##

Mother cocked her head, listening to the aftershocks racing through the ship.

Behind her the engine screamed and whined as it began to race. Somehow held.

“Impressive.” She sneered at Soujirou and Shuriken. “That stupid ninja managed to succeed. Won’t matter if you two can’t destroy the engine repairing the damage…”

“Don’t you ever shut up?” Soujirou interrupted.

Mother roared and pounced…Soujirou just standing there…

As she suddenly crashed to the ground.

Shuriken sweatdropped.

Soujirou shrugged. “Try again?”

Mother hissed and did so…Soujirou just standing there as before…

And this time she tumbled past him, her right arm flying across the room.

“Wait a damn minute…” Shuriken muttered.

Soujirou stared at her in contempt as she grew another arm.

And this time…She felt the sword react…

*I shoulda known…*

They went at it again…Soujirou deflecting each attack with ease…as if he already knew what was coming…

According to the amulet, the Swordmaker had created other famous weapons. One of these was actually rumored to manipulate time, altering its appearance match it’s wielder until he could control it…

She stared at Soujirou, ‘examining’ him. *Yes…He’s only able to use it for a moment…but with his speed it makes no difference!”

The severed limb rejoined the fray…Soujirou turning his back on Mother to cut it down before it backstabbed him…A costly mistake as Mother hammered him down the floor…slammed him again and sent him skidding across the room…wide open as she spat a fireball…

“CONTAIN!!!”

Shuriken had come out of nowhere…standing arms crossed in a guard stance as her Oversized throwing star unfolded and fanned out…vacuuming in the flames as it spun around her like a shield...Shuriken swinging her arms clockwise as the weapon reversed spin and unleashed the flames right back at the surprised Mother with a thrust of her hands…Actually pushing her back from the force of the blast…Shuriken already on top her in a wild frenzy of kicks and slashes before the beast could recover…

“I’m the only one who can hit him, Bitch!”

Mother managed to shake Shuriken off…realizing too late that she was only a diversion as Soujirou’s sword buried itself in her gut before ripping sideways viscously…black blood and something probably important flying across the room…Closely followed by a rain of Kunais into every vital area…one even stabbing into her eye…

Yet all it did was slow her down…already regenerating…

Mother was on top of Shuriken before she knew what hit her…slashing her across the back before using her to piledrive Soujirou into the floor again…Shuriken having time enough to see Mother’s massive tail dropping to finish the job…

Reality spun.

…The tail smashing nothing but engine parts.

Soujirou landed on the other side of the room, cradling a very surprised Shuriken.

*The sword again.*

Mother just stared.

Shuriken had felt it when Soujirou tapped the power again. Nearly made her sick. Soujirou himself didn’t look so hot…stumbling against her after he set her down…

*It’s hurting him…*

“Are…you all right, Miss Shuriken?”

“Never mind me!” She hissed. “You should stop using that thing before you’re ready! You could-“

He shushed her with a finger on her lips. Smiled that smile that both infuriated and inflamed her.

“I know. Merlin warned me of the danger…But I have no choice…” Something smoldered in those eyes that the smile refused to touch. “…If I am to protect you…Miko.”

She didn’t know what she wanted more. Kill him or Kiss him.

Mother went and ruined the moment.

“So that annoying weapon still exists. Don’t get too confident, boy. It didn’t help its last owner much!”

Smiling, she dropped to all fours. Planted her weight and roared with laughter.

Convulsed violently…

And with a disgusting splash of slime and foul smelling gases, Her tail yawned open and these things dropped onto the floor, too grotesque to even describe…

Soujirou and Shuriken exchanged a look that said it all.

Charged with a battle cry.

##

“You’re slacking, Clucker!”

All Sano could do was struggle to breathe…The Silk ‘twins’ dragging him down the street at breakneck speed…slowing only to punt him back and forth between the two of them…

“Heads up!”

They slingshot him through the air…Sano howling curses as he bowled over several shop stands…almost on his feet again when they descended with a chain in each hand…laughing as they proceeded to whip him mercilessly…

Yet Sano refused to stay down.

It looked like thousands of invisible hands striking him as The twins sped up…His shirt reduced to bloody rags…Blood fountained as flesh was flayed to the bone…His body screaming with agony…

Sano rose to his knees.

The whips became a blur.

Then to his feet.

The twins’ laughter became a roar…

…As He grabbed the whips with his bare hands…and yanked.

The surprised pair literally splattered as they slammed together.

A roaring Sano swung the mishmash of limbs into a building…A dazed Silk managing to reform to her original form when Sano tore into her…each blow so powerful that the building eventually crumbled around them from the shockwaves…Silk wrapping her hair around her fist like a iron glove as she uppercutted Sano in his gut…

Sano managed to spit blood on her suit as he was launched upward.

Silk somehow flipped over him…wrapped a chain around each of his arms as she planted her foot in the small of his back…Sano’s world spinning as she executed some kind of twisting grappling maneuver…White hot lightning screaming through Sano’s nerves as she stomped/piledrove him into the pavement…folding him almost in half as she pulled at the same time of impact…Kept pulling and ground her foot harder…

Sano yelled…And pulled back.

“Na-ni?!”

Despite the greater leverage, Sano actually began to pull his arms forward…overpowering her…An insane tug-o-war breaking out until Sano let go without warning…Silk caught off guard by the sudden slack and stumbling back…Sano spinning to his feet at the same moment…

The crack of that desperate punch heard even over the storm.

Two buildings suffered before Silk finally slowed to a stop.

Sano collapsed to his knees, holding his sides as he gasped in agony.

Silk staggered to her feet. Actually grunted and swore and yowled with pain as she literally reshaped the flattened side of her face and replaced her jaw and eye.

“Son of A BITCH! Whoo!” That one had hurt her, and she wasn’t as steady on her feet as before. But that manic glee had survived unchecked. “That’s more like it, Chickadee! You’re finally getting serious!” Her sneer was horrible to behold. “After all, it won’t be as much fun skinning that sweet little bitch of yours after I finish with you!”

Exhaustion and pain withered before the white-hot rage that erupted within Sano. All he saw or heard was the behemoth before him, her crude words clawing through his sanity like his heart tried to his chest.

Silk saw the change in Sano. Basked in it as she kissed at him.

His bandanna danced on some mysterious wind only he felt. A sound more primal than human tore free from his throat as he cleared the distance in seconds.

The cobblestones boiled away from the explosive chi they generated. Aftershocks rocked the town with every blow landed or blocked. Both were going at it hammer and tongs now… no taunting or showboating…something below even a common slugfest that even the howling storm could not match in ferocity as the fight carried on toward the docks…

Silk managed to block the frenzy of kicks, knocking down Sano in midair with a viscous punch. Sano was back on his feet in an instant…planting a leaping headbutt to her jaw as she attempted to stomp him and smoothly dropkicked her for good measure…Silk staggering back only to rush him again with a roar…clothelining him out the air and slinging him down hard enough to bounce…yanking him out of the air and throwing him like a rag doll through the air onto the main dock…Srolling onto his feet this time as she cleared the distance in one giant pounce…lifting him high over her head as she raised her knee to break his back…

Halfway down Sano hooked his arm around her shoulders and neck. Threw all his weight forward.

Overbalanced, Silk flipped over hard onto her back.

Sano rolled to his feet above her, pausing balanced on one foot as he pulled back his fist to enjoy that surprised look on her face.

“SANJO NO KAWAMI!!!!”

The entire town felt that one. Saw the pillar of water that erupted skyward too.

Sano stood over the giant hole he blasted her through. Slowly counted to ten…

…As Silk erupted from below him…hopping backwards…but unprepared for the support pillar Silk wielded with ease…spearing Sano in the gut and sending him tumbling down the dock…Sano sucking air into his injured lungs as she pounded toward him…makeshift club high…

…And smashed only timber.

Sano spun in midair, pulling of his bandages with one smooth motion and…

CRACK!

Silk bellowed in pain. *Oh no you did not-*

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The seemingly worthless bandages became an effective weapon. Sano snapping them rapid fire with deadly precision every time Silk even raised her weapon to make her dance with pain.

“How ya like that, bitch?!” CRACK!

Silk dropped the club, Sano pushing her toward the end of the dock.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

“Who’s ya daddy?” CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! “WHO’S YA DADDY?!”

Silk screamed and lunged blindly…Sano maneuvering around it with ease…wrapping the bandage around the arm and slamming his knee against the elbow viscously…Ignoring the crack and scream as he flipped over atop her shoulders and pulled, choking her with her own broken limb…

“Can’t hear you. ” He hissed.

Silk coughed…Her bloody grin horrible to behold…

“OK.”

For lack of a better term, Silk reversed herself front to back…A surprised Sano now facing her before she slammed him down and threw him through the air again…Snapping her arm back into place and unleashing a hail of chains at him as he flipped away from her…Destroying more and more the dock as he dodged until it finally began to crumble around them…

Sano and Silk didn’t even care…going at it again…

Silk locked Sano in a full nelson…slowly crushing his shoulders and chest…”I’ve never had to work so hard to wring one damn chicken’s neck!”

“So…I’m..a stubborn bastard…” Sano planted his feet, grabbing her arms and gathering his strength. “EAT ME!”

He pulled up his body enough to slam his feet down…the explosive force of the Futae no Kawami catapulting them airborne…Sano twisting them around in midair to slam into one of the surviving docked ships…Silk first of course…

Both rolled away from each other. More concerned with breathing than fighting as they stood.

This was it. Both knew it as they glared at each other. They had beaten each other into exhaustion, with little left to challenge the other.

Both grinned at each other in anticipation.

Seconds out: This round would be the last.