YEAR: 2011

Kosuke opened his eyes to the scene of a large knife being embedded into his fathers skull, the shock from this overloaded his brain with too many complex emotions and almost immediately after, he began to cry, Eve reacted as fast as she could trying to cover Kosuke’s mouth but it was to no avail as the Butcher turned his head towards the direction of the crying child and locked eyes with Eve through the leaves. The most vile and chilling smile spread across his face as he spotted not just Eve but Kosuke and Izumi as well. He bent down pulling the knife from Kaito’s split skull, copious amounts of blood and brain covered the blade of the knife.

Butcher began to approach the shrubbery in which Eve was hiding, she was struck with fear at the sight of the knife and his cursed smile and despite having a gun within arms reach her mind told her to RUN. RUN. RUN!

A sudden burst of energy coursed through her body but before Eve could even think her body started to act on its own, she grabbed both boys and started running through the plantation, running faster than she ever thought she could even in her best condition.

As her body moved on instinct Eve was able to think more clearly, recognizing that her current ability was the result of a chemical reaction called noradrenaline, it was the same thing that happened to Kaito right before his death. The effect the noradrenaline had on the body was more than a simple fight or flight response, it was the body’s desperate attempt to do what it takes to survive and in Eve’s case this was to escape.

Butcher’s pursuit quickened as Eve began to run, a gut wrenching maniacal laughter echoed as he ran

“KEHEHEHEHEHE! I SEE YOUUUUU! YOU CAN’T ESCAPE ME!”

Compared to when he was dealing with Kaito, rather sophisticated and sane, now he’s become a crazed blood thirsty lunatic focused only on chopping up whatever was in his line of sight, it was a horrifying sight, as if the devil himself was in pursuit.

Despite being close to the road, Eve decided it was best to stay running through the trees and bushes as it was managing to hinder the Butcher’s movements but as she continued to run, Eve eventually ended up on the open road with little cover

*SHIT SHIT SHIT, where do I go? What should I do?*

Eve tried to think of options but she ran out of time almost immediately as Butcher emerged from the woods, but more calm this time around

“Oh my, I must apologise for my unsightly manner earlier, I tend to get a bit riled up while chasing prey.”

Butcher stared Eve in her fear struck eyes and just sighed

“How disappointing. Like don’t get me wrong that little chase was fun and all but where’s the resistance? You used to be a superstar in our world of mercenaries and hitmen but I don’t see any of that anymore, it’s like watching a cockroach squirm about after losing its head.”

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Eve didn’t respond, she just stared at Butcher while keeping a firm grip on the children

“Silent treatment huh? Ok fine, since you’re actually kinda sad I’ll give you a one time offer in the form of a game, if you win you can leave just like that. What do you say?”

Eve finally opened her mouth to respond

“What’s the rules?”

Butcher smiled rather deviously

“Can’t tell you unless you agree, although it’s not like you have much of a choice anyway.”

Swallowing as much fear and uncertainty as she could, Eve agreed to the game

“Great! Now I’ll explain the rules although it’s very simple, I’ll toss my knife into the air, even if it barely touches me then you win and can go free but if it misses then the hunt continues.”

Eve managed to see an opportunity as she noticed that Butcher must really enjoy games enough to stop his hunt and so she decided to speak up before the toss

“Wait, I have a proposition for your game.”

Butcher stopped his arm before tossing his knife

“Oh? And what would that be?”

“Instead of one toss, how about the best of three? It’ll add an extra layer of tension and excitement right?”

Butcher thought for a moment, tapping the flat of his blade to the side of his head

“Hmm, alright fine, best of three it is. And here’s the first!”

The knife flew into the air, the sun reflecting off the blade as it fell, cutting into Butchers left shoulder on the way down

“Ow, that might leave another scar but oh well, one point to you.”

Butcher bent down to pick up the knife and tossed it higher than the first time, it managed to escape both Eve and Butcher’s sight as the sun managed to block their view

“Man that’s gonna hurt if it hits me again.”

Soon enough the knife came down but it didn’t come close to touching Butchers skin this time, Eve was also in shock as she had just witnessed a knife just embed itself into uncracked concrete

“Wha- what the hell is that thing made of!?”

Butcher pulled it from the concrete and examined the condition of the blade

“This? Well nothing that special, just a titanium and tungsten mix with a crafting method used for katanas, y’know that one where they fold the heated metal a bunch of times, and the handle was crafted from Hickory wood I believe. It was crazy expensive though and it’s a one of a kind, the strongest knife ‘Kuro’ (黒)”

“That makes no sense!”

Butcher looked a little puzzled

“What do you mean?”

“You said it’s made of tungsten and titanium, just looking at the length of the blade it seems to be at least a metre long, how are you able to swing it with only one arm?”

As Eve’s words reached his ears, a smirk appeared on Butchers face as he removed his jacket and revealed muscles that could rival a spartan

“Satisfied? Now if you don’t mind…”

Butcher adopted a stance similar to what you would see in discus, but the form was modified for throwing high not far. Butcher’s muscles seemed to tense up to the extreme as he readied his weapon, just a second later it disappeared from his hand and had already flown high into the sky.

He looked up to where he threw the knife and let out a nonchalant whistle

“Man, I hope I didn’t hit a bird.”

Eve stood there, still firmly holding Kosuke and Izumi, she was nervous as her life depended on this one last chance and after thirty seconds the knife came back into view and was hurling down at an incredible speed until…

*THUNK!*