Chapter Seven:
No Holds Barred

If Toge was hiding his anger towards Shinda's statement, then there must be a hell of a lot buried beneath the surface. At least, those were Yuya's thoughts as she watched Toge attack Shinda with his scythe swinging and eyes blazing in uncontrolled fury, which made Yuya realize something else:

Shinda had yet to draw a weapon.

He'd only been fighting with his hands and his legs so far, dodging attacks he must have deemed worth enough to counter. This he did now with seemingly little effort, even though Toge — despite his crazed state — made his swings with deadly calculated movements. As to their auras, Toge's swirled about him in a wild maelstrom of forest green with veins of white. Turning to look at Shinda, Yuya barely contained her gasp of surprise.

He didn't have one anymore.

No, wait, that wasn't true. It was there, just barely, and Yuya could only see it if he moved the right way or if she squinted. It just hovered over his skin, clinging to his body enough to make him look like something otherworldly. Of course, his mannerisms were certainly from another world, they had to be, considering that he acted like Kyo, who Yuya suspected must have been born in Hell. That so counted as another world as far as Yuya was concerned.

Looking from Shinda's emotionless expression to Toge's look of determination, Yuya thought she saw a look of desperation pass over the tiger's features, and even Yuya knew that desperation would make a person do crazy things.

She was an expert.

"What does someone like you know of the world? You were cast from your family with nary a..."

Toge's latest statement seemed to irk Shinda the most. How could Yuya tell? Perhaps because aforementioned bounty huntress was glued to the ground by a raging aura the color of red-gold. It was the same feeling she got whenever Kyo got upset, which shouldn't have surprised her since she'd already decided the two had either been separated at birth or Kyo was hiding a son. Strong arms were helping her up and she turned to thank Bontenmaru, who only nodded and turned to look back at the two who had been standing still before she'd met the ground.

Moving over to where Mr. Tamanori stood, Yuya watched the older man's face as she heard ringing of metal. She blinked when she turned to see what was going on.

Shinda stood over Toge with the tiger's own scythe pressing against his neck. His face was void of any emotion, and Yuya thought that this was the face of a young man who had seen many things in his short lifetime, none of them good. Toge, on the other hand, looked terrified. Who wouldn't be when their own weapon had been turned against them? A small trickle of blood ran down Toge's neck as he looked up at Shinda, whose eyes seemed focused elsewhere.

"Funny how I thought you knew better than to bring up my ostracism. Besides, I wasn't cast out; I chose to leave."

"Yea right! Your family probably kicked you out after your parents..."

The blade pressed harder onto Toge's neck as Shinda looked to Mr. Tamanori, "I don't think he's learned quite yet that if he expects to keep his head, he needs to stop bringing up things that piss me off."

"Please, Shinda-san, let him go. You couldn't possibly kill him. He's your friend."

"He attached himself to me. To him, I am his friend; to me, he is not my friend. I never asked him to come along. He just follows me everywhere. I never asked for this." Shinda said, and Yuya had the distinct feeling that he wasn't just talking about Toge's following him.

"That may be so, Shinda-san, but neither did he. He never asked to have a scythe at his..."

"Oh yes he did," Shinda smirked, "he's been askin' for this for a long time. This is a long time comin', let me tell you. He wanted no holds barred, and that's what I gave him. For us, 'no holds barred' goes along with a fight to the death. He lost, so now he dies."

Raising the scythe to finish the task, Yuya didn't know what prompted her to speak, "Wait! If you don't kill him, I'll leave! We'll all leave!"

The scythe stopped in the middle of his downward swing as red eyes turned to Yuya, "How honorable of you; but this fight was to determine whether you stayed or I gained freedom. This fight has been lost, and so he will die. It's our unspoken agreement."

"But I'm sure you've fought other times and you haven't killed him!"

"We had a bargain. He broke his end. We've fought. He lost. He dies."

Shinda spoke with such clarity that he almost made sense, "But he considers you his friend!"

"And as I told Tamanori-san, I don't consider him my friend. The friendship is null."

"If you don't kill him, what do you want in return? Do you want me to leave?" Yuya asked, feeling as though this were all her fault... which in Shinda's eyes, it was. She was sure of it.

He quirked an eyebrow at her, "Persistent, aren't you?"

"Yu...ya-san..." Toge croaked, seemingly surprised that Shinda had stopped his swing, "Shinda-sama doesn't... work that way."

Shinda straightened, the butt of the scythe resting next to Toge's neck as the orange-eyed boy looked at Yuya intently, "If I don't kill him and allow you to stay, you will owe me any favor I want. Any favor. I will name it whenever I choose to redeem it."

"No way! Yuya-han's not like that!" Benitora exclaimed as he stepped in front of the bounty huntress.

He quirked an eyebrow, "Do you really think I'd ask her for that sort of favor? Honestly, why does everyone think I'd even look at her twice? Or once, for that matter?"

Just barely resisting the urge to punch him, Yuya spoke through gritted teeth, "All right."

"You don't sound very willing." Shinda smirked.

"I agree to your terms." Yuya said, really wanting to kill the young man before her.

"Good," he smiled, throwing the scythe and watching it embed itself in the opposite wall, "get up and retrieve your weapon. While you're at it, take care of your garden sector. The weeds are overrunning everything. Go."

Yuya blinked, "What? Just like that? You're letting me stay?"

"That was the deal, wasn't it? Are your wits so lacking that you've already forgotten? Don't worry, I won't let you forget."

Benitora looked about ready to strangle Shinda, "Be nice to Yuya-han!"

"Why? Are you going to bargain with me, too? Watch your tongue around me, Crimson Shadow. Unless you want everyone to know who you are, then I would need no other persuasion to tell them. Your call."

Looking absolutely mortified, Toge said nothing as Shinda turned to leave once again, a loose strand of hair having escaped his tight bun while the red strands of hair that framed his face blew in the wind, making him seem all the more defiant and dangerous. Yuya frowned. He'd been carrying a sword when he'd shown himself to them, but he didn't have it now. Where and when had he put it down? There were too many mysteries surrounding Shinda.

Turning around to look at the rest of their group, Yuya saw that Kyo was still smiling and Akira was whispering something. Kyo gave a nod and Akira was headed in the same direction that Shinda had headed off in.

"What's going...?" Yuya began as Bontenmaru cut her off.

"Just leave it, Yuya-chan. It's nothing you want to get involved in. Akira just wants to ask that Shinda kid some questions, we need to figure somethin' out."

Yuya nodded, "All right. Anything you can tell me?"

He thought on this for a moment, "There's a reason why Kyo, Akira and I don't like this area, it's got somethin' to do with a big thing that happened four years ago. Right now we're thinkin' that that Shinda has dug up a past we thought long buried."

((August 14, 2006)) A/N: This is all I have for now. Chapter Eight is in progress, & I can't give you an estimate of how long it'll take for it to be finished, but that all depends on if you like this version or not. I really hope you do, because I know I like it a whole lot better since it's actually going somewhere. Thanks!

O-chan