Andromeda

“Ayumi!” Yuki shouted reflexively as he realized that she was standing between him and the assassin’s sword. He tried to reach out his hand for Ayumi seeing the blinding shadow in front of him, but as the blood trailed up into the air the cut had already been made. He thought he could see Ayumi’s lifeless eyes as she fell backwards just before a blinding white light burst from the center bleaching everything. Yuki tried to run for Ayumi to catch her, but was stopped by some unseen force that he felt suddenly pulsing outward. It felt like the sword swing from the assassin had caused it all with bursts of wind pushing back on him and Fumiko making them helpless in the death of one of his friends. “Ayumi!”

Chapter 38 – Gushing Imagination

‘I can’t move forward…’ Yuki held his hand up by his face as the gusts grew in intensity nearly ripping at his clothes as they flapped. He went unnoticed holding on to Fumiko’s hand to keep her from losing balance. Each effort he made to push forward a leg towards Ayumi failed. ‘…Ayumi… She protected me… and now… …I couldn’t do anything to help her in the end… …I failed…’ Yuki found some hidden strength in his legs to press himself forward a step while he felt like the gale forces were increasing with each step forward. ‘I’ve got to keep moving…’

The light persisted keeping anything that might have been happening out of sight and the wind blowing through made the sound of a wind tunnel blaring through their ears that any noise that might have been heard was sent past them. All around them the forest was behind blown outward snapping thin branches and ripping leaves free. Nothing was being allowed near as the seconds ticked away slowly.

Then as quickly as it all began the force disappeared relieving everything of the pressure and sending Yuki and Fumiko falling forward into the grass taken off balance. While they laid face first in the grass the white light faded away giving them their vision back. “Ayumi?” Yuki said struggling after his painful fall to look forward fearing for her condition. He knew that the amount of blood that he saw and how weakened she was from the fight that she could not have survived the blow. Yuki pulled his head up still barely seeing anything with his eyes being bleached needing time to readjust. He could hardly make out a figure standing over another that lying in the grass. “…no…no…Ayumi…” His feet were still shaking from stress that they had taken making it difficult for him to get them moving.

Fumiko was the first to her feet and trying to see through her blurred vision what had happened. She looked down seeing Yuki still on the ground a little more clearly. ‘…What just happened? I couldn’t see anything. Did Hayashi see?’ She knelt down offering him a hand, but it went unaccepted as her sight became focused seeing that he was looking forward and not at him. “Hayashi…” It was her hope that she could get his attention calling out to him, but his mind was no longer in this world. ‘He was shouting something about Nishimura…’

Her eyes had nearly returned to normal giving her the strength to reach out to Yuki. She placed her hand on his shoulder pulling him over to get his attention to her. “Can you stand?”

“…Yeah…” Everything was still blurry for him, but it was not aided by the tears that were starting to build up in his eyes over the thoughts. He took the extended hand for help in standing. His head was hanging from his neck as a heavy dark shadow was cast over his eyes blocking them from sight. “…Ayumi…it can’t…”

Fumiko leaned down trying to hear what he was saying through his whispers. He was mumbling to himself still not completely connected to the world. There was little chance that she had in getting through to him. She had barely known him. However, as she looked forward to where Yuki had been transfixed she could see someone standing over a body that was bleeding out. The sun was making it difficult to see as it caught on the surface of the blade in their hand shining as the sword was brought down from overhead to be thrust into the chest of the dying individual. A shadowed face coughed up blood gasping from their last pain they would feel.

Once the figure was finished they pulled out the sword and held it out stretched at their side as they turned to face the two of them. Fumiko swallowed slowly still not certain who had won the fight. However, as the figure began to walk towards them it no longer mattered. She was only feeling the need to step back with the bloodlust and savage raw emotions becoming palatable in the air. The scent of death that wound through the forest and through them made Fumiko almost sick to her stomach. She felt her knees buckling from the shaking paralysis going through her body. Her eyes were drawn towards the individual unable to pull away as though attracted by some dark curiosity that had to know. The moments that passed as they walked towards her only made each nerve in her body stand up churning in the ill aura.

Out of the shadows the individual stepped with the light being cast on them covered in blood through their clothes and sprayed across their face. The sight made Fumiko’s eyes widen in horror witnessing the cold empty expression of a killer that had become far too familiar with the company of death. She choked nearly throwing up from what she was seeing pulling away out of reflex regardless of who it was. Fumiko turned down to Yuki out of instinct thinking that he could do something, but it was still hopeless for him. “…Ayumi! What have you done?”

The cold eyes of Ayumi stepped free from the shadow still walking towards them. The coat of blood that she wore was completely ignored by her. “I did what had to be done to protect Yuki. I won’t let anyone kill him and I’ll become death itself for him if I must.”

Fumiko jerked back hearing the words coming from Ayumi unable to believe what she was hearing from someone that she had only met recently. ‘Is this really the same girl I saw before? She is completely different from then. I don’t understand what’s going on…’ However, Ayumi’s imposing fear inducing stance all washed away as her eyelids fell and her eyes faded to a pale green when her legs gave out dropping her unceremoniously to the ground rapidly pouring blood out into the grass. Fumiko could not think of her fear or questions anymore as she shouted in panic. “Ayumi!” She tried to run to her, but Yuki held her back and then she realized turning to him. “Hey! Ayumi needs your help! Hayashi! Snap out of it!” She slapped him across the cheek hoping that it would break through the wall that was between him and everything else.

A dull echo in Yuki’s ears suddenly became a ringing and then clear as it was Fumiko screaming at him. He heard Ayumi’s name being shouted and he looked over through the clearing seeing that both of the women were lying in the grass. The assassin was lying dead in the grass with several evenly placed slash wounds across her body with a large pool of blood soaking into the ground. His eyes were back; he turned and he could see Ayumi bleeding out into the grass barely alive. “Ayumi!” he shouted feeling his entire body heighten and move on its own as he ran over to her side leaving Fumiko behind. “Ayumi! Don’t die! Please! Ayumi!”

Fumiko followed behind Yuki when she saw that he no longer needed her help. She grabbed him by his shoulder seeing that he went from one extreme to the next, but still ignoring reality. “She’s not dead yet, but she needs you to save her.”

“Huh?” Yuki was acting slowly on what Fumiko was saying, but it eventually clicked with him that he needed to use his magic in order to save her. “Right! Healing!” He stretched out his hands staring down at Ayumi as he watched a green glow come up from the earth and surround Ayumi in thin ribbons of silk that began mending the wound that she had taken in her waist. It was taking longer than he remembered making him uneasy. When he looked closer it looked like the sword had gone halfway through entire body making him wonder how she was even able to keep standing. “Come on work…”

They watched the magic working keeping them on edge to know if it would be successful or too late. But Ayumi coughed and began moving as the green light continued to grow stronger. Ayumi’s arms began to pull up as she tried to right herself even while the magic still worked on her. When she reached a seated position in the grass the light had almost faded away bringing relief to the others.

“Ayumi? How do you feel?”

“Better…” She waited until the magic had faded to stand up feeling the soreness in her muscles and mental fatigue starting to creep on her. It was a fight that she was not expecting to have to fight so soon. ‘They’re sending stronger ones sooner than I thought…’

“Should you be standing?” Fumiko asked a little concerned still that Ayumi was not ready to be moving around like she was.

Ayumi nodded to her looking over at Yuki like she had something on her mind. “His power healed me. All that’s left is rest.” She scanned the horizon still seeing the forest around them. After a moment of unclear pensiveness she turned back to Fumiko looking serious. “I need to you whack Yuki in the head.”

“Huh?” Fumiko said stepping back becoming confused by her request. She could not see any possible need to do such a thing to him. ‘Is she trying to kill him? But she said she wanted to protect him. What’s going on?’

In the usual slowness of Yuki it took him longer to pick up on what Ayumi was getting at. When he did he looked over to Fumiko to reassure her that Ayumi was not being strange. “It’s alright, Fumiko. It’s normal at this point… Just hit me hard.”

“What?! But why?”

“It’s the only way to turn off my power.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Please! I’ll explain afterwards.” He looked at her with all the seriousness that he had shown to everyone when he asked them to do this. It never felt good for him, but until he could control his power it was the only fast way of turning it off, especially knowing that when it was on it usually affected a large part of the neighborhood. He had been lucky that it did not happen often, but he knew that people were starting to get a little suspicious. Most, as Ayumi had said before, just treated it like a dream and thought nothing more of it. People were more likely to forget something that they could not explain that was far too fantastical to be real than go around talking about it. The fear of looking like a crazy person to anyone else usually controlled their decisions, but if it happened too many more times he feared that people would ignore their fear of looking crazy.

Fumiko looked back and forth between the two of them. They were both looking completely serious and earnest about what they were asking her to do. Ayumi was hardly in the shape to be doing much physical leaving it on Fumiko to take the action. She did not like the thought of hitting someone, even though she defended people all of the time it never came to violence. ‘I can’t believe I’m actually going to do this…’ She pulled her arm back not certain if she would be strong enough to do what she was asked, but put as much behind it as she could. “Forgive me…” She closed her eyes as her arm went flying hoping it would all work out.

“It’s ok,” said Yuki as she launched her fist at his face. The impact bounced his head around a little, but it went by otherwise unnoticed. Yuki looked around to see that the forest was still around them unchanged.

Fumiko opened her eyes looking at her hand still touching Yuki’s cheek, but him looking a little disappointed. “I’m so sorry!”

“You need to hit me harder than that.” Yuki sighed a little to himself trying to think of another way of doing this seeing that she probably did not have enough strength to knock him out or get anywhere close. But she went to hit him several more times with same effect all while keeping her eyes closed. ‘This isn’t working…’ He started to move thinking that he had an idea when there was suddenly a shadow over his head giving him a sinking feeling that something bad was about to happen. Yuki turned his head towards what was casting the shadow to see a school bag flying through the air at him. “No! Wait!” Yuki flailed his arms at Fumiko trying to get her to stop, but it was already in motion and slammed in his face loudly sending him flying across the grass tumbling to a stop against the school that reappeared with the fading of Yuki’s power.

“Oh no! I hit him too hard! Hayashi!” Fumiko ran over to him checking to see if he was still alive flailing her arm about at Yuki’s lifeless body. “Hayashi! Stay alive! I’m so sorry!”

Yuki coughed and began moving revealing a large red mark on his face from where the bag hit him. “Ugh…I’m still alive, Fumiko…”

“Oh! I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, please forgive me!”

“It’s alright!” Yuki stood up slowly pushing back on Fumiko a little let her know that he was fine and did not need help. He pressed his hand against his head feeling the soreness and cracking his neck feeling a little better. “What you got in that bag? Bricks?”

“Just all of my fantasy books I read and a textbook,” she said showing him the contents of her bag.

“Woah, you must really like fantasy books.” He could feel sweat dripping down his head looking at the sheer number of reading books.

“I love fantasy! What was that power of yours?” She leaned in on him with her eyes suddenly starting to sparkle with excitement.

Yuki leaned back a little feeling the sweat getting larger. “Well that’s a little difficult to explain…”

“But you can do magic, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so…”

“That’s so cool! I’ve always dreamed of being able to use magic. To be able to actually see it used…”

Yuki had been feeling cornered by Fumiko, but he suddenly felt the same excitement realizing that he had used magic. “Wait! I used magic! I can’t believe it. That was so awesome!”

“What did it feel like?”

“It sort of felt like I was grabbing out into the ether itself controlling it and manipulating the energies.”

“Oh wow! That’s so amazing! And when you use that wind spell in combination with the lightning spell to knock off her feet.”

“I know! It felt so amazing!”

Ayumi could not help but sweat in embarrassment for them witnessing two fantasy nerds getting excited over something so common. ‘I thought she might be different, but seems she’s just like him…’ She walked over to the two of them while they were still going on a mile a minute about the amazing sight of magic that was used. Ayumi stepped around and between them cutting off the conversation. “I’m glad you two are all friends now, but I need to erase your memory now.”

“What?!” Fumiko said in shock as she looked over at Ayumi.

Yuki was quick to move his feet getting between the two of them. He had seen this with his family and knew it would be coming again. She had wanted to wipe Saki’s memories too, but he stopped her. “Stop! She’s accepted what she saw. You don’t need to erase her memories!”

“Anyone that sees can’t be allowed to remember. It’s for their safety as well as yours.”

“But Saki already knows. Can’t you make an exception?”

“The more that know the worse this will get. It’s already bad enough that the entire neighborhood is suspicious and you can’t control your power. This is your fault!”

“I know and I’ll take responsibility for it.”

Fumiko watched to the two argue over her leaving her uncertain about what was happening. It was clear to her that this had happened between them before and it was nothing new. She knew what she had seen was beyond anything she thought possible, but it was not frightening to her. She stepped forward around them looking at Ayumi directly. “If you want to erase my memory fine. But I can keep this a secret. I won’t tell anyone. It’s not like anyone would believe me anyway, right?”

“That’s not the problem. There are others like her,” Ayumi said pointing over to the dead assassin on the ground. “This won’t stop here. There will be more.”

“But they want me not her. She said that she’ll keep it a secret.”

There was shouting voices and confusion starting to develop over by the track team in the distance that caught all of their attention. They had forgotten in the fight that there were still students in the school. Most had gone home, but the track team was staying late and had seen everything. Ayumi sighed seeing that she had greater problems to deal with. “Fine. We’ve bigger problems anyway.”

“Huh?”

Ayumi’s face and expression suddenly changed back to the innocent one that she used publicly. When she screamed loudly for no reason it sent both Fumiko and Yuki back against the wall of the school in shock and confusion. They watched as Ayumi ran down the small hill to the track field towards the girls still covered in blood looking terrified. The track team was alerted to Ayumi and turned looking at a panic stricken frightened girl covered in blood. They did not know what was going on, but gathered around her like a magnet to try to help calm her down and get her to explain. Saki walked away from the crowd noticing Yuki in the distance by the school. Behind her a wave came out from Ayumi that surrounded the team leaving them all hazy and dropping to the ground.

Yuki stepped forward seeing Saki coming up the grass still in her track uniform. He looked back at Fumiko only to see that she was walking away already getting the feeling that they needed time. He gave a smile to her as she walked away before he turned back to Saki washing his expression off. “…Saki…”

“Yuki… Another assassin?”

“Yeah…”

“I kept the team from going crazy until you were done.”

“I’m sorry, Saki.” Yuki could feel the uneasiness in his stomach from before, but it was not holding back his words this time. He did not know what he was going to say, but he was at least able talk to her finally. “…Saki…I’m…I…I know that you never liked Seiji…” This was something that always hung over them and Saki was vocal about it in the past, but since he had been gone for a while he had been forgotten. The old wounds that were brought back, he knew it must have hurt Saki seeing him with Seiji. “I’m sorry, Saki. I know that I must have hurt you…”

“Yuki…just stop…” She could see the confusion in his eyes, but knowing that he had been thinking about it was enough for her. During school and when she saw him it was so difficult to read him as he always covered everything up with a happy pleasant face. It was not until today that she could see that it was bothering him. She had already planned on forgiving him when she talked him knowing that she was making things worse for them. “It’s alright, Yuki. I know. You don’t have to say anymore.”

“But Saki…I-I… I don’t want to lose you because of Seiji.”

“Yuki!” Saki shouted not quite becoming annoyed or angry, but needing him to stop torturing him. ‘He already weighs his heart with so much that he has to cover it up with a smile. I don’t want to see him add another weight.’ She stepped forward reaching out to him getting him to stop shaking. “Idiot… Our friendship’s stronger than this, Yuki. I’ve stuck it out with you through it all and this isn’t going to break me. I’m sorry I over reacted.”

“No…I…Saki…” Yuki hung his head down feeling some relief, but sad as well. He did not think that she needed to apologize for something that he did to her.

Saki looked down at him developing a little smile to see that they were finally able to talk and get the air cleared between them. “Just promise me, Yuki.”

“Huh?” Yuki began to lift up his head not certain what Saki was going to ask him.

“Promise me that you’ll stay the same. I know you can’t help it with assassins after you, but don’t let it consume you please. Promise me not to fight because you want it.”

“…Saki!” Yuki eyes had widening as memories came flooding back to him that he tried to forget. Of painful times that were in his past.

‘Promise me…Yuki…’

To be continued…