Part 6: Blood on the Wreckage
The accusation hung in the heavy air between them, sharp and bitter. Haruto felt something break deep inside his chest—a sudden, violent rupture in the quiet logical prison he had kept himself locked in since the raid. The guilt, the fear, the cold terror of Kaito's rapid recovery—it all burned away, replaced by an sudden surge of raw, unstoppable fury.
Haruto didn't look down at the floorboards anymore. He stood his ground, his trembling frame straightening as his eyes locked onto Kaito with intense, burning hatred.
"You're calling yourself my brother?" Haruto's voice dropped, stripped of its previous hesitation, cold and sharp. "You always pretended to be the one who protected us. Every single time something went wrong, what did you say? 'I'm older. I'll handle it. I'm older, so I'll do it.'"
Kaito flinched, his chest heaving, but Haruto didn't give him a single second to breathe. He stepped straight into Kaito's space, ignoring the sharp pain in his broken ribs, deliberately pushing Kaito further over the edge.
"So what did you do yesterday, Kaito?!" Haruto shouted, his voice tearing through the quiet of the empty house. "You were there! You always said you were older—so what did you actually do when Ayame was in danger?! What were you supposed to do?! Did you try to save her, or did you just stand there?!"
The words hit Kaito like a heavy strike. In an instant, the memory of yesterday's chaos flooded his mind in painful detail—the roaring flames, the dust, the terrible shockwaves, and the frantic blur of his feet pounding against the stone as he screamed Ayame's name, trying to reach her before the building collapsed.
The memory collided violently with Haruto's words, destroying the last bit of Kaito's self-control.
"I TRIED TO SAVE HER!" Kaito screamed in pure, broken grief.
Kaito lunged.
Haruto had no time to react before Kaito's full weight slammed into him, tackling him straight out of the doorway. They crashed heavily onto the hard wooden floor of the hallway with a loud thud. Haruto gasped as intense pain shot through his broken ribs, but Kaito was already on top of him, driven by pure, weeping rage.
Kaito grabbed Haruto by his shirt collar, pulling him up and slamming him back down against the floorboards. "I TRIED TO SAVE HER! WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Kaito screamed directly into his face, tears bursting from his eyes and hitting Haruto's cheek. "YOU JUST RAN AWAY! YOU RAN LIKE A COWARD WHILE SHE DIED FOR YOU!"
"LET GO OF ME!" Haruto shouted back, his own tears spilling over as he raised his bandaged arms, shoving his elbows hard into Kaito's neck to force him off.
Haruto thrashed with everything he had left, driven by pure survival. He shoved Kaito off to the side, rolling across the polished wood, but Kaito scrambled after him like a desperate animal. Kaito swiped at Haruto's legs, grabbing his ankle and yanking him back. Haruto turned on his back and kicked out blindly, his heel hitting Kaito hard in the chest.
Kaito grunted, falling back against the hallway wall, but he barely seemed to feel it. He lunged right back in, his hand swinging in a fast, wild strike that caught Haruto across the cheek, snapping his head to the side.
Haruto's vision blurred, but he didn't stop fighting. He grabbed Kaito by his shirt, using his remaining momentum to twist them both, slamming Kaito back against the sliding paper doors of the adjacent room. The wooden frame cracked under their combined weight, tearing the screen as they fell onto the floor mats inside in a tangled heap.
"You weren't there!" Kaito sobbed, pinning Haruto's arms down against the mat, his grip crushing Haruto's wrists. "You don't get to talk about her! You left us! You ran away!"
"SHE TOLD ME TO RUN!" Haruto screamed back, his voice breaking into a painful sob as he struggled beneath Kaito's hold. "SHE DIED TO KEEP ME ALIVE, AND YOU'RE WASTING IT!"
Haruto pulled his knee up, jamming it hard into Kaito's stomach—right against his fresh injuries.
Kaito choked out a gasp of real pain, his grip loosening for a second. Haruto shoved him off with all his remaining strength, crawling backward until his back hit the far wall, his chest moving wildly, fresh blood dripping from his nose, and his broken ribs hurting with every breath.
Across the ruined room, Kaito knelt on the floor, gasping for air, his bandaged hand gripping the torn mat, his face completely ruined by tears as he stared at Haruto with absolute hatred. There were no more words left. They were simply destroying each other over the memory of what they had lost.
Haruto slumped against the wall, his chest heaving as he fought for air. The fierce, stinging ache in his broken ribs felt like hot needles piercing his lungs with every ragged breath. Looking across the torn floor mats, he saw Kaito lying still on all fours, trembling, his head hanging low.
It's over, Haruto thought, his vision blurring from pain and exhaustion. He isn't getting up.
Haruto forced himself onto his feet, using the wall for support. His body was completely spent, his stamina drained to dangerous levels. Knowing that staying near Kaito would only ignite another spark, Haruto turned and took a slow, agonizing step down the hallway, intending to retreat back to Akari's room.
He barely made it three steps.
A sharp, violent scraping of wood echoed behind him. Haruto's eyes widened, his head snapping over his shoulder—but it was already too late. Kaito had surged off the floor with unnatural, explosive speed. Before Haruto could even raise his arms, Kaito tackled him from behind.
The two crushed onto the hard floorboards with a brutal, sickening crash. Haruto's head slammed against the wood, sending a blinding flash of white across his vision. Shock rushed through him; he had genuinely believed Kaito was done. But looking up, he saw no trace of reason left in Kaito's bloodshot eyes—only a terrifying, endless abyss of grief and rage.
Kaito pinned him down, raised his right fist, and brought it straight down into Haruto's face.
THUD.
Haruto's head snapped sideways. The impact split his cheekbone, spraying a sudden burst of hot red across the polished floorboards. Before Haruto could process the hit, Kaito struck him again, his bandaged knuckles tearing open against Haruto's jaw, leaving smears of blood across both their faces.
"YOU RAN!" Kaito screamed, a mix of tears and thick red drool spilling from his lips as he struck again. "YOU LEFT HER!"
Haruto's survival instinct snapped into absolute overdrive. The soft, gentle brother vanished. Pushed past the brink of exhaustion, Haruto growled through a mouthful of his own blood, brought his fists up, and jabbed two quick, brutal punches straight into Kaito's freshly injured nose and jaw.
CRACK.
Kaito's head jerked back, blood spurting from his nostrils, but instead of falling back, Kaito barely flinched. He wiped the blood across his sleeve with a terrifying, hollow grin and lunged straight back in.
Haruto reacted quickly, driving his elbow hard into Kaito's collarbone, forcing Kaito off him. Haruto scrambled to his feet, wiping a thick trail of blood from his lips, his eyes wide with rising terror. Something was horribly wrong. Kaito had taken a full gauntlet blast earlier; his body should be failing, his muscles should be tearing under this level of physical exertion. Yet, Kaito was moving faster, hitting harder, and recovering instantly in front of Haruto's very eyes.
The entity inside him, Haruto realized with a cold shudder, his mind screaming in alarm. It's keeping him moving. It's healing him while he fights.
There was no time to analyze it further. Kaito charged again like a wild predator.
Their fight erupted into a full-scale, uncontrolled frenzy, spilling out of the doorway and tearing through the central hallway. Kaito swung a heavy right hook; Haruto ducked under it, but the force of Kaito's missed punch shattered a wooden wall panel into sharp splinters. Haruto seized the opening, grabbing Kaito by his coat and violently throwing him sideways into a decorative ceramic vase. The heavy clay shattered with a deafening crash, shards cutting into Kaito's arms and tearing fresh crimson lines through his shirt.
Kaito didn't even pause. He spat a mouthful of dark blood onto the floorboards, lunged through the debris, and slammed Haruto against a paper sliding door. The wood splintered and the paper ripped to shreds as both brothers tumbled into the adjacent room, rolling over broken furniture and scattered papers.
"I TRIED TO SAVE HER!" Kaito roared, grabbing a fallen piece of sharp, broken table leg and driving it down toward Haruto's chest.
Haruto caught Kaito's wrist with both hands just inches from his ribs, his teeth grinding as he fought the crushing downward pressure. Blood from the cut on his cheek dripped directly into Kaito's wide, unblinking eyes.
"I WAS TERRIFIED!" Haruto screamed back, finally letting the suffocating nightmare of yesterday's raid tear out of his throat. His raw, broken voice echoed off the shattering walls. "IT ALL HAPPENED YESTERDAY! I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! YOU THINK I WANTED HER TO DIE?!"
"YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED!" Kaito shrieked, pressing down harder with the sharp piece of wood, his voice cracking into a gut-wrenching, bloody sob. "YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED WITH HER YESTERDAY!"
"SHE TOLD ME TO LIVE!" Haruto screamed back, his strength surging as pure, desperate rage completely took over.
Haruto slammed his forehead violently directly into Kaito's face.
BANG.
The headbutt shattered Kaito's nose completely. A thick burst of blood erupted between them, blinding both of them for a brutal, agonizing second. Kaito reeled back, staggering blindly on the ruined floorboards as dark crimson poured through his fingers and splattered against his chest. Haruto didn't hesitate—he used the split second of momentum to drive a heavy kick directly into Kaito's midsection.
The blow landed straight against Kaito's recovering core, throwing him backward into a small wooden cabinet. The unit crashed over, raining heavy scrolls, clay pots, and iron ornaments across the floor in a chaotic mess of splinters and dust.
Haruto stood panting heavily, his body trembling violently. His broken ribs screamed in agony, sending sharp spikes of pain through his chest with every shallow breath. His left eye was completely swollen shut, caked in drying, sticky blood, and his remaining vision swam with dark, swaying spots. His mouth tasted heavily of iron, a steady trickle of red leaking from his cut lip down his chin.
Across the destroyed room, Kaito slowly pulled his hand away from his ruined face.
Blood covered his chin, his neck, and the entire front of his shirt, turning the fabric a deep, terrifying crimson. Drops of red fell steadily onto the floor, staining the tatami mats beneath him. But Kaito didn't fall. He didn't cry out.
Instead of collapsing, Kaito's hand darted blindly to the floor, grabbing a heavy clay vase fragment from the broken cabinet. He hurled it straight at Haruto's face as a sudden distraction.
Haruto raised his arms to block, the ceramic shattering against his forearms, but the momentary blur was all Kaito needed. Kaito surged forward, tackling Haruto at the waist and driving him hard back down to the blood-stained floorboards.
Haruto's head slammed against the wood, the impact knocking the remaining air out of his lungs. He was too drained, his body too broken from his fractured ribs and exhaustion to throw Kaito off this time. Kaito pinned his chest, but he was just as utterly spent—his strength bled dry, his breath coming in ragged, whistling gasps through his ruined nose.
Driven only by the last lingering threads of grief, Kaito pulled back his fist.
THUD.
A heavy, slow punch landed against Haruto's jaw, spraying crimson across the floor.
Haruto couldn't move his arms to shield himself anymore. He lay trapped beneath his brother, every breath a agonizing struggle as his vision swam in and out of darkness. Ten seconds passed in suffocating silence, filled only by their frantic, bloody panting. Then, Kaito raised his arm again, bringing down another heavy, sluggish blow straight into Haruto's cheek.
THUD.
Haruto's head snapped to the side. Copper pooled thick in his throat, choking him. With a final, desperate surge of survival instinct, Haruto forced his right fist up, driving it with everything he had left directly into Kaito's shattered nose and bruised chest.
Kaito choked on a wave of dark blood, losing his balance and falling sideways off Haruto, crashing onto the ruined tatami mats beside him.
For a long moment, neither moved. They lay side by side in the wreckage of the room, completely covered in their own blood, the silence broken only by two sets of frantic, shallow breathing.
Then, Haruto's gasps grew fainter. The edges of his vision collapsed into total blackness, his heavy eyelids fluttering shut as unconsciousness finally claimed him.
A few lingering seconds passed. Kaito's raspy breathing slowed, faltered, and finally went quiet as the last of his energy evaporated, plunging him into the darkness right beside his brother.