CHAPTER 25:

"I told Yoru to keep an eye for your parents outside," Ikuto said as we walked towards the final door, "It's still possible that they managed to escape,"

I remained silent, thinking about what he said before we started walking to the room. His voice was so soft it was almost as if his words got carried by the wind.

I won't – you asked me before if I'd let them get you, too. I won't, Amu. I'll always be with you. I'll save you no matter what.

My heart constricted once. Almost as if to let me know that it was still there. I nodded. There was no other choice. For all we'd been through, for all the truths and lies, I trusted Ikuto to lead me the way.

His steps were huge and swift like a panther but it didn't hide the fact that he was also tensed. We were in front of the door now. Thanks to intel that the twins gave, we knew that the main force that protected the yakuza leader didn't use guns. Instead, they had two sharp katanas each.

Ikuto cast me a glance. But I didn't need to see his face. I knew what it would say. This was it. This was where it would end – either for us, or the yakuza.

He kicked the door open, surprising whoever was inside the last room. Twenty to thirty men stood alert with katanas gripped tight in their hands. I withdrew knives from my pocket as I located where Fujisaki Hiromi was in the room.

The room was grand, the largest room we saw in the mansion. It resembled the look of a ballroom, with glass ceilings and marble floor. And there on the farthest side of the room, sat Fujisaki Hiromi, looking like a cross between a tyrant king and an evil stepfather.

Distantly, I heard Ikuto scoff. Give it to him to be the cockiest of all arrogant bastards. He turned to me and smirked. And me being me, returned the smirk.

"It's over, child." Hiromi said, his voice gravelly and evil and streaked with the sound of death.

I refused to recognize whatever meaning underlies in his words but there was a small part in me that somehow felt defeated already. I slowly stepped forward and all men automatically shifted on me. Ikuto shot me a warning glance. There was still a good ten-foot distance between the yakuza and us but despite our arrogant stances, both Ikuto and I knew that what we're going to do was next to impossible.

A miracle would probably be good right now.

We were all frozen in time, like chess players anticipating each other's move. Then all of a sudden, Utau jumped through one of the windows, two long, obviously sharp swords in her hands. She flashed me a quick smile, her silky blonde pigtails glistening under the strong light of the fluorescent, and ran towards them.

I had never truly believed anyone would be a better assassin than I was but I had never actually seen Utau in action either and right now...well, I might as well have found my match.

She moved so swift, so graceful that I thought she actually blurred. With two fast spins, she knocked three men down. Utau was really good – as in really good.

Ikuto and I wasted no time in taking advantage of the stunned looks in the yakuza men's faces and charged. My knives drove through necks, arms, chests and thighs but never left my hands. By the time I tore through the horde of men, my hands were dripping wet with blood.

I whipped around and located the notorious mafia leader. He was still sitting on his chair, like a king watching some enjoyable theatrical play but he wasn't paying attention to me.

A silent grin crept to my face as I charged towards him. I raised my knife and was about to throw it at him when a knife suddenly made its way through my arm. I dropped my knife, biting my lower lip to keep myself from screaming. From my peripheral vision, I saw Utau swipe her blade at my attacker and move on to another one.

Cursing, I pulled out the knife from my arm and used it to stab a man in front of me. The blade slid down easily and bright, red blood squirted as I pulled the knife out of his neck. I pumped my boot on the floor thrice. Adrenaline rushed through my blood as my trusty blade slid out.

A man dropped his sword on the marble floor. He grabbed for a knife from his pocket and charged at me. It was easy. I kicked him on the stomach and then slit his throat with the knife in my hand. The man crashed on the floor, lifeless.

I was both excited and pumped by the time I risked a glance behind me. Only seven of them were left. Ikuto ditched his guns and was now using his own sword instead, busying himself with a brute yakuza guy a head or so taller than him. A sliver of worry sparked in my chest but I shook it off. I knew Ikuto could handle him. He had had to handle him.

Knitting my brows, I focused on the twins' grandfather. It was still entirely lost on me how those two sprung from his very own bloodline. They were nothing alike.

Maybe he felt my glare or whatever but then all of a sudden he located me with his viper-like eyes, cruel and calculating. For whatever reason, a chill crept up my spine the moment he offered me a spiteful grin. It slit his face up like a white cut.

I took a step forward, my grip silently shaking in a miniscule way that was very unusual for me.

My tormentor's eyes were mocking me, taunting me to go near him. He expressed no fear even when we were almost rid of all his men; even when he was almost entirely alone; even when there was a possibility that he'd face a three-against-one battle. No. Not one thing shook this man and I was starting to feel like nothing would ever make him frightened.

He stood up from where he sat and drew up his own katana. The man towered above me even though I was still a few feet away from him – I was that little against him.

My fingers curled tightly around the knife I was holding, its seven-inch length feeling useless against the man's katana. So, I picked up a sword next to a man lying dead next to my feet. It had the Fikasiju Yakuza emblem carved at the base of its hilt.

Then, I wasted no time. I attacked.

I'd be lying if I said that I was an expert in swordsmanship. But I wasn't that unknowledgeable, either. Still, it shook my bones when our swords clashed. He had brute strength and I was no rival to it and the deep wound I initially had on my arm did not help at all. My fast reflexes, however, managed to save my life.

He was able to cut me on my thigh. And I on his shoulder. We clashed and backed away over and over again as if we were dancing, our blades hitting and sounding like the early screeches of a newborn child.

I was able to cut him deeply across the chest but gained a gash on my right shoulder in return. He was already looking weak. The moment I was able to flick his sword out of his hand and wound him on his thigh deep enough to disable him from standing, the unimaginable happened.

I heard my name being called by a very familiar voice. I jumped away, as far as I could and looked for the direction of the voice. And there, on the far corner which was once covered with drapes but was now completely bared, stood my mother in a metal cage. Her clothes sagged limply on her and her eyes had really dark circles underneath them.

She looked like a dying bird.

Forgetting the man on the floor, I rushed to my mom.

She reached for me, her fingers thin as pencils. "Amu," she whispered.

My eyes snapped down on her fingernails and I almost cried out when her nails weren't where they were supposed to be. My mom's beautiful fingers were tortured and butchered, the nails pried off of each nail bed. It was crusty with dried blood and it must've still hurt but she still reached out for me.

Anger rushed through my blood and instead of accepting my mother's embrace, I turned around, dead set on killing the man that did this to her.

Then everything seemed to happen in fast forward. I faced Fujisaki Hiromi, trembling with rage. But I was surprised to see him back on his feet despite the fact that he was almost dying.

His lips slowly curled in a devilish grin and then he raised his other hand, which was now holding a gun, at me. From where he acquired a gun, I did not know. My mind went overdrive. If I dodged his bullet, my weakened mother was right behind me. If I didn't, then I'd get hit and with all of the blood that I've lost, I'd probably die.

I didn't think. I turned around and wrapped my arms around my mother, bracing for the impact. Then, the gun fired, followed by an eerie laugh which was suddenly cut short.

The bullet never came but Utau's voice pierced at me almost like the bullet would.

I turned around. My blood ran cold like someone suddenly poured ice-cold water over my head. Ikuto stared back at me with an incomprehensible expression, his lips parted ever-so-slightly. Then suddenly, his knees gave in and he had almost fallen face-first on the ground if I didn't reach him in time.

We both fell at the same time – him, on my lap, and me on the ground.

My hand left his back and I brought it to my face, incredulous. It was warm with a thick layer of blood – Ikuto's blood.

I lifted my eyes to Utau's. She stood stiffly and on her feet lay the decapitated body of Fujisaki Hiromi, lord of the Fikasiju Yakuza.

When I said I never gave thought as to how it would feel like to have someone die because of me, I meant it. And right now I wished I wouldn't have to find that out. Utau went and secured my mother out of the building. She had to bring Yoru back here.

Ikuto stared up at me, his face a serene expression. He smiled.

"I never thought I'd be in a situation like this," he said.

I slight stinging bit me in the back of my eyes and I sniffed. "You didn't have to be,"

"But I had to–"

"No, you didn't!" I shouted, clutching him to my chest. Wet, droplets of water trickled down my face, dribbling down despite my hardest efforts.

I swiped angrily at the tears. "You didn't have to save me all the goddamned time, Ikuto!"

He reached up to touch my face, "But I promised you, remember? I'll save you no matter what,"

To this my tears even came faster. He was making it completely hard on me. He was acting like he was saying goodbye and I didn't want to say goodbye. After all we'd been through, after all we'd endured together, a goodbye was the last thing I wanted from this.

"I didn't want to burden you with this, Amu," he suddenly said, making my heart pump faster than it probably could, "but I'm scared I won't have the chance to say it later,"

My eyes widened. No.

I shook my head wildly. "Whatever you have to say, it can wait," I said, the tears now gushing out like a continuous waterfall.

But he shook his head, too. Ikuto held my hand and pulled my face down to his with the other. He looked me in the eyes with such intensity and passion that I shivered. There was warmth and something else in his eyes that made my heart stop.

"I love you, Amu, with all my heart," then he placed a chaste kiss on my lips...

...and closed his eyes.