TWENTY-FOUR

After walking out of the waters, Amane was freezing but saw Scarlet Sapphira walk with the same nonchalant grace as usual and asked,"How are you not cold?!"

"I'm an extremophile, I've trained since I was a kid."She said.

She went for once last change and caught Amane staring again, then frowned and went someplace else.

After a short game of hide and seek, they returned on the road home...

***

In their room, Scarlet Sapphira ended her second call home as Amane slumped on the bed bedside her then as the gentle music in the backdrop played, he took her by the hand and said she should follow.

He slowly swayed with her in a hug to the beat in the midst of the bonsai and peaches.

They slowly drew nearer together, and her lips to his, till his phone began ringing.

She pulled back and asked if he should answer it, but he said,"All I should do now is be with you."

The call ended and began again a second after the previous, preventing another attempt to kiss.

She asked him to answer and he looked at the name then hung up, saying it was not important.

Despite the calls having stopped coming, the mood was ruined and all they did was sit down separately, watching the TV.

He looked at her and shifted a little closer, then she looked at him and shifted as well, then fake yawned and rested her head on his chest as he placed an arm over her slender shoulders.

They looked at each other, forgetting about the TV and getting lost into each others' eyes as they shimmered in the blue light, till another call disrupted the mood again...

Scarlet Sapphira answered the call herself this time and gave it to him then he sighed and took it from her, and began to speak Japanese to the other line, then got a sullen expression on his face...

***

"My fight is tonight..."He said.

"But I thought it was happening next week."She said.

"Apparently they moved it up due to some ' incidents '."He said with air quotes.

"...could I come too? That is...to cheer you on."

"I'd rather lose than go without you."He said and kissed her cheek.

Within the steel cage were two men who battled each other, one giving it his all and the other barely trying till one came victorious...

Amane sent his head up, letting a breath out while licking his canines, then rolled his head over his neck and turned to face his fourth challenger of the night...

There wasn't the need for him to face multiple people in one night, it only got more fans for him and money for his superiors, but the main reason he did was that he needed to break his father's record and he was already too close to give up, he had never actually encountered a problem with this arrangement though, so why would he need to stop?

His head rolling, the only sound amongst the clamour were the cheers of a girl, one about three years younger than him, red hair, blue eyes and beauty beyond compare...

He looked at her and smiled slightly as the bell rang, then bouncing on the balls of his feet to reduce tension, he retained laser focus, till the cheering stopped.

He turned to his side to see several fighters harassing the girl, lost it and was about to run to the other side when a huge wallop of a punch hit him in the side of the head and threw him to the cage.

Scarlet Sapphira yelled his name as his opponent mercilessly beat him down to break his record and gain a monumental raise, then screamed and beat up the five, bulky men attacking her, making sure to break a limb, or two...or the third, to prevent them from bothering any other girl, then ran back to the cage as everyone looked at her, shocked.

She screamed Amane's name as he was thrown to the cage and received a massive blow to the abdomen, before he was given a simultaneous fist and elbow uppercut and left to fall to the floor.

He was on his knees when kicked in the abdomen and fell, face flat, before the man pulled his head by the hair, stepping on his shoulder blades to keep him down, making sure he was facing his biggest fan, and that was saying a lot because people were shedding clothes for that guy.

Amane could barely see through his almost closed eyelids till the man smashed his face into the concrete floor, again and again as Scarlet Sapphira screamed.

After he was lifted above the man's head, flashes came before his eyes...he knew he could beat the man at this state, he had already gained more than enough information, but what was stopping him?

He then realized...he couldn't see Scarlet Sapphira, not until he was raised above the man's head and dropped down.

Seeing her tears as his slow breath left his body...he felt a surge of rage burn through him...

He spun through the air and landed on a single knee and gave the man a perfect uppercut before he could react then as he stumbled back, did a tornado kick to the side of his exposed body before making a crescent to hit the side of his head.

He went to his knees and elbowed the man in the abdomen then gave him an uppercut getting to his feet, before giving the man a spinning back kick, then a solid flying knee to the chin and the giant was taken down.

Amane wiped the blood from all-over his lower face and chin, then slightly limped out of the cage then immediately looked for Scarlet Sapphira till she ran into his arms and he spun her around before they finally shared a kiss, to the lips...

He had his arm around her shoulders as they slowly walked towards the car when he was called to return to the ring.

He looked at Scarlet Sapphira who already looked worried, but kissed her lips again then said he'd be fine.

Slowly walking back into the ring, a shady character came and whispered into his ear and he looked at the man surprised.

Scarlet Sapphira didn't hear much apart from the words,"...make it look a good..."

She went to ask him what he was told, but he simply said,"Don't worry, I'll be fine..."

She saw him as he slowly marched back into the ring with several people throwing bundles of money over him and the betting station.

She slowly walked to the cage and saw him in as he sent his closed eyes up, licked his canines and let out a breath, before the match began, but he already seemed imbalanced as he could barely stay on his feet, till he fell backwards...