Chapter 7:

Unheard Song part 2

Memory 262


The more I got to know about Shin and his motives, the more confused I was. Many details were not making sense. What was I supposed to do? Fight him? Kill Him? Whatever I do, it needs to be done before I die.

“Yeah, I agree. We need to kill him and do it before you die or maybe before you will be reborn.” Xiba makes sense and doesn’t make sense at the same time. But I gotta admit she is right, I need to do this one way or the other as I don’t have much time left, and my memory is also fading.

“Wait, what you are losing your memory?” Xiba said.

“Yeah, it is true. I knew you could get that when I was thinking about it. Whenever I transform I lose a fragment of my memory and I still don’t know why.” I looked toward my left hand and thought, why is it happening to me?

Xiba grabbed my hand in between her palms and tried comforting me. “Don’t worry about it, we are in this together and we will find a way to cure it.”

“Thanks.” I was aware that she was going through a lot as well and there were things that she also wanted to change. It set my mind at ease and then I decided.

“Let’s just finish Shin once and for all, he needs to pay for what he has done to us and all before us. It’s time he pays for his sins.” I said with confidence.

“What about mine?” Xiba said something under her breath.

“What did you say Xiba?” She beamed at me and uttered. “I am happy that there is someone who understands me now.”

“Ah, no need., You were the one who helped me realise what needs to be done.”

We planned some stuff and talked about how we could improvise in case of getting compromised. Everything was quite simple, we needed to see Shin and finish him. We both visited him with an excuse of a check-up. We went to meet him at the head facility where they experimented with me. In the same dark room, the environment was gloomy as ever, not even a single person working there seemed cheerful or happy in the slightest. Well, working in a place like this can make anyone sick.

We were waiting for Shin to show but before we could meet him I received a call from Mika and she seemed to be speaking very cautiously. “Mika, what happened? Where are you?” I asked.

“I-I was visiting you but someone was standing outside your door, I tried approaching them but when they turned towards me, I realized that- oh no, he is approaching me. I tried running away but-.”

Her call disconnected, she was in danger and I didn’t know what to do. We were here to meet Shin but now I had to rush back and help her or else she could even-. “Tch, Xiba we need to do something before it’s too late.”

Xiba put her hand on my shoulder and said. “Yeah I understand, we should hurry back, we don’t even know who he was.”

Shin arrived as soon as we decided to leave. “Hey-hey, you are already leaving? Do you know where to find her, I mean it’s not like he will be waiting for you at your apartment.” Shin made some suggestions that made it clear who was behind it all.

“What the fuck have you done?!” I was fuming.

“Well, someone stole something from me, I don’t know why would someone betray me for no reason.” He looked at Xiba for a brief moment and smirked.

Xiba didn’t look happy as well, she was probably raging from inside, her angry face was enough to describe what was going on.

“You know what? I am not even displeased with you Xiba. So think about this as an opportunity for you to redeem yourself.” After saying that our watches got updated with a new location where the guy was holding Mika hostage. “Remember what I told you? The lives that matter the most are the useful ones. I don’t care otherwise.”

“I will never forgive you for what you have done,” I said.

“It’s alright, I don’t seek forgiveness. Go on and help her out.” He was having a cigarette as usual.

Xiba was getting furious, she grabbed my hand and yelled. “Let’s finish this later we have much more important business to take care of.” She was correct.

“Yeah, let’s move.”

When we arrived at the situation there wasn’t someone to be found, it was like an old warehouse with no modern things in it, it was dark inside. We heard a familiar voice and rushed towards it. There was no doubt about it that it was none other than Mika. When we tried reaching toward the voice, someone grabbed our shoulder from behind and threw us in the opposite direction of the voice. We couldn’t see the person who did this but Mika seem to be aware of the situation. She quickly got up on her feet and put her guard up.

“Ed, beware.” She warned me.

“Do you know who he is?” I asked.

“Maybe.” She was sweating, it was enough to signal us that we were in a very dangerous situation ourselves.

“Oh ho ho, we got someone familiar here, hun.” The strange voice was somewhat familiar.

“See if you can help yourself in the dark. I ain’t going easy on you kid just cuz I trained you.” He was addressing Xiba. I do remember her saying that someone trained her. Defeating him is not gonna be an easy task. I thought.

“Ed, save your energy. I will handle this situation myself.” Xiba said that with confidence. I believe in her, but I don't want her to get hurt.

“Okay but don’t push yourself too hard if something serious happened I will jump in.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She winked and showed me a thumbs-up sign.

The kidnapper attacked Xiba upfront with great force. Xiba crossed her elbows to absorb his flying kick and she still got pushed back and fell on her back. He didn’t stop there and went for another charge. He jumped and tried hitting Xiba with the heel of his right foot but missed as Xiba evaded. To be honest, if Xiba were to get hit by that, it could’ve been fatal. She retreated and took a defensive stance, raising her elbows to cover her neck and face.

I was concerned about Xiba, will she be able to beat him up?

“Will you do something or just going to defend and evade?” The guy wanted her to react by saying that but Xiba wasn’t reacting.

He threw a blade toward her but she couldn’t react fast enough to dodge it. It made contact with her right shoulder and she screamed. “Haaaa! Tch!” I remember her being too strong but why wasn’t she able to block him? I thought.

Watching Xiba struggle against an opponent who clearly had an upper hand was enough to make me throw in my hands but she stopped me.

“Don’t! I can handle it myself. The virus may have taken my few extra powers that came with it as well but I have learned from the best. I can do this.” She was confident that she could beat him.

“Hahaha, I have to give points for your bravery. Not, that you have any chance.” The mysterious man said.

“Oh, you never know. Ha!” Xiba replied. She was panting as her shoulder was injured but she was still standing on her feet.

“Let's do this then.” With that said, he jumped back from the shadows toward her but this time he was carrying his blade, he was coming in with bare hands. He punched but this time Xiba blocked him by grabbing his fish and used the momentum to pin him down to the ground with great force. It even surprised me.

“Hah, nice moves.” He said while being pinned to the ground.

“Thanks, learned from the best.”

Xiba then advanced by lifting her leg and slamming the foot toward his skull. This guy managed to kick her other leg and escape the hold. Xiba fell to the ground and couldn't hit him. It gave him enough time to kip up and grab his fallen sword. Xiba stood up again and made a run for him but he was quite fast, Xiba wasn’t able to keep up with his speed.

He turned and swung his sword toward Xiba, she was barely able to evade that.

“Not so fast.” He did not stop there, but once again attacked her with the sword. This time he wasn’t using the laser side of it but rather the handle. His moves were too fast for Xiba to handle and he was able to make contact and hit her head. She fell to her left side. “Ahhh!” She yelled. The more this fight was progressing, the more I realised how overwhelming our enemy was. Xiba wasn’t in her best shape either, She was trying her best to protect me and Mika.

“Xiba, that’s enough! You don’t have to do that!” I scream at her, I wanted to handle the situation now. She will easily lose her life if she kept persisting.

“Noo!!! I already decided that I will handle this.” She said while burning with pain. I never imagined I would see her suffer, not like this. Just to honour her wish I didn’t try interfering.

“Ohh soo courageous of you, little girl. How long can handle this cruelty.” The guy commented while looking down at her.

“Tch, now you’ll see, how courageous I actually am.” Xiba at that moment was different than I have ever seen her. She was fierce, she was furious, and she was burning with the desire to only reach one goal, the end of the adversary. All his taunting was helping her, fueling her to go even crazier and beyond what she was initially capable of.

She made her moves, she was faster and much stronger now. She punched at him and he evaded but when her punch landed on the ground, it almost broke the floor, leaving some cracks over the surface. All she needed was a moment where she could land her punch on him, that might change the outcome of this fight. Xiba tried reaching to him, but he was sly with his moves. He was blocking and evading efficiently and he wasn’t even breaking a sweat. I thought Xiba’s efforts were going in vain but., “Whoa ho! You aren’t stopping, are you?” He was finally getting worked up a bit, that was the moment Xiba was waiting for, to tire him and find an opening.

“I will only stop when you will die.” Xiba wasn’t sweating at all. He tried jumping backwards to get away from her continuous punching but Xiba caught him off guard, she jumped with him and in mid-air, she punched him on the chest and a loud thud came soon as her hand made contact. He fell to the ground with immense force, I thought he was done for. Lots of smoke and dust flew off the ground and covered the area, but as the smoke cleared, what I saw was nothing but something I wasn’t aware of.

Somehow this guy pierced the sword through her abdomen. He was lying on the ground with his armour crushed but Xiba was standing there, surprised at what happened in a flash.

“Xiba!!!” I screamed. I ran toward her. She fell to her knees, I supported her head with my left hand and tried removing the sword with my other. Xiba was still somehow smiling and coughing.

“Don’t worry about me, cough-cough, I just landed a great punch, didn’t I? Xiba wasn’t serious about her injury rather, she was celebrating that she did huge damage to the other guy.

“What are you saying? We should focus on you or the wound will become fatal.” I was able to focus on anything, I wasn’t thinking straight. The only option to finish this was to transform.

“Aaah! Sigh, that was a-amazing but not quite enough to finish me off.” He was still talking, I thought that would’ve been enough to knock him out but I was wrong. He was still a threat to us.

“He-he still is not fini-finished hun? I knew fighting Bright would be tough, but at least it was worth it. He can’t move as fast as he could before. Thanks, Ed, cough-cough, I am kinda fading ou-”

“Xiba, Xiba! Xiba!!! Oh no no no, you can’t just die. We wanted to achieve a goal, right? A goal that will set us both free.” She was losing consciousness and I was clinging to her as I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. Xiba was dying.

“Hey kid, I think you should let her sleep, she is good as dead now.” His words triggered me, it made me angry. All I wanted to see now was his blood splatter everywhere. Xiba was still breathing, I removed the blade and tied her wound tightly using my jacket. My only objective was to kill this weakened guy now.

“I-I am actually quite proud of her, she managed to hit me that hard just using her fis-”

“Shut the fuck up., A dead body should not talk arrogantly. You should bow your head and beg for mercy, not that it will help." I was gonna tear him apart, I was gonna kill him.

My left hand started bulging and before I knew it, my arm was transformed. The veins were popping and my claw was ready to crush his head into bits.

“Ohh? I kinda expected that when I abducted the girl but to be honest I thought maybe it was about something else. If you are ready to tussle, then I am ready to die.”

He smirked, and we both ran toward each other with only one objective in mind to kill.