Capture!

"Tch, this is dangerous...." Kotone swallowed, lightly glancing around to observe her enemies. Unfortunately, they clearly didn't plan on giving her the time to do so.

With eleven aggressors, twelve including Emma, Kotone couldn't just stand there and let her opponents take the first move. Glancing towards Mary, she felt a flash of regret pulse through her heart, but it was quickly snuffed out by her overwhelming sense of responsibility.

"I won't lose. I can't," Kotone thought, taking a deep breath as three of her enemies pounced towards her. and Mary, while the rest began to jump from building to building, making sure the two couldn't escape.

The world came to a halt as Kotone's senses sharpened beyond human limits. The three cloaked figures became nothing more than children wielding knives as Kotone noted everything that she'd need to, then the world caught back up to her.

The first tried piercing through Kotone's throat, only to be brutally parried and knocked off balance before they could. Kotone simply stepped to the side as her attacker stumbled past her and fell onto the ground.

The second tried to cover for the first by jumping into the air and getting the drop on the Kotone, but the move was a bit too ambitious to work on the young woman. Lightly sidestepping the heavy overhead swing, Kotone pushed the mid-air attacker's feet backwards.

Because of this simple move, they couldn't realign themselves in time, and they overshot their target, flying past Kotone and Mary and roughly slamming into the brick wall behind them.

The third was a bit more cautious, but that hesitance to attack was nothing but free time to Kotone. She closed the distance between herself and her enemy, lightly knocking them off balance with a swift kick to the inner knee. Her enemy crumbled like a house of cards, hitting the ground with a loud thud.

"W-What?! H-How... is this possible?" Mary couldn't believe what she was seeing. The idea that a High School girl, regardless of being a part of the Track team, taking down three assailants was beyond her comprehension.

She left all three of her attackers on the ground, groaning in pain.

With many more enemies around though, she didn't have much time to process it though. A fourth, fifth, and sixth all stopped trying to stop a possible escape, leaping towards the experienced fighter.

"Why is it cold all of the sudden?" Mary noticed, as a stunning cold swept over the surrounding area. It wasn't the cold of the night; it was something far more compact and intense.

This frigid, impossible cold came directly from the coldest and most experienced person in the fight, Kotone.

As her enemies circled around her, they were struck with a sudden immense cold. It was heavy, as if weighing down on each one of her foes. With the combination of a sudden weight and an abrupt cold, the shadowy assailants couldn't react fast enough.

They circled around Kotone, trying to confuse her with their teamwork, but their plan only brought about their own failure. Kotone quickly grabbed the loose clothing of one of the three, swiftly stopping them in their tracks.

They jerked to a stop before Kotone pulled them towards their ally, causing the two to slam into one another. With her stolen knife, she quickly cut off a long piece of cloth in one swipe.

The stumbling attackers realigned themselves, but they were one beat too late. Kotone discarded her knife, tossing it towards Mary, who barely caught it, and quickly wrapped the cut piece of cloth around one of the three's neck.

Without a bit of hesitation, she roughly pulled the person's head down to meet her knee, knocking them unconscious. She quickly unwrapped the cloth from their neck before it could become fatal and pushed the limp body towards her other two attackers.

The assailants became flustered due to the body of their ally, and Kotone used that to her advantage to further the gap between herself and her enemies. She ran towards them while they tried to get the body off themselves.

She jumped into the air and grabbed the hoods of both stumbling assailants before slamming them into the ground, knocking them out as well.

"That's only about half of them...." Kotone took a few deep breaths, but looked around for more of her attackers, only to not see them circling around like they were in the past. They were completely gone, but that didn't mean Mary and Kotone were in the clear just yet. .

There was a person standing confidently, just waiting for Kotone. It was Emma, standing without a single care in the world, as if it were all one big game to her.

There wasn't a single audible word passed between the two, but their intentions were clear to the other.

Kotone's cold, mastered, and focused aura chilled her surroundings, allowing her to view her enemies' weaknesses and take advantage of them with maximized potential. She could tear down even the biggest of enemies individually with her abilities.

Emma however, had a completely different vibe. Kotone could feel it clashing against hers. It was warm and relaxing, like returning home after a holiday trip. It was sickening, because underneath that fake warmth was true searing heat, unrelenting to any who dared to near it.

It was something that Kotone could confidently say she'd never faced before.

There was silence between the two, then it started.

Emma leaped first, trying to stab her enemy through the top of her head. Kotone avoided the deliberate attack, jumping backwards.

Emma rushed towards her with a cocky grin, but Kotone didn't let it faze her. She planned to deal with Emma just as she had dealt with her other enemies, quick and carefully.

"W-watch out!" Mary yelled, causing Kotone to very quickly look for any reason that Mary could've yelled, and understood that it was because of the fallen but not unconscious henchmen she was fighting prior to Emma.

Two of them were at her feet, just about to grab her by her ankles. Kotone barely jumped over the two goons, but just as her confidence was starting to rise, she felt a searing, immeasurable pain in her stomach.

"You should pay more attention, you cow-titted bitch," Emma grinned, roughly twisting the knife in a way that made Kotone let out a scream of pain.

Even with a new impalement, Kotone roughly grabbed Emma by her hair and slammed her forehead into her attacker's, causing her to wince in pain and back up, letting go of her knife.

The pain was unbearable, but Kotone pushed through it regardless, she didn't have much of a choice to do otherwise.

Even with their new injuries, the two were about to continue with all their might until Emma let out a cry of pain.

"Who the hell?!" She growled as a knife hit the ground. Blood covered Mary's hands as Emma was about to attack her, only to be stopped by one of her goons. Her wound was deep, and only getting worse by the minute.

In a split-second decision, Emma began to flee with her fallen comrades. She made sure to give Kotone a deep scowl on her way out.

Mary and Kotone could only breathe for a second before Kotone fell to her knee.

"You're losing too much blood! We've got to get you to the hospital," Mary tried to help Kotone, ignoring the fresh blood on her hands.

"Wait... There's someplace better," Kotone told Mary, wincing as she took in a deep breath.

"Someplace better than a hospital? Are you sure? You can die if you're wrong here," Mary warned, but Kotone just nodded.

"It's a little bit away, but it's better," Kotone told Mary, who slowly nodded and helped Kotone stay up.

The two slowly hobbled towards the Endou household.

-----

Fanzer, Jumin, and Asami all walked alongside one another, wanting to relax even with exams and even with it being dark out. They were all together so they couldn't imagine anything too bad happening.

"I still can't believe it bro," Jumin admitted, causing Fanzer to laugh.

"You're still thinking about it?" He chuckled, causing Jumin to nod quickly.

"Bro, I'm still positively perplexed. I'm really happy you respect her enough to keep boundaries in mind, but like, damn dude," Jumin lightly shrugged.

"I really don't know what to say. It is what it is," Fanzer hummed, causing Jumin to sigh.

"I guess so. Hey, Asami, you alright?" Jumin noticed his girlfriend's odd silence. She would've normally pitched in for a joke or something, but she was being incredibly quiet, looking around as if there was something lurking in the darkness.

"I, uh, yeah yeah. I'm coooooool. I just thought I saw something―" Asami jumped back as she turned to her boyfriend, noticing that there were suddenly two figures behind both Fanzer and Jumin.

"Watch out!" She warned but was a smidge too late. Before the duo knew what she was talking about, their mouths' were covered and soon after they fell unconscious.

Asami wanted to lash out, to force her anger out on the aggressors, but she felt like that would be an extremely poor decision. It was a combination of two things that taught her that.

The first was her encounter with Kotone, where she was truly at the hand of someone who was far more powerful and experienced than herself. The second was a sudden wave of heat.

At first, she thought it could've been her body heating up because of the blood flow, but she very quickly understood that it couldn't be her own body. The very air itself was burning, making it hard to even take a solid breath in.

The heat was far from natural, and she didn't want to run into anything that she could avoid, even at this point.

Before she could think about what to say, she was screaming in sudden, abrupt, pain. Her stomach was pierced with a beautiful knife, that Emma proceeded to aggressively pull out once she was done with her.

"Hmm, this one is less fun. We'll leave her to bleed out," Emma scowled, thinking about Mary and Kotone.

Without a word, the two figures grabbed Fanzer and Jumin, heaving them over their shoulders and disappearing into the night. Emma left immediately after them, not even leaving Asami with any parting words, as if her life meant nothing at all.

"It's moments like these that I'm glad I have Kotone's phone number...." Asami wanted to laugh, but as soon as she began, her body was put in impossible damage.

She speed-dialed her friend, and gladly she picked up the phone. After swiftly explaining the situation, Kotone understood what was happening and planned to pick up Asami.

There was only 30 seconds before a car pulled up to Asami, a butler helping her inside the car. One short ride away, and Asami arrived at the Endou household.

She was escorted inside and saw Kotone beginning to get ready for a fight. Her stomach was wrapped up in bandages, but she had never looked more ready.

Kazane walked up to Asami and pulled her into a tight hug.

"You're a cute little one, aren't you?" Kazane asked, only receiving muffled sounds in response. "Oh but, I suppose I mustn't play right now. There's dire business to be dealt with. Come, allow me to bandage you up," Kazane's tone completely shifted as she led Asami to a bed, nonchalantly lifting the dazed girl's shirt and beginning to get to work.

"Are you... Kotone's mother?" Asami asked, wincing as Kazane lightly dabbed an alcohol covered towel on her wound.

"Of course, I am! Where else could she have gotten her heavenly curves from? But enough of that! I need you to focus on your breathing because this will be painful. I'll have to sterilize the wound and stitch it back together. Unfortunately, we must be quick, as we don't know what they're doing to my future husband and son-in-law," Kazane hummed, giving Asami a piece of leather to bite down on.

She hesitantly took it before speaking up.

"W-wait a second, this is a little fast, what is happening?" Asami asked, but Kazane just lightly shook her head with a smile.

"Just think about your boyfriend," Kazane ordered as she saw Asami's face begin to relax.

It didn't help the screams of pain though.

-----

"So, Emma stole Fanzer because she's insane, and Jumin just ended up getting wrapped up in it?" Asami asked, wincing as she turned to face Kotone.

"Yeah. She got the drop on me and now we must save them. I'm sorry for getting you dragged into this," Kotone apologized, her facial expression dark.

"It's fine. Besides, we'll get them back. Jumin's important to me, but Fanzer and you are too. We'll make her pay," Asami nodded before lightly gesturing towards Mary, who was sleeping on a comfortable looking couch.

"Who's that, by the way?" She questioned, and Kotone answered quickly and concisely.

"She's one of Fanzer's old friends, and someone I've met recently. She was dragged into this as well," Kotone grimaced, the situation was sour to her.

"Is she coming with us?" Asami asked, causing Kotone to shake her head.

"No, she's not like us. Not a fighter," Kotone explained, receiving a swift nod from Asami.

"When are we leaving?" Asami asked, and as if planned on time, Kazane swung open the doors with a wide grin on her face.

"Now!" She roared. "We have to go save Fanzer and Jumin from that bitch! I thought that after I handled her mother that things would be over with that family, but I guess not."

"Handled her mother?" Asami accidentally repeated.

"I guess you wouldn't know so I guess I'll say this, there's a reason why I don't have a husband anymore," Kazane spoke bluntly, causing Asami to begin to blurt out apologies.

Before the conversation could trail any further off track, Kotone stood up.

"Despite what her family did in the past, this is a problem now. It ends here. Let's go," Kotone spoke, beginning to walk out of her home.

Kazane and Asami were quick to follow her.

This was not going to be pretty.