The silence was overbearing. Now they were back to more walking than talking which made it awkward for Shinobu because she didn't know what topic to bring up, Douma on the other hand seemed occupied with finding the right route and keeping watch for any threats surrounding them in this forest.
"This may sound crazy but I miss Yushiro now."
Douma looked at Shinobu who was staring at the ground with an unreadable expression. It was funny half the time back there both she and Yushiro were arguing now she missed him. Sometimes Shinobu just couldn't make up her mind. It was understandable if she yearned to have the same bond she had with her friends before the current events, humans were very sociable there was no doubt about that.
"You'll see him when school starts." Douma responded with a smile. "Just make sure he finishes his homework."
"What homework?"
"I'm not sure he was worried about it."
Shinobu narrowed her eyes at the shrine leader. "Don't intrude into people's thoughts like that I thought we agreed on this."
Douma laughed. "Sorry about that."
"Speaking of mind reading, is there any human who can do that?"
"Not that I know of but some humans have the ability to read and sense things better than others. They can determine a person's intentions from an expression for example. It's like reading one's intuition and concluding what they're thinking which turns out to be exactly what they thought the moment it happens." Douma explained, this caught Shinobu's attention since back at school her peers would sometimes bring up about the possibility of a mind reader blending in with society. It was scary to think about they could be just about anywhere.
"But there is one person in the human world with a strong analytical sense."
Shinobu widened her eyes upon hearing his statement. So it's true there is someone with that ability.
"We refer to this level of sense as Vendetta. When this individual is in a challenging situation with an opponent they will try to read their body language carefully and when they do it resorts to them reading their mind it works like a translation. This person isn't reading their mind directly but they can hear it when this translation travels to them and most of the time their hypothesis is correct. It helps them win in any situation let's just say."
That's extremely useful in competitions. If let's say one ever gets into a huge competition they better hope this person is in their team. This sounded exciting to Shinobu but she knew there was no way she could share this with her friends back at school they wouldn't understand nor believe her. She'd be deemed as crazy and that would be embarrassing.
"The Vendetta is a great skill to have in battle because you'll be able to determine your opponent's next moves if you concentrate enough. Now not only does this person have an advantage mentally but physically too." Douma stopped and looked at Shinobu who wanted to hear more. "If the Vendetta reaches a state where it makes contact with the consciousness when tensed, they get a boost of energy that allows them to break through walls with ease for example."
"Really? So this person gets a pair of bulldozing fists."
"And extreme durability. They don't feel a scratch and injuries won't stop them either. I heard from one of the higher ups back in my world that this person can put their bones and organs back in place by sending signals to their tissue and nerves it's like a regeneration tactic."
The last few words reminded Shinobu of animals that can regenerate their limbs. Who would've thought there was a human who could do something like that? Shinobu wondered if this person will ever come upfront about their hidden secret. Even so would they want their identity to be revealed it was too risky they'd be putting themselves in danger.
"Wanna hear something interesting?" Douma waited for Shinobu's response which was an obvious 'yes.'
"They can see their opponent's weaknesses when the Vendetta reaches its highest point. Those weaknesses stand out to them in their vision so even if they get blocked or disappear they'll be able to detect and find them right away."
"Wow that's so cool. You guys knew about it before humans did!"
"Yep we've been looking for this person actually. My superiors know who it is they discussed about it once. When I came to Earth I thought I'd encounter this person at some point but I never did. They're a rare fish in the sea." Douma stood there he was about to ask Shinobu if she was ready to leave the grounds of Atami the rest of the journey consisted of just trees and caves.
"Maybe it's Atashi."
"I certainly hope not."
They both laughed. Douma wondered if the neighborhood could hear them, their laughter was quite loud. The neighbors would have recognized their voices by now.
"What happens if we get to the headquarters before Atashi does? We can't let him know we're there."
"Avoid bumping into him. I don't think he's going to try searching for us he's meeting someone. But now that you mention it we should keep a lookout for Atashi too there's a chance the person we're tracking down is the same person expecting Atashi."
While Douma and Shinobu were discussing their plan, Yushiro hid behind a wall of one of the last few houses, listening to their conversation. The green-haired boy had followed them all the way here. He was curious about where the two were going this looked like a serious top-secret mission that nobody knew about.
Eavesdropping on their conversation, Yushiro peeped from the wall of the house avoiding the dead leaves on the ground in case he stepped on them.
What is going on? Atashi ran away and he's plotting something? This doesn't sound good. Yushiro continued listening to the two of them.
"We'll get Atashi back he can't go that far." Shinobu said.
"That's easy the problem is his new friend." Douma responded.
Yushiro blinked in confusion. "New friend? What are they talking about I don't remember Atashi making any new friends given his reputation at school."
The teen was now intrigued by this. Seeing Shinobu involved with these kinds of investigations that were on par with authorities made him envy her. All this while he was a mean jerk who'd pick a fight with her over the smallest things. Both he and Atashi haven't gotten anywhere they've just been causing trouble like usual. Yushiro was no different from Atashi.
The more he listened to their discussion the weirder the situation sounded. Atashi in possession of a potentially world-ending artifact from ancient times. What has his friend gotten himself into? Yushiro figured that after the events at school Atashi must have given up on improving himself and decided to give in to his sadness since that was the only way he could go on with his current self. If only there were other options but unfortunately the lockdown happened and everyone was isolated.
"Let's fly there right now." Douma said crouching down on the forest floor so Shinobu could hold onto him.
What are they doing? Did he just say fly? That is ridiculous humans can't fly what a bunch of weirdos. Yushiro watched as Douma and Shinobu got ready to 'take-off' he was eager to see how they would go about doing that.
A pair of bright wings appeared behind Douma, he carefully held Shinobu and waited for a few seconds before they both turned invisible and flew into the sky.
"No way!" Yushiro couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Is he a superhero or something that can't be."
Somewhere miles from where they were, two men in uniforms were observing the duo making their move on a tree. One of them was observing through a binoculars.
"I gotchu now." He sneered as his comrade prepared a weapon that looked like a rocket launcher.
"Are you sure they went straight ahead?"
"Yeah I'm sure. They just turned invisible the missile can still track them."
Holding the rocket-launcher on his shoulders, the man pressed the trigger firing a metallic device that sped towards the duo scanning its targets.
"Told you."
The missile headed straight towards them. Shinobu gasped seeing how close it was to them.
"Target locked." The missile looked to be aiming for Shinobu not Douma, it didn't detect the shrine leader at all. Douma continued flying towards a clearing with a hill and ducked down towards the ground.
Missing its target, the missile latched onto the hill triggering waves of static followed by an explosion that caused mounts of soil and vegetation to fall to the ground crushing everything beneath it.
"Are you alright?" Douma asked hurrying over to Shinobu who was brushing dirt off her sleeve.
"Yeah I'm fine. Someone's watching us."
Shaking in fear, Yushiro stared at the partially destroyed hill in shock. "What on Earth was that?!"
The two men yelled in frustration. "We were so close!"
Looking in the direction where the missile came from, Douma focused as his vision slowly extended to the area beyond where they were, he saw the two men hiding in a tree with their equipment. The logo on their uniform looked very familiar, just like the one on the truck back at Hasu Mountains.
The shrine leader's eyes turned into slits as he soared to the sky facing the direction leading to that tree where the two men were hiding.
"I think he saw us." Both men looked at the shrine leader in horror as they grabbed their stuff and prepared to get out of there.
Yushiro watched he took a step back this retaliation of Douma's wasn't going to look good something was coming and the outcome could probably be worse.
An energy source appeared between his multicolored orbs as Douma noticed a cliff above the tree. That should do.
"We have to run!" The two men climbed down the branches panicking for their lives, leaving some of their equipment that fell to the ground including the rocket-launcher and one of their walkie-talkies.
Douma fired the same blast of kaleidoscopic energy that was used to stop the storm. The ray landed a devastating hit on the wall behind the trees creating a larger explosion that sent trees and rocks flying. Even though they were far away from the area that got hit, they could still feel the impact. The ground was shaking violently and a gust of wind struck every part of the forested area. Shinobu covered her face with her elbow as debris and tiny rocks flew in her direction.
The minute Yushiro saw that ray he felt his mind drift into a state of fear and confusion. A variety of colors appeared in the dark void he saw followed by flashing images of events that he couldn't keep track of before bursting into patterns and shapes that he couldn't decipher. There was too many things happening at once.
A sharp rush of slight pain and anxiety filled his veins as his limbs grew weak and he started feeling dizzy. He was about to blackout and lose his balance.
Running from the falling boulders the two men were already panting the adrenaline of fear rushed through them draining their drive to escape the large-scale of explosion it seemed impossible their muscles went numb and they were starting to see strange iterations which made the situation worse than it already was.
The large boulders landed on where they were running. Soon their cries subsided only the sound of rocks tumbling down could be heard.
Douma landed on the ground helping Shinobu get up on her feet.
Stumbling, Yushiro held the side of his head in pain. He slowly walked back to his house but the further he walked the darker his vision got the same type of shapes appeared in his vision. He didn't dare look up at the sky it made the intensity of his aching head unbearable and the strange images appearing became more prevalent. The teen couldn't tell if this was it for him the sudden panic attack felt like a cardiac arrest.
"M-m-maybe I-I was staring a-a-at the sky f-for too l-long. I-I h-have to keep g-g-going." Yushiro's remaining strength was deteriorating his body was fighting against him now. With how head was spinning faster and the pain in his chest was getting worse, Yushiro couldn't keep walking anymore he had to stop somewhere and regain his energy.
Slowly he dragged himself towards one of the bushes and then collapsed. Yushiro had fallen into the dark void that was consuming the light of day.