This story was submitted for Basketball Poet's Society's Challenge 59: OTP Battle. Mentions of death (yes, I am a horrible person), and characters may seem out of line with how they are usually portrayed, but yea...

The colour of the wind changed as soon as the blow landed on the ground. Dirt flew high in the air, picked up by the sweeping wind, covering the two figures mere feet away from each other; one with a palm on the ground, crouched with exertion, and the other panting after dodging what could have been a fatal death blow. A standstill was formed, neither knowing where the other was, despite the heavy breathing. Noise of little pebbles finding their place back on the floor surrounded them, seeming to echo further than necessary in the factory plot they ended up stumbling upon in their haste.

It felt as though forever and a century passed before the dirt settled. The one on offence glanced about him, watching, at the sudden disappearance of his foe. Straightening—assuming weakness—his muscles discreetly prepared to defend himself in case the coward decided to show his face. Another long stretch of time passed and no sign of him; he let out the breath he unconsciously held in, loosening tense muscles. He pivoted and headed back where he came from.

Not thirty metres away did the fool assault him, a high kick for the face, only for his ankle to be caught immediately and his whole body spun with the force. Now on defence, he watched as the other curled his body to soften the landing then charge head-first, literally, towards him, a war cry a second away. "Die, you bloody murderer!" he was accused, a barrage of fists aimed at his abdomen and face but none actually meeting its target. Effortlessly, it seemed, he deflected each, and as if growing bored, swatted the younger man away. With a quick open-handed smack to the under of his chin, and a fist into his nose, he downed the youth. "My nose!"

"Your sister," he said, speaking for the first time since their meeting, "Broke the rules. She knew what would happen if she disobeyed, if she betrayed." He pulled a handkerchief out of his left pocket and wiped off the blood on his right hand, removing the beautiful colour off his tanned skin almost forlornly, not looking at the bemoaning young male on the ground. "And I did not break your nose."

The youth quietened, holding his nose with his left hand, supporting his body off the ground with his right. Chest heaving, he observed the older man before him. Swiping away at the collecting blood, he murmured, hardly above a whisper, "She loved you. You lied to us."

The handkerchief was pocketed. "I loved her." His chest tightened, but he ignored it. He straightened his dark blue dress shirt, buttoned the cuffs after unfolding the sleeves, and then dusted his pant thighs. "She lied to me."

"Is this what they do?" he called out to the back of the man who killed his sister, leaving her choking on air she could not get. "The so called Miracles?!" The man had not bat an eyelid—watched as she took her dying breath, how her red-amber eyes rolled far back into her head, uselessly, and her fingernails digging into the thick fingers wrapped around her slender white neck. He watched as his thumbs depressed against her hyoid bone, hearing the crack under the pressure, fracturing her larynx. The gurgling became distorted, but he did not stop the throttling. As he increased the force of his grip, her eyeballs bulged slightly and the veins in the whites ruptured ever so minutely, dying them red as her hair. "Is this what they make you do to people you love?"

"To people who lie and betray maybe," the man joked, dryly. A chuckle hung in the stale air, the wind from before having disappeared. "No one interferes with love, Tatsu-boy."

Tatsuya remained watching until he could not any more, hanging his head despondently and blankly wondering what he was to do now. His sister, the sole reason he had ever remained as he was, departed from his side. The man he called on as a brother, a saviour to the siblings, had departed from his side. So what now, was he to do?

I usually cross-post my work in Tumblr and AO3 under the same name (technically), but I haven't done that for this one. Yet.

Comments and reviews are appreciated, no matter the content! :)