"Do you still think that I'm a good person?" Ryuu asked.
In response, Kisuke only smiled, "The thing we discovered about you is more or less accurate, however, it's a different experience to hear it directly from you. Thank you for letting me listen. And yes, I still do think that you're a good person."
Ryuu's eyes widened, "Huh? Did you hear what I said? Or do you have a different definition of a 'good person'?"
Chuckling, Kisuke replied, "Even if we might have different definitions, it should not be that different. The fact that you realized that what you did was wrong already constitutes you to the 'good person' scale, albeit, near the gray area."
"B-but I don't regret what I did! And what makes it even worse is that I probably killed innocent people too!"
"But you still cared about justice and innocent people, even if you didn't uphold them in your revenge." Kisuke then looked straight into Ryuu's eyes, "I don't consider myself as neither a bad person nor a good person. But if I were to be put in the same shoes as you, then I wouldn't even care about innocent people or justice. I'd decimate everyone and anyone who's even remotely connected to it."
Ryuu, while looking at his eyes, shivered and cold sweat started to drench her back from nervousness, 'W-what is he!?' Ryuu inadvertently took a step back as she saw a glimpse of abyss and insanity in his eyes which was something different from those she saw from the members of Evilus long ago.
Kisuke then averted his gaze and put it back on the tomb, giving Ryuu some ease, "I personally don't think revenge is a bad thing. Only good people do. But there's one thing you should never forget when exacting your revenge."
Ryuu took a deep breath as she listened to Kisuke's words and got curious, "...What is it?"
"You should never forget that there are still people who're important to you and people that accompanied you in your miserable times. Never prioritize your revenge over them.", muttered Kisuke.
"...Of course, that's a given."
"It is... But when blinded with rage, it's hard not to do so."
"..." Ryuu could only stay silent. After all, she too was so blinded by rage that she ignored even her Goddess and still regrets it until this day.
At this moment, Ryuu and Kisuke heard Tiona's voice from afar, "Kisuke!!! Where are you!!!?"
Kisuke's mouth twitched and he thought, 'If it was any person other than me, that'd never work. In hindsight, she knows me well... Or maybe she just isn't thinking.'
Ryuu chuckled slightly, "I'm sorry for taking your time. And thank you for your words."
"You're welcome~." Kisuke smiled before suddenly asking her, "By the way, have you heard the news?"
"News?"
"Olivas Act was found alive recently, though he also got killed by his companion in the end."
"W-what!?"
"Members of Evilus also started getting active," Kisuke added.
"..." Ryuu clenched her fists and teeth in rage, "Where are they? Please tell me."
"Calm down. I don't know where they are nor do I intend to get to the bottom of this myself."
"Not yourself, is it?" Ryuu smiled wryly.
"Yep. My girls will be the ones who'll be dealing with this." Kisuke nodded.
"Then why did you tell me this news?" She could already guess that Kisuke was intending to use her.
"I intended to investigate the eastern part of the 18th floor, but I don't want to do anything that will lead me to face them directly," Kisuke confirmed Ryuu's thoughts without hiding it.
Ryuu stayed silent for a moment before sighing, "Understood. Please lead the way."
Kisuke smiled and started walking to the east, "I'm still not sure if I can find anything, but you could follow me from a distance where those three won't be able to detect you. Can you do that?"
Ryuu nodded as she followed, "Yes..."
"Good, well then..." Kisuke then faced the direction where they heard Tiona's shout, "Over here~!"
"Let's go~," Kisuke said as he started running while Ryuu let him take some distance and hid herself among the trees while following him.
From the distance, Tione and Ais looked at Tiona with a dumbfounded expression, "See? I told you that it was going to work~!"
"Then what's the point of us searching for his tracks?" Tione muttered.
"Eh? You can stop thinking about that now. Let's go before he can get away!" Tiona started running.
Tione and Ais could only follow Tiona with a complicated feeling of defeat, both from Tiona and Kisuke.
Every few minutes, Tiona would shout and ask where Kisuke is, and every time, Kisuke would answer with his voice getting nearer each time. Tione and Ais could only make a fed-up face at that point and just discussed what they'll do to capture Kisuke for at least 5 seconds as his term stated.
A few more minutes later, they all reached the eastern most part of the 18th floor and they saw Kisuke resting on one of the tree branches, "Yo~. Took you a while~."
"Ahahaha~. Sorry for the wait~." Tiona scratched her head and apologized, while the other two only felt aggravated. 'We're being underestimated, aren't we?', thought Tione.
Ryuu was watching from afar and wondered how Kisuke would fend off the top Adventurers of Orario despite being just Level 2, 'Some trick in his sleeve again?'
But strangely enough for her, she suddenly saw the girls of the Loki Familia taking a serious stance, 'What?'
And a few seconds later, the three of them simultaneously jumped on Kisuke with speeds befitting of peak Level 5 Adventurers, 'What!?'
She didn't know what was happening, but it seemed that they were seriously going out for Kisuke. She intended to help him when she suddenly saw, that Kisuke looked in her direction and smiled.
Ryuu stopped and decided to watch for a moment before making another decision. However, what happened next was beyond her understanding as Kisuke casually dodged everything that the three threw towards him despite not being as fast as them, 'W-what's happening?'
And a few minutes later, Ryuu could only make a dumbfounded expression as she looked towards the girls of Loki Familia laying on the ground, 'W-what is this?'
But Ryuu woke up from stupor when she felt Kisuke staring at her. A moment later, Kisuke suddenly picked up a small rock and threw it in a certain direction behind Ryuu.
Ryuu followed the trajectory of the rock as it hit a certain tree. Confused, she inspected the area around it and found two white-cloaked figures sneaking around.
The moment she saw that familiar attire, her blood boiled but she didn't let it go to her head and looked towards Kisuke before nodding. She then started tailing the two sneaking figures and planned to attack them once they created a certain distance from Kisuke and the girls of the Loki Familia.
On Kisuke's side, he turned towards the girls who had already stood up, "At this rate, you're never going to catch me~."
"Shut it! We're not done yet!" Tione replied. But instead of the frustration from earlier, she was now feeling the excitement of the battle. Right now, the battle they were experiencing was very different from the rest as their opponent didn't use brute force and couldn't be subdued by brute force. Through finesse, technique, and skill, they were being suppressed.
"Let's continue!" Tiona shouted in delight as she was also feeling the same excitement as her sister due to a battle that was very different from what they were used to.
Although not as excited as those two, Ais' frustration also disappeared as she watched Kisuke's movement and realized that there were a lot of things that she could learn from his moves.
Seeing their reactions, Kisuke smiled, 'Now then, before you lot reap benefits, I'll be using you.'
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Editors:
28th00: Not the best at running away, hmm? Looking at your track record, you're damn near at the top of the list though!
Alexander: Well, playing 'catch me' can be pretty exciting, especially if you can lead them around the nose.