https://youtu.be/9Kv9AMdnN9E

The town square of Arc was unnaturally barren, with a wide stretch of tiled ground localised in the centre of an organised collection of buildings. Save for the stone benches, the plaza was empty on the inside, surrounded by a few shops - a bakery, a rather esteemed-looking cheese shop, a few clothing stores, a few restaurants in the distance, and up north, a great mall with a large banner reading "Arcus" in a fancy, rainbow-coloured font.

At the centre of this square stood four individuals in suits. The first three looked very neat, almost emotionless in their mannerisms as they stood around the fourth; Makoto. He differed, in that his suit was white, topped off with his signature hat. His expression was much more pensive, crossing his arms and gritting his teeth as he counted down every passing second.

Evidently, everyone there seemed to know one another on a strictly professional basis, as there was silence in the air, and nobody seemed intent on filling it. Makoto in particular regarded everyone there with contempt. He knew what they'd done today, after all, and if it wasn't necessary for the goal, he would not have condoned it in the least. Not that they cared for what he thought, though.

Eventually, the silence was filled by the pattering footsteps of a fifth criminal, who charged into the square from behind some of the buildings, stopping in front of the group and pointing back from the direction she had come from while everyone stood up straight, paying close attention. "The Red Joker is coming our way!"

A couple of gasps and wide eyes all around, and as Makoto summoned his spear, the rest, though a little hesitant, followed suit and pulled their own weapons out. "Everyone, prepare yourselves!"

"...so, he's here?" Makoto murmured, hanging his head low. "Then...that means the plan's worked, right?"

"Correct." the woman nodded, through panted breaths. The look on Makoto's face became more ghastly, his eyes widened and his hands trembling.

"I see..." he said, holding onto his spear as tightly as he could. "Then your work here is done."

"Huh?"

"This is my battle." Makoto continued, holding his weapon up and pointing out towards one of his 'allies'. "And I don't intend to share it with foul beasts who don't value life."

"Dawnspear, if you could calm down..." another woman stepped back, holding up her scythe. "We can't overcome this enemy unless cooler heads prevail!"

"There is no we! I don't need you here!" Makoto roared, orange lightning crackling around the tip of his spear. "You can go home or go to hell!"

"Oh, hell no! You aren't lecturing us on morality! You're literally in Apex!" one man snarled, aiming his guns at Makoto. "It's bad enough that the Mikado told us to work with you, but I'm sure she won't complain if you turned on us first!"

"I..." Makoto briefly faltered, before shaking his head. "I have my reasons for that. I can't leave them. But I can deal with you!"

"Why, you-" one men declared, looking back at his allies while Makoto lunged at him, primed to attack. "Everyone, attack!"

And so, they did, a little skirmish breaking out between the alleged allies - one that their shared foe would never get to see.

.........

...save for its aftermath. As the Red Joker jumped from building to building, he scanned his surroundings once again. Creed had pointed him towards the marketplace, but to get there, he'd have to go from one end of town to another. By the time he reached the midway point, he knew he'd have to go through the town square, but what he spotted once he got there troubled him.

He saw Makoto standing there, a hollow look in his eyes, and surrounded in the bodies of Libera members, their blood splattered over his clothes. This, naturally, was not something he needed to deal with right now - every second spent with Makoto would be a second not spent finding Iago. But right before he could jump down the building and sneak around, Makoto's head snapped up, meeting his eyes as he felt that familiar, insufferable heartbeat playing out in his mind. But he wasn't fazed by it like usual. He'd been seen now, so as he leapt off the building and in front of a bench, he stared closely at the silver-haired obstacle before him.

https://youtu.be/GVhObexGTMs

"...hey." Inigo murmured, his voice quiet, but by no means nervous. He felt his heart pounding in his chest, but didn't let it drown out his surroundings, focusing on the wind as it blew through the town as a gentle breeze.

"You've finally arrived, Inigo." Makoto spoke with no hesitation, summoning his spear and holding its point in Inigo's direction. "I've been waiting for you."

"Do you think we could reschedule this?" Inigo narrowed his eyes, not invoking his cane just yet. "I have things to do, you know."

"...not for much longer, you don't." Makoto replied, feeling his resolve faltering a little and quickly shutting that out. "Libera has given me this opportunity, and I can't squander it now."

"And this is how you thank them?" Inigo placed a hand on his hip, looking at all the corpses surrounding Makoto. The younger man took in a deep breath, taking a step away from Inigo.

"It's the reward earned by people like them." he said. "You've seen how bad they can be, haven't you? Since you've come all this way, surely you've heard the explosions! And what about the white flames? The kidnappings, the murders! Working with them made me sick to my stomach - but now that you're here, I don't need to do so for a second longer!"

"So you killed them?" Inigo pushed back, moving closer to Makoto with a spark in his eye that Makoto couldn't help but hate - the spark of righteous rage. As if he had the right to feel that way. "You have to have known they were just following orders. They didn't deserve to die."

"Did my father deserve to die?"

Hearing that, Inigo froze, his anger thawing out to make way for shame, flooding his entire being as he placed a hand to his rapidly-beating heart. He couldn't say for sure that Ryuto Kozuki earned his death on any moral basis, but that wasn't the point. Save for the likes of Galileo, he couldn't comfortably say someone deserved to die.

Makoto, who had noticed how conflicted Inigo seemed to be at that question, wondered whether or not to ignore it, but kept it in mind as he kept talking. "I find it strange that you want to hold the moral high ground, Inigo. I've been watching you closely, but I just don't know what to make of you. Just what kind of person are you?" he said, closing his eyes and shaking his head as he planted the blunt end of his spear into the ground. "You saved me from Iago back in Caerulus. You insisted on working with a man who wants your head to rescue a city from an unknown threat. Your friends insist on your virtuous character, and you're the type of man who seems to get along with even his enemies."

He opened his eyes at that, pointing sharply at Inigo. "And yet...this is the same one who killed a man in front of his child! You took one life and destroyed another, without even a hint of emotion! No feelings, no remorse, just...nothing!" he roared, taking an abrupt step forward. "So tell me...just who are you?"

"Who am I? Who is 'Inigo'?"

Inigo sucked in a breath, putting his hands in his pockets and tapping his foot repeatedly on the ground before meeting Makoto with a striking pair of blue eyes, calling forth all the determination he could muster and letting it shine as an unmistakable light in his gaze. "Who I am...and who I was...I consider them different. The man who killed your father is already dead!"

Makoto clenched his teeth, not expecting an answer like that, but with an angry growl, he tightened his hand into a fist and met Inigo's eyes directly. "The past never dies!"

https://youtu.be/501tVjuqmbI

"So I should let it rule me?" Inigo countered, his voice barely rising. "I know the things I've done in the past were awful, but that's all the more reason for me to overcome it. I'll be different from the man who killed your father. Consider it atonement - which I can't exactly do if I'm dead."

"Are you expecting me to just stand by and take that?" Makoto protested. "To just give up on this fight after so long and let your sins go unpunished?"

"Will killing me bring him back?" Inigo frowned, watching as his words drove Makoto to slowly shake with rage. "You've seen the things I've done. If I ruined and took lives yesterday, I'll help and save them today. To kill me would be to eliminate someone who's trying to be a force for good."

"...if that's what you believe, then..." Makoto shook his head quickly, picking up his spear and reminding himself that he couldn't falter. Not now. "Then at least tell me why you killed him!"

"You're a moral man at heart, aren't you?" Inigo asked, feeling the fog in his mind slowly flowing out at the opportunity to finally tell him this without being interrupted. "You don't like being in Apex, right? You said as much back in Caerulus."

Makoto stared at him in confusion, lowering his spear slightly. "I asked a question."

"Of course. Let me get to the point." Inigo nodded. "Your father felt the same. Someone didn't like that, so they sent me."

"...what are you saying?" Makoto murmured, completely exiting his combat stance and closing his eyes, his hands trembling as he held onto his spear tightly.

"Don't you get it? I was acting on someone's orders." Inigo continued, gesturing with his hands. "Maybe it was a higher-up in Apex? I can't say for sure, but all I know is that he wanted to leave but he 'knew too much'."

With every word, Inigo could see Makoto's confidence sapping away in real time, tears beginning to roll down his cheek and his eyes wide like saucers, while his breathing began to stutter. He could only take a guess as to the turmoil he was going through. The people whose lives he'd enabled the Doctor to claim, ruin and more. All in the name of a father who was, in all likelihood, looking down on him in the heavens in shame. He'd endeavoured to make him proud, even if it went against his own morals. But now, this? It had to be a lie, didn't it? But Inigo seemed...genuine.

Quick as a flash, he reassumed his stance, a melancholic rage in those very same eyes while his spear began to glow with a furious orange light. "You lie!"

"You know I'm not lying, and that's why you're so angry."

"Shut up!" Makoto shrieked at the top of his lungs. "You're just...trying to deceive me, that's all! You want to escape your punishment!"

"Doesn't it make sense, Makoto?"

"No! Nothing is clear!" Makoto clasped his head in one hand, shaking his head before pointing at Inigo. "You said you didn't remember!"

"Contrived as this may sound, I do now." Inigo frowned. "I'm trying to help you, you just have to listen!"

"Shut up, shut UP!" Makoto screeched, hurling his spear at Inigo, who quickly swerved out of the way. Recalling his spear, he stood up straight, orange lightning coursing through his body and causing his eyes to glow. "All I've done...has not been meaningless! I'll kill you! Everything will be right once I kill you!"

https://youtu.be/tGQ_xx1mIoU

"So we clash once again." Inigo sighed, calling to hand his cane and looking straight at Makoto, calling forth his own elemental energies. "Then, game on. I won't run this time. I'll make you face the truth...and unshackle you."

In truth, Inigo had foreseen an outcome like this, but as the discussion went on, it seemed unavoidable. Perhaps this was what the Mikado was planning all along; but it mattered not. He could only hope Iago would survive his battle, but as things stood, Makoto needed to see reason. If he could be free from his past, then Inigo would gladly play the adversary.

In a flash, Makoto lunged towards Inigo with his spear, lightning trailing off his every move. He twirled his spear around, unleashing his strength in a sonic thrust that Inigo just barely ducked under, rolling out of the way and standing up. "Over here."

Hearing that, Makoto snapped around to face Inigo, and with a wide swing of his spear, unleashed a wave of lightning at him. Inigo allowed himself to take the hit and found himself blown back a few feet, only just regaining his bearings in time to swerve away from Makoto's follow-up stab.

As they fought, Inigo took note of Makoto's fighting style, observing that he was somehow even more aggressive than before, all but forcing Inigo to play defence. His lightning was stronger, too, but it was nothing he couldn't work around, since - as he had observed in their last clash - it wasn't anything he hadn't seen before. Though the terrain was less convenient than the forest, he could win this.

With a geyser beneath his feet, Inigo leapt away from Makoto, moving backwards and into the air, firing water blasts from his cane. Makoto, who looked up at him, took a few to the face before using his spear to defend himself, swatting them out of his way as wings of light formed on his back. Makoto took to the skies, pursuing Inigo, who turned around in midair and propelled himself to the ground with a mighty wind current.

He landed, wind still whipping around his feet, and with a quick tumble, he rose up with a somersaulting motion, forming a blade of wind in the arc formed by the kick and firing it at Makoto. His spear cut into the blade, and as Inigo repeatedly flash-kicked backwards, he repeated the attack over and over until Makoto, having had enough of this, raised his weapon. The blade on his spear became bathed in an orange light shaped like a cross as it shone.

He hurled the spear directly at Inigo, who jumped out of the blast radius and sought shelter behind one of the benches. And sure enough, as the spear hit the ground, an eruption of orange light burst out from below, its explosion wide enough to uproot the bench and launch it into the air. Inigo, from outside the burst of light, saw this going down and waited for the attack to end before grabbing the bench with his psychic grip and suspending it in midair.

Without skipping a beat, he jumped up onto it, maintaining his grip, and leapt off it towards Makoto, flipping around to perform an axe kick that was promptly dodged. Before Makoto could counter, though, Inigo hurled the bench directly at him, launching it at the right angle before letting go. Makoto prepared himself to cut it to shreds, but then Inigo, landing on his hands, propelled himself upwards, using the ground as a springboard to attack Makoto in a swift reverse-dropkick from below. He took the hit, and immediately ate a bench to the face, knocking him out of the sky as he landed on his back.

Inigo landed as well, panting a little as he looked at his opponent. Regaining his bearings, he drew his cane and tried to recover his strength in the time it took for Makoto to stand up, staring directly at Inigo with a fierce, dagger-like glare that was almost as sharp as the spear in his hand. It was like facing down a feral animal - one who couldn't be reasoned with. He watched as Makoto, with wings out, leapt towards him, orange lightning shrouding his spear in preparation to make a deadly strike to Inigo's face.

Inigo kept his eyes open, wind swirling around his cane before it gathered and took shape in the form of a sharp blade. He ducked under Makoto's spear, gripping his cane by the handle in both hands, and jumped up, cutting into Makoto from below and uppercutting him with his wind-blade. He landed safely, and Makoto fell, only to scramble to his feet with a desperate look on his face, panting heavily and clutching his heart. Keeping the blade of wind around his cane, Inigo pointed it at him, sighing as he tried to envision how the rest of this fight would go.

"Alright, Makoto. Are you ready to stand down and listen?" he asked, looking him clean in the eye. Makoto, remembering what Inigo had said prior to the clash, trembled, clenching his teeth and shaking his head rapidly.

"Shut up..." he muttered. "I swear on my honour...that tonight, you'll fall to my blade..."

"Yeah? And then what?" Inigo tilted his head, staring at Makoto with wide, empty eyes. "Then you'll go back to working with the guys who sent me? Continue to spit on your father's name?"

Makoto remained silent, which Inigo took as his chance to continue hammering it in, remaining utterly calm. "Your path of honour has led you into Hell, Makoto. Away from your father. Your father, who knew when to call it quits and turned back, only to be stopped." he said, beginning to feel the guilt settle in once again as he remembered that he was the one who stopped him. "But you're different in that regard. You need to think you're right, so you ignore your own father telling you you're wrong! Can you honestly tell me you still deserve to call yourself his son?"

https://youtu.be/Ks1WSHYe8Mc

That was enough. Makoto, hearing his words rattling in his skull, let out a wordless cry filled with rage and sorrow before rushing forth in a burst of speed and thrusting his spear at Inigo, who leapt back to avoid the hit. Unwilling to let up, Makoto unleashed a familiar move - a blinding flurry of stabs powered by lightning, that Inigo slowly moved away from, twisting and turning to avoid taking hits. Eventually, he drew closer, allowing Makoto to hit him and feeling the cruel, rightfully-furious stings in his body over and over as he raised his cane over his head, bringing his wind-sword down on Makoto with all his might. Makoto, stunned by this, couldn't react in time when Inigo turned around and kicked him in the stomach, unleashing a water blast that blew him away.

Makoto tumbled across the ground for a few feet, but in the middle of it, he used the momentum to get up, raising his spear to the sky and preparing to throw it like a javelin as it shone with a bright light. Inigo, who was staunchly on his guard, asserted his psychic powers over it, only to visibly struggle to keep it in his power. He'd never controlled someone else's weapon before, but he hadn't expected it to be easy. Figuring he couldn't turn it back on its wielder, he diverted its path away from him, sending it flying into one of the benches and unleashing a burst of holy Natura, blowing the bench to smithereens.

Makoto called the spear to his hand, while Inigo raised up the loose bench from earlier. With a forceful hand gesture, he hurled it at Makoto, who in a quick, instinctive flurry of slashes, cut it into pieces, which unceremoniously fell to the ground around him. Makoto, growling, put his spear away, his hands glowing with cross-shaped lights as he approached Inigo at his quickest speed.

He was actually decently fast, so Inigo had little time to adapt, holding up his cane defensively. Makoto reached him and attacked with a palm strike, followed by another, and another, his rabid state of mind reflected in the rapidity of his attacks. He attacked over and over again, his moves getting harder to dodge until Inigo parried one such move with his cane. This continued, with Inigo reading Makoto's attacks and parrying them desperately until Makoto, growling in anger, smacked the cane out of his hand and into the air.

Inigo saw an opportunity here and psychically grabbed the cane, hurling it through the windows of many of the houses as he controlled its path. Meanwhile, he hooked his leg around Makoto's and tripped him over before jumping back so he could concentrate on manipulating his cane's path. One by one, it shattered each and every window it came across. He watched Makoto, slowly but surely wearing himself out, as he forced himself to stand up, glaring at an Inigo who stepped back, holding in his hand a watery sphere with mist rising off it.

Almost casually, and before Makoto could react, Inigo tossed the ball at his feet, and as it hit the ground, the ball exploded, forming an enormous cloud of mist that enveloped the area. Makoto looked around desperately, knowing Inigo was scurrying around nearby, but without being able to see him, there was little he could do. He raised his spear, beginning to randomly throw out blasts of light in hopes of hitting something. Eventually, however, he heard that voice, immediately getting his attention.

"You know what your problem is?"

He looked ahead, and the mist cleared itself out, revealing Inigo's silhouette - and eventually his body itself, right up ahead. He was standing with his arms spread out, and as the fog cleared up entirely, Makoto saw that, floating above the man, was a collection of debris - among them, the shattered glass and the bench fragments that had formed in this very fight. Inigo stared at him, remaining cool - cold, even, with his next words.

"You just don't see what's in front of you."

With a wave of his arm, he fired, and at once Makoto was assaulted with what could only be described as a deluge of assorted rubbish and collateral damage. He tried to defend himself, but it was no use - there were just too many projectiles to focus on, pounding on and cutting into his fragile shield. He stepped forward, refusing to give up, but right after the last projectile got him, Inigo himself rushed forth and, with a swift slash from his wind-sword, delivered one last cut.

At that, Makoto froze as his body became enveloped in an orange aura, and his eyes went wide as he felt his Natura retreating. The aura grew slow, white cracks in it before shattering like glass, and at once, Makoto fell to his knees, his expression as broken as his shield. Inigo panted lightly, putting his cane away and looking over his fallen foe, sympathy in his eyes.

"...and that's game." he murmured, slowly stepping past Makoto with a slight frown. "If you want, we can pick this up later. But for now, I've got shit to do-"

"Why..."

Inigo, about to walk past the bakery, turned his head to look down at Makoto with a raised eyebrow, having heard his shaky word, and mentally braced himself for what came next. Makoto didn't get up from the ground, and he kept his head hung low - not that Inigo needed to see his eyes to imagine the despair in them.

"Why...can't I defeat you?" he continued, his voice making it clear he was on the verge of tears. With each few seconds, a heartbeat could be heard from both men, but only Inigo really took notice as he got a bad feeling - as though chaos and darkness were coming.

Makoto, meanwhile, was more focused on his feelings. Feelings of despair. Defeat. Anger - at himself, mostly. What was he to do now but speak? So speak, he did. "I've dedicated myself to this mission for four years. It's been my reason for living this whole time! So why...why can't I succeed?"

Inigo closed his eyes briefly before deciding to answer that, even if he was, most likely, talking more to himself than him. "Because you're stuck in the past." he said. "I've changed - grown - but you're still the same boy who watched his father die."

He looked away, adjusting his scarf with a sigh. "The world is always changing. If you can't change with it, you'll be left behind."

"I...I don't understand..." Makoto said, and at once, the heartbeat grew louder and faster, seriously beginning to concern Inigo. "How can a monster...become human?"

"The same way a human can become a monster."

"How can you put that monster behind you? How can you make yourself act against your nature?" Makoto said, his words becoming quicker and louder, and gradually, he began to gradually see a shining, orange constellation of Crux overtaking his vision. "It just doesn't make sense!"

In Makoto's mind, an unfamiliar voice - almost gentle, but heavily distorted with static, spoke in his mind, first letting off a sinister chuckle before declaring:

"Misery...builds character. It seems yet another joins the ocean. Be freed, child of order."

And at that, everything went dark.