The two paced around each other, observing their postures, awaiting some kind of slip-up.
Then–
Ryuu moved like a shadow, slipping around Kanesaki's first punch, driving a knee into his ribs, spinning away before Kanesaki could grab him. Kanesaki swung again, anger and desperation behind every strike – but Ryuu was faster, cleaner, knocking aside every blow.
Kanesaki hit the floor once. Then twice.
He kept getting back up.
Yasuko watched with stark, almost frightened eyes as Kanesaki staggered, bruised and bloodied, yet still charging forward.
He couldn't land a single clean hit, yet he didn't stop.
Every time Ryuu knocked him down, Kanesaki rose again, fists clenched, teeth bared, eyes burning with stubborn, defiant hope.
'I'm not… giving up…' he rasped.
The sharp sounds of blows and boots on concrete echoed through the garage, loud enough to carry down the adjoining corridors.
A side door slid open in the garage.
Mitsuko poked her head through first, bright orange cap tilted back slightly. 'Uh… did someone start a fight outside my garage without telling me?'
Behind her, Katsumi leaned around her shoulder, eyes already sparkling. 'Whoa – they fighting? This a real one?'
Thwap
Mitsuko smacked the back of his head. 'No cheering at random fights, genius.'
'Hey! It's educational!' he protested, rubbing his head.
She sighed, but smiled anyway, stepping out beside him. 'Honestly… leave this place for five minutes…'
They leaned against a crate, watching.
Out on the sparring floor, Ryuu moved like a ghost. Kanesaki lunged, fist cutting through empty air as Ryuu slipped aside and swept his legs out from under him.
THUD
Kanesaki hit the floor hard.
He groaned, rolled, and pushed himself up again, chest heaving.
Ryuu didn't look impressed. 'You're sloppy, emotional and predictable.'
Kanesaki spat blood onto the concrete, gritting his teeth as his irate eyes met Ryuu's. 'Shut… up.'
He rushed forward again, throwing a wild hook. Ryuu caught his wrist, twisted, and drove a knee into his stomach.
WHUMP
The air exploded out of Kanesaki's lungs as he folded, dropping to one knee. Ryuu shoved him back down with a palm to the chest.
'Stay down.'
Kanesaki coughed, vision blurring – but his hands planted against the floor, shaking as he forced himself upright again.
Yasuko clenched her hand into a fist, eyes concentrated. 'He's going to get himself killed…'
Asami frowned, arms crossed. 'Stubborn idiot,' she muttered, though her eyes stayed glued to Kanesaki.
Mitsuko leaned forward slightly, concern creeping into her bright expression. 'Uhm, he's really not doing great, is he?'
Katsumi winced as Ryuu kicked Kanesaki back again. 'Nope. But… he keeps getting up.'
Kanesaki staggered to his feet once more, every breath burning, legs trembling beneath him.
Ryuu waited this time, arms loose at his sides, watching him.
'Why?' Ryuu asked quietly. 'Why do you keep standing?'
Kanesaki wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, blood smearing across his knuckles.
'Because… if I stop…' he said hoarsely, 'then you're right.'
And with one last, desperate burst of strength, he charged again – even as Ryuu stepped forward to knock him down once more.
***
Time stretched and twisted around the fight.
Kanesaki kept coming. Not just with rage anymore – but with thought.
The first hours were just impact and pain: fists slamming into Ryuu's guard, boots scraping uselessly against the floor, his body being thrown, slammed, swept aside again and again. But slowly, something shifted. Kanesaki stopped charging straight in. He began to feint. He threw a low kick just to draw Ryuu's block, then followed with a hooked elbow. He ducked under counters instead of eating them. He started using the environment – pushing off pillars, sliding across the concrete, forcing Ryuu to reposition.
Ryuu still controlled the flow, he always did – but Kanesaki was no longer just being crushed.
Their breaths fogged in the cooling air as the day wore on.
High above the ground, the open rooftop showed the sky slowly changing – bright blue bleeding into pale gold, then into warm orange. Shadows grew longer. The light softened, then deepened, turning the world outside into streaks of pink and purple, with faint reds smoldering near the horizon like dying embers.
The sanctuary had gone quiet.
Asami had left first, muttering that she wasn't watching two idiots break each other's bones all night. Sho followed after, shaking his head, too tired and growing bored. Katsumi had been dragged away by Mitsuko, still glancing back over his shoulder like he was missing the best show of his life.
Only Yasuko remained.
She sat on a crate near the edge of the sparring floor, knees pulled up, arms wrapped tightly around herself. Her eyes never left Kanesaki.
By now, he was soaked in sweat and blood, every movement slower – but still deliberate. He tried new angles, different rhythms. A sudden low sweep, a high feint into a shoulder check, a spinning kick meant to break Ryuu's balance instead of his guard.
Ryuu blocked, parried and countered, but he had to work for it now.
Kanesaki stumbled back, panting, knuckles raw, body shaking from exhaustion. Ryuu stood across from him, still steady, though the faintest trace of effort now showed in his breathing.
And still–
Kanesaki stepped forward again. Not because he thought he would win, but because giving up was no longer an option.
***
Kanesaki's legs finally gave out.
He hit the concrete on his back, the impact knocking what little air he had left from his lungs. For a moment he just lay there, staring up at the darkening sky – deep violet now, with only the faintest trace of orange clinging to the horizon like a dying flame.
Ryuu stood over him, chest rising and falling in slow, steady breaths.
'…Why,' Kanesaki rasped, eyes burning as much from exhaustion as from everything else, 'are you so damn against me going back to the humans?'
Ryuu didn't answer right away. He looked down at him, expression unreadable in the fading light.
'Why,' he asked quietly, 'are you so obsessed with going back?'
Neither of them spoke after that. The questions hung there between them, unanswered, heavy.
Kanesaki rolled onto his side, then pushed himself up. His muscles screamed. His vision wavered. But he stood anyway, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.
'…One more,' he muttered.
He raised his fists, Ryuu mirroring him, feet shifting into stance, eyes sharpening.
The world seemed to slow for Kanesaki.
Every breath, every subtle shift of Ryuu's shoulders, every tightening of muscle became clear. He'd been beaten, thrown, crushed so many times that his body had memorized the rhythm of this fight. He could feel what was coming before it happened.
Ryuu moved.
Kanesaki slipped aside. A strike whistled past his ear. He parried the follow-up, forearm burning from the impact, then ducked under a sweeping kick. Their movements blurred, then sharpened again, like the fight was being peeled open in layers only Kanesaki could see.
There–
A fraction of a second. A tiny opening.
He took it.
His fist shot forward, everything he had left behind it, and connected with Ryuu's jaw, the crack echoing through the garage.
Ryuu's head snapped back. For a heartbeat, there was nothing but silence.
Then Ryuu spat blood onto the concrete, slowly lifting his gaze back to Kanesaki. A faint, crooked smile tugged at his lips.
'…Go,' he murmured. 'You're free to go.'
Kanesaki stood there, trembling, chest heaving, staring at him – still standing, but finally free.
He lowered his fists and turned away, taking three slow steps, then another – before stopping.
'…Ryuu,' he said without looking back. 'How long have you been a rogue?'
Ryuu wiped the blood from his mouth with his thumb, eyes still fixed on the darkening sky.
A breath passed.
'Almost my whole life,' he replied. 'I was left in a lab that got wiped during the Revolutionary War. Firestorms, collapsing facilities… no evac. Just me and a few others that didn't make it.'
A bitter half-smile touched his face. 'I crawled out of the rubble before I even truly knew what I was. Been running ever since.'
Kanesaki turned to face him.
'So you think you were meant to be this? A rogue?'
Ryuu's shoulders rose and fell.
'I think I never had the luxury of being anything else. The moment I was born, I was already outside the system. So yeah… I guess I was destined for it.'
Kanesaki took a few steps closer. 'Do you really hate humanity that much?'
Ryuu looked at him, then past him – to where Katsumi and Mitsuko had been earlier, to the quiet garage, to the hidden sanctuary beneath it all.
'…No,' he said slowly. 'There are good people. Katsumi. Mitsuko.' He paused, an image flashing into his head, one of a woman. 'A few others I've met along the way,' he finally said.
His eyes hardened. 'But that's not how the world sees us. To them, Akami, Sho, me – every rogue – we're "bad, dangerous, disposable." And once you get that label, that's it.'
He gestured faintly around them.
'So this is the life we get. You're either a slave to humanity… or you're free for as long as you can keep running.'
The words settled heavily between them.
Kanesaki looked down at his own bruised hands, at the blood, at the fading light.
Thoughts crept into his mind – what Maeda said about being humanity's dogs, how Oki treated him in the mining facility, the fear in the eyes of the villagers during his first mission, Raiden's words to him, how he'd accused him of planning to betray them all, kill the humans, and the words of Nishihara in that cave once more – "Rogue."
Then, he raised his gaze and, without hesitation, held out his hand.
'Then don't run alone,' he said. "I'll stay. I'll help you."
Behind him, Yasuko smiled softly, nodding once in quiet agreement.
Ryuu stared at Kanesaki's hand for a long moment. Then he stepped forward and took it, his grip strong, steady.
The last sliver of sun slipped beneath the horizon as their hands met, leaving the sky painted in deep purples and fading fire.
Chapter 66 – end