[3rd POV]
"It's unbelievable how incredibly strong you are," Akaza said, looking at his wrist that no longer had a hand.
But with a spark of intent, a new hand popped out from the stump. It was not mere regeneration where bones and flesh grew, it was almost instantaneous. It looked more like Akaza summoned a new hand.
"Kanae Kocho, you are a true warrior despite your gender," Akaza said with respect in his tone.
He had never encountered a worthy opponent amongst the humans before, and he never thought that the first one would be a woman. But despite the disadvantage that came with being a woman, Kanae Kocho had impressed him beyond measure.
He had truly enjoyed the fight, but everything good must come to an end. It was tragic, but it was the sad truth about being humans: they die, they end.
"You say that, but throughout this battle, I never sensed any killing intent from you," Kanae replied while catching her breath.
Akaza was stronger than her, which became evident after the first few exchanges of the battle. In truth, the demon should be able to win the fight pretty easily, but the battle had stretched for so long.
This was because Akaza never went all out with his attacks. There was something holding him back from outright killing her. Kanae could not figure out what was stopping him.
"That is correct, throughout my existence, I've never taken the life of a woman nor have I consumed them. I figured it was simply unsightly for a warrior to do so," Akaza said, with a hard nod.
"But I've decided that you are an exception, Kanae Kocho,"
"Just Kanae is fine," she just smiled sweetly. It was weird, but she could tell that Akaza was not like the other demons; he seemed genuinely kind if her eyes were to be believed.
"Okay then, Kanae," Akaza continued, "You have proven yourself worthy as a warrior, the men I've seen so far are not worth half of you. For that reason, I shall fight you with all I have."
Kanae allowed her eyes to scan the surroundings briefly. What used to be a mansion with a beautiful garden was reduced to an aching battlefield where the earth bared its bones.
The fight had been intense, more intense than any battle she had ever fought. But from the demon's words, it was just a warm-up before the real battle.
She forced a smile at that.
"Be ready, Kanae, for in my next attack, I shall strike to kill," Akaza said, finally forming a proper stance. "This will be your last chance to accept my proposal and become a demon."
"No thanks, I can never allow myself to become what he hates the most. I've seen how much it hurts him when it happened to his best friend," Kanae said, and she too, got into a new stance.
"Give me your best shot....Akaza," she acknowledged his name.
In response, the demon lowered his body, his knees bent and his arm came up. Then the ground beneath his feet cracked like glass under pressure.
"Destructive Death: Compass Needle,"
A new technique Kanae had never seen before.
Glowing with bright blue veins, his Compass Needle etched itself onto the broken earth, pulsing like a beating heart. It took the shape of a blue snowflake, it was stunning in both beauty and danger.
The compass locked onto Kanae's every movement and thoroughly scanned her fighting spirt. She became like an open book to Akaza.
He could tell how strong she was at her best, how weak she was at her worst. He could also sense her potential for strength and weakness, everything was revealed through his technique.
Akza no longer said a word, he just vanished.
Kanae's eyes narrowed. Her new demonic eyes surpassed all human limitations and stuck onto Akaza's blurring form at supersonic speed.
So she was not caught by surprise when the attack came at her, more destructive than ever and it was aiming right at her vitals.
It was an attack meant to kill.
*BOOOOOOOM!!!*
A shockwave burst between them as Akaza reappeared right in front of her with a mid-air spinning heel kick. Kanae blocked his feet with the sharp edge of her blade.
And yet the blade could not cut Akaza. Rather, her blade never even made contact with him. There was a compressed air between them that stopped her entirely.
"Air Type : Screams of death,"
A fitting name as the air screamed soon after. The stable atmosphere of the world was punctured by a shockwave that sent destruction through the air.
'Strong, but I can take it,' Kanae thought, her eyes glowing softly as she retaliated.
"Flower Breathing : Fifth Form," she took in the fleeing air through her mouth.
"Peonies of Futility!"
A whirlwind of strikes erupted from her blade, blooming with devastating speed. Each slash came from an unpredictable angle, yet Akaza moved through them with ease and confidence. His compass was able to read her every move even before she made them.
"Leg Type : Explosive Flurry,"
Akaza's legs became a blur as he unleashed a barrage of kicks, each strike explosive, sonic booms trailing behind his limbs. The socwave was powerful enough to tear away at the ground below.
Kanae bent, twisted, spun and danced through the barrage. She was moving with the flexibility and grace you would never believe a human body could achieve.
"Flower Breathing : Fourth Form,"
At one moment she was bending her back and twisting her arms, and then her sword came at Akaza in another. The shift in posture was so incredibly fluid it took place in less than the blink of an eye, she seemed to be glitching with how she sifted posture.
"Crimson Hanagoromo,"
A rapid flowing slash curved around Akaza's side and he dodged as if he had seen the attack coming a mile away. He grinned at her, he knew her better than she knew herself.
What she believed she could do, he knew. What she didn't know she could do, he also knew. Her true capabilities, he also knew.
..
..
But this wasn't the first time she fought such an opponent was it? She fought more times than she could count, someone who could also read her attacks like an open book.
Kanae's eyes glowed fiercely now. The veins near her temples were throbbing, a clear sign that her body was under immense strain, and yet she showed no hesitation.
".....Forbidden form,"
Akaza paused for the briefest instance,
"Quinoctial Vermilion Eye."
Her iris turned bright red, petals of flame swirling inside her pupils. Normally, this would spell a great backlash for the user, overstimulating the brain and reflexes. It could lead to blindness in the eyes.
She had used this in her fight against Douma and it costed her. But now, her demonic eyes allowed her to use this form with basically no backlash.
She finally saw the world as it truly was, the world bore naked truth to her eyes.
She saw the transparent world.
The compass under Akaza went haywire, in just a moment her fighting spirit changed and her overall combat power increased dramatically. It was so sudden that Akaza had no time to adapt.
She moved faster than she ever did before and came at Akaza with assured victory in her steps. Her eyes saw everything and so she knew exactly what she had to do. There was no delay in trying to think of what to do, she knew, and so she just did.
Akaza had to match her intensity now, and he did it with demonic ease.
"Destructive Death: Flowing Light Speed!"
Akaza entered a state where his attacks flowed continuously, punches chaining together in erratic, angular movements that bent logic and air alike.
Each of his strikes created a destructive shockwave that created sonic booms, the sound barrier shattered as easily as glass.
The two collided.
Blade against fist. Eye against compass.
Every strike of Akaza shattered the earth and the air alike, each slash of Kanae's sword lit the air with flowered arcs of death.
They fought on soil turned upside down with shattered beams and craters. The sound of a sharp blade gliding against the wind and the sound of shattering air filled the space. It sounded despairing, it was the hum of violence.
The intensity of the fight did not end with flashy displays either, behind all that violence was thought and planning you would not believe. It was like a game of chess, where they tried to predict each other.
Akaza used his compass, Kanae her eyes, they predicted each other's prediction. They tried to stay a step ahead but every time they clashed on equal ground, ending in a draw.
As they moved in the present reality, the real fight was always happening ten seconds into the future. It was bizarre, it was a fight that required you to be one of the strongest just to understand what was going on.
The other demons arrived on the battlefield, but they didn't even intervene. They couldn't. The fight was taking place in a dimension their feeble mind couldn't reach. Raw power without a mind was an insult to the art of fighting.
And then the fight reached its climax.
Kanae leapt, spinning mid-air. The constant clash of her blade generated heat, which caused her sword to glow pink and red.
"Flower Breathing : Second Form,"
She prepared an attack to end it all. A form that was both defence and offence in nature, she would slash at Akaza's neck while hiding it with a block.
...
Alas, the Flower Breathing only had seven forms. It was too little for a warrior of Akaza's calibre.
In a battle of prediction, her limited forms was a grave weakness.
During the battle, Akaza had learned every form of Flower Breathing, knowing them to the point of mastering them. Therefore, he was able to predict her this time, he was a step ahead.
'A technique of both offence and defence, but in return, there is a moment where you did neither,' Akza thought sharply and attacked in that moment of pause, he aimed right at her vitals.
Her open neck.
Akaza's fist came at Kanae's neck without disruption. It was not fast by any means, it was simply thrown at the perfect time at the perfect place.
Time crawled from Kanae's perspective; she saw the fist coming at her with certain death.
Yet strangely enough, she did not despair.
She smiles.
There was something in her eyes, something Akaza could not pinpoint exactly. His compass did not tell anything; it only affirmed her impending death.
Indeed, Akaza outmatched her, he had won the battle of prediction. But Kanae had something that could never be predicted.
Becuase it was not logical, it couldn't be calculated.
..
Faith.
She had faith in the flashes of purple she saw with the corner of her eyes.
The fist was an inch away from her neck, it had already passed her chin. But then a blade came down, very close to her face. It might've cut a millimetre of her eyelashes, but the blade never hurt her.
A flash of a blade.
And then Akaza's hand was cut off before it made contact with her neck.
!!!!!!!!
Akaza widened his eyes at the blade he had never seen coming, it was somehow fast enough to slip through his compass.
He did not have the chance to figure out how either, his head was sliced off in the next moment, this time by Kanae's blade.
Faith paid off.
*SHIIIING!!!*
...
Akaza's head fell with a thud in the distance while his body collapsed without a head. But at that moment, neither Kanae nor Seiji paid attention to it.
They locked eyes for the first time in years.
Two pairs of eyes that saw the transparent world, they should be able to see everything, but when they locked, they did not see anything else but each other.
Seiji opened his mouth first, trying to say hi, followed by something witty. But what came out was only a shaky breath.
Kanae didn't say anything either. What was the use of words to a deaf man?
She moved, speaking with her actions rather than words.
She closed her eyes, turning off all her other senses to feel the sensation of her lips on his. She kissed him with everything she had, all her love, gratitude, longing and sheer need. All of which fit into one single action.
It was the greatest kiss Seiji had ever felt.
..
..
[IMAGE]
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