Chapter 10: Chains

After the battle, I felt really worn out, so I headed to my room to sleep. I think Kazuki said something about network?

After reaching my room, I immediately fell on the bed to sleep.

As the darkness enclosed on me, the world changed once more into the image of the church.

The kids were having fun running around and playing, but one day, things changed.

It was just like every other ordinary day, but gunshot and screaming was heard from the outside and slowly, the church door opened to a woman bleeding from her dead and she slowly fell…

When she hit the ground, entrance exploded, and fire was everywhere, surrounding the church, the whole place was being burned down.

Crying and screaming filled the room, the children were panicking, but the nuns tried to stay calm, trying to lead the children to safety.

Surrounded by flames, they had nowhere to go, some were crouching in despair, others were running in panic, some fainted due to shock and others ran into the fire trying to escape, but only to be met by gunshot and dropping dead.

Yang watched all of this happen, she wanted to help, but no matter what she did, nothing worked, she could not touch the children, the fire, nor the building. It was all fake, yet it felt so real…

The despair she felt watching the scene, the helplessness she felt, the sadness, all of it seemed so real, yet she could not do anything for them…

The girl called Xiao An, was huddled in a corner with Xiao Lian, both were scared, and didn’t know what to do.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, suddenly gunshots sounded once more, but not from an ordinary gun, it was the sound of a machine gun and as the sound appeared, bullets flew into the building from the entrance and they were randomly shot everywhere…

Many of the children and nuns were hit and dropped dead on the spot. The anger, hatred, despair, helplessness, and many other emotions filled her to the brim. she wanted to do something, anything to help these poor children, but there was nothing she could do.

Suddenly, the building started to collapse and flaming pieces were falling down.

“LOOK OUT!” she screamed, but to no avail, they could not hear her,

The building fell, and everyone in the church was crushed underneath.

the image turned dark, but before it did, an adult female’s gentle voice could be heard.

“I won the gamble”

And it turned to darkness once more.

From the darkness, she once more walked out of the shadow, wearing the same dress every time with the same scythe on her back. The trail was still there on her left hand, but her pinky was no longer there. I did not ask because I knew, she was slowly disappearing…

As I was crying from the sadness of what I have just witnessed, she was unfazed and said,

“It seems, the fusion is progressing quite quickly.”

“What do you mean? And what was that I just witnessed? The children, the nuns, why did they all have to die? Also what do you mean you won the gamble?” Yang asked her other self as she sobbed,

“The question you ask will be answered soon enough, but not by me, but by us.”

“huh? What do you mean?”

“You’ll understand… eventually.”

As Yang stopped herself from crying and wiped her tears off her face, she noticed something strange, yes, her left pinky, what was once transparent, was now pale white. “What is this!?” And Yang instantly noticed, what was missing on her other self’s hand was on hers.

“That is knowledge, our knowledge, or more specifically for the body part, emotions. With more knowledge, you can control this space.”

“Wait, you mean you can control this space? WHY DID YOU SHOW ME THAT SCENE!?”

“No I did not show you that scene, but it played to help fulfill your wish of knowing who you are, no, who “she” is.”

“Do you mean…”

“Yes, that girl, it was “her”, and that was “her” memories.”

A sudden realization hit her, the tiny kind looking girl she was watching, the cheerful girl she was watching the whole time, it was… herself, but she quickly denied it, because of all the differences.

“But, our eye colour was different, hair too and we look different, there’s also...”, but before she could finish,

“Xiao An, means tiny darkness, Yin An, means darkness”

“…So that was my past?”

“Both yes and no…”

The more she explained, the more frustrated Yang became, because she was being so paradoxical, it didn’t even make sense.

“What do you mean…”

“We do not exist back then, so technically no, yet it is us because it is the memories of this body, but our soul… that’s another story”

“Wait, explain”

“I cannot, this is your wish, you have to work for it.”

“Fine, I’ll watch more of the memories, play them.”

“I cannot, you have not fulfilled the requirements.”

“What? There’re requirements?”

“Yes, and only when you completed them, will it play, I am not in control of them.”

Suddenly, the sound of rattling chains was heard.

“Woops, I said too much, well since I already did, let me give you this last hint before I go. There are 4 souls in this body…”

And with that, black chains spewed out of the darkness, binding her, and pulling her back into the darkness.

Yang was surprised and horrified, because she had no idea what happened or was going on, and the darkness, shattered, and Yang woke up.

She slowly got up from bed, thinking about all that has happened, suddenly, she felt a surge, a surge of emotion, the sadness, anger, frustration, and many other feelings she barely felt or have never felt before, suddenly hit her. Deception, greed, lust and all kind of thoughts and feelings coursed through her mind, and she noticed, how she blindly trusted the king and the royals when she knew nothing about them.

“… What am I…”

Sitting on the side of the bed with her face in her hands, she was scared, she didn’t know what she was and obviously what she's going through right now is not normal. She doesn't even know who was her ally and who was her enemy anymore, she even didn’t know the two who she considered as her friends that well.

And suddenly, a loud knock sounded at the door,

“Yang! Time to get up, let’s go! It’s time to watch sis’s match! We’ll get a good laugh I promise!”

“YUI!!!!!”

“What? Every time you fight, something funny happens, I’m just telling the truth, especially that time, in the magic training center where the professor who was facing you suddenly started to take off…”

“YUI!!!!!!!!!!! SHUT UP!”

Their comedy skit, made Yang laugh and feel warm, this feeling isn’t fake and Yang honestly felt like they were her friends.

That’s right, if I don’t know them well enough, I can just get to know them. And even if I don’t know who I am, I can just find out. My other self’s last hint was there are 4 of us, that means we’re either fragments of the original or four different entities, I guess I’m Yang, Yang Guang, I’ll ask the other me who she is the next time I see her.

“Coming”

And with that they sprinted off to the coliseum for the 2nd day of the tournament, the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade’s battle royale.

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At the same time in a city in Grahris

A new egg was born by two common brown dragons, and inside the egg…

Where am I?

I swear, I know I died that day at school, how come I’m still alive in this dark place?

The being in the egg thought back to his last moments. In a normal high school, filled with dead bodies, not a single soul was alive besides a young boy with brown hair and black eyes, wearing a normal high school uniform with an average looking face crying, looking at the girl he loved since childhood standing in front of him as cold as ice, the girl had black hair, black eyes, beautiful face that made people feel she was harmless and cute, but right now, she was covered in blood from head to toe, with a big black scythe on her back dripping blood making her look like an angel, of death.

The boy screamed at her, “WHY!? WHY DID YOU KILL EVERYONE!? What happened to you after that day, don’t you know… I missed you…”

The girl’s facial expression did not change, she slowly walked up to him, and lifted the scythe.

The boy looked into her eyes, he could see pain, suffering and hatred, that was all, he could see nothing more.

The lovely kind girl he knew from childhood was gone, the happy easy going genius girl that one cannot bring themselves to hate from high school was gone, instead a different girl stood in front of him. As cold as ice, eyes darker than black, but for a split second, he saw hesitation and a split second of a different emotion, one he knew well from their youth,

He knew, she was still in there somewhere, the girl he loved since their youth, but immediately, she brought down her and he fell. Lying on the ground was the boy with a smile plastered on his face, “I knew you were her, even if you acted like you didn’t know me, even if you killed me, I’ll always love you, because I know, you’re kind…”

Those were his last words and he looked at her eyes, he saw a new emotion flickered for a moment, yes, sadness. In a barely audible she said “sorry” and everything went dark.

Sitting in the darkness for a long time,

He waited,

And waited,

Then one day after who knows how long, suddenly, he saw light, but he walked the opposite way of it because he could feel it. If he walked towards it, he will never see her again, so he walked the other way.

After who knows how long, he fell, in the darkness he fell into a hole and lost consciousness, and when he woke up, he was here, in a small, dark, but warm place.

He felt safe, but tired, so he went to sleep once more.

He hopes to meet her once more, and hope to be able to live by her, because even though she took his life, even though she killed everyone in the school, he still loved her, because he knew, she did not kill because she wanted to.

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Me got exams and tests a plenty, so don't expect much until it's over... I CRAI SO HARD MAH MERKS R AT 50%!