7 - Chasing A Shadow / Aggregation

“I see...”

“Flowers.”

“The steppe of a large mountain, covered with pretty green fields. But the flowers all have the same few shades. They’re boring and ugly.”

“I want to look up...but I can’t. The sun doesn’t let me. I want to see the flower that I can’t find anywhere below. Where is it?”

“It’s the prettiest flower I’ll ever see, isn’t it?”

“Sakuto!” Oskar barked, after many failed attempts to awaken his friend from a very deep slumber. Sakuto himself was never a morning person.

“What is it?” Sakuto asked, dissatisfied. “Why the hell are you waking me up so early?”

“What a weird dream...”

“It’s like you forgot the schedule.” Oskar sighed. “Dyeman’s shenanigans are bound to start soon.”

“Did you even sleep properly yourself? How long were you out for?!” Sakuto asked, confused and still barely awake.

“I slept pretty well, actually.” Oskar replied. “Saw a dream too, a famous rapper gifted me a gaming console. No idea what that was all about but it was pretty cool.”

“When I have dreams it’s usually about me being back in that fuckass school...” Sakuto yawned.

“And on rare occasions, especially recently, it’s those dreams that have something special to them.”

Sakuto slowly got up. His first action was to check his phone. Scrolling a little in their group chat, he saw various conversations between Oskar and the girls, ranging from casual banter to the two sharing their concerns. He felt strange reading those messages.

One message in particular caught him off guard specifically. A brief message from Ichika with the words ‘I hope he’s safe.’ was enough to stun him. He stared at the message for a few seconds, before being distracted by his friend.

“Take this.” Oskar said, tossing him a black handgun. “It’s loaded.”

“Where’d you get these?” Sakuto asked, regaining his composure and inspecting the weapon. “What were you even doing when I was asleep?”

“It’s surprisingly easy to get guns here, all I had to do was ask for a request from Mr. Kamiki.” Oskar replied.

“And they listened? I thought they’d hate selling guns to soulfuls.” Sakuto said, moving over to put his clothes on. It was early morning, the desolate rays of sunlight pierced into the room in small clusters.

“They did once I offered to slide the owner some extra bread.” Oskar said.

“You bribed a gun store owner?” Sakuto asked, surprised.

“It is what it is.” Oskar said, playing around with his handgun, spinning it in his palm and almost accidentally shooting it.

“I thought chopping things at a distance with our weapons was enough.” Sakuto said. He concealed the firearm in his gray sportswear, his favorite clothes to wear.

“These are for soulless targets.” Oskar said, a bit hesitant. “Mr. Kamiki insisted that if we-”

“Yeah, I get it.” Sakuto interrupted. “Did you at least get info on our target?”

“Yeah. Jackal Kagerr, 17 years old. Extremely powerful soulful with the ability to...control shadows? Sounds interesting.” Oskar said. “Associated with multiple gangs. Isn’t known to be allied to any relevant soulful. Known terrorist.”

“Controlling shadows?” Sakuto sighed. “That means if I just adapt to them, we’ll be good.”

“Sounds like a badass ability.”

“Let’s roll then.” Oskar said, opening their number’s door.

...

[10:30 AM]

In the early hours, when most people would usually be busy with their commutes, the state was devoured by political turmoil. In the centre of its major city, Dyeman’s rally was establishing its dominance and spreading the pro-soulful agenda, while a few streets away, the Shellerist opposition was protesting. Crowds upon crowds of people were flooding the streets, wielding various propaganda posters and chanting their slogans. The media were circling the rallies like sharks, waiting to report on any bizarre situation.

An antithesis to Kaito’s somewhat paranoid thoughts, the Shellerist movement wasn’t impossibly difficult to stop. While Shellerists were loud and controlling most media outlets, the population that agreed with Dyeman was rather large and put up a fight in silence. There was still a dire necessity to guarantee that the scales of the election tipped in Dyeman’s favor. Hence why, two soulfuls were deployed to protect the rally and kill one of their kind.

“Take a good look.” Sakuto said. “These are the guys that love us.”

“For real.” Oskar sighed. “Do they even know what they’re shouting?”

“Well, they don’t support us because of our pretty eyes. The main idea is that Sheller is a jerk.” Sakuto said. “I’ve read about some of his policies on my way here. It’s surprisingly easy to consider them racist or whatever else.”

“Sheller’s a jerk, but realistically, he should be the one winning the election by a landslide.” Oskar sighed. “The damn corporations are on his side. All of the politicians are on their payroll. Nobody wants to do a thing.”

“Mhm.”

“One Night Ocean wasn’t enough, and I’ll keep repeating that for the rest of my life.” Oskar continued. “Sheller isn’t the issue, this whole soulless system is. They got their guns hot all the time after their core got hit.”

The two were navigating through the stacked crowds, barely managing to not lose one another. Everything was loud, overwhelming, everyone constantly pushed each other. Sakuto felt uncomfortable.

“What are we here to do anyways?” Sakuto asked. “This shit sucks.”

“I thought you were the one who got the exclusive mission briefing.” Oskar replied. He kept his hand by his waist, ready to unload a barrage of lead onto anyone he deemed a threat to the rally.

“Well, ‘guarantee security’ is pretty broad. I don’t think there’s-”

“What was that?”

“Huh?” Oskar said, squeezing himself out of the crowd.

“I don’t know.” Sakuto replied. “Felt like a soul presence. You feel anything?”

“Nah.” Oskar said. “Damn, you’ve gotten better at weeding out presences I guess.”

“I trained my ass off every day after Diego died. It only makes sense.” Sakuto said.

“You’re lucky. Hayk’s always busy when I ask him to train.”

“I trained by myself for the most part.” Sakuto said. “I think Hayk hates me or something.”

“Why’s that?”

“No idea.” Sakuto said. “Maybe he thinks I’m at fault for things ending up this way?”

“Maybe.” Oskar sighed.

“Hey! You two!” A bald man in a green shirt approached them. He presented them with some booklets. “If you’re interested in attending soulful integration classes, please contact the numbers listed below!”

“Soulful integration?” Sakuto asked, confused. “What the hell is that?”

“Special classes where the soulless are accustomed to soulfuls and learn to coexist and cherish one another.” Oskar said, reading from the booklet. “This feels weirdly offensive.”

“You have a problem with that?” The man asked, upset. “Are you Shellerists?”

“No, matter of fact, we’re-” Sakuto said, but was interrupted by Oskar stepping on his foot.

“You wanna be hogged by the whole crowd? Come on man, they look at soulfuls like exotic zoo animals.” Oskar said.

“What was that?” The man yelled. “Oi, you’re a filthy racist Shellerist! Hey everyone, these two guys are Shellerists!”

“What?!” Sakuto jumped back, slowly being surrounded by an angry mob. “What did we even do or say? We’re the people you’re supposed to be rooting for!”

“Are you surprised?” Oskar said, stepping back, trying to drag himself and his friend out of the encirclement. “It’s dumb puppets on both sides of the spectrum.”

“You’re right...” Sakuto said, trying to escape amidst the angry screams.

“Mindless cherishing and boycotting...”

“I was wrong to assume anything otherwise.”

“They’re just soulless.”

An explosion a few streets away was barely heard by the two. However, the resulting surge in the instigator’s soul presence was read clearly.

“It’s the same type of soul presence as before!” Sakuto exclaimed. He tried to break away from the mass, but a few upset hands were holding him by his clothes. “Over there, by the protests!”

“Let’s get there fast then!” Oskar said.

“Got it!" Sakuto nodded, still trying to break away. He tried to follow his friend, but couldn’t move much.

“Oi! Let go!” Sakuto exclaimed to the crowds, trying his hardest to make sense of what they’re sensing.

“I don’t want Oskar to engage a target alone, even for just a few seconds...”

“What if something happens?”

“What if-!”

“Let go of me you fucking soulless scum!” Sakuto yelled, summoning his blade in his hand and striking the ground. The impact knocked the surrounding people away, heavily wounding some of them. Enraged, Sakuto rushed to the direction of this presence...

...

“Hold steady, Q!” Jackal said, as his partner was barely hanging on to one of the almost collapsing buildings. Jackal himself was on a black pedestal high above the ground that he created with his own shadows. “We’re gonna find that bastard!”

“Have you gone insane?!” Q yelled. His hands were already weakened from holding himself, the building’s sudden rumbling caused him to fall. Luckily, Jackal’s shadowy tentacle caught him before he plummeted down. ”If you want Sheller to lose, this is not the right way to do it!”

“I don’t just want him to lose!” Jackal replied. Beneath him, the crowds were running in utter fear and desperation. He made his grand landing, releasing his shadows as a circular slash that managed to injure and kill quite a lot of protesters. “I wanna crush him and every single one of the assholes that he works with!”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Down there...” Q said with a terrified voice. “Right below me. Also get me down!”

“I’ll do something even better.” Jackal said, grabbing Q even tighter and slamming him into his target. He stepped into the shadow beneath him and popped up in front of the man.

“Who are you?” The man asked, petrified. “I-I don’t know you!! Please, I’m sorry!”

“You’re apologizing? You said you didn’t even know me.” Jackal replied. His shadows formed a sharp blade in his right hand. It stared at its target.

...

“The location of the presence is awfully close to the protests.” Sakuto said, rushing towards it. Oskar was running next to him. “It has to be him.”

“He’s a terrorist who only goes for big game. You sure?” Oskar asked.

“And what is this?” Sakuto asked back. “It’s the central protest movement, and it has a pretty loud spokesperson. If he gets killed, soulfuls will be hated even more. But if he-”

His words were interrupted as he saw the sight of that very spokesperson being pierced by a black blade. As his body fell down, Jackal was revealed in full glory. Behind him there was a setting of blood and mushed human remnants, paired with broken down buildings and ruined vehicles. Q slowly stood up, but before he even recovered from his concussion, he stared at the two soulfuls ahead of him.

Jackal’s gaze was enchanted by a crimson color. His fully black outfit was similar to his shadows. In a few moments, the shadows of the objects around them were conjured up in his fists and feet.

“Only Jackal is a soulful. Other one’s unknown.” Sakuto said to Oskar. The sound of police sirens approaching gave him an idea. He knew that they wouldn’t dare to intervene.

“If we strike him down right now, they’ll see us as heroes since we technically stopped a terrorist.”

“Now think.”

“The ability to manipulate and reshape shadows. Once I adapt to them, I’ll destroy him with ease. But I might get killed during the process itself.”

“How do I fight an endlessly versatile ability...?”

“Oskar...” Sakuto whispered.

“Yeah?”

“Hit it.”

Sakuto quickly sent a massive slash with his blade. It was aimed at the ground, which shattered and created a smokescreen. While Sakuto used it to flank, behind the thick clouds and debris, Oskar fired a lightning bolt.

Jackal, already alerted by the smokescreen, managed to preemptively defend himself. The lightning landed on his left arm, almost destroying it. As he started to focus on regenerating it, Sakuto attacked from the side.

“How damn aggressive.”

Jackal used his shadows to create a pair of sables, which he fended Sakuto off with. The two clashed ferociously. Amidst the many swings, Jackal mustered up a third arm and used it to swing a smaller black blade. Sakuto jumped back to evade, and Jackal went in for the counterattack, growing another arm in the process. And suddenly, he was pulled away.

“The phenomena of electromagnetism...doesn’t apply only to metals.”

“Souls themselves can be attracted and pushed away. Once they make contact with my electricity, that is.”

“In the little time Hayk had to train with me, he managed to teach me yet another extension of my soul expression.”

Jackal was pulled in towards Oskar. The latter greeted him with a powerful gut punch, following it up with a left kick that knocked Jackal Back. Jackal responded by transforming his additional arms into black shadowy tentacles that threw themselves at Oskar. Oskar dodged, but one of them caught his foot.

Sakuto closed the distance, but before he could land a hit, Jackal turned around and knocked him away with his shadows. Once more, the shadows in the environment were gathered in his palms. Jackal quickly covered himself with a sphere that rapidly expanded, knocking the two away. The sphere’s remnants transformed into sharp tentacles that chased them down. In the air, while trying his hardest to dodge the attacks, Sakuto sent a barrage of flying slashes at his opponent. Jackal took the hits.

“Judging by these guys’ presences...”

Sakuto landed, continuing to send powerful slashes at Jackal. Even if they didn’t hit him directly, they wrecked havoc on the buildings and terrain behind him. Jackal touched the ground, and a series of black spikes started emerging - the final destination being Sakuto himself. He tried to dodge, but the spikes melted into a giant hand and punched him into a nearby building.

At that moment, a small spark appeared on his chest.

Simultaneously, Oskar fired off another lightning bolt. This one missed Jackal’s head, but landed on his chest. Oskar quickly closed the distance, avoiding the spikes, knives, spears, and whatever else Jackal threw at him. He exchanged strikes with Jackal for a bit.

“Got it. Electromagnetism.” Jackal thought, trying his hardest to evade and counter attack.

“That’s why his punches have this weird paralyzing effect.”

“They’re imbued with high voltage electricity!”

Jackal stepped to the side and threw a kick, but Oskar evaded it. The two exchanged more blows, with Jackal starting to gain the upper hand thanks to his shadows. But when it seemed like Oskar was going for a haymaker, he switched his stance and went for a shove-kick instead. A questionable maneuver, had it not been for Sakuto waiting for him.

Sakuto pierced Jackal’s stomach with his blade, before getting knocked back. Oskar tried to attack, but the emerging spikes on the ground forced him to retreat. The spikes themselves rose from the ground like snakes and threw themselves at the two. Amidst the evasive movements, Sakuto decided to bite back. The two took turns attacking Jackal, with Oskar carefully setting up openings to fire off lightning bolts and Sakuto going all-in with his hand-to-hand prowess. That was until Sakuto decided to use a different solution. As soon as he made sure jackal was in between him and Oskar...

He pulled out his handgun and started emptying the magazine into Jackal. The bullets did non lethal damage, but they were very painful. Oskar caught on instantly and made it even worse - he pulled the bullets magnetically from the other side, making sure they would pierce Jackal’s body completely. If this continued, Jackal would be at risk of dying.

But amidst the chaos, Jackal smiled. He sent out a pair of shadowy slashes at Oskar, who was forced to let go of the magnetic attack to dodge. Jackal jumped up into the air, trapping himself in a giant black snake. The beast rushed at Sakuto, who prepared to defend himself.

“Shit!” Oskar panicked. He held his hands together, preparing to fire another lightning. He was interrupted by a rather uncomfortable pain in his shoulder, which he quickly discovered to be a bullet wound. The round was fired from Q’s handgun.

At the same time, Sakuto and Jackal were being flung across the terrain. Jackal chased him down with the beast, and Sakuto fought off the countless tentacles. The main issue wasn’t the attacks themselves, it was the fact that Jackal freely moved through his shadows. While Sakuto swung in one direction, Jackal countered from another.

“Strange.” Jackal thought, continuing his relentless offense. He transformed the beast into a pair of large shadowy cluster bombs that exploded and dealt great damage to Sakuto. The remnants of the shadows grabbed him and pummeled him into a tall building’s window.

“He’s surprisingly tanky. Or is it something else...?” Jackal thought, and soon, a bloodlusted smirk emerged on his face. He trapped Sakuto’s location in a black sphere that impaled itself with large spikes. But Sakuto was nowhere near. The soulful counterattacked from a lower floor, sending a pair of powerful slashes. Jackal dodged, starting to destroy the building with his shadows. Growing increasingly impatient, he rushed in himself, smashing through the building’s windows. In front of him was Sakuto, taking a stance.

“So you’re the revenant.” Jackal asked, almost amazed, painting a shadow sable at him. He looked like a young and hungry professional fighter, on his way to fight his idol champion for the title.

“Is that my nickname now?” Sakuto asked back, pointing his own weapon at him. “How’d you know about me?”

“How would I not? You look like a damn corpse.” Jackal said, conjuring up the nearby shadows. The room was slowly surrounded by a black curtain that corrupted the light gray walls. “You killed Diego. You either gotta have a crazy reason to do that, or you’re a reckless fucking psychopath.”

“What if it’s both?” Sakuto asked. He smiled a little himself, before stopping for a second and regaining his serious expression. He launched a slash at Jackal, who took the hit and...got himself decapitated?

“Makes you even more interesting.” A voice said from behind. Sakuto turned around and watched as Jackal’s body emerged from the shadowy curtains. His old corpse engulfed the floor in the same shadowy goo. “Are you a Shellerist or a Dyemanist?”

“The second one.” Sakuto replied. “That’s why I gotta kill you. To show the world that soulfuls stop evil terrorists.”

“Why not just kill every Shellerist?” Jackal asked. The room was now completely engulfed in the shadows. “Then kill the Dyemanists after. They’re all the same politicians, the same selfish scum.”

“Can’t do that. Gotta work under orders.” Sakuto replied. Instantly, the shadows closed in on him, but he found his way out. He struck the floor and fell down, and did that a few more times while the shadowy amalgamation was chasing him down. More and more shadowy shrapnel were attacking Sakuto, to the point where most of his back was covered in scars and blood. Finding the perfect moment, he dashed to the side and jumped out of a window.

The building behind him was completely destroyed from the inside out. Inside the shadowy thing was Jackal, enjoying every second of the fight. He captured Sakuto with a thin and fast tendril and held him in place.

“Carving your own path...”

“Just who the hell are you?!”

With a manic smile, Jackal focused his shadows into one spot and fired off an incredibly fast black arrow at Sakuto. Sakuto blocked it with his arms, but the arrow pierced right through them. Its tip stopped right at Sakuto’s neck, millimeters away from awfully injuring him.

For the second time, a small spark appeared on Sakuto’s chest.

Sakuto swung his sword, breaking the tendril apart and freeing himself. As he entered free fall, Jackal rushed him and dragged him into the walls of a nearby building. Sakuto didn’t allow that to succeed, and with all his strength, he threw Jackal up into the sky. He swung his sword and sent a large net of slashes towards Jackal, whose shadow was sliced apart. Jackal disappeared into the remaining shadow and popped up right next to Sakuto.

“After the first time his spark appeared, he became a little tougher. Now, he’s better at slicing my shadows apart and even stronger.”

“He’s...getting used to me?”

“Something like this, if prepared properly...would work perfectly against Diego.”

“I see it.” Jackal said, taking a step back. “Even without your friend, you’re still a handful to deal with.”

“You’re without your friend as well.” Sakuto replied. He didn’t notice the blood gushing out of his wounds. “I thought you’d never tag along with a soulless.”

“I see.” Jackal smirked. “Tag along, huh?”

“You think a soulless can keep up with you?” Sakuto asked, preparing to attack.

“I’ll need a better plan to kill him off instantly. Otherwise, he’ll just keep on getting stronger.” Jackal thought.

“He’s got sharp senses-”

“Shit, Q!!!”

Jackal quickly launched himself in the air and used his tendrils to escape the area.

“Oi, I ain’t letting you go!” Sakuto yelled. He tried to chase after him, but the pain and blood loss from his wounds forced him to stay. He had to focus on regeneration.

“Wait a minute...”

“Is he going for Oskar?!”

While the battle between soulfuls was going on, Q waited for the perfect opportunity to make a play. He aimed for Oskar’s head but shot him in the shoulder due to shaky aim. Oskar, on the other hand, rushed behind cover and tried to deal with the sudden intervention.

“Looks like Sakuto and the guy are one on one right now. I think he’ll be good.”

“As for this soulless...”

Hiding behind the ruins of a vehicle, Oskar took his own handgun out. He peeked and fired some shots, missing them, while Q returned fire. The first one to run out of bullets was...

“Why am I even playing his game?” Oskar thought to himself, concealing his weapon. He rushed out of his cover, and Q failed to hit his target. His hands were shaking.

“So this is how it feels...to fight a soulful?”

His heartbeat was loud. He took a few deep breaths in between shooting, and once he needed to reload, he was posed with a greater challenge. Oskar posed in front of him, clasping his hands, preparing to electrocute him.

“They’re so unnaturally strong...”

“They’re scary.”

Q stared down at his future executioner. He’s been in a lot of shootouts in his rather rough life, but he never felt the dread of facing a physically superhuman creature in a life-or-death scenario. He tightly held onto his weapon.

Oskar, on the other hand, prepared to fire a lightning bolt.

“I don’t want to die.”

Amidst the troubling thoughts, Q found himself suspended mid air. Jackal’s shadows dragged him out into the sky, where the two would regroup and prepare to escape.

“Huh?” Q seemed surprised.

“They separated us, Q.” Jackal said, rushing them away from the scene. “Tough shit. You would’ve died there.”

“What a phenom.”

“I know I’ll get to see you again, Sakuto Hitori.”

...

“Oskar!” Sakuto yelled, running towards his friends.

“Huh? What’s wrong?” Oskar asked, watching as Jackal retreated.

“Shit...I thought he ran off to jump you.” Sakuto sighed. His arms were covered in blood. “He’s pretty damn strong.”

“So...we just failed to kill him, I guess?” Oskar sighed, focusing on trying to regenerate his own wounds.

“I guess...I can try calling Mr. Kamiki, at least we can give him some info.” Sakuto said. “But first we get outta here. Cops are gonna swarm the place now.”

“We might’ve messed up...” Oskar said, slowly stepping back. Approaching the two were rows of police and army vehicles, but worst of all, camera crews and media reporters.

“They’re gonna think it was us, aren’t they?”

“Run for it!” Oskar yelled, as the two ran away. They had difficulties doing so due to their injuries, but the fear of being exposed worldwide as terrorists drove them to their maximum speed.

“Do they think we’re allied with Jackal?” Sakuto thought, making his escape.

“No! we’re the ones who fended him off! Although...”

“To be fair, his methods don’t seem far too unreasonable.”

However, amidst their escape, they ran into someone who was surrounded by the press. And that someone, despite being a familiar face to Sakuto, was also a soulful.