The Dream Shifter

Chapter 139

The teacher managed a brief moment of fortitude to hold together while being threatened. "It doesn't matter. I can't let children be hurt because of something that's my fault."

"Got a noble streak in you, huh?"

"It's nothing to do with being noble! It's the right thing to do! If I have to be hurt so that Yoneda isn't that's fine with me."

"So you're self sacrificing huh?" He stepped away from the small group as ideas began to swirl around. A moment in pause had come to Katsu as he gave it some consideration. There were certain factors that he had to weigh against each other. He knew what he wanted so it was just matter of doing whatever it took to get the results. The thought was very tempting for him knowing that it would make Haruo suffer. He had just planned on beating up Yuki to make his point, but another example was worth it possibly.

Haruo tried to work himself around the teenagers that were assaulting him. He could do little, but he had to make his voice heard. 'I can't allow him to do this. It must only be me.' In the brief lull between attacks he managed to get an opening. "Just stay still. I'll handle this. This is my problem, not yours Mr. Asanuma." Even in the urgency Haruo had difficult providing any emotion or volume to his voice. It barely was able to reach them.

"Two selfless acts, looks like you're in a stalemate. Guess it's up to me to break it." Katsu turned towards the teacher and began to walk over to the three boys holding him still. He signaled the teens to give him a little room as he approached. There was well placed fear in the teacher's eyes as Katsu grabbed him by his shirt collar.

"Katsu leave him alone. He's not involved. I'm the only one you need to do anything to."

Katsu held on to the collar, but turned to look over at Haruo. He grinned a little with a knowing look in his eyes. "So naïve still. The moment I grabbed him it stopped only being your problem. You should know that by now."

"You said—"

"Yes I did, but it wasn't a promise. I can change my mind at any moment I want." He pulled back his free arm taking time to decide where he was going to make the first punch land. "And I'm changing my mind now!" Katsu had let his fist fly the moment he finished. The grin was still painted heavily on his mouth taking great pleasure from what was going to happen next.

A cracking of bone echoed around them as the fist plowed into the face. In the next moment it sent them to the ground laid out trailing a bit of blood from a split lip. Katsu looked very pleased as he pulled back, but that all changed when saw that Mr. Asanuma was unharmed. His expression instantly twisted in confusion searching for the person that he had taken out. Buried deep in the grass was one of the g**g members that had been holding the teacher. "What just happened?" Katsu glared back at the pale looking man. "What did you just do?" Anger from having taken one of his own out charged his arm once more to strike the teacher.

"I did this!" mocked a familiar voice unseen like they were going about a demonstration.

One of the two remaining boys collided with Katsu fist once more laying the kid out quickly. Katsu franticly looked about becoming paranoid. "What's going on?!"

"Just some restless spirits!"

A loud thud of a shoe hitting the remaining boy bounced from nowhere. The teen fell away leaving Mr. Asanuma freed. Katsu tried to make a grab for the teacher before he escaped, but felt an invisible hand take hold of his wrist. "It's you the skinny kid! Isn't it?!" He ripped his wrist free and stepped back trying to collect himself.

In front of Katsu appeared Yuki grinning to himself. "See this is why you're the villain, you figure things out quickly. Now that the old man's free we can get down to good old fashion street fighting!" Yuki shifted into an attacking stance staring down Katsu with anticipation.

The entire field ran still for a moment when Yuki revealed himself out of the shadows. The three boys that had been taken out moaned about in the grass. Mr. Asanuma ran off away from anything that threatened him or made more trouble for Haruo and Yuki. The stunning reversal of the situation had everyone confused.

Takaoka looked across the grass field utterly confused by what was going on. He could see Yuki smirking a few steps away from Katsu. However, there was Yuki at his feet bruised and beaten in the dirt. The other teens with him looked around at each other trying to figure out the two Yukis that were present. "Which one's the real one?"

One of the boys kicked the Yuki lying on the ground. There was a groan from Yuki as he took the blow and coughed from the pain. "Uh, this one, boss?"

"He must be real!"

"Yea, he screams when hurt!"

"And we can kick 'im!"

Doubt was building in Takaoka as he stared longer. "Then how'd he take out our boys?" He stared over at the other Yuki seeing their hostage disappearing out of sight. "It doesn't make any sense!"

"Maybe he has a twin?" one of the punks suggested.

Takaoka reached out and whacked him in the head for such a stupid idea. "i***t!"

"Maybe they're both real, boss!"

"It's a trick…I know it!" Takaoka clinched his fist in frustration for being made a fool of. He became so distracted in his questions that he did not immediately hear a punch being thrown behind him. It took him till the second punch and a groan from one of his boys to alert him. Takaoka turned around quickly to see what was happening. "What the—" Yuki's fist interrupted him before he could finish his stupid question forcing him back a few steps to catch his balance.

The Yuki that had been on the ground had taking the time spared him to recover enough to return to the fight. And since he was no longer restrained by the hostage there was no holding back. "You should talk less and fight more! It makes you look stupid!"

"Why you!" Takaoka charged back into the fray with Yuki. The remaining members of his g**g regrouped to assist him.

The standoff with Katsu and Yuki held with Katsu's smug look having disappeared with his hostage. He was not enjoying the situation any longer. The kid was making a fool of him and his g**g. It was a fact that started a slow burn in his body. Mounting frustration at his plan falling apart had him tightening his hands. He was very much beginning to hate the cocky arrogance of Yuki. "What sort of mockery is this?"

"Oh! Mockery, huh? Pulling out the big vocabulary for me." Yuki carefully watched the scene and taking in the surroundings, specifically Haruo. It seemed that once Haruo realized that his teacher was safe the beaten stopped. The fight had evened out. "Guess that's why you make the big bucks as the villain, huh?"

Katsu ground his teeth together shifting his jaw in anger. The mocking tone from Yuki was only making Katsu angrier and he knew it. "You've got quite the mouth on yourself…kid…"

Yuki grinned looking like he was enjoying the moment. "I seem to remember you enjoying a lively banter!"

"So what are you?" Katsu demanded, trying to steer the conversation back. He narrowed his eyes trying to find any hint of what might be the truth behind what he did.

"Me? I'm complicated."

"That was more than a simple illusion."

"You're right there." Yuki raised up his hand with his index finger extended like he was checking the man a correct answer. "Do you want to know?"

It made Katsu think for a moment as he got a piece of the puzzle to Yuki. There was only one answer that he had and he was not liking what it could mean. "Are one of those people with special powers that I've been hearing about?"

The clapping of Yuki's hands punctuated the tension building in the air. "You're close. But if you think I've just gained my powers recently like everyone else then you're mistaken."

"Now you're lying kid! It wasn't until this city got turned into hell along with the country that people got powers."

Yuki shook his head back and forth slowly like he was disappointed in the man. "You shouldn't be calling people's liars when you don't understand everything."

"What are you talking about?"

"Let's just say I was carrying the hand basket."

"Huh?"

Yuki's hand waved dismissively at Katsu. "It's of little importance to you." He might have been making light of the situation, but Yuki was struggling with the words. It was still too soon for him to forget what he had caused, however he needed to maintain his composure. A snap of his thoughts redirected his concentration to get his mind off the subject. "You wanted to know how I did that little trick, right?" Yuki read the grinding of teeth from Katsu to see that had the tension wound tightly. "How about I do it in the form of a flashback!"

Katsu eyes had widened in surprise. He was taken off guard by the sudden change in mood from Yuki. It felt like he was unable to stand any longer with all of the strings cut. The tension in his body had been so perfectly tuned. He quickly managed to recover though at the thought of a flashback. "No! Anything but that!" There was a moment of Katsu having broken out of his character looking unusually ridiculous, but he corrected himself. "Besides…it'd be a little strange to have a flashback of a minute ago."

Pretending to be absentminded, Yuki had looked up to the sky to think about what Katsu said. He turned back down pulling away his hand that he was using to think from his face. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Who'd do a flashback of a minute ago, that is pretty silly. Well then guess we'll just have to talk it out." Yuki grinned to Katsu like he was preparing something in his mind.

Yuki pointed across the grass street at Takaoka and his g**g that were trying to fight the other Yuki. "It was because of your g**g over there, you should thank them. You see they were really easy to get provoked." He recalled the beating that he was taking from Takaoka before. Yuki had been taunting them wanting to be hit hard. "I had a plan, but in order for it to work I needed to create a lot of confusion so they weren't concentrating too hard. I wanted to swap myself out with a fake, but doing it while being held down would have been very difficult to pull off unnoticed."

Takaoka had become so angry with Yuki that he had been unable to see straight. He just wanted to shut Yuki up, exactly what he needed. "It happened when I was kicked by your villain wannabe over there." When Yuki was being tossed backwards into the grass he activated his Kasuo-ryoku. During the beating he was able to recall what Demosthenes had done in his fight and knew he could make it work with the right setup. "So while I hit the grass and they thought I was just tumbling about I activated my power. I put a stand in for myself while I turned invisible."

Katsu was not liking story time by Yuki. He had figured Yuki for being an i***t kid with talent in fighting. He did not like hearing that he was able to conceive a plan and execute it perfectly while being attacked. There was one problem though he had with the story. "Even if you're invisible I would have seen the grass moving as you approached! It doesn't add up!"

Another disappointed doubting clicking came from Yuki. He had let out a small sigh as he knew that he was going to have to explain even that part to him. "How disappointing, thinking so flat. Bet you're used to fighting in dark alleys and large fields. So cliché…" Yuki moved his hand to point over towards the property walls that bordered the street they were in on either side. "It's pretty simple to avoid being seen if you're not on the ground." After Yuki had made his switch he was able to break through the chaos and scale the wall. He used it as his new path and ran down it getting around behind everyone. "Can't see things behind you very well. After that it was pretty easy to do the rest, especially with the good timing by the old man. Figured I was just going to have to take them out myself, didn't think I'd be able to use you to take out your own men. But thanks for the hand!"