Soul Spark

29 - Denouement

In the battlefield of Rome, beneath the hollow sun...

Sakuto Hitori made his last stand.

He replaced his left arm with that made out of shadows while his regeneration would slowly attempt to fix everything. He wielded two blades - in his left, a sable conjured from shadows. In his right - Withering Strelitzia. He had a pair of shadow wings behind him, and above his head, a very faint gray halo was quietly hovering.

Despite his terrific injuries and blood-stained clothes, he stood his ground. He faced Kaito with sorrow, not because he felt pity for him, but because he thought he should’ve had someone else fight alongside him. Someone who he believed he lost courtesy of the plans of the man standing in front of him.

Kaito was on his last stand too. His face was now completely exposed, his pupils were occasionally twitching - signifying his occupation in a completely different environment. Nevertheless, he held onto his blade, his own wings, despite slowly starting to wither away, were still as pure and as dangerous. His own halo was flickering, its luminescence wavering. Before the clash of the regretless soulful and the white crow would begin, they got the chance to look at each other.

And their silence chose to speak in their stead, conveying everything they would’ve struggled to put into words. Sakuto and Kaito rushed at each other, ready to leave it all there, even if it’d cost them their lives.

They clashed with absolute ferocity. Sakuto used his shadow manipulation to try and overwhelm Kaito and set up an attack, while Kaito swung his own blade with incredible precision, protecting himself and trying to batter his adversary. They went back and forth, the environment around them having faced enough destruction to not play a role in the fight anymore.

However, within the soul crystal that was stuck in Kaito’s body...

[✦]

“So that’s how it is...you and your gradually increasing soul prowess, against me, with not a single power to my name?” Kaito asked himself, trying to assess Hiroshi and come up with a plan to put him down for good.

“Is this meant to be a test of my determination? Does the crystal assume that after all I’ve done...this is not a risk I’m willing to take?!” He thought, anger quickly filling his mindscape.

“No, it’s not a test. He was never meant to be here in the first place.” Kaito said, approaching the battlefield from afar. It was a Kaito that wore casual clothes instead of the blood-stained uniform that he always had on, and it was a Kaito that was more expressive. He looked slightly older. “You were meant to be here alone, and you were meant to be here years ago. When the only man you really trusted tried to help you out.”

“He did not try to help me, he tried to incapacitate and capture me.” The white crow replied, running towards Hiroshi. His bloodlust, and the final nature of the encounter pushed him to forget about the difference in strength and just move according to plan - which was to play dirty and win not through strength, but through technique. His only advantage was that Hiroshi had little to no actual fighting experience.

“Who is he talking to?” Hiroshi asked himself. As the distance was closed, he swung his dagger. Kaito evaded the strike’s danger, only being slightly scratched on his arm. He jabbed Hiroshi in the eye and moved to the side, landing a quick left hook on Hiroshi’s chin. Hiroshi tried to swing again, but missed. Kaito stepped out of the distance too fast.

“He did try to help you, he cared about you.” Kaito complained, watching the fight. “He tried to get you to move on from what happened.”

“Move on? Is that what it was all about?” Kaito replied, much more upset. He quickly dashed to the side, almost reflexively, feeling like he still had soul prowess. It hurt him a bit, but the motion saved him from getting hurt badly by a pair of flying slashes.

“Yeah, moving on.” Kaito said, taking a cigarette out of his pocket before remembering that Hiroshi is around and putting it back.

“And how do you think it’s possible...to move on from that?!” Kaito asked, infuriated. “When the only person that made you feel alive-”

“Do you think that I don’t know about it?” Kaito complained. “Do you think I don’t share your grief? Here’s what I’ll tell you - I am the same as you. And I shared the same fate. The fate of seeing Yume take her own life.”

“W-what? What is that voice...talking about?” Hiroshi questioned himself. Ultimately, he chose to not pay too much attention to it. He was completely concentrating on at the very least stopping Kaito. He took off.

Kaito looked at Hiroshi, and dealing with an airborne target seemed almost impossible to him. He quickly sprinted away, as Hiroshi sent cascades of flying slashes at him - most of them missing, some of them scarring his legs and back badly. To throw him off, Kaito suddenly came to a stop and turned around. As Hiroshi almost dove into him at a relatively low altitude, Kaito jumped and grabbed onto him.

“I’ll tell you what, had you taken Fedor’s offer, or at the very least pretended not to see through his plan and let him carry it out, you wouldn’t be this way.” Kaito commented.

“And be trapped in a crystal that tampers directly with my soul? Why should I defy myself?” Kaito asked, climbing around the confused Hiroshi. He got on his back and wrapped his arms around his neck, locking in a rear naked choke. He started squeezing as hard as he could.

“This isn’t defying, this is getting help.” Kaito said, slowly burning away. “This is what you were supposed to realize. That you need to let everything go. That you need to move on.”

“Oh? Move on, huh?!” Kaito objected. “You mean betraying my purpose? Never!”

Hiroshi stabbed Kaito in his arm, but the latter didn’t release his grip. He instead made the decision to turn around and slam into the floor as hard as he could. Kaito’s back was damaged heavily from the maneuver, and the shock of the impact forced him to release his hold. Hiroshi quickly escaped the position, got back up on his feet and turned around. The white crow was semi-paralyzed for a bit, laying in front of him.

“You think she wouldn’t want you to move on as well?” Kaito asked, finally fading away.

It stunned Kaito. Hiroshi tightly held his dagger and got on his knee.

“Yume...you...”

“...”

“You were the only one who made me feel alive.”

Hiroshi tried to stab Kaito in the throat. Kaito held Hiroshi’s hand, but slowly, Hiroshi started overpowering him. Slowly, the tip of the blade approached Kaito more and more. It pierced the skin...

Kaito quickly turned away, and Hiroshi ended up stabbing the floor with all of his strength. Kaito tried getting up, but Hiroshi stabbed him in the shoulder, and later, his stomach, to try and keep him down. But Kaito managed to properly get back up on his feet. He was in serious trouble now.

“You discovered what having something in your life is like.” Kaito’s voice said, echoing behind the white crow as he hastily retreated, looking more and more powerless by the second. “And you decided to hang onto a lost cause instead of trying to pursue something else. When you lose your purpose, you try to find something new to fill in the hole in your heart. And you had the chance to do it.”

“A chance, huh?” Kaito said, starting to bleed from his mouth. Hiroshi released a pair of flying slashes that struck his chest, putting him in a critical state. “And what in the world was supposed to make me feel the same way Yume made me feel?!”

“Look in front of you, damn it!” Kaito’s voice yelled. “You had a chance at not only making a difference in the world, but also having a loving family!”

As Kaito managed to keep his eyes open for a little bit longer, he looked at Hiroshi. He saw a glimpse of Yume, and a moment later, he saw his adopted son again.

“You think...”

“He could be the solution?”

“...”

“Hah...”

“Hahahaha...”

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“You’re wrong.”

“I already have my purpose.”

Kaito’s strange state surprised even Hiroshi, who was now a little scared to get close. He sent two more slashes his way, targeting his arms and legs, scarring them. He slightly lowered his weapon, preparing to unleash a much stronger final slash.

Kaito looked at Hiroshi with his eyes wide open.

“Do you think that...you can replace her as my purpose?”

“ ✦ Do you think you can replace her? ✦ ”

He snapped.

[✦]

Sakuto and Kaito’s own battle, after going on for so long, was starting to lose its voltage. After many exchanges and traded injuries, it was, thanks to Hiroshi’s efforts and the incredible weakening of Kaito’s body that Sakuto was in the lead. He managed to go as far as dropping Kaito on the ground.

All that was left now was to try as hard as he could and break him apart, or at least try to before every limp he could attack with would go limp.

He repeatedly swung at Kaito’s body with his blade, breaking him more and more. The toughness posed a challenge at first, but slowly, even that crumbled before the adaptive nature of his weapon.

“Come on...just...”

“Die!”

Every swing decreased in power, but increased in the hatred put behind it. If Kaito didn’t respond, he’d be incapacitated outside the crystal as well. And as it stood right now, he could not. He was on his back foot on both frontlines.

“You got him killed...”

“The only person...who wasn’t supposed to fucking die!!!”

“How do you even think I’m gonna go back to my life after all of this?”

“There’s...no...”

“Point!!!”

He swung at his body with enough strength to cause a shockwave. And contrary to his expectations, he wasn’t killed. Despite the blade cutting through him and even damaging the crystal itself a little, he didn’t suffer any injuries.

Broken, tiny shards of the crystal flew at Sakuto and scratched him - each one momentarily causing him to zone out and remember something. Most of them were memories of a time when things were much more simple. Not soulless, and not exactly normal by any standards, but simple...and enjoyable. Some of his time spent in America, and some of the time he got to spend with all of his friends...every memory only fueled his hateful soul presence more and more.

He swung a few more times, and Kaito’s body finally stopped moving. He took a sharp breath, for just a second, stopping the pressure. He felt Kaito’s presence fluctuate more and more.

Kaito’s face was paralyzed, as if looking at something that wasn’t there. His eyes were wide open, and his breathing started slowing down.

And he started speaking. The last thing Sakuto felt was an uncontrollable increase in Kaito’s soul presence.

[✦]

The crystal, under Fedor’s manual supervision, barely managed to contain a soulful like Sakuto within it, being pushed to its limit and even refusing to obey Fedor’s inputs courtesy of his adaptation.

The fact that it not only captured Kaito’s soul while he was in the Soul Deity Form, but also managed to hold Hiroshi’s soul in it, and received damage in the form of being struck by soul breaker multiple times...it was a miracle this thing still barely worked. Ultimately, however, Kaito was beyond even the most nonstandard soulfuls. His sudden spike in determination caused it to finally have way more than it could handle.

In a wake of what could be described as the rawest form of genuine, heartfelt wrath, Kaito suddenly gained a soul presence. It was just enough to match that of Hiroshi’s. He stood straight up. His eyes wide open, he gained an almost animalistic, manic expression.

It was an awakening event.

“How dare you...”

Hiroshi was confused. He quickly launched a gust of soul prowess aimed at Kaito’s neck, but the latter simply blocked it with his arm. Hiroshi was dethroned as the one in control of the crystal’s domain.

“How dare you...compare yourself...with her...” Kaito said, slowly approaching Hiroshi with decisive and heavy steps. Hiroshi took a few steps back, watching in horror as the white crow healed almost all of his injuries.

“No...he...he was supposed to be dead...” Hiroshi thought, his hand starting to shake a little. “It’s...”

“It’s fine...I still have enough soul prowess. I can make him-”

Hiroshi’s thoughts were interrupted by a heavy punch landing on his chin. It dropped him. He tried to get up, but Kaito stomped on his stomach, breaking a few of Hiroshi’s ribs in the process. After that, he mounted him.

“Do you think that you...could’ve made me feel alive the way she did? Is that true, you dirty fucking mutt?!” Kaito said, landing another heavy punch. Hiroshi’s nose was broken. Kaito swung again, with enough strength now to break Hiroshi’s eye.

“Yume...I’ll never...ever betray you...”

“I promised to make your heart my promise, and look at me now.”

He elbowed Hiroshi in the face and split it open, with a follow-up elbow severely compromising his jaw.

“I’ve disposed of one of you, I have no issue of doing it again.”

Hiroshi tried to fight back and maintain his dagger, but Kaito broke his wrists one by one. And he reached for Hiroshi’s neck.

“What is it, what did you want to say?” Kaito asked, trying to talk to the other Kaito, the one that he thought wasn’t even himself. “You’d want me to forget about Yume? Leave her in the dust? I’m the only person who remembers her!”

He started strangling Hiroshi.

While the oxygen deprivation was slowly trying to kill the boy, Kaito sped up the process even more. He repeatedly shook Hiroshi’s head, banging it against the pure white wall. Every time he did so, some of the blood on Hiroshi landed on Kaito’s face, and he didn’t stop.

Eventually, one of the bangs was strong enough to break the floor, and the two were submerged in the depths of an oceanic abyss.

“Had it not been for the soulless scum that is littered around this world, you would’ve been here with me, right, Yume?”

“It’s fine. Just trust me. I’ll take care of everything...”

“I’ll finally...be done with this shit...”

“Dad!” Hiroshi tried to yell, but his voice wouldn’t come out.

Kaito’s face was slowly overtaken by a manic smile. And a moment later, a tear dropped down his face. At that point, he had already managed to strangle Hiroshi to death.

“Yume...”

“Don’t worry.”

“I’ll keep loving you until the end.”

The soul imbued in the central element was subjugated. The mechanism was functional once again.

[✦]

A soul crystal was never intended to host more than one soul at a time. The nature of the predicament, which effectively broke every rule of how a soul crystal is supposed to be used and how it’s supposed to work, led to a catastrophic outcome.

When a soul trapped inside of a soul crystal is considered to be deceased, it is automatically released from it. Here, when Hiroshi’s soul, which in this case also acted as its body, something that normally shouldn’t have been the case, died, the crystal released it. Alongside it, however, it accidentally released the soul of the white crow that was trapped inside.

The soul returned to the body, and Kaito now had absolute authority over his body once more. His presence reached its blinding, terrorizing peak in an instant, as his halo began to shine brighter and brighter. He instantly regenerated all of his wounds...

Sakuto was tossed away and severely injured following a release of soul prowess from Kaito’s wings.

“Wh...”

“What?”

Sakuto watched in utter disbelief as the white crow ascended to the sky. He couldn’t utter a word, nor could he try and do something about it.

“He was...supposed to die...he was almost dead...”

Kaito’s presence reached its absolute maximum. It felt like the world was shaking...

His halo became brighter than the hollow sun itself. He ascended to a specific altitude, where when viewed from below, the hollow sun itself looked like an extension of his halo. He bathed in the hollow sunlight, which was especially intensified around him. His wings and arms were spread wide open, and his face started losing its shape, and his body was reduced to an extremely bright mass of white and black - with white being the dominant color. The crystal was still attached to him, but it appeared to be deactivated.

Ominous church bells began tolling from the sky. A pulse escaped the hollow sun, and a second one after that established a small, thinner ring around, a third one - an even larger ring. An axis emerged from the middle of the hollow sun, as the sky became the screen a divine yet terrific movie was being projected on. Kaito opened his mouth.

“With my soul I exclaim...”

His wings expanded in size, tearing both into and out of his body.

“Salvation of mankind...”

“ ✦ Beneath a soulful sky. ✦ ”

The soulless and the environment around them began to appear more and more blacker, like a pitch black paint was smeared over them. Contrary to that, the soulfuls started started glowing white. The marks on their bodies increased their luminescence a hundred fold, and soon, the world was seen as merely a deep dark void, with sparks scattered around it.

A tear of joy ran down his distorted face. To him, everything built up towards this one event that lasted only seconds. And Sakuto watched in denial, albeit, at that point, the process was nigh impossible to stop.

“There’s no way...” Sakuto said, his hands were shaking. In a fit of pure despair, and perhaps a desire to throw it all away in a world that was subject to the white crow’s will anyways, he took off and charged at Kaito.

When he reached him and swung his blade at him, attempting to attack him and set up a soul breaker connection, it was too late.

At that point, the contrast between the soulfuls and the soulless was at an all-time high. The soulless formed a vast, empty void. And the soulfuls - a powerful luminescent spark. The two, through their contrasting natures...

“Yume...”

A spark engulfed the world.