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UPON AGUNI'S ORDERS, ARISU and Akuji set off sprinting as fast as they could through the forest. The floor underfoot was uneven and many roots, logs and other annoyances stood in their way. Still, they pressed on harder - branches whipping their faces, their lungs heaving as they tried to keep up with the King of Spades.
Suddenly, the King stopped. So did Arisu and Akuji, and they sprayed him with gunfire. Arisu shot his legs five times but only hit once, whilst Akuji used two of her four bullets by shooting his shoulders. She hit both times before ducking behind a tree as the King raised his own firearm toward them.
Gunfire hit the tree Akuji was hidden behind, sending splinters and leaves flying. A chunk of wood was heading toward her and she barely ducked in time.
Her lungs hurt, her legs hurt, her mind hurt. It was hard to keep up with people considerably older than her and clearly more experienced with fighting. Still, she allowed herself a moment where triumph and pride flooded her body at the fact she had successfully scored two shots on the King, before she furrowed her eyebrows and forced herself to focus again.
The gunshots aimed at Akuji suddenly stopped. When she peered around the side of her cover, she realised the shots were now aimed at Arisu. Luckily, he had the same idea and was hidden behind a tree, safe for now.
Realising she had an opening to shoot, she did so. She aimed for the King's head but her aim was off due to her shaking hands, and she missed it by a few centimetres.
Akuji angrily cursed herself under her breath, her mind throwing insults at her. She hid behind her tree again, checking her bullets and hoping, praying, she had counted wrong - but no, she only had one bullet left.
"Arisu, run!"
Akuji looked over to see who shouted, what was going on, if Arisu was okay - but all she saw was a flare of light from the grenade.
It was like a million different flashes from a camera went off at the same time. Her ears hurt, her eyes hurt, and her head was in agony. She reached up to grasp it, as if it would heal the pain she felt, but she immediately pulled away when she felt something wet and slippery on her hands. Akuji stared at her hands and she knew there was a substance on it, but it was too dark to see what it was. However, she knew something that felt the exact same: blood. She was bleeding.
Her head spun. Her vision was shaky and the whole world was slanted to the right. She reached up to touch her head again, thinking she could maybe stop the bleeding. Instead, she felt something sharp stuck in the side of her head.
She tugged it out of the wound it had created, tossing it to the side. Akuji blinked a few times. Her vision was getting better already, but her balance was getting worse - her knees buckled underneath her and she fell backwards.
Luckily, she landed on the soft, muddy floor, preventing any more injury to her. She lay there for a few moments, curled up into a feeble ball as her vision returned to normal and her ears stopped ringing.
She could still hear gunshots and she knew she had to continue fighting. After hauling herself onto her unsteady feet, her head whipped from side to side as she searched for the King of Spades.
Despite the blood seeping into her eye and blocking her vision, she could still watch in horror as Aguni was knocked to the floor by the King. The King moved in for the final kill - but out of nowhere, Akane kicked him away with her prosthetic metal foot.
It dazed him for a moment, giving Akane time to land safely on the floor, but then the King was fine again and pointing his gun at her.
Akuji didn't even think.
She just gripped her revolver tighter, sprinted over there and shot at the King. She missed but the gunshot still caught her enemy's attention. The King turned, and now his attention was on her, not Akane. Still, Akuji kept running. She barrelled into the King, shoving him to the floor.
In an instant, her knife was in hand and she was stabbing his face, his arms, his shoulders; anything she saw, she stabbed. She wasn't sure if the blood she was seeing was from her wounds or his.
And then, she was thrown off. She hit a tree, then she fell to the floor.
Pain shot through her spine. It was if it been electrocuted, stabbed and shot at the same time. She tried to get onto her hands and knees to crawl away, but it was no use. Every time she attempted to do so, she collapsed back onto the floor again.
And what was worse was that the King of Spades was stood over her, his pistol pointing straight at her forehead.
It seemed right in some way. It felt right to Akuji that she was paying for her previous mistakes: she was now going to die, like she had made others die, just so that she could live for a few days longer. It was even more fitting for her that she was going to die trying to save Akane. This was karma. Akuji was paying for what she had done to her best friend.
And she realised in that moment that she was fine with dying. She wasn't worried or scared, she was grateful. It would all be over soon. There would be no more lies, no more manipulation, no more fighting.
Everyone she loved was gone or dead. She was sure Arisu had been blown up by that grenade and Usagi and Kuina had left her and, as much as she hated thinking about it, Akuji was sure her mother would be able to get through another funeral of her loved ones. And Akane, the person who all this fighting was for, hated her. They would never be close again. Hell, Akuji was sure Akane was going to die right alongside her in this fight. Akuji quite liked that. Maybe they would never be together in the afterlife when Akuji went down to Hell and Akane went up to Heaven, but at least they would be together for a few seconds before that.
So, Akuji closed her eyes, praying that it wouldn't hurt like everything else in this world, and waited for the final blow.
But it didn't come.
Her eyes flew open when she felt two arms tug her to her feet, dragging her away as they sprinted as fast as they could. Akuji saw the King in the distance, an arrow stuck in his neck, and she realised that the person carrying her was Akane.
Akane had saved her.
Just as Akuji came to that conclusion and a smile spread across her face, Akane suddenly tripped and she, Akuji and Aguni were tumbling downhill. Mud, sticks and leaves flew up around them, dislodged by their weight.
Akuji's ears began to ring and her vision blurred once more, and once they came to a sudden stop after they hit a tree, everything went black.
AUTHOR NOTES akuji & akane saving each other >>>>>>> also i love the idea of arisu being a father figure or maybe older brother figure to akuji 💞 like he really is one of the few people she cares about :,) anyway akuji might be dead lolol
