One-sided Beating

"You were saying something?" Kazuichi repeated, slamming the golf club on the man's face for the third time. Sending a chunk of his cheek flying like a piece of bloody sushi. "Speak. You're a real talkative one, right?" Kazuichi continued, his eyes staring into the soul of the man as if he was looking at a lifeless body of a person.

The hybrid man stared into Kazuichi's eyes and even though he was a hybrid, he still felt primal fear overcoming him as Kazuichi stared back. There was something about Kazuichi's drastic change that made the man freeze right then and there. In terms of psychological warfare, it was obvious that Kazuichi had already won. He had successfully instilled fear in the man's mind.

"Come on. I told you to speak, right?" Kazuichi's pupils dilated as he brought the golf club up on his head, this time, smashing the guy right on his forehead. "You were screaming a moment ago. Why did you suddenly fall silent?"

Kazuichi bashed the man's head a second time, causing his skull to crack open as his brain began bleeding out of the cracks. This time, the hybrid man brought his hands together in a praying stance as he asked for mercy.

But no sound came out of his mouth.

It was already too late when the man realized that he couldn't speak. After all, his lower jaw was already lying on the ground a couple of feet away. And even then, Kazuichi still didn't stop his ridiculous demands. 'Please! Have mercy! I don't want to die!' The man spoke in his mind in hopes that Kazuichi would hear it.

Whack!

Kazuichi hit the man's head a third time, his brain was fully visible by now as blood and water flowed from the cracks of his skull.

Out of desperation, the man lashed out at Kazuichi, overcoming his fear of Kazuichi's club. 'I'm faster! I'm faster! I should be faster!' He repeated in his mind as he launched himself at Kazuichi with the aim of slashing his legs just like what he did to Arisu's forearm.

However, Kazuichi was expecting such an outcome and he intently stepped back before swinging his golf club upwards. The man's sudden lurch paired with his acceleration should have led to Kazuichi's demise, but before the man could strike at Kazuichi, his momentum stopped short.

The golf club hit him right at the roof of his mouth.

'How is this possible?' The man said to himself, perplexed. No normal human could have seen his movements and yet, Kazuichi reacted to it in time as if he expected it to happen. Not only that, Kazuichi counterattacked at the perfect moment, aiming right at his head when he swung.

Without missing a beat, Kazuichi then removed the golf club's head from the man's mouth. "Disgusting." He said to himself since saliva and blood dripped from the golf club. That didn't stop him from relentlessly hitting the man's head though.

Whack!

There was no time for the man to recover as Kazuichi bombarded him with perfectly timed strikes. Every hit planted itself right where he wanted it, and the man had no time to regather himself before he fell limp.

Kazuichi's attacks didn't end from there. He figured that the man would try to run away so he started working on his joints. One by one, he hit them with the golf club until all his joints were either pulverized or broken.

"You wanted to get slapped, right? How does it feel? How. Does. It. Feel?!" Kazuichi emphasized his words as he timed them with every hit on the man's head. It didn't take long before the man died, his head a pulped mess of blood and gore.

"If you spoke, I'd have let you go... after I returned every slap, of course." There were no emotions on Kazuichi's face when he spoke. He adjusted his wrists before cracking his neck.

And then, a sinister smile fell on his face, a smile that was way worse than the creepy smile the man wore when he looked at Arisu. "How does it feel to get slapped?" He asked before he started hysterically laughing.

...

A couple of minutes later.

In the depths of her consciousness, Arisu could have sworn she heard someone hysterically laughing. It was a very familiar voice but she couldn't quite wrap her finger around it.

A small glint of light entered the gaps of her eyelids as she stirred awake. A groan came out of her mouth, followed by the pain that shot right to her brain. Instinctively, she clutched her stomach with her left hand— her only available hand since one was cut off.

At that instance, Arisu remembered everything that happened before she lost consciousness. Her cheeks stung in pain as the remnants of the painful slaps she suffered remained. Her eyes fluttered open.

The first sight that greeted her was the hybrid man that attacked her—

— except he was a bloody and fleshy mess sprawled on the ground. He didn't move, and Arisu knew it could only mean one thing. The man was dead.

'But how?' Arisu asked herself, remembering how the hybrid man overpowered her both in speed and power.

Swish.

Swish.

"Oh, you're awake." Kazuichi casually greeted as he continued wrapping Arisu's severed arm back. He wasn't fazed by the amount of gore in the background, and even his clothes were deeply stained with the same blood and gore as the man's.

"Kazuichi?" Arisu weakly moaned.

"Seriously, what is it with you and severed arms? I hope this one heals. It would be bad if your arm didn't heal. How are you feeling?" Kazuichi continued, his warm and gentle tone somewhat helping Arisu relax.

Arisu was still out of it— a side-effect the hybrid experiences when his or her body is undergoing recuperative processes. That's why the entire situation still didn't make sense even when Arisu was already awake. But even then, Arisu was just relieved that Kazuichi was fine. Even though the hybrid man came out of nowhere and both of them were defenseless against it... they somehow survived the encounter.

A smile swept across Arisu's face as a stray tear streamed down her cheeks. "I'm glad you're all right, Kazuichi," She whispered, relief washing over her face as she did so.