Aspect Of Ruin

Kinu Saki

A man in an expensive suit runs down the dimly lit street, rain lashing against his face. He looks behind him and turns into an alleyway. He leans against the wall and rests for a moment, catching his breath.

He peeks around the corner, adjusts his suit, and begins walking through the alley. Right when he's about to exit, a shingle falls from the roof above, landing right in front of him. He stumbles back with a gasp and looks up. Darkness. He quickly resumes walking towards the exit, and as lightning flashes, the entire street is illuminated. Standing before him, cutting off his exit, is a silhouette.

The man turns to run without hesitation, and a shing can be heard. He falls to the ground, letting out a scream. He turns over to look up at his hunter, who is standing about a foot away, katana in hand.

He looks down at his leg, which is bleeding. He feels no pain from it, but it feels wrong. Like something foreign had entered. He looks back up at the man before him. "DON'T! PLEASE!"

Lightning strikes again, making the silhouette far more intense, lightning him from the back. It seems he didn't have a shirt on. His hair was messy, his pants were a little baggy, and he had something on his forearms.

As the thunder rolls across the sky, the figure steps forward, sheathing his blade. He holds out his hand for the man to take it, and he helps him to his feet.

The man can see his face now, or he could have if the figure wasn't covering his mouth. Still though, he had a soft expression, no hate or rage.

"What is your name?" The figure asked.

"Uh- K-Kaii."

"Kaii . . . That's a nice name. I am Kinu." The figure responded.

Kaii steps back and almost falls, but Kinu catches him.

"Apologies for the wound, I didn't mean to cut so deep." Kinu says purely.

"What do you want with me?" Kaii asks, his voice trembling.

Kinu adjusts his stance, appearing more friendly. "Nothing with you in particular, I simply need a location, one you have."

Kaii looks to the side. "I-I can't, I swore I-"

"You misunderstood." Kinu tightens his grip. "I'm not asking, I'm demanding. You are not the only one with this knowledge, so I do not need you alive."

"No! No, please, I- I have a family! You can't!" Kaii yells out, trying to be heard.

"As do I." Kinu stands firmly, unwavering. "I understand what is at stake, which is why it is so important you tell me. So that you may go back to them."

"I- I- okay, alright! Head to -" With a loud bang, Kaii is cut off.

Kinu looks down, and a bloody hole is now in Kinu's neck.

He turns around, trying to dodge what he knows is coming next. He gets hit in the left shoulder and quickly draws his blade. He looks up to the rooftops and thinks. He stands there, facing the direction of the shots, counting. As soon as the next one comes, which he barely moves in time for, he runs up to one of the walls and begins using all the leverage he can to climb.

He's quick and efficient, but not quick enough. Just before he can get to the top, he tries to dodge another shot. It hits him on his right side, almost making him fall. He grabs on to the edge of the roof and tosses his sword up. He swings to the side and uses his momentum to hoist himself up as some shingles fall to the ground below.

He sprints over to his sword and slides across the ground to pick it up, barely dodging another shot. He runs scross the rooftops, getting closer and closer to the sniper. Suddenly, an unexpected shot hits him in the mouth, shattering his mask, a shard of which cuts just below his eye, and another gives him a gash across his chest. Half the normal time later, another shot came, but luckily, they missed by just a few inches.

He sprints as fast as he can, and when he's two rooftops away, three men climb up in front of him, blocking his path. They all draw their blades and spread out a little. Kaii holds his blade with one hand, trying not to overuse his left arm.

One of the men ducks down, and a second later, a shot comes. This one was easy to dodge, though.

As this happens, the other two men rsuh towards him at the same time. Some letters appear on Kinu's blade, but they are unrecognizable. The letters glow white, and his blade ignites in flames. He spins around, cutting one man's hand off in a single fluid motion, dodging another shot immediately after. The man screams and falls to his knees, his sleeve catching fire. He clashes blades with the second man, but he's overpowered in terms of strength since he's only using one arm.

He gets pushed back and almost falls as another shot hits his blade, knocking it from his hand. He jumps to the side, dodging a jab from a blade, and the third man rushes towards him.

Kinu kicks the third guy back, causing him to get shot in the back. He collapses with an odd noise.

Kinu grabs his secondary blade, one which is a bit shorter than his primary. He blocks another swing, then ducks down to avoid getting shot. He jumps and rolls to the side, picking up his flaming blade, which goes out after a moment. He sheaths his secondary blade and feigns a lunge, pulling back as a bullet shoots past where he would've been. He easily deflects another swing and slices the man's neck.

Kinu wastes no time, turning and running before his body even hit the ground. He jumps over the burned corpse of the second man and leaps onto the next rooftop, continuing his pursuit. Finally, after dodging another few shots, he arrives at the building to find two men. One with a gun at his feet, arms raised, and another aiming at Kinu.

"You can't dodge from this range!" The man laughs nervously to himself. "Pick up your gun, man!"

"Don't." Kinu says. "You put yours down."

"And let you kill us? Why would we do something so stupid? Drop the sword, you're coming with us. And you, pick up the damn gun!" The man screams.

The other guy shakes his head, arms still up.

"Alright, I know when I'm beaten." Kinu drops his sword, the base of the blade resting on his shoe.

"Good. And since you don't want to pick up the gun, you go get him!"

The other man shakes his head again. "I don't want to risk it. What if he has blades in his gloves or something?"

"Hm. Smart guy." As the gunman looks over at his friend, Kinu kicks up the blade and ducks down, dodging the impulse shot. He rushes forward, slicing his belly, and as he stumbles back towards a wall, Kinu twirls his blade and decapitates him, splashing the wall with red.

He turns and looks at the surrendered man. "I hope you stay smart."

With that, he sheaths his blade and walks off, needing to find another source of information.