Kismet

His fists were bloodied, knuckles nearly broken. Yet, he never stopped punching that rock.

His father had to go out that day, and he wouldn’t come back until tomorrow.

With Itsuki were just his parting words for the time being: “Treat that rock wall as if it were your enemy. The enemy that you have to face and defeat.”

Itsuki moved as if he were being attacked by an invisible enemy. He knew what it was called: Shadow Boxing.

While the actual mechanics behind boxing were beyond him, he knew what that process was called in boxing.

Face an invisible enemy, train by yourself.

Itsuki had no true enemy to face.

No, that was a bald-faced lie.

He had one: life itself. Fate itself. His own weakness. Those things that always held him down.

Itsuki’s lip strained, as pain fired up across his hand as he punched yet another hole in the rock.

Each punch dug deeper than the last.

Tears fell, his body screamed at him to give up, but his mind forced him to continue, his spirit fired up across his body, in the aches and cramps in his muscles, the burning sensation he felt permeating every fiber of his flesh and bones.

Silent prayer made by fists, and sang by heart.

A promise to break away from weaknesses and chains that held him down.

Like the colors of a rainbow that converged into a single path of white, his mind and path converged into one line of thought.

No hesitation or second thoughts.

They were purged by the second.

The movement of his elbow and shoulder retreating, and then moving forward to crash against solid rock.

The process removed impurity, and with the increased purity of his mind came certainty and hope.

A promise that the wolf that spent his nights silently gazing up at the moon in solitude would surely end. That kindness, the love of others, would end his restless feeling. To feel that caress.

A heart so pure and captivating.

A reason anew to give to the world his life, his all.

As the last punch landed on the rock, Itsuki felt his hand tremble. His fists relaxed, as they could no longer keep themselves balled.

He clapped his hands and took a heavy breath. He didn’t know why he did it in the first place, but it felt appropriate.

Itsuki looked over his hands. The bandages around his fists and wrist were all bloodied, understandably so. He walked to the cut log that served as a bench around their campfire and sat there.

There was still some sunlight left for the day. And he was at a loss for what to do without his father around.

Maybe he should take some runs across the forest.

Or check on civilization, maybe he could make it back before nightfall if he was quick enough.

No, that would defeat the point of being in the bowels of nowhere like that forest.

There wasn’t even a temple around as far as he could tell.

He closed his eyes.

And just listened to nature.

He was not cut for all that meditation jazz, no matter how many times he tried. While he knew that a certain Chinese girl with buns would say it was a lack of commitment, in his case, it was not. He simply couldn’t stand still and enter that zen meditation state or whatever.

With his eyes closed, Itsuki felt his consciousness drift from his body. It felt strange. It was not like he was sleepy, not at all.

If he was not sleepy, then why did his consciousness just detach itself from his body?

Itsuki got a hold of himself before his consciousness could drift further from himself. It earned him a respectful whistle that came from the woods.

His blue eyes focused on the direction of the whistle. The woods in that direction took on a dreamy appearance, close to a wondrous sight right out of a fairy tale.

However, it was not special to him. He had learned how to kill his expectations and hopes long ago. What was gold always glittered, but it also came with unpayable prices.

“I would've preferred if we talked in a dreamscape. Walking in reality is too strenuous for poor old me, but alas, nothing can be done about it now.”

A girl came out of the woodwork. The trees, foliage, and terrain took on a pink and purple hue, the leaves overlapping with clouds of cotton candy on the branches of trees.

The sky was far brighter and friendlier than it had any right to be, but that dream-like visage was frail; it flickered in and out of existence, oscillating between what was real and what was desired.

Itsuki knew what it was: JITE, a manifestation of it trying to overtake the real world. Not unlike a flickering bleeding zone.

The girl used Kurofuku Gottogakko's uniform, which matched closely to the modified Higan uniform of Momo as far as colors went, but with white accents rather than red.

Now, the better question was what a city girl from an all-girls school was doing there.

The answer didn't take long to come out either. He looked at her eyes and saw glowing snake-like slitted pupils. A possession of sorts?

Maybe, occultism was never his forte. Itsuki kept his guard held high as the girl approached him.

She sat beside him nonchalantly, staring at the skies beside him. “Normally, such an invitation would never be extended to you, but the aching in your chest has been so unbearable I had to see it with my own two eyes.”

She sighed heavily as she placed a hand over her chest. Her face had a complexion of pain and uncertainty.

As for him, his face took on a bitter expression. More words weren't needed; he knew exactly what that aching was.

Itsuki stole another glance towards the girl. Given the unnatural color and formation of her eyes, their glow, it was definitely a yokai in a human body.

He knew the bulk of their ilk would never care about uniforms or where they came from, so to use the uniform of another school rather than Higan was a matter of possession rather than shape-shifting.

The yokai possessing the girl didn't like to be figured out quickly, but it was of no use against someone so on guard at all times.

A small laugh escaped her lips. A painful sensation indeed. That poor soul besides her had lost everything. Two souls born for each other, but forcibly separated.

The yokai, not the girl, knew how that sentiment sucked. Better than most.

Even as the boy showed no outwardly signs of his pain, she knew it was there, buried alive, clawing at the lids of the casket.

It made her feel lighthearted and her chest beating with anxiety-induced euphoria.

She and a human, alike. How pathetic, maybe it was a reflection of the human body she hijacked. It must've been.

But that feeling refused to subside.

“Do you want her back? Her soul to be with you again?” She broke the silence that had risen between them.

He was different from those boys and girls drunk on self-righteousness and naivete.

He was not rash to act, and not bashful at all to just sit there and observe an enemy rather than attacking.

It was hard to gauge his reaction. His eyes watched the skies attentively, as his heartstrings were pulled and twisted, the pain threatened to burst out from his lips and eyes, but he remained composed.

The only sign of his pain was a small, hurt sigh. “The dead won't come back, no matter how much you try, yokai. She would've come back already if she wished so.”

As an Idolon.

As a Spirit, right by his side.

How many times has he wished for such a scenario? But at the end of the day, it was a fool's errand. Itsuki had already lost that game.

The yokai found itself speechless. No argument, or despair, or even anger towards her.

Just a silent acceptance that he was lost. Even outrage had already died in his soul. He accepted the pain.

“Are you sure? You underestimate my- Nurarihyon's power. Even bringing your beloved from the dead would be a trifling matter in the grand scheme of things.”

She twisted her words and their meaning. Sure, Nurarihyon was powerful, but not even him could bring a soul back from King Enma's grasp.

Only when the barriers between words fall and shatter would such a thing be possible.

He would need to commit to the bitter end. “Tell me, don't you want to feel her warmth again? The beating heart of your beloved? Don't you want to be happy with Koharu?”

She said as she extended a hand towards him. “If you join Nurarihyon, I vow such a thing will be possible.” Humans loved their vows and swears.

His wish would be granted, only in the bloodshed left by humanity's doom.

Not that it mattered that much.

Yet, he gave her a gentle slap on the hand. There wasn’t even a single second of consideration. His choice was made long before she ever gave him that proposal.

“I will carry the pain of losing her to the end of my days.” That pain was his protection. “She will never come back, and that's alright.”

The loss was what set him apart from the other awakened.

They were so afraid of losing, so afraid of the hurt, but he was already hurt.

Broken beyond measure.

Yet it gave him the insight, the experience, to remain calm, make judgments no other would, be it running away or accepting the consequences of actions.

Itsuki felt the palpable disappointment from the possessed girl. He, too, felt it; his superpower sucked, after all.

No grand argument or ideological debate with a foe. Just a silent refusal, bland and cold.

Maybe in another situation, with another version of himself, there could've been a grand showdown between them.

The road was long and arduous, but he would still keep walking it until the end of his days.

Follow the edict of justice built in his heart. No more running away.

Despite the pain in his fists and the raging inferno that had died in his soul, it left only a wasteland in its wake. He wouldn’t be so weak anymore.

The girl got up to walk away. The yokai puppeteering her actions knew it was more beneficial to kill the boy right there, but she still felt him as a vague kindred of it.

“Where do you think you are going?” Itsuki called for her. He cracked his neck, a small smile on his lips.

She was still possessed, or at least influenced by a yokai.

That was a matter he needed to address personally.

“Hm? I decided to spare you; unless you decide to snap this neck of mine with your bare hands, you shouldn’t pick up a fight. You know?” She looked deeply into Itsuki’s eyes.

Those eyes held no warmth or feeling anymore. They were the eyes of a killer. Someone who could extinguish the light of life as long as it fulfilled a purpose. For a yokai, it was nothing, but for the human it inhabited, it made her take a step back.

No. The lack of light and warmth was not what made her retreat. It was that something else was hidden beneath that coldness. A blazing feeling, a light struggling to break out, like the gates holding back a great flood.

A flood of fire.

Its meaning? Hard to decipher, harder to know, as it was born from a human’s heart.

“You misunderstand. I will beat you out of her body, or exorcise every last bit of yokai presence in your body. I won’t give up. That’s my duty. That's my resolution.”

The glimmer in his eyes spread like a burning inferno. The resolution of a hero burned bright in his chest, so much so that even the possessed girl could feel it palpably in the idea world. He smiled as she tried to possess his actions.

He was bold, bolder than any human had any right to be. It would be dazzling if it weren’t so pathetic. Save her? Exorcize her? As if she would give up on such a convenient body, after the body of Saito Mimi, it was one of her best tools available.

Before the yokai-possessed girl had any chance to react to his words or take action, Itsuki acted faster, taking her by surprise. He extended his left hand towards her, and a dark sphere emerged from his palms and expanded throughout their surroundings.

Space was transformed to resemble a cherry blossom forest in full bloom, with petals resembling floating cotton candy against a bright pink sky.

Twelve wings sprouted from his back. He held a bright golden sword in his left hand. “My name is Itsuki Kusanagi. I promise I will get that yokai outta ya, by force.” It was the only option.

A glance at her showed that the yokai had no intention of relinquishing its hold on her. He had a confident grin on his face.

His grip on the blade was steady.

He knew he was in a JITE, a domain where she was king. Yet, he still decided to brute force a Zona Oscura and dared to smile confidently at her.

Who did he think he was? Some kind of dashing hero with good looks, a refreshing smile, and unbridled heroics?

But on a second inspection, he was kind of handsome, for a human, and his confident smile went well with his bulky but lean frame… ah. She knew what those types of men were, those with good looks, heroics, and patience to listen to a woman and remain calm.

Filthy pleasers with no sense of self or substance, who would gladly hump any woman that showed them a slight bit of attention.

“You damn slut…” Itsuki blinked, once, and then twice.

He was called many things in the past, but this was a first time for him.

No time to dwell on what a yokai would say. She flicked her wrist, and the scenery changed. The trees moved, grew, and twisted as if they were made of melting candy, in an attempt to reach him.

He flapped his wings and moved like a missile. Contrary to the laws that bound birds and other creatures in the real world, his wings had much more power, more leeway in how they moved.

It gave him the power to move as freely as he wanted in a 3d environment. Sharp turns that descended downwards and then ascended, or lateral arcs that could go anywhere he wanted to.

Sparks shone from the tips of his wings, blue fire released from them like a myriad of lasers unleashed towards the possessed girl.

The candy was crushed and broken under the weight of Itsuki’s attack.

“This body is not good at fighting.” She flicked her wrist again, and this time, Itsuki’s body started to become candy.

Itsuki could feel as if an invisible hand reached out for him, turning his very existence into one of candy. He picked up the pace of his flight, going even faster as he ran circles around her. Or better yet, he flew around her, never allowing the sensation of that invisible hand to get closer than a few yards to him.

He summoned his blue flames, attacking her from all directions, as the scenery twisted to shield her from his abyssal flames.

He missed some fakeouts between true attacks, those missed on purpose, and delayed attacks, he gave the girl a fair sense of confidence. As beings so higher than humanity, yokais never had to deal with lower creatures using those tactics after them, after all, what type of ant would use feint against an anteater?

What Itsuki awaited was a single opportunity to land an attack, but it was hard, as the very scenery seemed to disagree with his own existence.

The yokai-possessed girl gritted her teeth. What was he aiming for? He was inside her JITE. She should be able to crush him with ease, yet she felt he had something protecting him.

Not, it was not protection, but something in line with freedom.

Someone so immersed in his own ideals that they would resist her attacks, mental fortitude and strength unparalleled. As if he had faced something similar in the past and was humiliated by it.

In any other situation, he would've been turned into candy, but he felt the creep of her JITE’s properties towards him. A dreamland of candy for her to devour, where she reigned supreme as the candy queen.

He was a tough cookie to catch. She was growing impatience.

Itsuki knew all too well that eventually her JITE would catch up to him, and its effects were not only annoying but very deadly.

He had to make an opening, and a devious thought surfaced in his mind. “Hey, aren’t you too slim to be a Majin Buu?” Itsuki taunted the girl, as a vein jumped on her forehead.

The trees, the very scenario, from the skies to the trees, moved on their own, as if that reality wanted to crush him.

Even though the effect of her JITE was faster, he felt the tips of his toes and wings become as soft as gummies. He gritted his teeth and released another barrage of blue flames.

She paid no attention, as most attacks were missed or deflected by her, until a delayed attack blasted from behind. It frayed the skin off her back, it destailized her JITE. The yokai felt its connection to the girl get weakened by the attack.

“Sorry, I gave you enough courtesy; I have much bigger plans that require my presence, and I'm not willing to lose this vessel.” From her head, a gigantic hand stretched forward. It grabbed Itsuki effortlessly.

And just as effortlessly, it crushed him. So easily, with a silent crunch, his Idolon was shattered.

The JITE disappeared. Itsuki fell on the ground with a dull sound. His eyes lost their glint. Her shadow loomed over him. “You should’ve accepted my kindness when you had the chance, boy.” Itsuki felt every part of him broken.

Maybe every part of him was broken.

His eyes started to darken. ‘So easily defeated. I guess I flew too close to the sun, huh?’ What a pathetic ending, but it befitted someone as pathetic as him.