Shift

[Andromeda]

Laughing, Katsumi started to move towards Seiji. “By all means make your attempts. I’ll show you how weak you are. You’re just a clueless monkey.” She rubbed her hands together looking like she starting to warm up. Winding up her punch, she met fist for fist against Seiji. Nothing stopped her anymore. Explosive shockwaves flew off their clashes shaking the ceiling.

Blood, Seiji’s blood, coated the knuckles of Katsumi’s glove. It only seemed to be getting worse for him. She no longer even lost her traction in the fight. In fact, she seemed to be getting stronger with each punch. One of her punches slipped through Seiji’s defenses landing square in his jaw. He slid back a little staggered from the blow as blood started flowing from the impact.

Seiji spit out the blood from his mouth and charged back in after Katsumi, or rather Takako. “Damn you!” However, while he was stunned, Katsumi retrieved a long board from one of the trashed classrooms. Already in motion, Seiji put up his arms to block the hit.

It was like being hit by a truck. He flew out of the hallway through a classroom and out the window into back of the school grounds (opposite of Haruo and Fumiko’s current fight). Seiji spun end over end through the dirt until he came to a stop in a pile of earth up against the corner of the school fence.

As he tried to pull himself up more blood dripped over his face. His left arm was completely thrashed from the blow. It hung weakly at his side. He was not sure if it was broken or worse, but he could not move it. ‘…damnit…I can’t lose here, not to this psycho!’

Katsumi marched out of the school still holding the wood board. “You don’t have to worry. I’ve no interest in adding you to my army. You’ll just die here like everyone around you wants!”

Working up as much bravado as he had available on hand, Seiji straightened himself out to appear like none of it harmed him. “Good, I had no plans on joining your army anyway. So come over here and try!”

She laughed a bit more, clearly amused by Seiji’s façade. “I’ll oblige you.” Swinging the board around a little, she launched it at Seiji with some added force from her punch.

The scars along his right arm lit momentarily as he threw himself into his punch to meet the attack. The wood board rammed into Seiji’s hand coming to a sudden halt that sent cracks through the wood. A flash of light jumped through the wood before it exploded in splinters. ‘…damn…’ Seiji wound back a little from the recoil. ‘It’s just wood, but it hurts like hell! What the hell is she doing? This is all part of this girl’s strange power isn’t it?’

Shaking his hand a little, he worked off the pain that threatened to numb his hand. ‘For looking so frail, she hits like a truck! Damn, I can’t believe I’m actually missing the Atlanteans. They were at least more straightforward with their powers. I knew what I was dealing with. Whatever her power is, it’s not flashy like others.’ He clinched his hand up and knocked himself in the cheek. ‘What the hell’s wrong with me? I just have to fight like I always do. No thinking. It’s my way! She’s strong, so I can put my full power in this and not worry!’

Chapter 330 – Back-to-back Punch Out

Seiji charged in after Takako, already in motion as well. She had only waited long enough to see how things played out. Like he already noted, she was bad at fighting. The smarter fighter would have gone immediately after him while he was countering the first attack. She had moments of awareness, but she was extremely inexperienced. It was his only advantage against her.

With his head in the fight more than it had been before, he could see her movements a lot easier. He evaded or deflected her punches with ease. Shockwaves ripped through the grounds from the clashes when he met her punch to punch.

He slid around to her side the moment he had her off balance. Takako only managed to get her arms up to take the blow before it ripped her off her feet and threw her across the grounds. The body of Katsumi crashed into an earthen mound created by Takako’s take over. A tall cloud of dirt shot into the air from her impact.

‘That connected, but it still didn’t look like it did much of anything to her…’ The sting still rang through his fingers. He had not really run across anyone with such a resilient body. So the whole experience was new for him. It was not going to stop him though. Takako had to be stopped.

“Owies,” Takako spoke with a fake playful tone. “That really hurt.”

“Stop lying. I know well enough that did nothing to you.”

A sigh escaped from the smoke. “You’re not much fun.” Takako walked out of the cloud with only dirt ground into some of her uniform. She readjusted her full length gloves after Seiji’s punch knocked loose. “You’re such a boring man.”

He had said that it did nothing, but he still hoped for something. She did not even look any more fatigued by their fight. ‘…still nothing… How hard to do have to hit to actually do something?’

“It seems that you’re actually taking this seriously now. I’ll have to step things up then.”

“Bring it!” Seiji threw up his fist doing his best to look like a fighting stance for having one disabled limb.

“Aren’t you an eager one to face your death.”

“It’s all talk until you actually succeed. I’m still standing.”

Takako began to dig around in the pockets of her skirt, where she seemed to be dragging everything from. New metal parts were retrieved. She locked them into place on the leather glove. Tapping a switch on the plating she just added. Expanding and locked into place, nearly all of the leather base disappeared as the metal grew out. “I managed to find someone in the city with quite the scientific mind. Seems that Yuki’s gift to them was greater engineering skills and knowledge. They’ve come quite in handy for the little toys I have them make for me.”

Completed, her glove looked more like a gauntlet now rather than something that seemed more like a punk accessory. Each metal plate locked and interconnected with another. They wrapped fully around her forearm. Even her fingers had well crafted plating that gave maximum flexibility while still maintaining defense.

Showing off the change to Seiji, she grinned with delight. Murderous disjointed expressions came from her as she controlled Katsumi’s body. “I’ll let you in on one little thing about this. The metal I added was made from a different material than what was being used. It’s a new alloy that hasn’t existed in our world before created by that special someone.”

The look he got from the improvements did not give him a positive feeling. ‘Damn, I already was having trouble doing anything to her with that defense and it looks even more solid than before. How the hell am I going to break through?’ It appeared that she had called his bluff. Seiji started to have some unease about his situation.

Unease or not, nothing changed what he had to deal with now. He hardly even had the time to complain before Takako was back on the attack. The new changes to her gear did not change her speed or reaction time, which mean he could still dodge her with ease. He did not really want to meet her head on any longer. It hurt before and he got the feeling it was going to be several times worse.

It did not take long for him to get an example of the change. Early in his dodging around the grounds, an earth mound that was part of the school’s perimeter wall was at his back. He had to get out of the way due to the poor position it put him in, anything like that at his back was a bad idea. Though it seemed to stop being a point of concern after Takako was finished.

When she missed Seiji with her fist, it buried itself into the earth. For the moment, it seemed nothing really was going to become of it. Earth went up to her elbow from the penetrating force. However, a moment after all of the earth surrounding her exploded outward nearly appearing to have vaporized, though it had merely scattered into powder. The wall buried deep under the dirt became exposed and twisted from the force.

A bit of sweat dripped down Seiji’s face realizing that could have been him had he not moved. He did not like the looks of the strength that she seemed to be displaying now. ‘Hell! How much would that have hurt?’

He kept up his dodging of her attacks. It was about all he could manage anymore against her. None of his own punches actually did anything to her. Anytime he hit her it was as though he was hitting a steel wall. Nothing budged and the only thing that hurt was himself. His fist was bloodier than ever before. The skin on his knuckles had been completely torn from all of the clashing.

Seiji danced around the school grounds looking for any chance of an opening. He could not get a single blow past her defense. ‘For being so weak at fighting, she’s got an annoying as hell defense! No matter what she does, she always makes sure to have those weird glove things up to protect her. I can’t get around them!’

Breaking down her defense was his only chance. That much he knew. ‘Someone that caught up on defense is afraid. If I get past it, I can end this fight!’ However, he did not know how to do that. He only had one arm working for him and he could not really meet her blow for blow any longer.

Thoughts on strategy tried to move around his head, but none them met together. He could not think out his problem. Besides the fact that it did not really work for him, it stalled all of his actions. Takako did not give him time to pause. She kept putting two-meter size craters all over the place in trying to take him down. So thinking was out of the question.

“Damnitall to hell! I’ll just do what I do best!” Which when one considers the things that Seiji would do, was already a bad idea. Fortunately, it was not the worse outcome for him. A stupid idea was still a stupid idea though.

He caught her fist coming in at him. Not a bad idea, a painful one, but not a bad one. His muscles and bones complained about how terrible the plan was. But he still went with it. It was only one hand he had stopped, but it was enough. He pulled at her to throw her off balance as he came swinging in with the only other thing that he could think of on him, sadly it was not his feet. That would have probably been smart, but Seiji in reality was never really one to fight with this feet. A man’s fight should be done with the fists, of course. And when you run out of your fists, there was only one thing left to use.

His head.

It was definitely the most earth shaking head butt the world had known up to that point (because naturally the power progression of this story is going to render that entire statement meaningless in the future if worded any other way). Terrible shockwaves from the ear-splitting clash rang through the entire school grounds. The earth ripped up in front of them and shot outward like bullets leaving holes in anything that dared to stand before it.

The move did manage to stun Takako and throw her back. However, Seiji took just as much of a hit from it. Blood poured down his forehead from the nasty wound he created, one that Katsumi’s body shared.

Takako dragged herself back up with the help of part of the exposed wall. With a much worse looking image than Seiji, blood covered up much of her face, she still looked just as hungry. “I’m still here. Did you think that smashing your head into mine would eject me from Katsumi’s body?”

“No, I wasn’t thinking!”


“You did a little didn’t you?”

“Just a bit. Seemed like something worth trying.”

“You really are an idiot. That’s not how this work!” Seiji was an idiot. And he was about to deal with it. Takako suddenly looked a little confused at Seiji. “You trying something new?”

“Huh?”

“Your hair, it’s got electricity sparking.”

“It does?” He ran his hand through his hair only to remember what it was he did. Up until that moment, he had forgotten about it. And then he realized his mistake.

Yuki’s voice came to him reminding him of something important. ‘It’ll be fine as long as you don’t go head butting someone.’

“Crap…” The electricity came to a stop as though it all would just calm down. But that was not the case. A few second later, it started back up and heated up. Smoke started to appear from his head until it all finally exploded in his face. The blast was more startling than anything.

Seiji coughed a little from the smoke, but it only looked and sounded worse than it actually was. He waved off the cloud to get back into the fight. “So you do bleed,” he commented, finally back to being serious. The sight of the blood covering Katsumi’s face made it clear to him that he could do something in the fight. ‘I just need to get past her defense and I can do this.’

“Don’t make it sound like you’re making a comeback. You’re on your last leg and since this isn’t my body I can keep using it long past the point of fatigue or pain has already crippled it.”

“Bastard! People aren’t puppets for you to use!”

“They are with my power!”

“Damn you!” Seiji charged in after Katsumi. “I’m going to put an end to this right now!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Seiji coughed a little from the smoke, but it only looked and sounded worse than it actually was. He waved off the cloud to get back into the fight. “So you do bleed,” he commented, finally back to being serious. The sight of the blood covering Katsumi’s face made it clear to him that he could do something in the fight. ‘I just need to get past her defense and I can do this.’

“Don’t make it sound like you’re making a comeback. You’re on your last leg and since this isn’t my body I can keep using it long past the point of fatigue or pain has already crippled it.”

“Bastard! People aren’t puppets for you to use!”

“They are with my power!”

“Damn you!” Seiji charged in after Katsumi. “I’m going to put an end to this right now!” Like any good attack made by Seiji, it had completely thought put into it. He burned on pure emotions. Takako was a twisted individual that needed to stopped. That was the only thing going through his mind. It would have been better if he was thinking about saving Katsumi, but have to take motivation where you can get it.

Not that it meant much, the defense that Katsumi naturally had through her powers kept her from taking any real damage from Seiji. His blind fury did little to guide a well-aimed shot at her. It was made incredibly easy to block. Despite it, her feet still slid back a little from the force.

She immediately threw out a counter landing Seiji’s already disable arm. Pain jumped up through Seiji’s body breaking him out of his blood boil. Reminded of the pain, shot waves of sudden fatigue to all corners of his body. It felt heavy and difficult to move. The adrenaline had started to dissipate or not able to keep up with everything. ‘Not now! I need to keep going!’

Clinching his fist up, Seiji did everything he could to convince his body to keep moving in the only way he knew how. Which was just pumping his muscles and getting them moving. ‘I’m not about to let it happen again! Not like before!’ Flashes of Nerine went through his mind as he thought about what he did not want to remember.

While Seiji worked to get himself more built up to fight and push through his sluggish body, Takako wasted no time arming herself and going on the attack. Finding a stray metal rod from the pile of trash throughout the grounds. “You look like you’re having some fun! Let’s get to painting with my brush!” She spun around for the opening barrage.

Chapter 331 – Back-to-Back Knockout

Off balance with his focus trying to get himself back, Seiji did not immediately notice the incoming attack. His body still refused to move the way he wanted anymore making it even harder when she swung at him. The bad arm took most of the hit, but the force transferred through his body. He went flying backwards crashing into the wall of the school.

“Damn…everything’s starting to hurt like hell…” Seiji started move again, but it was only in time to be clocking in the face by Takako. He went tumbling through the classroom and into the hall and back into another classroom. As he stood up, Takako was right there again. He had no chance. “…da…” He went flying once more.

Takako seemed to be getting enjoyment out of throwing him around the school. Once she finished her makeshift game of solo soccer with Seiji’s body, there were too many holes to count in the school. Where there were no holes, it was only because the walls had collapsed. Debris and dirt crumbled down as the school was never meant to take any of the beating it was taking. Only through a miracle did it continue to stand.

Bruised, battered, beaten, and all of the rest of the “b’s” to keep the alliteration going only loosely, described the state of Seiji. Not too unlike the school, it was a bit of a miracle that he could still be standing. He nearly looked like a walking corpse with how much Takako changed him with her attacks.

Dropping the rod to her shoulder, she stood to admire her work. “My you look awful. I’m impressed that you can even breathe let alone stand.”

“I’m not…letting you…win…”

“That’s fine resolve, but what can you do? You can’t beat me.”

“You…haven’t beaten…me yet…either.”

She smiled to see that he still had some talk left in him. “Well we’ll see how long that remains true.”

“Long enough…for me…to beat you…out of that girl.”

“You are amusing,” laughed Takako. She tightened her hand on the rod looking ready to continue where she had left off.

Seiji did not like the look of the situation. ‘I can’t felt half of my body and it feels even more heavy than before. I don’t know how long I can keep going… I must stop her soon before my body gives out!’ He just did not know how it was going to do with his body the way it was. But in reality, that did not really matter too much. Seiji ignored any further thoughts or complaints both from his mind and his body. Either helped him in the fight at the moment.

It might have felt heavy, but he did not move like it had been. While not at his usual speed, he threw himself at Takako has she came swinging once more. Taking the opening swing to his injured side, it gave the chance to take advantage of the big opening he created. A weapon in her hand left her over confidently over extended. He had no trouble getting a punch in, though it brushed against her off hand. It was not a full deflection, but most of the force he had behind it fell out.

He could not even manage a word before she recovered and counterattacked. Blood sprayed from the new wound that mixed in with the rest. It stopped being possible to tell the new from the old or where they started and ended.

“That was cheeky of you.”

She swung down at Seiji, but through a force of will he grabbed the metal rod with his hand. Blood sputtered out from multiple wounds due to the force. A white light flashed for a moment through his scars on his arm. “You know…no offense to the girl…but I’m really starting to hate…hearing her voice.” The metal groaned under his strength. He started to stand up meeting directly with Takako. A curve began to develop in the rod. Gritting his teeth, the muscle on Seiji’s arm tensed a little and expanded slightly.

A bit of surprise started to overtake Takako witnessing Seiji’s pure strength overwhelming her power. She recoiled a little, which was her mistake. Seiji immediately capitalized on it. Pushing through her weakened hold his fist rammed through her jaw sending Takako flying back out of the school.

Panting heavily, Seiji staggered forward after the very likely still healthy girl. His body felt like lead, but he pushed through. ‘I’ve gotta end this… This girl is completely twisted…’ Through the smoke and clouds that he caused from Katsumi’s body, he noticed the shadow appearing through the mist. It was not a surprise, annoying, but not a surprise.

What blood had started to dry and wipe away from the fighting before had returned with renewed vigor. The damage from Seiji’s punch could not really even be seen through all of the blood. It looked like she should have been unconscious, but still stood like a puppet on strings. “You’re a resilient one. That badly beaten and still able to knock me off my feet.”

“And I’m going to keep doing that until you stay down.”

“I already told you. Even if she’s unconscious I can control her body. The only way you can defeat me is if you rip all of her limbs off.”

“It won’t come to that. I’ll defeat you and send you packing.” Seiji threw up his fist showing that he was ready for more. “So you better start looking for the door, because I’m going to be sending back to your own body for Yuki to deal with!”

She laughed again amused by something else. “That boy, he’s likely already dead.”

Seiji’s eyes narrowed not believing her for a moment, but still confused by why she would even think that. “Lies aren’t going to help you. Yuki’s coming for you!”

Katsumi’s head shook and turned in very uncomfortable angles. “Saki already dealt with him. A single kick was all it took to deal with him.”

“What?”

“He became a star the way she shot out of there.”

The laughter from Takako started to get on Seiji’s nerves. He ground his teeth tightly together almost causing them to bleed. Another flash of light ran down Seiji’s arm. The twin scars glowed white. “Enough!”

Her laughter suddenly ended when she started to feel the ground rumble under her feet a little. All her taunting stopped as she no longer had any words left. She did not know what was happening.

Talismans materialized out of thin air all around Seiji. They quickly wrapped up all of his wounds to such an extent that he was covered from head to toe. The only thing that remained was the white glow from his arm and two lights where his eyes were. Seiji had more of an appearance of a demon than anything divine.

He roared through the talisman making waves over the ground with the dirt. Seiji stalked forward making the ground crack a little with his step. “…I…”

“What the hell is this?” question Takako, taking several steps away from Seiji’s approach. “None of them had this in their memories.”

In a moment, the pace Seiji made changed. His speed quickly increased as the talismans at his feet glowed. He darted in a straight line at Takako, but missed with her sidestepping him. Seiji plowed through the earth mound in front of him and carved out the fence as well before he came to a stop.

He turned around his head getting a lock on Takako once more. Another roar escaped his talisman covered mouth.

“Damn…this isn’t like anything that they predicted.” Takako removed another couple of pieces of metal from the pockets of Katsumi’s skirt. She quickly slapped them in place and locked everything down. The metal expanded in a straight motion from the backs of her hand. Small individual pieces built out and snapped quickly into place. In seconds, she had two quarter meter length double edged blades. “Time to kill!”

Takako moved around finding Seiji’s new speed to be difficult to handle. “He’s gotten faster and he already was impossible to manage when I was just taunting him.” She blocked with her arms a direct strike that she could not evade. It picked her up and threw her like a bullet the entire length of the school grounds creating a ten meter tall column of smoke.

She kicked away the debris and waved off the smoke only to hear what seemed like a stamped. Takako quickly jumped into the air just as Seiji’s glowing fist rammed into the earth. A five meter crater now stood where she had been only a moment before. Debris threw up into the air from the impact knocking her in a different direction. She dug the blades into the side of the school to support her hanging while staying out of Seiji’s range. “Damn, he’s stronger and faster. What the hell got into him?”

Another roar. Seiji could see Takako, but she was out of reach. “Friend! Won’t…”

In broken Japanese, it did not seem like much, but she still started to put things together. “Are you telling me, he turned into a beast because I said Yuki’s dead?” A deeper roar came from Seiji like an reply, only it rattled the school. “You can’t be serious? He’s gone into a berserker rage over that? Does he think he’s in the movies?”

Anymore talking had to wait. Seiji leapt into the air after Takako. He missed, but only because she jumped further up the school. Clawing through the cement of the walls, he climbed after her to the roof. The weight of his steps though did not give the school much time, already damaged and weakened as it was.

Takako dodged and kept backing away the best that she could. However, Seiji stayed on top of her. He eventually cornered her and grabbed her by the neck. Roaring like an animal, he pounded her repeated into the roof until it was collapsing. Then he jumped off the roof leaving the crumbling third floor behind to slam her into a deep crater.

Her arms with the only defense she could muster against Seiji. The only benefit was that he only had one arm to fight with. At least, that was what she expected. In the middle of the pummeling, he paused for a second winding up his disabled arm as the talismans suddenly started to glow. With both arms working suddenly, she could not hold up to the assault.

“Muscle…bound…bastard…” she managed through the beating. Takako held the defense, but the metal of the gauntlets were starting to show dints and gaps in the plating. She waited for an opening. In the pause between the attacks, she leapt forward throwing her blades out in an arc. Thick streams of blood trialed behind her as she dropped down to the outer edge of the crater.

Seiji roared at the loss of his left arm, but the talismans quickly covered up the gap and sealed it off. He turned back up towards Takako and leapt after her.

“Ugh…damn, doesn’t look like it even—“ She tried to dodged away, but still got clipped by the edge of Seiji’s fist. Katsumi’s body flew back into the school leaving smoke billowing out. Takako ripped her body out of the debris and forced it back up. “—slowed him down a bit. Really has turned into a beast. Good thing I was planning on killing him.”

Takako swung the blades down throwing off the blood they have picked up. She knew that Seiji would be coming for her again. The sound gave it away, not that she needed the clue. Forcing Katsumi forward, she charged in after Seiji. She broke through the edge of the school just as Seiji was coming in. The left arm gone, he had an entire side open to him that he did nothing to guard. “Perfect opportunity. Time to die!” Her blades aimed straight for his heart. It would put him down in an instant.

However, just as her blades began to hit flesh a loud shot from outside rang out. A bright pink beam shot through the air and pierced Seiji and Katsumi’s body in the same motion.

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Takako swung the blades down throwing off the blood they have picked up. She knew that Seiji would be coming for her again. The sound gave it away, not that she needed the clue. Forcing Katsumi forward, she charged in after Seiji. She broke through the edge of the school just as Seiji was coming in. The left arm gone, he had an entire side open to him that he did nothing to guard. “Perfect opportunity. Time to die!” Her blades aimed straight for his heart. It would put him down in an instant.

However, just as her blades began to hit flesh a loud shot from outside rang out. A bright pink beam shot through the air and pierced Seiji and Katsumi’s body in the same motion.

Katsumi’s body fell backwards in shock. For a moment, she thought it had been something that Seiji did. It seemed impossible knowing him and his abilities. Then she saw him falling over as well from the attack. “Who… Where…”

The force of the attack did more to Takako than anything else. Like she had said before, the state of the body meant very little to her. She had fallen back against the ruins of the first floor of the school to get support. “To punch through even the reinforced uniform… Who was it?” Takako started to look around for the source.

However, despite the piercing shot through both of them, even Seiji returned to his feet. The bestial rage did not look to have softened in any meaningful way. He only looked more pissed off now. Which made Takako groan with some disappointment. It hit both of them, but she hoped that it had more stopping power to put him down so she could just easily finish him off. “Such a pain. You just won’t die.”

“…Yuki…”

“Still going on about that nonsense…” She pulled Katsumi’s body back up to confront Seiji once more. “I can’t believe a single person would put someone into such a blind rage. It’s like he’s immortal or some such stupid thing.”

“That’s a more accurate statement for yourself than him,” replied a voice to a question that was never asked.

Takako flipped Katsumi’s head around to hunt down the sound of the voice. She was on the search once more for the unknown interloper. “Who are you?”

“Not fond of things you can’t see or control?”

“There’s nothing I can’t.”

“I’m sensing fear in your voice.”

“I’m not afraid! There’s nothing that can be done to me.”

“Very true. From what I’ve seen. I can’t kill you as you are. So why are you afraid then?”

“I said I’m not! Get out here and I’ll show you whose is!”

“Is it the unknown or the voices from the darkness? Does it make you feel like how you were before? Locked within your own mind.”

“Who the hell are you? You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I know more than you think. I know your story. After that, it just took a little thinking to figure you out. You seem complex, but you’re quite simple. You’re afraid of going back.”

“Shut up and get out here now!”

“You’re right. I do need to put an end to this.”

“Bold words. Think you can back—“ Suddenly, a large metal gauntlet appeared from nowhere hitting Katsumi’s face interrupting Takako’s taunting. She flew backwards from the force, but it did not last for long. Another appeared behind her hitting her back in the direction that she came from. “…the hell!”

Takako could barely keep up with what was happening. It was only three floating giant gauntlets half of the size of a human, but they were hitting her too fast that she could not react and get her bearings. She had to take the pummeling until she figured out the speed of them and managed to slice through with her blades and break the cycle.

Already bloodied from Seiji’s fight, she barely looked any different, but the damage to Katsumi’s body was extensive. It was only thanks to her enhanced body from Yuki that she survived everything. Takako treated the body with no care or regard to safety.

No one had yet appeared in the battlefield. “Damn…still hiding…” Takako scanned the ruins of the first floor for anything.

“Just handling something.”

The voice came in the direction of Seiji, who she had forgotten about with the new threat. However, unlike before, he was neither fuming or even standing. In fact, most of the talismans that had been covering him had fallen away. His shredded cloths exposed his bloodied body.

Next to him, a new figure stood, like the one that had been talking to Takako the entire time. “You put down the animal.”

“I simply stopped him from doing something that he’d regret.”

“And what’s that?”

“Killing the girl you’ve taken over.” The figure turned towards Takako and started to walk to her. “That’s something that I’ll take on.”

“Bold words.”

“It’s quite simple.” They suddenly leapt forward bouncing through the air like a dance. Another gauntlet appeared out in front grabbing Katsumi. Metal fingers clamped down covering her body from under her shoulders to her waist. Then the dark figure grabbed a hold of Katsumi’s left arm with another massive gauntlet that they wielded personally. Bursts of blue light ignited from vents all around the gauntlet’s forearm creating thrust. It only took a moment for a pop of the shoulder and arm to be dislocated followed by the tearing of skin and spray of blood.

They tossed the torn limb aside as Takako ground her teeth with annoyance, clearly not feeling the pain. The unknown person made no hesitation to move onto the next arm. Rather than lose both, she roughly punched through the gauntlet around her torso to break free. “Damn you!”

“I told you it’s quite simple. The girl’s going to bleed to death as I ripped off each of her limbs at your suggestion.”

Chapter 332 – Back-to-back Take Down

Even in the moonlight, Takako could not see the face of her strange attacker. The school long had lost power. It was as though the very shadows had cloaked them from sight. Nothing from the look of their face could tell her anything about them. Only the sound of their voice, a grave tone that meant business. There was no doubt about what they would do.

She took a step back from the strange trying to figure out a solution. The stunning attack left her momentarily confused and paralyzed. It did not last for long as the stranger went back on the attack. They targeted her remaining arm, the right arm. Defending it with greater degrees of preservation, Takako dodged and evaded the attacks.

During the fighting, it started to bring Takako back to her right mind. “What are you doing? You’re one of Yuki’s friends right. This girl is important to you. You can’t kill her. You’re just bluffing.”

Jumping into the fight, the stranger danced around the air kicking and punching off attacking Takako from all sides nearly at once. She had trouble keeping up with the speed and precision of the strange. “I’m not one of their friends. So the fate of this girl doesn’t matter to me. Killing is sometimes a necessity. You won’t dissuade me.”

“Who the hell are you?!”

“No one.” Spinning around in the air, they kicked Takako down into the ground from the height of twenty meters in mid air. They quickly darted down taking advantage of the stunned state to remove the remaining arm from Katsumi’s body.

Anchored in place by another gauntlet, Takako could no longer move Katsumi’s body. “Bastard…”

“This girl’s body is no longer useful to you. So run away back to your real body and wait. Wait for him to come to you. Because he’s still alive and won’t stop until he’s reached you. Go hide in fear.” The light from the girl’s eyes dimmed along with the force in her body. Takako’s possessing presence had disappeared.

Walking out of the crater, the stranger went over to Seiji’s body. They knelt down next to him seeing that he was starting to come around. “You’ve woken up.”

Seiji blinked a little trying to get a sense of his position. Everything felt wrong. Then he looked up in the direction of the voice he heard. The sight of an all black figure that completely seemed to defy the light made his head tilt. “What are you doing here, Nerine?”


The black bleed off of her figure like she had been completely drenched in water. “How’d you know it was me?”

“I just did. It was obvious to me.” He awkward tried to get up, but found himself falling over. The lack of the left arm that he was relying on took him back. “What the hell is going on?!”

“How much do you remember from your fight?”

“Everything…” he answered immediately, only to have to start thinking. The doubting look on Nerine told him that he forgot or missed something. “I remember getting really angry with that Takako girl for lying to me.”

Without the need to hear anymore, Nerine already figured all of it. “You lost consciousness after that moment and your instincts took over.”

“My instincts? What do you mean? What happened to me?”

“You became surrounded by your talismans. The same ones that appeared during your fight with Cosmas. And you lost all doubt you had about fighting Takako.”

Seiji hung his head down trying to remember what Nerine was telling him. Then he looked around the grounds of the school. It looked several times worse than he remembered with large holes that he did not remember them having before. And Takako was nowhere in sight for him. He looked back to Nerine. “Did I—“

“No, I stopped you. I knew how it would have made you feel.”

A sigh of relief came out of his lips. “…thanks… I thought I had this under control. I thought I had faced this after beating that bastard!”

“You can’t out run or control this. It’ll always be at your side. You just have remember yourself.”

“Damn it!” Seiji pounded his fist into the earth making it rumble under them a little. He could feel the dark shadow hanging over him once more. It was something that he had almost forgotten about with everything calming down. Yet Nerine was right. It was never gone.

For the first time, he looked around at the ground. He saw the talismans around him. It was not the first time he had seen them, but they were something that he generally ignored. He knew what they were. ‘These things again… Why…’ Seiji lifted one of the talismans up. Most looked spent and torn.

“What are these things?” Nerine inquired, as it had not been the first time she had seem, but never fully understood their meaning. She knew what they did for Seiji. They had surprising properties.

“Sacred talismans. If this was the old world, they would just be useless relics from a more superstitious time part of rituals. However now…they…”

“What?”

“They have real power.”

“What is it supposed to do?”

Seiji turned the talisman towards Nerine. It was covered in Japanese writing that she did not understand, that much Seiji knew. “It varies depending on what it written on the paper. In the case of this one, it’s a protective ward. It’s supposed to ward off evil spirits.”

“Supposed to?”

“Well, I don’t know what it actually does now. I can tell you what they say, but their purpose or power is unknown to me.”

“But you create them.”

“I know. They come from me, but I don’t know why or how. I’ve preferred to ignore them, but it seems that they pop up just to spite me.”

Nerine thought back to the temple where Seiji lived. She had given little thought to things until this moment, but quickly tied them together. “So you’re a priest?”

“No!” Jumping up to his feet, he wanted to distance himself from the whole thing. It was not the sort of topic he wanted to enter. “I’m no priest.”

“But how do you know all of this stuff then?”

Turning away from Nerine, Seiji tried to cross his arms, but found that only have one made it very difficult to do so. He sighed finding that his situation was not very good. And Nerine slid around wanting to know more. She was not taking silence as an answer. “When I was younger my grandfather trained me. I stopped, but that old bastard’s teachings are hard to forget.”

“Why did you stop?”

“Nerine…stop.”

She quickly backed off from Seiji seeing an unfamiliar look in his eyes. There were more words spoke by them than he said aloud. She heard them clearly. ‘There’s something deeper going on here. But I can’t ask… He doesn’t want me to ask… There’s something painful buried…attached to it…’

“DIE!!” shouted a new voice that had a familiar sound. It was Takako once more, she had grabbed someone else after she abandoned Katsumi’s body. It was an adult male wield large sword that had a slight glow hanging around it.

Nerine stepped up in front of Seiji, who clearly was not ready for another fight. However, Seiji brushed her aside. “Seiji?”

“She’s mine. This is unfinished business.”

“But you’re not healed.”

“I feel fine!” As the man charged in with his oversized sword, Seiji slid in catching the wrist from underneath. He threw off the attack to stagger the man. Then Seiji wound up his hand and slammed it against the forehead of the sword wielding adult. The force of the hit knocked the man off his feet and crashed him into the earth. Seiji finished the motion knelt next to him, his hand still against the forehead.

Nerine came rushing to Seiji’s side to help, but found that the man no longer moved. She became a little concerned about what Seiji might have done to him. “What did you do to him?”

“Something that I’m going to regret.”

“You didn’t…” She leaned in checking on the state of the body, which looked to be completely unharmed. There was only a little dirt from the impact with the earth. This only confused her further. She stepped around the unmoving man as Seiji removed his hand. On the forehead of the man, affixed a talisman like the ones she saw on Seiji. “What did you do?”

“What I promised I’d do to her. Forced her out of the body she was squatting in.”

“But how?”

“An exorcism of sorts. It’s a type of talisman used to remove evil spirits from possessing someone.” Seiji stood up rubbing his hand against what cloths remained on him. He kept rubbing his hand as though it was covered in mud and he wanted to be clean. “I don’t like this at all. Something’s wrong with me and I need to figure out after this is all settled. I won’t become like him.”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Suddenly Katsumi and Kaede pulled themselves out of the rumble as well appearing behind each of them with Katsumi behind Miyako. “Seems that way…” She immediately recognized Kaede, the girl from before that left her in the state that she was in now. “It’s you!” Miyako charged over only to have to stop and fall back at Kaede swung with her hair, she remembered the lethality of it. She fell back against the other that joined her.

“I’m Seiji,” he answered over his shoulder. In front of him, Katsumi looked as ready for a fight as she had ever been, which really was not saying much. But he felt that he could trust the woman at his back. He grinned a little feeling better about the situation now.

Miyako suddenly remembered the name. “You’re the one that gave us the info.” She had been back getting another round of treatments from the doctor to prepare her for combat, against the doctor’s wishes. So she had never seen Seiji. “Miyako. Got my back?”

“Hell yeah! You?”

“I think I’m going to like you!” She grinned as well feeling like she had found some a kindred spirit.

They lowered themselves a little standing back to back preparing for the fight that came. “It’s time to fight!” they shouted together in their charge.

Kaede jumped back a little as Miyako charged in quickly after her. It was all to get the distance she needed to spin her long black hair around. However, this was not a new attack to Miyako anymore. She knew what it could do and threw herself into the nearby classroom to evade the attack. Amused by the effort, it took her a moment to move for her next attack.

The delay was all Miyako needed as she came charging through the wall as cover straight for Kaede. Her hair had no time to get up when Miyako decked her hard in the cheek to send her tumbling through two classrooms before coming to a harsh stop.

In the hall, Miyako glanced at her hand seeing shallow cuts from merely being that close to her to get a hit. ‘Damn, the bitch is going to be even more annoying than I thought. That hair of her’s is razor sharp.’ Moving some of the bandages on her body around, she wrapped up her hand. It was a poor remedy, but it was all she had.

Appearing out of the hole Miyako punched her into, Kaede resurface a little bloodied by Miyako’s punch and with a part of one of the desks she collided with embedded in her shoulder. Her hair had cleaned up the edge enough that it was no longer in her way. “That was rather rude of you.”

Miyako popped her knuckles preparing for the next round and to show her resolve. “You kids are in need of some serious straightening out. It’s my job as the adult to show you all your place.”

“We have adults amongst us as well.”

“I’ll be dealing with them too.”

“Oh is that so? Big words for someone I sent fleeing with her tail between her legs last time.”

“It won’t be like last time!” Stamping her foot down, she flipped up some debris and a chunk of wood from the rubble. Quickly spinning around, the back of her fist and arm shot the pieces like an arrow released.

Turning her head a little, heavy strains of hair fell over Kaede’s face just as the projectiles came in to hit. What would have hit her turned to slivers to fall to the wayside. Anything that did not hit its target embedded into the walls around Kaede knocking out small holes. “You can’t even touch me without getting sliced up! You’ll be dead in a minute!”

Chapter 333 – Back-to-Back Knife Edge

“Arrogance will be your undoing, kid,” baited Miyako. She had already seen enough of how the hair worked to have a good idea about it. ‘My usual charge in solutions aren’t going to work against her. I’m just going to end up dead like she said. I’m not a patient person, but I don’t have a choice in the matter. My life isn’t mine anymore…’ Before she would have run in without a single thought. That was how she was most comfortable with fighting. But she learned the hard way that blindly attacking did not solve all the problems.

Kaede smirked a little looking ready to laugh. “You going to just talk me to death or you going to fight?”

“You’re the one that looks afraid to fight me. That blood remind you that you’re not immortal?”

“Who’s afraid?!”

Miyako grinned a little since it working. ‘It’s too easy. Kids are always impulsive and easy to provoke.’ The whole act still had more danger to the situation, but no fight was without danger. Even baited, the razor-like hair presented a heavy advantage. “There’s only one person I see before me. And she’s just a little baby that got afraid from just a single landed punch. You’re just a joke. It’s disappointing that you’re the only challenge present to me. I’m not even going to break a sweat.”

“Is that right?! Let’s see who’s on the floor in pieces after I’m through with you!” Completely committed now, Kaede charged forward fuming mad ready to show the woman her words. She spun up her hair for the attack as she closed the distance.

The attack was too loose and wide. Her emotions broke down the focus and precision that she did have with her attack. So it was too easy for Miyako to slip around and throw out a kick to her back as she went by her.

She sped to the floor with her hair cutting up the wood planks as she fell. It carved out a rough a little pit for her to trip inside and lay amongst her hair. Kaede flipped around quickly only to find that Miyako did not wait for her to stand up. She had no chance to dodge, a fist smashed into her forehead knocking her down into the pit.

“When ya gonna to prove me wrong?” she taunted more rubbing in the losing side belonged to Kaede.

“Damn you!” Kaede jumped and tried to get Miyako off guard, but she anticipated her attack. A boot caught the edge of her jaw and threw her across the hall into another classroom.

Slowly marching into the hole she made with Kaede, Miyako went after Kaede. ‘I’ll give her this much, she’s resilient. Most of their minions I’ve taken down with just one punch, but she’s taken two from me. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but I can only keep her so steamed.’ Miyako kicked off some of the wall in the direction of Kaede. It gave a good shotgun affect. She wanted to keep her off balance. “Just going to run away with your tail between your legs?”

“You…”

“Ya got something to say?” Kicking another floorboard, it knocked Kaede back up to her in the air. Miyako followed it up with another punch that sent her flying through the wall of the classroom into the next. She took a glance around the room suddenly noticing it. “Disgusting. I thought I had seen the most depraved individuals already, but Takako is starting a new list. I’m looking forward to see the moment the Commander puts her down for good.”

Across the room, she found Kaede struggling to get back to her feet. Her hair chewed up the floor leaving her footing poor. Miyako marched keeping an eye on her while approaching. “Looks like you could do for a bit of a trim. You’re tripping over your hair.” Once the range decreased enough that she felt comfortable with a strike, she dove in with a quick jab to get her up and a kick to toss her around the room.

At the end of the barrage, Miyako dropped her through another wall with the hopes that it was finally putting her down. Unfortunately, the darkness of the school and smoke made it difficult to see. She quickly lost sight of the girl as she scurried away. “Cowards always flee when they get afraid. However, I’m not so kind as to forgive and ignore you.”

Pounding her fists together, the hole that created quickly approached. It was one of the darker rooms with it still mostly intact, but she had gotten used to it by now. Comfort did not make it any easier to spot the girl. “You started this fight, but I’m going to finish it.”

“Seems all you know how to do is talk. If you really were wanting to finish it you would have already.”

Miyako’s eyes narrowed picking up on the change in tone from Kaede. ‘Looks like she got her senses back. This just got harder…’ Challenge or not, it did not stop her from keeping her advantage going. “And seems you only know how to take a hit. It’s not going to win you any fights.”

“So very true. This isn’t going to win the fight.”

“All that talk and you’re giving up, huh?”

“Hardly.”

‘She’s planning something…’ Which she was right, but she did not have a chance to say anything more. Sounds of swift steps approached. It was a familiar sound for Miyako and the only reason that she managed to even react in the darkness.

Out of the gloom came a fist, something that took Miyako off guard. She did not except Kaede to be trying to take her in a fistfight. Miyako pulled back, but the speed the girl had over taken her at a great pace than she anticipated. It scored a direct hit to the face.

Miyako stumbled and slid back from the force. ‘She’s more than just focused. She’s moving differently and taking a completely different tactic. Did she realize that she wasn’t going to be able to beat me with her hair anymore?’ The changes brought her a lot of new questions, ones that veil of night did well to disguise.

The connected punch gave Kaede some confidence back to her it seemed. She quickly came in again for Miyako. It was very easy to read this time for Miyako. Trying the same thing multiple times was a terrible plan. Miyako dodged and countered, but did not get in a clean hit. In the end, she could only settle for a full deflection.

However, the failure did not seem to dissuade Kaede yet from the approach. Repeating things over and over again gave Miyako all she needed to counter. She spun around and caught a piece of Kaede with her foot casting her out of range. All of the noise made it clear she had crashed into something. Unfortunately, nothing that improved the lighting.

Miyako stopped playing around the opening and committed to taking a stand in the room. ‘She’s thinking that the darkness gives her some sort of advantage. But she’s just inexperienced. She’s just a little school girl that’s never been in a real fight. She’s a terrible fighter. Only having powers has kept her standing for so long.’ Knowing her way around a fight left things still in her advantage even with the shift. But it left her curious. “You thought you could stand a chance against me if you fought with your fists?”

“It’s rare that I do this. So I haven’t gotten accustomed to it yet. But I’m a quick to figure things out.”

“Seems all the punches to the head has knocked some screws loose.”

“You’ll understand soon enough.”

‘What the hell is she going on about?’ Miyako countered her attacks again as empty attempts as they were. They had power and speed behind them, but nothing that she could not handle. She could hear very well in the darkness with her sight failing to be as reliable. It softened her own counterattacks, but it still soundly kept the fight on her side. ‘Something’s off about this whole thing… She’s losing, but she doesn’t seem to act like it.’

With the next attack, Miyako wanted to see what was going on. She was tired of fighting in the room. The longer they stayed the harder it was going to be for her to finish the fight. Grabbing Kaede as she came in, Miyako redirected the energy and turned it around pointing Kaede at the outside wall.

Shattering brick smashed the low silence and give Miyako a reason to chase after Kaede. The light of the moon would give her better vision. She charged after Kaede planning on using the new light give her a solid hit finally, but Kaede disappeared from in front of her. “What?!” She appeared on her flank just as came out of the school and dropped a heavy fist upon Miyako.

The force and surprise threw her off and sent her flying along the side of the school. Her directions thrown off, Miyako grappled with the walls of the school to slow down her speed nearly standing on it for a moment before launching herself back. ‘What was that?’ She had a clear sight on Kaede once more closing in, but she disappeared on her in the last second and countered Miyako once more.

Miyako flew out sliding over the ground before coming to a slow stop. She picked herself up quickly despite feeling the last hit very well. It rattled her jaw a little. ‘She’s got a lot more power than better and speed too. What’s going on?’ Then Miyako finally got a look at Kaede now that the moon gave her sight back.

Near the edge of the school, a short auburn haired girl stood with a very different presence about her. She had the same body and face of Kaede, the girl she had been fighting, but the dye job and hair cut dramatic changed how she appeared.

“I didn’t think you’d take it literally when I said you needed a trim.”

“You’ll find that I become reborn when I get a hair cut.”

“Is that right? You look the same as before.”

“I was just getting warmed up and used to things.” Kaede disappeared once more and then reappeared as a blur in front of Miyako. She had barely seen it, but had no time to react. Taking the punch head on was the only thing she could do. She went flying crashing into the wall of the grounds.

It took her a little longer to stand up, but she started to rise to her feet. She had to wipe away from blood from her lip. “Warmed up, huh? This is getting interesting.”

Kaede bounced a little on the balls of her feet appearing much lighter than before. “You’ll find that my strength and speed have increased greatly. I’m going to pound you into the ground until you’re nothing but paste!”

Miyako grinned suddenly feeling some excitement in the fight for once. Her feet straightened out with her back as she regained herself. “Finally, you’re giving me a real fight! Just the way I like it!” Sliding into a fighting stance, Miyako’s eyes shined with eager anticipation of a brawl.

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Near the edge of the school, a short auburn haired girl stood with a very different presence about her. She had the same body and face of Kaede, the girl she had been fighting, but the dye job and hair cut dramatic changed how she appeared.

“I didn’t think you’d take it literally when I said you needed a trim.”

“You’ll find that I become reborn when I get a haircut.”

“Is that right? You look the same as before.”

“I was just getting warmed up and used to things.” Kaede disappeared once more and then reappeared as a blur in front of Miyako. She had barely seen it, but had no time to react. Taking the punch head on was the only thing she could do. She went flying crashing into the wall of the grounds.

It took her a little longer to stand up, but she started to rise to her feet. She had to wipe away from blood from her lip. “Warmed up, huh? This is getting interesting.”

Kaede bounced a little on the balls of her feet appearing much lighter than before. “You’ll find that my strength and speed have increased greatly. I’m going to pound you into the ground until you’re nothing but paste!”

Miyako grinned suddenly feeling some excitement in the fight for once. Her feet straightened out with her back as she regained herself. “Finally, you’re giving me a real fight! Just the way I like it!” Sliding into a fighting stance, Miyako’s eyes shined with eager anticipation of a brawl.

A bit of annoyance washed over Kaede at the sight of Miyako. Unlike before in the fight, Miyako actually looked excited for a fight. She wanted the fight more than anything now. The eagerness rather than unease or shock left her not completely sure what to make of Miyako. Changing into her new form, Kaede planned for a different sort of reaction. Nothing she could have thought up would have prepared her for such an expectation. “So you’re just a muscle bound idiot. Not very adult-like of you.”

“I’m still going to be putting you in your place.”

“I guess we’ll have to see then. Can you keep up with me?”

“A little speed isn’t enough to stop me,” Miyako boasted.

“Is that so? Let’s see how long that arrogance lasts!”

“Long enough to take you down!”

Chapter 334 – Back-to-Back Brawl

The two charged in fueled for different reasons. First strike went to Kaede. Speed proved to be on her side against Miyako. But Miyako took it barely even leaning back from the blow, her feet planted firmly in the ground. Her counterattack began as she grabbed Kaede by the wrist. Turning her arm, Kaede’s body flipped over and smashed her back into the earth. Cracks and rumblings came from the force of the flip.

Stunned for only a moment, Kaede leapt out of the small pit created by her body before Miyako could follow up with her fist. Miyako’s hand disappeared, a little embedded in the earth. “Tch, you’re a fast one I’ll give you that.” She ripped her hand free from the ground letting the bits of soil fall back into the tiny hole she punched.

“Still thinking you can beat me, huh?”

“You’re ten years too early to think that you can kill me.”

Kaede charged forward in a straight attack that had no flash or thought put into it. Speed definitely gave her an advantage, but Miyako dealt with such types too many times before. She easily sidestepped the charge and spun her leg around to kick her in the back of the head. The teenager slid over the earth face first until it piled up around her to bring her to a stop. “Damn you, you bitch!” she coughed with her hand popping up through the pile.

“Upset that you realized that you won’t be able to kill me?” Miyako clinched her hands trying to ignore all of the pain burning through her body. ‘I’m glad she’s so inexperienced. If she could actually fight, I don’t know how well I would fair against her. She’s powerful and I’m still not fully recovered from our last fight.’

Most of the bandages that Miyako had from the last encounter with Kaede had been removed before she went into the raid team with Hiroshi. She did not want him thinking that she was still injured. It was not a battle that she was going to run away from, not after the sacrifices made already. The battle had to have her.

Up until fighting Kaede, she had not worried herself over her body’s condition. None of the fodder she fought gave her any challenge. She understood her limits well enough that she was not going to be able to take on Takako or the others at the top of the ranks in her army. Though she did not count on Kaede being potentially in those ranks as well. ‘Still…this is going to be harder the longer it drags out and she’s resilient…’

Her previously injuries had thankfully been not too severe, so her recovery had been quick. But incomplete as it was, her body tried to remind her not to overdo it. She had no plans on listening to it.

Taunted into the fight, Kaede came back for more. She could use her speed to get in close. A minor hit usually was she was able to achieve against Miyako before she counterattacked. All around the grounds, their fight spread with little given up.

However, Kaede started to get a little more of an edge on Miyako in the fight as it dragged out. Her punch landed cleanly against Miyako’s cheek sliding her back. Miyako quickly responded with a similar straight punch thrown out. They both slid apart continuing to struggle.

Blood dripped down Miyako’s lip and chin reminding her of the punch. ‘Damn, I think she’s improving in the middle of the fight… This isn’t good…’ It was becoming harder to just block and counter. Worse, even countering her did not seem to do as much as she desired to her. She just kept getting back up. “At least you’re making this fun!” she shouted as she charged after Kaede.

An offensive was the only plan that Miyako had anymore against Kaede. Her defensive plan worked only so well. She was able to keep up with the speed because she could see it coming and got a feel for it. It stopped being a blink out of reality and more of a blur now.

Kaede did not expect Miyako to go on the attack. So she could only evade the first attack. But Miyako stayed on her. They danced around with Miyako giving chase. Her speed was only enough to keep her out of a direct hit. But Miyako managed to get in some glancing blows against Kaede. Bruises started to appear from the marks left behind. Her body could only take the hits so well. Out of frustration with Miyako, Kaede countered with a kick rather than her usual fists. “Stay down!”

Miyako’s body flew back crashing through the wall. Explosion on metal and earth jumped up from the collision. She disappeared amongst the smoke. However, it became clear that it had not done enough to her as coughing came through the thick clouds.

“Damnit…I’ll keep beating you down until you can’t move anymore!” Kaede flew in at her top speed unwilling to wait on the smoke to clear. Which proved to be a poor plan as Miyako caught her by her wrists. Before the speed caught up to her body and threatened to flip her painfully around, Miyako used her foot to throw her into the air.

The auburn haired girl sailed over the grass street outside of the school until she crashed into an abandoned home. Miyako flipped up to her feet and looked onto the site. “You’re going to have to keep trying if you think you can do that.”

Grabbing at her shoulder, the pain left from the kick she took throbbed loudly. Her body did not feel pleased that she wanted to ignore it as well. All of her other injuries were minor she told herself. Which was largely true. Added and stacked upon each other started to make them less minor. ‘Damn, that last hit really took a lot out of me. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to end this fight in any reasonable fashion. Killing her or not, both are not going to be very easy anymore. Not that I have the time to be complaining…’

Another truth, Kaede already recovered from the surprise throw and started to leave the home. She looked about as pissed off as she had been before, but made some failed attempts to look more pissed off. None of it was working, though Miyako knew what she was trying.

None of it mattered in the end. Miyako charged after Kaede once more not letting their fight slow down for long. It was the only way to keep her mind off her body’s failings. Everything was getting sluggish, but she pushed through the only way she knew how. “Don’t give me that look! Things are only just getting exciting!”

It had been a while since she had fought a battle where she was not protecting someone. Reality was that she still fought even now to protect, but it was different than other fights. There was no one that she was keeping out of harm’s way. All of the attention and energy could be put into the fight. Such fights had long left her behind due to how she chose to live her life after that fateful day. She might have never wanted to fight in the past, but still did in spite of it. So it was never for fun or the thrill of battle. Even now, she could not feel a thrill of it. But it did push her and make her strive to find how much she had inside her to give. Such a fight was not really something she was familiar with. She sort of liked it as much as she hated the situation.

She exchanged blows with Kaede knocked each other backwards into separate ruined houses. The hit slowed her body down enough that Kaede came after her. Miyako only managed to get to her feet when the blow came in for her. Her fist came up to meet her head-on.

A shockwave blew out from the collision ripping apart the fragile house. Debris flew in all directions as Kaede suddenly grabbed Miyako’s wrist. She pulled on Miyako and threw her over her head and back down into the shattered floor.

Miyako laid in a body sized crater of her own making, but she snapped back to life and clutched onto Kaede hand tightly before she released. Showing her the same kindness, Miyako threw Kaede into the floor. The two women connected together pounded each other into the completely unrecognizable floor until they both laid on their backs panting from the exertion.

“You’re so annoying,” complained Kaede still unable to kill Miyako.

“I’m not going to lose.”

“I’ll still make you!”

“Try me.”

They staggered to their feet equally unwilling to resign the fight. Their bodies both yelled at their stupidity for ignoring them, but it went on deaf ears. Both focused on each other. Defense had disappeared from their attempts as both laid down a heavy blow in the others face. The force shot them out of the ruins and through several neighboring homes.

Forcing herself back up to her feet, Miyako began to walk out of the house and towards Kaede. Blood and bruises covered her body. Her clothes were in shreds only holding together out of kindness than anything else, not that Kaede looked to be in much better shape.

However, a strange red glow came from Kaede that made Miyako force open her half-closed eye. “…the hell?” She slowly started to move closer and closer trying to figure out what was going on with Kaede. The glow became a haze that seemed to surround her whole body. ‘…it’s like she’s on fire…literally…’

Before she could get too much closer, a fireball suddenly flew after her. She had to duck out of the way of the surprise attack. Behind her, the house blew up in flames casting gusts of wind to her back. ‘A completely different power…’ Little time remained to think about the situation as another similar attack forced her to dodge.

Rolling out of the way, Miyako found several more fireballs coming to where she landed. She jumped out of the way just in time to ride the explosions forward. They rocked her around and forced her into the ground roughly as she clawed at the earth to recover.

Already on top of her, Kaede stood with her left fist a lit with flames. Miyako rolled away to dodge the first and second punches that left the ground melted and smoking. However, she could not get away from the third taking it straight to the upper arm. The searing pain roared through her body and she yelped. Forcing Kaede off her with a kick, she managed to be released from the burning.

Miyako stood up with her left arm feeling numb and not moving the way she wanted. She finally got a good look at Kaede to see that once more she got a change in haircut. Her hair had grown out in length to hit near the middle of her back and large spinning and wrapping curls laid over her shoulder. “So your power is connected to your hair, huh?” Seeing it a third time made it all clear.

“That’s right. I have several different powers thanks to the way this power works. You never stood a chance against me! My flames will burn to you ash!”

To be continued!

[Andromeda]

However, a strange red glow came from Kaede that made Miyako force open her half-closed eye. “…the hell?” She slowly started to move closer and closer trying to figure out what was going on with Kaede. The glow became a haze that seemed to surround her whole body. ‘…it’s like she’s on fire…literally…’

Before she could get too much closer, a fireball suddenly flew after her. She had to duck out of the way of the surprise attack. Behind her, the house blew up in flames casting gusts of wind to her back. ‘A completely different power…’ Little time remained to think about the situation as another similar attack forced her to dodge.

Rolling out of the way, Miyako found several more fireballs coming to where she landed. She jumped out of the way just in time to ride the explosions forward. They rocked her around and forced her into the ground roughly as she clawed at the earth to recover.

Already on top of her, Kaede stood with her left fist lit with flames. Miyako rolled away to dodge the first and second punches that left the ground melted and smoking. However, she could not get away from the third taking it straight to the upper arm. The searing pain roared through her body and she yelped. Forcing Kaede off her with a kick, she managed to be released from the burning.

Miyako stood up with her left arm feeling numb and not moving the way she wanted. She finally got a good look at Kaede to see that once more she got a change in haircut. Her hair had grown out in length to hit near the middle of her back with large spinning and wrapping curls laid over her shoulder. “So your power is connected to your hair, huh?” Seeing it a third time made it all clear.

“That’s right. I have several different powers thanks to the way this power works. You never stood a chance against me! My flames will burn to you ash!”

Grinding her teeth together Miyako swore a terrible curse under her breathe. Her right hand clutched her left shoulder as though it helped to ease the injury. “I may only have one good arm to fight you, but fight you I will! Not until you’re eating dirt will I stop getting back up to stop you! To stop Takako’s madness!”

Flames glowed about both of Kaede’s hands as though her skin was on fire. “Pretty brave words for someone that’s about to fall over!” She charged forward with flames bleeding off her fists as the distance closed. Once in range, her already wound up swing released straight for the unguarded Miyako.

However, her fist came to a sudden stop before it hit the desired target. Miyako’s still good hand had blocked the first thrown punch her fingers closed around over top of her fist. “I’m not going anywhere, bitch!” Pushing back against Kaede, Miyako wound up with her injured arm, as unwise as it was, and decked her with everything she had in her arm.

While lacking in the same power she had before, it still pushed her back a little unable to keep the same stance. Smoke rolled off of Miyako’s hands from confronting the flames. “Thinking that I’m weak because you got one of my arms will be a grave mistake for you.”

Chapter 335 – Back-to-Back into the Fires

“Tch!” Kaede rubbed at her chin to wipe away the blood. The flames around her hands appeared to have little effect on her, as expected. “We’ll just have to see about that!”

Jumping back into the fight, Miyako was not about show any weakness towards her opponent. ‘I need to make her doubt that this is slowing me down. Anything to put her off balance with that flame. She’s got range and melee now.’ She did not know what her left arm was doing half the time in the melee, but it was partially useful.

In the middle of one of the punches, Kaede’s left hand’s flame grew brighter. Sensing a more powerful attack, Miyako dodged by falling over to her right side with support from her good hand. A fireball shot over her where her head used to be only moments before. While landing on her hand, she threw up a kick knocking Kaede off balance.

Kaede started to tip over, but shot out another blast of fire from her right hand. Only falling on her back did Miyako evade the close call. Her clothes had slight embers glowing red from it just passing over her. Miyako rolled over and stood on her feet before Kaede, giving her the opportunity to strike.

Flames flew past her shoulders as she sidestepped attacks to get inside her range. However, Kaede rolled over to keep outside of any attacks. Misses left small craters for Miyako. She kicked some rubble from the house they blew up to keep the pressure on while she closed again.

The two danced around the remains of the house dodging most of the things coming in acting as though they were leveling off what they had not destroyed of the house. Little progress had been made against either after the initial opening attacks. They broke after the last pieces of the house collapsed around them. Out of breathe and stubborn, neither gave any ground up.

Taking stock of the situation, Miyako needed a new plan. “So you’re all just smoke then?”

“I’ll kill you, don’t you worry!”

“Makin’ me yawn is more like it.”

“Big talk isn’t going to fix your arm. I can tell you’re not able to dish it out like before.”

“I still have enough to deal with a snot-nosed brat like you!”

“Going to show me because you’re an adult?”

Miyako had enough time to recover herself and charged back into the fight. “No, it’s because I take down evil wherever it stands!” She clashed in the middle with Kaede. Flames sparked and billowed around them.

“Evil is it? This is just freedom!”

“Nothing as twisted and depraved as this is freedom!”

Her left hand was not keeping up with Kaede as much as Miyako liked. But she kept forcing it to do work. Kaede saw through the struggle and channeled more of her flames against her. “Takako enlightened all of us! But sometimes there are those that must die!” Suddenly the flames grew in size and exploded immediately in front of them.

The blast threw Miyako back away from Kaede. Her back clawed at the ground until the friction sent her tumbling end over end into a completely different house. This house had still remained standing during their fight. Miyako’s arrival in the house did not turn out well for the home. An explosion of smoke and debris followed her wake.

Coughing and panting heavily, Miyako still survived the point blank attack, though the same could not really be said for her cloths. Already torn to shreds from the fighting, the explosion had finally finished off any hope it had of still serving its original purpose.

Miyako forced herself back up on her feet though her body complained. “Come on, get moving.” She had to fight and convince it to move on her command. The outlook on her body was not improving with the fight, not that she expected it to do so. But the girl was being more of a challenge than she imagined.

Slowly working through the house, she began muttering to herself. “Well, at least she should have been hit as hard as me doing something so reckless. Can’t believe she did that…” However, as she was coming out, Kaede was already charging in after her. “…damnit…”

Flames completely engulfed her fists that threatened to lay down a barrage. The first hit square on Miyako’s chest knocking her back. When Kaede attempted to close the distance, Miyako chucked debris at her though the flames destroyed it before there was any harm. It gave enough room for her to dodge out of the next round that left only smoldering craters. “My flames are going to roast you alive!”

Rolling and back stepping, Miyako found herself on the defense against the new current in the battle. Kaede tried to mount an assault, but could not land a solid blow. The flames around her continued to grow beginning to consume her arms as well. “Stay still!”

Miyako took pause in the fighting bothered by what she was seeing. ‘What’s with her flames? Are they out of control? She was only using them around her fists before, but it’s gone up to her shoulders almost now.’ While she had not been focusing on it the entire time, the flames had been progressively expanding over Kaede’s body for the last few minutes of their fighting. Before it had just seemed like her hair was on fire and her hands were coated in flames, but now it looked to be trying to consume her body.

The size the flames reached at her hands had stretches of tendrils rising off her. It no longer appeared like they were under her control. Thoughts of it running out of control worried Miyako more than needing to dodge the attacks coming in as Kaede resumed her offensive. With each motion, she saw it take more and more over. The flames were like pillars at her hands making even staying ahead of the attacks difficult.

With each miss, the flames grew closer to her. She could feel her skin drying out and blistering from the proximity of the heat. It was drawing the moisture out of the air it seemed with the intensity. ‘Damn…is she actually getting more powerful the longer we’re fighting? What’s going on with her power?’

“I will burn you! Burn you!” Rage burning as hot as the flames upon her skin, Kaede charged straight for Miyako in a blur. She turned into a red streak with the flames trailing off her.

Pulling away the initial straight punch that Kaede threw was easily avoided. But the fury built up in her body already had flames covering up half her body. The proximity was enough to draw off the sweat from Miyako’s skin. A follow-up punch knocked her off balance and flames shot out of both hands kicking her body back.

Miyako crashed through the ruins of the house and smashed through two more houses before collapsing out in the street with only the speed of her flight holding the flames at bay. As she stopped in the grass road the flames clinging on to her rose. Life returned to the fires desiring her flesh.

Glancing down at the Kaede’s flames, they stuck around in ways that they had no before. Even caught on her from previous attacks, they did nothing past the initial damage. They were a part of her and unless she threw it, it did nothing else. And even thrown, it had weaker power. ‘Seems she’s become a victim of her own power. It’s like it has a life of its own.’ Scooping up some earth, she snuffed out the flames attached to her. A bit of stubbornness existed in them, but they went out. And in time, Kaede tracked down the path of destruction left behind.

She rushed in without a second thought for Miyako. Only barely getting back to her feet, Miyako was not ready for Kaede. The only thing she could do was confront her head on, which meant a painful clash. The collision alone was enough to kick her feet out and almost knock her prone. Only resolute will kept her from folding on the first seconds. Cracks crawled away from her feet as she tried to anchor herself.

Worst came the flames that had stretched from her upper body down to her waist now. The only parts of Kaede still not fully consumed by her flames were her head and legs, both of which seemed to be inevitability. Touching hands as they struggled in a battle of strength was bad enough to keep burning her skin, but the close proximity of the growing intense heat threatened to give her first degree burns.

Her legs already felt like mush before it all started, their collision and struggle only made it feel like a certainty rather than just a feeling. It was only a matter of time for her strength to give out. Miyako knew her situation well enough that she was not winning it. Not with her caught off guard. She merely held in because she needed to or be thrown back once more. Losing ground again was not something she could afford.

Taking advantage of her position, she did the only thing left to her. She collapsed her position and used it to throw Kaede off her. Tossed behind her into the ruins of a house, her body universally sighed a relief along with her. What looked like steam rose off her exposed skin from the heat. “Damnit…what’s it going to take to keep her down…”

While Miyako straightened herself out to prepare for the next round, an explosion of rubble from the ruins blew free everything that had fallen on top of Kaede. The flames had spread more with everything but her head engulfed now.

Miyako tried to keep her heavy breathing under control, but her chest was pounding too hard for that to be a reasonable effort. “That’s impressive…” she remarked, needing a pause to breath, “She looks even more pissed off than before, which I didn’t think was actually possible.”

Screaming to the night sky, Kaede voice almost sounded more like a roar than human. She fixed her glare towards Miyako. “I’m going to KILL YOU!”

“…she losing it?”

Kaede no longer seemed to be meeting gazes with Miyako. Something had overcome her eyes. The flames finished their consumption of her body. Barely visible through the haze of the fires, she looked like a living flame now rather than a human. To match with the change, she screamed once more no sounding human. It had a savage, bestial tone to it that belied the real threat approaching.

“What the hell?” Miyako staggered a step back confused by what she saw. Before her eyes, she watched as Kaede’s shape changed. At first, she just thought she was bending over for a charge, like a sprinter, but that was no longer the case. Her body transformed as the only best way to describe what she witness unfold.

The thing or being that Kaede became was not something Miyako could describe in a single word beyond monster. No living animal she knew of had an appearance like that of what Kaede became. Only images from fiction or movies could come close to even a half accurate image and that still failed. It had hard to tell if she was covered in hair or flames anymore or flaming hair. But it was clear that it was a fire monster whatever Kaede had become.

Even worse still, Miyako was no ready for when she or it charged after the roar leveled everything around it. She could not even see it move, it was not even a blur. Miyako coughed up blood while she flew backwards. She was not even sure what hit her. It did not feel like what she thought.

An explosion from the crash of Kaede five blocks away was all Miyako saw as she collapsed on the ground. ‘So fast…she actually got like three times more powerful…damn…’ Her whole body felt like paste, but it did not stop her from forcing herself back up to her feet. She checked her body where it felt like she was hit, but saw nothing.

Miyako glanced over in the direction of Kaede. “Did she miss me? Merely passing by from her power did that to me? Damn… I really don’t like this…” She felt the thumping of the fire monster, likely recovered. “So she can’t control her new power…”

The monster came stalking back toward Miyako who had only bravado to stand on, not that her confidence made it look like that. ‘Winning the fight is about having the confidence even against the odds.’

Straightening out her back, she stepped forward giving whatever Kaede had become to signs of fear. She ripped her completely tattered shirt off leaving only her sports bra to protect her. It had only been getting in the way. Miyako proceeded to wrap what remained of her shirt around her hands and forearms almost looking like a boxer. Finished, she lifted up both hands ready to fight once more. “It’s time for some monster slaying!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

An explosion from the crash of Kaede five blocks away was all Miyako saw as she collapsed on the ground. ‘So fast…she actually got like three times more powerful…damn…’ Her whole body felt like paste, but it did not stop her from forcing herself back up to her feet. She checked her body where it felt like she was hit, but saw nothing.

Miyako glanced over in the direction of Kaede. “Did she miss me? Merely passing by from her power did that to me? Damn… I really don’t like this…” She felt the thumping of the fire monster, likely recovered. “So she can’t control her new power…”

The monster came stalking back toward Miyako who had only bravado to stand on, not that her confidence made it look like that. ‘Winning the fight is about having the confidence even against the odds.’

Straightening out her back, she stepped forward giving whatever Kaede had become to signs of fear. She ripped her completely tattered shirt off leaving only her sports bra to protect her. It had only been getting in the way. Miyako proceeded to wrap what remained of her shirt around her hands and forearms almost looking like a boxer. Finished, she lifted up both hands ready to fight once more. “It’s time for some monster slaying!”

Roaring down at Miyako, the transformation Kaede had undergone did more than alter her shape. She now stood at a greater height than Miyako. Hunched over, the height easily surpassed two meters with no effort. With a head half the size of her own body, Miyako stared up into teeth and flame.

She could only look undaunted. Nothing human remained inside the black and red eyes of the beast. Only through complete confidence could she make the instinct driven monstrosity not attack immediately. Her look made it question if it could win as Miyako looked like she was only on a whim not completely destroying it. Her well practiced death stare returned. It gave her the look of complete control and superiority, which only she knew not to be true. It had lost any sense of rational thought, forgetting that they had already been fighting.

Another roar coughed up some flames into the air. They did not touch Miyako, but she could feel the intense heat from just the proximity. It was worse than the near miss she had. Then the heat was brief enough that she could only feel the power that passed by. It nearly felt like it had dripped hot coals on her face. The stinging in her skin did not go away even after it stopped roaring. “I didn’t think your mouth could get more foul.”

Almost in response as though it understood Miyako, it roared back at her getting even more in her face. ‘It’s testing me. To see how I react. I wants to see my fear. She really has just become a mindless beast… What sort of power is this and how does this even connect with the rest of her powers?’ She had too many questions. But questions were not for the moment. Their standoff would not last forever.

Someone had to make a move.

Chapter 336 – Back-to-back in the Jaws

Miyako wanted to be the first to act, but she did not know what to expect from the transformation. Speed and power were already far more than she even thought was possible. There was no guessing what other secrets might be stored in the new body.

She began to slowly pace around what remained of Kaede. It merely watched her seeing what she would do. Instinct told it that Miyako was still dangerous. It gave it pause in immediately attacking.

Yet that would not last forever. Something that seemed to carry over from Kaede was impatience. A drawn out stare down would not happen. After thirty seconds of Miyako’s pacing and sizing up her challenge, the beast signaled its next charge with a roar that carried over into its attack.

The danger of the situation was something Miyako understood acutely. A near miss was enough to leave her feeling as if a train had hit her. She did not want a direct hit. It was the main reason she went to pacing around her target. Since she was already in motion, it made it easier for her to dodge quickly to the side. Not that it was completely without risk.

Even using her arms as a shield during the charge, the force still knocked her off her feet and flying backwards into the ruins left over from their earlier fight. Laying prone once more, her body did not want to be moving, but she forced it to get going. It was still a struggle. “Damn, I knew it was fast, but still this is stupid…” She clinched her fists keeping them ready as though that was the only thing she needed to fight. “I knew it was coming and I was still too slow.”

The train had already started back up though, as the sounds from it grew louder. Miyako complained and cursed under her breathe watching the embodiment of rage storming at her. She jumped out of the way just in time, but noticed that it still would have missed her.

Miyako watched it crash into the ruined wall of the school grounds, a reminder that they had been fighting within the crumbling building. “I was right. It gained all this power and speed, but can’t control it. That may be the only thing working in my favor. Not that I know how much of a favor it actually is to have…”

She began to make her legs move again working towards the beast. It already turned around recovered from its collision. Already looking pissed off, it was hard to tell if it was any angrier from the failure. ‘I need to keep moving… It’s my only shot…’ Miyako charged forward with a sluggish start that quickly became more natural.

As she came charging in for the creature, it lowered a little rearing up for an attack. She spun around kicking at some of the rubble around her throwing up a screen in front of her. Some of it was smoke and the rest high-speed projectiles.

Small chunks pelted the monster with the flames coating most of its body vaporizing them quickly. The larger pieces were enough to make it howl in annoyance. But it did enough to distract for Miyako to get in close. ‘Just need one good blow…’ She had everything that she needed lined up. The chance was not going to get any better than the one she had.

Winding up for the throw, Miyako pushed herself faster than she had ever been before while her muscles yelled at her to stop. The creature was still thrown off by everything that it had nothing ready. Even its defenses were down. Only the flames were in her way.

Cloth wrapped in her torn shirt, it was all that protected her fists from the intense heat as she came in swinging. Anyone else would have told her that she was an idiot to run in swinging with her fists against something that could fry her up like an egg (well everyone but Seiji, he’s cheering her on), but something like stupid or smart did not factor into the problem. She had fists and they still worked, mostly, so she was by hell going to go swinging.

Miyako’s stronger right arm released from its hold as she finished the distance. Hitting square in the what was probably the bridge of the nose, there was a loud crack. Flames flashed up around her looking for more to consume, but struggle to get a hold of her flesh.

“Damn, bastard!” she roared in pain feeling the heat, but worse than that. The cracking sound did not come from her breaking the skull of the beast. It came from her hand. “Hard headed bastard!” Not that it stopped her from swinging in with her other arm, somehow still working.

Not as loud, but there was another crack. It became clear to anyone what was happening, but that did not stop her from continue. “Just go down!” She kept slamming her fists into the head of the creature with no regard for her hands or limbs. If she had she would have started biting at it, if it helped.

In the entire fight so far, never had Miyako had the best shots. Each punch easily surpassed the fight before and each blow that preceded it. It seemed impossible, but her power actually increased despite her injuries that mounted with each throw.

Yet the beast only seemed to be flinching from the attacks. The force of the blows pushed down its head a little, but returned to position quickly. However, as time passed groans came from the creature signaling signs that it might actually be feeling what was happening. Miyako saw it as such a sign to keep delivering the pain. “Feeling that now! I just needed to warm up!”

A loud roar broke through the blows as the monster jumped away in a blur. Miyako was left with no target other than the ground, which came up quickly to her fist. The collision exploded earth and debris in all directions and filled the whole area with smoke.

Rather than wait on the wind to clear things out, the creature roared in the direction of Miyako blowing away all of the smoke. All that remained was a crater so deep that Miyako could not be seen. The beast had to walk up to the edge of the crater that had consumed nearly the entire block. Down at the epicenter of the blast stood Miyako glaring up at the thing that had been Kaede. The flames of Kaede still lingered on the edges of Miyako’s fists clinging to the cloth strips.

Giving the creature her full attention, Miyako threw up her fist challenging it for another round. “Afraid now? I told you! This is monster slaying!” She snapped her arms down to her sides suddenly snuffing out the flames.

The monster opened its mouth filled with long teeth that were easily as large as her hand. Flames lit up the throat until it coughed up a stream of fire. Slower than the normal attacks from the beast, Miyako jumped into the air with ease to avoid it. Though the next attack was already launched. Hardened arcs of fire that looked more crystalline than fluid flew at her.

“What?!” Miyako could do nothing to dodge them. It was not as though she could actually fly like others. She was completely open to the attack. Putting up her arms for protection once more, the first arc missed her, like before its aim was something that left a little something to be desired. However, it was a storm. It did not try for accuracy when it was covering the entire field. One would hit, it was a certainty.

Which was very true. One hit collided with her forearms. It sliced into her flesh with ease. However, before it could go all the way through, she converted the force into something that she could use to change her direction. Allowing most of the energy from the attack to be deflected away, she pushed off from it. Blood trailed off her arms once more.

She had tried to use the attack to throw her in range of the beast for another attack, but it came ready for it. It no longer seemed to be hesitating in fighting her. Whether it feared or not, it knew that it had no other choice but to fight. Such an outlook made it more dangerous than before.

It swiped its claws out at Miyako as she came in reach and far before she could even think of landing any meaningful blow to it. The claws themselves did little to her that the previous attack had not done worse. Rather, it was the force and weight of the arms that she felt. It was that which sent her flying through the air and back into the crater of her own creation.

Crashing in the wall of the crater opposite of the beast, Miyako groaned from the pain. “Damn, still got plenty left in you, huh?” She ripped her limbs free and began to dig the rest out when a fireball greater than herself filled the entire view. “Bastard!”

Her voice disappeared into the noise of the blast left behind by the fireball.

Crumbling debris rained down over the area where Miyako had been. There was nothing but smoke and earth in the whole site.

As the screen started to fade away, a figure appeared through it all. It was Miyako panting heavily from the effort. Surrounding her, a new crater, not nearly as large, appeared. In the last moments, she used the force of her own attack to attempt to cancel out the fireball. It mostly worked. Much of her skin was red and raw from the attack, fortunately it did manage to act well to seal up her wounds.

Frustrated that Miyako still stood, it roared down at her. She smirked back keeping up her confidence, even if it was unfounded. “Thought you killed me, didn’t ya? You’re going to have to try harder than that! You’re still half assing it, I see that part of you hasn’t changed!”

It was probably an unwise thing to taunt the creature. Only its lack of understanding on language saved her from an immediate attack. Yet, it still understood the intend delivered at it. It was a declaration, a challenge to do better. Instinct told it that much, she could tell.

Smashing an arm against the earth, the ground started to rumble and complain once more. Strange noise came out from where Miyako stood. She looked down in the direction that it came from. “…the hell is that?” Her instincts told her to dodge, which was still too slow.

A pillar of fire broke through the earth next to her. Accuracy still being something to ask for, it had missed a direct hit against her. But it still consumed her right arm, her still good arm (mostly good at this point). Miyako howled in pain pulling out of the fires, but not before it already claimed what it wanted.

Her arm was gone.

Incinerated in the flames, all that remained was half a stump from the upper arm. She ground her teeth through the pain and slammed her feet into the earth for support. “You think that’ll be enough to stop me!” Without thinking, Miyako jumped forward at the beast.

Ready to receive her for the finishing blow, it prepared the next attack. However, Miyako surprised it by not actually connecting with it. Her aim was below it. Her remaining injured fist rammed into the earth underneath it. The wall of the crater she made exploded around both of them.

Crumbling and throwing debris in all directions, the beast fell off balance into the new crater that Miyako created. She landed on top of it with her eyes lit with fury. “I only need one fist to kill you!” The first blow she made cracked the earth using the body of the monster to do. The second and third expanded them until she punched it into a new crater. She yelled the entire time unable to stop with each punch getting stronger than the last.

Something cracked, it was low and dull, but something had broken. This time it was not Miyako (she didn’t really have much left to break in her state). The beast roared in pain feeling the blow after blow now. The flames around it did nothing to save it from the fury of Miyako.

However, it had enough of the pummeling and threw Miyako off its body. Roaring once more, it jumped into the air after Miyako still suspended before the fall. She caught the edge of the body with her hand as it crashed into her. The force of the impact coughed up blood from her, but not before she pushed off and spun around kicking it in the head to shoot it back to the ground.

A massive pillar of smoke kicked up from the crash of Kaede’s monster body. Miyako dropped to the ground on one knee feeling the pain in her body. The last hit was nearly direct only being in the air softened it a little. It was still not enough to completely shrug it off for Miyako. Blood dripped over the earth as she coughed. “Damn…I can’t feel anything…I don’t know even know if I’m alive or dead anymore…”

Hearing a roar of the monster told Miyako all she needed to know about the condition of it. She pushed off her leg with her left arm. “Not that it matters. My fight isn’t over yet…” It started walking towards the crash site, but that was an unnecessary effort.

Though crashed, it recovered quickly. It came charging out of the smoke with one eye closed. Buried in all of the flames, it was hard to tell the injuries that it sustained, but it actually felt them now. Charging straight for Miyako, there was no chance it was going to miss her this time.

But Miyako did not make any signs to dodge the attack. She could see it coming, but did nothing to save herself.

The two smashed into each other with the beast winning the fight with ease. There was no effort or challenge to be had going straight against the raw strength. Miyako did not have a chance. But she did it anyway.

She planted her feet into the earth as the force of the beast’s charge drug her through carving out trenches the size of her feet. Blood coughed up again from her mouth as this blow was real. There was no padding or escape. It was a full on collision that Miyako lost. Crimson liquid streamed down her lips and mouth in amounts that questioned how she still stood

Yet she did.

After the initial collision, Miyako somehow managed to recover. Her hand came up and grabbed the beast around the neck. The flames burned into her arm, but she hung on to it despite it. Not being able to feel anything helped her out more than she knew. “You’re not going any further!” Miyako pressed her feet into the earth forcing it into a battle of strength once more. The momentum was against her though. Their battle pushed her far away from the school and through ruined buildings. But even that started to change. The signs of Takako’s destruction started to fade away.

The beast’s forward progress started to slow and not because it had stopped. Miyako had somehow actually managed to push back. Her legs were half buried nearly and the street was completely torn up. But she held in against it. “I’m stopping you right here!” Leaning even more into her position, she began to move her feet rather than holding. It did little to change the course, but it was making slow progress.

It took several blocks, but she had managed to bring the beast to a halt. Their battle of strength renewed now with both struggling. Neither could make the other budge, but the beast roared in anger that it could do nothing anymore.

Miyako tightened her awkward grip around the beast’s neck and threw everything she had into it to push it back. It was slight, but it slid away. It was on the defensive. “I won’t allow you any further! This is a line that you can’t cross!”

Behind Miyako, as she already knew, stood the homes and buildings of people that still survived. If their fighting pushed any further, they would be in danger. All of their effort to reclaim the territory and save the people would have been wasted if she smashed it up from their fighting.

However, it did not seem to understand that point. It did not care about those things at all. Only destruction was on its mind and it had to kill Miyako. And anger fueled it more knowing that it was losing suddenly in strength. The beast roared and pushed back against Miyako with everything it had.

She bumped up as it all surged through it. Her feet lost traction and they charged forward with her unable to stop the charge. Around her she saw the signs of the neighborhoods passing her, the signs that he knew too well.

Life.

Miyako screamed through her whole body. Her face narrowed and sharpened to that of a demon nearly as she threw herself into the earth bringing them to a grinding halt. “I said no further! And I meant it!” The beast challenged her still, but she hung in against it refusing to move. Flames on the body jumped out trying to burn her, but she clamped down tighter on her.

She began to push it back out of the neighbor and back into the ruins. It struggled with her unable to do what it wanted.

“I am the wall that protects! I will not break! This is my sole purpose!” She roared again bring everything that she had left to bare in her body. Her muscles tightened and expanded as the earth crushed under her feet. “You will not take another life!” Channeling everything through only one hand, she managed the herculean feat of actually starting to lift the beast off its feet. “This is where you fall!”

She pulled the monster completely off its feet and swung the entire being through the air. Miyako slammed it back down into the street. A massive crater grew out of the collision that ate up the whole block, fortunately she had taken them back in far enough to safe limits.

Down at the bottom of the crater with the beast, she unwrapped her arm, but was caught on something. Buried deep in all the flames, she ground a hairpin. Miyako forced her arm free taking the hairpin with her by accident. Partially embedded in her arm, she ripped it free with her teeth and dropped it in her hand. “The girl was wearing that in her hair…”

Then suddenly, the flames went out on the beast causing Miyako to step back not sure what was happening. Another transformation seemed to be happening, but it was reversing the changes. It was not long before the girl known as Kaede resurfaced, though unconscious.

Victory finally came to Miyako. She lifted up her arm over head Kaede. “This will put an end to it all…” Miyako quickly threw her fist down, but coughed up another large amount of blood. Her body had finally reached the end. The fight was over and it no longer could agree to keep going. She collapsed on top of Kaede passing out.

To be continued…