' This feeling... It's too warm.'
Sasaki opened his eyes, and everything was gone. All he had dreamt of, all his plans, are nothing more than a mere torso slowly letting go of him as for the only thing left to keep him warm at this cold night...
Was blood.
' Megumi? '
He peered carefully at what remained of Megumi, a mere torso with slik long sleeves coated in blood after all of her limbs had been removed, and the same will be done with her head.
He released leave of Megumi's severed body, his eyes shivering and his hands frigid as ice, compulsively shaking as he tried to absorb what had just transpired. He had just hugged her, and she had reciprocated.
"Hey, is this a joke?"
"No, it is not; look at the river."
Sasaki turned to the water, unsure where the chilly, deep voice was coming from. And as soon as he turned, he saw a dreadful sight: the city lights shone on Megumi's head floating by the river, while all of her limbs except for the torso were gently flowing by the river.
"You see Sasaki; you see her head floating by the river?"
Sasaki formed an Odachi from his bones and sharpened every single edge, even the tip, with the intention of causing massive harm in a single attack.
He stood up from the bench and took a defensive yet aggressive stance, adopting an oblique stance—he was performing a stance from the martial art of Eskrima.
"Show yourself!"
"I already did Sasaki."
He turned in the direction of the voice to see nothing but the never-ending abyss of the pavement that runs alongside the river.
A cool breeze passed behind Sasaki, and he felt a cold tip stab the back of his head. He quickly turned around and struck, but to his confusion, there was no one there.
"Some call me the Sumida Snatcher; others call me a freak, but you see, I don't accept those titles. I'd prefer calling myself a ghost."
All of a sudden, a man with a dark alabaster sculpture (in the form of a sphynx's head) struck Sasaki from above using a medium-sized sabre made up of hardened flesh clashing blades in a moment.
The man kicked Sasaki's blade to support himself into stepping back and taking a stance, pointing his saber at Sasaki with the intention of thrusting despite the distance.
Sasaki concealed a pistol in his other hand while assuming a forward posture, grasping his odachi with his right hand, and aimed the weapon at the man, shooting him in the head.
Although Sasaki had fired his pistol, the bullets carved from his bones did not appear to pierce the man, who stood motionless with his sabre still aimed directly at Sasaki.
In an attempt for a surprise attack, Sasaki stepped in closer and thrust the man from 2 feet away, but it did not appear to affect him.
' What's with this guy? Whenever I attack him, all my attacks just phase through...'
The masked man spoke in a duplicated voice:
"Wondering why your attacks won't hit? Well, I won't reveal the secret... but what I'd like to reveal to you is that me snatching women is just a side hustle."
Sasaki instantly felt his neck gradually broaden as liquid began to pour on the right side of his neck; he then discovered that he had several cuts all over his neck and upper torso.
"This is the real thrill."
As many cuts appeared on Sasaki's upper body, the man proceeded to quickly thrust him as he remained immobile from his current position.
Sasaki tried everything he could to stop and deflect these assaults, but it all seemed pointless when he suddenly felt cuts forming on his upper and lower back.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure not to thrust that pretty face of yours."
The man spoke as Sasaki heard his voice from in front and behind him as he was being sliced by the man's blade.
Sasaki quickly created a barrier of his bones, totally covering him. In a hurry, he took out his phone and dialed Kuroma on speed dial sending; he sent him his whereabouts on text.
"Hello, this Kur-"
"Kuroma, I sent you my coordinates. I need backup. I found the Sumida Snatcher!"
"Alright, I'll be right there. Hang in tigh-"
In an instant, Sasaki's phone was chopped in two as the barrier protecting him was shattered by a single stroke from the man's saber, almost slashing the top of his head off while a little bit of his hair was also sliced on the way.
"Oops, almost sliced it off..."
Sasaki instantly retreated away from the area, adopting a defensive stance, ready to deflect his blows back at him if he found a weak spot.
"A defensive stance? You're making a fool of yourself."
The man abruptly sprinted away from Sasaki's direction; his mouth fell as he stared at the man as he slowly ran away from him, and Sasaki somewhat relaxed his guard.
In the blink of an eye, the man appeared in front of him and dropped and kicked him in the head, partially dislocating his neck, as his blue eyes were visible through the alabaster head.
He moved up to Sasaki and placed his hands on his face with his dark, soft silicone gloves, bringing his face closer to Sasaki to the point that his blue eyes were extremely visible and dazzling.
Sasaki felt his chilly breath and softly stroked his fingers on his face as he relocated Sasaki's neck, and in an instant, Sasaki felt as if he'd seen those eyes somewhere in instinct, kicking the man away and picking up his blade from the corner.
"You could've killed me..."
The man stood up and picked up his sabre and adopted a neutral stance.
"I know, I just have a habit of playing with my food."
"You call us food?"
"Why not? Humans are just livestock for the likes of us; it's their fault they've yet to evolve to become like us!"
In a second, the man swung his blade, which Sasaki parried with his Odachi, creating a chance for a counterattack by slicing off his left arm then kicking him down the sidewalk next to the river, shattering his ribs.
The man, who was seriously hurt, took a bottle of crimson liquid from his cloak's pocket and drank a little of it as his hand slowly recovered and he stood up from his immobile position.
"This is what humans aren't capable of doing."
The man stared at the river and saw Megumi's head floating by his side as he grabbed it up, forcing the bottle of blood into Megumi's severed head while glaring at Sasaki from beneath the mask.
"No matter how many liters, milligrams, and ounces of blood you shove at this severed head... she still won't come back to life. You want to know why? It's because we are the superior species! We are not the anomalies; it's them!"
Sasaki moved slowly, gripping his Odachi tightly, his eyes partially obscured by his hair and the dimming lights as the man continued to convey his ideas.
"This world is filled with... roaches! They think they have the proper hygiene yet they bathe in our waste; it's like how humans are; they think we are the anomalies, but we are the ones creating a new generation, a new era!"
Sasaki glared blankly at the man as tears slowly ran down his eyes. He looked at the man with a slight frown on his face.
"Sniff"
"You... your speech has touched my heart."
"So, what do you say, Sasaki, would you like to create a new era with me?"
Sasaki dropped his blade and walked towards the man as he opened his arms as tears ran down his eyes.
"I'm proud of you. I'm so proud-"
Sasaki sliced the man's throat with his claws formed at his knuckles while crying while looking at Megumi's decapitated head.
The man dropped his sabre and the severed head he was carrying as a result of the anguish Sasaki had caused as he continually threw punches, chops, and palm strikes at him.
"I would never join an idiot like you!"
Sasaki grabbed the man's head, gripping it tightly as he slammed it down the concrete road.
"Because of you, there is now one less decent woman in this world!"
"You ungrateful bastard!"
The man vanished from Sasaki's grasp as quickly as the saber from the ground vanished, and before Sasaki realized it, the man severed Sasaki's hand.
Sasaki spun around in horror as the man repeatedly hacked deeply at him, causing him to bleed out from the cuts while laughing maniacally.
While Sasaki was urgently trying to stop the man's strikes by hardening his skin, the man sliced his hamstrings, causing him to lose balance and forcefully kneel down.
The man stopped unleashing his strikes and walked forward, Sasaki, spinning his raiper with his fingers and bringing it to his chin as he raised it up, forcing Sasaki to shift his vision at him.
"Foolish, have you not yet discarded your humanity?"
"Rot in hell asshole."
"Perish."
In a flash, the man swung his sword with a smug smirk beneath the mask, ready to slice off his brain with a swift and painless blow.
In the distance, emmited a disorganized sound resembling a crocodile's roar as countless veins smashed toward the man's direction in a blaze of light, impaling him in the heart.
The man turned around to see a man with a diagonal stitch across his face and eyes as lifeless yet deep as the abyss. He stared at the man trembling; he felt as if he was being devoured limb for limb as he slowly approached him with a jester's expression.
"Off to kill another one of my subordinates, huh, asshole... Sasaki, you've done well holding him."
Sasaki with his blurry vision noticed the figure and immediately shouted:
"Kuroma-senpai! Toss me a bag of flesh!"
Kuroma took a package of flesh sealed in a zip lock and tossed it to the immobilized Sasaki. He seized it without slipping and ate every last bit of the human flesh—the flesh from the bag is a bit of flesh from a death row convict; it's regulation for the CAU to use these for recovery situations.
Sasaki sprang up, his eyes blacker than the abyss, forming a broadsword from his bones and preparing to attack the guy trapped by Kuroma's veins. He swung the sword with every ounce of his power, splitting the sidewalk.
In an instant, the man vanished from the scene, avoiding the devastating blow Sasaki was about to deliver; if he had been hit by it, his body would have been severed in half.
The man then immediately chops down the veins Kuroma used to immobilize him, severing his left leg in the process.
Kuroma swiftly regenerated his left arm and glanced at the man with a smug smirk on his face, pulling out a cigarette from his back pocket and lighting it by warming the blood in his veins.
"Sokudo... This is interesting; with that speed and mastery, you'd probably be ranked around in the third grade."
"Well, my, good intuition, it seems that you are correct."
The man saw this as an opportunity because he was caught off guard, and he blitzed into Kuroma's direction, ready to push his brain, but to his surprise, he was unable to move.
Kuroma laughed mockingly as he aimed his index finger toward the man's skull, producing a gun-like shape with a small drop of blood on the tip.
' Blood technique... Wait, there's no way. '
"Well, some may say it's just a drop of liquid, but no, it's more than that. When you aim it like this in a focused direction, it would be like firing a water gun."
Kuroma then pointed the index finger of his left hand, producing a little drop of blood as he accelerated the two fast.
"Well, there are two water guns now. Would it deal any damage? No, it wouldn't deal any damage. As I said, it's like firing a water canon, but if I accelerate it like this..."
Kuroma quickened the flow of blood through his fingers as his hand gradually turned blue as it became colder at the time, while his index finger remained the same in color and warmth.
He immediately shot a round beam similar to a medium-sized flask, causing a hole in his chest while his torso slowly melted.
' Crap, I'm a dead man! '
The man manipulated the beat of his heart to pump blood faster; he pumped it so fast that he had ascended the peak of adrenaline, focusing it all on his feet as he tried to break free from the veins as Kuroma was slowly disentigrating him.
Sasaki noticed his feet rapidly changing sizes and gradually comprehended what was going on. He dashed in the man's direction, producing a javelin and throwing it at the man's head in the hopes of piercing his brain.
"Don't... stop... blasting!"
"Oh I won't stop this alright!"
The guy gazed at Sasaki's eyes in dread, as his face was that of an animal as he threw the spear with the purpose of hitting the man's head, and in one desperate try, he exploded off the ground, barely avoiding the javelin throw as it pierced his mouth.
Because of the explosiveness of the man's bounce, he ended up smashing the sidewalk, causing Kuroma and Sasaki to fly away, and one of the tall buildings built along the river was also damaged as a result of his blitzing in that direction, creating a massive hole in the middle, and what was left of the man's trace were the shattered pieces of the Alabaster sculpture.
"Crap, what are we going to tell the owner when he wakes up and there's a massive hole in the building..."
Suddenly Sasaki fell onto his knees with a dreadful look in his eyes.
"Megumi..."
Kuroma stared at Sasaki with curiosity as he blew the smoke from his mouth after inhaling a cigarette.
"Megumi? Who's that?"
TO BE CONTINUED——————————