No More Holding Back

"Ace Kiryū, you've been shortlisted from the workers list, and there's already a replacement lined up for your position. It's nothing personal; it's just how things are shifting around here, and I have to make the tough calls." The manager said.

"What? You've gotten a replacement too?" Ace exclaimed in surprise, lifting his bowed head immediately.

"It's the building owner's daughter." The manager confessed, dropping his cigarette butt in an ashtray. "You know the prices of shops have gone up since the seventeenth wall was pulled down by those monsters lurking around it— we still have to keep our branch working in this location. I trust you understand, right?"

The manager stood up to his feet, giving Ace's shoulder a gentle pat as he walked past him.

"But…" Ace snapped, collecting the manager's attention back to himself. "The contract stated that each party should be informed about shortlisting or quitting a month prior— why am I suddenly exempted?"

A soft smile molded on the manager's lips as he tucked his hands into his pockets as he said; "You should be glad you're not forced to resign without your last paycheck, Ace."

"Resign?" Ace scoffed with contempt. "Don't you think that's a formal word to use for a semi formal job like a ramen shop?"

They both paused, the sound of a pot cover whizzing out steams aggressively with each passing second, overshadowing the intense cabbage chopping spree a chef was battling in the kitchen.

"Take out the trash." He said, snatching the apron Ace was wearing. "Yourself too."

***

Fuming as he dragged the bags out of the shop's backdoor, Ace collided with someone, his fingers slipping off the bags as he reeled away from the collision.

"I'm sorry, miss." He apologized immediately he had collected himself and he launched towards the girl he had collided with to help her up.

"Huh?" She mused, their gaze connecting for the first time. "You're Ace, right?"

Retracting his offer as she mentioned his name, he couldn't help but wonder who the backdoor sneak was and how she knew his name and why she was staring beautifully into his eyes— perhaps, she wanted to grab a fragment of his soul.

"Yes, I am."

"You don't remember me?" She asked again, her smile forming an hardcore fledge. "It is me!" She marveled.

"Should I know you?"

"You always serve me side dishes I didn't order whenever I come here. One bowl of ramen and tuna… magical side dishes. How can you not remember me?"

At the mention of tuna, Ace could recall who she was. The manager had been strict about him taking her orders and as well giving her free side dishes just to keep her happy and back. After all, she was the building owner's granddaughter— the mission was to make sure the ramen shop was her favorite place to visit.

Indeed it was her favorite place to visit whenever she came to the tenth district to visit her grandfather who had been adamant about going to stay in the innermost court of the walls, but prefers to stay in the dead zone— all for the food sales.

"Oh, I do remember you." Ace replied, forcing himself to smile. "T-Tzuyu."

"You do recall my name too." She smiled, her cheeks emitting a dangerous shade of pink as she brushed her hair behind her ear flirtingly.

"A-any one would. You visit the shop at odd hours after all." Ace stuttered, feeling a little awkward about how things were turning.

"I always knew you liked me too with how well you paid attention to dicing my side-dishes." 

"Eh?!"

For the next two years, Ace wasn't laid off work as Tzuyu wouldn't come to work either when she found out Ace was fired and she was his supposed replacement. 

With the ramen shop's hope solely dependent on Ace's future choices, the manager had to crawl back to him with a better pay offer just to get him back to work at the shop.

And Tyuzu stuck beside him all day, hoping she would rub off on him and mark Ace as hers, but this never happened no matter how hard she tried and Tzuyu wouldn't give up on him either.

* * *

But now, the being he had had close to himself for two years was tearing one of the reasons he was still holding up and receiving active fucks from life apart, draining the life out of his grandmother like a kid sucking on her mother's fluid.

She turned at him, her ghoul eyes sharing a striking resemblance with the undead warriors he had fought in the dungeon suddenly reminded him of the last time he had seen her walk out of the ramen shop on that rainy night.

"See you tomorrow, onii-chan!" Tzuyu's petite dovey voice sang. Her cheeks puffed up brightly, emitting a soft pink hue of flushed blood while her eyes shot out cute stars at him.

But she was no longer that Tzuyu and there will be no more holding back regardless of who she is.

Ace's once numb eyes suddenly turned grim, the whims of emotions vanishing without trace as Tzuyu rushed towards him. A strange surge of energy suddenly began to ripple through him, coursing straight into his right arm in a dash. 

Lightning beams stretched out from his hand into the floor, seething through the ground and reaching out to the sky to draw out a rumbling thunder. His sclera turned red, perhaps, a little bit hotter than the sun, making the room itself shudder in fear. 

Intricate array lines and shape formations began to appear all over his face and arms and the yellow fragment deepened with immense intensity, pulsing as they cackled with sparks, the force of nature slowing down without command as they obeyed his call.

His eyes glowed an otherworldly still force of life, his voice, toned with a bone chilling aura erupted through voids, as he said;

"Return to the grave!" 

The being within Tzuyu dared not defile his order as she froze, her very being erupting like a volcanic seed while her tentacles danced the dance of a thousand serpent, coiling and writhing with furious untamed energy as they shred her into bits.

She let out a loud scream of agony as she writhes in pain, her blood painting the room in a gothic hue as it splattered around while Ace took a swift jump out through the window, his hair fluttering as they battled with the wind. 

He grabbed his granny mid-air before she met her second— death.