Part 1

The only thing that Harry could hear around was the sound of rainfall, a rather very heavy rainfall in the skirt of the city. Most of the houses had the rooftops built with iron sheets, and there were tons of rusty trash bins, broken cars, and plenty of other things of iron, so the rainfall was deafening. It was strong enough, in his opinion, to hide the screams of pain and agony.

But he was hiding behind a pillar, holding his breath, because he feared that he would be heard by the assailant.

He hid before actually seeing it, and it was raining quite hard, but his imagination already ran ahead, displaying the stranger that impaled another person to death, using what appeared to be his own solidified shadow. It was in the shape of sharp poles, seemingly popping out of the ground, and piercing through the person, all the way up to about three meters; he even thought that he actually saw blood streams pouring to the ground.

He heard a thud, telling him that the body was dropped down. He still had enough control to not scream out of shock.

But when he turned left, he saw something black, thin, long, and sharp, swinging toward him.

“AAAAAAHHHH…!” he eventually shouted, managing to dodge it. As he thought, the shadow blade, or so he believed it was, was powerful and sharp enough to cut a pillar of an abandoned building. Because he was busted, he thought about running away as far as he could, until he saw a gun’s muzzle from the corner of his eyes.

He turned to the assailant, who was indeed holding a gun. The shadow thing, on the other hand, retracted and somehow returned to the assailant, before eventually turning to the ordinary shadow of this. He was unable to think any further, the only thing he could do was crawl backwards, weeping, and look the assailant in the eyes, hoping that he would give mercy to him.

But he then froze.

“Aaron…?”

The assailant froze as well.

He looked at the face of the assailant. He realized that it had been a long time since he saw that face, but he still remembered it in the bottom of his heart. And now that he actually looked at the face, all the memories he had with “that face” surfaced back to his mind, and along with it, the name of the assailant.

“Is… is it…?” he slowly rose, trying to approach the assailant. Before he knew it, tears were already rolling down through his cheeks, and his voice was shaken. A part of him wanted to make sure if he got the right person, but that question was buried, overcome by his wish. Seeing the shock on the assailant’s face, he couldn’t help but feel that his guess was right. He walked unsteadily, but quickly, to hug him.

But the assailant immediately turned away and said, roughly, “You got the wrong person.”

It didn’t convince him, because his memories brought back “the voice” to his mind as well, and the assailant’s voice was extremely similar, although less gentle and warm. “No, no, no, that must be you, Aaron…! Wait…!”

He then suddenly turned back, tumbled, and fell down. He felt pain on his right cheek. Apparently, the assailant swung his fist backwards to hit and push him away, so fast, he thought that he was the one falling down for no reason.

“Don’t. I’m leaving.” said the assailant. “Don’t disturb me anymore…”

The assailant was clearly no longer interested in killing him, as he turned his back to him and was about to walk away.

His eyes were now watery, but just by seeing his back, something snapped in his heart. His memories brought back to his mind a particular memory in his past, the one that actually looked ordinary and meaningless.

But that was the first time he realized that he actually hated it so much.

He grabbed the assailant, just by the end of his pants, with his fragile, shaken fingers. The assailant stopped, probably about to actually kick him, so he said quickly,

“It’s me… Harry… don’t you remember…?”

He could feel that the assailant froze the moment he heard his name. So he continued, despite that his voice was shaken as well,

“We used to spend afternoons on the meadow, looking at the sunset… you and me, and even Gary… we had ice creams… you liked mint, I liked chocolate, he liked strawberry… we tried to look at the clouds’ shapes, and count all the passing birds in the sky… don’t — don’t you remember that…”

Does that mean nothing to you…? Harry wanted to say that, but then thought that it was best to keep that part in his mind. He didn’t dare looking up, be it because he was crying and didn’t want to show it to him, or because he didn’t want to look at the assailant’s face. He could only look down, while holding on his pants with only his fingers, knowing that the assailant could pull away.

From the corner of his eyes, he looked that the feet moved slightly closer to him. That was the one thing that drove him to finally look up, even though it took about a minute of silence, and that was still with irrational fear. He saw that the assailant apparently squatted down, bringing his face closer to Harry’s. With that, he became certain.

Aaron sighed, looking tired and a little frustrated, but nevertheless, saying, “It’s been a while, Harry.”

Looking at his face up close, he noticed a lot of drastic differences. It’s been twelve years, after all… Harry said to himself. Some of them actually scared him, so he thought about actually running away.

But all those were overridden by his single realization: he didn’t make any mistake at all.

He wrapped Aaron around his arms, and hugged him quite tightly, as if he would go away if he didn’t hug him tightly enough. The tears he had been holding burst out of control, he sobbed on Aaron’s shoulder. He felt that he wanted to pull himself away, but didn’t do it anyway and stayed still, although he didn’t hug him back. He simply did nothing and let Harry hug him.

“What about… the body you just… you know…” Harry looked far at the direction they came from.

“Collectors from the streets would handle it. I don’t know if you notice it, but there are more dead bodies every day, they all disappeared by morning, all thanks to the collectors.”

“I see…” said Harry, a bit nervous.

“I think it’s been thirteen years…?” said Aaron.

“Twelve. But, yeah, you could say it’s nearly thirteen years.” replied Harry.

They were sitting on the bench at the sidestreet, sheltering from light rain. Despite that the town had no light at all, the night itself was glowing with weak blue glow all around, just enough to not blind them with pure darkness. They had to satisfy themselves with the panorama of empty streets, of broken and rusty cars and shops from the sidestreet, having nothing to drink or eat. They were a bit far away from where the body was, so Harry didn’t have to see it all the time, but he couldn’t help but feel somewhat anxious just by knowing it.

“But where have you been? You just disappeared, just… just like that!” said Harry, slightly frantic. “Not even a message or something… what — what happened…!?”

Aaron sighed, and it was a long one. It became clear to Harry that he was actually hesitant to tell him. While he didn’t want to press further, he said, “You know that you can tell me everything, don’t you…?”

He turned to Harry, staring at him. At first, he thought that Aaron would snap at him, he already gasped in response ahead, but Aaron simply stared at him, before looking away slowly. “It’s a long story…”

“I have time.”

“I’ll rephrase that. It’s a fucking long and painful story. I think that you’d actually regret that if I told you.”

Seeing that he didn’t want to tell him, he then said, “Is… is it that bad…?”

“You have no idea — enough about me. Tell me about you. How’re you doing?”

Aaron inarmed him around his arm, smiling widely. Harry was a bit annoyed that he didn’t want to share what happened to him, but he felt relieved that Aaron could still smile, just the same way he did before leaving. So he hasn’t changed…

“How am I doing…? Well, as best as I could, I guess…” said Harry.

“What do you mean…?” said Aaron.

“Well, a lot of things have happened since… you know… I got kicked out of the house last year…” said Harry. He felt Aaron’s arm, still around his shoulder, moving. Nevertheless, he continued, “I’ve been living in a homeless community center, helping people around and doing all kinds of jobs…”

“Holy shit…” cussed Aaron. “For a year…?”

“Like I said, a lot of things have happened. At least you’re free to do what you want in the community center. Before that, it’s… you know how it is… before you left…”

“Don’t tell me she’d still been beating you around and lazing inside the house…!” snapped Aaron.

“She spent more time lazing around the house… but there are times when she’s… getting wild.” said Harry. “You know, she got herself a new boyfriend to fuck with every night, not long before she kicked me out…”

“Oh, that’s what I call a terrific mother.” said Aaron, full of irony and anger in his tone.

“I just can’t bother to care about her, honestly. I don’t know exactly when, but when I stopped caring about her… it just did. Being kicked feels great, actually.” chuckled Harry sarcastically. “Now I can just live for myself, taking care of myself, without having to care for people like her…”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s-that’s good…” nodded Aaron. “Wait, what about her new boyfriend? Although, if he let her kick you out, I imagine that he was quite an asshole…”

“More like ‘I don’t care about whatever you want to do’ type. All he cares is sex, booze, and a place to crash.” said Harry. “I didn’t even know about his name at all, until I looked for it myself. He’s a gambler in Scrooge Casino, and apparently he’s pretty skilled in gambling — I guess that’s part of the reason why she fell for him.”

“That would make sense.” replied Aaron. “Now that she has her own piggy bank, you’re no longer needed. Of course.”

His tone sounded normal, but Harry knew that Aaron actually held his anger in , but something felt different. Come to think of it, he had never been… like this, even when he’d heard me talking about my mother… he must have been through a lot of things, as well…

For the first time, he started to pay attention to Aaron. When he used to have a handsome, smooth and warm face, the man who sat next to him was a man of coldness and stoicism, even though his smile was still warm. His eyes were baggy, telling him that he had been lacking in sleep. Harry even though that he probably hadn’t taken a bath for a few days, even though he didn’t smell bad, as far as Harry could tell.

The most distinctive part he just noticed was his eyes. When it was previously blue, his eyes were now yellow, with red pupils.

When he thought that he finally gathered courage to ask about that, it was canceled, so he could only hide it with a smile and keep it from being said out loud. “So, yeah, that’s the gist of it.”

“And you’re here, because…?”

“We were delivering goods to the city, but it appears that the truck spilled some of them around here. It’s clothes in packages, so we went here to search around for the packages.”

“Don’t you think that the packages would be salvaged already by collectors?”

“We did find some, but, yeah, I know that some bits will probably be gone already. They’re inferior goods, actually, so there’s no harm if some are lost, anyway.” said Harry. “I kept looking for them, nevertheless, and… here we are,” he then chuckled, with a smile on his face, “I didn’t think I’d be seeing you again… apparently…”

“Yeah.” said Aaron. His warmth evaporated, replaced by his mean look and cold tone. He leaned closer to Harry; it took him a while to realize that Aaron intended to show him his eyes. “I think you can roughly imagine what happened.”

“H — ” spoke Harry, before pausing, “I mean, I have no words… I’m so sorry…”

“That’s the fucking thing.” said Aaron. “You don’t run away. You sit here with me and talk with me, like we’re normal friends — like I’m normal. Aren’t you scared?”

Aaron rose from the bench, and walked close, while Harry could only slide away while sitting, feeling a bit scared. “I’m literally a curse now. My eyes are literally yellow with red pupils, you know it. People would scream and shout in fear and run away the moment they saw yellow eyes with red pupils.” He started to grab Harry by his arms. “But not you! You still talk to me like we have before?! How? How the fuck?! Answer me…!”

“C-calm down, Aaron…” Harry pulled his grab away from his own arms, “Well, I… I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared at all, but… why would I be scared of you…?”

“Because I’m a curse now…!”

“But you’re still Aaron…!”

“Aaron’s dead! He’s long gone! This guy is no longer the Aaron you know!”

“Don’t say that. You know yourself that’s not true…”

“Not true?! You think that…”

Shadow, or rather, shadows, grew and expanded behind him into long and thin tentacles, the same way like the ones he saw previously. They were all sharp-pointed, and they were all aimed at Harry. But he noticed that there was also a shadow silhouette of a person behind him, about twice Aaron’s size, possibly Aaron’s own personification of the shadow.

“… the Aaron you know would be this menacing and dangerous? I literally just impaled a man, and you know it — you literally saw it yourself! You think that Aaron you have known is still alive and well?! I never knew that you’d be this naive…”

In the first minute, it was the Aaron he recognized, and in the next minute, it was a temperamental, hostile man he had never met. Seeing that the two of them were one and the same person, he was honestly shocked. It made him realize that he had never really seen him getting angry, much less to this extent, since he himself had never done something extremely naughty either, and even then, he didn’t imagine that he would ever go that far when getting angry.

He could only respond in spontaneity, “Then-then… then why are you sitting along with me…?”

“Because I’d know that you’d tail me wherever I’m going, for crying out loud!” shouted Aaron, stomping his feet, it made Harry think a bit of a little girl that threw tantrums. “You’ve always been naive and gullible since you’re a child, I had to stand up to you so many — ”

He paused abruptly, before calming himself down — the tentacles and the big shadow retracted back to his normal shadow — and continuing, “You’d better off on your own now. You’ve matured now, and it looks like you’re independent. You don’t need me anymore… we can just pretend that we’ve never met…”

His voice was anything but screams of anger; he sounded extremely exhausted, Harry nearly didn’t hear what he said at all. When he was clearly angry, looking from his face, it transformed in less than a second, into tiredom and sorrow. He turned back, about to walk away, as he said, “I hope that you live a happy life… I truly do… but I hope that you’ll understand that we can’t go back like it was before… that Aaron you know was dead…”

So he walked away.

Aaron nearly brought his shadow out, to attack whoever it was that attacked him from behind, with a slow, big bump of fist on his back.

But he was mistaken.

“I said that I’m doing as best as I could… but to be honest… it’s not really good…”

He could tell that Harry was holding his tears and keeping his voice steady, as best as he could, but it still sounded shaking nevertheless.

“Mom’s a bitch… has been a bitch, his new boyfriend’s no better… I always say that I’m fine, that I don’t care about her at all, and… and that’s probably true — partly true… but… but, when they finally kicked me out, you know… that’s when I felt so relieved…”

Of course… the truth is, he’s always been keeping it inside him… thought Aaron to himself.

“Finally I’m free, doing whatever I want for myself… that’s what I thought… but that’s all there is…” continued Harry, behind him. “I’m just relieved… just live and survive everyday, doing jobs and eating and sleeping and having light talks with other people, but I didn’t know what was missing… until I saw you again…”

He could tell himself that his body became a bit tense as Harry said that. A part of him wanted to push him away and ran away as fast as possible, leaving him all by himself. But in the end, all he could do, and all he did was simply tensing a bit and staying still, not replying and not even moving.

“I miss the old days… I want to go back to those days… where it’s only the three of us… watching sunsets, riding bikes, going to plazas, anything we used to do together…” Harry’s voice shook even more. “I know that it’s probably selfish of me… I don’t know what you’ve been through, although you won’t tell me, but I know that it… it must hurt you so badly… but at this point… I — I couldn’t care less… even if you’re a curse… please… please don’t leave me anymore…”

Shut the fuck up! How long are you going to be fucking clingy like this?! You’re about nineteen years old — nearly twenty years old, and you’ve been well enough all by yourself. And you want me to parent you like before?! How fucking selfish do you want to be, for fuck’s sake?! What about me?! First, I lost my parents, and then I lost her, and then I became the very thing I hate! I have to constantly do all kinds of nasty things and deal with horrible people, I end up having to look over my shoulder all the time! Now I have to take care of you?! Go fuck yourself…

… was what he wanted to say.

But it was stuck in his heart.

Aaron just realized that Harry apparently wrapped him around his hands from behind. So he moved his hand, about to hold his hands, his mouth about to open, ready to say something entirely else…

Except that something blasted behind him.

Part 2

BBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…!!!

The impact was powerful, desolating almost everything around it, although it wasn’t damaging for Aaron’s body. Regardless, he summoned his shadow, and wrapped himself with it. The real problem was Harry, who actually received the impact head-on. He immediately wrapped him as well with his shadow, and checked his condition. As far as he saw, Harry was unconscious.

But a rusty broken car on the street, along with other cars, previously behind him, was thrown away by the impact, and although it didn’t hit him at all, he saw that the rusty broken car was flattened quite badly.

That was when he realized that Harry was quite likely dying.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck… Harry… Harry…?” Aaron slapped his cheek twice, as gently as he could. It was hard, because his hand was shaking, and he felt that, if he didn’t hold himself, he could actually punch him in the face, if it would wake him up by force. He didn’t wake up, however, even though Aaron could tell that he was still breathing. Oh, fuck… a blast that powerful from behind… broken ribs, punctured lungs, head injuries… what else could it be…?

No! Right now, I need to get him to a hospital…!

“HEY!”

Before he left, he heard the sound of an adult male, a bit of a bass sound; it was sudden and obviously full of fury. What surprised him was the fact that it was a familiar sound.

“DON’T YOU DARE LEAVE, YOU FUCKING CURSE!”

He turned back, and saw a single person, carrying what appeared to be a big cannon on his right arm. It wasn’t clear who the person was, because he stood too far. By the time he finished assessing the rough situation, the person already fired another ammo toward him.

This time, he was ready. He rode the shadow and dodge the cannon, flashing toward the cannon holder right away. He wrapped himself, and Harry, to shield themselves against any incoming attacks and obstacles. The distance between him and the attacker was hundreds of meters, but he covered it in less than a minute. And with that big ass cannon, you can’t really run… thought Aaron. Moron.

Up closer, he saw that the cannon was energized with the user’s own magic energy, because there didn’t seem to be any slow for the ammo. The firing rate of the cannon was surprisingly fast; even as Aaron approached, the attacker had fired more than twenty shots by his count, all of which was fairly accurate, if not because of his skillful maneuver.

To him, since he had done it so many times, it felt as if the shots themselves slowed down as it approached him, allowing him to dodge it without a single doubt. Wind and raindrops hit his face quite harshly, due to his movement speed, but it didn’t bother him at all.

He shouted, as he was close enough, “You REALLY think you can harm him UNSCHATHED?!”

With a single straight upper swing of his right hand, the shadow burst out from the ground into a paper-thin, long and tall wave, cleanly slicing the attacker, as well as everything else in the way, into halves, in a single go. His other hand was holding on Harry, who was still unconscious. Blood fatigue hit him right away, although he was still enough to continue. He thought that the next move of his would be going straight to the hospital.

But when there was nothing ahead of him, another person popped out of thin air.

It was a man. But from a single glance of his face, there was lots of information to process, all of them were actually terrifying.

He was probably about fifty years old, but he appeared to be midway in swinging his leg for a roundhouse kick quite well, aimed straight to his head. Instead of ordinary shoes, he was wearing the kind of shoes with a knife attached to it. It was sudden, but just at the right time when he had his hands and mind preoccupied to control his magic, and he could tell that he would most likely die right away if it actually hit him. The most surprising and shocking information he received was the eyes of the man.

Silver eyes with purple pupils.

FFUUC — Just in the nick of time, he managed to dodge the kick, by leaning backwards, all while holding Harry and his right hand still above his head. By the time he turned back and was about to attack the newcomer, the man already disappeared, nowhere to be seen.

Teleporter… that’s a pain in the ass…! Thought Aaron. He decided to completely wrap himself with his shadow, leaving only a bit of gaps to look around him. “Where the fuck are you?! Come out and show your face!”

“Ngh…”

A weak grunt of Harry’s on his arm was the one thing that made him realize that Aaron had been holding him. “Harry…?” called Aaron, thinking that he was awake, but what he saw instead was his face, still unconscious and in pain.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake… I need to take him to the hospital…!” said Aaron. He was about to ride his shadow, flashing away from the battlefield.

“Not happening.”

After the man spoke, another explosion happened. Because he was on the thought of escaping, he didn’t see what caused it or where it exactly came from, or even if the bomb itself was teleported right in front of him. The one thing that he knew was that the explosion was particularly powerful, his shadow barrier was weakened by the attack, although it wasn’t enough to actually destroy it.

“What the — the fuck you mean — ” screamed Aaron, frustrated, but because he still realized that Harry was still unconscious and gravely wounded, he snapped, “Oh, fuck it, leave me alone!” and fled, this time, into an abandoned building next to him.

Let’s see how well you teleport inside a dark building you’ve never been into… thought Aaron.

In a glance, it appeared to be the remains of a hotel. He entered a big lobby with all the decorative chandeliers, statues, and fountains, as well as wide reception tables ahead of him. The light of the night from outside didn’t reach the interior of the building, so with normal eyes, it was pitch black. With his yellow eyes, however, he could see well enough in the dark, as if he was using night goggles.

As far as I know, only some of the blessed can see in the dark… thought Aaron, as he spread his shadow to darken the dark side of the hotel. And there’s no telling of how his teleportation works in the first place… what a pain in the ass.

He picked up his phone from his pocket, and made a call, after hiding in the dark to a corner of the lobby. He shouldn’t have slept yet at this hour… thought Aaron, as he looked at his surroundings.

A man, certainly the same teleporter, landed in front of the hotel from thin air. This time, he had zombie swords on both of his hands — by his first glance, it appeared to be high-frequency ones — while the knives on his shoes were still there. He simply stood in front of the hotel, looking at the building, before shifting his silver eyes with purple pupils into the interior. He could tell that he was scanning for any movement inside the hotel.

He knew that I could ambush him inside this hotel. Smart. Thought Aaron. It appears that he can’t teleport to places he has never been to… he must be relying on his sight.

“What…?”

The phone call was answered, so Aaron spoke, keeping his voice low, “Gary, where are you…?”

“The bar, as usual — no, I haven’t…”

“I’m under ambush right now. And by one of the blessings, of all. Come and help me right now.” cut Aaron. “I’m in Rusty Streets, inside Hotel… Hotel Ambrossia, or something like that…” he recalled the name of the hotel as he entered it. “”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, what did you do…?”

“Later. Just get here, quickly, right fucking now.” said Aaron, before hanging up the call.

“This is ironic,” said the teleporter suddenly. His voice confirmed that he was at least above forty years old. “You had never cared about innocent people’s death, be it your own doing or someone else’s, until it’s someone you apparently care about.”

It felt like a stab on his heart.

Nevertheless, he replied, with a loud voice, “Yeah, call me a hypocrite or whatever! I don’t fucking care!”

“Then you shouldn’t mind if I don’t fucking care about the one on your wrap, should you? I’d like to make it as painfully and slowly as I can.”

Calm down, calm the fuck down… he’s trying to rage-bait me… Aaron thought to himself, biting his lips, “Ha-ha-ha… as if you can do that…!”

“So I take it that you have never actually dealt with a blessing? That would mean that you’re relatively a new curse.” said the teleporter. “The real experienced curses wouldn’t underestimate the blessings.”

“Bla, bla, bla. All talk, no…”

BBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…!!!

The one thing he knew, before realizing that the hotel was bombarded from outside, was that the hotel shook greatly, before eventually falling and crumbling down, squishing whoever inside the building, in a matter of seconds. In a normal situation, he could shield himself from all the rubble, but with Harry still unconscious on his arm, he couldn’t afford being buried by the whole building itself. So he instinctively burst out of the building amidst the rubble and the chaos that followed.

As he got out of the building, he saw that the entire building was indeed blasted to bits. It appeared to be blasted from outside, rather than from inside, aimed only at the pillars of the building. How the fuck could he destroy the entire building…?! That’s raw power, and the one capable of doing that…

“What did I say?”

The voice came from below, so he looked down; apparently there was a big hole in the middle of the abandoned city, tearing the drainage system wide open.

Below him, the teleporter was carrying another man on his back, who happened to have a big cannon attached onto his right arm. It looked similar to the very cannon, as well as the very same person that he sliced previously, completely alive and breathing, as if he had never been sliced up into halves. Up close, its diameter was about half a meter, while its length could reach up to two meters. Inside the muzzle was complete darkness, because he didn’t bother to look into it anyway, and he was right in front of the muzzle, just less than a meter away.

By reflex, because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to shield himself and Harry from the attack, he decided to dodge it. He latched his shadow onto anything concrete and solid enough around him, including the cannon’s muzzle itself and the hole’s cliff, and pushed him away from his aiming line.

And it was just in the nick of time. He had to tear off the wrapping shield, while keeping bits to protect Harry, and dodge the burst of energy, in the form of a big launched ammunition. Even as it nearly grazed him, he could feel the energy, somehow making his body somewhat slightly electrocuted and singed, but he knew that it would be death for him if he ever got in contact with it.

And only out of adrenaline, he blocked the piercing attack of the teleporter, straight from above — he summoned a bit of his shadow to be a sword attached to his arm, fortunately strong enough to block his sword. It was exactly after he managed to dodge the cannon attack, somewhat as if he had expected what would happen.

Up close, he could see that the man was indeed at least older than forty years old. Unlike the emotional cannon holder, he looked calm, if not almost expressionless. But Aaron, having seen it so often, was well aware that the man was actually enraged. His silver eyes, with purple pupils, looked straight and deep at the yellow eyes with red pupils, it made him wonder if the rage itself was actually aimed toward Aaron, not just all the curses.

He then swung his leg to kick him in the head, before he thought further about it. It was abnormally fast and strong, it was only possible for a man in his forties, because he was a blessing. Although he could shield his own head from the kick, he was pushed away by it.

“You’re trapped now!” shouted the cannon person, alive and well. That was when he realized that he intended to push him back to the cannon’s aiming line all along. The kick itself was strong, and with the element of surprise, he returned to the cannon’s aim all along.

Thinking that he could let the momentum push him and drive him past the cannon’s aim, he added more to the direction of his momentum. The problem, however, was that he wasn’t sure if he could do it fast enough. Harry was completely wrapped and shielded with his shadow, but he knew that it wouldn’t be able to stand a single shot from the cannon. The teleporter, on the other hand, already disappeared from his sight, he knew that the teleporter would be waiting in a corner for the right moment to strike again.

Fortunately, a bolt of lightning charged and hit the cannon holder. It was in the form of a thin, straight line, but the sound was deafening, and by the time he passed by the cannon, he saw the cannon holder frozen, his skin marked with lightning marks, his eyes and mouth wide open, his chest punched into a hole.

Fucking finally…! Thought Aaron, but it didn’t lower his guard. He landed back on the street, and rode his shadow, moving fast toward where the lightning bolt came from. His eyes looked at his surroundings, in case the teleporter popped out again. The cannon holder’s body, on the other hand, fell down to the big hole, swallowed by darkness. Now he was certain that he was dead.

Soon enough, he saw Gary on the top of a building, looking at the incoming Aaron. He crawled up to the rooftop, and wrapped him along as well into his shadow, forming a bubble-like flexible vehicle of shadow. “There’s another one — he’s a teleporter, and he’s good.”

“Oh, that’s no joke… never mind that, what the fuck is going on? I thought your job tonight was just a break-in…” started Gary.

“Yeah, and then we ran into them blessings. I’ll tell you more about it, right now, we need to flee…”

“Flee? You mean desolate them to dust!?” shouted Gary, as he intended to walk out of his shadow bubble and prepared purple fire on his palms.

Aaron immediately pulled him back, as he flashed forward, away from the battlefield. He immediately added, “Not now, for fuck’s sake! We need to get to a hospital!”

Gary’s anger evaporated, immediately replaced by confusion. He looked at Aaron, and asked, “What…? Hospital…? Who — what for…?”

Aaron smirked. He opened the wrapping and revealed his face, saying, “It’s been a long time. Remember him?”

Part 3

“OH, FUCK NO!” His hands were already engulfed with purple fire, so he aimed to punch Harry, right in the face.

He didn’t move too fast, so Aaron managed to push him away from Harry. The shadow bubble was dispersed right away, setting a few meters between Aaron and Gary.

“What the fuck…?!”

“NO, NO, NO, WE’RE NOT BRINGING HIM BACK ANYMORE…!”

“WE’RE JUST TAKING HIM TO A HOSPITAL!”

“AND THEN YOU’RE TAKING HIM TO OUR PLACE — I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GOING DO! YOU’LL BE DOING THE EXACT SAME THING TWELVE YEARS…”

The teleporter appeared to take the chance to attack. He popped up behind Gary, at the left side, his blade aimed to thrust on his ribs. However, knowing Gary, he easily moved his left hand to protect himself, forming big boulders of ice to shield him. Although the sword cut half of the boulders, it stopped midway, before getting stuck in the ice boulders.

“… AGO! WE DON’T NEED A CHILD TO FEED WITH MILK, NOT ANYMORE…” Gary still shouted while defending himself from the teleporter. He then clenched his left hand, and the ice boulders exploded, in the teleporter’s direction. He could see that the explosion made the boulders into sharp pieces of ice, good and fast enough to impale anyone.

But as Aaron predicted, the teleporter could move just as fast enough to dodge all of them. What remained behind Gary was rubble and pieces of ice, without a single blood drop.

“I can do it for you, don’t worry.” Gary spoke, “I’ll make it fast…”

“Don’t even think about it.” snapped Aaron, as he wrapped his surroundings with the same shadow bubble; this time, he didn’t include Gary. “I’m not fighting them. I’m taking him to a hospital. Feel free to join, or stay here and fight them — seems like you can handle them just fine, but be wary. I cut that cannon guy into halves before you came, and he came back up like nothing happened…”

It was as if his words jinxed both of them. From afar, a sound of blast was heard, before quickly followed by an incoming bullet of energy. Gary blocked it, by throwing the purple fire on his hand, in a straight alignment with the attack itself. But soon after, another bullet was fired behind the first one, passing through the smoke, and that was before another third bullet aimed at them as well.

“But I pierced his chest…!” shouted Gary. He started to run toward Aaron, so he instinctively let him into the bubble. Aaron then flashed backwards, away from the cannon holder; the remaining attacks missed way behind them.

“Hell, I sliced him into halves! There’s a trick to that, whatever it is, but I don’t intend to find that out right now!” said Aaron.

“Cousin…”

Gary grabbed him by his shoulders, and turned Aaron to face him, while the bubble itself moved forward just as fast. He was about to dismiss his hand, but seeing his face, he said nothing, knowing that he was being serious.

“You really think that any hospital would accept him? With you carrying him?”

This time, it appeared that the cannon holder aimed, no longer at them, but at their forward path. The street ahead, as well as abandoned buildings, were rained by his bullets. He saw that they were now small, but far more rapid than simply a one-time cannon shot. He couldn’t tell if the shadow bubble would be strong enough to defend them against the nonstop attacks, but right now, he didn’t like the idea of testing it.

Gary launched a lightning bolt toward the cannon holder far away. This time, it was spreading, instead of making it a single straight line. Sure enough, the attacks stopped, although he couldn’t tell if it did hit him or simply obstructed him.

He continued, “Anyone associated with curses will be apprehended. We had to go through great lengths to make sure that he had had nothing to do with us, remember? Now we’re carrying him…”

“At least — I-I’ll put him on the street…” stuttered Aaron. He realized from his voice that he was quite panicked, even by being brought to that topic.

‘I’m not even finished yet. I looked at him, and I’d say, at this rate, just taking him to a hospital would probably not be enough…” said Gary. “And anyway, does he have company insurance or something that would guarantee him being hospitalized…?”

“Not that I know… he was here because he had a job from the homeless community center…”

“So definitely no insurance. He might as well be dead already.” said Gary coldly. He glared at Aaron, as he said, “What else are you expecting? Why do you keep holding on to him?”

The bubble jumped over the damages done by the previous repetitive attacks. From the corner of his eyes, he saw that the damages on the road and buildings were no small trifles. From what he recalled, there were supposed to be cars and buses and whatnot, right on where the cannon folder rained smaller energy bullets. But what remained in the area was large craters, consisting of an uncountable amount of small craters, destroying and digging the ground, about half a meter from the ground’s surface. A part of his mind confirmed that he wouldn’t be able to hold off against that kind of attack, at least no more than half a minute.

But he could only look Gary in the eyes, ultimately saying nothing. He didn’t know how bad the wounds were internally; although he knew Gary had a lot of reasons to make it up, Aaron thought that he didn’t lie anyway, and that it would make sense.

If I can’t trust the hospitals, the other option would be…

“Well? Answer me?” asked Gary again.

“If hospital won’t do, I’m going to — ”

BBBBOOOOOMMM!!

Before he finished it, an explosion occurred next to the bubble; he didn’t know if it was an explosion by a grenade of an explosive, or something else. The one thing he knew was that it was abnormally powerful, it actually broke through the bubble’s defense.

Both Gary and Aaron were propelled by the impact alone, while Harry was still wrapped within his shadow wrap; he did his best to not to shake him too much. It didn’t damage them at all, as they simply slowed down their impact with their own powers, but Aaron realized a bit late that it was meant, all along, to hinder their escape.

“Damn, this ninja is fucking relentless.” cursed Gary.

“Agreed — ninja?”

“This guy is not a teleporter. He just moves fast, it looked — ”

Gary simply moved his left palm upward, right toward where “the teleporter” was about to cut him. As a response, he sprayed a rough and robust burst of ice and snow, aimed toward him. It was hard to tell if it hit him, because it was sprayed with a wide radius and lengthy distance. But as soon as he stopped spraying it, he didn’t see anyone or anybody being frozen by the ice and snow.

“There it is again. Jumping midair to dodge my ice. It’s not teleporting, but he’s no joke, either.” said Gary.

The fatigue in his body increased. He reckoned that it had probably been an hour since he used his power, but he had been using it to the extreme for just a few minutes, and it was more taxing. Regardless, he wrapped himself with the same bubble of shadow, except that it was now smaller, only big enough for himself and Harry. “We don’t have fucking time for this, for fuck’s sake…!” said Aaron, frustrated.

“Building!” pointed Gary to their back. It was a grocery story, definitely smaller than the hotel he went in previously, but he realized that the grocery store was surrounded by other taller buildings. He thought that it wouldn’t stop the cannon holder from demolishing the entirety of it, but regardless, they both ran into the grocery store.

As expected, and thankfully, there was nothing and no one inside. The shelves were all empty and dusty; some were even tumbled over. Like in the hotel, it was dark, illuminated only by bits of light from the outside. The difference, however, was that the glass windows were completely broken, while the doors were barely hanging off the hinges, leaving a wide area to cover from their blindspots. They could only lean on to the back side of the grocery store, the only side where it was all walls, and he thought that it alone wouldn’t stop either the cannon holder, or the “teleporter.”

“I can’t believe this… you’re really going to rescue him…?!” said Gary. “Mind you, we can’t escape easily, not when this person will keep tailing us with that speed of his. Now we have to — ”

“We’re not repeating that.” cut Aaron, firmly. “Right now, it’s either retreating together, or distracting them while the other one retreats.”

“Or making them…” said Gary blatantly, before abruptly ending it. His mouth paused, half-open, while his face froze, as if he was realizing something. Aaron looked behind, thinking that the “teleporter” was behind him, but what he saw was instead just a tumbled shelf, supposedly good enough to act as his one-time shield.

“What?” said Aaron, confused. “Making them what? What are you saying?!”

He closed his eyes and sighed. “Or making them think that they’ve succeeded…”

Aaron glared at Gary. He immediately understood what he actually meant, and it pissed him off that what he suggested had a bigger chance of success over his two previous suggestions, but also a tougher difficulty to actually do. “Oh, no… you mean that…”

“And then you have to take him to her… because you have to save him…” Gary’s voice went lower and colder, the complete opposite of his usual and previous temperamental behavior. Aaron thought that the surrounding turned darker and colder, most likely because of his power taken over by his emotions. “That’s the only surefire way to save him from that current condition…”

“Gary… are you okay…?” asked Aaron, a bit scared. “They didn’t attack you psychologically or something…?”

“I’ll distract them, just for a while. You do what needs to be done.” said Gary, quicker than normally. “And for fuck’s sake, don’t make me regret this.”

Before Aaron said anything further, he stepped out of the grocery store.

“I can’t believe this… you’re really going to rescue him…?!” said Gary. A part of him urged him to ask Aaron how he could ever meet Harry, again, in all places and times. But considering that they were in quite a tough pin, and knowing that Aaron wouldn’t answer that right away, he held himself from uttering the words. “Mind you, we can’t escape easily, not when this person will keep tailing us with that speed of his. Now we have to — ”

Aaron cut him, “We’re not repeating that. Right now, it’s either retreating together, or distracting them while the other one retreats.”

He then turned his head toward the long thin shadow wrap. It was no brainer to say that he was concerned about Harry’s well being, judging from his face.

Something inside Gary exploded, when he saw it. He couldn’t tell what exactly it was, but he knew that there was an urge from within to tear the shadow cocoon and rip apart whatever’s inside it. The one thing that stopped him from the urge was Aaron, who was next to the shadow cocoon, with concern etched on his face.

No, no… at least not now… he thought to himself, he tried to think of something else to put down the urge. What should I think about? What should I…?

“Or making them…” said Gary spontaneously, before stopping it abruptly.

An idea came to him. To be exact, an idea resurfaced into his consciousness. It was something he had actually been thinking about from the very beginning. Gary was half-surprised that he didn’t think about it at all, considering that he had been dealing with them before he arrived.

Is it because he was too concerned with him…? He couldn’t think clearly because of him?!

No, not really… he never really liked that power in the first place…

But, still…

“What?” said Aaron, confused. “Making them what? What are you saying?!”

Fuck. He cursed himself, as he closed his eyes, to avoid Aaron’s gaze. The urge, however, kept pushing him to open his eyes and retract his words in front of Aaron. He wondered to himself why he ever spoke it out loud, even if just a bit, but now, he couldn’t pretend like he said nothing either.

NO. PRETEND LIKE IT’S NOTHING.

YOU CAN STILL UNDO IT.

But despite all that, he sighed, opening his eyes, but looking away from Aaron’s gaze. He proceeded, putting his mind into autopilot, “Or making them think that they’ve succeeded…”

Aaron glared at Gary. Seeing his face, although from the corner of his eyes, he immediately understood what Gary actually meant. “Oh, no… you mean that…”

WHAT A MORON.

YOU COULD HAVE SUGGESTED RUNNING AWAY, AND HE WOULD HAVE REALIZED THAT HE WOULD FAIL RESCUING HIM.

INSTEAD, YOU GIVE HIM THE REAL SOLUTION.

HE’S GOING TO BE ABLE TO ESCAPE FROM THESE BLESSINGS, AND THEN —

“And then you have to take him to her… because you have to save him…” the autopilot mood of his mind backfired. What he thought, and feared, was expressed openly in front of Aaron. Along with it, the grocery store turned darker and colder, although he didn’t intend to do it. “That’s the only surefire way to save him from that current condition…”

“Gary… are you okay…?” Aaron asked eventually, a bit scared, but Gary could tell that he was still worried for Harry. “They didn’t attack you psychologically or something…?”

AND BECAUSE OF THAT, HE’S GOING TO LIVE, AND EVENTUALLY, HE’S GOING TO STAY WITH THE TWO OF YOU.

The urge grew louder and more savage in his mind, despite his autopilot mood. He didn’t doubt that, if he didn’t leave the store, he would go on rampage toward Aaron, but especially toward the shadow cocoon. It sounded like a delightful result to him, at first, but he was still collected enough to realize what would happen afterwards if he ever did that.

So he walked out of the store, as normally quickly as he could, as he said, “I’ll distract them, just for a while. You do what needs to be done. And for fuck’s sake, don’t make me regret this,” trying his best to ignore his urge.

ONCE AGAIN, JUST LIKE BEFORE.

THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE THIRD, UNEXPECTED, UNDESIRED, UNWANTED, UNLOVED “UNCLE” PERSON.

AND IT’S ALL BECAUSE YOU CHOOSE TO HAVE YOURSELF SUFFERING.

Part 4

Gary walked out, looking relaxed and menacing, completely hiding his messed-up thoughts. He summoned lightning on both of his hands, and let it go on rampage, demolishing the surroundings, except for the grocery store. Bolts of lightning spread and jumped from one building to another, turning whatever it touched, which was nothing but concrete, into rubble. His eyes looked around here and there, scanning for any suspicious movement, as the buildings around him were demolished. He did spot a bit of suspicious movements here and there, although not often; it appeared to be flashes, a really fast silhouette moving randomly, with no beginning or end, but merely a midway movement.

Now you’re silent. Gary said to himself. Whatever. Right now…

Maintaining the lightning to destroy the surroundings was a bit of a challenge, because he had to find the balance between letting it go wildly and feeding it his energy, while making sure it didn’t backfire at all. And above all, he still had to look around with his keen senses, trying to track where the ninja jumped from and to. Nevertheless, he was doing all of it with good capability. The ninja was still too fast for him, but he could still anticipate his attacks, and the lightning bolts surrounded him, giving no gap for him to slip through to Gary.

Doesn’t seem to be the kind that would be able to phase through underground, so the ground and the underground should be safe. He thought to himself.

But what’s his plan here…? And that cannon guy… where is he…? He looked around, trying to find the other person with the big cannon attached onto his arm, but he was nowhere to be seen, at least not out openly. They must be doing a plan here… but what could it be…?

What even is their purpose…? It can’t be Harry — can’t picture him somehow getting involved with the blessing, to a point where they’re this relentless… thought Gary. It’d make more sense if they’re after Aaron, but even this seems too obsessive…

If I were them, I would… Gary tried to think of it from their perspective. I would… I would probably dig under the ground for surprise. But as far as I know, that’s not their forte…

The next best plan would be fire and blast it all. That I can still disrupt the attacks, but that would depend on what kind of attack itself is. If it’s purely energy, I wouldn’t be able to stop it…

Or could it be that they intend to make me run out of energy to defend myself?! Because I won’t run out that easily, and they don’t know — they wouldn’t know that…!

No, I don’t have to stay on defensive mode for a long time. I just need to buy Aaron some time for him to decide.

He looked behind him, to the grocery store. The interior was now filled with his shadow, making it completely covered from the outside. He couldn’t tell what Aaron was doing at the moment, but Gary deduced that he took his advice. All to rescue Harry.

“Whatever the fuck am I doing…?” said Gary coldly, facepalming and shaking his head. “What a fucking idiot I am…”

The urge inside him said nothing. Instead, the rage swelled up. The more he looked at the grocery store, the more his thoughts turned wilder, thinking that Aaron would take a close look on his face, even though it might not be true. As if responding to his rage, the lightning grew intense, demolishing its surrounding nearly into dust, and even energizing the nearby electronics, before eventually blowing up due to overload.

And despite that, nothing happened yet.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, fucking come out already, you wussy coward.” said Gary, looking around more wildly. Sometimes, he could actually see the face of the ninja amidst the glows of the lightning, flashing here and there, as he jumped from the ground, the pole, the building, or midair. From a glance, he looked quite old to Gary, even though he could move surprisingly fast, enough to appear as blurs to his enhanced eyes. He couldn’t tell how strong he was, considering that he blocked the attack with ice boulders, but he was quite certain anyway that the ninja’s strength point was no joke either. He noticed that the ninja’s eyes were abnormally fixated on Gary, as he leaped here and there in speed. It was also quiet; aside from the sounds of the lightning destroying the surroundings, he could barely hear the footsteps of his jumps and dashes, even though he was flashing really fast.

Feeling enraged and annoyed, he poured out his fury onto the ninja.

“What? Am I handsome? Is that why you’re that fixated on me?” mocked Gary, with a smirk on his face. “Stop jumping, and you’ll be able to see how handsome I am.”

He launched a bolt of lightning from his hand, aimed toward where he saw the movement, although he had never thought that he could move fast enough to attack him. Seeing that it hit a building far away, he knew that he completely missed.

I could try slowing his movement by adding more pressure on air flow, but I’m using lightning now, and I can’t do both, not at this condition. At least I can consider doing that secret weapon later on when I actually deal with him face-on. Thought Gary to himself. Right now…

“Come on, now! Don’t you wanna see my handsome face real close?!” He did his best to set his smirking face, without turning his head to the grocery store. Why the fuck is he taking so long?!

He saw a movement, coming from outside, and heading toward him. He was surprised that there was a movement that could go past the lightning fences, but nevertheless, he anticipated it with an ice burst right away, with just a wave of his hand. Only after he froze whatever it was, did he realize that it was just a bent and rusty piece of metal, already being cut and sliced by the lightning fences. His mind immediately thought of a car bumper.

“Come on, now! Did I make you mad? All just because of my face?!” He’s testing my defense. Thought Gary. My defense should be strong, but that still depends on how strong — no, how cunning this ninja guy can be… the real problem would be the cannon guy…

What are they waiting for…? What are they planning…?! Where even is the cannon guy…?! He decided to expand the lightning fences, slowly. He scanned harder and wilder on the buildings, trying to spot any movement, other than the ninja’s fast leaps, but the only other movements were those of the demolished buildings. The ninja himself still leaped here and there, as if trying to search for a gap from his defense; he hadn’t thrown anything else like another car bumper or a big boulder.

Maybe I should taunt him…? “Okay, you know what, this is getting boring. I’m starting to think that you’re just an overrated, pretentious blessing. It’s like you’re trying so hard to be formidable, but you’re actually buying time for reinforcement to get here.”

There was still no response. Not significantly.

He then acted to roll his eyes openly, trying to trigger further. “Shows everyone how weak and pathetic you truly are. How embarrassing.” Let’s see… he seems to be around fifty years old… he must have developed pride and integrity for his job and responsibility as a blessing… “How the fuck could you even do your field job, if all you do is jump around and throw stuff? Do you spend your nights as your director’s sex slave? Bribing him with yourself to get promoted? Because I literally know someone who does exactly that.”

He must have a family… occupation doesn’t seem to be his sensitive area. “Can’t imagine how your family must feel. A loser old male being trying to fulfill his family’s needs with his mediocrity, physically and mentally. And in the most blasphemous manner I can imagine? Any sane person would disown you if they were your son.”

He finally stopped jumping around, and stopped at his left side. Gary paused the lightning’s expansion. He thought about charging him with a lightning bolt, before he thought that it should be easy for him to dodge that as well. So, he decided to hold it, and think of a better solution. As he predicted, the man was relatively old, looking like a fifty-years-old, or probably even older. Although he wasn’t surprised with his speed and possible strength, it somehow still felt weird to see him moving almost as fast as the speed of sound. He wore a thick hooded jacket, with jeans, shoes, and scarf around his neck; although he looked more like a homeless person than a ninja, he couldn’t help but think of him as a ninja, seeing his movements, even as he landed and stopped jumping around.

“Talkative, aren’t you?” spoke the ninja with its bass voice. “Trying to rile me up with all the insults you can think of.”

He can see through me… definitely not the kind that can get easily riled up… “The weird thing is, it feels like I touched on some truths there… maybe not all, but, you know…”

“We both know it’s as true as your teenage life as an edgelord who makes his parents dead, because he made them indebted by buying too much coke and whores, without them knowing it. Which is another word for ‘completely wrong’.” he spoke, with a neutral tone, as if it was a normal conversation, unlike Gary’s aggravating tone. “Unless I get it right?”

Now he’s the one getting on my edge… nevertheless, he didn’t allow it to get to him. “Oh, someone’s getting mad.” said Gary, smirking.

Calm down. I need to think of an attack he wouldn’t manage to dodge… the best chance should be the element of surprise, when he’d expect it the least… Thought Gary, as he was thinking of a way to attack faster than the ninja could move.

“Not really. I just feel bored. There has to be a better way to get under my skin than making up edgy stuff, even if it’s all just buying time for your friend over there.” said the ninja.

Lightning would be the fastest — oh fuck.

His mind short-circuited, switching from the way to attack the ninja to the right response to reply to his right guess. It was fortunate that he realized something along with it, as well as an opportunity, even though it was just a weak one.

“I can say the same for you. Where’s your cannon guy, anyway?” said Gary. “Must be hiding around, waiting for the right moment to blast us to death.”

He didn’t answer for a few seconds. His face looked empty, as if he was daydreaming of something in his mind. As Gary was about to say something, he spoke, “There’s a limit to what he can do, even if he seems to be invincible.”

“Oh, he finally died? Is that what you’re saying? Thank goodness, if that’s true.” sighed Gary in relief and mockery.

“I wish I could say the same. But, no. he’s not dead. He’s just gravely wounded, thanks to that lightning of yours.”

He delivered the information with the tone, as if they were two friends having a normal conversation about daily life. Gary couldn’t tell whether he was excited or enraged by the fact, but considering that his tone sounded extremely normal, he deduced that the ninja couldn’t care less about the cannon holder’s wellbeing, that he had no choice other than taking the news as the truth. So they’re not that friendly with each other… this feels really new and unexpected…

“But don’t worry. Your guess is right. I am also buying time.” said the ninja. “It’s a hell of a move, though.”

And before he knew it, the ground where he stood was deconstructed.

“How is he, Arias?”

She walked as carefully as she could, amidst the demolished rooftop with unstable rubble and falling rocks. She was thinking of reforming the demolished rooftop, before canceling that thought, all to reserve her energy. A part of her still feared if the enemies would fire another bolt of lightning, and in such a way that it spread into a wide range and demolished everything it touched; the sound itself was deafening, even though she wasn’t nearby when it happened. She could only convince herself that such an attack shouldn’t be possibly done twice within a few minutes, even though there was no telling of that.

It took her a while to find the body of the blessing. “Doesn’t look good… I can fix him, but it’d probably take a long time.”

He landed next to her, to see what she meant.

Amidst the rubble and pieces of concrete, a single left hand popped out, showing that the rest of the cannon user’s body was buried beneath the rubble. It was stiff, not moving a centimeter, so she thought that he was already dead, again. Without using any of their powers, it would likely take quite a while to fully dig the body out of the concrete.

“We don’t have time for that. They would have escaped already…” he turned back, before saying, “or come up with a solid plan.”

Arias followed his look. Her sight wasn’t as good as him, but even from afar, she could see a man walking out of a broken store, before he saw something shining from the man. It expanded relatively fast, forming into a sort of spherical, glowing net of something fluid and sharp-looking, destroying everything it touched.

“What are they trying to do…? They’re not escaping…?” said Arias to herself.

“Too early to tell. But I can say that we need to move fast, too.”

He grabbed her by her arm, and pulled her onto his back, before she could say anything further. Although she was still not used to it, she said nothing, and instinctively landed on his back, wrapping around his neck with her arms and his waist with her legs, as her head leaned hard toward his.

In one second, they were on the destroyed rooftop of a building.

In the next second, they were on the ground, behind a completely different building, hidden from the enemy’s sight.

Even though she covered herself to minimize the air resistance, her head felt slightly stiff and hurting, because he moved for about a hundred meters in less than a second, and the impact of the wind was hurtful enough — she wasn’t sure if he simply jumped or literally ran vertically downward. In one second, as she leaned her head close to his back and turned left, she saw the hand of the cannon user. And in the next second, she instead saw a broken rusty car on the sidewalks.

He put Arias down, almost like throwing her off his back, and she landed well, even though she staggered and lost a bit of balance. On the other hand, he spoke, as if nothing happened, “Can you attack them right away?”

“Attack… what…?” repeated Arias, thinking that she heard it wrong.

“Attack them. Deconstruct them right away from here. Can you?”

“I…” Arias paused for a while. She took a peek at the enemy from the corner of the building.

The lightning wriggled fast, while expanding slowly, but even though she could see the enemy, the gaps of the defense were too narrow, even for her small body. The ground itself was scraped by the lightning, and everything on its way was sliced and burned, leaving bright hot glows on its cuts, before whatever on its way was eventually disintegrated. So in a second, she understood what he asked from her.

“I… I can’t… I don’t think I can yet…” stuttered Arias.

“So what can you do?” he sighed, sounding a bit frustrated.

“I… I suppose I can tear the ground off… throw them into surprise…”

“You’re sure you can do it?” He turned her body, and held her on her shoulders, a bit too tightly. He looked her in the eyes, with the same color as her own eyes. For the first time, he looked hopeful and somewhat excited, having quite high expectations on whether Arias could do what he intended.

“I… I’ll do my best…”

“Excellent.” he smiled. He rubbed on her head for a second, as he said, “Go ahead, then.”

“I-I-I need some time to do it…”

“How long?”

“A-A few minutes, I suppose… no, probably less…”

“Alright. I’ll buy you some time, but make it quick.” he said, before flashing away in front of her.

She sighed. She wasn’t even sure that she could do what she just said, much less doing it quickly, although it wasn’t theoretically impossible for her. Nevertheless, she couldn’t imagine disappointing her father, especially when they’re facing such powerful enemies.

She hid behind the building, put her hands on the ground, and started concentrating.

Part 5

And suddenly, the ground where the grocery store stood was deconstructed to bits.

It felt as if she was digging the ground itself with her own hands, projected mentally and employed in delay, with the difference that her hands moved and spread like roots.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, fucking come out already, you wussy coward.”

As far as she remembered, the ground she had to cover was significantly wide, and she also had to dig deep enough for maximum effect.

“What? Am I handsome?”

And to add further complication, the distance between where she hid and where the enemy stood was quite distant.

“Is that why you’re that fixated on me? Stop jumping, and you’ll be able to see how handsome I am.”

Even though her roots were spreading under the ground, she could feel the lightning eroding bits of the asphalt on the ground’s surface, if only slightly.

“Come on, now! Don’t you wanna see my handsome face real close?!”

The next thing she needed to do was gaining control on the ground, as far as her roots spread.

“Come on, now! Did I make you mad? All just because of my face?!”

By her estimation, it was about one hundred square meters’ wide, and about twenty meters’ deep, meaning that she had to cause a blast effect of the entirety of two thousand cubic meters’ worth of soil.

“Okay, you know what, this is getting boring. I’m starting to think that you’re just an overrated, pretentious blessing. It’s like you’re trying so hard to be formidable, but you’re actually buying time for reinforcement to get here.”

Her focus wavered a bit, before she returned to drilling her roots and controlling the soil. She wanted to shout that they didn’t call for reinforcement, and that her father was the real deal, even among the blessings, but she was focusing on her own current task,

“Shows everyone how weak and pathetic you truly are. How embarrassing. How the fuck could you even do your field job, if all you do is jump around and throw stuff? Do you spend your nights as your director’s sex slave? Bribing him with yourself to get promoted? Because I literally know someone who does exactly that.”

Her control shook even more. She wanted to gain control of the soil through her deconstruction faster, because she couldn’t wait to shut the enemy’s mouth, but her emotions, no matter how hard she tried to suppress, obstructed the very process.

“Can’t imagine how your family must feel. A loser old male being trying to fulfill his family’s needs with his mediocrity, physically and mentally. And in the most blasphemous manner I can imagine? Any sane person would disown you if they were your son.”

She was about to do it, even though her deconstructing grasp was still not good enough, thanks to her fury by listening to what he said. She even thought about actually attacking him by herself, after he blasted the ground where he was standing, even though she was well aware that she had no chance at all to stand against him. While controlling her power, she tried hard to keep her own mouth shut, because she didn’t want to spill her hidden presence and location yet. She even felt her tears falling down onto the ground and her hand, hardly able to get rid of the words off her mind. It took her a moment to realize that she shut her mouth by biting her lips. It wasn’t a strong bite, to a point where she bled herself, but she could hardly worry about that for the moment. The one thing she thought was having her hand touching the enemy, somehow, and disintegrating him to death.

Until she felt that someone else suddenly landed, approaching the enemy.

Father…!

What are you doing…?

She was thinking of taking a peek at her father, before she remembered that she was taking control of the ground they were standing on, including her own father. Although she knew that he would be able to avoid the sudden attack, she thought that it was best to not include the ground where he stood on into her preparation. So she chose to just listen to what they were saying.

“Talkative, aren’t you? Trying to rile me up with all the insults you can think of.”

She felt awe and amazement. Even from hearing his tone, she could tell that he was not riled up to the enemy’s bait at all.

“The weird thing is, it feels like I touched on some truths there… maybe not all, but, you know…”

“Oh, someone’s getting mad.”

On the other hand, she could hardly control her own emotions. She needed to tell herself so many times that she had her own crucial job to do, as fast and well as she could.

“Not really. I just feel bored. There has to be a better way to get under my skin than making up edgy stuff, even if it’s all just buying time for your friend over there.”

That was when she realized that he expected her to be ready anytime soon, almost as if he was literally telling her to get the surprise attack ready.

“I can say the same for you. Where’s your cannon guy, anyway? Must be hiding around, waiting for the right moment to blast us to death.”

She was nearly finished with her own progress, but she wasn’t sure if it would work in the first place. Now that she had to actually do it, doubt and anxiety attacked her just in the worst moment, when she had to do it right away.

“There’s a limit to what he can do, even if he seems to be invincible.”

Nevertheless, she continued. There was one thing that kept her from hesitating, and a part of her felt relieved that it was enough.

“Oh, he finally died? Is that what you’re saying? Thank goodness, if that’s true.”

“I wish I could say the same. But, no. he’s not dead. He’s just gravely wounded, thanks to that lightning of yours.”

She didn’t want to disappoint her father, at all, no matter what she had to do.

“But don’t worry. Your guess is right. I am also buying time. It’s a hell of a move, though.”

Henry couldn’t tell how it would be like for Arias to blast the ground using her power, nor how it would look like. Considering that he wasn’t fully prepared dealing with such a powerful enemy reinforcement, he couldn’t exactly say that the idea of hers was a ridiculous one. He could only let her and trust that she would deliver, even though he had a doubt about that. He said that it would be a hell of a move, partly to scare the enemy, even if it was just a bit.

What she managed to deliver was indeed a hell of a move.

In a glance, it looked as if a gigantic being popped up from underground and rose upward, against all the things on top of it. The solid and stiff, singular entity that was the ground itself, was split and unraveled into thousands, if not tens of thousands of pieces of dirt and concrete. There was no order or pattern of each of the pieces’ trajectories, other than going upward, opposing both him and the cursed enemy. What made it even more powerful was that he could feel the momentum force, powerfully pressing anything in its way upward and outward. Even the grocery store behind the enemy didn’t stand a chance against Arias’ deconstruction.

With his power, it all looked as if the time itself was immensely slowed, so he could jump backwards and dodge the surprise attack with ease. The enemy, on the other hand, was panicked, he pointed his hand downward to stop the blast, and even then, he only managed to stop a few of them. Few of the pieces of concrete actually hit him, and considering that he was thrown upward and that he looked to be in pain from his face, Henry thought that the impact did get to him.

What he didn’t expect to happen, was the fact that the lightning fences barrier dissipated. Although it was still there, it was no longer without any gap for him to slip through.

So he simply threw the sword, to stab his head.

It was a vertical throw. The sword spun and hurtled in a high speed, thanks to his strength, it could go against the impact by Arias’ attack and cut the pieces of dirt and concrete along, until it eventually sliced his head into halves in a clean cut, right in the middle of his head. Blood splattered around, along with bits of brain and, he noticed, skull. His sword even kept spinning past the enemy, and away further toward a building.

At the same time, the grocery store was also decimated. He realized that the other enemy had his shadow filling the store’s interior, until it broke, although it seemed to be still solid enough to protect him from Arias’ surprise attack. As the shadow dissipated, he saw that the shadow enemy put his hands onto the civilian, seemingly trying to heal him.

So he has healing power as well… but it doesn’t seem to be that capable… he thought to himself, since the civilian looked to be still unconscious. Although he couldn’t be sure about his wellbeing, he thought that the impact of the initial cannon attack was serious, particularly for a normal human being. Based on the assumptions, he thought that he was desperate enough to try using his healing power, even though it was on a weak level, onto the civilian who suffered under such a powerful attack from Robby.

He must have cared so much about the civilian…

A curse cares about a person…?

What a joke.

At the same time, the shadow enemy saw what happened outside, considering that the store itself was destroyed from below. Henry saw that the shadow enemy was shocked to see what had happened, and then shifted his eyes toward him, before moving it to his fellow, whose head was already split and whose body was thrown by the impact about five meters from the surface. And on top of that, some pieces of concrete did hit the body quite hard, and the dead enemy did nothing to stop it at all.

What surprised him was the fact that it didn’t take long at all for the shadow enemy to process what he just saw and react to it properly, and predictably.

“YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!!”

He flashed toward Henry, leaving the unconscious civilian, the shadow on his hands formed into giant blades. He flashed quite fast, being propelled forward by his own shadow, but it still wasn’t as fast as Henry could move. He simply moved sideways, dodged the giant blades, and moved his sword to stab him in the head as well.

Blood splattered from his head, but not fast enough to touch Henry’s clothes. It was a clean stab, as the sword pierced through the head. By his own momentum, the shadow enemy’s body kept flashing forward by itself, until it hit the street, rolled over, and stopped. From the looks of it, few bones were most likely broken, considering that the speed was abnormally fast, although he thought that the body, being a curse, could withstand the momentum. The shadow disappeared, as the user died, both on his hands and at the destroyed store.

Finally finishing his desire, he stood still, took deep breaths, and soaked it in. For once, after who-knows-how-long — not even he himself knew — he stopped thinking about his desire. So now, he calmed himself, stopped sensing his surroundings, and looked into himself, taking the moment of victory and serenity for himself.

Until Arias spoke, which was just a few seconds later.

“Is… is it over…? We… we did it…?” apparently she had approached him as Henry stood still.

Henry sighed, feeling annoyed. Nevertheless, he said, as he went to grab his other sword, “Yes. Finally, we did it.”

“Oh, thank goodness!” Arias ran and jumped forward to hug him. He was a bit surprised, but nevertheless, he didn’t reject her. He let her hug him quite tightly to her own capability, while his eyes looked at the body of the shadow enemy; Arias didn’t seem to notice the presence of the body, although it wasn’t as disgustingly gore as the first enemy he slaughtered.

His eyes and mouth were wide open, while blood kept flowing out from his forehead, soon turning into a big puddle of dark red liquid. The shadow thing from his body was nowhere to be seen, leaving to mark or sign whatsoever. The only thing that assured that he was a curse was his yellow eyes with red pupils, somehow looking like the complete opposite of the silver eyes of the blessing like him with purple pupils.

It felt… easy… too easy, even… he thought to himself, as he frowned. Back then, he was formidable, however I cut it…

“What do we do to him…?”

Arias asked. He saw that she was looking at the unconscious civilian in the middle of the broken store; for a moment, he even forgot about the civilian. He walked steadily toward the civilian, with Arias following behind him, as if she was wary that the civilian would attack them.

The civilian was unconscious and still breathing. But as Henry touched him in the chest, he could tell that the wounds on his was quite serious. Given more or less an hour, the internal bleeding inside the body would eventually kill him by itself. As expected from Robby’s cannon. It’s too much for an ordinary person.

“Is he okay…?” asked Arias. “That cannon attack… he can’t be that well…”

“No, indeed. He’s dying, and will die in an hour or less.” said Henry coldly.

“So, what do we do? Take him to the hospital…?”

“He seems to have a close relationship with that curse. He did hug him, after all. And that curse defended so hard to keep him safe.” said Henry, emotionless. “So we do what we do toward their sympathizers.”

He then stabbed the civilian in the head.

Part 6

He finally woke up, opening his eyes, as Henry stabbed him. As he expected, the civilian was shocked, supposedly looking from his perspective, looking at an unfamiliar face in front of him. It then turned into anger, confusion, and fear, but only for a moment. Eventually, in the next second, Henry could see that the light in the civilian’s eyes disappeared, leaving an empty stare toward the very person that killed him just because.

He could hear Arias gasping in shock, but said nothing nevertheless. So he turned, and saw that Arias had her eyes closed.

“Open your eyes.”

Henry ordered. Arias obeyed, although slowly and reluctantly. He went behind her and moved her head to actually look at the body, a bit roughly. “Take a look at it,” he added.

He looked at her from beside. She still squinted her eyes, but it was enough for her to actually see it. Although the body didn’t exactly look at her, it felt as if his eyes looked in any direction, including his and hers.

“This is an enemy. He may not be a curse, but he sided with them. He was also an enemy, because of that.” said Henry, giving pressure on each end of the phrases. “They would not hesitate if they were to kill you. If anything, even worse, they would use your hesitance to turn the table and kill you instead. Do you understand that?”

“But-but… but it’s still…”

“Which one is more valuable? Your life or theirs?”

“M… My life…”

“Would you rather lose their lives? Or your life?”

“T… Their lives…”

“Then what should you do?”

“K-Kill them…?”

“Before what?”

“I-I don’t understand…”

Henry sighed and rolled his eyes. “Kill them before they kill you. It’s either you or them.” he answered instead. “Come on, now, It’s so simple.”

“Y-Yes, it… it is…”

“Make it into a mantra if you have to.” added Henry. “Something like ‘my life is more important than theirs, so I must take theirs, or they’ll take mine,’ or whatever you like, it’s up to you. I’m sure you can make your own mantra, right?”

“Y-Yes… of course…”

“That’s good. Hop on, now. We need to resurrect Robby.” said Henry, removing his hands from her head. This time, he offered her his hand, which she took right away. Like before, he lifted her onto his back, before he flashed back to the top of the destroyed building. He could feel Arias cuddling herself to him so close and tightly, embracing herself for the speed. Still not used to it…

Nevertheless, he ran forward.

From others’ perspective, it was an incredibly fast movement — from what he knew, the shadow enemy even thought that it was teleportation. However, from his own perspective, he simply ran with his own enhanced strength, while the time itself seemed to freeze. A single push from his one step propelled him forward for up to fifty meters in less than a second, and with continuous propelling, he reached the speed of sound, although it looked like simply leaping ahead to him. Whether he was running or jumping, on ground or even midair, his legs and arms were strong enough to do the job, repeatedly without getting tired. Soon enough, they already reached the building. He simply jumped onto the wall, and ran vertically upward, having his feet landing on the wall and pushing him upward, before he even felt the sensation of falling down.

He stopped, as they arrived at the destroyed rooftop. Robby’s hand still stuck out from the surface of rubble. When he was supposed to feel the immense air pressure for suddenly stopping, it felt almost like a breeze at all, not bothering him in the slightest.

Arias, on the other hand, had it differently. As he dropped him down, this time, she actually fell down and sat on the rubble, touching her head in pain.

“Still not used to it? I suppose you need to take more.” commented Henry.

“I-I suppose… give-give me time…” stuttered Arias. “I-I need to…”

“Yeah, yeah…” Henry sighed. He stepped away to look at the surroundings below from the top of the building.

Nothing around the dead city indicated any life or activity. It was all dark, save the weak glowing light of the night itself and visible stars in the night sky. The buildings themselves looked old and dead, with all the moss, vines, dust, and rust, blanketing the buildings. Some were even partly demolished, if not fully demolished, most of them were definitely not due to their own battle. As far as he could see, there was no single person around other than themselves, but he knew that the collectors were already lurking around, in places hidden even to him, waiting for them to leave before they gathered from the surroundings anything with value for themselves.

Nevertheless, it offered a unique kind of peaceful silence. It made him actually think, somehow, that the place was entirely safe, where no one would attack him, not even the collectors. He was even thinking of getting a comfortable spot to lie down and relax, for the first time since —

He turned, throwing the thought away. Arias was already in the process of getting Robby’s body out of the burying concrete, using her power to manipulate the concrete and push the body out. However, she herself was lying on the ground, most likely because she was crawling toward Robby. She looked exhausted, judging from her face.

Yeah. She needs to take more of it. Henry thought to himself, as he looked away and turned his sight, back to their last battlefield. The destruction caused by Arias’ power was still visible, considering that the ground itself basically turned into a wide crater filled with rocks and pieces of concrete and asphalt. The building itself was demolished, leaving nothing but some of the remaining furniture in the store. He thought that it looked as if it had happened a long time ago, although he also thought that those who examined thoroughly would be able to tell that it was a recent one. Aside from that, there didn’t seem to be anything valuable or meaningful around it, at least not for the collectors.

But that was when he noticed something.

He heard a gasp for air, from a familiar voice behind him. “Oh, holy whore… I died again…?”

“Yeah, but don’t worry. It’s done. They’re all dead.” said Arias.

“No, they’re not.”

“W-What…?” stuttered Arias.

“Take a look at it yourself,” said Henry, standing still, staring at the battlefield. “What do you notice?”

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Arias, along with Robby, who was resurrected, stood next to him, and took a look at where Henry pointed, as told. With their enhanced sight, they didn’t really need binoculars to look afar. It took them a few seconds, and Arias was the one who noticed it.

“Wait… what… how…?” she turned to Henry, confused and shocked.

“What? What is it?”

“You… you stabbed them… all of them…” said Arias, “I saw it myself, too… but… is it them collectors…?”

“That’s too fast even for the best of them. And that wouldn’t explain the fact that the blood disappeared, as if it never happened. Why would they?”

“I don’t understand…”

“You… you didn’t get… get the stain…?”

“No. I kill people without getting stains on my clothes, after all.”

“Henry!” shouted Robby, still confused. “What the hell are you talking about?!”

“They’re gone, Robby.” explained Henry eventually. “I killed them. Stabbed their heads, right there, in that crater. And now their bodies disappear. There’s not even a single drop of blood there, when there were puddles of blood.”

“So… what… what does that mean…?”

Henry didn’t reply immediately. His mind worked on the possible explanation for the disappearance, but no matter what and how, he only had one explanation that made sense to him.

“When we fought them, we fought the guy with lightning — my guess is that he controlled elements — while the guy with shadow stayed behind in the store. He seemed to attempt healing the wounded civilian, which you blasted along.” Henry said, looking at Robby. “The thing is… it could be a ruse from the beginning.”

Arias lifted her eyelids; she seemed to finally understand what he suspected. “Illusion…? That the battle was… was not real…?”

“That’s the most logical explanation I can think of. Be it an illusion in our minds or body doubles — it has to be a sort of illusion.”

“From the beginning…? No, can’t be… since when…?” asked Arias.

“Must be some time after I threw things to the lightning barrier. Probably when I stopped and started talking with him.” said Henry. “The thing is… it looked so… felt too realistic…”

“Same… it didn’t feel like it’s fake at all…” commented Arias, still unable to wrap it around her head.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, you’re saying that our enemies can… what, hypnotize you? Trap you into a hallucination or something?!” interrupted Robby. “That sounds like what you do…!”

“I wouldn’t say that they’re similar. ‘Riling people up’ and ‘fooling people with realistic fakery’ are two different things.” replied Henry.

“That still doesn’t make it any less disturbing! If you can get hypnotized or whatever, they’ll keep using that on you!”

“Doesn’t seem to be that simple. I reckon that it takes time and preparation for him to employ that trick. Otherwise, he would have done it already in his mission, much less when he’s fighting us.” said Henry. “Seems like that’s why he had the other guy stand in guard, instead of going together against us.”

“So if we can make a move before they start it, we can knock them off,” said Arias.

“Yes, that’s the possible theory.” replied Henry. He finally turned to look at them both. Both Arias and Robby looked like two children who were waiting for their teacher to tell them what they should do. “That doesn’t mean we can rely on that weakness. They’re no amateurs, that’s for sure. We need to find them, and hit them hard, right away in one go.”

“How would we even know where they’re going…?” Robby rolled his eyes.

“Map.” said Henry to Arias.

She lifted her hands, and pressed the button on her watch. It projected the map in interactive, 3D hologram, simply displaying its geographic display of the surroundings. Henry slid and pinched the map with his finger to look around the map. Their position was marked with a big purple pin in the middle of the map, while around it were smaller pins, indicating major places with enough concentration of populace.

Henry pointed at the closest pin from their location. “Their civilian was gravely wounded. So we can assume that they would take him to the closest place that can mend grave wounds, but not the cities themselves.”

“Shuperta…” said Arias, reading the name of the city Henry pointed out.

“You’re certain that they would get this civilian to the…” started Robby.

“Oh, yeah, you weren’t there, were you? Just trust me on this.” cut Henry, with a sigh. “You go back to grab more equipment. I and Arias will go there.”

“Equipment…?” Robby scratched his head.

“One can manipulate his own shadow, and the other can manipulate elements. I’m sure you think of something that will help us.”

“Understood…” started Arias, as she turned off the map projection.

“Remember. Our task here is surveillance and observation, not combat or huntdown. At least not until we’ve confirmed their location.”

174 Disords

Chapter 1 – The Annoying Ninja and The Deadly Girl