Working Alone as a Team

He knew that he had focused his defenses to block whatever that Katsu might have thrown at him. It may not have been as strong as he used against Demosthenes, but he didn’t think that Katsu would have been so strong. ‘I still couldn’t even see the attack! What am I supposed to do?!’

Across from Yuki out in the middle of the street unprotected, Haruo became more concerned about his position. ‘The animal’s just gone… Was it my fault?’ He tightened his hands trying to find a way to focus on what he had lost. ‘How do I make this work?’

“Well if you’re both going to stand there like idiots…” began Katsu just prior to another attack.

Alerted to what was going to happen Yuki went into his backup plan that he had prepared. The problem was he didn’t know where it was going to be hitting or how wide of an attack. All he had to guess on was the previous unseen attacks. ‘I guess more is better than less!’ A thick concrete wall grew out of the ground splitting the grass and earth coming between Katsu and Yuki as well as Haruo. Just in time there was a solid thud against the wall putting a little crack in the surface.

He bought them a moment to take a breath. “That was close!”

Chapter 83 – Working Alone as a Team

Yuki leaned against the wall in his break, however another pound of an attack from the other side restarted his drive. “How am I supposed to deal with an invisible attack?” There were several more strikes against the wall causing cracks to appear on his side. A pebble from the developing splits dropped on Yuki’s head. ‘This wall won’t hold for long, but at least he seems determined to take it down rather than going around it…’

The cut on Yuki’s arm began to throb as the adrenaline started to fade a little. Yuki checked it to see how bad he was doing. “It’s pretty shallow, redirecting some of the energy should patch it up.” Soon the bleeding from his upper arm came to a stop leaving his bare arm with blood dripping down to his hand.

A sudden sharp but weak strike to Yuki’s head made him jump in surprise, nearly clearing the wall. “I must have had bad luck running across the girly boy!” grumbled an annoying high pitched voice that was unfortunately familiar.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!” Yuki shouted back at the fairy not even noticing that it was the fairy until a moment later. “Hey! You’re…” It was then that he became a little depressed knowing that he was going to have to deal with her again.

“Pathetic as always…”

Yuki grabbed the fairy quickly with his good arm and brought her close to his face to glare at her. “All you ever are doing is putting me down! I don’t have time for your attitude right now!” He tossed her aside. The more pressing matter for him was the power of Katsu. It was made all the more necessary with another blast carving out a corner of the wall.

He stepped back to examine the wall. The last piece taken out looked clean and sharp. It was the same feeling he had from the wounds. They were always fast and straight with a lot of control. There was still one thing that puzzled him besides not being able to see the attack. Yuki stared at the wall for a moment trying to understand it. “How can he break through the wall and my defenses so close to me? I know he’s nowhere near the strength of Demosthenes. I should be stronger! How can his Field be overcoming mine?!”

“You really are an idiot,” commented the fairy again, having never left. She floated over Yuki’s left shoulder letting her very long blonde hair swirl like she was underwater around her.

“Shut up! I don’t need to hear it from you!”

The fairy shrugged her shoulders at Yuki when he glared back at her. “You’ll never see it the way you are now…”

“What are you talking about?” The arrogance from the little girl started to get on Yuki’s nerves. ‘I’ll never see it? What’s she getting it? What aren’t I seeing…his attacks? She can see his attacks?’ Yuki shook his head trying to focus and get the fairy’s words out of his mind. All she was doing to him was making it more difficult to concentrate as a large piece of the wall was cleaved away. “Damn! Stop talking to me! I can’t focus with your chattering!”

Yuki turned back to the wall to give it his full attention. ‘Why’d she have to show up now?!’ A restored focus slowed down the wall’s destruction, but it still was only a matter of time. He had to hide in small parts as Katsu was continuing to chip away from it.

The fairy still hovered around the area even in silence bothering him with mere proximity. ‘I thought I had more control over my powers! She only appeared when I couldn’t control it… So she’s here now? I know I didn’t put it into the Laws…’ He tried to drop her out of his field like he would anything else that he didn't need, but she remained. ‘She’s a part of the world now? So she’s just like all of the crazy stuff I brought into existence… It’s all real…’

“It’s all real…” The words echoed in Yuki’s mind as he spoke them. There was something that he had been missing. He could feel it now. “It’s all real!” Yuki jumped up looking at the wall and catching a small glimpse of Katsu on the other side. “It’s all real, even his powers!” He slapped his palm to his face in his grudging moment of clarity.

“Told you were an idiot!”

“Quiet you! I’ve been attacked by people with the same power as me up until now! I’m not used to this where it is actually real!”

“Sounds like an excuse to me…”

Another thought came to his realization in the next moment. “I’ve never fought anyone that doesn’t have a Field!” There was a second where he feared that unknown realm. ‘But I guess if I think about it…it just means I’ll never have to worry about my attacks weakening from clashing fields! Though I won't be able to dampen his attacks either…’ The longer he thought about it the more fears that came into his mind.

Haruo held down trying to understand his power through all of the confusion. The shattering sound that he had heard before when Katsu attacked his tiger played through his mind. None of it made a lot of sense to him, the supposed power he had or even what Katsu did. ‘Was it some sort of ghost or incorporeal animal? But if it was then how could Katsu destroy it and how could it interact with the physical world?’ He needed it to happen again, but he couldn't remember how it had happened. ‘...I…I…was just…so…desperate…’

A faint voice or sound suddenly called out to him. He ignored it in the midst of his thoughts. However, the beckoning continued until it became a feeling that turned into a dull poking in his head. It wouldn't stop no matter how hard he tried to concentrate. Haruo looked around him, sensing that there was something close by that was important. ‘What is it? It’s around here…’ Down between the grass rested shattered pieces in the dirt was a part of a pot. ‘Why is this familiar?’ Suddenly the pieces glowed faintly a pure white light before disappearing.

Haruo dropped the pieces sharply out of reaction, but an odd warmth seemed to persist in his palm. It felt like it belonged to him somehow. ‘What was that? What’s happening to me?’

The concrete wall shattered even more from Katsu’s assault, exposing steel that re-enforced it. ‘I need to do something… I said I would do this myself…but without this strange power I can’t…’ He tightened his hands with frustration, starting to dig his nails into his skin. Time was running out and he had nothing. ‘I can’t…I need it from before…please…’

Thin beams of light burst out of both of Haruo’s hands, easily seen from the other side. It made everyone freeze in confusion to what was happening. Haruo stared down at his hands, opening them up to see what it was that was causing the light to be created. Soon the light took on form growing out from hands expanding until a shape could be seen. ‘Is this my power? But how…’ As it grew larger and lifted out of his hand Haruo could see a faint shape.

When the creation finished there were two animals transparent and bathed in pure white light. However, neither was a tiger this time. One looked like a dog, possibly a german shepherd and the other was a panther. They both sat obediently at his feet like they awaited an order from him.

Haruo stared at the two animals, a little surprised having expected to see a tiger again. None of it made any sense. ‘…what is that in the center? All of the light surrounding it is making it difficult to see…’ There was a bundle of light that appeared to be almost woven tightly into a ball near to where their heart would be were they living creatures. Every few moments there was a gentle pulse from the light almost like a heartbeat. ‘None of this makes any sense…but…I must act now…’

After the next assault from Katsu, Haruo rose to his feet. Both of the animals responded to him staying on either side of him. Haruo was short, but even being short wasn't enough to be protected by the crumbling wall anymore. He stared over at Katsu, who had taken a pause in his attacks.

“What do you think you’re doing, Haruo?!” Yuki noticed he no longer kept down. His eyes shifted over quickly towards Akihiro recognizing the look in his eye. ‘There’s blades already coming out of the wall!’ All Yuki could do in time was remove the wall completely. The blades disappeared with the wall. “What the hell do you think you’re doing giving them a target like that?!”

“Stay out of this.”

Katsu grinned to himself watching the disagreement between the two. “Trouble in paradise huh?” He raised his hands towards the two of them with a look that said he was planning to settle everything with one attack. The invisible attack unleashed swiftly at the two. Two fragile walls erupted up from the ground that shattered instantly, but managed to take the blow. “Still playing with toys like that huh?”

‘I’ve got to get in close to him…’ Haruo tried to figure out how he was going to stop the attacks. He started running towards Katsu with his animals keeping up the pace. There were minor explosions of the grass and dirt as he could feel the attacks narrowly missing him. ‘I’ve got to keep myself moving…’ As plans came to him in his mind the animals seemed to be reacting. The panther leapt up going for Katsu’s arm, but was knocked back as it came close to him with an invisible force.

Haruo missed a step as he took a moment to see how the panther was after that. There was a strange white particle dripping out from its forelegs that had been cleaved off by Katsu. However, a second later both legs grew out of the stumps and the panther stood up charging around for another attempt. ‘It’s completely recovered… So it’s not wholly incorporeal, but not completely physical either… And one hit from Katsu isn’t enough to kill it like before… I need to learn more quickly…’ Haruo directed the German shepherd to Katsu’s blind side, while the panther was distracting him.

Yuki was forced to watch one of Haruo’s animals get destroyed by Katsu in a failed attack. He had seen through the blindside strike. His mind worked through everything trying to analyze it all. Yuki’s eyes had widened in a moment when he stared at Katsu. ‘…I’m so stupid!’

It surprised him that the rest of the gang wasn't doing anything anymore, but simply watching. He had to guess that as dumb as they seemed they were smart enough to know not to get in the way of Katsu’s attacks. ‘Haruo being too damn stubborn and with everything happening right now I can’t get into the fight… I thought I would fight with my Field to go against Katsu, but the danger is far greater than with the assassins I’ve been hunted by…’

Still keeping his distance from the fight, Akihiro kept waiting for his chance to attack. There had been too much movement and confusion caused by Katsu and Haruo that he didn't have a clean shot. He also had to be careful not to catch Katsu in his attacks. The waiting finally paid off for him as there was a moment to snag Haruo and give Katsu an opening to finish things.

Yuki barely caught what happened as Haruo tripped through the grass. ‘It’s that Akihiro kid! He’s making use of the grass again! I can’t hold things back anymore!’ He closed his eyes, focusing for a moment and he pushed away the final threads of hesitation that he had. ‘I wanted to avoid using my Field and keep this as private as I could, but I can’t do it anymore…’ Yuki saw the panther take a shot for Haruo to protect him from Katsu’s attack and disappear from the sacrifice.

‘…Ayumi…Saki…sorry everyone…’ A brief white ring rippled through the ground from Yuki’s feet. Several more rings pulsed from his feet in anticipation. A massive wave then erupted from his feet that warped the ground and all of the territory around it speeding out passing through everyone harmlessly. Behind the wave all of the tall grass was replaced by flat earth leaving nothing behind, but the gang members and neighbors, left frightened by their homes disappearing on them (again).

Once everything else ceased the turbulent wind around Yuki exploded away from him casting off the dark gray cloud. As particles came to settle Yuki stepped out walking into the earthen Field he created. All those around stared on in shock and confusion. “It’s time this ends!” Yuki now donned his white fighting clothes.

Katsu looked a little more serious in expression seeing Yuki stepping forward, but less than impressed with his display. He raised his hand towards Yuki and fired another attack, however to everyone’s surprise it was visible and colored green. It looked like a crescent thin and sharp vibrating as it displaced the air around it speeding towards Yuki.

Yuki didn't even try to avoid it as the crescent shaped attack sped towards him. It impacted on Yuki’s chest along his shoulder causing the loose dirt of the ground to be kicked up from the blast of wind. Everything happened so fast that no one was able to see what happened to Yuki after the initial hit. A second later Yuki marched out of the cloud completely unaffected by the attack. “Your wind attacks won’t harm me anymore…”