Ouroboros

The warm suffocating wind grazed Kanji's skin. He stared at the sitting Honor with wide eyes.

“C-can’t defeat her?”

“Yes. An Idol cannot be killed once it’s created. The best thing you can do is to kill the host, and force it back to the red world. But soon enough, it will emerge again.” Honor said.

“I-I will not kill Yuki…”

“Then there is nothing you can do.”

Kanji’s face paled.

“But… what if we convince Izanami to retract Apathy?”

“Izanami is no more. She gave up her personhood in the process of splitting.”

“Then, there must still be a piece of her still inside Apathy, right?” Kanji’s voice went up a pitch in desperation.

“There is. The piece of her that wants to burn the human world.”

Kanji gulped. “I don’t… I don’t believe anyone would want the world to burn.”

“Then you have not yet met a grieving woman.”

Is there… really nothing I can do?

Honor took off his helmet and placed it under his arm. He stared at the Double Helix in the distance, as if everything worth knowing was already etched on the spiral. But to Kanji, it was just a spiral.

“When I spoke with Apathy, she said she wanted progress. To create new values for Japan, not destruction. Was she lying?” Kanji said.

“No. But men confuse progress with meaning. They build tools they cannot control, call it the will of God, and bow down to it. The hunger to move forward without knowing where, it originates with Apathy, and the goal is also Apathy. Such is with the strongest idols, they originate with and lead to themselves.”

Then, maybe we can use the hammer to—

“Sit with me, child.”

The request surprised him. Kanji walked through the red water to sit next to Honor.

“Sometimes the only thing we can do is to accept that the world is burning. Even I am only an individual. Our influence is limited in the grand scheme of things.”

The armor’s surface was blunt up close. Dark blue and unreflective. Kanji’s hand clenched around the hammer.

“How… how dare you call yourself Honor?”

“Hmm?”

“We might not be able to change anything. But that doesn’t absolve us of responsibility to try. How can you sit here with a full heart knowing you could have helped someone and didn’t?”

“Are you accusing me of sloth?”

“That’s right. Even more than sloth. Immoral, sloth, dishonorable bum!”

Honor scoffed. “Alright, boy. I’ve had enough of you. Get lost.”

Kanji walked away angrily towards the tower.

*****

His mind raced as he stood next to the impossibly high structure. Its texture was like an infinite white hive.

What if I just destroy the separator? Does that mean all the monsters will come up to the blue world? That can’t be good, right?

He recalled the story of Izanagi.

The monsters are people’s rejected parts.

The monsters aren’t monsters at all.

Maybe if I destroy the separator, the dead values could come back, and Apathy would not be able to get rid of them.

The Ouroboros flew above Kanji, biting into an unsuspecting bat-like creature with a loud thump.

I have to give it a try. It’s the only idea I have.

Kanji clenched his hand against the hammer. It better work.

He hit the separator as hard as he could. Boom. A hole punctured in the structure. However, tiny green snakes emerged from it, enveloping the hole, and quickly building it back up. The tower was so wide and thick he couldn’t possibly destroy it without it repairing itself.

Crap… I need to stop it from healing. He hit the snakes, smashing their small heads, trying to stop their repairs. He was quickly out of breath, the snakes were endless. He looked upwards. The Ouroboros circled around the tower, tiny snakes exiting its scales, being sucked into the tower’s gaps.

Seems like Izanami wants to keep Akanagi alive even after he turned into a tower. Kanji sighed. Sorry, Izanami-san. But I have to destroy him.

Kanji paused for a moment, staring at the circling Ouroboros.

I’ve already fought so much. Every time I fight, every time I’ve struggled to fix something… It only gets worse. Nothing’s ever new under the sun. Maybe… maybe in the Red World things work differently. Different sun, different rules? There’s no choice either way.

“Pinky, I hope you’re ready for round two.”

Pinky appeared next to Kanji.

If Apathy is a part of Ouroboros, it's possible their souls are still intertwined. Then perhaps Ouroboros will call on Apathy like I can call on Pinky. All we need to do is to make it distressed enough.

Pinky grabbed Kanji by the waist and flung itself upwards toward Ouroboros.

We cannot defeat Apathy. We probably cannot defeat Ouroboros as well.

The warm wind cooled as he flew against it. Lukewarm.

The snake-like creature didn’t even acknowledge their approach.

But we can bring them together.

The hammer struck against Ouroboros’s stomach. A sonic boom. The snake screamed, unwrapping from the tower as it flung sideways. Broken scales shed and plopped into the water.

The snake rolled into balance. White light emerged from the crater on its skin, new scales growing where the old had been.

It shook its massive head. Its slit eyes locked on Kanji, each pupil taller than him. It lunged, mouth open, incredibly fast.

Too predictable!

Kanji lifted his hammer. Inspiration. A gigantic blue hammer appeared above him. Equality’s power. He swung down. The blue hammer followed.

Smash. Water exploded outwards as Ouroboros’s head slammed into the ground, the rest of its body following in a ripple.

The snake squeezed and slithered away screaming. It flew above the clouds, leaving a blur and shockwave that knocked Kanji and Pinky back.

It went there?!

Silence apart from the wind.

It’s running away? It’s so fast, even Pinky couldn’t possibly catch up to it. It still needs to protect the tower though. I need to keep my guard up.

A ray of light emerged from between the clouds. A glimpse of morning sunset. But the ray was thick and well defined, and it landed on Kanji’s chest. He gasped.

Pinky dashed sideways. Boom. The ray expanded and caused an explosion behind him, making his hair swing and leaving a crater of water below. The clouds cleared around the ray, revealing a red sun above them. Ouroboros appeared as if it circled around the sun’s circumference.

A spark shot out from the sun. As Pinky dashed, it curved, honing at them.

“Take this!” Kanji threw his hammer at the honing spark. They collided. Explosion. The hammer appeared back in his palm.

A barrage of hundreds of sparks came out of the sun in quick succession.

Pinky!

Pinky flew towards the sun. They turned and rolled as the sparks neared, forcing several to slam against each other and explode. One barely grazed them, Pinky jerking sideways at the last moment. A more coordinated wave, coming in a rotating circle, closing in from all directions like a bowl.

Inspiration. Ten hammers appeared around them in a circle, following them. The sparks hit the hammers, creating a cloud of fire, which Pinky flew right through.

They reached the snake. Pinky released Kanji in the air and flew away.

Slam. Kanji hit Ouroboros’s body, making it swing back to where Pinky was flying.

Switch. Pinky’s spear arm was swapped with Kanji’s hammer.

Give it your best hit!

Boom. Pinky hit the Ourboros, making it fly towards Kanji. Another switch.

They kept hitting it back and forth, falling, Ouroboros screaming in pain, barely managing to repair its injuries, exposing the blue skin underneath the green scales.

The blue giant hammer appeared above Kanji. Kanji yelled as it slammed Ouroboros into the ground.

Slam. A tsunami of red water.

Pinky caught Kanji in mid air.

Ouroboros’s motions slowed. It couldn’t escape before the next strike hit it. Slam. Slam. Slam. Slam. Slam… Kanji could not even count how many times he hit the snake until blue liquid leaked into the water around it. It must’ve been hours. Kanji paused, panting.

Is… is it dead?

Gunshot.

Pinky let go of Kanji.

Pinky?

Its head was gone.

Kanji slammed into the water, his arm and hip taking the hit of the fall. His bones hurt.

A shield of water appeared around Kanji. Five bullets slammed against it.

“What do you think you’re doing, Kanji-kun?” Yuki said.

“Yuki…” Kanji said.

He tried to heal him with snakes. But snakes would not appear.

Shit… it must be tied to Ouroboros in some way. That probably means no recovery for me too.

“You can’t eat the cake and leave it whole. As soon as that barrier goes down, you’re dead. You’re not useful to me anymore. If you stay there, Ouroboros will heal back up, and then I’ll kill you.” Yuki said.

“You underestimate the hammer,” Kanji said, “It’s a tool made by the Gods, to kill a God.”

“Gods? But I am made by Man, who made the Gods. I must be much more powerful.” Yuki said with a grin.

“Man did not make the Gods. Only its idols.”

“Are you so certain? You talk as if you saw them giving birth. Either way, everything you can do, I can Imitate.”

A cage appeared around Kanji’s barrier.

“Meatball.” she said.

The cage started crumbling around him.