The Behemoth kept on its deadly path as it tossed a car up into the air trying to get to Haruto and Saeko. He ran forward and jumped taking his blade to its reared arm, slicing it deep but not going through the bone. Haruto growled at this as he landed behind it. He turned and saw that it wasn't stopping, going right for Saeko. His eyes widened until he felt the familiar presence within her. She's… she's using our chakra again! Does she even know that she's using it?
As he finished his thoughts, she ran forward and flipped over its fist as it came at her. She planted a boot in the Behemoths face and used it to vault over and around it. Saeko landed with a smirk and she readied her stance with her left leg forward and straight and her right leg back and bent. Her left hand held the blade and her right palm was pressed against the pommel as she narrowed her blue eyes.
She dashed forward at a high speed that surprised Haruto and she cut into the Behemoth's Achilles Tendons, bringing it to its knees. Haruto was once again surprised as he watched her work. Dear God… she is strong! I wonder if this is the effects of Naruko's chakra and my own. It could very well be… but to be able to cut through that thing with no problem… that is a sign of pure skill. I could do that but I'd have to hack at him unless I had Alter's chakra. She would be a very formidable enemy… even for me...
Haruto then heard her calm his name from the other side. "Haruto-kun! I need you to help me with this things head!" He shouted his acknowledgement and brought up his blade into the same stance that he had seen Saeko use before. Hmmm… I already feel more… effective I should say. I guess my lax stance was bad compared to her functional one. Then again… she seems to have been actually trained in the arts of Kenjutsu. I was trained but only momentarily by Neko-chan from ANBU.
He heard Saeko move in to make the kill and he followed closely on his side. She had jumped, going for the head and he stayed low to go for the waist underneath its arms. They both cut through the thing like there was nothing there in the first place. Saeko landed in her stance with a small line of blood coming from her blade while Haruto was standing with his blade to the right as it had blood dripping off of it in a steady line until it came to small drips. He swung the blood off and Saeko did the same, her body unwavering as she then began to sheathe her blade to the sound of Haruto's own. The blades came to a steady halt at their sheaths and at the same time, they clashed.
The Behemoth's body stiffened at the ring of the blades and the head began to slowly slide off as a thin fountain of blood marked the place it once had been in. Haruto heard the small thud and smirked, waiting for his handiwork to make itself known. They stood unmoving for what felt like forever until Haruto began to get impatient. He turned and walked over to the once again dead monster and planted a solid kick to its chest, smiling with satisfaction as he watched it fall over with a larger thud.
Saeko heard the thud and chuckled as she turned. "You are definitely one to show off, huh?" Haruto looked around before pointing at himself. She nodded and laughed as Haruto scoffed indignantly. "I am not a showoff!" She nodded her head back to the Behemoth. "Then why'd you kick it over?" Haruto looked past her to the body and then back to her before shrugging and turning to walk off. Saeko jumped into step right beside him.
She chuckled as they were able to walk some ways without running into the infected. "So why exactly were you using my stance against that thing? Don't you have your own?" Haruto nodded. "I do have my own but I was simply experimenting. Using your stance I felt slightly more efficient with my blade. My normal lax stance is good for taking down multiple small enemies and occasionally taking down a Behemoth but when I saw you cut the tendons I figured I'd give it a shot."
Saeko came to the edge of a building and peered around the edge to see what was behind it. She saw the road leading up to Saya's home but it was blocked off by the infected ones. She came back around and leaned back with a sigh. "That path is blocked off… shit..." Haruto came up beside her and took his own peek. "That? Hm… that's not much of a roadblock if you ask me. What would you say; one, two or thee hundred?"
Saeko sighed. "This isn't a game, Haruto-kun… this is a serious situation. We have to get to Takagi-san's house as fast as we can." Haruto shrugged his shoulders as he pulled out his blade. "I say we just cut through them and get to her house." Saeko rolled her eyes and shook her head. Haruto then sighed as he hung his head. "I'm so bored when I don't have anything to kill." Saeko raised an eyebrow as she turned away, walking quietly down the other street away from the loitering creatures. Haruto then looked up and followed behind quicker and quieter.
They came closer to the edge of a park and Haruto looked up, seeing that it was beginning to get darker. He looked back down and saw that Saeko had stopped once more and groaned. "If we keep stopping like this then we are going to end up out here when night falls. We can't risk that, Saeko-chan..." She sighed. "I know… I'm just trying to avoid any confrontation with these things. I have confidence in both your abilities and my own but I don't think that we would be able to take on these things and those other things running around. We need to stay quiet."
Haruto nodded, as the answer was understandable, but he continued. "I get that, Saeko-chan, but you realize that these things get more active by night as well. When that happens then we run an even greater chance of running into the Behemoths and maybe something even worse!" Saeko looked back to him before looking forward again, getting closer to the gate of the park. "What else could we run into out here?" Haruto shook his head. "I don't know for sure, Saeko-chan. But if there are things like those Behemoths running around then there is quite possibly something even worse out there."
She stopped for a second, as if in thought. He's basically handing me a chance to ask him about why he's been so distant from me. It would also… give me a night alone with him… OH! Bad! Anyway, there is a shrine near here. We could go there… She turned and nodded. "Okay, Haruto-kun. There is a shrine near here that I think we can use to hide away in for the night. We need to get there fast, though. You were right, they are already starting to show their numbers and it's still in a state of twilight. Hurry, follow me!"
Haruto nodded and Saeko finally stood and took off running. He scrambled up from his sneaking crouch and took off after her. She ran through the gate of the park and quickly unsheathed her blade, taking the head of the first thing she came across. Haruto felt a spike in the hybrid chakra inside of Saeko and he felt something in the air change. His eyes narrowed as his brain kicked into gear. Something about mine and Naruko's chakra is changing her. It's making her… bloodthirsty. Alter… do you know anything about that?
"Wow… just when I thought dumb couldn't get any dumber… you go and reassure me that it can. The Kyuubi's chakra is a corrupted energy! Anything that isn't normally accustomed to it would surely see results like the ones that your little granddaughter over there is having. The only reason that she isn't going bat shit crazy is because your chakra is more dominant in her. You know… stuff like this is rather simple to figure out if you had a tiny lick of common sense."
Haruto just groaned and brought up Shukketsu Souru before pumping massive amounts of his chakra into the blade. He let his arm down and the tip of the sword began to drag along the ground as he ran, sending sparks streaming behind him. He caught sight of Saeko cutting through an infected one every few seconds, only taking the time to steady her body and breathe before going at it again. He turned his body to match his vision and he was running for her but the things began to form a small crowd, like some sort of riot of rotting flesh.
He brought Shukketsu Souru up and made a one handed seal. He smirked as he had just thought of a new way to pull off his first sword art. "Kage Bushin Sodoato: Damudo no Imo!" A large cloud of smoke puffed into existence in a line in front of the small crowd of things before something shot from it too fast for anything to catch it. Then on the other side another line of smoke appeared and whatever came from the first line was gone. Haruto jumped over the crowd and landed on the other side just as he finished his string of seals. The creatures burst into flames as the cuts at their necks ignited.
Haruto smirked at his handiwork once more as he stood and was about to walk over Saeko until he felt the presence of the hybrid chakra begin to dwindle. He quickly turned his head back to her and saw that she had her sword raised to strike but she wasn't moving to go through with it. He looked in front of her and saw that there was a small group of infected children and his eyes widened. He ran fast as he tried to get to her in time but one of the things had already pounced at her.
Haruto gritted his teeth as the world became a blur and he channeled more chakra into his legs but found that his reserves were nearly bone dry. Alter! Give me chakra! His head was quiet for a second. "Hmmm… no. This isn't a 'Mutually Beneficial' situation, now is it?" He growled as he began to push his muscles as hard as he could, only to see what he didn't want to...the child sank its teeth into her arm, tearing through her sleeve and skin, eliciting a scream of excruciating pain from Saeko.
His mind stopped when he saw it. He stopped running as he saw Saeko kick it off and she fell over with her back against the brick wall to her right. She cradled the arm as she tried her best to hold back her tears but soon the pain became too much and she looked to Haruto with a quivering lip and a shine to her eyes, telling him that she was afraid.
His pupils dilated when he saw the look in her eyes… he saw the fear that was taking her… he saw the fear of death… a fear that shouldn't even be there… a fear he should've been able to prevent. He saw her eyes then begin to slowly close and he dropped to his knees, letting Shukketsu Souru fall from his grasp. The pain soon became too much for her and her eyes closed… as did Haruto's...
His tears began to burn his eyes as they dribbled forth and laced his cheeks. He clenched his teeth and his fists were balled so hard that blood was drawn. He hunched over and put his bloody palms on his head as if he were shielding himself. He tried his best to wipe it away. No… it's not true… it can't be… she didn't even know… she didn't know! I never told her!
He looked up with bloodshot blue eyes as his tears continued to flow. He saw that the little creatures were now crowding around her body, as if sizing up their meal. It was at this time that he forcibly reached towards his other half and ripped the chakra from him, despite the repercussions. "Hey! What the fuck are you doing?" Haruto ignored the voice of Alter as his eyes became charcoal black and his mind went blank… and he never felt that small tingle of the hybrid chakra at her wound…
The simplest way to describe what was happening was nothing short of a horrific massacre… it was too grotesque for even the ones with the strongest to be able to look at it. Haruto had once again lost it… but now he was a monster. He had left his blade on the ground and had begun to rip the infested park to pieces with his bare hands. His entire body was covered in blood and his eyes were wide with enraged insanity.
He reached for one of them and grabbed his head and crushed it with little effort before reaching to another one and ripping its arm off, using it like a bat and sending a different head soaring into another, implanting it into its chest. He roared as he threw the leg into another creature, making it look like it had a third arm growing from its stomach.
As the carnage continued, he was oblivious to what was going on with Saeko. Her forearm wound had a small cover of dark red energy over it and it started to steam. Even if it was small, the output of power from it was amazingly high. The wound began pump blood out that looked to boil when it touched the ground. As more blood came, it soon stopped and a layer of skin started to grow over it. Her body convulsed and she groaned in pain until her body fell limp again.
Her eyes cracked open as sound began to assault her ears. She saw through her blurry vision that Haruto was going into the horde with a vengeance. She felt so numb but her lips worked fine. "Ha… ru… to… kun..." It was at that time that she heard a deafening, high pitched roar break through the air of bloodlust. Her eyes closed and she fell into unconsciousness.