Sun down

“Haha, you are just having fun now.” Kojiro spoke trembling with the taste of blood upon his lips. He remained under the sight of the cameras his form displaying upon the school´s entrance, his bloodied body now had another sword trusted inside the left side of his torso, the gruesome wounds of each blade already infected letting him feel for the first time in his life that his body might be too weak to keep fighting.

Salvatore kept his distance with the last two blades upon his hands, but he was breathing heavily as well and sweating constantly, he had no wounds on his body, but there was no hiding his age, he too was beginning to tire, but the fact that the fought this long already impressed Kojiro beyond words.

“¿Look at that, is it because of your eyes that you could evade me so, they are quite strange?” Kojiro asked him with a pitiful smile on his face.

“All you need to know is that this eyes will see your death soon enough.”

“¡Hahaha I guess will just have to see who is the strangest. ¡If you can see my death, try to make it happen!”

They charged against each other at once, Kojiro no longer had the strength to leap into the skies and could only walk in comparison Doming Salvatore surpassed him on speed an quickly reached his chest and cut its center in an x shape with both of his blades, Kojiro lowered his arms to block the sabers and let his hands suffer the cuts instead.

I wonder if I’m the only one left. He thought.

Kojiro kicked right where Salvatore was about to move to for another strike, but he simple dodged back and stabbed Kojiro on his knee, he bared his teeth and send a punch flying towards the all man who took his saber out of his leg and moved out the way, Kojiro fist coming so close to him that it blew off his hat from his head and there was no doubt to him anymore that the emperor was moving slower too.

It’s so strange I wanted this chance for so long, but all I can think about now… its them, my sister, Rocky and all of them that shined for me like the sun, it feels so dark now.

They crashed again, his blades piercing Kojiro´s chest while he once more took his arms down in a power assault, Salvatore´s expression grew grim and jumped back evading one fist and then the other and finally collapsing on his knees after having escaped. Kojiro´s face grew paler as he collapsed as well barely able to breath, those blades had opened another deep cut in his abdominals, and he had no doubt that it was for sure a fatal wound.

“You are clearly at your limit, the audience won´t find this entertaining anymore, but thank you, now your death will stir the passion of the people, your death will let the fire of our nation burn within our hearts.” Salvatore threw the blood from his blades and prepared himself to charge forward once more, the purple lights within his mask dancing clearly.

“The final blade will pierce your heart; so rest now, you foolish beast.”

¿So this is the end then? I cannot allow that, if my body had to be born like this there has to be something only I can do here, there must be so many who feel as alone as I feel now, even if it’s only by defeating this man I wish to give them some light as well.

“¿Why do you believe you have eyes like that?” Kojiro asked him in his sorry state, barely managing to keep himself standing and in a sign of cordiality or pity Salvatore answered. “I do not know, but if I were to guess, it’s the proof that I´m qualified to rule over this world.” Kojiro laughed weakly. “I guess if I could choose I would say, that I was born with this body just for this moment and this moment alone.” Salvatore´s eyes narrowed with his answer, the purple glow on them turning white.

Hang on just a little longer, I may not be able to touch him, but there exist nothing I cannot break, I will believe in that till the end. ¡So let me be strong just for one more strike!” Salvatore ran forward as Kojiro raised his fist above him and crouched down to the floor, his expression showing a terrifying grin.”

“¡BREAK!”

Kojiro screamed to the top of his lungs while putting all of his strength in a fist that could call forth a storm and the intense pressure over his own body from such effort released his wounds, the bleeding in his torso letting down a cascade of blood as the sword upon his muscles cut deeper, but his smile didn´t disappear.

Salvatore stopped his run and stood in the middle of the execution plaza in utter shock, his eyes glowing eve more intensely like purple flames burning out of his eyes.

“¡What… this isn´t possible!” He screamed in terror his absolute confidence disappearing from his face in an instant when Kojiro´s fist descended upon the ground of the execution platform.

“¡¡BREAK DOWWWWWWNNNNNNNNN!!”

His fist crashed upon the platform below them, cracking it into a hole, a gust of wind was released from the pressure of his fist and cascaded all though the platform, Salvatore put his arms in front of his face as the torrent of wind threatened to throw him to the ground, his cape flapping madly. His eyes glowed and his expression changed again, his mouth wide from the terror as the emperor turned his back on Kojiro to try to run away, but it was no longer possible.

The ground shacked as an earthquake was felt all over the plaza where the spectator ceased to cheer and began to scream in a panic.

I´m sorry, but you will have to go on forward without me, as we promised sis.”

The tall platform caved into the pressure as fissures opened from the very top and reached its found far below and in a moment all the ground at the top broke down an collapsed upon the center of the impact, Salvatore tried to jump towards the staircase, but he simply landed on collapsing floor an quickly found himself without footing.

The last thing that was shown on the scream was a cloud of dust that rose from below and upwards enveloping everything in the inner plaza just below the screen went completely black. “¡This is not possible, I can´t see anything!” Salvatore screamed as he feel upon his back to the abyss below, but he wasn´t alone and a huge shadow came for him within his vision. With an incredible finesse Salvatore wielded his sabers and with one of them pierced the huge arm of Kojiro that was about to reach him from the side and then stabbed him straight at the heart with his other blade, but with his left hand Kojiro manage to grab Salvatore by the arm and stopped him from reaching his heart.

“¡This is not possible I have yet to see the victory that I was promise, why can´t I see a future anymore!” Kojiro smiled as blood kept falling from his mouth, his smile was a terrifying thing to witness when he showed all of his teeth.

“Let’s go down together.” And he smiled as wide as he could, looking almost serene.

The glow in Salvatore’s eye´s disappeared leaving him with hazel frightened eyes and in a single second more the two of them crashed upon the ground along with countless heavy rubble as the entire thirty feet structure crashed on the ground with a devastating shock and dust spread through the plaza making everyone run away the crow breaking apart in fear.

“hmm… I´m still alive…agg”

Kojiro recovered his consciousness as he felt an immutable object above him, the remains of the execution tower where pinning him down and he had no strength left to raise them by a single inch; there was no air for him to breathe either. All he could do now was move his head and see that close to him there was gloved hand under a pile of rubble and a black sword at its side that had remained intact.

“Guess I’m really the strongest … ¿What a joke?”

“Bravo,bravo.” A chirpy happy voice came out of nowhere in those ruins forcing him out of his fleeting thoughts, there was the sound of clapping as well and Kojiro had to force his head to take it out of the rubble enough to see who it belonged to.

“You had a bit too much fun Salvatore, you should have minded your age a little bit more.”

From within the dusty ruins of the platform a figure in pure black showed herself walking carelessly upon the dusty air, it was a woman covered from head to toe in black clothing and sporting a gas mask that hide all of her face away.

Kojiro´s eyes immediately settled upon the tie on her neck, a yellow and black stripped tie with a symbol upon its center. It was a letter M in cursives and which lower lines ended turning into vines that curled, a symbol that was well engraved into his mind.

“There is no helping you anymore, but you sure had a good run.” She kneeled to look at Salvatore´s hand within the rubble and then turned back towards Kojiro where she slowly leaned forward, her shape a black that seemed blurry on Kojiro´s failing vision resembling the very reaper.

He tensed his body, but as he thought not one of his muscles couldn´t move anymore, the next thing he saw was the black mask in front of him reflecting his own face within her eye sockets.

“Oh poor thing, as a doctor it will have to be my duty to put the wounded bull to sleep, but congratulation for defeating the gran torero, honestly your body was quite something and it’s so sad I never got a change to put it under further scrutiny.

“Aria Maximillian…” He spoke with his voice going weak.

“Yes that’s me.” She answered pointing at herself with her finger.

“If I could still move I would rip off your head…but that can´t happen anymore.” She clapped her hands together at his words.

“Sorry, although I do like my head, honestly I must say that I always thought ever since I hear of you in Tokyo; that in another live you really could have been a really great hero.”

She leaned forward very close to his face and lightly twisted her head to the side, studying him with curiosity. Kojiro smiled weakly, but showed her no sadness.

“No, If I were to be born again, I don´t want to be a hero, I rather just live a life with a weak body that won´t have to throw a single punch, a body to embrace someone else, that’s all.”

She leaned back to stand straight again.

“I see, it seems we had much in common you and I, a pity truly, well then I will give you your rest. You have more than earned it” Kojiro showed her a cocky smile. “¿Can you even do it woman. I’m the world’s strongest man you know?” She removed one of her gloves slowly. “But you are still a man and all that lives can only die at my touch it’s simply science really, a very cruel truth.” Her tone was somber almost making feel that the girly voice she had until now had been, but a charade. Kojiro could only see her small hand come closer to cover his eyes and a strange green substance began to drip from her fingers.

“Bye, bye Kojiro Adachi.”

The plaza began to evacuate and soon a simple announcement was made to those that remained, the confirmation of the death of Domingo Salvatore the man who almost came to rule the world; a hard thing to believe for everyone who lived in this times, regardless of which side of the world they lived on.

“It really happened, this was you real plan all along, this why we started that whole war. ¿Dino, did you knew it?” Yong stared down at the plaza with disbelieve while holding the fence at the schools outer wall, she knew of Salvatore since she was born and thought that somehow he would still be there after she was gone, but now that this had happened, she could only think that the whole situation was far too strange.

“Well not really, but I figure something was up when ya´ told me to plant a bug in those handcuffs, honestly I´m still on shock I thought we weren´t going to aim for his life in years.” Dino leaned against the fence his hood lowered more than usual to the point it hide his entire face, he looked at his friend, Irvin Maximillian whoseemed lost in thought as he stared at the smoke rising on the horizon.

“No one else could beat him, no one but Kojiro Adachi; so we needed to give him a chance.”

“¿But how did you know he could beat him? Dino asked him again.

“I didn´t all I could do was believe, just like I believed that Hiroshi could fall, honestly I could only believe that they could do what we could not.” Yong stared at him with a furious expression on her face. “If this was the plan why didn´t we just team up with Kojiro since the beginning rather than…help those people murder them!” Irvin stayed quiet for a moment as he looked at her face, she was crying.

She must have seen something unpleasant, but it will be useless to lie to her now, after all we three are tied to this crime for the rest of our lives.

“He never would have cooperated with us, Kojiro Adachi would never have truly fought against Salvatore in his live, it was impossible without putting a target on the back of every member of his clan and I knew he could never do such a thing…. So I did the choice for him and sacrificed them all in his stead….” Yong grabbed him by his necktie raising him above her, where his feet no longer could reach the ground.

“¡Tell me just one more fucking thing! ¿What about Danny did he really failed to escape on his own? Because I think he was just another one of your damn sacrifices.”

Dino stood up coming closer to them, but Irvin told him to stop by raising his hand.

“¡It was my mistake, because I never planned for her arrival, so you are not wrong, it’s my fault he died, that was my failure as a leader and I can´t deny it, but if there had been another way I would have taken it!” Yong began to strangle him with more force making his face go red.

“¡Shut up, you made it clear to me that you will sacrifice us all if you could!” Dino steeped between them and grabbed her hand, his own hand a cold lizard’s claw with red scales, when she looked at his face; she dropped Irvin from the surprise.

“Dino your face…” He turned his head at her words while he scratched his forehead.

“Its fine I’ll be back to normal eventually, I think.” Dino lowered his sight covering his face again under his hood Yong was frozen in place with absolute worry on her eyes.

Irvin coughed now that he could finally breathe, he stayed sited on the floor, but he didn´t look particularly upset, he had expected as much from her.

“Don´t be concerned …Ms.Yong like I had promised you, I´ll let you kill me when this is all over.” Yong remembered what she was doing and screamed back at him.

“¡Salvatore is death and this is over now!” Yong Li screamed at him with her fist raised.

“¡No, it’s not!” He screamed back loudly and with force, something he had never done in her presence before, but when silent as he stood up on his feet, his angry expression disappearing as fast as it had appeared. “¿Is your mother free, your father? No, I said that I will end Salvatore´s empire and yet it’s still standing, the world will be engulfed in a storm to fill the void of his death and this Isla Franca will be the center of it all.” Irvin fixed his sunglasses and spoke in a cold and detached manner again.

“We need to prepare, to seize this chaos so the empire of Salvatore can truly be erased from this world, for that his three great generals must fall as well.”

“¡Ey, you are talking about my father!” Yong interrupted him, but she stopped herself from acting violent again and took a step back, Irvin looked at her with a serene expression.

“Whenever he dies or simply retires will be enough for me, but that will be all up to you, that´s why I wanted you here because you are the only one who can save your mother and your father.” Yong remained quiet as he spoke and then Irvin turned to Dino.

“¿And you Dino, you haven´t given up on Helga yet have you?” Dino crossed his arms and shrugged. “Nah she already made her choice a long time ago.” Irvin ignored him and continued his speech. “We can still save her, but the very nation she protects must be ended to do so.” Dino never answered and simply let him continue.

“Till every trace of this empire and all that their thinking has made… has absolutely ceased to exist nothing… nothing…¡Nothing is over, we must wipe it clean and make sure there is never a throne to be taken on this island again!” Irvin turned his back on them both and walked away enraged like a kid throwing a tantrum.

“That will be the day of our sure and certain victory…” He said as a faint purple light shined within his sunglasses a glow the other two didn´t saw.

The two of them saw him leave in silence, neither of them wanting to stop him at all, not after seeing such a strange behavior from the usual stoic man.

“It’s strange even after all this I still can´t understand his feeling at all, that’s what really unnerves me.” Yong said as Dino simply leaned further back against the gate. “Don´t let it bother you, he is not that complicated, he is just angry at the empire like everyone else…”

“¿Is he really? It never felt to me that he cared about Salvatore that much at the very least not emotionally, what just happened didn´t faze him at all. I saw no joy on him much less any relief.” Dino looked back at her feeling a bit anxious after what had just happened, so even if it get him in trouble he felt it was right to speak more than what was needed to her now.

“Because his target was never him, he was just a step on the way, as crazy as that sound; the one he is really aiming for is one of those three.” She tried not to stare at Dino´s face after noticing that it was making him uncomfortable, so she simple stared at the ground.

“You mean her, right?”

“Yep, at the end; the truth is that as long as the empire remains his family will remain broken. That is why he is so desperate; but he might not even realize it himself anymore.”