Chapter Sixty: What I've Done
A/N: Roy's "theme song," Linkin Park's What I've Done,' plays during the fight scene of this chapter. I do not claim the rights to that song.
Standing atop the ruined Space Needle, I could see the coming dawn. It wasn't a natural dawn; instead, it was made by the falling ashes. I inhaled sharply, breathing in a bit of volcanic ash, then took the elevator down to the ground.
Once I got to the ground, most of the ash in the immediate sky had fallen down, leaving a beautiful blue sky. It was devoid of clouds, clean and pure. I closed my eyes, breathing deeply, then opened them again.
A tiny patch of the sky was dark. It spread like a disease across the crystal blue sky, spreading to the horizon, and then swallowing the buildings around me. I stood in darkness absolute; unafraid, but still wary. I couldn't sense any auras...
I closed my eyes and concentrated, using Shinkogan. Once I opened them, I knew where I was.
A girl, chained and caged, wearing a white kimono was behind a girl in a black kimono. The black-garbed girl turned around, and I knew who she was and where I was...
Amy. I'm within her heart.
The black-robed Amy carried with her both her katana and sakaboto. I walked up to her, no longer needing Shinkogan, then stood about 10 feet away from her.
"Even here... within my heart?" she asked. "Tenacious to no end."
"It's not like I wanted to come here," I said to her. "This isn't my fight. It's hers."
I pointed to the bound Amy within the cage.
"She would fight me... but she's tied up, as you can see," the dark Amy sneered at me. "She called on you to fight this battle for her."
The real Amy... the one untouched by Senka's darkness, and not lost within it. This battle...
I slowly unsheathed my Masamune.
"With this battle... I'm letting go of what I've done," I said to her, drawing in aura. "I'm done making excuses for what I've done... I killed people because I chose to. I'm crossing out what I've become... no longer yielding to my darkness."
"Very well, then..." the dark Amy said, unsheathing both her katana and sakaboto. "Atonement or self-forgiveness, it doesn't matter to me one way or the other..."
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We stood still for a moment. I felt calm then for some reason... I couldn't explain it. My soul was calm.
I'm not just facing Amy's darkness... I'm facing who I could have become...
I dashed forward, clashing with the dark Amy. Our auras came out again... mine still blood red, though the tint was a bit lighter now. The dark Amy's was jet black... I could only see it against my aura.
We dashed back, then blazed around each other. I used Shinkogan to see if she was using aura...
She was. Just to keep up with me, she was using massive amounts of dark aura. I stopped, causing her to circle around, then move in. I sheathed my Masamune, then got into the Eight Trigrams stance.
Eight Trigrams: Two Hundred Fifty Six Palms!
I dashed forward, using only two fingers to strike Amy's aura points.
"Two palms! Four palms! Eight palms! Sixteen palms! Thirty two palms! Sixty four palms! One hundred twenty eight palms! Two hundred fifty six palms!"
The dark Amy was blown back by the sheer force of my moves, but got back on her feet soon enough. My Shinkogan showed she wasn't using much aura any longer; my Eight Trigrams technique made sure of that. She ran forward, but I dodged the blow, hitting her in the side with the saya of my Masamune. I dashed to strike her, but the dark Amy put up her katana to block my stroke.
I forced her katana to the ground, put my foot on it, and kicked the dark Amy away from it. I then fused the katana with my Masamune... but it had no effect. I looked up at the dark Amy, who still had her katana.
"You think anything you do to me really matters here?" she asked. "This is my realm... my heart."
My Shinkogan showed her aura was back to full capacity.
I dashed forward, clashing at breakneck speed with the dark Amy. We attacked and parried with bursts of aura, which wore us out... well, it wore me out a bit. The dark Amy seemed unhindered even after those moves. We dashed back, then I continued dashing back while the dark Amy struck at me. I blocked all of her blows, then gathered the aura for a Spiraling Sphere.
After I had enough, I dashed into the dark Amy's arms; I threw the Spiraling Sphere at her, but she seemed to absorb it with her katana. She then threw the energy back at me, but I absorbed it with my Masamune. We tossed the energy at each other until it had fizzled out.
We then dashed around. Finally clashing, I forced her sword to the ground again; this time, it was her sakaboto. I held it to the floor as she attacked me with her other sword. Finally, pushing her back with a burst of aura, I picked the sakaboto up.
Amy's first sword...
I put away my Masamune.
"Intent on using my sword, hitokiri?" the dark Amy asked. "Give it up. You can never erase your sins."
We moved fast. I was spurned by... something, I couldn't tell what it was, but something about Amy's sword filled me with strength. We moved at high speeds, clashing and parrying, until with a final burst of force, we stood still, locked in a contest of force.
I jumped back, blocking the counter that followed. I whirled the sakaboto around, finally getting into a charging pose.
This thing's a lot lighter than my Masamune... no wonder Amy likes this kind of sword so much.
We attacked and parried blows again, but I never stopped; even when it seemed the dark Amy was going to kill me, I took the hit and kept attacking. The sakaboto did the best it could; it bruised her, but even with aural enhancements, it couldn't cut her.
I finally knocked the sakaboto aside, then stepped on it. The dark Amy had been skidding to grab it, and was reaching for it as I pointed the sakaboto at her.
She lowered her head and closed her eyes.
"Are you going to kill me?" the dark Amy asked. She seemed, even in mortal danger, very sure of herself. Her voice seemed resigned, but even so...
I want to kill her more than anything...
"No," I said. I turned my back to her after picking up her katana. "I'm letting mercy come and wash away... what I've done."
The sky became a bit ligher, splotched with white bits, as it began to snow. The dark Amy dissipated as the cage binding the light Amy began to disintegrate. I walked off; my job was done. I'd let go of my sins and saved Amy in the process.
"Whatever pain this brings, it's worth it," I said, walking off into the white ether.