Cassandra made more incoherent sounds which, although had no actual grammatical meaning, it was obvious that she was longing to be reunited with her shadow, and with the way the shadow gradually glided back to both her and Avery on the ground, it was clear that it wanted the same thing, to return to its owner.
Seeing this unbelievable scenario unfold right in front of his eyes, Avery still couldn't allow himself to believe that any of this was happening.
Just like with the news of the Shadow Loss Fever, he had always been someone with a cynical mindset, and that very crude way of thinking was now his coping mechanism in dealing with such an outlandish situation he found himself.
For a second after Cassandra's shadow started gliding towards them, Avery thought that maybe one of the gangsters from the convenience store had hit him in the head so hard that he was now suffering from a concussion.
'Am I lying on the floor somewhere in the convenience store, bleeding out from a head injury?' Avery asked himself, which to him was the only way to rationalize what was going on, but then, Avery quickly snapped out of such thoughts when he felt his very real sister's body struggling against his.
Avery shook his head.
'No, no amount of dreaming can feel as real as this. My sister needs my help right now, and I can't be dozing off in thought. Also, it's absurd to think that one of those idiots got a lick on me during that fight', Avery thought, coming to terms that although something unbelievable was happening right in front of him, it had to be real and not a dream.
His confidence in his fighting abilities—albeit not what it used to be— and also his body's sturdiness to take a beating were enough reasons to clear any doubts from his mind.
"Come on Caz, time to reunite with your shadow," Avery said as he started getting Cassandra ready to connect with her shadow, which was something he hoped would cause them both to fuse and revert the changes her body had gone through.
"That's it, stretch your hands and touch—" Avery said as he saw the gliding shadow mimic the way Cassandra's hand was stretched. Their fingers were just about to touch when the hooded figure who had been working on his canister ever since Cassandra's shadow came out finally got it back to the way it was.
Without wasting a moment, the hooded figure stepped forward at an incredibly quick pace and then grabbed Cassandra's shadow by the back of the neck, effectively stopping it from returning to its rightful owner.
Suddenly, like both Cassandra and her shadow were linked by something invisible, she held the back of her neck and started to make choking sounds like what the hooded figure was doing to her shadow was being relayed to her physical body.
"Hey, stop that, you're hurting her!" Avery yelled in a panic and the hooded figure looked at him.
He still couldn't see what the person inside the hood looked like, but regardless, he felt the anger oozing out of him. Shockingly, Avery heard the hooded figure say something for the first time.
"MaPLe CoURse INtro FEEl inDIgO" Avery heard the hooded figure say, which confused him but also sent chills down his spine as there was an unnerving essence to each word said.
To Avery, it felt like a cat's claws were being pulled along a chalkboard with each word he heard the hooded figure speak, and the fact that it made no sense was covered by the strange audio phenomenon.
'What the hell was that just now?' Avery thought with a wince of discomfort and when he looked at Cassandra, she too had the same look of discomfort, like she had also experienced the same thing he did from hearing the hooded figure's voice.
However, unlike him, Cassandra was quick to recover from whatever that discomforting phenomenon was, and she started struggling to get to her shadow, which snapped Avery back to action.
Avery had to deal with the hooded figure but also a chaotic Cassandra as she would get in his way. In his desperation, Avery's quick-witted nature took over, and he knew what to do to free himself of Cassandra long enough, so he could handle the hooded figure.
Avery grabbed both of Cassandra's hands, which, at first, were holding on to the back of her neck and stretching towards her shadow, then he twisted them to his side, which pained Cassandra a little, but he apologized to her in his head.
Next, he held on to the sleeves of the elastic sweater she had on, then he pulled on them, expanding the sweater to the point of the neckband stretching to her shoulders, giving room to force her hands out of the sleeves and into the body of the sweater.
With the sleeves freed, Avery pinned Cassandra to the floor and then tied the sleeves behind her back, effectively turning the sweater into a straight jacket that prevented her from standing up.
"Stay put for a moment, Caz, I'll get your shadow back for you" Avery assured a cranky Cassandra who was flailing her body trying to get free, but he had more serious issues to deal with.
His major concern was the hooded figure who had gotten the shadow to submit and was about to press the opening of the canister against it.
Unfortunately, Avery was also quick, so he got to his feet, dashed at the hooded figure, and stopped the contact from happening by placing his palm on the opening of the canister.
Touching Cassandra's shadow with the back of his hand felt strange. He couldn't wrap his head around what the texture felt like as this was his first time touching a three-dimensional shadow, but regardless, he didn't have time to think about that right now.
"I don't know what you're trying to do, but that's not happening, not on my watch," Avery said, feeling the amount of strength from the hooded figure he was opposing.
"PosT AblE PrISm" Avery heard the hooded figure say and this time, being so close to his face made the cringing reaction even worse.
'What the hell is this feeling? It's like my hair stands whenever I hear you speak—' Avery complained, but the next thing he knew was his legs were being swept off the floor.
The hooded figure had gotten enough of his interference and decided to attack. He went down and did a quick leg sweep attack against Avery, who wasn't fast enough to get out of the way.
Avery's legs were swept off the floor, and he started falling, but then, his fast reflexes kicked in. As he was falling, the hooded figure was standing, and so, Avery used his falling momentum to kick the hooded figure in the head while also cushioning his fall with his hands.
Because of the hooded figure's poor balance, Avery's kick did what was intended and made the hooded figure step back staggeringly. Seeing this made Avery, whose body was in an upside-down pose, smirk.
"You're not as invincible as I once thought, are you?" Avery said tauntingly, but this time the hooded figure didn't say anything.
Instead, his head turned to Cassandra's shadow, which had returned to gliding toward her after being freed, and it was then that Avery knew he had messed up.
He had been the only thing preventing the hooded figure from pressing the opening of the canister against Cassandra's defenseless shadow and now that he was on the floor, the hooded figure was free to attack it, which he did.
"No!" Avery yelled, pushing his body off the floor and returning to his feet to defend Cassandra's shadow again. Unfortunately, he was too late.
The hooded figure attacked Cassandra's shadow, hitting it with the opening of the canister and immediately sucking it into the canister.
The shadow was being sucked inside the canister from the back like a genie being sucked into its lamp and Avery, who was desperate, grabbed onto its hand and tried pulling it.
Unfortunately, the canister had more pulling power than him, so there was nothing he could do. Even if there was, the hooded figure wouldn't allow it as he grabbed Avery's right arm and twisted it— which hurt so much that Avery had to let go of his sister's shadow entirely— then he pulled Avery to the side.
Letting go of the canister didn't make it fall. Rather, it remained in the air where it was sucking Cassandra's shadow, and so, with both hands freed, the hooded figure gave Avery a series of fast yet heavy punches all over his body.
This was a martial art that Avery had never seen before, so his defenses were useless. In the end, the hooded figure kicked Avery in the chest, which sent the retired boxer flying back toward the kitchen door and then out of the kitchen.
Avery landed in the living room with just the tip of his shoe being what stopped the door from closing. He was utterly defeated.
Never in his life had he faced an opponent with such heavy punches plus monstrous strength and speed that he was able to force him to let go of the shadow and move him around like a rag doll.
It was his loss and the hooded figure's victory— double victory when Cassandra's shadow was completely sucked into the canister just in time for when the hooded figure got to it and grabbed it from the air before gravity made it fall to the floor.
"ARieS CoRE" Avery heard the hooded figure say in the kitchen, but this time he was too tired to even cringe at the eerie feeling each word had.
With no one to stop him, the hooded figure walked over Cassandra then went to Avery on the living room floor and squatted next to him.
"SUN Berry One DANce" Avery tiredly heard the hooded figure say beside him as he(the hooded figure) did something on the canister, and then he started feeling strange.
From the floor, his shadow went from a flat two-dimensional shape to a three-dimensional one that mimicked how he was on the floor.
"W-what are you doing?" Avery asked while also trying to catch his breath, but was left on deaf ears.
The hooded figure grabbed Avery's shadow by the neck, which Avery felt and was choking from as he saw his shadow get raised from the floor. The hooded figure then pressed the opening of the canister on Avery's shadow, which started the sucking process and Avery's shadow got sucked.
Avery was in extreme discomfort as it felt like his body was being stretched like a piece of paper that was about to be ripped down the middle and, before he knew it, the connection at his feet with his shadow was severed.
Finally, his entire shadow had been stolen and stored inside the canister, and just like Cassandra, Avery felt this sense of longing that quickly grew into desperation.