Chương 43: The Crimson Calamity

Kenji slammed into the side of the Taurus with the scrape of rending steel. Buckling inward beneath his weight, the door gave way just before the car rolled over the top of him in a shower of shattered glass. Through unblinking eyes, Kurisu watched his hand lower. Taking in the pale faces of his family, he felt the grit of the pavement grind against the rubber treads beneath his soles as his weight shifted sideways. Behind his ribs, his lungs expanded, his breath measured.

His vision traced the ruined intersection, stalling over the blackened mound that still held the haze of heat over it. No. No, no, no. Not again! Numerous soldiers surrounded him with weapons raised. The National Guard, was it? He tried to turn his head to look where Kenji had vanished. Stop.

"Hey!" Ace yelled. He and Kellevra dived toward Kurisu, both tackling at him as he lazily sidestepped their attempts.

"Kenji!" Gloria called out, taking a step toward her son before Roland grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back behind the cover of their own vehicle.

"Jesus Christ, Steven, what the hell is going on?"

"No idea! Kurisu, what's wrong?!" Steven called back, similarly pulling Charlotte behind the car. Sidestepping away from the center of the road, Cox drew his sidearm, barking into his comms.

"Suspect is hostile. I repeat, suspect is hostile. All units hold fire. Be advised, we have civilians in the crossfire." Teeth gritted, he directed his aim at Kurisu, held for a moment, and finally dropped his arms with a growl.

"Goddamnit, we need to get those kids out of there!"

"What the hell, man?" Ace shouted, his hands igniting as he spun toward Kurisu, Kellevra softening the ground to liquid under Kurisu's feet.

"Open fire!" the National Guard Sergeant screamed.

"Target is hostile! Drop him!"

"Don't shoot!" Charlotte screamed, pulling against Steven's grip. Tilting his head after evading another combined assault, Kurisu walked toward the rifle barrels. Muzzles bloomed, the expended flames expanding into crowns of light as a cluster of metal crept from the openings. Stopped in front of the stuttered fusillade, Kurisu leaned over the nearest hovering projectile, studying it while it spun through the air.

A tapered point the color of copper pushed a cone of air ahead of it, indicating a speed faster than sound, while helical grooves spiraled along the outside of the construct. The grooves coursed over a knurled indentation ringed around the midpoint before finally fading into the curved end, shaped like the stern of a boat.

Reaching out to the nearest projectile, Kurisu tapped the top of the tapered point, the downward strike severing the forward momentum instantly to drop the divested cylinder straight to the asphalt. Disregarding the remaining metal swarm, he pivoted on his heel, rebounding up a brick facade as the trailing bullets chipped into the stone beneath him. Fingers curled into hooks as he closed in on the line.

"Stop firing, you idiots!" Kellevra yelled, stomping the pavement to shield the soldiers with a wall of concrete. Furrows gouging into the reinforced stone, Kurisu tore the obstacle apart, splinters of rebar and concrete tearing beneath his fingernails. Through a gap torn in the barrier, wide-eyed faces stared back at him just before a pinch stung his forehead with a crack. The smell of sulfur and sweat accompanied the ragged breathing of a trembling soldier, a pistol clutched in his outstretched hand.

Several more pinches stung his skin as subsequent cracks rang out and the soldiers screamed. No, leave them alone! Kurisu's mouth opened wide in a feral snarl just as another soldier shoved something metal between his teeth, a metal pin dangling from her other hand.

"Get down!" she yelled, ducking and covering her head with the others. With a confused grunt, Kurisu pulled back from the barrier, still clenching whatever this was in his teeth. Was it food? Did they mean to feed him as a bargain for their pitiful lives? A slab of orange and red caught him in the side, barreling over him and burying him in a wave of molten rock as the thing in his mouth exploded. His face burned with pain, and his jaw felt wrong. His skin raw and tender under the blanket of lava.

Let that be enough. Everything is dark so maybe soon I can take control again. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. A scream tore from his throat, rattling the teeth inside his own skull as Kurisu's body vaulted from his heated burial. The sunlight blinded for a moment, and then he was in a shadow, blinking away the spots in his eyes just before a twisted black car crashed into his face, smashing him into a broken wall.

Snarling, Kurisu threw the piece of scrap metal away to find Kenji standing in front of him, chunks of concrete in each hand.

"Throw me into a car again, asshole, and I'm gonna lose it." Kenji led with his left fist, smashing the first chunk of concrete into Kurisu's skull, then immediately followed it up with the right. Materializing light into flaming brass knuckles, he continued to hammer into Kurisu's face.

"You got a damn problem? Get eaten by a spider and think you can act like a shithead? So you're scared, get over it! Oh, and the whole hair and eye color changing? Yeah, that's my thing, you poser. Besides, red just isn't your color." With a grin, Kurisu caught Kenji's right fist, then his left.

"Uh-oh," Kenji said as Kurisu raised his leg.

"Uh, snap out of it?" A side-kick to the ribs sent Kenji hurling through a light pole, toppling it. While Kenji stumbled to his feet, arm clutching his ribs, Kurisu cackled. Striding toward the flung boy, the sound echoed off the stone as a red glow intensified around his body, focusing into the palm of his right hand. Purple lightning arced across his neck, the choker constricting, choking him as the red glow flickered out.

Eyes wide, Kenji grabbed the fallen light pole and, swinging it like a baseball bat, hit Kurisu in the head. Through the hit, Kurisu snarled, gripping the pole and yanking Kenji off his feet, the two colliding before they hit the pavement.

"You can help out, anytime guys!" Kenji shouted. His jaw, snapping at Kenji's jugular, sent a shock of pain through Kurisu's system. Oh, I would appreciate you not doing that with my body. Forearm shoved under his chin, Kenji checked Kurisu's bite before rolling with the momentum and shoving them back to their feet. Clinch broken, Kenji threw a cross, whipping Kurisu's head back. Spinning with the blow, Kurisu swept a leg under Kenji's guard, catching him by the ankle and knocking him to the ground.

"Ace? Kellevra?" Kenji called out, Kurisu raking furrows into his arms as he blocked from the ground.

"On it!" Kellevra called out before a piece of concrete slammed into Kurisu's side, knocking him away from his target. Under a curtain of flame, Kurisu blinked, smelling his own burning hair, dull impacts peppering his back as Kellevra shot stones at him. Kenji was rushing him again. He stepped back, dodging Kenji's lunge, and brought a knee up into Kenji's gut, leaving him suspended in the air before spinning around to throw a butterfly kick into the boy's face, sending him skipping away.

After slamming his shoulder into Ace's chest, knocking the younger boy through the brick wall of the adjacent building, Kurisu hoisted Ace overhead. No! Put him down! Kurisu threw his conscious will at his body, pounding into it again and again. Yet his grip clamped tighter. Through his fingertips, he felt the twitches in his muscles as his body moved, the strain in his shoulders as he drove Ace head-first into the ruined brickwork. A sharp crack echoed through the dust, and the struggling boy went limp.

Turning, Kurisu released his grip, letting the body fall to the ground.

"No!" Kellevra screamed as he charged in. From the pavement, a stone pillar erupted, catching Kurisu under the jaw to lift him off the ground, rattling his brain against his skull. Still airborne, Kurisu pivoted, shattering the pillar with a single strike. Ducked inside Kellevra's guard, he seized the boy's left arm and twisted the joint until the elbow popped with a crunch, then stomped the side of Kellevra's knee, forcing him to the ground with a howl.

Casting a shadow over the kneeling boy, Kurisu raised his foot, a kick landing on the back of his neck. Without looking, Kurisu snatched the incoming ankle, crushing it in his grip before slamming Kenji into the pavement, then flinging him up to smash into the ground on the opposite side. With Kenji's arms pinned beneath his knees, Kurisu sat on the younger boy's chest as fist met face; the first strike crushed the cheekbone, the second split the lip, the third cracking his nose.

As his knuckles split Kenji's skin, Kurisu felt the warmth of his friend's blood splatter across his face. This is a nausea that will never see relief. An itch I can never scratch. I drown, my arms refusing to swim, my mouth opening to let the water in as I watch my own hands butcher those I care for.

"Kurisu… please," Kenji choked out, blood bubbling past his lips. Above Kenji's chest, Kurisu raised his arms, locking his hands together into a hammer-blow, his body glowing with a red hue once again. The collar flared, violet electricity coursing throughout Kurisu's body, stalling him as his muscles seized, the glow again receding. Kenji blinked at Kurisu's frozen form, then with a grunt, he drove his Ki charged left fist upward, into the point of Kurisu's chin.

The impact snapped his head back in a flash of white and flame, the light of his vision tunneling before going black.