They both decided to take the day off from their work to meet in the morning. For her, skipping work wasn't particularly surprising. The truth is that she had stopped working for a while now, entirely dedicating herself to understanding the menu. Although she funnily enough didn't actually make that much progress beyond understanding what experience and the compass did.

For him? That wasn't normal at all. He didn't skip a single day of work for the entire time I've lived with him. And as far as I could tell, he didn't use his menu to communicate with her during his job either. I can't say if he's a workaholic or if he's afraid of the consequences that would come from missing even a single day of work. This makes this "date" important enough for him to skip work.

And of course I observed that date. Apparently it's very unusual for people to see each other outside of work or home here. There are no parks to visit or restaurants to eat at. There's no reason to care or interact with others if you don't get something from it. It's a very work centric society, is what I'm getting at.

But those two don't care about that, they are just happy to be here with one another. In a way, it's no surprise they took a liking to each other. Perhaps it's not born out of actual chemistry between the two, but that this place just discourage personal relationships so much, that anything reassembling a friend must feel like the most important person in your life. Her endless tirade about what's wrong with the world is answered by his surprisingly thoughtful response on what a change would imply. She often thinks about the economical side, while he thinks more about the societal side of things. Maybe his unnecessary kindness was his own way of rebelling against social norms, he is strangely mysterious now that I think about it.

Eventually the afternoon came, as more and more people started going home, they did the same.

Or at least they should have.

"Hey." He says as he puts a hand on her should before she can walk away. "We need to make a decision."

"I..." She mutters under her breath before raising her voice. "I told you I made my choice! But... I can't do it right now. I just need a little more time."

"Hey [N/A]?" He closes his eyes.

"Yeah?" She turns back to face him

"Sorry."

Just as he says that, he punches her in the gut. She stumbles back in surprise as she loses her breath, only to be met by a sudden kick to the face.

She barely gets enough time to stand up before another fist reaches her chest, but it goes straight through her. She smiles as her chest turns into a dark, thick substance that tightens itself around his arm.

"You're too nice for your own good, you know that?" She laughs and her deformed chest rotates and contorts his arm unnaturally, he screams in pain as multiple bones can be heard breaking.

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Multiple people pass by the scene, not even sparing a glance. It's not their problem after all, what would they gain out of helping some random people killing each other?

And the reason why people can afford not to care eventually shows up. The mist itself rises out of the pipes and starts to surround the two troublemakers as it completely replaces the black smog that normally dominates the surroundings, cutting both of them off from the outside world. This is their arena, this is their scene. This is their final act.

But of course the mist cares not for theatrics, and it now tries to apply pressure to compress both of them out of existence. A simple solution, one that would normally work, but simple solutions tend to have equally simple flaws.

She pushes him away and takes a deep breath as she absorbs as much of the white mist surrounding them as she can. She retches a few times but does not stop. And after a few seconds, she exhales enough smoke to completely darken her surrounding, making it hard for even me to see what's going on.

And then, a black flash. The white dome is pierced by a massive spike of smog, and the pressure disappears as the air now turns into a familiar black once again.

He tries to hit her again, but the pain he feels makes his movement slow and predictable. He lost, he lost the moment he didn't take her down in one hit.

"You can stop now, I see what you're getting at." She sighs.

"I'm sorry, I've never been good at this." He chuckles to himself before wincing in pain.

"Yeah, I guess that's what I liked about you."

Her hand become black claws half the size of her torso and she jumps on top of him.

She first claws at his torso and his lungs are torn open.

She then grabs his head and crushes it without effort.

The white mist has lost interest, one of them is dead and as such they are no longer fighting, it is leaving.

She claws at his chest again, more smoke spills out.

"It doesn't hurt enough."

"I'm not suffering enough."

She rips his body apart.

Congratulations [N/A] you have just reached level 3! Experience bonus gained from status effect : Emotional Distress 1 stat and perk point available perks available : 3

The happy jingle of the screen almost makes this situation comedic.

She starts to cry, but she doesn't stop tearing into his body.

People pass by without a care. It's not their problem, the mist has deemed it a non issue. This must be okay then.

This continues on for a few hours. Eventually the night comes and even in her maddened state, she realizes that she has to go home.

Her nose bloodied, her face dirtied with black and white tears, she hugs the carcass tight and says a quiet "thank you" before getting up and walking home.

She does not bother wiping off her tears or cleaning the blood when she gets home.