Ch: 22 Regret

"C'mon old man, why're you so slow!" The young voice of Keiri Blush called out through the ruins.

Keiri's companion just sighed and continued at a steady pace. "We are the same age specialist Blush."

"oh liven up Kaito can't you not be in work mode for five minutes, and you used to be so much fun."

The man named Kaito Ichiro just sighed again at the young looking girl in front of him. "This is not the time for fun, we are here to investigate what has happened here and from what we've seen so far it was certainly not a good thing."

Keiri scowled, her white face mask covering her lower face but her expression was still obvious. "You're no fucking fun why couldn't Aric have come he's actually fun to annoy?"

"Specialist Steelborne was unavailable due to already being on a mission at the moment, if you had any grievances with the current arrangements you should have brought them up to General Ironwood beforehand." Kaito stated matter of factly.

Keiri tsked and started to stomp away but something caught her eye in the abandoned building that's only residents were little more than bloody stains covering the walls, floor and ceiling.

The thing that caught her eye was a severely burnt corridor. "Aww why didn't they invite me to the party." She complained.

Kaito walked over to the area to try and investigate but was quickly swamped by an overwhelming aroma of death almost causing the older man to gag through his stoic exterior but even through that he powered on.

"Oum those shitty faunus did a number on this place, that dumbass' kid sure took after her father didn't she." Keiri laughed at the carnage in front of her but stopped with a smirk at the low growl that her partner released at the mention of Maru.

"I knew that you still hold some attachment to the kid you were always closest to Kastan out of all of us." She started cackling as Kaito's expression darkened. "Oh Oum this is gold, can't wait for the other's to hear about this. Alric's gonna have a fucking aneurism." The mirth was very clearly evident in her voice

Finally Kaito's patience snapped and he grabbed the smaller girl by the throat. "Silence!" He bellowed out.

Even though her life was in the hands of a very visibly agitated Kaito, Keiri's smirk grew and she started laughing harder though it was strained due to the hand lifting her off the ground by the throat. "I wonder how your little fox would feel when she learns just how involved you were with offing that traitorous scum." Kaito's fist tightened whilst Keiris insane smile widened. "You're just as evil as the rest of us no matter how much you want to deny it you killed your best friend and now a kid who you treat as your own blood is on a warpath to pay you back for it isn't it just wonderful and she's even succeeded in one of her goals!" She looks towards the completely headless body of Aurora, completely battered, covered in soot and burns, the sight makes Kaito click his tongue "She's one step closer to getting to you and I can assure you it won't be pretty!"

At this point Kaito has had enough of the insane girl and throws her to the side allowing her to catch her breath but she has a visible burn mark in the shape of his hand around her neck that her aura was already starting to struggle to heal.

The old man finally turns back away from the body of his once friend and gives the pink themed girl a glare so frosty that it could rival a blizzard. "Unlike you and people like Alric I will take my time with gratitude, whether it be by Maru's hand or not but if you touch a single hair on that girl's body I will incinerate you to the point that no one would even be able to find the ashes." With saying that he released a blaze of blue fire from his hand turning everything around them in the corridor to ashes.

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"Hey mum, dad." Maru sat on her knees in front of a pair of stones with a name written on each, on the first the name Kastan Arktis stood proudly displayed to all around the name where six symbols the first a reddish brown drop, the second a set of three dark blue snowflakes, the third a a stylised version of a magnet in a gray color, fourth a pink heart made of thorns, fifth a cyan blue flame, and lastly the coat of arms for the kingdom of atlas. In comparison to the first stone the other was slightly smaller and less decorated only holding the name Iris Arktis.

Maru sat on her knees in front of the two stones, the slight melancholic smile the only semblance of her normal self in her expression. "It's been a while since ive been here, hasn't it." Her smile grew slightly. "I've managed to make a few friends though so its been looking up a bit, firstly there's Virdis i've known him a while and he's always stuck with me though he supposed to be the smart one in our group it's not really saying much especially considering the next one, his name is Nyx he's a bit of a dumbass like all the time and knows how to push the right buttons but he's still one of my best friends, there are a couple others like Blake and Illia, those two are just adorable, Ilia is a excitable little thing and Blake's like a grumpy old cat in a little girls body."

Maru lets out a sigh at reminiscing about the friends she's made in the last couple years. "Last but not least is Sienna, she's strong, brave and beautiful and at this point I don't even know what I would do without her." Maru stops talking and blushes slightly. "I'm even starting to think I might like her in a romantic sense." Maru whispered whilst blushingslightly.

She then frowns "Though I don't think right now is a good time for that, to be honest I can't make up my mind as to whether you two would love her or hate her so i'm just gonna think that you would love her even if she is the leader of a terrorist organization." She lets out a chuckle and rubs the back of her head nervously. "Oh yeah I ended up becoming a terrorist which I know isn't something I should be proud of but they're good people who are fighting for what they believe in." Her face darkens slightly. "And it's a way for me to get my revenge on those bastards who did this to you two and guess what I already managed to get one."

A forced smile started to grow on Maru's face. "The frosty bitch is dead dad, she's finally gone after ten long years of waiting one of them is finally gone." She whipped her sleeve over her eyes to try and fix her rapidly blurring vision. "She's finally gone, one of them is finally gone but why don't I feel happy about it, it's so dumb but after ten years I can't even feel happy why? Why? Fucking why!?." She smashed her fist into the snow underneath her and let out an incoherent scream of rage, startling Sienna who wasn't too far away but far enough to give her privacy, quickly the tiger faunus made her way to Maru and placed a hand on her back in a show of support .

calming down after a while Maru sent a grateful teary eyed look to Sienna before turning back to the graves and chuckling morosely. " I know why, I felt I could do anything I wanted, that I was on top of the world but no I got slapped in the face and it caused another person to get hurt no only affecting them but another and its all my fault, it's all my fault and the only thing I could do was go into a fit of rage and just start attacking I didn't even try to help, and you know the best thing they weren't even supposed to be there they were just some random people that were even younger than me who got caught up in that mess."

Sienna's comforting hand turned into a hug at these words and Maru accepted it completely, she turned and gave the older woman a thankful smile before looking forward with a still sad but now determined look. "No more fucking around im gonna take this seriously because im not alone anymore I have people I care about and who care about me in return, i'll get better and make sure no one gets hurt thanks to me ever again.

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A/N so its been a fucking while and im sorry bout that. I dont really have to much of a reason just got kinda burnt out and school and life happened so it was hard to write but im back and I can at the very least promise that I can post next week or the week after. I also noticed that I didn't really explain why Maru freaked out in the last chapter so I this explains it well enough. As always if you have any suggestions or questions do ask/tell. So yeah thx :)