The Dream Shifter

Chapter 75

The path that was left behind by Yuki and the girl became more present as there was a trash bin over turned. There was glass broken and spread across the area along with trampled flowers and broken branches. Saki no longer needed the voices with the path of destruction being enough to follow. All the voices did was giving her an indication of how far she was away from them. She was almost on them she could tell as the last bush between them was being reached.

Her legs carried her through the bush breaking through with twigs and leaves attached as she shouted out, "Yuki!" An extended leg intended for Yuki just after Saki came through forced her to bring up her arms to block and push away the attack protecting Yuki.

The attacker, as Saki discovered, was a young girl from a local middle school by the uniform that she was wearing. 'Why is a middle schooler attacking Yuki?' She did not look like an assassin, but Yuki had told her about the child that attacked Ayumi yesterday that turned out to be an adult woman in disguise. So she was not going to take any chances with this girl. She pushed the leg off of her making the girl jump back to reassess her position. "Yuki…" Saki said turning around to face him. However, her voice was cut off when she found that it was not Yuki behind her, but a stranger wearing her high school's uniform. "You're not…"

Saki jumped back taking a position away from the both of them looking questioningly at him. 'What's going on here? This isn't an assassin… So why is a middle schooler picking a fight with someone that is three times her size…' When she looked at the two students it was immediately clear the difference between the two. The girl was significantly shorter than either of them about average for someone her age and very thin, though surprisingly strong and agile from the kick that Saki blocked. The boy looked to be about Saki's age and just a little taller than her, but the difference came to his build. The student was very solidly built filling out a large uniform with a very muscular build. It was not overly developed, but it would be an understatement to say that he had some muscles.

The male student had been running away from the girl from the sounds that Saki had heard, but it was clear that the way he was built that it would not have been an issue the girl attacking him. 'Is the girl stronger than she looks or is it the guy?' Saki did not have much time to ask herself anymore questions as the girl launched into another attack on the boy seeing that Saki was not going to be doing anything.

However, Saki could not let the fight continue seeing that the boy was just getting out of the way of the girl not interested in fighting. He was not making any sounds, but it was clear enough that he was not going to indulge the girl in her wish. "Stop it! Stop fighting!" Saki hoped that it would get the girl's attention, but it was only brief and in the middle of her next attempt.

"Don't get in my way! He's mine!" the girl said refusing to back down.

Saki was also not going to take 'no' for an answer and stepped in between the two taking the high kick pulled down and blocking it with her arms crossed. The girl jumped back seeing that she was interrupted again. Saki was off balanced by the blow, but kept her footing. 'The girl's got strength and speed…'

"What're you trying doing?" the girl shouted venomously at Saki becoming angry that her fight had been stopped once more by an outsider.

Saki lowered her arms still feeling the sting from the kick. "Why are you picking a fight with someone that doesn't want to fight with you?"

" 'Cause he's strong!"

Saki blinked and took a moment to repeat it in her head. 'Unbelievable, she's picking a fight with a stranger based on looks.' She was not going to let some bully going around attacking people for such a ridiculous reason. "What?! You can't be serious!"

The look changed in the girl's eye like something in her mind had just switched tracks. She took an offensive stance staring down Saki with a serious glare that had its intent clearly painted across them. "You look like someone that's strong! Let's see how strong you are!" The girl leapt into the air with her leg already in motion bearing forward on the surprised Saki.

The girl flew through the air launching her entire self at Saki so fast that Saki did not know what to think. She wanted to shout out to the girl, but it was already beyond words at this point for the girl. There was only one intention with her and that was to fight Saki. As the girl got into the air and pulled her leg around from behind adding spin to it as she turned, Saki could only raise her arms up block the incoming kick bracing for the impact.

Saki was able to take the blow keeping her head safe, but it knocked her off her feet throwing her into the bushes that she had just ran out of a minute before. The girl landed on the ground lightly watching and waiting to see what became of Saki.

'I didn't even do anything!' Saki was poked and stabbed by the bush that she was lying in holding her position for the moment trying to find a way to deal with the problem. She had seen the middle schooler attacking the boy without mercy and expected it to be no different for her, but she did not understand the reason. It seemed so pointless to want to fight just for the sake. '…Yuki…' The word rush her head recalling memories and feelings forcing her back to her feet to stare down the girl, hair a little worse for wear. "What's your problem?"

"What's your problem? I can tell that barely even hurt you and yet you lay there in the bushes wasting my time." The girl threw a straight, easy to block, punch at Saki like she was testing her rather than trying to do harm. "You know how to fight, but you're wasting it defending yourself. Fight me for real!"

Saki felt the punch vibrate through her arm even though she blocked it with an open palm. She shook her head at the girl in disappointment. Afterwards, she lowered her body down and used her shoulder to push the girl back clearing the distance between them. "You don't understand the meaning of having strength!"

The girl slid and stepped back as she was thrown free of Saki. She sprinted back launching a high kick towards Saki's head. "No, you don't get it! Strength is wasted if you don't keep it sharp! You have to push your limits!" Saki blocked the kick and grabbed her leg keeping her from going anywhere. However, the battle hungry girl was not taking it as a failure as she pushed herself into air throwing her body into Saki bringing up her arm to strike down at Saki's face.

The punch thrown was evaded with the tilt of her head and partially releasing the girl from her grasp, but Saki still felt the sting from the edge of the hand passing her cheek. 'The girl's crazy and completely closed minded. I can't get through to her!' Saki let the momentum of the girl's body carry her through and let her go into the grass landing on one knee staring up at Saki. The mix of anger and pleasure from a challenge seemed to be interwoven on the girl's face as she launched for another attack.

"Thank you, sir!" the cashier at the local bookstore said to Yuki as he hauled away his load of manga in his arms.

He smiled back to her and nodded lifting his books up a little to get them back into position on him. "No, thank you! I've been looking for several of these in tankoubon, but they've been sold out." Yuki left the store with a very wide grin on his face pleased to have plenty of reading material for the week. However, he looked around the sidewalk outside looking for an angry upset Saki and found none. He was supposed to meet with Saki outside of the bookstore ten minutes ago, but he lost track of time in the store. When he realized that he was late he rushed to get his purchases, but now she was nowhere to be found. "Where's she gone? She said to meet here I know… She didn't get tired of waiting and leave did she?" Yuki looked around the sidewalk and across the street once more with no more luck in finding her. "No, she wouldn't leave. If anything she'd just barge into the store and pull me out by my collar without letting me pay."

The image of Saki looking impatient and angry storming through the bookstore played through his mind. It made him laugh a little to himself knowing how often it had happened that he had lost his purchases because she did not want to wait on him any longer. Unfortunately, the mood turned sour when he pictured himself getting dragged out of the store losing all of the manga that he had in his arms. He tightened his hold on his books reflexively. "…scary…"

Yuki took a few steps around the bookstore trying not to go too far away knowing that he had a lot to carry and preferred not to run the risk of ruining them. "Saki! Saki!" However, he was not finding any sign of her nearby. "Where'd she go? Saki?" Yuki stood around for another minute thinking to himself and weighing the choices that he had. The decision soon came when he was distracted by a noise and murmuring of a crowd across the street that were stopping as they passed by trying to figure out what was going on in the park.

"Huh? What's going on over there?" He shifted the weight of his manga and made his way to the crosswalk nearby at the intersection. It was a longer way around, but he did not want to run across the street with the precious cargo in his arms. When he arrived the crowd had shrank some, but it was still gathering people with curiosity. He leaned over to a businessman that had stopped for a while looking confused. "Do you know what's going on?"

"No, there's just some strange noises coming from there like someone's breaking the park."

"Has anyone gone in there?"

"No, not that I saw."

A woman that had been there longer corrected the man speaking up to Yuki. "I saw a teenage girl go in there a while ago, but I haven't seen her since."