Kaia leaped back in fear of being splattered with blood. Not that she was dressed in red already. Zang-Ching's bottom section below his chest fell backwards in the sand as his top half flew at Bill's feet. Poor Zang-Ching. Bill stared down at the corpse angrily as it bled on his boots. Peyote had killed his teammate, Han Zang-Ching.

"I do not want to argue with you." Peyote's eyes lied as they told of the intention to kill.

Turbine growled angrily as he crossed his arms in front of him. Kaia stared in awe as Jin appeared above Turbine, their auras angry and terrifying. "Explain yourself Peyote!" Turbine shouted as he leaped at him.

"Hey, take it easy." He said encouragingly as if no one had been sliced in two. "Was it not said that a shaman gets stronger if they die?"

"What?" Bill stopped in his attack. While he was distracted, the Grande Phantasma thrusted the tip of its blade into Bill's chest, piercing his armor and his heart.

"Just kidding." Peyote flashed a romantic smile at Kaia. Two down, five to go and he would have her. "I'm coming my darling!" He held his hand out towards her as she sat on the beach, her mind blank with shock.

"You...!!" Turbine was cut off as a gun was fired. Everything seemed still as the blood spurted out from the right side of his face and he slowly dropped to the ground, facedown in the sand.

"TURBINE!!" Kaia screamed at the top of her lungs as she jumped up and ran to him. Her dream had come true, Turbine laid facedown in the sand. She hoped he wasn't dead but her mind told her otherwise.

"If power is what rules this world, of course the ending would be like this. You have done well, Peyote." A man said as the gun in his hand smoked from the barrel. He had suave blonde hair, wore a fancy business suit and a pair of glasses that avoided telling the eyes' secrets.

Kaia wept uncontrollaby as she shook Turbine to wake him up. His eyes were open but why wasn't he moving? Why wasn't he breathing? It was just like Freedom, lying dead in the shoebox. Kaia wiped her face, smearing Turbine's blood across her cheeks unknowingly. "Oh, please, Turbine. For the love of God, please wake up." She said a phrase that she had often heard spoken. She guessed it motivated people.

Peyote swung his hand to the side, Grande Phantasma received the command and slashed Bill's neck, his head flying across the beach. Blocken hurriedly flew up in the air on his Block Bird but the Grande Phantasma was quick as it thrusted its sword up in the air, piercing both the bird's and Blocken's torsoes. They were skewered onto the blade.

Blocken spat out a bucket's worth of blood. "How dare you betray Master Hao! Peyote, you've lost your mind!!" He shouted angrily as he felt himself slip away.

"Just shut up and die, you worm." Peyote told him before he walked away towards Kaia.

"Turbine..." Kaia whispered as her voice got hoarse. Her tears had made stained her face, now pink with watery blood. "Please, Turbine. Wake up." She ran her hand through his hair.

"He's dead, Kaia." Peyote said as he walked up to her. "He's not ever going to wake up to the beautiful sound of your voice again."

"How could you..." Kaia stared up at him, another wave of tears overwhelming her.

He rushed down on his knees and hugged her tight. "Shush, don't cry Kaia. It's all just a bad dream." He brushed through her hair and down her back.

"You're crazy." Kaia wept as she tried with all her might to push him away but he held her close to his chest.

"Crazy for you, Kaia. I did this, I killed them all for you." He let go of her and pointed to the corpses that had accumulated on the beach. "Now it's just you and me."

Kaia shook her head as she cried. "There was never you and me." She looked up at him, hurt. "I was engaged to Turbine and your advancements broke our friendship. We could have been friends, Peyote but you... you..." Kaia cried into her hands.

"I wouldn't have been able to stand just being friends with you, Kaia." He bent forward and caressed her cheek. "You're irresistable." He leaned in more to kiss her but she pulled away.

"You're a monster." She breathed as she crawled away.

"Life is a monster, it was unfair to have kept us apart. Kaia, we were meant to be together." He called after her. "Kaia, please marry me! I love you."

She stopped in the sand and turned to him. "You killed my fiance and then you propse to me?" Her eyes flashed yellow and her nails began to lengthen. "What nerve!"

"Kaia..." Peyote stared at her lovingly. "It will be magnificent. You would like Mexico. We have a rich culture, a romantic language and they would really love you there."

"They won't love me like Turbine loved me." Her eyes turned back to brown and her hands relaxed. He loved her so much, to think now that he was dead... "I hate you!!" She shouted as the flames consumed her again, but she was not harmed.

"How can you say such a thing?" Peyote got up onto his feet. "After all that I have done for you?"

"You killed all of them! How can I not say that I hate you!?" She shouted at him. "I warned you, Peyote. If you ever hurt my friends..." A tear ran down her cheek as she thought of what she had to do. "I would have to kill you. I don't even want you around me anymore, you sick bd." She covered her mouth as it came out. She had never cursed before and now she was tainted. Thanks, Lavaine!

"Kaia," He fell to his knees at her feet. The fire calmed down and sizzled as both their tears fell. "Do you really hate me?" He put his hands on her hips as if to beg for her love.

"I cannot love a killer." Kaia covered her face with her hands.

"The world is not worth living in without you, Kaia." Peyote sighed as he hugged her one last time. He stood up and looked at her sadly. "Maybe in another life, you shall be my wife?"

"Maybe." Kaia looked at the sea. "I cannot kill you."

"Then you do have feelings for me?" He suggested.

"At one time, I did." Kaia choked. "You were my friend, Peyote. But please, go home. Escape this terror of the Shaman Tournament. Let me die with him." Kaia threw herself back down beside Turbine.

"I see." Peyote closed his eyes to stop the tear flow. "Everything has been said and done now. There is no turning back." He mumbled to himself as he walked back up the beach where Hanagumi sat, injured by the blonde man's chaingun that he had fired. "Kaia doesn't love me, but I still love her. Mansumi, please don't harm her." He told the man, pointing to Kaia.

Kaia looked up at the heavens as the tears flowed and she bit her bottom lip. She never thought that she would have come to disowning a friend like that, but he broke the rules. She had no choice. She could've killed him but it would be so hard on her.

"Farewell, everyone." Peyote said as he strummed a hard, sad note on his guitar. "Screw the Shaman Fight. Screw love. Nothing matters to me anymore."

Grande Phantasma punched hard in Peyote's direction from above. Kaia turned around quickly to the the Grande Phantasma grinding its fist into the sand, slowly dying itself.

"Peyote?" She called out to him. "Peyote, are you okay?" She got up and slowly walked over to the Grande Phantasma.

The eerie sound of it scared her. Like a piece of heavy machinery suspended in the air, creaking as it swayed back and forth. She stepped in the bloody sand and bent over to look at the skeletal hand. A boot stuck out from under it like the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz. It was Peyote's boot!

"Oh, God! Peyote!" She dug at the sand and tried to lift the hand up but it was of no use. The Grande Phantasma was too big and heavy for her. She gave up and cried her eyes out, stopping every now and then only to start up again after a few minutes.

Everyone was dead but her and that man, Mansumi. She hated him too, he killed Turbine. Hao knew this would happen so he sent them all out here to get killed. Mansumi smiled at her before sitting on a rock and calling a number on his cell phone.

"Hello, it's Tamurazaki... Yes, all the enemies on the beach have been annihilated." He said on the phone.

So Kaia wasn't an enemy? She felt like the victim of this crude event. The whole thing. The whole Shaman Tournament, she now thought it was all a sham. Hao knew so much, he made them look like absolute idiots compared to his knowledge. This was setup. Life is a setup. There are no coincidences, nothing happens by chance. Eveything that happens was meant to happen. Life loved to mess with Kaia. Her whole childhood, she was treated horribly and then she is saved by the love of her life only for him to be killed in some pointless fight. Life was unfair.

"Kaia, Peyote seemed to like you a lot and you could be of some help to me. Or you can stay here until someone comes to find you." Mansumi offered as he tucked his cell away in his suit pocket.

"Thank you, Mr. Mansumi but I'll stay here." She wiped her face.

"Suit yourself." He said before he walked off into the forest.

Kaia sat in the bloody sand amongst the dead bodies, overwhelmed with sadness. She started out this way as a young child, she was going to end this way as a young woman.

To be continued in Chapter 53!