Slady swirled the glass of wine between his fingers, bringing it to his lips in a slow, appreciative sip. Setting it back down on the table, he declared the wine "nice", a simple assessment that drew a laugh from Raizer. That wine was perfect for him.
The cold night winds passed through the tavern, the streets invisible under the darkness. Men and women drank, raising mugs full of beer. Elisa adjusted her skirt, serving people with a well trained smile, until she felt a sudden pain behind her. She let out a soft yelp, looking for the culprit, and found an older man with a long beard trying to pull her by the waist, blaming her father's distraction.
The man's wrinkled hand was stopped by another, a mechanical one, and a cold voice ordered him to let her go. Elisa glanced over, Slady nodded, and she moved away toward Raizer. But the man stood up, staggering, demanding that Slady repeat himself, if he was man enough. The raised voice caught the attention of the room, splitting it between laughter and frowns, while the women murmured about the absurdity of a pervert taking on someone smaller than him.
Raizer grabbed a bottle, ready to step in, but hesitated upon seeing Slady's face. The bearded man leaned in, mocking his height and slight build, comparing him to a woman, and got ready to grab his hair. In an instant, though, the mechanical fist closed against his chest. A crack echoed, and the man dropped unconscious.
Silence filled the room before turning into applause and shouts of support, which sounded like noise to Slady's ears. He walked over to Raizer, who saw his friend's blank expression, touched his shoulder and took responsibility for getting the man out of there. When Elisa asked what had happened, he only blinked and said nothing.
Nothing should have happened. So why, then, could he no longer feel that man's heartbeat?
***
Leaving an unfamiliar house, he lifted a photograph of that same man with his family, without smiles or real affection, and tore it apart, throwing the pieces to the ground.
Walking down the empty street, he heard snoring and recognized, under a makeshift coat, a sleeping Rin Yuang. He checked her breathing, noticed the deep circles under her eyes, and from his pocket pulled out a bag of powder, which he emptied out and discarded without hesitation.
He touched her face and asked her to wake up, slowly. When she opened her eyes and felt her heart race, he pulled back, and she curled up, afraid. Slady demanded her trust and said he would take her home, but she refused, tried to stand and ended up falling against his chest, apologizing. He said it was he who should apologize. He stroked her hair as she tried to react, her body growing heavier by the moment, and whispered that he would give her the rest she deserved.
The next day, Rin woke with a clearer mind, still in her uniform, the memories of that man returning little by little. On her phone she found a message from an unknown contact, informing her that he had borrowed her snacks. She could only whisper a curse in response.
Later, in the city, Slady bumped into a man as he turned the corner. It was Roger, who widened his eyes recognizing him. Beside him, a schoolgirl watched with curiosity, and Roger answered vaguely that Slady was just an acquaintance. But when the girl asked if he was her brother's friend, Slady agreed, and Roger, trying to stop her from getting closer, ended up blurting out, without meaning to, that they were half brothers.
The girl smiled and asked to be carried. Roger tried to warn her not to trust strangers, but Slady shrugged and lifted her with his mechanical arm, while Roger's hand already reached for the dagger at his waist.
Setting her back down, her older brother covered her in kisses, and the teacher took her by the hand. As soon as the girl disappeared from view, Roger's smile vanished, and he turned holding his weapon firmly.
But Slady was already gone.
In the dormitory, Rin watched the news, which warned of the birth of a Forest Inferius in Libretanhya, surrounded by Demon Hunters and Criminal Investigators. She stood abruptly seeing Slady cross the portal unnoticed, and tried to call one of the investigators, but before she could, a wave of reddish smoke swallowed the city. People ran, the investigators coughed, and she shut the dormitory window.
Slady stepped out of the Inferius through the smoke, the place now empty, carrying with him Shaphira's clothes and the Renkatas.
Back at the library, he watched Shaphira sleeping in a dark and golden kimono, her tail swaying gently against the fabric. He put the Lynes bills away on the table, turned off the lights and started taking off his overcoat when quick, desperate knocks sounded at the door.
It was a woman with blue hair and yellow eyes, dressed elegantly, with a deep wound in her chest. She begged for help.
She collapsed into his arms. Slady knelt down, turning her over, and she, coughing, apologized for bothering him. He said no and asked her to explain what had happened. She said she had gotten lost during a dangerous mission, her words distorting between groans. He held her, giving her permission to trust him, and she closed her eyes, whispering one last request that he not hurt her before her body grew too heavy.
Slady stayed silent, looking down at himself covered in stains, and pressed his ear against her chest. Her heart beat slow, without strength. In his mind, only one thought remained.
Time equals a life.
The next morning, he woke sitting in a chair, still watching her sleep, covered from the chest down. When her breathing stopped for a moment and her eyes cracked open, he quickly explained he hadn't hurt her, only checked her heartbeat, and that the partial exposure had been necessary given the lethal wounds. She only looked at him, her cheeks slowly reddening, sat up covering herself, thanked him quietly and asked him to leave.
He nodded, but hesitated by the door and asked if she wanted coffee. She nodded yes.
Later, while smoothing the skirt of her dress, she remarked in a whisper on the quality of the stitching, having never seen a man who could sew. He said he had learned it over time, but quickly changed the subject, asking who she was and what had happened. She hesitated, covering her chest more, and told him she had faced a Destroyer, strong enough for her to defeat under normal conditions, but that night she hadn't been feeling well. When he asked the reason for her poor state, she only clutched the sheet, saying it was a private matter. He understood and didn't press further.
Shortly after, she asked for a phone. He handed her his, and she dialed a number, giving him a look that asked for privacy.
In the next room, Slady warned Shaphira, in her demon form, about the unexpected visit, asking her to stay hidden. A knock at the library door soon followed. it was the woman, now accompanied by a burly man, simply dressed. The two embraced, exchanging mutual apologies over some silly misunderstanding, and the man, politely, asked her to wait in the forest while he spoke with her rescuer.
The man, identified as Faller Noughter, Hunter of Destruction, faced Slady with an authority that seemed to weigh down the very air, asking, with a formality that contrasted with his intimidating appearance, if he was the man his wife had spoken of.
Slady, swallowing hard, confirmed it. To his surprise, Faller knelt, held his mechanical hand with reverence and thanked him for saving her, then offered a piece of paper with his number, saying he could call him for any kind of help. He repeated his thanks, saying he would never forgive himself if something had happened to his wife, and said goodbye with a politeness that clashed with the casualness of his clothes.
Slady tucked the paper away in a drawer.
At the Criminal Investigation Department, Rin looked at herself in the mirror, exhausted, remembering how she had nearly given in to addiction and how that very same man who had knocked her out had also kept her from falling. Kneeling on the cold floor, she sobbed, wondering why she couldn't investigate him, why she felt she might die if she tried.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a rope around her neck. It was him. He stared at her coldly, but asked forgiveness for the fear he was causing. He tied a knot and let it loosen little by little, saying, as her strength faded, that he would make up for the nightmares and the near addiction, that he would heal her. Her vision darkened until it went out completely.
Slady checked his watch. Exactly midnight.
At that very hour, he stepped into a dark room, lit a lamp and sat before a refrigerator where two jars rested, two brains, two names. Rin Yuang and Roger Trager.
With tiny tweezers and a magnifying glass, he worked on the brain tissue when a ghostly voice appeared beside him, asking if that was right. It was Truth, black and white hair floating against reality, who admitted she didn't like interfering, but her curiosity had won out. Slady acknowledged the illegality of the act, but justified it as a form of kindness, and also as prevention against future problems.
She asked if they were his friends. He answered, apathetically, that they were just unlucky, but good people, and turned down the help she offered, preferring not to use her power to fix a mistake he had made himself. When she asked what the mistake was, he answered, letting them get to know him.
In another room, the investigators' bodies waited, the tops of their skulls removed. Slady set each jar beside its respective body, remarking to himself how tedious what came next would be.
***
Rin woke in a comfortable bed, her head pounding, a distorted image and an echo fading from her mind. She checked the calendar, which marked her return from time off that day, without understanding why she had taken leave. She got up unsteadily, ran to the bathroom and threw up. After cleaning herself, she faced her own reflection and decided a hot bath would be welcome.
At another moment, Shaphira nibbled on Slady's face to wake him up, saying she wanted to be strong like him. Still drowsy, he lamented being physically weak, but she insisted she didn't just want strength, she wanted to be able to protect him. He answered that the opposite should be true, that it was he who should protect her, but faced with the girl's whining insistence, he ended up giving in with a defeated sigh.
Under a tree, amid the hills, he watched her try to release energy from her hands, without success. When she screamed in frustration, he came closer, held her hands from behind and told her to feel her own heart, that rituals wouldn't work in a real battle, where the enemy wouldn't wait for rehearsed words or gestures. She trembled with every word, asking him to stop being cruel, but he insisted that, if she didn't learn to feel the power, she would die at the hands of her own kind. She snapped back, irritated, that she would never allow herself to get hurt, that he was wrong about her abilities.
He challenged her to prove it.
Reddish energy surfaced in her hands, distorting the air around her. She smiled, showing her sharp teeth, and, at his signal, attacked a tree with all the speed she had. But the energy dissipated on impact, and her wrist twisted with a dry snap. She fell, screaming in pain, and he, sighing, smacked his own face with his mechanical hand before letting himself fall too.
***
Back at the library, as he bandaged her hand and part of his own face, Truth remarked that such a cold heart hid a great father, and Slady only thanked her. She admitted feeling envy of those who could touch him, since she too wished to protect him, even if only from within his own mind. Then she vanished, leaving him to take in her words.
Later, in front of a portal in the forest, Slady stroked a sphere while Truth asked its purpose. It was just a test, he said. Crossing into the Inferius, he was met with smoke, and her voice suggested that maybe someone had already gone in before him. He told her to be quiet.
When the smoke cleared, he found Faller in battle against a Destroyer riding a giant shark, surrounded by carnivorous plants and sea creatures. The blows came fast and violent, Faller dodging and counterattacking with improvised weapons torn from the monsters themselves. When the tide rose, carrying creatures toward Slady, he took shelter in a tree that, alive, tried to attack him with its own roots. He shot at it and, lamenting the waste, threw the sphere into its mouth, triggering an explosion.
The resulting wave sent Faller leaping to another tree, which he cut down before it could attack him. The sea, briefly silent, then revealed a Destroyer transformed into a colossal octopus, which shot a jet of water strong enough to knock the hunter into the ocean.
Falling freely, Slady stretched out his mechanical arm, a light forming in his palm, but he was saved by Faller, who destroyed the tentacle and caught him in his arms, smiling despite his bloodied face.
Faller warned him about how dangerous the place was for someone so delicate, set him down safely and returned to the fight. The two final strikes crossed, but it was Faller's blade that cut clean, running the creature's heart through. Standing on a withered plant, he turned to Slady and smiled, giving a thumbs up.
***
Both of them collapsed exhausted onto the library floor, Faller out of breath, Slady begging him to get off his back. Laughing, Faller moved away and remarked he didn't want to trouble his wife too much by asking her to come pick him up, but Slady called him lucky, and he didn't deny it, saying not every man had a childhood friend as a wife. When asked if Slady had ever felt something similar, he denied it without hesitating.
Shortly after, at his house, Victoria received her husband's call, calling him by an affectionate nickname, and soon headed for the library.
The idea of a perfect relationship lost its shine five minutes after Victoria started shouting, scolding Faller for having left her worried and for refusing help out of pride. Slady sipped from a cup in silence while Faller apologized repeatedly, acknowledging his wife was right and explaining he hadn't wanted to put her in danger after the fight. Victoria, striking her own chest, reminded him she had defeated the Destroyer alone, without any risk.
When she raised her hand to physically scold him, Slady flinched in anticipation, but the gesture turned into a caress, forgiveness, and an order, that he never put himself in danger again. They sealed the reconciliation with a kiss.
Then Victoria turned to Slady, who tried to explain himself, saying it was Faller who had been an idiot for taking the risk, and that he had only tried to help. She acknowledged the gesture and, kneeling before him, held his mechanical hand, saying the courage of a mere librarian facing a Destroyer was something beautiful. As a way of thanking him, she asked his name.
He exchanged a glance with Faller, who nodded proudly, before answering.
Slady.
Some time later, alone in the library, he flipped through a book without really reading it, trying to hide from himself the discomfort of having made new friends after the Second Renkai Awakening. Truth, noticing, told him not to feel shame or fear, that it was beautiful to have friendships as good as that couple. He whispered that he was already content, that he had her, Shaphira, Raizer.
But Truth reminded him of reality. she was only a Destroyer living in his mind, Shaphira a demon who could die at any moment and, even surviving, wouldn't live nearly as long as he would, and Raizer was already old, would be gone soon.
When he asked why she insisted on reminding him of the truth, since he didn't want it, she answered that what he really wanted was something eternal, something he would never have. The only eternity possible would be knowing people who, compared to the time he would live, would die, whether in his arms or far from them.
He tried to pull away, but she stopped him, saying that, as cruel as her words might be, she wanted him to know that in eight hundred years he would leave the mortal world, and the two of them would merge, turning human trivialities into insignificant details before an incomprehensible greatness.
Slady knelt down, his breath trembling, but without tears, saying he wouldn't be able to bear living that long, that he had already witnessed enough, and also slept enough, that he didn't want that anymore, that he wanted to be beside those who cared for him, to die near someone.
Truth knelt before him, held his face against her own forehead and apologized for his suffering, admitting she felt guilt and remorse over something forbidden to her own kind, feeling something for a human. Even so, she said, she wanted to protect him, and promised that, until they reached that greatness, she would remain by his side, even if only as a spirit, always reminding him that he would be protected from any harm.
She hugged him. He curled up against her chest, trying to grasp the fabric of her clothing.
But she vanished.
Slady was left alone, staring at his own reflection, covered in tears that didn't seem to be his own, but from something he would never be able to touch.