YUKAN WINCED AS HE LANDED ON HIS HAND in the prison cell. The lighting was very harsh, as the fluorescent bulbs reflected off of the white tile floor. He could see his reflection from gazing at the floor, his blue eyes struggling to find an angle where he would not be blinded. This was to no avail, as the light, seeming to have the strength of the entire sun within its light, was simply unavoidable. He didn't care much about the light, as at least it had given him a distraction from his arm, which had been broken by Mirikiteki before she kidnapped him. The entirety of his arm was swollen and purple and his hand was visibly broken, with not one finger being completely straight and a bone sticking out just under the knuckle of his index finger.

"You're one shitty nurse," he slyly remarked, looking toward the grinning woman.

"Sorry," Mirikiteki began, "but you didn't listen to the doctor's orders. I couldn't just let you attack me if you woke up. You're like a newborn fawn without your dominant fighting hand."

Yukan, being thoroughly fed up with what she had done, swung his foot and tripped Mirikiteki with such intense force that her balance had been lost almost immediately. After she got back onto her feet, he felt a slap against his face. He looked at the reflective tiles upon the floor once more to catch a red mark upon his face.

"You're lucky you're alive," she said afterward. "I knew I should have killed your girlfriend in front of you!"

"If you touch Ite, I'll-", Yukan shouted out, his rage beginning to build into a glorious pyre within him.

"You'll what?" the woman interrupted smugly, tossing her short black hair to the side. "Kill me? Good luck with that one, kiddo. You can't even defend yourself one bit." She began to walk toward the exit, her high-heels sounding against the tile as she walked, but stopped as she opened the door. After pausing, Mirikiteki left the room and stepped to her right, concealed by the wall.

"He's in there all wrapped up and ready to be killed, my lord," she said to a tall man, well over 6 feet tall. As the man nodded, Yukan felt his blood begin to boil further. This was sped up when he saw the identity of the man. The sight of this man sent Yukan into a stupor of unadulterated rage. When he finally saw that this man was Kunshu, he rushed toward him, ready to land a punch to his face, aiming directly for the scar on his chin. His momentum was stopped as the tip of the Alpha Blade pointed itself toward his throat. He stopped as soon as he could, managing to halt his momentum just as the tip lightly touched the tip of his throat.

"Why the hell do you have me trapped here?" Yukan angrily asked the corrupt soul he saw before him. "What do you want, you sick bastard?!"

"Oh," Kunshu began to say to his obstacle, "my dear boy. How nice it must be to be as naive as you are." He then gave the teenager before him a hefty blow to the chest, watching with a bizarre delight as his plaything wheezed upon the ground, the wind knocked out of him.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" the wielder of the Omega Blade cried out once he finally caught his breath. Kunshu did not answer him. Instead, the king promptly gave him a swift knee to the ribs. Yukan felt a few of his ribs break as the brick wall of impact hit him directly in the sternum and the force pulsed outwards from there. Fortunately, they did not cave far enough inward to puncture his lungs. As Yukan collapsed from the pain, Aotoshi's highest power placed his foot down upon the damaged right arm of Yukan. He grinned as Yukan screamed in pain, ignoring the pain that radiated through his chest and instead focused on the pain in his arm.

"You're simply in my way," Kunshu finally answered. "You currently hold the Omega Blade, therefore you must be eliminated." Yukan was baffled by this answer, believing that Kunshu had something against him.

"So, none of this was out of spite or hatred?" he asked, barely blocking out the pain to form something that even remotely resembled a coherent thought. "It's all about the blade?!"

"Of course it is," Kunshu said, brandishing his blade. "You're a bigger idiot than I originally thought. However, it doesn't matter how intelligent you are. We all bleed the same way." Kunshu promptly mounted his foot upon Yukan's head, like a hunter with his latest trophy kill. The fire of rage began to die down within his belly as fear began to push through against his best attempts to avoid this emotion. He had returned to his fear and met it in a warm embrace, fearing the end was coming toward him. Kunshu began to raise the blade over his head as he continued to speak. "You know, Yukan. I could kill you right now. Just one slice and your head would come rolling off like a bowling ball. The Omega Blade would have no one else since I already killed Lars... it would just be so easy. But I wouldn't know where it is and that wouldn't be very fun now, would it?"

"Go to hell," Yukan heaved out, knowing very well they might be his last words.

"Oh, my boy," Kunshu seemed to have a disappointed tone in his voice before it turned sinister. "What a fool you are." Kunshu raised his blade into the sky, beginning to dig into the slaughter.

"My deepest apologies, my liege," Shirei began as he barged into the cell, "but we have sustained another loss."

"Another...loss?" Kunshu snapped out of his euphoria at that very moment.

"Yes, my liege," Shirei answered, trying to calm his ruler down. "It's nine wins for Akuni. We still have eleven wins-"

"ANOTHER LOSS?!" the king yelled in rage, abandoning the damaged Yukan. "That's it! Get Mirikiteki in here right away!"

"Of course," Shirei complied with his commands in an effort of self-preservation. He left and gestured to Mirikiteki to re-enter the cell.

"You rang, my lord?" the assassin said, confused as to why the body of Yukan still appeared to be moving when Kunshu had said that he intended to kill him.

"I have come to a decision," he declared to her. "Take Yukan to the front lines."

"Front lines?" Mirikiteki asked, perplexed by what was being asked of her. "May I inquire as to why?"

"We are going to use him as ransom," Kunshu answered, gently prodding Yukan's body with the tip of the Alpha Blade, puncturing through his skin as a result. Yukan mustered all of his willpower to avoid crying out in pain any further.

"As you wish, my lord," she heaved as she began to drag Yukan's bleeding body out of the room, making sure to add insult to injury by carrying him using his severely bruised right arm. After they managed to get Yukan out of the cell, she enlisted the help of Shirei to get him into one of the buggies to take him outside of Fort Yaoseyun, knowing that somebody was going to die on that very day.