“…Yuki…”

  “…urgh…losing to him…” Chiharu hated the thought that someone so small and weak held such importao someone. She didn’t uand him. She saw how he acted. He relied on others. He dwelled heavily on decisions with regret. He hesitated when ag. He hers to do things because he wasn’t strong enough alone.

  He used people. She hated it. She couldn’t stand it. It made her lost emotions bubble to the surfabsp; Chiharu bit her lip annoyed iuation.

  “…Yuki…”

  Bothered by the thought of losing to him, it forced strength bato Chiharu’s body. She felt her muscles responding to her and feeliurning to her fingers. Chiharu pushed on the earth, still feeling a sluggish a from her limbs. It took everything she had to stand on her feet. Her arms hung over her shoulders as her upper body leaned against her hips to keep from colpsing.

  “Damn him…I won’t lose to you…” A tinge of energy flowed through her. It put her legs in motion and turo find the girl a short distance from her. “…I’ll show you…my strength…” Chiharu threw her body up thten out, f away all of the fatigue and soreness. She ig all and sprinted over to put a stop to her.

  In front of Yumi, Chiharu appeared with her hands out ready to hold down her barrier once more. This time she didn’t pn to let her past until she snapped out of the tranbsp; She didn’t care what stood in her way. She wouldn’t lose to him. She was no weakling. Her determination built her resolve and eled her strength. Chiharu felt better and focused. She still didn’t know how to stop her et through, but none of it mattered. It would happen, she decided.

  The hing Chiharu heard was a squishing sound and an odd feeling in her hands.

  “Huh?” She focused her attention forward to see how the situation had ged. No barrier existed and the Yumi collided almost fully into her. Chiharu still didn’t uand.

  Yumi hesitated in managing her words. She suddenly woke up not really certain of where she stood. The first she felt was Chiharu’s hands. “-w-what’s…Chi-Chi-Chi-C…”

  Everything came flooding upon Chiharu at onbsp; She realized that Yumi awoke already. It ended before anything really happened. An unsatisfying resolution dropped her arms. “…already lost…” Chiharu colpsed to her knees no longer having the strength she built up. Her mind remained clocked out.

  “Chiharu! What’s wrong?!”

  Chapter 133 – Uanding Each Other

  After the ordeal of rec and calming down, Yumi and Chiharu sat on the ground a fortable distance apart. Awaking to Chiharu more or less crashed into her, Yumi still tried to process everything.

  A few minutes of uneasy silence were enough for Chiharu. She crossed her arms and turned away as she stood up. “You o trol your powers better…”

  Yumi stood up and bowed deeply to Chiharu’s babsp; “I’m so sorry! This is all my fault!” She barely remembered anything that happened after speaking with Fumiko. The e with Yori became stronger she remembered and everything after she just saw him. None of the rest of the things that happened from what Chiharu told her sounded familiar. A pause ran out again with Yumi’s uainty. “…if I could have trolled my powers…Brother wouldn’t…”

  Chiharu sidered leaving their words as they were, but once she heard Yumi falling bato the same pit she had to absp; “There’s no point in dwelling on the past. What’s happened is done.” Some reluce still filled her body, yet she still looked babsp; She finally noticed that Yumi still bowed in apology to her. The sight flustered her a little and she threw her head back away. “Stand up. I’ve no i in your apologies. Save them for someohat cares.”

  The harsh words washed over Yumi. She plied with Chiharu’s requests thten up. “…I guess…you’re right…” A little shake started to develop in Yumi’s arms.

  A hand pressed against Chiharu’s forehead. She sighed, bothered by f a deep retreat. ‘One moment she’s in charge and keeping the blockhead in line and the she’s flustered and timid. I don’t get her…’ It made her have some very, very small, amount ret in snapping at her. “Well those two should be catg up soon. Just rest and wait for them.” Chiharu walked off before disappearing into the air.

  Long after Chiharu disappeared, Yumi reached out for her in futility. She dropped her hand in fusion with a tilt of her head. “Chiharu?” After a few moments alohe solitude got to her. Even if she only had to wait for Fumiko to return, it felt lonely. She also khat she had to find Chiharu before they tinued.

  She closed her eyes trying to trate. Her powers seemed ected to Yori, so she didn’t know if she could do the same for someone else. However, she knew she had to try. ‘Something was b her. Maybe it was because of me…leaving…’ She focused on Chiharu trying to remove Yori from her mind. ‘I o find her…please work…’

  Deying in silence, her power seemed to refuse her. It acted stubbornly towards her, locked on something else. She fought with it in a tug-of-war to pete for trol. Yumi squinted her eyes looking around the field, in the hopes that it would fuel her powers. It all ended in vain. She dropped down folding her legs, but remained on her feet with her arms slung over her knees. “Does it not work this way? What good is having it if I ’t use it when I o?” Yumi drew her fihrough the grass. She hadn’t quite given up, but didn’t push herself. She felt aimless. “I must have…she’s angry with me… I o…”

  Yumi rocked on the balls of her feet. Chiharu vanished on her. It gave her no dire to even begin a searbsp; “She disappeared…should I just start walking?” Her head tilted up at the rolling pins. “It’s night too…I’ll get lost…I don’t want to cause more trouble for everyone.” She thought about what she did to everyone. “I made them e after me. Even now, I’m making them chase me down...”

  A sigh escaped her lips. “…came for me…” Yumi sed around the horizon in the slight hope of seeing anything that might have been Chiharu. She found nothing, as expected. “Chiharu’s out there…she came for me…”

  Strength returs and pushed her up. She wobbled a little while standing, but her body straightened out. “…she came for me…I ’t…” Yumi began walking in the current dire she faced. “I’ll do the same! I ’t turn away!” Her voice turo certainty ieps. She kept walking not pay attention to her surroundings. The path she walked was straight.

  It was a tree.

  Yumi tilted her head in fusion again. “A tree?” None of what she did made much seo her, but it felt correbsp; Chiharu was in front of her. “I’m n am I?” She shook her head, preferring not to believe the doubt. Res to the only thing possible, Yumi searched the area around the tree thhly.

  After an exhaustive, but obviously very short search, she plopped herself down against the trunk. Nothing found. Yumi felt certain that Chiharu was around, but none of it made any sense. Even finding nothing, her certainty didn’t waver a moment. Her own doubt couldn’t shake it. “Chiharu’s here? Somewhere I ’t see?” She ran her hand over the bark of the tree searg aimlessly. Any further clues seemed unlikely. No recourse remained. “I’m sorry, Chiharu. I know that you told me I shouldn’t, but I felt it’s important. You did e to help me. And thank you…”

  Silence came as she expected. She hoped wherever she hid that her words would reach her. “I know we don’t know each other very well. We are all here through es to Yuki. So I guess it’s expected that it would be difficult for all of us to get along easily. But I hope that we . To Yuki, we’re all important friends…even though he may have only met some of us retly. It’s just how he is…”

  “That’s so stupid and cliché. It’s siing,” ented Chiharu. Her voice started from the very air with no body, but at the end, she appeared resting against the tree in the shadow of the moonlight.

  Yumi jerked away from Chiharu’s sudden appearanbsp; She didn’t know immediately what to say, but Chiharu acted as if nothing had ged. The se made Yumi feel like she o reciprocate. “But there’s nothing wrong with being like that. People are normally more distant and difficult to approach.”

  “That’s because that’s reality. Someone like him belongs in his stupid manga he cares about more than his life.”

  Yumi leaned bato her spot against the tree. She felt rexed. “Who’s to say that has to be reality though?”

  “A couple of words isn’t going to ge things. People aren’t so easy to turn like in stories. Reality’s different. A good speech doesn’t ge things.”

  “It doesn’t have to be a speebsp; Just the words that you’re wanting to hear.”

  “Isn’t that just being selfish then? Waiting for someone else to tell you, when you ’t validate yourself.”

  “Maybe so, but it’s n to be a little selfish, right?”

  “Is that a question or a statement to satisfy yourself?”

  Yumi stretched her arms trying to deflee of the attention away from her heart. She turned her eyes up to the moon briefly. “Maybe it is…”

  “Bothersome,” sighed Chiharu.

  A touencholy coursed through Yumi’s veins. Past memories fluttered up inside her. She blinked her eyes to wipe it away. Her head tilted over to Chiharu. “You act tough, but you do worry about us. Thank you, Chiharu.”

  Chiharu choked out a stifled puff of air in partial startled surprise. She turned her head away from Yumi not wanting to directly see her face at the moment. “…s…”

  Yumi smiled seeing that she had caught Chiharu a little. “If we’re s, why do you still follow us? You could leave.”

  “This is training,” snapped Chiharu. She turned back around to face Yumi in a frontation. “These new powers I have need a pce to hohem. There’s people here who are used to using their powers to fight. So I’m just taking advantage of the opportunity.”

  “Sounds like a ditioned response. It’s just an excuse that satisfies yourself, right?”

  Caught between words, Chiharu narrowed her features and prepared to bare her fangs. She didn’t expect for the weak wishy-washy girl to ter through her. She didn’t like the ered feeling. “What about you? This isn’t a pce for you. Why is it so important that you follow that weakling?”

  “You’re right, this isn’t a pce I should be. But I’ll follow him regardless.”

  “Why? Why go so far?”

  Yumi pressed her hands against her heart. The memories she tried to push away returrohan before. She couldn’t avoid retreading the past. “Because he’s important to me…because back then…”