“So, what do you want to do now?”

As the Cleaners stood in the town street outside the mayor’s house, Anten paced on the spot as she looked at the other houses around them.

They were barely noticeable, but as she glanced at the long windows, she could see people moving behind the drawn curtains and eyes peeping at them through small gaps. It was not hard for her to guess that they were talking about the strange people that the mayor had just rejected and chased out.

“I don’t believe we’re welcome here anymore,” she answered, “it seems we don’t have the mayor or the town’s support to help locate the Particle.”

“Then in that case, we might have to do it. We must make them cooperate with us.”

“Mmm…”

She slowly lifted her thumb and bit gently down on it as she considered Dauma’s suggestion.

“… that is the best option. However, if we mess it up, we won’t get a second chance.”

“Look.”

Dauma strode past them and directly pointed at the mayor’s house with a resolute expression on his face as he began to make his point.

“It’s likely that the mayor is hiding things from us. If not about the Particles, then definitely something else related to them. That’s one possible explanation why he chased us out. He knows what we need to know, whether for a good reason or not.”

“I think so too,” Anten concurred, “but I do not think he’ll tell us if we use force, either. We need to gain his trust, like with Chief Claine.”

“I don’t think he’d want to give us a chance. I think he’s scared.”

“Yes, but maybe…”

“Anten,” Dauma shook his head and remarked, “do you believe that we have enough time to do all of that? We can’t keep spending time on convincing him. We need to do things quicker.”

“What do you suggest then?”

He stewed in his thoughts for a while before coming up with a possible solution.

“What about your new technique? The one that Michael taught you how to do?”

“That… one? I don’t know how it works yet.”

“But we know what it does,” he snapped his fingers before pointing at her, “and we have plenty of chances. As long as we can get it right, it’ll most likely be able to work on the mayor.”

“Sounds kind of sketchy to me.”

“Well, we can always treat it as a test run. If it doesn’t work, we can try another plan. And it’s not like we’re ruining his life either.”

Anten stopped her pacing and looked up at the mayor’s house as well. As the sun set in the distance, the lights in the second level rooms had been switched on, and there were shadows darting around the open curtains, indicating that he was most likely upstairs.

“I guess… I can try to use it on him tomorrow.”

“I think we can just do it now,” Dauma shrugged, “after all, like you said, we aren’t welcome here, so I think it’ll be best if we can do it as soon as we can.”

“You’re right.”

Sharply sucking in her breath, she slowly walked back up to the house’s front porch and the front door, silently dreading to knock on it again.

“Hm?”

However, right as she was about to do so, she froze before her fist touched the door. She had not done anything, but she suddenly looked up towards the porch roof with slight alarm, for no discernible reason that the others could see.

“Anten? Are you ok? What’s happening?” Dauma puzzledly asked as he watched her blankly stare at nothing in particular.

“I can sense it… another Particle…” she muttered as her eyes widened.

“… wait, really?”

“Above me. It’s faint, but I believe one of them is there.”

“… hm,” he responded, “that is troubling. So, he was lying then.”

“I… I don’t know…”

Before she could argue her case to him, he had already looked up at the second level window and lowered his body closer to the ground, ready to launch upwards.

“Dauma…”

“We’ll find the truth out either way. I’ll just go up first.”

In an instant, he leapt high up into the air, with the force and direction of his jump taking him directly to the second level room that had its lights on.

Putting his arms in front of him to shield himself from the glass, he crashed directly through the window frame and into the room itself.

“Damn it… Miss Yuu, be careful!” Anten shouted instinctively as she ran out of the porch, shielding herself from the falling shards at the same time as well.

“!!!”

“!!!”

She could already hear loud shouts coming from the room, but there was something else that was strange. Apart from Dauma and Julian’s voices, there was another voice, one that was unfamiliar to her.

“For god’s sake, what is happening up there?” she worried to herself as she spread her wings out and prepared to fly.

**********************

“I take it your guests will not be bothering us anymore?”

Unbeknownst to Anten and Dauma a few minutes prior, something else had been going on in the study room. An unexpected reunion that had been long in the works for quite some time.

“Subject 79…”

Much like many other people upon seeing his face, Julian had automatically recognized the young man, even if he did not believe it at first.

“I hate that name,” the man grimaced as he heard it, “then again, that’s all you guys probably ever knew me as, seeing as how I was never given a real name.”

“I see. What is your real name then?” Julian asked. Unlike many of the others, his voice was not shaky or filled with nervousness. Instead, he was addressing him casually as though he was an old friend.

In spite of his apparent nice attitude, it only made the man’s mood even more skeptical towards him as he gave his answer.

“My friends called me ‘Blake’. Although, that wouldn’t be important to you. After all, you will never call me that, doctor.”

“Actually, on the contrary. I also hated calling subject numbers out. So, I will say… it’s nice to meet you again, Blake.”

“… eh? What?”

“How have you been?”

Julian did not seem intimidated or threatened by Blake’s sudden presence at all, and now his sudden striking of the conversation was only worsening his mood even further.

“No, no, no. This… isn’t how it’s supposed to go…”

“Blake?”

“This is wrong!” he furiously shouted, “I am not your friend! I am here to kill you! How can you not be scared of me, or even want to fight back?”

“… I see. So that is why you’re here.”

Upon hearing his impassioned confession, Julian’s expression became forlorn, and he looked down at the gun in Blake’s hands, which was now pointed directly at him.

“Yes,” Blake composed himself, his voice returning to its normal volume, “I am here to do what I have to do, and I won’t let anything stop me.”

“I guess… it is time, then?” came the solemn question.

“It is time.”

Blake slowly stood up and walked over to his stuffed bag, which was placed beside the room’s bookshelves that were lined up along the far wall, before thoroughly going through its contents.

“Given how much you were involved in all this, I could have walked away and never came after you,” he added as he began to pull out a myriad of weapons from it, “unfortunately, I don’t think we can overlook what you did.”

“I understand that.”

“But I will still give you the freedom to choose your death. That’s only fair, seeing as how I do it to everyone.”

“Look,” Julian suddenly stepped forward and interrupted his preparations, causing him to look back, “Blake… I didn’t mean for things to go the way they did.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“I don’t need to hear your excuses.”

“No, I’m serious. I have done some horrible things before, and I never realized how much they hurt you and so many others until it was too late. But now that I have met you again… we can catch up, even if it’s just for a little bit.”

With his attention focused on him, Julian slowly walked forward, putting on a warm and gentle smile as Blake flinched.

“You asked me earlier if I wanted a cup of tea. I would love that. Once we’ve finished, we can get back to business. How’s that sound?”

“I… I…”

For a moment, there was a thick silence before something changed. Blake had appeared to be seriously considering his proposal, but soon he began to clutch his head, groaning and shouting in pain.

“N… no! I am not letting him go! This is not what is happening!”

“Blake?”

To Julian, it seemed as if he was arguing with himself, internally rejecting his act of kindness, or as if something else inside his head was vehemently doing so. It was something that he had never seen before, not even when they had first met each other.

“I… I have to do it! I have to kill him! That is the only course of action I can take!”

“Are you… feeling okay?”

As soon as Julian asked the question, Blake’s incoherent outburst abruptly stopped, and he turned to look at him again. There was a frustrated expression on his face, as though he had gone through a whole lot of mental stress just by considering his offer.

“You… you…”

But before he could say anything else, the window behind him suddenly exploded, and a large, hooded figure flew into the room, causing him to let out a surprised yell.

“The fuck?!”

The sudden force, coupled with the growing nightly winds, completely destroyed the study table and pushed the both of them backwards, with him getting blown into the bookshelves and Julian being flung in the direction of the door.

A shower of broken glass and window frames pelted the room, though by some kind of small miracle, none of it landed on them.

“What the hell is going on here?”

The figure, now standing inside the remnants of both the table and the window, straightened their back, and with the light of the setting sun behind them, Julian frowned as he quickly identified the sudden intruder.

“I thought I told you to leave!” he shouted unhappily as he watched Dauma look around the room, noticing Blake’s presence and lingering on him.

“Ghk…”

At the same time, the young man in question groaned as he picked himself off from the scattered books before glaring at the devil, whose shawls were ripped and loose now following his strong entrance. Despite seeing it for himself, the unnatural appearance did not seem to affect him in the slightest.

“Who are you supposed to be?” Dauma bluntly challenged as they exchanged suspicious gazes towards each other.

“That is none of your concern,” Blake responded with an equally demanding tone, “now, if you would excuse us, sir, we have some work to do.”

“I don’t think so. I need to talk to the mayor.”

“That’s not gonna happen. He’s mine.”

“Really?"

“Oi! What’s happening?”

Dauma turned back to the open window once he heard her voice. Anten was already hovering right outside the room, confusedly watching the whole scene unfold, while a constructed bow sat in her hand.

“I don’t know, but—”

“Fuck.”

Before he could turn his head to look at him again, Blake had grabbed a gun lying beside him in the time he was distracted and immediately pointed it at Julian.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered as he pulled the trigger without hesitation.

“Hey!”

Not missing his sudden action, Anten quickly loaded and raised her bow in response.

“BANG!”

“Ping!”

In the blink of an eye, the arrow of light flew past Dauma’s head before connecting with the fired bullet, shattering it into tiny pieces that flew in every direction before it could reach its target.

“C… Can we talk about this?” Anten urgently pleaded.

“There’s nothing to say,” Blake replied as he got out of the broken bookshelves, keeping his gun trained on Julian while he looked at the two strange newcomers.

“Why… are you trying to shoot Mister Mayor?”

“None of your business, madam. The both of you can go away,” Blake snapped, as signs of frustration began to show on his face.

“… very well, then,” Anten sighed as she loaded her bow again, “then I guess we’ll just have to stop you.”

“What—”

“Zing! Zing!”

Two more arrows interrupted Blake’s attempted protest and landed squarely on his body. The first was aimed at his hand holding the gun, with the impact completely disarming him and opening his defenses. The second targeted his shoulder, sending him flying backwards towards the wall next to Julian, where he remained pinned and suspended off the floor.

“The fuck is this—ow!”

As soon as he realized he was hit, he tried to grab the arrow lodged in him, receiving a sudden jolt of pain that ran through his body in response to the attempted removal.

“Dauma, do you think you can restrain him with that rope you used before? Don’t use your sword. We need him to explain first.”

“Hm? Oh, I guess so…”

Having been completely inactive for the past few seconds, Dauma quickly responded to her before closing his eyes and focusing.

One rope, coming up…

“Heh.”

A sudden laugh echoed through the room, interrupting his concentration.

“… what?”

Blake could not move. His ponytail had been undone in all the chaos, draping his hair in front of his face, and limiting his vision much like a certain spirit girl. He did not seem to have any weapons on him, so there was not much he could do at all.

And yet, he laughed. A short snicker that slowly grew louder and wilder with each second that passed.

“HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!”

“What’s… happening…”

To answer Anten’s confused remark, Blake lifted his head up, the sudden movement parting his hair and revealing more of his face before he smiled at them.

Something was wrong. Dauma and Anten had sworn they had seen his eye as a dazzling blue, but as he looked at them now, they could only see a deep blackness, with only a thin white ring in place of his iris, and no visible pupil.

Other than that, he also looked much darker than earlier even without the fact that it was currently nighttime, almost as though he was covered in a thin shadowy hue. The metal attachments in his body had also begun to shift and creak of their own accord without him moving, creating an ominous noise.

“I wouldn’t normally go so far… but you’ve pushed me to do this.”

“That… feeling!” Anten gasped. Upon her exclamation, Dauma began to feel it as well.

It has to be…

OUTPUT: 40%

Without saying another word, Blake lifted his fist and slammed it into the wall behind him.

“CRACK!”

The wall crumbled into chunks with a brutal cracking sound as though it was a wafer, revealing the hallway, the staircase, and the other rooms behind him.

With the light arrow inside his shoulder no longer connected to the wall, he landed on the ground with a heavy thud and, much like the wall, it began to collapse soon afterwards as well, the impact area stretching all the way to most of the study.

“Gah!”

“Ugh… the hell?”

Before they could react, Dauma and Julian had fallen through the now-exposed hole into the room below, along with everything else that was beside them.

“Dauma! Mister Mayor!”

Disturbed at the sudden development, Anten flew into the house, calling out to the two trapped inside the mess as they both struggled to get their bearings and recover from the fall.

“Hmph.”

Despite all the chaos, Blake stood up. The destruction caused by his own actions had not visibly affected him in the slightest. In fact, he was looking much better than before, not being trapped by the light arrow anymore.

“I figured this wouldn’t kill any of you, but now we can have an equal match. If you all want to, of course.”

“Zing! Zing!”

Anten reloaded her bow and fired two more arrows again, but before they could reach him, he vanished for a split second before reappearing in a spot outside both of their trajectories. At least, that was what Julian believed he saw.

On the other hand, to both Anten and Dauma, he had not vanished at all. He had simply and effortlessly dodged out of the way of the arrows, quickly evading, and moving out of their paths before stopping at his new position.

That speed…

It was almost as if he was copying their own speed abilities, going from one point to another in the span of a few milliseconds. It was definitely not something a normal human could do.

“My turn.”

OUTPUT: 70%

His dark aura rapidly grew before their eyes before he zipped away again, and in an instant, he appeared in front of the stunned Julian with a smirk on his face.

“No!”

As Anten shouted, Dauma reacted and charged headfirst at him. The burning rope, which he had finally created following his fall, was being held tightly in his hands, and he was fully ready to swing it around and tie him up.

“This again?”

Blake did not turn towards the incoming threat. Instead, he lazily swung his fist in Dauma’s direction, almost as though he was swatting away a fly.

Damn it!

Instantly realizing that that action could be more devastating to him than it appeared to be, Dauma raised his arm to block the attack. As the two of them hit each other, he could feel a strong impact, followed by a massive pushback to his own force that pushed him away.

“My, my.”

Blake, who unlike him seemed to have been completely unfazed by the impact, responded to his defensive maneuver by throwing a fast chop with his other hand towards the side of his head.

Again, Dauma moved his arms to defend, and again he felt a strong impact. Blake threw another fist, and he defended again. The strikes were lightning fast, giving the devil only mere seconds to block even with his speed, and they were not stopping.

“Agh…”

At multiple points, Dauma attempted to unravel his burning rope and throw them towards his opponent, but other than a few whipping hits which left only slight burns, he could not find a suitable opportunity to properly use it.

“Dauma! Keep distracting him while I help Mister Mayor!” Anten ordered as she flew down to the fighting and towards Julian, who was shielding his eyes from the dust being blown towards him by the continuous attacks.

“Tsk!”

With his attention being focused on the still-defending Dauma, Blake clicked his tongue as, out of his peripheral vision, he could see her picking his target up and moving him away.

He knew he could not go towards her, or the devil he was fighting would respond to the opening and attack him. And if he took too long to finish him off, she would finish her action first and subsequently attack him as well.

“… what… happened?”

To top his problems off, Yuu, who had been drawn to the commotion, had now entered the broken house as well, floating above them with a puzzled expression. He did not know her, but he had a definite certainty that her sudden appearance would not benefit him.

So, he decided on the only option left that he could use.

“See ya.”

Throwing a sudden kick to Dauma’s left side, he forced the devil’s body to shift to the right and his balance to falter a little as a result. Following that successful action, he slammed his feet in a direction angled to the left, with the resulting force propelling him away into a safer position where he could freely act again.

Once that was done, he pushed against the floor, aiming towards the opening on the second level which would get him out of the house and into open air again.

“You’ll know where to find me, doctor,” he took a quick glance backwards and loudly remarked before making his great leap upwards.

“Miss Yuu! Stop him!” Anten shouted as she released Julian from her grip and prepared to rush back towards him. At the same time, Dauma had also recovered and was running towards him as well.

“I… erm…”

But the both of them were too slow. Before Yuu could properly respond or even transform, Blake was already in her face with his fists raised at her.

“Move.”

“Pling! Pling!”

Within no less than a second, his hand struck the orb in her chest, causing her movements to freeze up and her face to contort into one of shock.

“Grk…” she gasped before her eyes rolled up into her skull.

Another hard blow soon followed, causing her limbs to go limp, and she softly fell to the ground.

“Miss Yuu!”

“Yuu!”

Both Anten and Dauma’s attention were turned to her for a moment, giving him the opportunity he needed. By the time they turned back towards the second level opening, he had already disappeared out of the house and into the night without looking back even once.

“Haa… haa…”

Having spent the last few seconds being carried by Anten and now watching her and Dauma pick Yuu gently up from the ground where she landed, Julian could hardly breathe, with his breaths coming out in short gasps as he struggled to recover.

However, his response was less out of fear and more of an overwhelming of thoughts and emotions that were concurrently running through his mind all at once.

“Where to… find me…”

Although he was still standing in the remnants of what was once his cherished study, and he knew he still had to face the pressure of his two unwelcome guests, Blake’s line was the problem he was most focused on.

**********************

After begrudgingly accepting their demand and politely requesting for the owner of the house opposite his to shelter them for the time being, Julian stayed silent and kept his head low, unwilling to do anything else.

“…”

As he looked down at the ground, Dauma walked out of the bedroom with a grim expression.

“She’s fine. Still hasn’t woken up yet, though.”

“Mmh… to think the Particle can’t be easily touched by humans, and yet he punched it twice with no issue…” Anten muttered as she sat down, crossing her arms and legs tightly.

“It’s unnatural, that’s for sure,” Dauma responded with a grimace.

Almost immediately, the both of them turned their heads to face Julian, who jerked up in shock.

“Y… yes?”

“We still need to ask you some questions, mayor,” Dauma stepped forward and remarked, “since our friend was attacked, and the strange man from earlier has left, it still means you have more answers that you’re not telling us. So again, we must ask you, what do you know about the Particles?”

Julian gulped at the tone of his voice. The stern and fierce attitude he had used to order them to leave earlier was now completely gone now that he had seen what the both of them were capable of, leaving him an emotional wreck.

“I… I don’t…”

“Please,” Anten jumped in with her personal request as well, “we need to know.”

“Mm… uhhhhh…”

“If you won’t say, the angel over there will force it out of you.”

“What? Umm… I mean… that makes sense.”

He sweated profusely as he stared at the two of them, and as their unmoving eyes relentlessly bored into his, he finally sighed and relented.

“I guess… I have no choice either way. I’ll tell you two my story.”

Dauma and Anten got even closer as he sat down on a comfortable chair, and they listened to his confession.

The spilling of his past, his relationship with the mysterious man, and the single mistake that started it all.