17 Blood Red Conflict

"Hey, you look really pale. Are you afraid of heights?" Yuzuru asked Towa as the color drained from his face.

"No, it's nothing. I just felt a bit wobbly looking down at the river," Towa assured her.

"YuZuwu-!(Yuzuru)" a voice sounded down the bridge with an abnormal rhythm across utterance.

Yuzuru's attention shifted to the source of the voice. There stood her sister, Shouko, with straight, dusty rose-colored hair cascading down to about chest length. Behind her hair, a scar marked the edge of her right earlobe. Her eyes were round, with large brown irises that gave her a welcoming look. She was in her sports uniform which was a combination of a white shirt and shorts.

"Nee-chan, have you found them?" Yuzuru asked in a bit loud voice and used gestures to communicate with her sister.

Shouko shook her head from side to side, indicating her search had yet to yield results.

"There's a ten-to-one chance they've been busted already, Mom's gonna be so mad." Yuzuru sighed to that, leaning over the balustrade along the bridge with her arms. "Argh! It's all their fault! Shouldn't we go and get mad at them at least, they might stop bothering Nee-chan." Yuzuru conveyed in sign language, her fingers moving swiftly to express her frustration.

Shouko tilted her head slightly, considering the question before her. She scratched her cheek thoughtfully before answering. A wry smile played on Skouko's lips.

"(It's hard to get mad at them?) What're you talking about?" Yuzuru responded to Shouko with a small smile.

Yuzuru didn't show it but inwardly, she felt concerned about her sister. 'It's important to get angry. I've never seen Nee-chan angry before. Seeing that smile on her face makes me worry as she might be smiling but not happy right? How does she really feel?'

Shouko shifted her gaze to Towa.

The child looked to be younger than her sister, adorned in a sports uniform with characters that read 'tall/ high' followed by the one for 'slope/ hill'. Shouko recently learned that you'd read that kanji as 'Kousaka'. But she realized that she had never seen someone with that long hair and dimly lit blue eyes at her school.

Turning Yuzuru attention to herself, Shouko pointed towards him and posed a question using sign language, (Is that child lost?) Then, meeting Towa's gaze, she offered a friendly wave and a warm smile, trying to put him at ease.

Towa returned her smile as he waved back to Shouko, "Did she say something about me?"

"Ha-ha, she asked me if you are lost," Yuzuru replied, stifling a laugh.

"What's so funny…" Towa after his retort to Yuzuru, faced Shouko and moved his head to deny.

"Gome—nnasai~(Sorry)," Shouko said, her voice nasally and devoiced, resulting in a rather cute distortion and the creation of a new syllable.

"It's okay!" Towa responded to her, using sign language by joining the thumb and index finger on his hand, making a circle, while the remaining fingers pointed up slightly separated to convey (I am okay). He didn't know much, but his aunt in his past life used to do volunteer work, so he only knew whatever she showed him.

"Can you tell her to look under the water by the big stone in front of the Jizo statue?" Towa asked Yuzuru to help him convey his suggestion to Shouko using sign language.

"What, you can see it from here or something?" Yuzuru's tone was doubtful.

"Just do it. It's a feeling," As Towa said those words, his eyes dimly glowed in an ethereal blue color as he looked at the said place.

"Haa~…Okay," Yuzuru sighed and conveyed his words to Shouko. But deep within her thoughts, she mused, 'Whether younger or older, all boys seem to enjoy playing psychics.'

Shouko then signaled her intention to check the place mentioned by Towa and briskly made her way towards the Juzo statue.

Towa observed the departing figure of Shouko, using his skill Pure Eyes, attempting to look again but couldn't detect any traces of purple energy. What he saw was Shouko's soul emitting a golden, warm glow, which flickered in a constant struggle to maintain itself against a black dot seemingly engulfing that light. Beside him, Yuzuru also possessed a similar light, albeit dimmer and without the flickering.

Deactivating his eyes, Towa started to collect his thoughts.

First of all, the main Fragment wasn't here. Until now what he sensed was this small black sphere emitting a pulse in reaction to his power.

Seeing that black sphere, Towa recalled the teachings of Kon from a few months ago.

In the depths of his training, Kon had imparted various forms of knowledge to Towa. Among his teachings were stories detailing his battles, but one tale stood out—a narrative woven with threads depicting how Chaos wrought havoc upon worlds, bringing about destruction and despair. Through this tale, Towa gained insights into the sinister machinations of Chaos.

Mainly there were three pathways, three insidious avenues through which darkness seeped and thrived.

Firstly, the insidious allure of power, akin to a siren's call to the desperate and desolate. A Fragment could attach itself to a soul, promising fulfillment of desires like a fabled Grail. Yet instead of granting wishes, it twisted desires into instruments of destruction, feeding the Fragment's insatiable hunger for chaos, until its hosts unwittingly became architects of their own demise.

Secondly, a subtle manipulation of fate. The Fragment marks 'chosen ones' with latent potential or already powerful figures using Chaos Seeds. These seeds ensnared minds and emotions, turning life experiences into nightmares, and forcing individuals to wreak havoc upon the world. Through these unwitting vessels, Chaos Seed spread its tendrils, amplifying dormant potential or awakening forgotten powers, to absorb them after maturation, evolving itself into a Fragment. Like seeds of darkness planted in fertile soil, they burgeoned into instruments of annihilation, blooming more chaos with every breath.

And finally, after utilizing the first and second methods, as the Chaos Fragments accumulate more power, they inevitably advance towards the third stage—a relentless onslaught, a wave of madness that sweeps across the land, consuming all in its path. In this stage, the very essence of life is drained away, as beings lose their life force, mana, and even the very essence of their soul—leaving behind nothing but desolation in its wake.

The relentless onslaught of Chaos knew no bounds, its insatiable hunger consuming entire planets until naught remained but hollow husks, barren and lifeless. Yet even in the aftermath of destruction, as the darkness persists, all chaos fragments coalesce into larger fragments that seek out new hosts planets crossing dimensions.

Towa had a sudden realization about the first time the chaos energy had flared up. It became evident that Shouko had been bullied again on her way home, evidenced by her wearing a gym uniform, as someone had her normal clothes ruined. These actions must have triggered the Chaos Seed within her causing it to react and manifest itself. 

This means that someone with a fragment had planted it during Shouko's school hours.

"Wow! She really found them!" Yuzuru sounded stupefied as she spotted Shouko lifting the hearing aids and waving towards them.

"Told you," Towa's expression suggested that he had anticipated the outcome all along. He casually made a peace sign with his fingers and flashed a smile.

"Look, it's the stupid deaf chick's sister." A rude voice tinged with mean things echoed around a bunch walking towards Towa and Yuzuru.

Judging by the appearance of the kids, they appeared to be students from various schools, all heading towards a cram school as indicated by the advertisement on their bags, which bore the same branding.

What stood out was that among the kids, they were also accompanied by a tall and plump kid with unfocused eyes, and a guy in his twenties of average height sporting a tank top and having a lean physique. With the tall kid and the man wielding a baseball bat, these imposing figures approached Towa and Yuzuru.

"Ha-ha, look there, she's playing with a kid!" one kid added with mockery, "So sad, you don't have friends. /s" chimed in the other.

"What do you want?" not paying heed to their yapping, Yuzuru stepped forward to cover Towa from the bullies and asked with a stern tone.

"We obviously are here as this morning you caused some problems for three of our friends," remarked the pale-skinned boy with short, messy blonde hair and emotionless blue eyes. His hands pointed towards three kids, one chubby yet notably towering at almost 5'11, while the other two were of average height and nothing much stood out about them. But one thing was common among these three: they looked battered up, and their eyes weren't focused at all, as if they were possessed.

From behind Yuzuru, Towa observed the three kids and his expression quickly turned serious. Without hesitation, he summoned three Ofuda (talisman/spell tag) from his System Storage.

"Ha, just beating three of them wasn't enough that the whole gang is here." Yuzuru tried to act strong, but as she saw the three of them, she realized she had never beaten them to look like this. She had merely scared them a bit with a rock in her hand.

"Looks like the smaller one's dumber, well both siblings are weirdos," the blond boy responded with an air of superiority, as if acting like the ringleader of the group.

"Haha, Kazuki never holds back with insults," remarked one of the group members, echoing his sentiment. The other members of the group also seemed to accept his superiority and started to defer to him, as if they were average salarymen licking their boss's boots. By the looks of it, he knew Shouko; his name was Shimada Kazuki, as others called him.

"Okay then! Why don't we pick up the game where we left off," Yuzuru picked up a stone beneath her as she showed an unyielding smile.

"If was in your place, I won't act so arrogant…"

*Whoosh*...*swish-clang* a sound of air being cut and some metal colliding with concrete.

"You strut around like you're some big shot, but you still haven't owned up to your mistakes!" The man, who had been silent since the beginning, with shaved blonde hair on one side, sporting a goatee, and looking like a delinquent, flaunted his metal baseball bat menacingly in front of Yuzuru's head.

"Eep." Yuzuru, seeing the metal baseball bat, felt fear creeping in and lost her composure. She wasn't sure if she could do something here. But she quickly shook off her doubts. No, she couldn't afford to think like this. She needed to get Towa away from this maniacal adult. With determination in her eyes, she glared at Kazuki, who seemed to have been involved with this dangerous man.

"Don't look at me with those eyes. I'm not the one to blame. You angered Deluxe's big brother with how irresponsible your words sounded," he added, his tone dripping with nonchalance.

Yuzuru's voice quivered with a mix of fear and anger as she retorted, "You guys started it! You were the ones who attacked Nee-chan with the stone!"

"Aw, come on! She was smiling!" one of the kids jeered, "She must've been having fun~," their laughter echoing around them as they mocked Shouko.

Kazuki, maybe out of concern or perhaps was his caprice, warned Towa, "Kid, you better stay outta this. It's gonna get ugly, and you don't wanna get mixed up in it."

Towa didn't respond to Kazuki's words; instead, he simply walked in front of Yuzuru. His attention was no longer on the bullies or their threats. Instead, he focused on the three kids acting like zombies. His eyes could discern a miasmic purple aura enveloping them as if they were under the influence of some spell. What caught Towa's attention the most was the black handprint, visible only to him, on each of their foreheads. It seemed to be the focal point of the mind control spell, suppressing their spirits and reducing them to mere puppets.

Towa pondered the situation. He didn't know why were they abandoned after gaining control or the intentions of the scum behind this, but he knew he had to act. This Ofuda is prepared by Kon and contains a purifying spell. If he could stick these talismans, it could potentially counteract the magic affecting the three kids.

Now, the challenge was how to approach the situation and effectively utilize these spell tags to break the hold of the mind control spell.

"Yo! Old guy, were you enjoying some alcohol in broad daylight? Relax, why are you so fired up in a child fight?" Acting all friendly, as Towa approached, he reached out and gently grasped the metal bat in front of Yuzuru.

"Don'tcha realize what kinda stunt ya pulled by beatin' up my brother? He was so down in the dumps that he ditched school! I had to bail outta our pool game with my pals to come lookin' for 'im here. You know how much of ma time was wasted. Now I gotta deal with ten times the hassle 'cause o' the mess ya made."The delinquent guy named Genki, brother to the tall-chubby kid named Deluxe, bellowed angrily, his breath heavy with the scent of booze.

Listening to his reason Towa's demeanor shifted, and he was enveloped in a green aura that extended to the metal bat Genki was holding.

"Hah. Is this some kind of joke?" Towa's voice was calm but assertive.

"Hey, what are you doing…hurry up and run away," Yuzuru whispered, the corner of her eyes filled with tears.

"Friends are supposed to help friends. If I ignore a friend I have the ability to help, wouldn't I be betraying them? Just let me handle this." Towa said in a low voice that only Yuzuru could hear.

"What're ya whisperin' 'bout? Say it to my face!"

"Can I start by asking why you all abnormally suck?" Towa's cocky smile was aimed squarely at Genki, his tone provoking and challenging.

"Huh!?" Genki's brow furrowed in confusion.

"You delinquents, all you think about is violence and acting rowdy. You think you can scare anyone off and act however you want, right?"

"What're ya tryin' to say, huh? Ain't it the victim's fault for givin' in!"

"Well, what would happen if someone stronger than you, someone with no fear of facing you, came and beat your ass up? You'd probably run with your tails between your legs."

"Whaddya say! *swish…whack-ping*" Boiling with anger, Genki slurred as he swung his bat toward Towa, aiming for his head.

"Towa… you're bleeding!" 

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