BURNING FOR THE GLORY OF PEACE is going pretty smoothly. It's a really fun story that I'm enjoying as I write it. Today, I'm posting a fight scene with the magic that I really liked. I hope you feel the same about it. There are a few spoilers in this fight as a lot of things change in this chapter.
Chapter 18
(Broken)
When
John heard his name called, he pulled the potatoes up, just short of burning. Oh no. Please ... say he isn’t here.
“Taisei?”
Taisei
walked forward from the row of police cars. “Yes, it’s me.”
The
police officers who surrounded John glanced over their shoulders. An elderly
man — not the police captain from the hospital — directed the police officers
behind the barricade of police cars. Sirens echoed from behind.
I’m completely surrounded. John licked
his lips. “Why?” Why did you have to come
here?
“To arrest you.” Darkness released a
feral growl. “To take away your peace.
Your life. The better question is — why can’t you kill him?”
John
bit into his lower-lip. Because he’s my
best friend.
“Your best friend? Even though he has
been working with Ami and Keisuke against you?”
That’s just a filthy lie.
“There you go again, denying what your heart
knows is true.”
Taisei
moved closer and narrowed his eyes. “Why, what?”
I ... . John curled his toes before
rocking back and forth. “Why is this happening to me?”
“Sometimes
bad things happen to people who don’t deserve it.”
“Is it
punishment for looking back on the night Haru raped me with fond memories?” Because I desire her above everything else?
More than peace. More than my own life?
“No,” Darkness said, “that’s just you being honest with yourself
for once.”
The
police officers closest to John looked to one another as if John’s revelation
changed their opinion of him. Maybe they no longer thought of him as just
another dirty foreigner.
John
scanned the faces of every police officer. No
... I guess that one racist bastard isn’t here.
Darkness
cackled. “That’s because we’ve already
put him in his place — a hospital bed. And if we’re lucky, he’ll stay there for
the rest of his bigot life.”
Yeah.
Taisei
mouthed the word, “Raped,” while he shuffled through the ring of police
officers that encircled John. Taisei smiled before holding his hand out towards
John. “Our minds —” His voice cracked “—do strange things to overcome trauma.”
“Is it considered trauma since you enjoyed
it? Despite the guilt, regret and fear, it made you feel alive.”
John
nodded. I know. I thought I hated her at
first for making me like it so much. For doing it to me, but I’ve come to
realize that my night with her was the happiest I’ve been since before ... .
He tightened his stomach muscles. “Then ... I guess it’s because I killed my
mother.”
Taisei’s
body went ridged, and he stopped moving. The blood drained from his face. His
pupils dilated. His eyes widened.
In his
thoughts, John kicked his mother in the stomach while she tried to suffocate
him with a pillow. He reached out to his nightstand and grabbed the first thing
his hand touched. He swung the item.
Rip!
It
sounded like paper being shred.
Something
warm and wet sprayed out across John’s skin and clung to it.
His
mother gurgled.
Thud!
John
threw the pillow aside and sat up. Tears filled his eyes while he watched his
mother convulse on the ground, a gash through her throat. John glanced at the
item in his hand.
A
knife. Why was there a knife on his nightstand?
John
shook himself from the terrible memory and swallowed. “Even in self-defense, I
should not have struck her down. This must be my punishment for wanting to
live.”
“Stop living in the past.” Darkness’s
voice felt soft against his mind. “It
will only bring you pain and prevent you from doing what must be done in order
to obtain peace. To obtain our one, true love … Haru.”
Thank ... you. John’s gut relaxed.
Taisei
shivered. “That’s also not your fault.”
Despite
his newfound resolve to kill if necessary, John searched for an escape path
that he knew wasn’t there.
“Don’t.”
Taisei’s hand moved towards his gun. “John ... we have this place surrounded.”
So, you’re willing to use force in order to
stop me. John found himself at peace.
Taisei
shook his head. “You can’t run.”
Unfortunately. “I know.”
“John
... calm down.”
John
smiled. I’m the calmest I’ve been for a
long time.
“Because you’ve decided to accept the
truth,” Darkness said.
Taisei
wrapped his fingers around his gun. “In a few minutes, Keisuke and Ami should
arrive and everything —”
John’s
peace snapped. “No!” I can understand the
police actions, but this betrayal? “I will not bow before those who have
inflicted this situation upon me!” His jaw quivered. His muscles tensed.
Taisei
stumbled backwards. “What are you talking —”
John
burned, flaring one of his stomach ovens while he wrapped his link around a
red-stringed bell.
Taisei
drew his gun.
In the
gun’s reflection, John’s eyes glowed a deep crimson.
John
screamed.
The
glorious scent of burned potatoes filled the cul-de-sac.
The
other police officers’ heads jerked back and forth, clearly struggling to keep
their eyes on John.
Taisei’s
entire body trembled, but his stare never faltered.
With
his teeth bared, John growled. His vision blurred. He clenched his fists tight
and lowered his eyebrows. “Never again!”
Fire
sprang from his fingertips.
Every
police officer’s trigger-finger twitched. Including Taisei’s.
John
molded the fire and threw it into the police in front of him.
They
screamed.
“Die!”
John flung the fire forward and slammed it into the police cars. “I will never
again be a prisoner!”
The
police cars exploded, and bits of metal flew off in every direction.
More
screams.
While
pumping more fire energy from the red-stringed bell, John clapped his hands
together and spun around in a circle.
The
ball of fire turned into a massive inferno and rolled through the police
officers like a wave, rising and crashing in a fluid motion. It consumed the
cul-de-sac, and more explosions rippled from the police cars that had crept
around to surround him.
Once
everything in the immediate area had turned into ashes, John released his hold
on the red-stringed bell and stopped burning.
The
fires died out.
Thump,
thump, thump!
His
heart beat against his chest and spikes of pain pierced his ribs.
Tears
filled his eyes.
Darkness
pulsed.
“Hyuga!”
John held his fists into the air and howled. “You will pay for making me do
this!”
###
After
finishing another bag of potato chips, Keisuke pushed his body harder while he
ran towards Washinomiya Gates.
Ami
followed closely behind him and munched on her second bag of potato chips. The
immobile trees blurred as if they were sprinting in the opposite direction.
Ahead, a little boy stepped out onto the sidewalk.
“Ami!”
Keisuke leaped over the little boy and stumbled to regain his balance after he
landed.
“Stop
being so stupid.” Ami juked around the little boy and grabbed Keisuke by the
collar. She hoisted him off of his feet and set him upright.
Keisuke
shrugged free. “Thanks.”
“If
you practiced with the feather more, you could run faster.”
Why is she complaining so much? “We’re
making good time.”
“We
would be making better time if you would have brought the car around.”
You mean my car. “It would have taken much longer to get it to the other side
of the station.”
“The
delay would have allowed me to finish my investigation.”
Keisuke
blinked. “We know where John is now.”
“At
the time you interrupted me, I wasn’t asking for John.”
“Huh?”
Ami
zipped around Keisuke and spun to run backwards as fast as he was running
forwards.
How does she do that so well?
“At
first, I thought it was my imagination.” Ami cracked her neck. “But every time
I felt someone’s eyes on me, a chill ran down my spine.”
Keisuke
narrowed his eyes. “So?”
“The ghost I kept seeing was Hyuga.”
“What?”
“Thus,
when you came in, I was going to ask the clerk if they had seen anyone remotely
resembling Hyuga since he might be in disguise.”
Thump,
thump.
Keisuke’s
heart pounded. No ... .
In his
mind, the short, old man wearing an oversized, out-of-season coat hid his face
among the crowd. Was he old? Or was his hair just gray?
After
gasping, Keisuke swallowed. “I think I saw him on the security footage.”
Ami
started. “You are joking, right?”
Keisuke
shook his head. “I saw a strange man wearing a winter coat while he slipped
through the ticket gate. He hid his face, and I assumed he was old due to his
gray hair.”
“A
brown coat?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck!”
“Is
that what you saw him wearing?”
With
her mouth agape, Ami nodded. “The few times I thought I saw him, at least.”
“Well,
shit.” Keisuke gritted his teeth and took a deep breath. “I hope we’re not too
late.”
###
After slipping
several of his infused items into his pockets, John dropped his backpack on the
ground next to Taisei’s crispy corpse. Why
did you have to come today?
Darkness
hummed. “Because Ami and Keisuke told him
to find you for them.”
John
fell to his knees and pulled Taisei’s severed head into his lap.
Everything
became black.
Nothing
existed around him.
John
sat in the field of despair, clutching his best friends head to his chest. Yes! They are the ones who killed Taisei.
“We must have revenge!” Darkness spread
throughout his body, intertwining with his muscles.
Yes. All who have brought this grief upon me
must pay. They must suffer.
“They must die.”
Yes. John’s head spun. His stomach
twisted in knots, and hot vomit rose into his mouth.
Darkness
pulsed, consuming his heart.
Tears
rolled down his cheeks. His body quivered.
John
puked all over the ground in front of him. I
understand.
The
vomit vanished into the black field of despair.
Other
than the surrounding landscape, everything seemed so clear now. Darkness was
truth. Life was Darkness. Peace could only be built through Darkness.
I’ll kill all of those responsible for
ruining my life. John dropped Taisei’s head, and it rolled away from him,
vanishing. First ... Keisuke and Ami will
—
Clap!
Clap,
clap, clap!
The
world around John flickered before the carnage that Keisuke and Ami had caused
grew out of the blackness.
While
clapping his hands, Hyuga walked through the bloody debris. For some reason,
despite the blazing heat, he wore a brown overcoat.
Change of plans. John stood. Kill Hyuga first.
“Kill Hyuga first!” Darkness said like
an echo.
John
growled. “You!”
“Me?”
Hyuga arched an eyebrow.
“You
killed my best friend!”
“Oh,
really?”
John
lifted Taisei’s head out of the puddle of puke. “Look at it! You did this?”
Hyuga
laughed. “How do you figure?”
“It
was you who ruined my peace. You who got me arrested. You who got me fired. You
who —”
“Let
me stop you there.” Hyuga waggled his finger. “I never forced you to do anything.”
John
gritted his teeth before baring them. “I could be living a happy and peaceful
life right now if you hadn’t come into my life!”
“Not
for much longer.”
John
started. “What are you talking about?”
Darkness
screamed. “Don’t listen to his lies!”
John’s
body moved forward on its own. He dropped Taisei’s head.
Hyuga
squeezed the bridge of his nose. “It’s the reason I picked you up in the first
place.”
After
clenching his fists, John growled. “Talk!”
“The
American military is designing a wireless control device.”
“Wireless
control device?”
“It’s
based on something the Japanese government invented called Painted Chains. With private funding from the prime minister, a
little, fat man was able to construct a device that could control power-users.”
John’s
eyebrows touched the top of his hair line, and he froze in place. “You’re
joking.”
Hyuga
shook his head. “I wish I was. By using the database that Moe helped create,
the American Military will ruin your
peace far worse that I ever could have.”
Thump!
Thump,
thump, thump!
Thump-thump!
John’s
heart pounded, and his hands trembled. “That’s ... impossible.”
“Again,
I wish it was.”
Before
John licked his lips, his mouth became dry. “Then I’ll deal with them as soon
as I’m done with you.” And Keisuke. And
Ami.
“I
don’t think you quite understand the severity of this issue. Everything will —”
“You
clearly don’t understand the severity
of my hatred!” John burned and charged forward. He touched one of the feathers
in his pocket, and his body became a blur.
Hyuga
burned and grabbed onto a feather of his own.
John
moved his link to a purple-stringed bell.
Lightning
wrapped around his fists, and a long, single-bladed claw extended from them.
The blade Arced outwards with a serrated edge on the inside and a smooth blade
on the outside. The end was shaped like four fishhooks placed back-to-back and
side-to-side.
Hyuga
froze in place and blinked. “Oh.”
Using
the momentum from the feather, John jabbed with his clawed fist.
“Well
done.” Hyuga tumbled backwards and sprang to the side.
John
whipped his other bladed fist — the right hand — around while he pulled his
lead one back into a guard position.
Sparks
filled the air when the blades touched other.
His
right blade zipped across the air as if it were a rubber band being released.
Hyuga
ducked under the wild swing.
John
moved his link back to the feather and leaped forward with a flying knee.
In the
blink of an eye, his link had switched back to the purple-stringed bell, and a
long-spiked kneepad wrapped around John’s knee.
Hyuga
moved his link to a light-blue-stringed bell. His link bulged and grew thicker
than John’s.
Is he stronger than me? John inched
closer to Hyuga.
“Not if you accept me,” Darkness said, “and we become one.”
A
katana made of ice formed in Hyuga’s hands, and he slashed upward, cutting the
spikes from John’s kneepad. He spun, bring the blade around in a wide arc.
John
flared his stomach-oven and moved his link to a ballpoint pen.
The
ice-katana slammed into his steel-hard skin.
Clang!
John
grunted, and the impact sent him sailing backwards. “Fuck!” That still hurt.
Darkness
screamed and made his eyes water. “Focus!”
Thud!
John
landed hard on his butt and touched the feather. Tumbling backwards, he flipped to his feet.
Hyuga
slammed his fist into John’s face.
Crunch.
John’s
nose broke, and he reeled backwards. He’s
too good.
Darkness
scoffed. “Don’t give up until you’re
dead!”
After
kicking dirt into the air, John caressed the crystal vial with his link.
Pop.
His
nose set, and the blood dried up. The weariness in his muscles vanished
Hyuga
laughed. “You are truly the perfect apprentice.”
John
growled and linked to a feather to leap directly into the air. He switched over
to a red-stringed bell and tossed a ball of fire towards Hyuga. I hope this works.
“It will! Just believe!”
With
his hands held behind him, John released a small wave of flame to throw himself
forward. In the shadow of the fireball, he grabbed onto the purple-stringed
bell and reforged his claws.
Hyuga
dispersed the fireball with a wave of his hand and gasped.
John
stabbed Hyuga in the shoulder.
Rip!
Sizzle!
Hyuga’s
link touched the light-blue-stringed bell. A second link extended from his
stomach and grabbed onto a feather.
Thu—
In half
a racing heartbeat, Hyuga spun and cut John’s claw to pieces.
—mp.
John
scrambled in the air, helpless. “It can’t be.”
“You
have done wonderful to force me to use a second link.” Hyuga moved his first
link onto the feather, as well.
“No —”
Hyuga’s
form blurred.
Something
slammed into John’s stomach.
While
grunting, John flipped through the air and landed on his back. Impossible ... .
Darkness
squealed. “Your ... second link.”
Hyuga
landed atop John, knees first.
After
grunting again, John reached for his stomach-fridge.
Thump-thump!
His
first stomach-oven stopped burning.
John
gasped. I’m ... out of potatoes.
Hyuga’s
eyes stopped glowing. “Maybe now you understand.”
“Fuck
you.” John spat but only managed to cover his own face in spittle.
“At
least hear me out.”
“It’s
not like I have any other choice.”
“Good
boy.” Using his overcoat, Hyuga wiped the spit from John’s face. “First, we
have to deal with the prime minister before he can sell the last pieces of the
Painted Chains technology to the American military. To do that, I’ll need you —
an American — to get past his security and destroy the information.”
“So,
you need me because I’m white.”
“That
and your amazingly strong link.”
John
scoffed. That sounds reasonable enough.
“If it’ll lead us to peace, than I can agree
to it,” Darkness said. “Plus, if
we’re working together, he will give us the chance to stab him in the back.”
Great idea. John relaxed his muscles.
“You said first.”
“After
that is when it gets tough.”
John
arched an eyebrow. “So ... breaking into DIET, destroying the prime minister’s
technology and — I’m guessing — killing him is the easy part?”
Hyuga
grinned. “From there, we go to the Yokosuka military base and hunt down the
database containing all the Japanese power-users.”
“We
destroy it and get out, huh?”
“No.
We steal it and kidnap as many high-ranking officials as we can get our hands
upon.” Hyuga licked his lips. “We must gather an army and the list will make
that easy.”
“And
the high-ranking officials?”
“They
will tell us where the American military is building the wireless control
device.”
It’s a very good plan. John chewed on
his lower-lip.
“It’ll lead to war.” Darkness pulsed.
And that’ll lead to peace. True … peace.
John locked eyes with Hyuga. “I like the plan, but —”
Two
new strands of burning potatoes filled the disaster zone.
John
gritted his teeth and trembled. His eyes widened, and his muscles tightened.
The hackles on his neck rose along with the hair on his arms.
Hyuga
leaped off of John and scrambled backwards.
A
white-hot bolt of lightning shredded the air a few inches from John’s nose.
John
huffed for breath before growling. When he turned to see Keisuke and Ami, he
clenched his fists.
Next: BURNING Chapter 5
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