Blind Light

Within a dark room completely shut off from reality, measured stillness reigned. A carefully controlled exhale released into the room. The breath created the rhythm that governed the room. Everything ran off the tempo without fail. Nothing was allowed to be anything else.

Yet it was a fragile balance constructed. Even with an order to things, it was ever so easy to break everything down. The slightest of mistakes shattered the precise build. Like removing a brick from the foundation, the whole structure collapsed with little effort.

This was Seiji’s battle that he fought.

Sweat soaked and coated his skin from the hours of meditation. Contrary to expectations, what Seiji wanted to focus his training on wasn’t fighting or improving his strength. There was a different sort of strength that he wanted, needed to be able to keep fighting the way that he wanted. This would be his only way of doing it.

A faint glow of white light surrounded Seiji as the sweat built up heavier. Veins along his neck and arms appeared as he struggled. The intensity of the light grew blurring out part of his body as it became partially opaque. The rhythm skipped for a moment. That was all that it took for him.

Seiji’s eyes opened as everything broke. His hand slammed against the wood floor splintering it from the pressure, matching many similar marks around the floor. The light disappeared quickly as he released a pant with the sweat build up twice of what it had been before. His body’s fatigue showed clearly.

With more measured control, Seiji’s hand hit the floor, but as a fist. It rattled the dust, but only shook the wood rather than compressing it. “I will conquer this, dammit! It won’t beat me!”

Chapter 434 – Blind Light

When afternoon came and Yumi woke up with Saki next to her on the floor, she no longer felt the exhaustion from before. She stared at her hand, which had been almost completely covered in blood and bruises. Every muscle and bone felt normal. The dull distant pain that she felt through the surge of adrenaline telling her that something might be wrong, but that she could ignore it was gone. It wasn’t the first time for her. Having been in the world, she experienced it many times now. Yet it still felt a bit amazing, his power. “I shouldn’t be surprised at this point, but changing reality is still an unnerving thing. Even though after a few months we’ve all become so used to it that we rely on him for everything. We just accept it as normal, even with the things he does. At this point, what used to be normal almost feels weird now…”

Yumi stood up after folding the sheets and blanket trying to not think too hard about what she just said a minute before. It felt a little odd feeling through her body the acceptance of what reality meant now. She walked over to the window and pushed back the shutters letting her see the afternoon sun baking the porch of the courtyard.

A calm pond and whispering tree, two birds danced about with excitement in the shallow end of the pond. Two servants slid gracefully through on the far side, maybe on orders. Further in the distance, the crowds of the Capital sang a soft melody of energy, a human song. “Hard to believe in a week this will all be in flames of war. Demons won’t have a care about any of this.”

“On the contrary, we have songs, emotions and culture. Your narrow-mindedness of your enemy isn’t letting you see them as another person.”

She leaned back from the window, slightly unable to completely control her surprise at Manekamaru’s appearance. Once she saw him in the shadows of the tree, her flat expression with him surfaced. “Still trying to win me over.”

“Nothing of the sort. I’m still only interested in our rematch.”

“And yet you continue to remind me that you demons aren’t like what I think you are.” She had to admit that the heavy prejudice she carried about demons didn’t come from this world that she stood upon, but the real world. It wouldn’t be something that he would understand. Not that they kept a positive reputation within this world either.

He smiled pleasantly at her. Despite everything she had said and the extreme prejudice she showed to his people and him, none of it seemed to bother him. The way none of her words ruffled him was so unnatural. “Just a reminder. We may want to kill each other, but no reason to not take the time to correct mistakes when we’re not.”

“Right…I still don’t understand you.”

“It’s only been a couple of weeks at most. Hardly enough time to truly know someone.”

“If I had ten lifetimes I don’t think I still understand you any better.”

“It’s truly a shame you don’t, I’d very much enjoy many more rematches.”

“You seem to be under the impression you won’t be dead the next time.”

“Naturally there is that possibility as well.”

A sigh came from Yumi’s lips resigning herself to the fate she had with this confusing demon. There was never any winning with words. “I’m done.” Throwing up her hands, she washed herself of the situation and pulled back from the window.

She tended to herself, cleaning up and acquiring a new set of clothes from the servants. By the time she reached the table for a meal, Saki appeared at her side looking ready for the day. ‘When did she wake up? Did I miss her while talking with Manekamaru?’ Either way, there was little time to dwell on the matter. Their meals laid before them only delayed more training.

The two departed the mansion not too long after on their way back to their training grounds. Yumi looked back towards the mansion as she flew up into the air. Everyone but the servants was gone. Only the demon remained. He consistently kept his neutral stance in matters. However, she wondered how long that would last with the demon attack. His loyalties were never something she thought too hard about. He was just another enemy, a talkative one. But she always had her guard up around him, not sure if he would just attack. He never did, though she wasn’t sure if it was because of her watching him or something else.

“How long do you think we’ll be stuck in here?” Yumi asked, starting idle chatter on their flight.

‘She’s thinking more positively…’ Saki thought before answering her. “It’s hard to say, given that we still don’t understand the purpose of this. But it’s already been a month since we’ve been stuck here. That’s a worrying sign.”

“You think much time has passed in the real world?”

“I hope a month hasn’t passed. Since if we’re here for any longer there’s a risk of unrelated incidents disrupting everything.”

“I hadn’t even thought about something from out of the world happening…”

“We’re well hidden and secure, so it’s unlikely, but we can’t rule out anything. But I’m less likely to believe time is passing at the same rate out there.”

“Any reason you think that?”

“Nothing that I can give to convince you. Just a feeling I have.” Saki felt certain despite any of his claims to not knowing what was the truth behind everything, that he really did know. At the very least, she knew he had a better guess than any of them. Nothing that she came up with really made a lot of sense yet. Given the situation that they were in, there were far better ways they could engineer their deaths in a world that they controlled. This abstract way of doing it wouldn't be needed.

Yuki had answers that much she could be certain about.

Yuki sneezed, breaking his focus for a moment. He took a pause in his work, his Field still intact for his work. Nearby him Nerine steadily continued her work without question. He saw the reluctance that she had about their plan. Even for being a fake world, she still felt the moral pangs from their actions. She ignored them for the sake of her King, that much he knew. It was obvious to him.

If this was the real world, he would be having significantly more reservations about such a plan. He wasn't even sure if he would have even entertained such an idea for even a moment. The situation would have to be far more desperate for him to even consider such a plan. Yuki didn’t like the disassociated feeling that came from knowing nothing really mattered about it. It was a dangerous path to take, one he warned Yumi about.

However, he had to keep his attention on their new support that joined them today. The Demon Hunters finally accepted the reality. They spread out taking direction from him. It surprised him a little bit that they accepted such orders from the Council so readily. Yuki felt certain that they had a plan or scheme in play, the peace was only a ploy by them.

He walked over to Nerine, not having conferred since the mansion. “What have you seen?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary. So far none of them have made any sort of suspicious moves.”

“Yeah, they just seem to be doing the work without any questions.” He kept an eye on them the same as he ordered Nerine to do. Yuki just trusted her to be better at it than him. Her Atlantean military training as a MP made her far superior to him in noticing minor details. Her life depended on such skills being highly refined. So if she wasn’t finding any tricks or deception, then it was likely fine, for now. “It just doesn’t sit right with me.”

“They’re planning something,” she agreed.

“Yes, but we can’t do anything about a gut feeling. They’re not the sort of organization that would just allow themselves to be cowed under the Council’s hand after their long history of holding the reins.”

“It doesn’t make sense. They have a plan.”

“My worry is about what lengths they’re willing to go. They have the survival of humanity in mind, but have a very pragmatic way of looking at their situations. They are willing to let a few die for the end goal of surviving, which makes any plan that they think up a very dangerous combination for us.”

“Yet, we’re reliant on their resources for this plan.”

“I know. If we didn’t have them out here we never would have been able to execute the plan, at least not without me severely breaking the rules.” There was nothing stopping him from using his power to do anything that they wanted. But he limited himself so that Yumi didn’t rely on his powers for every answer. She needed to do things without him as a crutch.

“I’ll keep a watch on them. If they make any moves I’ll step in.”

“Just be careful.”

“…I will.” He noticed the slight hesitation that slipped in for her. Habits remained difficult for her to break, but she did better.

A day passed followed by another before Yuki saw any of his friends return to the mansion. Late into the evening Yumi and Saki returned in nearly a similar state as the previous night that they dropped on him. They had managed to avoid the servants last time, but there was nothing they could do to sneak in this time. The state of Saki this time was terrible. Yumi clearly had flown her back in a panic, not certain if she would survive the flight.

She made it in time for Yuki to tend to the two of them, but they failed to be careful like he requested of them. “Dammit you two, again!” he cursed while immediately using his healing Field on the two of them. Blood from Saki poured everywhere on the floor. She had a grievous wound stretching from her shoulder down to her waist. He could see bone through some of the torn and cut muscle and flesh.

“It’s only thanks to your more resilient bodies that Saki’s not dead! What do you think you’re doing, Yumi?”

“I’m sorry, Yuki! I-I…”

A bloody hand jumped up grabbing Yuki’s forearm pulling him down to the floor nearly as Saki awoke back to consciousness. She stared directly into Yuki’s eyes. “Don’t yell at Yumi,” she managed clearly despite all of the pain and injuries. “She did exactly what I told her.”

The fierce stare made Yuki pause in his already prepared rant for Yumi. He had no idea what they did and found it difficult to believe that this was exactly what Saki wanted. A few moments gave him enough time to recover and redirect his attention to Saki at her insistence. “What the hell are you thinking? Are you trying to die? If you keep this up one time you’re not going to make it back and I won’t be able to heal you and you’ll just be dead. We don’t know what happens to us in the real world, you’re taking too many risks assuming you’ll be fine! You’re smarter than this!”

“Just finish healing me. Don’t question my methods!”

“S-saki…” Yumi muttered, some of her previous shy personality bleeding through, having been shaken by the results of their training.

‘Dammit Saki, what are you thinking? You’re being far too reckless.’

Once Yumi finished up, Saki sent her on her way to get rest. The injuries that she sustained took longer for Yuki to heal. While Saki tested out her fully restored body the servants brought food for her, already having delivered it to Yumi. She tore through the food quickly despite having taken rations with them on their training.

Alone now, Saki leaned back against the wall seeing the moon just barely through the window. Across from her in the room, Yuki stared at her with a disapproving glare for the last thirty minutes. He hadn’t said a word after she yelled back at him. He seemed to have understood a little bit. Yet questions remained that he wanted her to answer. “You’re not leaving until I give you an explanation.”

“If you saw me doing something stupid and reckless that was completely contradictory to my norm you would too.”

“Have some trust. I know what I’m doing.” She had trouble denying what he said. ‘I’d be reacting the same…’

“Which is why I’m being calm now. But don’t work in the dark. What is it that has you doing this?”

Saki looked away from him as she pulled on her thoughts. A low sigh came from her lips. It wasn’t really something that she wanted to talk about just yet. “Fine. It’s still something that I’m confirming though.”

“What?”

“It’s about Yumi. Since I’ve been sparring with her seriously these last three days, I saw something.”

“What did you see?”

“I’m not entirely certain. It’s why I’ve been pushing her. It surfaces once and a while, rare instances of power and intelligence. Maybe it’s why that demon’s so fixated on fighting her again. He’s been the only one that has fought at her level.”

Yuki suddenly stood up having a little trouble with what she was implying. “Saki, you’re making it sound like she’s stronger than you.”

“She is.”

“That can’t be right, she’s still got a long way to go before she should be outclassing you.”

“I’m being serious, Yuki. I’ve fought with her. I know what I saw. Yumi has passed all of us.”