Jolene Aurora is a member of the Polar Town Shinigami Soldiers, of the Murder-For-Hire sector.

And today, she will leave a mark for years to come.

***

Appearing abruptly behind the large rocky structures was Liohime Kitagami, hunched over with pain, yet eager to continue moving forward.

However, he instantly caught sight of the scene in front of him and froze.

A heavily bruised Jolene Aurora stood with a battle pose, gripping the hilt of her katana tightly with both arms as she prepared to attack, but she also noticed his sudden presence.

Just a few feet away was Kaza, the woman that he had escaped from in the second layer of the Paradisus Legion, and she also noticed him immediately.

His gaze returned to Jolene, and as they both exchanged glances, they were reminded of the first time that they had communicated solely on instinct when they looked at each other at the start of the mission.

And then, it happened again.

With a synchronized understanding at the final hurdle, the roles had now been completely reversed.

Liohime broke into a full wobbly sprint, enduring indescribable pain that seared into his insides, and headed straight for the Magical Beast egg located several feet away from the duo.

And as for Jolene-

"Well, look who finally decided to show up!!" cried Kaza, who laughed excitedly, completely ignoring her opponent and dashing straight at Liohime, closing the gap as she placed her taser in her pocket and raised her sword to slash into him instantly.

In just a second, Liohime was exposed, and was about to be cut down when…

…A blur whizzed in front of her, just as the tip of the blade neared his head, and the clash of iron against iron was loudly heard.

Liohime gasped.

"J-Jolene!!"

--And as for Jolene, who swiftly parried the stray attack, she now took on the role of stalling, allowing Liohime to finally get the job done.

She raised her voice, noticing Kaza's sudden change in expression to one of restlessness mixed with anger.

"LIO!!!!! GO!!!!!"

"RIGHT!!!"

Liohime hobbled on, while vicious attacks began to rain down on the already weakened young woman.

All of a sudden, Kaza's tone had shifted, and it seemed as if she had kicked into another gear.

"How interesting, Jolene! To think you had something this up your sleeve! Now I really have to kill you with ambition!!!"

"Grrr, shut…UUUUP!!!!!"

Sidestepping a quick jab by Kaza, Jolene sent a spinning triple kick at Kaza, with two being blocked and the final one being barely weaved, but she quickly followed up with a flash step towards her and managed to slash into her side, drawing blood.

Kara winced as she noticed her focus waning with the inclusion of Liohime who neared closer and closer to the site, but she counted with a quick draw against her opponent who flipped over her body at the same time, and by the time she spun around to attack again, she had already dashed to her exposed back.

Shit-

With her sense of balance off, she turned once more and anticipated the right slash, but she did not realize that it was merely a pump fake for the left hook that slammed into her face.

However, Jolene was simultaneously hit with a quick dig at her face from her opponent's exposed sharp nails, and as she stumbled back, she was hit with another brutal tase into her stomach that sent her body tumbling backwards-

"Do your best, Jolene."

And her feet firmly stomped onto the ground below, preventing her fall, as she heard her mother's voice.

Her breathing was now becoming forced, as her body could barely keep up. In a sense, she could not tell if she was slowly dying or not, but it seemed like the blurry vision of her mother just behind Kaza confirmed it.

The woman smiled weakly, with her expression filled with regret before she faded away within a couple of seconds, and Jolene pursed her lips.

Mother….I…

There were so many things that she wanted to say to everyone if there was a chance she'd meet them again.

But…

Her eyes wavered, spotting Kaza taking a step back to turn and direct a chase to Liohime.

Liohime had most likely entered the exact location of the Magical Beast egg, finding himself facing two guards of Kaza who remained by the object, but Jolene trusted his thievery skills, so she had to focus every last bit of strength on eliminating Kaza here and now.

She sputtered before smiling and muttering to herself:

"At long last, Lio….I did it."

I lived.

She then burst forward with the last of her might.

Her past, her present, everything became a flash as she charged in.

Her riskiest move yet, one that she had not attempted yet due to her knowledge of swordsman skills was to be done.

With a war cry that she let out at the top of her lungs, Jolene closed the gap within a fraction of a second, catching Kaza off guard.

The only way that I can kill her….

She overextended her katana behind her in preparation, and then-

…Is by capitalizing on being…

Slashed through, aiming for her neck.

….Completely predictable!!!

Kaza dodged easily, and aimed at Jolene's lower chest that had been extremely exposed, anticipated a quick block, but…

SHHK.

.....Huh?

Kaza could not process what had happened. After all, she was confident that Jolene would have blocked the strike, and then tried another stupid, predictable attack.

--Her blade went right through her body, and Jolene coughed up blood.

Shit, she's too fast, Jolene thought,...BUT THAT'S FINE!!!!

Her body was unable to keep up anymore, but Jolene grinned devilishly and continued with her plan, using Kaza's split-second shocked reaction to her advantage as her blade swooped into the location of her heart-

-But the indescribable pain of the blade's deep and fatal wound caused her action to sway with a lesser impact, stabbing into her opponent's shoulder as Kaza was pulverized into the ground below.

Kaza felt something close to fear for the first time, and with the searing heat flowing through her body, slowly eating away at her life, she instantly whipped out something that resembled a flare gun and shot it towards the air, before she stared at the stooping figure of Jolene Aurora and chuckled.

"…..Sacrificing your own life just to stall for a win….you truly are an interesting person, Jolene. Well...fucking played."

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