The Moon Rises

Yori blasted both of them out of the school into the courtyard below. However, she seemed to know it was coming and used her barrier to block all of the blast from harming her. Only the environment was damaged. “…Yumi…”

Whatever it was that stood in control of her stared across the ruined field at Yori. White particles hovered around her looking ready to act. “Would appear you’ve begun to hone your power that you awoke recently. This still is within my forecast.”

“I don’t give a damn about your forecast! I want my sister back! And if I have to do so by force I will! None of you are stopping me until Yumi is normal again!”

“That may be an impossibility for you.”

Black blades materialized in Yori’s hands. “I will make it happen! I am her brother!”

“Matters of family…I expected as much. But that’s not what Yumi needs right now.” The white particles slowly began to take on a different color, transforming into purple.

Jumping in with his swords, Yori had little interest in what the woman had to say. “You know nothing of what Yumi needs! Nothing!” She stood between him and his sister. However, she stopped his blades with merely the palm of her hand. “What?!”

“On the contrary, you’re more in the dark about your own sister than you seem to think me to be.”

The woman had confidence in spades. It wasn’t even arrogance; she knew she held the superior position to him. Such a look irritated him, especially since so far he hadn’t been able to do anything to prove her wrong. She towered over him in an overbearing presence despite her size and stature. It was as though none of the physical mattered to her. This woman was a tower that he couldn’t climb or go around.

Whoever it was inside his sister’s body, she managed to look not like the sister he knew. Even though they shared the same face, the expressions and aura were completely different. It wasn’t even the fact that she had pure white hair or deep blue eyes rather than soft average brown. He almost swore that he saw a different life buried in the carves that shaped her face.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Even though he wasn’t making any progress against her, he still pushed in with his body as though it would break through her defense. “Are you saying I don’t know my own sister?”

Suddenly, a force shot out from behind her hand that sent Yori tumbling back. He clawed at the air, finding brakes until he stopped on the ground. The woman lowered her hand, staring down at him. “I thought I made it pretty clear that a question was unnecessary.”

“You’re the stranger here!” He kicked off the earth and jumped back into the fight, unfortunately he ran across what appeared to be a trap. A beam of light shot through the earth where he stepped. Only his reflexes saved his foot from being cleanly removed.

“I am a stranger. My life has nothing to do with either of you.”

“Then leave us alone!” Yori released his left hand turning the black blade into an orb of energy that he shot out at the woman. “We don’t need you!”

A counter beam shot out from the side completely over taking the attack. Through the smoke, the woman inside Yumi’s stared across at Yori. “That’s where you are wrong. She wanted us.”

“She didn’t want you at all!”

“We were brought here because of her.”

“No, you were made by that arrogant bastard that’s developing a god complex!”

“There is a reason for this.”

“No, the only reason I see here is the one I allowed to be ignored when I listened to my sister. I never should have trusted him. It’s always just been the two of us, that’s all there needs to be!”

“Looks like we’re finally getting to the core of the matter with you.”

“Shut up! I don’t need to hear anything from some fake personality that thinks it knows what’s best!”

“Better than someone trying to maintain a fake relationship.”

Chapter 337 – The Moon Rises

Yori didn’t know why he kept talking to the woman. She had nothing to do with them. She was merely a wall that he needed to crush in order to reach his sister. ‘She’s the reason why Yumi’s changed and keeps changing. It’s because of that bastard and this fake woman that she’s not the sister that I know!’

Reforming his blade, he charged back in for the attack. Detecting another trap, he swiftly dodged out of the way, but only ran head first into another. It blew up in his face covering the area in light and smoke. However, it didn’t rest with just the trap, another several blasts went into the smoke.

Analyzing the results, the woman quickly assessed the situation and halted her attack. “He’s put up a barrier.”

Within the black barrier, Yori took pause, finding the situation quickly fell out of his hands. Though it looked more as if it never was, not that he openly would admit to such a thing. “Damn, it’s like she can see the future, knowing where I’m going to be before I’m even there.” Unfortunately, he didn’t have much time to think about the mystery of the woman’s clairvoyance. Another beam shot up through the ground inside his barrier.

He had to use his blades to try to deflect the energy, but not before it ran up part of his upper arm and shoulder leaving red sear marks from the attack. Yori bit through the pain. ‘This isn’t as painful as the battle with Athene… This is nothing compared to that…’ Trying to shrug it off wasn’t very easy for him. Despite all of the training he went through, it was still different for him to deal with it. ‘It’s like she said…I’m still soft…and inexperienced…’

Yori stood up blasting out his barrier to wipe away the smoke that prevented him from seeing his wall. Immediately gaining visibility, he had another beam shot at him. Not even his reflexes were enough to react to it. Only by luck of his blades being where the beam came did he have any chance. It immediately pushed him back as he quickly tried to put his weight behind his blades to deflect the attack.

His blades weren’t enough for the power behind the attack. Cracks appeared along the black blades the longer that he held against them. They had to break eventually, Yori struggled to hold their form together, but nothing he could do was enough. It only prolonged things. When they finally broke, he managed to move himself out of the danger, but they still tore through part of his shirt.

“Misguided and weak.”

Looking across the field at her, the situation had remained unchanged. It annoyed him how much she breathed her superiority with every word and expression. “Shut up! Shut up! SHUT up!”

“You’re quite the disappointment considering how much she values you.”

“Enough with your lies!”

“You’re pathetic. A small man stuck in the past. You’re looking for a bird in a cage, not your sister.” A purple barrier appeared around her and quickly turned into shards. Countless pieces hovered in the air spacing out over the entire field. “It’s best that I take you out now before she learns the truth of how petty of a being you are now.”

Yori screamed and charged straight for the woman without thinking about his situation or the one that developed before him. All he had armed with him were his swords, which already showed to not be very effective against her. Yet, he did it anyway. “That’s enough from you! I’m taking back my sister!”

Shards started to spin around in the air. One shot out for Yori that he dodged, but only went into the path another prepared for him. His sword cut through it, but he had to evade again. At every turn, she had counters and traps prepare for him. He actually ended up getting pushed back rather than making any progress towards her.

At every step he made she seemed to predict it and made attacks at them. It was barely keeping his footing against her. Her attacks became more lethal as the fight carried on. He couldn’t hold them off simply with his sword. Glancing blows snuck past him that his abilities couldn’t make up for.

Before long, he had minor cuts along his arms and legs in an effort to protect his body. None of it mattered in the end. ‘She’s just toying with me it feels like. Every time she looks at me it’s like she’s saying that she can kill me whenever she wants. I hate that look…’

“Is this going to be where you end?”

“Kill me if you seem so certain of it. You said that you would.”

“Already giving up. Was all that effort you claimed to make pointless then?”

“Shut up… I didn’t train to fight with words.”

“You already lost in words, so fight with what you have left.”

“With what I have left… I really hate you…”

“Only because you know that I speak the truth.”

“Nothing of what you say is the truth.”

“Then prove your claim.”

The fight had barely even gotten started for Yori, but it was the first time he really had a good reason to fight. His fight with Athene was pointless even though he gave it his all for her sake. It somehow felt different for him. Back then his body responded and he could keep up, but against this woman he was already feeling exhausted. His body was sluggish.

‘I don’t want to die…’ That was the only thing he knew to be true at the moment. The woman said so many things that it had his mind completely scrambled. He had questions and doubts popping up everywhere. It was distracting.

Yori struggled to move his body. It hurt, hurt a lot. It moaned and complained to him. This wasn’t the sort of thing that he did. He was a student and a brother. Fighting wasn’t something that he did. That was for the bastard Hayashi and his friends, not him. Yet they dragged him into their world. ‘I followed Yumi to this end…she wanted to go… I’m only here because I wanted to watch over her and keep her safe. This whole thing is dangerous and she’s being naïve thinking that she wasn’t going to be hurt. Everything that she already suffered in Atlantis…’

He didn’t feel like he had the sort of resolve he saw in the others around him. They believed more strongly in what they did than him. He just followed along. It wasn’t his fight. But they had his sister and they forced it to be his fight too.

Glaring across the area at the unknown woman, Yori found a little piece to make his legs move. They shook and wanted to run away. Every part of himself told him that this was a losing fight. She could kill him whenever she wanted. He knew this, but he had a small piece to cling on to. Something that was not empty or fake to him.

Hardening up his blades, he stiffened up his stance. “I’m a stranger. I’m not a fighter. I hate you. And I hate this situation. I don’t belong here. But I know one thing! I’m her brother and that will never change! Lies, fake, truth, whatever you want to say! Brothers fight for their sisters! End of story!”