Inside the resting room of No Name Corporation headquarters, the atmosphere had finally calmed down.
With No Name gone to who-knows-where, The Four Pions were granted a rare moment of free time.
Tora was already snoring loudly on the long sofa, while Rare and Arrow busied themselves cleaning their respective weapons.
In the corner of the room, Scyte quietly moved toward his locker.
He removed the remains of his torn shirt, the one he had used earlier to cover Tora's eyes, then changed into a plain black t-shirt and a casual jacket. His massive scythe was left leaning inside the locker.
Tonight, he was not on duty.
Tonight, he simply wanted to be an ordinary young man.
Without making a sound, Scyte slipped out of the headquarters through the back entrance.
He walked through the narrow alleys of the city's lower district, an area that looked old and run-down.
With both hands tucked into his jacket pockets, Scyte let his thoughts drift back to several years ago.
The days when he and Tora constantly ended up bruised and battered from their insane physical training routines.
It was during those harsh days that he first saw her.
At first, Scyte did not really care.
The girl always appeared in the afternoons, scavenging through piles of junk and scrap metal around the dumping district.
Her hands were often dirty, and her clothes worn out.
But there was one thing that always caught Scyte's attention:
Her smile.
Even though her life clearly looked difficult and she had to struggle desperately just to eat the next day, the girl never once complained.
Her eyes were always sincere and filled with determination.
Seeing Mika's pure resilience somehow caused the thick walls around Scyte's heart to slowly crumble away.
What began as casually leaving a carton of milk and some bread near her scrap cart gradually turned into awkward conversations on dusty rooftops until eventually…
That scavenger girl became one of the few places Scyte could return to whenever he grew exhausted from the bloody darkness of his world.
Scyte's steps finally stopped in front of a small and simple flower shop.
In front of the shop, a girl with shoulder-length hair tied into a ponytail was busy arranging flower pots.
"You're way too serious arranging those pots, Mika~. The flowers might lose in beauty compared to the one arranging them," Scyte teased while leaning against a street lamp.
His trademark mischievous grin immediately appeared.
Mika slowly turned around.
Her eyes instantly brightened in relief upon seeing him, though a second later she placed her hands on her hips and puffed her lips slightly.
"Scyte! You always appear out of nowhere like a ghost," Mika scolded softly.
But when she walked closer, her gaze immediately sharpened after noticing the cosmic dust and faint bruises along Scyte's jaw.
Mika let out a long sigh.
"You changed clothes again… Where's the jacket we bought together last month? And why is your cheek bruised like that? You got into another fight again, didn't you?"
Scyte immediately scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
A bit of cold sweat trickled down.
Facing thousands of laser-armed cyborg soldiers never bothered him, but whenever Mika started softly nagging him like this, all his courage instantly disappeared.
"Ahaha… this… I just slipped a little, Mika. Yeah, slipped while… exercising with Tora," Scyte lied carelessly while trying to put on an innocent face.
Mika simply shook her head slowly, clearly aware that her boyfriend was lying again.
She gently tugged at the sleeve of Scyte's jacket.
"Fine, just come inside first. Let me treat those injuries. I still have some warm soup left in the back."
Seeing Mika's sincere smile, the heavy burden on Scyte's shoulders after destroying the satellite headquarters earlier seemed to disappear entirely.
He nodded obediently and followed behind his girlfriend like a well-behaved puppy.