Takemura Itsuki

It was nighttime in the city, with the street silent and empty. The crescent moon was shining brightly, throwing off its light into the street. The buildings stood silent in front of the narrow pavement on both sides of the wide bricked white street of the city. However, some steps away from the silent view, the backside of The Bar was burning little by little, with chaotic clouds, blood, and silent figures in front of it.

Katsuki was standing dominantly in front of us with his sword in his right hand beside his right leg, his chest flung open, and his back straight in pride. His confident streamlined eyes were glaring in the front, his lips grinning in a sinister manner, exposing his teeth. In front of him, some steps back, a little toward the pavement, stood me and Tadashi, with our swords right in front of our figures, ready to fight. My eyes were calm, focused, and confident, whereas Tadashi’s eyes were frowning in anger, and shuttered a little in fear.

“Just like that day, hero, right?” Katsuki commented with his sinister expression.

My eyes jerked open a little wider for a second and my lips opened. Suddenly, the pictures of the bright hot afternoon in the middle of a wide ground covered with narrowed bricked houses on all its left and right, and narrow streets on the front and back sides of the wide ground filled my mind. I remembered all the people who stood at the edges of the ground, with a wide circular fighting arena in the middle, with Ichika, Airi, me, and Haruto standing in a circle, ready to fight with our right legs back, our swords in front of our belly, all pointing at Katsuki, who stood in the middle, his sword in front of his chest.

“Yeah, his plus point is… his speed.”

I remembered his streamlined confident eyes that day under the sunlight, and then looked at his dominating frowning eyes beneath the moonlight. “So, are ya ready, hero?”

Both I and Tadashi said together, “Yeah!”

The four boots stood up and ran directly to the front. Both of us were frowning with anger as we ran toward the freely standing figure of Katsuki looking at us with a sinister grin. “Ya don’t wanna use kazi, huh?” He said as he moved his right arm up his right shoulder, still standing freely, and then waved his sword down at us just as we were just a couple of steps away from him. It released the purple kazi energy which went straight ahead, but I jumped upon it and Tadashi bent his head a little down to dodge it. Both of us passed it successfully. As I jumped up in midair, I moved my right arm up, and swung it down at him. It released kazi too, but Katsuki swung his sword at it and cut it into two. The kazi went past him. He then—in the same second—quickly moved it up again and swung it at Tadashi, defending against his kazi attack. Both the waves went behind him. My boots landed on the ground as I then continued to wave my sword at him, attacking him regularly, with Katsuki defending each and every one of my attacks. Besides, he was also defending against Tadashi’s attacks on my right side. As I was looking at him with both my eyes frowning, I thought, “Yeah… he’s still quick, and that’s what makes him a fine swordsman.”

Katsuki, who continued to defend against both of our attacks at once, suddenly said, “You’ve grown a little since that day, hero, but you’re still miles behind us.”

“You continue to believe in that shit,” I replied as I continued to swing my swords at him.

The air was filled with the clashes of the metallic pieces. Both Tadashi and I were exerting all of our force swinging our swords at him. All three swords were gliding smoothly into the air, clashing constantly.

The sounds of the clashes of metal turned a little faint and pale at the carriage. Inside the dark carriage, Kurayami sat in the middle of the left side, with both the seats on the two sides of him empty. Kurayami’s knees, elbows, and arms had tattered clothes and patches of blood. His head was tilted down in dejection. In front of him, in the middle of the two rows which sat facing each other in the carriage lay the bodies of Yumiko and Oga.

The faint sounds of the metallic clashes hit the ears of Kurayami as he turned to his right, looking at the back of Irimi, who stood in the front of the carriage with a sword in her right hand, and at the fight going on in front of her.

“It… has finally begun, huh?”

Airi, who had her knees joined in front of her chest, with her arms around her folded legs, turned her depressed head up from her knees to Kurayami at her front. Her eyes were narrowed. “What?” She asked in a low voice.

“The third battle of the hero and the second in-command… has finally begun.”

Airi turned her head to her left, looking at the fight going on.

“… Who knows when this is gonna end.”