The Dream Shifter

Chapter 53

"Yuki Hayashi, I've come for you!"

There was nobody with the voice that echoed through the alley. It halted Yuki instantly paralyzing his entire body. The voice was unfamiliar to him, but the tone and feeling he got from the words made him realize who the person was without needing to see them.

He turned his head slowly trying to look down the alley to find the owner of the voice, but there was nothing.

'They found me… Ayumi said they would be coming with stronger assassins even more frequently.'

Yuki looked over at Seiji, who had a confused look on his face. He had hoped that this would not have happened when he was with someone. He did not want to have someone else hurt because of him.

'Ayumi's not here and I have to protect Seiji, somehow… Can I do it?'

Seiji was not about to let someone try to frighten them with a sinister sounding voice. He charged down the alley running in the direction that he believed the voice to have come from.

'Who is this guy? Why's he after Yuki?'

The alley continued with a winding pattern going deeper behind the buildings further out of sight of the people passing by.

'Is he someone with a grudge against Yuki from his past?'

Yuki had tried to grab for Seiji when he ran off into the alley, but he had not been fast enough. Now he was chasing down Seiji through the alley hoping that he got to him before the assassin did. He remembered the assassin that attacked his family.

'They'll take down anyone in their way regardless of their involvement or knowledge. I can't let that happen!'

He pressed his legs for more speed to bring Seiji within sight, but not before they were both blinded by the light from the alley opening up. The alley had suddenly changed into a wide gap with several narrow passages out leaving plenty of room to maneuver around.

"What?! He's…"

Yuki and Seiji said together as they were finally able to see once more with the light clearing away. When their eyes adjusted and could see a large figure stood before them towering over Yuki and Seiji for the sheer volume of size.

"He's huge!"

'It's them!'

Yuki barely had any doubts, but he still had to see to know if he was right. The uniform that he had seen on the previous assassins that Ayumi said was their military uniform was all the confirmation that he needed. However, Yuki did not know how he was going to deal with someone so large.

Once the initial shock of seeing the man was passed, they were able to take it all in. The man was massive in size is much wider than either of them and taller than Yuki himself, but Seiji still stood the over the man.

However, Seiji was lean in comparison to the number of muscles that were being shown through on the arms and chest of the draped cloth that ran over both shoulders rather than just one like the others.

The familiar circular crest that appeared on their shoulders could be seen on the man with a single blue bar and four uncolored bars, different from the red bars that he had seen before. His clothes were almost tight on the man making it clear to the overall size of the man.

The assassin had a simple short spiky haircut of blonde hair with light brown eyes with a wide face that was nearly buried in muscles. If it was not for the muscles he would have passed for normal.

The man stepped forward looking like he was ready to attack without any more words to them. Yuki and Seiji took a step back still trying to figure out what was going to happen next. Tension grew in the air as Yuki began to sweat knowing that he was going to have to fight again since Ayumi was not present.

'Seiji can't fight him. I have to get him away from here!'

Yuki went to grab Seiji's arm to pull him back, but he was stunned when Seiji stepped in front of Yuki standing between the assassin and him.

"Seiji! What are you doing? You've got to run!"

Yuki ran to Seiji to get around him, but Seiji put out his arm stopping before Yuki could get the chance. Yuki pressed against Seiji's arm trying to plead with him to run.

'What's with Yuki, why's he so scared of this guy? He's got strange clothes and is big, but the size isn't everything.'

"No, Seiji! You can't take him! Runaway! Seiji!"

"Yuki!"

Seiji shouted back making Yuki close his mouth and snap up quickly like he had been scolded by a parent.

"Just stand back and let me handle this, Yuki."

Seiji stepped forward leaving Yuki behind to come face to face with the behemoth of a man. Even though Seiji had a height advantage over him it still felt like he was smaller than his opponent.

Yuki rushed forward a few steps towards Seiji still hoping that he could convince Seiji from his decision.

"Seiji… Please, you have to get away!"

Seiji turned his head a little to look back at Yuki.

"Then who would fight him?"

Yuki was unable to answer Seiji's question, but it was clear that there was confusion in him.

"I've known, Yuki. I've known for a while."

"What are you talking about, Seiji?"

"You're different now. I know that. I've been trying to find a way to talk to you about it for a while, but I'm no good at these things. You can't fight anymore. I understand that. So I'll return the debt I owe now and for here on. I'll fight in your place, Yuki."

Seiji turned to look back at the large man with an eager look in his eyes like he was waiting to fight.

"You're a polite one, ain'tcha?"

"You are done talking?" the man said like he was at the edge of his patience.

Seiji gave him a grin to show that he was ready for the fight. It felt like his muscles were on fire burning with excitement for a fight that he was uncertain of the outcome.

"Yeah! Ready whenever—"

Seiji was interrupted in his words by heavy fist into his face that knocked the saliva out of him and cut a little blood from his lip sending Seiji to the ground with his eyes wide.

"Seiji!"

Yuki began to run towards him but stopped.

"Yuki!"

He coughed a little taken by surprise with power behind the fist, but he pushed himself back up. Seiji was not about to let Yuki get involved in this fight.

'Yuki's no longer that sort of person. I've accepted that and now I have to hold myself to that!'

He brushed away the blood that was dripped from his bruised and cut lip to stand even with the man once more.

'He's faster than I'd thought for his size. That'll be harder than I thought… but now that I know…'

Another fist flew through the air for Seiji's face again in a flash. Yuki was left uncertain what happened to Seiji for the moments that passed, but Seiji leaped backward after having evaded the fist narrowly.

The man seemed to be a little surprised but continued on the offensive taking swings at Seiji as he dodged out of the way. Seiji kept watching the man's movements trying to read him, but found that nothing was getting through. In the moments of swings, Seiji had been trying to counterattack the man, but the thick muscles proved too difficult to penetrate. Even when he had tried a strike inside, the man's defenses were solid bringing in the other arm to block.

'I can't get through… This guy's built like a tank… But I'll find a way because… because…'

'Yuki… I might not have known you for a long time, but you're about the closest person I could call a friend. Though I guess in those days it might have been difficult to be seen that way. We always fought with each other. I eagerly left my school early just to run over and catch you as you were leaving. We exchanged fists so many times I learned what it was like to have a bruise on every part of the body. But things changed…'

Seiji, thirteen years old, was running down the street as he did every afternoon to make his usual match with Yuki. However, as he was running a large arm reached out from the shadows knocking him to the sidewalk painfully.

"What the—"

Seiji said rubbing the back of his head before he looked up to see a hand grabbing him by his uniform and dragging him into the alley. The older student threw him up against the wall of the building knocking him back to his senses. Seiji rammed his knee into the kid's stomach getting him off of him and letting Seiji get his defenses back.

'I thought that he was just someone that I beat up before and could handle. I had always managed to win no matter who, except for Yuki. I'd never met someone as strong as him. I never thought that I would meet someone else who could beat me. But I did…'

The last punch seemed to drain everything that Seiji had left in him. He was lying on the damp alley concrete getting his face pressed into the ground by the kid standing over him. Seiji had fought well, but not well enough. There was nothing that he could do and he did not even know who it was that beating him so badly.

'Then Yuki showed up seeing me getting the life beat out of me. When I asked him later he said he had just been walking by and heard it. But it didn't matter to me if he came by accident or not.'

Yuki stood in the alley casting a darkened figure in the light trying to break through the alley. The student turned to look at Yuki a little confused by the second person. He left Seiji and ran charging at Yuki expecting to take him down just as easily.

'Yuki put him down so fast I didn't know what to think.'

"Just going to keep bleeding on the ground?"

Yuki said offering Seiji a hand to stand back up. Seiji gave Yuki a narrowed glare and then a smirk as he took the hand. Yuki gave him a shoulder for support and walked him back to the shrine to rest.

'Yuki protected me that day. No one else had done that. I had always beaten down anyone that got in my way. I didn't know what to think, but I had decided that night that Yuki was not someone I would swing my fists at anymore. He helped me and so I would stand at his side. So from then on, we fought together back to back against anyone that came at us. We had plenty of enemies, but we stood against it all.'