Bring Me to Life

Chapter Seven:
No Holds
Barred

If Toge was hiding his anger towards Shinda’s statement, then
there must be a hell of a lot buried beneath the surface. At
least, those were Yuya’s thoughts as she watched Toge attack Shinda
with his scythe swinging and eyes blazing in uncontrolled fury, which
made Yuya realize something else:

Shinda had yet to draw a weapon.

He’d only been fighting with his hands and his legs so far,
dodging attacks he must have deemed worth enough to counter.
This he did now with seemingly little effort, even though Toge —
despite his crazed state — made his swings with deadly calculated
movements. As to their auras, Toge’s swirled about him in a
wild maelstrom of forest green with veins of white. Turning to
look at Shinda, Yuya barely contained her gasp of surprise.

He didn’t have one anymore.

No, wait, that wasn’t true. It was there, just barely, and
Yuya could only see it if he moved the right way or if she squinted.
It just hovered over his skin, clinging to his body enough to make
him look like something otherworldly. Of course, his mannerisms
were certainly from another world, they had to be, considering that
he acted like Kyo, who Yuya suspected must have been born in Hell.
That so counted as another world as far as Yuya was concerned.

Looking from Shinda’s emotionless expression to Toge’s look of
determination, Yuya thought she saw a look of desperation pass over
the tiger’s features, and even Yuya knew that desperation would
make a person do crazy things.

She was an expert.

“What does someone like you know of the world? You were
cast from your family with nary a...”

Toge’s latest statement seemed to irk Shinda the most. How
could Yuya tell? Perhaps because aforementioned bounty huntress
was glued to the ground by a raging aura the color of red-gold.
It was the same feeling she got whenever Kyo got upset, which
shouldn’t have surprised her since she’d already decided the two
had either been separated at birth or Kyo was hiding a son.
Strong arms were helping her up and she turned to thank Bontenmaru,
who only nodded and turned to look back at the two who had been
standing still before she’d met the ground.

Moving over to where Mr. Tamanori stood, Yuya watched the older
man’s face as she heard ringing of metal. She blinked when
she turned to see what was going on.

Shinda stood over Toge with the tiger’s own scythe pressing
against his neck. His face was void of any emotion, and Yuya
thought that this was the face of a young man who had seen many
things in his short lifetime, none of them good. Toge, on the
other hand, looked terrified. Who wouldn’t be when their own
weapon had been turned against them? A small trickle of blood
ran down Toge’s neck as he looked up at Shinda, whose eyes seemed
focused elsewhere.

“Funny how I thought you knew better than to bring up my
ostracism. Besides, I wasn’t cast out; I chose to leave.”

“Yea right! Your family probably kicked you out after your
parents...”

The blade pressed harder onto Toge’s neck as Shinda looked to
Mr. Tamanori, “I don’t think he’s learned quite yet that if he
expects to keep his head, he needs to stop bringing up things that
piss me off.”

“Please, Shinda-san, let him go. You couldn’t possibly
kill him. He’s your friend.”

“He attached himself to me. To him, I am his
friend; to me, he is not my friend. I never asked him to
come along. He just follows me everywhere. I never
asked for this.” Shinda said, and Yuya had the distinct
feeling that he wasn’t just talking about Toge’s following him.

“That may be so, Shinda-san, but neither did he. He never
asked to have a scythe at his...”

“Oh yes he did,” Shinda smirked, “he’s been askin’ for
this for a long time. This is a long time comin’, let
me tell you. He wanted no holds barred, and that’s what I
gave him. For us, ‘no holds barred’ goes along with a fight
to the death. He lost, so now he dies.”

Raising the scythe to finish the task, Yuya didn’t know what
prompted her to speak, “Wait! If you don’t kill him, I’ll
leave! We’ll all leave!”

The scythe stopped in the middle of his downward swing as red eyes
turned to Yuya, “How honorable of you; but this fight was to
determine whether you stayed or I gained freedom. This fight
has been lost, and so he will die. It’s our unspoken
agreement.”

“But I’m sure you’ve fought other times and you haven’t
killed him!”

“We had a bargain. He broke his end. We’ve
fought. He lost. He dies.”

Shinda spoke with such clarity that he almost made sense, “But
he considers you his friend!”

“And as I told Tamanori-san, I don’t consider him my friend.
The friendship is null.”

“If you don’t kill him, what do you want in return? Do
you want me to leave?” Yuya asked, feeling as though this
were all her fault... which in Shinda’s eyes, it was. She was
sure of it.

He quirked an eyebrow at her, “Persistent, aren’t you?”

“Yu...ya-san...” Toge croaked, seemingly surprised that Shinda
had stopped his swing, “Shinda-sama doesn’t... work that way.”

Shinda straightened, the butt of the scythe resting next to Toge’s
neck as the orange-eyed boy looked at Yuya intently, “If I don’t
kill him and allow you to stay, you will owe me any favor I want.

Any favor. I will name it whenever I choose to redeem
it.”

“No way! Yuya-han’s not like that!” Benitora
exclaimed as he stepped in front of the bounty huntress.

He quirked an eyebrow, “Do you really think I’d ask her for
that sort of favor? Honestly, why does everyone think
I’d even look at her twice? Or once, for that matter?”

Just barely resisting the urge to punch him, Yuya spoke through
gritted teeth, “All right.”

“You don’t sound very willing.” Shinda smirked.

“I agree to your terms.” Yuya said, really wanting to
kill the young man before her.

“Good,” he smiled, throwing the scythe and watching it embed
itself in the opposite wall, “get up and retrieve your weapon.
While you’re at it, take care of your garden sector. The
weeds are overrunning everything. Go.”

Yuya blinked, “What? Just like that? You’re
letting me stay?”

“That was the deal, wasn’t it? Are your wits so lacking
that you’ve already forgotten? Don’t worry, I won’t let
you forget.”

Benitora looked about ready to strangle Shinda, “Be nice to
Yuya-han!”

“Why? Are you going to bargain with me, too?
Watch your tongue around me, Crimson Shadow. Unless you

want everyone to know who you are, then I would need no other
persuasion to tell them. Your call.”

Looking absolutely mortified, Toge said nothing as Shinda turned
to leave once again, a loose strand of hair having escaped his tight
bun while the red strands of hair that framed his face blew in the
wind, making him seem all the more defiant and dangerous. Yuya
frowned. He’d been carrying a sword when he’d shown himself
to them, but he didn’t have it now. Where and when had he put
it down? There were too many mysteries surrounding Shinda.

Turning around to look at the rest of their group, Yuya saw that
Kyo was still smiling and Akira was whispering something. Kyo
gave a nod and Akira was headed in the same direction that Shinda had
headed off in.

“What’s going...?” Yuya began as Bontenmaru cut her
off.

“Just leave it, Yuya-chan. It’s nothing you want to get
involved in. Akira just wants to ask that Shinda kid some
questions, we need to figure somethin’ out.”

Yuya nodded, “All right. Anything you can tell me?”

He thought on this for a moment, “There’s a reason why Kyo,
Akira and I don’t like this area, it’s got somethin’ to do with
a big thing that happened four years ago. Right now we’re
thinkin’ that that Shinda has dug up a past we thought long
buried.”