The return to the Nether always felt different after being above ground.
Tokyo had been loud.
Messy in a way Kidan had found unexpectedly enjoyable.
The Nether, by comparison, felt like a long breath being held forever.
Dark tunnels.
Old heat trapped in stone.
Silence that never really felt natural.
Kidan walked through it with his hands tucked into his sleeves, expression calm, almost lazy. Ritsu followed half a step behind him as always, carrying herself with her usual care and devotion. Her mood was lighter than before, though she was trying not to show it too much.
Because Kidan had enjoyed himself.
That alone had made the entire outing worth it.
Unfortunately for everyone else in the Nether, Kidan's good mood usually meant he was about to become somebody's problem.
Today, that somebody was Shō.
Shō's section of the Nether was quiet in the particular way a battlefield was quiet before something snapped.
He stood near a pillar of broken stone, arms folded, expression flat, though the irritation in him was obvious to anyone who knew what to look for.
Arrow stood nearby.
As always, she was trying to manage the atmosphere without overstepping. Her posture was careful, her words chosen with precision, her concern genuine. As Shō's guardian, she had long since learned that helping him meant walking a narrow line between support and offense.
"Shō-sama," she said softly, "there is no reason to remain upset. The mission is not yet over."
Shō's gaze did not move.
"I know."
Arrow inclined her head. "Then perhaps—"
A new voice cut in.
"But being upset suits you."
Shō's eye twitched.
Kidan strolled into view like he owned the place.
Which, in fairness, he often acted as though he did.
Ritsu appeared a pace behind him, already sensing where this was going and already regretting it.
Shō turned his head slowly.
Kidan smiled.
"Still sulking?"
Arrow looked immediately alarmed.
"Kidan-sama," she said, trying for diplomacy before the disaster fully bloomed, "perhaps this is not the best—"
"It's the perfect time," Kidan said.
Then he looked right at Shō and added, "You look even grumpier than usual. Did your little family reunion not go well?"
Shō's stare went colder.
Arrow stepped in, hands slightly raised. "There is no need for hostility. Both of you are important to the Evangelist's plans—"
"And yet one of us actually gets results," Kidan said.
Shō answered instantly.
"Oh? Then where is Joker?"
The smile on Kidan's face shifted.
Just sharpened.
Arrow made the tiniest distressed sound.
Ritsu closed her eyes.
Shō continued, "You said you were going after him."
Kidan tilted his head. "I did go after him."
"And yet he's still alive."
Kidan shrugged. "That was never a problem for me."
Shō's voice remained flat, which somehow made it more biting.
"Then I guess letting targets leave is part of your strategy now."
Kidan let out a quiet laugh. "Coming from the person who needed Joker to interrupt him before he could even finish with his brother?"
The temperature of the corridor seemed to drop.
Arrow spoke quickly. "Shō-sama was in complete control of the encounter."
Ritsu stepped in at nearly the same time. "Kidan-sama was also merely acting according to his own judgment."
Then both women paused.
Looked at each other.
And in that brief shared silence, something passed between them.
The look of two guardians who had both spent far too much time trying to manage impossible Pillars.
Arrow exhaled softly.
Ritsu gave the smallest sympathetic nod.
Then, almost without meaning to, they both stepped a little farther back from the boys.
Shō and Kidan kept going.
"You're annoying," Shō said.
Kidan smiled. "You're weak."
"I'd say prove it, but we already know how that goes."
Kidan's brows lifted. "Do we?"
Shō's hand shifted slightly near his sword.
Ritsu and Arrow, now standing together at the rear, both tensed at once.
Arrow murmured, very quietly, "It is always like this?"
Ritsu lowered her head just a little.
"Yes."
Arrow looked ahead at the two boys, who were now only one badly chosen sentence away from starting a fight in the corridor.
"...I understand."
There was actual comfort in that exchange.
A tiny, shared solidarity.
Because no one else in the White-Clad would ever truly understand what it meant to shepherd beings like this and somehow keep the world around them from breaking.
Then a new presence entered the corridor.
Haumea.
Everything shifted immediately.
She strolled in with her usual predatory ease, but there was irritation in the set of her shoulders. She looked first at Kidan, then at Shō, then at the tension in the air and seemed almost unsurprised by it.
Her gaze settled on Kidan.
"You."
Kidan looked back at her with all the concern of someone being mildly inconvenienced.
Haumea's smile was thin.
"You let Joker go."
Kidan answered at once. "Yes."
Haumea's eye twitched.
"He knows too much about us already."
Kidan shrugged inside his sleeves.
"I wasn't ordered to kill anyone."
His tone made it even worse.
Not openly defiant.
Just dismissive.
"I was having fun with him."
Haumea stared.
Kidan stared back, showing absolutely no respect for her authority beyond the bare minimum needed to keep the conversation moving.
That part, unfortunately, was also very on-brand for him.
Shō clicked his tongue and stepped in before Haumea could escalate.
"Company 8 will come here."
That shifted the conversation.
Everyone looked at him.
Shō's expression remained cold.
"They'll enter the Nether."
"And when they do," Shō continued, "I'll destroy them."
Kidan immediately said, "Let me take care of it."
Shō looked at him.
Kidan's smile returned.
"You're too weak."
Arrow visibly deflated.
Shō answered with a stare so sharp it could have cut steel.
Then Kidan raised both shoulders the slightest bit and mockingly surrendered.
"Alright, alright. Don't cry."
Haumea looked between them and sighed through her nose.
How either of them were meant to function in the same organization for the sake of a world-ending religious project was a question she was increasingly tired of asking.
---
Days later.
Deep in the section of the Nether Kidan governed, the air shimmered with heat.
This part of the underworld bore the feel of him now. The patrol routes. The broken stone courtyards. The torchlines and furnace chambers. Even the quality of the fire seemed changed there. More disciplined, more watchful, as though the flames themselves knew who ruled the space.
At the center of a wide clearing stood Kidan.
Around him were Infernals.
Ritsu's Necro Pyro held them in place like obedient monsters awaiting judgment.
Orochi, Iron, Sasori, and the rest of Kidan's guard stood around the edge of the clearing, watching with the same unshakable admiration they always did.
Ritsu stood off to one side, calm and attentive.
Kidan looked over the gathered Infernals.
Then raised one arm.
Just a single smooth swing.
The fire left him in one perfect line.
A sweeping slash of impossible heat and refined control that crossed the clearing in an instant.
Every Infernal touched by it turned to ash.
Erased.
For a heartbeat the clearing was silent.
Then the remains drifted down like black snow.
Orochi's eyes widened.
"Commander Kidan..."
Iron let out a breath. "His firepower has risen again."
Sasori looked nearly overwhelmed by reverence. "As expected of Kidan-sama."
Another member of his guard lowered his head and said, almost in awe, "There is no one more fitting to lead the Knights of Purple Smoke than him."
Kidan barely reacted.
He looked instead toward Ritsu.
"Are they coming today?"
Ritsu had already been expecting the question.
"Yes, Kidan-sama."
Her answer was immediate.
"Company 8 is expected to enter the Nether today."
Kidan's lips curved.
Not a cruel smile.
Not exactly.
But one touched by real anticipation.
Then he asked, casually, "Should we go watch?"
Ritsu blinked once.
Then, with all the seriousness in the world, bowed her head.
"If that is what Kidan-sama desires."
Kidan turned toward the tunnels leading out of the clearing.
The smile on his face deepened just a little.
Because the Nether had been quiet long enough.
And Company 8 was finally coming.