The Other-World

Still in a daze from everything that had happened, I struggled to process the image in front of me. 

Hikaru was holding me in her arms, staring down at me with a relieved expression. In front of me, Shindo was facing off against the man in the black suit.

His long spear was held behind his back, and from the look of the room, this fight had been going on much longer than I would have thought. How long had I been knocked out for. What was the last thing that happened again? 

Right! He had put his hands around my head and then said that he had given me a gift. What that was, I couldn't know. If it was that hellish trial, then gift, was not the right name for it. 

Thinking of that never-ending cycle, I closed my eyes and winced. 

Not now Raiden. Right now, I should face the opponent in front of me. Enough being useless! 

I began to stand up slowly. 

"Raiden, are you sure that your fine to be moving like this?" Hikaru asked, grabbing unto my coat as I began to stand. 

I nodded. "I'm fine. Although my heads more than just a little bit in disarray." 

"Doesn't that mean you're not fine!" 

"Tomato Tomato." I replied. However her gaze suddenly snapped up to my eyes, and hers widened. 

"Hey Raiden..." 

"Yeah.?" 

"You sure you're, okay? What did he, do to you?" 

"Oh, he just used his ability to forceful mess with my mind. In fact, it was his ability that did this to everything that went missing. He absorbed them, into his vault, which can not only store physical objects and people, but also souls." 

I spoke, in a matter-of-fact tone. Hikaru looked at me in shock. 

"What?" 

"Huh?" 

I to, was also left in shock. 

Not because of Hikaru's shock, no, her shock was warranted. 

My shock came from the fact that I didn't know where I got that information from. In fact, it hadn't even felt like I was speaking myself. 

"When did you figure that out?" She asked. 

"I- I don't know." I spoke. A look of confusion dawned over her face, and I was just as confused and frustrated. I had no idea when I figured it out, when I had learned of that information. It had just been in my mind. 

"More importantly, Raiden, your eyes, they've changed." 

I was already confused as to my own actions, and now Hikaru was adding fuel to the flame, talking about more stuff that I didn't get. 

"One of your eyes Raiden. The left one, it's red." 

My own blood ran cold. Taking a look into her shimmering blue eyes, I could see what she was talking about. One of my eyes was black, and the other was red. No, not exactly. It was the same vermillion color of HER eyes. The girl with the white hair, the one who had reached out her hand to me. 

Oddly enough, the new vermillion eye, did not feel out of place to look at. Instead, it was the black eye that felt out of place. As if it didn't belong there. 

I turned away from my reflection, from the many things that were only serving to disorientate me further. 

Outside, a massive explosion could be heard, and it shook the walls of the magic academy. 

"AHUGHG!" I was brought to my knees by a sudden pain in my chest, coughing out blood. 

"Raiden! See! Somethings wrong." 

"Don't worry, he's fine." I surprised myself once again. 

Referring to myself in the third person!? What's going on with your Raiden!" 

"Hikaru, I promise, I'm fine." 

Standing up, I picked up my sword, which was laying on the ground. Pulling it in and out of its sheath, I tested the weight. For some reason, it felt slightly unfamiliar. Nothing to do with weight or anything. It was just the feeling of the blade in my hand. It felt off. 

Shaking that away, I walked up to the prince's side. He tossed a sideways glance at me, before saying. 

"How are we feeling, sleeping beauty?" 

"I'll give you that one, it even matches the theme." I said, as I unsheathed my blade. 

The prince looked at me with a bit of shock, as if he was a little surprised that I had actually responded to his joke. 

What had I been told? That everyone feared him. They treated him like he was some sort of Prince because of his strength. So, despite the fact that he was usually always surrounded by people, he was considered a loner. Everything that he had must have been superficial. People always deferred to him, and he never really had anything real. 

Surrounded by people, and yet he remained Isolated.

His entire situation went against what Suijin was trying to achieve. Her goal, her message, of equality despite your magical power, the one roadblock that message faced was the existence of the prince. Which is why when he had shown up, Suijin had been so torn up. It was why she couldn't rest. That, and her overblown idea of what it meant to be a leader. 

 Which is why he seeming so shocked that I responded to him. 

The prince glanced down at my blade, unsheathed. As his eyes analyzed it, I was reminded of what Himitsu had told us. About Shindo's ability. Now was the time, my chance to see if the ability I created could beat out his. 

"Nows not the time to be messing around, you know?" He spoke. 

I simply looked at him with a, "Huh?" 

He pointed to my sword. "During your entire fight with Yuri, you held your sword in your right hand. But now, it's in your left. Even if you are ambidextrous, would it not be better to fight with the hand you use more?" 

"uhhh." I looked down at the blade, in my left hand. Just like Shindo had pointed out, it was in the wrong hand, however, it did not feel wrong. Even though my eyes were looking down and my brain was telling me that what I was looking at was wrong, my body was telling me something different. 

Information just appearing in my head. 

My eyes had changed color. 

My sword hand had switched. 

There was an incongruity between my body and my mind. 

It was so utterly confusing. What about that trial. That cycle. That place. 

That repeated itself again and again and again and again and again and again and again-

■■■■■: Focus, Raiden. 

Just like always, when my mind began to wander in important situations, my own voice cut in to draw my attention back. However, this time, the voice inside my head that snapped my derailing thoughts back into place, was not my own. 

Who- who are you?

■■■■■: hah! Isn't obvious. I'm you. But that's not important, back to the situation at hand. 

Bu-

At that moment, I lost control of my own mana, and it flared out. Strongly too. It was so strong that the pressure could be felt around the room, the walls shook a little, and Shindo and Hikaru looked at me in shock. 

At the same time, the man in the black suit had released his own aura, and so the two clashed. 

The crashed together, and then they ripped open a space in the center of the room, in which me and Shindo were dragged into. 

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A world of blood red. That was what we were dragged into. Mountain peaks that stretched high into the air. The ground was a mix of black and red rocky terrain. The world felt unnaturally cold, as if we were standing in the center of the arctic. 

The most horrifying part of it all, was that the sky was red. It was a deep red. Like blood. Same with the moon. The red pupil of the moon stared down at us, as we looked around the hell we had been transported to. Everything about this place resembled something straight out of a nightmare. 

Just in front of us, there were massive scratch marks filled with blood and chunks of flesh. In the distance, a roar could be heard. The ground trembled. 

"This couldn't be-" 

"A miasmic tear? It is." I finished for Shindo. 

He looked at me, raising an eyebrow. "And what makes you so sure."

"Well...." Why was I so sure? "Well, you mentioned it back then, didn't you?" 

Shindo shook his head. "It was as a poor taste joke. No one really knows much about those things. You know, because no one alive has returned from one?"

He was right, I really had no concrete evidence to prove that this was a miasmic tear. "Well, it's the only option we have left. Thats the only thing we can assume." I gave that as my answer, but on the inside, I just had a gut feeling. Something inside of me was telling me that this was a Miasmic tear. 

"Well, you do have a point there. If we assume what you said to be true, then our options are quite literally nothing. No one has survived one of these before. So, there is nothing out there on how to survive one, nor get back. For all we know, this place is just a tear in space, that we'll be trapped in until the end of time." 

That was the worst possible outcome. If that was the case, then we would not be able to get back. We wouldn't be able to return and help, and- 

I'd fail my mission! 

No matter what, I couldn't let Kami be hurt. Who knows what the hell was going on back there? With Wrath and-

■■■■■: You really are a mess, Raiden. 

Not now! Shut the hell up, you damned voice! 

In real life, I grabbed my own head even though I wasn't in pain. Whatever this voice in my head was, it was only serving to throw me even deeper into disarray. 

Shindo watched on from where he stood, silent as I seemingly battled my own mind. 

■■■■■: Just trust your instinct. Or should I say, me. Trust yourself.

Except you aren't me! I don't know who you are. You're some foreign entity that just banging with our head!

■■■■■: It really hurts for us to hear you refer to yourself that way, to us that way. However, you do have a really bad problem of self-loathing. 

Damn! I had said, "our head" Who was ours? Who was this second person. Just what the hell was happening!

"Shindo, we can get out of here." 

He raised his eyebrow. "What makes you so sure of it?"

"Just trust me. All we have to do," 

I pointed my blade towards the pass between two of the gargantuan mountains. 

"Is deal with them." 

 ※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※  

What I had told Shindo, I didn't really understand myself, at least, until they showed up. 

"ROOOAAAARR!" 

Massive monsters. At least the size of houses, came rushing out from the mountain pass. They were horrifying creatures, with looks not even a mother could love. Massive claws, deformed body parts, faces, multiple limbs, eyes, tentacles, tumors. 

They were a horrible conglomerate of flesh, that just hurt to look at. 

"What are these things!" Shindo said, as he dashed up and down, left to right, his red spear flicking rapidly as it could through flesh.

"I don't know!" I said, as I slashed through a tentacle, jumping backwards, and launching a fire blast directly at the beast in front of me, turning it to ash.

"Really? I'm surprised, you seemed to know a lot of things before! Whatever that guy did to you, it really messed with your head! Fortunately for us, it's been a great help." 

"Oh really, I'm flattered!" 

This battle had been going on for longer than I wanted to believe. I genuinely prayed that the passage of time in this place was different then in the real world. 

It was a stale pattern. Although the beasts were large, and powerful, they were nothing much to deal with. Any magic spell that they tried to use, was cancelled by me and Shindo. And so, the battle just devolved in a rinse and repeat of the same actions. 

Cancel, dodge, slash, kill, repeat. It was a stale pattern, and for how long we had been repeating it for, we should have gone insane.

In order to prevent that, we ended up speaking to one another. "So then, how's life been, Ghost of the Miyamoto!" 

"Just another nickname that I didn't want! You sure have some jokes, don't you sleeping beauty!" 

We were throwing around banter like close friends. Maybe you do become close friends when you fight alongside someone for hours, slaughtering endless amounts of deformed creatures. 

However, that was not the extent of things. I could feel it. There was another reason for it.

The prince was strong, absolutely, he deserved the name he had been given. His combat speed was insane. He moved even faster than lightning, dodging spells point blank. He could layer insanely complex magical sequences together, creating spells that could perform multiple functions in one. 

Like the spell he used now, which used flame to blow up the ground, wind to create a dust storm, acceleration to apply to the debris in the air, and a final flame spell to launch the debris at the creatures, creating a rain of flaming hot, faster than sound rocks the size of semis. He did it all in one spell, just continuously layering more and more magic. 

This spell went on passively, as he fought up close with his massive red spear, spinning, and flipping and kicking. Like a baton dancer, with their flaming baton. 

He was strong, unbelievably so. And it alienated him. Separated him from others. It was a curse as much as it was a blessing.

I knew that feeling. Despite that the strength I possessed growing up, it never changed the fact that I could feel the distance between me and the servants, between me and my own family. The strength didn't change anyone. You could be called a prodigy, but when there's no one to stand next to you, that strength, that title, becomes your barrier. 

It isolates you. 

So, to find someone that could stand on the same level as you, someone that could keep up, that wasn't off put by your strength, it felt refreshing. 

Rejuvenating. 

Unconsciously, I found myself ramping up, increasing in speed, in the power of my attacks. More and more and more and more. I slashed and killed and blasted more of these monsters. 

Shindo was doing the same, Increasing in speed, faster, stronger. 

I wouldn't lose. 

Unconsciously, I had turned this into a competition. 

With a smile on both of our faces, we slaughtered the thousands of beasts in front of us. 

 ※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※  

For the first time, both Shindo and Raiden were placed in a situation where they weren't separated from others because of their strength. 

Placed in a situation where they could go all out, and still not outpace the person next to them, they felt a new sense of being. They did not hold back, they went all out, in hopes of outperforming the one next to them. 

No words were shared, but that was because they weren't needed. Their strength did the conversing. 

Their dance of death amidst a blood red moon expressed all emotion necessary. 

And the first barriers of isolation, were cracked. 

 ※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※  

Slashing through another beast, I pivoted, aiming a spell, and just as I fired, I realized my blast was aimed at Shindo. I stopped, and he did the same. 

There were no more monsters. They had all been cleared out. Disappointedly, I turned to face the pass, where there was no sign of any more beasts coming out. 

"No way." 

"It's over." Shindo said, with the same amount of disappointment etched into his voice. 

I wanted to keep going. I still had more to give. 

I could still go faster. 

I could still be stronger. 

I wasn't even close to tired. So why? Why had it ended? 

Turningback to face where we had come from, all that could be seen was red. 

It was pure carnage. Blood everywhere. Guts, bodies, limbs fluids, red blood, it was everywhere. It was an utter fucking massacre over there. I turned back to face Shindo for a moment. We were silent. 

"I got more!" I said first.

"Hell no, I got way more!" He said immediately after. 

"Nuh uh!" 

"Yuh uh! It was clear the entire time that I was out speeding you!" 

"Delusion, I was clearly faster, and stronger for that matter." 

"Oh really, what about all the times you faltered?" Shindo pointed out. 

"Tch! You try fighting while having your head messed with!" 

"Excuses excuses!" 

While we argued, two portals appeared in front of us. 

One lead back to the room where Hikaru was battling against the man in black. 

The other lead to a rainy rooftop, where Genji and Ichijo were battling. 

Thank god. Looked like time didn't pass normally here. 

"I'll take the one with the black suit guy. If he really messed with your head, then getting closer will probably be worse." 

I nodded, turning to face the portal that led to the rooftop. 

"First people to ever survive a Miasmic tear, all thanks to me." I spoke. 

"Hah hah, you're really funny." He replied sardonically. 

Another brief moment of silence.

"Why'd you do it?" I asked?

"Hmm?" 

"Cancel my spell during the duel with Erika?" 

Shindo paused for a brief moment. "Because you were planning to hold back, to just neutralize her spell with a water one. It would be a huge disrespect to not only her, but also to yourself." 

"And who made you the judge?" 

Shindo simply chuckled. "My strength." 

A bit of silence.

"You know, you could be really popular if you tried." I said. 

"I already am." He replied. 

"You know what I'm talking about. Don't purposely make Suijin's life harder. I hate Yuri, but I understand his motive." 

Shindo nodded. "You know, self-perception doesn't have to be your greatest enemy. You should know how futile it is trying to fight yourself." 

With those final words, we stepped into the portals, and back into battle.