In This World So Cruel

Chapter 6

Around a week after the "incident" Sasaki had fully healed and everybody had gotten their life back on track. While nobody had completely forgotten the incident it was now in the back of their minds. Since Sasaki was still recovering from the incident and a bit rusty so instead of Arima completely obliterating him in a spar Arima decided that Juuzou should spar so that Juuzou and Sasaki could get some training in. The rules were simple spar until one can no longer continue or one gives up. Juuzou was allowed to use his quinque but Sasaki was not allowed to use his kagune. They are not allowed to kill each other. With simple rules what could go wrong?

Juuzou couldn't wait to battle. He had heard that Sasaki was strong so he might be challenged. He even got to use his quinque! He didn't know what it was but Sasaki reminded him of a child he met before...maybe on the streets? Juuzou didn't know he didn't keep track of things like that. He tugged on the red thread by his lip. 'There's something familiar abou him but I don't know what' thought Juuzou. 'Oh well' Juuzou didn't really care as long as he got to battle someone strong.

Sasaki was sad. He had just finished healing up and hadn't been able to get in contact with the Quinx squad. He hoped that Akira had been helping them out but he had no idea if she even took a second to think about the Quinx squad. Sighing to himself he started to get ready for the spar. Doing his stretches and mentally preping himself he now was ready to spar. Before he left he checked his clock making sure he was on time. He was glad he checked. He had around an hour before he needed to leave and would have made himself look like a fool if he had gotten there that early. Sighing he pulled out his book that Arima had recommended to him and continued reading. Around fifty minutes later Sasaki put down his book and got ready to leave. He knew that he would be early but he couldn't focus on his book and the earlier he left the more time left in case of an accident.

There had been surprisingly little traffic on his way here and only one or two red lights he had to stop at so he got to the place about fifteen minutes earlier than he had expected. Arima and everybody else who were going to be observing the fight were already there. The only person who was missing was Juuzou the one he was supposed to spar with. One of the observers either was able to read the atmosphere or really liked cracking jokes because he soon said "Hey Arima. Isn't that the guy who screamed 'notice me senpai' in your office a few days ago?" Even the most stoic of guards let out a small chuckle while others fell over in laughter. Sasaki felt his face heat up in embarssement and even Arima dropped his stoic mask for a second to be suprised and then quickly put it back up. As the last of the guards were getting over the joke Juuzou burst in through the doors. "SASAKI" screamed Juuzou as he lunged at Sasaki. " hi" said Juuzou while still being on top of Sasaki. Sasaki told Juuzou to relax and that he could have candy after the spar. After all everybody at the CCG knew how long it took for Juuzou to finish his candy. Juuzou agreed with that and started getting ready for the spar.

Sasaki couldn't shake the uneasy feeling he got when he saw Juuzou's quinque. He believed that it was called Jason. The long scythe like quinque looked sharp and nasty to anyone but to Sasaki for some reason just the name made him feel a surge of fear and the quinque itself made his stomach do flips. Pushing down the uneasy feeling he decided to just spar anyway, after all there was no reason to be scared of it. The RC suppressants that would shoot at him if he were to use his kagune or loose control were much scairer than Juuzou's quinque.

Soon the fight had started and of course Juuzou was the fist one to make a move as he charged at him with a scythe almost bigger than him he doged and quickly counter attacked by trying to kick him in the side. Juuzou however was able to see through this move and quickly moved foward to get into a blanced position before charging in again. Both boys were fast with Juuzou being faster but the scythe limited his movement and decreased his speed giving Sasaki the slight advantage but so far neither boy had landed a hit on each other. As Arima and the others watched they noticed slight mistakes in footing or a bit of hesitation before attacking that most people would say didn't matter but a slight mistake like that in their line of work could get them killed. They all knew it was only a matter of time befor they realized each others mistakes or made some of their own.

Juuzou was the first one to make a mistake. He hesitated before he turned around after he had blocked an attack from Sasaki and reciving a nasty kick to the head as punishment. Juuzou had quickly cotton up and gone for a counter attack trimming his opponent into assuming that he was going for an attack with his scythe and instead using his flexibility to kick Sasaki in the face. If Sasaki was a normal opponent he would have been thrown off by the kick and forced to change his whole fighting style but since he was not a normal opponant this trick only worked once. After the first mistake the bay's had made many other mistakes that had helped them learn how to counter certain stragites other ghouls might use.

As the fight continued both boys had injuries but they were all either fall damage or bruises left from kicks and punches. Right before Arima was about to call the training session because both boys seemed tired Sasaki made a huge mistake. He had gone for a counterattack with a high risk and Juuzou had seen through it. While he was able to retrace this hand before he lost his hand his index finger had been chopped clean off. Juuzou stopped and Sasaki went to look at his hand and felt something run loose in his mind. 'A screw Maybe?' Thought Sasaki he had no idea why but he felt like laughing so he did. He threw his head back and let out a long insane sounding laugh. After he finished his fit of laughter he said "now it's my turn" as he charged at Juuzou. He didn't have his kagune out but he was a lot faster now and was landing hit after hit on Juuzou taking no damage to himself. When Juuzou finally was able to counterattack Sasaki started mumbling and screaming odd things "CRAWLING CRAWLING THROUGH MY BRAIN THE PLIERS ADDING TO MY PAIN" screamed Sasaki "mother the carnations have been dyed red". Juuzou withstood the furious barrage of attacks Arima and the observers stood there speachless. "Quick somebody" screamed Arima "you need to turn on the RC suppressants NOW". All he could do was watch Juuzou get beaten by the insane thing know vaguely as Sasaki Haise. " WhATs A thOUSaND MinUS seVEn" screamed Sasaki in a distorted voice. Soon after the RC suppressants were turned on and he passed out saying a few words be fore he did. "It's all my fault" he mumbled "I'm weak that's why everyone will get killed" he was now struggling to stay conscious but managed to say four words before he fell into a dream less sleep "I.... I will ...save ..... Everyone" he than collapsed. Arima knew he shouldn't has had Juuzou spar he knew that it was a bad idea but he went through with it. All he need to figure out now was how to explain what happened to Sasaki when he woke up.