Yumi blinked in fusiourning to reality. The sting on her cheek went almost pletely unnoticed as Yumi tried to re-establish her situation. She looked down her arm to see Chiharu tightly holding her wrist out of the way of Photine. The energy in her hand wavered, but spun around waiting. Yumi’s eyes shrank in horror when she realized what she had almost done. Responding to her diminished desire, the energy evaporated.

  Chiharu released Yumi allowio back away a couple steps. ‘I lost trol of myself…to those delusions…what’s wrong with me? I almost…’ She gnced over at Chiharu, who stood between them now. A strange innoce burned into Yumi’s fabsp; It mixed awkwardly with horror and disbelief. Yumi suddenly transitioo surprise realizing Chiharu was safe and stood before her. “Chiharu! You’re alright!” She began to move towards the young girl wanting to touch her and firm reality. “We didn’t know what happeo you.”

  “That wait,” snapped Chiharu. Her features narrowed to a point. It brought Yumi to a sudden halt. “Your foolish recklessness nearly got everyone in the area killed, including your brother! What were you thinking?!”

  The scolding turned Yumi’s voice meek. She only managed a stutter. It was all so much of a blur to her. She just wahe delusions to end. Yumi didn’t fully uand what went through her. A strange feeling overcame her losing trol. It made her retreat into her mind. ‘What did I do? I-I…my brother…’ Her body ran colder than the wihey walked through in Antarctica.

  Chapter 161 – Lost rades

  Numerous small fires still hung barely lit around the charred crater. A smoke cloud loosely covered the area. The battle between Fumiko and Stamatia ended a while ago, but their passiohe area in raging turmoil. Heat still dissipated from the surfabsp; It made the air thid ky. A single breath taken in was enough to make one choke.

  No oered the area. The fates of both women waited on endless spires of time. But waiting for them finally came to an end. The long held silence broke with the crumbling of roasted wood pnks. Out of the smoke, a dirty and charred arm broke free. A sed hand lifted up to pull themselves out of the pile. The bst from their attacks sent them flying away and buried under debris. She barely held on through it all with only a sliver of sciousness. Her stubbornness saved her.

  Stamatia coughed and brushed aside the strains of hair in her fabsp; Her military uniform appeared ba her. It shined an oddly bright shade of white as though it remained pure. A long fatigued expression drew across her fabsp; She stood, but it didn’t look like it was enough. She appeared defeated by something.

  A wrinkle swept over her brow. It made her body shake. Stamatia lifted her hand up g it into a fist. “Damn it…I’m right…” Her eyes widened suddenly as her legs lost their strength. Stamatia colpsed to the ground a moment ter. She struggled to cw back up, but her hands found nothing. Eveubbornness gave her nth. She was pletely empty. “…damn it…” Stamatia passed out.

  Out of the shadows, stepped a tall man still mostly obscured by the night. The moon gave enough light on him to reveal his white uniform. He k dowo Stamatia cheg on her dition. “That baggage of yours is going to get you killed one day.” His head lifted to s the area. Standing withitle zoher than outside gave a different feel. “You were a bad match, but in the chaos the Captain didn’t have a lot of options.”

  He stood up and started walking away from Stamatia. The view he had of the fight from beyond the danger gave him a better idea of the aftermath than those in the a. He strode over to the opposite side of the crater. ‘The scale…hard to believe if I hadn’t seen it myself…’ Witnessing the destru caused by two fire wielders reminded him how dangerous it was when two non-humans cshed. He hadn’t seen such damage sihe rebellion and only is. He imagi looked very simir.

  “She fell around here somewhere…” he noted aloud. His eyes sed the area, but saw nothing that stood out to him. A ripple expanded from his feet. It turhe entire area into a ft pin bck surface of little characteristibsp; However, he didn’t need anything special. It gave him exactly what he wanted. He found the body of Fumiko no longer covered by the debris she buried herself in when she fell.

  Before moving closer, he examined her from a distanbsp; The fme arm returo its normal state. Apart from the missing arm, she looked like an average girl caught in the wrong pbsp; He knew not to trust appearance, but it still uled him seeing someone nearly a third his age involved in such things. ‘I wonder if this is how the rebellion started… is like this…’ A plicated thought entered his mind. He preferred to keep his distance from such thoughts.

  He reached down to pick up Fumiko. “She just o be captured. It’s a little g in honor taking advantage of someone else’s work, but we’re all just following orders.” When he came in reach of Fumiko, a fist flew out at him. His hand stopped it, but not without being pushed bae. It made his eyes narrow, being serious. “That’s some strength you got for your dition.”

  Fumiko panted heavily as she finally had a real moment to breathe. ‘I’m gd I hid… I got him nid close…’ She shut down her outward fatigue and focused on the sneak attabsp; Her magic felt small, but still avaible. Fumiko hadn’t experiehe feeling of missing her magibsp; It almost felt like half of herself was gone. She k would eventually e babsp; She just o keep going.

  It took lohahought to get her magiove for her. The usual feeling she had when it flowed didn’t occur. She felt blocked. ‘e on! I still have enough! Don’t stop now! Just a little more!’ Fumiko’s eyes thinned out as she forced her focus, but nothing came to her. Somethi wrong.

  Regaining his position, he gripped Fumiko’s extended arm and started to pull her over his shoulder. “If you’re w, I’ve ed your power. Watg yht with Stamatia I saw something was off about you. Seems my guess was correbsp; I don’t know what this means you are, but you’re as normal as everyone else now.”

  as gred down at the two bodies of Seiji and Nerine. He removed the swords from them. Blood tio pour out around them. “Tch…damn bastard… how’d I miss his heart?” as materialized a on in his hand. “That’s some force of will to stay alive…but not a lot of good it is going to do you with a bde through your heart.” He moved the sword to hold over his babsp; “I won’t be missing this time.”

  The sword slid down into Seiji’s babsp; A new source of blood poured out as the metal came closer. “Almost—“ A sb of wood suddeed from the ground and knocked as’ hand away. The impact sent the sword into the air trailing blood before it disappeared.

  as nursed his bruised hand as he gnced over at the cause. “I thought I dealt with the Captain’s back up…” The one running towards him wasn’t the same MP user he knocked out earlier. However, it didn’t take him long to figure out who it was. “The fight must have drained me if he was able to materialize o me…” He stood up and turned away before turning invisible. ‘’t have myself discovered…though I’ll o find a time to silehese two… I hate loose ends…’

  Arriving te and slightly short of breath, Miltiades surfaced from the dark of night. He personally released himself from the infirmary after everything that happened. Knowing that they attacked their camp made him want to do something. He wasn’t about to let them go around hurting everyone. Unfortunately, he realized that he was te. “What happened here? Who was the ohat fought him?”

  Burdened with only questions, he searched the area quickly trying to find anyone. The oopped disappeared a nothing behind. “Why were they trying to kill him? We were only given capture orders. The orders haven’t ged while I was out?”

  A shallow weak cough dripped more blood to the ground. It drew Miltiades bad impressed on him the critiature of both of them. “I have to fix them up. We’ll have answers back at camp.” Ripples expanded out from his feet. Particles of light floated up off the ground starting to g to Nerine and Seiji. “I’ve got to hurry, or all I’m healing are a couple of corpses. A dead prisoner will be even more trouble…”

  In the a, the situation calmed immensely. While the chaos in the camp was unpnned for, it still produced results. Early repave signs that the fighting was ending and the radar backed it up. They would soon have more captives and half of the group subdued. Everyohe battle turning to their side. They had a victory, finally.

  No one spoke a word about it to Simonides.

  Simonides remaiill after he got i reports. The troubling news he gained from the st fight left his entire body tense. He couldn’t believe his instincts failed him. Outside of the timing, everythi as he hoped. Yet they acted ter to his information. ‘He’s dead. It was my orders.’

  Amidst the turmoil in his mind, he looked around at the other reports and the radar. The ugly image it presented of his camp. He paid a terrible price for his trap. ‘So many died tonight…my miscalcutions…’ Even with the bad timing, he never imagined how much damage they would cause. He thought his preparations were enough, but caught off guard in the worst possible time. ‘I shouldn’t have rexed the guard…what did I miss? What don’t I know about them?’

  The peace times Atntis faced rarely saw any causality. Only mistakes caused them. His mistake caused it. A record buro ash in a single night. He tio question himself. Simonides remained silent as he g his soldiers. They watched him and the se waiting. Most uood well enough, he saw it in their eyes. However, the longer he held his words the strohe tensiourned. The ease faded away as though never existing.

  As Captain, he knew he had to face mistakes and even the worst of mistakes eventually. He k, but it didn’t make it any easier. Simoiffened his body and faced the men. “Bring the prisoo the detentios. Make sure to have MPs are always on watbsp; Keep their powers sealed at all times! They won’t be esg!” His haed on the radar. The s of the camp left a sour taste in his mouth. “Gather all able-bodied men! This camp needs our help!”

  The ander nodded in agreement to him. He turned around barking orders to the individual officers. It only took a few seds for the tent to almost be empty. Abeiron walked over to Simonides. “These things happen, sir. We are victorious.”

  Simonides slowly shook his head. A point of the radar made his eyes shrink aures narrow. “Not yet…we still haven’t received a ret report from this area. I know Photine appeared against orders, but we still don’t know the oute or who this third person is.” He wasn’t sure if he should believe it, but his gut was nagging him strohan it before. Somethi wrong. “Abeiron send another MP.”

  “Sir?”

  “I won’t see another mistake tonight.”

  The weight on Yumi kept her from moving. It scared her. She could see herself moving slowly to kill the woman. Yumi didn’t think she would go so far. However, the image of the boy came back to her. She remembered him, but only vague notions. Ohing she knew for sure was that he was dead. His body was nearby her. ‘When…did I while I was in delusions? I did it…there wasn’t anyone else…’

  Every time she tried to recall it, her mi bnk. It made her head ache trying to think about it. She knew she had to know, but something stopped her. Why could she not know? What stopped her? She had so many questions. Yet she had one ahat was rger than the questions. He was dead. She didn’t even know their name. She knew nothing about him.

  Yumi sat dowo him. Her hand stretched out towards him, but stopped. ‘What right do I have…’ She hought their rescue would have such things happen. It wasn’t even a sideration. They only wanted Yori, not to hurt anyone. ‘She’d say they were just following orders…but still…’

  Another crack shattered the silenbsp; Chiharu stood in front of Yumi, her hand finished moving. “There’s no time for pity and guilt. We’re still ierritory and your brother isn’t safe yet.” She grabbed Yumi’s arm, as she was still stunned. “Get moving! If you freeze over something like this you’ll be the o die!”

  It took a few moments for Yumi to process everything. But with Chiharu yelling at her, she felt her body moving on its own. She stood up to face her. “Someone died! Because of me! Do you even uand what that means?! Life isn’t something that is so worthless it be tossed away without a sed thought!” Yumi felt her chest pounding and her breathing hastening. “I’m not like you!”

  Chiharu’s features narrowed. Her body shook a little as she lost some of her trol. She spped Yumi again. A couple differeions fought to e to the surface with her struggling to keep them in chebsp; “Don’t think you know anything about me,” she delivered with a tone so heavy it masked out the venomous uones.

  Yumi staggered a step babsp; She always knew Chiharu had another side to her. But she didn’t expect it to be so cold or dark. It felt like she stepped on a ndmine. She wao say anything, but the pierg eyes kept her silent.

  Shifting looks, Chiharu ended her stand turned away. She felt Yumi starting to move again. In the end, moving forward was all that mattered. ‘Something’s off…’ The air suddenly ged with a heavy mood. Chiharu froze and spun around trying to determine what her senses warned her. However, it was too te.

  A light fshed quickly through the air before a wet noise rang out. Chiharu turned her head towards Yumi. Her eyes widened in surprise at the sight. She bolted over to reach Yumi even though it was already too te. Nothing could be done.

  Still fused, Yumi stumbled a little from the force that smmed into her. Everythi slow tht. She saw Chiharu running towards her with an unusual expression. It made her wonder what happened. Something hit her, but it happened so fast she didn’t feel anything. “…what…” Yumi tilted her head down to see what hit her.

  A rge sword pierced her body and hand, which tried to protect her. The bde ran through her heart. “…oh…” she whispered, upon the discovery. It didn’t feel real to her. Her eyes looked up and saw Photine behind Chiharu with her haended. It was all happening too fast. Her mind started to go bnk and an aain reached up into her chest g down tightly on her. Yumi lost the strength in her legs, beginning to fall backwards. “It’s over?”