Cracks

Mamoru's heart was beating so hard it felt like it was about to explode. ‘Two on one? That's an execution.’ He didn't have much time to dwell on it, though, as the hiss of Akane's blades gliding through the sand reached his ears. Instinctively, he used his powers, closing his eyes and bracing for the possible impact. It was now or never; he still wasn't even convinced he had those powers back. But the blissful silence that enveloped him proved him right. He opened his eyes and saw the familiar purple, wavy world, identical to the normal one, yet on an "other side" that only Mamoru had access to.

"His power is invisibility!" He heard Akane yell, her voice carrying through the dimensional veil as she spun back gracefully, like a trained ice skater. From this vantage, he could see everything, but they couldn't see him. He was invisible, not there, yet… there.

"Or teleportation. He can be hiding somewhere." Ren's voice was surprisingly calm, not cautious in the least. ‘His back is hunched, he's looking around, but with a build like that, it figures he doesn't have to be cautious about the likes of me.’ A fleeting thought crossed Mamoru's mind: ‘Glad he didn't see how I looked like in my world.’

I could attack Akane, but she's too fast, too risky. Mamoru weighed his options. On the other hand, I don't know Ren's powers… Well, can't sit here all day. Screw that, if I just attack him from behind, he won't be fast enough to—!’ As he rapidly contemplated his plan, he quickly positioned himself behind Ren. It took him no more than a second, as his dimension defied gravity and laws of physics in a way he still didn't understand. Adrenaline surged, clouding his mind so swiftly that he completely forgot he still didn't know Ren's powers. So, as he burst out of his dimension behind Ren, already in the middle of throwing the nastiest punch right at the back of his head, he missed.

"Told you it was invisibility." Akane's voice cut through the air.

‘What was that? I knew I had him!’ Mamoru's mind raced.

"You didn't miss because of your own fault. Ren's voice was calm, almost instructional.

“Really?! You’re going to explain it to him now?!”

Ren only gave Akane a knowing glare, continuing to circle Mamoru. "I put a protection 'veil' on myself, meaning nothing can touch me. Bullets, fists, kicks, rocks. I could even make the ground split below my feet."

‘Now I know his powers. I still don't know if they don't want to kill me, and the fight is still going. Have to risk it.’ Without a second thought, Mamoru disappeared, quickly closing the distance to Akane.

"Ren!" Akane's shout held emotion Mamoru couldn't quite pinpoint. Nerves? Anxiousness? Fear? He couldn't decide, but it didn't matter. Just like with Ren, he circled behind her and threw a punch right at the back of her head, blinking out mid-throw. And once again, he missed.

"My powers also apply to others. Objects, people, animals. I can put anything under my veil and decide what to protect them from. Next time, please do listen to the end." Ren offered his warm smile at the end of the sentence. To Mamoru, that smile already looked both fake and forced.

Mamoru huffed, hands on his knees, hunched and staring at the sand. He had a lot of experience fighting thugs and normal people, but not one with powers. ‘I'm still alive, meaning they don't want me dead. I have to think… think! Akane was who I feared the most, but now that I know Ren's powers, I know that without neutralizing him first, I have no shot at her… Unless…’

He ejected himself straight at Akane, making the muddy sand explode under his feet, blinking from the surface of earth again. Third time's the charm, right? He blinked back, appearing behind her again, and tried to land a punch, missing.

"I told you already. It won't work as long as she's under my protection." Ren's voice was a calm. A very patient reminder.

‘That's it!’ Mamoru's head snapped to the side, his eyes piercing Ren as he ejected himself once more and blinked out. Ren instinctively jumped back, immediately assuming a defensive stance, showing for the first time in the battle any hint of fear. But that proved to be his demise. He heard a loud "ouch!" followed by a thud quicker than he registered what happened with his eyes, then saw Akane down on the ground, Mamoru standing right next to her. "I had to gamble on whether you can place multiple veils at the same time. Knowing that your veil was still placed on Akane, I purposely let you see the intentions of my attack. If my gamble was correct, which it was, by placing the veil back on yourself, Akane would be unprotected.”

For the very first time Mamoru saw an honest smile on Ren's face, followed by a tiny laugh. "Impressive strategy. In your gamble, did you consider that by taking out Akane, you'll have to fight me, one on one now?

"Wha-?!" Mamoru spun around to look at Akane, but where she had just been lying, there was now only a faint imprint in the sand.

"Akane was out of battle the moment her knees touched the ground after your dropkick." The old man's voice made Mamoru turn toward where the sound came from. Akane was already there, sitting on the ground next to ‘Pops’. "Go get 'im, Mamoru!" she said in a very forced and cute voice. ‘Great. Now she really does want me dead.’

He turned to look at Ren, who was standing with hands casually in his jacket's pockets, his posture relaxed now. ‘Can't give up now.’

The fight that followed was a frustrating dance of wits. Every attack Mamoru launched, no matter how clever, was met with Ren's unwavering defense, either from his powers or sheer skill. There was no malice or ill intent behind Ren's movements; he made it look effortless, which only frustrated Mamoru more. Mamoru blinked, feinted, and struck in countless ways until he could barely breathe or move. The fight stretched on for far too long. Akane eventually fell asleep on the ground, and even the old man, exhausted himself, followed Akane’s idea but remained standing. In the end, after a desperate, failed attack, Mamoru collapsed to one knee, simply unable to go on anymore.

Ren stood over him, not even breathing hard. "You're good," he said, offering a hand to help Mamoru up.

"I like you, Mamoru. You've got that thing." Ren spoke, now sitting on the ground beside Akane who was wiping sleep from her eyes, and an exhausted Mamoru. Ren was tired too, breathing a little heavy though perhaps less so than Mamoru. Mamoru didn't think a guy like him could even be exhausted. "Thing?"

"Mhm, that thing. At some point during the fights, while under big pressure, you turn off your brain and let your body do the fighting. Like an auto-pilot. It's a great advantage. You're lucky to have a power that lets you utilize it. You should be thanking yourself."

"'Thanking'? For what?"

Ren and Akane exchanged a knowing look. "I guess you couldn't figure it out by yourself. Do you think we get our powers on a whim? That my blades or Ren's veil, such unique powers, were given to us by Echo randomly?" Akane challenged.

"Akane was an ice skater back home. She was pretty good at it. Aspiring to be a professional one once she grew up. My powers back home were quite… different. But I'm a case of receiving new powers upon entering this world.

"I really don't understand where you're going with it." Mamoru shook his head, still lost.

"What he means is that our powers are a manifestation." Akane's voice softened slightly, a hint of seriousness entering her tone. "What's still unclear to us is of what exactly, but we've been here long enough to see many people pass through this place and one thing is always clear: you can understand why a person got specific powers by listening to the story of when they first encountered Echo. Feelings at the time of receiving powers. Your hobby. Mental state. Thoughts. One of those, all, or some are the deciding factors to what power you got that day."

Mamoru heard Akane's last words very faintly, as if from a great distance. He had understood what they were saying a few seconds ago, but now his mind was clouded, swirling with more and more new thoughts. ‘If that's true, then they must realize that…’ He felt a cold dread, panic rising within him. In his mind, he instantly created a scenario of the current situation, where both Ren and Akane had already realized what his mental state had been back in the day to receive a power that allowed him to disappear.

And then, his mind got filled with unwanted memories.