Chapter 80: Chaosfantasia
Mew stared at Yukari from across the battlefield, watching her gleam at him with mischievous intent present in her eyes. The plethora of rifts around her were ready to fire. It wasn't a matter of "when", but "how", they would.
Mew gripped his sword tightly and gauged the Youkai's abilities briefly in his head, "She's got a lot of tricks up her sleeves: Danmaku, Border Manipulation, and she can slip in and out of her rifts at any moment. And who knows what else."
He swung the broad side of his blade before his body and glared at her past the top of it, "She defeated Alex somehow, I can't underestimate her just cause she's fighting me in her pajamas."
Yukari folded the fan with a flick of the wrist and gestured it briskly before her chest with a giggle. A glimmer arose from each of her rifts, springing Mew's attention to the forefront of battle.
Beams erupted from the rifts in a flash, making Mew retreat with a long bounce back, slashing his sword in broad strokes to repel the beams.
Two light beams crossed into a larger one and struck the center of his sword hard enough to remove it from his grasp. Mew grit his teeth and swung his hand out to try and pull it back, only for a rift to capture it.
A dark beam then struck his chest hard with a cold, burning sensation that knocked him out of the sky and ground his back against the floor.
From his vulnerable position he was forced to watch Yukari withdraw her fan into her dress and then casually gestured that hand up to catch his sword falling from a rift.
Her twig-like lady arm held the sword with ease and even gave it a twirl for playful flourish. Mew then tried to reach out and call it back, only for a series of violet, ethereal seals to cover the blade and repel his command with a jolt of psychic energy.
Mew's brain was rattled, making it hard for him to stand back up for the moment. When the effects tampered off he thrust his fists down by his hips and glared Yukari down.
She then thrust his sword his way and more rifts opened up to fire more of those light and dark beams. Mew buckled his muscles down tight and then sped to the right in one burst of speed, evading the closer beams and inching closer towards the youkai.
He coated his fists in flame and thrust flaming knuckles rapidly into the sky. Yukari barred their path with a hexagonal barrier and began to shift her position counterclockwise along the edge of the arena.
From the barrier emerged waves of violet and blue colored energy bullets, synchronized perfectly into arcs. Mew hopped over the first wave then immediately slid mid-air under the next.
Yukari weaved beams of light and dark between the bullets to make moving around them a real pain in the butt for him.
Mew suddenly made a hard pull to the right and stuck his feet against the barrier, running along it to get closer to Yukari. Her eyes were like the perfect security camera, never losing sight of where he was, and adjusting its firepower according.
Mew propelled off the wall quicker than a lightning bolt and barreled between the bullets with his fist primed to punch.
Yukari fell into her gap and zipped it up to prevent entry. Mew continued flying until his shoulder hit the wall and sent him tumbling to the ground. He stopped a fatal crash at the last second by turning to land on his feet.
Yukari reappeared roughly around the same spot and giggled in amusement. Mew only got a second to rub the sore spot on his arm before Yukari's relentless assault forced him to keep moving.
He dashed to the right before an aerial bombardment of beams pinned him down. He then thrust his right fist out to send a bolt of lighting straight at Yukari, only for her to absorb it into his blade.
But that distracted her long enough for him to lunge across the room and attempt to grab his blade back. As his fingers graced the cold steel once more, Yukari greeted him with a sphere of rifts caging him in this one spot.
She then slipped the sword out between the gaps and sat back, playing audience to the light show of red lasers pelting Mew from all directions.
After a few seconds of this though Mew began to steel his body quite literally and made the lasers reflect back into the rifts. So Yukari dropped the cage and delivered a hard slash with his sword to repel him away.
Mew plummeted like an anchor and broke the ground on impact. He then thrust his palm out to send the rocks at Yukari.
The rocks clashed with her barrage of bullets and broke up into dust that Mew continued to propel at her like a miniature sandstorm. Yukari took her parasol out to protect her eyes and raised more rifts to fire.
The light shining through the dust gave her position away and Mew raised a smirk, drawing upon the power of water next to raise a tidal wave that'd carry him towards her.
Her beams burned apart much of the wave but Mew put his hands down to add back to it, along with putting a little special something to surprise her later.
She then raised his sword and struck it with lightning to supercharge it, the voltage thick enough to keep the air trembling long after it struck.
She swung down with gentle grace as a monstrous lightning bolt crashed upon the ground, tearing its way forward towards him.
Mew leaped away at the last second as the lightning cleaved the tidal wave in two. He then jerked his hands down to flash freeze the remaining water.
Curling his fists, he spun around and dove at Yukari, smashing his right then left fists against another of her barriers while she retreated into a rift.
The barrier exploded and sent shards of see-through glass through his body, paralyzing him in place while the Youkai walked out behind him.
She tapped the tip of her parasol against the back of his neck and the hairs on it stuck up on end as, with a warm energy swelling at the tip, she slowly drew the parasol back and chuckled.
"The game is over before it even began."
Mew was grinning from ear-to-ear as he squeezed his fists by his hips. The sounds of ice shattering disturbed Yukari far too late for her to take counteraction, as a series of vines bloomed from the seeds Mew left in the ice to tackle her into the barrier wall.
They then pinned her down with an impressive grip, loosening her hold on the blade. Mew pulled ahead and held onto it extra tight this time, then backed off and slashed it down feeling as good as new.
She craned her head back with a smile and said, "Not bad."
Rifts slipped into the space between the vines and wall and sliced them apart with wind scars. She then floated forward sitting atop another rift and pulled her fan back out from her dress, waving it before her face.
"Now then, ready for round two?" She said with an amused giggle.
Mew gripped his sword until the knuckles cracked and then motioned his thumb towards the white trigger, going straight into Light Form with his brows arched.
He sliced upward quicker than the naked eye could perceive and the pressure from the swing blew Yukari's hair around.
She narrowed her gaze and then folded her fan up, pointing it at him while the sky shattered above her.
Mew heard a mighty roar, as if dimensions were being torn apart at the seams, then craned his head back to find pure magical energy coming crashing down.
He bolted to the right and watched the energy cascading in a line across the battlefield. Immediately after he had to pull right back as another line of cascading energy tried to intercept him.
He then slashed light energy towards Yukari, who slipped into her rift at double-speed, reappearing all the way behind him with her fan pointed forward.
Hexagonal seals grew around her, whipping out waves of ethereal red and white seals to fill the sky. Mew locked his katana into the sheath and watched the pattern the Danmaku flew out, hoping to find the one VERY small gap for him to break through.
But she was not one to lean back and lounge, waiting for him to strike. She lined up rifts diagonally above him, bolts of magical energy flashing out to strike.
Mew pulled away and thrust his katana forward to divert the energy bolts down the center of her Danmaku, creating his own opening to charge through.
He squeezed in dangerously close to her location with his sword half-drawn to strike. Yukari hairs danced on the edge of his blade as she withdrew into her rift.
Mew then immediately clutched his katana's triggers to go into Dark Form, thrusting one of his ethereal claws to chase her into the rift.
But what awaited him was this intense burning sensation that followed him back to his body and forced his claw to retract. He then widened his eyes and rolled to the left out of the way of a blast of pure light from the realm beyond.
In this moment Yukari appeared behind him and whipped her parasol across his back, hurtling him into the wall. Mew felt his rib cage crack under pressure as he pulled himself off.
His instincts tingled and he sliced his claw back, cleaving a magical bolt to split off on both sides of him. Yukari slowly floated back and waved her fan before her face.
"For such a lady-like frame she's got monstrous strength in those arms!" Mew flexed his arms back and then thrust out a giant black fireball towards her.
She cleaved through it with the tip of her parasol and then retaliated by throwing a golden square-shaped seal. Mew bolted ahead and swerved past the seal, only for it to shift sideways and grow to three times its size, ensnaring him on it like a spider's web.
The seal then folded around him and pulled him to the ground, where Yukari opened up a rift high above, where two pale lights flashed from beyond followed by...The sound of a horn?!
An express train came crashing down on top of Mew followed by two more diagonally, all resulting in a massive fiery explosion that Yukari watched from a distance.
But Mew came slinging right out of a dark rift in front of her looking barely worse for the wear and swung his foot at her head. She ducked under and floated towards the ground, while Mew flipped upside-down and sent claw after claw flying after her, each miss leading to them smashing apart the ground.
He wrenched up chunks of the ground to fling right at her but it was to no avail, being one of the best at Danmaku made her as hard to snag as a fruit fly.
Mew kept his momentum going and smashed the rocks against the roof of the barrier to break them apart. Then he flipped upright, shifted back to Light Form, and thrust his katana out horizontally to unleash a powerful flash.
The flash draped darker shadows from the rocks, allowing him to utilize them in the heat of the moment by shifting back to Dark Form and hardening them. In doing so he managed to stab Yukari straight through a few times and suspend her in place.
The light then faded and he charged straight at her, walloping her across the face with his bare knuckles. Her head budged slightly but with a smile, as she then easily pointed her parasol down past her lap and blasted him point-blank with a heavy concentration of light.
His body burned all over until hitting the ground put him out, replacing it with an intense throbbing his muscles. He hunched upright on his feet and grimaced as a sharp sensation came from his spine.
Yukari then twirled to the right, crossing her legs and revealing her deception, that all the shadows had merely pierced through her baggy dress.
With a playful giggle she shaded herself with her parasol and floated away, evading Mew swiping up with his claws.
"What a bad time for rain." She gestured her right hand out and black voids twisted open behind her, unleashing a swarm of small azure-flamed meteors upon the battlefield.
Mew forced himself upright and went back to Light Form to get around faster, cutting down the meteors that dared to get close. But the one's he left behind covered the ground with plentiful explosions, narrowing his advance forward and soon enough, having his back pinned to the wall.
He leaped back and pressed his feet against the wall, propelling up and slashing a wave of light between the meteors. Yukari floated over it, then floated down past the second slash.
Mew flew forward and sliced through the meteors quick and precise, propelling more waves of light into Yukari, who guarded herself with a barrier.
Mew then stuffed his katana into the sheath and shoved forward with his shoulder, ramming directly into the center of the barrier with all his might, even at the cost of his bone's well-being.
The barrier cracked and Mew destroyed it completely by pulling out and hitting it with a massive slash of light. Yukari ducked back, falling daintily into her rift.
The meteors ceased but in its place, the light dimmed from the arena, captured by the shadow of a massive rift growing on the ceiling.
The largest meteor of all came crashing down slowly, the mere pressure it exuded coming down atop of Mew's head enough to push him towards the floor.
Mew bent down, grit his teeth, and forced his katana into the sheath against gravity's wishes.
He drew in all remaining light in the arena until all that shined was the ghastly glow of the meteor reflecting off his glistening wings.
He lashed his blade out as hard as he could and cut through the meteor dozens of times in a second, obliterating it down to the atom.
He then felt his knees want to kneel, and forced himself up.
The hairs on the back of his head stood up and he barely turned out to defend against Yukari's parasol swing. The Youkai smiled and then retreated to her gap, another one opening up behind Mew to pelt him with a wall of miniature lasers.
This held him down until Yukari slipped out of the gap and roundhouse kicked him in the spine.
Mew dug his heels into the ground to keep himself from going too far and whipped right around, jumped right towards her and delivering a downward slash atop parasol casually twirled around in its path.
Yukari then hopped away with a twirl, landing atop one of the gaps and gesturing her fan forward to command more rifts to open and fire strings of paper seals towards him.
Mew shifted to Dark Form and forced himself between all the seals, winding up a punch coated in dark flames.
Yukari flipped around to his back and poked his neck with the tip of her parasol. A tremble rocked Mew's body and he flipped right around, smacking the parasol out of her hand.
Yukari unfurled her fan before her face and raised her right foot to hold off one of Mew's punches, repelling her into another gap.
Mew was about to chase her down when the sudden descent of a flashy bolt of light kept him away. And then more of those bolts began to rain, coming from her parasol spinning rapidly in the air.
Mew alternately hopped on one foot to get away from the attacks and lined up a black fireball to incinerate the parasol in one go.
He then took this chance to catch his breath and try to come up with a plan of attack.
"Well that wasn't very nice," Uttered Yukari, coming out of hiding near where the black embers from her parasol lingered, though she now held a second one that looked exactly the same, "That was my favorite parasol."
Mew arched his brows and murmured, "I'm starting to see how she gave you trouble, Alex."
He cautiously walked back while Yukari moved in the opposite direction, both of them eyed each other directly, neither knowing what the other was thinking. Yet, for all intents and purposes, Yukari was in full control of this fight, as Mew felt like he hadn't even landed a single good hit on her.
Yukari unfurled her fan before her mouth and her expression subtly began to shift to a more alluring shade of curiosity.
"Answer me this, Phoenix of Rebirth...Why are you here?"
Before Mew could give an answer Yukari interrupted him, "I know why you are here. But why are you here?"
She pointed her folded fan at him gently and smiled, "Shina Aurora lays in her bed, a withering husk both physically and emotionally, with not a tear left to shed. Her friends and family all gather around her, trying, struggling, to find some way to make her happy. Everyone, that is, except the most important person of all...You."
"You, who she named the child's godfather in a heartbeat. You, who have been the heart of their group this entire time."
Mew felt goosebumps along his skin as the Youkai continued unimpeded by any sense of tact or reason, "She needs you now more than ever, yet here you are, in pursuit of the 'truth'. Or...is that just what you say you're after? Are you perhaps scared? Instead of confronting your fears normally, you've chosen to die doing what you've done best, fighting. Disguising feelings of vengeance, frustration and inadequacy as a selfless act of sacrifice, you've traveled all this way to meet me, the one who concludes many a brave soul's tales."
Mew had to grin and laugh at her long-winded spiel, tightening his fists and accusing her directly, "You're talking as if you were there!"
"I have always been there. As I always shall be," Yukari smiled and waved her fan before her mysterious expression of joy, "I have witnessed the beginning of your tale, just as I shall be there to witness its end. Your beginning was written for you, but you alone can decide your end now..."
"What shall it be? Will you end your tale believing your 'lie' in pursuit of the 'truth'? Or..." Yukari waved her fan out to her side and a gap opened up. On the other side, though hazy, was a clear enough view of the Aurora household at the moment.
Shina still lied in her bed, her hair in a mess and her eyes refusing to close, drained of all life. Kairi knelt at her side, her red, tear-covered head bobbing tiredly towards the sheets. And to Mew's shock, Joe Dark was standing by, mouthing unknown words to Shina, but tripping over himself every step of the way.
"Joe..." Mew mumbled, his body trembling all over, as a sinking feeling plummeted his heart to his gut.
Yukari unfurled her face before her face and continued, "You can return to your world. Free yourself from the 'lie', but lose the 'truth' forever. Yet, freed from this 'lie', you'll be able to write whatever ending to your story you wish."
Mew looked down and found himself tempted by the offer, "She's right. I should be there at their side. But..."
With great hesitation, he thrust his eyes open and stared her down, then used his claw to slice through the gap between both worlds. Yukari flinched, stopping whatever she was doing to look back at him.
Mew withdrew his claw slowly and grit his teeth, his whole body shaking, especially at the knees, "I've come too far to go back now."
He returned to Light Form and hunched down, clutching his katana and spreading his wings to their full width, "I don't care if I'm a hypocrite or a liar. What I've done, what I'm doing, what I'll do...None of it matters if we don't even have a future to look forward to!"
With his body radiant as diamonds, he glared Yukari down and declared to her, "So I'll cut through the 'lies' in my path and open the way to the 'truth', even if you stand in my way!"
Yukari narrowed her gaze sharply and chuckled deeper than usual, her tone beginning to lose its sense of humanity as she coldly remarked, "Then your path to the 'truth' is a path of death. And I..."
Her fan snapped close like a breaking bone and she thrust it down at him, opening a hundred gaps in a wall behind her, "Shall do everything in my power to walk you down it, Phoenix of Rebirth."
A beam blazed out of each void, consuming the entirety of the arena save for the spot Mew was standing. Mew drew his blade and sliced viciously through the energy until he was centered with where he believed Yukari was at.
He then ground his blade against the energy and slashed down, destroying multiple gaps with explosive force. He then barreled down towards Yukari and sliced at her face. She defended with her parasol and then Mew pulled out his sheath, lodging it underneath the parasol to force it out of her hand.
She retreated into her present gap and reappeared on the other side of the arena, reaching into another gap to reclaim her parasol. She then cleaved it downward, send a massive wave of energy spiraling after Mew.
Mew swung to the left and then turned around, going into Dark Form to try and lunge his claw at her. She redirected the wave of energy around and targeted it at his back.
Mew froze up long enough for the wave to collide and drag him all the way over to her, where she jabbed the tip of her parasol into his gut, and expanded it out to launch him through the remaining energy.
Mew tumbled towards the ground then hopped up, crashing down on all fours. He spread his wings and bolted forward, black flames tearing up the ground in his wake.
He smashed the barrier behind Yukari with his fist and sent a wave of flame up the wall, where a couple pillars burst off to try and smoke her.
She shielded herself with a barrier and didn't even bother looking. Neither back, nor down, as Mew immediately rocketed off the ground and tried to knock her head with an uppercut.
She slid into a gap and then reappeared behind Mew, thrusting her parasol into his back to pin him against the wall.
Mew opened his own dark rift to slip behind her and pin her into the wall with a kick. Then she went into another gap, appeared behind him AGAIN, and swung her parasol down atop his head.
Mew threw his claw back, stopping the parasol and ramming a spiral flame orb into her gut. She went flying away until the flames dissipated, leaving a nice scorch mark at the front of her dress that she gently brushed off.
Mew returned to Light Form and began rapidly filling the air with light slashes. But more importantly, put shadows on the ground.
He returned to Dark Form and plummeted to the ground, fusing his claws with the shadows. Sharp dark spikes stabbed upward all the way to the ceiling, keeping Yukari from cowering out with her gaps.
She instead used a rather...interesting method to deal with them. She opened a pair of gaps and used bent street sighs as swords to slice through the the darkness, discarding and replacing them after one use.
She did so until the light's presence faded, and Mew had no shadows to rely upon.
He pulled his hands out feeling more than a little agitated at his lack of forward progress. But this felt like an opportunity he'd been needing, and he took it without hesitation to attack full force.
He neared Yukari, his drive to push forward still at its peak. She then fanned her face and whispered, "Border of Light and Dark."
In the near blink of an eye Mew found himself swinging his katana at a street sign she wielded like a sword. He gazed blankly over himself, now back in Light Form.
Having caught him confused, Yukari flexed her powers again and turned him back to Dark Form, his momentum continuing to push him into her sign. She swung it at his neck, forcing a pained gasp to expunge from his lungs as he hurtled all the way to the other wall.
She then stabbed her sign through a gap and a dozen of them spiked out behind Mew, propelling him back over to her, where she used her parasol to whack him atop his head.
He crashed into the ground, forced to bend dangerously close to it. He heard his knees crack under pressure, gritting his teeth as he forced himself to spring back up to try and uppercut her under the jaw.
She pulled back slightly and Mew redirected his strength into his feet, whipping around to kick her in the face.
He was forced back into Light Form right at the moment of impact, and though there was a resounding crack, not even Yukari's smile changed in the slightest.
Mew gripped his katana and swung it around out the sheath but was forced back to Dark Form, losing his range advantage. Yukari leaned her head back, leaving the tip of his claws to graze her nose like a breeze.
She withdrew into her gap and reappeared atop the arena. Gesturing her hand out, she shielded herself from below and then summoned gaps below the barriers.
Flashes of light and dark forewarned of the coming rain of rays bombarding the battlefield. Mew was feeling less than confident that he could prevail against this attack with Yukari holding his control between forms hostage.
Nevertheless he gripped his fists taut and weaved around the rays as he rose higher and higher. But when he got above the barriers Yukari had her parasol at the ready, striking him square in the chest with a piercing beam of gold.
The attack grazed his heart and made his body plummet further. By the time he recovered a beam of light scathed him down the center and shoved him down into the corner of the arena.
There two more rays hit in rapid succession, burning through his already dwindling stamina. He panted hard and cut open a dark rift, slipping into it before another ray could burn it away.
He sucked in some of the darkness around to try and recover some of the lost energy, only to then feel a chill up his spine.
"Hello." Whispered Yukari in his ear.
Before he could even consider turning she grabbed his shoulder in a paralyzing vice and flung him out this realm via her gap, putting him right in the middle of a massive ray of light.
Pinned to the ground for three seconds, he felt the darkness being shaved off him like it was his flesh, surviving only through the sheer grit his life of fighting had built up after all this time.
When the light faded Mew pulled himself up like his limbs were attached to strings and let out a blood-curling gasp, raising a hand to his throbbing head...Only to find he was wearing the grieves of his Light Form.
He then craned his head back and watched helplessly as darkness came crashing down upon him, with all the intense, cold hatred of the underworld behind it.
The energy cascaded out as a shockwave, mixing with the remnants of the light and spreading out partway up the walls. Mew still stood, but it was any wonder as to how. He looked like he'd just greeted the sun, and his eyes were hazed over, the life in them slowly flickering out.
His body forced up a cough of smoke and blood and his knees began to fall. He put one fist on the ground and fought the combined forces of pain and gravity that tried to hold him down, just to stand and look back up at Yukari.
She floated there, looking as dainty as a spring flower, but her heart as cold as winter frost. It wasn't a look of hate she gleamed at him, but rather one of disinterest and perhaps, disappointment.
She waved her fan before her smiling face and remarked, "The story nears its end. It does my heart no joy to be the one to close this book forever, but..."
She gestured the fan at him once more to say, "This is the price that must be paid upon those who seek the 'truth'."
Mew's hands rattled, the effort he put into closing them into fists rippling up to his brain like a sharp bolt. He grit his teeth and forced his head up, raising his tattered wings off the ground as blood dripped out the sides of his mouth.
"I-Its...not over...yet!"
"So has been said before," Yukari said, sounding rather amused, "By the one before you. At least, his words shared the same sentiment, though perhaps with a lot more frustration than what you feel now."
Mew took one step forward and his muscles spasmed, spitting blood out at the seams. He held his ground and pulled his fists back, trying to draw upon the power of darkness while standing in the light.
But the darkness fizzled out, his mind in pain at the thought of even trying, given what became of him before.
"I-If I could just use Chaos Form like Riku, I'd win...!" Mew believed this with utmost certainty, but the more he believed in the possibility, the more it broke him up inside. His smiled curled into a scowl of frustration as he felt the weight of his past failures catch up to him one at a time.
He only survived Mr. Reality because of the Gaia Temporis. He only bested the Leviathan because of outside forces. Joe Dark would have ended him had "D." not intervened. He failed to finish Gravitus off. He could not truly defeat Alex on his own. He failed against Justek without Riku's assistance. He was only an obstacle against Ba'al. And Beerus was prepared to end his life like it was any of the others he had snuffed out.
And now, without a scar to her name, Yukari was set to end his life swiftly and beautifully.
It crushed his soul with immeasurable weight, and with it his arms fell to his sides as he let out a lifeless gasp and felt his face collapse upon itself in despair.
"I couldn't be there for Shina...I couldn't reassure Riku...I've failed Maria, I've failed Auris. I can't even defeat the person in front of me...!" Tears rolled down Mew's cheeks as he pleaded to an unknown power, "What the HELL am I even good for...?!"
"Do you sincerely not know the answer to that question?" Yukari suddenly chimed in, closing her eyes as she continued on with a pitying whisper, "The answer to that has always been with you. If you cannot even acknowledge that 'truth', however, then your life truly was as wasteful as you believe it to be."
Mew stared long at her face as she shook her head and peered her eyes open slightly, flicking her fan shut to give him her full attention, "You were created to blend in with humanity, and to that extent I must commend how well of a job was done on you. This rage, this frustration, it feels as genuine as can be."
"But it comes with all the flaws and weaknesses," She said bluntly, following through with a playful giggle "Though, that is what I love about you all."
Gaps began to spread open around her slowly, guided towards Mew with the gentle wave of her hand, "It is a shame our first official meeting had to be our last, Phoenix of Rebirth. But this game has reached its conclusion, and you only have yourself to blame for making the wrong moves."
Mew stood completely still with his head hung and his body feeling limp, thinking to himself, "Maybe it would be better if I didn't burden anyone anymore..."
"Do you really believe that, Mew?"
Mew heard a voice from out of nowhere and opened his eyes, finding himself in the dark recesses of his mind. He looked around but couldn't find anyone, even though with such a familiar voice it should've been easy to see them.
"Come on. You're not supposed to be the mopey one. You going to let that witch tear you down too?"
"A-Alex...?!" Mew could hardly believe what he was hearing. He must really be going crazy...
"The answer's always been with you. Think about it. What's the strongest thing you've got?"
Mew stayed still and stared at his hands.
"Idiot, try a little more inward."
Mew laid a hand on his slowly beating chest and murmured, "My...heart?"
The voice went silent and Mew found himself back in reality, staring up at Yukari.
The Youkai had paused, her skin feeling cold and a creeping sensation crawling up the back of her neck.
"Impossible..." She whispered, in turn, summoning even more gaps to her aid.
Mew stared wide-eyed up at the gaps and felt a spark of determination in his heart. Gripping his fist against his chest, his stare became a glare.
"I understand now. My heart is connected to so many others. I've felt their emotions, and they've felt mine..." Closing his eyes, feeling no sense of dread, fear, or pain, he connected both light and darkness with the beat of his soul, "It doesn't matter how far away we are. Our bonds still keep us together. Maybe I can't keep my own emotions together...But I don't have to do this alone."
As his thoughts went deeper and deeper into his memories, he began to see flashes of the people he's come to meet along the way, their spirits radiating with their strongest emotions.
"Riku's worries."
"Joe Dark's determination."
"Auris' sorrows."
"Maria's mischievousness."
"Alura's curiosity."
"Saturn's enthusiasm."
"Gabriel's tranquility."
"Solaris' grumpiness."
"Lunis' optimism."
"Mars' empathy."
"Neptune's love."
"Jupiter's spirit."
"Mr. Reality's longing."
"Shina's cheerfulness..."
"Kairi's patience..."
"My stubbornness, and..."
At the end of the path Alex's silhouette came to him through the fire and flames of his soul, holding his hand out and inviting him with a smile.
"Alex's rage."
In his head, all their voices echoed as one as he thrust his open, the left glowing white, the other glowing black, "TOGETHER...!"
A pulse of power exuded out of Mew's body, wiping out all of Yukari's gaps and shredding up part of her parasol as she held it out in defense.
Then, enveloped by bands of light and darkness, Mew's body began to levitated off the ground. Yukari grimaced, watching as cracks formed all over the barrier, and a single bead of sweat trickled down the side of her face.
"Well well, its not often I get to feel surprised." She commented amusingly.
The chrysalis began to unravel, the tremors radiating off Mew contained only within this confined space. And from the radiating light and darkness unfurled a pair of Phoenix wings, one black and one white, attached to his back.
A leather two-colored "X" was strapped over his shoulders and thighs with three rivets etched through it. Underneath it is a long coat, gray with a slight tint of red to it, with the collar around his neck popped up, looking and behaving like lingering flames. Attached to the left part of the belt of his nylon stitched pants was one sword with two blades, both made of sleek, crystallized light and darkness.
The light in his eyes solidified and he turned them upon Yukari, grabbing hold of the hilt on his new sword with confidence.
"You were right, Yukari, the 'truth' I needed was inside me all along!" He drew his sword out and the calming wave of energy unleashed from it healed the wounds in the barrier instantly.
He then gripped the handle tighter until the second blade popped off into the grasp of his other hand. He swung them both down and spread his wings out, a gust of wind pushing out from his feet.
Yukari sat atop her gap, giving this child her full attention with only a smile to show for it.
"Maybe I'm not the toughest, or the smartest. I make dumb decisions, say dumb things, and hell, I'm a hopeless, jobless single father! Not exactly the best looking resume for an Elemental Overlord, but frankly I don't care!" Mew's eyes were fired up with determination as he declared, "I'll do everything I can with my weak self to save those close to me, so that they can live out their dreams in a brighter tomorrow! I'll protect them, as their sword, AND THEIR SHIELD!"
He took his sword up before his face, then swung it down, unleashing a fiery red aura around his body, "My bonds give me strength, and give them theirs!"
"Here I come...YUKARI!"
Phoenix of Rebirth Reborn: Mew Whiter (Chaos Hope Form)
Yukari withdrew her smile and pointed her fan out. But the very second it graced the air Mew was off, his movements twisting the fabric of time and space around the path he traveled.
He appeared behind her and her heart skipped a beat as the cold touch of his dark blade tapped the back of her neck.
She glanced back and tried to retreat into her gap, only for a bolt of darkness to pierce through it and drag her out into the open.
She spun around and floated in place, brushing the spot she was struck, only to find a hole had been burned into her clothes.
Narrowing her glare towards Mew, she thrust her fan forward and called forth the wrath of the heavens to smite him from above. He swungs his blades up and lashed them down, smashing the energy into a splatter across the sky.
Yukari braced herself against it with a barrier only for it to crack at the seams immediately, whereas Mew's follow-up swing of air finished the job.
He then extended the length of his blades with energy and whipped two thick waves of it across the arena. He then plunged towards where they cross, the warping speed dragging the energies into Yukari while he emerged on the other side.
It took a second for her body to comprehend the pain it was experiencing, and the energy hadn't even hit yet. Her body erupted and tossed her higher, before gravity then took her to the floor.
Mew flipped back and connected his swords together into a miniature railgun, fusing light and darkness into one powerful blast from the cylinder.
Yukari struggled to hide away in her gap when the world looked like it was coming apart at the seams around her. Even in the sanctity of her realm the eyes that watched over her were squirming slightly, their presences being twisted by the force of Mew's attacks.
Yukari chuckled, though not with her usual enthusiasm, "This is a little exciting, I must admit."
She rose out of the ground through one of her gaps and pointed her parasol in the air, firing off a golden beam at Mew.
Mew deflected it without even looking with his foot and then dove down to greet her. She hopped away, pressing her entire body against the winds he kicked up on impact so her parasol could be poised in his direction.
He shifted to the left in an instant, then all the way to the right, her parasol barely keeping a bead on him before suddenly, he was directly in front of her and smiling.
He slashed both blades up to dice her parasol to ribbons and force her body into the back wall. Mew then stabbed both blades together end-to-end to create a long javelin, dragging in the light and darkness from other realms to feed its power.
Yukari's eyes widened and she summoned twenty tiers worth of barriers, some of her own making, others stolen from other worlds. The best defenses she could have mustered, all standing between her and her opponent.
But as a last resort, she was prepared to seal Mew's weapons away within her gap forever.
Mew flung the mighty spear without hesitation and it immediately shattered through five of the barriers in the first assault. He held his hand out, grasping it with his raw determination as the shockwaves reverberated out towards the arena's barrier and began breaking it apart.
Yukari watched the spear be shredded taking upon the pressure the barriers put on it. But it continued to advance without an end to its charge in sight. Halfway through her defenses her body began to tremble. Three-quarters of the way through and it was only half-gone, and her body began to sweat.
She knew this cold feeling where her heart once stood. It was fear, a fear of death, nonetheless.
Down to the last three barriers, Yukari's smile was gone, and she extended her hand to put her all into fueling the final barrier. It blossomed like a beautiful spring violet, growing to be greater than the rest of the barriers combined.
The spear crashed into the center of it and cracks immediately formed on the surface. Yukari's nose bled, and she squeezed her hand into a fist to tighten the aegis' defenses.
Mew retaliated by shoving his hand forward furiously and squeezing his own fist, condensing the rest of the spear down to a perfect, seamless form.
Yukari's hand recoiled over her head right as the last barrier went down, filling her sights with visions of pink glass, which soon morphed into cherry blossoms. She saw herself as she was long, long ago, running through the roads of yesteryear's tomorrow, holding onto the hand of an old friend with brown-ish hair and a black hat.
This flash of the past ended as reality came crashing down upon her. The lance struck the gap she had laid in its path, and shattered a massive gash through the dimensions before finally being stopped.
Yukari was sent recoiling off the wall and the lance broke into its two halves to return to Mew's hands, as he leaped forward for could be determined as his final attack.
Yukari could move, but felt there was no point to trying. Time slowed to a crawl, making Mew move at a normal pace in her eyes. With but less than a second before he rendered his judgment with the manifestation of his spirit, Yukari pondered the irony of this moment.
"To think, I buried you in the deepest abyss...Only for your light to rise, shining brighter than ever before."
All she could see behind Mew was the spirit of Alex Whiter, mirroring and guiding his brother's actions with an intensity in his eyes she would almost consider...nostalgic.
"Destruction...The flame of rage meant to burn all worlds to ash."
"Balance...The spirit of a warrior meant to unite all elements together once more."
"And Rebirth...The soul of empathy meant to resonate with those around him, invoking their own personal rebirth."
"I did everything right. And I would do it all again in a heartbeat. There is no consequence worth undertaking when it comes to protecting that which you cherish the most."
"I guess today...You understood that lesson more than I ever did, Mew Whiter."
Mew cleaved right down the center of her body right as time resumed. Yukari froze there, letting blackness rupture free from her wound, with her body beginning a slow, painless descent towards the ground.
"...So. This is what karma feels like. Its very...liberating."
The barrier around them shattered, and slowly Yukari turned her head to the left.
There she saw that brown-haired girl from her dreams clutching her hands against her chest and crying out in a muted voice.
And, with a smile on her merry face, Maribel Hearn reached her hand out towards this person and whispered, "I'm sorry...Renko."
Yukari crashed and tumbled along the ground, her black mass dispersing into mist around her. Mew descended to the ground and with one brief gasp of relief, his body reverted back to its base form and he walked on up to his defeated foe.
He pointed his sword at her and grinned as she began to turn her disheveled head up.
Before he could make a cool comment he was suddenly whacked on the back of the head and grimaced, turning around to find Reimu was the culprit.
"Ow, what the...I forgot you guys were even here!" He rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head.
"You don't get to exterminate this one. That's my job." Reimu said, putting her foot down for once in her life.
Marisa stood by with her hands behind her head and an excited grin on her face, "Looks like you guys had a big fight in there! Too bad we couldn't see any of it."
"I-I wasn't going to kill her!" Mew proclaimed, utterly baffled.
"Of course not," Yukari said with an amused chuckle, propping herself upright with the help of yet another parasol from out of nowhere, "This one isn't like that."
"Eugh...!" Marisa recoiled with shock, flailing her hands before her body.
Mew turned to Yukari and saw that her scar was spilling out a black mass filled with eyes similar to what lied hidden in her gaps. With half her face gone like that her smile looked really unnerving.
Mew stood there squirming with a pale look in his eyes as Yukari's scar was stitched back together by goop colored like the clothes and skin she wore. And then she was back together, good as new.
Reimu calmly tapped her gohei over her shoulder while the Youkai turned her head and smiled, "Awww, were you worried about me, Reimu?"
"Feh...! Go back to sleep you gap hag." Reimu said, her face twisted up in annoyance.
"Heh heh heh!" Yukari giggled like a little girl.
Mew dispelled his sword and then crossed his arms gently before his chest, "Alright, you promised."
Yukari turned towards him and with no animosity given she nodded her head and said, "Yes, and I shall keep my word."
She gestured her parasol to the right and opened a gap as tall as her, stepping one foot into it while remarking rather eerily, "Are you sure you're ready for what's to come next?"
Mew brushed his shoulders up and murmured, "No going back right?"
He began to step into the gap when suddenly Reimu began tapping her foot on the ground impatiently, "Hey, Yukari."
The Youkai turned her head over her shoulder as the shrine maiden told her, "When you get back, we need to talk."
Yukari closed her eyes and sighed, "Yes. I agree."
She then turned to Mew and said, "Shall we?"
Mew nodded and the two entered the gap together. Now, all that stood between him and the future...was a 'truth' he might not be prepared to learn.
Next Time: A Vow, a Secret, a Poison