Arc 2 - Chapter 29: Luna vs Kenichi

(Quintiles 29, 59 / 9:03PM)

On the 55th floor…

The air exploded around them. Sweeping through the entirety of the room, it left no dust to be unturned, along with the windows to shiver softly. Small cracks appearing from the window in back of them, the two fighters that were at a standstill pushed their metals to the test.

His chainsaw blades denting her average ones, and his strength overpowering hers, he pushed her back, but she kept her swords maintained.

“You don’t seem strong.”

His bones on the verge of popping out, Luna bulged her forearms up to her shoulders. Her feet glued to the marbled floor, drool dripped from the corners of her mouth. All the while blood trickled from his stomach, an open wound that stained the witness of the marble.

“Even when I’m at a disadvantage.”

Pushing away Luna, Kenichi took a step back as he breathed heavily. Blood continuing to drip on the floor in increasing volume, he bent down to catch his breath. Previously, he sustained a gunshot to the stomach from his fight with David.

And pushing herself off the floor, Luna pulled her right arm back, while keeping her eyes honed on him. Thrusting her swords to the unguarded Kenichi—he dodged her attack. Taking two steps to the right, she honed her swords at him again, and he dodged it yet again.

Continuously swinging her swords up and down, she slashed the air repeatedly like it was cake. Biting her lip, each blade caressed and hilted the edges of his clothes. Noticing his back was nearing a wall, he prepared for the decorated decor to pin his back. And once he placed himself as bait, she slammed her sword onto him like an incoming guillotine.

“You're pressed behind the wall! YOU’RE MINE!!”

Narrowly dodging to the side, the blade slashed onto the bed of concrete, leaving the tip to be stuck.

“You’re wide open.”

Steadying his feet and his right arm, he hunkered down his rotating blades, onto Luna. Targeting the nape of her neck, along with his left sword thrusting straight toward her waist, she widened her eyes the greatest extent she could.

… she vanished.

Her body not in front of her, Kenichi took a step back as he lowered his sword along with his arms. Looking around the dimly lit room, while taking note of the sword still lodged on the concrete, he noticed a woman breathing heavily in the back.

“You have a blessing. Interesting.”

Straightening his back, he sharpened his eyes while having his blades rotate. With every step, he thudded the marbled floor louder and louder, pushing Luna to gland a droplet of sweat.

But she didn’t falter, once she gripped her left sword with both her hands. Slowly walking backward, and wielding her sword in front of her, she noticed that his walking stopped.

“You’re not good with one sword.”

She teleported again.

Instantly knowing where she went, he turned his head toward the area where her sword was lodged into. Her right hand clenching the handle, she tried to yank it, but ultimately … it was stuck.

‘Damn it! Release you useless piece of shit!’

Being in a sticky situation, she tightened her hold on the sword until it began to creak. Pushing a button on the back of both of his chainsaws, the blades began to die down from the loss of power. Walking towards the tanned beauty, he holstered his chainsaws onto his waist, while having his hands alongst his sides.

Reaching where she was, she looked up, and glared her teary eyes at the ginger-haired man. Grabbing the helm of her sword, and with a simple pull upward …

—He pulled the sword out with ease.—

Having fear in her eyes, she fell hard on the marbled floor, with her butt slamming first and then her other sword. Seeing that she wasn’t attacking, but rather provoked with fear, he threw the sword next to her right arm.

“I could let you go right now, if you promise to not kill me. But if not…”

He took a single step forward, and towered over her with his shadow. Her legs quivering relentlessly like she was in frozen water, she had no choice but to stare wide-eyed at the chiseled middle-aged man.

“We both know what will happen.”

Her breathing haggard, and her feet trembling numb, she lost the ability to stand herself up. The entirety of her face going pale, her eyelids fluttered like the wings of a butterfly flapping through a spring garden.

‘Dad… I…’

Puckering her lips into her mouth, along with her palms staining the marble with her sweat, water began to—

Using her right sleeve, she raised her arm to wipe away her tears. Extending her hands outward, she picked up the two swords that lay on both sides of her, and clenched them firm. Slowly standing up, while staring at the ginger-haired man, her eyes returned back to her bloodshot red color.

‘No matter what … I’ll make you proud…’

Pointing her sword at his throat, she parted both of her legs, and distributed her body weight evenly.

Kenichi placed both of his hands back into his jacket, and pulled out his chainsaws yet again. Pushing both buttons on the back, the miniscule blades began to go in motion, allowing sparkles of light to flicker on both of their scleras.

‘Why make me do this…’

________________________________________________________________________

Another clash of swords brittled the walls and floor. Sparks flying by the tenacity of their blades, they saw each other in the reflection of their own eyes.

Jumping back, Luna began to use her swords to deflect most of Kenichi’s attacks, leaving to feel his rotating blades shave off some of her metal. Block and defend, block and defend, she repeated this motion as long as her bones and blood felt the quaking of every strike. And because he had an open wound, Luna had begun to keep up with him.

Pushing her to be on the offensive, Kenichi swiftly dodged every swish of her blades. Pounding the back of his teeth, he bit his lip to detach the pain elsewhere, leaving blood to wallow his gums and tongue. Ember upon ember spewing from their blades, it left Luna to see his face pale ever so greatly.

‘He looks like he’s about to pass out … time to end this!’

Rolling out beads of sweat, his eyelids flickered intently the more he locked eyes on her. Being pushed toward a window, with the scenery being overwhelmed by orange-colored ash clouds, Kenichi glanced in back of him.

‘I can’t let her hit the window.’

Lunging himself away from one of her blades, he thrusted his left sword that stalled alongst his right hip. Luna, who was taken aback by the sudden jump, placed both of her swords in front of her to block the sneak attack. As his left sword grazed the center of both her swords, he wrung down his right sword, and aimed it where her knees connected her thighs and calves. Barely able to keep track of the sudden attack, Luna wrinkled her face and…

Vanished. Sensing a hound of bloodlust behind him, he felt the air trickle in back of him.

Indistinctly dodging to the right, without turning his head, he felt his skin smothered in sweat. Once he had his toes steady on the floor, he spun around, and locked eyes onto her sharpened ones. His hands tightened, he in return glared at her with a look of disgust.

“You don’t have any honor do you…”

“I don’t give a shit about it! You’re dead!”

Pulling back of her arms, she leaped back and forth to the left and right, with the air around her pushed by her body. Moving quickly enough to make Kenichi hunch his back, he pushed his swords in front of him.

Seeing her glide to her left, he took a step back as he honed his entire being on her. Moving his swords to block her attack, his face turned ever paler, as he felt her bulging strength begin to dwarf his.

And once she pulled back her swords, she began clashing and denting his blades with his, leaving hot sparks to lit up the room in millisecond intervals.

‘I need to finish this quickly.’

Pushing away Luna, he began walking backwards with the soles of his heels gripping the marble floor. His chainsaws stalled motionless to his sides, he widened his eyes once he saw…

Luna leaping through the air, as no sweat or paleness drenched her skin. Pulling back her swords, her red scleras that were bloodshot red began to be controlled.

‘I could do this…’

Slashing the air in front of her, he dodged her offensive attacks bit by bit, while scraping the floor with his blood. His eyes groggy, his breath dimming down, he glanced down quickly at his gushing wound. Pushing his face to turn red like a chilli pepper, his nostrils flared up, and scoured his lungs with the battle-like air.

Wanting to swipe away sweat, wanting to let his feet rest, he looked down to the marbled floor. Wanting to vomit, wanting to crash onto the cold marbled floor, he began to feel his throat contract. Not bothering to look at Luna, who leaped repeatedly to his left and right, blood riveted down from the corners of his lips uncontrollably.

His guard completely down, she pushed through the air by the bottoms of her heels. His nape wide open, she extended both of her arms outward, and cultivated the air that warped around her twin blades.

‘I’m doing it!’

Denting the batons with her tightened palms, along with her muscles pulsating exponentially, they barreled their way toward his nape. Inches away from his skin, while clamping her enamels with her teeth, she felt her whole word go into slow motion for—

—She was sent flying.—

Feeling like a quad of bones struck her cheekbone, purple swelled the right side of her face. Seeing her world turn upside down, she tumbled cruelly alongst the marbled floor. Rolling for a couple of seconds, her left shoulder crashed onto a nearby wall, creating a hard crack to rupture the material.

‘W-W-hat… w-wha…’

Blood sulking out of her nose, which was snapped in half, she pressed her cheek on the floor. Too tired to look up, she continued to have a grip on her swords, although her whole body sprawled on the hard floor. Her throat parched, blood lingered within the contents of her quivering throat.

Every breath was wheezed through like the startup of a lawnmower. Bending down, and placing his palms onto his knees, he began to cough. Coughing again and again, blood mingled with his breath, which burned his throat tenfold.

Despite being in a frail position, he glanced at the laying Luna.

“coughs cough … I didn’t want to do this … but you’re too strong …”

Using his right sleeve, he swept away a chunk of blood that stalled on his lips. Along with spitting out a worth of saliva, he pressed his left hand onto his stomach, and felt his skin be clammed with blood that gushed with warmth. Almost honey-warmed, he felt his eyes go blurry and watery, leaving his vision to crack.

His feet barely keeping him steady, while on the verge of fainting, he placed his right hand into his pocket.

‘Forgive me, Boss…’

Pulling out a large needle, he noticed his left arm going numb, as per his consequence for straining his muscles. With barely enough strength soaring through his right, he locked eyes on the area between his forearm and main arm, and thrusted the needle like a pintack.

Digging into an area saturated with veins, the gush of purple liquid seeped into his bloodstream.

Clenching his eyes shut, blood poured from both corners of his lips. His legs failing to keep himself up, he collapsed on his knees, and felt his entire body swell in numbness. Wanting to scream, wanting to lay flat on the floor, the entirety of his face was scattered in bulging veins. Tightening his cheeks, the pain that he could describe was like someone peeling his skin, inch by inch. Keeping his eyes low, his body went limp from the overload of his nervous system, meaning he couldn’t feel what was hot or cold.

Until he began moving his left arm.

His left shoulder being amplified, he moved his hand and arm like it was nothing. The rest of his body following suit, it was more or less like a restart of his nervous system, but a cost of a tortuous pain. Moving his legs, feet, head, and feeling his body trace the difference between hot and cold, he felt like his muscles gleamed with youth.

And with his right hand, he took out the needle, and threw it away like a piece of balled paper.

Pushing himself up from the floor, he straightened his whole body and pinned his eyes at the unattentive Luna who sulked on marble. Gripping the helm of his chainsaws, he moved his thumbs to caress a pair of buttons, buttons that would activate the roar of his rotating blades. Tapping them once, his chainsaws summoned back to life, with black smoke spewing out from the bottom of their bases.

“I’ll end this quickly.”

Closing his eyes, he focused his entire being into the depths of his soul. Slowly inhaling in and out, the air thickened around him, all along he kept his grip on the floor tightly. Feeling the bottom of his jacket flipping up, like if someone was snatching something from him…

Two chainsaws were pulled from the inside of his jacket, with both equipment stalling in the air.

Luna, who was keeping her body afloat by being on her knees, widened her sluggish eyes that turned pink red. As if a pair of invisible hands were holding onto the two chainsaws, she softly swayed her head back and forth.

While seeing all four chainsaws being turned on, with sparks emitting from the blades. Walking steadily toward her … it was like she met her maker.

________________________________________________________________________

(Quintiles 29, 59 / 9:12PM)

‘Can I fight him?!’

Trying to reclaim her strength, her blurred vision grabbed hold onto her dilating pupils, leaving her no choice but to blink erratically. On the verge of collapsing, she steadied her body, even though her back was hunched.

But every bit of her strength sowed into her bit by bit, as her heart felt like it wanted to explode. Barely able to keep her feet steady, while occupying her palms with her swords, she clenched her teeth once blood shuttered down her right eye.

“You look like you’re going to faint.”

His steps creaking the marble, and his boots thudding the hollowness of the floor, he towered above the haggard Luna. Having two of his chainsaws hover in the air, it made it seem as if he had two invisible hands and arms…

Without lunging straight at her, the rotation of his chainsaws got closer and closer to the outer layers of her clothes. Trying to capture bits of sight, like how a camera goes from poor quality to high, she narrowed her eyelids and took a step back. Unable to even point her blades, her whole skin was warmed by the sticky humidity her clothes trapped her in.

‘A-Am I going to die…?’

Edging closer and closer, but ever so softly, he didn’t harbor it as something sadistic. Having one chainsaw rotate near her temple, her throat, and both of her sides, all he needed was one quick sweep. If he didn’t want her to feel pain in death, he would do it in the snap of a finger.

And just as he slashed the air…

She vanished; yet again.

‘Why does she continue to fight…’

He turned around, and noticed her breathing harshly in the back of the room. Tightening his grip on all four of his chainsaws, which clastined the metal brutally, he noticed a streak of blood drooling from both corners of her mouth. As for him, he felt a streak of blood run down his nostrils, leaving him to stain it with his right leather sleeve.

‘All I wanted was for it to be quick.’

Pushing his legs into a lunging stance, he jumped forward, while having his chainsaws scissor the air around his blades. Her vision, which began to see clones or figures of the same person, led her to flicker her eyelids open.

Putting most of her weight on her left leg, as her right wobbled relentlessly, she still had her hands and arms focused outward. Sweat drenching her temples, and along her cheeks, she closed her eyes and…

He instantly turned around, at the same time when she vanished.

Pulling back his right arm, he threw the chainsaw that shuttled in his palm and fingers. Catching her red-handed, it barreled its way to where Luna had stood, leaving her eyes to widen and her breath to hitch. Unable to dodge the incoming chainsaw, the only thing that she could do was … vanish.

Again.

“I’m starting to know your teleportation pattern…”

Turning his head toward Luna, he noticed her vomiting out blood. Pushing her palms on the marbled floor, and her elbows holding her weight, everything swelled and swirled around her insides.

And as he began to walk toward her, one of his invisible hands pulled out his chainsaw, which unlodged from the light metal. Towering over her with his aura, as he gripped four chainsaws with two of his hands and two invisible ones, he dropped his voice an octave.

“You always teleport to the direction you’re facing.”

Thrusting his left arm back, he threw one of his chainsaws straight toward Luna, but not exactly at her. Striking inches from her face, as it lodged into the marble, she ignored the sudden display of intimidation. Vomiting out more blood, it gifted her vocals and throat to burn and swell ever intensely.

“Please … just …”

Leaving her no choice but to teleport, Kenichi huffed a single breath of air from his mouth. Seeing that she wasn’t there, he began unlodging the sword mingled with marble, and turned his head … down.

Feeling his ankle sunken in warmth, a hand had trenched onto his skin like a lifeline. Her grip was not lost, while having her left sword enclosed in her hand, and her right sword stationed near her body. She slugged her eyes at him, with eyebags clouding underneath although no glare drew from the crevices.

“Why … pants … did you have … pants … to kill my dad…”

He frowned, which pushed his lips to form an upside down. Darkening his face, he pushed all the buttons that disowned the power to his chainsaws. All four of them going to sleep, he began pulling them back into his leather jacket one by one.

His hands stationary to his sides, he only stared at her with a solemn face.

“I didn’t have a choice. She didn’t give me one…”

Her stomach and face clenched itself shut, she glared at him with darkened eyes. Letting go of her left sword, no ounce of strength was enough to clench it back, pushing her to grind her teeth.

Drawing out blood, which sullied the insides of her parched gums, a coarse growl sweeped her throat. Pushing his face down, while softening his cheeks, he steadied his hands onto his waist.

“Your anger is justified. Your rage is per good reason. I could understand why you found me to be so hateable.”

Crouching down, he jabbed his fingers onto the top of her head, and began dragging her up from the hard marble. Having her scalp on the tips of his fingers, he made sure his and her face were inches apart. Smelling her blood, blood that lingered on her lips and chin, her odor ruminated all around her body.

“But you chose to dig this path. If you had taken control of your anger, stop it from controlling you, you could’ve lived.”

She tried to nudge her head, she tried to yelp, but nothing pinched from her numbed nerves. Her feet dangling in place, nothing came by once her lower body turned static. Turning his head toward the front of the room, and seeing the tinted windows perfectly intact … he knew …

“Comparing the two of us, you had a choice … I didn’t.”

Walking toward the window, while stepping over a couple of papers and pencils, he continued to grasp Luna’s head high. Once he reached near, he felt most of his strength soar into his right foot.

And with a simple thrust, he pushed his right heel toward the center, causing the glass to shatter instantly. Pulling back his right foot, as smoke began to creep up into the room, he felt tiny shards of glass remain on his leg.

“I’m sorry…”

Placing his feet on the edge of the tower, the ash got into his eyes fairly quickly, leaving him to squint. Extending out his right arm, and covering his nose, he made sure her body was unable to touch the floor.

She dangled her feet in the high-rise air. His grip on her head loosening, combined with her swords still lingering on the floor, he closed his eyes fully…

“I’ll give you these for your hard work…”

A good gush of blood swooped down from his nose, pushing his breath to quicken. The two swords, which were uplifted by an unknown force, were carried toward the dangling Luna who failed to fight back. Clicking the two buttons, the twin blades sheathed back into her batons, all the while they were clicked onto her holsters.

Seeing that they were safely secured, the man … let out a single tear.

—“Farewell, Guerra.”—

He let go.

Gravitating pulling her downward, the entirety of her body flinched from the sudden fear of falling. Seeing her off, as she blankly stared up at the sky, she was engulfed in the smoke and ash of the clouds below.

Pulling back his arm, he turned around, and made his way toward the set of elevator doors. Without looking back, he recalled her tenacity, and the way she fought…

‘She reminds me of a girl I once knew … but I can’t recall … I can't … recall …’

As for Luna, who fluttered to the bottom, she watched as ash and dust cluttered her eyes. Without blinking, without holding her breath, she felt like time had begun to decrease in speed. Leaving her to fall in slow motion, she then … began to remember.