Lend me your strength

"Oi, Didn't anyone teach you not to trample another man's treasure?" a voice rang out from behind the beast where the young man was.

Mister is alive? quick! run! save yourself!

Anna was fading but she could still make out white hair standing on end, dancing like white fire. Beneath the hair was piercing red eyes glowing vibrantly despite the shadows masking the young mans face.

In the time it took for Anna to blink, the young man had already disappeared.

what? he was there a moment ago!

As if in answer of the question she would have next asked the young man appeared once again this time mid-air in a sideways crouched position. Before she even had time to process his sudden disappearance both the young mans feet wearing formal shoes shot out and found their way to the beast's abdomen.

 This singular action though lasting only a moment was not accompanied by any sound until,

*BOOM*

A late sound much like the sound a plane would make breaking the sound barrier but only on a smaller scale could be heard.

With it came a sudden looseness in Anna's bindings, Anna however, took little notice as she could not believe her eyes at what she just transpired.

The young man had hit the beast with such force the beast had been ejected fiercely from the abandoned house leaving a humongous hole in the shoji. 

The beast at the mercy of the sheer force of the strike rolling at high speeds until it had met an obstruction in the form of a building but this hadn't stopped the momentum of the beast who then smashed into the building and then to a different one and another.  

The beast had become like an inhuman ping pong ball who continually smashed against buildings until finally stopping with the beast smashing through what looked to be a cabbage stall, blood spraying from it's belly mouth.

I don't believe it!

Mister... just what in the world are you?

Anna hadn't realized it at the time but she neglected to catch her breath due to the shock and awe of what unfolded, but it had been her body who forced it onto her by necessitating her to gasp and devour as much air as she could to stabilize her condition. 

Looking down at her former bindings, she couldn't help but return to her state of shock of her if only for a little bit. 

The tendrils were torn off... by sheer force!?!?!

She tried to capture a glimpse at the young man to make any sense of who or what he was

In response he turned his back to her, muttering to himself and disappearing briefly into what looked like a storage room in the back.

Only to return with what looked like a bokken(wooden sword) in a scabbard hastened to his belt.

Tendrils in the hundreds fired full salvo back into the household destroying what was left of the shoji and invaded and stole as much space as they could, the eyes hungrily trying to find someone in particular.

Anna instinctively flinched and moved to raise her arms to guard herself from the oncoming onslaught.

The onslaught did not come, at least not for her. The eyes had finally found their prey and fixated on the young man flailing and lashing in the very same direction leaving an audible *crack* as each tendril did so.

"HOW DARE YOU BOY!!! FOR HUMILIATING ME SO, I'LL TAKE GREAT JOY EATING YOUR INNARDS!" the beast's voice rang out adding to the lashing as well as the all to familiar sound of heavy footsteps growing louder to complete the beasts choir of violence.

"oh, you're still alive?" the young man replied flippantly.

If the young man had any fear or concern he certainly didn't show it as his face was a mask of coolness. 

The young man lifted his bokken and pointed it at the direction the tendrils and the direction the beast's voice came from.

The tendrils were closing in about to find purchase in the striking distance of the young men. 

The young man showed little concern, his face unburdened by any fear and in a flash his arm was lost.

Or to be precise, it was lost in flurry. Each tendril that came close was immediately cut down, be they few or a dozen or even a hundred, all fallen short of his blade.

All the while Anna now with her vision returning to a semblance of normal was dumbfounded at the sight.

I can't see it, the tendrils are all attacking at once but they're all being cut down instantly!

Truly in Anna's eyes the young man with hair like dancing white flames had been slowly advancing.

Cutting a swathe of tendrils. 

Blood adorning the floor and walls with each slash. 

His sword arm blurred in motion too fast for her to capture the sight of in motion. 

Beneath his feet were scores of tendrils creating a mound that paved the way to his quarry.

I get it! there must be a hidden blade in the bokken!  it's a quick draw technique!

"HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!?!?! THE NERVE! BOY!!!!!!" the beasts frustration was both audibly and visibly apparent, the beast was now in full view before the house, blood continually seeping from its belly mouth interspersed by the sputtering's of it's blood being coughed up.

"if it's all the same to you, let's end this, I'm tired of hearing your voice" the young man vocalized with his somewhat monotone voice belying the ice hidden within. 

"GAHAHAHAHA, VERY WELL, I'LL SHOW YOU HOW YOU DIE BOY!"

Those words marked a change in the beast, more and more of the human portion of its body began splitting with the beasts belly mouth growing wider with even more shark like teeth filling the mouth where once was flesh. 

The creature dropped all pretense of being anything more than what it ever was.

This culminated in a humongous mouth with rows upon rows of shark-like teeth, a wide mouth whose lips comprised of torn human flesh and behind that mouth a coterie of tendrils joined together to provide the body of a large worm-like organism.

Anna noticed the young man sheathing his blade in the scabbard at his waist and crouching slightly holding his scabbard with one hand, while his other hovered over hilt of his blade. 

There's no doubt, that is definitely a quick draw stance!

For but a moment the two watched each other, with no signs of movement from either side

Anna began feeling the pressure and the weight of what this fight meant. On one side, agonizing death but on the other survival at the mercy of this stranger. 

She gulped in anticipation.

Movement

"ITADAKIMASU!!!!!" 

The beast lunged at the young man with all the force it's new body could muster, its huge salivating mouth open, ready to receive its feast.

"You have really have a big mouth, allow me to silence you...permanently" 

having said that the young man made but a singular motion, so fast that a stray blink from Anna had robbed her of the sight of what just happened before her.

In an instant the young man had been on the other end of the beast, his sword arm outstretched with the blade up and diagonally away from his person as if a strike was delivered.

The beast simply remained motionless, it would seem even the beast couldn't catch a glimpse of what had unfolded moments prior.

Anna began frantically looking around for any detail or indication as to the result of the fight.

For a lady as clever as her, it didn't take long.

She realized two mistakes borne of assumption.

I was wrong, there isn't a hidden blade at all!

It's just a regular bokken!

That was the first, but the second was a more fatal mistake

The bokken... 

Is drenched in blood!

Just as she finished that thought, the young man lifted the blade with his sword arm still outstretched to just above his head. 

He then turned his sword hand the other way with blade in hand then slowly bringing the hilt of the blade towards his head only to swing the blade downward shaking the blood onto the floor.

Finally he slowly sheathed the blade until

*Shuk*

had sounded completing the act of o-chiburui(big blood shake).

In doing so two large cuts began to appear both horizontally and vertically across the creature. blood ever so slightly snaking across the cuts to mark the entry from the mouth all the way to it's tail.

"IMPOSSIBLE!! HOW COULD I LOSE TO A MERE HU-"

Before the creature could finish the cuts opened in full and split it in four, with blood spraying everywhere, and falling as blood rain.

Anna couldn't believe it, of all the things she experienced today he had been the most absurd of all. The rain painted the young mans white hair sanguine whilst he made vain attempts to douse the fire of his hair with the blood.

For a moment his glowing red eyes in that grim rain caught her stare.

She started. From her vantage point he cut an ominous figure.

He began moving towards her.

I can't move, I'm at his mercy, he can't be human, can he?

He was getting closer

Whoever he is, whatever he is, he's strong

Strong...

I remember now, what grandmother said;

"When you should ever fear for your life, strike at that which is strong"

"If the heart you strike true, then you will never have to drink from the cup that is fear"

"For you will have a loyal knight"

Grandmother, of all the things I've seen today, why couldn't the world you believed in also be real?

I want to believe in that world too Grandmother.

Anna while keeping eye contact, sat up and faced the young man all the while her hand felt around behind her back for her families dagger.

He was almost within reach at this point.

There it is!

She firmly grasped the knife in her hand and hid it behind her back hoping he wouldn't notice.

"I'm Anna abe! what's your name?"

"...Jun'ichi, are you alright?"

"Ah, I'm hurt! I can't move! can you help me up?"

Jun'ichi didn't reply but silently nodded and got even closer. within stabbing distance.

"Listen! thank you for saving me! and I'm sorry"

Jun'ichi again said nothing but stopped to return a quizzical look as if to say "for what?"

His guard was down, she understood that. 

If there was ever a time to do this, it would be now.

Without missing a beat Anna took the knife from behind her back and drove it into where his heart would be.

Surprisingly the knife plunged effortlessly into Jun'ichi who began to bleed profusely from his new wound.

He looked down at the knife now making his home in his chest then back at Anna with part confusion and part pained shock painted on his face.

Anna's face made no show of remorse, she had already decided there was no going back now.

"Jun'ichi-san I'm so sorry that I brought you into this"

Jun'ichi stumbled back a couple of steps, then fell to his knees, his face returning to the cool mask he displayed before in silent acknowledgement of what would soon happen to him. 

For all that he did, only the ground came to embrace him as he keeled over backwards.

"Jun'ichi-san" 

"..."

力を貸して(lend me your strength)