Yukihina's arm fell to the floor with a sickening thud. The sound signaled a halt in their battle. Maybe Heike was giving him a handicap (let him- when he won it would be Heike's mistake for being too soft), or maybe he hadn't expected the hit to land. For Yukihina the pause was not out of shock, pain, or horror, but unadulterated rage. The sound had made him angry because he was not shocked. It enraged him because there was no pain. It infuriated him because he was no longer mortified at the loss of a limb. He had become a monster and the final proof of that was how indifferent he was to such a grievous injury.
Rather than taking advantage of Heike's relative inactivity, he turned his back and took the three steps to the hesitantly widening puddle of blood in which his trusty right hand lay. He picked it up and examined it. There was an odd tugging around the stump that he recognized as an indication that it would reattach itself soon if left to its own devices. In seconds he'd be whole again as if the injury had never occurred. It made him sick.
He turned to find Heike just the same as he had been; the man had some strange standards for battle, at least where he was concerned. It was like he was waiting for something but Yukihina was never sure what. It pissed him off. When he was angry he rarely bothered to think things through- Kouji and Rui tried to convince him to consider the consequences of his actions but in the heat of the moment he rarely, if ever, cared. Thinking was hard when all his brain seemed to want to bother with was deep and crushing hatred that had been forming for as long as he could remember. He ratcheted hid good arm back a few notches and threw.
Yukihina's severed arm made contact with Heike's face and knocked him a step backwards in a sickening cacophony of splatters. Neither of them spoke for a moment. Heike wiped the blood from his face, unmasking a look of utter disgust. His expression only served to fuel Yukihina's rage. "Repulsive isn't it? Inhuman!" Years had passed since he'd last raised his voice this much. "You did this. You turned me into this!"
Heike didn't even bother to look at him- he seemed to be studiously examining the bloodstain on his precious restriction coat, no doubt lamenting its impeccable cleanliness. Anything to avoid looking at the monster he'd created. Disgust was surely the reason for his neglect. The only other option was guilt, and there was no chance that that was why he refused to meet his eyes. This was Masaomi Heike, one of the four founders of Eden. The Founders did not feel guilt. They were too old and had hurt far too many people to bother with such petty and time-consuming things as that.
"Look at me! You did this, so look at me!" Yukihina roared, closing the distance between them and retrieving the limb he'd so carelessly thrown away. He swung it at Heike's head and it sent a satisfying jerk up his arm when it struck Heike's ear. "Isn't this what you wanted? So, look!" Panting, he took a step back and watched and waited to see if his captor would acquiesce to his demands. It didn't occur to him to wonder why he'd let him hit him again.
Two eyes, deep set in a mold of deceptive youth turned to meet his and Yukihina's rage faltered in the face of pure hatred. But the flicker was gone just as soon as it had appeared and there was an odd sense of vertigo as his torso slid from his legs. Heike had taken his surprise as an opportunity to cut him off just above the knees. It wouldn't take long to heal, but it would give him enough time to make an escape. And so he had. By the time that Yukihina was back on his feet and had let his arm jump back onto its stump, Heike was already long gone.
Rather than return to the side of the man to whom he'd currently pledged his allegiance, he sat for another hour, tugging at the strings of his tattered hoodie with vicious conviction, hoping to find some speck of blood that hadn't returned to his body. Just one speck would reaffirm his humanity. But he found nothing, and eventually had to retreat from his own monstrousness. While it consumed him, dwelling on it would make it even more difficult for his frozen time to thaw.
And somehow, though he would not acknowledge it, he knew that if his brain was frozen then his body would remain that way as well.
