“But it’s just a fairie! How can you treat it like a person?!” Hayato was in disbelief.

“They feel, they think, and they can communicate with us. How could I not?” Zoey knew there was a disconnect between her and people from the magji world, but this was common sense, right?

“So what?! Its entire purpose in life is to serve magjistars. You can’t call something like that a person.” Hayato stood true to his beliefs.

“Your entire purpose was to serve your father’s every order not too long ago.” Zoey reminded him.

“Oh, don’t talk to me about my father, you…” Hayato bit his tongue.

“Say it. I’m a what? A caring human being? Someone that doesn’t have a black hole for a heart?”

“You don’t know anything about me. Don’t act like you know a damn thing about me.” Hayato’s anger spilled from his tongue.

“Don’t know what? That you were raised as a good obedient little slave ever since you were born? It was only when you met me, and I kicked your ass, that your perfect little paradise of being on Daddy’s good side and always making him proud came crumbling down.” Inner Zoey spouted off. “Daddy realized you weren’t his perfect little toy since you lost to some gully after all that effort and time he put into torturing you and brainwashing you. Then you couldn’t handle not being daddy’s perfect little boy and got desperate. That’s why you tried to kill me at the joint case, right? Cause I ruined the way you saw the world. I ruined the perfect world where you had nothing to do but kiss your father’s ass 24/7.” Inner Zoey stood up and looked into Hayato’s eyes.

Hayato slugged Zoey across the face. Zoey went flying above the sandy beach as Tink cried out in shock. Zoey didn’t even get the opportunity to fall to the ground as Hayato’s sword came slashing at her. The 18-year-old boxer blocked the deadly slashes with her cursed boxing gloves while mid-air. She glared at Hayato, who only looked at her with furious rage.

“I’ll kill you!” Hayato slashed down with his sword, slamming Zoey’s body into the earth.

Zoey grimaced from the pain as she bounced off the sand back into the air, only to face a piercing stab that would definitely open up a hole in her stomach. Realizing the sudden danger she was in, Zoey sent mahna into the silver ring on her pinkie finger and blinked. Hayato seemed like he already saw this coming, and his sword came slashing at her horizontally. Zoey could only teleport within a very limited range and only to the closest mahna signature next to her.

She held up her gloves to block the slash and was sent rolling away in the sand from the impact. Hayato didn’t let up on her as she was flying away. It was impossible for Zoey to fight back this time. However, it wasn’t impossible for her to see Hayato’s attacks and maneuver her body into taking on superficial wounds instead of ones that would cause her to bleed out or die.

Hayato was really going out, and honestly, Zoey was feeling a little bad for what she said. She didn’t need to say all that shit she said. Did she mean it? Absolutely. Did she need to say it? Not really.

Zoey finally got back to her feet and barely managed to stop a twisting fist from turning her stomach into a twisted spiral. She caught the spinning fist before it could make itself home in her gut and headbutted Hayato into sliding away. Hayato gripped his head in pain. He shook it to lessen the pain as he rushed at Zoey.

Zoey shook her head. She was finally back on her feet and in fighting position. Hayato knew he couldn’t win this way, right? He hasn’t let his hurt feelings take over his mind this much, has he? The way he was constantly pressuring her since the start of their fight was good. It was advice she taught him in their training lessons. Even though she was stronger, she could’ve still been severely injured if it wasn’t for the magji ring Alexander and Lindsay gave her a long time ago.

As Hayato ran toward her, he smirked. Zoey readied herself to counterattack the moment he landed a blow on her. Unfortunately for Zoey, Hayato’s goal wasn’t Zoey at all. Hayato ran straight through her in his ghostly form with his sword, headed for Tink. Tink screamed in shock, and Zoey’s anger spiked. He wouldn’t!

Zoey dashed at Hayato at speeds that caused the sand to burst into the air. “Hmph. Gullible fool.” Hayato’s blade was turned backward as Zoey just impaled herself on his sword. “I recently made a promise to myself to be stupid just for the sake of gaining power from you. You know, saving the lives of insignificant trash. Helping them out in their times of need. Pointlessly getting involved in the troubles of trash. But I just realized I don’t need someone like you at all. As long as I follow that training plan of yours, I’ll grow strong enough without you.” Hayato grinned as he twisted his blade.

Blood flowed from Zoey’s mouth as she looked down at the sword in the right side of her abdomen. She didn’t respond.

“I never knew just how stupid you were until today. I thought you were just some naive gully that had yet to face the harsh realities of life, and I wasn’t wrong. It's just that you were too strong. It made me question everything I ever knew standing by your side. I hated every second of it. Do you know what it feels like to have your entire life overturned by the same person multiple times over?” Hayato glared at her motionless body. “Change isn’t always good, sensei. It’s quite terrifying.” Hayato pulled out his sword as a streak of blood flew from Zoey’s stomach.

He turned his back to Zoey as he looked at the shivering Tink. “I suppose you aren’t as useless as I thought. Because of you, I managed to kill someone far stronger than me. Someone I never would’ve managed to kill in any other circumstance. As thanks, I’ll give you a painless send-off.” Hayato slowly walked over to the frozen Tink.

Hayato drew his blade back. Without any hesitation, he attempted to slice through the stunned fairie. If everything went as he wanted, the fairie would’ve been bisected in two as the group of four magjistar watched on from a distance. Sadly, Hayato seemingly forgot one of the main rules of fighting passed on to him by Zoey.

“Always double tap.” Zoey wrapped her arms around Hayato’s waist and locked her fingers together.

“Wha-” Before he could react, he was flying into the air before being driven straight into the sand below.

As the pain hit him all at once, Hayato attempted to utilize his clan’s connate magji, but it didn’t work if someone else was in physical contact with him. Hayato was then taken out of his sand burial and suddenly flew into the sky with someone wrapped around him. The two of them began spinning at dangerous speeds as they flipped in the air, spiraling toward the ground. Hayato couldn’t even scream from how fast they were spinning. The last thing he knew was an unimaginable pain coming from his neck and head.

…

“Finally awake?” Zoey said, crouching in front of him.

Hayato couldn’t feel any of his limbs. He immediately panicked, remembering how Zoey dealt with that human trash who touched her boyfriend. “I WILL KILL YOU! I WILL MURDER EVERYONE YOU LOVE, ZOEY BENJAMIN WINTERS! I WILL MURDER YOUR MOTHER, YOUR BROTHER, YOUR FATHER, YOUR LOVER, AND YOUR FRIENDS IF I escape here alive!” Hayato made a heart oath to the world. She crippled him?! She ensured that he couldn’t ever live up to the promises he made to his clan, to his father, and most importantly, to himself.

“...” Zoey was unsure how to react after hearing that.

Hayato knew a lot about her. Before today, she trusted him just as much as she trusted any other of her friends. He knew her home life, her friends in both the normal world and the magji world, names of the people she cared about. Seeing him lose his mind like this after their fight, made Zoey realize that this fight between friends was a lot more to Hayato than it was to herself. She just wished he didn’t have to bring the people she cared about into this… Zoey picked up her phone and called someone.

“Prometheus, I’m confused, and I need some advice.” Zoey’s tone was somber.

“My magji shard is telling me that this decision will follow you for the rest of your life. I don’t know the specifics, but I will only tell you this. Don’t do anything you will regret.” Prometheus hung up the call, and Zoey looked at the insane Hayato flailing his neck while buried in the sand.

“...” Zoey held her hand over Hayato’s head and grasped it with some force.

“I will make you suffer for the rest of your life!” Hayato promised.

“I’m sorry…”