Chapter 22: Get Back Up

Hunters cage hit the floor with a dull thud. He was anxious, the training he had done over the past week had helped him prepare for this physically but mentally he didn't think he would ever get used to the idea of fighting others for blood sport. Then there were people like Senji and Minatsuki who actively and openly enjoy it. He figured that was because of the fact that he was still sane. Honestly he knew they weren't the most stable of individuals but there had to be limits! Like really what was their iss-

"Oh Falcon! Getting stage fright?" Oh crap, he zoned out didn't he? Speed walking out of the cage with a flustered expression getting a laugh and a few jeers from the audience. Speaking of which what was wrong with THOSE sick creeps? At least with Tamaki he could understand the appeal of money but what did they get out of this that they couldn't get from the internet? Like really Hunter knew for a fact that if they wanted to see people fighting or getting killed it was a simple Google search away. So just why were they wasting god knows how much money to watch Deadmen fight? Because they had powers, yes he understood that part but still wouldn't this lose its appeal after a while? After all there were only so many Deadmen so that made for a finite amount of matches so "DEADMEN BLEED!" Wait did he zone out again?

"DIE!" Hunter snapped back to attention as his opponent: Penguin. Penguin was a bald and bearded young man with hazel eyes and light brown hair. He wore black sweatpants, and nothing else. He was a Deadman who creates doppelgangers or so Senji had told him. And from what he was seeing that was definitely true. Two blood red spectral humanoids marched towards him, Thankfully they were moving slow enough for Hunter to pull out his new switchblade and horizontally slash his wrists. He then raised his arms and formed fists. Time to put his training to good use.

Two Days Earlier

Now that he thought about it asking Senji to spare was probably a horrible idea. But in all fairness he didn't have much of a choice, Alex was too "busy" to help him out today and there was no way in hell he was going to willingly go one on one with any Deadman he didn't know. Besides Senji was a great fighter so Hunter was bound to learn something right? After all if he got better at fighting what was the issue? Hunter remembered this blissfully naive thought as he barely dodged under the strike Senj sent his way, he had gotten much better at that part, If there was one thing that having Shiro sent to sick him like an attack dog taught him it was how important not getting hit was in a fight. Senji however had know this for years and more importantly how to counter this technique so he sent a knee into Hunters face. Hunter was thrown back and landed on his back. Well the more things changed the more they stayed the same it seems. Senji on the other hand was just annoyed.

"No, No, No! You need to block! Who the hell has been teaching you to fight?" Teaching was a generous word for what Alex had been doing, and beating honestly didn't seem descriptive enough.

"I mean Alex and Shiro hit me a lot while telling me to dodge. Does that count?" Senji probably would have laughed at that if it wasn't so pathetic.

"Not even close, come on. I'm gonna teach you to fight properly."

Hunter raised his arm catching the copy's swing before simply punching the spectral version of the man in the chest causing it to fall into a puddle onto the ground. It wasn't as big a puzzle as hunter thought it would leave, he figured the clone must have been hollow. Looking back up Hunter caught a blow to the cheek from the remaining duplicate. Hunter stumbled back and the doppelganger jumped up trying to knee Hunter in the chest but Hunter blocked the attack by crossing his arms in its path. He then pulled his head back and slammed it against the doppelganger's and it fell into another puddle. He then looked up to his opponent and pointed his arm at Penguin and prepared to fire a bolt.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way, it's up to you." Of course Hunter knew this wouldn't work but he felt he had to at least try. When Penguin flipped him off however he dropped the pretence of peace and fired at the man. Before the blood bolt struck its target however another duplicate formed from the man and took the blow for him. Penguin smirked and raised up his hand and with it all three copies rose back up. Hunter watched as the three spread out in a line before him. And then Penguin snapped his fingers and the doppelgangers split apart. However the hollowness of the clones was now fully displayed as the blood moved around maintaining a vague human shape. Hunter panicked as they swarmed him, he fired at one and actually hitting it. He then formed his hand blades and swung hitting two one them, okay halfway done. He then trusted his hand into one but the blood parted and Hunter hit nothing, before he could pull his hand back however the blood wrapped around his wrist. Hunter pulled his other hand back but the clone grabbed it and pulled it back leaving him wide open for the third doppelganger to punch him in the gut. Hunter gasped as the wind was knocked out of him. He desperately gasped for air as the three duplicates he had knocked down reformed and started beating him.

One Day Earlier

Alex dropped Shiro off and then left to "take care of something" like really he could just say he was dropping babysitting duty on Hunter while he got laid. It wasn't like Hunter minded. In fact Shiro made an excellent sparring partner, and by that Hunter meant she stopped hitting when he went down. Unlike Senji who insisted that the pain of getting kicked in the ribs would be a great motivation to get back on his feet. He was very glad Shiro didn't think this way as he lay on his back with several bruises forming on his general torso area. In fact Shiro was offering him her hand. He accepted and was easily pulled to his feet. He groaned and stumbled over to one of the benches where he collapsed face down onto it. Shiro sat down next to him

"Oh come on, you're fine." Hunter couldn't help but feel sorry for Ganta, apparently He used to 'play' with her all the time. Hunter could only imagine how bad it was before she learned restraint.

"My everything hurts." She laughed at this and patted him on the back. Hunter

"Come on I know you can do it." Hunter just groaned in response. She pouted at this and tried shaking him, when that failed she decided to try something else. So in a cheery voice she cooed "Hey, if you get up i'll tell you a secret!" Hunter had no idea why but he was strangely fascinated by this offer. After all what kind of of secrets would Shiro keep? It was certainly worth considering.

"What kind of secret?" Shiro smirked, her plan was working. Now she just had to reel him in.

"You have to get up first!" Hunter decided that he would at least attempt to move. Placing his hands on the bench he pushed himself up with shaking arms before rolling off the bench and tried standing. And then he started to lean to the side, and then he started falling. But then a pair of slender but very strong arms wrapped around him and slowly brought him back into a straight up into a standing position. As Shiro let him go Hunter wanted to just let gravity take him to the ground, but against his better judgment he kept his balance and even though he was swaying a bit he managed to stay up. Shiro then cheered and picked Hunter up by his waist hugging him. "Good job!" Hunter wheezed and his back was cracked by what he could only guess was her trying to crush him in half. After being put back onto the ground Hunter tried not to fall and this time succeeded. Then he decided to move on to what he had been promised.

"Now, that secret you teased me about." Shiro nodded, after all she did say if he got up he'd get to know her secret and she was a girl of her word. Pulling off one of her gloves Hunter couldn't help but notice the various large scars on her hands. Seeing these put the mittens she wore into perspective, younger girls were typically very sensitive about their appearances, scars like that were certainly... Eye catching. That train of thought was cut off when she raised one of her fingers to her mouth and bit a chunk right out of it. He knew she couldn't feel pain but that still made his stomach churn. He, Alex, and even Ganta had used biting for drawing out their branches but after seeing her actually bite off a piece he decided he'd switch to some other method, maybe a knife.

"What the hell are you-" Before he got his question out Shiro formed an all to familiar blood construct. An exact replica of Alex's claws, of course it was a smaller version but they were still the same talon shaped blades that Alex most commonly used in combat. Hunter took a step back, Shiro was dangerous before but now... Well it certainly explained why she was in the prison. "You're a Deadman? Does anyone else know?" She shook her head at this.

"N-no. Shiro doesn't know if she should tell anyone." Hunter knew where she came from, he wouldn't want anyone he knew from before to find out he had powers. But at the same time Shiro was... Different, she was going to need someone to teach her how to control her powers and the best person for her was probably her big brother. Or well the best person she had available.

"Well I think Alex should know. He's a Deadman too so maybe he can teach you how to use your branch." Shiro thought about this rubbing her chin and accidentally cutting it with her new claws. As Hunter was about to mention this Shiro smiled a toothy grin and said.

"Okay! Shiro will tell him!" She then recalled her blood and moved back into the middle of the room. "Oh but umm, please don't tell anyone, Shiro doesn't want anyone else finding out." Hunter smiled and nodded at this, everyone had their secrets after all. Now feeling rather motivated Hunter raised his hands in a boxing stance.

"Alright let's get back to it!" That night he went to bed feeling like he had been hit by speeding semi truck.

Penguin smirked as his clones pummeled Hunter. The doppelgangers hit much harder than Hunter thought they should have been able to, like really they were already very thin, hollow, and now the blood couldn't even create a full clone so how were they hitting so- A particularly hard punch derailed his train of thought. Okay so he needed to get out of this but how? His arms were restrained so he couldn't- Another hit to the gut stopped his thoughts. Letting out a growl Hunters blood shot to life all over his body taking out the two duplicates holding him down. He then raised his arms up before bringing arms down creating a pulse of glowing blood vaporizing the remaining doppelgangers as well as the blood from the fallen doppelgangers. Panting Hunter looked down to his arms to see the glowing blood had returned.

"Okay I tried the nice way, now let's do it the hard way." Penguin glared and walked forward cracking his knuckles. Hunter copied this action and marched forwards until the two men met in the middle and Hunter swung aiming for the mans jaw, Penguin however dodged the strike and countered with a hit to the ribs. Hunter worked through the pain and punched back hitting Penguin in the eye. Both men punched back and forth hitting each other over and over in an all out brawl. Penguin however was in a much better shape and with one particularly hard punch made Hunter stumble back leaving him open for an uppercut that sent him to the ground. Penguin then knelt over Hunter and with a mocking voice said.

"So is that the hard way you were talking about because I'm no-" Not caring enough to listen to the man's monologue Hunter headbut his opponent in the jaw sending him to the ground across with Hunter. How ever Penguin got right back up and jumped onto Hunter and started to strangle him Hunter tried to pry the mans hands off. The men struggled but Penguin was clearly winning. That was until Hunters blood started glowing and shot out taking the older mans arms off just above the elbow leaving burnt stumps. The man screamed as he look to his arms in horror. That is until Hunter delivered a kick to his chin knocking the unprepared man out cold. Hunter just lay there his entire body hurting as he drowned out the voice of Chaplin. He didn't care at the moment, all he knew was that once he got back to his cell he was going to pass out on his bed.

Three Hours Earlier

"So what am I in for?" Hunter said stretching, this fight had come out of nowhere as he was being used to fill space for the original Carnival Corpse which was Raven Vs Penguin. Raven was apparently so sick she couldn't even stand. Senji just shrugged not seeming all that interested.

"Penguin creates clones, that's about it." Hunter raised an eyebrow at this. Really that was it?

"Yeah he's pretty boring all things considered, he doesn't even use them that creatively. He just makes them beat the shit out of you." Hunter jumped as he heard the voice of Minatsuki from behind him. The effect of fear had worn of from most Deadmen after all people controlling their blood loses its mysterious edge once you find out you and about a hundred others can do it. However there were still a few that scared the crap out of him and she was very close to the top somewhere in between Mockingbird and Shiro.

"What are you doing here?" She chuckled hearing the slight fear in his voice but decided to cut to the chase.

"I'm looking for my toy, you seen him?" Senji, just wanting her to go away before she tried to castrate him said.

"Considering how 'busy' Alex has been lately I thought you would know." She looked

"What are you talking about?" Hunter almost bought the look of confusion she wore but knew better than to trust anything the sadist said or did.

"Oh come on Minatsuki we can put two and two together, I know you and Ale-" Minatsuki cut him off saying.

"No, I mean I haven't been getting laid lately. What has Alex been telling you?" Now this was actually surprising, Alex had never actually said he had been spending his time with Minatsuki but Hunter didn't know what else his friend would be doing. It's not like he had much else to do. Feeling a little sheepish he explained

"That he had something to take care of, I just kinda assumed he was trying to hide you and him hooking up." She rolled her eyes at this and asked.

"So you don't know where he is?"

"No but I thi-" She didn't wait for Hunter to finish walking off grumbling something about not being able to find a good fuck buddy. Hunter decided not to comment. He had more important things to think about. Like the upcoming fight.

Jason smirked at the screen as Hunter was carried off on a stretcher. Hunter was almost ready, the glowing blood proved the virus was maturing at a steady rate. Two weeks that was how long he guessed it would take for it to fully mature. And then what they had started ten years ago would finally come to an end.

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A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the really late update. To be blunt work has been really busy and writing has been the last thing on my mind. Updates should go back to normal from now on.