“You believe that is ere given powers? To fight?”

  “Of course! You’ve seen what we’ve been given.”

  Fumiko’s outlook oter signifitly differed from his perspective. It had been something he gave time and thought to, even if it might have seemed pointless. Something impossible happened, at least as everyone uood reality. Trying to uand that would normally seem a waste, but with a new reality, it had meaning.

  ‘I had taken the whole thing as more of an act rather than iional design on his part.’ Everything he had seen and knew about Yuki seemed to support that. ‘It was crafted from his mind and given his is, it is certainly something he would enjoy. However, I have trouble believing he’d eople to be fighting as she is suggesting iheory.’

  “You believe it was an act don’t you.”

  “Given the information.”

  “I’ve realized it is something different.”

  “What do you mean?” Haruo managed ialking to break Fumiko’s hold on the dagger. He grabbed her metal wrist keepi bay as she armed herself with a neon. Struggling with him, she threw her fme arm at him. It was an immediate a he regretted, but he grabbed her fist of fire. There was just enough substao it for him to stop, but it started to burn his skin. Pain scorched through his arm.

  Chapter 325 – Misjudged Words

  “The smart silent one didn’t figure it out?” Fumiko ughed a little, mog Haruo's apparent blindness. “For being so intelligent, you’re actually pretty blind.”

  “Blind to what?”

  “Yuki cims that it was an act, but none of it was. It was all desigo happen this way.”

  “You’re g that Yuki iionally altered everyone. He doesn’t have that sort of trol over his powers.”

  “So he cims to us. But do you actually believe that? Everything is too deliberate to be an act.”

  While he doubted what Fumiko cimed, she did still make him curious. ‘I question whatever she’s got supposedly figured out, but she might have stumbled across a piece that’ll ahings I haven’t figured out.’ It was like asking for dires from a ically iient and he uood that. He still had curiosity that o be answered. “You don’t believe what Yuki said happened?”

  “And you do? Amazing! I ’t believe the anti-social one of the group actually trusts him as much as Saki. You never have answered why you’re with us. You’ve always dodged the question. To think it is just blind faith.”

  “It’s nothing like that.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Your theory…”

  “Dodging again. Well, I pn on killing you anyway. So knowing why you’re following around that lying bastard hardly matters at this point.”

  ‘She still has all of the fidence despite what’s happened and that we’re mostly in a stalemate. Though I don’t know how long my hand will st burning at this rate.’

  “I realized it while we were in Atntis. After everythiled out. When you’re n to fight to stay alive it gives you plenty of time to think.”

  “And you figured it out then?”

  “That’s right. I figured out Yuki’s pn.” The fme in her arm seemed to grow a little weaker iruggle. “I heard from when he was telling his stories getting us all up to speed about what happened on the boat ride down. He gave Seiji powers and that gave him the idea.”

  Haruo recalled it as well. ‘Is this how she’s going about it?’

  “He’s so obsessed with fantastic stories that he had to make it all a reality. He had the ability and knowledge to do so.”

  “That’s not much of a theory.”

  “You’ve heard the way he talks and thinks. He speaks in story clichés as though the real world is just a book that he’s reading. And that people’s motivates be simplified to being genre savvy. Takako looks io all of you, but Yuki is the most insane one living and he’s got you all fooled into thinking he’s just a joke. He’s the ohat you should all be the most frightened of.”

  Not anymore vinced, Haruo gave a silent stare that was about as much as he could manage for a doubting look. But Fumiko wasn’t finished. She tinued her reasoning to Haruo. “Did you even think about the most obvious facts? The people…us!”

  “We were given powers, yes.”

  “More than that! Look at the powers everyone was given. They all suit the individual based on something in their history or personality. Saki’s in track, so she’s speed, Seiji likes fighting so he’s strong and tough, Chiharu’s a ninja, Yuki knows I’m into fantasy, so he gave me magibsp; None of that was random, that was deliberate pnning.”

  “One doesn’t imply the other though.”

  “Even if you deny his i, you ’t ighe fact that he made us fhting.”

  ‘Back to the inal topiow. Her reasons at least do better to support that than Yuki iionally doing wish fulfillment and using everyone in the try for his own personal enjoyment.’

  “Look at our bodies. You’ve noticed just as much as the rest of us. They aren’t the same anymore.”

  “Superhuman attributes.”

  “Exactly! He gave us everything o not just fight, but to be able to survive and enjoy the fights to their fullest. He wanted us to fight!”

  “And that’s the clusion you’ve reached?” Haruo didn’t really get much more out of it. It gave him an uanding of Fumiko's thoughts and that was good. But there was little else it offered him. ‘I’ll admit it’s an iing theory, but that’s all it is. There’s no solid proof to back it up. It’s all just her speg from observation. Given that it is something that Yuki did alo’s unlikely if any of us will ever know why or what happened.’

  “How a reach this clusion? All of this power, none of it is peaceful. It’s meant fhting and killing. If you’re not using it that way you’re wasting it.”

  “It’s true I haven’t seen any power yet that isn’t meant fhting. But it is still how we use it that determines if it is fhting or something else.”

  “You’re still na?ve. I used to think like that. I bought into Yuki’s lies. That was until Atntis.”

  “That was areme situation and one built from misuanding.”

  “They wao kill us! All they wanted was to fight and kill!”

  Haruo had something he wao say in response, but stopped himself. He remembered that she had a very different experien Atntis than him. ‘She’s had more harrowing experiehan most of us and has taken it harder than the rest of us.’ Though silence was natural for Haruo, he didn’t know how to respond to her. He started to see what looked like the source, but hadn’t the experieo tend or support.

  “Kill or be killed. That’s the way the world works, that’s the saying as it goes. Well that’s how Atntis is and Japan now. Accept and embrace that. It took me a while, but I finally uood that base fabsp; Takako uands that too.”

  “Base instincts?”

  “That’s right! After Atntis, I realized it all. Yuki made us all reborn to fight. It’s not for stupid novel and romantiotions as prote people or defense. No, it’s simple killing.” The fme grew brighter suddenly with the iy of the heat increasing. She had been holding ba their struggle. But she pushed for a clusion now.

  “And now you’ll kill me.”

  “That’s right! Only one of us leave! And unlike you, I’ve accepted and enjoy it now. Once killing is in your blood you ’t stop. You’ve got to keep going.”

  “So you’ve bee a murderer.”

  “You make it sound so dirty.”

  “Are you g to be different?”

  “No! We’re all murderers. I’ve just accepted that fabsp; I killed people in Atntis during our efforts to save Yuki.”

  “I don’t believe they were iional deaths.”

  “At the start, but at the end I accepted the facts as they were in front of me. I liked killing. I e. I didn’t o be afraid of the killing. I had to keep practig and refining my power so I could keep going. But with pea Atntis, there wasn’t going to be anythi. My only hope was Japan, thrown into chaos by Yuki’s scheming.”

  “Takako.”

  “Yes, Takako! She doesn’t have the same views as the others. She uands how the world really is. And she is going to be showing everyone else. After she kills Yuki, there won’t be ahat stop her from extending her influence.”

  “She was waiting for Yuki?”

  “Initially no, but she quickly learned about Yuki from the students that fell in lih her. They didn’t uand it, but they had seen his fight with Demosthenes in front of the school like the rest of us. And she khen that he was going to be a threat. She built her power and waited knowing that he would eventually be babsp; It was all as she pnned.”

  “That certainly expins why she limited her growth, whiever made sense.”

  “Now that all of what she wants is in her hands, things will start ging. Yuki’s death will bring ao the lies and Takako will show everyohe truth!”

  Haruled to keep his hand from being pletely destroyed by Fumiko’s fme. The smell of burning flesh filled the air around them. However, he had long lost most of the feeling from his hand with all of his nerves either destroyed or just pletely overloaded by pain. “I’m not very good with people. But I have to question your ideas of the truth of the world as you cim.”

  “Everyone does because they don’t uand. They fall in lih what society says.”

  “I’m ly talking about that.”

  “What?”

  “I’m more referring to you at this moment.”

  “What about me?”

  “If I had to guess, you’re actually lying to yourself and using Takako’s power to justify your as.”

  “What are you talking about? What do you know?!”

  He noticed the sudden rise in her void rea. It was all just guessing, but it seemed logical enough to him from what he knew of her and people in his observations. “Like I said, I don’t know people very well. I just observe mostly. And what I’ve observed of you makes me think you’re lying. There is something else that you’re trying to cover for would be my guess.”

  “I’m NOT c for anything! This is who I AM!”

  “Your yelling indicates otherwise. With your heavy focus accepting killing, I’m going to guess that is the root of the matter. What is it about killing for you that you’re trying to hide?”

  “Killing is reality! I’ll kill YOU!” Fmes jumped up from her arm going wild. It pushed back Haruo as she leaned in. Her eyes had grown wide with her pupils shrinking. A crazed look spread over her face.

  Haruo fell back, losing his stanbsp; She had pletely overpowered him. His burned arm was useless to him. The metal magic already pinned him down for her to make the killing blow. “You won’t.” It was his st bsp; He barely had any supp facts to it. Just his versation with her to go on.

  Another reckless a.

  “I WILL! KILL!” Fumiko threw her hand down glowing bright blue. She aimed straight for Haruo’s heart. “I’ll show you who I AM!”