Okami: Hero's Shortcomings

Chapter 20: Demon and Angel

Heaven, Nov. 19th 2016 @9:07 AM. Only a few punches and kicks in and the room was turning out to be a mess. The white cherry wood table was rendered to fragments, the drywall and paint was tearing off. Dust and particles floated around and were almost thick enough to act as a smokescreen, but the two never let their sights off each other.

Genji jammed a flame-powered punch into her stomach, promptly sending her out the room and slamming against the handrail on her back.

From within the abundance of dust burned a brave fire, one that refused to stand down despite how much of an uphill battle this should be. He ran out the room, flames crawled all the way up to his shoulder. He jumped and planned to send it straight at her face, but the girl spun over to the side, leaving Genji to plummet to the ground.

"Foolish!" She got one foot on the rail and pushed off, diving down to use the same attack on him.

Expecting to miss, Genji reacted by placing his hands on the ground and splitting his legs on the opposite sides, nearly making a straight line.

"What the-" She went past him with his unexpected move, like a football through a field-goal. She was moments away from landing, but was caught in midair by her hair, and was even being lifted. Genji had bent his arms and pushed off, allowing him to pursue, grab, and eventually throw her through the castle's walls.

The bricks gave way and shot out along with the girl, shortly falling to her death.

"Aw yeah! Point one for me!" Genji said, pumping his fist in the air with a wide smile. As much as he should've known given it was taught at school in Hell, he overlooked one key detail.

The horrible sight burned into his retinas. Her shining, white, and feathered wings flapped elegantly in the air as her gaze continued to stab away at his nerves, giving him a lump to choke on.

"Umm...I take my point back?"

Without warning, four spears erected from the floor behind him and penetrated through the other side of his body. Nearly instantaneously, he blood forced its way up his throat and through his mouth.

"Jasper, one. Demon-boy, zero." She said with a playful smirk, though he knew it had malicious intent.

The spears retracted, and he nearly fell from the lightheadedness, but he remained firm.

"Jasper, h-huh? That didn't even hurt!"

"Really now? I'm sure I popped at least two of your hearts there."

"Nope! I'm completely a-...okay!" Genji said, wiping the blood from his mouth. He then tried reigniting his arm, but found his powers weren't active, huh? What's up with that?

"Pop one heart, you become severely weakened, two, and you lose access to your powers. Pop three of 'em, you start to lose your senses. Get four, and your thought processes stop. Five, so long to your motor functions...and six is bye-bye demon." She said as she slowly floated towards him.

"Then why not get all six from the get-go? You clearly know more about my body than I do."

"Destroy all six? In one simple attack? Please," Jasper formed a dagger from her light energy and pierced it into his third heart. Slowly, things were going dark and his hearing was fading out, but he heard the last thing she said before going deaf, "it's better to kill with your own hands."

Without the ability to see, hear, or feel. Or to even surround himself in fire in a desperate attempt to defend himself, Genji could die at any moment. In fact, he thought he had died the moment everything went black.

But like his dream just this morning, he reappeared in the dreadful environment with the sticky, bloody floor and the smell of rotting carcasses offended his nose.