She reappeared, winding up another slash, but, to her dismay, she stepped on one of my traps.
The tray made a grinding noise with the stone floor as she slid uncontrollably away from me. It was only for a moment that she lost her posture. Thankfully, a moment was all I needed.
I swiveled my waist and thrust my foot into her stomach. Beyond the impact, I could feel the cracking and snapping of her ribcage. As the bones broke, vibrations traveled up my leg, emphasizing every fracture.
Her eyes widened with shock as all the air within her body escaped from her gaping mouth. An instant later, the force from my kick finished its transfer and sent her sliding backward toward the blood trough.
Her breathing was short and sporadic as she clutched her gut.
Following her rapid breathing, her body shook uncontrollably like it'd been struck by the tremors of an earthquake. She tried to recover, but her uncontrolled wheezing only worsened until she fell to her knees with a fit of coughing.
I wasn't one to take chances, so I grasped several scalpels strewn across the workbench's surface. After taking a handful, I swung my hand and hurled them toward her with absolute precision, covering my approach.
Somehow, she barely regained enough movement to slash them out of the way, though it was still too late for her.
I leaped in and drew my hands up for a slash with my paring knife.
ραпdα Йᴏνê|(сòm) Our eyes exchanged contact, her's were filled with shock and intrigue. Her two pupils were the most noticeable of her expression; they'd been entirely dilated with fear.
It was brief, but I saw my own eyes being reflected from hers.
My expression was cold and murderous. The same kind that you'd expect from a reaper that had been ready to extract his next soul. That's not to say I wouldn't feel anything about killing her, though. I just knew that emotions had no place during active combat.
Decisively, as I'd done with the bearded guard, I lacerated her throat.
Her flesh, now parted, ejected a fountain of blood that jetted from her wound. Jarringly, it was different from any that I'd ever encountered. Rather than it being a deep vibrant red, her blood was blackened. The hue had been like someone mixed powdered charcoal with red paint.
She collapsed, plunging her face into the dark pool that formed below.
Usually, I would've tried to apprehend her like I did the others, but my instincts told me to do otherwise. They said that this woman would've definitely killed me if I were to hold back.
While kneeling down and checking her pulse, I wondered if that was true. 'I killed her so quickly… Was there really no other way?'
Though there was nothing to be done now. The deed was done, giving me yet another life that would invade my dreams and drag on my conscience.
I stood up from her corpse and walked briskly to Kamida while digging through my holster for the keys I'd stolen. Once I'd taken hold of them, I used a key to unlatch the metal clasps around Kamida's arms and legs.
I expected the same reaction as Agawa. I expected him to look at me with that same horror and disgust she did. Which is why I was utterly astonished when he reached out and hugged me.
"Thank you, Sato! Thank you, sir!" Tears started flowing from his eyes. "I was terrified, sir! Absolutely terrified!"
'See, I told you that the threat of dissection while alive could make a grown man cry.'
He continued clutching onto me, all the while his quaking body recovered from the shock of almost dying.
Once he'd calmed himself down, we shared eye contact. "I promise, sir." He said with quivering words. "I promise that I'll repay this debt! I'll give you a hero's discount on my services from now until the end!"
I chuckled weakly.
I hadn't been expecting a reward, but I couldn't help but be disappointed in what he offered.
"Thanks," I knew that now wasn't the time for celebrations, "but we should get back to escaping."
Sniffling, Kamida let go and stood up from the table. He started exiting the room when he turned back towards me to say, "seriously, sir, thank y-" He froze, his look of ease contorted into pure terror.
His eyes widened and revealed every bit of the whites within them. Then, spasming in fear, he raised an arm toward me.
Curious, I made an attempt to ask him what was wrong. Oddly, my words were frozen in my throat. In fact, the only sounds I'd been capable of were the gasps of pained wheezing.
Looking down, I noticed a thin spear of hardened blood piercing through my lower stomach, creating a new hole to my insides.
It retracted, grinding against my intestines as it left. Upon its complete departure, I was drained from the meager strength I had left in my legs. I had been about to fall entirely to the ground when I caught myself on the operating table.
I reached towards Kamida, stumbling over my own words. "R-Run, you f-fucking idiot!"
Responding to my command, Kamida profusely apologized before barreling out the door. I was relieved when he'd picked the correct direction toward the tunnel. I would've haunted him as a ghost forever if he ran the wrong way and got caught again.
My mission to rescue Kamida was accomplished, so I turned my attention to what had nearly disemboweled me and threw my knife at the source. But the flying blade had been knocked aside by a wall of hardened, black blood.
I had nothing left to fight with, so I fell from the table and flopped onto my back. I watched as the blood wall reliquidated and fell back to the floor as a puddle. What was revealed when the wall fell was the woman I'd just killed.
She stepped closer and towered over me with a menacing glare.
Her eyes were fixed on mine, seething with sadistic rage. I checked her neck wound to see it had completely regenerated. The congealed, blackened blood still covering it was the only indication that it had ever even existed.
'You're such an idiot, Katsuro.' That's what I thought when I realized that, despite being given a second chance at life, I'd wasted it once again by being a sacrifice for someone else. Like in my previous "death", I let out a bitter laugh.
'What a lousy joke…'
She closed in on me. My vision was again fading into black, an experience that I was becoming accustomed to. Finally, I gave up and allowed myself to fall into the bliss of unconsciousness.
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