Chapter 7 - Clouds of Blood

Akito and Akio began launching their long-range attacks by throwing kunai and shurikens at Yuzu, who dodged effortlessly and countered by grabbing two shurikens mid-air before throwing them back at the twins.

The shurikens went with full speed, piercing themselves through the bodies of the twins, causing them to scream out in pain before falling to the ground.

Yuzu turned to face Zaraki, who made no move to attack or defend but gave an arrogant outlook that annoyed her even more, causing the Blood Mist around her to glow even brighter than before.

She lunged at him with full speed, aiming to bring her fist down on that arrogant face of his.

Right at that moment, Mia jumped out from behind Zaraki,

"We're not done, stupid!" she yelled out as she lunged at Yuzu with full speed with her kunai.

Yuzu, out of necessity, brought forth her sword to defend herself, as Mia wasn't a regular operative she could take down easily.

After over a minute of fighting with no advantage on either side, Yuzu made quick work of the fight by stabbing Mia's gut with the sword, causing her to cough out blood profusely.

But that wasn't enough to dull her excitement as she brought her dagger down on Yuzu's throat.

"Don't think it's over, you bastard!" she cursed as she drove down the dagger in anger and excitement.

Yuzu managed to partially block it with her other arm, as Mia's kunai had already gone halfway into her shoulder, causing her to shriek out in agony. Blood immediately sprung out from the shoulder, causing Mia to smile in partial satisfaction.

Yuzu was about to pull her sword from Mia's gut so she could easily land a fatal blow when Jin came from behind, running his sword through her chest, impaling her on the spot with his blade.

Mia and Jin sighed in relief, simultaneously believing it was over.

Jin was certain his sword had just gone through Yuzu's heart, and Mia could confirm this as she was right in front of her.

He pulled out his sword from her chest, causing blood to spill out excessively as she cried out, forming a pool of blood around her.

Yuzu lost grip of her sword, falling to the ground into a pool of her blood, seemingly dead.

Mia kneeled, groaning in pain as Yuzu's sword was still lodged in her gut.

Jin kneeled right beside her,

"You'll be okay, Mia. You'll be okay!" he assured her as he fed her a healing pill, which she swallowed without hesitation.

This was given to him by Ken, who received it as a free token from Mikan Katsura, who believed it would come in handy as she still wasn't very comfortable with approving the mission even though Zaraki agreed to go with them.

It wasn't magical, but it was concocted by magical alchemists for the general public and sold within the military in controlled amounts and at very high prices.

This was no wonder, though, because the pills themselves were difficult and expensive to manufacture.

The healing pill was to be administered only when the victim suffered an injury that did not damage any vital organ. If administered to someone having that sort of fatal injury, it would only work to prolong the person's suffering, like a death in such extreme cases was very much assured.

Even though it had its limitations, it was very useful for missions such as this—in fact, it was so useful that it was expensive to purchase one pill. For this reason, the squad wouldn't take this favor from Mikan for granted, as it had just saved Mia from an almost certain death.

Mia was also lucky that Yuzu's sword did not run through a vital organ, because if it did, she was assured of death, with or without a healing pill.

"Now hold still..." Jin instructed as he pulled out the sword with all his might, causing her to briefly cry out in pain.

After pulling out the sword, he immediately discarded it and went to embrace her.

He held her close, breathing heavily.

"Are you alright?"

She simply nodded in response, trying to endure the pain.

"Oh, thank God!" he exclaimed in relief, holding her close.

"Yeah..." she responded, feeling relief as the pain slowly but surely faded away—the healing pill was starting to take effect.

Jin looked before him to see Akito and Akio also receiving healing pills from Ken and recovering from their wounds.

"Just how many of those pills did she give to him?"

"Does it matter?" "The mission was successful, and our targets are both dead. It's over," replied Mia.

"Wrong, Mia. "It's not over—not yet," said Zaraki as he brought forth his sword, preparing himself for something big.

The rest of them stood in awe and wonder as Yuzu stood up from the ground, even with a hole in her chest.

The pool of blood heated up within seconds and vaporized to form an even more powerful mist with a mighty force that caused a whirlwind that blew them all away like light debris, throwing them all in different directions.

The mist heated up to the point of getting ignited, causing her body to get engulfed in red flames.

Jin, Mia, Ken, Akito, and Akio managed to get up and stare at the godlike figure before them.

The flames continuously grew bigger and larger, consuming everything in their path.

She screamed in pain and agony, which somehow fueled the flames as they grew. The flames formed a fiery whirlwind that expanded each second, setting several trees ablaze.

The blaze grew so much that everyone had to scatter, running as far as they could from Yuzu because the heat was unbearable.

Ken feared that such an event would affect the territories of the fables if left unattended, and that would be a huge problem for everyone due to their very territorial behavior.

Jin looked back as he was running along with Mia, whose arm was draped around his neck, as she needed support to run as fast as she could, and noticed someone running through the flames towards the source.

He looked on in amazement as the person went past Yuzu's burning body with the faint sound of a blade running through flesh and bone.

Within seconds the flames died out, leaving only two figures in plain sight: Zaraki Mitsuki putting back his sword and the decapitated body of Yuzu Tachibana falling to the ground.