If there was ever one thing the soldiers of the Vanguard could all agree on, it was that the courthouse stood out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the buildings in the Eastern Military Base. The pale limestone exterior accented by colorful stained glass windows was a stark contrast to the usual rugged red-bricked buildings and wooden shacks that made up the rest of the surrounding complexes. The interior was equally, if not more, spectacular. The high-rise ceilings and detailed décor as well as murals on the walls made it feel like more of a church than a government building.

Reima hadn’t remembered entering the building, nor did she have any idea why she was now seated amongst the jury with her comrades. To her left, she saw her brother Melchierre staring down toward the center of the room.

“Mel, what’s going on?” Reima asked. “What are we doing here?”

He gave no response and continued to stare out toward the center of the room with a blank expression.

“Mel…?” Reima called out to him again just as the sharp slam of a gavel echoed throughout the room. She followed her brother’s gaze to find two people down on their knees while a large hooded figure with a sword stood nearby. Reima gasped when she recognized who she was looking at.

“Vanguard Recruits Loca Chestnut and Hotblood Jonah,” the judge seated at the front of the room began. “You have been brought here before the Council of Gedarian Armed Forces so that we may pass judgment on you for partaking in an act of conspiracy to free the defector known as the Flaming Arrow. You are further accused of acts of treason against the Vanguard and therefore the Patriarch and humanity as a whole. The court has found you guilty of said crimes, and you are hereby sentenced to death by decapitation.”

“What? No!” Reima exclaimed, rising to her feet only to have a large strong hand grasp her by the shoulder.

“Watch closely,” Elias’ cold voice said in her ear. “This is the fate that befalls those who turn against humanity.”

Reima struggled against his powerful grip while the people surrounding them looked on at the trial, seemingly unaware of the disturbance in the crowd. “Get off of me, Elias!” she shouted. “I’m the one responsible for this mess! If anyone here deserves to be labeled a traitor, it’s me! If you want someone’s head, take mine!”

“I can’t allow that to happen,” Elias said as he forced her to face the center of the room. “Now watch. This is your fault.”

There was nothing she could do as she watched the hooded man bring down his blade, and just as it was about to hit its mark, Reima’s eyes shot open and she sat up with a gasp.

The courtroom was gone, having been replaced by the dark and quiet loft atop the Red Saloon. The moonlight shone through an open window and Reima could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she clutched the armrest of the couch she had fallen asleep on. The loft was silent, save for Shergar’s soft whimpers coming from across the room as he battled against his own nightmare.

What the hell was that?

Not long after returning to Felidae, Kaito and Reima were brought in to see Gennaro, who was the closest thing to a doctor the town had. There, Reima was cleared of having suffered any serious injuries, but Kaito’s wounds would require more intensive treatment. In addition to that, he also needed to bring both Falon and Gennaro up to speed on everything that had happened. He would meet up with her later to help figure out a housing arrangement. In the meantime, Reima was sent over to the Red Saloon to rest. She held out her wristwatch against the moonlight shining in through the window to see it was almost midnight. Five hours had passed, and there was no word from Kaito.

By ‘later’ he must have meant ‘tomorrow’, Reima decided. It didn’t really matter though. Shergar’s couch was more comfortable than the brick-like beds they used in the barracks at home.

Home…

She mulled over the word for a moment. Where even was home now? Thinking back to her nightmare, Reima wondered about the friends she’d left behind. It was almost funny how she’d spent her entire life dreaming of going outside the wall. Now that she’d achieved her goal, all she wanted was for things to go back to the way they were. Realizing that sleep was a lost cause at this point, she got up off the sofa and slipped outside for some fresh air.

Reima was surprised by how cool the air was compared to before. It was a completely different feeling from the scorching heat of the sun during the day. It suddenly occurred to Reima that aside from losing everyone she cared about, the only material possessions she had left were the clothes that had been on her back that very morning. She sat down on the porch step and shivered slightly just as a familiar voice called out to her.

“Can’t sleep?” Kaito asked as he made his way down the street towards her. He wore a long black hooded cardigan and appeared to be limping slightly.

“Oh, hey…” Reima greeted him as he approached. “Should you really be up and moving around? Your injuries…”

“Will heal in due time,” he interrupted. “A slight ache is nothing to be concerned about.”

You call that a slight ache? Reima thought. Your whole leg got ripped out of the socket! Freaking Hotbloods, man.

“What is your reason for being awake?” Kaito asked again, stepping up onto the porch.

“I’ve just got a lot on my mind I’m trying to sort out,” Reima answered. “I’m not sure Shergar is getting much sleep either.”

“The outside world can cause a lot of nightmares,” Kaito agreed.

There was a long pause as Reima thought hard about what to say next. There were so many things she wanted to ask him but didn’t know where to begin. He must have sensed this, for he didn’t move nor speak. He just stood there quietly waiting for Reima to gather her thoughts.

“I guess its all just starting to sink in,” she admitted at last. “I really can’t ever go home, can I?” She looked up at Kaito and saw a glimmer of sympathy in his icy stare. There was no need for a reply. The look on his face was more than enough of an answer. “The two that broke you out of the courthouse… What’s going to happen to them?”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“If they’re found out, it isn’t unreasonable to assume they’ll be facing execution. The Vanguard doesn’t take these things lightly.”

As if on cue, a slight breeze stirred up and caused Reima to shiver slightly as she clenched her fist angrily. She’d known that. She’d known that from the beginning, but hearing the words spoken aloud was like having her gut twisted and wrung like a wet rag. Suddenly, Reima felt something light fall onto her back. Kaito had tossed his cardigan over her shoulders and was staring down at her with sympathetic eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I cannot provide the comforting words you so desire.”

“I’m not asking you for words of comfort,” Reima snapped, pulling the coat tighter around her body absentmindedly. “I just want for you to be honest with me. Everything I thought I knew about the world has been a lie. For once, I just want to know the truth. The real truth.”

There was a long pause as they stared each other down. It was as if Kaito were trying to decipher some hidden meaning behind those words. Finally, he gave a small nod. “I understand. But that isn’t the only thing that plagues your mind, is it?” he asked.

“You were once a soldier,” Reima said, jumping straight to the point. “Hell, you were a member of the Elite forces! I just need to know what really happened between you and the Vanguard. Are all those stories about the Flaming Arrow true?”

Kaito’s jaw set in a firm line as his muscles tensed up. For a moment, Reima wondered if she’d overstepped her boundaries again. However, Kaito moved to sit down on the step next to her with a scowl drawn across his face.

“I believe you may be misunderstanding the situation, Reima,” he said finally. “The Flaming Arrow and I are not one and the same. The man you speak of was a demon so far lost to corruption that it completely destroyed him. You are correct regarding my former affiliation, but the one who killed those people was not I.”

Something in the tone of his voice made every hair on Reima’s body stand on end. She had thought that Kaito’s identity being the Flaming Arrow was non-negotiable at this point. He would have had to be a complete moron to even think he could convince her otherwise. In addition, it made no sense for him to lie to her after everything they’d been through.

Something is wrong here, Reima realized. I don’t think he’s lying, but at the same time this doesn’t appear to be some kind of metaphorical way of saying he’s changed since his days as a soldier. Is… is he sick?

Reima now knew that she had to choose her words carefully. No matter how much she wanted to know what had happened to Kaito, she knew that failure to approach the topic in a delicate fashion could be catastrophic. This man was still a stranger. What’s more, he was someone with blood on his hands. While she didn’t believe Kaito to be a danger to her, she had no idea what might trigger him into a full-blown mental breakdown. This simply wasn’t a conversation he was ready to have, and quite frankly, neither was she. She decided to shift focus onto something else for now.

“Alright then. I believe you,” she said simply. “But there’s another thing that’s been bothering me for a while now...”

“And what would that be?”

“I’ve been thinking about something Shergar said the first time I came here. He mentioned that the ghouls don’t venture into this town. Why is that?” she asked.

“I wish I knew the answer to that,” Kaito admitted. “That hasn’t always been the case, though. When I first found this place, we had to line the town’s edges with torches to prevent the ghouls from getting in, and even then, it wasn’t always enough. Then about two years ago, they just stopped coming in. You’ll see them lurking around the outskirts, but that’s as close as they’ll come. We still keep a few of the torches lit at night, and there’s always someone patrolling the border at all times as a precaution, but we haven’t had an incident with ghouls here for quite some time now.”

“Really? So you discovered this place?” Reima pressed.

“Yes. Together with Falon, Gennaro, and Omen.”

“How many people live here?”

“Your arrival makes us thirty-one in total.”

“I really hope they aren’t all as… eccentric as the ones I’ve encountered so far,” Reima chuckled half-jokingly. She thought she saw a faint smirk cross Kaito’s lips when he realized what she was getting at.

“Kyo, Joven, and Omen are among the more confrontational ones. There are plenty of decent members of this community as well,” he reassured her.

“Well, that’s good.” Reima gave a soft laugh as something else occurred to her. “Hey, listen… about the torches you mentioned… Did they actually work to ward off ghouls?” she asked.

Kaito gave her a puzzled look. “For the most part, yes. Like I said, it wasn’t uncommon for one to slip past their light on occasion. Why do you ask?”

“It’s just that…” Reima paused for a beat. “Well, I’m not sure fire is as reliable against them as we were taught,” she admitted.

“Oh?” Kaito gave her a puzzled look.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s useless,” Reima added quickly. “I saw how you used a fire based attack to get rid of that thing when we first met, and obviously it got the job done then. I just don’t think you should rely on it too much. When I was with my squad in the woods that night we were attacked, we had a decent sized campfire to protect us while we rested, but the horse just charged right through it.”

“Horse?” Kaito repeated, confused.

“It wasn’t just a random ghoul that attacked us. It was one of our horses,” Reima explained. “She broke her leg and we had to put her down not even an hour prior. She hadn’t even fully transitioned when she jumped on us.”

“I see,” Kaito said softly. “That’s likely the reason she wasn’t phased by the flames, then.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been living out here for eight years now,” said Kaito. “During that time, I’ve learned a thing or two about how the ghouls operate. The plague doesn’t appear to affect corpses like we’re taught in basic training. From what I’ve seen, it attacks organisms that are on the brink of death. The longer it takes for someone to die, the more likely it is that they’ll become a ghoul. What method was used to euthanize the animal?”

Reima recalled how Elias had returned to the group with a bloody ax in his hands and the blood dripping from Xyozara’s neck as she ravaged the campsite. “He cut her throat,” she said, more so to herself than to Kaito. It was so dark that night. If Elias wasn’t able to see what he was doing, his aim might have been off and it could have taken a while for her to bleed out, Reima realized.

“You aren’t wrong, though,” Kaito said, interrupting her thoughts. “Fire isn’t enough to kill a ghoul. It serves as nothing more than a temporary repellant. In the end, they will always come back. No matter what you do to it, a ghoul simply will not die.”

Reima felt something ignite deep within her chest. Silently, she got to her feet and stared up at the night sky, determined eyes gleaming radiant silver in the moonlight. “They say that, but how do we know that isn’t just another one of their lies?” she asked. “They bleed, and they feel pain. That has to mean something, doesn’t it?” She turned back around to meet Kaito’s gaze. “There is a way. There has to be. We’ll find out what it is and use it to wipe every last one of these fuckers off the face of the earth. I swear on my life, it’s going to happen!”

Kaito said nothing as he stared back at her with a thoughtful expression on his face. After a while, he too stood up from the porch step. “Your spirit is strong, Reima,” he said finally. “Promise me you won’t ever stop believing that.”

Reima took a step back, feeling a tad awkward. “Oh, um… sure. Whatever you say,” she said.

“I think that’s enough talking for one night,” Kaito said. “Come on, I promised I’d help you find a better place to stay.”

“Oh, I think I’ll just go back upstairs for now,” Reima told him, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. “It’s getting late, and you should really rest up.”

“It’s really no big-…”

“No, really. I’m fine with where I am,” Reima insisted. “Besides, I think Shergar could use some company.”

Kaito shrugged. “If you say so. Goodnight.” He started back down the street when Reima suddenly remembered something.

“Oh, wait! Your jacket…” She began pulling the cardigan off her shoulders.

“Consider it a welcome gift,” Kaito called back over his shoulder. “You don’t have anything else, right? Hold on to that until you find something better.”

Reima didn’t try to argue. He had a point, though the item was way too big on her, but she couldn’t deny that it was warm. Suddenly, she had an idea and put the jacket back on before glancing around to make sure no one was watching. She then began to run around in a small circle while the cardigan flew out like a cape behind her.

I’m Batman.