Lightning Fast, Thunderous Spirit

(A oneshot courtesy of me filibustering from the stories I should be focusing on. Enjoy)

Fate is an unfortunate thing, fickle and more often than not unfair. It can bless you or curse you all in the same moment, it can kick you while you're down or pick you up and kiss your forehead. There are so many things that can be said about Fate but in the end there's a common theme… On the road of life sometimes bad things will happen, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Shirtless, barefoot, and running down a dark corridor. History seems to repeat itself when it comes to these things doesn't it? Some figures were right on his tail and the fact that he was blindfolded didn't help him. "This time we'll get you, bone freak!" No matter how many of these pawns tried their hardest to get him to change his plans, it just never worked. Why couldn't they understand that it's his game to play, that no matter how many of them chased him he was the predator? The humid passageway gave no chances for a trap to be set with conventional tools, but he didn't need anything other than himself and his mind. All he did was run even more until he reached a dead end and collided with the wall, not hurting himself in the slightest.

'Perfect.' That was his sole thought as they started catching up to him and fell right into his play.

One of them reached a hand out and figured out what it felt like to be a loaf of bread. "AAH!" Carved. He chopped a hand off without effort then spun and sent them flying with a caved in face. The rest charged him only to meet the various fates of being decapitated, stabbed through the head, or in one's case held at the end of his arm while frantically trying to scrape his blindfold. It was like a play, a sick play that involved all the lesser actors dying brutally and the sole survivor being treated like a broken toy.

He unwrapped the blindfold from his face and stared the remaining annoyance in the eyes. "This is really all you damned things can do? I want more. I deserve a challenge." He started crushing the freak's throat while it desperately tried to break his grip- Of course it didn't make any headway on that. He twisted and smashed the malformed humanoid into the floor only to toss his blindfold onto it.

"You're a monster- I hope you choke on your blood and die!"

He didn't even bother finishing them off, this one's words hurt more than any physical attack it could've thrown at him so he decided to let it have the tiniest chance of survival so that could be fixed. Kuzo disliked weakness by all means but if one lacked strength either mentally or physically but could give what they had in spades… maybe they were worth meeting later. Lo and behold he turned to see her standing there with her arms crossed. "He wanted to speak to you. Says it's important."

"Quit popping in on me when I'm busy. I'll kill you one day if you keep it up, Takuya." With his threat spoken he took to following his guy through the winding hallways and long corridors into a large room and right to his superior in quotes. He bowed and felt a bit of a sting in the side of his neck. "You wanted to see me?" There he was, standing on an elevated platform with that annoying mask on. Granted he wore his own mask but that was to make things a little easier on whoever he was fighting, stupid thing gave him tunnel vision.

Sho smiled behind his mask at one of his greatest pieces, someone at his level only came along every few generations and here he was lucky to have him. "My pride and my joy, Kaguya Kuzo. I have a mission for you and two randoms of your choice." His words dripped with satisfaction and his tone showed nothing less than superiority.

Kuzo hated this man… he despised this man with every ounce of his being, he was just some puppet master forcing other people to do his dirty work. That type of person deserved no respect in his mind. "Consider it accomplished. What's my mission?"

"I was made aware of an unknown group that set up near the border of Hot Water and The Land of Fire. They're unknowns that could be valuable resources to our cause, and supposedly one of them is capable of moving at nearly light speed." And now he was genuinely interested in these people. Someone who could move that fast had to be strong to match it! "Do everything you can to convince them to join us, but if they're adamant on refusing then kill them. Can't have loose ends like that staying out for anyone else you know." He spoke with finality You know my stance on failure so don't make this that type of event. My standards for you are so much better."

Kuzo stood up and turned to walk down the hallway he came from, still not sick of having to go through this every time. "Don't worry about that, I don't fail."

A young woman sat up in her bed and looked around her room, her yellow eyes only stopping when she looked to her right and saw that same familiar form in bed beside her. Toned muscles built from years of hard work, and fair skin to match. She put a hand against a back that was carved like marble and ran her hand along the firm yet supple flesh, then she ran her hands up towards the brown hair of- "Still in the mood from last night?" She pulled her hand back slowly with a smile on her face while he turned over and faced her. "I'm definitely up for it again if you are my Lady!" His elfin ears twitched with some excitement.

She laughed and poked his forehead with her index finger. Her ears resembled his but pointed upwards in joy. "It's been three years Raito, you can only call me that when we're… uh…"

Raito chuckled and sat up with a long stretch of his arms. All of three years together and yet she couldn't be direct with it? He loved this side of her just as much as her serious side, which didn't come out often but when it did- Oh boy it was something to see. "You can say it, you know, we were…" He waited for her to fill in the blank but she just nervously averted her eyes. "Having…" She still didn't finish the sentence for him even as he gently took her jaw in his hand, and she leaned into his callous hand with a soft smile.

"We were… making- uhm- having-" Somehow still too nervous despite being together so long. Then again it was just them so it wasn't too embarrassing, now if his siblings were here then it definitely would've been worse. "We had… sex…"

Raito burst up to stand on their wooden floor then revealed his bare body to her with a smile on his face and stood up with his arms crossed. "Yes! We made love and it was amazing!" He walked to their dresser and threw on a pair of underwear then a black pair of pants. "But that's besides the point, today's going to be a good day." He tossed on a green haori with white stripes… only to tie it around his waistband and bring his eyes to her yellow ones. "Wouldn't you say so my Dear Killa?"

His 'Dear Killa' got out of the bed and graced his deep green eyes with her figure… which he drank in like he wandered a desert for two days and finally found an oasis that wasn't a mirage. "We have the farm to take care of, and I have to go get more of that super soil stuff." She caught the pair of underwear he tossed her and slipped it on. Killa sauntered over while Raito looked through the dresser for clothes for his woman, but there was the impedance of arms wrapping around his chest.

The soft feeling of something pressing into his back made him freeze for a second, and he stopped his rummaging and calmed down his burning energy for a moment to hold her hands against his torso. For a few minutes they just stood there holding one another in the sunlight that their window gave them. Raito softened his expression from a powerful, cheerful expression, to a softer, more serene smile. "You care so much for this farm, I'm glad we came down to the ground all that time ago." He turned his head to look at the woman eight inches shorter than him. "Every plant we have is a reminder of how much our love grew over time."

Their embrace had to end at some point and when it finally did she put on a beautiful lilac dress that went to her shins. The sleeves ended at her bicep in a ruffled design of white fabric. Raito grabbed a sword with a gray hilt and a green sheathe and attached it to his hip. He took her hand and they started walking to the front door of their humble cabin, and as a gentleman he opened it for her.

"I shouldn't be gone that long, maybe a few hours at most." They both walked outside hand in hand and when they finally had to let one another go it was slow and hesitant. "I'll be back sooner than you think." She leaned forward only for him to mimic the motion and plant a tender kiss on her lips, but despite being a chaste action it held so much emotion behind it. All the feelings they had between each other, every emotion, everything they didn't verbally convey was put into that simple action that lasted all of eight seconds.

They finally separated and she started her trip with a basket in her hands, meanwhile Raito crossed his arms and smiled brighter than the sun. "I'll miss you every second!" With that final message he turned and grabbed a watering pitcher to start his care for their usual plants while his woman walked into the woods. 'Now to get started on the vegetables!' He walked over to a small plot of land where there were heads of lettuce, potatoes, and carrots growing from the ground. A quick run through and he watered the plants without a care in the world, but he noticed that one of the potatoes was spoiled. "That's a shame." He picked it up and saw that it had already started to rot, a good thing he noticed before it attracted anything to eat the other crops.

A quick walk towards their achievement of a plant that stood high above all others on their land. A redwood tree that cleared ten stories casted a massive shadow opposite their land and he smiled at it with pride. "No matter how many things get spoiled in the garden this tree won't be one of them." He looked down at the potato again and noted that his grip was starting to get mush all over his palm. "Eugh."

He turned and flung the spoiled spud into the forest only to hear it splatter against something… something harder than a tree. "SHIT IT GOT IN MY EYE!" Raito set the watering pitcher down and watched as two people in grey vests and black pants with a blue stripe running down the side of them came running from the forest. "Get it out!"

"Stop moving around so I can!" The other one of them tried to scoop the rotten potato from his friend's face but he didn't stop moving around… honestly it was one of the funniest things Raito ever saw in his entire life. "There you big baby!"

Raito watched as the blinded man suddenly could see again without spoiled starch in his face. "Hello there! What are you two doing here?"

The two of them approached and made Raito tense up for a second before loosening his body once again, surely they were only moving closer to speak right? "You're the only one living here? We heard there were more of you."

A novice would correct them but Raito wasn't who he was because he was a rookie. "Yes, I live here alone. You two are shinobi I see, what brings you to my humble home?" They had to be here for something.

The one who wasn't still picking root vegetable off his face spoke up. "Well we're here to take you in, our Master wanted some bozo who could move like lightning. That's probably you isn't it?"

That just didn't make any sense. They had an agreement with anyone who came across them, they would stay out of anything that happened so long as they could just enjoy themselves. "Sorry but I have to say no. I only- I don't work for anyone." For a second the air went still and the three men stood there, silently. A glint of metal and the sound of a sword being drawn showed how this would play out.

Potato face leapt forwards with a kunai in his hand and a scowl on his face. "Then you can-" Sparks of lightning. White lightning, sparks, and a drawn sword were the last thing he got to see. In an instant a man lost his head.

Raito turned around to look at the other aggressor that was still standing there in shock from his sudden high speed. "Flash." The other one of the two didn't know how to respond. He didn't even fully blink before his teammate was dead. "You haven't tried to attack me. This is your only chance to leave, I'd suggest you take it!" There wasn't anger in his voice, it was just a recommendation above anything. He made it clear that going against it would kill him. The man started backing up with his hands raised and some incoherent things coming from his mouth that Raito didn't bother listening to. 'Hm?' He looked past this idiot in front of him and saw another figure with a mask on, same outfit otherwise, and white hair on their head.

The figure was about twenty meters away and held a hand up… then put that hand on their forearm and started to pull. This was getting weird fast. They pulled out something white and- 'That's their bone!' He watched them pull out an ivory bone and hold it firmly, then he stood ready once they leapt towards him with the osseous tissue being held like a knife.

"So with that I'll just go- kuh!" Raito had no need to prepare for a strike. The babbling buffoon in front of him however did. He turned his head to see the eyes of a mask staring him in the face and he could only ask one question. "W-Why?" He didn't get a proper answer, all he got was the sharp bone in his chest cavity slipping out and an unceremonious toss out of the way.

The assaulter didn't have a chance to speak properly before they sensed a burst of chakra and on instinct dodged backwards in an elegant flip. Raito raised his sword in a nearly imperceptible arc that made his eyes slightly widen when this person actually managed to dodge his attack… mostly. 'He just avoided my Reverse Bolt…'

The figure landed and their mask split down the middle and fell to the ground, their eyes were a lighter shade of green than Raito's but there was a determination behind them that burned as bright as his own. "Before I could even ask you- You cut off my mask. What is your name?"

"I am Kumoi Raito. You're clearly a shinobi maniac!"

That was a surprisingly unscathing insult. "Kaguya Kuzo, and I come with a simple request…" He threw the murderous bone into the ground and put a hand over his chest. "Join the Blue Demons. I can sense your strength from here, you're a man who stands above so many others just like me. All you need is proper honing to become the strongest around, you and I could prove how strong we are against anything in our way. Join the Ao Akuma."

Raito stood there for a moment. The gentle wind of that day brushed them both, white hair blew softly and so did brown hair. All was calm until. "No!" Raito embedded the tip of his sword into the ground and folded his hands over the hilt with a smile. "I loathe to say this, but I hate you, not a childlike hate of school or finishing food I don't like. I genuinely hate you, and it's because you killed one of your own allies for no reason at all. If you're an example of these Blue Demons then I want no part of it!"

Kuzo pulled his hands back to his side and spoke clearly, obviously this man must've not understood him. "I killed him because he was so quick to submit to you, no, I killed him because he was weak. Weak of both his mind and his body." Raito raised an eyebrow at that. "If he was physically weak then he could've attempted to battle you with illusions and traps, if he were weak of mind then he could've attacked you with everything he had until he either lost or you gave up. I've recently come to learn that there are different types of strength and he lacked all of them… you on the other hand." Kuzo undid the clasps on his vest and let the clothing fall to the ground. "You have strength in your body, mind, and spirit. I actually respect you and want you to join us."

His smile faded. "And I don't like you. You're a monster who killed someone for not meeting your expectations! I'd never fight alongside someone like you. I'm being clear I will not join you."

Kuzo stood there calmly for a moment… or was it a minute? Maybe even an entire hour. All Raito knew is that this person who was clearly his junior just stood there with a blank expression on his face. "Disappointing." Black markings spread across his skin like wildfire, it didn't help that they looked like flames with their shapes, and he formed two bones in his palms. "Then I have to kill you here and now."

Raito spread his feet and took his stance, lightning flickered off his skin and he smiled. "I'd like to see you try!" A flash of lightning and a crack on the ground was the only giveaway to their movement and it led to them clashing blades against one another.

'Dance of the Willow.' Kuzo was dodging each of the slashes that came at him in the fraction of a second with some trouble, but Raito was having problems avoiding the flowing stabs and counters that Kuzo was returning with. "You're only the fifth person who ever refused an offer from me." Raito ducked below a stab and spun his upper body to take the Kaguya's head off.

"Is that so? I wonder why that is!" Kuzo leaned backwards and another pair of bones grew from his knee joints as a giveaway to him spinning violently, a scrape on his right pectoral and a tear in his pants but Raito followed through on his next attack. "Reverse Bolt!" A vertical slash to Kuzo's bare chest forced him to flip back and cross his arms.

"Because the other people I gave this chance to understood the meaning of growing stronger." He charged back in and started clashing his bones against Raito's silver sword with that same steady expression. "I can't stand to see weakness but what I can't stand more is to see unrecognized strength!" He dropped to the ground and swept Raito's feet with a low kick. "It makes me so angry." He drove his hands forwards but another sparkle of lightning and a surge of chakra warned him.

'No footing is best for this jutsu, Eye of the Storm!' A small hurricane formed in front of the Blue Demon member and a myriad of cuts appeared on his skin, forcing him backwards for just a moment while Raito landed. "I don't care what empty words you give me!" He flickered and in a bolt of white was right on top of Kuzo. 'Flash!' He swung his sword straight for Kuzo's chest but he didn't manage to hit his mark.

Jagged bones sprouted all over his upper body and stopped the sword in its tracks, but not before it cut right through some of them to Kuzo's surprise. Raito clenched his teeth and was about to double down on his attack but his enemy was just faster right then. A solid kick into his stomach pushed him back and gave Kuzo the chance to jump into the air and cross his arms again. "Digital Shrapnel." He swung his arms out while his quarry stood there with his sword in hand- Not able to see what was coming at him.

"Hnk!" Bullets made of bones lodged into his chest and one impacted his forehead, luckily they weren't strong enough to break through his own bones. 'So he can fight at a range with these?'

"Hmph, die." This time he could see the projectiles clearly as they came closer to him, and he had a plan.

'I can't hold back anymore, this monster has to die!' He gripped his sword and white lightning coated the blade with loud crackles and sparking. 'Surging Flow!' With practiced ease each of the bone bullets was deflected away and Kuzo landed against the ground.

"Not holding back anymore? I'm glad." The black marks on his upper body started shifting and glowing orange. His entire body started changing for the worse, his skin turned grey with a reddish tinge, his hair grew out and went from white to abyssal black, and most notably his body grew a tail with the added feature of small bone plates all across his visible skin.

Raito crouched down and exhaled through his nose. "Now you look exactly how you should on the outside." He burst forward in a stream of electricity and raised his sword in another rising bolt but for all the effort he barely managed to leave any damage. 'I'll just swing harder then!' He swung harder while his enemy grew another weapon from his forearm and tried to block the attack. Emphasis on tried.

'What the?!' His ivory blade was chopped right through and next was part of his shoulder, his defense that cost so much energy to maintain was immediately shown to not match the power behind these swings. 'He actually cut right through my bones? Yes… Yes! Yes! This is a fight!' He leaned into the attack and punched Raito in his rib cage with a smile, sending him through the air. But the man recovered with a cough of blood and took a stance in the air?

"Righteous Lightning!" He flashed down and struck the ground with enough force to send debris flying all around them. If only his target didn't avoid the attack! Kuzo both avoided the strike and returned it with his own knee into Raito's stomach, spit and bile came from his throat but he didn't waver. "Flash!" A strike that Kuzo used his newly formed tail to block… he also found out that his tail had nerves in it since he felt the agonizing pain of the sword tearing through its flesh. He kept the flow of his movement going and flicked the Kumoi away like a fly.

"Yes! This is the fight we could have! Join the Blue Demons!" He grabbed the base of his neck and yanked out his spinal cord, he wobbled for a second but stood upright again in time to hear the-

"Never!" Raito saw the whiplike weapon and immediately formed an attack plan. 'Whip users need range to operate, don't give it to him!' He flashed forward again and crossed his sword with an impromptu shield made out of more bones from Kuzo's arm. He pushed harder until blood came out of his own mouth but that didn't stop his press! The shield cracked and eventually shattered underneath his lightning enhanced sword. He didn't have time to pull his sword back for another strike so he decided to use the rest of his body. "HAH!" And he kicked Kuzo square in the face with all his force and used his jaw as a kickoff.

The Kaguya recoiled but recovered even faster and launched his whip in a series of cracking strikes that not only didn't seem physically possible, but also devastated the ground where Raito leapt from to avoid them. Each time he prepared to go on the offensive he had to focus on not being shattered by the bone and cartilage whip. Instead he started taking a creative defense and sheathed his sword. 'Thunderous Clouds!' He drew his weapon and reflected the whip, the force behind the combined attacks making his arms vibrate to the bone with the shock throwing off his body for a split second too long, and again he narrowly dodged a viscous lash from that whip.

Kuzo wasn't staying passive and just using those long range strikes. Oh no, he was dashing forward almost as quickly as Raito moved back to cover the distance. "How will you fight when I won't let you get ready?" A lapse in reaction from the prodding question ended up giving Raito a giant gash into his torso, and that was just the cutting damage. The brute force of the attack cracked bones and sent him careening to the ground.

'Damn it!' He rolled and, by the skin of his ass, didn't get finished by that whip. He leapt backwards again as Kuzo advanced. 'He won't give me any openings! That whip has a range and I need to figure it out now!' He analyzed every single lash that came at him and started piecing together all the pieces to this puzzle. 'His range is five meters!' Now he knew what to do.

The Bone Brawler was already coming up with a plan once he saw that giant tree up ahead. 'Perfect.' He moved in closer but his enemy already had a fully formed plan.

Raito stopped at the base of their giant tree and noticed that he had a split second to act. He took his stance and leapt into the air right as the whip came at him and instead crashed right into the trunk of the massive arbor! "Righteous Lightning!" This time he didn't aim straight for Kuzo, he dashed around like an actual lightning bolt and confused his foe with the rapid moves. "Four Strikes!" The first hit landed against Kuzo's abdomen and drew blood. The second hit sliced a tendon at the back of his knee and made him kneel to the ground. The third hit carved into his left arm and damaged a nerve, he was down two limbs but there was still one more. 'Goodbye Kaguya Kuzo!' The last strike aimed right for the most vulnerable part of a person, the soft flesh of the neck. He was inches from ending this bout once and for all when disaster struck-

"Kill point." Bones burst from the ground and caught his sword and stabbed into his legs, they retreated while Kuzo panted and stood up too fast for his injured leg to take. "All crippling attacks end with a kill strike, with a sword your best bet was taking my head off!"

Raito tried to jump back when he noticed the problem. "Not good!" That whip snaked around his abdomen and locked him firmly in place.

"Dance of The Clematis: Vine." That was the first part of this lethal attack. Kuzo raised his nerve damaged arm, somehow, and white minerals started forming from his flesh. His hardest minerals and bones went into forming that giant drill that hung from his arm now. "This attack takes a massive amount of chakra and it needs you to stay still, you should feel honored. I've only used this on three people… and you're one of them."

Raito would've been panicking if he were a lesser man. He'd have been doing everything in his power to defy the obvious death that was in his way… But he wasn't a normal person, and he wasn't a lesser man. In an explosion of chakra he grabbed the spinal whip and used all his physical power to turn the tables and crash Kuzo into the trunk of the redwood tree. "As if I'd ever let someone like you win! I don't care for your ultimate attack or anything lik-" He stopped his speech to hack up a glob of blood.

Kuzo watched the man show that his body was nearing its limit. "Hey…" For a few seconds he looked the heavily breathing man in the eyes. "Don't die on me before I can kill you." He held his weapon up menacingly. "Broken ribs, an injured lung, internal bleeding, and a concussion. Not to mention torn ligaments and muscles that are slowing you down. If you don't get a doctor those injuries will kill you, but me? Thanks to my curse mark I'm already starting to heal. Those masterful wounds you gave me are closing. The blunt force trauma from slamming into this tree is gone. Even the arm you would've rendered useless for a normal person is fully functional again. It took a toll on my reserves but here I am closer to good health than you are right now."

Raito didn't respond to any of that, he just kept his firm grip on the whip in his hand. Every single breath he took showed that this fight really started wearing him thin. How long had they even been fighting? The sun was in a different position but it was still early… an hour maybe? Did he forget throwing out his own kenjutsu to defend himself and his land? He was reaching a limit that he hadn't pushed in years and yet Kuzo was still standing. Was it really going to end like this? Giving everything he had wasn't enough… he was worse for wear and yet his enemy was still standing.

"YOU CAN LIVE YOUR OWN LIFE!" He shouted profusely while being dragged away. Fighting tooth and nail, a constant struggle to keep their hands from his mouth. "YOUR LIFE BELONGS TO YOU! NO ONE ELSE!" A guard, dragging him, called for backup. They flooded the halls. They beat him with their sticks, each one leaving a bruise or scratch, he didn't falter. Violent strikes all across his prone body, of course the cowards would hit a man while he was down. His spirit surged and his body became as violent as a storm! The guards erupted in a giant blast of lightning, the entire room burned and smelled like ozone, but no sword was drawn. Raito now stood behind a sobbing Killa, his body battered and beaten. Killa was curled up and hugging her knees.

"I just want my own choices… I want my own life!"

"Your life was meant for you to live, and I was sworn to protect that… I want to protect that life because every second with you is more of heaven than this place could ever hope. Because…"

He snapped back into the moment and suddenly his chakra skyrocketed to a new level. The change was so drastic that Kuzo could nearly taste the difference. "This pressure…" Raito clenched his left fist around the spine and ripped it off his body, the only noticeable trace being the skin it took with it.

The injured man spread his stance and raised his sword over his shoulder. "I made a promise…" He started smiling as black clouds rolled overhead, the beautiful weather they had disappeared in the face of his newest attack. "I swore to stand by her side! Nothing will separate us! Not even a monster like you!" He pulled the whip taught and his entire body flickered with lightning. 'This attack will blow you away!' The storm clouds over them started flashing with lightning, powerful thunderclaps tracing right behind the intense weather. 'Send your spirit to the skies! Flash like lightning and roar like thunder!' His hair spiked up and his green eyes turned white with crackling electricity shooting from them.

The smile on Kuzo's face deserved a picture, because nobody who knew him well ever saw one. "That form… that glow… heh! It's really a shame that you aren't joining us! I'm sad to have to kill you!"

"I am Kumoi Raito, the second born of my siblings! Personal guard of Lady Killa herself! I will not fail her today or any other!" His lightning aura flared and the grass around him singed from the sheer heat. "Secret Technique: Raging Storm!" He slammed his foot into the ground and blasted towards Kuzo. "HAAH!" For a moment an onlooker would confuse the blitzing man for an actual bolt of lightning. The ground beneath his feet burned and scorched as he shot closer to his target.

Kuzo drew his calcified arm back with a bright smile on his features. "Clematis Dance: Flower!" Raito was there and he brought his sword right against the dense bone- The bone didn't stand a chance and Kuzo kept smiling. "Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!" His weapon was shattered and he let go of his whip to retaliate with his bare hands, and that was exactly what he shouldn't have done. Raito turned the spine against its owner and coiled it around him and the tree. Kuzo was trapped.

"HNNG!" Raito brought his sword back and this time- This time he swung it into Kuzo's chest! The storm reached its zenith and a bolt of lightning struck the redwood. "HRROAAAAH!" He slammed Kuzo into the tree with all his force, snapping the trunk like a dead twig! The force he generated didn't stop there, where there is lightning there has to be thunder. The clouds behind the tree parted in the way of the all out attack, the sky split between a Cat-6 hurricane and clear blue skies. The laws of force dictate that the tree start falling onto the both of them, but with the last of his major strength Raito was able to dodge towards his home and watched as the Kaguya was flattened by the colossal tree.

He rolled onto his back and stood up to see the destruction of his ultimate move… and he was pleased. But he wasn't pleased at how the tree that he and his dear Killa worked so hard on maintaining managed to fall over. "Maybe if she uses her tears on it- We can- Damn…" He clutched his chest and realized that his body really would die if he didn't get medical help fast! "Hopefully Killa saw all of this and turned-"

"-nce."

No. No no no. That isn't possible. That's not possible! Raito shook his head to clear his, obviously battle drained mind from its delusions. "That was my strongest attack, it doesn't matter that I was hurt before I did it. There's no way that-"

"Bracken Dance!"

Enormous bones that were even taller than the cabin he called home started sprouting from the earth, there was no pattern to them, and there was no reasoning. The bones only had the goal of 'kill anything above' and that's exactly what they were trying to achieve. The only affected area was the zone in the impact of the redwood luckily, but for whatever reason the redwood itself wasn't being damaged. And that's what gave Raito a place to take cover. "An all out attack designed to mortally injure the enemy… With how much energy this would cost- It was a suicide attack." He exhaled a deep breath and let his guard down, just for a second.

"RAITO!" He turned and swung his sword to narrowly miss the bloody face of Kaguya Kuzo. "AMAZING! THAT WAS AMAZING!" He… was alive… not even just alive… he was still attacking like all of that didn't just happen! Raito deflected the attacks with a grim expression darkening his face. The saurian Bone Brawler kept lashing his attacks even as he pushed his enemy back towards the forest of bones. "IF I DIDN'T WORK MY WAY BACK THROUGH THESE BONES- I'D HAVE DIED!" He spun and slammed his tail into his haggard enemy with a smile. "You'll die! You'll really die if I don't get you to someone now! We can keep going! It doesn't have to stop! Join the Ao Akuma, Raito!" Kuzo froze and held a hand over his mouth… only to vomit blood. 'Here I am talking about him reaching his limits, I need to get to Arashi before I get to my life limit!'

He slammed into the bones and nearly dropped his sword from his drooping arms. He was empty, he didn't have any fight left to give at this point. Raito gave it his all so who could really blame him for letting it all fade now? He reached his limit so he might as well just let everything slip into a-

A smile that lit up his entire world with its radiance, it belonged to her. The woman he cared about the most… and he promised to stand by her no matter what!

Kuzo was about to charge in to finish things off when a sword ripped through his neck and broke through his vertebrae. 'I don't care about anything else!' Raito's left eye was bleeding and his left arm was numb from the shoulder down, and yet he was still pressing forwards. 'I'll kill you right here!'

Through the obstruction in his trachea he still managed to let out a gurgled laugh right before the entire world shifted and he could only see gray. 'NO!' His smile dropped once he felt his very heart slow down, his body was reaching an expiration quick fast in a hurry and the only way to slow it down was by dropping out of his Level Two state… which with a sword through his throat like this would kill him. 'I have to kill him and leave!' His right hand coated in a thin layer of bone and he thrusted it into Raito's stomach and blew right through his abdomen in a spray of gore. 'What the hell?! He's not letting go!'

The man was locked in place with that arm through his stomach and his sword breaking Kuzo's neck, and he was unabashed by it. Kuzo pulled his arm back as far as he could but it wasn't amounting to much at all. As hard as he fought it wasn't making any forward progress towards getting him out of this man's deathly grasp! 'Let go! Let go! LET GO!' He raised his left hand up and clenched his fist. 'DAMN IT!' He punched and was inches from blowing his head clean off-

A broken voice could always be heard no matter how loud everything else was. "…Raito…" He stopped his fist and glanced over to see that same woman who left this area a while ago, and for some reason she was crying. Why? Was seeing her land gone that big of a deal to her? Or was it having to see this dead man right- Wait. Kuzo looked in front of himself and saw that his enemy was still, lifeless like a portrait. His inability to see color didn't let him know that he won the fight minutes ago, specifically the moment the sword broke the skin of his neck.

'He- He's dead…' Raito was dead before he could ensure that this threat to him and everything he truly cared about could affect them. 'He was planning to take my head all the way off, but he died before he could…' The sound of air scraping bright his attention towards Killa and he noticed the black clouds around her body.

"RAITO!" Her scream was deafening and it actually scared him for a millisecond before he raised his legs and kicked himself free of his jailor… with a sword still in his throat. He pulled the weapon out and powered down the instant he healed the damage. Lightning shot from the clouds in front of the fresh widow and missed their mark by the smallest margin.

With a tight grip on the sword in his hand, Kuzo turned and started to sprint away. 'I don't have time to deal with an angry woman! I need to get to Arashi's base now!' He broke down every single tree in his path, there wasn't any time to waste going around shit! "Damn it all! I have to make it to her in the next five minutes!" He leapt over the trees and down the mountain he and his goons had to trek up in the first place. With that he was gone from the scene.

Killa would've kept firing those bolts but her attention went to her husband's falling body before anything else. "Raito!" Her tears fell in fat drops of salty fluid and went straight for the gaping hole in his stomach. She tried her best to keep them concentrated there of all places. "Please… please don't leave me- I need you. Don't leave. Don't go." Killa was practically blind from all the tears in her eyes but she didn't stop the waterworks no matter how much it started to irritate, once she stopped that was it, the process would be done. "Please- You- You promised to be with me!" Her broken sobs were painful for even the remaining plants in their garden to hear. The clouds above her went from black to a wistful gray and started a gentle downpour of rain.

A hand softly traced her lower jaw and her tears stopped. "I- I don't break my- my promises." He was okay enough to talk so that was enough for her to wrap him in the tightest hug she could manage without breaking his ribs all over again. "Careful, those healing tears only do so much!" She loosened her grip and looked into his emerald orbs with a smile even through her puffy eyes and the wet hair matting against her face.

"I thought you were gone. I thought I was all alone. I thought that you-" He raised a finger to her lips and stopped the oncoming spree of concern.

"I told you I don't break my promises… and even without me you'd still have my brother and my sister."

It took all her willpower to not smack him upside the head right then and there. "It wouldn't be the same! I love you too much to lose you!" She started crying again even in the midst of that bone forest they were in.

"Well our love is like this tree, even though it's broken it can still grow." He looked down at where her tears fell onto the revealed rings of the tree and saw the sprouting sapling from her regenerative tears. "And it'll only grow more and more no matter how much anyone knocks it down."

That was a beautiful analogy for him to make and it gave her enough of a distraction to bury her face deeper into his shoulder and not notice the burn marks showing how he knocked the tree down. What she won't know won't hurt her.

Here he was again, kneeling in front of this bastard who wouldn't get off his ass and do anything himself. As ridiculously strong as he was he had to make all of them do his bidding like they were slaves to him. "So there was only one man there? And he refused so sternly that you had to fight hard enough to cause a weather emergency in the area?"

"That's correct."

Sho looked doubtful about that, even if there was only one man there how could he have posed such a problem to where his magnum opus reported to one of his Heads in such bad condition? "You aren't leaving anything out of this report are you? I can already see your little souvenir from the skirmish." Sho leaned forward with a hand on his mask's cheek. "You know better than to lie to me~"

No lies were being told. "There was only that man there when I entered the scene, he refused to join us and I killed him. Plain and simple." That had too much bite in it for his Lord's taste. Suddenly Kuzo felt like his head was going to explode and his entire body was on fire. He didn't show that he was affected, he was too tough for something like this to phase him.

"Never forget that just because you're my favorite doesn't ever mean you get to disrespect me. Am I understood?"

"Y-Yes."

He leaned closer for a better effect even though he was twenty feet away at least. "Am I understood?"

"Yes My Lord!" The pressure stopped and he could breathe properly again.

"Good. Now go situate yourself however you please, your day is free."

He stood up and bowed his head then turned and left the chamber to wander those wide hallways until he found himself at a slightly more ornate door with a bone knife lodged in it. He opened the door and walked into his house . There was a garden complete with a sakura tree and small pond but there shouldn't have been a black haired boy around his age trespassing in the room, especially with that soft appearance and gentle demeanor. "Oh look who's back. Is that a gift for me? And here I thought we were a secret~" That annoying sing-song voice from such a feminine looking young man... Kuzo was in no mood.

"Kazuma, get out." He flung the sword into the sakura tree and watched it stay perfectly planted alongside some other weapons. A tanto, a flail, a kama, and some nunchaku. The sword was the fifth weapon to join the shrine.

"Aww no need to be so cold to me~ Honestly I think you should build a shrine to me in this room of yours, get rid of all these stupid memento~"

Kuzo turned around with murder in his eyes. "One more word and I'll kill you." For some reason he really decided to play with dynamite and kept talking.

"It's not my fault that you have these, maybe if you were allowed to remember things other than fighting then maybe you wouldn't need a shrine of the best ones you've had!" He didn't move a muscle even as this pest came up behind him and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. This worm that he barely tolerated in his presence wasn't wrong. The real reason that he had such a burning hatred for Sho was because of his unique curse seal, and what it truly cursed him with. No matter what he couldn't remember things outside of or near a situation where he was in combat, more specifically his memory wasn't allowed to kick in and embed an event if his body wasn't in an excited state first. It was to create the best fighter, he was the favorite because he didn't make mistakes in a fight like most people, he literally couldn't because all he was allowed to know was fighting.

"Didn't I tell you to get out." It wasn't a question and yet the intruder made a gruesome mistake.

"I'll leave when you give me a kiss~" Kuzo turned his head with rage across his face. "Okay fine I'll go, just get rid of all those stupid weapons that those weak people ha-" A fist slammed into his jaw and turned his world upside down, no wait he was just upside down in the air and Kuzo was reeling his hands back.

"RAAAH!" A flurry of hits that couldn't even be properly processed by the victim getting hit. "I don't give a damn about what happens after this! Never insult the people who I remember most!" With one last strike he severed a head from its battered body… with blunt force, then knelt to the ground. "All I'm allowed to remember is fight after fight! But I'll never forget blowing you to pieces!" He started those rapid fire strikes once again and didn't stop until there was bloody mist in the air and entrails all across his garden. The tears coming from his eyes didn't hamper his strikes at all. "DIE!" Kuzo raised a fresh bone sword and stabbed it through the eye of his source of stress relief. The only thing you could hear was his heavy breathing and the light trickle of blood into the floor.

It was a good thing his room was out of the way, nobody heard when the crying started.

Author's Notes: Well would you look at that? Even Kuzo has something that actually affects him, just so happens to be mental abuse. Favorite or don't, let me know if you have any ideas for a oneshot in a pm and I'll get back to you on it. See ya next time.