Sakurai, Part 2

WARNING: Violence. Read at your own risk.

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'I've seen how that bastard fights through videos of old matches he had and prepared myself for a while before coming here... But I'll admit..'

Yuuto was nearly launched away as Kyoya avoided his baseball-bat swing, and slugged him in the face.

'...This is difficult.'

Yuuto thought to himself as he had his already bruised face sent the other direction by Kyoya.

The blow from Kyoya had more force than Yuuto had anticipated, and the world spun as the impact echoed through his skull. Staggering back, he could taste blood and his vision blurred. Yet, he kept his gaze on Kyoya.

Kyoya looked at his eyes. Yuuto still didn't give up. "So ya ain't some amateur... That's good to see. I could really go all out on you, you sick fuck." Scowled Kyoya.

Yuuto steadied himself, wiping a trickle of blood from his split lip. He couldn't help but grin, despite the pain. 'So, he's got some moves... But I knew that. This wouldn't have been worth it if he wasn't at least some level of strong. Better than some random weakling.'

Regaining his footing, Yuuto swung the bat in a wide arc, creating distance between them, his eyes locked onto Kyoya's every movement. 

"Too bad you didn't go all out on this final job, since the start, eh? Had you just done that...!"

Kyoya, confident after landing a solid hit, advanced with a boxer's grace. Yuuto waited until the last possible moment, then ducked low, swinging for Kyoya's ribs, hoping to crack them.

"You mighta landed that MILF BY NOW!"

The sound of the bat connecting with flesh was satisfying, but Kyoya was tougher than he looked.

'His muscles took the brunt of it. Damn it!'

He grunted, took a half step back, then lunged forward with a vicious right hook aimed at Yuuto's temple.

Yuuto, sensing the incoming hook, dropped his stance even lower, feeling the rush of air as the punch whizzed overhead. He rolled forward, using the momentum to come up behind Kyoya. 'Never fight fair with a criminal,' he thought to himself.

Kyoya, thrown off by Yuuto's sudden disappearance, spun around just in time to see the bat coming. He raised his arm to block, and the sound of metal against bone cracked through the alley. Kyoya grimaced, but his arm held.

'If ONE'S AIN'T ENOUGH, THEN...!'

Yuuto didn't pause. He pulled back for another swing, but this time Kyoya was ready. With surprising agility, he closed the distance, grabbed the bat mid-swing, and yanked it, attempting to pull Yuuto off balance.

Yuuto resisted, pulling back with all his might. They were locked in a tug-of-war, each man struggling for control of the weapon.

"You fucker... You seem to be real interested in my love life, in particular...! You a stalker? Do I got a secret admirer...? What's it to YOU...?! WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" Kyoya muttered as he pulled. He was outweighing Yuuto, yet Yuuto did not relent - pulling back the weapon with the same intensity.

"Don't... Flatter yourself...!! Love life?! You call whatever you and that MILF had a LOVE LIFE?! Hahaha, you're even more pathetic than that Haruto...!!" Yuuto strained with every word as he used every bit of his muscles.

Kyoya clenched his teeth as he pulled the bat in his direction.

"Or, did you really believe... In some demented delusion... That someone like you...!! DESERVES HAPPINESS?! A LOVE LIFE??! FUCK OFF..!!!" Yuuto gave one final tug, before suddenly letting go of his baseball bat, causing Kyoya to tumble backward with the bat in his hand.

Yuuto lunged at Kyoya as he fell on his back, pinning his arms using his knees. Kyoya's chest beneath Yuuto's crotch. Yuuto stared down at him, almost feral before beginning to rain down his fists onto his face.

"You NTR antagonists are all the same!!"

"You just wanted to manipulate her for a job, for MONEY. You enjoy and relish in the pain YOU CAUSE OTHERS! NOTHING ELSE."

"And now you talk of peaceful life?! OF LOVE?! You gone senile during your thirties, it seems, KYOYA GUUJI!"

Kyoya spat blood to the side, his vision blurring from the relentless assault. Each word that Yuuto hurled at him was a punch, each accusation a blow to his conscience. He could feel the anger in Yuuto's strikes, but amidst it all, something gnawed at him, a disquieting thought that wormed its way through the pain.

'Just another job...' He grimaced inwardly, his mind flashing back to the countless faces, the many nights spent weaving webs of deceit.

'They were all just stepping-stones, marks to be played and discarded. That was the way of it—always had been. Himiko was supposed to be the same. Just another job... No girl is truly different from the other. They just want all the attention to themselves, and care about their image more than anything. One slip-up on your end, and it's game over.. But...'

But as Yuuto's fists connected with his face again and again, a stark realization pierced the fog of his daze. Himiko wasn't just another face.

'...She wasn't just another job.'

Every smile she had given him, every touch, every moment they shared, flooded his senses.

'She never complained in a way that mattered... She was ready to support me all the way. She wanted me to... Not worry about her, for a change... Even though she has a lot of shit going on in her life...'

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Kyoya: "I gotta go... There's trouble at my gym, and I can't leave them alone right now... Sorry, Himiko." He uttered, with slight shakiness in his voice as his palm was placed on the phone's tiny microphone.

Himiko: "It's alright. It's the gym you love the most, is it not?" A warm, empathetic curve formed on her lips, silently assuring him she understood.

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'Well, I won't see her again, so it won't matter. She saw the evidence, so she must be livid.'

'She must also worry about little bro...'

'Wonder how he's doing? If he off'ed himself now, she'd really be all by herself... She'd be broken as shit.'

'Come to think of it, I never saw her cry... I can't really imagine it....'

The thought staggered him more than the punches. Himiko was different. She had wormed her way into his defenses, into a heart he thought was impervious to such weaknesses as genuine affection. It was laughable, terrifying, and utterly alien to him.

'I don't want to imagine it. I'd rather she smiles all the time. Much sexier... Wonder if I offered to help little bro in his life, she'd smile more... Maybe more insistent on all of us being together, would her smile be even bigger?'

'Fuck...'

With every punch Yuuto landed, Kyoya saw her face, not in terror or pain, but in laughter and warmth. The realization hit harder than any blow: he had started to care. For the first time, someone's well-being mattered more to him than his own gains, and that someone was Himiko.

'I can't stop thinking about her.'

As the fists kept coming, a bitter laugh escaped his battered lips. There in the dirt and grime of the alley, beaten and broken, Kyoya Guuji, the man who had lived a life taking advantage of others, found himself caring about the happiness of another person.

'And... I wanna see her again. Even with little bro, too.'

"HRRRAAAAAAAAAGGGGHH!!!!" With a primal roar, he mustered all of his remaining strength. He raised both of his arms, raising Yuuto in the air, before tossing him to the side.

Yuuto rolled on the dirty ground, the breath in his lungs knocked out of him as he hit it. His metal baseball-bat still lying on the ground beside Kyoya. Swiftly, Yuuto rolled into a ducking stance, looking at Kyoya carefully as he stood up.

"I don't know who you are... Or what the hell you want with my life..."

"But I don't care, inspector." Kyoya continued as he struggled.

"I can't get caught up with the likes of you... I need to see her again. I need to talk to her.... She deserves an explanation coming from me... And I won't let you stop me anymore."

A cold, unforgiving laugh bubbled up from Yuuto throat, devoid of humor or warmth.

'He... He really thinks he cares about her. He really thinks they're in love or something or she will miss him."

"Oh? You think you're redeemable? You think after all the hell you've caused, all the lives you've ruined, that you get to have a moment of closure? A chance to play the reformed sinner?" Yuuto's voice was a venomous hiss. Not a sound someone who swore to protect the weak would emit.

'That's a first... First time I see an NTR antagonist... Nah, first time I see someone so...'

'Detached from our reality.'

'It's not even funny.'

"No, Kyoya. There's no coming back from what you've done. There's no happy ending for you," Yuuto spat out, his eyes blazing with madness. "You don't deserve her words, her forgiveness... You don't deserve anything but pain."

"I know. I know I'm a piece of shit. But I'm gonna see her one last time. Someone like Himiko... A good woman like her deserves an explanation. A proper one."

"..."

"No convincing ya, eh?" Kyoya added.

"No. Because you don't really mean that. You want to use that opportunity to ensnare her again. To feed her some more manipulations. To get her to do whatever the fuck you want. And now, you're trying to seduce me into letting you, seeing as you can't beat me. That's in your nature. You were rotten ever since you were born. It's in your blood to destroy and conquer. These words are nothing but pretty sentiments you've thought up to soften me up."

Kyoya looked down as blood dripped on the concrete ground. Faces of people he'd stepped on to get to where he is today flashed before his eyes.

He then looked at Yuuto with a small grin.

"Here." He then tossed something at Yuuto. Yuuto swiftly seized it midair and examined it.

It was Kyoya's phone.

"I don't feel like fighting again. Call the police, tell them where I am. Shit, even follow me. From the way you talk, I get the feeling that you're fighting for the good guys. As twisted as you do it."

'What? No, this is just him lying. Trying to gain my trust. I WON'T fall for that.' Yuuto clenched his grip on the phone. Kyoya began marching toward Yuuto, slowly.

"But let me see her and just explain to her. She has the evidence anyway, right? So she'll be able to confirm everything I say either way." He added as he walked, almost brushing past Yuuto.

"...."

'He means to do no such thing. He will definitely try and manipulate his way again, twisting his words and whatever part he took in this. Considering he's a careful person, he will try and strike me from behind the moment he passes.'

Kyoya walked past Yuuto, who was standing his ground, not moving a muscle.

'Any minute now...! I'm ready!'

'....'

Kyoya's footsteps did not lose their rhythm. He continued walking past Yuuto, not initiating a single move aimed at Yuuto.

Yuuto's eyes widened at the realization that Kyoya had not taken a swing, and just kept walking.

'I suppose guys like that exist,' Thought Kyoya as he walked, the sun rays of the outer street beckoning him.

'Well, I already felt somewhere that going legit was too good of a dream...'

'But damn...' Kyoya's beaten and bloody face glistened in the sun.

'Himiko... You made it a great one. You really...'

'Really did. Thank yo-'

With an almost supernatural quickness, Yuuto lunged at KYOYA, his hands reaching not for the bat, but for Kyoya's nape. This was no longer about justice or protection; this was about eradication. The eradication of a blight that had dared to believe it could be anything other than what it was—a monster in human skin.

'Damn straight.' Yuuto thought to no one as he lunged at Kyoya.

Kyoya turned around, swiftly as he heard the sudden noise of a sprint - but not swiftly enough. With full force, he tackled Kyoya and pinned both his palms against Kyoya's air-pipe as they fell on the ground. Yuuto pressed his entire body weight as he laid on Kyoya once more. Nay, the monster.

"... Because that is what you are. TALK TO HER!? CARE?! Who the FUCK do you think you're fooling? Well, I suppose if Himiko was here, she'd melt at whatever you had to say. Someone snakelike as you surely has some magical word combination to get her wet."

Kyoya coughed as he placed his tired arms on Yuuto's trying to yank them off of him, but Yuuto's fingernails began to dig deep into his skin, squeezing out blood from his neck.

"Truthfully, I did mess up with this job, Kyoya Guuji. I have to say in this moment of clarity..." Yuuto mutters as his grip tightens. Kyoya's lungs grasp for air, but none could go through Yuuto's deathgrip.

"...That I am actually grateful that you filmed her. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have a lot to go on. I guess that's one thing I'm ashamed of." Yuuto muttered as he sent a punch after the other

Kyoya flailed his arms around, trying to flip around his body - but Yuuto's grip was too relentless. It was like a feral bear had climbed on him, biting his neck.

In his attempts to grasp for air, he muttered, "Hi-...Mi-ko..."

"PFFT, HAHAHAHA!!! HOW DOES IT FEEL LIKE, KYOYA!? ISN'T IT IRONIC?! Someone the NTR protagonist hired defeated the NTR Antagonist his OWN FATHER HIRED AGAINST HIM..!! ISN'T IT LIKE, THE PERFECT VICTORY?! LOVE - 1000000, NTR 0!!! 0!!! HAHAHAHA!!!! YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO SEE YOUR VICTIM EVER AGAIN, FUCKING CRIMINAL!!!" Yuuto roared.

Kyoya's vision dimmed, the edges of his world growing soft and indistinct. Figures approached through the gloom, their outlines shimmering with the red and blue strobe of police lights. Himiko, her face awash with concern, Haruto beside her, an unreadable expression in his eyes. The sirens wailed, a distant chorus to the drama unfolding before him.

Himiko reached out, her hand gently touching his cheek, a silent message of comfort and forgiveness. Haruto watched, his gaze no longer one of resentment but something akin to understanding, a silent truce hanging unspoken between them.

The grip on his throat eased. Kyoya saw Yuuto being restrained by officers, the baseball bat picked up from the ground, a symbol of justice finally served. Himiko's voice was a soothing balm, speaking words of peace, her touch a lifeline as Kyoya gasped for air.

'I guess... I... I just wanted someone to love me and not apologize for it...' Kyoya's heart swelled with the illusion of redemption, the tender scene unfolding around him a balm for his battered soul.

Yet, as the warmth of Himiko's touch lingered, the world slipped away. The sirens faded to silence, the comforting weight of hands vanished, and the light in Kyoya's eyes dimmed to nothingness. The alleyway was still once more, the chaos of the fight reduced to a silent tableau.

In the aftermath, Kyoya lay still, the life finally faded from his body, his last moments filled with the poignant tragedy of a man who dreamed of love and absolution in the instant before the end.

'Well. That's that.'

Yuuto uttered as he stood beside Kyoya.

'... Hm.'

Yuuto looked down as he breathed of exhaustion. Examining Kyoya's beaten and bloody... Now corpse.

'First blood?' He thought to himself.

'Well, killing someone... Haah... I knew I'd do it at some point to an NTR antagonist. No point muttering over it.'

'... OKAY! Better put this shitface in the dumpster. I'll come back in an hour or two, figure out what to do with him.'