"Ew." Catface said, wiping the blood-vomit off their face. "Looks like I gotta get some new clothes."

"Yeah. That's a, uh... That's a good idea." I said. 

"Uhuh. Man, that guy's got one hell of a hook..."

"Looked like it." 

"Yeah. Almost-"

"OKAY, WHAT THE F**K IS GOING ON HERE?" Someone shouted from the seats. Oh, hey, it's the knife guy from that one time! Small world. "And where... WHERE THE HELL IS THE BOSS?" 

"Oh, him? He's been me the whole time." Catface said. "Well, past 2, 3, how many days has it been? I dunno, past couple days. Anyways, yeah, he ain't here. Gotcha!" 

"The- The hell is that supposed to mean? Who the f**k even are you?"

"It's simple really. I pretended to be your boss for a while. I'm not. I don't even know your names, actually!" 

"Wait a sec, who are you, then? And why? You a friend of his being a stand in while the big man is out playing hard to get?" Said a girl with pink hair and a black skin tight suit that doesn't seem to fit the time period. Kind of a weird thing to just wear around even if this was the proper time period, isn't it? I guess the hair should seem out of place as well, but it's not too different from Michaus's hair. Maybe they got magical hair dye over here or something. 

"Nonono, it seems you're misunderstanding. I've been pretending to be your boss and tricking you for my own purposes. Your actual boss had nothing to do with any of this." Catface explained.

"If what you're saying is true, I must inform you that he'll kill you for this." Said a rather posh man, sipping on tea. He seemed oddly calm and put together, despite his words and the current situation. 

"No he wont. See-"

"NO HE WON'T, CUS I'M GONNA KILL Hi- er, her, or... whatev- I'M GONNA KILL YOU FIRST!" Said the knife guy, leaping out of his seat and throwing knives at Catface, sprinting towards them all the while.

I made sure to step far, far out of the way as this happened. I wasn't the target, but that might've actually put me in more danger. The dude wasn't throwing the things very accurately. It was a good thing I was already a fair distance away, or I'd have surely been caught in the crossfire.  

Catface didn't have a problem dodging any of them. Actually, they caught a number of them between their fingers, just like that guy (which was also them, I guess) did earlier.

Though, I guess they got careless, because after a while one of the knives landed right in their palm. The blade was sticking out the other end of their hand, and blood began leaking out of the wound.

Immediately, they fell to the floor and let out a blood curdling scream of pain, clutching their hand to their stomach.

The knife guy continued sprinting up to them with knives in both of his hands "THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR DISRESPE- Wh-wha-"

Before they could attack, Catface had already disappeared and reappeared beside me.

"Pfft. Party pooper." Said Catface, pouting at me before standing up. "Gotcha again." They said to the crowd, sounding disappointed. Immediately, they pulled the knife out of their hand, and cast it aside. No resistance or hesitation or anything. Just pulled it right out. I don't think there was even blood (other than the previously mentioned bloody vomit). I think there was a hole there, but for an instant they closed their fist and when they opened it there was no sign that a wound was there at all. It was like some cheap magic trick. Er, optical illusion or sleight of hand. Probably can't call it a magic trick in a world with actual magic. Especially since it was probably caused by said actual magic.

"Oooh, neat!" Said the girl with pink hair. 

"Would've been neater if someone hadn't interfered." Catface said, glaring at me. 

I'd have preferred if they didn't draw attention to that. I was hoping my teleporty-thing would've been overlooked and mixed in with the general weirdness of this situation. "Uh, s-sorry, I-I thought you were in dang-" AAAAAHH Crap crap crap I forgot! "W-wait, S." I began, inspecting S once again to see if there was anything I could do.

He wasn't dead, that was for sure, but he was clearly gravely injured. I almost want to say it looked like he was about to die, but even while he was lying there, caked in blood and sand, he just kept grinning, seeming so satisfied with himself. It alleviated my concern a great deal, but I'm not sure if that was a good thing. Regardless, I put my hands together, and-

"Oh, yeah. Hold on, let me deal with-" Catface began, walking over to me and an inanimate S.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Shouted the knife guy, not exactly flexing his creative muscles as he continued to sprint at Catface with his knives.

"Shut up." Catface said, briefly flicking their hand up.

Which instantly caused a giant wall of stone to encircle the three of us, blocking the knife guy (and anyone else, for that matter) out. 

Woah.

"What in the- how-" A very muffled knife guy's voice could just barely be heard. 

Catface briefly waved their hand over S. Their hand shone brilliantly and brightly, like it was the daylight itself condensed into the space of their hand, ever glowing and welcoming.

And then it disappeared. "Alright he'll live." They said with a yawn.

"H-huh? W-what was that? Why isn't he up?"

"I dunno, I'm not a doctor."

"Then how-"

"He'll live."

I looked down at S. Any sign of a wound or combat at all was gone, save for a bit of bloody vomit, bits of sand and a torn robe. 

And it was just... Just like that. So fast. I barely had any time to comprehend it-

"Anyways, moving on." Catface said, lazily directing their hand downward, and the stone walls around us fell.

The knife guy was still there, I guess. Still seemed quite angry about something.

"Who the hell are you? Where the hell is the boss? And-"

He looked over at me, and paused for a moment.

"W-when- W-Why the hell is that thing here?" He said.

Is he talking to me?

"I'm just someone who had time to kill, decided to put on a show." Catface said. "And your boss ain't anywhere."

"The hell's that s'possed to mean?" 

"He's dead. Killed him."

What?

Just like that?

But...

I couldn't help but notice that the pink haired girl froze up as they said that. They didn't really have any particular expression, they just kinda stopped moving. The posh guy just sipped his drink. I'm not entirely sure he was listening. And the knife guy was, predictably, furious.

"I thoug-" I began.

"How..." I was interrupted by the knife guy almost instantly. Rude.  "HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT! HOW THE HELL WOULD A BRAT LIKE YOU-"

"Have you not been paying attention?"

"I th-"

"SHUT UP! YOU DIDN'T- YOU COULDN'T HAVE- HE WAS- YOU COULDN'T! NOTHING COULD, DON'T YOU GET IT?! IF HE COULD DIE HE WOULD'VE-"

"His severed head would disagree with you. Because I, y'know. Cccck" Catface said, doing a hand across the throat motion.  

"I thought you didn't-"

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP! I'LL TEAR YOUR THROAT OUT FOR THAT!"

"Ah, geez, would you shut up? This guy's tryin' to talk."

The man responded by screaming and charging at Catface for the millionth time.

"Ugh. Hold on." 

In an instant, a long shard of ice appeared in their hand. They deftly swung, blocking and knocking away both of the knife guy's blades, before jamming the back part of the shard, where the hilt would have been if it were a sword, into his skull, which sent him stumbling backwards. After that, the shard of ice disappeared, Catface raised their hand, and a small prison of stone appeared around the knife guy. Complete with bars. It was very well crafted. 

"Now, what were you say-" Catface began.

"W-wait, hold on." The pink haired girl began. "Are... Are you serious? Did you actually..."

Catface sighed. "Look, I don't care whether you guys believe me or not, alright? I said that I killed him. I found him standing alone in the middle of nowhere, so I took the opportunity to cut his head off and gave his body to the animals. That's how it went down. If you wanna come test me to verify that, go right ahead."

Nobody moved a muscle. Except for the posh guy sipping his tea. 

"You... You did, didn't you? You're not lying... He's... He's really..."

After she said that, her face seemed to freeze once again, and I think I could see tears streaming down her face. 

Oh, shoot. I... Y'know what, let's look at something else. 

"You didn't... There's no..." Knife guy said, weakly. Aha! Suitable distraction, love it!

"Oh, please. Let's not act like anything of value was lost here, c'mon. The guy wasn't exactly a saint." Catface said, rather casually.

"You... If you... If you killed him... You're a... YOU'RE A MONSTER, A FREAK, YOU'RE JUST AS-"

"Okay, normally I might accept those things, but for this? C'mon. I mean, it's not like I killed a person here!"

Woah. Uh... I... I don't know how to respond to that. Neither did anyone else, apparently. Except for tea guy, who just, y'know. Big sip.

Catface continued. "I mean, that guy and his gang have terrorized and ruined the lives of hundreds, maybe over a thousand innocent people, ransacking, sometimes destroying whole villages for god knows what reason. He was a thief, a torturer, a mass murderer several times over, and that's just the beginning of it."

Wow, that's a lot to take in at once. Geez, just who was this guy? 

Catface continued continuing, "I'm even pretty sure he did some things that I'd really rather not mention, but looking over at pink hair over there,"

I was just kinda going with the flow of everything, but my eyes were directed back at her.

And...

Yeah, she was crying. A lot. But...

She was smiling.

Sobbing horribly but smiling all the while. And it wasn't, like, a creepy smile like S's, either. She looked so... Happy. So relieved. It was the kind of smile that'd make one smile just from seeing it. But she was sobbing.

It didn't seem like she could see us. Or much of anything. She was just staring forward at nothing, lost in her own world. 

I didn't much like the implications of any of this. I also didn't really understand it, and I hope I never will. 

"Yeah, looks like it. In summary, that guy was comedically evil. Barely anything human about him" Catface said. "Anyways, I'm not gonna lose sleep over this. It's not like he's the first guy I've killed."

. . .

"Is..." Knife guy said, after a while. "Is that why he's been so far away? Why he defected like that? Why he's... Why we've done anything?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, I dunno." Catface said. "Like I said, I only killed and replaced him a few days ago. Dunno why he did anything, why he left the organization, or who he was, really. I will say that he was muttering about some plan something or other when I killed him. Said 'soon' a lot. Whatever it was, it was probably pretty nasty." 

"Did... Did he tell you anything else? Did he... I don't even..." Knife guy said 

"What? No, we didn't talk. He didn't know I was there. I was on a tight schedule, you know. Had a lot of things to do."

"I thought you were just killing time?" I asked.

"Yes. And I put a lot of effort into it." 

"So..." Knife guy began. "So you just... Before he could... Before I could... All those memories, all those thoughts... The reason for everything, it's all... It's gone? You just... You got rid of it? All of that? Before I could... No..."

He collapsed on the floor, clutching onto the stone bars.

"I... I can't accept it. You're... You're lying." He said, weakly.

"I'm not, but okay." 

"H-hey, uh, we should, uhm, t-talk about something else, yeah?" I said. This topic wasn't doing anything good for anyone.

"Oh, you wanted to ask something, right?" Catface said. 

"W-well, I was gonna say that I thought you didn't like killing people, but you kinda already answered that one..." 

"Yeah. I didn't like it much, but it was easy and morally justifiable in this case."

"Uhuh... I guess... I-I guess the biggest question here... Wh-why? Why go through all of this?"

Catface shrugged. "I was bored."

"Oh, okay." Yeah, I get that.