✔ | At Least We Have Forever

Chapter 20 - Part Of The Truth

"Kurama! Riya!" Yusuke screamed when the blast occurred and almost threw them away from there.

"Have those demon shinobi gone completely insane? Why would they attack Kurama and Riya from out of the blue?" Kuwabara asked as they tried not to be blown away by the explosion.

Hiei unsheathed his sword and firmly stabbed it to the ground to be used as a support in order not to be blown away and then he spoke. "That depends on their answer once we find that demon shinobi."

The resulting glow and shockwaves from the blast faded slowly but the thick smoke continued to block the view of the area. And what they saw after that made them quite surprised.

"W-what the heck happened?" Yusuke asked, most likely to himself when he saw two figures in the smoke. But what surprised him the most was when they saw Kurama behind the heavily panting Riya, whose both hands were surrounded by a bright yellow glow and crackles of electricity.

The glow on her hands faded and then she collapsed to her knees, still panting.

"Good thing the attack has electricity on it, or else... or else I wouldn't be able to absorb it..." she murmured before looking behind her to check on Kurama. "Are you alright?"

Though still surprised by what happened, he nodded. "Thanks to you. But how—"

"Later. We'll have time to talk," she said nonchalantly as she looked up, her eyes hardened. "But one thing I'll tell you... This is one secret that I want you to know." She stood up even though she was still feeling a bit dizzy because of absorbing the twin electric attack.

"Can you still move alright?" Kurama asked as he stood up and approached her with worries. "You're already injured because of absorbing the attack."

Riya faced him and smiled a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Besides—" she paused before glancing in one direction where Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei were approaching from. "—I'm not alone. You'll help me, right?"

Kurama smiled then nodded. "You can count on me."

"And us, too!" Yusuke yelled as he approached the pair. He was panting and took a deep breath after that. "Damn it, Riya! What the heck was that ability you showed a while back? You prevented Kurama from being harmed by that electric attack."

"Yeah, right. But in return, she almost ran out of energy to absorb that attack," Hiei said in a slightly sarcastic tone.

Riya just smiled at that. She didn't take that as an insult, though. "So now you can sense it, huh?"

"Not much. Somehow, you have your way of preventing your spiritual energy from being detected by any demon classes," Hiei said seriously as he looked at her the same way.

'That's not how it is, Hiei,' she said to herself. 'The seal is already beginning to break since my powers are getting weaker as each day passed.' And then she secretly glanced at Kurama who was looking at her with a serious expression on his face.

Unknown to her, Hiei managed to read her thoughts regarding that and it surprised him inwardly. And that was when he figured out what Yumi said to him yesterday about her master's condition means.

But before he could ask her anything about that, one of them sensed another approaching attack. This time, from the demon shinobi itself with a big ball of black lightning in his hands.

"Diabolic Lightning!" the enemy shouted before throwing the attack on them.

Though it was fast approaching and the gang evaded the attack, Hiei and Kurama figured out that there was something wrong with it.