"What in the world are you trying to achieve?" Tim was able to hear Ayuka's yell from behind him just in time to prevent things from getting worse.
He dropped his arms next to his hips and stared at her with an unfazed expression. "What? Niklas has just seen that I intend to kick his ass." She halted in front and dropped her arms almost to the ground.
"You didn't have to organize an entire fireworks show. You didn't have to do that, whatever *that* was, even if Niklas knew where we were and that we were on this island!"
Tim irresponsibly turned around and headed for the settlement on the hill. "Oh, you're going to just abandon me without even making a plan? Yes, please, feel free." She instantly rolled her eyes after sighing. "I mean. Being this hostile in every dispute will result in your death."
Tim smiled and drew his arms up behind him. "Nope, I won't die. I still have possibly hundreds of lifetimes to live!" Ayuka yelled at him, her eyes going white and a scarlet vein popping as she stared at him with disdain. "That does not mean you should take a chance with those "100 lives," idiot!"
He only giggled while listening to her. "I don't think I would care to risk those lives. I've already done it for you hundreds of times." Ayuka froze in her tracks, listening to him. "Idiot! I never told you to help me back then!"
Tim chuckled while offering a faint sight of his right eye and smile. "Yet, you still accepted it?" Ayuka had become furious that her hair stood on end.
"What else was there for me to do? You were and are so stubborn that there wasn't much I could have done but accept." Tim, though, interjected and gazed forward with serious eyes.
"The corruption was something you wanted to accept because of Kin, right?" She looked away in surprise when he questioned, lowering her voice and going silent. "You didn't... need to mention that."
Tim walked forward while extending his arms in the air. "Well, I'll go ahead and kick Niklas's ass!" He hesitated as he moved ahead in response to Ayuka's subsequent question.
"Can you explain something to me?" He listened in silence as his interest was peaked by curiosity. "You've never been this silly before. Why, during the last few weeks that we have been on this ocean, have you suddenly started behaving childishly?"
Tim concealed his face by reaching for his hood. "How else am I meant to keep them pleased? Besides, by doing this, I don't come across as a jerk, especially in light of what I've previously done, in which I left everyone alone. I say it because I don't ever want that to happen again."
Ayuka regarded him with trembling eyes. "Does that mean... You know?" Tim responded right away while maintaining a frown. "What's that? Do you know something that I don't? Tell me if that's the case."
Ayuka shivered a little and blushed from the sudden anxiety. She looked to the side and grabbed her right arm. "Not at all. Just assumed you could be aware of something that I wasn't."
"Okay, I see. I guess we're both clueless about it. If you don't have anything else to say to me right now, I'll go kick Niklas's ass." She stuttered. "No, nothing." He quickly ran forward, leaving Ayuka in a wind of silence. "Yet, I have to question. Tim, do you actually know more than you're letting on?"
As she observed Tim's moving physique, she pondered. "It would be miraculous if you did." Then ran after him.
Kou was scared to find himself in yet another battle because he knew that his energy from fleeing had completely drained. "I should have exercised greater caution when using my ability, but I didn't consider that someone would be able to catch up. Don't forget that overuse could result in more corruption, and I prefer not to lose it."
Luca rushed forward in a cloud of black smoke, clenching the handle of his blade more tightly. When Kou felt his eyes shake, he jumped back in response after nearly having his chest cut by a black slash of smoke.
"He moves fast!" Kou yelled. Kou was about to land safely when Luca rematerialized from the haze. He immediately caught up to him as he pursued him. While Kou dodged and turned his torso to avoid being sliced, he indirectly slashed his sword.
He then used that opportunity to his advantage, turned around, and ran off. He yelled, "I'm not fighting this guy!" He spotted that Luca was standing behind him, gripping his blade in a frightening stance while it was shrouded in black smoke.
To avoid being discovered by Luca, Kou turned around the corner. With his legs hidden by the dark haze he used to run across the streets, Luca ducked behind the corner. In an instant, he swung the sword high over his head and slashed down a wild black haze that darted across the ground with the intention of striking Kou in the back.
For the black slice to run and miss below him, Kou leaped to the side of the wall, pressed his sole into it, and bounced between the two walls high into the air. He began to say, "That was close!" too soon.
Luca materialized in front of him through a pitch-black cloud of smoke. When Luca's foot slammed into Kou's face, throwing him backward and to the ground, he was taken unprepared.
Kou adjusted his body back to place his feet on the ground, but he slid on some cracked pavement and unintentionally fell to his back. Luca dropped down in front of Kou, gripping the sword in both hands, and got ready to pierce Kou's heart with it.
"This guy holds on tight!" Kou rolled back at the last second, prior to Luca jabbing the sword into the ground and creating a swirl of black smoke that expanded high into the sky and propelled Kou far away through the air while he was screaming.
As Kou's propelled body began to hurriedly drive through the unforgiving terrain, his skin began to carve like wood, and he fell to the dirt. Even though he received back injuries, he wanted to recover fast enough to regain his posture.
He slowed before falling into the wall as he regained his posture and looked forward in discomfort. "It hurts, d-damn it." He swore, struggling to catch his breath.
Luca turned to face Kou and started to approach him. "You are to blame for what is taking place. There wouldn't have been anything terrible if you had just left that girl alone. But you cannot repent of your actions."
Kou, while being physically weak, didn't want to stop talking despite his dire circumstances. "You expected me to simply walk away as a girl was being attacked by a large number of soldiers who would almost certainly kill her? I couldn't afford to stand by and watch. I wouldn't be any better than those pirates that destroyed my home!"
As Luca observed him, Kou gradually moved away. "Even though a band of pirates destroyed your homeland, did you choose to continue on their route? If you're a pirate yourself, how much better are you?"
"You don't understand. It's not necessary to be a bad person to be a pirate. Sincere pirates who are solely for treasure aren't horrible individuals, in contrast to those who torture innocent bystanders. And you belong to that crew of pirates!"
Luca sighed and instantly dashed forward, catching up to Kou in an instant. "Then so be it. A kid like you thinks you're any better, shall be eradicated." He slashed forward, prepared to Kou's neck, but before anything could take place, a black silhouette appeared in front of the sunlight.
"Supreme Fall..." The crescent moon-shaped figure had a blue halo around its entire body, and it glowed brightly as it advanced in a beam of blue light, passing between Kou and Luca. "Yumiko?!" Kou questioned in shock after noticing her chin rise and the frightening gaze she was giving him.
She maneuvered her two blades around Luca's and sliced forward in a cross, turning it into a blue projectile that pressed against Luca's body and started to push him back with such force that he was unable to defend.
He was pushed far back and on the verge of being slammed against the wall, but he was able to escape by turning into smoke and abruptly blinking on the opposite side of the cross that had pierced the structure behind him.
Yumiko immediately looked forward while standing up straight, spinning both blades. "It sounds like someone is having some issues."
To be continued...