It was an exciting night in Marigold. Ever since Songstress Saya came and went, the artistic passion projects of various performers and writers rose to the forefront. Rather than simply being content with staying in her shadow after her dazzling tale of love and revenge, they instead brought each other up to try to match and even surpass her. It was on one particularly loaded night at the theater that Tomoe found himself once again seated and ready for some performances. How else could it be described but brilliant, to see all of these ambitious dreamers getting the chance to make it big time in theatrics? All these folks inspired by a daring drama... why, if there was a word for it, it'd be...

“This sucks! Next bit! C'mon!”, one psychotic, unlikable redhead shouted out from the top seats, booing loudly and gesturing with his thumbs down.

This was nothing like the drama and intrigue of Saya's dark play. Rather, it was simply a bunch of starry-eyed shit-kids using daddy's money to put on a bunch of 'extravagant' plays that meant nothing and said nothing. Now Tomoe wasn't an artist and he wouldn't even try to play the part of an 'intellectual' critic for these horrible musicals, poems and stories; but he did know that they were bad, and wanted to do his part to let all the whimsical rich kids and corpy parents know that he thought they were bad. It was hatred without reason, because the Joyan knew in his heart that he didn't need a logical reason to dislike what he knew emotionally to be wrong.

“Go on, shit-for-brains! Fuck up your lines!”

As this went on, he received more than a handful of disapproving glares and confused head turns, but when no guards had the balls to tell him to stop they had to simply accept that this was the way this night of performances would be. Tomoe was a cunt, and everyone knew this, but without any proper opposition within Marigold, who could stop him from doing whatever he wanted? The guards were weak as hell, the Rune Knights wouldn't come all the way out here for one man, and there wasn't a single S-rank mage anywhere in sight. Marigold truly was his playground.

---

WC: 379/2,500

After the final performance had concluded, the last boy who had written a rather odd poem being shown off stage rather hastily for some reason, the audience began to leave. People stayed clear of Tomoe, and he in turn stayed clear of them. He hadn't had to pay for this mediocre night of shit-tier entertainment, and he was all the better for it. He'd gotten to relieve some stress by shouting at people to mess up their lines and succeeded a decent few times once they realized they had drawn the aggro of the man known as the crusher of Penumbral Guard. One of them, anyway, and a former member. People who had once come to trust him and rely on him now found themselves diverting all of their attention to avoiding him. That was how it needed to be, for the ingrates who would never realize the greatness he was trying to achieve.

As Tomoe left, he was stopped by one of the theater employees. He was nearly out of breath trying to catch up, but Tomoe decided to give the man the time of day – or in this case, night – for his efforts. He turned to face the man, and nodded as if silently letting the man know that he'd be allowed to speak when ready.

“If there was anyone else we wouldn't turn to someone like you about this, but there isn't on such short notice. One of our young performers, Cyrus, a boy we were charged with keeping safe until arriving home to his family... he was kidnapped!”

The man said this like it was some kind of shocking revelation, but Tomoe cocked his head in confusion, not knowing to whom the man was referring. After being filled in, it was the poetry boy who performed last, and some men in robes abducted him after crippling a few of the attendants assigned to escort the boy home. It all sounded really shady, even when ignoring the part that this could be some elaborate ploy to lure in Tomoe using some small shred of sympathy that might be remaining in his heart.

“Yeah, I got better things to do. Like drink or sleep. Later.”, Tomoe stated plainly and turned to walk away, bidding the man adieu.

“No, wait, please...!”

The man begged and pleaded, rushing past Tomoe and standing in front of him with his hands clasped together in prayer. “We can pay you! Whatever you want! If we can't get the boy back, our theater's reputation and very existence could be at stake!”

---

WC: 808/2,500

Tomoe stopped at the mention of money, and sighed. It was one thing he could never deny when the number got big enough. And to avoid legal action from some rich kid's angry dad, they probably meant big money indeed. Such was the price to pay, of course. They would even trust in a criminal instead of ruin their precious reputation. What a pathetic thing the commoners of Marigold worried about. If this were Joya, a commoner's main concern was not being stabbed for a moldy carrot.

“Fine, fine. Then we'll discuss payment after I get the kid back to ya. Where'd ya last see him?”

Tomoe was directed towards the last seen location of the boy, mere minutes ago. The attendants were still bleeding out on the ground and being treated with healing magic by some stray, though weak, mages. He entered the scene, and with his entrance, an overwhelming aura of fear and disdain from those in proximity to him. Just another night, really. The hate directed his way was as casual as a light breeze nowadays, and that was okay with him. Whatever. It wasn't his concern at the moment. There was money on the line, and they weren't paying. He'd disregard them and move to inspect the surrounding area, before asking one of the injured attendants which direction the cloaks had taken the boy in.

“Like that way? Or that way?”

Being an alley, there were only two directions they could have moved by foot. Time was of the essence, because if it had only been a few minutes ago, they could still be caught up to rather easily. According to the attendant, the kidnappers had actually moved up. They'd used the walls of the alley to launch themselves upwards, jump by jump, and made it to the rooftops. From there, they headed north. Sounded simple enough.

With a single motion in a flash, Tomoe blasted upwards in a golden light, and then began to look to the north. With that same light continuing to surround him and keep him steady, he rocketed north at high speeds. There was no stopping him now, and those cloaks would receive horrible deaths for the sake of Tomoe's money. Oh, and the boy would probably be saved too. Maybe. There wasn't a guarantee, only that Tomoe would get paid tonight no matter what. That's what really mattered, in the end.

---

WC: 1,209/2,500

As he moved further forward, Tomoe eventually caught sight of some dark shapes moving from rooftop to rooftop. “Gotcha.”, he muttered, and descended towards them.

They were indeed the cloaks that Tomoe had been looking for, boy over the shoulder of the one at the head of the pack, unless there were two separate little boy kidnappings going on tonight. Who could say differently? All Tomoe could do was hope that this was the correct child being stolen, and any others could get sold into slavery or die for all he cared. His light descended upon the miserable shades like an angel bearing a prophecy for the ignorant. They scattered like rats before his glory.

Cowering in fear, they began scrambling for space, but Tomoe wouldn't give it to them. Instead, he took in the night air while walking forward. The night, the wonderful night, was so gorgeous and big and beautiful that... it was almost orgasmic. With these vermin scurrying about, there wasn't a worry in the Joyan's head. It wasn't about saving the boy, necessarily. It was about sending a message to Marigold. Tomoe wished to remind the good, subservient, fearful cocksuckers of Marigold that he was the one at the top of the food chain. He decided who lived, died, succeeded or failed in this town for as long as he was here.

“Alright, fellas, just give up the kid and we can all-”

Zoom.

A small blast of fire flew by right near Tomoe's face, nearly burning the left half of his face if he didn't take a brief sidestep to avoid it. The one who had the boy over his shoulder used his free hand to fire it, and seemed different than the rest. He glared at Tomoe from underneath his hood, which due to darkvision, would not obscure the man's features in the darkness from Tomoe's eyes. He was scarred deeply, burned and had an eyepatch on his right eye. He was a menacing individual, the kind of person nobody would take home to their mama. Sadly, he wasn't the kind of “sexy cripple” that existed rarely in the world. The kind where their injuries were conveniently placed to make them look smooth, dark and mysterious. Almost like that Zane guy.

Wonder how Zane's doin', anyway?, Tomoe thought, spacing out for a moment blankly, wondering what that lad had gotten up to in all that time; their cafe encounter was a fun one, trying to figure out how much of the guy's words were bullshit and how much of it was legit.

---

WC: 1,637/2,500

In his zoning, he'd let a few things happen, as anybody with their head temporarily in the clouds would be liable to do. For one, he'd accidentally choked one of the hooded kidnappers to death, and eventually put so much pressure on the guy's windpipe that it shattered. An audible crack could be heard echoing throughout the silent November night. As he released the corpse, formerly of some random mook screaming, “Please, please don't kill me!” at the top of his lungs that would no longer work, eyes ready to bulge out of their sockets, he felt heat at his back. A fireball blasted him from behind, dispersing against the armor that the mad cultist had already equipped. It added a somewhat brief warmth to the otherwise chilling Autumn evening, and the Joyan hit by it had to thank his opponent for it.

Turning around and seeing other cloaked bodies on the floor in his peripheral vision, he realized he may have done more than he'd been conscious of. What kind of carnage had he brought upon these hapless goons? Was he really so far gone that he didn't even remember the murders of lesser beings anymore? Though at the same time, that wasn't so bad if it were true. There was no limit to what he'd do if it meant he could bring HER back. As Tomoe took a step towards the leader of the kidnappers, the scarred fire mage who had dropped the kid to focus on the fight, that very man seemed to almost piss himself in fear. He let loose blast after blast, and Tomoe would dance around the rooftop that was slick with blood and guts, dodging the flames.

Why did Tomoe fight fire mages so often, anyway? It was way too common of an occurrence. Then again, fire was a pretty sought after magic for many reasons, so it probably shouldn't come at so much of a surprise. Rather than use his bow, Tomoe was evading blasts while getting in closer. At this point, despite not remembering it, he and the fire mage were the last ones alive on the rooftop other than the abducted kid, who was paralyzed in fear behind the fire mage.

Not behind him for long., Tomoe thought to himself as he made a final lunge, closing the distance between him and the mage while only taking friction burns at best along the way.

---

WC: 2,041/2,500

The Joyan went for a disrespectful blow, aiming a kick at the pyromancer's nuts. It would impact, and crush the man's family jewels instantly. He fell to the ground grasping them, howling in pain like he'd gone through child birth. In essence, he'd probably gone and had the reverse happen – he'd be making no more kids with those balls. He was in for many disappointing nights with his lover, if he had one. That is, he would if not for Tomoe's approach. As he looked up, tears streaming down his face as he looked up at Mr. Tanaka, he silently prayed that he would be spared. Sadly for him, his opponent had nothing like that in stock anymore. Peace would come to Fiore, didn't he know? All this suffering would be repaid with a thousand pleasures when the utopia would arrive. SHE would bring it, and his soul would be one among the rest to revel in the pleasures of peace across all existence.

Because of that, Tomoe wept no tears as he stomped his foot down on the man's throat and pushed. Afterwards, unceremoniously killing his final opponent, he walked over and picked up the kid. The child was too traumatized to actually do anything, but tried his best to speak.

“They... they were trying to help me... by staging a kidnapping, they were going to get me away from my family. My parents would always beat me, and starve me, and force me to sing and dance through hours of practice. T-They... they never let me be me-”

The kid was silenced, cut off by a fist to his face, courtesy of Tomoe. The kid went stone cold, and it wasn't too much longer before Tomoe had made his way back to the theater. Seeing the employee from earlier that had hired him for this task out front of the theater, there was nothing else to be done about things. He'd brought back the boy successfully, and carelessly tossed his unconscious body face-down on the ground at the employee's feet. “What the fuck!”, the employee shouted out angrily, looking at Tomoe before reminding himself that the man was a crazed murderer terrorizing the town.

---

WC: 2,408/2,500

“I brought him back. Now pay me.”, Tomoe said coldly as the employee turned the boy upright.

The employee screamed out in shock and fell backwards, puking on himself. Revealed in the rising moonlight was the boy, his throat freshly slit with his eyes open and blank like a dead fish. Upon seeing this, Tome rubbed the back of his head. He let loose a chuckle, which then developed into a low laugh, and then into gut laughter as he tipped his head back in a festive chortle.

“Sorry, I guess I killed the kid without realizing it! Whoops! Ah well, he'll be goin' to a better place. Now pay me.”, Tomoe continued, moving to stand in front of the traumatized employee but taking care not to step in his vomit puddle.

“Y-You're... a demon...!”

Toome's brow furrowed at the comment. “What the FUCK did you say?”, he shouted angrily, and stomped down on the man's left knee, turning it sideways with the force and then using his heel to scrape backwards, shuffling broken bone fragments, torn muscles and destroyed cartilage everywhere in the man's leg.

Afterwards, Tomoe ripped a wallet out of the man's pants pocket. “Thank ya for the business, buddy ol' pal ol' codger. It was a really great show tonight, so I'll be back to catch another one some time. Shame about the kid, though. Y'all should get better security, for the future.”

With that, Tomoe turned and left, satisfied that he had done his part tonight. He had done a good deed, helped a family realize what they had lost, crippled a man, and gotten more than his fair share by robbing that cripple. Shit, Marigold really was a luxurious town if he could keep getting money from suckers like this. It was an easy mark. Though... an easy mark was boring, after a while. He'd head elsewhere, having grown bored of this town that cowered in fear like hunted vermin with the loss of Penumbral Guard. He'd heard somewhere else he needed to go. The next place on his path as he'd say goodbye to his past and kill parts of his old self.

He'd be heading for Magnolia. Fairy Tail couldn't go ignored. With its fall and the deaths of those there to witness it, Earthland would be one small step closer to world peace. One small step closer to utopia.

---

WC: 2,500/2,500

- EXIT -