A few hours had passed since they left the restaurant. Enrique, Kai, and Kai's little brother Kaden had left, so Zero was forced to carry a drunken Unagi and Cherry, who had passed out after five drinks. He was sober though, since he only drank one, as he didn't like the taste of the brew.

He saw that Ushin was asleep in their bed. Thinking about the gift she gave him before closing the door and grabbing his greatsword, he decided he was going to go out. Exiting the house, he walked around for a bit before he stopped to look at the large group of people who were dancing and eating food. He thought over the happy expressions on their faces.

It was cut short as a blur passed by him, snatching the locket off his neck and running away. He immediately began chasing down the thing that took the necklace, infuriated that someone stole the locket Ushin gave him. They dashed through the city, quickly reaching the outer wall, leaping over it.

They moved fast, leaving the walls behind them and shortly reaching a forest. She stopped to check if he had stopped chasing her, and finding out that he had disappeared, she took a breath of relief that was immediately cut short as the ground erupted beneath her, and a figure rose behind her, smacking the back of her head, knocking her unconscious before she could even react.

The rising dirt fell onto his head as he stared down at the girl who was now knocked out cold. He sighed, wondering if he hit the girl too hard, but picked her up like a princess, walking out of the crater he made, and walked over to a tree, laying her against it before he took out his sword for a moment to cut down a tree to its stump to sit on while he waited for the girl to wake up.

He waited for a few minutes till she began moving in her sleep, slipping off the tree and waking up screaming before coming to her senses and realizing she was still alive. She sighed before turning to see that Zero was now standing over her, which caused her to scream again.

He crouched down softly, head patting her to try and calm her down. "If you're done screaming, can I have my locket back?" Zero asked, extending his hand. The girl looked at his face and then his hand before placing the locket she stole in his hand.

He let go of her head and took a seat next to her. "Why haven't you killed me yet?" she asked, questioning why he hadn't just killed her, taking the locket. Zero stared at her for a moment, wondering if the girl was an idiot. "I wanted to know your reason for stealing it since it can't be because you wanted it," he responded.

"Well, my parents don't have much money. My dad isn't well enough to take missions as a knight anymore. He's struggling even to get enough to pay for us to eat these days, so I've been taking jobs from an employer, and today he made me steal a special locket which was yours," she explained, internally questioning as to why she was even telling this to a stranger, but deep down she hoped he could help her.

Zero had a rather perplexed look as he wondered why the knights weren't helping the father but decided he did not want to bother with this girl anymore and was going to take his leave, but before he did, he felt like being nice despite her actions. "Alright, look, I'll owe you a favor as I have something to do," Zero stated plainly.

"A favor? This might be my chance! Wait, he's leaving!" She thought worriedly, standing up quickly and grabbing his attention. "Wait, could I use the favor right now?!" she asked as she took off her hood to reveal her pink hair. 'Pink hair? Well, I do have red hair so it's not strange,' he noticed.

Zero sighed, "Yes, you can if you want." The girl smiled at this and continued, "Okay... I need your help with arresting a man named Percival!" Zero remembered that name. 'Wait, wasn't that the annoying guy who was bothering the cheddar bun lady? Hmm, cheddar buns, man, damn it now I'm hungry. I should probably get a snack while I get that necklace for Ush-' he thought, cutting himself off for a moment as his head snapped, only to see nothing but an empty forest behind him. He swore he felt someone watching him but decided it must've just been an animal or a weak monster that ran away in fear. She asked if something was wrong, but he shook his head, "Nah, it's nothing."

"But while I can help, why do you want to arrest that man?" Zero questioned, confused why she wanted with the guy. "All he does is cause problems for my family, so getting rid of him would help!" she explained.

"Okay, then, but you should go home for now. There's something I gotta go," he stated and crouched down before rocketing up to leave. However, the girl grabbed his arm as they flew. "Wait, you didn't let me finish," she begged, tightly hugging onto his arm.

The wind blew on his face as he looked down at the girl who was literally hanging onto his arm for dear life. "I said 1 favor, not 2," he said. The girl gulped, "I know, but it's just I wanted to ask if you could help me with training," she muttered not loud enough for him to hear. "Speak up, the wind's overpowering your voice, girl!" he yelled.

"I said, can you help me train?!" she shouted but was starting to lose her grip. Fortunately, Zero pulled her up, and she grabbed onto his back as he made a blast of lightning come from his hand to launch himself forward. "So where do you live?" he asked.

"That way!" she pointed, and he continued to blast himself through the air as she tightly held onto him.

After a while, they arrived at a small home, situated not too far from the city. The girl stood before the door of her family home, "So you never answered my question, could you train me?"

Zero thought over it for a second before sighing in annoyance. "I will think about it," she knocked on the door. "Dad, I'm home, open the door!" she said before turning around to ask Zero if he wanted to join them for dinner, but he had already left.

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A look of frustration fell onto her face, and the girl muttered under her breath, "Dammit, I didn't even get his na-!" cutting her off, the door swung open revealing her father standing there with a warm smile, "Jinx, you're home! Come on in, I've already made dinner!" the father exclaimed, smiling as he did.

She decided to deal with it another time and entered the house to enjoy dinner with her father and relax for the night.

________________________________________________________________________________

As he walked through the forest, he could hear the sound of leaves crunching beneath his feet. 'That girl was annoying, but why do I feel like she reminds me of someone? Almost felt like I wanted to help her,' he thought before realizing his mind felt freer right now. 'When... did I start thinking like this?' He didn't understand why, but it was like his mind untangling itself from the knots of his usual reserved demeanor except it felt more natural in comparison to when he acted non-talkative toward others that weren't Ushin.

'I should think about that later,' he reminded himself before noticing something was off. Looking around to notice that the forest was not just empty but eerily quiet. As he was going to leave, suddenly he felt dense bloodlust directed at him and leaped away as a blur came down smashing onto the spot that he was at a millisecond ago.

After he dodged the attack, the cloud of dust was cleared revealing a pale-skinned figure adorned with horned branches with eyes black clad in garments made from beast fur and leaves.

As it stood up, its eyes flickered open, he saw a striking emerald encircled by black pupils. 'What the hell is that thing?' he questioned not taking his eyes off of the figure. Whatever it was, it clearly wasn't human.

"You... you are the one that killed me and you dare walk freely through my domain!" The spirit's voice dripped with anger, but Zero stared at the spirit for a moment before a confused look fell onto his face. "Uh, I don't know who you are?" he asked, thinking who this thing could be as he didn't remember who it was.

"Do you not remember me?" the spirit asked, not believing that his supposed killer didn't even remember his name, but its face contorted into anger when Zero shook his head and asked his name. "It's Zephyrion, how do you not remember!"

"Don't think I've ever met you in my life, but whoever did kill you, it isn't me so good luck with finding him!" Zero replied as he tried to walk away, but Zephyrion rocketed toward him, launching a punch. Zero managed to block it, but the force behind the blow still sent him staggering backward.

Zero leaped off the ground as the spirit performed a powerful axe kick that shattered the ground beneath them. He landed on one of the larger rocks and lunged at the spirit who met his lunge with a barrage of fists that Zero responded to with his own.

Their fists clashed, widening the cracks in the ground. The spirit struck Zero with its elbow as he spun to unleash a roundhouse kick against Zephyrion's side. Undeterred, Zero unleashed a fierce uppercut onto Zephyrion's jaw while Zephyrion's fist connected squarely with Zero's nose, sending both reeling backward.

Zero wiped the blood from his nose, feeling the warm crimson droplets stain his fingers. His glare remained fixed on Zephyrion, who rubbed its chin thoughtfully with a faint smirk playing on its lips as it returned Zero's gaze.

They continued to lock eyes and with a simultaneous flexing of their hands, both Zero and Zephyrion cracked their knuckles as their bodies began to glow crimson and emerald green.

Their eyes glowed in their respective color as they stomped the ground, rushing forward once more, fists clenched tightly as their fists collided with an explosive force, each impact sending shockwaves rippling through the ground. With each clash, the ground beneath them cracked and splintered from the sheer power of their onslaught.

For a split second, the relentless exchange of blows stopped as Zero and Zephyrion channeled mana into their fists. The air crackled as their charged fists met in a thunderous collision, unleashing a shockwave that cracked the ground beneath them. They separated, leaping away, and landing a few meters away from each other.

Zero grabbed his Greatsword from his back, its sheath unraveling off the blade as he pulled it off his back. The spirit followed suit as a blade of equal size came from the ground in front of it made of dark green wood with green energy emanating from the weapon.

Zero's greatsword began to glow with a dense sword aura as he coated it with lightning magic, two-handing his blade, he swung, unleashing a massive slash of lightning that cut through the ground. Zephyrion met Zero's attack head-on, wildly swinging his blade, the collision of their attacks sent shockwaves rippling through the air, the sheer force of the impact tearing up the ground around them.

Zephyrion caught its footing and stomped the ground, summoning a massive spiked wall created from its magic. Zero swiftly executed a series of massive lightning slashes, releasing a wild barrage of slashes, tearing right through the massive wooden spike wall. Zephyrion performed a quick hand motion, summoning a massive barrier of mana-infused trees that dwarfed his last, nearly neutralizing the attack completely.

But Zero wasted no time channeling an immense amount of mana through his arm, the lightning crackled, surging through his arm as he formed a giant orb of lightning that illuminated the darkened forest. It flew toward the barrier, ripping through everything in its path as it streaked toward the massive wall of trees.

However, as the bolt neared its target, Zephyrion poured more mana into the barrier, reinforcing its defenses. However, by pure mistake, the spirit's lack of mana control inadvertently fueled the orb with additional mana due to its contact with the barrier.

Zero continued and fueled the orb with his mana, causing it to overflow and explode into an enormous dome of explosive energy. In a blinding flash of light, before they could even react, the dome engulfed them.

Approximately 10 minutes after Zero and Jinx had left the forest, Zephyrion hid in the trees, watching them, deciding it did not want to fight him with another but desired a 1 on 1 and began creating an enormous battlefield that was larger than even the mountain that lay near the forest as it awaited Zero's return, which it knew he would return.

Sadly, it wasted its time creating such a battlefield as everything within a 5-kilometer radius was reduced to nothing but ash.

Since Zephyrion was a spirit, it automatically had mana skin to lessen the effect it took from the intense heat, leaving it with only a few 2nd-degree burns and minor bruises. It looked up, spotting Zero floating way up above the crater, noticing that Zero wasn't so lucky and was left with a plentiful amount of 2nd-degree burns, minor bruises, and abrasions covering the vast majority of his body apart from one side of his face and with his thick mane of long spikey hair that stayed intact surprisingly.

Despite their injuries, they both stared at each other with bloodthirsty grins, chuckling to themselves.

As Zephyrion clapped its hands together and Zero spread his arms wide they both yelled "Let's have some fun!"