Fire and ice.
Complete opposites on the elemental scale.
Kouta and Hyun-Joo were engaged in an intense battle. Neither one was giving up on the other.
When it comes to pure combat ability, Hyun-Joo was a cut above the rest. But Kouta's animalistic instincts and reflexes made up for the difference.
The sounds of police sirens grew louder and louder until backup for the previous squad arrived. There were three times as many officers than before. A dark blue car pulled up from behind the others. Takeshi hopped out and took a good look at the scene. Ice shards and flames everywhere. All of the officers were speechless.
"It's a fight between two superhumans...!" Takeshi exclaimed.
The leader of the squad, Sergeant Ogawa, turned to him. "You have more experience with these freaks than I do. It's your call."
Takeshi did not hesitate. "Tell the troops to find and evacuate any innocent bystanders. Warn them not to engage hot and cold over there. Call in for the Special Assault Team. And bring more than one unit."
Ogawa nodded. "Roger that."
As the police officers did their duty, Saki quietly made her way into the swarm of cars. "Time for this party to go live!" She pulled out some balls made of some sort of metallic alloy. She held three in each hand.
Takeshi caught her out the corner of his eye. "Hey! Who're you?! Sergeant! Where are you?!!"
Saki chuckled. "It's too late for all that now." She threw the six balls in front of her.
boom!!
Six explosions took out the majority of the patrol cars. Takeshi was knocked back from the shockwave. He pulled out an automatic pistol.
Saki leapt out of the explosion in a fit of laughter. "Now this is fun!!"
Takeshi aimed and fired.
Saki turned around and used her lab coat as cover so Takeshi couldn't see her. The coat was riddled with holes as Saki dropped to the street. "Did you like my magic trick?"
Takeshi reloaded his pistol and stood up. "You're one of them too, aren't you? The superhumans."
"We're called espers, not superhumans. At least use the correct terminology Mr. Inspector."
Saki pulled out a pocket knife. "Unfortunately I'm all out of sedatives, so let's just have some more fun, shall we?"
Takeshi immediately emptied out his clip. Saki started dashing towards him, evading the bullets.
"Damn, I'm out of ammo!" Takeshi threw his gun to the side as Saki rushed him.
woosh, woosh, woosh!
Saki slashed at him with her knife. Takeshi managed to create some distance by kicking her away.
Saki flipped her knife facing downwards and held up her fists. "You're quite skilled Inspector."
Takeshi raised his fists. "You don't get to where I'm at without knowing how to fight."
--
A large shard of ice headed Kouta's way. With a step to the side and a slap of the hand, it blew up.
"I knew Shinya would try to get me out the way sooner or later. But what's in it for you?" Kouta asked.
"I have my own reasons. That's not your concern." Both of Hyun-Joo's palms lit blue. He had them facing the ground, then slowly brung them up. The ground turned into solid ice. Even the buildings that they were closest to started to form thick ice on the outer walls. The ice raised well above Kouta's head.
"It's over." Hyun-Joo swung his arms down as a barrage of spikes formed out of the ice and headed towards Kouta.
"Not if I can help it!" Kouta blasted himself off the ground using his fire. He was headed in Hyun-Joo's direction, even with the ice still chasing him.
Hyun-Joo begun to bring his right arm up again. He was creating another large spike of ice to counter Kouta.
But he didn't get the chance. Something hit the dome of ice from the outside and caused a huge explosion that not only flung him away, but the entire ice dome was demolished. Kouta was flung away into a building.
--
Saki stopped her fight with Takeshi to see what was going on. She saw a horde of armored trucks, vans, and a tank.
A man was standing on top of one of the vans with a rocket launcher sitting on his shoulder.
Sergeant Ogawa came walking over, injured. "So you're finally here...Inouye."
Inouye Kozan. A relatively new recruit in the Special Assault Team. He's young, with short white hair and steely black eyes. He looked at Ogawa and took the cigarette out his mouth.
"They told me that Murakami Kouta was here, along with another superhuman. So I came. Recently I've been promoted to Commander." He put the cigarette back in his mouth. "So that's Commander Inouye to you, Ogawa. I've got this. Go get healed."
Kouta groaned in pain. He shook the rubble off of his hair and stood up. He winced. There was a shard of ice stuck in his abdomen on his right side. With a pained effort, he pulled the shard out and threw it to the side. He ran out of the hole in the wall and jumped down to the street. Somewhere on his left he could see Hyun-Joo, who was apparently unconscious. After all the rocket was closer to him than Kouta.
Kozan took aim. "Eat rockets scum."
foom!
Kouta saw another rocket headed his way. He ran towards it and turned his body to the side to avoid being hit. The rocket hit the ground some length behind him and exploded.
Kozan smirked. "So you're nimble. That's nice to know." He dropped the rocket launcher and pulled two submachine guns off of his side. He jumped to the ground. SAT officers with assault rifles in their hands were behind him.
--
Saki frowned. "Special Assault?"
Takeshi didn't let his guard down. "It's over for you guys. Just give up. Inouye's a prodigy who achieved the rank of Commander at the age of twenty-three."
"He'll be fine. You should be worried about me."
--
The wound on Kouta's abdomen started closing up on its own. His eyes started glowing as steam rose from his skin.
Kozan aimed both of his guns at Kouta. "Fire!!"
Hundreds of shots were fired in seconds. All of the officers began firing at once until the clip was empty.
Kozan lowered his weapons. "What...?"
Every single bullet seamlessly passed through Kouta's body. He brung his hand up, ready to set off an explosion.
Kozan quickly took something off his belt and calmly threw it at him.
Kouta's vision went white. He got dizzy. It was a flash grenade.
crack!
Kozan's knee hit Kouta directly in the chin. Kouta rolled along the ground. He struggled to stand up. He couldn't think straight. There was a deafening ringing sound in his ears.
Kozan swiftly and aptly reloaded both of his guns. He aimed it at Kouta. "Die."
Kouta couldn't see or hear. Because of this, in the few moments that he was blinded, his other senses increased by a huge amount. He released a massive amount of Zen in a desperate last effort. Because of this, he could feel the bullets coming towards him.
Kozan watched as Kouta dashed laterally across the ground to avoid the bullets, still doubled over on his knees.
"I felt something just now...there's some sort of energy here..." Kozan said to himself.
Kouta's breathing grew silent. He slowly gained his eyesight back but his hearing wasn't all there. All he could think about was staying alive. This wasn't the time for him to die.
Kozan shot another six bullets at him again. Kouta felt the bullets enter his field of energy and dodged again. Now he was angry. His muscle mass increased by ten percent, and his teeth sharpened some. Afterwards he finally managed to stand straight. The glow in his eyes was red. He looked directly at Kozan.
Kozan instinctively took a step back. "What is this...? Am I scared? What's that energy..." He ran straight at him. "A solider shouldn't feel fear!"
Kouta ran at him too. He extended a glowing hand and shot some explosive flames, but Kozan got on both knees and slid under the blast. He started shooting as he slid. The bullets did in fact hit Kouta, but they failed to puncture his skin.
Kouta's body took on a pink tint. "Kido...maru...!"
Kozan stood up. His back was facing Kouta. "Kidomaru...? Wait! That means...!"
He turned around into Kouta's fist slamming into his face. Kozan's head slammed into the asphalt, leaving an imprint in the street. He was out cold.
--
"Seems like they're done over there. That's my cue." Saki leapt away from Takeshi. "I'd love to play with you more but I have to go back to my master. See ya!"
"Wait!!" Takeshi yelled. He couldn't help but put his hands on his knees out of a mix of exasperation and exhaustion. "Why am I so tired? Was I at my limit without realizing it? What kind of monsters are those people...? And he took out Inouye. We were completely defeated...again."
Kouta returned to his regular state. He staggered trying to maintain his balance.
The remaining officers aimed their weapons. "He's weakened! This is our chance! Fire!"
Saki swooped in and slit all of their bellies as they fired. All of the shots missed. The officers died from excessive bleeding.
Kouta held his head with one hand. He had a pounding headache. "Saki...help me..."
He nearly fell over but was caught by Saki. He leaned on her with his arm around her shoulder.
"Can you move?" she asked him.
"Yeah, but barely."
"Good. I just need you to be able to jump."
Saki and Kouta fled the scene.