Hanabi

Chapter 42: Craze

A few seconds felt like an eternity. While that pair of red eyes settled on her, Haruna clutched the handle of the sword tighter with both hands. She could do this, she killed one of them already, she could kill another. She could kill all of them, she had this under control. As long as Mami had really stopped calling them, she had this under control. Or so she wanted to believe.

Haruna could still hear the familiar music, and that kept much of her confidence working. As long as Tomomi kept playing it, they had a possibility of getting out of that forest alive.

The Oni in front of her moved closer, its eyes glued on the smaller brunette and completely ignoring Rina, and it took a second for that to make sense in their heads. Haruna was the one holding Akai, there was a dead Oni still evaporating on the ground and the katana was still covered in black blood.

In that moment Haruna became a real threat, and as such had to be taken down. The Oni took a large step towards Haruna, growling, and raised one of its immense hands up above its head as if it were planning on squashing the girl like a bug.

The movement was fast, however Haruna was faster this time. When the hand was brought down in colossal strength, she escaped it in a jump to the side and ran towards the creature. It was all or nothing.

Her strike towards the creature’s ribs was met by one of its huge hands as it defended itself, but it came at a cost anyway, Haruna kept hold of the katana as it ripped through the pitch-black hand, tearing two fingers off. Rina immediately followed in her own course of action, running and then sliding under and in between the Oni’s legs while it was busy trying to smash Haruna for cutting its fingers. As the thing noticed Rina’s movement and that the kitsune was now behind it, it started to wave its arms all around in a complete lack of control, roaring aloud.

Haruna was hit this time, launched back at some distance, but never let go of the blade. Akai was the only thing she could effectively use, she wasn’t going to leave it while that was her responsibility. Rina ducked and escaped a powerful punch that missed the black truck by just an inch, and as she kept escaping, the Oni kept trying to hit her.

That until it remembered Haruna and stared back at her, and just when she was starting to feel confident in attacking it from behind. The shorter girl cursed aloud. It seemed like they were much smarter than she gave them credit for.

In the middle of all that mess Haruna could still hear the song, and while she faced the monster in front of her with all the ferocity she could put into her stare, she noticed the effects were getting heavier. As it roared at her again, the Oni looked into her eyes and Haruna could see it. The thing was angry and tired; the usually bright red eyes looked much darker and heavier. So that was it. The effects would only get worse for the Oni the more time passed.

They were still the most deadly things in the world nonetheless. There was no margin for any of them to feel safe yet, not even a bit.

Once again the Oni advanced towards her and she dodged its absurd hands in time to slash at its arm, opening a deep cut that spurt out more of that black blood, and the Oni moved its other arm in reflex, finally hitting Haruna and almost crushing her against the already damaged truck but ultimately only launching her on it. Several parts of her body started to hurt with the blow, but Rina took the Oni’s moment of distraction to jump on its neck and prevent it from attacking Haruna once again.