Kyouka (強化)

Chapter 2 - Past Connections Part 2

"Mutsu-kun..." Suzushii quietly mumbles as he drops his hand from his pocket, both of his hands emitting a white light. 

"Suzu-san!" Rushiko raised his voice, Suzushii seeing his student's battered and bloodied state, his eyes widen as he instantly rushes to his position, but before Suzushii could even reach Rushiko. Kuroke flashes to Rushiko's spot and wraps his arm around him, raising his blade to his neck, Rushiko's face growing pale as he tries to struggle against Rushiko's grasp.

"Mutsu-kun! Let him go!" Suzushii says, trying to grab Kuroke's sleeve. He proceeds to swing his Wakizashi against him, Suzushii instantly dodges it. His feet sliding on the grass, he glares at Kuroke, his fists shaking as he continues to coat it with his aura.

"You want him? Come and get him" Kuroke coldly states, throwing Rushiko away, his body violently rolling on the ground along with blades of grass spreading all across the air, Kuroke feeling his Wakizashi swelling with his fiery aura. He gradually covers his area with a 6-meter radius of smoke. Suzushii flashes to his position, blowing the smoke out of the way with his fist, his fists both releasing gusts of wind, Kuroke dodges his attacks as he creates aura waves all around him with Suzushii destroying all of them one by one.

Suzushii flashes toward Rushiko with Kuroke in pursuit as Suzushii forcefully slams his foot on the ground, multiple projections of him circling around them, many deep holes seemingly on all sides. All of his projections drop a small drop of aura beneath the holes, however, the very moment each of them hit the very bottom- 

Strong currents of wind gush upwards as each of his projections are flung towards the sky, all of them falling downwards towards Rushiko. Kuroke instantly flashes above, with his arms spread out. He dives towards the projections, his arms suddenly expanding and widening as his number of arms increases, both of them multiplying into eight.

All of his arms each grasping his blade, he slashes Suzushii's projections as some of them vanish into thin air. The other projections powered all of their aura on their fists, all of them colliding onto Kuroke, feeling the impact of the wind from all of their fists, he grits his teeth as his blades take all of the hits, he slashes the remaining projections around him. He suddenly senses a presence, it's above him!

Suzushii clenching his fist full of his surging aura dives toward Kuroke while he tries to block the overwhelming hit, the brunette soldier crushes all of his blades, the shards spreading around them, Kuroke merges them together and augments a more durable Wakizashi. He takes hold of the new Wakizashi and swiftly throws the blade upwards at Suzushii while he quickly flashes behind him and punches him with all of the strength of his arms, Suzushii grunting as his arm is fully penetrated by the rushing blade, he is sent falling downwards towards Rushiko. The gushes of wind disappearing, he lands on the ash-filled ground, creating a huge crater at the same time. 

He quickly gets up and forcefully rips the blade out of his arm, his breathing maintaining his condition and stopping his bleeding, he coats his aura around his body, Kuroke instantly flashing near him. He rams his blade on the ground, releasing an aura wave directly at Suzushii.

Suzushii pulls his arm back, and hits the aura wave, extinguishing it with his fist full of water. Kuroke flashes towards Suzushii, raising his blade while tightly gripping it, he cuts Suzushii's arm off with blood spilling out from his upper arm.

"Suzu-san!!!" Rushiko shouts in disbelief seeing his mentor's arm being chopped off, he slowly crawls over to Kuroke's position with his fingers digging in the soil as he desperately tries to reach him, Suzushii's forearm dropping to the burnt ground.

"Now!" a loud voice is heard, Kuroke's eyes widen as Suzushii's figure suddenly disappears along with any traces of his "sliced arm", sensing another figure in the vicinity, he quickly looks at Rushiko, the swift flash of the figure vanishing along with Rushiko in the blink of an eye.