A Door that Opens Part 6

Previous: A Door that Opens Part 5

''Slowly, Rinji rose to his feet, all of the halberds pointed all around his head, and all of the red and black knight helms gazing at him as he did. The card soldiers kept their gaze upon him very closely, and all of them shouted at him at once again.''

"PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!" ''Their voices echoed throughout the entire castle once again, and he hesitated, he didn't want to cut his hands on their sharp blades. He was just about to raise his hands in the air when one of them thrust his blade a little too far to hurry him up. This blade nicked his cheek, he felt a burning sensation, and then he felt the blood run down his chin, and onto his zuit suit. A drop of blood landed on his tie, and beside his tie.''

''Rinji froze. He just got this tie in Usted Island. This suit was just carefully lint-rolled and pressed to a fine, perfectly flat finish with an excellent crease in the sleeves and the sides of his shirt and greyish jacket. This one bastard of a cardman just thrusts forward and ruined it!''

''His vision turned red. Before any of them knew anything, his entire body began to whirl and disfigure in their vision as a gigantic haze of energy surged through his entire body, and his eyes literally glowed red.''

"Busoshoku!" Thrusted his hands forward. "Rinji Shogekiha!"

''A huge chunk of their ranks were shattered, and many of them went flying as a shockwave cut straight through them. They were smashed against the walls all around them. Glasses broke all around the room, and columns cracked under a horrible pressure. The royal Queen of Heart's castle shook from the very foundations as the Catman's fury was unleashed. Those who could still fight swung their halberds toward the raging pirate captain, but he merely landed his padded feet onto the flats of their blade and swung a kick straight for their faces as he jumped farther down the room. Ducking and dodging their blades, he flipped and jumped his way through them, slicing the faces of any of them who posed an obstacle. After taking a few more cuts from passing blades, he even pulled a pole-arm from one of the random ones, and lunged at a whole line of them, close-lining the lot of them and torpedoed into the next one. He landed onto a cardknight's head and twisted his helmet around to where he could not see, but it was just then that his senses picked up a lance flying straight through the air behind him. It was the kind of sense he couldn't explain, but it appeared that something or someone was warning him to move out of the way, and he did. He jumped over the cardknight's head and landed behind him, causing the lance to impale him in the upper chest.''

''Rinji took this chance to run, and fast. He finally made it to the hall, and thankfully seemed that the coast was clear. He rushed out of the room and into the royal hallway of the castle. This was such a strange place, indeed, as all of the hallway was decorated with hearts, and very large portraits of a woman completely dressed in black and red, with hearts being depicted through the whole of her dress. He looked at her portrait in the eyes as he ran by it, and the pupils seemed to follow him, staring him down and making a chill run up his spine. He hurried down the dark, red-carpeted hallway until he came to a crossing, and heard more card guards scurrying all around the castle.''

"You cards! Down that way! Do not let the catman leave this place! Destroy him, and everyone in your way! Destroy the desks while you're at it, because they could mean to get in your way! While you're at it, destroy the lamps! They have always plotted against us! GO!" More armour clattered around as Rinji jumped up onto the ceiling beams and held his place with his claws digging into the wood, and balancing him onto it as he watched them scurry around below.

"Desks?..." Rinji watched them with great curiosity. "Lamps?" This didn't sound good at all.

"Washi Higyou..." ''Sakura once again made a very swift strike with her sword, this time from a distance, and the energy she produced turned into the form of an eagle as its wings spread. Usagi poised herself, and decided that this fight was already going on for far too long.''

"Itoryuu: Hentaigana!" ''Her sword moved swiftly, with a dexterity very rarely seen in any form of sword technique. Just as Sakura's attack fired, not even a second passed by as Usagi's attack came to meet hers. Both attacks collided, Sakura's energized, Japanese symbol of "Konki" or "energy" stopped it in its tracks.''

''Sakura saw Usagi jump straight backward, and decided it would be wise to follow suit. The two energies mixed for a millisecond before causing a horrible combustion. Sakura was swift in getting out of the way, but she caught a bad portion of the blast and was sent into a gigantic flower stem which was as hard as a tree trunk. The flower fell straight over in front of her, the broken portion directly above her head. She was dazed only for a slight moment, but as the haze cleared, she held her sword straight up as Usagi lunged with such immense speed straight at Sakura.''

"ItoryuuIai: Narabi." ''Their swords clashed, a great deal of energy blasted the trees and dust around them, creating a cloud of debris. With a great show of strength and agility, Sakura reached up and grabbed the gigantic flower, smashing the trunk of it against Usagi's head, knocking her away as she yelped in pain. As Usagi stumbled, Sakura dashed toward her and began her assault. The pink haired samurai could barely keep her balance as she held her sword up to block each very precise and skillfull swipe of the sword. Both of them almost seemed to dance with how they used their swords. When Usagi regained her footing, she caught one of Sakura's attacks in mid swipe, and knocked her, causing her to loosen her grip on it ever so slightly. That was when Usagi swiped her own sword and struck Sakura in the side, drawing blood almost immediately.''

''Sakura's expression became somewhat dark. She stopped, her sword pointed off to the side, her pose was ever so still as she glared at Usagi through her bangs.''

"I will admit, you have me trying hard. And if it is true that I am dreaming and you are not, that does not change the fact that I must uphold my honour, and try my very hardest." Her pose changed, and her sword went into two hands. "Prepare yourself."

"No! You don't have to do this! I need to find my crew and get out of here!" Usagi tried to reason with her, but her poise was already set.

"Itoryuu Ougi: Kirikirimai" energy pulsed throughout her body, creating a wind that began to encompass the area around them, even blow against Usagi, who gained her footing completely and lean forward, focusing energy of her own.

"Kyuusho Itoryuu: Coisuji!!" ''Usagi brought a force of haki to meet, and everything around them completely shattered. The explosion travelled at least a three mile radius. Time seemed to stand still for the both of them as they were caught in the heat of the combustion. The lights around them flashed like a strobe-light, and suddenly Sakura began to see the beauty of the entire universe. Such a beautiful flower as Usagi being able to match her very essence of fighting, and in that moment it all seemed to come full circle as the both of them were blown straight back to the ground, sliding against the bare, now-grassless land.''

''Usagi laid there, panting for air, her entire body was bruised up and cut, and all of her muscles hurt so fiercely that she couldn't even think of moving at that moment. Her clothes were torn a great deal, and her sword lay on the ground with her, still clutched in her right hand.''

''To her surprise, Sakura got up from the ground, she used her sword as a kind of cane as she balanced herself. Sakura looked at the pinkhair samurai on the ground before her, and she gave a very small smile.''

"Thank you. You have shown me how much I need to improve, I can only hope that I have done the same. I can hear my den den alarm clock. I hope to find you in the New World. Farewell." That was when Sakura disappeared into nothingness, leaving Usagi on the ground, covered in scratches, bruises and mounds of dirt.

''She finally moved her right hand to the left side and did the same as Sakura, using her sword as a kind of cane to get to her feet. She was bleeding from her cuts on her arm, and her eye was swollen from such a horrible strike from a gigantic flower. She soon gained her breath, and then looked off toward the water.''

''Of all the people she could have thought of, it wasn't Rinji, nor her parents that she had not seen for such a long time. Nor was it any of her friends that she knew from her school days, or her training days as a very young swordswoman. Of all the people she wished to find her, she wanted to see Chio.''

A Door that Opens Part 7