The next morning was full of excitement as Ryuji explained the situation.

“So, we’re going to this academy and after that join up with the Sword Saint?" She stared at him for a few moments. "Are you making this all up?”

“What? No, look, I have the locket right here, woman. Right here!”

“Get that thing out of my face, and let’s get moving. We only have a month to get all the way to the bottom of Dengal and to the capitol.”

“You know you didn’t have to twist my wrist.”

“Oh, I didn’t? I’ll keep that in mind in case it happens again.”

“Somehow, I feel like you’ll conveniently forget.” Ryuji absentmindedly rubbed his hurt wrist. ‘So much for a Kudere, all I’m getting is Ku.’

After some light shopping for camping supplies and new armor for Ryuji, they made their way down south. He couldn't afford a caravan this time, thanks to the fact he had an extra person to pay for.

A few days later, as they were walking down the road, Marie spoke up. “So where are your other party members, Mr. Great Hero?” She emphasized the last part of her sentence, which cause Ryuji's eyes to roll.

“Mister?" He was put off a bit by being addressed with so much respect but realized quickly that it was just more sarcasm. "Do you want a mirror or something? Cause you’re the only member pal.”

She looked at him with sad eyes before turning her attention back to the road in front of them. “That’s depressing.”

“You’re depressing!”

“Why, thank you.”

Ryuji was heavily starting to believe that Ishtar had been messing with him, and this lady was actually someone she knew for sure he would hate and vice versa. “We’ve only been traveling for three days, and I already wanna die, damn it!”

“Stop holding your head in your hands like that, it makes you seem crazy.”

“That’s good! Maybe the monsters will be frightened by my insanity!”

“I think you would have a hard time frightening a child, much less a monster." Marie turned away from the man she was berating and looked down the hill. "Oh, speaking of them.”

30 monsters waited down the path. They each looked like giant boars, but instead of hair, they just had weird toadlike warts. They were gigantic in size, and each one was at least 7 feet tall while being 5 feet wide. Their weapon of choice was a good old-fashioned wooden club that looked like they were just using a tree trunk as a weapon.

“Great, just great." Ryuji rubbed his head with his hand and looked at Marie. He figured that maybe if they fought side by side, they might get along better. "Well, wanna go orc hunting?”

“Are we eating them? Because hunting sort of implies that and I don’t kn-“

“You know what I meant, damn it!” Ryuji instantly regretted thinking that there was any possibility of getting along with this woman.

“And now they know we’re here.” Her uncaring tone was starting to grate his ears.

“You did that on purpose. Hey, wait a minute!”

Marie rushed down the hill at top speed, leaving a dust trail in her wake. She held no weapons and wore only green lightweight leather armor. Ryuji was curious about her fighting style, but not wanting to be outdone, he rushed down as well.

“Seven steps: Third step!” Utilizing his skill, Ryuji blasted ahead of Marie and readied his sheathed katana. Three vanguard orcs waited for him as he approached. They swung, but Ryuji jumped into the air before they could reach him, and he landed on the moving club.

“Demon Style: Onigiri!” He released three quick cuts, one after another. Each was aimed at their throats, and each hit their mark. The orcs held on to their deep wounds futilely as they died.

"Watch out, showoff hero!" Marie's warning caused Ryuji to notice that 13 orcs lined up on either side of him.

“Great Dragon Impact!” Marie punched the air, and briefly, what looked like a dragon inhabited the space in which she swung. The next moment the 13 orcs to Ryujis left were just a mist of blood.

Ryuji raised his katana far above his head, ready to strike. He then called upon the most basic skill in swordsmanship. “Cut!” The sword came down like a flash of light, and the other 13 orcs now were in two.

Ryuji looked for the last one and saw Marie. The orc swung down with its oversized club. The weapon broke apart after coming into contact with Maries fists. With the next punch, the orc no longer had ownership of its head.

‘Scary!’ He decided to be the bigger man and congratulate her. “Good work!”

“Yes.” Marie didn't seem to be too impressed by his thumbs up and quickly shrugged off the compliment.

“Uhm, nothing to say to me?” He looked at her with anticipation in his eyes.

“No.”

“I see.” Her quick rejection soured his mood. Ryuji absentmindedly kicked a rock across the path.

“Stop moping and start walking.”

“Yes ma’am.” He trudged forward, slouching.

They unpacked their gear and made camp for the night. As Ryuji started heating up his leftover rations from yesterday, he felt a gaze.

“What is it?” Ryuji was still pretty annoyed from earlier and let Marie be fully aware of it through his tone.

“I was just wondering why a swordsman carried around a worthless dagger, is all.” Marie eyed the dagger that Ryuji liked to inspect sometimes.

“Hah! It is pretty worthless, isn’t it? It can’t even cut a piece of wood. Complete trash.” Ryuji's harsh critique didn't match the jovial tone in which he said it.

“So why do you have it?”

“It’s a gift from some friends. A birthday gift, actually.” Ryuji recalled his terrible birthday that happened a few weeks ago.

“Do your friends hate you?” Marie looked up from her rations and froze. Ryuji had a look of profound sadness as he searched for the answer.

“They thought I was a good person, apparently. Well, at least one of them did. The others I'm not too sure about.” Ryuji put the dagger back in its sheath.

Marie looked quizically at Ryuji. “Thought?”

Ryuji looked back down at his food. Without looking back up he stated the simple fact with zero emotion behind it. “They’re dead.”

Marie said nothing else for the remainder of the night and wouldn't so much as glance at Ryuji.

The next day as they arrived near a village, Ryuji sensed something was off. On the horizon was a mountain of black smoke.

'What the hell is happening up there!?' Ryuji rushed down the road and intercepted a frantic middle-aged man.

“We need help! Demons are attacking!”

“Don't worry I'll go help! You get somewhere safe!” He continued on his sprint towards the now in sight village entrance.

As Ryuji made it to the burnt wooden gate, he felt a strong arm hold him in place. Even when faced with a town of innocent people being burned alive, Marie remained flat as she reasoned out why they should just forget they ever saw anything. “Think about this, Hero. If we help, we might get injured, and if that happens, we’ll never make it to that academy on time. I say we just go around and forget about it.”

Ryuji turned around, steaming at the complete lack of empathy from his companion. “Forget about it?! Like hell, I will! I'm saving this village! A good person wouldn't just overlook it!"

Marie let go of Ryuji but still didn't seem convinced.“Suit yourself. I’m not helping.”

Ryuji moved his face within centimeters of hers. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Marie remained unflinching and unmoved. “I agreed to be your party member, nothing more. If you want to accept a job then I’ll gladly contribute, but this isn’t a job, it’s just a waste of time.”

“Fine. Watch and learn what a hero’s all about!” Ryuji turned around and moved through the gate while Marie followed. She put quite some distance between them though.

As he walked through the decimated smolders of the village, Ryuji was met with horrendous sight after sight. Ryuji saw dead bodies of men, women, children. Each one made him want to vomit.

"It's just like what happened to my village." Ryuji stopped in his tracks as he thought about what he just said. 'My village? I've never seen anything like this... right?'

Memories that weren't his own popped into his mind in bits and pieces. He remembered a fire. He remembered demons, and he remembered his friend hiding him. His breathing quickened as his chest tightened. His hands shook feverously as he gripped his sheathe. Even still, he moved forward to help.

"Those bastards." Ryuji reached the center of the burning village. The arsonists were there massacring those who weren't caught in the blaze.

The group was made up of four demons. Each was wrapped in shadow with an elaborate mask adorning their face. Three were the lower class from the looks of their mask, while the last one was a higher grade. The lower demons wore expressionless white masks.

The leader, however, was an incubus class. His mask was red with an expression of pure rage.

Ryuji hid in the shadows of a burning building and drew his sword. "Go back to hell." He put it over his bent arm with the blunt end resting on it and aimed it like a gun.

“Void Style: Deaf Shot!” His sword shot forward as if it had just fired a casing. No noise was made, but the white demon standing to the left suddenly had a gash in its mask before it promptly shattered. His body of shadows, now missing its link to this world, evaporated into thin air.

“Check the area!” The red mask gave orders, and the two lesser demons went in search of the assassin.

Ryuji moved to the fiery rooftops while following behind one of the demons. Ryuji aimed and fired again. The demon fell away like mist. The other demon went to check what was going on and was swiftly taken out as well.

Marie stood and saw it all happen from the shadows. Her expression hadn't changed at all from when they first arrived here. "Can he take out an Incubus though?" Marie pondered while she watched Ryuji sneak back towards the last demon which stood in the center of the village.

'I have to strike fast and hard! I can't let this drag on for too long, or else the village will suffer!' Ryuji dug his foot into the earth, so he could have a good take off. He flew towards the red demon at full speed, and before the demon noticed, he sliced at the mask with all his might.

“There you are.” The demon turned towards Ryuji. His mask had only been partially cracked. With his arms outstretched, flames blew towards Ryuji.

Using his sword, he unleashed a mana current to slice the attack in two. “Cut!”

The attack was severed, but the demon was no longer there. Ryuji looked above where he saw a shadowy palm point towards him.

“Otaspora!” A fireball the size of a minivan descended onto Ryuji.

“Seven Steps: Fourth Step.” Ryuji moved at the speed of lightning into the air, narrowly dodging the fire. His muscles strained and ripped. The steps allowed explosive movement, but the faster he moved, the more strain his body was put under.

Sword drawn, he unleashed the current. "Supreme Cut!” A higher version than before moved through the air and assailed his opponent. The price he paid was that now much like his legs, Ryuji's arms felt a tremendous strain.

Ryuji was pushed back by the giant energy he sent out from his blade. He fell back to the ground before taunting his opponent. "Take that, you sick freak!" The incubus had a new scar on his mask that went straight down the middle. Half of it fell away, but the persistent demon remained.

“Inferno” A grounded Ryuji couldn’t dodge the wall of fire descending on him. All he could do was use the same move to try and mitigate his damage.

“Supreme Cut!” His arms felt sluggish, and he could hear his bones creaking. The wall of flame had was split down the middle, and each half hit the ground.

While they didn’t directly impact Ryuji, they expanded when they touched the ground in every direction.

'PAIN! PAIN! PAIN!' Ryuji was left scarred with second-degree burns that now racked his body with severe pain. The smell of his own flesh burning caused more memories to bubble to the surface.

Then in a flash, he remembered it all. "NO!" Ryuji held his burnt head in fear of what he was recollecting, but it didn't help because he already-

'He remembered, He remembered, He remembered, He remembered, He remembered, He remembered.'

"Not my fauuult. Not my fault. NOT MY FAULT!" Ryuji rocked back and forth while the demon became intrigued by his sudden change in demeanor.

'He remembered, He remembered, He remembered, He remembered, He remembered, He remembered.'

"That never happened. It wasn't me. Couldn't have been me! WASN'T ME!"

He remembered what happened to his childhood friend, who had protected him. He remembered what they did to her. What he heard. What he saw.

"Hahaha... HAAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" Then he laughed. He laughed, and he laughed, and he laughed.

Marie watched this and knew that something was superbly wrong. She needed to step in and help before the inane buffoon got himself killed.

"So why? Why can't I move?" She had the power to help. The ability and training necessary to help, but she was frozen. Fear was instilled in her heart the second they reached the village. She might have acted unfazed, but this was the first time she had ever seen a dead body.

'I don't want to end up like them!' That thought perpetuated through her mind, and so she couldn’t and wouldn’t move an inch from where she was.

"HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH!" Ryuji had not stopped laughing while the demon continued to watch him intently.

"............" Then abruptly Ryuji's laughter ceased. It ceased, and he felt something. He felt a certain way. He felt-

'Insane.'

He lunged at the demon. A hand of fire and shadow halted his blade. Ryuji roundhouse kicked the demon in his mask. The mask was oddly hard, and Ryuji now had a broken foot. Although he didn’t really seem to mind.

“Otaspora!” The fireball flew at Ryuji.

“Lightning god style: Thunderclap and flash!” He flew into the air narrowly dodging the fire. He descended with a flash, and his blade passed through the mask.

“Shigure Soen Ryu: autumn rains!” Before the demon could react, Ryuji followed the flow of his own momentum and led his blade with an upward arc. The mask once again was cut.

“Sun style: sunrise!” As fire billowed around him, Ryuji jumped up to avoid being burnt. With an outstretched hand, the fire threatened to melt Ryuji's legs. He flipped sideways in the air and cut through the mask along the horizon. The now cracked and sliced mask barely clung to the demon's face.

“Fire impact!” A hand punctured Ryuji's gut, and flames burned his insides.

Ryuji felt pure heat and pain. Without a care for his organs, Ryuj instantly readied his blade. The power surge from his approaching death fueled his strike and sealed the incubi’s fate.

A single stab, that was all it was. There was no fancy skill behind it, just raw and unadulterated power. The demon faded out of existence, and with its departure, Ryuji slightly reclaimed his senses.

“Help! Help!” Before Ryuji could faint, he heard an old man cry for help. He turned around and saw a 50-year-old man with severe third-degree burns writhing on the ground.

'Save.' Ryuji slowly approached him. Before he could make it, he was tackled to the ground and held in a submission hold by Marie.

“You can’t!” Marie's voice, full of indignation, bore down on the pinned Ryuji.

“L-let me go!”

“Listen to me, you’re going to die if you don’t heal yourself! Leave that old man and help yourself.”

“GET OFF ME!” Ryuji attempted to get up, but his face was promptly smashed into the ground.

Marie reached her boiling point and began tightening her vice-like grip on his arm.“If you think a dying old man you don’t know is worth more than your own life, then you’re fucked in the head!”

“I said…get off.” Face in the dirt, Ryuji couldn’t move. All his energy went into that last stab. The internal damage made it hard to breathe and even harder to move. Still, he had one singular thought. 'Save.'

“He’s dead now. So, will you heal yourself?” Marie's let up on her pressure all at once and allowed Ryuji to get up. Her monotone voice quickly returned as she stared at the dead old man.

The old man died of shock before Ryuji could get to him. Sacred High Heal could not revive someone so there was nothing he could do to help besides burying him.

“Sacred High Heal.”

They left the village and promptly returned to their journey. A few days had passed, and Ryuji had remained quiet for the most part, which intrigued Marie. She had noticed a great change in him since the village incident. One such change was that now Ryuji would cry in his sleep.

She had also taken notice that Ryuji now wanted to clean his blade by local creeks and streams. He always asked to be alone during these times, and Marie didn’t really want to spend more time than necessary in his presence, so she didn’t mind.

On one such occasion, Marie had been waiting an awfully long time for Ryuji to get back. So she headed into the forest and towards the creek to retrieve the idiot. She didn’t know why, but she was sneaking through the brush to not make any sound.

As she started hearing the creek, she heard something else. 'Crying?' She looked through the brush and saw Ryuji sitting on a rock sobbing. His lower lip quivered, and his eyes looked panicked. His breathing sounded close to hyperventilation, and his hand was so tightly closed they trembled. Blood began to pour from his closed hands, and his breathing calmed down. His trembling stopped signifying that he could stop holding so tight.

He sighed deeply and washed them in the creek. Deep marks could be seen on his palms from what she could only assume were previous times he had to calm down. She went back to the camp and waited.

“I’m sorry that took so long. We can go now.” Ryuji returned and went to grab his bag when he saw Marie with a face like she wanted to ask a question. “What’s wrong, Queen?”

“Queen?”

“Well, you keep calling me a hero or whatever. I figured you needed a nickname too.”

“Hmph. You know we’re almost out of money, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. We’ll stop in the next town and take a quest.”

She picked up their bags and then stopped. She had to ask him or it would continue to weigh on her mind. “Do you hate me?”

He packed up the cooking supplies with no delay. Now it was his turn to answer flatly as he put the bag on his back so they could leave. “No. Just myself.”

Silence accompanied them as they journeyed towards the city of Maldsdeen.