@owlsector (continued from ask)
They know one another is there, both in equal silence, standing among the ghosts of wind and dying breaths. Reaper can only wait for so long with question of Genji’s resolve on the matter. Trailing death slips between cracked structure to drift around the Cyborg’s form, over sharpened steel with no harm done. He is but a blinding smog waiting for an opening to end their standoff.
Phantasmal claws scrape lines across Genji who’s yet to move. He is waiting. Reaper will opt for the first strike, with a vice grip around his wrist to bend back his arm with a blade still in hand up to his still fleshy throat. Another reaches for an ankle to rip it up from beneath him, and once on his back Reaper allows the remainder of his body to materialize. His knee presses deep into Genji’s gut and mask hovers just above the cyborg’s own, an unending gaze of darkness.
“Why are you not fighting me?”
He was out in the open, conscious of the threatening presence stalking him and yet he was unable to clearly pinpoint where the danger was going to come from... Against a foe as deadly as he was silent, Genji was already all too aware that the odds were against him.
He only realized the enemy was close when the dark cloud washed over him. The cyborg drew his wakizashi in a useless effort to fight back, and when he noticed the blade could only phase through his foe, he was starting to realize getting away should have been his number one priority. Only then it was too late...
In the split second where the enemy began regaining his corporeal form and he felt his wrist being grabbed, nothing should have been able to prevent Genji from slicing Reaper’s hand clean off... And yet, he did not strike when given the chance.
Hesitation. Fear. Maybe something deeper. Call it what you will, he wasn’t sure himself.
The next thing he knew, Genji was pinned to the ground, his blade out of reach, and death staring in his eyes in more than just the literal way while squeezing the air out of his guts. Surprisingly serene despite his predicament, the ninja rose his head to return Reaper’s glare.
“You held back too...” A light cough came with a vain tentative to push the other’s leg away. “You... had the opportunity to kill me more than once. So why?”