Sora stretched out his hand and pointed it at the woman, “Ice Dagger…”

There was no regret, no sadness, no emotion in those eyes when Sora spoke those words. It was true he had been charmed by this woman’s beauty. However, ‘this’ and ‘that’ were two different things. She was beautiful and strong but at the same time she attempted to kill Sora. It could not be possible that Sora wouldn’t retaliate.

An ice spike immediately jutted out from the ground and shot towards the woman however it failed to hit her. The ice spike simply splattered agains and invisible wall. There was an invisible barrier to blocking the outside of the fighting arena with the inside. This was a reason why the woman was full of regret that her other attack would not work. Otherwise, even though she was held back by a chain she could launch long range attacks at Sora.

Even though Sora’s attack was ineffective, it caught the woman off-guard and she stumbled over.

Sora could be heard whispering – ‘Tch, if only it was that easy but of course that wouldn’t work…’

He then looked at the fallen, surprised woman. “I would do a better job of hiding that chain around your ankle” Sora spoke as casual as ever as he turned around and made his way back up the stairs to the fifth floor.

The woman watched Sora’s back with a very stupid look across her face – he knew!

Everything flashed by in the woman’s mind – the first two strikes were perfect. However, the third one…where Sora made the mistake of attempting to do a long jump backwards…that was something an experienced fighter would never do…she already knew the one to kill her beloved was strong…then why did she not find that move strange? The more she thought about it, the more clear it became to her…the plan to escape was most likely decided in the first strike. After all, Sora had a grasp of how far a single hit would throw him. Everything else was just a ploy…wasn’t it?

Too powerful… The woman thought to herself. While it may have appeared that she was the one winning the fight, the one truly in control was Sora. She might have considered herself as a high level fighter however that ‘accidental’ yet ‘beautifully controlled’ escape proved to the woman she had much more to learn. She got caught up in the moment after her first two punches connected. It went straight to her head and she became solely focused on attacking and forgot all about seeing which direction Sora was headed. While the woman completely understood Sora’s escape plan, there was one mystery she could not understand – if he could manipulate her to this degree during a fight why not just fight her head on and finish her off?

Could he have known about my other ability? The woman wondered. However, she dismissed that thought – that was clearly impossible….however there was a strange chilling feeling the woman had – her intuition was telling her; Sora completely saw through her.

Despite her intuition, the woman could only wonder why did he hesitate to fight her?

Her jade eyes were fixed on Sora’s thin black shadow as he ascended up the stairs…she remembered Sora’s eyes when he tried to use an ice spell to kill her – those hollow skull eyes and voice lacked emotion of any sort. There was no joy, nod sadness, or excitement.

The woman felt chills running on her back as she recollected Sora’s voice – so plain and dull; was killing her something so trivial?

He will certainly come back….and when he does I won’t hold back.

***

Omake

“Yuko…why did you hide this name from him?” Blanche asked Mizuki.

“If I had assumed the name I always assume he would not have behaved so pleasantly.” Mizuki replied as popped a grape fruit in her mouth.

“Yuko…who is your sister?” Now Kuro asked Mizuki a question.

Yuko (Mizuki) turned to Kuro and gave him a long stare. “I don’t have one, you know that….”

“Why did you lie?” The question now came from Blanche; the Mokana spoke before Mizuki could say more.

“To help him accept my existence.” She cooly replied.

“Why did you hide the truth about your eyes?” Kuro asked the next one; they were alternating.

“I did not lie to him either.” Mizuki defended herself.

“Will he come back?” – Blanche.

“Yes but this will be the last time.” There was a certain helplessness tone in her voice.

“Is he the one?” – Kuro.

“Can’t say...but he is special. Although I do not know why; someone is distorting his future and another his present and his past is like a whirlpool of events….he is interesting at best…”

“Will you leave as well?” – Blanche.

“Aren’t the two of you talkative, don’t you have to be at your floors now?”

Kuro and Blanche sluggishly left the room; not wanting to part ways with Mizuki.

“I will never forget you two.” Mizuki whispered as the two Mokanas left. There was sadness in her whisper and grief - as if she had already parted ways with the two Mokanas.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Author's Note:

1.

Author: Read some more!

Readers: No, we are quite satisfied, thank you.

Author: No but I insist!

Readers: No, really we are quite happy with these many chapters.

Author: Pretty please?

Readers: Okay, but this better be the last chapter for today.

Author: Okay this was the last.

>> akuman now rolls over and dies for engaging in a monologue with himself.