Her strikes refined quickly until to her surprise she broke through Chiharu's usual defense.  It caught both of them off guard and then she truly saw the real Chiharu for an instant.  Her hands moved in a blur that she couldn’t even watch, even feeling like dropping a ball into a pool rather than something clear like she had known previously.

It still didn’t hit Chiharu, but she had to grab her wrist and block with her other hand before it struck her face.  Nao stood in surprise at what she did, as well as her family behind her.  She couldn’t even react more than being stunned.

Kenta immediately came up behind her and gave her a pat on the shoulder as Ayano hugged her in congratulation.  “You did it, Nao!  You beat her!”

Nao backed away her hand now that she started to recover.  “She still blocked me.”

“But you pushed her to get serious!  You did that!  That was all you.”

“I guess so…”  It all seemed so weird and surreal for Nao still.  She tried to think through what happened, it was all in an instant.

Then Chiharu stepped forward.  “They’re right.  This is the result of your work.  Everything in that punch was you.  Remember it and focus on that.  It might not seem like things have changed, but everything builds on another and you stand here now.”

“I will keep trying harder and understand my power better!”

“That’s a good spirit, remember this moment and let it feed your future victories.”

“Thank you...Chiharu…”

The others looked at her a little in surprise.  “Nao…”

Kenta looked back over at Chiharu and broke away from Nao.  “I want to spar with you!  We all need to get stronger right?”  Seeing Nao inspired the rest with confidence and drive like Chiharu had seen previously.  The broken souls they had just minutes ago looked mended and stronger than ever.

“Very well, I expect you were paying attention.”

“Hell yeah!”  He jumped right into the attack without even so much as a pause.  Chiharu immediately blocked him and began critiquing his posture and stance even while Kenta tried to get a hit in like Nao.  Seeing the armor crack for just a moment emboldened him.  Though it had made him more thickheaded than usual at the moment.

A small smile came over Chiharu internally as things shaped up.  The plan went better than she hoped.  Part of the success she put on youthful resilience.  ‘Looks like none of them noticed that I faked the guard break.  Though it took a while to find a natural moment to let it happen.  Still I was right in picking Nao for it.  Unskilled in fighting as she is, she’s got more talent as a fighter than all of them at the moment.  Though I suspect that if Ayano’s power grows as I think it should, she could be even more dangerous with the power of foresight.’

Chapter 625 - The Need for More

After another week, Chiharu began to see their improvements.  The display that she put on for them with Nao turned around their confidence.  Seeing her succeed in a small way gave them the needed boost to their resolve.  Their fears of being the linchpin to the whole mission now became their driving motivation to get better.

She continued to push on her own training both with them and in her personal time.  It was important to push herself even harder than she was on them.  The looming image of that lightning woman haunted her distant thoughts.  Running into them again was very likely and she didn’t know how wide their gap was.  All she could do was push as hard as possible to close the distance.

Everything looked to be improving at a good pace and she felt better about their chance with three weeks remaining.  She just didn’t know how much she could improve in that time.  Both her water and shadow powers needed to advance.  She pushed how much she could control and how to manipulate them.  There were plenty more secrets to learn with said powers.  She just needed to seek it out and not stop.

Another day Chiharu disappeared into the afternoon hours after a long morning with her men and training them.  Depending on the day and time, she disappeared without a trace and then just came back without anyone knowing.  Other times she would inform him of her departure, but because she was caught.  And no matter how he tried to phrase it, she always left and left him in charge.

The situation frustrated Tamotsu more than she knew and for less than obvious reasons that she would consider.  ‘How can a fourteen year old girl with almost no experience be able to run this clan?  I engineered this whole situation so that she would fail...damn this weird change.  She would have been killed as was planned if not for her powers.’

Watching the outcome of the Battle of Higoshi Estate, she would have still ended up dead like he orchestrated.  All of the misinformation, rearrangement of men and poor tactics he gave Chiharu, should have and would still have led to her death.  He watched her nearly being killed by the head of the Higoshi Clan, someone that turned out to be far more powerful than he could have predicted having only learned of powers within days.

Yet thanks to her annoying ability, she escaped her planned death and went on to disappear with her friends for a month.  So many days while she was absent he considered just killing everyone in the estate and being done with the mission.  He could kill her when she returned.  Yet there were too many unknowns.

If she discovered powers, her men could very well do so making it possible that he wouldn’t be able to kill them.  With the enhanced bodies, the playing field changed greatly making him uneasy each day that passed and watched outside the estate.  And she already had a head start on growing her powers and she could come back far stronger than he could manage with his plan ruined.  No, too many variables that risked his decades-long plan falling apart.

The whole point was to get the Chinen Chan to weaken the stronger and more equal clan to them, the Higoshi while going out in an honorable death allowing his clan to come in and wipe out the Higoshi.  But the change of Japan required everything to be re-calculated.  Fewer men could be more useful than an army.  The men that Chiharu trained were already becoming a more dangerous force.  He had no idea how his clan fared in their adapting, but the younger generation grew faster.  And he feared if he could manage even against a few of them anymore.  Any sort of edge he had before disappeared.  Without even knowing it, Chiharu cornered him.

As a cornered animal, they were the most dangerous.  ‘The assassins now that were highly regarded are nearly useless, failing to adapt well.  Even with the enhancements, they aren’t experienced in this new environment.  I can’t rely on the standard hires.  Hopefully, these fare better.  I don’t know what she’s getting up to these days, training probably, but she needs to die now…’

Dipping in and out of her shadow, Chiharu focused more on her shadows as part of her daily routine.  She normally tried to limit the use to conserve power not knowing when she might need it.  Yet knowing her limits and then pushing past them became more important to her.  She needed to do more than just feel comfortable with her shadow.  It needed to become second nature for her and effortless.

Thus she pushed herself to use the power whenever she could.  Expanding her familiarity with it and the scope of its power would hopefully unlock that teleporting ability that she gained, but remained locked behind something.  She wanted that power for the mission, it would improve the chances of their success.

Even more she needed to find a way to mask herself from detection and strengthen her power as the three scouts that ripped her out of her dimension were clearly given abilities that canceled her.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t something that she could just test on someone.  No one had their abilities.  So it would only be training that would hopefully give her the edge over them.

With the unknown, she could only push herself as hard as possible and hope for the best.  It wasn’t the sort of mindset that she preferred.  A better plan or even something of a plan would have been preferred.  And maybe when her team improves enough she could make one, but it was still too early for that.

Coming out of her shadow, she almost entered back in immediately, but heard nearby the sound of two heart beats.  ‘This route shouldn’t have anyone at this point.’  She had optimized her path to the gym to avoid as many people as possible and the UN patrols, which got wider with each day.  ‘It could be nothing, but they’re in ideal positions for an ambush.  Their heart beat increased ever so slightly...probably from seeing me and not immediately disappearing.’

The stretching of seconds as she delayed her routine longer made it more clear to her that they were likely interested in her.  Once her mind answered that they were enough of a potential threat, she looked into her shadows to scan their bodies.  ‘Fully armored in traditional equipment, protective, but not restrictive.  No clear weapons, concealed or powered…  They’re not just strolling the streets…’

As she wasted more time trying not to make it clear that she was aware of them, she tried to gauge what they waited for.  If they were Higoshi assassins like she already dealt with before, they should have attacked.  Though perhaps, failing made them more cautious of her.  ‘I’ll make the first move and see how it plays out.’

Without any indication to her observers, she opened the portal and disappeared quickly and popped out behind them.  She crossed her arms as they turned around in reaction to her disappearing.  “Something you want?”

Both individuals, though masked over the mouth and nose, had the eyes carrying a ‘damnit’ expression all too easy to read for Chiharu.  Though more concerning for her was that they didn’t seem more bothered by her appearance, as though they were expecting her or not afraid of her.  ‘What’s going on?  They’re either not here for me and don’t know I’m a threat or am and have something that gives them the advantage...but which is it?’

She kept her relaxed stance with her arms crossed not to tip them off, but heightened her senses and awareness.  If they still had intentions of attacking, she knew it would either be an ambush or them directly.  With seconds quickly ticking by she tried to figure out which was their plan.  She could sense nothing in the area that was even a heartbeat or a stray pebble being ground against concrete.  ‘Less likely an ambush...unless they have a means to hide from me…’

Chiharu’s mind spiraled into possibility after possibility.  The idiot’s world made the variable too wide to rule anything out.  It made her wish that she had other means to detect, but such things were not possible with her body alone.  Which left her only one option.

Manually scanning the area through her shadows.  She opened a portal out of their line of sight obscured by a pipe running along the roof.  It was a large area that people could come at her from in a short period of time.  The whole situation tightened the muscles in her body as tension spread through the air.

‘Still no action...what are they waiting for?  Is this really just a misunderstanding?’  She wasn’t about to make the first move if that ended up being the case.  Training might be something that she needed and real combat, she had no intentions of seeking it out.  There were enough enemies on her shoulders.

Nearly thirty seconds passed in uneasy silence as she stared down at them.  They didn’t make any moves from their spot after turning.  No hints of attack or guard up, just watching like before.  Yet it bothered her that they didn’t even seem nervous anymore.  The slight increase in their heartbeat she detected before disappeared.  They were calm, like everything ran to plan.

‘Something’s not adding up, but I’m not finding anything...what’s going on here?’

A call needed to be made soon.  She felt that remaining only played into their hands now.  Something was off, but nothing happened.  ‘Perhaps it’s better to cut my losses here and just deal with them later if they truly are after me…’

Lowering her arms, she began to look away from the two towards the surrounding city block.  Too many obstacles and paths existed for people to hide, yet nothing came from her search.  She gave up the hunt and finally made her decision.

Suddenly a fist rammed into her jaw out of nowhere with nothing that she could hear until colliding with her face.  ‘What?!  Where?!’  The force behind the strike picked her up off her feet and threw her into the adjacent building and out then into the ground with a small crater on the street.

Dazed from the hit, Chiharu took a second to focus her mind back trying to figure out where they came from.  But it was already too late.  While she tried to work out what was happening, more than three dozen figures appeared on roofs or the streets surrounding her.  ‘Ambush then...fine you Higoshi bastards!’