Fumiko rushed over to Yori and his sister. “ you two stand?”

  The bst of fire from Fumiko set the two soldiers on edge. Both drew their swords ready to defend themselves. Philon gnced over at Kalliope hoping to find an answer from her. Unfortunately, she seemed fused by what they just experienced. “Another intruder, just how many of them are there!?”

  “Looks like the Captain was right about there being more to these intruders. But I never expected a MP user to be amongst them.” Kalliope tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword thinking about the trouble they got into with their foe. “Expins how they got in though. We have an unmarked traitor!”

  Skepticism still weighed on Philon. “A Meso Prosecho…” The tall girl made even them as adults appear short, making him a little uneasy. However, height pyed little towards his uainty about the fner. “She looks like the rest of them. MP users only be Atntean.”

  “But they use their powers to ge their appearanbsp; She’s probably got some pretty big crimes on her shoulders if she o hide her identity.”

  “We aren’t equipped to deal with a MP user though! It’s normally the duty of the Ministry of Military Crimes Omega Branch to deal with these matters!”

  “Stop pining about our situation, Philon. Our honor as soldiers of the South Gate is on the line here!”

  Chapter 105 – Reception for the Uninitiated

  The mood became unbanced for Fumiko. Like Yori, she kept the transtor earring from Yuki with her (more out of fetfulhan iion). She heard everything the two soldiers said between them. ‘They think I’m like Yuki?! I use that against them, but if they have ways of dealing with people like Yuki, what sort of effect will it have on me?’

  Fumiko looked over at the siblings still w on standing. ‘I’ve got to get them out of here. They won’t be any match for trained soldiers, even with a world onry.’ She stood up and stepped forutting herself closer to the two soldiers. “ you get your sister out of here?”

  Distracted with his sister, Yori didn’t immediately notice what Fumiko had done for them. Some coaxing and force by him mao finally get his sister moving to her feet. He saw Fumiko in front of them finally taking in his surroundings. The fnking soldiers closing in with Fumiko alerted him to the situation. “What are you doing?!”

  “ you get her out of here?” she asked again, barely turning her head.

  “But what about you? I ’t just leave you aloh them!”

  Fumiko smiled a little to herself for unknown reasons to even her. “Could you fight without knowing she was safe?”

  Her question silenced Yori sharply with a wall before him. He g his sister thinking about what she said. ‘But I ’t leave Yumi here… There were only four in the vilge and if Hayashi is keeping the others busy…’ Weighed uainty calcuted through his mind staring at his sister. Yori suddenly took a firm grasp on her as a decision came to him. “I’ll be back soon!”

  The distant footsteps faded away in a hurried panibsp; A sign to her, they had finally left them alone, her and the soldiers. While the ban numbers had ged Fumiko didn’t feel anymore ered than she had before. ‘This is the first time I’ve actively used my magic against someone. I do this?’ Fumiko weighed out the tension in her body trying to loosen up. Pressured to act made her feel uain about her powers.

  Kalliope restrained herself from reag to two of their prey esg out from their grasp. her of the kids seemed to be of much threat to them before the tall fhat they faced. A power of fire meant that the entire vilge stood threatened by the girl. She had to protect the vilge from harm. The Xiphos, short sword, in her hand sang in the air fog her determination into the bde. Her eyes stared down with Fumiko taking cautious steps.

  Opposite to her, Philon had other ideas. He shifted his legs a trying to be careful about tipping off Fumiko. A quice of his eyes to Kalliope checked on her positioning. “Think you handle her while I go after the two others?”

  “They wait. We o deal with the MP user first.”

  “We’ll have to start our search all ain if we lose sight of those two. Plus our around the vilge leaves too much to be broken through.”

  He had a point in what he said that Kalliope didn’t want to openly admit. Her own insecurities about dealing with Fumiko held her babsp; However, she saw him making more overt motions to give chase. ‘He’s right that we have too few for a proper searbsp; We’re spread too thin. They’ve throwhing into chaos…’

  Keeping outwardly clueless, Fumiko waited for them to make a move. She tried to py up her obliviousness on the field. They already thought her to be one of them. She o keep them fused and uain. ‘I ’t let him leave for Yori and Yumi. I’ve got to do everything I to hold them both back…’ trating on her magic, time painfully lingered for them with both sides holding cautious of the other.

  No further discussioween Philon and Kalliope occurred when he sprinted for the openi by Fumiko. Ready with a spell, ribbons of magid lines of drawn energy rapidly gathered out from Fumiko’s shoulder intht hand. Everything happened so fast it appeared that her entire arm ignited in fire before the bst of fmes exploded in front of Philon’s feet knog him backwards.

  Fumiko stepped back, ensuring that she stayed betweewo of them and the rest of the street behind her. The night wind blew back the bst cloud over the street in front of the two soldiers creating a dramatie in the sand. ‘I do this!’

  Philon coughed from the dirt road still holding on to shobsp; Through the breaking smoke he saw the girl staring them down insistent on not letting them leave. He caught sight of the seared ground where he might have been if he misstep. Once he regained his posure, Philon stood up log tightly on to his short sword. “Not going to let me go, huh?”

  The woman tightened in on Fumik to keep an eye on her hand fns of fire. “You hurt?”

  “No, she missed me. I don’t know if it was iional or not.”

  “Still the speed of her rea is high. You’re not going to be able to escape very easily.”

  “You’ve got a pn for dealing with her? She hasn’t used any Field teiques yet. You really think it’s an MP user?”

  “I know…” She actually had let that fact slip past her. As Philon had pointed out to her earlier, their job didn’t cover dealing with rogue MPs. ‘We won’t know the full extent of her powers without testing her. I’ll just have to make a move myself!’ Kalliope shifted her left foot around as she stood near a vilger’s house filled with their hobbies and life smashed out on the ground. Her foot locked around a small pot lifting it up enough to cast it at Fumiko.

  Fumiko back stepped to avoid the pottery losing her focus for just a moment. In the wake of the shattering cy, Kalliope swooped in taking a testing swing at Fumiko to judge her physical reflexes. Often MPs relied too mu their powers leaving their physical strength and body severely g. Good ones became highly refined masters of both physical aal arts.

  Mentally Fumiko had prepared herself for such a trick, but mentally prepared meant nothing in actual bat. The sword’s bde sliced through her tunic Ayumi gave her only nig the skie it feeling much worse to Fumiko. She stumbled back a few more steps trying to recover herself.

  The two soldiers closed in, pressing their advantage on her causio hastily attempt another spell. Lines of magic barely made it down her shoulder before it evaporated on her. ‘What?! It’s not w?!’ Fumiko had no time to worry about her magic as the woman swung more focused at her. Already back stepping saved Fumiko from the bde. A follow-up to the swing came in as the womaended leg spun around crashing into her waist. She fell off her feet directed with the woman’s leg into the nearby home breaking through the wooden door.

  A cough came up from Fumiko’s lips as she id on her back staring blurry eyed up at the pster ceiling of the home she invaded. Fights had only ever been something that she read about in her fantasy books. She pictured them vividly in her mind to py out dramatically with the hero eventually winning in spite of challenges. Even though she lived ihe real thing turned out to be nowhere as romanticized as her dreams.

  Still dazed by the impact, Fumiko heard a ling in her head. ‘So loud…did I get hit that hard? I’m really not a fighter…’ Soon the cloud in her mind began to clear, turning the ringing into screaming. Sluggishly tilting her head, she saw a vilger petrified beyond trol by her sudden arrival. ‘Am I shtening?’ Fumiko began to push herself back up and caught a fsh of Philon running off, no doubt in search of Yumi and Yori. Seeing that she had let one of them through she tried to rise sharply, but found herself dropping down to one knee. ‘Damn… I’m so useless…’

  “The weakness of people like you is that without your powers you’re just a normal human,” ehe woman from the doorway. Her figure took on a more sinister appearah the glow of the awakened vilge behind her. She had Fumiko trapped.

  Heavy panting came as the first thing that Yori’s sister heard finally breaking out of her mute stupor. She was only beginning to realize as she came around that her body moved on its own. She turned her head stubbornly to find her brother o her with a panicked expression. ‘What’s going on? Why does Yori look so desperate?’ The automated motions that had kept her going fell apart as she started to question things. She stopped in the middle of the alley breaking from the support she had. Losing the support from Yori nearly made her colpse not knowing how much she relied on him. ‘What am I doing? The vilge… everyone… Yuki…’

  Yori ran back to his sister when she suddenly pulled away from him. He didn’t notice the life returo her and tried to coax her back along. Unfortunately, he found her more resistant to him than before. “Yumi? We o keep moving!”

  “Brother?” she mumbled out of her lips nearly tripping over the words.

  A word from her alerted Yori that she might be ing back around. “Yumi! you hear me? Do you know what’s going on?”

  She tilted her head up to him, appearing almost curious in her fused questioning. “How’d I get here? What happened?”

  “I o get you somewhere safe! Follow me!”

  “What?!” All of the pieces still dragged behind to e together for her. ‘Where’s Yuki? I was trying to find him…and then…’ Parts of the se with the soldiers fshed through to her finally putting everything in pce for her. Remembering brought back the emotions for her as well. The shaking in her arms returned as strong as she remembered. ‘I froze… I froze! When it came down to act…I failed…’

  “Yumi, we o go!”

  Only a nod came from her before she started to run with Yori. ‘I was just all talk in the end. I couldn’t ge anything.’ Her hands tightened up as she reflected on her failure. ‘All I did was cause trouble for everyone… I made Yori worry about me…’

  The back of vilge homes gave way into the grass fields surrounding Skoupa. Their options ran out for Yori as he searched around for somewhere that could be safe. He wao return to the inn, but the chaos in the vilge made it too difficult for him. ‘There has to be somewhere!’ A fsh of metal cut off Yori’s thoughts. Yori pressed back trying to figure out what happened. Cheg his shirt, a horizontal gap rested in the middle as well as a thin trickle of blood. He searched in front of him to find the soldier from before standing in his way.

  Philon shifted his foot forleased that he caught up to them. He didn’t want to have to search the entire vilge ain. A couple of kids didn’t mean mu, but intruders had to be treated the same regardless. His free left hand pulled out thick metal ed cuffs. He showed them to Yori knowing the nguage barrier prevented any sort of civilized versation. “e on,” he spoke, trying in a softer voiot to intimidate them. He preferred not to have to resort to his sword to vihem to give themselves up. “You’ve got o run.”

  Yori kept his sister behind him knowing that he had to protect her. He couldn’t let her be taken by the military. If what Eudokia told them held true she would be returo the researchers iarctica bases. The questions that he knew iably would happen then would only make things even more plicated, something that didn’t seem possible. “Stay behind me, Yumi. I won’t let anything happen to you!”

  “…brother…”

  The soldier caught the serious gre from Yori sensing the unwillio cooperate. He dropped the cuffs to the ground fog ba his sword reag it out towards Yori pointing it threateningly at him. The bde spoke to Yori, making Philon’s will clear as well.

  Tension built in the air betweewo men pitting their resolve against the other in a test of presenbsp; She was watg, feeling as though she turned into the background. She was feeling removed from the se and no longer part of the flow. Yori protected her. He kept her safe. ‘He’s always watg out for me… I wao stand on my own… but I couldn’t…’ Shifting air pulled her back out to see her brother motioning to her to move babsp; The locked battle between them grew into pag. Yori’s sister held her hands together praying that nothing happeo Yori.

  A began with the Atntean soldier lunging out with his sword to draw more blood and bring down Yori to submission swiftly. Even without a on Yori maintained his focus driven purely by his o protebsp; Yori dodged carefully away from the swing, remaining cautious. ‘I don’t know the first thing about a real fight… I have to watch him and learn from him…’ Pausing for the strike proved to be dangerous for Yori. The sed swing came soohan he expected and caught the tip of his shirt as he stumbled away.

  Yori’s sister regretfully watched Yori forced into a fight that he didn’t want because of her. ‘It’s my fault… If I hadn’t insisted on following Yuki…’ A pained gasp from Yori catg a bit of the bde on his arm sent waves of fear through her. ‘Yori’s going to be killed by that man! He’s going to die because of me!’ She was stepping forward by a foot feeling drawn in by the fight. Yori kept trying to dodge, but the soldier had him ered. ‘It’s me! I wao do something… Why ’t I protect my brother when he needs me the most?! Why?!’ She felt at the end of her reason with oions p through her and driving her.

  The one sided fight turned poorly for Yori quickly. He fell backwards to the ground with Philon standing over him still seeing the Yori resistanbsp; Philon raised his sword up for the final attack he o put the kid into submission.

  Everything blew away from Yumi when she saw Yori on the ground. Only the three of them existed for them. The vilge, the screaming, Yuki or Fumiko, none of it mattered to her anymore. She only saw them. ‘No! I ’t let this happen!’ Yumi ran into the middle of the fight streaming tears behind her. “I’ll protect you, brother!”

  Yori’s eyes widened seeing her putting her back to the soldier as he came down to swing. “No! Yumi! Get out of the way!” He tried to get up from the ground, but everything moved so slowly for him.

  The swing tihrough, uo be ged. She only thought of proteg when she heard the sword g loudly. Yumi felt it echh her babsp; Her eyes widened for a moment thinking that she had been cut down. However, the sword spun away from her, ripped out Philon’s hand embedded into the grass several meters behind him. Yumi turned slowly fused by what happened.

  fusion sat deeply on Yori and Philon’s faces as well. ‘What was that light I just saw?’ questioned Yori as he stared at her. ‘What did Yumi just do?!’