Baji was going to die. Kazutora was going to die. Hina was going to die. Kisaki was going to die.
And [ Name ] was going to make sure none of that happens. She glanced around, making sure to have sight on each of those four as she remained by Kisaki's side. The two took down anyone that tried to approach them, [ Name ] sending people to the ground easily with her energy well replenished.
Mikey climbed a large stack of cars, jumping from one elevation to the next as he lured the people chasing him. Behind him was the Captains of Valhalla along with Kazutora, who amazingly enough kept up with his agility.
Once Mikey reached a point where the top of a car provided him with plenty of space to move, he stopped and waited for them to come up with his back turned. One jumped down having made it in front of him using another way, a grin on his face as he thought he took Mikey by surprise.
Swiftly, Mikey clenched his fist and pulled back his arm before hitting his stomach with all he got. The Captain's eyes popped out in shock as saliva flew from his mouth, staggering backwards as Mikey turned around and hit the second Captain.
He was quick to down the third one as well, but as they got back up and situated themselves quickly, he didn't realize how much of a distraction they were to him. Kazutora raised both his arms to the side of his head, a metal pipe clenched tightly between his fists. He swung it down quicker than when he took Hansen off guard, and it hit Mikey straight in the back of the head. Gasps rang out as everyone down below looked on in horror, Valhalla members cheering loudly for their leader.
Draken grit his teeth as he looked up towards Mikey, pivoting his foot in his direction before Hanma threw a punch at him that he had no choice but to dodge.
Mikey was knocked down, on the floor and disoriented from the attack. The Captains of Valhalla evilly chuckled as they surrounded him, Kazutora only a few inches further than them.
[ Name ] gestured her head over towards the stack of cars, her eyebrows creased in concern.
"Kisaki, meet me over there, I'm going to help Mikey!"
"Hey—!"
She was already taking off, Mikey placing his hand on the rusted car as he used it as leverage to stand up from his crouched position.
"Mikey!" Draken yelled as he ran towards the car pile, only to be intercepted by Hanma once again.
The captains lifted Mikey up by his arms and Kazutora raised the pipe, intending to beat on him with it.
People tried to get in [ Name ]'s way, but her speed was incredible. Her heel loudly clicked against the ground as she ran, no longer silenced as they normally were with the panic coursing through her.
With elegant precision, she hopped up from car to car, and Kazutora only got one strike in sending a blood splatter in a diagonal line atop of the car they stood on.
Mikey's eyes were shadowed as his head lolled downwards.
"Now, [ Name ]." Mikey mumbled between his bloodied lips, remembering the night when she told him to call out her name whenever he was in trouble.
[ Name ] swung at one of the Captains as her body shook recognizing the call of her name from someone that she gave permission to, making their hold on Mikey significantly weaken as he fell back.
Mikey said something to Kazutora about him killing his brother, and while still being held back by two of the Captains, he was able to throw his head back and swing it forward to headbutt Kazutora, knocking him out with blood squirting out of his nose.
[ Name ] slammed her shoulder into the second captain, sending him tumbling down the stack of cars roughly. His body clanged on each one, loud thugs echoing making more people look over.
Kisaki was just behind her and took care of the third, the three standing tall together on top of the cars. They didn't notice another person had been climbing up the stack of cars with worry all over their features.
"Nice one, Kisaki," [ Name ] said with a nod of her head in his direction. He reciprocated the action with a smile.
Toman members and spectators were in awe of the 3rd division Captain and Vice-Captain. Many complimented their strengths, while some claimed they were trying to 'steal the spotlight' in a joking manner. Though that light atmosphere would quickly leave as unnoticed to the three, someone had picked up Kazutora's pipe.
"KISAKI!"
Baji raised the rusted metal pipe behind his head, the muscles in his hands tensing as he gripped it like a baseball bat.
Takemichi's words rang throughout [ Name ]'s head as she watched Baji raise the pipe and yell out Kisaki's name.
'Don't trust him.'
She could only watch as Baji swung at the startled boy, his glasses reflecting the image of him bringing down the pipe to his face.
*CLANG!*
The sound of metal scraping against flesh and hitting bone echoed throughout the abandoned car lot. [ Name ] remained still as her eyes widened, watching as blood gathered before dropping to the ground. Everything went quiet. She stood still.
And then she felt liquid drip from her face to the ground. She staggered and raised her hand to her cheek, her fingers gently tracing the cuts and checking her eye that had blood spilling into it.
Her head spun in shock as her mind hazed momentarily, taking a moment to control her body to absorb the blow. Her head was angled to the side and her cheek was cut and torn in various spots from the ragged and rusty pipe. Blood spilled down her neck to her chest and soaked into her clothing.
'FOCUS! GROUND YOURSELF!'
Her name was yelled frantically and the sound of metal hitting against metal was deafening— Baji having dropped the pipe in shock making it bounce down the tower of cars.
'REMEMBER WHAT TAKEMICHI TOLD YOU!'
Her vision started to come back, colors around her forming a clear environment and the horrified look on Baji's face in her line of sight.
Behind her, Kisaki's face was shadowed. He had a dark look and no grin present whatsoever. He showed concern for his Vice-Captain through his briefly widened eyes, however he walked towards her with his hand in his pocket much too calmly. He walked forward to either check on her or was about to go around her to defend her.
'DON'T BE THE REASON SOMEONE DIES TODAY, ASTRUS!'
And the person that was climbing the stack of cars has made it as she shouted out [ Name ]'s name.
[ Name ] was able to turn around just as she saw the glint of metal, her heart dropping to her stomach.
Her body instinctively told her to move— to teleport out of the way. So, she willed herself to teleport with the energy she had as a bang echoed loudly.
For some reason, her body didn't so much as shudder in the slightest, not moving an inch from where she stood atop that car.
She felt a certain area of her stomach ache, a burning sensation spreading all across her. It was in the exact spot and held the same feeling she felt when she first came from her world to this one. But the illusion was quick to vanish, finding she actually wasn't hurt in the slightest.
Hina's eyes were closed tightly as she stood in between [ Name ] and Kisaki with her arms raised protectively.
Kisaki's hand shook despite his face showing apathy, realizing the bullet that flew out of his gun didn't make contact with her— nor anyone for that matter. The thought of it simply vanishing was terrifying, knowing he had tried and failed in his task to kill the one person he thought could get in his way.
Shouts rang out and people began to scatter— the prospect of someone having a gun being a reality wake for some. Some Spectators grinned at the development, while others only regretted coming in the first place as it began to clear.
Somewhere in [ Name ], she hoped to find the good in Kisaki. She hoped he wouldn't squeeze that trigger. But he did, and as Takemichi said, she couldn't trust him.
"Gunshot?"
"I think I saw someone get shot!"
"Someone has a fucking gun!"
Mikey stared with wide, shaky eyes as he looked at the two girls who were nearly killed but somehow remained standing. His attention shot over to the guy that was still holding up a gun, pointing as he clearly intended to pull the trigger again— even if that meant putting some bullets through Hina as well.
"KISAKI!" Mikey yelled in anger.
In sync with Mikey yelling out his name, Draken had made it behind Kisaki and knocked the gun out of his hand fiercely. Behind him grinned Hanma as he pulled his leg, making Draken trip, before jumping up and grabbing onto Kisaki, pulling him back in his direction. The two escaped down the cars and eventually intermingled with the rest of Valhalla that was ditching them, making their escape.
[ Name ] didn't move as she stared at Hina, different emotions rapidly swirling throughout her head. Hina turned around slowly to look at her, horrified as her whole body shook slightly and her arms fell back to her sides.
Before she knew it, Hina was quickly engulfed in a hug, [ Name ]'s arms thrown around the girl as she pulled her closer to her. Hina's face was shoved into [ Name ]'s chest as she pulled her aggressively close, though it was so warm and comforting, she had no complaints as she angled her head to the side so she could breathe.
Hina was shaking like a leaf— she truly thought she was going to die. Her eyes were wet, and her nose stung before she cried, tears staining [ Name ]'s uniform. Hina sees why Takemichi's such a crybaby now, knowing what he has to deal with firsthand. She cried and cried, and [ Name ] held her, uncaring of what was going on around her as she focused on comforting the girl while repeatedly giving her thanks.
Takemichi quickly approached the two and stared at them, his eyes shaking in horror before tears began to spill seeing they were both okay. They dragged clear lines down his face, his hand shooting up to wipe them away as he gave them their space and watched them from a distance. While he was fighting, Hina had run off, presumably because she spotted [ Name ]. It had scared him so much knowing she was out of his sights, and he truly thought he failed.
While Mikey argued with Kazutora since he had woken back up, Takemichi decided he had to do something. And so, he convinced them to stop fighting by bringing up past events, hoping to settle the matter. Kazutora realized that the events of the past were his fault and takes blame after realizing someone seriously could have died today when hearing what happened between Kisaki and [ Name ]. And another person that could have died used to be so close to him, they were friends at one point. And he couldn't forget that.
Chifuyu, who was right behind Takemichi, then talked with Baji, who was lost in his thoughts. Baji was going to go after Kisaki, but Chifuyu managed to convince him to let him leave with the promise that he would be dealt with sooner or later.
As the gang members up on this stack of cars recuperated, the ones down below all regained their energy and breaths after scaring away the lingering Valhalla members from the sheer amount of Toman ones that remained. Mikey, realizing he had to say something now that this battle was clearly decided, walked forward to the top of the car he was standing on and looked down at his members. The ones behind him stood quiet as they listened to his words.
"Valhalla is filled with a bunch of cowards who do nothing but lie and use dirty tactics. We've got Baji back and knocked some sense into Kazutora— this is no doubt Toman's victory!"
The Toman members down below cheered loudly, raising their fists up in victory.
[ Name ] mumbled to Hina to stay with Takemichi, to which the girl sniffled and nodded her head. The girls pulled away from each other before [ Name ] looked around, gesturing Takemichi over and nodding her head down at the girl. When the two began talking, starting with Takemichi asking if Hina was alright, [ Name ] discretely left as everyone was distracted by Mikey's speech.
She hopped down the cars as the Toman members gathered below to listen to Mikey. Her eyes rapidly scanned the cracks and crevices as she made her descent, though sitting in plain sight, the object she was looking for glinted proudly in the sun.
She looked down at the gun— one that looked familiar to the one she saw on TV in Draken's hospital room. With the rest of her Adeptal energy she had left, she summoned her signature weapon and poured her energy into an attack that would disarm the item from ever functioning again.
As she stared down at the crumbled pieces, she couldn't help but to think on the reason why Kisaki was suspected to do all this based on what Takemichi told her.
That maybe he saw [ Name ] as a bigger threat than anyone else there.
He saw a perfect opportunity and took it. He knew he could never take her down on his own or in literally any other scenario. But he needed her dead. He viewed her as some sort of God— a troublesome one that was going to get in his way with everything he did and be the one to expose his cruelty. Nothing went according to his plans when she was around, and he had to change that.
In the end, she was the one to kill him according to the future, so maybe he was smart in the decision to try and take her life there and then. And perhaps he would've succeeded if fate wasn't on her side. She had a second chance, and she used it.
And this would significantly change everything. The future and what was once pre-determined would dramatically alter to become something in favor of what is perceived as the best outcome.