And the next chapter is here! Things are definitely getting pretty crazy for Team CFVY and Neo. I know I ask every week how things could possibly get worse, but here I am asking again! Let's find out, shall we?
But first, your comments!
GrimmKaiju writes:
As the fight heats up Fox and Neo don't know that the ship isn't gonna sink so their actions might reflect that and cause them to look for a way off the ship. That would be interesting if they got off the ship only to have Coco tell them the ship was fine. Altho they might need to get out of the ship if the crew keeps attacking them.
Bookah replies:
My goodness, that would be embarrassing, wouldn't it? I can imagine the amount of teasing Fox might get for "trying to run away with Neo".
As always, Please feel free to drop me a line with your own comments, questions, or suggestions. You can hit me up here, on my Twitter, or over on . Thanks so very much!
Animus Strait
A colorful streak flew past him as he used the rail to redirect himself forward. Yatsuhashi frowned as the feathered faunus went by, but the sound of the chainsaw drew him onward, leaving the man to Coco. He rushed forward, Coco's cannon flinging rounds into the night behind him, and slid out onto the bow, brandishing his sword.
Neo was leaning casually against a capstan, watching the gigantic faunus stalk towards her with his chainsaw dragging behind him, kicking up sparks. She lifted her hand, examining the nails through her black gloves in casual disregard, as though bored with his pace. As he finally closed and swung the machine up in a sweep, she twisted, letting the chainsaw blade buzz past her head before spinning and smacking him in the back with her parasol.
The faunus lieutenant turned, still quite calm, and paused as he saw Yatsuhashi standing there. The man's face, as expressionless as the mask he so often wore, turned to briefly evaluate Neo, then back to Yatsuhashi, and he grunted. "This might even be fair," he rumbled.
Yatsuhashi heard Neo giggle, and then the girl suddenly was racing forward in a flurry of flips and kicks. The lieutenant watched her come, raising his chainsaw, but then suddenly let the tip drop to gouge the deck just as Neo arrived. His hand shot out, snatching her out of the air and slamming her downward.
She'd vanished by the time his fist smashed into the deck, but Yatsuhashi still found himself shocked that the man had caught the nimble girl at all. He found himself tensing up at the realization this man might be a much more capable opponent than he had originally taken him for, and carefully poised his sword for defense as the faunus slowly turned to face him full on.
The pair evaluated one another for a moment, then both launched forward simultaneously. They came together in a shower of sparks, Yatsuhashi's substantially large sword resisting the cutting action of the ridiculously overgrown chainsaw. He stared into the snarling face of the White Fang Lieutenant, refusing to allow any emotion to show.
He felt himself start to slide backwards as his opponent pushed, and he lowered his stance. The sliding stopped, and he pushed back, it being the faunus' turn to slip back a bit under the pressure. He heard the man grunt, and then the two jumped apart, each gauging the best way for the next attack to be launched.
In a heartbeat, the large faunus whipped his chainsaw backwards, the blade intercepting the attack Neo was launching against his back. Neo flicked away, her heterochromatic eyes briefly glancing at the six inches of pointy steel sticking out of the end of her parasol. Yatsuhashi spared the weapon a glance as well, wincing as he noticed chips in it, though he suspected its integrity had not been compromised.
He jumped forward, hoping to take advantage of the chainsaw being behind his enemy, but suddenly bounced off course as he was struck from the side. His head skewed, and he realized Neo had somehow tackled him while he was focused on his attack. Before he could even begin to wonder why she had done that, a crack filled the air, and the sudden whinging sound of a ricochet echoed off the crane beside him. He jerked his eyes away from Neo to see a crewman up on a bridge wing lining a rifle up for a second shot.
Neo was gone before Yatsuhashi could even stop his sideways momentum. Flashes of pink and brown were here, there, seemingly randomly placed as she bounced, flipped, and jumped her way up to where the sniper was already lining up a second shot. With a high pitched scream the assassin suddenly pitched forward, upending over the side of the bridge wing to fall out of view and into the waters beside the ship. Neo gave a quick wave towards Yatsuhashi, then turned and dashed into the bridge proper, the sounds of fighting immediately ensuing.
A grunt brought Yatsuhashi's attention back to the White Fang on deck with him. "Now that we're free of interruptions..." the faunus rumbled. He lifted his chainsaw and charged at Yatsuhashi, swinging it down in a heavy strike that Yatsuhashi was able to dodge. A sweep of Yatsuhashi's own blade set the man twisting to the side, the blow glancing off the chainsaw with a clang.
A series of blows were exchanged that way, as the duelists evaluated one another's skills, each looking for an opening. Yatsuhashi seemed to be the nimbler of the pair, able to bring his large weapon to bear quickly from a multitude of directions. Though slower, the Lieutenant was able to take full advantage of his massive chainsaw, wielding it as much like a shield as as a blade, stepping behind it every time Yatsuhashi changed the angle of attack. The pair seemed to be evenly matched.
The White Fang man launched forward in an attack, and Yatsuhashi suddenly changed his tactics. Rather than meet the attack head on, he backpedaled, keeping out of reach. His sword shot out in a wide sweep, the reach insufficient to make contact with his opponent. Despite this lack of sufficient distance, the attack was not meaningless.
The Lieutenant suddenly flew backwards, sliding on his feet as he nearly doubled over. Behind him the deck crane tore free of its mount with a squeal of tearing and bending metal. A pair of capstan's skewed, still mounted to the deck but with the wooden planks cracking and splintering and the metal below warping upward. Beyond this the railing simply disintegrated, gone over the ship's side in a series of small splashes as metal fragments rained down on the sea.
There was a brief pause, and the faunus glanced back over his shoulder at the destruction behind him. He turned back to Yatsuhashi and grinned. "That's not a good idea, you know. Such a destructive semblance may be useful on land, but how much of it could the ship withstand?"
Yatsuhashi shrugged, and swung the blade again, wreaking further havoc in the ship's bow. Splinters flew, metal shreaked, and things twisted and bent. The Lieutenant frowned, bracing himself, and dug the screaming saw blade into the deck. The cutting action opened up a line in the deck as the man slid backward, but the friction of cutting did serve to slow him, like an anchor being drug along the bottom by a still moving ship.
"You're insane," the man growled, eyeing Yatsuhashi. "You're going to rip the bow clean off."
"You could always surrender." Yatsuhashi looked at the man, his face placid. In truth, he wasn't feeling particularly placid. His efforts to simply blow the man over the side were a definite gamble, and one he knew would likely backfire. But he also knew that he could not take the man one on one without resorting to his semblance. Two on one might work better, but with Neo ensuring no one else could take potshots at him he couldn't expect that to happen soon enough. With that chainsaw, the faunus only needed one lucky hit, and Yatsuhashi's aura would shatter like so much glass.
With a grin, the White Fang let go of his esoteric weapon. "Or we could make this interesting." He stepped away from the abandoned chainsaw and straightened up. He extended a hand and waggled his fingers in a 'come get me' gesture.
Frowning, Yatsuhashi evaluated the man again, then sighed. He supposed taking the man up on his proposal would be a bit less lethal, not just to them, but to the ship as well. It might also extend the fight long enough to allow other fights to end, and backup to come to the bow. For one side or for the other. He let his sword drop to the deck and straightened up from his ready stance, turning to the side to present the man with his left shoulder.
"Very well. But just one question. What sort of faunus are you? I can't tell."
"Grizzley."
Yatsuhashi glanced at the man's hands. "No claws?"
"Does your little pet have a puffball on her ass?"
Yatsuhashi felt himself bristle for a moment, and made himself take a deep, calming breath. Rather than lashing out, he nodded. "Point taken."
"Don't worry. Even without claws, I am more than strong enough for a mere human."
With a shrug, Yatsuhashi readied himself. "Let's put that to the test."
The two smashed together with a palpable thunderclap. Yatsuhashi had gone low, throwing his shoulder into the faunus' midriff, his arms wrapping around the man's waist. He immediately thrust upward with his legs, using the momentum of their crash to throw his opponent over his back to tumble to the deck behind him.
He spun, nimble, only for the grizzly fauns to return the favor. Thick arms wrapped around his ribs as he was struck in the chest with the man's forehead, driving him backward to slam into a crooked capstan. The metal hammered into his back, a grunt exploding from him at the force of the impact, and he doubled his fists together to bring them down on the Lieutenant's back.
The blow drove the man to his knees, but he didn't let go. With a roar he twisted, and Yatsuhashi found himself rolled right off of his feet and slamming to the deck. His enemy swept a leg over him, straddling and pinning him, raising a fist into the air.
Yatsuhashi didn't give the man time to land the shot, instead thrusting a jab straight up into his chin. The faunus rocked back a bit, his eyes temporarily glazed, and Yatsuhashi thrust himself upward, throwing the man off.
He rose to his feet, rubbing his back painfully for a moment as he watched the faunus likewise rise, wriggling his jaw.
"Ow."
"Likewise."
The pair charged one another again. At the last instant, Yatsuhashi stepped to the side, throwing his arm out sideways. The arm caught the faunus in the neck, clotheslining him and sweeping him off his feet. Yatsuhashi let the force of the blow spin him around, but then his feet went out from under him as a pair of hands tangled with his ankles, and he crashed downward. He suddenly saw a field of gold and black swirling as his jaw smashed against a cleat. He got his hands under him just in time for a knee to smash down into the small of his back and a pair of hands to wrap under his pained chin, pulling upward and arching his neck and back further than they were meant to go.
The position put him at a painful disadvantage, leaving him with few ways to escape. He attempted to roll, but the motion merely dug the knee into his spine even more strongly, and he abandoned that effort. He scrabbled his hands outward, looking for any advantage, and one found the broken wood of the cleat he'd smashed down upon. He clenched it and swung his arm downward, feeling the sudden thud of meat being torn into by jagged wood.
With a scream of pain the faunus was off of him, and Yatsuhashi scrambled away before turning. His eyes found the White Fang Lieutenant sitting on the deck, wrenching the bloody stump of metal out of his leg just above the knee and tossing it aside. The man rose then, murder in his eyes and, with a distinct limp, began stalking towards Yatsuhashi.
He didn't allow the man to continue the motion. With a roar Yatsuhashi threw himself forward, certain the man's leg would not be up to the task of bracing against the full body blow. He watched the faunus ready himself for the crash anyway, and felt a moment of doubt over his plan. This was interrupted, however, when a streak of candy color crossed his vision directly behind his target.
Muscle smashed into muscle and Yatsuhashi felt the man going over backwards. He held on, riding the motion as it went from horizontal to vertical, and felt a sudden jarring just before his face smashed down onto that of his foe. He felt the world spinning as stars swum in his vision, and he tried to force himself to see, to remain conscious as he rolled sideways. His back banged into a roll of anchor chain. He quickly slapped a hand to it, then grimaced as he felt something sticky coating the chain.
Behind him he could hear Neo groan a bit, and he hefted himself into a sitting position. His vision cleared enough to be able to take in the diminutive woman, sprawled out beneath the calves of the large, unmoving faunus. He twisted and forced himself to focus against the headache and wobbly vision he was experiencing to take in the man's other end.
The faunus lay on his back on the deck, a growing pool of blood haloing his head. Yatsuhashi brought his hand up before his face to see the palm coated in red, and glanced at the anchor chain. It was likewise covered, and Yatsuhashi realized that Neo had thrown herself beneath the man's legs, serving as a hazard to trip him. The White Fang Lieutenant had gone over backwards and the back of his skull had smashed down on the chain, only for Yatsuhashi's face to deliver a second hammerlike blow that had, probably, cracked the man's skull back down onto the chain a second time.
Yatsuhashi groaned and struggled to his feet, then carefully, dizzily offering a hand to help Neo upright. He glanced at the woman, or women, as she seemed to have become overlapping doubles. "That wasn't your most graceful attack," he slurred.
She gave him a pained smirk, then pointed at him before tapping her nose.
He gave a very cautious nod her way, knowing what she was saying without having to check. He could taste the blood trickling down the back of his throat from what was, no doubt, an impressively broken nose. "Yeah," he said before spitting out a red gobbet onto the deck. "But the other guy looks worse."
Neo laughed.
