Chapter 46: The end to it all

The grass was dry and warm, reminding him of a lovely summer's day where the sun shined down, to its own merry content, but not to the extent where it grew uncomfortable after some time spent in it. The sky had also changed to hold a light blue colour with fluffy white clouds that sauntered through it, clearly enjoying their time in the spotlight. Around them flew small insects, setting out with trepidation on great voyages of their own, going about their business with the plants and occasional rabbits hopped past. Fortunately, none were dying like they had been in his dreams.

"I suppose that I've been going about this in the wrong way." she told him, "I suppose that I assumed wrong about you based on your memories and should have started with asking you why you got so obsessed with finding me." Before he could reply, she added another couple of words, "I'm Kenshi, by the way."

He kept quiet, not knowing how to reply, watching several white-tinged birds tie knots through the sky. It was a very peaceful environment that certainly would help relax him before the trial that lay ahead because now he was almost certain that he could convince Kenshi to help him. After all, there was no reason for her to keep the time here running differently to outside unless she was hopeful that he would turn out to be the right person to go back and save Cat.

"So, why did you get so obsessed with finding me? You seem to be kind of mad…" she prompted.

"Wait, I thought that something external to me was making me want to come here? I mean, my desire to find you, the sword, I guess, disappeared as soon as I arrived."

"I was pushing someone to get here; then you turned up." replied Kenshi, "But don't get the wrong idea. I never forced you to come."

Kira thought this over for a bit, having assumed that all of his visions could be traced back to her, given that she was literally in his mind now. However, she had only entered into his mind after he had touched the sword, and so maybe she really hadn't pushed the madness onto him. If that was the case, it was slightly worrying because it meant that the madness had the potential to return, at any moment, once he was back in the real plain. The rabbits didn't seem to sense his concern, and one bounced over close enough to sniff at his hand.

Kenshi then continued, "Also, don't get the wrong idea about you being chosen or unique. You really aren't unique. Believe me, you must have received the message along with others, meaning that many people could have turned up. I must have made it wrong."

"Who did you want to come here?" Kira asked, genuinely curious.

"Oh, just someone from far away." and she fell silent for a long while before adding, just as he was going to say something else, "To be honest, I'm not sure if they were the right person anyway. I may have been a little intimidated once they got here, you see."

"I'm not very scary then?"

"What do you think if I find it so easy to trap you in your own mind?"

And Kira thought that that was a yes and that he was not a very frightening person. That, honestly speaking, was a good thing. He never had wanted to be feared, and instead he would have preferred the respect of people, although that seemed a very difficult thing to achieve and he imagined that all those who had held it for him would have lost it by now. Suddenly, the landscape did not seem quite so relaxing after all. There were things that he needed to be doing and, yes, time was practically paused outside, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that he should be doing something rather than just sitting there indefinitely.

Turning his mind to questions that he wanted answering he asked, "So, Kenshi, do you know what actually was making me want to come here so much, or was it just my own shortcomings?"

"I'm not sure. The fact that you got so many visions, all with a coherent theme, probably means something. Maybe it was a message, like mine, but less subtle, that had got lost along the way and got to the wrong person. Or maybe what you were being shown hasn't come to fruition yet? I don't really know."

"The message could get lost?"

"Aura gets everywhere, does it not?" asked Kenshi, rhetorically, before turning to face away from him.

Sensing an end to the discussion, Kira stood and walked to the base of the slight hill that they had been sitting on, looking for some shade from the sun that had seemingly gained a bigger presence over time. There was nothing of particular interest to see. Everything was pleasant, boringly so. All of the grass was a perfect green so that there was no variation, and every member of every species of flower looked the exact same. Sure, their form was such that they would have earned themselves pride of place in a florist's display to the emperor of Krinestadt himself, but some differences would have been nice. It would have added a personality to them, at least.

He leant down to pick a handful before dropping them back onto the ground and moving away. They really were just boring. Damn, he silently thought, if he had to spend an eternity in this place, he really might just want to tear his own hair out or worse. Unfortunately, worst come to worst, there were no large cliffs on the gently sloping hillocks, so he couldn't see any easy means out of this unchanging hell. Therefore, he would have to redouble his efforts to talk to Kenshi and headed back down to sit in front of where she was now looking.

There was no way to ignore him as he spoke, "So, think that I could go mad again?"

"Potentially," she sheepishly replied.

"Ok, then, could you help with that?" he wondered, with the framework of the scaffolding of the unfinished form of an idea filling his head. She didn't respond, so he continued, trying to see her perspective on things, "Staying in here for ages must be quite dull, so why don't I take the blade, you, with me?" Again there was no response; she just looked at him strangely thoughtfully, "That way you get to leave and see the outside through my eyes, and you can tell me when I'm doing something wrong so that I don't have to keep making mistakes? It's a win-win scenario, right?"

"Hmmm," she sighed, "I was waiting for someone else."

"I thought that you said he might be scary. I mean, at least with me, you can force me into doing things for you. That way, your advice will always get through."

"Yes, I would definitely make sure of that," Kenshi laughed, and she lay back onto the ground to look up at the sky.

Understanding that he was asking her to make a big decision, which would shape her own future, he did not pressure her to a conclusion and instead lay with her. The sky was beautiful, and the sun seemed to have lost its glare, returning to a friendlier form, slightly sheltering behind the swirling tower of memories. It returned to being pleasant, just to lay there, and he thought about taking a quick nap. You couldn't save anyone when feeling tired now, could you? He was only asleep for a few minutes.

When he awoke, Kenshi told him, "You have a similar aura to the person that I asked to come here. That's probably why you ended up arriving instead, or rather maybe first as you might have been closer." Kira knew that this probably meant he was a similar person to who she had called to her solitary tomb. "From looking at your memories, you seem to have learnt quickly. With a bit of help, I could probably help you get a lot stronger and find an ability – I do know most things about you now."

"That would be amazing," Kira returned, excited by the prospect, "And, of course, if you were there, then you would have a say in how the ability that you helped me with would be used? Sound good?"

"You're jumping ahead a bit… the first thing to do is save Cat."

"Umm, definitely."

Knowing that he was going to get a chance to try to save Cat re-energised Kira, and he forgot about the long day and the emotional duress that he'd been having and looked towards a promising future with Cat, Kenshi and potentially even Aura on his side. If he really tried, he could probably catch up with her and maybe, just maybe, she'd forgive him. He did like her, so it was worth a shot to get some closure no matter what the outcome might become.

"Sleep for a bit," Kenshi said, "You can get to Cat when you wake up; I won't let any time pass."

This time, rather than taking a simple nap, Kira slept for hours. His concentration was taken by a pair of beautifully white rabbits bouncing through a meadow, like the one he now was in, which he couldn't see beyond.

The rabbits were all-encompassing and, besides them, he could only perceive the smells that they took in when they stopped to sniff at grass whilst exclaiming with delight, "This area smells like roasted beef!" before joyfully hopping off somewhere else. Over time the grass spontaneously turned an even more luscious green, but this didn't bother the rabbits, and it did not bother Kira, who only observed the rabbit's happiness. However, this happiness did not stop his body from shifting comfortably in its sleep as he observed one of the rabbits – it was his favourite one because of how one of its ears drooped more than the other – save its companion from a monster. What a relief!

The two rabbits then returned to their starting position through a different route that should have never returned them to the original place, but Kira just knew that it was. With both the rabbits being present, the grass seemed to be at its best, and the main rabbit's joy grew to be even greater.

Coming back to reality, he felt well rested and decided to ask Kenshi another question, just to confirm a suspicion of his, "Hey, Kenshi, are you a yokai?"

"Yeah, I was aware of aura from when I came into existence, so I must be…" she replied, seemingly slightly startled as she had probably thought that he was still sleeping at that time.

"So, how did you actually end up in this blade?" he asked for the second time.

"Aura can be attached to objects, just like your own body has your aura stuck to it, making them enchanted, and an overseer attached me onto it."

"An overseer?"

"Maybe I'll just tell you about them later," she said, momentarily ending their talk, and Kira felt content enough to wait for her to tell him about what she had meant in time as it didn't feel that important in his current situation.

Kira did want to save Cat, he knew that he would have to leave to do that pretty much immediately, but he didn't want to leave this place too quickly if he could never return to it. However, this line of thought was dispelled when he remembered what Kenshi had said because her offering to help train him probably confirmed that he would be able to come back. Otherwise, how could she demonstrate what she meant to him? Besides, he had arrived here when he had touched the sword, and so he imagined that Kenshi could take him here whenever she wanted to whilst he had the blade. Comforted by this, he decided that there was no more time to waste, and he turned back to her.

"I want to go back and try to save Cat," he stated firmly.

"Alright, but you better had try your absolute best," said Kenshi, "If you don't, then - and trust me on this - you won't be having a good time… ready?"

"Yeah, I think so."

And with that, Kira woke up, this time in his own body. The first thing that hit him was physical exhaustion. He may have felt better within his own mind, but his real body hadn't recovered at all as no time had passed for it. He was also extremely disorientated. The world was spinning around him again, just like during his earlier experiences, and he couldn't think or remember what his purpose was. He couldn't even gather himself enough to realize that he should be trying to move or go somewhere.

Fortunately, his hand was still wrapped around the hilt of the blade, allowing Kenshi to jab at his mind forcing him back to his senses. Then, ignoring any complaints from his body, he grabbed up the weapon and turned to run out of the room. As he did so, he instinctively held the blade by his side, and the scabbard extended itself, forming a belt that would hold the sword and which wrapped around his waist. With both hands free, Kira practically threw himself through the door before momentarily panicking as he remembered the steep staircase just outside.

Surprisingly, he landed on a completely level surface. Either the corridor had changed itself, or his memory of it was flawed as nothing looked the same. Rather than single corridors being lit up, showing him the way, all were now engulfed in the same dull, grey light, and he recognized none of them. With Kenshi hanging by his side, he could constantly feel her presence, and it guided him down a particular route. Whilst he seemed to be making no progress, with nothing about his environment changing and him not passing the same spherical room as before, he trusted Kenshi to show him the way.

Sure enough, he soon emerged out into the same cathedral-like space as before, with the same huge pillars that towered above him and the same beams of light being allowed in by the breaks in the wall that lead to the outside. In front of him was something else that momentarily caught his eyes, a tall humanoid, male figure with long hair stood directly in his path to the door. Kira did not care, just let them try and stop him now, and he pushed his way past them, hardly slowing his pace.

As Kira passed him, Jaeger recognized the blade at Kira's side as the person that had been calling him. He had the option to take it from the human boy. However, when looking closely at him, Jaeger saw how the boy was similar enough to him to deserve it and how it may even be more useful to the child whose development was not yet completed. Pushing all remaining desire to take it aside, he thought that the trip had been enjoyable enough in itself to warrant not getting what he had been looking for at the end of it. Instead, he continued further underground to see what he might find, some other enchanted objects perhaps?

Outside Kira returned into the light of the day and, being partially blinded by it, he slowed to a jog to try and better scan the base of the quarry around him. Where was Cat? He couldn't quite make him out, and that was quite worrying. If Cat had been well enough to leave on his own, then they might never be friends again, or he might still be injured and in danger somewhere.

Although it had stopped raining, puddles - ponds more like - remained everywhere, and any part of the ground that was not pure stone was saturated with water so that, when Kira stepped on the dirt, a new water feature would spring up around his sunken feet. However, none of this obscured his vision, and there was no rise in the terrain that was high enough to obscure Cat's figure, so where was he? Kira almost stopped, thinking about the person he had passed and wondering if they had had something to do with Cat's disappearance, but they had not.

Any fears about not finding the yokai were eliminated as Kenshi directed his vision over to his left, having detected a rather familiar aura.

"Hey," said Cat accusingly, "Are you blind or what?"

He was standing maybe twenty feet from Kira, who did not reply but crossed the distance as quickly as possible, looking the boy up and down to try and see what had become of his injury. There was blood remaining on the front of his shirt, but not as much as you might expect from a person that had been left alone with a rather major stab wound. Thinking that this might simply be because he was literally a demon, Kira was proven wrong when Cat lifted his shirt slightly to show that his cut had been bandaged.

"The person that went in after you did it…" Cat explained, but he couldn't have got any further if he'd tried because Kira pulled him into the tightest hug that he dared to give lest he hurt his friend. Cat hugged him back and, a moment later, asked Kira, "Did you find it, what you were looking for, I mean." whilst eying the sword, observing the aura attached to it and immediately recognizing that it was a person in its own right.

"Yes," replied Kira, "But that's not important, nowhere near as important as you. I'm sorry that I left you like I did, I wasn't myself, and I know that I don't deserve your forgiveness…."

"It's fine."

"What?"

"Seriously, it is fine," Cat continued, "I know you didn't do it." and Kira supposed that he was right. Even with the bandage, Cat had lost a reasonable amount of blood and was swaying on his feet, so Kira leant down and simply picked him up, given that the boy was small enough to let him do that. Leaning against him, with his eyes flickering opening and closed because of his tiredness, Cat finally asked, "So what now?"

"I don't know, I think that I want to continue getting better at manipulations and to use them to help people, but I would also like to explore maybe even going to wherever you come from." because Kira thought that visiting a world of demons sounded like a lot of fun as long as he had a guide and the potential to defend himself.

"Sounds good," murmured Cat, falling asleep leant against him.

It was all over. His journey had not been a failure. He had made terrible mistakes along the way, but now he had learnt from them and retained at least one of his companions, the first true friend he had ever made. It was quite funny really, a few months ago, arriving back in Anadora, would he ever have suspected that his first friend would be a yokai from another world? It was a crazy thought, and now he was a manipulator, not a very good one, but he could learn and had a sword with a person's intelligence.

How everything had turned out satisfied him. He had tried his best; that was all he could say about his actions, but it was also all that he needed to say. It was an excellent feeling.

Gathering up his things, still carrying Cat, he headed back into the monument where, under Kenshi's directions, he found a comfortable bed in which to spend the night. With Cat sleeping by him, he finally felt at peace and thought about the future, free from any worries pulling at his mind.

This was his opportunity to start again, completely afresh, and he was excited about it and for whatever adventures might come his way. He knew that it would be the start of many journeys, through many worlds, with Cat and maybe Aura too, if he could find her. It was his new beginning.