Shinya Asukai - Close to Death

     Gazing into the black abyss through the eye holes of a brittle, white mask - Hisako and I saw nothing of a man before us.
It was as though the dirty black cloak was draped over nothing at all; but strangely twisted itself into the form of a man.
He didn't like the way I stared; the look of horror mixed with confusion in my eyes must have disturbed him somehow,
because he violently twisted his neck - as if to break it himself in the movement - and turned an eerie gaze towards me.

     I quickly drew a kunai from my pouch and lunged towards this masked intruder, not bothering to plan with Hisako.
He was a bit slower than I was, limping towards me with a blade drawn shortly after mine - So I struck first,
thrusting arm forward with a twist - blade aimed straight for his jugular. But a vicious clang threw me off course.

     He was a slower than I - But he managed to deflected the blow enough to merely graze his bicep instead.
I twisted to bring my blade back into his temple - but before I could retaliate he brought his fist crashing into my jaw.
The force of the blow wasn't enough to knock me off my feet, but it was certainly enough to disorient me.

     I stepped backwards to regain my balance - Quickly drew my fan and fired a quick spurt of senbon at his chest.
They all hit - Every single one - But he didn't flinch; He just continued his assault without so much as a brief hesitation.
I swung my blade but he ducked, leading it to slice across his mask instead of any vitals - another grazed hit.
He then brought his hand upwards and clenched my neck tightly within it - With enough force that I dropped my weapons.

     I expected to get light-headed, to begin to run out of breath - But that wasn't the sensation I felt, instead,
everything went black - everything was gone, except the tight grip around my neck. Was I hallucinating? A Genjutsu?
I tried to channel my chakra to cancel the illusion - but while I felt my chakra draining, I couldn't manipulate it.
I stopped, realizing it was futile - But my chakra kept draining away... What could be doing this? Was it the masked man?
My legs kicked but began to slowly go still, I was running out of chakra - and worse; running out of time...

     But I suddenly found myself face to face with the masked attacker once more. The darkness was gone, completely.
His hand was still around my throat, but he didn't move, he didn't flinch. Eventually his group loosened and I dropped,
hitting the ground hard enough to wind me - I threw my head back up to retaliate and saw him before me.
The point of a sword had emerged from his chest, leaving a large bloody wound - Then suddenly retracted back within him.
He stumbled around a bit before collapsing, falling to the ground like a puppet with cut strings - He was done.
I turned to greet my savior and found none other than Hisako, eyes anxious and fearful, breathing heavily.

     There was an incredibly brief moment of silence as we maintained the uncomfortable eye contact and caught our breath,
but it didn't take long for her to run to my side and wrap her arms around me tightly - Still breathing deeply and heavily.
It was the kind of embrace you give to someone you haven't seen in years, despite that we walked here together just a minute ago.
     "Shinya." She breathed a deep sigh of relief before adding, "Are you okay? He had you and I - I..." I'd never seen her like this.
Slowly, I wrapped my left arm around her - Using the other to support me, preventing her from pulling us to the ground.

     "Don't worry - I'm fine now."





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