The Dream Shifter

Chapter 92

"I'd think that was obvious, Yuki," Ayumi said with additional emphasis on his name.

Being cryptic was not something new for Yuki, but he wanted a straight answer. He turned around staring down the poorly lit street at Ayumi. "Explain it to me," he demanded. His eyes were narrowing and face wrinkling in frustration that only Ayumi could cause him. "I don't want some riddle from you! I want the truth!"

"I've already given you the truth. How many times to I have to repeat myself?" She finally turned her head to look back at him.

"I said stop with the riddles. Just get to the point, Ayumi!"

"You're weak, Yuki! You can't control your powers. They control you. It's no way to fight. So I'm left with no choice but deal with the assassins myself. You're incapable of protecting yourself."

Yuki jerked back feeling stunned by Ayumi's words. He had heard them before, but there was something different in the tone and feeling that left him frozen in reaction. 'She's been taking on the assassins? Is that why there hasn't been very many? All this time…' The atmosphere seemed to be stifling for him feeling the eyes of Ayumi on him.

'You're incapable of protecting yourself!' her words echoed through his mind harder than anything else she had lectured and berated him about before. He had never really thought of himself as being defenseless since his powers awakened. There was the fear of death that he had tasted before, but he had managed to survive because his powers were there when he needed them. Yuki did not know what to think hearing it.

He did not want to hear it. All she could do was look down on him and point out his flaws. Her words repeated endlessly in his ears as mocking spirits that never left him. She was never going to be able to see as anything more than a failure.

'No…' Yuki snapped back to himself. He narrowed his eyes once more staring back at Ayumi. Ayumi's echoing was fading out of mind for Yuki. 'I have to show her! I'm not a failure! I can protect myself!' A determined looked formed in his eyes as he clinched his fists. "I don't need you to protect me!"

Ayumi returned his glare with one that almost seemed amused by his stubbornness. She had only raised her eyes for a moment before it was gone once more. "You don't stand a chance without me," she said flatly.

It only seemed to make Yuki even more angry hearing her voice. He was tired of the way that she treated him. "Stop treating me like a child!"

"Grow up and maybe I will."

"What are you talking about?"

"All you know how to do is run away. You've been running this entire time. You can't face yourself."

"Shut the hell up!"

"This is why you're a child still. You've been running for more than a year. It's about time you faced your fear."

'Mother!' That had been the last straw for Yuki. He could not hold himself back anymore having heard what Ayumi said to him. Yuki ran through the street towards Ayumi with rage filling his eyes. All Ayumi did was stare at him with the same uninterested, nearly bored, expression that she had been keeping the entire time. Never once did she raise her voice at him almost like he was not worth the emotions. It only made him angrier as he charged at her. "Damn you, Ayumi!" He raised his fist up connecting with a surprised Ayumi in the cheek sending her to the ground sliding a little. Yuki breathed heavily staring down at her still feeling the steaming heat of emotions boiling through his skin.

Ayumi shook off the surprise and wiped her face with her hand. There was a smirking grin on her lips as she stood up looking back at him. She said nothing more and walked away slowly disappearing into the darkness of the street.

Once she had left him Yuki snapped out of his blindness and lifted up his hand that had punched her. His mind went back suddenly to the time that Saki had taken the hit and he had knocked her out. It made him go wide in shock and panic dropping to his knees. '…Saki…Ayumi…What's wrong with me?!'

The very air that surrounded Yuki seemed to be unsympathetic to the problem that was weighing on him. It pressed against his shoulders keeping him from rising from the street. He had no will to stand at the moment. His head just held down brushing the side of his face with his dark blue nearly black hair. The streetlamp above him cast a heavy light that darkened his eyes until it just seemed like there was a void present.

Yuki's mind was stuck as memories of the past flooded with the present with one being transposed over the other. 'I hit Saki…' His eyes widened when he heard the words in his mind. 'But she…it wasn't like…' Even with his eyes closed he could still clearly see the moment replaying in his mind. 'I didn't…no…I didn't…wasn't me…' He held his hands against his head trying to snap out of the images that were torturing him. However, there was nothing that he could do to escape the endless looping that worked to break his sanity. His eyes were darting around quickly in his attempts to lose the hold feeling his body start to go numb.

"A pathetic sight…Yuki Hayashi," said a distant voice that rang clear through the air. A man slowly walked out of the shadows of the night into the pool of light from a streetlamp. He stared across the street at the turned away Yuki. His blue eye held an almost disappointed look while his other remained darkened with a brown eye patch wrapped around his head.

The words did not reach him, but the voice seemed to tap into the corner of his mind that was still listening. He had a sudden uncontrollable fear pass over him that covered him in sweat. 'What's going on?' he thought as he was beginning to be pulled away. Yuki stared at his shaking hands not understanding why he could not stop them. He tried to warm his own body that had run cold as ice. 'This feeling is so familiar…why?'

"Come…face me, Yuki Hayashi," said the middle aged man once more from the light.

Everything was violently ripped away from him as Yuki heard the words spoken to him. His mind was completely blank with fear. Now the fear was understood. 'Another assassin already?! Ayumi just killed one! Are there that many after me?' Yuki slowly turned his head over his shoulder catching a look of the man that was beckoning him forward. His eyes grew wide when he was able to confirm that it was an assassin. The man worn clothes like all of the others, that Ayumi had called their military uniform. However, there was something different about this man, age notwithstanding. Yuki felt compelled to turn and stand on his feet to face the man as though deserved it.

There was a look in the man's face that seemed to recount innumerable experiences within each wrinkle, yet the man did not seemed weighed down by age. In fact, the man looked to embrace his life with a tall and proud stance. He towered over Yuki by more than a head, but it was not the height that made him look like he was superior.

'His shirt thing is blue… I'm not sure if I like that significance,' he remarked to himself as he continued to try to judge the man before him. 'Why did he announce himself and just wait for me? He doesn't even have his field up.' Yuki flexed his fingers trying to keep himself from getting stiff and break the paralysis that he had over his body. 'Damn, my Kasou-ryoku won't respond… This guy doesn't seem like the rest that have come after me. I won't survive without it! Come on work!' The fading hope was falling through his grasp tightening the tension that strung around his neck and limbs.

"I'm glad to finally meet you."

Yuki raised an eye confused by the formal feeling and somehow casual speech from the man. 'What's this man's angle? Is he not that strong after all or maybe he's not here to kill me?' He held his lips shut, partially from fear, uncertain what to say and if saying the wrong thing would make him a target. The uneasy stare between them left Yuki feeling as though he was being told to answer back. Hesitation held his words longer drawing the awkward silence out. "…Who are you?"

"I haven't introduced myself have I? I am Demosthenes Alexander." The declaration had a strong air of pride in it. He stepped forward keeping his eye on Yuki.

'He introduced himself? This is the first assassin to greet me and give me his name. Why?' Yuki took a half step back seeing the tall foreigner walking slowly towards him. "What do you want?"

Demosthenes came to a stop out of the light, disappearing slightly in the curtain of night. "I've come to see what the trouble is able about. Thus far I'm disappointed." He began to walk again until he entered the light that Yuki was standing under. His head tilted down looking at Yuki, but not making any further advances.

Yuki took another step back feeling the urge to flee, but sensing that it would not make any difference. "Do you always greet the person you're going to kill?"

"Don't give in to fear, child. It only weakens you."

It started to sound as though Yuki was being lectured making his eyebrows twist in confusion. The tone did not approach as an insult, which is what really threw Yuki off. He almost felt like he was been advised. 'What's with this old man?'

"Now come! Let's see if you've truly inherited the King's power. Show me your Meso Presecho!"

Yuki did not like the sudden change that the man had. He jumped back going on the defensive knowing that he could not summon his power as requested. 'He's not going to like when he finds out that I'm not able to…'

"What's the hesitation?" The old man narrowed his eyes as he looked at Yuki reading him. After a moment he leaned back with an expression that had changed to understanding. "I see…I'll just have to force it out then!" Immediately following his words a blue wave pulsed out from his feet altering the street into grass while leaving the houses alone.