“Oh? You know I’m here?”

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten that assassin from the roof, now.”

“We have a sharp one, don’t we…”

Roxy reached into her bag and held onto a small ball.

“I’m flattered.”

With no other notice she threw it into the floor. It blew up into smoke. Ray was now deep into the warehouse when he saw another man stumble in with a club in his hand and a bottle in another. He gave off a different aura.

“I hear someone’s been taking good care of my boys…”

“I didn’t think I’d ever hear that line…”

He looked huge and rough, and smelled horrendous.

“So you're the boss here, huh?”

He finished the last of the bottle and smashed it on his bald head while making a grunting sound.

“You could tell?”

Steam seemed to leave his head

“Somehow…”

He raised his club and smashed into the floor where Ray was a quarter second ago. There was a visible dent and cracks in the stone.

“That was a little close…”

Another round was coming and he backstepped again, and again, and again. The boss was like a bull.

“This is the power of a rank B…”

“You like what you see?”

“Not particularly-”

Ray was met with another slam, this time he bumped into the wall behind him. He ran out of room to work with.

“All power. No technique-”

He ducked.

“Water jet!”

Pressurised water shot at the bandits face, throwing him into the wall above Ray.

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“What was that for?”

Aqua patted dirt off her hands.

“That’s all you have to say when you wander off without me?”

“Uhh, It’s for a reason. How did you find me here anyways?”

She smiled as she held her hand out to Ray on the floor.

“I told you I have an idea of where my sisters are.”

Ray kept his mouth open in surprise as Aqua looked to the floor above, looking back at her, Roxy stood.

There was a moment of silence when each of their faces slowly but surely lit up.

“Roxy?”

“Aqua!”

Roxy was first to run down the stairs and with open arms, these two sisters reunited again.

“How long has it been?”

“Three years is a long time!”

Aqua took precedence of the situation. The question she had been burning at the back of her throat, now showed an opportunity to be asked.

“Do you have any idea what… Happened to us?”

“I was hoping that wasn’t the first thing you would ask me.”

“Sorry…”

“I think if all of us come together again… We can find out… Watch this.”

Roxy held her hand out when her fingers turned light green, then slowly her entire hand and wrist.

“What are you doing?”

“Putting earth mana into my hand. Can you do the same?”

“But that’s like… You should know I can’t control earth magic.”

“You know I know that, silly!”

She seemed apprehensive at first but eventually her hand in front of her turned a royal blue. Roxy proceeded to put her hand inside of Aquas. Literally. It passed straight through.

“What?!?”

Ray could not keep silent any longer after what he just witnessed. Although the girls doing it seemed to be calmer than him.

“Ray… I…”

Aqua pulled her hand away and looked back at Roxy, looking for some sort of confirmation, only to be met with an honest face.

“He would need to know more about us to make sense of that.”

“...”

“I have a lot of questions but I guess it’s one at a time.”

Seeing them together was proof they looked exactly like one another, except for eye and hair colour, they looked the same.

“All I know is that you're a merfolk and Roxy’s a-”

He stopped mid sentence. The look on Aqua’s face meant he wasn’t going to keep speaking.

“...Even if you say you're sisters…”

A couple seconds passed when she bowed at him while Roxy looked on with a smile. Aqua suddenly bowed.

“I’m sorry. I'm so sorry for lying to you. But I know you would leave if you knew the truth.”

“Aqua, I thought you would have known me well enough by now. I wouldn’t leave.”

She ran over to Ray and put her arms around him. Then she started bawling, to which Ray held her tightly.

“Remember how you said that?”

“Mhmm…”

“I think the same.”

He saw the side of her smile as she tightened her grip. He saw Roxy was just happily watching along while laughing to herself. He said to himself-

“This is awkward.”