Lightning flashes through the sky, illuminating the white face of the dead man lying on top of Yue’li. She screams, only to choke on his blood. It is everywhere, seeping into her eyes, her nose, filling out her senses with the metallic stench.

She hears the twang of Mich’s bow, followed by thunder and a scream that is not hers.

Yue’li claws at the rope around her waist, pulling her tail loose. Using it as another arm she manages to shove Master Larmings off.

Clean air floods into her. Yue'li cries out in relief, in shock. She doubles over on the sand, overcome by hysteria.

“Get up, Basilona!”

Yue’li doesn’t know how long she’s been on the ground, but when she opens her eyes Baragon is standing with his back to her. He’s holding his staff above his head, golden strands shooting from the top of it and into the protection bubble around them.

“I can’t hold him back for long!” the mage yells. “Get Mich!”

In front of them, the enemy mage is hurling spears of jagged lightning from his staff.

“Raitkanri!”

The spears shatter against Baragon’s bubble, scorching black paths in the sand. With each blow, the veil of gold around the bubble thins.

The other boys are standing by the foot of the hill of sand, laughing as they watch.

Another hot flash lights up the battleground. Yue’li spots Mich near the bottom of the hill, lying face down in the sand.

“I’m going to get him!”

“I'll cover you!” says Baragon. He slams his staff down and the protection bubble bursts across the hill, snapping up clouds of sand into the sky.

Without a second more to lose, Yue’li throws off her cloak and stretches hard as she can.

With a heavy pop, her wings unfurl out from her back. They stretch high into the air, two dark slices of leathery skin catching the wind.

Spears of spastic light zigzags through the sand cloud, singeing Yue’li’s hair as they pass over her head. She dives down, tumbling to a stop next to Mich.

The man is not moving, his face pressed against the sand. There’s an arrow stuck to his shoulder but Yue'li can't see anything else. She slides her arms and tail around Mich and hauls him to his knees.

That’s when she sees the dagger sticking up in the sand. The blade is obsidian black and glistening wet.

Yue’li’s fingers find the hole in Mich’s chest. It is sloshy and directly above his heart.

A memory of the alleyway incident flashes across Yue’li’s eyes. She lets Mich go and scrambles back, right into Baragon.

“Move quickly!” The mage shoves Yue’li forward. “The dust is clearing!” He tucks his staff under an arm and goes to grab Mich.

“H-he’s dead,” says Yue’li. “W-we need to go.”

“You don’t know that,” Baragon snaps as he yanks on Mich’s arms. “Help me, Grunt!”

Yue’li takes a step forward and she feels the sand beneath her shift. She leaps back just as a shadow bursts out from under the ground, throwing up sand and crimson flashes. Yue’li is knocked back. She sees Baragon reaching for his staff but a dagger finds him first, lodging blade-deep into his right eye.

Yue’li forgets how to scream.

Baragon staggers, his staff falling from his loose grip onto the sand. His body follows, making a soft thump.

The shadow is a man. He slides another dagger out of his belt and steps over to Baragon, who is clawing weakly at the sand.

Without theatrics or any words, the man plunges his dagger into Baragon’s head.

The mage goes still. A bubble of blood emerges from his opened mouth, and pops.

The sand clouds clear away into the wind. The sky is laced with thunderclouds.

Yue’li scrambles back from the rogue. The man is dressed all in black and she can only see his eyes, cruel with magic and blood.

“Did you miss me?” the man asks, shaking the sand off his clothes as he steps over Mich’s body. “Because I missed you, Yueyue.”

Before Yue'li can comprehend, the rogue pulls back his black hood to reveal an oval, pock-marked face.

Blood roars into Yue'li's head. The world starts to spin. She stares at that rotten-toothed grin, and then starts to cry.

11 stays by the base of the hill of sand, the loot bag still over her shoulder.

You are on strike two, Gier 11. Consider your actions carefully.

The boys are crowded around Yue’li, seemingly lost as to what to do next.

“Do we still go through with the plan, Boss?” the mage asks Sparkles. “I think I'll sit this one out. I don’t really want to fuck a yaojin. I hear they can give you curses.”

“She’s seen us backstab her party,” says the tracker. “We need to make sure she doesn’t tell the Guild.”

Yue’li is sitting in the sand, her legs splayed beneath her. She’s holding a dagger but her hands are shaking so much the blade is dancing. Her eyes are darting around wildly, probably looking for 11.

Sparkles steps up and kicks the dagger out of Yue’li’s hands. “You’re all cowards,” he says, undoing his belt. “Here, I’ll show ya’ll how it’s done. Curse or no curse, a cunt is a cunt.”

11 starts up the hill.

“Get away from me!” Yue’li lunges at Sparkles, who kicks her back down.

“There's no need to fight,” the man laughs. He grabs onto her wrists and forces her down. “I’ll treat you good. Better than any filthy slum-dweller deserves.”

He leans in, then jerks back with a scream.

"Fucking beast!" he cries, clutching at his ear. "She bit me!" Blood seeps between his fingers, running down his neck.

"You'll lose more," Yue'li says, spitting a chunk of cartilage onto the sand. "I promise you."

Sparkles yanks out his sword. "Let's see how you keep that promise without any teeth left, beast."

11 closes the rest of the distance but to her surprise, someone is there first.

“Wait a minute, friend.”

As if it’s a dream, she recognizes the black-clad man as Zoldan, the same man who tried to rob her and Yue’li. He's been talking to her but never once did she have any suspicions.

Sparkles turns, snarling. “What do you want, sellsword? You’ll get your turn.”

Zoldan chuckles. “I am not into that kind of life anymore.”

“Then piss off and wait until I’m finished.”

Zoldan steps up to Sparkles and puts a hand on the boy’s shoulder. The gesture is almost friendly.

“I would,” he says, “if I were a patient man.” His fingers twitch, just enough for 11 to see.

“What do you want then?” Sparkles asks, less hostile this time. “You’ll get the silvers when the day is done.”

"You can keep the silver," Zoldan says. He points at Yue’li. "I want her."

“What do you want a beast for?”

“Yaojins make good pets,” says Zoldan. “Or so I’ve heard.”

Sparkles seems to be thinking things through. No one moves.

11 pushes past the mage and tracker. Sparkles is so close she can smell the stench of his sweaty pheromones. She just has to run up and grab him.

The boy gets up off of Yue’li and zips up his breeches.

“Fine,” he says. “You have a deal.” He gestures for Zoldan to move forward, and then finally notices 11 standing so close.

“What are you waiting for?” he says. “Hurry up and get looting.”

11 doesn’t move.

“What, never seen a body before? Here’s a tip, there’s no point waiting for them to decompose.”

11 tries to make eye contact with Yue'li, but Zoldan has taken the space Sparkles was occupying, blocking out the little yaojin from sight.

With a slowness that seems deliberate, Zoldan takes Yue'li's chin in his palm.

“You’re growing out your hair,” he says, speaking so quietly even 11 can barely hear him over the rumbling sky. “Is it so you'll look more like the crazy girl behind me?”

Yue’li spits blood into his face.

Zoldan laughs. “I’m not the bad man here,” he says. “You might not know that. But you will.”

11 grips the rucksack tight. Mother's commands continue to drive into her skull as if she knows what 11 wants to do.

Your purpose is to kill Demonic Entities. Your Protocol is not here.

If you cannot appreciate the reason of your existance, then there is no justification for its continuation.

“Grunt, I’m talking to you.”

Sparkles’s voice climbs up a notch. “What, did you get spooked or something? What are you, twelve? Search their bodies. Go on.”

Still with sword unsheathed, he begins edging towards Zoldan.

11 places a hand over her chest, feeling the temperature of her Master Core rising.

This is not your fight.

Zoldan is whispering something else to Yue’li. He’s so focused on her that he doesn’t seem to know notice Sparkles.

The boy lifts his sword high in the air with both hands.

“I'm changing the deal!” he says and cuts down.

11 throws the rucksack into the boy’s face, taking him down in an explosion of loot. She spots the mage lifting his staff and darts out of the way. The sand around her erupts into sparks of lightning.

Zoldan stands, picks up Sparkles’s sword and drives it into the boy’s neck as he tries to get up. Sparkles’s gasps, his eyes widening until they seem too big for his face.

At that moment, the boy finally looks as young as he is.

“Counter-proposal,” says Zoldan. He twists the sword, cracking Sparkle's spine.

The boy opens his mouth. A river of blood flows from it.

“Boss Man!” The tracker boy charges at Zoldan, swinging his bola. Zoldan throws the sword forward, catching the bola in mid-air. Then his hand darts down and grabs one of Yue’li’s horns. The little yaojin gives a shriek of surprise but before anyone can do anything, Zoldan raises his other hand.

Pinched between two fingers is a black pellet.

11 recognizes it immediately. She’s seen a hundred of these in Yue’li’s room, tucked away in a locked box on her desk.

She launches across the sand, screaming, "No!"

Zoldan brings his arm down.

The world disappears into smoke and ash.

11 crashes into the sand. “Yuu-chan!” She digs through the smoke-filled emptiness, firing up her scanners, her radar, everything she has.

But Zoldan is not here anymore, and neither is Yue’li.

Sounds seem to warble through the air. Lightning crackles. A bola is whooshing. 11 is panicking. She unfurls her wings and takes to the sky, breaking out of the smoke. The desert stretches far and empty, the Stone Forest stands crooked in its fossilized ashes. 11 falls back down and just as she readies for another jump a ray of lighting crashes into her back. She staggers into an oncoming bola and falls down.

Through the smoke, the two surviving members of Sparkles’s party emerge, weapons in hand and murder on their faces.

“You killed our boss,” says the tracker, taking out a dagger. “I saw you throw the loot bag.” He kicks 11 onto her back and places his dagger on her throat. "You die for that."

A bubbling rage wells inside 11’s chest, so fierce it scares her. She shrugs out of the bola’s ropes and stands.

The tracker tumbles right off her.

“I might not be able to kill you,” 11 says to the horrified boy on the ground. “But breaking an arm should be okay.”

The boy stares at her, his mouth opening and closing without a sound.

11’s hand darts out, snatching the dagger from the tracker. She whirls around and cleaves the spear of lightning as it flies at her. Electricity crackles down the steel blade, splitting apart into jagged threads of light.

A couple of yards away, the mage stands there dumbfounded. He looks at his staff, then at 11, as if not understanding what he’s just seen. When 11 points the red-hot dagger at him, the mage turns cloak and runs.

11 turns back towards the boy on the ground. His lips are quivering and the sand shakes around him. A wet patch is growing on his breeches where he has wet himself.

11 opens her mouth to speak.

“D-don’t kill me.” The boy cowers from 11 with his arms over his face. “P-please, I was just following my party leader. I wasn’t going to do anything to that beast-folk, I swear it on the goddesses!”

"Yaojin," 11 says.

"I swear it on the yaojinsses!"

11 sighs. She tosses the dagger by the boy’s head. Steam rises from where the glowing metal scorches the sand.

The boy whimpers.

“I heard them calling you Tracker,” 11 says. “Can you track people?”

The boy looks at 11 through a gap between his arms. “I-I can try, ma’am. Will you... will you spare me if I do?”

11 reaches down and offers the boy a hand.

"That will depend," she says, "on what Yue'li decides."