Signs of War, Part 3

"So did you learn any new wind techniques while I was gone?" I excitedly ask Jay.

With the upcoming war between mankind and demonkind, I turned to Jay for assistance. The two of us are currently standing in the arena of the Slayer Organization Headquarters that we fought in during the IJST. Jay seemed a lot stronger when he helped me against the Assassin Slayers than when I first fought against him, so I'm sure he learned some new wind techniques. And for this upcoming Second Human-Demon World War…I can use another quick strength boost.

"Of course I did!" Jay answers with a smirk. "I wasn't just sitting around doing nothing, while you were gone."

"Mind teaching me what you've come up with?" I ask as I sheepishly rub the back of my neck. My training with my dad mostly focused on my half-demon powers and katana skills, so I haven't really improved my wind skills in a while…"

"Hey, I did say that you can come to me anytime you need some wind training, didn't I?" Jay laughs as wind begins circling around his entire body.

"Now… watch closely!" Jay orders as the wind circling around his entire body begins to rise into the air and condense, kind of like my Sky God's Katana, or Jay's Sky Shuriken. But rather than forming a weapon of air, Jay's wind condenses into a large, light blue silhouette looming over him, wrapping around Jay like armor, with the appearance of a samurai, but only the waist and up. In the samurai's right hand, is a wind sword with a decorative, ornate shield attached to the back of its wrist, and in its left…a bow of wind.

"Woah…" I marvel as I stare up at the silhouette of Jay's wind samurai

"I learned how to take our ability of condensing wind into weapons into our next step," Jay explains. "And I created armor out of wind. I can manipulate the samurai's limbs using my own wind."

"What's it called?" I ask.

"Oh…I'm actually not sure of that…" Jay answers as he timidly rubs the back of his neck with a sheepish smile. "I haven't gotten that far!"

"Oh, well I can't take something this cool from you," I reply with a small laugh of my own. "I mean…I'd be pissed if you stole my Sky God's Katana!"

"How about this: we'll have a friendly sparring match, you and I," Jay suggests with a smirk. "And when I defeat you, even smoother than my victory in the IJST, I'll teach you how to use this technique; since it looks like you're going to need some extra help for this upcoming war!"

"I like this idea…" I smirk back. "You're on!"

The brief sparring match between Jay and I starts off when I draw my katana and prepare my Wind Blade. "Wind Control: Wind Blade!" I shout as I charge Jay .

"Now…to show you the true defensive power of my new technique!" Jay shouts as the wind samurai behind him begins to move its right arm, bringing its ornate wind shield in front of Jay , and protecting him from me.

"Let's test that out!" I shout as I swing my Wind Blade downwards with all my might. But when my Wind Blade makes contact with Jay wind-shield, it bounces right off of it, not leaving so much as a scratch. "What the…my attack didn't affect it?!" I cry.

"I told you, my new technique is powerful!" Jay replies. "You call that a Wind Blade?! Now this is a Wind Blade!"

"Ugh…reminds me of the IJST…" I grumble to myself under my breath. "Jay was super nice after our fight ended, but during our match…he was a real asshole to me over my Wind Control…"

"Air Manipulation: Wind Blade!" Jay shouts as his wind samurai behind him lifts its right arm up -removing Jay layer of defense- and bringing its katana high into the air

"You bastard, you still my attack name!" I snap. "Now you've taken this too far…"

"Don't like that, do ya'?" Jay spits with a smirk. "THEN DEFEAT ME AND PROVE THAT YOU'RE THE TRUE WIND USER OF US!"

"Oh, I will!" I shout back, as Jay's wind samurai then slams its sword down, with all of its might.

In response, I bring my Wind Blade up to block, but Jay's blade of wind pushes straight past my own, as Jay's Wind Blade slams into me, causing a spiraling tornado to explode from Jay's attack and wrap around me due to the impact of our two Wind Blades colliding.

"Air Manipulation: Sky Shuriken!" Jay then shouts as -from within the tornado swirling around me- miniature shurikens of wind begin flying out of Jay's tornado towards me.

"Damn…this is just like my own tornado attack…" I grumble as I reinforce the blade of my katana with my dark-blue Cursed Power.

"Extend-o-Blade!" I then shout as I swing the blade of my katana outwards while holding onto my cloth to increase its range. The blade of my katana then swiftly extends outwards, which I use to slice through Jay's mini Sky Shurikens.

"You know-" I then say to myself as I allow for the dark-blue Cursed Power bubbling around my katana to dissipate, as its blade retracts back to its usual length. "-This is a battle of wind. If I can't beat Jay with just my wind, then I'm not proving anything!" I then sheath my katana before bringing my fists up, reinforcing them with my dark-blue Cursed Power, as I stare down the wave of Sky Shurikens flying towards me. "Let's go!"

Swiftly, I begin emitting my Cursed Power into the atmosphere in the form of a net. "Air Control!" I shout as I use my Air Control in order to read the air waves around me, so that I can predict and dodge Jay's Sky Shurikens, as well as countering and punching through them with my Cursed Power reinforced fists.

"You know, I haven't used this attack in a while!" I then say to myself as I construct a katana out of wind, bringing it high into the air as I wrap another tornado around its blade. "Air Control: Focus Slash!" I shout as I swing my wind katana downwards, sending a thin, ranged blade of wind flying towards Jay's tornado, and cutting right through it, freeing me from Jay's grasp.

"Hmm…" Jay mutters as he watches me step out of his tornado, allowing for it to dissipate back into Jay's sunrise-orange Cursed Power. Jay then notices that I've sheathed my katana. "So you're not using your sword, eh?" He asks me.

"Naw," I reply with a smirk. "I vowed to myself that I'd beat you with only my wind, wind on wind!"

"So no sword or demon powers?" Jay asks with a smirk of his own. "You're playing a risky game.

"A risky game but a fair one," I reply.

The fight between Jay and I continues when I construct another katana out of wind and charge Jay, reinforcing my body with my dark-blue Cursed Power in order to get in close.

"Jay is a Shooter, I'm an Attacker," I mutter to myself under my breath as I dash towards Jay. "I'll have the advantage in melee combat…"

Once in front of Jay, I shout; "Wind Control: Wind Blade," as I swing my wind katana towards him.

Jay smirks at me in response. "Don't forget, I already told you that I was in the military-" Jay begins to say. "So do you really think that just because I'm a ranged fighter…I CAN'T HOLD MY OWN IN MELEE COMBAT?!" With a roar, Jay reinforces his entire body with his sunrise-orange Cursed Power and launches his right Cursed Power Barrier reinforced fist towards my wind katana, our two attacks colliding in a rush of dark-blue and sunrise-range Cursed Power.

Our two attacks struggle against each other for a little bit, until Jay's Cursed Power Barrier reinforced punch manages to overpower my wind katana, and knocks it away. Jay then sweeps my feet and elbows me with a Cursed Power Barrier reinforced elbow, sending me flying backwards and landing on the ground a dozen of feet away.

With a small groan, I push myself back up to my feet and rub my head. "Remember how our first fight ended, Jay?" I ask as I turn to face Slayer Kaze.

"With my Sky Shuriken overpowering your Spirit Storm, and me beating you," Jay answers with a smirk.

"So how about a rematch?" I suggest with a smirk of my own.

"You're on," Jay answers. "But don't come crying to me when the results wind up the same.

In response, I chamber my right hand, as Jay brings his own right hand into the air, wind swirling around our two hands.

"Wind Control…"

"Air Manipulation…"

"SPIRIT STORM!"

"SKY SHURIKEN!"

With a roar, I thrust my right hand towards Jay, sending a powerful gust of wind flying towards him. Meanwhile, the wind swirling around Jay's hand condenses into a mighty shuriken of wind, which Jay sends flying towards me with the swing of his arm. Our two wind attacks fly towards one another then collide in the form of a mighty tornado, sending a rush of dark-blue and sunset-orange flying in every direction.

At first; Jay's Sky Shuriken pushes my Spirit Storm back, but with a roar; I up the pressure of my own attack, and now, my attack pushes Jay's back, until with one last push, my Spirit Storm pushes past Jay's Sky Shuriken for good, colliding into Jay with a blast of dark-blue Cursed Power, and wrapping Jay up in a powerful tornado.

When my tornado subsides, Jay lays on the ground, soaked in blood. Defeated.

"I…really won…" I marvel to myself as I drop to the ground on my rear, panting heavily and soaked in blood as well. "ALRIGHT, I won the battle of wind!"

"Dammit…I lost, and you weren't even using your full power…" Jay grunts. "There's…nothing for me to teach you now, you've surpassed me…" Jay sadly says.

"Jay, I-" I begin to say, but he cuts me off.

"I've dedicated my life to the wind…I love it…yet I still lost…"

***

We met up outside of our dorm house one last time. Ella, Grover, Jamie, Austin, and I.

"Well I suppose we can't go in there?" Grover laughs.

"I guess not," Jamie answers with a small chuckle.

"There's a good chance that whatever squad lives there isn't in there, so we can teleport in," Ella suggests with a small chuckle.

"We could, but I think that would fall on the lines of breaking and everything," Austin smirks.

"Screw it, let's go in!" I exclaim.

"Alright, you asked for it," Grover laughs as he opens up a wormhole. The five of us enter the wormhole, and when we step outside of it; we find ourselves standing in the kitchen of our dorm house. For the first time in almost two years now.

I look around our dormhouse. It's changed a bit

"The last time we were here; we all promised each other to get stronger, and that we'll all meet up together again once I return home," I begin to say.

"And we all kept up the promise," Jamie finishes.

"So what should we promise now?" Jamie asks.

"That we're going to fight like there's no tomorrow," I answer. "We're going to promise each other that we'll fight in this war with everything we've got. And once this war is finished…we're going to have accomplished our dreams!"

"Yeah!" Grover cheers as he thrusts his hand forwards. "I'm going to do my best in this war, and use it to earn the title of becoming Chairman!"

"I'll take down all of the strongest opponents!" Jamie exclaims as she slaps her hand down on top of Grover's, then peers over at Austin timidly. "And once I do, I'll earn the right to confess…"

"I'll use the clout of this war to gain fame for my inventions and become rich," Austin smirks as his hand enters the ring as well. "And once this war is over…I'll go to college!"

"I'm going to heal everyone in this war!" Ella exclaims as she places her hand on top of Austin's. "No one will die thanks to me!"

I take a deep breath in…then out.

And then…I place my hand on top of Ella's.

"And what's your goal after the war, Luis?" Ella asks.

My eyes narrow into a confident scowl.

"I'm going to stop Mikey. I'm going to defeat the Four Horsemen. This mess started because of me, so I'll be the one to end it!" I shout. "I'LL SAVE EVERYONE. And when this mess is over…we'll meet back here one last time, alive!"

"I promise!"

"I promise!"

"I promise!"

"I promise!"

And then…the five of us throw our hands in the air and cheer. But our celebration is interrupted when we hear some commotion at the front door, and we turn and see a kid unlock the door and step inside. The same kid that I was greeted with when I first came to our ex dorm house upon coming home.

"Um…hello?" The kid nervously asks.

"Sorry…" I awkwardly apologize. "We'll leave now."

Five days.

Just five and a half more days until an all-out war breaks out, humanity versus demonkind.

Which side will be victorious?