Over the month needed to train their bodies to the maximum, in preparation for the coming spat against Callum and his cronies, Ace and Kim challenged their Master on multiple occasions. Each wearing robes without sleeves, their auras different every new event, the Master, however, never faltered in wearing that same robe she'd donned the first time they'd all met on May 8th.
That same uncaring stance, that familiar holy elegance she held around her, time and time again: it would always land them flat on their asses, writhing in defeat.
On June the 5th, Hana threw her robe to the side, for a change, revealing her outer structure, her muscles… were like heaven's lights, reflected off its golden structures, shining down onto her to illuminate her body as she revealed it to the opposing duo.
"Damn," Ace couldn't help but say aloud, expecting to get a slap on the wrist from Kima, but a glance in her direction would warrant the same reaction, just without words.
"I'm glad you like it. I'm not afraid to show you my technique for honing my body, however, that comes afterward. Don't leave a girl waiting, you two."
Kima stepped back, clapping her hands together for puddles of shadows to form at the sides of her feet, a serpent slithering out the darkened gateway, another wolf forming from the paws to the snout as it howled to the moon. While she prepared her offenses, Ace went in for the offense, running ahead, red lightning streaming behind him, Hana's eyes sparked, the light flickering within her pink orbs' center.
A pink flower petal had maximized to the fullest size, pushed forward as it discharged out her palms, disintegrating everything in its path as it skids on the ground, aiming right ahead for the sprinting ginger. But he kept going, his legs flailing at such intense speeds he could feel his blood vessels burning to the touch, but just as his face was about to singe off and the skin would turn to nothing but ash, he'd activated a new technique.
Hana now stood calmly idle where Ace once was, mere centimeters away from her attack burning away her remaining clothing and flesh.
'An attack that switches places with the intended target… only plausible thanks to Divergence or Convergence's manipulation of Vita. I'm surprised he managed to keep it a secret from me for so long! He is his father's child.'
Easily, the technique was released, leaving nothing but fluttering cherry blossoms soaring by her face, blinding her vision however temporarily; for that incoming fist was obliterating the space between her face and his knuckles. Raising her arms, the fist connected, the familiarity of bones crunching, of flesh squelching; all entering the air as blood drops could be seen flying from his nostrils the second he released his knuckles' grip against her arms.
Sent flying back, the scaly sensation of skin unlike her slithering around her muscular figure could be absorbed into her nerves, wincing at the disgust, her eyes darted from side to side feeling the heat increase with each passing second. Kim flicking her fingers for the serpent to explode into a ball of fire, Ace's Eternal Sight allowed his pupils to move at unprecedented speeds, rapidly searching for a semblance of her presence through the overwhelming smoke.
The poof resounding from behind him entered his ears, for Ace to turn his head, ever so slightly, arms raising to block from the incoming kick to his front. Clenching his teeth as the foot sunk into his bones, unleashing a spine-tingling crack into the atmosphere. Even with such a heavy attack gifted only to him, Ace pushed all the pain down, for the inherited tendrils erratically pointing out from his skin aimed at her.
Unable to control her eyebrows' ascension at this attack, Hana skid back, her feet as elegant as the movement of a ballerina's across a stage, she stepped closer as he stepped back. Kima watched from outside the smoke bubble, shaking her head out of the daze for her fingers to form another symbol.
"This is gonna be a big one."
Ace noticed her hands shift, not into knuckles-oriented fists, but rather, to sharpened palms with a distinct pinkish glow radiating from her fingers' tips, the way she so magically moved from side to side, dodging the simple stabs the tendrils pierced at her face. She mimicked the same movement, however, the one thing he hadn't realized was their speed, for even with Eternal Sight, it was like watching a bullet fly by twice. The only thing keeping his face intact was instinct, reverting to the previous posture with spiky strands moving with the generated wind, Hana slapped her palm right against his chest.
He hadn't realized, with the way her handprint slammed into his chest, that it wasn't only a single attack. Rather, that force accumulated had multiplied to an unprecedented degree, sending him flying back into the wall, but just as she did, the tips of his fingers glided against her arm. Ace was rendered immobile, groaning with a bloody forehead, Hana felt her arms descend, turning her head as the cloud around them dissipated, a sigh of relief audible from her nostrils.
"I'm starting to remember how to do this."
The dragon came flying right at her, chomping its claws onto her figure, Kim flicked her fingers with a swiping motion, a puddle of darkness appearing over the ceiling for a blackened sword to enter her hands. Spinning it around, chunks of flesh exploding from the monster's innards, Myers could feel the sharpness of the weapon clash against... one arm. A singular limb raised to protect her pretty face from eventual cuts, the Master's casual smirk sent a cord of irritability through Kima's nerves.
"You're rather smug for someone that's about to get their ass handed to 'em!"
More than anyone, firsthand experience was the right way to know the facts, so why would she state that? Kima had been getting her ass handed to her for about a month now, so why was she acting... like she had the upper hand here? Then, quite literally, it shocked her, for it originated at her arm, but surged throughout her entire nervous system, leaving nothing but steam ascending from her roasted body and an agonizing cry at the sudden anguish she was currently enduring.
There exists no one higher than she, for while the Heavens graced her with their infinite power, there remained a forbidden power that must not go unchecked. The unlimited potential of the offensive red - Divergence, and the new technique discovered two months prior at the end of his torture, Ace had sneakily planted a new presence within her body.
Remote Activation: Implanted Corrupted Bolt - Red.
It was like a wave had splashed onto her, had she been so oblivious this whole time that she fell prey to such an obvious blunder? It was almost as though she could see birds flying past her sight, the familiar sound of running water down a path carved between patches of emerald blades... maybe, that was the future she was resigned to fall to. She could feel her hand raise slowly, but even so, as those fingers reached to the Gods for a second chance, those hands of black dragged her down to the depths of this world. A planet she remained unfamiliar with, customs that stood unknown, understanding of creatures so volatile, with the burden of the universe weighing on her shoulders...
Had she ever stopped to wonder, in these past two months, that one thought? For it felt so foreign with the way it streamed through her brain, beginning to descend as her back was destined to hit the carpeted floorboards...
'Perhaps... these two are different.'
With but a simple kick after the shocking electrocution she'd undergone, Hana had fallen onto her back, and the victors remained, no matter how tired, standing tall with gigantic fists raised to indicate their win. Kima's lips couldn't escape that smugness that came with such accomplishment, but even so, as her arm raised, knuckles pointed inward to carve out that fist, she needn't forget who carved out this eventuality. Her partner, the ginger who stood by her side with those special eyes gifted the cadence 'Eternal Sight.'
Hana rose soon thereafter, one hand on Kim's shoulder, eyelids open for pink pupils to glow brightly, smiling as she patted her student, Saiai could only utter a single phrase, broken vocals and all.
"Good job. When the time comes, on the Emperor's birthday, I shall accompany you to Riverton Island... and face Naraku with your allies. Do your best, Kima Myers. Humans' time in this world is small so make the most of it. If not for yourself, then for me."
Those parting words were unusual for her; they resurrected an inescapable urge from within her, one that sent her neck spiraling, eyes locking onto his bloodied features. The faintest gleam from his right eye had called her attention over to his paralyzed body, though temporary, the ache of his bones as he attempted to sit up was, no doubt, agonizing. Almost instinct for her, even without the light from Divergence beckoning to her silently, she could feel that warmth, like a magnet attracting her fingers to his wounds... there was no doubt, she would've run to him either way.
"We did good, didn't we?"
Words from her lips, the gentle touch of her skin against his own, their eyes colored differently as if specifically plucked from the rainbow's plentiful tints. The world shaded out to the snow, the sound from that playing on the TV familiar to him as it would continuously play with chains interlocked against his wrists, binding him to that posture for seven whole days. Screams that resounded endlessly through those wide walls where no one could hear him, the way those fingernails were so aggressively torn from over his limbs or a stick violated his insides every so often.
Maybe he'd deserved that for the lives he'd taken, over, over, and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.
Communication, procession, perception, love, life, death. All in the palm of his hand, the silent purpose to his soul's dwindling desire to continue had remained, despite his wrongdoings. Even when he turned his head away from the sins of the past, despite how much it'd pained his heart, she spun it back to gaze at the corpses of his doing.
'Don't look away.'
But did those words, imbued with the sound of an angel's... really relate to what he thought they did?
"Don't look away."
A purpose she'd been searching for, no longer wanting to be a pawn to any master entangling her in strings; had she been so blind to realize they'd always been shed. Freedom was never a game she was playing, all along, just as his face stood damaged, there was her desire, in his cupped palms, hands-on her features. There was an undeniable truth neither of them could escape, no matter how hard either of them tried, and as their lips touched under the sun's rays of this fateful day, they declared in the back of their minds a truth they'd been denying... since the very beginning.
'I need you.'
And as the lovers relit their spark once more, Hana sat against the right end of the open entrance to her dojo, arms over her bust, legs spread outward.... she'd heard it all. On this fateful day, no matter the burden weighing on her shoulders, she declared it to that lost spirit at peace with his family, with a final tear streaming down her cheek from her eyes' corners, there was only but a sole declaration left before this love story's conclusion. And that was:
"I'll do my best... Augustus Rivera."
To protect their love; Hana Saiai, the Requiem Master, would join the coming fight on July 22nd.
To Be Continued - Next Chapter: June and Jefferson survey the fragments of the Old World in a disastrous wasteland once called the home of millions.