The barrel of the shotgun lowered and Takeru too lowered his Uzi.  His eyes still remained locked on Ryota.  Jun slipped past Takeru and jumped onto Ryota and almost sucked his lips clean off his face.  Hiroshi giggled and did an impression of an older women “My word deary, just look at the passion of those two, don’t you remember when we were like that so young and in love?”  He winked at Susumu who surprisingly enough didn’t glare simply shrugged.  “Yes, I also remember your boobs used to be perky not the sad sagging pillows they are now.”  Susumu replied curtly as he dropped his guard.   Hiroshi giggled.  Thrilled that he had managed to get Susumu to make a joke.  “are you alone?”  Takeru asked coldly.  Ryota glared at him and his finger reflexively touched the trigger of the shotgun.  “yes I am”  Ryota stated equally icy. 

                Jun took his face into her hands she was crying.  “your brother… I’m so sorry.”  Ryota smiled weakly.  He had forgotten all about Ryo, but that didn’t matter.  He shrugged and smiled as he kissed her.  “Your alive and that’s all that truly matters to me.”  Hiroshi groaned “god make it stop I cant take any more romance.  I’m not feeling the love tonight I don’t want too!”  He whinned.  Asuka chuckled “that’s because no one loves you.  Hiroshi whimpered feeling the painful blow of her words, and Asuka felt alittle bad for hurting his feelings.  Susumu put Hiroshi in a loose headlock “your boobs may be sagging, but I still love you baby”  Hiroshi made his face red as if he was blushing “well I do declare” he said in English sounding like a women with a southern drawl.  “I’m going to patrol for alittle.  It’s to noisy here.  I can’t think as well as I’d like.” 

                “Takeru wait” Asuka said as she pushed her way through a bush to catch up with him.  “why are you leaving?”  Takeru froze in his tracks.  “I just need to think.  Of what to do, how to save you, how to save the others…  What to do about Kai.”  Asuka covered the distance between them in a second and locked her arms tightly around his neck.  “Were all here too.  Each one of us is here to help you.  It isn’t just your cross to bear.”  “Only I can do it though.  I’d rather none of you have to stain your hands with blood.  Especially you.”  He slipped from her embrace and put her in one of his own, Holding her body tight against him.  Takeru chuckled softly to himself as he ran his fingers through her long hair.  “This is the first time we’ve been alone this entire time hasn’t it.”  His fingertips glided across the skin of her cheek and down along her neck.  He grabbed her by her chin pulling her close to him so he could kiss her.  Gently pressing his lips against hers and sucking lightly on her bottom lip.

                “wow”  Asuka giggled as she tried to catch her breath.  “what got into you”  He chuckled and stroked her cheek “nothing dear”  He smiled and she immediately frowned.  “did you just smile?  Ok who you are and what did you do with my Takeru he never talks this much, and he never ever-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever smiles.” Takeru smiled wider and pressed his forehead gently against hers and shut his eyes.  “Whats wrong?”  Asuka asked stepping back so she could see his face.  He still hadn’t moved, and kept his eyes closed even as he spoke.  “I’m just enjoying the time I have with you while I can.”  He tilted his head back and gazed up at the canapy of the trees high above his head.  “It may be my last chance.”  “Don’t you dare say it!”  she shouted at him.  “I never expected you of all people to think that way.  We’re all going to be fine.  We’ll escape, and if we can’t.  Then I will follow you.  Even into death.”  Tears streamed down her cheeks as she stepped into him.  Burying her face against his chest.  “I’ve always followed you.  I followed you and Kai everywhere, and that won’t change.  Even in death I’ll follow you.”  A finger gently brushed across her cheek wiping the tears away, and his lips delicately brushed across hers along her cheek all the way to her ear.  “You must live no matter what happens to me.  You can’t follow me this time.”  He spoke softly his lips pressed against her ear.  Asuka giggled and pulled away from the tickling in her ear.  “Then you can’t follow me.  Either,  understand?”  Takeru nodded returning back to his old self.  She stroked his cheek and turned to leave “Don’t think to long okay.”  As she left his head once again tilted back to view the dark cloudy sky through the breaks in the trees.  An omen he thought to himself.  The final dual between me and him,  A friend killing a friend,  Killing himself in the process.  And he couldn’t help, but ask himself the same question.  “Why?”

                Ayame looked cautiously from the tree line down the hill to the small cement dock where several small rickety boats bounced back and forth in the waves.  Her eyes scanned from the far left over the oil drums the boats piles of net and discarded rope, and then over the boats themselves.  It was deserted.  “Okay.”  She whispered and motioned for the other girls that it was safe.  All 6 of them slid down the hill and carefully covered the space between it and the dock.  When they made it Rina softly squecked her rubber duck in triumph.  The other girls smiled, easing some of the tension. 

                Chihiro sat down ontop of one of the oil drums that had been abandoned on the dock.  She watched as Ayame jumped into one of the boats and began toying with the motor.  Her attention shifted to a dark object shifting gracefully in-between the trees.  She squinted to try and get a better look at it, but it seemed to vanish from view.  “How do you turn this on?”  Ayame said frustrated as she kept fumbling about with the motor.  Kana was now in the boat trying to help her start it, while Rina Akina and Cho looked through the shards of discarded fishing net for something they could use.  “Ayame”  Chihiro whispered.  Ayame glanced up at her  “what is it Chi?”  She flinched at the use of her old nickname.  Ayame hadn’t called her that in years.  The sudden use of her nickname sent an ache through her chest, but she wasn’t sure why.  The pain reminded her of when her Sifu was demonstrating a Wing Chun technique on her.

                “I thought I saw someone in the trees.  We should probably be quiet.”  Rina dropped the net and stared at Chihiro in horror and quickly snapped her head towards the top of the hill.  Searching frantically for someone, but there was nothing.  Ayame continued to fiddle with the engine.  Clicking and pulling on things trying to start it.  While Cho eyed the tree’s aiming with her Springfield army XD. 

                Ayame tugged on a chord she found daggling from the top of the engine after pushing in a button that she guessed was the choke.  The engine shrieked out making an earsplitting grinding noise,  Sounding distinctly of metal ripping against metal.  “Turn it off Ayame”  Akina yelled as she moved back to the engine.  “I’m trying!”  Ayame screamed over the deafening noise  The two girls pulled and tore at the exposed wires,  In a frantic attempt to silence the boats motor.  After what felt to them all like an eternity the grinding noise died down until all that was left was a gentle tapping sound.

                  Ayame gave a sigh of relief “that was close huh”  she looked over to where Cho and Rina were standing by the net.  They were staring towards the hill looking absolutely horrified.  Their mouths agaped.  As Ayame turned her head she saw him.  Kai was standing at the base of the hill.  His school coat covered in dried blood leaving batches of red on the usually black school coat.  A gust of wind blew across the sea  towards them whipping past them and blowing Kai’s hair back and forth and making his coat flutter behind him.  “Wow”  Akina said staring awestruck.  “That was so hot.”  Ayame glared at her then grinned as she reached behind her back quickly finding her Walther P99 and aiming at Kai,  Lining his head directly with her cross airs.  “Hot or not there’s not enough room for you.  You might as well just walk away before you get hurt.” 

                Kai grinned and gracefully spun around drawing the Mac-10 from his bag and firing it in one fluid motion.  Sending a line of bullets sweeping across the dock, sending the girls seeking cover except for those who couldn’t escape it.  Rina was the unlucky one.  Several of the bullets had struck her in the knee, and she lay bleeding on the dock.  A small pool of blood forming underneath her as she whimpered.  Kai didn’t hesitate and fired again this time dispatching Rina quickly with a hail of gunfire. 

                Ayame who had ducked in the boat rose to her feet and opened fire on their attacker.  Almost instantly emptying the magazine, Akina lay ahead of her curled up at the bow of the small vessel.  Ayame inserted a full magazine and cocked it.  “Akina you have to load this magazine for me ok?”  She nodded weakly as she crawled closer to her. 

                Kana tried to peak up from the edge of the dock, but found it difficult.  She wasn’t a very strong swimmer and in an attempt to escape Kai’s onslaught dove into the sea, which she was now regretting as she tried to keep her head above the waves by treading water.  It was quiet over the sound of the surf, and she couldn’t tell where Kai was.  She hadn’t heard him since that last bit of gunfire, but she hadn’t heard Rina either.  He must’ve killed her she thought.  She used one of her hands to feel along the concrete dock to see if it was possible to swim under it.  If she could do that she could get to Ayame or possible Cho or Chihiro who she had seen dive behind the oil barrels.    Kana slowly sunk under the waves as her hands fumbled blindly against the smooth cement surface.  As she sank deeper and deeper feeling for a way to pass through the wall she noticed the force that was pulling her to the left.  Kana kicked her feet as hard as she could in an attempt to reach the surface, but the current was too strong and it sucked her out towards the open sea.  She kept struggling as her lungs burned till she couldn’t take it anymore, and gulped in a lung of saltwater in a final attempt to breath.  The farther she got from the dock the stronger the current, and soon she was being tossed and turned becoming disorientated in the quick moving current until the black depths swallowed her.

                Cho popped up from behind the barrel and fired a shot at Kai, and dropped back down behind cover as quickly as possible.  She waited for the barrage of machine gun fire, but it didn’t come.  She waited alittle longer.  Then popped up and shot again.  This time Kai was standing on the dock itself.  She fired at him the bullet whizzing past his shoulder.  The Ingram rattled and the 9mm rounds tore through the rusting oil drum and tearing through Cho.  She struggled as her body became dizzy as blood oozed out of the wound in her stomach.  The familiar rattling came again as she felt the burning pieces of metal lodge themselves in her chest.  Everything faded as the dizziness sweapt over her, and death quickly followed.

                Kai stepped back as the contents of the barrel spilled out across the deck.  The thick black substance flowed over the edge of the dock splashing into the sea and coating the dock near the damaged containers.  Kai watched as the liquid coated the surface of the water and swarmed around the boat that Ayame and Akina were hiding in.  He saw Chihiro shift out of the corner of his eye, and Ayame leapt up from her cover.  The machine gun rattled and the bullets tore through the boats motor.  Ayame ducked back down.  Gasoline gushed out from the holes and fell on her legs.  She drew them in towards her, and she heard it that familiar tick of the engine.  A spark inside the motor itself igniting the gasoline which acted explosively sending both Akina and Ayame flying high into the air.

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