If she bleeds, I can kill her.

Neither of us moved immediately. In fact, Aki stood completely wide open, not even raising her guard.

Was she taunting me, or just a damned fool? Considering her sheer power, it would be stupid to underestimate her, but with a stance like that she was practically begging to meet the business end of my katana.

I made the first move.

I lunged forward, my katana aimed directly at her heart. She didn’t even move as I approa-

What?!

I stopped on the spot and scrambled to the side. She hadn’t moved an inch, so why? Why did my precognition tell me I was being attacked from behind? And it wasn’t just a small attack, either. The way my hair stood on end… it would have been lethal. But how?

“Hmm? What’s the issue, dearie? I thought you were going to cut me to pieces for what I did to your girlfriends?” Aki taunted, a slight smirk curling onto her lips.

“Oh, believe me, bitch. Plan hasn’t changed.”

I got back to my feet and took stance again. This time I would cut at her legs, try and immobilise her early. I looked over every inch of her. Her stance still completely open. Still not moving her body. She should be a completely free kill.

I took off with even greater speed than last time, determined to land a decisive attack as early into the fight as possible.

Behind!

I once again dove away to the side as I caught a premonition of my impending death. I quickly scrambled back to my feet, but the sight I saw still made no sense. She hadn’t moved an inch. Not the slightest twitch of a muscle. How was she generating such aggressive threats on my life without moving? And from the opposite side of me, no less?

“Time…”

“Yeah, I felt it too. It’s Space’s power. He can attack from anywhere using wormholes.”

“What?! The hell am I supposed to fight that?!”

“Don’t you girls know?” Aki spoke up, raising her Judge sword in front of her, “it’s rude to leave someone out of the conversation.”

She flicked her wrist just slightly right, and I had a premonition of a fatal attack from my right side. I parried with my katana, and the sword engraved with the kanji for judge narrowly missed my skin.

That time I saw it. Her right hand and sword seemed to disappear into thin air and reappear next to my head. Unlike Ryou’s blinking, which changed her form to light, this was true teleportation.

Not limited by the confines of space.

Not forced to adhere to a direction.

Not possible to exploit or counter.

It was a perfect ability.

She quickly flicked her wrist the other way, and I had to duck to avoid the oncoming sword. She thrusted her arm forwards, and only by leaning my entire body backwards did I avoid being impaled. She flicked her arm up, forcing a jump as the sword reappeared beneath me, which she then punished with a swing down that I could only barely block. The force slammed me down into the floor beneath me.

She forced desperate and clumsy defensive moves out of me five times in a row with little more than a handful of subtle arm movements. And even still, I hadn’t escaped unscathed.

“Jesus… how the hell do I even keep up with this?”

“Throwing in the towel already, little Ronin?”

“Not on your life, you condescending bastard.”

“Toki, wait-!”

It didn’t matter if she could attack me from any range. If I overwhelmed her with speed that advantage would be useless. With her petty little tricks neutralised, she was no less human than anyone else.

If she bleeds, I can kill her.

I dashed forwards once again. This time, when an attack came from behind, I sped up out of its range. When a follow-up cut at my legs, I took a slightly longer step and skipped over it without losing momentum. I ducked the final slash at my throat and thrust my sword deep into her heart with all the speed at my disposal.

At least, at where her heart was.

I felt a heeled boot connect with the back of my head and send me careening across the roof. I damn near rolled off the edge as my head throbbed from the pain.

“Toki! Jesus, thank god you’re okay.”

“Time… dammit all…”

“Honestly, girl.” Aki teleported right in front of me, looking down upon me. “Did you seriously think a direct charge like that would work?”

She stood over me, her judge sword drawn, holding it over me as if she was preparing to plant it into the ground.

Shit, not like this…

Moments before the sword pierced my heart, I desperately swung my legs and swept her ankle, causing a slight stumble. I attempted to clip her with the back of my foot as I spun myself back onto my feet, but she teleported back across the roof.

“Time… the hell am I supposed to do…”

“As long as she has Space’s power, she’s practically untouchable. But I might be able take that away from her if I can touch Space and use his power. Problem is…”

“I’d lose mine as well.”

“Yes… that and the fact that I’d have to find a way to touch him in the first place. He hasn’t left her shoulder.”

“So you need an opening?”

“If you can get me one.”

“Ain’t got a lot of choice, really, have I?”

I took up my stance once again and prepared to approach Aki, who was standing stock still on the other side of the roof. I didn’t need to land a decisive blow, I just needed to distract her long enough for Time…

Far easier said than done.

I tentatively began to approach again. I would need to put the pressure of proximity on her if I was gonna keep her attention on me, but she had proven that a blind charge wouldn’t work. So I moved slowly, step by step, keeping my gaze fixed on hers.

Slowly, the distance between us halved. Then shrank to a third. Then a quarter.

She made the first move.

I spun and parried away the stab aimed at my back. I carried the momentum of the spin to turn all the way back round and take a few faster steps towards her. I blocked the strike from the left, then the one from the right, before slicing at her sideways.

She disappeared and reappeared to my left, where I parried her attack and responded in kind.

She teleported behind me. I jumped to avoid the low stab and roundhouse kicked at her face. She was already gone.

I landed and rolled swiftly out of the way as she descended from the skies with a downward stab. I saw her sword embedded in the ground and found my opportunity, dashing forwards for a decisive stab.

I was backhanded across the face from metres away and sent to the ground. The next thing I heard was the yelping of a hurt cat.

“I can hardly believe you two fools fell for that trap.”

I get to my knees and looked at Aki, only to find her holding a black cat by the scruff of it’s neck.

“Time!”

“A teleporter getting stuck? I’m disappointed in you for buying something so ridiculous, sister.” Space, still on Aki’s shoulder and within swiping range of Time, taunted her with a sneer. “I knew your little plan from the start, but did you honestly think you could catch me off guard? That’s naive even for you-“

Space was cut off by the sound of glass and concrete shattering and a rumbling that sounded like the mother of all thunderstorms. And out from one of the lower floors, in so short a time that it was hardly visible to the naked eye, a green figure hurtled away from the Earth.

“Graviton!” yelled Space as we watched her fly towards the stratosphere.

“Got you!”

Time swiped one leg at Space, his attention taken for just a fraction of a second.

Then, as if they had never been there in the first place, both cats disappeared into thin air.