November 14th

Shake.

Rumble.

That is all that I could hear or feel amongst the hate, rage, and confusion of the situation that is surrounding my consciousness.

Stunning but painful.

Truly painful.

My heart… and my head… both hurt.

My head is splitting at the seams and my heart is cracking while it tries to reach for Kyo.

My fists were not my own and everything that it felt or smashed against, I felt in leaps and bounds. Every bump, crackle, rumble, and quiver. The same goes for all of the other pieces of my body. As if I were merely a spectator for another player’s first person character in a video game. Sitting stagnant while he goes for his fifth kill in a row,

heading for a medal.

I watched as the raining volley of arrows rained down upon my body. Nearly replicating an attack set in the golden age of the roman empire. Almost all of the arrows hit as if a thousand daggers pierced my body with intent to draw the worst from me.

My body did not take very kindly to this new pain.

Not kindly at all.

It swiped over, breaking any stuck arrows in half. The pieces that were still stuck in me started to fall out one by one and the pain slowly dissipated. It may have looked as if the arrows had completely missed or bounced off of me like bullets on a tank to anyone on the outside.

He then let out another loud roar, one enough to shake the ground underneath him from how it felt. It sounded less like an average human voice and more beast but that is what I would have expected anymore.

He started to charge towards Aster again. Aster expected this and spawned a staff to sway his attacks where possible. He took a wide defensive stance. It was actually quite calming to the nerves from what it seems.

My body lunged forward, bones writhe with offensive eternity. His footsteps brought indents into the dirt, not deep but wide. Sound and true. Each step brought it closer to its prey.

Aster held the staff at an insanely weird angle in front of him. Shielding his own existence and it seemed it was instinctual but also roughly intentional.

A quick but absurdly strong kick was all it took for my body to be sent spiraling downwards. His fist hitting the ground, buried deep into the dirt and his eyes pierced.

He is not kind, not happy, not proud but determined.

I could feel the determination in the movements of my own body down to the stark coldness in the rigid bones of my center. They felt brittle but also as if by steel likeness.

Its head flew up. Its rampage started up again, this time more intently. It spawned The Dark Veil and twirled it in its hand, slowly walking towards Aster much like the actual Dark Veil itself.

The staff was constantly twirling with each step pushing more against the dirt than before. I felt the confidence in my movements, which actually made me more uneasy than ever.

Aster did not move a single muscle as he was embracing the possible dangerous situation that he had been presented.

I am rooting for Aster in this fight. I want him to withstand the attack and even knock me out and hopefully… just hopefully I will regain control.

My body was nearly at Asters front as my arms started to move up as if for an overhead downward slash.

But knowing my own movements, I knew that is not the case.

Oh, it is not.

Aster braced as if it was. I wanted to yell out to Aster to warn him. Too late.

The staff threw down his arms, not in a vertical slash but a ‘C’ pattern to the right. As he did so, the blade atop The Dark Veil detached and extended its full length outwards. Whipping wildly as it did so.

Aster’s staff flew as quickly as his muscles could muster to attempt to block the attack.

The chain of The Dark Veil had become entangled around the staff and with a decent amount of pull, my body yanked the staff out of Aster’s hands despite his best wishes. My body wasted little time as it closed the distance again.

Aster withdrew his staff.

My body was right in front of Aster and its fist flew as fast as it could.

But it did not hit its target.

It hit his forearm as if hitting a brick wall. Air and dirt from the momentum flew back behind Aster.

“You really are a tough one, Denny? You made Kyou drop with a single hit then you think that I would let you get away with that and take me down so easily? Am I that simple to take down just because I am blind? I thought that I taught you better than this. Hmm… I guess you need more training. And once you actually get your body back, I will have to give you a stern talking to.” He held a confident air about him while keeping his roughness up, barely shaking while holding back the heightened strength of the darkness consuming me.

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Aster is way stronger than I had wanted to ever imagine. Even able to take back this while barely flinching.

Impressive. But how long can he last like this?

My mind pondered the question: How much longer will this go?

Aster was the one who threw the next punch at a blindingly fast speed. My body duplicated his movements from before and blocked the shot. It was as if a mirror was put between them. The facial expressions the same, the movements the same, the air around them the same.

One after another, the punches were flying. Again and again, no stopping. Just punch after punch, air flying back, again and again.

Neither getting tired and all I saw was the determination to outlast my body.

But why? He could have dodged any of the attacks that my body was throwing at him but would not. I am curious on why.

And I could start to feel that the impacts were getting slower and slower from Aster.

And if out of nowhere, instead of his fist, flew his daggers. Implanting itself deep into my forearms. The pain was immense but I had no mouth to yell out the tearing of my muscle from bone.

My body took a few steps back, looked at its wound. It’s wound healed almost immediately as its pain subsided as well.

I could feel its smile creep across its face as it looks up at Aster, who was now smiling as well.

I felt a sharp pain come across my head and the whole visage in front of me started to tilt. My body hit the ground at a quick speed but nothing could be heard as the impact left a ringing in my ears.

Aster was still standing there, this time with no smile and crossed arms.

A weight flew across my chest and another sharp pain threw my face towards what was attacking me.

A sobbing Kyo was yelling words that I could not hear nor understand and throwing punches that I could only tell were from anger, confusion, and sadness.

I could only make out one word being repeated, “Why…?” After every single hit, this was repeated.

Over and over, the pain came.

Over and over, my body seemed to let it happen.

Not moving. Twitching but not fighting back.

Why?

My head flew back to the left and I saw my arms were pinned down by Kyo as her knees stopped any movements that they intended.

My hand started to twitch though. I still felt its movement.

Wait… I… can move my hand.

I… have control again.

But I can’t move my arms to grab her. To tell her that it’s me. To tell her that it will be all right. That I am sorry. That I hate that I hit her.

But I didn’t have to.

Her punches stopped flying and she just sat there while her tears started to fall onto me.

I tried to say something anything to reassure her.

“Kyo… I’m… Sorry…” It felt as if lava was flying up with every word that I attempted to say. It hurt but I needed to say it.

My hearing slowly came back and I heard the sobs coming from her. I then looked up to see her weeping face stop for a moment. Her mixed colored eyes were glimmering in the unwavering moonlight.

My eyes closed so that I can attempt to process everything that has happened.

Tears started to build up in my eyes as well.

Warm, nice, filled with emotions.

I felt something soft on my lips, something caring, something happy but with pain behind it.

As soon as it had started, it stopped.

“Why… What happened to you? Why hurt so many? And worst of all, what hurt you?” I heard the soft yet sobbing voice of Kyo resting in my eardrums, pained but supportive.

I didn’t know what to say and even if I wanted to, my body was too exhausted to do anything at all.

My vision started black out and before I knew it, everything before me was gone.

……

“How was your time, Denny Boy?”