I'm certain I used to be a shonen fan, otherwise what else would I have been doing watching one of the most complicated shonen anime out there?
However, fighting is only cool until it's on screen. Cool powers are only cool until I'm not the target of those world-bending abilities.
And more than anything, blood and gore, something which is already heavily censored even in anime and manga, what could that possibly feel like in real life?
One word.
Revolting.
Not my first time seeing blood, hell I have seen mine enough at this point that I might even be able to tell mine apart from someone else's.
I have bled enough and seen enough wounds to be mostly immune to blood by now, or at least that's what I thought until this…
The word didn't even finish leaving his mouth before the blades did their work.
I felt more than saw the moment cursed energy met flesh at lethal speed, a wet, final sound swallowed almost instantly by the wind still roaring off my own hair.
The blond mobile bomber had dropped before I could even realize it, and this time he stayed down — no twitch, no grin, no regrowing anything.
Made sense seeing how I just freaking cut him into pieces.
His head was first to go, I aimed my hair-copter blades right at his neck after all, that was the intention.
But then the blades dug down into his torso and arms and shoulders and chest. Ripping apart everything and anything in their way.
It was like a meat grinder, shredding everything.
By the time it was done, I didn't even realize how brutal that was. The entire upper part of the corpse was ruined to the point even recognising him was impossible.
Blood ran down my hair and arms, the smell of iron hit my nostrils, and for a second time seemed to slow down.
One of those moments when a sudden realisation hits, compelling me to ask, just what the f*ck am I doing?
The composure I thought I had built over God knows how many deadly battles and breaking almost every bone in my body felt shaky at best right that instant.
This wasn't killing someone in cold blood, this was kill or be killed, I know that, I have long accepted that, killing was the only way out.
But, this brutality. It made my stomach churn for the first time ever since Shibuya.
I let go of his body and it fell down with a thud, the blood staining my hair started to trail down to my face, my hands were bloodied to the point even using them made me feel nauseated.
And if that wasn't bad enough then the surge of power I got after the blond's powers transferred into me made it even worse.
The revolting feeling of brutally killing someone mixed with this feeling of newfound power surging inside me.
Haven't felt like this since Shibuya. Taking over both Hanyu and Haba didn't feel this massive of a difference, perhaps they just didn't have much cursed energy. However, this blond, his cursed energy was high. Not high like a special grade sorcerer but a solid Grade 1 at least.
So yeah, my emotions were all over the place currently and they were hard to explain, as if I wasn't even looking at myself anymore.
A twisted desire for power came at the cost of what…
Sukuna's face flashed in front of me, as if I suddenly started to understand his ideology better now. And that felt dangerous.
The feeling of throwing up was so strong that I had to grit my teeth shut tightly and let this wave of disgust pass before I could even think about moving from my place.
And that's when I heard a pop happening right beside me.
"Congratulations! You have earned 5 points for a kill." Kogane materialised beside me, cheerful as always, a sharp contrast to what I was feeling honestly.
My Kogane for some reason or another was a bit too enthusiastic, no idea why. Hell, I wasn't even certain whether it even had a gender.
However, I couldn't ask for any better distraction for myself right now.
"Thanks."
"No problemo…" Kogane chirped and then with a swirl around me, he was gone just as fast as he had appeared.
Staring aimlessly for a few seconds where Kogane had disappeared, I finally recalled that I wasn't alone.
I turned toward the girl, who apparently was staring at the mutilated corpse on the ground and then the blood all over my body with an expression somewhere between horror and mild indigestion.
What followed was her throwing up right in front of me and that once again triggered my very sensitive nausea.
However, I refused to puke, I haven't eaten a thing since entering the colony. I'm not wasting what I already have in me.
So, I gritted my teeth with everything I had and turned my head away to fight off the impulse to throw up.
"...Ah… there goes my breakfast," she said faintly.
At least she had one… I couldn't help but grumble internally.
"You're welcome, by the way." I dusted off what remained of my shirt after the nausea passed. "For saving your pretty little ass."
At that the girl just glared at me even more.
"First, I didn't ask you to save me. Second, that's sexual harassment. And lastly, my ass ain't little."
Really… that's what she cares about. Perhaps saving her wasn't the best of my ideas. Sigh…
"Yes yes… you've got a big fat ass. Can we talk about who you are now and why you attacked me earlier."
She crossed her arms right under her rather generous bosom, which, combined with the dress, was doing something I chose not to acknowledge out loud.
She sent another one of those half-angry, half-annoyed, probably fully fake glares at me. No doubt about that fat ass comment.
"You groped me without permission. Twice. You pervert."
She almost said it like that one girl card could let her out of all the trouble.
"It's called grabbing not groping, and I did it to first stop you, who attacked me out of nowhere, and second to save you, otherwise you would have been part of the decor by now, you stupid woman…
And… while we are at it, you knee me in a very personal place without permission. I'd say we're even, Princess."
"D-don't call me that." All of a sudden she huffed and turned her face away with irritation.
"Then tell me your actual name so I stop having to improvise."
A pause. Then, grudgingly: "...Remi."
"Remi huh… not a bad name." I rolled my aching shoulder. "Yami. Akindo Yami."
"I didn't ask."
"I know, but I said it anyway, you know basic manners, like saying thank you if someone helped you…"
She made a noise that was somewhere between a scoff and a threat.
"So," I said, "why exactly did you try to skewer me with your hair? I hope you have a better explanation than telling me I just happened to walk into your turf or something. Believe me it wouldn't be the first time I heard it and it's getting old."
Her chin lifted, haughty in a way that didn't quite match the dirt on her dress. "I thought you were one of those sorcerers hunting people for points. There've been a lot of them lately."
"Uh huh." I let that sit for a second.
"What?"
"Nothing. Just — funny, since most normal people often try to run away from fights then try to assassinate a person who might kill them. Not suspicious at all."
"That's not the point."
"Oh… then mind pointing out what the point was in attacking a person who clearly was trying to defend against another, obviously more ruthless attacker? And please don't tell me you attacked seeing I was exhausted after my fight with that blond explosion freak. I refuse to believe it didn't cross your mind that if I survived your first attack, you're doomed. Hell, I beat a much stronger opponent than you just seconds ago. You could have just stayed hidden until I was gone and no one would have been any wiser…"
She huffed, and — I noticed this mostly because I was actively trying not to — shifted her posture in a way that pushed her chest forward with an amount of deliberate care that had nothing to do with breathing.
"I was scared," she said, her voice dropping into something softer, more fragile. "I've been alone this whole time. When I saw you fighting him I panicked, I didn't know whose side you were on—"
'Hmmm…'
I'd spent enough time around genuinely dangerous, genuinely gorgeous women — one specific one, mostly — to recognize when someone was working an angle. And this? This had all the subtlety of a brick through a window.
Unfortunately, Maki Zenin wasn't the best person to learn how you handle a girl trying to pour her womanly charms on you.
"Right," I said, entirely unconvinced but let the matter go anyway. Am I really that weak to girls acting all helpless and innocent?
I genuinely gave it a thought. The answer wasn't very clear to draw any meaningful observation from it. I just chucked it to the back of my mind for the time being.
"Well whatever you say, glad we cleared that up." I spoke with a rather helpless tone, knowing that what she told wasn't a complete lie, but my instincts told me there was more to the matter.
As for the idea that she might have been working for that blond explosion freak, it did cross my mind yes, but seeing how that pyromaniac was targeting her as well, and how she helped me beat him, I doubted they were together now. At least until I went through the blond freaks memories that is...
She on the other hand blinked, visibly thrown that the performance hadn't landed the way she'd clearly rehearsed it landing.
"...You don't believe me."
"I believe you're scared. I don't believe that's the whole story." I shrugged. "But hey, everyone's got secrets. I'm not exactly handing out my full resume either."
That seemed to catch her off guard more than any accusation would have. She studied me for a second, something calculating flickering behind the wounded-princess act before it smoothed back over.
"You're annoyingly perceptive for someone who almost died to a guy throwing his own teeth as grenades."
"And you're annoyingly bad at lying for someone who clearly practices in a mirror."
"I do not—"
"Hey, I'm not judging anyone here, but if you deny it so desperately, you just make it obvious now..."
"I HATE you." She huffed and with much passion turned her face around, and if the following hand reaching to her neck was any indication, I might have struck a nerve or something doing so… sigh.
"Sure you do, Princess. Sure you do…"
"I told you not to call me that." She said without any actual heat in her voice, if anything she almost sounded like she liked being called Princess.
Ignoring her for a minute, no matter how good of an eye candy she was in that open-slit dress and that rather generous cleavage of hers, I glanced past her toward the rubble, the smoke still curling off what used to be a hallway.
Whatever she was hiding, she wasn't dangerous — not with that cursed energy control, not with that form. If she needed muscle, or protection, or someone to run interference on whatever mess she was tangled in, fine. I could work with that.
As long as it's nothing too troublesome that is.
And if it's a trap, well, I'd survived worse traps than a girl in a slit dress.
"Anyway." I cracked my neck, done with the bickering for now — or staring when she wasn't looking.
Yes, I'm a teenage boy with surging hormones, I can't help it okay.
"You've clearly been in this district a while. So you should know the area. Right?"
She blinked, then had her coy smile back on her face. "...I might, why are you asking?"
"I'm looking for someone. Reggie Star. You know him?"
Every trace of the pout, the haughty tilt of her chin, the calculated softness in her voice — gone at the mention of that name, all at once, like a mask dropping off a face that hadn't expected the question.
"...Why," she said quietly, "are you looking for him?"
xXx
A/N : Do you guys like the interactions with the characters, Im uncertain since I hardly get any comments on general interactions between character, most of the comments and focus stays on fighting, which make sense its a action fanfic but still, I would like to know.
Would appreciate stones if you can spare any. Thank you.
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