Blood For Blood

"What…?" It's like the world turned upside down. She hardly even notices that she's landed on the ground, along with everyone else. I… have a sister? Shosuko thinks to herself. This girl… is my older sister?

"I'll explain later." The Batter pushes against Kasai's blade, putting her on the backfoot. "For now, we have a bit of a situation to deal with. That is, if you intend on getting out alive."

"You've got it wrong!" Yuki doesn't dare make a move against Shosuko. Even with both of her arms gone, she knows that she's still a force to be reckoned with. "We're not here to kill Shosuko, we just want to calm her down!"

"Still, it's my duty to protect what family I have. And besides, you yakuza are always so quick to lie." The Batter's eye takes on an icy gleam. "You alright, Shosuko?"

"「Taijutsu - Vitality」" Shosuko's natural healing factor goes into overdrive. Scabs form and fall off, buds of flesh sprouts from her wounds before quickly bursting into two full arms. She pounds her fists together. She's running low on blood, but she's still got enough juice for about a minute of active combat. That should be enough. "Never better."

"Take Yuki. Leave katana girl to me." The Batter breaks away from the clash, allowing Kasai to complete her slash, leaving herself open in the process.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Shosuko clicks her tongue. The most annoying part is that she's right. "Damn it."

"Why won't you just stay down?" Yuki lowers herself back into a battle stance.

"Why won't you get out of my way–!" Shosuko and Yuki begin to clash. Yuki attacks with swift thrusts and graceful footwork; Shosuko retaliates with sheer speed and overwhelming brute force. Her rapiers meet Shosuko's knuckles in midair. Yuki's grazing blows barely manage to scratch Shosuko's hardened skin. It doesn't hurt, but boy is it annoying.

For a girl with a heavy weapon, The Batter's surprisingly quick. The Batter steps forward and thrusts the handle of her bat, aiming for Kasai's solar plexus. Only that Kasai predicts it ahead of time and raises her pommel. Their strikes collide in midair.

"Hm?" The Batter raises a playful eyebrow.

Kasai's stare is merciless. She knocks the bat handle aside before performing a quickdraw slash, forcing The Batter to dance out of range. While she's taking a step backwards, Kasai then levels the tip of her blade to her sternum before stabbing. The Batter just barely manages to retract her bat in time to swat the stab aside.

"You're not half bad." The Batter raises a playful eyebrow at Kasai.

"I'm better than not half bad!" Kasai resheathes her sword before whispering under her breath. "「Iaijutsu - Absolute Cut」"

Kasai disappears.

"Oh?" The Batter breaks into a dead sprint. She hasn't reappeared yet but she has a pretty good guess as to where Kasai's going to rematerialize. And the answer isn't anywhere near the Batter herself. "Shosuko!"

"Got it!" Shosuko throws herself to the side right as Kasai reappears in front of her. Her cut slices only air.

"That was close you bitch!" Shosuko rolls along the ground, breaking her momentum, before dashing right up to Kasai and punching her across the face. The sheer force of which is enough to knock her onto the ground. Then she punches her again. And again. And again.

"Stop!" Yuki runs up to Shosuko, her eyes fixated solely on stopping her but something collides with her side, knocking her against the wall of the skyscraper. It takes her a moment to realize that it's The Batter's shoulder pinning her.

"Sorry about this, Yuki. But family comes first." Yuki struggles in vain to break free from The Batter's grip. "Your sister's sins aren't yours to forgive."

With every one of Shosuko's punches that grinds against Kasai's face, Yuki writhes harder and harder. When that fails, she starts to yell. "STOP!"

But her cries fall on deaf ears as Shosuko keeps slugging. She's not punching anymore, she's just slamming her fists onto Kasai's head. She lets out a berserk howl as she grabs Kasai's skull and bashes it against the ground. Over and over and over and over.

Shosuko stops, chest heaving, her fist hanging over Kasai's head. She's still breathing. Barely.

All that's left is to bring down her fist and end this war for good.

But her fist continues to hang. As if a noose was tied around her wrist. She stares into Kasai's eyes. It's as if her gaze is petrifying Shosuko. They're not the same. They're completely different from the girl who killed Yuuji.

"Give him back…." Shosuko's voice is barely a whisper.

"..."

"Give him back…" A spot forms on the ground where a tear lands. Then another. Then another. It hurts. It hurts so much. It's just not fair. None of this is. She can't do it. She just can't.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!". Shosuko screams at the sky. Her fist comes crashing down onto the ground next to Kasai's head.

"I'm… sorry." Kasai somehow finds strength left in her to whisper those words.

Shosuko gently takes Kasai's head into her hands and touches their foreheads together. "It's okay. I understand." The two linger in the silence. Fresh wounds are sutured and left for time to heal under its sands.

Close by, Yuki nearly collapses from the relief while The Batter lets go of her and rests her hand on her hip. There's a look of mild dissatisfaction on her face. "Figures."

"You got something to say?" Shosuko's tone is harsh as she accosts her apparent sister.

"Nothing. You can do what you want."

"You and I have a lot of talking to do. I've got questions and you've got answers."

"Sorry, but you won't be getting any from me." The Batter turns to leave. "See ya."

"I figured." Shosuko sighs.

"...You're not going to fight me on this?"

"I'm suffering from severe blood loss, no."

"So you do know when to quit, after all."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" In spite of what Shosuko said earlier, she's already standing back up onto her knees, ready to scrap.

"Hm hm." The Batter smiles wistfully as she walks away. " You have our mother's temper. Ciao–"

Right as she says that, there's a tremendous clang from on high, as if a humongous bell had just tolled. Looking up, what seems to be a ball of light the size of a small car blazes towards the group.