"Ugh, my heaaaaad." Jessy lowered her hat to block the bright sun from shining directly into her eyes.

"I need an aspirin." Dot was literally green in the gills as she waddled forward, trying not to hurl.

"You're all, Ughk, so... pathetic." Queen's tough talk wasn't that convincing since she couldn't walk forward in a straight line.

Outside the inn, Ryuji watched his whole party deal with the consequences of their actions. "I hope you all learned your lesson." Ryuji attempted to sound as condescending as possible since he was still a little angry that he had to basically carry them all to the inn last night.

"My, are you always so lively in the mornyang?" The performer from last night walked up to Ryuji and joined in bearing witness to the spectacle.

Ryuji thought it was a little odd that she was still wearing her costume but decided not to comment on it. "Nah, usually I'm the one that has the short end of the stick. Which is why I'm really savoring this moment of victory." Ryuji's smug face caused Nyanjo to lift an eyebrow up in response.

Jessy seemed to notice the extra presence. "So whys this lady here? Did you happen to wrangle her up from the bar?"

"When you say it like that, it almost sounds like she's here against her will." Ryuji wasn't exactly fond of how often he was portrayed to be a pervert.

"Did the hero finally give in to temptation and let his carnal desires run free? I'm a little surprised you didn't go after Jessy, but I expected this kind of behavior nonetheless."

"Why would I go after Jessy?"

"Because she's the most likely one out of us to forgive you for something like that." Queen leaned in and whispered the last part. "If you haven't noticed, she's extremely gullible."

"What's with that smug face like you're some kind of detective who just figured something out! What have I done that would ever make you think that I would do something like that?!"

"No, I think little ice princess has a point there. If you tried to do that to either of us, you would die instantly." Dot chimed in after taking a swig of water and downing some pills that she pulled out of nowhere.

"Might I just add that I don't particularly like how this conversation is making me out to be some kind of easy woman. Do I really seem like that kind of a slinger?"

Ryuji decided that he would clear up the matter. "Yeah, not to mention I wouldn't throw myself at Jessy just because I was a little horny. I mean, she's super cute and cool, but you would have to be pretty sexy for me to do something like that." As soon as he was done, he felt the presence of danger as all the girls except for Jessy smiled at him knowingly.

"So... I don't have any sex appeal, huh?" Ryuji felt that his next course of action would determine his fate. He breathed deeply in and out before he went for it.

"So anyway, Nyanjo here will be traveling with us all the way to Priscillaca!"

"...Oi."

"Isn't that right, Nyanjo?"

"Uh, y-yeah."

"Stop ignoring me."

"Anyway, let's get moving! H-hey put the gun away!"

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

It had been about a week since Ryuji got a gun shoved near a place he never wanted to have a weapon near. In that time, they had run into some trouble, but it was nothing that the hyper gunslinger couldn't take care of. At the moment, they were sitting on a bank getting ready to move out.

"Hey, Ryuji." Jessy walked up to Ryuji, who was busy cleaning off his katana, with a worried look.

"What's up?"

"Isn't it a little weird how that cat girl joined us?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, she's been nice this whole time, but it just kinda feels a little forced. Plus, we don't even know why she wants to go to Priscillaca in the first place. Not to mention would you trust some drunk people you saw in a bar with your life?"

Now that he thought about it, this whole situation was a little weird. He looked towards Nyanjo, who was busy brushing her hair and not paying attention to anyone else. "Well, you do have a point there. But she could just be super trusting, and I would act nice around people I just met too. I mean, isn't everyone like that when they first meet someone?"

Jessy looked down with a conflicted face. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll try to be a little less judgy."

"You don't have to make yourself like her or any-" A dull pain shot through his body as his ears were ringing. He found that he couldn't move the left part of his body. A warm feeling flowed down the left side of his face as he sat stunned.

"RYUJI!" Jessy screamed and pushed Ryuji to the ground for cover. "Ryuji's been shot! I-I... What do I... PLEASE... Ryuji?!" Jessy's voice felt further and further away as his body became much colder.

'What happened?' The pain grew in intensity as his entire body except for his left side felt like it had been lit on fire. Then instantly, he felt nothing.

**************************************A****************G*****************************A*******************************************I*********************************N****************************?

"Hey, Ryuji."

His eyes darted around, making sure that he was back. From afar, Nyanjo stopped brushing her hair and gave Ryuji a side-eyed glance before continuing to brush.

Ryuji grit his teeth and whispered. "Again?" He had thought that maybe the events of last week would be a one-time thing. Since he had no way of testing it out besides killing himself, he had hoped that he might never be put in that kind of situation again.

"Ryuji?" Jessy shook Ryuji's shoulders.

"Jessy, we're under attack. I can sense them, but I don't know how many there are. Go tell the others to be prepared."

Jessy saw the determination in his eyes and nodded before walking over to the others and explaining the situation.

"Emporers Eye." On the other side of the stream, he heard the presence of some unwanted visitors. The sound of pulling back a bolt filled his ears. "Get down!"

A bullet whizzed past his ear, knocking down a tree behind him. "Vorpal Cut!" Without any hesitation, Ryuji sent a wave of destructive energy to the source of the commotion.

"AAAAAHHH!" The scream of a man echoed through the bank, signaling to Ryuji that he had successfully disabled the sniper.

"Now, here is the kind of random encounter I was hoping to get on this trip!" Dot brandished her pistol as masked people surrounded their location.

Each one was armed in some way or another. Ryuji could tell from the scream that they weren't demons. He figured that they were some kind of mercenary group based on the fact that they all were wearing the same emblem. A phoenix being strangled by a cobra was imprinted on all their chests.

"What do you delinquents want? It's not exactly an intelligent idea to attack adventurers, even if you do have a numbers advantage." Queen looked coldly at the battalion of masked people surrounding them.

"------------"

Ryuji slowly walked over to the pink-haired girl while the assailants silently watched. "Stay close to me. I feel like things are about to get messy." Nyanjo nodded with eyes full of concern and worry.

"I'll give you till the count of three to leave this place peacefully!" Jessy proclaimed her ultimatum loudly while both her hands rested on the revolver holsters at her hips.

"ONE!" Ryuji tensed up and kept a firm grip on the sword he had drawn and ready.

"TWO!" Both Queen and Dot looked on with little worry as the mercenaries drew their weapons and readied magic.

"THREE!" Ryuji pushed Nyanjo to the ground, and the others followed suit as Jessy ripped leather. Bullets whizzed over their heads in a constant stream that would have confused anybody if you told them the person shooting wasn't using an automatic. Body after body hit the ground. Soon her bullet supply ran dry, giving everyone the signal to get up and commence their attacks.

"I take the ones on the left. You get the ones on the right." Queen prepared herself for the fight ahead of her with a resolved look.

"Aye, aye, Vegeta!" Dot went to town on the ones assigned to her, incapacitating them or killing them in the strangest ways imaginable.

"Come on, I'll show you all why gun magic is superior to your piddly little swords!" Dot had drawn her two automatic pistols from her back holsters and started taking care of the ones behind Ryuji.

That left Ryuji to deal with the ones directly in front of him. Every time one of them came within range, they were promptly beheaded. Ryuji wasn't fond of killing people, but he didn't feel too bad about it, considering they had just killed him a few minutes ago. 'Why the hell are they so many of them? And what do they want with us?' He considered the possibility that it might be the work of Raeg again.

"Um, Ryuji!"

"What?" Ryuji turned around to see that he had accidentally got too far away from Nyanjo, who was now being dragged away by the masked men. "Wait! I'll be there soon." Ryuji went into a stance to boost forward but was promptly interrupted by gunfire that took his whole centration to deflect. "Dammnit!"

"Tsk... you really are useless, aren't ya?" Nyanjo's demeanor changed. The once cute and innocent eyes now looked dead and demented. Gone was the adorable cat girl they had been traveling with. "Emotion Entzunden." Her body became wrapped in crimson flames that spread to the men carrying her.

Ryuji felt sick to his stomach as he watched the flames melt their skin. Their screams brought the nightmares he would often have to the front of his subconscious. Thoughts of the battle at hand slipped away as his breathing quickened. Ryuji's mind was slowly reverting back to the night that happened years ago.

"Get your head out of your ass, man!" Dot bonked him on the head with the butt of her revolver.

"Ow." He slowly recovered and noticed that the only mercenaries left were the ones surrounding Nyanjo. "We need to help her." Ryuji moved forward towards the damsel in distress but was swiftly obstructed by Marie.

"She doesn't need your help. She also doesn't deserve it."

"What!?"

"Did you not notice the fact that they instantly attempted to kill us but want her alive? They obviously came here for her, and she obviously knew they would." Queen seemed really annoyed that Ryuji hadn't put that together.

"I guess you're right, but if she seems in trouble, I'm stepping in."

The group encircling her numbered in the tens, but Nyanjo didn't seem too fazed by it. One of the masked men spoke up for the first time. "Come along, Miss Launisch. The boss wants you back dearly. You know that even if you kill us all, there will only be more sent in response. We are all expendable compared to you, after all."

Nyanjo scoffed in response before snapping. "That psychopath can go shove it up his ass. I won't be crawling back to him. I don't care what he tries to do."

"I hope when the next squad finds you that you reconsider." Even in the face of imminent death, the man's voice sounded polite and calming.

"This is why I hate all of you. You know that you're being used like sacrificial pieces, but you still don't care." The fire around her burned brighter and hotter. Even though the ground was beginning to be scorched, her clothes remained fine as if the flames weren't actually on her. "Zorn Platzen!" A pillar of crimson flames enveloped her and the men reducing even their bones to piles of ash.

Jessy holstered her pistols and repositioned her hat. "I knew that she was trouble."

Nyanjo looked at the group before scolding them. "Weren't you supposed to protect me? And after all that big talk, I had to protect myself! Pathetic."

"Okay, she's officially pissing me off, so can we just leave her here?" Dot seemed like she was seriously considering just shooting the rude cat.

Ryuji stared hard at the unapologetic problem child he had picked up in the previous town. "Cmon, let's get going." The group packed everything up and begun to move out while Nyanjo bore a hole into the ground with her stare. "That includes you ya know."

She cautiously eyed Ryuji. "Why?"

"Yeah Ryu, why?" Dot grit her sharp teeth as she waited for an answer.

"Ryu?" Dot didn't respond, and Ryuji just supposed he had earned a new nickname. "Look, if we leave her here alone when we know more of those guys are going to chase after her, I won't be able to sleep at night."

Nyanjo still looked unconvinced. "That's your reasoning? That is the fakest shit I've ever heard."

"Well, I'm not going to sit around here and try to convince you to come. It's your life, so if you want to throw it away because you don't like my reasoning, then that's your business."

Nyanjo watched the backs of the people who she had been duping for the last few days before running and catching up. "We can get along for a few more days until we reach Priscillaca, right evernyan?"

"That might make our fool of a hero happy, but now that we know what you're really like, that's just creepy."

"Gotta agree."

"Yeah, me too."

"Really? Hey, Ryuji, didn't you say you wanted to protect me? Pwease make the mean girls stop picking on me." Nyanjo grabbed his arm and pulled him close. Her eyes were much like a puppy's, and her ears lay sideways, which made Ryujis heart soar.

"This is going to be a long few days." Ryuji marched forward unknowingly towards the horrible fate that awaited him in the river city.