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2024-10-29 19:42:56Chapter 6
KENJI
“Gabby, didn’t know you were joining in. I would’ve made arrangements” I smiled. “Oh, you should see your face. You look so cute when you’re angry.”
“I’m gonna—”
“Kill me?” I gripped my knife a little harder. “Yeah, like I haven’t heard that a million times. Come on now, make this a little interesting. Come up with some new material. Hit me with something I haven’t seen already. Indulge me, Gabby.”
*CRASH*
I looked up and noticed that the clear afternoon sky had become riddled with thunderclouds. How did? Of course. Ittetsu was no longer wincing on the floor. Should’ve killed that pest the second I saw him.
“What’s the matter? Can’t handle a little rain?”
“I see you little protectors still have that annoying habit of avoiding one-on-one’s. Somethings never change right?”
“Only reason I didn’t kill you four years ago was because Adachi didn’t see it as a befitting end. Congratulations on making me regret that decision"
“Give it a rest, would ya. It's been four years” I adjusted my stance, now more determined.
“You still have a chance Gabby. Join me. We need someone like you. Someone with your powers, with your intelligence. Together, we will be unstoppable.”
*SWAT*
An uppercut rocked me so hard, I staggered and almost fell to the ground.
“That one packed a punch” I thought to myself, spitting out the soreness.
How’d she get so close so quickly? The little witch had some new tricks up her sleeve. I had to—
“Ryuu?”
“What?”
I turned back as fast as I could, and saw the kid running straight for me. What? He’s supposed to be—
*SWAT*
How was this punch even harder than the last?
*THUD*
This time, I collapsed and clattered down to the tarred road.
“How dare you” I heard, picking myself up and immediately baptized in amazement. “I told you, I’m not done.”
“Oi, now I’m intrigued” I let out without thinking.
The kid was still bleeding. I could tell by the way he clutched his stomach with his hands.
“Ryuu, we can handle—”
“No!” he shut the respawned Ittetsu up before he could suck all the attention.
Ripping off his shirt, he wrapped it around his stomach, tightening its grip on his skin, but not shrieking for a single second. The rain made his hair a little damp, so he packed it back and tied it into a messy bun. “I’ve got it from here.”
“Now you’ve really gotten my attention kid” I smiled at his guts. “This might just be the most pumped I’ve been for a fight in years. Now I’ve got to hit you… with my best” I set out in a burst of pace, but this time, he didn’t reciprocate the energy. Just watched as I got closer, and closer, and closer. Almost like he was calculating something. I watched his eyelids flicker the second a drop of rain fell to his nose. What was this kid so focused on that made him want to—
*SWIPE*
I didn’t see this one coming. He squatted down and swiped for my legs instinctively. Ah yes, the dumbass was trying to use the slippery roads against me. That’s why he waited for me to sprint towards him and didn’t sprint back. He was trying to outsmart me. What a fool.
I leaped off the ground and propelled a powerful kick straight for his head, when out of nowhere, he caught me.
Tsk
“Ahhhhhh!!!”
With a burst of powerful energy, he held my feet but reversed the direction of my motion, sending me plummeting back first on the wet ground.
The second the back of my head smacked against the tar, I went blank.
Was this kid actually beating me at my own game? How did he change his mode of attack so—
Huh?
I saw him fly in the air with a charged up fist ready to sink right through my face, but I managed to evade just in time and his knuckles went through the floor.
“Alright. That’s enough” I picked myself off the ground. “Now you’re just pissing me off.”
*SLINGGGG*
I flung the knife straight for his feet. It punctured through and pinned his left leg to the ground. This was an opening. This was my chance.
*DASH*
Sprinting straight for him, I charged up a demonic right of my own. But that was the moment I saw this kid pull of a move I’d never seen.
He jumped off the floor, but his left leg was still pinned by the knife. So instead of going for a normal kick, he went for a roundhouse. I heard the tweak in his leg the moment he shifted his body weight. Just so he could land a hit, he broke his feet.
*SMACKK*
It connected perfectly, and that should’ve been the end of it, but he wasn’t done there. The force of the follow-through unpinned his left leg with the knife still in it, and he went for an outrageous second. I saw his knife-pierced feet fly precariously for my face. But his first kick had already rocked me. There was no way I was dodging this one.
*SLASHH*
It gashed me across the cheek, but not before piercing through my left eye and sending streaks of blood splattering out with the drops of rain.
*CLAT*
*THUD*
We both slammed to the ground but I was worse off than the nineteen-year-old.
I thought he hadn’t conjured his dragon?
Wasn't he supposed to be weak?
How… How was he so—
I turned my head to sneak a view. Ryuu was bleeding out of his mouth.
How was he this strong?
The last Conjura.
I was expecting a lot, but not this much. At this rate, he would be stronger than—
“Ryuu, are you okay?” Gabby rushed to his side. “Oh my God, you’ve lost a lot of blood.”
My eyes trailed down to the cloth he’d used to tie his bleeding stomach, and it was soaked in blood.
“Start the car up Ittetsu, we need to get him to a hospital quickly.”
“What about Kenji?” he said, glancing at me.
Don’t tell me these bastards are gonna pity me after everything we’ve—
“Yeah? What about him?”
Gabby didn’t even turn to look at me. Didn’t even acknowledge my presence for a single second.
“Start the car!” she barked, picking Ryuu’s bloodied body up and heading for the 2019 Toyota Corolla.
They left me. They both left me in the soaking rain as I slowly bled to death, half blind.
The revving engine zoomed off, and passed my cold body.
Why was I feeling bad all a sudden? It’s not like I deserved their pity. So what if we were comrades once upon a time? I left them first, right?
My lungs collapsed and more blood trickled out my eyes.
“And I was so close too.”
The thunderstorm only grew worse. Didn’t expect any less. I was seconds from death.
“Are you sure you don’t want any help?” An unfamiliar character echoed up, and I turned my head to the side.
“Who—?”
“Character of common interest” he squatted down and looked me straight in the eye. “A little birdie told me you once shared the #3 spot of the protectors.”
Tsk. I didn’t respond.
I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the protectors, talk less about the third spot I’d shared with my ‘sister’.
“In that case, we’ll definitely be able to help each other out” he continued.
“I want nothing to do with those people.”
“And I want to burn them to the ground” he doubled in ferocity, and it caught my eye. My good one, that is. “See, common interest.”
“W… Wh… Who are you?”
My breath was fading.
“I’m the one who’s about to save your life…” he said, more serious.
He rose his left palm and a streak of white light encircled it.
“…that is, if you’re open to striking a deal, Kenji Ohara.”
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Chapter 15
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