"You are really really slow." Polly crosses her arms as I lean against the wall, exhausted at the clock tower. Despite running for almost the entire evening, I couldn't shake Polly, not even a little bit.

The hell? I know I'm weakened, but was I really this slow before?? And this is a large city we're talking about. Nobody can catch me in a city!

"I'm surprised. I thought you were running slower to keep up with your friends, but you really are just that bad huh?"

"I got injured back in The Eye." I growl. "Can't use all my Anku efficiently."

"Yea you can, Anku is incredibly adaptable, you just aren't good enough to deal with it." Polly states matter of factly.

I stare at her for a long couple of seconds, coming to terms with her words.

She's righ- "Screw you." I say as I open the door to the clock tower.

"Where are you going?" She curiously peaks into the building

"Up the stairs, to the roof of the clock tower." I say as I uncover the hole to the sewers.

"To do what?" She says as she follows me down the hole walking down the ladder step by step.

"To jump off and die, you want to join me? You know, seeing how you're intent on following my every move."

"Sure, if you killed yourself I wouldn't be able to follow you anymore seeing how I can't die."

We both then silently walk down the damp tunnels of the sewers together. "Why are you still here? Living life so consumed by a single purpose? Aren't you unhappy?" I ask her. Simple put, it was the antithesis of my ideal lifestyle. To live life devoted to something you don't even like to do, I almost feel sorry for her.

"Go worry about your own problems." Polly replies simply.

"Sure I am, I'm trying to deal with a big one right now." I instantly swipe up like a cat, knocking her feet as she descends down the ladder. I let go of the rungs and drop straight down to sewer floor before sprinting off in the dark. This place is like a maze, if she manages to follow me even here then I'll accept that it's impossible to get away from her.

Having memorized the route, I weave my way through endless pitch dark corridors, the sound of my footsteps hopefully drowned out by the running water...

It was all I could could hear, the rushing water drowning out any discernible noise. I slide my hands across the wall, letting my sense of touch become hypersensitive, feeling my way through the sewers rather than seeing and hearing.

Been doing a lot of running away recently... I don't like it. It's cowardly. I'd rather deal with these problems head on so I can get rid of them, but... I don't think I can, this world is just too tough for me. A random thought crosses my mind as I travel through corridors of darkness and noise.

My fingers slip into a recognizable deep groove, and I immediately pull the wall out, revealing a well disguised door. I slip inside the room and shut the door quickly, leaning against the wall.

"Something tells me that attitude of yours isn't good news." Shaz looks at me seriously.

"Ehh, it's nothing you two should be too concerned about." I try to calm down and speak normally.

"He's right, I don't really care about what you two do." I feel the door shift behind me as someone tries to open the door. "Also, can you step out of the way?" I stumble forward as Polly forces open the door with greater raw strength.

"AVERY!" Shaz's eyes light up in panic. Polly clicks her tongue and whips a lightning fast slingshot at Avery who was raising her arms at her. Instantly causing her eyes to roll up, leaving a big red welt on her forehead. Upon closer inspection the bullet was just a hollow piece of wood that smashed the instant it hit her forehead.

Shaz tries to move as well, but before he could react Polly darts forward and shoves him right into the wall, knocking the wind out of him.

She then draws her one of her Sek's and effortlessly parries me as I run at her. She immediately turns to the offensive able to conserve her balance from that flawless motion, drawing her other Sek and slashing both right and left at irregular intervals. Left! Right! I bring my sword up to block both hits but mess up my timing, losing my balance. Damn it! I instantly bring all my Anku into my eyes honing in on her swords as I attempt to recover, watching carefully to parry her next attack with proper timing, but I failed to recognize one of the fundamentals of fighting with this move.

The instant I realize this I try to fix my mistake but it was too late. I keel over, air spasming out of my lungs all at once, as she sneaks a kick into the side of my abdomen. Like a novice, I had tunnel visioned into her weapons, not bothering to look at any other part of her body.

With that opening, Polly drops her blades, grabs me by the neck, and slams me right against the ground, face first, sending shockwaves of pain reverberating throughout my skull.

"Who the hell did you bring here?" Shaz painfully tries to get up and glares at Polly. Avery was completely knocked out cold.

"I've died a bunch of different ways but..." Polly mutters, looking at her fingers as she flexes them back and forth. "Sorry about that, talking didn't seem to work so I had to be a little more violent." Polly then looks at Shaz and smiles. "Now, how about we let our friend Taiga explain everything once that Tetsudo wakes up." She squeezes my face against the ground.

"Don't worry, this girl is only here for me." I reassure Shaz.

"...Right..." Shaz says hesitantly. We wait a tense minute until Avery begins stirring. She groans and opens her eyes, glancing to the side.

"Whaa~" She slurs her words, disoriented by the situation.

"I ain't gonna hurt or do anything to ya, tell her Taiga."

"Calm down Avery." I say as she tries to get up in a panic.

"Now tell her to lower her hands, I don't want to get frozen again."

"... Lower your hands too." I say, Avery was pointing both hands at Polly, ice coming out of her breath, clearly ready to fight back.

Avery slowly but hesitantly lowers her arms.

"Taiga, you better tell me who we're dealing with here. Right now." Shaz slowly backs away from Polly.

"First of all, can you let go?" I try to rear my head at Polly, but it was to no avail her grip being as tight as it was. "I'm not going to try to get you by surprise again."

"You lost that privilege back at the ladder. I'm not going to trust you on anything any longer." Polly pushes me down even more firmly.

"Just... Stop holding me so tight please." I then try to plead with her.

"...No." Polly says with a hint of laughter in her voice.

This little... She's enjoying this isn't she?

"Taiga!" Shaz shouts sternly at me.

"Alright! Someone I'm related to killed her brother and now she's trying to kill me. Except not really and now she's just following me around... It's complicated."

"Why didn't you tell us about her!?"

"I didn't know that she'd somehow find me?! We separated when The Eye collapsed and I thought that's the last I would see of her!"

Polly loosens the pressure on my neck. "Come onnnn you over there. I just need to keep an eye on this bastard. It'll be like I'm not even here." She tries her best to bring on a persuasive tone but her words definitely felt forced and unnatural.

I keep my gaze loose and unfocused as I was deep in though. Slowly but surely, the pieces on how I could outwit her come together.

You… Aren’t the best at talking to people aren’t you? I give her a knowing look.

“Do you have the guts to tread on other people just to get to me?” I whisper to her. “I can tell you from firsthand experience that you won’t get Shaz to trust you just like that. You’ll either have to kick them out or give up on me.”

“Huh, that’s actually perfect then.” Shaz then unexpectedly says as soon as I say this.

“Eh?”

“Can you keep this guy on a leash for me then? Join us, stop him from making stupid decisions, make sure he follows all my orders.” Shaz changes his attitude with a 180 degree turn.

“What are you doing?!? Why would you trust someone like that?!” I couldn’t help but blurt out.

“Because… She says she’s only here for you, she was obviously skilled enough to capture all of us as soon as she stepped foot in this room, and above all else, you corroborated her story, why wouldn’t I trust her? Maybe you were the one who misread the situation in reality?” Shaz says out of spite. At least, it has to be spite. There’s no way he’ll be this careless usually.

“What if she kills all of us? You know she can do it, why take the risk?”

“Because I’m a normal person that assesses every situation differently and knows when to take a risk? Why are you arguing against this all of a sudden? Weren’t you the one telling us not to worry?”

“I…” … Huh? Isn’t he right? Aren’t I the wrong one in this situation. I thought Shaz was the mistrusting loner type, kinda like me. So wouldn’t that mean that I was just…

“That’s great, I’ll gladly keep him on a leash.” Polly gets off my back and pats my head in a mocking type way.

I lower my head, how did I just lose in a conversation that badly? “Avery? Are you okay with this?” I turn towards her whom was still cowering in a corner.

“I… Uh, I don’t know.” It was an expected answer that instantly got my blood boiling

“You do know don’t you? You just don’t want to say it don’t you? I don’t know this, I don’t know that. Hell, can you bring up even a little bit of nerves for once in your life?! Maybe if you did, you’d be able to see your family right now!” I say to instant regret.

“Oi! Taiga! That’s enough!” Shaz shouts angrily, he then closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “I’ll get you your money in the next five days, then… you should leave.”

I stare off into space, very mixed emotions running through my mind, shocked and unsure as to how to respond. But there was one definitive emotion I was feeling here, it was unmistakably the feeling of shame.

“Gah!” I violently jerk myself up to my feet, making disgruntled, frustrated noises, before I storm off into the sewer, slamming the door behind me. I step off to the side and drop to the ground taking off my mask in the process. I toss it in the water and bury my head into my knees.

I hate this. I hate feeling this way. Why did I feel so disappointed when he said those words? Why did I feel so bad saying that to Avery? This is not me. I haven’t been me ever since I came to this world. I tell myself to not feel this way or not do this thing. I do or feel it anyways. Where’s my control? Where is the freedom to do anything I want? It’s agonizing, like I’m a slave to my feelings.

I ruthlessly slam my fist into the wall, knowing that it was going to hurt without my mask, but what if it didn’t hurt? What if I was just too above it all to feel pain? The thoughts were irrational. None of them made any sense. Of course it would hurt slamming my hand into a brick wall. It’s a damn wall! I hold my bruised knuckles gingerly, seething over the fact that pain was… painful. This is me without my mask, this is me.

Blurred shapes filter into my vision as the door besides me opens. It was Avery.

“Sorry about your family. I didn’t mean that.” I respond simply.

“Aw, don’t be sorry. You weren’t the one who killed my brother. I thought we went over this already did we not?” Polly’s voice comes off the figure standing in the doorway.

I squint closer. “Ah, just the person I wanted to see.” I lower my head once again. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had hoped that Avery was going to be the one who comes out of that door, telling me that she forgave me.

“You’re a child.” Polly closes the door behind her, plunging both of us into the darkness.

“Right…” I respond apathetically.

“No, no, I don’t think you understand. You are not interesting. You do not stand out. If we met as two strangers, knowing nothing of each other, I wouldn’t even glance at you. ”

“Why are you here?” I look to the side, annoyed.

“I’m here to make you a tiny bit more bearable, so I don’t end up killing you later down the line.”

“Worry about your own problems, no?”

“Sure I am, I'm trying to deal with a big one right now.” Polly says in a mocking tone.

I go quiet after she says this.

“Look at you. Dealing with your first difficult problem ever, you stomp your feet and throw a tantrum. Tell me why you deserve any more respect than I give you?”

I begin tapping my feet in annoyance. “I don’t know. I don’t care. Why would your respect mean anything to me?”

“Because I think you care a lot about how other people view you. When you can’t just bend everything to your will, you become soooo self conscious. You have to keep up appearances. You have appear unphased to everything. Your view of yourself is different from your actual self, and you just can’t accept it.”

“How would you know anything about me? We’ve only talked one other time.”

“Because you. Are. A. Child. You’ve never grown up mentally so your personality is predictable. You are still at the starting line. Maybe, I’m wrong, maybe this is just who you are. If that’s the case, I’ll end you right now before you start creating victims of your mentality.”

Polly taps me in the forehead with her index finger. “Growing up is not a one lane race, there are many paths and many finish lines. Take the right one for me will ya? This is the only time I’ll say anything. You’re on your own from now on.” Polly opens the door and exits, leaving me back alone in the darkness.

Polly

“He says he’s sorry about everything and wants to apologize personally to both of you.” I say, saying it loudly enough for Taiga to hear me before I close the door behind me.

“Oho, how humiliating.” Shaz chuckles as he sits back down. “Are you sure he actually said that?”

“Oh yea, going to grovel and everything. ISN’T THAT RIGHT!?” I yell the second part to make sure Taiga heard me.

The door behind me whips open as Taiga stomps through.

“I didn’t mean to say… I regret saying that stuff about seeing your family Avery, and maybe I could be a little nicer to you Shaz. I’m going to go out to get my mask back. I hope everyone in this room except Avery dies tomorrow. I hate both of you, good day.” Taiga turns heel and scurries away.

“That’s an excuse. His mask can return to him even if he does nothing to get it back.” I turn and whisper to Avery, who couldn’t help but grin in return.

I knew I couldn’t kill Taiga. Dundee would appear and stop me if things escalated, and if he weren’t there I would have done the deed already. Even now, I could barely resist the urge to cut his throat, but I can’t and I’ve accepted that.

So.

How about this motherfucker.

I don’t care when or what universe it happens in. It’ll happen eventually.

Taiga will be the one to destroy you Dundee. I’ll make sure of it.