He was upright before the pain arrived properly. Rolled his shoulder. Adjusted his grip. Looked at the last remaining Menace across a stretch of broken road, both of them breathing hard, both of them still deciding.
He spat to the side.
"Alright then."
Kaede stood over the body of the first Menace and breathed.
The thing had stopped moving, its skull caved in, dark blood spreading slow and thick across the road beneath it. She looked at it for a moment the way you look at something you worked hard to put down, making sure it understood it was finished. Then she straightened, rolled her sword wrist once, and turned back to the others.
Rei was kneeling beside Renji with both hands pressed to his shoulder, her face pale and drawn tight with focus. Her fingers trembled slightly. She had been healing continuously since the fight started and it was showing — the faint glow beneath her palms was thinner than it should have been, the light unsteady.
