Idoku's laughter echoed through the alley — raw, harsh, and pitiless.
He hurled himself ahead, his torn coat billowing out behind him, as the wind took it off him.
"You think you can mock me again, Meichi?" he growled, his eyes shaking with rage.
"Even after all these kids couldn't do a thing, do you think you can hold your ground against me?"
Meichi's tone was flat, cold, "You're desperate, Idoku. That's all I see — Nothing more but desperation mixed with poison."
And with that one sentence, the fuse was lit.
Idoku's palm flashed ahead of him, his hand covered in aura enhancing his punches.
The ground beneath him cracked and withered as he passively drained the life from it, even stronger than before.
He was charging towards Meichi but Meichi defended himself by holding up his hands, throwing sharp needles made of blood.
Idoku caught one of Meichi's arms, "Do you think you can endure losing more precious lifetime?" Idoku asked.
But Meichi created claws from the blood dripping on his knuckles, right into Idoku's palm.
Idoku's poisonous aura upon Meichi's hardened blood — their aura bursting outward as the air grew heavy.
Meichi's blood splashed, crackling on the ground, as Idoku grinned.
"Don't you see it?" Idoku growled, voice trembling with fury. "Even you—who has the so strong blood manipulation—can't match me!"
Meichi didn't answer.
He thrust forward, a massive spear of blood striking like lightning, but Idoku caught it with his bare hand, the weapon dissolving into vapor.
"Your tricks can't kill me!" Idoku shouted, slamming his foot down. An aura wave shot outwards, that Meichi blocked with a thin layer of aura himself.
Meichi leaped backward, sliding down the alley, "tsk.", blood writhing around his arms again — when a gunshot pierced the chaos.
A bullet tore through Idoku's shoulder.
He stumbled forward, blood flowing down his arm, and his head filled with rage.
Keisuke stood atop a toppled lamppost, easing his gun that was shining in the daylight.
Man... I missed. This was my last bullet.
"Looks like you got weaker too," Keisuke snarled, blood all over hsi face, covering his eye.
Idoku's jaws clashed shut. "Son of a—," he growled. "You talk of being the good ones, and then you strike from behind!"
Meichi took advantage of the distraction to whip one of his whips of blood at Idoku.
The blood lash struck deep into Idoku's side, but the gash closed at once — flesh sewing itself together with a sickening squelch and he caught the whip.
He swung it up, pulling Meichi into the air, but he turned half the whip into liquid and the other half into a hammer, slamming onto Idoku.
The blood spilled onto Meichi's hair, making his brown hair look almost as if it was red.
The impact shook the ground.
Idoku blocked with both his arms, but it left some damage.
"Good then," he growled, curling the corner of his mouth into a hooked smile. "I'll show you."
Meichi took a stance, his eyes angling. "What do you mean?
Idoku raised his hand, his aura gathering. "My final resort. You all think my life absorption is my true ability?" confidence through his voice. "That's merely a side effect. My true Blessing…" He glared upwards, his eyes mad. "Is isolation."
The ground began to shake.
"Everything can be my power — I can isolate the elements around me and create something out of them."
His right hand burned fiercely with waves of energy whirling around.
The metallic objects within range — strands of aluminum signs, splinters of iron beams — all tore free from the world and whirled around him in a whirlwind of metal powder.
"Let's see how desperately you'll try to block this explosion, Meichi!"
He flapped his hand out.
A deafening explosion would engulf the street.
The entire space shook as a wave of burning light devoured everything within his radius.
And then — quiet.
Idoku heard a drop of blood.
It's over, it doesn't matter what he does now, Idoku thought.
But then — his smile froze.
He looked down at his hand.
His right arm was gone.
No explosion.
Not amputated. Not evaporated. Simply… gone.
"What? I didn't feel a cut," Idoku said, "How is this possible?"
A voice from afar answered.
"It wasn't cut," the voice of a girl said.
The area where the arm was meant to be — blank.
Idoku panted, staring. "Why… isn't it growing back?"
He turned around — and stiffened again.
The girl stood a few meters away, her eyes blue like the sky, holding an arm in her hand.
Half of her hair was white, half black and her shirt was torn.
"Looking for this?"
Her eyes bored into him, resolute and tired, but utterly unyielding.
"It doesn't regenerate, because…," she whispered, her voice cutting through the silence, "it never existed."
Idoku's face twisted. "What? I see," Idoku added, "You're the girl Shinji was talking about."
"Sora."
Sora approached, her aura glowing gently. "You've made quite the show," she told him, her voice trembling but determined. "It ends now."
"Don't try to mock me!" Idoku bellowed, advancing on her, his remaining arm stretched out to the side. "You think you can simply erase me?!?"
A blade came from below, cutting his other arm off, "Don't forget about me."
"You!" Idoku said, as his arm regrew, but—
Sora raised her hand — slow, calculated — her face a mask of sadness, not rage.
Idoku's arm disappeared in front of his eyes, without a blink.
The next one should end it. I can't afford more uses of my Blessing, Sora thought.
"I'm sorry," she breathed.
And then she snapped her fingers.
For an instant, Idoku's structure trembled — as if the world itself flinched from her touch — and then his vision distorted.
For a moment — nothing happened, then his torso burst open.
His head and upper arms dropped onto the pool of blood, covering the floor around him.
Sora looked at him, as she thought, Shit, I couldn't utilize enough aura to kill him whole.
Then his legs hit the ground too — lifeless.
Idoku looked at his leftovers until his eyes couldn't see anymore.
Did I do well, my King?
A small laughter could be heard, following a cough.
Then Idoku died.
Meichi cut into his head with a knife.
Sora's knees buckled.
She fell to the ground beside him, exhausted, as her eyes caught another tone of gray.
And when the silence of the winner hung in the air, she managed a faint smile.
"It's… finally over."
Her body fell, unconscious, beside Idoku's remaining body.