Nobody appeared with the voice as it echoed through the alley. It halted Yuki instantly, paralyzing his entire body. Even as unfamiliar, the malice ced through the words rang clear. Another assassin tracked him down. ‘Another so soon…and no Ayumi…’

  Without hesitation or thought, Seiji charged straight into the alley. A natural first response, what other a could there be. He made it ten steps in before thought caught up to a. ‘Doesn’t sound like the punks we used to smash into the dirt. What’s he want with Yuki?’ The deeper he went in darkness bed everything.

  A blink and Seiji already nearly disappeared from his sight. Yuki ran in after Seij asi dark, ive thoughts taunting him. It hurried his pace to push his legs hard. He o catch up. Seiji couldn’t go in alone. This wasn’t like they used to deal with. Seiji didn’t know.

  “What the hell?” Yuki arrived just behind Seiji as he stopped in a rge opening. The alley became almost like a chamber with multiple passages all leading to the same spot. And before them, a behemoth of a man towered over them. “Damn! Who the hell is he, Yuki?”

  Chapter 28 – Shatterih

  White pants with a draped robe-like style, it firmed everything Yuki already expected. ‘It’s another one…I’ve got to get Seiji out of here!’ Yuki stepped out in front of Seiji hoping it would move attention away.

  Moving past the shock, this fner came in a little shorter than Seiji, but broad like a mountain. Thick trunks fs and tense beams of steel for arms pulled in by broad shoulders and chest. Their uniform on past assassins looked fit, but loose, while with him it looked ready to burst. Muscles bulged around fabric taut and formed. He nearly looked like he stepped out of one of Yuki’s manga panels.

  Oddly silent now as though, he simply spoke just to draw them inside. The muscur straook a heavy step forward. He presented an openly aggressive posture without attag, making them slide a step ba caution.

  While his body sweated with the growing tension, Yuki looked over to Seiji with worry. His only relief was that Seiji wasn’t already throwing punches. “This is bad, Seiji. He’s way out of our league! We’ve gotta run!”

  “What? Hell no! Guy’s a little unnerving, but damn if I’ll turn my back!”

  “Dammit, Seiji! You don’t uand… You ’t take him!”

  Seiji stepped forward in defiance of Yuki’s wishes. A quick tilt of his head delivered a satisfying soft pop. “No…” The tone of his voice ged, no lohe loud overbearing bass. Not quite soft, but a lighter rhythm carried through. “I get it. I know… I ran when I knew and I hate it every damn day!”

  “Seiji?”

  A wry smile came over him. “She knew and made the correct choio wonder she hates me, the coward.” Seiji stomped his foot down pnting an answered posture to the brutish man. “I’ll hahis iead and maybe be a better man!”

  “This is crazy, Seiji! He’s got…” The words disappeared as the assassin appeared to have accepted Seiji’s reply. He saw him sidelined once more. Darkness fell over his eyes.

  Matg eyes with the man, Seiji fixed him with a grizzled steely stare. “My you’re the polite sort, ain’tcha?”

  “You doalking?”

  Seiji gave him a grin to show that he was ready for the fight. Fire burned in his muscles with vigor. Eagerness filled him for an unknown challenge. “Hell yeah! Ready whenever—“ Seiji was interrupted in his words by a heavy fist to his fabsp; It khe saliva out of him and cut a little blood from his lip, sending Seiji to the ground with his eyes wide.

  “Seiji!” Yuki began to run towards him, but stopped.

  “Yuki!” He coughed a little, taken by surprise with power behind the fist, but he pushed himself back up. ‘Yuki’s no lohat sort of person. I’ve accepted that and now I have to hold myself to that!’ He brushed away the blood that dripped from his bruised and cut lip to stand even with the man once more. ‘He’s faster than I’d thought for his size. This’ll be harder than I thought… but now that I know…’

  Another fist flew through the air for Seiji’s face again in a fsh. Yuki was left uain what happened. Seiji leapt backwards after having evaded the fist narrowly. The man seemed to be a little surprised, but tinued on the offeaking swings at Seiji as he dodged out of the way. Seiji kept watg the man’s movements trying to read him, but struggled to size him up.

  In the moments of swings Seiji had been trying to terattack the man, but the thick muscles proved too difficult to pee. Even when he had tried a strike ihe man’s defenses were solid, bringing iher arm to blobsp; ‘Dammit! I ’t get through… This guy’s built like a tank… But I’ll find away because… because…’

  His thoughts faded ba old memories. ‘Yuki… I haven’t known you for long… Hell, I hardly knew you! Back then I loved to fight. I don’t know why. Damn stupid itbsp; But you ged things. You made me look forward to each day! Each bruise, each cut, I loved it all. You're the closest person I could call a friend, that probably would say it bae!’

  Seiji, thirteen years old, ran dowreet as he did every afternoon to make his usual match with Yuki. However, as he charged through, a rge arm reached out from the shadows knog him to the sideainfully.

  “What the—“ Seiji rubbed the back of his head before he looked up to see a hand grabbing him by his uniform and dragging him into the alley. The older student threw him up against the wall of the building knog him back to his senses. Seiji rammed his ko the kid’s stomach, getting him off of him. It gave him the moment to gather himself.

  A minute or a sed, he couldn’t tell anymore. The whole fight turo a blur with the st punch draining everything that Seiji had left in him. He id on the damp alley crete getting his face pressed into the ground by the kid standing over him.

  Stunned and fused by the unfamiliar feeling, Seiji felt rough crete scrapping against him. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Only one person could beat him. So how did he lose?

  Through blurry vision a figure appeared to interrupt the beat down. A arget pulled his attacker away, thinking the small boy would be a simple punbsp; Yet in two blinks, Seiji saw the guy he struggled with ft on his back locked in groans and shock.

  “Just going to keep bleeding on the ground?” Yuki offered Seiji a hand to stand back up. Seiji gave Yuki a narrowed gre and then a smirk as he took the hand. Yuki gave him a shoulder for support and walked him back to the shrio rest.

  ‘You ged me, Yuki… You did what no one else did. And how’d I repay you… Today and each day now will be different! I’ll walk into hell!’ Seiji evaded another close call from the assassin. He attempted a daring move to ter straight for the man’s fabsp; He had read enough of his moves to get a feel for his style, but it was still a risk that could backfire.

  He pushed around the thick arm of the man iion of swing and used the size for leverage to get ihe man’s defenses. Seiji spun around with his free arm going straight for the chest knowing that it would be blocked. Quickly, he followed through with a rotation on his body getting his leg exteo unch straight at the man’s head. The moments paused for Seiji as he saw his leg ed suppress his excitement for the follow through, but the man grabbed his arm and swung him around into the wall.

  “Seiji!” It happened once more. Yuki ched his fists demanding his mind stop holding babsp; ‘Why ’t I use my power? Work dammit!’ Every attempt to use his training failed. Each punch he watched another hammer down of his lost effort.

  Defenses broken, the impact against the wall khe wind out of him. Unsciousaunted his mind. ‘Yuki… I ’t give up for him.’ The assassin turned away, seeing Seiji lying on the ground uo move anymore. He began walking towards Yuki, the real target of his i.

  “I’m…” However, Seiji wasn’t finished. Seiji slid back up to his feet with his vision starting to blur and his legs shaking from the st hit he took. Over the assassin’s shoulders, Seiji’s smirking look of determination stared down the man until he turned back to look at Seiji.

  “That’s enough Seiji! You don’t have to fight anymore!”

  Seiji could see the rge shadow being cast over with the iion of putting him down food. “Yuki… it’s alright. Fighting is all I’m good for and all I’ve ever known. Let me do this for you.”

  “Seiji!” Yuki was forced to watch his frie pummeled by the assassin dropping blood with every strike. Seiji refused to fall even though Yuki khat he couldn’t take anymore or even defend himself. The assassin raised up a final arm to put Seiji down through his defiant grins. “Seiji!” Yuki ran to Seiji screaming in the seds before the fist came down. In the brief moments before Yuki could see the grin still on Seiji’s face.

  Seiji was id out on the ground with blood dropped everywhere around him. Yuki came into Seiji’s side grabbing up his unscious body screaming his name hoping that it would wake him up.

  ‘Seiji… We fought so many times. I hadn’t seen anyone more stubborn before that I had fought. I never knew why you stuck around me when everyone else abandoned me. It didn’t seem to matter to you how many times I beat you up, you just came for more. And then you started fighting with me. You enjoyed fighting as much as I did then.’

  Yuki stared down at Seiji trying to keep fr knowing that it would not do anything and Seiji would not want it. ‘Seiji…I ged and you disappeared… but you still even now… Why ’t I do anything?! Why must I keep watg my friends get hurt!? Why?!’

  Yuki let Seiji rest on the ground and stood up looking at the assassin holding tears along the edge of his eyes. He blinked oo clear away the blur and narrowed his features. ‘I still fight without my powers, even if it has been a long time… I ’t worry about promises when my friends are being hurt. I hope you five me…’

  “So you done mourn—,“ A sudden swift krike interrupted the assassin. Yuki delivered straight to the chest, breaking through his defense. Yuki leapt backwards before the man had closed his hold around him. The hit appeared to do little to the man. Built like a house, he came after Yuki with a heavy swing. The speed tio surprise.

  He missed.

  Yuki lowered into an offeah his arms out in front ready to move at a moment’s bsp; “I’ve seen your moves already from yht with Seiji. This isn’t going to be the same fight!” Yuki charged in, seeing a flin the man’s movements as a sign of attabsp; He evaded the swing and slid over to his fnk with a wild look in his eye. His body threw everything into the punch at the man’s stomach.

  The assassin stepped back a half of a step from the blow, but seemed rgely ued still. Yuki pulled back seeing that it was only a feint by bruiser. It was meant to have Yuki drop his guard with the fner’s arms ing in to grab for him. He was able to retreat to a safe distance as he shook his hand feeling the sting from the impabsp; ‘It was like…I was hitting steel…’

  The attack came in taking Yuki to the defensive for several strung together attacks that he hadn’t seen previously. The spinning bad took him off guard f him to blod jump to make the weight behind it send him back without knog him down. Yuki slid to the ground ign the stinging bruises on the sides of his forearms. ‘I still have it… I thought being buried would have dulled it, but I ’t let it trol me… I’m fighting for someone and not myself… Seiji…’

  “Seems I won’t settle this without Meso Prosecho,” the behemoth said as he began to glow brown, issuing forth waves from his feet. Dust, dirt and debris from the u alley kicked up and blew away as the man’s Field expao Yuki and beyond. When the dust settled the man stood looking unged, but a little rger, if it was actually possible.

  Surrounding the man, all of the crete ged to rock or earth like something from a desert mountainside. The earth Field affected all of the building’s walls as well turning to solid stoh distant echoes of people screaming. “You ’t hold bay more.”

  ‘He wants a fight with powers...I would have done so already if I could. Dammit, I don’t know what Law he’s using. It’s like Ayumi said, I’ve got to learn in the fight and find a ter. But without a power…’

  Yuki was suddenly reminded of something that Ayumi had told him the night before as he stared down the hulking mass. ‘Even with his powers he’s still as vulnerable as before. She said they’re just normal humans. Saki and her beat that pnt guy.’ Yuki returo his previous attag stance waiting for a move from the assassin. He wasn’t willing to go blindly into the lion’s den not knowing ho his fangs were.

  “You think you beat me without your Field?” The man charged towards Yuki taking a swing at him that seemed to be a little slower than before. Yuki was able to dodge it, but the man followed through with his other fist with Yuki already against the wall from the st. He evaded, but the man’s fist tihrough pounding into the stone wall of the building making it crad crater a little.

  Yuki rolled out of the way, but was assaulted from a hail of stones. Wheorm cleared Yuki stared in shock at the crater left in the building. ‘What’s going on? How he have that sort of strength? Ayumi said it’s not possible to increase strength, but then how did he leave that crater!?’

  The fner slowly recovered, giving Yuki an opening. Fog himself, he took the ce to strike while he was wide open. He threw his body into the punch aimed straight for the man’s face hearing a crack from the impabsp; The sound pleased him, striking through his defenses.

  However, he suddenly felt a sharp pain through his entire hand. He jumped back holding his hand to look at it. Purple and red, his hand barely moved, bloodied and bruised. ‘What?! I know I hit him, but… Damn!! My hand! It’s like I was hitting stone! I think it might be broken…’

  The assassin stood t over Yuki looking down at him. “You see the differenow? Now use your Field before I grow tired of hum you.”

  Yuki stood up and ripped open his school uniform pulling his dress shirt free. He tore a long strip from his dress shirt and ed it around his broken hand. When he finished he stared back at the assassin giving him his silent answer.

  “I see…” The man threw his fist again with Yuki dodging it, but surprised Yuki when his knee came up in mid-movement, knog the wind out of Yuki and spraying saliva from his mouth. The assassin grabbed Yuki by the leg and swung him around against the building walls as they ged in form to spiked points of rock that pierced through his bad chest dripping blood in lines on the wall.

  Pealed off the wall, they dropped Yuki to the ground. Yuki slid roughly bloodied and torn up. His body bumped into Seiji finally stopping. His uniform in tatters and coughing up blood, the sensatiooo familiar again. Yuki tried to find the strength to get his legs to move. ‘I’ve got to protect him. He protected me!’

  He pushed himself up to one knee in front of Seiji. Short of breath and throbbing in pain, Yuki balled his fists up to focus with whatever he had left. ‘It takes me back… Just the two of us… I would have liked to have dohat one more time. Seiji…’

  Dust suddenly kicked up around Yuki as he began to glow green pulsing waves from his body as he looked around in surprise. The waves pushed back the stone crag it as grass pierced through blowing a wide field of grassnds over all of the ground, but leaving the buildings as they were.

  Yuki stood up with a determined look in his eyes as a simple white keikogi, the traditional clothes he wore at the dojo, repced his school uniform. A haze surrounded him, slightly dist the enviro behind him. “I’ll protect him with my life!”

  “I thought that was my line, Yuki.”

  “Seiji?” Yuki turned with shock to see Seiji standing once more. Like him, Seiji no longer wore his on bck school uniform. In pce of his uniform, long traditional robes of the Shinto Priest draped his body. Flowing forms of white over a soft blue like Yuki saw from Seiji’s Grandfather. “Seiji?!”