Justice. What is the true meaning of justice?
'I ask myself that question every day, pondering if the choices I made here are worth the future Alex promised three years ago. I wonder if I've fallen from grace--if I've become corrupted. Regardless of whether or not people like me even after I commit the things I wish to commit, it doesn't matter. Everyone's said I've changed but I don't see it. From where I stand and how I view myself, as I march toward the Jester to finally decimate him, I realize I've always been this way. Yet, continuing to walk, I continue to ponder. Everyone's said I've changed but I can't help but feel puzzled by that. If I've changed to everyone else but stood the same to myself, just what version of 'Katie' had they been seeing the whole time?'
Below the Storm, as Kate continued thinking, Hana sprinted after her. Clapping her hands together, she formulated a pink cherry blossom, that expanded to the size of a disc she could glide on. Soaring through the air, flying past the Storm's center, she glimpsed within to see her motionless student.
"You're not hurt, then." The Master examined Moon's body from a distance as best she could without getting accidentally attacked. "KIMA, JUNE!!" Saiai yelled.
On command, June leaped off the flying beast, rolling onto the debris. Extending her hand, stretching out her white fingers, green threads of light burst from her cuticles to wrap around Katie's body. The strings entrapped Moon's whole left half. While the white-haired Wilder sister dealt with her cousin there, Kima was left to do the opposite.
The monster hovering in place to the Storm's right, Kim slapped her familiar's side and then watched as its tongue came spiraling out its beak-shaped mouth. Entangling Katie's wrist and right leg with the monster's tongue, Kim dug her fingers against her beast's temples. The shadow marks under her eyes seemingly extended, reaching down her cheeks and even expanding down her arms.
June was the same way. The way she yanked at those tendrils unleashed from her fingers' tips so forcefully sent her muscles bleeding, not just for her arms or legs, but her eyes' bottoms. Leaking rivers of red from Convergence's green coloration, Wilder clenched her teeth despite the pain! She kept going, even if what she faced was her inevitable demise. But even as this mind-numbing pain persisted and she continued this tugging action, she thought to herself, 'Why is Katie so fucking heavy?'
Hana, hovering on her manifested flower before the Storm, watched as Katie halted her march. Nodding her head, she raised her arms to the sky, as if summoning thunder from beyond the heavens. Separating the clouds once it descended upon the Earth, it sunk into her fingers, slithering onto her arms. This insurmountable power she now wielded was equivalent to whatever God laid beyond yet she had only one purpose for this temporary power.
She blasted Katie out of the Storm, watching as she tumbled between Kim and June, bouncing off the ground before returning to slide into a burning building. Burn marks damaged her forehead, clothes torn and grazed, her breaths ragged as she now sat against a bar's wooden island. Her head weightlessly swayed from side to side before she jolted, shivering as she regained consciousness, examining her flaming whereabouts.
"I must've lost control again..." Katie lamented.
Her sight was blurry, but just barely, she made out the sprinting bodies of her cousin, not to mention her black-haired friend in tow. The Source sat up, subconsciously venting a tortured moan. Only when she looked to her legs did she recognize what happened to her--both of her legs were broken. Seconds later, June barged into the aflame building. And surprisingly, before Kima could do anything, Moon's cousin had already lifted her wounded anatomy through the doors she entered moments ago.
The Master's descent upon the ravaged lands surrounding June as she halted her movement marked the start of her curiosity. Katie was placed onto a bed of flowers growing, throwing aside the nearby destruction to make way for her recovery. All of this was thanks to Hana. Dazzling June and Kima with her silent powers, only Kate had heard her words before this technique's wonder were revealed. Under her breath, as quiet as she could make it, Master Saiai invoked her soul's territory and spread it over this chaotic environment. Its name was:
"Beloved Flower," Hana said in Japanese.
Over Katie's multitude of burn marks and wounds, flowers spontaneously appeared, Hana watching their continual manifestation from beside her student's damaged anatomy. While she watched with reserved eyes, June and Kima had sparkles in their own. That was, before the Master connected eye contact with the two girls, accompanied by a serious expression.
"I can handle Katie here. You two rendezvous with Alex and Ace to make sure no one chases them," Hana commanded the two.
"Why would anyone chase them? Half the city's demolished thanks to Alex and Kay," June said.
"After an odd sound, Katie altered her course to behind where Alex and Ace were. Our surveys using binoculars with Eternal Sight picked up Icarus Chrollo nearby. It's possible he was caught in the crossfire but woke up just recently," Kima suggested to the Wilder sister beside her.
"You are correct, my dear Kima. However, the 'odd sound' you reference that led to Katie changing trajectory isn't something as irrelevant, like that description. The Jester was laughing." As Hana ominously elaborated on what her pupil said, June and Kim uncontrollably widened their eyes. "It's incredibly probably Alex with Ace have already engaged Icarus and are fighting for their lives, attempting to defeat him."
Just as she said that an explosion erupted amongst the clouds, splitting them apart for something to exit out the bottom. Pink retinas noticing the descending figure and then the destroyed groundwork, Hana calmly exhaled, followed by her palm sliding over the dirty debris. A dusty wave engulfed the battlefield, and soon, it would engulf them, too. Just in the knick of time, a pink flowery shield burst around them, protecting them from any flying debris or ulterior attacks.
June and Kima, instinctively covering their faces from the incoming shockwave, lowered their arms after noticing their defense.
"Was that…?" Kim asked.
"Indeed it was. The very man descending from the heavens was none other than your lover and your older brother."
Beyond the shield protecting their frames, on the same battlefield they stood, there sat the beaten Scarlet King. Blood pouring down his face from a red scar spread over his temples, Ace scoffed once standing up, wiping any blood from his mouth carelessly. But before he could throw another punch, there he was--the Jester, bathing in the nighttime, glaring down at Wilder's beaten body. Something somewhere urged him to halt, and so, Ace did. The worst part about remaining idle, however, wasn't the overwhelming feeling of helplessness surging through your veins, no. More accurately, for Ace at least, it was just those unscathed features, the way his strands moved with the wind, and that bloodthirsty look in his black eyes that sent him seething.
"'The moonlight's illumination makes it easier to see how pathetic you are.' I've always wanted to say that. I'm sure Naraku won't mind if I kill you here and reserve Amara for him later. That being said, goodbye, Ace Wilder."
Once his hand raised, there was a split-second the ginger had to think before he'd be chopped in twain. But what could he think of? There was no escaping Fate--this was the path destiny wrote for him. And despite how many regrets he had, if this was where he died, then so be it.
To Ace's dismay, though, before he could be killed, the blow was blocked. Unexpectedly, the defense was none other than Alex's blessed courtesy. Inspecting this deduction after recognizing the Judge's bearded face, Icarus giggled. More importantly, in the middle of his deranged cackling, a foot connected to the side of his head, and he was sent flying across the battlefield in less than an instant. Holding his leg after throwing the kick, Al turned around, ran to his student, and kneeled at his body.
"You okay?" asked the Judge with a worried face releasing sweat.
"Y-yeah," Ace groaned, "just peachy."
Having fully recovered, he now stood tall and proud beside his long-haired instructor, reaching for the black leather jacket he always wore. After shedding it from his person, he threw it aside. Unknowing the flames creeping onto the discarded clothing, Ace continued by pulling up his grey hoodie's sleeves thus revealing his veiny muscles. Pocketing the shades hiding Divergence's scarlet coloration, he exhaled.
"You ready?" Ace asked Alex.
Unraveling his metal whip from over his waistband, he cracked it with a tug then started snapping it around. Yet he jerked it carefully as if he somehow knew just the right places to spin it without hurting his redheaded pupil. Letting it slither between his fingers, he held his breath, exhaling as the smoke before them gradually cleared.
"As I'll ever be," Alex replied to Ace.
There he was. Stepping over the hill leading to his brunet and ginger enemies, Icarus carried the weight of chaos on his shoulders, unknowing that laying the duo's finishing blow would effectively avenge his deceased comrade. So, without that knowledge on his mind, he bore his claws and revealed his wings, ignorant to the way his pupils vanished, for what engulfed his eyes was pure darkness-resembling his soul.
"You two are going to die."
To Be Continued.