Editing Kaze no Stigma:Volume5 Chapter 2 (section)

=== Part 1 ===

The dead of night - Without even a slight movement, Kazuma opened his eyes wide in silence.

A cynical remembrance of those magnificent, dream-like happy days.

He woke up because the happiness was too much. It was like being taught that he will never go back to those times, not even in the middle of dreaming.

"Ku.....Kuu ku ku..." 

A hollow laughter escaped. As if sneering at his ugliness and the whole world.

As a result of losing everything, he obtained that which no matter how much he wished for evaded him.

That was a modest, commonplace happiness found everywhere.

There was a person who would smile at him, tell him ''Good morning'' when he woke up and ''Good night'' when it was the time to sleep - only that but those were irreplaceable days full of happiness.

Even the power he pursued like a mad-man disappeared like something from a dream. 

Because he met a person who looked at him plainly, not at <<his own strength>> or <<himself with power>>. 

If he could have protected that girl and the small world revolving around her, it would have been enough. 

Even if he couldn't hunt Youmas, there was no need for self-abasement. 

He really thought so, from the bottom of his heart. 

Until the time that happy paradise crumbled away without leaving any trace.

''"Really......."''

Inside the darkness, Kazuma laughed at his foolishness. 

How naive was he. 

If you're weak, if you lose, you can't protect anything. It means losing everything.

Just like he deserved, he became alone again.

No - he's not alone.

There's him and he - those two.

Revenge is vain, it's a sterile act that doesn't give back anything, an intelligent person will proclaim so with a triumphant expression. 

Kazuma generally agreed with it. When he pursued that man, during that time he lived only for revenge he never thought revenge was meaningful. 

But there was nothing else left except for that. There was nothing else to do.

That's why, he desperately refined his ability. Throwing away anything else, all for the sake of killing one man. But -

"I made a mistake....."

Erasing his facial expression, just like a Noh mask, Kazuma murmured.

This is the result of thinking that dealing with that man was enough and neglecting his followers. 

''"If you find the answer, come again."''

Those conceited parting words, won't go away. Words said from the view-point of the superior one that completely look down on him. 

Kazuma groaned, tightly clenching his fists at that disgrace. 

"''the answer'', you said? Isn't it obvious..........Kill you. Break that good-for-nothing doll -  Aah, I'll do it. This time, for sure"

His mouth warped, the same daring smile as ever. But, if Ayano or Ren were to see his eyes, they would probably be at a loss for words.

Hatred and insanity and the pair of eyes swirling in evil malice boiling hot with deeply rooted delusions, changed that cynical but cheerful smile in a different thing altogether.  

That smile, expressed by most of the enemies they killed until now, was mad.