"Having fun with your little party?" Says Kai who seems to be in normal speed while everyone else is in slowed time "how are you here?" I ask, "I'm not, I'm in your head, and boy does it make me sick to my stomach" he replies.
"Are you taking it easy in this fight cause he doesn't plan on killing you?" He continues
"I'm not like the rest of you okay, I'm not in know that, if it wasn't for all of you I'd be dead a thousand times, hell of it wasn't for you and Jay I wouldn't have survived the climb test, what use do I have? I'm a disgrace! Is that what you want to hear?! I'm well aware, I'll die in this era and I'll finally stop being a burden" I tell at him as years begin to roll down my eyes.
"If you want to die come back alive so I can kill you myself you piece of shit, you dare cry about being weak when you've done nothing to change that fact?" Kai says to me nonchalantly with a cold stare.
"What the hell am I supposed to do? I have tried, I have trained and I still turned out like this... Weak" I reply.
"Say one more thing that sounds like self pity and see what happens" he says to me, those words send quivers down my spine, even just version of him in my head is terrifying.
"Do you wanna know the difference between us and you, Yuki?" He asks me.
"What?"
"You lack the fear of death... Or rather... You do not embrace it, you think fear makes you a coward? You think it makes you weak? Dumbass fear is what keeps us alive, it's what drives us, people get rich cause their scared of being poor, people learn to cook cause their scared to go hungry, people learn cause their scared to not know, people live cause they are scared to die and sometimes they die cause their scared to live.... Are you scared to live Yuki?" Says Kai.
Tears begin to roll down my eyes once again, for his words cut deeper than a knife, maybe that's it, Maybe I am scared to live... No scratch that, I am terrified of living, the horrors this world we live in, us raised by Nejire no ha, it's feels like we're just living for a chance to die differently.
"What's the point of living with no hope?" I ask
"To find it" he replies. I'm baffled hearing this from Kai's mouth, I mean would the real him have answered like that? I mean what drives Kai to want to live so much, that would be the only thing that makes sense though.
"So you're saying the difference between us is...."
"The will to survive" he replies me
"You do not wish to die, you're scared to live, and I can't give you a reason to want to live but I will ask you to survive and find that reason, don't you at least wanna find out if this is how I really think?" He continues.
"Yes, yes I do" I reply.
"Then live and at least find out that, if you still wanna die I can assure you I will end your life,stop thinking of this as a fight, think of this as life or death, now play to your strengths, gather up your bloodlust and show this stupid viking how twisted us blades are.... GET THE FUCK UP!"
Everything goes back to normal as I stand to my feet "RAGNA LODBORK!" I yell. He turns to look at me. "Who the hell said this fight was over!" I yell at him. he smiles "Now you're acting like a warrior!" He says as he rushed towards me.
"Come at me Chinaman!" Ragna yells as he rushed towards me, I close my eyes and time slows down once again but not actually, only in my head. I need to be smarter this time, I can't fight him how I was fighting him before, he's smarter than he looks, rather than try and find possibilities maybe I should just try to react accordingly I need to want to survive, that man in front of me is not coming for a fight, he is coming to kill me, that man in front of me is not coming for a fight, he is coming to kill me, that man in front of me is not coming for a fight, he is coming to kill me, that man in front of me is not coming for a fight, he is coming to kill me.
I get in a kickboxing stance, and time begins to move again, he throws a full force haymaker at me, my hand moves to block the punch, and as my hand his clash, my leg like a whip classes with his head, kicking him in the ear.
He looks like he's about to fall unconscious, his eyes roll back, but he quickly wakes up and stomps the ground, channeling the force into a punch to my gut, I'm knocked back, I can feel my consciousness leaving my body, but I refuse, I let out a war cry and get back in my stance "Aaahhhh, COME AT ME RAGNA!" I yell.
His smile is wide as he charges at me with a Jab fully extending his arm towards my chest, I fall to my back and kick him in the stomach, knocking him to the ground but he tumbles and quickly jumps to his feet as I get up.
He rushed at me with another punch aiming for my gut so I counter by kicking his fist. We pause in that position for a moment and the crowd is in aw "You look like you're having fun" I say to him, he looks me in the eye with a giant grin "don't act like you aren't, rn your smile is even wider than mine rn" he replies.
Oh? I'm smiling? I hadn't even noticed? Is this how it feels to enjoy a fight? How it feels to want to survive? This adrenaline, this rush, this... Bloodlust, maybe I am a little twisted. "Your head is mine" I say with a wide smile.
He pushes his punch forward, trying to knock me off balance but I jump into a backflip using the momentum, he wasn't no time throwing a punch at me but I block with both hands crossed,it pushes me back a bit and hurts a lot but I waste no time jumping kicking him in the chin, if I aim for vital spots I can win. His eyes starts to roll back, and he seems to be falling towards me, but he wakes himself up again and headbutts me, my ears start to ring but before I can process he attacks me with 3 hooks to the face knocking me unconscious briefly but I refuse to go down, I won't lose not this time I refuse to be the weakest link, he throws another punch but I block it and punch him in the neck, as he chojes I rush with a barrage of punches, my punches are way faster but his are so heavy, honestly I should have been down a long time ago but here I am exchanging blows with a viking, we just keep going with a barrage of punches and kicks each time nearly knocking eachother out with each passing second until we finally stop and we are just standing there, staring at each other.... Why aren't we moving? Why can't I move?... Oh... I see... I'm unconscious, well almost, and by the looks of things, so is he, but this was the best I could do, unbelievable that even someone like me could fight a legendary viking to a stalemate. I wonder what happens now.