Rouge Bellerose/Plot

### A Mere Human Arc

Rouge is introduced in this arc inside of Kazuki’s conscience after he and Sherbet get knocked out from Mitzy and Roxy’s neck chop. She appears once again during his fight with Axel Amsel when Kazuki enters the recesses of his mind. Rouge tells him that she’ll lend him her powers but only if he says her name but Kazuki doesn't know it. She instructs him to look deep within himself and when he does, Kazuki's body combusts into black flames as he awakens his Eternal Onyx Blade.

When Kazuki begins hyperventilating after being slashed in the face by the werewolf, Rouge helps Kazuki in slowing down his heart with proper breathing exercises.

Rouge speaks to Kazuki for the final time in this arc after the human wins against Axel. She praises him on well he fought and tells him to rest easy before he passes out.

### Brazen Youths Arc

While Kazuki and Sherbet are walking in the hallway, Rouge warns Kazuki of a presence behind him. However, when Kazuki turns around, he finds nothing there. What she had been sensing at that time was one of Axel’s cheerleaders tailing them who were able to teleport before being seen.

Rouge appears much later in the day when Kazuki wills himself to enter the space within his heart and mind. Kazuki expresses his distrust of her causing Rouge to reason that he wouldn’t believe her even if she told him the truth. Rouge warns him that one day, he’ll come to see that ignorance is bliss and uses her powers to send him back to the real world.

#### Kazuki vs Elliot

Rouge desperately tries to warn Kazuki of the several shadow Cobras that spawned in room but he is too in deep in his depression to hear her. Kazuki only realizes the danger he is in when one of the vipers slither up his leg. Kazuki jumps up to see all their piercing red eyes and he slowly backs into the corner of his bed. Kazuki summons his tonfas as he asks Rouge what was going on which she responds by notifying him of the two malevolent power forces in their vicinity. As slowly raises his tonfas, Rouge senses that he's planning to go to his friends aid and tries to deter him from getting himself killed. Kazuki mows down all the row of cobras effortlessly, clearing a path for himself so that he is able to leave.

#### Kazuki vs Blanc

A long while after the conclusion of his fight with Blanc, Kazuki tries to sleep but is interrupted by Rouge asking him if he's in love with Axel. Flustered, Kazuki questions how the wraith got that idea which she answers by bringing up how his heart would always beat faster around the werewolf. Unable to refute this, Kazuki huffs and over in his bed. His anger soon melts into sadness as love between a human and a canid breed was destined to fail. Rouge apologizes for her question and allows the human to sleep.

#### Kazuki vs Xiomara

As Kazuki approaches Xiomara to fight in the schoolyard, Rouge says to him that this is the final battle. Kazuki jokes that the wraith went on vacation since that was the first time she talked to him in a while and the two agree to end the fight together.

Kazuki is later put into a rear-naked chokehold by Xiomara which quickly drains a lot of his energy. Rouge tells him to let his blood boil and not to hesitate to kill Rouge. Kazuki refuses since he made a promise to Axel that he'll bring his sister back to him. Rouge takes his refusal as a sign that he hadn't buried his heart and abandons him, making Kazuki fend for himself without her guidance.

### Underworld Arc

A month after the defeat of Xiomara, Rouge suddenly mentions wanting her soul to be exorcised from Kazuki's soul. Surprisingly, Kazuki fulfills her desire with the help of Ember Hertz who is skilled in the art of occultism. The hellhound uses her grimoire to perform the soul separation ritual but something goes wrong and Kazuki is sent to the Underworld while Rouge's soul is reborn. Rouge is initially uncooperative when telling them what happened to Kazuki but eventually relents and explains that he was most likely taken to het homeworld.

Immediately after they all step foot in The Underworld, the Mark of the Beast brand on their necks begin to burn painfully. Rouge spots two individuals wearing Viscera Purger cloaks and is instantly hit with PSTD. Noticing Rouge, the shorter purger runs up to embrace her which causes the wind to knock of their hood, revealing them to be her younger adopted brother Rey. The imp cries about how much he missed her but Rouge is shocked that he joined the group that ruined both of their lives. Rey pulls away, noting how cold her body feels. This prompted Rouge to break the news that she did, in fact, die in that mansion but was given a second chance at living by the graces of Hades. Rey’s face drops for a moment but chuckles softly and calls her a kidder, asking if she really was dead how is he able to hold her like this. Rouge tells him once again but with a little more force that the body he is seeing before him is nothing more than a tangible illusion and that she only came back to retrieve someone.

The six were able to come across a decent looking tavern where Rouge and Axel are given a room together. As the two sat in their respective beds, Rouge confesses to Axel that out of all the rest, she always hated him the most but adds how after seeing how deeply the werewolf cares about the mission it’s no wonder why Kazuki is in love with him. Axel becomes flustered at this and repeats her but Rouge just goes into the bathroom.

#### Rouge's Abduction

While bathing, Rouge suddenly senses Kazuki's presence and after getting dressed, sneaks out of the tavern through a window as Axel slept. However it wasn't Kazuki it was seeing and Rouge is brought to the middle of the red light district where she is knocked out by a intoxicating smell. Shortly later, Rouge wakes up paralyzed in Neo’s bed where is she assaulted. Rey watches this all unfold trough the slightly ajar door.

The morning after, Rey accuses Rouge of seducing Neo. The imp calms down when he begins to believe the Rouge standing before him is actually an imposter sent by the gods to test his willpower. He then proceeds to stroke Rouge's cheek as she cries, telling her how special she is to his master and that she should do everything she can to continue making him happy. Rey gets up and tells her that Neo has summoned both of them for tea. As he was walking off, Rey turns back to Rouge and directs her attention to a dress resting on the bedside and exits the room.

The next morning Neo invites Rouge for tea which she attends in her new get-up. Neo asks if she fancies the dress he had made for her which she just ignores and takes her seat next to her brother. Neo summons a crystal ball showcasing Kazuki and the rest which causes Rouge to shoot up from her seat. Neo mentions how Rey had told him that she was looking for someone and asks Rouge if she had any relations to Kazuki, pointing out their striking resemblance. Rouge bites back a response as she lowers herself back into her seat and moved her teacup closer to herself.

Kazuki and the others suddenly disappear into thin air, causing Rouge to question whether or not the group somehow made it out of the Underworld without the use of the grimoire. This sends Rouge’s mind into a frenzy which Neo notices and decides to cut their little tea party short. He calls for Rey to escort her back to her room which Rey obeys and the imp gets up. The two walked out of the room hand in hand, leaving the demon alone to give the crystal another brief glance before making it disappear at the snap of his fingers and taking his leave as well.

Rouge is seen a while later in bed, gazing up at the crystal ball. Despair hits when she saw that Kazuki reappear in the Underworld from the Forever-still Space, confirming that the others hadn't left at all. Neo sighs as he enters his room and sits down next to the demoness. He verbalizes his desire to learn more about her but Rouge ignores his request. He sighed once more as he snapped his fingers, causing the crystal to disappear. Neo gets on top on Rouge and with a wild grin, tells her that she’s only allowed to stop talking *after* he achieves his dream. Rouge becomes confused from his usage of the word “dream” but she keeps her lips sealed.

#### The Reveal of Nadia's Fate

Alone in the castle, Rouge takes by going through Neo’s things in order to uncover the demon’s agenda. In the middle of moving clothes around in his large closet, Rouge makes the horrifying discovery of Nadia Edward's corpse. Neo runs into the room in a heartbeat, an uncharacteristic look of worry on his face which changes when he sees what Rouge had discovered. He lifts the veil accessory of its wedding dress ensemble, exposing the face of his deceased mother.

Rouge’s asks him if he had murdered her, causing the demon gleefully confess that after killing her as a child, he defiled her corpse. Before taking her life she had told him that she was pregnant which Neo reveals was a lie to Rouge. He laughs at this for awhile before becoming dead serious. As he places the veil back over Nadia’s face and tucks her neatly back into the closet, he tells Rouge that when he becomes god, she’ll be the next to wear this dress. Neo then exits the room, leaving Rouge alone with this horrible newfound information heavy on her psyche. Rouge backs into the corner of the room as she hugged her body close and cried like she’s never cried before. Her cries were like music to Neo’s ears as he rested his back against the door.

#### Blanc vs Akuji

With Rouge distracted by the crystal ball displaying the battle between Blanc and Akuji, Neo moves in to plant a small kiss on her lips. This shocks her as this was the first time he has ever claimed her lips in the time she had been in confinement. Neo laughs at her reaction and teases if she’s surprised because that was her first kiss or if she’s disappointed that he didn’t use tongue.

In the end of the fight that saw the deaths of both opponents, Rouge's brain shuts down permanently and from within her mind, she is back in her wraith form. The apparition of Darcy Cadmus steps out from the darkness, telling Rouge that it isn’t like her to give up like this. He tells her that he didn’t come here alone and another figure enters with this one being Rouge’s father Casimir. A burst of distant, childish laughter catches Rouge’s attention and she sees a young Kazuki chasing after his cat Cherish. Kazuki finally catches the nimble feline and cradles it in his arms with the utmost love. The boy seems to notice their presence and flashes them the warmest smile. Casimir places a hand on her shoulder and tells her that for the sake of all the precious things in life, she should continue fighting. Darcy nodded in agreement and Rouge begins tearing up, slowly transforming back into her blossom form and returning back into reality.

### The End

After returning to the real world, Rouge discovers herself lying in bed with Neo nowhere in sight and discovers Lita's decapitated body. She is able to leave the room but while going down the stairs, her chest is blasted open and she falls. It is then revealed that Kazuki was stabbed in the heart by Neo’s Ephemeral Platinum Saber. Rouge struggles to breathe at the bottom of the stairs of the castle until she is able to pull herself up. Staggering, she continues her way out of the castle to find Kazuki.

She eventually finds the human in the end of his fight with Neo. Kazuki is distraught when he sees the grave condition she's in and she comforts him as he begins to weep. Kazuki cries as he doesn't want her to leave him but Rouge reminds him that his friends are still there. She places a final kiss on his forehead before fading away. As she faded away into light, Rouge thanked Hades for giving her such a grand experience of watching over and protecting another life that she can call her own child.

### Epilogue

Rouge is mentioned in the Epilogue smiling down on Kazuki on his 16th birthday from Elysium.