1. Tartaros Fairy: spell casting—Takeshiro
2. Desirée Cavalry: physical endurance—Shugo
3. Pheasant Peak: hand-to-hand combat—Ryouichi
4. Titania Devil: potion creation-Ryouichi
5. Snowblood: song-Ushizumo
Chapter 17: Coffee Black as the Heart, Tea Sweet as the Soul
Day 14
Reiji's trip back to Loner Lumber Circle was significantly faster than her trip away from the neighborhood. In what seemed like a flash of flight, she gasped for air, shooting up from her lying position in Ryouichi's bed. Panting, she grabbed her chest, feeling her heart racing. Her vision blurred for a moment, then slowly refocused.
She gritted her teeth, gripping her chest when a sudden rush of pain pulsed through. That too vanished as quickly as it came.
"T-that... that was... w-what...?" she rasped. She got out of bed, wobbling on uneven feet to the bathroom. Considering Takeshiro was not present to greet her upon returning, the male was most likely asleep. And so, she had to be quiet.
Reiji sighed in relief once she made it to the toilet. Good thing astral projection was only an hour. Going back felt like a jumpstart to a comatose body.
After the bathroom break, Reiji walked silently to the front door. Her chest felt normal again the more she moved around. She leaned against the bookshelf by the door, taking a moment to catch her breath, worried the fatigue might come back again.
Once outside the door, she spread wings of her hair shower before taking off into the night sky.
Looking down, Reiji realized she completely forgot about her shoes and clothes. She did not care how underdressed she was. Riki wanted her to see Michele for a reason.
Underwear be damned!
On the way there, Reiji decided to cover herself anyway. Her long hair wrapped around her body in a makeshift onesie, which knitted, looped, tied, and secured itself in a matter of minutes. Her bangs braided and crocheted themselves into a hoodie. The season was still relatively warm outside, so the onesie was quite breathable.
Reiji soon stood at the locked entryway to the blacksmith shop. The sign that read 'SMITHING MICHELE' was flipped to 'SLEEPING MICHELE,' subtitled 'GO AWAY' in English and Kanaji.
The entrance was blocked with a locked gate. Reiji grabbed the padlock, then gripped it tighter, flexing the muscles in her left arm until the metal popped apart. Dropping the broken lock to the ground, Reiji carefully pushed the gate to slide it open.
The forge was cold for a change, with a wood and coal mixture inside to prepare for a fresh fire in the morning. The usual wide variety of weapons decorated every wall and display case. Reiji felt the warmth of her rosary chain as she looked at the case where it used to sut on display.
She turned toward the back of the shop, then promptly ducked for cover as a large, flying object flew right where her head was just moments ago. Metal slammed against the wall, causing Reiji to yell in surprise.
"Michele! It's me! Don't hurt—" The wind was immediately knocked out of her when a second mallet struck her right in the stomach. Reiji collapsed to the floor, holding her torso in a world of pain. She bit her tongue from crying, vomiting, anything that could've made her situation worse.
Suddenly, lights flicked on overhead. Reiji coughed saliva, unable to hold back any longer. She struggled to climb up to her trembling hands and knees. Michele's mallet retracted, flying back into open palm in a flash of light. That respective bracelet dangled on her slim wrist.
"Reiji? What the hell're you doing?" Michele came over to her side, helping her sit up. Tears stung her gold-bronze eyes from the pain throbbing in her ribs. Something might have broken.
"R-Ri... Riki, s-sh-ooouh," she moaned in pain. Michele sighed audibly.
"Ya could've knocked on the back door, the door to my house, ya moron," she scolded softly.
After taking the time to collect herself, Reiji began to stand back up. Her legs still trembled. At least she did not collapse a second time.
"Rei, what's the matter? Ye didn't wanna see me just the other day," Michele said. Reiji leaned away from Michele's shoulder, muttering her "Touch of Chiron" spell. She took deep breaths with her hands still on her stomach. The pain slipped away in seconds. Michele crossed her arms with a deep, sleep deprived frown. "Well? I'm waitin'."
"Uh, well, I..." Reiji trailed off, burning with embarrassment. I just broke into her house. Without thinking! What the hell do I say??
"Riki s-sent me...?" the female demon murmured, poking her index fingers in a shy manner. "I need help. Uh, information? A-about this other entity. I-I saw the chief and, uh, t-the other dark guild reps in a meeting..."
"Ya spied on a meetin' with your assessment folks, and ye saw somethin' new," Michele said, raising a brow. Reiji nodded quietly. "You saw another one, a third one like Riki and Trevon." Reiji nodded again, eyes lighting up with a glimmer.
"But this time, it kind of looked like a goblin-cyclops hybrid. Like, really short, different stripe pattern," the green haired demon added, lowering her hand near her thigh. "About this tall, hissing and growling a lot."
"Yeah, and two marks in its eye."
"Wait, how did you know?!"
"I used to practice astral projection," Michele chuckled when Reiji gawked in surprise. And just when she thought her experience was unique... "Don't make that face; you ain't the only demon with magic!" the blacksmith laughed.
"S-stop that! That was a lot to take in!" she whined. Michele grabbed her shoulders, causing Reiji to freeze up. She made a face, feeling the hairy fabric of the dark green onesie. "Is this hair?"
.
Reiji sat in Michele's studio living space behind the main shop. The room felt small for a demon over six feet, hunched over a mug of tea underneath a comfortable weighted blanket, dressed in the largest shirt and shorts Michele could find. The clothing clung to her body like undergarments.
"So, yer wantin' to know more about this "contract demon," as they put it," Michele mused over a mug of black coffee. It was much hotter than the tea, but she sipped steadily. "Mhmm. Well, we both know this ain't a damn contract. But fer the sake of simplicity, we'll call it that."
"What exactly is Riki, if not a contract demon? And how did you meet the cyclops entity?"
"Ah, that's a lovely tale I barely get to share!" the blacksmith smiled. "This story takes place on my eighteenth birthday in X807. At that point, Trevon was around for like, seven odd years. The day I turned 18, I was one outta three brats picked for the level two dark guild assessments thay year."
"Wow, I had never heard of that assessment in '07 before," Reiji said, sipping her tea. Michele, a mage in a guild! The blacksmith always gave off the impression of a loner.
"Heh, well, that's because I was permanently banned from future assessments. Forever."
"Banned?" Reiji gasped in shock. I was not expecting that twist...
"Yup. I learned the astral projection spell as a means of gettin' ahead, cheating. Instead, Trevon showed me the dirty underbelly of one of the mages at the time. I'll save you the corny flashback and just tell ya straight: I almost killed a representative that night."
Takeshiro bolted out of his cabin home, nearly tripping over his loose shoelaces. Reiji suddenly emerged from the astral plane and ran away. Of course Takeshiro couldn't sleep through her sudden turbulence of thoughts.
Help from Michele? Is someone in trouble? I have to help too!
Takeshiro slumped against a tree, gulping for air a mere minute into his sprinting marathon. In his moment of panic, he completely forgot his stamina was in the negatives compared even to Ushizumo. But he had to keep going for his friend's sake. He forced himself onward on one of the many gravel roads that passed through his neighborhood.
im coming, Rei!
Michele casually sipped piping hot black coffee, unfazed by Reiji's horrified expression. Michele set her mug on her small floor table. Reiji set her mug down as well, lowering her gaze.
A killer... Actually, that checks out, Trevon considered.
"Heh, you recovered fast," the blacksmith chuckled lightly. "Yeah, I nearly killed a fully realized mage, a wizard in Pheasant Peak. His name was Hibiki, just Hibiki," she continued. "Trevon took me to a private encounter between Hibiki and that Tartaros mage, Minerva. You'll meet her later."
"Yeah, she's with Kyôka this year," Reiji pointed out.
"Yeah, Kyôka was there that time, too. Anyway, Trevon took me there. Meeting in the town hall, y'know, business. But Hibiki and Minerva were alone. Well, I caught him tryin' to do... somethin' with her," Michele scowled at the memory of what she saw. "And I don't play about that, not one bit. Minerva terrified of him. I immediately got up from my little slumber, broke into the town hall, and beat him senseless like pops!" she concluded with a fist punched into her palm. Reiji winced, covering her mouth in slight disgust. Michele glowered for a moment but relaxed her posture.
"He coulda died from the injuries. A shame he got to live."
"H-how are you not in prison? Banished, even?" Reiji inquired.
"Well, Hibiki was already under investigation fer other cases where the girl, the female, whatever, wasn't protected, y'know. I just finished the job," Michele shrugged. "Under the X345 Vigilante Justice Law, I was spared from a harsher punishment. I still served a year in jail for vandalizing a federal building, though."
"So, Trevon helped you protect someone from a predator," Reiji murmured. "What about the cyclops?"
"The cyclops actually warned Trevon that Hibiki was bad news. Aggressive and whatnot."
"That entity called someone an enemy when I was projecting," Reiji recalled. Michele nodded along as she briefly described as much of the meeting as she could remember. Grey Forrester, Kyôka's tall tale, the flirtatious Angelica, and the tense atmosphere saved by sake of all things. Reiji sooner realized that the entity did not appear to like anybody present in the room once she said it all out loud.
"Yeah, sounds about right. The chief is always laid back so guests can also relax. I also spied the next year; I did it fer another gal who actually passed thanks to me preparin' her ahead of time. I forget her name.
"Anywho, I was in a meeting room that looked more like a bar. It was myself, Trevon, that cyclops, and, uh, I think a spirit kinda?"
Reiji furrowed her brows together in a puzzled look, tilting her head to the side. A spirit?
"Only a few creatures and Reapers see spirits. Did it look like our entities?"
"Nah, golden light around its body, a very pure aura. Blue eyes, pink hair, fair skin, dressed like a maid. Kinda like you and yer buddy Lunalu, nothing like Riki."
"That's... interesting," Reiji said, rubbing her chin. "Who do you think it could've belonged to?"
"No idea; I didn't see a jewel on anybody at the time. Did you?"
"No, I didn't see anything either," Reiji pouted. "May I have more tea? This is really good."
Michele stood up and grabbed her mug. "Sure thing. I'll be right back."
While Michele was busy across the room, Reiji took a moment to take in her surroundings. She had known Michele for years but never once thought of visiting her home until now.
The walls of the little house were painted a soft shade of green. She looked at the few picture frames around the studio. One on the wall in front of her contained a couple of older folks who closely resembled Michele, hung by the door. Or rather, Michele was a combination of the two. They had to be her late parents, framed in wood painted white and covered in tiny shells glued together.
Another frame of zigzag design on a corner table showed Michele with the well-known Pearlysca in a class photo, next to Michele's futon couch. Everyone attended her classes that Reiji knew of, and all her friends and peers around her age were immortalized in that frame.
No windows, not even on the door to the studio. The air was oddly temperate and cool. She looked up to see small stars embedded in the ceiling.
Michele glanced back, noticing Reiji's wide stare at the ceiling, her mouth slightly gaping in awe.
"They're lacrima crystals that glow in the dark," Michele said. She then noticed the female demon completely ignored her. She smiled a little, turning back to the kettle boiling hot water on a wireless single burner. She figured her 'guest' needed quiet time to think.
Four things I can touch...
Nearly the entire shopping street was dark, save for a couple of late-night businesses still open. Takeshiro collapsed on a small bench at the edge of the woods near the street, sweating profusely from the long-distance run. Although he could not see, he knew the area enough to avoid falling into streams or tripping over objects along the way.
Takeshiro lifted his head at a familiar set of footsteps. He could hear Cani's uneven stagger out of the nearest pub. The female stopped near Takeshiro, then sat next to him on the bench. The stench of imported beer immediately overwhelmed in sense of smell.
"Aahh, my poor little feet! Whoa, little Shiro? What the heck're you doing?!" she blurted. The blue-haired male rubbed the bridge of his nose, realizing he had forgotten his decorative glasses. Nobody but Cani called him Shiro. He did not mind, though. It was better than "Blue."
She reeked of alcohol on the rocks. Cani leaned over, wiping something off of his shoulder. "Jeez, you're filthy."
Jeez, your scent is filthy...
"I... am n-not dirty," the male demon protested halfheartedly, too tired to resist her spatial invasion. He managed to get back up to his feet, then brushed his shirt and shorts off.
"What're you even doing out this late? Is Shugo in trouble again?" Cani asked.
He looks like he raced after a moss critter, Cani thought. Takeshiro could hear her buzzed mind with ease since Cani was right by him.
"No, not Shugo or critters. I'm looking for Reiji," he answered honestly. He did not have to lie to an acquaintance. She is trustworthy enough. She would definitely spread the details, though. Cani patted his shoulder, then let out a deep burp. Takeshiro grunted, turning away.
I need to go. Reiji could be in trouble.
"Get home safe, Cani," he said before taking off in a brisk walk.
"Yeah, I'll think about it!" Cani laughed a little. "Good luck with my server!"
After serving another round of tea and coffee, Michele settled back in her cushion across from Reiji. The green-haired demon shifted her legs out from under her in a more comfortable seating position. She carefully sipped the hot tea, pausing to taste the mild flavor of pinecone honey.
"So, you met the cyclops, it warned you of nearby danger, and you took several actions that got you banned from assessments forever," Reiji summarized.
"It woulda looked bad on the chief's image if I wasn't banned," the blacksmith shrugged with a nonchalant eye roll. "I don't regret it."
That rosary will protect you, no matter the cost, Lamy once said. At the cost of comfort or even lives, Riki would protect. Curious, Reiji looked up.
"Do you think we were meant to have this power? Like, as a power to protect others?" she asked. She looked down, flushing red when Michele gave her a weird look.
"The power to protect? Ha! More like the power ta strike fear in our enemies," Michele snickered. "In a morbid way, Trevon protected Ma from Pops."
"I don't think I protected anybody by killing Otto and the others..."
"Riki protected that family on that one mission, right?"
"Well, yes, she did."
"And it protected Shugo and Ryo. You did yer protecting, then," Michele smiled softly. Reiji returned the soft expression.
"Thanks, Michele. There's also something else I wanted to ask," Reiji said with a sudden realization she had almost forgotten. "When the three entities were together, they spoke. I could not hear them most of the time. And when I did, it sounded like a very different kind of Kanaji. But when they're apart, they struggle to form full sentences. Why is that?"
"I dunno," Michele shrugged. "I figure they feed off each other's energy or somethin'."
"Oh..." Reiji tapped her index finger on her mug, looking down at the light green tea. "Do you think there's more of us?"
"Oh, a hundred percent. That cyclops goblin thing is proof there's more," she replied. Her eyes fixated on her mug as well.
"W-why didn't you tell me this before?"
"I didn't wanna give ya false hope, in case nobody else was actually out there."
"I guess you're right," Reiji frowned. Michele rested her chin on her hand with her elbow on the table. She yawned, her eyes more droopier with sleepiness than usual.
"Oh well, here we are now," Michele said, sitting up. "I'm about as clueless as you, honest. Best I can do is control Trevon."
Reiji sighed in defeat, slouching. How fortunate that Michele had seven years to adapt to her entity, while she only had two more weeks of scrambling by.
"Hey, don't be so down, Rei. You could always do searchin' by joinin' a guild," Michele said, attempting to reassure the female. Reiji sat up attentively.
"That's it! If I join a guild, I'll be able to meet new folks and search for projections of other entities. I hadn't even thought of that," she grinned. She looked away bashfully while Michele grinned back. Even her eyes seemed to curl slightly with as much joy as her smile. It was so challenging suppressing these feelings...
"That's the spirit. And if ye find what yer lookin' for, ya might find out where the entities originated from."
"I feel like that much would take quite a while," Reiji pouted. "It is hard to research something that is essentially unheard of."
"Yeah... By the way, how long did it take ya to learn about the MOK timeline?" Michele asked before sipping her hot coffee. Reiji froze, staring blankly at Michele. The question completely caught her off guard. Her stomach practically dropped through the floor.
"H-How did..."
"Kiki was said to've gone missing like three months ago," Michele replied. "Thing is, I gave ye that rosary a little under a month ago. Strange, ain't it?"
"Y-yeah, I... I also learned that from the meeting I spied on," Reiji replied, looking away. Shame gnawed at the back of her mind, even though those actions were not hers. "Was Riki, y-you know, inside longer than just a month?"
"You don't remember anything?" Michele questioned with a worried expression. That only turned her stomach into a bundle of knots.
"N-no..."
"Huh, maybe Riki is protecting you still," Michele suggested, straightening her expression. She probably noticed Reiji's anxiety creeping in and wanted to reassure her by not overreacting. That did not help, however. "What if those three did something so bad even Riki suppressed it for yer sake?"
"T-that cannot be!" Reiji protested, standing on her knees. "Otto ran a food stand. Kiki was technically unemployed but a peaceful nomad! And Mars? He was a teacher and caregiver to children. They were good demonfolk!"
They might have made her childhood worse, but they were also victims. They were doing so much better to make up for past mistakes! Right?
Michele could only shake her head, closing her eyes to avoid Reiji's confused expression. Reiji sat back down, brows still furrowed.
"Is there something you know about them, Michele?"
Instead of a verbal reply, Michele got up from her cushion and walked over to a dresser near her futon, one of the only pieces of furniture in the studio. Reiji's weary eyes followed the blacksmith. She heard a few ticks and turns of a lock, followed by a click. Michele opened a hidden top drawer, then brought out a small lacrima ball.
A lacrima crystal? Reiji raised a brow in question. A frozen wave washed over her body suddenly. Was it danger?
"'Why is that in a safe of all places,' you might be wondering," Michele said, turning back to her.
Takeshiro practically froze in his tracks, dread punching his body with more force than a dragon. Whatever he had heard just now, he knew in an instant it was not meant for his telepathic ears. He now stood across the street from the closed 'SLEEPING MICHELE,' having just heard what must have been a recorded series of conversations.
... You might be wondering...
"I swear on my mother, it wasn't supposed to happen."
"She tricked us! SHE was the monster! The brat should've used her stupid brain."
"It will haunt me... for the rest of my life..."
The blind demon took a step back, shaking in horror. He slowly shook his head, refusing to accept what he had just heard.
"No... no, no, no," he mumbled over and over, tears filling his eyes. Impossible. It's not possible. Ushizumo, she...
Takeshiro tensed up his stance, balled his fists, clenched his teeth, and squinted his eyes shut, not that he even opened them to begin with. He braced himself for a violent panic attack, a stroke, screaming, anything expected of Reiji in an extremely fragile state.
However, he did not hear a peep from Michele or Reiji.
One thing Takeshiro hated more than alcoholism was his telepathy failing to hear inner thoughts.
He approached the gate that was still ajar, then hesitated again. He sighed tiredly, scratching his temple. Sure, he could barge in and interrupt. And then what?
Reiji did not need to be saved from herself. He was much too young to parent anyone. If Reiji needed him, she would have gone to him first. He raised his index and middke finger to his forehead.
Rei, it's Blue. If you need me, I'll be back in bed.
And with that, he turned on his heel and walked home.
Reiji stared ahead at Michele's soft green wall with the most empty stare she could ever manage. Or was it black, like the dirt and sand? No, it was covered in brick and concrete that slowly cracked and chipped away after years of neglect.
It was brown like the old mattresses everyone slept on. Brown like the mold that grew on the shower walls. Or the stew they ate that lacked all of the flavors that Reiji didn't learn about until later.
No, it was definitely a deep red, like the blood oozing from blistering, bubbling skin falling off a guard's face as she drowned in her own blood.
No, it was bright orange, a fiery yellow like the sun after a great God Storm once every fifty years. Reiji only dreamed of that, of course.
She had almost forgotten the sound of a drowning person who could not be rescued. Dead eyes followed Reiji until she forgot about the incident entirely, until now.
The barrier that suppressed magic and curse power was slowly failing after decades of strong operation. That day was simply the first sign total failure was fast approaching.
04 November, X804
It was the day a little girl learned the lowest brutality of demon nature.
It was also the day her curse awakened.
Ushizumo hated the color red for what it meant for that corpse with broken orange blisters.
She also loved the color blue because after little Reiji found her first, she covered Ushizumo with a tattered blue blanket. What else is a child supposed to do when her best friend had killed someone?
The wall was a pitch darkness wrapping cold, fluid arms around her tethered body.
It was multiples caregivers shushing children to sleep just hours before disaster struck.
It was blacker than the ink numbers hiding under full heads of hair, seven-billion-something-or-other.
04 November. Red crayon. Blue crayon. Then five heads. Then six in black.
And nothing.
"So, those three set a trap with the help of that creature?" Reiji asked in a level tone. Michele felt a chill down her spine at how monotone she sounded. She still stood by the dresser with the lacrima ball, stuck in that place after a small eternity.
"Mhm," she nodded quietly.
"When she turned out to be worse than a mere scar on my face, they regretted it and avoided us to avoid taking accountability."
"... Yeah."
"You got them to confess one by one, then played those recordings over and over again until Riki emerged."
"I... y-yeah."
"Riki grounded herself long before you gave me the rosary, and you thought I wouldn't find out," Reiji finished, absolute in her statement. Michele did not think Reiji wouldn't find out; she knew the green-haired female would find out her shameful secret eventually.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Michele whispered, turning away in shame. She held onto the lacrima in her hands. It normally took a lot more to make her cry, but she could not stop the tears from flowing. "I s-sought revenge without askin'. I'm sorry, Rei. I did this. I, I ruined you," she whispered, inhaling a sob.
...
...
"... Thank you, Michele." The black smith nearly jumped in fear when the taller female was right in front of her.
Michele looked at Reiji in genuine disbelief. She searched her gold-bronze eyes for some hint of resentment, anger, or sadness, but found no emotion at all.
Reiji's mind was surprisingly calm and empty. There was a lack of the usual funnel of thoughts that always came and went.
It was simple to her, really. It all made sense now.
Although Riki was meant to be wielded by Reiji, Michele sped up the process. She learned unsettling things about a friend of someone she cared about. Although they all hated what happened, Mars blamed himself, Kiki blamed Ushizumo, and Otto regret letting any if it happen. As older kids, they knew better than that. Michele said herself that she did not tolerate abusers of any kind, no matter how old or young they are or were.
But instead of simply making reports with no evidence and damaging her reputation, she gave Riki the ammunition required to finally ground herself with the person it chose.
Riki then took over Reiji's body and immediately killed Kiki.
Mars was gone a week later.
Then came the day when Otto had pushed himself to be nice to Reiji, most likely driven by fear of the invisible force that killed his childhood friends. And to his utter shock and horror, the invisible force was the very person who knew what happened. He did not know she blocked it all out over time. However, that did not matter anymore.
Riki finally communicated in that moment that Otto understood what the entity's purpose was for hunting him. All three of them knew why this happened to them when they saw Reiji's X-scarred face with the crimson red eyes and the darker, striped skin of a monster.
Reiji had suppressed that experience to cope with everything from that chapter of her life. She played pretend as often as Ushizumo daydreamed with her plush toys. As often as Shugo smoked. As often as Ryouichi dated or studied. As often as Takeshiro struggled to control his telepathy curse.
Those three were the reason Ushizumo has no idea how old she is supposed to be. They are the reason she vomits and sobs uncontrollably after nightmares. They were the source of many challenges she faced to this day. And because of Michele coaxing that information out of them, they are finally dead with that female creature.
Zumi was free, sort of. And she would never know who really did it. Reiji did not want to feel vindicated by Michele's actions. What she did was still disturbing, even if the intentions were good.
"This can't get out to anyone," Reiji whispered, her eyes flashing red for a short moment. Michele's eyes matched that same crimson as she nodded, wiping her eyes.
"I'll destroy this lacrima, melt it into jewelry or something. I ain't got any use for it anymore," the blacksmith muttered, averting her gaze. Reiji found her self subconsciously fiddling with her rosary, staring off into space. She took several steps back from Michele.
"I'll do anything to help you pass October," Michele said after a short pause. She closed her drawer, locking the lacrima for the time being. "Do ye train your instincts?"
"A little bit, with Ryo," Reiji deadpanned. If I don't show emotion, she won't suspect a thing.
"Well, I can help ya summon Riki's power at will, without completely transformin'. If we put this... tension behind us, I can help ya summon only yer axe at will."
Reiji at Michele, finally relieved with good news. Well, yes. Michele had probably casually summoned her twin mallets individually or together multiple times. Out of the two times Reiji witnessed it, not once did her eyes or skin change. The green-haired demon had not considered that she too could master that skill.
"I can summon just my axe, without my other features changing?" she asked with a bit of urgency in her tone.
Suddenly, she nearly fell backwards tripping on the floor table when a flash of dim light covered Michele's body.
In an instant, Trevon's distinct stripes and dark brown skin covered her pale complexion. Her crimson red eyes bore four marks, two on each side of the pupils. Her silver locks darkened to black, and a tail lined in black hair sprung from her tailbone. She summoned two mallets, clenching them at her sides with dark, serious eyes never leaving Reiji's gold-bronze orbs.
"Alright. Let's go."
"It's past midnight," Reiji attempted to protest, but shrank under the blacksmith's intense glare.
"I don't care if it's the ass crack of dawn. We begin now."
6. Ryo/Michele: Instincts
Like, I knew I let spelling errors go unchecked but holy shit. There were so many!!
—ML