Back-to-Back Doubt

Seiji went straight after Katsumi now that he could fight her with his full attention. It was always Kaede getting in his way or the other way around. He didn’t mind such fights, but their tag teaming made it very difficult to have any sort of fight happen. Nothing he did could get started.

Now it was different. He could have a fight the way he preferred. Just the two of them, though it didn’t stop him from being unnerved by the lack of any sort of expression on her face. She didn’t have the interest in the fight, not like Kaede. It was like she was doing it because she was told to do so. ‘Is she fighting against the mind control?’ he wondered while exchanging some introductory blows.

He could tell from her punches that her heart was definitely not in the fight. ‘She doesn’t want to do this? Unlike the other girl…’ Until now, he never had a real chance to look at the girl, as the fight was too chaotic really to see something more subtle.

It made him pause in the fight to question what he was doing. ‘Can I really fight her? I’m already wishing that I wasn’t as much of a real man who doesn't punch girls, but they’ve forced my hand. But with her separated from her friend, she seems more passive than before…’

Chapter 329 – Back-to-Back Doubt

Uncertainty on the part of Seiji left him open for an attack by Katsumi. He took a punch to the face. For stopping in the middle of a fight, he should have known better. It surprised him a little that it happened. He staggered back a little trying not to fall over and completely embarrass himself.

A thin trickle of blood slipped from his lip, considering the state of the rest of his body, it was hardly something to be considered over. Far worse injuries littered his arms and legs. “…dammit…” He wiped away the blood quickly and focused once more. She reminded him that he was in the middle of a fight and such things were mistakes. ‘That hurt more than the others…what’s with her? I don’t get her.’

Confusion couldn’t settle in for Seiji as he quickly had to block the next punch thrown at him. He caught it with his hand this time, though a little bit of a vibration went through his arm. ‘Her strength has increased… What’s with her? Before she wasn’t really even in the fight…’ Seiji caught the other fist as well, but she pulled herself free to take swings at him. He started ducking around her wide throws. ‘She’s really not familiar with fighting, that much is clear. The only thing she’s got going for herself is what Yuki gave her.’ It was hard to call her just weak, since a hit did still hurt, but there was little challenge. She lacked any sort of control or finesse. It was a complete amateur effort.

Even though she was an easy fight the more he watched her, there was still the trouble that she presented. None of the blows he made actually seemed to do anything to her. He hadn’t given it his all yet. It was difficult to do. It wasn’t like any fight he had ever been in before. ‘I’m starting to wish I had the other girl. I don’t know if I can actually fight her…’

None of that stopped Katsumi from continuing to try to take down Seiji. Even though she couldn’t connect anything, she never stopped taking advantage of his doubt. ‘…dammit…what am I supposed to do?’

Katsumi suddenly changed up her tactics and darted around behind Seiji, not completely catching him off guard. He partially managed to block the attack, but it staggered him. It knocked him enough off balance that Katsumi could follow up quickly with several clean shots.

He had to pick himself up several meters away. Flashes of red light far in the distance distracted him for a moment until Katsumi came up to him once more. Her knee rammed through his stomach taking him off the ground and falling to the floor. “Ugh…I’m getting tired as hell of this!” Seiji pounded the floor into a small crater as he stood up.

Throwing his finger out at Katsumi, he tried to get something resolved. “Do you want to fight or don’t you?!

Nothing.

He roughed his hand through his hair annoyed. “Stop it! Either look like you want to fight or stop it! You’re confusing the hell out of me!” She remained silent for him. No answer only frustrated him further. “Dammit all! Why the hell are you fighting with that face?!”

Suddenly laughter came out from Katsumi. It was completely disjointed from the rest of her. Almost like her mouth was a speaker. It was still her voice, but the rest of her face didn’t match.

Seiji took a step back feeling even more unnerved by the situation. It wasn’t very common that he saw horror movies, he absolutely hated them and couldn’t stand watching them (you can remember why, right?), but the whole scene really felt like something out of a horror film. Katsumi looked possessed, but it had only captured her voice and nothing else.

“What the hell’s going on?! Why are you laughing?”

An awkwardly ripped up smile came across Katsumi’s face as if the corners were pulled up with string. Out of her nearly unmoving lips came her disembodied voice. “So you’re the macho muscle head Saki was telling me about.”

“Saki!” Seiji immediately jumped at the mention of her name. “Where’s Saki?”

“So single minded. I’m hurt.”

“I don’t give a damn about you!”

“Oh, but that’s not true. You came all this way just to see me. You seem to disapprove of my world view.”

“The hell?” It took until then for Seiji to realize what was wrong. The horror imagery screwed with his mind enough that he didn’t consider it. “Who the hell are you?! You aren’t Yumi’s friend!”

“So the big idiot finally figured it out after I spelled it out for him.”

“You! You’re the one aren’t you?! The one that is causing all of this!”

Katsumi’s body clapped her hands together stiffly. “That’s right! Congratulations! What shall I give you as a reward for understanding something so simple and obvious?” Her foot wound up suddenly and kicked a stray bit of debris in Seiji’s direction.

The speed of it wasn’t much to worry about for him. He simply lifted his arm up to deflect the debris away, but instead he was jerked backwards as blood sprayed through the air. Seiji threw himself against the wall needing some support. “What the hell?” He glanced down to see the debris embedded itself in his arm with part of it stuck through the other side. Blood streamed down his arm. Without a second thought, he ripped it free from his arm as it poured out blood. “What the hell did you do?”

“Better watch that, you’re going to bleed out.”

“Go to hell!”

“Already visited.”

“Damn you.”

“You’re as charming as she described.”

“Stop acting like you know any of us!”

“Oh but I do!” Katsumi stepped roughly forward a step with her shit-eating grin growing. “I know all of you so very well see. I know what you’ve been doing recently in a little place called Atlantis. I know all about you and Saki and Yuki. She hates you, you know.”

“Shut up! You don’t know Saki!”

“Touch a nerve have I?” The creepy smile grew larger, nearly looking like a crescent. “It’s the truth. She can’t stand you. She wishes that you’d just disappear.”

“You’re lying!” Seiji’s fists tightened up. The blood started boiling for him listening to Takako. He knew what the bitch was trying to do. It still angered him that she would go so far as to make such attempts. He charged in after her. “I’m not going to allow you to talk about Saki like that!”

Katsumi took Seiji’s punch to the forearm with only a push back. The force of his fist blew her hair back. Laughter came out of her once more. “She never told you. She’s making you think that you’re all just friends.”

He wound up his punches again, throwing more and more power behind them. Katsumi just stood there and took it all, barely doing anything other than sliding a little back, as her feet couldn’t keep a grip on the floor. At the end, all that he could see was her full arm length gloves were a little frayed. Some shitty ass tears were starting to develop, but nothing more really happened.

“You’re upset because you know I’m speaking the truth.”

“Shut THE hell up!” Seiji’s hand lit up briefly as he pulled back for another wind up. Katsumi took his rage head on, but this time the force was enough to knock her off her feet. She flew backwards a meter, but managed to catch herself in time. Large ass tears tore through the cloth as it started to hang.

She started to discard the gloves causally as she straightened back up. “I can walk through their memories and thoughts the same as I’m walking through this girl’s body.” Katsumi’s hand brushed over her cheek to point out the complete dominance she had over the girl. “I’m so much more intimate with Saki than any of those who think they are her friends. So…much…more…” Laughter came out of Katsumi again. “She’s told me all of her secrets and all of her lies. She has so much darkness within her it feels so amazing.”

“You know nothing!” Seiji threw out another fist as he closed the distance, but Katsumi held up a plank of wood from one of the classroom walls. His fist crashed into the wood unable to do anything to it. Blood sprayed up from his wounds applied from his force. “Just stop talking!” He kept throwing more fists at Katsumi, always blocked by the wood until his knuckles were bleeding.

Tossing the plank behind her, she retrieved a new pair of gloves. This pair was dark brown leather with plates of metal around the backs of the hands and thinly spaced around her fingers. “Trying to punch me quiet? That won’t work. You can’t beat me while I’m in this girl’s body.” Katsumi ran her fingers up and down her arms as though washing them. “This girl’s abilities are uniquely suited to being perfect just for you.”

“I don’t care anything about any of that! I’ll still stop you!”

Laughing, Katsumi started to move towards Seiji. “By all means make your attempts. I’ll show you how weak you are. You’re just a clueless monkey.” She rubbed her hands together looking like she was starting to warm up. Winding up her punch, she met fist for fist against Seiji. Nothing stopped her anymore. Explosive shockwaves flew off their clashes shaking the ceiling.

Blood, Seiji’s blood, coated the knuckles of Katsumi’s glove. It only seemed to be getting worse for him. She no longer even lost her traction in the fight. In fact, she seemed to be getting helluva lot stronger with each punch. One of her punches slipped through Seiji’s defenses landing square in his jaw. He slid back a little staggered from the blow as blood started flowing from the impact.

Seiji spit out the blood from his mouth and charged back in after Katsumi, or rather Takako. “Damn you!” However, while he was stunned, Katsumi retrieved a long board from one of the trashed classrooms. Already in motion, Seiji put up his arms to block the hit.

It was like being hit by a truck. He flew out of the hallway through a classroom and out the window into the back of the school grounds (opposite of Haruo and Fumiko’s current fight). Seiji spun end over end through the dirt until he came to a stop in a pile of earth up against the corner of the school fence.

As he tried to pull himself up more blood dripped over his face. His left arm was completely thrashed to shit from the blow. It hung weakly at his side. He wasn’t sure if it was broken or worse, but he couldn’t move it. ‘…dammit…I can’t lose here, not to this psycho!’

Katsumi marched out of the school still holding the wood board. “You don’t have to worry. I’ve no interest in adding you to my army. You’ll just die here like everyone around you wants!”