"Push them to their limits?!"
Gigi protested through the comms.
On the other side, Hachi replied.
"Skulls' orders are absolute, Gigi."
Miss Gigi took another hit of her cigarette, her eyes locked onto the scenery ahead.
"I know... I know. I'll get it done."
"Worried, are we?"
Hachi asked.
"They're just... kids,"
Miss Gigi replied in a low tone.
"We have to get it done. Stretch them thin,"
Hachi paused.
"For the Greater Future."
He disconnected the line.
Miss Gigi muttered,
"For the Greater Future," as she lowered her gaze, taking another deep breath of her smoke.
[22:41H - SAGA]
"EZ WORK!"
Kirashi hushed as the Earth-type Seele Tomori had left for him rushed forward.
FRWHSHSAWH—
His blade sparked as he ripped it from the scabbard, dense, turbulent wind curling around the steel as he sprinted toward the beast. Time seemed to slow as the blade cleared the sheath.
Holding his katana in a reverse grip, he passed the Seele with blistering speed, appearing to miss entirely. For a heartbeat, they both stood frozen. Kirashi's katana tip pointed toward the damp grass as the Seele remained motionless.
Then, a jagged slice appeared across the monster's torso.
FWOOSH FWOOSH FWOOSHH FWOOSHHHH!
A vacuum of turbulent wind suddenly imploded upon the beast, vaporizing it in an instant. Kirashi blew the stale air from his lungs, forcing himself to maintain his stance despite the strain.
Screeechh—
Another piercing cry tore through the night as a second beast materialized behind him. He spun on his heel in a single, fluid swipe.
Fwishing!
His wind-infused blade resonated with the air as he took another sharp, deep breath. He aimed true, the beast's bird-like head hitting the grass before the body could even begin to fade into the night.
He exhaled deeply once more, the effort of the high-output wind usage weighing on his chest.
"Two here are done. Gotta rejoin with... C- Co-... Sexy Kunoichi,"
He muttered, standing up straight as he reported back to Miss Gigi.
Before he could take a single step, Miss Gigi's voice crackled through the comms.
"No. You'll have your own fight. Earth-type hard on your left."
"Copy!"
Kirashi replied, beginning his stride before pausing.
"Where is left?.."
"To where your katana is hung!"
Miss Gigi barked, her annoyance bleeding through the line.
"Oh, okay! Got it!"
Kirashi's response was high-toned and brimming with reckless energy.
He tore through the night, running into the pitch-black darkness with his eyes closed, listening to the shift in the wind.
When he finally snapped his green eyes open, his pupils were tinted with a predatory red, his brows furrowed in concentration.
"They're big, Miss Gigi,"
He muttered.
"Indeed. The potency of your wind is better suited for this one—"
She paused, checking her monitors.
"I'll leave these three to you."
Just as she finished the order, a dull brown glow began to emerge from the shadows.
"I see 'em."
A low, guttural snarl echoed through the trees. Kirashi skidded to a halt. A nine-foot-tall beast loomed in the darkness, its shadowy form nearly invisible if not for the dim earth-type luminescence.
He adjusted his night vision, watching the beast tilt its nose up to sniff the air, a rumbling growl vibrating in its chest.
"This thing is a hindrance,"
He complained, ripping the night vision gear from his head and tossing it aside.
He rushed the nine-foot beast, relying on his leg strength alone to close the gap. He lunged with his blade, a raw scream tearing from his throat.
"Raaaaaaaaaghhhh!"
The Seele spun with surprising agility, blocking the strike with its massive, stone-like hands. Kirashi smirked.
Turbulent wind immediately began to curl around his steel, condensing into a violent vortex. The Seele's claws exploded under the pressure, but the beast didn't fall.
GRAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHH!!!
It snarled, reeling back. Kirashi landed hard on the damp farmland, his boots digging deep into the mud as he struggled to keep his balance.
"Aw, fuck! My foot!"
"Four more incoming... I'll leave these seven in your hands, Kirashi,"
Miss Gigi ordered coldly.
"They're all Größer-class."
Kirashi narrowed his eyes, the gravity of the situation finally settling in.
"Got it."
As the beast's left arm began to knit itself back together, Kirashi lunged again. He aimed for a finishing blow, but the Seele predicted the trajectory.
Just as the monstrous palm swung to swat him out of the air, Kirashi curled his body mid-flight. Using the beast's own momentum, he planted his feet against its palm and launched himself like a kinetic bolt toward two other Seeles deeper in the field.
"Come follow me,"
He muttered as he soared through the air.
He slammed down near an eleven-foot-tall Earth-type, instantly shearing through its legs. As the titan fell to its knees, Kirashi used a burst of wind to propel himself upward, wrapping his blade behind the beast's massive neck. He braced his legs against its spine, pulling with every ounce of strength he had left.
"GRRRRRRRRRRR! CUT THAT SHIT!"
He stood sideways on the Seele's back, teeth gritted as he hauled the blade through the thick hide.
His wind howled in resonance, finally severing the head completely. Without a moment to breathe, Kirashi used the excess pressure to lunge back toward the original nine-foot beast. It was charging him on all fours, but Kirashi was faster.
He slashed through the beast's face, a clean, horizontal divide. The shadowy form began to dissolve into the night as it faded. Kirashi hit the damp earth, his chest heaving as his breath grew ragged and shallow.
"F-four down... three to go..."
Kirashi suddenly flinched; another one had already arrived. The beast tried to slam its massive weight down on him while he was still struggling to catch his breath.
He managed to twist away just in time, the impact sending mud and debris flying everywhere from the sheer force of the strike.
"Damn! Let me breathe!"
He complained in his thoughts, his chest tightening.
He landed a few paces away, forcing himself to take another deep breath with his eyes squeezed shut.
As the next nine-foot beast rushed toward him, Kirashi's concentration peaked. He stood his ground, appearing unnervingly calm and focused as the monster closed the distance.
Just as it was about to collide with him—
"Hmmp!"
He twisted his body with violent precision, his blade slicing upward and catching the beast cleanly. Once again, they both froze for a heartbeat as a thin, silver line began to form lengthwise across the monster's torso.
"Updraft,"
Kirashi muttered.
After a few agonizing milliseconds, a column of turbulent wind exploded from the ground up. The force flung the two halves of the Seele high into the air, where they disintegrated into the dark before they could even hit the grass.
Kirashi didn't move from his crouch, his fingers white-knuckled around the hilt of his katana. The "Updraft" had cleared the immediate space, but the remaining two Seeles were already closing the distance. Their heavy, rhythmic thuds against the damp earth vibrated through his boots.
"Two more. Just two!."
He forced his lungs to expand, but they felt like they were lined with glass. Every sharp intake of air was a reminder of the master who had refused to teach him how to breathe—the master who had left him to solve the puzzle of stamina with nothing but his own suffering.
"You're slowing down, WindFreak,"
Miss Gigi's voice drifted through his ear, devoid of sympathy.
"The Skulls don't care about your lungs. They care about the result."
Kirashi grit his teeth, a spray of mud hitting his cheek as the largest of the remaining four let out a bone-shaking roar.
"I'm... not slowing... down,"
He wheezed into the comms, his voice cracking.
He planted his lead foot, ignoring the way his ankle screamed from the previous slip in the mud. He didn't have the luxury of a "leisurely" pace anymore. He had to end this before his heart gave out.
The largest Seele, a twelve-footer with shoulders like granite, lunged first. Kirashi didn't meet it head-on. He couldn't afford the impact. Instead, he dropped low, his chest nearly touching the mud as he slid between the beast's tree-trunk legs.
FWHISH—
He didn't even stand up. From his knees, he swung the katana in a wide, horizontal arc. The wind didn't just curl around the blade this time; it shrieked. The pressure wave from the strike acted like a physical barrier, shoving the Seele's weight backward even as the steel bit into its shins.
"Too slow!"
Kirashi barked, though the words were interrupted by a violent cough.
As the giant stumbled, a single smaller Größer-class leaped from the flanks, its claws extended like obsidian sickles. Kirashi's eyes darted between them. His vision was starting to blur at the edges, the lack of oxygen making the world pulse in time with his heartbeat.
He threw his left hand out, palm open toward the ground.
"Repel!"
A sudden, violent burst of pressurized air erupted from his palm, launching him ten feet into the air. It was a desperate move—unrefined and taxing—but it put him above the fray. Mid-air, he spun, his body a blur of motion.
"GRRRRRAAAAAH!"
He slammed his blade down into the neck of the nearest jumper. The wind followed the strike, a jagged bolt of translucent force that didn't just cut; it shattered. The Seele's head was driven straight into the mud by the sheer atmospheric pressure Kirashi had conjured.
He landed hard, his knees buckling. Six down. One to go.
Kirashi's knees hit the mud with a wet thud. The atmospheric pressure from the "Repel" slam had sucked the remaining oxygen out of his immediate reach, leaving him gasping for air that felt like swallowing broken glass.
"Six... down,"
he wheezed, his vision pulsing a dark, rhythmic red.
"Just... one... left."
The 12-footer—the granite-shouldered titan—was finally upright again. It had recovered from the horizontal pressure wave that had buckled its shins, and it was now looming over Kirashi like a mountain of stone and malice.
It didn't roar this time; it just raised both massive, boulder-like fists, preparing to turn the mud-slicked earth into Kirashi's grave.
Kirashi didn't have the strength to stand. He didn't even have the air to cough. He slammed his katana into the mud in front of him, using the hilt as a desperate anchor to keep himself upright.
"Focus. Use the mud. Use the weight."
As the giant's fists descended, Kirashi didn't try to roll. He threw his weight around the anchored sword, spinning his lower body in a low, violent arc. He didn't use a blade strike; he funneled a jagged, unrefined burst of wind through his lead leg as it swept through the saturated ground.
FWISH-BOOM!
The Sword Anchor Kick released a sudden, violent expansion of pressurized air into the saturated ground. The mud didn't freeze—it erupted. The force created a massive "Air-Geyser," a pillar of upward-surging wind and debris that hit the Seele's underbelly with the force of a detonating landmine.
The 12-footer's own weight became its downfall. The upward blast stalled its momentum, lifting the front of its massive frame just inches off the ground. In that millisecond of suspended weight, Kirashi ripped his blade from the mud.
He didn't swing. He braced the pommel against the ground and tilted the point upward. As the 12-footer's massive weight came crashing back down, it effectively impaled itself on the wind-wrapped steel.
Kirashi let out one final, jagged burst of air through the blade, a concentrated needle that pierced through the monster's core.
"Seven,"
He gasped, his fingers finally slipping from the hilt as the giant dissolved into the dark.
Kirashi didn't move. He just sat there in the mud, his chest barely moving, watching the last of the shadow-smoke drift into the night sky.
"Done..."
He whispered into the comms, his voice almost silent.
"Miss Gigi... tell me... that's it."
Tomori's breath was ragged, but it was clean. Every intake was focused, preserving a well of energy she had yet to exert. She sprinted toward the rendezvous, her boots rhythmic against the damp earth as she saved her lungs for the inevitable contact.
"Kira is nearby..."
She thought, her eyes scanning the dark horizon.
"He's just finished a battle. I'll rejoin him."
At that exact moment, the comms synced with a sharp, digital chirp.
"Horde incoming. All Earth-type, Klein-class."
Kirashi and Tomori both jolted at the same time.
Like magic, the exhaustion seemed to drain from Kirashi's posture, replaced by a surge of adrenaline. "That's better!" he barked into the line.
Back in the SPINELs quarters, Miss Gigi remained motionless, her focus absolute. She looked like a conductor directing a violent symphony. Her left eye glowed with a steady yellow light, a neural link allowing her to command three recon drones with a mere thought.
On the screens before her, the drones circled the squad—tracking Kirashi and Tomori, Ryujin, and Itoshi.
She watched the feeds through various filters, drowning in her own analysis.
"Kirashi is more capable of fighting efficiently when the Seele are smaller," she paused, her mind flicking through his combat records.
"The ones back in Okinawa were smaller, but they always came in masses. Even so, he seems to barely face any trouble with them."
On one of the monitors, she watched Tomori skid to a halt beside Kirashi.
"The lack of trees may be a hindrance to what he's used to,"
Gigi whispered to the empty room.
"But our recent addition... she's quicker, though with significantly lower wind potency output. Her lighter weight and the environment of Nagasaki likely taught her to hone her power through precision rather than raw force."
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as she visualized their abilities.
"Wind Burst and Wind Shear."
She opened them and issued a sharp directive.
"B'Ashura... a horde is coming for WindFreak and CottonCandy. Move to their position. I'll need you to herd the ones who slip through the two."
From the other side of the sector, Ryujin's voice came through, steady and grounded.
"Copy that."
~~~To be Continued~~~