Ch.33 - Switch

The sun had sunk below the horizon, yet there was still a fire burning. Buildings have crumpled to the floor as fires raged around and in between pieces of rubble. Explosions were being fired expeditiously, and smoke filled up the sky like a new layer of clouds. The central area of Shibuya was mayhem. What was thought to be twenty villains turned out to be a minimum of fifty. What was thought to be an easy case had turned out to be arduous.

And one who was thought to be dead, was very much alive.

To hear the nickname from those who once loved her, fall from another's lips, and shatter on the broken floor, just like the crippling pain of her heart breaking over and over as she watched him laugh maniacally as if he did nothing.

"Henjiru?" Senshi's breathing stopped, and the chaos around her seemed to slow in her mind. Her body standing as still as a mountain that was being covered in a suffocating snow.

"You got it! Man, you should see your face right now!" Henjiru, who had seemed to make a name for himself as 'Switch' began to laugh psychotically.

"B-but you're-" Senshi's breathing caught in her throat as tears began to cascade down her face.

"Dead, I know. It's funny, I was never dead, Sen. I left.-" Henjiru stepped down from the piece of rubble, walking towards his distraught sister "You wanna know why? I was the hero for everyone, but nobody was the hero for me... and that's when I knew being a villain was the only option."

"NO IT WASN'T! YOU... YOU LEFT ME!" Senshi cried out, her lungs not breathing steadily any more. Her eyes had begun to redden with tears, her cheeks flushed and her eyes glistening.

"I did, but doesn't every hero need a villain? You wanted so desperately to be the hero of my story... it's only right I be the villain of yours." He smiled, his teeth showing through his grin. "You know, when I turned by back on everything I'd known, it struck me. This feeling of being born anew. This time I'll get the chance to truly live."

The dust from explosions settled on his black sweatshirt, he was also wearing black sweat-pants to go with the dark theme. Henjiru walked forward, Spectrum followed closely behind, a blue fire in her hands. Henjiru crushed his mask under his feet as he walked, his own sapphire eyes looked deep into hers with a contrasting emotion.

He seemed so..... happy.

Yet she, she was so, so sorrowful. And there was no doubt that betrayal was hiding behind her eyes.

Henjiru continued to walk towards his older sister, pros fighting in the background. The boy began to laugh, it was so... so insane. He held no remorse, and even as the rain began to pour, and the fight changed into a war, he continued to have that smile he always held from when he was young.

"I Tāte Henjiru had never died, only in your mind had I ever left. And you want to know what the most beautiful part was? The most beautiful part was how easy it was to say nothing!" Henjiru stood a mere two meters in front of her the hero he ruined, making her crumble like an ancient ruins. "So waddaya say 'hero'? Come dance with me in hell!" He bellowed across to the girl in front of him, lunging forwards.

It came to her realisation that she didn't love her brother, she only loved the version of him that she made up in her head.

And now she was going to have to destroy both.

The past devoured her, whilst she mourned the future, slowly dying in her in mind in the ever-present. Her vision was blurred with tears, her lungs forcing in breaths of air irregularly, her face felt hot and her heart felt as though it was burning with an urge to cry, kill, scream, but most of all, fight.

She couldn't think straight, she knew she was fighting, her limbs moving as they had been programmed to do so, yet it never felt real. Spectrum was fighting Senshi too, yet not nearly as harshly as Henjiru.

Henjiru was fighting a battle of swords, him having an endless army of any weapon he desires. Senshi was fighting a battle of shields, she had no mental energy to attack, but she still had to fight.

"Why'd you leave!" She hollered out, dodging a kick from her younger brother.

"The same reason you choose to never be home! The Repudiates were more of a family then they ever were, and they even gave me a choice to come! I wouldn't have lost much anyways! You always call yourself a hero, but you're too scared to even face your own fears! That isn't a hero, that's a coward."

"I am not a coward! You left me! And you promised that we'd never be apart! YOU FUCKING TRAITOR!" Senshi screamed, a flash of blue and a bellowing bang echoing around their area.

"You always acted on your emotions! YOU NEVER DID CHANGE FROM THAT LITTLE GIRL WHO NEVER KNEW WHAT TO DO!"

They continued to fight ruthlessly, both now crying somewhat. Henjiru's face was in a smirk, yet a few small tears dripped down his face. Senshi's face was in a sad frown, and many more tears continued to drop from her eyes.

It was a destined fight between siblings, their rivalry created by their parents. Spectrum stopped fighting, and she began to speak. "A toast to Tāte Senshi! Always the protagonist, but never the hero!"

What? Senshi didn't even know this girl.

"Ya know Sen, within the seven years I spent in that shit hole of a house you call home, I realised something. You actually made me realise this, but in the end, no will be there except for myself. I'm all I have."

"No! You were seven Henjiru! Seven! And you know what you did? You left me alone with our 'parents' who then blamed me for your death! And now what's gonna happen? I am going to have to take the blame for the infinite fucking time for something I COULD NEVER CONTROL!"

"YOU FUCKING DESERVE IT!"

Both stopped moving, blood mixing with their tears dripping down their faces and onto their clothes. Her face was frozen in a dismal betrayal, his in a self-shocked state. He hadn't meant to say that, but isn't it correct that the truth comes out in the heat of the moment?

"Yeah, I said it Sen! And it's true because our asshole parents would never take the blame, so you're the only candidate for such an honour." Henjiru began to lunge forward once again, Senshi was no longer sad. She was so, so angry.

"It's almost like this entire time I've been the villain in your life, not the other way around!" Senshi commented, landing a punch on her brother's face.

"That's exactly it Sen! You are the worst fucking villain in my life because I wouldn't be here if you hadn't existed! In fact, I would most likely be in your shoes! But now that you've made yourself known, you're worse than me."

Senshi continued to fight silently as her brother laughed in victory. She never wanted to admit that he was right. Senshi had never once tried to comfort him due to the fact that she was too emotional to do so. But that didn't make her a bad person, right?

She never wanted this, the thoughts her brain had made stemming from his words had infiltrated her brain and spread like a cancerous disease. Her heart's pain and painful burning had spread to her gut, and she wanted everything to stop. She wasn't supposed to be here, she was supposed to be living her life not learning how to cheat death! She is just a child!

"If death is the easy way out, then I'll never let you die. You have to stay with me and suffer goddamnit!" Senshi roared out to her brother, shooting a disc at his head.

"You've already let it happen once Sen! And I know that you'll have no say in whether I die again because you'd be too weak, too scared to stop it!"

"You can make yourself believe that, but we both know that I'm strong, and you can't stand it. You know that I have the life you wished you had, and that pisses you off. Hell that's probably why you're here. I am sick, and tired of taking the blame for everything you do! I may be your blood, but I no longer want the title of being your sister!" Senshi blurted out, Henjiru's face turned into one of ire. 

"YOU BITCH! I'LL ALWAYS BE STRONGER THAN YOU! BECAUSE I CAN ADMIT WHEN SOMETHING'S WRONG! THAT'S WHY I LEFT IN THE FIRST PLACE! BECAUSE I'M STRONGER!"

Henjiru's face had receded back from anger, to simple frustration. He had made a valid point though. If at seven he knew something was wrong, and he was able to do something about it, he was most definitely the stronger of the two.

But was he stronger? He only ran away from his problems, and never faced them like his sister. So, maybe, just maybe, Senshi was stronger.

Senshi was choking on her sobs whilst fighting, and Henjiru's face stayed emotionless, yet a tear or two still managed to escape his eyes. "I am so so sorry Henjiru! I don't know what I ever did to you, but please come back home!" She sobbed.

Henjiru stopped his movements, seeing his sister on her hands and knees sobbing. He had never expected this, but alas, all good things must come to an end, and life is one of those many good things.

"I'm sorry too, Sen. One day I thought I was standing with everyone. Now I know that I was truly standing on everyone. I don't regret any of it, except for what I did to you. It was nice to see you Sen, and now that I've relayed the truth to you, it's time that I must go. Spectrum, plan D." Henjiru said, walking away with the fire user.

"NO! PLEASE COME BACK! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME ALONE AGAIN! I NEED YOU" Senshi clamoured. Henjiru walked away with a grim look on his face, his ears attempting to block out the desperate calls of his begging sister.

He walked up onto the tallest pile of rubble that was overlooking the war zone he had created. Spectrum, held his hand as Senshi desperately called out to him, and began to walk over.

"REPUDIATES!-" Henjiru called out, though he was no longer Henjiru, he was Switch. The boy who had taken everything from a girl who had nothing, the boy who showed no remorse as he had to leave the home that had infected him with a depressive parasite "- IT IS TIME FOR OUR WAR TO END! OPERATION DEMISE IS TO COMMENCE!"

The heroes looked up to the maskless boy, and noticed how all villains stopped fighting. The rubble shook, and the Repudiates were no more.

********

The cracked ground shook with heat, and dust began to escape from underneath the ground. An echoing boom resonating from underneath each villain shot out debris from under the ground. The heroes hollered for everyone to take cover, a white light seeming like a second sun on the surface of the city appearing.

Senshi's ears bled from the reverberation, her hands clawing at her head in desperation to rid herself of the pain; not only physically, mentally. Everything was so eerily silent, Senshi could only hear the sound of her heart beating. 

Senshi was on her knees, her head to the floor as her hands grasped her hair with so much force that her knuckles were turning white. Her costume was covered with blood, and whether it was her brother's or her own blood was unknown. Her forehead had blood running down it, and her nose was bleeding profusely. Yet all the blood on her face was watered down with her tears.

As she saw the 'villain' lie dead, she came upon the horrifying realisation that she's been the catalyst to that 'villain's demise the whole time. The moon split in half and then the stars crumbled, falling like fireworks into the sea. She watched her world fall apart the day her brother died for the second time.

He betrayed her.

And She betrayed him.

Though now, there were no feelings at all.