"Your soul wires connect through the whole area in a certain diameter, correct?" the ebon shadow spoke loud and clear. Daniel sighed secretly in relief. He didn't want to give the pleasure of knowing that he had been scared to the enemy and his frozen feet. Misty haziness crawled like a newborn baby across the ground, sticking to it like a hot fuzz on a fresh cup of coffee. "However, you are the center of where those wires all connect to. So when you move towards the South Vermillion Bird's Gate, you have to maintain that diameter that you created. But, when the center point of the wires moves towards the south, the amount of energy released towards the south thickens, because your distance towards it decreases, while the ones towards the north loosens and thins. This way, they are easily accessed and give a wider space to walk through, and with my ability to see them, they are nothing but wires made of thread to me."
To be able to see those wires… Daniel thought, feeling his glasses slump down the slope of his nose. He was too tense to bring a hand to fix them this time. Too tense to flex a muscle. Just what is he? Dreaded chains rattled once more, a chant for the everlasting mist, a constant growing in a permanent spurt. "What is that tense face you're putting on?" the shadowy figure muttered mockingly.
Daniel shifted nervously. The shadowy emanation chortled, worriless. "How amusing," he muttered, narrowing the bright greens of the edgy redhead.
"Don't underestimate me!" Daniel cried out as he threw the hot, glowing dagger through the air, a sharp slicing noise as it soared toward the unthreatened figure. A silhouetted dance easily dodged the bright luminary triangle of yellow and green. Ground teeth showed anger of a miscalculated accuracy. As the blackened figure stirred to its feet again, its legs and ankles lazy as they stumbled to their balance, steps drunk in an unplanned dance, the world seemed topsy-turvy on the opponent. He swung his arms for equilibrium, his long, Japanese sleeves firing a long iron dagger, thickened to pitch-blackness, bound by a chain of hell, a link of fury, and a bond of sin. The parallelogram shape of the narrow, metallic dagger screeched with friction against the air, a confident rattling of chains sharp against Daniel's ears and Kenneth's frozen stare.
Ducking in panic, the redhead squinted and put hands to his head, taking no chance as the rocketing chain soared past him, a jangle of train track chains cho-chooing in his mind. "Duck!" he demanded his brother nervously. The fiery blue-headed boy followed at the last second. The chained dagger plummeted right past him, too, but this time, it was sure it was to make a hit. Confident eyes twinkled in the nonexistence of illumination, determined sharp edges slicing the air with a sickening sharpness, a rocket waiting for victory as it approached the trembling Minor curled up in a ball against the gate. "Teresa!" Daniel cried out to her, still on his shaky knees, watching with stretched spectacles at the violet shivering. The rumbling of the treacherous chain neared.
Everyone waited. Screeching of metal against metal was heard, and relieved sighs exhaled from panic-lifted lips. Eyes closed in liberated tension, muscles loosening in a release of worry, which only seconds later returned. Eyes opened once more with restarted recaptured tension, the relief of sighs were drawn back in with a horrid, sharp gasp. Muscles tightened in worried preparation. The dagger, having wrapped around one of the strong, muscular ribs of the moist, misty gate clattered as it revolved around the bar, circling it like a dog chasing its tail. Teresa remained stationary, even more caught in her frosty trance, her arctic muscles frozen in a large block of ice she called her past. Her eyes were isolated, shaking of the polar hoarfrost, trying to desperate chisel their way out. Slits between teeth became icy bars, chattering even in their own pacific freeze. Arms held each other for warmth, cell partners for the rest of time, legs put together like bent chopsticks, waiting to sink themselves in a hot, grainy rice to warm themselves once more.
The dagger made a slight cut on the sixteen year-old's cheek, a tiny scratch that needed just a second to exert blood in a tiny, miniscule drop. The hotness of the liquid chilled quickly, now frosty with arctic fingers, that one tear shed from skin lightly trailing down Teresa's cheek. Her eyes broadened as she felt the slight warmth it gave her as it strolled downward to its plummet. Icy prison bars halted their glacial tremble of desperation as all nerves seemed to calm – replaced by an immobile panic. The hot red drop seemed to seep into her skin, hitting her with more memories, whacking her against the head with a bag full of shards, times broken and forgotten until now. The shards fell like rain, and she, being the frozen stare, watched each one of them, peering into a fading past as they poured down. Violet eyes couldn't decide which direction to chisel in next. Iced teeth were sealed between two frostbit lips. The only motion was the soft trickle of violet hair against skin, fingers of the mist playing and curling it, keeping themselves busy as they dominated the afternoon sky.
The lit dagger remained there, still bound together by the enemy's arm by a long chain of determination. Trauma consumed and tightened around Teresa, a discolored hand of memory with sickening green fingers wrapping around her with long, dagger-like nails. Darkness surrounded them, and she had no one there – no friendships, no relations to break her out of it, no string connected to another person to pull her out. Outside her trance, mist continued onward. Birds fluttered blindly through the new sky, blackened, ashy wings of confusion leaving behind trails of softened, invisible feathers. More daggers similar to the first flung out from sleeves of the silhouette being, a horizontal downpour full of them. Daniel ducked and dodged eagerly, jumping backward as Kenneth followed. Kenneth, being the more daring one, quickly jumped to Teresa's aid, and tightly lifted her in tense, cold arms as the three rushed away into the mist, unseen. They had finally used to icy cover to their benefit. As they disappeared, a daggers eager and angry blade clattered against a metal rib and was deflected, the spot Teresa had been curled up against, bright lines called sparks coming out instantaneously, fading away as they tapped the ground with curious fingers.
A loud ping sounded through the forest, soon enveloped in the mist, eaten away by puffy blues, consuming all cries for help. The chains and daggers were reeled back inward towards the enemy, who began his normal pace again. Heavy chains dragged against the floor and rattled eerily, cries of past murders forgotten to be used. Sounds of scraping rust against dirt gave the fog a three course meal. "Running away again?" the voice muttered in amusement, arms swaying lightly with the absence of wind.
"What's with her?" Daniel muttered worriedly as he crouched against Teresa's frozen body, eyes broad with horror, teeth lightly clenched in a forgetful force. Forearms crossed each other in insecurity, toenails now blue with icy blood. Kenneth slowly laid Teresa's body against the trunk of a tree, where she continued to tremble again, now able to move ever so slightly from the distance created between her and the antagonist side. Her consciousness had been washed away, sleeping with her eyes open.
"I don't know," Kenneth answered as he brought himself back up to the feet, making perfectly sure that she was fine in the position he put her in. He brought a finger to his candle-like hair, feeling the not too long and not too shortness of it, the prickly blue strands stabbing the palm of his affectionate hand, demanding its horrid ugliness as a mate. "She's in some sort of trauma," Kenneth explained as the two watched her non stop trembling. "So what now?"
Daniel thought for a bit. His body still crouched towards Teresa, he wondered if he was getting a little too close. Was he disturbing her with his presence so near? There was no way to know. Anything they did, she would tremble to, an omni-dance for any song. Closed eyes in focus reopened themselves with enlightenment. Emerald green glimmered without light, not needing it at all. "We leave her here until she snaps out of it," Daniel concluded. Kenneth seemed surprised and a bit disgusted at the answer, displeased. "There's not much we could do now. Meanwhile, we'll get the enemy's attention away from this direction. We can't risk her life right now."
"Yeah," Kenneth agreed, changing his thoughts towards the plan. He knew his brother wouldn't let him down. "I'll go first. You think of what to do while I distract him," Kenneth suggested.
"That would be the clear thing to do, however…" Daniel's voice trailed off. A pure green curiosity glared at his older brother. A curious, confused stare dotted back. "I worry for your current physical condition. Are you really that okay after fighting Hyoumaru? If it weren't for me, you'd be…" he couldn't finish the sentence. He could bear to say the word at all.
"Don't worry about it. I'm perfectly fine now. Hyoumaru's an expert in medicine and herbs. He treated my wounds right after you made that miracle," Kenneth explained, using different terms to give comfort to his brother. The redhead sighed, and reluctantly agreed, turning his head away to face Teresa's fearful glare into space.
"Fine," he said unenthusiastically. Kenneth nodded, wondering if it really were "fine." "Be safe," Daniel insisted, knowing that those words wouldn't make a difference. More things to worry about piled on top of his conscience, burying it with anxiety. He watched with conscious green eyes as his brother's back disappeared into the mist, his blueness slowly fading into a tinier, tinier dot, until finally, he disappeared completely. The apparition figure's chains rattled in noticing. Daniel gulped at the sound, trying to shut it away with squinted eyes. If he won't be safe, I will, Daniel muttered as he flicked a finger towards his brother's route's direction, firing a tiny, invisible string of soul energy from his pointed index.
Kenneth ran past clouded shrubs and missed their heavy greenness, even though before all this happened, they were a sign of disgust and nausea. Grudged fingers of trees thick with hate were covered over, working for god to shame them with masks of puffy blue and sickly purple. The ground was clean with frost blue, chilling to his ankles and revealed forelegs, yet not chilling enough. His skin was hot with some nervous perspiration, heating his skin to a boil. The sun desperately tried to pierce the cold, yet it failed. The area of fog proved Apollo's prowess wrong. Suddenly he was stopped. He halted his eager steps and ducked just in time to dodge a swing of a chained dagger. The sound of snapping wood on a body of a despaired tree crackled the air and gave shivers shivers. A tiny slit was made as the pointed head dug into its greedy wrist. The chain bound them together was spiked with pointed thorns, a stem of a black, rusty rose with a petal-less bud.
Unable to regain energy in time, the apparition silhouette jumped from the rustled, misty bushes and reeled in a hard punch. It finally revealed its ugliness- discolored green hands as if it were a goblin carried heavy, long fingernails, fangs of their own almost. An old Asian hat of ghosts was donned on his head, hair tied back and unnoticed in the hateful mist. A crescent smile was claimed by evil, fake eyeholes of happiness, plaster mask caked by darkness and blood. Tiny moon slits called eyeholes of the mask glowed an eerie red as the body wore an ironically clean outfit, donning a kind of clothing Mark wore without the weights and extra long sleeves like Teresa. Gripped fist tight with anger and fake happiness, the punch reeled in longer, and as the light being neared, a cracking crash burned the mist.
Dust and pebbles erupted from the crash, clouding the two bodies in a curtain of finale. No winds were present to lift them and please the absent crowd. But no winds were needed now. With tiny, elongated wisps of dust clinging onto every aspect of his body, Kenneth was flung out from the rising cloud of dust and gray smoke, fingers of greedy, selfish dust wanting to overtake him tightly, yet failing as they sunk back to their conceited threshold. Kenneth landed on his feet, Geta slippers clicking the floor like a flick of a light switch lightly, nothing wrong with him but dust in parts of his Japanese old styled clothing, wounds either not there or invisible. He was completely unharmed, this amazed, blue haired boy, and he began to wonder why. I was dragged out of the smoke right after I dodged that punch, Kenneth told himself. But I didn't dodge it on my own will. I wasn't prepared to dodge, so why did I dodge?
Something inside him clicked, as if someone had shouldered him against the back lightly with the tiniest, microscopic shoulder ever created. Eyes widened in astonishment. I see, Kenneth thought in realization. Thank you, Daniel; he gave gratitude to his redhead brother.
Dust cleared eerily, whispering away with the mist and giving known presence to the waiting opponent standing, waiting for the smoke to clear, not the least bit intolerant of this fight at all. In fact, he decided to take his time. He wanted fun, after all, and he was very serious about his fun. "What's this?" its creepy, croaky voice asked. His sounds seemed ghastly as his low chains and slouched back gave an eerie hiss of threat. "A string? I see. You can't protect yourself so you have to be a puppet of your teammate?" the opponent asked mockingly, absentmindedly. "I understand now. So you're going to play serious with me. Then, in that case," the apparition-looking monster approached. "I shall play serious with you as well."
Quickly and invisibly, the opponent looked up, giving a spine-chilling glare as his silhouette began fading away. His sleeves were becoming blurred, bending rules of reality as his mask stretched and distorted horridly, until all the color faded away, and all was gone except the known presence of an invisible man. W-What? Kenneth thought as his eyes became broad with confusion. Daniel… what do I do now? he thought as if his brother could hear him.
I know, Daniel thought, as if knowing what Kenneth had been thinking. The strategic Minor had been watching over his brother's fight and Teresa at the same time, taking constant shifting glances between the two of them, one picture tense and mobile, the other the exact opposite – being lonely and panicky, as well as immobile. Just give me a moment, he begged of his brother through thoughts. This is dangerous, he thought to himself this time. All of us are vulnerable right now in different ways. I need a plan, and first thing's first. The safety of my brother.
It wasn't that Daniel didn't care for Teresa's safety, it was just that, Daniel, being the weaker and hidden one for all his life wanted to, repay, in a way his brother for being so kind and protective of him, and by believing that, it was an obligation for him to keep him from dying again. At this point, we can't see the opponent, Daniel figured. However, I still need to get Kenneth out without letting the enemy know our location. If I can sense his aura… Daniel peered to his brother, who was in a state of confusion. He looked around in desperation frantically, listening to the slight, tiny sounds the forest made and cooed, quickly glancing to the left, then right, to see if it had been the invisible, camouflaged ghostly opponent.
Emerald green eyes watched them, and slowly, their sight began to reverse properties. Black became white and white became black. Traces of a dark, enormous silhouette moved around slowly, as if sneaking on someone. Good! Daniel caught the presence of the rival. I can see it only a little, but it's the best I can do. Now for a plan…
Seconds later, an idea clicked in his head. Eyes glimmered in enlightenment despite the nonattendance of light. I got it! Daniel cried out with an invisible, soundless voice and immobile lips.
Back to Kenneth's watchful gaze, he kept his ears open and his eyes peeled. He had to take no chances whatsoever, or that could be the end of him. I don't know how much longer I can keep this up, Kenneth admitted to himself as he stared nervously in every direction constantly and randomly. Suddenly, a chain burst from thin air, and seeing it in the corner of his eye, Kenneth dodged to the right, letting the chained dagger strike the body of another greedy, selfish tree. The chain rattled as its bond swung like jump rope, becoming limp as its action slowed and died. Taking hold of the chain's heavy link, Kenneth charged his Half Spirit. Mist began to work for him instead of against him and the rusted metal of the chain became cooler and cooler as his fingers wrapped tight around it, making sure not to let go. With ice, I'll let him reveal his own position by freezing his outline, Kenneth planned with a mean, icy stare and grin to match.
Suddenly, immense pain burst from the frosty chain and forced Kenneth's hand away from it. Spikes seemed to erupt from them, extending their length like crazed unicorn horns, stabbing into the palm of his hand. Kenneth cried out as he quickly drew back his hand, watching the bubbles of blood disperse into air unnaturally. No wound? Kenneth thought as he watched, interest piqued, at his uninjured hand. No cuts, no scrapes showed themselves. Not even a scratch was there to show its malice! It made no sense to Kenneth. He was sure he had felt a hell-stabbing pain just a second ago. What happened? "Naïve child," the invisible voice said as the chain drew itself back in into nothingness. "No matter how hard you try, you cannot beat my spiritual energy attacks. They are unstoppable."
"So you use internal damage other than external," Daniel said, revealing his presence out of nowhere, having the dumber claim. Wasn't it? Daniel rose from the bushes, as he gained a piece of information, an answer to one of his many questions. His crossed arms were careless as his emerald stare was narrowed in an unforgiving leer. His legs were straight as he stood, not caring for the vulnerability he gave off, catching the enemy's stare in actual invisibility.
"That's right," the voice came from all directions, no presence or body present to give it off. "You're pretty brave for coming out like that," the voice boomed again, godly.
"Daniel!" Kenneth cried out in a narrow, puzzled stare. What was he planning? Why did he just give away his location like that again? He can't be doing the same thing he did last time with that disk-shield girl, can he?
Daniel gave a cold, hard stare to Kenneth, and then peered to the aura only present to him. It was easily interpreted that his emerald stare meant "shut up." Crossed arms gripped themselves tighter meanly. Kenneth backed away, his lips sealed together, somewhat ashamed and somewhat mad, angry. "What's the matter?" he asked to the invisible aura in Kenneth's eyes. Kenneth wondered how he could see the apparition. "Aren't you going to attack me?" Daniel provoked. Kenneth was about to say something else, but another glare told him to shut his mouth.
A voice from all directions scoffed, as if amplified. "That'd be just a waste of energy, wouldn't it?" the voice asked, looking underneath the trick. Kenneth became more confused.
"So you figured it out," Daniel's voice came from another direction this time. The lips of the first one did not move and faded away into nothingness, this time, unlike the opponent, dusting itself away into uselessness instead of camouflage. The real Daniel rose from the opposite side of bushes, away from the first one. His pose was the same, arms crossed tensely and securely, legs straight as he stood, eyes narrowed to a somewhat similar shape to a triangle, green eyes stabbing to the mist, yet not piercing. "You can easily tell what's made of spiritual energy and what's not. However," Daniel began. "This battle ends. Now." An invisible, amused smile grew.