Hi guys! Sorry again for the long delay of the last chapter. I won't let you down, now that I have inspiration for this again! Thanks!

When You Meet Your Match

Chapter Seventeen

"So, boy," said Kito smugly, sneering openly at Tasuki, "what are you going to do now?"

Tasuki gritted his teeth and felt that if he was going to grit it any further, he might just break his teeth off. He was glaring at Kito so hard that his whole body was shaking and he felt that he might just explode any second.

"Let. her. go." he snarled, trying to keep calm.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," said Kito coolly, "in fact, you should be the one who should be leaving now, since you have absolutely no business here."

"She is my business," answered Tasuki back.

"How touching," said Kito indifferently, "too bad I have to kill her now."

Mayumi gasped as Kito pressed the sword deeper into her neck. Tasuki moved a stepped forward as he saw that the sword had produced a cut and her neck was already bleeding, but Kouji was able to stop him.

"What?" he whispered angrily at Kouji. "In case you haven't noticed, she's dying."

"We can't go any nearer," whispered Kouji back, "he might kill her."

"I see you do have brains in your operation, boy," snarled Kito nodding towards Kouji.

Kouji glared at him. "Wish I could say the same for you."

Kito pressed the sword into Mayumi's neck again. "You do not call this brains?"

"I call it cowardly."

"Let's see how you call it when all her blood seeps slowly out of her body," snarled Kito.

"Don't you dare!" shouted Kouji.

"On the contrary, I will dare," replied Kito. He then turned to Tasuki, who was staring at him calmly. "What are you staring at boy?" he demanded.

Kouji also turned to Tasuki, and he frowned. His best friend was eerily calm, almost as if he wasn't there at all. He was staring calmly at Mayumi who was looking back at him, a hint of confusion mixed with pain in her face. She didn't mouth anything to him nor did she make any motion that she understood what he was doing.

Tasuki however, didn't seem to notice.

"Genrou," whispered Kouji to his friend, trying hard not to make his mouth move. "What the hell are you doing?"

Tasuki didn't answer him. He just continued to stare at Kito in that calm way.

"What are you staring at, boy?" snarled Kito once again, sword still pressed in Mayumi's neck.

Tasuki remained silent. The only visible move that was seen by any of them was in his eyes, which had averted from Kito to Mayumi.

Mayumi, Kouji saw, clearly didn't have any idea what was going on in Tasuki's mind. The questioning look seemed permanently etched on her face, but at the same time, the slight wincing was also not lost in his eyes. The blood that fowed down her neck to her clothes was beginning to flow faster and he thought that if they weren't going to do anything soon, she's really going to die.

"Genrou," whispered Kouj again, "we have to do something. Now."

"I know," whispered Tasuki back, which took Kouji by surprise because he didn't expect it, "relax, I have a plan." With that, Tasuki raised his arms, which were holding three pieces of paper each.

Kito narrowed his eyes. "What the hell is that suppose to be?"

"This," said Tasuki calmly, with a bit of a sly smile, "will be part of your death sentence."

Kito laughed loudly, and the two boys saw that his pressing of the sword in Mayumi's neck eased up a little bit, only this caused the flow of blood away from her body to become faster. "Those pieces of paper is suppose to kill me?" he mocked. "Now I'm absolutely terrified!"

"Oh, you should be," said Kouji, "you should never judge, Kito."

"And I'm sure that those will be out for my blood," said Kito roughly. He stepped back a few steps, and pushed the sword again in Mayumi's neck.

Mayumi, Kouji saw, remained silent during these entire time. She had never seen Tasuki use these weapons before, so like her uncle, she had no idea what to expect. She looked at the paper in Tasuki's hand, but didn't betray any hint of emotion. However, it didn't escape Kouji that Mayumi was getting increasingly pale. Come on, Genrou, whatever you have to do, do it now!

"They will be after your blood," said Tasuki calmly, "let me show you." With that he threw the paper in the air, and it became six large wolves.

Kito, much to his surprise took a few quick steps backward, the shock was clearly visible in his face. They both heard Mayumi gasp in surprise. "What is this sorcery?" shouted Kito, who pointed the sword at the wolves, then back to Mayumi's neck, back to the wolves and back to Mayumi's neck.

"I told you," said Tasuki calmly, stepping forward now, "they are your death."

"This is magic!" cried Kito, "they are not real!" He was getting almost as pale as his niece.

"Trust me, bastard," said Tasuki back, for once showing anger. "They are very real. They will kill you."

"NEVER!"

The wolves were pushing Kito into a corner. Kito didn't want to believe that they were real, after all, nothing can possibly come out of thin air, yet here they were, large, vicious and snarling, saliva drooling out of their mouths. Kito did the only thing that he can think of to save his life.

He pushed Mayumi into the wolves' path.

Mayumi didn't know which was better, dying in the hands of an evil uncle, or dying by slowly being eaten by a pack of wolves.

She figured that it would be a tie.

She really expected something like this would happen. It was something that his uncle would realy do, but that doesn't mean that she can't be surprised by it, she was. She let out a gasp as the force of her uncle's push sent her face first into the ground. She was pale, she knew, because her face felt extremely cold. The warmth of her body was leaving her in the same pace that her blood was flowing through her skin. She vaguely heard the shout of her name by someone, before she was launch into semi-unconsciousness.

Kito watched as her niece fell into a wolf's paw. He smiled. Sure, she wasn't going to die in his hands, but she was going to die a cruel death nonetheless, plus he could escape as the wolves feed on her mangled body. The two boys were no problem, they are both injured, they can easily be killed.

What Kito wasn't hoping for was that the wolves completely ignored Mayumi's body.

"Wha-?"

Here Tasuki came forward again. "See, the thing here is," he began, "they are in my control. They do not want the girl, they want you. They will kill you, unless you do something smart, which looking at you right now, seems highly impossible. Kill him. NOW!"

The wolves all jumped on Kito. Kito, out of reflex, slashed his sword wildly, hoping that he could get most if not all of the wolves and injure them as much as possible. What he didn't expect was that the moment his sword hit them, they all turned back into paper.

He was so surprised that he didn't see Tasuki run toward him with a sharp right hook especially for him.

Tasuki was angry.

Nobody liked Tasuki when he gets angry.

Right now, all his anger was directed to one person and one person alone, that is if you can call that man a person.

The best way to release anger is through punching, or so he believed. He didn't say anything as he grabbed Kito collar, pushed him into the wall and began to rain down on him one punch after the other. He punched his face, his gut, his chest. He heard the cracks of bones that he caused, but he didn't care. This man deserved to die.

Tasuki didn't think that he can ever feel this angry towards anyone, now he knew he could, and all because of a woman. He didn't even like women until now, well, he still doesn't like women, he likes a woman. That was dfferent, he thought.

Kito's face was already swollen, and he was spitting out blood. Tasuki, unable to control any of his emotions right now, grabbed his neck and wrung it tightly. He could hear Kito choking but he didn't care, the fact that Kito could still utter a sound was enough to enrage him even more. He wanted to crush that voice box, make him bleed from the inside, crush him and give him a slow painful death, the kind of death fitting for someone as evil as this man.

"Genrou, stop it!" he heard someone say, and a hand landed on his arm. "Genrou, that's enough!"

"No."

"That's enough!" cried Kouji again, he recognized who it finally was, "you're going to kill him!"

"That's the point."

"Damnit, Genrou, we're not murderers!" shouted Kouji, now forcibly trying to pry his hands away from Kito's neck. "Mayumi needs you, she doesn't want you doing this!"

Tasuki's arms froze, and he looked at Kouji, "What?"

"She wants you," said Kouji, now able to take Tasuki's arms away from Kouji's neck, "to stop. Go, Kito's as good as dead, he won't hurt her anymore. She wants to talk to you."

Tasuki blinked a few times before he let go of Kito. Kito fell into a slump on the ground, still breathing, but very weak. Tasuki gave him one final glare before turning around and going to Mayumi.