Forbidden Fruit

The scene was set. Yoshitaro, badly beaten, attempts to grip his sword through his injured body, though struggling, was still able to express a stance of battle.

In front of him is Marce, though only of what appears to be his remains. This "thing" in front of him doesn't appear to be human, only something that resembles the shape of one.

"He wasn't lying, this 'fruit' he called it tastes... INCREDIBLE!" As if a switch was triggered, Marce cackled and the entire cave shook with a violent energy. Yoshitaro gripped his blade firmly. His mind is racing with thoughts.

"Use me, vessel. And this dog in front of you shall disappear."

Suddenly the voice of the void rang deep in Yoshitaro's head, enticing him. What started as one began to multiply.

"My power is one which mortals like you could only dream of", "Wield me and the world is yours". Various thoughts like this rang in Yoshitaro's head.

His mind began to crumble.

However, amidst this crumbling world he found himself in, he hears voices, though not of the being in the void. It was Suejiro, Kichiji and Sensei Tosaku sitting down eating dinner on a chilly night, laughing.

A sudden smile could be seen being formed by Yoshitaro. A few seconds passed. In this memory, he cried tears mixed with blood.

Then, everything crumbled once again. Yoshitaro, still in his stance, found himself floating in the void once again. The voices rang louder than ever, his entire psyche was falling apart, his mind was in a constant process of breaking and fixing itself.

As Yoshitaro tried to resist the temptation, the boy then realized that in this moment, he was alone.

※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※

His entire body surrendered to the wave of temptation brought upon by the void. As he felt his will give itself over to the voice, he felt something change in the air he found himself in. It wasn't a light gust or anything that could be blown off as such. It was a typhoon that shook all of Yoshitaro's core.

However, this typhoon didn't bring cold winds, rather Yoshitaro felt warmth spread all throughout his body, a large light shone in front of Yoshitaro, and as this light slowly faded away, there was a man whose back was facing him, who wielded his blade ready to fight.

"N...No!" Yoshitaro tried muttering in an attempt to save this stranger in front of him but it was no use.

The man leaped through the void and unleashed an onslaught of stabs and slashes all throughout the void. Yoshitaro was stunned at the sight of a technique with zero wasted movements.

Forceful yet elegant.

These words filled Yoshitaro's head as he engrained each one of the swordsman's movements into his own. But suddenly, as the man appeared to prepare his final attack, Yoshitaro witnessed the shape of the void. It was larger than the idea of life itself.

The man fighting was a mere insect compared to the void. But Yoshitaro was sure of it, at the moment the man readied his blade, he was far larger than the void itself.

Right as the man began his motion for slashing towards the beast's neck, Yoshitaro suddenly snapped out of it to find himself, in a twisted sense of irony, in the same spot, he found Marce's cleaver on its way to cleave his head in.

"But..." The boy wondered. "Why does everything feel slow?"

In a single breath, Yoshitaro avoided Marce's blade, which led him to be almost completely flipped over from his place. Marce grinned at the sight of the unsightly position he was able to put his opponent in, but before he could even continue any further, he noticed it too.

The boy in front of him is not the same one he was fighting mere moments ago. Through his bloodied body he saw the boy's eyes peering through and was watching him, almost feeling like he could see straight through him.

Before Marce could even continue his thought, he immediately backed off. He grabbed his neck to find it slightly nicked and blood began to drip.

"Wh-What just happened?!" Marce thought to himself as he looked in front of him to practically see a different person from that he was fighting moments ago.

But this slight moment of fear was suddenly overtaken by sheer euphoria. The wounded neck he was holding was now suddenly fine.

Marce's eyes lit up.

"Hahaha! Boy, this is the sight of a god! A god! Are you seeing this! I am immortal!" Marce began screaming in pure glee.

However, after Marce was finished speaking, Yoshitaro simply took a deep breath and dashed forward, to the point where he appeared to have vanished to the opponent in front of him.

"Ah, I didn't expect him to respond to that." Yoshitaro's thoughts were in complete sync at that point. Everything at that moment was focused on the death of the man in front of him right now. He must slay this monster wearing human skin, to protect those around him.

"It would be nice if I could finish this before Suejiro could even get here."

In almost an instant Yoshitaro appeared in front of Marce again and proceeded to slash across his chest.

"Y-you rat...!" Marce exclaimed furiously. Immediately after being almost split in half with one arm he proceeded to do the same to Yoshitaro.

As he was cleaving through Yoshitaro, it momentarily seemed like the blade went through the boy. Yoshitaro lightly jumped to avoid the blow and landed on top of his blade. From here, he delivered a kick that felt as if it went through Marce's skull, sending him flying as he was momentarily unconscious.

Before Marce could even properly get his bearings together, Yoshitaro immediately went in for his neck, only for Marce to dodge it at the last second out of desperation.

But the damage was done. Marce looked at his left arm to find it completely gone.

Marce was furious at this point. The newly found power he got himself was almost instantly overwhelmed by a child. His mind was racing for ideas on how to effectively break the human in front of him right now.

Marce grinned once more as his eyes lit up at the idea he had just conceived.