24th Ward is basically an abandoned area beneath Tokyo.
No humans have lived here for years apart from ghouls and some vampires, so it's the perfect place to train without worrying about normal humans or collateral damage.
Kiriko stands in front of Touka and Rize with her arms crossed, looking at them with a serious expression.
"Alright. Before we start, I want to make something clear."
Both girls look at her attentively, though they still throw each other hostile glances from time to time.
"Touka, since you've already trained with me before, you should know today's training will be different. We're not going to practice techniques or specific movements."
"Then what are we doing?"
Touka asks that with a frown.
Kiriko smiles slightly.
"You're going to fight each other."
"...Hah?"
Touka and Rize exchange glances.
"Fight each other? Why?"
Though Rize asks that question, it's pretty clear she's interested.
"Because the best way to learn is to survive. You can use your kagunes, you can use whatever you want. The objective is simple. Whoever's left standing wins."
Touka narrows her eyes suspiciously.
"And what happens to whoever loses?"
"Nothing. They just lose. But..."
Kiriko pauses before continuing.
"I'm warning you both. If either of you holds back, I'll personally make you suffer afterward."
The atmosphere immediately changes.
Touka looks at Rize. Rize looks at Touka.
The tension that's been building between them since they met finally finds an outlet.
"...This is going to be fun."
Murmuring those words, Rize spreads a smile.
"I agree."
Touka responds while her eyes transform into a kakugan.
Kiriko steps back several meters and sits on a nearby rock, crossing one leg over the other.
"You can start whenever you want."
—Splash!
Touka's kagune explodes from her back like a pair of brilliant bluish-red wings. At the same time, four crimson tentacles emerge from Rize's lower back, writhing in the air up and down, and side to side.
"Haaa!"
Touka launches forward first, using her wings to propel herself at a speed that would make it impossible to follow with normal eyes.
Though certainly Rize isn't someone you could call normal.
The tentacles behind her move to intercept the attack, blocking Touka's blow and pushing her back.
"Not bad, Touka-san~ Though you're going to need to put in a little more effort, you know?"
"Shut up!"
Touka attacks again, this time from above. Her wings flap hard as she descends, launching volleys of sharp, cutting blades toward Rize.
Rize dodges to the side, but one of the crystallized blades grazes her shoulder, leaving a red line on her skin.
"Oh~ That hurt a bit."
"I'm going to make it hurt a lot more!"
The fight continues like this for a while. Touka attacking using her speed and ferocity, Rize defending and counterattacking with her tentacles.
At first it seems like a normal training match. But little by little, it starts leaving that category.
Touka's blows become stronger and more desperate. At the same time, you can see a gleam of rage crossing through her pupils.
"What's wrong, Touka-san? Why are you so angry~?"
"Shut your mouth!"
Touka throws a particularly strong blow that makes Rize retreat several meters.
"You appear out of nowhere..."
Saying that, Touka's voice trembles.
"You insert yourself into Arata's life... and now you act like you have some right to him!"
Rize regains her balance and looks at Touka with narrowed eyes.
"Right? Fufu~ I don't act like I have a right. I have a right. Arata chose me, saved me and brought me here."
"That doesn't mean anything!"
"Doesn't it? Then why are you so angry?"
Words that actually seem like spat venom. Touka knows it, and even so, she can't do much to keep them from affecting her.
Because deep down, she's afraid.
Having lost her parents, with a brother who left who knows where.
Arata is one of the few people she has left, and in her heart, the most important. And the thought of this bitch appearing out of nowhere and taking him away...
Thinking that far, Touka's eyes darken and form a murky whirlpool.
"I won't allow it!"
Touka's kagune, which flaps violently, starts glowing with more intensity, at the same time she launches at Rize, using all the strength she can muster.
On the other hand, Rize doesn't stay behind either.
She also has her own reasons to fight. Her entire life she was locked up in Sunlit Garden, alone, with no one who loved her or cared about her. And then Arata appeared. Of course, it was only a floating eye she called Yuki-chan. But that eye watched her and protected her. Thus becoming the first and only person who truly saw her as something more than an experiment or tool.
He, Arata, didn't even try to correct her violent tendencies, and instead, accepted them.
So...
"I won't let anyone get close to Arata!"
Rize's four tentacles launch forward, clashing against Touka's wings. In the next instant, powerful shockwaves are sent in all directions with the two as the center. Rocks break and the ceiling shakes.
At the same time this fight is happening, from her position, Kiriko has a serious expression. She said not to hold back during training. But this is no longer training.
The two girls are fighting for real, with the intention to kill.
She briefly thought about stopping them, however, the next second, a smile forms on her face.
"Good, let's see how far they'll go."
For Kiriko, fights where there's no intent to kill and where there are no consequences are useless because they can't forge a warrior.
A fight to the death forges someone who can combat the shadow that hides the world.
—Boom!
In her eyes is reflected the battle that continues escalating.
Touka is in the air while her wings flap violently. Rize is on the ground while her tentacles tense upward in such a way they look like spears.
"Die!"
"Disappear!"
Both scream at the same time while launching their final attacks.
Rize's tentacle elongates toward Touka's chest, aiming directly at her heart. At the same time, Touka's wings materialize dozens of crystalline blades that shoot toward Rize.
Far from being considered training attacks, behind each of their final moves are intentions to kill.
Kiriko finally gets up from her seat. She's ready to intervene, since she also has no intention of letting them die. After all, they're good seeds.
However, the next moment, she sharpens her gaze toward the right, from where the three of them came.
'Blood mist.'
The attack fires completely. A deafening explosion occurs, followed by clouds of dust swirling and rising uncontrollably.
Next, there's silence.
—Drip... Drip... Drip...
In that silence, the sound of blood dripping is heard.
Touka, who finds herself intact, thinks she managed to hit that bitch.
Rize, who also finds herself intact, also thinks she managed to hit that bitch.
After that, the dust is repelled by wind that collided against the walls and returned toward where the explosion occurred.
Standing, interposed in the middle, is a humanoid figure.
Both Touka and Rize are confused for a few moments.
Rize's tentacles pierce through its chest while Touka's blades are embedded in its back.
Blood is spat into the air from the wounds, splashing the walls and spilling on the ground.
"...Huh?"
"...What...?"
Both Touka and Rize's bodies automatically stop. Noticing who the figure their strongest attacks hit belongs to, they look with wide eyes.
It's Arata.
He, who's standing between the two, has his chest pierced by Rize's tentacle and his back full of Touka's blades, looking at them with a serene expression.
"I arrive a bit late and this is what I find."
×××
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