Chapter 18: Fight It Out

April was stunned. She had not seen Kuri move and already she had landed a wound on her face. It instantly disappeared but the shock was visible on her green eyes.

Kuri started circling the shocked girl. She chuckled:

"This is going to be fun."

Her katana made its way out, slashed a circle in front of her and she charged, kicking a cloud of dirt behind her.

April's eyes widened. Kuri's katana fell down on her – but in a fraction of a second, was blocked by the blade in April's hands.

Kuri's eyes slightly widened.

"Nani?" She asked in her native language.

April was wearing a crooked grin.

"Well played, Kuri. Sumimasen, demo…"

She drove a kick to the samurai's chest, pushing her a little back and performed a sideward slash.

"…I have figured something out about this place. You said it was a dream pocket, huh? I can pretty much do anything I imagine. Just like in a dream, right?"

Kuri was quick to jump back but when she touched her chin, there was a small cut on her skin. Her eyes narrowed.

April resumed her previous position.

"That means I can pretty much be a ninja if I want to be. One-one." Her head tilted to the side and a smirk made its way to her face. "This will be fun."

The minute the little scar vanished from Kuri's chin, she grinned manically:

"You speak Japanese? Challenge accepted!"

She exploded off after April, sword following her. When she reached the girl and slashed, there was a clangor of metal. April slid backward with a grimace as her hands slightly shook.

"Speak Japanese? Ha! Ugh! This is harder than I thought… I just know twenty of the basic words!"

She gripped the katana's hilt and pulled it back, then charged, pressing out air from her lungs and grunting.

In this state, you could mistake her for a polished warrior.

Their swords met in the air, blades slid down each other before they made an X, bringing the two girls' faces close to each other. Their eyes met and April let go of her blade, fell to the ground to catch it while avoiding Kuri's katana and lashed at her legs. One of Kuri's thighs was deeply cut by the sword, but she returned the favor, slashing twice and making an X cut on the girl's back.

Kuri slightly gasped while April groaned through gritted teeth, the pain radiating through her back.

"Crap!"

The two girls winced as their wounds healed and disappeared.

Kuri chuckled.

"Three-two. Not bad, Precious Thing. No one has ever figured out the reality of my trick realm before."

April held the katana front and center.

"Well, I'm a writer, and the only limit is my imagination."

Kuri had raised a confused eyebrow when April lunged at her. They slashed and parried, parried and slashed. April spun her blade just like you would a Bo staff and leapt into the air, spinning and brought the katana down on Kuri.

The samurai sidestepped and April's sword struck the ground, spitting sparks and sending a vibration through her hands. At this, Kuri lashed down with her blade.

Reacting a second later, April frantically let go of the hilt and clumsily stumbled backward, avoiding the sharp katana's blade by a hair's breadth and came to stop at the edge of the fight circle. It had been five minutes since the fight started.

"Will this nightmare last forever?!"

But it wasn't over yet.

She swerved to the samurai. Her – but really, Kakuro's katana, stood stuck in the rock. Kuri pulled it out and tossed it up in the air, then ran forward. April masterfully leapt off the ground, avoided the samurai and caught the weapon, and landed squarely on the ground. She had swerved around when her blade met with Kuri's. The Wasian girl aggressively pushed the darker girl backward, meeting with equal resistance at the swords but dragged her across the flooring.

Then, retrieving her blade from the locked position, she lashed out in an arc at April's head.

The other girl masterfully bent backward allowing the sword to slash the air while her legs jerked up and pulled her into the air with an impressive backward flip. Before landing, she lashed at Kuri's chest and managed to cleave a sizeable cut across.

Landing like a nimble warrior her appearance failed to betray, she held the katana at eye level, left elbow pointing down and forward, and right elbow pointing up and back.

"Three-three."

Outside the Dream Pocket, Safatore and the others blinked at the sight of the two women standing, their eyes wide, white and hollow.

"What is happening?" Eon asked.

Saka grunted, the scars vanishing off his body.

"Kuri's cursed Dream Pocket."

"Oh, you mean that thing?" Semacoar shuddered.

Inside, Kuri blew some invisible steam out of her nose and sprang to April. She slashed left and right.

April parried.

She slashed up and below.

April ducked down, clumsily staggered back and felt as cold iron ran over her knee. She yelped and fell to her other knee.

"Four-three." Kuri grinned.

There was no way April could have avoided that strike. She knew that ducking down would inevitably immobilize her and leave her open for a lower attack. But what choice did she have? Kuri's blade would have done worse damage if she didn't have a desperate spring in her legs.

"It really could have been worse…"

Saka's angry growl sounded in her head:

[She's got six more strikes. Do you know what that means?!]

"Ah, so you can hear her words thanks to me? That means you're gonna receive six more pretty wounds." She smirked.

[I swear, if we weren't Soul Tied, I would've…]

But April wasn't listening. She was working on meeting Kuri's blow.

Kuri's weapon hit April's weapon and forced it to reverse back to the raven blonde.

Catching her breath, April tensed as the sword bit into her shoulder.

Inside April's head, Saka burst into an agonized yell.

This caught April off guard. She dawdled on her hesitation.

The samurai took the chance of the girl's distraction to twist her whole upper body, step back while driving April's sword to the ground and even allowed herself to pay back the girl by running the blade across her wrist. April's left hand let go of the blade and just as suddenly as she had panicked, Kuri assaulted her in a blurry rage, nicking her body over and over from all directions.

April could do nothing but hide her face, squealing each time the blade cleaved her. This samurai was trying to turn her into meat rags!

April opened her eyes and noticed the countless wounds carved and continuously being carved onto her skin. That was wild. She didn't have the fear of blood, but she did hate pain and it was endless.

In a panic, she held Kakuro's katana with both her arms and just thrust it forward!

It made a slicing sound and April shut her eyes.

* * * *

The others were watching when Kuri took her eyes from them and brought them to herself. Right into her gut, a katana blade was stuck. Red blood flooded down her belly to her waist and droplets fell to the rocky ground.

Kuri, who had suddenly been impaled with it, glanced at the girl holding it. The scars on April's face were fading, her eyes were scrunched closed and she was trembling all over.

The rest of the elves watched, silent and awestruck while Saka sat against a rock, sighing in exasperation.

"Cough cough huak!"

April snapped her eyes open and met with the sight in front of her. She was holding onto the hilt of the sword that had pierced the abdomen of the blue-eyed samurai lady. Her jaw fell open.

"What a monstrous move…"

Kuri's eyes were trembling at first, filled with shock, grief and disbelief, but a second later, they brightened. She wore a subtle smile and started chuckling to herself – which later on turned into an agonized cough.

April gasped and instantly jumped back and away from the woman, leaving the sword stuck in her gut.

"Oh my god! I'm so… I'm so sorry!" She grabbed her hair and squealed more apologies, staggering back.

She had never stabbed anyone before, and she had no idea how she managed to stab Kuri.

Kakuro ran to the samurai and threw her arms around her.

"Kuri!"

Kuri shrugged her partner away.

"Ah… Daijōbu, little sis. You know I'll be okay."

She broke into another pained cough, spitting more crimson blood. She turned to April and laughed again.

"Good… that was very good, Precious Thing. I must say, you took me by surprise there," Kuri said.

The rest of the elves approached the three girls. April turned crimson.

"I-I didn't mean to impale you… I was just… I just... I-I panicked."

Everyone stood around, mouths hanging open.

"April?" Safatore called.

She turned to him with innocent curiosity.

"What did you do? How did you escape the Dream Pocket I order to stab Kuri?"

Semacoar suddenly frowned bitterly.

"Eight minutes. This fight was eight minutes long."

His frown suddenly deepened.

"I've never lasted three minutes against either Kakuro or Kuri. Kakuro almost chopped my head off once."

His eyes narrowed to slits at April. He croaked:

"What did you do?"

Their shock was justifiable. April didn't know either. All she remembered was a relentless amount of pain as the oldest samurai woman assaulted her with her katana and she panicked, suddenly screaming and impulsively thrusting Kakuro's katana forward with all her might.

"I don't know what I did." She answered honestly, everyone staring at her with odd expressions. "But you'll be okay, right? You have the regeneration power, helio-something-something."

Kakuro glanced at April while the other shifted awkwardly. "My sister and I are not elves. We do not posses the elven regeneration Heliomorphisis."

April's breath caught in her throat. "What?"

"Don't worry, Precious Thing." Kuri smirked through the red blood seeping down her mouth. "I got the next best thing."

The woman's hand rose to her eyes and while April stared in confusion, a bright, golden glow engulfed it before she pressed it against her abdomen right over the wound.

Kakuro's hand also did the same thing and she pressed her hand over Kuri's abdomen. All the wounds on her body vanished.