The road is quiet. Rema walks slowly, glancing around her, not searching for sounds, but reaching out, feeling for the natural energy signatures of the two of them.
As she walks, her mind keeps pulling her back to her sister's face. She is on the mission, but her chest tightens under the weight of the pain and the fear pressing down on her. Still, she doesn't stop. She keeps walking.
Then she freezes. A short distance ahead, she sees them, Akos and Sakoura, trading punches back and forth with each other.
Akos is an idiot from my past. He prepares to send the Black at him. Sakoura answers him with an ironic smile.
"Always understand that the future and the past are the same. As much as you cry to your mother, it makes no difference."
He makes the finger pistol gesture. Before either of them can attack, Rema gets between them in a fraction of a second, with extreme movements. She generates a mirror from the floor.
"You left the conversation unfinished," she tells them.
The two remain shocked. Where the two attacks hit the mirror, it turns back on them. Sakoura screams with anger.
"Fuck, your mother, he died first!"
Another piece of trash comes out in front of us. The area explodes from the energy of the two attacks.
"Holy shit, baby!" Akos shouts. "Did he friendly fire or hit himself? Who is she again?" He touches his head. Pain flashes across his face.
Sakoura bursts through the smoke. His jaw is tight, his eyes narrow. "What is this brat in front of me? Why did she pull out a mirror from nowhere?"
Rema's voice drops to a whisper. "Listen. I don't have time for your fight or your questions. I came to murder you both."
Akos throws his head back. Laughter rips out of him. "What did you come here to do? Murder me?" He waves a hand toward Sakoura. "Get in line. I have a client to scam first!"
"Well, well, well... First we had an insect-man from hundreds of years ago who screamed like a woman, and now we have a woman who screams like a man and threatens?" Sakoura whispers in an ironic tone.
"Don't say that; don't throw so much flirt, Sakoura! She might have a boyfriend and get jealous!" Akos comments.
They look at her. They see how she barely stands upright.
Akos moves way too fast between them, creating Black and Red at his fingertips, then firing them at the two.
But Rema answers, creating a mirror between herself and Akos. Akos's attack bounces back at him. Akos dodges, but Rema creates another mirror from Sakoura's side, so the Red and Black bounce back at Akos again. Still, Akos launches both energy bullets toward the sky. They merge, creating the ABSOLUTE Technique Energetic!
At the same time, Sakoura doesn't stay still. He hurls the CLASH OF FLAME, unleashing huge tidal waves of fire!
"Sapato!" Rema whispers with a cold expression.
She creates a huge mirror shaped like a cube. It drops into the middle. She sits on top of it. Time seems to freeze as Sakoura's and Akos's powerful attacks slam into the Cube Mirror.
Both are shocked as their attacks hit the Cube and bounce back at them.
"You won this round, idiot girl..." Sakoura whispers.
On the other side, Akos doesn't panic at all. With one motion, he redirects the blue bullet westward.
Sweat drips down Rema's face. Her hands shake. She clamps her palms over her ears, but her sister's voice cuts through anyway: "Rema, don't leave me here..."
She forces a breath. Focus. That's why she came.
Sakoura moves. One slash, and Rema's leg is gone, snatched, swallowed whole. She stands frozen, staring at the space where her limb used to be.
"I can't believe this," she whispers. "No, no, no, I can't end here so fast!"
Her pulse hammers against her throat. Blood pools at her feet. The white of bone glints through torn flesh.
"I promised you, Giulia!" she screams. "I promised I'd come back!"
She tries to turn, to run, but Sakoura dashes, and her right eye is gone too, plucked and swallowed before she can blink.
Her fingers find the hollow socket. Her chest heaves. Each breath scrapes raw, oxygen barely reaching her lungs.
Sakoura lunges with a Lighter Flash fist, aimed straight at her heart.
Rema's remaining eye blinks. The shadow of the fist and Sakoura's flame gleam in her iris.
"Can't die here..." She grits her teeth. "As long as I breathe, I'll fight to come back, Giulia!"
She moves her hand to create the mirror, but suddenly Akos cuts in! He blocks Sakoura's fist and lands a hard punch to his face.
Rema freezes. "Ehhh... what? Why did he do that? Why save me?"
Her last eye stays wide, shocked.
"I knew, somehow, that you had to stay alive," Akos whispers. His voice stays flat, his eyes locked on Sakoura, never once glancing at Rema.
She doesn't move. Her blood has already gone cold.
"I don't know who sent you here to die. Didn't they tell you this fight is to the death? The only goal is to kill each other. Same for me. But I'm sure you didn't come here willingly... You don't look Japanese. You came through a portal technique."
Rema's ears ring. He's seeing the past... The thought flashes through her mind. She looks around. "What exactly am I doing here? Why? Why?" She shakes her head. "No, no, I have to... have to save my sister! Why am I here, damn it?" Her hands clamp over her skull, fingers digging against the pain
"Ohhh, looks like you fell for her and saved her, Akos Tasaku?" Sakoura walks toward them, voice dripping with mockery.
Her hands clamp over her skull, fingers digging against the pain. "Love requests to hide before I secure it."
"My vision is that you'll dissolve by my Universe Zone!" Sakoura spreads his arms wide, like he's offering a hug.
"Talk too much. Warned you dozens of times you talk too much." Akos smiles mockingly. "Winner writes the story, right? If you win, how will you write it?"
Sakoura tilts his head. "I won't write a story. No one left to see it... Because I'll eat them all!"
"If my death was a good choice for humanity, Akos... then you'll open the gates of Hell," Sakoura says. He steps closer. "So isn't my death your goal? To spread yourself across the planet? In the end, don't you expect peace to come if I lose? You don't live in a world of flowers; both scenarios will be worse!"
"If your size can bear such weight, hold the door you speak of! Let it open; let us dissolve from sky to land and sea!" Akos answers. He positions himself behind Rema.
Akos smiles. "Known, Sakoura."
Suddenly, Akos turns his head to the right. Rema's shoes, blade-like, shoot straight at Sakoura, but he catches them calmly.
"See... you saved her, and now she wants to kill you. You humans are stupid."
Akos smirks. "You have human form, serve the Devil, and insult humans? You're the hypocrisy itself!"
"Your philosophical dialogue tired me," Rema whispers.
She shakes her shoe and creates two mirrors around Sakoura. The shoe starts tearing at his body.
At the same time, Rema attacks Akos with quick punches, but Akos blocks every fist. He spins his whole body behind her back, grabs her by the throat, and whispers in her ear: "Regenerate the organs you lost... let's see if you can turn your neck too!"
Akos breaks Rema's neck. A loud crack echoes through the area.
Her body crumples and starts to fall, but she catches herself fast. She twists her neck bones back into place.
She throws a punch at Akos, but he raises his hands in front of his face, spins right, and sends a punch back. She creates the Mirror, but Akos changes his fist's path—instead of attacking, he shifts to defense, and the Mirror dissolves.
Rema dives under a car, emerges from Akos's blind side, and throws a punch.
He catches her: "Little one, I've figured out how your technique works. I don't need to attack for you to return it. Your Mirror can't turn or copy defense or block!"
He shoves her toward the car, and she falls inside, into the driver's seat.
Sweat beads on Rema's forehead. Her chest tightens. She mutters to herself, "He learns from every hit and adapts faster than the opponent. He turns knowledge into a weapon mid-fight..." Her voice drops. "Who am I fighting?"
Sakoura's fists clench. His jaw tightens. He destroys all the mirrors and mutters, "Mirrors are born once, but these spawn constantly! Like mosquitoes, swat all you want, more appear. With this girl, it's a mosquito the size of a human!"
He forms the finger pistol gesture. "Mosquitoes only exist to die!"
A powerful flame shoots toward the car. Rema scrambles out at the last second before the attack hits.
The car explodes. Shrapnel flies toward Rema, but she creates a mirror. She freezes, watching other pieces head toward her sister.
"Giulia! What are you doing there?" she screams.
She tries to create more mirrors, but something sharp pierces her body. She looks down. A metal rod sticks out of her stomach.
Blood trickles from her mouth. Her eyes widen. She watches Giulia transform into Akos himself, who watches her with a calm gaze.
"Hate... hallucination..." she whispers and collapses, her blood flooding the area again.