Bang rushed in headlong, his footsteps loudly striking the stone as he put his energy into moving forward. "HAH! FLYING KICK!" He shouted, leaping up into the air to kick Ky Kiske. Ky simply struck him across the leg with his sword as he landed, but to his surprise, Bang didn't stop moving.

"TUMBLING SHOULDER THROW!" Bang shouted his attack again, rising up from the ground almost as quickly as he landed and grabbing Ky by his weapon arm and shoulder, and he tossed him over his own hip. "DROPPING AXE KICK!" Ky rolled out of the way as Bang's foot hit the stone so hard it actually cracked a little. "Are you ready to give up now, evildoer?" He shouted as Ky recovered from his ukemi.

"Do you always shout the names of your attacks like this?" Ky asked.

"What's the matter, jealous?" Bang struck a pose and continued to talk as Ky muttered something to himself. "You should know that intimidation is a key tenet of our—GAAAH!" Bang found himself in horrible pain and looked back at the blonde-haired soldier to find his blade covered in a strange bluish electricity. He wasn't sure what was more shocking: the energy itself, or the fact that he could see it.

"I didn't want to use this against a clown like you, but you leave me no choice!" Ky growled and went went on the offensive, swinging his sword overhead to bring it down on Bang's head. Bang blocked the strike with his own gauntlets and countered with a low kick that slipped past Jin's guard, followed by a knee strike to the face.

"Is that all you got, Jin?" Bang shouted, "I expected more from a soldier of the NOL, but I guess even the greatest of the Librarium would be no match for…GAH!" Bang winced as he was shocked again, much harder this time. Ky was wiping some of the blood off of his face as his sword glowed with electricity again. Maybe this idiot was smarter than he looked: his comments were already getting under Ky's skin and making him miss the obvious cues Bang threw at him.

"Enough!" He shouted, "This ends now!"

"You're right Jin, you've spent too much time talking!" Bang struck another dramatic pose. "Let's do this!"

The comment made Ky pause for a brief second to consider the inanity of it all, and then channeling as much electricity as he could through his sword, Ky swung it at Bang in hopes of frying what remained of his brain with 100,000 volts of electricity. Bang held his gauntlets in front of his face and yelled until flames appeared to spring from his arms and legs.

Bang actually seemed to smack away the magical lightning Ky channeled through the blade with his flaming limbs. The act surprised even Bang, but he didn't question it and continued moving forward. Meanwhile, Ky was panicking. Something wasn't right, the electricity was going wild and striking into various homes and shops lining the street. He never had this much trouble trying to control his own power before…okay, at least not recently. The few people who were still around the area were trying to run away before the voltage struck them.

Ky intentionally released his hold over the magic so as not to hurt any innocents and immediately felt fatigue rush up to meet him. He began to slacken his posture and was about to ask Bang to do the same, but Bang was so caught up in the moment he just ran forward and charged right into him. Jin lost his grip on his Fuuraiken as Bang prepared an uppercut.

"Now you face my ultimate combo!" Bang shouted as his flaming fist connected with Ky's chest, "One I've prepared just for you!" Ky lost his breath as he found himself sailing up into the air. A fist connected with his back, a foot smacked into his back, an elbow hit him in the face, all of them from Bang, all of them on fire, and all moving so fast he couldn't keep track of them. "Try and freeze your way out of this one, Jin Kisaragi!"

Freeze? Did he not notice the electricity coming out of my sword?

"FLAMING PHOENIX FINISHER!" Bang grabbed him with his flaming gauntlets as he started to fall from the air and Ky realized that he was the one closest to the bottom. "BANG'S BLAZING FURY DROP!" Ky took advantage of the pause in Bang's speed to rotate the two of them onto his side. Out of everything that happened over his career, Ky Kiske would be damned if this loudmouthed ninja was going to be the one who had ended his life.

They landed on their sides on the stone road with a loud crash, followed by a bit of smoke. Ky and Bang's clothes and skin had burn marks and bruises from head to toe, and Ky's sword was lying on the ground a few meters away.

"M…Medic." Ky gasped on instinct.

"Damn…should've tested the Blazing Fury Drop out a little more." Bang growled as well. The two of them were still tightly clenched against each other, but had expended too much energy trying to defeat each other and were still suspicious of loosening their grip on their opponent.

"How about we call this one a draw?" Jin asked. "You don't burn me, I don't shock you."

"Shock? Why don't you use freezing magic?"

"What do you mean?"

"The evil Jin Kisaragi…he froze my master in a block of ice. You can't possibly be him."

"You goddamned idiot." Ky growled, "I nearly died because you made a mistake?"

"Not my fault you can't control your own magic powers…if only there were some way…" A lightbulb suddenly switched on in Bang's head, "Wait a minute, perhaps my sweet Miss Litchi can help you out!"

"Who?"

"Miss Litchi, my girlfriend!"

"You have a girlfriend?"

"Yes!"

"You?"

"Yes!" Bang also muttered "soon, anyway" under his breath, but Ky didn't catch that.

"Oh Lord take me now." Ky Kiske lost consciousness as Bang broke his grip and stood up, invigorated by his new resolve to visit Litchi at her clinic in Oriental Town. He took Ky's last words as an invitation and picked him up, then carried him away.

"Miss Litchi, today is the day you will see my compassionate side!" He shouted to himself, though the people lining the street heard it and had no clue what he meant. "For I, Bang Shishigami, will even help a fallen enemy in a time of need!"

Meanwhile, back at the fight scene that Bang had run from, Rachel shifted into view with her two familiars close by. She glanced around at the carnage that had befallen this relatively lower-class neighborhood, with its stone-laid streets and inefficient, small houses, and the people who either looked depressed or afraid of the events that had just occurred. She took a moment to examine the Fuuraiken blade that Ky had dropped from the fight.

"Hmm…properties similar to a Nox Nyctores," Rachel muttered to herself, "But it seems to be a rather stupid piece of metal, not nearly as strong. This crude impersonation seems to be styled in the form of a rather blunt stick with a sharp tip for thrusting as opposed to a true blade. I'm not sure why anyone would wield this thing in real combat."

"So then why should we bother with this worthless thing Mistress?" Gii asked as his small, plump, reddish form floated between Rachel's face and the sword on the ground. "Let someone else take care of it. I'm sure one of these stupid humans can…"

Rachel slapped Gii across the face. "Gii, when I want your input, I shall ask for it."

"Y-yes Mistress." Gii floated behind her.

"Somehow, this stupid piece of metal was able to interfere with the flow of magic in ways it should not have, as if it were playing with a different set of rules than the ones magic is forced to here."

"Hey little girl," A worker spoke to Rachel from the side, but she didn't bother acknowledging him. "You should probably leave, this is a dangerous place."

"Indeed, and it will become more dangerous soon." Rachel said as she ordered her familiar Nago to pick up the blade. "In fact, if history repeats itself yet again, Kagutsuchi will once again become a battleground for the Azure Grimoire."

"Come on little girl," the man ignored her, "Where are your parents? I'm sure they're worried sick about you."

Rachel looked up at the tall man for a moment and sized him up. She could easily inflict all manner of pain or pleasure upon this poor drone, but it wouldn't do much to relieve her boredom. She had other people to play with now, and a strange weapon that needed to be examined further. Instead, she decided to leave him with a cryptic warning, "The currents of time and space may have changed, but if this spin on the wheel of fate simply continues as before, then I suggest you spend the next few days doing whatever it is you pitiful peasants do for fun."

"Pitiful peasant?" The man gasped. "Listen here you little…"

Before he could finish that sentence, Rachel and her familiars had vanished from the scene, along with the blade. The only signs left of battle were the smashed street and the injured NOL trooper who had somehow managed to escape further damage from the fight.