Another day, another training session. As Hidiku together with Mistress Nagi are preparing on the usual training grounds, I’m behind one of the corners, all alone because I somehow fail to use my ability. Not being there with them gives peace and quiet, thus I can concentrate on my task. That being said, I’ve been trying for several minutes now but each attempt fails, it’s like I’ve never been able to use my powers. I’m just like a beginner.

I give one more try and go full concentration mode. Sitting on my knees with the light gravel ground, I focus on every single power point in my body and let the energy flow. Thoughts and memories of my family, of my friends and of my hometown begin to make their appearance in my consciousness. They give me the strength and inspiration to advance. A few more seconds of this and I began to feel it. The sensation is completely different from my previous attempts, it feels just like when I was still able to use my powers! This is it!

Trying my hardest to keep in touch with the feeling, the muscles in my body stiffen and a quiet sound, being produced by the combination of the air lead out from within my lungs and my vocal cords, begins to escape my mouth, showing my concentration and determination. The rocks that surround me, creating gravel, start shaking and some of them even split into two as the energy slowly forms around my body. This is it, release the power! Let it resonate within you, set it free! As soon as I do, something I wouldn’t expect coming appears before my face as I’m suddenly surrounded by darkness.

“Yuuna〜 ” Calling out my name, a face and a single arm emerge from the pitch black, a face I can never forget. The face that’s covered in blood and skinned, only muscles and parts of the skull being visible. That face belongs to my dear friend, Himarin. Her arm reaches my cheek and spreads the blood it’s covered in over it. “I will always be watching, Yuuna〜 ” Chills run down my spine as her sinister voice makes its way into my ears. I fully lose concentration and the generated energy disperses.

Having no strength left and startled by the event, I support myself using my arms as I’m about to drop to the ground. Cold sweat makes its path down my face and drops down to the ground like light rain leaving the shady clouds. In distress, I begin to take my breathing under control. Why has this happened? Did the curse- no, my other half do this to me? No that’s not it, it doesn’t have the strength to do anything. Am I….the one behind this?

I stare down the gravel beneath my arms as sweat continues to drip. I slowly come to a realization, not everything bad that happens to me is the fault of someone other than myself. I’ve noticed but I didn’t want to accept it, the fact that with the past events, my sanity has been slowly declining. That I haven’t forgiven myself for not being able to do anything to save Himarin and now she’s back to haunt me. If this goes on, I will never be able to advance. Honestly, I’ll be lucky if I just get to keep my sanity.

A door located directly behind me slides open and the Mister steps out onto the outdoor veranda. As I wonder what he came for, I look at him. Strangely enough, the ability to see a person’s blood circulation is still with me as I’ve just confirmed it on him. I’ve pretty much learned to activate it whenever I want to.

“Training hard as ever I see.” The Mister looks at me down from the veranda with his hands hidden in the long kimono sleeves. “Mister Abe, anything I can help you with?” My mouth remains slightly open in surprise. It’s not uncommon for him to watch over us as we practice, but his usual smile is not present, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him without it.

“I apologize for interrupting your training, but would you mind coming with me for a moment? There’s something I want to show you.” I’m starting to feel like I’ve caused some kind of problem. Is it about last night? Is he upset because I made too much noise? I faintly nod and follow him inside the house, there I sit in the big spacious living room. Before joining, Mister Abe walks off into the next room. “Wait here for a second.” That’s all he says.

Stepping foot back into the living room, he carries a small, crystal-like ball, and within it a dark smoke-like substance, wiggling around like the raging waves of a sea. He carefully places it onto the floor between us as he sits down before me. All of a sudden, as if the earth’s gravity came crushing down on me, I feel heavy weight on my shoulders…..This pressure. “M-Mister Abe, what is this?” I ask him curiously. There’s a moment of silence soon broken down by his own words. “Yuuna, within this crystal ball, this dark matter, that’s the curse I’ve extracted from your mind.”

To think this is its power. I was lucky it wasn’t at full strength when I fought it. “But that’s not all. Do you see anything else in it?” Upon hearing his words, I focus my vision, yet I see nothing but those pitch-black waves. I shake my head in denial.

“Exactly.” I break my gaze concentrated on the small glass ball and redirect it to him. “What is that supposed to mean?” Confusion takes over me. What else is there supposed to be seen? “Yuuna, in order to extract the curse and keep it within this ball, I fed it piece of your mind and that piece is still there.” For an apparent reason, his words made me sick to my stomach. I don’t care if it’s not physical, he’s still feeding me to that inhuman thing.

“Attempting to get back to my senses I question the Mister “Then…did it merge with the curse? Is it so dark because it became corrupt?” That still does not help my upset stomach whatsoever, I wanna hurl. “I’m afraid that is not the case. That piece of your consciousness was already like this when I extracted it. It was a yet to be corrupted part of your mind.” What is he talking about….that’s not what it is like within me……is it? They say that a consciousness is a reflection of one’s soul, but then….what does this mean?

As I sit still and stare down the dark ball, I begin to slowly question my very existence. A pitch-black soul, an entity trapped within it. That’s right…maybe he extracted a part of my other half. He doesn’t know of its existence - is what I tell myself, trying to convince myself one way or another. I don’t know if it’s actually the case, but it makes me feel a bit better.

Wobbling above the ground with a light head, I support myself with one of my arms. That’s when Mister Abe picks himself up and leaves to get me a glass of water. While he’s gone, I take a sudden interest in the orb, more interest than I already had in it prior and soon enough whisper like sounds begin to escape it, entering my ears. I reach to that sinister ball and when I’m just about to give it a touch with the tip of my finger, the Mister, standing in the doorway with my glass of water, yells out as he drops it, attempting to reach me. But it’s too late, I’m already too far in.

Then moment I touch the orb, all the shadows within it begin to rapidly swirl around, then burst out like a volcano filled with dark matter. Building up like a tower of darkness, its height succeeds mine and leans toward me with a face resembling myself. Trying to back up as far as I can, but soon enough I hit the wall and sit myself down. I look over the entity, at the doorway. Mister Abe is no longer present and the crystal ball that has been previously containing the malevolence is broken. I give up, there’s nothing I can do against it any longer. Not now that it has manifested in the real world.

Leaning on the wall behind me, shaking with fear, the entity comes closer to my face and strokes the part of my cheek with the mark on it. I don’t want to face it, and so I close my eyes, then tilt my head to the side. Soft tears begin to escape my eyes, creating a faint water stream on my cheeks and a few words of desperation escape my lips - “Help me…..please….”. A hissing sound strikes my heads, the sound of something sucking in air. I slowly open my eyes with care to see the shadow vanishing, as if being pulled into a black hole of some sort. I watch in disbelief…..I’ve been saved once again. The room becomes free of the dark smoke and Mister Abe is revealed, holding a new crystal ball in his hands.

“It happened again…” I mumble to myself with incredulity still lingering in my eyes and slowly lean towards the flooring, supporting myself by using my arms. My body begins to tremble as I’m slowly being overtaken by irritation.

With a low volume, slowly progressing to become louder and more understandable, I begin to let out the frustration out of me as salt filled droplets leave their marks on the floor of tatami. “It happened again….over and over again, every single time something happens, I have to be saved by someone, I have to rely on someone to save me. I’m powerless, I can’t do anything. Why was it me that was cursed? Why is there another entity stuck within me? Why is it that my most beloved friend now haunts me? Why is it that I must be so weak? Every single time I try to make progress, something interrupts me and trashes all of my efforts…..I can’t advance.”

During my last line, as my vision is watery, capturing nothing but my raging tears and the ground they end up on, someone suddenly bursts into the room, slamming the door open. “Master! are you alright? I sensed a large amount of malevolence coming from this room.” It’s the Mistress, yet I give her none of my attention, barely noticing she’s even present, and proceed with my ventilation as my voice shakes in anger. Both of them remain in silence.

“Why am I the one being put through this? Isn’t it enough that my family has been slaughtered? That my friends were taken away? So many times I wanted to scream, I wanted give up and let it out, but I didn’t. I wanted to stay strong, I wanted to improve myself and leave the past behind, but how can I if it comes back to haunt my every single day. My own mind is against me, it won’t let me progress. Just give me a break already! A single day is what I ask for…..please.” My last words become faint as I’m slowly descending my head all the way to the ground, finally ending my speech.

“Master….what happened here?” Mistress Ena questions the situation with obvious concern sounding in her voice. Without his answer, I begin to hear footsteps heading towards me. “Yuuna, raise your head.” is the next thing I hear. The Mister’s palm is softly placed on my head as his words are portrayed in a gentle manner. I do as he instructs and slowly lift my head. His smile has the feeling of his words, gentle and soothing. In the background I notice the Mistress with a wary expression and her hand clenched on her chest, she definitely heard most of it.

“You aren’t weak, Yuuna. Many people would have long broken down if they went through the same experience, but you have lasted all this time, I’m proud of you. There’s no need to rush anything, you are still so young, you have plenty of time. Even if you consider yourself weak, there’s no shame in it and being protected, it means that you can only advance from here. Take everything that has been given to you, good or bad, use it to improve yourself and never give up. The day you give up will be the day you will lose. Never forget that Yuuna.”

I nod to the Mister’s words as I try my best to stop another wave of tears from being spilled. I stand up while wiping the water off my face and make an attempt to leave to my room before the next wave gets out of control, but I stumble and get caught by Mister Abe.

“Ena, please take her to her room.” As a reply, the Mistress nods and takes hold of me. “Come take some rest, we can continue training again whenever you feel like it, but I want you take it easy for the rest of the day.” My Mistress continues to show her appreciated concern for me, but now that she mentions training, I wonder where he is. “Is Hidiku still training?”. My question gets confirmed and as a result, I’m relieved. I don’t need him to see me in this state.

We enter the room with one of the windows being covered with a spare tatami door as a result of my outlash yesterday. As I stand in the center of the room, I clench my shaking fists and address my Mistress standing behind me before I’m left alone in this room. “Do you think….I could ever become as strong as you?”. The stress and urge to release my fear is beyond obvious just from the state my body is in right now. “I have no doubt you can, I will make sure of it myself.” Her words of encouragement manage to relax my mind and prevent me from bursting into tears for a bit longer, but that quickly changes.

As I think I will manage to hold out until she leaves the room, all of a sudden, the Mistress wraps her arms around me and tightly presses her body against mine. Thanks to my height, my head ends up right between her breasts. “Yuuna, whenever you are in distress, don’t fear to call for me. I’ll always be here for you, same goes for Master Abe, never forget that.”

Ah, now she’s done it, I can’t contain my feelings any longer and as a result I finally let everything out. She begins to pat me while encouraging me to cry more. “There there, let it all out, there’s no need keeping it in”. She continues comforting me. It almost feels like…she’s been through the same experience at some point.

[Hidiku’s Perspective]

“Man, I’m beat. I’ve over-done it with my training. The Mistress has left me to train alone and ran off somewhere, I wonder what happened. Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen Yuuna for a while either.” Talking to myself as I walk down the hallway leading to the living room in an attempt to find everyone, I soon enter the room, finding Mister Abe. I ask him of their whereabouts, apparently, they are in our room right now, but as I’m about to go see them, the Mister stops me.

“Hidiku, it’d be best if you didn’t enter the room right now. I would like you to stay here instead. There’s something I want to talk to you about.”