It seems the granny's spell worked, but based on what had just happened to me a few seconds ago, you'd start to wonder why she didn't bother trying to constrain Kou's body. With the amount of force he had used to hit me, I doubt it would be that easy.
I lazily scouted the area, hoping to catch at least a glimpse of Yumiko, but of course she was nowhere to be found. She must have flown quite a distance. I was relieved that it wasn't me who got the Yumiko treatment, but that wasn't the problem at hand.
The grass was soft. I wish I could lay here for a much longer time period, but Kou was in trouble, so the least I could do was get up and save his nerdy ass.
"Hmm... it's been a long time since I got a physical form. How strange." Kou's voice, compared to his nerdy, innocent one, was way deeper and reeked of nothing but unwarranted confidence. They sounded like two completely different people.
I managed to get myself off the soft grass and stared at the supernatural, who stood at least fifteen meters from my location.
"Kou shouldn't be able to hit that hard. Was this your doing?" I barely spoke before I clenched my arm tightly.
"Indeed. This vessel poses to be weak compared to anything I've seen or experienced, but it's because of that why his body is a gift." He replied, barely giving me a single glance.
What exactly did he mean?
"It means his body is intentionally merging with Kou's." Another voice spoke further from the both of us. Down the road, just ten meters away, stood Yumiko, but unlike the other moments I've met her, she didn't have this look to her.
Anger.
"Huh? Merging? You mean the supernatural is fusing with Kou's body? But how?"
"It's because Kou doesn't possess negative energy. Most cases, if he were to merge with people like us, it would be impossible. Negative energy goes deeper than just negative emotions. Negative energy is a fusion of one's soul, mind, and body. In other words, your ideology, your mentality, your emotions are put into play as well." Yumiko spat out an unreasonable amount of blood, and her broken right arm had her own bones clearly poking out of it.
Without batting an eye, she ripped the leftover of her right arm off and tossed it into the lake. All I did was stare in horror as Yumiko's arm began to grow back at an insane rate. Tissues were forming, blood was forming, and her bones were fixing on their own. The rate at which her body was healing supersedes mine by a far margin.
"Regeneration?" That was enough to catch the attention of the possessed Kou, but his face felt distant, clearly not reading too much of what he had just witnessed.
"If a supernatural were to form a contract and be placed into any vessel of some sort, specifically with negative energy, it's simply like a body reset. Similar to how you'd say a parasite would take over its host, but these are two different lifeforms competing for one body, so of course the parasite would want to create a phenomenon in which it could survive its own host." Yumiko's explanation had become understandable.
"So in other words, if that supernatural were to be inserted inside either of us, we'd both be battling for one body. If we fail, there's a high chance you'd lose your whole body, a complete rewrite of the soul, body, and mind asserted by the winning host." I came to that conclusion.
When you put it that way, it does make sense. Then the main reason why this supernatural could fuse at a steady rate without any problems in Kou's body is because
"Kou doesn't have negative energy, so the supernatural could rewrite everything about Kou easily." At that moment, I feared my own conclusion, not because I was scared of the outcome, but because I was mad at myself for whatever this situation was.
"Yumiko, why didn't you tell me this would happen?" I screamed at her profusely.
"Don't fret. This was to be expected. All we have to do is defeat this supernatural. That's all."
I remembered this feeling. This was no different from when Yumiko saved me from that tentacle supernatural. She claims she wishes to save him, but yet, Yumiko, why do your eyes seem so cold? Are you mad, or do you genuinely not care?
At that moment, I was scared. What if Yumiko had suddenly drifted away from us?
"Defeat me? May I ask how you're going to do that?" The supernatural asked with a coy grin.
Seeing Kou make such a face felt off putting.
Before I could even respond to the supernatural's question, Yumiko moved.
There was no warning.
No stance.
No hesitation.
The ground beneath her feet exploded.
Yumiko vanished in a blur of red and black, the air cracking violently as she crossed the distance between them in less than a second. Her regenerated arm twisted unnaturally, veins bulging as black patterns crawled up her skin.
"Shut up."
Her fist connected, or at least, it should have.
The supernatural reacted instantly, Kou's body bending backward at an impossible angle as Yumiko's punch grazed past his cheek, the shockwave alone carving a trench through the road behind him. Asphalt peeled up, trees snapped like twigs, and the lake's surface rippled violently.
But Yumiko didn't stop.
She twisted mid air, driving her knee forward, negative energy erupting from her body like a furnace. The strike landed square in Kou's chest.
BOOM.
The sound was deafening.
Kou's body was sent flying, smashing through three trees before embedding itself into a massive boulder near the lake. Dust and debris filled the air.
For half a second
Everything went silent.
"You're insane," I muttered under my breath.
Yumiko landed lightly, blood dripping from her mouth, eyes locked onto the crater she'd just created. Her breathing was heavy, but steady.
"That won't kill it," she said flatly. "But it'll slow the fusion."
Before I could reply, the boulder shifted.
Then cracked.
Then shattered.
Kou stepped out of the debris, brushing dust off his shoulder like he'd just tripped. His chest, where Yumiko had hit him, was visibly caved in, ribs broken and skin torn open.
And yet
The flesh twitched.
Bones snapped back into place.
Muscle rewove itself.
"Fascinating," the supernatural said, rolling Kou's neck. "So this is negative energy refined to such a degree. No wonder this body struggled against yours."
His gaze finally met mine.
"You," he said, smiling. "You reek of hesitation."
I clenched my fists.
That pressure again.
Not physical.
Not spiritual.
Something heavier.
The supernatural raised his hand slightly
And the ground around me collapsed.
Barely, I jumped out of the way and right next to Yumiko's side. That ground breaking felt strange, but at the same time felt natural. That exact spot I did stand on felt relatively weak, but not to the point of collapsing.
Was that the supernatural's power?
"Be careful, Yuu. His ability to inflict bad luck on people is pretty much meddlesome."
That's right, his ability of bad luck. But how does he inflict his bad luck onto others? If it's just as Granny said, to be able to manipulate a small radius of reality to create scenarios that are resulted by bad luck, then he wouldn't need to physically give you bad luck.
Then no matter how hard we try to avoid it, this bad luck will come out as natural in a sense. He's one tough opponent, and added with insane attack power and speed, the only thing I can do is
I tapped into my psychic powers. Yumiko gave me a slight gaze before readying herself for battle.
"Don't slow me down, Yuu."
"Look who's talking."
The supernatural leaped off from where he stood right back to the road. Was the supernatural mocking us? Either way, we had to save him.
Yumiko charged right at the supernatural. A burst of wind blew right past from the sheer force of speed she had attained.
After gaining close distance, she leaped through the air, spun around in anticipation for a kick she had been planning, but barely, the kick was casually dodged by the supernatural.
At that moment, his blind spot was wide open. He had been focusing on Yumiko. He hadn't realized I made a move. I appeared right beside him. With the help of telekinesis, I pulled out a metal rod right from the ground and, with a throw motion, made an attempt to shove the metal pole right at it, but
The friction between my legs unexpectedly gave out. My right leg slid a little, making me lose balance, but I still threw the metal pole at the supernatural, and he completely dodged it.
Confused, I looked under my shoe, and a pebble was right underneath.
This was what made me lose balance? Don't tell me his powers are already in play.
Was this what made me slip up? Where did it even come from?
"It seems you're confused," the supernatural mocked.
With the focus the supernatural had on me, Yumiko leaped into the air, her nails sharp and elongated, ready to pierce whoever stood in front of her.
But yet, the supernatural reacted.
Not immediately.
There was a delay, barely noticeable, but enough for something to go wrong.
Yumiko's claws were inches from his throat when the road beneath her cracked. Not shattered, not exploded, just fractured at the wrong angle. Her foot slipped a few centimeters, her trajectory skewed just enough that her strike missed its vital point and instead tore through Kou's collarbone.
Blood spilled.
Kou's body jerked violently, eyes rolling back as he screamed in pain.
The supernatural clicked his tongue.
"Tch. Sloppy."
He twisted his torso and grabbed Yumiko's wrist mid air. The grip wasn't strong, at least, it shouldn't have been, but her footing was already compromised. The moment he pulled, the remaining asphalt beneath her gave way completely.
She was yanked off balance and slammed into the ground shoulder first.
Crack.
The impact wasn't lethal, but it was clean. Efficient. Her body skidded several meters across the road before stopping.
"Yumiko?"
What was going on? No, Yumiko wouldn't make such a mistake in her attacks. Then the supernatural's abilities are in full swing, but something about it seems completely off. So far, it only made occurrences for us making simple slip ups, but back when it was a doll, it was capable of causing a full blown accident and sending a widescreen wiper right at us. Don't tell me it's putting more negative energy into merging inside Kou's body. That would explain why the supernatural is so stuck up on physical combat.
"Why do you hesitate?"
The supernatural's question caught me off guard.
"So far, all I've been seeing is the lady actually fight back. All you've done is one basic ability. Don't you feel ashamed? Are you scared of using your power? Why are you intentionally limiting your power?"
Coldly, Kou's finger pointed right in my direction.
My mind went blank. This was no different from when I barely survived against the tentacle supernatural. All I've been doing is indirectly running away, scared that if I were to rely on these powers, I would repeat the same incident.
Within me was grief so powerful a tear almost fell. In the end, is this all I could do? Complain and lose? Rely on both Yumiko and Kou to the very end?
Why was I so scared of sacrificing?
"Yuu, it's fine." Yumiko's voice called out to me.
I turned in a hint of pity as I stared at Yumiko with a grin on her face while forcing herself to get up.
"You're worried, aren't you? Don't you have faith in yourself? No one is telling you to accept your powers now. You can do that later, but if you don't use it, then the point of finding out the truth of yours is pointless. I know it's painful, but that's the only way to survive."
Yumiko's words were aggressive, but yet passionate. If I wasn't the kind to take her seriously, I might have been deeply touched. It didn't matter what my current predicament was. Even if I see my powers as some sort of curse, it still didn't change the fact that I have and will use it, rely on it in order to survive. Sorry, Kou, for making you wait.
"Hmph. This is a common troupe when it comes to defeating an enemy, ain't it? With the power of friends, I can achieve any"
Before the supernatural could finish, a powerful force surged against Kou's body, pushing him. Although on his feet, it pushed him at least ten meters further from my direction.
"How interesting. I will deal with you first."
Right before my eyes, Kou's body vanished. At an incredible pace, my eyes scouted the area, but yet no sign of Kou's body.
How fast was he?
I couldn't even get a thought through before I felt a slight pull on the back of my shirt.
"Let's dance, Yuu," the supernatural whispered right behind my ear and yeeted me through the air.
How physically strong did he make Kou's body become?
I flew through the air like a torpedo, barely unable to keep my balance. The supernatural was in pursuit of me.
Mid air, Kou's right leg was raised and immediately came crashing down in my direction, but this version of myself wasn't limited anymore.
I barely avoided the kick and maneuvered myself with enough momentum, coated my right arm with negative energy, and landed a blow successfully to the side of Kou's belly. He flew straight to the ground, but yet my attack showed no signs of damaging him as he managed to land on both feet.
I landed on the ground as well, but unlike the last time, I felt somewhat relieved.
So let's get this battle started.