Shift

[Andromeda]

Hitomi saw the gigantic numbers out of the corner of her eye. It had calmed her down a little seeing that she finally got the third point that she was looking for from the game. “It’s tied now.” A little more in control of her situation, she remembered what she did to get the point, which also led her to another realization. “There’s only three possible points to gain! This game can’t be won!”

Water still poured off of him and his feet sank in the earth a little. He wiped away the water hanging to his brow. “Is that what you think? There’s a fourth point. I wouldn’t make a game unbeatable.”

“A fourth point? How?”

“That’s my secret.”

“Bastard! You did this on purpose!”

Dark shadows hung over Hiroshi face as he slowly walked forward, his determination unbreakable. “Of course, I never said I made a fair game, just a winnable game. This is the moment where you die.”

The darkness hovering around Hiroshi made Hitomi take a step back. For the first time, her Takako fed delusions of Hiroshi started to match with reality. “A winnable game? Only for you!”

“Of course, I made the game so that I would win. You’re an obstacle in my path and I’ve already wasted enough of my time and strength on you when I should be facing Takako to end this nightmare.”

Panic started to settle deeper into Hitomi. She already feared her own death thanks to Takako, but it was no longer an illusionary one. Once she understood that it was truly going to happen the true fear set in with thick sharp claws around her whole body.

Water fell out of her eyes in a massive tidal wave that managed to surpass her in height. Hiroshi glared at the impressive feat. A wall of solid unflinching water raced towards him. ‘This is her true power…real emotions fueling her power…’ Usual pangs ripped at his chest. His hand clutched against his body.

He dragged up his determination and moved forward. As the water fell upon him, he did not even attempt to dodge. It was hard to call it an attack in the same sort that Hitomi used previously. It was closer to flailing about in helplessness.

“I don’t want to die!” Hitomi started repeating it over and over again as she became more scared.

However, Hiroshi kept his course. The water crashed upon him blowing everything away that it met. Yet, Hiroshi appeared on the other side of the wave. He looked no less wet for his trouble. It appeared as though the water passed through him without touching him.

The sight of Hiroshi’s unaffected body only intensified Hitomi’s reactions. “Impossible! The water should be affecting you!” More and more water poured out of it. None of the gigantic waves could do anything to stop Hiroshi as he began to walk towards her. With each step that he closed their distance, the greater the waves became even though nothing they did could stop him.

“I made a special rule to allow me to not be affected by your water attacks when I make a specific gesture with my hand.” He appeared through the last wave in front of Hitomi with only centimeters between them. “It’s not your fault.”

“N-no-no!” Hitomi backed away a step before turning to attempt to flee from Hiroshi. A single foot of his drop to the ground making cracks that shot out towards Hitomi. The earth crumbled beneath her feet until she no longer had any balance. She felt backwards on her back sliding back to Hiroshi’s feet. “I don’t want to die!”

Hiroshi stepped forward walking onto Hitomi’s torso. He knelt down close to her seeing the terrified look in her face. “Perhaps now at the end you understand how all of those you’ve killed have felt. You’re getting the easy way out, you won’t have to live with this any longer.”

“P-please! No! I don’t want to die!”

He stretched out his hand touching his index finger to her forehead. In the sky behind him, the score changed to four for Hitomi. Big text appeared insensitively congratulating Hiroshi on his victory. He stepped off her body as he already saw the light from her eyes fading.

“I don’t…want to…die…”

Hanging his head, Hiroshi stay next to her while her life disappeared. “I’m sorry. If I knew another way, I would have tried to save you.” In moments, his power stole away the life of Hitomi leaving behind a lifeless corpse. Much of the water fueled by Hitomi’s power began to disappear.

Hiroshi stood up holding to his resolve. He had to bite his lip as his arms shook. Casting his gaze over to the hole in the second floor where Takako stood, he could see the end of the darkness. The path however remained bloody as he remembered it. “Hate me and scorn me. Tell me I’m doing the wrong thing, but this is not my world or my rules. These are Takako’s rules and if this world of hers is to end someone must play by her rules.

“We probably can’t go back to be friends after I finish this, even with the world righted. You’ll never forgive me for my actions. But I do what I must to save lives with what little power I’ve been granted. This will be the end.”

Chapter 350 – Waterfall

Jumping up to the hole, Hiroshi returned to the classroom that Takako claimed as her throne room. He slowly approached to base of the twisted throne. “I passed your little test.” Hiroshi had trouble feeling his body after his fight with Hitomi. While he was not completely broken, it still left him weakened. He did everything to hide it from her.

There was a stillness in the manner of which Takako held herself. “Yes,” she responded with measured control. Hidden within the single word was a mountain of emotions. It was difficult to pick them all apart from another, but one very clearly came out in front of the others.

Rage.

While even that was kept in control, not all of it could be contained. The casual capricious attitude that she had before when addressing Hiroshi disappeared. Despite everything that he had seen thus far from her, he thought she looked the most human now. ‘This is a little unnerving. It was easier when she looked inhuman.’

“You killed her.”

“You sent her.”

“You cheated.”

“I won by any means.” Hiroshi did not expect her to be so focused on the death of Hitomi. He did not see it having such an impact on her. It made him wonder what she was to her.

“You killed her.”

“What did you expect?”

“For you to die.”

“Sorry to disappoint.”

“You shouldn’t have won.”

‘She’s getting stuck in a loop.’ The flow of the conversation was very different from the last time that they talked. He still did not have any empathy for her or the situation, but she continued to defy his expectations. “Things won’t work out like you planned.”

“Is that right?” Takako stood up from her seat to stare down at Hiroshi. The swirling mass of emotions that stayed under the surface looked to be slowly rising the longer that their conversation went on.

“I don’t know who you’re waiting for, but they’ll have to get in line. I’m coming for you first.”

She slowly took a step down the throne followed by another. “You think just because you’ve protected yourself from my power that you can beat me?” The confidence, though borne partially out of anger, resurfaced for Takako. She started to look more in control, yet also losing that control. Hints of emotion fueled insanity filled into some of the cracks developing.

A flicker in Hiroshi’s wall appeared at the remark. “You knew about that?”

“Of course, we made many plans knowing who you would have available to you. The tactician that I gained is very adept and her forecasts have all played out exactly how she foresaw.” As she slowly made her way down the steps to Hiroshi, she recounted more of what she was told. “She even said that Hitomi would die. I refused to believe her, but it seems that she was right about even that. She’s a rather disturbing woman.”

“Coming from your lips, I find that difficult to believe.”

The steps seemed to be eternal as she was still walking down, albeit slowly. “Where others quickly embraced what I gave them because they couldn’t take what they saw with their virgin eyes, she did not even blink. She looked like she lived in such a world and it was commonplace. And her mental barriers are truly impressive, even I couldn’t penetrate through all of her defenses.”

‘Someone that Takako couldn’t completely capture?’ Such a thought unnerved Hiroshi as he pondered the meaning of her words. “Why are you telling me all of this? You’re making it sound like you’re not actually the boss.”

Takako finally stopped reaching the floor of the classroom. She was shorter than him. The small looking girl that had the entire neighborhood in a grip of fear still had an unassuming appearance. All she had working for her was presence and reputation. It built her up into a grand figure that still was just a small being.

Just a child.

“I am the one in charge here. Make no mistake, I control even her.”

“So what’s the point of all of this?”

“No point. Just killing some time before I kill you.” She carried the confidence in her speech well. Takako believed without any doubt how things would turn out. “Like with Hitomi’s death, your fate has already been foreseen as well. You will fall to my hands.”

“Another one of your tactician’s forecasts?”

“That’s right.”

“As you already stated, your mind control powers won’t work on me. And your army is being kept busy downstairs. You have no more moves to play.”

She tilted her head a little amused by Hiroshi’s groundless confidence in her position. “Is that what you think? So you think that I’m a helpless little girl without my power?” Suddenly the room started to shake from all sides. “Why don’t I show you how wrong you are in your assumption.”

Hiroshi braced himself not quite sure what she had planned. His eyes darted around the room not seeing any signs of other troops or traps. It did not seem like she had some secret weapon still being withheld from use. ‘Can she still use her mind powers on me? Are they not what we think?’

The throne behind her began to twist and break. All of the metal and wood starts to turn to particles seemingly reacting to whatever power that Takako was summoning for their fight. It was still all just show as nothing had happened yet.

“Allow me to impart upon you the reason that you will lose.”

“Huh?”

“Your resolve you’ve been clinging to so tightly.”

“What are you going on about?”

The entire throne had finally disappeared with the air around Takako becoming thick. Her presence intensified with her intent to kill. “It’s a little secret that no one knows about. Hitomi was the first one that joined me. I never allowed her to leave this room until today.”

“What’s your point?”

“Hitomi joined me willingly. She was never under my control. I did feed her what she needed to fight, but she was still free from me.”

Hiroshi’s eyes widened in shock at hearing such a revelation. He could not move his body. “You’re lying. That can’t be right!”

“She’s the only one that I never had to use my powers on. Her monumental level of worry for my wellbeing made her loyal to me. I kept her in the dark about most of the things that happened outside of this room. She was my last true friend. And you killed her!”


Far across the neighborhood away from the fighting, a deep trench carved through the ruins of what had once been a pleasant line of homes. Smoke rose in columns from all of the destruction wrought by the impact.

Buried partially under the foundation of the last of the houses that finally stopped the impact, debris began to move. Out of the darkness of the rumble a hand punched through wood and brick. It looked a little dirty and bruised, but no worse for wear.

A slight haze appeared around the hand as a mist of particles started to emit from deep within. The pile began to shift and fall away as it was effortlessly cleared away. Standing up, he looked around at the damage and then in the far distance to the school. Lights and explosions were going off around the area, but his eyes were normal. He did not know what was happening. “Damn, I can’t believe they knocked me out for the entire length of the fights. I’m awake now and I’m ready to put an end to all of this! Just hang in there everyone!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Choking and gasping, it looked like the end for him. He was already certain of it. While he was no doctor, he was quite certain that his heart had been pierced or destroyed. The human body could not survive without something so important. It was just stating the obvious.

Yet, he did not feel like he was on death’s door as he should be. In fact, the cough he had only worked to clear out things, not because it was struggling. Something was clearly wrong.

Yori forced his eyes opened once his consciousness had finally returned to him. He blinked a little, still not convinced of reality. It was impossible. Then the pain from his body threw itself upon him with overwhelming intensity. Rebelling against his sudden movements, it did everything to make him regret the naïve and cliché response. “It hurts…”

“But you’re still alive,” someone familiar replied.

Pain overrode his ears, not making it clear who it was that spoke to him. His mind immediately put what had logically happened together.

Sigh.

“Hayashi…”

“Eh? You see him?”

Apparently, he needed to get his ears checked as he realized. The confusion in the voice made him put more effort into his senses. Yori turned his eyes in the direction of the voice to find someone a little unlikely next to him. “You…”

“Yup! How you feeling man? I’d help you up, but well…reasons…”

While his body still hated him with painful burning passion, he forced himself up. His legs were clearly not ready for him, but he could at least sit up. There remained a lot of questions swirling in his head. “Seiji Tsuji, what are you doing here?”

Seiji actually looked worse off than Yori felt, though Yori still could not see all of the damage on his own body. The heavy amounts of fresh bloody that covered his body along with countless talismans protecting him, he looked like he should be in the hospital for months of recovery. Despite the appearance, he sounded more alive him Yori felt. “I’m here because you needed help. That’s what friends do!”

‘Friends? I thought we were on different sides… He’s so simple, but I guess that isn’t a bad thing…’ As Yori tried to get more of the picture on his own body, he looked at the blood that soaked into his cloths. The hole where Yumi’s personality had pierced his heart stood as a reminder of his battle. “How am I alive, if Hayashi’s not here?”

“Nerine is with me. I got her to heal you up, it was a rush job due to the situation. All she could manage was repairing your heart.”

“I see…makes sense…” It still left him with questions. However, moving from his injuries to Seiji’s he realized that there was something wrong with the picture of Seiji supposed normality. “What happened to your arms?”

“Oh this?” He acted very nonchalant about the thing as though missing limbs was something common. Motioning with his shoulder and stump, he called attention to his left arm. “That I lost in my fight with one of Yumi’s friends.” Waving with his talisman covered right arm, Seiji explained its loss next. “This I lost while fighting Yumi.”

“Fighting Yumi?” Suddenly, he realized that he missed a lot more details. He also now felt the ground shaking. It almost felt like an earthquake, though it was too gentle for something like that. Yori searched around feeling as if he was missing something very obvious.

Which was accurate.

Ahead of him, across two city blocks of destruction, he saw explosions of power and light. With each blast, the ground vibrated. It took him a little bit for his eyes to focus, but he could see enough to pick out the details. “Yumi!” He immediately started to cough and gasp as his body refused to accept his movements.

Unable to use anything useful to stop him, Seiji leaned blocking his path a little. “Hey man, you need rest. You got thrashed pretty badly.”

“But my sister!”

“Nerine’s fighting her, though from what I can tell it looks more like Nerine’s stalling. I don’t understand it, but whoever’s in control of Yumi right now is far more powerful than Yumi’s ever been before. I don’t think there’s anyone of us who could actually stop her.” Seiji glanced over quickly at his arm that he lost to Yumi.

“She shouldn’t be fighting! I need to get to my sister!”

“We need to leave this up to Nerine. She’s the only one in shape to fight her right now. We just have to hold out until Yuki can put a stop to Takako, then Yumi will be free.”

Chapter 351 – Shouting to the Darkness

Far across the neighborhood away from the fighting, a deep trench carved through the ruins of what had once been a pleasant line of homes. Smoke rose in columns from all of the destruction wrought by the impact.

Buried partially under the foundation of the last of the houses that finally stopped the impact, debris began to move. Out of the darkness of the rumble a hand punched through wood and brick. It looked a little dirty and bruised, but no worse for wear.

A slight haze appeared around the hand as a mist of particles started to emit from deep within. The pile began to shift and fall away as it was effortlessly cleared away. Standing up, he looked around at the damage and then in the far distance to the school. Lights and explosions were going off around the area, but his eyes were normal. He did not know what was happening. “Damn, I can’t believe they knocked me out for the entire length of the fights. I’m awake now and I’m ready to put an end to all of this! Just hang in there everyone!”

Yuki cleared away the remaining debris to free himself up. “I’m sorry,” he apologized to the house before slowly rising into the air. “I’ll need to come back after this is all settled to help fix the neighborhood.” As he rose over ruins of the house and trees, he got a better view of the neighborhood. “Looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me.”

He began to move towards the school still seeing battles happening. Though with all of the destruction, less was happening than he could judge. “I guess, while I’ve been out a lot of the fighting has already been settled. Since there still remains some fighting, that must been that Takako hasn’t been stopped. That’s good, I can’t allow anyone but me fight her. This isn’t their problem.”

Quickly moving to the school, he stared down at the destruction. There was plenty of wide scale damage, but the lines and paths carved out along with the craters told him a story of the battles. He understood better everything that happened. “I’ll stop all of this pointless fighting.”

One of the fights Yuki saw continuing came through his area as he flew over. The force coming off the fight disrupted the air knocking him around and off course. A small thud dully echoed in the area as he fell into the ruins leftover from their fighting.

His mist protected him from any damage other than being shook around in the head. It took Yuki a few moments to get his focus back and stand on his feet. Concentration re-gathered the dispersing mist. “It was all just a blur. Who’s fighting?”

Shaking his head, he put his attention back towards the school that he had been trying to reach. “I have to get back. Whoever is fighting won’t have to once I stop Takako.” He began to fly into the air again having to focus more with the turbulence caused.

However, as he got into the air, he could hear the sounds of their voices. They were much closer than before. And that was when his contradictory decision surfaced. It was not something that he could ignore. Which given that everyone fighting was someone that he knew, it was going to be pretty hypocritical that he could not ignore any of the fights.

He justified it to himself as he flew towards them. Something bad was about to happen if he did not step in to stop it. Gathering up spare materials from the ground of the ruins, he fashioned himself the only sort of weapon that he could in the time he had. He had no time to change his powers for something more useful.

Using his mist to crush the materials densely into a mass, he launched it straight for his target.

Saki.

Before she could snap his neck a massive force slammed into her head throwing her free of Tatsuya. Tatsuya coughed and collapsed to the ground grabbing at his broken arm attempting to nurse it. He rolled his head over a little trying to who had jumped into the fight. His eyes widened in surprise. “Why…?”

Saki stood up shaking off the ringing pain as half of her face was soaked in blood now. She glared over at the Tatsuya and then up to the figure that interrupted her. Her eyes widened as well in shock. “Why are you here?!”

Already landed on part of the ruined house nearby, Yuki’s mist disappeared for a moment and then reappeared nearly as quickly. “You shouldn’t be so shocked. Your kick hurt a lot, but I still had my defense up when it happened. I’m not dumb enough to walk around the school without being ready to be attacked. I don’t have the reflexes of you to be able to be reactive.”

He glanced over at Tatsuya, who had seen better days. “So you did come.” However, he did not get much time to react as Saki immediately charged for him looking to put Yuki down for good.

Tatsuya tried to move for her, but his body had enough. He staggered to one knee as all of fighting with Saki suddenly dropped itself on him. “Not now! Yuki!”

Nothing of what happened Yuki could even see. It was not even a blur. All he felt was the pressure left by what happened in the frames of time between which Saki flew at him. However, she was nowhere near him anymore. A minor holographic read out ran out some text nearby his eyes informing him of the results. “I see, so that’s what happened.”

He looked up into the sky no able to see anything, but seemed to be looking for something. “She’s got protection from my powers too. If she does like Kaede and Katsumi, I’m going to guess everyone in Takako’s army does. There’s some questions to be answered about that.”

Yuki floated down next to Tatsuya to check on him. He saw more read outs nearby giving him reports on his condition. “Sorry, I don’t have the time to heal you up, but there’s nothing life threatening.”

“What did you do? All I saw was something hit Saki and sent her into the air, but she moves too quickly.”

“Yeah, she does.” An explosion of earth and debris shot up from behind Yuki, where had stood before. He turned around with expectations, knowing that things were not completely settled. It took nearly a minute, but the figure walking out of the column of smoke that he waited for can come. Saki resurfaced looking even more bloodied from the last attack Yuki made. “Before I started this assault on the school, I knew that I had the chance to be confronted by the three of them. So I crafted powers to deal with each of them. Unfortunately, they had better planning then me.”

The mist around Yuki grew in thickness completely masking out his appearance just as Saki came charging back in after him with single-minded purpose. However, she never made it through the mist. It slowly began to disperse showing Saki standing still no longer moving forward.

Yuki walked towards his friend. “What do you think you’re doing, Yuki?!” shouted Tatsuya trying to reach out with his good arm after him. “She’s dangerous, she’ll kill you!”

However, Yuki continued forward and Saki made no movement. He stood only centimeters away from Saki completely undaunted by her killing instinct. “I’m sorry, but I need to hang on while I stop your friend. Everything will be alright soon.” Then Saki suddenly dropped to one knee with her hands slamming into the ground cracking the earth a little.

Turning away, he gathered up his mist to begin flying away. Tatsuya looked over at him wanting answers. “I took care of Saki. I’m giving you the last bit of my trust in you Tatsuya to do the right thing.”

“But Yuki!”

“She can’t hurt anyone anymore. I’ve placed highly dense weights on her body. She’s barely got the strength in her to just stand up. While Saki is fast, he lacks the same superhuman strength. So this will hold her while I deal with Takako.”

Yuki departed the battleground with Tatsuya still staring a little confused about it all and shouting for him. He could not stay any longer than he had already. ‘I’ve got to get to Takako quickly. If Tatsuya’s here, then Hiroshi is as well. And knowing things, he’s already trying to kill Takako. I can’t allow that to happen!’ In the distance, he could see the school and his destination arriving.

Even in the darkness with only the moon to light the area, Yuki could see how badly the school had been damaged. Most of the south wing had been destroyed. He remembered Saki kicking him through that part. However, since he had been gone it looked even worse than he feared.

Landing upon the roof once more, it felt like the school was quivering in pain. “This is even worse than when Demosthenes split the school in half with an earthquake. This won’t be a simple fix like before. It’s going to be better just to build an entirely new school at this point.” He slowly walked towards the hole that Seiji created for them. “It’s surprising that it’s held together still. It feels like it’s going to collapse at any moment.”

He jumped down the hole finding that the floor was now missing. Needing his mist to hover between the first and second floors, he finally made it to parts of the second floor that still stood. Moving quickly, he hoped that he did not need to fight anyone else other than just Takako. ‘I hope I’m there in time…’

Arriving at the end of the hall, he found what was Takako’s lair. However, what he did not expect to see inside left him staggering a step back.

Crumbled up in the corner of the classroom opposite of Takako was Hiroshi. His whole body completely bloodied and mangled horribly. He could even see bones poking through skin. It made Yuki turn away having trouble with the sight only to see Takako grinning. She looked pleased to him. “You’ve finally arrived, King.”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Arriving at the end of the hall, he found what was Takako’s lair. However, what he did not expect to see inside left him staggering a step back.

Crumbled up in the corner of the classroom opposite of Takako was Hiroshi. His whole body completely bloodied and mangled horribly. He could even see bones poking through skin. It made Yuki turn away having trouble with the sight only to see Takako grinning. She looked pleased to him. “You’ve finally arrived, King.”

Yuki’s eyes darted around the room examining everything within. However, it did not leave him with a lot to work from. ‘It’s the emptiest room in the entire school… There’s nothing here.’ Each corner and surface of the classroom looked almost too good. It looked completely untouched. An eerie feeling sank into his body looking at it.

Glancing back at Hiroshi, none of it made sense. ‘He’s a complete mess, yet it doesn’t even look like a fight happened in the room. What’s going on?’ The only stain in the entire room seemed to be him. Not even the blood that dripped from him seemed to be staying. ‘None of this is real…’

He returned his sights back to Takako. Source of all the problems, she simple seemed to be standing there. Not even watching him, just standing waiting. ‘Why is she doing this? It doesn’t make any sense for her powers…’

A terrible cough ripped through the forced silence of the room. It sounded as though Hiroshi was going to die. Compulsion had Yuki’s legs nearly running to get to him in time, but he dragged himself. Takako might not have made a move yet, but he could not risk letting his guard down against her for even a moment.

With each moment that passed, it became more clear to him that she seemed to have no interest in doing anything to stop. ‘What’s her game now? I expected her to be different. Insane or crazy, murderous, anything, but what she is now. She’s defying quite a few of my expectations.’

Once he was near enough to Hiroshi to not yell across the room, he took a look at the progress. “How are you feeling?”

“Like a broken toy.”

“Are you still in pain?”

“Of course…actually no?” Hiroshi blinked a little confused that he had become so expectant of the pain that he did not recognize when it was gone. He could not move his body, as he was still too exhausted to move.

“Good, I can’t do a perfect job right now, but you should no longer be in any danger.” Yuki began to walk towards Takako, still perplexed by the whole situation.

Pressing his back against the wall to get a little leverage, Hiroshi stood up, but immediately fell back down. “Damnit…” Nothing was working for him. He had to watch Yuki do what he should be doing. “Yuki!”

“If you’re going to tell me to kill her you’re wasting your breath.”

“Be careful. She’s somehow got more tricks than we ever thought possible.”

Narrowing his expression as he stared across the room at Takako, his personal fight with her began. He believed he prepared himself for anything to happen. But such preparation was empty before Takako. “I’m starting to get that feeling.”

Chapter 352 – Awaited Arrival

A slightly bigger smile grew across Takako’s face seeing the seriousness coming through Yuki. She seemed to have an eagerness in her eyes. “Finished everything that you wanted to do?”

“You’re surprisingly accommodating,” he noted, still not sure what Takako’s goal was. Now that he confronted her, she became even more of a mystery than before. “I expected you to stop me.”

“I have no interest in giving you more fuel.”

“Fuel?”

“I’m very aware of what happened the last time someone you knew was killed in front of you. I’m not making a mistake like that.”

His eyes narrowed a little still trying to get a read on Takako. “I see, so you’re not as generic cliché as you seemed.”

“There’s the playful banter that I was expecting.”

“I don’t really have the mood right now for any sort of casual humor.”

“But I was so looking forward to a lively exchange before I killed you. You’re disappointing my image of you.”

“Then we’re both ignoring expectations.” She had a playful, not quite child-like behavior while still fixed with blackness that hung over her tainting everything. If he could see aura’s he knew that her’s would be black as space.

However, he wanted some answers from her. ‘Hopefully, I can understand more about her before the fight begins. I’ve yet to fight her, but with how badly Hiroshi was after his fight she is on a different level than the others I’ve fought. Worse still, she’s likely got whatever inhibiting power so I can’t be direct. This is likely going to be my hardest fight yet…’

It was all calculated, even though he stalled. “So what happened to you? After you were kidnapped, we found you completely broken.”

“I got better.”

“That’s intentionally vague.”

“You’re just delaying, because you know that you can’t defeat me.”

Keeping most of his reaction in check, Yuki continued to push the issue. There were too many unanswered questions and nothing about the entire situation made any sense. “Even if I’m delaying, I’m still trying to understand how this all happened. You don’t just recover from brain damage.”

“I wouldn’t say what I had was brain damage.” The smile dropped from her face. Memories of the event came back to her. She matched the grave seriousness of Yuki as she resumed explaining. “Saki explained it to you. The only problem is that unlike her, I knew nothing about what the man that had kidnapped me. Though thanks to her, I now know the whole picture.”

‘So she can either read memories or Saki just flat out told her. That explains why she called me King then.’ Takako carried all of his secrets on top of her own. That made her exceptionally dangerous. He could not allow those secrets to escape, but he had no way of knowing what she planned to do. It put him in a position that he found very distasteful. “So you know everything then.”

Takako seemed to pick up on the hints of desperation in Yuki’s voice. “That’s right. I’m aware of who you are. And that the man that kidnapped me was looking for Ayumi, not you like everyone thought. Because I knew nothing, I hadn’t even met her before, the man could not find anything in my mind. He was quite thorough, convinced that I knew something and only when I broke did he understand.”

“The damage was done…”

“That’s right. Not that he really seemed to care about what happened to me or the others. I was left in that hospital completely broken unable to comprehend or acknowledge anything. My own awareness of my identity was gone.” She lifted her hand to point at Yuki no longer passive. “And you just left me like that doing nothing.”

“I couldn’t control my power at that point. And even now, I couldn’t have fixed the damage. I might have made it even worse.”

“What could be worse than being locked in a prison unable to move, think, react, just forever bound? I’m was a bystander in Ayumi’s personal war!”

“Is that why you’re doing all of this? Taking out your frustrations upon innocents because you were done the same to?”

“All of this?” Takako stretched out her arms to her sides calling out to the city. “No, all of this is your fault.”

“Me? What did I do?”

“You gave me this power. And as I’ve figured out thanks to the thousands of minds I’ve tapped into you, I’ve reached the conclusion.”

Yuki already had an idea where she was going with everything. ‘This is why it’s my problem to solve and not someone else. All of this is coming back to me. If I hadn’t made that mistake and lost myself in my emotions none of this would have happened.’ He was going to hear her out though. Every piece he gained from her would give him more of an idea of what her power was and her thoughts. She was an unknown to him.

“It’s your fault because you gave us powers that matched with our personalities or wishes. You gave us what we needed or wanted. And that’s why I have this power. Why all of this is happening. In order to escape the prison you left me in I had to use my power. You gave me the keys for my own escape.”

“How does mind control allow you to regain your sense of self?” It was back to the same question as before. Even if he started to understand part of it. How she returned from the vegetative state she was in before made no sense to him. There remained a piece missing.

“That’s because my power isn’t mind control.”

“What?! You’re taking control of people, what could it be other than mind control?”

“Perhaps you should be asking yourself that question. You’re the one that gave this to me.”

“A hundred million people potentially got powers, I’m not going to know what every single person got!”

“Then you’ll just need to figure it out.”

The atmosphere suddenly started to change in the room. Yuki could feel that their conversation came to a close. Takako decided for him that the time for talking was over. ‘I’m not ready yet to fight her. I don’t know anything about her power if it’s not mind control. I can’t even guess how Hiroshi was beat up. I need more information to build a plan from!’ He kept his uncertainty and hint of panic as managed as he could. Going blind into the fight ended up being the only thing he could do.

“Once you’re dead, I’ll be free completely. I’ll be safe once more!” She suddenly shifted into a very familiar fighting stance. Takako was ready.

‘Saki?! She’s using the martial arts style we learned at the dojo! But how?’ Yuki did not get much time to think about it as Takako disappeared from his sight. All he felt was a force slamming into him. It rocketed him through the classroom and out the school. Explosions popped with each wall he hit on the way out.

He was prepared for such things to happen. After Saki sent him flying, he had plans in place to prevent that. However, it did not seem to be actually doing its job. Yuki could only rely on his power to help him when dealing with people physically far faster than him.

His powers stopped him after flying for nearly a kilometer in the air. Hovering above the city, he stared back at the school. He tried to ignore the pain that was throb in his side from whatever she hit him with. Yuki only had guesses. “Damn, she’s as fast as Saki it seems. Though, at their speeds, I can’t really say how accurate that is coming from me. Not that it really matters, it screws me over either way.”

Yuki pushed himself back through the air towards the school. He still did not have much of a clear view of Takako’s abilities. “I already had guessed as much that the powers lined up with the individual. So I figured that being on the track team, she’d have speed and agility like Saki. Just glad she lacks the physical strength. I’d probably be dead if it had been Seiji.”

As he moved to the hole in the school, he saw Takako waiting for him. She seemed to know that it was not enough to take him down. Though it made him think back to her little comment before she attacked him. “What did she mean by being safe?” It was a strange comment that started to nag on him.

Landing back in the school, but outside of the classroom he saw a completely different state of affairs. Water hung from the walls and stairs, though very thinly. It looked to be evaporating at an unusually high rate. While the state of the school looked in poor repair. Damage from the fighting before made it clear that Hiroshi had been busy.

Yet, when he stepped into the room everything was clean and untainted. The unnerving sense about the place came back. He did not understand it other than he had a good guess the source. Staring at Takako, she gave her introduction to him and their fight to bring an end to the chaos started. “It’s time that I resolve the problems I created. I won’t be dying today, Takako!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

As he moved to the hole in the school, he saw Takako waiting for him. She seemed to know that it was not enough to take him down. Though it made him think back to her little comment before she attacked him. “What did she mean by being safe?” It was a strange comment that started to nag on him.

Landing back in the school, but outside of the classroom he saw a completely different state of affairs. Water hung from the walls and stairs, though very thinly. It looked to be evaporating at an unusually high rate. While the state of the school looked in poor repair. Damage from the fighting before made it clear that Hiroshi had been busy.

Yet, when he stepped into the room everything was clean and untainted. The unnerving sense about the place came back. He did not understand it other than he had a good guess the source. Staring at Takako, she gave her introduction to him and their fight to bring an end to the chaos started. “It’s time that I resolve the problems I created. I won’t be dying today, Takako!”

“You’re confident that you kill me.”

Shaking his head, he corrected everyone’s natural instincts it seemed. “I’m not here to kill you. I’m here to stop you. There’s a difference.”

She laughed a little as the naïve notion that Yuki still clung to despite everything. “You’re not going to be able to do anything with that sort of mindset.” Suddenly, Yuki disappeared and reappeared in front of her swing his fist. ‘What?! When he get there?’ Takako barely had a chance to put up her arms in defense. However, his fist went right through as he faded away.

Yuki stared at the results, appearing back where he stood. His eyes narrowed a little with some slight disappointment. ‘Figured as much. She’s got the same weird protection against my powers. I’m going to have get more creative if my powers won’t do anything to her.’

It took Takako a moment to shake off the whole experience. Once she understood what happened, she smirked a little. “Playing tricks on me.”

“No more than you.”

“What are you referring to?”

“I mean this classroom. I know you have some illusion cast over the room. That little punch you gave me let me into that.” He still did not know why she did it. ‘It’s a meaningless effort as far as I’m concerned. She’s not doing anything with it. So what cast the illusion?’

Her shoulders lifted a little in her shrug to casually throw off the declaration. “You didn’t give me a lot of time to clean up. I can’t be having a messy room for the King.”

“I’m just average high school student right now.”

“Now who’s casting illusions,” she shot back at Yuki.

Remaining on edge around Takako, Yuki did not know when the attack from her would come. Not that he would be able to see it, he knew. Everything had to rely on his powers reactions. He left everything up to the faith of his powers he made to battle someone like her.

Between breaths, she disappeared and then appeared on the opposite side of Yuki. She spun around her arm taking him out at the neck. However, her hand went straight through him rather than hitting anything solid like she expected. “Eh?” A fake?”

“That’s right,” answered Yuki appeared in a different part of the classroom.

Annoyed that she could not target Yuki so easily, she launched something at him. It just was a light kick of her foot, but it still shot like a bullet at him. A small piece of debris that did not exist in her illusion, though remained real to her. Blowing through Yuki’s head blood sprayed back all over the walls. His body fell over, slumping against the wall.

Shock went through both Takako and Hiroshi, unable to believe that Yuki just died so simply. “Yuki?!” yelled Hiroshi, not wanting to believe the sight. Laughter came up from the other side of the room where Takako stood. He glared over at her helpless to do anything.

“That was pathe—“ Interrupted in the middle of her laughing, Yuki appeared swinging his fist again at her. She had no defense up at the moment. He capitalized on her weakness ram her fist into his face. This time it connected throwing her out of the classroom with blasts sounding off as she broke through wall after wall.

Yuki stood defiantly looking down the hole where he sent her. “Amateur…”

Chapter 353 – Mind Games

Nearly as much noise broke through the darkness of the school as Takako returned. She had a healthy looking bruise on her face from the punch that Yuki gave her. Along with it in accompaniment, confusion and surprise painted her eyes and mouth. “What did you do?! You shouldn’t be able to hit me with your powers!” Her hand lightly touched the pain in her cheek with the look of being out of place.

Takako was a girl that had never fought a day in her life. Before the incident, she was just a normal girl going to school. She had the track team and her friends. But there was nothing else special about her. So the notion of hitting, even by her parents, was foreign to her. As much as what Yuki did to actually connect a punch with her, the fact that she was even injured surprised her equally as much.

However, Yuki merely remained quiet continuing to watch how things played out. He had to stay on top of his concentration for her.

She immediately dove after him wanting revenge for the hit that should never have touched her. Yet, the same problem as before occurred. The Yuki she swung at was not real. He reappeared in the room and she jumped after him. None of them were real. “You can’t touch me!” Another punch from Yuki connected with her sending her into the wall. It lacked as much power, but still sent her off her feet.

Staring on from the sidelines, Hiroshi was the only one that had a good view of what happened. He understood how Takako would be so confused. In such a situation, he was not sure he would have thought of the same thing. ‘Yuki’s found a way to fight Takako. He’s the only one of us with different means of using powers. I didn’t have any idea that she would have found a way to deal with them. But this way…’

He watched the two in their introductory dance. Takako being pushed back with Yuki exploiting her weakness. While he could not boast the same degree of familiarity and experience as Yuki in fighting, the last month and more gave him a sense for level of skill from an opponent. It was not always accurate or helpful and got him in trouble on a few occasions, but it was an improving skill of his.

To behold the two fight gave him the time to test it. He could see what Yuki was doing and reading into his actions gave him insight into the fighting mind of his friend. ‘He can’t fight her normally, as he probably would like due to something negating his power. So he’s keeping her off balance and emotional with all of the illusions. Once he got her riled up from the first hit, she hasn’t been focused at all. She can’t see what he’s doing, even though I know she has the capability to be able to. Yuki’s timing is just right to capitalize on her confusion.

‘That first punch, wasn’t even a punch. Because of the timing, Takako just thinks he’s punching her. It’s all part of the illusion. He’s matching the timing of his illusion hitting her with a secondary attack. He’s using something real that isn’t created by his power and launching that in time with his attacks. And while we were both in shock over his faked death, he used that chance when Takako’s awareness was at it’s lowest! He’s playing her in his palm. The battlefield is completely under his control!’

Hiroshi had to look at Yuki carefully feeling like he was seeing someone else out there fighting Takako instead. ‘It’s hard to believe this is the same person that I met at the start of the school year. I know I didn’t know what sort of life he had before high school, but even being told what I know this is far exceeds what I would expect. He might actually be able to win…’

While he did believe in Yuki’s power, what he dealt with fighting Takako before made him question if anyone could defeat her. It was not even arrogance in thinking that he was better than Yuki. He was not sure there was anyone that could win. ‘He might be able to overcome all of her tricks!’

Yuki came to a landing after knocking Takako down again. The real one could not be seen and Takako had long forgotten that fact. Despite controlling her own illusion, she had forgotten that all she was fighting was one as well.

She did not stand up immediately. Looking up in annoyance from her position on the floor, she saw a different sort of person than she had seen walk through the door. He looked upon her with determination and seriousness. “It’s you… You’re the one.” Takako wiped away a bit of the blood that came up from her lip that cracked from the last hit.

“What do you mean?” Yuki had no idea what had come over her. Reading her expression, he could see that she was realizing something. However, he did not have a clue what she discovered. She gave him no context.

Takako stood up slowly looking a little more calm downed from before. The bruises on her face only scuffed her up. She still had plenty of fight left her, by the look in her eyes. “I knew you both from the rumors around the school and the one that Saki stood in front to protect on a daily basis. The one that was more nerd than fighter. The one that fled from a fight.”

“What’s your point?”

“After I got the chance to walk through Saki’s mind I saw someone different in her mind.” Takako straightened herself out looking like she prepared for something. “I’ve gone through enough minds to know that people remember and see things very differently than reality. People are filled with self-delusions. I counted Saki in the same camp.”

“But?”

“You’ve got the same look that I found in Saki. It’s different from when you first walked in here. You were convincing yourself of what you were doing before. Now you’re committed, naively to that course. And you’ve got that look now. The same look Saki knows and fears, when you get serious. When you become absorbed in a fight. You don’t care how inexperience I am in fighting. You’re bring it all.”

“I’m not going to be able to stop you any other way. You might have been a normal school girl at one point, but now you’ve become twisted and corrupted because of your power. I can’t fight you half heartedly if I expect to save you.”

The demeanor from Takako changed ever so slightly. It signaled a shift in their fight and an increase in the intensity. “I don’t need saving. I blame you for all that you’ve done. This is all your fault as I said before. But I’ve also already accepted the reality. You already saved me!” Takako disappeared on Yuki attacking the fake.

She jumped to the next and next still not finding the real Yuki. However, when the fake Yuki came out to attack, she was able to dodge it this time. Behind her the wall took the shot that Yuki set up for her. ‘What was that? That didn’t feel like a punch,’ she questioned internally.

‘He missed!’ Hiroshi thought in surprise. ‘Is she seeing his attacks now? If so, what’s he going to do to keep the fight on his side?’

Yuki’s clone moved around staying ahead of Takako with agility impossible for his normal body. ‘Damn, I didn’t it would happen that fast. I knew I couldn’t survive on that trick for long, but I still need more time. It’s not ready yet!’

As their fighting reached a pause, Yuki stepped onto the questioning subject that Takako introduced. “What do you mean that I already saved you?”

“This power you gave me. Without it, I never would have recovered.”

“What are you saying? What power did I give you?”

“The perfect power for someone like me. It took some time for me to realize it and I had some help. Thanks to them though, enough of my consciousness returned. Though I wonder if they regret doing what they did to me. Since they were my first subjects.”

More mysteries compounded as Yuki only continued to learn now revelations that pushed him further away from understanding the truth. The puzzle before him was far more complex than he imagined. “Who helped you? Someone with powers?”

“So let me show you what I’ve gained thanks to you saving me!” Suddenly, Takako appeared besides herself. Multiple copies of her stood in a line together. “Let’s see how long you least against me like this!” Six copies of Takako charged at Yuki faster than even Hiroshi could see. An explosion of debris filled the whole room.

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

As their fighting reached a pause, Yuki stepped onto the questioning subject that Takako introduced. “What do you mean that I already saved you?”

“This power you gave me. Without it, I never would have recovered.”

“What are you saying? What power did I give you?”

“The perfect power for someone like me. It took some time for me to realize it and I had some help. Thanks to them though, enough of my consciousness returned. Though I wonder if they regret doing what they did to me. Since they were my first subjects.”

More mysteries compounded as Yuki only continued to learn now revelations that pushed him further away from understanding the truth. The puzzle before him was far more complex than he imagined. “Who helped you? Someone with powers?”

“So let me show you what I’ve gained thanks to you saving me!” Suddenly, Takako appeared besides herself. Multiple copies of her stood in a line together. “Let’s see how long you least against me like this!” Six copies of Takako charged at Yuki faster than even Hiroshi could see. An explosion of debris filled the whole room.

Hiroshi tried to lift his arm up to guard against all of the dust and debris throw around room, but it failed to move well for him. The cloud completely engulfed him along with the two fighters. Only in the split seconds before the chaos happened could he see what happened.

The multitude of Takakos gave Yuki’s clones trouble. Initial dodging proved to only go so far. Her speed increased dramatically making the old speed that Yuki’s clones worked at ineffective. She destroyed the clones quickly. The pace that she took made it look like she would find the real Yuki in time.

All the clouds kicked up were from the speed at which Takako moved. The illusion that she held on the room seemed to be weakening as the dirty parts began to seep through piece by piece. Yuki had chipped away at her, but it was still far from a victory for either.

Yuki remained hidden from her sights and she had plenty of fight left in her. Neither were ending any time soon. ‘Now that Yuki showed her that he’s serious in fighting her, she meeting him head on. This is where things heat up now. Will you be able to still keep the advantage Yuki, now that she’s started to play her cards? The same cards that defeated me with ease…’

Chapter 354 – Mind Tricks

Moving at such speed seemed like it should have started to affect Takako, but she showed no signs of weakness. She dealt with the Yuki clones as fast as they popped up. However, since none of them were real and what she did really did not destroy them it was a completely pointless exercise by her. Not that she seemed to be willing to listen to such arguments.

Takako finished off the remaining clones with signs of no more appearing. She turned around seeking out Yuki in any part of the room. He was nowhere to be seen. “Going to stop hiding?!”

“Seems that I will have to take you on directly,” answered Yuki, materializing out of thin air to her right. He threw out his fist while he was appearing leaving her little time to react. Though with her reflexes and superhuman speed it was still plenty of time for her.

Intercepting his punch with her right hand, she looked ready to counter, but was suddenly hit from a completely different direction. The blow knocked her off her feet and against the wall of the classroom. It lacked the same sort of power, but it still left a mark.

Rubbing her cheek, Takako looked on confused at Yuki. ‘I know I saw a hand hit me. But I didn’t see anyone. It wasn’t him, but who hit me? There another person with him?’ She tried to figure out what happened, but her sight had not been focused on it.

Hiroshi stared on a little stunned at what he saw. It left him a little unnerved having seen it. ‘It’s frightening all of things that I see him do…’

“I might be normal, but don’t think it’ll be easy.”

“Damn you…” Takako stood back on her feet. “All you’ve got is tricks.”

“Did you really think that I would give you a fair fight? With everything on the line I’m not going to be nice.” Yuki rammed his fist into her face while he finished talking not waiting on her to take the action.

Her head smacked into the wall cracking the dry-erase board. The next couple of hits knocked her head through the wall completely with her shoulders denting the board as she dangled there. She still breathed and more intensely than before, likely angered.

‘Is he going to be able to win?’ There was some uncertain hope stirring around in Hiroshi’s mind. He still could not count Takako out of the fight. She still had plenty left in her. But he started to understand how committed that he was to the fight. ‘Come on, Yuki…’

Dragging Takako out of the wall, he threw her down to the floor across the room. All the while, he rained down attacks on her, this time not hiding that they were not his actual hand this time. There was no need for tricks at the moment. “I would have just suffocated you from the start if it wasn’t for your array.”

Laughing, a slightly bruised, though not bloodied from all of the recent attacks, Takako woke back up. As to be expected, she was not injured from all the attacks. She only looked in a little disrepair from the fighting. “So heartless of you.” Standing up, Takako carried a dark shadow over her face concealing an uncertain intent. “You’d make Saki cry to hear you talking about killing me.”

“It’s the fastest way to knock you out so I could undo all of your deeds. I already made myself clear that I don’t plan on killing you, just ending this as fast as I can.”

“Ending this as fast as you can?” The atmosphere in the room suddenly changed as she spoke. It felt like they were in the desert. A strange glow came off Takako introducing a new killing intent not present before. “How far is that confidence going to take you when face with this?”

Flames erupted up around Takako bathing her in the red-orange hue. Both of her arms transformed into flames along with the ground. Circular arrays began to appear in the air building up. Takako’s powers completely changed, no longer making any sense to Yuki.

Off on the side, Hiroshi understood well what he was seeing. ‘This is where it begins. They’re both using tricks, but I still don’t know what Takako’s trick is… I failed to figure it out. Yuki…’

“You think that’s going to worry me?” scoffed Yuki maintaining a stonewalled expression when faced with something new. ‘That’s troubling…it looks like she’s got control of Fumiko’s flame judging from the magic array’s I’m seeing. I think I’m starting to get a picture of the whole now…’

Magic threads channeled into the arrays building up several fireballs before Yuki. The speed that Takako worked at now made it easier for Yuki to manage things on his own. Physical speeds were not something he could handle unaided. So he prepared his own field for the incoming attack. ‘Law switch, rule set #1!’

Mist returned around Yuki as he made the switch in his powers. ‘This is already getting more complicated than I want. Thankfully, I’m somehow able to remember all of this. I guess it’s part of the power.’ Filling out the space around him, he had his normal protection back.

“You think that’s going to be able to protect you?”

“I guess we’ll find out.”

She took the challenge and finished the build-up of magic. Flames shot out at Yuki in a barrage. There was no holding back or easing into the battle. Takako pushed up the intensity of the battle quickly. “Handle these flames then!”

Guiding the mist in front, the flames clashed blowing out parts of the mist, but it still held strong against the attack. Behind his mist, he caught flashes of orange from the magic exploding. He saw it poking holes through, but only the heat so far had penetrated through. ‘I’ll need to make it thicker for the next round. I held back too much.’

The next round however was not so simple. Takako looked ill pleased by the lack of results from her attack. She immediately went to the bigger guns. Larger and more complex arrays appeared around her and on the ground. “Don’t get cocky now!”

“Oh hell…” Yuki jumped out of the way knowing that his mist did not have the strength to block such an attack. Several thick streams of flames roared just over him. What mist hung around him still as he moved was completely obliterated by the attack.

Takako could tell that her attack was far more successful and something that Yuki feared. She grinned a little moving her arms around to alter the flames’ course. “I’ve got full control over this! Don’t think you can escape me!”

Yuki took cover out in the hall that he punched through with his mist. He had to stay on the move as Takako did not stop searching for him in the most brutal force way possible. ‘Damn it… It’s still not ready! I’m using so much of my power right now on the mist… The heat alone would have roasted me already without it…’

He was not likely his current situation with Takako. ‘I’ve let her take control of the battle now. I can’t allow her to maintain the pace. If I don’t control the pace then I lose my only advantage in this fight. It’s already an uphill battle against someone that my powers won’t work on directly.’

A slight glow came off his mist that surrounded his body that protected him from the bulk of Takako’s flame. It was not perfect, but it did what he needed to remain in the fight. Sweat still dripped down his face from the flame attacks narrowly missing him. He jumped down the dirty hall feeling his skin nearly boiling from it just passing over his leg.

It was only for a second, but it felt like it had been an hour. His leg screamed at him from the stinging. The burn was bad, but he was going to have to live with it. Yuki threw himself into the classroom, thankful that it was actually empty. His mist returned to his side not needing to protect anyone.

Panting a little from the effort, Yuki could tell that he was finally getting warmed up from all of the dodging. Up until that point, he remained fairly stationary using other things to fight for him. He did what he could to ignore the burned skin. It felt worst than it actually was he knew. And he had been through far worse than some burn.

He dodged and tested trying to deflect the flames with his mists. The flames burned straight through the angle wall he created proving that it was still not enough. ‘The intensity of the flames and force is too much for my mist to handle. It’s not a very strong power against something real…’

Yuki kept ahead of Takako’s attacks no longer feeling the pain in his leg. The adrenaline had begun pumping through his body. But her attacks came in stronger and more focused as each minute passed. He was having trouble staying out of the way. ‘I can’t believe I hear that Fumiko supposedly has an even more powerful flame than this…if this is truly her power Takako’s wielding…’

Manipulating his mist in the hall away from him, he flung some debris into the classroom at Takako. It gave him enough of a distraction for him to jump back into the room. Though it did not take long for her to immediately return to attacking him directly. Skating around on his mist, he pulled it around to guide his body around the room to keep dodging her attacks.

Annoyed that Yuki remained out of her grasp, she covered much of the floor in flames trying to limit his area to dodge. “You’re fast on your feet. Can you still keep up?” The flames became more streams and columns than fireballs anymore. She stopped using any of the small attacks.

Out of room, Yuki ran up the side of the wall and to the ceiling hanging upside down. “There’s always somewhere to go. Unless you fill the entire room with fire you’re not going to be able to stop me.”

“Is that right?” A smirk came across her face hinting at something new in store.

The unsettling feeling coming off Takako made Yuki worry a little. ‘She’s already shown herself to be fast and control fire magic on top of her mind control powers. This is way too many powers to be normal. I’m really worried about where my theories are headed. If I’m right, this is going to be even worse than I imagined…’

Suddenly, Takako’s right arm transformed into water leaving the flame on her left. Soft blue magic arrays appeared in the air next to the fire. The two different elements mixed together spreading steam into the entire room.

Yuki slid back over the ceiling wanting space for reacting. ‘I don’t like this. She’s blocked off my ability to see her attacks. I don’t have anything useful for clearing it away. The mist isn’t suited for that purpose.’ He built up the mist into a thick wall with multiple layers extending outward as early warning for attacks. It was not much, but it was all he could prepare on short notice.

However, he was getting a strange feeling from his mist. Something was bumping into them, but it was not a normal sort of attack. ‘What’s this feeling? What is Takako doing?’ Then he suddenly felt the whole school shaking. It reminded him of the earthquake that split the school. Though it did not have the same sort of feeling. Everything about it feel strange, but still violent.

Something bumped into him against his back. He immediately whipped around and sliced through it with his mist only to find that it was a branch. “A tree? Huh?”

Then the mist started to clear away and more branches pushed into his personal space. He had to float in the air as the ceiling no longer was available. Parts of the schools rained down in chunks of debris as a massive tree ripped through what remained of the school.

No longer contained in the room, the steam dispersed and faded away. It was not just one tree around him. Yuki found himself inside a forest suddenly. He could not even really see the school anymore. It laid in a pile of awkward debris and half of the neighborhood went with it. “What’s going on?”

Takako appeared walking out from the shadows of a thick trunk. She had the confident look back, no longer looking like she was playing Yuki’s game, but her own now. “Thanks to my power I can bring out the full mastery that even they don’t know yet! Think you can stop me now a master of all powers!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Yuki slid back over the ceiling wanting space for reacting. ‘I don’t like this. She’s blocked off my ability to see her attacks. I don’t have anything useful for clearing it away. The mist isn’t suited for that purpose.’ He built up the mist into a thick wall with multiple layers extending outward as early warning for attacks. It was not much, but it was all he could prepare on short notice.

However, he was getting a strange feeling from his mist. Something was bumping into them, but it was not a normal sort of attack. ‘What’s this feeling? What is Takako doing?’ Then he suddenly felt the whole school shaking. It reminded him of the earthquake that split the school. Though it did not have the same sort of feeling. Everything about it feel strange, but still violent.

Something bumped into him against his back. He immediately whipped around and sliced through it with his mist only to find that it was a branch. “A tree? Huh?”

Then the mist started to clear away and more branches pushed into his personal space. He had to float in the air as the ceiling no longer was available. Parts of the schools rained down in chunks of debris as a massive tree ripped through what remained of the school.

No longer contained in the room, the steam dispersed and faded away. It was not just one tree around him. Yuki found himself inside a forest suddenly. He could not even really see the school anymore. It laid in a pile of awkward debris and half of the neighborhood went with it. “What’s going on?”

Takako appeared walking out from the shadows of a thick trunk. She had the confident look back, no longer looking like she was playing Yuki’s game, but her own now. “Thanks to my power I can bring out the full mastery that even they don’t know yet! Think you can stop me now a master of all powers!”

“I guess that finally answers a question,” Yuki replied as Takako let slip a rather important detail about her power.

“Knowing doesn’t give you an advantage.”

“You’re right.” The pondering of the situation with Takako’s power made him pensive. ‘This is even worse than even I anticipated from my theory. I expected that her mind powers were an off variant from the standard fare, if she was really using other powers. However, I expected her to fall within the normal logic of not being versed in the power and that being a weakness I could exploit.

‘This is even worse since I can’t even anticipate her powers now. It seems I was right that what Takako was using was stolen powers from Fumiko, but to make a forest from magic. This far exceeds what Fumiko’s current power is. The scale as well… with an army of hundreds or thousands, the number of powers she has to use has suddenly made this fight my worst nightmare.’

Chapter 355 – Mind over Matter

Barely hanging on to a branch high up in the canopy of the forest suddenly created by Takako, laid Hiroshi. When the forest was created, he lost his wall to lean against and the floor to rest on. Takako rudely ripped that away from him. His body did not enjoy the ride that he took up further into the sky. While Yuki patched him up, rough movement still shot pain through his body. “Damn, Takako…who knew she could do this…”

He held tightly onto the branch struggling with his body to keep balance. It seemed that the threat to his life or at least health forced his body to start responding to him again. It was not perfect, but he could manage himself.

“This is just insane,” he commented, staring down at the two. They seemed less impressed with what happened than him. Just that fact alone left him a little unnerved.

Yuki panned around the forest getting a judge on the scale. The density of it was not so thick that he could see not see between the trees. They were thick, gigantic trees, but not spaced too closely. It was easy enough to see the weak lights of the city around them, though it suddenly felt very weird seeing it through such a view. The sky however was completely gone. The leaf cover of the canopy was still thick. He quickly lost sight of the ceiling.

Yet he could still see in the forest. Part it had to come from him already being a little adjusted to the night. But it was clear that there seemed to be a very soft glow coming off the green life Takako sprung out. ‘Glow of magic?’ It was the only guess that he had for the reason. However, it made things simpler for him. A backup law was not needed to keep fighting.

“Fumiko seems to have a lot more potential than we realized.”

Takako smirked a little feeling the confidence of being in control of everything. “This isn’t her limit. There’s plenty in her powers that I’ve yet to show.”

“Figured as much.”

“Fumiko?” asked Hiroshi, to himself, “That name is familiar. Yuki seems to know her. Wait, the way they’re talking…Takako can use that girl’s power? Then that means…” It all finally started to come together for him. He lacked the same sort of inherit understanding of powers in the way that Yuki did. His mind did not work like that, though he doubted most people’s minds thought the same way that he did.

So the pieces did not all fit together for him completely. But it started to make sense to him now that he listened to them in Yuki’s stalling tactic. “Does that mean Takako’s power isn’t mind control, but the ability to steal other powers and use them better than the owner? But that doesn’t explain her army. What is it about her powers that I don’t understand?”

Hiroshi still felt lost when it came to Takako. She had thrown several different powers at him in their fight. None of it he saw coming. His power could do nothing against her. “I guess I at least now have an answer to why she had so many powers. But we’re still missing a very important piece to the puzzle that makes this whole thing make sense.” Hope was all he had to rest on finding that answer before Takako’s new power.

Even hope seemed a strange thing to bet on. He felt like he was being shallow and fickle waffling on Yuki’s chance to beat Takako. It changed back and forth between the two as the battle carried on. And as he learned more about Takako there was less hope to pass around. It worried him more than he cared to admit.

“With the ability to master any power and use it at will, she’s the worst sort of person for Yuki. She can do similar things that he can, but is superhuman and immune to his powers. This situation just keeps getting worse and worse…”

Jumping to the next branch in front of her, Takako looked to be taking on a new stance to resume the fighting. “Enough of your delaying. It’s time that we put an end to you.”

“It’s going to take more than what you’ve shown to do that.”

“Then let’s get started!” Several magic arrays appeared in the air around Takako rapidly finishing their casts. “I’ve been taking it easy on you until now!”

“Is that so?” Even while he spoke, he saw her attacks launched. ‘Metal? That’s an unexpected magic power. It’s pretty rare for any fiction to consider metal an element. But it makes sense, like fire or water, metal comes from nature as well. It’s more natural than the fire commonly used in fiction.’ While he took a moment half admiring and half analyzing it, hardened metal rods flew at him.

Mist still hanging to his legs pulled him away into the air to dodge the attack. Where he stood the metal ran straight through the wood completely unaffected by the thickness of more than a meter of wood. ‘I don’t know how dense that wood is, but that’s a little worrisome it has that much force. Any sort of direct hit is going to be near lethal with blood loss…’

Flying around the forest, Takako kept up the assault. Yet none of them hit him. Yuki started to question the seriousness of her intent. It lacked the same sort of intensity as the fire. But his detection system suddenly alerted him to an attack from a different direction. He dodged it without too much trouble, but it was the fact of where it came from that bothered him.

Yuki glanced back in the direction trying to understand what happened. ‘She’s not in that direction… So far I’ve only seen attack come from her. It appeared that was her limit. However, she can control the magic at will even after release. Is that at work? She stopped doing that with the metal magic, treating it like a projectile.’

As he analyzed the situation more, Takako did not give him time to pause. Most of her attacks came from the same direction that he came to expect, but every so often she tossed in another stray on that did not act like the others.

The fact he kept avoiding her sneak attacks began to show visibly on her face. She did not like that he seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. Her attempts were getting nowhere. Confidence in her own cleverness revealed her inexperience. She immediately jumped to more direct and less disguised attacks.

It began to give Yuki all of the data he needed to understand what was happening. While it was faint and gone almost immediately after it finished, he saw it long enough, a magic array. One that was nowhere near to where she stood. ‘I see…that explains that then…’ The more he dodged, the easier to begin to see confirmation of it. ‘Well that’s going to make things even more complicated… In the hands of someone more experienced, I’d probably be in a lot more danger than I feel…’

What she lacked in experience, though she made up in sheer power. The vast reserves that she seemed to have to manage the magic had to give her credit to her natural talent. And to make things worse for Yuki, she was only more annoyed with him dodging everything. Arrays rapidly began to increase until it felt like there was a mini sun with how much light the magic generated around him.

All Yuki could do was keep moving. ‘The moment I stop is the moment I get surrounded… I can’t do anything about this…’ Below or above, left or right, he already nearly was surrounded by her attacks. Behind him, he left a wake of destruction as shards of wood exploded and rained down.

‘There’s nothing I can do but evade right now. I’m back again with the fire… I needed to turn this around…’ Yet, Takako was already thinking of other things for Yuki. A brighter light than all of the magic arrays suddenly filled Yuki’s vision. “…damn…” He recognized it and it was an even worse threat.

She forced him to fly down to avoid the massive pillar of flames coming at him. Fire and metal made the combination even worse for him. And now that he had to change his direction away from what he had been driving, he went straight into a trap.

Yuki paused in air seeing all of his exits closed. A sphere of arrays surrounded him. “Damnit!” His eyes scanned the area looking for any point of weakness. ‘Didn’t expect her to actually lay a trap. She’s getting smarter in the middle of the battle… Her inexperience was my one major advantage…’

Delaying her attack, Takako jumped around to get closer to Yuki. She grinned with satisfaction. “Can’t talk your way out of this.” The magic in the arrays grew brighter as she taunted him with his death.

Not giving her the look that she wanted, Yuki held a determined expression. Harsher lines carved around his mouth and eyes watching her. “Only a complete amateur gloats about having victory without actually having it.”

“Is that right?!” Anger surfaced quickly on her face. She lifted up her arm wanting to execute him with her own hand, as unnecessary as it was. “Let’s see if you can even speak after I’ve reduced you to nothing but bloody holes!”

‘She’s firing soon… She should have not made it clear when she was attacking…’ Yuki watched her hand slowly move for the action.

Just before she fired, a thick mist spread out through the entire space all the way out to the arrays. It completely blocked out Yuki from Takako’s sight. “I don’t need to see you to kill you!” She fired everything that she had gathered shooting through the mist.

Ill-omen wet sounds escaped from the uncertain void containing Yuki. “Yuki!” shouted Hiroshi from far above unable to do anything to stop his friend from being killed.

Blood dripped out of the air from the bottom of the sphere of mist. Despite everything, the mist seemed to still hang around making it very clear to Takako that Yuki still lived. A large array appeared over her head completely eclipsing her in size. “Die, you bastard!”

A ten-meter thick column of flame erupted out of the array in a straight line for the mist. It completely engulfed the mist punching straight through with nothing stopping it. The massive amount of magic could not be maintained for long as it faded out. But the mist could not be seen.

Cracking sounds of wood breaking echoed through the forest. Several of the giant trees had been completely cut through with the upper parts falling while large holes bore through trunks of those that remained standing. The earth rumbled heavily like an earthquake as the forest began to settle from Takako’s attack.

Takako grinned with delight to see that Yuki had been completely obliterated by the attack. “He’s gone! No one can stop me now!” She laughed with her victory secured now.

A low cough came from a short distance away from Takako interrupting her. “You’re getting ahead of yourself,” Yuki corrected.

“What?!” Takako’s grin quickly disappeared as her reality was shattered. She looked around narrowing in on Yuki’s location. He laid up against a tree with blood dripping from several shallow cuts along his arms and legs.

Anger surfaced again as she repeated her pattern. “How?! How are you alive?!”

“…luck…” he answered with a slight mocking grin.

Countless arrays appeared behind Takako. She shouted like a crazed person at the sight of Yuki. “See if luck will save you from this!” Metal rods fired out of the arrays repeatedly no longer closing up after their discharge.

Yuki’s mist pulled him away from the target zone as the tree he left shuttered under the pressure of hundreds of quarter-meter long rods punching through it. The mist alone kept him out of harm’s way. But it only made Takako more angered.

All of the arrays merged into a single array and their magic shifted. Fire roared forth, but could not touch Yuki. Takako brought in more arrays from different angles, though smaller. She moved the arrays around while keeping up with Yuki. She pushed him closer into another trap. “Luck won’t save you!”

The fires converged on his position as Yuki came to a stop further up the tree. As it moved in on him, he no longer looked to be dodging. Takako grinned looking like she had him pinned this time. However, something suddenly flew in the last moment stopping the fire and turning it away as it could make it through.

“Impossible!”

Yuki whipped his arm around throwing off all of the magic flames as tiny embers hung in the air. A surprise appearance of a metallic gauntlet had covered up his right hand and forearm. “I won’t need luck. I have my mind! Now I’ll show you what real experience means!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

All of the arrays merged into a single array and their magic shifted. Fire roared forth, but could not touch Yuki. Takako brought in more arrays from different angles, though smaller. She moved the arrays around while keeping up with Yuki. She pushed him closer into another trap. “Luck won’t save you!”

The fires converged on his position as Yuki came to a stop further up the tree. As it moved in on him, he no longer looked to be dodging. Takako grinned looking like she had him pinned this time. However, something suddenly flew in the last moment stopping the fire and turning it away as it could make it through.

“Impossible!”

Yuki whipped his arm around throwing off all of the magic flames as tiny embers hung in the air. A surprise appearance of a metallic gauntlet had covered up his right hand and forearm. “I won’t need luck. I have my mind! Now I’ll show you what real experience means!”

Bearing her teeth ever so slightly as she ground them together, Takako’s frustration with Yuki grew along with her confusion. “Real experience? What’s experience going to do when you can only run away from me?!” She felt the confidence coming off of Yuki now that he suddenly had his armored gauntlet. It was not that he seemed like he was mocking her. Rather, she could tell something was different about Yuki now. She did not understand it, but her body could tell.

Despite what her body was telling her, she put power into the magic array again. It quickly built up power firing another column of flames at Yuki. “What’s some scrap metal going to do against overwhelming power?!”

The red glow of the flames engulfed Yuki as he remained unmoved by her attack. He merely lifted his armored hand up. Splashing upon him, the column split in parts divided around him and continued on. After the attack passed, he came out of it with only a slight glow to his skin from the heat. “This is a lot more than just some random scrap of metal,” he replied showing it off to her.

It had already kept him safe twice. Takako let out a low growl of annoyance. She did not understand how he was standing up to her powers now, when she had him on the ropes before. ‘This shouldn’t be happening! I had him! He should have been killed!’ He refused to go down. Yuki defied her at every turn. “I don’t care! You must die!”

More arrays appeared as she became desperate to bring an end to Yuki. He became too much of a threat. She threw everything into flame and metal attacks. But none of it worked against Yuki. The metal rods bounced off the armor, even with the sharpened edges. And the flames could not even touch him.

After the wash of attacks ended again, another gauntlet appeared on his other forearm. ‘It’s finally all finished. I’ve stalled long enough…’ All around him the air filled with metal parts. Snapping on to his body, he quickly was covered from the neck down in armor.

Chapter 356 – Mind Steel

Painted in red and white with blue and black highlights, the armor closely formed to Yuki’s body while still appearing to have flexibility. The metal glowed softly from all of the magic in the air giving it a slightly halo around it.

Takako lost most of her frustration staring at the surprising turn that Yuki took in the fight. She did not expect him to don full body armor to fight. “Think you’ve seen one too many American movies,” she commented, feeling less impressed by what she saw as Yuki’s apparently answer to defeating her.

The remark made Yuki’s brow twitch a little. “It’s called Powered Armor. But don’t think that this is just like what you see in movies or you’re going to be regretting it quickly.” His last piece flew in snapping to his head and closing around his face finishing the armor.

Grinning, Takako dropped her guard having trouble taking it seriously. “You think you can do anything in—“ Suddenly Yuki disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared in front of her swinging his armored fist.

Surprise painted over her face she saw flew backwards crashing into a tree. The force sent cracks through the trunk and partly embedded her in the wood. Leaves rained around from the shuddering tree.

Coughing to get her breath back after the surprise attack, Takako ripped her body free from the trunk. Her face stung from the hit more than any of the other hits Yuki made on her. It made her angry. ‘There was something very different about that hit than all of the others that he made… What did he do?’ She glared down at Yuki resting one tree away from her. “What did you do?!”

“You seem to pick up fast.”

Hiroshi stared on in surprise from above. He managed to get himself back into a safe spot on the tree. It gave him the perfect view to watch the battle. “That wasn’t a trick… Yuki actually hit her with his fist or rather the armor. But how? I thought he couldn’t touch her with his powers. She neutralizes his power.”

“Don’t mock me!”

“I’m not. You’re more than just lucky. It would seem you’ve got some inherit talent.” While he paid her compliments, it troubled him. ‘I had hoped to get more out of my surprise than a single hit.’

Inside on the screens within his helmet, a message ran across ‘Searching…’ It had only started the work with no display for the time it would take. While it ran, Yuki focused on the plan.

Aiming his hand at the tree that supported Takako, a mass of energy formed quickly. It shot out from his palm completely destroying the section of the trunk it hit with the whole upper half pulled down by gravity.

While Takako leapt up to the top side of the truck Yuki out meeting her in a momentary stare down. He closed the distance quickly hitting her in the face, but she only slid back a little. She attempted to counter with a return strike, but Yuki blocked it with his arm while punching her again with his free hand.

Takako was on the defense unable to hold up to Yuki’s barrage. She slid back more on the tree as punches wailed on her. Lacking her defense and his blows more powerful than before, her face started to get bloodied from all of the attacks.

Yuki turned around swiping her off her feet with a low kick. With only a few meters left in their fall before hitting the ground, he grabbed her ankle. Spinning her around quickly he threw her down into the ground with all of the force from their fall and what he added to it.

A crater ripped through the earth catching Takako eventually as she came to a stop. Though a modest hole compared to some of the others this night, Takako was left stunned from everything happening.

She was losing.

Landing out on the edge of the crater, Yuki stared down at the smoke cloud waiting on a reaction from her. He could still see her through the clouds, but it was not his goal to kill her. So he did not push his advantage. The search still continued, but seemed to be getting closer to the results he was needing. ‘Should have put in a more powerful CPU, but I made this for combat…’

The earth rumbled softly transferring it through his metal to his body. She was pissed off. Her hands slammed into the ground at her frustrations. A scream voicing that emotion ripped through the air. All of her plans seemed to finally be hitting a point where she had to accept that she could fail. She might have been angered before and annoyed, but she still felt in control. This time she was losing control and she had to admit it to herself.

A blast of fire shot out from the bottom of the crater creating the necessary force to blow away the smoke. Takako stood glaring up at Yuki with her black uniform torn from the collision. “Bastard… what did you do? How you can possibly touch me?! It’s impossible!”

“Nearly nothing is impossible with my power. You should already know that.”

“But I can negate all your power!”

“Yes, you can.”

“Then how?!”

“I told you before already. This is the gap in our experience.”

Takako growled at Yuki not accepting his answer. She pounded her foot into the earth as new magic arrays formed. “Well if you’re not going to tell me, then I’ll just drown you!” Water rushed forth from the array charging straight for Yuki.

Unlike the flames, the water surrounded Yuki with him unmoving. It spun around and filled the area until eventually spilling away. Yuki remained stationary and unreactive. “This suit is air tight. You’ve got the wrong approach.”

“Then how about this!” A new array formed with sparks jumping around it before energy even formed. Lightning leapt out to Yuki and the water completely electrifying the water that still hung around him. It bounced and clung to the metal armor lighting up the well polished surface.

Yet Yuki made not reaction still. Takako became even more angry from Yuki just mocking her efforts. She threw out her hand directly calling magic into a massive array. Lightning built up quickly as greater magic appeared. The array expanded and doubled with the formula increasing in complexity.

The ground around Takako began to shake. Tiny pieces of rumble began to roll and bounce around as the power increased. Leaking magic transformed form into lightning striking the ground. Jumping around from surface to surface the entire crater became alit with the blinding light. “Take this, the next level of magic!”

Measurements of the energy build up displayed across Yuki’s screen as the light filtered through not to blind him. ‘Damn…this is a lot more power than I anticipated on. I don’t think even this suit could take that even using a grounding antenna… Hurry up on the search already! My winning the fight has made her desperate.’

Yuki disappeared in a flash of light and then reappeared behind Takako. She began to turn around just as his fist came out to knock her into the earth. The lightning magic disappeared quickly as the source for the array disconnected. Magic shattered into particles as the array collapsed.

“Damn you!” muttered Takako from in her tunnel Yuki dug for herself. She blasted a hole through the earth with her fire to quickly clear space.

“I’m not going to be so kind as to just let you take all that time to charge up an attack. Such attacks are a weakness in this sort of fight.”

“You bastard!”

“Curse me all you want, but you’ve watched too many anime if you think I’m that considerate.” Yuki charged straight for Takako even as she threw out fast cast magic. Its power was too weak to even be something to slow him down.

Knocked into the air, Takako fought to keep control of her body as Yuki completely dominated the field. Blood sprayed through the air as she went through two trees before coming to a stop. She caught herself on the edge of the branch and landed with her legs cushioning her impact.

He landed on a separate tree a short distance away from her. The way the last round went bothered him. He could tell the difference. ‘She’s getting used to the pace. She’s quickly adapting to the situation and she’s able to recover from my blows. I need that search to finish already… I can’t waste my move without exact coordinates…’

The magic in the air disappeared suddenly. Takako stood up taking a new stance. Around her the air took on a new charge. Once more her presence had changed and Yuki knew what was happening. ‘She’s given up on Fumiko’s power and moved to someone else’s power. Whatever it is that she throws at me this armor should be able to take it.’

Holding off his attack until he knew what she was planning gave Takako all the time she needed. She leapt from her tree going straight for Yuki. Her increased speed forced Yuki to disappear in a flash of light. She glanced up to the new location he moved to. “I see… You aren’t actually moving that fast. You’re doing some sort of teleporting.”

‘She’s figured out my movement. With their eyes it’s not surprising, the light I use to mask my transport only works for so long before someone with enough time figures it out.’ He could feel his advantage starting to slip once again.

Returning to the attack, he leapt for Takako. He disappeared and reappeared striking her completely open flank. However, his punch did nothing to her. There was an odd dull thud he got from the strike, but nothing more. He made a couple more attempts, but nothing got through to her.

Takako turned to look at Yuki. “You’re punches are too weak…” She then delivered a punch back in his stomach launching him through several trees before systems took over to stop him.

He coughed having trouble suddenly. Blood dripped from his lips as he understood well what had to have happened. “…damn…this isn’t good…” Then a warning displayed on his screen. It alerted him to a damage in his armor that was spreading quickly.

He jettisoned the parts that were damaged realizing something was wrong. It left his right side completely exposed. His hand caught one of the pieces that was damaged seeing it continue to erode away. “Some sort of acid or rusting power… This is bad… She’s going to be able to completely take me apart without me even hurting her…”

To be continued...