Crimson liquid flowed through like a river from a shattering wet thump. The life was quickly extinguished at that moment pierced through the heart with a long blade that was soaked in blood left held out the front of the chest. Demosthenes’ wide eyes were left frozen as he collapsed to his knees with only the blade of a sword keeping him from hitting the ground. The metal was retracted from his corpse falling slowly to the street, the field fading away.

Yuki’s eyes were held wide open in shock seeing the man that had effortlessly beat him taken down by a sneak attack. Out of the shadows of night stepped Ayumi with a cold empty expression in her eyes looking down upon Yuki. “…worthless…”

Chapter 52 – Calm Before the Storm

Once Ayumi had finished healing him, Yuki pulled himself back up to his feet. While his body had been completely repaired there was a hollow feeling inside him that he could not shake. It made his head hang from his neck keeping a dark shadow over his eyes. He could not look at Ayumi. “…Ayumi…” There had not been a single word spoken between them since she had started to heal him. Even now he was finding it difficult to speak.

All that his mind could do was recall the last minutes of what he had thought to be his life. They replayed endlessly for him making his body remember the ripping pain that he had felt from each wound. His hand laid up his chest feeling the cold moist cloth soaked in his blood where the spear had run through him. ‘…I should’ve died…how many times now?’ He painfully clinched his torn shirt with his hand. ‘…I wasn’t able to do anything…’

A black void began to surround him removing the world around him. Any awareness that he might have had still was quickly snuffed out as he retreated into his mind. ‘…I wasn’t able to beat him…’ Like an old camera reel playing against the sheet around him the battle he had with the strange old man Demosthenes was being projected for him. ‘…he was just toying with me…’ The clashing of blades pounded out of the imagery making his eyes twitch in reflex. He shut his eyes. ‘…I was useless…’ Yuki turned his head away thinking that he could escape it, while the video continued to play ceaselessly.

“Please save me, Ayumi!” Yuki’s voice from the video said.

Yuki eyes quickly snapped open in shock at hearing the words. He was forced to look towards the image to see how pathetic he looked. ‘…I can’t do anything…without her…’ The words felt like massive weights were stacked on him making it impossible to move. Folded up with his eyes glued to be dully staring at the memories, he was being crushed. He could not resist. There was no strength left in his body. The world seemed to be getting further away from him. Yuki was no longer willing to chase after it.

A sudden loud noise boomed around the void cracking everywhere on the surface. It beckoned to Yuki. The boom occurred again even more violent than before, but this time he could feel something dull on the edge. Dull ripples became sharp and stabbing. The feel had turned to pain spread across him unfocused and clearing away the darkness. “…what’s going on…”

“I see you’re back…” Ayumi said flatly.

Yuki could not see what was going on, but had a strange feeling about him. When his eyes came into focus he found himself in Ayumi’s house. It took him another moment to realize that he was in her room and lying on her bed. He quickly pulled himself up off of her pillow getting the unsettled feeling of being a boy in a girl’s room and using her bed. ‘…why am I in Ayumi’s room?! And on her bed?!’ Yuki connected eyes with Ayumi finding her to be surprisingly close to him, leaning in from the edge of bed at him. “Ayumi! I-I…Why am…I?”

Ayumi pulled back relaxing into a tall stance with her arms cross. “I brought you back here.”

“By yourself?” Yuki could not help but look her up and down having trouble imagining her carrying him through the street.

She gave him a quick nod not changing expressions, as usual. “I couldn’t leave you in the middle of street with blood covering your clothes.”

“My clothes!” Yuki looked down at his clothes finally seeing that they were no longer what he was wearing. He had been so focused on his change of environment that he had not taken the time to notice them. One look had taken much longer for him as he was locked in gear unable to react. The slow countdown to his action came simply produced as an unintelligible yelp or scream. Yuki nearly leapt to the ceiling in surprise before he ran himself into the corner of the room thinking that it would get him further away, but it followed him. “What’s going on here?! W-Wh-W-Why am…I-I—“

Ayumi with flat eyes approached him almost looking bothered. “Wearing a dress? Because I haven’t done laundry yet and you’re clothes were soaked in blood. Or would you have liked to explain to your sister why you’re covered in blood?”

“Don’t you have anything else?!” Yuki was pulling at the embarrassingly feminine pink dress that he had been placed in while he was zoned out. He could not even consider Ayumi’s reasoning with what he was wearing. His own clothes were better than this.

“If I did I would have.” While Ayumi was not looking it, the tone she was talking with did not see a problem with it.

“But I’m a boy! I can’t be wearing this!”

“It’s only temporary until you get home… Besides the Scots wear kilts.”

Yuki could not believe how much Ayumi was failing to understand the situation. He felt like he was going to lose it any moment having to stare at the dress any longer. “It’s not the same thing! And we’re in Japan! They’ll think I’m a cross dresser or some pervert!”

Ayumi had a nearly blank stare at Yuki still not connecting with Yuki. She raised her hand up to her head resting it against the side of her head as it tilted a little from a thought. “Well with your hair you nearly pass for a girl…”

A mirror in Ayumi’s room was pointed out to him making look at him. He was lost in the moment agreeing with Ayumi before he snapped back. “That’s not the point! You aren’t helping matters!” Yuki turned back towards Ayumi and then around the room looking for her dirty laundry. Once he had found it ran over past her, but Ayumi caught him with her leg and sent him back on to her bed. “What are you doing?! I don’t care if they’re dirty!”

“Enough about the clothes, Yuki!” she snapped quickly at him. The raised voice was enough to make Yuki alert.

He lowered his eyes feeling the pressure began to return him. “I forgot to thank you for saving me.” Yuki started to move, but Ayumi’s stare stopped him.

“You just don’t get it do you?”

“You don’t think I know!” Yuki yelled at her in response. He pulled at his face to turn away from her already feeling the choking in his throat from the last of the words he spoke. “…I lost…he completely out classed me! I never stood a chance against him!”

Ayumi turned away from Yuki after hearing him speak. “You don’t understand…”

Yuki turned his head up towards Ayumi becoming confused by her words. “What are you talking about?”

“How many times do have I have to repeat myself?” She pulled around towards Yuki once more, but stopped halfway. The lost expression on his face annoyed her. All of her efforts were being wasted, yet she had no choice. “It wasn’t about his abilities or skills. It was you…” Ayumi raised her arm up extended towards him with a finger pointing at him. “Because you lacked the resolve! You lost to yourself.”

What she was telling him now was only compounding the issue for Yuki. He knew Ayumi to say things he did not understand at the time, but at that moment it felt like she had thrown a blanket over him and began hitting him with a pipe. “Myself? You’re not making any sense! I stood my ground against him, but he still beat me!”

“You’re missing the point. It’s not a matter of standing your ground.”

“Then what is it?!”

“You’re afraid to fight,” she said simply.

‘How could she?’ Yuki felt the weight on him grew even more intense than before. He could not hold his head up. Every part of him was shaking uncontrollably. Escape was all he could think about, but none of his muscles would even budge on him. It took everything that Yuki had to summon up breath to his mouth to speak. He was struggling and grasping at the tendrils of memories that threatened to tie him down. In a low voice with certainty he spoke, “You’re wrong. It’s not fear.”

There was a narrowed gaze from Ayumi reading into his words and body to understand the meaning behind his words. She was missing something, but the words did not lie to his self. “What is holding you back then?”

The threshold had been broached releasing a taste of memories held behind a wall in his heart. It all came in a flash that shook his body making him sweat. A undesired past crept in his chest. He had to stop quickly before he was lost in the sea. Yuki clinched his fists fighting to keep himself. ‘I can’t say it…but she’s not going leave me alone…’ There was a push that came from his body allowing him to look at Ayumi once more. “…I…I made a promise…”

‘…a promise? Why’s this so important to him that he’d rather die than break?’ Ayumi stepped towards Yuki giving him her full attention. It was clear that he was having difficulty even recalling this promise. Curiosity for her could not be helped as she wanted to know what it was that shackled him and prevented him doing what he needed. “A promise? What was this promise?”

“I can’t…I can’t say anymore!” he pleaded with Ayumi to drop it.

“I need to know, Yuki! If you don’t face this now—“

“I said no!” Yuki pushed himself away and rushed past Ayumi planning to leave the room. However before he was able to reach the door the entire room was turned to ice sealing him. “…Ayumi…” choked Yuki as he rotated back looking at Ayumi’s back.

She pulled around to look at him determined to pry the secret from him. “You’re not leaving until you answer my question.”

‘…this isn’t right…’ Yuki checked the door out of the corner of his eyes seeing the thick ice that encased it. He had no chance in breaking it. “This doesn’t concern you, Ayumi!”

“We’re partners, Yuki. I need to understand!”

He was being backed further into a corner. There was nowhere to run or escape from her room. She could keep him for as long as she wanted. “It was…” A dark room suddenly appeared in his mind briefly holding a foreboding feeling of familiarity. “…It was…I-I promised that…” There was a bed in the room with the curtains drawn. “…I wouldn’t hurt anyone again…” Resting in the bed was a covered figure darkened by the lack of light in the room.

Yuki had spoken so broken and softly through his choking that Ayumi could not understand him. “What?”

The flashes that he was receiving felt like they were each placing weights on his chest making it impossible to breathe. He knew what he was seeing, but he could not admit it. He would not admit it. “I said I promised I wouldn’t fight anymore!” Ayumi held her words simply staring at him leaving Yuki to the pressures he held. “So now you know…” Yuki began to move back to the door with the expectation that he would be let go.

“Who?” asked Ayumi after a long silence from her. The distance between them seemed to be growing in spite of it not physically changing.

The question came as a strange one for Yuki as he did not know the context. All he did was tilt his head back towards her. “Huh?”

“Who?” Her question was repeated with the same tone as before to Yuki.

“What are you talking about?”

“Your promise. Who did you make it to?”

The room returned to his sight once more making him blink. A frail hand was reaching out from the bed towards him beckoning him, calling him forward. Only the head and shoulders of the person in the bed could be seen weakly looking at him. ‘…Yuki…promise me…’

Yuki jerked away from the vision snapping back to reality. He was caught staring at Ayumi being left with nothing but to answer her question. “…it was…my mother’s last wish…”

The ice faded away from the room returning it back to how it had been. Ayumi allowed Yuki to leave the room. He was quick in reaching the door, wanting be freed from the atmosphere of the house that was condemning to memories that he never wished to remember. The house’s door was open and Yuki half way down the sidewalk before Ayumi stood in the threshold. “You’ll end up die holding on to that promise.”

Yuki stopped in his step, but refused to face her. “I thought it was your job to protect me so I can save your people.”

“They’re your people too. You don’t belong here.”

“I don’t even know where they are. They aren’t my people.” He started to walk away out to the street, but was stopped once more by Ayumi voice. It had not been the words that halted him; it was the weakness that trailed through her tone. Everything froze for him. He felt emotion coming from them like he was not familiar with from Ayumi.

“How can you say that to them?!” Ayumi shouted back at him nearly choking on her words looking like she was on the verge of tears. “They’re suffering! They need you!”

He had become compelled to turn face Ayumi. When he saw her face it left him stunned in shock to actually see her in such a state. There was never a moment that he had seen since he met her that he could feel such passion and emotion in her voice. “A-Ayumi…I…” Yuki had to pause just to collect his words not certain what he should say. “I don’t know…my family, I can’t leave them.”

Ayumi came running down the sidewalk falling into him looking into his eyes. The pained looked of rejection was reflected in her eyes that stared at him. “How can you say that?! You belong with us, we’re your family!”

Yuki did not know what to do any more with how hysterical she was acting in front of him. It was so out of character for Ayumi that Yuki was left paralyzed and started to have empathy for her. “But Ayumi…they—“

“They aren’t your real family!” Ayumi shouted in desperation no longer able to keep from crying into Yuki’s clothes.

Hearing Ayumi say that would have upset Yuki, but he could not be angry with her seeing her now. He could only hold on to her in silence feeling so empty at that moment as though he was guilty of being uncaring and heartless.

Across the neighborhood between the light of the streetlamps a darkened figured walked away. When they had finally stepped into the light it could be seen as Demosthenes. He casually left the neighborhood not looking back. “…Eudokia… This could be more difficult than I thought…”

To be continued…