Archangels of War

I was knocked backwards all the way onto the glass bridge by Yuri's punch. 

My head snapped backwards, and I could immediately feel the heat of the bruise on my face. Yuri had punched me in the face. It was so sudden, and so out of nowhere that I didn't even think to dodge. His blow had hit me on my right cheek, and it nearly knocked me off my feet. 

I turned back to face the direction of the hall, where Yuri was walking out. He clicked his two bracelets together, and they transformed into a pair of dual pistols. He aimed them at me. I couldn't see his eyes, but I could feel the anger emanating from his entire body. 

I spit out blood over the railing. 

"Do you seriously believe that if you just dedicate your life, and give all of yourself up to your sister, that it would help her more, than if you tried to act like her actual brother?" 

Another scathing remark, one that stung deep. Yuri was reading me like a book. 

"It makes me wonder. Is Kami as worthless as you are?" 

That question served as the final straw. All of the anger that I had no outlet for, the anger that had been building up since I saw Kami's bruised face, it all boiled over and exploded out. I reached into my pocket and grabbed a reality marble. Small marbles that could shrink the size of things and store them. I crushed it, and my wand appeared in my hand. I unsheathed the long blade. 

No matter how worthless I was, and how much he pointed it out, the one thing that I would refuse to stand for would be anyone calling my sister anything less than amazing. His comment spurred so much anger in me that I could feel my own face burning, and my hands clenched my blade so tightly that it threatened to draw blood. 

I bit my lip hard, trying to calm myself down, but at that moment it was too far gone. 

I was looking for an outlet, and I found one. The bruise on my cheek burned, reminding me of Yuri's insults, but metaphorical and physical. 

"And now you will draw your blade, a-" I didn't let him finish, because just then I drew my blade in a horizontal semi-circle, sending out a massive blast of wind. 

Yuri immediately responded by firing a wind spell of his own. 

They collided, and a gust of wind blew all throughout the glass bridge, causing it to shake. I dashed forward, and Yuri dashed backwards. He jumped back onto the roof of the building and fired blasts at me as I chased him down. 

Flame. 

Wind.

Lightning. 

I blocked some of them with my blade and dodged the rest. I knew that because of Yuri's weapon type, that he would prefer to maintain as much distance with me as possible. Therefore, If I wanted to win, I had to get up close. 

This time Yuri flipped over a railing, before falling straight downwards. When I jumped it, I saw him falling straight towards the ground. Just as I began to slide down the side of the building, Yuri fired a massively strong blast of pure mana. With no time to dodge, I held my blade out in front of me at an angle, coating it with mana, and deflecting the blast. 

It traveled away and hit a nearby hill, blowing it up in a massive explosion that shot dirt and soot into the air. 

I continued to travel down the side of the building perpendicularly, quickly gaining on Yuri, who was currently at gravity's mercy. He was still firing away a massive blast of mana, which I dodged and deflected as we fell. All of the deflected blast hit the nearby hills in the distance, causing a chain of large explosions and mushroom clouds of smoke.

Yuri grabbed unto a glass railing, before flipping around it twice to gain momentum, and then launching himself up at me. 

He was flying up at my feet first. Just before we made contact, I sidestepped out of the way, before grabbing his leg, and slamming him straight into the wall of the magic academy, taking care to not actually destroy it. 

However, Yuri was quick on his feet, or rather hands, as he placed his hands on the ground with a fortification spell to absorb the shock of the impact. He then kicked out with his free leg, which I dodged before pulling him back into the air. 

He flipped, trying to right his posture, but I wasn't going to let him go. I slashed out with my blade, which he just barely blocked. He was knocked backwards and rolled over. 

We exchanged close quarter blows, where I took notice of how quick Yuri was on his feet. He ducked a flame-imbued slash before kicking. I blocked the kick and its follow up, before pushing him off of me. He skidded backwards before coming to a stop, and a short pause in the combat ensued. 

Around the outer sides of the magic academy, just before the barrier ended, the ground was smoking and charred. 

"Does this pointless destruction distract your mind from the truth of the matter?" Yuri taunted, as he got to his feet. 

"I have nothing to say to you." 

Yuri laughed cynically. "Nothing to say because you're speechless, or because you know I'm right?" One second of hesitation was all he needed to know my answer. 

"Even now, the only action you can partake in is violence, you can't express yourself with words. No wonder your sister had to come to Suijin." 

"Enough about me. You go on and on about how worthless I am, but Suijin is running herself into the ground right in front of your eyes!" I snapped back. I knew I had nothing to say about his own statements, so I changed the subject. 

Yuri flinched in shock, before sneering at me once again. 

"Thats none of your fucking business! Even then, I'm handling it a lot better than you can." 

"If a lot better means breaking out into arguments in front of everyone, then sure, you're doing amazing!" 

I could see the physical effect that my words had on him, as he was speechless for a moment, before pointing his guns at me once again. "Shut it!" 

A large flame spell was launched at me, and I canceled it. 

The massive roaring flame, which was the size of a semi, disappeared in an instant. Yuri was caught off guard, looking at the situation. Canceling spells was not something you saw every day. It was something that you saw maybe once in a lifetime. 

That brief second of confusion was all I needed. I dashed forward and caught Yuri with a right hook straight to his cheek. I got him back for his punch that started it all. 

His head snapped backwards, and his glasses flew off of him, falling all the way down to the ground 

Shattering. 

He looked down at them, pure hurt and shock and anger in his eyes. 

"-akkk." 

He spit blood out, and I followed up by using my blade as a baseball bat. I hit him directly in the stomach. Knocking him straight into the ground with enough force to cause a crater and launch debris and smoke into the air. 

I held my blade at my side, breathing in and out as I watched the smoking crater in which Yuri was laying. Behind me, I heard something clatter. 

One of Yuri's guns. It had launched into the air and landed a few meters behind me. It began to slide down the side of the building. I looked back at the crater. 

Something was coming for my face. 

In the time that I had spent looking behind me, Yuri had thrown one of his guns. 

A useless attempt. 

I tilted my head to the right to avoid it. 

And then, I felt a presence behind me. 

I snapped my head around, and there was a barrel aimed at my forehead. 

Yuri was behind me. It was as if he teleported. 

Then I realized what happened. 

His gun, the one that had clattered against the building. 

He had swapped with it. Because the weapon was imbued with his mana, he used a technique called mana switching, to literally switch places in space with it. It was an instantaneous teleportation.

It was a technique that only the greatest assassins in the world used. I knew, because my father had hired one of them to teach it to me. 

If you come across someone capable of using this technique, then know, that person is a trained killer. A skilled one at that. Someone who has dedicated their life to the craft of taking that of others. 

The words that the man had told me before he taught me the technique returned to me. 

Just past the barrel of the gun, I could see Yuri. Without his glasses, his expression was clearly visible. If I had time, I would have gasped. 

It was like looking into a mirror. 

Cold, calculating, emotionless. 

He was going to pull the trigger and take my life without a second thought. 

It was the exact same look I had gotten so used to seeing when I looked into a mirror. 

It was the same look that always remained in the eyes of trained killers. 

At the last second, his expression shifted, as if he was experiencing regret, a moment of realization. 

But I couldn't grasp it, because a blast of magic was fired at me point blank. 

 ※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※  

The blast launched me backwards into the ground, with so much force, that it didn't stop there. I was dragged through the dirt and ground, as the spell continued its frontal assault. I continued to be dragged backwards, smashing through stone, chunks of dirt, and plants. 

"Pfft!" 

My mouth was filled with dirt, and when I tried to reflexively spit it out, I only succeeded in getting more mouthfuls. 

I couldn't see. 

When the magic finally dissipated, I immediately flipped over and slid backwards some more, casting a water spell to clean my face. 

I had been blasted all the way from the wall of the school to the very edge, where the barrier began. 

An inch or two more, and I'd have been incinerated. 

I could see a speck in the distance on the wall of the academy, which I knew was Yuri. 

"Why didn't you kill me?" I asked aloud, as if that would have given me an answer. 

He had the chance. I saw the look in his eyes. 

So why was I still alive? 

I shook my head, before grabbing a stone, and imbuing it with my mana. I then chucked it in the direction of Yuri. I could see Yuri's shadow do the same. And then, I used mana switching. I switched with the stone, and in front of me, was Yuri, who had done the same. We clashed midair, and once again entered a battle of magic and hand to hand. 

But this time, there was a new factor in play. With every blow landed, every kick missed, and every spell gone wayward, we spread out mana to as many objects as possible. And we began to use mana switching, to escape and try and gain advantages at every moment. Flashes of light that were constantly shifting position and teleporting. WE were going to fast that to onlookers, 

It must have looked like a constellation was being formed. 

We were teleporting all through the field of the magic academy, launching attacks, and spells, and mana. All the while, we were talking to each other. 

"Even know you must see it right?" Yuri shouted as we traded more blows. "The similarities between you and I!" 

"Why didn't you kill me?" I shouted back. 

"Because that is the one difference between me and you, Raiden!" 

I wanted to say that I didn't understand what he was saying that he was just going on, just rambling, but in truth, I could see what he was trying to imply. 

Me and him shared the same look. 

The look of someone who was trained to kill. That could mean only one thing.

From a young age, the both of us were trained to kill. We grew up trained for that one purpose. The similarities didn't end there. He and I were both hell-bent on protecting this one person. So much so that we would give our lives. Mana switching. We both could do it, because both of us were prodigies. 

The similarities seemed endless. 

But there was a difference. A glaring difference. 

"Is what you do out of your own will or is it because of a duty you were given!" 

A question that quite literally shattered my mind, just as the punch he gave me at the same time hit my face. 

"Is it from your heart? Or is it mindlessly following a mission you were given, like a slave?" Another gut punch. 

I remembered when me and Kami had argued. She had said the same thing. Mindlessly following a mission. 

It brought a scary question to the surface. A question that I didn't have an answer for. 

"Was my concern for Kami genuine? Or did it come from the mission that I had been given? 

The brand on my neck burned, as if just thinking about that question had reopened it. 

I remembered all of my father's words, all of his teachings, his methods, everything. 

The answer to that question, lied in the answer to another question. 

Did Raiden Chisaki have a heart? 

And the answer to that was no. 

Almost instantly, my will to fight was sapped out of my body. Yuri had made an irrefutable point, one that shattered my own worldview, shattered my nonexistent self. 

The battle was coming to its close. The only thing fueling my movements were the dying embers of anger. Just like the dying embers of my determination. Just like the fading flame that was my own identity. With just a small gust of wind, 

Raiden Chisaki would be blown from reality, like the seeds of a dandelion. 

He would cease to exist. 

My blade curved an arc to Yuri's throat. 

Yuri aimed a gun at my head. 

Just before the blows connected, were stopped. All of our magic energy was sealed, and we were forced to our knees by an unreal magical presence. 

Above us, an old man in a long trench coat stared down at us, emitting the aura of a god. 

"My children, this, is not the way." 

The headmaster of Theta Magic Academy had returned.