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***Additional Tags: Ballbusting Threat, Testicular Recovery, Ball massaging, Detailed Ballbusting Reminiscing,*** ***Milf Cleric, Busty Bestie, Boob Hitting, Blue Balling***

[***This current Bustia chapter is the aftermath of this one: Spirit battle between The Tiger & The Doe…***](https://www.reddit.com/r/BallbustingStories/s/1YwPPCJslH)

***— - —***

***One Hour From The Midnight Guardian Duel…***

“—Here you g-go, champion! Don’t worry about p-paying. *It’s on the house.”*

The fish smells better than it looks. Charred purple scales glisten with honey glaze that drips down the slightly bent stick that’s been warped from the grill’s heat.

*Spirit Battle Winner Akutsu Taiga*'s yellowish eyes stare at it like it might bite her first.

"You sure it's *free*?" she asks the vendor, a turtle-necked old man with one eye milky and some claw scars covering it.

*Toromaru Island* breathes like a living thing as the *Kappa Temple's* grounds, that stretch across a mountain’s peak, have been carved and cultivated for three thousand years. In the last *fifty years* it’s stone terraces have been expanding and are now filled with food stalls, game booths, and wandering fighters from a dozen schools.

The vendor's milky eye didn't waver. He keeps staring past her shoulder like she was already part of the scenery.

“Y-Yes. It’s free ma’am. You d-deserve it…”

*Free*. The word tasted sour but she had to be sure. After all, everything has been “free” since she made *Victor Wells* tap out in their big match by putting his oversized testicles into a *horrible death grip…*

Tall Orange Island trees line every path throughout the common grounds. Their blossoming warm-color flowers release a gentle glow as dusk settles over the arena while brighter lanterns float on tethered Hexx crystals that cast warm light across the celebration.

The tournament was over but the last Main Event hadn't begun.

"*Ballbreaker Taiga*…ugh, so stupid..."

The name Taiga had given herself after beating Victor in the Spirit Battle’s *finale* sounded decent in her mouth, *at the time,* when she’d said it during her big win. But after the first drunk goblin shouted it across the market square after winning a bet she’d made, the nickname began to stick faster than blood on fresh knuckles.

Floating from lips to lips, each fan retold her match. Her victory. Her *ballbreaking brutality.*

*I won. That should be enough, but…*

***Crrunch!***

She tears the cooked fish's head off with her sharp teeth, chews, and spits scales onto the cobblestones by her feet.

“Bleh.”

Sitting on a low stone wall at the edge of a food courtyard, her white gi jacket is tied around her short waist and her red t-shirt sticks to her freckly skin and *small chest.*

The golden and black tiger stripes from Shen had faded, leaving her small but toned arms bare, besides the red and white beaded bracelet on her left wrist.

She holds the stick of grilled meat in one hand and a rice ball in the other and eats both with the focused intensity of someone who'd burned five thousand calories that afternoon.

"*Heyyy* slow down! You're going to choke if you eat that fast!"

Taiga acts like she barely notices anything when a pair of warm, unmistakably soft, twin weights suddenly drape over her shoulders from behind. She swallows hard, trying to ignore the subtle feeling of puffy-pierced nipples, and shrugs.

"*Mmhm*?” She gulps and pretends to choke, “Good—it would be a worthy death."

*“Nooo Taaaaiiiigaaaaa*! Don’t say stuff like that! And you should *share* some with me!”

Dragging out the vowels like she was savoring them, Taiga’s best friend since her old school days is a *four-seven brawny half dwarf woman* with a sweet tooth. Her stubby fingers, thick as sausage links but surprisingly nimble, reach for Taiga's free dinner with the confidence of someone who knew she wouldn't be shrugged off.

Not *easily*, anyway.

“Huh?! No way, not this time! I said I wasn’t sharing anything ever again after you ate my backup snacks last weekend!”

“I said *sorryyy*! I thought those were *MY* leftovers. You know I get confused when I’m *hungryyy*…”

*Seigawa Kossia's* pouty voice was like honey poured over countryside trails. Sweet with an underlying roughness that made Taiga remember their hometown instinctively.

“Tsk, You’re always hungry and confused,”

Even as the chubbier girl's curly brunette hair tickles Taiga's pierced ears and her doughy H cup titties smoosh harder against the blonde’s back, she can’t help but smile a little.

“Hmph! Don’t be mean to me for no reason now! That hurtsss Tai.”

Balling one of her small but sturdy fists, she lifts it and slams it down onto Taiga’s left, A cup, boob.

***WHAM!***

“*Auug*! H-Hey! That was my tit, *dummy*!”

Taiga gasps and snaps, glaring as her ears burn red.

“Oops, sorry! Heh, come onnn, *pleaseee* share?”

Kossia continues to reach for the honey fish stick, knowing Taiga wasn’t actually in pain, despite her now rubbing her angry small pink nipple beneath her shirt.

*Kossia giggles are a warm, bubbling sound that makes other people give her their attention. Even if it’s for a moment, you can’t help but watch her move. Listen to what she wants to tell you. Pray she’ll pick you over anyone else. She's always had this effect on people. On me…*

“Ughh fine, here *fatty*.”

Taiga sighs through her red nose and relinquishes the fish stick with only half a grumble.

“Hehe I knew you loved *meee*.”

Kossia's stubby fingers snatch it with the speed of a starving raccoon. Her delighted squeak puts Taiga in a better mood as the half-dwarf plops onto the wall beside her, sending a ripple through her pillowy thighs that jostle a stone bench.

*She's spent ten years training beside me in our mountain village. Learning the same grappling techniques and enduring the same brutal conditions. She can fold a grown man into a pretzel before he finishes gawking at her huge boobs and wondering if she’s a threat.*

“*Ahhh*, nothing like free food from the strongest champion I know!" Kossia announces around a mouthful of charred scales, juices dribbling down her round chin.

Her oversize breasts, barely contained by a cropped purple tank top, bounce with each chew and draws in stares from passersby.

A gangly elven boy walks face-first into a lantern post.

*People see her round cheeks and food crumbs and assume she’s harmless. Which is true, mostly. She doesn’t like violence like me…she'd never enter a sacred tournament and make it submit to her will…*

*She just prefers to fold dumplings instead.*

"How's that Victor guy doing? Have you seen him around here yet?" Kossia asks curiously.

Taiga's chewing slows.

“…*Dunno*. Haven't seen him since the match."

"Oh? Thought you’d have said sorry by now since…well, you did *almost break his balls* Tai.”

A few guys walking by hear the two’s conversation and hurry along, making Taiga feel very exposed around everyone. They all knew what she was willing to do to win and it was plastered all over her face.

*I’m a cruel ballbusting bitch when my inner instincts take over…*

“You do know that, right?" Kossia tilts her head to lock eyes with Taiga and the taller girl sweats a little.

"I won the match…that’s all that matters. *Right*?"

“…*Righttt*, but you were like, *crushing his balls* so bad I had heard some monk healers gossiping on the sidelines. They said it could take a *week* for that guy’s poor boy’s to *fully knit themselves* back together if you weren’t careful.”

Taiga shrunk a little into herself, remembering the details very clearly. How her first uppercut landed between both of Victor’s hanging balls and how that told her *everything she needed to know.* How it helped confirm her last ditch plan to win if she was running out of steam…

“What happened? You were like, in the *zone*.”

The panicked plea in Victor’s voice as he begged her not to *‘Crush My Freaking Balls!’,* when she was doubling down on a double-nut-squeeze move, loops in her head.

*I had him by his fat balls…he couldn’t do anything to fight back…*

Taiga stops chewing all together now, the rice ball suddenly tasteless.

The late night victory continues to feast around them. *Laughter, drunken singing, the clatter of dishes.* It makes Taiga feel so hollow as she stares at her calloused hand, still buzzing with leftover adrenaline.

*I should be feeling good…be celebrating, but...*

The truth tasted worse than charred scales:

She'd won by going for the lowest blow of them all. Crushed Victor's dreams between her fists along with his stupidly massive, vulnerable testicles.

She felt so powerful out there so…why did her gut churn like she'd *swallowed a live eel?*

"It's his fault…" she mutters while flexing her fingers. The phantom weight of Victor’s swollen nuts still lingered in her palm.

*They were so…hot. And squirmy. And fragile…*

“Ha, what? In what ways was *he at fault* for how he ended up?”

Kossia’s question lingers like a bad joke Taiga doesn’t want to react to. But she does anyway.

"It’s his fault because they were huge for no reason! *Who needs fat balls like that*?!"

Taiga snaps while blushing and *grinding* her molars.

“Oh my god, they really were big, weren’t they? Huh…how do you think humans get theirs to be so big like that anyway? ”

*"W-What?!* H-How am I supposed to know?! They’re just stupid, dangling weak points t-to me and I could see them bouncing around in his pants begging to be smashed. It’s *THAT* simple!"

Kossia snorts, her deep brown eyes seeing through her best friend's fragile armor.

"That’s a fat load of bull. I watched the playback on the arena’s crystals three times. You were squeezing his freaking balls like you wanted to make *paste*, girl.”

She mimes crushing something between her palms with disturbing enthusiasm. Taiga rubs her *reddening neck* and growls.

"Oh please! If I went *full strength*, they'd be swinging from my ears right now."

The lie tastes bad. She ***had*** gone harder than necessary in those last seconds. The way his voice cracked when she pressed just ***so*** against his right nut still lingers in her mind.

Kossia’s eyes narrow as she studies Taiga's stiff posture. The half-dwarf wipes sticky fingers on her shorts before poking Taiga's toned ribs, hard.

"You're doing that *thing* again."

"What *thing*?" Taiga swats at her hand with her right eyebrow twitching.

"That *thing* where you *pretend* you don't care, but really you're stewing up a fire," Kossia says, popping the last bite of fish into her mouth before tossing the stick into a nearby trash can, perfectly.

“I don’t care…”

"You've *shattered* nuts before. That lizard spirit guy from the Orvil Dojo? You *laughed* when he puked from the pain. But *this time* you're acting all *twitchy*? What’s your deal?”

Taiga's fingers curl into fists against her thighs. The rice ball *completely crumbles* in her grip.

"I'm not *twitchy*…I just hate how much I didn't want to win like that. *Everything was happening too fast!"* she admits.

“Oh? It was too fast?”

"Yes! I couldn’t think of anything else to do against that jerk! He wouldn't stay down and he wasn’t going to tap unless I made him…*horrifed*...and when I got a good grip on both of his *fat nuts…fuck,* I couldn’t help but *test their limits!”*

“You tested them alright. Don’t you remember laughing like a freak when he almost smashed your head open against the ground?”

Kossia asks as she crosses her legs in sympathy, remembering Victor’s face when Taiga drilled her thumbs into his trembling gonads.

“Honestly? I don’t. I just remember waiting for him to tap, and well…he did but I...*wasn’t paying attention,* I guess..."

Kossia was quiet but her raised eyebrows said a lot.

*Uh oh, she got lost in the sauce.*

"His doe," Taiga continues, "She was healing him that whole fight too! *She was pushing against me as fast as I was trying to break those stupid balls.* I had to go harder than I've ever gone! He was so good Kossia…he was *so fucking good*, I got worried! I…”

Kossia reaches over and squeezes her friend’s hand. Her grip was absurdly strong.

"You did what the fight required," she said. "That's all anyone can ask."

"…doesn't feel like I did enough, somehow."

They sat in silence, watching the festival swirl around them. A group of temple students chase each other between stalls. An old woman sells toasted nuts from a cart pulled by a sleepy goat. Two monks argued good-naturedly over a game of chess.

Kossia eyes Taiga sideways and wraps a chubby arm around her neck, pulling her closer into her huge boobs to help soothe the mopey girl.

"It’s *fineeee*! You gotta get out of your head about that guy and back into that zone! Cuz tonight you fight Sun and show everyone why you deserved to win!”

“*Auuugh*—Sia can’t…breathe! I can’t breathe!”

“And hey! You *couldddd* be nicer about the whole thing and make up with that guy *by saying sorry* at least," she says as she keeps squeezing her bestie.

"Or, y'know...*not* look like you're about to puke every time someone mentions his balls."

Taiga goes limp but her angry voice still vibrates through the dwarf’s boobs.

"*I'm not going to puke—!"*

"And remember this!” Ignoring Taiga’s pout, Kossai shakes the taller girl, "For what it's worth? Your grip looked *legendary*. Like, *holy moly,* I thought you were gonna turn those bad boys into *jam* on live crystal!"

She giggles and Taiga blushes, feeling a lot better but still guilty for making it this far by her unrelenting *ball bashing* moves.

“…it was a pretty good grip.” Taiga grumbles into the boobs, letting Kossai’s bright personality win.

“Yeah it was! The way you just...*dug in*—dang Tai, even *I crossed my legs* watching that replay. You’re so going to win that guardian spot!"

*Tomorrow, everyone will go home and all of this will start over next year. But tonight, they celebrate my victory. And later…I’ll face Sun Lingbo for the guardian's throne.*

*No pressure, right?*

— - —

*“—Relax and tell me, do they still hurt when I do this, sir?”*

The *recovery clinic* sat at the island's eastern edge, built into a cave where natural hot springs steamed against the cool evening air. Healers moved between cots with their *spiritual beasts.* Herons and hawks, mostly, and one very tired-looking otter assist with minor treatments.

However far in a more sealed off corner…Victor was having a different kind of treatment.

“O-Okay. Please…be careful…”

Victor lays on a cot near the back, his strong legs lifted slightly and spread apart in a comfy cast woven from spirit-reinforced bamboo. The horrible pain he’d felt in the arena had faded to a dull throb, thanks to the oils and the healer's constant attention but it didn’t stop the deep nausea.

Yue'lin lays beside him in a much smaller spirit-form, her antlers drooping and her green light dim.

“Don’t worry. I do this for a living sweetheart.” One of the cleric monks says as she soothes the fallen hero.

“T-Thank you…”

*Ion*, *an older fawnix woman with pumpkin orange fox ears and a large tail sticking out of her loose robes,* reaches out with her wrinkly hands and moves with practiced gentleness beneath Victor's swollen and bare ballsack.

“Oooohhhh god…” Victor clenches his eyes and feels both hints of relief and agony deep within his hangers.

“Mm. I know that doesn’t feel too good. They’re still a bit squishy near the middle but they’re sealing up well, I promise.”

“*Awwh*…*ohh mm*! *Th-hey’re* so *s-sore…!*”

He groans and bucks a little, not fazing the cleric but making his long, limp, dick shudder on his squirmy thigh.

“*Awwh*, I know. The healing process still needs more time. They’ll be sore for a while *unfortunately*. But only until your Spiritual Beast has had her rest. You *were* overworking her, you know.”

Rolling both of his tender testicles between healing soul energized fingers, Ion cradles them like two bruised peaches.

“I-I know…*Uhhhh* I m-messed up…I lost…”

He holds back his quivering as best as he can but the fox milf’s thumbs were messaging circles into the edges of his squished gonads.

“Your other injuries weren’t too bad. Besides the hairline fractures in your left forearm and that black eye that’ll need a night's rest, you’ll be a brand new man soon. You can relax *Mr Wells...*”

“It’s n-not my body I’m worried a-about…this was supposed to be my big chance and I f-folded…” he covers his eyes and bites his teeth hard.

His fighting will is broken…

“That little brat…shiiit she r-really a-almost broke my…”

“They’re, they’re, don’t get too hot blooded now. These two gems will be perfectly fine, you don’t have to worry about them anymore, okay?”

She smiles at the steady improvement of Victor’s strong human testicles, already returning back to abnormal size.

Steam from the hot spring misted the cave walls as she tutted softly. Her own spiritual companion, *a spectral salamander,* coils around her wrist to lend its numbing ability.

"Although, they are still quite…*inflamed*. So don’t you *dare* start playing with them in the middle of the night," she orders him, pressing in *just enough* to make Victor hiss through his teeth.

*“Uhhhg!”*

“Is that understood? I don’t want them crumbling again due to the built up pressure suddenly releasing.”

“*Akk*—yes m-ma’am!”

"Good. Thanks to your Yue'lin's soul healing, she mitigated the worst before I got a look at them. So luckily the ruptures weren't complete."

Ion’s squinted eyes were unreadable as her thumb brushes the bruised underside of his right nut, sending a deeper nauseating twinge up his spine.

Victor groans through clenched teeth, his fingers digging into the cot's rough fabric.

"*Pleaseee*—don't say…*ruptures* l-like that. It makes them…*twitch*."

The monk's pressed orange stained lips pull up as she drums her fingers against the shell of his left nut.

"I’m sorry, but that’s the state they were almost in. Your opponent had quite the grip on her," she wags her tail, watching the steam curl around his saggy scrotum she was starting to like too much.

“She wasn’t that s-strong…” he lies.

"Hm maybe not to what you’re used to but she ***IS*** strong enough to nearly pop your nards like massive grapes. Don’t forget this *defeat* dear. It’ll make you stronger in the long run."

“Ha…sure. Whatever you s-say…”

After a few more soothing rubs, Ion leaves to go heal someone else, letting Yue'lin take over with her low level soul healing as she rests her wispy head against his bandaged body.

*‘I failed you,’* she sighs sadly in his head.

"You kept me going," Victor says back, not wanting her to be sad. "That's not failure."

*‘You wanted to win.’*

"Yeah…I wanted a lot of things." He stares at the cave ceiling. "Doesn't mean I deserved them."

Tapping his Scroll Device, it opens up and a small group of crystals come together to make a floating screen near his cot, tuned to the tournament’s recap channel.

He watches the final moment four times now.

The way his legs kicked. The way his hand slapped the mat. The way he'd screamed—gods, he'd screamed like a little girl…

*‘You should stop watching that.’*

"Yeah, probably..."

He doesn’t stop. But when the sixth replay came on, it’s interrupted by a shadow falling across the screen, making Victor look up and be startled by how quickly his sleepy cock could pulse in excitement.

Pink hair. Gray skin. Pink eyes with no pupils.

The woman from the hallway. Before the match. The one who'd given him weird feelings and disappeared.

“Y-You?”

"Mind if I sit?" Pinku-li asks softly.

Victor stares, trying to not feel too exposed with his legs spread and his saggy balls squirming outside of his blanket to get some air.

“Uhhh…no not at all…”

At least the thin sheet hid his thick cock so it wouldn’t be too obvious she had him wrapped around her gray little fingers.

She takes that cute response as a yes and settles onto a low stool beside his cot, crossing one leg over the other. She was still wearing the same black silky top that invited his eyes and those leather pants. But now, being up close now, he could see a dangling steel pendant around her neck. A black tattooed leaf with a screaming mouth in the middle.

It didn’t look like a lucky charm he’d ever seen…

"Tough loss," she says, breaking the silence.

It’s not mocking. Just her stating a fact but it still makes him scrunch his eyebrows in annoyance.

"Yeah, I k-know. I was there…what do you want?"

Pinku-li considers the question, not just say something to make him feel like she was rushing to some point. Her pink eyes drift to the muted screen, where Victor's testicular cords were stretched to their limits as Taiga showed off his massive balls to the audience.

“You shouldn’t be watching that,” She reaches out and flicks one of the spinning crystals, turning it off and making them all float back to his scroll.

“Why not?” He huffs, feeling weirdly at ease to have someone cross his boundaries.

"Cuz’ you fought well," she says, like it’s obvious.

“And lost…”

"Yeah, so? Most people would have tapped ten seconds earlier. Hell, most guys tap the moment they feel their nuts get *snatched*. But you kept going until those hangers were on the verge of breaking."

There’s a pause and Victor gulps, seeing Pinku-li hold back a laugh but look at him with an enduring expression he’s seen on drunk women’s faces.

"That's either brave or stupid. I haven't decided which."

Victor laughs awkwardly. It comes out broken and regretful. "*Ha heh ughh*…feels pretty stupid from here."

"It’s probably both then."

She glances at his loose hangers, all sprawled out and helpless, and marvels at their hairless smooth skin. She could still see the bruised thumb prints Taiga left behind…

*Looks like she did a number on them and was squeezing a lot harder than I thought. Did she really try to break through his healing abilities with her thumbs alone? Hm. Strong girl.”*

Pinku-li reaches into her sleeve and produces a cigarette again. “You don’t mind, right?”

“I do but it’s not like I can’t stop you…”

She nods and this time doesn’t light it, much to Victor’s surprise. She just holds the blue and green *distraction* and rolls it between her fingers.

"I've watched a lot of fighters lose. Most of them blame everyone *but* themselves. The judges. The crowd. The other fighter's *dirty tactics.* But you're not doing any of that right now."

“…What's the point? I lost. *Badly*.”

His gray blue eyes shimmer with defeat and he pushes down the rage.

“Did you now?”

“Yes! I lost because I wasn't…strong enough. Blaming a-anyone else doesn't change t-that."

Pinku-li's lips curve into the smallest smile and Victor’s heart throbs along with his stirring dick.

“Wow, good answer.”

Victor’s big soldier keeps growing under the sheet but Ion’s orders make his hands grip his cot harder.

*No playing around. Don’t lose your cool Vic,* Victor reminds himself as he pushes his long brown curls from his eyes.

"You're smarter than you look."

"Uhh, thanks…I think?"

They sat in silence. Yue'lin watched the pink-haired woman with wary eyes, but said nothing.

Finally, Pinku-li spoke, "I'm going to tell you something. You probably won't believe it, since my last advice was *such a bust*. But…I mean this."

Victor waits.

"I'm a fan," she says and the memory of all of Victor’s old fans trying to cop a feel of his healing balls makes him nervous. "Of you. Of the way you fought. Of the way you're handling this loss."

She rolls the cigarette faster.

"Most traditions are just...*habits*. Things people do because they've always done them. The Spirit Battles. The guardian’s seat. All of it. But *you*…you fought like someone who actually believed in something. *That's cool."*

Victor didn't know what to say. A professional assassin, *because that's clearly what she was,* was complimenting his *life philosophy?*

"Some traditions deserve to be forgotten," Pinku-li sighs, shaking her head. "And I think others deserve to be remembered. *The special ones.* You're one of the ones worth remembering, *Victor Wells*."

Victor’s eyes go wide at her words. *Why is she being so nice? So supportive? So…beautiful?*

She stands and tucks the unlit Blue Clover cigarette between her teeth.

"Get better. Train harder. Come back next year, when everything is a little different, and make them remember you the way *YOU* want them to."

She turns to leave.

"W-Wait, Pinku!" Victor calls out, raising himself by his elbows and making his spiritual beast look at him with subtle worry.

The pink haired woman pauses and puts a hand on her curvy hip, making those double D boobs shake one last time for his achy blue balls.

She raises an eyebrow at the little nickname.

“Yes, Vic?”

Her voice sends a chill up his sack and he gulps. She’s dangerously sexy.

"Why are you here? *Really*?"

Pinku-li looks back at him. Her pink eyes held something he’d noticed the last time they talked. Not warmth, exactly, but something *better*.

*Recognition*.

"I needed to see if you were worth the attention. To see if maybe I was *wrong* about something I said earlier."

She bites her lower lip, reminding him what she’d said after feeling how heavy his cock and balls were against her thick thigh.

*"You are my type."* Another pause in her throat makes Victor wish he’d made a move before the fight.

His healing blue balls were getting *worse* by the second…

“I a-am?”

"*Mhm*. Also, I had time to kill before work. *Toodles*"

She walks out just as Victor’s cock reaches full mass under the covers.

Victor just lays there with Yue'lin's warmth pressed against his chest, trying to process what had just happened.

*‘That woman,’* Yue'lin says slowly, *‘is going to do something terrible tonight, isn’t she?’*

“…Yeah," Victor breathes hard, trying to ignore his boner. "I got that same feeling..."

*‘Should we warn someone?’*

"Who’d believe us? '*Hey, the pink-eyed lady with h-huge tits said n-nice things about my fighting style after g-gazing at my bruised junk. Oh and also she's probably going to murder people.'* That’ll go great, won’t it?”

He asks sarcastically as he pushes his cock down and closes his eyes.

Yue'lin goes quiet too and sighs.

*‘I hate when you're right.’*

— - —

The gongs began howling at midnight.

They’re deep and resonant. They shake the mountain's bones. *Eighteen strikes—one for each of the temple's founding masters.* The sound rolls across the island, through the festival crowds, and into every corner where spectators have gathered.

Fireworks erupted from the temple's heart to rain cosmic showers. Crimson bursts. Blue bursting stars blooming against the dark purple sky. The crowds cheers and young couples point with their held hands.

In a shadowy alcove overlooking the temple's main courtyard, Pinku-li watches the fireworks.

Behind her, twelve figures waited impatiently. Sorcerers. Mercenaries. Killers. Bad people, each hired through separate channels for a specific type of role. Each believes they’re a big part of a different job.

Only Pinku-li knew the full scope.

"The signal?" one grunts, scratching the yellow scales underneath his jacket's collar. He’s a thin man with nervous eyes and too many rings on his fingers.

"When the fight gets close to the end," Pinku-li said. "Regardless of who's going to be the winner or loser, The moment the crowd surges forward to celebrate, you guys move."

"Targets?"

"Go for the Monks first. They’re all wearing orange and red. Then, anyone who fights back or tries to get to Sun before me." She lit her cigarette, finally, drawing smoke deep into her lungs.

“Sounds easy enough.” An eight foot orc with a scar across his chin and a hood covering his eyes nods, following the easy orders while the others grumble to themselves.

*They don’t like taking orders from a woman. Good. Gives me a reason to crack some worthless balls if need be…*

"But wait for my mark. Anyone moves early, and I'll kill them myself." Pinku-li promises.

The sorcerers nod and split up, melting back into shadows as Pinku-li watches the fireworks paint the sky.

“The old can’t last forever…” the pink haired troublemaker thinks about Victor’s sad blue eyes and smiles to herself.

The Mikaku's big plans were now in motion and all Pinku-li needed to do was make sure she stayed on business.

*Tonight, I send a message. Tomorrow I’ll…*

She let the thought fade.

Below, the gongs fell silent. The fireworks end and the crowd's roar shifts. Only anticipation now, raw and hungry.

The main event is beginning.

Pinku-li settles against stone, with smoke curling around her pink void like eyes, and waits to see how it’ll come together in the end.

She was, after all, *a fan of the arts…*