CHAPTER 13

MEMORIES OF A TRAGIC TALE

Hikaru raced through the forest out of breath, still unable to conjure up a plan. The best way he could possibly hope for stalling transitioned into concealment, since running failed as an option. He knelt low behind an oddly shaped bush, believing he’d stealthily lost Wah momentarily. His muscles were tense with stillness while hiding, constantly hoping that he wouldn’t be caught by surprise. Hikaru turned around, then looked behind himself, at his left and right, but found no one in his search. For the first time since developing a sixth sense, he felt nerves kicking into high gear for fear of being ambushed; usually his setting control allowed him to be accurately aware of everything around, but Wah’s phasing ability made her undetectable, neutralizing what he thought his greatest advantage had always been, pinpoint detection. Hikaru peered through leaves of thick brushes, and as he turned again, glancing over one shoulder, he found the enemy standing at his left, displaying a thrilled grin. Wah booted Hikaru’s face before he could stand up, her shoe striking his profile, and causing him to tumble over against his back.

“If I were you, I’d keep my mind focused on this battle instead of worrying about saving that worthless girl,” she lectured. Hikaru scrambled to stand, but Wah shoved him back on his buttocks with her foot. “Why is it— you’re so concerned about her safety?”

Hikaru bristled forward. “Because I promised to protect her!”

“Too bad,” Wah sneered. “Because it’s obviously a promise you cannot possibly keep. You shouldn’t attach yourself with her so much, storm warriors have no friends, just temporary allies at most.” Wah shoved Hikaru’s torso back to the ground with her heel. “There can only be one master of the storm, so eventually you’d have to betray one another.”

“I’d never betray Amber.”

“Then she’ll betray you.”

“If it turns out that way, so be it, as long as I can keep my promise.”

Wah cast her fixated gaze into Hikaru’s eyes, making him feel as though she were staring within heated pits of his soul. Chills ran through his flesh while he eyed her in the exact same manner.

“You’re a fool,” Wah spat snidely.

“But a fool with an unanswered fulfillment,” Hikaru said, trying his best at buying time. “What do you know about Elitist?”

Wah chuckled briefly. “I should have expected that a man’s last request would turn out pointless— you won’t live pass this day to meet Elitist, so what does it matter?”

“Then satisfy a dying man’s wishes,” Hikaru demanded.

Wah nodded with agreement. “Elitist is a group of powerful warriors, who’ve formed an organized syndicate pertaining five highest skilled members to make themselves even more fearsome.”

“And how do you know they’re so powerful if you’ve never fought them?”

Wah stomped down hard on Hikaru’s left ankle as he tried getting up, causing him to wince in pain. “I have fought them,” she went on. “And I got my opportunity when I had no talent or skills for survival.”

“Then how are you alive now?”

A brief moment of silence filled their confrontation with immaculate intentions, suddenly, Wah smirked menacingly.

“I was about that girl’s age you protect when I met the bravest man I’ve ever known, and I’ve only survived because he taught me my skills, and I breathe another breath today because he willingly sacrificed his own life for mine.”

“Then Elitist murdered this man you speak so highly of?” Hikaru asked. Wah failed to respond. “So tell me this, what would a man with a heart who gave his own life say about the woman you’ve become now, a woman so willing to snuff out teenagers?”

Wah pressed down harder upon Hikaru’s ankle, and dug in with the balls of her foot, almost making him cry out aloud— but he held in his yells.

“Well, Tenskatawa did say that he wanted me to keep growing, being blatantly honest, those were his final words, and I have grown, in power.” Wah stated.

Hikaru seized an opportunity and attempted striking her with his free foot. Wah ghost out, avoiding the blow, while Hikaru managed quickly getting to his feet just before she fluxed back in. They both stared momentarily.

“For all of earth’s sake, I will defeat Elitist,” Hikaru boldly stated.

“Foolish boy, you can’t even defeat me,” Wah scoffed.

“You’re wrong, because this battle isn’t over yet.” Fierce determination lit up Hikaru’s eyes as he bit down on his bottom lip to numb sharpening pains from his ankle. “You see, someone with a brave heart gave their life for my survival also, and unlike you, I refuse letting their death be in vain.”

Hikaru raised both his arms forward at shoulder length; using his setting control, he created a strong straight line wind that streamed toward his enemy, and ripped through much of the plant life, causing limbs of trees to snap harshly. Already phased out before this technique could reach her, Wah lunged after Hikaru, who reacted by running away once again. He sprinted through seemingly endless woodlands, running while bearing pain in his left ankle, but this time, it wasn’t a meaningless effort to stall. After seeing Wah’s ability several times, Hikaru managed forming a hypothesis on how it worked. (When she ghost out, her hakq must allow her refuge inside an alternate dimension, which explains why I can’t sense her on the setting at times. Hikaru glanced behind himself while he continued pushing his body to move faster. (If I can somehow perform an assault and keep her in that ghostly state for an extended period of time, perhaps it’ll strain her hakq.) He halted in his tracks. (But there’s only one thing that I worked on with enough destructive power, and it almost killed me last time.)

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Wah effortlessly caught up. “Have you finally decided accepting it… you’re gonna die…”

Hikaru released enormous amounts of hakq, and his storm force began swirling around vehemently in every direction. Wah dimensionally ghost out, instinctively using her projection to see into the forest as pressures from Hikaru’s storm force uprooted plants, violently snapped nearby tree branches, and swirled back in his own direction. Hikaru felt amounting weight from his hakq as currents flowed through him, almost pushing his body to the ground. Wah shook her head, and her phantom like figure approached him face on.

“It’s very obvious that you don’t communicate withthe storm often,” she scoffed. “Even an amateur such as yourself should know better than powering up past points of control. Regardless of a storm warrior’s structural creation, there are always deadly consequences for such careless acts.”

Wah constricted her own hakq, which caused her projection to shine bright blue as she fluxed back in and released a supreme amount of storm force, making the entire area around them appear transparent. Hikaru went flailing backwards aerially, crashing into a tree trunk, his hakq molding cuts on the bark as his storm force continued swirling wildly around him, and he fell down on all fours. Barely managing to get up under the weight of his own power, Hikaru stumbled, and lunged forward at his adversary, throwing everything he had into one solid punch. Wah phased back out, and Hikaru passed straight through her, halfway splitting a slender tree with his bare knuckles.

“You’re extremely slow,” Wah taunted. “I don’t even need my sensor zones for feeling you coming.” She gazed at the fractured tree. “And don’t think I’m unaware about your attempt at forcing me to phantom out for an extended amount of time. Unfortunately for you, my storm force can easily dominate your own, so I guess you botched on that little plan.”

“What are you babbling about,” Hikaru mumbled exhaustedly.

“I’m talking about your underestimation of my power— I’ll make you pay for that mistake.”

Hikaru turned, facing Wah as she charged forward; he took multiple swings, but she phased out, and his punches passed over her projection. Stepping through her opponent, Wah turned around after fluxing back in, then sent five powerful punches that penetrated Hikaru’s storm force, and pelted against his back. She eyed her enemy as he fell and smashed into dampened soil face first.

“You thought you could defeat Elitist— yeah right— you can’t even touch me,” she flaunted. Wah materialized a katana inside her right palm. “And the girl you promised to protect, Nanu will kill her just after I notify him that I’ve finished you… So your spontaneous efforts to provide her a fighting chance by keeping me away will gain nothing still. You’ve prolonged both your struggles by preventing my taking her hostage within a phantom zone after seeing what I’m capable of, and I couldn’t accurately gauge how much you cared about the girl after you fled until now, but you’ve misread here, because our main target isn’t Asani, it’s you.”

Hikaru turned his head while sensing Amber from afar; lying on his badly bruised face, he spotted a sharp pointed blade only inches from his throat. “Bet you didn’t know that a member of Elitist inexplicably died,” he said softly, shifting their subject matter.

“Nonsense,” snapped Wah. “That’s just a bunch of internal politics, even Cinco Elitist can’t escape this lingering fact, there can be only one dreamstorm master. Come on, an amateur defeating a top warrior, I can’t believe you were actually duped by such outlandish rumors.The member was more than likely killed by one of his teammates, who’s apparently trying to cover up this murder by using the final unknown fighter… And believe me, everyone in that organization’s keeping one eye open for another betrayal.”

Hikaru inhaled loudly. “You’re wrong, I saw the member with blue hair chasing after a masked man.” Wah’s facial expression dropped in bewilderment. “This means that these rumor’s are true…Elitist has weaknesses.”

Hikaru pounded his fist into the ground, causing a huge jagged wave of stone to tear through tender soil, ripping plant life asunder; Wah focused her storm force underneath her feet, then used it, thrusting herself backward onto crossed high branches of a tree. Hikaru kept his hands pressed hard against rummaged dirt while he got upon both knees, rapidly wielding each sharp tip of manifested stone in hot pursuit of his combatant. Wah leapt from connected branches, ghosting out before she landed on the ground, inches away from prickly edges of the solid stone wave’s base as it halted in front of her. With her projection glowing, and her blade still in hand, she raced through rocky layered walls, appearing ten feet to Hikaru’s left as he arose upright.

“Why are you so determined?” she asked, glaring with guilt.

“I believe we’ve already been over that,” Hikaru stated tiredly. He took a step forward, and his knees almost buckled with pain. “So why are you looking pathetic, don’t tell me you have a conscience; I thought you were the type of person who only cared for yourself.”

Wah grasped her sword’s hilt firmly with both hands, then pointed its tip in Hikaru’s direction.

“You’re just like Tenskatawa, down to the last wire,” she confessed. “And I admit, your spirit has scratched the surface of my frozen heart… luckily, my blade is even colder.”

Hikaru forced out every ounce of hakq he could muster, while Wah charged forward with her sword ready to kill. With his powers swirling wildly out of control, he could barely stand under the intense pressure; Wah halted in her tracks, ghosting out as hakq moved chaotic winds at low category hurricane forces. Hikaru felt faint, and a loud pulsing sound thumped inside his chest violently. He thought while floating adrift within searing sensations of pain: (I must really be dying) then, emptiness deluged all sight; nothingness surrounded him, and his body felt like it could never hit stable ground, only fall deeper and deeper into darkness.

A voice whispered softly… “Why are you fading?”

“I don’t know,” Hikaru breathed.

“Were you really ever alive?” the voice questioned.

“I really don’t know.”

“…None of us ever really do.”

The voice and Hikaru both gently laughed.

“Do you remember why you’re here?” the voice whispered once again.

“No, please help me remember.”

“What is it that you desire… Hikaru?”

“I desire power.”

“And why is it that you seek this power?”

“To protect the ones I care for most.”

“And who is it that you promised to protect?”

“….Amber.”

“Now here is your final question,” the voice said rigidly. “What is your quickest quest toward power?”

Hikaru felt a surge of energy run around his body, igniting wildly while pressing hard against his skin. He opened his eyes and found himself still standing half asleep, his flesh torn with cuts.Bright light surrounded him, while several plants nearby disintegrated into nothingness, leaving a huge desolate spot where vegetation once lay serenely. In her ghostly form, Wah watched in astonishment, unaffected by this destruction.

“Why is everything around you dematerializing— and what is that white hakq you’re emitting…” She yelled. “What kind of fighter are you!”

“I’m the master of the storm!” Hikaru pronounced loudly, the earth trembling beneath his feet as he charged forward with pure intents of destruction.