Erase

Act 31: The Ambush

'It's... you..." Said Shino.

Shino looked around to see who, or what was about to attack her, and what she saw... was a familiar face, or rather a lack of it.

The full-body black leather clothes, the helmet. No doubt, it was Saten, back to settle unfinished business with her from a few months ago.

"What do you want... from me...?" Said Shino.

Saten did not speak. Instead Saten points their hand toward Shino, before slowly making a cutthroat gesture, indicating that what Saten wants... is Shino's death.

Saten then slowly walks towards Shino, who slowly steps back, as she reaches toward the pockets of her purple hoodie and pulls out her trusty pair of scissors.

"S-Stay back..." Said Shino. "I'm warning you!"

Saten raises the chain on their right hand and proceeds to whip it toward Shino. Shino closes her eyes and shields herself from the attack... only to feel nothing. She heard a clanging sound, indicating that it it someone... but who could it be hitting?

Shino opens her eyes and saw a familiar face.

"Y-You...! Said Shino.

As it turns out, Haruki was blocking Saten's attacks to defend her.

"You wanna hurt Shino, then you'll have to get through me first!" Said Haruki.

Saten wasn't too pleased with Haruki's intervention.

"Vermin scum... you must die." Said Saten.

Saten raises their chain again and stars whipping Haruki around. Haruki stood still as he endures through the pain, just to make sure that Shino is safe.

Finally, Saten takes a big swing toward Haruki, this time successfully swatting Haruki away, sending him flying toward Shino.

"NO!" Shouted Shino, as she saw Haruki flying away.

Overcome with emotion from seeing Haruki get brutally beaten down by Saten, Shino pulls out her pair of scissors and rushes toward Shino.

Not to be deterred, Saten proceeds to raise their chain once again and starts whipping it all over. Shino proceeds to dodge Saten's attacks, save for the last one, which sent Shino flying away.

As they proceeded to incapacitate both of their enemies, Saten starts to feel bored about the whole thing.

"This is worthless." Said Saten. "Saten has much better things to do than this."

With those words said, Saten walks out of the alleyway, and hops onto their motorcycle, which was parked just a few meters away. Saten then revs up the motorcycle's engine as they run off.

By the time Shino had began to recover from her injuries, Saten was gone.

"H-Hey... I'm not finished with..." Said Shino.

Shino tries to catch up, but she proceeds to twist her ankle as she tried to get up. It was then that she noticed Haruki lying beside her, unconscious after his injuries. Shino crawls towards Haruki and tries to wake him up.

"Hey... Wake up..." Said Shino, with a tone of utter concern in her voice. "Don't die here... please."

"No... No, this isn't happening...!" Shino continued, sounding more and more terrified as time went on. "Wake up... please wake up!"

When Haruki still didn't wake up, Shino hangs her head down, as tears start flowing down her face.

"No... it's my fault..." Said Shino, in between sobs. "Another life taken away... because of me..."