Missing the Point

The Tactician stared blankly at Yuki for a moment processing what he said. “Did you just say that?”

“Yeah, it sounded better in my head,” he admitted, taking a step back around the device he created. A moment later, he had himself gathered once more. “We’re taking Yumi back.”

She stepped forward willing to give them opportunity, though not without some effort. Purple hues began to emit from around her body in response to her call. Rapidly, a multi-layer barrier erected around her in a constantly shifting hexagonal pattern. Multi purple energy based swords appeared in the air along with passive orbs of energy. “You’re going to have to prove to me that you’re able to reach the girl.”

Undaunted and actually encouraged by this, Yori stepped up materializing black blades into his hand ready for the rematch. “I told you before I’m taking my sister back!”

Immediately responding to the offer, Seiji and Nerine jumped out in front of Yori. They took side by side stances prepared to defend the position. Full arm gauntlets materialized around Nerine’s missing limbs giving her full arms once more. A faint pulse ran down Seiji’s scar with him prepared.

Yori tried to step out in front of them, but they blocked them. “This one is mine! They owe me a rematch!”

However, it was Yuki from behind that used some of his free power to grab Yori’s shoulder to stop him. “We need you back here. You won’t be fighting on the frontlines. Did you already forget the plan?”

Growling over his annoyance, he remembered the plan that Yuki had in mind. He hated it, but agreed that it was the smartest play that they had. Just seeing the one controlling his sister standing before him made his body shake uncontrollably. He ground his teeth together knowing where he had to be. The blades disappeared from his hands. “Fine.”

“You’re the most important part of this plan, Yori. Remember that.”

“I don’t need you to tell me that!”

Saki grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back out of the line a little bit as she made her way to the front. “You do if you just start charging in blindly at the first sight of your sister. Get your head on straight if you actually want to save her.”

The Tactician gave a bit of a curious tilt of the head seeing things play out. Though the signs of Seiji and Nerine out on the frontlines did little to impress them. “I beat both of you last time, what makes you think things will be any different this time?”

“I was fighting defensively last time,” Nerine retorted, as a sign that things would be different this time around.

Then Saki disappeared and reappeared a meter away from Yori’s sister’s body with her fist hitting the barrier. Cracks shot up quickly from the impact before it shattered. “And last time I wasn’t in the fight. Things won’t be the same this time.”

Chapter 377 – Missing the Point

Quickly, the battle started with Seiji and Nerine joining Saki in the melee against the Tactician. Despite the numerical advantage that they had, they did little in changing the tides of the battle. It remained firmly in control by the one that had her.

Churning out strange noises and motions, Yuki’s device already went into action. Aside from the odd movements that it made, nothing else seemed to be happening from it. Though Yuki appeared confident in his work. He turned to Yori, who needed to do his part. “Don’t just be thinking about Yumi. They need your help out there! They’re buying you the time to reach Yumi, but it’s going to be over quickly without your help!”

“I know…” Yori cut himself off early, having more to say, but kept it to himself. He turned his head up to the sky where the fight had dragged out to by the Tactician. This normally would have put both Seiji and Saki at a severe disadvantage, but they stood out in mid air like they walked on the ground.

“Taking advantage of that woman’s creative powers,” they remarked, the fight continuing without stopping despite drawing them into the sky. “Controlling three people in a fight at this speed must be very taxing.” Several energy attacks came in from multiple directions to snipe Nerine out of the sky.

However, Seiji came in to block the attacks from the front as Nerine’s floating gauntlets took the rest of the hits. Ashes fell down from Seiji’s arms as the attack had no effect on him. He charged forward once the smoke cleared at the barrier protecting the Tactician. A pulsing line exploded from his scar on his arm as it blew away the barrier. “This won’t be like the last time!”

“Breaking a single barrier is a meaningless exercise.” Just outside of her blind spot came another attack that they mistook for Saki only to find that it was one of Nerine’s gauntlets. A pistol within the gauntlet pounded through smashing another barrier. From below another gauntlet appeared, but was batted away with energy beams. Yet it was only a feint for Saki to come in from the blind spot and completely destroy the remaining barriers as Seiji finished the charge to grab a hold of hers body.

“I’ve got you now!”

“You’ve got familiar plays,” they remarked, not feeling any sort of concern over their capture. Looking down at the roof, Yori stared at her. They watched his mouth move as counter plays went into action to break Seiji free.

Three energy swords appeared around Seiji cutting into him, drawing up blood along with red ash. He immediately had to release her with another beam coming between them. The wounds he took while trying to keep a hold of Yori’s sister were fortunately not very deep. They did nothing to slow him down as talismans appeared to seal them up.

Straightening out her body, they look back up a small distance with an additional array appearing in the sky. “You really did come in with a plan. The King is a very smart man. This should actually be interesting then. The game begins again Yori.”

“Seiji retreat and make a feint to the left,” Yori ordered softly, “Saki, there are two attacks coming in to your rear. The right is a feint and the left is the real attack. Nerine keep up the support providing false attacks.”

Staring at the battle playing around, the look in Yori’s eyes intensified. Things were playing out in a similar way as before. The pieces he had in play were stronger this time though. ‘I lost to you last time because I wasn’t strong enough. Not this time!’

He could see the moves and counter plays in motion. The field given to him was wider making it harder for the one inside her to out play him. Each play was visible to him. He felt more confident this time. Saki had speed that he couldn’t even keep up with his eyes, none of them could. She could out move even when the Tactician out maneuvered him, which happened more than he liked. He kept the pressure on them even though it still felt like they were losing nearly a third of the plays.

It was an aggravating feeling for him.

But he worked on his counter play. It was going to be the only way to win against someone that could plan so far ahead with ease. Plans within plans, ones that he couldn’t see. They were far better than him, that much he sadly admitted the last time around and it became even more apparent now.

Yori turned his head a bit to look back at Yuki. “Is your device doing anything? It’s not even slowing them down!”

“Of course it’s working, but if Yumi’s is buried deep in the layers of subconscious and conscious protection, it’s not going to be easy. You’re continuing to try to speak to her right?”

“Yes! Don’t question my commitment to saving my sister!” He turned back to focus on the fight, which stopped so much being a fight as it was a constant battle of maneuvers. The line he built with Saki and Seiji struggled to hold against the enemy’s plays. But everything was in position for him.

Saki dropped the Tactician into the right position when she forced them to dodge her. “Nerine, it’s time!”

Dropping out of the rear, Nerine left her support position taking to the frontlines with Seiji. Covering for Seiji in his charge, she manipulated her gauntlets through the air to clear away all of the moves. Seiji wound up his fists to blast through two barriers and flipped through the air to strike directly at the energy orbs put into place for a counter play.

While behind both of them, Nerine unveiled a massive gauntlet overcharged with energy. It immediately released all of the energy blinding the entire field with its light. “Attempting the exact same move as before. You have to be more original than this.”

However, the energy did nothing to the Tactician or even the barrier. It had no impact at all. Yori grinned from the roof to see his play worked. “Which is why I did it. You expected me to play moves the same way and I counted on that.” Rapid blasts of purple light blew up and faded away as all of the moves in play disappeared from Nerine true attack, an entire fleet of gauntlets.

Then from above Saki dropped down unseen by anyone, except for the Tactician, who raised a hand to block her fist only for Saki to fade through her. “Afterimage…” Saki came from a completely different direction with the real attack. Yet it was stopped completely with only one hand.

“What!? Impossible! Yumi’s not that fast or strong!” she declared with surprise. She anticipated from everything that she had seen from her fights and through this fight what her physical attributes had to be. This wasn’t even possible with what she had seen.

Seiji broke formation and tried to help Saki with them being distracted, but his powered up fist did nothing as well. He came to a grinding halt on her other hand. Then thousands of tiny purple orbs appeared through the sky and shot down all of Nerine’s gauntlets. They then tossed Saki and Seiji back down to the roof at Yori’s feet.

Slowly descending down to the water tower. “All of you grossly underestimate the potential of this body.”

Yuki grimaced watching things play out and then came to a quick realization. “Damn, it’s possible that because these personalities were created along with the power given to Yumi, they understand better how to access the full capabilities of what Yumi would be able to do.”

The Tactician clapped for Yuki’s theory. “I see someone knows how to evaluate a situation correctly.”

Saki pulled herself back to her feet, finding that her body felt surprisingly fatigued from the fight which had hardly been going for very long or even intensely. Yet the counter from the Tactician took more out of her than she expected. “Dammit, so you’re saying that how she is now is the most powerful she could be?”

“Unlikely, they’re still holding back.”

“Holding back?!”

Seiji stood up grinning at the thought of a good challenge before him. “I’m ready for round two! Being more powerful isn’t enough to stop me!”

All of the thousands of orbs floating in the air darted through the air and repositioned for the group. They moved in to end the fight before it started to grow any more boring. “I’ve seen everything I needed. None of you are worthy. You have failed to reach Yumi.” Countless beams shot in from every angle and changed directions in mid movement making their vector impossible to predict.

Saki, Seiji and Nerine prepared their defense for the attack even with the purple beams becoming the only thing visible as they flooded the sky. But just before they struck a solid black barrier appeared around them. The surface of the barrier rotated as squares broke out from the seamless sphere acting as a deflector to the beams shooting them off into the distance.

To his friends’ surprise, Yori stepped out in front despite the plan. He stared up at the Tactician intently. “You’re forgetting about me. This isn’t anywhere near over!”