The remnant's arm was still extended when Michiko seized it.
Not with both hands.
With one.
With the specific firmness of someone who does not need more to make clear that that arm was not going anywhere while she was there.
The remnant pulled.
The grip did not yield.
Its single eye moved towards Michiko with something that was not exactly surprise, but the immediate registration of a variable that had not been in the calculation: this woman's strength did not correspond to what her size suggested.
Ginjiro was looking at her.
He was not entirely processing what he saw.
The hair. The posture. The wound on her side. The fact that she was really there.
His ten-year-old brain was doing what brains do when something one has both hoped for and feared happens at the same time.
It went still.
Only for a second.
"Are you hurt?" asked Michiko, without taking her eyes off the remnant.
"I'm fine."
"Tell me the truth."
"I have bruises. I'm fine."
Michiko glanced sideways at Sae and Nori.
Both had the look of people who had given more than they had available.
Then she looked at Ikeda.
The guard was still leaning against the wall, breathing with that specific rhythm of someone whose body was dedicating too much effort solely to remaining conscious.
The remnant pulled again.
This time Michiko let go.
Not because the grip had yielded.
Because letting go was part of what came next.
The remnant stepped back two paces from the momentum of its own force.
Michiko did not look away.
"How did you know I was here?" said Ginjiro.
"I didn't," said Michiko. "All available hunters received the alert that the headquarters was under attack. When I reached the area I felt several fights near the entrance."
She paused.
"I came to help."
She turned slightly towards Ginjiro.
In her face there was relief.
And something else.
"Afterwards we're going to talk about why you're here."
Ginjiro opened his mouth.
"I..."
The remnant moved.
It was fast.
Far more than its metre-fifty body suggested.
Michiko raised her forearm just in time.
The impact sounded dry.
The ground beneath her feet creaked.
The remnant smiled.
Not in a human way.
Just enough to show that it had registered the resistance.
"Another hunter," it said.
Michiko stepped back half a pace and set her body.
"One who's going to take you down."
The single eye moved over her.
"That's what the others thought."
"The others weren't me."
The remnant tilted its head.
"Arrogant."
"No," said Michiko. "Experienced."
The remnant charged again.
It was fast.
Not the kind of fast that surprises because you were not expecting it.
The kind that surprises because you were already expecting it and it still arrives first.
Its strikes were short, direct and heavy.
There were no unnecessary movements.
No threats.
No posturing.
It struck to connect.
Michiko understood that in the first three exchanges.
The first she blocked.
The second she deflected.
The third she partially took on the shoulder and responded with a strike to its side.
The remnant stepped back.
So did Michiko.
"You hit well," it said.
"You talk too much."
"I don't talk too much."
The remnant repositioned.
"I calculate."
Michiko smiled faintly.
"Then calculate how much longer before you lose."
Ginjiro watched her.
Every movement.
Every weight transfer.
Every change of direction.
The way his mother did not try to block everything.
She chose.
She absorbed certain strikes.
Deflected others.
And when she could, she hit.
The remnant began to change its rhythm.
A high strike.
One low.
Two in succession to the torso.
A feint to the left.
Michiko kept responding.
Until the remnant looked at the children.
It was barely a movement of its eye.
But Michiko saw it.
And placed herself in the way before it had finished moving.
"No," she said.
The remnant stopped.
Then smiled.
"Ah."
Michiko did not respond.
"Them."
The tone changed.
Not much.
Enough.
"Don't even look at them."
"So that's your weakness."
"Try it."
The remnant did.
It launched itself towards the children.
Michiko arrived first.
The strike that should have reached Sae landed against Michiko's forearm instead.
The sound was louder than the previous ones.
She responded with a knee to the torso.
The remnant was sent flying backward.
It rolled.
Got up.
It did not look bothered.
It looked interested.
"Every time I go for them," it said, "you get faster."
"Try it one more time."
The remnant wiped a dark line from its mouth with the back of its hand.
"I will."
But this time it did not charge immediately.
It went still.
Michiko watched it.
Something was different.
The remnant lowered its centre of gravity.
The mana in its body began to concentrate in its legs.
Then in its shoulders.
Then in its arms.
Not in an ordinary way.
There was something in how the energy moved.
As though it were not gathering it.
As though it were storing something else.
Michiko narrowed her eyes.
"What are you doing?"
The remnant smiled.
"Giving back."
And disappeared.
Michiko barely managed to block.
The impact sent her several metres backward.
Sae cried out.
Nori's eyes went wide.
Ginjiro took a step.
Michiko drove one foot into the ground and stopped.
Her arm trembled.
Not much.
But it trembled.
The remnant smiled again.
"Every strike I receive leaves something behind."
Michiko looked at it.
"Strength."
The remnant opened its hand.
"Movement."
It closed its fingers.
"Momentum."
Then it charged again.
Michiko barely dodged it.
The remnant struck the ground.
The stone cracked.
Ikeda understood.
"It's storing impacts," he said, his voice low.
Nori looked at him.
"What?"
"The force of the strikes it receives."
Ginjiro looked at the remnant.
"And then it gives it back?"
Ikeda did not answer.
He did not need to.
Michiko had already understood.
Every strike she gave it was feeding something.
Every impact it absorbed could come back later.
The remnant looked at her.
"Your problem is that you hit well."
Michiko breathed.
"And yours is that you keep thinking that's going to save you."
The fight changed.
Michiko stopped going for heavy strikes.
She started using short ones.
Deflections.
Sweeps.
Changes of angle.
She touched just enough.
Moved just enough.
She gave the remnant less to store.
It noticed.
"You learn quickly."
"Faster than you."
The remnant charged.
Michiko moved inward.
Struck the elbow.
Turned.
Struck the knee.
The remnant lost its axis.
She used that.
Palm to the chest.
Not hard.
Precise.
The remnant stepped back.
Michiko advanced.
Two short strikes.
One to the neck.
One to the shoulder.
The remnant responded with a punch.
Michiko dodged.
The air exploded centimetres from her face.
"That one had stored force," said Michiko.
"I have more."
"Then use it."
The remnant smiled.
"Not yet."
Ginjiro had the mana activated in his hands.
"No," said Michiko, without looking at him.
"I can help."
"I didn't say you couldn't."
She blocked a strike.
Responded with her elbow.
"I said no."
Ginjiro closed his fists.
Nori took a step.
"We could come in from the flanks," he said quietly. "If the two of us attack from different sides..."
"No," said Ikeda.
All three looked at him.
"Don't go near."
"But..."
"Let her work."
Sae looked at the fight.
"She's hurt."
Nobody responded.
Because everyone had seen it.
Michiko's side was still bleeding.
Every movement opened the wound a little more.
And still she kept placing herself between the remnant and them.
The remnant began to breathe differently.
Michiko noticed.
It had stored too much.
Not just strikes.
Momentum.
Speed.
Force.
All concentrated.
All waiting.
"I understand now," said Michiko.
The single eye fixed on her.
"You can't hold it forever."
The remnant did not respond.
"The more you store, the more you have to release."
Silence.
Michiko smiled.
"And if you release everything against me, I leave you open."
The remnant tilted its head.
"Correct."
It looked at the children.
Michiko stopped smiling.
"No."
"You told me to try it again."
The mana around the remnant's legs exploded.
"Don't you dare."
"Too late."
The remnant launched.
Not fast.
More than that.
A full discharge.
All the momentum accumulated in the fight.
Everything it had received.
Everything it had stored.
Returned in a single direction.
Towards Ginjiro.
Sae activated the mana.
Nori tried to move.
Ikeda put a hand on the ground to get up.
His arm gave way.
Ginjiro saw the remnant coming.
He could not move.
Not because he was afraid.
Because his body simply did not have the time.
Michiko did.
She had always arrived.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Four.
Always.
This time too.
Except that arriving was not enough.
The remnant crossed the distance.
Michiko stepped in the way.
The remnant's arm went in under her ribs.
The sound was small.
Too small for something like this.
Ginjiro stopped breathing.
The remnant withdrew its arm.
Michiko stayed upright for a second.
Two.
She looked at Ginjiro.
And smiled.
Barely.
Then she went down on her knees.
"Mum..."
The word came out low.
Then Ginjiro saw the blood.
And then he screamed.
"MUM!"
The scream came before the air.
Before the thought.
Before any attempt to understand.
The orange mana exploded.
It did not change colour.
It did not need to.
It was the same orange as always.
Hiroshi's orange.
The back garden's orange.
The weeks of training's orange.
The orange of Ginjiro's hands.
But it became something else.
Denser.
More violent.
More pure.
The mana stopped behaving like a tool.
It started burning like fuel.
Ginjiro's heart accelerated.
His muscles tensed.
His breathing disappeared for a second.
The world seemed to slow.
Not because the world had changed.
Because he had.
"Kato..." said Nori.
Sae looked at him.
"What's happening to him?"
Ikeda opened his eyes.
"He's burning his mana."
Nori looked at him.
"What does that mean?"
"That he's using everything."
Ikeda swallowed.
"Too fast."
Ginjiro was not listening.
He was only looking at the remnant.
The remnant looked at him too.
And for the first time since it had seen him, the single eye stopped seeing a child.
"Now you?" it said.
Ginjiro disappeared.
The first strike reached the torso.
The remnant was sent flying.
Not two steps.
Not three.
Several metres.
It hit the ground.
Rolled.
Got up.
Ginjiro was already in front of it.
Second strike.
The remnant tried to block.
Did not make it.
Third strike.
This time to the face.
Fourth.
To the side.
Fifth.
The remnant managed to respond.
Ginjiro crossed his arms.
The impact sent him backward.
He fell.
He got up immediately.
Sae opened her eyes.
"That's not normal."
Nori did not look away.
"No."
Ikeda breathed with difficulty.
"He's destroying himself."
Ginjiro charged again.
The remnant began to understand.
The boy was faster.
Stronger.
But every movement had a cost.
The orange mana was diminishing.
Not much at first.
Then more.
Every step.
Every strike.
Every dodge.
Everything was burning.
"You're consuming yourself," said the remnant.
Ginjiro struck.
The remnant blocked this time.
"Your body can't sustain that."
Another strike.
The remnant stepped back.
"You're going to run empty."
Ginjiro looked at it.
"It doesn't have to sustain it for long."
He charged.
The remnant dodged for the first time.
Nori shouted.
"Kato, stop! You're running out of mana!"
Ginjiro kept going.
"Ginjiro!" shouted Sae. "Stop!"
He did not respond.
Ikeda looked at them.
"He's not listening."
Nori gritted his teeth.
"He is listening."
Sae looked at him.
"He just decided not to."
The remnant began to release stored force.
One discharge.
Ginjiro took it head on.
He was sent flying.
Fell on his back.
The orange mana flickered.
Sae took a step.
"Ginjiro!"
He got up.
Slower.
The remnant smiled.
"It's running out."
Ginjiro was breathing badly.
His arms were trembling.
His legs were beginning to feel heavy.
The remnant saw it.
And then it looked at the others.
At Sae.
At Nori.
At Ikeda.
The single eye moved barely.
It was enough.
Ginjiro lifted his head.
"Don't look at them again."
The remnant smiled.
"Or what?"
Ginjiro disappeared one last time.
The first strike was to the stomach.
The remnant doubled over.
The second, to the chest.
It stepped back.
The third, to the face.
It tried to block.
Ginjiro broke through the defence.
The orange mana was burning around his body.
Less and less with each moment.
More and more intense.
Like a flame that becomes brighter just before going out.
The remnant tried to release everything it had left stored.
Ginjiro did not let it.
He struck the shoulder.
Then the knee.
Then the side.
The remnant fell.
Ginjiro was still standing.
Barely.
The mana was almost nothing.
Nori saw it.
"He has nothing left."
Sae had her hands closed.
"Ginjiro..."
The remnant tried to get up.
Ginjiro loaded his right fist.
Everything that remained.
Everything.
No technique.
No control.
Nothing held back.
The remnant looked at him.
"If you do that, you're going to run completely empty."
Ginjiro raised his fist.
"Then let nothing remain."
He struck.
The remnant dissolved.
Ginjiro fell.
He opened his eyes without knowing whether seconds or minutes had passed.
The sky was still there.
The entrance too.
Sae was kneeling near him.
Nori was standing a few metres further away.
Ikeda was still leaning against the wall.
A voice.
"Ginjiro..."
He sat up.
Then dragged himself.
Michiko was leaning against the entrance wall.
Sae had her hands over her mouth.
Nori was looking at the ground.
Still.
Too still.
Ginjiro reached his mother.
"Mum..."
"Listen to me," said Michiko.
"Kana can heal you," said Ginjiro, kneeling. "She's inside. When she comes out she can..."
"Ginjiro."
"Or Dad," he continued. "Dad is at the headquarters, isn't he? If we call him..."
"Ginjiro."
This time she used the tone she always used when she needed him to really listen.
Ginjiro closed his mouth.
Not his eyes.
"When you see your father," said Michiko, "look after him."
Ginjiro shook his head.
"You tell him yourself."
Michiko smiled.
Small.
Barely.
"Let him look after you too."
Ginjiro did not respond.
"Promise me."
Silence.
"I don't want to."
Michiko looked at him.
Ginjiro lowered his head.
"I don't want to make that promise."
She raised a hand.
It cost her.
She rested it on his cheek.
"You don't have to be the strongest all the time."
"Yes I do."
Because he was still a child.
Because that was what he believed.
Because it was the only answer he had.
Michiko looked at him.
"Not with me."
Ginjiro began to cry.
Not much at first.
Then yes.
"Mum..."
"I love you, Ginjiro."
"I love you too."
Michiko closed her eyes.
Ginjiro kept holding his mother's hand.
Nobody told him to let go.
Sae did not speak.
Nori did not either.
Ikeda looked away.
And for a long time, Ginjiro did not let go.
The orange mana had gone out.
For the first time since he had learned to feel it, he did not try to bring it back.