The forest around Vulcan's Workshop burned in pieces.
Scattered flames licked at broken roots and blackened bark, while smoke drifted through the branches in long grey ribbons. The sounds of battle still echoed in the distance. Metal crashing, fire roaring, the kind of chaos that made the world feel wide awake.
And in the middle of it—
Joker was retreating.
Fast.
Every movement sharp, every step chosen, every breath controlled. Cards flicked from his fingers as he moved, slicing through tree trunks behind him, creating obstacles, disrupting lines of pursuit.
Behind him, Kidan followed.
Leisurely.
Almost casually.
Joker landed on a thick branch and immediately pivoted, cards already between his fingers. Before the leaves had even stopped shaking, he launched them.
They screamed through the air in a deadly fan.
Kidan didn't even slow down.
The flames from nearby scorched branches rose at the slightest movement of his fingers, bending into a curved wall that swallowed the cards whole. At the same time, his own flames ignited in his right hand, running along his palm like a blade.
He cut once.
A clean crescent of fire tore through the smoke and straight at Joker.
Joker twisted out of the way, coat snapping with the motion, and the slash carved through three trees behind him instead.
His eyes narrowed.
'Ridiculous.'
Kidan landed on the branch where Joker had just stood, hands disappearing back into his sleeves as though they had all the time in the world.
"You're quicker than I expected," Kidan said.
Joker smiled faintly, though there was nothing relaxed behind it.
"And you're more troublesome than I was hoping."
Kidan tilted his head.
"That sounds like praise."
Joker flicked another set of cards between his fingers.
"It isn't."
Then he moved.
This time Joker closed in instead of pulling away, coming low through the smoke with deceptive speed. One card flashed for Kidan's throat, another for the knee, another set angled to cut off his dodge.
A probing sequence.
Not meant to win.
Meant to read.
Kidan's eyes tracked everything.
His sleeve shifted.
His hand came free.
A burst of flame ignited from his palm and then, almost instantly, nearby fire bent around it, turning a simple block into a spinning wreath of heat and light.
The cards burned away before they reached him.
Joker stepped inside the flames anyway.
A kick came for Kidan's ribs.
Kidan caught it on his forearm.
Joker's other hand thrust forward, card held like a knife.
Kidan pivoted.
The card missed his face by a breath.
Then Kidan's free hand came up in a rising slash.
"Daybreak."
The upward arc of fire exploded between them.
Joker was forced back, boots skidding over bark as the branch beneath him split and collapsed.
He dropped with it, twisting in midair and landing lower down on another trunk.
Kidan followed.
Joker clicked his tongue.
'He's not chasing me like a predator chasing prey.'
He watched Kidan step through the smoke, white hair catching the firelight, expression calm and faintly amused.
'He's playing.'
That realization was not comforting.
It was deeply, deeply unnerving.
Joker launched a smokescreen at once.
The world between them vanished into dark vapor and embers.
Then he came from the side, cards laced with explosive force, aiming for Kidan's blind angle.
Kidan did not even look.
The flames from the broken trees around them rose and curved at his command, meeting Joker's approach before he fully committed.
Joker saw the trap a fraction too late.
The redirected flames did not try to burn him directly.
They herded him.
Forced him into the line Kidan wanted.
And then Kidan's own strike came down.
"Sunset."
A heavy descending slash.
Joker crossed both arms and braced with a burst of explosive cards.
The collision boomed through the woods.
He was thrown backward, crashing through underbrush and rolling across the forest floor before stopping in a crouch.
For one second, he stayed there. Blood running.
Still.
Thinking.
Then Kidan dropped lightly onto a branch above him.
"You're durable too," Kidan said. "Impressive."
Joker looked up.
In that moment, under the moonlight and drifting smoke, the resemblance hit him again.
Not physically.
Not exactly.
But in presence.
The lazy certainty.
The monstrous balance between instinct and overwhelming force.
The fire used not wildly, but naturally, like it had been born into the bones.
'Shinmon Benimaru.'
Joker's eyes sharpened.
'This kid... who the hell is he?'
That question changed things.
Until now, his main priority had been simple survival and withdrawal.
Still was, mostly.
But now—
Now he wanted information.
So instead of disappearing into the trees at the first clean opening, Joker stayed.
Kidan noticed immediately.
His small smile deepened.
"Oh?"
Joker rose from his crouch.
"I changed my mind."
"About escaping?"
"About asking questions."
Kidan hopped down from the branch and landed in front of him.
"Then ask."
Joker held up a card, turning it idly between his fingers.
"You fight like Asakusa."
Kidan's eyes flickered.
"Do I?"
Joker's smile was thin now.
"That wasn't a guess."
For the first time in the fight, Kidan actually looked interested.
Joker pressed.
"The way you use your flames. The hand-sword style. The pressure in your movements."
His gaze stayed locked on Kidan.
"You remind me of someone."
Kidan's expression remained unreadable for a moment.
Then he said, almost lightly, "That's nice."
Just a casual answer that told Joker absolutely nothing and somehow confirmed far too much at the same time.
Joker moved first again.
This time with greater commitment.
Cards flew in a spiral, detonating not to ruin footing, sightlines, and timing. He crossed through the blast cloud himself and came in with sharpened precision, every motion angled around one purpose:
Find something out.
Kidan met him with delightingly unfair ease.
Moonlight flashed from his sleeve, a broad horizontal sweep of fire that Joker ducked under.
Dusk followed immediately, three rapid slashes forcing Joker into a defensive spin.
Joker answered with explosive cards at point-blank range.
The blast swallowed both of them.
Then Kidan stepped out of it unharmed, existing flame wrapping around his arm like a serpent.
Joker's heartbeat kicked once.
'Fire resistance too.'
He had seen fighters resistant to heat.
He had seen monsters.
But the combination here, the Iai Hand-Sword forms, the layered second and third generation usage, the instinct, the unnatural calm—
It all piled together into a profile Joker did not like.
At all.
Still, he kept engaging.
He had to know.
Another exchange.
Cards and flame.
Smoke and sudden pressure.
Joker cut across Kidan's flank with a near-invisible card slash—
Only for Kidan to turn just enough for it to graze cloth instead of flesh, then answer by seizing the fire from Joker's own minor explosive burst and bending it backward.
Joker's eyes widened.
He twisted away as the redirected flame tore past his shoulder.
'He reads too fast.'
Kidan stepped in.
Fire Moon.
Joker barely avoided it.
Daybreak.
He blocked, but the impact numbed one arm.
Moonlight.
He threw himself backward and let the branch behind him take the hit instead.
The tree split in half.
Joker landed, breathing more sharply now.
It was getting dangerous.
Not because Kidan had suddenly become serious.
But because he hadn't.
He was still smiling.
Still attacking with the loose curiosity of someone enjoying himself.
And if that changed—
Joker's instincts screamed the answer.
He needed to leave.
Now.
Even so, he tried one last time.
"Who trained you?" Joker asked.
Kidan's eyes narrowed slightly.
Then, instead of answering, he attacked harder than before.
The fire around the clearing erupted upward in a ring as Kidan used second generation control to seize every burning point in the area. His own third generation flames ignited inside that storm, making the whole battlefield his.
Joker understood immediately.
One more exchange like this and escape might cease to be an option.
So he changed priorities at once.
He let loose a violent barrage of smoke and cards, not aimed at Kidan—
But at the environment.
Trees burst.
Branches crashed.
Sightlines collapsed.
In the brief confusion, Joker kicked off through the darkest gap, accelerating hard for distance.
Kidan stood still amidst the flames.
He watched Joker go.
Then smiled.
He could have followed.
Joker knew it too.
But Kidan didn't.
He simply let him leave.
By the time Ritsu arrived, stepping lightly over scorched roots and smoke-blackened earth, Joker was already gone.
She looked toward the direction of his escape, then to Kidan.
"Kidan-sama."
Kidan turned toward her.
Ritsu glanced once more into the forest.
"Should I go after him?"
Kidan slipped his hands back into his sleeves.
"No."
Ritsu blinked.
"No?"
Kidan looked up toward the distant lights of Tokyo.
"Leave it."
The tone made it clear the matter was already dead.
He started walking.
Ritsu followed a step behind.
"What interests me more," Kidan said, "is Tokyo."
Ritsu tilted her head.
"Tokyo?"
Kidan nodded.
"I've finally left the Nether after so much time."
His eyes drifted toward the city proper, where lights spread out beyond the dark treeline like another world entirely.
"I want to enjoy myself."
Ritsu stared at him for a second.
Then, very softly, she smiled.
"As you wish."
They walked in silence for a few more steps before Ritsu suddenly stopped.
Kidan noticed.
"What?"
Ritsu looked at his clothes.
Then at her own.
Then back at him.
"...Kidan-sama cannot walk around Tokyo dressed like that."
Kidan looked down at himself.
His custom White-Clad attire, beautiful as it was, did indeed make him look like exactly what he was.
A highly dangerous member of a doomsday cult.
He considered that.
"...Fair."
Ritsu placed a hand lightly to her chest.
"Please wait here. I will get clothes that do not look out of place."
Kidan nodded once.
"Okay."
Ritsu left.
And when she returned a while later, she had not disappointed.
She carried several bags in her arms.
Kidan looked mildly impressed.
"That was fast."
Ritsu lowered her head slightly.
"I did not wish to keep Kidan-sama waiting."
She handed him the first set.
Simple black pants.
A soft oversized shirt.
A light jacket.
Stylish enough for the city.
Unremarkable enough to avoid attention.
She had also brought clothes for herself, a modest modern outfit, neat and understated, though still strangely elegant on her.
Once changed, Kidan looked at himself and then at Ritsu.
"This works."
Ritsu nodded.
"I'm glad."
Then they went into Tokyo.
The city at was alive in a completely different way from the White-Clad's world.
It glowed.
Bustled.
Spilled over with noise and color and motion.
Signs lit the streets in reds, blues, and yellows. Crowds drifted from store to store. Music leaked from shopfronts. The smell of grilled food, sweet pastries, machine oil, fabric, rain on concrete, and a hundred other things folded together into one giant living current.
Kidan stopped almost immediately just to look.
His eyes moved from building to building, person to person, light to light.
"...It's loud."
Ritsu watched him carefully.
"Do you dislike it?"
Kidan shook his head.
"No."
A small smile touched his face.
"I like it."
So they wandered.
At first, Ritsu stayed a step behind him as always, hands folded, watching over him with quiet devotion.
But the city worked on them both.
Slowly.
Naturally.
Kidan stopped at food stalls and tried things he had never bothered with in the Nether. Skewers. Fried snacks. Sweet buns. Bottled drinks with bright labels he judged mostly by appearance.
Every time he found something he liked, he handed it to Ritsu to try too.
Every single time, she said, "There is no need, Kidan-sama."
And every single time, he ignored her and made her take a bite anyway.
At a small dessert stall, he handed her something sweet on a stick.
Ritsu blinked at it.
"Kidan-sama..."
"Try it."
"...Very well."
She did.
Then looked faintly surprised.
"It is good."
Kidan grinned.
"I know."
They passed through shopping streets and crowded intersections. Kidan paused to watch a street performer breathing harmless decorative flames for a gathered crowd and quietly muttered, "That's inefficient."
Ritsu covered her mouth, almost laughing.
At an arcade, Kidan got distracted for far too long. At a bookstore, he picked up random magazines based purely on whether the covers looked interesting. At one point he won a plush toy from a machine after three attempts and handed it to Ritsu without comment.
Ritsu stared at it.
Then at him.
Then held it carefully, like it was somehow as sacred as everything else connected to him.
As the night went on, the distance between them changed.
Without thinking, Ritsu found herself no longer walking behind him.
But beside him.
And at some point, while Kidan was looking up at a row of illuminated signs with obvious fascination, Ritsu had a sudden, dangerous thought.
'This is sort of a date, isn't it?'
The idea struck her so abruptly that she froze mid-step.
Her face warmed.
Then warmed more.
A blush crept across her cheeks before she could stop it.
Kidan looked over.
"What's wrong?"
Ritsu nearly dropped the plush toy.
"N-Nothing."
Kidan stared at her for a second.
"You're red."
"It is nothing," Ritsu repeated, this time looking away entirely.
Kidan looked confused.
Then shrugged and kept walking.
Ritsu exhaled very carefully and tried to regain control of herself.
'This is not a date,' she told herself.
Then, after a pause—
'...But it feels a little like one.'
That thought did not help.
Not even slightly.
Still, she was happy.
Happier than she had any right to be, perhaps.
Because Kidan was smiling.
Because he was out beneath the city lights instead of hidden in the dark.
Because for tonight, he looked less like a Pillar burdened by fate and more like a boy simply enjoying the world.
And Ritsu got to be there for it.
By the time the city began to quiet and the streets thinned a little, Kidan stopped on a pedestrian bridge overlooking one of Tokyo's brighter avenues.
He rested his arms on the railing and looked out across the lights.
Cars moved below like streams of fire.
People laughed somewhere behind them.
The night wind was cool.
Ritsu came to stand beside him.
For a little while, neither spoke.
Then Kidan said, softly but clearly, "That was fun."
Ritsu turned to him.
Kidan's expression was calm, satisfied, almost peaceful.
"I had a really good time."
Ritsu's eyes softened.
And though she kept her voice composed, happiness slipped through anyway.
"I'm glad, Kidan-sama."
Kidan looked over at her.
Then back out at the city.
"We should do it again sometime."
That nearly undid her.
Ritsu bowed her head slightly so he would not fully see the color return to her cheeks.
"...Yes."
---
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