Chapter Twenty-One: Onward to Battle; Part One

Raito's P.O.V.

While everyone else was asleep, I walked out of my bedroom, quietly. I headed for the door, a note in my hand. It was a note for my brother, Sanda, a challenge for him to finish things once and for all between us. With all my injuries healed, I saw no reason to and outright refused to wait for another order from Atiyama to fight my brother again. Atiyama was awake however and was standing beside the door as I walked down the stairs. "You're going..?"

"I am, and you can't stop me." I glared, ready to fight if I had to.

"I could if I wanted to actually...but I don't plan on it..." He walked over and placed his hand on my shoulder. "Just be careful... Don't die today Raito..."

I scoffed. "Who do you think you're talking to?" I lightly smacked his back with a confident smirk and walked out, waving behind me. I wasn't going to stop until one of us was dead, nor was I going to hold back today. However, deep down inside I felt that something more was going to happen between us. Yes we may very well be about to fight to the death, but something told me there was going to be more to it than that. I knew Sanda was going to accept my challenge because he didn't want anyone interfering in this either.

When I turned into an Elementia, I woke up before my brother, and Atiyama was standing before me. I was confused, our entire town was wiped off the face of the planet and we were laying in a crater. Atiyama told me what I was and what had happened, and what had happened to my brother as well, and that right there and then was my chance to get rid of him. I don't remember much about what happened after that. I just remember pure darkness clouding my mind and then all of a sudden I was here, in this base with the other five and Atiyama. He told me that my brother was still alive due to the Light Elementia and that made me beyond furious. I had failed, but I wasn't about to fail this time.

I stood on top of a building in a usually bustling city, a city not too far from the Elementia's home base. I had delivered the note, so now I just had to wait for sunrise. Something was odd though, unusually odd. I didn't let myself think about it however. The only thing I wanted to focus on was how I was going to kill my brother. He didn't deserve to live after having such an easy lifestyle while I've had to suffer my entire life simply because I was "gifted". I was going to make him pay, for not trying harder, for not becoming better, and for just giving up. "I'm going to kill him today... One way or another he's going to die by my hand..! I just have to think about how..." I thought to myself.

He was good at fighting, but I hadn't shown him everything I had to offer; I could use that to my advantage. I formulated a plan in my mind, thinking of what Sanda would do, what he would say, and how the fight would go down. I had the perfect strategy in my mind now. I smirked wildly, feeling the killer intent I had fill every fiber of my body. I was finally going to do it. I was going to kill my one and only brother. "Let's see how you like this...Sanda!" I encased my body in plasma, my entire body glowing mint green. My hood was blown down from the wind, but I didn't mind. I had fixed my hoodie myself after it got torn to shreds from my last battle with Sanda. I don't know why, but it brought me a great amount of comfort, so I kept it on at all times. I took care of it as well; cleaned it till there wasn't a single dirty spot every day.

I pulled my hood back up, the confident smirk I had never fading from my face, my eyes glowing the same mint green they always did under my hood. I prepared myself for a moment, then blasted off at full speed, beams of plasma shooting from my feet as I headed to the location of my last battle with Sanda. I pictured all the ways he would look dead at my feet as I flew, slowly starting to laugh at the thought. I was going to kill Sanda today.

I recalled the past while flying, remembering the good times, the very little ones I had with Sanda as a child. When we were children, Sanda and I always played together. I don't know why I was remembering such things at a time like this, but whatever. I didn't banish the thoughts, just let more come to mind. An odd memory came to my mind. I remembered we were both rather smart as children growing up. We both aced all of our tests and classes when we were really young. I don't remember why, but for some reason his grades turned average. Enough to pass, but nothing exceptional; 75's and 80's at the highest.

It wasn't sudden or anything like that, there was a reason for it, but I couldn't remember why. It was like the memory was clouded in darkness. I scoffed in frustration and just blew it off. I shouldn't be thinking about stuff like that right now anyways. Whatever memories I have of him won't matter after I've killed him today. I looked over at the sun that started to rise, chuckling a bit. "Well, it won't be very humble of me if I don't get there first..." I smirked and sped up even more, the beams under my feet becoming more powerful. This speed wasn't costing me a lot of energy so I didn't have to worry. I could make it to the location in an instant if I wanted, but that would use up more energy than this, so I decided to take the slower route.

More memories continued to flood my mind: Sanda becoming average, more people looking my way instead of at both of us, Sanda being neglected and alone, me comforting him, everyone crowding me and expecting things from me more and more the older I got, and Sanda purposefully isolating himself. These thoughts only filled me more and more with rage. The final memory that raced through my mind was me, working hard even though I was living on my own, and Sanda, living a lazy lifestyle and unable to enter any kind of college. His words the day I asked him why he refused to keep trying rang through my mind. "Isn't that just what's expected of us?" That was the moment I had first wanted to beat my brother senseless. "I'll fucking kill him..." I clenched my fists so tight they began bleeding.

I soon landed, having made it there first and the ground broke up a bit from how hard my landing was. When I landed, I fired a wave of plasma from my feet into another hill, causing even more destruction as I steadied myself on the ground. I smirked still, waiting for Sanda. "There's no way I'm gonna lose... You're gonna die today...Sanda..." I imagined when he landed his face would be full of rage and despair, and he'd spout some nonsense about saving me and knocking me back to my senses. That left me thinking, "Last I checked I was perfectly fine and this is what I want. He deserves to pay for living such an easy life while I've had to suffer. He deserves to die for it, and I'm going to make sure that's what happens."

I waited for about an hour, blasting my plasma off in the distance to let off some steam before Sanda arrived, and so he'd know I was there. I was confident I'd have plenty of energy left to take him down before he got here still. I imagine he might've just woken up when I had arrived here. He always had a tendency to wake up early and eat breakfast before me and my parents ever woke up so we wouldn't see him. I knew he'd wake up early as he always did, especially with his energetic element. He was probably on his was here now.

I looked up to see a few sparks in the sky, a small smirk forming on my face. I went from annoyed to happy to murderous in seconds. And so, I began waiting for my predictions to come true. Sanda landed with a crash, just like I expected, his lightning breaking up the ground around him. I slowly started to chuckle, waiting for the smoke to clear to see his face. This is when everything started to go wrong about my predictions. I looked over to see his face was entirely blank. He wasn't filled with any rage nor any despair. He looked completely calm in fact. "Are we doing this or what..?" He muttered, his body sparking.

I don't know what it was, but it seemed like he just wanted to kick my ass like how I wanted to kill him. My smirk faded and I glared at him, plasma balls forming around me. "Oh but of course... I hope you're ready to die, Sanda!" Sanda didn't say anything in return. His sparks just got more intense, and he took a stance, ready to fight.