[Inari Standoff]: Blindfolds and Wounds

Saint raised his staff skyward, collecting the raging lightning from the sky into the staff's crescent tip. Blinding flashes of lightning forced Osamu to cover his face, the afterimages of White Saint burned onto the back of his eyelids. White Saint thrusted his staff forward, firing the blast of lightning right at Osamu.

Osamu blocked the blast with his arm, but was knocked back several yards across the runway. As he stood up again, he saw the skin and flesh on his arm slowly melting off of the bone, screaming as the odor of his own, burning flesh filled his nostrils.

"Oh no! Hang in there, mortal!" Inari cried.

White Saint lunged at Osamu with inhuman speed, ready to stab his staff directly through Osamu chest, but Inari's quick reflexes allowed Osamu to flip over Saint and dodge the flurry of stabs and slashes. Finding an opening, Osamu kicked Saint in the sternum, knocking him across the tarmac.

"Wretched demon!" White Saint growled, standing up again.

White Saint plunged his sword onto the tarmac, sending streaks of blue lightning Osamu's way. He backflipped behind a van, hiding behind it as the lightning struck and burnt the paint off of the vehicle. Osamu put his foot on the van, and with one thrust of his leg, sent it flying towards White Saint. Saint immediately rolled out of the way, dodging the flying van as it bursted into flames behind him.

"Any ideas, Inari?!" Osamu shouted.

"Yeah, forgive me for this one!" Inari said.

Osamu ripped off his own arm, or what was left of it, and threw the burnt, melted limb into Saint's face as a distraction. Osamu then leaped up on top of the parked airplanes, hopping from one plane to the other. Osamu clutched his empty arm socket as Saint pursued him from the ground.

"Damn it, that hurt!" Osamu cried.

"We need to be able to get the jump on him, but we can't do that from out here! We need to get inside, stop the bleeding, and then work on surprising him! Once we get his heart, I can give you back your arm." Inari explained.

A bolt of lightning just barely missed Osamu, striking the metal of the plane below Osamu's feet. It weakened and gave way, plunging him directly inside of the dark interior, just shy of the cockpit.

"Damn, it doesn't look like he's going to let us get away!" Osamu said, coughing.

White Saint pointed his staff at the plane Osamu fell into, gritting his teeth as he used all of his strength to lift the plane up into the sky, its nose pointing skyward. Osamu fell all the way to the back as the massive commercial jet slowly lifted off of the tarmac and up into the sky, attracting bolts of lightning as it got closer to the furious storm clouds.

Inside, Osamu kept his head down to avoid the lightning and shattered glass falling around him. He inched his way up from the back of the plane, using the seats as stepping stones. He looked out of the window, seeing the plane being lifted off of the runway.

"What the hell is he doing?! Is he insane?!" Osamu screamed.

"Damn him!" Inari hissed.

Osamu kept climbing up, using the seats as stepping points as the plane disappeared behind the clouds. The plane's metal shook and moaned as lightning stabbed it from every direction, igniting a violent fire in the left wing. The light of the flames beamed through the windows, washing Osamu in an orange glow as he slowly climbed his way closer to the cockpit.

"Mortal, I've got a bad feeling about this!" Inari cried.

"That makes two of us!" Osamu exclaimed.

Suddenly, Osamu felt the plane come to a brief stop. His heart almost stopped beating in that split second as he realized White Saint released control of the plane. Osamu screamed as he felt the plane get pulled back down towards the tarmac, falling from the sky at subsonic speed. Osamu had just managed to make it into the cockpit as the plane made a rapid descent towards the runway.

"Mortal, shut the cockpit door!" Inari ordered.

"You don't need to tell me, just do it! You're the one in control of my body!" Osamu screamed, sweating profusely.

"This might hurt your arm, mortal!"

With his one remaining arm, Osamu punched a hole through the side of the cockpit and leaped out of the plane. White Saint watched as the plane crashed down to earth, tail first. The metallic screams of metal twisting and churning blared through the airport before the plane exploded into a ball of flames, sending flaming debris up into the sky like fireworks.

Unbeknownst to White Saint, Osamu had jumped out of the plane and had crashed through a glass frame in the ceiling of the airport just after the crash, landing him back inside. The airport was completely dark. Though some emergency lights were on, most of the lights were knocked out from the storm.

Osamu laid his back against the nearest wall, clutching his severed arm and feeling the pain of such a tremendous fall. Inari leaped out of his body, immediately tending to his wounds.

"You know, you're like a god damn Eva pilot with my body!" Osamu scolded.

"I'm sorry! I'm really sorry! Just hold still, I'll stop the bleeding! It might burn a little!" Inari stammered.

Inari began licking Osamu's melted arm, causing the limb to steam and the wounds to close up. At the same time, tasting Osamu's blood and flesh gave Inari a bit more strength to continue the fight. Her lips painted red with his blood, Inari watched as the bleeding stopped and the wounds sealed themselves. It was a far cry from getting his arm back, but at least this way, Osamu wouldn't bleed to death.

"How does it feel?" Inari asked.

Osamu took deep, slow breaths, struggling to stay coherent. "I feel...kind of dizzy..."

Inari grabbed Osamu by the neck, inching her face closer to his. "Fuck. You're going into shock. Here, take the blood off my lips."

Osamu and Inari shared another deep and bloody kiss, giving Osamu a good shot of energy and instantly snapping him out of his hypovolemic shock.

"Better?" Inari asked.

Osamu nodded. "I feel a lot better!"

Inari also took a sigh of relief and sat against the wall. "Thank goodness..."

Osamu closed his eyes and smiled. "Thank goodness? Were you worried for me?"

"Like I said, I'm depending on you here. Besides, you're the first person I had ever told that story to. The one about Tenji."

"I'm the first?"

"Never trusted another human enough to tell it to anyone else."

(She really...really...)

Osamu looked away from her, staring into his own lap as his tears blurred his vision. For some reason, hearing that from Inari made him so incredibly happy, but also so terrifyingly sad. Inari was actually starting to trust him. Him, of all people. Him, who couldn't even save the life of a single girl. Him, who was only at that airport because of sheer coincidence in the first place. Him, who had given her a thousand different reasons as to why he stayed and helped her, none of them really lies, but none of them actually true either.

He laughed as tears rolled down his cheeks, much to Inari's confusion.

"H-hey?! What's wrong?" Inari asked.

Osamu shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm crying..."

Inari's eyes sunk in sympathy. "Mortal..."

Inari helped Osamu up, and the two stood tall together once more. "If you and I are going to die, it's not going to be tonight, and definitely not to him. So, no more crying. We're going to get Saint's heart and I will heal the both of us. It's our destiny to win here."

Osamu nodded. "Okay...I trust you."

Osamu dried his eyes, and despite his injuries, returned a determined gaze to Inari. She smiled and closed her eyes.

"You know, mortal, I'm glad you and I met. Now then..."

Inari opened her eyes again, ready to press onward. "Let's finish this."

Having realized Osamu was not in the wreckage of the plane, White Saint ventured inside of the cold and dark airport. Emergency lights lit up the occasional hallway, but the darkness made it difficult for White Saint to see. Standing on the other end of the hallway with his shadow elongated by the light behind him, Osamu stood in wait.

"I'm amazed. Truly impressed indeed. How did you manage to survive such an awful crash?" White Saint asked.

"With a little help from my friend." Osamu said.

"What is your name, mortal?"

"Osamu. Osamu Ashikaga."

"Did you say...Ashikaga?" White Saint snickered. "So you're the brat that laid siege to Heaven and killed Bishamon. Tell me, why do you aid the fox demon? Why do you allow her to possess you? You do realize you're aiding a divine criminal right?"

"Yeah, I know. Honestly, it's one of my own enemies that taught me to do things like this, to do awful things for the sake of a noble deed. The things Inari went through in the past should stay in the past. There's no reason to be hunting Inari now. Do you even know why you have to kill her, or are you just blindly following orders? You can see perfectly well, yet you cover your eyes with a white veil. Why not try to see things with your own eyes, White Saint?"

"From where I'm standing, it's you who's blind." White Saint protested. "You blindly allied yourself with two criminals and laid siege to Heaven. You blindly allowed a young girl to transform into a Jikininki. And now you blindly ally yourself with one of the worst criminals this pantheon has ever seen. You're a threat not only to your wives, but also to yourself. But that's exactly what you want, isn't it?"

"That's the problem with you exorcists. You think you know us all so well. You hadn't met Inari or me until today. Just what are we doing here, White Saint? Have you even asked yourself that?"

White Saint laughed. "Have you?"

"...Looks like we've talked long enough." Osamu said, opening his eyes. White Saint immediately noticed the red shine in his eyes were gone. Inari wasn't possessing him. He realized it far too late.

Inari lunged out of the darkness, sinking her fangs into his neck and tackling him to the ground. He dropped his staff onto the floor, his eyes twitching beneath his white blindfold. He had been so caught up in fighting Osamu that he forgot a key component of their fight. Inari could leap in and out of Osamu's body as she pleased.

Inari growled as she squeezed her jaws, sinking her teeth further into his throat. "I've got you...White Saint.”