Upon seeing the floor littered with unconscious bodies and a blooded Bron in the middle, Jetta’s eyes naturally scanned the deck for one person.

“You one eyed bitch! What have you done!?” Jetta said, as her eye’s met Lady Social’s.

Vic limped toward Lady Social’s side. “I can deal with her,” he said.

“No,” Lady Social replied. “It’s time I shut her up myself.”

As Jetta’s hands curled into fists, she spat onto the floor and slowly began to approach.

“Move pet,” Jetta said, pushing Kenzo out of the way.

One of Lady Social’s men who was previously knocked out had struggled back onto his feet in front of Jetta.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he said, pointing a sword he picked up at her.

However—in the blink of an eye—he was laid out on the ground once again.

With an even angrier expression, Jetta kicked up his sword and snatched it out of the air as she continued to walk to Lady Social.

“Idiot. No one else intervene,” Lady Social said. “Vic, get me a sword.”

Vic grabbed a nearby sword from the ground. It wasn’t as large as the others and had a sleeker design.

“This will do nicely,” Lady Social said, as he threw it over to her.

She then got into a combative stance and signalled him to move out the way. Jetta wasted no time to hone in and delivered the first strike, which Lady Social swiftly deflected.

Alongside this fight, there was another unresolved conflict on the battlefield still at play. 

Captain John was now up against two opponents—his previous one and the fighter Bron hadn’t finished off. With alternating attacks, the captain was outnumbered and soon began to be overwhelmed.

There however, was one more fight being fought on the ship.

Across the deck—near the stairs—an inner, more personal battle was happening.

Kenzo eye’s were fixated on Bron’s idle body. Even with the fighting happening, his mind was still processing what had happened to Bron.

The feeling of guilt was something he was accustomed to. But this time, it felt like his heart had sank to the deepest depths of his stomach. It was so bad that next to him, was a small sample of his insides.

His puke.

However, for a moment, he thought his eye’s were playing tricks on him. It seemed like the large lifeless body had just moved. But Kenzo was already convinced that it couldn’t be possible seeing as how much blood was surrounding Bron’s body.

Kenzo had never seen anyone die, but he was sure losing that much blood would be fatal.

But, there was a cough. 

And then, a second cough.

Without thinking, Kenzo slowly walked up to the body. It was then he heard a third cough, and realised he wasn’t hearing things.

Bron opened his eye’s, but his pupils were unfocused. “K-Ken..zo,” Bron said, with his high pitched voice deepened by the blood in his throat.

Upon hearing his name, Kenzo dropped to his knees and began to tear up.

But he was suddenly startled as a barrel close by was knocked over by Captain John and his opponents.

As food spilled out of it, something larger seemed to also fall out. At that moment, Kenzo truly believed his eye’s were playing tricks on him unlike before. Among the food looked like a small body was unfolding itself. And then, they sat up.

It was the small orphan girl.

“Ouch,” she said, as she rubbed her backside.

She then immediately noticed Kenzo, causing a smile to form on her face. The girl began to crawl over to him—ignoring everything else that was happening. With everyone occupied on their battles and Vic watching Lady Social’s fight, no one apart from Kenzo had noticed her. 

He was soon greeted with a warm hug once she reached him.

“You promised to see us again,” the girl said. “But I heard the big men say that everyone might never come back. They said you’re all going far awa—”

The girl stopped talking as something wet had reached her legs. It was then that she noticed the blooded Bron next to them.

She held his hand and began to sob. “Bron, w-what’s wrong?”

Kenzo still couldn’t believe that she was there, right in front of him. But his attention fell back on Bron, as the dying man began to speak his final words.

“T-Tell….m-my,” Bron said, but struggled to finish his sentence as blood filled his mouth.

The girl began to sob harder. “Oh no. Please don’t go,” she said. “I came back to see everyone again. So please don’t go.”

After a cough, Bron managed to get out his last words. “T-Tell….m-my…b-brother….I’m..s-sorry.”

And then, the light from his eye’s slowly faded. Bron was no longer among the living.

With blood staining the girls clothes, she cried as she continued to hold his hand.

“I’ll tell him Bron, I promise. I’ll tell Theo!” she cried out.

Kenzo lifted his own shaking hands, which were painted with Bron’s blood. Learning that this was Theo’s brother brought about a new type of pain within him.

It was easy enough to blame himself for this outcome. If only he had alerted the other’s like Theo asked, but instead, he choose not to act. Even if he didn’t cause it directly, the consequence of his inaction had finally led to the worst outcome.

Someone’s death.

Kenzo couldn’t help himself and began to cry. He truly felt like he hated himself for being the way he was. For being useless.

But thing’s got much worse before it got better as the little girl was suddenly swooped off her feet.

Kenzo—who was too emotionally exhausted to properly react—slowly looked up.

Holding the girl, was a desperate Captain John.

“Stop!” Captain John shouted, as he held her with one arm and a sword in the other.

It was clearly a shout for Lady Social, but was not enough to garner her attention as she was purely focused on her battle against Jetta.

But that changed once the small girl began to scream for help, alerting both Jetta and Lady Social. The men Captain John was fighting also stopped in their tracks, unsure of what to do.

“Emilia!?” Lady Social called out to the girl. “W-Why are you here!?”

“We end this now!” Captain John shouted. “I’ll let the girl go once me and my men are back on our ship!”

The girl continued to scream as she struggled against his grasp.

“Jetta please, let me talk to him,” Lady Social pleaded.

Jetta—who was still unaware of what started this conflict—observed the situation. “Throw your weapon away first,” she said.

Lady Social threw her weapon off to the side. Jetta then kept her sword pointed at her, allowing Lady Social to take a few steps toward Captain John.

“It’s okay Emmy, everything will be all right,” Lady Social said to the girl.

She then looked over at Briggs who earlier had retreated off to the side. But when she made eye contact with him—he averted his gaze and looked elsewhere.

Her eye’s then hovered down to Kenzo.

“Kenzo! Help her, please!” Lady Social said, as she called upon him.

But still overwhelmed by everything that had happened, her voice was unable to reach him.

There was a much louder conflict occupying his mind.

Lady Social then looked back at Captain John. “I-I can’t let you go. But I can promise that no more harm will fall on you or your crewman if you let her go now,” she replied.

Captain John laughed as he lifted his sword into the air, next to the girls face. The girl then screamed in pain as he sliced the side of her cheek.

“Stop!” Lady Social shouted, as blood trickled down the girls cheek.

“Don’t test my patience woman!” Captain John yelled.

To everyone’s surprise, Kenzo was standing and had picked up a sword—pointing it at Captain John. It seemed the girl’s cry for help had sprung him on his feet, but without him meaning too.

“P-Put her down,” Kenzo said, with a wobbled voice.

The captain turned round to a shaking sword.

Without much effort, Captain John flicked his sword at Kenzo’s and knocked it to the ground.

“Sit back down kid. You’re the only one here I don’t hate yet,” Captain John said, as he turned back to Lady Social.

But unknown to Captain John and everyone else on the ship, Kenzo had found an answer to his inner conflict. He might have not intended to stand up, but he knew what he chooses to do next would be entirely his decision.

And this decision would be decided on the fact that for the first time in a long time, his feelings about the encounters he had kept himself out of had now changed.

“Put her down,” Kenzo said, with more commitment in his voice.