24) Kawagoe IX

Hikaru relentlessly assaulted his sister, clashing their blades, creating sparks and using his Frost Senzai Art to help him in his battle against his sister.

"This is getting too exhausting... Ngh!", Hikaru thought to himself as he clashed another blade with his sister.

She was grinning magnificently at Hikaru's struggling expression.

"Aw, is my baby brother already tired? TOO BAD!", she yelled maniacally as she kicked Hikaru away by twirling around.

"Hiyah!"

"AH!"

Hikaru went crashing to the ground, his face covered with bruising and splinters.

Hikaru stood up spitting on the ground.

"That's it, Anne... You asked for it ...", Hikaru said putting his sword back behind his back and raised out a palm towards his sister. He had been purposely holding back against her.

Hikaru closed his eyes and his Senzai began erupting around him, his eye glowing blue.

"Frost Senzai Art: Ice Meteors"

Four small building sized meteors came from Hikaru's Senzai and were rotating behind him in a circular motion.

Hikaru smirked and brought his hand back. He then proceeded to throw his arm out again, but this time the meteor followed his trajectory of aim.

One meteor came crashing down at his sister. She held the Tsuka (handle) of her katana firmly and started to charge her Senzai up in it.

The meteor came close and with one swift motion, she sliced it in half, ice shards and matter falling either side of her. A tantalising smirk on her face.

Suddenly the second meteor hit her from the back causing her to go past Hikaru at rapid speeds whilst the meteor carried her.

She winced in pain as she thought to herself

"Gah! When did he- oh no!".

Another meteor came from the front and crashed into the second meteor carrying her. Blood spewed out from it with her muffled wincing.

Hikaru then used his hand to guide the forth meteor to come crashing down from the sky into the mid air collision of the two meteors.

"And stay down!", Hikaru yells as the fourth meteor collided with the rest and caused a massive flurry of ice shards flying everywhere at sonic speeds!

The shards hit Hikaru who fell down on his knee trying to protect himself. He was injured.

When, eventually, the Senzai dissipated and the ice shards fell on the ground without any energy carrying them, Hikaru's sister was sitting on her knees, her eyes half dead, her kimono ruined: showing some skin and blood, and her katana: shattered.

Hikaru limped himself towards her wincing in pain with each hard step.

She started tearing up and kneeled infront of Hikaru pleading mercifully,

"Hikaru! I'm sorry! I didn't mean too!", she sniffs, her voice breaking.

Hikaru raised his brows in a surprise as he sat down coming to her level

"I know... Anne... You're just a subconscious entity created by the Dreamweaver and I know you didn't kill anyone because the Shimo Clan is still thriving... But I do miss you... I don't know where you are nowadays...", Hikaru says hugging her.

She warmly accepted her brother's embrace, her arms wrapping around his chest as she wept in his shoulders.

"I'm sorry, Hikaru...", she said rubbing her nose against the fabric on his shoulder.

"For what?"

"For this"

A blade impaled Hikaru from his back, popping through his heart and bursting out of his chest cavity.

"Ggghhh!"

Hikaru's eyes went white from the fatal blow and his sister stood up putting her feet on his hole in the chest.

"...why?", Hikaru's lips said quietly.

"it's okay, dear brother..."

"why?"

"don't worry...", she said in a sly tone bending over and giving a kiss on his forehead.

"You only have one more life left, my brother...", she continued kicking his corpse away

"..."

Everything turned black for Hikaru.

"URAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The Bear Eclipse roared ferociously, it's fur soaked in it's own blood and it's power getting weakened down.

Ren sat on the branch waiting patiently for the eclipse to recuperate. He thought to himself

"This guy is hella strong... Luckily I'm fast enough for him".

Ren then created a European Longsword out of thin air using his Art and got ready to pounce on the Bear.

With a leap of faith, Ren jumped and positiones the final blow accordingly.

The Eclipse had already turned around.

Ren's eyes dilated, his body already too late to perform a dodge, he instinctively placed an arm next to his head mid air.

The punch shattered Ren's forearm causing him to get flown away with blunt force towards the direction of the punch. Ren crash landed on the floor tumbling away.

The Eclipse roared, punching it's chest as if it was a gorilla.

Ren slowly stood up, his left forearm completely shattered.

His eyes were getting tired and his body was twitching in fear and pain. The Eclipse was too strong!

Ren started tearing up in fury,

"Mama... Papa....".

Ren, as a last measure resort created a mounted machine gun using his Art

and sat on its chair, aiming directly at the eclipse hundreds of meters away.

The Eclipse grunted and started running towards Ren.

Ren, with a determined face, positioned the gun and started firing rounds after rounds. The bullet casings fell on the the ground near him with a clank and the bullets kept penetrating the eclipse with no sign of stopping it down.

The eclipse came closer and closer and when it was about to pounce...

It collapsed and died.

A wind in the forest passed by.

The machine gun dissipates and Ren stands up, holding his left forearm and started walking cautiously towards the Eclipse's corpse.

The Eclipse's corpse glowed and a purple orb came out of it floating over it.

Ren carefully stepped on the eclipse's back and held the orb to his chest.

He was in Kawagoe again. All of the sudden everything seemed like it never happened. He was standing infront of the door where it led him to the Eclipse.

"I guess... I got one... I need to find Hikaru and Harushi," Ren says in an upbeat tone as he starts running around the Kawagoe streets to find his allies.

Hikaru's eye opened up and he was facing the ceiling. He pushed his back up and stared endlessly into nothingness.

"How could she betray him like that...? She was lying wasn't she? She did kill everyone... Even mother...", Hikaru thought to himself as the spark from his eye faded and replaced by absolute carnage.

He held his sword with bloodlust and revenge as he stood up to enter the arena again.

"Yukari Shimo... Die...", Hikaru mumbled walking down the stairs of Ren's house.

Lucy watched from the sky with a neutral smile, a glass of wine in her hand.

"It seems pretty boy has finally woken up eh hehehe~"

Chapter 24, end