Differing Paths...
Chapter Nine
It was 5 AM, and Tomo was on her motorcycle, halfway across town to a lavish penthouse apartment. Her relatively peaceful ride over to where she would get her revenge was suddenly interrupted by the vibration of her phone. "Yeello?", she said, a smile on her face. "Tomo!", shouted a voice through the line. It was Yomi. "What is it now?", she asked. "The police caught on to your little evidence-tampering scheme and that you could be involved.". "Well, I was. Why the rush?". "Tomo, this is serious. If they bring you back, they could connect you to what happened with Kaorin.". "Oh,", Tomo said, getting what was going on now, "alright. Bye!". She threw her phone on the ground, which smashed as it fell at 90 km/h. She kept driving, and drove into a back alley. Chiyo, sitting in the back of a SWAT van, shouted, "Dammit! She found out! This is probably Yomi...". She made a mental note for both of them to be tried for police evasion should they be involved. Tomo accelerated to ridiculous extents, travelling at slightly over 120 km/h through the small side streets. The SWAT van from earlier that night, on the job of following Tomo, warned that she was most likely armed and definitely dangerous. They accelerated similarly, and rushed after Tomo, following the last path provided by the tracker. Eventually, they had caught up to her. The two shot out onto a main road, thankfully fairly quiet. Otherwise, the accident count would be astronomical. The few cars there were pulled over. Tomo realized how close her trackers were, and stood up on her seat, backing backwards to the way they were moving. She started shooting at the front windows of the van, and around the tires. The SWAT van slid to the side, most of the bullets missing. Three of the SWAT team members got on the roof of the van, armed with grenade launchers and automatic weapons. Realizing that she was out-gunned, she knew her shots needed to be few, and lucky. She made five shots around the general area of the van's roof. One of the officers, dodging the shots, slipped. Another officer reached out his hand, but failed to catch the man, who crashed into the windshield of a passing car, severely injuring both. The others each fired their grenade launchers at the base of Tomo's motorcycle, which flew into the air, Tomo still standing on the seat. She stood there, perfectly straight, almost nonchalantly, as the bike flew in an arc motion. She jumped on the top of the SWAT van, and shot the remaing two officers point blank. Somehow, her bike was still in decent condition and driving forwards entirely without control. Tomo jumped off the back of the van, and gripped the edge of the van's roof with the toes of her boots. She made a little waving motion to the people in the back of the van, and began firing wildly inside. Luckily, there were enough metal barriers and computers in the way to prevent the maximum number of casualties being taken. Of the team of eight and Chiyo, there were now only three, as well as Chiyo. Chiyo pulled a Mini-Uzi off of one of the team members' bodies, and shot in out the window. Tomo dodged, and landed back on top of the van. She jumped onto the motorcycle, still running slightly ahead of the van. They were nearly at Sakaki's apartment. Tomo slowed her motorcycle down, and the van's driver attempted to ram into her. She drove in next to the van, and jumped, pulling her motorcylce with her. Tomo, and the motorcycle, ran across the side of the van, the motorcycle ripping into the van's armor, and Tomo firing off shots rapidly into the side. Now, there was only Chiyo left in the back cab, the driver, and a lone team member who had moved to the front. Chiyo laid amongst the corpses, riddled with bullets, and grabbed a heavy automatic weapon. She picked it up, and jumped out the back. She reached for the roof of the van, and barely landed. What she was carrying was practically a gatling gun, armed with hundreds of rounds and explosives. She fired a shot from the grenade launcher. It impacted with the ground near Tomo, who was once again able to use the explosion as an arc, and flew over the van, firing off a few shots. Chiyo was desperate, and put the gun over her head. As it would turn out, between her tiny stature and it's massiveness, the gun was decent enough cover. Tomo accelerated ahead, knowing she was in the home stretch. This wouldn't pass, if Chiyo had anything to do with it. She got down on one knee, and began firing off hundreds of bullets, aiming around Tomo rather than at her, so that she would crash, causing less damage. Tomo was braking rapidly, as to skid between the bullets chaotically. Chiyo kept firing as much as she could, ripping the pavement to shreds below Tomo's tires. They sat directly in front of Sakaki's lavish apartment building. The noise ripping through the street woke Sakaki, who got out of bed and looked down over the carnage that was still taking place. Chiyo began to sweat, due to the pure weight of the gun. She pulled the trigger as hard as she could for as long as she could, decimating everything that got in the way of her barrel, including one of Tomo's tires. Tomo, knowing this, kept going, riding off her previous momentum, and shooting sparks out of her back wheel as it scraped across the pavement. They were right in front of the apartment building. Chiyo fired another grenade launcher blast at the ground, launching Tomo into the air, her bike in tow. Chiyo gripped the gun as hard as she could, and jumped after Tomo. The pure force of the explosion had knocked them both four stories into the air. "Chiyo-chan?", shouted Tomo in midair. "Nice seeing you!", Chiyo shouted as they both landed on the motorcycle seat. It smashed straight through the fifth-story window of the apartment building, and the two rocked the bike back and forth, Tomo attempting to use the bike like a unicycle, Chiyo rocking back to get the wheel to slow them down. The five-year age difference still showed, and Tomo managed to hold her own in the rock-fight. She got up onto the back wheel, and jammed some gum in there, stopping the wheel's motion. Tomo and Chiyo began trading blows, as the bike rode up the stairs of the apartment building. There were thirty more floors to go, and they kept fighting the whole way. Tomo fired a shot off at Chiyo, which ripped through her hair. Ten floors to go. Chiyo had trouble hoisting the gun before, and was now under extreme stress due to trying to hold her own on a motor-unicycle whilst holding the gun, which was around two tmes the size she was. They finally arrived at the thirtieth floor, which was entirely Sakaki's. They broke straight through the locked door at the top of the stairs. They burst through, jumping off the bike. Sakaki, having planned their arrival, popped out of a small area next to the door and sliced the bike in half in midair with her wakizashi. The three stared each other down. Sakaki had no idea what was going on, and was shocked to see Chiyo again, but she didn't express it. Sakaki knew she could take both the others down in half the time it would take for them to work out the tendsion, then fire, and was tempted to do so. Chiyo put down the massive gun, and started laughing. Tomo and Sakaki both pointed their weapons at her. "What are you thinking?", Tomo asked, trying to do her best Clint Eastwood impression. Chiyo snickered, and fell to her knees. She laughed out loud right in front of the others, who put their weapons at standby out of pure confusion. They sat for a couple seconds, and Tomo became sick of it. She ran at Chiyo, and put her gun against her forehead. Chiyo snickered again, "If you strike me down...", she held back laughter, "...I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.". Tomo shouted, "You think this is some joke?". Tomo cocked her pistols, and placed them back against Chiyo's forehead. Suddenly, the familiar clapclapclapclapclapclapclap pf helicopters surrounded the opulent apartment, which had glass outside walls. "If you strike me down,", Chiyo whispered to Tomo, "I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.". Tomo realized what she meant, and looked at Sakaki, who nodded at her, and ran towards the nearest outside-window to her. At that moment, the enemy of Tomo's enemy was her friend. She jumped through the hole Sakaki left, cutting her arm slightly on the way out. The two met in midair, and Sakaki gripped Tomo's hand. A helicopter shot an explosive blast at the two, which smashed a large number of windows across the side of the apartment building, and sent Sakaki and Tomo, who was still in her arch-nemesis' arms as they flew. It almost seemed as though Sakaki was riding the windstream under them, even controlling it. The two flew over the city as the sun rose. Tomo couldn't deny it was a beautiful moment, no matter what would happen next. Nearly every one of the commuters in the surrounding area saw the two of them flying. It would later become the highest-viewest video on Nico Nico Douga. Sakaki aimed the two of them towards a waterway, for boats to travel inwards from the sea. Tomo realized what was about to happen, and prepared for the fifty-foot fall into the water. The two of them fell, going what had to be hundreds of kilometers per hour. Tomo, borderline-insane as she was, kicked Sakaki, increasing the speed of her fall, hoping for her revenge to be fulfilled. Unfortunately, this also put her own impact head-first. The water stung Sakaki's skin and blew the air out of her lungs. Tomo repositioned herself, but suffered a bit of a head wound, as well as similar effects to Sakaki's fall. Sakaki rose gracefully out of the water, and climbed onto the boat gate. Tomo got up, her head bleeding severely. She pointed her guns at Sakaki, and fired wildly despite her knowing Sakaki's incredible speed, skill, and her having the high ground. Sakaki simply stood there as the bullets missed. Tomo knew it would be best to stay at long range, but she had to finish this before the cops arrived and gunned them both down. She ran straight at the boat gates. Sakaki prepared to counter her and knock her down the ladder, which any sane person would take to get up the side. Tomo ran straight up the boat gate, and shot at Sakaki's foot. Sakaki pulled her foot back swiftly, and jumped at Tomo, slashing in the perfect motion as to prevent herself being shot. Tomo saw a boat coming, and realized she would just distract Sakaki until the boat came, at which point the gates would open, and Sakaki would be crushed. Not the best way to die, certainly not the proper way to die for someone of her grace and skill, but it was the only thing that could be done. Tomo jumped straight at Sakaki, who slid backwards and slashed at the air. It only slightly cut Tomo's skin, but it added to the large amount of bleeding. The boat was at least two minutes away. Tomo ran back across the center of the gates and shot at Sakaki. Sakaki was using the flat side of her blade her block the bullets. Tomo was irritated beyond belief. She ran straight at Sakaki, and felt the world going white around her. She was falling unconcious from blood loss. She got as close as she could, and shot out all of her ammo at Sakaki at close range. She fell, and couldn't possibly get up. She went blind, but knew Sakaki was there. As she felt the boat gates opening under her, she whispered to Sakaki, "Wh-Who taught you how to do that? It certainly is impressive...". Sakaki whispered back,
"Kimura."