Reception for the Uninitiated

Fumiko rushed over to Yori and his sister. “Can you two stand?”

The blast of fire from Fumiko set the two soldiers on edge. Both drew their swords ready to defend themselves. Philon glanced over at Kalliope hoping to find an answer from her. Unfortunately, she seemed confused by what they just experienced. “Another intruder, just how many of them are there!?”

“Looks like the Captain was right about there being more to these intruders. But I never expected a MP user to be amongst them.” Kalliope tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword thinking about the trouble they got into with their foe. “Explains how they got in though. We have an unmarked traitor!”

Skepticism still weighed on Philon. “A Meso Prosecho…” The tall girl made even them as adults appear short, making him a little uneasy. However, height played little towards his uncertainty about the foreigner. “She looks like the rest of them. MP users can only be Atlantean.”

“But they can use their powers to change their appearance. She’s probably got some pretty big crimes on her shoulders if she needs to hide her identity.”

“We aren’t equipped to deal with a MP user though! It’s normally the duty of the Ministry of Military Crimes Omega Branch to deal with these matters!”

“Stop complaining about our situation, Philon. Our honor as soldiers of the South Gate is on the line here!”

Chapter 105 – Reception for the Uninitiated

The mood became unbalanced for Fumiko. Like Yori, she kept the translator earring from Yuki with her (more out of forgetfulness than intention). She heard everything the two soldiers said between them. ‘They think I’m like Yuki?! I can use that against them, but if they have ways of dealing with people like Yuki, what sort of effect will it have on me?’

Fumiko looked over at the siblings still working on standing. ‘I’ve got to get them out of here. They won’t be any match for trained soldiers, even with ancient world weaponry.’ She stood up and stepped forward putting herself closer to the two soldiers. “Can you get your sister out of here?”

Distracted with his sister, Yori didn’t immediately notice what Fumiko had done for them. Some coaxing and force by him managed to finally get his sister moving to her feet. He saw Fumiko in front of them finally taking in his surroundings. The flanking soldiers closing in with Fumiko alerted him to the situation. “What are you doing?!”

“Can you get her out of here?” she asked again, barely turning her head.

“But what about you? I can’t just leave you alone with them!”

Fumiko smiled a little to herself for unknown reasons to even her. “Could you fight without knowing she was safe?”

Her question silenced Yori sharply with a wall before him. He glanced at his sister thinking about what she said. ‘But I can’t leave Yumi here… There were only four in the village and if Hayashi is keeping the others busy…’ Weighed uncertainty calculated through his mind staring at his sister. Yori suddenly took a firm grasp on her as a decision came to him. “I’ll be back soon!”

The distant footsteps faded away in a hurried panic. A sign to her, they had finally left them alone, her and the soldiers. While the balance in numbers had changed Fumiko didn’t feel anymore cornered than she had before. ‘This is the first time I’ve actively used my magic against someone. Can I do this?’ Fumiko weighed out the tension in her body trying to loosen up. Pressured to act made her feel uncertain about her powers.

Kalliope restrained herself from reacting to two of their prey escaping out from their grasp. Neither of the kids seemed to be of much threat to them before the tall foreigner that they faced. A power of fire meant that the entire village stood threatened by the girl. She had to protect the village from harm. The Xiphos, short sword, in her hand sang in the air focusing her determination into the blade. Her eyes stared down with Fumiko taking cautious steps.

Opposite to her, Philon had other ideas. He shifted his legs and weight trying to be careful about tipping off Fumiko. A quick glance of his eyes to Kalliope checked on her positioning. “Think you can handle her while I go after the two others?”

“They can wait. We need to deal with the MP user first.”

“We’ll have to start our search all over again if we lose sight of those two. Plus our net around the village leaves too much to be broken through.”

He had a point in what he said that Kalliope didn’t want to openly admit. Her own insecurities about dealing with Fumiko held her back. However, she saw him making more overt motions to give chase. ‘He’s right that we have too few for a proper search. We’re spread too thin. They’ve thrown everything into chaos…’

Keeping outwardly clueless, Fumiko waited for them to make a move. She tried to play up her obliviousness on the field. They already thought her to be one of them. She needed to keep them confused and uncertain. ‘I can’t let him leave for Yori and Yumi. I’ve got to do everything I can to hold them both back…’ Concentrating on her magic, time painfully lingered for them with both sides holding cautious of the other.

No further discussion between Philon and Kalliope occurred when he sprinted for the opening left by Fumiko. Ready with a spell, ribbons of magic and lines of drawn energy rapidly gathered out from Fumiko’s shoulder into her right hand. Everything happened so fast it appeared that her entire arm ignited in fire before the blast of flames exploded in front of Philon’s feet knocking him backwards.

Fumiko stepped back, ensuring that she stayed between the two of them and the rest of the street behind her. The night wind blew back the blast cloud over the street in front of the two soldiers creating a dramatic line in the sand. ‘I can do this!’

Philon coughed from the dirt road still holding on to shock. Through the breaking smoke he saw the girl staring them down insistent on not letting them leave. He caught sight of the seared ground where he might have been if he misstep. Once he regained his composure, Philon stood up locking tightly on to his short sword. “Not going to let me go, huh?”

The woman tightened in on Fumiko trying to keep an eye on her hand for signs of fire. “You hurt?”

“No, she missed me. I don’t know if it was intentional or not.”

“Still the speed of her reaction is high. You’re not going to be able to escape very easily.”

“You’ve got a plan for dealing with her? She hasn’t used any Field techniques yet. You really think it’s an MP user?”

“I know…” She actually had let that fact slip past her. As Philon had pointed out to her earlier, their job didn’t cover dealing with rogue MPs. ‘We won’t know the full extent of her powers without testing her. I’ll just have to make a move myself!’ Kalliope shifted her left foot around as she stood near a villager’s house filled with their hobbies and life smashed out on the ground. Her foot locked around a small pot lifting it up enough to cast it at Fumiko.

Fumiko back stepped to avoid the pottery losing her focus for just a moment. In the wake of the shattering clay, Kalliope swooped in taking a testing swing at Fumiko to judge her physical reflexes. Often MPs relied too much on their powers leaving their physical strength and body severely lacking. Good ones became highly refined masters of both physical and mental arts.

Mentally Fumiko had prepared herself for such a trick, but mentally prepared meant nothing in actual combat. The sword’s blade sliced through her tunic Ayumi gave her only nicking the skin, despite it feeling much worse to Fumiko. She stumbled back a few more steps trying to recover herself.

The two soldiers closed in, pressing their advantage on her causing her to hastily attempt another spell. Lines of magic barely made it down her shoulder before it evaporated on her. ‘What?! It’s not working?!’ Fumiko had no time to worry about her magic as the woman swung more focused at her. Already back stepping saved Fumiko from the blade. A follow-up to the swing came in as the woman’s extended leg spun around crashing into her waist. She fell off her feet directed with the woman’s leg into the nearby home breaking through the wooden door.

A cough came up from Fumiko’s lips as she laid on her back staring blurry eyed up at the plaster ceiling of the home she invaded. Fights had only ever been something that she read about in her fantasy books. She pictured them vividly in her mind to play out dramatically with the hero eventually winning in spite of challenges. Even though she lived in them, the real thing turned out to be nowhere as romanticized as her dreams.

Still dazed by the impact, Fumiko heard a loud ringing in her head. ‘So loud…did I get hit that hard? I’m really not a fighter…’ Soon the cloud in her mind began to clear, turning the ringing into screaming. Sluggishly tilting her head, she saw a villager petrified beyond control by her sudden arrival. ‘Am I so frightening?’ Fumiko began to push herself back up and caught a flash of Philon running off, no doubt in search of Yumi and Yori. Seeing that she had let one of them through she tried to rise sharply, but found herself dropping down to one knee. ‘Damn… I’m so useless…’

“The weakness of people like you is that without your powers you’re just a normal human,” commented the woman from the doorway. Her figure took on a more sinister appearance with the glow of the awakened village behind her. She had Fumiko trapped.

Heavy panting came as the first thing that Yori’s sister heard finally breaking out of her mute stupor. She was only beginning to realize as she came around that her body moved on its own. She turned her head stubbornly to find her brother next to her with a panicked expression. ‘What’s going on? Why does Yori look so desperate?’ The automated motions that had kept her going fell apart as she started to question things. She stopped in the middle of the alley breaking from the support she had. Losing the support from Yori nearly made her collapse not knowing how much she relied on him. ‘What am I doing? The village… everyone… Yuki…’

Yori ran back to his sister when she suddenly pulled away from him. He didn’t notice the life returned to her and tried to coax her back along. Unfortunately, he found her more resistant to him than before. “Yumi? We need to keep moving!”

“Brother?” she mumbled out of her lips nearly tripping over the words.

A word from her alerted Yori that she might be coming back around. “Yumi! Can you hear me? Do you know what’s going on?”

She tilted her head up to him, appearing almost curious in her confused questioning. “How’d I get here? What happened?”

“I need to get you somewhere safe! Follow me!”

“What?!” All of the pieces still dragged behind to come together for her. ‘Where’s Yuki? I was trying to find him…and then…’ Parts of the scene with the soldiers flashed through to her finally putting everything in place for her. Remembering brought back the emotions for her as well. The shaking in her arms returned as strong as she remembered. ‘I froze… I froze! When it came down to act…I failed…’

“Yumi, we need to go!”

Only a nod came from her before she started to run with Yori. ‘I was just all talk in the end. I couldn’t change anything.’ Her hands tightened up as she reflected on her failure. ‘All I did was cause trouble for everyone… I made Yori worry about me…’

The back of village homes gave way into the grass fields surrounding Skoupa. Their options ran out for Yori as he searched around for somewhere that could be safe. He wanted to return to the inn, but the chaos in the village made it too difficult for him. ‘There has to be somewhere!’ A flash of metal cut off Yori’s thoughts. Yori pressed back trying to figure out what happened. Checking his shirt, a horizontal gap rested in the middle as well as a thin trickle of blood. He searched in front of him to find the soldier from before standing in his way.

Philon shifted his foot forward pleased that he caught up to them. He didn’t want to have to search the entire village over again. A couple of kids didn’t mean much to him, but intruders had to be treated the same regardless. His free left hand pulled out thick metal chained cuffs. He showed them to Yori knowing the language barrier prevented any sort of civilized conversation. “Come on,” he spoke, trying in a softer voice not to intimidate them. He preferred not to have to resort to his sword to convince them to give themselves up. “You’ve got nowhere to run.”

Yori kept his sister behind him knowing that he had to protect her. He couldn’t let her be taken by the military. If what Eudokia told them held true she would be returned to the researchers in the Antarctica bases. The questions that he knew inevitably would happen then would only make things even more complicated, something that didn’t seem possible. “Stay behind me, Yumi. I won’t let anything happen to you!”

“…brother…”

The soldier caught the serious glare from Yori sensing the unwillingness to cooperate. He dropped the cuffs to the ground focusing back on his sword reaching it out towards Yori pointing it threateningly at him. The blade spoke to Yori, making Philon’s will clear as well.

Tension built in the air between the two men pitting their resolve against the other in a contest of presence. She was watching, feeling as though she turned into the background. She was feeling removed from the scene and no longer part of the flow. Yori protected her. He kept her safe. ‘He’s always watching out for me… I wanted to stand on my own… but I couldn’t…’ Shifting air pulled her back out to see her brother motioning to her to move back. The locked battle between them grew into pacing. Yori’s sister held her hands together praying that nothing happened to Yori.

Action began with the Atlantean soldier lunging out with his sword to draw more blood and bring down Yori to submission swiftly. Even without a weapon Yori maintained his focus driven purely by his need to protect. Yori dodged carefully away from the swing, remaining cautious. ‘I don’t know the first thing about a real fight… I have to watch him and learn from him…’ Pausing for the next strike proved to be dangerous for Yori. The second swing came sooner than he expected and caught the tip of his shirt as he stumbled away.

Yori’s sister regretfully watched Yori forced into a fight that he didn’t want because of her. ‘It’s my fault… If I hadn’t insisted on following Yuki…’ A pained gasp from Yori catching a bit of the blade on his arm sent waves of fear through her. ‘Yori’s going to be killed by that man! He’s going to die because of me!’ She was stepping forward by a foot feeling drawn in by the fight. Yori kept trying to dodge, but the soldier had him cornered. ‘It’s me! I wanted to do something… Why can’t I protect my brother when he needs me the most?! Why?!’ She felt at the end of her reason with only emotions pouring through her and driving her.

The one sided fight turned poorly for Yori quickly. He fell backwards to the ground with Philon standing over him still seeing the Yori resistance. Philon raised his sword up for the final attack he needed to put the kid into submission.

Everything blew away from Yumi when she saw Yori on the ground. Only the three of them existed for them. The village, the screaming, Yuki or Fumiko, none of it mattered to her anymore. She only saw them. ‘No! I can’t let this happen!’ Yumi ran into the middle of the fight streaming tears behind her. “I’ll protect you, brother!”

Yori’s eyes widened seeing her putting her back to the soldier as he came down to swing. “No! Yumi! Get out of the way!” He tried to get up from the ground, but everything moved so slowly for him.

The swing continued through, unable to be changed. She only thought of protecting when she heard the sword clang loudly. Yumi felt it echo through her back. Her eyes widened for a moment thinking that she had been cut down. However, the sword spun away from her, ripped out Philon’s hand embedded into the grass several meters behind him. Yumi turned slowly confused by what happened.

Confusion sat deeply on Yori and Philon’s faces as well. ‘What was that light I just saw?’ questioned Yori as he stared at her. ‘What did Yumi just do?!’