BUTTERFLY : SHINOBU KOCHO (PART ONE)

Part 1: Chapter 15; Phoenix

Sakusa tumbled through the dirt, before leaping back to his feet, a furious scowl on his face as he spun his blades by their chains in his hands.

"OI, GET THE HELL DOWN HERE, YOU OLD FUCKER!" He screamed.

"BREATH OF RAGE, EIGHTH FORM; CRUSHING SWING!"

The boy jumped forwards into the air and spun in a somersault, before flinging his flaming chain-linked blades right at his target,

The airborne Irire, holding his blade in his hand with a condescending glimmer in his eyes.

As the blades shot towards him at blinding speed, his eyes widened and the tight-lipped frown on his lips grew wider.

The blades punctured right through Irire's chest, and in the blink of an eye, he was yanked around like a rag doll through the air in a spiral, before being slammed into the ground, shattering the earth beneath him like a dynamite explosion.

The demon seemed unfazed, however, as it just leapt back to its feet, and slid his blade back into his sheath with a stern look on his battle-worn face.

Sakusa was panting and salivating like an animal from the other side of the impact crater he just made, his right blade still embedded in Irire's chest half a dozen metres away. He sported a deep scowl on his face, flipping the blade in his left so that the blade ran flush across his forearm in a reverse grip like a large, black dagger.

"So, you're supposed to be an Archangel or something, right?" Sakusa spat bitterly, "What does that white-haired numbskull you call your leader make you do, exactly? Reading circles and game nights?"

"Hmph. Petty insults will only get you closer to death, Rage Hashira." The old demon replied with a firm tone.

"Oh, is that so~?" Sakusa pulled his arms back and crouched down low, coiling himself like a spring with a smug grin on his face, his chains burning a bright orange and the ground beneath him shattering under his feet.

"Well, I'll use all the petty insults I want, cuz I'm not dying tonight!"

"Breath of Rage, Second Form; Skies' Impact!"

In a flash, Sakusa burst to life, dashing forward and spinning in a spiral of black flames in a cannonball flying right into Irire's midsection, carving a hole right through the older demon like butter.

Haha, I can cut him! Some demon this bastard is-

"Hm. Not half bad."

Sakusa froze like a statue when he looked back at the old demon, his eyes going wide when he didn't see so much as a scratch on Irire's body.

The scarred old man turned himself around to the shocked teenager with an unwavering glare in his golden eyes, sheathing his blade into its guard.

"You have good speed, I haven't faced a Kari member as adept in the Rage breathing without using your powers as you." Irire said with a nod.

W-What the shit, what the shit, what the shit, Sakusa muttered in his thoughts, gripping his blades tighter as he turned to face the Archangel, I was sure I just hit him, is his regeneration just that good?

Irire crouched just as low as Sakusa had previously, and kept one hand on his katana's sheath, while the other rested on its handle, his gaze fixated on the redhead teen standing in front of him.

Sakusa, though, instantly lost his confusion and broke out into a smug grin once again.

"Pfft, are you kidding me?" He chuckled at the man's familiar stance,