Nanako's mangled almost-corpse hangs from Shosuko's fist. So this is the true power of the Kuze Clan Head. She didn't even last a full minute. It begins to dawn on her that maybe sheer willpower isn't enough to win every fight.
"I'll ask you one last time, where's Kasai Ryusei?"
"I… Don't know…"
"I'm not playing around, Nanako." Shosuko dangles her over the side of the skyscraper. The hundred-something foot drop sways before her eyes. "Tell me where Kasai is or things get ugly for you and your sisters."
"You… Won't..."
"I only need one of you three alive."
"..."
"Tell me where she is!" Shosuko tightens her grip on Nanako, but Nanako only smiles.
"I know your… type."
"What was that?" She snarls at Nanako, fangs bared.
"You have… a gentle heart." Nanako places her hand on Shosuko's. "That's… something I respect… about you."
"I'll do it! I'll seriously do it! I'll kill all three of you if you don't tell me where Kasai is!"
"It's okay… you don't… have to force… yourself." She places her other hand on Shosuko's arm. "Kasai… probably skipped town… by now."
"You…!" Shosuko wraps her other hand around Nanako's neck in anger, but she does not squeeze. She'd have half a mind to crush her spine like a twig, but she can't. She just can't. She just… doesn't want to. She already knows what it's like to kill another person accidentally, she doesn't want to find out what it's like to do it on purpose. Even if it's to draw out Kasai, she can't do it. But the universe is kind in turn to those who are kind. And so, after presenting her with a person she can't kill, it presents her with someone who she just might.
"Let Nanako go. It's me you're after." A familiar voice calls out to Shosuko. She can't help but grin as she turns around to greet it.
"Kasai Ryusei. I've been looking for you." Shosuko drops Nanako's body onto the floor. She makes a sound similar to a whimper before falling silent, her mind slipping into unconsciousness.
"You've certainly made quite the mess looking for me."
"It worked." Shosuko crosses her arms. "I'm surprised that you have the nerve to show your face after what you did."
"Yeah…" Kasai looks at the ground. "I know that what I've done can't be forgiven. But even then, I want to apologize. Orders or not, I made the choice to blindly obey them."
"Orders?"
"The Awano Family, it's them that I really work for. They wanted to instigate a war between Blackadder and the Kuze Clan so they had me kill your friend."
"I see…"
"I… regret what I did. But I can't take back what I've done."
"Are you prepared to face the natural consequences of your actions?"
"Of course. But you'll have to forgive me…" Kasai draws her blade from its sheath. "I can't die just yet. Not when the war against the ICMG has yet to be fought."
"The ICMG? What do they have to do with all this?"
Yuki steps forward. "This whole war between Blackadder and Kuze is just a part of an enormous scheme conducted by the ICMG to destroy the yakuza in this city."
Shosuko shifts her weight onto her hind leg. "...Do you have any proof of that?"
"W-well, no, but–"
"Then who cares? I'll kill Kasai first and crush the ICMG later."
"You're not thinking properly!" Yuki raises her voice. "Don't you get it? You're playing right into their hands!"
"That's enough, Yuki." Kasai places her hand on Yuki's shoulder. "There's nothing we can say that can change her mind right now."
"I see which one of you is the smarter sibling." Shosuko pounds her fists together.
"I was hoping it wouldn't come to this." Yuki sighs and draws her rapiers. "Don't get us wrong. We're not here to kill you, we just want to calm you down the only way we know how."
"I welcome you to try." Shosuko cracks her neck.
"「Taijutsu - Awaking Beast」"
"「Taijutsu - Beast Dramatic」"
"「Taijutsu - Beast Berserk」"
"「Taijutsu - Beast Ultimate」"
Kasai grips her sword tightly as she raises it in front of her.
Yuki clangs her rapiers together. "「Gujutsu - Yawarakai Te」". The pure, resonant melody of the metal hitting metal is so peaceful that even Shosuko feels her anger wane for a moment. White light like sea foam begins to emanate from the rapiers.
"Transform!" Yuki and Shosuko both cry out at the same time. Lightning explodes out from their chests as they both don their true forms.
Yuki is suddenly dressed in a strapless black leotard, a chain belt with two silver rose motifs, a scabbard for her two rapiers attached to her belt, a black choker, and red gloves.
While Shosuko's torso is bare of clothing, save for some heavy bandages that bind her chest, allowing the tattoo of Enma on her back to rear its head. The skin on her hands is blood-red, twisting up to the natural flesh tone of her arms in the form of vein-like tattoos.
She wears short, loose-fitting trousers ending at the shins underneath several red armored panels, resembling the ones worn by samurai. The panels are arranged in a windowed skirt-like pattern, with the ones underneath covering the vulnerabilities of the one on top. All held together at the waist by a thick rope belt.
Tucked into her belt is a rolled up scroll, a small hand-held gourd with the kanji for "Poisoned" written on it, and a red sake cup. Shosuko lowers her stance, her wood sandals scraping against the concrete floor.
Shosuko pushes up her glasses, a bloodthirsty gleam in her eye. "I've waited for this moment–"
"「Iaijutsu - Almighty Cut」"
In a fraction of a second, Kasai disappears and reappears in front of Shosuko, sword already mid-swing. And yet, she misses. No, she didn't miss, Shosuko just managed to evade. Somehow, in spite of that blinding speed, Shosuko is not cut. "At least let me finish talking."
"What?!" Kasai's eyes widen.
"You aimed to disable me instead of killing me outright. I suppose I should thank you for that." Shosuko wastes no time. Taking advantage of Kasai's shock, she counters with a roundhouse. One that sweeps over Kasai's head as she just barely manages to duck underneath it.
"You didn't forget about me, did you?!" At the same time, Yuki's voice reaches Shosuko's ears from behind. She whirls around to meet her new opponent. Yuki drags her rapiers along the ground as she runs to meet Shosuko on the battlefield. Shosuko delivers a lightning-quick kick to Kasai's chest, pushing her away to both literally and figuratively give herself space to work with.
Yuki thrusts one of her swords but Shosuko simply catches it between her fingers. She yanks it to knock Yuki off balance, and then delivers a brutal uppercut to her stomach. The sheer force of the punch is enough to cause blood to trickle out of her mouth. Yuki crumples to the ground. Between gasping breaths, she manages to whisper "「Tokijutsu - Rewind」"
Yuki thrusts one of her swords but Shosuko simply catches it between her fingers. She yanks it backwards to knock Yuki off balance but Yuki simply lets go of the sword, and delivers a dropkick to Shosuko's chest. She's pushed backwards. While she's recovering from the first hit, Yuki brings her other rapier in a wide arc to slash at Shosuko. She draws blood, but Shosuko is undeterred. She simply allows the cut to complete its arc before charging Yuki head on. It's like there's a freight train bearing down on her. Yuki feels all of her bones be ground into a fine powder as Shosuko collides with her body. She's not dead, but she wishes she was.
"「Toki…jutsu - Re…wind」"
Yuki thrusts one of her swords but Shosuko simply catches it between her fingers. She yanks it backwards to knock Yuki off balance but Yuki simply lets go of the sword, and delivers a dropkick to Shosuko's chest. She's pushed backwards. While she's recovering from the first hit, Yuki brings her other rapier in a wide arc to slash at Shosuko. She draws blood, but Shosuko is undeterred. She simply allows the cut to complete its arc before charging Yuki head on. Or rather, it might be more accurate to say that she runs Yuki over.
With a single step, Shosuko suddenly moves at the speed of a freight train. Yuki overextended herself with that last strike. There isn't enough time for her to pull back. And thus, she is instantly crushed by the human-sized bullet, all of her bones ground into a fine powder. She's not dead, but she wishes she was.
"「Toki…jutsu - Re…wind」"
Yuki thrusts one of her swords but Shosuko simply catches it between her fingers. She yanks it backwards to knock Yuki off balance but Yuki simply lets go of the sword, and delivers a dropkick to her chest. She's pushed backwards. While she's recovering from the first hit, Yuki brings her other rapier in a wide arc to slash at Shosuko. She makes sure to focus less on hurting Shosuko and more on just landing a quick hit and getting out alive. Her rapier scratches against Shosuko's skin. Only instead of drawing blood, her sword draws sparks as it grinds against something harder than steel.
"Tsk–!" Yuki uses the force of her dropkick to break away from the close combat. As she lands, the world around her sways slightly.
"You're looking a little pale, Yuki. How many times have you had to rewind now? Twice? Three times? How many more times can you even rewind?" Shosuko palms Yuki's rapier in her hands as she approaches. Yuki's breath catches in her throat. How many more times can she rewind? She doesn't know. She's never had to find out.
"That's enough. Your fight is with us both." Kasai's voice cuts through Yuki's fear. Yuki, make your move on my mark."
That's right. She doesn't have to face Shosuko alone. She has Kasai. And Kasai has her. There's no longer any need to run away.
"Ready?"
"Ready."
"Alright… Mark!"
Yuki charges forward, rapiers held out at her sides while Kasai does the same, her blade cutting through the air behind her. Yuki makes the first move, slashing downwards. Shosuko parries with the rapier she took. But before she can launch a counterattack, Kasai slashes horizontally, forcing Shosuko to evade. She lets herself fall backwards until her spine forms a perfect ninety-degree angle with her legs and the slash goes wide. The two sisters don't stop, barraging Shosuko with slash after slash, each one shortening Shosuko's margin of error that much more until eventually, the strikes connect.
But they do not draw blood. Shosuko catches Kasai's blade between her teeth and parries Yuki's strike. She kicks Kasai in the chest, forcibly wrenching the sword from her grip. Shosuko meets Yuki's rapier with two blades of her own. She catches Yuki's thrust by crossing her swords before pushing sharply, knocking her backwards.
Yuki counters by thrusting her rapier tip low in an effort to catch Shosuko off guard. Shosuko tries to backstep but there's a force that pushes on the back of her knee, causing her to kneel. Glancing over her shoulder, she realizes that while she was focused on Yuki, Kasai managed to get behind her and kick the back of her knee. Tsk. Her mistake was thinking that Kasai was helpless without her blade. That one's on her. The stab that she thought was targeting her leg is redirected and instead jams itself into the hand holding the katana. There's a small shower of sparks mixed with blood as the blade is knocked out of Shosuko's hand and falls into Kasai's clutches.
"It's over!"
Yuki jumps while Kasai crouches low. There's the sound of something akin to metal being torn as they force their blades through Shosuko's flesh followed by a solid clang as their blades meet in the middle, severing her right arm.
That was sloppy. Shosuko didn't expect them to be so coordinated. Or rather, she did, but she decided against her better judgment to try and finish the fight as quickly as possible. That was really sloppy. Her temper flares.
"KH–!" Their swords are still crossed, which means they're not guarding their bodies. Between Kasai and Yuki, she can probably finish off Yuki faster so she'll go for her first. As expected, neither Yuki nor Kasai expect her to recover so quickly after losing her arm. That's why Yuki doesn't even notice Shosuko's foot flying directly towards her side. She doesn't see it coming. Shosuko feels a crunch as her kick connects. That's probably Yuki's ribs being crushed into bone meal. A squeal slips from Yuki's lips as she's launched off the side of the skyscraper.
"YUKI!" There's a sudden shift in air pressure as Kasai dashes after her. Her footsteps like bolts of lightning as she runs along the wall. Once Yuki's in her range, she throws out her sword sheath and manages to catch Yuki by her collar.
"Not so fast!" Shosuko follows close behind, her footsteps are thunder that forms craters in the concrete wall. Rather than finesse, her speed comes from sheer overwhelming strength. Shosuko positions herself above Kasai before throwing out a vicious lariat, leveraging gravity to work in her favor.
"Back off of my sister!" But Shosuko doesn't count on Yuki acting so quickly. Using the force Kasai used to pull her back, Yuki whirls around and delivers a solid roundhouse to Shosuko's face, knocking her off-course. Her swing goes wild, exposing her arm. Kasai wastes no time.
"「Iaijutsu - Almighty Cut!」" Kasai disappears as she starts to move faster than the human eye can perceive before reappearing right in front of Shosuko. A heartbeat. She knows what comes next. Shosuko closes her eyes and braces for the impact. But the impact never comes. Instead, there is a clang. Slowly, she opens her eyes and sees the number ninety nine embroidered on a baseball jersey.
"Iaijutsu, huh? That's pretty impressive." The Batter stands between Shosuko and Kasai, her bat clashing against her blade.
"You–!" Kasai's eyes widen.
"Lady Batter!" Yuki steps back. She grips her swords tighter. "What are you doing here?"
"I just hate seeing people ganging up on others." The Batter looks over her shoulder at Shosuko. Her expression is completely blank. "Especially when it's my adorable little sister."