Noreyu sits on the grass by Doku-San's body. He's exhausted in the aftermath of the battle, but his Demon Eye's energy levels have recovered already. The same goes for Fumito, who stands next to him.

"Is she breathing?" Fumito asks, looking at the body. Doku-San's torso is cut open from Noreyu's final attack, and what remains is burned.

"No way," Noreyu responds. "Even if she was, it'd only be a matter of time."

"Yeah, with these injuries, there's no way she'll survive," Fumito sighs. "It's only fair though, right?"

"She tried to kill you," Noreyu says coldly. "I don't regret it."

"I kinda do..." Fumito responds, looking away. "I mean, for a warrior, it's a high honor to die in battle. But it still feels wrong."

Noreyu gets up and walks a few steps past Fumito. With his back turned to him, he says, "I killed her, not you."

Fumito looks down at the body, the charred flesh just as striking a sight as the aftermath of the cuts.

"No, that's wrong. We both killed her."

Noreyu looks down too, at the grass below his feet. Both of them are silent for a bit. A small sting in his arm reminds Noreyu of a feeling he tried to ignore. His hand hurts.

"C'mon," Noreyu breaks the silence, gesturing for Fumito to follow as he walks away. "We have to hurry."

"Huh?" Fumito turns away from Doku-San and to Noreyu, confused. "Where are we going?"

"To Hirisu," Noreyu responds. "You're not the only one who was attacked."

"Huh?!" Fumito calls out even louder. "You mean Hirisu's in danger too? Did you see them today?"

"They're fine," Noreyu assuredly states. "Unlike you, Hirisu knows when to retreat."

Noreyu leaps down the hill and slides the steep slope towards the city. Fumito follows close behind, descending more sloppily until Noreyu steadies his movement with a gentle current. Right before a row of trees, Noreyu grabs Fumito's hand and leaps up, dashing into the central town.

Using Noreyu's Wind dashes, they leap from roof to roof until arriving in the modern district north of the center. It doesn't take long for the aftermath of Hirisu's battle to become visible, as the glass shards from the building Rai-Ni attacked line the streets. Police are already locking down the area.

"It's me," Noreyu gestures to one of the officers, who nods and makes way for the two boys to enter the scene.

"There are two people at the center of the destruction," the officer relays to Noreyu. "We haven't approached them yet."

"Got it," Noreyu responds. "I'll take care of the situation."

With Fumito close behind him, Noreyu makes his way through the streets. As he already suspected, the two surrounded by destruction are Hirisu and their assassin. A pungent smell of ozone hangs in the air.

"Fumito, over there!" Noreyu says as he turns into the street where Hirisu fought. "Hirisu!" he shouts out. "Are you alright?"

"N- Noreyu!" Hirisu shouts back. "You're here!"

Noreyu comes to a halt next to Hirisu, who stands a few meters away from Rai-Ni's half-conscious body. "Sure am. So, you beat your guy already? That's good."

"Yeah, but..."

"The kid's too much of a coward," Rai-Ni says with a wicked grin. His pink hair covers half of his face, though his bleeding injuries are clearly visible. Noreyu ignores the comment.

"You don't want to kill him, right?" Fumito asks. "Then just leave him here, I guess."

"If I do that, he'll... he'll just come after us again, right?" Hirisu responds, their voice trembling.

"I'll kill your mom and dad first!" Rai-Ni chimes in again, to which Noreyu kicks him in the face. He winces in pain and shuts up.

"There's a third option," Noreyu says. "We can just knock him out."

"Knock him out?" Hirisu repeats, confused. "But how can we make sure he doesn't wake up?"

Without answering, Noreyu kneels down next to Rai-Ni. The assassin looks at him in confusion, but doesn't dare speak up. That is, until Noreyu's Demon Eye opens and a single ball of Shredding Wind forms on his index finger.

"Hey, hey, don't... don't do that!" Rai-Ni yells, flailing around on the asphalt street. "Didn't you hear what the kid said? Don't you dare hurt me!"

Noreyu ignores Rai-Ni's pleas, pinning him down by the neck with his free hand. The once proud assassin lacks the power to struggle, let alone fight back. Noreyu pierces the Shredding Wind into Rai-Ni's back.

Rai-Ni's shrill scream is cut out as he falls unconscious almost instantly.

"Well, that was easy," Noreyu shrugs as he stands up. "Didn't expect it to work."

"He passed out..." Hirisu thinks out loud, looking at Rai-Ni on the floor. "What did you do, Noreyu?"

"I cut the energy flow from his body," Noreyu explains. Hirisu stares back in confusion.

"Oh, right," Noreyu continues. "I haven't told you about this yet. Energy is transmitted across your body through the blood. At least when you first get a Demon Eye. But after a while, it forms these energy veins in your body to transmit the energy instead. Otherwise, the strain might over time destroy your blood veins."

Hirisu carefully listens to Noreyu's explanation. Standing behind the two, Fumito looks on in amazement. "Do I have those too?" he wonders silently.

"And you cut his veins?" Hirisu asks.

"I did," Noreyu responds, closing his Demon Eye again. "Cutting the energy veins of a fully developed Demon Eye can pretty much send a person into a coma for a while. Messing up the flow messes with the brain too."

"So... is he going to wake up again?" Hirisu follows up, to which Noreyu quickly responds as well. "Once the veins have formed again, he will. But that can take about a month or two. Enough time for the police to take him to prison, at the very least."

Just as Noreyu says that, two police officers arrive on the scene.

"That guy's the culprit," Noreyu says to the officers, pointing to Rai-Ni. "He's alive, take him away."

"What about the other person?" one of them asks, looking at Hirisu.

"They only defended their home," Noreyu explains, stepping in front of the timid Hirisu. "It's fine."

The officer nods and walks away, while the other one calls an ambulance. Noreyu turns back to his group.

"Oh... Noreyu!" Hirisu suddenly says. The paper with everyone's faces sits on the ground next to them. "Takuan and Ishuma are targets too! We have to help them!"

"Ishumai?" Fumito quickly asks. "Why would we care?"

"Whatever these guys are after, I don't like it," Noreyu responds. "I don't want them in this town. If they're at Ishumai's home, I'm going there."

"What about Takuan?" Hirisu quickly asks. "She needs help too!"

Fumito nods with an unusual amount of concern. "I'll go to her," he declares. "Whoever is trying to mess with her will meet my flames!"

"She should be fine," Noreyu responds. "You haven't seen her fight."

A man rushes through the streets of southern Kawazumi. South of the Kawazumi River lies the largest residential area of the town, usually a quiet part of the town. But the cold cyan energy surging through the district has thrown its residents into a frenzy.

At the center of the energy, Takuan stands alone on the street. Her eyes rush around the area, following the trails of cyan. Almost all of her hair is black, with only the faintest hint of the white strands that usually make up over a third of her hair remaining. Her Demon Eye, marked with a black crescent moon, shines in dark purple.

"There he is!" The outline of a figure within the clouds of energy reveals itself to Takuan, and reacting instantly, she shoots out a tentacle from her right palm. Unlike the tentacles Fumito and Hirisu faced at the bridge, this one is devoid of light with only the faintest glow of dark purple energy shining in the center of the black limb.

But when it reaches the outline Takuan perceives, the person it belonged to is no longer there. She whips the tentacle around, trying to strike at her target, but he already disappeared.

"He accelerates like crazy when he runs over ice," she recaps silently. "I've figured out that much."

A shift in the man's energy throws Takuan off, but she steels her mind to focus on finding his location again. The energy pattern shows a clear goal.

He's coming.

Streams of energy pour out of Takuan's palm, gathering in the air. A small black square, thin like a sheet of paper and barely larger than the palm it came from, forms before her. Dark energy pulses from it, but at the center, it's pitch black.

Come at me then.

The man engulfed in icy clouds has stopped circling Takuan. With all of his momentum, he changes trajectory directly toward her. And he leaps off the ground.

Takuan barely has time to react. The man is already right in front of her. She shoots out a tentacle, but he is prepared. The part of his body she was targeting is reinforced with ice. And his gloved fist rushes towards her.

Takuan doesn't flinch. The tentacle she shot disappears into the black square. And right behind the attacker, it emerges again, through another identical square, and pierces his back.

Reacting quickly, the assassin uses the last of his momentum to rush past Takuan, avoiding further damage by sacrificing his chance to attack. Takuan's head turns to follow him, trying to keep up with the speed this time. But much to her surprise, he comes to a stop.

"You're using Shaded Portals," the man says as he turns to face Takuan. "Where'd you learn that?"

He slowly paces along the sidewalk, his icy stare never leaving his target. He runs his hand through his short, spiky hair, swiping away small ice crystals. His spiky strands are white at the tips, like snow atop a mountain. The same tattoos as Doku-San's mark his face – a crest on his forehead and two lines under the eyes.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Along the left side of his face, where his light blue Demon Eye with a snowflake-like black marking sits, a scar runs from the eye all the way down the cheek. The scar is reminiscent of the ice crystals on a window after a cold night, though instead of a pattern resting on a surface, it is carved into his skin.

"Your name was Kori-San, right?" Takuan asks, ignoring the question. Her face is dead serious, her eyebrows furrowed.

"My rank is Kori-San," the assassin pridefully responds with a scoff.

"Whatever," Takuan says. A shadow falls over her eyes, a distant hint of hatred shining through. "Who sent you?"

Kori-San's Demon Eye emits a chill glow as ice forms by his feet. "I think that's enough questions for now." The scar on his face glimmers faintly in an icy blue.

In an instant, the ground freezes over below him, and energy gathers in his legs. He dashes forward, jumps off the ice, and just like that, he's gone. Takuan tries to follow his position, but even his energy has disappeared.

"Shit," Takuan mutters under her breath. "He's gone again."

She starts running in the direction Kori-San dashed, her eyes scanning for even the faintest trace of cyan energy. Suddenly, a chill sweeps over her left arm. Something – no, it had to have been Kori-San – just rushed past her.

"He's about to come at me again." Takuan channels energy through both of her hands. She moves her arms around her body, placing a total of six Shaded Portals around herself in a circle. The instant she completes her defense, she feels it – the icy wind heading towards her. And already, she's staring directly into Kori-San's face.

A punch to her gut. She blocks it with both arms, but the sheer speed behind Kori-San's blow throws her away regardless, and she lands on the road. Blood runs down her right forearm from the impact. Kori-San stands at the center of the ring of portals with a sadistic grin. Exactly where Takuan wanted him.

With a quick motion, Takuan forms a Shaded Portal from her left hand. She stares down Kori-San, who realizes a little too late. From all sides, tentacles shoot out of the portals. They were aimed inward all along.

Takuan's hand is directly in front of her one portal, through which the six tentacles all travel to different openings. She looks at Kori-San with an expression of disdain.

"Your technique isn't about speeding up at all," she begins, staring down her trapped opponent with tentacles wrapped around and pierced into his body. "It's 'conservation of momentum'. When you travel over ice, you can add momentum through dashes without losing any you already had. You also don't lose any momentum in the air."

"Clever," Kori-San compliments with gritted teeth, blood seeping through them. "That reminds me. You still haven't answered my question. Shaded Portals is a technique our masters teach. Where did you learn it?"

"You haven't answered my question either," Takuan responds. "I owe you nothing."

"Let's stake it on this duel then," Kori-San smirks. "Whoever loses has to answer."

___________

Insight: Emitting Points

Along the energy veins, specific parts of the body have emitting points to allow for easy release of the energy from the body. While it's not impossible to emit energy from the veins directly, the emitting points make it easier for the user to keep control over their energy even after it leaves the body. Major emitting points are found on the palms of the hands, on the soles of the feet, on the stomach and chest, and in the Demon Eye itself. Some places like the fingers or toes have minor emitting points too.

___________

Takuan stands up, moving the Shaded Portal with her. The tentacles wrapped around Kori-San show no sign of wavering. "You don't seriously think you're getting out of there?"

"Heh," Kori-San chuckles. "I'm pretty fast." A small slab of ice under his feet glints in the light.

"He won't really..." Takuan thinks. She takes another look. Her eyes widen. "There's no way he can!"

"Ice Bash!" Kori-San shouts, bursting forward through the tentacles. They snap apart from the sudden impact, making Takuan's hand recoil. Thus, when Kori-San flies at her, her guard is down.

With no time to defend, Takuan jumps into the air, boosting herself over Kori-San with a burst of Dark energy. Kori-San turns around in surprise, only to see Takuan form ten Shaded Portals along her outstretched arms.

"She's minimized the energy use per portal by so much!" Kori-San thinks as he watches from below. "Just how experienced is this child?"

Takuan creates ten tentacles, five from each hand, that travel into portals on her palms and shoot out through the ten in front of her. They whip around and crash into the ground, breaking up the pavement as Kori-San just barely dodges with a jump backward.

He channels energy through his hands, creating a large ball from many layers of ice. He prepares to throw. But one tentacle rushes directly at him. "Ice Ball!"

A sharp pain suddenly rushes through Takuan's eye. Everything goes blurry. A white strand forms on her bangs. And a white light obscures her Demon Eye.

Focus!

The tentacle barely even grazes Kori-San, slipping past his right side. Without hesitation, he throws the Ice Ball at Takuan, which she has no chance of dodging in the air. The ice shatters on contact, the brutal impact sending Takuan flying to the ground. She crashes through the windshield of a parked car, landing on the row of back seats.

Takuan gasps for breath, her body left bloody after the collision. Her Demon Eye begins pulsing.

Focus, dammit!

She closes her eyes and shakes her head once, her black hair swaying through the air. When she opens her Demon Eye again, any hint of white is gone.

Kori-San rushes towards the wrecked car, speeding up again, when he suddenly sees a volley of tentacles crashing through the back door. Takuan leaps out of the wreckage, seeming eerily calm as she lands in front of Kori-San.

Kori-San quickly runs past her, trying to once again gain more speed. Takuan forms a circle of six portals around herself.

"Don't think I'm falling for that again!" Kori-San mocks. "I know your tricks!"

Takuan doesn't react.

He runs circles around her, jumping from roof to roof, always forming ice below his feet. He takes a wide arching path through the town, circling to aim directly at Takuan without losing any momentum from sudden turns. A confident smile forms on his face.

He's a kilometer away from Takuan. Now seven hundred meters. Five hundred meters. Three hundred. Two hundred. One hundred. Fifty. Twenty-five meters. At that distance, he notices something. Takuan wasn't going for the same trick again.

Aiming at a portal on the ground, Takuan shoots a volley of tentacles that lash out through the portals around her. It's not just six anymore, no, while he was away, Takuan has made another twelve portals. Everywhere above and around her is covered, like a deadly web of tentacles. One of them blocks his path. He breaks through. But he gets slower.

A gasp escapes Takuan's lips. It's happening again. Sweat drips down her face. Her breathing gets heavy.

"Not now! Just not now!" she screams out, feeling the white of Lightside take over her hair. "Focus on him!"

At her own command, she stares down Kori-San, a clear desperation in her eyes. But Kori-San feels pure fury staring at him. Takuan tries to move her right arm. She collapses to her knees on the tough asphalt but stretches the arm out towards Kori-San anyways. Following her silent command, the tentacles change direction. All of them point directly at Kori-San. He's slowing down.

Kicking off the brink wall behind him, Kori-San desperately redirects his momentum. Not away from the attack, right towards it. The wall behind him crumbles as his foot leaves the brick, revealing a front yard behind. He covers his entire upper body in ice. His scar stands out through the cold, shining as much as his Demon Eye. It hurts.

"This is how I got this thing in the first place," Kori-San thinks. "I went too far. And I'm doing it again."

He feels the tentacles breaking through the ice.

"Is this why... I could never be Kori-Shi?"

Shards of ice fly through the air as the ice armor around Kori-San's body shatters into pieces. All eighteen tentacles pierce into him. He flies through the hole he broke into the wall behind him, bleeding from several holes in his body. But he refuses to fall, to give in to the pain. From the shards still scattered in the air, he forms one more Ice Ball.

Too late, he notices a portal below his feet. One of the tentacles must've attached it to him. A black shadow spills out of the portal, forming a puddle below him. He feels something stirring inside.

Coughing and sweating, on the ground, Takuan stares at him. She slowly raises her hand. In sync with her movements, tentacles rise from the puddle. Kori-San can't even begin to count all of them. They sling all around his body, pinning him to the ground. The Ice Ball slips out of his hands.

"Grip... of absolute darkness."

"W- What is this?!" Kori-San shouts. "No! I can't- I can't die here!" He feels the pressure on his body getting stronger. He can barely breathe, thanks to the tentacle wrapped around his neck.

But Takuan doesn't even notice what is happening to him. Her Demon Eye flickers between Dark and Light, sending pulses through her body like a beating heart. "Why now?! Why is this happening?!" she screams out, her voice cracking.

She claws at her own eye, but the pulses of light push her hand away. More and more of her hair becomes white. She slams her fist on the ground, and blood spills from it on the asphalt. "Stop! Go away! I... I'll kill you!!"

Tears flow out of her eyes as she tries to look to the sky. Losing the strength to keep herself up, her body collapses in the middle of the street. She coughs out desperate cries, barely even able to form a single word. Over half of her hair is white.

Why can't I just... Why can't I just die?

Her left eye, her Demon Eye, is still wide open when the Light eye overtakes it in a sudden, violent burst. Blood flows out of her pupil. Takuan feels her grasp on her own consciousness slipping. With bleeding knees, she tries to push herself to her feet. Takuan doesn't even know if she is still the one moving her body. Her trembling mouth closes. She doesn't feel the pain anymore. She doesn't feel the ground below her. She doesn't even feel her own body. Her right eye shuts.

Let yourself go...

"TAKUAN!"

Takuan feels something. A hand. An arm. Two arms. Around her waist. Someone's face flashes through her mind. A faint image, one that was fading away. Of a girl with light lilac hair. And her right eye opens again. There really is someone here.

"F... Fumito?" Takuan coughs out, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Takuan? Are you there?" Fumito hectically asks. His arms are wrapped around Takuan's body.

"I..." Takuan attempts to respond, her throat sore from her screams. "W... What are you doing?"

"Stopping Lightside, of course!" Fumito shouts in response. For Takuan, this shout is like a wake-up call.

"Fumito, you- Get away from me, you idiot!" she yells, trying to break free. But Fumito's grasp is strong, and she can't bring herself to hurt him. "No one can stop Lightside just like that! You'll get yourself killed!"

But as those words leave her mouth, she freezes up. The trembling in her limbs has stopped. "I can... feel my body again..." she realizes. "And... the pulsing is gone."

"W... What did you do?" she asks quietly.

Fumito stares into the distance, his brain clearly hard at work. His lower lip puckers as he repeatedly slips his left index finger over it.

"Well, I came rushing over after Hirisu said you'd be in danger..." He scratches his forehead while his eyes wander towards the ground. "Then, I saw a guy running over the rooftops, and-"

"Not that!" Takuan interrupts, accidentally knocking away Fumito's arm in a hasty motion. "How'd you... How did you stop Lightside?"

"Oh, I..." Fumito stands up, gently letting go of Takuan after making sure she can sit. "I honestly didn't even think about that. You just looked like you needed a hug."

Takuan's eyes widen in confusion, but she stays silent.

"So, that guy over there was your assassin?" Fumito says, pointing at Kori-San lying in the destruction.

"Is he... dead?" Takuan lets out in response.

"Hmm... He looks pretty beat up," Fumito continues as he walks closer to the unconscious body. "But he's alive. Just taking a nap."

"I... didn't do it?" Takuan asks again. "I thought... Then, I have to finish him off!"

"Nah," Fumito responds. "No need to kill these guys. Lemme tell you, it doesn't feel great."

He walks away from the unconscious Kori-San, checking one more time to make sure he's alive.

"Anyways, I gotta go again!" Fumito suddenly says. "I promised I'd be backup for the others!" He opens his Demon Eye, looking to the west. Fire energy forms around his legs.

"...Wait."

Immediately, Fumito turns around. Takuan sits on the ground, breathing heavily. Her body sways dangerously, inches away from collapsing again. She looks disheveled, exhausted, but she forces herself to stay awake.

"Please... stay. Give me a minute."

Despite the pain, she looks at Fumito with determination. "If the others are in danger, I... I'll go with you too."