163 -=Battle of Uzushio - Part 3 Illusions and delusions=-
Mei looked around her
"That wasn't so bad..." She remarked while stepping on the head of the last enemy Cooper created in his illusion
A bunch of melted bodies stuck in semi-solidified lava and many more corroded beyond recognition lay on the ground that was strangely spotless even though a bloodbath happened above it
*clap clap clap*
Mei turned her head to the origin of the sound
Cooper
standing right where he was at the start of this battle, clapping
"I am most impressed Miss Terumi, I didn't expect you to have so little trouble dealing with them" Cooper remarked while looking at the few scratches visible on Mei's body
"you underestimated me because that's not even qualified as a warm-up" Mei replied
but in truth, she would have fared way worst in this fight if not for a very specific event that happened on Kiri some time ago
one she wouldn't be able to forget...
a certain pink-haired girl... no, pink-haired demon, one day just entered Kiri while asking everyone if they saw a new demon lord or something
and when not only bo one had, but also some ninjas tried to arrest her for trespassing...
yeah... let's just say, it was not a good time to live in Kiri
luckily she was easily distracted by Mei, but not because she was strong or smart enough to distract the little demon
but because, and just because, that girl took a liking to Mei's jutsus, saying they were super cool
and thus Mei had to fight with that girl every day for a month until she got bored and left again
while that helped her to get much better at fighting, it still did Kiri quite a hit
for some unknown reason, the little girl ate an ungodly amount of food, and she beat up so many ninjas in her time at Kiri, that even healing them took another 2 months
Kiri's economy got hit, badly
and thus, Mei had to accept attacking Kiri, because no other village would help Kiri, besides maybe Konoha, but at some questionable price at best
"That's quite an interesting story Miss Terumi" Cooper remarked
"Tsk, I forgot you can apparently read my mind"
"Indeed, it would seem like you did"
A tick mark appeared on Mei's forehead
for her, it seemed like Cooper was taunting her
"I assure you, I have no intention of provoking you Miss Terumi, I have already learned all I needed about emotions and physical triggers for them, I am much more interested in how your chakra is trying to interrupt my illusion instead"
Mei didn't get any less annoyed by Cooper's words, if anything she got more annoyed that he, once again, read her thoughts
Most ninjas have a type of enemy they hate to fight, Mei finally found hers... mind readers
it seems it was in her best interests to never antagonize the Yamanaka clan if Konoha
"I can assure you that no one inside the Yamanaka clan can do what I am doing"
Cooper said calmly
"STOP READING MY MIND!" Mei finally had enough of Cooper's mind reading, and also of her failed attempts to discreetly disrupt the genjutsu, which all proved futile
she quickly made hand seals, and without even thinking of the jutsu's name, she spat a cloud of corrosive mist against Cooper
and to her astonishment, Cooper didn't even try to dodge, he stood there, the attack hit him and he slowly melted into nothing
"Wha-?" Confused, she looked at the place Cooper was at warily for quite some time, but after she saw nothing happen and the surroundings change back to the battlefield of Uzu, she finally accepted Cooper as dead
"Your conclusion is incorrect, I fear Miss Terumi"
Hearing the voice behind her, she jumped back in a hurry, fighting the urge to scream because of the jumpscare
She glared at Cooper, who was very much alive and standing in front of her again
"How did you escape that?" She asked
while this was a dumb move as no enemy would answer that question, Cooper seemed strangely cooperative, he truly didn't act like this was a fight
what Mei didn't know is that he was like that because it truly was no fight, he had won the moment he decided she would be his opponent
But even though Cooper read her mind and saw that thought, he didn't bother replying to it
some things are better left unsaid, lest he makes Mei become emotionally unstable in fear and make his test results get useless data
at his core, Cooper was still a researcher, not *just* a fighter
Mei looked around once more... everything was silent
way too silent
she finally noticed that she was still in a genjutsu
'shit...'
"Language Miss Terumi" Cooper remarked
"Shut it..." She replied shortly, immediately jumping at Cooper
"I see you are ready again, that was 1 out of 1000... I wish you good luck"
'Lava release!'
Mei immediately spat a big ball of lava at Cooper at basically hand-to-hand range, yet he easily dodged it by... fading away?
'What kind of jutsu allows someone to do that?' Mei wondered
"Sadly, I must inform you that I cannot answer that question of yours, Miss Terumi..." Cooper replied sadly
But that only annoyed Mei again
"I didn't ask you!"
"Uhm... I see, I will be more careful next ti-"
While speaking Cooper's eyes widened for a second
in the real world, he looked at a scene he didn't like one bit
"Now, that's not very nice of them...
a shame I have to drop my experiment so early, but something more important is happening" He said
In a second, Mei's perception run wild as she seemed to see everything that happened in front of her while she was in the illusion as she came back to her body
In truth, Cooper had imprisoned more than her mind in an illusion, instead, it was her soul
Cooper had not lied in speaking that he had nothing to learn about emotions, but he also didn't tell her the whole truth as it was completely unnecessary
Cooper had learned almost everything he could of the physical side of things, so he was studying Mei's soul while it was stuck in an illusion
that's why, when her soul went back to her body, her new physical memories rushed through her soul, stunning her
She didn't know what happened, how it happened, or when it happened, but she assumed her incessant chakra flaring in various patterns somehow broke Cooper's illusion
she couldn't be more wrong, but she could never be able to guess what happened truly
the truth is that Cooper fell straight into a cliffhanger...
Cooper: ◉_◉