Much to the relief of everyone, there was little in the way of traffic at this hour. This translated simply as ‘there was less for Meiling to slam into, killing everyone as a result’.
Koishi suddenly realised this was Sango’s first time in a car. She’d managed to pull her seatbelt on, but given the way she was clasping her hands in prayer she wasn’t enjoying the experience.
“K-Koishi-san, are cars always this bad?!”
Koishi shook her head, insisting that Meiling was just a maniac behind the wheel. Maybe that’d stop Sango from being quite as scared the next time she rode in a car, but it wasn’t helping much now. Sakuya seemed totally unperturbed by the drive, even when the little van quaked after going over a bump. The closest she had to concern was holding her fedora in place.
After a long and agonising half hour, the little red van came to a careful stop just outside the docks. Meiling let out a sigh of relief, exhausted mentally from the death-defying stunt she’d just pulled off.
“Well, that went pretty well. You guys still got all your limbs?”
Sakuya nodded matter-of-factly, like the roller-coaster she’d just ridden on was an every day occurrence. It probably was - this was the van she took to get to work, after all. Koishi nodded as well, though she needed a moment to catch her breath.
Sango was currently clinging to Koishi for support, trembling uncontrollably.
“K-K-Koishi-saaaan...please don’t make me ever ride in one of these again.”
Poor little dolphin, unable to comprehend these frightening human inventions. Koishi patted Sango on the shoulder for a few seconds to put her at ease.
That, though, was all the time they could afford.
“Alright, here’s where we get off. Komeiji-san, Tororetsu-san, you’re with me. Meiling, stay here and get ready for us to make our way out.”
Everyone nodded along in agreement. Sango put her vehicular trauma behind her with impressive speed as she got out the car, reaching into her jacket.
“Izayoi-san, you’d better put this on, just in case. You’re lucky I’ve always got a few spares on me.”
She handed Sakuya a ring, identical to the one she’d given Koishi weeks ago. Giving it a quick look-over, she slipped it on her finger.
“I assume you’re not giving me this to complete the outfit.”
“Put it this way - you’re not gonna have to worry about breathing if you’re wearing that.”
Sakuya seemed puzzled by what Sango was suggesting, but kept the ring on regardless. The trio walked out towards the old docks, with Koishi having dismissed her trident for now. It instead took the form of a pendant on her neck, a trick she’d picked up a few days prior.
They were a few minutes away, so Sango gave Sakuya a quick lowdown about what she needed to know as they hurried along: Tewi and the mindcoil the Black Claw had likely placed on her; the Black Key and how it would give Tewi powerful abilities that rivalled their own; and the Pearl’s rule against killing unless it was absolutely necessary. Sakuya had offered no comment on that part.
The docks, like the rest of town, were more or less abandoned at this time of day. Morichika owned the place, and had enforced heavy docking fees for anyone not in his entourage. Even during their best hours there was little honest trading here - rumours of black market trades and underworld dealings had scared off anyone looking to work proper exports. The police force had been ‘convinced’ to turn a blind eye to the subject, and patrols always seemed to turn away just when they were meant to pass this area.
Two figures were at the edge of the dock. They were specks to start with, but as they approached it became all too clear who they were. One of them stood proudly in a black sleeveless dress covered in white lace, clinging tightly to her body and practically held together by a large white bow on her chest. A pair of large, almost comical white rabbit ears had emerged from the back of her head, reminding Koishi of that old folk tale about the lying rabbit of Inaba.
The irony was almost painful.
At her side, another younger girl was huddled up. She was as pale as the last time Koishi had seen her, but she’d long since stopped calling for help. Flandre’s hands had been tied behind her back, and despite her struggle against the ropes they refused to budge. More disturbingly, something had been attached to her foot - a metallic clasp, linking her to a ball and chain.
Sakuya’s blood curdled. Her face warped into a grimace, glaring straight into Tewi’s eyes with an anger that was barely human.
“Inaba. Get away from her,
right now.”
Tewi savoured every little drop of anger that slipped onto Sakuya’s face. The tables had turned completely, and they were both well aware of it - now it was Sakuya dancing to Tewi’s tune, and there was little she could do about it.
Except there was, and they both knew it. She could use the watch, freeze time, throw more knives at the woman than her body could hope to endure. She knew that, and Tewi most likely knew that too. So why wasn’t Tewi afraid in the slightest? Why was she still acting as if she was in control? That scared Sakuya slightly - either the rabbit was outright insane, or there was something else going on here.
Koishi and Sango didn’t dare to move - not while Tewi had a hostage. Well aware that she had the upper hand, Tewi took a moment to revel in it, laughing in that almost demonic cackle of hers.
“Oh, no! It’s Little Miss Dealer, here to kill me with papercuts! Y’know, I’m so scared of you I think I’ll just give your girl back to you and act like none of this ever happened.”
Sarcasm dripped from every word. She was trying to get to Sakuya emotionally, play with her, manipulate her. Sakuya knew that. And yet, the urge to kill this woman where she stood grew stronger every time the bitch so much as moved her lips.
“So, Izayoi, how’s it feel? Knowing that for all your cheating, all your lying, all your timeshifting bullshit, you’re still the loser? I’ve got your little girl’s life in the palm of my hand, and I can throw her back in there any time I want - god, you have no idea how
great this feels!”
Flandre trembled, looking up towards Sakuya with pleading eyes. She’d already cried out all the tears she had, and her voice barely carried over the dock.
“S...Sakuya...help me-”
“Quiet, kid! Grown-ups are talking!”
Tewi rewarded the girl’s insolence with a kick to the side. Flandre yelped in pain, bowing her head back down and keeping quiet again.
Sakuya was beginning to lose patience. She knew she was supposed to stay calm, wait for an opening, let Tewi go too far and leave herself open, but she couldn’t just sit and watch this. Tewi was mocking her, ridiculing her. She had the power to end this fight in an instant, and still the rabbit seemed intent on pissing her off. Sango seemed aware of this, putting a hand on Sakuya’s shoulder.
“Izayoi-san, don’t. She’s planning something, and-”
Sakuya glared backwards at the dolphin, murmuring across to her.
“So you’d have me stand here and watch her torture Flandre?”
“No, that’s not what I-”
Sango stopped short when she realised that
was what she meant. She was conflicted, biting her lip, still not sure how to advance. Koishi didn’t say anything, but from the look on her face she was sympathising with Sakuya.
Tewi, having been ignored for all of five seconds, decided to regain the party’s attention.
“Hyaaah!”
She grabbed at Flandre’s hair, tugging it upwards with a violent yank. She looked smugly into Sakuya’s eyes.
“What was that you said earlier? If I touched one hair on her head, you’d
end me?”
Tewi pulled harder, to the point where Flandre was crying out loud in pain. The grin on Tewi’s face twisted from smug to outright insane.
“Well, I’m touching about a thousand hairs right now. What’s that worth?!”
That was it. That was all Sakuya could take. She glared at Tewi with more hatred than she’d ever felt in her life. She wanted this woman dead, right now. If the others complained, she’d say she was ending a life to save a life. And if that explanation didn’t satisfy them?
Well, she’d tell them where they could stick it.
Time froze in place again as Sakuya focused herself. The watch around her neck starting ticking again - faster than a regular watch. There were rules to it, she knew now - there was a limit to how long she could hold time in place. She could do it for one minute at most, and the pocketwatch kept track. When it hit midnight, she was out of time until the moon rose again the next evening.
If she used the watch (or indeed any timepiece) as a focus, she could pass through this time normally. But sometimes that took too long, and she needed to get out right away. If she froze time instantly through sheer focus, though, the time would tick through twice as quickly. The last she’d checked, it was at forty seconds to midnight - in other words, twenty seconds.
That was enough for Sakuya to shuffle the deck, dash down the docks, and leave a card right in front of Tewi’s face. The nine of spades. Wind. It tracked its target until it was knocked away. Not that this’d be a problem considering it was inches from the rabbit’s head.
The clock struck midnight. There was a tiny ringing noise as time suddenly shifted back into phase.
The knives dug straight into Tewi’s forehead. The rabbit’s grip on Flandre’s hair stopped, and for a moment she looked up at the spot where she’d been stabbed. At least two or three, going through her head and coming out the other side. She looked up, wordlessly.
“Izayoi-san!”
Koishi and Sango starting running in afterwards. There was so much they wanted to say. Sango wanted to reprimand Sakuya for fatally wounding Tewi. Koishi wanted to make sure Flandre was alright more than anything - she’d been through a horrible experience, and it had taken its toll on her.
Neither of them thought to wonder why Tewi’s wounds weren’t bleeding.
“Not so cocky now, are you?!”
Sakuya screamed in Tewi’s ear, digging one of the knives in as she did so. Tewi looked away from the knives, straight towards Sakuya, still stunned.
For a moment, the rabbit’s face shifted into a cruel grin. Then she vanished, disappearing in a puff of smoke as Sakuya’s knives clattered against the floor.
Sakuya froze in place, her blood ice-cold. It was a trap. A decoy. And she’d wasted her trump card on it.
“But if she’s a fake, where’s-”
The question was answered before Sakuya even had the chance to finish it. A dark shadow had been floating beneath the surface of the water at the end of the dock, and only now did it burst up to the surface. To Sakuya, the whole thing happened in slow-motion - Tewi burst out of the water, almost hanging in the air for a moment, grinning at Sakuya like she knew she’d won. She grabbed at the ball attached to Flandre’s foot with both hands, and pulled it along with her as she fell back down again.
Flandre was powerless to stop herself from plunging into the depths right after it.
“FLANDRE!”
Without a moment of hesitation, Sakuya leapt forward to dive in after the girl, but Tewi burst back out again. The rabbit caught her with a punch square in the jaw, knocking her backwards onto the dock. Tewi climbed up onto dry land again, the soaked dress clinging to her body.
“I’m gonna enjoy beating you to a pulp, Izayoi.”
Tewi stepped to one side - no, both sides. She multiplied, a second identical clone standing right beside her. They looked at one another for a moment, grinning.
“And so am I.”
The pair charged Sakuya while she was on the ground, looking to kick her while she was down. Only a well-placed sweep from Sakuya saved her, sending the two onto the floor for a few seconds.
“You two, help Flandre! I’ll hold Inaba off!”
Sango and Koishi didn’t need to be told that. They’d already jumped off the dock, diving into the water to follow Flandre’s descent.
Sakuya pulled herself to her feet at the same time as the Tewi clones. The pair spoke at once, like an demented choir.
“Two on one, Izayoi. We like those odds.”
“Mysterious Jack” adjusted her fedora, unfazed. Being smacked back had knocked it out of place, which was disgraceful on her part. She lowered herself into an amateurish fighting stance. It was time to see if those lessons Meiling had given her were worth anything.
“Well, you know how it goes, Inaba. Everybody loves an underdog.”
-----
The water was murky beneath the surface, and Koishi had enough trouble making out what was a few feet in front of her before she considered how hard it would be to find Flandre. Sango had thrown her jacket off at the surface so it wouldn’t slow her down, and her silvery fin gave her just enough speed to be in front of Koishi. She was rummaging around her pockets again, pulling out another Ring of Breath and giving it over.
“Here. You’ll need to pass this onto her, and fast.”
Koishi took the ring, but there was something not quite right in Sango’s line of thought.
“Right, but...why can’t you do it?”
“Because I need to take care of-GET DOWN!”
Sango darted across the water, pushing Koishi to the side just before a dark grey blur flew past. Were it not for Sango knocking her aside, the creature would have probably torn Koishi apart. It turned around, seeing that it had failed, looking at its prey with dead black eyes.
There was no doubting what was looking at them. It was the wrong climate, the wrong season, the wrong country, but there was still a shark looking hungrily into Koishi’s eyes.
“Koishi-san, get a move on! I can handle this!”
Sango took a stance, ready to fight the beast with her bare hands. Nodding, Koishi started swimming again, gripping the ring she’d been given for dear life. The shark knew exactly what they were planning to do, and it wasn’t having any of it. It charged again, this time intent on chomping down on Koishi and devouring her in however many pieces she needed to be chewed into.
A fist from the side smacking it in the gills was enough to put that idea out of the window.
“Hey, fish-face! You’re my problem now!”
The shark reeled, visibly flinching under the force of Sango’s punch. A few seconds later it had recovered, but rather than maintaining the chase it turned to the dolphin curiously. Sango blinked once, and the shark’s form had been replaced by that of a young woman - the one who had been dragging Flandre away back at the mansion. She’d discarded the torn jacket from earlier, revealing what appeared to be a wetsuit underneath.
“Figured you wouldn’t just disappear like that. Part of Inaba’s trap, right?”
The shark youkai nodded, seeing no reason to lie. Her hand was on her chin, examining Sango’s stance intently, nodding to herself all the while.
“Flowing Tide. I should have expected nothing else from one of the kappa’s lackeys.”
Finding her interest sated, the shark took a stance of her own. She wielded her hands like blades, prepared to swipe at her foe with all the force she could muster.
Sango knew that stance all too well. The two groups had fought one another for centuries in small skirmishes, and they’d developed fighting styles to combat each other: the White Pearl used Flowing Tide, a style designed to redirect the opponent’s force and punish their errors; the Black Claw was trained in Crashing Tide, a more aggressive martial art intended to overwhelm and destroy their foe’s defenses. Each was designed with the intent of being superior to the other, but in the end they were equals. The more experienced practitioner won.
Sango cracked her knuckles. “I haven’t had a fight in the water for years. I might be a little rusty.”
“Your stance is good. You will be an interesting opponent.”
The pair bowed to one another. For a short moment, they weren’t enemies - just two combatants in a one-on-one fight, both playing fairly and honourably.
Both charged the other at once. The fight had begun.
-----
“Mmh! Mmmph!”
Koishi heard Flandre before she saw her. The girl’s muffled grunts were in time with the sound of her shuffling at the chain, but she didn’t sound like she was making any progress. Having tracked down her position, Koishi turned so she was headed straight towards Flandre, and swam with every ounce of strength she had.
By the time Koishi had caught up with her, Flandre was starting to approach her limits. Her cheeks had puffed up, and her feet were kicking wildly in an attempt to haul the metal ball off the ground. It made a lot of noise as the chain bounced around, but the weight refused to budge. When she saw Koishi approaching in the distance, she practically yelled at her through the water.
“Heeegglbp! Heeglp meeeggbbl!”
Koishi didn’t have much time. The first thing she had to do was give Flandre an air supply, and that was what the ring was for. She swam behind the girl, holding her in one place with one hand, trying to slip the ring onto one of her fingers with the other. This was difficult with Flandre still struggling for dear life.
“Flandre-san, please calm down! I can’t help you if you don’t stop panicking!”
Flandre twisted her head around in surprise. Koishi needed a second to realise exactly what it was the girl was shocked by - she’d grown so used to breathing underwater she’d forgotten it wasn’t supposed to be possible. Still, she seemed to understand, and stopped her flailing so that Koishi could slip the ring onto her finger.
“Alright. You can breathe now.”
Understandably, Flandre was a little skeptical about that. She kept holding her breath for as long as her body would let her, while Koishi started on untying her. By the time Koishi had finished untying the ropes, Flandre had hit her limit, letting out whatever air she had left and gasping in what she assumed would be water.
“...Eh?”
Flandre was equal parts relieved and confused. With her now-free hands she started rubbing at her neck, trying to see if she’d spontaneously grown gills. Koishi’s attention had turned to the clasp around her neck. She wouldn’t be able to take care of this with her hands, but thankfully she had another tool for that. She grabbed at the pendant, and the trident shone as it returned to its full size.
“Hold still, okay?”
Flandre was watching Koishi with...wonder? Respect? Admiration? Koishi couldn’t place the emotion, but it was definitely good. She kept her foot in place while Koishi stabbed at the chain with her trident, cutting it cleanly between two links. Perhaps not the best place to cut, but definitely the fastest.
“Wow...are you, like, some kinda superhero?”
“Um...I guess?”
Koishi blushed a little. No-one had ever called her that before, and it was comforting to hear. Still, now wasn’t the time for her to listen to compliments - there were two fights going on, and she needed to help out somewhere.
“Flandre-san. I want you to hide over there for now. I’ll come back for you when it’s safe to come out, alright?”
Koishi pointed towards a hole in a nearby wall, forming a small indent just large enough for a child to fit into. Flandre pouted.
“What? But you’re so cool! I wanna come watch you fight!”
Koishi put a hand on Flandre’s shoulder, giving her a stern look.
“No, Flandre-san. It’s going to be dangerous. Stay there so you don’t get hurt.”
Flandre frowned, giving Koishi the puppy-dog eyes to guilt-trip her into changing her mind. Koishi didn’t budge an inch. She’d seen Flandre’s sister try this on Sakuya earlier, so she was prepared for it.
“...Fine. But you’d better tell me how awesome it looked!”
Flandre walked across the bottom of the port into the little crevice. Koishi could only make her out because she knew what she was looking for, so Tewi and her shark companion would have no chance. Now it was time to get back to the surface and help Sakuya out with fighting Tewi.
That at least had been the plan, but before she could act
the fight ended up coming to her.Sakuya hit the water hard, reeling from the kick to the chest that had knocked her in. Two assailants dived in afterwards, each of them looking to land the killing blow, and both of them giving Sakuya sinister smiles.
“The house always wins, Izayoi!”
One of the two Tewis took initiative, spinning a full 360 degrees in the water and finishing it with a heel drop to the chest. She hit with inhuman force, sending Sakuya slamming into the ground, only a few feet from where Koishi stood.
“Izayoi-san!”
Immediately Koishi rushed towards the fallen Siren, but before she could reach her Sakuya was already pulling herself up. She was in pain, but she was definitely conscious, and still in good shape to fight.
“Is...Is Flandre okay?”
In spite of the beating she’d just received, Sakuya’s first thoughts were for Flandre. Koishi smiled, nodding.
“She’s fine. Right now all we have to worry about is these two.”
The Tewi in front tried to finish the deed she’d started, dashing down through the water as if she was flying. A good punch to the chest would inevitably damage something important, and leave Sakuya just about dead.
Koishi waited for the rabbit to come into range, then gave her a solid smack in the face with her trident. There was a satisfying ringing noise as the weapon smacked her in the head, causing the fake to vanish in a puff of smoke.
“Hey, no interferences! This is between me and Izayoi,
Flopsy!”
The real Tewi had stayed behind, letting her doppelganger do all the dangerous work. A smart move tactically, but it showed she was scared of actually fighting up close. Naturally, Sakuya took advantage of this as she rose to her feet, brushing sand off of her fedora.
“If you want a fair fight, take me by yourself. None of this decoy nonsense you’ve been throwing around.”
Tewi seemed ready to throw up at that idea, deciding instead to divide herself into three. The two clones descended, one going for each of the Sirens.
“Why fight fair when you can fight smart?!”
Koishi blocked the oncoming strike with her trident, but another followed soon afterwards. Clones or not, these things hit like beasts. Sakuya took on the posture Meiling had taught her, and racked her brain to recall what she’d been trained in. Her moves were slow, uncertain, but more or less solid. The clone she’d been put against met her blow for blow, her own stance less formal but making up for it in strength and speed.
Koishi’s main advantage was that she was armed, and with a trident that improved her range considerably. Stepping back, she used it to keep the decoy at a safe distance, waiting for it to overextend itself before-
”Iruka Slash!”The swing cut clean through Tewi, and Koishi spun the trident around in her hand for flourish. A moment passed before the fake finally started to slide in two, vanishing in a puff like all the others before it.
Sakuya, meanwhile, was getting overwhelmed fast. Fists rained down upon her, and there was only so much she could hope to block. Seeing potential, the clone came in with a brutal right hook, intent on snapping Sakuya’s neck cleanly.
Rather than dodging backwards, Sakuya pushed forwards instead, putting herself inches in front of the clone. She put a hand up, slamming it into the decoy’s face, but with the small distance it travelled there was no force behind the blow.
“Any good gambler leaves a trick up their sleeve, Inaba.”
There was a metallic clicking sound, and Koishi only saw it for an instant. A switchblade, small but sharp, popped out from Sakuya’s wrist, stabbing deep into the clone’s neck. Like every other before it, it collapsed uselessly into a wisp of smoke.
To say Tewi was unhappy with this was an understatement. Her face was red, her expression livid, her entire body tense and ready to detonate.
“You’re cheating again! You never said that you had a weapon like that! That’s not how these fights are supposed to go!”
“Well, if you bring me the rulebook to look over, I’ll surely apologise.”
Tewi made to stamp her foot against the floor, forgetting momentarily she was underwater. Grimacing, she clasped her hands together in focus.
“Fine! If I can’t win in strength, I’ll just have to win in numbers!”
A clone stepped out from where Tewi had stood. Then a second, then a third, a fourth, a fifth, and before Koishi knew what was happening there were a dozen Tewis floating above her. The true Tewi, behind them, let off a tired pant as the last of her clones emerged.
“Hah...damn, that was hard. But there’s no way in hell you guys are taking all of them at once! Get ‘em, girls!”
The twelve clones nodded at once, swarming down with the same speed as before. Each one was as strong as the single clones Koishi and Sakuya had fought earlier, except now they were expected to take six of them at once. Koishi gritted her teeth, pointing her hand into the air and pressing the emblem on the back of her glove.
”Iruka Sho-”She never had the chance to get the hit off before the mob of Tewis overran her. Sakuya made an attempt to stab at one of them, but even as it dodged the last five grabbed Sakuya and pinned her down as well.
Then they kicked. Brutally, violently, and repeatedly.
“Gh...ah...kyah-!”
Koishi felt their feet slamming into her back, battering her arms and back. She covered up her head to at least protect it from the assault, but it was still too much for her to overcome. With the amount of pain she was going through, it was a challenge just to stay conscious.
Sakuya wasn’t having it any better. She wasn’t making any noise, but that was just stoicism. There was no way she could take a beating like that and not be hurting. The army of Tewis pressed on, relentless.
“Huh...that was hard. But damn, it feels good to see you guys have the shit beaten out of you. Not so tough now, are you, Izayoi?”
Sakuya refused to cry out in pain. She wouldn’t give Tewi the pleasure of victory, even if it meant biting her lip so hard it bled. The clones kept kicking, while their leader idly looked around the seabed.
“Hm. Where’d the twerp go? I was sure she landed somewhere around here...”
At least Flandre was safe, Sakuya thought to herself. They could kill her, but Flandre needed to get home safely. Maybe in that way she’d make up for what she did - giving her life in exchange for Flandre’s. Not the best solution, but the only one that came to mind while she was being beaten to a pulp.
“S...Stop!”
Sakuya gasped. No. No, no, no, no. Don’t let that be her. Don’t let that be Flandre. She was going to look to the side and see no-one there, especially not-
“F...Flandre...”
Sakuya didn’t realise how weak she’d become until she tried to speak, the word crawling out of her throat. The barrage of kicks stopped as the army of Tewis looked to the side, seeing a young girl glaring them down with piercing eyes.
“Leave Sakuya alone! If you don’t, I’ll...I’ll punish you!”
All twelve fakes looked at Flandre’s frail body, as did the original. Sakuya and Koishi were too beaten to make the most of the opportunity, unable to get to their feet. Some sniggering started within the crowd, soon overtaken by laughter.
“AHAHAHAHA! You’ve gotta be kidding me!”
“This little runt thinks she can take on us?!”
“Oh god, I can’t feel my sides! I think I’m gonna die laughing!”
Thirteen voices were mocking her at once with cruel, bullying voices. They probably expected Flandre to curl up into a little ball and die of shame. Instead, their insults only made her angrier.
They would come to regret that.
Sakuya thought for a moment that her eyes were deceiving her. A red blotch had appeared on Flandre’s chest, staining her shirt a blood-red hue. It spread downward, running across her skirt, and dripping out into the water in a menacing aura. Her hand clenched up, like it was holding an unseen blade.
With a flash, the hand was clasping to the hilt of a crimson sword, crackling with sheer destructive power. Suddenly, no-one was laughing.
“I said LEAVE!”
Flandre gripped the blade with both hands, pure fury driving her on.
“SAKUYA!”
She held it horizontally, pulling it back to make a swipe at the enemy.
“ALONE!”The blade cut a scarlet arc in the water, darting forward with an almighty roar. Twelve clones flinched in unison, but the arc tore through them with ease, and in an instant all twelve had been destroyed. Sakuya and Koishi, still lying on the floor, could only watch as the projectile tore past them and made a considerable dent in the metal port behind them. The metal screamed as it crumpled, leaving everyone except Flandre picking their jaws off the floor
“N...No way! This isn’t even funny!”
Tewi was grabbing at her ears now, torn between panic and anger. Flandre looked up at her with scorn, screaming through the water. In unison with her cry, a pair of crystalline wings tore through the back of her shirt, flapping upwards to bring her inches in front of Tewi’s face. Flandre didn’t even try to say anything, simply growling at the rabbit as she slammed the blunt end of the sword into her chest. The impact was enough to send Tewi slamming into the wall, knocking her out cold without so much as a whimper.
Sakuya looked up in awe at the girl she’d risked her life to try and protect. Apparently, the tables had been turned considerably. Flandre looked down for a moment, smiling at Sakuya while the Siren pulled herself to her feet.
“See that, Sakuya? I can look after...my...self...”
Flandre’s eyes drooped, and she fell backwards into the water, her blade fading back into the void it had come from. She’d overexerted herself, and passed out within a matter of moments. Sakuya caught her on the way down, flinching slightly as her arms ached.
“Izayoi-san, get Flandre-san to the car. She needs to get home before the sun rises.”
Koishi had just about recovered from the beating, though she was grabbing at a still-smarting shoulder. Sakuya nodded, carrying the unconscious girl up to the surface, swimming about as well as she could in her injured state.
Koishi’s attention was elsewhere now, stumbling over to where Sango had been. There was still one fight going on, and Sango could need her help...
-----
Sango hadn’t lied. She really hadn’t been in a proper fight beneath the waves for a while. But once you’d learned, you never really forgot.
Her opponent unleashed a merciless barrage of attacks, each one intent on killing her. Sango rerouted, deflected, or simply dodged everything the shark threw, and in the meantime tried to make the most of her opponent’s mishaps to find an opening. She was having no luck - her foe’s movements were crisp, clean, and brutally efficient. There was no flourish, no pizazz, but absolute efficiency.
Sango was vaguely aware of the fight going on behind her. She could make out the sounds of combat going eerily silent, and she’d thought the fight was over until the screaming sound of torn metal pierced her ears. She and her opponent had both been caught off guard by that, but they were back to blows only seconds afterward. Sango continued to parry and punish, and her opponent maintained her constant vigil.
Fighting underwater should have made defense harder. After all, you suddenly had the ability to move in three dimensions, meaning your opponent could be coming at you from any point. Several times Sango had tried to dart under her opponent following an overextended punch, but it always ended with her getting a knee to the forehead. She was practically impenetrable, like no-one she’d ever fought before.
After several minutes of fighting, both sides stopped to catch their breath. They kicked away from one another, mutually, panting.
“Impressive. The Pearl has trained you well.”
Sango’s opponent passed out a quick compliment to her. The dolphin wasn’t taken in, still maintaining her stance.
“Tell me,” Sango said, as she gained distance from the shark. “What’re you doing with a group like the Black Claw?”
The shark, after some huffing and puffing, muttered out an answer. “I was bored. I spent years at the top of the food chain, but there was no challenge any more. No opposition. I needed to meet someone who could match me in combat, remind me what battle truly felt like.”
Sango lowered her pose, allowing herself a proud grin. “So am I that ‘someone’ to you?”
The shark grabbed at the belt she was wearing, pulling off a small vial. Sango’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of its contents.
“We shall have to see, won’t we?”
Slowly, deliberately, she began to remove the stopper. The instant that thing was released, the blood inside would seep into the water. From what Sango knew about sharks, that would be enough to invoke a murderous rage in her opponent, and she’d come down on Sango with more force than ever. She’d been having enough trouble keeping up already, and this would be just too much for her. Still, she could hardly run, so all she could do was maintain her stance as her foe slowly released the stopper-
“Sango-san!”
Sango and her adversary turned their heads at once, seeing Koishi approach to backup the dolphin. The shark looked in Koishi’s direction, then back to Sango, before eventually placing the vial back at her waist.
“It appears we’ve lost here. We’ll settle this another time.”
She started to swim out to sea, where she assumed Sango wouldn’t follow her.
“Wait!”
Sango called out to the woman, and she stopped in place.
“Tell me your name. So I can hold you to your promise of a rematch.”
The shark turned around again, her arms folded. She grinned.
“I am Jozu Manou, shark of the tropical seas.”
Sango returned the smile.
“Sango Tororetsu, dolphin of the eastern waters.”
Jozu nodded, taking the name in. She looked eagerly into Sango’s eyes.
“Very well, Sango. We’ll meet again.”
With that, Jozu regained her shark form and swam leisurely into the distance, comfortable in the knowledge that Sango wouldn’t follow. The dolphin stood in place where she was, one arm reaching out towards the open sea. She wondered to herself - if the shark had used that vial of hers, she’d probably have torn Sango and Koishi to shreds. Yet out of respect she’d chosen to stay her hand and finish the fight later.
Perhaps there were was some honour to be found in the ranks of the Black Claw, after all. No morals, admittedly, but honour.
“Sango-san, are you alright?”
Sango wasn’t sure how she felt. She knew this woman was the enemy, and yet it didn’t feel right to chase her down. She felt that because Jozu had given her a fair fight, it was only right for her to do the same.
“Yeah, Koishi-san, I’m fine.”
They would have their rematch, and Sango was already looking forward to it.
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Last segment is ready and will be uploaded tomorrow. I have pushed out 30k words in the last week, so expect me to take a break after this arc's wrapped up. x_x
