After taking massive attacks to the face and back, Maken was breathing heavily yet still on his feet. Swipe looked at him thinking, "Man oh man. The little girl opened his back, not only that she was so fast that she was basically carving wood at a wood workshop. Look at his arms it was as if she was cutting at his wrists waiting for the vein to just spew all over, and to be able to touch Maken’s face, no. Not just touch it but to open all thirteen scars which includes the MZ on his forehead. He spoke out loud now, "This isn’t good definitely not good." He balled his fist up. Yumi thought. "She can do it! The girl--no, Nyx the Prodigy--she really is better than MakenZero! Just one more attack! The next one will bring him down for sure!"

Nyx still looking puzzled, "It really is strange." "Huh?" Swipe and Yumi looking blanked eyed. "I was meaning to go for the opening after your attack all along, but it didn’t bring you down. (musing) Strange." Nyx was definitely was something that wouldn’t be understood so easily it seems. Swipe and Yumi look disgusted. "Look girl, you can think about it later, just hurry up in kill him!" Yumi fumed. "Maken she’s distracted, get her!" Swipe yelled. Nyx looking down, "Oh Mr. Zero, I’m sorry, can you wait a minute? After all that running, look at my sandals." The straw-soled sandals are tattered, their laces broken. "Rest yourself while I change them." She walks off talking to herself. "Hmm let me see spare sandals." Yumi stormed off after her. "Come back here girl!"

"Why didn’t you attack her Maken? There would’ve been nothing cowardly about it. It'd be her fault for stopping in the middle of a fight." "That sounds like something Zage (The guy in my remembrance who fought Maken in the moonlight and it ended in draw, and he also the one that put Makenzie in the hospital which you probably won’t remember.) would say. I just couldn’t attack someone so unashamedly off-guard. More importantly, I want to dress these wounds. Let me borrow some bandages." Maken’s right eye was closed tightly but not enough for him to tense it up. "That must hurt, it’s pretty much gone now." Swipe helped. "I lost my right eye a long time ago, this was an enhanced replacement, it’s as real as any eye but you can all the different weight. Even though it can help me with stuff it’s still hard to move around." Maken lifted up his shirt, huge rips across his back. "Is she really that tough?" He asked. "Yes. She has the speed of a true-born swordsman. And I can’t read her moves. But I do know one thing. At first glance, she looks like she’s lost all emotion, but when she didn’t destroy me as she intended, while it was subtle, there was a flicker of unease. If she were truly without emotion, there would be none. Something has happened to her to seal her emotions away at the bottom of her heart. Though she may not realize it herself."

In another room. "Hey! Why didn’t you give him the final blow! Just one more step, and you would have-"Miss Yumi, why are you so angry?" Nyx smiled and said sweetly. Yumi almost chokes with rage. "No matter how good you are, this is just leaving too much to chance! Maken’s got that precious succession technique of his, so if you think you can just knock him off whenever you want, you’re making a big mistake!" Nyx lacing his sandals, "I don’t think of him so lightly. Mr. Zero is far stronger than I expected him to be. Worthy of the legendary Assassin ever to walk throughout this universe. But no matter how strong he is, the Mr. Zero of today can’t compare with Mr. Orez or I. I’ve only heard this from Mr. Orez, but Mr. Zero’s sworn never to kill again. He wields his sword to protect the weak, doesn’t he? So he shouldn’t be able to compare with us. No. He shouldn’t be able to-

(Flashback)
"Stupid brat!" The father kicks the young Nyx, about six years old, through the door. "I told you to move a hundred bags of into the western part of the place! Can’t you do anything!" Nyx raises her face, smiling slightly. The man throws his beer bottle at her, catching her on the forehead. "What the hell are you grinning about! You’re not setting foot in this house till you finish the job! You’re sleeping outside tonight!" Though her forehead is bleeding, the smile does not leave Nyx’s face. "Damn kid." The man’s daughter came to him, "Now, now, father. Things have been bad enough since the new government started. Then dad’s mistress leaves this brat on our hands." He grunted. "That kid… She’s always got that creepy little grin on her face. We had to adopt her for the sake of appearances, but she's not all there." The sister spoke again. "She’s fine, isn’t she father? She’ll work for us all her life and we’ll never have to give her a thing." The younger brother joined the conversation. "You’d better believe we won’t! I don’t care who adopted her, you think she’s laying a finger on our land or the store?" The mother quickly said to them all. "Don't be silly. That’s all for my children!" The father laughed.

Nyx walks away, still smiling. She draws water from the well and is cleaning off her forehead when she hears a noise. She creeps closer to have a look. A policeman is fighting with a man swathed in bandages. The policeman tries to shoot, and the man in bandages first cuts off his arms, then cleaves him in half. A twig breaks under Nyx’s foot, and the man turns. "You saw. Didn’t you, girl?" Orez hissed.