Shirakumo: Starting Over

Chapter 9

As I dodge attack after attack it becomes apparent just how rusty I really am, every attack I try to land doesn't hit and I'm left wide open. I raise my stick to hit his side, but he pushes me back with a hard kick to my stomach, which leaves me momentarily  breathless. As I take some deep breaths he starts to charge at me again, I run and jump as high into the air as I can, creating clouds under my feet as I run over his head, the feeling of the wind through my hair brings a sense of calm to me and the time feels frozen in this moment as I look out over the city, my city. I'm home. I lean back and freefall off my cloud and as I'm about to hit the ground I create a fluffy cloud to cushion my fall. Standing up again I look at the figure in front of me and then back to the crowd that has gathered behind me. Looking back at the Villain I see he is starting to attack me again, but this time I don't run away. Instead, I start running at him, when we meet in the middle he throws up his monstrous hand to scratch me, but I swiftly dodge and take the end of my stick to butt his chest and push him back. A loud screech comes from him as he focus on me again. I dash up to him and hit his left, than his right, sides with my stick, twirling it around me as I take the hits. Another ear piercing screech comes from him as he counters my attacks with a punch to my face that makes me spit some blood. Realigning myself and standing back up I bring my stick up into the air and down on his head. As I make contact with his skull, my stick cracks and breaks, splinters flying into the air, taking the opportunity the Villain clenches his fist and punches me, throwing me into another building. My head slams against the wall along with my back, causing me to cough up more blood as I crumble to the ground, unable to get up. My arms and legs won't move as I watch the Villain turn his attention to another building, destroying it. I can feel my eyes getting heavy as blood from where my head slammed against the wall falls down my face. I'm such an idiot, why did I think I could do this. I'm no hero, I can't protect anyone. I should've just left it for the real heroes. "Come on hero!" I hear a small voice call from the crowd. "Get up Hero! Get up!"

"Get up!" Another voice calls.

"Come on!" Someone else says.

"Get up!" The crowd slowly starts chanting. "Get up!" My arms ache as I slowly start to force myself up, they buckle with the weight of my body and I fall to the ground again. "Get up!" I'm trying, please, I think willing my body to try again. Slowly I push my body up with my arms one last time and I use the building behind me to help me stand up. I carefully push off the wall and stumble into the open, the Villain becomes aware of me as I stumble onto the road. He turns from the building toward my direction and screeches so loud it feels like my bones grind together. I see the Villain come storming toward me on all fours and I narrowly avoid him by diving into the ground, my arms getting cut up by the broken rocks. I carefully stand up and my hand starts shaking again. Not now, I think as I hit it against my side to try and knock the shakes out of it, it doesn't work as I watch the tremors on my hand get worse, my eyes go from my hand to the Villain behind me, who had crashed into a building. I watch as he frantically gets up from the rubble, what's wrong with him? He acts like he has no control over his actions. He acts like- I think my eyes growing wide at the realization. He acts like a monster. Like me. I take a closer look at the Villain, and stare into his void less eyes, almost losing myself in the nothingness   within them. I get lost in the thought as he starts charging once again, and I get pulled away from him by a familiar compressing scarf that wraps around my chest and I land behind, who I realize, is Shota.

"Shirakumo are you okay?!" Shota says, never taking his eyes off the Villain.

"Y-yeah I'm fine." I manage to stutter out while Shota stands protectively in front of me with two boys that look to be my age.

"Hell yeah!" One boy with blonde spiky hair called out almost sadisticly. "Now we get to beat the hell out of this pansy ass Villain."

"No you can't!" I yell as I stand up and untangle myself from Shota's scarf. They all turn to me as I stand there letting my gaze drift from them to the Villain and back.

"Shirakumo? What's wrong?" Shota asks with a worried look.

"Please-" I say locking eyes with my best friend. "-just trust me." I walk out of the protective bubble they made for me and Shota gently grabbed the sleeve of my ripped up shirt. He doesn't say anything, just looks to me with a worried expression and I look to him with determination in my eyes, he slowly lets go of my sleeve and I turn to face the Villain. He jerks as I take cautious and presice steps toward him. "Hey." I say in the calmest tone I could muster. "My name's Shirakumo, and I know this isn't you. I know you're scared and it's dark, but you need to wake up and fight it." I inch myself closer, with every step my hand shakes even more than before. He doesn't attack me as I approach him, he just eyes me down with a lifeless expression. "Y-your scared, I know. You feel like the darkness is going to swallow you, but it won't." I say taking another step closer until I'm right in front of him, as I slowly close the gap between us my hand shakes violently at my side and starts to glow a bright white and I'm filled with an urge to touch him with my hand. I slowly raise my shaking hand and it calms as I go to touch his face. He jerks back like an animal that doesn't want to be tamed, but brings his face back to me and I touch my fingers to his forehead. Suddenly, the street is filled by a blinding white light that forces my eyes shut but I can here a concerned Shota yells my name from behind us, and as sudden as the light comes it disappears allowing me to open my eyes and as they readjust I am not greeted by the monstrous Villain that stood there, but now instead I saw a boy, he was around my age, but stood a little higher than me. He had a dark purple hair that curled nicely on his head and as he slowly opened his eyes they shined with a beautiful auburn color. His skin was a light brown and got rosy near his cheeks, which have many freckles covering them. "Hi." I say, not knowing what else to say.

"Hi." He responds in a confused and scared, yet kind voice. My vision blurs as I stand there and I start to sway slightly before falling to the ground, my body collapsing under me. My head turns slightly to see the the boy has also collapsed and that another boy with green hair was rushing to him as Shota rushed to my side and holds me as I pass out in his arms.