Alard made sure that his mind didn't stray from the calming sound of Jarek's footsteps as he followed along a bit behind him. Alden's words vaguely resonated in his head and he wondered if he was running away from the memory of his parents like Alden alluded to. 

He didn't dare dwell on that idle thought as he allowed his eyes to drift toward his surroundings. He took in the destroyed houses that they passed, a testament to the war of the Peacocks and the Underground.

Some were reduced to rubble while some still told a story with their half-demolished remains scarred beyond repair. At the dawn of the Peacock-Underground conflict, residents of Vrille were urged to evacuate amidst the destruction but some refused to face the unknown district system. Their thinking was with the introduction of alien creatures, the end of the world was near and death was inevitable, so they would die on their own terms at their houses.

Vrille had been a big tourist attraction and thus its residents tended to fall in the affluent category. Under the government's strict policies, only the rich could afford the cheapest spot, much less travel there, so Alard had never been. However, he heard stories of festivals, clubs, and elite gambling dens.

Now he imagined the hustle and bustle, with tenants who could afford to pay off the rapacious government. Instead of being victims of systematic corruption, they were beneficiaries who didn't have to lay eyes on the lower class. Like the government, they looked down on those with minuscule financial value and considered themselves better.

Of course, in this Parasyte era, financial value was a thing of the past to common folk. No amount of money could stop the destructive power of both sides and the ruins confirmed that.

Although they had been classist freaks, Alard couldn't help but feel pity for their plight. He could certainly relate to the feeling of monsters, both human and marked, closing in on your home slowly but surely. 

Alard was so engrossed in his thoughts of the past that he didn't hear Jarek's footsteps stop and bumped into a glaring Jarek. Had he not caught a glimpse of his clothing before the collision, he might've thought he bumped into a stone wall.

Alard innocently held up his hands with his palms showing. "I thought you could use some backup in case you aren't at a hundred percent yet."

 "I believe I instructed everyone to stay behind and rest up."

"Really? Hayaka must've been talking and made me miss that part."

Jarek's mouth stretched into a thin line. "Enough, Alard. Either you tell me why you're here or I'll drag you back and cut off your feet so you can't follow me again."

Alard shifted uncomfortably. He had felt the pain of losing a leg already and regeneration or not, it wasn't a pleasant experience. Finally, Alard sighed, fixing his eyes on the cracked road. "I don't want to stop moving. I know that it doesn't sound healthy but I feel like if I start resting now it'll eat me alive." Alard lifted his eyes to meet Jarek's calculating eyes. "Like you said; the Peacock organization is large enough that their malevolent acts are a daily occurrence. I wish I could nobly claim with certainty that my number one priority is preventing what happened to me from happening to someone else, but that's a secondary concern which is a consequence of my primary goal."

"Which is?"

"Making them pay for what they did to me." Alard's eyes again wandered to the ground as he let his thoughts flow through his mouth without censorship. "It's like...there's this deep rage within me that burns with the embers of the memory of my district. If I rest that rage may consume me..." Alard thought back to his conversation with Alden, "if it hasn't already."

His heavy words hung like a blanket as Jarek didn't reply. He risked a glance up at the man and saw him looking past him. "Is it the same for you, Hayaka?"

Alard turned to see Hayaka emerge from behind an almost fully intact building. He had his hands in his pockets and looked uncharacteristically sullen. What surprised Alard was the fact he hadn't noticed the boy. Alard had been practicing the sneaking technique he saw Aura use, but had never seen Hayaka doing the same.

"Yeah," Hayaka said softly. "I kind of feel like an asshole if I just lounge around while you have to report our failure alone."

Jarek's gaze flicked between the two and he seemed to internally decide something before nodding slightly. "Ok, I won't stop you guys. Do as you please."

With that, he turned and continued his march. Hayaka and Alard exchanged a glance before falling in behind him. Had he known Hayaka was nearby, Alard wasn't sure he would've spoken his mind as much as he did, but Hayaka didn't seem to look at him any differently. In fact, he couldn't be sure he hadn't seen respect when their eyes had met.

The trio walked in silence for a while until Alard decided to voice a question that had been bugging him for a while. "Jarek?" Jarek acknowledged him with a slight turn of his head, though he didn't slow down. "Do you think Akuma can undoubtedly beat Ahriman?"

Jarek seemed to take the question in stride, his face revealing nothing. "I hope so. If not, you're our second-best weapon against him."

Alard started to laugh. Surely that was a joke, but Jarek's face remained as serious as ever, if not harder. 

He wasn't joking.

Alard gulped with difficulty, running his hand through his hair idly. He wasn't accustomed to any type of pressure really. In his past boxing matches, he was almost always the underdog, but now he was to be a major part of a nation-changing revolution.

The mind boggles.

They traveled the rest of the way in silence, even Hayaka, who seemed engrossed in his thoughts. Alard himself was trying to build an equation where he would be able to use his Oracle Sight on Ahmiran again without Jarek's presence, but now that he wouldn't be underestimated, he couldn't reach one.

It was just impossible for him to face him head-on at his current level and the aspiring horror movie star would be out for blood.

The trio entered the mansion and Jarek activated the secret entrance as Alard and Hayaka stood in the middle of the library. This time, it felt less like death was visiting him as they traveled through the underground tube at breakneck speed; though Alard figured it was more because his mind was heavy with new responsibilities, rather than getting accustomed to the weird contraption.

Like before, some bystanders stopped to watch them walk down the long-winded hallway. With the absence of Akuma this time, the looks were more respectful and some curiosity when they landed on Alard and Hayaka.

Alard wasn't sure how tight knitted the Underground community was but everyone seemed to know who Jarek and Akuma were.

They found the same receptionist, Stacey, in front of Mr.Dawkins' office. Her face lit up as Jarek approached. "I'm here to report on my latest mission," Jarek said.

Stacey nodded, her eyes shamelessly tracing Jarek's figure before pointedly looking at Alard and Hayaka. 

"They're with me."

Stacey stood, shooting one less hungry look Jarek's way before turning to the office door. "I'll let him know you're here." She opened the door and disappeared inside.

Alard turned to Jarek who didn't seem flustered in the least. "You deal with things like that often?" He asked.

"With what?"

Alard shook his head. "Never mind."

Alard couldn't hear the conversation in the office at all. The door seemed to be a soundproof strong enough to shut out even the super hearing of Parasyte users. It made Alard wonder what other creations were possible to combat Parasytes.

Stacey returned, her business face back on as she motioned them inside. "Mr.Dawkins will see you now."

The office was just as Alard remembered it, from the expensive-looking oak desk with landscape paintings decorating the walls to Mr.Dawkins' portrait smile. 

"Welcome gentleman," Mr.Dawkins said, standing up and motioning at the three chairs across from him.

Jarek took the middle seat with a respectful dip of his head. "Thank you." Alard and Hayaka filled in on either side of him.

"Nice to see you again," Mr.Dawkins said, surprising Alard as he looked in his direction.

Alard offered him a smile but didn't bother to say likewise.

"And I assume this is the second rookie?" Mr.Dawkins asked, smoothly transitioning his attention to Hayaka who nodded awkwardly. "I trust Akuma has been treating you fairly?"

Hayaka shrugged. "Nothing I can't handle."

"Glad to hear. Jarek vouched for you so I expect big things." Mr.Dawkins replied with his robotic smile. His voice was soothing, like a melody that made you want to hum along.

Hayaka fought a losing battle against a smile of his own. "You got it."

Finally, Mr.Dawkins focused his attention on a patient Jarek. His calculating grey eyes brimmed with intelligence as he studied him. "You seem to have seen better days."

Alard failed to hide his surprise. Aside from walking stiffer than usual, Jarek seemed to be back to normal at first glance with the naked eye. Yet, a human eye had picked up on his deficient health.

"I've had a tough twenty-four hours," Jarek responded without blinking.

"Should I take that as the mission had some unforeseen hiccups?"

"I believe you're already aware of that." Jarek's tone held no accusation, only confidence.

Mr.Dawkins leaned back in his chair, clasping his hands. "I've heard of Ahmiran spottings."

"Heard? I don't find it coincidental that Akuma is out of town at the time of this mission. In fact, my judgment tells me a mission such as this one would usually be handled by him."

Mr.Dawkins' smile never faltered. "That's some judgment you have. What if I merely wanted to test your team, now that you've finally gotten a full one?"

Jarek didn't respond, opting to stare evenly at Mr.Dawkins. 

Alard's father enjoyed...used to enjoy watching politics on the television and he would often compare the discussions to one of Alard's boxing matches. Alard had never understood what he meant until now. In the tension-filled room, he could feel the two jabbing and feinting with their words, their stairs unfaltering as they fought a mental battle.

Much like in the physical battles, Alard and Hayaka were out of their league in the office.

Mr.Dawkins sighed, seeming to collect his thoughts as his eyes traced the length of the room. "Fine, Jarek. You are no fool. It's well known that Ahmiran spottings usually come when Akuma is out of the picture, which is the sign of some mole leaking intel to the Peacocks. As such, we orchestrated his absence and assigned you and your team an important Wall mission."

"Why?" Some emotion leaked into Jarek's voice as his neck muscles tightened. "You put my team under unknown danger that we could've better prepared for."

Mr.Dawkins' smile seemed to stretch wider at Jarek's annoyance. "I was under the impression that you could handle Ahmiran without the help of your brother, as you've said before. Perhaps my expectations were too high after all."

Jarek opened his mouth to say something then closed it instead. Alard could see what Mr.Dawkins was doing, attacking a tender spot in the ring. No one would want to be in their brother's shadow and it would certainly be hard to get out of one as big as Akuma's.

"We did handle him," Alard said, his words even surprising himself.

Mr.Dawkins turned his predatory gaze on Alard. There was no parasyte user aura from the man, yet his gaze sent chills down Alard's back. "We?"

Alard winced, realizing his mistake. Jarek had bought into the idea of keeping his ability under wraps, saying it was best to reveal it to the higher-ups only when he was stronger and now with one simple word, he had overshared.

"Uh, yeah. While Jarek occupied his attention I managed to sneak in behind and get a hit in. Lucky, I guess," Alard said quickly.

Mr.Dawkins leaned forward, his eyes searching Alard's for weakness. "Ahmiran doesn't get damaged simply from luck, or one hit. I'd imagine there was much more at play."

"We wore him down as a collective," Jarek interjected. "Perhaps he underestimated Alard and that's what allowed him to inflict as much damage as he did."

Alard glanced at Jarek who had restored his poker face. In the blink of an eye, he had taken back control of the room and did it by telling a half-truth instead of a lie so his rookies wouldn't feel pressured.

"Is that so?" Mr.Dawkins asked, his eyes having never left Alard.

Alard nodded confidently despite his unease. "I wasn't able to face him head-on at all. Without Jarek, I might've lasted a minute tops."

Mr.Dawkins' eyes swiveled to Hayaka who shrugged. "Dunno, I was in another fight."

Mr.Dawkins leaned back, letting the silence stretch as he closed his eyes. When he reopened them there seemed to be new vigor within the slimy irises. "I must say Alard, I'm a bit worried that you think you would only last sixty seconds with Ahmiran, Being trained by Akuma puts you under a certain set of...expectations."

"I'd hardly say-"

"Which makes me wonder if I've made a mistake appointing you to Akuma for training," Mr Dawkins said, cutting off Alard's reply.

"I can attest that...he's improved a considerable amount under Akuma's guide. They both have." Jarek said. It seemed hard for him to admit and Alard could understand why. It was almost admitting that Akuma was a better mentor than himself.

"Perhaps so," Mr.Dawkins replied, not missing a beat, "but I'm afraid the pace will need to increase substantially."

Jarek shifted in his seat, a glimmer of interest suddenly appearing in his serpentine pupils. "Are you saying..?"

Mr.Dawkins' smile stretched into a smirk. "Indeed, I am."

"The second attack on the Wall of Hades is fast approaching."