Why I fight

We plummeted from the roof at breakneck speed, passing a dozen floors or more in a few seconds. Her hand was still around my throat, and mine was still tightly gripping her arm. Both of us held a sword in our other arm, but from this range we could hardly attack one another with them.

“Crazy bitch!”

“You don’t know the half of it, you angelic whore!”

I reached my sword arm out and planted my katana in the wall on the way down. My shoulder almost instantly dislocated, but we began to slow down quickly until we were no longer at instant death velocity.

Then, beneath us approached exactly what I had hoped for. A window.

I timed my movement perfectly to swing both of our bodies with as much force as possible through the window, making sure to rotate myself so Aki would take the brunt of the damage from glass shattering.

We both crashed through and landed hard on the ground below, the glass leaving cuts on both of us and the friction burning away skin on our arms and backs. The hard landing almost certainly broke a few bones as well, but the adrenaline staved off the pain for the time being.

“You… are a fucking… lunatic…” Aki slowly forced herself to her feet, covered head to toe in bleeding cuts and nursing a clearly broken right arm.

“With… pride… bitch…” I also dragged myself to my feet, my skin feeling as if it were on fire, and my left arm completely unable to move from the dislocation. My sword was lying directly between me and Aki, and her own was right on top of it.

“What… the hell… are you…” she panted, clutching her ribs. How does it feel to be the one on the receiving end for once, asshole?

“What… am I?” I forced myself to stand up completely straight, and looked her dead in the eye. “I’m a lot of things. To the people, I’m a faceless Ronin. To my friends, I’m a leader and warrior. But you… you can call me your reverse.”

With my one good arm, I threw off the cloak that had burdened me all this time, and revealed my magical girl outfit for the first time since I went into hiding. The black and red dress that I had hidden for so long. The black halo I magically concealed. And the pair of black wings that sprouted from my back and extended far past my outstretched arms.

The true form that I hadn’t let anyone see in three painful years.

“You… what the hell do you think this changes, huh?! You think your little makeover will change the fact that you’re a weaker fighter than me? That you can’t beat me?!”

“No. But all that blood loss might.”

Our eyes stayed locked for just a few seconds. Then, they fell to the exact same place.

Aki moved first and practically threw herself at her sword. I leapt for mine, beating my wings behind me for an extra burst of speed.

She grabbed hers first. It didn’t matter.

My knee connected with her face and sent her careening to the end of the long hallway, slamming into the wall at the very back. I followed with all the speed I had left.

“You wanna know why I fight, huh?!”

She just about deflected my attack, but her back was right up against the wall. She had no escape.

“It’s for all the people suffering because of you!”

I brought my sword down upon her. She blocked again, but her arms had to be growing numb.

“For the MPs you threw away as cannon fodder!”

She just ducked her head low enough to avoid the decapitating swing.

“For the magical girls you moved like pawns on your damn chess board!”

She knocked my cut slice away from her vitals, but I still took a chunk out of her side.

“For the civilians suffering in your squalor!”

She blocked another downward strike, but this time her sword clattered to the ground.

“For Ryou and Higgs!”

I dismembered her right left arm.

“For Nabiki and Charm!”

I sliced downwards at her chest and left a deep gash all the way down her abdomen.

“For Electron!”

I cut open her right leg.

“And Fujiko!”

I cut open her left leg.

“For Time!”

I slashed upwards and split her right eye.

“And for me!”

“Stop! Wait-!”

I buried my sword deep in her heart.

I breathed heavily for a few seconds, my eyes and Aki’s locked on another as blood welled up in her mouth. Then, a moment later, I collapsed to my knees. The exhaustion and pain weighed my body down, and I was rendered practically immobile.

“You… think… this will change… anything?” Aki said, spitting out blood. “The system… will… survive me. The corporations… the military… everything is already in motion…”

“You think I don’t know that?” I said, re-catching my breath. “I’m not stupid. I know my work doesn’t end here. The system you made is cruel, but it’s robust. If I’m gonna tear the whole thing down, killing one bitch with a halo ain’t gonna cut it.”

“You really… think… you can shape… the whole world…”

“You did it. And now you won’t be there to get in my way. What’s gonna stop me?”

“Haaah… you naive… fool…” she coughed up a mouthful of blood, then let out a pained chuckle. “Good luck… with you… new world… Toki. Remember… this is what… you wanted…”

She gave one final weak laugh, leaned her head back against the wall, and closed her eyes.

In that moment, the puppet master of Japan breathed her final breath.

The battle was over.

The war had just begun.