It was the tradi above all that made Chiharu ied in the man. She didn’t know what was going on with him. His miightly closed from the outside. Only through his words could she piece together any sort of an idea of what type of man he was.

  Beyond the words, Nereus was a tall man, even pared to the others. Few in Chiharu’s group matched or surpassed him. Though, it was the bright red hair that stood out the most for Chiharu. Living in Japan, such a hair color was unon unless it was dyed. It made him seem like he still had a lot of youth in him, though she was certain he was actually fairly old. If she had to make a guess, he robably in his forties, but in good shape for su age.

  After ten minutes of marg casually away from both the fighting and Capital, Chiharu started to sider if he was going to do anything. “We’re far enough away.” However, he didn’t stop or eve to her. A bit annoyed, Chiharu moved a little closer. Perhaps he didn’t hear her. “This is far enough. We stop.”

  Nothing.

  Chiharu reappeared in front of Nereus looking to stop him, however he tinued on through her, literally. The uling feeling of having someone pass through her sent a chill down her back, but not as much as the same dead look in his eye. It didn’t even look like he saw her, as though she was invisible to him. ‘What the hell’s wrong with him?’

  Trying to uand him a little, Chiharu monitored and followed for a little while. Yet, he didn’t stop after waiting. She moved to grab his arm and force him to stop, but she went through him again. ‘What’s wrong with me?’ Chiharu tested her hands and body, everything was solid, normal. Ahead of her, Nereus kept walking. ‘What’s going on? Is this another maion of his power? I thought he was water based on what he showed before.’ When she called out to him, he didn’t anshysically stopping him did nothing as well. She could do nothing to him.

  Eventually, he halted, appearing to be no longer ied in their walk. Chiharu moved out in front of him wanting some answers. “Finally decided to stop.”

  Nereus barely looked in her general dire. It was hard to tell if he actually saw her. “You failed the first test. Just further proof. I wondered if it ossible, but it seems I might have over spoken about you being alive.”

  “Huh?” Chiharu leaned in a little irely clear if he was insulting her or not. He wasn’t making a lot of sense. She remembered him saying something about being alive before. “You mean to tell me you were testing to see if I could stop you?”

  “Correct, but you failed. Though you seem to have some degree of intelligend deductive skills. But even an animal has instincts.”

  Now she was certain he was insulting her. A bit of a vein popped up on her forehead as she struggled to keep her anger in chebsp; “pario an animal now? That’s some mouth you’ve got. You’re quite an arrogant bastard, aren’t you?”

  “You’re right, animal’s have cws and protect themselves. I haven’t seen you prove you do such things. You simple follow, you’re led. You let me do whatever I wanted. You are nothing more than dirt.”

  “…dirt…” Chiharu started to lose any trol she had on her emotions. He went beyond just being arrogant. He was looking down on her, but he wasn’t even arrogant. The whole time he was so far above her that arrogance was a waste of time. Such superiority made her blood boil.

  She leapt after Nereus, throwing out her fist at him. He stopped her with his hand before she got too far. “ dirt do this?!” A flurry of puried their best to nd hits on him, but all she got for her troubles was an oddly moist hand dripping in water as he stopped all of her attempts.

  “I guess you’re right. You do talk. You’re living dirt.”

  Chapter 249 – Living Dirt

  Shod anger mixed through Chiharu’s eyes. She couldn’t break through his defense, but he still called her dirt. ‘I’ve never known someone so…so…’ Anger prevented her from finishing her own thoughts. Only the muscle head made her so upset and it was nothing pared to him. It was worse. She knew he at least aowledged her despite all of their arguments. The same wasn’t the case for Nereus. He didn’t even know she existed, it felt like to her. And that wasn’t even the worst part of it. She wasn’t worth time in his eyes.

  She retreated, seeing that her punches weren’t doing anything to him. Anything she threw at him was just stopped. ‘Water?’ she noted, from looking at her hand. It felt strange whe his hand. It wasn’t as though it was soaked in water, but her skin was damp. A couple of drops of water slid down her fingers befetting stuck at her tips. ‘Did he stop me with only water? So is his element really water? Then what was that ck of physical form from before?’

  So many questions came up from so little shown. It also seemed that he wasn’t aggressive er to start their fight, almost as if she had to prove something to him before the fight could begin. Perhaps another one of his tests o be passed.

  The thing that bothered her the most was the way he was before during the walk. Further analysis only made the thoughts more uling. ‘I couldn’t grab him. It was like he had no real form or it was just an illusion. But he ’t do anything to himself with his powers. So there’s only two possibilities. He created a double of himself or did something to me. Did he take away my physical form?’ Chiharu didn’t want to sider it a possibility, but she knew with their powers anything ossible so long as they thought it up. Nothing was outside of the possibilities. Their power pletely denied nature, if they wished for it.

  ives from the thoughts became too much of a dwelling point for her. She pushed it aside to focus on the more important issue in front of her. She couldn’t touereus with any of her punches. It wasn’t her normal method, probably a bad habit picked up from the moron, but it should have done something. She khat she didn’t swing lightly. ‘How did he keep up with my speed? I wasn’t going the fastest I could, but it should have been too fast for him to reabsp; I should have seen what his defense was with that attack.’ The whole thing was covered in a shroud of mystery, both his attitude and his powers.

  She knew he used water and it seemed part of his defense. But she needed more information on him. The disied, nearly disected look from Nereus only made her angrier. Chiharu charged ba for aest. She o uand how his power worked.

  Chiharu flung her foot out in a wide kick to his upper arm. It should have been sharp and fast, but he still blocked her with his hand. ‘How is that possible? His body shouldn’t be able to move like that!’ She threw more at him as her frustration mounted. Everything she did she wrote off as a test, but it no longer looked like one. Emotions came out more in her voice, grunting and r.

  Nereus stopped her st attad pced his hand on her chest. Her body recoiled from some unknown forbsp; It sent her flying backwards out of trol. ‘What did he do to me? He just touched me!’ Chiharu stared at him while spinning through the air, the same unfocused eyes never meeting her.

  Retrieving her kunai, she dug both into the earth to trol her speed and body, no longer flipping end over end. She still carved out a several meter long lihrough the soft earth with her bde before ing to a full stop. The kunai reached back to their sheath at her side. Chiharu stood up cheg on her garb from whatever hit her. The outer yer of cloth c up the mail was destroyed, but it seemed the links of metal remained intact.

  Nereus pulled his hand back, rubbing his fingers a little. “I had to hold back quite a bit. It was so weak. So fwed. But I guess it’s the best you do.”

  ‘More of his crap. I’m getting tired of listening about it.’ She wao do anything to knock him down off his mountain that he stared down upon the world. Anything would do for her. It would make her feel better.

  Chiharu gnced around the area for anything, but found that there was literally nothing in sight. The slightly tall grass stretched out to the horizon. It was endless. ‘Must be his Field’s doing. They probably know about my shadow powers thanks to the st fight, even if their Captain came with us. They passed on what they learned no doubt since he faked his death.’ She looked down at her feet. ‘Fortunately, my powers have evolved. I don’t need something else’s shadow anymore.’

  Her body slowly sank into the grass until it pletely disappeared from sight. Within the shadow world, she moved to the window from Nereus’ shadow. ‘This should catch him off guard.’ She shifted her position a little ing out on his left fnk rather than directly behind. Her kunai swung out for the gap between his ribs, but something stopped her bde. He was standing before her with his hand preventing her bde from going any further. “What?!”

  “fused? Is it so beyond your prehension?” He pushed ba the bde knog it out of her hand by the same unseen forbsp; “This is why you’re nothing but dirt. A sneak attack was too obvious.”

  Chiharu leapt away from him, getting out of his hand’s reabsp; “…damn…” She rubbed her wrist, a little sore from her on behind ripped out of her hand. Redness painted her palm from where she held it. ‘I specifically made sure not to do a direct back attack, figuring he’d expect that, but he still predicted what side I’d e out on. He’s as dangerous as he is arrogant.’

  Worse from the attack, she failed to learn anything from the attempt. She knew nothing more about his powers from it than she did a moment before. They generally had a defense as a final lio protect them. She expected to see that defense and hopefully uand what his power was based around. Everything she saw made her doubt his water power. It seemed unlikely from the dispys.

  She needed a new pn. fronting him directly proved not to have any success. ‘If I attack from multiple sides, I should be able to learn something. He only has two hands. He ’t block everything.’ Out of sight by her feet, portals into the shadow world opened up for her. She pulled out several kunai and shuriken hidden underh her mail. They all fell into the grass disappearing from sight.

  All around Nereus portals opened in the very air into bck voids. They varied i and position to enpass him pletely like an invisible sphere. Not even a sed ter, ons flew out of the portals straight for Nereus. Straight became both a figurative and literal interpretation of what happened .

  The kunai and shurikens all moved at him, but their courses weren’t the ones set by Chiharu or their exit from the portals. Some external power seemed to be at work. They all gravitated to him along different lines, but came to the same pce, his hand. Nothing hit anywhere else. He had somehow mao make all of her attacks still e to him and hide his power. “Trying to be clever? It’s going to take more than that.”

  ‘Dammit!’ Grindieeth together, Chiharu tried to analyze what she saw. ‘Even if he’s not doing what I want, I’m getting something. I just don’t know what!’ Nothing about him made any seo her. Everything she tried just failed. It was as if he knew what she was going to do before she even made it. Like he was inside her mind. An uling thought to be sure.

  She started to run out of pns to expose his power. All he did was wait for her, making him even more annoying. She wao just punch him in the fabsp; If she could, it might calm her anger. Those eyes made her blood burn like nothing else. They tio look past her rather than at her. She didn’t uand what his problem was with her. ‘I’m not dirt! Bastard!’

  Itempts to buy time for something else and partly because she couldn’t trol her anger, Chiharu flew at Nereus. She increased her speed to make it more difficult on him, yet it didn’t work. Mixing up her attacks, she sed in her bdes between every couple of attacks out of pattern just to throw him off. Even if it wasn’t expected, he still didn’t lose his defense. Nothing breached the impossible wall he put up. His hand mocked her. Nothing got through.

  She slid back for a break. Nothing worked. What could she do? ‘Those eyes…damn those eyes!’ Emotied beating her heart faster. She charged for him again out of options. Anger had full trol of her as. It did evehan nothing. He seemed to handle her easily. ‘How is he so fast?! It’s not possible! I ’t be this slow!’

  Nereus e by knog her babsp; Her back scraped through the earth kig up a small cloud that hovered around her body. It barely cloaked her, but she used it to disappear into the shadows. She popped out above, but he still stopped her with the same effortless a. “Bastard!”

  “Even an animal would know when to run away. This is pointless.”

  “Damn you!” Chiharu charged in blindly after him. However, he stopped her iracks before she could do anything. She tried to fight him in that position, but it did nothing. All stopped before his hand.

  He appeared tired of the events aition. Nereus pced a single finger on the mail exposed through all of her fighting. “I see the weakness so easily. Just a slight crack is all that is o break something sile.” Suddenly all of the links in Chiharu’s mail shattered. Her prote blew off her body as the force sent her flying away. “It all crumbles like dirt. Worthless dirt.”