Despite the night, Chiharu felt like the sun bsted her with a blinding beam of light. It didn’t make any seo her. A glow seemed to be around Yumi that defied Chiharu’s mind. She saw a fragile and wavering strength that tio be broken and rebuilt endlessly. Chiharu could see the old pieces of the foundation that failed to be reused as ks in the new. It held tless pieces, always recycled. Nothing was ever wasted. ‘What is this answer?’

  Chapter 137 – Uanding the Answer

  ‘ge herself?’ Yumi’s words ran through her miedly. She didn’t feel that the girl made any ge, even if it was her desire. Everything she saw showed her to be weak and easily trolled by emotions. The only thing she found worth something was her determination, but even that seemed to falter at times. ‘She always backs dowhe slightest thing fails on her. She starts out strong and then colpses under pressure. She ’t ge. You are who you were when you’re born.’

  The return of silence from Chiharu pulled in Yumi. It made her fear she said something wrong to Chiharu again. She always expected a quiswer from Chiharu. She never seemed to stutter in her response, but it happened before and again. Yumi leaned over to Chiharu hoping to get her attention. “Chiharu? Everything ok?”

  Yumi’s voice roughly pierced through her thoughts and snapped her attention. Distracted in her words, Chiharu narrowed her gre for Yumi to push her babsp; “I’m fine. I’m just not satisfied with your answer.” She crossed her arms, log herself back away from Yumi. The wall came up.

  An awkward feeling filled the air around Yumi. She didn’t uand the sensation, but it made her pull away from Chiharu. The uried to drill into her stomach to ferment a sour liquid. Yumi fought to keep her ogether. “hat’s wrong with the answer?” Yumi pressed her hands together at her waist for fort.

  “It’s that.” Chiharu poi Yumi without actually moving her hands. It focused everything on her.

  Startled a bit, Yumi pulled herself tighter. “W-what do you mean?”

  “You’re weak. You colpsed too easily.”

  “W-we’re all weak…”

  Chiharu angled her head over to Yumi a little. “That’s not what I’m talking about.” She dug in her gaze. She po pull out the answer. The only option was to be ruthless.

  Pressure from Chiharu didn’t help Yumi calm herself. She felt surrounded from all sides. Each dire had the eyes of Chiharu aimed at her. Yumi didn’t uand what she wanted anymore. She thought she gave her what she wanted. ‘I thought I was starting to uand her…but now…Chiharu’s so scary…’ Feelings aions no longer mattered. All it did was overload her. She had to find another way out. However, Chiharu didn’t look to be bag away from her. Yumi was out of answers.

  “Already out of words?”

  “But…I…”

  “You’re already doing it.”

  A wall stood before her blog her path. Yumi had no pce to return and no pove again. Everywhere a barricade came down. She didn’t uand what Chiharu wanted from her. ‘She feels different from before…’ Chiharu refused to give a clear reply. She didn’t know what to do.

  “You don’t even uand do you? You really are just dumb…”

  Yumi pulled further away from Chiharu. She already went beyond uainty and fusion. She lost the ce to say anything. Her every turn threatened her with biting jaws of angry fangs. “Pl-please stop…”

  Letting loose a puff of air, Chiharu tightened her arms. “Already makihe vilin?”

  “Why?”

  “That’s what I want to know. Why you?”

  “I-I don’t uand what you’re asking!”

  Chiharu turned a little in their walk to face Yumi better. “Why are you doing all of this? Why do you act strong, but are actually a coward? Is it all for him? Because of some pointless crush? Why? I want a real answer from you.”

  Yumi felt the sm of all of the words against her chest. Her past versations with Chiharu ran mostly i and eve seemed like they were direct there was still fusio. It was the first time that Yumi actually felt that Chiharu was being dired not jumping around words. ‘Was everything from before about this? She’s still bothered by it?’ Most of the nervousness in Yumi faded away. If it was a question such as that, she felt fident in an answer. “I did provide you a partial answer already.”

  “You want to ge yourself?”

  A nod in agreement came from Yumi. She mao smile a little, feeling the warmth returning to her body. “Yes, that’s correct.” The image of Yuki paihrough her mind as she thought about her words.

  The tone in Chiharu’s voice cracked slightly as she spoke, “What do you think you do with such weak and na?ve ideas?”

  She shook her head a bit at Chiharu. Yumi began to see that she really didn’t uand. inally, she thought she might have been too young, but she didn’t know Chiharu’s past. Their chats showed her that Chiharu had maturity. She still cked something else. What she cked prevented her from uanding. Yumi khat finally. “I guess it could be seen as that to you. But you sure that it is not you that is weak for not being able to see?”

  “I’m not weak,” Chiharu immediately replied. The tone in her voice broke again in her words. Her arms tightened in further. Any further movement from Chiharu would begin popping her joints.

  Yumi’s smile weakened a bit seeing the uling stress from Chiharu. “There are different types of weakness. I think…” She o expin herself. It was clear to her that something still bothered Chiharu enough to keep pressing the issue. Yumi didn’t cim to uand her reasons, but she felt the importance of it to her. “I already know that I’m not very strong. I have to keep pig myself back up. I’m always doubting what I do. The truth is that I probably shouldn’t even be here.”

  “If you know this, then why are you still here?”

  “I already answered that question four chapters ago,” Yumi quickly ented with a grin.

  A quick gre jumped from Chiharu at Yumi. “I mean what makes you think you do this. You know you’re weak and not suited to this. How something so soft as the notion of ge be your reason?”

  “Well holy a lot of it is because of Yuki. He’s the reason I want to ge.” Some bits of nostalgia floated through Yumi’s mind calling her babsp; However, a low growl from Chiharu snapped her out of her memories. Yumi saw the look of ‘no more fshbacks’ in her eyes. It made her sweat a little, but she pushed on. ‘I guess a lot of it I didn’t really fully uand at the beginniher. It just sort of happened…’

  Yumi let her hands rest back at her side. She fot that they still walked uhe moon towards her brother. The versation with Chiharu pletely absorbed her. “Back at home, I didn’t really mind being ordinary and normal. If anything I wahat more than anything, but I knew I wasn’t. I was below average and I had tle just to try to be average. During all of junih school that was always my dream, just to be normal. And I thought I felt the same fh school too.”

  “Don’t tell me, because of the weakling you ged your mind.”

  She giggled a little at the thought, but shook her head. “No, I don’t really think he had much to do with that. After everything that happened with Japan ging, I didn’t know what to think. Everything had ged and I could no longer see things the same anymore.” Her left hand rose up to rest on her right upper arm to hold on for safety. She saw things that defied nature out of her window. Everything no longer had the same meaning, at least she hoped. It gave her a new ce.

  Chiharu would have crossed her arms in disbelief, if she hadn’t already. She couldn’t even tighten anymore as a show. All she could manage was narrowed eyes to carry any further disbelief within her. “You’re saying he had nothing to do with it? That sihe try ged you came to the clusion?”

  “I guess he triggered things or art of it. But the ges happening around me definitely ged my way of thinking.” The impossible happened around her. People with strange powers surfaced in every er. Nothing was as she knew. Her thoughts ged then. “I didn’t think much of it at first. All of it scared me too mubsp; Even from the window of my home, nothi safe anymore. But slowly I felt something different. I started sidering something. Back then I couldn’t give it words to exist. However, on our st night in Japan I made my decision.”

  “You made a decision?”

  Yumi nodded back to her. “Yes, it was at that same time I decided I was going to help Yuki.”

  “So it does e back to the weakling.”

  “Eh? I guess…though they’re two separate issues.” Yumi stuck her hands out as if she held somethiween them and moved her hands to the opposite side. She wao keep them apart from each other. “I felt that if I was going to do anything, I o do something… Something possibly drastid reckless, something that I might regret.”

  “Isn’t that terproductive?” The thought process of Yumi failed to make Chiharu uand her aer. She felt like she was getting the full answer from Yumi, but not the ahat fit. It only served to fuse her further. Questions swam in her head. Yet curiosity remairong enough to keep from breaking off.

  “Maybe so,” ughed Yumi. She couldn’t deny the notion that everything she did ointless. Even starting out she khe possibilities. However, she didn’t stop a pushing forward. ‘Maybe that’s why the voiside me es out…when I find myself in doubt…I ’t turn away…’ Yumi fixed stares with Chiharu. She felt some of her determinatiourning. “But I decided to do anything knowing that. I o ge, I realized. The world around me had ged and though even before the ges occurred I did not necessarily fit ly into its works… I khat now I definitely wouldn’t… The world outside my home wasn’t a pe. So I o be someone different to keep moving forward.”

  “Someone different?” Chiharu raised an eyebrow in uainty. The longer she listehe less it made any seo her. ‘I really don’t uand her way of thinking. You don’t just decide to ge yourself. Training and discipline are the only way to improve yourself.’ She wasn’t finding the answer she wanted. She had to correct her thoughts. “ge isn’t possible.”

  “Huh?”

  “You’re born who you are and who you will be. You ’t ge that. You refine what yiven. You are you. Nothing more.”

  Yumi closed her hands together with her fingers ced together. She held on tightly to them as though desperate to keep something from esg. “I know I’m trying for something that is impossible. I’ve been who I have been for my entire life. So ging now seems beyond my limits, but even though I falter, stumble and fail I o keep trying anyway.”

  “For him?”

  “For myself! My friends support me and know I be more. So I have to believe as well in what they see in me. So I’ll do this for myself. I’ll bee stronger and more fident.” Yumi made it into a promise rather than a dream or hope. She stood in a nd where she couldn’t let her weaknesses and fears keep holding her babsp; She was afraid and scared of the future, but she o keep trying anyway.

  Yumi jumped forward a little ahead of Chiharu and turned around to face her pletely. “After all, we’re in the nd where anything is possible, right?” A wide grin appeared on her face brimming with resolve. “Even the impossible happen!”

  Chiharu came to a stop still questioning the logic preseo her. She didn’t have the energy to debate further irrational ideas with her. Nothing came as clear as she wanted with Yumi. Deep inside, she held onto hope of finding the ahat she needed for herself. The phrase that would solve her owions, but her quest would have to tinue. She k would not be so easy. “Logily a fool uand. No wonder you’re stu the weakling.”

  “That’s fih me for now!” She wasn’t sure how much of it helped, but she no longer saw Chiharu as cold and distant. Even if only a little bit, she thought she could call her a friend and feel like Chiharu might not pin about the notion. ‘Everything will be fine! I’m feeling good about this! We’re a team!’

  Seiji and Fumiko came to a stop o the two girls. However, their reasons weren’t because they interrupted the marbsp; They aimed their eyes forward to the distanbsp; Fumiko was the first to speak, “Is that a vilge?”

  “I ’t tell from here,” answered Seiji, leaning forward as though it helped him. “It’s too dark.”

  Chiharu pulled her focus back to the attention that grabbed the others. The features on her face all became narrowed and intense. “No, that’s no vilge. It’s a camp.”

  The sudden ge in atmosphere finally reached Yumi. It pulled her around, curious to know what the others were talking about. Once she saw the same thing, her eyes widened and pupils shrank in disbelief. “A camp?! It ’t be!” She staggered back, uo hide her surprise.

  “Yes, and judging by the size there are more than a hundred camped there.”

  “How’s that possible?” asked Fumiko, taking a step back as well. “We would have seen something this big!”

  “My brother’s in there?! How are we supposed to get him out of there?” Despair fell bato Yumi’s p droppio her knees. The sight grew more expansive in her mind. Her brother stretched out of her reabsp; ‘How will I save him?’