Unbeta'd, so please let me know if anything's wrong…
SPOILER WARNING: I don't remember what chapter it is specifically, but anyways…there's quite a bit of spoilers (at least this first chapter…not sure about the others yet). Won't say specifically, because that'd just make it more obvious. If you know, you know. If not…what you don't know you know won't hurt you. Usually.
Disclaimer: I do not own Airgear.
"Benkei-san! Shit, that's a lot of blood!"
"That's okay. I've always had a lot of blood. If I don't lose a bit of blood, the blood vessels in my head would burst and I would die." Benkei laid the back of her head against the wall of the shower stall. She could hear the kids outside, still talking about her. Looking down at the yellowed tiled floor, she watched blood go down the drain in diluted sanguine swirls. The hot water stung her wounds in a satisfyingly painful manner, and she tipped her head back, closing her eyes.
"Benkei, I can't take this anymore. Even if I endure through this, they're gonna come for me again and again. I'm sorry for putting you through all of this," he said, looking at her over his shoulder. The cut under his eye seeped a bloody tear. "Dinner is on me later…how does a meat feast sound?"
Boss… thought Benkei, eyes widening in sorrowful epiphany as she swung back and forth, leg crushed in the machine's grip. "This is the end" was what Yoshitsune was saying.
She pulled out the blade within her staff with a series of heavy click-shanks. She breathed in the familiar scents of home, battle, and hot metal. "Hey…doesn't sound too bad. As the Trident's last meal, it's perfect." My leg is ruined anyway, she thought resolutely. Gritting her teeth, she swung the blade in an upwards arc, slicing cleanly through her thigh. She was silently glad the blade was sharp enough to go fairly easily through the flesh and bone as it emerged in a gory rainbow on the other side. "Ugh!" she hissed. The assassin mocked her sacrifice—and those of everyone else in Osaka— with his cold voice, so sure of the destruction of their home. She glanced quickly behind her, calculating mentally.
It's chasing from behind…meat—eat? Ninukuuka...twenty-nine. Nine…Ah—down the direction of 9 o'clock at 29 degrees… *
The pieces clicked into place, and she struck. The robotic claw whipped around, missing her and striking the assassin across the face, splintering bone and the weapons his Road was built from.
The idiot with the glasses and stupid outfit, videogame in hand (who was apparently controlling those giagantic robots…Where'd he think he was? In an anime or something?) yelled something about being far too superior to fall into such a trap.
"Uh, it's not really a trap," said Benkei, winking at him (or was she wincing in pain?). "I'm not losing a lot of blood either because I'm a vegetarian. I hate meat!"
Suddenly, the assassin raised his head from where it was lying in the broken roof tiles. A piece of one of his blades had pierced straight through his face. Veins bulging out of his face, he ordered geek boy—Percival—to destroy the city.
Another huge robot appeared, and Yoshitsune was in the air, a tiny mosquito against a gargantuan beast. His Regalia moved in a blur, and the monster exploded with its master on top, immense parts raining down, crushing the assassin.
He fell then, graceful as a cherry blossom, looking at the sky as his body hit the debris. "So it seems my body couldn't take it…" he mused tiredly.
And there was the devil with his angel's wings. Nike. "No!" screamed Benkei, fighting through the debris. Yoshitsune watched her from the corner of his eye
"You never change," said Nike. "You're the guy that always thinks ahead."
Yoshitsune thought of Tetris. And regretted not being able to see what would come. Blood spurted from behind his teeth, and he looked straight at the world, smiling beautifully. "Well, goodbye," he said, cheerful to the end. Then, the world's second-strongest and gentlest person died, in the exact same way he had lived.
"Boss had a different way of seeing things," said Benkei, the water hitting her face and running into her open eyes. "I think he knew that a day like this would come. Even so, he never let go of his game 'til the end." She slid down the wall and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "The thing he wanted to leave behind was…the strong willpower of the Samurais of the West. And hope…you, Ikki."
She sighed quietly, dressed, and came out, wrapping the stump of her leg. Leaning on her staff, she said to them, "Y'all don't need to cry. Heaven's cryin' in your place…" Ikki hopped up abruptly, and ran off. Kazu left as well, though he did it much more quietly.
"The boss…I think he really knew everything beforehand." Benkei lowered her eyes, and wondered what Yoshitsune would say.
She sighed. "Sorry to leave y'all here…but I think I need t'do a little mournin' for myself…"
Hobbling off with her staff as a crutch, she threw a leg over her motorcycle. Raising a hand in the air, she started the engine. "Well, 'm off now," she said casually, and left.
She wasn't sure where she was going, exactly, she just knew she wanted to go somewhere far away. She just wanted the wind whipping through her hair, the road before and behind her pretending to last forever. No worries, no memories of Yoshitsune, the Trident, those final, heartwrenching moments when he fell, blood spraying in an arc and coloring the burning city in a another splash of red.
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*This is a pun. "Niku" can mean "meat", and "kuuka" can be "eat", so basically, it sounds like "eating meat" or something similar. However, "niku" refers to 29, and "kuuka" means "nine down" in this case. So it's basically a coded message, and also why Benkei says that she doesn't eat meat. She's explaining that it was a ruse.
The chapters in which this story's spoilers are from made me so sad, I almost cried. It was executed beautifully, and it's just incredibly heart-wrenching. Yeah…but anyway, this just kind of lets you know the basis for the story.
Sorry for those who are waiting for an update on Tickle Torture…this one just sort of popped into my head, and I wanted to write it down before it ran away…