The lounge had stopped feeling like a room. It felt like a pressure chamber built for violence, every pulse of the alarm painting the space in unstable red, flickering across broken glass and the corpse at the centre of the carpet as if the world itself couldn't decide what it was supposed to illuminate. The air felt tight, almost compressed, and every breath Ryuu took sounded slightly too loud in his own ears.
Sugimoto moved first, not fast, not sudden, just correct, a single step forward erasing the distance between them.
Ryuu met him immediately, his blades coming down in a brutal cross, both arms driving forward with pure offensive intent, forcing the exchange open before Sugimoto could settle into control. Blackened steel and twin katana collided with a sound that didn't echo so much as vanish into the impact itself.
Sugimoto's wrists shifted instantly, not blocking but redirecting, one katana slipping Ryuu's left blade just enough to bleed force away while the other angled in to intercept the second strike at a point that turned raw power into a glancing deflection. Ryuu's momentum carried him through, forcing Sugimoto into a half-step back for the first time, not retreat, but calculation.
Ryuu didn't give him space to breathe. He pressed forward again immediately, blades cutting in alternating arcs, high, low, diagonal, each strike built to deny recovery rather than land cleanly. His entire style had shifted into aggression without hesitation, forcing Sugimoto to respond instead of act.
Steel met steel in rapid succession, each impact tightening the room further.
Sugimoto's expression remained unchanged, but his movement sharpened. He wasn't defending in any traditional sense, he was reading, meeting every strike not where it was, but where it would become, small shifts of his wrists and subtle changes in stance catching momentum and bending it just enough that Ryuu's attacks never landed clean.
A chair split apart behind them, a table leg snapped as Sugimoto's katana diverted a downward strike.
Ryuu twisted mid-motion, using the recoil of the clash to spin into another attack, bringing both blades down in a crushing overhead arc meant to end distance entirely.
Sugimoto stepped inside it, too close.
For a fraction of a second, he was inside Ryuu's guard, one katana rising under Ryuu's arm, the second angling toward his ribs. Ryuu barely rotated his shoulder in time, letting the blade skim past instead of piercing deep, the edge cutting through fabric and skin, pain flashing hot and immediate, but he didn't break rhythm.
He answered by driving a knee forward, forcing Sugimoto back half a step again.
For the first time, Sugimoto exhaled slightly through his nose, not frustration, recognition.
'You're abandoning structure,' he said quietly, deflecting another strike, 'pure offense without recovery.'
Ryuu didn't answer, he attacked again, this time faster, lower, one blade aimed at Sugimoto's wrist while the other swept in a tight arc meant to trap movement entirely. Sugimoto responded by dropping his centre of gravity, letting the first strike pass over him while his second katana rotated upward to intercept the follow-up at its weakest angle.
The clash snapped Ryuu's blade off-line, and Sugimoto immediately followed with a short, precise strike toward Ryuu's exposed flank.
Ryuu twisted into it instead of away.
The blade grazed him again, deeper this time, tearing across his side as he used the contact point to push forward rather than retreat, blood marking the edge of his coat, but his momentum didn't slow.
Sugimoto's eyes narrowed slightly, now adjusting.
Ryuu was no longer just attacking, he was forcing tempo.
He stepped in again, blades carving tighter, more violent arcs, compressing the fight into a narrower space, every strike carrying the intent to overwhelm rather than outmatch. He didn't wait for openings, he created pressure until Sugimoto had fewer and fewer places to redirect.
Sugimoto gave ground by inches, always controlled, always measured, but now it was visible, he was being pushed into reading faster than he was comfortable with.
Ryuu noticed, and increased pressure immediately.
A downward strike shattered the edge of a table, a lateral swing forced Sugimoto to pivot sharply to avoid a follow-up that would have taken his shoulder clean.
Sugimoto countered properly at last, both katana moving at once, one intercepting Ryuu's downward blade while the other slid in at chest level, forcing Ryuu to abandon his attack mid-flow and break his stance entirely just to avoid being pinned.
For the first time, Ryuu gave space. Sugimoto didn't chase, he watched, measuring.
Then he spoke, voice calm.
'You fight like someone trying to end it before they can even get into it.'
Ryuu lifted both blades again, shoulders low, breath steady but heavier now. 'That's the point.'
Sugimoto's gaze sharpened slightly. 'Then you'll lose.'
And he moved again, faster, cleaner, not rushed but collapsing distance with precise intent, forcing Ryuu back into defence as the balance shifted once more. Ryuu met him instantly, blades clashing at the edge of visibility, neither holding ground for long as the lounge continued to break apart around them.
Steel rang out again and again, not one-sided, not controlled, but two experienced fighters fully engaged, each forcing the other to reveal more than intended.
The fight didn't end so much as dissolve into hesitation.
They remained facing each other, both armed, both poised to kill, but the rhythm between them had fractured. The lounge no longer felt like a battlefield with rules, it felt like a structure forgetting how to stand, ceiling lights flickering in uneven pulses, shadows breaking across the blood-stained carpet.
Outside, the sandstorm no longer sounded distant, it sounded close enough to bite.
The barge shuddered again, deeper this time, metal groaning under strain that wasn't meant to last. Somewhere beneath the lounge, something large shifted with a long, tortured sound.
Sugimoto moved first, but not forward, adjusting his stance slightly, twin katana lowering a fraction, his gaze flicking upward toward the trembling ceiling as another wave of vibration passed through the hull.
Ryuu didn't lower his blades, but he didn't advance either.
The silence between them became heavier than the alarms.
Sugimoto exhaled slowly. 'You feel it too.'
Ryuu's grip tightened.
Another violent lurch ran through the barge, the floor tilting briefly before correcting, sending glass shards skidding across the lounge like scattered teeth. The corpse between them shifted, dragged slightly by the tremor, leaving a smear of dark red behind it.
'The storm is pushing the hull past its limits,' Sugimoto continued evenly, 'the stabilisers were never meant to hold this long under sustained pressure. If it continues, the whole ship will collapse.'
Ryuu's gaze flicked briefly to the walls, cracks beginning to show, not dramatic yet, but visible, thin lines forming in the paneling, the ceiling joints, the seams where metal met stone.
The barge was no longer stable, now resisting collapse.
Sugimoto watched him carefully. 'We can end this, focus on getting out.'
Another groan rolled through the structure, and part of the ceiling light assembly snapped loose, crashing down behind them and scattering sparks across the floor, the sound swallowed almost instantly by the storm pressing against the hull.
Ryuu's shoulders remained tense, blades still raised, but something in his stance shifted, less pursuit, more calculation under constraint.
Behind him, distant gunfire echoed faintly through the corridor.
The others were still fighting.
Ryuu clicked his tongue once, sharp, frustrated, then turned his head slightly toward the hallway, his voice cutting cleanly through the alarms.
'Sho, Kanesaki, Yasuko!'
No response came immediately, only muffled chaos deeper in the ship.
His jaw tightened. He raised his voice just enough to carry.
'Fall back! Now!'
A pause.
Another tremor rolled through the barge, harder than the last, the lounge tilting more violently, forcing both fighters to adjust as dust poured from the ceiling seams.
Ryuu didn't look away from the corridor. 'The barge is going down,' he said, urgency cutting through restraint, 'get out before it buries us!'
This time, the words carried.
Sugimoto remained still, watching him, unreadable behind his mask, neither attacking nor retreating, simply observing.
Another violent shudder ran through the hull. This time, even the lounge couldn't pretend it was intact.
Ryuu lowered one blade slightly, not surrender, but decision.
'This isn't finished,' he said quietly.
Sugimoto inclined his head almost imperceptibly. 'No, it isn't.'
Outside, the storm roared louder, and the barge answered with a long, breaking groan that sounded less like metal, and more like something finally giving up.
Chapter 73 – end