The two of us walked side by side through the uncrowded midday streets. For a brief moment, I considered taking her hand in mind, but it was too embarrassing to do something like that in this context. Taking to to buy a sword, sure, I could do that… but this was a date.

I had finally done it, the first step of my lifelong dream had happened… I was on a date with a girl! And for once, that girl wasn’t an aggressive, youthful mother humiliating me accidentally by calling a shopping trip a date in front of my peers!

But due to my nervousness and Xinyi’s own, our date was more like a stroll through town. We barely spoke, stopping only a few times to look at some shops, then moved on. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, and she clearly didn’t either.

Eventually, we passed a shop that sold steamed meat buns, and despite having just eaten, Xinyi looked like she wanted one. Her eyes glittered and she was practically drooling just looking at them.

“You want one?” I asked her, pulling out a small coin pouch from my back pocket.

“N-No, I didn’t mean to make it seem like the breakfast you cooked wasn’t enough! It was good, but…”

“It’s fine, it was pretty small for someone as voracious as you.” I chuckled, but she didn’t seem happy with that description of her. “Two meat buns please.”

“Hear ya go, enjoy!” the cook quickly took my bronze coin and handed us the food. I passed one to Xinyi, and we continued along the way.

I had barely taken two bites before Xinyi had finished hers entirely, and was now eyeing mine. I wasn’t actually that hungry, so I tore it in half and handed her the uneaten part.

“Y-ya sure?” she asked me, but she took it anyways.

“Yeah, you look cute when you eat, so it’s not like I get nothing out of it.”

“Whaa! D-Don’t say something so embarrassing!”

I flushed red with an intense feeling of humiliation upon realizing what I just said. But I had no Skill to turn back time, so I would have to live with my actions.

We continued to talk around the city together, but around noon I thought I felt someone watching us. I could only think of one person it could be, and the thought made me feel weary.

“What a pain...”

“What’s wrong, d-did I do something?” Xinyi asked me, looking concerned.

“Huh? Oh, no, you’re fine…”

“It’s just… it must be boring to walk around the city you grew up in with me, right? Nothing here is new to you… and I can’t even think of anything to say.”

It’s not like it was her fault the date was nothing. I had no idea what to do either, all I could think to do was shop around, but that’s something I did with my mom all the time, so it didn’t really feel like a date in the romantic sense.

Suddenly, I had an idea, a way to save the day and fix this date. It was brilliant, how had I not thought of it before now? I grabbed Xinyi’s small, delicate hand and started to run, pulling her with me.

“W-What?! What are you doing, Zen? Where are we going?!” flustered behind me, Xinyi barely managed to keep up with my stride without falling over.

“Just follow me, we’re gonna go somewhere more interesting, I promise.”

Slowing down once we left the market square, Xinyi followed closely behind me as I made my way towards the palace grounds. Arriving at the gates not long after, a pair of guards, stopped us. However, when I identified myself, they allowed us to enter the grounds.

Still confused, Xinyi looked around at the courtyard of the palace.

“S-Should we really be here, I feel like I’d get arrested for touching anything…”

“Don’t worry, you’re with me, and my family are friends to the Emperor, I used to come here all the time with my mom.” I replied, heading over to a small side path barely visible if you didn’t know where to look. “Come on, this is a shortcut.”

“Eh? Where are we… going…” her voice dropped as we emerged from the small stone pathway into an open space, the sight before her taking away her words.

“Pretty sweet, right? I mean, I don’t get why people are so obsessed with flowers, but girls like this kind of stuff, right?” I turn towards Xinyi, who’s frozen in place in the side entrance.

She was marveling of course, at the emperor’s royal garden. For generations, the palace held the finest gardens in the country, with exotic plants even the current emperor didn’t know the origin of. I didn’t know if that was true or not, but the intense explosion of color as we entered certainly seemed like it were true.

“Incredible…”

Well, she seemed impressed, so I guess it was a success. I sat down under a tree and looked out over the rest of the large garden.

“Umm, I don’t know what to say…” she said, slowly sitting down next to me. “I was happy just spending the day with ya, but then ya sprang this on me…”

“It’s not like I did anything special, this place would be here with or without me.”

“Yeah, but ya thought to take me here, all on your own.”

“Yeah, I guess I did.” the two of us stayed like that for a while, and I lost track of time.

The sun had started to set when I began to realize I had fallen asleep. Likewise, Xinyi was asleep next to me, her head resting against my shoulder. Her soft, delicate face contrasted sharply with the viscous scarring across her nose, but the old wound did nothing to mar her natural beauty.

“Jeez, I think I spent too much time with Lei…” I rubbed the back of my head. Xinyi stirred, realizing quickly that she was incredibly close to me, and skittered away.

“I-I’m so sorry, I didn't mean ta fall asleep on ya like that! Please forgive me!” She clapped her hands together and bowed her head, but I’m not sure why, did she think I didn't want her to be near me? If that were true, why was I out with her all day?

“W-Well, you’re mom’s gonna get worried if we stay out too late, right? We should probably… head back.” I had to agree with her, we would be cutting it dangerously close even if we left now, so we should hurry.

“Yeah, let’s go.” I stood up, wiping off some grass and dirt from my clothing.

The two of us headed back the way we came, almost feeling like we were sneaking out of somewhere we weren’t supposed to be in thanks to the strange side path we took.

As we approached the gate to leave, I spotted one of the guards who let us in, and waved to him. He was leaning his back against the wall with his eyes clothed, something I realized when I got closer, so he didn’t show any sign of reaction to us.

“Thanks for letting us in, I promise it won’t be a common reoccurence, wouldn’t want to get you in trouble.” I lightly patted him on the shoulder as I walked by, but something felt off.

His body slumped down on the ground, motionless. On the stone wall behind him, crimson blood painted the carved brickwork.

“Eh?” I looked at the body of the guard, dumbfounded. The royal guard were highly trained, passing the same rigorous upbringing as that of the hero academy. It wouldn’t be easy to kill even one of them, and they were never alone… wait, where was the other guard?

My eyes darted around the entranceway, but there was no one there but myself and Xinyi. There were certainly two guards at the front gate before, I was sure of it.

‘I-Is he dead?” Xinyi looked over my shoulder in horror as I checked his pulse just in case. Unfortunately, he appears to have been dead for more than a few minutes, as his body is cold to the touch.

I stood up quickly, looking towards the path to the main hall of the palace. Was it an attack on the Emperor? Surely we would have been woken up by the sounds of combat, so were the guards dispatched quietly? An Assassin?!

“Don’t worry, Yi Zen, my target isn’t the Emperor…” a voice filled with malice seemed to reply to my inner thoughts, coming from atop the outer wall. “I’m only here for a sword… yours.”

My hand fell on the hilt of the Crimson Dragon Emperor, my father’s legendary blade. What the hell did this person want with it?

A lithe figure dropped down from the top of the walls, wearing a form concealing, flowing yellow set of robes. The cloth was extremely ornate, with many different patterns embroidered on it. This wasn’t some petty robber here to make a quick buck by selling off the blade after taking it.

“I was getting really bored waiting for you to wake up… I could have taken the blade and your lives while you slept but… where’s the fun in that?” the figure, whose face and voice had an androgynous quality to them, moved around us, circling like a predator on the hunt.

“Who the hell are you?” I growled, drawing my sword. At my side, Xinyi did the same. The enemy before us looked to be unarmed, but was clearly dangerous.

“Those of this land currently know me by the name of Xie Jie, though in my homeland, I was known as Raikou Yazama. Actor by profession… Assassin for pleasure.” Laughing softly, they raised their hand up, revealing a dark red crystal held in their palm.

The crystal burst, spraying a torrent of what I could only assume was blood across the area we were in, and the three of us.

“The mainland empire has so many interesting warriors, it’s like everyone possess their own special ability. Where I was from, my unique talents had me shunned as a cursed child, or a dangerous sorcerer, and I was feared by the masses.” a blade like shape formed out of the pool of blood at the feet of the self proclaimed assassin, and they took hold of it in their left hand. “I wonder, if I were born here, would I have become a hero? Or am I really cursed?”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but you picked the wrong fight.” I strode out in front of Xinyi, my sword pointed firmly towards the foreigner. “Zero…”

My left eye began to glow, a soft purple mixed with pitch black swirled around my iris, the only sign that my unique ability had activated. In the face of my Skill, all other Skills would be reduced to zero and eradicated.

The Assassin dashed forward, his sword of crystalized blood clashing against mine. He wasn’t a very large man, but his size was deceptive of his strength, and I was hurled back almost a full meter, through I landed on my feet.

Xinyi leapt in with a spinning aerial swing, her momentum increasing the power behind her cut. But the Assassin stopped it with his empty right hand, catching the sword between his index and middle finger. He easily flicked it away and launched a counter hit, but Xinyi twisted her body and ducked under it.

The Assassin laughed, a look of glee on his face. He spun around in place, practically dancing, as if to mock us.

“I can tell, you two are quite good.” he looked towards me, while keeping his sword pointed at Xinyi. “Nobody else I’ve killed has lasted more than a second against me!”

He was a dangerous foe for sure, Xinyi was one of the best fighters I’ve seen, and with Zero sealing his Skill, she should be able to overpower almost anyone. While I was decent enough, there was no way I could match his strength, even with his Skill… sealed?

Wait, something wasn’t right.

Xinyi charged in with a flurry of stabs, but they all deflected off his sword of blood. She couldn’t get an opening to land a debilitating blow, which was worrying enough… but.

His sword still held its shape. In the face of Zero, even my mother’s overwhelming amount of Skills were useless, and I had never seen one that could stand up to it…. But.

“Xinyi, get back!” I shouted, but she didn’t respond to me, she was too focused on battle. “Stop, there’s something strange about his Skill!”

The Assassin Xie Jie clenched his right hand into a fist as Xinyi lunged at him with her sword over her head, ready to cut him in two. The drops of blood on his body, on the ground, on Xinyi’s clothing, all changed shape.

Xinyi was impaled by a thousand miniature crystal needles in an instant. And her attack was stopped dead. She staggered back, dropping her sword and clutching her throat. Xinyi fell to her knees, her own blood pouring from her mouth, and Xie Jie laughed.

I stood there, frozen in place. My legs were shaking with fear, and I wasn’t sure how I managed to stay standing.

Zero didn’t work against him.