Kagami noticed long before the others did, just how strange and quiet their stroll through the forest was. He looked in the distance and found the answer. After an hour, the others picked up on it.

“Look.” Subaru pointed to the edges of the visible forest. “It’s hard to see, but the monsters, they’re just staring at us. It’s creepy.”

“I noticed a while ago,” the bandit said in a hushed whisper. “Just don’t make eye contact with them.”

“When did you notice? I noticed an hour ago.” Kagami puffed his chest in pride.

Walnut gave him a dead stare. “I noticed an hour and one minute ago.”

“I noticed an hour and two minutes ago,” Kagami corrected himself.

“I noticed way before you.” Walnut leaned in close enough for Kagami to smell his breath. “And if you say you saw it before anytime before me, I’ll pull your shoulder apart.”

“…I saw-“

“Stop it, you idiots! What are you children!” Subaru yelled. “It doesn’t matter who saw what first. Can’t we just agree it’s creepy?”

Kagami looked in the distant, seeing a treant and giant bear stand side-by-side staring at them vacantly with drool coming down their mouths.

“They look hungry.” Kagami pointed at them.

“Stop it! Don’t point at them! That’s scary!” Subaru’s yell filled the quiet forest. “It’s like we’re being led.”

“Isn’t that what’s happening? The Warden told us to go the Crimson Tree. His robots are guarding the exit and the monsters are making sure we’re heading that way.”

Walnut eyed him. “You can be very perceptive in the most annoying times.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kagami jabbed his chest with his thumb. “I’m always very perceptive. I’ve just been distracted by other things is all.” Kagami snorted. “If only I had my old body, I could do so much.”

Subaru leaned over to Walnut. “He talks about his old body quite a bit.”

“Not a day goes by that he doesn’t talk about,” Walnut sighed and then directed his scorn to Kagami. “I doubt that you had the strength to even beat these so called Yakuza you keep on talking about.”

“Hey!” Kagami glowered. “I wouldn’t lie about that. The Yakuza were strong, and almost every day, they tried to kill me. One time they blew up a plane to try.”

“None of what you said makes any sense to me, but what I do know is a barking dog and a strong dog. You’re all bark, boy.”

Those words pierced Kagami like knives. He hated being in this position, because everything the bandit just said was true. Never did he know the meaning of being weak, until he came to this world. To him, being strong was as simple as breathing, now it felt like he was forced to breath through a straw.

Kagami stopped in his tracks and noticing that he was no longer walking, the two stopped and turned back at him, waiting for him to continue walking.

“Come on now. You already admitted it. Let’s hurry and be on our way. We still have an elevator to catch.”

“I wonder what killed me?” Kagami asked to no one in particular. “I told you guys how strong I was in my original body, but something killed me. I wonder what? It haunts me truly. What could have killed me?” His mind went to the phoenix. “I wonder if it’s the ph-”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

His mouth clamped shut as if it were wired shut. He took an uneven step forward, his body felt hot. Walnut looked confused at what he was doing, but Subaru gazed at him with sudden realization.

“Wait!” He slapped Walnut’s hand away.

And before Walnut could yell at the young mercenary, Kagami lit on fire.

#

If the burning on the back of his right hand was any indication, Subaru knew what had killed Kagami. The curse had lit the poor man on fire, and rather than scream, he sat cross legged and died just like that. The rainbow flames went out just as quickly as it combusted.

And there he sat, burnt to a black crisp.

Only Subaru watched it until the end. Walnut looked paranoid, circling around like a dog catching its tail.

“What the heck just happened?” Walnut looked around, weary. “I didn’t feel any aura. Where did that attack come from?”

“I don’t think it was an attack, I think it was a curse.” Subaru waited to see if his curse would activate. “He was about to say something he wasn’t supposed to say.”

“Great Goddess.” Walnut rubbed his forehead. “But I guess this makes it easier. I won’t need to listen to his delusional rants.”

As Walnut made an attempt to scoop him up, curiosity made Subaru ask the question he was dying to know.

“Why are you protecting him? Wasn’t he the one that put you here?”

Walnut froze in place for a moment, before continuing his efforts to gently take the body.

“I have a son. His sister, the princess, promised if I took care of him, she would find him and reunite us.” Walnut paused. “That’s all there is to it.”

“I couldn’t imagine taking care of the man that put me here.” Subaru whistled. “I guess everyone has their circumstances.”

“Yeah…that’s probably it.”

His voice was strained. It was easy for Subaru to tell that wasn’t the case.

“If it’s the Princess I think it is, then I haven’t heard the greatest things about her. Do you think she’ll keep her promise?”

“I don’t know. But I can only hope.” He gestured emptily. “What was the whole point of this? Well?!”

He looked up at him, eyes and nose red with tears. The Bandit King was reduced to a man that was nothing but a father worried for his son.

Subaru took a step back, surprised by his moment of vulnerability. Walnut wiped his tears away, and what replaced it was a face of a demon.

“You tell no one or I kill you.”

“Yes.”

Maybe if he hadn’t asked, they may have stood a chance from the monster that came into the clearing. The masked assassin appeared between them, sword drawn.

Walnut rose his axe but he fell forward, a gash of blood spurted from his chest. Her white sword popped his sound barrier like a bubble, driving through his shoulder and pinned him into the ground.

“I ask, that you don’t try to fight back,” the woman said. “If you do, then I will kill you.”

And he saw those ruby eyes in the slits that she truly meant it.

#

Just as promised the assassin in white brought back the prince in her arms. She gave him away to the man with the crimson spear with the deal that he have his way, and she take him in the end.

To break him, so that he would not be able to struggle any longer.

It was a cruel way to go about this, one the assassin found distasteful.

But the Goddess had given her orders. Had told her who to seek, and what to do. For what reason, she did not care, because she knew that the Goddess held the most valuable cards close to her chest. The one that she desired and the one that she couldn’t get unless she followed her instructions.

As Luke prepared himself to fight, Bell transformed his sword into a Green Sword with misshapen clock on the hilt. She watched the hands on that clock spin and the territory created swallowed Luke and the prince’s burnt corpse whole.

With her job done, she decided to walk away.

“Where are you going?” Bell asked.

“The Prince will revive over and over again.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s distasteful to watch something that cannot die.”

Then she walked off back to the path she had come from. Meeting the two men she had defeated. Their eyes filled with defiance.

They had come back.

She respected that and if they could see her somber expression she made under her mask, they might have lost their wills to fight.

“I listened to your conversation. Do you wish to fight for a prince that put you here?” She turned to the giant man.

The giant was holding his injured chest. The wound was deep. Blood was escaped between the gaps of his fingers.

“Give him back,” he said.

“What about you? He may have saved your life, but your debt was released when you saved him from me earlier.”

“I have no choice here.” Subaru smiled in an ill attempt to his his pain. The hole in his shoulder surely hurt.

“You always have a choice.” She pulled her sword free from her sheath. “Even when you don’t think you do.”

#

What you said, cannot be said. Let this be a warning to you. If you say anymore, I will not revive you for a days. Now go. Your presence irritates me, brother.

Kagami woke on a rocky ground in front of Luke. The man sat on a rock, nodding as he saw him awake.

“Good.” He snatched the spear that was resting against the rock he sat on. “It only took a few hours this time. I’m glad. It means I can kill you so much.”