Corpse March

Chapter 60 Killer Queen II

“Come on.”

Tsuki beats her chest.

“Come on! I know you’ve got a bit of juice left in there!” 

Tsuki almost smashes straight through her chest.  She can’t give up now. Not when there are people fighting to keep her alive, if even just for a second longer.

It seems that Tsumugi took what she said to heart and set a trap to catch the traitors. Now all she needs to do is seal the deal and join the fray. If there’s one last thing she gets to do on this Earth, she wants it to be for Tsumugi’s sake. 

“Come on.” She closes her eyes and focuses, really focuses. Everything that she is, everything that she was, and everything that she will be hinges on this moment. “You can do this.” 

And with that last push, she finally manages to stand.

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“I’ll take care of Kuroko, you focus on Tot– I mean, Haru.” 

“But–” 

“I don’t know what kinda grudge you have against Kuroko but I suggest you put it away for now.”

“You say that but you’re the one with a grudge against them both.”

Kazuko bites her lip. “This is different. This is personal.” 

“...fine.” 

They both begin their approach. Kikimi adjusts her glove and Kazuko wipes her rapier down. Across from them, clambering over the edge of the roof, are both Kuroko and Haru. They almost resemble revenants with their grim movements.

Kikimi makes the first move, chucking a coin in between the both of them, aiming to clean house with one decisive strike. She’s fast, but Haru’s faster. She swings KANNIBAL in a wide swing, batting the coin aside. Kikimi tries to detonate but it’s too late, it’s already flying off into the distance. 

Haru charges directly towards Kikimi, KANNIBAL trailing off behind her. There’s no time for Kikimi to fish for another coin so she prepares herself to catch KANNIBAL with her bare hands. A bad idea, but the best one she has. KANNIBAL’s blade is inches away from making contact with her face when there’s suddenly an eruption of sparks. 

Kazuko’s rapier stings KANNIBAL’s side, knocking it off-course. It misses Kikimi just barely, swinging over her head. Haru’s open. She jumps on the opportunity and plants her gloved hand on her stomach, turning a small chunk of her clothing into a bomb.

‘Click’

The detonation knocks Haru backwards all the way to the edge of the roof and even manages to score some burns on her abdomen.

“Nice moves.” Haru grins sorely. 

Kikimi throws another coin to try and finish off Haru but a quick raise of her hand and the plane of force springs into existence. Once again, no damage whatsoever. 

Kazuko doesn’t give Kuroko the time to set up her strings. While they’re hiding behind the plane of force, while Kuroko can’t intercept with her strings, she closes the gap between her and her opponents. 

Kuroko raises her arms in front of her in a close-combat stance and braces for Kazuko’s attack. First, Kazuko lunges deeply, deeper than should be possible for any regular human. Kuroko side steps the attack, but in doing so, falls for Kazuko’s feint. 

Meanwhile, Haru raises KANNIBAL up to try and get a decisive hit in on Kazuko but Kikimi has her covered. Another coin and she’s forced to change KANNIBAL’s trajectory to bat the coin away. 

Kazuko uses her front foot as an anchor, quickly retracts her hind leg and delivers a vicious upwards kick to Kuroko’s abdomen. Her legs lift off the ground slightly and blood comes out of her mouth. But that’s not the worst of it.

“Seal!” 

Kuroko feels something change within her. Like something very very important was just cut off. It feels like losing a limb. To some extent, something is still left behind, but something is unmistakably missing. 

She brings her elbow down on Kazuko’s outstretched leg but she’s too slow, Kazuko retracts her leg as she stands back up and Kuroko hits only air.  Extending her hands, she tries to conjure up her monomolecular string but something’s wrong. The strings don’t come. 

“What did you?–” 

The sorcery of Sealing, that is what Kazuko has mastered. The ability to negate her opponent’s sorcery simply by touching them is a powerful tool that forces her opponent to fight on her terms, even more so considering Kazuko’s deadly expertise with her rapier. 

Sensing danger, Kazuko interposes her rapier between her back and Haru. Sure enough, she feels a clang reverberate through her hand as KANNIBAL collides with Sasori. Kazuko pushes back, briefly knocking Haru off balance. In the tiny window between Haru stumbling and Haru regaining her balance, she whirls around to meet her. 

There’s a moment of silence as Kazuko catches her breath, Haru plants both her feet on the ground, and Kuroko prepares to fight with her bare hands. Kikimi doesn’t dare throw a bomb, lest Kazuko be caught in the blast radius so she simply sits back and watches. Haru nods to Kuroko and Kuroko nods at Haru. They charge at Kazuko at the same time. 

The three of them entangle into a deadly dance of back and forths. Kazuko constantly whirls back and forth, beating back their advances with a flurry of steel and immaculately-placed kicks. This is it, the difference between a Barrakuda lieutenant and two Girls Won’t Cry elites. Kikimi can’t help but look on in amazement. 

Kikimi blinks and she misses it. One moment they’re deadlocked, the next, Kuroko’s on her knees, nursing a deep slash on her chest while Haru’s on the backfoot, slowly but surely being overwhelmed by Kazuko’s speed. Eventually, Kazuko slashes her wrist, severing the tendon. KANNIBAL drops to the ground. 

“After all these years…” Kazuko levels the rapier at Haru’s face. “Your sins have finally caught up to you.” 

“What now, want me to cry? Want me to beg for my life?” Haru chuckles, though the sweat on her face betrays her nervousness. 

“Listen, Tot. I’m in a really good mood.” Kazuko takes a step towards Haru. Haru tries to take a step back but her foot brushes against the edge of the roof. “So I’m going to make you an offer. Apologize and I’ll let you go.” 

“...apologize for what–”

“GOD… DAMNIT–” Kazuko tries to take a deep breath to calm herself but it doesn’t work. “For killing all those people! For killing my friend?!” 

“Why should I?” 

“DID NONE OF THOSE LIVES MATTER TO YOU?!” 

“I did what I had to to survive. You know how hard it is to survive on those streets we call home. I admit that sometimes, I still think about whether some of those killings were necessary.” Haru swallows. “But I did what I did. Those mistakes, they made me who I am… and it seems that they made you who you are too.” 

“What…?”

“It’s only because of what I did that you’re like this, right? You took my advice. You got stronger, you went to Barrakuda, and now here you are, confronting your age-old enemy. What I did, in the end, it gave you strength. It gave you power.” Her intentions don’t matter. What she did doesn’t matter. The costs don’t matter. All that matters are the consequences– the results. 

“No… that’s wrong! It’s my resolve to avenge my friend that took me this far! I won’t accept this!”

“Without me, you’d still be some poor soul being exploited by the mercenary clubs.” Haru grins, it seems that the tables have turned, and she has her on the ropes. “Besides, what’s the difference between you and me? We both kill and stomp on other people’s lives for our own personal goals. Who cares if it’s for survival or revenge, both of our hands are dirty with blood and people have suffered because of what we did.”

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” Kazuko retracts her rapier before lashing out with it. 

Haru closes her eyes. Welp, this is it. She’s known from the beginning that this was a dangerous life that’s been handed to her. If this is the end, then so be it. In terms of regrets… she can’t really think of any. Ah, wait, no, Tsumugi. Right, she almost forgot. She supposes she has one regret– leaving her behind. Still, it was a fun romance while it lasted. And at least she got one last jab in on Kazuko.

Though, it seems that fate has other plans. A moment before Kazuko thrusts her rapier into Haru’s heart, there’s the sound of an immense hissing sound. An instant before Kazuko thrusts her rapier, Haru realizes that it’s the sound of an immense amount of steam being released all at once. 

Haru slowly opens her eyes. Suddenly standing between her and Kazuko is none other than Tsuki. She has Kazuko’s rapier clutched in her grip, and a smug grin on her face as she looks back at Haru. 

“You owe me for this.”