So you’re certain this is the path you want to pursue?   Velvet’s voice rang crisp and clear inside her mind as the top of the tower edged ever closer,  “Haven’t got much of a choice,  Velvet.”  Shinobu said the sadistic smirk long since vanished from her apathy stricken face.

Shinobu could feel it two great amounts of Ballum smashing and colliding into one another there wasn’t a doubt in her mind it was Hideto and that parasite Seijuro.   The closer she flew towards the top the clearer the forms became.

Wasting no time Shinobu crashed through one of the tower windows shattering the glass and bringing the conflict to a stop.    “The Hell?” A bloodied Hideto said lurching backwards,  Seijuro stared in silence as Shinobu raised her head.

A quick survey of the room revealed a bloodied truth,  the spirits of the academy had vanished and the opposition had been killed.   A few members of the Hyogo royal family stood to one side, drenched in blood.

There was no need to hold back anymore,  instructor Redgrave and Headmistress Lovelace would serve as excellent sustenance,  casually stepping towards her former allies while being sure to keep one eye on her enemies Shinobu crouched placing one hands over her former instructors.

“Don’t threat your deaths won’t be in vain,  Now feed me.”  Shinobu said devouring the fresh corpses of her former comrades.   “Mari, What do you think your doing.”  Hideto appeared before her shaking her violently,  a look of disturbing confusion plastered across his face.

“They were useless husks, but now at least they serve a purpose”    Hideto’s composure had all but decayed,  his eyes narrowed and his blood stained teeth gritted.   It came quick but not quick enough as Hideto attempted to slap her but she easily avoided the blow catching his arm.

“You didn’t get the memo so let me be the first to tell you,  I’m not Mari,  That girl’s dead.”   

“Anyway excuse my interruption,  I’ll let you two have your little brotherly bonding,  I’ll clean up the three bastards standing over there”  Shinobu said shoving Hideto aside and briskly walking towards the three royal family members.

“Yukina, Shigure,  Ikki,  Dispose of this Stray for me”   Seijuro ordered between labored breaths

"Gladly, Now Be crushed under the weight of your sins,  Gravitation Magic: Cru….”  

"Crushed huh”  Shinobu smirked placing her hands on either side of the young boys head and crushing it like a melon.   The young prince scarcely had the opportunity to scream,  his family watched in horror the confidence and color draining from their ashen faces.

“Devour”  Placing her hand against the boys chest he too became devoured leaving nothing behind, before the other two could react Shinobu continued her assault.   “So much power, so this is what a Noble Right feels like,  I like it,  let’s get it a whirl”  

“Gravitation Magic:  Crushing Field”  At her command a wave of purple light rippled outward trapping everyone in a field of pressure that pinned them to the stone flooring.  The pressure was so immense that stone it self had started to splinter and fray.

“Don’t worry for you two there won’t be any pain,  You’ll perish quick”  Shinobu said grabbing the boy known as Ikki by his thick muscular neck.   “Sweet Dreams…”   

A quick blow was all it took to sever his pretty head from his shoulders.   “Devour”  and like the others the boys hulking frame was devoured reduced to nothingness while Shinobu’s power grew.   “Reflect…”  Accelerating forth Shinobu drove her boot into the girl face shattering her jaw in a spray of bloody teeth.  

“How’s it feel to lose all control,  To be at the mercy of another?  It stings doesn’t,  Doesn’t it!” Shinobu screamed kicking the girl over and over again until all that remained was a bloody pulp.  

Feeling pleased with herself she raised her boot above the girls head, priming herself for the final blow,  when a tug at her sleeve caught her off guard.   “Please stop this Mari,  No more,  I beg you.”  

She lowered her gaze and what her eyes found was something she never expected to see,  The proud and cocksure Hideto Hyogo,  Crying his tears pouring down his blood smeared cheeks,  She recognized those eyes,  they where her eyes,  the ones she saw in the mirror every night,  heavy and awash with agony.

She hadn’t realized it but she had fallen to her knees and unconsciously released her spell,  stranger still she was being embraced by Hideto,  held like a Father would hold his daughter,  it was warm,  so very warm.

“Look at me Mari, LOOK AT ME!”  Hideto screamed cupping one her cheeks with in his hand,  His tearful expression had altered into the face of a stern lecturer.    

``“You’re in agony,  you’re burning with righteous fury,  You’re been tortured and you want retribution and you deserve it,  but killing indiscriminately makes you just like them,  When I lost Marcel and Maya I gave into my baser instincts until Lovelace found me and set me on the right path,  I was a loose cannon,  but no matter how high I piled the corpses the dead never returned…”

“Revenge?, Justice?  Morality is such brittle concepts, so easily broken,  I don’t give a fuck anymore,  This world is rotten and needs to cleansed and that’s what exactly what I’m going to do”  Mari said proudly

“Alright than,  Fine fuck it all,  Just answer me one thing Mari,  Do you think Shinobu would be proud of the person you’ve become?”   Such a simple question but it pierced her like a shotgun at point blank range.   

Don’t you dare invoke her memory on me Hideto,  I’ll…Kill you, I’ll…”

 What’s your name Miss No Legs?  

  I’m Shinobu, a Sister of the Flanade Church.

  It’s called Adequate Compensation,  

 Who you where, what you did, all of it is like dog shit now.   

 You really have a way with words Mari.   

 Alright than I’ll love you with all of this harlot’s heart.     

 You loved me without a trace of shame or deceit, you gave me a dream to believe in.

I want you to leave the village,  follow your dreams, build a life for yourself, grow old and die a proper death.   Live a peaceful and happy life that’s what I  want for you.

 “What… Have I…. Shi..no..bu.,.. I”   

 A wave of clarity washed over her and Mari’s heart felt calm like still water,  as though a dark blanket of fog had cleared,   “Hideto…Hideto”  Shinobu said surprised that he had shoved her away.

“The fights not over, You houldn't lower your guard.”   Seijuro had sprung into action plunging a great sword through Hideto’s back

That clarity morphed into panic as the reality of everything that had transpired sunk in.

“Hideto!”  she screamed rushing towards her instructor.

“It’s been fun,  thanks for the recharge,  Brother.”  Seijuro said coldly ripping the sword free, scattering blood and guts in it’s wake.   

 “Such a pity,  Well I have matters to attend to, Goodbye, Brother.”   

A snap of Seijuro's fingers summoned a portal of light.   “

“Take a moment to grieve,  I’ll be waiting for you at the top of the tower,  Let's settle this, Stray”