I can see! I'm no longer in the darkness! I jumped from the cragged stone floor and onto the wall behind me, only to spring off the wall. In the now visible blackness of the cave I was stuck in with Hibiyomi, I sent a shadow arm at him, and missed, my claw crashing to the floor, spreading stones out with a clatter as I landed in the opposite direction from which I started.
The movements of Hibiyomi I couldn't see before, I can see them! I thought as Hibiyomi came at me with punches and kicks, my body dodging each and every one of them with confidence and skill. It's not just my eyes got adjusted to the darkness, I thought as I jumped a short distance in the air to dodge a sweep kick. As soon as I landed back on the floor, I gave him my own sweep kick, only to miss by Hibiyomi jumping away, creating more distance between us and an end to the hand to hand combat.
"Looks like you've learned how to use Sight," Hibiyomi said, his voice echoing off the cragged paved walls and stone coned ceiling of the dim, water dripping cave.
I shifted my weight and got into position for more hand to hand combat, my eyes hard on Hibiyomi and everything around him, my sight clear in the clouding blackness. My feet shuffled on the floor as the sound of water drops bulleting the ground filled my ears. My eyes glowed with a demonic red, my sight reversing all the colors, black being white and red being green, and vice versa. Everything also seemed to glow with a backlight, but I knew all of these things were just illusions of the new skill I had learned. The skill to be able to see in the dark.
"I guess that means we're almost done training," Hibiyomi's voice echoed through the uneven grounds again. The booming depth of the sound of his voice seemed to overtake the water dripping that seemed to continue anyway at a slow, steady pace, filling my ears anyway.
"Hm?" I muttered under my breath in interest, wondering why being able to see in the dark was my only training lesson, my position still readied to fight.
"Just one more thing you have to learn, though, and it won't be easy. I'm telling you, it's not simple at all," Hibiyomi's voice rang again.
"And what might that be?" I asked, narrowing my stare, watching Hibiyomi do the same.
He didn't seem to reply. Instead, he seemed to sink away into the floor and disappear completely, as if he had been standing on quicksand.
"What…? What happened?" I muttered, looking from side to side, the bright illusion-like colors not blinding to my eyes. I felt my breath begin to pick up, my own inhaling ringing in my ears repetitively, like some kind of drum beat to add to the suspense of the fight. "Where'd you go?" I asked him, if he was still there. Had he… left? No. No way could that happen. He said he had one more thing to teach me. But in that case, where is he?
"No," came a blunt answer from another direction. No way! I thought. Behind me!
My heartbeat increased ten times over in an instant. My eyes became wide with fear and surprise as I turned around slowly, as if time had put the scene on slow motion. "The last thing you're going to have to learn is…" the voice continued, definitely behind me now, my head still turning as if it took forever.
My heartbeat mixed with my sharp gasp and water dripping filled my hearing with an everlasting chorus. When I turned around I saw Hibiyomi staring at me, a little too close for comfort. He was staring at me with those narrow, almost inhuman eyes. "How to do this!" he screamed in my face, the voice booming loudly in my ear.
At the same time, he took me by my neck. His body seemed to be coming out from the wall like a fungus growing on it. He tried to drag me in, causing one eye to wince since dust particles were coming my way. In my eyes, his complete, white washed face and clothes dragged me toward the wall with great, inhuman strength.
Crap! I thought. I'm going to crash into the wall! My body came closer and closer and Hibiyomi's body sank in more and more, and just when I thought my body would completely collide with the cragged, uneven state of the supporting cave wall, my body actually, strangely, went through it, like I was some kind of ghost or spirit.
I felt Hibiyomi's hand's grip on me loosen and fade away as I fell on my back, causing my sight to be taken out as well. I was totally surrounded in darkness now, and the echoed dripping of water was completely gone, only I and darkness remained. Where the hell did I go? Was I really taken through the wall? Wandering thoughts of mine scattered throughout my consciousness as I got up on my feet and looked around, trying to figure out where I was or to find a wall for support.
I found no wall anywhere, not even from the direction I had come in, which I found rather strange. I tried to turned on my Sight again, but couldn't. I wondered what was wrong. It should work, and I should be able to see in the dark by now, but I can't. There's something seriously rigged, I thought. Sweat began to form on my forehead and I brushed back my straight, spiky black hair between my fingers.
"Where am I?" I asked if anyone was out there to hear me, my voice echoing through the empty pitch blackness. As a reply, I got a sudden punch to the right side of my face, knocking my head to the left.
I cried out in surprise, and turned to face the front, unable to sense a presence anywhere in front of me. Then I took another punch from the opposite side this time, knocking me back a little, and then a kick to my chin that sent me flying at least three feet away. "Hibiyomi?!" I cried out in desperateness. "Where are we?" I demanded confusedly, my body lying on the floor and struggling to get back up.
"Welcome to the Darkness," Hibiyomi's voice echoing and booming more than ever now in the spacious area with no solid objects, his sound seeming to come from every direction.
"The Darkness?" I asked, my voice booming back, but not as loud. "What's the Darkness?"
"Yes. It's the interface between Spiritual Hell and the Outer World. There's nothing here but evil spirits coming in and out, going back to the world and coming out from it," Hibiyomi's voice boomed again.
"Going back to the Outer World? Why would they do that?" I asked, trying to find any signs of where Hibiyomi's location was, but failing. I stood up on my feet, my eyes moving from one side to the other desperately.
"For one thing, to haunt others, and another thing, to replace a soul." I put on a crazy, worried look on my face, trying to figure out what he said. "In other words," he continued. "When someone dies, they are replaced with another, random soul from either heaven or hell, and that random soul becomes a newborn baby. Do you understand?"
When I didn't give a reply for some time, he began talking again. "It's only accessible to the Outer World by dying, or by the power of the Shadow Free Spirit. Meaning you and me. Whoever uses the skill to get in the Darkness, otherwise known as Shadow Travel, is the only one who can see in the Darkness. The victim who falls upon the skill cannot see a thing."
"So my job is?" I asked, wondering if he was watching me right now, now knowing why my Sight failed earlier.
"Your job is to find out how to use Shadow Travel and get out of the Darkness. Any other way will lead to your death. Understood?" he demanded in a lower, more ominous voice. "When you do learn how to use the skill, you'll be able to travel in and out from the Outer World and the Darkness, allowing you to reappear any location of choice in the Outer World in a ten foot diameter."
"Hmph. Looks like this isn't going to be easy at all," I told him. "Any hints?" I asked just in case.
"Just one," he told me. "All aboard."
"All aboard? What's that supposed to-," my sentence was cut off by another punch, this time to my stomach. I fell over on my back and winced. Damn. I guess he won't just give it to me. How am I supposed to get out of here now?
PoVS
Outside in the bright sunlight, the sun hung high in the sky, shining its bright light through the thickened clouds and onto the scene of Lance and Shihou's fight.
Shihou seemed tired, taking deep breaths, while her sword, Ubuge Kenshiki, meaning Soft Pride emitted blue sparks and smoked from the heat it had been through from using all those sword attacks. "This kid…" Shihou panted, her body weak.
"He's good isn't he?" a reflection of a small child with brown hair appeared on the sword, his high, young voice soothing to any soul. "He may be lazy, but when it comes down to it, he has great creativity in his attacks and won't hold back. What a kid."
Lance, hearing the compliments stood there, his body not tired to the smallest scale. He stood there, cross armed and smiled his lazy, crooked smile, his eyes closed as if he were sleeping, and his silver hair swaying in the soft wind that blew dust by like magical hands that drove everything along. Needles that were protruding from the ground used in earlier techniques were smoking steam into the air, sinking back underground. They hissed as they died into their graves below.
"Let's give it one more try," Shihou demanded. "Crescent Moon Blade!" she declared as she jumped into the air, the thin, three foot blade glowing with neon blue.
Lance, reacting to her attack early, bent down and pressed his hands against the dirt surface, palms down and creating more needles that grew like skyscrapers into the air, clawing and reaching out for Shihou's body.
Shihou, seeing right through his defense slashed her attack early, creating a crescent style blue wave, cutting the needles and giving her space for her feet to safely step on. As a counter, she turned around, the sunlight reflecting off of her blade. She spun and put her sword out, attempting a spinning sword attack.
Even before she began the counter, thin metal formed a dome like defense in front of Lance, who was only inches away from Shihou. The metal grew from the front and created a spherical defense as Shihou's counter was blocked completely. "Heh, not to mention a good eye for detail," Shihou added to the list.
"So you've figured out how I do it, huh?" Lance said behind his metal half dome. "Using photographic memory, everything I see is like a painting in my head. That way, I can read your movements before they happen using an eye for detail on that 'painting' by looking at and watching out for any shifts of energy, position, or stance. So as a result, it's hard for you to actually hit me since I can think of a defense just as fast as I can see your attack," he explained.
"Ha, you're good for only a seventeen year old kid. Looks like I can't really teach you much now, can I?" Shihou asked, drawing back in her sword.
"No, looks like you can't," Lance said as the metal shield shrunk back to nothing but air in front of Lance, letting go of the defense.
PoVS
Under the same holy circle of light we know as the sun, a scene in the deep forest took place and released wisps of black smoke and steam into the air. The surrounding trees were completely charred, including the dirt and grass. Hanabikai and Eric had been fighting too much with fire, but still weren't tired just yet.
At the scene, Hanabikai and Eric were panting, both of them equally tired and their clothes ashy and a bit burnt.
"I'm not giving up just yet. Fire Dragon!" Hanabikai declared, clasping his hands together, putting his fingers between his fingers. A circle of flames surrounded him and grew, and came out a dragon, made completely of fire, the orange and red flames flashing light on the surrounding blackened trees.
"Like I'm giving up either!" Eric shot back. Eric did a back flip, postponing the impact between him and the flaming myth sent at him. "Flaming Whip!" he declared as he landed back on his feet a few feet away from the fire dragon. With a snap of his fingers, there came a stream of red and orange flames that he could control like a real whip. Eric sent the whip to entangle itself around the dragon, and soon, the dragon was overpowered and exploded, crying out its deathly cries.
The fire whip free now, Eric slash-swung it towards Hanabikai, who was a bit surprised that his Fire Dragon had been beaten down. As a sign of confidence hinted with revenge, Hanabikai took the flaming whip in his hands, holding it right in its place.
Eric widened his eyes and grit his teeth in anger. He caught it? Eric thought. N-No way! "I know what you're thinking, but no," Hanabikai said, answering his thoughts. "I cannot hold fire, but instead, I can compress it in my fist, making it unable to move, so it actually looks like from the outside that I'm holding it."
"I never asked for an explanation," Eric said bluntly, tugging on his glowing, flaming whip. It wouldn't give.
"Okay then, hotshot. Let's see if you can dodge this!" Hanabikai declared, shifting his feet, separating his legs a little, that string of brown hair in front of him dipping down. "Phoenix Fire!" Hanabikai screamed. Through his scream, raging balls of fire came out like a hurricane, spreading everywhere and getting larger as it progressed. The hot fire shook the air violently with its heat, providing bright light that could beat the sun.
Eric, still holding the fire whip in his hands jumped away from the fire as it was only a few feet away, then jumped up and off a tree branch, flying into the air. The raging puffs of flame blew right past him, burning a whole mile's length and width worth of trees.
In the air, Eric was holding on to the whip in the rising smoke and steam from the fire below. With his free hand put out, he called, "Firelight!" A sphere of bright yellow with flaming lines on it grew and flew from his hand in a curve ball motion. The attack forced Hanabikai to let go of the whip and jump away. The firelight crashed and exploded into nothing but smoke.
Eric landed on his feet on the charred dirt, the whip still beside him and looking as long as ever, his stance landing with a grunt and his clothes, especially his bandanna caked with ash and dust. Once more, he cracked the whip and flung it towards Hanabikai.
Hanabikai being a few feet away sent one of his strongest attacks at him in defense and offense. "Lioness Inferno!" Hanabikai opened his mouth the widest he could, and in a flash, a filled web of orange fire spread out and covered everything in front of Hanabikai like a wall at first, but then curved its direction forward. It crashed through everything in its path in a flame tsunami, and ate away the whip.
Defenseless and now without offense, Eric widened his stare. I can't escape it! Shit! Eric thought. He turned his back to the fire and thought. Freeze and compress it! Just like Hanabikai had taught him. At the same time, the flames began to take over, and completely engulf Eric in the hot, death piercing cries of the bright sprites of everlasting inferno.