Day 28.5: Conflict

"You've found yourself in a bit of a pickle, haven't you?" Ryan's eyes shot open when he heard a voice. What he found odd was that the voice was his somehow. It didn't sound similar. It sounded exactly like Ryan's voice. Ryan stood up to confront an exact clone of himself. The only difference was that his clone's eyes were purple instead of the average brown.

"Who the hell are you?" Ryan narrowed his eyes at the clone.

"I'm you. Well, you before you got your memories wiped," the clone explained. "Call me Edhas. Ryan wasn't never my real name anyways."

"Whatever," Ryan shrugged. "Though why are you here? Where is here? I should be out there. Fighting."

"If you didn't notice, you got shot in the head, again," Edhas said. "That was an epic fail by the way."

"Hey, how come you have my memories, and I don't?" Ryan asked. "That's not fair."

"It's quite simple," Edhas replied. "You don't want them."

"Okay, enough of that," Ryan sighed. As much as he wanted to care about this Nega-Ryan, he had more important things to worry about. "Why are you here? Let me go."

"Well, ya kind of failed," Edhas replied. "It's my turn. I'm going to finished what I started."

"What did you start?" Ryan asked.

"I'm going to destroy everything," Edhas stared Ryan down. "I'm going to destroy everything for what they did to me."

"By everything, do you mean MILF or everything?" Ryan asked. He knew he shouldn't be wasting his time like this, but it wasn't like he had anything to do, so he might as well learn about himself.

"Everything," Edhas replied. "This world doesn't deserve to exist."

"Sorry, but I can't let you do that," Ryan tensed up. "I have friends back there, you know. I can't just let you kill them all."

"What are you going to do, fight me?" Edhas asked, keeping a casual position, his hands in his hoodie pockets.

"If I have to," Ryan assumed a fighting position. Before he could even react, Edhas's fist connected with Ryan's face, sending him sprawling.

"Some fight you put up," Edhas dusted his fist as Ryan struggled to stand. "It's no use. I'm stronger than you in every way. You've been borrowing my strength, my magic this entire time. You're nothing without me."

"That may be true, but I can't just let you go off and kill my friends," Ryan assumed a fighting stance again. "Even if I lose, I have to stop you."

"Jeez, you sound so cliché," Edhas punched Ryan in the gut, backhanding him to the floor. "You should really try shutting up for once."

"Heh, you're right, but that just shows how much I've changed," Ryan said.

"Yeah, but aren't you mad?" Edhas kicked his stomach. "Didn't you just lose your closest friend? Your manager? Don't you just want to destroy everything?"

"I am mad," Ryan grabbed Edhas's foot. "I am angry, don't get me wrong, but just because I'm mad doesn't mean I can destroy everything. It's not what she would've wanted me to do. Plus, I have other friends that are worth living for. I can't just up and destroy everything less than a week after Gura-san and Ame got married. That's just a dick move, you feel?"

"That sounds dumb," Edhas said. "I lost everything dear to me. Everything. Just when things would start to look up, it would get yanked away. All this world does is take from me, so I feel like it's high time that I take from it."

"Man, are you sure about that?" Ryan asked, rolling over before getting up. "The looks Sabrina gives me speak otherwise. She looks at me like I was her ex or something."

"Well…" Edhas's voice faltered.

"Choco-sensei seems to care for you," Ryan continued.

"She's paid to care for me," Edhas shot back.

"That Brianna girl seemed to miss you," Ryan said. "I don't know who she is, but you might."

"Wait, Brianna's alive?!" Edhas exclaimed.

"I don't know the full details, but apparently she came back from the dead or something," Ryan said. "Who is she?"

Edhas walked up and hammered Ryan on the head, though Ryan could detect that his strikes weren't malicious. "She's your sister, you dolt!"

"I have a sister?" Ryan asked, flabbergasted.

"Yeah," Edhas groaned "I guess that there's a change of plans."

"Maybe we could show you that there are things that make life worth living," Ryan smiled, offering his hand. "I mean, since you're me, I guess we're stuck together."

"You really need to stop spewing all this cliché nonsense," Edhas grumbled. There were a couple seconds of pause before he took Ryan's hand. "But sometimes, I guess that you need some of it in your life."

"Don't worry, cliché bullshit is my specialty," Ryan said as the area lit around them. After a few seconds, the light enveloped the void, consuming it completely.

-

Ryan's eyes shot open. He stood up in the middle of the battlefield before turning to the pile of ash and Kiara's hat. That's right. She was still dead, but it was his job to make sure that no one else died as well.

As he prepared to dash, time seemed to stop around him. My body feels so much lighter, he thought to himself as he dashed towards his enemies. When he did, he launched himself much farther than he planned to. He shrugged to himself, slashing his sword at a random goon. The sword created a giant slash of light, cutting through a large number of soldiers. What the hell?

"Stop thinking. Follow your instincts, dipshit," Rang a voice in Ryan's head.

'Edhas?' Ryan thought to himself.

"No shit, Sherlock. Who did you think I was? The fucking boogeyman?"

'Why are you so aggressive?' Ryan asked.

"Shut up. Doesn't matter. Just fight."

'Fine,' Ryan sighed and let his instincts take over. He skidded to a halt, grabbing both his swords. He dashed through a long line of soldiers, slashing through them. When he skidded to a halt, the soldiers were reduced to confetti. He dashed around the battlefield, swinging his swords. Every time he swung his swords, a different element came forth to slash his enemies. He skidded to a halt next to Kiara's ashes once more.

'I'm doing this all based off instinct?' Ryan thought, half asking himself and half asking Edhas.

"Of course," Edhas replied in his said. "I'm your instincts."

'Having a split personality is a pain,' Ryan thought to himself.

"Ryan! You're alive!" Amelia ran to him. "We all saw you get shot in the head!"

"Yeah, that's becoming a reoccurring theme for me, huh?" Ryan said. His body then moved on its own. One of his swords morphed into a pistol and shot a MILF soldier in the head.

"Watch your six, numbnuts," Edhas grumbled in his head.

"Thanks for the save," Ryan said, talking without thinking.

"I didn't do anything..?" Amelia said, giving Ryan a confused looked.

"Sorry, I apparently have a slit personality now," Ryan said, beheading another MILF soldier by throwing his sword like a boomerang. "Apparently my second half as a badass or something like that."

"Damn straight."

"Sure, I've seen worse," Amelia said before turning to shoot a plane out of the sky with her Ground Pounder. "Just don't die again, okay?"

"Wasn't counting on it," Ryan said as he dashed off.

-

"We're almost there!" Artia called. Since evacuation orders were called across the nation, most of China was deserted, so the four stragglers could make their way to the battlefield. Artia thrust her hands down and a small cyclone pushed the four over the wall. They landed in the middle of the Great Wall of China, instantly springing into action.

Spade Echo used her magic to jam the giant turrets, causing them to explode before sending high frequencies into soldiers' ears, causing them to collapse in pain.

Doris summoned her trident, impaling a soldier. Each point of the trident a dense, pressurized stream of water, stabbing anything in its path.

Pages flied off of Rosalyn's book as she opened it, launching themselves at soldiers and turrets. The magically sharpened pages cut enemy soldiers like butter, lodging themselves in turrets, causing them to explode.

Artia expertly wielded a blade of wind, using hand motions to control the air around her. She turned to continue attacking when a cigarette landed between two soldiers. The cigarette caught fire and the fire spread to any MILF soldiers in proximity.

"Guys!" Yogiri landed next to Doris.

"Yogiri!" Rosalyn called, launching a page towards her. Yogiri raised a finger, a small flame dancing atop the finger and let the paper pass her, watching the piece of paper catch fire.

"It's nice to be back!" Yogiri smirked as Civia jumped up the wall, landing by Yogiri, standing back-to-back.

"I agree," Civia twirled a rapier in her hand before assuming a fighting position. "It's so nice to see you all again."

-

Kiara awoke in an endless void with nothing but an arrow pointing to a door. "I guess I died again, huh?"

"It seems that you did," a man said. He was sitting down, leaning on the sign where the arrow was posted on. He wore a torn and tattered cloak, dirt and grime all over his body. He looked up, his ruby eyes meeting Kiara's amethyst eyes. His eyes spoke of countless years of wisdom and pain.

"I don't want to move on," Kiara said. "I can't leave this dimension the way I did. Ryan was going to tell me his secrets. We were going to recuse everyone. We were going to live happily ever after. I can't leave them."

"You've changed since I've seen you last," the man said, rubbing his short, spiky hair. "Tell me, what caused you to mature so much?"

"There were stakes this time. I had someone I needed to care for," Kiara replied. "I've spent millennia just fawning for Calli and doing my own thing, but Ryan… things were different. I had a proper friendship with him. Most dimensions, I like to keep my distance after what happened with the sand bird, but I liked the routine we had. Calling him every morning and bothering him. Watching him learn how to use his magic. Hell, even trying to piece together how much he knew was fun. I just… don't want to go."

"I see," the man raised his hand and moved it to the opposite direction of the arrow and an onyx door revealed itself. "I'm proud of you, Takanashi Kiara. Go on. Return to your family."

Kiara walked towards the door and opened it. Before she left, she turned to the man and smiled. "Thank you, sensei."

-

Ryan stabbed his sword down on one of the many bodies piled below him, panting heavily. You know, you're not bad at this fighting thing, he thought to Edhas as he leaned on his sword for support. He looked around him. The battle was settling down. YAGOO and Shade made quick work of the gigantic laser cannon that killed Kiara.

"Yeah, too bad you suck ass at it," Edhas said in his head.

'Heh, I was never really a fighter anyways. I was more of a "sit on the couch and do nothing" kind of guy,' Ryan made his way down the hill of bodies he made and made his way over to Kiara's ashes. Amelia, Gura, Ina, and Calli were all standing by the pile of ashes looking solemn.

"She'll come back, right?" Gura asked.

"No, every time Kiara dies, she goes to another dimension," Calli replied.

"So she's gone?" Amelia asked, sniffling.

"It seems so," Ina didn't even attempt to throw in a joke.

As Ryan approached, the ashes caught fire. Everyone stepped back as the flames rose in size. Eventually, flaming wings sprouted from the flames and a humanoid figure rose from the ashes. "KIKKERIKIII~!!!"

"You dolt!" Ryan didn't even wait for the flames to subside to bonk Kiara on the head with his fist before pulling his manager into a bone-crushing hug. "I thought you died!"

"I guess I got lucky," Kiara hugged Ryan back with one arm, using her free hand to rub the spot where Ryan hit her. She then looked at Calli, Gura, Ina, and Amelia, who looked flabbergasted. "What's that look for?"

Amelia, Gura, and Ina dived in to join the hug while Calli stood there. After a couple seconds, she scoffed, walking over to the group and placing her arms around them.

"So, what happened?" Kiara asked after pulling away from the hug. "All I remember was pushing Ryan away from a giant laser and then boom! I was dead."

"Well, Ryan got shot in the head," Amelia said.

"Again," Ryan grumbled. "Being shot in the head isn't fun."

"Again?" Kiara, Calli, and Ina asked in unison.

"Not important," Ryan said. "I'll explain later."

"Well, out of nowhere, Ryan came back to life and started kicking absolute ass!" Gura cheered.

"Apparently he has a split personality or something now," Amelia said.

"I'm not a split personality!" Edhas yelled in Ryan's head. "A shitter version of me is controlling my body, that's all!"

"My other half wants you all to know that I am amazing and easily the superior out of the two," Ryan said.

"Fuck you!"

'Sure buddy,' Ryan thought.

"Now that this battle is over, care to explain yourself?" Kiara turned to Ryan, narrowing her eyes. In truth, she didn't really care all too much, she just wanted to know the scalding hot tea.

"Well, the truth is, I…" Ryan trailed off when his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed.

"Ack!" Kiara yelped as Ryan hit the floor. Amelia knelt down to check his vitals. "Is he okay?"

"He's fine," Amelia looked up, giving Kiara a smug yet genuine smile. "He just needs rest and at this point, I'd think he deserves it."