Without another word, two cannons erged from Mana's CR-Unit, locking onto them before firing twin beams of energy.
The searing lasers streaked through the air, aid directly at them, but Shido didn't even flinch.
As the blasts closed in, he calmly raised his hand, a translucent white barrier materializing in front of him. The lasers collided against it with a deafening explosion, but the shield held firm, dispersing the attack as if it were nothing.
The explosion sent shockwaves through the alley, but behind Shido, Kurumi remained untouched. She had made no effort to dodge, instead, she simply leaned against Shido, trusting him completely. A warm smile blood on her lips as she gazed at his broad, and unshakable back.
For soone like her, who was always the one fighting, always the one hunting, this feeling of being protected wasn't bad at all.
Kurumi let out a soft sigh, resting her cheek lightly against his arm.
'Ara, ara... perhaps I should let Shido-san protect more often~'
Mana had anticipated her initial attack would be blocked, so she imdiately launched a follow up strike.
A barrage of missiles rained down like a storm, creating a screen of fire and smoke to obscure her next move.
At the sa ti, she activated her photon sword and charged at Shido at blinding speed. Her speed was beyond human, so fast that to the naked eye, she seed to vanish entirely.
Seeing that Shido couldn't keep up with her speed, Mana felt a surge of elation. She swung her photon sword at his chest, aiming straight for his heart.
However, despite her instincts warning her that Shido might have so kind of plan, she pressed forward. Yet, to her shock, he didn't even try to dodge.
The blade pierced through his chest effortlessly, impaling him to the ground.
For a brief mont, Mana froze, stunned by the unexpected outco. But as an experienced Wizard, she quickly regained her composure and focused on Shido, whose lips were now stained with blood, his breathing growing ragged.
Suddenly, a sharp pain blood in her chest.
Mana's brows furrowed in confusion. She clutched at her chest, feeling an unfamiliar ache, as if a thousand needles were relentlessly pricking her heart.
Her gaze fell on Shido's dying form, and for so reason, the sight of him in this state made her chest tighten unbearably.
Why?
She quickly pushed the thought aside, forcing herself to believe it was nothing more than an illusion. There was no way she would feel this way toward a Spirit.
Yes... it had to be because of his na, because he shared the sa na as her brother.
Nothing more.
When she refocused on the dying Spirit before her, he only smiled weakly, as if he held no resentnt for what she had done.
"You've beco strong, Mana..."
His voice was soft and gentle.
Mana felt her chest tighten again, the tornting pain growing stronger. But she refused to let it show on her face. She steeled herself, pushing down the strange emotions welling up inside her, and snapped coldly,
"Don't act as if you know !"
Despite her harsh words, she didn't move her sword away. She continued to pin him down, keeping him restrained, but even as she did, her gaze was inevitably drawn to his eyes.
Those crimson pupils, marked with strange, swirling patterns...
A chill ran down her spine. Sothing about them felt unsettling, an eerie power lurking beneath their surface.
Yet, despite that ominous feeling...
She couldn't look away.
There was sothing about those eyes, sothing that made her feel as if they were pulling her in.
Hearing her words, Shido didn't reply. Instead, he slowly raised his hand toward her eyes.
Mana's instincts scread at her to react, yet for so reason, she found herself frozen in place. His movents were slow and not the actions of soone trying to counterattack.
At first, she assud he was reaching out to strike her, but his fingers stopped just an inch from her eyes. Then, without a word, he shifted his hand slightly, extending two fingers and pointing off to the side.
Mana furrowed her brows in confusion. 'What is he—'
Her gaze instinctively followed the direction of his fingers.
The mont she saw it, her breath hitched, and her eyes widened in shock and disbelief.
What she saw was Shido standing in his original position, as if he had never moved at all, while Kurumi, still behind him, regarded her with a mix of amusent and curiosity.
But Kurumi wasn't the only one confused.
The other AST mbers hovering above also wore bewildered expressions as they observed Mana. From their perspective, she hadn't moved at all. She had been standing in the sa spot the entire ti, her photon sword gripped tightly in her hand, but she had never charged, never attacked.
Mana's breath hitched. Her mind struggled to process the absurdity of the situation.
"Impossible... I—"
She rembered attacking. She felt her sword piercing through Shido's chest, saw the life fading from his eyes, heard his final words.
However, from other peoples perspective, Mana was just standing motionless.
anwhile, Kurumi finally pieced everything together. Her playful pout deepened as she glanced at Shido, who remained expressionless, as if this outco was only natural.
"Ara, ara~ So this is what happened..." she mused, her golden clockwork eye narrowing in interest.
She had experienced this before, Shido had once used the sa ability on her. But unlike back then, it seed his technique had evolved, becoming far more potent.
On the other hand, Shido remained silent, watching everything unfold through the crimson patterns of his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.
And as everyone already know, he used Genjutsu on Mana causing her to be trapped into his illusion.
Shido deactivated his Genjutsu, allowing Mana to broke free from the illusion. However, the experience had drained her. She staggered slightly, gasping for breath as she instinctively took a defensive stance, her wary eyes locked onto Shido.
It seed that she had also realized what had just happened. Mana also watched Shido's fight before when he first appeared and the skill he used on her was similar to what he used on Nightmare to escape.
Shido exhaled softly. He wanted to take her away imdiately, to free her from DEM's manipulation and to cure her deteriorating body before it was too late. However, he knew he couldn't be reckless.
He couldn't expose his identity to Kotori yet.
While it wasn't necessarily a big deal if Ratatoskr learned that he was the infamous 'Shadow', Shido had no desire to disturb the peaceful daily life he had worked so hard to maintain. He felt it was annoying to have people monitor his every action from the dark.
Especially when Westcott was involved. That man, Isaac Westcott, knew his past self. Shinji Takamiya.
He had vast amount of connection and once Ratatoskr know about his identity, Westcott would definitely know about this matter.
It was too early for them to et.
Shido had no intention of dragging this out any longer. For now, all he wanted was to live peacefully in this world with Tohka, Yoshino and the others.
He had already achieve his goal of preventing Mana from killing Kurumi so he decided to leave.
"Let's go."
Before Kurumi could react, Shido wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. The sudden gesture made her cheeks flush ever so slightly.
"Oh my~" Kurumi gasped, placing a delicate hand near her lips, feigning surprise. However, she made no effort to pull away. Instead, she leaned in even closer, her body pressing against his in an unmistakably playful manner.
Shido was at loss for words when he felt Kurumi' pressed her body on him. He should have expected this reaction.
Still, now wasn't the ti to get caught up in her teasing. Without another word, he activated his skill.
"Wait!" Mana shouted, attempting to rush forward, but her body refused to move.
"Gatom."
A bright light enveloped Shido and Kurumi and in the blink of an eye, they were gone.
Reviews
All reviews (0)