-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Helpless(1)-

Unaware of Lily’s thoughts Kenshin continued to be jolly around Yuki until it was time for him to go back. It was already midnight, any late wouldn’t be good for her health.

“Okay, Yuki, I am going. You too soon hurry home and take rest.”

“I know. Don’t forget to report here the day after tomorrow. The mission to the sea monsters is starting from that day.” Nodding his head in confirmation, Kenshin bid her goodbye and briskly walk back home. Humming a jolly tune, he behaved as if he just didn’t cause a massacre and even raided the enemy territory and kidnapped a target.

Every now and then he would imitate a dancing move. The road was completely empty as it was the middle of the night, he wouldn’t feel embarrassed just by doing some steps, besides his face was still covered in that military grade mask. Just as he turned a corner, suddenly he stopped but didn’t turn around.

“Is there a reason you are following me all this time?” his tone sounded calm as if he was talking to himself. Just after he finished talking, the darkness behind him shook and stretched before a woman appeared. She was none other than Lily, Yuki’s assistant. Kenshin had marked everyone he associated with a marker of various color. Just before he left the premise of office, he had noticed her following him silently. Sometime she would speed up while other time she would slow down considerably. Unable to take it anymore, he decided to expose her.

“As I thought, you already knew I am following you.” Her tone was nothing like how she usually interact while in Yuki’s presence. It contained a hint of a tease as well as wonder. Her cold persona was a façade it seemed. Kenshin didn’t care about it though, he was more interested in why she was following him for so long.

“You did to not answer my question. why are you following me?” Kenshin, although sounded calm, he was actually very anxious. He suddenly got a premonition that if he stayed any longer with her, he might be dragged into some troublesome business. This Lily was clearly stronger than him in term of the level, though he couldn’t be sure about stats. If she attacks him, there would be no way he was leaving here unscathed.

“Umm! So impatient!! You know girls don’t like impatient boys right?” she teased again but didn’t dare to come any closer.

“Really? Well, I don’t want others to care as long as the one I care, likes me…but…why are you looking for me?” although he was yet to move around, he was ready for any unexpected movements on her part.

“Well…whatever. Since you are impatient anyway, I will down to business. Can you show me your Intent? Just once, that’s all.”

“What? You are following me all this time just for this one thing? You could have asked me this even while inside the office right? Tell me what you really want?” Kenshin was unconvinced. He didn’t believe that she was looking for him for this just small thing.

“Haha! Indeed it's not as simple as that. I want you to fight with me using your intent only. No skill, only a battle of intents…what do you say? Can we do that?” crossing her arms under her breast, she shifted on her feet while looking into Kenshin’s eye for an answer.

“But why? What did you want from me?” Kenshin furrowed his brows and turned around, shaking his head he asked as he couldn’t understand the implications behind her actions.

“You…forget it, I don’t want to involve myself in any sticky situation. I don’t want to know anymore.” With that, he turned around and prepared to leave, but then suddenly a golden colored string came out of nowhere and tied itself into his left hand, preventing him from going any further. Looking down, he found the string that bound his hand was going through the ground while the other end of it was connected to Lily’s hand.

‘Is this her Intent?’ Kenshin wondered before shaking his head and glaring at Lily who was smirking under the street light. She was looking both beautiful and deadly, causing Kenshin to have a weird sense of De Ja Vu. He seemed to recall someone else who also looked both sexy and deadly while wielding her powers.

“What is the meaning of this? Do you really want to force me into this?” already knowing her intention, Kenshin could only stare at her helplessly. Why was he so unfortunate to encounter such protagonist like situations?

“I am only asking to have a look at your Intent, but you are refusing. It's your fault in the first place…” she sounded so unreasonable that Kenshin just wished to slug her face and be done with it. But seeing the power gap, he might not succeed. With another helpless sigh, he looked down before suddenly his hands enveloped in thick red fire. As the red fire emerged, the string attached to his left hand also shook, it twisted and turned but didn’t burn or destroyed like how Kenshin wished. It remained resilient.

“Hmm! Nice! Its already at the stage of the first accenssion…good. I am not mistaken it seems. Well, I wonder what are the properties it held…” muttering to herself, Lily realized her right hand and condensed a huge amount of golden strings before it joined together to form a whip. Grabbing the other end of the whip, she lashed at Kenshin’s face with mild force.

Widening his eyes, Kenshin leaned backward to avoid the whip slash, but before he could complain, another slash came, aiming at his neck. This time he knew he could not dodge it as there was not enough time. Raising his right hand, he conjured a purple shield of destruction manipulation. But the whip just phased through the shield as if it wasn’t even there and continued towards his neck. A helpless look flashed in the eyes of Kenshin. He knew Lily didn’t want his life and it was a nonlethal strike, but still, he was sure that it would be painful.

And painful it was. When the whip landed just below his neck, Kenshin felt like someone just scalded his skill with a hot iron rod. It was painful and burned a whole lot. But there was not a single sign of burning on his skin, in fact, no wound was visible on his body.

[-248]

His HP was reduced by nearly 250 points, and it was just a casual strike from this woman. For the first time in his life, Kenshin felt what a power gap feels like. His assumptions about contending against a level 150 hunter instantly dashed out of the window with just this one strike. This Lily shouldn’t have passed level 150 barrier, but still, her casual strike could shave off such a huge amount of Kenshin’s HP. Her attacks weren't even blockable, and although it causes damages to him, it wasn’t visible.

As much as he felt the pain, he also felt weird out by this. Why can’t he block her strike? He could understand if she could break open his defenses, but her attacks just phased through them like it was thin air.

‘What was that? What is happening here?’ Kenshin couldn’t make head or tail about this. Clutching his neck which felt like burning to him, he stared at Lily with a face that wanted to know what was happening to him.