Eroge? Bad Ends? Betrayal? I’m Just Here to Suplex Monsters through Buildings.

From the Top Rope (3.1)

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Interlude: Asakura Hiyo, the Fiery Blade

…

I realized halfway through Keita’s list that I could only provide him with money.

After providing him with money, I did not realize that I had made a mistake until the appointed hour came.

As the distraction he decided to make was simple, systemic destruction.

“Blood hell, the lad’s mental.” Catherine whispered with awe as she moved through the chaos. Several explosions had resounded. Blooming flowers of fire and heat as followed by shockwaves. Improved truck bombs placed in key areas wrought death and destruction across the red-light district. “This is more than a distraction!”

“Keita is going to get himself killed! We need to get him out of the city!” Leona followed me as we stalked through the streets. Obscured from sight by Catherine’s magic, we went against the flow of screaming people, while all those who could see us responded to the attacks by heading to the source. Once they find no one there, they’ll launch a sweep… meaning that Keita was sure to have something else so that he’d be found. “Are we really going to just… keep going!?”

“He is fulfilling his contract, and this is his plan.” Mentally, I knew that he was a child. Daichi was lost, and we already knew that he existed. Our people could be extricated and saved before he compromised them further. Mother commanded me to prioritize killing him, but I could disobey with little punishment. However, instead, I hid behind that order. “The traitor must be killed. All efforts thus far can be undone if he remains and masters being a Devil.”

I also prepared myself for Alecia’s upcoming retort. Leona was practically just buying me time to keep the Vampiric Heiress with us.

Even in her silence, I could feel her disgust and rage at me. Her desire to do as Lady Hiyo bid her warred against her wish to go and save Keita.

“But… but… he’ll die!” Leona cried out, and I felt myself grimace as the three followed me into an alley. Every second counted. We kept moving towards where Daichi was last seen. The building was in sight, and there was a crowd outside it looking upon the chaos. We slipped through the front door, past the unattended halls, and I caught his scent. He was already underground! “Asakura!”

Leona reached out for my arm while I wrenched open the false floorboard.

The scent of death, decay, and lust seeped out of the tunnels.

“Mother.” Catherine hissed.

Both Alecia and Leona suddenly went still.

I didn’t.

Instinctively, I leapt down the ladder, and she followed me. Suddenly, Daichi mattered far less. A thick miasma clung to every surface of the tunnel. The very floors were covered in blood and viscera. Parts and pieces of multiple people were strewn in every direction. Still spilling blood. The monster that did it was close and on the run!

Daichi faded away from my mind, though Keita remained.

But only for a moment.

“This demon cannot be allowed to persist in the mortal realm!” I called up towards Leona and Alecia. “Make your choice now, but I know mine! This creature cannot be allowed to continue existing here!”

With that said, I ran down into the depths of the tunnels, whilst hardening my heart.

Keita had saved my life, and I repaid my debt to him by bringing him into battle and demanding he achieve the impossible.

It was a stain on my honor that I would carry my entire life, but at this very moment I knew that I needed to kill the creature Catherine called Mother.

Otherwise, countless people were going to die.

…

Honestly, I thought blowing up the Red Light District was an easy way to go out without any regrets.

After blowing things up, putting some explosives into several areas, and doing a shit ton of damage, I expected someone to show up and turn me into paste.

Or for someone to show up and force me to use all the explosives I rigged upon my body.

Instead, I faced death by a thousand cuts.

The security force from over a dozen enterprises rushed out and swept through the whole area in search of me. Clad in suits with security rooms filled with cameras coordinating them, along with the trackers and specialists, they located me within five minutes of setting off the bombs.

They entered the apartment I was in, swarmed through its halls, and found themselves hitting multiple booby traps. There were so many of them that they overwhelmed all of it. Tripwires with needle launchers killed dozens, only for more to advance. Makeshift claymores made with talismans and nuts and bolts took out hallways, but people filed in right after. The sensory talismans bought scrambled the brains of a couple, making them fire on their friends, but they burned out after twenty people.

In the end, I had to blow up the structure’s foundation and bolt out into the next room.

I barely had a moment to breathe before I got hit.

A kunai struck my helmet, and without the quick detach feature, it would’ve burrowed into my skull. Instead, my forehead got lightly gouged, and it skidded off my skull while taking my helmet off.

I responded with a kunai of my own just as I was hit, and thankfully the rogue who almost killed me didn’t expect a calf-launched miniature sun before it engulfed him.

I managed to grab my helmet, pry out the kunai, and put my helmet back on before breaking into a run.

I managed to get onto another rooftop before a whistle resounded.

A shrill, bird-like whistle that was more like the screech of a hawk.

A classic declaration to any ninja listening that their prey was found and should be converged upon.

Well.

Time to cut loose.

A running battle across the rooftops of a burning Red Light District against a bunch of inbred bastards who think they’re cool because they don’t have morals.

A fight that I wanted even if I was risking everything.

With that thought in mind, I turned my senses inward and focused on my insides, invoking my transformations within. Everyone worked hard on turning their hands to claws or spitting venom, but our transformation’s greatest gift was endurance. I felt a sharp pain in my chest as my heart shifted, and suddenly my entire body felt too tight. I spread the transformation throughout my body, strengthening organs, nerves, and then bone and muscle.

The first of my new pursuers found me just as my skin got strong enough to not rip apart with a move, and the rooftopshattered as I launched myself at him, grabbed him by the face, and smashed him into the next rooftop over. Skin and bone broke apart in my hand mid-air, and the slam into the next roof was just a double-tap.

I could feel my meager reserves depleting.

The last time I tried this, whilst not moving, I maintained the Inner Transformation for fifteen minutes.

Now, I was enhancing my body at the same time… So I gave myself four to five at best.

Thankfully, the rogue ninja arrived quickly, and I didn’t have to waste any time loitering.

Five blows thudded into my back and let the blow carry me forward. I broke the needles against the floor, not feeling any sting thanks to the padded shirt I wore beneath the vest. I sighted my attacker and threw my own projectiles at him, which he avoided by dropping past my sight line. Before I could blow a chunk off the roof, my instincts screamed at me, and I rolled again, and a sword suddenly sprang up from where I was suddenly before.

They were being tricky, looking to wear me out and kill me through a thousand cuts.

Unfortunately for them, I was more than happy to lower the property value by a lot more.

Digging into my vest, I produced a scroll, broke its seal, and guided its unraveling after throwing it into the air.

It bloomed like a flower, and the four dozen seals inside released explosive kunai in every direction.

Save for where I was at the flower’s ‘eye.’

Only half of the Kunai were of the Hiyo varietal. The rest were the ones I made for practice. All the practice ones with defects but that I could still use in a pinch. They stuck onto the rooftops of six buildings and hit the sides of three across the street.

Then, there was a series of explosions and screams, and a bunch of rogue ninja flared their internal energy and covered themselves in protective shells out of instinct.

I found the closest one and slammed into him, dragging him down with me onto the street and smashing through his mask with my fist as we crashed onto the pavement. The bulletproof mask gave way to hammer blows, and I finished him with an elbow to the throat before rolling off.

On my back, I sighted pursuers and fired at them with my kunai. They ducked into cover, which was engulfed by orbs of blazing heat, and I took the opportunity to find cover.

Only for me to freeze in place.

“Hm. Quite young for a terrorist.” The rogue ninja fell out of the sky in a multitude of pieces. A vampire stood in the middle of the street. He wore black pants, dress shoes, and a white shirt that was half unbuttoned. His hair was gold and eyes bright red. Power rolled off him in waves. A cleaver dripping with blood, probably purloined from a nearby restaurant, rested in his hand. “And, despite your methods, you’re killing the rogues. A distraction for another orthodox force, perhaps?”

His voice was smooth and deep, like the timbre of some wind instrument.

I stood up and faced him in the middle of the street, giving a bow out of reflex.

“I am. They are in pursuit of demons beneath the Red Light District.” I answered even though I knew my fate was sealed.

“Ah.” He raised an eyebrow and looked at me with slight interest. He almost actually seemed disappointed, too. “Honest work, then. Unfortunately, this distraction of yours has had unintended consequences. A favor that I have owed for centuries has been called.”

I figured that was the case.

The multitude of dead rogue ninja all around me told me that if we met under different circumstances, we’d probably not have interfered with one another.

“You won’t be pursuing my compatriots, then?”

“Did they prepare this assault with you? Were they knowledgeable of your intentions?” His voice carried a mystical echo that compelled me to speak.

Thankfully, the truth was perfect.

“No. I planned this long ago. This place needs to be burned to the ground. I found it disgusting the moment I stepped forth in it.” Now, I was sure that the vampire I was facing really did regret the situation. He probably agreed with my assessment, since he took the opportunity to kill the rogue ninja pursuing me. “They only knew that I was going to distract the forces here so that they could pursue the demons.”

“Then, my sworn favor does not need me to pursue them. Only you. Rest easy knowing that I will not raise my hand or search for your fellows, as they are separate from this… affair.” He idly gestured to the burning district, ruined buildings, and the numerous corpses around us. His eyes narrowed in my direction. “Farewell.”

My instincts told me to accept the cleaver aimed at my skull and the quick death that followed.

I refused them.

I raised up two kunai and blocked the downward strike that would obliterate my skull and brain instantly.

I felt something in my forearms creak and break, and immense pain shot up my arms while I was thrown back far into the street behind me.

I hit the ground, tumbling hard, and felt more sharp shocks of pain as I tried to recover until I managed to stop the breakneck tumble.

Clambering up to my feet, discarding the two broken weapons I used to block, I found the vampire the same distance away from me before he struck.

The meat cleaver he’d used was chipped and broken, so he tossed it aside.

“Surrender, and your death will be painless. If you survive, a far more horrible fate awaits you.” He told me simply while drawing a sword from his shadow. It glowed a faint golden light beneath the moon’s beams. Faint flickers of flame suffused it. I was really dealing with a super-boss or something. “I will remember your valor and your disgust at this horrible place.”

The pain within faded, and I felt my reserves dwindle to nearly nothing.

Regeneration, especially when it involved bones, always cost a lot.

I had very little time left.

So, I told him that.

“I have thirty seconds left. Enough time to try and fight and win. I won’t allow you to deny me that.”

“Run instead. Use what you have left to try and flee. If you escape me through trickery, my oath will be fulfilled.” The vampire stated swiftly after my answer. He took a step forward, and I felt like I froze from head to toe. “You are a valiant and pure soul. Live and fight for another day.”

It was an appealing thought, but running away… just didn’t sit right with me.

“After all this time, I’ve managed to summon the courage to get rid of something that disgusted me. To do something that I should’ve done the moment that I could.” I had hated the world I found myself in, but I’ve been a bystander for too long. I even took advantage of this place to get money after I left the clan. So, in truth, I was complicit. Now, for the first time after inflicting damage to this district, I felt good. “I’m not leaving. Not after you’ve killed these rogues. I can hit this place harder if I manage to win. So, I’m not backing down—”

I planned on using everything I had left, all my hidden weapons, and even burning up my life instead of internal energy.

Suddenly, I was flying backward, slamming into the wall with a sword cutting through my stomach, while both my arms and a leg flew off and splattered on the nearby sidewalk.

“Huh.” I managed a single word out just as an intense drowsiness swept over me. A heavy weight settled over my entire body, not uncomfortable, but insurmountable. Pain flared for a moment, making my heart race, but suddenly faded. I coughed while trying to breathe, and blood spewed out of my mouth. The effort it took to clear it was monumental, but I still managed a single word. “Nice.”

A golden-haired figure hung over me for a moment, even as my vision faded, but suddenly I felt something.

A bargain extending from his shadow and his blood.

With that in mind, I summoned all the strength I had left.

“No.” I managed, even if it was weak. “This… is mine. All of it. My soul. My body. My actions.”

It took me a while, but I managed to fuck this damned world over and stay true to myself.

I wasn’t about to become a vampire, living off the lives of others, and lose what I managed to regain in this final evening.

“I refuse it.”

The bargain and encroaching power stopped for a moment before fading away.

Then, a voice.

“Rest in peace, young warrior. Rest knowing your valor has secured your allies my aid. Those from the infernal realm here and now will be sent screaming back to where they belong.”

It was a better ending than I could’ve ever asked for.

Still, though, that wasn’t my last thought.

My last thought was the regret that I could’ve done more.

Everything began to slip away.

The great weight pressing down on me grew larger and larger as all sensation faded.

For a moment, there was nothing.

No sight, sound, feeling, or any other sensation.

Then, suddenly.

A flickering flame at the very edges of my consciousness followed by a heartbeat, then the low rumble of approval that drew me back from death.

Just before I had to endure the most pain and agony I ever felt in my whole existence, I ‘saw’ something at the edges of reality.

The silhouette of a flying serpent in storm clouds.