The Dream Shifter

Chapter 143

Katsu picked up on Haruo and turned to face him looking a little disappointed while also pleased as well. "So it would seem. Though I'm more interested in that friend of yours than you right now. He's made a fool of my g**g far too many times already! Besides I'm still waiting for that expression on your face when I kill him!"

"You'll have to settle for me. This between you and me."

A sigh escaped Katsu's lips listening to Haruo. He shook his head disappointed with him still not understanding what was going on. "You don't get it. You can't pick who is and isn't involved! If they know you they're involved! It's simple as that and I will have my fun!"

"I guess it's a good thing I'm so entertaining then!" Yuki inserted, appearing seated on the wall casually making himself seen. 'I'm sorry Haruo, but I can't do nothing! I can't let you do this alone as much as you want too! This has gone far beyond a simple street fight.'

"Still can talk back with that wound huh?" Katsu grinned deliciously in anticipation. It took him another moment to realize that Haruo was all better, since he had not actually seen most of what happened to him by Akihiro. "Thought Hiro sliced you up good, kid?"

"I've got a doctor's touch," shrugged Yuki in response.

"I've gotta scalpel ya can borrow then!" shouted Akihiro from across the property behind Yuki. A knife burst from the top of the wall near to Yuki speeding straight for him. When it was about to stab Yuki though the knife snapped in two flying away and embedding into the ground. The break caught Akihiro by surprise, but he insisted on trying again. This time he threw a dozen blades at him all the size of swords and yet none of them could touch Yuki. Each of the swords shattered just before impact and fell useless to the ground. "What?! That's impossible!"

"Now there's some stock dialogue!" Yuki cheerfully exclaimed jumping down from the wall. "You're going to need to work on your goons some more. Even they're sounding like a cliché now!" He bared a wide smirk seeing how they were still trying to figure out what Yuki had done.

Katsu had become further concerned by the abilities being displayed by Yuki. The things that he was seeing were no longer starting to add up. "You're more than just a really good illusionist. What are you?"

"I thought I told you to stay hidden and let me deal with this," inserted Haruo becoming annoyed by Yuki's disregard.

A brief shift of Yuki's eyes made it to Haruo when he spoke, but tried to stay focused on the real problem. He knew that he could afford to disappoint Haruo if it meant everyone came out of the fight alive. "Wouldn't you like to know? As I said before, I'm complicated. So let's leave it at that!" Yuki gave a secretive wink at Katsu to close the question off.

Being shut down had hardly fazed Katsu as he retorted with another one of his invisible attacks. The wind seemed to blow up with the attack pushing back their clothes just prior to Yuki's left arm being slice through throwing blood behind him. Next to Haruo there was a shattering sound as the tiger suddenly turned into particles and disappeared from this side.

Yuki gasped briefly in surprise to see that Katsu's attack made it through his defenses and Haruo's animal was easily defeated. 'He can still hit me?! How strong is he?!'

Yuki gasped briefly in surprise to see that Katsu's attack made it through his defenses and Haruo's animal was easily defeated. 'He can still hit me?! How strong is he?!' He knew that he had focused his defenses to block whatever that Katsu might have thrown at him. It may not have been as strong as he used against Demosthenes, but he did not think that Katsu would have been so strong. 'I still couldn't even see the attack! What am I supposed to do?!'

Across from Yuki out in the middle of the street unprotected was Haruo having become more concerned about his position. 'The animal's just gone… Was it my fault?' He tightened his hands trying to find a way to focus on what he had lost. The empty feeling had filled in the strange connection that he had been sensing coursing through his body. It was clear that there was no calling it back. 'How do I make this work?'

"Well if you're both going to stand there like idiots…" began Katsu just prior to another attack.

Alerted to what was going to happen Yuki went into his backup plan that he had prepared. The problem was he did not know where it was going to be hitting or how wide of an attack. All he had to guess on was the previous unseen attacks. 'I guess more than better than less!' A thick concrete wall grew out of the ground splitting the grass and earth coming between Katsu and Yuki as well as Haruo. Just in time there was a solid thud against the wall putting a little c***k in the surface.

The moment that he had bought for them gave him time to take a breath. "That was close!"

Chapter 83 – Working Alone as a Team

Yuki leaned against the wall in his break, however another pound of an attack from the other side restarted his drive. "How am I supposed deal with this invisible attack?" There were several more strikes against the wall causing cracks to appear on his side. A pebble from the developing splits dropped on Yuki's head. 'This wall won't hold for long, but at least he seems determined to take it down rather than going around it…'

The cut on Yuki's arm began to throb as the adrenaline started to fade a little. Yuki checked it to see how bad he was doing. "It's pretty shallow, redirecting some of the energy should patch it up." Soon the bleeding from his upper arm came to a stop leaving his bare arm with blood dripping down to his hand.

A sudden sharp but weak strike to Yuki's head made him jump in surprise nearly clearing the wall. "I must have bad luck running across the girly boy!" grumbled an annoying high pitched voice that was unfortunately familiar.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" Yuki shouted back at the fairy not even noticing that it was the fairy until a moment later. "Hey! You're…" It was then that he became a little depressed knowing that he was going to have to deal with her again.

"Pathetic as always…"

Yuki grabbed the fairy quickly with his good arm and brought her close to his face to glare at her. "All you ever are doing is putting me down! I don't have time for your attitude right now!" He tossed her aside back into the air no longer wanting to deal with her. The more pressing matter for him was figuring out a way to deal with the power of Katsu. It was made all the more necessary with another blast carving out a corner of the wall.

He stepped back to examine the wall. The last piece that had been taken out looked clean and sharp. It was the same feeling he had from the wounds. They were always fast and straight with a lot of control. There was still one thing that puzzled him besides not being able to see the attack. Yuki stared at the wall for a moment trying to understand it. "How can he break through the wall and my defenses so close to me? I know he's no where the strength of Demosthenes. I should be stronger! How can his Kasou-ryoku be over coming mine?!"

"You really are an i***t," commented the fairy again having never left. She floated over Yuki's left shoulder letting her very long blonde hair swirl like she was underwater around her.

"Shut up! I don't need to hear it from you!"

The fairy shrugged her shoulders at Yuki when he glared back at her. "You'll never see it the way you are now…"

"What are you talking about?" The arrogance from the little girl was really starting to get on Yuki's nerves. 'I'll never see it? What's she getting it? What aren't I seeing…his attacks? She can see his attacks?' Yuki shook his head trying to focus and get the fairy's words out of his mind. All she was doing to him was making it more difficult to concentrate as was made even more apparent by a large piece of the wall being cleaved away. "Damn! Stop talking to me! I can't focus with your chattering!"

Yuki turned back to the wall to give it his full attention. 'Why'd she have to show up now?!' A restored focus had slowed down the wall's destruction, but it still was only a matter of time. He had to hide in small parts as Katsu was continuing to chip away from it. The fairy was still hovering around the area even in silence bothering him with mere proximity. 'I thought I had more control over my powers! She's only appeared when I couldn't control it… So she's here now? I know I didn't put it into the laws…' He tried to drop her out of his field like he would anything else that he did not need, but she was still present. It made it clear to him that she was not a part of his field. 'She's a part of the world now? So she's just like all of the crazy stuff I brought into existence… It's all real…'

"It's all real…" The words echoed in Yuki's mind as he spoke him. There was something that he had been missing. He could feel it now. "It's all real!" Yuki jumped up looking at the wall and catching a small glimpse of Katsu on the other side. "It's all real, even his powers!" He slapped his palm to his face in his grudging moment of clarity.

"Told you were an i***t!"

"Quiet you! I've been attacked by people with the same power as me up until now! I'm not used to this where it is actually real!"

"Sounds like an excuse to me…"

Another thought came to his realization in the next moment. "I've never fought anyone that doesn't have a field!" There was a second where he feared that unknown realm. 'But I guess if I think about it…it just means I'll never have to worry about my attacks weakening from clashing fields! Though I won't also be able to dampen his attacks either…' The longer than he thought about it the more fears that came into his mind. He was already seeing the results of what could happen. It continued to mount in his mind.

Haruo was held down trying to understand his power through all of the confusion. The shattering sound that he had heard before when Katsu attacked his tiger played through his mind. None of it made a lot of sense to him, the supposed power he had or even what Katsu was doing. 'Was it some sort of ghost or incorporeal animal? But if it was then how could Katsu destroy it and how could it interact with the physical world?' There were just too many questions that he had unanswered. He needed it to happen again, but he could not remember how it had happened. He could not even remember when it happened. It was just a faded image in his mind when it seemed like was dying. '...I…I…was just…so…desperate…'

A faint voice or sound suddenly was calling out to him. He ignored in the mist of his thoughts not being able to discern it from his own voice. However, the beckoning continued until it became a feeling that turned into a dull poking in his head. It would not stop no matter how hard he tried to concentrate. Haruo looked around him sensing that there was something close by that was important. 'What is it? It's around here…' Down between the grass rested shattered pieces in the dirt was a part of pot. He picked up the pieces looking at them in his palm. 'Why is this familiar?' Suddenly the pieces glowed faintly a pure white light before disappearing.

Haruo dropped the pieces sharply out of reaction, but an odd warmth seemed to persist in his palm from where they had rested. It had felt like it belonged to him somehow. He could not understand the feeling that he was having from it. 'What was that? What's happening to me?'