Chapter 12: Vanishing Reflection

                         Lloyd’s match against the fake Kyoshi is at hand, no analyzing, no stare down, Lloyd quickly goes in for the first hit, the fake Kyoshi easily evades and then with one hand slashes near Lloyd’s head, Lloyd evades making a back flip, he then thinks to himself. “That’s a briquette, a sword that’s almost a dagger… if it wasn’t that it’s a few inches longer than one, I just need to attack from mid-range and this fights in the bag.”    

                        The fake Kyoshi closes in and starts swinging left and right only a few feet away from Lloyd, knowing he can’t swing such a long sword in close range, Lloyd’s charges his right hand with a an intense rotating whirl thus pushing the fake Kyoshi away. An intense wind begins to blow very hard, keeping Kyoshi at bay. Lloyd then changes from Kamikaze style to Oni-Kaze style, he swings his sword horizontally left and right with a high pressure of wind hitting fake Kyoshi, the fake blocks, but the intensity of the wind slashes chips some of his clothes on the side and many small cuts in his skin as well. As the fake Kyoshi blocks Lloyd’s massive strikes, he slides his sword against the Lloyd’s sword and gets close to Lloyd, Lloyd then throws his sword in midair and switches from Oni-Kaze style to Wing Chun style hand-to-hand combat. The fake Kyoshi swings left to right with precision, but Lloyd easily evades deflecting fake Kyoshi’s briquette with his hands open and counter attacking using kicks with high-speed pressure of his wind powers. Suddenly Lloyd’s sword comes down from the sky, Lloyd catches it and swings down, but the fake Kyoshi throws his sword upward and catches it with his teeth thus deflecting Lloyd’s sword with his own. Lloyd then knee kicks fake Kyoshi under his chin sending him flying and destroying a wall with his back, then jumping in the air and  making a vertical attack while falling on the fake Kyoshi, but the fake Kyoshi dodge rolls out of the way therefore Lloyd missing and surprisingly cutting the small building in half. The fake Kyoshi is shocked at this sight and says. “And this one’s memory thought you were a perverted good for nothing loud mouth with a lot of luck!”

            “To tell you the truth, I really am everything Kyoshi though except for the “good for nothing” part.” Lloyd says smirking.

                        The fake is already closing in, Lloyd readies himself and waits for the right moment and range to attack the fake Kyoshi, but the fake Kyoshi runs and jumps towards Lloyd while at the same time throwing his sword. While Lloyd deflects fake Kyoshi’s sword upward, the fake Kyoshi catches it midair and quickly makes a downward thrust, Lloyd blocks and counter attacks. The fake Kyoshi evades kicking Lloyd right in the face making him fall on the concrete ground with his back. The fake has the upper hand, but a giant windstorm suddenly covers Lloyd, in the middle of the windstorm Lloyd stands up and raises his right hand, expanding the windstorm making it a hurricane. The fake Kyoshi jumps in diving in the hurricanes wind when swiftly Lloyd appears out of nowhere making a horizontal slash, fake Kyoshi blocks and counter attacks with downward diagonal slash, Lloyd barely evades the fake’s attack. The fake Kyoshi thinks to himself. “Crap, now I’m at his mercy because this is his territory!”

            “What’s wrong, you’re scared?” Lloyd asks mockingly.

            “Shut up human!” The fake Kyoshi shouts angrily.

            “Here comes the easy part, since he can’t escape my hurricane.” Lloyd thinks to himself.

                        Lloyd kicks him on the knee making him fall, Lloyd backs up a bit and as the fake falls, Lloyd does an upward vertical slash cutting fake Kyoshi down the middle in half killing him instantly, he turns to sand and is flies away along the breeze, the hurricane ceases.

            “Good thing that fake didn’t have Kyoshi’s battle high, he would’ve handed my a*s to me.”

                        As Lloyd celebrates his victory, Zero and the fake Seshiro keeps a great distance from each other, neither of them making a move, the wind blows behind the fake Seshiro, this is yet another stare down, but only more intense than the last ones.

            “Here I’m stuck with the genius hunter, Zero the Kaizer.” The fake Seshiro says in a calm tone of voice.

            “Talking won’t get you out of this fight.” Zero says placing his hand on the hilt of his blade.

            “Talking you say? Not quite, I’ll be the one ending you here and now.” The fake Seshiro says.

            “You talk big for someone who isn’t the real thing.” Zero says unsheathing his sword.

                        The distance between the two is broken, both charging towards each other, their swords meet blocking each other’s attack. The two heavy swords both being wielded at a high speed like feathers, both Zero and the fake Seshiro dodging gracefully, Zero then charges his lightning, unleashing a powerful thunderbolt to the fake Seshiro, fake Seshiro takes it head on and with one kick made it disperses.

            “I better not take Seshiro’s Kambios lightly.” Zero thinks to himself.

                        Zero then charges his lightning once more, electricity begins surrounding Zero’s body, the fake Seshiro doesn’t move with no fear visible in his eyes, fake Seshiro closes in once more, their swords clash, Zero’s electricity get’s intense, surging from Zero’s blade to fake Seshiro’s, it sparks touching Seshiro’s blade blasting him away a more than ten feet back. The fake recovers and positions himself, his speed increases, hitting Zero back over and over, but Zero blocks every time. The charge from Zero’s blade keeps having the same reaction as before sending Seshiro flying from the power. Zero unleashes many bigger and stronger thunderbolts from his left hand, the fake backs away dodging each one and pushing himself forward to strike again, with such a heavy sword he maintains a great deal of speed.

            “This speed, can the real Seshiro do something similar to this? I have to come up with a strategy.” Zero thinks to himself.

                        Once more the fake comes in for a swing, this time he succeeds on cutting a bit of Zero’s left arm opening a big wound on his shoulder, once again he does the same tactic, Zero is having a hard time keeping up, this time the fake Seshiro attacks almost slashing up his chest.

            “I've had it!! If it’s speed you’re on about, then remember that lightning is faster!”

                        Zero lets out a massive charge of lightning covering most of the ground area, somehow the fake Seshiro dodges by jumping to the air, Zero spots him and jumps toward fake Seshiro making a vertical slash, but fake Seshiro blocks the attack. Zero and the fake Seshiro are face to face in midair, Zero grins.

            “Huh?” The fake Seshiro makes a confused expression.

                         Zero grabs fake Seshiro by the neck and throws him with a massive force towards the ground, once the fake Seshiro hits the ground, Zero rapidly throws his sword at fake Seshiro thrusting his leg and the ground at the same time, keeping the fake Seshiro stuck without being able to move from that spot. Zero still in midair raises his right arm toward the sky and electricity can be seen flowing through his body. The electricity starts rotating around his body up to his hand, Zero begins to fall downward facing fake Seshiro at a high speed and saying. “Descending Lightning!!!”

                        Zero descends and thrusts fake Seshiro’s chest with all his might, lightning can be seen surging everywhere, the demon turns to a pile of sand. Meanwhile, Yumi readies herself to fight the fake Yumi, Yumi has no weapon.

            “I don’t have my whip sword… I guess I’ll have to rely on the basic training I was taught during my two years in the military school.” Yumi thinks.

                        The fake Yumi charges at Yumi without a second thought, she throws a couple of punches and kicks at Yumi, but Yumi is able to evade and counter, the fake Yumi evades and counters back as well, then the fake Yumi punches Yumi very hard in the face sending her flying on the ground, Yumi stands up and thinks. “Ughh… She’s almost twice as strong as I am…”

                        Gold light powers begin surging from Yumi’s body, surrounding her hands and feet, then quickly charging at the fake Yumi, swiftly punching her multiple times over and over, Yumi then backs away noticing the fake Yumi doesn’t even flinch and says. “You must be immune to my light element.”

            “Exactly, there’s no use.” The fake Yumi says coldly, then walking towards a hydrant and ripping it out from the ground, a burst of water comes gushing out, Yumi makes a slightly surprised expression. The fake Yumi begins assaulting Yumi trying to hit her with the hydrant, Yumi is able to dodge the attacks easily, Yumi then tries to hit the fake Yumi finding an opening, but the fake Yumi slams the hydrant on Yumi’s left arm consequently throwing Yumi against a wall and injuring her left arm severely.

            “S**t…” Yumi presses on her left arm in pain.

            “This was fairly easy, now you should die.” The fake Yumi says walking towards Yumi.

                        The fake Yumi raises the hydrant up about to swing it at Yumi’s head, all of a sudden the ground begins to shake, the fake Yumi looks around trying to see who it is, but she looks down towards Yumi, Yumi’s eyes are closed and the Spirit Force is coming from her.

            “What? This power?” The fake Yumi says in disbelief.

                        Yumi does not notice her Spirit Force increasing; she stands up glaring at the fake Yumi and says. “You’re the one that’s going to die.”

            “No matter how much Spirit Force bursts out of your body, you won’t be able to kill me.” The fake Yumi says.

            “I don’t know what exactly you’re talking about, but you better brace yourself.” Yumi says coldly.

                        The fake Yumi charges once again towards Yumi and punches Yumi’s face very hard, but to the fake Yumi’s surprise, Yumi is unscathed.

            “What? How? Is this Spirit Force protecting you?” The fake Yumi says with a serious expression.

            “Cut the crap, you’re going to die now.” Yumi says letting go of her left injured arm.

                        Yumi charges at the fake Yumi and as the fake Yumi attacks once again, Yumi evades and thrusts her whole right arm in the fake’s chest.

            “Ugggghhhh!” The fake Yumi groans in pain falling on the ground turning into sand.

            “I never thought I would encounter a demon by myself, I better head to Lloyd’s place right away.” Yumi says hurrying to Lloyd’s apartment.

                        In the meantime, Kirisu is standing away from Zero in the big track field behind the school.

            “Can I ask you something?” Kirisu asks staring at fake Zero.

            “Ask away.” The fake Zero says irritated.

            “You were looking for an artifact, did you find it?” Kirisu asks curiously.

            “Yeah, what’s it to you?” The fake Zero asks.

            “What do you plan to do with it?” Kirisu asks.

            “That’s none of your concern; you’re just stalling because you know I’m going to kill you.” The fake Zero says.

            “Nobody’s around, I do not want anyone to see what I can truly do, but it’s just you and me, so brace yourself.” Kirisu says in a very serious tone of voice.

            “A human, having a hidden strength? Don’t make me laugh; I already saw what you can do.” The fake Zero jests.

            “Second force, Anti-Life Barrier release!” Kirisu says stretching his right arm forward.

                        The ground around him turns black, many dark spears starts to materialize in midair, black thin spikes come out of the ground as well, the fake Zero observes calmly.

            “I want to ask you one last question, you took our identities, what did you plan to do after you found the artifact?” Kirisu asks.

            “Hmph, we were going to kill you and take your places obviously.” The fake Zero replies.

            “I see.” Kirisu says letting his power loose.

                        The dark spears in midair surround fake Zero, the dark spears are as strong as a sword and are very sharp, the spears fly at the fake very fast, the fake Zero spins and cuts in half all of the dark spears with his sword. The broken dark spears remain afloat in midair, all the pieces regenerating forming even more in numbers, now being twice the dark spears, they gather in a straight line facing fake Zero.

            “Oh s**t!!” The fake Zero says staring at the dark spears.

                        He jumps into the air with the dark Spears following him, the fake Zero does three slashes breaking three of the spears, the spears spread up and start hitting randomly, he breaks, blocks and evades many of them, but he ends up receiving multiple hits from the spears, falling to the ground. Kirisu does not move an inch; he lets his power do all the work, the fake Zero is on the ground with some spears stuck into him, he then breaks the spears with his arm. When the fake looks up he sees a lot of spears to his left and his right, he throws his sword spinning vertically to the spears from the right, then the spears from the left come straight at him and still on the ground he starts rolling to the right, the spears thrusting the ground on after the other in a straight line, the fake Zero rapidly jumps from the ground rolling in the same fashion and lands standing straight. All of the spears that are stabbed in the ground levitate and the ones that are in the right regenerate from the slash of the sword. The fake Zero looks at Kirisu with a smile on his face and then runs straight at him at a great speed with no fear on his eyes, but exited.

            “This guy is crazy! He’s running straight at me unarmed and without fear!! If this Kambios is like this I can’t imagine the real Zero!!!” Kirisu says amazed.

                        Kirisu looks at the spears that are on top of him on standby and then looks straight at Zero extending his right arm to him, then more spears appear behind Kirisu.

            “All this time you…well, not really you, the real Zero never let us see how powerful he really is!” Kirisu says.

                        Suddenly all of the spears from behind and above go straight at the fake Zero.

            “Haha, yeah, and you have no idea how much!!” The fake Zero says still running forward knowing that the spears are coming right at him. He starts to evade and breaking some with his fists while still running, some scratching his clothes arms and face. While he runs he jumps forward rotating diving throughout the spears and at the same time catching two spears in midair and with the two spears destroying many spears, looking like a helix from a helicopter. Fake Zero then makes a front flip and lands on the ground, but two more spears scratch him on each shoulder, he keeps running and at the same time rotating the spears as he keeps breaking even more spears getting closer and closer to Kirisu.

            “This guy is totally mad!! He’s destroying all my spears as he gets closer at me, at this rate I won’t have enough time to regenerate my spears and send them back to him before he gets to me! Why won’t you die!?” Kirisu shouts angrily.

                        The fake Zero still running throws one of the dark spears straight at Kirisu, fake Zero suddenly sees his sword struck into the ground right almost in front of Kirisu, when reaches Kirisu no more than a few feet away he then throws his dark spears one after another. Using the momentum of this move he does a three sixty turn, grabbing his sword from the ground midway from the turn making a roundhouse spin attack with his sword. Kirisu manages to evade the two spears, quickly seeing fake Zero about to slice him in half, Kirisu unsheathes his sword blocking fake Zero’s assault, they are now face to face, while fake Zero is pushing Kirisu back he smiles and says. “So, what are you going to do now that we’re face to face scaredy-cat?”

                        Kirisu makes an amazed and scared face while trembling because of the fake Zero’s force.

            “Scaredy-cat my a*s! I’ll show you what I can do.” Kirisu shouts, the laughing.

                        Unexpectedly the ground around him turns black once more the black substance under Kirisu swallows him, disappearing from fake Zero’s sight. The black spears begin to follow him once again, faster than ever before, the fake dodges with great difficulty as he jump into the air; swiftly he sees a shadow not far from his position who is clearly Kirisu. Still in the air all of the spears that are below him begin to circle all together going straight at him, but the fake Zero makes an horizontal slash downward throwing the spears down each one on top of the other, Kirisu unleashes many dark spears in a straight line towards fake Zero. Fake Zero lands on top of one of the spears, he smiles once again and begins to jump from one spear to another avoiding and dodging all the dark spears at a high speed quickly making it close to Kirisu yet again. He jumps towards Kirisu thrusting him with his sword through his chest saying. “Got you! What?!“

                        Kirisu turns black and melts away, being actually a puppet, Kirisu comes out of the ground and lifts his sword against the fake Zero, the fake quickly blocks, Kirisu makes the spears raise once more, one of them cutting right through fake Zero’s arm making him drop the Claymore. Another dark spear stabs him through the legs and one more after that in his stomach, fake Zero falls on the ground and somehow stands up. He begins to walk slowly towards Kirisu, and Kirisu says. “It’s over.”

                        More dark spears appear from behind fake Zero and thrust him all at once killing him, but before he dies he says. ”Odds are you’re still no match for the real Zero!”

                        The fake Zero turns to sand, Kirisu begins walking away. Everyone the gathers in front of the school.

            “Guys, use a bit of your powers to confirm you’re really you.” Zero says.

                        They all use a bit of their powers to identify themselves as the real ones. Everyone slightly wounded, each of them can see they all fought their hardest, but Kyoshi is the most wounded out of them all.

            “Kyoshi, we need to take you to a hospital!” Seshiro says worries placing Kyoshi’s arm around his shoulder.

            “I’m alright, don’t worry.” Kyoshi says smiling.

            “Let me take a look at him.” Kirisu says walking towards Kyoshi.

                        Kirisu examines him trying his best not to hurt his friend in the process, then says to the party. “He hasn’t lost a lot of blood, but we need to disinfect the wound and patch him up.”

            “My house is the closest and I got bandages, we should take him now.” Seshiro suggests.

            “I’ll help you carry him.” Lloyd says placing Kyoshi’s remaining arm around his shoulder just like Seshiro. “But wait a minute, what happened to Yumi?”

            “She’s alright, I felt her Spirit Force increase earlier, she must’ve fought her Kambios alone, quite impressive.” Zero replies.

            “But is she alright?” Lloyd asks.

            “Of course, her Spirit Force is back to normal and it’s steady, now her physical condition I don’t know.” Zero explains. “Anyways, I’ll catch up in a minute; I know how to patch up a wound like that.” Zero says.

                        Lloyd and Seshiro leave, Kyoshi still hanging on them, Kirisu and Zero are now alone, Zero quickly asks. “What did you do?”

            “What do you mean?” Kirisu asks.

            “You fought and killed the demon, but there’s not as much as a scratch on you, what happened?” Zero asks skeptically

                        Kirisu reaches into his pockets taking out a box of cigarettes and a lighter; he lights one up and says. “I did as you ordered; I took him out and killed him using my power.”

            “For you to be able to take on something so strong…did you really kill over nine hundred ninety nine people?

                        Kirisu takes a big puff and as he lets the smoke out he slowly says. “Zero……That is something in my life I never want to remember, I was a horrible person and I never want to become that person again.”

            “You just killed a demon and you say you never want to kill again?!” Zero asks unbelievingly.

            “I thought of that, a demon may be a living being, but all it does is kill, so aren’t I doing the world a favor by killing it, if I kill a person who does nothing but steal, kill among other things, isn’t that person just as bad as a demon?” Kirisu asks.

            “I don’t understand you; you say you don’t want to kill anymore, but here you are talking about killing another.” Zero says.

            “I did not kill innocent unarmed people, I’ll let you know now, but most of them did not deserve that fate, there are people out there who do deserve death to be brought down on them.” Kirisu says walking away.

                        Zero walks behind him thinking to himself. “That guy seems to have an inhuman power and a dark past. I’ll have to keep an eye on him too.”

                        They head towards Seshiro’s house to help Kyoshi get patched up, once it’ss over Kirisu heads to his apartment, Kazumi is still waiting in the living room having a beer and watching TV. Kirisu opens the door, she stands up and kisses him, she quickly asks. “You’re unharmed, that’s a relief… what happened?”

            “We just dispatched the demons and returned, so don’t worry about it.” Kirisu says.

            “And Yumi? Did you find her? Is she alright?” Kazumi asks worried.

            “Of course, we didn’t find her, but Zero told us she’s alright.” Kirisu replies.

            “Thanks God, I was sooo worried, I was even drinking beer and watching TV to get my mind off it all.” Kazumi says.

            “Haha, okay, just don’t worry anymore.” Kirisu says smiling at her and walks to the kitchen taking out some food supplies about to make dinner for her as he promised earlier. After a few minutes, Kazumi asks a question that is much unexpected. “Where did you use to study, did you have a lot of friends?”

            “No…I never went to school, I mostly learned everything with my family.” Kirisu says taking out a frying pan and lighting up the stove.

            “Oh…I see.” Kazumi says.

                        Kirisu lowers his head, having a lot on his mind, he then holds Kazumi’s hands tightly; looking at her with some tears in his eyes and says. “Kazumi, I…one day I want to tell you all about myself, but I am afraid you will leave me if I told you about my childhood, I am afraid you will look at me differently.”

                        Kazumi notices the tears on his eyes and with a soft spoken voice she replies. “Kirisu…You don’t have to tell me anything you’re not ready to, in time you’ll tell little by little and in time I’ll tell you more about myself little by little as well.”

            “Kazumi…” Kirisu says walking close to Kazumi and kissing her.

                        Meanwhile Lloyd arrives at his apartment, he sees Yumi holding her left arm in pain lying on the couch, Lloyd quickly goes to check what happened.

            “Are you alright? What happened?” Lloyd asks worried.

                        Yumi looks at Lloyd from top to bottom and says. “Probably what happened to you as well.”

            “So you encountered a Kambios?” Lloyd asks.

            “Kambios?” Yumi asks tilting her head.

            “It’s a demon that takes peoples physical appearance and creates immunity to the person’s power if any.” Lloyd quickly explains.

            “Yeah, I fought myself.” Yumi says with a sigh.

            “And how did you kill it? That’s not an easy feat.” Lloyd asks.

            “I’m not really sure myself, I just suddenly overpowered it somehow.” Yumi replies.

            “That’s weird.” Lloyd says sitting on the couch, then lying back.

            “Uhh… I’m still hurting a bit.” Lloyd says staring at the ceiling.

            “We better get patched up as soon as possible; I think things are going to get more complicated from now on.” Yumi says.

            “Why do you think that?” Lloyd asks curiously tilting his head looking at Yumi.

            “Every time we face a new demon, we get even more injured because they are always more powerful than the last ones.” Yumi replies.

            “I guess you’re right.” Lloyd says tilting his head back once again.

            “Where’s everybody anyways?” Yumi asks.

            “They must all be patching up as well.” Lloyd replies.

            “Okay then…” Yumi says laying back on the couch just a Lloyd.

Reviews

[Angie Diane♥&hea..]

This was a good chapter. I loved it. I think it was one of my favorite chapters so far haha. Nothing can top chapter # 10 right now. I love that chapter. Anyways good stuff. Poor Yumi! Can't wait to read more. Thanks for sharing. :)