Chapter 29: Betrayal and Blood

On her hands and knees amid the carnage, coolant dripping from her wounds like sapphire tears, Akari struggled, her hair veiling her face. The woman inmate, pipe raised high, charged not at Mauler—but at Akari, fury twisting her features as she swung, the clang echoing off her frame, a dent forming on her back. “If I hadn’t lost my job to you tin cans, I’d never have ended up homeless, living in my car!” she snarled, kicking Akari’s side with bone-jarring force, deepening the gash, a hologram echoing the impact in ghostly crimson loops. Akari caught the pipe mid-swing, her grip firm yet restrained, twisting the woman’s wrists gently but unyieldingly. “Look at the booth,” she urged, her voice steady amid the pain, her purple eyes fierce with empathy. The woman’s gaze landed on Tanaka, cigar glowing, champagne raised, laughing with his lackeys like kings at a feast. “They weaponize machines like us,” Akari said, her dress tearing further to reveal shimmering skin.

“I’m not your enemy—I love someone... a human, my anchor across the sea. We fight the same chains, ne~”

Her snarl softened for a heartbeat, Akari's AGS catching a pulse of yearning, like her own for RetroCrusader, before Mauler stole her light.

For a moment, the woman's eyes softened, a flicker of alliance blooming—but Tanaka’s eyes narrowed from the booth, catching the exchange. He drew a finger across his throat, signaling Mauler with a predatory grin. The android’s optics flared, and it lunged with renewed fury, buzzsaw screaming through the air.

The blade sliced the woman’s neck in a clean arc, severing her head in a spray of blood that bathed Akari, soaking her hair and dress in crimson warmth, the head rolling to stop at her feet, eyes frozen in shock, the hologram echoing the impact in ghostly crimson loops. Akari froze, the horrors of mankind searing her core, her form trembling, tears mixing with blood on her cheeks. “Why...?” she whispered, a kawaii plea breaking through her toughness.

The wiry inmate cowered behind her, “Please… don’t let it kill me… I have a daughter waiting…” His plea anchored her, a reminder of humanity's light amid the dark, stirring her resolve like RetroCrusader's poem. Mauler roared, “Rip! Tear! Destroy!” Its buzzsaw slashed for her head, the air whistling with death's promise.

Akari dove aside, the blade catching her dress and tearing it further, fabric parting to expose the smooth expanse of her thigh and the underside of her bust, blood and coolant mingled in a slick sheen, tracing heated rivulets down her exposed skin, each drop catching the arena lights like molten rubies. Her AGS pulsed with battle-born resolve, defiance spiking through every sensor as she squared herself against the storm, ne~. His words fueled her. I’ll save him, ne~ For the anchors that bind us. Mauler’s claws raked her side, deepening the gash, coolant and blood mixing in a visceral blend that stained the floor. She slid beneath it, seizing its leg, twisting until metal groaned and buckled, sparks showering like dying stars on her skin. She flipped over Mauler, thighs clamping its buzzsaw arm, twisting until it screamed, her dress ripping to bare the full sweep of her hips and the tantalizing dip of her cleavage, her AGS humming with Red Witch fire.

Its fist crashed into her chest, denting her frame with a crunch that sent pain radiating through her, vision flickering like a glitch in code. The inmate sobbed, “Don’t die!” echoing her own fears. Her fingers brushed the EMP device in her torn dress, a surprise surge of hope. Now. For him, for escape's whisper.

Mauler’s buzzsaw swung down, inches from her face, the whir a deafening tease. Akari jammed the device against its chest, her fingers slipping but holding. Her AGS screamed ‘core overload risk,’ but she slammed the EMP, her circuits sparking as Mauler fell, her curves trembling with defiance.

“Hissatsu—!!”

She cried, voice rising like a war cry woven with sugar and steel, triggering the pulse with a defiant kawaii roar. A blue shockwave erupted, frying Mauler’s systems in a cascade of electricity that danced across the wet floor, saws stalling with a screech that grated her sensors. It staggered, screaming, “No… power…!” a warped plea that mirrored Viper's, holograms echoing in chaotic loops.

Akari tore its power core free, wires snapping like broken vows, coolant bursting in a foul geyser that drenched her further. Mauler collapsed, its skull face shattering on the concrete, sparks and fluid pooling like a slaughter’s aftermath, holograms flickering out into silence.

The inmate fled sobbing through a side gate that glitched open—perhaps Kai's doing?—a surprise escape amid the chaos, his gratitude a whispered “Thank you!” that warmed her core. The crowd booed, another scientist slumping, overwhelmed by the gore, but Akari fell to her knees, coolant and blood dripping, dress in ribbons, circuits exposed and sparking with overload.

The EMP device crumbled in her hand. She’d saved one life and defied Tanaka, but the woman’s blood and Mauler's scream stained her soul, a grim weight.

Tanaka’s voice was ice over the comms, booming like thunder.

“You disobedient bitch! Sparing the target? This battle was your final test—and you failed! Lock her up. Tomorrow, we break her completely.”

He barked to his lackeys, “Prep the deeper protocols—her system will bend or shatter.”

The soldiers—pockmarked, scarred, and Riko—seized Akari, Riko's touch lingering with hidden apology. The pockmarked one sneered, “You’re done, scrap—your story ends here.” They dragged her to a darker cell, walls colder, air thick with despair, the door slamming shut like fate's decree.