“Is it just me, or is it eerily quiet today?” Shoji tucks his hands in his pocket in step.

  “Yes, it’s a little unsettling, isn’t it, guys?” Keiko shivers, her tightening belly getting sick.

  The lake they had seen the day they began their training is two miles away. A baseline of lily pads, reeks, and the helm of swamp stings the air.

  “Uh, wait. Why does it smell like that? I ain’t remember that smell at all.” Okazaki sniffs.

  “This is it. Everyone, get into battle positions,” Ishimoto says, being the first to attend his position. He holds his feet apart and his head lightly forward.

  “He’s right.” Kubo steps behind them all. “I can’t keep up in a fight, so you all go ahead, and Angel, you stick bac—”

  “I would like to stay right here, if you don’t mind, that is, Kubo,” she interrupts.

  Kubo raises a brow, and he hears the seriousness in her tone. Even if he argues, she won’t listen. “Ah, fine, but don’t get too close. Usagi might have bested this guy before, but don’t underestimate your enemies. I’ve seen them go beyond many limitations.” He sticks back against a tree, keeping a view of the battle like a commander as everyone gets into formation.

  “How do you propose we go about this?” Ishimoto asks.

  “Oi, I’m going first, ahead of you all. You all stay behind me, you understand?” She hits the ground with her foot, dirt and rocks littering the air, and everyone looks at her.

  “Usagi?” Takei softens out. “Are you sure you won’t need help?”

  “Nah, I kicked this guy’s ass before. It’ll be no different th—” A water bullet emerges from the pond. It streaks the air and grazes her cheek before careening into a tree. It begins to bleed down, staining her flesh.

  “Oh yeah! That Miss Bones Remnant is good stuff! I feel thirty years younger!” The blistered face man gargles out of the water, flesh dripping with reeking liquid.

  Usagi immediately takes a defensive posture, holding onto her wounded cheek.

  “What the hell!? How did you!?” He wasn’t able to do that before! What’s going on!?

  “Look at that stupid look on your face, bunny! Surprised to see I can hold my own!? Yeah, that Miss Bones got me fixed right up. These brittle bones are no more. I feel like I’m in my prime again!”

  “Damn it!” She glares at him. A smirk starts to cover across her. “Well, one thing is certain, we were right about where you’d be. I’d know that foul smell anywhere, the smell of tainted milk.”

  “The hell did you say!? You shouldn’t dare call me that when I have this power now!” He flurries another attack, water spewing at her. This time, she dodges every one of them. Her body comes at him, and a stronger and more powerful kick hits the side of his belly. Before it gets a solid hit, his body turns into a watery substance, her leg passing through.

  “I knew you’d do that. Always taking easy ways out instead of standing your ground.” How am I supposed to hit him if he can do that? Why am I doubting myself again? I didn’t bring the lighter. A rain of thoughts comes to her head as she sets herself down. Her body is facing away from him and toward the group, a sliver of her eyes can be seen covered by her hair as she pauses. The trance she is in remains an unbreakable maze as she does her best to navigate in her head.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “What is she doing?” Ishimoto asks. There is no movement as Mr. Pond reconstructs back into his human form. A coy line on his face.

  “Aww, giving up already, little bunny? Pathetic as you’ve ever been, that Remnant of yours is all for show now! I’m going to kill you all, starting with the little bastardized bunny!”

  “A bastardized bunny?” The seams of her hair whisk. The words scream in her, like a violent dictator controlling the buttons in her head, pounding, slamming, scraping, and destroying them. Her absent father, the father absent for reasons that didn’t make her a bastard. No, if at all, it was the opposite.

  The young girl hits the ground with her boot, a signature in her arsenal at this point, only this time, her boot makes a hole in the ground, sinking her body slightly with no loss of balance.

  “Aww, I struck a nerve, didn’t I? A bas—” A fist collides into his windpipe. He can’t react as he chokes on his own saliva, washing out the sides of his mouth.

  “If you call me that one more time,” she says, calm, collected, and a tinge of searing hatred at the end of her sentence. “I’ll make sure you never mutter another word.” She makes contact with the ground.

  The power surrounding her is intense. Everyone can see the determination burned onto her face, her head being kept cool only by an edge. In truth, she’s about to cry. Her reminders of her father and her mother are making it difficult to keep this level of concentration. But it is clear it’s a more concise and impactful state.

  “Is it really okay for us to just stand back!?” Keiko asks the others. “What if she gets hurt or even worse!?”

  “I know what I’m about to say is ignorant, but. We need to stay back for now. If she needs help, we’ll step in, no questions asked.” Ishimoto takes one look into Usagi’s eyes. “Let her handle this.”

  “What!? What the hell ya sayin’, Ishimoto? We outnumber this guy by a landslide now. We ought to all attack him together!” Okazaki says.

  “Yes, I know. And we will for the other Remnants, but for now, let her handle this. Takei?” Takei holds her head up, listening. “Do you understand what I’m trying to get at here?” Scanning her eyes to Usagi, she too can see the shed of her watered eye. The night Mr. Music had stunned her with his outclassed power plays in her head. The tears stain her cheek.

  “I agree with Ishimoto. For now, let’s stay here,” she answers.

  “You too, Takei!? Damn, well, okay, but I hope you guys know what you’re doing. This isn’t a game anymore.”

  “We know. We won’t let her take it too far. We’re all capable of holding our own,” Ishimoto concludes.

  Shoji nestles himself against the bark of a tree, showing his stance on the matter. Reluctantly, they all agree and hold themselves back. Kubo is dismayed at first but says nothing, choosing to let them all take the wheel.

  “You and them all. You’ve had me as your vassalage. Another nothing under the power of your liege meant to prop him up. It was because I had no choice. My mother and I wouldn’t have made it without the financial aid of that bastard. It sickens me to the core to know I helped a person like him.” Her eyes fleet up, ignited by the flame of her forced servitude. “Once I protected my mom from the streets, now I will protect her from people like you.” Her teeth slide out of her gums, sharper like a vampire.

  Her body slings against his, and he can’t react. Her teeth sink into his shoulder and rip it, a chunk of flesh falling to the ground. Pure agony escapes him.

  “What the hell! You!”

  “I know who you were to your previous liege. The one before Mr. Nuke Happy. You were the one who executed the competition into a watery grave. Competition. That’s a strong word. Men, women. Even children, correct?”

  “How the hell do yo—”

  “Don’t finish that sentence.” She spits up his blood, splattering in the dirt.

  “I didn’t need Kubo to tell me that. You never covered your tracks well, and I pieced it together. That’s why there was water when we found those students. Why they were underground. You planned to flood it with us in there, but you hadn’t counted on Keiko not going in. Was that on his command?”

  There is pure fear in his eyes. A sweat drop goes down the side of his forehead. He knows the truth, and if she finds out, he will most certainly be killed off.

  “It doesn’t matter. I don’t care. All I care about right now is seeing the life leave from your eyes.” She smirks. The red of his blood paints and drips.

  “So do me a favor and make this worth my while, will you?”

  He grunts, an enraged look on his face. “I won’t die by a brat like you! I’ll use everything I have even if I have to break this damn choker!”

  “You won’t. You coward,” she taunts. “So break the chains you have apart from it, do it, do it, do it.” She starts to repeat her words, a crazed look in her eyes.