A bug, just waiting to be squashed

Aki looked down blankly at her hand, where she had held Time just seconds before. Then she turned her head to her shoulder, where Space had perched at the same time.

Then she locked eyes with me.

“You. What did you and that damned alley cat just do?”

“Simplify the equation a bit. Took away some troublesome variables.”

“Troublesome variables? Such as?”

“Your powers.”

“What?!” Aki held her empty hand out in front of her and grasped at the air. Just as expected, nothing happened.

“Playing field just evened up. Wanna stop screwing around and get to business, or you too scared without your crutch?”

She stared at me with nothing but disdain and contempt in her eyes. Slowly, with her free hand, she drew the sword inscribed with “jury” and held it at her side. She took a few slow and measured steps towards me, one sword in either hand, her white hair whipping in the wind and her halo glowing atop her head.

“I had hoped not to get my hands too dirty with this one, but it seems you’ve left me no choice. Prepare to die, Ms Tokiko.”

“I’ve been ready. Are you?”

We both stood in our defensive stances, staring one another down. The silence must have lasted barely more than a second, yet felt like a lifetime.

Then, in complete unison, we leapt.

Her left sword binded with my katana in the centre as we both aimed for centre mass. I slipped out of the bind quickly and aimed low at her right leg, but she deflected with her right sword. My overcommitment was punished with a backhand from her left that broke my nose and caused me to briefly retreat.

So it’s just our powers that we lost, not our superhuman strength and speed…

“Leaving so soon? After all that bravado?”

“Not on your life, bitch.”

I dashed in and feigned a low cut at the waist. She reacted quickly and blocked with her sword, but I redirected diagonally upwards towards her face instead. She dodged backwards at the very last moment and I just barely nicked her, a fleck of blood flying from the bridge of her nose.

I tried to capitalise on the momentum with a downward swing at her left shoulder, but stopped my katana in its tracks with one sword and sliced at my upper abdomen with the other. I ducked just in time to avoid the fatal blow, but she clamped my sword between both of her own and disarmed me, throwing it away from the roof.

I scrambled back to my feet and dove towards it, catching it just before it irrecoverably flew off the roof. But my commitment to the dive left me vulnerable on the ground. Aki quickly caught up and stabbed down at me, an attack I only survived by rolling sideways at the last moment.

She planted her other side on the other side of me and trapped me between them, before raising her leg and axe kicking my stomach with her heeled boots. I almost threw up.

Confident that she had winded me, Aki pulled her right sword from the ground and once more attempted to stab me, but I narrowly avoided death with another last minute roll. This time I just about managed to get to my feet, though I found no reprieve, as Aki spun and sliced at my face, drawing blood from my cheek before I had time to dodge.

The cut was shallow, but it sent a message.

I thrust my sword at her upper body, hoping she had overcommitted to her spinning slash, but she effortlessly parried it with one sword and returned the stab with the other. I dodged backwards, but didn’t quite get out of range. She pierced the surface of my skin just below my chest, and I felt my clothes start to fill with blood.

I barely had the time to react to the next follow-up. She damn near beheaded me with her right sword, which I just about blocked in time with my own. With her left she stabbed at my gut, which I deflected, then once again I was forced into a bind with her right sword.

She won the bind and, being too close to effectively use her long swords, settled for punching me in the jaw and sending me rolling along the roof. I came to a stop right on the edge, and for a moment I was too dazed to even get up.

This problem was promptly solved when Aki grabbed me by the throat and lifted me over the edge of the building.

“I’m feeling rather disappointed right now, if I’m to be frank,” she said. “All of this trouble you’ve caused, all the bravado you’ve shown, and you hardly even put up a fight. Even when I’m stripped of magic. Honestly I had hoped you’d provide me some entertainment. Do you understand how boring it is, being the most powerful person in the world? Being unchallenged by all? I spoke before about prompting you to become a worthy adversary so I could crush you to prevent rebellion, but that excuse was just how I convinced Space to support my idea. In truth, I simply wanted a good fight for once. And yet, you couldn’t even give me that much.”

“Fuck… you…”

“Reduced to petty cursing? You truly are no rival of mine. I hoped I had trained you to be more than this, but after everything you’ve done, you’re little more than a firefly. Eye catching and flashy, to be certain, but still a bug, just waiting to be squashed. It’s sickening. What could possibly prompt someone so weak as you to take on such terrible odds?”

“Why… am I fighting?” I grabbed the hand wrapped around my throat with my free arm and gripped tightly. “You bastard… after all… this… you still… don’t… fucking… get it…”

Time for the desperate option.

I closed my human eye, and commanded my cybernetic one to do one of the few things it’s actually good for: producing light. But instead of a torch to light the way, I set it to its highest possible brightness and unleashed a short burst of light right into Aki’s eyes.

“Argh! Bitch-!”

Before she could punish the attack, I pulled down tightly on her arm until my feet touched the ground. Then, with all the strength in my body, I pulled her over my head and threw us both off the roof.