The pain searing in Itsuki's body was steadily becoming too much for him to endure. But he wasn't an idiot to let Otoguri have its way of defeating him. Or worse, killing him. He couldn't afford to die at the moment. Not when he was only starting to fight as a Seitenger.
Then again, he couldn't believe that such an illusion would be shown to him and completely distract him. He tried to push himself back up but the injuries he sustained were deep. He had to get out of there or it would be over for him.
"Damn it... Now I can't seem to stay awake because of this pain..." Itsuki mumbled as his eyes drooped.
"Don't close your eyes!"
That voice from a young girl soon snapped him back to his senses, prompting him to look around the area to look for any signs of that girl. He couldn't see anyone there, though.
"Don't let this get to you. You can fight your way through this. That monster's illusions can't hurt you or enchant you. Okay? Don't allow it..."
'Damn it! Who is she?' Itsuki could only ask in his mind in frustration. But he knew he had to calm himself.
Like what that voice said, he could fight through this. All he had to do was to figure out how.
"Itsuki-san! Itsuki-san! Can you hear me?"
Another voice resonated in the area, and it was enough to fully snap Itsuki out of his frustration and reverie. But he couldn't believe his ears. Did he hear it right?
"Helen?" he whispered. Even so, he had to make sure. "Helen? Is that you?!" he shouted.
He heard a relieved sigh after that. "Thank goodness! It got through."
What in the world? It looked like someone was trying to get through to him. Which only confirmed his suspicion that he was indeed trapped somewhere.
"Itsuki-san, I'm not sure if you can sense it from there. But Erika's transmitting sound waves around the area that will hopefully get through to where you are. She was able to do it with the help of Eichirou-san and Misae-san's powers," Helen continued.
But all the while she was speaking, Itsuki did his best to sense his sister's Hasureiki, mainly from the ground. He wasn't disappointed. He knew that Erika's power was transmitted to the ground because of the few things in which sound travels --- air and water. The basis of Misae and Eichirou's respective attributes.
Then again... what would happen now that he sensed it?
"I know you'll figure out how to use that on your own. But use it to attack Otoguri. Despite that monster using sound to attack and to create illusions, it hated the fact that sounds can be used against it. Think you can amplify it using your own powers? If you can do that, then you can use it to attack Otoguri that can make it retreat for the time being," Helen's voice resonated once again with those instructions.
He didn't even have the need to feel irritated only because it was Helen instructing him. But he knew when to let go of that irritation, especially when his life was at risk here at the moment.
He took a deep breath and tried to sense his surroundings using his Hasureiki, even if his wounds were drawing out his energy. As he did so, he took out his Hyakureider --- blade still extracted --- and plunged it to the ground. He needed all the support he could get. At the moment, his weapon was the only one that could give him that.
Once again, he transformed into SeitenEarth and tried to keep himself awake for a few more moments so that he could finish the task that he had to do. It didn't take long for SeitenEarth to know where Otoguri was hiding, probably still watching him writhe in pain because of his injuries and end up getting insane from all the illusions he was seeing. He wasn't going to allow it to have its way. Maybe his friends could help him discover the reason why the Triske Monster targeted only him.
Once he was able to channel enough Hasureiki to the sword, he did his best to gather Erika's sound Hasureiki from the ground to his own weapon to combine it with his Hasureiki. It didn't take long for SeitenEarth to realize that Otoguri was able to figure out what he was trying to do. He could hear his growling. It must have been because of the sound Hasureiki that he was able to combine with his power.
"That kid needs to die right now!" SeitenEarth heard Otoguri shout.
It didn't take long for him to sense that the Triske Monster went out of its hiding place. That was when he opened his eyes and faced the direction that the creature went out to.
"There you are!"
SeitenEarth pulled out his Hyakureider from the ground --- with it glowing in the combination of bright green and white light. He poised to a fighting stance with his weapon, all the while watching Otoguri charge towards him. The moment the Triske Monster stepped on the spot where he was expecting it to, he threw a large energy blade attack towards it.
Of course, it was an unexpected action for Otoguri as it halted to a stop as soon as SeitenEarth threw the attack. Nevertheless, it wasn't enough for the Triske Monster to prevent the spell from hitting it. The spell threw Otoguri a few meters from where it stood and hit a wall. Or at least it looked like it. But there was no wall there.
"That must be the barrier that Otoguri had set up, then," SeitenEarth concluded as he tried to breathe steadily, using his Hyakureider as a support to remain standing.
The impact resulting from the throw created a crack to the invisible barrier that didn't take long to work its way around and fully destroy the entire thing. He heard a sound that seemed like glass breaking around him, followed by a growl of frustration coming from Otoguri.
"Damn you, Seitenger! Who gave you that power boost, anyway? How did you get out of that illusion?"
Apparently, SeitenEarth didn't have any time to answer that question as he could feel that his body was about to give up. He wanted to end this fight, even if it was for the meantime. He channeled more of his sister's sound Hasureiki to his Hyakureider and fired another energy blade attack towards Otoguri that had just stood up and tried to recover from the green warrior's last attack.
And since it was unexpected, Otoguri wasn't able to evade it once again. The Triske Monster hit the invisible wall for the second time and it created a bigger crack this time. Right after that, he closed his eyes tight and gripped his weapon hard.
"I can't fall here just yet..." he mumbled and faced the growling monster.
"I'm not done with you yet, green Seitenger! I'll see to it that you get killed the next time we meet!" With that statement, Otoguri stepped into the crack and the barrier disintegrated almost immediately.
He looked around as soon as his transformation disabled and heaved a sigh of relief from where he was standing. But that wasn't what caught his attention and froze him to the spot.
"What in the world...?" he muttered and walked towards the vision that caught his attention.
He was tired and his body was about to give up. So where in the world was he getting the energy to approach what appeared to be an illusion? Could this still be a part of Otoguri's way of distracting him and making him lose his focus? Because if it was, then it was working.
That vision was of a little girl --- the one from his dream since the hotel fire.
"Hey..." he called out, even when a part of him was telling that it was no use. But he wanted to try. Even if it was an illusion or an apparition, maybe he would be able to find an answer. "Are you okay? Who are you? What are you doing here?"
No answer came as the little girl's back remained turned from him. But he waited. There was a voice telling him that he had to. A few moments later, he saw the little girl slowly turn around. However, his frown deepened as the slow turning motion was making the vision appear as if she was growing up.
Much like a time lapse happening right in front of him.
As the girl finally faced him, she smiled at him. It was enough to give him a shock, his eyes opened wide at the sight that unraveled in front of him at the moment.
"It can't be...!" Itsuki exclaimed, but in a whispered tone. It looked like he lost his voice at what he saw. "It was you?"
No answer came as the vision gradually faded. But the shock he received didn't. Not long after, his body couldn't take it any longer.
Before he could stop himself, he fell to the ground.
"Onii-chan!"
"Itsuki!"
"Itsuki-kun!"
Those voices resonated in his ears. His friends were finally able to reach him. He could feel one of them carrying him, but he couldn't tell who as his eyelids felt heavy. All he wanted to do was to sleep.
"Itsuki-san! Are you okay?"
When that female voice reached his ears, he did his best to open his eyes. He then turned to where he thought was the source of it. He was right. It did belong to Helen.
Itsuki saw her lift her hand, possibly planning to place it on his head as she would do whenever she would heal someone. But before she could do so ---
"Huh?"
That reaction came when Itsuki grabbed her wrist, surprising her and the others, as well. He tried his best to open his eyes once again and look at her. The rest waited with baited breath as to what could happen next.
"You finally... came to life..."
After that, he lost consciousness, effectively releasing his hold on her hand.
The others could only look at each other in confusion not long after.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
xxxxxx
Needless to say, there was chaos in the Mizuhashi household as soon as Itsuki was brought in unconscious. Thankfully, they didn't do any running while carrying the composer because of Helen's teleportation ability. Without a doubt, it was another part of Helen that they were surprised to know. But they could do the interrogation later.
At the moment, helping Itsuki was their top priority.
"How did he end up like this?" Hideoki asked as he faced Eichirou.
The photographer sighed. "The Triske Monster targeted him, for some reason. But that's all we could tell. Helen-chan was able to help us out in saving Itsu-chan when she gave us instructions."
No words were said after that. The father and son could only watch as Misae was using her Hasureiki to heal Itsuki's wounds that he sustained in that ordeal. Erika did her best to help as she channeled some of her Hasureiki to Misae that the archer could use to heal her older brother. Of course, they knew it wasn't enough.
While it was going on, Erika was only thinking of one thing. She had to push through in talking to her brother about what was really happening to him. She knew it wasn't just him who was curious about the meaning of the words he said to Helen before he collapsed and lost consciousness.
Her other friends were curious about it, too.
The other thing that was worrying the pianist was Helen. Yes, she knew that her childhood friend was an illusionist --- which was, according to both Hideoki and Nanami, an ability rarely seen to be a power that a Vessel Support could possess. But it wasn't something that could be considered impossible. So they couldn't say that it was unusual. But for the novelist to determine if someone was an illusionist...
How in the world was she able to do that? And also the amount of Hasureiki that Helen used to transfer to the ground to snap her older brother out along with her sound Hasureiki... Regardless of what other people would think, it was still a crazy amount. A lethal one for a Vessel Support, at that.
Just what kind of training did Helen undergo to be able to provide support to the Vessels to this degree?
Both ladies had finished trying to heal Itsuki, both to replenish his lost energy and heal whatever wounds he sustained in dealing with Otoguri. But it seemed that more rest was needed in order for the composer to fully recover. Itsuki who remained unconscious even after Misae had used her healing wind Hasureiki was proof of that.
"You did what you can, Misae. He'll be alright now," Hideoki assured the archer after that with a tap on her shoulder.
Misae nodded and then sighed before looking at her unconscious friend. "He really pushed through in dealing with that Triske Monster. But I wonder what sort of illusions Itsuki-kun had seen in that space."
"Normally, Otoguri would show illusions about what the victim feared the most," Akira explained as he entered Itsuki's room with a pitcher of water and glasses in tow. "He must have seen you guys getting hurt or injured or worse, dead, for one."
The other Vessels nodded, agreeing to that statement. Each of them took a glass that Akira brought and helped them with a glass of water. At the moment, it was something they needed.
"Ah! That was refreshing!" Eichirou exclaimed as soon as he downed a full glass of water. "Thanks for this, Akira."
"There is that possibility, if you ask me," Misae said in response to Akira's words. She did so after downing her own glass of water. "But there's still the question of what Itsuki actually fears the most --- even if it was about Erika-chan, most of the time."
But the pianist shook her head. "I don't think that's the only thing that my brother feared so much that Otoguri would use to lure my brother."
"There's also the question of why that Triske Monster targeted Itsuki," Shuichi said, his eyes focused on the carpeted floor. "I don't think it's only because he was the only one who arrived in the area earlier than the rest of us."
The other Vessels also thought back on what happened earlier.
"Now that you mentioned it... the Triske Monster did create a barrier when we got there. It even made sure that we're not going to interfere at all when the Gargonemas appeared, as well."
Everyone in the room looked at each other, as if doing so would provide an answer to their unspoken questions about the event.
Well, everyone except Helen.
She was staring at the floor while sitting on the stool not far from where the others gathered around the injured Itsuki. At that point, they had a clue as to what could have made Helen like this.
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