The Dream Shifter

Chapter 14

"This isn't a perfect fix. He'll still feel tired from the loss of blood and weakness from the mending, but otherwise he'll be fine in a few days." Ayumi started to stand up, but was held in place by a hand. The two girls looked down in surprise to see that Yuki had awakened.

"Yuki!" Saki said glad to see him moving again.

"What happened?" he said slowly looking to Ayumi for answers. His mouth felt dry and rough for some reason and his body was stiff, but everything else in his mind seemed a little hazy. He kept a tight hold on her unknowingly.

"You had me worried."

Yuki looked over finally feeling someone else touching him and seeing that it was Saki's hand against his chest and her leaning in closely at him. 'Saki!' He would have leapt up in surprise if he could get his body to move. "What are you doing here, Saki?"

Relieved or not, it was an insulted to her and Saki could not hold herself back as her left hand moved on its own to punch Yuki in the head.

"What was that for?" Yuki said in shock holding the top of his head in pain feeling like he was suddenly forgetting something important. He looked inquisitively at both girls wanting some answers that were apparently missing.

Saki stood up leaning down over top of him nearly shouting through his ear. "What do you mean 'What was that for'? What do you mean 'What are you doing here, Saki?'?" She was breathing heavily after her little tirade on a still confused and puzzled Yuki. It seemed to fall in deaf ears and she dropped to the ground resigning. "You feel alright?"

"Huh?" He pulled up his hand from rubbing his pained head to look at it. Yuki was not completely certain what they were talking about, but it was covered in blood as was the rest of him and the ground. 'This is mine…what happened here? What am I not remembering?' Then there was a flash in his mind as the blood seemed to trigger something inside him. 'I-I was attacked…' He looked over across the ground to see a body lying in the grass sitting in its own pool of blood. 'I-I…did I die?' Yuki pulled himself up letting go of Ayumi, but almost fell over if Saki had not caught him.

"Yuki? You need to take it easy." Saki pulled his arm over her shoulder to give him support so that he could walk with her. There was a look in his eyes that she could see through telling her that he needed something. "What is it?" She looked back forward seeing where his gaze was held. Saki put her arm around his waist lifting him up a little and began walking forward. Eventually, they came to a stop in front of the body of the assassin that had been trying to kill Yuki.

Yuki remembered everything that had happened with the final piece put in front of him. It had all blurred in his mind with the blood loss and adrenaline that was pumping through him. However, he did not look like that same man that had been attacking him before. The face was the same, but his clothes were not same. The man before them was almost formal looking with what appeared to be fine pressed white dress slacks and a white cloth that tied at the waist on the front and back held at the right shoulder. The cloth at the right shoulder was tied close by a copper clasp with a flat circular disc that looked like an insignia or badge with an outer ring divided into five segments. There were two segments colored red while the remaining three held the plain copper material of the clasp. "Who was he this assassin?" Yuki looked back to Ayumi who finally decided catch up with them.

"An assassin from those that wish you dead." Ayumi knelt down to look at the body pulling the clasp off the bloodied clothes. She showed it to the two of them. "This was a low ranking soldier from his uniform. Just out of the academy."

"Low ranking? How do you know just from that?"

Ayumi pointed at the man's clothes and then back to the clasp that she held. "This is our military uniform. So I know he is from my homeland and this may look like nothing to you, but this metal shows rank. The first red bar means that he would be in the academy and the second you get after graduation. He probably got pulled up quickly for having some talent and sent on this mission. Probably didn't even know why. So they are sending the pawns first." Ayumi seemed to get distracted by internal thoughts leaving the others to look at each other still feeling confused.

"Pawns?" Yuki looked down at the body thinking back to the struggle that he had. It was so intense at that moment that he was certain he would die. The man seemed to be so strong and powerful beyond anything that he could even possible hold up against. 'But this was just a pawn…someone out of the academy…that means there are others even stronger than him. And they all want me dead…' Yuki could feel a black empty void forming around him as he slowly let the thought sink into him. This was nothing like his manga; this was real. His entire body began to shake and sweat from the fear.

Saki had begun to pick up on Yuki and tried to redirect the focus away from what was troubling him. "Ayumi. What happened to his clothes from before? He wasn't wearing this when I saw you fighting him." It seemed to have worked a little on Yuki warming up the distant gaze in his eyes.

Ayumi looked up at Saki still looking partially somewhere else. "Oh, this is what he was actually wearing the entire time. But when he used this power it altered his appearance to what he wanted. Since he is dead that power is gone and the illusion is as well."

"Oh I see. I remember seeing you do that too. Is that the same thing?"

"Correct."

"What is this power?"

At the top of the school a dark figure looked down at the three students gathered around a dead body. The sunlight at their back kept their features blinded from view, but they remained knelt down keeping mostly out of sight. "Hmm…he failed. A guardian, huh? This will be more challenging. I'll have to wait until the guardian is separated…"

Countless thoughts were spinning around Yuki's head. He had been on the verge of death, told that he was an heir to some land that he did not know existed, had sealed powers like what he saw displayed before and brought back to life with no scratches. Even with Saki's attempts at distraction was not enough to pull Yuki up from his deep pensive expression pulling him away from reality. He was pretty sure that he heard Ayumi speaking, but all he could hear any more was a dull noise as though he was underwater. Reality was fantasy and fantasy was reality now and nothing made any sense to him. Yuki began to walk forward leaving the two girls behind making it to the other corner of the school before they realized.

"Hey, Yuki!" Saki said interrupting Ayumi in an explanation that was meant for Yuki. The two of them rushed after Yuki catching up to him quickly, but it was hardly that difficult seeing as he was barely walking. "Yuki? Ayumi saying something important I think." Saki stood in front of him putting her hands on his shoulders to stop him seeing that he was not listening to her from behind. "You need to listen. I don't understand everything going on right now, but this sounds serious." Yuki turned his head away darkening the shadow over his eyes making Saki pull her head back a little confused. She would have thought this would be exactly what he would want with how much his head was in the clouds about his manga.

Yuki lifted up his left arm pushing her arm away with his and stepped around her. "We've got class soon. Lunch is almost over." His voice was almost too quiet to hear as he started walking again.