CHAPTER 8: The Vengeful Executioner and the Faded Promise
Rexy stared into the smoke, tense and afraid, muttering,
"Impossible... t-that's too soon..."
Cassirino stepped back slightly, raising his sword and steadying his stance.
"We don't have a single choice left!"
Just as he was about to charge, Epifanno, Reimu, and a strange black figure with a single enormous eye on its face dropped from the sky. Epifanno shouted,
"We messed up the timing! Reimu and I forgot he can move between worlds so easily! Men! Prepare for battle!"
They all readied themselves. From the smoke, Kamikaze emerged—slow, menacing. His glowing red eye sent shivers down every spine. He scanned the street before lifting his greatsword high into the air and stabbing it into the ground. With a vicious swing, he released a wave of energy that tore through the ruined street. Everyone dodged—except Rexy, too slow to react, who was hit head-on and thrown across the street.
"KAZUKI!" Epifanno roared.
Kamikaze flinched at the name, then grinned. His grin turned into a jagged laugh. Clenching his fist, he shouted,
"We meet at last! Time to slaughter each other!"
"WAIT—WHY ARE YOU AFTER M—"
Before Rexy could finish, Kamikaze charged with inhuman speed. Epifanno intercepted at the last second, blocking the greatsword and throwing Kamikaze off balance, landing a heavy jab into his abdomen. Kamikaze glared, muttering darkly,
"Get out of my way."
He seized Epifanno's arm and hurled him through a building, collapsing it in a storm of rubble. Rexy snapped on his explosive gloves, readying himself, but Kamikaze gave him no time. With a brutal swing, he slammed Rexy in the back using his chained cross, dragging him back with it. Roaring, Kamikaze kicked him three times in rapid succession, then smashed him away with his greatsword. Rexy groaned, clutching his ribs as he tried to rise. Kamikaze turned, redirecting Reimu's ambush of Mystic Flames with a casual wave. In an instant, he appeared behind Reimu, slamming him into the ground with the chained cross, then spun it to deflect an energy beam from the black figure.
Startled, the figure screamed,
"Epifanno! Wake up! This is bad!"
Epifanno erupted from the rubble, ramming Kamikaze head-on. Both tumbled out of the city. They wrestled viciously before Epifanno struck Kamikaze's knee with an oblique kick, then drove a jab under his chin and followed with a brutal back kick. Yet Kamikaze hardly staggered. He slammed his greatsword into the ground, blasting the area with another massive energy wave. Epifanno withstood it, but a sharp pain tore through his body. Blood spilled from his mouth as he collapsed to one knee, clutching his chest. The Corrupted Energy had seeped in.
"Damn it! SINGULARITY COLLAPSE!" he snarled.
Raising both hands, he unleashed the same devastating beam that once nearly killed Rexy. Kamikaze only wound up his greatsword and slashed through the air, a blazing red arc annihilating everything in its path, including the Singularity Collapse itself. The clash ripped apart the city, flinging everyone aside. Epifanno, Reimu, and the black figure lay unconscious. Only Cassirino and Rexy remained.
Cassirino pulled out his phone, calling desperately,
"Clockwise! We've got a problem!"
Clockwise's voice came sharp with worry,
"What is it?"
Cassirino never answered. Kamikaze's sudden air slash tore across his chest, spilling blood onto the pavement. He gasped, falling to the ground. Now only Rexy stood.
"Why are you after me?! Why me, specifically?!" Rexy shouted.
Kamikaze's reply was a furious roar.
"IT IS YOUR FAULT THAT I LOST EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING I LOVED, EVERYTHING I PROTECTED WITH THE CORE OF MY HEART! YOU ARE THE REASON I CEASED TO SMILE, THE REASON I BECAME TERROR!"
Rexy, bewildered, stammered,
"What? I don't remember doing that..."
Kamikaze's voice lowered, anger weighed with sorrow.
"As long as I exist, Kamikaze Ryoushiru exists... █ █ █ █ will continue to suffer. I am on a quest to kill myself—every version of myself—ACROSS THE ENTIRE MIRROR WORLD."
He roared and thrust his greatsword into Rexy's shoulder. It missed the vitals by inches, but Corrupted Energy poured into him, spreading agony, blurring his vision, crushing his will. Rexy swung his explosive glove in desperation, but Kamikaze parried effortlessly. With two ruthless slashes, he destabilized Rexy further. He lifted the greatsword, charging a storm of Corrupted Energy so immense the skies cracked, the air decayed, and the ground fell apart.
"RIDE TO THE ABYSS OF ETERNAL DEATH, KAZUKI RYOUSHIRU!"
A sharp click echoed. Kamikaze turned. Clockwise stood there, golden aura radiating from his mechanical body.
"Another ally?" Kamikaze muttered, confused.
The clock on Clockwise's chest halted, flashing blinding light across the city. A high-pitched shriek filled the air as the world turned monochrome, frozen in time. Clockwise looked around, sighing.
"Oh dear... things are worse than I expected."
He hurried, gathering the fallen one by one. But cracks began spreading across the monochrome world. The timestop itself was destabilizing, corrupted. Realizing the danger, Clockwise bolted at full speed, the city shrinking beneath him. Behind, the monochrome sphere shattered.
Furious, Kamikaze roared, unleashing a Corrupted Shockwave that engulfed the city—an explosion with the force of a nuclear bomb.
Everyone knew that he was holding back, but the reason he held back remained unclear.
Clockwise crash-landed onto the Soul Headquarters violently, slightly affected by the Corrupted Energy. Kuyo, enjoying the view, jolted in surprise before looking down and seeing their horrible state. She yelped in shock and concern.
"Oh god! What happened to them!?"
Clockwise, lagging a little, replied, his voice hinting at a bad start.
"...Kamikaze came early. We did not expect him to be able to traverse between worlds with such speed—it only took him half a day to arrive..."
Kuyo stared at the barely alive squad, her eyes lingering on Rexy a little longer, looking at his horrific state. She sternly called the emergency service.
"Bring me emergency care now! We have a unit suffering from severe slashing wounds, along with others suffering the same type of injuries! Code red!"
Soon, a squad of nurses and doctors arrived, bandaging everyone and carrying them into the infirmary room and intensive care section. The doctor looked at Rexy's wound before trying to stitch it up, but upon closer inspection, he realized the wound was oddly shaped, pointing outward, and the blood around it was boiling. He muttered in confusion,
"What the... Guys, take a look at this wound."
Kuyo, Clockwise, and the rest of the team looked at Rexy's wound. Clockwise muttered, his low and sharp voice indicating clear annoyance,
"...Corrupted Energy again... Seriously, we need a counter—"
Suddenly, Reimu replied, even though he was bandaged and barely conscious,
"If you want, try it. You won't make it out alive... Corrupted Energy stops at nothing at all."
He tried regenerating with Mystic Art, but suddenly his regeneration went off course. Instead of healing the torn skin, it started randomly creating patches of flesh everywhere around the wound. Confused and panicked, Kuyo screamed,
"Cut the skin!"
Reimu, despite the pain, ripped the spare flesh off his shoulder with his bare hand, grunting in agony before closing the wound with Mystic Flames.
"Now what? What are we going to do with Kamikaze? He is roaming everywhere—if we don't stop him!" Kuyo said, her voice filled with genuine concern.
Clockwise, thinking of a plan, suddenly asked Reimu,
"Tell me everything about Mystic Art."
Reimu, confused, replied anyway,
"It's a form of spiritual energy that morphs based on the user's emotions. Normally I can regenerate, use flame like a whip, or unleash a burst beam. But with emotions like Wrath, I can make myself strong, while also burning the enemy on touch."
Clockwise sat down, swallowed in thought, before he asked again,
"Anything helpful against Corrupted Energy?"
Reimu replied, half certain,
"I think Hope is useful. It will make sure you never go insane, and it can negate Corrupted Energy's attacks."
Clockwise's head lifted up, filled with ideas.
"You HAVE to teach Rexy Mystic Art. There is no other way. If you don't want us all to die, we have to do that."
Reimu, deep in thought, replied,
"But who is going to stop Kamikaze in the meantime?"
Clockwise raised his hands and declared,
"I can accelerate time in a one-kilometer range. Maybe try to use the full Soul Army force to stop him temporarily—or ask Epifanno."
Reimu grinned before patting Clockwise's back.
"You're a genius... wait, you already are." He let out a loud laugh before coughing aggressively.
"Jeez... laughing makes my ribs hurt..."
Clockwise, confused, replied,
"Why are you so happ—wait, I feel like we are behaving differently?"
Reimu, still chuckling, said with a tone of strange joy,
"Yep! That's the effect of Corrupted Energy. You just get messed up in the mind for a moment."
Epifanno slowly woke from the sound, but instead of joy, he was on the verge of crying in fear, looking like his life was sucked out of his body.
"...what happened..." he asked, voice low and tired.
Reimu and Clockwise, still chuckling, replied,
"We are Corrupted. Our mental state is messed up. We only got a little of it, so we feel happy instead."
Epifanno suddenly started crying, not out of sadness, but because his mind was acting up.
"I... Why am I crying...? Why am I even tearing up, guys...? Eughh..."
Soon Cassirino and Rexy woke up. Cassirino, somehow perfectly fine, looked at Epifanno before tilting his head in confusion.
"Why are you crying, Dad?"
Epifanno, still tearing up, replied,
"Corrupted Energy... it makes me so teary..."
Suddenly they heard a creaking noise in the corner. They looked behind and saw Rexy. Unlike the lively Rexy they knew, he was devastated—no sign of life in his eyes. He muttered,
"It's... it's all in vain..."
Everybody grew serious when they heard Rexy's depressed muttering. Epifanno approached, trying to calm him down, but was suddenly pushed away.
"He's too strong... Why bother... fighting?" Rexy said, his voice low and lifeless, before slowly taking a stance.
"Let me... end your suffering, here and... now."
He lunged at Cassirino, but was stopped by Kuyo herself with a swift sword parry. She replied angrily,
"Don't interfere. This will be between him and me."
Rexy took a slow approach, then suddenly lunged at Kuyo at unbelievable speed, catching her off guard. She managed to dodge his punch before slashing at his face with her sheathed sword. The blow looked painfully real. Rexy grunted and screamed,
"STOP RESISTING! Your existence will fade anyway! Your body will rot into the ground, your will will shatter! WHY DO YOU EVEN BOTHE—"
Before he could finish, Kuyo shouted back in a commanding voice,
"The Corrupted Energy is messing with your mind! Straighten up, Private Rexy!"
Rexy snarled and blitz-kicked, but Kuyo blocked. They traded blow after blow—Rexy ruthless, Kuyo elegant in her parries—until she stabbed his abdomen, knocking him back. When she lunged again, he suddenly caught her sheathed blade with his bare hand and tossed it away.
"He taught me a lesson... Fate is inevitable... It would have been easier to accept it and DIE!"
Rexy jabbed Kuyo straight in the abdomen, knocking her away. She gasped and wheezed in pain as she leaned on the wall, breathing heavily. Rexy approached, hand raised to finish her—but Epifanno blitzed forward and punched him in the jaw so hard all the windows shattered. Rexy's head snapped back as he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
"Reimu... fix the boy..." Epifanno said, his low, serious voice laced with anger.
Reimu instantly nodded. Never before had he seen Epifanno so angry. He made no snarky comeback and got straight to work removing the Corrupted Energy. Meanwhile, Clockwise carried Kuyo to the infirmary room and checked her vitals.
"Still alive, good—"
Suddenly Kuyo grabbed his hand, preventing him from checking her wound.
"...If anything happens to me, don't blame him..." she whispered weakly.
Clockwise knelt down, both saddened and angered. He replied,
"...Positive, General..."
Rexy got up from the punch, confused. He touched his jaw and hissed in slight pain.
"Ow... what happened, Epifanno?"
Epifanno replied, no longer playful or humorous,
"...We lost. You were mentally blinded by Corrupted Energy and you... attacked Kuyo."
Rexy, realizing what he had done, looked down in regret.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause problems..."
Epifanno looked at him with pity, then spoke, his voice filled with care,
"I am not mad at you. Not at all. I'm sorry you had to go through this... I should have just killed Kamikaze myself, even if it meant doing it the coward's way..."
Rexy was about to reply when he suddenly remembered Kuyo. He rushed to the infirmary room.
The first thing he saw was Clockwise, absolutely enraged. Clockwise grabbed Rexy's collar before levitating him into the air.
"You...! Do you know what you've done?!" he snapped.
Rexy, his face barely showing fear, replied with regret,
"I know... I wasn't in the right mind at that time."
Clockwise slammed him against the wall and tossed him to the ground, snarling,
"...You should feel lucky I haven't tried to KILL you on sight, traitor..."
Clockwise disappeared, leaving Rexy, Epifanno, and Kuyo in the room. Rexy checked on Kuyo. She had three fractured ribs from his jab. Worried and full of regret, he said,
"It's all my fault... for not straightening myself. I'm sorry, Kuyo. I should never have dragged you all into this incident. He would have killed me as a murderer—I would have died instantly—and you all would be... safe."
Kuyo let out a soft sigh and caressed his hair, trying to calm him down.
"We, the Soul Army, help anyone in need—including our own. Don't worry... I forgive you."
Rexy collapsed to his knees as tears flowed from his eyes. He was sad, regretful, and helpless. Maybe he should never have been here at all...