Emotional Control

Haruo’s body remained still slowly bleeding into the ground. Above him the white tiger let a low growl seep through its teeth. It was pure white seeming almost divine.

Akihiro took an uncertain step back feeling an uneasiness in his skin. He looked at Haruo closer trying to see if he was dead or not. “What’s goin’ on?!” There was no chance of getting near Haruo with the beast hovering as his guardian. “It an’ther ability of tha kid?”

The remaining two punks on the wall were able to get a look at their companions having finally recovered from the initial shock of what happened. Unfortunately, the moment that they saw their friends they fell backwards running away from the sight. “T-they’re…”

“R-r-ripped tah pi-pi-pieces!”

Akihiro narrowed his eyes trying to keep his composure. The fear already attempted to creep into him. The mere presence of the creature was enough to crack his resolve. “If it's from ya I’ll just kill ya and it’ll vanish!” Blades were summoned up from the ground once more around Haruo’s body.

Chapter 82 – Emotional Control

The tiger took hold of Haruo’s uniform in its semi-opaque mouth and jumped out of the blades just in time. However, blood dripped from him in the air draining his life away. Akihiro tracked the beast, launching more blades at it from any nearby surface. “Damn! Tha thing’s fast!”

Across the property in the grass street, Katsu took a momentary break from his enjoyment. He gave an unsympathetic glance to his frightened gang members and the blood that dripped eerily down the wall from where the monster had attacked. “Seems like Hiro’s having fun with the kid.”

Yuki coughed a little and focused his eyes through the pain that he had been enduring. He gave a rough smirk to Katsu. “Guess it’s time I gave up on this strategy…”

Katsu tilted his head to Yuki, becoming a little curious what he might be planning now. “Oh? Still think you can get out of this?”

“Definitely!”

“You’re copy is currently occupied with my boys and turning invisible won’t help you here. You’ve nothing you can do!”

The teenager that held Yuki by his neck tightened his arm around in response to his confidence. Yuki coughed again, gasping for air until he adjusted. He gave Katsu a very assured look. “I told you before…I’m complicated!” Yuki turned his eyes over to his copy for a moment. ‘I guess I can’t worry about what it’ll happen once it’s gone… Now or never!’

Yuki’s clone that was fighting with Takaoka and his gang suddenly came to a stop. He let out a final grin before vanishing. The real Yuki gave a cunning smile as a thin ring of light broke from his feet unnoticed by anyone. A moment later, the entire grass street became a massive inferno that stretched to the sky. The screams of those caught in the blast were nearly drowned out by the flames. Out of the wall of fire leapt Yuki landing on the bloody wall. He tilted his head back toward the fire. “That should be enough for now…”

He jumped down seeing the two bodies of the teenagers that he had heard screaming. His face turned grim seeing their mutilated bodies. Yuki dropped to his knees trying to keep his emotions in check. “More deaths on my soul…I…” Suddenly one of the kids coughed shallowly alerting Yuki to him. A glimmer of hope returned to him as he checked the other boy. “They aren’t dead yet!”

A distant roar pulled Yuki’s face up towards the end of the property’s grounds. “Haruo!” Yuki's eyes grew wide the instant he saw how badly Haruo was cut up. The animal slowly approached Yuki. The fierce merciless stare of its eyes never left Yuki. When it reached him it placed Haruo down in the grass. The beast’s expression seemed to change, almost understanding the kindness in Yuki. “You trust me?”

Haruo coughed painfully from his numerous internal wounds. It broke Yuki from any questions or concerns he might have had about the situation. “I’ve got to heal them, but I have to take down the other field. I guess they’ve suffered enough mental scarring. I hope I can do this in time.”

Yuki closed his eyes concentrating on what he needed to do. Behind him the bright wall of flames evaporated into the air without a trace of having even been there before. An instant later a pale green glow was already coming from Yuki’s hands as Haruo and the two punks were surrounded by the warmth. Wounds quickly closed up and fixed themselves.

Katsu blinked as he had stopped screaming thinking that he had been on fire. The rest of his boys collapsed on their knees in shock. Most panted heavily from the realness of what had just happened to them. “What’s going on?” He turned his head around with his body trying to get a look at the area. Everything was exactly as it had been before with not even a blade of grass slightly singed for the blaze. “It was an illusion?”

“Boss? What happ’ned?” Takaoka asked, being the first one to stand back up on their own.

“Not completely sure…” He examined his hands still needed to have that physical proof that there was nothing wrong. ‘The heat and pain all felt real! Is that another one of his powers? He some illusionist?’

When he started to think about Yuki more he realized that he couldn't see him anywhere. The harder he looked the less he liked the situation. There had been no sign of Haruo as well. “Something’s not right. Start looking for them!” Everyone moved slowly, still shaken deeply.

Still out of sight for the moment, Yuki almost finished with the work on the three boys. He listened to Katsu and it made him anxious. ‘I’m not too well hidden, but I don’t need much more time!’ The two street gang members took more time to fix than Haruo. The wounds that they had withstood from the creature were far more grave and difficult to fix than patching up Haruo’s cuts.

A few low groans came from Haruo as he started to come around fully. The light that covered him faded away. He felt a little stiff, but surprisingly well. Haruo looked at his hands and then clothes, seeing all of the holes. ‘I know that I was hurt, but the pain’s all gone. How’s this possible?’ It had been the green light that he finally noticed Yuki. “What’s going on? Why am I not injured?”

Yuki gave Haruo a puzzled look for a moment. “You sound disappointed. Would you rather be on death’s door?”

“No, but how’s this possible?”

“Because of me.” Most of the work carried on its own now that Yuki could afford a slight distraction. “My power allows me to do anything I need. In this case fast healing. I replaced the blood that you lost as well up to a safe point. Anatomy isn’t my strength, but I figured you lost enough that you make it difficult for you to focus or function.” Yuki paused his words hearing some noise coming closer. “You’ll need it to be able to survive this…”

“I guess I’ll have to accept that for now.” Harou tested out his body a little while still keeping out of sight. He knew that even after what happened that Katsu and his gang would not give up until they found him. ‘This has to be resolved…’ He turned his head to take in the area and found the transparent tiger lying down next to him waiting, somehow ignored by him.

When he finally realized what it was that was next to him it made him panic almost. However, in the moments after, there was an odd familiarity about the animal. He couldn't understand it, but there was something about it that he knew that he could trust. It almost felt like it was a part of him, distant yet connected through an invisible thread. “Is this…”

Yuki looked over at the tiger and nodded to Haruo as he finished the last bit of the teens. “Yeah, I’m fairly certain that it’s your power. Though you’ve got me on how it works.” He shut down his Field and moved the two boys out of the way near the wall to sleep off their time.

Once they were taken care of Yuki moved to look around the wall trying to take in the surroundings. ‘Surprised we got this lucky…’ Yuki pulled back from the wall and approached Haruo. “They’re more spread out, but we shouldn’t have any trouble dealing with them. The one that I’m more concerned about is that guy Katsu and his power…”

Haruo stood up ignoring whether he would be spotted or not. “This is my problem. You’re free from his gang. I’ll handle this alone.” The tiger that had been looking like it was almost sleeping rose up sticking close to his side. Haruo began to walk for the gate of the house, building his determination back.

“Hey!” Yuki reached out for Haruo’s arm, but the tiger that had been ignoring him up till that point turned on Yuki. It gave him a deep growl, making Yuki back off. “They aren’t just planning on beating you up a little and calling it a day! They’re out for blood now! You need my help to deal with them!”

“Just stay out of sight and keep yourself out of their hands. I don’t need anyone’s help.” Haruo pushed through the gate of the property. While most of the punks that could still hold it together were scattered off looking for them, Katsu stood in the middle of the grass waiting. “I’m here, Katsu,” Haruo said evenly. Haruo’s tiger walked up behind him staying at his side looking ready to pounce.

Katsu picked up on Haruo and turned to face him looking a little disappointed while also pleased as well. “So it would seem. Though I’m more interested in that friend of yours than you right now. He’s made a fool of my gang far too many times already! Besides I’m still waiting for that expression on your face when I kill him!”

“You’ll have to settle for me. This is between you and me.”

A sigh escaped Katsu’s lips listening to Haruo. He shook his head disappointed with him. “You don’t get it. You can’t pick who is and isn’t involved! If they know you they’re involved! It's as simple as that and I will have my fun!”

“I guess it’s a good thing I’m so entertaining then!” Yuki inserted, appearing seated on the wall casually making himself seen. ‘I’m sorry Haruo, but I can’t do nothing! I can’t let you do this alone as much as you want too! This has gone far beyond a simple street fight.’

“Still can talk back with that wound huh?” Katsu grinned deliciously in anticipation. It took him another moment to realize that Haruo was all better. He had not actually seen most of what happened to him by Akihiro. “Thought Hiro sliced you up good, kid?”

“I’ve got a doctor’s touch.”

“I’ve gotta scalpel ya can borrow then!” shouted Akihiro from across the property behind Yuki. A knife burst from the top of the wall near to Yuki speeding straight for him. When it was about to stab Yuki though the knife snapped in two flying away and embedding into the ground. The break caught Akihiro by surprise, but he insisted on trying again. This time he threw a dozen blades at him all the size of swords and yet none of them could touch Yuki. Each of the swords shattered just before impact and fell useless to the ground. “What?! That’s impossible!”

“Now there’s some stock dialogue!” Yuki cheerfully jumped down from the wall. “You’re going to need to work on your goons some more. Even they’re sounding like a cliché now!” He bared a wide smirk seeing how they were still trying to figure out what Yuki had done.

Katsu became further concerned by the abilities being displayed by Yuki. The things that he was seeing were no longer starting to add up. “You’re more than just a really good illusionist. What are you?”

“I thought I told you to stay hidden and let me deal with this.”

A brief shift of Yuki’s eyes made it to Haruo when he spoke, but tried to stay focused on the real problem. “Wouldn’t you like to know? As I said before, I’m complicated. So let’s leave it at that!” Yuki gave a secretive wink at Katsu to close the question off.

Being shut down hardly fazed Katsu as he retorted with another one of his invisible attacks. The wind seemed to blow up with the attack pushing back their clothes just prior to Yuki’s left arm being slice through, throwing blood behind him. Next to Haruo there was a shattering sound as the tiger suddenly turned into particles and disappeared from this side.

Yuki gasped briefly in surprise to see that Katsu’s attack made it through his defenses and Haruo’s animal was defeated easily. ‘He can still hit me?! How strong is he?!’