Yuri turned slowly, his eyes still damp with tears—then froze.
Monty was already staring at him, a twisted smirk curling on his face. His eyes burned with a strange mixture of fury and joy.
Saiken spoke coldly in Monty's mind. "Our suspicions were correct."
"Would you look at that..." Monty muttered aloud.
Nico said nothing, his gaze sharp as a blade. But it was clear—he'd made a decision too.
Then...
Everything snapped.
Yuri lunged toward the flash drive.
"You're not going anywhere." Monty slammed him to the ground, pinning him with bone-cracking force.
Nico, lightning-fast, grabbed the flash drive and bolted.
"SAIKEN!" Monty barked.
Without hesitation, a black whip of shadowy energy launched from Monty's arm—Saiken's form—stretching like an elastic nightmare. It wrapped around Nico mid-sprint and yanked him back.
"You should've gone invisible," Saiken teased.
"I'm glad that's what I did then."
A voice echoed through the room.
"What?!" Monty was caught off guard.
"That voice...!" Saiken hissed. He knew exactly who it was.
Suddenly, the flash drive floated up—then vanished.
"Where is she?!" Monty growled, scanning the room.
"She's masking her radia—completely," Saiken muttered. "We're blind unless she wants us to see."
"FUCK!" Monty roared in frustration. Then he paused, his ears straining. He heard movement—light, almost imperceptible.
He locked in.
"Bingo."
He lunged toward the sound and grabbed her by the throat. Her form shimmered into visibility as she struggled in his grip.
"Well, well, well... if it isn't the Ghost Princess herself."
"Long time no see... Uzoth," she smirked, clearly unfazed despite being gripped by the throat.
Monty's eyes narrowed—but that ego of his? It flared.
While the reunion was happening, Saiken's tendrils still held Yuri and Nico firm—his flesh stretched out from Monty's back like grotesque restraints, pinning them both.
But Nico? He wasn't just standing still.
In the chaos, he started slowly growing in size—just enough to not destroy the bunker, but enough to be a serious problem.
Saiken noticed the shift.
"Uzoth," he said directly into Monty's mind, "my symbiote form alone won't hold him much longer. I need to transform."
"So transform." Monty replied
The thing is, if we bond now, I'll have to release them. As much as I hate to admit it... we could be in trouble here."
Monty gritted his teeth.
"You're underestimating us," he growled—then looked at the girl, smirking. "Morph. Leave the rest to me."
Saiken peeled back into Monty, dragging the two captives closer. In one motion, Monty let the girl drop—then drove a punch straight into Yuri's stomach, knocking the air out of him.
Yuri's head hit the ground with a dull thud. His eyes fluttered, barely open. In the blur, he caught one last glimpse of Saiken getting attacked—before everything faded to black.
His consciousness drifted. Only his hearing clung to life.
Squelching.
Thuds.
A roar.
More impacts.
Then—
Silence.
The next thing he heard were chirping birds,
the gentle rush of a river, a breeze rattling leaves.
Yuri jolted awake, gasping for air. His chest rose and fell like he'd been underwater.
"The fuck? Was it all just a dream?"
He staggered to his feet, grabbing onto the nearest tree for support. Pain surged through his body.
"Ugh… Why am I hurting everywhere? My body feels like it got hit by a moosius. What the hell happened to me?"
Still disoriented, he limped toward the sound of the river, hoping to clear his head. As he approached, he noticed the riverbed glowing—unusual corals lining the bottom, casting an ethereal light through the water.
Yuri knelt and cupped the water in his hands, splashing it on his face. The refreshingly cool sensation contrasted the heat that pressed on him like a weight.
Then—he heard a splash to his right.
He turned.
And there she was.
A woman stood waist-deep in the river, with white damp hair. Her skin was glowing beneath the reflection of the water. Naked. Graceful. Unbothered. The way the light danced on her body made her look like she'd been painted by the gods themselves.
Yuri was frozen. Eyes wide. Jaw slack.
Her back turned slowly. Her eyes met his.
"Oh my GOD! HOW DARE YOU PEEP ON ME, YOU PERVERT?!"
"Wait—no—it's not like that! I just came here to—"
WHAM!
Before he could finish, her foot collided with his chest in a flying kick that sent him soaring across the river. He crashed into the other side with a loud splash and hit the bank with a grunt.
Mid-air, Yuri had one clear thought:
"How the hell did she get that much momentum… in WATER?!"
When he came to, she was already fully dressed. A blue tactical jumpsuit hugged her figure, with a belt holster strapped across her waist, lined with knives and daggers.
She stood over him, arms crossed, staring him down.
Yuri gulped.
Her physique was stunning—but the death glare was even sharper than the blades on her belt.
She let out a long sigh.
"Why do I always find myself in these situations?"
Yuri blinked. "Uhh… you look kind of familiar. Have we met before?"
She raised a brow. "Just how many women have you seen naked for you to think I look familiar?"
"I didn't mean it like that."
"Yeah, yeah, sure… pervert."
"Think what you want. At the end of the day, it's your fault for showering out in the open where anyone could see you."
"Oh yeah, right—let me just pop into the five-star bathroom out here in the middle of the FUCKING WILDERNESS."
"My point still stands," Yuri muttered, brushing dirt off his pants. "What the hell are you even doing out here?"
"Why would I tell you anything?"
Yuri stared at her blankly, then turned and started walking toward the trees.
"I could care less, man."
She scoffed, offended by his tone—and his word choice. "Not sure if you noticed while you were violating my privacy, but I am no man. So don't call me that. It's insulting to my features."
Her face held a smug, unbothered expression.
Yuri didn't even look back. "Suuure."
He kept walking.
She hesitated for a moment—then started following him.
Yuri approached a large, thick-barked tree. After scanning it for a moment, he began to climb.
She watched him, tilting her head with disappointment. Then she smirked.
In one fluid motion, she launched herself onto the tree. With graceful agility, she swung from branch to branch like she'd been born in the wild.
In a flash, she blitzed past Yuri and reached the top first, planting herself with pride like a queen claiming her throne.
Yuri didn't react. He took his sweet time, climbing steadily until he reached the top and surveyed the surroundings.
"Hmm… there's the climate divide," he muttered to himself. "I'm way off route. My stuff's gone too… everything but the pans. What the hell happened? Maybe she knows something."
He turned to her.
"Hey. Would you happen to know how I got here?"
"Oh? Now you want to talk to me, huh?"
"Do you know or not?"
"I don't," she said with a shrug.
But Yuri studied her face closely—posture, tone, expression. He saw through it instantly.
"You're lying."
"He can tell?" she thought to herself, slightly caught off guard.
"You've got ten seconds. Tell me how I got here. Where are my things? Where's Monty? Answer, and we won't have to get ugly."
She scoffed, her voice dripping with offense.
"You've got some nerve, underestimating me just 'cause I'm a woman. You'd need about fifty more years before you even come close to my level. Learn your place, boy."
"That makes ten seconds."
Yuri didn't hesitate. He drew his two pans and charged. She met him head-on, her daggers flashing out with practiced precision—but she was pushed back by the sheer force of his strike.
Steel clashed mid-air.
Weapons locked. She was beneath him, Yuri pressing from above. The weight of their momentum sent them crashing to the ground, cracking the earth beneath them.
She was the first to recover, flipping back onto her feet with smooth acrobatics.
Yuri rose slowly, keeping his stance sharp.
"You use those things as weapons? I really have seen it all" she muttered.
"Are you ready to talk now?"
She twirled a dagger in her hand and pointed it at him with a grin. "Ehh, you kind of started a whole fight here. Would be a shame to let it go to waste."
She lowered her body into a battle stance, eyes sharp.
"Besides… this'll give me the perfect chance to test just how strong your little friend is." She thought to herself
She blitzed to Yuri. He blocked the attack. But it wasn't enough. It was almost like she could attack with every part of her body.
Knees, elbows, daggers, feet—even her ponytail whipped like a weapon. She danced around Yuri like a shadow, strikes coming from every angle.
To anyone watching, it would look like Yuri was fighting a ghost. Only his figure was visible, parrying in place, surrounded by a blur of motion and the relentless ringing of clashing metal echoing through the treetops.
Yuri kept up—barely. Every swing of his pans was met with a dozen more from her. She moved like the wind, unpredictable and constant.
Clang! He blocked a dagger swipe to his neck.
Clank! He spun low, deflecting a sweeping kick laced with another blade.
Shing! He leaned back just in time to dodge a double-stab aimed at his eyes.
He grunted. "I'm getting nowhere…"
She wasn't slowing down. If anything, she was getting faster. He couldn't break through.
Then he smirked.
Time for a little chaos.
He stabbed one pan into the earth, twisting it like a corkscrew as he leapt high into the air. The sudden move threw her rhythm off just enough for him to act.
Midair, he hurled the second pan downward—aimed straight at the first.
BOOM.
The force drove the embedded pan deep into the dirt with seismic impact. The ground shattered. A crater formed, collapsing beneath him.
She blinked, confused. "What the hell—?"
Yuri vanished into the hole like a stone in water.
She darted to the edge and peered in.
Empty.
Gone.
No sound. No presence.
Just darkness.
She stepped back cautiously, daggers raised. "Where did you go—"
Suddenly, the earth behind her exploded.
Yuri burst from the ground like a bullet, dual pans spinning like propeller blades. He slammed them together mid-spin, creating a shockwave of compressed air that blasted leaves from the trees and kicked up a cloud of dust.
She covered her face on instinct—and in that moment, Yuri was on her.
His pan met her dagger with a thunderous clang that cracked a nearby tree. He didn't stop—he twisted, spinning with breakdance-like speed, his other pan sweeping at her legs. She jumped over it, but he flipped backward and launched a kick to her gut that sent her skidding across the forest floor.
She coughed, winded, but smiling. She was enjoying this. "You're getting too cocky now'."
Yuri landed, shoulders rising and falling with calm breath. "Am I?."
The air grew still again, the dust beginning to settle.
And both fighters knew—
Round two was just getting started.
The forest stood silent for a beat. Even the birds had fled.
Yuri rolled his shoulders once. His pans glinted under the sunlight slipping through the trees. "You done playing?"
She licked a bit of blood from the corner of her lip, grinning. "You wish."
Boom. She dashed forward—this time even faster. No tricks, just raw, blistering speed.
Yuri blocked the first dagger with a pan, the shock rattling his bones.
But she was already gone.
BAM! A kick slammed into his back.
He turned.
CLANG! A dagger nearly grazed his throat.
He retaliated with a vicious swing—she ducked, rolled, and came up behind him.
"Too slow!" she taunted, her blade nicking his arm.
He flipped backward and launched a pan like a discus. It screamed through the air, forcing her to vault sideways—but he was already there, catching it midair on the rebound.
They clashed again.
This time it wasn't a duel. It was a storm.
Yuri's brute force versus her lightning-fast agility. Every strike from him cratered the ground; every move from her was a blur of dodges and counters.
Yuri dug deep into his rhythm, moving faster, sharper, his strikes chaining together—feint left, low sweep, overhead smash.
She blocked, twisted around him midair, and flipped onto a branch like it was a springboard. "You call that rhythm?" she shouted.
She dove back in, dual daggers blazing in an X formation. Yuri spun one pan overhead like a shield and slammed the other into the ground, launching himself upward.
They collided again midair—metal on metal, eye to eye, a dance of raw instinct.
But then…
She vanished.
Yuri's eyes widened—he'd lost her.
Thunk. A pressure on his shoulder.
He turned.
She was standing on his shoulder, perfectly balanced midair.
"Checkmate."
She kicked off—hard—and flipped. The moment he touched the ground, a dagger was already pressed at his neck, her foot resting gently on his wrist.
He was completely pinned.
"…Damn." Yuri let out a low breath, half annoyed, half impressed.
She chuckled. "You exceeded my expectations. But alas, I'm just better at the end of the day."
Yuri smirked despite himself. "Not for long."
She removed the dagger and stepped back, offering a hand. "Oh? You're gonna surpass me?"
He eyed her for a second before taking it.
"You bet your beautiful busty boobs."
She dropped him.
"Ugh, all guys are the same disgusting creatures."
Yuri let out a little laugh before helping himself up.
"So, are you going to tell me anything?"
"Yeah sure why not. But first, get me some breakfast. That fight has me starving my ass off."
"Bruhhh…" Yuri sighed, defeated.
———
After a grueling thirty minutes, Yuri had managed to bring down a couple of forest beasts. With his usual flair in the kitchen—or rather, the forest floor—he whipped up a breakfast that could easily put most restaurants to shame.
The girl, for all her grace and poise earlier, immediately turned into a ravenous gremlin.
"…You sure don't look womanly now," Yuri muttered, watching her tear into a skewer with inhuman speed.
"Shut. Let me have my moment. I haven't eaten anything but fruits and vegetables for two whole weeks," she snarled, face stuffed. "And I'm not even a vegetarian!"
"…Are you crying?"
"No…" she replied, voice cracking, as she wiped her eyes and sniffled loudly.
Yuri couldn't help but smile. It was genuine. Warm. The kind he hadn't felt in a while.
"One word about this to anyone and I end your life," she said, eyes gleaming with murder.
How is she this terrifying and adorable at the same time? Yuri shivered, genuinely confused by the duality of this menace.
"Ahhhhhh." She let out an ungodly belch. "I'm stuffed."
That fast? Yuri thought, stunned by the vacuum she called a stomach.
She suddenly sat upright, brushing the crumbs off her lap and locking eyes with him. "Okay. For that feast, I guess it's only fair I tell you something."
Yuri leaned in slightly, interest piqued.
"How much do you remember?"
He took a moment, eyes drifting upward. "Hmm… up until that random person showed up. Everything after that is… fuzzy."
"I see." Her face hardened a little. "Right after I showed up, Uzoth knocked you out cold. That chameli and I tried to double-team him, and for a while, it looked like we had the upper hand...until we didn't. At the end of the day, he's a Monarch. Way out of our league.
So then, how are you here and alive?
She paused, studying him closely. "Do you really not remember what happened?"
"You said it yourself, I was knocked out cold."
"…Well, we survived because of you."
His breath hitched. For a moment, the air around them felt still.
"Because of… me?"