Calamity (Chapter 4)
Raito|Yūta“Hey little brother! Let’s spar since we still have some juice! I bet you that I’m good enough to beat you now!” Yūta exclaimed. Raito looked at his grinning brother. He decided that there was no harm in it and that it would make great use of their time. The girls overheard this and casually watched from the benches not too far away. “Alright then. I suppose it won’t do any harm” Raito replied after a few moments of thought. Yūta jumped with joy and yelled in excitement. It had been a few years since they had sparred. Ever since Raito lost his teammate, Jin.
The two went to the center of the field and performed the Seal of Confrontation. The girls watched as they did this only to see both of them disappear in a flash. They were shocked at the speed that both of the brothers exhibited. Raito had unsheathed his katana and Yūta pulled out his kunai. The two began fiercely fighting. The girls could see that Raito’s kenjutsu was superior to Yūta’s use of the kunai. Before long, Yūta was disarmed and resorted to taijutsu. He would quickly kick the katana away from Raito, where it landed some ten meters to the left of Raito. The two engaged in taijutsu, proving to be on equal footing at first. But as the fight went on, Yūta began showing an edge over Raito, landing more hits. With Yūta landing so many of his hits, Raito jumped back and weaved hand signs as he vaulted.
Snake -> Ram -> Monkey -> Boar -> Horse -> Tiger -> Horse (Katon: Gōka Mekkyaku)A massive wall of fire speeds towards Yūta. With only a few seconds to react, Yūta uses hand signs and wraps his legs in wind before leaping high in the air, over the wall of fire. Having foreseen this, Raito had already been weaving another set of seals.
Rat -> Tiger -> Dog -> Ox -> Rabbit -> Tiger (Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu)The fireballs are aimed at the sky, where Yūta had propelled himself. One lands a direct hit on his left shoulder as he fell threw the barrage of fire. He quickly counters with his own jutsu, having weaved the seals after being hit.
Snake -> Ram -> Monkey -> Boar -> Horse -> Tiger (Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu)The fireball hits Raito. When Yūta lands, he waits for the dust to settle. When it does, Raito is nowhere to be seen. Suddenly the ground beneath him rumbles and shakes. Raito bursts through the ground and attempts uppercut Yūta but is kicked in the neck, sending him flying. When he lands, he explodes in a flurry of white clouds, proving to be a shadow clone. Yūta has no time to react.
Raito, dug under the earth with an Earth Style technique. He quickly created a shadow clone and sent the clone to just below Yūta. The real Raito went a short distance away and surfaced by the katana as the clone surfaced. Upon surfacing, he immediately weaves seals for a jutsu.
Ox -> Rabbit -> MonkeyRaito’s hand is enveloped in a silver colored chakra that takes on the form of lightning. He grabs the katana, enveloping it in his lightning style chakra, and runs towards Yūta at incredible speed and thrusts his hand towards his brother. His blade stops just shy of Yūta’s heart. When Yūta looks down he sees a menacing look in Raito’s eyes. Fear hits him for the first time. Before it can escalate any farther, Rin ends the spar. “Okay, that’s enough!” she screamed loud enough to be heard by both of them. Raito starts to realize what he almost did and quickly cancels the jutsu and then sheathes his sword. He composes himself and notices he has broken out in a sweat from the use of that jutsu. He quickly walks away from his brother who is still paralyzed by shock and fear. Rin runs over to Yūta to check on him while Rinoa watches Raito as he leaves. Rin quickly asks, “Are you okay Yūta?” In shock, he hesitates before replying. “I’ve never seen him like that before. He’s never done something like that. I thought…..I thought he was going to kill me.” Rin’s expression saddens as she stares at the shocked, older brother. She makes sure he’s going to be okay and quickly chases after Raito, leaving Yūta alone. Yūta turns to go and sit next to Rinoa but notices she’s no longer there. He sits anyways and wipes the sweat from his brow. “He wouldn’t really kill me….would he?” he says to himself.
Rin|RaitoRin runs after Raito who already has a head start on her. "He wasn't going to kill Yūta" she keeps repeating to herself. Who was she trying to convince? Herself? "He would never harm Yūta" she says aloud. Sprinting from rooftop to rooftop, she scanned the area for Raito. She felt a tightness in her chest, something she couldn't quite explain. She needed answers. She need to know he was okay. But most of all, she needed to know if there was still a Raito. Did he even exist? She didn't know the answer to this. Perhaps even Raito didn't know the answer. What would she do if Raito no longer existed? So many questions, yet so few answers. It jabbed at her. The feeling was so different from all other doubts and questions. She quickly spots Raito in an alley between two buildings. Rin jumps down to try and speak with him, only to be met with his cold and lifeless eyes.
"Raito, what was that back there? You could have killed him!" He noted that Rin sounded panicked. She should be. So should he. "Nothing, we were sparring." He said this trying to convince not only her, but himself. It was a laughable attempt of reassurance. He was never any good at that anyways. Rin stared into his eyes, he thought that maybe she was searching for the truth or an inkling of it. But they both knew the answer to her question. He had meant to kill Yūta with that jutsu. That jutsu was only made to kill. It served no other purpose. "That wasn't just you sparring" she said after they had stood in silence for an eternity. He did not reply. Not because he did not want to or because he couldn't retort, but because he agreed with her statement. "Raito, what is wrong with you? What made twisted you like this? Yūta loves you. He's your brother, your family!" she yells at him. She begins to speak again, "I..I care about you. But back there...that wasn't you. That was something different. I need you to tell me that you're not turning into that....monster." Her words stung like knives piercing his heart. The weight of her words hung in the air like the stench of death. He had no answer. He WAS a monster. Maybe that was what he was the best at being. A monster. "I'm going home. I have to prepare for tomorrow" he said, breaking the silence. He openly avoided answering her. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, Rin."
She watched as he turned to leave. It was like watching his soul walk into darkness. It was killing her, every bit of this. How? How could she save him? Her mind desperately raced towards finding a solution. She found the answer after he had disappeared from sight. She walked the opposite direction of him, where her home was. Upon arriving, she was met with her mother's warm voice. "Hello dear. You look sweaty and tired." Rin's mother had been tending to their small, but beautiful garden all day. It was her favorite thing to do. She looked at her daughter, studying her until Rin finally spoke up. "Yeah, I was assigned to a new unit. Our captain wanted us work on jutsu and fighting techniques." Her mother smiled and said, "Who was your captain? And your new teammates?" Rin quickly responded. "Raito is the captain. Yūta and a girl named Rinoa are on my team as well." Rin's mother lit up with joy. "I love those brothers, especially Yūta. He always helps me in the garden when he comes by. Sometimes I think the poor boy might get too distracted from his daily objectives. But, it's usually for a good reason." She smiled brightly. "Well mom, I have to go study some of the new maneuvers we learned today." With that she kissed her mother on the forehead and ran into the house, to her room. She quickly removed her sweaty clothes and grabbed a new set. She then made her way to the bath and swiftly washed herself. After putting on the new set of clothes, she looked at herself in the mirror. "Do I look good?" she thought to herself. "Stupid" she thought again. She didn't need to think about this right now. She quietly ran to the nearest window and leaped from it, heading towards Raito's apartment in the middle of the night.
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