(3º person POV)

It’s the first day of the summer vacation, and the five from the club met at the edge of the woods in the base of the mountain. They are here to train, since now they have time. After Maria opened the barrier, they did the usual.

Controlling their element, attacking the trees with it, etc. and two hours later, as the others are still training, Maria walks a bit in the woods, since she doesn’t have any offensive abilities, leaving he others in their training.

She stops walking when she gets close to the limit of her barrier, that has around radius of 50 meters or so.

(Mari’s POV)

I look out from my barrier. Although I can clearly sense the limit of my barrier, I can’t see it, and outside of the barrier is the same as it should be. The woods. I sit on the base of a tree, since I’m using jeans, I don’t have to worry about anything as I would using a skirt.

As I sit there, I remember what happened two weeks ago, with Hiyuuki-san. I decided not to tell the others what happened that day, on the roof. It would only stress them. My face grows hotter as I remember what he said about my panties.

(Maria): “Idiot…”

(Iori): “Was that one for me?”

(Maria): “Wah!”

I jump, scared and look up, from where the voice came. There, four meters from the ground, is Hiyuuki-san, sitting down on a thick branch of the tree, eating a green apple, already halfway through.

(Maria): “Hiyuuki-san! What are you doing here?!”

(Iori): “I sensed some negative energy coming from the area around here, and then I found you guys here.”

(Maria): “Negative energy?”

(Iori): “Yeah. It’s inoffensive if you purify it soon enough, but it eventually will cause something bad.”

(Maria): “Also, how did you got in here?”

(Iori): “Please, don’t even start. This level of barrier is easy for me to get in and out without you even noticing.”

He says. As soon as he ends speaking, I feel a strong pain on my chest. I gasp, holding my chest. Oh god, it hurts so much! I instantly get dizzy, and fall backwards. Someone holds me. I open my eyes, but I can’t see anything with my blurry vision.

Suddenly, a gentle feeling spreads through me, making the pain go away. My vision comes back, and now I can see. Hiyuuki-san is gently holding me with his left arm, and his right hand is on my forehead, with a golden, soft and gentle light coming from its palm.

I feel my face getting hot. However, I can’t push him away, I’m too weak to do something like that, although as the light keeps going, I feel my strength coming bit by bit. Then, I notice something weird. The sky has turned dark, like as if it’s night. However, I can’t see any stars.

A red light softly falls over us, coming through the leaves. Hiyuuki-san helps me to stand up as I ask:

(Maria): “What happened?”

Looking carefully, from between the leaves, I can see a blood red moon.

(Iori): “Remember that negative energy that I talked about?”

(Maria): “Yes…”

(Iori): “The pain that you felt was that negative energy possessing this Dream Barrier. You can feel it, right? That the barrier is not under your control anymore.”

He’s right! I can’t feel the connection that I had with the barrier before!

(Maria): “What do we do?!”

(Iori): “Well, the easiest way is to purify the energy.”

(Maria): “And how do we do that?!”

(Iori): “Well, some kind of weak monster should start spawning soon... so kill them.”

(Maria): “Alright! we have to firstly warn the others! Let’s go!”

I grabbed his arm and began to run in the direction of the others… or so I should have, Hiyuuki-san simply didn’t budge. I turned back at him, and he looked at me and said.

(Iori): “What the hell are you doing?”

(Maria): “We have to help the others, of course!”

I said. He looked at me with an eyebrow raised.

(Iori): “I don’t have to obligation to help you guys. I already did enough telling you how to get out from here. Stop being such a weakling and do something by yourself. I already gave you the answer, help yourself. Anyway, I have to do my groceries, and buy the soy sauce that my mom asked me to buy. Bye!”

He said, smiling. I had released him without noticing, and he simply vanished, going out from the barrier. Dammit! I don’t have time to get angry right now! I have to help the others!

(Iori’s POV)

Alright, let’s see how they deal with this. Obviously, the thing about negative energy was a lie. Well, it isn’t entirely a lie, negative energy exists, and can cause problems, but not like this. What happened was that I forcefully took over the Dream Barrier, damaging the caster, Maria.

Well, I healed her anyway, so no problems there. I also didn’t get out from the barrier, nor moved fast enough for her to not notice me. I just used some illusion magic on her and made myself vanish from her view.

After she went away, I changed into my ninja armor and began to observe them. I set to make twenty-five zombies to spawn, and go right for them. Maria got to them before the zombies. She explains that she lost control of the barrier, and that she had a horrible feeling when it happened.

After that, she said that probably, the feeling was whatever took over the barrier. After a few seconds discussing, she made them believe that they should at least get rid if the thing. It was in that moment that the zombies arrived.

The way they fought… was horrible. They almost got killed five times, but since Maria is keeping some support, they didn’t die or got injured. After almost an hour, they finally finish killing the zombies.

Tired. Manaless. But they did it. I guess that you can count it… anyway, after they defeated the zombies, I break the barrier. The sky cracks, like glass, and shatters, going back to blue and with a normal sun.

Back to the real world. They decide to finish the training for today. As they go back home, one of the ninjas that are following me appears beside me after I take off my ninja armor.

(Daikage): “Iori-sama, I have a report about the situation of the gangs Red Birds and Head Hunters.”

(Iori): “Oh, they took their time to come here. So, what is it?”

(Daikage): “The Head Hunters haven’t been spotted in the town yet, but the Red Birds have been seen walking around the town.”

(Iori): “As expected. It’s a shame that the leader of the Head Hunters isn’t bold enough to try to act. It’s good that he didn’t sent his paws. Having both gangs fighting in the city would hinder my plans.”

I dismissed Daikage after mumbling to myself. Alright, time to go to the outer village. I have to update my information net of shopkeepers and store owners by taking all the information that they have to me and also go to the red district. They always have some information for me. And of course, they will give me the information. I own the red district after all.