Moving toward the thicker fog, Kiluna and I walk with caution for anything that may come out at us. I must admit that Shito is strong; the fact that some entity from this area was able to manipulate him, it probably means that whatever is in here is much stronger...

What's with the fog though? If we think about it scientifically, fog only forms in places with varying temperatures. But so far, the area hasn't been too hot or too cold... stable temperature really. Kiluna seems to be shaking, however; I don't think she's the type to be scared, or...

I'm not really sure how to react here. This is my first time going to a place with such fog. I don't feel a heavy sense of fear at all... more like awareness, actually. I don't know what's messing with Kiluna's body or mind... she's either scared or cold, which neither probably are true. What's going on here...?

Then I heard a soft screech. I think it came far in front of us.

"W-what was that...?" Kiluna asked me. Seems like it wasn't just me then.

"I don't know... sounded like a screaming girl or something. We won't find out unless we go there."

"Ryougen... I-I don't know whether we should really be going there or not."

"...to be honest, I had my doubts at first.

However, Kiluna, one thing that you may want to learn is the ability to perceive the truth from body expressions alone."

"Perceive the truth?"

"Actually I kind of regret learning how to do it; I've encountered so many people that try to hide their suffering, and I may have been better off not seeing those...

Anyway, it was evident from Shito's manner of speaking that he's telling the truth. He was trying as much as possible to keep a normal sense of fear when trying to ask the favor from us, but when I saw it, it seemed to be something much, much deeper than fear. I don't know exactly how heavy it is, but I do know for sure that what he said sounds serious here.

You became a mercenary; you must have also had that sense of sympathy as you do 'favors' in the forms of 'quests', haven't you? It's just that unexplainable feeling of the need to help someone, you know.

To be honest, I should actually be the one asking you that; why should I be going there?"

"...what?"

"Remember that whoever lies in these parts wants YOU in particular. If you ask me why we're doing this for Shito, it'll be the same answer why I'm even doing this for you."

Wait a minute, now I get it. She is, indeed, scared. Why haven't I thought of it that way; she isn't scared of the danger that she'll be encountering here... she's scared of the brooch being taken away from her. From her narration to me, it's the Moon's Tear that pretty much made her world go round. She must have probably felt fear so many times, all being the fear of losing that brooch. But...

"...Kiluna, Kiluna. You may not understand what I say to you, but this fear that you're feeling... it's going to be healthy for you."

"What? I-I'm not sca~ oh..."

"When people are caught in a pinch, they tend to panic and most of the time put themselves into a state of a shameful lowlife, trying to avoid every negative thing instead of seeking for the positive ones instead.

Journeys are always filled with unexpected things. Admittedly, even if I expect the unexpected, it instills fear in me. But I don't immediately turn away from it; I try and think if it will be 'healthy' for me or not.

...I'm probably talking too much. Just remember that you have to face this, and remember that I'm here to help...

We'll face whatever is... here..."

Oh, great. Now I'm feeling a deeper sense of fear now. Not from the idea of charging in the fog, obviously. It's actually the fear of losing my companion. Maybe this level of fear is the same as how Kiluna is feeling... or maybe heavier; I took Kiluna like I was her leader, and that I feel like I have an obligation to whatever happens to her.

"Let's... let's just keep on moving shall we, please? We don't want to stay in this place for too long." I hastingly said.

"You... you're the one that seems scared now."

"I know, right? Guess I may need to learn my preachings after all, so that's why I just shut up. We even?"

"...even, heh."

"Good, so let's get moving..."

Fear is such a common feeling. It's how people handle it that make them better or worse. This time, I wasn't able to hide it. All I can do is maintain it to a level that will not break me, and keep my brave up. (author's note: wow, that was an unintentional Dissidia reference right there.)

We just walked on towards the direction, eventually hearing that same screech but at a higher volume as we walked closer and closer to it. (author's note: okay that may have been a bit obvious) The fog was getting thicker and thicker too. Now, we don't seem so fearful anymore as we know that we both have that feeling. It must be a synchronous negative edge effect... or whatever you call it.

What I didn't notice however, that Kiluna's been looking at the cats that were surrounding the area. Most of them were going in the same direction we were. Were cats attracted to this place? I was more and more convinced that this place shouldn't be as creepy as it should be. The phrase 'scaredy cat' refers to the general rule that cats are afraid of most things (no offense to the cats I know), so if they're going in that direction, then there shouldn't really be anything to be afraid of. But I guess the general environment, mostly the fog, is being such a bother that it's still a blank field here... the cats are just there, walking to the point where we're supposed to go... so we just continue walking...

"...oh my... Greed?! Greed is that you?!" Kiluna cried out. She then rushed over to a gray colored cat that was just standing there with a blank face.

"It's me... it's me! I've been waiting for so long to see you again...

...Greed...?

...Greed...?

...why won't you even look at me?"

That cat is staring at something... or rather, nothing. The cat just had a blank face, with a dull sitting position looking at the direction of the screech. It's not even responding to Kiluna's voice. It's not wagging its tail, it's not mewing at all... just a plain cold stare.

"Do you not... know me anymore? Greed..." Kiluna continued to try and communicate with the cat, which she may have named "Greed". In much more useless efforts, she finally stood up, keeping a blank face as she turned back to me.

"Ryougen... we have to go there. I still don't know what's there since Greed isn't even speaking to me... However, I think I'm more convinced now that this is something I have to go through."

She's attached to her cat that much?

"How lo~"

"4 years!"

"...oh my."

Being separated from a close friend of yours for 4 years? That has to hurt. It suddenly made me remember of Kasu Village, even though it's only been 2 days... I wonder how Tenyou and the others are doing.

Anyway that's not what I'm here for. We have to head on to the source of this fog, and hopefully understand more of why these beings want Kiluna's brooch.

"Greedy sweetie... if you need it, you ought to be crying..."

I heard Kiluna mumble something, though I couldn't make up of what she said.

The fog is so thick now that it's getting too hard to see. We let the sound of the screech guide us to the place where we're supposed to be at. More and more cats were evident on our way there, as well as the screech still getting louder and louder.

Eventually we arrived at the cave. The fog was coming out from the mouth of this cave; you wouldn't expect it to spread this much since the fog is a bit slow and the opening of the cave is a bit small... it's really odd.

However as we went deeper and deeper inside, we noticed the screech getting more silent, and the fog was actually lessening and lessening. This makes the place even more odd, I don't think I need to explain why. The cave wasn't as dark as I expected it to be. Maybe people were just blinded by the fog so much that they never explored the inside? It doesn't look as eerie now as it is from the outside. The cave was well lit by some crystals hanging on the walls.

It was kind of an interesting place, really. The pathway was flat enough in that a wooden wheel could probably roll straight to the end of this cave, wherever it leads.

"Kiluna? Is it just me or... did things suddenly get boring?"

"No, it really did get suddenly boring. Unexplored caves that terrorize people with its existence don't usually look like this."

Whatever trace of fear we had from walking here almost just vanished like thin air. What was a beautiful cave like this doing, hiding in such an ominous fog? We would have sprung a booby trap by now or something since we've been walking carefree inward. It makes me feel that we could find a treasure here that's probably not worth finding since there isn't anything... 'exciting' left to look out for.

"Maybe Shito was just fooling with us again?"

Wait a minute, that's right... there is indeed something here. Shito's words didn't sound like he was lying. His gestures also didn't seem like he was lying.

"...No, there's truly something here. Maybe we just have to find it..."

I still convinced her to keep walking deeper and deeper into the cave; the light wasn't dimming out in any way so it still didn't get scary anywhere.

"Hey, maybe we could pawn some of these crystals. Would be a big bonus if these things happened to be rare ones, and we could probably gain a lot of money from it. Useful for the travels ahead, don't you think?" Kiluna suggested. To be honest, I never thought of that; I actually thought that if we took these crystals, we'll just be staring at them as displays. Well, I never grew up in a life that made money a necessity, so I think it's a pretty good idea.

"Alright, we can go ahead and try... so that we can at least leave this cave NOT empty-handed just in case he was indeed lying to us." I replied. I was actually getting pretty annoyed at how nothing is still lunging out at us. I approached one of the crystals that's largely protruding out on the left side of the cave, grasped it, then with the full force of my body I tried to chip this protrusion out of its roots from the cave walls. I was shaking on it pretty hard; it's not moving at all. I tried burning the surrounding wall a little with fire... nothing happened. This crystal is pretty hard. On the other hand, it would be pretty stupid of me to assume that this crystal is soft.

"Let me try that."

Kiluna approached the same crystal I was trying to chip off. Going near its root on the cave wall, she brought out something from the pocket on her waist; it was really small, but the sparkle of its metal shone clearly. Was it a weapon?

"Cut forth, wind."

I heard her say this, then suddenly the wind blew mildly from just behind her. Later I noticed that the weapon she was holding, which seems like a dagger, shone a green light now rather than the usual white shine of metal. She then sliced part of the crystal away from the protrusion, and it worked. She immediately picked the chipped off part. I'm curious as to what she just did though; did she just call the wind? Or, if I'm correct, it's more like the weapon itself called the wind? Ordinary metal won't seem to scratch the crystals here, so it must have been some special power coming from the dagger.

"This pretty rock right here is ours. If you want, we can take more of these." she said.

"Your choice; I don't think I'll need much of those anyway."

"Conservative with your pocket, I see."

She then proceeded to try and chip off more of the crystals. But after getting near the crystal again, a light appeared from the gem on her brooch and emitted a radiation on the crystal that she was trying to get. This startled us for a while. Later, after a few seconds, the crystals suddenly emitted red light now as opposed to its white light earlier. The environment suddenly changed drastically even though it was just a visual change. The crystals now seem to be warmer then usual now though, to the point that they're heating up the cave too much.

"Now something's happening." Kiluna exclaimed.

"Is...is this cave alive?" I just suddenly thought.

"No, I don't think so. The Moon's Tear did this... I think."

Then I heard the... cave... speak?

"The brooch... the brooch..." it seemed to have echoed.

"...come out, whoever you are!" I immediately alerted myself with a battle... no, 'dance' pose. This must be what Shito was telling us about.

"The girl... you..." the 'cave' spoke again.

Then later we just noticed that the crystals were transforming... they were becoming flesh... and they suddenly became cats! I have no idea what just happened here, but these crystals that we've been looking at this entire time... they all became cats! The place was pretty much flooded with cats now, of differing colors too!

"...! What... I, I'm sorry!" Kiluna suddenly said. I looked at her and saw her tending to the cat which she seemed to have chipped off... it was bleeding quite bad. However, there was something common among all the cats in this area: they were all staring at nothing, with a blank face on them. Even still, Kiluna tried to apologize to the cat that she wounded... when suddenly later all the cats were staring at us and creeping toward us... with faces that look like they'll eat us or something...

"Uh... Kiluna?"

"I... I have no idea what's going on here!"

Naturally we tried to walk backwards slowly and slowly, hoping that this slow motion of ours won't startle these and eventually let us go. Later, however, we heard that same voice from the cave, but this time it was so clear.

"The Moon's Tears..." it said. I think I can hear this voice clearly now from behind, and saw that the cats stopped in their tracks but were still looking at us. I then turned behind, to see... what the hell?! Kiluna is binded by something, and there is a claw pointed at her throat...!

The entity that was holding up the claw and binding Kiluna was a small girl, smaller than me even. She was wearing a white hat that had a weird face in the middle of it, and the hat was enclosing her cat ears as they had slots for it. She wears two light blue ribbons just around her ears, sticking out of her hat, and she wears a simple white dress... not to mention the fact that her skin is also nearing artifical white. There was another light blue ribbon just below her neck with a sun brooch attached over it.

I can surprisingly still describe her even in a situation of panic like this. If I move too quickly, she might suddenly kill Kiluna (author's note: "Kil-luna" hahahaha). I just stood there with my fighting dance stance still.

"W... who are you?! What... what do you think you're doing?!" I shouted at the bipedal overgrown cat. Man, I should have called her that, but I don't think that pissing her off would be a good idea right now...

"Away with you! I got what I wanted... so if you want to get out of here alive while the cats are still sitting down, leave!" the clawed entity replied.

"I will not move away from here until you release her!"

"This girl? I believe she's good as mine now... or should I say, good as dead!"

...

...

"Ryougen... Ryougen...!" I heard Kiluna exclaim. I think both of us just whited out as we heard the sound of claws suddenly scratching something. Thankfully, it wasn't Kiluna's face. She was still binded, and the clawed entity scratched off the wall fiercely, as if showing a sign of power. Not only are her claws really sharp, she seems to be really fast, too...

"Or, you know, just hand over the brooch and we can be done here. I'll let you go... and be eaten by the cats instead." the girl replied. Wow, how merciless can she be? Nevertheless, I really have to do something here... though in a position like this, I don't really see how we can retaliate...

I'm getting tired of just standing here. I'm still frightened at the fatal position that Kiluna is in... I need to think of something, and fast! The fog is somehow getting in here, and it's getting kind of difficult to breathe...

"Step. Away. From. The Girl." the clawed entity said to me again.

I really need a time to think for a while here...

...

...


"...OK... she's all yours." I said, then turned around.

"...?! Ryougen?! RYOUGEN?!" I heard Kiluna scream.

"A very wise choice indeed!" the other girl replied. I then walked slowly toward the entrance of the cave...

"You... you bastard! Why... why..." Kiluna cursed at me. She can curse all she wants, but I think this is the only way I see the journey continue...

I then heard the cats mewing more peacefully, but still a bit ominous. The other girl must have commanded the cats to peacefully let me out.

Just as planned.

I knelt down and tried to pet the gray cat that was there... I was ruffling its head over and over, not leaving...

"Hm, you sure have taken a liking to them, have you? I may want to talk to you sometime, too..." I heard the other girl reply.

Moments passed, and...

...

...

...

...

I quickly grabbed the gray cat by its top neckline (like how mother cats grab their kittens), quickly faced back, and threw the gray cat at the face of the clawed entity. This disturbed her very much as the cat seemed to have latched for some time on her face, and she was forced to randomly swing her claws, allowing Kiluna to look for an opening, albeit slow, to get out of her grip. I quickly ran over freely back to where Kiluna was since the cats were still startled at what just happened too, then grabbing Kiluna quickly with me, I tried to scare the cats with a fire on my hands while the other girl struggles to get the gray cat out of her face.

"I think I can understand her too now, Kiluna."

The cat I just threw? It was Kiluna's cat, Greed.

"...you... you had me really, really scared and frustrated back then...!" she replied to me with mixed emotions. But there was no time to chat as the other girl finally was able to face us after throwing Greed to the corner.

"Greed!" Kiluna exclaimed, hearing how the cat roughly hit the cave wall, becoming unconscious.

"You even had the courage to do that! And you even injured an innocent feline in the process!" the other girl said. Wasn't she the one that threw Greed to the wall?

"I was planning to just let the girl go as long as she gives the brooch to me. But... if I can't have it peacefully..."

She stopped her sentence right there. Letting go of Kiluna so that we can move for whatever comes, we were ready to fight.

"Saitama-nyan... stop this, right now...!"

...did I just hear Greed talk, or...?

"...Greed...?"

"Silence, you worthless miserable excuse for a caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA---"

What... what is she doi...

I... can't... balance myself!

I hear Kiluna trying to say something but... The girl's scream... it's... it's too loud!

How much voice does she have...?! I'll go insane if this doesn't stop!

I can't even move properly... It's not helping that my sense of hearing is strong!

Someone... someone stop that girl from screeching!

Someone... someone help...!

...

...


"?! Kiluna, behind you!"

I don't know how long it took us to recover, but the girl finally stopped screaming. We were still in the same part of the cave... Yes I think my senses are slowly coming back...

I screamed at Kiluna because there was some overgrown white cat, standing on its 2 legs, and it was horribly as white as ordinary paper. It was looming from behind Kiluna, and... I just can't describe how it looks like now! (author's note: Saitama's favorite cat, the overgrown Saitamonster) I ran to Kiluna to get that thing away from her; she fortunately reacted quickly to my scream as she quickly lunged forwad to dodge that white monster trying to grab her.

"We have to take it out quick; the girl will return here once we're done with this thing, I'm sure of it." Kiluna replied to me. Looks like she still has the brooch with her. This monster seems to be a pet of the girl, and like I deduced, this monster is out to kill us. By the way, when I said that the monster looked as white as paper, I think I have to correct that: this thing IS paper. It's so thin, hitting it while it's facing sideways seems to be impossible.

I finally started my first move by throwing a Ryougen Beam at the monster. It was panicking in pain trying to douse my fires, which Kiluna tried to take advantage of as she drew out her dagger and tried to cut the monster. However, as the monster was panicking, it happened to move its arm and hand in a chopping motion, accidentally hitting Kiluna in the left chest. (author's note: sorry, couldn't think of another body part at the moment) Since the monster was almost as thin as paper, there was no sound generated from the collision of it and Kiluna's body. However, I saw Kiluna suddenly flinch in pain, and was unable to get back into a fighting stance immediately and had to retreat backwards for quite a distance. I walked to her to see what was the matter; turns out she was wounded in the left part of her chest.

"...the hell, this wound is unexpectedly painful..." she remarked. The monster was still burning, so I had time to look over Kiluna.

"Let me see." I told her, as she removed her hand from the wound that she just got. This... this was no ordinary wound. This...

"...it's a papercut?!"

I think we can finally conclued now that this monster... it's actually made of paper!

But if it truly is made of paper, then that means...

"At least I figured it out immediately... look at it." I told Kiluna. We both loomed over the monster; it is lying on the floor, seemingly unconscious. I actually thought it would burn completely, given how paper easily transforms into ash... (author's note: I actually really wanted to burn Sai-monster completely, but...) . Using Kiluna's dagger, we shoved the monster's body to the side. As soon as we did that, we heard the scream again...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!" the scream continued. I have no idea what just happened; we were still in the same room like usual, but... let me just explain it this way: it's like two dimensions existed for a while there, and we were banished to a dimension that contained that paper monster that looked exactly like this place. The image of the cat girl was fading back in to 'reality' as she was ending her scream. In short, we're back to the point where the girl finally stopped screaming.

"And now that you're back here, let me eliminate you myself!" the girl screamed. That expression of hers... she's really out to kill us. She wants that brooch badly. I won't even bother asking her why, I don't think she'll answer politely to anything I say now.

However, I think I sense something wrong with how she said her last line... she said 'myself' in a shaky tone, and it's not because she's scared... more like she's...

Wait, what am I doing?!

I had to quickly step to the right as she quickly charged to claw me. She's fast, but probably not as fast as me. (author's note: that's actually a fact, I just had to make Ryougen an unreliable narrator) Kiluna turned around and brought out what I believe is a rope, then using it as a lasso, tried to bind the girl. But the girl quickly turned around and fiercely scratched the rope, cutting it. She was also able to approach Kiluna while charging, and all Kiluna could do was to block her attempts to injure her. It kind of worked, though Kiluna now has a small wound on her right chest this time; fortunately it's smaller than the paper cut on her left.

The girl then paused again, which I tried to take advantage of by trying to throw a fireball at her. But I was too slow; she proceeded to charge at me again, and for some reason her speed rendered my ball of fire useless at it disappeared into the air. While trying to recover to my ready stance, I quickly jumped and pushed Kiluna out of the way as she didn't seem to be aware of the sudden strike, hitting me instead. It hurt, but not enough to keep me staggered for too long. I tried to pick Kiluna up as I kinda pushed her away too hard. But for some reason, I was too slow again; the girl quickly targeted Kiluna as she was still lying down, stepping on her fiercely in the process. And she did the lunges quick for a total of 3 times before delaying again in a position far from us.

I find her fighting style to be odd. She definitely has the speed to keep on striking, and it doesn't seem like she's resting for the while that she stops. Nevertheless I tried to take advantage of her delays, even though so far I haven't actually reached the point that I can hit her while she's idle. So I tried to ignite my body this time while charging her, but again I was too slow; she charged at Kiluna quickly, so I detoured to Kiluna's direction too.

But instead of just quickly passing by us in attempts to claw us quickly, she stopped momentarily in front of my face. As she did that, I don't know what happened but I think time slowed down for a while as I looked at her face. Her expression... it was unidentifiable, at least by normal standards. You couldn't tell what she was expressing; there was some anger and hatred on it, some depression, but probably the most important part of her expression I could see... was the unstable eyes. Normally a negative expression would reveal eyes that are frowned or sleepy, but her eyes... the pupils were unusually small, and it can't seem to look normally at whatever she's looking at... it was like the eye's of a hypnotized person or something... at least that's what I imagine from the fiction books I've read that describe hypnotized people as such.

Moving away from the sudden time lapse, she somehow swiftly swiped 3 times at my face with her claws. It hurts. Alot A lot. I flinched in pain because of it, as she proceeded to move again to her routine of quickly moving to the other side. She then quickly lunged back at me in a similar repeated 3-charges motion like she did earlier, then after the third one she stopped in front of my face again and swiped it fiercely. It seriously hurts... not only has she already hit my body successfully a lot of times, she has already scratched my face 6 times...! And just right after she did the swipes to my face, she did one last lunge, hitting my body, before she finally went into her idle state again.

Due to the immense pain I'm feeling right now, I had to fall on my right knee, having difficulty to stand up. While the girl was idle, Kiluna tugged at my cape and whispered something to me.

"Ryougen, I think I already found out how we can overcome her... leave it to me."

"You figured something out...? Tell me, quickly!"

"Leave it to me, I'll distract her and become her target. While you're backed off, watch the position of her body and hands, as well as her next attack."

Hm, I think Kiluna is really up to something here. With Kiluna quickly standing up, I jumped quickly out of the way of the cat girl's line of charging, as Kiluna took charge. I began observing the girl's body a she fought.

While she was still idle, the girl had her back turned, and her hands closed... The girl then quickly charged at Kiluna, whcih Kiluna simply just dodged to the right. Then the girl, with her back turned, went idle again. But afterward noticed her hand was open this time. Kiluna changed her position this time to a semi-crouch, with her hands holding the ground, and this time she was idle longer than usual. The girl then lunged at Kiluna in a 7-repeated charge motion like what she's been doing earlier but for only 3 times. Kiluna apparently already had this telegraphed and quickly moved her body a total of 7 times, dodging each of the girl's attacks.

After the 7th charge, while the girl was still on the other side, I noticed that instead of having her back turned, she skidded to turn back this time, facing us, and her hands was crossed, seemingly ready to unleash swipes furiously, probably like she did with me earlier. (author's note: Fury Swipes? Lol?) Kiluna quickly took out her magical dagger before the girl could lunge at her, and true enough the girl was intending to stop in front of Kiluna's face to try and swipe her face this time. Kiluna used her dagger to protect her face for the first 4 swipes that the girl did, then on the fifth swipe Kiluna tilted her dagger slightly, continuing to block the last swipe but seemingly scratching the girl in the process. The girl then quickly did 2 more quick-charges, which Kiluna managed to catch up with by simply jumping over to the right.

I think I finally see it. The girl only has 3 patterns: first is a slow, single strike that is symbolized by her closed fist, and she goes idle after that single strike. Second, when her hand is open, she does quick-charges, and the amount of charges is noted by the time that she's idle. And the third seemingly hard to see pattern is when she stops in our face to quickly do numerous swipes. There doesn't seem to be any indication as to how much swipes the girl intends to do on us, but I think what Kiluna's trying to tell me here is that this is the only chance we have of hitting her so far.

I saw the girl wince in pain a bit, then she adjusted so that her back was facing me instead. I saw her hands open, so that must mean she's going to do repeated charges. But she was idling for too long... I think she's actually going to berserk here. After what Kiluna did to her, I wouldn't really wonder, but maybe I can take advantage of this.

Kiluna's taking charge of the scene gave me enough time to recover, so I quickly stood, and got quite confident now. In fact, I was so confident, I said:

"Let's dance, shall we?" to the girl.

True enough, she was charging in the position in that she can quickly charge backwards quickly after going to the other side. I tried to use some dance moves that I have never used in a long time: the dance of the whirlwind. It was useful in this situation where I need to keep turning 180 degrees because of her quickness. After 8 quick-charges, I saw her turn around quickly, which meant she'll be striking at me pretty soon. I quickly stopped my dance (author's note: Extemporaneousness! LOL), and with much of the dance energizing me, I quickly ignited my hands as I'll try to overpower her swipes this time.

She was now in my face, but for some reason I couldn't read where she was going to swipe. I thought she was going for my face, but right now it seemed that she swiped at my arms. Seeing as how they were ignited, it hurt her more than it did me. What was she thinking?

She then proceeded to charge to the other side, and opened her hands again. This time she did 6 quick-charges. Without a dance at the moment, I had to rely on my enthusiasm to quickly dodge her charges. I only had to move my body for a few distances for each instance, which was good since I was really getting tired here.

After the 6th charge, I noticed her facing back at me again. She'll strike me again this time, face to face. But this time, I noticed that she shrieked a bit loudly before she proceeded to go to my face. I can infer just one thing: she's not going to stop swiping at me this time. Odd, because I actually thought she'd be killing Kiluna first instead of me...

As I predicted, she's so furious right now. She stopped in front of me and continued to swipe in consecutives of 7 swipes... 7 quick swipes, and since I was hit by the first strike, it's pretty hard to get out of the way and not hurting myself in the process (remember that when some sharp object impales you, moving it quickly away will only open the wound even more), so I just had to block the swipes that she was continually delivering at me, hurting my arms instead in the process. I couldn't find an opening to strike her from here yet... and I was becoming a bit sluggish here. I need to find a way to strike her down, less she rips my arm off...!

"You insane witch! Get away from him!" I suddenly heard Kiluna scream. I saw her dagger brought out.

"Freeze!" she shouted again, then I saw the dagger turn white, and there was some cold breeze coming out of it. Right after that, she quickly stroke the girl somewhere which I couldn't see at the moment... and as she did that, the girl suddenly stopped in her motion. This surprised me a bit. Next thing I saw, Kiluna alerady had her dagger in her hands not contacting anything. From what just happened, it actually seems like Kiluna stabbed the girl or something... but there was no blood on the cold dagger. Not one. But it surely stopped the girl cold, and the girl fell face first on the floor.

I stepped away from the knocked out body of the girl cat. Kiluna, however, proceeded to step on the girl's body, then looming over the girl's head she grabbed her head and tried to pull it to face her. Kiluna must be the one furious now...

"You, you, you! Get your... get your hands away from meeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAA---" the girl suddenly screamed. This made me off-balance again, but Kiluna quickly reacted to it and slapped her so hard on the nape. This stopped the made the girl stop screaming. Kiluna then continued to keep striking her with repeated hand strikes. I couldn't really do much anything since it seemed like Kiluna's now thinking of the issue personally, where the girl wanted to steal the Moon's Tears. I didn't really know what to do at this point.

"Kiluna-sama, stop... stop hurting Saitama-sama!"

Then after a while, Kiluna slowed down in hitting the girl hard. Then when I thought she finally stopped, she gave her one last hard slap. This startled me a bit, not because of the sudden strike, but because there were some things that flew out from her clothing. The first is a piece of paper with some sort of writing on it... I didn't know what it read because the alphabet on it seemed foreign, though some letters do like they were based off some other alphabet I've seen before. It's more evidenced by the fact that this scrap of paper seemed to use punctuation marks similar to the some alphabet that some people call the 'Roman alphabet' which I have no clue as to why it's called 'Roman'. I don't think there's a country named 'Roe' anyway (author's note: almost everyone from this world is oblivious to anything exclusive to the surface world), and it's weirder for the fact that the universal alphabet used around the places I've been to actually use the same punctuation marks too.

The other item was some sort of hinge made out of the crystals that are found in this cave (which are now cats). Fortunately it doesn't seem that this one will transform into a cat due to its sheer tiny size... But this hinge... it looks familiar. It's as if I know which item this hinge belonged to, but I can't just remember now exactly. Because of its interesting value, I decided to keep it along with that piece of paper I saw first as well. Our bags of supplies were near the cave mouth so I had to hold on to them for now.

"...Saitama, was it? Your name." Kiluna said to the other girl. How she knew her name, I don't know. She was grabbing her by the neck, forcing her to look up on Kiluna's face. "Tell me what I want to know and I'll spare you."

"Why... why don't you just finish me off here and now... I don't even know what just happened to me..."

"Liar. I have no idea what's been going on here, but I ask you only one thing... why do you want to the Moon's Tears?"

"Did you just say... The Moon's Tears...? Young girl, have you actually found it...?"

"...have you lost your mind?! You were trying to steal it from me just then! You even almost killed me and my friend in the process!"

"(...friend, huh. It's been only 2 days, but OK...)" I said to myself in my head.

"I... I what...?" the other girl spoke again, which we can assume that her name is Saitama.

"Look, the only reason I'm sparing you is... not because you were trying to steal something valuable from me... but because my own cat told me not to. Now answer me while I still have that kind heart of mine."

Greed told Kiluna to not kill her? I... guess there's a mutual understanding between her and her cat but... I didn't even hear the cat say anything...?

"Your cat... the gray cat named Greed, was it?"

"Stop driving my question away."

"I didn't really know that I was... trying to kill you for it, but... I could tell y-ou about the Mo-..." Saitama was trying hard to speak, but she was slowly fading into unconsciousness. Kiluna was trying to shake her back into responding, but she eventually just lay there unconscious. She was still alive as I can still somehow feel her breathing through the ground.

"...I guess we may have went a bit too far...? No matter, I will protect this brooch with my life."

Dropping Saitama so that her face meets the ground again, Kiluna walks to the wall of the cave and kneeled down to approach her cat, Greed. I wonder what was taking them so long, however. I had no choice but to wait for her to stand up, so I patiently waited.

"Hey... Greed. Have... you been here for the last 4 years?"

"Kiluna-sama, I... yes I was here for the last 4 years."

"So... you did run away..."

"W-well, yes I did but... It wasn't my intention! I... I had to..."

"You 'had' to? I always asked you everyday if your day was fine when I got home... now, in what point of that moment 4 years ago did you lie to me?"

"...the day when... I breathed my last."

"...you... what...?!"

"Kiluna-sama, I'm sorry but... the Greed that you are talking to now... he is no longer of this world!"

"What... do you mean to tell me...?! But then it would be impossible that you're tangible..."

"I wasn't allowed to travel to the spirit world just yet..."

"The spirit world... then that means you truly are...?!"

"...I didn't want you to find out, Kiluna-sama... I didn't want to make you worry more..."

"You... don't understand how painful it's been for me! Even though I had my comrades before, I really couldn't call them my true friends much since there were a lot of moment where I can't trust them... Greed, you were the only one I had! And to think, the day that you went away was when I found the brooch..."

"The brooch? That thing you're holding right now...?"

"Yes. If you've been listening, this is called the 'Moon's Tears'. I couldn't explain exactly what it is at the moment, but let's just say that this brooch made my current life more exciting... But no matter how much that excitement tried to conquer me, I still worried in the end...! Greed! Please just stay...!"

"I... can't, Kiluna-sama. I'm sorry."

"...what..."

"The main reason I'm still here on the world is because there is still something that I needed to do... and after hearing your last statement, I have already seen it... All that I was waiting for was to hear Kiluna-sama's joy in having an exciting life ahead of her, the life that she lacked in the duration of her past. As I couldn't really reveal myself to be dead, I ran to a place where I know no person would come near... and it was this cave. This cave was a paradise for cats, both physical and spiritual. I stayed here in the loving care of Saitama-sama."

"That girl...?"

"She actually cares a lot about us. The blinding and frightening environment of the place made sure that we were away from ordinary people... She went out of her way to provide for us, I don't know how, but we lived happy here. It was like the world's version of heaven. Then one day, just a year ago, for some reason Saitama-sama wasn't thinking like she usually does... she was first a bit harsh on us, and I thought that she was just having her period a bad day. (author's note: sorry, no harm meant with that; I accidentally just typed it :<) But later she became louder and louder and louder... to the point that her attitude was becoming more demonic... frightened, I ran away from the cave, but not too far from it. I know that this wasn't the Saitama that I recognize... so I waited patiently for the day that Saitama-sama will come out of the cave, and look for us."

"That girl... is kind-hearted? Then, what just... wait, Greed?! Greed, don't... don't go yet...!"

After much waiting, I suddenly saw some odd magical waves coming out of the cat. If I am to deduce right from the books that I have read, these are spirit waves...

...wait, the cat is being sent to the spirit world?! What's going on here?!

"Kiluna-sama, please don't forget about me, like you always have. Move on to the exciting life that awaits you..."

"Greed... Greed!"

"Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed...!" I heard Kiluna scream. Eventually later the cat's body fully disappeared. "This... this world ain't for the good... But here is a ruleless place, you won't get anything at all..."

"...Kiluna? Are... are you alright?"

"He... he's gone. Actually, HAS been gone... for 4 years now."

"I think you already told me that.

"No, I meant... gone... from this world. Since 4 years ago."

"You mean to say... he's been... DEAD?!"

"..."

Kiluna was speechless for a moment, probably because she wasn't able to accept the fact that Greed died just as they met after 4 years. I didn't really know how to sympathize with her since I only know her for 2 days, and I only knew Greed for a few hours. I couldn't really find words to say to her now, so I just waited until she decided to move...

...but when I was waiting for her to move, someone else moved...

...or rather, someTHING moved! A huge thing!

I then heard from behind that a rock fell from the stalactite of the cave... and shakes were happening everywhere. If I'm not mistaken, this can only mean that... the cave is collapsing!

"Kiluna! Kiluna! Snap out of it, we have to get out of here!" I shouted, then grabbed Kiluna by the arms, which seemed to have gotten her back to her senses. We began to ran out of the cave as fast as we could; fortunately the falling rocks weren't in our path, so we could run away freely. The cats that were in the cave were again crystals stuck to the wall; from this point on I couldn't care less about what would happen to them, so we continued to run.

But as we were running, I think I could hear a jumbled voice from behind... it was reflecting off of the cave walls, so I could hear it clearly, but the words were definitely jumbled.

We grabbed our supplies and quickly ran some more until we could get outside the cave. Just before we were able to jump out of the mouth however, a sizable rock seemed to have scratched my right shoulder and rolled down my cape. It hurt a bit, so it hindered me for a few seconds while Kiluna jumped out. Panicking, I tried to still jump out, but I ended up bumping my right shoulder into the cave wall, making it hurt even more and immobilizing me. Kiluna suddenly jumped back in and tried pulling me out. She threw me first out of the cave... and I kind of rolled on the ground outside of the cave so it hurt even more. Then after I regained my mobility, I looked at the cave mouth and found Kiluna to have safely gotten out. After a few seconds, the cave finally fully collapsed.

"...Nihyaku Cave, was it?" I said. I then pulled out my own map and began to draw the location of this cave on it.

"...I... really don't believe this. But as I kept telling him... 'I pray, don't cut your hope. Don't cut your tomorrow, don't cut it until it's over...' I have to get over this. The... sacrifice is painful, but... maybe what he was trying to tell me is that... my life is now worth something." Kiluna spoke, and seems like she was talking to herself, which I obviously could hear.

"Kiluna... I'm sure you can get through this."

"...Ryougen! Can... I CAN trust you, right...?"

"...why are you suddenly asking me this?"

"I don't want to lose... a friend anymore..."

"I... don't remember you asking me to be your friend."

"...huh...? Ryougen...?!"

...heheheh.

"...just joking. Though I know now that in a state of sorrow you begin to not think straight. Haven't we established yesterday that you're travelling with me? Doesn't that imply... that we'll have to stick together?"

"...yes, that's true... thank you Ryougen. It's just that... I had my doubts again after remembering what I went through in my past."

"The past is past Kiluna, and as much as I have found a lot about myself from studying the past, it is the present where one lives in, and it is the future which dictates the destiny of people. You have only begun your quest, Kiluna."

To be honest, I didn't believe I could say such things. I have no experience with the life of an outsider, who am I to talk?

"Ryougen...
Alright, I'll get through with this. Greed... he'll always be a part of me, but he'll remain just that; a part. I won't let his loss be in vain in that his loss destroys me. I won't faulter like this anymore."

"Good, now let's get going... agh..."

Crap, my right shoulder still hurts badly.

"Oh... you can't carry your bag for now. Let me bring that for you."

"Thanks Kiluna."

Wait a minute, but she has been attacked by Saitama much more times than I have... so how is she standing straighter than I am at the moment?

"...Shito freaked up."

"...huh?"

"The girl... Saitama... she was weak. Comparing the amount of physical and spiritual power that both could shell out, Shito definitely could match up to Saitama. I just don't get why Shito would be afraid of the girl."

"It's probably something deep and none of our business... all I'm concerned about is that the brooch is safe for now. Now hand me over your bag."

I dismantled the bag from my back, but then because of my right arm being shaky, I dropped it and a lot of my stuff fell off. Oops.

I then proceeded to put them all back one by one.

I was about to put back the last object in... the Mai family picture. Just as I was using my right hand to put it back in, I also had a look at my left hand, which still had that hinge piece (half of which was violet and half was white).

...oh my god.

Oh my god.

Am... am I seeing this correctly.

"This... this is...!"

"...Ryougen?"

I... am I seeing things or...?!

This hinge... it looks exactly like...!

"N-nothing. I'll hold my pic for a while."

I then closed the bag and gave it to Kiluna.

"Alright. I'm betting we have to go back to Ugoshi Town because we need that arm of yours healed... and my chests to recover."

"Yes, that was precisely what I was thinking. Thanks again for carrying my stuff, Kiluna."

We then proceeded to walk back to Ugoshi Town. But I still cannot help staring at the hinge and the family pic...

Because this hinge... looks exactly like...

"...the compass of Senpuu...!" I accidentally thought loudly.

"...Ryougen?" Kiluna exclaimed.

"I guess it's safe to tell... this random piece of metal flew out of Saitama's clothing when you slapped her earlier. Now, take a look at this..." I replied, then showed her the family pic.

"How is that piece of metal related to your family picture...?"

"Look at my sister Senpuu's compass... and then look at this piece of metal again."

She then observed, then after looking at the piece of metal again, she was a bit shocked.

"W-wow... if this isn't a coincidence, I don't know what is. Think it could be the real thing?"

"I... I don't know! But... at least I know now that I have gotten somewhere! Senpuu... please wait for me! If a piece of your compass is here, then that must mean that there is still hope of finding you!
I now know what I have to do! I will find your compass, and follow to where it points! I shall find you wherever you may be!"

"You seem so hyped up, Ryougen."

"Kiluna... now I think I see why 4 years hurt for you. But now that I realize it... it should have been more painful for me... I'm betting that it's been over 10 years since I last even saw her! Or even remembered her..."

"...oh, that's right! You said you don't even remember her...! This must be such a discovery for you, Ryougen! I'm happy for you!"

I don't think 'happy' is the right word. What was I thinking? The fact that the compass is in pieces, means that there is a chance that Senpuu is...

"...ow ow ow... my arm..." my arm acted up. I think we really need to get back and heal ourselves...

"We have to get back and rest up. We'll be moving out tomorrow too, anyway!"

We continued to walk back to Ugoshi. I still couldn't get my mind off the compass piece I found today...

The sun was already setting, and the full moon was already showing itself so brightly. It was illuminating Kiluna's brooch as well as my cape.

We eventually reached Ugoshi Town, and it was already early night time here. The street lights were on, but the town was still a bit busy.

"So uh, Kiluna... you never answered my question earlier." I told her.

"Which one?"

"The one where I asked you if the house I used yesterday could be... you know, owned by me for now?"

"..."

"...still can't answer?"

"...well, if it's you, then I guess I could allow it... and maybe not temporarily."

"...? What do you mean...?"

"You're free to come to the house at anytime (provided you don't double-cross me)! Consider yourself welcome to the 'abandoned' house which I consider my home. After the events of today, I think I can safely entrust that house to you as well..."

"...thank you Kiluna. I'm flattered, but really I only need a sleeping quarters. You don't need to go so far as entrusting the whole house to me too..."

"Well, I don't care if you're the leader around here, but it's a house that I technically own, after all; if you wanna live in it, you have to also take care of it!"

"...well, what choice do I have? Still, no words can describe the gratitude I have for this."

We then walk back to the slums. It doesn't seem much like slums if you look at it from where Kiluna lives in, where the house actually looks cared for even though it's almost empty.

Kiluna opened a hatch on the floor which revealed another room. It was still a simple room in it's own, but it was built to effectively extend the house to be almost 2 floors.

"I'll be sleeping here. You take the main floor. Sound good?"

That's odd; she owns the house, she should be on the main floor...?

"Well, OK then..."

"Alright, then that's that."

Kiluna then proceeded inside the bath room, and in a matter of seconds I already saw her come out of it and wearing what seems to be her night clothing.

"Have a pleasant sleep, Ryougen! Good night." she said, then jumped in the hole to the basement floor and closed it in the process. I think I forgot to tell her something (author's note: no really, I'm pretty sure I wanted Ryougen to ask something before this happened... I just forgot what), so I tried to open the latch... and for some reason it was locked on the inside and I can't find the key to open it anywhere.

Oh well, she's probably very exhausted today. I am too, so I'll probably get some sleep. I go into the bath room and rinsed myself up there, bandaged my right arm, took off my cape and loosened my vest, taking it off so that only my undershirt remained. It was comfortable enough for me to sleep with my whole body breathing. I went out of the bathroom, turned off the light and jumped into the bed. The house may not be a good one, but the fact that it has proper functionalities was more than comfortable enough for me... even the bed seems to be well-made too.

As I drift off to sleep, I still cannot get Senpuu off of my mind...