“What’s wrong?”, Ketsuki asks and Raiden already shouts, “What’s wrong?! You just killed someone!”

  Ketsuki doesn’t understand: “I don’t get your point? He killed someone too. It’s only natural.”

  Raiden grabs Ketsuki by his shirt and drags him over the railing.

  Ketsuki hangs above a free fall and Raiden asks while gnashing his teeth: “So it’d be natural if I were to drop you now!?”

  Ketsuki doesn’t do anything but say: “My action was just. He was a cold-blooded murderer in this case and I defended us all.”

  Raiden threatens: “I’ll drop you!!”, but Ketsuki retorts, “No you won’t. You don’t know if those threads just now were my last. And you also aren’t the type who can kill people. You could never end a life willingly.”

  Raiden shivers as he can’t let go of Ketsuki and then pulls him back onto safe ground. He lets go and seems disappointed in himself. Ketsuki then looks past Raiden and sees Erika crying with Svalin in her arms and Shurui and Atsume comforting her.

  His eyes get a longing touch and he breaks the silence between the two: “Let me join you.”

  Raiden gets aggravated again: “What?! You think I’d let you?!”

  Ketsuki bows a little and strengthens his request: “Please…”

  To his surprise, Raiden answers with an angry uppercut that sends him flying through the roof. Raiden jumps after him and Erika looks up at the hole in the ceiling.

  In terror she shouts: “Stop fighting already!! Please don’t fight anymore!!”

  Ketsuki lands in a room lit by red emergency lights.

  He stands back up like nothing happened and the angry Raiden in front of him shouts: “I’ll put you behind bars!”

  Ketsuki proposes: “How about a deal then? If I lose, I’ll go to prison with the charge of murder, but if I win, you’ll let me join your team.”

  Raiden replies: “Alright then. Since I’m gonna beat you anyway, I accept.”

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  Raiden charges up his arms while Ketsuki takes a fighting stance. Raiden rushes in but his punches and kicks get blocked or averted.

  Ketsuki then tanks an “Overcharged Monkey Punch!” and replies with one of his own powerful punches.

  Raiden gets flung away and mumbles: “Garuphu said something about you being from an assassin fami-”

  Ketsuki tries to shut him up with an angry punch but Raiden dodges and turns the table. He grabs Ketsuki’s head and repeatedly smashes it into the wall. Ketsuki starts bleeding everywhere in his face and then reaches behind himself, grabbing Raiden’s arm with both of his arms. He presses so hard that Raiden lets go and then turns around. He kicks Raiden’s stomach, shooting him into the ceiling, destroying one of the emergency lights. Raiden stands up, breathing heavily, standing in the lit side of the room while Ketsuki stands on the dark side with blood all over his body.

  “He doesn’t tremble at all even through his immense damage!”, Raiden thinks.

  Ketsuki takes a moment to look at something next to Raiden but there isn’t anything there. He then looks back at Raiden and takes a fighting stance again.

  His red eyes glow as he says: “I’m gonna join your crew.”

  “Why do you even want that so badly?”, Raiden asks but gets no answer.

  Ketsuki dashes back into the fight. Raiden barely dodges the first punch and grabs Ketsuki’s wrist.

  He shouts: “Induction: Charge!”, and shocks Ketsuki. Ketsuki manages to not flinch though and uses his left hand dunk on Raiden with full force. The shock stops and Ketsuki kicks Raiden through a metal door. Raiden still stands back up, also covered in a lot of blood now. Ketsuki subtly tumbles for a moment as the fatigue starts coming to him. Raiden charges up his arm and Ketsuki uses threads as sinews around his forearm.

  They run at each other and Raiden shouts: “KETSUKIII!!!”, while Ketsuki shouts, “RAAIIDEEENNN!!!”

  Their “Overcharged Monkey Punch!” and “Strengthened Nose Breaker!” both hit with full force right into each other’s faces at the same time.

  Raiden gets flung into the next wall and Ketsuki gets enough knockback to fall over backwards. Both of them are unconscious. Suddenly, silence fills the room again.

  On a moody afternoon, around a grave with a gravestone made from wildly put together mechanical parts, Erika, Shurui and Atsume stand. Erika cries her heart out as the other girls just look sad and Atsume tears up as well. Some other mechanics stand in the background. Everyone puts a rose onto the grave and Erika musters up the courage to say something.

  She turns around to the mechanics: “Dear mechanics of Sarseia, I thank you all for making it here today. …Svalin’s last words to me were ‘It pains me to leave you behind but… I believe in you’. The past few days I thought about the meaning of those words and now I ultimately know. He made the first step. He made me free to chase my dreams. He wants me to chase my dreams. And that’s what I’m going to do now. I will leave Sarseia to you guys. The mechanics of this district have always worked and flourished together. And now, since this hero here freed us from Garuphu, it’s on you guys to keep us free. Svalin believes in you too.”

  The few mechanics applaud her. When they leave, every one of the mechanics takes their time to properly say goodbye to her. They shed a lot of tears together but also smiled. And thus, the clouds break up and the first rays from the sun hit the metallic lettering on the gravestone that says ‘Svalin’.