Kito’s eyes fluttered open, the world slowly beginning to refocus before him. Shapes coming through one by one. Trees, bushes, grass. Dark fur. Kito blinked several times before jerking upright and scrambling from the bandersnatch corpse. He took a moment, his breaths coming way too quickly considering if it were alive he’d have definitely been eaten long before he regained consciousness. Pain lanced through his chest when Kito tried getting to his feet and he doubled over, hand going to his shoulder. He couldn’t have been out for more than an hour. A lot of blood had pooled around him, his shirt torn and soaked through. Sighing, he took hold of it and ripped it from his torso, the material coming away easily due to the enchantments wearing off.

“Didn’t think that’d be enough to dull them completely…” Kito muttered to himself, trying to get a good look at his wounds. Serious slices on his shoulder and a nasty stab wound on his arm. He was completely covered in blood, a lot of it his own. Though he could see a lot of that dark grey blood from the bandersnatch covering his arms and legs. He took a deep breath, his first steps awkward and a little shaky. Eventually, after a few, his legs stopped wobbling and he was able to walk properly. He sighed as he reached the fallen beast, gripping his sword and yanking it from the corpse. It came away easily enough, covered in blood and with a brand new chip in the blade.

“Wonderful.” He tutted as he started off back through the trees. His eyes glowed blue again as he felt around for Seiko and Katy. There were no more monstrous energy presences anywhere nearby, just a few humans. He could easily pinpoint Katy, and Seiko was next to her. There was a third relatively nearby. Talya. Kito smiled as he picked up his pace, in the direction of his sister.

The trees were knitted together tighter at first, making it difficult for Kito to push his way through, but after a few minutes, he found himself getting snagged less and less. The dense foliage and forest was starting to give way to another clearing. No, even better. It was giving way to a cliffside. Kito stepped from the trees and he was immediately drenched in moonlight. Lifting a hand to cover his eyes, he chuckled lightly to himself. It was a bright night. Looking around, Kito orientated himself to his surroundings. What looked like a campsite, used very recently with smoke still rising from the charred wood. A cave that led down into the depths of the island, with the body of a bandersnatch slightly smaller than the one he had dispatched a few metres from it. Looks like Talya had made a case for using its den. Kito walked over to the cave, though he could sense Talya wasn’t nearby. She had gone back into the woods for whatever reason, though Kito wasn’t exactly up for surprising someone who carried a sword the height of him in a dark forest. He decided to hunker down and wait for her to come back.

Rustling from the trees had Kito perking up and looking around, though he frowned, as it wasn’t coming from where Talya had left. Katy burst from the treeline, scanning the cliffside with her sword still drawn. Kito instantly got to his feet with a wide smile, noting that she was completely uninjured. Seiko followed her, clearly a lot calmer. He had a few thin slashes across his chest, but other than that he was fine.

“Hey, guys!” Kito called, waving them over. Katy’s eyes fell on him and she visibly relaxed, striding over to him with a sigh. Gripping his shirt, Katy pulled him into a hard kiss, managing not to apply any pressure to his injuries.

“Don’t do that again.” She said softly, giving him another quick kiss before breaking off to survey the campsite. Kito watched her go, smiling lightly. She had felt everything that happened in the previous encounter, so of course, she was glad to see him alright. She must have been worried after she felt him getting ripped apart like he was. At least he was healing quickly.

“You got beat to shit.” Seiko said simply, arms crossed.

“So did you,” Kito looked him up and down, his smile widening, “Difference is I was alone. You had a human wrecking-ball with you.”

Seiko snorted, looking off to the ocean, “You keep telling yourself that, big man.”

Kito looked at Seiko, shaking his head before following Katy, a laugh breaking out despite himself.

Katy smiled lightly as she stood on the cliffside, looking out over the water. Her coattails fluttered in the breeze, her hair being pushed away from her face as she adjusted her new belt. Kito walked up, rolling his shoulder in its joint. It was getting a little stiff as it healed.

“The ocean doesn’t really get old.” Kito said softly, letting his own gaze drift over the waves.

“Never,” Katy grinned, “So, Talya’s around here then.”

“Yup,” Kito said, pulling his gloves a little tighter and flexing the fingers, “She should be back any moment now, I’d imagine. This time of night.”

“You realise when she joins us, this will be the first time in eight years that this many members of the Red Mask will be on the same mission.”

“It did occur to me,” Kito looked over to her, “What was the last mission we had? Was it Gattros?”

“Yeah,” Katy’s smile widened slightly, “After the war, we were sent on that one last mission before our wedding. To think, we’d fought Xan and his forces for decades, and we couldn’t adequately prepare for one demon.”

“Gattros was a tough demon,” Kito chuckled, “To be fair.”

Katy joined in, giggling softly, though a rustling from the treeline made them stop instantly. The rustling was followed by the clink of heavy metal. Kito smiled and started towards the forest, he knew that telltale sound of armour sheets moving against each other anywhere. He even caught a glimpse of a rare genuine smile from Seiko as he walked towards them. A figure emerged from between the trees, almost as tall as Kito with very similar shaggy brown hair. Though Talya’s was much longer, being barely held from her face by a thick headband, the mane continued down to her shoulders in a tousled mess. Her eyes - one blue and one green, just like Kito - moved around as her brow furrowed slightly, she had clearly sensed them. Though it didn’t take long for her to catch sight of Kito and a smile broke out over her face.

“Little bro!” She called happily, jogging over to them and wrapping a laughing Kito up in a tight hug.

“Hey, Talya.” Katy grinned, claiming herself a hug as well, however strange it was to hug her through the armour.

“I’m not gonna act unsurprised here,” Talya chuckled, “Why are you guys all the way out here?”

“Enjoying the scenery,” Kito said innocently, only barely dodging a light slap from Talya with a laugh.

“I’m guessing it’s something serious,” Talya still wore a light smile, “You’re both way too heavily geared for this to be a routine visit.”

There was the clearing of a throat from behind them, and Talya turned, an eyebrow raised. When she caught sight of Seiko, though, Kito almost jumped out of his skin as Talya screamed, throwing the first thing she could grab a hold of - which just so happened to be a sword - at Seiko.