4.4

Sheer Heart Attack: Number Six

"Pull out the knife, you will die alone" The voice never ceased.

Eikichi staggered back as the biker attack brushed against his bald head. The force of the blow knocked the wind out of the man. But before he could be finishes, Six intervened driving his fist into the biker side. Recovered, Eikichi retaliated and his fist aimed true.

Six smashed a plank over the biker's head. The wood pieces flew out before stopping mid air, forming back around the thing neck, halting its movements. Unlike Eikichi, the operative could revert an object just by remembering.

Dirt on the ground, wood chips, stones, all broken and shifted and reassembled with varying speed and power. The biker couldn't land a single hit with such disruption.

The thing was surrounded, its body constantly battered by superpowered blows after blows, its enemies seemingly teleporting all around.

With a devastating hit to the head, pulsing through the helmet, the biker fell to its knees.

It wondered what that was in that girl's head right now. She had run away again but the biker knew she was still out there somewhere, watching. That girl would always try to believe that maybe it would be the end. But alas, their decades long game of catch and mouse continued. The girl watched on as her hopes had their ribcages crushed, their skulls bashed in. A few brave souls? A lynch mobs? A squad of elites? An army? All met their end as the girl watched on.

It drove her to such radical measures. That girl pushed her body to the limits with all kind of augmentations. She even found the Ladder. If no one could take care of the Killer Queen, she would do it herself, or at least that was what the girl told herself.

Now, she was nowhere to be found, she ran and hid away like always.

But this time, it was different. The biker was cornered, battered, beaten and the girl was no doubt watching this. And all of her augmentations, they were still there.

At this moment, was that girl feeling… happiness? The thought ran through the biker mind.

Now that was simply unacceptable.

The biker leapt onto its feet, wrench swinging at the first thing it saw. Which turned into nothingness as Six blinked away. With a strange calmness, the biker thrashed around, swinging its wrench at everything that came by its view.

Was this a final desperate act, Eikichi thought, it sure looked so. It was hard to know seeing that the biker's helmet was unchanging and seemingly indestructible.

Their effort was also paying off, the biker armour was becoming more and more unresponsive. Its defence would soon fall. And yet, it still continued to thrash around, seemingly aimlessly. Or not.

Despite possessing unrivalled combat sense, Eikichi was running on another's power, another's instinct. This power, these movements weren't exactly his.

Six, meanwhile, finally realised what the biker is up to, it was forcing them to be moving, blinking constantly.

0.2 seconds and 0.5 seconds, those were the minimum cooldown between the operative and Eikichi's blink respectively. The distances that the two could traverse, how much could one curve his movement. How long did it take for the force to be applied after their punches. Underneath that neon light amidst the dark mask, no details were too trivial, none were unimportant. And now, the opportunity had come for a final gamble.

A thick dark liquid ran out of the biker sleeves, his jeans. It was the armour, finally broken down, leaving him vulnerable for the first time since decades.

Seizing the moment, Eikichi moved in for the kill with great speed, too great. By the time he could hear Six's warning it was all too late. The slows and sultry music played out.

"Dynamite with a laser beam. Guaranteed to blow your mind~"

Reading him like a book, the biker wrench was there, ready to intercept Eikichi. By the time he could blink again, the cold steel would have already make contact with his skull. And there was no way he could avoid the biker with his own physical prowess. A fatal mistake and one he could have fully avoided.

Eikichi messed up.

At what seemed like the final moment of his life, the bald man could hear the voice, the gurgle of a dying man, his father, clearer than ever. It had never sounded more prophetic.

"Pull out the knife, you will die alone"

Suddenly, shadow casted over Eikichi's eyes as a figure appeared right in front of him. Steel met bones, crushing the later mercilessly.

Eikichi watched on as Six fell to the side, having taken the full force of the biker straight to his back. The bald man looked at his just a moment ago enemy lying there, motionless. Such a strange decision, if Eikichi would to fall there, the operative could have finished off the biker. Wouldn't that be two birds in one stone, Six?

"Cooking classes? Are you seriously trying to make us like you?" Voices from his past returned, plaguing Eikichi mind.

'How could I ever hear your thought in the first place. Was Doraemon wrong about her own power, or did you really… Just because we had the same enemy, just because we had to fight side by side'

"It was all your fault, give me back my son!"

'Come to think of it, what are you even doing here. What were you trying to achieve here. Did you come back, put yourself at risk just for her, your comrade. Why did you even let me go that day at the arena' Eikichi couldn't seem to understand why.

"You will never understand, you monster"

It didn't make any sort of sense at all. Not at all. Not at all.

"You monster"

And the voices, they never ceased.

Eikichi could feel his eyes clouded, he removed the sunglasses and rubbed his eyes. The biker, meanwhile, stood there titling its head to the side in silence, curious of what to come.

The bald man dropped his glasses, he reached down to pick it up but stop, his hand formed into a fist. Eikichi looked up, how long had it been, since he last looked at someone with these bare eyes of his. Bloodshot and sharp like razor, the man's eyes were of a murderer, filled with rage.

Eikichi kicked at the ground, making a thunderous sound. Blinking through the air, he punched straight at the biker, only to have his attack blocked. In less than 0.5 seconds, the biker retaliated, only to find nothingness.

From behind, Eikichi struck his elbow at the thing back but it was also blocked. Once again, the bald man escaped from its grasp and struck again, but once again his effort was null.

He blinked again only to trip and slid along the ground painfully, his white suit tainted with blood and dirt. It had left him, the knowledge on how to blink, how to deliver force punches. Now he had to face a opponent so much superior, all on his own.

Truly a time for despair and Eikichi nearly did just that, but then his eyes caught glimpse of a figure, still lying there on the ground, lifelessly.

Eikichi stood up again gritting his teeth 'Why did you take that blow for me!'

The biker slowly walked up, music continued to play callously.

"Recommended at the price. Insatiable an appetite. Wanna try~?

Hearing that tune, suddenly everything went dark, nothing really matter anymore. Overcame by an inexplicable rage. Eikichi lunged with the biker. There was no flair, no grand plan nor strategy, no technique, just pure hatred.

Eikichi punched and punched mindlessly like a beast.

His spirit burned like fire and mana flooded inside him, drawn by light, fuelling the flame. Eikichi continued to punch and punch and punch and punch and punch and punch and punch and punch and punch and punch and punch and punch and punch and punch and punch…

Each was stronger and faster than the last.

The force flayed his weary arms, tearing every muscle off but his power held them all in place. His heart, his veins, his whole body on the verge of implosion. And yet, the man still went on. The same power that boosted Eikichi's strength also fuelled his power. But it was not forming anything back but himself, continuously.

His bones were shattered, his meat torn apart and yet they were still kept together by the man's power.

Eikichi couldn't even see anything but the flurries of fists obscuring even his view. But from behind, the music continued to play mockingly. If that as the case then he could only be more relentless, he shall silence it all, the music, the voices.

The man screamed from the top of his bursting lungs to drown it all out.

"DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!"

The air around was warped as mana was drawn to fuel the raging man, ascending him. Even the lights were seemingly sucked into the vortex of primitive punches. Every blow was deadly, exploding in the air like bombs.

But then something within Eikichi snapped. His body remembered it belonged to a mortal, not befitting of all this power. The punches came to a halt as the man looked at his arms. All the skin and meat were long stripped away, the exposed muscles red from friction, threatening to burst into flame without a moment notice.

In front of him was the biker, seemingly unscathed.

"She's a Killer Queen. Gunpowder, gelatin~"

The music, the voices were back.

Eikichi flailed at the biker hopelessly. But his fists were flaccid, they simply brushed against the target gently. The supposed punches became desperate grasps.

Just a little bit more, he could do it, if this body wasn't enough then he would ascend…

Eikichi tried to ignite the flame in his spirit again only to feel like something was tugging at him. It was just a slight pull, but the sensation had brought him back before his self-destruction irreversible. The destination, what Eikichi would 'ascend' into, would only be the void, death.

The man found where the sensation came from, it was his pinkie. A final tug from the red string as the other end loosened and drifted aimlessly.

'Even in death… You still… Why…'

Tears running from his eyes, Eikichi could feel his body finally drained. He had failed to silence the music, the voices.

"Pull out the knife, you will die alone" His father final words rang out once again.

But as the man fell to his back, something broke his descend. A shoulder pressed at his back, a broken crystal arm trying to prop him up.

Behind was Jim Cross, the near shattered Jim Cross. Just like Major America, who would always stand up after every defeat. The teenager stepped up.

"What's wrong, aren't you supposed to be able to do pretty much everything" The teenager jested tiredly "Don't worry, I will try to help out, if that mean anything"

"Why…" That was the only word coming out of Eikichi.

"Heh, how could possible continues to lie there after seeing all of that. And I am not the only one here"

The teenager painfully turned Eikichi head's around. Coming up behind them was… Haruka holding her broken katana. Johann pulled her back, of course, his entourage was also here. And so were Mara and Fleur even, the latter had a look of resolute which seems rather out of character, but in her eyes, the fire was true.

Then there were others, whom he couldn't recognise. A girl next to Johann also in leather armour but padded with metallic. At the back was a youth in white holding a cane. A normal looking office worker next to a Fallen with cracked mask.

Eikichi could hear a soft footstep in front of him.

Looking forward, there was someone between him and the biker. A girl from a future, Doraemon, shaken with fear but there she stood nevertheless.

A black smoke blew past them all, bringing someone in front of them all. A man in armour, holding a long sword. He put a hand quickly on his shoulder before entering a stance, ready for battle.

The smoke came back to Eikichi and Jim's side, it formed into an old man.

"You two have done well, it will be alright" His voice soothing and gentle.

Doraemon turned back to Eikichi, she nearly grabbed him before realising that metallic claws wouldn't go well with exposed muscles. Haruka and the others were also there, they had all seen his light and here they were, by his side.

Eikichi could feel his mind slipping away. He tried to think, how could the biker survived his barrage. Blinded by emotion, all of his attacks were powerful but utterly predictable. Perhaps if he had been more level-headed, maybe it would be different, maybe he would be the victor. But then would the power come to him like that…

Everything started to blur as Eikichi became… sleepy for the first time since, when he couldn't remember.

As the smoke engulfed his wounds, smothering the pain, Eikichi closed his eyes. The man fell into a deep sleep, surrounded by warmth in silence.