16 Twin Dragons VS the Lone Tiger

Mamoru turns to face Hachiman, who manages to get to his feet.

"Follow my lead, when you see an opening, attack."

I nod then reload my pistol in preparation for whatever he was planning.

He places his katana along his right side and I spy my knife in the ground at Hachimans feet who snarls at us enraged.

Mamoru sprints towards Hachiman, with me close behind.

Hachiman takes the initiative while Mamoru is approaching and extends his orange claws, swiping with his right at where he'll be.

Mamoru glides his blade along his claws, using the momentum to move to Hachiman's right side.

Hachiman counters by swiping at him with his left claw, which Mamoru bring his katana up, stopping the attack.

I come in, reaching my hand towards his shoulder with the intent of draining his bioelectrical energy again.

He notices me, and his eyes grow wide as he suddenly jumps back and my hand swipes at the air.

Picking up my knife I call out to Mamoru, "His legs are vulnerable."

Mamoru raises an eyebrow, "Is that right?"

The dragon tattoo glows red once again but the dragon remains small travelling across his neck before wrapping around his left arm.

With a red glow in his eyes he dashes forward, faster than before and I follow after him.

Hachiman sees that he's at a disadvantage, and his muscles tense as his veins bulge.

Soon the orange aura spread across his enter upper body and the tiger head comes down so now he's wearing it as a mask instead of a helmet.

Roaring he charges Mamoru meeting him halfway.

He jabs at Mamoru with his claw and Mamoru deflects his attack away.

Hachiman recovers, repeatedly jabbing at Mamoru with multiple attacks.

Mamoru effortlessly deflects each attack with his katana while standing his ground against him.

Mamoru deflects his claws upwards, causing Hachiman to stumble backwards a bit.

Taking advantage of the opening Mamoru provided, I come in behind Hachiman and sink my knife into his left leg.

Screaming in a mix of pain and anger, Hachiman turns towards me, swiping his right claw at me.

Mamoru places his blade in between me and his claw using his other hand on the blunt part of the katana to stop his claw entirely.

I follow up by grabbing Hachimans side and start absorbing his energy again.

He swipes at me, causing me and Mamoru to jump back.

Once again, I have a lot of extra energy and can see that every time I absorb electricity, the timer is reset on my Galvanic form.

But I can feel my muscles ache despite me sending electric signals to relieve their pain and my brain straining a bit, so I can tell that I still can't maintain the form permanently.

Coming close to Mamoru, I place my hand on him, providing him with the extra energy I had and his dragon suddenly erupts into raging flames as it doubles in size.

Mamoru's arms look like they're on fire as the dragon continues to stretch across both his arms.

The flames spread to his katana as Mamoru has a smile on his face.

Hachiman recovers from the droziness he was feeling from getting his energy absorbed and looked wearily at his blade.

Mamoru takes a step forward and Hachiman takes a step back in fear.

Then Mamoru does a literal dash, leaving a flaming trail behind him as he instantly closes the gap between him and Hachiman.

Surprised, Hachiman jabs at Mamoru.

Mamoru sidesteps his attack and swings his flaming blade up at Hachiman's arm.

His blade slices through Hachiman's arm which falls to the ground.

Screaming in pain, he retreats, scared of losing his other arm.

Mamoru pressed his attack, slashing at Hachiman's chest.

Hachiman dodges, but Mamoru continues with a flurry of relentless slashes.

Hachiman tries his best, but can only manage to dodge lethal blow as cuts begin to form all along his chest and arms.

I finally make it to them and stab once again at his already injured leg he was somehow still using.

This time, he drops to one knee and Mamoru brings his blade back and attempts to stab Hachiman in the throat.

Hachiman brings his arm up and the blade pierces his arm but stops just before it reaches his throat.

Moving his arm, Hachiman grabs Mamoru's vest jacket and pulls him close as the tiger he's wearing as a mask extends forward with an open mouth ready to bite Mamoru's head off.

Moments before it clamps down, it head turns towards an object that nears it.

A resounding bang, shatters the tigers head like glass as the orange aura surrounding Hachiman fades and he slumps to the ground.

Tossing Hachiman's shotgun away, I look to see if I injured Mamoru.

He nods at me and we approach the body of Hachiman who is in terrible shape.

His once toned muscles appear to be deflated and a pool of blood flows from his missing arm.

Standing alongside him, Mamoru pulls his katana from Hachiman's arm and I leave my Galvanic state, getting lightheaded from the use of so much energy.

I watch as Mamoru gets his closure.

Hachiman stares up at the night sky as he softly says

"Killing me won't change the Shimada's fate. Your fate."

Mamoru pauses as he replies, "No, but it'll change how I feel."

With two hands, he flicks the katana, and Hachiman's head rolls across the desert sand.

The world is still and everything goes quiet as Mamoru looks up to the night sky as well.

"Whoever said that you don't get any kind of fulfilment from revenge was mistaken. That felt really good." He says after a minute with a smile on his face.

" Well I'm glad you feel better. That was... stressful to say the least." I reply.

We both could have died tonight, on more than one occasion and that was mentally draining. I wanted nothing more than to go home.

"When faced with fights like these, it's best to meditate afterwards. It will help you reflect on the emotions you felt during certain interactions.

What mistakes you made, what you could have done instead.

Lastly, what you need to improve on.

Hand me one of their phones, we need to clean this mess up before we leave."

We double check to make sure that no other Hashimoto members are left.

Seeing that either they were dead or braved the desert, we gathered the kidnapped girls together.

There was 21 total, and since it would be a hassle trying to keep so many calm, we left them tied up.

Mamoru called the police with an anonymous tip off as we hid further out in the desert to make sure the girls were fine until the police showed up.

Two hours later several units show up and we leave the scene.

I don't even remember making it home but I do remember stumbling around my room and plopping down on my bed, not bothering to take my dirty clothes off.

An annoying beam of sunlight shines down on my face waking me up.

Sitting up, theres a knock on my door and I can only grunt to confirm they can come in.

Mamoru who is already dressed, comes and sits alongside my bed.

"Youre going to get ready for school?" He asks.

I shake my hand no, then my eyebrows come together as I think about what he just said.

Last night was Saturday, so I shouldn't have to be worrying about school.

"What day is it?" I ask.

"Monday morning, you slept through all of Sunday." He explains.

The school has a strict tardy policy and I only was allowed two more unexcused absences before I faced consequences up to getting expelled.

But I didn't care, it's not like I was going to skip school often, I needed it to start my legacy.

"Youre up early." I say.

"Yea, I promised you apple pie didn't I? Hurry up and get dressed."

I hope out of bed and throw on a Tshirt and jeans.

Sebastian takes us to a place called the Pie Factory, where Mamoru orders a Matcha Green Tea pie while I got my Apple pie.

While enjoying my sixth piece of pie, I didn't fail to notice him picking around his first while patiently waiting for me to finish.

In between bites of my pie I address him. "I take it that you're leaving."

He looks up not shocked that I figured it out.

"Tomorrow. You have more than proven yourself at being worthy of carrying the Shimada name."

He passes a pin towards me.

It's an insignia of a dragon following the tail of another dragon like seen in the short, "Twin Dragons".

"That is my family's crest, signaling that you are a friend of the Shimada's.

However, given the circumstance, it means little since it was from me."

I look at the insignia with a bit of sadness.

Despite him wanting to kill me at first, I really enjoyed his presence.

"What are you going to do?" I ask trying to respect his decision.

"Saturday night showed that the Hashimoto are more of a threat than we initially thought.

I plan to travel back and continue disrupting their movements and hoping I can earn the favor of my brother once again." He explains.

"You're always welcome to stay if you want." I attempt.

"No, I will just be a hindrance on your own progression." He says while looking away.

I sigh because I know he's right and he has to do this in the hopes of one day being accepted back into the Shimada.

"I'll miss you Sensei."

He turns to me with a slight smile on his face.

"Although our destiny's are aligned, our paths are separate.

In this great tangle of lines, I'm sure our paths will cross again." He says.

"You could have just said we'll meet again old man."

I respond.

Finishing with the meal, we head back home, and Mamoru says he has some last-minute things to take care of.

He doesn't return for the rest of the day, and I understand that he's trying to make our goodbyes easier by avoiding me altogether and I respect that by not waiting up for him.

Waking up, I check his room to see it's empty and I get ready for school in a sad mood.

Sebastian enters my room while Im getting ready.

"Sir, I bring news that someone has been requesting a meeting with you at Omnica Corporation." He says.

Confused I question, "Who?"

"A Dr. Mina Liao."