Cross Worlds

Side Chapter 3-2 (Side- Fantasy)

After I've cleaned up all the equipment and taken a shower, I sneak out of the building to the forest I always train in. As I'm walking, I find myself thinking about my new life up until this point.

At the start of my training with Yoshitabi, she and I weren't really sparring with one another, she was just helping me get stronger. I don't know when it happened, but eventually, we started actually fighting with one another. I remember the first time she actually punched me. It hurt like hell, and it was my loss again that day. She tried to take it easy on me the next day, but I wasn't going to let that happen. With all my experience with her up until that point, if she wasn't taking me at least somewhat seriously, she was going to get hurt. Knowing that, she wasn't holding anything back. At least, that's what I thought until I received this bruise on my stomach.

It's the same with Yujita and I. We've both been improving the more we've sparred with one another. At first, it was no different than practice, but just like Yoshitabi, it feels as if we're actually fighting one another every night. The odd thing about Yujita though is that each night we fight, he seems to be stronger than the last time. It's as if he's training on his own in the morning time as well before he comes to face me. If that were true, then he must have some place he can train without worry. Although I want to ask about it, I've chosen to wait until he's beaten me and decides to brag about his training routine. Perhaps if I compliment him more then he'll tell me.

Then again, it's not as if I too haven't been growing stronger with my magic. It's nowhere near the level I was at on my planet, but it is much better than when I first fought Yujita. It's nice to see how much more confident he's been growing as well. Even now, as I'm walking up to him, it feels like I'm looking at a completely different person. He still wears a face mask, but apart from that, he's wearing a black sleeveless and some shorts, just as I'm wearing a sleeveless and shorts as well.

"Are you ready to start another day of training?" I ask as I walk into view.

He looks over at me, and there's a shine in his purple eyes that I've now gotten used to. Before they were just dark and lifeless. "I should be asking you that. It looked like you were really struggling last night." Yet another change that shows he's more confident. Not only have we gotten to the point that we can joke around with one another, but we are pretty evenly matched at this point. It's no surprise that he thinks that he can beat me.

"Bring it on, shadow boy." I smirk and fire a barrage of light bullets at him before he even has his shroud armor up. However, he quickly wraps his body in darkness to defend himself, rushing at me as he takes my bullets like they're nothing. I too encase myself in radiance and launch myself at him. He draws his katana out of the darkness and I create a greatsword out of light, both of us swinging simultaneously to make our blades clang against one another.

I instantly know to jump back as his shroud comes off of his blade to thrust at my face. Normally, he'd come after me and start a barrage that would put me on the defensive, but I let go of my blade and jump away before he can even start it. I turn the sword into chains, binding him with them. I know it won't hold for long, but it's all I need to fire a barrage of fire, lightning, plasma, and light shots into him. The burst of darkness that shoots out of the smoke tells me my attack hardly did anything.

Yujita flies out of the dark cloud with his new and improved shroud armor equipped and I use my light to copy his style in an instant. I then launch myself at him, our fists meeting this time and causing a bit of a shockwave. He tries to wrap his darkness around me, but I make a sphere of light just as quickly to defend myself. I make the barrier burst afterwards and send him flying back, but he quickly catches himself, his feet skidding against the ground. He uses his shroud ability to turn the ground black, giving me no choice but to fly into the air to avoid it. I could fly away, but he'll follow after, and wherever he goes, his darkness moves with him. Several sharp vines shoot up after me and I fly around rapidly to avoid them, firing light blast after light blast to burn through them.

I know he's trying to wear me out, so I encase my entire body in light and fly directly at Yujita, burning through any shadow that dares to come too close. Despite my advance, he isn't trying to stop me. It isn't until I've gotten close enough to see the confident look in his eyes that I realize I've fallen right into his trap. He turns into a shadow and flies at me, reappearing right under me and punching me in the gut with all the dark power he's stored into his fist. He got me with the very same trick I used when I first defeated him.

He hits me right where Yoshitabi had hit me before, breaking through my light with ease from how much power he's used. I end up coughing up a bit of blood from how hard he strikes me, and I quickly fall to the ground, rolling on it and slamming into a tree. "Ha! I finally beat you! At long last!" Yujita cheers as he lands not too far from me. I cough a little bit more, now regretting the fact that I had forgotten to heal myself before coming out here. My vision is a bit blurry; I think I'm starting to pass out. "Riku..? Hey, what's up? Oh shit- Riku!" The last thing I see is Yujita running towards me before I black out.