The reality was Nereus hit Chiharu with numerous attacks. Still small, they began to add up. She lost more blood with each failure. “I’m tired of hearing your voice!”

  “Because I’m right,” he replied calmly, haltitabsp; urned her around and threw her into the ground. However, Chiharu escaped from his grasp and came on the offense again. He could stop her all day. The amount of energy it expended was insignifit against such a beast. “The way you are I only see anyone following you dying. Failure of any leader is the death of those that follow them.”

  Chiharu suddenly stopped. While blind, her hearing still worked perfectly. His annoying voice tio fuel her, until now. “Death? Dead…my men…” Images from her raid on the Higoshi ’s stronghold returo her. She led her men on an attack for revenge for them killing her grandfather, yet she failed them. Men died listening to her. She failed.

  “You’re not a leader, you’re just a failure. A mindless beast, barely better than the dirt you stomp on.”

  Failed.

  Just a failure.

  ‘Worthless? They’re dead because of me.’ Her body started to shake. She couldn’t move. All she could see were the images of her men. They were all dead before. ‘I killed them. I failed them.’ Chiharu pletely lost sight of Nereus. The world disappeared. Everythi bbsp; ‘I’m no leader. I fail at everything I do. I have to rely on others for my success. I’m nothing.’ The light left Chiharu’s eyes. Her body was lifeless.

  She was dead to the world.

  “Chiharu… Chiharu!”

  A young Chiharu turned her head up catg the ball she bounced. It only took a moment to find who called out to her. “Mommy!” She ran up to her mother standing at the doorway.

  “There you are my dear!”

  “Mommy!” Suddenly blood sprayed over her fabsp; fusion paihe young child’s faable to react to what happened. Blood tio pour out soaking her in crimson. “Mommy?”

  Her mother colpsed on the depletely lifeless. Behind her, her father id face down in a pool of his own blood. Scattered everywhere blood paihe walls and doors with men broken.

  A plete bloodbath.

  “Dead…everyone…is…dead…DEAD!”

  Chiharu ran through the room into the hall trying to escape it. She only saw more and more death wherever she went. No matter the hall she turned down, she could not escape. Tears streamed down her face.

  “Chiharu…”

  “Grandfather?” She turned around, suddenly older, her normal age. Her eyes widened in shock to see him pletely covered in blood.

  “Why? Why did you fail me?”

  “But I—“ Turning away, she fled from him as well. Only to e across even more dead. They seemed to be everywhere. She slipped on a pool of blo to turn away again. It dragged her towards the pile of dead.

  “Lady Chiharu…”

  “Why Lady Chiharu…”

  “Why did I die?”

  “I-I-I…” Chiharu couldn’t answer. The mass of dead fell over top of her. She slid further into the abyss. pletely soaked in crimson. So soaked that it became a new skin for her.

  She was pletely lost.

  Chapter 264 – Almost Human

  “Please hear me, everyone! You must listen!”

  It was distant at first, but grew stronger. Somehow the voice peed through everything. It shattered everything held around Chiharu. She awoke mentally in a void. The nightmare passed for the moment. She had some relief. However, someoruded into her mind, despite how helpful it uionally was, she hated the feeling.

  “What are you doing in my head?” The way his voice reached her seemed as though he stood o her. However, no matter how she turned about in the space he was o be found.

  It didn’t take long for him to start getting into the details. She picked up on the more maniputive w he made before crifying himself. Yet it did end up affeg her more thahought. The idea of the weaklio rot or being tricked and lied to the whole time, she wasn’t sure art of it actually affected her.

  “Damn, the weakling’s always getting himself into trouble. Makes me wonder why I even thought he’d be worth my time.”

  Awakened from the other world, Chiharu stared a little more clearly at Nereus. The experience left her a little bothered, her past still haunted her. It was something that she could never out run. However, the whole thing gave something that she the moment, a sober mind. All of the wasted energy oions that clouded her head flipped her view. She could finally see correctly.

  “You’ve returned. Have you made a decision?”

  “Yes.” Chiharu retrieved her tanto to slide into an offeanbsp; “I’m fighting. I don’t care about your tests or what you think might ht not be human. I know who I am and that’s all that matters.”

  “Is that so?” Water spun around Nereus in respoo Chiharu's decration. He seemed ready to finish things with her. “Then I will tio remind you of the truth.”

  “The only truth is that I’m going to knock your arrogant ass off your pedestal.”

  “It’s nance, only truth.”

  Chiharu sighed, he was a broken record. More depressing was that he seemed to believe it actually. ‘He’s not actually saying those things to taunt me like I thought. He just genuinely seems to believe pletely in what he is saying. What sort of twisted upbringing did he have to his mind like that?’ With the emotions and rage removed from her eyes, Chiharu saw Nereus in a pletely different light. It was actually hard to be angry with him. She almost pitied him for not knowier. “Yeah, yeah, let’s just get this going.”

  He still seemed less ied in being proactive. So it was Chiharu that took the initiative to strike first. She had no pn, just o start something. As she went through the first few attacks, she po watd figure something out. However, the first strike told her so much more about him than she expected.

  Like always, it guided straight to his hand to blobsp; She expected that, but she didn’t expect to see or feel what she did during it. ‘How did I miss that before? It’s so obvious…’ Chiharu o be sure, but it seemed her mind had been more clouded than she realized. Attag a sed and third time, she verified it.

  ‘I’m right. That’s actually quite simple, though…’ Chiharu sheathed her sword with her checks pleted. Ready, she disappeared moving straight for Nereus. Stealth attacks were unnecessary. Her fist lined up directly for him, but hit suddeanbsp; It was hard for her to describe, but simply felt like thick air. The density was enough to draw her out of her speed and slow down her fist signifitly.

  She could see him already moving his hand and her hand being guided down to him. Aerior force pushed and acted like a guide rail. Anything else rather than the opened path was so thick it was too easy to take the least resistant course. However, she uood it now. She pushed with her strength altering the course. Her fist missed his palm and hit square in his chest knog him back a meter.

  Staggered and surprised, ook a moment to pause. A shallow cough came up from the hit, though he wasn’t injured from it. Once he recovered, Nereus looked back at Chiharu with a different look in his eyes. He actually seemed to be seeing her. “So you might actually be alive after all.”

  Chiharu cocked her eyebrow up at his response. “That’s an odd way of saying I figure out your defense.”

  “Since you seem to potentially be worth taking a little more seriously, I’ll cease my defeance.” The water around him suddenly came to a plete halt. Out of the surface shot several long e shaped forms.

  Chiharu evaded them with ease as they moved almost too slowly for her. It was the first time he acted on his own rather than a ter to her. ‘So he actually make offense, but if this is all he’s got it’s going to be disappointing. Now that I know what’s going on, it’s pletely ged.’ However, whearted to move for her strike, the first water e, already passed her, shrank and grew quickly in size before exploding.

  A little surprised by the sedary effect, she wasn’t able to dodge everything. Not knowing what it did, she preferred to not be hit, but it only felt a little warm. She was certain she saw some steam trailing off it as it exploded. ‘Steam? He boiled the water?’

  Questioning it didn’t have the time. He already went into his sed round of attacks. They varied in being perfect cubes flying at her. The speed signifitly increased over the st f her to stay aware. One barely clipped her and it felt like a wreg ball smmed into her. It knocked her off bance, but nothing she couldn’t recover from. ‘I mahis sort of pace, this battle…’ Her fideurned seeing his attacks.

  ‘I’ll o try to end this quickly if I . I ’t be certain of the others' fights and if the weakling is in trouble as the brother says, then I ’t spend time on this man for long. I came all the way out here because of him…’

  The fight finally found its rhythm. No longer one sided, both sides had to be in effort. Dodging remained Chiharu’s focus, while testing his defenses. They naturally ged after she broke through. The density increased, but he no luided her around in the same fashion. He didn’t allow her much time to test before running with another water attack.

  ‘I mostly just used her as an excuse. She saved me. So I guess I was grateful, but she was strong and unyielding. Nothing seemed to stop her. She was everything that I…’

  Dang around the Field, water started to build up on the grass. When Chiharu ran out it spshed. The number of water attacks tio increase, each adding more to the developing s. It didn’t slow her down for now, but she worried about the ditions as the fight dragged out.

  ‘She was most of the reason, but there was something odd about the weakling. He had a strarength that I didn’t uand. I wao know more… I thought it might be important…’

  As Chiharu tasted more of Nereus’ attacks, she began to get an uanding for them. She realized he could alter the density. It was always water, normal water, nothing magical or supernatural. He always used natural ws to govern it. Even though he could make it so much more with different properties, it urely sce driven. Even though such a clusion still left her with one question that was at the core of everything that he did.

  What was his theme? What was the single ahat tied together everything? It might have been stifically expined what he did, but it didn't answer how he created water. She didn’t have that answer yet.

  ‘Though once we were in this strange nd, I saw the sister step up. I could see what she wanted and others followed her. I had to know more, see how it worked. I needed…’

  Every a Chiharu made went towards figuring out his power. She knew if she figured out the final piece that she would be able to defeat him. It was a lot of weight on a si of intelligenbsp; Yet, she knew despite the progress made against him without it he still had the advantage. The unknown quality of his power held great versatility that she couldn’t fully predict.

  Water tio rain dowhe Field. It actually surprised her that he kept it around, but it made her cautious. All of it could be part of his pn. Despite his mgressive state, she didn’t feel he still fought seriously. It seemed like he held back most of his tricks still. A fact that ed her a little.

  ‘I know… They have something…something I…’ Chiharu slid over the water soaked grass. Small waves spshed around her. Her hand gripped against the water to slow down her movement. He actually tered rather than blocked her. Insistency was the only sistent thing she could say about his method of fighting. It made it difficult to react.

  Finally, she came to a stop several meters away from Nereus. She felt the water drip down her fingers. ‘I . This won’t be the end.’ Chiharu stood up, tightening up her hold of her kunai. She rubbed her fingers over her thumb on her free hand feeling a little off about something. ‘I know what I d until I obtain it… I won’t stop following them…watg them… What I desire… What I need…’

  Chiharu reaffirmed her resolve. Nereus’ ents struck a painful point on her. But it was behind her now. She khe path in front of her once more. It was all clear.

  Suddenly water jumped up all around her. It rotated in tendrils that slowly grew wider. They all verged to a point in front of Chiharu f a sphere of water. A moment ter, a jet of water shot out from the sphere like a on straight for Nereus.