To Kill a Mockingbird (Roman/Elyss)

"I never ended up calling myself a hero, so I wouldn't know."

Roman could tell she'd grown since the last time they faced each other on the battlefield. After all, she hadn't handled the thundering shots from Kurzebrand the last time they'd fought. But that didn't change his approach to the fight, and he simply continued to fire, every pull of the trigger as sure as the last.

If she died, she died. She'd made that decision. He simply didn't expect her to.

"What I did for Abalia wasn't heroism, and I never pretended that it was. There's a reason I kept such a high bounty on my head. When you want to protect someone more than anything else, that means you have to throw some things aside. The law, and even the good of other people, are a part of that."

More shots echoed through the air, punctuating his speech.

"You knew perfectly well I'd have killed you that day you came for her. I'd have killed every shinigami in the Gotei if it came to that."

"I wouldn't really have cared. Unless you kept following me, anyway."

She seemed to be getting comfortable with his shots, and so Roman decided he ought to oblige her request just a little more. Before, he'd simply been shooting to kill, aiming to riddle her with those thundering golden cracks in the air and cut her to pieces. Now, however, he was more fully committed. Each time he pulled the trigger, that golden energy splintered forward again, but this time it aimed for the same places it had already struck.

Showing weakness was how one got killed, after all.

"I'm glad to hear it. I don't really care much about my past, either. The present is a lot nicer. For me, and for her."

Most combatants wouldn't have been ready for something like that, but Roman? He'd seen plenty of battlefields, fought plenty of opponents. He made the barest minimum movement to avoid the kido that blasted toward him, his head bobbing to the side as his body turned into a duelist's posture. Three more shots rang out, but he felt things were coming to a head.

"That's new. I like it."

The old mercenary smiled, not giving up just yet. But this had never really been a "fight" in the first place, had it? No, this had always just been testing, pushing limits. It was nice to see.

Clever. The points of flame pierced into Roman well, faint blood dripping from the wounds, though they were more or less cauterized by the heat of each shot. Most men would have fallen over from such wounds, or even outright died. Roman was only partially one of those men. His arm had raised toward Elyss gun at the ready, when those piercing wounds shot through him, and the life left his eyes as they did. It was quiet, then.

But, it did not stay quiet. Golden energy spilled from the wounds, filling them as Roman simply returned to action, pulling the trigger several more times to maintain the assault on Elyss even now.

"Kill me again. I can handle it."

Returning from the dead wasn't anything new to Roman, and simply returning to the natural flow of a fight was easy for him. Even in that brief moment of hesitation, Roman had only maintained his offensive, and as every Shakkaho barreled toward him, he met it with another thundering crack of golden energy splintering from the barrel of his guns. Those he couldn't meet, he simply allowed to punch through him, new wounds opening and bleeding even as the ones he'd taken before that first death were filled in with golden energy.

The time for words was over now, that much Roman knew, as he felt life once again fade from his body, only to simply return again. That was two, but in the end, he wasn't really using them to their utmost. Unlike him, she hadn't done near enough killing to be dulled to it. If she needed a few more corpses to keep walking the path she'd chosen, Roman didn't mind letting them be his own.