Zalroth gazed up at the clear blue sky, cradling Kai in his arms as Kai tightly clung to her many striped tails. Zalroth looked down at the still sleeping Kai and reflexively yawned as Kai quietly yawned. Zalroth rubbed his eyes, as he heard two women giggling to each other while saying Kai and Zalroth looked cute together.

Zalroth yawned once again, stretching his legs as he did before he started to walk through the super sparsely populated streets, which were filled with various closed festival stands. Zalroth strolled past the festival stands, taking note of how many of them were themed around the god of death and destruction (with the occasional ones themed after the other gods or not themed after any gods) and spotting Kiki's stand as he arrived at the plaza with the giant mayjorka tree.

Standing before the tree, Zalroth gaze at the top of the tree, taking his time to inspect every inch of it until he located the tree branch that clearly had the end of it snapped off, seeing it made Zalroth sombrely sigh.

"Sorry about doing that to you... but I'm sure you'd have agreed to it in a heartbeat...," Zalroth murmured quietly to himself, before going completely silent as he heard footsteps approaching him. Zalroth turned around and was greeted by Tila (wearing casual attire), as she was holding multiple grocery bags and had a small flute in her mouth.

"I thought I recognised those tails," Tila remarked, with her flute making quick whistles as she talk.

"Oh, Tila, fancy meeting you here," Zalroth said.

"I could say the same to you; Kiki couldn't stop talking about how she looked forward to seeing you participate in the tournament, did you lose your fight?" Tila asked, she perplexedly tilted her head while commenting that Zalroth losing probably wasn't the case given his adventure rank.

"Well, let's just say some things happened and I ended up not getting to participate," Zalroth stated; Tila giggled to herself while joking it was probably for the best since the tournament would've been boring otherwise. Zalroth let out a short amused exhale, and remarked Tila was most likely right.

"It was fun chatting with you, cya around," Tila said, as she readjusted her grocery bags before she headed off. Zalroth yawned, pondering multiple things as he heard Kai yawn. Zalroth looked down at Kai, as she rolled around in his arms before she stretched her limbs like a cat; her eyes slowly opened and she lightly rubbed the dust out of her eyes.

Kai's eye rubbing slowly halted, her hands slowly lowered from her face and she stared up at Zalroth. For a split second, Kai didn't understand why she was in Zalroth's arms, it took her a bit of time, but Kai eventually collected her thoughts and the events from the final tournament challenge. Kai awkwardly rolled away from Zalroth onto her side, and she recovered her face with her hands.

"I... sorwy-sorry," Kai quietly murmured, her lips quivering as she spoke.

"About what?" Zalroth asked as he brushed some strands of hair out of Kai's face.

"I froze up... against the dragon... then I-" Kai stuttered, but stopped speaking when Zalroth placed a hand on her head and lightly petted her.

"It's alright," Zalroth uttered calmly. Kai's ears perked up in surprise at hearing Zalroth's words; she quickly rolled over and gazed up at Zalroth with confusion written all over her face.

"You... not mad?" Kai asked, peering down at her hands as she lightly tapped the tips of her index fingers together. Zalroth amusedly exhaled to himself as he shook his head dismissively.

"Of course not (that'd be no different to me being mad at myself), the one who's at fault would be me for putting you in that situation, and allowing it to happen," Zalroth explained, removing his hand from Kai's head when she sat up. Kai felt a sense of relief, although she found it odd she had a previous sense of unease, that felt almost alien to her.

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"But... why...?" Kai muttered. Kai looked at the palms of her hands, questioning where the indescribable rage originated from but couldn't think of anything that made sense. Zalroth sensed Kai's mental discourse, and he placed his hand on her head again.

"Zalka, you're not even a year old yet so you, let alone any child, shouldn't have to worry about figuring that kind of stuff out on your own, and you can rely on those around you," Zalroth said with a serious, yet reassuring, tone. Kai went quiet, both vocally and mentally, and considered Zalroth's words. Kai lightly placed her head against Zalroth's shoulder and looked up at him; she considered what she wanted to ask Zalroth before coming to a decision.

"Can we get ice cream?" Kai requested, with puppy dog eyes. Zalroth lightly exhaled with an unsurprised demeanour.

"Don't you think you've eaten enough cold things for today?" Zalroth asked in a joking tone, to which Kai nervously giggled in response. Zalroth smirked as he started to walk in the direction of the coliseum while mentioning he saw a candy shop on his walk around Talkia. Kai lightly held her hands together as she thought of something.

"Could you... sing that song again?" Kai pleaded, tugging on Zalroth's coat as she asked.

"You mean the one that put you to sleep earlier?" Zalroth asked. Kai nodded her head in confirmation as she pressed her head slightly harder against Zalroth's shoulder. Zalroth yawned before saying he'll only hum the first verse. Kai slightly smiled at how much Zalroth was agreeing to spoil her and she closed her eyes, as Zalroth started to hum.

Meanwhile, in the music-filled streets of Neo Light City, Kukorama strolled down a bustling street, flipping the silver Toka in his hand and counting each time he flipped it. Kukorama took a sharp turn at a street corner, and walked down a less packed street; as he was walking down the street, Kukorama looked upon a group of kids as they cheerfully walked away from a food stand, stationed in front of a bakery.

The pale-skinned, half-demon (with a spade-shaped tail end) boy with spikey orange and creme-coloured hair, and ruby eyes manning the food stand noticed Kukorama and got excited as Kukorama stopped in front of the stand.

"Mr Mask, you're here, for a while I was worried you weren't going to show up today" the boy happily said, jumping on the spot in rhythm to the music coming from the bakery.

"Good afternoon, Noza. I apologise for showing up so late in the afternoon, I got tied up in some business that took longer than I anticipated it would," Kukorama stated, with a toned-down version of his distorted voice.

"It's cool, I'm just happy you were able to show up at all," Noza cheerfully stated as he reached under the stand and pulled out a small sweet bag, that he placed in Kukorama's hand. Kukorama thanked Noza and he flicked the silver Toka into Noza's hand. Noza thanked Kukorama for his patronage and also asked Kukorama if Inaka was ok, mentioning that she hasn't been around at the bakery in a while.

"She still sleeping from what Kukamo told me," Kukorama stated.

"Oh... I'm glad she's not sick, but aren't you worried?" Noza asked with a concerned expression. Kukorama shook his head dismissively.

"Trust me this would hardly be considered a nap by her standards," Kukorama joked. Noza seemed relieved to hear that before he bidded Kukorama goodbye, as Kukorama walked off back the way he came. Noza watched Kukorama as he walked away, letting out a quiet sigh, and wondering if Inaka will wake up soon. As he made his way back to the Dragon Heart Arcade, Kukorama checked the contents of the sweet bag as a thought came to mind.

"Oh yeah, Samantha mentioned in her report that Fox has begun doing tests at the new test site, so I'll have to check it out for myself once Xinia and the others return from their trip," Kukorama thought to himself, contemplating if he should send Zinvalia instead, given how bored she looked at the arcade.

Back at the coliseum, Zuno looked out of a window and up at the clouds as the sun sat at its highest point in the sky. Zuno's gaze followed the cloud formation of a group of cats, and only looked away when he sensed Charlotte approaching.

"Yes, Charlotte?" Zuno asked as Charlotte stopped next to him.

"The final challenge is almost over," Charlotte stated, making Zuno let out a begrudging sigh.

"Callie's already backed me into a corner by getting those kids' hopes up," Zuno muttered, under his breath, as he and Charlotte walked off.