“So?” Sol asks, interrupting Niche’s train of thought. “What’ll it be?”

  “I…I accept,” Niche replies defeatedly. “But, let’s make that a contract,” Niche continues, grinning.

  Sol is taken aback. At that exact moment, in the other room, Raizen’s cat form stops mid-step.

  “Something wrong?” Niche asks mockingly.

  “I-I don’t make contracts with sun bearers,” Sol replies. “That’s beneath my position.”

  “Is that why? Is it because I’m to lowly to make contracts with you?” Niche asks. “Or is it really because you can’t? Because you’re not who you claim to be. So, the great leader of the Vestige Court the most powerful being; there’s still someone above who makes these contracts,” Niche says as he realizes this. “You—”

  Sol sighs. “This is tedious. I’ll take both you and your weapon to Neptune. He can sort out your proposals.” Sol reaches out his arm to Niche.

  Niche desperately launches flames at him with full power. Sol doesn’t move his hand out of its trajectory. The fire seems to pass through him as if he’s made of something beyond physics.

  “Did you think fire would work on me?” Sol chuckles. “I existed before fire was a concept.”

  Niche, backing away, throws more attacks to no avail. Sol effortlessly walks forward through Niche’s attacks. Not fast or aggressive, but just inevitable. With one gesture from Sol, Niche’s body stops responding. Niche stands effectively frozen as Sol grabs Niche by the collar.

  “Come here, kitty.” Sol turns around to Raizen and holds out his hand.

  Raizen shifts mid-air from cat to sword, flying into Sol’s hand. No power to resist.

  Sol carries them both away, one hand gripping Niche’s collar to immobilize him and the other hand pinching Raizen’s scruff.

  “So…” Raizen stays to Niche. “I listened to your instructions. Good going with the manipulation. Really worked,” Raizen says sarcastically. “What now, good leader?”

  Niche’s face goes blank. “Now, we…”

  Sol, hearing this dialogue between the two helpless creatures, answers Raizen’s cry for help. “Since you resisted me, Niche, both of you will end up dead. Niche will be—”

  Sol suddenly cuts himself off. He stops walking, leaving Raizen and Niche curious as to what stumped this man.

  Sol thinks.

  Sol turns around, speaking up as if trying to talk to something in the distance. “Kaito. You’re here.”

  After a moment of silence, Niche, growing irritated by this uncomfortable position, speaks loudly.

  “Kaito? The hell is that?” Niche asks, looking at Sol’s distracted face. Niche looks back at Raizen, saying, “Raizen, you know—?”

  Niche doesn’t have to finish his sentence, as he can tell from the heavy silence of the cat that Raizen doesn’t plan on speaking soon.

  Niche, abstracted from his surroundings as he tries to figure out what distracted Sol, doesn’t realize that the roach from earlier had crawled onto Niche’s shoulder. As it crawls around Niche’s torso, Niche jerks and, startled, spews eternal flames from every pore of his body.

  “What the fuck—” Sol’s exclaims as his hand burns with this fire, forcing him to drop both Niche and Raizen.

  Niche drops to the ground with a grunt, Raizen softly lands on the floor, and Sol backs away, flailing his hands to rid himself of this everlasting fire.

  The flames, now proliferating to engulf Sol’s entire body in fire, illuminates everything. With this, Niche looks in awe as long hallways stretching in every direction are brought to Niche’s eyes.

  “Raizen,” Niche says, holding out his hand as his demeanor grows serious.

  The cat shifts toward Niche, flowing into his hand as it turns back into a sword.

  “I’m ready,” Niche says to Sol, assuming a fighting position. “Come fight me.” Niche raises his flames, his stance wide.

  Sol doesn’t even look at Niche; Sol turns toward Shima, who is still standing cluelessly at this encounter between Niche – who Shima thought had insurmountable power – and Sol, an even more powerful being. Sol lunges towards her with inhuman speed.

  Shima barely dodges, falling to her feet. Shima thinks.

  Shima gets up, backing away, but Sol’s movements are too precise and calculated.

  Sol immediately catches up to her, grabbing her shoulder before she can leave. “Give me Kaito,” he says, his voice losing its bored tone. There’s something raw underneath.

  Shima shrugs his hand off – which he apparently let her do with ease– and takes off running. Again, Sol quickly catches up to her and reaches for her neck—

  The scarf vanishes in front of Sol.

  “What the hell?” Sol asks, looking around frustrated.

  “Want this?” Niche mockingly asks.

  Niche stands behind Sol twenty feet away, holding the scarf in his left hand above his right. In his right hand appears eternal flames. The conscious fabric seems to recoil from the heat.

  “Let her go and you’ll get it,” Niche says to Sol.

  “Niche, no,” Raizen says to Niche. His voice is sharp, almost panicked.

  Sol’s eyes burn with something Niche hasn’t seen before. For the first time, Niche senses pure hatred in Sol’s eyes, which evidently sends a shiver down Niche’s spine.

  “You don’t know what you’re holding,” Sol says quietly, almost as if he was warning Niche of an imminent danger.

  “I don’t,” Niche admits. “But surely it’s important to you, right?”

  “You fool.” Sol turns away from Niche, toward Shima.

  Niche gasps when Sol dashes at Shima. Niche intercepts the jab at Shima’s face, barely blocking Sol’s attack with Raizen. Raizen’s steel presses against whatever Sol is made of.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  “Your girlfriend for the scarf,” Sol suggests. “That scarf is worth way more than this useless girl your protecting, but in your hands, the scarf is !” Sol exclaims, pushing against the bind with a newfound rage.

  Suddenly, Niche feels an immense force shove against him.

  Sol beats the bind with just his forearm, sending Niche sprawling to the ground.

  Niche thinks as he lays flat on the ground.

  Niche gets back up as soon as Sol continues the attack, blitzing towards Niche. Niche barely has time to raise the sword before Sol clashes into him. This time, Niche can feel that the clash is wrong; each strike Niche lands on Sol with Raizen not only doesn’t damage Sol but hurts Raizen.

  “Alright,” Niche says to Raizen. “I gotta do this now.”

  Niche explodes forward, putting everything into a speed blitz. Niche appears behind Sol, then accelerates, aiming his sword towards Sol’s back. His sword connects with Sol’s neck before Sol can even turn around. Sol doesn’t even blink. Instead, Niche’s head detonates from a counter he never saw coming.

  Blood and brain matter spray from Niche’s neck, soaking the scarf in blood. Niche’s head regenerates instantly. Niche continues the chain of attacks, hammering Sol with strikes and flames.

  “Fools never learn,” Sol says, backing away to dodge Niche’s attacks.

  Sol materializes behind Niche. The Sol Niche was fighting dissolves; it appears to just have been manipulated matter.

  “You thought you were faster than me? I existed before the concept of speed,” Sol sinisterly whispers in Niche’s ear.

  One gesture from Sol sends Niche slamming into the floor, pinned by immense weight.

  “Enough of this,” Sol says as Raizen appears in Sol’s hand without transition. “I’ll break you now and get this over with,” Sol says, looking at Raizen’s fearful demeanor that shows through the thick metal.

  Niche’s mind raced. He’d never been this stressed in his life. This helpless. This defenseless.

  Sol raises his knee to snap the sword—

  Everything stops.

  Niche lunges forward, grabbing Raizen from Sol’s frozen grip.

  Time resumes.

  “What the hell?” Sol says confused, staring at his empty hands.

  “Raizen. Turn into a wagon… now!”

  The sword complies, shifting a part of the floor instantly into a wooden wagon.

  Time stops again. Niche moves fast, grabbing Shima and Arius and throwing them in the wagon along with Raizen. Niche takes off east into one of the connecting hallways.

  Time resumes.

  “What the fuck just happened?” Arius says as he grips the wagon sides.

  “I got it taken care of,” Niche dismisses. “Now, we just gotta escape.”

  “Why are we in this wagon?” Shima asks, looking around confused.

  “FOCUS! We need to get out of here,” Niche says, irritated.

  “Right,” Shima agrees.

  “Niche,” Arius says shyly. “I…uh.”

  “What is it?” Niche asks, his voice carrying a slight annoyance.

  “I think we’re far enough now,” Arius says.

  Niche, looking around, realizes the group was a safe distance away, and Sol appeared to be nowhere near them.

  “Yeah. Get out of the wagon,” Niche commands.

  Arius climbs out. Shima picks up Raizen, throws him out of the wagon onto the floor, and climbs out herself. Raizen, clanking on the floor, shifts back to his cat form.

  As the group catches their breath and searches around for an exit, Niche wonders what element gave him the power to get away from Sol.

  “Turn left!” Raizen’s voice vibrates through the halls from up ahead around the corner.

  Niche looks around, taken back to the present moment. Shima and Arius are walking together in front of Niche. Raizen is the leader of this escape mission, somewhere up ahead guiding the group to safety.

  “How the fuck do we get out of here?” Arius asks, turning around to look at Niche. “I don’t think your sword knows where he’s going.”

  “Retrace our steps maybe?” Shima suggests.

  “Go backwards? And go straight to that demon following us? Yeah, how about

  do that first,” Arius sneers.

  “Well, damn,” Shima pouted, looking at Arius. “You didn’t have to be that harsh now.”

  “Raizen,” Niche calls ahead. “Can you help us at all? Manipulate these walls open?”

  “Sure, why not,” Raizen responds from the distance. “Turn left… now!”

  The group stops, turning left to look at the gray stone wall. The wall liquefies, opening up as if it was melting. The group sprints through to the room on the other side.

  “Keep going!” Raizen calls out.

  The wall in front of them liquifies again before they can reach it.

  When they do follow Raizen’s guidance, leaping into the next room, they are met with a surprise: they had just burst into Pluto’s room.

  Pluto looks up, seeing the scarf wrapped around Niche’s neck.

  The group stands, Shima and Arius frozen in fear but Niche in boredom.

  Like clockwork, Raizen’s voice echoes from the hallway. “I’ve lost track of you guys, so I can’t open any more walls for you for now. I’m running back as soon as I can. I’ll be there shortly; just hold on. Don’t get into trouble.”

  “Hey…” Pluto says, walking towards Niche. “You’re that scarf! How’d you get out? That Boss… can’t trust him to do anything he doesn’t want to,” Pluto says, touching the end of the scarf and rubbing it between his fingers. “You got all quiet now? I remember you used to talk a lot a few years ago. What the hell happened?” Pluto asks, chuckling.

  Pluto looks up at Niche.

  “Hey…” Pluto says, squinting at Niche to recognize him. “Aren’t you that kid I was supposed to trap?”

  On the right wall of the room – the one that had previously been broken by Raizen and the one the group entered from – a figure appeared in the doorway, flailing its arms.

  “I’m backkkk!” Raizen exclaims, running into the room as the left wall of Pluto’s room opened.

  Raizen grabs his three friends in his arms and runs through the left disintegrated wall.

  “Wait!” Pluto calls to Raizen from behind, his voice diminishing as the distance between them increases. “Leave the weight, sun bearer! That cost a lot, you know?!”

  Raizen doesn’t stop, running straight through every room while opening the walls. They eventually break through an exterior wall, ending the pattern of rooms and breaking free into the daylight.

  “Fuck, I’m -” Niche says, collapsing. Shima catches him. “No, I…can’t. This happens every…time. I’m…too weak. Not enough…energy…” Niche is out cold.

  Shima lays Niche on the ground. As she puts his down, his coat moves, revealing a weight attached to his shirt.

  “What the hell?” Shima says, touching the weight.

  She rips off the weight – which was a lot heavier than she expected – and heaved it over the broken wall. When the weight hit the ground with a loud thud, Raizen closed the wall again, returning the building’s old, run-down appearance again.

  Flashback, Government Building, ???

  Jupiter slides the burgundy scarf across the table. "Thirty sun pounds, as agreed."

  Mercury examines it. "This better work."

  "It's genuine. Pre-war era, still has residual energy." Jupiter taps the table. "Why do you need this anyway? What could you possibly want that requires—"

  "My sister—"

  "Whatever. I don’t really care.” Jupiter pockets the crystals and stands up. "Just take the mangy thing and we're done here."

  "You don't want to hear the rest?" Mercury asks.

  "Nope. Got three more meetings today." Jupiter heads for the exit.

  THUD.

  A concrete wall comes into existence an inch from Jupiter’s face, closing off the exit.

  "What the—"

  "My sister,” Mercury continues profoundly.

  Jupiter sighs through his mask. "Really? We're doing this?"

  "She died. Some filthy men killed her." Mercury's hands move, matter appearing and swirling beside him. "So now..."

  A replica of a teenage girl forms into reality.

  "...I'll never make that mistake again. I will protect my sister at all costs,” Mercury assures.

  The recreation stands perfectly still. Not breathing. Not blinking.

  Jupiter looks at Mercury. At the fake sister. Back at Mercury.

  "That's... huh.” Jupiter doesn’t know what to say. “Cool story. Can I get out now? Like I said, three more meetings."

  "You don't find it disturbing?"

  "No…you do remember what I do for a living, right? This ranks maybe a six out of ten on weird shit I've seen today."

  The wall vanishes with a sigh from Mercury.

  Jupiter leaves immediately, muttering, "Should've charged forty."

  Mercury stays behind, adjusting his creation's hair. "Don't worry. You're safe now."