And now, for the conclusion to Himuro's and Kotetsu's battle, along with how the rest of the group is progressing and what's going on back in the mansion, in no particular order!
"That's no good Shuji! You need to go in order of importance to the story!"
But if I do that, Kotetsu's battle will come last…. *laughs*
It's the new year. I'm going to have a problem since I still feel like it's 2008 (not 2009 or 10). I'll be writing the date wrong. In the meantime, I feel like there's so much I haven't done. For example: I have many fanfics that I haven't continued. I need to catch up on those stories for the people who've been waiting patiently.
"Yeah. He would've continued the stories, but he had too many ideas that wouldn't fit into any of those stories and had to become other stories."
For whatever reason I still continued this one… I need to distribute my time evenly…
The Tower of Despair Part Two, Chapter 25: Experienced Fighters
"OWCH!" Shouted Ko. His hand had come into contact with a chin… made of gold!
Kotetsu smiled. "I may not be able to move what I turn into gold, but it makes for an excellent defensive technique!"
"Clever." Retorted Ko. "But you have no way to attack me then!"
"Not quite." Kotetsu held up his hand, and turned it to gold. His hand limped. He changed his hand back to flesh, and he could raise it again. "You see, while my hand is flesh, I can move it freely. All I have to do…"
Kotetsu started toward Ko. "… is swing my fist…" Kotetsu swung his fist toward Ko. "… and at the moment of impact…" Ko flinched. "… turn it to gold!" Kotetsu had turned his fist to gold and punched Ko across the room! Ko had used his Portal Magic to enter the wall instead of hit it.
He then quickly reappeared behind Kotetsu from the ceiling! "Pretty powerful punch. With this increase in your offense in offense and defense, it may seem that I am outmatched…" Kotetsu quickly turned his back to gold, but Ko grabbed onto Kotetsu instead of attacking. "… but you have yet to see my full power!" Ko sunk into the floor… and took Kotetsu with him!
Kotetsu closed his eyes for a moment… then he opened them. He was in a completely different place! This place was weird… It was nothing but large pieces of rock that seemed to be derived from platforms floating around in a distorted black background. "Where am I?"
"You are in a dimension within your own. This is a world that passes through your world. To put it simply, you are in a place that exists in the space in between surfaces."
'Well actually, that's not really all that simple…'
"When my hand passes through a surface, it comes here, and then comes back to our world. When my hand passes through this area directly…" Ko put his hand on the floating platform… "My power is multiplied!" His hand sunk into the platform. Kotetsu kept his eyes open, expecting an attack, but nothing happened. Out of nowhere, a hand popped out in front of him! It wasn't on one of the many platforms in the air… it was literally coming out of the air in front of Kotetsu!
"How the…?"
Ko smirked. "One big advantage is that I'm not limited to surface… I can enter and reenter anywhere!"
Kotetsu saw no cause for alarm…. Until two more hands popped up beside the first one. "How in the…?"
Ko was smirking still. "Not only that, but I can make as many copies as I want of whatever is in the portal! I call it, Crossed Over Portal!"
'That name… is incredibly lame…"
"And don't be thinking that the name is lame!"
Kotetsu soon found that he was being attacked from all sides by Ko's fists! "Arg!"
Kotetsu jumped from his platform to get to Ko's. Unfortunately, Ko had already teleported. Kotetsu saw Ko's fist coming for his face, but Kotetsu turned his face to gold. While that solidified his defense up front, the first punch was only a feint. Kotetsu found himself being attacked in every other area besides his face. "Ow!" Kotetsu had sustained heavy damage.
"You must be feeling it. Mixed in with the pain and fatigue you feel is fear. You haven't a clue where I'll attack next. You have no way to know. It's hopeless!"
At hearing this, Kotetsu just stood still.
"Not speaking? Not attacking? Doing nothing? Then Die!"
Ko sent his fist through another portal, and made the same feint towards Kotetsu's gut. Kotetsu turned his gut to gold, and once again, Ko sent a barrage of punches toward Kotetsu's open backside. As he was being hit, Kotetsu remained still.
'Mixed in with the punches…' Ko straitened his hand. 'I'll use a knife hand to the neck to break his spinal cord! He'll be either immobile or dead!' Ko used his knife hand technique!…… but it failed! "What?! What's going on?!"
Kotetsu just smiled and laughed. He turned around to reveal that the beating he had taken tattered his clothes. But no matter where you looked, you could only see…
"Gold?!"
"Yes," explained Kotetsu, "It was a simple trick. By at first only turning a fist or my gut into gold, I put it in your head that I could only turn one body part at a time into gold. The truth is, I can turn about 50% of my body to gold. In this case… my back half!"
Ko grunted. "I won't be fooled by such a trick again! I'll use my ultimate technique!" Ko slipped his fist into the portal… followed by his arm, his shoulder, his head! Finally, Ko had completely disappeared into the portal!
'Huh? What's he planning?' Thought Kotetsu. Ko reappeared in front of him… and in back of him too! At his right, at his left, in all of his blind spots, everywhere! He was standing on platforms close by, and far away!
"You see!" They all said together. "You see my true power! I have reappeared everywhere! There's no way to defend yourself from me!" At that instant, The Kos started beating the crap out of Kotetsu.
Kotetsu immediately set up his defense at his back (in case of knife hands) but in return, his front was pummeled! His face was punched! His ***** was kicked! His throat was choked! 'I can't take much more! I… have to do it… even though it's a strain…'
Then, all at the same time, every Ko shouted out in pain! "OUCH! What the Hell?"
Kotetsu turned himself into gold entirely! "It puts a strain on my body, but I can turn all of me into gold!" Kotetsu reverted to flesh and tackled Ko. They both fell through one of the open portals. Kotetsu opened his eyes. He was back in his own world!
"Ouch, dammit!" muttered Ko under his breath. As Ko was getting up, Kotetsu bashed the back of his head with his golden fist. Ko lay on the ground, bleeding.
"And stay down." Kotetsu hobbled a little. "Sheesh, that guy was strong…" Well if you had a better power, you might've been able to win faster. "Shut up. You're the one who gave me the stupid power!" Kotetsu walked over toward the staircase. "Ayasaki-kun will be waiting for me…"
On Himuro Saeki's side…
'If Instant Replay is his power, that this battle will actually be incredibly easy.'
"HEY! What're you mumbling about?" Shouted Ohira.
"Oh, nothing." Answered Himuro.
"GOOD! That means I can kill you!"
While Himuro pondered the problem with that sentence, Ohira closed in for his attack. Himuro swiftly dodged, and prepared an attack of his own. Ohira once again reappeared behind Himuro and cut him with his giant axe. "Ah!" Himuro fell to one knee.
"Kneeling before my power, eh?"
"No… I was just thinking that your style of fighting resembles a fast moving Asteroth."
A vein popped. "Don't you dare compare me to that worthless piece of-!"
As he was distracted, Himuro landed an invisible hit to Ohira's face! 'He didn't use his power. Is he out of energy?' Ohira fell. 'Hm? I guess all of my intended spiritual ability attacks hit their mark.' Confused? Well, let me give you an overview of the fight that took place during the time before Ohira used his power.
It's pretty easy to follow, so here it goes… Each time Ohira used Instant Replay, he was hit by either an invisible strike, or a barrage of roses. Before using his power, Ohira ripped the flowers from his body.
The actually important part takes place before Ohira last cut Himuro's back. Let's backtrack a few paragraphs…
Himuro swiftly dodged and prepared an attack of his own. 'I won't hold anything back.' "Bara Hoippu!" (Rose Whip!) Using a thorned whip, Himuro relentlessly whipped Ohira back and forth.
"S-stop!"
"No." Himuro then prepared a very powerful attack. "Renda Bara Saku!" (Rose Cutting Barrage!) Himuro struck with the whip twice. He sent a storm of sharp rose petals towards Ohira. Ohira had been sliced every time a petal hit him! Himuro quickly struck with his fist, then finished the whole move off by wrapping his rose whip around Ohira, tossing him up into the air, slamming him into the ground, and pulling on his whip. Being unwound by a whip filled with thorns hurt like hell to Ohira.
"This isn't over… I can rewind and attack! I can kill you with one blow…" And that's when Ohira rewound time. The last strike to the face knocked him out.
Himuro said, "While I don't exactly know what happened, I do have an idea… anyways, my opponent has been defeated, and I must progress up these stairs." Saying this, Himuro made his way up those stairs.
Let's take a look at our monotone twosome…
Makita and Kunieda were running up the stairs. They hadn't said a thing the entire time. While climbing up the stairs, nothing happened.
When they reached the top of the staircase, they were in an empty room with a lone man holding a sword in his hand. "Good evening. I am Soru. I am the silent swordsman of six who guards this floor."
"We are Makita and Kunieda. We are also swordsmen." Said them both, simultaneously.
"I must warn you, I have honed my ability to it's fullest. A one-hit strike guaranteed to kill."
Makita said, "Only one skill?"
Kunieda said, "You need more to be strong…"
As Soru passed by, he went at an extremely high speed that left sound in his wake. He had disappeared and reappeared before you could think to blink. After reappearing, it took about three seconds to hear the slash of his sword. Soru fell down.
Confused again? In a clash between swordsmen, fate is decided in a fraction within the fraction tinier than the tiniest fraction of a second.
Here's what happened within that fraction. Kunieda stepped forward and used his technique. He held his blade vertically and started to rotate it, like a vertical blender. The Silent Swordsman Soru figured that he could just slice through without worry, but the afterimages of the rotating blade blocked all access. 'Phantom Blade!' It was when Soru tried to slice through that he found out he couldn't. It was almost immediately that Soru retreated back. Unfortunately, "almost" doesn't cut it when Makita's cutting. Within the time that it took Soru to step back, Kunieda deactivated his Phantom Blade and Makita used, Feather Dance. With a weightless step, Makita's sword moved faster than Soru's retreat. It was a guaranteed one-hit kill.
…… That confused even me. If my fanfic were an anime, they would stop production the chapter before this. It's so much explanation for such a small window of time. It's like HunterxH-nter (again). Before, a single chapter would be a day or two of training or fighting. Now, every chapter goes into every millisecond of detail, from the 25 vol+. I've already referenced this series three times. Well, it's just a reference, I haven't actually borrowed anything from the series (I think).
Makita and Kunieda looked around. There was no staircase.
"This is a dead end." Said Makita.
"Let's turn back." Said Kunieda. They said nothing else as they turned back.
Now let's take a look at our favorite butler…
He and Kaede Nonohara were running up the stairs.
"We should have reached the top by now." Said Hayate.
And what do you know, they made it to the top of the tower. In the room they were in, two mysterious figures in black cloaks stood standing.
"Hasn't the author sort of overused the black cloak design? It's as if he can't figure out what these people would really be wearing." Hey, shut up about that. I told you how the witches were dressed. The cloak is just the stereotypical evil clothing. "Yeah, yeah."
"Hello, Butlers." Said the taller one on the right. "My name is Salvatrice. I'm number six."
"I am number ten." Said the short one on the left. "My name is Borislav."
More on these new developments in the next chapter…
And now for a word from one of our story's greatest enigmas! Please welcome… Dark Hayate!
DH: Not to be mistaken for Black Hayate from FullMetal Alchemist.
So, Dark Hayate. What do you want to accomplish in the future?
DH: The annihilation of this world.
Um…. And?
DH: The death of my host.
Okay, this interview is getting…. Yeah, let's stop here!
And so, after three agonizing months, I finally produce a chapter. It took a while to come up with the battle conclusions (I made them as not lame as I could).
"Of course, there's still the battle with the actual numbers instead of their grunts."
Yeah. I'm sure that's gonna be hard…
"I went over the plot development, and it looks like Ryuumon Solomon was about 158 times weaker than the grunts encountered within the past few chapters. Hayate nearly died against Solomon, remember?"
Yeah, but he won against Shu.
"While Shu has the most experience, Borislav is far more powerful."
*Sweat*. I'll never get any rest….
Well, it's time to start writing the next chapter, so see ya!