A bright light is seen, blinding the many who have seemingly entered unto it. Words are muttered and whispered, their swift movements are sent across time and space as they instantaneously zip towards their destination.
Their eyes can only discern what are... flashes of memories, names of people, and places are heard. Visions are seen, a burning and decimated city, corpses littered all around. Black smoke permeates the once blue sky, a ringing and unbearable amalgamation of human-like voices reverberating and surrounding their ears.
Overwhelming sensations are felt all throughout their bodies, as not only are their figures withstanding all of this. But also are their minds, sudden rushes of information overload their psyche as they fight to keep their memories intact, to even remember who they are.
"Rushiko! Remember your training, and don't give in!" a determined voice is heard as he finally sees the light fading, he closes his eyes once more. Taking a sharp and deep breath, he prepares himself for the eventual comedown because once he lands, he won't have enough time to hesitate and falter any longer.
- Kyouka (強化) -
The very moment the light fades away from his eyes, he instantly sees himself falling from a great height, down below is a familiar-looking city all covered up by fog, its surroundings are all grayed out though, and both their exteriors and interiors have no color, it's like the very life that this city once had was sucked away, only leaving the memories of its once lively form.
Rushiko holds his breath and dives deeper, his body emanating light as he falls further below to the ground, his body overflowing with this light, he grabs his blade from his holster, and he endues it with his aura. He swims towards a bunch of clouds, with the tip of a skyscraper poking out, as he falls faster, he violently stabs the walls and the windows of the building as his blade shakes from the force of his aura slicing downwards to the concrete ground, he grips both of his hands on the blade's handle tightly.
He sighs in relief as he gets closer to the ground, to the point where the fog has cleared out and he is seeing the buildings of the city more prominently and up close. But this relieving silence is broken, when bullets zip towards his position, he quickly drops his other hand from the blade to look at the multiple directions of where they are all coming from.
He discovers multiple enemies waiting for his position! from the many windows and balconies of the buildings encompassing the city to the huge amount of them down below his feet, he slouches his back and strengthens the aura around him, as he kicks back unto the walls on his back and jumps away from the skyscraper, the bullets coming towards his position simply being disintegrating before they even reach him.
He lands on the ground, cracking the asphalt floor and creating a crater around his feet at the same time, numerous enemies converging at his location, he quickly sprints towards them and charges the aura on the blade and slides under the enemy's legs, he jumps to a great height and grabs his other blade, he tightens his grip on their hilts, as both of the blades shake from the overwhelming aura contained within.
He slams both of them towards one of the enemy's heads and completely obliterates his body, crushing him like he were a can, his blades have not only severed the enemy's figure but it has also struck the ground, sparks of light form as the after-effect spread towards all of the surrounding enemies, blowing most of their body parts up in the process.
He moves faster as he finishes all of them off, his hands swiftly moving in an elegant yet frantic motion while all of their limbs and organs fly out with fresh blood gushing from all around them, he suddenly stops and takes many small breaths, wiping the blood from his hands along with the stain on his blades.
"Ru-" *bzzt* "Shi-" *bzzt*
"Rushiko! Do you copy?" a familiar voice is heard through his comms, he keeps breathing frantically while he grabs his knees.
"Yeah-- I copy... I'm inside now" he replies, snapping to the next building near him, looking for any more tangos around the vicinity.
"Good, remember your objectives. Firstly, Eliminate any adversaries that get in your way, Secondly, buy enough time for the "Reckoner " to arrive and most important of all, Thirdly, Survive... no matter the cost. Please... you may know how strong he was, but you don't know what level he is now... don't be reckless" the person said, while he deeply sighs.
"Himura, I got this. Don't worry about me, just make sure Suzu-Senpai gets here in time. I think I can only buy him at most, 5 minutes max" he says.
She hesitates for a moment as silence fills the air... and then she responds.
"Alright, I trust you. See you outside after you're done" she replies, he smirks as he puts both his blades back into their holsters. He squats downwards and grabs the weapons of the enemies, he gets hold of an MP5 SMG, a pair of Walther PPK Pistols, a few grenades, flashbangs, and smoke canisters, and all of the corresponding ammo needed for his Primary and Side Arms.
He grabs one of the better vests since most of them are blown up and tattered in pieces, he sees one of the faces of the soldiers, both of their eyes edging to the top of his eyelids. Rushiko grasps his face and slowly closes the enemies' eyes.
"Kuroke-San..." he quietly mutters, as he puts on the vest and puts all of his equipment and ammo in their respective places, he straps on his MP5 and sprints forward towards the center of the city, where his main destination is: The Morishita Park and specifically the Ferris Wheel alongside it.
He gets closer to one of the buildings in front of him, which is this massive theater. He busts the main doors open, as he sees over 30 enemies inside the main lobby, he aims with his iron sights and burst fires on each of them, and not only does he have better precision in doing so but he is also saving ammo in the process.
He swiftly snaps to the ticket counters for cover, as he pulls the pins of two grenades and throws them overhead, but at the same time, both the front and back ends of the counters are suddenly brimming with enemies. He drops his MP5 as it bounces from the strap and quickly plucks both his PPKs out of their holsters, and blindly fires both ends of the ticket booths.
As the grenades implode at the enemies at the front of his location, he then uses a little aura on his boots and jumps from the walls of the back of the counters, towards the revolving staircase, and in the process, he grabs one of the gas canisters and sets them off to the pursuing enemies.
The white smoke covers him, as bullets whirl all around the air, he climbs the spinning staircase and by each floor. Rushiko blindly fires on the enemies on each of the floors as he continues to scale these stairs leading to the roof of the theater.
He finds out that the roof also has a cinema with a projector running, he looks at his back and he sees all of the enemies scrambling to his position, he hurls another grenade as he runs to the front of the screen, and just as the grenade is about to explode, the screen shows a man riding an atomic bomb as it erupts on film. He jumps out at the silver screen, creating a torn hole at the center.
Rushiko then rolls to the roof of the next building and finds more enemies surrounding him, from multiple ones climbing the stairs connecting to their corresponding buildings' ceilings to others bursting out from the doors of the stairs to their roofs.
He shoots at the sky, as he looks at them with a determined face. He then coats his whole body with his glowing aura and leaps many tremendous rooftops, he looks over and sees the gigantic Ferris Wheel of the park, he nods and goes even faster, skipping through the roofs in slight flashes, as the breeze gets thinner the faster he gets.
He forcefully lands and rolls on the ground, he raises his eyes and sees the park in all its glory, though what beauty it once had, is all gone. People were once all over this park, enjoying a nice picnic, many others exercising and playing. Countless meaningful relationships and bonds were formed and maintained through this park and this city before. But it's all gone now, and the only thing left is a shell of its former self, its former glory... as the memories of the past linger on, never letting go especially with what had happened.
The overbearing noise of the rushing enemies reverberates into his skull, he sprints towards the edges of the forest up ahead, he patiently waits behind a tree as he gropes at his vest, grabbing both pairs of the smoke canisters and flashbangs inside his pockets.
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As the noise gets louder and closer, the very moment he sees a glimpse of the crowd coming for him, he plucks both the pins of the smoke grenades and tosses them forward while he does the same for the flashbangs. The enemies grunt at the detonation of the stun grenades, he grabs his MP5 and sharply aims and fires at them.
He takes out the enemies on the ground, to the ones on balconies. But many enemy snipers take shelter on the rooftops in front of him, he infuses his SMG with a dash of his aura, as he burst fires at them, the bullets traveling further distances because of their increased speed by the aura.
The enemy snipers are taken out like flies, he shoots down the remaining enemies recovering from the smoke cover and the flashbangs, as he uses all of his grenades to finish the enemies on the balconies. An enemy suddenly gets near him, he is taken aback by this as the enemy jumps at him, holding Rushiko in place, he chokes him while being on top.
Rushiko struggles, his eyes getting redder, he tries to get the enemy's hands away from him, he powers both his fists and breaks the enemy's restraint of him. He slams both his knuckles at the enemy's head and crushes it. The blood splatters all over his face, he quickly crawls and then stands up as more of the enemies got closer and nearer, he rushes deeper into the forest, blindly firing behind him.
But as he pulls on the trigger of his MP5, only to find out, he's out of ammo. He drops it and switches to his secondary weapons, as he reaches the main road to the Ferris Wheel. He drops the last remaining flashbang he has left behind him and dashes away.
He has no more ammo for his primary, he doesn't have any grenades, smoke canisters, or even flashbangs and he only has two more magazines left for his Walther PPKs, perfect for one more reload.
"I'm getting closer to him, and yet the enemies keep multiplying faster than I can kill them! At this point, I have no choice but to use my aura to finish all of them off, but if I do. I won't even be able to hold him off for 1 minute! But I don't think I have any other choice" he says this as he proceeds to rush forward, the Ferris Wheel getting bigger, taller, and wider from his vicinity.
Then he suddenly he feels something slowing him down, it is wet and overflowing, it's water! He looks behind him and sees the enemies slowly being taken down. A lot of them are bursting into pieces, some are getting burned alive, and many are being cut into little bits. Much more dying by other aura powers, he sees more enemies in front of him.
He fires on them with his Dual Wielded Pistols, his bullets soaring straight forward to their targets as he spreads his arms apart to fire at the many more at his left and right sides. From the ones on top of trees to the ones running straight at him. He drops both of PPKs' magazines and reloads them for one final time. Cocking both of their slides, he proceeds to run faster to the area of the Ferris Wheel.
Rushiko is finally here, the gigantic frame of the Ferris Wheel in view, he continues to keep shooting at the enemies near the area, he shoots at the ones taking cover at the snack booths, the ticket counter of the Ferris Wheel itself, and the ones behind it. He pulls the trigger one more time and puts away his pistols.
But just as he begins to grasp his blades, all of them suddenly burst and implode with their guts flying out, confused by this. He looks all over the area until instantly, he sees a flash appear as the figure suddenly embraces him, he feels the warmth of this figure and instantly recognizes the person.
"Rushi-Kun!" the figure tightly holds him in their arms, he smiles and hugs them back.
"Himura! What are you doing here? I thought they kept you as a reserve and you were waiting for me outside!" he replies in a confused state, she lightly giggles.
"It turns out, that they're more enemies than we thought here, so they sent all the reserves too! It's perfect timing since you were about to use your aura on them, weren't you?" she points out, he scratches his head and then hangs his on her shoulder in defeat.
"Oh shut up, humph!" he states as he proceeds to hide his face, she grins and continues to hold him... she then lets him go and looks at Rushiko.
"Don't worry! We got your back! Just hold him long enough for Suzu-San to get here!" she said, he nods as she flashes out of the area, he then gets closer to the Ferris Wheel, ready to fight him. He takes off the MP5 strapped to his shoulder and then tightly clenches his fists, breathing deeply as he spreads his aura all around his form.
A blade is suddenly near his neck, his eyes widen, his body shakes and his palms get sweatier while his vision gets blurrier and his frame feels heavier. He looks up and he sees a tall black-haired samurai with an emanating red aura swelling around him, his staring eyes looking deep into his soul, he quickly looks downwards.
"Hirotsu... I finally found you.." the samurai states as he strongly throws him towards the tree, the boy powers up his body using the tree as he kicks onto it and lands on the grass, sliding with his knife in his fist.
"Kuroke-san..." He mutters as he breathes in and out, drawing his fighting stance with his arm protecting him with his knife sticking out of his hand, the samurai draws more blades one by one until six of them appear in his hands. He draws his stance with both of his hands wielding his swords as he steps onto his left side, his blades getting brighter, as he slouches and bends his knees, ready for the blow.
Their distance is just a few meters from one another, the wind getting stronger, the grass and leaves blowing everywhere, the sound of guns and screaming getting louder, their eyes intensifying.
"You know... after all this time, Suzushii still hasn't taught you any of his signature techniques? you're still the same kid from back then..." He asks as he powers up his blades, the light around him nothing compared to the energy building upon his blades, as they burn up and get hotter and fiercer.
"I want to know how you've changed after all these years, show me... your power! Rushiko!!" He shouts and uses the ground to propel himself upwards to strike Hirotsu.
He quickly parries and powers his knife to withstand the impact of his attack, he shouts as he increases the aura contained in his small blade, he throws the body of the samurai, Kuroke slides on the grass as his boots clash with the dirt as he stops his momentum with his 6 blades, he quickly jumps from multiple trees and creates slash attacks at Hirotsu, Rushiko gasps as he ducks and slides from Kuroke's increasing slashes.
He jumps and kicks from multiple trees to move in from different directions, cutting leaves and creating illusions of himself, increasing the impact of his feet to increase his speed to distract the samurai, but the samurai sees him through all of this and jumps in and grabs his whole body to slam him towards multiple trees and finally kicking him towards a wall of a cafeteria, breaking in and crashing towards many shelves.
Rushiko all covered in food, wounded and battered, he coughs up blood from the huge counter from his enemy, he quickly gets up and grabs his second blade as he stabilizes his body's status from the attack, his aura flowing in him. He breathes in and out as he runs from the cafeteria as it is completely destroyed by the samurai's burning blades.
The burning debris raining down from the obliteration of the building as Hirotsu slides on the grass and charges his blades, their aura shining a bright white light, the samurai jumps in from his position and throws his burning blades at him, each of them landing all at once creating an emanating white smoke, Rushiko quickly dodges this and gets in behind his position.
He slashes Kuroke's back, he quickly grunts as he swiftly moves to Rushiko's right, the samurai creates a large bastard sword that quickly chips and creates a large straight open rift of burning fire at the ground, Rushiko is almost directly hit by this. Rushiko falls towards the huge crevice as he creates a metal wire between his blades and spins one of them, directly throwing it upwards and chipping it on the wall. He lifts his body upwards and falls downwards away from the huge crevice, Kuroke flashing towards him mid-air and slashing the wire between his blades, his arms spreading reacting to this, he falls further towards the burnt grass and rolls on it.
He desperately sprints away as the samurai quickly attacks him, Rushiko parrying the bastard sword with his blades, he spins his blade on his hand as he continues to run and throws it against Kuroke, the blade spinning faster and faster as it flashes and continues to spark until it is infused with fast lightning, the samurai tries to hold the spinning blade with his sword, it electrocuting his body; his hands tightening around his hilt, he destroys it with a hint of blackness in his sword coating it with his fiery aura.
Rushiko flashes to his position and charges his last remaining blade and goes all out, with his body flashing a whitish blue, his blade with the most concentrated electricity he can muster, he slashes Kuroke with all of his aura while shouting . Kuroke quickly blocks this with his blade burning black, his aura overwhelming Rushiko's blade as it shatters right before his eyes. He throws away Rushiko towards the Ferris Wheel, as he powers and squats his legs to jump an enormous height, he charges and holds his black burning blade's aura.
He completely slices the Ferris wheel in half, its debris hitting Rushiko's body as the samurai flashes on his position mid-air deconstructing his blade, he punches Rushiko with his black burning fist towards the ground, Rushiko struggling to survive from the burning impact. He uses his remaining aura to cover his body, as he is sent hurtling towards the burning debris-filled grass, he coughs out more blood, his body weak and battered, his state on the verge of death.
A flash is seen, a step is heard; the samurai walks up to him as he creates and augments his bastard sword into one shorter and more refined Wakizashi, standing directly in front of him menacingly.
"Looks like you're no match for me, Rushiko... guess Senpai got rusty at teaching, your skills are shaky at best and weak at worse, your movements are slow and your attacks have no impact, tell me why would Suzushii take in such a weak little brat as his student? you're not even a fraction of what he's capable of! " He rants.
Rushiko struggling to speak; coughs more blood as he shouts out: "How could you know anything, especially when you're with them!!"
"I should be asking you the same thing since you don't anything of what Senpai's done and is capable of doing, why do you think I left?" He coldly states.
"Wh- what do you mean by that?" Hirotsu asks confused.
The samurai scoffs at him, violently slamming his foot on his body, Rushiko screams in pain.
"I don't have time for you and your pathetic attempts at distracting me, I know why you came here-" He states.
"Senpai" He quickly turns around as he sees a sudden flash, the wind blowing uncontrollably as the leaves and ashes fly all over, the sharp gaze is felt by Kuroke as the brown-haired officer wearing a heavy-duty jacket stands in front of him stepping closer, he adjusts his cap with his eyes determined.
"Mutsu-kun" he quietly mutters as he stands face to face against the black-haired samurai, Kuroke lets go of his foot from Rushiko's body, facing Suzushii directly. He grips his Wakizashi tightly, enduing it with his aura. His blade swelling a black fire, its intense heat causing it to smoke upwards and all around, its trail spreading around his position as he continues to glare at his former mentor and comrade...
- To Be Continued -
Ending Song: https://youtu.be/J1_Cf55cS8I / Thin Thing - The Smile