Disclaimer: Oh wow, am I really this far? *mouth hangs open * Moving on though, as we all know (or you should), I don't own KHR, and never will.

Hooray for chapter 25! For future reference, I don't know a whole lot about martial arts, so I apologize for any inaccuracy! And I think we can all agree that my updating schedule has pretty much jumped out a window and died. Hopefully, it will be revived by the time the next arc comes around. I'm not sure I like how Kazuki's fight went, but whatever. I'd be hard pressed to make it any better, seeing as it didn't want to be written in the first place.

Reborn22: Kill him yourself? But that's my job!! :p You like Izumi? Interesting...

dotYui: Wow...violent. Glad I could clear that up for you, and regarding Hebi, you'll see. Kazuki is a pretty likeable character (or at least I think so). Retsu's weapon...I think you'll like it. ^^

monochromez: I think imagery's important in a story, because it helps the reader picture what's going on better, which is always good. And I figure there's got to be at least one sadistic character in every story. *shrugs* Yume's father plays a fairly important role. Oh god, I wasn't even thinking about your collarbone when I wrote that! What a coincidence. Yeah for badasses!

Rikulz: I'm so glad you liked it! And yeah, Kazuki's that fast. Why? Cause I felt like it. ^^ But in a race, Jun's still faster. Who, as you pointed out, things aren't looking up for. Who knows what'll happen...(seriously, I'm writing this before I write the chapter, I'm not completely positive on what's going to happen -.-) It's really cool that you can relate to some of my characters, and that makes me happy, because that means they're at least a little realistic. Yes, Retsu does have a very strong family when they're mad.

Our Sky

Chapter 25: Hard Fight

Last Time:

"You know what they say," she said, casually fingering a card. "An eye for an eye..." In a flash, she picked it up and drove it into his right arm, a sadistic glint in her dark eyes. "And an arm for an arm!"

The teen bit back a cry of pain, gaze involuntarily sliding to the wound. It was bleeding badly already, which wasn't good by any stretch of the imagination. On the other hand, it didn't look too deep. Still, the shock had been enough for him to loosen his tight grip on his gun, and it fell to the floor with a metallic clank. Usagi regarded it curiously for a moment, then shrugged. She kicked it away with her foot, sending the weapon skittering across the floor. It came to a stop a few yards away, useless.

"Now then," she said, fanning out her remaining ten cards. "Let's play."

~OS~

Too say the situation was bad would have been a bit of an understatement. Jun would like to say that he'd been in worse, but honestly, nothing was coming up. Seriously, how much worse could this get?

"Are you ignoring me?!" Usagi yelled, grabbing a fistful of his hair. "I was talking!"

"I heard what you said, bitch," he snarled. Clearly, he had some things to learn about self-preservation, but there wasn't a whole lot he could do. She was going to kill him anyways. Unless he could find a way to get free.

While the dark haired girl launched into some furious rant about something or other, he moved one of his legs experimentally. To his surprise and happiness, he found that he could move it slightly. The cards were in the wall deep, however they had only pierced his clothing. Maybe the cards wouldn't break, but his clothes could rip. Still, he'd need a distraction...

A scream tore through the relative silence of the district, cutting Usagi off mid-sentence. She tensed, paling considerably. "Was that...Hebi?!" she whispered in a surprised voice, looking towards the source through the open doorway. "Did he lose?"

Hello, distraction, Jun thought with a smirk, quickly getting to work. The fabric tore fairly easily, but it wasn't going fast enough. I'm going to get caught!

"Geez, you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself, right brat?" Usagi sighed, turning back to the captive boy.

Dammit! he swore loudly in his head, taking in her shocked expression when she saw that one of his arms and both of his legs were free. Now or never then, he decided grimly, wrenching himself away from the wall. The cards sliced into his arm as he tore his arm away, leaving deep cuts. But now he was free. And he didn't plan to waste it.

That arm's getting all kinds of wounds, Jun thought with a grimace as he moved away. He threw himself towards his gun, and his fingers had just touched it when the girl finally came to her senses.

"Are you kidding me?!" she screeched, hurling three of her remaining ten cards. He narrowly avoided two, but the third got him just under the eye, leaving a long, thin cut as it flew past. The boy barely flinched, finally getting a better hold on his gun before aiming it at her, finger on the trigger and ready to fire.

"Don't move-" he tried, but had to stop himself in order to dodge the next two cards. Or not.

"Plan B then," he muttered. In a sudden move, he ran forward, calling upon all his speed as a sprinter to shoot forward fast enough to get this done without dying. Usagi never knew what hit her. One second, he was fifteen feet away. The next, he was right in front of her, gun pointed at her uninjured shoulder. "I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm really not," the teen muttered, firing once.

This time, the girl didn't scream. Instead, she collapsed, nursing her shoulder. But Jun, for once in his life, was being cautious, and took an extra step. He punched her once, lightly, not really thinking it would do anything. It was very surprising for him then when her eyes rolled back and she collapsed, out like a light.

He stared between Usagi and his fist in disbelief, then sank to the ground, relieved that the fight was finally over.

"So a bullet wound won't knock you out, but a punch from me of all people will?!" he said, not even caring that she couldn't hear. "You are one screwed up girl."

~OS~

"I'm very angry right now."

"...Is that supposed to scare me?" Shiro asked incredulously, rubbing his head. "You caught me off guard, that I'll admit, but don't let it go to your head. It was a lucky shot, nothing else."

"If you say so," the long haired teen shrugged, slipping into a ready stance.

The man tilted his head slightly in surprise, but made no other move. "A martial artist?"

"I guess you could say that."

"That's not a stance I recognize."

"And...?"

"I consider myself a bit of an expert."

"Congratulations," Kazuki said, not even trying to hide the sarcasm in his voice. Shiro frowned.

"Seriously though, what is that stance?" he asked.

"A mix of some different things," the boy answered indifferently. "So are you gonna let me kick your ass now, or you want to keep talking about stupid things?"

"Wow, you sound pretty mad," his opponent whistled in appreciation. "If I may offer some advice-"

"I don't want it."

"Suit yourself than," Shiro shrugged, getting into a ready stance of his own. This time, he made the first move, leaping at the smaller male with unnatural speed for his size. He lashed out with a kick aimed at Kazuki's jaw, but the boy managed to jump out of the way just in time to avoid it, only to be caught by a hooked punch to the gut.

He dropped to his knees, breathing hard, and found that the man wasn't done yet. A sharp cut aimed at his throat would have broken his neck had the blonde not rolled out of the way. He couldn't get in an attack! Throwing himself to the side and narrowly dodging a high kick, he found himself a little over a foot away from his opponent. Shiro looked down at him with contempt.

"Like I said before, you sound really mad right now," the man said. "That's not a good thing."

I hate it, but he's right; I've got to calm down. He's killing me here, Kazuki realized, taking a few deep breaths and thinking about their trip to the beach during the summer. It would be great to do that again next summer. If I lose my cool, I won't be able to. Wait, did I feed Chiyo(1) this morning? Ah, damn, don't think I did. Hope Dad or Jing-san took care of it.

With his mind successfully back to normal, he then started on a plan. He and Jing hadn't actually begun any training, though the Chinese man had hinted at it, something which Kazuki was now regretting. So he was by himself on this one. Let's see, I know some different stuff, but I usually only fight with one style at a time. Otherwise, it's too confusing for me. He seems to be able to read all my moves. But maybe I could...

"You said earlier that you wanted to know what kind of martial arts I did?" the blonde asked quietly. He met Shiro's eye's with a grin, and the man felt a slight chill.

"Sure," he replied. What's the kid up to?

Kazuki's smile widened. "Allow me to give you a demonstration then!" He let himself fall forward slightly, latching onto his opponent's wrist and catching him off guard. "First was judo," the boy started, twisting the others arm into a painful looking position behind the man's back.

"Then, I started karate," the teen emphasized the last word with a punch to the face and a sharp jab to Shiro's stomach. The man hissed, but Kazuki was far from done. "I did a little aikido," he grinned, easily managing to flip the much larger male over his shoulder. Shiro landed on his back with a grunt, immediately struggling to his feet to try and prepare for the next attack.

When the hell did this kid get so strong? he wondered, clutching his stomach in pain. There's no way he should be able to even lift me, much less throw me!

"I didn't say I was done yet." A powerful kick was delivered to the left side of his face, making his vision swim and stunning him momentarily. "That was my personal favorite, kickboxing," Kazuki informed him, innocent smile still in place. He seemed so much scarier like this, calm and collected in his own way. The boy had good reflexes and senses for a fight, and when he was actually thinking, not blinded by rage, he became a force to be reckoned with, even for a professional like Shiro.

"And last but not least, my favorite out them all. It's not really counted as a fighting style, but whatever. Soccer!" He drew his leg back, and kicked the man's shin with enough force to send a soccer ball halfway across the field and into the goal. Shiro swayed dangerously, and a thought occurred to his blond opponent that made the boy smile impishly.

Kazuki blew lightly on the others nose, hoping to make him fall over...then had to jump back to avoid getting squashed by the falling man. "You know, I've always wanted to do that," the boy admitted, scratching the back of his head and sweatdropping. "But...you're supposed to fall in the other direction." He knelt down to examine the prone form before him, carefully lifting one of the wrists to check the pulse. The teen highly doubted the man was dead, but it was always good to check if he was truly unconscious or not. Unfortunately for him though, his opponent was very much awake.

A large hand shot out, trapping one of the boy's ankles in an iron grip. "What the-?!" He was cut off by the sharp, blinding pain that sprouted from his ankle as Shiro gave it a vicious twist. With a self-satisfied smirk, the man pushed himself off the ground, throwing the dust he'd just picked up straight into the startled boy's eyes.

Kazuki fell back in surprise, scrambling to remove the substance from his eyes. Too late, he realized that he'd dropped his guard, and before he could recover, he felt himself being bodily lifted off the ground. This won't end well, he thought. Seconds later, he found himself flying through the air for the second time that day. Except this time, he wouldn't be able to catch himself. The impact with the building he had been heading for was all he'd expected and more: extremely painful. He slid to the ground, barely sitting up with the walls support, eyes trained on his opponent.

Shiro took his sweet time walking over, knowing that with the others potentially broken ankle, he wouldn't be running away any time soon. The man was still holding his stomach, and Kazuki couldn't help but feel a small flare of pride to know that he was the one who'd inflicted the wound.

But he's about to inflict some wounds of his own. On you, another, less optimistic part of his mind pointed out.

Shut up and let me enjoy my last moments.

By this time, his opponent was hovering over him, glaring down with such intensity that the long haired teen almost flinched away. But being himself, his pride wouldn't allow it. He met the man's gaze coolly, even smiling somewhat. He got a kick to the face for his troubles, but the smile didn't fade, as he was sure that had been what Shiro was aiming for. In fact, it only widened. Oh how he loved annoying people!

"You know, there are only two kinds of people who smile in the face of death," Shiro informed him. Kazuki raised an eyebrow curiously. "The suicidal, and the very stupid."

"There's a third kind," the blonde added with a cheeky smirk, deciding to be a smartass right up until the very end. "People who can't stand looking at the person they're fighting with any longer." Then, just to further infuriate the already furious man, he spat on his shoe.

"I'm going to enjoy killing you, brat," the man snarled, pulling out a knife. Kazuki's eye narrowed in thought.

I might be able to dodge that, but what'll happen next? he mused, body tensing in preparation to evade the knife. Shiro raised the blade, driving it towards the injured teenager's chest. Oh god, the boy realized in horror. I can't dodge that! Not like this!

He remained frozen, watching the weapon inch closer as if in slow motion. Damn, what a horrible way to die, the boy thought bitterly, raising his eyes to the sky.

"Sorry Retsu," he whispered, waiting for the pain.

Suddenly, a blur of black, orange, and green sprang right in front of him, and the loud clang of metal on metal resounded through the street. A very startled Kazuki could only stare at his savior while his opponent did the same.

"It's you," he murmured, confused and relieved at the same time.

"You!" Shiro exclaimed.

"The one an' only." Izumi declared with a smirk.

(1) Remember the puppy Kazuki rescued in chapter 6? Cause I didn't until just now. :p