Polluted Jianghu: 新年少鹏

Where the hell are the load bearing walls? Remora threw you into a wall, and before he can follow up you throw a wild elbow at it, smashing the brick and exposing a still mostly empty room. The water level goes down a couple inches as water rushes in. You sink in a lower stance, throw a full body punch after that. Water breaks in front of your fist, once again exposing Remora to dry air if for a second. That's all you need to leap up into the air and kick him in the face. He splashes against the opposite wall and sinks back into the water.

Should've expected that.

You land and it's like a cannon going off. Like meteors hitting the ocean. For another moment, you are standing on dry land. It doesn't go to waste. You kick into the roof, smashing the concrete to pieces and roll away from the hole you made on the second floor.

God, you're leaking like hell. And the worst thing about it is that you don't know if the trickling is normal ass water or the water of your heart. And speaking about that, holy shit. Your poor heart, it's like a paper bag. You can feel how thin it is, and it's scaring you. How the fuck do you train the cardiac muscle? With each rapid thud of valves opening and closing it could break and you will die. Still…

"I dunno which walls are load bearing," you yell, raising your leg up to the sky, "so I'll just bust down all of them!"

"Wait, what-"

You bring your leg down and snap the floor in two. It crumbles at the edges, hundreds of tons of concrete and rebar tumbling into the dark water. And then you kicked off from the walls into the next floor. The earth rumbled, the sound of stone and iron crumbling and falling. If you had to find a metaphor for the sound, you'd leap to the tidal and meteorological. The point is, what you did to the floor below you was the thing. The tipping point. Whatever it is.

Dust falls on you and you bolt for the stairs. By happy fortune, you shoulder check Remora into the wall as he comes up. "Son of a-" You kick him into the wall again. It feels good. He grabs your leg and pulls you into a heel hook. That doesn't. You grab his free leg and start digging in your fingers as the doorway collapses the two of you begin to fall into the pile of rubble.
He can break your leg but you can break his leg and also tear out his flesh which you are doing. Blood wells against your fingertips while in free fall. It is good that you are, it is harder for Remora to snap.

The impact separates you from him. Somewhere water trickles down a pipe, the mechanism the warden used to drown you? High above, light filters through what remains of the walls. Jaggled bits of flooring and walling and ceiling like a deforested canopy. "What the hell, Grand Abbot?" drifts Yuexia's voice. "What happened? Are you fine?"

"What?" You yell back. "I couldn't FUCK-"

"What?"

Remora is about as persistent as you are. Bits of rebar and smashed up glass dig into your back. Dunno if you're bleeding. Hope you're not. Remora has hooks in, digging his heels into your side. Fuck, what do you do? Oh, right. You stab a thumb into the side of his throat. Bounces off like it's rubber, this weird and oddly satisfying feeling, and he still doesn't get the hint, coiling around you until his hands hook around your wrist. "C'mon, man, just give-"

The glint of light you see before you flip pin Remora down with your own weight, his face to the sky, is Yuexia diving down and doing her best imitation of a cormorant. The sword sinks into he concrete, Remora fucks off like some metaphor or the other, she pulls you upright. "Failure?" she guesses, taking a single look at you.

"I'm beginning to think it's somewhat of a theme with this job," you agree. "But hey, look on the bright side. We outnumber him." Light shines off of Remora's bald plate. "I, uh, don't see any bodies."

"You're welcome." She doesn't take her eyes off of him. "You! Out of respect for the Wulin-"

Is she for real? Remora asks you with his eyes. Sadly yes, you reply back. "I humbly ask that you, sir, retreat from the battlefield. You are under the employ of a wicked man, senior, and-"

"Yeah and I'm cool with that. You are too, you know. Think Kirishima's all roses?"

Yuexia glances at you and then realizes that she does not need your approval to do anything, as she possesses a sword, and you are bled half to death and do not have a sword. "Can you keep a secret- what's this guy's name?" she asks you.

"Remora."

"Remora?"

The monster Remora wipes water off his face and looks at the sky, searching the edges of the pit. "Come closer. I don't want to be overheard." he beckons. Yuexia does so and you do too. "I-"

A long handled fishing knife protrudes from your gut. You blink, almost unbelieving, then memory catches up. He moves fast when he wants to. "Dude," you manage out of a mouthful of blood. "Uncool."

Then Yuexia screams like a horseman on the charge and whips out her sword in a single movement. Remora grabs the knife but you hold onto his wrist so he lets go and kicks a scatter of rubble into the air. One chunk hits the blade, sending it off course just a bit, enough for him to sway back and take his distance. She follows and you fall down on the rubble, only dimly aware of their clash.

It sort of feels that this wouldn't have happened if you were on top form. Not even top form. Slightly bleary, hungover, and just leapt off of a highway to fistfight Metalhead form. You take bandages from regions not that stabbed and begin to bind your wounds. It's hard doing it with the knife in your gut but you slowly manage, unwinding a length of bandage from your face and then--

You scream. The knife leaves a white hot trail in your gut. Breathing heavy and fast you tie a wad of cloth to the open wound, tight as you can.

High above you the sound of steel on steel. Yuexia and Remora clash on the sides. They're evenly matched. Remora has something of a limp, dragging the leg where you hooked your fingers into. His knifeplay is good but it's not better than Yuexia's swordplay. Her sword traces out the moon in wild sweeps and she knows how to use it's reach alright, and her qigong is almost as good as yours. She dances over crumbling edges and attacks standing upright, upside down, between backflips and ostentatious pirouettes.

Remora clings against the walls in a starfish-y manner. You seriously need to come up shit that dosn't relate to seafood with him but it's a real fucking chore. He has to pay attention to his footing in a way that just doesn't apply to Yuexia. See? Yuexia chased him down and the wall crumbles to bits. Remora falls and Yuexia follows. He splatters against the ground and Yuexia pins him down with her sword against his neck.

Remora smiles. You stand up. "C'mon. I wanna see you do it," he hisses.

Yuexia looks at you. Dunno how to describe the look on her face. Hesitation, you suppose. First time with a life on her hands and she doesn't want to take the leap. That's fair. "Move over," you say.

"What are you, her brother? Let her do it."

[1.1] {Pain Is A Teacher} Gut him like a fish with the knife by your side.
[1.2] {Harmonious Society} Say nothing. Only she can decide.
[]- Bring Remora into the conspiracy. He's got an in with Oogami, you're sure.