Five hours later
While still recovering in his room, Kairo was sitting at his desk looking through his mathematics textbook, trying to study so he didn't fall behind. His glasses were hanging on the tip of his nose as he looked down to write.
His concentration keeps him on the book as he pencil draws on paper. A sudden growl erupted from his stomach.
"Man, after that beating I completely forgot I haven't eaten yet." Kairo sets his pencil down and leans back in his chair, resting his neck on the back end.
As he looks up at the ceiling, he instantly has a thought.
"I wonder if the convenience store is still open." After a quick look around in his room.
Kairo is suddenly walking out of a convenience store with a bag of snacks and food. As he quickly opens up a neatly cut sandwich, he begins eating it as he walks.
Streets of Karakami Town
"Man, I'm so glad they were open; I thought I was going to die on my way there." Kairo laughs gently as he continues walking, but after rounding a corner, he throws himself into a freeze, causing his sandwich to fall out of his hand.
His eyes locking onto an unusual event, the sight was unlike anything Kairo had seen before. A swordsman fighting off some sort of undead beast. Its faceless head and gnarled, decaying body froze Kairo where he was standing. Even with a sword, the swordsman was struggling to fight it.
"W-What in the world is this?!" Kairo felt his body growing heavy as a stench started pressing down on him.
"I-I'm this far away yet-!" Kairo falls to his knees as he covers his nose and mouth. The stench started to make him nauseous.
The swordsman jumped back and quickly noticed Kairo kneeling behind him.
"A civilian! Now of all times?! Damnit!" The swordsman thought to himself as he held up his sword against the undead beast.
"Kid, I recommend you get out of here. I'll shield you until you get far enough away." The swordsman stated as he held his stance.
Kairo could feel the stench slowly retracting from him, allowing him to breathe easier for the time being.
"I-I can breathe again?" Kairo questioned as he quickly stood up.
"I'm shielding you with my Soul Strain; while we speak, I'm battling this Fissure's Stench with my soul. But I can't focus if you're still here. I need you to leave now!" The swordsman shouted as he noticed the Fissure getting closer.
But noticing Kairo wouldn't leave, the swordsman lunged forward and attempted to slash at the Fissure once more. As the blade connected, it did minimal damage, causing the swordsman to take a claw slash against his chest. With a quick breath, the swordsman jumped back and tried to keep his composure. Before slightly falling to one knee.
"D-Damn, I can't deal damage to it while I continue to press against its stench," the swordsman thought to himself as his wound burned.
But in a distorted, almost girly child voice, the fissure speaks.
"P-Play with me." The fissure spoke in a girly child's voice. The voice was distorted yet eerie; chills shot down Kairo's body.
"Run!" The swordsman shouted as he forced himself up and charged at the fissure.
Without thinking, the swordsman leaped at the fissure, his blade raised above his head, ready to drive a vertical slash. But the moment he prepared to drop his blade, the fissure swung his decapitated right arm and slammed the swordsman into a nearby building.
The fissure ignored Kairo and turned towards the swordsman.
"H-He's going to die? Because of me... I need to."
"No, I can't; it'll kill me! I need to run!"
"B-But we're the reason he's-!"
Suddenly Kairo felt himself fighting in his head. Fight, run, fight, run! FIGHT!
As the Fissure approached the swordsman, he felt his broken body bleeding in several places, yet he continued to fight as he raised his sword to the foul beast.
"Don't choke..."
The Fissure began leaning closer to the swordsman. Its featureless face began morphing open into an open shredder of teeth. The inside of its face was nothing but a black void. But as it prepared to chomp the swordsman, it was like a bear trap being activated.
CRACK!
A sudden force caused the fissure's face to reform into a closed, faceless form and slowly turn towards the disturbance. As it fully turned, Kairo stood in fear with pieces of a brick still in his hand.
The fissure seemed to look Kairo down, and then once again, as it turned towards Kairo, its face reopened into a mouth. With a sudden lunge, the Fissure prepared to rip Kairo into pieces, but as blood splattered in front of Kairo's face.
His eyes widened in shock as the swordsman's body came barreling between them. The Fissure managed to latch onto the left side of the swordsman's body. However, as his feet touched the ground, he quickly reversed his grip on the sword and shouted with might. Before piercing the sword into the side of the Fissure's extended head.
Quickly the Fissure unleashed a distorted female child scream before shaking its head furiously, launching the swordsman. As he collides into a nearby light post, Kairo quickly rushes over to aid him.
"O-Oh my god, y-your-!" Kairo was in shock at the display of the swordsman's body.
As Kairo falls to his knees, we see the swordsman's body had a massive bite gash in the left side of his body, his left arm also missing as blood rushed out of his massive gaping wound.
"Y-You stupid kid. I-I could've won if you had run." The swordsman felt anger for a split moment at Kairo.
"B-But if it wasn't for you, I'd be dead already. T-Though this isn't much better... Listen to me, kid." The swordsman looks over at the Fissure as it begins regenerating, the wound inflicted by the swordsman already healing and turning into a scar within minutes.
"I-If that thing manages to kill us both, I-it'll kill everyone in this area. I-I need you to beat it for me. Can you do that, kid?" The swordsman started to struggle with breathing as his heart started slowing from the blood loss.
"H-How am I supposed to beat that thing!" Kairo asked, terrified yet determined.
"I-I'm going to give you my sword..." The swordsman looked at his sword. But as he felt his eyes slowly shutting, the sudden roar from the Fissure awoke him instantly for one final push.
"Q-Quickly now! Grab the blade and place my hand on your chest!" The swordsman demanded as he looked over at the Fissure that was beginning to approach them.
With slight hesitation in his heart, Kairo quickly shuttered it off and grabbed hold of the sword in his right hand and placed the swordsman's right hand onto his chest with his left hand.
Kairo looked over at the Fissure as it started approaching faster.
"I, Masako Sarei, grant permission to this individual to become my proxy!"
Suddenly, as the Fissure leaps at them, a burst of unnatural energy overlays them and quickly expands into a bright light that could be seen from miles away. This enormous burst of energy forced the leaping Fissure back instantly, and as it calmed.
Kairo stood wielding a straight-bladed katana with visible cracks, a hilt that housed blonde, tanned, ragged cloth, and a handle that held loosely tied white wrapping as it dangled slightly from the button end of the katana.
His gaze locked onto the Fissure, who landed on all of its remaining limbs. It, slowly standing and ready to charge back at Kairo.