Fire and Water | A Blue Eye Samurai Story

Chapter 17

A/N: Apologies in advance, but welcome to the longest chapter I've ever written. There's a lot of content in this chapter and by the end I think you'll see why. Thank you to everyone who's voted and commented so far. I love interacting with you all and I hope to read more of your comments! Happy reading and chapter 18 is on the way!

Ryuu and Mizu step out into the cold winter air to find a long stone walkway covered in snow. The brisk air quickly sends shivers down Ryuu's spine as small clusters of snow fall gently to the ground. Mizu limps next to Ryuu as they assess the danger for the third floor.

"This isn't what I was expecting," Ryuu mentions.

Mizu nods as she says, "Me either."

"I was honestly not expecting the outdoors. Though under different circumstances, I think this could've been calming," Ryuu adds with a chuckle in his tone. The pair cautiously walk up a flight of stairs to find another set about 20 feet ahead of them.

"Calming? You just ripped a metal spike out of my foot. I'd hardly call any of this calming," she says as she takes a step in front of him. Just as her foot hits the ground, it breaks open beneath her to reveal a large 10 foot by 10 foot spike pit. Ryuu reaches his arm out to grab on to Mizu's elbow to stop her from falling forward. Ryuu sighs with his shoulders and gives Mizu an exhausted look with his head dipped to the side.

"So, I may have spoken too soon," he says, further proving Mizu's point. "How about this, I jump across so I can catch you." Ryuu winces at his suggestion, realizing he's supposed to be letting her handle herself. "Should you need me of course."

Mizu holds out her hand to the spike pit as she says, "Be my guest." Ryuu smirks and shakes his head as he takes about 3 steps back. "Can you even jump that-" Before Mizu is able to finish asking her question, he sprints past her and leaps up into the air. Ryuu soars through the frigid winter air and looks as though he's floating. His arms rotate around as if he were trying to catch snowflakes from the air. Ryuu lands on the snow-dusted stone floor and he clears the 10 foot gap by an additional 5 feet, almost landing on the set of stairs on that side. "-far... Huh." Mizu smiles to herself as she realizes that he's a lot more athletic than he lets on.

"What? Was I not supposed to make the jump or did you think I couldn't do it?" he questions as he folds his arms across his chest.

Mizu begrudgingly shakes her head and rolls her eyes at him as she preps herself to make the jump across. She takes about the same amount of steps back as Ryuu did and she winds up to sprint towards the ledge. Ryuu unfolds his arms just in case he does need to catch her, while also preparing for her jump over the pit. He takes a half step forward and to the right so he is just barely out of her way. Mizu blows out a small breath of air that forms a little cloud just in front of her face, then dashes towards the ledge. On her final step, she leaps up into the air, barreling straight towards Ryuu. He watches as her arms flail around similarly to his when he made the jump, but her body is falling forward more than it should.

Oh shit. She's going to slip and faceplant the second her foot hits the stone. He watches as her eyes widen in fear with her momentum carrying her too far forward. As Mizu closes in to the platform where Ryuu is standing, she watches him bend his legs slightly and throw his arms out to the side. She's gonna be pissed, but I'd rather her be pissed than embarrassed. Mizu glances down at his arms and realizes that he's about to catch her. As her body continues to fall forward, Ryuu's arms catch her around the abdomen, pushing any air she had straight out of her lungs with a grunt. His foot slides backwards as he catches her entire body weight and it brushes up against the next flight of stairs.

Ryuu glances back at his foot to see how far he was from falling backwards, when he notices a small pool of blood surrounding Mizu's foot. Don't ask if she's fine, that's the last question she needs right now.