Time seemed to stop for Kyosuke and the gang, who had come to a halt behind their oni friend. He stood straight looking in the direction of the hospital, where a fire was now raging, and the lights were all going out, the growing darkness feeling like the hope they had seen and been literally leaping towards for the past few minutes was quickly being taken away from them. The group were beyond shocked and speechless, but Kyosuke was on an entirely different level. His mouth hung agape, eyes were open wide with shock, and he could swear that he was feeling his heart just stop because of what happened.

No … n-no! T-Touka!

Could it be? Was she … w-was she gone?! Was she dead?! Had Dagarkra killed her?

No! Maybe she was still alive! Yes, she had to be. This was his sister after all, she was a tough little thing. Her having a broken leg did nothing to deter her from hobbling around as she would when she was normally able to run around liken a child. She was strong! She had dealt with that; she had to be able to deal with this! She had to! If she was dead then … then …

A loud THUD from nearby made the group look to see Dagarkra turn and, a large piece of rubble from an apartment building that he had torn, or smashed the roof off, swing at the fourth helicopter, which dived and only just missed it. However, their larger enemy had quicker reactions than they and he brought his fist down onto the airborne vehicle. The helicopter dropped like a stone onto another building and cut right through the roof and burst into flames, quickly extinguishing the lives of those who had been on board as well as anyone who had failed the evacuate the building's top floors.

Kyosuke watched in amazement but … but he could feel it changing within him. Something was rising, growing, getting stronger. He felt his fists clench, his eyes narrowing, his heart accelerating in its rate of beating. A power like that of a superhero, a demi-god; no, a god! It was coursing through him, running through all his veins like a mini highway with hundreds, if not thousands of microscopic cars going at full speed through his veins. His clothes began to flap in a wind that did not exist yet seemed to be swirling around him. Two red horns sprouted from the top of his head and his eyes, now a hellish red like those of Dagarkra, locked onto the huge beast as it turned to growl down at something out of view behind the edge of a nearby building's roof. Whoever or whatever it was, Kyosuke did not care.

I'll kill you! was all that seemed to rush through his head. I'LL KILL YOU!

He lunged forward, his rage screaming out of him as Dagarkra's face approached. The creature felt something powerful approaching and looked to see Kyosuke coming. Before the gigantic monster could react, something slammed into his jaw with the force of what could only be described as a sledgehammer made specifically for creatures of his size and he staggered back with a yell of pain, his legs tearing into the rows of buildings behind him. Ignoring the pain, he looked up at where he had been standing to see a figure floating in mid-air, a red glow surrounding his, to Dagarkra, form. Though tiny in size, the dragon could see the anger in its eyes, the hate from them enough for him to decipher that this was a fight to the end. The very end!

Dagarkra jumped up, muscles bulging, teeth gritted and a snarl of anger to reply to his tiny opponent. It was obvious that this was an Yokai of sorts. Well, Yokai, or not, it was going to be crushed into a pulp.

He charged forward and swiped at the Yokai, who, as expected, dodged the blow by flying around the arm. His larger foe saw through the move and quickly spun around him in turn, his legs sweeping aside many vehicles and lampposts on the street below. Before Kyosuke could react, a fist the size of a bus slammed into him and sent him flying into a wall of a nearby building, crashing through it and breaking the window next to it. Dagarkra advanced towards it, ready to finish him off.

WHAM! Something collided with the back of his head, almost sending him stumbling forward onto the buildings before him. He wheeled round and was met with another strike as another of the human individuals landed a blow, this time sending sideways to his knee, a small trail of blood running down snout.

Kotoha and Godzilla on one of the buildings behind Dagarkra, the pair of them having jumped over and attacked the behemoth when he had dealt with the last helicopter. 'Godzilla' had been able to strike him with Kotoha following up with a similar attack, thus knocking the creature down. Whilst he was down, they rushed over to the side of the rooftop and called out to Kyosuke at the next building. Thankfully, they heard him call back and, a moment later, he emerged through the hole, holding onto the broken window frame for support.

Another roar sounded out from behind as Dagarkra was back on his feet, though this time he was facing to another building nearby. Kotoha and 'Godzilla' watched as he leapt forward and slammed his fist into the top of one of the structures. The building literally exploded and sent a tide of rubble to the ground and spewed out a wall of dust that swept through the surrounding streets. He quickly followed up by slamming his other hand on the neighbouring building to the left as Yae jumped there, only just missing the dragon's fist as she jumped into the air and, using one of her katanas, cut into his finger. Dagarkra yelled out in pain and swiped an open hand towards her. This time he hit his target and sent the nun flying and onto the roof of another building a few hundred feet away.

"No!" Kyosuke yelled out.

He jumped up again, raring to get at Dagarkra and rip him apart. He did not care about his size or power in comparison to the beast. All that mattered was him getting to his target and inflicting as much pain as he could. The oni concentrated the power in his fist as he brought it back, the head of the monster quickly filling his peripheral vision. He was almost there …

The next thing, he was being crushed to death as something red wrapped itself around his body. Up above, Kyosuke saw the huge eyes of Dagarkra glaring down at him with such hatred that he wondered if even the devil himself was capable of looking so angry. Then it hit him!

Oh God! He's got me in his hand!

As if sensing his sudden bout of panic, Dagarkra tightened his grip which was not good for the oni who was like an insect to him. Pain flared up and down his body as he felt like he was being squished, his bones breaking and crumbling under the immense pressure being forced onto them, the limbs being forced together as if they were between two huge clamps. His breath was squeezed out of him and Kyosuke was sure his eyes were going to pop out of his head. He tried to fight back but it was no use; his enemy was just too big, and because he was so determined to kill him the demonic creature was not going to give up easily. And now he had him.

"Kyosuke! We're coming!"

With his vision fading, the oni looked up and saw two small figures, one holding the other by the arm, lunge towards Dagarkra and struck him in the arm. Dagarkra yelled in pain but kept a firm grip on Kyosuke as he followed the two new arrivals to the fight as they quickly leapt onto another nearby roof. They dare hurt him?! Insects like these?! Oh, they were going to pay!

He charged forward and, with a swift kick, knocked the building over and then slammed his free fist into it as if he were trying to break through the earth's crust. Dust bellowed out from the remains and into the streets, obscuring the cars and much of the ground floor areas of the surrounding buildings. He growled a light growl in satisfaction. Two pitiful humans down. Now …

He looked at Kyosuke just as the oni was glowing red; head turned towards him and eyes blazing with fire. Dagarkra could sense the growing power within him. What was he doing?! What was this?

Kyosuke answered by unleashing all his energy into his captor, sending his power, his hatred, his rage into the hand and attacking the bones and joints, making it feel as if he had just broken the whole thing in one attack. Dagarkra instinctively released Kyosuke as he grabbed his hand in pain, only to be met with another blow to the face as Kyosuke followed up his attack. Dagarkra fell on his back, levelling several buildings by his body or the shockwave of the huge creature slamming into the ground.

From their rooftop vantage point, Kotoha and 'Godzilla' watched the fight unfold with hopeful expressions. Okay, Dagarkra could be taken down. So, he was not invincible, but they were going to need a lot more help if they were to defeat him. Right now they could only slow him down from getting to the Nana-Gou.

"Is there a way we can stop him?" Kotoha asked 'Godzilla', her tone of voice evidently hoping he would answer in the affirmative.

Without taking his eyes off Dagarkra getting to his feet and dodging another blow from the others, 'Godzilla' only shrugged. "I'm not sure. Unless I can get back to my monster form, it'll be very hard, no, practically impossible to stop him."

The half-Yokai did not answer him. Damn! If 'Godzilla', their lucky card, practically their one way of winning this fight against Dagarkra, thought it was going to be hard, then it had to be. The only way she could think of them winning was if Hime beat Gin. She hoped her friend was holding her own against him, but because they were so far from her trying to stop this creature it was obviously unsure if they were still fighting, or even if she was alive.

"Look out!"

Kotoha was snapped out of her trance when 'Godzilla' grabbed her and pulled her to the floor as a large piece of rubble flew a few tens of feet over them. With a thunderous CRASH it slammed into the hospital, leaving a huge hole in the front of the building. As they got up, Kotoha looked worryingly at the now partially destroyed hospital.

"Oh no!" she cried. "There's gonna be people trapped in there! We have to help them!"

"You go and deal with Dagarkra, I will go and ensure no one is left behind." 'Godzilla' told her.

"What?!" the half-Yokai exclaimed in surprise, looking at him with an expression as if he was an alien.

"Kotoha, they need you. Use your powers to keep him back. I'll re-join you shortly." And with that he rushed to the edge of the rooftop and with seemingly no effort leapt across the street to a building across the street and then onto the next one.

Kotoha could only sigh in defeat and looked back the others as they took turns at attacking Dagarkra, some of them succeeding and making said monster roar in pain, though he was able to successfully dodge and even strike back at them, always landing a hit.

It's up to luck now she mentally said to herself as took one glance back at 'Godzilla', seeing him jump across the street to the hole in the front of the hospital near the one caused by the helicopter, and then back to the others. Only then, however, did she notice something. Wait! Where's Ao?

Hime was forced back after another swing at Gin was blocked by him using one of the spears and his quick reaction into ducking and rolling away. She growled in frustration as she regained her footing, meeting his smiling, mocking, even enjoyable gaze with her own look of frustration and anger. He was proving to be a more difficult foe to beat than she had anticipated; so far he had barely been hit. Though she had also managed to get by with no major injuries so far, she was getting tired. And he knew it and chuckled at her.

"What's the matter, mayor?!" he asked mockingly whilst laughing. "Am I wearing you out? I thought you were supposed to be a tough fighter! Having a bad day?"

Hime gritted her teeth and her narrowed even more. She hated his demeanour, she hated his mocking her, she hated his ignorance and regard for innocents caught in the middle, she hated what he had done, she hated him being able to survive a fight with her. She hated him. Oh, if she could knock him down, she would kill him. It was not a question of if she would take his life, she was going to.

Hime charged again and leapt into the air and brought her katana down, aiming for Gin's head. However, she was blocked by him bending back at a ninety-degree angle and crossing both spears over his body and used Hime to the floor and followed up with a stabbing motion using Hime's grandmother's spear. His younger opponent was quick to roll out of the way and swiped at his feet with her legs.

Yes!

Gin collided with the ground and cursed loudly in pain, dropping the spear he had used to try and kill her. Hime got up and made a grab for it but he swung the other one at her, smacking her right in the side of the head and sent her stumbling sideways for a few feet before she recovered. Both turned to face one another, staring the other down, their hands gripping their weapons tightly as they waited for the other to make the first move.

C'mon, Gin! Attack you bastard! Hime thought as she looked at him.

Ladies first, bitch! He seemed to reply.

"GIN!"

Both he and Hime looked behind him to see Ao land on the roof not more than twenty feet away from their positions, a fist sized piece of rubble gripped tightly in her hand but her face held a look of pleading, hoping it would be enough to get them to stop fighting and have her brother see reason.

"AO?!" Hime exclaimed. "I thought I told you to go with the others and stop Dagarkra."

"I'm not going to Hime because I want to stop this!" she replied firmly and then shifted her gaze to her sibling. "Gin, please, for God's sake just stop all of this! You've gone too far!" she begged.

"Oh, Ao, you really don't get it!" he snapped at her. "I'm doing this because I want to. We need to change the world, and we can't do that if your mayor's muscle-faced friend is here. He's a danger and always has been. Enyou wanted to get rid of him, and I will see to that he's done." A roar from far behind Ao momentarily drew their attention to see the red-blooded demon take out another building as he tried to swipe at something too small for the three to see from their current position, though it was obvious that to would be one of the group. Hopefully they made it out of that one okay.

"Correction, make that we will see it's done." He added as Ao looked back on him, her face still holding the expression that begged for her brother to stop but it all met a brick wall that was not going to shift from what it was doing. "I'm not sorry, Ao. I'm rather disappointed, because if you had any sense in that damn head of yours, you would be helping me."

The cat-eared girl just lightly shook her head in disbelief, unable to comprehend just how lost her brother was, how deluded he had become and how dead set he was on ending all of their lives and everything they had been working for. Although she had not wanted to believe it from the beginning, she knew she was going to have to face it now; her brother was well and truly lost. He just would not listen to reason and only wanted to impose his own vision of Sakurashin, and probably even the world into reality, regardless of who got in his way. Nothing was going to stop him, nothing except force. And that meant …

"Don't worry about me," Gin told her as he gripped his spears tighter in his hand and pointed one at her whilst keeping the other one trained on Hime. "But I would worry about you."

"No she won't!"

That voice! Gin recognised it immediately as he looked over in its directions and saw Another figure climbing up a ladder to the roof about twenty feet away from him. Akiro! He stood there defiantly, his eyes glaring at him holding a stern expression and he had one hand in his jean pocket whilst his other free hand had the palm facing towards the floor, fingers outstretched and pointing towards Gin, something that unnerved the latter slightly. Being a water Yokai, anything could happen.

"Akiro! Where have you been?!" Gin snapped at him.

"I got caught up in making sure everyone was away from here and then had to find you guys." He replied and nodded at Hime in a reassuring way so as not to make her nervous considering their enemy knew him. "You're not going to go any further with this, Gin. I made a big mistake trying to help you and now I'm here to help set things right."

Upon hearing these words, Gin just cackled lightly. Oh this was good! Akiro, a simple water Yokai, one whose abilities probably only stretched as far as filling a bath to the brim, was going to set things right?! Ha! What could he possibly do? Give him a shower?

Akiro removed his other hand from his pocket, holding a pistol in it and pointing it at Gin. For a brief moment, Gin looked panicked as he eyed the weapon, thinking that his once 'partner-in-crime' so to speak was going to shoot him. But he quickly snapped himself out of it when he realised that this was Akiro. Akiro shoot me? Pffftt! I doubt it!

"Getting a little courageous, are we?" Gin asked, raising an eyebrow in mock surprise. "I thought you didn't want to hurt anyone."

Akiro's lip pursed a little as he raised the gun a little more in a threatening manner. Gin was right though. He could not bring himself to shoot him, nor anyone else. Even if they had caused untold damage to two cities and had unleased a deadly demonic creature upon the world.

"Shut it!" Akiro snapped at him through gritted teeth but mentally cursed himself for doing so.

"Oh, getting annoyed now?! Feeling a little guilty? Like when you attacked Rio and took the dragon spear from the temple?"

Hime, who had been watching the exchange nervously with silence, looked over Akiro in surprise. What?! What did he just say?!

"What is he talking about?" Hime asked him.

"LOOK OUT!" Ao screamed.

It felt like they had been thrown into a brick wall as Hime was forced onto the floor, groaning in pain. She heard the one who Gin called Akiro yelp in fright, meaning he had been taken down as well. And Ao?

Another yell filled the air, only this time it was more masculine. Looking up as best she could and trying to recover from the shock of the blow, she saw Gin on his knees and leaning forward holding himself up with one hand as he used the other to cover his forehead. Behind him was Ao, only this time her legs were bent a little and the piece of rubble was no longer in her hands. Judging by the look on her face, she was surprised that she had actually done something like that. She had hurt her sibling.

"Ao!" Hime exclaimed as she forced herself up.

Big mistake!

Gin quickly shot up and, grabbing both spears he had dropped when Ao threw the piece of rubble at him, fired a green blast that struck his sister in the chest that knocked her off her feet. Before Hime could even react, Gin launched himself at her, knocking her into the air and onto the next rooftop. As she lifted herself up from the floor, groaning in pain, yet thankful that she had not landed on her sword, she saw Gin marching over to where Akiro had been standing.

Panic seized her. Oh no!

Akiro tried to pick himself up but the attack by Gin had been like someone hitting him with a sledgehammer as hard as they could. His limbs ached; he felt dizzy and twice he almost fell on his side trying to push himself up with his arm. He tried to process what had happened and then, to his shock as he moved his hand over the floor, found that his gun was gone. Oh no, where was it?! Where was it?!

Footsteps approached. He looked up and saw the figure of Gin looming over him like the Grim Reaper coming to take his soul; both spears now in one hand. The villainous Yokai glared down at him angrily, but Akiro knew that this was just the least of it. He knew that under all the skin, the ego and the rash personality lay a lot of anger, and right now it was being entirely directed at him.

Gin reached into his pocket and pulled out the pistol he had taken from one of his gang earlier and raised it so it was now pointing directly at the water Yokai's head, resting his finger on the trigger. Akiro's sea blue eyes fell on the pitch blackness in the barrel that faced him. It was an avenue of death, a one-way ticket into the next life. Quite literally, he was staring death in the eyes, only it was an object rather than an actual living thing.

"Bad luck, Akiro," Gin muttered that was nonchalant, yet was venomous in its undertone as he and said Yokai's eyes met once more. "So long!"

A gunshot rang out and Akiro's body fell to the floor and moved no more.