Chapter 16 - Probing Into Escalation

Standing on the far opposite of Koko, Okita looked on as she limbered up jumping on the spot and shaking out her arms. Placing a hand on the hilt of his sword his stanced lowered slightly as Koko stopped, before starting to leisurely jog in his direction gradually picking up her speed as her body got lower and lower to the ground. Eventually zooming across the room, Koko left sonic impacts behind her as she broke through the sound barrier before she seemingly flickered out of sight.

Okita calmly raised his sword while jumping slightly before his body got blown away with a metallic clang as Koko's fist hit his scabbard. Righting himself while airborne he started slashing the air sending wind blades at Koko as she trailed his figure from below making her start zigzagging around them. Flickering again Koko appeared slightly ahead of his flight path before bending her knees and jumping cracking the tiles in a circle underneath her which quickly repaired themselves.

Now slightly to the side of his flight path in the air Koko brought her hands together before smashing them down where he would appear. Okita having kept her figure in his line of sight saw what she was doing and immediately deployed his wings and made his body do a quick roll, using the momentum to smack Koko with the scabbard, sending her back to the ground while kicking up dust.

Staying in the air Okita saw the dust getting waved away a few moments later as Koko was revealed standing with her hands on her hips and a disgruntled face. Pointing at his wings she shouted.

"That's cheating Century Geezer!"

Raising an eyebrow in amusement a light smile appeared on his face.

"Hmm? Did we make any rules? Maybe this old man's memory is slipping, would you care to enlighten me?"

Koko pouted as she looked at Okita staying in the air before deciding to even the playing field a little bit.

"Fine, be that way then! But I can fly too, you know?" Koko's Punching Rig gradually materialized on her arms and around her back as her mask quickly followed. Clenching her fist Koko waved it threateningly at the curious Okita.

"You're not gonna escape my fists now, Century Geezer!"

"Hoh, are you that confident? You may be stronger than me but I've fought since before your great-great-grandfather walked." Okita taunted nonchalantly while still preparing to summon his Youkai as he felt Koko get incredibly dangerous when she somehow equipped her weapons.

Koko performed a few mock punches before banging her gauntlets together, as if activated by the sound of metal smashing against metal a mechanical whine started sounding from her fists as the surrounding space started warping slightly before getting sucked in closer. Feeling a slight pull to his body in the gauntlets' direction, Okita's eyes widened slightly.

"How dangerous." Okita kept his nonchalant facade as he looked down at Koko who was slightly shaking from excitement eyes wide open as her pupils tracked his movements. During those years of constantly fighting monsters around the supernatural world Koko found out about something she didn't know about herself.

She loved fighting, especially those stronger or better at something than her, whether power or technique.

She loved that they wouldn't go down in one hit, she loved slowly picking apart their fighting styles during the heat of battle, finding various small mistakes, habits, patterns, studying how they moved and what made them move, eventually she started picking up on where and when they would appear where, how they would react to different situations, and finally.

How to corner them into the perfect position for her to punch them.

As her wide beast like eyes locked onto Okita's figure, her mind fueled by psychic energy spun furiously as she started mapping out various situations based on what she'd seen so far.

---

As Okita was hovering in the air he had a bad feeling as Koko suddenly started sending his danger sense into haywire, sharply increasing each second her eyes tracked his figure. Quickly deciding to interrupt whatever she was preparing he retracted his wings and while falling he rotated his body so that he was facing directly towards her before creating a platform under his feet and pushing off of it shooting towards her.

As he was approaching he put a hand on his hilt and entered a quick-draw stance while keeping Koko in his sight, as he appeared in front of her he quickly slashed out. Watching as his sword neared her and eventually through her he was shocked as he didn't feel any resistance at all, Koko's silhouette quickly disappearing.

Hearing the wind whistling from behind him he didn't have time to turn around before the sound of a tank firing rang out while he felt his body bending around Koko's gauntlet before being launched away. Feeling his body skipping on the ground he eventually managed to right himself as he hissed in pain, holding he lower back.

Looking up towards Koko walking towards him while steam shot out of her gauntlets with a 'pshh' he spoke up with a wry smile.

"Your punches might be stronger than Bahamut's, you know."

"Mmm." Koko responded with a feeling of just answering while being focused on something else.

Hearing her response Okita raised an eyebrow and looked at her closer, her fierce beastlike eyes were trailing him like a hawk as her presence gradually changed into something more primal and wild but at the same time contained. Looking at her, a small lizard part of his brain was practically screaming itself hoarse as it tried to run away in fear of a bigger predator.

As Koko slowly stalked towards him she suddenly flickered and disappeared as his eyes widened hastily raising his arm in a block before she appeared to his left, her arm already in a punching motion.

Feeling his body getting blown away again he tried reaching for his sword, however Koko suddenly appeared above him with her fists clasped together before smashing down towards him. Grunting as she made contact, he could taste blood in his mouth as his body was shot down into the floor cracking it and kicking up a cloud of dust.

Koko landed with the sound of her boots impacting the ground as her body lowered slightly into a more beastlike stance, her piercing eyes locked onto the silhouette obscured by the dust. Eventually Okita spoke from inside the dust cloud.

"Ow ow ow, you really don't hold back, do you Koko? I guess it's time I also got serious." After he finished speaking, a pair of glowing eyes suddenly appeared beside his figure, a second later another paired appeared, and then another, and another, and another. As the dust settled, Okita's figure was seen engulfed in a shadowy mist expanding further behind him with another hundred pairs of eyes staring towards her from within it's depths.

"Don't you think so?"