"I'm not going to hurt you, so tell me what this is all about."

"I'll get to the point, then. Are you Inigo Lenahan?"

"...I am."

Upon hearing those words, Makoto saw red, gazing into the quizzical, almost amused eyes of Inigo. Now he had no reason to doubt anything. This was who he was looking for, not some identical stranger. Holding his spear with a vice-like grip, he stepped closer to Inigo, who was readily stepping back in turn. "If you're the one who I'm looking for, then...you probably already know what you have coming."

Inigo blinked a couple of times, raising his arms as Makoto brandished his spear threateningly. "So, funny story, that..."

Makoto stared at him in disbelief, immediately grasping the implications and lunging forth, slashing in a wide arc that Inigo quickly jumped out of the way of. Growling in anger, he spun his spear around and entered a thrusting stance, glaring at him. "You mean you don't remember?"

"If you'd just hear me out..."

"How twisted are you? You took someone's life - and probably many more - and you don't even remember?" Makoto snapped. "I always knew you were a monster!"

"I don't even know what you're talking about! I don't remember taking any lives!" Inigo replied, feeling submerged in a foreboding, troubled aura. Frowning, he looked at the ground, ignoring Makoto's growing fury. "I...don't remember much of anything, really."

Makoto looked at him, almost as though he were unwilling to believe what he was saying, and shook his head, standing up straight. "Is this your way of escaping your reckoning?"

"I'm telling the truth. Whoever's life I took, and whatever damage I may have done, I'm sorry." Inigo took a deep breath, before shaking his head. "But an apology is all I can give you. I don't know anything about this."

Hearing Inigo's words, Makoto slowly simmered down. Not that he wasn't still angry, but it was more subdued now, forced behind a veneer of calm. As he inhaled deeply, he stepped forward, his face tranquil and his voice hushed. "...does the name 'Ryuto Kozuki' mean nothing to you?"

"No..." Inigo shook his head, though he assumed right away that it probably should.

"I'm not surprised." Makoto said coldly. "He was just another victim to you, wasn't he? Why even bother remembering his name, right?"

"I wasn't lying when I said-"

"Silence!" Makoto roared, the sheer depth of his anger surprising even Inigo. "It may have been nothing to you, but it was everything to me! Those eyes, devoid of life, I'd never forget them!"

He struck the ground, the force of his attack digging the blunt end into it as he looked at an increasingly confused Inigo. "My name is Makoto Kozuki!" he announced, righteous indignation in every word. "And in the name of my father and his honour, I will avenge his death and slay you right now!"

Inigo watched him, processing the situation as quickly as he could manage. Try as he might, he simply didn't recognise Makoto, whose father he had killed. And that hurt him - he was responsible for this, right? Yet he didn't have even the slightest recollection. Feeling the cold, dark waters of confusion surrounding him, he was left with only questions. Just what kind of life had he led before losing his memory?

"Who am I? Who is 'Inigo'?"

That question rung in his head once again, striking him like a gong hitting a bell as he closed his eyes tightly, clutching his head in pain with his teeth clenched, trying to persevere through it all. Makoto held his spear out in front of him, looking on in bewilderment as Inigo slowly returned to normal, holding onto his forehead with one hand as his breathing grew heavier.

"What am I..." he murmured, almost panting. "Some kind of killer?"

"You are." Makoto replied fake-calmly. "And today, you'll pay for it."

But with all these questions in his mind, he knew he couldn't simply allow that. So, he shook his head, lowering his hands to his side and looking intently at Makoto. "No," he told him. "I don't think I will."

Enraged, Makoto charged forth and aimed a thrust at Inigo's head, an attack he narrowly dodged by moving his head out of the way. Quickly, Inigo rushed ahead and sharply kneed him in the stomach, forcing him back as Inigo moved back into position, his hand held out towards him.

"You probably won't believe me, but I'm genuinely sorry for what happened to your father." Inigo began, calling his violet cane to his hand and twirling it into a defence position. "That said, if you think I'm going to let you kill me for that, you're fucking nuts."

Makoto glared at him, his spear blade cloaked in an orange, cross-shaped aura as he pointed it threateningly at Inigo. "I don't need your permission!" he declared, before closing the gap between them and unleashing a flurry of jabs, which Inigo just had to jump back from.

"I need to know what drove my past self to murder. I need to know what kind of person I was." Inigo said, mostly ignoring Makoto's bold exclamation. "I need to know who I am, and if you're going to get in my way, I'll have to knock you down until you yield."

Makoto, not sure what to make of Inigo's continued defiance, simply stared at him, determined to put an end to this. "Then there's nothing else to discuss. You're not making it out of this forest."

Inigo entered a low stance, keeping Makoto in his sights. Able to sense Makoto's killing intent right away, he knew this was a fight he had to take seriously. Looking Makoto in the eye, he murmured a quiet, "Game on."

He began his triangular movements, hoping to throw Makoto off, but the latter was quick to strike before it could mean anything. With a quick thrust of his spear, he caught Inigo, and like a furious fisherman, he forcefully cast his spear at him several times, each hit connecting. Eventually, Makoto's spear took on the cross-shaped aura once more, and as he spun it around, he quickly and sharply thrust it into his stomach.

Inigo gritted his teeth as he felt the harsh sting of light magic. Swept off his feet by the force of the attack, he landed on the ground. Makoto prepared to stab him again while he was down, but Inigo, thinking quickly, met his naginata with two feet covered in a pool of swirling water. The two of them struggled for a short while, but it was clear Makoto was getting the upper hand.

This was not lost on Inigo, who knew he had to end the clash early. Quickly taking down his water shield, he disengaged, his legs now free. In an instant, he kicked Makoto's spear out of the way and pressed both soles against his torso, pushing him back before planting his feet on the ground, helping himself back to a standing position.

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Makoto staggered a little, but recovered quickly. Seeing Inigo standing up was all the encouragement he needed to go back on the attack. Growling savagely, he lunged towards Inigo, who was observing his every move closely to calculate his reaction. He attacked again, slashing and thrusting with his spear in a frenzied, almost random manner. Inigo tried to stay out of reach, but Makoto wouldn't stop pursuing him, and he felt his blade graze him many times.

Hastily retreating, Inigo snapped his fingers, generating multiple feathers of finely compressed water magic floating above his hand. With a wave of his arm, he launched them towards Makoto, who stopped attacking just in time to try and defend himself. They struck him like a hail of knives, and he was only just able to block a few of them.

While Makoto was distracted with this, Inigo looked up, seeing the trees, and used this as an opportunity. Generating a chaotic pool of bubbling water beneath himself, Inigo increased its force as it shot up like a geyser, carrying him into the air. He landed on a sturdy branch and launched himself off it, performing a diving kick as he drew closer to Makoto.

Makoto saw it coming and quickly raised his spear to attack, swinging it as he made contact. Inigo jumped off the blunt of the blade and, spinning around in midair before dropping down to hit him with a soaring axe kick. Makoto held his spear behind him, raising its blade as Inigo successfully kicked his face. Though it hurt, Makoto used this opportunity to hastily thrust at Inigo, just about hitting him in the chest and blowing him away with a lance of light magic.

Inigo landed on his back, far away from Makoto, and as the latter furiously charged towards him, he slowly and painfully got up, observing his surroundings. Seeing the trees scattered about, the dark shadows of night covering everything, he figured he might be able to use this.

Makoto thrust at the air in front of him, each stab generating a cross-shaped arrow of light that flew towards Inigo. Seeing the haphazard projectiles, Inigo held his cane out in front of him, parrying some of the crosses while getting struck by some others. A ball of water generated in his other palm, which evaporated, and as he snapped his fingers, a cloud of thick fog spread across the area. Taking a deep breath, he stepped into the trees, taking a few blows before stepping out of the fog cloud and among the trees.

The fog was quick to dissipate almost unnaturally, and Makoto had walked into the cloud to find him. Seeing he wasn't there, he was now confused as to where Inigo could be. He looked ahead, then around him, but couldn't detect Inigo amongst the shadows. So he raised his spear, irate, and called out to him.

"Inigo Lenahan!" he yelled. "Don't you have any honour? Show yourself, and accept your fate!"

Inigo resisted the urge to make a quippy one-liner and remained hidden, lurking among the shadows as he kept his eyes on the vengeful crusader. He was sorry for this, really, but he couldn't accept anything. Not while he still had questions.

Pointing his cane at him to aim, he generated a violet magical orb on its tip, and like a gun he fired a jet of water at him before retreating back into the darkness. As the water struck Makoto, he gritted his teeth and began looking through the trees to try and spot him.

But, no such luck. As eagle-eyed as he was, he could at best hear a faint rustling. His target, coward that he was, wouldn't reveal himself. Whenever he would stop to listen, he would be struck by a water blast from a seemingly random direction. Furiously, he shook his fist, looking around almost desperately.

"You only revealed yourself at night...so of course you have the advantage! Are you afraid to come out and face me?"

Eventually, the water blasts stopped, and Makoto tried to find Inigo among the darkness once again, even shooting exploding light blasts into the area to provide temporary illumination. But nothing could be seen. Until he looked behind him and saw what looked like a horde of green slimes being flung in his rough direction, one by one. By the time they stopped, they were now approaching him, seemingly agitated despite their faceless, featureless green bodies.

It took a short time to realise that these would get in the way of his fight with Inigo, so begrudgingly, he raised his spear, preparing to fight off the sudden swarm.

Somewhere in the distance, Inigo watched, smiling to himself as he saw Makoto was distracted by the slime army. Throwing them at him was an idea he'd come up with on the fly, but it was beneficial. Using the time bought, he found a sufficiently close tree and began to climb it, finding a good branch to stand on and watching Makoto kill the blobs with relative ease. It was an excellent display of quality over quantity, with the small, numerous monsters unable to make a stand against the overwhelming force of the lone warrior.

Once there were five slimes remaining, Makoto jumped up, raising his spear above his head and pouring light magic into it as it glowed a bright orange all over. At once, he threw it into the ground in front of him, and as its blade hit the ground, a grand eruption of orange light rose from the ground, covering a wide area and engulfing all the slimes in front of him. By the time the light cleared away, they were vaporised, not a trace left behind.

Once the light cleared away, Inigo saw this as his chance to act, springing off the tree in a single bound and forcibly descending towards Makoto with a stream of water. The second Makoto managed to grab his spear, he looked up at the sound only to be nailed in the head by Inigo's magically-reinforced boot, coming down on him like an axe.

Inigo landed on the ground while Makoto was briefly disoriented, and saw this as his chance to finish things. He dashed towards him and kneed - then kicked - his torso, pushing him away before getting on his hands and repeatedly spin-kicking him. In a swift manoeuvre, he then did a low sweep, knocking him on the ground despite his scramble to stay on his feet. At last, he then performed a somersaulting leap, jumping onto his body as an extra bit of salt in the wound.

Inigo mostly stepped off, but kept one foot pressed on his stomach as he looked down at him. "Your shield's growing weak, isn't it?"

Growling, Makoto opened his mouth to protest, only to look away. Inigo was right - just a few more hits and it would be shattered. Sometimes, he hated being an Adept. "I...won't accept this!" he said, shaking his head.

"You're not winning this fight." Inigo warned. "If I were you, I'd quit while I'm still conscious."

"Silence! I can't lose! Not to a cowardly monster like you!" Makoto spat, while Inigo raised an eyebrow at the allegations of cowardice. Sure, he realised he couldn't beat him in a straight fight, so he figured he had a choice - fight a losing battle or simply stop fighting straight. What the fuck was he supposed to do? Sighing, Inigo shook his head, moving away from him.

"Yeah, you can. Watch."

As Makoto began to rise to his feet, Inigo began to wave his arms around, conjuring multiple water feathers and combining them in a shapeless mass of water. Once he was standing, he saw what looked like a fairly large owl made of water and perched on the tip of Inigo's cane. Before he could react, it flew towards him at a high speed, dissipating once it made contact with him and causing him to stumble back. Inigo used this window of opportunity to rush forward and perform a kick-flip, striking Makoto's chin and landing on his hand to follow up with a scorpion kick.

Jumping backwards, he watched as Makoto raised his spear, panting heavily as it unleashed a blinding light from it. Inigo struggled to see, but Makoto, who could see just fine, saw as strands of Natura wove around his weapon, turning it into a javelin of light. Twirling it around, he hurled it straight at Inigo, who was powerless to dodge and felt the stunning impact almost pierce his chest.

The light dissipated, and Makoto and Inigo were left standing before one another, both notably worn out, but Makoto more so. As Makoto approached him slowly, curling his hand into a fist to try and land one more blow, Inigo managed to dodge the strike with a spin and trip him over, watching him fall over for a second time. Once again, Inigo looked at him, stomping on his body and watching as he became surrounded in an orange aura - that promptly shattered like glass.

Sighing, he stepped away from his battered body and looked down at him, crossing his arms. "And that's game." he said, allowing him to slowly stand up. "You should go and recharge."

Makoto, as he got up, began to move away from Inigo, clutching his side and slowly heading towards the village once again. He looked back once, into Inigo's uncertain eyes, with a sad, humiliated glare, as rage and pain circulated around his body.

"...this isn't over." he said, and before Inigo could respond, he ran away. Out of the forest and out of Inigo's sight, but certainly not out of his mind. So, with a sigh, he decided to go and walk back to his room in the inn, as the echoes in his mind grew ever louder.

"Who am I? Who is 'Inigo'?"