Tales of a Lost Sword 32

Episode 32 Turn off the Dark 3
The door to Ryuu’s office shudders for a moment, and then squeaks open. A pair of mud-covered boots enters the room. Ryuu sighs, taking off his well-worn trench coat and hanging it on a hook behind the door. He switches on the light in the dimly-lit room, revealing a figure already lazily leaning against his desk.

“Welcome back, Ryuu,” Fayvard says, his arms folded.

Ryuu glances at Fayvard wearily, making a move to take his seat. “Oh, it’s just you. What is it, Fayvard? I have a lot of work to do.”

Fayvard gets up and turns to face Ryuu as the latter takes his seat behind the desk. Fayvard sneers arrogantly. “Is that anyway to speak to someone who has a Fatalist locked up downstairs?”

Taking a moment to digest this information, Ryuu suddenly looks up, his face serious. “What did you say?!”

Fayvard merely smirks in response.

A haze of smoke and dust sits in the air, as Kunai and Dark Kunai continue to stare at each other warily. Each clenches his weapon closer to him. Their breaths come out as fog in the freezing night air.

‘I have to impose my will on him, neutralize his strength…’ Kunai thinks to himself, wiping away from of the blood trailing down his arm. He grits his teeth. ‘Easier said than done!’

The first to move is Kunai. He soars through the air, running in circles around his clone. Dark Kunai merely glares at Kunai impatiently, following him with his eyes.

“I’ve got you!” Dark Kunai howls, stepping forward and cutting down Kunai’s path in the circle. However, he merely strikes air. At the same time, several explosions sound around Dark Kunai, as Kunai activates his Meso Explosion.

Dark Kunai turns around and spots the real Kunai hurtling through the air toward him. “Pathetic tricks!” he shouts, swinging down his sword. A blast of white mana flows out from it like a laser beam, obliterating everything in its way.

Kunai barely sidesteps the attack, as the beam of mana flies past his left side. He sails forward at top speed, and comes crashing into Dark Kunai with the force of a meteor. Simultaneously, another blast flies into Dark Kunai from behind, as a second impact from a shadow clone explodes with force.

Dark Kunai screeches painfully as the dust from the two impacts clears. Blood mixed with dirt and rock drops from the sky, as Dark Kunai tumbles over, his breathing heavy and ragged. His Dark Identity suddenly slips from his forehead onto the ground, cracked and disfigured.

Glowering and gasping for air, Dark Kunai steps over the damaged Identity, still clutching his sword in his right hand. “Not bad, Kunai…but I’ll never admit defeat to you!”

With a fierce battle cry, Dark Kunai sprints at Kunai, miraculously on his feet despite having sustained so many injuries. Kunai reacts immediately, brandishing his Sai and cutting his clone across the shoulder as he passes by.

Dark Kunai trips, landing on his face on the ground. Kunai stands over him, looking down gravely. “God damn it… Finish me, then…!” Dark Kunai hisses from the ground, his voice laced with hatred.

Kunai shakes his head, taking several steps forward so that he is now standing inches away from Dark Kunai. “No. I’m going to use this Anti-Paradox in order to take back your powers for my own.”

“I…I’d…” Dark Kunai begins from the ground. Kunai freezes, waiting for him to finish. “I’D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY!” Immediately, Dark Kunai flips over on the ground, pointing a finger at Kunai. A flash of white light erupts near his finger.

Kunai’s eyes widen. He raises his Sai in front of him. “Oh cr—!”

The bolt of white light erupts instantaneously, penetrating Kunai’s body from point-blank range. Dark Kunai smiles triumphantly as Kunai vanishes into the white light. He breathes raggedly, stumbling back to his feet by leaning on his sword. Silence falls on the battlefield.

Suddenly, a shadow emerges on his right. Dark Kunai turns, as Kunai emerges from out of nowhere, Sai in hand. In response, Dark Kunai raises his sword to shield himself, but Kunai bursts straight through the blade, breaking the metal apart.

Dark Kunai’s eyes widen, as his sword breaks into pieces. “I-Impossible!” he cries, stunned. Kunai punches his Sai straight into his clone’s left eye, pressing the blade deeper into Dark Kunai’s skull.

Blood runs down Dark Kunai’s eye, as he screams in mortal pain. Kunai pulls back his arm, unleashing a fresh flow of blood into the cold, stinging air. He stares at his clone grimly, as the latter falls to his knees, gasping and groaning heavily.

Kunai stands over Dark Kunai, pressing the blade of his dagger against Dark Kunai’s neck. “It’s over,” Kunai mutters, a tone of relief in his voice. “Give up. I’ve won.”

“The…hell…you have!” Dark Kunai screams in response, rising miraculously yet again. He grabs his broken sword, the jagged edge of its splintered blade gleaming in the moonlight. Dark Kunai swings his shattered sword, but Kunai merely grabs his clone’s wrist, stopping the attack.

With a forceful lurch, Kunai pulls Myou straight out of his clone’s hands, feeling its cold and bloody hilt again for the first time since his battle with Ivy.

“Bastard, you don’t deserve to touch it!” Dark Kunai howls, reaching to take back the blade.

Kunai responds by stepping back, holding the blade out of reach. He swipes at the approaching Dark Kunai with his Sai, slashing open a wound straight across his chest. Another stream of blood splashes out of the wound, as Dark Kunai tumbles backwards, falling down onto the ground face up.

“Damn…it…”

From the sidelines, Xavier suddenly stirs. After a few seconds, he jerks awake immediately, ignoring even the splitting pain in his head. He scrambles about on the ground, locating Kunai and Dark Kunai, one standing, the other lying still on the ground.

“K-Kunai…!” Xavier hisses.

Using his clone’s broken sword, Kunai points the weapon straight at his clone from above, pinning him to the ground with it. Kunai stares down grimly at the near-perfect reflection of himself.

“I see…” Dark Kunai whispers. “It seems that you indeed do have the resolve to win after all. Very well…I guess this is your win after all. Myou is yours. But I’m gonna make life hell for you if you show any sign of weakness again!”

Kunai does not reply. He merely reaches into his front pocket, withdrawing from it a single silver ring. It shines slightly, reflecting the coarse moonlight from above. Kunai stares at the ring silently, his eyes darkening. ‘There’s a fifty percent chance that this Anti-Paradox will fail. What happens if it fails? Can I really take that risk? If I become like Takuya…’

Kunai starts suddenly, as he feels Dark Kunai place his hand on the broken blade. He pulls back, but Dark Kunai keeps a firm grip on the sword. “Are you showing hesitation already?!” Dark Kunai screams. He forces himself back up yet again, still holding onto the sword. “If you are…then I have no choice but to kill you!”

Almost automatically, Kunai flings his Sai forward like a Steely. It pierces Dark Kunai in the chest, right in the area near the heart. Wordlessly, Dark Kunai falls back towards the ground, shock etched into his eyes.

Kunai twists his face, clutching the ring tightly in his fist. “Guess there’s no choice after all!” he shouts, clenching his eyes shut. “Here’s hoping it works!”

The ring glows increasingly brighter and brighter, as Kunai pours his mana into it. Without warning, Kunai stretches forward and strikes his clone in the chest with the hand holding the ring. At this point, the light reaches a crescendo, lighting up the entire battlefield.

Xavier throws an arm over his face, shielding his eyes from its extreme brightness. “This is…the Anti-Paradox?!”

Suddenly, as quickly as the light appeared, the light disappears again. Kunai is left standing alone, a mere pool of black blood on the ground in front of him where his clone had lain moments before. His clone’s sword has dissolved completely, and Kunai is left holding in his hand a single black claw, Myou. In his other hand, he still clutches the Anti-Paradox tightly.

Kunai opens his eyes, turning to Xavier as he notices him watching from the sidelines for the first time. Xavier meets Kunai’s gaze, and breathes a sigh of relief as he recognizes the same, good-natured gleam in Kunai’s eyes as before.

“You…you did it, Kunai!” Xavier cries.

Smiling, Kunai nods. “Yeah. It’s all over…I did it.”
—END THIRTY-TWO—
What the hell. I did not know that the Spiderman musical was called Turn off the Dark. Grumblegrumble… Just what I needed. Anyway…this chapter basically (finally) concludes the Anti-Paradox/Dark Kunai arc.