And here in Ren's cramped living room they sit; A kitsune, a draconic, a vampire, and a dark fae, with crippling quietness being the mediator of their "conversation."

With pupils trying to avoid eye contact, Ren forces in an awkward smile as he waves a hand onto the purple eyed girl dressed in black sitting next to him, "guys, so... this is Azayaka, she's..." Looking into how both Charlie and Niz are staring daggers onto her, Ren keeps on mumbling, "well, you guys already know right?"

"..." Charlie peers with an unbridled stare.

"Tch..." Beside her, Niz gazes with bitterness.

Azayaka could only looks down while she crosses her arms, "So, we just met and you two seems to already hate me," her eyes swiftly glance to the two of them, "I don't think there's much I could do to change your guys' mind, then," she continues as she looks down again.

"Actually there is," Niz cuts in with a serious glare, "You just need to tell us why the hell you tried to kill Ren everytime you met him," his sharp tail cuts a string off of Ren's sofa.

Ren immediately moves to stand up, but is stopped by Azayaka's half lidded stare. She then turns to Niz with her sharp eyes, "And if I don't want to?"

A twitch colors one of his eyelids, "Then it's either me capturing you myself, or you surrendering and handing yourself in peacefully."

At that, she only smirks.

"You'll break a sweat trying."

"I don't do sweat."

she leans her head back, "with those scales, I don't doubt it. But I could still smell that cheap hand lotion you're wearing, you could do better."

"..."

"Heh..." He grits his teeth, "Okay then, you're really asking for an ass-whooping, you emo goth bitch."

"Okay, Niz, that's way out of line!" Ren joins the two.

"Out of line? You think that's out of line? What about killing, then?" Niz sharpens his glare to her, "I'm sure that's fine if she's the one doing it, right?"

Azayaka crosses her arms, sighing as she averts her eyes downwards.

"Niz, listen-"

"No! This time you listen to me!" Niz cuts Ren midway, "Did you know what she has done to you!? I don't care if you wanna fuck each other that badly but fucking forgetting that she's a bounty assassin working for a terrorist organization? Now THAT'S out of line!"

"Okay, now you're really pissing me off..." Ren growls as he approaches the lizard.

"Both of you, that's enough!"

Charlie's yell softens the mood by a tiny margin; Azayaka keeping her poker face, Ren clenching his fists, and Niz cramming his teeth together.

So the vampire takes a deep breath and lets it out loosely, "let's just all settle this like proper adults, shall we?"

"That means no growling," She glances to Ren, "no stabbing," to Azayaka, "and no assuming people's libido," then to Niz.

"Got it?" The two men take their seat with a huff.

With a straight face, Charlie then turns to Azayaka, "Now Azayaka, what are you doing here?"

She only gives her a glimpse, "Pfft... why do you care?"

The vampire glances at Ren, before turning back to her, "Because I want to understand you too."

"Sure, I mean you assumed that I'm ready to stab someone so... Good job. What are you? A psychotherapy analyst?"

"I work at a mental wellness company as a product editor. So I do understand a bit," her response caught Azayaka's sarcasm off guard. Which put a smirk on Niz's face.

Seeing how Ren stares at her with unsure eyes, Azayaka sighs as she crosses her arms, "I came here cuz I wanted to apologize to Ren," She then quickly scans the other two, "But it seems I came at the worst time."

"Okay but, how the hell did you know where Ren lived? Are you stalking him-"

"I'll take that as a rhetorical question," she cuts Niz off, which leads him to click his tongue.

The four then fall into silence, all looking for their next words.

Ren could only intertwines his fingers as he stares at the wooden floor, while Azayaka pulls up her legs onto the sofa, hugging them tight. Charlie and Niz still puzzles themselves with the mysterious girl, one with eyes calm yet unsure, while the other sharpen to only reveal a sliver of frustration.

Then, as an unhinged book falls off its case, Charlie hums, "That car three days ago..." She first initiates, "Was that you?"

And at that, the Dark Fae gulps as she hides away her gaze, "I-I..." She murmurs her quivering lips to a short pause.

"..."

Then she sighs, answering with a nod.

"I fucking knew it!" Niz slams the sofa's handrest as he stands up and pulls his bangs back, "That means she almost killed all three of us!" his tail flails around, knocking over a small plastic vase, "Ren, please. If that's not a red flag for you I don't know what is."

"And don't forget that wasp too!" Niz adds, "Why would a giant wasp suddenly appear and attack us? Why the only explanation is; it was trying to kill you for her!" he points to Azayaka whilst his gaze remain at Ren's.

"..." Azayaka stays still as she keeps her eyes looking down. While Ren's stay locked onto her.

"No... that can't be..." He takes hold of her hands, as the bigger picture comes together within his head, "Azayaka... Please..."

The memory the Chief shot through his head.

"Tell me..."

That wasp, that same wasp that attacked Sion and Kao.

"Tell me!"

And the manticore that came and left so abruptly. It all begins to connect.

"Tell me that Niz's wrong!" Yet he doesn't want to believe it.

"Ren," she answers his shivering hands with her own, "it's true."

"I did try to kill all three of you."

"I did order that wasp to finish the job."

So she turns to Ren with faintly shaking lips, "It's all true."

Niz and Charlie, both astonished by her willingness to admit, sit back and sigh respectively.

"Still... I didn't know why I did it..."

Trust me.

"All I knew was that..." Her voice starts to quiver.

Trust me.

"He was trying to..." Her eyes start to agape.

Trust me.

"I was trying to-"

"!!!"

"Akh!" A sharp ring suddenly shoots through her mind. It then ripples and echoes inside her head into waves of ear-pearcing cackles, "Ah... haah..." She grunts as she presses the sides of her head. She then falls onto the floor, groveling in pain.

Trust me.

"Aza!?"

Trust me.

"Shit, what the hell's wrong with her!?"

Trust me.

"S-Should we call an ambulance?"

Their voices sound distorted, the migraines inducing cackles triumphing over them.

Ren is quick to take both her arms, clutching her tight to him, "Aza! What's wrong!? Oh god..." He widens his eyes in worry.

Meanwhile, Niz and Charlie both looks at each other in panic before Charlie nods and pulls out her phone, "I'll get help-"

At that, Niz grabs Charlie's wrist, "Wait, we're not sure what's happening to her yet-"

"Just fucking call an ambulance!" Ren's words triumph over Niz's, prompting Charlie to continue. He then glances back to Azayaka who's still crying out wails of pain, "Aza, you're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay-"

His ears detect a sudden wave of sharp air, thus he turns behind, his pupils sharpening at the sight.

From the corner of the ceiling, Azayaka lunges at him, thrusting a blade towards his eye.

But Niz is quick enough to lash his tail onto her as she was diving mid-air, causing her to scatter into a swarm of butterflies alongside the "Azayaka" Groveling by Ren's side.

Those butterflies then ripples behind the lizard, her reforming back before slashing her blade towards him.

Niz manages to hastily evade her strike, though it slices across his chest as he was jumping back, drawing a line of blood from him, "tch!"

Though amidst his focus, Niz catches a glimpse of Charlie ducking behind the sofa, staring at him in panic, "Charlie! get out-"

"!!!" Fast paced thumps rumbled across the room.

"Shit!"

Azayaka suddenly appears in front of him, already sending out another strike without giving him any down time.

But with flashing blues, Ren manages to tackle her from the side, catching her as her blade was about to touch Niz's neck. With his wrist, he pins her onto the wall as thin veils of electricity surround both of his arms, "Aza! Please! Wake up!"

Her only respond is a cold, emotionless stare with a knee to his crotch. She then kicks him away, sending him falling onto the floor.

With a blink of an eye, she is already on top of him, staring at him with her empty eyes, "A-Aza..." Ren mumbles, hoping for her to regain her senses, yet she stays silent before thrusting her blade towards his throat.

"!!!" A gunshot suddenly echoes, blowing away her blade to clank onto the floor while burning the hand holding it into a cloud of ashes.

They both turn towards the source of the noise, seeing a sight unfathomable to the eyes; the vase that Niz had knocked over suddenly has a black sleeved arm that is aiming a revolver at Azayaka.

"Well, well..." Suddenly, a voice echoes from the vase. A static voice, belonging to someone both Niz and Ren are affiliated with.

"Looks like I got a catch," The vase then melts into a puddle of black mud-like substance. With the gun still locked onto Azayaka, the black mud begins to swirl and climb up around and onto itself, sculpting a pair of legs, a feminine silhouette, a head and another arm. The details are soon to follow; one by one, individual strain of black hair sprouts from its head, clothing folds and buttons line up down across its torso and three dangling jester bells protrude from its neck as the sharp outline of a theatrical mask shapes its face, eventually forming what is known to be the doppelganger, the Chief of the Intelligence Agency, Faust.

The Chief keeps the gun locked onto Azayaka, giving her a mocking head tilt, "You sure could act well, miss Butterfly," Her pigtails sways even when there's no wind, "So much so, I almost rethought my perfect disguise," The empty smile of her mask widens.

"Chief..? Wait... Please, don't shoot..." Ren says, trying to hold back the pain pulsating from his underside.

Azayaka only stares at her with blankness just as empty as the Chief's.

"Niz," The Chief calls, dangling a pair of silver coated arm cuffs to him.

He acts quickly without any verbal order, taking one of her arm onto her other before strapping them into the cuffs.

Ren watches how Azayaka's eyes doesn't indicate any emotions as she stays still to the Chief's threat, just a pair of blank purples, a far cry from the guilt and the warmth she expressed. At his window, when they both reconciled their emotions, when he shared his story with her and when they kissed for the first time.

Now it's all gone without a trace.

Yet, suddenly with a hic, her eyes widen as her pupils dilate. Her neck went limp for a moment, but as she raises her head to her surrounding; how that lizard is staring at her with sorrowful anger, how the vampire keeps her hands tucked onto her chest, and how her body feels limp with a pair of cuffs restraining her whole wrists behind her back, then she sees Ren lying under her, looking at her with eyes filled with shock and fear. Well, she warned him, didn't she?

And so her eyelids halfway close themselves as she looks away from him with lips quivering in realization, "I tried to kill you again... Didn't I?"

Ren only answers with eyes filled with fear and uncertainty, overwhelming his desire to comfort her and say all over again; that it wasn't her fault. Now, his sense of reality has triumph over his naive wish.

And so, the Chief let out a series of haunting low chuckles before she looks down, mocking the both of them, "Now then..." The doppelganger turns toward Ren's door, pointing at it with childish amusement, "Shall we?"

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