Okay, here we are, chapter 2! this ended up being possibly the longest chapter I'd written in awhile. ^^'
Also, I would like to extend a thanks to Vampy, who offered to beta read for me! This way, it should have less errors than my usual work...
OK, Let's get started!
Breaking The Chains
Chapter 2: Infected
"You and me, Have a Disease,
You affect me, You infect me."
Bad Religion - Infected
5 hours after infection...
With a loud yawn, Yoshimori stretches and pulls himself to a sitting position. Stretching, he looks around his room and dreads getting ready for school. Especially after that crazy dream, his body is rested, but his spiritual self feels drained, as if over exerted.
"No use putting it off," he says to himself as he prepares to get ready.
Finally ready to leave, he heads for the door when Shigemori stops him. Stepping out of a room, he blocks the hall and stops Yoshimori from continuing.
"Hey gramps," Yoshimori says casually and moves to pass him.
"Hold on a moment," Shigemori begins, "Are you feeling better?"
Yoshimori shrugs, "Why wouldn't I?"
"After last night, we were wondering if you'd even wake up." Shigemori says, a stern look of concern on his face.
"What do you mean?"
"So, you don't remember? Nothing at all?"
Yoshimori thinks back for a moment, and suddenly remembers himself crouched on one knee as his kekkai shatters to pieces around him, Tokine screaming in pain, and a loud roaring like that of a dragon.
Lying, he answers, "No, did something happen?"
Shigemori does nothing but stare at him for several long moments before answering, "You're on track to being early for once. We'll talk later."
"OK," Yoshimori says as he walks around Shigemori, who shivers as if some immense presence was among him.
'Something's got gramps spooked,' Yoshimori thought as he walked to school, drinking his favorite caffeinated milk..
"Good morning Yoshimori."
Turning to see who the owner of the voice is, he sees Yurina waving from a side street. After tossing his empty milk carton into a nearby trash can, he yawns loudly.
"What's up?"
"Something must be wrong, you're on time for once!" Yurina adds with joking laugh.
Shrugging, Yoshimori resumes walking, "Maybe you're late."
Raising her eyebrows, she matches his pace and asks, "You look different somehow,"
"Really?"
"Yeah," Yurina begins, "Something about your hair, It seems different."
Reaching the gates of Karasumori academy, Yoshimori runs his hand through his spiky hair, "Haven't done anything different with it."
"And your eyes," Yurina adds, prompting him to stop.
"My eyes?" Yoshimori asks, blinking.
Nodding, "Yeah, something about the way they look."
Trying to sense if anything was different, he realizes the bright sunlight does irritate him a bit more than usual. He also realized that after entering the school grounds, his body began feeling Numb in certain spots.
"I don't know, probably just tired or something."
With concern slowly finding it's way to her face, she glances back and forth to make sure no one was near them, "Did something happen at Karasumori last night?"
The same vision of him in the middle of his destroyed kekkai flashes to his mind. Slowly he stands up and focuses on the one remaining ayakashi. The puppets having been dispatched by Tokine before she was overwhelmed by the sword wielding Fox, she proved no match for-
Yoshimori inhales sharply and shakes his head to clear the image. Looking at Yurina he realizes she had already caught his reaction and had to think fast.
"Actually, yeah something did happen," Yoshimori began, "An ayakashi managed to sneak away before we could get it."
"Really?"
Yoshimori nodded, quickly thinking up an reply, "It was a yellow slug."
"A slug?"
"Yeah, it's pretty weak so it's not a big deal, but if you see it, let me know."
"You got it!" Yurina replied with a salute.
"Thanks. And if you do see it, don't let Tokine know, she'd never let me live it down."
"Of course. I have to get to class, i'll let you know if I see it!"
"Thanks," Yoshimori said with a wave.
Sighing heavily, he stretched and prepared to begin another long day.
[][][]
Masamori,
I am writing to relate to you an incident that had recently happened at Karasumori. While on patrol, Tokine and Yoshimori were attacked by a high-level ayakashi that not only managed to make perfect copies of you, Tokine, and myself, but was also able to perform average kekkai resembling that of our own.
That being the case, that is not the only reason I am contacting you. Tokine had informed me that while she was overwhelmed, Yoshimori had went insane and rushed at the enemy. She said he was roaring and screaming like a madman. He was surrounded with a swirling red aura... similar to that of a demon.
It sounds to me like he entered a form of Zekkai. Yes, I know, almost impossible without proper training, but what else explains it?
After the ayakashi was defeated, Tokine said that Yoshimori began attacking the forest on Karasumori, while yelling, 'Where are you?'.
I don't know what to make of it. If you can shed some light on anything. I'd really appreciate it.
Also, if you arranged for the package that was left for Yoshimori, thank you. I'm sure he's too proud to say it for himself even though I'm sure he means to.
Sincerely,
Shigemori Sumimura
After folding the letter, he approaches to where one of his shikigami were already waiting.
After attaching it to the black crow, he picked it up and walked toward the window.
"Okay, take this directly to Masamori." Shigemori said while releasing the bird.
The crow squawked loudly, then flew through the window.
Watching his shikigami depart with a sigh, he turned and left the room.
[Karasumori...]
Finding it impossible to sleep with the number of questions swimming around inside his head 'What's got Shigemori so razzled? He actually managed to look concerned for once.'
Stretching, he folded his arms behind his head and continued staring at the sky.
'Furthermore, why can't I remember anything from last night? Al I can see are bits and pieces of it.'
"And he's awake for once," Tokine says as she appears over the edge of the roof, carefully stepping over the top of the ladder.
"Ha, ha,"
She begins walking toward the center of the roof but stops suddenly, rubbing her forehead, "Ow!"
"There is a kekkai there, you know," Yoshimori stated, looking through the top of it.
Looking back and forth, all that Tokine sees is the pavement of the roof, and the horizon beyond it.
"To be honest I wasn't expecting to see you at school today."
"Come on," Yoshimori says while pulling himself to a sitting position and closing his barrier, "First gramps, then Yurina, now you? I don't even remember what happened."
"You don't? It was horrifying." Tokine said with crossed arms and a stern face.
"Don't look at me like that," Yoshimori replied, trying to keep his voice as level as possible.
"It was an unusually strong ayakashi, well stronger than anything we've seen before," Tokine began explaining.
Everything was normal, but suddenly the vision of Tokine walking into the middle of the foggy clearing from last night entered his mind.
"You are weak,' the vision said, 'Instead of fighting you cower like a child."
He blinks in disbelief at the vision.
"You should have protected me, but you didn't. You fainted and left me to take care of your problems."
Unable to control the anger at the words Tokine's clone was saying, his voice trembled with rage.
"I'm not a coward," his voice little more than a whisper,
"Huh?" Tokine asks, stopping her explanation of the ayakashi's technique.
"I'm not a coward!" he yelled, resulting in a large burst of pressure launching in Tokine's direction.
The impact of the force pushes her backward, causing her to lose balance. She flails her arms as she stumbles toward the edge of the roof, toward the concrete sub-level a good ten or twelve feet below their height. Enough to do some damage if the landing was wrong.
She cries out as she feels herself falling over the lipped edge. Yoshimori's already on his and grabs her hand before she disappeared. He reaches out and grabs the steel ladder to prevent him from being pulled down with her.
"Are you okay?" Yoshimori asks, satisfied with his grip.
Looking down, Tokine nods and begins reaching for the ladder., "Yeah i'm fine. It's not the first time i've been hit with that."
He opens his mouth to reply, but is hit with a large shock in the hand that's holding Tokine. Gritting his teeth to prevent letting go, he loses focus of everything as his vision begins to spin.
"Okay, you can let go," Tokine said, now with a firm grip on the leader, and merely a step above the next level.
Feeling his grip slacken but not let go, she looks up to see Yoshimori with a dazed look on his face.
"Are you okay?"
Yoshimori mumbles something, then loses his grip and tumbles to the concrete below, fainting before impact.
[The Night Before...]
"What's going on?" Tokine asked from her vantage point in a tree overlooking the fog filled clearing.
Looking at the ensuing battle, she sees Yoshimori inside a large kekkai, fending off the attackers. He has fallen to one knee, and his fingers were trembling from the amount of energy it was taking to hold up his barrier. His face was emotionless, half of it obscured by a shadow presiding over his eyes.
"What should we do?" Hakubi asks, already searching for a weakness.
Madarao sniffs for a moment then answers, "Those are the puppets of Manjo the Grey, Lord of the Shadows."
Scanning the scene once more Tokine notices that a spiderweb of cracks is appearing in Yoshimori's kekkai, "We better do something fast, I don't think he can hold them off much longer."
"Go distract them and we'll try to find the master ayakashi." Madarao said as he and Hakubi floated toward the forest.
Carefully dropping from the tree into a nearby bush, Tokine quickly devises a plan. A bit more renegade then she'd like, but it seemed the best of the moment.
Counting to three, she leaps from the bush and fires a kekkai at Shigemori, "Metsu!"
The copies stop their bombardment and look to the newcomer in the battle. Tokine's kekkai lands square in the chest of Shigemori, shattering him to pieces.
"Now it looks as if we're about even," Tokine said while focusing on her stone faced clone.
"Maybe," said the copy, tossing aside her staff, "That is, if you can keep up."
Everything was still as the copy of Tokine walked to the now empty space across from her equal, and Masamori moved across from Yoshimori.
"Are you hurt?" Tokine asked, managing a glance to where the weakened kekkai stood.
Yoshimori didn't answer, but maintained the same shadowed appearance. There were traces of scratches on the side of of his face, as well as the dark patches of dried blood above his left ear and on the back of his left hand.
Turning back to her target, she nearly missed the sudden assault of the copy. Launching kekkai with both hands, the attacker unleashed wave after wave of skilled attack.
After a minute or so of pure defense, Tokine managed to find a weak point in the attacks. While the ayakashi was able to control them remotely, he needed to be nearby to monitor their performance. With that in mind, she gauged her remaining stamina and went on the offensive.
Dodging the kekkai she could and destroying those she couldn't, Tokine found a split second opening and began launching her own volley, sending the copy on the defensive. For every attack she sent at the imposter, she sent one into the surrounding treeline.
For a moment, both the attackers seemed to flicker after an kekkai hit around the left of the clearing.
Shifting her focus toward the left, she leaped around a rogue kekkai, and launched three of her own into the top of a tree. However, when it seemed they would hit the mark, three opposing kekkai intercepted them at the last second.
"You alone cannot defeat us!"
A growl of annoyance from the real Tokine seemed to satisfy the ayakashi. In the lapse of battle, she realized that Masamori had at some point began bombardment of the barrier. The spider web of cracks became a crystalline myriad of lines and equilangular shapes.
If it wasn't a life or death battle, it would almost be beautiful. As if reading her mind, her copy fired the last needed kekkai at the barrier, causing it to shatter to pieces around Yoshimori.
"Come out heir, and prove your power!" came a voice from just outside of the fog.
Standing, Yoshimori slammed the end of his staff into the ground, resulting in dissipation of the red aura that had been lazily circling him.
Everything was silent and still for a second or two, then everything erupted into chaos. A large burst or pressure flew outward from the staff, resulting in a larger aura to emanate from Yoshimori.
After a long exhale of breath and a gruff chuckle, Yoshimori began to walk toward the attacks. His staff acting as an walking stick, he may have been on a nightly stroll... if not for the murderous look in his eyes.
Being pushed away from the initial blast, Tokine had no choice but to watch the event from the sidelines.
Masamori rushed forward, but Yoshimori did not increase his pace. Colliding with the aura, Masamori's Zekkai swirled around him, colliding with that of Yoshimori. After struggling for a few moments, Masamori found himself overpowered and leaped backwards to prevent being enveloped.
With an vertically raised palm, Yoshimori pushed forward, causing an large blue kekkai to rush forward, sending the clone into a tree where he shattered into pieces. Waving his opposite hand sideways, another collided with the false Tokine, and sent her tumbling to a likewise end.
"Excellent," a voice said as the image of a blaring red fox in white robes entered the clearing.
Stopping only to glance at the remaining Tokine who had taken refuge inside a kekkai of her own, the fox had a demeanor of an amused child holding an magnifying glass, standing over the burned remains of an ant hill.
"Excellent!" he yelled, making sure Yoshimori heard the joy in his face, "I expected a lot, and I was not left unsatisfied."
Turning to face his next target, Yoshimori remained the same uncaring demeanor.
With eyes of swirling red fire, Yoshimori crossed his arms, his black and white staff standing on it's own.
"Very impressive, I assumed the old man would be destroyed first, but the last two were a challenge I had planted." said the fox, turning toward Tokine, "You as well, young lady."
Bowing, he tipped an imaginary hat toward her, "You shown and impressive intellect, but you are not my target. If you leave now you will be spared. Or, you may remain here and witness your friends demise and meet an likewise fate."
Turning back to Yoshimori, "I am not an unreasonable man," the fox began but stopped with a chuckle, "I haven't introduced myself. I am Manjo the Grey, Master of Shadows, as I believe you have noticed. May I ask you your name?"
"Yoshimori," he replied with not one, but two voices. One his own and fainter, and the gruff chilling growl like that of a demon.
"Yes, I already knew, I just wished to hear it for myself," the fox replied with a laugh, "Now that the formalities are out of the way, we can discuss business."
With no sign of Yoshimori interrupting, he continued, "I trust you have no idea why I am here. I will admit, this situation is different than my usual contract.
"You see, I am an bounty hunter. I usually hunt demon ayakashi, but this time I was hired by someone who would like to see you stripped of your powers and left bleeding in the streets,"
Disappointed by the lack of shock on Yoshimori's face, he continued, "Here is my proposition, in the event of my winning, I will drain your powers and leave you for dead. In the event of your winning, I will leave peacefully and never return, i'll even give you the details on who hired you."
Yoshimori nodded at the agreement, and reached for his staff.
"However!" yelled Manjo, "We need to discuss collateral,"
Waving an arm toward Tokine, she was imprisoned in a cage of fire.
"So sorry my dear, I need to make sure he won't flee at first chance." turning back to Yoshimori, "Now, let's begin,"
Tokine raised her hands and yelled 'release'. However, instead of the fire dissipating, it remained at the same amount of power as before.
"I believe you will find that barrier a little stronger than anything you've faced before," Manjo added with a smirk.
"Ketsu!" Tokine spoke, expecting her kekkai to burst through the flames, but as Manjo promised, nothing happened. Her powers seemed suppressed behind those bars of flame.
Manjo inhaled deeply and raised his arm above his head. He began feeding of the energy of emanating from Karasumori, causing a sword of blood red steel to appear into his hand. After collecting an enormous amount of energy, the ground began to quake.
Yelling above the sound of the trembling ground, Manjo signaled the beginning of the battle, "So Yoshimori, show me your power!"
Grabbing his staff, Yoshimori spun it behind him and widened his stance.
With his free hand held in front of him, he began to charge forward.
There you have it! We'll see the end of the battle with Manjo in the next chapter, and find out more about what's happening to Yoshimori.
Thanks for reading Everyone!