Chapter 3: The Final Wish

"What was that just now?" Shin asked Sylvia, recollecting his composure and wiping off the blood from his cheek with his right thumb.

"Assassins," Sylvia answered sternly. She closed her eyes for a second to perform a scan of their surroundings.

'One stayed behind, four of them approaching the shrine.'

"Who are they after?"

Sylvia looked at Shin directly into his deep azure eyes and pointed her finger on his chest.

"They're after YOU."

"Why?"

"Shut up, let's go," Sylvia left through the doorway with a limping gait. She had barely recovered her energy from her prior ordeal, returning home quickly. Shin followed her, a duffel bag strung across his left shoulder.

"Do you need help?"

"No, thank you."

Four figures appeared, surrounding them in all four cardinal directions. They each pulled a dagger from their backs with the exception of the short robust figure, Mukuro, who walked a few steps forward and stood his ground. The other three began to circle around Sylvia and Shin, slowly closing in the gap. Sylvia took a few steps back, bumping into Shin. There they stood, back-to-back against their adversaries.

"What are you doing?" Sylvia whispered.

"Watching your back, of course."

"You should run ahead of me, they're pros. You can't hope to beat them, more so, stand on equal terms."

"Hmph, we'll see about that," Shin charged his circuits which shone bright green and dashed towards the short robust figure, who stood still. He twisted his back and turned his hips, transferring his entire body momentum on his fists.

"Take this! Backwave Fist!"

Shin's knuckles hit Mukuro, creating a small vacuum which sucked everything around it and with a push, all the gathered force was released instantaneously, propelling Mukuro backwards, however, he barely bulged from his position and was only pushed a few centimeters back.

"IDIOT!" Sylvia shouted. She tried to relocate near Shin to assist him, however the three hooded figures surrounded her after they circled around. Sylvia clenched her fists.

"Out of the way," she demanded and yet, the three figures only took a stance and stood their ground implying that she would have to get past them first.

"Fine then," Sylvia gritted her teeth and raised her fists as she rushed to the three hooded figures, punching the ground near them, creating huge cracks and ripples, as if she dropped something in a large body of water. The shockwave created tremors that forced the three hooded figures to jump off the ground. However, this was what she was aiming for. She quickly used Flash Step to close the distance. In an instant, she axe kicked one of them, elbowed the other and kneed the last one. All three were sent to the ground with astounding force which was enough to crush their bones and rupture their organs, killing all of them apiece.

"Interesting," Mukuro grunted, lowering his hood and revealing a crack on the forehead of his noh mask. At that moment, Mukuro placed his palm just over Shin's forehead and the boy was forcefully propelled backwards with a violent gust of wind into the huge tree in the shrine's backyard, knocking the boy unconscious. A devious smirk crept upon Mukuro's face as he stared at his palm.

"I admire your guts. However, you are too weak, boy."

Sylvia, who just killed three of Mukuro's companions, came rushing towards the latter. She aimed a roundhouse kick at his stomach which Mukuro quickly evades by back-dashing, creating a ten meter space from Sylvia. Sylvia followed up by a Flash Step, then a point blank Backwave Fist towards Mukuro's mask. Her speed and power was different from Shin's. Mukuro couldn't react to Sylvia's combo. It was called the Raging Tiger.

Mukuro was forced backwards, rolling on the ground until he was able to halt his momentum by activating his PSI frame. The PSI frame he had came in a set of two arm bracelets and two feet bracelets. The bracelets lit up a certain color depending on the individual's PSI capacity which is based on the light spectrum. Red being the lowest and violet being the highest. Mukuro's frame went green which means he had a moderate amount of capacity. The frame allowed the user to be able to 3D-maneuver without using any sort of mystic art or magecraft.

"Heh? That toy of yours is intriguing. It emulates the circuits of an Exceed. But, that's not enough to beat me," Sylvia beckoned to Mukuro, taunting the short robust figure.

"I wonder about that?" Mukuro flashed a demented grin as the lower half of his mask fell off, revealing a long serrated scar running across his dry lips and poorly shaved stubble.

Sylvia sensed that something was amiss. She indeed detected five of them earlier and defeated three of them. Moreover, she realized that there were none of them carrying a gun or anything that could have done the barrage of bullets earlier.

Fuck, they have a sniper. Ayat—

She looked at where Shin crashed earlier and found him still unconscious. Realizing that the sniper could have been aiming at Shin, she immediately rushed towards him with a Flash Step.

"'Tis too late, the bullet has been fired," Mukuro chuckled. The ten minutes he had bought ended when he activated his frame.

The bullet brushed past Sylvia's hair as she approached Shin using Flash step. She knew she wouldn't make it to Shin in time, so she decided to body block the bullet. On the next millisecond, she fortified her body, charging up her ki on every circuit in her body. The millisecond after, another Flash step which allowed her to be ahead of the bullet by one second, enough to adjust her position to block the bullet. She had to vibrate her body at the same frequency as the bullet so it wouldn't phase through her body and hit the unconscious Shin. The bullet made an impact at the third second, hitting Sylvia directly at her chest. The force was tremendously strong, equivalent to a 500 ton weight dropped from outer space to the planet.

On the fourth second, Sylvia realized that any longer would vaporize her so she had to redirect the bullet away. The force was too much for her body to handle. Immediately, she called upon her authority.

Guardian of the Void

whose journey has yet to end

Manifest at once.

The flow of time had momentarily stopped and black light covered Sylvia. Her eyes grew as dark as the pitch black abyss, devoid of light. On her left eye a seal in violet appeared, a crow and a raven chasing each other's tails in circular motion. Her garments turned into shades of black, the white linen of her kimono and the red sash. She swung her left arm to her side and deflected the bullet causing it to miss its target.

Time slowly flowed again. Her form began to fade, returning her original appearance. She raced to Shin's side, trying to wake him. Blood slowly trickled from his forehead down to his cheek.

"Hey, Shin… Wake up! Oi…"

Shin slowly opened his eyes, his pupils trying to adjust to his lucid surroundings. He felt nauseous from blood loss accompanied by labored breathing.

"Oh, Sylv—"

He coughed up blood, interrupting his speech.

"Hang in there Shin. I'll cast a recovery spell on you."

Just as Sylvia began invoking the spell, a hand pierced through her chest, instantly breaking her origin circuit.

"Fucking bast—"

Her very life flashed into her eyes. She recalled her one regret and thought as darkness crept into her consciousness.

'How I wish this wasn't the way we met. Fate really is indeed cruel, played me once again.'

Sylvia fell into Shin's arms and she exerted all the energy she could muster just to caress his cheek, her fingers leaving trails of blood on them.

Shin, I lo— No…

"Don't forget about me, okay?"

She cried out as she breathed her last, smiling innocently. Her arms collapsed and the light in her eyes that Shin used to adore was gone. Despite Shin's weakened state, he felt a sudden rush of adrenaline enough for him to shout.

"SYLVIAAAAAA!"

"I'll take that as your last words, boy," Mukuro paused to tap on his earpiece to reopen the PSI link to Aoko and continued, "Take the shot."

Ten kilometers from Mukuro's position was Aoko in a sniping position. She reloaded the Black Barrel and took aim.

"Barrel burst level is at fifty percent, no issues. Energy cores one through four, all functional. Structural integrity is at seventy percent. All conditions, green and ready to go. Black Barrel, fire!"

She pulled the trigger and the recoil pushed her backwards, creating a gush of wind flowing the opposite of her direction. The bullet left the barrel at a speed of mach five. With no more interruptions in the way, the bullet was sure to find its mark and take the boy's life.