The Dream Shifter

Chapter 219

Chiharu pulled back on her window hopping. She mapped out half to camp, but most of the tents remained unknown to her still. Her eyes closed as she made a mental image of the camp with all of the tents laid out for her. 'I've already checked all of those,' she commented, marking off tents. 'That much still…'

She opened her eyes taking back all of the windows that surrounded her. The countless exits thanks to all of the light sources gave her almost too many choices. Chiharu turned her head around to look behind her. 'One of these must hold what I'm searching for…'

Returning to her map, she marked off tents too large for holding a prisoner. She found some consistency in their use of tents. It narrowed down her options further. 'Only three tents fit with what I have explored. I'll need to eliminate these first.' Chiharu took action starting with the closest window to her.

The shadow window gave her almost no vision on the interior of the room, just like the others. It was the reason why she could not mark them off as locations. She did not know their contents. Each had their risks, but trusted that she could handle anything. Appearing from the shadows of desk's leg, Chiharu's head surfaced with just enough room for her eyes to scan the room.

Most of the room was dark. Only a dim light leaked out to give enough of a shadow to form. The darkness of the tent gave Chiharu the most trouble. However, she clearly saw that it did not have the brother. She disappeared and moved on to the next window.

The same results returned to her.

'Last one…' Chiharu tapped her hand along her weapons belt. It eased the tension in her left arm a little. She did not know why she felt the need for such a self-doubting touch, but it worked. Ahead of her, the last window stood ready for her. Unlike the others, the room was well lit, eliminating good shadows for her. The only shadow she could use had something blocking most of the view. She assumed the light came from above.

Her head poked through the wide shadow scanning the room. The moment she found two collapsed bodies, her eyes narrowed in confusion. 'Something's not right…' She only saw two others in the room, but nothing clear. Their feet were the only thing she could see from the vantage point given. Turning around, she figured out that a chair was the source of the shadow. It made it difficult to get out. However, she understood the layout of the interior better and could take advantage of the other obscured shadows. She picked the window for its cover, but other shadows did exist. The shadows from the bodies blocked all view for her initially, but made sense to her with the new information.

Chiharu pulled back and then jumped. As she surfaced, she got a better view of the body. 'He looks unconscious…who are the other two I saw?' The rest presented a lot of risk for her, but she knew she had to go for it. Chiharu slowly surfaced from the shadow taking in the interior. Her view expanded over the body and gave her everything she needed. 'There he is…and the woman…what's she doing to him?'

Suddenly, Chiharu lost her grip on the ground. She arm felt sluggish along with her body soon after. 'What's wrong with me? I feel so strange…' Chiharu tried to focus her mind, but it only faded faster. She staggered out of the shadow disorientated. 'Is this…those two…' Her legs failed to give her any support. Chiharu collapsed to the ground. '…so tired…damn…'

Time's value already disappeared the moment that Athene entered into the boy's mind. She knew that hours could easily pass for her. Such time made her grateful the longer that she remained unable to move forward. However, it also brought her closer to her limits. Athene expected a challenge, but she could not remember his mind's complexity being so great. The only thing she remembered from the encounter was the feeling of him being different. It told her not to underestimate him.

An invisible force threw her back to the center. All the open gates and doors closed up upon her rejection. Then as though to add insult to injury, the entire layout changed as it had before. "Damn…" The Atlantean woman panted slowly pulling herself up from the floor. Her appearance looked ragged and pathetic, but she did not care. Appearance meant nothing to her. She only wanted the answers that she demanded.

"How many times…" Athene dropped herself down sitting needed to catch her breath. She lost count of the attempts that she made to get through the teenager's defenses. Every failure ejected her painfully with damaging feedback. It always changed immediately after as well. All she managed to do was figure out a pattern of how it made itself impenetrable. She felt like the defenses taunted her. A few times, she thought she found a way through with a noticeable method for cracking the defense only to see it change.

She tempted her body to stand, but her weak knees dropped her. It was getting worse for her. "…I'm not going to last for much longer…" Even with a perfectly healthy mind and body, she did not know if she had the stamina mental or physical to survive in his mind. She figured since it was only because her mind had protection through the use of her powers that kept her from being completely crushed. "…I have to find a way…"

Following behind Chiharu at some distance, the rest of the group with Yumi closed in on the camp. While never spoken, it was understood by everyone that they would wait at a safe distance from the camp until Chiharu returned. They reached said point for them to stop. They took cover near a small outcropping of brush.

Fumiko rested near the bushes with a full view of the others. She did not have the stamina of Seiji or the determination of Yumi. The only thing keeping her going was the fact that she tried to keep the team together. It allowed her to ignore most of the problems that plagued her mind. Before they split, ever since she left the village she had trouble focusing on anything. She barely even remembered the fighting that happened.

She saw the weakness that Yumi thought she held within that bred her uncertainty. However, Fumiko knew that Yumi would still be able to fight in the end. When pushed in the corner, she saw that Yumi would be able to survive. The problem was that she had doubts about herself. Yumi might have the appearance of being weakness, but Fumiko knew that herself had fallen into weakness. Her practice back home gave her the confidence she needed to believe she could survive. While not athletic or skilled with the gift of tactics, she faced down terrible things already.

The fear and terror she felt when she thought she might die stayed with her. She thought it gave her confidence and control. She thought it meant she understood herself better. Yet, her first fight that actually made use of her abilities forced her to discover how empty it all was.

Concentrating on keeping everyone together made her ignore it. She could not forget it. The waiting brought back her fears and slammed the weight down on her. Only a few minutes had passed and Fumiko already felt like the ground was water pulling her down to the dark abyss. '…so suffocating…I-I can't let…it…'

Fumiko slapped her face sharply to snap her out of her problems. '…I don't have time for this…' She looked over at Yumi. 'I need to stay focused for her. It's only us this time. I don't have the luxury for doubt right now.'

Amongst her thoughts, she lost a sense of time. However, across from her Seiji already looked ready to charge the camp. She prayed that the dangerous situation kept his impatience in check. They could not take the risk of going into such a large camp unprepared. 'While we did win last time, it was not an easy fight. We don't even know how many of those like Yuki are inside.'

While it did seem that Seiji's better judgment held out over his instinct. As with anything else, it could only last for so longer before it eroded away. The continued absence of Chiharu mounted the tension for everyone. Seiji broke through the tension in his typical bull-like fashion. "The hell's taking the brat so long! We should just storm the place and get the two of them out!"

Yumi flailed her arms a little trying to calm down Seiji, but failed to find the right words. Fumiko took a moment to sweat a little amused. 'Even though he's stupid, he does manage to find the right moments provide a distraction.' However, she knew that she could not be amused with the scene for long. Seiji knew nothing of restraint, she learned, when it came down to running off his impatient nature. "If you keep shouting they'll end up hearing you," she commented, pointing her thumb behind her at the camp.

He gritted his teeth in annoyance, but also understanding. In reduced volume, he continued, " We've waited long enough! We need to do something!"

"We need to wait on Chiharu to returned," insisted Fumiko.

"Tch!" Seiji waved his hand in a dismissive motion at her mention. "She talks big and acts confident, but she probably just captured in her overconfidence. They probably know that we're out here!"

"Getting worried?"

Seiji jumped back in surprise at Fumiko. "What? Ridiculous!" He crossed his arms and turned away from her gaze. "She annoying and doesn't think about anyone but herself! Why would I care what happens to her?"

"But she's one of us!" Yumi protested. Her attempt to stand to join them came rushed and tripped her legs. She caught herself before she stood up, turning the action into an all-fours lean forward.

"The hell she is! She only came because she thought she get a fight out of it!"

"That's not true!"

"Of course it is! Or have you missed the fact that she refuses to call any of us by our name?"

"…Chiharu…" Yumi lost her words again. She had never thought about it, but the moment he said it her mind went through everything that Chiharu said. She tried to find a single time that she actually said anyone's name. Nothing came to her.

"I'm surprised you noticed," noted Fumiko, "You always surprise me on the things that you're actually aware of."

"And your condescending tone is always just as annoying."

Fumiko shrugged to him with a bit of a grin. "I can't help it that you're breaking your archetype every time that you do."

"Enough with your stories."

"I know it goes against your nature, but you need to be patient and believe in Chiharu."

The arguing cooled off Seiji enough that he sat down, though still not pleased. "I don't know why you trust her."