Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." -Romans 12:19-21

____________________

[FLASHBACK]

Everyone looks in shock to see the "meteor" fall out of the cement side to the freeway tunnel entrance.

The last of a heavily burned Shelly’s golden pink SoulSeiõrShield flickers then goes dark, her burnt black katana falls out of her clenched jaw and her eyes all white.

Shelly: "Ka-tsu..."

...

Shelly nods on all fours and turns to sit on her butt. She reaches to put her burnt katana in it’s sheath on her back, but the useless burnt metal sword falls to the dirt.

Unfortunately for her, both the upgraded SunSword sheath and the katana holster, are gone, turned to ashes due to the weather incredible heat from one of Saku’s lightning strikes.

[END FLASHBACK]

..

[Inner Sanpaku]

The patched up Katsu and Shelly are walking through inner Sanpaku, heading in the direction the exit signs are pointing.

Shelly’s wrists are wrapped in medical tape as the Ace of Takamagahara is examining the structure of her new, all black "short sword/dagger" and remembering how she lost her #1 Academy Combat reward, given to her by the late General Grey.

Katsu can sense by her melancholic face that she’s disappointed in not having a katana like one of their biggest inspirations from one of their most beloved stories.

Katsu: "Are you healing up well, Shelly?

Do you need another SeiõrSuppliment?"

He pulls out a small bag of lime green glowing SeiõrSeeds but Shelly shakes her head to deny the offering.

Shelly: "No thank you, Katsu.

I was just thinking about how I almost had him last night.

I almost choked Saku out and I would have won it for the both of us...but I failed."

Katsu stops, making Shelly stop two steps ahead.

Shelly: "Kat-"

Katsu: "What do you mean you failed, Shell?"

Shelly is surprised by the question and blushes not knowing how to respond.

Shelly: "W-Well l-last night... remember?

If I could have just powered through that lightning strike, instead of being weak and letting go of his neck, I could’ve avoided you getting hurt too."

Katsu: "Shelly, you didn’t fail at all..."

Shelly’s back perks up from hearing the man she loves, supporting her as a victor, even when she believes she didn’t win.

Katsu: "...’We’ won Shell.

In the end, ’we’ fought Saku together and ’we’ both made it back home alive with him, and we gained a funny new member to Takamagahara because of the way things happened."

Shelly thinks about it and remembers seeing Xaaydagaay on the beach with both a passed out Katsu and Saku.

Katsu: "Haha, I’ll be fair though, if someone had told me 24 hours ago, that the two of us would have to bring back a crazed Saku together and only one of us would be in the position to 1v1 him for the clutch, I would so totally had thought it would be you who finished it, haha!"

Shelly(whispers): "...Katsu..."

Katsu: "We’re a team Shelly.

Until the day we both die old and grey haired, we will always be a team, right?"

He holds out his left fist with his HFF watch still around the wrist.

Shelly’s azule pools shimmer from the collection of tears, but only one falls out though, as she smiles and nods in enthusiasm.

Shelly: "Mhm!"

She connects hard, while still feeling her loving emotions, with her left fist and the two Captain’s watches jiggle.

Like always, the force from Shelly’s connected fist bump seems a little too much for her adopted brother to handle.

Katsu: "Ah..."

Shelly: "I’m sorry Katsu!

Are you okay?"

Chuckling Katsu shakes out the pain in his knuckles and starts walking towards the walled off entrance to Inner Sanpaku just a few yards down the dimly lit tunnel turned sanctuary.

Katsu: "Hehe...

Yea, I’m all good Shell.

Let’s hurry up and get some air."

Shelly smiles and short jogs to catch up with him.

Katsu is all smiles while his purpose goes back to looking at the new (to her) weapon.

Katsu: "Well that was nice of Laban to hook you up with a new blade,huh?

Now that I think about it, with her knowledge on her older sisters, she could be like an encyclopedia for us to defeat them.

She knows their names, which of your Grandma’s swords they have, and is aware of what makes them unique in their own right."

Shelly once again unsheathes the Scandinavian witch’s gifted seax and as her personal way of testing, the quirky fighter puts the weapon’s grip sideways in-between her clenched hard teeth, swinging and stretching out her neck.

Shelly: "Yea, I gueshh sho."

She removes the grip from her mouth and looks at the fresh bite marks. Shelly’s own insignia to her personal use weapons.

Katsu(thinking): *Shouldn’t she wash that before putting it in her mouth?*

Shelly: "But you heard her Katsu, she’s admitted to it.

She is still only acting nicely because her precious ’God’ is around, which doesn’t mean she’s acting out of the true kindness of her heart.

In the end, she’s really only doing that so he’ll choose her over Itsuka.

What happens if Saku falls in love with her and he starts doing shit for her."

Katsu puts his hands behind his head while they walk passed tents with a few parents/guardians bonding outside their tents.

Katsu: "Haha, from the way Saku has been acting this morning, he’s not too thrilled about all the feminine attention he’s been inadvertantly attracting over the past few days.

So I wouldn’t worry about that too much.

There’s always a reason for people to act nice, Shell.

Not everyone has had someone like my parents to teach us the intricacies of human emotions.

When people act like assholes, it’s mostly because there is nothing left in this world that they truly care about other than themselves.

Now that Laban has Saku and Princess Rebekah, she’s even more inclined to become a nicer person."

Shelly looks at the sheathed blade in her open hand and Madame Fryer pops out of her holster and floats next to the two humans while they talk.

It seems like the flaming, floating sword is also examining the new addition to the crew.

They stop at the key station, (a small plastic pop up garage) and Shelly grabs one of the hung up keys, but then Katsu also grabs one, confusing Shelly.

Katsu holds it up while smiling at his adopted sister.

Katsu: "At this point in our adventures, you and I both know we can’t take any chances, haha."

Shelly’s confusion disappears and she smiles it off as they both sign the unsupervised sheet,next to the provided number on the key they are separately taking out.

While Katsu signs his, he notices one of the keys has already been removed.

Katsu: "Huh, seems like some of Big Bro’s early scouts are still out.

Usually they come back by now. Shifts are only 4 hours for them..."

Shelly: "Hopefully they’re okay."

Katsu: "I’m sure they are.

Haha.

So listen to this, when I got to talk to them the other day, it turns out they’re actually blood related siblings."

Shelly: "No way, really?

They don’t look too similar know that I remember their faces and features." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The two of them exit the key shed and head for the exit/entrance to Inner Sanpaku.

[2 Minutes Earlier]

100 yards away on the other side of the plywood and sheet metal wall with a single door, Zeke and Jeremiah are calmly strolling through the dark tunnel, with heavy duty flashlights in the hands.

Huge rats scurry by with bones in their tiny teeth as the pair of young men search the underwater traffic tunnel for Shelly.

Zeke: "Something just isn’t right.

We’ve been walking down this freaking tunnel for 15 minutes.

That runt up there was definitely lying to us.

He was probably thinking I would let him live if we believed he had told us everything we wanted, and then he would go blab to his leader.

Nah, I don’t play that game.

Come on Jeremiah, let’s turn back."

His perceptive friend Jeremiah however, does not seem as unsure of the information they were given as his bro does.

Jeremiah: "I wouldn’t speak so soon, Zeke.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there haven’t been any cars in here since we entered.

There was most definitely some traffic trying to escape during the Icemen invasion.

It’s almost like someone cleared all the vehicles out or..."

Suddenly the both of them stop.

Zeke: "Well I’ll be damned...

Shit, I guess what they say about gambling is right, aye bro?"

Jeremiah: "Yep.

99% of gamblers stop right before they hit the jackpot.

And I guess that makes us, that hard-nosed 1%, huh Zeke?"

The bright circles, shining from the flashlights end up illuminating the same walled off entrance to Sanpaku that Daisuki had shown Squad 40 an Itsuka the day after their exile from the Sister Mountains.