Chapter Seventeen: Wilting Flowers

Hanako's P.O.V.

I watched as my plants continued to wilt from the various poisons Attor released on them. I knew he'd kill me if I were ever to lose, the exact opposite of what I did whenever I "won". I refused to kill anyone. I've always hated violence and hurting people. That hasn't changed ever since I was a little girl. My father always protected me from such violent things, though I had a few bullies at school, they didn't bother me much. I didn't like to fight, but I knew I had to, or I and everyone else would be killed by the Dark Elementia. That's why I had to keep outsmarting Attor.

Attor never seemed to have any real strategy in mind whenever we fought. He just attacked like a psychopath, thinking that one of his attacks would eventually make me wither like my plants. I would've liked to find plants that could resist the poisons and chemicals he used when fighting me, but he used so many different kinds at random I had no choice but to block with a variety of thick plants each and every time. By some sheer force of luck he also knew how to fly already, something I hadn't quite figured out how to do yet.

I grabbed his leg with a vine from behind and brought him to the ground, slamming him into a pile of plants. He grunted and went to stand, but several vines wrapped around his arms and legs, binding him. I smiled down at him innocently, hanging from a few vines coming down from the trees surrounding me. "Looks like I've won again. Farewell for now."

I turned away, but stopped when I heard his voice. "Oh come on... You really think that'd be enough to stop me?!" He laughed psychotically and I turned to see the vines that were touching him were wilting. His skin had a slight purple hue and the red in his bloodshot eyes had turned purple. I'm guessing he entered his Element Drive, making even touching his skin lethal from how poisonous it became.

I sighed. "I should've guessed..." I entered my Element Drive as well, my skin gaining a green hue and flowers and vines with thorns wrapping around my head to form a crown. The truth was, I could be really deadly if I tried hard enough. "Even the prettiest flowers have thorns" they say. But I just couldn't bring myself to hurt another living creature. I couldn't even hurt bugs, and I hated those things.

Attor reminded me of a bug in a way. No, he was more like a venomous spider, one without fear of humans and its only desire being to kill. I imagine Attor loved killing things, since were complete opposites after all, and he seemed to love toying with me. His childish appearance really doesn't match his personality at all. I watched as he stood up, the wilted vines dangling around his body. He picked up a rose off the floor, looking at it with a smile. "You know...you're a lot like this flower Hanako."

"Because I'm the Nature Elementia..?" I muttered.

"No." He crushed the rose in his hand, a poisonous mist emanating from his closed fist before he opened it again, the now wilted rose flying off in the wind. "Because you're just as pathetic and frail! And you'll be just as easy to kill!" He laughed.

I lightly smirked at him. "Oh? Is that why you've never managed to do it yet?"

He stopped laughing suddenly and looked at me with a look of murderous intent. "That's gonna change today... Right now!" He rushed at me, the grass underneath his feet dying as he walked on it.

With my Element Drive, I was more resistant to poisons and could regenerate much faster than any normal human being, so I wasn't afraid. "We'll see..." I smiled innocently, holding out my hand and firing a couple large thorns from my palms. They scraped his cheek, arm, and leg, causing him to jump back, a bit surprised. I had never once attacked before. I had only ever binded him or escaped from battle in some clever way, but I knew that wasn't always going to work. So, I had the others help me steel my nerve.

They let themselves be hit by my attacks and said things so infuriating; I never thought I could get so angry. At first I was only hitting them with light punches and kicks, but soon enough I was whipping them with vines and swinging thorns the size of daggers at them. I feel a bit bad at how angry I got now, but at least I could finally do it. I could finally fight for my friends.

Being in this situation taught me it's impossible for no one to ever get hurt. When more than one person asks you out, you either have to pick one, reject them all, or choose them all and eventually have them find out, which would hurt the worst. If you're in a relationship and your best friend is fed up with your lover, you have to choose between your friend or your lover. And in this current situation, if I were never to fight, Attor would get stronger and stronger and would eventually kill me, and soon, the rest of my friends.

So in these situations, if you absolutely hate hurting people, you have to choose to hurt someone, but choose what would hurt the least. Choose the best outcome, the least amount of tears and heartache, and the least amount of bloodshed. That is the outcome I have chosen. I will fight and always defeat the Dark Elementia, no matter how many times I have to do it, but I refuse to ever kill them.

I refuse to ever kill anyone, not after I killed all those people in my hometown. Whether it was my fault or not, it still happened because of me. I refuse to go through that again, with anyone, no matter how bad they are. There's always a reason for the way people are the way they are, whether it's how they were raised, their life experiences, mental problems, or something else. I'll get through to Attor, someday, no matter how long it takes me. Until then, I'll fight him and beat him, knocking him out every time.

I charged at Attor while he was still in shock, vines sprouting from my palms and I whipped him with them, making him yelp out in pain. I kept my distance as well of course, watching as my vines wilted the more they touched him. I released them from my palms and jumped back as he released a cloud of poison from his mouth, roaring in rage. Even though I was resistant to poison, I wasn't immune, so I wanted to do my best to take as little in as possible.

I watched as Attor flew out of his cloud of poison, lunging at me. I summoned a wall of thick plants, but he got through that with ease, melting a hole right through the wall with his poison. He jumped through the hole and kicked me in the gut, making me gasp a bit, but I stood strong and chopped his head with my hand then spun around and kicked him away.

I then opened up my hands, thorns coming out of my palms and arms as I took a stance. I swung my arm with such force a type of green slash of force flew at Attor. He quickly dodged by rolling out of the way, the slash of green energy hitting a tree instead and cutting it, but not going through it. I was startled by what I had just done, but smiled as well, standing my ground. I already had a plan for knocking out Attor, I just had to wait. He fired a barrage of random poisons and chemicals from his palms as always, a mix of rage and craziness on his face as he did so. He did exactly what I expected him to do, as always, and I blocked his attacks with several walls of random plants.

I felt him coming toward me and I waited, standing ready for when he would burst through my wall of plants. Once I saw him do so, I fired a barrage of thorns from my palms, small ones, each of them impaling his skin and making him yelp in pain. "Ow ow ow! Son of a..!" He released poison gas from his open wounds, the thorns falling out. I quickly grabbed both of his legs with a couple vines, pulling him into the air, a mischievous smile on my face. "Hey! Let me go so I can kill you!" He growled, pouting. He was just like a child. I wondered just how old he actually was.

"You can free yourself easily though can't you?" I tilted my head, giving a confused expression. "Are you afraid you won't be able to catch yourself?!" I gasped as if I were surprised.

He glared at me, starting to make my vines wilt. I made sure to wrap more around his legs just in case. "Just wait till I'm free... You'll be dead in seconds!" He growled with rage.

"Don't worry, I'll bring you down right...now!" I swung my arm downward, making the vines slam him into the ground and making him grunt loudly as he crashed, having slammed him as hard as I could. When I looked down at him, he was knocked out, his skin looking normal again. I sighed with relief, my gaze softening. "I won...for real this time..." I panted, dropping my Element Drive. "Weak and easy to kill did you say..?" I smiled, turning and dashing off before Attor could wake up. I felt a bit bad, but hardened my resolve like before, remembering what it might cost if I didn't. Sometimes fighting was necessary, and this was one of those times. I reminded myself of that as I headed for the black and white sky over our mansion.