5. Someone Special

Kiki evaded the attack. The short haired girl kept attempting to hurt Kiki. She swang her stick aggressively while Kiki moved swiftly. "What. Is. Your. Name?" Kiki asked the girl between the attacks.

"It's Mentari," she answered. Mentari continued to swing the stick with a fire blazed on it.

Kiki avoided her skillfully. "Nice name. My name is Kiki."

Meanwhile, Darza watched the fight. He was a little worried about Kiki, but he then remembered Kiki's extraordinary physical abilities. Still, this was not a normal battle. This was a battle of two girls having elemental powers. If only he could help her somehow ...

"Mentari, stop right now. They're not fighting us," a voice came out from Mentari's stick.

Mentari stopped attacking and flew backwards. She had a furious look on her face. "They're not fighting us, but they're ruining our plan, Moraine. Let's get rid of them."

"No, let me speak to my sister," Moraine muttered. She could sense the unique energy flow from Kiki, therefore she knew her sister was in there. "My beloved little sister Eri. Why don't we work together to create our new home? I am certain it will be pleasant," the white swan whose body was united with Mentari spoke through a ruby stone on the stick.

"Is this what you call pleasant? Destroying homes of other creatures to build our home? Stop all this horrible joke at once," Eri said with an angry tone.

"So you have chosen humans over your siblings. Very well then. Mentari, burn them to ashes," Moraine commanded. Moraine's CygHost, Mentari, started to spin her energy stick vertically. A fire tornado was blown towards Kiki, but she dodged it easily.

"Mentari, why are you burning the city?" Kiki asked as she moved around, anticipating Mentari's fire.

"When Cygnians rule this country, the land will be divided. I want to turn my part of the land into my golf course. That's why I help them," Mentari said. She blew flames using her stick onto Kiki repeatedly, but of course, Kiki managed to dodge all of them.

"If you burn this place, people will get hurt. Please stop," Kiki made an effort to persuade her. Too bad her words fell on deaf ears.

"Bold of you to assume I don't know that." Mentari made a fire tornado once again, only to be avoided by Kiki.

Kiki started to feel exhausted. She flew further from Mentari for safety. "It seems that the AcriCyg energy has taken it's toll on you. This is what happens when you aren't used to this power. You need to stop wasting time being friendly and fight our enemy," Eri advised.

Kiki was panting heavily. "I can't fight her. There must be something else we can do other than violence."

"What about when you fight for Darza? Didn't you use violence at that time?" Eri was losing her patience. Her voice showed irritation.

"I said I can't fight her! It was a different situation for Darza. Don't bring him into this," Kiki said.

Mentari created a fire tornado and blew it onto Kiki. This time, Kiki almost got burnt by the flame. Their time is running out. Eri had to think of something. Why had Kiki been able to fight the bully that hurt Darza? Darza must be someone who was really precious to Kiki. If Darza got hurt, then Kiki would do anything to protect him. No, no. That had not been it. She had not fight the bully to protect Darza. Kiki had fought the bully because she'd been outraged. Kiki had been outraged that someone is trying to harm someone that had been precious to her. The conclusion was, Darza had to get hurt for Kiki to obtain power. Then Eri would just have to-

"Kiki! Over here!" Darza shouted as loud as he could. His voice, of course, caught Kiki's attention.

Kiki turned herself to see Darza's left sleeve of his uniform got burnt. At that moment, Mentari had no idea that the heat of her blazing fire was no match to what she was about to face. In a matter of seconds, Kiki's vision changed. She was no more a peaceful, friendly girl.

"What's the matter? You're giving up? Hah, it's about time you do that," Mentari said as she saw Kiki's eyes looking down. The long haired girl with brown feathered wings was grabbing her left arm and shaking intensely. Kiki then smiled broadly.

"Chikitos? Are you okay?" Eri asked with a concerned tone.

"Here. She hurt him here," Kiki whispered. Kiki swang her energy stick and created a stone wall around and on top of Mentari. Mentari attempted to destroy the walls by burning them. Altough it was difficult to do so, Mentari kept burning the walls, hoping it will eventually break.

A spike emerged on one of the side from the inside of the stone cube and grows towards Mentari. The short haired girl managed to evade it. The spike stabs the other side of the wall. Then, more and more spike emerged from the wall, leaving less and less room for the girl.

Mentari let out a horrifying scream, "No! Stop! Stop it!"

"Kiki! Stop! She could get killed!" Eri told Kiki. Other than for humanity, of course Eri didn't want to actually hurt her older sister. But Kiki didn't listen to the cygnet.

The short haired girl avoided the spikes until there was too small room for her to dodge them. She panicked. The thought of death engulfed her. She screamed desperately, "No! Please! I give up! I give up!"

"Kiki! It's enough!" Darza's voice reached Kiki's ears and pressed her 'off button'. Kiki immediately stopped creating the spikes. She put the walls down.

"Moraine, why were we doing this?" Mentari asked, as if finally coming to her senses. Moraine was thinking about the same thing. What were they doing? Why were they destroying the city? To create their new home? That didn't make any sense. They could've just go back and live in Canada like the other Cygnians, the species of swans from space who came to live on earth.

"Let's go back to your house for now," Moraine said to Mentari. They flew to Mentari's house, leaving Kiki floating in the sky.

Kiki slowly descended from the sky and landed close to Darza. Her outfit glowed and changed back to her gym uniform. Eri transformed to a bracelet on her left hand. Kiki almost fell due to exhaustion.

Darza helped Kiki stand up. "Kiki, how are you feeling?"

"I'm okay. I just feel really tired," Kiki muttered weakly. Eri was probably resting in her bracelet form, as she stayed quiet.

"I'll call an online taxi to get you home quickly." Darza and Kiki waited for the taxi. They both got into the taxi when it arrived. The taxi drived them to their houses.

Kiki's parents were waiting for her when she got home. Seeing Kiki in a bad shape, they didn't ask about what happened and only told her to rest.

Darza's dad opened the door. His dad slapped him on the face. "Why do you come home late? You good-for-nothing son ... you're already freeloading in this house but you keep wasting your time. You should look at your brother. His grades were better than yours when he was your age. Now, you should go straight to your room. Oh, and make sure you study until midnight!"

"Okay, Dad," Darza said. He wasn't pleased of his dad's words, but there was nothing he could do about it. In this family, he would be blamed for making his older brother or his parents fight him. Darza walked towards his room. On his way, he met his older brother, Faz.

"So you were having fun outside. Congratulations for being better than me already," his brother said sarcastically. Darza ignored him and continued walking to his bedroom's door. "Ah, I forgot that you've never beaten me. And you never will," Faz added.

Darza entered his room. He closed the door gently. The bespectacled boy brought his bag onto his desk. He pulled out his notebooks and test papers. Most of the grades were 100. He had worked hard for them. But no matter how good his grade was, he could never beat his older brother. Darza's parents had been always comparing Darza with Faz. He would never be good enough. He even needed Kiki to protect himself. He wasn't good enough for everyone. For his mom, his dad, Faz ... and even Kiki. That was what Darza thought.

What was Darza to Kiki? What did Kiki think about a boy who couldn't fight for himself? She must have thought that he was pathetic. After all, in society, men should be stronger than women. He didn't want this to happen. At least for Kiki, he wanted her to see him as someone. Someone special.