FINGERS CROSSED, yuzuha usagi

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Yasuko understood she was afraid her love will last forever and they will never be in the same room again the moment she saw him right in front of her, eyes wide and head shaking sideways, pleading her to go back where she was supposed to be at. Laying in a corner, Aguni, for the first time after weeks of not forgetting the sound of her shouting before Niragi took her away the meeting room and Ikehara's hateful voice uncovering his secrets with ease, allowed himself to show fear, to extend a trembling hand to stabilize himself so she could take a look at the words written on his gaze.

However, everything disappeared when Ann shot The King of Spades, stunning him for a second before he turned his firearm backwards and let the trigger do the work.

Yasuko gasped as a rain of bullets was fired at them without even glancing back so he could see his targets. A hand reached at her arm, dragging her to take cover around the corner of a wall. Next to her, Usagi pulled her waist towards her.

The King of Spades wasn't merciful. Like night terrors, he fed himself out of their tears, their heartbeats fastening, their grunts and screeches, their blood and sweat. He feasted out of the despair that crossed their eyes and the last grain of hope dissolving in their throats. Everything grew wild and suffocating, and then, when she peeked out to see Aguni once again, it all went strangely quiet.

Perhaps it was because Usagi's palm covered her mouth and embraced her back into her chest, or because the King of Spades finally did what he had been fighting so vigorously to do, or just because Heiya took Aguni's place, fingers wrapped around the mouth of his firearm and body shielding his mourning figure a couple steps away on the floor. He shot and the earth stood silent, awaiting warm for her to drop to the ground.

And then it was Ann. And then Aguni howled, charging at him blinded by a homemade rage. He was fists and blood, kicks and punches, and hot fumes boiling his knuckles white every time they met the King of Spades' skin. For a moment, Yasuko saw Ikehara in the way Aguni thrashed him across the head and shoulders, almost prohibiting him from stepping a centimeter away from him until the roles switched and Aguni was trapped under his body.

Her eyes didn't wander off their struggling figures. Not after Kuina ran up to him, sliding her thighs between his sides, immediately starting to smash her balled fists to his face; not after he rolled them around and pulled out a knife from his back, stabbing her once, twice, third, fourth, fifth, sixth times; not even after Usagi left her side, stopping him by holding back his arm, wriggling herself and sitting on his shoulders; not after he perforated both her thighs and threw her off himself. She watched and watched and watched and then, when he turned around towards Usagi to end her fight, she busted up.

"Yasuko, no!" Usagi screamed, but she couldn't hear anything anymore. Every sound drowned in the back of her head.

Running up at him, Yasuko's nails sneaked towards his eyes, fighting against the belt with supplies that was wrapped around his waist. She pulled at it as violently as he moved them from side to side in an attempt to get her off his space, but her feet were anchored to the ground and her teeth had been towering a murderous intent that snapped shut each time his gloved hands tried to push her by the neck away. It turned out to be brutal, hostile, just as aggressively driven as she had been polishing it since the first day someone had dared to put a blade up her stomach; Yasuko stored her anger like someone would store wine, uncorked, until the next sip became undrinkable, until all the bottle became undesirable.

With much more force than he had thought he would need, he finally pushed her away. Yasuko's back landed on the parallel wall, barely granted time to recover from the hit taking away her breath when the King of Spades straightened, stomping carelessly at her. Yasuko had only tasted blood once, but as he brought the knife up, she realized she had never stopped craving it since.

A sudden numbness took over the palm of her hand as she avoided the weapon to puncture her eye. She could've sworn she caught the red, shiny body of his knife twist from one side to the other, provoking her. Time wasn't as slow and quiet as it seemed, everything turned its volume up in a blink the same second their gazes met and he lifted a gun up to her head.

Yasuko had made a promise before. Nauseatingly alive, she had stood under a church's ceiling, pale and cold and revoltingly red; she had breathed out twice and the third broke down; she couldn't even remember what happened afterwards, except all she asked God was to forgive her for how badly she wanted that fury to gave meaning to her life. No one ever talked about how dangerous hope could be, how unconsciously self-consuming it really was. Back when she was just a regular lifeguard, she promised that only the ocean would take her last breath in that lifetime. And until then, she hadn't broken her promise, and not even then she was willing to.

Ignoring the aching pain coming off her injured hand, she let her fingers wrap around his fist just as her other hand grasped the handle of the knife she had been hiding on the back of her pants. Whether it had been the beat of emotion on his eyes or her blank stare, she used the glimpse of hesitation to swing her arm at his forearm, watching the blade break through flesh. The King of Spades' face contorted in discomfort as the gun's mouth moved along to the side of her head, pulling the trigger as a reflex.

Yasuko took advantage of it to put space between them by kicking him away, the knife was left impaled on her hand. He stumbled backwards a few steps before he regained his combat posture again, eyeing the blood that pooled at her feet.

"No gun." Her voice cracked, low like a growl, hungry of anger.

He studied her for a moment, and she felt the need to get ready to feel the warmth of a bullet cutting her open, but surprisingly enough, he obeyed. The firearm dropped to the floor as if it was a forgotten toy a kid no longer wanted.

A fair deal, she thought right before he sprinted at her, intercepting her challenging eyes as she let his arms coil behind her and take her backwards.

Ikehara and Yasuko had started sparring after the third day they spent together at The Beach. He was used to making fun of his opponents, and she was easily aroused, but not strong enough to land a basic jab to gauge the distance before following up with a hard cross, so they did a great job getting along. They became the other's sacred place, one they treasured and protected. It came to Yasuko's mind love was like light, warm and a little kinder than the King of Spades' bruising hands; warm and a little softer than her elbows pounding at the curve of his neck, his temple, his ears. It felt less hurting that way, eyes only focusing on the man hitting her torso as if someone somewhere could feel one bit calmer by her avoidance every time they called her name. She just wanted to make the world stop spinning, to not hear his voice, and not feel her neck hot under her gaze even miles away. Even time zones away.

Pushing him away, she slipped towards her front leg, removing her head from the centerline, and missed the punch purposefully. Then, she did it. Keeping her chin down, Yasuko shifted her weight, bending at her knees, and gave no attention to Ikehara's shouting at their backs. It was quick and effective, a lead uppercut from the side of her forwardmost foot that backed him up against the opposite wall he had her cornered at. As she brought her lead arm back to her chin, she watched him spit off blood to his left, readying to another round.

Boxing, Ikehara had once told her, was like slow dancing, like their usual sparring sessions. The key to getting the most out of it was to consider the other a real rival, fight like they would in any other physical game, using both footwork and defensive maneuvers while throwing punches. Speed and power weren't the only things to worry about, she had to have her eyes opened.

And so she followed his steps rounding her.

Wild and tender, Yasuko waited for the King of Spades to do no other than imitate her move. Out of the distance between her fists, he saw her smile. Rage happened to be a lead uppercut countered by a cross. Yasuko pulled her head back at the same time she threw the hit, landing it again on his chin, pushing him where Aguni raised a gun off the ground and he made himself with one of his own.

The King of Spades shot at the same time Aguni did.