The success itself was nearly enough for her.  She brute forced it, but she felt differently than other times.  The emotions weren't ones that she could put into words.  It left her with a bit of warmth and stability.  Her power still hated her and the same in return, but perhaps they found a way to work together.

Regardless of the accomplishment, the task remained ahead of her still.  She had a fight to finish one way or another and that wasn’t very clear yet how she could do it.  All her deaths demonstrated the futility in any of her attempts to make sure the fight ended.  She couldn’t achieve that goal. 

A stalemate?

Across from Ayano, the girl slowly stood up.  She had far more panic in her face than Ayano expected.  They looked around the roof trying to identify where they were.  The change in location certainly had to have shaken her up, especially in the manner in which it happened.  Her confusion matched with her unfamiliarity with fighting.

It created a strange paradox.  Someone so deadly with their power, but equally parts frightened.  Ayano wished that she knew more.  Perhaps away from everyone else, they had that chance.  “We’re safe away from the fighting.  If you don’t wish to fight, this can be the end of it.”

“No where is safe!  Nowhere!”

Chapter 639 – Death’s Path

‘Nowhere?  Is the cult that bad?  We have someone like Nao, I guess it’d make sense with how large they are that they would have multiple people like Nao.’  They were supposed to be quiet, though after the explosion that she set off and the noise coming from the other fights that didn’t seem possible anymore.  It became more of a matter of how long they had until they were discovered.

“What are you so scared of?”

“I must…I will follow through.”

Ayano tried to sort through her words for a meaning.  It obviously was there, but she kept the details out.  But she recalled from other ended routes a bit of important details.  “Who are you trying to save?”

The girl immediately recoiled at the question.  Panic sharply ran through her.  If paranoia had a picture, she would be it at the moment.  The cult’s control on her didn’t seem to be the same as others.  Ayano found more questions watching her.  She clearly hit on an important fact.  ‘Maybe this is how I can stop the fight.’

She cautiously tried to approach, but once noticed the teen immediately bolted for the corner away from her.  Ayano stopped trying to solve what the truth could be.  “If you need protection, we can help.  We’re just a bunch of street kids and she still took us in.”

“N-no!  I can’t!  You don’t understand!”

“And I won’t if you don’t explain it to me.”

“Just leave!”

“I can’t.  I’ve got a debt to pay and responsibility.”

“As do I.”  The fear that gripped her melted away.  Determination rebuilt within and set her back on course.

Ayano sighed at the dead end.  “I tried.”  Her only certain conclusion was closed.  Now how to finish the fight became a massive unknown.  Even if she couldn’t fight that way, the resolve she showed now made it clear that she still had the same deadly intent.

She started moving again knowing how this worked.  Between the numerous failed routes and engaging with the girl, the way the traps got placed became pretty clear to her.  ‘I wish I could find them.  I can't just be throwing my dead body at the problem until I find the answer.  My mind won’t hold out.’

While she still didn’t understand her power properly, the many deaths told her more than she ever learned about it before.  She had the benefit of returning with her body reset to the point that woke up.  However, she still felt the pain caused and experienced the whole time.  That itself would have been more than enough to exhaust her.  However, the severity seemed to impact the feedback given that massive explosion.  And repeated deaths kept scratching out marks on her mind.  It wore her down.

Her body still worked and her mind could think, but concentration strained.  He could only guess at how much longer that she could keep it up.  The way her mind felt she doubted that she could survive another twenty attempts without passing out or maybe she actually would die.  She never stressed her power like this before.  The unknown made her more cautious.

Ayano dashed around testing out what sort of resolve the girl had.  Unlike before, she found herself tripping far more mines than ever before.  However, they lacked the sort of power of the deadly ones.  It mostly just caused her to be stunned or staggered, but nothing more.  They were easy enough to recover from and her body’s resistance was enough to brush off.

‘She’s getting more serious.  She was never this offensive before.  Was it because she only tried to go for killing blows or her heart just wasn’t in the fight?’  A blast went off at her right ankle followed by another larger one.  Ayano already was in motion back that it just knocked her away rather than injured.  ‘Either way, she’s using them smarter now.  And I’m not feeling mentally up for this sort of cat and mouse game…’

She rolled over the moment she hit the ground.  The accuracy of predicting Ayano’s movements had improved in the fight.  Unskilled as she was, all of the running around only helped to refine her power.  ‘This is getting worse…’

The fight had been spiraling around in a stalemate for so long that Ayano wasn’t used to it suddenly starting to swing against her.  It wasn’t lethal yet, but between powers she had a poor match up, even if she was the best suited to the task.

‘I need to wear her down if I can’t get a knockout…Though I fear she’s going to wear me out first…’  She rose back to her feet to get moving.  Her body still agreed to move and she just forced herself to run even if she didn’t have the coordination for it.  It was better than a predictable speed the girl adapted to.

It did keep her ahead for the moment.  She dove in trying for quick hit and run strikes.  Nothing too hard, but enough to add up with hope.  It added pressure to the girl, at least making her make mistakes.  The previously more regular attempts with traps started to have breaks.  Ayano could at least feel some of the rhythm returning to her.

But that suddenly changed when a large blast ripped through the roof and took out the lower half of her body.  Concrete shrapnel blasted at high speed through her body.  Bleeding out, Ayano collapsed to the ground.  In another moment, the final blast consumed her head.

Snapped back, Ayano gasped feeling the strain deeply on her mind.  A mild headache crawled up her skull.  ‘Maybe not even twenty is my limit…  I’ve never felt like this before.’

Ayano darted around the realized trap.  That was far worse than what she had laid down for her before.  She seemed to be taking more chances with larger traps.  ‘Did larger traps take more out of her?  She’s not looking any worse for wear.  Though with all the resets, a lot of them never happened…’  So many data points that she wished that she could put together better.  Though her power made some of it unreliable to use.

With the headache creeping in the back of her head, she needed a different plan.  ‘I’m not going to survive like this.  I need something that won’t wreck my mind…  Chiharu said the more you use your power the more accustomed you get to it, but I can’t count on that.’ 

She focused on moving her body first.  Though with the risk of large traps out there, she didn’t know what she could do.  It bred further doubt in her mind.

Yet another explosion.

‘Shit!  Shit…I need…’  Ayano changed course once more.  She got in a couple of strikes, though with small traps they didn’t strike deep enough.  She had to keep dodging and dancing around the girl.  ‘She’s seen everything that I do.  I can’t do anything that she won’t already expect…’  It was because of that now exposed information that the traps had become more strategic.

Ayano stepped on a trap.  Just as it went off, she went back two steps.  Around the trap, she evaded it and continued until another.  She triggered it, yet then took three steps back.  Again and again, she repeated it, finding and then altering her path until she found her target.

Flipping the tonfa around, she jabbed out to get a solid hit on the girl’s stomach.  Stunned, she went for a follow up kick, but a blast went off.  Ayano flipped backwards, evading it again.  Three steps rewound, she attacked from a different side.  This one completely caught them off guard.  The jab of the tonfa followed by a kick sent them flying over the roof several meters.

It took a moment for Ayano to recover.  The burst of everything had tunnel visioned her actions.  None of it she recognized.  Even now she questioned the situation.  ‘What the hell was that?  I didn’t die, but I’m rewinding.  How?  Why?’

Glancing over to the recovering girl, Ayano could see the shocked expression on her face.  None of her traps worked.  Each one Ayano saw and avoided, though technically tripped and then evaded.  From the girl’s perspective it had to seem like she was reading her mind or seeing where she placed her invisible traps.

The rapid changes that it forced her to make left her body sweating a little.  It wasn’t her limit, but she definitely pushed herself harder to make that happen.  A small burning in her muscles of the legs signaled to her how much she worked them.  It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling, but she hadn’t felt it yet during the fight.  Only training had pushed her that far.

She flexed her hands still checking that it was her body.  The rewind left an odd feeling through her.  Shaking the weirdness out of her.  She needed it once more.  Whatever the hell this sudden rewind was, she needed to seek it again.  Maybe it was finally going to make itself useful.

Ayano didn’t understand it.

“Sometimes believing in your power is all you can do.  It’s not logical or reliable, but your body sometimes knows better than you do how to reach what you need.  Believe in that when all else fails.”

Chiharu’s wisdom echoed back in her mind.  She discarded it so many times as pointless.  ‘I’m as guilty as Kenta…I guess I should have more trust in her.’  Ayano gave a little smile and closed her eyes.

She wiped away the thoughts in her mind.  The headache that pinged off she worked to push down for now.  Forcing her powers wouldn’t be what she needed.  That had been all she had been doing this only time.  Brute force and thinking that she knew better.  It failed.

Her body really knew.  She opened her eyes and placed her faith in that which she constantly rejected.  It wasn’t going to be about luck or death.  Just the path that guided her to the end.

Ayano charged after the girl.  She stared defiantly at her with whatever motivations that kept her with the cultists.  She laid out numerous landmines over the roof.  Sweat and fatigue leaked into her face betraying the effort that she put into the cause.

Countless rewinds through a densely rigged roof made Ayano jump and dodge in ways that anyone else would think strange.  She could see it laid out before her.  The mines were invisible, but she built a road to follow.  Each reveal laid another brick until she reached her target.  Doubt disappeared and hesitation evaporated from her body.

Everything drove itself forward.  She landed a full strength strike with her tonfa in the chest.  It let out a deep crack as the metal even bent in from the power.  The girl froze for a moment as time slowed for Ayano.  Stunned by the apparent effortlessness of Ayano’s evasion, she could see that she lost, but was confused as to how.

In the next instant, her body streaked across the roof smashing into the AC unit.  The metal dented in and warped with electricity sparking up from the damage.  A little smoke rose up from whatever her body broke.

Ayano collapsed to her knees feeling the headache strike all around her skull.  Her legs felt like jello even though the rest of her body still seemed fine.  She glanced over to the roof where everyone else fought.  ‘How do I get back?’