Catalyst
Kazuki blinked. In that time the vines were already on them, shooting out of the mist and enveloping them all. Kazuki and Kaito briefly locked their gazes on each other as the tall, invisible man sailed through the air in front of him. All of a sudden, Kazuki's legs were knocked from under him and he crashed to the ground. He coughed out dirt and squinted up to see a lashing, black thorny vine the size of an oak tree towering over him like a coiled snake. He rolled out its path just before it crashed to the ground, sending out shockwaves that stunned and disorientated him. As he lay there, he saw Tsuki leap over a birch sized vine as it lashed at her legs. Another vine aimed at her upper body just as she landed but the silver haired girl just leaned back and limboed under it. Barely a second later two came on at the same time. Tsuki reached out both arms and stopped the vines in their tracks, the impact jarring both limbs. As she struggled to keep the vines at bay, Kaito leapt into the fray, slashing one vine to pieces with his bladed staff. Freed, Tsuki was able to whip out her katana and cut the remaining vine clean in two.
"Fuck," thought Kazuki as he heard huge scraping noises behind him, "I have to move!"
Not a moment too soon, Kazuki leapt away and the ground shook as the huge vine slammed down where he had been less than a second before. A new vine reared up in front of his as he descended towards the ground. Kazuki bounded off the approaching plant, avoiding the malicious looking thorns and landed on another nearby vine. Wary of the many tentacle-like vines whipping around him, he sprinted full pelt along the thorny surface of the vine, dodging the vicious slashes of the small ropey vines coming at him. He glanced to his right and saw Aya standing directly in front of an immense oncoming vine. As the mighty plant rushed towards her, she calmly reached for the Zanbato. In one clean movement, she wrenched the huge blade from its sheath and sliced the thorny vine in two with a single cut, the two halves sailing over her smug head and crushing a swathe of smaller vines. Before she could finish congratulating herself, Kaito once again came flying out of the blue, this time slamming into Aya and slamming both of them to the ground. Meanwhile, Kazuki became faced with a nigh impenetrable wall of slithering vines ahead of him. Not pausing for an instant, he whipped out his new swords. Charging at the thorny barrier, Kazuki held the blades close together, frowning in puzzlement as they both began to glow, one with a bright white light; the other dull and grey. Resigning himself to a gung-ho attitude, he brought them both together and leapt, raising them over his head as a single weapon. With an almost lion-like roar, he brought the blade down into the solid mass of vines. He was surprising to find himself almost falling through it, his swords having sliced the vines up like butter and leaving only smoking plant debris in his wake. Ahead of him, another clump of vines exploded in a violent fireball and Yuina stepped through the smoke, a glowing scroll floating in front of her outstretched hand. In the distance, he could hear Aya cussing for no particular reason. A lone vine slithered across the ground as if fleeing, green sap flowing from hundreds of slashes across its coarse surface. The mist obscured sky sparkled as a shower of silver forks plummeted from the heaven, impaling the thrashing vine into the earth. Continuing to run along the never-ending vine, he saw Tsuki dashing in the opposite direction, pursued by a throng of vines snapping at her heels. The teenagers gave each other a nod and proceeded to perform a movement that looked like it had been practiced over many years. Sprinting, Tsuki swiftly ducked and slid along the vine, while at the same time Kazuki leapt nimbly over her head, just missing her silvery hair. Tsuki rolled under the bloodthirsty clump of vines that was chasing Kazuki, launching a volley of shuriken that cut a brutal swath through them. At the same time, Kazuki leapt directly into the mass of vines he was facing, his swords whirling around him like a hurricane of sharp steel. He burst from the thorny clump in a shower of plant membrane and sticky green sap. He landed neatly next to a waiting Kaito. The invisible man looked his dripping, sticky form up and down.
"What have you been doing?"
Before Kazuki could answer, Aya dropped down from above. She blinked at the coat of viscous fluid covering Kazuki and smirked.
"Kaito," she scolded with a laugh, "I told you not to get excited!"
Both boys glared at her enough to make her turn away with an uneasy chuckle. Just then the ground at their feet erupted and a thick, short vine thundered through the hole. It was thorny like the others, but was far shorter and more bloated, its surface wobbling like a water balloon. The three of them leapt back out of the way of its clumsy attack as it wriggled like a maggot. In a flash, Kazuki pulled out a shuriken and raised it to throw, but hesitated as her caught the uneasy way Kaito was staring at the vine. Undaunted, Aya drew back her huge sword and took a step towards it. Kazuki and Kaito's eyes both snapped open in realisation, but the blade was already stabbing down towards the vine. Swearing loudly, both men leapt backwards. A second before the tip of the blade penetrated the springy outer skin, Aya glanced back, confused by their sudden shouting. A second later the vine literally exploded, spraying huge amounts of green sticky liquid over a wide area. A burning smell hit Kazuki's nose as the lay with his hands protecting his head some distance away. Breathing heavily through shock, he lifted his head up at the smoking wreckage of the vine. A thin rain of liquid was still descending all around it. A small droplet landed on his cheek and Kazuki yelped as it burnt into his skin. Next to him, Kaito shrugged of the heavy coat shielding his head and stared at something ahead of him. Frowning, Kazuki peered through the green drizzle. Aya was standing there motionless, covered in green with a bewildered look on her face. She did not seem have worked out what had happened. Then she started screaming.
The dark haired girl fell to her knees, hands clasped around her face as the acid ate into her skin. Wisps of smoke wafted up from her thrashing body as she collapsed shrieking onto the floor, rolling around in yet more of the burning liquid as it pooled on the ground.
"Shit!" cried Kazuki, both he and Kaito leaping to their feet, "Tsuki!"
As the two youths raced towards Aya, Tsuki glanced behind her from some distance away. Seeing her best friend in agony on the ground, she immediately broke away from her battle with the writhing vines and sprinted towards her, a horrified look on her face. Heedless of the undulating sea of thorny vines around them, Kazuki and Kaito kneeled over Aya and wrenched her hands from her face. They recoiled as they realised that her body was covered in hideous chemical burns. As they watched in horror, the flesh around the left side of her mouth disappeared as the acid burned all the way to bone. In shock, Kaito stood up.
"Kaito!" shouted Kazuki in alarm, his eyes fixed on something behind him, "Look out!"
Kaito didn't have time to turn around before a tree sized vine smashed into his chest and catapulted him across the clearing. Kazuki fell backwards in surprise, reaching for his swords. Aya continued to roll around in absolute anguish, oblivious to the danger. Tsuki leapt over a low blow from a vine, vaulting it without the slightest reduction in speed. Kazuki whipped his head round to face her.
"Behind you!" he called, a second before a vine slammed into his back and pinned him to the ground.
Tsuki turned in mid air and lashed out with her katana as a vine reared up behind her. The blade sliced through its skin but got stuck inside the body. For a moment Tsuki dangled from her sword handle. Then two other vines struck her in the back and crushed her against the first one. She gasped in pain as the sharp thorns stabbed into her and snapped several ribs. Meanwhile, Kazuki struggled to free himself from under the vines as the jagged barbs carved up the delicate flesh of his back. Seeing Tsuki in peril, he cried out in alarm.
"Yuina!" he shouted into the swirling melee, "Where the fuck are you?"
In answer, a gigantic bolt of lightning shot through the tangle of vines in front of him, blowing the majority to pieces. In a blink, Yuina was bolting towards the struggling Tsuki. Kazuki felt the pressure loosen as a long thin blade sliced into the vine on top of him. Immediately after, the offending vine was hurled aside by the force of several dozen forks shooting into its side. Kazuki coughed up blood again and reached out for Kaito's helping hand.
"You ok?" asked Kaito, glancing at Kazuki's ravaged back.
Worried about vomiting blood on his friend, Kazuki just nodded and quickly ran to the aid of Aya, who was struggling to fend off the vines with only her sharpened stiletto heels. Tsuki let a despairing gasp as the last of the air was squeezed from her lungs. Just in time, Yuina drew out another of her scrolls and the vines strangling her turned to dust. The girl dropped painfully to the floor. By the time Yuina got to her, she was already up and stumbling towards the stricken Aya.
"Tsuki!" exclaimed Yuina, putting out an arm as a barrier, "Stop! Let me heal you!"
Tsuki spluttered a short response through the blood and pushed her out of the way, heading unstoppably towards her friend. One vine after the other came at her, but she paid no attention, so focused she was on helping Aya. Kazuki and Kaito exhaled in exasperation and leapt to defend her from the rapidly closing circle of vines around her. Eventually Tsuki limped over to her friend and fell to the ground almost on top of her. Struggling to breath, she laid her hands on Aya's almost unrecognisable face. Tears fell, mingling with the blood and acid covering Aya's face. Her tattered skin started to glow blue and slowly but surely it started to regenerate, growing over the exposed bone and muscle. However, this wasn't fast enough. As Tsuki healed, ignoring all other distractions, a pair of long, viciously barbed vines burst through the ground. Each had a long spike on the end, dripping with strange purple goo. In a flash, both vines were shooting towards the two defenceless teenagers. Yuina leapt for the first, a huge beam of energy knocking it aside and burying it in the ground. The old woman pounced on it, hacking into it with shurikens and kunai. Not able to manipulate the elements like Yuina, Kaito and Kazuki both attacked the other vine together. Kaito peppered it with forks and staff thrusts, but all of it just rebounded off its surprisingly tough surface. Kazuki turned into a swallow, flying over the vine before transforming into a young but still heavy elephant. He landed on the vine, causing it to give under him and crash to the ground. The deadly spike at the end fell just short of Tsuki, who didn't bat and eyelid. Regaining its composure, the vine bucked, sending the elephant hurtling up into the air in an amazing show of strength. As the elephant plummeted towards him, Kaito just stood there dumbly, probably thinking of something profound to say about this unusual situation. Just in time, Kazuki turned into a small frog which hit Kaito's forehead with a faint soggy 'splat'. Before either of them could react, Kaito was smashed aside by the vine, which then made a beeline for Tsuki and Aya. Kazuki the frog was hurled straight up into the air, flailing his tiny limbs. Aya groaned as the last of her skin remoulded to fit her face. Sighing with relief and exhaustion, Tsuki turned away. She froze as she saw the horrific looking spiked vine barrelling down towards her. She tried to lift her arms to defend herself, but she was exhausted. Realising that she was powerless, she just had time to notice a tiny green frog falling from the sky before she closed her eyes. A sickening thwack echoed through the darkness behind her eyelids.
Tsuki felt blood trickling down her face. She opened her eyes cautiously, not sure whether the pain in her chest was what she thought it was. She blinked, trying to understand the scene above her. Instead of a demonic spike drenched in her own dying blood, she saw Kazuki standing over her, holding the poison dripping spike in place with a pincer of his twin swords. The flood of relief washing over her paused as she saw the pain on his sweaty and bloody face. She nervously turned her gaze to his body and was horrified to see the point of the spike protruding through his back just next to his right armpit. Red and purple liquids poured out of the wound as Kazuki, shuddered and tried to stay upright. A slightly glazed look in his eyes, he glanced back at the two stunned girls. He managed an unenthusiastic smile.
"I have a feeling…" he said slowly, "That this is going to be happening a lot…"
With a roar like an angry cat, Aya extended her arms, red eyes glowing. With a sonic boom bursting across the field, the vine shot out from Kazuki's torso. It hovered in the air for a few seconds, thrashing uselessly. Aya flailed her arms in a clawing motion and the vine was instantly ripped to shreds as if it had been mauled by a rabid animal. A fine mist of pulverised plant matter drifted over them and the clearing went quiet. As Yuina carried Kaito over to them in a daze, Kazuki toppled to the ground. Yuina immediately dropped the protesting Kaito and rushed over to him along with Tsuki. The girl's purple eyes blinked away tears of exhaustion and despair as she pressed her hands to the wound. Yuina was on her in a flash, pulling her away. She flailed her arms in protest, crying out and reaching towards Kazuki, who watched the scene with a blank, glazed expression.
"Stop it!" hissed Yuina angrily, making Tsuki pause and gaze up at the old women with teary eyes, "Think, you stupid girl!"
Aya and Kaito watched in shock as Yuina held the distraught girl by the shoulders. Blue light spread over Tsuki's body and the wounds all over her body healed over. She was silent as her broken ribs cracked painfully back into position. Yuina stroked her cheek in a motherly fashion.
"You need the most attention," she said softly, "You need to take care of yourself if you are to help others."
Tsuki blinked at her but didn't say anything. The two of them looked at each other before breaking into helpless sobbing. The two embraced and caused an emotive, beautiful movie moment. Which Kazuki, bleeding to death and infected with deadly poison as he was, ruined with an impatient cough. Yuina and Tsuki sheepishly separated, allowing Yuina to administer to Kazuki. She hovered a hand above his chest and closed her eyes. Slowly, a thin stream of dark purple liquid drew itself out of his body, cascading to the ground at Yuina's feet. That done, she placed a hand on the wound, which almost instantly healed over perfectly. Without waiting for confirmation, he staggered to his feet. Yuina watched silently as he stumbled a few steps to his left and tumbled drunkenly into Kaito's arms.
"You still have poison in your veins," she explained, smiling slightly as Kazuki gazed around with crossed eyes, "So you'll be disorientated for a while yet."
Nobody said anything for a while. They all sat silently listening to the sound of writhing vines in the distance, all wary of what could come out of the mist at the moment. All the while, Aya was clenching her fists in barely suppressed rage. Eventually, she could contain it no longer.
"Hey!" she screamed into the mist, silencing the surrounding field, "You fucking bastard arsehole!"
"Such tasteful insults," mocked Kaito, earning a glare from Tsuki.
"Where are you, you wanking man-hoe!?" she continued to shout, "Eh? Why aren't you here fighting us? Are you scared? Are you, cock-face?!"
She paused for breath, panting and desperately thinking of more swears to shout at the evil nothing around her.
"Come here! I want to cut your mother fucking head right off!"
(Author's note: This character is based on a real friend of mine. And it's pretty fucking accurate…)
Silence reigned for a second while Aya took in a deep breath.
"GET HERE NOW YOU PUSSY!"
And he did.
Aya disappeared in an explosion of rock and earth from under her. A vine whipped out of nowhere and took out Kaito and Yuina in one neat swing. A wave of dust and smoke washed over the bewildered Kazuki and Tsuki. They coughed the substance from their lungs and peered into the murk. The mist had vanished, revealing a seemingly endless forest of menacing thorns surrounding the ruined building. And in the centre of the ruins, a pair of redwood sized thorny vines towered up towards the heavens out of an immense crater in the ground. The trunks formed almost an ironic love heart shape and in the centre, perched on the vines, stood a figure. His long, unkempt hair hung over his shoulder in a prickly ponytail. His clothes were midnight black and were torn and tattered. Under his rags he wore a black leather suit of armour, complemented by a set of blackened steel gauntlets and boots. Each was adorned with devilish spikes. Strangest of all was the spikes erupting from his flesh. Looking like smaller versions of the thorns on his thousands of vines, the spikes seemed to burst right out of his skin. Four large ones protruded from his back like the wings of a butterfly, while his right arm was covered in tiny, sharp thorns. Each one was surrounded by a mess of dried blood, but it wasn't certain whether it was his or from the many hundreds of people he had brutally murdered over the years. Despite all of this, it was his face that held the teenager's attention. Or rather, his lack of it. Covering his mysterious visage was a blood splattered mask originating from the hidden mist village. The formerly neat patterns on it had been weathered into raggedy lines that looked like scars on his battered face. And through the shadowed eye slits, the faintest glimmer of his staring, hate filled eyes could be seen. Kazuki and Tsuki stared at the eyes in shock, both shivering involuntarily. They recognised those terrible eyes glaring at them in contempt. They had met this twisted soul before and on that occasion; he had torn their world apart.