“Mom? Dad?”

Rikai stepped into the room. As her foot hit the ground, the carpet made a squish similar to a wet sponge. The door shut behind her. Rikai spun around to see Shippai standing in the corner, staring at the ground and covered in blood.

“Rikai…”

Shippai raised her head, grinning ear to ear and with contracted pupils.

“You’ve made this far too easy!”

Shippai lunged at Rikai, but stopped at the last second, causing Rikai to fall backwards. Rikai turned her head as she heard a rattle in the closet next to her head. Shippai put her hand on her forehead.

“Oh, that’s right. You wanted to see your parents! Sorry, I almost forgot! Well, here they are!”

Shippai slid the closet doors open. Out of the darkness rolled out two oblong spheres. With just one glance of the color hair, Rikai knew it was her parents, but as the faces stopped less than a foot away from Rikai, she threw up onto the floor. Shippai held Rikai’s hair in a ponytail and patted her back gently.

“Now now… be careful not to get any on your parents!”

Shippai pulled back on Rikai’s ponytail and slammed her hand into her back, straining her neck, then leaving her to lay in her own vomit.

“It was boring, really. They didn’t even know why they were being killed. Your father just kept saying ‘Don’t hurt my wife, don’t hurt my wife’, and your mother was just crying in the corner. It’s a pity, really. I spent so much time skinning your father, she may have been able to escape. No matter, though, because now I have you!”

Shippai reached her hand into a void, and Rikai laid emotionless in her vomit, staring at her parents’ heads. Yami burst through the door and slammed a sphere into Shippai’s back, sending her through the window onto the street. Cars honked as the swerved to miss her, yet Shippai still landed on the hood of a car. Yami picked up Rikai and put her over his shoulder. As he started to run back to the lobby, Rikai begna to claw at his back.

“My mom! My dad! Turn around, Yami!”

Yami only tightened his grip on her and ran faster. With Rikai still attacking his back, Yami slid his hand onto a door, then ran through it, making sure to slam it behind him. Yami sat Rikai in a chair, then turned to get something, but Rikai grabbed his wrist and stood defiantly out of the chair.

“Yami, those were my parents! And you left them!”

Rikai wound her fist back, then hit Yami in the face. Then in the stomach, and on the third punch, Yami caught her hand and spun her around, then grabbed her by the waist.

“Yami! Put me down! I’ll fucking kill you!”

Yami sat her in a bathtub.

“Rikai, shower now. We’ll talk later.”

As Yami started to walk out of the room, Rikai stood up once again.

“No! Where the hell are you going?!”

“I’m going to kill Shippai.”

Rikai stopped herself from hitting him.

“Yami… What do you mean? You said it yourself, you’re not strong enough!”

Yami clenched his fists.

“I know, but I have to try. She’ll just keep killing more innocent people.”

“She’s just trying to get to you!”

“Yeah, and it’s working. On top of that, she’s likely absorbing all of their souls, so she’s just getting stronger. If I don’t stop her soon, I’ll be in a lot more trouble than otherwise.”

As Yami attempted to leave the bathroom, Rikai grabbed his wrist.

“Yami… please…”

Yami broke his wrist free of Rikai’s grasp and shut the bathroom door behind him.

Shippai blew through wall after all at the police headquarters.

“Mr. Shinpai?! Where are you!?”

Blowing through another wall, Shippai stood in front of two parents shielding their small child.

“Leave us alone, we don’t know who you want! Please!”

Shippai looked at the kid.

“Give me your child's life, and I’ll let you two go.”

“We could never!”

“Then you’ll all die!”

Rikai pulled a large blade out of her void and raised it in the air. The two parents hugged their child tightly.

“Mommy and Daddy love you very much!”

The child’s eyes stared at the massive blade looming over him. As it began to swing downward, an explosion occurred, causing Rikai to be thrown through the wall of the room. Yami grabbed the shoulder of the father.

“Get out of here!”

The man nodded.

“Thank you so much!”

As the family ran out of the room, Yami dodged a knife thrown at him. Anticipating the explosion that soon followed, Yami slammed his hands on the ground. As the explosion engulfed the room, Shippai threw more knifes. One after another, there was continuous explosions for almost twenty seconds. Once the debris settled, and the ceiling had collapsed, Shippai entered the room. In the center of the room was a giant ball made out of concrete.

“What the..?”

Yami slammed a sphere through the sphere and hit Shippai’s shoulder, who swung her legs at Yami’s heel, making him fall backwards. Shippai then sent her foot into his back, shooting him up to the fifth floor of the building. Coughing up blood, Yami wiped his mouth. Before he could ready himself, Shippai had already jumped up to him and grabbed his collar.

“Now give me your power!”

Shippai put her hand onto Yami’s head. Yami felt her life essence tug at his as she attempted to steal his soul.

Yami closed his eyes.

“If you think that’s all it takes for you to steal my soul, you have another thing coming!”

Yami opened his eyes. The color of his pupil and iris was that of a dark red, but his eyes were still white. Without a moment to react, Shippai felt her wrist be grabbed, then crushed by Yami’s grip. As her bones shattered, she quickly pulled her arm back, but Yami didn’t let go.

“You’re not running away this time!”

Yami flung Shippai over his head, then threw her back down to the bottom floor the same way they had came up. Crashing through the ground floor, Shippai made a large dent in the concrete floor of the basement. Beginning to heal her arm, her eyes widened and she rolled out of the crater, narrowly doding Yami’s initial impact, but still being hit with bits of concrete that was expelled from underneath his strike. As she healed her arm, Shippai chuckled and wiped her mouth.

“So, you’re finally getting serious?”

Yami began to form a sphere in his left palm.

“Besides, what was that move you did earlier? I don’t recall you being able to do that before.”

“I went to the old HQ...”

The sphere in his palm began to grow even larger.

“Believe it or not, I found some pretty interesting texts that described training techniques and certain Sirushi Inochi…”

After the sphere reached two feet in diameter, Yami engulfed it in flames.

“Including the ones I need to defeat you!”

Shippai grinned.

“That’s funny. I’ve also been studying in the library of the Jinsei no Hogo, and I’ve learned how I can take the souls from the entire city at once!”

“It’s in vain! I’ll take you down right now!”

“Then I won’t hold back! Let’s see what you got, Jinsei no Hogo!”

Yami kicked off of his right foot at 500 mph, leading with his left palm. Shippai placed her palms together and slide them against the air in opposite directions, forming a purple barrier. As the sphere slammed into it, Shippai’s feet dug themselves into the concrete due to the force exerted by the sphere. Yami continued to push with a scream, causing the sphere to explode, engulfing the basement in flames. Falling back, Yami began to pant.

“I’m still not used to this enhanced power… I need to end this fast or I may not stay awake to see the end of it!”

Out of the smoke shot out Shippai. Yami struggled to block her punches at she moved so quickly.

“What, having trouble keeping up? Let me go a little faster!”

Shippai sped up exponentially, landing three blows simultaneously that sent Yami crashing into the concrete wall behind him. Rubble tumbled onto his head. As he opened his eyes, he managed to dodge Shippai’s next punch, which lodged itself into the wall.

“If I want to keep up, I’ll have to try to use more than I have before!”

Yami darted to the other side of the room and began to strain his palm. The seal began to open itself. Yami’s eyes began to turn gray.

“I’m already losing myself, but I need more!”

Shippai broke her fist out of the wall, then turned around. Launching herself through the smoke and flames, she prepared to strike Yami, but Yami appeared behind her near instantaneously.

“So fast!”

Yami slammed his fist into her back, making her tumble forward. Speeding up once again, SHippai matched Yami’s speed as the exchanged blow after blow. Yami sent a palm strike into her ribs, while Shippai sent a blind sided kick into Yami’s temple. As Shippai crashed into the wall, the building shaked above them.

“It’s about to collapse!”

Pushing herself out of the wall, Shippai nearly fell over from the pain of her injuries.

“Hate to leave you, Yami, but I’m afraid I’m done raising the roof!”

Shippai made her way up the stairs and out of the basement. Yami tried to stand up to give chase, but from the blow he just received, as well as the smoke constantly smothering him, Yami fell back onto the ground. The building rattled above him as it lost its stability.

“No… not like this!”

Yami reached for the stairs as the buildings creaked one last time, then caved in on itself.