The Dawn Edge

“You’re able to control your power. I’d be disappointed if you couldn’t do that.”

It got no reaction out of her that he hoped. Yori wanted to see something, even a little bit of shock or surprise from her. Anything to give him a point, but she didn’t even do that. She only seemed to be closer to disappointment that he was making what he was doing into such a big deal.

However, for him it wasn’t easy to do. It took a lot of concentration for him just to maintain them. Sweat already started to bead up on his forehead and along his back. ‘I never really practiced something like this. At least to these numbers… I’m used to doing this with only a couple. I just figured I should be able to do more than that.’

Trying on his mind or not, Yori knew that if he did nothing his sister would be lost to him. Such thoughts weren’t an option. This was the only thing that he could do.

Pulling back on the swords, he launched them at the woman. They all flew straight in formation for her. But a purple barrier erected meters away from her caught all of his attacks with ease. He grimaced seeing his failure. ‘…damn…’

“Your tactics are so simplistic. It’s like playing shogi with a five year old.” She started to look bored, letting down some of her guard in front of Yori. “You don’t deserve to stand before me if you can’t even approach the steps.”

A few barrier shards appeared in the air around her and fired out beams at Yori. They went straight for him with no attempts to surround him. ‘…now she’s getting cocky... This may be my only chance!’ Yori dropped his barrier in front to take the attacks and even strengthened it knowing what he had dealt with before from him. Prepared behind him, he started gathering up his energy for a swift counterattack just as he held her off.

As the beams hit his black barrier, Yori finished letting the energy collect. It was fewer than before, but he was able to manage it better. It was about control and he needed it. ‘I’ll take her back from you!’

In moments before his counterattack, a force slammed him from behind. It staggered him forward and shot waves of overwhelming pain through his shoulder and back. He collapsed to one knee unable to remain standing. “What happened…” Something warm began to flow down his back like water. His hand reached back trying to figure out what happened to him.

The pain didn’t pass and his arms’ movements only made it worse for him. Yori felt like he was going to smash his teeth trying to bite through pain. And worse still was that he realized what was wrong. There was a large wound on his back across his shoulder. His right arm no longer had the same comfortable range and he didn’t even feel like he could force it from the damage he took. “How?!”

Looking ready to fall asleep, the woman began to hover in the air as though it was more relaxing. “It’s a simple tactic. A feint. You would have died in battle in the feudal era within seconds with such poor understanding of the battlefield. You’re no warrior.”

Tidal waves of pain crashed over Yori bringing him down completely. He felt as weak from when Athene cut him across the chest. ‘There’s no one here to save me this time… Am I going to die in front of my sister?’

Collapsed to the ground, his eyes started to close, no longer able to stay open. Darkness overcame him.

Chapter 339 – The Dawn Edge

“Yori Mizuno?” called Athene, staring down at him.

Yori snapped awake with a gasp and caught a full view of Athene. His face went red with embarrassment. “I passed out again, didn't I?”

“Convincing you that you have more than you think is more troublesome than I expected.”

He sat up pulling away from Athene. She might have been an adult and someone already with Simonides now, but that didn’t change the situation for him any. Most of his embarrassment flushed his face over his own inability that had not really made a lot of progress over the last two weeks. It was an easy cover up. ‘She’s the only person that I’ve talked with that actually seems to talk to me and not just at me. The other things certainly don’t help matters. She gets so close and doesn’t even think about it. Need to calm down…’

Taking a breath in and out, he took control of his mind and body once more, sort of. Fatigue ran thick through every part of his body. “I’ve passed out enough to make myself look anemic, but still doesn’t make me get used anymore to how weak I feel after it. It’s not just physically exhausting…”

“It’s all about practice and training.”

The Field around Athene dropped and then returned as something familiar. He had seen her use it plenty of times before for his training. “You’re not going to make me start practicing again immediately after I woke up?” His hands were already preparing to pull himself away from the situation if needed.

Athene shook her head taking a seat next to him. “No, this time you actually did run out of power. As a Meso Prosecho user I understand how you’re feeling. Physical fatigue is something I can ease, but mental exhaustion is not something that we can recover. It’s one of our few limitations.”

“You’re able to do so much with your powers. That seems like a strange thing not to be able to do.”

“The mind is a complicated organ. Even we don’t really truly understand it with all of our abilities. We’re just as likely to do harm. In our history, it’s been said that when we tried to change and alter the mind it ended up breaking people, driving them insane or just going catatonic. So we limit ourselves greatly in how we interact with the mind. Memories are the safest as they are something easier for us to understand, if that makes any sense.”

“A little…” It seemed a little arbitrary with their powers. Especially given what he had seen. “Then what about Hayashi and what he did to us? That was more than a physical change. He altered our minds and what we are mentally capable of doing.”

“I’d advise you not to speak about such things very openly. The King’s covered up the facts on you and your friends with your powers making you all out like you’re one of us. If the truth was ever to be learned about you…”

“Great…yeah that’s not something we need or even you. But should what he did even be possible or we safe?”

Athene went silent for a moment, not giving Yori an encouraging feeling. She looked to be searching for something that would give him the answer he wanted rather than the one that he needed. However, he stretched out his hand towards her lightly touching her hand not thinking about things. The look that he gave her told her enough. “What he did was never seen or even considered possible. So I don’t have a good answer for you. So far none of you seem to be exhibiting any signs. But this is unknown territory for everyone. We don’t know how this will affect you in the future.”

“So we could all be ticking time bombs…”

“I don’t know. Anything is possible.”

“Since we don’t know, let's keep this just between us. No need to start a panic or worry.”

“Probably for the best for now, just watch yourself and the others.”

“Yeah, that might be the only thing I can do.”

She stretched out and flicked his forehead again as she seemed to have a habit of doing when he was being self-pitying. “You’re capable of more. You just have to believe in it. I told you before.”

“I know, but I’m really only seeing this as defensive training so I can protect myself and my sister if the need comes to it. I’m not planning on starting fights or even trying to finish them.”

“You never know what the future will have for you. So it’s best not to assume.”

“I know myself well enough. I’m not like them. I don’t enjoy any of this and want nothing to do with it. But I’ll learn to be ready.”

Standing up, Athene had finished her work with her Field on Yori. She stared off at the village where they prepared for the party for the King. The excitement was impossible to ignore. It was positive to see. She turned back towards Yori. “We all have our reasons and not always does fate allow us to act in the way we like, but the way we must.”

The way she spoke left Yori silent. He couldn’t really say anything to counter what she said since there was experience coming from her words. It wasn’t something he was so blind to ignore. Realizing that his body actually felt good, though his mind was still loopy, he attempted to stand. Having his mind still not working with him proved his recovery to be still off a bit.

Athene walked back towards Yori with something else on her mind. “Which is why I want to remind you of something else while you’re recovering. You may not want to fight or even win, but if you plan to survive you’ll need to be able to think while you’re fighting. In the simplest terms, a battle is like a game. It’s not just about being stronger or faster than your opponent. It’s often more about outthinking your opponent. If you’re a step ahead of them speed won’t matter because you will know what they’re going to do before they do it. If you can do that then winning or surviving, it’ll be yours.”

‘Why am I remembering that now? Is this the “flash your life before your eyes” situation?’ In the darkness, Yori traveled through his mind, but he wasn’t picking up on the obvious yet. It still eluded him. ‘If I was, wouldn't it be something about Yumi instead? This seemed more pointless for me…’

His mind remained fully awake, though still not clued in. He went over the meaning of remembering his training with Athene. But while he thought about it something a little important finally came to him. ‘I don’t feel like I’m dying. It’s not like with Athene… Wait…’

Opening his eyes, Yori still felt the pain in his back, though it seemed to be calming down a little. Moving his arm still was difficult and slow, but he could push himself up. As he stared at himself, he felt a little embarrassed at his overreaction.

“Done playing dead?”

Yori snapped his gaze back over to the woman. She waited on him to return despite having the time to kill him. ‘She’s not interested in killing me. Why? Is it because I don’t even rate a thing of interest to her?’ If that was the case, she annoyed him. But she remained largely a mystery to him. She wasn’t like the last persona that he met.

Forcing himself to his feet, he did what he could to pass off the pain. It throbbed and wanted attention, but he didn’t really have the time for it. He pulled out of his swords in his hand, but noticed his right felt a little weaker. ‘My shoulder injury is affecting it… This isn’t going to make this fight any better…’

He charged in as he had no better plan. His previous attempts had failed and just wasted his mental energy. It was already feeling the fatigue from him doing more than he should have been in the fight.

The woman’s disappointment only seemed to grow watching him. “Back to your blind attacks now.” She effortlessly countered him at every turn. Nothing he did would get anywhere close to her. And she even started to look more bored with the situation.

Panting from the activity, Yori came to a stop needing a break after his minute long attempt to break through her defenses. ‘Damn, everywhere I turn she’s stopping me. It doesn’t matter what I throw at her she just stops it all. I don’t have the speed or power to even think about overwhelming her either…’

It was then that he recalled Athene’s words. It finally made sense to him. ‘Like a game, she said…’ Yori suddenly remembered an offhand comment that the woman made to him. ‘…shogi…I’m not that good at it, but maybe if I think about it like that…’

Yori released his swords and began to focus on his power. It was a rough plan, but it was the only one that he had. ‘I don’t even know if this will work, but it’s my last chance to be able to do something against her.’ His barrier came up around him along with orbs of his energy floating outside of the barrier.

Glancing casually back at Yori, she noticed the changes. “Going back to your old method of not thinking.” She didn’t even need to move a finger to move the shards of her power around.

‘I know that she likes traps, feints and counters. That’s about all I know, but if I can plan for her planning, then maybe I can finally see that confidence crack.’ Yori knew that she grew tired of his attempts and every time that he tried to do something she just smacked him back down. He counted on it this time.

As expected, she had a frontal attack prepared for him, but he glanced around and with the help of the shine off his black barrier, he saw some purple lights reflected in them. ‘Knew it, she’s got some behind me again too. Same thing, she’s thinking I’ll fall for it. Time to surprise her a little!’ Before she fired off her attacks, Yori jumped the gun having already planted enough power in them. Since they were orbs it didn’t have to indicate their direction of fire. Rather than the forward attack as expected, they went behind him and into the air taking down her real attack.

“Hm…I’m relieved that you’re not that poor with your memory. But if you think that I didn’t plan for that.” Another attack came out from below far out of sight and hidden behind some debris that he had no chance of seeing.

Yori pulled around his barrier stacking the thickness for the attack. Purple light flashed brightly over the area as the powers clashed. “That's why I have my barrier. I knew that you’d see more steps ahead of me. That’s the sort of person you are.”

“Then you should have seen this coming as well.” Another set appeared in his opening left by the gaps he created in the barrier. The beams fired quickly at his exposed back. But two swords dropped down quickly materialized to deflect the beams away.

Getting some of his strength back, Yori straightened himself out. “And I knew that you’d try to capitalize on that like last time. I did that intentionally to draw out your fire.” Another sword appeared far outside of his battle radius nearby the woman.

Shooting at her without any hesitation, she glanced at it as the whole area with the sword became distorted. The earth began to curve from some unknown force that crushed it with ease. However, it was just a distraction for the real attack that he had setup on the opposite side. She had to quickly adjust her flanks and re-establish her line using pieces of her barrier to take the hit.

She straightened up a little, looking down on Yori once more. “Finally making use of that potential of yours. Maybe this will be a more interesting battle now.” The number of barrier shards in the air around her double along with even more orbs of energy materializing. She armed herself for a battle against Yori.