the truth...

She bit her tongue.

Mostima: I think... I am in love with him...

Exusiai lowered her head.

Mostima: It doesn't matter... You already have his heart, and you're much better with him than I am, I mean we've only seen each other a few hours after his amnesia. No matter how much I love him, he doesn't-

Exusiai: Don't say that. Maybe he'll choose you.

The sanktah stood up and gave Mostima her hand.

Mostima: Sometimes I wonder what's going on in your head...

The fallen one stood up with the help of the other sanktah.

Mostima: Come on, let's get another drink.

Exusiai: I don't know if I'm in the mood for...

Mostima: In our squad with your sister, every time one of our members died, we all drank until we passed out in the evening. Come on, let's do this last honor to Lemuen, drink until you can't feel your legs! Or until you wake up tomorrow in the doctor's bed! And let's forget all about this misfortune!

The red-haired sanktah laughed and returned to her signature smile.

Exusiai: You know what, I think for one night I can let myself go.

The Rhodes Island angel walked into the bar and walked over to the piano where Sora and the doctor were singing, she was next without a word.

The good doctor began to smile.

After all, he had a partner.

A lot of unfortunate things were done during that evening, a lot of hilarious things, and a lot of indelible memories that erased the many wounds of the mind.