A bit of annoyance washed over Kaede at the sight of Miyako. Unlike before in the fight, Miyako actually looked excited for a fight. She wanted the fight more than anything now. The eagerness rather than unease or shock left her not completely sure what to make of Miyako. Changing into her new form, Kaede planned for a different sort of reaction. Nothing she could have thought up would have prepared her for such an expectation. “So you’re just a muscle bound idiot. Not very adult-like of you.”
“I’m still going to be puttin’ ya in yer place.”
“I guess we’ll have to see then. Can you keep up with me?”
“A little speed ain’t enough to stop me,” Miyako boasted.
“Is that so? Let’s see how long that arrogance lasts!”
“Long enough to take ya down!”
Chapter 334 – Back-to-Back Brawl
The two charged in fueled for different reasons. First strike went to Kaede. Speed proved to be on her side against Miyako. But Miyako took it barely even leaning back from the blow, her feet planted firmly in the ground. Her counterattack began as she grabbed Kaede by the wrist. Turning her arm, Kaede’s body flipped over and smashed her back into the earth. Cracks and rumblings came from the force of the flip.
Stunned for only a moment, Kaede leapt out of the small pit created by her body before Miyako could follow up with her fist. Miyako’s hand disappeared, a little embedded in the earth. “Tch, yer a fast one I’ll give ya that.” She ripped her hand free from the ground letting the bits of soil fall back into the tiny hole she punched.
“Still thinking you can beat me, huh?”
“Yer ten years too early to think that you can kill me.”
Kaede charged forward in a straight attack that had no flash or thought put into it. Speed definitely gave her an advantage, but Miyako dealt with such types too many times before. She easily sidestepped the charge and spun her leg around to kick her in the back of the head. The teenager slid over the earth face first until it piled up around her to bring her to a stop. “Damn you, you bitch!” she coughed with her hand popping up through the pile.
“Upset that you realized that you won’t be able to kill me?” Miyako clenched her hands trying to ignore all of the pain burning through her body. ‘I’m glad she’s so inexperienced. If she could actually fight, I don’t know how well I would fare against her. She’s powerful and I’m still not fully recovered from our last fight.’
Most of the bandages that Miyako had from the last encounter with Kaede had been removed before she went into the raid team with Hiroshi. She didn’t want him thinking that she was still injured. It wasn’t a battle that she was going to run away from, not after the sacrifices made already. The battle had to have her.
Up until fighting Kaede, she hadn’t worried herself over her body’s condition. None of the fodder she fought gave her any challenge. She understood her limits well enough that she wasn’t going to be able to take on Takako or the others at the top of the ranks in her army. Though she didn’t count on Kaede being potentially in those ranks as well. ‘Still…this is going to be harder the longer it drags out and she’s resilient…’
Her previous injuries had thankfully been not too severe, so her recovery had been quick. But incomplete as it was, her body tried to remind her not to overdo it. She had no plans on listening to it.
Taunted into the fight, Kaede came back for more. She could use her speed to get in close. A minor hit usually was all she was able to achieve against Miyako before she counterattacked. All around the grounds, their fight spread with little given up.
However, Kaede started to get a little more of an edge on Miyako in the fight as it dragged out. Her punch landed cleanly against Miyako’s cheek sliding her back. Miyako quickly responded with a similar straight punch thrown out. They both slid apart continuing to struggle.
Blood dripped down Miyako’s lip and chin, reminding her of the punch. ‘Damn, I think she’s improving in the middle of the fight… This isn’t good…’ It became harder to just block and counter. Worse, even countering her didn’t seem to do as much as she desired. She just kept getting back up. “At least you’re making this fun!” she shouted as she charged after Kaede.
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An offense was the only plan that Miyako had anymore against Kaede. Her defensive plan worked only so well. She was able to keep up with the speed because she could see it coming and got a feel for it. It stopped being a blink out of reality and more of a blur now.
Kaede didn’t expect Miyako to go on the attack. So she could only evade the first attack. But Miyako stayed on her. They danced around with Miyako giving chase. Her speed was only enough to keep her out of a direct hit. But Miyako managed to get in some glancing blows against Kaede. Bruises started to appear from the marks left behind. Her body could only take the hits so well. Out of frustration with Miyako, Kaede countered with a kick rather than her usual fists. “Stay down!”
Miyako’s body flew back crashing through the wall. Explosions of metal and earth jumped up from the collision. She disappeared amongst the smoke. However, it became clear that it hadn’t done enough as coughing came through the thick clouds.
“Dammit…I’ll keep beating you down until you can’t move anymore!” Kaede flew in at her top speed unwilling to wait on the smoke to clear. Which proved to be a poor plan as Miyako caught her by her wrists. Before the speed caught up to her body and threatened to flip her painfully around, Miyako used her foot to throw her into the air.
The auburn haired girl sailed over the grass street outside of the school until she crashed into an abandoned home. Miyako flipped up to her feet and looked onto the site. “You’re going to have to keep trying if you think you can do that.”
Grabbing at her shoulder, the pain left from the kick she took throbbed loudly. Her body didn’t feel pleased that she wanted to ignore it as well. All of her other injuries were minor, she told herself. Which was largely true. Added and stacked upon each other started to make them less minor. ‘Damn, that last hit really took a lot out of me. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to end this fight in any reasonable fashion. Killing her or not, both are not going to be very easy anymore. Not that I have the time to be complaining…’
Another truth, Kaede already recovered from the surprise throw and started to leave the home. She looked about as pissed off as she had been before, but made some failed attempts to look more pissed off. None of it was working, though Miyako knew what she was trying.
None of it mattered in the end. Miyako charged after Kaede once more, not letting their fight slow down for long. It was the only way to keep her mind off her body’s failings. Everything was getting sluggish, but she pushed through the only way she knew how. “Don’t give me that look! Things are only just getting exciting!”
It had been a while since she had fought a battle where she wasn’t protecting someone. Reality was that she still fought even now to protect, but it was different than other fights. There was no one that she kept out of harm’s way. All of the attention and energy could be put into the fight. Such fights had long left her behind due to how she chose to live her life after that fateful day. She might have never wanted to fight in the past, but still did in spite of it. So it was never for fun or the thrill of battle. Even now, she couldn’t feel the thrill of it. But it did push her and make her strive to find how much she had inside her to give. Such a fight wasn’t really something she was familiar with. She sort of liked it as much as she hated the situation.
She exchanged blows with Kaede knocked each other backwards into separate ruined houses. The hit slowed her body down enough that Kaede came after her. Miyako only managed to get to her feet when the blow came in for her. Her fist came up to meet her head-on.
A shockwave blew out from the collision ripping apart the fragile house. Debris flew in all directions as Kaede suddenly grabbed Miyako’s wrist. She pulled on Miyako and threw her over her head and back down into the shattered floor.
Miyako laid in a body sized crater of her own making, but she snapped back to life and clutched onto Kaede hand tightly before she released. Showing her the same kindness, Miyako threw Kaede into the floor. The two women connected together pounded each other into the completely unrecognizable floor until they both laid on their backs panting from the exertion.
“You’re so annoying,” complained Kaede, still unable to kill Miyako.
“I ain’t gonna lose.”
“I’ll still make you!”
“Try me.”
They staggered to their feet equally unwilling to resign the fight. Their bodies both yelled at their stupidity for ignoring them, but it went on deaf ears. Both focused on each other. Defense had disappeared from their attempts as both laid down a heavy blow in the others face. The force shot them out of the ruins and through several neighboring homes.
Forcing herself back up to her feet, Miyako began to walk out of the house and towards Kaede. Blood and bruises covered her body. Her clothes were in shreds only holding together out of kindness than anything else, not that Kaede looked to be in much better shape.
However, a strange red glow came from Kaede that made Miyako force open her half-closed eye. “…the hell?” She slowly started to move closer and closer trying to figure out what was going on with Kaede. The glow became a haze that seemed to surround her whole body. ‘…it’s like she’s on fire…literally…’
Before she could get too much closer, a fireball suddenly flew after her. She had to duck out of the way of the surprise attack. Behind her, the house blew up in flames casting gusts of wind to her back. ‘A completely different power…’ Little time remained to think about the situation as another similar attack forced her to dodge.
Rolling out of the way, Miyako found several more fireballs coming to where she landed. She jumped out of the way just in time to ride the explosions forward. They rocked her around and forced her into the ground roughly as she clawed at the earth to recover.
Already on top of her, Kaede stood with her left fist a light with flames. Miyako rolled away to dodge the first and second punches that left the ground melted and smoking. However, she couldn’t get away from the third, taking it straight to the upper arm. The searing pain roared through her body and she yelped. Forcing Kaede off her with a kick, she managed to be released from the burning.
Miyako stood up with her left arm feeling numb and not moving the way she wanted. She finally got a good look at Kaede to see that once more she got a change in haircut. Her hair had grown out in length to hit near the middle of her back and large spinning and wrapping curls laid over her shoulder. “So your power is connected to your hair, huh?” Seeing it a third time made it all clear.
“That’s right. I have several different powers thanks to the way this power works. You never stood a chance against me! My flames will burn you to ash!”