Anari
A fair amount of time had passed since Kaiten arrived to bring me into the H-Z Lab. He and the others filled me in on the details while Kozuna continued his training in the holo-room. Apparently, he was on his second or third session. They also showed me Nikai lurching up and down in his restraints, screaming aloud, but inaudibly. That was a much harder watch than peaking in on Kozuna as he bounced around a glass arena. I almost felt a little jealous.
Burdens like these should fall on the squad leader, not her subordinates. Not her friends.
Kaiten, Yvira, Shin, and I sat around a table in what looked like a break room. Polished white floors, baby-blue painted walls, a section lined with shiny countertops, cabinets, a microwave, and even a fridge. We even had a flatscreen on in the background.
"So, who exactly are the Hanakai, Commander?"
"An infamous, inter-clan terror syndicate of powerful curse wielders. They've dug their claws into the crevices of every clan, and as far as I know, they're in search of information regarding curse seals and their origins. Anything or anyone that can get them closer to whatever goal they have is fair game."
"Got it. And our current plan is to learn about Kozuna's and Nikai's curses, right?"
"That is correct, Anari. Any confusion?"
"Well, what would you have Yvira and me do?"
"For now, assist around the lab as you can. Help your friends adjust- especially Nikai. He'll need the support when he awakens. Once I leave today, I'll make sure to get you all clearance cards so you may come and go from the lab as you please."
"Understood. And the Nazun-Orion situation? What do we do about them?"
They made it sound like those two can't be toppled by normal people.
"They're-"
Kaiten's phone suddenly started buzzing, vibrating, and beeping like crazy. He held up his hand to the rest of us as he answered the call, only to jerk the phone away as someone screamed at him.
"Commander! The Primary's under attack by curse wielders! Where the HELL are you!?"
Kaiten flashed his teeth as he practically leaped out of his seat. "I'm on my way, Helix! Where are you? What kind of abilities do they possess!?"
Kaiten hurried out of the room, and the rest of us followed. By a stroke of luck, Zara was just exiting the bathroom and headed back to the holo-room.
"Zara! The Primary's under siege! I need to head out immediately!"
"Are you taking Kozuna to the fight?"
"No. Keep him in training for as long as he can go on. I'll handle things directly. Yvira- with me!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Shin, you go with him, too."
"Huh, me? Why?"
"Firsthand look at a new curse wielder, of course. Helps that you're skilled in a pinch. Gather as much info as you can for me, 'kay darling?"
Shin nodded, following Kaiten and Yvira to the exit, while Zara returned to the holo-room. That left me in the background, twitching and itching to not just keep standing around uselessly. Resting in bed and light physical therapy were all I'd done for days.
Enough was enough.
"Hold up! I'm coming, too!"
"Anari?" Kaiten stopped his hurrying and glanced back at me. "You just got out of the hospital. You shouldn't be exerting yourself at all, frankly. Coming with us to battle isn't just unwise, it's inadvisable."
"Yeah, well, when I got thrown by that man-beast, my hands hit the wall first. Plus, the doctors said my muscles cushioned my spine during the impact. If it weren't for those, I'd still be in bed. But I'm up. And I feel great."
I gazed up at Kaiten, clenching my fists and standing as tall as I could. His lips pursed in indecision, but he sighed and semi-defeatedly motioned for me to get a move on. There wasn't a second to lose.
***
A chopper awaited us from the moment we reached the surface. I could hear thunderous blasts and feel shockwaves coming from the north end of The Primary. Kaiten climbed in immediately and headed for the cockpit. Yvira, Shin, and I stayed in the rear, and Yvira stayed away from the door.
"Status report, soldier!"
"Commander! No known casualties so far, but the assailants are pressing hard! Many homes have been blown apart! Evacuations are currently underway at the order of Vice Commander Helix!
"Alright, thanks, soldier. Take us to the battlefield. We've no time to lose!"
The chopper blades whirred as they spun and took us north. Yvira geared up with her medical bags, while the rest of us prepared for battle. Unlike Kaiten, I didn't know what to expect of a curse wielder. However, in the skies above, the devastation left behind was more than clear.
I stood at the doorway, holding tight to a handle as my hair blew in the vicious winds. My fingers tightened around my pistol.
Even from a distance, and with all the smoke billowing, I could tell the northern district had been reduced almost entirely to rubble and flames. What must've been dozens of troops were marching in and spreading out. They split into smaller groups to hit more hotspots at once.
No way Kaiten'll be able to coordinate everything at once. This is too large-scale of an attack. And so suddenly, too.
Swiftly and suddenly, our pilot pulled us in the direction of the mass destruction. Kaiten hopped onto the radio while the rest of us kept our eyes on the city.
"Helix, where are you?"
Following a short pause, the answer of an annoying vice commander came through. "In the middle of a firefight! Where the HELL have you been?"
Kaiten winced and turned away from the mic for a second. He breathed deeply. "Helix. What's your position?"
"Where do you think? The front lines- where the battle began!" Helix's voice started to sound like static as he cut out and continued, "Damn traitor's spoutin' bullshit and spittin' tornadoes at us! And I WISH I was makin' this shit up! Most of my men can't even get close! I'm trying to keep him distracted! I-"
Helix cut out completely. All we heard was a loud bang, and then pure static.
"Helix? Helix!? Answer me, damn it!" Kaiten growled and slammed the microphone back into the radio. "Shit!"
"Commander, we're closing in. Where do we land?"
"Head in the direction of greatest destruction. Wherever we find tornadoes and whirlwinds, we'll find Nazun and Helix." Kaiten paused to take a deep breath and collect himself. "Shin, Anari, Yvira, if any of you spot Helix, holler out."
"Yes, sir," we responded, though most of us weren't exactly fans of Helix.
***
"There! I see them!"
Shin was the one to call them out, and it only took a few more minutes of flight. The rest of us turned over to find Helix by his lonesome, darting from one place to another. The man identified as Nazun was at a slight distance, laughing like a madman. He was swinging his smoking sword wildly and rapidly, releasing glimmering whirlwinds of silver energy left and right.
So that's what curse energy looks like?
With every missed whirlwind aimed at killing the vice commander, bursts of sand and stone erupted from the ground. Helix used them as cover- ducking behind clouds of debris between movements. He was surprisingly nimble. Almost annoyingly nimble.
Buildings blew apart from each mini-tornado that failed to hit a sweat-covered Helix. Clearly, it was taking everything in him just to survive. He tried firing a few shots, but missed the mark by a wiiide margin. And seeing that, Kaiten didn't wait for our pilot to descend.
Kaiten unsheathed two blades, dove out of the chopper, and crash-landed in front of Helix. He crossed his swords and slashed through Nazun's human-sized whirlwind of energy and dispelled it. Somehow, he appeared uninjured, while the rest of us were just in shock at the sight. I couldn't make sense of what I'd witnessed.
First curse energy, and now I'm seeing the superhuman stories of Commander Kaiten firsthand!?
"Good work keeping him busy, Helix. Get to the chopper- concentrate on coordinating the troops. Leave the cursed one to me."
"You sure about this? He's no pushover, Commander."
"Trust me, I'm aware of what Nazun is, Helix."
Helix gritted his teeth, but begrudgingly nodded. He turned and headed for the helicopter just as it landed, and as the rest of us disembarked. Nazun, on the other hand, simply stopped and waited.
"Welcome in, Kaiten! Bet you didn't expect to see me again so soon!"
"I didn't... Hasn't even been twelve hours." Kaiten glanced back, his expression stoic and borderline emotionless. "You three had best keep your distance! Focus on observing and learning. Do not engage unless I give the order!"
Both Yvira and Shin backed away without an argument. And though I DID wanna participate, Shin gently pulled me away.
And orders were orders…
"So, Kaiten! Where might Kozuna and Nikai be? The most powerful man among the Ozukashi- I figured you'd be guarding them with your life!"
"I am."
"Hah! Doesn't seem like it at all! What if I'm just a well-placed, overly-handsome distraction? What if Orion has already found them?"
"Rattle someone else, traitor. It won't work on me."
"Stubborn as ever. It'll be your undoing, mark my words."
Kaiten nodded and pressed his earpiece. He mumbled something quietly before responding, "Consider them marked, Nazun."
"Well, come on then! I'm at full capacity now! Show me what your unnatural, fragile, human body can do, Kaiten!"
With nothing but a wide, open road ahead, Kaiten and Nazun narrow-glared each other down. One was ecstatic, and the other looked pissed. I wondered who would make the first move, right up until they both did.
***
Kaiten and Nazun met in the middle, blades crossed, with a resounding tang that could be heard and felt from miles away. That one sudden burst of strength shifted the air pressure dramatically, blowing the wind fiercely enough to flip my hair back from a distance. Even Shin's hood flew down, revealing long, fluttering brown hair.
But neither stopped moving. Between powerful exchanges, the pair bounced from one spot to another. Their blades whipped and collided back and forth, but it didn't take very long for Kaiten to land the first cut of the match. A shallow flicker of blood from Nazun's arm- hardly any real damage, but clear evidence that Kaiten's two swords would break through again and again.
I watched Nazun's grin quiver for a second before morphing into more of a scowl. He swung heavily and bashed Kaiten's blades away before digging his own sword into the ground. And with one ripping cleave, Nazun sent a mass of sand and dirt flying at Kaiten. He sprang backward into a sideways flip, finally showcasing the powers of his curse once more.
Nazun's blade curved around, following the motion of his body. That steam-like energy lifted from his black blade and whirled itself together within the blink of an eye. And before Nazun's feet could even hit the dirt, he'd already sent that whirlwind rocketing after Kaiten.
He made sure to release more once he landed. And each one was on course for Kaiten.
I finally get to see curse powers in action, but damn it- I wanna fight!
Kaiten practically flashed from one place to another, avoiding the energy tornadoes like they were nothing. I almost couldn't keep my eyes on him. I couldn't even catch Kaiten breaking a sweat!
"All you got, Nazun? This is the pinnacle of your curse seal?"
"You want me to NOT go easy on you?" Nazun smirked and saluted Kaiten. "Suit yourself!"
Nazun's grip tightened. The energy wafting from his blade suddenly stopped blowing in the wind. Instead, it pulled inward until the sword started fucking glowing. I couldn't take my twitching eyes off the sight. Translucent, black energy whirled around the weapon until the blade started growing.
Monumentally.
Kaiten stopped moving for a moment when he realized the consequences of his words. The result was an energy-resized blade in Nazun's grasp, and it didn't seem to add any weight. Not with the way Nazun maneuvered a sky-piercing energy sword overhead for a destructive, downward slam!
And when he swung his physical weapon, all of that towering energy followed. Every single one of us darted the HELL outta the way, 'cause when that energy blade came crashing into the ground, we realized just how in over our heads we truly were.
My teeth clenched as I watched everything happen in real time.
Nazun's energy blade shattered the road into two large halves, leaving a vast, ragged fissure in its wake. Deep, black energy vented from the newly-formed chasm like crackling flames, and the sheer force of the quaking made it tough for anyone to stand, let alone move. And that whole time, Nazun's real sword hadn't touched anything.
But he wasn't done. Nazun pulled his sword high and curved around for another catastrophic blow from a great distance. All Shin, Yvira, and I could do was get low and hope for the best, but not Kaiten.
He didn't buckle in place for a second.
What's Kaiten planning!?
Kaiten rushed closer. He narrowly leaped over Nazun's horizontal cleave, leaving it to cut clean through any other structures it touched. Buildings collapsed under their own weight in the background while Kaiten hit the sand, twisted, and hurled one of his blades at Nazun.
Still, Nazun attempted to defend himself. He moved to avoid a death blow, but Kaiten's blade pierced his foot all the same and dug itself into the dirt. Nazun winced in an attempt to hold in the pain.
"Still haven't landed a scratch on me, Nazun! The strongest man alive who doesn't wield a curse, remember!?"
Kaiten unsheathed his third blade and hurried to close the gap.
Groaning, Nazun yanked the blade out of his foot. "You really want me to go all-out, don't you, old man?"
Nazun swiped again, but it was to no avail. Kaiten didn't care for what other destruction would occur. He smoothly slid beneath the strike and bolted after Nazun, ready to stop the devastation at the source.
Amazing…
Nazun's entire face twitched as he snarled to himself. He backed further away, released the energy extension of his blade, and started swinging wildly. He let loose sporadic, uncontrolled whirlwinds. But all he did was make Kaiten zigzag. The commander wasn't put off at all.
Before any of us knew it, Kaiten had finally closed the gap. He prepared to cut down Nazun for good, but that was when Nazun's gaze tilted elsewhere- toward the rest of us.
Nazun released a last-ditch, skyscraper-sized tornado! And it raced toward Yvira, Shin, and me. We had no time to respond, and no superhuman speed to contend with. My life felt like it was about to flash before my eyes, even as Kaiten turned to hurry and save us.
In that moment, my vision tunneled and half-blurred out. All the other noise of the world just vanished. All I could hear was the cutting, whirling noise of Nazun's energy whipping closer.
Wide-eyed, I froze up.
However, a flash of black and orange flickered from the corner of my eye. I could barely manage to turn my head before something scooped Yvira and me up in one arm, and Shin in another. Within the blink of an eye, we'd landed elsewhere on the battlefield, unharmed and utterly perplexed.
I heard a familiar voice. Yvira, Shin, and I were stuck staring at our savior, but I couldn't make out their face for a few seconds.
"Looks like I really am faster than even you, Commander!"
K-Kozuna?