Ruby Red

12

The opposing group spread out slightly and everyone equipped their weapons. I sprinted between them and shot Asteroid at the ground to create a smokescreen. The teams were now split up; half for Jin, half for me. Toma, Kazama squad, and Tachikawa's partner Izumi were left to me.

Toma jumped onto the roof in an attempt to run away.

"I don't think so." I jumped up after him with Kazama Squad on my tail. Izumi remained on the ground and shot a round of bullets from his palm. They were all accurate, but I dodged them without having to use my liquefying Trigger. Kazama gained speed and cut off my path to follow Toma and allowed him to get away. I activated my Radar but the sniper had already equipped Bagworm. "Fuck..."

Kazama Squad formed a triangle with me in the middle.

"You're trapped. Surrender now and avoid the consequences." I grit my teeth and released my fists from the tight squeezing I hadn't noticed I was doing.

"You underestimate me, Kaz." He scowled at the nickname.

"We've been training, you know. We're a lot stronger than we were two years ago."

"And I've just been sitting on my ass?" I scoffed at the group. "If you guys didn't think you could handle me then, you're definitely in for a show now." I smirked at the three. "Shinoda's been updating me on your team's progress. Third-ranked, congrats. But where you stand now, you can't beat me."

Kazama tightened his grip on his Scorpion. Izumi had now joined us on the roof beside Utagawa. He held his open palms toward me and Trion cubes appeared.

"You're gonna shoot me? Go ahead and try." He took that as his cue and fired bullet after bullet. I flipped through the air, just narrowly dodging most of them. Just when I thought it was over, a final bullet was fired in my direction. I didn't have time to move out of the way and ended up activating my liquid Trigger. The bullet passed straight through me and at Kazama who barely moved out of the way in time.

"What the hell?!" I turned to face Kazama again.

"I told you already." I held my gloved hand on my hip cockily. "You can't beat me." Suddenly, a Trion blade pierced my, still liquid, body from behind me. "Well, would you look at that..." I quickly wrapped my left leg around Kikuchihara's arm while his blade stayed in my body. No one dared to move and watched the scene before them. I squeezed his elbow between my calf and thigh and pulled downward. The small popping sound reassured me that I had successfully dislocated his shoulder.

"Asteroid." I shot a small round out of my palm and completely ripped the Trion arm from his body.

"Trion body limit exceeded. Bail out." Kikuchihara's body cracked before exploding into a stream of green Trion in the sky. I sighed.

"One down, four to go." I looked back at the boys who had now grouped together. "I really didn't want to do this, you know? In fact, I wasn't going to. But, as soon as I heard Kazama Squad was apart of this shit-squad from Jin, I knew it needed to be me to stop you."

"You don't have to," Kazama tried reasoning. "Just give us the Neighbor and this will be over."

"Are you thick? Hell no. I'm the kid's mentor and it's my job to protect him. You don't understand."

"He's a Neighbor; a threat. That's all there is to it."

"You're wrong." I shook my head. "He's a boy who lost his father who was a member of Border four years ago."

"You got your family taken away by them. How could you stand up for it?" Kazama's words shot my heart and made my eyes water. I grit my teeth and attempted to murder him with my gaze. If I wasn't pissed before, I definitely was now.