Kuro: “Come on, keep dancing.”

  Kuro and Saku run through the spiral staircase and the floors. Kuro pursues her with his overpowering guns. Every shot could be the end of Saku’s chance to win the fight. Her cherry blossoms barely withstand the bullets.

  Kuro: “For a dancer, you’re pretty slow.”

  Kuro gathers his strength and overwhelms her. She falls on her back between his legs, right in the middle of the staircase.

  Kuro: “I think my brother had the same expression you have right now. Fear of death, but accepting it in a way. Such a face doesn’t really make sense, but somehow you manage it.”

  He presses his gun to her head and pulls the trigger. Saku quickly swings her fan to the side and manages to push Kuro all the way down again with a large wave of cherry blossoms. She has escaped death, but her left shoulder is slightly hit.

  Saku: “[Ouch, that hurts. That bastard. His shots are like something out of science fiction books.]”

  Kuro gets up and climbs the stairs again, this time at a much faster pace, showing that he hadn’t even been serious earlier, even though he was already fast. Saku runs up the stairs with difficulty but will soon be caught. She stops. As Kuro said before, she is afraid of death, but she accepts it. She knows that she will probably not survive this fight without luck.

  With the loss of her parents, Saku is more agitated than usual. Normally, she never thinks so deeply. Not because she can’t, but because she doesn’t want to. She believes that if one thinks about something too deeply and emotionally, it can only end negatively. That’s why she always seems rather superficial and self-centered. It’s nothing more than a defense mechanism of her soul.

  Saku: “[What can I do? If I face him now, he will pierce me with his supernatural shots. My blossoms don’t have the capacity for that, but I can’t just give up.]”

  In the middle of her pondering, she sees the corridors leading out of the tower. The tower has a very large diameter. She enters one of the corridors and hides. Kuro arrives on the same floor as Saku and immediately fires a shot. The bullet curves along the shape of the tower and vanishes just before it would have hit Kuro.

  Kuro: “Huh? Where did you disappear to? Did you find a good hiding spot? You know, I studied this structure thoroughly before everything started. I would never play hide-and-seek here.”

  He walks around the floor until he reaches the corridor where Saku is hiding. He looks inside.

  Kuro: “I told you my senses are much better. That includes my sight and sense of smell.”

  He steps in as Saku starts running. She hopes the exit is close, but she is simply not fast enough. In each corridor, there are a lot of doors. Behind each door are people who either broke the rules of the tribunal or face such serious accusations that they must be held here for further hearings. One possibility is that Ino is here. Saku is aware of this, but finding her father in this huge prison tower is very unlikely.

  Kuro: “You will ‘unfortunately’ not succeed.”

  Kuro fires a shot. As he proved before, his shot perfectly follows the corridors, so the only way to survive this situation is to squeeze yourself against one of the prison doors, which stick out a bit further than the corridor. However, there are so few “inserted” that no human could survive unscathed.

  The shot goes straight through. The exit seems to have been further away than Saku thought. She would never have made it out in time if she had tried. She used her only chance and pressed herself against one of the prison doors. Her back hurts a little, but thanks to her cherry blossoms, she endured it much better than a normal person would have.

  Saku: “[Now I just have to wait for my chance.]”

  She holds her fan ready. She only has to move once, and a large wave of cherry blossoms will be unleashed. She just has to wait for the perfect moment.

  Kuro: “Judging by your heavy breathing, you survived. That’s really impressive. However, the smoke and dust make it hard for me to smell. Then I’ll have to search manually.”

  Kuro begins walking through the corridor. He walks slowly to maintain the tension. Saku presses herself so hard against one of the doors that her chest already hurts.

  ???: “Hello, young lady.”

  Saku looks at the door right in front of her nose. This mysterious voice comes from the other side of the door.

  ???: “Weren’t you taught to greet older people politely?”

  Saku: “A-Ah, hello, my name is Saku Sakiko.”

  ???: “My name is… You can call me Rokuko. What are you doing here?”

  Saku: “I’m hiding from my opponent.”

  Rokuko: “I thought you just fired that red beam. Was that your opponent?”

  Saku: “Yes. He and his family are not exactly on good terms with mine, and we…”

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Saku quickly tells Rokuko the whole story since Kuro will soon reach them.

  Rokuko: “That sounds bad. But who is right among you?”

  Saku: “What do you mean…”

  Rokuko sticks his right arm through the bars and grabs Saku by the collar. He smells her. Saku is frightened by this very strange behavior of her new acquaintance.

  Saku: “Let me go, you pervert.”

  Rokuko releases her and starts smiling.

  Rokuko: “I can tell what kind of person someone is and whether they are telling the truth by their scent. You are telling the truth, but unfortunately, so is your opponent.”

  Saku: “When could you smell him?”

  Rokuko: “Your opponent is the guy in black clothes, right? He walked through the corridors before your fight, boasting that he would kill a girl in a pink kimono and show everyone. I could smell there that his hatred is, in my opinion, justified, but his character is disgraceful. Your story and character are genuine and good, so you win.”

  Saku: “What do I win?”

  Rokuko: “My help, of course.”

  Kuro is almost at the door where Saku is hiding.

  Saku: “You pervert. What do you think you’re doing?”

  Rokuko: “Our collaboration is done. Hey, opponent of the girl in the pink kimono. She’s here. Follow my voice.”

  Kuro laughs loudly so that Saku and the prisoner who just helped her can hear him. He grabs one of his guns and tosses it. He also sees her pink kimono in sight.

  Kuro: “I told you, you can’t play hide-and-seek here very well. I could actually kill you from a distance, but I’ve decided to have your corpse right in front of me.”

  He turns 90 degrees to the right and shoots at the pink kimono. He also destroys the prison door without knowing if he also hit the prisoner who just helped him.

  Kuro: “So where are you now? You can’t answer, but please make yourself visible.”

  He sees her almost completely burned kimono in front of him. It is flying. No, someone is holding it. Rokuko holds the remains of Saku’s kimono in his hand.

  Kuro: “What the hell is going on here?”

  Before he can do anything, he is hit by a small pink wave. It’s as if someone slapped him, and he flies to the floor and down the corridor. Saku stands there in her juban with her fan in hand and an angry expression.

  Saku: “I had to sacrifice my beautiful kimono for this. You will pay for it.”

  Kuro quickly gets up and prepares to fire another shot, but Saku slips her fingers between his hand and the trigger. He cannot pull it, and he is hit by many more so-called Sakura slaps. The cherry blossoms are so compressed that they are even harder than a normal slap.

  Saku: “I told you, you will pay for this.”

  With a larger Sakura slap, she throws him to the ground toward the interior of the tower.

  Kuro: “No, you got that wrong. You will regret this.”

  Saku raises her fan forward and only makes movements to push it forward. Kuro notices a disturbing sound as a huge left wave flows from the other end of the corridor.

  Kuro: “What… But how… You used the other corridors and gathered your cherry blossoms from earlier back here. Am I right?”

  Saku: “Bingo.”

  The wave arrives. Everything except Saku, who remains untouched by the wave, is pushed back inside the tower. Saku follows with a small after-wave.

  Saku: “Thank you very much, Rokuko. You can leave now. No matter what you did to get in here, I think you have repaid your debt with this.”

  Rokuko shouts many thanks to Saku and goes in the other direction.

  Saku is now back where her fight started. Of course, the storm is much more destroyed than at the beginning, and the participants of the fight no longer look the same as before.

  Saku: “Last words?”

  Kuro: “Go to hell.”

  Saku wants to swing her fan to bury him under her blossoms and suffocate him, but something metallic wraps around her arm so she cannot move it.

  Saku: “What’s this, Kogane?”

  Kogiri: “My name is Kogiri. You shouldn’t kill him. That would only cause more problems.”

  Saku: “A carriage driver has nothing to tell me. I assume you won your fight effortlessly.”

  Kogiri: “I didn’t fight. I had to climb a ravine, but as you say, that was nothing more than a piece of cake.”

  Saku: “Show-off.”

  Kuro: “Are you kidding me? What kind of small talk is this?”

  Kuro grabs a syringe from his pocket and injects the contents into his neck. Veins appear all over his body, and his clothes tear slightly due to muscle growth.

  Kuro: “That feels good.”

  His voice also deepens. With a quick movement, he stands in front of Saku and Kogiri and wants to grab them by the necks, but both dodge skillfully. Saku uses her blossom wave to go sideways, and Kogiri swings himself into the air with his whip. Next, he unleashes a rain of whip strikes. Kuro is forced to defend. Saku seizes the chance and hits him again with a large Sakura slap. It is no longer as effective as before, but it still works enough to overwhelm him.

  Kuro: “We will kill you. My brother lives on in me, and together we will kill you.”

  Kogiri: “Then we will just stop you.”

  Kogiri twirls his whip and thrusts it forward with a strong rotation. He makes Kuro bleed, but he remains steadfast and grabs the whip. He pulls Kogiri toward him and punches him in the stomach. Kogiri spits some blood and falls to his knees.

  Saku: “Carriage drivers must not overestimate themselves.”

  With several Sakura slaps, she frees Kogiri.

  Kogiri: “We make a good team, right?”

  Saku: “So-so.”

  Both split up and strike whenever possible. Saku attacks from a distance with cherry blossom balls or long Sakura slaps. Kogiri is more mid-range to close, although his whip is very long and can also work at a distance. He wraps part of his body with the whip for protection. Kuro throws away his guns and now only fights with fists and feet.

  Kuro: “We will not shoot you. We will crush you.”

  Kogiri stops his attacks and goes behind Saku, who continues her attacks. Kogiri whispers something to Saku, and she only nods. Her attack pattern changes, and she creates a huge cherry blossom whirlwind around herself and Kogiri. Kuro cannot see either of them.

  He approaches the whirlwind slowly, but his senses are sharpened to the utmost. Surprise attacks will not work. Many cherry blossom balls fly from the whirlwind. Kuro blocks some, dodges a few, and even lets some hit him intentionally because they are just a bunch of petals. The whirlwind slowly weakens, but the number of Sakura balls increases.

  Kuro: “Leaves chit-chatting and doing no harm.”

  A Sakura ball flies straight at Kuro’s head. He makes no attempt to dodge and lets it hit. The Sakura ball hits him like a real, hard ball. Kuro flies to the ground with a bloody nose and a new gap in his teeth. More such Sakura balls fly toward Kuro, all thrown by Kogiri’s whip.

  Kogiri: “As I said before, we are a good team.”

  Slowly, Saku develops a kind of respect for Kogiri. Even though he is “just” a carriage driver, he is a strong fighter who could definitely be needed on the battlefield.

  Kogiri grabs a stone much larger than the previous ones. It’s not even wrapped in blossoms as he swings it into Kuro’s face. A direct hit, Kogiri shouts. His opponent seems not pleased at all. It even looks as if Kuro is growing bigger. His muscles are about to explode. And his face.

  His face begins to completely distort. Kuro is no longer recognizable as a human but as the beast Kuro. He stands up and lets out a roar, causing all the cherry-blossom-covered stones to lose their petals.

  Kogiri: “I think we need bigger Sakura balls.”

  Saku: “Surprisingly, I agree with you.”