CHAPTER 24: THE SEARCH PART 1
Chap 24
Minaro: … So did you convince the Guardians that we're good people and we didn't kill anyone?
Sumairu scratches his head.
Sumairu: Nope!
Everyone looks confused.
Sumairu: They told me that they'd check on whether or not what I was saying was true after they get Rinka. So for now, make sure if you stumble upon a Guardian, act normal. Maybe they've forgotten your faces?
Minaro: … Sounds stupid, but okay.
Minaro looks at Doa and Maya.
Minaro: … You two will be fine by yourselves, right?
Doa: I think so.
Maya: … I'm not sure, I haven't fought many things. And I just lost my recent big fight.
Doa grabs Maya's shoulder.
Doa: It'll be fine.
They smile at each other.
Minaro: Okay, well, let's head in different directions, call me or Sumairu if you find Rinka.
Maya and Doa run off together, Minaro and Sumairu run the opposite way.
....
Raskan looks around.
Shima: What's up?
Raskan: There are more people in the forest now. Just letting you know, they could be enemies.
Shima: Where are they heading?
Raskan: They seem to be just running around the entire forest.
Shima: … Well, If we stumble upon one of them, we just ask questions.
…
Sumairu: … Do you think you'd be able to kill Rinka? If necessary? Can you do that?
Minaro: … Uh.
Sumairu: You don't need to answer, let's just hope we don't have to go that far to stop him.
Minaro stares at the floor.
"... Can I kill him?"
Sumairu: … What about beating him? Can you do that? If you got into a super serious, life or death battle, would you beat him?.. He killed Rimin, and last I checked, you lost to Rimin's hypnosis.
Minaro: Rimin's Skill caught me off guard, that's why I lost!.. Anyways, I think I can beat Rinka. I'm confident I can. If that's what it takes, then I will do it!
Sumairu: … Good… Let's split up.
Minaro: Alright.
Minaro and Sumairu run in different directions.
…
Doa: If we encounter the Guardians what should we do? Like specifically.
Maya: Sumairu said to act normal.
Doa: Yes, but what is normal?
Maya: We could pretend to be in trouble, and then they'll escort us around.
Doa: Oh, that could work!
Maya: I hope it does, I don't want to hafta fight any Guardians.
…
Raskan: Fuck.
Shima: What happened?
Raskan: I got confused and lost track of where the void murderer went. There are too many moving people in the forest.
Shima: … Uh, we can just go to the nearest person you can track and do that until we find the murderer… Maybe… Or we could split up?.. Let's do that!
Raskan: … But if we split up I won't be able to help you.
Shima: I'll be fine!
Shima runs off in a different direction.
…
Sumairu finds a bunch of blood on the floor and follows it, holding onto his sword tightly. He can see several small villages in the distance.
...
Rinka enters a village in the forest and starts to slaughter its people. Their screams can be heard from far away, which alerts everyone, and they all start to head over to the sound of the screams.
A few minutes go by…
Sumairu is the closest one to the village and when he enters it, he runs past several corpses and small destroyed houses. Blood's abundant.
Rinka can be seen holding someone by the hair, slitting their throat and dropping their body. Sumairu stares at him intensely and nervously.
Sumairu: … I didn't think I'd find you so fast, must be my lucky day.
He slowly pulls his sword out.
Sumairu: Rinka! Are you ok!?
Rinka doesn't respond.
Sumairu runs towards him and swings his sword, Rinka dodges it and tries to stab Sumairu in the neck, who quickly moves his head away from the knife. It was extremely close to slitting his throat.
"... Christ, I just remembered I'm weaker than Rimin."
Sumairu and Rinka repeatedly dodge and attack each other, however, the hero's imperfect and feeling the negative effects more.
"... Can I even beat Rinka?.. He killed Rimin… It's a little too early to start thinking like this but I probably won't survive this battle… I shouldn't be here, should I?"
Sumairu starts to remember a little bit of his past.
…
His mom and dad always used to tell him to help others he trusts until the very end.
…
"... I've gone all my life helping those I trust, but I think this is the first time I've realized this might be my last battle."
"... I've gotta do what I've gotta do."
Sumairu slits a part of his arm, blood drips off of it and onto the floor, Rinka smiles. Next, he raises that arm and the blood on it freezes and forms into a medium-sized rod that he swings, then his sword, Rinka dodges them both by ducking and moving out the way.
Right after, he tries to uppercut Sumairu and cut one of his legs, Sumairu dodges the attack but his leg is still sliced a little, and quickly, the blood coming out of it freezes and a round structure forms which slam into Rinka, pushing him back.
"I was gonna make a spiky object but I realized this is Rinka, I can't mangle up his body too much."
Sumairu: Rinka! What's going on with you!? You've done a bunch of horrible things!
Rinka holds his hand up to his chin and thinks, then stops.
Rinka: Nothing is going on with me! This is who I've always been.
Sumairu is surprised he responded.
Sumairu: … Stop lying.
Rinka: … Stop assuming I'm lying.
Sumairu advances, and Rinka slams the ground and a big black shockwave is made which pushes him and destroys his blood rod. He bleeds a little more and just keeps going.
Sumairu: … I don't know what's going on with you! But I'll beat some sense into you!
"I have to beat him fast, blood related Skills, especially mine, are dangerous to use."
They swing their weapons at each other and dodge them once again. Sumairu uses blood to create a round random structure to attack with, and Rinka promptly slams the ground and the structure is destroyed.
He dashes and quickly slits Sumairu's throat, but the blood rapidly freezes. So Rinka runs around Sumairu quickly slashing at his body, the blood freezing every time.
After some more cuts, Sumairu immediately creates blood structures out of every cut in his body which catch Rinka off guard and slam into him, he's pushed to the floor.
Right after, Sumairu quickly unfreezes and refreezes his blood for a second to shorten the structures, and tries to slash Rinka. He kicks Sumairu's sword, stopping the attack. Rinka then quickly stands up and swings both of his knives.
Suddenly, Sumairu can't see, and he feels a sharp sting in his eyes.
"Shit! He cut my eyes!"
Blood can be seen seeping down Sumairu's eyes and face.
"Damn! What the hell do I do now!?"
Sumairu starts to swing his sword in random directions in hopes to stop Rinka from getting close to him. He just dodges the blade and stabs Sumairu repeatedly.
"... At this rate I'll just die without doing anything to him."
Rinka: … You're falling apart.
Sumairu breathes heavily as he stops swinging and lets himself get stabbed more. With that, several sharp structures quickly form out of his cuts.
"... I had no choice there, I hope I hit but not too hard, or kill. He wouldn't die to that right? It either did some damage or he dodged it."
Sumairu hears a slam and is launched back, he feels Rinka step on his back, grab his arm and pull it back, laughing the whole time.
Rinka: You're pathetic!
He slices one of Sumairu's fingers off, then the rest one by one. A blood structure forms slowly which Rinka dodges.
Rinka: … You're getting sloppier, moron!
Now he starts to slowly cut off Sumairu's arm, our hero grits his teeth, and sweat rolls down his face. The limb is ultimately cut off and the blood pouring out quickly freezes and turns into a spike which Rinka speedily dodges.
Rinka: Woah! You almost hit me!
He laughs again and grabs Sumairu by the hair, next, slams it into the floor multiple times, a blood puddle forms it.
Rinka: … So how are you feeling?.. Can you even respond?
"... Ultimate Skill, Blood Vacuum."
In just a second all the blood on the ground is pulled to and enters Sumairu's wounds and he rises. He's been replenished, so he forms several blood structures that slam into Rinka and slam him to the floor.
…
The Ultimate Skill does not give him more energy or "heal" him, it's just so that he doesn't run out of blood and stay alive longer. It's to sustain.
…
Rinka rises.
Rinka: … Better not disappoint this time.
The frozen blood around Sumairu's missing arm unfreezes, refreezing instantly to turn into a giant red hammer.
"... I can't do much more, these injuries have tired me out… If I keep moving I'll die."
He sighs, Rinka dashes for him, and Sumairu starts to rapidly swing his hammer in every direction. Rinka just stops and stares at him, almost giggling.
Rinka: You look so stupid!
"... I could just leave him here. This is kinda annoying, but I also really wanna kill this guy."
He slams the floor and moves for Sumairu, who, right before the shockwave hits, removes his hammer for a lighter load and runs away.
Only stopping a second later to instantly bring the hammer back out, slamming it into Rinka and sending him away.
Still, they're both up and attentive, Sumairu the most.
"... I can predict his slams, there's always a thud before the other attack… I need to use bigger attacks."
His hammer grows and he swings it again. Rinka takes a step back and begins to slam the floor rapidly and repeatedly. Shockwave after shockwave spawn, and they shatter the hammer into bits and Sumairu is blasted elsewhere recurrently.
He lays on the floor, exhausted. Rinka's got a grin and walks over to him. Where he starts to stab his leg nonstop.
"... I can't do anything anymore, this is it."
One last stab, then he begins to flay him.
"... At least, I fought till the end, but to think I'd be dying to Rinka of all people… Sucks."
He closes his eyes and relaxes, trying to drown out the pain he's in, and when he's finally dead, Rinka stretches and runs off.
…
Maya: … Where do we go?
Doa: Let's just keep going forward.
Randomly, the two look to their side, and a few feet away, Shima's running n' spots them. They're surprised, and she's confused. Maya decides to take the initiative.
Maya: Hey! Guardian! We need help!
In a begging and dramatic fashion, Maya kneels on the floor.
Maya: We've been searching for a way out of this forest for the last hour!.. We were camping with a group of friends and got lost!
Shima: … Okay… You two can follow me. But I'm searching for the Void murderer, so be warned.
Maya: Okay! Sounds good!
Shima starts walking away, Doa and Maya tag along, and whisper to each other.
Doa: … That was way simpler than I thought it'd be.
Maya: Yeah, I'm really glad it was.
…
Minaro is running, when he hears a noise and spots Raskan, who spots him too.
Raskan: … Hey?
Minaro stops but doesn't respond.
Raskan: What are you doing here? Don't you know this place is super dangerous right now?
Minaro: Uh, no.
Raskan: The Void Murderer is going around this forest killing people!
Raskan just finished studying Minaro's appearance.
Raskan: … Hey, wait a minute... You're the dude from the Cazuya incident!
Minaro stays quiet, but he's alerted and his fists tighten.
…
Shima's phone is ringing so she pulls it out and answers.
Shima: Yeah?
Raskan: … Hey, do you remember the Cazuya people? Like what they look like?
Shima: Honestly… Not really.
Raskan: … I think they're in this forest… It would make sense, supposedly the void murderer is some dude named Rinka who was also involved in the Cazuya incident, wouldn't it make sense for his friends to be near him?
Shima: I guess?
Shima stares at Doa and Maya who are talking to each other.
Shima: … So what do you want me to do?
Rakan: Stay on the lookout for them, I'm about to kick one's ass.
Shima chuckles a little-
Shima: Alright, bye.
-and hangs up. She starts walking again, and the two girls follow.
Shima: … Hey, have you two heard of the Cazuya incident by any chance?
The two girls look a little nervous, Shima glances back at them.
Maya: … No… What's that?
Shima: 20 people were killed-
Shima is interrupted by a message from Raskan on her phone. She looks at it, it's the mugshot photos of the gang.
Again, she glances back at Maya and Doa.
"It's them."
She puts her phone away and continues moving.
Shima: … Uh, the reason I'm bringing it up is because you two really resemble two of the people involved in the incident.
Maya: … Do we really?
Shima: Yeah, a very big resemblance.
Maya: … Must be a really bad coincidence then.
Shima pulls a small, unknown object from her pocket. It then enlarges and she pulls a string on it. The object turns into a chainsaw and she faces the two girls.
Shima: This is something I have to do. You two are from the Cazuya incident.
They stand back.
Maya: Hey! But we didn't do anything wrong! We were framed, wrongly arrested!
Doa: That's true! We really didn't kill anyone!
Shima: … I believe the Guardians over anyone else… If you come along with me without resisting, maybe I'll check out whether you were framed or not.
The girls look at each other and start whispering to each other.
Doa: … We're not going with her, right?
Maya: Why not. Isn't that our best option?
Doa: She could be lying to us. Also, if they find Rinka, they're most likely gonna kill him!
So we have to find him first!
Maya: … So do we fight or run?
Doa: … We run, and if that doesn't work we fight.
The girls dash off.
Shima: Hey!
Several large plant vines come out near Shima that head towards them. They jump over and dodge the vines as they swing around but there's so many that they become trapped.
So Maya creates a string sword and cuts the vines up, Doa pulls out her gun.
Doa: … Seems like running is gonna be hard.
TO BE CONTINUED…