(Reverence 6, 59 / 8:09PM)

  (Luna and Jenny)

  She raised her right hand.

  Continuing to twirl her swords like helicopter bdes, she pushed her right arm toward the center of his throat. Extending, straining, tearing apart chunks of her muscles to gain an inch forward, the tips of her bdes were then blocked, by one of Kenichi’s rotating chained bdes.

  Seeing the embers of metal cshing, with sparks and debris of iron flowing and fading into the early night, Luna…

  Jumped, using the tips of her toes.

  (Luna) Dodge this!

  Arching her body, her lower body and feet dangled up in the air, as her right sword pressured and pushed onto Kenichi’s bde. Her left hand, which wielded her twirling double-edged twin bde, thrust straight to the top of the ginger-haired man’s head, the edge of the metal on a collision with his fedora.

  And simir to her, he had his left hand occupied. Raising it, he blocked the other bde from scalding his hair, let alone his hat.

  But unluckily for him, gravity took control of Luna. Instead of pushing her body onto Kenichi, she arched her body to the opposite side of him. Twisting her body 180 degrees, she nded swiftly along her heels, her boots making a harsh thud that trembled a couple of wooden crates near her.

  Being in back of him, Luna turned her already crouched body, as she aimed her right sword at the center of his back.

  (Luna) Too slow old man!

  He slid to the left, his movement making it seem he had an afterimage of clones after every millisecond. Ceasing his fragmented movement, he had both of his bdes low to the ground, and with a push of his right hand, he lifted his sword, which cshed his metal with hers.

  Seeing another spectacle of ember and light, Luna lifted the bde upward, straining every ounce of muscle within her upper body. Digging into the floor with her heel muscles, she arched her body back and pierced the air with her twirling left sword.

  The same as before, he lifted his left sword sending the spiked bdes to punch and harden the other.

  In slow motion, both Kenichi and Luna’s swords were raised high in the air, as their strength reached an ultimatum. Rippling the air, loosening the dirt and sand drenched into the tiniest cracks of metal, their soles unkissed the metallic floor they dug upon. Leading them to take a couple of steps back, smoke began to spew out from his swords, leading Luna to take a gnce.

  (Luna’s thoughts) Those swords look dull…

  The center of her right foot pressured and stabled the floor in which she stood. Pulling back her arms and hands, while resuming her twirling bdes, she hunched her body along with her neck.

  Blowing hot air from her lungs, the dryness of it crusted her lips, leading her to bite upon her upper lip…

  Before thrusting straight toward Kenichi again.

  (Luna’s thoughts) And I just have to break them.

  Both began a bald of swords.

  Raising, blocking, raising, blocking; the sounds of metal scraping against iron smmed against their ears. Releasing the mencholy flow of embers into the early night, every bde of her sword, which struck Kenichi’s rotating bdes, only shriveled her body. Feeling her bones turn cold, her blood go numb, and her mind racing, she…

  Raised her right lip to the bottom of her ear.

  (Luna’s thoughts) He’s close.

  Despite her strength equal to his, he made her walk across the metallic floor of the first train cart, with wooden crates littering the edges. With every push of his swords, with every csh of metal, his spikes pierced her sword, it only summoned more smoke from his handles.

  Knowing this, he narrowed his eyes deep into hers. In return, she did that same thing, but with an extra shade of red below her pupils.

  Slowly, she felt her muscles weaken and loosen, making her upper body sluggishly raise her swords with every attack. The more she cshed with Kenichi, every ounce of energy seethed from her spirit and soul.

  But she kept going.

  (Luna’s thoughts) He’s close, he’s closing, he’s close. I could break him…

  Her right eyebrow furrowed, she noticed the rge hill of charcoal, which was separated by the wall he stood earlier. Just a meter away from pcing her back against the wall, she continued to csh and spark with his swords, before…

  She vanished into thin air.

  As if he memorized a perfect game of whack-a-mole, he turned his body with just the tips of his boots and swished his right sword in the back of him. Barely blocking on the st second, Luna had both her swords raised, her bdes blocking his chainsaw sword from striking her throat.

  (Luna’s thoughts) I could … break … him …

  Biting her upper lip, she drew out a long streak of blood, which flowed down from her chin to her throat. Groaning, sweating, feeling her whole body on the verge of exploding, she held back his strength with just the quaking of her swords.

  Slowly, he began to push her back, making her slide one inch at a time. Already having the soles of her feet trenching the floor, her eyes sulked in a deep crimson red.

  (Luna’s thoughts) I could—

  (Kenichi) Enough.

  She couldn’t breathe.

  Choking on her air, she tried to pry her windpipe open, bit by bit to sink in the oxygen. Feeling her mind go bnk, both her hands which gripped her swords…

  Fell and cnked on the floor, cutting pieces of the metal that held her boots. Having her hands loose and open, she raised both her hands to her throat, trying to grasp and cw the hand that—

  She did feel a hand, but she could barely see it.

  (Kenichi) You may be strong, but simir to our st fight prior…

  Keeping his swords low, while having his bdes an inch from cutting open the floor, it was clear he had both his hands occupied. Despite this, Luna began to be raised higher and higher, with her feet dangling erratically in all directions.

  Her eyeballs were on the verge of rolling back into her skull, her vision was blurred, blinded even by the dangerously low oxygen she intake.

  (Kenichi) Your powers are nothing to mine.

  Unable to pry out the invisible hand choking her out, her fingers lost the strength to let herself free. Another desperate gurgle, a gurgle that reenacted the same sounds of the swords Kenichi wielded, stroked through her throat angrily.

  Until it ceased.

  With a stroke of luck, her knees smmed hard onto the floor, leaving a puncture of bruises to dispy upon impact. Like a flip of a switch, all the air she longed for assaulted through her nostrils and throat, leaving her to pile a huge swath of it into her lungs. Ballooning them, she gasped and wheezed, her face returning to normal the more she caked in oxygen.

  (Luna’s thoughts) Who …

  Her vision was still blurred, and she couldn’t gaze up at Kenichi. But with the air she fastened in and out, traces of liquid iron breezed through her mouth, and a lot of it. Her palms were pressured on the floor, and being on all fours, her vision took the form of two people in front of her.

  (Jenny) Please, Kenny…

  The front edge of the spiked frying pan she wielded was only millimeters from grazing the back of his head.

  His body glued to the floor, Kenichi’s face remained unchanged, all the while his eyes stared at what was in front of him. Hearing her tranquil yet saddened voice from behind, he didn’t turn back, as the sounds of his swords began to be dimmed by her words.

  (Jenny) Come back…

  His palms hardened on the handles of his swords, causing the bdes to quake. The smell of smoke, still bursting from the bottom of his chainsaws, continued to release more of its unique scent into the dune desert.

  But even the smoke, and screeching of metal, began to fade with the world turning back to white.

  His back hunched, his voice hardened and parched, he pressed out six words. Smoking them on a barbeque, marinating them, and grilling them until it was well done, hearing them was enough for Jenny to … freeze.

  (Kenichi) I’ve told you, I don’t remember you.

  The world flowing in slow motion, followed by the world returning to its original state, Jenny’s eyes widened.

  Her eyes diting to the size of a pintack, she traced the small amounts of wind and air being pushed against by an invisible force. Unnatural, she held her breath, while her own two feet worked a mind of its own.

  Once she lunged to the right. As if she dodged a bullet, her breath thawed and flowed into her lungs like normal, leaving her to dite her eyes to their regur form.

  (Kenichi) How did…

  His grip on his swords loosened, but he didn’t let them drop. The tips of his bdes being a nanometer from scraping the floor, his eyes and cheeks pushed down, as he saw the monolid woman…

  Clench all her teeth, like she was biting down on hard candy. Gripping the handle of her frying pan, the bck hard iron shook, leaving the circur edge to flutter like a vibrating baby duck. Her eyes, white and pure as a close-up full moon, were wide-eyed to Kenichi, who took a couple of steps back.

  (Jenny) If you don’t want to admit it … then …

  Pulling back her frying pan, her fingers which creaked the handle began to crack the iron bit by bit. Sliding her left foot back, she bent her body so that it replicated a 90-degree angle. All the while Kenichi raised both of his swords, having them block his face as the chains continued to spew hot metal.

  (Jenny) I’ll make you…

  Having the entirety of her weight pressed along her toes, her whole body thrust itself at him, her body aerodynamic enough for her clothes to unripple. Her pan, which grabbed and sealed the wind from the edges of the iron, had enough air for it to weigh simir to heavy luggage.

  Despite this, she thrust her pan straight toward his face, more precisely…

  His dull rotating bdes.

  As soon as her pan hammered onto his swords, a gust of broken air burst free like a gunshot. Their ears, being bred against by the curse of tinnitus, rang continuously as the spikes of her pan jumped from the chains of his swords.

  Unlike Luna, Kenichi couldn’t push even a millimeter forward. Her arms, straining hard from his strength, were hardened and locked in a freezing state, making her seem more like a mannequin than a human.

  (Kenichi’s thoughts) Just what the hell is she?

  Lifting her pan, she did it quickly enough for him to falter his guard. Pulling his arms and hands to his body again, he had them block his chest, as she had her eyes aimed straight at it. The pan cshing and sparking the metal, cracks of his swords began to show…

  Which led to a couple of irons to litter the floor.

  Nevertheless, Jenny smmed again and again with her lethal kitchen weapon, sending Kenichi’s bones to shrivel and prune. The shockwaves, traversing through his blood and veins, numbed his skin and muscles and blurred his eyes and nose.

  (Kenichi’s thoughts) Was this the strength she was hiding away?

  He was now walking backward.

  All her strength she had cultivated, had led her to this fight. Every sm, every swish of her frying pan, pierced the air and detoured the breeze like butter. His body tightening, he bit down on his mors, as a singur drop of sweat trickled down his right temple.

  Pushing him to the center of the train cart, he couldn’t find a single opening, not one. Her defense, as well as her offense being impenetrable, was enough to crackle more of his chainsaw bdes.

  His swords plowing out more smoke from the handles, he had to make a move.

  (Kenichi’s thoughts) I have to use it now…

  Pushing all of his body weight onto the singur tips of his toes, he lunged his entire body back, leading him to flutter the bottom of his clothes with the howling wind. As he did this, he let the soles of his boots glide through the floor, making his feet ft and frictionless. Once he fully stopped sliding, he spread out both of his hands and arms out wide, his eyes pinned solely on the wide-eyed woman.

  Closing his eyes, ignoring the hunching stance she prepared, he had to do it quickly. Seeing nothing but bck, leaving him only the emptiness of his mind, he saw nothing.

  But once he opened his eyes, red strained the bottom of his scleras.

  (Kenichi’s thoughts) Obscure Intervention.

  Jenny halted her lunge.

  Being only a meter away from Kenichi, her eyes dited significantly smaller than prior. Taking in the tiny particles of air being pushed, with her squinted eyes, she lunged herself to the right.

  But as soon as she did, she noticed his jacket moving by his lonesome, as if some hand was trying to steal something from him. The invisible hand being too slow to puncture the air, she gulped loudly as he kept her feet moving and lunging.

  Until she saw … another chainsawed sword burst free from his back.

  (Jenny’s thoughts) What…

  Taking a couple of steps back, she saw the chainsaw rev up, letting the rotating bdes of the sword spew out embers of iron. As her eyes pushed down, she caught a whiff of another moving of his jacket, seeing another sword pull out from his back. Simir to all the other ones, it revved and motored the air to its will, leaving Kenichi to wield…

  Four chainsawed swords. Two with his hands, and two with unforeseen hands.

  Opening his eyes, his narrowed eyes analyzed the pale-faced woman, seeing her hands and fingers flinch repeatedly with the iron pan. Even though he was cursed with two extra hands, he felt blessed, as if God himself had given him the miracle he longed for.

  (Kenichi) Now we’re even.

  Tilting his body to appear like a bullet, he had the two floating chainsawed swords arch above his body like a spider. No way to defend herself, no pn to pull herself out of danger, she just…

  Began walking back, her strength fading away the more he saw his frustrated frown—

  She felt a gust of wind blow right past her. Feeling the left side of her face growing numb, all of her hair fluttered to the right, causing her to close her eyes and wrinkle her cheeks.

  (Kenichi’s thoughts) She’s ready to fight…

  Her face crimsoned, her eyes bright red, and her frown and gre only soured the more she flew through the air. Pulling back her swords, she twirled them to gain a culmination of speed and friction, enough for it to splinter the air.

  Once she was within arm's distance from him, Kenichi used the swords from his hands to block her, keeping her bdes at bay. Feeling the ripple through his body, he continued to bite down on his mors, his neck muscles straining from the curse he was using. Moving his invisible hands, the chainsawed swords from above plowed down like guillotines, causing Luna to gnce up once before lunging back.

  Sliding through the metal, she stopped right next to Jenny, who shook her body relentlessly.

  (Luna) Get a goddamn grip! It’s us two against one!

  (Jenny) But—

  (Luna) Just shut up and fight! It's clear he wants to kill us!

  Twirling her bdes, the thudding of the air around her sharpened the edges of her bdes, making them splinter and lose iron from its edges. Fpping them down onto the floor, the air, or to the outer edges of the train cart, Luna kept her gring eyes still.

  Taking in the four chainsaw-wielding man, his hands occupying two while his invisible hands occupied another pair, she spread both her arms out wide.

  (Luna) And besides. I’ve trained … trained for six years for this man … and now’s my chance …