Nobiagiri vs Duplex

Shisu grabbed the side of his face that Kaden hit with his Solid Air Bubble, and began laughing.

“Just us now!”

While Kaden had always thought Shisu was out there, he seemed completely crazed now. Like something in him broke when team Not-So-Bad beat him to the sapphire. Kaden looked at his friends, who were all laying on the ground, unconscious. He clenched his fist.

“This is my fault.” He thought. “I’ll have to make it right.”

“Go ahead, I'll let you have the first shot.” Shisu grinned confidently, while turning his cheek to Kaden.

Kaden held out his hand, and shot his Negative Bubble without hesitation. Shisu merely tilted his head to avoid it.

“Those little bubbles of yours may have gotten faster,” Shisu laughed condescendingly, “but to me, they're still as slow as ever!”

Kaden shot another bubble quickly, and Shisu smoothly dodged it once again.

“Allow me to show you a real attack!” Shisu cackled.

Not even a second after, Kaden felt something cold and heavy collide with his stomach, as Shisu made a punching motion.

Kaden bent over in pain.

“Now, now. Pay attention, Panda, you might learn something!” Shisu growled as he threw another punch.

This time, Kaden once again saw something dark moving under Shisu. Something that stretched from his–

“That’s it!” Kaden thought, quickly rolling out of the way.

This seemed to annoy Shisu, as his grin swiftly turned into a look of disgust.

He threw out another punch, and Kaden dodged it again. It seemed Shisu started to grow frustrated. He threw out two punches at once. Before they could hit him, Kaden stood up and held out his own hands. He felt the cold, moist feeling enter his palm with force, pushing him back slightly.

Kaden looked up, into Shisu’s eyes, which looked shocked.

“How?!” He roared.

Kaden looked down at the shadow below him, holding the shadow of Shisu’s hands, which were shaking with anger.

“You made a mistake in your eagerness to attack us.” Kaden said, struggling to hold onto Shisu’s shadow hands.

“You usually make the room darker, before using your power. This time you didn’t.”

Shisu scoffed.

“After I noticed it the first time, it was hard to miss again. You control your shadow.”

Shisu looked at him full of hatred, it felt like he was about to explode with rage, until–

“You're wrong.” He said calmly.

Kaden flinched for a moment, fearing what Shisu was implying.

“I control every shadow!” He yelled out, as a cold shadow-hand grabbed Kaden’s neck and flung him backwards.

“Every inch of shade!”

Another shadow-hand grabbed Kaden’s hurt leg and slammed him to the ground.

“Every speck of darkness!”

Another punched Kaden back into the air.

“It’s mine!” Shisu yelled out, as he grabbed Kaden by his throat and yanked him forward, landing him in front of Shisu.

Kaden coughed and breathed heavily. Shisu stomped down on his head and held him to the ground.

“I really despise you, Panda…” Shisu then said, as the room began to grow darker.

“W-why?” Kaden struggled to ask.

It was hard to even open his mouth, every part of him hurt.

“Why do you hate me so much?”

Shisu pressed down harder, and Kaden grunted in pain.

“It is me who’s going to be number one, Panda! Me!” He explained loudly. “I was destined to be! My family, they– I have to be the number one!”

“Have to?” Kaden tried to ask, but was stopped by Shisu, who started pressing down even harder.

“Someone like you has no right to be here.” Shisu continued. “You’re filth! Useless filth!”

The room was pitch black now, only the glow of Shisu’s scarlet eyes was visible.

“I worked hard to be here. For someone like you to just show up without any effort or struggle. It’s insulting.”

Shisu’s voice turned almost unrecognisably dark. Kaden felt the cold darkness of the shadows creeping over him.

“You have no idea what I went through to get here. You don’t know anything about me.” Kaden breathed heavily.

“I know exactly what you are, Kaden Ryoman…” Shisu responded coldly.

Shisu’s shadows swallowed Kaden’s whole body. The words Shisu used stung more than any of his blows ever could. Kaden felt something inside him boil, almost to the point of overflowing.

“I should’ve thrown you over that day,” Shisu said emotionlessly, “with the rest of the thrash below me.”

The shadows pushed down on Kaden’s body. He wanted to scream out in pain, but any noise that would’ve come out of him was drowned out by the darkness.

“This is it.” Kaden thought. “Will I really go out like this?”

He closed his eyes slowly.

“Everyone… I’m sorry for letting you down…”

Then, out of nowhere, a great flash of light burst out from inside Kaden. He felt an unexplainably positive feeling, like everything would work out just fine. The same feeling that he got when he got close to his mother. For a split second, the area around them lit up, and Kaden saw Shisu stumble backwards in shock. He didn’t know what just happened, but he had to act fast.

Quickly, Kaden mustered up the strength to form two Negative Bubbles around his hand, inverting the darkness inside them. With some difficulty, he stood up.

“I might not be strong, but I’ll have something you’ll never have.” Kaden breathed heavily.

“Oh, please, don’t give me that ‘the power of friendship’ crap!” Shisu yelled. “I beat them! They’re down, because of me!”

Kaden shook his head.

“They give me something you can’t take away…” He said softly.

“And what is that?” Shisu asked smugly.

“Thanks to them, I can always find a light in your darkness.” Kaden said softly.

He yelled out, as he shot a Flashbang Bubble at Shisu.
Shisu stumbled backwards again, and Kaden inched a bit closer when he did.

If he could only get close enough to reach Shisu, then he could take the device and run to safety. Get someone that can help his friends. Anything.

“Light?!” Shisu laughed. “I really underestimated how idiotic you are! What is light gonna do for you?!”

Shisu threw out several punches, but Kaden used his Light Bubbles as a shield to block them. He felt the cold air around Shisu’s shadows fly past him. Shisu let out an annoyed grunt and threw out more punches.

Kaden had to watch closely. He could only barely see the dark figures move toward him. If Shisu punched only slightly faster, he would definitely get Kaden. His body was aching all over, and it seems Shisu noticed as he sped up.

Left punch, left punch, right punch.

“Argh!”

Shisu hit Kaden hard in his stomach.

He shot out two more Light Bubbles, and inched closer when Shisu stepped back.

“I need more light!” Kaden thought.

More punches flew his way, and he struggled to keep up. He felt the shadows closing in.

“Getting tired there, Panda?” Shisu laughed smugly when he hit Kaden across the face, making him fly backwards.

“I need more.” Kaden thought again. Fuel, something to fuel light.”

Kaden stood up and wiped the blood from his mouth. He held his fists up and formed two Negative Bubbles around his hands again.

Shisu scoffed.

“I'm done playing with you.” He said softly.

Shisu's hand began twitching weirdly, as he threw it forward. Suddenly, the cold shadows were circling Kaden, dancing around him, and closing in.

“Where’s your light now?!” Shisu laughed.

Kaden’s breathing became shallower as the darkness closed in more. He gasped for air, and his vision became blurry.

Then he saw an image of his father. It became clearer, and Kaden realised it was a memory. It was usually his mother that trained with him, his dad only occasionally stood by. But this time, he took it upon himself. Kaden remembered his father’s words when he tried to invert the colours in his bubble.

“When I invert things, it's not just about power,” his father had said, “it's a feeling. Reality doesn't bend to my will because I want it too. It's hard to explain in words, but I know you can do it, Kaden. Just believe in yourself and you can do it.”

His father pat Kaden on the head.

“A feeling…” Kaden mumbled.

That was the first time he had ever inverted anything. Since then, his bubbles had always inverted colour by default. Kaden had almost forgotten that memory. Why was he remembering that now?

“If I can invert colours by feeling,” Kaden thought, “then inverting darkness into light should also be possible the same way.”

Kaden felt like he was going to pass out any second.

“And if I can make light without focusing on it, I can fuel with something else… maybe…”

He bent forward, gasping for air.

“Why does my power have to be so confusing?”

Kaden fell to the ground. He placed his open hand on the floor, and focused all his energy into making a solid bubble.

Gradually, the ground under him began to crumble, and his bubble began to grow. Kaden slowly gained his breath again. He inched open his eyes and saw a bright light below him. He stood up carefully and held his now light shield in front of him, blocking Shisu’s attack. Shisu let out a rageful cry, and seemed to put more power in his attack, but it couldn’t get past the wall of light Kaden made.

He shot the wall forward, and it hit Shisu with full force.

Kaden temporarily ignored his pain and ran forward, when Shisu flew backwards from the impact. He formed two Solid Air Bubbles around his hands, which lit up instantly. The moment Shisu stood up, Kaden whacked him in the face.

“You–” Shisu let out, as he threw out a punch of his own.

It seemed like Shisu was flustered. He had not expected Kaden to be able to fight back like this. Kaden blocked his punch. As Shisu threw a second punch, Kaden dived to the floor and used it as fuel once again.

He shot one bubble in Shisu’s stomach, making him fly backwards, into the wall. With the other, he pushed against Shisu’s chest, pinning him down.

The light from Kaden’s Negative Bubble was enough to light the area around them. Shisu averted his head due to the brightness.

“It’s over, Shisu,” Kaden panted, “you've lost. Give up.”

For a second, Shisu struggled against the light. Then everything was silent for a moment, apart from the sound of both of them breathing heavily. Kaden could feel sweat and blood dripping down his face.

“You think you've won?” Shisu said quietly.

Slowly, he started to laugh.

“Don’t you know?” He asked sarcastically. “The more light you cast, the bigger your shadow will be.”

There was a moment where Kaden held his breath. The hairs on his neck rose, and he felt a sudden chill down his back. From behind him, Kaden felt something big and dark looming. The familiar cold and almost wet feeling surrounding his neck, but this time it was different. He could hear Shisu’s laugh distance as the cold, dark hand around his neck squeezed, and everything went black.

Kaden could hear distant voices, but wasn't sure what they were saying. There were bright colours dancing around him in a dark void. His whole body was aching.

“What?” Kaden mumbled sleepily, when the voices become louder.

Then he rose up in shock when he realised what had just happened.

“Shisu!” He yelled out.

“No, no, it’s Amene Desuna.” Amene said hazily.

“What?” Mumbled Kaden again, just as hazy as her.

“A-me-ne.” Amene spelled out for him.

“No… what happened?” Kaden asked in a hoarse voice.

Every word was painful to let out. Kaden reached to his neck, and felt a sort of brace around it. He looked around and found himself in the hospital wing, with Amene at his bed. Kaito laid in a bed next to him, and Haido stood there watching over him. Satoku was in a bed on the other side of the room.

“I ran for help when I woke up.” Kaito said quietly.

It seemed he was awake. Kaden looked over to him again, and met his teary eyes.

“I'm sorry, I could've helped you. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad. I just got scared, and…” He sniffed.

“You did what you thought was best, baby brother.” Haido assured him.

Kaito continued his recount.

“When I got back, there was some sort of dark wall blocking the entrance. That's why we were so late. The only reason we got through was because Miss Kokoro cut a hole in the wall.”

Haido turned her head to Kaden and whispered,

“See? Secret samurai!”

Kaden wanted to laugh at this, but it was too painful to do so.

“We followed the light, and when we found you…” Kaito continued, “this dark creature almost snapped your neck.”

Kaden swallowed painfully and felt the brace on his neck again.

“Miss Kokoro knocked Shisu out, and we brought everyone to the hospital wing. I managed to avoid most damage because of my monster form. You and Satoku were the worst off.”

Kaden looked sombrely over at Satoku, who was wrapped in bandages.

“Did you find the device?” He asked, turning back to Kaito.

He shook his head.

Kaden clenched his fists. Whatever the device was, or whatever it did. Kaden was determined to get his hands on it before Shisu could. He could not let anyone else get hurt because of him. Because of Shisu.