"Did yah feel that?" Rica asked with a surprised expression while looking in the direction where Hina and Hajime were doing their training.
Reiko looked at Rika with a confused face and asked, "What do you mean?" As she suddenly started growing an intense cyan color.
"Huh?!"
"What's happening to your body?"
Rica asked as she started looking at Reiko with a complicated expression that looked lather concerning, considering how she looked or how her face looked.
Reiko observed herself closely and thought with a shocked face. 'This can't be happening! My barrier was breached?'
'But by whom?'
In a brink of an eye, the wound on the finger she cut earlier reopened, and immediately blood started coming out, but the moment the blood was about to touch the ground, it started to dissolve, scattering in mid-air, then it paused. But for some reason, it looked like it was floating for a moment, but in no time, it adhered to Reiko, and her reopened wound was sealed again.
Both sisters remained silent for some seconds, dazed by what had just happened.
Reiko's eyes enlarged with rage for a second, and with a scary and intimidating expression, she grumbled and whispered to herself, 'Hina.'
She remembered the name Hajime gave to her summon. Hajime gave the name Hina to the Coltess, the summon who looked like a rabbit girl, because her face looked similar to a doll.
Reiko swiftly swiveled and started heading in the direction Hajime and Hina were to check what happened for her to lose her summon, and also check if there was a third party involved in breaching her barrier.
That wasn't her only reason, and she knew very well that no one could breach the barrier from outside; the only way in or out of it was possible if she herself gave the order or someone stronger than her was at the scene...
"Where are ya going?!" Rica asked; she was well aware where Reiko was going, but she wanted to make sure that everything was fine.
Reiko came to an abrupt halt for a second, looked at Rica with plane expression on her face, and finally spoke, "I am heading to check on Hajime and see how he is doing."
"You stay here and recover the mana you used up," she said as she turned and continued proceeded. Now dashing.
Rica knew her sister was obviously lying, just to keep her in the dark about the truth of the barrier and the summon spiraling out of control. She could tell because she had been watching Reiko for years, trying to control her magic, but most of her efforts had ended in failure.
***
Later, Reiko arrived at the place where Hajime and Hina were training only to find that they were nowhere to be seen, and she found blood everywhere, and a trail of it was leading straight to the location where she had the feeling that her barrier was breached.
'Is this Hajime's?' She thought, looking at the trail of blood.
'Oh no. If he's out of the barrier with this much blood lost, he might not make it out alive.' She continued, her gaze still observing the blood.
"...I have to get to him before it's too late."
She muttered to herself as she followed the blood trail. At its end, she discovered a massive gaping hole in her barrier. and some hair resembling Hina's, but the only difference was that the hair looked singed, and there was something that looked a lot like skin beneath it.
She stopped and scanned the area for any presence, noticing that the blood trail continued into the woods beside the training grounds. Keeping her distance, she followed the trail and soon spotted something moving rapidly deep within the trees.
She did not stop there but started following the thing to see what it was and if it had Hajime, but she lost track of it after it took a strange turn by a small river that was deep inside the woods.
"Where did it go?"
She wondered with curiosity while looking side to side at the trees near her. And there was no blood trail left to be followed; it was like the thing she was following just disappeared together with Hajime.
She wasn't worried about Hina; seeing the burned hair near the massive gap in her barrier, she assumed Hina had died while trying to escape. She figured the blood trail might have disappeared, washed away by the nearby river.
Somewhere in the deepest part of the woods, Hajime was lying down under some big trees that almost covered the whole area he was in. He was still conscious, and all the areas he had been stubbed by Hina had completely recovered.
Birds were singing, the sun shone brighter, making some water droplets on the leaves to shine like crystals because of the light that was reflecting off them, and one of Hajime's daggers was sitting on a rock without anything on it. No blood, no nothing.
And beside Hajime, there was a girl without any clothes on. She stood up and started heading closer toward him with the dagger in her hand. Her hand was wrapped around the dagger with a tight grip, and the moment she reached him, she raised it and was ready to strike.
In a flash of light, she swung the dagger, and then a throbbing sound followed.
A soft wind carried her hair for a second as she pulled out the dagger.
Instead of throbbing Hajime, she stabbed a venomous snake that was about to strike him on his wrist.
It was a massive snake, its scales shimmering like those of a frost dragon. Its brown color blended with the surrounding trees, allowing it to remain hidden while stalking its prey. But the girl acted quickly, managing to strike it down before it could do any harm.
The girl lifted the writhing snake and tossed it onto the rock where she had been sitting. The creature thrashed violently, attempting to slither into a bush at the base of the rock. But before it could escape, she hurled her dagger with deadly precision, slicing the snake's head cleanly in two.
She looked at Hajime with an expressionless look and shifted her left hand a little as she moved towards the dagger and the snake.
Hajime started to regain consciousness, but as he slowly opened his eyes, he uttered, "I'm sorry, but I'll be busy tomorrow."
The girl quickly looked at him after hearing his voice and walked closer to him to see if he was indeed waking up.
Hajime slowly opened his eyes, and everything he tried to look at was foggy. He shifted his hands to clear his vision by rubbing them against his eyes, but the moment he managed to do so, everything started to look clear.
He looked up at the trees and took in a deep breath while turning his head, trying to figure out where he was, but saw that there was a girl he had never seen before standing next to him, completely naked.
"...!"
This caught him by surprise, and he thought maybe he was seeing things after being beaten up by Hina. He stood up immediately and faced the girl with a shocked expression.
He raised his hand and slapped his face with full force to maybe snap out of it if he was inside a dream.
The girl approached him after he just slapped himself. She grabbed his hand and removed it from his face, but the instant she did so, there were no traces on Hajime's face that he slapped himself.
"...Who are you?"
He finally asked as the girl let go of his hand and started staring at him with her face still expressionless, but she didn't respond. She just kept looking at him.
This made Hajime feel awkward, so he then asked him a random question that popped into his head.
"Do you have a name?" Hajime nervously asked, but she just kept staring at him.
Hajime gawked at the girl and remembered that he was trying to run away from Hina, and he had been stubbed by her a lot. He looked right and left, trying to see if she was around, but while checking, the girl grabbed his right hand and started pulling him to stand up.
"What are you doing?!" He asked, his voice a mix of loss, nervousness, and surprise.
The girl kept on pulling him, but Hajime could not budge from where he was sitting. A second later, he heard footsteps coming from behind him. He quickly turned nervously to see who was there, and as the footsteps grew closer to where he was, he stood swiftly while still facing the direction he was hearing the footsteps, and the girl kept her grip on Hajime's hand.
A girl older than Hajime appeared in front of him with a furious expression while carrying a long sword as big as her.
"...Reiko!"
Hajime uttered as he got a clear look at the girl with the long sword.