Chapter 33: [ARC 1] Chapter 30 - I am the Distraction

The area was much different than Kagami remembered. Last time he had been here, it had been Fall. The color of the leaves were changing and falling. The forest had been much quieter than it was now.

They happened to walk past an opening where no doubt a battle had taken place that ended with a dead man. There was a hole where his heart had been and a bouquet of flowers sprouted from his open mouth as if it were a vase.

“What a dreadful scene. Is what aura can do?” Kagami asked.

“I have no doubt about that.” Subaru said as he took a quick appraising glance of the body. “A nasty one at that. I sure hope we won’t run into whoever left this.”

“You’re calm.” Kagami commented.

Subaru shrugged. “Should I not? You look quite calm yourself?”

“I’m seen worse than this. Though, I can’t say I’ve seen something weirder than this. It’s almost like it’s magic.”

Subaru snickered at that. “Magic? What are you ten? The only magic you’ll find are the ones in fairy tales. There aren’t words that you can speak to summon fire, or wind. Everything comes from Aura and using too much can be poison. Well, not for you.”

He took out a Spirit Key and held up the blue fruit for Kagami to see.

“If you eat enough of enough of these things at once, you can overdose and turn to ash.”

“This disgusting thing?” Kagami’s stomach twisted into knots. He was near the line where he might gag.

“You start to form cracks all over your body. That’s a sign that you’ve eaten too much and should stop. Your body can’t process eating too much of it, and overheats and breaks down.”

“Woah.” Kagami’s mouth dropped. He was shaking at the sight of the fruit now. “You’re saying, it tastes so bad, it kills people?”

“That’s the wrong point to take away from this, you know?”

The oni returned the dried blue fruit back into the knapsack around his waist. They continued their trek through the forest. At one point Kagami saw red monkeys jumping in the canopy above of them.

“Firefist monkeys,” Subaru told him. “As long as we don’t bother them, they won’t attack us…probably.”

“Firefist?”

His question was answered though. One of the monkeys punch another with a flame infused fist. The monkey missed, hitting the tree. Flames flickered, and Kagami moved to put it out, but Subaru stopped him.

“The trees here are fire resistant, look.”

The fire fizzled.

Kagami kept on thinking, he hadn’t seen too much of the world down in the Wishing Well, but things like this reminded him that he was in a different world. There was something romantic about that. Maybe when he finds Asa, they could travel around this world.

A small smile cracked on his lips at that thought.

He would really love that.

Kagami stopped. His focus pulled at the weirdness of the space around them. There was no sound. Subaru turned to him with a wry smile.

“So you noticed it too? We’re here.” He pointed in the distance.

Kagami followed his finger, and his eyes went wide with fury.

Standing in front of a great stone gate was the same elf that Kagami that killed him earlier. The one that he tried to punch, but hit an invisible wall.

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“I know that elf,” Kagami was telling him before the elf called out to them.

“I can sense you!” He roared. “This area is not part of the ritual! Leave, and I shall not kill you! Stay, and your death is certain!”

The two of them looked at each other.

“Do you think he can actually sense us?” Kagami asked.

A tree next to them snapped in half.

“I’ll only give you one warning.” The elf called out.

That had answered his question.

“Hey, you called him an elf didn’t you?” For the first time, the sense of ease in his voice slipped, replaced with a frightened boy’s. “Are you sure he is?”

“Are elves really the scary?” Kagami asked, thinking back to the two he had encountered.

“They’re terrifying.”

Maybe it was because he was from another world, but he didn’t see that. In his world, he fought the Yakuza, he fought assassins, he fought even stranger things.

Kagami took a step forward. Subaru caught his arm.

“What are you doing?”

“He uses a barrier. You stay out of sight, watch and wait. I’ll go ahead.”

Kagami pulled his arm free before the oni could protest. He stepped out in the open for the elf to see. The elf narrowed his eyes at him.

“Oh? You must be either foolish or a death seeker come out.”

“I’m neither!” Kagami yelled, pointing at him. “I’m here to get my revenge!”

“Revenge? I cannot remember every insect I’ve stepped on. Tell me, foolish human, what did I do to you?”

“You really don’t remember?” Kagami stomped the ground. “You made Kenichi drug me!”

His eyes widened just a bit and an amused smile spread on the elf’s lips.

“Ah, yes. The man bearing the Oswell name. You have come here for revenge? You aren’t the first Oswell to fall down here. I’ve faced many, but you are a disappointment. A true stain to the name of the Eternal Queen.”

Kagami wasn’t sure what to say to that. He scratched his cheek and then gave a shrug.

“Is that supposed to mean something?”

The elf’s eye twitched. Kagami saw he hit a nerve and the edge of his lips curled.

“Oh, you don’t like that do you? Does that name mean something to you? The name means nothing to me. I’ve made better shits than that name. My name is Kagami, not Cedar Oswell-”

Where he had been standing exploded. Kagami stood right next to the area and tapped his knuckles against the space. It felt like glass.

“What are you here for?” The elf demanded to know.

“I told you. Revenge.” Kagami eyes burned as he took his stance and gestured with his outstretched hand. “Why don’t you come down here and face me?”

The elf stepped off the cliff, landing right in front of him. As he straightened himself, Kagami finally got a good look at the elf. He was a head taller than him, with porcelain skin that would make a woman jealous. His hair as long and lithe as his body was.

“The Warden, appears to have high hopes that you will grow,” the elf said. “I do not see why he would do so. Your only gift is you are unable to die. I’ll make sure that your deaths are as painful as possible.”

“I gave you my name. It’s only fair for you to give yours.” Kagami said.

“Like you, I have also thrown away my old name.” The elf cracked his neck. “You can call me Oberon, Prince Oswell.”

Kagami was the first to move. His fist smashed against the invisible barrier. Oberon snorted, wagging his finger.

“I shall not move from this spot. Your fist cannot do anything against my barrier.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Oberon held up two fingers. Kagami’s next punch froze in place. He could feel his elbow in an invisible box. With with a wave of his fingers, Kagami was flung aside like a rag doll. He righted himself to land on the ground, but his feet were caught by the another invisible box.

“I did not say, I wouldn’t do anything though.”

The elf waved his fingers down. Kagami’s face smashed into the ground. He felt his nose crack like an egg. The next moment he was dragged across the ground and then flung once more, hitting the rocky wall behind the elf.

His vision shook, and for a moment he was sure he blacked out. The next moment, he was being held upside down, his legs shackled together by the invisible barrier.

“Are you still alive? Even after all of that? I suppose I’ll have to admit your quite tough, but you have no Aura coming out of you. Does your ability activate on the verge of death? Should I go ahead and try?”

His fingers touched his stomach.

Kagami threw a desperate punch. The impact sounded like hitting a thick slab of metal. Blood dripped from his fist. The elf gave him a pitiful gaze.

“I sense no Spirit Energy coming from you. Why would she send you down here? I don’t see it? If you were no use to her, she would have simply ended your life. Answer me, Cedar! Why didn’t she kill you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His voice was hoarse. With his thumb, he snapped his nose back in place. “But even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

“Worthless!” His mood darkened.

He flicked his finger. Kagami braced himself.

Light pierced the barrier, hitting the elf. He gasped in surprise, and the barrier holding Kagami’s feet disappeared.

Kagami landed on his feet and this time his fist met the elf’s body.

The elf gasped and fell to his knees. He held the spot Kagami had hit and glared at him.

“I didn’t say I was alone. I am the distraction.” Kagami grinned.