Rika could scarcely believe it. There she sat in her hand, cowering and staring up at her. Fearful glances were cast up toward her from the girl upon her palm, a woman that had held Rika’s fate unknowingly at one point. A woman that had crushed so many people, that had ended her home and killed her friend. The dark haired newly minted apprentice of Daiyo felt her jade hand twitch at her side as she imagined it. Just pressing her thumb down on this inch tall nothing and ending her, forever. It was something she’d have never dreamed of before but now it was intoxicating if not for Daiyo’s words of warning. 

The sorceress had retreated back to the cave and Rika… Rika had just started walking aimlessly. Numbly across the island that had once been the whole world to her. This place had been a vast and endless landscape once upon a time. Now she walked across it like a titan like those that come across the great sea. Indeed, Rika’s attention was so much on how overwhelming this was and the fact she was holding the subject of her hate in her hand, that she paid no mind to where her steps were taking her. 

In a particular painful irony her own people had become far below her notice and quite difficult to see. Far far below, trees crunched as mere moss beneath her sandal soles, bending and breaking with a crunch underfoot. In her direct path was a town that had oft traded with her own home town. They had seen the passing of giants and by now the word of vast gods being upon the land and bringing their wrath had spread. So at the sight of Rika countless people started to panic, warriors riding out to meet her as civilians ran in all directions. 

It was a comical sight really as they were as motes of dust before the dark haired titan, her drab kimono fluttering about her as she walked and her somewhat greasy hair looking more than a bit unkempt. Yet to them she was an all powerful being. The warriors soon realized their error as while their riding brought them no closer to her distant looming form, each booming all consuming step of hers made her loom larger and closer. The ground shook and quaked, spooking the horses and casting many from the backs of their mounts. It was in those moments that the brave defenders of the town looked up and found their sky replaced with the sole of Rika’s sandal, debris falling below and ending many before her foot ever smashed down. The sheer shockwave of the impact was felt all the way back at the town, collapsing buildings and knocking aside people. 

This was a light impact compared to when her other foot lifted and her walking stride smashed it down right next to the town. It didn’t even impact the town directly but the sheer shockwave of the close impact sent more buildings collapsing and knocked countless people away through the air. Her kimono’s fluttering movements above kicked up the wind and sent more of these people flying away. It was just grinding in how powerful this being had become, that unknowingly she had ended her own people. 

Her attention was still far above. Finally she found her voice after a goodly while. “You… why did you have to come here? Why, why, why!?” She demanded, her face finally cracking and her anger coming out of her hot and fast. 

Momo squeaked in fright as the fingers around her trembled. If only she knew how much restraint it took to not curl her fingers into a fist. If only she knew the sheer anger that flowed through Rika’s veins that bit her to just twist off her arms and watch her scream. She didn’t though. She didn’t do it but by all the spirits she wanted to. She wanted the last thing this wretch saw to be her face as she died. 

“P-please, I don’t even know what I did to you! If-if you could explain then I could apologize!” Momo called out. 

A blank stare met her followed by a noise deep within her chest. It bubbled from below and rose up. Laughter. A booming and almost crazed laugh. She laughed at the hilarity of what Momo had said, the sheer comedy of the statement. She ran her jade fingers across her forehead and through her matted locks of hair, laughing and covering the land around her with the rumbling thunder of that laughter. It was a noise that drew a wince from Momo. That in itself was pretty funny as well. 

“Apologize? You? You could fall to your knees and cut open your guts for the spirits while screaming your wretched apologies and it would never be enough. You could scream how sorry you were until your throat was cracking and bleeding and it would never be enough. Not for what you did. Not for what you have done. To me. To countless people.” She growled as a tinge of green light flickered through one of her eyes before vanishing. 

Whatever Daiyo had done to her had made her emotions wild. Hard to control. A constant flux of fury and anger that swirled around in her gut. A hatred for her own weakness in the past. As well as magnified her hate of Momo. She hated this woman in her hand, cowering from her. Hated the misery inflicted upon her by days trapped like lint upon her sock. Hated the torment she had forced upon her and Asami. Hated that she had taken Asami from her. She couldn’t kill Momo, but by all the spirits she would punish her. She would inflict true heavenly judgement upon her. 

“I-I have no… what could I have done… what are you talking…” Momo seemed stunned, disbelieving in the face of the visceral emotions flickering across Rika’s otherwise lovely face. 

“Why don’t I show you? Yes that's a fine idea, why don’t I show you exactly what you’ve been doing since the second you arrived.” Rika spat as she quickened her steps. 

Her geography was actually pretty terrible honestly. Rika had never paid much mind to maps or anything when she had been growing up. She had never really seen much point in it. After all it wasn’t like she had needed to travel given that she was a simple teashop girl. At least that was what she had once been. However she did recall a few settlements that had existed beyond her own village and after tracing her steps and watching her steps more carefully she found one that she was looking for. 

Her approach had been met with the same panic as the previous town. This one was larger than the one she had ravaged unknowingly, yet already a few buildings had collapsed from the quakes and shockwaves of her steps. She had stopped a step back from the town and yet she still towered into the heavens like an all encompassing monolith. She had her eyes back upon Momo and she gave her a twisted grin as she slowly crouched down and hovered her hand over the town. There was a part of her brain that was screaming for her to stop, but it was ruthlessly killed as she slowly turned her hand over. 

“W-wait! Please, stop! No! You can’t do this! You don’t seem bad like Daiyo, you don’t have to do this!” The poor retainer screamed as she tried scrabble and grip at Rika’s hand. 

“I’m doing this because you wanted to see. Daiyo-sama showed me. Now I’m showing you. Showing you why I hate you. Why you deserve to be a worm ground under my heel.” She said as she flicked her fingers and sent Momo falling through the air. 

The inch tall woman screamed as she fell through the open air and the high pitched noise of terror stirred at Rika’s heart. It was… amazing. A flush crossed her cheeks. The terror of this tormenter and demon from across the waves was true music. Her form was still a giant compared to the town below. An inch tall compared to Rika was still a giant hundreds of feet tall to the people in the town. Momo’s form landed hard smack in the middle of the town the people screaming as her vast form boomed down, crushing people by the scores. The difference between Rika and Momo was that Momo could actually hear them. Though Rika could imagine it. 

“Can you hear them, Momo-san? Can you hear them crying out around you? The fever pitch? The helpless fleeing? Open your eyes and look. LOOK!” Rika boomed. 

Momo sat upright with a start at the booming thunder of Rika’s voice and looked around. She looked and for once saw with her own eyes. She looked upon the town and where before she wouldn’t have even noticed it, now she could see with crystal clarity the destruction. Her impact had crushed dozens of homes. There were red stains upon her body here or there. People were running through the streets, fleeing, trying to escape from their doom. Momo’s eyes widened in sheer disbelief. 

“W-what… what is this…” She trailed off. 

“This is a scene that played out countless times since you arrived here, Momo-san. Look around. Now fathom for a moment, the last thing these people see is a sandal sole or a tabi blocking out their sky! Imagine, gazing up and all of your sky is gone and replaced with the underside of a foot. That is what has happened countless times. You’re a destroyer, Momo-san! One who’s ended more men and women than any natural disaster could have hoped to! In fact, you don’t have to imagine, let me give you a look at what its like!” Rika said as the anger boiled over again. 

Momo had her hand on her mouth as her brain was probably struggling to catch up to what she was looking at. Like it was impossible for the gentle retainer to fathom she ended so much. She was probably trying to reject it. No matter for Rika as she stood back up to her full height. For the town it looked horrific. Momo was a vast and huge giant plopped in the middle of their town while behind her, towering on high, was the even larger form of Rika. It was a true nightmare that none of them could have imagined. It was about to get far worse for Rika was swept up in her vengeance against Momo. In making this bitch as miserable as possible for everything she had done. A paradox that it was her that was currently adding to the body count but her mind was a bit far gone. 

Rika’s fabric clad toes of her right foot shifted around and she pulled her tabi clad foot from its sandal. She couldn’t risk squashing Momo just yet, but she could certainly get the next best thing. Grinding her into the dirt and dust. Letting her see exactly what everyone had seen where she had come from. Her foot shifted over the town, the darkness and shadow of her foot blocking over the sky for Momo and the townsfolk. Momo’s ears were filled with the pitched screams of hundreds of people that were little more than dust to Rika. Her eyes were up, fixed upon the underside of Rika’s foot as it filled the space above her. She watched little bits of dirt fall and crush houses and people. It was like an apocalypse had come. 

With that Rika lowered her foot down, the darkness getting more and more pronounced. Momo let out a scream as she threw up her hands to try and stop the sole of Rika’s foot. It pressed into the fabric but there was no stopping the foot as it pressed down upon Momo and shoved her harshly into the ground. As well as crushed the town around her. Countless screams were silenced in a moment as Rika’s eyes were wide with mad and wicked hate fueled delight. She let out a low moan. 

It was rapturous, the squirms of this bitch. “Look Asami-san. Look down and see. Look at her suffering now, like she deserves.” Rika said with a deranged smile on her lips. 

She arched her foot up and ground against Momo, not enough to crush her but enough the retainer was going to feel every ounce of pain that Rika could inflict on her. The woman’s muffled screams went unheard but her frantic squirms were felt and only pushed Rika onward to grind her into the dirt. She managed to pull her foot back and looked down, seeing the woman spread out and dazed amidst the wreckage of her step. Rika’s lips curled and she pursed her lips, spitting down upon Momo. 

The gob of saliva struck the retainer harshly and soaked her, getting in her hair, mouth and eyes as it drew another cry from her. “That's what everyone here has feared. What many saw. You *deserve* this, Momo-san. I’m going to spend every waking moment of our time together making sure you pay for it. You’ll never know a moment of peace for ten days until Daiyo butchers that other monster. Then, only then, will I give you the death you so richly deserve. Crushed like a mote of dust.” She sneered. 

Momo wept and cried below, calling out for her master but Rika didn’t care. She reached down and gripped her by the leg, the dirty and soaked form of the retainer looking wonderfully pitiful. She looked out toward the cave where Daiyo had set up their camp and headed back toward it, feeling a wonderful feeling in her chest having put the woman in her place. She almost pitied Isane. Almost.