CH. 52 - The Duel for Blame

In the morning, Shiori wakes up first to see that they had rolled over in their sleep. Hikigaya is now laying on his back as Shiori nuzzles her face into his neck with her left arm across his chest and by his face. Hikigaya's left arm holds her close with his hand on her back, but worst of all, her leg is laying across his lap. Shiori slowly opens her eyes and stares for a moment before they open wide and she quickly sits up, embarrassed. Hikigaya groggily wakes up and sits up, rubbing his eyes.

“What’s wrong, Shiori?..” He asks, tired. She blushes intensely as she turns away from him, covering her mouth. 

‘I can’t believe we actually did that! We slept in the same bed last night! I mean, under the circumstances, it’s not like it was a romantic thing, but still.’ Shiori thinks, flustered.

“Shiori?” Hikigaya calls to her but her thoughts are too loud.

'And the way we were cuddling? I was practically straddling him! What was that feeling? Could that have been his-'

"Shiori." Hikigaya calls out again more firmly. Shiori looks at him surprised as she finally starts to calm down. He looks at her, a little concerned and embarrassed as she starts to think.

'Right. What happened last night…' She thinks before shaking her head with a soft smile. “It’s nothing. How are you feeling?” She asks warmly. Hikigaya looks down a bit.

“I’m… okay. Thanks again, Shiori. I… don’t know what would’ve happened if I…”

“It’s okay, Hikigaya. We’re here now, together. That’s all that matters. And I’m here to talk if you want to, remember that.” She smiles warmly at him, taking his hand in hers. He smiles back for a moment before getting up off the bed. He stretches his arms up as Shiori sits on the other side of the bed.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving." Hikigaya says with his arms over his head and a satisfied smile on his face. As he stretches, Shiori stares at him before her eyes wander down. Suddenly, an intense blush spreads across her face with a shocked, flustered look, before she looks away. "What’s for breakfast?” Hikigaya asks with a smile, dropping his arms.

“If you expect me to make you breakfast, I will- Ah! I mean, you’re dead wrong.” Shiori says back, looking at him with a flustered but playfully angry face, crossing her arms.

“Oh, come on, you have to be nice to me!” He pouts.

“I don’t have to do anything. As far as I’m concerned, you should be nice to me, putting me through that.” She teases as he giggles a little. The smile on his face much warmer than it has been recently. Shiori watches him and smiles back, with a blush across her cheeks.

As she does, she gets up and goes to her room door with Hikigaya behind her. They open it to leave but stop when they see Riku coming from the bathroom. He stops too and stares at them before his eyes grow wide. They sweat a bit realizing what it looks like.

“Oooh! Moms, moms! Shiori and Hikigaya slept together!” Riku shouts, ratting them out. Shiori gets embarrassed.

“N-no we didn’t! Shut up, Riku!” She shouts angrily. Riku runs down the hall calling his parents as Asami and Hamasaki rush out of their room, obviously half asleep.

“What? What is it??” Asami asks, concerned. Riku comes up to them.

“Shiori and Hikigaya slept together! I saw them coming out of her room together!” Riku says. Hamasaki looks at Shiori and Hikigaya in her doorway then smiles softly. 

“I see.” Hamasaki says warmly.

“Jeez kid, you gave me quite the scare running around calling us like that.” Asami rubs her head with a sigh before she crouches down and pats him on the head, smiling a bit. “Why don’t we head downstairs and play a game?” Asami asks. Riku smiles widely.

“Really?” She nods and smiles as Riku jumps with joy and rushes down the hall then down the stairs.

“I’ll make us some breakfast.” Hamasaki says.

“Great, cause I’m starving.” Takanou says while coming out of the room behind them and down the hall. Asami follows and smiles warmly at Hikigaya.

“Glad to see you smiling, sweetie.” Asami says before heading down the stairs as Shiori and Hikigaya smile and follow. 

Later that evening, in Hikigaya's room, Hikigaya is sitting at his desk drawing as Shiori sits on his bed behind him, happily watching him.

“Dude, I really don’t want to go to school tomorrow.” Hikigaya whines while keeping focus on the project in front of him.

“Well, you’re in luck. It’s Winter vacation right now, remember?” Shiori says back with a slight sigh, amused by his forgetfulness. Hikigaya then turns around and looks at her excitedly.

“What? That’s awesome! I totally forgot!” He says with a big smile at her. She smiles back and shakes her head.

“How could you forget? It’s only one of two major breaks we get a year.”

“Well, I’ve had a lot on my mind.” He says with his back turned to her as he goes back to drawing. Shiori’s smile kind of fades and she gets a conflicted look.

“Yeah…” She says under her breath. Hikigaya picks up on her tone and turns around to look at her with a concerned look.

“Everything okay?” He asks softly. Shiori pauses and lowers her head while bringing her knees up to her chest.

“Hikigaya… Do you… hate me..?” Shiori asks timidly. Hikigaya looks at her, confused by the question.

“No, why would I hate you?” He asks softly. Shiori tightens up a bit before responding.

“Because, your sister and all that… It’s my fault.” She says. Hikigaya sighs a bit and looks at her softly. “It’s okay if you do.. I understand.”

“Shiori, I don’t hate you. Besides, it’s not even really your fault. It’s mine.” He says, looking away a little. Shiori looks at him shocked.

“No, it’s not! How could it be? I was the one who didn’t save her!” She almost shouts. Hikigaya glares at her a little.

“Well, I was her brother! I was right there, and I couldn’t do anything.” Hikigaya says back with a frustrated, disappointed look in himself. They pause for a moment, both looking down.

“It’s not your fault.” Shiori says softly.

“It’s not yours either.” Hikigaya says too. She looks at him with a slightly irritated look, and he gives one back.

“You can’t debate me on this. It’s my fault no matter how you look at it.” Shiori says with a firm tone.

“It’s mine. It was my responsibility as her brother!” Hikigaya says loudly.

“She was my sister too!” Shiori shouts back, filled with emotion. They sit in silence again for another moment.

“You’re really gonna fight me on this?” Hikigaya asks.

“Yes.” Shiori says with determined eyes. Hikigaya sighs.

“Fine. How about this? Let’s have a duel. The winner gets to be at fault.” He offers. Shiori relaxes a little as she thinks about it.

“Sounds like a good idea to me. You’ll see whose fault it really was.” She says with a determined smile as he smiles back.

“Meet me in the mountains at 11 o’clock.” Hikigaya says.

“You’re on.” Shiori says back. She gets up and leaves his room with a determined look. Hikigaya has a slight soft smile on his face as he watches her leave. 

Later that night, out in a grassy, clear area in the mountains and forest, Shiori stands in the moonlight. She looks back when Hikigaya steps towards her.

“So you actually showed up.” She says.

“We left together. Just because you can fly doesn’t mean you get to look down on me.” Hikigaya says with a frustrated tone. His eyes then sharpen, and he looks at her. “Are we doing this or what?” He asks, serious.

“I don’t know, it was your idea. You sure you don’t want to back down now and just admit that it’s my fault?” Shiori says with a cocky head tilt. Hikigaya smirks before springing into action.

“Not a chance!” He shouts as he swings his bone whip from his wrist at her. She dashes up into the air, dodging the whip, but is shocked when she looks back in his direction to see his arm stretching her way. He punches her in the stomach and into the ground. A big cloud of dust bursts out from the impact as Hikigaya pulls his arm back.

“Are you sure you don’t want to back down?” He asks.

Suddenly, a large fire bar jets towards him out of the smoke. His eyes grow wide before he puts his hands in front of him, covered in bone, to block the fire. He stands in the fire for a moment before jumping out of it and shaking his hands as they smoke.

“Ow ow ow! Hot!”

The smoke stops as the bones go away. Shiori stands in the dust cloud that is now dissipating with her open palm pointed at him with traces of fire coming from it. 

“Fireballs now? Since when?” Hikigaya asks, a little annoyed by her new move.

“I didn’t even know I could do that!” She shouts as she pulls back to jump after him. As she flies through the air at him, Hikigaya points his arms toward her and stretches them at her, growing in size as they go. She is surprised as his large hands grab her body.

“Got ya!” He then swings her around a couple times before throwing her into the ground. She smashes into the ground with a large boom as Hikigaya lands in front of her. “Give it up. I know all your moves. I’m gonna win, and it’s gonna be all my fault.” Hikigaya says. Shiori gets up from the small crater and smiles at him. 

“Well, you know what they say. Fight fire with fire!” As she says this, she pulls her arm back for a punch and throws it, extending and growing her arm like Hikigaya did before her. Hikigaya is shocked and hit with the punch as he goes flying back and into the trees behind him.

He reels from the attack for a moment before opening his eyes wide, seeing a barrage of punches coming his way. He freaks out as multiple arms extend at him. He dodges a couple before shrinking his body to be tiny, roughly the size of a young child, to escape the punches.

Suddenly, the punches stop as Shiori’s eyes widen. She pulls her arms back as her eyes light up and blushes appear on her cheeks. 

‘Tiny Hikigaya! So cute!’

As Hikigaya runs towards her in his tiny form, he crouches down and dives at her, growing back to full size. She is caught off guard as he grabs onto her wrists.

“Don’t underestimate me!” He shouts, then flips over her and throws her into the air. She flies through the air for a moment as he throws one heavy punch extending her way. She then extends her wings out to catch herself and immediately blocks the punch.

Hikigaya is surprised as a tail comes out from her body and extends his way. It zips back and forth quickly as it makes its way to him.

‘I can’t keep track of it!’

It then connects with his stomach, sending him flying back before it comes for another attack and smashes him into the ground. Shiori lands in front of the small crater and dust cloud where Hikigaya is.

Suddenly, two arms and a leg come extending from the ground around her before bending back and slamming towards her. She jumps back and dodges the three limbs as Hikigaya smirks, sticking his limbs into the ground. He pulls them back as Shiori smirks back at him. She pulls her arm back as it starts to steam and turn to frost. 

“Get ready for a snow wave!”

She then pushes her hand in his direction as a large amount of snow comes flying at him from her palm. Hikigaya has a worried look as he is buried in the wave of snow. He digs his way up to the surface and starts shivering. 

“Ah! T-that’s so c-cold! Oh, I know!” He holds himself for a second as he shivers before he extends his arms out to his sides and slams his fists together. This causes a pulse to go through his arms and towards his chest. Shiori watches with confusion as he starts to turn a darker red color and some of his veins start to bulge. Steam starts to come off of his body as the snow melts a bit around him.

Suddenly, he disappears. Shiori’s eyes widen as he appears behind her. He grabs her by the waist with his arms wrapped around her and suplexes her into the ground. She grunts as she rolls back before standing up quickly and throwing an extending punch at him, but he disappears again. She stands straight up and looks around.

“Oh yeah, this’ll do nicely.” Hikigaya says from somewhere else. Shiori turns to see him in a tree, standing on a branch. 

“New technique?” She asks.

“Yeah, not sure what I’m gonna call it, but I feel good. Nice and warm.” He responds as his body steams a little.

“Well, if you want to be warm so bad, I can help!”

She brings both of her arms back as she swings them forward and claps them together, which sends off a large bolt of lightning at Hikigaya. He then disappears again and runs to the side.

‘He’s even faster than lightning now?!’ She thinks as she pulls her hands apart, her eyes following Hikigaya as he dashes to her side and pulls back his arm for a punch. As he throws the punch at her, only her eyes can keep up, so she is unable to dodge or block when suddenly, a sword forms from the ground in front of his fist and blocks the attack. He collides with the sword and pushes against it for a moment before jumping back. 

“Where did that come from?” He asks. Shiori turns and grabs the handle of the katana. She then stances with it, smirking at Hikigaya. He smirks back. “Oh, you wanna swordplay now. Check this out.”

He then slashes along his palm with his own hand, causing blood to come out. Shiori gets a concerned look for a moment before realizing he can harden his blood. He hardens it into a blade, but nowhere near a refined sword shape. She then smiles at him as they dash at each other.

Hikigaya comes down first with a heavy downward strike, which Shiori blocks and parries. She goes for a mid body horizontal slash, which Hikigaya is barely able to dodge by jumping back a bit. He looks up with shock as Shiori follows up with a diagonal downward slash. He blocks it with his blade, and they clash for a moment.

“I didn’t expect you to have this much skill with a blade.” Shiori says.

“What can I say? Watching anime really taught me well!” He shouts back.

They push each other back then clash blades a few more times before Shiori thrusts at him, which he dodges by flipping backward. He then pulls his arm back with blade in hand. Shiori is surprised as he throws the blade at her at high speed. She blocks it barely and is knocked off balance a bit. That’s when Hikigaya dashes to her and sweeps the legs. She is shocked as she falls to the side and Hikigaya follows up with a heavy punch to the ground, slamming her into it.

She blocks with her arm and sword as she struggles against his punch. He smirks as she gets irritated. Suddenly, heat starts to rise from Shiori. Hikigaya notices and gets a worried look as she shouts and a pillar of flames bursts out of her.

Hikigaya is thrown back and stumbles a bit as Shiori quickly dashes out of the flames and lands a heavy downward blow to Hikigaya’s face. It hits him so hard that the blood technique he was using to form the blade deactivates, and he even spits out a little blood. Shiori is concerned and pulls back. 

“Ah Hikigaya! I’m sorry, I shouldn’t’ve-”

Suddenly, he punches her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. They both stumble back, reeling from the heavy blows. She looks at him with a pained look, holding her stomach.

“That was mean…” She groans.

“You’re the one who won’t let it be my fault…”

“Because it’s not.”

“Well, it’s not yours either.” Hikigaya says.

They stare at each other for a moment before they dash towards each other. Hikigaya tries to hit her with an open palm strike, but she ducks down and places her index fingers against his body with her wrists together and palms open. They glow with a pinkish hue as Hikigaya’s eyes widen. 

“Sakura Two Point.”

A small force wave shoots into his body, knocking the wind out of him and sending him flying back. He slides and tries to catch himself, holding his stomach as Shiori jumps above him and starts spinning vertically with her leg out. Her foot catches on fire, and she becomes a flipping fire wheel.

“Burning Wheel!”

Hikigaya puts his hands up and blocks as she slams her leg onto him and crushes him into the ground. The fire disperses quickly as Hikigaya’s arms steam. Shiori looks surprised as Hikigaya smirks a bit but obviously in a little pain.

His right arm then begins to stretch before quickly wrapping around Shiori’s leg and grabbing onto her waist. She blushes again, feeling Hikigaya's hand hold her stomach, as he jumps up high into the air and pulls her along with him. Once high enough, Hikigaya pulls Shiori in close.

“G-getting a little handsy there, aren’t you?” Shiori stutters with an awkward smile as Hikigaya smirks a little.

“You wanted this.” He says back. They smile at each other as they float in the air of the night sky with the moon shining brightly behind them. Hikigaya then whips her away from him, spinning her at high speeds, flying towards the ground.

As she spins and gets a little dizzy, he then dives towards her and slams his hands into her body and straight into the ground, causing a loud boom from the impact. As the dust cloud bursts out, they both dash out of it and slide back, facing each other. They both pull their arms back and ready themselves for a punch.

They dash at each other and throw their fists at the same time and collide with each other’s faces. They slide back from the hit as Shiori extends her tail at high speed at Hikigaya. It wraps around his neck and pulls him back close to her as she delivers a heavy kick to his stomach. He goes flying back and tumbles across the ground. He gets up and looks at Shiori, who pants. 

“This can stop anytime you want. Just admit that it was my fault.” She says between heavy breaths.

“But it wasn’t.” He says back as he catches his breath too. They both stare at each other for a moment before diving at each other and pulling their fists back, yelling, preparing to hit each other once again.

Their fight drags on for a while longer but eventually comes to an end. They lay on the ground next to each other, panting and sweating, covered in slight bruises and small amounts of blood around their mouths. 

“It… It wasn’t your fault, Shiori…” Hikigaya says, worn out.

“I know… It wasn’t yours either…” She says back. Hikigaya stares at the sky, breathing heavily, and taking in his surroundings. He hears his heartbeat in his ears, he watches the stars as they shimmer ever so slightly, he feels the pain of the fight just had but realizes it's something more than that.

“It wasn’t either of our fault. We both tried our best, didn’t we? That’s what matters, right?” Hikigaya says softly as his voice begins to crack. As he speaks, tears form in his eyes. The pain he feels now has little to do with the fight. A pain he couldn't recognize, he couldn't know how to bear it. But now, under this night sky, after fighting a duel for blame against his bestfriend, with her help, he realizes what he feels.

“We tried our best. I just… I miss her…” He starts crying while he places his arm over his eyes. Shiori sits up slowly and gives a concerned look. He stops crying after just a moment and sits up, wiping off his tears and such. 

“You okay, Hikigaya?” Shiori asks gently.

“Yeah. I just needed to get that out of my system. Thank you, Shiori. For helping me. I needed this.” He says softly as he smiles gently at her.

“That’s what friends are for. If you ever just need to beat something up, I’m right here!” She says with a big smile while pointing her thumb at herself. They laugh for a moment before both of them wince in pain. “Although maybe we should go a bit lighter next time…” Shiori says in light pain.

“Yeah.. Hey, why don’t you use that healing aura you have?” Hikigaya points out.

“Oh yeah! I forgot about that.” She says as she lifts her open palm to her shoulder, and it begins to glow a pale silver color. She hovers her hand across her body for a moment and onto her face as bruising and swelling in certain parts goes down. 

“Ah, that’s much better. Still gonna need some healing time, but that’s a good start.” Shiori says. She rolls her shoulder in satisfaction as Hikigaya happily stares at her. She looks at him and moves a little closer to face him, raising her hand his way. “Now your turn.”

“Oh no, it’s okay. I have my own healing factor. You don’t have to.”

“Oh, come on, let me help you.” She insists by shoving her hand against his body. He accepts as she hovers her hand above his shoulders and chest before making her way up to his cheeks. She places her hand on his cheek, and Hikigaya blushes.

Shiori focuses on her hand before making eye contact with him and realizing how close they are and how she is holding his face. She blushes and looks away before eventually pulling her hand away.

“W-well there you go. Should be all better soon. Probably sooner than me.” She says with a soft laugh.

“Thank you, Shiori. For everything.”Hikigaya says back softly. She smiles at him before turning around.

“Yeah, well, there is still one more thing. Come on out, guys, we’re done now!” She shouts into the forest.