12 - Blossom Reaper

“Kill her.”

Once the clash of acclamation ended, Sakuto charged in...

He attempted to instantly cut Aizawa into two, but Aizawa swiftly blocked the incoming strike with her blades. Sakuto pushed forward more and more, with relentless slashing and stabbing attacks. He was dictating the course of the fight right now. But Aizawa didn’t seem to lose her concentration at all.

She counterattacked with her blades, quickly sending them in Sakuto’s direction, some of them managing to scratch him. After consistently failing to break through Aizawa’s brilliant swordplay, he resorted to using his most beloved ability. After clashing against her blades as hard as he could, he quickly dipped into a shadow and appeared right behind Aizawa - throwing a slashing attack at her. He did not, however, anticipate Aizawa throwing back with just as much force. She swung Blossom Reaper around like her life depended on it. The two blades danced around Sakuto and scarred him in the chest, and broke apart parts of the area’s floor.

“Her weapon is a pain in the ass...” Sakuto thought. Now that he was at a slight distance, Aizawa began throwing remote stabbing attacks with her blades - they launched themselves at Sakuto like cobras trying to quickly bite an unsuspecting target.

“It’s not just her skills, it’s the wire that connects them that’s causing most trouble. She swings it around like a kusarigama and messes up my movements.”

“If I can cut it off...”

Aizawa used her blades to send a flurry of flying sashes Sakuto’s way. He dodged them by dipping into his shadows. He now reappeared not exactly behind her, but right next to her, and juked her pretty well by doing so. He swung his blade at her, and Aizawa, wrongly anticipating an attack from the flank, had her side completely exposed. Sakuto managed to stab her.

Right when he was about to drag the blade even deeper inside her and rip her insides to shreds, she quickly bounced back. Sakuto tried chasing her down but the latter replied with a strong tornado of slashing blade attacks, rendering his offensive a suicide move.

But Sakuto went for it anyway. He leapt right into the tornado, confusing Aizawa, and jumped back up right in front of her. He tried to set up a killshot, but Aizawa had preemptively backed away. His attack missed. He immediately rushed in, anticipating a block with her weapons...

“ ✦ Divine Acclamation Release. ✦ ”

“ ✦ Soul Brea-”

Upon sensing the incoming attack, Aizawa immediately jumped back. Sakuto, however, didn’t have enough time to cancel his own advance. He became a victim of his own power, and Aizawa perfectly set up and executed a tabbing blade attack to his stomach. Sakuto looked like a fish who had just been caught.

He tried to pull on the blade and drag Aizawa towards her, but the latter unsummoned her weapon, and using Sakuto’s own power, extended her palm and dashed at him...

He evaded the lethal blow.

He quickly dashed to the side and landed a devastating kick on Aizawa’s body. Instead of trying to use his blade now, he switched to the combat style he had so much more experience in - pure, unfiltered hand-to-hand combat. He swung his fists at her with incredible precision. He landed a body shot and a hook to her chin. He stepped back to avoid her blade and landed a strong enough right overhand on her chin to crack it. Aizawa’s knees become wobbly. But she quickly readjusted and got back.

She sent a flying slash at him, and he, almost instinctively, summoned his own weapon and sent one back. They traded with such slashes so on and so on until Sakuto sneakily chucked a shadow-made spear at her. Aizawa weaved to the side and launched the blades at him - destroying the floor, parts of the wall that were still standing, and effectively everything except Sakuto himself.

“She wants to keep fighting at a distance, despite knowing that she can kill me instantly up-close?”

Sakuto healed his wound. Aizawa treated her own injuries, but she was faster. Now, she pushed in. She momentarily unsummoned her weapons and landed a left straight and a right uppercut on him. She tried to cleave him into pieces with another flurry of blade strikes, but Sakuto was too slick with his shadow-based movements. After evading another one of Aizawa’s advances, he grew a pair of shadowy wings and flew up, taking a moment to try and focus.

“The main issue is how I’m going to adapt to the killshot.” Sakuto thought. “I need to adapt to her soul expression if I want to save Oskar.”

Sakuto’s thoughts were cut short. Aizawa sent Blossom Reaper after him, consistently attempting to stab him in the air, while Sakuto weaved. Sakuto, on the other hand, rained down spears upon daggers upon shortswords at Aizawa, trying to effectively bombard her. He even remembered what Ichika did - and learning from her ability, he chucked a small ball of shadows at her. Aizawa dismissed it, focusing on hunting for a clean stab. She eventually found it, but by the time she managed to stab Sakuto and tried dragging him down, she was impaled by the projectiles launched from the aforementioned ball.

Sakuto quickly rushed down, grabbing Aizawa. Aizawa, by almost snapping her own arm, reached for his head, only for Sakuto to dodge it and quickly let go of her.

“I can’t get too close to her either...fuck, her weapon is causing me way more trouble than I’d like to admit.”

“I’ll need to go in there and throw hands as much as I can, and sneak in a Soul Breaker to finish her off...”

Meanwhile, Aizawa’s own mind wasn’t any less clouded with strategies and various potential decisions regarding her difficult predicament.

“The shadows are rather inconvenient.”

“I assume he is going to focus on his own victory condition. That means I shall apply twice as much effort to land my own.”

“You are not getting anything done here, Sakuto Hitori.”

Sakuto rapidly closed the distance and blitzed in, enhancing his hands with shadows. The shadows extended into blades that he tried to cut Aizawa with, but Aizawa effectively parried everything with her swordplay. He swung her blades around more, and they wounded Sakuto pretty badly. While at the same time, Sakuto was aiming to get as close as possible to her.

Eventually, he got the distance he wanted. His punches were not only imbued with slicing shadow blades, but also...

“Electricity...” Aizawa thought, both amazed and a little troubled. The slightly paralyzing tingle of the electric essence made her movements much difficult which, in this type of pace, would eventually play a detrimental role.

“He has some sort of method of using soul expressions that aren’t purely his own.”

“His base ability of adaptation is enhanced with shadow manipulation and now also Nachtvessel Omega’s ability...albeit it is a partial version. I assumed it was an exception based on Omega’s memories, but this...”

Now, Aizawa was being overwhelmed. She hadn’t yet thought of a response to the electrifying attacks. After receiving quite a handful of such punches, she found an opening and shoved Sakuto away with all her power. He was knocked back into the wall, and before he had the chance to get up and recover his stance, Aizawa stabbed him in his forearms using her weapons. He was pinned against the wall and had a relentless Aizawa rushing in to turn him into a slave.

He made the choice to sacrifice both of his arms. Escaping the pin, he was able to slide down a little and kick the incoming Aizawa back - not only knocking her back, but also stabbing her in the stomach by manifesting sharp shadow spikes at the bottom of his feet. He quickly conjured up a shadow spear which flew right past Aizawa. Aizawa broke it in half with her blades, but couldn’t anticipate Sakuto popping out of them. He, at the last second, summoned his weapon and tried to finish the fight right there.

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The wounded Aizawa simply smiled, like she always did. She reached for Sakuto’s forehead.

Sakuto pulled back at the very last second.

“He is deathly scared of complete memory erasure.” Aizawa chuckled to herself. He swung her blade at the heavily caught off guard Sakuto and managed to cut his left hand off. “The more fearful he is, the easier it will be.”

She attempted to cut him down further, but noticed something that she had no way of simply ignoring.

A spark appeared on Sakuto’s chest. A spark indicating his process of adaptation. Aizawa looked down at herself and, noticing her slight purple and green aura, understood what was going on.

“Normally, my acclamation would also create an area where my enemies would be severely weakened and dimmed. But in this case, it appears both mine and Sakuto Hitori’s have been removed due to the irregularities occurring from our acclamations being activated at the same time with so much power.”

“But this is strange...”

Sakuto took a few deep breaths. He noticed that not only was Aizawa increasing her own voltage, but she also had much better natural soul regeneration than him.

“My adaptation kicked in after she tried to use that thing against me.”

“I’m not going to risk it. I’m gonna need to be fully adapted to accept that I won't get instantly killed by it. I’m one fifth of the way there, but still...”

He looked at the blood squirting out of his missing hand. He patched it up.

Aizawa began slowly approaching him. She rushed in, making it obvious she was going for a palm connection to the forehead, as if she was proud of announcing it. Sakuto fell for the bait and backed away. He was too hellbent on avoiding that attack, he didn’t notice Blossom Reaper wrapping itself around his legs and attempting to sever them. But before that happened.

“ ✦ Divine Acclamation Release-”

“No! Wait! What if she just unsummons her weapons and goes in for the killshot again?!” Sakuto thought, briefly hesitating whether or not to launch his attack. Aizawa used the moment and cut off both of Sakuto’s feet with the wire.

Sakuto fell down, bleeding badly. Aizawa started brutally stabbing and slashing him with the Blossom Reaper. Sakuto launched himself backwards, breaking through one of the castle’s barely standing walls, and tumbled down on the ground outside. Aizawa wasn’t going to allow herself to let him escape.

“Could it be? The Heisei’s ace of diamonds on the backfoot?”

“It seems that I need to enhance the combat attunements in the black book. His fighting style does not match what a perfect Nachtvessel should be.”

He kept launching himself back using his shadows, trying to heal up his lost foot in the process, as well as think of a strategy. Aizawa chased after him, constantly throwing her blades around, ravaging through the terrain. She quickly cut down a row of trees and kicked them towards Sakuto, and the latter defended himself by manifesting a shield from his shadows. Aizawa pushed closer, and with her blades now in her hands, struck the shield.

“Shadows and electricity, and the risk of adaptation...all of that is nothing I cannot handle-”

Sakuto let go of the shield. He stepped backwards, and as Aizawa almost blindly moved in for the offensive. He prepared to deliver a devastating blow...

“As long as there is nothing else-”

Sakuto struck the ground, creating a large series of ice shards that struck Aizawa head-on. Not only did they knock her back, but also some of the thinner ice shards pierced her stomach. Aizawa pulled back, instantly trying to heal up, and Sakuto rushed in. He swung his blade at her, and managed to sever her arm before sharply dashing back - avoiding her palm. Aizawa looked at him with usual calm smile, except now there was a hint of bloodlust in her eyes. She quickly regenerated her wounds and kept pressing forwards, all whilst Sakuto’s voltage was on the decline.

“I still don’t know how I’m supposed to counter this shit...”

Sakuto retreated further and further away, eventually entering the city. He was too far away from the rest of the Heisei by that point, so asking for help was pointless and would go against the whole plan.

“In order to adapt to the amnesia, I need to be close to it while it’s active, and I need to make contact with her hand.”

“That’s my only option.”

“I need to try and parry her."

Aizawa entered the city alongside him. She swung her blades at him from a distance, the twin weapons wreaking havoc on the buildings around them, and Sakuto hopped from shadow to shadow, bouncing around in the terrain.

Aizawa took a deep breath and focused.

Sakuto’s rapid shadow step usage was a way for him to buy time and think. But at the same time, if he succeeded in catching her off guard, he’d have the opportunity to land a perfect sneak attack. Whilst Aizawa’s senses were as sharp as possible, he quickly popped up behind her before disappearing into the shadows again. Once Aizawa was startled, he did so again...

Aizawa was faster. She turned around and slashed a large wound on Sakuto’s chest. The latter, quickly stepping back, unleashed an array of shadow projectiles at her to keep her away, but Aizawa’s blades were faster. Both of them pierced his stomach. He was starting to get into serious trouble.

“I’m not doing enough...fuck, I can’t keep up with this shit!”

“Even though I have the perfect countermeasures...”

Aizawa kicked Sakuto away, into the wall of a nearby half-destroyed building. She unleashed her weapons upon it, slicing the building apart completely, and turning Sakuto’s own body into a butchered mess. Blood was pouring out of his rather severe wounds, but he could handle it.

He shadow stepped right behind her, but this time, at a distance. As Aizawa quickly turned around and swung her blade. Sakuto went ahead and summoned a long and liquid-like shadow knife, using it to slit an opening on her face. The shadowy goo was shared between both of his hands, turning into mantis blades that he used to enhance his close quarters game. Aizawa fought back, dismantling the ground and creating a zone of guaranteed death in front of her. Even though a lot of the swings slashed him, Sakuto could handle it.

He transformed his mantis blades into a pair of spears and threw both of them at Aizawa. She dodged them, but once the spears were behind her, they turned around and flew back at Sakuto. Aizawa jumped up, dodging them, and the spears, again in Sakuto’s hands, transformed into a pair of sables that he used to fend off her attack. Aizawa pushed down on Sakuto with such force that the ground broke beneath them.

“If I keep going like this, all that will happen is I’ll waste her time.”

“Looks like her regeneration is superior to mine. Fucking damn it, it’s an unfavorable matchup for both sides, but I’m the one losing? Why’s that?!”

Sakuto transformed his sables into a pair of pistols and opened fire. Aizawa deflected the bullets with her blades and threw one of them at Sakuto, who ended up getting his leg pierced.

Sakuto thought he could use the opening to go in and deal some heavy damage, but Aizawa kicked him away. And the blade was still in his leg. Aizawa swung her blades around, but not for the purpose of slashing at him - but for carefully wrapping the wire around his arm. With one swift motion, Sakuto’s entire right arm was cut off.

“Shit...”

Sakuto tried pulling away, but Aizawa kept him in place thanks to the weapon still inside his leg. She, in fact, pulled him even closer. She used the second blade to stab him in his left arm and shut down his close quarters capabilities for good. Sakuto saw her palm approach him.

“Is this how I go out? No fucking way...”

“There’s something I can do, right? There’s a way to get out of this mess. My arm is gone, my other hand is fucked...”

“There’s something I can do, right?”

“Something that someone with a brilliant combat mind would do..."

“...”

“He wouldn’t hesitate.”

In the blink of an eye, Sakuto’s right arm was replaced by a shadow limb, and was used to deliver an absolutely devastating uppercut to Aizawa! It was so struck it knocked her back a good hundred meters and had her break through multiple buildings, eventually splattering on the wall of a faraway building!

Sakuto held onto his shadow arm. And in the corner of his eye, he saw the shadow of his soul.

“Let’s go, Jackal.”

Aizawa opened her eyes and glared at Sakuto from afar with a smirk. He fell down and made her landing, and with one cleaving motion, she cut down all of the buildings between them. They faced one another. The second park appeared on his chest, and Aizawa made it just in time to see that.

“Two out of five.” Sakuto thought to himself. He replaced his other missing body parts and plugged most of his wounds shut with the same technique - by replacing them with shadow counterparts.

Aizawa prepared to engage again. God’s strongest soldier, Sakuto Hitori, took a deep breath and continued his mission to eliminate the devil. For the first time, Aizawa was truly feeling the intensity of battle, so much so that she asked herself a question. Was her own voltage even enough to keep up?