Chapter Twelve – Weakened Resolve – Beserker Within

Author's Note: I do not own the Buso Renkin series and the characters of the original series. I own only the original characters of this fic, Sakuya Mutou, Kaworu Jounouchi, their siblings and friends, Phalene, some members of the Alchemist Army, and the enemy, the Tetsujin Juusan. Buso Renkin is the creation of mangaka, Watsuki Nobuhiro.

–

Now that Shusui and Ouka had joined their team, Sakuya felt more confidence and energy welling up inside her. She lifted up her Buso Renkin and glared at Kabuto, who slowly turned to her. "You lied to me, Kabuto!" she roared, and the cloth at the end of her Grand Gaia began to shine brightly. Shusui noted the familiar feeling. "I'm gonna make you pay! Take this! Grand Crusher!" The light exploded into a wild burst of energy, and she swung her Buso Renkin forward in front of her toward the ground.

"A premature attack? You're still green, Sakuya-san!" Kabuto laughed as he prepared his wind wheel. But he saw that the Grand Gaia's impact on the ground caused an earth shockwave. A path of rising rocks lunged forward towards him, and he prepared to jump.

"No you don't!" exclaimed Shusui as his quick movements with his Sword Samurai X made Kabuto defend from the kendo teacher, but not from the fresh kendo student. The rocks shot out at his side, and Shusui quickly escaped before he was caught by Sakuya's devastating attack. 'Her power is unbelievable!' he thought to himself. 'Sakuya Muto may be even stronger than Kazuki when I first fought him! Where is she getting this power?'

–

At the time, Kuwagata caught a glimpse of Kabuto's assault. "Onii-sama!" he gasped and prepared his Scissor Vortex's boomerang mode. "Ya fuckin' bitch! I'll kill you for layin' a hand on 'im!" He threw the joined blades at Sakuya's back, but it was knocked off course by Ouka's Angel Gozen. "But first…I gotta take care of my own sets of bitches…"

"Please don't forget," Ouka smiled devilishly, "that WE are your opponents, Homunculus." Gozen flew towards Ouka's bow and created needles from his finger tips. He locked onto Kuwagata and fired. "Boom, baby!" it exclaimed.

Kuwagata quickly dodged and parried the arrows, but Kaworu was at his back with his claymore raised. "Be gone from thy Eden!" he shouted and slashed downward. The blade was caught by Kuwagata's scimitars, now detached into an X-formation. The two pushed at each other, and Kuwagata was surprised to see that he was being pushed back! "You dare attack Sakuya-kun in the middle of her battle!" Kaworu grit his teeth and glared into Kuwagata's eyes. "Unforgiveable! You are completely unforgivable!"

Kaworu's glare sent a shiver down Kuwagata's eyes. He noted that Kaworu was vaguely familiar before, but he was never scared until now. There was something about Kaworu he always hated. But it was probably feat than hate. "Who…are you…" Kuwagata hesitantly asked.

"I am Warrior Kaworu Jounouchi of the Alchemist Army!" His purple eyes seemed to glow and fade into a deeper color. "And I…will…destroy you!" Kaworu continued to slam his Garden of Eden repeatedly down on the Scissor Vortex, and Kuwagata felt his legs freeze up. This…wasn't supposed to happen!

Ouka had set her arrows, but she saw Kaworu's…strange assault on the Tetsujin Juusan Homunculus. 'In my years of training him,' she thought, 'I've never seen Kaworu act like this. He's normally a composed warrior, but he's never let his rage get the better of him. And it seems that Sakuya Muto…is the trigger for this!'

–

Sakuya took deep breaths as she placed the Grand Gaia on her shoulder. The cloud of dust was unsettling, but she felt victorious. Shusui walked over to her and smiled. "Did you see, Shusui-san?" she excitedly exclaimed. "I won! I actually won!"

The Warrior smiled. "I wouldn't be so excited yet, but you did good," Shusui sighed as he reached out for Sakuya. All of a sudden, a sharp pain hit his back. Sakuya watched blood shoot out as he dropped his Buso Renkin, and he went down on one knee. A spinning blade, smaller than Kuwagata's, flew back into the dust cloud. "Agh!" he gasped and groaned as blood dripped from his mouth and the fresh slash wound on his back.

"Shusui-san!" Sakuya looked up at the dust cloud, and a figure's shadow stood there, holding a tomahawk weapon. "No…no no no no NO!"

A gust of wind cleared the cloud, and Kabuto stood there with a grin on his lips, his right eye narrowed at Sakuya. His clothes, his Ginsei Academy uniform was tattered and torn from Sakuya's Grand Crusher attack, but his body wasn't. Not a scratch on him! "I'm impressed, Sakuya-san," Kabuto taunted. "Your limitless resolve never ceases to amaze me. You seem to grow stronger every time we face each other. But…" His body disappeared, and he reappeared behind Sakuya. "It's not enough to defeat numbers XI and XII of the Tetsujin Juusan!"

"You bastard!" The girl picked up Shusui's Buso Renkin and quickly slashed behind her, but Kabuto had disappeared again. He was fast! She couldn't hit him in time! Is that how he survived her attack?

–

As Kaworu continued his enraged attack on Kuwagata, his last attack was blocked by Kabuto's Eye of the Storm, who held it closer to him. "You!" the Warrior growled.

"Thanks, bro!" Kuwagata cackled and attached his two blades. "I'm not takin' this from you guys anymore!" He then threw it at Ouka, who was loading her arrows.

"Ouka!" Gozen exclaimed and fired the arrows from Ouka's bow, but the spinning blade changed its direction once again and cut on Ouka's back. "Aaagh!" she exclaimed as she fell forward, the blood dripping from her teacher uniform. Gozen also fell, struggling to get up. "Kaworu-kun…Sakuya-chan…" Ouka reached out for the blonde warrior, who was shocked by this assault.

"Y'don't understand, do ya?" Kuwagata laughed and caught his blade, now kicking Kaworu back from Kabuto. The blonde tumbled back, and his claymore hit the ground flat. "Onii-sama an' I, we're th' Tetsujin Juusan's lethal tag team! We may be ranked low in the group, but together, we're fuckin' unstoppable!"

"So send more Warriors at us," Kabuto sneered at Sakuya and Kaworu. "Veteran and fresh Warriors, we'll wipe you all out for Kami-sama." He motioned to Kuwagata, and the silver-haired Homunculus nodded.

"I still gotta pay you back, girlie!" Kuwagata yelled and jumped at Sakuya. "Fucking die!" He threw his blade once more at her from above.

Sakuya raised her Grand Gaia, but the blade shifted directions once more and cut her on her right shoulder. "Nnn!" she held back her pain, but found Kabuto in front of her already. "Oh shi-"

Kabuto then somersaulted Sakuya into the air, and the girl bounced on the ground farther from Shusui. "I said it before, you're still green. You don't have time to worry about everyone else. Worry about what's in front of you!" He then spun his wind wheel from his Buso Renkin and shot three of them at Sakuya. She screamed out in pain from the assault as Kabuto shot more, Kuwagata standing behind him triumphantly.

Kaworu watched this as he tried to stand up. "Sakuya-kun…" he groaned. He looked at the fallen Shusui and Ouka Hayasaka, and then at Kabuto. "Stop…not Sakuya-kun…Sakuya-kun is…my responsibility…" He grabbed his Buso Renkin and used it as leverage to stand. "Leave her alone…she's Kazuki-sempai's daughter…leave Sakuya-kun alone!"

Kuwagata caught a glimpse of this and readied his blade. What he found was the blonde warrior right in front of him. His purple eyes were deep and faded, his right fist was raised. "The fu-" He didn't get a chance to finish, as Kaworu's fist shot straight onto Kuwagata's nose, launching and bouncing him back away from Kabuto.

"What?" Kabuto exclaimed and turned around. He saw Kaworu ready to attack with his Buso Renkin. But as the two blades clashed, Kabuto noted this difference in power. The attack he blocked before was nothing compared to this. This…has a more tremendous amount of force than the last one! Kabuto found himself flying back and slammed onto the school's front wall, tumbling over the flower garden. "Damn it! Kuwagata! Where are you?" He looked up at his silver-haired twin, who was shaking. The expression of fear was plastered on his face. "Kuwagata, what's wrong? Kuwagata?"

"O-Onii-sama…it's him! It's THAT guy! It's him!" Kuwagata's voice was trembling, his eyes fixated on Kaworu. He then scrambled on to his feet and jumped into the woods. "Fuck this! I never signed up for this!"

As Kuwagata retreated, Kaworu watched. He deactivated his Buso Renkin and walked toward Sakuya. "Ka…Kaworu…" Sakuya groaned. She looked to find her partner kneel down to her, brushing her cheek with his hand. His eyes were different; there was no light in them. But she saw his smile. "Yeah…I can't lie down here…" Sakuya stood up next to Kaworu, staggering a bit. She was badly wounded, and one of the straps of her tank top was cut and dangling. "Sorry. I didn't get stronger to lose…Watch me, 'kay?" Kaworu simply nodded and jumped into the forest as Sakuya picked up Grand Gaia by the cloth. It began to shine again. Faintly at first, but it grew bright and brighter with each passing second.

Shusui deactivated his Buso Renkin and gripped it tightly. He looked out at Ouka and crawled to her. "Ouka…are you okay? Ouka?"

"Yeah…" Ouka had also deactivated her Buso Renkin, and it too began to heal her as well. "Kaworu-kun…there's something wrong…I didn't sense Kaworu-kun at all."

"I know…" Shusui nodded. He turned his head to Sakuya. "But we can't stop here. Sakuya Muto's fighting all alone now, and we need to help her. She's only a new Warrior…" Ouka also stood up with Shusui's help, her arm over his back. "We'll do this together. They're not the only tag-team in this fight."

Sakuya gripped the Grand Gaia by the hilt, walking toward the recovering Kabuto. "Get up," she said to him. "We're not done yet. We have to settle this RIGHT now!"

Kabuto looked up at Sakuya with a smirk. His auburn-hair dangled over his left eye as he leaned forward and stood up. "You're practically broken," he said to her, "but you still have the courage and strength to come at me. I'm not Yata or Kuwagata, you know. I'm stronger than both of them combined."

"That doesn't mean jack to me!" She stopped and pointed at Kabuto with her buster sword Buso Renkin. "I…you betrayed me, Kabuto. I thought we could've been friends. I wanted to be friends. But…you were a Homunculus, and on top of the, the Tetsujin Juusan! You had to do something with my dad, and I'm gonna beat it out of you!"

"Kazuki Muto…" Kabuto thought back to that battle and smiled. "Yes…I fought Kazuki Muto years ago. He was…one of THE strongest opponents I've ever fought. Stronger than Victor…and now, I'm faced with his daughter, who is resilient as he was!" Hearing Kabuto mentioned Kazuki in past tense enraged Sakuya more. "Let's end this, Sakuya Muto, possibly my strongest opponent yet!"

Listening to Kabuto, the blue-haired girl lowered her sword. "Tell me first," she said. "Why...did you join the Tetsujin Juusan? Why do we have to fight like this? I know…I feel that it never had to be this way."

The Homunculus was silent, and he looked at the Hayasaka Twins. They were too wounded to do anything else, but this fight has been full of surprises. He grinned and looked at Sakuya once more. "Alright," he said. "Before we continue…I'll tell you everything. About Jinsuke and I. About my role in the Tetsujin Juusan. And…my reason for living this long."

–

Kuwagata fled toward a clearing, only to find the Abandoned Factory. "This…is where onii-sama and I scouted Old Man Kame…" he panted, remembering the old, but huge turtle Homunculus. "I heard this is where they killed him, too. Shame, he wasn't strong enough to join the Tetsujin Juusan…" As he staggered into the factory, he heard the foot prints behind him. He stopped at the center of the abandoned factory and looked back. Kaworu was already at the doorway, glaring at him. "You came ALL this way, just for me?" Kuwagata scoffed. "I knew there was somethin' I hated about you, blondie. But…I never knew that YOU would be an Alchemist Warrior!"

Kaworu silently raised his Buso Renkin and activated it. "Shut up and fight," he angrily said to Kuwagata. "I came here to destroy you." A small light glistened in the deepened purple eyes. "And…I won't leave any trace of you left."