When Kyosuke had met Hekkatomb at the road, he thought he was half a head shorter than him. Now that he was up close the red stickman was at least three heads taller. Hekkatomb squinted at the sight of him. His sheer hatred for the ninja was so palpable he could feel it burning him like hot steam. His face contorted into a cruel sneer. By the road Carter lay at his feet, barely clinging to life, chest heaving with each laboured breath. To Kyosuke's surprise her wounds had been expertly cleaned and bandaged.

Hawktooth and Snowpelt and everyone else - he couldn't quite remember their names - looked at him. They looked at the Fruit he was holding in his hands, neon blue and pumpkin-sized.

"Took you long enough. Where's our chosen one?" said Hekkatomb, cheerfully.

Kyosuke was going to have him feel as though everything was going his way. He knew Hekkatomb's sense of humour well. He was the kind of guy to laugh at other peoples' misfortunes, so Kyosuke came up with the most anticlimactic death he could imagine.

But first he was going to build up the suspense. "Jessica's gone."

Kyosuke sniffed, feigning grief. At this Hekkatomb rubbed his hands together with glee. "Tell me more."

"She tried to climb the Holy Tree. Then fell sixty feet and broke her neck."

Now Hekkatomb was fighting the urge to dance. "So sad. So easily avoidable, too. So why didn't you help her?"

Kyosuke glanced away. "I don't know. I told her to slow down, but she wanted to get back to you as soon as she could."

"Awwwww!" cooed Hekkatomb, nudging Carter with his foot. "Hear that? She went through all this for you! Isn't that so adorable?"

Akai, Raku-Tak and Chou hung their heads in abject shame and humiliation. They felt like complete failures. Failures as adventurers. Failures as people. And there was nothing they could do to make up for it, ever. For a moment they silently commiserated with the two wolves, even though neither had said a single word to them.

Snowpelt recalled a certain prophecy that was passed down to the humans years ago. One that was in the final chapter of their holy book. It was about a blessed child with who had the power to change not just her shape but also the weather, to end the endless winter and bring peace between man and wolf. The humans had ignored the prophecy out of necessity for years until it was eventually dismissed as irrelevant apocrypha, having finally accepted she would never come.

Even then, there was a very slim chance one of their remaining elders, stubbornly clinging to the final chapter's canonicity,

But now that possibility was gone. It would never come to pass. With her death, so too died their future. What was once improbable was now impossible.

"Oh man, this is the best day of my life!" gloated Hekkatomb. "So did you uh, finish her life's purpose for her? The one she was always destined to fulfil, but couldn't?"

"No." Kyosuke said, scowling. He'd entertained this guy's sadistic power trip for long enough. It wasn't pleasant - In fact he felt dirty doing this. But it was necessary.

So he paused for a good three seconds; then said in a completely deadpan tone: "I think it was still in her mouth when she hit the ground."

Nobody said anything. The wind blew. The snow fell. And Kyosuke broke the silence once more: "Like a suckling pig."

As soon as the image formed in his mind, Hekkatomb cackled so hard he broke into a frenzied dance. He looked like a corpse fresh from the morgue being zapped with a million volts of electricity. Then he doubled over, mouth agape, making that high-pitched wheeze, the kind of wheeze you make when you you laugh so hard you run out of air.

Kyosuke didn't notice it at first. But the Fruit of Knowledge was nowhere to be seen.

An eye-searing blur struck Hekkatomb's throat so hard it kicked up a wind that sent snow and pine needles flying. A hundred trees snapped. A white-and-grey explosion bloomed in the distance and bits of dirt and pebbles flew everywhere. Kyosuke took off in Jessica's direction.

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A bright light flashed behind them. Akai looked behind himself. An ambulance pulled over. Several medics stepped out.

...

Despite coming off as someone who was all talk, Hekkatomb was a surprisingly competent fighter. The fight had carried on for a good three minutes. He hadn't taken a single hit since Jessica's starting move almost bit his head off.

Even though she'd never fought before as a human and had only been a wolf for a few days, she was angrier than she'd ever been in her life. She lunged, slashed and tried to find an opening, yet virtually all of her attacks missed. Hekkatomb was just too quick.

Meanwhile Kyosuke had fought him once. He wasn't very sure he'd survive last time. Yet against all odds he managed to win. He was even less sure now. This time none of his attacks hit hard because Hekkatomb was blocking all of them with just one hand. The other hand was holding his phone.

"Bbbooooosss~?" said Hekkatomb, blood dribbling down his face.

"This better be good news." answered Malachi.

"I did a little research-" Hekkatomb said, only to be cut off as Jessica grabbed him in his jaws and bit down into his torso. She swung her head down, bashing him into a mossy outcrop, sending bits of rock flying everywhere.

Hekkatomb groaned with pain but calmly regained his footing and punched a few of Jessica's teeth out. He elbowed her so hard she flew into the forest like a cannonball, knocking over at least four dozen trees with her body. His bones ached, but the pain left him quickly. Then got down and casually picked his overpriced touch-screen cellphone off the ground.

Wiping the mud and snow off, he continued, "-It turns out the "humans" of this Zone started out as animals and vice versa. You know what that means?"

"They're not any of the nine recognized sapient species." said Malachi. "They're not officially citizens. Nobody can press charges against us if we..."

"Kill 'em all!" gloated Hekkatomb, laughing maniacally.

A familiar foe poked him from behind. A burning sensation spread out from a single point at the back of his neck. Soon, excruciating pain roared in his every nerve.

The Touch of Death!

Hekkatomb knew this technique all too well; mainly because he had survived it at least six times before. It was a move which took months of study to perfect, which didn't stop it from being the first last-ditch tactic of almost every upstart ninja apprentice he'd met. However, he had to give it to Kyosuke - it actually hurt this time.

But for just one second. his muscles froze. And in that single, precious second Kyosuke hit him everywhere. His limbs became a blur. He punched him in the face, kicked him the shins, in the stomach, and in-between the legs.

...

Right now Akai, Chou and Raku-Tak were rumbling back the way they came at 120 kilometers per hour, bumping over rocks and shrubs and almost crashing into trees, slamming their heads against the ceiling with two frightened, talking wolves in tow. Every part of the car was shaking so hard it looked like the whole thing might just fall apart.

"What's that sound?" Raku-Tak babbled from the backseat, wedged between Snowpelt and Hawktooth. "Fireworks?!"

"They're fighting, you moron!" Akai shouted as he wrestled with the steering wheel, sharp fangs bared. "Stupid stupid stupid- aghhhhhhhhh!!!"

"Faster! Faster! Faster!" wailed Chou as she tried to reach over to his side with his foot to push the steering wheel down more, only for Akai to swipe her away.

"Back off!" Akai yelled. A wad of snow fell from a tree, covering up the screen with a splatting noise. Akai slammed on the windscreen wipers but it was no use. The snow was too heavy. The car stopped moving. Akai kept his foot on the pedal nonetheless as he ranted and raved and swore. He clenched his eyes shut.

And when he opened them there wasn't any snow on the car anymore.

"What?" said Akai, looking over at his backseat passengers. "Which one of you did that?"

His foot was still on the pedal but his car didn't move an inch. The car went dead silent. That's funny, thought Akai. Then his heart dropped at the sight of the fuel gauge. Fed up, Akai slammed his head against the steering wheel. All they could hear was one long continuous honk of hopelessness and despair.

"Akai-" Chou said. But Akai couldn't hear her. She pushed his head off the wheel. The honk stopped.

Raku-Tak stuck his head out over the front seat. "Are you gonna do it?"

"Yeah I'm gonna do it!" Chou said. She made a pointing gesture and her finger glowed with electricity. She jammed it into the cigarette lighter.

Metal plates came apart and rejoined as their car transformed itself. It came to life with chaotic humming and puttering noises. Rockets roared as the wheels began to turn. The car moved faster and faster. Akai screamed and yowled and slammed on the brakes, but the car just kept going faster. He stomped again and again until it came off.

Now that there was no choice but forward Akai steered the car towards a promising upwards slope. The rockets screamed louder with manic determination. The back tires started melting. His passengers groaned as G-forces threatened to crush them flat. At that moment the speedometer hit its limit. Akai's claws dug into the wheel, gouging out bits of plastic which fell on his lap. And a second later, he felt nothing under the wheels but wind.

...

And once that precious second was over, Kyosuke's enemy lay at his feet. Kyosuke knelt down and felt his forehead. The heat had begun to leave his body. Once bright like a magnesium fire, the glow of his spiritual energy had dimmed to that of a candle.

At last, Hekkatomb was dead.