Mind Games

“You’re confident that you’ll kill me.”

Shaking his head, he corrected everyone’s natural instincts it seemed. “I’m not here to kill you. I’m here to stop you. There’s a difference.”

She laughed a little at the naïve notion that Yuki still clung to despite everything. “You’re not going to be able to do anything with that sort of mindset.” Suddenly, Yuki disappeared and reappeared in front of her swinging his fist. ‘What?! When he get there?’ Takako barely had a chance to put up her arms in defense. However, his fist went right through as he faded away.

Yuki stared at the results, appearing back where he stood. His eyes narrowed a little with some slight disappointment. ‘Figured as much. She’s got the same weird protection against my powers. I’m going to have to get more creative if my powers won’t do anything to her.’

It took Takako a moment to shake off the whole experience. Once she understood what happened, she smirked a little. “Playing tricks on me.”

“No more than you.”

“What are you referring to?”

“I mean this classroom. I know you have some illusion cast over the room. That little punch you gave me let me into that.” He still didn’t know why she did it. ‘It’s a meaningless effort as far as I’m concerned. She’s not doing anything with it. So what cast the illusion?’

Her shoulders lifted a little in her shrug to casually throw off the declaration. “You didn’t give me a lot of time to clean up. I can’t be having a messy room for the King.”

“I’m just an average high school student right now.”

“Now who’s casting illusions,” she shot back at Yuki.

Remaining on edge around Takako, Yuki didn’t know when the attack from her would come. Not that he would be able to see it, he knew. Everything had to rely on his powers' reactions. He left everything up to the faith of his powers he made to battle someone like her.

Between breaths, she disappeared and then appeared on the opposite side of Yuki. She spun around her arm taking him out at the neck. However, her hand went straight through him rather than hitting anything solid like she expected. “Eh?” A fake?”

“That’s right,” answered Yuki, who appeared in a different part of the classroom.

Annoyed that she couldn’t target Yuki so easily, she launched something at him. It just was a light kick of her foot, but it still shot like a bullet at him. A small piece of debris that didn’t exist in her illusion, though remained real to her. Blowing through Yuki’s head, blood sprayed back all over the walls. His body fell over, slumping against the wall.

Shock went through both Takako and Hiroshi, unable to believe that Yuki just died so simply. “Yuki?!” yelled Hiroshi, not wanting to believe the sight. Laughter came up from the other side of the room where Takako stood. He glared over at her helpless to do anything.

“That was pathe—“ Interrupted in the middle of her laughing, Yuki appeared swinging his fist again at her. She had no defense up at the moment. He capitalized on her weakness, ramming his fist into her face. This time it connected, throwing her out of the classroom with blasts sounding off as she broke through wall after wall.

Yuki stood defiantly looking down the hole where he sent her. “Amateur…”

Chapter 353 – Mind Games

Nearly as much noise broke through the darkness of the school as Takako returned. She had a healthy looking bruise on her face from the punch that Yuki gave her. Along with it in accompaniment, confusion and surprise painted her eyes and mouth. “What did you do?! You shouldn’t be able to hit me with your powers!” Her hand lightly touched the pain in her cheek with the look of being out of place.

Takako was a girl that had never fought a day in her life. Before the incident, she was just a normal girl going to school. She had the track team and her friends. But there was nothing else special about her. So the notion of hitting, even by her parents, was foreign to her. As much as what Yuki did to actually connect a punch with her, the fact that she was even injured surprised her equally as much.

However, Yuki merely remained quiet, continuing to watch how things played out. He had to stay on top of his concentration for her.

She immediately dove after him wanting revenge for the hit that should never have touched her. Yet, the same problem as before occurred. The Yuki she swung at wasn’t real. He reappeared in the room and she jumped after him. None of them were real. “You can’t touch me!” Another punch from Yuki connected with her sent into the wall. It lacked as much power, but still sent her off her feet.

Staring on from the sidelines, Hiroshi was the only one that had a good view of what happened. He understood how Takako would be so confused. In such a situation, he wasn’t sure he would have thought of the same thing. ‘Yuki’s found a way to fight Takako. He’s the only one of us with different means of using powers. I didn’t have any idea that she would have found a way to deal with them. But this way…’

He watched the two in their introductory dance. Takako being pushed back with Yuki exploiting her weakness. While Hiroshi couldn’t boast the same degree of familiarity and experience as Yuki in fighting, the last month and more gave him a sense for the level of skill from an opponent. It wasn’t always accurate or helpful and got him in trouble on a few occasions, but it was an improving skill of his.

To behold the two fight gave him the time to test it. He could see what Yuki was doing and reading into his actions gave him insight into the fighting mind of his friend. ‘He can’t fight her normally, as he probably would like due to something negating his power. So he’s keeping her off balance and emotional with all of the illusions. Once he got her riled up from the first hit, she hasn’t been focused at all. She can’t see what he’s doing, even though I know she has the capability to be able to. Yuki’s timing is just right to capitalize on her confusion.

‘That first punch, wasn’t even a punch. Because of the timing, Takako just thinks he’s punching her. It’s all part of the illusion. He’s matching the timing of his illusion hitting her with a secondary attack. He’s using something real that isn’t created by his power and launching that in time with his attacks. And while we were both in shock over his faked death, he used that chance when Takako’s awareness was at its lowest! He’s playing her in his palm. The battlefield is completely under his control!’

Hiroshi had to look at Yuki carefully, feeling like he was seeing someone else out there fighting Takako instead. ‘It’s hard to believe this is the same person that I met at the start of the school year. I know I didn’t know what sort of life he had before high school, but even being told what I know, this far exceeds what I would expect. He might actually be able to win…’

While he did believe in Yuki’s power, what he dealt with fighting Takako before made him question if anyone could defeat her. It wasn’t even arrogance in thinking that he was better than Yuki. He wasn’t sure there was anyone that could win. ‘He might be able to overcome all of her tricks!’

Yuki came to a landing after knocking Takako down again. The real one couldn’t be seen and Takako had long forgotten that fact. Despite controlling her own illusion, she had forgotten that all she was fighting was one as well.

She didn’t stand up immediately. Looking up in annoyance from her position on the floor, she saw a different sort of person than she saw walk through the door. He looked upon her with determination and seriousness. “It’s you… You’re the one.” Takako wiped away a bit of the blood that came up from her lip that cracked from the last hit.

“What do you mean?” Reading her expression, he could see that she realized something. However, he didn’t have a clue what she discovered.

Takako stood up slowly, looking a little more calm than before. The bruises on her face only scuffed her up. She still had plenty of fight left her, by the look in her eyes. “I knew you both from the rumors around the school and the one that Saki stood in front to protect on a daily basis. The one that was more nerd than fighter. The one that fled from a fight.”

“What’s your point?”

“After I got the chance to walk through Saki’s mind I saw someone different in her mind.” Takako straightened herself out looking like she prepared for something. “I’ve gone through enough minds to know that people remember and see things very differently than reality. People are filled with self-delusions. I counted Saki in the same camp.”

“But?”

“You’ve got the same look that I found in Saki. It’s different from when you first walked in here. You were convincing yourself of what you were doing before. Now you’re committed, naively to that course. And you’ve got that look now. The same look Saki knows and fears, when you get serious. When you become absorbed in a fight. You don’t care how inexperienced I am in fighting. You’re bringing it all.”

“I’m not going to be able to stop you any other way. You might have been a normal school girl at one point, but now you’ve become twisted and corrupted because of your power. I can’t fight you half heartedly if I expect to save you.”

The demeanor from Takako changed ever so slightly. It signaled a shift in their fight and an increase in the intensity. “I don’t need saving. I blame you for all that you’ve done. This is all your fault as I said before. But I’ve also already accepted the reality. You already saved me!” Takako disappeared on Yuki attacking the fake.

She jumped to the next and next still not finding the real Yuki. However, when the fake Yuki came out to attack, she was able to dodge it this time. Behind her the wall took the shot that Yuki set up for her. ‘What was that? That didn’t feel like a punch,’ she questioned internally.

‘He missed!’ Hiroshi thought in surprise. ‘Is she seeing his attacks now? If so, what’s he going to do to keep the fight on his side?’

Yuki’s clone moved around staying ahead of Takako with agility impossible for his normal body. ‘Damn, I didn't think it would happen that fast. I knew I couldn’t survive on that trick for long, but I still need more time. It’s not ready yet!’

As their fighting reached a pause, Yuki stepped onto the questioning subject that Takako introduced. “What do you mean that I already saved you?”

“This power you gave me. Without it, I never would have recovered.”

“What are you saying? What power did I give you?”

“The perfect power for someone like me. It took some time for me to realize it and I had some help. Thanks to them though, enough of my consciousness returned. Though I wonder if they regret doing what they did to me. Since they were my first subjects.”

More mysteries compounded as Yuki only continued to learn now revelations that pushed him further away from understanding the truth. The puzzle before him was far more complex than he imagined. “Who helped you? Someone with powers?”

“So let me show you what I’ve gained thanks to you saving me!” Suddenly, Takako appeared beside herself. Multiple copies of her stood in a line together. “Let’s see how long you last against me like this!” Six copies of Takako charged at Yuki faster than even Hiroshi could see. An explosion of debris filled the whole room.