The tower, FL: 2, morning, one day before the execution
The first strike came from me. The loud strike on Katsu showed he was using is buff ability. "Hm, did you put on a little muscle?" "Yeah." "Well, it ain't gonna do ya any good!" Katsu raised up the leg he was blocking my sword with and pressed it down to the ground. He then did a roundhouse kick fo my face. "ARHH!" "Not done yet." He then shot up with his knee trained to my head. I caught it with my right hand. "Skeith!" "Prometheus!" The two Personas clashed. Skeith slipped his hand towards Katsu and chucked him away from me. But that gave his an opening to deal damage to Skeith. The damage wasn't much so I can consider it to be a slow start up for him.
"Hey, Kazuki, wanna see who's Persona is stronger? Don't worry, this'll only be for a moment." "Fine then, Skeith go!" "Prometheus!" Once again. the two Personas locked hands, trying to outdo the other. Skeith was pushing back more and more. "Skeith, now!" Skeith pushed Prometheus away just so he can do Gigantic fist. Katsu wasn't startled or concerned, he was pretty calm about all of this. Just as my attack was gonna land Katsu's Persona redirected the attack. It then punched Skeith's face. "Shit!" That hurt like a bitch but it wasn't enough. "Skeith, go wild!" Skeith began punching wildly with his fists acting as if they were bullets from a machine gun. Katsu had his Persona block the attacks. In this time, if I attack Katsu now, I should be able to do it without his Persona getting in the way or his flames coming out. With this thought in mind, I ran over towards him. "Smart move." He dodged the first attack and most of the other ones. "Kazuki, can I ask you something?" "Now, while I'm attacking you!?" "Why not?" This guy is unbelievable. "What's the question?" "How do you see yourself winning this?" "Hm?" "Cause as it stands now, you're trying to fight me without killing me, and your skills with that sword are lackluster." He dodged an attack before he hit me three times with his feet.
"If I wanted to, you'd be on the ground right about now," Katsu gloated. "Then do it!" "If that's what you want, then fine." Before I was able to strike him he quickly landed a couple of punches on me. They were well placed, and I can tell because it mixed me up quite a bit. He then followed up with sweeping my feet and with perfect timing, he kneed me. "Hey, you asked for me to go harder on you." "Guess I should've bitten my tongue on that one."
Come on Kazuki, you need to do better than this. Don't be afraid to hit him with the sword. Wait, I could just hit him with the back of the sword. Okay then, all I need to do now is just to focus, but that's kind of hard in itself because I'm focusing to keep Skeith out. "Come on Kazuki, stop stalling." Guess I've been taking up a bit too much time thinking. Plus, overthinking this isn't going to help me now. The next course of action would be to rush him down, a plan that was already initiated when I was running over to him. This time, I knew he was going to just dodge my attack, so I needed to keep him guessing. When it seemed like I was going to strike with my sword coming up, I swung my sword from the ground, dragging up sand from the ground.
"What the hell!?" With the distraction working its magic I slashed down on Katsu's shoulder with the back part of the blade. I heard from Shizuka that if you want to cause some damage to a human opponent with the back of the blade, you need to hit the shoulder; she also said it's not the end-all and be-all but the results of the attack are good, and the results of the attack didn't disappoint. I then went for his legs.
"You bastard!" He tried to kick me but I was able to block it. An opening appeared and I was quick on the uptake. I slipped my sword away from block his leg just so it can hit his neck. He gaged upon the hit. I then just punched him left and right, randomly without rhyme or rhythm. I threw one last punch but he tilted his head and then grabbed my arm with both his hands. He threw me. "Suck on this." Katsu formed something in his hands, it was a fireball. He threw it at me. I was able to narrowly dodge it. The attack hit one of the pillars behind me.
"What was that?" "It was my fire, idiot." "No, you shouldn't be able to do that. Your Persona is still fighting mine." I saw then still duking it out. His persona was getting the upper hand on mine but Skeith was still in it. "Well Kazuki, here's the thing: I can use my flames on my own even with my Persona being out." Is this so sort of special ability he has with his Persona. "Kazuki, now it's time for you to dance." Katsu made and threw two more fireballs. If I knew any better, if my body makes contact with them, I'll be dead. I swan dived to dodge the first two. There was another one coming from below and fast. I rolled myself forward. The blast went off near me. I was sent rolling even further. "Better keep dodging Kazuki!"
He began to make fireballs as soon as he threw them just to throw them. I couldn't catch a moment to breathe.
"This must suck, huh? About to be beaten by someone who you defeated already, and brutally, I might add." Damnit, I can't get anywhere near him now without him shooting at me. He can defend himself with his flames just fine without his Persona... Hmm, now that think about it, can I do the same for Ocean's stream? I mean, I was never able to use it for Skeith, so maybe it just comes from me.
Boom* I felt an explosive force behind me. His attacks were beginning to break the pillar behind me. I needed to speed this up a little. I did what I normally did to do Ocean's stream. All I could hear was explosions getting closer and closer to me... I was trying to calm myself but it was a bit unnerving due to the fact that if this doesn't work then he'll have free reign to shoot me full of fiery-filled holes. But I didn't have much choice here. "Now with the final burst, die!" Katsu shouted out as he shot his flames at me one last time. I as I heard the crackling of the flames coming closer I felt my energy heading to my sword. I got it! "Ocean's Stream!" I vertically slashed. It tore through the pillar and clashed with the fireball behind it. The two attacks exploded upon impact. "What the hell was that?" Katsu seemed surprised by me using Ocean's Stream. Speaking of using it, I'm not tired from using it. "Maybe it's because I used a smaller portion of my SP for the attack. And if so..."
"Okay then... Let's see what we can do," I told myself. I rushed over towards Katsu who was gearing up for a counterattack. Before he could attack, I launched another Ocean's Stream attack but this time it acted as a curve that was probably 1 to 2 inches away from the blade. Katsu dodged just in the nick of time, but he was still not out of the woods yet. "Ocean's Stream!" I sent out a saucer that was aimed at Katsu.
"You think you're creative, watch this!" He formed small flames at the tip of his fingers. He then threw them to the ground. They began to trail over to me. When they were 3 inches near me they shot out at me. They were like spiked flames. "Kazuki, ever since our last fight I've been carefully studying you. Every move you have for you Persona I know; your skill with a sword, I know, even that skill, I know about." "What's your point?" "My point..." When I threw another Ocean's stream saucer (I gotta dumb that down) he simply applied flames to his arms and split the attack in half. "...That's my point. You might've have power, but experience and true skill, you don't have a shred of it!" He was beginning to charge up for another attack. "Kazuki-bro, he's charging up for an attack." "You stay out of this, you brat," Katsu threatened. "If you interfere, I'll burn you to a crisp." "Katsu, don't you dare touch him, this between me and you!" "Oh, I know that. That's why I told him to stay out of it." He reeled his arm back like he was going to be throwing a ball.
"Try to dodge this, if you can." He threw the fireball at me. It then began to grow in size more and more until it was towering over me. The heat emitting from it was ridiculous.
"Katsu, you're right." I charged up for a big. "I don't have the same skill as Shizuka does or the experience like you and her have..." I ran towards the flame. Right before the flames came to close I withdrew my Persona and summoned it again so I can have it launch me over the attack. "...And if that's the case." "Tch, Prometheus!" He summoned his Persona but I had Skeith intercept it, knocking it out of my way. "...I'll just fight harder than you two!" Katsu tried to aim some fire at me, but I already launched my Ocean's Stream. He was caught in the attack. The attack went crashing through a couple of pillars behind it. The attack had dispersed, the ground was divided and the pillars were cracked in halves. I didn't know if Katsu was still alive or not, hopefully, I didn't kill him.
"*Chuckling*" I heard chuckling. He was still alive. He continued to chuckle on until it turned into all-out laughter... He slowly made his way here. "That's was pretty good Kazuki, that was pretty good." He patted himself off. "Katsu, you should probably stand down now; if I hit you one last time, it'll definitely kill you." "No it won't and you wouldn't kill me, I know your type: get's along with everyone. too nice for his own damn good, has no real reason to fight." "Excuse me?" "It's like I said, you have no reason to fight." "I do, I got-" "What, for your friends? For that girl? Those are the lamest reasons." Katsu was still walking over to me. "That type of motive is empty and hollow, just an excuse to say you have a reason to fight. In the end, it's nothing but an illusion."
Empty? "That makes no sense, it's not empty." "Really now... Eh, I guess it doesn't matter now..." Katsu extended his arm out. "Hey, how about we elevate this to the next level. Let's stop holding back." " You've been holding back," I asked Katsu. "Yeah, I thought we should see if we could be able to escalate it this far, and don't act dumb, I know about that other ability you have." He wants me to use Shadow-mog on him. But if I do that, it'll be no contest at all; I might kill him with it. "No, I'm not gonna do it Katsu." "Fine then, then I'll make you!"
Katsu's flames came out. They were surrounding him, violently moving around him. They were covering his whole body. "What the heck?" The flames built up to more and more until Katsu pushed them away from himself... "Now, are gonna take this seriously?" When the sand cleared, I was able to get a better look at him. Something was going on, my head was ringing like crazy, like it was reacting to something. "You feel it too, don't you," Katsu said clenching his head with one hand. "Feel what," I had asked him. "Our powers are reacting to each other. They call it Mogrification tuning." What, why is this happening to us. Wait, Mogrification? No, it can't be. "Katsu, are you using Shadow-" "...Mogrification, yes, I am."
Now it was all clear, this sense was telling me that Katsu was a Shadow-mog user. "How the hell did you get it!?" "Who cares, that's not important. Now, fight me for real Kazuki!" He sent out a blast to the ground below him, sending him flying into the and towards me. "Transform now damnit!" He was right, I didn't have a choice. I used Shadow-mog. "Now we're talking." I dodged out of Katus' line of attack but he just flung a fireball at me. I stabbed my sword into the ground. The fireball was split into halves. "Was that it, you're gonna have to do a lot better than that Katsu!" Just as I said that something hit me on my back. "Gah!" "You should never let your guard down." A bigger one came out off of his flames gauntlets. It fast approaching me. I used an Ocean's Stream attack to block it.
"That was awesome, am I right," Katsu bragged. "Yeah, it was spectacular." "Really, I was thinking that it was pretty minor. guess I'm underestimating myself." Whether he is or not, one thing is clear: he can control his flames better than before. And to the pile, it seems like his magic increased. Now caution was more than necessary, not only because he's stronger, but because I never fought a Shadow-mog user before...
...
"Welp, here we are. Center stage in today's fight." The hooded man dropped us on a pillar that was high enough to make me feel dizzy just from looking down. "Mind your step, wouldn't want any unfortunate accidents. Okay, even if you do go over the edge you won't fall, so it's whatever. Anyway, look over there." I was trying to spot what the hooded man wanted me to see. "I can't see anything," I bluntly told him. "Oh come on, you're not trying. Use your Persona." As he told me, I used Lucia. I zoomed in from where I was to get a better look. "*Gasp*" "Gonna guess you saw him." I saw Kazuki down there. He was fighting someone else down there. There was something strange going on with the both of them; a strange presence was wrapped around them. it felt intense and powerful.
"Right now, Kazuki needs to defeat Mr. Masaru to advance to the next floor to save you. Funny thing is, you're right here." He was struggling against his opponent. I need to help him. "Kazu-" Something wrapped itself my neck. I wasn't able to say a word. "This is their fight and a very good one I might add. So if you speak a single word I'll make sure I crush your throat." I felt the force around my neck tightening. It was painful, talking would prove just as painful. Even so...
"Ka...zu...ki." "My word, doesn't that hurt?" "It...hurts... Even...so... I will." The hold on my neck was gone. "You are one tough girl despite your looks." I was taking in large intakes of air. "This tells me a lot about you, and it might actually have figured out why you came here without a struggle. And I mean, it should've been obvious." Just before he spoke another word the battle down there was raging on harder. "Oh crap, I almost forgot this was going on." The hooded man sat down on the edge of the pillar. "Let's watch this now."
...
I repealed Katsu's attack with my sword. Its been a minute since he used Shadow-mog. Every blow that we exchanged was either blocked or dodged. "If we keep going like this we'll be fighting forever." Fire began to form around his arms and legs. They then took form, the form of animal's claws and feet; like a cheetah or something. Katsu took a stance crouching down, pressing his feet into the ground. "Here I come," Katsu declared. He then disappeared after shooting up from the ground. "Where the hell did he go!?" I couldn't see him at all now. I getting tense from the possibility of getting ambushed.
"Hey." I heard him from behind me. I turned around to find nobody. "What are you looking at?"I heard him behind me again and still nothing. "What's the matter, can't you see me!" He was taunting me from the distance now.
"Come on Kazuki, take some crack shots why don't you." He was taunting me left and right, it was like he was coming from everywhere now. "Hey, about you come back down here and fight me!" This was getting ridiculous and annoying. "You're right, I guess I was getting too excited about the wrong thing." He suddenly appeared before me. Katsu delivered a couple of lightning quick punches. "I should be excited about using my speed on you." I revered griped my sword and swiped it towards him. He ducked down. "Gotcha!" He blasted me with a strong fire blast. The attack sent me flying. Something abruptly stopped me. It was a hard kick to the gut. The kick was hard enough to launch me up to the air. I was a bit disoriented because of how fast this transition was. Then I felt a hard punch to the face, then another and another. It was an unrelenting barrage of punches and kicks. I couldn't do anything...
"This is pathetic, come on, do something." I was trying to do something. Katsu had stopped moving around and just went straight for the sky and began to descend like a comet. "Oh shit." I shot an Ocean's Stream at him but he rammed right through it. "RAAHHHHHH!" His fist smashed into my stomach. I felt this sharp and overwhelming pain jerking at me. I spazzed out in pain and spat blood from my mouth.
*Crash* I was slammed to the ground, The shock from Katsu's attack and landing hard on the ground was nothing short from excruciating. My body wasn't responding right.
"How was that Kazuki, was that enough for you?" I couldn't respond, I needed to keep all the energy I have. "This is the strength that I was aiming for. While you were having fun and pretending to live a normal life, I was getting stronger. And this is the result of it, this is my strength!" What the hell does it matter what I do? "...And for some reason, I hate this power." Katsu grasped his arm. "I hate... I hate it so much." What he said bewildered me. How can you hate your own power? "In a way, I envy you. You seem to enjoy using this ability. And believe me, I get why."
I got back up from the floor when I had enough energy to. Wasting no time at all, I shot an Ocean's stream at him, but he dodged it and landed a blow on me immediately after. This was ridiculous, I need to find a way to stop him or he'll tire me out like this. I needed to focus, I need to find him...
*Thumb* "Hm?" I thought that I just heard a footstep. More importantly, it came from behind me. I kept hearing his footsteps, they were heavy and louder than a bag of bricks hitting the sand. He kept moving until he finally decided to attack me, and that's when my opportunity arose. His footsteps and the sand he was lifting up from the ground was working against him I knew where he was; he was next to me!
I bent my back and jumped from where I was. Katsu round housed open air. "Tch!" "I got you!" I flung a wide Ocean's Stream attack. The attack made impact without Katsu blocking. The attack didn't travel too far but I wasn't expecting it to do the job, so I tossed two saucer streams (just came up with that, nice). He shot fireballs at them, blowing the both of them. But they were just to help me get close, my real attack was to strike Katsu while having storing up Stream energy. When he noticed that I was close enough to strike it was too late. I slammed my attack on his shoulder. The almighty energy was leaking out from the sword when the attack connected. I took this time to make several other strikes against Katsu. I lashed at his leg and sides. He tried to retaliate but I dodged his attack and I hit him under his chin with the butt of my sword. He clenched his teeth tightly. He then disappeared again. He wasted no time playing around with me and just straight for the kill. But he wasn't going to get the better of me; this time, I can see him clearly. I grabbed his flame embedded arm, stopping him dead in his tracks.
"What!? How were you able to stop me now?" "Before, I couldn't see you because you were moving faster than I can see and keep up with. However, I can see now, so..." I dragged him towards me, delivering a punch to the face. And just like he did, I disappeared in front of only to reappear to strike him hard. "You are not pulling my trick on me!" Katus gave chase after me. We were moving faster than anyone could see. Trading blows with one another, yet none of them went through. My next blow shook up Katsu. He was going to run away again but I stomped on his foot to keep him still. Then I hit him with the butt of the sword again. He was shaken up by the attack. I also took a handful of sand and threw it in his face, obscuring his vision. And to top it all off I charged my sword up, it was brimming with explosive almighty energy. I stabbed my sword into the floor, releasing the almighty energy. "Explosive Ocean!" The almighty energy exploded around us like it was a gusher of water coming from a fire hydrant. It absorbed Katsu into it. I felt the blast's power; it felt as if it was a regular explosion went off except it wasn't hot. It was dark on the inside of this place, allowing no light inside. It felt as if I was inside the belly of the beast. The darkness began to unravel and I was on the outside of it. I was able to see the damage from my attack. It was immense. Katsu was laid out on the floor, albeit trying to get back on his feet.
"That was one hell of an attack, that was pretty good." Flames formed at both his arms. "Let's see you deal with this." He threw the two lined flames. They began to form creatures. They were dragons. "Shit!" I got out of the way. I was running away from the dragons who were smashing pillars just to catch me. Both of them were heading me off from multiple directions; there were times I almost got hit by one. Nonetheless, I just need to him Katsu with another Explosion attack and he's mine. I ran back to Katsu who was busy manifesting his dragons, so he won't notice me. I jumped to the air to go unnoticed by him. I was closing in on him until...
His leg jerked backward where I was at. It was trained towards my gut. It had connected, leaving me in a stunned. He then roundhouse kicked me. I was skipping against the ground a pebble on a pond. I stopped my momentum with my sword just in time to see the flame dragons coming for me. I jumped up a pillar and the other ones surrounding it. "You're not getting away from me, damn it." Katus boosted himself up the pillar with his flames. He shot his flames at me like they were bullets. I was swiping them away with my sword.
"Now this is more like it!" He threw a bigger fireball, and I cut it down with a Saucer Stream. He came at me with his Panther claws. His attacks were swift, they weren't staggering or anything, they were quick and to the point. But I was able to counter him, no matter what he did. The pillar was spacious but not enough for an all-out brawl, so I jumped to another pillar but Katsu followed me and tried fighting me mid-jump. It was a bit touch and go but I was able to kick him from me. He landed on another pillar.
"This isn't over yet Kazuki." "Then bring it Katsu!" Flames were circulating around his arm, it was building up more than it was before. I began charging up an Ocean's Stream that was bigger than I would normally use. This one was gonna be the one to do it...
Katsu jumped three pillars back and then boosted himself to the air. "Let's end this, let's determine who is the strongest." "You think I care about that crap?" I could feel all of the energy in my body rising to critical levels, and his rising there too. This one instance could be the deciding factor in this battle... Then, as if my body told me to do so, I stomped my foot on the ground as I was swinging my sword at Katsu. He shot his attack as if his arm was a cannon. We both yelled out our attack names. "Ocean's Stream!" "True Agidyne!" The two attacks clashed. a streak of white and blue mix together. It had looked like they were trying to mix together to make something, something explosive. The attacks were expanding wider and wider. More and more until the attacks went critical. They were about to explode and I knew I needed to run but when I was about to I caught a glimpse of something far off in the distance. Someone was standing behind me but I couldn't tell who. And without realizing it, I was caught in the energy explosion...
...
We had finally reached the door to the next floor but upon arrival, I sensed a large burst of energy. Now I knew what the cause was. "What's the bright light," Iori asked. "I don't know but it has two powerful energy signals to it." "So it's a fight that's goin' on!?" "Possibly." Yuki walked forward towards the clashing of power. "Where are you going, Makoto," Yukari yelled. "Let's go see who's fighting." He continued to run off forward and Yukari went with him. "He's insane," Junpei expressed. "Might as well see who's fighting. It might be Kei." "Hm?" "What, did I say something weird?" "No, it's just...you never called Kazuki 'Kei'." Yuki pointed out. "Oh, I guess it was the slip of the tongue. It doesn't matter, does it?" "No, it's just a little interesting observation." I don't see how it's an "interesting observation". Really, it was a slip of the tongue...
...
The hooded man was blocking the blast with his abilities. It almost seemed like he was struggling, but yet, he was cackling to himself. "YESSS! This it, this the awesome fight I wanna see! More boys, show me more!" He was cheering on for the fight to become more intense, to get more violent. I needed to stop this but how.
"I'm going to stop this," I told the hooded man. "Wow, a pretty bold claim. Why tell me?" "Because I won't let you scare me. I'll save his life even if it means losing mine. So, you can crush my throat after I'm done telling him what I need to say." Silence prevailed on top of this pillar... I thought he was going to kill me now, but something else entirely happened.
"You're more interesting than I thought. I guess that's what they mean when they say don't judge a book by its cover. Well, for human's at least, real books are better off being judged by their covers, y-you now what, that doesn't matter right now."
He had two of his fingers up. "Two minutes, that's how long you have to say what you want to say to him. After that, you'll be quiet for the rest of this. Well, if he's alive that is..."
...
Everything in my body was aching and throbbing. The blast did damage to me but the fall was the killer. I was fortunate enough to be in Shadow-mog but it was still excruciating. If Katsu was caught in that blast, then I'll take a guess and assume he's as injured. I getting up proved to be difficult, summoning my Persona wasn't going to be happening any time soon...
"Hm?" I heard soft footsteps against the sand, They were getting louder in intensity. No, I knew who they belonged to. "Y-you, get up, we're not done yet." Katsu was standing in front of me, bleeding from his arms and forehead.
"I said get up, or else I'll kill you here and now." This was bad, I couldn't get up, my feet just can't take it anymore. Damn it, this is bad, very bad! Out of the blue, I felt this nostalgic feeling in my head. I knew this feeling, this warm feeling. "Kazuki, can you hear me?" "Fuuka? Are...are you the real one?" "Mhm, it's me Kazuki-kun." Her voice felt genuine, it felt calm and soothing. It was only two days but I started to tear up from hearing it, knowing that I am talking to the real one. "Fuu-chan, oh my god, it's really you. I-I-I..." I couldn't get the next words out of my mouth, I couldn't even fumble them.
"Kazuki-kun, can you listen to what I have to say?" "*Sniff* What is it?" "I... I want you to abandon me."
Okay, hello everyone, Saga here. Now, I wanted to say that I'm probably getting back it to the swing of things, so chapters might be uploaded more consistently now (I think). I also didn't put an author notes thing at the end of the last chapter mainly because I didn't want to say anything until I uploaded this chapter in the nearly a not-so-late timespan. And since I was able to do that, here we are. Originally, I was going to make this 3,000 words and that's it, but I felt that would destroy the pacing of the fight. I think it was going to be right around where Kazuki was getting the edge in the fight. I also was going to give focus to Hisoka, Ryota, and Hana, but I didn't see where I could place where I could fit a section in for them, and I didn't want to put in the end since it would've felt like I was trying to pad out the chapter, so I'm gonna have to put some time in for them in the next chapter.
With that out of the way, I have nothing else to say. I just hope to be able to pump out the next chapter within the next week or two. So until then; see ya.
...
P.S. I just watched A Silent Voice, it was pretty damn great, actually made me feel bad for the MC and Shouko. And I was also watching March comes in like a lion: it's a really great anime so far, I like Kiriyama as a character and his journey through his own emotion and situations. And I also like that most of the side characters aren't just there, they feel real and like actual people with their own problems and emotional struggles. Yep, that's about it...