Guardians of the Light [Chapter Nineteen] Tokyo in Peril
Ryosuke was on the surface in no time. He stared and thought that Tokyo might’ve looked like this the whole time since the last World War. The sky was painted a dark gray color and lightning constantly moved along the horizon. The wind was cold, even colder than being inside the vessel. He became used to the cold feeling but this was different. There was an edge of familiarity on it. It was the presence of the Hollow.
Rain started to fall but people around him weren't aware of what was really happening. Some would stop and stare at him. A couple of girls smiled at him but he didn’t mind them. His eyes were fixed on the sky, as if looking at something. Then he looked for a place where no one would notice him. A secluded alley somewhere near Harajuku station was the perfect place. He moved his gaze around and when no one was present, turned into his Mist form and shot up the skies.
“What are we going to do now?” Ryutaro asked the others.
“Keito stop banging the cage with your brute strength because it’s giving me a headache.” Yuri groaned, kneading his temple.
“So what Yuri, we’ll just wait ‘til everything is over? We need to break this thing and help that jerk whether we like it or not. We are the effin’ Guardians! We need to finish this battle!” Keito shouted.
“Keito don’t shout too much! We are not deaf okay? We need to find a better way to get out of here.” Yuto spoke, running his fingers on the light cage.
“Okay, sorry.” Keito started to cross his legs and sit.
“I have an idea.” Yuri happily announced.
Ryosuke landed on a large piece of land floating in the middle of the sky where weird animals roam. It was Little Rock. The four pillars that surround the place emanated a spectrum of rainbow colors, connecting each beam to the other. In the middle where the pentagram was, the Triad stood. Toma, Jin, and Kazuya were intently looking at Ryosuke.
“Welcome, Ryosuke. I wasn’t expecting you to be here. Where are your friends? Are they dead?” Toma said in an unusually deep, gruesome voice.
“Save me the false courtesy. I’m here to finish you off for good.” Ryosuke said in full confidence, shoving away the hurt that the words sent him.
“Right… And how would you do that, eh?” A dose of arrogance was present as Jin spoke.
“Don’t agitate him Jin. He might cry.” Kazuya chuckled.
Ryosuke shifted uneasily.
“Toma, shall we?” Jin smiled as Toma nodded.
In a matter of seconds, Jin was in front of Ryosuke. The latter was astonished to move that Jin had the chance to connect a punch, making him wobble and fall backwards. He retaliated by giving a well executed roundhouse kick but Jin sidestepped, missing by just inches. Ryosuke whirled another kick, hitting Jin on the shoulder. The target backed down and grinned. A white blur made it past Jin and pushed Ryosuke with such great force that he was thrown back. Kazuya stood in his usual elegance and smirked.
“Guys, don’t overdo things. Wait for me.” Toma chuckled.
“No, leave this to us Toma. We can do this.” Jin beamed.
“I know you can. With the Hollow inside us, not even the bearer of the Light can stop us.”
“Then mind your own business, you-” Jin broke midsentence when a bright ray of light passed by his ear, missing a potential hearing-loss-bound life by an inch.
“Next time I aim I won’t miss.” Ryosuke declared fighting back the smile.
“You punk! You nearly hit my hair! I won’t forgive you!” Jin dashed to him and vanished. Ryosuke made his own move and vanished too. Later, booming sounds echoed in Little Rock. The battle was too fast that a normal human’s 20-20 vision couldn’t keep track.
Kazuya was about to move when Toma stopped him. “Let him have his own fair share of happiness. We’ll get our own chance later.”
The two men visualized. Ryosuke had a gash on his cheek with fresh blood running down his chin. He wiped it back and made another fighting stance. Jin on the other hand was unscathed, a steady grin on his face. He sighed and laughed.
“What’s the matter with the Light? Is it too dim?” another hysterical laugh waved in the air.
Ryosuke flinched as he felt a stinging sensation on his cheek. “Shut up you old man.”
“O-Old? Me? Old? Why you! You have gone so far! It’s time to kill you!” Jin bellowed, his eyes glistening an odd shade of black. He threw a straight fist but Ryosuke evaded it by sidestepping. He did a back flip, moving away from Jin. Then he jumped in the air and glared at Jin. The latter was thrown back to one of the crystal pillars, making the structure shatter into pieces. Ryosuke nodded and Jin was dragged on the ground and into another pillar. He flicked his finger. The pillar broke. Shards of the crystal remained afloat as Ryosuke twirled his fingers. He pulled back and the crystals followed. It appeared as though Ryosuke was inside a snow orb as the glistening objects gyrated around him.
“Nice trick kiddo.” Kazuya sniggered, staring at Jin who was gradually getting up.
Ryosuke just smirked and flicked a crystal to Kazuya. He bent over, dodging the attack, and cart wheeled. From his feet, dark orbs bounded by black lightning-like projections emerged. The orbs run into the crystals, making a collision. Ryosuke was blown a bit, making the crystals fall but he still managed to float unharmed. Kazuya backed away as Jin rushed past him, attacking Ryosuke.
Before he could even come in contact with Ryosuke, he doubled over as the latter did a speedy combination of kicks. The former grinned as the attacks missed him. He ducked as Ryosuke threw a punch. He then pushed his feet upward and gave Ryosuke a solid uppercut, hitting the jaw which snapped and made a sound like a branch falling off a tree.
Ryosuke dropped to the ground, a good amount of blood running down his lower lip. He cringed as pain crawled across his head when he tried to get up. However, he didn’t need to stand because Jin was already grabbed him by the seams of his white kimono.
“Who’s old now?” he grinned as he punched Ryosuke on the face, one after the other.
“Hey, Jin-chan. Stop playing around. Finish him already.” Kazuya ordered as he yawned.
He gave Kazuya a bright smile before facing Ryosuke back. A fist met him right in the face as he turned. His grip loosened on Ryosuke as he wobbled backwards. The once evil grin was wiped off his face as he tasted a bitter, fishy flavor on his tongue. He blinked an Ryosuke was in front of him, another well-placed fist connecting on Jin's cheek, which threw him a good distance far back. The punch was followed by a light ball, hitting Jin on the left shoulder, tearing the white cotton long sleeves. And as if that was not enough, Ryosuke controlled the shards of broken crystals once again and directed it towards Jin. A sharp blur moved in front of the stunned Jin and moved in an unbelievable speed, hitting every crystal that was aimed at them. In a matter of seconds, the place glittered with what looked like diamond dusts as Kazuya stood with a smirk.
“You shouldn’t have helped, Kame-chan. I can do it myself.” Jin spoke with sheer exasperation.
“You’re welcome silly. I’ll take it from here.” He smirked once more and puffed his cheeks. As he opened his lips, a long, red projectile shot out, headed for Ryosuke. The latter jumped back but was ensnared by something hot and wet on his wrist, dragging him in the air. His body met the ground with such a strong force that it made a large crater. Before Ryosuke could even breathe, he was pulled back in the air and then slammed to the ground again.
“Kame, don’t destroy the place.” Toma said, his face grim. Then an idea came to him that made him smile. “No, forget that. You can destroy this pathetic place. We will take over the world any time now. In fact, why don’t we take this battle down? We do plan to recreate the world.”
Kazuya and Jin looked at each other and smiled. Kazuya tilted his head to the side and pulled his tongue back, with Ryosuke still on the far end. He whipped his head back on time and Ryosuke fell off the edge of Little Rock, as Kazuya swallowed back his tongue. The Triad jumped off the place in a triangle formation with Toma in the middle.
Ryosuke’s body was like a heavy rock as he plummeted to the ground. A few meters more and he would be crashing like a nuclear bomb in the middle of Tokyo. He opened his eyes and turned over. He squinted and was slowly beginning to float. He directed his body to fly down.
“That's not your stop.” A voice shouted. As Ryosuke looked back, a blunt force connected with his body, accelerating his fall and ultimately hitting a large building with a large explosion. A couple of screams were heard as a group of people saw the building collapsed. It was the middle of the night but there were still people around Tokyo. Ryosuke’s body lay on the rubble of what used to be a building which has the name THE BAR imprinted in neon lights which was broken in half.
A couple of police officers in blue uniforms came closer to take a look, with a scared look on their faces. Ryosuke started to stand which alerted the police, having them pull out their guns.
“D - Don’t m - mo - ``!” The fat one said, his voice shaking along with his hands.
Ryosuke glanced at them and back at the descending Triad. The policemen looked up and gaped as they saw three persons gracefully going down from the sky. If not for the evil intents painted on their faces, they would’ve been mistaken for angels. Kazuya stared at the police and lazily tossed a white, hissing orb which appeared to be a plasma ball to the police. As the orb touched the man’s skin, he shivered, started to melt, and exploded into dust. His partner dropped the gun and frantically scurried away, before another plasma ball hit him at the back. He too exploded. The several onlookers screamed and started to run in different directions. The sound was drowned by Toma’s booming voice as he let out a hysterical laugh, upon seeing the people panic.
“Look at those pathetic fools!” he jeered. “Soon, the world will be ruled by the strong. All the weak citizens of this world will be eliminated.”
“Dramatic much?” Kazuya muttered as he rolled his eyes.
Ryosuke pushed his feet off the ground and darted towards Toma. He stopped midway as a plasma ball was aimed for him, evaded it, and threw his own light ball. Toma deflected the attack with just a wave of his hand.
“Is that all you can muster, Ryosuke? Well, what a pity. I think I could take you out easily just like before.” Ryosuke then knew that it wasn't Toma who was in charge of the talking. It was the Hollow. An aura of black fire covered Toma. A part of it shot forward and chased Ryosuke, who, from either out of instinct or experience, dodged away and floated to the air. A couple of attack-and-evade moves were made before Toma came near him and thrust his palms forward, hitting Ryosuke on the chest. He was thrown back to the ground, making a crater.
After the blow on Ryosuke, several explosions followed as the Triad threw plasma balls, one after another, hitting everything that surrounded them. Buildings collapsed and turned to ruble in a matter of seconds. A single plasma ball collided with the base Tokyo Tower that made the strong infrastructure lean to the side like it was the Leaning Tower of Pisa, on the brink of collapsing to the ground.
In a matter of minutes, what once was a glorious city sprawled with neon lights and towering buildings, Tokyo flared a mixture of bright yellow and orange tongues if flame. Several bodies were crushed under the pieces of broken boulders. Tokyo Tower was surrounded by dancing fire that it looked as if it would melt anytime. Ryosuke was unconscious. Toma stood at Ryosuke’s feet and smirked as he saw him not moving. Jin and Kazuya stood in their all-white brilliance a few feet away from them, over the ruins of what was once a coffee shop.
“And I thought you’d be stronger.” Toma mocked and conjured a plasma ball. He fondled with it before pulling back. As he was about to smash it to Ryosuke’s face, a wheezing sound shot towards Toma, making him jump back. An air sphere made a crater as it exploded right at the place where Toma once stood.
Amidst the burning city, four colors blazed in their Mist forms and stood around Ryosuke as a large clock stroke half past eleven.