On April 13, 1900, under a languid midday sun casting soft shadows across Lafiaza, between 1 and 2 PM, the town hummed with quiet activity. Maria was at her home preparing lunch, while Manabu accompanied Kami to Nosco Loc College and University for admissions.
Taiju lay on the bed, and Mai, painting her nails, conversed in their room when a sudden thought struck them. "Eh? Where's Mion? I didn't realize she's been absent for a while." Taiju assumed she had gone with Manabu for admissions, but Mai recalled Mion declaring she had no interest in studying anymore and wished to pursue painting as a career. "Then why would she go with Manabu?" Mai wondered.
Taiju scratched his head and replied, "Maybe she changed her mind or went to keep him company. What else could it be?"
While they talked, Roy pressed the doorbell and entered, having just returned from picking up laundry detergent to do the laundry. He had left Noor with the kids at the orphanage.
For a moment, Maria thought it was Manabu, but she turned from chopping vegetables and asked, "Why are you here? And where's Leon?"
"He went out for a job," he said. Maria faced him with a displeased expression. "Wasn't he just feeling better yesterday?" She was genuinely exasperated with Leon. "I'd better scold him too," she thought, resuming her chopping with an irate demeanor.
Roy raised both hands in an "I don't know" gesture and steered clear of the kitchen. He entered Maria's bedroom where Taiju and Mai were talking. He greeted them and asked if he was welcome. Roy seemed amicable, so they weren't bothered by him. Taiju wore the same style of glasses as Roy, which Roy considered a sign of camaraderie.
"By the way, where are you from?" Taiju asked, noting Roy's appearance, which was markedly dissimilar to Lafians.
Roy replied, "Oh, I'm actually from the neighboring country, Ura. And my actual name is Krishna Das. By the way, I'm 32." Hearing this, Taiju's jaw dropped. "What?" And Mai was, as always, perplexed. Roy looked no older than 20 in Taiju's retinas. "But he's 32? How?!" Taiju couldn't believe it.
Then Roy drew nearer and murmured to both with uncertainty, "Has Leon done anything bad to you two? I noticed you always avoid conversing about him."
Taiju wasn't sure what to say.
Roy offered a piece of advice about Leon: "Leon is fundamentally a good guy, but sometimes, he does strange and extreme things. So, better stay calm around him and avoid him as much as possible."
Taiju and Mai were already privy to Leon's erratic nature, harboring no desire to broach his name. They habitually feigned deafness whenever Leon's voice echoed nearby.
Then Roy asked about the pink-haired girl staying with them. Neither Mai nor Taiju had any idea where she was. "Maybe she went to complete a job," they said casually.
What a coincidence…
Leon strode along the footpath, hands in his pockets, clad in a black shirt and black-and-white jeans. Two officers relayed instructions through a mini speaker clipped to his collar and an earbud nestled in his ear. Unseen by Leon's gaze, Mion shadowed him with predatory stealth. She donned a white hoodie, its hood obscuring her face, trailing him from afar. Her once-long pink hair was now cropped to her shoulders. A knife rested in her hoodie pocket, her hand gripping it as she pursued Leon at a calculated distance.
After tailing him for a while, she watched Leon enter a seedy bar. "Bastard," Mion muttered. She followed him inside. Leon handed cash to a man, who ushered him into a private room.
Mion couldn't enter, so she lingered outside, ordering a cold drink.
After half an hour, Leon emerged, accompanied by a woman. As they exited, chatting, Leon abruptly slapped her face with brutal force, sending her sprawling. He muttered something, but the ambient noise drowned his words. Leon departed alone, while the woman, clutching her purse and pressing her hand to her cheek, staggered away.
Something felt amiss. Mion resolved to investigate the room they'd occupied. She rose, pushed open the door, and discovered three corpses inside. Foam oozed from their noses and mouths—clear signs of poisoning.
Without hesitation, Mion bolted after Leon, yanking the knife from her hoodie's pocket.
"Job's done," Leon declared, standing outside, speaking into a tapping device to inform the officers. Suddenly, Mion charged with a fierce cry, plunging her knife into his side, just beside his navel.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Leon's agonized scream shattered the air.
Hearing his piercing wail, the two investigators panicked and rushed toward him. Mion lunged to stab again, but Leon twisted her wrist, hurled her aside, and fled. Mion scrambled up, pursuing him, as the investigators reached her, seizing her arms from behind. She reacted swiftly—kicking one in the testicles and slashing the other's wrist near the median nerve, leaving a jagged scar, before breaking free.
Mion chased Leon, incredulous. "How could he run this fast?!" He sprinted with unnatural speed despite a deep peritoneal wound gushing blood. The chase spilled onto the main road. Leon vaulted over cars; Mion pursued, deftly dodging traffic.
Then—a speeding vehicle roared forward, striking Leon with bone-crunching force. His femur dislocated, his eyes bulged as he rolled over the hood, shattering the windshield, and crashed face-first onto the pavement. Blood poured from his nose and mouth.
Mion, the investigators, and the driver stood frozen, faces contorted. "Leon's dead," they thought.
Just as they assumed the worst, Leon rose. His eyes were mere pupils, devoid of lenses, his face and head bathed in blood. He resumed running, like a fish gasping on land, defiant against death.
Their stunned thoughts snapped back. "Fucking lizard!" Mion cursed, evading the investigators once more.
Local police spotted the chaos in the road and rushed in. Leon collapsed, suddenly numb from the accident. Mion pounced with lethal intent, raising her knife, but Leon twisted her arm, kicked her abdomen, and sent the knife skittering into an open manhole at a construction site. He shoved her down and fled. By the time police arrived, they restrained Mion. She lay panting on the ground, glaring as Leon vanished into the distance…
Mion was arrested, and they filed an FIR against her. The police bundled her into a car and drove to the station.
Leon staggered to Maria's house, frantically ringing the doorbell as his strength waned. Blood dripped from his peritoneal wound and fractured arm, his breaths ragged.
Maria, expecting Manabu, flung open the door. At the sight of Leon's blood-soaked form, she stood aghast, her heart lurching. "Leon!" she cried, voice fracturing with horror, clutching him as her eyes brimmed with anguish. She screamed for aid. "No! No, no, Leon! Someone—Roy! Leon's bleeding!"
Hearing her desperate cries, Taiju, Roy, and Mai rushed over, finding her cradling Leon's blood-drenched body. Roy knelt, checking his pulse, and beckoned Taiju to help carry Leon to the bedroom.
Maria wept, muttering incoherently, "I told you—I—I told you, but you wouldn't listen… Roy, Roy, please do something, he's bleeding—he's bleeding…" Her words stumbled like a child's.
Leon instructed Roy to stitch his belly immediately. Roy grabbed a first-aid kit and sutures from the medicine cabinet. Leon shed his shirt and lay on the bed.
Maria's panic surged, her breaths hitching. "I told you," she hiccupped, "you, Leon, I—I told you. You're always so reckless."
Roy returned with the kit and warned Leon to brace himself, as it would hurt. Leon trusted Roy, a veterinarian from Ura skilled in treating humans. Roy cleaned the wound and began stitching. Leon bit his finger as the needle pierced his flesh. Maria, frantic, seized his hand. "No, no, no, don't bite—don't bite your finger… Roy! Roy! He's in pain. Please be careful…" Leon gripped Maria's hand, enduring the agony.
Roy told Taiju to restrain Maria, as she grew paranoid at the sight of blood. Taiju and Mai pulled her back, as instructed, trying to soothe her. Mai turned, enveloping Maria in a tender embrace, her cheek pressed gently against Maria's midriff.
Leon gritted his teeth, stifling screams. The stab wound was severe, and his body throbbed from the car accident. The knife hadn't pierced his intestines, but the wound was grave. Leon screamed in pain.
Roy finished stitching but noticed a serious contusion on Leon's right side. Leon admitted being hit by a car, insisting, "I'll be fine." Roy's eyes widened. "There's no way you're fine. You could die, damn it!" Maria stood, urging him to go to the hospital. Roy concurred. Maria was visibly the most distraught. "Wh—who did this to you?" she asked repeatedly.
"Mion," Leon muttered.
"Why?" Everyone's eyes widened in shock. "Why would Mion do this?" Maria demanded.
"Things had suddenly taken a dire turn," Taiju thought.
Just then, Manabu and Kami arrived with the investigators, saw Leon, and learned everything. Kami ordered his driver outside to start the car.
According to the investigators, "Leon was on an encounter task, but Mion suddenly attacked him, and then he got hit by a car. Mion is now in jail."
Kami entered the car to head to the police station. Manabu followed, buckling his seatbelt, insisting on joining despite Kami's urging to stay. They drove to the station. Inside a cell, Mion lay on the floor, her face bruised, clothes soiled from the fight, hands stained with blood.
Upon Kami's arrival, he bribed the officers to bail her out. The jail door swung open.
Manabu stared at Mion—her bloodied hands betrayed no remorse, only grim satisfaction.
On the way back, Mion remained utterly silent.
They arrived, ringing the doorbell. Roy, seeing her blood-stained hands, paled.
They entered Maria's room. Maria sat beside Leon's bed, wiping his wounds with a cloth dipped in cold water, her tears falling. Leon bore deep scars from the accident. Seeing Mion, Maria rose, demanding answers. "Mion, why did you do this?! What did he ever do to you?! He was just doing his job! What if he had died?!" she hiccupped.
"I wish he had died, but unfortunately, he survived," Mion said coldly.
Leon glared at her, eyes blazing with fury.
Mion stepped closer, locking eyes with him. "Daima killed Naomi because of you. If not for you, Daima might have spared her. Everything—every disaster—happened because of you… You used me to kill an innocent man. You turned me into a monster. You stole everything from me."
Manabu tried to intervene, but she snapped at him too. "Naomi was your friend as well. You told me never to abandon her, but now her murderer stands before you, and what did you do except accept her death as misfortune?" She turned to Taiju and Mai. "What did you do? Nothing… You moved on like it was nothing. They may mean nothing to you, but they were my family, my only reason to live, stolen from me."
Manabu said nothing. Taiju and Mai remained silent.
Mion smirked at Leon. "You can't do anything to me, can you? All you do is talk big, but you're powerless. I've figured you out; you were bluffing about exposing us to the police. You can't do anything."
Her voice crescendoed. "Manabu has found his family, Mai has hers, Taiju has his mom and dad. Why only me? Why am I the only one left with no one?!—Naomi and Futaba, they were all I had, and they were taken from me, why?" Her eyes brimmed with tears. "I won't forgive you!" She vowed, "I will kill you, Leon. I promise."
Leon raised his hand to halt her, unflinching. "I've explained as much as I could. Indeed, I am powerless to justify myself properly. It seems I was proven right after all: humans choose revenge over redemption, as redemption is a burden, and revenge is salvation. You saw through my bluff to keep you composed, but you won't stay still. From now on, I won't compromise. Since you vowed to kill me, Mion, I promise you as well: YOU WILL TRY."
Mion gritted her teeth, seething, yearning to erase him. Before things escalated, Kami seized her arms and led her upstairs.
Manabu, Mai, and Taiju followed.
Kami sat Mion on the couch and demanded to know what Leon had done, as he was unaware, and Manabu had never mentioned it. "Out of fear?"
Without hesitation, Mion confessed everything to Kami. She revealed how Leon had deceived the Investigation Department and CPUS-Intelligence-Arms. "He killed the only people I called family. He's worse than a monster. I swear I won't spare him. I'll chase him to hell."
Kami understood her anguish and why she was desperate to kill Leon. Her tears bore the weight of her suffering, a profound misery. "Funny world," Kami thought. "Leon brought Manabu under my orders, but what has he wrought? He destroyed an innocent life for his craving for freedom. How low can life sink?"
Kami spoke. "Mion, thank you for revealing what Leon has done under our noses. It's a great help, but you can't kill him now. You shouldn't. Forget what happened and let the department handle it."
"I get it," Mion stood, walking out. "No one understands what I've endured. Fine, I'll seek vengeance myself."
Manabu grabbed her wrist. "Mion, we do understand, but killing him isn't the only way. He has a family too. If you kill him, you'd be no different from a monster."
"If you'd lost something precious, even you'd kick a child's chest. This is reality, Manabu." Mion shook off his hand. "I'll do it. I don't care about his family, as he didn't care for mine. To make him pay."
She loomed over Manabu. "I'm being realistic with reality. Do you know what that means? It's adapting to life's cruel ways. Look at me, Manabu. Do you see the old Mion in me anymore?" Her eyes, like Leon's, held no reflection.
"No," she muttered, "because she's dead. Only her pain remains, her feelings linger."
She resumed walking and click! opened the door.
Suddenly, Kami laughed at her words. "Be realistic with reality." Mion turned, but he kept chuckling. "This revenge will gain you nothing, Mion," he said.
Mion narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean?"
Kami, who had known Leon for years, advised her to steer clear of him. Mion was blinded by rage and needed restraint.
He explained, "The anger bursting inside you is because of Leon, for Leon, aimed at Leon. Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are totally in control of your own emotions. How can one willingly control an emotion that has been developed because of someone else's? The anger inside you isn't even because your own free will.
Don't fool yourself into thinking Leon isn't in control of what's happening right now.
He used your very own emotions to kill an innocent man...Was that actually your own will? Your free will? Didn't he persuade you to do something so horrible?
He knows exactly what a human needs. And what he has learned and witnessed in his life, trust me, is barely comparable to yours. How can you measure a ring's size in an ocean?"
He gently placed his hand atop Mion's head, smoothing her hair. "Since Leon said he won't hold back, he won't. Your revenge is must—but only when you know what you're doing, what you're after. He knows his purpose."
Kami hugged her, her heart softening in the warmth of his arms. "Mion, for now, stay calm and bide your time," he whispered. "Leon is vital to CPUS-Intelligence-Arms. We need him to betray his own people… Once we achieve our goal, you can testify in court, detailing his crimes, legally sentencing him to death before your eyes for his injustices. Or you may rightfully end him yourself."
Mion whimpered silently, pressing her face to his chest. Kami kissed her forehead, wiped her tears, and went downstairs to check on Leon, leaving her to rest.
Maria clung to Kami, visibly distraught, but said nothing.
Her trembling hands resumed tending Leon's wounds, soaking a silk cloth in cold water and gently dabbing away the blood.
Kami turned to Leon, firm. "From now on, you won't come here anymore, for anything."
Leon nodded respectfully. "As you wish."
Kami promised things would be alright. "Mion will be fine too; she won't cross your path, I promise. But if she resumes planting obstacles, you'll have to take care of the damage you caused." Kami left with those words.
Maria's stifled sobs escaped in hushed, shuddering breaths, her eyes glistening with unspoken grief. Leon watched, sensing her worry.
"Why do you do this? For what?" Maria mumbled. "Those rumors about you… are they true? What did you do to Mion?" She wiped her tears with her forearm. "What did you do to deserve this? Why do you always land in such chaos?"
Leon looks at her with kind eyes. Despite her fear of blood, she cleaned his wounds and blood.
Leon couldn't be any less grateful to her, she had looked after his kids, and did many kinds things to him, which he can never repay.
"I'll tell you everything when the time comes. Once I'm free."He promised and glanced at Roy, smirking. "Give me a hand, will you? I think my arm's fractured."
Roy stayed silent. Without a word, he removed his glasses, stood, and helped Leon to his feet.
Before leaving, Leon leaned in, pressing his forehead gently against Maria's. "I'll be fine, don't worry about me. And Mion isn't a bad person; she's just deeply wounded. I did horrific things to her—to them. I can't explain now."
He lifted her chin. "Maria, look at me. I'll always return to you. I beg you, don't hate Mion. She's a kind girl."
Leon wrapped a shirt around himself, wincing as he moved his fractured arm. With Roy's support, he limped to the car. Roy started the engine and drove to the hospital.