“Wow…” Seiko ran his hand through his hair, pushing his bangs back off of his face. Kito was more than used to the motion, Seiko always did it when he was stressed. Kito couldn’t blame him, this had to be so jarring. “I guess everything’s changed…” Seiko suddenly jerked up, his wounds clearly fully healed. Kito’s eyes widened, though it was obvious when he looked around. He didn’t know what he was expecting, it should have been obvious what it was Seiko had noticed when a zombie shambled out of a building not too far from them. Kito tutted, he should have been more aware. Of course, he hadn’t beaten them all. Seiko immediately leapt into action, smashing the corpse’s head clean off and smashing it against a wall in a burst of blood and bone. The body fell back as more of them started shuffling into the alley from both sides. Kito got to his feet and went to raise his sword, though a sudden spark of pain had him yelping and falling against the wall. Seiko spun in alarm, though Kito just waved to show he was fine. He had overused his magic. Not as severely as in his fight with Xan, far from it. Just enough that he knew he’d be rendered unconscious if he tried to use even a very simple technique again. Seiko obviously didn’t know Kito’s situation, he was dealing with the undead with the full assurance that Kito would have his back. He decided not to let him down. Restraining himself from using any kind of magical technique, Kito rushed in the opposite direction from Seiko and began to hack at the zombies, his blade whipping through the weak skin and bone quick, though the blue trail it had was now gone. Kito weaved and bobbed and dodged around the grasping hands and biting teeth, slicing and slashing, he took heads with each sharp movement. Before long, most of the zombies were motionless on the ground, pooling blood. A blur moved past him and the last two were blasted apart as Seiko spun to a stop, flame licking at his feet. “What’s wrong?” Seiko asked, standing straight and dusting himself off.

“That obvious, huh?” Kito doubled over, his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.

“Little things,” Seiko gave a wry smile, tilting his head, “Well, the not so little thing of you being a hell of a lot weaker than I remember.”

“Oh gee,” Kito laughed, “Thanks, it’s good to know I’m so underwhelming.”

“If that fight had kept going you know I would’ve won.”

“You’re right, you would have…” Kito looked back up, smiling slightly as he stretched his arms a little, “I know you weren’t quite going all out either.”

“I had to reserve my strength for the zombies after all,” Seiko’s face became a little more serious, “So how was I able to? In all of our sparring matches, I was never able to touch you.”

“My fight with Xan,” Kito said honestly, shrugging as he whirled his sword and slid it into the sheath on his hip.

“An injury, or..?”

“No, no,” Kito shook his head, starting off towards the end of the alleyway with Seiko falling in behind him, “He was much stronger than me, and I had to beat him. So I went way overboard.”

“You’re saying you survived overusing your magic?” Seiko’s brow arched, clearly impressed.

“Barely,” Kito chuckled, “It was close for a while. Two years to be exact. Needed to stay on house arrest, I wasn't allowed to use my magic at all.”

“So you didn’t take part in the end I suppose?”

“I was there for the final battle, but I stayed far back from the main event. I was helping out the infantry.”

“And you’ve been getting your power back? It’s taken twenty years?”

“No,” Kito laughed, “No, no. I’ve only been working at it for a couple of years now. I’ve been getting stronger pretty quickly which is a plus.”

“So long as you don’t overdo it,” Seiko shook his head slowly, “I know what you’re like.”

“Oh yeah?” Kito shot Seiko a look and the two of them laughed as they made their way through the streets. Lightning flashed above the houses in front of them, thunder booming and sending Seiko staggering back. Kito laughed, his stride barely even interrupted as Seiko quickly caught up.

“Who’s here with you?!” Seiko called, the lightning exploding upward once again, “That lightning magic is insane!”

“Ah…” Kito scratched his chin, it was definitely going to be awkward explaining this one. The war, he could explain easily. He’d done it enough when tutoring kids about recent history, but Katy was going to be a different story, “It’s Katy, actually.”

“Katy can use lightning to that degree..?” Seiko blinked a couple of times as yet another boom resounded through the streets, followed by a dead silence.

“That’s barely the tip of the iceberg with Katy these days,” Kito’s gaze was fixed forward as he moved between the buildings, making his way toward the epicentre of the explosion, “That’s Tonitramancy she’s using.”

“Of course Katy would be the third person in history to use Tonitramancy.” Seiko chuckled softly, slowing to a stop with his gaze downcast. Kito slowed down as well, turning on his heel and raising an eyebrow.

“How will she react, d’you think?” Seiko raised his gaze, and Kito couldn’t help but feel his own drift towards Seiko’s bright red eyes. He had just been thinking that.

“I don’t really know, to be honest,” Kito scratched his chin, unable to hold Seiko’s worried gaze, “She was pretty torn up after what happened. She kinda…”

“Poured herself into her work?” Seiko nodded, “Didn’t really see anything else but the bad thing in front of her. Slashed and punched her problems away?”

“You know Katy so well,” Kito chuckled, shaking his head, “She was like that for years. It’s how she got so strong. Battle after battle, she hunted Xan’s forces down relentlessly. By the time it was over she was the most decorated soldier in Rebellia history.”

“The most?” Seiko’s brows arched again. He seemed to be doing that a lot, “She finally caught up to Sapphire?”

“And soared past her,” Kito laughed, “Sapphire can still win in a straight fight, as we found out at the games last year, but Katy has the more colourful record for sure.”

“Sapphire can still win, eh?”

“Ah,” Kito held up his hands, “Barely. It was the closest fight I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“Katy sure has gotten strong… I guess she never stopped fighting, huh?”

Kito stopped walking and his jaw clenched slightly. “Uh,” He awkwardly swayed on his feet for a second, “She did actually calm down a little. After the war.”

“Oh?” Seiko started to smile, though Kito was again scratching his chin nervously.

“Aye, she still did missions for the Rebellia and she trains religiously and all,” Kito nodded, knowing he should continue, but the awkwardness was ripping his insides apart.

“But..?” Seiko prompted, giving Kito his much needed out.

“She’s actually married, has been for twenty-two years” Kito grinned widely, still swaying back and forth on his feet.

“Married?” Seiko blinked, “She got married? Katy? Got married? And she’s still married?”

“Yup,” Kito desperately looked anywhere but Seiko’s face, “It was a lovely ceremony.”

“It’s good you were there,” Seiko smiled, still a little stunned clearly, “I’m glad you guys are still close, you really hit it off when the Red Mask was formed. So who’s the uh… Unlucky guy, I suppose?”

“Yes,” Kito responded wisely, finally resting his gaze on Seiko’s, nodding slowly.

“No.” Seiko’s smile was getting wider as he stressed the vowel.

Kito said nothing.

“No!” Seiko laughed, stressing it even more.

Kito remained silent still.

“You and Katy?” Seiko yelled, Kito had honestly never heard him laugh this hard in the whole time he’d known him.

“... We started dating after Yhor’Dheel.” Kito rubbed the back of his head.

“Twenty-two years?” Seiko was still smiling widely.

“I know, it’s pretty insane,” Kito chuckled, “If you don’t believe me, you can ask her. The lack of thunderous calamity tells me she’s probably finished with this area.”

Seiko’s face suddenly fell again. Kito sighed slightly and decided he’d wait for Katy to come to them. Seiko would probably die again if he were to approach of his own accord.

***

Another undead husk fell before her, a charred mess. Katy swished her gladius to the side and surveyed the street she had cleared out. No signs of movement. She wasn’t as good at sensing presences or power as Kito was, she had to close her eyes and really focus to make sure she had eradicated all of the zombies around her. A sigh and she twirled her sword and sheathed it in one quick, fluid motion. She started down the empty street, burned and sliced corpses littered around. Katy busied herself pulling her hair out of her ponytail and running her fingers through it. She always found herself frowning in irritation at the strands of hair seemingly escaping her ponytail with the sole purpose of attacking her eyes. She mumbled obscenities at her hair as she tied it up into a hasty bun. She sighed and slid her blade from its strap on her hip, continuing on with her surveillance. She could sense Kito coming closer, he had probably found the source of all this and had already taken care of it. Or, she supposed, he needed her help with it. She smiled at her wedding band. She still loved the way it would glow with a very slight blue whenever Kito was near, just like his glowed green. She lifted her gaze to the small alley Kito was walking towards her through, though now that he was getting closer her smile turned to a frown. There was someone else with him. She could sense Kito anywhere, no matter how far apart they were, but she was only able to sense other people when they were practically on top of her already. She raised an eyebrow as she went to meet her husband and their surprise guest.

Katy jumped out of her skin, staggering back and blinking like mad as she stuttered over her words when she caught sight of Kito and the man with him. Even as Kito raised his arms in a calming gesture, Katy was raising her sword. Eyes wide, electricity sparking around the blade. Seiko’s eyes widened to discs as he threw his hands up, in a show of not being a threat. Katy let the electricity die down slowly, her breaths coming quickly. “What are you?” She hissed, eyes glued to the man in front of her. He looked exactly like Seiko, though his skin was too pale. His eyes too, they were red.

“Honey, I know this is a lot to take in, trust me,” Kito said, taking his place next to Katy, though her eyes were still glued to the newcomer, “But it’s him.”

Katy’s frown deepened, jaw relaxing slightly, “It… There’s no way…”

“It’s me,” Seiko said, his voice deep and soothing, his accent the exact same as Katy’s.

Katy’s sword dropped, her arm trembling slightly, “But you… You died.”

“I know,” Seiko rubbed the back of his neck, “But I’m back.” The smallest smile crossed his face as Katy ran over to him, sword clattering to the ground as she wrapped her arms around her old friend. Kito let his breath out, smiling as he watched Seiko chuckle and return the tight hug.