Page 180 of A Soul to Touch

The man screamed and started scratching the ends of his gloves into her jacket to stop her. When that didn’t work, he slammed his fist across her face to the point that it snapped to the side.

But Mayumi didn’t relent until her nails dug deep enough that she saw blood welling. Then she brought her hands away so she could punch the lower part of her knuckles against his cheek with her right hand while the other held his jaw right where she fucking wanted it.

She was small, but she was strong enough to knock some sense into the man – the sense of realisation that he had messed with the wrong damn person this day. That the tide of a battle could be changed merely by a person’s newfound rage at seeing another die at their own hands. When they stopped caring about self-preservation and let their body take control rather than the cunning of their mind. When they would throw themselves foolishly into danger rather than courting it in a graceful dance.

Revenge wasn’t better left cold; it felt far better when it was hot and scalding.

Fuck the guild.Her fist came back down on him.Curse this wretched, dying world.She drew it back and then brought itdown again until she struck against bone.There is no light in it. In people. In anything.

She grunted when Cordon managed to grab the end of her ponytail in his blind flailing. It forced her to roll off him, but not before she tugged on the whip in his weapon belt.

He wheezed, coughing blood and a tooth or two against the ground as he got to his hands and knees.

“Like a wild animal, you went for my eyes!” He was beginning to get to his feet when Mayumi came from behind. “You’ve become like those barbaric human savages in the mountains. There’s no honour in blinding another. If you fight against another human, you should fight fairly until your death. That is part of our code!”

“Fuck your code,” Mayumi sneered as she wrapped his own whip around his neck. His back arched as he went upright on his knees and dug at the braided cord around his neck. “Death is death. There’s no beauty in it. There is no honour in it. There is no grace in it.” Then Mayumi leaned closer to his squirming, struggling form until her mouth was right next to his ear. “And I’m not going to give you the respectful burial you deserve, our great, honourable Head Elder. I’m going to let the Demons eat your corpse while I watch from the safety of my home.”

Not one for many words on the battlefield, she decided that was sufficient. She wasn’t going to give him any more time to get the better of her.

She loosened the left side of the whip just enough so that when she pulled to the right, it twisted his neck until she heard the mostsatisfyingpop.

When Cordon went limp, Mayumi let him fall.

Since his breath had left this world, so did his existence to her.

Her eyes found Yoshida battling the one she knew had torn Faunus’ skull apart. Beyond him, Margo was lagging and nowon the defence against Klaus and Henry. She was not far from falling as well. Those two enemies were all that remained.

She no longer cared about the fight when she could see it was ending.

She walked away from the clearing to where the bigger section of Faunus’ skull lay. She fell to her knees next to it and scooped it into her arms so she could cuddle it to her chest.

I knew this was going to happen... You told me you were going to die, but I just refused to accept it.

She still refused to as she curled her entire body around it. No tears formed, only because she denied this, denied that he was truly gone.

There must be something I can do. This can’t be it for you.

She pulled back so she could stare down at the white bone that lay across the top of her folded legs.

But what? What can I do?The glue didn’t work, and she doubted strapping his face together now would be enough.

All the fire she’d felt not even moments ago sizzled out of her, leaving her feeling unbearably cold – especially in the centre of her chest where she often felt her soul trying to emerge. Mayumi shivered, her hands trembling as her teeth clattered.

Come on, Mayumi. Think.

So deep in contemplation, it took her longer than it should have to notice that someone had been approaching her from the tree line.

The setting noon sun allowed a large stretch of shadow to come almost all the way to her, but it was also completely out of reach.

When a pair of bare feet, dark in skin with little claws on their toes, stopped and crouched a metre away from her, she turned her head up.

She didn’t know why she didn’t spook and immediately reach for a weapon. Perhaps it was because she was tired and hurting,and this person wasn’t covered in the clothing of her once fellow Demonslayers.

Their red eyes set inside the features of an other-worldly face screamed dangerous as they gazed down at her from their crouch. She blinked at them for a moment, trying to register why she saw red eyes on an obviously human face.

Long white hair wisped to the side before a few chunks fluttered down the front of their shirtless, bulky torso. She thought they were naked until she noticed the dark blue, loose-fitting pants they wore.

“So...” the man started with a serious, thoughtful expression. “He’s dead, is he?”

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