Ignoring the stuttering Jenny, Luna exerted all of her lower body strength to her toes, before pushing forward. Pulling her arms back, she felt like her movements were fastened, rapid to a certain extent. It was as if…

  She was improving. Her instinct, her strength, her speed; everything she had trained long and hard for, was now paying off.

  (Luna’s thoughts) I did it…

  She has reached the second stage of Togo.

  Thrusting both her swords, the strength pushed Kenichi a few feet away. Making him falter, the grip he had on the floor faltered by just Luna’s upper body strength, as the air around them burst free like a shotgun shell.

  Lunging toward him again, she pushed her right arm, making him use all of his four swords to block it. The pressure and strength, of just blocking one of her attacks, was like holding back the firing of a trench gun. Having her in a stalemate, he slowly walked backward, with streaks of sweat flowing down from his cheeks.

  (Kenichi’s thoughts) She’s strong…

  Starting her bald of death, she sshed and twirled her spinning swords to his chainsawed swords. Every hit and ssh upon his rotating bdes broke the air. Hearing it boom and roar in both of their eardrums, tinnitus couldn’t bear down on them, because…

  Tinnitus was too slow to ring.

  (Kenichi’s thoughts) She’s too strong…

  His eyelids wrinkled, followed by his cheeks and forehead. His chest stiffened from his pecs, his calves beginning to sore from every block he defended against, he was losing. Being battered, being on the receiving end of her endless frustration and rage she cultivated for the past six years, it was like…

  (Kenichi’s thoughts) She’s a monster…

  Cracking bits of her metal batons, she pushed her swords up with all of her strength. Protruding all of her tricep and biceps muscles, she pushed all of his swords up into the air, making his chest and stomach bare.

  Seeing she had opened up his guard, she turned her bdes, by just twisting her wrists in a 90-degree angle. And pushing her body, she lunged her swords straight toward his chest.

  With no time to think, he had no choice but to… Block his chest with two of his swords. Knowing the outcome, his eyes widened to the greatest extent possible, his teeth slowly cttering once his swords—

  Broke.

  By sacrificing two out of his four swords, the shards of iron littered and flew in all directions. Piercing both his and Luna’s hands, chest, legs, and boots, some of it nestled into the metallic floor below their feet.

  Ignoring the pain, Kenichi moved his unforeseen hands. Having them grip the st two swords, he moved them down to his real hands, while Luna prepared to thrust her swords again.

  (Kenichi’s thoughts) Those wooden crates…

  Moving his invisible hands, he had his eyes set on the lunging Luna, his face already pale and dripped with sweat. As all of his muscles ached by not just his curse, but her strength, the drawn-out fight weakened the grip of his swords.

  But his fingers clenched deep into the handles.

  Raising his hands, he lunged left and right, sliding through the metallic floor while his invisible hands were elsewhere. Swishing and pulverizing the poor windy night air, he felt his fingers numbed to the shivers of his bones.

  Until his invisible hands caught something.

  (Kenichi) Dodge this.

  Blocking once more, Kenichi had her swords pressuring themselves onto his, as he slowly slid back inch by inch. Her strength, unforgiving and unrelenting, only caused him to bite down on all of his teeth, crafting an abundance of cracks within his enamels.

  But she stopped, as she gnced to her left a soaring wooden crate.

  Letting go of her pressured hold, he let Kenichi lunge back, his clothes rippling from his jump. Seeing the crate fly to her in slow motion, she swiftly cut the wooden box in half—

  It exploded.

  Engulfed in fmes, a rge cloud of smoke enclosed itself onto the poor woman. Barely escaping in time, Kenichi’s chest squeezed in and out, leading his breath to wheeze from his mummified throat.

  His back hunched, his hands low to his waist, he let his gaze turn to the still-stuttering monolid woman. Arching his head back, he allowed his face to be shined down on the culmination of stars above.

  (Kenichi) Are you going to surrender?

  Her fingers, which creaked the handle of her frying pan, only worsened the more he zily stared at her. Without raising his swords, without exerting his arm muscles, he continued to heft out wheezing breaths from his parched lungs.

  Until every hair follicle within his body jumped.

  In slow motion, his eyes traced the cloud of smoke Luna was engulfed in, seeing the engulfing fmes still ravaging inside. Something out of a fantasy, the silhouette cd in fmes…

  Burst free.

  Splitting apart the smoke cloud with her body, Luna had sliced it with her bare swords, sending the gust of wind to ripple the metallic floor. Letting the wave traverse down to his toes and fingers, Kenichi immediately pced his swords in front of him.

  (Kenichi’s thoughts) She’s still alive?!

  Feeling another shock travel through his body, his bones, blood, muscles, and skin all reverberated by her ungodly strength. Despite her strength on equal terms with him, her face was gleaming with sweat, followed by her forehead straining a couple of veins.

  But what about the fmes?

  Down to the floor, the remains of her burning jacket and shirt were seen, crippling and littering the floor with its ashes. As for Luna, she had on only her bck bra and jeans, the fabric long enough to cover most of her chest.

  Pushing her away, Luna took a couple of steps back, her twirling slowing down as she hunched her back.

  (Kenichi) I suppose you have no shame in exposing your body?

  (Luna) There’s only one man that has that privilege. And sure as shit ain’t you.

  Her rge bosom was covered, but it didn’t cover her well-toned stomach. Her abs and arms, clearly defined and lean, could cause a pervert to lose most of his blood supply with one nosebleed.

  Twirling her swords, she took a step forward with her right foot, stomping the metal with the soles of her heel. Thudding the ground, shaking the leftover remnants of her jacket and shirt, she pulled her hands and arms back and gred at him.

  And sped through the air like a bullet.

  With only his two chainsawed swords, still revving and rotating like normal, he countered her with them. Cshing and piercing the air, he twisted his body in the opposite direction, leaving him to walk through the wooden crates on either side of him.

  (Kenichi’s thoughts) This time, I’ll—

  Using her right sword, she pushed one of his rotating bdes down to the floor, leaving him to use only his other. Unwilling to let panic take over, he thrust his left sword, replicating the chainsaw to perform as a javelin.

  But she teleported.

  Feeling his body freeze, he jumped forward and twisted it, and tucked a rge abundance of air into his stomach. Holding his breath, his eyes caught a quick glimpse of Luna sshing the wind, the tips of her bdes barely scraping the edge of his jacket.

  (Luna’s thoughts) He’s getting tired…

  Feeling her chest on the verge of exploding, her arms began to weaken the more she swung, but she ignored it. Keeping her fighting spirit reigning free, she sshed the air again, making Kenichi jump back.

  Being entirely on the defensive, he began to bite the inside of his cheeks, allowing blood to swell his gums and teeth. The handles of his swords, which crackled and cracked, slowly let loose chips of metal litter the floor.

  (Kenichi’s thoughts) I need to finish this now!

  His unforeseen hands grabbed a box of two wooden crates, he clenched onto them while evading and blocking her attacks. Her attacks, her sshes, feeling the shockwave ruminate through his body, he felt his legs and feet beginning to numb to the original feeling. As his bdes soon began to chip from her swords, more blood swelled inside his mouth, leaving him only the burning pain stinging his mouth.

  But with a stroke of luck, his back nudged against a wooden crate, causing his eyes to startle upon the wood. Without turning back, he lunged to the right, evading the incoming ssh that could slice through grains of sand.

  (Luna’s thoughts) He’s trying to make me ssh the crates again.

  Her bde only stopped on the edge of the crate. Lifting both her bdes, she eyed the crate that she almost sliced, seeing a logo dispying a rainbow of colors.

  For frozen wooden crates, the colors are bck and white. But for fire, it was colorful. Seeing the irony being given here, she clicked the button on her right sword, allowing the dented bdes to swish back into the metal container.

  Before she grabbed the box with just her right hand.

  (Luna’s thoughts) Time to give him a taste of his own medicine.

  In the flick of a switch, Kenichi had already grabbed two other wooden crates, using just the invisible hands he was cursed with. Grabbing them like toys, he pulled his invisible arms back and threw the crates straight toward the wide-opened Luna.

  And upon instinct, Luna threw a simir wooden box to Kenichi as well.

  Her right foot, which stabilized her body weight, dented the metallic floor beneath her upon her throw. Lifting her left leg, and arching her body forward, she sent the air around her to bend by just her strengthened throw.

  Then came the explosion.

  Gusting out a puff of smoke in front of them, it was like a fog of war as both couldn’t see. The fmes, unable to engulf either of them, kidnapped the leftover sanded wind which was in its path. Crusting it into atom-sized bits of gss, it faded into obscurity, leaving only smoke to flutter the remains of the—

  The cloud was swiped away.

  Pierced by a bde—no, two bdes, a woman remained standing where the fog once was. The front of her bdes, which pierced against another set of metal, couldn’t shine under the bent condition.

  Even though her bdes were in terrible condition, at least she wasn’t Kenichi.

  His bdes soon crumbled to the metallic floor, leaving all of the iron and metal to obscure and litter his boots. The pieces unable to pierce his feet, he stared bnkly at the floor, as the handles he gripped suddenly released.

  His fingers loose, he tilted his head up to look at the gring Luna.

  (Kenichi) Oh…

  Luna gnced down to where her bdes were, which—

  Her bdes didn’t penetrate his stomach. No. She had them stationary, keeping her arms and elbows locked for some unknown reason. But the answer to that was quickly seen…

  As Luna saw a frying pan sticking out from his stomach.

  The jagged spikes, poking out from where his intestines were supposed to be, let loose the pungent odor of manure. As the smell assaulted her nostrils, Luna took a couple of steps back, taking in the full view of Kenichi and his killer.

  Jenny stood behind him, her face shadowed bck as her handle shivered violently.

  (Jenny) Hah…

  She kept the pan still, letting his intestines try to squeeze the hard iron like a piece of steak. Feeling him try to indulge the sweet taste of metal, she had her body pushed up against his back, as a simple cough spewed out from his mouth.

  Blood gurgling from his mouth, it trailed down his jaw, leading it to drench his parched porcein skin. His face went pale, turning cold, and he lost all feeling in his lower body, which caused his knees to shut down to the ground.

  Breathing heavily, his eyes quivered, and his fingers calmed.

  (Luna) You stole my kill…

  Moving her thumbs to the buttons on the side of her batons, both twin bdes from both her swords sshed inward to the metal devices. Pressing her batons firm onto her holsters, the wind howled against her bare skin, the sand trickling her stomach and back while her bra protected her chest.

  Slowly she wrapped her arms around his chest, leaving him no choice but to submit to her delusions.

  (Jenny) I know he killed your family … but …

  Her eyes were shadowed, leading them to trail the pool of blood dripping from his stomach. With every trickle of it staining the floor, it only harshened the smell, but Jenny couldn't care less.

  As she clutched him like a newborn, trying to grapple and connect her hands, she couldn’t, as his chest was too rge.

  (Jenny) You said it yourself … that there was another person involved … maybe he was controlled by them …

  Unable to witness the sight any longer, Luna cracked one or two of her knuckles before looking up at the night sky. The stars, bestowing their cosmic light, sparkled and shimmered down to her like a call. Taking in a huge breath in, her lungs enrged two times its size.

  Turning her body away from the depressed sight, she began walking toward the very very front of the train, her destination being the lever. Before she left them, she noticed a little bck seed sitting on top of the ke of blood he spewed from his stomach.

  Picking up the bck seed, she put it inside her pocket, keeping it zipped like a little souvenir. Leaving the monolid woman to grapple with the st of a dying man, his upper body soon began to numb from the blood loss.

  (Jenny) Rest… but please …

  Moving his body, he had his upper back pressed firmly on her p, while the top of his head brushed against the pool of his blood. Her pants, and her boots, being stained a pungent crimson, warmed her legs and feet like urine warming up a sleeping child.

  Her right hand, pced firm on his forehead, blushed and feathered his forehead like a warm cloth. His skin felt like ice, her hand shivered, as she tried to push a quivering smile.

  A smile that was brought out by a couple of tears.

  (Jenny) Tell me if you remembered…

  His eyes flickering shut, along with his sense of touch depleting, his smell and taste soon faded away like the howling night wind. Unable to feel the teardrops pouring from her face, he let his mouth open an inch apart, as iron and metal burnt through his gums and teeth.

  While his throat gurgled out words, words he kept deep down within his heart.

  (Kenichi) You knew me … before I lost my memories … so …

  His eyes bnkly stared up at the night sky, seeing a finale of stars as his vision blurred out like a candle being blown out. He couldn’t feel her warmth, nor her tears and quivering hands, but he could still hear her sniffling nose.

  (Kenichi) Please forget about me … like I forgot about … you …

  Muttering the st of his breath, his world went dark.

  Now a corpse, she kept her arms wrapped around his body, leaving her hair to flutter by the relenting wind. Clutching her nails into his body, she lowered her head and pulled him in, letting him slumber his forever sleep on top of her p.

  She had two wishes, but only one was granted.

  Leaving her to wallow in her wish, she felt as if time had stopped, as sound and noise both drew an unbreakable silence. A silence so loud, it deafened everything around her…

  (Jenny whispering) You still haven’t gotten me flowers.