He lifted his head to look at her directly. There it was again. Steel that shined in the centre of his eye like a sword raised to the honour of the sun. Violet is knocked back by this, her mouth opens ever so slightly agape. “I’m kind of angry.” His voice rumbled like an engine raring to go. “I’m sorry, I’m doing my best to feel for you. I am. Really.” He gritted his teeth and sharpened his blade. “This is not the type of thing you ask anyone else to do. This is your fight!” A stalwart spirit that is determined to hold its ground no matter what comes. “If you’re just asking for advice, whatever, but in the end the only person who can make a decision this heavy about life? That’s always only going to be… it has to be you! No one else can or should control your fate!”

He’s getting worked up. His voice is low enough that no one else could hear it besides Violet who is sitting directly by his side and people with powerful and perceptive ears. Yet it carries the weight of destiny within it, it’s a hammer that tells those on the receiving end to pick up and forge their own paths. Between his words, there would be a pause, a tremble of something akin to rage and then the metal would slam against the anvil again. “You’re also asking the absolute worst person for this, you know? I was holding my tongue earlier but, at least you had love and happiness, affection from two people even if it wasn’t all the time. That nurturing? I never had it.

I can’t know your pain or your joy, not really, but you asked anyway and I’m trying. ...Forgiveness? Forgiving him for hitting you? For blaming you? For what exactly? How much of it?”

The questions are bullets that pierce her side. Leaving her more and more defenceless with each shot. He was drilling into the core of her world, surely but surely and without stopping for anything but to breathe. “Besides. I can’t give it to anyone. It’s yours. Your forgiveness is yours! Whether you hate him and never forgive him, whether you forgive him, whether you don’t ever do so completely but can do so a little, that’s not my call. Don’t run away! You worked hard and fought hard and it’s not over yet! Don’t chicken out at the last second of it’ll all be worthless! If when you’re back is against the wall, when it’s to do or die… fight!” His fists are white. His glare is now a shooting star.

“...Manly.” Violet covers her lips with a fist as she looked at him. A sense of danger slowly filled her. A familiar one, the same type as when she was seriously fighting. He had ignited her heart, lit it on fire, and was throwing gas, oil, dry branches and everything he could to fuel her fire. It was working like a charm. Her eyes saw him differently now. Much like Raimon from earlier, a baby tiger was still a tiger armed with fangs and claws that can kill as well as the stubborn pride of a solitary hunter. With his one good eye, he challenged her to challenge herself. “Don’t wallow in what-ifs or ask someone else to do it for you, you’re just going to torture yourself or regret your decision. Live the way you want., so you can smile and cry… always be honest with what you want or you’ll miss out on so much…”

He finally cooled down just a bit from recalling his own circumstances. He had resolved to not let his chances in life slip out of his fingers or just fly past him. He’d live as much as he could, into blinding light and the darkest shadows. If he could pass on that will to others, he could hold his head high.

“Hahahahahaha!” Violet started laughing as louder as she could while clapping her hands wildly as if she was having the time of her life. It drew the attention of everyone around who started laughing too as if her joy was infectious and the entire club was now in an uproar. All except Kentarou who grimaced at Yugai with a complicated feeling of familiarity and disgust. He finally understood why Lang had told him to be the mentor for the younger man despite Kentarou’s extraordinarily busy schedule. “That freaking wolf thinks we smell the same… and he’s rarely wrong. Damn him!”

“You pass! Barely, but you pass.” Tears fell from her eyes as she burst out the words that she needed to say. “Your interview and test are over. A passing grade!” Violet let out a sigh of relief as Yugai had collapsed from her words, losing all the intensity he held before. “Yep! That face! That innocent shock! I work here, little Milo!” She punches his left shoulder with a hearty swing and then wrapped it around his neck. “I’m this clubs one and only hostess! A special exception was made for me! On top of that, I’m also the 6th ranked host!” Yugai is further floored by her declaration.

“Remember I said I still dress as a boy from time to time?” These words are all it took for Yugai to connect the dots and a switch of light sparks in his mind. “My host name is Lemony. Please refer to me as such if you see me in that attire. Call me Violet when you see me like this and if you see me off work then…” She suddenly stopped looking exuberantly joyful and wondered for a moment what name she should give to him. “Naomi. You gave me yours so I’ll give you mine.”

She decided to equal the playing field between them, she rose to her feet and off the couch and bowed to show respect. Yugai hurriedly leapt up to do the same. “Aw, adorable. Today wasn’t supposed to be a Violet day, so the boss gave me the day off after I played with you. I’ll be heading home now. I expect good things from you. It’s nice to have a junior all of a sudden.” She raised her head and waved farewell as she headed to the changing rooms…

Hakuro rematerialised. “Well, I’ll admit it could have gone far worst than that.” The cat took a peek at his Disciples stats and looked for changes. “Ah, as I expected. This was the right call to bring him to a place like this.” The feline would sharpen this dull blade’s claws, it would take time but a challenge was welcome.

Kentarou walked over with hastened steps and stopped right in front of Yugai. “...Damn it all. Follow me, come with me, we’re doing a debrief. The working day is pretty much over anyway, we will be shutting down business in a few minutes. We’re heading to Hades.” Obediently and without a word Yugai smiled and was now only two steps behind his senior as they left the building and descended the marble staircase guarded by Raimon and the entrance overlooked by Nene and stared down the path to the underground mall that had yet to be fully finished. “Dragon Quest.” The name of the game practically leapt out of Raimon the bouncer’s lips. “He’s following you like a party member from Dragon Quest. I guess the dog has found the first member of his pack.” The Cyclone of Catalonia snickered at the Hound from Hell.

Kentarou turned back to face the former heavyweight champion. “...What is it?” His voice is seething but kept under control. Yugai knew immediately that there was something between these two. “...You’re going to teach him how to kick ass now, right? I want to watch him clobber you.” A savage and scorching desert wind bellowed between the two men. “Keh. Well, I know you enough that you wouldn’t do something so pointless. I guess you can come.” Kentarou relented and as he did the tension between them evaporated. “I can’t tell if you’re in a good mood or a bad mood with those sour eyes.” Raimon stepped down from this tower to join the party while Kentarou ignored the sharp stab.

The three followed in a single file line down into the pits of shadow. They emerge in a massively wide and long tunnel. There were empty shops and stores line dup, just waiting for something to fill their space. It was marketed as an underground mall but it easily outdid the total size of a major city train station. There were however a few places with signs and lights up. Kentarou led them to one in particular to the right, and in just a minute they stood before a massive gate. The sign above had the words “The Dojo Beyond Death!”

“He has an awful naming sense,” Kentarou muttered as he flung the gates open with both arms and the interior filled Yugai’s vision. It was almost no different from a high school gym, it simply lacked the platform and stages where people would address the students. However, there was a large mat over most of the wooden floor and a giant scroll with the word “Evolve” written in inkbrush. The moment he stepped in with his co-workers he noticed a reality-defying abnormality immediately. There were windows in every cardinal direction that looked out to what seemed to be a forest, despite the fact it was absolutely impossible. They were underground, and even if they somehow had made say a greenhouse behind this dojo, there were windows that looked back at the way they had come and even they showed a luscious green forest that enjoyed the sunlight.

“...Oh, that. Yeah, I guess you wouldn’t be used to it.” Raimon remarked as he put his back against a wall and fixated his line of sight to the very centre of the dojo mat. Kentarou walked to the exact spot the boxer had pinpointed and turned to face Yugai who was still two steps behind him. “Back up three steps.” Yugai followed the order without a word. “...Kid, I think you need to be more responsive.” Hakuro wasn’t used to his Disciple being so ready to accept what other people said without questioning it. It was in some ways convenient but so bizarre to his sensibilities. “Kind of creeps me out too, but I guess it might make things quicker.” Kentarou shared the same disturbing reaction but he also liked how simple it made interactions.

Yugai and Kentarou were now about just an arm’s length away from one another. Kentarou shifted his stance and put his right leg behind his left leg, roughly shoulder-width apart. Something in his eyes changed, they were piercing and boring into Yugai’s body now. Scanning for vitals and twitches in the limbs, joints, and muscles. The atmosphere turned heavy in an instant, dry, cracking, and harsh, all it took was for Kentarou to shift to battle mode. The pressure was on… then it faded. “Ah, shit. I forgot.” Kentarou undid his stance and then snapped his fingers. Then lively music began to play over the PA system. The language was completely foreign to Yugai and Hakuro, quite familiar to Kentarou and like the voice of a sibling to Raimon.

“Oi sim, sim, sim! Oi nao, nao, nao!”

A song filled with drums and something resembling maracas danced through the room and a single powerful voice sang out words of joyful power that bounced from the walls, floor, and roof of the building. The voice of the lead male singer was repeated by a chorus of younger and lighter voices. A constant clapping beat barreled its way into the hearts of the three men and called them to move as their hearts would wish. Kentarou shifted back into his proper stance again and his eyes were now alive with a serene sense of calm happiness, having been influenced greatly by the melody he had decided to play.

“Yugai. I’ve learned about your situation. You’re going to need to fight every Monday… I guess I can save your life with some training. Today, just try and hit me. I’m not going to fight back, so do everything you can think of. This is just training.” He seemed almost like a completely different person. He was relaxed. His sharp edge had almost faded entirely, the heat that Yugai felt was still present to some extent, but it no longer felt like it was suffocating him with cruelty now. It was more like the rays of the sun at the beach. “Come and try to hit me.”

Yugai’s lips creaked downwards, the cat on his shoulder sighed and once again vanished from view. For Yugai, battle mode meant becoming a storm of juvenile emotions that rampage for victory. “Are you looking down on me too? Think you’re invincible? I’m way out of your league? I’ll show you!” A childish competitive spirit reared its head once more. It was a side effect of his new embrace life ideology, he cannot control himself and gets heated over the smallest things because the main way he would have reacted prior to today would have been pure apathy, so his mind chose to do the complete reverse setting. Raimon grinned. He knew that expression. He knew that grit. He also knew…

“The kid doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell. This will be fun.”

Meanwhile, in the back of the changing room in Olympus, a woman stood alone with her a sleek black phone in her hand and was biting her lower lip. She eased up, took a deep breath, exhaled, and then tapped to call the number that was loaded up. “Hey, dad. It’s me. I was wondering if…”