In 2016 (Part 6) (Kyouka Inai, Fuyuko Yuuhi)
| In 2016 (Part 6) (Kyouka Inai, Fuyuko Yuuhi) | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 08 May 2016 |
| Location: | Mitakihara Ward |
| Synopsis: | Nothing really ends. |
| Thanks to: | Fuyuko Yuuhi |
| Cast of Characters: | Kyouka Inai, Fuyuko Yuuhi |
| Tinyplot: | The Game |
For a moment, all is silence after the two enormous night-sky hands close around Kyouka, completely indulging her. Fuyuko hangs in the air a short distance away, her expression a mix of triumph and horror.
The horror grows as a spear of brilliant light, so bright as to hurt the eyes, erupts from the back of one of the hands. More follow, piercing the gripping hands from the inside until they appear as pincushions, shot through with spikes of brilliance. Then they just detonate entirely.
Kyouka is left hanging in the air where she had been before, surrounded in a nimbus of illumination, darkness smoking in dissipating trails from her skin. Her expression is a pained snarl, her eyes crackling golden orbs. “I will not let you kill those people to salve your grief! I don’t want to hurt you, Fuyuko! But accepting this is not an option!”
“I have to take payment for him.” Fuyuko says, her tone almost desperate, as if begging Kyouka to understand. “They weren’t worth his death. I have to make it even.”
“The only thing you have to do,” Kyouka snaps, holding out her hand and forming a spear of pure light energy which she grips tightly in the middle, “Is put down the gems and surrender. Any other option is going to make neither of us happy.”
“I won’t let you stop me! I don’t want to hurt you, but if you need to be the first payment, so be it!” Fuyuko’s voice raises to a shrill pitch, and she surges towards Kyouka once again, spikes of darkness forming in the air all around her, converging on the glowing redhead.
The two meet with another thunderous retort that again sends the waves below into a frenzy and the dark, hanging clouds above swirling. Nearly cyclonic, the tempest centers on the two girls as they clash again and again, neither seeming to be able to get the advantage over the other. Perfectly matched light and dark, twelve gems each.
There’s a difference, though. Fuyuko isn’t rational. She’s mad with grief and desperation and a need for vengeance. Kyouka is mad too- spitting mad at her friend for falling prey to her own demons, and threatening to take a bunch of people down with her who had nothing to do with it, but she’s still thinking. Still analyzing the situation, her emotions fuelling her without being out of control.
The gems are the answer. They’re each wielding twelve, far more than any Lux Tenebrous should be able to handle. Kyouka can feel the power burning through her, and assumes Fuyuko feels the same- it’s too much for any single human to channel for long. If all else fails, all she needs to do is keep the other girl occupied and away from the civilians until the power overload kills them both. That’s not exactly the ideal solution though.
A better one presents itself when the two girls slam together again above the ocean, sending waves of force outwards that cause waves and clouds both to part momentarily before crashing back together. Just by coincidence, one of Kyouka’s arms, covered in a latticework of the arcing golden gems, brushes the crown of pitch-dark gems orbiting Fuyuko’s head. An immense burst of feedback results, the gems vibrating with protest at being brought into contact with their opposite.
Fuyuko doesn’t seem to notice. She’s too deep in her anger, too frenzied in her desire to remove this obstacle to the end she’s already committed atrocity to bring about. But Kyouka does. She understands what it means, or thinks she does.
So the next time, they come together, she shifts her focus. Rather than attacking Fuyuko herself, Kyouka spins at the last moment, dodging the lance of dark spines launched her direction, and slams her gem-covered forearm against the rotating crown around Fuyuko’s brow.
An immense detonation follows, larger than any caused by the attacks previously wielded by the two. Both are blown apart, spiraling through the air, and when control is regained, it takes a moment to assess the situation. The crown of jewels orbiting Fuyuko’s head has been reduced by three. A similar number are gone from Kyouka’s arm. Brought into full, violent contact with their opposite, the gems had self-destructed. “ What have you done?!” Fuyuko spits, her black-pit eyes somehow burning with rage despite being as empty as the darkness of deep space. “My power…”
“Looks like,” Kyouka is unable to keep the shit-eating grin from her face. “I’ve found the answer.”
Fuyuko screams again, a howl if unreasoning frustration, and now instead of attacking she turns to flee, wheeling about in the air. Kyouka pursues, the two ducking, twisting, and spiraling over the water. The darkness-wielding girl sends continued attacks behind her, spears and grasping hands of night, causing Kyouka to duck, weave, and dodge. But she gains regardless, fuelled by her natural love of momentum and her greater purpose.
Fuyuko is forced to turn to the left to avoid buildings on the far end of the harbor, and Kyouka catches her again. Gripping her collar, the redhead spins the other girl around in the air and backhands her with her other arm, the blow causing more gems to come into contact. Another massive explosion forced them apart, all the windows in the nearby warehouses blowing out in a massive fall of tinkling glass.
Left with only five gems now, Fuyuko is desperate to escape and preserve what she can. She scrambles through the debris, but Kyouka can sense her victory and the flailing panic of her enemy. She slams down into the ground over Fuyuko before the girl can even rise, and once more brings both arms down onto the other girl’s head.
The resulting concussion blows both girls into the air, where they pinwheel for several seconds before both splashing into the crashing waves. For long moments, silence reigns, and the clouds begin to dissipate, showing hints of clear night sky between them. The waves likewise start to calm back to a more sedate splashing.
With a gasp, a bedraggled Fuyuko breaks the water’s surface at the broken shoreline and drags herself up the concrete pier, collapsing onto the walkway. Her dress is sodden, and the crown of gems is gone, aside from the original one still on display embedded in her forehead. She lays there, a bedraggled heap, crying silently but hard enough to shake her body.
A moment later, Kyouka emerges from the water some distance off. She’s likewise soaked through, but her expression is one of grim determination as she clambors from the water. Cracked, broken gem pieces fall from her forearms to hit the ground, their light extinguished. She retains only the one on her forehead, the light twin to the dark upon Fuyuko’s.
She approaches the still-silent, still prone heap of a girl. “Stop this now, Fu.” She says, her voice firm. “You can-”
Fuyuko suddenly twists about, taking Kyouka completely by surprise, and snarling though her face is streaked with tears, she stabs upwards with a spear of darkness. Kyouka’s instincts are good, and she twists, but it’s not enough to dodge the blow completely. The spear takes her through the shoulder, causing her to spin half around and fall to one knee.
By the time she turns around as the darkness-spear dissipates, leaving a bloody hole in her shoulder, Fuyuko is gone.
“Fu-chan..” Kyouka mutters, and there’s a quiet despair in her voice. She knows her best friend is gone in more ways than one. And when next they meet, it won’t be as allies.
