[Episode 258385] [Episode 258385]Ryouga ran down endless city streets. He was lost as usual.
Of course Ryouga knew that this wasn't new for him to be lost in a city. But now, that just made everything all the worse.
He could still hear them coming. Down the streets, across the rooftops, down the alleys, right on his heels. He knew that they were coming for Akari, and they wouldn't stop until they found her.
The only option left was to run.
He pulled Akari's body closer to his, and put on a burst of speed. He could only hope that the legendary Hibiki lack of direction could confuse his pursuers enough that he could escape with Akari in his hands. His lungs burned and his legs started to ache from the exertion, but he couldn't stop, not when they were so close.
A feeling of warning buzzed through him moments before the first bullet zipped past his ear. The moment that it did, he broke to his left as several more pierced the space where his back was a second before. He turned his eyes briefly to see two motorcycles behind him, lights dazzling as they moved towards him, and quickly ducked down a side street, brick-work fragmenting as more bullets impacted it.
Ryouga sprinted down, the high walls in his vision seemingly narrowing in on him, closing him in, as he willed his body to move faster than he ever thought he could go, than maybe even Ranma could have been capable of.
A bright light suddenly flooded the exit to the street. Ryouga cursed himself, and hunched his body forward with his next step, chambering his legs as far they could before releasing, launching himself and Akari upwards past the roofs of the houses that stood between them. The flash of gunfire sparked below as Ryouga landed on a roof, the tiles shattering behind his back.
And then, for a moment, Ryouga was able to catch his breath and assess the situation. Maybe six to eight men. All armed with automatic weapons and moving on his current position. A hopeless situation for most people.
Ryouga Hibiki, of course, wasn't most people.
He gazed down at Akari, who had buried her face against his chest, gripping his shoulders tightly. He could feel dampness seeping through the spot on his shirt her face pressed against. Damp with tears.
“Akari...” Ryouga began, his voice rough. “I'll need to put you down. Stay still, and don't move.”
Akari murmured quietly into his chest.
A voice from below shouted up to Ryouga: “Hey! I know you're still up there! Bring the girl down with you and come quietly, or we'll make this much harder than it needs to be!”
“Please... You can leave me here.” Akari said. “Don't risk your life for me. Run. Save yourself.”
Save himself? Save himself? Ryouga wondered if there was anything left of himself after what happened in the last week for anyone to save. After what had been done to everyone, maybe. After the gangs came, full of crazed and violent men, possibly. After what happened to Akari, hardly.
“I'll be back for you. I promise.”
He pulled three bandannas from his head, and loosened his belt. As he gazed at Akari's face, he felt his eyes burn, and tried to fight back a surge of tears. Even as a gynoid, she still looked as beautiful as ever. A beauty only marred by its artificiality.
Ryouga twirled the bandannas, until they became whirling blades in his hand, and leapt from the roof.
In one smooth, practised motion, the bandannas were flung out, where they zipped down to cut deep into the flesh of three men, releasing blood in their wake. As he came closer to the ground, two more were released, spinning across to slice open another man's face and cut across his eyes.
Ryouga hit the ground running, pulling off his belt fully. Bullet impacts sprayed up behind him as the gunmen he approached sprayed in panic at him, only to barely even scratch him. Obviously, Ryouga figured, these men weren't as prepared for this neighbourhood as he thought they were.
As the distance closed, Ryouga brought his hand forward and whipped the belt at the level of one man's throat, and was answered with an impressive spray of blood. The belt-whip twisted and sank into another man's arm, slicing deep into the flesh, growing redder with the more blood it soaked up. As the man's arm dropped down useless, Ryouga knew that he had made his mark.
In another instant, Ryouga had the last gunman in his grip, disabled and fully in his mercy. He pulled the man closer, staring at him with eyes that were cold with hate. “Who are you people with? The Yakuza? Triads? Nicaraguans? Whoever you are, I didn't know that they were letting people on the streets with automatic machine guns...”
The gunman choked and quailed under Ryouga's gaze. “What's it to you? Things have changed, man. We've got new friends in this city now.”
“Who?!” Ryouga snarled.
“You wouldn't believe me if I told you. But if you value the life of you and your little Barbie-doll bitch there, you should give yourself up right now...”
Ryouga was wondering whether to kill the man or leave him for his friends to find, when Akari suddenly screamed. After that, the crippled man was dropped to the ground, his eyes already scanning what he thought was the rooftop he left Akari on.
“Looking for your girl?” A deep voice behind him said.
Ryouga whirled around to face a man that he was surprised he managed to miss: he couldn't have been more than eight feet tall, and proportioned to boot, covered in muscles and imposing as all hell. Akari dangled from his fist by the hair, the hand looking like it could've covered her head completely.
“Let her go.” Ryouga said, simply and evenly. “Let her go now, leave us, and I'll let you live.”
“And what if I don't?” The man asked, a sleazy grin spread across his face.
Ryouga dashed forward and punched at the giant. The impact caused his opponent to lean back only the slightest, the momentum soaked up by the inexplicable solidity of his body. Ryouga punched again, driving his fist into the lower side of the abdomen, where the liver might be, only to find that even there, the body was rock hard.
Ryouga stepped back, narrowly avoiding massive fists, and whipped out his belt. The white cloth slipped under the man's guard, and carved into his face, and was answered with a shower of...
...orange fluid?
Ryouga backed away from the giant as he stood, barely even flinching from having his face cut open, the bleeding gash revealing not muscle and bone, but metal and plastic.
The giant leered at Ryouga, before his body started to come apart: his arms seemingly telescoping out and unfolding to revealed long metal tubes in place of hands, while his chest split open, unveiling electricity and metal. Akari tumbled to the ground, unable to be held by her captor any longer, and quickly scrambled away.
“Not so tough are you now, boy?”
Ryouga raised his arms to prepare for the worst, but was buffeted aside by a gust of wind that blew in from behind. Before he could think, a small figure rode the wind past him, and slammed into the metal giant. The attack barely seemed to affect the hulk, however, and he turned towards the figure, which Ryouga could now tell was a young woman with straight black hair, as she sprung off his body and landed several steps away.
Ryouga got the advantage right away... This thing wasn't barely winded by bare hands alone. It was time for a different course of action.
As the robot-man turned fully to attack the woman, Ryouga knelt down and drove a finger into the tarmac. Beneath him, the fissures of the concrete and dirt below were shifted by the force of the Bakusai Tenketsu, the power travelling down to one certain spot directly below the android.
The road beneath the giant erupted into a furious explosion, the shattered concrete launching him upwards into the air, pieces of the debris breaking off his legs and sending them flying across the street.
The young woman braced her legs and brought her palms together, generating a glow of golden light, from which what looked like a blade of pure energy had emerged. As the giant reached the apex, she leapt towards him at blinding speed.
Ryouga watched the woman effortlessly bisect the hulking robot down the middle, the two halves of his body drifting apart to land roughly on the ground as she landed lightly on the ground, making less noise than even a leaf would.
Ryouga turned towards Akari, who was peeking from a nearby bush. In moments, she was quickly by his side, wrapping her arms around his waist. Ryouga looked back at the black haired woman, who now was looking back at him.
“Hello, Hibiki Ryouga. My name is Moroboshi Negako. I have some friends that have been worried about you.”
And now...
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(Posted Sun, 23 Mar 2014 01:40)
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