.: This chapter is legitimately the greatest thing I've ever written. It's insanely long, beating my previous record just two chapters ago by thousands of words, but it's so worth it. It did everything I wanted it to do, from emotional attachments to the antagonists, to great fighting choreography, and even bringing our hero to the lowest she has ever been. Yes, even lower than before. She is going through it. The fights in this chapter are going to be centered around Ichigo vs. Grimmjow and Alucard vs. Dracula the most. Love those fights. Let's see if we can wrap this war up next chapter. Credits to Bleach, Naruto, Castlevania, and Castlevania: Nocturne for helping me get choreography together and a little bit of conflict inspiration. :.
The Girl with A Half-Soul
Chapter 60:
The Wolf Woman: Lamented
They sat frozen, acting as the barrier between him and Rodencia. The way Sosuke had approached them, even if Kiyaya grossly outsized him, brought a mysterious wave of intimidation with it. It pulsed off his body forebodingly. It was like they knew. They knew very much that this man was capable of things that had not been revealed yet. He chose to hold back by avoiding his intended opponent. There was no primal instinct to kill what moved. Instead, he remained calm. Sosuke wished to figure things out before diving in headfirst – something Adrian did not have the pleasure of.
Cherokee's wicked smile returned. The devil fruit morphology was gone, but she knew what he was. The minks set up lanterns all around the forest so that training could continue all through the night for the months leading up to their tribe's arrival. She witnessed it plenty of times to know it was a weakness. After cursing the ground to form a stalagmite, she staked Adrian's head and made a glowing light appear on the end of her thorny staff. She wanted to fight. If that meant she had to attract the moth man to make it happen, then all the more fun.
The throaty laughter she made Kiyaya and Lakota break eye contact with Sosuke for a split second. Noticing, he glanced over his shoulder to see what was up. His lack of reaction to the light showed he was not bothered or amused. But what it did do was distract the answerless couple.
Kiyaya and Lakota paused in their light breathing when they suddenly realized he was behind them. It was like they simply blinked, and he was with Rodencia. There was no slight breeze that followed him, no indication that he had walked past them at all. He just…materialized.
They gasped as they turned. "Ro–" Kiyaya voiced.
Sosuke ignored Roderic. He just grabbed the hilt of Adrian's sword and expelled it from Rodencia's body. She yelped from the sharp blade mincing her inside more. For a second, Roderic thought his mother would feel better, but then he saw that the blood did not stop coming and the way she slumped with eyes unblinking.
When he failed to see what exactly had happened, Lakota cried out for him. He crawled to block her from a finishing strike, but Sosuke was not planning on it. He was rather focused on the sudden approach from behind.
He had ignored Cherokee. That was a mistake. She launched an attack. With her arm coated in Haki, she gathered her fingers into a point to punch a hole through him.
But, without even looking, he simply caught her hand to completely stop her. The opposing force made her arm crumple, and a harsh breeze continued without her. That was all it took to wipe the smile off her face. The moth man never flinched. His reaction time was right on the money. It shocked her.
He finally turned his head to look at her. "My. That was dangerously close to your friends. Are you sure you want to do this here?"
She looked him dead in the eyes as he refused to wait for her response. Instead, he just used the hold he had to toss her into the air as if she was weightless. Then he punched her stomach while she was vulnerable to send her flying straight up. Droplets of blood choked from her throat. And before she had the chance to feel like she was falling, he suddenly appeared at her peak to roundhouse kick her back toward the ground. There was no time to catch herself.
Kiyaya pulled Lakota, Rodencia, and Roderic into her hands to get away from the area. Cherokee made a brutal landing right where they had been. When Kiyaya opened her eyes, she unclenched her hands to see Lakota wrapping Rodencia's abdomen tightly. "She only has a few minutes," he told Kiyaya with urgency.
She wondered if her panic was present in her face. They were so far away from any doctor. If they wanted to save her life, they had to move now.
Roderic was petrified as he sat with strangers. They were saying that his mother was on death's door. If that was true, how could her life be saved? And where was his father? He gazed up at Kiyaya. "Daddy."
She met those tear-filled little eyes of his. The protection and comfort he wanted from his parents could not fully be provided by her. And what scared her the most was thinking that they would watch him become an orphan right in front of them.
Cherokee stayed grounded in a daze. It may have not collapsed a mountainside, but it was still very painful and doubled her vision. The enemy thought her being down made things rather peaceful. He returned with moth wings that retracted out of sight and tucked his hands in his pockets. "I'll ask you both again," he said calmly. "What the Hell am I about to face?"
They stared with more composure this time. Despite being on opposing sides of the conflict, Sosuke was treating them with unpretentiousness. But it was not from the goodness of his heart. He wanted something from them. Lakota knew that, and that was why he refused to speak of Cherokee's devil fruit powers.
Their silence made him exhale like a sigh. While he pulled his glasses off to put them away, he clarified the alternative route. "If you don't tell me while I'm being civil, then I can always beat it out of you due to insubordination."
After experiencing less than a beatdown and still reeling from the pain, Cherokee knew that they would experience something far worse. And she was supposed to fight him anyway. So, yes, she would protect them, but she was really just wanting his full attention. Getting pummeled just now was merely a fluke.
She got up from the crater her body made. Her stomach ached from the punch, her back ached from the kick, and her neck ached from the landing. This Admiral was crazy strong compared to his friend. Was his friend even trying? Sure, their methods of combat were different, but compared to what she just endured, she barely got hurt.
Sosuke switched his attention to her. He knew she would get up eventually, but it happened quicker than expected. "Well someone has to tell me," he insisted, squirting silk into his palm to slick his hair back with a little fringe hanging past his forehead.
She rolled her neck to pop it. "The Curse Curse Fruit," her demented voice revealed.
The title was self-explanatory as he had hoped, but when he looked at her form, he was still confused. This had to go beyond casting curses. She was a monster that barely clung onto humanity. And besides, he thought curses were spiritual things, yet he watched the murky water-like substance billow around her legs. It spread and looked like it had the ability to change into different states of matter upon command. Something about it was so evil that it made anything she desired happen.
Then Sosuke got to thinking: What were its limits? Did it act as her shield as well as her weapon? The dirt she stood on began to wither away into smaller pieces like dust, just like it had done back on the battlefield. If doing it was intentional, it was incredible that Cherokee could make it happen without having to concentrate hard. But yet, he had a hunch for what he could be looking at. Something he himself was familiar with. Luckily, he had some time on his hands to get to the bottom of it.
Kiyaya was not willing to wait around to see if Cherokee had what it took. She decided that Sosuke was distracted enough for her to make a break for it. "Continue with your exodus!" she commanded the refugees. Then she made a giant leap powered by Haki to lessen the chances of Sosuke pursuing her.
Her shadow passed over them for a moment. Sosuke stood normally, but as soon as the shadow passed, Cherokee was staring at a humanoid insect.
Nervous to peer around the corner, Sosuke listened to the wonderful sound of female Marines giggling and conversing during a break. After all this time, he was finally in the vicinity of a real woman again. He wanted to talk to one badly. Like, really badly. What held him back was wondering if he lost the ability to not stumble on words by not practicing for many months. Did he even retain any of his personality before enlisting?
"Am I interrupting something?" Adrian's velvety chords questioned.
Sosuke flinched but stayed pressed to the wall. He turned his attention to his vampiric comrade to hold a finger to his lips and shush him. "Don't screw this up for me!" he asserted, hushed.
"How…?"
"You're like the most popular guy on the base. Showing your face alone will get you all the attention."
Adrian rolled his eyes. Even though they were now Petty Officers, Sosuke went on and on about how sucky his love life had become. Now an opportunity to make a move had arisen, and he was calling dibs.
"Are you hatching a plan? Better not show off your devil fruit powers. You're hideous enough as is."
Sosuke scowled since he already knew that was not an option. But why did he have to make a jab like that? He did not look that bad!
"Sorry. That was a bit much." He came closer and made him move to face him. At this point, he knew him well enough to block the time to protest. The truth was that Sosuke was not hideous at all. He just needed to alter his appearance a tad.
The glasses were slipped off, and Adrian licked his fingers so that combing his hair back would help it stay in place. That was what made Sosuke realize how awkward he felt about it and pulled back. "What are you? My mother?"
"I'm helping you," Adrian insisted, repeating to change the direction of his hair. "That's better. Now you don't have to say much to get their attention."
The sword was summoned from its scabbard and floated to give Sosuke a little bit of a reflection of what was done to him. It was definitely not something he was used to seeing, but he had to admit it did make him look sharper. Of course, the Marine with as much pampering as a straitlaced woman would have better judgement on outward appearance than he did.
"…Thanks," Sosuke yielded.
"What are you waiting for?" Adrian played, stepping back and letting the sword slip back into its scabbard.
With new confidence, Sosuke adjusted the collar of his white jacket and rounded the corner to see if he was now dressed to impress. Adrian stayed and heard his voice, but did not pay enough attention to see if he was succeeding. He was a little pleased that his help was accepted. But his smile ebbed out of sight not too long after.
He turned back where he came from to take a different direction to his destination, not wanting to steal his comrade's thunder.
Cherokee suddenly flinched when the miasma drifting beside her face was ruptured by Sosuke's fist. All he had to do was exert more force to strike her. But as quickly as it happened, he disappeared even faster. The feeling of miasma on her other side was disrupted by a twisting kick. All that registered for her at that moment was the breeze that came from it. By the time she looked, he was already gone again.
Her miasma was not something she explicitly commanded. It was mostly a side effect of her awakened power. It was not there to protect her, although its presence did just that. If she wished for it to do something, it would do so. When Sosuke interfered with its existence, it almost did not take too kindly to that.
The Chieftain stood in a bubble of Observation Haki that seemed to not pick up on Sosuke's movements. In her peripheral, she would catch a glimpse of him just to find he was not where her miasma was trounced. Just as it tried to rebloom, he would basically cut it down like annoying shrubbery. Her shield was lowering with every attack.
All just so he could get high enough to whack the heel of his boot between her antlers.
The hit hurt a lot more than she ever expected. Even as the deer skull acted as a helmet, all it did was keep her actual skull from cracking. Her jaws clashed uncomfortably and her back almost gave way.
Sosuke touched the ground just to flip back to create distance between them. He had done it. He broke through her defenses. If she was not mad before, she would be mad now. He watched her straighten with a grimace and give him a look that could kill. The charge straight for her was met with her hands swiping across her chest to bury him in a cursed wave. But she felt that same sensation of having her protection disturbed – this time from behind.
In a panic, she glanced over her shoulder. What was once empty space was taken over by Sosuke's presence. There was no time to react!
His fist slammed into her face so hard that she was thrown off her balance. She skidded across the ground to where the refugees had been, stumbling like a fool. But she surprisingly did not let her ire control her decision-making. Cherokee took a breath instead. She was finally getting the fight she wanted. So far, it was not in her favor. Only a few hits communicated that this Admiral was a far cry from the one she killed. She dominated her previous matchup and found that she had overwhelmed him. His abilities did not compete well against hers. It was that plain and simple.
Although she was still trying to figure this one out, there were obvious hints about what his strengths were. While his partner used a weapon like she did, Sosuke was more accustomed to hand-to-hand combat. The sword he took back remained strapped to his back as if he was protecting it. She doubted that he would pull it out for her.
As for other hints, she recalled the way he stopped her initial attack without even looking. That had to be Observation Haki he used for that. And then he broke through her miasma without suffering the consequences multiple times in addition to moving at an inhuman speed. And just from the residual pains where she took hits, she knew Armament Haki had to be at play, too. It was all so powerful. Maybe more powerful than his partner's.
She returned to her feet without feeling any dread or apprehension. The last six moons were spent training for this moment. It may not be as fun as she envisioned it would be, but she had the right motivation backing her up. Suddenly, she turned her head to address the one who helped her the most, only to realize she was alone. Kiyaya had taken more than Lakota with her. Then she remembered what she had done with the sword.
A pit formed in her stomach. What had she done? It was not that she hated Rodencia or secretly wished for her demise. She was just…blinded by rage. Lakota cried out rightfully so. Hurting her that badly was not something the real her would do. The regret overcoming her psyche was met with disgust. She looked down at her hands and how one only existed due to this form she had taken. This power was not solely dangerous to others; it was dangerous to the user, too. Cherokee lost touch with who she was, and now her ally's life hung by a thread.
But she still looked up at Sosuke with hatred in her blackened heart. She would never have been driven to this point if it were not for him or the World Government he worked for. Although she knew getting out of control was no longer an option, she detested what led to it. The Lun'aecho people deserved a hero to free them, not a villain who happened to share the same side as them. She had to hold the ones close who made her stronger and gave her purpose. And internally, she pleaded for Rodencia's forgiveness and pleaded even harder to say it to her face rather than her grave.
With that, she charged at Sosuke head-on to try turning the tide. He raised his arm to block her staff.
They clashed with matching Haki coating their arms. A brief spark ignited between them as the opposing forces repelled. When the rat mink kicked at her with a spin, Cherokee bowed to let her roll over her. Facing each other showed that a knife had been pulled. Rodencia blocked a slash by aiming for her wrist to deflect the attack. She tried again in the opposite direction, only to be met with the same deflection.
But Rodencia twisted her hand to keep the blade aimed downward and gripped her fist to lower the plight. She swung a punch just for her to duck out of the way, so she tried again with the other hand. Cherokee read her very easily, dodging each time, just to turn enough and deliver an elbow to her triangular nose.
Rodencia grunted as the hit made her eyes squeeze shut. But Cherokee wrapped her arm to haul her over her back again and kick her a few feet away. She skidded to a stop against the grass but was otherwise unharmed. They both panted without moving again.
"That was good," Rodencia complimented. "Your Haki is already reaching its full potential, and it's only been a week since your training started."
"But still not good enough for the Marines," Cherokee criticized. "What do you do back on Zou to prepare for stuff like this?"
"You-teia are already doing it. Let's not get too cynical this early in the process."
She lowered her gaze a little bit. Her black hair, loose from the bondage of braids, fell over her shoulders. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean you aren't a good teacher."
The rat mink smiled and came closer during the intermission of their spar. She slipped off her brimmed hat so that it hung off her back with a looped string. "I know you-teia weren't saying that. Don't worry."
"War is stressful."
"Always has been. Always will be." She gave Cherokee a friendly nuzzle that conveyed a newfound bond according to Mink Tribe customs. The next half year was going to be dedicated to making a great leader a fantastic fighter. Cherokee would be a product of her cultivation. The goal was for her to surpass her. And maybe along the way they would form a lasting friendship that would forever link their tribes.
The feeling of a repeated nuzzle was what got her to open her eyes. Roderic's brown fur filled her sight, but it did not come to her mind that her child was present. What struck her most of all was the sharp pain digging into her abdomen that made her shriek and want to kick away. The mink doctor who was working on her had to hold her down with the help of his nurses. "Give her another dose!" he demanded.
A wet cloth covered her nostrils, and she was forced to take deep inhales all while Roderic kept his arm around her neck. Her movements lessened until she fell back unconscious.
As far as her chances of surviving were, Lakota and Kiyaya were in the dark. They had made it to the edge of the mountains where the battle started. Rodencia was getting the medical treatment she needed. Now it was like both sides of the conflict were confused on where things currently stood. As for their own side, they found out why.
The Duke of the Mink Tribe had been slain. He was the last line of communication, so without him, nobody knew whether to pursue the retreating Marines or hold the line. Lakota knew that one Admiral was dead, and the other was busy with Cherokee, so they were in the same canoe with no leadership. Having him back meant that everybody was looking at him for instruction.
But Lakota was too focused on the sheer number of injured that outweighed the healers and nurses who were equipped to help. His senses were filled with distress. Some were trying to make it to the treeline by themselves. Others were being fetched and carried. What distracted him the most was feeling the unmoving ones being left behind to die because nobody knew they were still breathing.
Kiyaya lifted Lakota above everyone's eye level because he was being crowded and bombarded with questions. His lack of responses told her that he was overwhelmed with being the sole survivor so to speak. "Hold on," she interjected, moving him close to her chest. "The Marines aren't fighting because their Admiral is fighting Cherokee as we speak. We should take advantage of this by launching another attack with those who are able to keep fighting."
"But where's Cherokee?" someone asked.
"What if it's a trap?" another wondered.
Lakota peered over Kiyaya's fingers and tried to address them at an appropriate volume. "Cherokee will come out of this victorious," he promised them. "We can't sit and wait for her return. We have to finish our portion of the battle."
"Gather your bison and horses," Kiyaya told them. "We need to wipe them out and take the fight to the coast. Knowing how they operate, they probably have reinforcements waiting on ships, so targeting the source is the best option."
There were approximately three quarters of their forces remaining for the task. Compared to the Marines, it looked like it was a little bit more, so that was good. But the weariness was present in their expressions. Injuries for this group were minor, but they had just spent themselves physically with the thought of dying pushing their anxiety to unhealthy levels. Then the minks had gone Sulong and were dealing with the exhaustion that followed it. The ones who went berserk during the lunar eclipse were not even in this gathering since they had gone past their limits entirely. The warriors and minks standing before Lakota and Kiyaya were running on fumes. Not even Rodencia's Conqueror's Haki could give them enough rest to recuperate. This was a crisis at their hands.
Lakota looked up at his wife, which made her return his gaze. She turned back toward the trees to keep the dispersing fighters from hearing her. "Should we split up? One leads them back into battle and the other helps Cherokee?"
He hesitated with the idea because of a few oversights. If he chose to be the leader for the battle continuation, he could very well end up in a similar predicament as last time since he would be without a protector sharing the saddle with him. If he chose to help Cherokee, he knew the Admiral would take him hostage and make it harder for her to defeat him. Kiyaya, on the other hand, could be a major help wherever she ended up. That was the reality. They needed to split the work, but being apart risked never reuniting. Risking it the first time was hard enough. Could they push their personal feelings aside for the sake of the war? They really had no choice.
The mere thought of it was dreadful. Even the fur on Kiyaya's neck stood on end from it. Lakota rested the side of his face against her thumb to offer reassurance. "Don't worry too much. We did it once. We can do it again."
Her gaze was fixed on something in the forest. It was like she did not hear him. He waited for her to look at him again, ready to repeat himself if he had to, but she literally did not blink. Finally, rolling over to see what had her seemingly on edge, he realized that the dread they felt had come from an outside source.
The creature of the night sat in the large windowsill with one boot touching the floor. No candlelight indicated anyone was in the private quarters. That was because he wanted the pale moonlight to bathe him. Also, he wanted to watch the traffic going on a couple of floors down without drawing attention to himself. After two weeks of being a ghost town, the base was receiving its occupants back from their collective leave. Tomorrow would resume normal operations.
Interrupting his peace was a quick rapping on the door and a nonexistent pause that led to it being opened. "Guess who, you sulky vampire bastard," Sosuke greeted a little bit too enthusiastically.
With an annoyed inhale through his nostrils and eyes rolling, Adrian simply replied "Go away."
"What?! But I just got here." He closed the door behind him to make himself at home. His belongings were already back in his own quarters, but was he really settled if he did not check in on the introvert he called "friend"? He was alone in a dark room for crying out loud! Knowing that was the preferred environment, he did not even bother lighting a candle and just opted to join him with the window view. "Where did you end up going?"
Still refraining from looking at him, Adrian noticed the way he pressed his elbow to the glass and leaned against it. They were Commodores at this point in time, not yet leaving their teen ages behind, and still assigned together. It dawned on them during their previous rank of Captain that Token, now an Admiral, was purposely pulling strings to keep them paired. Even when they were responsible for the lower ranked Marines, they still underwent training with him. When he was unavailable, he left them regiments to follow.
Sosuke's lack of sleeves showed that it was physically paying off. His muscles were incredibly toned. Despite that, though, he still had not adopted the altered look that got him female attention that one time. Glasses were a necessity if he did not want everything to be blurry. And funny enough, Sosuke was not very desperate these days. The busyness of their job kept him from caring as much lately. But after getting a taste of home, he wondered if it reminded him of those longings.
"I never went," he admitted.
Hearing that made Sosuke deflate. They had talked about this right before he left. Having a vacation like this did not come often. He needed to take advantage of it while it was still there. Go home. See family and friends for once. But it did not interest him for some reason.
"You're telling me you stayed here all by yourself for two whole weeks?"
"I did."
"I told you you could just tag along with me!"
"And I declined. What is there to be upset about?"
"You were completely alone for fourteen days! That's the most depressing sentence to ever come out of my mouth. Please tell me you at least left this room to get some fresh air."
"Of course I did. I'm not a hermit."
Sosuke scanned the room to see it was as tidy as ever with not even a speck of dust in sight. The only evidence that someone slept in here was that there were personal items like books in a shelf and a full wardrobe in sight. But the way Adrian existed meant that his room was not allowed to look lived in. So, Sosuke had no way to know how much time he spent in here.
One thing he did notice was that there was something new on display. Adrian was organized with his things, which meant everything was always in the same place and easy to navigate. A bookshelf had an unfamiliar occupant that was noticeable as a result. Sosuke left the window to check it out. It was not a figurine. Instead, it was a handmade doll made with carefully stitched fabric and buttons for eyes. Spoons that oddly looked just like the ones from the mess hall were tied in place for the arms. Dangling as legs from under a specifically white garment were ladles that definitely came from the mess hall. The best part had to be the little accumulation of cut rope stitched into the top of the head to look like a specific hairstyle, in addition to the warped paper clips that formed glasses over the face.
"What the Hell is this?!" Sosuke laughed.
Adrian peeled his gaze away from the window finally to see he had forgotten to hide a secret. In fact, he had grown so used to its presence that he did not think about someone else finding it. A hot flash traveled from his forehead all the way down to his toes.
"It's like looking in a mirror!" Sosuke commented while holding it up next to his face.
Adrian shot up and tried to pluck it from his grasp, but Sosuke ducked and ended up switching places with him.
"You were so mad that I left you by yourself that you made a voodoo doll of me?"
"No," Adrian answered, flinging off his coat to block Sosuke's eyesight so he could snatch it.
But Sosuke tossed it over his head and escaped the opposite side while it was still midair. Once it hit the floor and Adrian saw he had been outsmarted, the doll landed back in his hand. "Why else would you replicate my striking features with spare junk you found lying around the base?"
"Does everything I do require a reason?"
"Ha! So you admit its me."
"But unlike you, it's quiet and not nosey."
He meant that as an insult, but Sosuke just laughed at him again. Adrian decided that the jig was up so making a fuss was pointless. He returned to his seat on the windowsill.
"Well, if I'm not, then who else will be?" He inspected the doll for any needle holes that could prove voodoo play as he slipped a hand in his pocket. "I'm assuming your unwillingness to visit your family is mutual."
With his wavy locks gleaming like frost in the darkness, Adrian tried to ignore the pang of heartbreak. His family history was complicated. Revealing any of it to his archrival, he felt too susceptible to mockery.
"Oh man. Is this your family?" Sosuke asked abruptly.
Adrian glanced to see him bent over in front of a single framed painting he had displayed in an obscure cubby. Finding the doll in the open was one thing, but finding that felt too invasive. The only reason he did not block access in that moment was because he never laid a finger on it, just admired the little portrait of a man and woman holding their toddling son in their nicest attire. Even back in those days, his blonde locks were the star of the show, but his chubby hand gripped a long blonde strand that belonged to his mother. Just take away his Adam's apple and soften his cheekbones a bit, and they would be identical.
"You definitely look like your mother. Wow."
"Yes," Adrian unemotionally replied, ready for him to leave more than ever. "After she died, I was too much of a reminder of her for my father."
He looked over at him to see his golden iris giving him a warning through a side eye. It made him back away from what could have been the one good memory that remained of that family. Even if things were not on good terms with who remained, it made sense to cling to such things.
"If I returned to what was once my home, I would simply be returning to my father's final resting place," he concluded.
"Oh…Sounds…mutual."
Why do I even bother? Adrian thought.
"If you're going to continue bothering me, I would much rather continue my solitude in peace."
"Alright. I'm sorry." He came over to the windowsill to share it as a seat. The doll was draped over his knee so he could get comfortable. "But can you blame me for at least worrying about you? Making a doll of me because you missed me is like the saddest thing I've ever seen."
"Don't flatter yourself. I didn't miss you."
"Oh please. I think you started to lose your mind not having me around. It's been you and me for three years. No longer bunkmates, but always at each other's throats."
For the first time in two weeks, Adrian actually cracked a smile. "Okay. Maybe I use you as a way to let off steam, so I made that as a substitute."
"What does 'let off steam' mean?" he asked, concerned about the implications.
Adrian shook his head and cleared his throat. Without straining too much, he matched Sosuke's voice in an impersonation that showed how the doll was merely a vessel for him to channel him. "I am completely clueless about everything and everybody, so I'm going to bother Adrian because I don't have a girlfriend and think of him as a substitute for one, and then I'm going to eat a completely useless devil fruit that turns me into a godawful beast that can't resist the smallest light source because I'm that insecure about how I compare to my girlfriend Adrian because I am actually more stupid than mud."
Flabbergasted, Sosuke sat there unable to blink just from how immaculate the acting was. Then, instead of getting offended, he exploded with laughter. This had to have been going on for far longer than two weeks. Maybe the doll came later, but he was apparently someone who talked to himself behind closed doors often. "I am so sorry your loneliness has spiraled so far out of control," he breathlessly pitied.
"I am not lonely," he defended with his normal voice.
"Dude, you're lonely. You got a broken family, and I never see you interact with anybody unless you're forced to. It's got nothing to do with social anxiety either. You just…keep to yourself, and that's perfectly normal. I just so happen to also see your internal screaming for human connection."
He was not going about it in a malicious manner. There was sympathy and understanding between the lines. Adrian dropped his gaze out of vulnerability that he always tried to disallow. Nobody had ever seen straight through him before.
"I'm only one guy, but you know I'll be there," Sosuke verbally bandaged.
The reassurance was an invitation more or less. Adrian could choose to be alone all he wanted, but as soon as he decided not to be, he did not have to search. He understood people enough to know that they were severely flawed. To save himself the grief, he tried to close himself off from them. Most of all, he left his family behind because it was a battle he wished to not wage. Fighting as a Marine did not require emotional aptitude. However, he got tangled up with Sosuke in the process of him removing himself from his domestic situation. And he learned something along the way.
"You know, family is not only made by blood," he shared. "Ancestors and their offspring are linked together by a shared bond."
Their eyes met once more. Though their union started out as a punishment, there was no denying that they knew each other far beyond anyone else in this building, perhaps the entire world. Things between them were not formal or frigid. They were their true authentic selves together. It just so happened that Sosuke was the extrovert who adopted the introvert, but even he could see Adrian loosening up as time passed. In exchange, Sosuke learned to focus and dedicate himself to making a better Marine. They brought the best out of each other.
Adrian decided to state what should have been the obvious outcome. "For years, I've been fighting for justice with you by my side. Isn't that a family, too?"
It was an indirect way to say it, but Sosuke knew what he was getting at. Rejecting his father for whatever reason did not constitute a repulsion for wanting other kinds of bonds. Adrian was inclined to think of him as a brother. A very annoying brother he put up with, but a brother, nonetheless.
Adrian seemed a little relieved to get it off his chest. He lifted a finger to twirl some hair around it. That was when Sosuke had to once again keep it to himself that he thought Adrian was the most beautiful human being he had ever seen. Handsome, clean, fierce, and classy were qualities he admired the most. Having him allocated as a brother felt special. A privilege? An honor? Who cared. It was simply appreciated.
He could not help but get a little sappy about it. Adrian just opened up a tiny bit. That never happened. "Wow. I'm touched. You think of me as the brother you never had? I could hug you."
"Do not touch me," he immediately declined.
Sosuke laughed again. "You're such a kitty cat. Pss pss pss."
"Shut up."
Suddenly, Sosuke cleared his throat and tried to wing his own impersonation of the sulky vampire bastard. "You are an insufferable, unbearable idiot, and many other words for insufferable and unbearable because I know all the words because I'm smarter than everybody, and one day I'll use my creepy devil fruit powers to fly away to an abandoned castle and live out the rest of my days alone because I'm better than everyone, whereas you'll die as the virgin you were destined to be. Forever."
The perturbed expression that crossed Adrian's face told him that he nailed it. After a couple seconds of silence, Sosuke stifled a laugh, which allowed Adrian to chuckle because he had to admit what he said was funny. Then they both laughed together, forgetting about being heartfelt and for once, enjoying each other's company. They could not live with each other, but they also could not live without each other. Brothers in arms until the end.
It was just so hard to see how premature the end turned out to be.
Cherokee's staff whacked the arm he raised, but he did not flinch in the slightest. Instead, he surprised her with an abrupt wave of Conqueror's Haki that was powerful enough to blast her away. Feeling it did not knock her out cold, but it did make her gasp. Besides Rodencia, there was nobody else she knew with that gift. Something told her that this was about to be much more challenging than she originally thought.
But she did not give up. Her people were on the opposite side of the mountains fighting harder than she could ever have imagined. The last thing she wanted was for her to let their sacrifices be in vain by failing here.
She stopped herself from flying too far by flipping and billowing miasma at her feet. It slowed her down and also helped her regain the ability to fly. When she propelled herself toward him, he purposely jumped back to avoid the collision. Moth wings erupted from his back to keep him afloat. Cherokee kicked off the ground without skipping a beat. Her staff was gripped in both hands to be used like a club. Swinging, he blocked her with the same arm and then caught her off guard with a kick into her side that sent her flying away again.
But the moon goddess was not about to be humiliated again. She used the same technique before to stop herself. This time, however, Sosuke was ready to counterattack. She blinked and he was in front of her. His arm was fully recoiled back to deliver as hard of a punch as he could. But right when he aimed for her face, she, too, disappeared and reappeared right behind him using Armament Haki. She had her staff arched over her head with both hands so she could hack him as if using an ax on a log. But he just caught the end and attempted to yank it from her.
Unfortunately, that was just an act to get her to activate a different muscle group. He shoved her back so harshly that she felt her heels skidding across the sand of the adjacent desert. She kicked off again to not tumble backwards awkwardly. And Sosuke was ready to try that punch again. His speed could not surprise her anymore, though.
She disappeared again just to try clubbing him at a different angle. And just like before, he grabbed the end of the staff. But his kick that time was aimed upward. His entire shin crashed into her ribs, knocking the breath out of her lungs. The momentum of his kick carried her in a circle until she went spinning head over feet straight to the ground. Barren rock buckled underneath the impact, and she struggled to use her diaphragm properly.
Seeing her down made Sosuke forcibly flapped his wings once and quickly swathe himself in them so he could soar down. He rotated to better his precision, and then a little burst of wind accelerated him. Cherokee forced herself to her feet with as deep of a breath she could muster just to try defending herself. Her plan was to swing the staff when he was trying to demolish her with a body slam.
But just like time and time again, he proved to be the better Haki user. His blackened arm stopped her swing, and he suddenly twisted his torso around to clip the side of her face with the bottom of his boot. The vertebrae in her neck crackled from just how violently her head snapped in a different direction. But she tumbled again until the mountainside stopped her.
The explosion-like sound made the refugees glance over their shoulders as they ran over a sand dune. They did not know who caused it, but they wanted to believe in Cherokee. It just scared them to think they would be the only survivors of this war.
Sosuke let his feet touch the ground finally. He stood in front of the mountainside as the dust settled. But then a stream of miasma shot out in the form of a laser, and it startled him from how ferocious it was. His arms crossed his chest in an X so that his Haki could shield him from its vaporization capabilities. Upon striking him, it ballooned and blasted in all directions, but when it dispersed, the man was still standing. The realization that he could override such a weapon of mass destruction amused him. He laughed at how silly this was turning out to be.
"Are you running out of ideas? This cannot be the best your people has to offer," he teased.
She walked out into the open while rolling her neck to relieve some of the pain. "You're just more complicated than the last one. That's all," she smugly replied with a demented undertone. "I never got a taste of Conqueror's Haki from him."
"That is perhaps the biggest difference between us, but I must disagree about being more complicated than him." He morphed back into his human-beast form because he was ready to begin phase two of this fight. Cherokee was battered and tired. Now she had to be taken down, but not without analysis. It would be a shame to not deliver such valuable information back to the World Government so that her devil fruit could be tracked once it reappeared after her death. The powers she possessed were too profound to land in anyone's hands. It needed to remain in the Government's clutches to help keep the peace. It being used here was enough proof that it could withstand entire armies singlehandedly.
The only way to beat one sort of depended on the wielder. If Cherokee was truly ignorant as to what form she had taken, then it was possible for her to also be ignorant of her capabilities. It was best to prevent her from figuring them out.
Although the transformation happened unintentionally, one thing Cherokee recognized was that her mindset and judgement was slowly going back to being shrouded. She remembered who she was, what was going on beyond her current position, and why she needed to defeat this guy. But her personality was being warped with the influence of the witchdoctor using her body as a vessel. Instead of righteousness driving her, it was depravity. That was why she was so vicious against Adrian. There was no mercy in his execution.
Sosuke humbled her a little bit, which brought her back to her senses, but now she was beholding him in a dehumanizing light. It was worrisome because if she walked away from this according to plan, what could get her back as the Cherokee the Lun'aecho people hailed as their Chieftain? As it stood, the doors were open to a new threat that could possibly not be contained.
But the witchdoctor lauded such an idea. As long as suffering, destruction, and even death was involved, she would keep her clutches on Cherokee tight. The full moon may have been Ix Chel's time to flourish, but the dark side of the moon was always there no matter what. Chak Chel would always obscure the virtuousness of her other side.
"He was clever but weak," Cherokee ridiculed in reflection. "I had fun killing him."
Sosuke narrowed his eyes. That was a lot of confidence for someone who could not get the upper hand against him.
She leapt back into the air with a wicked grin. "And I'll have fun killing you as well!" she taunted.
He matched her leap but ascended a tad bit higher. Both of his feet stomped against her chest. The Haki that she shielded herself with was not enough to absorb the impact. A burst of miasma pluming from the affected area blocked his vision as she soared back toward the mountainside. Rather than letting her hit it again, he just materialized into her path and kicked her straight up toward the heavens.
Her grunt of pain was not fully expressed when he suddenly appeared above her and struck her back down. The zenith of the mountain was demolished upon her body crashing into it, and the side that cracked under the pressure gave way. Sosuke flapped his wings as he watched for any sign of her limply falling with the avalanche, but he caught a glimpse of her unexpected visit from behind.
Cherokee, seemingly unharmed, arched her staff over her head to give him a ruining strike just like the one that tore open Adrian. Miasma hitched a ride just to amplify how much bodily damage he would sustain. When she swung, the end of her staff made contact, and the miasma swept him up. And if that was not enough, the pinpointed hit caused detonation from the way she pressurized her cursed matter similarly to the laser beam.
"Good luck with that," Sosuke responded callously.
Her blackened eyes widened in shock as she hurried to correct her posture. The man with fur puffing from his neck and antennae curving from his forehead came straight for her with her completely vulnerable. Their Haki surfaced, invisible to the naked eye, and the clash caused her miasma to detonate around them once again. A fireball lit up the night sky for a brief moment until Sosuke overpowered her enough to disrupt its grandeur.
Cherokee was hurt enough to not fight back. Her flesh had burns, one of her antlers was broken off, and her insides felt like they had imploded. The feeling of falling but with his weight driving her was not enough to pull her back to reality.
The way her arms and legs shook limply against the wind resistance did not convince him to hold back. Her dark bravado had come to a stop by his hand, yet he refused to lower his guard. Adrian may have done just that and paid the price for it, but he refused to let his death be in vain. The anger he felt toward her for taking him away started to emerge, and he got a little carried away in fighting her as a result. He usually took it a little easier on women he opposed, but for some reason, he had a hard time thinking of her as one. There was just one term he could not shake as he looked at her.
Murderer.
On the island where their base was stationed, there was a bar that the Marines frequented on the weekends. It was not unusual for the entire place to be crawling with white uniforms everywhere they looked. What the locals liked the most was that there was never rowdiness. Bars that pirates frequented had the reputation of getting out of control often. But Marines just played games, sang songs, and got happy drunk for the most part.
It was certainly a scene that necessitated socializing. So, when Sosuke convinced Adrian to come along, he knew this was not his scene the moment he entered the doors. Now he was left sitting at the bartop all by himself with a glass of white wine that had been refilled multiple times. Sosuke abandoned him an hour or two ago to participate in the festivities, so he could have slipped away whenever he wanted to, but was not in that much of a hurry. Aside from the noise and music around him, he was enjoying the buzz he was developing. Once he knew he would sleep hard, he would pay his tab and leave. Whether or not that included Sosuke depended on if he noticed him in time.
Now, he had been around an intoxicated Sosuke before, but this particular night was the drunkest he had ever seen him. No, he did not watch him down mug after mug from a distance. It was the fact that he stumbled back over to him and did not recognize him that were the biggest warning signs.
He ignored him at first, waiting for him to slur something about joining them for something, but instead he heard "What's a beauty like you doing in a loud place like this?"
The turn of his head could not have been any slower. Was that directed at someone sitting a barstool over? Nope. The female Marines were intermixed with the males around the room. Not even one was in their vicinity. The flush of Sosuke's cheeks was extremely obvious, and he was so fixated on Adrian that he boldly reached for a strand of his hair to play with.
He nudged his hand away. "Very funny," he brushed off.
Sosuke hiccupped but kept a clueless smile going. "What's your name?"
Oh my god, Adrian mentally grumbled. He was lovesick so badly when drunk that he was mistaking his friend for a woman.
"Adrian," he answered causally, hoping to jog his memory.
"What?! I know a guy by that name. He's around here somewhere."
Adrian slapped his hand over his forehead. This was not going to be resolved with common sense. Not even the testosterone powering the pitch of his voice was enough to indicate that he was the opposite of a woman. The only way to stop this from progressing was to remove him and get him to sleep it off.
He picked up his full glass, tipped his head back, and downed his final portion in a single gulp. Sosuke looked pleased when the tabs were paid without any persuasion, and he was dragged out without the need to flirt his way into it. This would be the first time a woman took him home. Little did he know they were just going back to the base they came from.
"Wait, slow down!" Sosuke called, not able to walk straight.
Adrian paused and glanced over his shoulder, annoyed. Once he caught up, he continued the trek down the empty cobblestone street. His black cape covered him so much that he was hard to see this time of night, but it kept his warmth insulated. Sosuke was more able-bodied in his white jacket. Because of that, he tried to wrap an arm around Adrian to stay close. The feeling of having his hip caressed sent chills down his leg. Sosuke was lucky he left his sword back at the base because all he received was an elbow jabbed into his ribs.
"You are way too drunk to even think about bothering me this terribly," Adrian forewarned sternly.
He winced but did not try again. "I'm not drunk," he slurred.
"You would drink beer that was brewed in an old sheep's carcass. And then stick your tiny penis in some dead dog you found in a ditch to make hate-babies or something."
"Whaaa…?"
"Exactly."
When they made it back to the base, Sosuke still did not catch on. He was just fascinated that his date was a Marine like he was, and then was relieved that he did not have to walk far to get back to his quarters. Adrian led him up to the correct floor and down the hallway they shared. "Your door is down there," he told him, inserting his key into the lock of his own door. But as soon as he opened it, he was prevented from entering. Sosuke pressed the underside of his forearm against the doorframe and tried to create a scenario in which he could steal a kiss, but Adrian felt the cringe so strongly that he physically recoiled from him.
"Aw, I'm sorry. Did I come off too strong?" Sosuke wondered.
"I said your door is down the hall," Adrian reiterated, adjusting his cape's collar with obvious irritation in his body language. He pressed his fingers to the center of his chest to push him out of the way. "Excuse me."
Sosuke chuckled at how he was playing hard to get, slipping in behind him. Adrian paused when he heard the extra footsteps. When he heard the jacket hit the floor and boots get kicked off, he watched in horror as the undershirt flew off in quite the smooth motion for a drunken man. "Oh my god," he verbalized accidentally. Now he was officially over it.
"Where do you want me?" Sosuke asked with arms wide and chest bare.
"Outside!" Adrian exclaimed angrily, his fangs bared.
"But your bed is right there."
"Did I stutter?"
Sosuke was not taking him seriously at all. It was very possible that he was just so used to shenanigans against Adrian that this was muscle memory. But still, how could he not know that this was actually Adrian and not some random hottie from the bar? The world may never know.
Adrian noticed a familiar grin that was a tall tale sign of him devising a plan. His eyes even moved toward the piece of furniture that was notorious for "endeavors" to take place. "Don't," Adrian warned him, stepping to cut off the angle.
"Last one in is a rotten egg!" Sosuke declared, running and sprouting his oversized wings just to outmaneuver him.
Adrian almost sent him into the cement wall but refrained at the last second. Sosuke flopped onto the mattress and laughed at how silly he felt, kind of like he was a kid again. Adrian took a deep breath as he knew this was basically the goal he had in mind, but the location was inconvenient.
He went over to the door and shut it. Beggers could not be choosers, he supposed. The cape was removed and hung. Sosuke watched as he stepped behind a blind to undress. "Aw man. Not gonna give me a peek?"
"I fucking hate you," Adrian muttered under his breath.
Sosuke laughed to himself. "That Adrian guy I told you about. Yeah, he's not gonna believe this. I've dreamed of this for years."
"What's he like?" Adrian played along. Intoxication brought people's true selves to the surface. He wondered what Sosuke truly thought of him for a while now.
"He's so depressing, but I love that guy."
Adrian paused in the middle of slipping a new shirt on.
"And he's weirdly hot. Like, I'm not into guys, but I love looking at him."
"Uh-huh…?"
"I don't know. He's just so pretty. If he was a girl, I'd totally hit that."
Adrian took a second to slip the shirt on but stood there dumbfounded. This was not the confession he was expecting. He was…flattered? At least Sosuke thought good things about him.
He came out from the blind to finish his nightly routine. Sosuke tried to talk to him more, but he ignored him in hopes that he would fall asleep from the lack of stimulation. Once his hair was brushed and tied back, he returned to the bedside once his issued sleepwear was on, finding that he was snoring away but lying perpendicular to how the sheets were facing. Fixing that required rolling him, but there was eventually enough room to squeeze them both in. There was no way Adrian was giving up his own bed tonight.
He was nice enough to give him his own pillow at least. Throwing the blankets over him, he relaxed to see he was fast asleep without much resistance. Peace at last. He went to round the bed but paused. A careful pinch and pull removed his glasses. He took them to the nearby desk to set them down. The lantern was blown out. Finally, he crept into the open side of the bed – sticking as close to the edge as possible – and closed his eyes.
But the nightmare only continued. Adrian's eyes shot back open when the sound and feeling of sheets moving resulted in getting spooned. An arm slacked over his side and knees dug into the back of his own. For a moment, he was frozen, but he quickly jumped back out of the bed and gave him a harsh roll to retake his space. He moved so fast that he did not even watch to see how much of a ragdoll he looked like.
And just when he thought he found peace at last, he heard vomiting. "And once again, God shits in my dinner," he grumbled before getting up to deal with the night-long ordeal that was drunk Sosuke.
The best part about the whole thing was how hungover he was the following morning. Sosuke was beyond confused. Where was the beautiful woman he met at the bar? How did he go from getting laid to ending up in a man's bed?
"Well, there was no sex, but I was the woman," Adrian told him plainly with fatigue in his eyes.
Sosuke's "NOOOOO" was heard around the entire base. That alone made his suffering worth it. While Sosuke defeatedly pounded his fist against the floor while on his hands and knees, Adrian laughed at him and slipped a tray of remedies for his hangover in front of him. This was the first and last time Adrian babysat. Never in his wildest imagination did he think Sosuke would try to get into his pants. Luckily, nobody seemed to witness any of it, so it got to stay between them.
Cherokee forgot what was happening for an unknown amount of time. She gasped awake. Laying on the ground flat on her back, she gazed up at the starless night sky. How long had she been out? The last thing she remembered was the way the Admiral's Haki-coated fist ruptured an organ or two instead of outwardly damaging her. It was like the power of his Haki penetrated beyond her flesh. Having that ability was brand new to her. She would probably be dead right now if it was not for her cursed miasma stitching together repairs. Her form had not receded, allowing for such a phenomenon.
"Wakey wakey," Sosuke coolly greeted.
Cherokee flinched and scuffled away from him, only to see he was seated on a rock with elbows resting on his knees. He was not ready to continue their battle. Instead, he wanted to take a break. Being back in his human form was proof of that.
He watched how she maintained her form despite having fallen asleep for a few minutes. It helped push his hypothesis toward a conclusion. This was more than just her using her powers. Her power was practically manifesting by itself. "I gotta hand it to you," he began, not trying to intimidate her in the slightest. "You are probably the most powerful devil fruit user I've ever encountered. And I used to exalt Adrian's powers. But he just knew how to use his in a way that made him an unbeatable fighter…until he ended up facing you."
Cherokee refrained from standing up when she realized they were at an intermission. She just tried to figure out why he decided to talk to her when he could have killed her instead.
"You're not tactful when you fight. He was. You react. He thought ahead. You follow your instincts. He put his emotions aside. This all simply means he was a man, but you are a beast. I didn't see much of your fight with him, but I know he just did not know how to fight you. That's why he died. I don't even have the gall to say he was a fool because I know he wasn't."
Moments from her battle with the other Admiral replayed in her mind. The only times they clashed equally was when they used their weapons. She found herself having so much fun with her newfound abilities that she overpowered him through repetition.
"With that being said, I find it disappointing that you managed to awaken your devil fruit because I don't see what is so challenging about defeating you. Adrian never awakened his, and even I could almost never beat him in friendly spars. It doesn't make much sense." He grunted when he stood and approached her. When she wanted to keep the distance between them, she found herself frozen. The Conqueror's Haki radiating from his frontal lobe pinpointed on her. She experienced Rodencia's and never felt its intended effects, so why was this different?
He knelt directly in front of her and grabbed her jaw to make her look him in the eyes. "How did you awaken your devil fruit? Have you done it before?"
She did not blink and could not make her miasma cloud them for some reason. This sensation washing over her was petrifying.
"Awakening a devil fruit isn't easy. Now, awakening the Curse Curse Fruit sounds incredibly complicated. What did you have to do? Was it disastrous?"
The implication that she hurt people she cared about was enough to break her out of the trance. He watched a scowl direct toward him and could feel her own Conqueror's Haki leaking out. It made him smirk.
"Did you know you have the gift of the Conqueror?"
Her lack of response meant that she did not believe him. If she had Conqueror's Haki, she would have trained with Rodencia to hone it. His ploy to get her emboldened was one she refused to fall for.
He did not get frustrated, though. Sosuke just laughed. This woman had a god-like power. She awakened it. To top it all off, she was born with Conqueror's Haki. Yet here she was completely shortsighted of what she could do with all those things. How could someone get so lucky in life and fail to utilize their fullest potential? If only he could persuade her to leave this place behind. Come with him. Let him present to the World Government their new almighty warrior. Kingdoms would fall at her feet. Armies would be obliterated with a snap of her finger. People would bow down to her for mercy. She just needed the correct guidance was all. Too bad she was willing to die for her people and drag them to Hell with her.
His laugh quieted and his smirk turned into a scowl of his own. Maybe in a perfect world, he could make that happen. But he had no such influence. And Adrian's death still vexed him greatly. That he could not forgive. "What a waste," he griped, raising his other hand to strike her with pointed fingers through her skull.
Right when he was about to pierce her, she grabbed his hand. The little bit of Conqueror's Haki she was leaking out suddenly became a torrent. It was so abhorrent to feel alongside her malevolent aura that he swore the air particles around them quaked in fear. Cherokee just summoned her staff back to her so she could shove him away from her and swipe it across his chest.
Sosuke gritted his teeth at the searing pain of her cursed matter cutting into his flesh. He flew backward with a gush of blood spraying from the horizontal gash she gave him. She kicked off the ground to take him head-on, not giving him a chance to think. The next swing of her thorny staff was one he deflected with his palm. The one after that made him duck to avoid it. But then he jumped and flipped just to snag her head in a downward kick. She saw the bottom of his boot as her arm was nearly done with the swinging motion, but she was not fast enough to evade it. Her deer skull once again received a blow that could make it crack. She faceplanted into the dirt so hard that a little upheaval of it went airborne.
He touched his chest to feel himself bleeding quite a bit. That was the first attack of hers that landed, and man did it sting. It was enough to make him not wish to see her do more damage. He sprouted his wings again just to get to a higher altitude. Finishing her off would not come as easy as he had hoped. Maybe if he tried again at top speed, it would do the trick.
A single beat of his wings turned him into a missile. He aimed straight for the cloud that she was in the middle of. To his surprise, the end of her staff erupted out. He tried to exit her path of destruction by tilting to the side, but she was ready for it. Her staff serrated down his arm completely. Sosuke winced as they passed each other. His sleeve was sliced, and it was insufficient in protecting his limb, too. What a cheap shot.
There was no time to inspect the injury. He looked over his shoulder to see she was coming back for more. When she swung, he used Haki to stop her. That was when he realized that she had coated her staff in Haki, too. Sparks flew between them, but the shockwave resonating caused a plume of sand to swallow them whole. "Now you're talking," he forced with some enjoyment. "I guess you are good at fighting."
They pushed off each other. Sosuke jumped straight up, making himself look vulnerable. Cherokee slashed at him as he came back down, but he twisted his legs to miss and instead spun to whack the back of her head. His feet lightly touched her staff to regain his height, aiming for another downward kick to make her faceplant a second time.
She moved just enough to avoid it. "You talk too much," she snidely told him.
Another cloud of sand burst around him as his foot collided with the ground. She picked up miasma with her staff and swung down at him, but he blocked her again. The combination of cursed matter meeting his Armament Haki lit another fireball that dispelled the cloud and even made little glass clumps sprinkle down.
"It helps pass the time," he insisted sarcastically. "But I do have some more questions." His contorted body allowed back-to-back kicks that eventually caught her enough to drive her backwards. In the middle of the regaining her balance, he launched straight for her. More of their Haki collided as his body bounced off her staff.
"You're so annoying," she replied, blocking another kick and then swinging downward to melee him. But he just dodged the swing and did a backflip to try kicking the staff out of her hands completely.
"What is this aura you're giving off? Is it your devil fruit or just your Conqueror's Haki?"
She missed his punch by doing a backflip herself. "No clue what you're talking about." Right when she landed, she looked up to see he had flown above her for another chance. The punch he delivered cracked her deer skull so deeply that she felt it wanting to slip off.
"Is that how you awakened?"
She stumbled for a second but caught herself. Those familiar pincer fingers made a comeback, but she blocked them with the shaft of her staff. "What if it was?" she taunted, forcing him away.
Their next conjoined strikes just felt like a deadlock, so they pushed off again. "The Curse Curse Fruit is awakened by being evil?" Sosuke questioned with doubt. "But nobody is born evil or that angry."
She yelled out as she swung down on him again, but he blocked it with his hurt arm and kicked her away since she was so close to him. "Why does it matter?!" she protested, repeating the same attack.
He clobbered her with a sucker punch, but she used the force to drive her momentum to spin. Her resulting swing was dodged by him leaping away from her. "Because ending up that way is caused by life events," he summarized. "You weren't born to betray your friends, but did one betray you? Is that why you stabbed the mink?"
The image of Rodencia lying on the ground with the vampire's blade skewering her flashed by her eyes. A pang of regret burned in her chest, but she still sought to defy the Admiral. "I was angry," she justified, using Haki to suddenly appear in front of him.
Repeatedly, they would clash, disappear, reappear, and clash. Moving so much that they eventually crossed back into the forest. "Do you wish to be a monster?" Sosuke interrogated in the middle of it.
"No!" she yelled, feeling her stamina taper ever so slightly.
"Then why are you so angry?"
Cherokee cursed her staff to turn into a spear. When the trees gave her a chance, she fronted him with a direct hit for his heart. Sosuke took the brunt of her strength by getting slammed into a big trunk, but he did not get impaled. Cherokee strained to push it deeper, but he just held the sharp tip with two fingers like it was no problem at all. To her dismay, he started walking toward her while moving it to the side.
"Is it the war?" he pressed further.
She refused to answer. Instead, she pulled the spear away and turned it back the way it used to be. The couple of swings she attempted were barely acknowledged until he grabbed it before it whacked his side. Then he raised his other arm and punched her so hard with the back of his fist that she flew off to the side. There was no catching herself. And that was when he got the hint that she was reaching her physical limit.
"Is it us? The Marines?" he continued.
"SHUT UP!" she screamed without warning. She flew straight at him just to ram him against another tree.
"Well, did we make you an orphan and you vowed to destroy us? Or do you just feel inadequate as a leader?" Sosuke joined his hands and came down with a gruesome wallop that the ground beneath them buckled. Her last antler broke off and her deer skull finally split down the middle to fall off her head.
She groaned but hit his arms apart just to surprise him with a crushing uppercut into the bottom of his chin. He groaned as well before hitting her away from him. "Guess I'm close," he said, cocking his jaw to make sure she did not crack a tooth.
"You made almost all of us orphans!" she vehemently announced.
"Then maybe don't fight a war you know you can't win."
"FUCK YOU!" she bellowed, using her miasma to fly her back to him.
He sprouted his wings to turn back into his hybrid form to meet her halfway with a yell of his own.
They clashed off the ground with the canopy keeping them from ascending higher. His punch knocked the staff out of her hand finally, and they bounced off each other with a hit so hard that it was audible. Again and again they clashed in a series of shared punches. Sosuke was suddenly finding himself in a flashback with Adrian on the ship where they fought the first time.
He punched, she blocked, she punched him across his face, he punched her across her face, she spun to hit his exposed side with an elbow, and he hit her temple with an open palm. She touched the ground and caught herself, but he pursued her with a vicious punch against the tree she was just in front of. As a result, it splintered and began to fall apart.
But he turned to pursue her again with another punch. When she dodged, she put all of her strength and Haki into a punch in the center of his back. Sosuke grunted since his spine did not appreciate that and tried to backhand her again but missed. She suddenly disappeared and reappeared next to him so she could kick the side of his head. And then she disappeared and reappeared again to catch his face with her knee. His head knocked back, but he punched her in the gut with the intention of ending her bloodline.
She felt her abdominal wall cave in, and blood choked out of her mouth. Her back slammed into another tree, where he took the next opportunity to punch her straight in the face. He landed the first one, but the following one was the one she ducked and shoved his ribs to carry him into another body slam into a different tree. He grabbed her arm and punched her across the face again, and again, and then he just tossed her up through the leafy canopy.
Bludgeoned and tired, she let herself fall back to the ground. It only took two breaths to sense his presence behind her again. But she did not get up. "You put up quite the fight when you know its futile," he lightheartedly informed her.
When he tried to stomp down on her, she quickly flew close to the ground away from him. Her breath needed catching up to do, and if he was not going to let up, then she decided to be a coward for a minute by scrambling to her feet and running.
But he was no longer in the mood for giving her a chance. He caught her from behind and punched her so hard that she careened into another tree. Cherokee softened the impact with her miasma and flipped to a different one in case he was going to follow up. Spotting her, Sosuke flew to her and tried to hit her again, but she flew to a different tree. The same thing happened when he tried again. But he outpaced her the third time. Pinning her against the tree, she strained and cursed herself with more strength. It was enough to tilt the balance in her favor by crashing into a new area.
They burst into one that did not have as many trees in the way. There were old teepees still pitched but beginning to show signs of nature taking over. The old campfire in the center of the campsite was barely recognizable. When she noticed where they were, she made a brief moment of heartache go through her mind.
Sosuke socked her with another punch that should have been blocked. It knocked her backwards, and she purposely avoided touching the things her people left behind. When he approached in a single step to hit her again, she veered off to the side and punched him, but he grabbed her wrist and went under to punch her diaphragm. She heaved with a deep sense of distress from the lack of breath entering her lungs. He just grabbed her face next and spun to throw her as far as he could.
The Chieftain flailed helplessly through the forest until she landed in another campsite that was relatively close by. It looked very similar to the previous one: abandoned with no sign of life anymore. Sosuke was on top of her in a flash, wanting to hit her while she was down. She deflected his incoming punch with gave him one in return. At the same time, she rolled backward to get her feet to kick off the soil and launched them both out to protect what remained.
She just wanted out. It was too painful to see. To fight for freedom, she forced her people to leave their little communities for many moons to train with the minks. It was so selfish of her. As a leader, she felt like she failed them for taking their choice away. She wanted to believe it was for their own good, but now so many of them would never return. What was the point? So much death rested upon her shoulders
Sosuke pushed her through another mess of shrubbery and noticed how sluggish her reactions had become. He did not hold back, though. He punched her across the face again to make her fall, and when she got up to go after him, he just punched her again. Punch after punch she endured. The pain was growing numb, but she still had tears fall from her eyes. It made him pause, but not out of pity. "You're a woman. Maybe it's not so simple. Were you a wife who lost her husband?" he wondered.
She panted with a hand holding her stomach, looking up at him with pain in her eyes.
"Were you a mother who lost her child? Did the love of your life betray you?"
Her equilibrium faltered as she stood in place.
"Was there another woman?"
She stopped everything. Breathing, thinking, everything.
Sosuke noticed immediately. "Oh? Another woman, huh? That's why you're so angry? That's why you awakened your devil fruit?"
Her arm slacked as she looked down at the ground, feeling very insignificant. The Admiral made the issue seem very unimportant, but to her, it was devastating. He had no idea about the history she and Lakota had. Growing up together, fighting the war together, forming a relationship that seemed unbreakable back then. It made her so sad and yes, angry, to know that it was all for nothing.
Her inhalations deepened and her fists balled up. Suddenly, Sosuke witnessed her vanish out of thin air right before his very eyes. Her Haki manifested past him like a flash of light, and then he felt like he got rammed into by a horse. But Sosuke grunted and remained on his feet. Behind him, Cherokee stopped the built up momentum from taking her farther. Just as Sosuke turned to face her, she did it again. His entire side sustained a brutal hit. There was no time for him to open his eyes because another one came from the other side.
From a different angle, she did it again, making him stumble a little that time. A new angle, she repeated. A new angle, she repeated. Sosuke lowly growled, focusing his Observation Haki. Enough of this.
When Cherokee tried again, he just raised a hand to catch her forehead in his palm. It felt like she headbutted a rock wall as her feet came out from under her. Then he slammed the back of her head into the ground. For some reason, those attacks pissed him off. He lifted her head and slammed it back down even harder once. Twice. Three times. And finally, he stopped with some labored breathing of his own.
Cherokee's lip quivered. That was it. She had nothing left in her. It was all just too much for her to handle. The emotional pain, the physical pain, the knowledge that she was responsible for so much suffering…
Sosuke reluctantly let her go. Even he could see that she was going through it. He just wanted to know how the world could create someone like her. He never would have guessed that it was over something so trivial.
But he just did not understand. Lakota was close in proximity, but he also felt so far away ever since Kiyaya entered the picture. Cherokee knew deep down that she had nobody to blame but herself. She put her leadership before him. She should have dedicated herself more to him and his recovery, but she just put him aside to focus on everyone else. Of course he grew attached to Kiyaya when she was around constantly.
Her anger was overshadowed by her sadness. Instead of fueling her awakening, it was taking away from it. Sosuke watched her crumple and openly sob. Her form was reduced until it was gone. Her black hair shortened, her tattered clothes went back to the leather shirt and pants she galloped into battle in, and her cursed arm evaporated. The piercings, markings, and modifications on her face either returned to what was originally there or left entirely. The moon goddess was gone. All that remained was a young woman Sosuke did not recognize. The stark difference shocked him.
When she rolled over, he refrained from getting ahead of himself. She was not trying to escape, and even if she was, she could not get far. The things she was doing a minute ago could not be done now. He almost mistook her for being harmless. It even saddened him to see her in such turmoil. What could he say? He had a soft spot for women.
"Hey, for what it's worth, I don't actually believe you're a monster," he comforted. "All this crying proves to me that you still have your humanity because if you didn't, you wouldn't feel the pain of loss."
Cherokee stayed on her hands and knees while droplets rained down into the grass. She did not care about what he had to say.
"That anger you felt over this guy…that's just a part of grief. You died when he chose the other woman. You know that. Now you either have to face the truth or go back to that dark place, and risk awakening your devil fruit again." He quietly pulled Adrian's sword from his back. "You also can either prevent more loss by surrendering, or you can continue to wallow in your grief and abandon your humanity completely."
The sword lowered right over the back of her neck. She was in the perfect position for an execution. He pondered if he should give her a chance to make a choice based on the options he presented to her. But he thought about how Adrian did not have such courtesy. She just murdered him. Not in cold blood technically, but he would have to continue living without him, and it hurt.
Okay. Maybe she had a point about being so angry over a guy. All he wanted was to make true the idea that a world without Adrian also had a world without his murderer. As he hovered the sword over her, he pictured the reflection of his dear friend against the iron made from the very iron of his blood. Marines fought for justice. Justice will be served tonight.