“Is that all you do?”

  “Eh?” That wasn’t the sort of response he expected to get from Saki. She didn’t even look worried about it. He wasn’t thinking she would be surprised, but a little bit of or annoya something that would give her trouble. Yet she looked disappointed.

  “All you make is two?”

  Tatsuya leaned forward on the roof a little, finding that he was more surprised and shocked, which should have been on her fabsp; “A-all! It took me two weeks to figure out how to do this! I like to see you do better!”

  As requested, Saki began to bee blurry until she separated into two copies and then another. She stopped at creating six copies of her through her speed. “And I figured this out in the middle of bat.”

  “Now you’re just showing off,” he joked, trying to hide his insecurity. ‘Damn, this is bad. She do all that and doesn’t even look like she’s trying still. How am I supposed to eve a draw with her? Hurry up, man. I’m not going to be able to hold out for as long as I thought against her.’

  Chapter 343 – The False Mirror

  Saki didn’t wait long before making her move against Tatsuya. She was fident, but not oo showboat. There was no need for her to be dramatic about her fight. None of that had ged since joining Takako.

  All six copies of Saki leapt to the roof after Tatsuya. It was only thanks to his ability that kept him from being pletely destroyed in the first sed. She once again missed him. While he was already airborne, she crushed the roof that he stood upon a moment before. It all happened in a blur, but he saw multiple streaks from Saki for each of her copies.

  As he came to a rest, he watched the house colpse into pieces as Saki stood on the debris pile. Though he noticed as she stood on it, the debris was moving quickly. Eventually, she stood on a ft surface of the floor.

  It took him a moment, but he realized what had to be happening. ‘It’s like in those anime…’ The momehought that he became a little depressed with himself that he was thinking like Yuki would. But it made sense. ‘This all did e from his mind, so it’s not surprising that these sorts of things would work this way.’

  Little time remained for him as Saki returo the offense again, but armed with what he figured out he could dodge her again. It took a few more attempts for him to be sure. ‘I was right. She didn’t actually copy or e herself. They don’t have indepe movement. It is just her moving so fast and iionally taking pauses in her movement. They’re all just after-images. There is still only one Saki.’

  The discovery made him grin a little. Learning such a piece of information didn’t make her as threatening as she seemed. It was still frightening to pohe fact that she could move so fast as to create six after-images. But Tatsuya could take such a thing.

  He kept dodging her using his two copies to throw her off. She quickly realized as she mao nd a pun what she thought was him, that it wasn’t actually real. Her fist went right through him. It left her to pause in surprise. This opened her up to a terattack.

  Tatsuya immediately took advantage of it by attag from his real self. He didn’t have any speed behind his punch, so it didn’t have the same sending power as before. But he still ected with her cheek. The power behind it knocked her back off her feet. She had no defense up, not expeg it. So he got the full advantage of his strike.

  Tumbling end over end food fifty meters before she mao e to a stop, Saki crashed through two homes. ns of smoke spread out from all of the destru she wrought from the attabsp; But she didn’t stay down for long.

  Saki nearly seemed to be flying back the way she was c the ground. If he hadn’t seen her ing from so far away, he probably could have been knocked out by the sheer speed she approached. However, since he could see her ing so easily, it gave him plenty of setup. He tripped her and flipped her all in the same motion sending her sliding into the earth.

  The force behind her body was enough to carve out the earth across the street and into a house. It buried her about a meter below the ground in a tunnel she created. Tatsuya could hear her screaming curses at him, unfortuhrough the earth her voice didn’t carry very well. ‘Seems her overfidence is w out in my favor. But I don’t know how long I keep this up. She doesn’t seem to be even breaking a sweat and I already feel my body getting tired. I’m not used to su intense fight.’

  He kept his movement limited knowing his poor stamina. None of this was his sort of life. All his school life sisted of before these dark days was hanging out with friends and trying to do the least amount of work possible. He was tent with being zy. Unfortunately, the new life he led didn’t allow for such luxuries anymore.

  While he tried to preserve his energy, Saki worked oing out of her hole. The tunnel she dug with her body left her stuck firmly behind a meter of earth. It didn’t take long for her to get enough room made for her to free herself. When she did, a n of earth exploded into the air as she punched her way out.

  As she walked out of the cloud, it looked like she had her own that she geed from her fumiions towards Tatsuya. She was dirt caked and a little bruised from everything. Not nearly as worse for wear as Tatsuya, but it actually looked like he mao do something to her.

  Unfortunately, the anger in her eyes made him sweat a little in worry. She looked even more pissed than before, which seemed impossible. Yet it was true and it was all going to be taken out on him. ‘And suddenly, I want to s out with Hiroshi…’

  He noticed that she wasn’t trying her after-images anymore. It wasn’t giving her an advantage against him. ‘I had hoped that she’d keep it up for a while longer. It would have drained her energy faster…’ Once he figured out how it worked, he knew he could use it against her. Sadly, it didn’t st longer for him.

  Saki charged after him, quickly closing the distance, but stopped just before him. He was already i of dodging when she raked her foot through the earth spitting up debris in an arc at him. Debris shot through both of the copies of Tatsuya leaving Saki fused. She paused, not sure where he went. “e out you bastard!”

  “Alright.” He popped out behind her getting another hit on her. It knocked her forward, but didn’t send nearly as far. Tatsuya felt something a little off about the impabsp; ‘Did she block me or am I getting more tired than I thought?’ Whichever was the case, Saki jumped ba her feet almost the instant she tumbled over. She jumped back after Tatsuya before he had much of a ce for anything. His attempt to dodge ged a direct hit into a gnce blow, but it still sent him flying backwards into the ruins of the house Saki destroyed earlier.

  Somehow, it actually felt worse than before even though he was certain she didn’t hit him as hard. “Urgh…” Tatsuya tried to get up, but Saki didn’t want to lose her advantage on him. She nded with a sharp kick to his stomach as he retty sure the sound of ribs breaking echoed out through his body. Blood shot up out of his mouth along with the air knocked out of his lungs.

  Following up with a ki the side of his ribs, Saki assuredly broke several. The force sent him up in the air and she leapt forward smming her elbow into his chest shooting him bato the earth. His impact shattered the earth aed it.

  Aream of blood escaped his lips as he coughed and nearly choked on the blood. He frantically maniputed his copy and threw up some of the dirt to temporarily blind Saki.

  “You bastard!” she screamed as she tried to rub out the tiny particles of dirt. She still roughly knew where Tatsuya was and spun around her leg to try to take him out. It only caught a small piece of him. “Get back here!”

  Tatsuya escaped quickly to get out of sight of Saki. There were plenty of houses in the neighborhood, all abandoned. So it gave him the options that he needed. Putting some distaween her, he stopped up against the wall and nearly crumpled over. ‘Damn…I didn’t think she’d wreck me so fast. The differen our power is too great… I don’t know how much longer I keep her busy.’

  The screaming of Saki’s anger and pain ripped through the neighborhood. It only made Tatsuya try to hide even more. His body didn’t want to go back out there against her again. He ed up a little bit of the blood, but it was already everywhere. ‘How bad did she mess me up?’

  “Tatsuya, you bastard! Get out here!”

  ‘No, I o keep buying time for Hiroshi.’ He peeked around the house trying to get an idea of where Saki was. Unfortunately, there was just too much still. Tatsuya hugged his stomach trying to work through the pain. ‘This isn’t going so well…’

  In what was likely enough time for Saki to get the dirt out of her eyes, the ominous sound of things breaking lowly echoed around the empty neighborhood. ‘She sounds really pissed off…’ Odd noises from the distaarted to give him an uneasy feeling about things. She couldn’t find him clearly. ‘What’s she doing? Trashing the p anger? There’s nobody living here at least.’

  Before long though, a strange sound screamed towards him. He didn’t have enough time to react to the explosion that leveled half of the house nearby him. ‘The hell!?’ Tatsuya tried to lean out to see if he could figure out what happened, but another explosio off on the opposite side.

  “You ’t hide from me!”

  It began to e to him. Another explosion further in the distance destroyed what remained of a house. ‘Is she throwing things around trying to level the ptil she finds me?’ As he watched another house blow up, he paid more attention to what happened. He saw a rge k of earth colliding with the house moments before it colpsed. ‘I’m right… Damn, this isn’t going to take nearly as long as I hoped for her to find me. I’m running out of hiding spots fast and I ’t hide ihat would draw her fire towards living areas.’

  Precious seds drained away as Tatsuya tried to think of something to do. Stress and pressure didn’t help him think faster. His mind drew a bnk on anything that he could do. ‘…dammit…wish Yuki built me better…then I could hold my own against Saki better. She’s just to…’ He had no options, save for one.

  His house was the st oill standing in the area. It made it pretty easy for her to figure out. Saki leapt through the air nding on the roof of the house. A few of the cy tiles slid off falling at Tatsuya’s feet. “So this is where you are.”

  “Damn! Out of time.”

  “That’s right.”

  Tatsuya stood up to face Saki directly. The pain from his ribs seemed to have disappeared. He wasn’t sure why, but it helped him if he was going to fight. ‘I’ll have to make the first move otherwise things will py out the same as before.’ This was his only option.

  Flinging a couple of the mostly whole roof tiles back at Saki, he used it as a s. She cut them down with her arms leaving her pletely open for Tatsuya to punch her into the house. Everything shook from the impact, but the house remaianding, somehow. Keeping up his attack, he pulled out pieces from the ruined roof to throw at her. The smoke made it difficult for him to locate her, so he listened for the different sound when it hit her.

  Once he heard the right sound, he jumped down swinging with a rge k of wood he found. It shattered immediately on impact against Saki with the force that he brought upon it. Saki still staggered back as the blow created a gust that cleared out the clouds. He picked up anything nearby to keep swinging at Saki, anything to keep her off bance.

  In the middle of a swing, Saki caught the test thing he was swinging, part of a sink. “That’s enough of that!” Tatsuya received a good look at Saki, his attacks left her bloodied in the fad arms. Her pissed look reached a new peak as she wound up her punbsp; He tried to back away and dodge her, but Saki grabbed a hold of his arm. “You’re not getting away from me this time!” Her fist smmed into his stomach shattering the house’s floor and foundation as his body carved out a crater to lie in.