Chapter Hundred Forty-One

Blood Scarecrow

 

Careful, now.

He had to tell himself that, on repeat. To not lose his head, to not let this chance slip away like it had last time.

Hibiki was, essentially, immortal through having multiple bodies -- in numbers far greater than Nekohiko's. But the numbers and the damage redirection he could pull were nothing compared to the fact that Hibiki could slip through the cracks and hide. And wait away somewhere safe until he could return far stronger than before.

Exactly like a cockroach. Unkillable, disgusting... and so unbelievably slippery.

Nekohiko had to finish him off. Without giving him a single opportunity to flee. Cautiousness was a must.

But... he just couldn't help himself.

Rampage pumped in his blood, rushing him to devastate everything in his path. The rooms were already a ruin, but there were still moving bits around. Part of the mechanical dummies, and several doll guards spared by Nekohiko's blast.

Each and one of them could potentially house Hibiki's consciousness.

Energy currents sizzled and sputtered with lava and electricity as Nekohiko flung his arms every which way. Anywhere he saw even a flash of motion. His spells blew up the rest of the room -- bright like sun fire, leaving behind only the rainfall of debris.

He dashed out of the way, not giving a damn even about his left leg crumbling underneath him from a misstep. The makeshift leg sucked, but hey -- it would get him to Hibiki.

Only at the half-melted doors of the Imperial bedroom did Nekohiko meet any resistance. Doll guards.

"Stop right there, or we--"

"TAKE HIM DOWN!" Hibiki roared at his dummy guards and mannequins. From beyond the doors, his cries were getting ever more desperate. "I don't fucking care -- set him on fire, destroy him, obliterate him from the face of the earth!"

Lights flashed as the first spells of the dummy dolls flew at Nekohiko. But these spells were such a confused mess of protective barriers, shields, repulsion zones -- and a plethora of attack spells. Like a rainbow mixture of explosive bits of Binding. Glowing in so many hues and with so many elements... Anything, to stop Nekohiko from approaching.

How pathetic.

He rooted himself down, crossing his arms before his face for the simplest of deflections. Just his Imperial power level was enough to defend himself against all of that. And in regards to cutting through the enemies to get to Hibiki...

Nekohiko swerved, his legs making a roundhouse arc in the air --

-- and the force of the wind so strong, it could cut metal, slashed at them. Right down the middle.

He didn't even land to the floor yet, and already, he amassed a flurry of Splitting spells to spray around him like darts. He did not spare his magic at all. He didn't care if he got exhausted or nearly killed himself in this attempt.

He was getting to Hibiki today, now -- no matter what.

In the eerie silence of all the dolls around him getting quiet at once, he landed hard on the floor, shattering the last bits of the elaborate tiles beneath his feet. His makeshift leg cracked from the impact, but he didn't pay it heed.

Not when the beautiful shatter of all the dolls and mannequins of Hibiki's was so loud and inspiring to him. Fewer bodies for Hibiki to escape into? Already better.

"Hibiki!" Nekohiko called, brimming with bloodthirst.

The last chunks of the melting door metal clanged to the floor amidst the charred remains of the furniture and doll limbs.

Beyond it...

Hibiki. Standing just a step away from the Imperial bed on which Abihiko was strung up like an animal ready for slaughter. And with how many knives were at Hibiki's disposal to make use of that situation...

Nekohiko's eyes shrunk into narrow slits. His lips dragged outward, grinning madly.

A perfect mirror to Hibiki's own restricted emotional palette.

"You wanted me to be yours that badly?" Nekohiko asked him, quivering with rage. "Well, I'm all yours. Happy?"

...

Hibiki stared at him with such a blank, empty expression, Nekohiko was once again reminded how much in common this young monster had with his myriads of dolls. Nekohiko almost grew scared of Hibiki having already escaped into some other body of his -- far away from here, where Nekohiko would not find him!

But no.

Still here.

If solely to spit back the most inane complaint Nekohiko could imagine.

"Stop fucking stealing my Binding techniques! They are not for you -- they are not for anyone! I made them! I! Not one of you morons has the shred of talent I have--"

In the middle of a ravaged room, holding one curved whittling knife in his hand over the Abihiko's body, covered in rock dust and spatters of blood...

Hibiki still found a way to be utterly himself.

Raging about something nobody ever cared about.

"I will bury you in your rotting cat corpse -- you do not even deserve the human body I made for you! Ingrate!"

No wonder he was not afraid of Nekohiko as most people would be. He could flee at any time... who knew how many bodies he even had? Could be hundreds...

Thus, Hibiki allowed himself to dawdle and speak. Probably dragging time till Morokata would come here.

Your grave, Hibiki.

"Dear Moro will be so mad at you, just so you know," Hibiki promised Nekohiko in the barely-audible voice. "He might actually let me maim the hell out of you, for doing something like this. None of his manners will save you after the shit YOU PULL."

He slowly extended his hand with the knife toward Abihiko as though intending to cut his throat. But Nekohiko didn't flinch.

Oh sure. Hibiki? Spending a full day's worth on making those spell arrays on Abihiko under Morokata's orders?

Morokata had said several times that Abihiko had to be alive for the spell to be useful to them. There was no chance in hell Hibiki would undo all the hard work he'd committed to this.

Because -- true. Hibiki had many strengths nobody else did.

But he also had his weaknesses. Being genuinely distressed at seeing his work neglected or ruined -- was one of them. The most important one.

"Do not you dare!" Nekohiko shouted, snapping his hands once more in a potent formation of a Nagare blast.

But he was only acting.

Let Hibiki think he had an edge on Nekohiko. If Hibiki knew he could not win, he would just flee. For Nekohiko, that would be a defeat. Letting this bastard live was not an option.

Argh, Nekohiko wanted to fling the spell right into Hibiki's repugnant face -- but he kept his emotions in check. Not yet. Not now.

Now was the time for being smart.

Instead, he made a quick maneuver, swinging his leg in the air to push Hibiki away from the bed. A distraction. Solely to show off the new, ugly leg Nekohiko had made out of the random materials.

Which was precisely enough.

Hibiki gaped in horror, almost forgetting to shield himself from Nekohiko's air blast. He hunched down, withstanding the gust of violent wind, but could not take his eyes away from Nekohiko's body and the damage it had suffered.

"VILLAIN! What did you do to my doll?!"

Nekohiko aimed the spell in his hands at the bed, using the moment of Hibiki's wavering focus. Abihiko shifted out of the damage area just in time, as though anticipating a hit.

The two of them even thought the same way. Without having to say it. Nekohiko needed his help. Alone, defeating Hibiki would not be possible.

One rope tie on Abihiko's hand popped with a violent clap, all the reinforcing Binding energy seeping out of it. Yet the leftover three -- holding his ankles and his other hand -- held together. Abihiko hissed, cursing, but got to business. He bit into the bandages on his fingers that prohibited his casting and ripped them off with his teeth.

Nekohiko trusted him on this. Abihiko could free himself just fine even with only one hand at his disposal.

Instead, Nekohiko focused all his attention on Hibiki. The maniac had rolled away, as though realizing he was outmatched in this battle, after all. One more moment of clear thinking -- and he would run, Nekohiko could swear!

"I am not your doll," Nekohiko called him, trying to get as much attention out of him as possible. Slowly, he sidestepped to be closer to Abihiko as though to shield him with his body from Hibiki's glare. "And that table I have used to make my new leg with? That is now the best part of my body, Hibiki. One that you have never touched."

Hibiki's deranged eyes found him again.

A flicker of doubt coursed through them, and Nekohiko decided to strike before too late. Hibiki was moving with a bit of delay. He seemed to be shifting in and out of this body -- perhaps trying to communicate with Morokata elsewhere.

Slippery bastard.

But he did not leave yet. His curiosity kept him here, returning to check what Nekohiko's next actions would be.

How ballsy he was, coming back solely because he thought he could always abandon this place. Whenever he wanted.

To Hibiki, this was merely a bizarre distraction, not anything he would lose if worse came to worst.

Nekohiko's resolve hardened. His mouth washed over with bile.

He had. to keep. Hibiki. here.

"Is this what you call a perfect body, huh?!" he raised his voice. He rucked the sleeve of his beautiful Hisome robes, exposing a slender, cherry-blossom pale forearm as though to marvel at the silky skin that had come from under Hibiki's care.

It was a lovely-made body, yes.

But Nekohiko did not care for it even a little. It wasn't his real one.

"What are you doing--" Hibiki mouthed when he saw Nekohiko wielding a Splitting technique in his other hand. "Wait -- you have NO right to do that--! My property!!'

Desperate, Hibiki whipped his hands to deflect Nekohiko's spell, but too late.

Nekohiko sliced right through his own forearm with a sharp, cruel spell -- thin like a blade. The spell almost cut into the wooden carcass at the core of his hand, but Nekohiko swirled it around instead. He only needed to cut all the flesh and skin through, not the wooden core.

It hurt.

Of course it did.

His cheeks scalded with tears even as he cut into his own skin and flesh -- yet he still went on with it. Because he knew this sight hurt Hibiki much more.

"STOP, bad doll!"

Nekohiko grabbed at the cut edge of the skin and flesh Hibiki had made only half a day ago. And with a fierce cry of pure agony, he ripped it all off his wooden hand like one would a very thick and resistant glove.

"Mmmnnnn," Nekohiko sobbed, unable to hold in the pain that seared through his right hand -- to the shoulder and into the spine. Sweat beaded on his face as chills raked through him. He almost collapsed to his knees from the overexertion, but he endured the pain nonetheless.

Solely to witness Hibiki's unraveling madness.

Hibiki fell to his knees, too, reaching out as though to stop Nekohiko from ruining the perfection he had made. Hibiki's eyes hollowed of all color and life, gaping dimly as though not seeing anything before him. But his lips...

"Do you fucking have any idea how many infants we had to buy to get these ingredients from them?! You... baby killer! Wasting such... beauty!"

...

Baby killer. Sure.

"You ARE a monster like they said!" Hibiki screamed at him, brokenly. "You have no value for anything others do for you--"

One last zap of Binding energy came from behind Nekohiko. Then a whoosh of air as Abihiko sprang to his feet, stopping right against Nekohiko.

Clearly not knowing what to do other than give Nekohiko the most frustrated of looks.

"Neko, are you hurt...?"

Yes.

But also -- not really.

Nekohiko had something to tell him, so low, only Abihiko would hear.

"He will run again."

The only thought they needed to share. Urgency in Nekohiko's tone came through to Abihiko.

He understood, in a flash. The reason why Nekohiko was destroying his own body -- to distract Hibiki and keep his attention here at least for a while, and the reason Nekohiko couldn't tell anything more for the fear of letting Hibiki know.

Nekohiko added, even lower, "Repeat the spell he did before he killed the cat. I'll hold him off."

Just one glance -- as Abihiko's and Nekohiko's eyes met, and Abihiko nodded, accepting the plan. He slid behind Nekohiko, turning away to cast a spell of his own.

Which one?

The Towa Memory spell, of course. The only one the two of them had at their disposal to try and steal another of Hibiki's utterly creative and only slightly mad genius innovations.

That spell to trap all the minds and consciousnesses -- within a certain area. The one he had cast mere minutes ago, right before he'd destroyed the cat.

In other words, a spell like a cage no mind could escape.

Including Hibiki's.

 

 

---

***

 

Nekohiko had thought about it the moment he had launched his attack on Hibiki here tonight.

The surest way to defeat the ugly bastard like Hibiki was to trap his mind and consciousness somewhere and obliterate it there -- not letting even a single bit escape. But Nekohiko did not know such a method. Probably nobody did. Because, before Hibiki and Nekohiko, nobody had possessed multiple bodies at once.

There had to be a way, though. Managing to house one's mind in several bodies at once was a Binding technique. Thus, the solution to it also had to come from Binding! But Nekohiko also knew he was not smart enough to come up with a spell to do that...

He didn't even know who would since this age wasn't that generous with brilliant inventors of new magic techniques. Except for... one.

A very prodigious young man. A deranged one, and a vile human being.

But also a genius so advanced, he had to have come up with a way to negate any way for a mind to escape into numerous other bodies.

The plan was simple. Nekohiko's cat body would expose to Hibiki that he could redirect damage and maim the human doll through that.

This would infuriate Hibiki enough to want to stop the cat from doing that. And... yay.

He would show Nekohiko exactly the method with which to imprison other people's minds from escaping into their other bodies.

For a magical prodigy, Hibiki was woefully predictable. The downside was that there was no way Nekohiko -- from seeing the spell being cast a single time -- be able to repeat it and use against Hibiki. His memory wasn't that good.

But the Towa Memory spell would allow him. Replaying the sequence of magical formations Hibiki had used -- so many times, Nekohiko would manage to copy the spell. Or in Hibiki's own words -- to steal it.

Lastly, as all ancient spells like Memory were, Nekohiko wouldn't be able to cast it and not have his ass beaten down by Hibiki in the process. Memory required concentration and time. Something Nekohiko did not have while trying his best to distract Hibiki and keep him here.

And that was why having a husband who knew him so well he could almost read his mind -- was so damn perfect.

Because, apart from Nekohiko witnessing Hibiki's stupid mind-trapping spell... Abihiko had been there, too. It did not matter which one of them copied the spell from their Memory.

What mattered was that they did.

 

 

---

***

 

"Now, what about this?! Do you not love my body anymore, Dear Hibiki?! Is it not perfect enough for you to molest?" Nekohiko kept going while Abihiko was busy with searching his Memory for the exact combination of spell formations and sequences of Hibiki's.

Nekohiko cut off Hibiki's routes to try and assault him with his own meager magic. Despite being scarily good with Binding, Hibiki was not a fighter. He was mostly good with incantations and runes and ritual arrays requiring a lot of time to be done.

Driven mad by Nekohiko's taunting, Hibiki occasionally smashed a few weak attacking spells at him. But slapping them off wasn't much harder than smacking a fly.

Thus, Hibiki had to summon his dolls from wherever he could. The Imperial quarters had much more of them here outside of Nekohiko's direct path of destruction. A swarm of them poured in through the collapsed wall and doorway -- humanoid ones, tiny dollies like a little girl's toys, and even the carrier and cleaner dummies that looked more like boxy tables and rickety spiders than anything coherent.

Nekohiko disposed of them, too, without so much as blinking.

"I will rip both your limp dicks off you and make you choke on them, you scum bastards!" Hibiki raged in the background while Nekohiko raised waves upon waves of hurricane blasts to keep all the dolls away from himself and Abihiko in the epicenter.

Because he absolutely needed no interruptions to what he was doing. To his own body.

It was hard to tell if these were seconds or minutes or hours -- because pain was such a terrible way to count time with. But it couldn't have been hours. Otherwise Morokata would already be here.

Must be mere minutes, but... oh Spirits, what minutes these were! Each tiny second stretched infinitely under duress. But Nekohiko had to do it to himself, even if it was a living hell for him to experience -- for the second time today.

To keep Hibiki's rage at its overflowing point that clouded Hibiki's mind -- Nekohiko kept gradually destroying all the work Hibiki had done on him today.

And to do that, Nekohiko had to flay himself alive. Again.

This time, by himself.

And with how much time it took Abihiko to access the Memory of Hibiki's trapping spell and to copy it... Nekohiko was running out of the body parts he could rip off his wooden skeleton and fling at Hibiki in a disturbingly warm, jelly-like goo made of skin, flesh, and blood.

The floor under Nekohiko was already slippery with gore, and his body was maimed so horribly, there was no part of him that would not paralyze people in terror upon seeing him.

He was, quite literally, a skeleton of wood, covered head to toe with slick, searing-red blood.

But... not exactly head to toe.

Not yet.

Nekohiko trembled, panting so fast, he felt lightheaded from the clashes of pain at his own torment and pleasure he derived from seeing Hibiki tormented, as well.

"Do you like me now, too, Dear Master?" Nekohiko laughed, eerily. "How about now?"

"There will still be parts of you that are forever mine!" Hibiki growled back through the haze of fuming. He stood in the opposite end of the room, shielded from Nekohiko by a small coterie of guarding dolls that had been spared by Nekohiko's more destructive attacks.

Hibiki leered. "You don't want my mark on you, Emerald? Well, you are only able to cast and fuck your stupid imbecilic boyfriend because I made you like this! I gave you your mobility back! I gave you your face -- what are you without it all?! Just a haggard pile of wooden sticks! A scarecrow!"

True.

But better to be a scarecrow than to be yours.

All this skin and flesh aren't even mine. They had belonged to their rightful owners. Ones you have tortured to death to get these materials from.

Nekohiko's fingers were so thickly-coated with blood, he didn't bother to cast another cutting Utsuro spell to help himself. Instead, he dug his fingers into his own eyes, gripping the edge of the lower eyelids from there and turning it inside out -- just like a mask he did not care about wearing any longer.

A broken howl exploded out of his own mouth as he tore through his face -- his lovely, sweet face so many had been endeared to look at these past few months. Including Abihiko, his husband.

But Nekohiko did not stop.

With one violent jerk -- he ripped it off and flung it in Hibiki's direction. Everything in him shook and buzzed with revulsion and fright and instant regret...

His face... His body...

Not gone, really. But... everything that looked human about him, that was lovely or inviting or in any way appealing... was now down on the floor. Nothing more than a puddle of flesh and blood and gelatinous strings of fat. His wooden skull-like face was flooded with dripping blood, and his flowing curtains of hair stuck to it. Squished eye jelly clogged his eye sockets, not letting him even see beyond this endless river of red and strands of black hair obstructing his view.

He must have been a sight.

All that was left of him was just, really...

The wooden scarecrow. Something too haggard to even look at, let alone like.

...

But then, Hibiki's crushing sob of outrage split the silence of the room, and Nekohiko knew.

...

He did not regret a thing.

It was worth it. Not having any gift of Hibiki's taste or preferences on him. Showing the world his true face. Getting rid of every single thing Hibiki had thought Nekohiko would love to wear.

Go fuck yourself, Hibiki.

Nekohiko had no lips to smile with anymore -- but then again, a skull was always smiling, no?

Even a wooden one.

"Neko, ready!" Abihiko cried out from behind him, and Nekohiko's soul sang with him. Because, even though Hibiki was demolished by what he was seeing in Nekohiko's repugnant, hideous skeletal body, Abihiko, on the other hand...

...did not even care about the difference.

Nekohiko's fingers snapped into formations. He curled them inward, drawing all the blood that stuck to his wooden face like paint and limited his sight. Then he flipped it off, spraying all the excess blood away from himself in an arch.

...

Oh, it felt good.

He saw much better now, even though he had no true eyeballs to see with. Only the eye sockets in his menacing, skull-like grimace. But that was how his wooden body had always worked. Even the semblance of eyes allowed him his sight.

And in it, he saw the most beautiful thing in the world:

Abihiko finishing the Binding replica of Hibiki's spell.

To catch and trap any First-rate Aspects in the vicinity. All minds, all consciousnesses, all lives.

And unlike Hibiki earlier -- who had allowed Nekohiko's mind to go back to the human doll body after the cat's destruction, Abihiko was not as merciful. He adjusted the parameters of his trapping spell to be much harsher, much stricter. Much deadlier.

Whoever died within this spell array now, would die forever.

This wasn't even a cage of a spell.

It was a grave.

 

 

---

***

 

"Stop STEALING from me!!" Hibiki shrieked, out of his mind with betrayal. "You aren't allowed to use my spells, you dirty thieves!"

Hibiki's face went blank once again. But not with confusion.

Nekohiko knew what it was. Several other dolls beside Hibiki also twitched as though coming to life and immediately back to their autonomic existence of dummies. Hibiki was switching his mind between bodies, trying to flee. But, naturally...

He wouldn't be able to.

"The area?" Nekohiko asked Abihiko, pleased.

"Just the bedroom," Abihiko replied.

The Imperial bedroom was a large space, but not so large as to escape Nekohiko and Abihiko right where they were.

"Beautiful," Nekohiko whispered.

Abihiko was not as readily happy as Nekohiko -- he was sapped of all attention. He was solely focused on pinning Hibiki down in the most murderous expression his fiery eyes and ashen face could muster.

But Nekohiko felt the dark satisfaction blooming inside him, too. It was like a toxic sun that radiated warmth toward Nekohiko, fueling his own bloodlust.

Hibiki lurched up in his original body -- as if only now realizing the extent of the treachery the two had pulled. "You--"

Endless-black, his eyes stared like tiny abysses at Nekohiko and Abihiko. On the already-pallid porcelain face, the contrast was so striking, one felt they were looking at a rag doll with sewn-on buttons instead of eyes.

And that only helped with the perception of how inhuman Hibiki actually was.

How monstrous.

"Yes," Nekohiko told him. "You are trapped here, with us. Don't worry. We are not the monsters you claim we are. We will be fast. We aren't like you, after all."

People like you, who revel in the prolonged torment of their enemies, make mistakes.

And end up nowhere.

Rather than respond, Hibiki's mannequins and dolls sparked up to life. The first wave of several humanoid ones lunged for Nekohiko, threatening to fling their fists and kicks at him.

Abihiko cut them off before they even managed. And the second and third waves -- Nekohiko dealt with. A rush of Nagare, and an added burst of Towa ice, shimmering on the crystal snowflakes dissolving in the air.

The room got quiet again. Only the destroyed doll parts clanged hollowly to the floor.

Nekohiko calmed down his breath, shoulder-to-shoulder with Abihiko.

"You have nowhere to run."

Like a wounded animal, Hibiki howled. So much desperation and anger were in that cry, Nekohiko almost halted.

"No, please -- please -- do not!!"

Just like Chinatsu. Out of all the Imperial bodyguards, Nekohiko had been shaken by her death the most. The way she had pled, the way she accepted her fate and her guilt before him... It had touched some deep strings in his heart. Other bodyguards had refused to acknowledge his right for revenge. They had resisted him till the end, defiant and hateful.

And Hibiki...

Suddenly, he dropped to his knees, putting his hands upturned as though to show how empty they were.

"I am sick! Mentally, emotionally-abused! You cannot hurt a person as mentally-disabled as I am! That is disgusting -- you would be monstrous to do so! I am nothing but a Puppet of abuse. I was raised from birth by the Binding contrabandists... I was forced into child labor! I was... used! Used like a tool! Can you not see it?!"

He thrust his arms wide as though inviting a closer look at himself. At his inhuman body. From Nekohiko's and Abihiko's slow advance, Hibiki was drawing back, and his hands already split in half, producing something akin to bug-like segmented legs than arms.

Just like in the Doll Palace when he had run away from Nekohiko as some sort of a... centipede-human hybrid.

Afraid for his life, he was not shying from exposing all of his disfigured body. Wishing to push for pity.

Or mercy.

"I am not even human anymore -- and have never been treated as one! That is not fair!" Real tears cast down his smooth, porcelain cheeks as he cowered away, shivering. "You... you use me too! You steal my techniques -- how are you better than all those monsters who made me like I am?! I am only a victim!"

...

He should not have said that.

Even Abihiko stopped, hearing this. At last, a hint of a smile touched his red lips as he watched Hibiki beneath him, cringing at their feet like an abused puppy. Claiming to be one, too. Not a rabid dog, bent only on inflicting misery and pain on everyone around him -- but an innocent puppy.

"Sure," Abihiko said, savoring.

In his hands, the incandescent Hira fire flared, and Nekohiko could only follow for the fear of not landing a single hit on Hibiki if Abihiko was too fast with his own.

Indeed, what a poor victim. Nekohiko had not planned on letting Hibiki go whatever he said, but... he really shouldn't have used the tactic so commonly associated with Morokata.

...

Every single time.

Takarashi, Sakami, Morokata, now Kataji, too... every time someone came at them with retribution for their actions, they would say this.

The deepest core of how House Hisome Binding method worked.

"You are, truly, a Hisome," Nekohiko told Hibiki. "Congratulations."

The last thing he ever wanted to share with him.

 

 

---

***

 

Everything shattered.

A gorgeous, splendid sound.

Under so much pressure and heat, the porcelain just couldn't hold. Neither could the bits of flesh and bone squeezed between the porcelain. But that was another story entirely.

Nekohiko didn't even see Hibiki's death. Like he'd told him -- they would be fast. Not dragging the ordeal out -- not meaning to enjoy it. Only wishing to be done with it.

And be done with Hibiki -- as efficiently as possible.

After all, Nekohiko was not like Hibiki. He did not mean to derive pleasure from this.

But... How could one not enjoy it, even a little bit? The demise of the piece of trash that was Hibiki...?

Come on.

The doubled effect of Nekohiko's Nagare and Towa rays of piercing glass and Abihiko's Hira infused with Utsuro almost blew up half of the room they were in. The light, the scorching heat that seemed to melt the air itself, the bursts of embers...

They still took care to disperse the smoke and fumes from whatever fell under their strikes. They were cautious They wanted to see the bulk of Hibiki's body melting and cracking under the high temperature. They needed to make sure.

They still had a bit of time before Morokata might counterattack -- if Hibiki had warned him about this. But confirming Hibiki's demise was more important than that.

Plus, it was... fun.

Nekohiko swerved in the air once more, directing another gust of slashing wind at the chunks of the shattered porcelain that now looked more like pieces of charcoal. And nothing shaped remotely like a human.

On his other side, Abihiko also swung a hit of Hira fire stream. And abruptly, Nekohiko became frustrated with it.

"Stop using magic! You get sick when you overuse it!" he cried out, dropping to his feet in the middle of the smoldering floor. He smacked Abihiko and wanted to do another hit on whatever was left of Hibiki. This time, a Towa ice whip.

"Just checking that he's dead. Double-checking. Triple-checking." Abihiko did not bother stopping either, it seemed.

Not that Nekohiko did not get it.

Killing Hibiki and... continuing to "kill" even his remains was... the greatest fun he'd had in weeks.

But also--

"You almost died last time you overexerted yourself," he snapped and jerked Abihiko to himself by the robe lapel.

And as Abihiko swung around to face him, Nekohiko suddenly grew scared.

...

With all this excitement at Hibiki's defeat... the two of them hadn't had time to properly take a look at each other. And now, with Nekohiko having discarded everything that had made his face and body human and pleasing to look at...

He already regretted mutilating himself like this. And being seen by Abihiko in such a state.

But then Abihiko pulled him into a hug so strong and unapologetic -- and all of Nekohiko's doubts were gone in a flash.

"Neko," Abihiko breathed into his hair, drawing in his wooden scent mixed with blood as though wanting nothing else in its place. "You did not forget me. Even when Ordered... you still remembered."

"Like I would ever forget you," Nekohiko whispered.

"Neko. Neko... My Neko."

His arms crushed Nekohiko. So hard that he needed no other words to convey everything he felt.

And how little he cared about what Nekohiko looked like.

Only that he was here.

In Abihiko's arms.

Like Abihiko was in his. Squeezed back just as tightly and just as happily.

At last.