Following the explosion of green fire multiple pieces of the fishing house began to rain down and not only that but numerous parts of the numerous bodies that were there as well.
This left the street full of rubble and parts of human bodies...
The basement where the explosion happened now only had a very deep crater that even reached the sewers and dirty water began to fill it.
In one of the huge rubble there began to move and then they were blown away by an explosion of orange fire.
Now in that place there was a kneeling Adryan, his black windbreaker had been destroyed and his back was badly hurt, bleeding from various parts.
He was even still hearing a loud ringing in his ear but the redhead didn't care but looked at what he was protecting with his body.
Carefully removing the scarf and hood he could see Xio's unconscious face, she had some bruises and cuts but was still breathing which made Adryan breathe a sigh of relief.
'Thanks Gods', Adryan unconsciously thought gratefully.
He looked around at how the basement had been left and could only feel very lucky that the sphere he formed was enough to withstand the explosion and save both of their lives.
'We can't stay here, the Machinery Hivemind will be here soon,' thought Adryan in alarm.
Removing the burnt band and what was left of his black windbreaker he used it to carry Xio on his back and climbed out of the crater.
He couldn't risk using a Shadow Leap with Xio, he didn't know what other kinds of injuries she could have and he didn't know what the Leap itself would do to her so he could only carry her.
Leaving the crater and seeing the state of the street, Adryan could not waste time and began to run away from the place as fast as he could.
'Xio needs to rest but where, we can't stay in East Borough...'
running while using the alleys to avoid being seen Adryan still had his mask on but his red hair was exposed.
'At this rate it will take me 2 hours to leave the East Borough....'
Even running, he heard how Xio let out a few moans of pain.
'Shit shit SHIT'
Without much other choice, Adryan just went to the only place that came to mind.
....
....
..
'Urghhh my head...'
Recovering consciousness and opening her eyes, the first thing Xio noticed was the huge headache she had.
"Are you better miss?" a male voice asked her which made Xio alarmed and she turned to see where the voice came from.
Next to a campfire was a man with a gloomy mask on his face that seemed very familiar to her...
The memories of what happened in the basement came back making her get up from the makeshift bed made of a vest but that made her leg ache and she could only fall back lying down.
Looking at her leg, she saw how it was bandaged and she only raised her hands to her face full of shame, silence returned and neither of them said anything.
"Thank you for saving me Mr. Holmes" the first to say something was Xio who removed her hands from her face and looked at the masked man who just nodded.
The silence returned and Xio once again felt an enormous guilt growing inside her.
She almost kills them both, if it wasn't for Holmes she would be dead and she couldn't keep her promise with...
Her eyes widened and after grunting a bit she began to cry helplessly, not caring that there was a stranger there.
Holmes did not give importance to this and he continued to look at the fire calmly, letting her vent.
After half an hour Xio finally calmed down and still lying down she turned to look at the man.
"I'm sorry for almost killing us Mr. Holmes" Xio said regretfully and Holmes looked at her.
"What made you act so impulsively miss?" The man ignored her apology and asked Xio who stared at the man's mask.
After a few moments in silence she spoke...
"That girl's name was Coin Lauft, she was a girl who lived with her mother on the outskirts of East Borough...."
"I met her during my work as a bounty hunter, I saved her from being kidnapped but in the process she injured her leg so I carried her home where I met her mother."
After saying that she let out a dry laugh as she shifted her gaze to the campfire…
"You have no idea how the mother reacted, she thought I hurt her daughter and the first thing she did was hit me with her broom."
"Coin had to calm her down and after that she invited me to eat with them although the best thing would be to say that she threatened me with the broom to accompany them."
Holmes was silent as he listened to her tell her story.
"After that, during my next jobs in that area, I bumped into her a lot and Coin always talked to me, telling me about her day or how her classes were going at church or if I could help her with her homework..."
"Before I knew it, it was normal for me to visit her at her house several days a week to teach her or spend time with her"
"Her mother always thanked me for that because Coin didn't have many friends not even a friend as good as me"
When Xio said that she let out another dry laugh.
"It was like that for 2 years until 2 weeks ago, when I was at my house her mother who was crying hysterically visited me, I tried to calm her down but nothing worked, after a while she could barely tell me that Coin didn't come home after her classes and she didn't know where she was."
"It didn't take 5 minutes and I was already out looking for her, that day the only thing I found out was that she had been kidnapped on her way home."
Tears began to fall from Xio's green eyes who kept looking at the campfire.
"I swore to her mother that I would bring her home but after a few days I only found out that she was kidnapped by the head of Black Skull, after tracking down some members and attacking them that's when I met you"
"The rest you know, we went to the bar, we kidnapped Billy, we interrogated Billy, we killed and buried Billy, we went to the fishing house and then..."
Xio didn't say anything else but remained silent and Holmes just bowed his head looking at the ground....
_______________________________________________