Vol. 2 CH. 12 - A path untrodden

PART #1

I was inside a dark space. The pain allover my whole body, turning all my senses numb, have disappeared. Everything was dark and muffled. It was as if something was covering my ears. I couldn't feel anything. It was like I was suspended in midair. All that remained was my breathing going in and out of my body.

Then, as if shook me awake, my eyes automatically opened....

"Looks like you fell asleep Kyoushiro. Were you tired after playing with Daddy all day?"

I was surprised. In front of me was my mother. Always smiling and kind, my mother was caressing my head as I lay down on her lap.

"Kaa-san...."

"Yes, Okaa-san is right here Kyoushiro"

She was smiling, that face of hers, how long have I last seen her like that? I can't remember. This air of hers, her touch as she caressed my head and that warm feeling she always gives off. I've forgotten how long it's been since I felt such thing.

My mother Kyouka Kagami, was alive and well in front of me.

"Sorry honey, we played too much didn't we?"

"No don't worry, Kyoushiro seems fine. He just woke up is all"

Father was there as well. We're inside our old car. Father was driving but I. an see him looking at the rear mirror in front of him. This voice of his.... it was really my father. It was always deep and rough but it was soothing and soft whenever he sings a lullaby.

I can still remember him singing songs for my mother back then. It was a fun time for the rest of us. Even though both were busy in their work, both took their time to take care of me.

I miss them.... I miss them but....

"Tou-san.... Kaa-san....why are you two here?"

"Err.... well, isn't it because we're on vacation? It's your birthday right?"

"What's wrong champ? Still tired from running around?"

"N-No I...."

I was.... I was where exactly? I can't remember why I passed out. It only feels like I just came from a fight to the death with some kind of monster. My heart, why is it beating so fast? Why am I....

"What's wrong dear? You look pale"

"A-Ah no.... I..."

I'm fine right? I'm still alive. My mother is right here beside me, father is driving and it's....

"It's my.... birthday?"

A cold sweat dripped down from my chin as I remembered today's date. November 13th.... This was the day it all started. My sufferings, my pain, my agony.... Everything that has happened to me for the past 10 years, it all started to this day.

And right now, we're inside our car heading towards the hotel we would be staying. It was the place where my parents will die.

"Stop...."

"Kyoushiro?"

"S-Stop the car!! Don't go to the hotel!! Let's just go home!!"

"Kyoushiro?! What's wrong!?"

As I raised my voice, Kaa-san and Tou-san were startled. Tou-san immediately pulled over an parked our car for a moment and looked at the back of his seat. From where I was, he looked huge. Kaa-san also, they were bigger than I remember. But that isn't important right now!!

Seeing my scared state, Kaa-san immediately tried to calm me down. Tou-san looked at Kaa-san as though they were thinking about something.

I don't care what they think of me but I need to stop them. If this continue, it'll all happen again. The earthquake, the explosion, the flames, the blood and the screams. I'll see them all again. Those things, I'll relieved them all again if this trip keeps up.

"Tou-san, Kaa-san, believe me for now... please. Let's just forget going to the hotel. Let's just go home, please"

"Kyoushiro...."

"Kaa-san, you may not believe me right now but something bad will happen so please. Just listen to me"

"But champ, we already made reservations. And we're in Osaka right now, we can't just go home immediately, our tickets is for a week you know?"

"Please Tou-san!! It's fine if we don't go home right now!! Just not that hotel, let's just go to a far more safe place than there!! L-Like a park or something!!"

Through my constant please, Tou-san and Kaa-san were wearing troubled faces. I know how much money they spend just have this vacation a success. But I can't afford to lose them again. Not now that I've seen them again...

Tou-san sighed as he looked to me. He caressed my head like he always do whenever he feels something wrong. Then, he turned to Kaa-san, as though saying "I guess it can't be helped" with his eyes. Kaa-san merely nodded silently and wrapped her arms around me and embraced me tightly.

Tou-san then returned to his seat and drove the car again. This time however, he drove to a different lane and drove passed the hotel that we were supposed to stay.

"I don't know what happened but if you don't want to go then it's fine. Let's just pass. our time at the nearest park. I'm getting hungry too anyway"

"Honey, you just ate a whole box of the lunch I made yourself you know?"

"Hahahah you're right" The two returned to their happy selves as we drove away from the cursed hotel where my parents would die.

-

It was two days after the earthquake. The magnitude 7.5 earthquake that hit Osaka already passed and thankfully, my parents were alive. After we went to the park, the earthquake happened. It was thanks to the wide open space that we were safe from having debris fall over our heads.

That earthquake made the news the very next day, causing a wide spread mayhem afterwards. Fortunately, the government immediately took care of the incident. There were a lot of buildings that were damaged and many lives were claimed that day.

But with this, my parents' fate was avoided and now, we were back at our house after that incident.

"Still, to think our boy would see what happened in the future.... is he psychic?"

"Oh come on now, he probably just had a nightmare. You're the leading researcher of the country's best technology institute, don't just go trusting the supernatural"

"Ahahaha..... as expected of my Software engineer wife. You're not someone that believes in superstition just like that huh?"

I watched my parents having lunch with each other in the dining room. The two were happy but the topic was a bit off since it was about me. I can't tell them that what happens that day really happened. I'm back to my old body as well, but the short height is really a problem.

I'm sure I'm 17 right now but..... why am I back as a 7 year old?

"Oh right, I've heard from police that they discovered bombs in our hotel room. It seems that they went off when the earthquake strikes"

"Eh? Just who would've done such a thing....?"

"Well, according to the staff and the security tapes.... It was..."

Their conversation began to quiet down right there. Because I know who the culprit was, I already know who they were talking about. Right now I can't say anything but in a few days, the culprit would caught then that person would appear in front of me once more....

-

My life after this went different than it was before. There were no self-centered aunts and uncles, no bullies, no crimes, no mafias and yakuzas, no drugs and no guns. Everything was normal for once in my life

"But why I am I still feeling something is wrong.....?"

For the past few years, I've felt something was wrong. It was like I left something unfinished and I need to go back. There were numerous times that I get this strong urge to wake up despite being awake but, they easily disappear as if they weren't there to begin with.

The culprit of the attempted bombing was arrested. My parents' families that colluded in order to plant the bombs were arrested an taken away. I can still remember their faces begging for forgiveness.

It was like a revenge fulfilled after a long time. I slept easily after that....

"Geez, you're talking to yourself again, Kyoushiro-sama"

"Lucinda.... don't say it like that. It's like I've got a few screw loose"

I was now 17 years old and a third year in highschool. Next to me was Lucinda Travestin, a foreigner that came from London. Her parents were pure English and were a fan of Japanese culture. Because of their interest, they decided to live in Japan a few years after Lucinda was born.

I just met her last year and we've been dating ever since.

"Really.... it's like this that you don't have much male friends"

Lucinda pouts as she drink the parfait she just ordered. We're currently inside a family restaurant. Because we just got out of school, we decided to go out and eat. We were already studying for our entrance exams but Lucinda would always request for dates and forces me to stay with her as long as she wants.

As Lucinda have said. I don't have many male friends. It wasn't because I wasn't friendly, it was because of the girls around me. The new nurse of the school, Arianne Ambrosia, Aizawa Mikoto, Lina Aikawa and also the school principal Elfianna Parcelous.

We've got a lot of foreigners here in school... No, that's not what this is about. It's about those girls and women that have been trying to get my attention. Aside from Mikoto that was my childhood friend, the rest were trying to get my attention. Arianne-sensei sometimes teases my by pushing me down on the clinic bed, Principal Elfianna would go leaps and bounds just to get my attention. Just the other day, she took me to this expensive restaurant that only movie stars go to. Lastly, there's the volunteer librarian, Lina Aikawa. She just confessed her feelings for me just the other day.

All of them were rather aggressive despite me already having a girlfriend of my own. I wonder why they keep chasing me though? Lucinda doesn't get mad if it was Lina or Mikoto but she was extremely wary of Arianne-sensei and Elfianna-sensei.

Was it woman's intuition? I don't know, even I don't understand why those girls would chase after me. I'm not even that good looking like Taiga.

"Mmm? Is something wrong Kyoushiro-sama?"

"......"

What is this. The feeling in my chest, it's like burning. I can't understand it, why am I so angry whenever I talk about Taiga. Even though he was a nice guy, I don't even get why I hate him so much...

Then, as I continued to contemplate, I felt my whole body ache.

"?!"

"Kyoushiro-sama!?"

I suddenly dropped from my seat. Lucinda worriedly tried to calm me down but because of the intense pain I was feeling, I was unable to talk. My body was on fire, my bones felt like they were breaking apart, my muscles was tearing itself from the inside and my organs were like melting.

I was in so much pain. Even though I don't understand why, all these pain feels so normal.... Its as if I've already endured this amount of pain for a long time that I've become immune against it.

People start to crowd me. I can see Lucinda's face, crying as she calls out my name...

Why....

Why are you still calling me like that?

You're calling me as if I'm someone great... it feels so distant.... just why...

"Hey, snap out it"

Then, standing in front of me was a me that was wearing weird clothing. He was glaring right at me, like I was some trash by the roadside. His eyes looks deep and scary, the right side of his face was covered by a skull piece. On his right hand was a ominous looking gold sword.

As I stare at it, more pain sears through me, granting me even more inexplicable and unbearable pain...

"Bastard, you've got to wake up. This ain't real"

What do you mean by not real?! All of this.... all of these are real!!

"Face the facts dumbass. Remember how much pain and suffering you've gone through. Ain't this one those? One of the trials of god people like to preach?"

The me who was dark and fatigued, was glaring at me. The tip of his sword was pointed at me. And all his words were burned inside my mind. It was like something was trying to come out of my body. Something monstrous and evil, something disgusting and vile.... It was wriggling about as though trying to crawl out of my brain.

"Remember. We've gone past the point of no return. This place you've made, this path that we couldn't take, all of this are all fake and you know it"

Then why.... why can't I remember?!

"You can't remember because you don't want to. You know yourself best. This way, it'd be easier to accept reality right? Like how your uncles forced you to work as drug mule?"

A hazy scene appeared in my mind. A twelve year old me, delivering bags filled with drugs that my uncle was trying to sell. I was being treated like some object. Their cigarettes burning my skin and the smoke their session was producing was making me go insane....

"The time you put poison in an old man's drink because he couldn't pay his debt?"

The scene changed and there I saw a 14 year old me standing in front of a chocking old man. His eyes that was filled with rage was looking straight at me. It was like he was trying to say "You'll pay for this.... you'll pay for this!!" as he drew his last breath.

"How you aunt sold you to old men with disgusting fetishes"

"A clear scene was happening before me. My own screams, my own shouts was echoing inside my ears. My cries as they hurt me, my attempt to struggle as they strangled me.... Everything was hell at that time. All that I can see were disgusting smiles of old men and the smell of their sweat and other fluids over me...

"And how Tou-san and Kaa-san died right in front us"

The smell of smoke, the unbearable cries for help, the shaking pillars and the cracking walls. The faces of my parents trapped under debris and the large chunk of the ceiling crashing their bodies and their blood splashing onto my face...

"Remember. You're Kyoushiro Kagami. You're no hero and neither a a villain. There's no right or wrong in your decisions. All you do is act. Until you find a way back home and kill your relatives..."

Memories were coming back to me as the me in front me knelt down and looked at my face. The tired looking expression, the signs of stress on his face and the skull piece covering his right eye....

Everything was flowing back. The world I was in, was breaking apart. As if they were nothing but pieces of glass to begin with.

Then before me a small girl with unusually long hair, wearing a strange ornamental clothes with various kinds of decorations appeared before me.

"You've endured well"

"You're that brat from before I got sent to that horrid world right?"

The little girl nodded. Just like before I couldn't see her eyes but a faint red shine was seeping through the gaps of her hair strands. But I know for certain, she was not normal....

"The curse, the key that was supposed to be your right arm has no use anymore. There is no king that would resurrect neither there would be a curse that would devour your mind"

My right arm that was supposed to be jet black due to the curse returned to how it was before. The tendrils like tattoo covering my arm receded and turned into a small mark. A crown inside a cage of chains, with four diamonds at its corner, appeared at the back of my right hand.

On my left arm, the circuit like lines receded as well. Only a small mark appeared on the back of my left hand. It was a sun devouring a moon. An eclipse...

The girl turned towards the other me and pointed her small hand at him. The other me then quietly kneeled down.

"That sword is not useful any more, this is my gift to you. As payment for all the things you've gone through"

As the little girl said that, the others warped. His whole body shrunk and turned into dark particles of light. Then, on the little girl's hand a golden crown with black flames flickering above its teeth....

"With this, you're now an entity that surpasses all divinity and malice. You now hold the power to destroy and create everything....."

The crown disappears like a mirage and appears right above my head. The pain I was just feeling disappeared and black veins with roots was sprouting under my feet.

As I remember everything clearly, the space around me was contracting. But within that shrinking world, the figures of my parents appeared. Behind them was a pure white door that leads to somewhere else.

The little girl turns around and faced them.

"You still have choice despite receiving those things. But, know that once you go with them, you'll cease to exist"

"I know....."

I already knew even back then. That I can never see them again, that I could never be with them again. The parents that loved me as I love them, their smiling faces before me tells me enough that my place isn't with them anymore.

The grudge I've been carrying won't disappear until I get my revenge. Unless I kill my relatives, unless I right their wrongs and fix everything they've ruined, I won't be satisfied. There's also Taiga, the bastard that turned my world into a living shit hole In a different world.

I'll take back everything that was taken from me. That's why, I can't go with my parents right now....

"This might be the last time, Tou-san, Kaa-san... That's why, I'll tell you guys. I'm doing fine now. Just rest easy there and wait for me. It might take a while but I'll get there eventually...."

As I said that, my parents nodded. It was like they already understood from the very beginning. Then, as the world begun to hasten its contraction, the two bid farewell. But before they stepped inside that white door....

"Ah....."

I smiled as I took their words to heart. The little girl have already disappeared to somewhere again. I was the only one left in that shrinking world.

"Now then, it's time to clean up my mess"

As soon as I've said that, the space shrunk entirely.

PART #2

"What the..... what's happening...?"

The scene in front of her was like hell itself. Every corpses and living monsters were getting eaten by thread like tendrils. Everything was being consumed at an extremely fast rate that the cave itself was slowly getting cleaner.

The foul odour of rotting corpse and the heavy stench of the the group lead by Ernest Vern had dissipated almost immediately.

And at the center of it all was a black cocoon made out of those unknown tendrils. Above it was two Demon Lords. One was Lady Snow, who proclaimed the birth of a new Demon Lord and the Dark Lord Trause. The monster that easily toyed with Kyoushiro just a few moments ago.

When everything was settled and the monsters all tried to run away, Elyria was left with her group. She was helping everyone that was trying to escape the sea of darkness and avoid getting eaten.

Princess Lydia and everyone of Elyria's knight squad were huddled up on a small island that was elevated enough to avoid getting swallowed by the sea of tendrils.

Was what she thought but as she looked back behind her, everyone was covered by a black cocoon. Everyone except for her, who was unaffected by that drug....

"Black Hero.... just what are you...."

Saying those words in disdain and despair, Elyria merely watched everything unfold before her eyes. Then in that very moment, the black cocoon crack open....

-

No one knows what was happening but right before the Dark Lord was an immense power beyond imaginable. Even he, who was a new Demon Lord of a few hundred years, only has such power enough to destroy countries.