The entire penthouse fell quiet as everybody, except for Kana, who was too weak to even cry at this point, looked at the door leading out of the room.
"What did you do to Kana?" Ruby's eyes wandered through the entire room and stopped on each and every person in the room, with the sole exception being Kana, to look at them, her gaze filled with disgust.
Ruby took a single, determined step towards Kamiki, filled with anger that could make the room, perhaps the building, shake. Anger which was the only thing that kept her going in that moment. "Tell me, what did you do to her, you monster." Her voice was low
Another step.
Her foot hitting the ground snapped Kamiki out of his confused state of mind. He quickly looked around the room before he roughly grabbed a handful of Kana's hair. She whimpered in pain as he pulled her head up and placed his knife to her throat once more.
"Stop it right now," he shouted through the room.
"What? Are you scared? Isn't me coming to you exactly what you want? You're truly pathetic," Ruby replied.
A third step.
"STAY BACK, ANOTHER STEP AND SHE GETS IT!" Kamiki screamed.
Aqua had let go of Akane by now and was standing halfway between Ruby and Akane. "Ruby, stop right there. He is dangerous."
Ruby turned away from Kamiki to face Aqua; her eyes were filled with disgust and hatred that made her earlier look pale in comparison. "Shut up Aqua. You have no power over what I'm going to do. If I want to walk, I walk," she growled at Aqua.
She pointed at Kana while not averting her gaze from Aqua. "This is what happens when you are the one in control. You have failed, you failed me as well as Kana... I hope it was worth it."
Ruby turned away from Aqua again to face Kamiki, who was now shaking slightly, once more.
"Time to improvise, you have to trust me now. Just pay attention to Kamiki." Akane, who had started to walk without anybody really taking note, whispered into Aqua's ear as she passed by him. Her gaze was set on Ruby, and her step was determined.
"STOP IT! STOP WALKING... OR I WILL KILL HER. I MEAN IT!" Kamiki, whose control over the situation rapidly crumpled in on itself, shouted.
That would be extremely dumb, Kamiki. We both know that you're bluffing. I'm done playing by your rules.
Akane didn't stop
Kamiki's hands shook a lot, a lot more than they should, even now. Akane only stopped walking when she was standing right next to Ruby. Her voice was cold and bitter as she spoke. "How dare you talk to Aqua like that?"
Ruby staggered to the side as she was hit by Akane full force without the time to prepare for it. "What?" She stammered out while she touched her burning cheek and looked up at Akane, her eyes narrowed with confusion, yet primarily fury. "Are you in on this? Do you also want to stand between Kana and me? So be it, bring it on."
Aqua could only watch in awe, frozen in place as Akane and Ruby started to brawl. They were slapping and punching each other, each blow harder than the one before. But beneath the chaos, something caught his ear — something faint, almost too faint to notice.
When he looked, he saw Kamiki, approximately 2 meters closer to the unfolding mess, clutching his chest with the knife lying at his feet beneath. His frame leaned against the pillar as he used his other hand to reach out towards Ruby, who was still a good 8 meters away from him. The haze in Aqua's mind lifted just enough. He's not himself again, not fully, but he knew— This has to be it. This has to be the moment Akane was talking about, but how, how did she do this? How did she know? It does not matter. Not now. The space around Aqua fell quiet, the sounds of the brawl faded into nothingness, while even the penetrating scent of iron fully disappeared. One, two, three, each step eliminated the distance between him and Kamiki quicker than the last one.
His eyes were bloodshot and unwavering as he pulled the knife Akane had given him out from beneath his jacket. Then a gasp, followed by nothing. When Aqua opened his eyes again, he looked right into Kamiki's. The knife, of which he was still tightly clutching the hilt, lodged deep into Kamiki's abdomen just below his ribcage. Another gasp could be heard as the knife was pulled back out of Kamiki, followed by a flood dripping onto the tarp beneath.
"Does that hurt!? Huh!?" Aqua whispered into Kamiki's ear.
Kamiki stood for a few more moments, leaned against the pillar, before he slowly began to slide down towards the floor. Kamiki's knife clattered into the distance as Aqua kicked it across the room before turning his attention away from him.
His eyes set on her, and only her Kana. Her limp body slumped in the chair; the tight ropes, which initially restrained her, were now the only thing that kept her from falling. "It will all be fine," he whispered. He used his bloody knife to carefully cut through them with ease, while he made sure not to accidentally scar Kana even further. When he had finally gotten through the ropes, he gently picked her small body up. Knelt, he made sure to place Kana on the floor as cautiously as possible; he even placed his hand in between her head and the hard wooden floor. "You're doing a great job, Kana, just stay with me now."
Ruby was too locked into her fight to notice him; her focus was solely on Akane. Yet Akane saw, which isn't of much use when you're currently being choked out. She used the last of her strength, the world in her peripheral vision already fading, to gently tap Ruby's shoulder. At first, Ruby tried to resist the tapping, but after a few taps, she gave in and looked over. She froze, her grip around Akane's throat not loosening; perhaps even hardening, as she saw Kamiki lie on the floor, completely unmoving.
"HHH—" Akane gasped for air as Ruby's grip finally loosened. At this point, her sight was almost entirely black; a few more seconds of this and her mind would've gone bye-bye. "I'm sorry, Ruby…" Akane's words were haunted by long coughing attacks which shook her entire body, "I had to make it look... authentic… I didn't mean to... hurt you." Ruby quickly scrambled off Akane's body, hit by a pang of guilt as she looked at her disheveled clothing and bruised face. "I'm... I'm sorry too, I thought-" Ruby managed to stammer out, all the prior confidence gone in an instant.
...
Aqua tried to examine Kana, her face a landscape of contrasts. It was parted into two, on the top left side, a ghostly white snowfield, while the bottom right was a sea of bloody crust; a river of blood flowed right through the two biomes. She winced quietly as she used her last strength and raised her hands to try and hide her face from the entire world, especially Aqua. "I told you not to look at me, you wouldn't want to see this anyways." Aqua sighed in relief; her responsiveness lifted a huge weight off his shoulders. He didn't get a good look at her injury, but he saw enough to know that it was not life-threatening.
"No Kana, Kamiki was wrong," Aqua said.
Kana's hands remained over her face, covering almost the entirety of it. "I- I'm sorry. I don't want it. I don't want you seeing me like this."
Aqua quietly sighed, but ultimately accepted her request. "Hey, come here!" He shouted across the room at Ruby, who still looked quite taken aback by all of this.
Ruby hesitated for a moment before she came closer. Her eyes flicked from Akane to Kamiki, to Aqua, and then finally over to Kana. Ruby shoved Aqua aside, harder than necessary, as she knelt next to Kana.
"You scared me so much you dummy, I actually thought he would kill you for a second." Ruby whimpered out as she wrapped her arms around Kana.
"I am so happy that you're alive, it's all going to be okay now, I'll take care of you." She whispered barely loud enough for Aqua to hear.
Aqua looked at Ruby's back for a little while longer while his eyes flashed and his hands twitched slightly, then he stood up.
"Aqua... Aqua."
The voice was barely audible, empty. Kamiki was looking at him, blood trailing from the corners of his mouth. Aqua stepped over to him and looked down onto him, right into his fading eyes. "Seems like you lost. How does it feel?"
Blood flew towards Aqua as Kamiki chuckled. "How it feels?" The blood still poured out of Kamiki. With every droplet that left his body, a bit of the former strength in his voice left, too. "It feels... neutral, I lost, and I will accept it. But how do you feel? Did you really win?"
Kamiki paused for a moment and looked deep into Aqua's eyes. The sparkle within his own was almost completely gone by now, but a bit of their former beauty remained. "Is this really a win for you? You only had two things in your life, them and me. What will be left once these things aren't there anymore?"
Aqua lowered his gaze. "I have no answer to this question. But what I know is that my goals were fulfilled, you will never be able to hurt them anymore. If this means that my purpose is gone too now, I am just going to gladly accept it."
He looked over at Ruby and Kana. Ruby was still holding Kana's weak body in a tight hug as if she could disappear without a warning any second, while Kana halfheartedly tried to cover her bloody face. "They are both safe now, both of them have a future ahead of them, either with or without me..."
Aqua's gaze snapped back as Kamiki spoke again. "Do you really think this was a success? Look at Kana, she can't even look at you without hating herself even more. Or Ruby, she can only look at you with disgust in her eyes. Even your other friend feels this way. You might have saved their lives, but while doing so, you ruined their soul."
A disgusting and wet sound came from Kamiki's stomach as he used his last strength to reach for Aqua. The initial shock in Aqua's eyes was swiftly replaced with pity as he looked down at Kamiki, who desperately tried to pull himself up on Aqua.
"Your life serves no purpose anymore." He groaned as his blood colored Aqua's clothes dark red. "Everything you touch breaks, and the best part is. I am certain that you know it yourself."
"I got one last thing for you." He said as he fell back down, too weak to support his weight any longer. "One last thing that will help along your way. Somebody close to you betrayed you... What will you do now? Believe me, or your friends?"