48 Wanted (9)

A sudden laugh, followed by the immediate shift to cold demeanour. In others' eyes, Akashi wasn't sane at this moment.

But perhaps, this was bound to happen. In the end, Akashi too is a human, and just a 12-year-old at that—the heavy exposure to the cruel reality of the world, was bound to bring forth the drastic change.

Koji and Tai, as the sweats began to form on their bodies due to the subconscious nervousness that they received, lowered their form and readied themselves.

Then—

—Akashi vanished from their sight, much to their shock.

"I've got one last question to ask."

And instead of attacking them, Akashi was now standing at their back, with his attention on Rika—who was thrashing her body helplessly as Akashi held her up by the neck.

"Why did you save me back when we met?"

Akashi's lone blue-coloured eye glowed under his bangs. A predatory gaze it was, and akin to a scared prey, Rika shivered.

Koji and Tai gazed at Akashi's disregarding stance for the two of them, and wrinkled their faces in a mix of anger and embarrassment.

"...To where are you looking at, with me still standing?" Koji growled as his grip on Ryuma tightened.

"Although the current situation is inexplicable," Tai said in a low tone, "The fact that you aren't in a good condition for a fight withstands. Where is this arrogance coming from?"

The two of them dashed at Akashi, who didn't even bother to look at them once. With one holding Akashi's Ryuma and the other having encased his kunai with elongated pressure of wind, they slashed their respective weapons at Akashi, intending to sever his neck.

Yet, once again, Akashi vanished.

Then, a sound of crunch.

"A-ahhhh!!!" Koji screamed from pain, as his right arm, which was previously holding onto Ryuma, was bent at a strange angle. Losing his momentum, he rolled on the ground. Without a doubt, that arm was gone, forever.

On the other hand, Tai's face was seen to be in a gory mess. He fell on his back, with the blood dripping out of his ruined nose, and dropping his kunai, he placed his trembling hand on top of his right eye, with its shape completely deformed.

Akashi, now holding onto his Ryuma and seen behind the fallen two, placed it against Rika's neck, with his hand no longer restraining her,

"Well?"

Rika hurriedly looked back and forth between Akashi and her two allies. The more she thought, the more hopeless the scene seemed to be—or perhaps not.

Koji and Tai, although they were in severe condition from one strike of Akashi, stood back up wobbly.

Rika had one more transdermal patch—the same kind that was used on Akashi just before—that she could use to their advantage.

"...Heh," So she opened her mouth with the intention to buy some time; her head was lowered and her eyes were shadowed, "Since when did I save you?"

Akashi's eye narrowed.

As Koji and Tai slowly turned around, Rika continued speaking,

"A bounty hunter that we met back in the inn—his room was right next to ours. Why would he do that, if his purpose was to fight you? He could've directly barged in... do you understand?" Rika then raised her head up and grinned at Akashi, "That man was with us from the very start."

One fact that even Kakuzu didn't know: the ronin of Kiri whom Akashi previously killed, has formed an agreement with Koji and Tai. The ronin received the mission from Kakuzu, while hiding this information from the latter.

"That girl who saved you... ah, how fragile she was..." Rika sighed with a crazed smile, holding her face with her hands, "I knocked on the door. The oblivious girl opened without any suspicion, and,"

Rika extended her pinky finger and motioned it, resembling a needle used to inject a substance into a person's body.

"Bam."

While Koji and Tai were now slowly closing in, with their bearings finally regained, Rika continued her speech to Akashi, who looked at her without any reaction,

"She died with a single shot of my poison. So I pulled her out and entered the room, intending to poison you as well—"

Then, Rika frowned with her teeth gritted, "But you had to wake up just then. Do you understand? What saved you was sheer luck alone."

__________

'...So that's how it is.' I thought as I looked up to the sky, where the darkness has risen. The night has begun, and the moon has begun its way to ascension, ready to illuminate the sky with its dim light.

"And if you didn't kill that Kiri ninja in the shortest amount of time possible, I would've poisoned you then as well... how unfortunate—!"

Rika then leaped at me, taking out the same rectangular patch that I just suffered from previously.

At the same time, the obviously injured Koji and Tai—whom I knew to be sneaking upon me from the very start—dashed at me once again, holding sickles or kunai with murderous intents.

<Kindness transmits, just as how hatred does.>

Not necessarily, I thought.

Each and every one holds a desire of his or her own. The key to our desire is directly linked to happiness. Someone finds joy in helping others. Someone enjoys being on the 'good' side. Power, wealth, satiating one's hunger for blood—there were all kinds of human beings across this world. I believed my happiness to be linked to the idea of 'peace,' and therefore, recklessly chased after the non-existent oasis.

But not anymore.

I twirled Ryuma in my hand as my eye shifted to the three who were right before me.

'And my happiness right now,'

is about returning my one month of suffering to these foes.

So I turned my body slightly, letting Rika's arm miss my body and go through the empty air.

Then, I grabbed Koji's fine arm, which was holding onto his sickle, and hacked it down at Rika's extended up, severing it into two.

Subsequently, I swiped Koji's legs to cause him to fall, and just when his head touched the ground, Tai's wind-extended kunai stabbed through his abdomen. Grabbing Rika's detached arm, I slapped the patch in that palm onto Tai's broken nose.

Before giving them the time to scream, I swung Ryuma around me in a circular fashion, cutting Rika's other arm and letting the blood spray all around. The blood entered Koji's exposed eyes, causing the latter to shut his eyes closed. While he was momentarily vulnerable, I crushed his other arm, and slammed my fist onto Tai's path-applied face again.

The battlefield was now filled with blood, and my previously black-coloured cloak was now drenched in the blood. Around me, three figures lied and groaned, unable to even muster the strength to scream in pain.

Koji, with both arms broken beyond repair. Rika, with both arms severed. Tai, with his face completely ruined, and engulfed by the effect of the toxin.

"I've decided." Gazing at the three, I spoke softly, "The chase after me won't end. I will be forced to run over and over again."

PUK!

I dropped Ryuma over Tai's neck casually, ending the latter's life instantly.

"But I refuse to be hunted any further. I won't allow myself to become an idiot who falls into someone's hand again."

PUK!

Lifting Ryuma back up, I dropped it onto Koji's neck this time around.

"Instead,"

Lifting Ryuma back up again, I looked at Rika, who seemed to have pissed on her pants from the fear of death,

PUK!

"It will be the other way around."

I knew. No matter how many times I kill, they will keep coming after me. I will be driven to the edge, enduring all just to reach Amegakure.

Killing me just for the sake of money—they were hindrances to my happiness, and had to be eliminated. Once again, much to my fury, the plan to return will have to be postponed.

"I will personally hunt down each and every single bounty hunter. I will do the world good by purifying the 'filths' off from the surface of the Elemental Nations. Immortal?"

Feeling that the effect of Eight Gates has begun to die down, I muttered while walking away slowly, with my body feeling exhausted beyond what I could imagine,

"Consider yourself dead as well."

The moon. I wondered if I was hallucinating, but it seemed to be glowing in a bloody red.