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THE BULLET HOLES THAT littered Akane's body gushed blood. She gasped. Then, she fell.
"Akane!" Akuji screeched.
Her heart stopped in that moment. Akane couldn't die; she couldn't. Not when they had only just started to reconcile, not when they had only just started to love one another again. Akane couldn't die. Not now. Not ever. Akuji wouldn't let her die.
Not even thinking, overpowered by a pure need to save her best friend, Akuji flung herself at the King. She landed on his back. The girl wrapped one arm around his neck, attempting to choke him, whilst the other arm pulled out her knife. She stabbed his head, his shoulders, his face – anything she saw, she stabbed.
It was him or Akane. Akuji would do anything to save Akane, like setting herself on fire.
Like getting herself killed.
The King flipped Akuji onto the ground. The wind was knocked out of her and she lay there, breathless. Gasping, she forced herself onto her hands and knees.
A bullet ripped through the side of her body.
She screamed in agony. It felt like the wound was on fire. In a way, she was fire. Her anger was hot and boiling like a volcano, her guilt released a smoke that made it hard for her to breathe — and now, her ambitions were burning her into nothing but ash.
Without wanting to, Akuji crumpled onto her stomach. She struggled to breathe. The smoke was wrapping around her throat, choking her.
This couldn't be it.
She needed to live.
Forcing herself back onto her hands and knees, the girl tried to crawl away, but she was roughly kicked back down before she could get far. Another harsh kick rolled her onto her back.
The King pointed his gun at her face and she knew that this was it. This was her end.
She began to softly cry. Akuji didn't want to die. She knew she was awful and evil and she had done cruel things to survive, she knew she deserved it. But she still wanted to live. She wanted to live so that she could get to know Ann, spend more time with Kuina, laugh with Usagi again, reconcile with Arisu, be with Akane for the rest of her life. She still had so much time left.
Akuji needed to spend the time she had left.
Another sharp pain was delivered to her in her stomach. Kuina had leaped at the King, kicking his head in mid air. His balance was thrown off and he had ended up shooting Akuji's stomach, not her face.
Kuina shoved the King to the floor, jumping on top of him and punching him repeatedly as she yelled, "Don't hurt her, you monster!"
The King flipped her over and suddenly, she was bleeding. She screamed. Her hands flew to her stomach as the King's knife retracted from her skin.
Wait, it wasn't even his. It was Akuji's knife.
"Kuina!" Ann screamed. Before she could even aim at the King, she was gunned down, too.
They were losing.
No, they had lost.
Or had they? Was there hope left for them yet?
Letting out a roar of pain and madness, Aguni hauled himself to his feet. His face was painted with Akane's blood. He tackled the King into the wall, holding his arm to his throat as he attempted to choke him to death.
The King pulled out a pistol and tried to shoot him, but Aguni grabbed his wrist and they began to grapple for the gun.
Aguni managed to win after punching the King in the face so many times his entire nose and mouth was coated in blood. He held the gun to the King's head, about to kill, but the King managed to dodge. He snatched the firearm from Aguni's grasp.
Aguni grabbed the King and threw him to the side. He grabbed the King by the throat, pulling him into the air as if he weighed nothing, before slamming him back down onto the ground. Repeatedly.
Aguni tossed the King across the alley so that he was flung onto the opposite wall. The King was barely phased and shot the gun.
Killing Aguni.
Usagi, who had been waiting for the right time, grabbed the pistol from Ann. She fired it at the King. She missed but then rushed toward the King. Shoving him to the ground, she punched him, elbowed him, smashed his head onto the ground.
She did everything she could but she was stabbed, too.
