Un-united Fronts

Since Fumiko blocked the nearest way up to the second floor, Hiroshi led them back towards the center of the school. However, they quickly began to run into more problems. Students started to spill out from the classrooms. Their numbers kept increasing.

It brought them all to a halt while Hiroshi considered his options. ‘This a lot more than I was thinking, but I keep forgetting that Takako managed to capture most of the student body the day the school opened. I could use my power, but then what about Takako…’

Before he had any more of a chance, Miyako leapt out in front of the group. The sheer force behind her fist seemed to create streams of wind sailing off her. “You won’t stop us here!” Her voice screamed through the hall pulling out the attention of most of the students.

A percussive wave ripped through the hall sending cracks through the paint as Miyako’s fist cracked against the face of one of the students. The first year boy went tumbling back gathering up several others with his fall while others blew outward from the blast. She wasted no time diving in deeper, widening out the gap in their numbers.

The first strike made by Miyako managed to shatter the ranks of Takako’s army. However, they already started to spill back in. All of the extra people that Hiroshi brought with him jumped to Miyako’s aid, moving without orders. They seemed to be feeling the same thing as her. No thoughts were needed to know what they needed to do.

Miyako crushed an incoming fireball in her hand and decked the would-be attacker. She then turned back towards Hiroshi and the others, Yori and Tatsuya, still inactive. “Get going, Commander! We’ll hold them off here!”

“But—“

“You’ve got somewhere else you need to be! Let us handle this!”

“Miyako…”

Tatsuya dropped a hand on Hiroshi’s shoulder to support her decision. “Come on, man. She’s right. We need to get to Takako and put an end to this. It is something only we can do.”

Reluctantly, he nodded to his best friend. “Yeah…” Hiroshi rubbed his hands together trying to focus on the task. It was hard not to think about what he carried in his hands. The value of that which was dropped in them. ‘This is the course, the plan… I can’t hesitate because things aren’t perfect… This is going to be messy and dirty…an ugly mission, but I must see it through!’

Hiroshi slapped his legs out of their stiffness and went straight into a sprint. All around him he saw people he worked closely with and even rescued fighting against familiar faces that he saw all the time in school. It was no different a sight than he had seen in the past, yet it seemed to pull on him even more than usual. “Make sure you all come back alive! That’s my only order to you as your Commander!”

“Yes, sir!”

Chapter 320 – Un-united Fronts

Another rumble came up to the third floor. It made the lights flicker almost threatening to throw the whole place into darkness. Yuki had to support himself against the wall so as not to stumble. He looked down again, away from his staring contest with Yumi’s two friends. “What the hell is going on down there? We’re up here.” Yuki looked across the way to one of the classrooms. Outside in the darkness of the night, he could only faintly see some of the city. “Hiroshi didn’t make a move did he?!”

‘Damn, Yuki’s too observant. Even though he doesn’t know, he still makes the leap…’ Seiji kept his attention forward at Kaede and Katsumi. It was under the guise of him needing to be sure that they didn’t try anything. Rather, he did it because he couldn’t look Yuki in the eyes. He knew Yuki would tell something was wrong pretty quickly. ‘I just need to keep him focused on the immediate problem… Which we really do need to handle… These distractions aren’t helping…’

No one knew what they were thinking. Staring at them as long as they did revealed nothing. Seiji was used to being able to feel a little of the intent from his opponent. Yet they just seemed dead almost. Sure they had the looks, but there was nothing really behind them. It was just emotions that seemed to be fake and put on display. Seiji didn’t understand it at all. They were weird.

The worst of them was Katsumi, who seemed dead and alive at the same time. She didn’t look like Kaede at all. It seemed like she was being burned alive and yet unable to actually die. So she was just left caught in an endless cycle of misery. It was very unsettling to see.

Seiji tightened up his hands to focus on the more important matter. He couldn’t let himself be unnerved by them. “Yuki, we need to focus on this problem first. We can think about what the hell’s happening below later.”

“Yeah, you’re right, Seiji. There’s something to be said for that straightforward attitude of yours.”

“Hey! This isn’t about me!”

“I know.”

“So you going to try it?”

“Yeah, we need to figure out if we can avoid these fights. I don’t see how they could have disabled my power on people, but if they can, this will become significantly more complicated.”

“We never said this was going to be easy.”

“I know, just want to avoid what we can.”

“You’re stalling, Yuki.”

“Right…” Yuki stared at the back of Seiji. His presence seemed larger than he remembered it being. ‘Seiji’s being surprisingly pushy. I wonder what’s bothering him… Probably the whole situation, this isn’t the sort of fight he likes… I’m honestly surprised he’s willing to do all of this, but I guess he’s probably just looking at Takako and not thinking about the innocents mixed up in all of this… It’s the only way…’

Hardening up his resolve, Yuki focused on what he needed to do in the moment. Dealing with Kaede and Katsumi however wasn’t going to be simple. They both charged at them when it became clear that Yuki was attempting to do something.

It wasn’t something that he could react to. They didn’t move nearly as fast as Saki, but they were still swift. But he had Seiji with him. He saw them long before Yuki’s brain reacted to it. All three clashed just in front of Yuki. The force of their collision pushed Yuki back a little. “Seiji?!”

“Don’t stop, Yuki! I’ll keep them off you while you work!” He suddenly felt small cuts across his arm that blocked Kaede. “Damn…get back!” Pushing both girls back, he charged after them to plow them into the class through the wall.

The attack threw Yuki off his concentration. He had to refocus to get his Field setup the way he needed. It would have normally been simple, but he had Seiji mixed in. So he had to craft it very specifically for only Kaede and Katsumi.

It finished up just as Seiji flew out of the classroom and back into the hallway. “I’m done! They should be affected!” He looked over towards where Kaede and Katsumi were last. Part of the wall still remained, preventing him from getting a clear view.

A few seconds passed before they got their answer on if it was successful. Both girls walked through the opening completely unfazed by whatever Yuki put into motion. Seiji stood up and glanced over at Yuki for a judge of his reaction. It was about what he expected. A mix of shock and stoic confusion carved through the corners of his mouth. ‘Damn, this ain’t good…’

Seiji wiped away the blood from his lips. “What was it that was supposed to happen to them? You were trying to make them unconscious right?”

“They should be asleep, but that’s clearly not the case… They have somehow managed to prevent my powers from affecting them…”

“How is that possible?”

“I don’t know. As far as I know, it shouldn’t be possible at all. I gave it a possibility, but not a very high one.”

“Well, that possibility is reality now!”

“Yeah, I know… This is not the way I want things to go… We have to fight.”

Back down the first floor, the rest of Hiroshi’s group made it to the stairwell finally. All the fighting behind them pushed them on to keep fighting. They didn’t seem to run into any further troubles. But it seemed too easy. Neither Yori’s sister nor Saki had shown themselves yet. They kept expecting to see them on the first floor, but that didn’t happen.

They started pushing to the second floor. “I guess Saki’s waiting for us up here,” Tatsuya commented on what everyone was already thinking. None of them knew what either of them were planning or even Takako. Even if Yuki’s theory turned out to be completely accurate, it still didn’t explain anything about what it was happening to begin with.

It seemed that their next opponent knew where they were coming. “Just the three of you, as I expected.” At the top of the stairs, like a gatekeeper, stood a familiar and strange person. Ignoring the black uniform and other alterations, in the face and body, it seemed to be Yori’s sister. Yet, unlike her, she had bright red hair almost as if it was on fire and an equally bright pair of green eyes. What’s more, it didn’t look like a dye or something to fake the change. It was completely natural.

Yori jumped out in front of everyone before the others could even react. “Yumi?! Is that you?” She didn’t look like the sister he remembered. Appearance and hair notwithstanding, she had a far harsher appearance in her face. Like she could kill with just a look of her eyes. His sister had no such severe expression. “Who are you?!”

“It would seem you’ve figured some of it out already.”

“You’re that other person inside my sister!”

“I’m not who you’re referring to, but you’re not wrong either.”

“Make sense!”

“At present, it’s not within my purpose to explain myself. Since I knew that the forces that we had available wouldn’t be enough to stop you all, I’m here. Sometimes it is necessary for the General to fight at the frontlines as well. Such is the way of war.”

“What are you talking about?!” Yori’s whole body was shaking. He had trouble holding in his emotions. Every time he opened his mouth the words screamed out of his throat ripping through his insides. His sister was in his reach, but outside of it.

She stared at Yori unfazed by his emotional state. “To put it clearly, if you want to move past me then you must defeat me. It’s that simple.”

“You’re saying I must fight my own sister!”

Tatsuya walked up the couple steps to Yori. “Hey man, one of us can do this—“

“If that’s what you want, fine!” Yori charged at her with a black field coming up around him. It quickly charged into a sphere firing point blank at her. Smoke exploded out in all directions completely blinding everyone. All around the building shook violently from the explosion.

“Damn!” yelled Tatsuya, unable to see anyone in all the mess. “I didn’t think he had it in him…”

“The strength of siblings…”

Wind suddenly started to blow through the hall and stairwell clearing out the smoke. Quickly, he was able to locate Hiroshi, but the siblings weren’t in front of him as they had been. In fact, there was a lot that wasn’t in front of him anymore. “Hell…there’s not going to be much left of the school at this point…” Only pieces of the stairs remained and the floor. Most appeared to have been destroyed in Yori’s blast.

Also torn away was the classroom that stood at the top of the stairs. All the walls were gone along with the floor and ceiling. Even parts of the first and third floors weren’t present. As the cloud fully cleared out, the night of the city could be seen beyond.

Yori blasted both of them out of the school into the courtyard below. However, his sister 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. He didn’t think about possibilities or logic when it came to her. She was his sister and his family. That was all that mattered. “I will make it happen! I am her brother!”