45 Struck By A Sword, Humbled By A Sentence
Have another long chapter as you won't have one tmrw.
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"Please leave. I do not wish to fight," the man whispered, his deep voice reaching Peter's ears just fine.
He recognized him, at least; he thought he did. The armour was a little different, but it was evident that the man was the Silver Samurai, famous for butting heads with both Wolverine and Daredevil. Spider-man had his fair share of encounters with him too, which spoke of his skill with the sword. He was a villain turned hero. An anti-hero of sorts, but what was he doing here?
On second thought, the real question was, how did his psionic powers not sense him? The Silver Samurai's energy field ability, perhaps? He'd already suspected it when it struggled with sensing Kurt Wagner, but it wasn't all that reliable.
{I wouldn't wish to fight me either}, he shrugged but pointed a finger at the vault door. {But I need to see what's behind that door. I'd truly appreciate it if you would stand aside.}
The man sighed as though he was truly asking Peter to leave for his own good, before he stood up.
His posture remained perfect as he rose to his full height of 6'6, his muscled form swallowing up nearly half the corridor. His gauntleted hands grasped his Katana, which measured about 4 and a half feet, a foot and a half longer than a usual Katana.
His very presence seemed to command respect as he placed his thumb on the back of the Katana's black handle.
"Leave. I truly do not wish to fight you," he repeated, enunciating every word which was laced with an extremely faint Japanese accent, as though he'd spent some time away from his homeland. "My code of Honor forbids battle with an unarmed opponent, but if you wish to trespass further, you shall meet Honjō Masamune. I am duty-bound."
His fingers caressed the sword after mentioning the name.
Peter just stared at him. Had the Silver Samurai not heard of him and his vegetable farm?
The man gave him a small smile after looking at his expression.
"I know of you, Senshi. I know of your strength," he clarified. "But I shall follow my code of Honor regardless."
{Does your code know what's behind that vault?}, Peter snarled. {I'm betting it's used or will be used to kill many unarmed people. Innocents.}
The Samurai closed his eyes before opening them, as though reaffirming his will.
"I am duty-bound. That is also my code."
{If your code brought you to this impasse, then of what use was the code?}, Peter questioned.
"That is because it was I who brought myself here. Not my code. It merely guides me. I decide."
CLINK!
His thumb unlocked the Katana as a show of intimidation.
"Now it is your turn to decide," he spoke with conviction. "Will you leave, or will you insist on fighting?"
Peter's silence was answer enough.
"Fine," the Samurai said with a tone of finality, unsheathing his sword.
SHING!
With a flash of silver, a large gash cut into the metallic floor, dividing it in exactly in half - about twenty-five feet from him.
Peter's brows furrowed - not only could this version of the Silver Samurai use ranged attacks, but he was also superhumanly fast. His Brain Evolution and his increased flicker frequency allowed him to follow it pretty easily, but his body most definitely couldn't.
"I, Kenuichio Harada of Clan Yashida, swear that if you are beyond that line, I shall treat you like an enemy. This is my final warning," the man intoned with gravitas, carefully leaning his scabbard against the wall. "But, because you are unarmed, I swear to call out every attack before I swing my sword."
'Is this guy serious?', Peter frowned. While he wanted to bust out laughing, he didn't dare underestimate someone so confident in his skills. It wasn't that Kenuichio had no knowledge of him; in fact, he even acknowledged him, calling him 'Senshi'. Thus, either he could walk the walk or would get run over midway.
Kenuichio Harada's power set was always ambiguous in the comics, but he was eventually said to be a mutant that could emit and control energy fields via inanimate objects. Of course, alternate universe shenanigans may always alter it; thus, he'd have to be careful.
He would've been more confident in Form II, but he wasn't so sure about being in Base Form and being handicapped by the corridor. It was most likely built to assist Kenuichio in combat, which it most definitely did.
He moved to take a step forward but stopped himself when a familiar thought popped up in his head. Kenuichio had warned him thrice, and he still wished to step forward, which raised the very same question.
'Am I really that prepared to die?', he thought. 'Or is it confidence?'
"Hesitating, Senshi?" the Samurai smiled. "There is no shame in walking away from a fight. No matter how righteous it is."
Peter's eyebrows twitched. He was so close to getting something on Kingpin, and the scale of his organisation was gigantic. It had already targeted Gwen once and had gravely injured her. Who knew how many more supervillains like the Rhino he had on his payroll? Could he really walk away now?
He took a deep breath before exhaling. B.O.B. scuttled to the wall at the back of the corridor, hiding in the tunnel for safety.
Kenuichio smiled and lifted his sword above his head, taking a peculiar stance.
"Jōdan-no-kamae," he whispered as his opponent approached the line, a gleam of excitement disturbing the tranquillity in his eyes.
Peter wasn't going in unprepared, either. He'd begun building a predictive model of Kenuichio the moment he'd laid his eyes on him. His posture, the mannerisms, the very first sword strike, and his ambiguous Mutant ability. The Martial Equation worked in full force as he approached the 25-foot line. It was nowhere near finished, but it was something.
He stood just before the line, his hands close to his chest while lightly hopping from one foot to the next, a stance that emphasized agility and was primed for striking.
Grey eyes stared into brown. One unarmed and the other armed to the teeth. One untrained and the other a master of the sword.
HMMM!!!
The air seemed to get charged as Kenuichio activated his ability, making his entire body, especially his sword, glow with a silvery sheen as though he was a walking moon. This, coupled with the grace with which he handled his sword, showed why he was called the 'Silver Samurai'.
Peter exhaled and took a step forward.
The air exploded.
"Men!" Kenuicho grunted.
BOOM!
With a sonic boom, the silver blade covered in the energy field screamed toward him, but he was already moving out of the way. It was laughably easy to predict after analysing Kenuichio's stance.
SHING!
A silver crescent of energy brushed past him before smashing into the other end of the wall, leaving behind a trail of mutilated metal, but he was already in Keniuchio's face. His body twisted from the ankle, his shoulders turned like well-oiled machines, and his triceps clicked into place as he let loose a frightening jab that could punch a hole through an armoured vehicle.
An equally loud explosion rocked the corridor as he bent the protective energy shield and slammed into the silver armour, warping it.
BOOM!
Air scurried away from his strike, but instead of seeing the Samurai somersault backward, all he heard was a whisper.
"Kaeshi-Waza"
'Huh?'
Peter's eyes widened as his Danger Sense warned him of an attack from the side. He watched the sword slice the air above him as he screamed at his body to move.
SHING!
Peter shot backward, calculating the angle of incidence in such a way that he bounced away from the Samurai. He rolled backward and brought his hands up to stabilize himself, but he noticed that he didn't have any.
He watched as Kenuiochoi flicked his dissipating blood off his sword before getting into another stance.
"Your mind is troubled," the Samurai said, his armour morphing back into shape while watching Peter's hands regrow while his old ones disintegrated. "Your attacks are rigid, and your technique abysmal."
{We had one exchange}, Peter retorted.
"And you lost your hands," Kenuicho shot back with a playful smile. "It is easy to discern much when trading blows with an amateur."
Peter's eyes narrowed as he went through the Silver Samurai's power set. His Energy field acted as a shield, a boost to his physique, and marginal protection from psionic powers. The self-healing armour he wore seemed to amplify his abilities. Moreover, if he concentrated it on his sword, he could release ranged attacks and basically cut through anything, barring perhaps stupidly strong metals like Adamantium.
'Only if he concentrates it though', he noticed. The Martial Equation informed him of his opponent's weaknesses, and the most prominent one he'd noticed was that when Kenuichoi used a supercharged attack, his field flickered for a moment, concentrating on his sword while leaving his armour without protection.
His punch had almost broken the armour while the field was on, and without it, he knew he could do devastating damage. But why go through all that trouble to punch in the first place?
He shot forward once more, and Keniuchio's sword gleamed with a silverly sheen.
"Men. Kote," he whispered, and two sword strikes shot out so fast that they seemed to be simultaneous.
'You really can't use the same move against me', Peter thought as the head strike completely missed him, and his hand glided over the wrist strike. 'Not when you call out the moves beforehand.'
He slipped to the side, his hands slithering over and clamping down on the Samurai's biceps with immense strength.
"Hup!"
His muscles tightened, and his ten-ton strength flared as he flung the Samurai into the vault door with incredible speed.
"Tsuki."
BANG!
As Kenuichoi slammed into the vault, denting it, Peter lost the ability to breathe for a brief moment. His pupils dilated in shock. Did the Silver Samurai really cut his throat while being thrown with that speed?
"I see...", Kenuichoi coughed as he stood up, his armor still holding strong. "You do not understand the concept of munin, though you have incredible potential to."
Peter grit his teeth, ignoring the Samurai's verbal jabs as his throat closed up before jumping off a metal wall and launching a powerful kick.
"Debana-Waza."
A silver streak cut off his leg, but Peter used the momentum generated by the strike to twist his body and slam his elbow into Kenuichio's face. It looked like the Silver Samurai was walking into the strike and that Peter had perfectly calculated it. It sounded absurd, but he really had.
"Oji-Waza."
Much to his frustration and surprise, his elbow slammed into the flat of Honjō Masamune. Just how did he block that?
He rolled backward using his newly-reforming leg, but his back hit the wall.
"Harai-Waza."
'Damn this corridor,' he internally swore as he ducked, the metal behind him turning into scrap.
He got to his feet, and the dance finally began.
"Men. Kote."
[Uppercut]
"Do."
[Upper-right Elbow]
"Harai-Waza."
[Leg Kick]
"Oji-Waza."
[Liver Strike]
Both their limbs and bodies blurred as they fought, the metal around them contorting and warping due to their strength and speed. His hands and feet attempted to parry Kenuichoi's strikes, while the Silver Sword deflected his powerful attacks.
BAM!
BANG!
POW!
SHING!
SHING!
SHING!
The sounds of the sword and the fist were deafening, but Peter's frustrations only grew as the fight progressed. Just when he'd thought he'd built a perfect predictive model for the Silver Samurai, and used it to counterattack, Kenuichoi would either somehow manage to block or launch counterattacks of his own as though he could predict Peter too.
If that wasn't enough, the small corridor made it nearly impossible to completely avoid some of Kenuichoi's wider strikes, leading to him losing his limbs and suffering large wounds on the second exchange. If it weren't for his healing factor, he would've died twenty times over.
Peter ducked under a sweeping attack and launched a powerful uppercut. Normally, he would've instantly gone for the legs owing to the predictive model, but his newer predictive model spoke otherwise.
"Oji-Waza."
Kenuichoi moved to block, but Peter had already transitioned to a leg sweep.
BANG!
'Finally!', he thought in satisfaction as the Samurai's muscled body was swept off his feet before his other leg shot out toward the only unarmored part of his opponent.
The jaw.
Kenuichoi's eyes widened as he saw the attack coming, but there was no fear in his eyes. The silvery energy field around him began to intensify as Peter's foot approached his face, his face contorting in concentration.
'What the fu-
BOOM!
Peter's enhanced vision went white as he felt himself get blasted backward, his limbs and eyes disintegrating.
"Men."
Kenuichio's voice pierced the ringing in his ears.
It signalled the coming of doom. The coming of death.
His Danger Sense sent him his largest warning yet as his Hyper-Regeneration went into overdrive. But he knew it was futile. Even he could not get back up from having his body split in half, and the Silver Samurai's sword strikes were too fast.
He was dying today...and he was nowhere near prepared.
WHOOSH!
The sound of a sword cutting the air echoed in his regenerated ears before he felt a soft breeze cradle his face.
'Am I dead?', he thought in confusion as his body managed to stitch itself back together.
His eyes finally regenerated, and his vision returned, only to see Honjō Masamune a few inches from his face.
Keniuchio stared down at him, his armour cracked and broken but his brown eyes as tranquil as ever.
Why did he stop?
Just a fraction of a second longer, and Peter's brain would've split in half. He didn't know whether he could get back up from that.
Peter's eyes flicked to the ground, and his heart leapt to his throat.
{Oh...}, he muttered.
He was beyond the designated line.
Keniuchio had honoured his promise while he had scoffed at it.
He had questioned the Samurai's code, only to be saved by it.
***
