Author here!Sorry for the delay—I had to be with my mom at the hospital. I really appreciate your patience.Now, here's your chapters—enjoy!
The air cracked.
Yami's body became blur and steel, her long hair twisting like razors. In one step, she closed the distance between herself and Lala.
I reacted.
A shield of living black surged from Lala's back, intercepting the blow mid-swing. The impact echoed like metal on metal.
Lala slid back from the force, boots dragging along the rooftop.
"Don't hurt her!" she shouted.
"I'm not here for her," Yami snapped. "I'm here for you."
Another dash. This time faster.
I extended from Lala's arms—malleable, armored. Blade met tendril. Sparks flew.
Lala spun under a strike, letting me guide her body into a parry. The movements weren't practiced, but they were fast—precise. Unified.
"She's not your puppet," Yami growled, voice low. "I see the way you coil around her."
"And I feel her heartbeat," I answered. "She trusts me."
Yami's gaze flared with emotion—almost a flicker of something deeper. Not rage.
Jealousy?
A moment too long.
I retaliated. My arm launched a piercing spike—not at her chest, but at her shadow.
She dodged… almost.
It grazed her calf. Black thread laced across skin in a flash—so thin, so fast, so delicate she didn't feel it.
A seed.
Planted.
Hidden.
But the fight wasn't over.
She countered, slamming a wave of kinetic force across Lala's torso. Lala flew back, landing hard on her side. I absorbed the worst of it.
"She's not ready for this," I whispered to myself.
Yami prepared the final strike. Hair shifting into jagged spears. Muscles coiling.
And then—
"STOP!!!"
Rito's voice cut through the wind like a bell.
He stumbled onto the rooftop, panting, arms flailing. "What the hell is going on?!"
Yami froze.
Lala coughed. "Rito—get back!"
Yami's stance held. But her eyes shifted.
She looked at Rito.
Then at Lala.
Then… at me.
And something unreadable passed over her face.
"Tch."
She vanished in a blur of motion—hair dissolving into static as she leapt off the rooftop and disappeared into the wind.
Silence followed.
Lala sat up, chest heaving. I knit her injuries closed from within.
"She would've killed you," Rito said, terrified.
"No," Lala whispered.
"She hesitated."
Inside her, I whispered silently to myself.
And she carries my seed now.
System Log – Seed Transmission: Golden Darkness
Status: Dormant
Integration: 2%
Risk Level: Critical
Emotional Access: Denied
Override Pathway: Undetermined
Yami was strong.
But even weapons can be reshaped from the inside.
In time.