(Mensis 21, 45 / 11:32AM)

One year and seven months later…

(Iris) Come on, pick up the pace!

In the same purple blossom garden, the clashing of wooden sticks can be heard. On the doorstep of winter, the purple blossoms slowly withered away as many droplets were scattered across the infertile soil that the two girls were in.

The smell of early spring was long gone, with the scent of body odor and sweat coming from one particular area.

(Jenny) Stop!

(Iris) And you’re done.

Doing a baby remix of her original ballad, Iris smacked away the stick that Jenny fought with, causing Jenny to pout, her cheeks puffing up red. Iris, who smirked smugly at her, placed her stick to the ground, her forehead and neck not breaking a sweat.

(Iris) You’re too slow Jenny.

Jenny clenched her fists as her eyes started to contain rolled-down tears, hitting the dry soil as her legs started to quiver.

(Jenny) You’re mean!

(Iris) I don’t care. You need to learn how to fight properly. How are you going to defend yourself?

(Jenny) Kenny will!

(Iris) sighs … That damn wimp. Don’t rely on men to fight your battles, Jenny, it’s not a good mindset.

Iris looked away towards the decaying cherry blossom trees in the garden, feeling the slight chill of the wind on her nape. Noticing that Jenny was starting to shiver from the sudden gust of wind, Iris held out her hand towards her, her eyes gentle as her rough hand filled with calluses was inches away from Jenny.

(Iris) Here, take my hand. Let’s get something for lunch.

(Jenny) hmp.

Despite Jenny continuing to puff up her face, Iris grabbed her hand firmly, as both of them walked through the decaying garden. Feeling Jenny’s hand tighten, Iris rolled her eyes as Jenny continued to look down towards the tall grass.

Iris noticed the clouds overhead starting to dampen the light from the sun.

(Iris’s thoughts) I guess today is going to be cloudy…

Reaching the end of the garden, Iris opened the white shoji door, gently placing her hand on the sliding handle. Opening the door, she used her left hand to push Jenny in, before softly closing it back.

But as soon as they got in, they noticed both their mother and father in front of the door, looking down. Kenji, their father, had his hands formed into fists, his fists shuddered as his jaw started to grind between one another.

Meanwhile, Erina, their mother, clasped her right hand onto her mouth, a river of tears flowing outwards as her left hand was placed onto her stomach, clutching it tightly.

Iris, looking towards Jenny, placed her hand on Jenny’s back, her eyes narrowing at Jenny’s confused face.

(Iris) Jenny, go to your room…

(Jenny) But I thought we’re going to get lunch—

(Iris) Just go!

Pushing Jenny out of her sight, she jerked her head towards where her parents were, her body shaking as her breathing started to turn irregular. Slowly walking towards her parents, each step on the dark wood creaks loudly, causing her to cusp her hands tight, as if she wanted to break them.

Putting herself in between her parents, she noticed two boys in front of them, their faces looking downwards. Iris, her jaw opened, covered her mouth as her head arched back.

(Iris’s thoughts) David and Gabriel … they look older…

Before they left, Iris recalled the youthfulness of both boys, their faces smooth with little to no facial hair. Now they had a few wrinkles on their jawline and cheeks, their foreheads filled with sweat and their eye bags were completely dark with gray, covering the entirety of their eyes.

Iris put her hands to herself, her back straightening upwards despite her face on the verge of breaking. Focusing her eyes on both David and Gabriel, she folded her arms like usual, yet they started to shake.

(Iris) Where’s Kenichi?

David sluggishly looked up towards Iris, his eyes red and his hands motionless. Without opening the edges of his mouth, David forcingly moved his right hand towards his jacket’s pocket, the world blanketing white. Holding in her breath, Iris awaited the suspense, as David brought out…

A small red rose, taped together with a photo of Kenichi.

(David) I’m sorry…

David turned his head away as his confidence faded away into the winter wind.

Iris walked backward, her head swaying side to side. Her chest began to push upwards and downwards more, her legs twitching in a frenzy, her hands motionless as her eyes…

Looking away, she pushed her legs off the wooden floor, towards the direction of her room. Ignoring everything, every sound, every brought, every pain in her heart, she reached the end of the hall, opened her door, and slammed it shut.

(Jenny) Where’s Kenny…?

Gabriel glanced as David let a single tear drip from his face, rolling down his cheek onto the red rose, which caused Gabriel to motionlessly let out a stream of tears out of both his eyes, his head in place as he stared at Jenny.

Jenny looked at the two boys, those boys who were considered to be the strongest boys that she ever met, who were slowly breaking down right in front of her.

Erina placed her trembling right hand onto Jenny’s shoulder, her quivering throat causing her to let her voice break as she spoke to Jenny.

(Erina) Kenichi’s r-ran away from here… he moved away to—

(David) He’s dead Jenny. Kenny’s gone…

Crouching down towards Jenny, David extended both his arms to pull Jenny into him, giving her a tight hug as her head was on top of David’s left shoulder. David’s hands shook with vigor as his eyes desperately held back his tears.

Jenny remained still, as her entire body was stuck onto David’s hug. For several seconds, Jenny remained silent as her heartbeat pounded against her tiny body, causing David to look at the ground.

(David) I’m sorry…

Suddenly, Jenny’s eyes let out a tsunami of tears that continued to roll down onto David’s shoulder. With the shroud of water pouring out of her, Jenny clutched herself onto David, her body completely loose as she wailed.

Tightening the hug around Jenny, David let out another tear from his eye. Continuing to look down, he spoke in a gentle tone.

(David) …

Her mouth was wide open, her nostrils flared, and most importantly of all…

Jenny’s eyes looked upwards to the heavens above, hoping to see the ginger-faced boy one last time…

______________________________________________________________________________

(Present time)

(Kenichi) I’ll make this painless.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Wielding dual-wielding, double-edged chainsaw-chained swords, Kenichi readied his stance as he put his right leg forward. With a heavy thrust, Kenichi pushed his left leg off the ground, traveling fast as he made his way toward David. Having his arms extended back, the swords brought with them a fast amount of inertia into them, the chainsaw chains going at a much faster speed than David is used to.

David, who saw the world in slow motion again, only wielded a simple handgun. Kenichi edging closer to him, thrusted both of his legs to move to the right, creating a perfect dodge.

David had his feet steady on the ground again, not faltering as he saw Kenichi thrusting himself towards him a second time. Kenichi moved towards David as he again tried to launch his chainsaw sword onto David, creating a gust of wind.

(David) Your moves were lacking back then. What changed, Kenichi?

David took many steps back as he continued to dodge each strike from Kenichi’s swords. With ease, Kenichi mowed the air to get a hit on David, even when it meant slicing onto the rich wooden floor.

The chainsaw chains continued to shred the well-manufactured wood as if it was cloth. With wood chunks scattering around Kenichi, his forehead didn’t have any beads of sweat or exhaustion as he thrust his arms at David. Even when his feet were in the way of his barrage of thrusts, his face remained still as his eyes focused on David’s ballad.

(David’s thoughts) And I can’t even shoot at him point blank. He’ll probably just deflect it.

A chunk of wood got into David’s eye.

(David’s thoughts) Damn it!

(Kenichi) You’re backed up now.

David put his back against the wall, feeling the hard wood. David continued to wield his pistol on his right hand, extending his left hand far out the wall.

(David’s thoughts) Perfect, I just need to execute it properly.

From his peripheral vision, David noticed a large dresser to the left of him, so he covered his left hand by putting it behind the dresser. Grabbing a hold of the back of the dresser, David looked towards Kenichi.

Kenichi raised his right arm again, lifting it high as he put enough muscle and strength onto it. Not only his right arm, but he pulled back his left arm, readying it as he angled it sideways compared to his right arm which was angled downwards.

(Kenichi) You’re finished.

As the chainsaw blade from his right arm was several inches away from David’s face, David angled his left hand on the drawer.

Putting an incredible amount of force into his left arm, David pushed the angled drawer towards him, the drawer making contact with the chainsaw blades. At the right moment, David ducked to his left as the chainsaw blades managed to cut through the drawer like paper. During his duck, his jacket tingled from the chainsaw blades of Kenichi’s left sword.

(David’s thoughts) Holy shit that was close.

Breathing hard, David crawled backward as sweat started to drip from his forehead, his legs starting to fail their given role. Kenichi saw David’s antics of desperation, his eyes twitching as his hands started to gently shake.

(Kenichi) Stop dodging me, it’s pointless.

While crawling, David managed to bump into a couple of chairs near a table, his luck continuing to get the better of him. Grabbing the leg of a chair with his left hand, he then placed the metallic chair in front of himself.

Kenichi threw his right arm yet again at David, but the object that David had didn’t break. The metallic chair started to spew sparks, a duel ensuing as the chair and chainsaw were in a match of strength.

The sparks shone in the dark room, their eyes making eye contact as they saw each other's reflections.

(David) You’re not that strong. Remember those sparring matches with all four of us? You were the weakest of them all.

(Kenichi) How many times do I have to tell you…

David’s face went ghostly pale as he glanced towards his right side, breaking eye contact right away.

Kenichi’s left arm thrust sideways yet again, angling it inward so that it would go between the opened area of the chair. With an absurd amount of strength, Kenichi’s forehead started to let out a single droplet of sweat, his arms tightening his grip on his chainsaws.

The chainsaw sword continued to make its way inward onto David, and he could only watch as his eyes put the world into slow motion.

But even in slow motion, people can’t escape their imminent demise.

(Kenichi) I don’t remember you at all!

Still in slow motion, David flinched his body to the left, his face coated with cold sweat as his breathing started to become irregular. Kenichi’s chainsaw chain sword made its way towards his side, inches away from his right abdomen, until…

The duel between the chair and the chainsaw came to a halt, with David accidentally pushing the chair with enough force in front of him.

(David’s thoughts) W-What…

Seeing everything in present motion, David saw Kenichi almost tumble to the ground as he walked a few steps to the right, retracting his chainsaw swords. Kenichi also retracted the inward chainsaw that was about to strike David, his left chainsaw grazing upon the metallic chair as it returned to him.

With his chainsaw swords retracting back to the two pieces of metal, Kenichi holstered them quickly back into his jacket. Feeling an unfamiliar liquid reaching downward onto his shoulder, Kenichi slowly placed his right hand onto the area where the liquid was coming from. Rubbing it gently, he noticed that the liquid substance was sticky and warm, most notably to be…

(Kenichi’s thoughts) Blood…

Slowly turning his head, he saw a woman with glasses wielding a spiked frying pan.

His chest heaved in an abnormal cycle. Seeing that her eyes were still tearing up, with her face red from the tears that stained her cheeks, Kenichi looked towards Jenny with a sly smirk.

(Kenichi) You’re pretty strong.

Jenny continued to point the spiked frying pan at Kenichi, her hands shaking as her eyes were bloodshot red. Her legs remained solid on the ground, followed by her mouth letting out hot pants as she held onto her weapon.

Kenichi walked towards her, towering over her as the spiked pan reached his chest. Looking down at the woman, Kenichi slowly put his hand onto the spiked pan.

(Kenichi) But not as strong as me.

Kenichi lifted the spiked frying pan. Because Jenny had a firm grip on the pan, it made her go along with the motion of it.

To her surprise, Jenny found herself off the ground, her feet dangling as she continued to have a strong grip on the handle.

Sweat started to drip down across her face as her tears stopped to see the cold ginger-haired man narrowing his eyes on her. Swiping his hair with his left hand, Kenichi pulled her in close.

(Kenichi) I think it’s best if you forget about me, can you promise me that?

(Jenny) Kenny…

A gunshot was heard in the adult lounge.

(David) You can’t promise someone if you can’t even hold a promise yourself…

The barrel of the gun let out a gentle smoke rising out. Having his finger on the trigger, David already focused his sight on Kenichi’s stomach region, into an area where he knew that it wouldn’t kill him.

Kenichi sensed the unusual throbbing pain coming from the right side of the stomach. Dropping the spiked pan to the ground, Jenny stumbled onto the floor.

(Kenichi) You little cheat…

Placing his right hand towards his liver, a stream of blood poured out of it, his hand drenched with the sticky and warm substance. As his vision started to get blurry, Kenichi started to stumble as his legs were on the verge of buckling, his ears throbbing as he walked towards a nearby window.

(Kenichi) I think I should go, for all of our sake.

Kenichi then formed a tight fist, using his arm to punch the bulletproof window.

Glass splattered all around his body, the sharp shards cutting and slashing his arm, with some pieces of glass stuck to his light-toned skin.

Putting his right foot on the window frame, he placed his body in between it. Looking back towards the two adults that remained motionless, Kenichi softened his face.

(Kenichi’s thoughts) I guess even when I had memories, I never fulfilled any of my promises…

Turning back around to see the city, he then pushed himself off the window, his right leg shaking as his wound continued to gush out.

Jenny and David both glanced at each other, looking at the glass shards and many broken objects all around their fighting area.

Ignoring the other battle ensuing from the other side, their ears blocked any outside force coming into view.

(Jenny) Kenny…

Jenny sat down and covered her mouth with both her hands, inhaling and exhaling as her breath started to get caught in her throat.

(Jenny’s thoughts) You promised to give me flowers…