Toushikyo slowly settled upon his feet. With a hollow gaze, he watched Eld scramble to his feet. He made no attempt to interrupt it, yet had every ability to. He could have set ice before Eld. He could have taken away his friction upon the arena. He could have charged him, put his hand through Eld's back, and called forth the conclusion of the battle. But he didn't do any of it. If only briefly, Toushikyo wondered why, though he never came to a conclusion, and the time he spent in idle self reflection allowed Eld the chance to get his scythe out from the ice.

The Memory let his arms fall by his side when he looked upon Eld again. Had he the feeling, he'd have grown tired of Eld's constant gambits to survive. What good was it doing him anymore? What chances had he to pull through and go back home safe and sound?

Toushikyo took the initiative. He began a brisk walk for Eld, never pausing nor hesitating. He did not run either, however. Eld had a moment to collect and prepare himself . . .

The scythe was stuck hard in the ice, so much that Eld couldn't pull it out with his normal strength alone. It took another use of his strength burst to get the weapon free...and by that time Toushikyo was approaching again.

It wasn't a good situation; whatever Toushikyo had done had made him a lot faster and stronger, as best as he could guess. Was it similar to what his siblings were capable of? There was no way to be sure, but he couldn't recklessly attack if that were the case.

Instead, Eld adopted a defensive stance and started to gather Qi once more...

Toushikyo's brisk approach went unhalted or interrupted. He slowed only when he reached his sword, set amidst the arena and on the way to Eld on the other side, near the scythe at the edge of the arena.

Stopped just before Eld, Toushikyo looked him in the face. If anyone could see them like this, face to face, they'd be able to see how truly close in age the two of them appeared. Excepting Toushikyo's extraordinary physical traits, the color of his hair and eyes, he could have been a boy in Eld's village. Someone raised several houses down from the clinic. An unwitting and permanent intellectual rival in Eld's life. Disdainful and serious, yet scarcely violent and always valuable when it really mattered. Sarah would've hated him, Mayako would've been intimidated by his speed reading and comprehension, and Emma would've constantly tried to get a reaction from him-- and he wouldn't have cared; he'd have made no effort to grate them. He'd not speak regularly, but he'd always be there. Quiet and easily overlooked, but there all the same. Normal, like a fifteen year old boy should be. Were circumstances so different, it would've all been so normal.

Were life so different, were life capable of such a change, it would've been all the better.

Change in position would come as a surprise, no doubt. It was sudden. Toushikyo leaned forward only slightly, with one foot barely trailing back. He bent the other knee.

In a heartbeat, Eld would find himself in an unfortunate predicament. His feet would no longer be grounded upon the arena, and he would feel the pain in his gut and the creaks in his spine around the time that his eyes caught up to his surroundings--the sudden and barely explainable lack of arena beneath his feet, the sky immediately above him, and all the wind in his hair and clothes, yet the pain would all numb it. The only truth he'd find would be down; he'd need to look down, far, far down, to the arena that would quickly become a toothpick to his eyes, surrounded by the specks of Hillcrest village, amongst the ever growing white of snow . . .

He never saw the blow coming. Toushikyo leaned, he knew he was preparing to attack, but then there was a tremendous pain spreading from his gut all through his body, and he could feel the wind rushing past him. He was airborne, still ascending from the blow, the tower and the entire village shrinking behind him.

Am I going to die?

As he reached the zenith of his arc, it seemed like a distinct possibility. There was no way he could survive a fall from this high up; even if he used his Qi to slow his fall, he wasn't sure it would make any difference at this point.



His eyes widened...it was his thought, yes, but it was one he'd been trying to suppress; the line of thinking it lead to was one he hadn't wanted to go down.

What right do they have to decide that I should die, just because I have something they want?

He could feel his heart beating fast as he began to plummet back towards the ground. Death seemed close at hand, and he couldn't stop all the feelings he wanted to bottle up from escaping.



He couldn't resist. Not with so much at stake, his friends, his family, his very life. He knew it was risky, but he didn't see how it could be worse than letting himself die and leave Hillcrest and Kageko at the mercy of the Memories.

I won't let them win...I'll keep my promise, no matter what.

***

In contrast to the frozen stillness that existed outside, the Tsukimono clinic was bustling with activity. Volunteers were constantly in motion, patients with lighter symptoms were moving around in an attempt to get warm, and an animated discussion was breaking out between the doctors.

"We're almost out of blankets...someone has to go to the nearby homes and get more, and I'm not sending any of the help," Urikuse Tsukimono stated bluntly. Those families that all come to the clinic together had fortunately offered anything in their houses that could help get everyone through the current crisis. But someone needed to go get them.

"You're needed here," Rebbecca Tsukimono argued hotly. "Every minute you're out there is a minute you're not helping someone here. I'll ask around for a volunteer."

"And what if they catch their death out there?" her husband countered. "Not only will we not get the supplies, but we'll be responsible for another death. Do you want that?"

"What makes you think you're any hardier than they are? They're younger and stronger, they're more likely to make it."

"Will they even know what to look for?"

"We can make a damned list if-"

Simultaneously they paused. They both felt something...no, everyone there felt it, though most were too preoccupied to pay it any mind. What they felt, patient, volunteer nor even doctor could articulate clearly. It was like a wave washing over them, but it was more than that--or less. It was hard to say. Only one person in the entire village would know immediately what it meant--but while the doctors didn't know what it was, they were nonetheless drawn to the window, to look up through the frozen panes at the sky...

***

It was like a bomb going off. Even as high into the air as the source was, Toushikyo would be battered by the pressure of it. And the source itself, while still practically a speck against the sky, was unmistakably getting closer at a pace far greater than gravity should have warranted.

Before long he'd make out the figure of Eldrdige Tsukimono, diving straight for him, scythe poised to swing with enough force to cut him clear in half. And if he let his opponent get close enough, he'd notice that something was different--his eyes. Well, one eye was normal looking, the somewhat odd violet that was one of the Reaper's distinguishing traits.

But the other one was a bright, unearthly gold.

The village was becoming horrible. House after house was icing over, and Etsu was starting to hurt herself getting into these places. It seemed every time she reached a house, the door was already frozen over. Etsu was beginning to seriously hurt her shoulder busting through them--but she wasn't stopping, not yet. There were still people in the village. Still people worse for the wear. She couldn't help but think this all a temporary solution, however. The worse the village got, the harder it became to justify even leading people to the clinic. Of course, Etsu hadn't the slightest clue exactly how far the snow storm extended. She didn't know it was just now beginning to reach Galaens.

She'd decided it best to go to the Tsukimonos soon, and tell them their best course of action was to get everyone out of Hillcrest as soon as possible. The early winter storm was just going to keep getting worse, and no one here had the utilities to deal with it this early.

Her thoughts were so frantic that she didn't seem to perceive the man walking by her side. He was much taller than her and seemed covered in a Xexorian fashioned battered tarp. Its tattered hood was up and over his face, making it next to impossible to perceive any elements therein.

"Y'wanna get outta 'ere," the man remarked, "Y'really do."

Etsu either didn't notice or didn't care. She trudged off, far from the ice tower. She'd already done everything she could around that area. There were still a few homes on the edge of the village that she needed to get to. The man followed by her side with little protest.

"oI'm tellin' you," he insisted, however casually, "If y'stay, you're gonna run into Illorex, an' we all know 'ow that's gonna end."

Both Etsu and her follower came to an abrupt stop. It was like all at once, their souls felt the entire weight of the world. Etsu spun around and looked up, somewhere above the tower. She was as normal now as anyone else in this village; she couldn't perceive spirits or Qi or any of the like--but if a normal person could feel it, so could she, and this was truly heavy on her soul. She did, however, remember the feel of it--back then, when Eld almost lost control. It was the same now. She adopted a mostly worried expression, but said nothing. The man, on the other hand, seemed entirely disapproving, even . . . mournful.

"Ugh--this is gonna end tragically," the man sighed, "Why don't we, y'know, try to avert further tragedy an' get the 'ell outta 'ere?"

Etsu did not reply. Her attention was focused entirely upon the tower--the top of the tower, where she expected Eld to meet Toushikyo once again . . .


The barrage of energy was, of course, expected, but surprise was far from Toushikyo's repertoire of feelings. He didn't seem knocked back or thrown off balance by it at all--but, of course, that hadn't been Eld's intentions from the first place. The chances were little more than that: chances, all stemming from a physical reaction in the world from an act of a Fragment, something which made him all the closer to his origin . . .

Eldridge Tsukimono's attack was swift, almost impossible for the normal human being to perceive, and perhaps strong enough to sever such a person in two. A normal person, however, Toushikyo of Terra was not. Eld's blade swiftly met that of Toushikyo's, a very capable block. This just as quickly forced them both lower than the surface ice permitted; it cracked, groaned, and gave way beneath Toushikyo's feet, and before either Toushikyo or Eld would know it, they had sunk four feet into the ice, Eld still forcing Toushikyo down and Toushikyo clashed against him. His knees were bent and his legs were tensed, but he didn't appear unnerved, worried, or disconcerted in the least.

Walls of ice rose about them--or, rather, the two young men descended below them. The collective action created a veritable crater within the center of the arena.

"You . . . will not yield, Eldridge," Toushikyo observed aloud in little more than an empty and lifeless whisper, "You will struggle into death . . ."

He struck out with his blade, pushed Eld back in a show of power, and knocked the scythe to the side--though, with Eld's strength, it was unlikely that Toushikyo would throw the blade away entirely. It would, however, boast enough strength to knock Eld back and put distance between he and Toushikyo, an opportunity Toushikyo would use to leap out of the small crater in the now unwieldy ice tower.

Eld quickly recovered from the show of strength, but Toushikyo was already out of the crater by that time. He wasted no time in jumping out himself in the opposite direction, placing the hole directly between them.

"I won't lay down and die just because it's convenient for you," he intoned. His expression was now one that nearly mirrored his opponent's; but while Toushikyo could not feel even if he chose to, Eld was intentionally sealing them away.

And then he spun, gathering Qi into the scythe as he did, a single rotation that ended with a powerful horizontal slash. And from the tip of the blade the Qi was released, sending a long gash of Qi across the pit towards Toushikyo, wide enough that dodging to the side wasn't an option.

Toushikyo said nothing. Instead, he settled himself calmly at the other side of the hole--calm, even when Eld assaulted him with a gash of Spirit. Toushikyo's response was a purely defensive one. The tower shuddered against his will as all at once sheets of ice, all thrice the thickness of Toushikyo's body, rose before him. They absorbed the brunt of Eld's attack, exploding at once into an icy mist, and leaving, instead, the image of a silhouette with, standing unabated.

He burst through the mist with terrifying speed, so much that it'd be next to impossible to actually keep track of Toushikyo's position. One second, he was behind a crumbled ice wall, and the next? He was throwing his shoulder into Eld's chest--and not stopping, either.

Unless Eld had become accustomed to this state, this power and speed, he'd find himself temporarily breathless, thrown off his feet, and airborne once again. It would all be temporary, of course, and roughly the same time as he'd realize it was Toushikyo leading his downward descent from the tower, with his shoulder planted into Eld's sternum, he'd likely hit the ground back first.

In Eld's current state, however, this would do little to harm him. Such a thing could tire him, wear down his stamina, but nothing short of a blade would harm him, now. The same, of course, could be said about Eld's enemy.

The blow caught Eld by surprise; before he could react, he was pushed off the tower and being driven straight down. It all happened too fast for him to react, and he hit the ground with only the snow to break his fall--which meant very little at the speed he was descending.

Upon impact a large cloud of snow kicked up, obscuring the vision of anyone watching--and possibly even blinding Toushikyo for a few moments. In those few moments Eld blinked, surprised. The attack knocked the wind out of him, but...that was it. He wasn't dead, he wasn't even particularly injured. He was far more powerful in this state, and it seemed slightly absurd that he hadn't done this sooner.

And then he sent out a blast of Qi, one that would be virtually impossible to avoid at that close of range, that would knock Toushikyo back into the air. Not long after Eld would follow with a tremendous jump, swinging hard with the scythe once he got within range.

Toushikyo effectively landed with Eld--or, rather, upon Eld. He'd tackled him off of the tower, and in their mid-air descent, he kept his shoulder buried into Eld's diaphragm. One hand was still upon his blade; the other was wrapped around Eld's back, keeping Toushikyo latched onto Eld in their descent. Eld landed hard and Toushikyo into him; Eld softened his fall, and rather than kicking off of Eld to put space between them, he briefly maintained this proximity.

Toushikyo's grip was far too strong on Eld's back. There was no knocking him off, regardless of how strong a blast of Qi that Eld used. His ranged attacks seemed to be proving less and less effective each time. This time, in fact, it would work against him: Toushikyo was still latched onto Eld, and the force against Toushikyo wound up dragging Eld with him. Eld would find himself airborne with Toushikyo, who landed effortlessly on his feet. The tower of ice was no less than three feet behind them.

Eld wouldn't have the chance to land on his feet, though. The second Toushikyo landed, he spun around and thrust Eld toward the ice tower, back first. He intended to pin him against it, where he'd do little more than shove his blade into Eld's chest and put an end to the boy's life once and for all.

He hadn't expected Toushikyo's grip to be quite as strong as it was; when he launched him into the air, he was sent sailing with him. Mildly disoriented, he only came out his daze when he was shoved into the tower, and before he could react Toushikyo plunged his sword into him. He flinched from the impact and looked down, expecting to see blood leaking from a large wound.

What he actually saw was the point of the sword pressed uncomfortably hard against his skin. There was hardly a scratch, as far as he could tell, and most of the pain came from the cold the blade was inflicting upon him.

He looked up at his opponent again, nonplussed, before he delivered a strength-burst assisted punch to his chest.

It was odd, how little distance Toushikyo traveled, even though Eld was strong enough under those circumstances to throw the man half-way across Hillcrest. Yet he only stumbled back by several feet. Unfortunately for Eld, it wasn't enough distance. Toushikyo was still in range to strike him.

He experienced something strange with the blow, however. It was like his mind encountered something off. A glitch. Something it had no route around and fought through with the utmost unconscious difficulty. He heard the distinct sound of white noise in his ears, if only for a split second.

No matter. It wasn't something the man was even remotely concerned with. After all, he lacked that particular feeling . . .

Without waiting, Toushikyo swiped his blade across Eld's body. This time, though, Eld would not be so lucky if he was struck. This would leave a welt upon impact.

Toushikyo was fast, though. He'd not be satisfied with a single strike, and already fully planned on laying strike after strike into Eld. He'd no intentions of giving the young man any amount of reprieve . . .

Toushikyo may have still been close enough to attack, but Eld now had enough room to bring his scythe to bear. But rather than parry his strike, he attacked simultaneously with his own weapon, having seen that at the moment the sword could hardly hurt him.

But hardly was still a little, and he got a welt for his efforts, even as he tried to drive his own blade into Toushikyo's side. He couldn't match his opponent's skill in melee, that much he knew, but while he'd never been taught skill with a weapon (other than some sparring with Etsu, anyway), he'd been taught something far more valuable: guts.

There was a small bit of pain on Toushikyo's end, too, but it did little to bother him-- though Eld would see that he now currently favored his right side over his left.

It didn't seem to deter him from striking again, and once more with minimal pause. He attacked the pole of Eld's scythe, and fully intended to step forward and draw his blade down the edge of the wooden pole. His aim was to sever Eld's fingers and leave him mostly defenseless.

By this point, he'd mostly be able to succeed; he could sever one of Eld's fingers, but it would take a moment of sawing-- which he was not against. It would not be too long of a moment, though, as the cold of Toushikyo's blade, when dug into Eld's skin as it would be from the first shot, would make it easier to break his bones. Nonetheless, the simple act of slamming his sword down into Eld's first finger would at least cut it up--and fairly deep, at that.

Just before the blade hit Eld's fingers, he let go of the scythe entirely and took a step forward. His hands moved up the pole, one of them passing close enough to the sword to feel the chill from it, and grabbed it again somewhere in the middle. In the same motion he turned his body profile and leveled a shoulder into Toushikyo's chest, giving a powerful, strength-bursted shove.

Still holding the scythe near the middle, he immediately followed up his shoulder charge by swinging the scythe around and trying to cut into the back of his opponent's legs. Toushikyo's higher mobility was the biggest problem; if he could injure him enough to make moving difficult, finishing him would be simple.

Even if he still couldn't cut into him well, he hoped to at least trip him--and if he did, he would follow up again, this time with a powerful downward swing that would attempt to impale him and stick him to the ground.

Eld landed his shoulder into Toushikyo's chest, sending a wave of pain through the young man's chest--one that forced an experience somewhere in the back of his mind. A bizarre, unexplainable experience. Something of a flicker. A flicker of an image. A face. Someone's visage.



He heard music.

Toushikyo disregarded it as quickly as it came, and devoted all of his being into turning Eld's attack against him once again. He thrust his knee into Eld's stomach before he had the chance to use the scythe against him; he'd knock the wind out of his opponent and use the opportunity to throw him as strongly as he possibly could--except rather than at the tower of ice, he'd launch him into the forest. Toushikyo's full strength in this state seemed to wane as much as Eld's did by this point, but the man could still throw Eld a fair eighth of a mile if he put his back into it.

Which he would.