The two boys seemed to have started figuring out more about the way that Yuki’s power worked. Their attacks became more accurate and lethal. He could easily feel the impacts through his defense. It wouldn’t last for much longer. ‘They’re really trying to kill me! Don’t they see me?’ Gritting through the dull pain echoing through his body, Yuki couldn’t remain inactive.

He hated the thought of fighting people he knew. They were just his classmates. They shouldn’t be fighting. The school was supposed to be a sign of normalcy returned. Not the ignition for something else. “Dammit all!” yelled Yuki. He had no other choice.

Shunsen’s latest attack completely missed Yuki as he was no longer present there. He had nearly disappeared in the moment. Several meters away dirt kicked up from Yuki sliding across the earth. He supported himself with extra help from his hand.

The movement from Nagai came in faster than his eyes could follow, but thankfully his tracking program from Eudokia’s fight still worked. He wisely left it on automatic rather than manual. At their speeds, he would never be able to have the reactions to counter them. The explosion of earth from Nagai failing to connect with Yuki’s body rained out on all sides. Ice shields blossomed in the air to deal with the debris.

Hesitating to strike with the opening he had, the two seconds delay allowed them to recover and zero back in on Yuki. He prepared himself for another bout from them when a massive wave of flames spilled out between them. Caught by surprise, they were touched by the fire for only moments before making a retreat.

While he hadn’t been too familiar with it, his mind immediately went to the only possible answer. “Fumiko?” He turned to see that she appeared on the battleground along with Haruo.

Fumiko surfed in on the flames and dropped out in front of Yuki. She quickly turned out a few fireballs from her flaming arm to discourage any others looking at Yuki as an easy mark. “You can’t show them mercy, Yuki! They’re out for blood!”

“But I know them! We sat in the same class room only a couple months ago!”

Shunsen and Nagai didn’t seem to get the hint from Fumiko and returned. Better reactions than Yuki and decisive, she jumped out and grasped Shunsen’s head in her flame hand. Flames surrounded his head while she threw them down into the earth as she came to a landing. She retrieved the staff from her back, carried in a makeshift cloth sheath, likely made in a couple hours. The staff was different from her last one as it was shorter and extended out quickly to its normal length.

Tossing the staff behind her, she caught Nagai before he came in reach of Yuki. The staff embedded into the earth with a magic circle expanding out almost instantly. Flame walls stretched out for more than five meters catching Nagai in mid strike. Fumiko stood up finished with Shunsen. She swiftly snatched the staff back up and sliced it through the fire canceling the magic. In the next motion, she grabbed Nagai and threw him back. Flames erupted from her hand sending them throughout his body.

It was over.

Fumiko turned back to Yuki knocking her staff against the earth as flames painted a background for her. If he hadn’t been so bothered by the way she dispatched them with merciless execution, he would have thought she looked cool or badass. “Those are students at our school, Fumiko! What are you doing?!”

Partially bothered by his naïve attitude, she turned away to not look at him. “This is a battlefield. There are no friends or students. Just people that threaten us. I’ll kill anyone in my way.” She leapt into the air jumping deeper into the fighting without a chance for Yuki to react.

His arm stretched out in a futile effort to stop Fumiko, but it was a lost cause. ‘What happened to Fumiko? She wasn’t like this before. Why is she being so…deadly…’ Yuki didn’t understand what happened to his world. No one was acting right. ‘Has the whole world gone insane?!’

Chapter 293 – The Resistance

Haruo strolled in with only a couple of his wolves out following them. He seemed to take the whole thing very leisurely as always. It might have been the only constant still left for Yuki. The sight gave him a little hope for reality. “What are you doing here, Haruo? I know you’re not one for a fight.”

“Nearby.”

“Terse as always. We’re really going to have to work on your replies.” Yuki rubbed the side of his cheek, sorting through the likely case for what brought Haruo. “Just in the area huh? I guess I did find you around here the last time. I’m sorry about the neighborhood.” He didn’t really get much more out of Haruo. It was more than he could expect. ‘I can really only expect him to defend himself, which in this situation is all I would want. I don’t need someone else acting like Fumiko…’

The thought of Fumiko’s aggressive attitude reminded him of another. ‘Hiroshi!’ He looked around for his friend. ‘If he’s the leader like it seems. He might be able to stop this fighting!’ It didn’t take long for him to find Hiroshi calling out orders from a front line position. The landscape had already been completely changed from the fighting. More than two dozen combatants filled the field all with vastly different types of abilities, some more destructive than others, but thankfully nothing earth changing.

“Keep yourself safe, Haruo! I’m going to try to talk some sense into Hiroshi!” Yuki flew into a blur towards Hiroshi. The detection of an incoming threat signaled Yuki ahead. He could see it coming after Hiroshi, who seemed prepared for it, however, Yuki intercepted for him instead. Ice grew out geometrically to absorb the impact from the purple orb. It exploded quickly harmlessly raining ice dust. “Hiroshi!”

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Hiroshi glanced back, putting it together that Yuki had aided him. His eyes narrowed with some suspicion still.

‘I need him to trust me. Hopefully that display was enough to see that I don’t want to fight him.’ Yuki slid in up against the wall that Hiroshi crouched behind. “I’m not here to fight you! I just want to put an end to this fighting! It’s meaningless!”

Silence hung between the two for several seconds. Another attacker came after Hiroshi, an adult, possibly a teacher but not one Yuki recognized. It broke the tension. Hiroshi swiftly dealt with the attack in an unusual way that disabled them. However, he didn’t leave Yuki time to figure it out. “This isn’t meaningless! We’re fighting for our lives here! There isn’t anything meaningless about survival!”

“What the hell, Hiroshi! This shouldn’t be happening!”

“Naïve words aren’t going to fix things right now! If you’re not helping you’re in the way!”

“…Hiroshi…” Yuki couldn’t believe that this was the same friend he knew to tease him on a regular basis about his romantic failures or the one that took a beating from Saki. There were too many gaps to understand the situation. It wasn’t going to end soon without something drastic. ‘I can handle them all with ease. I just need to be sure not to hurt anyone.’

Yuki stood up from this cover to get a full view of the field. He started to figure out the exact measures he needed for his plan.

“What do you think you’re doing, Yuki?! Are you trying to die?” Hiroshi jumped out, halting two attackers before they reached Yuki.

“I’m ending this since you’re unable to do so yourself.” However, Yuki didn’t get a chance to do anything. The tide of the battle had changed with the introduction of Fumiko. Teaming up with Saki and Yori’s sister, they routed many of the attackers. The group fell apart and started to retreat all in unison without any sign of orders as though all well planned out.

It made Yuki sigh with relief to know it ended. He fell down to his knees. “It’s over…” For some reason, he felt a little lightheaded. It made his body unable to stand for the moment.

“For now…” countered Hiroshi, seemingly insistent on dashing any hope Yuki had. He looked around gathering up his group. “How many?”

“Three…Takagi, Iwasaki and Ayugai.”

“Damn…all these hit and runs are just picking us apart.” Hiroshi slammed his fists together in frustration. “Give them proper burials. Take your team to see to it. I’ll deal with them.” The intent of his words pointed it back to Yuki and his friends, who all started to return.

Hiroshi crossed his arms seeing all of them gather around Yuki. “Well isn’t this some reunion. Care to explain yourself, Yuki?” He still wanted answers more than anything. The demanding tone in his voice echoed the shortness of his temper.

Refusing to back down to intimidation, Yuki stepped forward with similar demands. “I think you owe us more of an explanation, Hiroshi! We’re gone for more than a month and I find that our city is like this!” Needing to show Hiroshi that he wasn’t weak, Yuki snatched up the collar of Hiroshi’s shirt. “I want some answers! I don’t give a damn about sides or whatever!”

Those behind Hiroshi all moved to defend Hiroshi. Fumiko along with Saki quickly accepted their aggression and willing to defend Yuki. An uncomfortable standoff built around the two friends.

Hiroshi was the first to motion for a cessation. Even though he told his team to back down, it didn’t end the glaring contest between the two of them. Easing the atmosphere only went so far when the two would not even say a word. They just let their eyes do the talking.

Breaking Yuki’s hold with ease, Hiroshi fixed his shirt casually. “They’re safe.”

“But—“ One of the students that Yuki didn’t recall tried to object, but Hiroshi cut him off before much could be said.

“I’ll take responsibility for them. Besides, you saw how they fought. It’s apparent that they aren’t enemies.” Hiroshi turned half away to signal his team to move out. “We’re returning home! Leave no trace of our presence!” Two members of his team, a teacher that Yuki knew he had seen around and another unfamiliar student broke off.

Waving to Yuki, Hiroshi ushered them out of the graveyard. “Follow me. I’ll explain everything when we get to safety. Though they retreated, it’s not uncommon for them to have a second team.” Spinning around his finger in the air, he whistled to get everyone’s attention. “Team Two on recon! Make sure we’ve got no unwelcome guests!”

Saki joined up with Yuki, who started to follow uneasily the ragtag group of students and teachers. She leaned over to whisper to Yuki. “Hey you know anything about what’s going on? This isn’t the Hiroshi we know. He’s acting like he's in charge of everyone, even the adults.”

“I know as much as you. I’ll agree though I don’t recognize this Hiroshi. I didn’t think he had it in him. But we barely even know him. We’ve only known each other since the start of the school year.”

“Yeah, but this is just too much of a change.”

“We’ll get some answers soon.”

Answers were all any of them wanted. The only one they got was that everything was no longer the same. Their familiar world, their city, their home, their school, even friends were changed almost as if it was a nightmare where someone twisted everything good and comforting into something awful. They just hoped to wake up from it all.

The first answer they got was the location of their ‘Home’ as mentioned by Hiroshi. Several blocks away and a thirty-minute walk brought them to a family owned store. Judging from what they saw inside it seemed to be part convenience store and part homemade food. It was one of the few buildings that looked to still be unaffected by whatever war trashed the city.

Hiroshi motioned them over to an arcade box. It had an old game from the late 80s still running on it. Long out of style and not even popular, it gathered quite a bit of dust on it. A lonely presence that seemed to beg for even a little attention. Today seemed to be its lucky day with how many gathered around it. “All clear?”

A nod from the middle-aged man at the counter confirmed the final check Hiroshi needed. He quickly played the buttons in a seemingly random order and then flicked the stick. Suddenly the arcade groaned to life as it moved away from the wall. Behind it against an outline of aged paint, a deep hole revealed itself. A ladder rose up to the full height in greeting.

“This way,” invited Hiroshi. His team went in first along with Team Two. He stared back at those that still might call him friend. “This is our secret base. What you’re about to see may surprise you, but this is the reality of our city now.” With those ominous words, he jumped to the ladder and slid down.

Yuki looked around at his friends to see their resolve. None of them needed words to answer his question. They all had the same desire as him. They wanted answers and to know why their home was in ruins. Only Hiroshi had their answers. They couldn’t turn away.

Taking up the rear behind everyone else, Yuki arrived at the bottom last. After taking more than twenty rungs, he followed in suit with the others to slide down. It was still an unfamiliar and risky move, so he stopped every few dozen. What surprised him more was how deep it went down. Before even taking in the scene, Yuki complained, “Damn, feels like we went a kilometer underground.”

“It’s actually one hundred and sixteen meters,” corrected Hiroshi. “But it doesn’t feel it.”

Yuki finally opened his eyes to his surroundings. The sight left his mouth hanging open a little. “How…the hell?” A massive cavern seemed to be carved out before them extending for countless meters into the air. If it had been a cave he might have been more accepting, but it looked like it had an atmosphere. He thought he saw clouds near the top. It looked impossible.

“Welcome to the Resistance. Where we fight for the survival and safety of our city!”