Shihou held the three foot blade in her hands tighter, the snow beginning to cake her hair and the metal of the sword glimmering from the light of the surrounding carnival machines, the curved blade threatening with its silver and black colors, looking all new and powerful.
She held it with both of her gloved hands and a mean stare, the sword in front of her, protruding like a thin steel horn.
"Shihou!" Jeremy declared gaspingly and happily, raising his back a little. Shihou could tell that he was glad to see her.
"Huh? Just who is she?" Marissa asked behind Shihou, posing a slightly confused mixed with fear look on her face.
"Allow me to introduce myself," Shihou interrupted in a serious voice, her eyes round and kind, yet strong and ones of a fighter's. "I am Kinzoku Shihou, the Metal Council, and this is Ubuge Kenshiki Soft Pride, my trustworthy blade." As she mentioned the long, sharp sword, she lifted it up towards her, the thin blade pointing straight up to the snowy winter sky; it seemed to glimmer from top to bottom, looking ready to slice something into pieces.
As the somewhat blue reflection of light faded away, she turned it, the side facing White Cloak, and in the thin metal of the blade could be seen another reflection. A human's reflection. But it wasn't the reflection of Walter, or White Cloak, or Minoshi, either. It was someone else's. A reflection from a person that seemed to be giving it off even though his actual presence wasn't there.
The reflection was on the sword, all metallic and flat, just like the blade's surface, a line of light still on the top lining of the sword. The reflection showed on both sides of the sword, and had the image of a little boy, probably about five years old. The picture didn't show all of his body, just the direct middle strip of the person.
No one could tell White Cloak's emotion under that dark, shady hood, but everyone could tell that he showed a mean, disrespectful look hidden beneath that limited darkness of the ebony blanket. He stood there, watching as if a statue, the middle and ends of his cloak fluttering magically even without the wind to guide it softly like magical hands doing a puppet show. "Well if it isn't that sword. It's been a long time, hasn't it?" White Cloak muttered in a whispered voice. He was uninterested that a council was there. All he cared about was his prize.
"Don't joke around, White Cloak," Shihou told him in a serious voice, gripping the ends of the sword tighter, a long, white, flag-like sash whipping with the wind, tied to the very end of the handle.
"Ah? And why not? Have you lost that sense of humor just because of what I did to you so long ago?" White Cloak whispered evilly, sounding like an insecure ghost.
"Shut up! Be serious! I will never forget what you did to me. Take this fight seriously or else avenging my family will only take a second," Shihou snapped at him, gripping the sword handle even tighter than before, so hard now that it hurt.
"That's right you know," the phenomenal reflection portrayed on the metal blade said in an echoing, bottled voice, as if he really was trapped inside the sword, like he was banished or something.
White Cloak didn't reply. Or was it that he didn't feel like replying?
"Let's go, brother!" Shihou said, shifting her feet in the snow, all eyes on her.
"Brother?" Dylan asked in a soft voice to Jeremy, who didn't reply in order to keep his watch on the fight like it was some kind of sporting event.
"Yeah," came the reply from the blade, Shihou swinging it in the air, the reflection disappearing and the blade being thrown like an arrow from a bow, the deadly blade flying in midair and its long white sash being thrown along with it, connecting the blade to Shihou's hand. Faster than the wind, it flew at lightning speed, racing in White Cloak's direction.
The hooded man didn't move from his position hovering in the air, only a few feet away from Walter, who was also watching. In a flash, her flying sword was deflected, spinning upwards in the air, the sash fluttering and the attack failing, sparks flying from metal and a deflected noise created. The three foot blade fell down, limp on the cold white snow and Shihou drew it back in, posing a sort of angry face as her expression, reeling her attack back in with the white sash.
In the spot where it was deflected stood Minoshi, tall and tough with the cigarette smoke still steaming, his grin still evil, and his blades still devilish. "Let's see which one of our swords is better," he declared, his grin not wiped from his mouth, the cigarette weak and half dead. "My Kawakiretsu or your Ubuge Kenshiki."
White Cloak stood there, almost looking interested about what was going to happen. Suddenly, as if to declare the beginning of the battle between Minoshi and Shihou, the snow stopped shedding off the sky, the white speckles gone to rest.
Ignoring the change in weather, Shihou thought. I'll get him out of the way, then appear from behind and uppercut White Cloak, she planned out strategically, putting a battle pose on.
As if ignoring the fight, White Cloak began drawing Scholary Circles. Scholary is the study of arts learned through reading books to learn spells and skills of different variations. The kind of power White Cloak wanted. But it took a lot of stamina to become a Scholar. It was extremely hard and took years of training. Shihou's father was a Scholar as well. Until…
"Like I'll let you draw those circles!" Shihou shouted, ready to take him down. The blade of her Ubuge Kenshiki began glowing silver, its light jumping from the reflective snow and surroundings, the strong glimmer giving a kind of silent hum throughout the scene, looking dangerous and ready to show something off, like it was just getting ready, charging up.
"Don't ignore me!" Minoshi demanded strictly, practically praying for attention with his rejected narrow eyes. "Chuushin Kentanka!"
The smoke came out from the swords like a backwards vacuum, spilling the spiral motioned smoke into the snowy grounds, traveling towards Shihou while crawling like a snake crawling and hovering in the air. It left behind trails of wisps and black as it traversed closer to Shihou, threatening it with its silent puffs.
"Don't get in the way!" Shihou demanded back, the sword glowing brighter now. "Enchoku Katto! Vertical Slash!" she yelled, swinging her blade upwards, releasing a huge vertical wave of bright silver, like lightning crashing into the snow. The bright silver energy cut through its path, spilling snow randomly in every direction.
It soon collided with the snaking smoke, exploding the entire attack, a loud screech as it made impact on the solid-looking cloud. The collision made snowy dust rise into the air, clearing only a second later.
Just as soon as the attack hit, Minoshi's Kawakiretsu twin swords broke, a large crack running down the middle of the short blades, spilling nooks and crannies of metal onto the snow, the lost pieces becoming lost and invisible for the rest of time.
Minoshi uttered a surprised gasp. His mouth opened so wide, the cigarette fell out of his mouth and cooled down in its new surroundings of snow below. He shifted his feet back like he was about to run away, his expression on his face no longer showy, angry, and tough. Now it was utter shock and a hint of fear in his widened eyes.
"Idiot. You should've known better than to go up against someone with a level that surpasses yours by more than enough," White Cloak criticized, hovering in the air like some kind of suspended scarecrow. Minoshi didn't reply. He just stood there, looking at his broken twin blades. "I've seen you've grown to care for those things too much. I should've never given them to you," White Cloak said, making Minoshi turn back and give him an even more surprised gasp. His mouth was wider this time. "Stop whimpering and get Kontora. She's trapped due north," White Cloak rasped out unsympathetically, still drawing the circles with tracings of light like he did back then in the Inner World, or also known as the Council's Dimension.
The color and mean texture returned to Minoshi's face as he mumbled something under his breath reluctantly, then disappearing from sight to follow orders.
Just as he left, White Cloak finished the last circle. "Now, you…" he said, turning to Walter.
Walter turned to White Cloak to find him a few feet away from him in the air, widening his eyes so large and his pupil turning so small, it looked absolutely abnormal. Stress and tension built in his body, making him stand straight up. Then, the tension level crashed down, and Walter had a more slant back now, and his eyes returned to normal size, his stare uncaring and mean like Derek's or Eric's. "What?" he asked him finally, his voice blank and unenthusiastic.
"You're mine," he said, taking his gloved hand from beneath the fluttering cloak and tapping the red gem that held the cape together in the front, placing his finger in the dent where there seemed to be a piece missing.
Shihou narrowed her eyes, preparing her mind and soul for battle. Something's not right, she noticed. "Stay back!" she told Dylan and the others, getting her sword ready again.
"I see that there's more than one Minor," White Cloak told Shihou, trying to get her tenser about the fact that she had so many lives to protect. She looked to the left and saw Walter, staring hard at him. To the right she saw Rick's body on the floor, bloody with a nauseating ocean of blood circling him. We have to get that guy out of here fast, Shihou thought. To the back, she saw Dylan and Marissa, looking like they were strong and could protect Jeremy, who was staring in hope that Shihou would win this fight, and possibly watching to see if Walter was going to be safe.
Hopefully, he won't go berserk in case something happens, Shihou thought. We could b in big trouble if he does. "You're not laying one finger on the others," she said in confidence. "Metarikku Hei!" Metallic Wall she declared, sticking her blade hard into the white snow, stabbing it while more, similar blades to that of the Ubuge Kenshiki rose from the ground in front of Dylan and the others, shielding them with four feet of long blades, about a million there blocking their sight but providing security.
As if reading Shihou's deep, inner thoughts, Dylan made vines crumble from the snow, the white blankets coming off of them as they emerged, taking Rick's body away from the bloody lake and behind the wall of metal for safety. His body caked the vines with his bloodas they carried him for a moment of five seconds, leaving Walter alone.
Suddenly, the red gem that White Cloak had tapped a while ago began glowing wildly, releasing red light into the snowy grounds, spilling its color like a mythical energy. White Cloak's garments began fluttering even more wildly, revealing his white suit underneath and gloved hands and boots, showing the power rate of his skills now.
"Like I'm letting you get stronger by the second!" Shihou said sarcastically, striking another silver vertical wave through the snow and crashing right into White Cloak. The path it followed could be seen as a deep line in the snowy grounds that were full of footprints. The attack hit White Cloak with what seemed to be a direct hit, and created a cloud of dust and smoke in the air that would take to be cleared a little longer than the past one.
White Cloak flew out of the clouding dust, emerging smoothly while the dust tried to claw at him, to get him back. He headed to Walter with a normal flight speed; one similar to a regular bird's that you see everyday on the streets, pecking their little beaks on the ground in search for food. The glowing of the red gem had stopped and he was so close to Walter, who didn't seem to want to move at all when Shihou appeared from nowhere, jumping in between the two people, stopping White Cloak's flight with a threatening blade.
White Cloak stopped in his flight track so he wouldn't run right into the blade. "You think that's going to stop me?" he said, diving into the blade again. This time, he phased right through the sword and right past Shihou like some sort of ghost, using a skill he had learned to do long ago.
"You think that's going to stop me?" Shihou said, unsurprised of what just happened, turning around to face Walter and White Cloak who were so close now they could breathe on each other's necks. She swung her blade wildly, declaring, "Spirit Cutter!" A lace of a cut from a sword could be seen travel right through White Cloak as his flight direction shifted and spun wildly, falling back to the ground.
Shihou walked to White Cloak's position on the floor, sort of ignoring Walter. Her sword charged up in silver energy again as she said, "It doesn't matter whether you're in spirit form or not. My brother can cut through anything." She told him these words with a mean and proud stare. The hum of the glowing blade singing a chorus of hope in agreement to her words. "Now, die!" she declared, holding the sword up, the glowing blade facing White Cloak's limp position on the floor, forcing the glowing weapon down into his chest.
In a flash, White Cloak disappeared, leaving nothing but snow as a target, escaping the attack as swift as a cheetah. The sword stuck straight through the snow as Shihou pulled it back up, releasing snow in dust form as she gripped the handle tightly in her black gloved hands.
Shihou sensed White Cloak's position behind her, and turned to attack him. White Cloak blocked with some sort of crystal shield in one hand, and a crystal pillar that acted like a sword in the other. The crystal like substance was light and icy blue. It even looked like frosty ice without being as cold. He took the sword and began swinging it, Shihou blocking all the attacks with her own blade and its potential, the two swords meeting together between the two characters as if shaking hands.
They kept following the blocking and attacking strategy until thirty seconds later when the reflection of the five year old child came back again as the swords swung wildly in every direction thought possible to the human race, ready to talk and give comments again.
"You've grown weak, White Cloak. Why are you holding back? You don't seem yourself," the image told him, being swung against the crystal blade wildly like the weapon he was.
White Cloak didn't reply. He just kept blocking attacks, looking for a chance to attack. But he never found one. "Time to end this infinite sword-striking and blocking," Shihou said, the image agreeing by nodding his head. "Crescent Horizon!" she declared, swinging her blade horizontally, letting a silver wave slice through the air this time and not the snow, crashing right into White Cloak, leaving a bloody mark across his chest.
He jumped back many feet and felt the open, red wound with his hand, the crystal weapons shrinking back into his body strangely. "I thought getting Walter might've been easier. No matter. I have a better plan," he said, disappeared and fading from sight.
Shihou gasped, putting her hand out, trying to tell him to wait. But he wouldn't have followed anyway. She looked down and closed her eyes. She sighed as she said, "He went away." Walter gave her a somewhat caring stare as she released the wall of blades that protected Dylan and the rest of them.
"Let's go!" Jeremy said, running up to Shihou and taking her hand, pulling her towards the entrance of the carnival with a stressed look on his face.
"What? Why? Do you have any idea where he went?" Shihou asked Jeremy wide-eyed, surprised to see that someone had the answer.
"Yes! The other Minor! He's in the hospital and he's helpless! Let's go, now!" he declared, leaving her and running towards the entrance, Dylan and Marissa following his action.
"I guess that means you, too," Shihou said, turning to Walter. He didn't reply, just nodded his head in agreement, but also looking like he didn't care what happened next.
They ran off, and began pacing through the snow, Shihou taking Rick's limp and half dead body in her arms. His condition is serious. Just what can White Cloak do? She wondered her thoughts as she ran to catch up with the others.
Now, they were in the snowy path that lead from the carnival to the hospital, pacing as fast as they could. As they walked, they also talked. "You guys stay safe. Your lives could be in major danger," she warned, running with the blade back in its case, her clothes and equipment going up and down with her running motion as did everyone else. "And Jeremy," she said, turning to left to see his questioning stare.
"Good job on finding so many Minors in such a short amount of time. You almost have half," she said, turning back. In the corner of her eye, she saw that Jeremy posed a happy look on his face, as if he had found something he had been looking for that took so long to find. And maybe, he really did.
It only took them a while for them to reach the hospital. They never found White Cloak in their path walking there, but the hospital gave off an eerie sense that you would definitely know that he was there if you were in front of the building like they were.
They stopped to find someone lying on the floor, his body limp and glass and snow covered all over him. "Glory!" Walter muttered under his breath.
"Friend of yours?" Shihou asked, turning to him with a straight back.
"Used to be," Walter said, unsympathetic for the could-be-dead for all he cared teammate. But were they really teammates now that Walter knew the truth? Even Walter himself couldn't answer that question.
They all looked up at once to find a huge, broken window in the front of the hospital building. "Up there," Shihou declared, fading from sight and appearing at the floor at which the broken window was.
"Wait!" Dylan said a little too late. Great. How were they supposed to get up there now?
Up on the fourth floor, through Shihou's eyes could be seen a completely bright scene lit by white lights. Only a few feet away from Shihou, who was right in front of the broken window standing in a few broken shards of glass was White Cloak holding up some young looking man, the light coming from his center body and other than that, mainly from his mouth and eyes. His head was laid back and mouth was wide open, he looked completely dead, only that there was an ominous white light that came from his body as White Cloak's hands touched his neck, wrapping his fingers around it, and holding his body up in the air, choking him and making him hover only a few inches above the ground.
Shihou watched in horror as she felt like she couldn't do anything to stop it. In White Cloak's selfish, gloved hands was the throat of a person with white, pony tailed hair. She immediately knew it wasn't the Minor, but… she couldn't help feeling sorrow and nauseous for the guy. White energy was flowing from his mouth and into White Cloak's chest as he absorbed the power from the guy. On the floor right beside the scene, his face painted white from the light of the absorption was a black spiky haired teenager, just sitting there helplessly as he watched, mouth wide open and eyes sad and hopeless.
"Damn it," White Cloak muttered. "I tried to get the Minor but… this guy… got in the way."
The light spilled everywhere, even to the open wound that Shihou made on him and even on his face so his victim could see his attacker's identity before he died.
Behind Shihou, the rest of the group arrived on floating pads of thick, white snow that Walter controlled, allowing them to see the scene.
"What's going on? That…That's not a Minor is he? Who is he?" Jeremy asked, curled up in a ball, his breath streaming up in the air while he pleaded for answers on the hard, pressurized snow.
"He's the doctor! He had bone control powers, but they weren't Minor powers," Dylan answered Jeremy, both of them watching the scene in horror.
That doctor… he has power, also. And he's discovered it, unlike me. But why isn't Shihou fighting? Why isn't Shihou trying to stop White Cloak from absorbing those powers? Does she not care? Just because the man's not a Minor? Does that mean that if I were to lose my undiscovered powers, she wouldn't care?
Moments later of watching what seemed to be a scene stuck in time, White Cloak finally finished, and nothing was left of the doctor but a pile of dust. The bright lights went away, and White Cloak stood there, adjusting. "Now I can't take anymore powers… How sad…But I'll get you… I'll get you, just you wait. If it weren't for the stupid five-step rule of absorbing powers, all of you would be dead right now, instead of that doctor," he said, turning to each and every one of us.
As he finished up his speech, he left, his appearance fading away, his presence no longer present. He just left them there, unguided. Now, it seemed like they were the ones frozen in time. And we couldn't do a single thing about that. We just pushed back the importance of Derek's safety, or Rick's deathly condition, everything. Everything was swept from their minds… and Jeremy felt himself beginning to lose it all.