Pierro paused for a moment, some light coming back into his eyes.

“sure…” Pierro said, confused and slightly intrigued.

Oliver held his chin, closing his eyes to think for a moment. After a while, he opened his eyes back up and pointed a finger gun at Pierro.

“wanna play tic tac toe?” Oliver asked.

He was still confused, but nodded anyway. Oliver began drawing the tic tac toe board on the sand, before drawing an X in the middle.

“I'm going first” Oliver said, sitting down cross legged.

Pierro followed suit, drawing an O in the top right corner. The two begin playing, the light in Pierro's eyes coming back to him. Oliver, embarrassingly, lost 4 games out of the 7 they played.

“Geez, I guess I lost huh?” Oliver said, rubbing the back of my head.

Pierro laughed, proudly exclaiming he was the winner.

“You only one cause you cheated” Oliver said, pointing accusingly at him.

“You got no proof!” Pierro said defensively.

The two then began to chuckle, before Pierro abruptly stopped.

“... You're still gonna kill me aren't you?” Pierro asked.

Oliver stopped his laughter before picking up his sword and standing up.

“Obviously” Oliver said, scratching his head.

Pierro looked down before asking him why he asked him to play tic tac toe with him then. Oliver was silent for a second before smiling.

“Mostly cause your tantrums made me realise… you're really just a child aren't you? As in an actual child” Oliver asked, crossing his arms.

Pierro was shocked by his statement, though nodded in confirmation.

“Thought so… well the fact you're a newborn Fester, got me wondering something… why would a child do something like this? Pull pranks, cry or not eat their vegetables sure… but kill people? Then when I realised… Festers are just like that. I can't apply the same logic for humans onto festers, as we're both two different species. Species who are natural enemies to each other. So I can't really judge when a Fester kills a human, cause that's just their nature. However, don't get me wrong, I'll eliminate any fester that threatens humanity, regardless of their reasons. But killing Festers doesn't really make me a hero or anything… more like a cog in a huge machine.” Oliver explained.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Pierro clenched his fist before scratching his head again.

“That still doesn't answer my question… Why did you play with me?” Pierro asked.

Oliver smirked before pointing his sword at Pierro.

“Cause if killing you doesn't make me a hero, the least I could do was give you something fun to do” Oliver said, a toothy grin on his face.

Those words were comforting in a morbid way. In the end he lost, and that was that. Sitting down, Pierro looked up and smiled.

“What're you waiting for? It's not like I can kill myself!”

Oliver smirked, before stabbing Pierro through the heart. After taking a deep breath, Oliver dragged his sword out as he looked at Sieg.

“yo, we can use this guy's body right? I want him to be turned into an attachment unit if that's okay” Oliver said, his tone nonchalant.

Sieg looked at Oliver with a calculating expression, before laughing. He had never seen something as ridiculous as what Oliver just did before, it was honestly refreshing. Wiping his tears, Sieg began walking towards Pierro's corpse.

“right right… but first we gotta dispose of his body properly. We don't want him to accidentally get revived now do we?” Sieg said, smirking.

Oliver rubbed the back of his head while smiling wearily.

“R- right…”

Sieg looked at Oliver for a second before smiling.

“Go talk to your sister…” Sieg said.

“What about the bod-” but before Oliver could finish his sentence, Sieg placed his hand on his shoulder.

“It's fine… Katherine will clean this up” Sieg said.

“Huh why me?!” Katherine yelled.

Sieg responded by sticking out his tongue and shrugging. Katherine was clearly upset that she had to dispose of the body, but after looking at Oliver she relented.

“You better repay me okay?” Katherine said, patting Oliver's shoulder.

“Yeah yeah…” Oliver responded, smiling a bit.

Walking towards his sister, the two looked at each other awkwardly. It was understandable why though. From Oliver's perspective he had to tell her “hey sis yeah sorry for not telling you I'm the guy you've been trying to hunt down and hate so much!” While from Olivia's perspective she had to tell him “hey lil bro yeah, sorry for trying to kill you the other day and for constantly talking shit about you in front of your face!”. In the end though, they both looked at each other and gave the other a hug.

“Dumbass…” Olivia said.

“Freak…” Oliver responded.

They pulled away before suddenly Oliver's eyes went dark. The armour disappeared as he slowly collapsed on the ground. Olivia began to panic, but after realising he was full breathing, she calmed down.

“Geez sleeping after all that?” Olivia said, looking exasperated.

“Don't you think he deserves it? He's been fighting so hard” Sieg said, standing beside Olivia.

Olivia rolled her eyes before crossing her arms.

“I guess…” she said sarcastically.

Soon her pouting face turned to a smile as she sneakily looked at Oliver.

“Good job, Oliver,” she said under her breath.

Sieg noticed this and couldn't help but chuckle. Realising she was caught, Olivia quickly began walking away with her head down.

“What a silly girl… Katherine dear, come help me pick up Oliver” Sieg said as he wrapped one of Oliver's arms over his shoulders.

Katherine sighed, feeling slightly used after she had just finished cleaning up Pierro's corpse.

“Fine… geez you owe me too now” Katherine said to Sieg with a glare in her eyes.

“Fine, fine I'll buy you a month's worth of icy treats,” Sieg said with a smirk.

Katherine rolled her eyes before holding up the other side of Oliver's body.

“You better keep that promise” Katherine said.

Sieg smiled before beginning to walk.

“When have I ever broken a promise?” Sieg commented.

Katherine became silent after hearing that. Sieg immediately realised he messed up, swiftly apologizing.

“S- sorry… I forgot about that…” Sieg said, a look of guilt plastered on his face.

Katherine didn't respond, fueling his guilt even more. Though something else other than his guilt was bothering him. He looked to his left, narrowing as if to focus on something. This caught Katherine's attention.

“You okay?” She asked.

Sieg was silent for a second before apologizing.

“Sorry I thought I saw something… let's just go, carrying Oliver is starting to hurt my shoulders…” Sieg said, grimacing.

As the two walked away; a mysterious figure came out from the shadows.

Setting down the binoculars he was holding, a smiley faced masked individual began stretching.

“Thank goodness I didn't get caught! With the way I am now, I don't think I could handle a General ranked investigator!” Arlecchino said, breathing a sigh of relief.

He turned his attention to the stained earth where Pierro's dead body was laid; finding the situation hilarious.

“Wow Oliver managed to beat Pierro… hmm figures. Though I'm surprised that clown managed to become a disaster class…. Hahaha! But it's not like it really matters anyway! Just like what Pulcinella said… he's expendable.” Arlecchino said, turning around while laughing to himself.

The smiley faced masked man then stopped, his mask now showing a sinister smile.

“But I guess he became a weapon for Oliver… so he wasn't as useless as I expected”