Blood dripped onto the tile floor of the school. A rainbow colored throwing knife fell onto the floor, causing a loud metallic sound to resonate throughout the school. The tip was stained with blood. A pair of feet wearing black dress shoes caused glass to crunch underneath them as the walked. The feet stopped as Posche leaned against a wall. The yelling of cops began to force themselves into earshot, allowing Posche to sit himself against a wall. Removing his hand from his stomach, Posche noticed that the wound had not stopped bleeding. Placing his hand back onto his stomach, he gladly accepted the police officer's assistance in getting out of the school. Through the ringing in his ears, one officer’s voice broke through to Posche.

“Is there anyone else in the school other than the terrorists?”

Posche silently nodded his head. He held up his hand and put two fingers up.

“So… you’re the brat that brought all of this destruction to this school, Yami Shinpai,” Akiji chuckled. “You look hardly old enough to have any hair on your nuts!”

Yami glanced at Shitto.

“Fuck.. I was too late. I need to get him out of here now!”

Akiji noticed Yami had seen Shitto.

“Ah, ah, ah!”

Akiji grabbed Shitto by the top of his head using his left hand.

“If you want your friend, you’ll have to give yourself to me first.”

Yami gritted his teeth.

“Shitto… bear with me a little bit longer,” Yami whispered under his breath.

Yami began to charge his Sirushi Inochi with life essence. His tattoo began to become slightly more opaque.

“Fine. Just let him go.”

Akiji lost his smile.

“You really have no bark OR bite. You are pathetic. Put your hands behind your back and walk backwards towards me.”

Yami followed orders, placing his hands behind his back, turning around, and started walking towards Akiji.

“If I do what he says for now, he should let Shitto go. Then, I can focus on hi-”

Yami heard a thud as Akiji dropped Shitto and charged at Yami. Akiji’s left hand wrapped itself around Yami’s neck as its momentum forced Yami onto the ground, breaking the tile which Yami’s head had hit.

“You arrogant child! I want to kill you, yet you try to save your friend?”

Yami smiled.

“What’s so funny? Here, let’s imprint that smirk of yours onto the tile, you scumbag!”

Akiji picked Yami’s head up, then slammed it back into the tile floor, making a loud shattering sound. Yami still smiled.

“You wanna know what’s funny,” Yami asked Akiji?

Akiji smirked.

“Let’s hear it, pipsqueak.”

Yami kicked the ground with his right foot, propelling himself into Akiji, causing him to lose just enough balance for Yami to dart out from underneath him. Yami created a sphere in his left palm and charged at the still staggered Akiji. With an unseen speed, Akiji smacked Yami’s left arm into the ground, causing dirt and debris to expel itself from the ground. Yami’s right hand reached behind himself in an attempt to draw his knife.

“Clever trick, but now..”

Akiji seemingly teleported behind Yami due to his speed. Akiji placed his left foot on Yami’s back while simultaneously gripping Yami’s right arm, and forced his torso forward while leaving his right arm in Akiji’s right arm, causing it to pop as it became dislocated. Yami screamed in pain.

“I gave you a chance, Yami. Now, I get to have some fun with you!”

Yami was thrown into the air, then received a roundhouse kick to the chest from Akiji’s right leg, sending him into a wall. Blood flew out of Yami’s mouth as he tried to recover his breath. Before having any time to contemplate what had happened, Yami saw Akiji’s fist aimed for his face. Yami threw himself at the ground, and while he avoided the punch that put a hole through the cinderblock wall that had Yami’s imprint in it, he landed on the edge of a tipped over desk, hitting his ribs, which had already likely been fractured from the earlier encounter. Akiji ripped his hand out of the wall.

“You squirmy fuck!”

Akiji threw his left fist at Yami. Yami rolled to his right, avoiding the attack. While Akiji was still ending his swing, Yami darted to Shitto, who was bleeding profusely.

“He doesn’t have much time left! I have to end this quick! I only have one shot at this…”

Akiji lept at Yami once again. His left hand was moving so quickly, it was as if you could see the air forming currents around it as it flew through the air.

“You’re mine, Jinsei no Hogo!”

Yami quickly formed a sphere in his left hand, and with a never before seen speed, charged Akiji.

“Shit,” Akiji thought to himself! “He got faster! I’m gonna have to stop it with my right hand!”

As Akiji began to move his right hand toward Yami, Yami smiled.

“Too slow,” Yami yelled!

Akiji’s right arm was still dripping blood from the earlier conflict. The sphere drove itself into Akiji’s palm, forcing his hand in the opposite direction and burned the flesh of his palm. Yami ducked, and as he flew over him, Akiji attempted to flip over to grab Yami on his descent down. Yami jumped over Akiji as he landed hard on his stomach, then drew his pocket knife with his left hand, slicing it across the back of both of Akiji’s knees. Akiji let out a scream.

“Anyways,” Yami said, “I suppose I should tell you what was so funny. You say I’m pathetic because I was willing to sacrifice myself for Shitto, while you left your friends to die.”

Akiji was overcome with a look of shock.

“What… what do you mean?”

“Akiji, I killed them.”

Akiji’s expression changed from a look of shock to one of amusement as he broke out in laughter.

“No, I get that! What I meant was what you said before that! Ha ha ha! You said… that they were my friends! You really have no understanding of this world, do you, Yami Shinpai? Let me tell you this! Friends will only drag you down! Enemies with common interests is where you will succeed!”

“Akiji, I feel sorry for you.”

Akiji stopped smiling.

“You pathetic child. Don’t ever feel sorry for your enemies.”

They both fell silent.

“The terrorist has been identified as Akiji Yochi! He has two students hostage! All units, move in!”

Large clusters of police with body armor, assault rifles, and assault shields swarmed into each entrance of the school. As the police neared Yami, their shouts and shuffling became more audible. Yami folded his pocket knife and returned it back into his pocket. Walking towards Shitto, Yami also found his rainbow throwing knife in a pool of blood, presumably Akiji’s. Reaching to grab it with his right hand proved to be excruciatingly painful as Yami was forced to remember that his shoulder was dislocated. As Yami let out a small grunt, he reached for it instead with his left hand, then placed it next to his pocket knife. Finally reaching Shitto, Yami knelt next to him.

“Sorry I was a little late, Shitto.”

Shitto forced a small grin.

“About… time…”

An officer appeared in the doorway.

“Don’t move!”

The officer reached for his radio.

“I found them! They’re in room number 331! The students are critically injured, as well as the terrorist!”

Yami looked down at his left hand. As he wiped the blood off his palm onto his shirt, he saw that Transparency was inactive. Confused, Yami tried to reactivate it, but his muscles simply strained.

“Over… work? I’m going to have to force some life essence to hide this or I may as well be dead.”

Upon activating Transparency, Yami began to feel dizzy, and his vision began to blur.

“Shit… I’m all out of juice.”

As Yami fell over onto the floor, more police and stretchers came into the room.

Posche sat underneath a tree just outside of the school. A bandage was wrapped around his forehead and his leg. Taking a sip from a water bottle, Posche nearly choked when Yami and Shitto were wheeled out of the school doors on stretchers. Their clothes were stained with blood, and neither of them had retained their consciousness. As Posche attempted to stand, a firm hand kept him from overexerting himself. Posche looked up, and an older man, looking about 60 years old with grey hair and a slightly wrinkled yet stern face, looked back down on him.

“Dad, I must go with them. They are my students.”

The older man shook his head.

“I can’t let you do that. I’m pulling enough strings as it is. The police are still going to want to question them.”

“Dad, this isn’t their fault.”

“I know. I’ll see if I can conduct the interviews. I am the Chief of Police, after all.”

“Thank you.”

The man rubbed Posche’s head.

“Take it easy. Let me know if you need me to come over.”

“I will.”

As the man began to walk away, he stopped for a moment.

“Also, I will need to explain all of this to me before the interviews.”

With that, the man walked away from Posche and the tree.

“If Yami hadn’t come and saved us, who knows what would’ve happened. It is unfortunate that one other student was put in the ICU, and the teacher was killed, but considering how strong each member was, it’s rather lucky we got off so easily…”

“Hey! Mr. Posche!”

Rikai came running up to him. As she approached him, she covered her mouth with her hands.

“M-Mr. Posche… You’re all beat up…”

Posche chuckled.

“It’s nothing, really. I’ve been worse. In any case, how are you holding up? You were in the same class as Shitto, right? If I recall correctly, you texted Yami for us,too.”

Rikai nodded.

“It was terrible, to say the least. That man bust in, killed our teacher, hurt our friends… Mr. Posche, how is Shitto?”

“Both him and Yami are a little beat up, but they’re tough. Give them a couple of days and they’ll be back to normal.”

“Yami was hurt too?!?!”

“I said too much already, I suppose.”

“Yes, but not nearly as bad as Shitto.”

“So Shitto is in a really bad condition right now?!?!”

“Oh man.”

“Ri...kai…”

Rikai turned her head towards the ambulance. Peeking inside, she saw Yami and Shitto on the stretchers. Shitto held his thumb up and smiled.

“Thank… you… We’re… alright!”

A tear slid down Rikai’s cheek as she nodded her head. A paramedic asked her to step aside as he shut the doors, and the ambulance drove away hurriedly.

“See, Rikai? They’re both very strong.”

Rikai nodded.

“But how did they fight him, Mr. Posche? They didn’t bring any weapons, so how?”

Posche looked at the ground.

“I don’t know.”

Beep beep beep

Yami laid still with hazy thoughts.

“Oh, my alarm clock… I’ll be late for school if I don’t get up…”

As Yami tried to move his left arm to reach for where he usually puts his alarm clock, he felt nothing. His arm did not move.

“What the… Oh well, I’m tired anyways.”

Yami strained his face as he felt a numbing sensation in his arm. As his arm tensed, Yami still felt no response.

“I’m not sleeping! Something is wrong!”

As Yami strained all of his muscles in an attempt to move, he began to hear a distant voice call for him.

“Yami… Yami… Yami!”

Yami jolted up as the voice seemed as though it was in his ear. Almost immediately, Yami clenched his stomach and fell back onto the hospital bed.

“Hey, you good man?”

Yami looked over and saw Shitto, who was almost completely covered in bandages.

“Damn! They turned you into a mummy!”

They both laughed.

“Ya, he was strong alright. Plus with Rikai being clingy to us, it was even harder to get her to leave so I could fight him.”

Yami’s face looked serious as he stared at the ceiling.

“Thanks, Shitto.”

Shitto turned at looked at Yami.

“For what?”

“You saved everyone when they came after me. Thank you for covering for me.”

Shitto turned back.

“Don’t mention it. Besides, you said ‘they?’ What do you mean?”

Yami closed his eyes.

“Akiji wasn’t alone. There were three others. Posche got one of them, but I helped him clean them out.”

Shitto turned to Yami, and if it weren’t for the bandages covering his face, he would’ve shown a shocked expression.

“You fought two others?!?!”

“Ya, but they weren’t nearly as strong as Akiji.”

“What happened?”

“Well…”

Posche drew a scalpel and darted at the woman.

“You’re mine now!”

The scalpel was on point with the woman’s eye. Without warning, a hand grabbed Posche’s leg, pulling him back and onto the floor. The impact was so hard that it caused Posche to spit up blood.

“You underestimated Jiro. Now, you’ll die.”

“At least I managed to save some of my students. Yami should be okay now, too. The cops will arrive any moment now.”

As Jiro raised his left leg to stomp on Posche’s head, he was propelled into a glass case. A large hole was burned through his shirt, charing his back. The woman turned back to see the carnage that was made by Jiro’s impact.

“What the..!”

Turning back, she saw Yami lifting Posche onto his shoulder.

“Who are you!?”

Yami walked Posche over to a wall and sat him down. Then, he turned to the woman.

“I’m Yami Shinpai, and I’m gonna kick your ass!”

Yami charged towards the woman, but had to duck in order to evade Jiro’s large swing.

“I thought I just took him out!”

“Yami! They’re using Phys Mods!”

“Mr. P, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“That’s right, I have yet to teach Yami what Phys Mods are.”

A flurry of punches sent at Yami caused him to stumble backwards, forcing him to trip. Looking up, Yami saw Jiro take a knee. His left leg was forming a pool of blood on the floor.

“Sanae… I can’t go on any longer… I’m losing my thoughts…”

“It’s alright, Jiro.”

A blade forced its way through Jiro’s neck and out of his throat. As Jiro began to asphyxiate on what little blood he had left, he fell the the floor. The woman stood behind him with a stiletto heel in hand. The heel itself was a blade.

“Poor Jiro. While he wasn’t blessed with smarts, he was incredibly strong. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Yami looked the woman in her eyes.

“You heartless bitch.”

The woman’s shoeless right foot drove itself into Yami’s chin, sending him backwards. Catching himself, Yami landed on the ground and ran at the woman again. As Yami formed a sphere in his left hand, the woman seemingly vanished for a moment before appearing right in front of Yami and drilling her fist into his stomach.

“How is she so strong?!”

As she pulled her fist away, she began to kick her right foot up again. A scalpel flew and sliced the bottom of her foot, causing blood to spurt out, as well as a scream.

“You fucker! I’ll kill the Jinsei no Hogo, then obliterate you!”

“I saw it,” Yami said.

The woman looked at Yami.

“What was that?”

“I saw it… Your Sirushi Inochi!”

Yami lept at the woman, swinging his fist at her. Barely blocking the incoming attack, the woman gritted her teeth.

“He saw my Sirushi Inochi? What does that even mean?”

Yami forced another swing, pushing the woman into a wall. As the woman tried to recover from the attack, she glanced down at the floor to see Jiro crawling up behind Yami.

“Yes! Just a little more, Jiro!”

“You lose, Jinsei no Hogo!”

Jiro reached for Yami. Yami turned to see Jiro, but was still unable to avoid his hand.

“Fantastic job, Jiro!”

Yami fell onto his back as Jiro pushed him aside.

“So that’s how it is…”

The blade of the stiletto heel found itself a new home inside of Sanae’s body, with a little help from Jiro. As Sanae coughed blood onto Jiro’s face, he hugged her.

“Jiro… You big softie…”

The two collapsed onto the floor. Yami picked himself up, still unable to comprehend what had just happened. He jogged over to Posche who was still in a bad state.

“You good, Mr. P?”

“Yes, Yami. But Shitto…”

Yami nodded.

“I’m on it.”

Yami pulled out a pen from his pocket and sat next to Posche. He then pulled off his right shoe and the sock that followed it.

“What are you doing, Yami?”

Yami unscrewed the pen’s handle, removing the ink cartridge.

“This is only temporary, but I found a way for me to use Sirushi Inochi I encounter. The book you gave me said I could do this, so I’m trying it.”

Yami replaced the ink cartridge with a capsule which he pulled from his pocket. Screwing it back into place, Yami took a deep breath, then forced the pen into the bottom of his foot. He drew a symbol that somewhat represented a flame, then put the pen back in his pocket.

“I saw this as she tried to kick me. It seems as though she could activate it to augment her body more than if she used her life essence normally.”

Yami put his sock and shoe back on, then stood up.

“Alright, Mr. P. This is where we part ways.”

“Good luck, Yami.”

“Thanks.”

As Yami began to jog away from Posche, Posche began to stand up. Glass crunched as his two black dress shoes walked past the display case Jiro had been smashed into. He leaned himself up against a wall, and inspected his stomach wound, which hadn’t stopped bleeding.

“I see. You truly are one of a kind, Yami,” Shitto said, resting in his bed.

Yami opened his eyes.

“I guess you lasted longer than Mr. P, huh.”

Their laughter was cut off as Posche’s father entered the room.

“Hello, gentlemen. I’m Mr. Frank Posche, Chief of Shifuku Police.”

Shitto and Yami looked at each other before turning back to the old man.

“Hello,” they said in unison.

“If I may ask,” Yami said inquisitively, “why are you here?”

“I’m glad you asked! I’m here to arrest you two!”