Reasons for Action

The further away Yumi got the more Fumiko knew she had to move, but her eyes stared down at the camp. She couldn’t leave the two of them behind even with Yumi getting out of her sight. Fumiko had to be quick. Her hand reached down for Chiharu to wake her up, but before it came within reach Chiharu’s hand snapped out grabbing her wrist. Chiharu’s head flipped up to glare at her quickly with dark intent before it switched to neutral. “We need to move! Yumi’s awake and I can’t stop her!”

Chiharu stood up quickly, but rather than exchanging glances with Fumiko she stared at the ground. “Why is a fire lit?” Her eyes slid up to Fumiko, but didn’t find her. She turned to look at her flank. Already waking up Seiji, Chiharu kicked the fire and stamped it out. “Why did you make a fire?”

“Hey, Seiji! We’ve got to go!” Fumiko slapped him a couple of times after she found that shaking him did nothing. It seemed to get him to stir a little, but nothing that made progress. She let out an exasperated sigh. Her hand closed up loosely before glowing threads of energy wrapped around her wrist. The threads ran around her fingers into her palm building into a small flame that enveloped her hand. Fumiko then redirected her hand, opening her fingers back and pointing her index finger at Seiji. The flames all gathered in her index finger and shot out like a beam as it hit his butt.

It took a few moments of burning, smoking and searing to reach the pain centers of Seiji. Once he became alert to the fire on him, he jumped up quickly and ran panicked circles around the camp. The smoke trailed around him a little before he snuffed out the flame by sitting down. While his hand rubbed the burn, he glared over at Fumiko knowing who attacked him. “What the hell was that for?!”

“Yumi’s awake and leaving! We need to move!”

“But why the hell did ya burn me?!”

“I don’t have time for this…” Fumiko picked up her bag and staff. She started to run after Yumi in the distant direction she remembered her leaving. Seiji and Chiharu quickly caught up, taking up her flanks on each side.

“Why was a fire made?” demanded Chiharu, still insistent on an answer.

“No, why did you set me on fire!?”

“Don’t you know that the enemy could see the fire and could have attacked us?”

“I think you burned all the way through my clothes!”

“You need to think more about the situation. Remember that you’re in enemy territory.”

“This is going to leave a mark!”

Fumiko’s body shook listening to their complaints. They didn’t have the time to whine about small details with Yumi ahead of them, again. She tried to shut out their voices, but they continued. Even in her silence, they didn’t understand.

After a minute of their bickering, she reached her limit. Both of her hands suddenly lit up with flames that towered over her head. She stopped and looked at the two of them with the deepest glare of a demon that she could muster. “I can make a bonfire that everyone in the country can see if you don’t shut up! And I can turn you into barbecue if you’re so worried about your skin! There’s more important matters right! So shut up and run! Got anything else to say?”

The two turned dark blue before Fumiko’s image and shied away from her presence. She glared at them waiting for a response. When they found themselves unable to answer, they simply shook their heads. Fumiko nodded pleasantly to them and ran faster after Yumi. Seiji and Chiharu sprinted to catch up.

Chapter 132 – Reasons for Action

Despite their efforts, catching up to Yumi turned out to be not as simple as running after her. It didn’t seem possible, but she maintained a surprisingly fast pace that had the others confused. They kept her in their sights, but nothing more seemed to be achievable.

Seiji’s frustration in the situation came out in his heavy breathing. He paced it poorly, staggering him, but refused to let it slow him down. “Damn…girl… I thought we were a team!”

“I don’t think it’s that,” remarked Fumiko, with a light shake of her head. She thought back to their conversation when she woke up. “I don’t believe her actions now are conscious ones. She sounded consumed, almost possessed by her own words. I think something different is at work.”

“The hell ya saying? That doesn’t make any damn sense either! You saying they got something to do with this?”

Fumiko let out a sigh after hearing him. She wanted to pause and slap him for his stupidity, but didn’t have the time to afford him. “No, I think it’s her own power. She never really explained much about them to us, but the little I’ve seen makes me believe it’s more of a mental type.”

“How the hell does that help us?” A short burst of speed pushed him back into a tie with the rest of them. His emotions slowed down his legs pulling him away from them, but he needed to keep with them.

The lack of understanding forced Fumiko’s hand. She slid to a stop, her feet grinding into the grass. Her hand came out and grabbed Seiji by his tunic. “How simple minded do you have to be to understand this?! She’s still new to her powers! So she doesn’t have full control over them and so she balances between losing that control and being controlled by her powers!”

“What makes you think you know so much?!”

“This is the basics! Don’t you read at all? All protagonists with power go through a period of exploration where they walk a line between rising with strength or being consumed by the darkness of power!”

Seiji narrowed his eyes suddenly after hearing her response. The answer sounded too familiar to him. His face turned flat and he pointed his index finger at her. “What’s with you? You’re sounding like Yuki right now.”

Fumiko turned a little red with embarrassment, but dispelled it quickly with a redirect of emotions. “I’m part of the Literature Club!” Her hand gripped onto the fabric of his clothes tighter. “We look at this stuff routinely!”

“You sure it’s not the Manga Club?”

“I read fantasy! Got a problem with that?” The eyes in Fumiko underlined a desperation in her defense that went beyond simply Seiji questioning her reading habits. Thick as Seiji was, he saw the look in her eyes and backed away from pressing the issue.

“I do,” replied Chiharu, tone deaf to the situation. The answer did pull the two in her direction though, as she wanted. “The girl’s getting out of sight.”

“Crap!” Fumiko casted away Seiji and turned to confront their continuing problem.

Chiharu raised her hand up to the two to stop them. “I’ll go ahead and stop her. I believe your analysis of the girl is accurate.” She tapped the tops of her shoes against the ground, in a testing manner. “While my speed is not that of the Furukawa girl, I’m confident I can reach her.”

“But what the hell about us?!” Seiji stepped out around Fumiko to approach Chiharu. “We’re a group, a team. We should stick together!”

“Weaklings only slow me down.”

The response hit the cord on Seiji and triggered his anger. Lost to reason, Seiji charged her. However, she disappeared leaving him to stumble around. He quickly recovered and spun around in anticipation of a counter, like always. Yet nothing came for him. The silence made him realize. He pounded his fist into the ground, making the earth quake a little. “Damn you, brat!”

Closing the distance quickly, Chiharu found the back of Yumi in sight. It put her within hearing of the mutterings that came from her. None of it mattered to Chiharu, just endless words of no meaning to her. She found their sense of team a little troubling with the lack of discipline that they showed. Such weakness would only bring their collapse. Chiharu didn’t understand it. She focused on her target and sped around in front.

Popping out of the air, Chiharu stood in the path of Yumi’s constant pace. She noticed her feet didn’t move, but hovered instead. ‘Explains one thing. Her mental energies must be greater than her physical ones…’

Only a few moments of thought spared Chiharu before she felt a blast of wind. Before anything serious could happen, Chiharu jumped backwards and kept Yumi in her sights. She narrowed her eyes to scan her closer. Working from the theory, an absent sense of awareness did seem present. It provided the amount of confirmation she needed. ‘I'll just need to provide enough shock to snap her awake.’

Chiharu lifted her hand up with the palm spread flat towards Yumi. The next anticipated blast came after her. It slammed into her palm before disappearing. Surfacing in front of Yumi, the sudden wind blew at her clothes, but a dull shine along with a ping echoed an outline of a barrier. ‘Damn, her barrier and reflexes…thought that would catch her off guard…’ Another round came for her, forcing Chiharu to dodge out of the way. The blasts kicked up grass and ate earth after missing their targets. Chiharu could only keep up with her speed, disappearing with each dodge.

“…I’ll find him…Brother…I saw him…I’m coming…”

The futility of offense and defense quickly became apparent to Chiharu. All she accomplished so far was keeping pace with the girl. ‘Endless muttering…’ She dodged around the incoming blast, still picking up the words between explosions. ‘…wish she’d stop…can’t attack with the barrier…’ Chiharu gritted her teeth and sped around the next blast. ‘…brother this and brother that…’ She needed a new approach.

The stalemate became boring for her. Chiharu came to a stop in front of Yumi slamming her hand against the barrier and digging her feet. Grass and dirt burst up around her boots from the force. “Enough about your brother all the time. I don’t know what’s more annoying to watch, your brother complex or your unrequited love for that weakling.”

“…I’m coming…he’s in pain…”

Chiharu’s knees buckled with the strain forced upon them. She tightened her features, bothered by the last resort she came up with. ‘I’m not really suited to this sort of battle…’ Her mind wandered trying to find an angle of attack. The memories that surfaced sent her back to the night in the forest. Images of Saki appeared to her. Her thoughts of Saki rattled her concentration and ripped her away. Chiharu cursed in silence as she struggled to regain control. ‘…she’s the person for this…not me…’

“…I saw Yori…they had him…Brother…”

‘…just doesn’t stop…’ The persistence of Yumi felt a bit like trying to stop a train. Chiharu didn’t know how to do something that was impossible. However, her confidence in front of that idiot muscle-head wouldn’t let her walk away. ‘…I’d never hear the end of it from him…’ She straightened her legs and forced them down into the ground further as she leaned into the barrier. The mocking face of him gave her more determination.

“…I’ll rescue you…I won’t let them…”

“Can’t you say something else? This repetitiveness is getting boring.” Her rhetorical question went unanswered, as expected. She didn’t know why she tried to speak with the girl. Anything she had to say came out empty. She had no significance to her. Chiharu gritted her teeth against the stress that began to build up. “So annoying…”

“…Brother…I can hear you…”

“Talking is not going to work…” She pressed her shoulder into the barrier gripping tighter onto the barrier. ‘…so much for a different approach…’ The unyielding train didn’t seem to have anything to stop it. ‘…failing…again…is that all…I…’ She fought with her body to keep on track and not forced away. She needed someone else other than her. ‘…this is beyond me…I’m not…’ The pressure of the barrier crushed into her body shooting sparks through her muscles. Chiharu pulled her eyes back to Yumi. “The only one you’ll listen to is that weakling…”

“…Brother…”

“…isn’t that right?” A drop in Chiharu's voice came with her words. The constant struggle with the barrier took its toll on her. She didn’t think she could continue further. Nothing could stop her, she concluded. Chiharu suddenly felt the full impact of the barrier against her in a moment of surprise. She lost all of her strength and legs collapsed. It cast her aside in the grass, broken. Chiharu coughed and panted. She stared at the night sky. “Why him? That weakling? Why did you go so far? Someone that’s out of place and scared. Just for him. That…that…weakling…why did I bother? Damn…Yuki Hayashi…”