Kaya lunged away from the door, shattered remains of plastic and metal hitting her feet as the door splintered and crashed open. Krow stepped in, his eyes alight with some strange glow as he watched his cornered prey back away from him. Fear was written on every feature on her face, and she stumbled backwards as he stepped forwards.
"Miss Kaya, what's wrong?" He asked pleasantly, and she blanched, her eyes sliding down the beads of blood dotting the white carpet. She swallowed.
"You killed him." Her voice was shaky, but firm. Krow smirked.
"No, I actually didn't manage to kill that manager of yours. I'll have to slit his throat later. You... distracted me."
Kaya bit her lip, obviously trying to stop herself from trembling, and she rolled her fingers into fists as she said more boldly, "No, I didn't mean Merii. I meant Augustus Flint."
Krow's eyes narrowed. "So you did read the papers in that, did you? I suppose it's my fault to begin with, but you know... some do hope that things don't get that complicated." He raised a hand of blades and pointed all five sharp tips at Kaya, hissing, "Then I only have one choice, don't I?"
There was a suffocating silence. Then, without warning, Kaya spun around and made a wild dash for the window. Knowing there was a landing outside it that connected to the landing below, Krow ran forward and slashed at her general direction. There was a sound of ripping cloth and breaking glass; Kaya let out a small cry as a shard of glass tore into the skin at her collar-bone.
However, the violet eyes that turned to Krow were not of fear now, but of determination. Krow thrust his blades forwards once more, ready to rip out her throat. Grabbing the ripped curtains, Kaya swerved her arms up to meet the Cat Claws with the fabric. The blades entangled; Kaya threw her weight with the curtains towards the window, and Krow's body hit the sill with enough force to stun him for a moment.
Rolling herself out of range, Kaya got to her feet and ran out of the room. Krow let out a nasty laugh as he tore away the curtains from his Cat Claws and ran after her, only to see the corridor empty. But if Kaya had disappeared this quickly, he knew there was no way that the weak-hearted actress could have exited the house. She was still on this floor. There were only three rooms on the second floor excluding the bedroom, and Krow laughed silently to himself. How foolish could she get?
"Why do you try?" He asked out loud, kicking open the door to the bathroom next to Kaya's bedroom. He slashed at the curtains shrouding the bathtub, sliced the sink away from the wall and cut deep tracks that ran all the way around the walls, but the bathroom proved empty. He stepped out, and deliberately walked slowly to the next room, feeling a perverse joy swell in him as he felt the tension and fear swell in the air too.
As he tore at Merii's office next to the bathroom, he stopped swiping at the book-case to hear breathing. His eyes widened, his lips curling into a smile as he realised it was Kaya's breathing, loud and short of breath from shock, and still smiling Krow followed the noise to the guest room two doors away from Kaya's own bedroom.
The door creaked open ominously, and Krow switched on the light with his wrist. The room immediately flooded with light, and there was a sharp gasp that came from the direction of the closet. Krow found himself grinning. He could almost hear her heartbeat beating faster from fear. Clearing his throat, Krow examined his gloved hands lightly as he started to speak in light, idle tones.
"Miss Kaya, I came up with a theory." He heard the breathing pick up again, and smiling he continued. "I always wondered what it was about you that made me want to take care of you. For you see, I had no ultimate goal with you. For sure I did use you to become acquainted with certain sponsors and I did manage your bank account using your ill-placed trust, but you see, what I truly wanted was something I couldn't describe... because we failed before, remember? In our past life?"
Krow's eyes narrowed involuntarily as his jaw tightened. "I took so much care of you before. I tended to all your petty needs and concerns, I treated you as though you were some sort of wilting, weak but precious little flower. But no, that just wasn't enough for you, was it? You didn't want any of that in the end, did you? You wanted him."
Letting out a bitter laugh, Krow glared at the closet. He could sense her trembling, and he allowed himself a little smirk. "However, you bought my trust over his, and I suppose all those little things I cared to do for you wasn't all for nothing... I cared enough for you, Kaya, to not force you to write the will and kill you on the spot when we were alone...
"No, it had to be perfect. You weren't supposed to know... but that stupid boy and that stupid lamb just had to get in the way, and you ended up making me spit on your fragile trust in me. But you never mattered enough to me, so your broken trust meant nothing to me. All I ever hated you for was for ruining the perfection I had taken years to plan out..."
It sounded as though Kaya was trying to keep in tears. Krow smiled painedly as he whispered, "You failed, Kaya. We were supposed to follow the plan, but you backed out on me... So you see, I bought your trust in this life because this time, I didn't want to fail. I was ensured that this plan wouldn't fail because there would be no hitches... but there was a hitch. Because that long-nosed boy is here again, too."
Walking swiftly to the closet, Krow heard the actress still her breath at the sound of his shoes against the carpeted floor. He rested his forehead against the walnut wood, feeling a chill down his spine as he heard her stifle a gasp of surprise to hear sounds against the closet.
"No one is here to save you this time," Krow rasped, raising his Cat Claws, "So my plan will be perfect again, after all. No straw-hat idiot or swordsman is here to come to the rescue. That little liar couldn't do a thing against me in the previous world, and the same fact prevails in this world. And sadly Kaya, you can't do anything yourself. So I won't stretch your death out any longer. You see, Kaya..." He stepped back from the closet, smiling in satisfaction as he positioned the blades,
"My plan is perfect this time." And without another word, Krow slashed over the closet doors, hearing Kaya gasp loudly at the sudden sound of wood splitting and hitting the carpet. Triumphantly, Krow turned his eyes to meet Kaya's frightened and pathetic eyes, perhaps see her body curled in a scared, fetal position tucked into the corner of the closet. Krow's eyes widened, his jaw dropping because he could still hear Kaya breathing fast and unevenly somewhere right in front of him... but the closet right in front of him was completely empty.
Before Krow could realise what was happening, however, Kaya gave a sharp inhalement of breath before a loud sound of body hitting wood sounded-- Krow's eyes widened as the closet suddenly fell forwards towards him, the walnut wood slamming into him and shattering his glasses-- Kaya hadn't been in the closet, she had been behind it--
"STOP!!" Krow tried to shout as he tried to move, but failed to bring his body out from its trapped position beneath the weight of the closet. All he saw were the blurred outlines of Kaya's small feet pattering madly across the carpet and out of the guest room. Letting out a frightening growl, Krow wrenched his arm from the wood and within seconds had the closet in pieces behind him; he tore after her small form stumbling down the stairs shouting without thinking, "NO!! I WON'T LET YOU!!"
Kaya let out a small scream as he ripped the banister apart, and hurling herself down the last few steps she ran towards the door, but as she pressed her hands against the handle she realised before she even tried -- the doors were locked. Starting to sob from desperation, Kaya swerved away from the door to miss a swipe that caused the floor to erupt in an explosion of pine-wood. She started to run towards the kitchen for the back-door, but Krow skid to a stop before her.
"This," He said angrily, his breathing ragged as he watched her pupils contract from fear, "ends here. Now."
Suddenly, something hit the back of his skull with enough force to cause his vision to black out momentarily, and blinking stars out of his eyes Krow felt a sharp pain explode from a small point at the back of his scalp.
"Usopp-san!!" Kaya cried out, and Krow forced himself to spin around and look. Usopp, breathing heavily, was standing before the entrance of the dining room, obviously having kicked down the back door. In his left hand he cradled a handful of colourful marbles. Marbles! Insulted, Krow lifted the partially empty frames of his glasses higher up his nose using the end of his palm, his eyes narrowing as he realised Kaya had moved out of his range and closer to Usopp while he had been in pain.
Krow slashed at the coffee table violently, forcing Kaya to stop and fling her arms to shield her face from the explosion of mahagony chunks. Usopp exclaimed her name in shock, but he stopped short when Krow pointed his blades at him.
"Want to be the hero now, don't you?" Krow seethed through his teeth, a cruel smile starting to curl his lips as he realised, this man is nothing. I can kill him easily.
Usopp's eyes weren't on Krow, however; they were on Kaya's shaking form.
"What's she ever done to you?" The engineer asked in a low voice, eyes narrowing behind his glasses, "Wasn't last time enough?"
"No," Krow snapped, "That's precisely the point; it wasn't enough. And now, you'll learn to regret sticking that long nose everywhere Miss Kaya goes."
Usopp's eyes flashed angrily at the mockery in Krow's tone of voice, but before he could act, Krow had disappeared.
"Wh-where--?!" Usopp gasped, looking around wildly, and Kaya cried,
"Look out!"
But the blades had already torn their way through Usopp's flesh; the carpet soaked up the fresh crimson as his body limply hit the plush carpet silently. Krow kicked the fallen form with the toe of this polished leather shoes, and his smile widened to see that Usopp did not respond at all.
He looked up, however, to see that Kaya was gone.
"Kaya? Miss Kaya?" Krow moved towards the staircase, nearer to the damaged pine-wood, his eyes darting about. "You can't run, you know that..." A soft rustling sounded, and Krow spun around to see Kaya, who had just rolled out from beneath the sofa. Krow remembered with a start that the pistol in the house had been stored in a secret compartment inside the coffee table he had just blown apart.
A dully metallic click sounded as Kaya cocked the trigger, her jaw set and her eyes trained on Krow.
"I know I can't run," She said slowly, keeping the shaking in her voice to a bare minimum, "but neither can you."
"Is this it?"
"Yes," The girl said nervously, watching Sanji scan the abandoned facility, and without another word he strode over and kicked the garage door open. Crowds of leather-clad people with handfuls of knives, copper pipes, broken table legs and chair legs loomed out at him. All of them were sneering, and Sanji smirked back.
"Didn't I beat half of you up back at GLU?" The model asked with a raised eyebrow. Some of the men looked nervously back at him, and others started to look uncertain.
However, everyone's attention was brought to a man approaching Sanji from the gas station beside the garage. The model raised an eyebrow.
"You're the rude clown from back at the dinner dance," He recalled, scowling. Buggy scowled back, snapping,
"You caught me off-guard, you pansy."
"Pansy?" Sanji couldn't supress a chuckle before reverting back to his demanding self. "Where's Nami-san?"
Buggy snorted. "She doesn't exist anymore."
Sanji felt as though his insides were about to freeze up. His eyes narrowed as he hissed, "You didn't--"
"No, I mean, her body's here," Buggy said hastily, "but she isn't."
"You mean you beat her to a point of unconciousness?" Sanji growled, his eyes suddenly ablaze with anger. He couldn't imagine how they could hurt someone-- let alone someone so defenceless and vunerable and beautiful-- as Nami-san, and he felt revolted that this clown would dare to manage such a tremendous and atrocious feat. However, Buggy was shaking his head frantically.
"No! Actually, she beat some of my crew to a point of unconciousness for calling her 'pretty'!"
Sanji frowned. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"I'm saying that due to her vanity, she was insulted to be called 'pretty' when she is supposed to be beautiful!" Buggy yelled.
What happened next happened so quickly Sanji barely had time to blink before the area where Buggy had been standing suddenly erupted in billowing clouds of dust. A strangely familiar shriek shrilly sounded.
"I am not 'beautiful', I am the most beautiful lady in the entire universe!!"
Sanji coughed, trying to see through the smoke, when a gust of wind blasted across the abandoned gas station to clear away the dust, revealing a sore-looking Buggy and an female figure. The blonde's eyes widened as his jaw dropped so low he was sure it would hit the ground.
She flippantly twirled to smile dazzlingly at Sanji, her hazel-brown eyes pleased and vain as an arrogant smile pulled back lips that had been coated perfectly with a sheen of red lipstick. Her long orange locks were swept back breath-takingly behind her bare-shoulders, her curvy form snugly fit with black leather, of all things. In her hands she cradled what looked like part of a bed-frame in the medical station back in GLU that had been twisted off with sheer force.
"N-N-Nami-s-san?!" Sanji finally managed to splutter, completely unsure of what he was seeing. She smirked at his disbelief, patting her palm with the end of the metal bed-frame.
"Wrong, Pretty-boy." She said pleasantly, her eyes sparkling with a relish.
"Wh-wha--?!"
"Lady Alvida," She cut in, her grip tightening on the metal as she saw Sanji's complete loss for words or coherent thought, "Nami no longer exists."
The blonde was so distracted, he did not notice a dark-haired man with dark shadows beneath his eyes emerge from the small toolhouse next to the garage. The man stared with wide eyes from beneath the blue and white band swathing his head. He stared for a long time.
Then he slipped back into the toolhouse without anyone noticing him at all.
Kale grabbed the blade in him with both hands, trying in vain to keep the steel in him, but Cabodi tore the blade out of his fingers. Chuu and Jango stared at Cabodi, flabbergasted.
"I-- I didn't mean--" Cabodi stammered, his eyes rolling frantically as he staggered backwards, "I-- I didn't intend--"
The small boy fell from Chuu's and Jango's grip, gave a futile attempt to stay standing, then coughed out no ordinary amount of blood before crumpling onto the ground. The waves of heat and pain from his stomach were unbearable; he felt as though hands were pulling him down, grappling at him with burning claws and dipping his head repeatedly into hellfire and darkness.
'This... isn't how I...?' Kale forced himself to roll onto his side, and brought his hands to try and clutch at the gaping hole through his middle. Gripping at his stomach, however, an unpleasant gush of warm liquid soaked his fingers; lifting a hand to his eyes, Kale saw it was completely soaked with blood. He coughed painfully, blood splattering the saw-dust covered floor, looking up to see the three men were now in a full-out argument, verging on a brawl.
'This is my chance... I can escape now...' However, Kale couldn't bring himself to move. He tried to stand, but felt energy and blood drain away from him in such rapid waves he was forced to collapse once more. The dull light filtering through filmy, grimy window panes seemed to be getting darker and darker. He blinked, but the Messenger Angel realised the human body he was in couldn't stand much more. Luffy was going to die.
'But... if my death is destined soon, and if I presume it to be today... then Luffy dying doesn't affect me. I just return to Heaven...' Feeling confused, Kale found his body curling into a ball from the pain, clutching his stomach tightly with his fingers.
'Luffy can't die. Although this is my job to do, Luffy's life is dependant on this quest. What's going on? Why is he dying-- when I feel it should be my own deathday today...?' He was starting to feel colder, his vision growing duller, darker, when it suddenly came to Kale.
'Of course,' Kale realised, 'I'm an Angel... not a very high-ranking one, but... all Angels can...'
Luffy, are you there?
Yeah!! Kale, what's going on?? I feel weak, like I'm in the sea or something!
You're dying, Luffy. You got stabbed.
But Zoro always gets stabbed and he's always fine! Why should this kill me?! This--
Luffy, listen to me. We don't have much time. This body is of Earth's, not your world's, and what's more it's a 12 year old body. You are losing blood rapidly, Luffy, and it'll take a miracle for you to live.
...You mean... I have no choice? I have to die?
NO! I'm an Angel, remember?!
But what does that have to do with--?
All Angels can exchange their life with someone else's.
...So?
This means, Luffy, that the time has come for us to say goodbye.
What?
Once I'm gone, you'll have total control over this body. You won't have your rubber ability-- I can't grant you that at my Angel rank, but--
Wait a minute!! What do you mean goodbye?!
I just told you, you idiot-- I'm going to leave this body so you can live.
Don't do that!
Don't be stupid, Luffy. I'm supposed to die today.
How do you know th--
All Angels know. So live with it, Luffy, okay?!! Geez! You're so dense I worry about leaving you alone, but hey, you'll have other people taking care of you now, right?
Kale--
Before he could hear Luffy protest anymore, Kale brought his shaking fingers to clasp each other; they were slippery with blood, but he forced them tightly together.
'So this is it, huh?'
The Messenger Angel shut his eyes for his final prayer. As a warmth began to spread from his hands to his body, Kale smiled briefly.
Take care, captain.
And he was gone.
"Damn it, Gin, what the hell is wrong with you?!" Krieg shouted in exasperation, watching Gin blocking the door with furious eyes, "Move out of my way!!"
"No." Gin's eyes flashed angrily back, startling Krieg. "I will not move out of the way until you swear to me--"
"--Gin, stop being an idiot!! I never understood your reluctance to this Plan, but this is just the limit!"
"Sir," Gin growled through gritted teeth, "you never said anything about killing Augustus Flint."
"Get a grip. That was a necessary precaution-- we couldn't take his will by force and leave him alive without him squealing, you know that!"
"What I understand is that I agreed to comply to your desperate measures to regain some sort of self-respect," Gin said slowly, his eyes darkening with every word, "I know that the GLU dinner dance fiasco is something you do not wish to admit defeat at. You hate losing to anything; therefore you felt some sort of perverse need to acquire some sort of new status. That, I understood. I turned a blind eye at your sudden greed for money, your urgency to bow at Arlong's feet to beg--"
Krieg punched Gin into the door behind him before grabbing the front of his clothes and slamming him into it.
"Beg?!!" Don Krieg shouted, his eyes bulging as spit gathered at the corners of his mouth, "I didn't know you thought so lowly of me, Gin!!"
"I didn't," Gin said raggedly and angrily, "I didn't see what was wrong with you until I saw what was wrong with myself."
"What?!"
"I was wondering why I felt so compelled to be repulsed everytime you grovelled at someone's feet, whether it was Arlong or Waporu or Krow. I didn't understand why I was compelled to feel so detached from the stupidity of the situation - having to watch the desperacy of a man who had lost face and was stepping on himself even more just to get himself to rise up again - I didn't get why I had some sort of-- reluctance to feel so disgusted. That was until I realised what I was doing all along was exactly the same thing."
Gin's eyes narrowed underneath the band as he shouted, "There is a difference between an ambition and an obsession, Don Krieg! I respected who you were for your strength and your rules, but now I see even those qualities are now beneath you as you accept murder as a step towards your own fulfillment of new power! Don't be a fool, Krieg! You have to stop this now!"
"Murder is a tool!!" Krieg shouted, his spit flying from his mouth, "You have no right to say to me what murder means when you were a murderer in your last life, too!"
There was a chilling pause as Gin stared at Krieg's mad eyes and slightly sagging mouth, breathing heavily, and Gin muttered, "Put me down."
The larger man complied, and Gin straightened his jacket as he muttered, "You remember, too?"
"Of course," Krieg growled, "why else would I want victory so badly?"
"Krieg, just because we have a past life doesn't mean it completely applies to us," Gin said slowly, his eyes narrowing. "I was a murderer in the last life, yes, I remember ending countless lives without a second thought, even enjoying my inevitable victories against the weak. But that all changed when I was at Death's doorstep. That fateful day I escaped from Marine captivity, I realised I was only human, Krieg, just like we all are."
Gin's eyes softened for just a moment as he continued, "I was starving to death. I thought that I'd die on the spot - thought I had finally met my pitifully pathetic fate, and that the horrible emptiness in my stomach, the pains that resonated from my gut-- I thought that was the way I was to atone for my sins. But I was saved by someone-- someone who had no particular emotions to me, or any reason or obligation to help me. He only rescued me because he was kind, and I realised-- what death meant--"
Gin snapped his head up to meet Krieg's eyes with his own determined ones as he said, "And so I always felt that this is why I found myself in another life. It was my second chance-- to prove that I understood how to cherish life some way or another-- to stop pointless deaths."
"Oh, really? So you want to succeed in cleansing your dirty soul, do you?" Krieg snarled, only to be surprised as he was cut short.
"No. Krieg, I realised that probably isn't what I'm doing in a new life. Because I saw him again, Krieg. Outside. And he's pretty much pre-occupied enough for now. I realise that this time, it's my turn to help him."
"What the hell are you talking about? You can't hurt me, I know that better than anyone." Krieg beamed suddenly, even letting out a chortle. "Now stop being such a prick and let me through so I can kick that waiter's sorry ass."
"He wasn't a waiter, her was vice-chef." Gin said, and he smirked briefly before pulling out something so discreetly and so quickly Krieg didn't have enough time to react to the cold metallic, hard surface pressed against his trousers. Gin's face fell a little as he said quietly, "I'm sorry, Don Krieg."
He pulled the trigger, and Krieg let out an anguished and surprised yell as his knee-cap exploded. He collapsed onto the floor heavily, letting out a choked and angry string of curses. Gin ignored him, and did not hesitate to shoot Krieg's other shin.
"Y-you @#$%ing son of a bitch," Krieg swore, his eyes burning through Gin, "Why did you have to do this? I'll never forgive you for this betrayal-- you'll never return to your rank again--"
Gin let out a soft sigh as he pocketed the gun. "I didn't have a choice."
"You did," Krieg growled, "you could have been smart and you would have kept your high position in my group. You could have been just as powerful, could have had all the money you needed. It would have all worked out, and we would have all been happy. Why didn't you just let the Plan work smoothly, you--?!"
"Don't you understand, Don Krieg?" Gin interrupted, raising his brows so high they disappeared beneath the headband, "That's why I exist. See, as long as people like me exist, people like you aren't able to have their way."
"Gin--" Krieg began, but Gin shook his head, turned around and pressed a hand against the toolhouse door.
"What are you doing after Zoro?"
"I don't have to tell you that, Raven." Jenna replied with a nasty smile. She gestured to someone, and before Tashigi could react a sharp blow to her skull sent her slamming into the ground. The others guffawed, Jenna herself chuckling. However, they abruptly fell silent when Tashigi let out a snort of laughter, causing Jenna to raise an eyebrow as Tashigi smiled at her.
"I guess you don't, Jenna. Let's just sit here in silence, then. Or we can exchange insults, as you seem to like that."
Jenna's eyes narrowed, and Tashigi didn't manage to move out of the way in time; someone's bokken hit her in the shins, and she winced, realising for the first time her hands were bound in duct-tape. Well, at least they're not behind my back.
"Trying to be funny, Raven? You do realise just one wrong word and I'll have your teeth broken in an instant." She waved her bokken threateningly above Tashigi, and was taken back as Tashigi let out loud a laugh.
"What, am I supposed to be afraid of you? Because you're holding a stick of wood?" Tashigi asked, smirking. Jenna's eyes narrowed, and there was a pause before Jenna let out a short laugh herself.
"Don't make me mad, Raven. You don't know what you're up against."
"Why? Think you're all that since you learn kendo?"
"Get this into your puny little skull," Jenna snapped, her eyes glaring in anger, "I'm at the seventh dan: kyo-shi. I don't think you even understand what that means, but let me inform you that only one percent of students who apply for the eighth dan test actually pass."
Tashigi began laughing, tears forming in her eyes as she watched Jenna's face pass through a series of angrily confused expressions.
"Do you think sho-go really matters in your ability to be human, Jenna?"
"Do you actually know what you're saying?" Jenna said threateningly, gripping her bokken so tightly her knuckles were a painful white, and noticing this Tashigi shook her head, giving a little sigh of pity. A bokken got her from the side, throwing her onto the floor painfully, but even as she coughed she was laughing.
"What's so funny?!" Jenna demanded, and Tashigi sat quite comfortably on the floor as she said softly,
"Jenna, do you know actually know how to use the bokken in your hands?"
There was a long silence, Tashigi's challenge clinging to the tension in the air and making it heavy. Then Jenna stepped past the circle of people surrounding Tashigi, and gestured at them to widen the circle. Then she set her stance to fighting.
"Alright then, Raven. Get up if you wanna see what I've got." Jenna said in a low voice. Tashigi smiled, forcing her jarred bones to work without shaking, and stood up across Jenna. She made a point of holding her head up quite proudly. There was a long silence as Jenna simply glared at Tashigi. Her stance was wide, slightly lowered in level. Tashigi got sick of the tension.
"All bark and no bite? I thought--" She began prompting, when without warning, Jenna let out a yell as she suddenly surged forwards. It was a quick slash down attempted for Tashigi's head, and as her skull felt as though it was about to explode already, Tashigi swung her arms up to meet the wood. It hit her bones with enough force all her knuckles cracked in a row, and wincing, she threw the weight of the bokken aside.
Jenna seemed to be so enraged, however, Tashigi spent all her energy avoiding her diagonal upper-cuts, her dropping-cuts and angered slashes all aimed for her face. Seeing Jenna in such a hysterically angered state made Tashigi suddenly laugh as she avoided a horizontal cut easily. Hearing Tashigi laugh made Jenna stop, and she breathed heavily as she snapped, "Laughing doesn't suit you, Raven. Especially when you're pathetically dodging all my attacks."
Tashigi took a deep breath, practically scalding in the heat of Jenna's anger. "Heta." She said, and Jenna's eyes widened as Tashigi chuckled. "Bet you heard that a lot, didn't you? Your moves are poorly executed. You are so blinded with your wounds to your pride and anger you don't seem like you're at seventh dan at all.. Your standard's more like... I don't know.. kyo-jun."
"You're one to speak," Jenna snarled, her eyes flashing angrily, "I may not be perfect, but I'm a thousand times better than you. Compared with me you're just a little raven chick still learning how to cheep."
"Well, then why are you getting so angry, if I'm just cheeping?" Tashigi asked, and Jenna let out an angered cry as she swiped at Tashigi with a random dropping-cut that she easily dodged. Then, swinging behind her, Tashigi kicked the bokken out of Jenna's grip and slammed her to the ground, pinning her arms to her sides with her knees.
"Get off me!!" Jenna screamed, albeit a little weakly due to a lot of air being knocked out of her lungs, and Tashigi sat on Jenna's back easily.
"I've been asking you to do the same for months," Tashigi hissed, "I don't understand you, Jenna. You know you're not perfect. So why the hell are you picking on those you feel aren't perfect, either? You really feel you're that much better?"
Jenna threw Tashigi off her back with surprising force, and managed a horizontal cut across Tashigi's shoulder-blade. Tashigi gave a painful grin at Jenna, who was staring at her angrily.
"That's a bit better," Tashigi said with a quiet laugh, "Jozu."
"Stop telling me crap like that!!" Jenna shrieked, and thrust the bokken tip right into Tashigi's unsuspecting gut. She stumbled back a little, but still managed to dodge Jenna's attempt at a strike to her temple.
"Jenna, come on. Enlighten me here." Tashigi said as she blocked a blow to her side using her wrists, "I'm curious to know why you need people like me to feel better against."
"You're nothing! You know that yourself, too!" Jenna snarled, pulling herself back to widely diagonally slash at Tashigi, who moved a little back so it barely grazed her shoulder.
"I can read all of your moves when you're radiating anger like that, you know." Tashigi commented as Jenna angrily failed to land an upward-cut, "I wonder why you're so angry when you're telling me I'm nothing. Don't you believe it, too? Or maybe you're afraid?"
"Of what, you?!" Jenna screamed, horizontally cutting with the bokken but only getting blocked by Tashigi's duct-tape clad hands, "Stop trying to screw me over, Raven!"
"All I'm suggesting is a possibility, Jenna," Tashigi said in polite tones as she swerved out of the way of a thrust aimed at her chest, "that perhaps you're afraid that you might be nothing too."
Jenna's eyes flashed, and Tashigi let out a small yelp of surprise when someone behind her struck her behind the knees; she fell to the floor and watched Jenna's feet pound unceremoniously across the floor as she let out an angered, almost tearful holler as she charged towards Tashigi. She squeezed her eyes shut. At least I tried.
"Dragon..."
Everyone turned sharply at the sudden sound of voice--
"...Coil!!"
--the thick circle of people at the circumference surrounding Jenna and Tashigi were abruptly blown away from a powerful blast of wind. Tashigi's eyes widened as she saw, for just the briefest moment, a flash of green-hair somewhere near. She was distracted, however, by the surprised cry of Jenna.
"Smoker!? What are you doing h--?!"
"I should be asking you that," Smoker snapped, and ignoring her he turned to Tashigi. "Are you okay?" He asked as he roughly ripped the tape off Tashigi's skin. She nodded, trying not to start crying in pain, and Smoker suddenly punched a man trying to hit Tashigi over the head behind her. He swerved around her to start pounding the crap out of some of the gangsters starting to spill in.
"How'd he know where you were?" Jenna asked confusedly. Tashigi wasn't listening, however; she had discovered a discarded bokken, and she was now in posession of it. Holding the handle forward she set her feet to a parallel position.
"Jenna, you said you were seventh dan, right? Prove it to me."
Jenna looked almost hesitant for a moment, but her eyes hardened. She charged forward, the bokken in her hands held at a half-forward stance, letting out a war-cry as she prepared to strike a dropping-cut to Tashigi's head at what she thought was lightning speed.
She looked to be moving in slow-motion from Tashigi's view. Sliding downwards, Tashigi easily moved out of range, and ran a simple horizontal-cutting body blow across Jenna's stomach. She quickly brought the bokken up in a sharp upper-cut that slammed Jenna's jaw shut, and as Jenna let out a choked noise, Tashigi moved behind Jenna in a fluid motion. Without waiting for Jenna to recover, Tashigi diagonally slashed down at Jenna's back as her final blow.
She fell to the ground, choking, her brown and copper hair spilling all over the place as a think trickle of blood fell past her cut lip. Tashigi threw the bokken down, looking down at Jenna's fallen form.
"Jenna, I'm a rare ninth dan," Tashigi said quietly, rubbing her sore wrists, "I'm an assistant to my kendo sensei. You didn't stand a chance."
"Why didn't you ever stop me before?" She whispered. Tashigi looked down-cast for a moment before saying softly,
"Because you nearly made me believe I really was nothing."
A tear fell past Jenna's cheek, and she did not reply.
Tashigi quickly moved out of the way as a man fell heavily onto the floor where she had been standing, and she was suddenly face-to-face with Zoro Roronoah.
"Tashigi, you okay?!" He demanded, and Tashigi might've rolled her eyes at the complete lack of compassion in his voice had she been in different circumstances. Instead, she smiled slightly.
"Yeah. Behind you--"
Zoro jabbed his elbow into the girl's jaw, and she fell whimpering to the floor as Zoro said urgently, "Look, we gotta run. I don't know how, but Smoker's here and he'll be more than happy to take us all into custody for stirring up this crap."
"Not you," Tashigi began to protest, when Smoker suddenly shouted,
"Tashigi, keep that green-haired buffoon in place!! He needs to give a couple of good answers!"
"Not me," Zoro said sarcastically as Tashigi sweatdropped. She dodged a bokken Smoker had kicked out of someone's hand, and Zoro deflected it with a quick swipe of his hand as he asked her,
"Well?! You staying for the questioning or--"
"Definitely not! Let's go," Tashigi said, and weaving their way in and out of the mob of fighting people they slid out of the way and began running down the stairs of the building.
"What happened? Did you just follow them here or what?" Zoro asked as they hurried down the steps.
"I was an idiot and I listened to Jenna when she made up some phony story about you being in danger." Tashigi said without thinking. Then she blushed as she quickly added, "Er, that is, she said I was the only one who could help."
"Uh huh. Yuina told me that you were captured, by the way."
"Really?" Tashigi said, pleasantly surprised, and smiled as she murmured, "I guess I should trust her fully now."
They ran down in silence for a while, and were just approaching ground-floor when Zoro suddenly spoke up.
"Good job with Jenna, by the way."
Tashigi blinked, surprised by the curiously proud tone in his voice, and without meaning to she tripped over her own feet. Although she let out a yelp of surprise, she was quite used to this and forced herself to swerve around so she'd run into a wall, not the floor. However, instead of crashing into concrete, she crashed into Zoro.
"You're so damn clumsy!" Zoro said with a frown, holding her by the shoulders and setting her to her feet.
"H-how'd you know?" Tashigi asked dumb-foundedly, "I mean-- know how I'd-- go into the wall--?"
"You did it before," Zoro said with a roll of his eyes, "but I should tell you that even though it seems like you'll hit the floor, there's a chance you'll trip but still land on your feet at the bottom."
"That's a small chance. Isn't it better to be safe?" Tashigi asked, raising a brow in question. He shrugged.
"It's probably healthier to take that chance than crash into walls. I mean, look at your face now." He poked gingerly at a swelling, bleeding bruise at her head, and she winced. Then Zoro frowned, taking her face into his hand to look at the bruise more properly.
"Wait a minute. Did they do this to you?"
Tashigi, however, was shocked into silence. His face was barely an inch away from hers, and his nose was brushing very slightly against hers in a too-close-for-comfort kind of way. And his breath was mingling with hers, his lips far more closer than they'd been back at the dinner-dance...
When she didn't reply, he looked at her in the eye with a frown, apparently unaware his hand was at her cheek in a very inappropriate manner, their faces a bit too close as he prompted, "Tashigi?"
"Roronoa?" She breathed, searching his eyes, and he was immediately frozen to the spot and petrified at the way she'd called his name. He was suddenly blindingly aware of the their position against the wall, the way her eyes were looking into his, and his heart suddenly began to sound deafening in his own ears. Looking back at her, his thumb tentatively starting to lightly rub against her forehead, he swallowed.
"THERE THEY ARE!!"
"Ahck!!" Tashigi yelped as Zoro sprang back, as though he'd been burnt. The green-head hastily muttered,
"Oh shit--" He grabbed her hand and pulled her down the rest of the way, yelling, "Come on!!"
Although there were bruises starting to pattern her wrist and waves of pain were starting to emanate up her arm, Tashigi curled her own fingers over Zoro's as she answered, "I know, I know--"
They ran out the fire-exit and out of the building, both unable to face each other properly during that moment as they were both rather brilliant shades of red.
A/N: Er, let me think... I do *not* know kendo, so this is just plain awkward for me, isn't it? I researched a bit, seeing my abysmal knowledge of kendo would not serve to be enough... but hey, the hell, I'm just a moron trying to sound cool. I can't really be bothered to explain the sho-go ranking system, but all the other Japanese phrases were just for little taunts. Heta is 'unskillful' or something like that, and jozu is supposedly 'good move' or something similar. Kyo-jun is 'low standard', I think, and dan is just a Japanese term for 'level'. I don't know if I used the terms correctly, and I don't know anyone who can correct this for me in my vicinity. If anyone sees a correction that just has to be made then please, please inform me. ^_^;; As an extra note, Tashigi being a ninth-dan is a bit of a stretch, but I'll just request some suspension of disbelief here... ^_^;;;;
Okay, about the chapter. Phew... this one's a LONG one. I didn't want to cut it up, though, so here you go. I am aware Alvida would not choose to wear black leather, (or at least I don't think she would) but it was her only choice. Action... er, I suck at it. Unfortunately there are large dollops of it coming up, so please forgive me for my horribly big gaps between updates. It takes me a long time to write up action, simply because if I don't think while I type that up, it comes up crap. I mean, most things would, but action would come out crappier than crap, so... er... what am I trying to say? Nothing. Right. Uhm... =_=;;
Thanks for reading uptil now, if you have... I have no idea how happy I can say I am, and I congratulate you for have such a large portion of patience in your hearts for not only the colassal LENGTH of this blurdy thing, but the unending amounts of crappiness distilled in the chapters everywhere. I love you guys for this, and I hope I can make it up to you by trying to, at least, get the freaking Reborn fanfiction page UP. Grrrrrr...
Uh, anyways. I'm done, I think. ^_^; Signing out.