Darker than the Deepest Depths of the Ocean - Hero's Lies Arc

“We have to help him, Wisteria! He’s going to die out there!” Bibi yelped, pointing at the television screen. The two women were dumbfounded at the sudden exchange between the two men, and Bibi was getting anxious.

Wisteria would be lying if she said she wasn’t nervous herself.

At that moment, a gust of wind blew the front door open violently. Bibi looked outside, where she saw Tomokazu in a crouched, landing position. He must have flew down here as fast as he could, and the force of his landing blew the door open.

“You are never going to guess the crap I just heard,” he told Bibi in a frustrated tone as he walked into the sitting room, his eyes immediately locking on the television screen. His eyes narrowed and he clenched his fists. “So, it is true.”

“Hiroshi just needed space!” Wisteria cried out. “It’s my fault he’s doing this!”

“No,” Tomokazu shook his head. “He let his emotions out. He’s such an idiot. He has nothing to prove there. You know the whole world can see this? The Gods will know that he is still alive and kicking.”

The two women looked at each other, concerned looks in their eyes. The Gods…

“But the Gods seen him as Kuro-Yami!” Bibi reasoned with Tomokazu.

“My father seen him as both, remember? Not long before he tells the others and they put two and two together.”

Tomokazu turned on his heel and headed to the door.

“You guys coming?” he asked Bibi and Wisteria over his shoulder.

“Where are you going?” Bibi asked.

“I’m going to find that cave Hiroshi is in, and quite simply, I’m going to kill him.”

“W-Wait!” Bibi sputtered out. “Even if you find that cave, Hiroshi doesn’t deserve…”

“I can fly at near light speed. We will find it. And he is a liability. I don’t want you to die, Bibi. And he’s going to be the reason…”

Wisteria got up in Tomokazu’s face. Within a fraction of a second, she had moved from the couch and was looking dead into the God Child’s eyes. The furniture flew all around the room at the sheer force of her movement.

“You even try to lay a finger on him, and I’ll kill you. Do you understand me?” Wisteria hissed at him, standing her ground. Tomokazu scoffed and faced the door once more.

“Well, better come stop me then, right?”

Meanwhile, in the cave, Grant took advantage of his rust magic, freezing Hiroshi in place. He hit him once, in the stomach. Then again. And again. In the face. Back to the stomach. Hiroshi coughed up blood. He couldn’t have felt worse. The blood. Everywhere. Bad. Very bad.

“Die! Die! Just die already! You deserve this and worse!” Grant yelled, hitting him another fifty times in quick succession, between the stomach, chest and face. Hiroshi slunk to his knees.

Weak.

“Damn, you are resistant!” Grant exclaimed, genuinely impressed. “Wait, I have an idea!” he flew out of the hole in the roof of the cave, made by Hiroshi dragging him through it earlier.

“Hiroshi, if he keeps going at this rate, you are going to be dead! Use me! Let me take over!” Kuro-Yami begged. The situation was dire. Hiroshi was just a training dummy for Grant, and Hiroshi could hardly stand anymore.

“No…Kuro-Yami…just…wait…” Hiroshi coughed out. “Besides…you would be useless…you still…need my body…as a base.”

Cave dust got kicked up as Grant landed back into the cave, carrying a tsuba. It was Hiroshi’s broken sword. Near the bottom of the tsuba, a small blade was still left. Jaggy and pointed, an effective killing machine.

“Now, this is usually the part of the movie where the villain monologues a lot, maybe revealing an evil plan, and then the hero escapes and saves the day,” Grant smirking, playing with the broken katana. “But I’m the hero in this situation, so there’s really no need.”

Back in the capital, the crowd watching the big screen were concerned. They knew that Grant was the hero, and Hiroshi was the villain. So, why would cheering for Grant feel so wrong? Because he beat up his girlfriend? Maybe that was it.

“It looks like we have a clear victor, everyone,” Alexander announced sombrely. “Just, parents, avert your children’s eyes. This won’t be very pretty to watch.”

With a tremendous yell, Grant charged forward, aiming the broken blade towards Hiroshi’s heart. He had him dead to rights. Hiroshi couldn’t escape.

Unless…

“Arghhhhhh!”

Hiroshi let out a blood-curdling cry. Grant hesitated but kept his advance strong. At that moment, when Grant was roughly six feet away, darkness exploded out of Hiroshi’s body, filling the entire room. Grant stopped in an instant. He couldn’t believe it. He had Hiroshi. He could have killed him so easily.

Now, after the darkness had left his body and filled up the entire room, all he could feel was the sensation of someone watching him. Lying in wait. Waiting to kill him.

"No way...is this...your Carte Blanche?" Grant trembled, looking frantically around the cave.

“Hell no! This is just my base power! Fancy trick, isn’t it?” Hiroshi’s voice boomed around the walls of the cave. Grant looked around the cave, trying to find the origin of the sound. He stabbed forward, still half-expecting Hiroshi to be there, but he was gone.

“Wait, what?! How did you escape my rust?!” Grant called out.

“Simple. When my body unleashes darkness, any negative effects on my skin get negated. I tried it a few times with fire and burns. Just fixes my skin entirely. Although, the only drawback is that it gets me very tired.”

 Hiroshi’s voice echoed around the cave, reaching all four walls. It was impossible to tell where he was. Grant put his hand up in front of his face. He could hardly see it.

“H-Help! Somebody, help me!” he cried out, looking for any means of escape.

“I knew it. You always were such a coward,” Hiroshi laughed as he punched Grant square in the nose. Blood flew out from his nostrils, and Grant grabbed his nose in agony.

“I’m going to rearrange all the bones in your face,” Hiroshi laughed, realizing he was in control of the fight now.