World's Intermission

Yumi awoke to find herself standing in a void. She looked down, noticing that all of the wounds that she had from her battle with Masa were missing, the pain had disappeared. Japan left her and she could only make the guess that she returned back to the world in her mind. “Where am I?” She turned around trying to see if there were any of her personalities coming to attack like they had done when it all started so long ago.

Nothing.

Clapping broke the silence and Yumi flipped around getting the sights on whomever it was, expecting it to be a personality. Though it wasn’t someone that she recognized, an adult woman stood before her about ten meters away coming towards her. “Congratulations. You passed!”

She immediately went on guard, even if she didn’t recognize the woman. The only ones that could exist here were her personalities or her friends. “Which one are you?”

The woman stopped and looked at her with a slight bemused expression. “I see age has made you sharper. That’s good, you’ll need it.”

The non-answer didn’t make her any more thrilled, though it did imply that she was correct in assuming that she was a personality. “What do you have planned now? I thought I had finished your game.”

“That’s right. You did complete Masa’s story. But that’s not the end for you,” she answered with an ominous tone about Yumi’s future.

Chapter 474 – World’s Intermission

With a snap from the mysterious woman, reality changed again and all of her friends rejoined her with confused and stunned expressions. Yuki processed it quickly, jumping on Seiji happy to see him and hugging on a stubborn Saki. “They’re all alive like we hoped…” It had been so long since she had seen most of them that she had forgotten a little bit. It helped her to be able to push forward, but now that she saw them all again she couldn’t help the tears.

Yumi jumped in joining Yuki in the hugging festival that he started. Once emotions calmed down enough for people to start processing everything more, Seiji started out with the statement of the obvious. “What the hell happened to you two?! Yuki and Yumi? Why do you look so old?”

A bit of sweat dripped down for Yuki and Yumi with his brand of tactless bluntness. “Make a girl feel old don’t you Seiji.”

“How long has it been?” Saki asked, figuring out what happened.

“Five years.”

“You’re twenty?!”

“Yes, Seiji, though I’m not sure why I kept my appearance from the end of Masa’s world,” Yumi commented, still not clear on the rules governing all of this. She looked back over to the woman that seemed to be presiding over everything.

“Who the hell is she?!”

“No idea, she hasn’t given me a straight answer in that regard.”

“But you were able to solve the mystery of the world,” Yuki noted with them out of it and everyone alive.

She nodded to him, recalling the last moments with Masa. “I was able to grant her wish.”

“Would you all stop being so damn vague?! I died to a damn meteor throwing demon, I’d like some answers that aren’t in riddles!”

Glancing at the woman, she seemed to not really be in a rush with whatever she had planned. Yumi looked back at her friends agreeing to catch them up on the event of what happened. Her battle with Hokuren and the long journey that followed filled up most of the time. She abridged the five year journey around Japan as much as she could.

Once she caught up to Masa and recent events, the story slowed down. “In the end, she just wanted to die.” That was the conclusion that she had reached in the final clash of their swords. Their wills and resolve battled.

Seiji leaned forward in their little fireside chat that they had going on for story time. “Eh?! She just wanted you to kill her?! What the hell did we go through if she just wanted to die?! It’s like all of those stupid demons!”

The connection that Seiji made so quickly impressed Yumi, even though she felt that it shouldn’t have surprised her. He proved many times that he was smarter than he looked, he just didn’t let that govern him. “You’re quite right. That was something that I noticed while I was fighting with Masa and made me realize what she wanted me to do.”

“But why? The demons were all tired of fighting right? But she kept killing everyone even after they left.”

“That was the part that I didn’t understand until I crossed blades with her.” She had to piece things together from over the five years to see the whole story. It was more detective work that she didn’t plan on. “Ever since she fought with Hokuren she had become frustrated with herself. Up until that point she had proven herself to be the strongest, no one could beat her.”

“What, she wanted to die because she lost and he wouldn’t kill her?”

“No, it's actually more complex than that.” Yumi couldn’t really blame Seiji for thinking that. It had been her first reaction, but the truth came out in her blade. The more she clashed with Masa the more clearly she understood how she felt. “It shook her confidence.”

Yumi recounted the trail of destruction and death that Masa left for Yuki and her to track. “As we found more bodies, they became more mangled and less clean. She wasn’t using her trademark single strike to kill. She had become frustrated with what had become of her.

“You see, Hokuren was powerful, the most powerful being that she had ever faced and she lost. All that remained in the world were people weaker than her. She was so strong that no one could challenge her anymore and Hokuren was so beyond her that she was no challenge to him. In all of her time, she only fought people weaker than her, there was never anyone that was her equal. She sought out for years someone that could be a rival for herself, but never found them.

“With the defeat at the hands of Hokuren and the years that followed, she became depressed. She hated herself because she could only fight weak opponents. That she was so cowardly as to only fight those that couldn’t even harm her. And with Hokuren gone, her only chance of possibly fighting him again left. She didn’t want to live anymore knowing that she was a killer of the weak.

“But because she was strong, there was no one alive that could grant her wish.”

“Except for you.”

“Right, I suspect that is how it was intended to play out. I was supposed to get strong enough to be a rival for her, someone that could finally grant her wish in the end.” Yumi fell silent for a moment thinking about what happened with Masa. It was a sad thing to absorb. Someone so strong and independent only seeking to die because they were alone in the world. They had given up on ever finding the person that would be their companion. ‘I have my friends. I won’t make the same choice.’

Seiji nodded slowly at the conclusion of Yumi’s story. The weight of it seemed to carry through for him. “I understand the feeling. There’s always someone stronger out there, but it’s frustrating when they’re so far out of reach that it seems impossible to catch up.”

She agreed with Seiji on that. She chased after so much in that time trying to reach a goal that she saw in front of herself. The result of the labor certainly proved themselves, but there was still someone stronger out there. Hokuren had beaten them both and she had only managed to catch up to Masa after all that time.

Stepping back into the group, the woman inserted herself into the conversation deciding that they had finished what they were discussing. “And now the next trial awaits you.”

“And who the hell are you, now that you showed up?”

Only a smile returned to Seiji’s demand. Yumi interjected her opinion, since the woman wasn’t offering it. “Another personality I’m guessing.”

“Like the ones that attacked us at the start?”

“Yes.” She saw everyone get defensive, even though if they were going to they should have done so a long time ago. It was a little late at this point with how long she had been hanging around them. If she was going to do anything, she would have by now. “Though she seems non-hostile for now.”

“If she’s one of your personalities, can we trust her?” asked Saki.

“I sort of feel like she’s just here to be a gatekeeper.”

“You’re probably right about that, Yumi,” concurred Yuki.

“Before you showed up, she seemed to suggest that there was more left for us.”

“That’s right!” clapped the woman for Yumi’s good memory. She raised her index finger to the group to call their attention to it. “You’ve only cleared Masa’s story. You’ve still got a long way to go until the end.”

“What the hell are you talking about? What do you mean the end?”

“You all came here to tame them did you not?”

Yumi stood up confronting the woman directly. “That’s right. I’m through with you guys controlling me in the real world. My body, my mind, my orders.” A confident and commanding presence came from Yumi that hadn’t been there before, at least for her friends witnessing it playing out. The new adult Yumi had an air about her that they couldn’t recognize in her.

This hit Yori the hardest, who remained silent through the whole camp fire time and just watched. He barely got much acknowledgement from his sister since they returned. The awkwardness and emotions left unresolved from their encounter didn’t help. For Yori the gap was brief while Yumi had moved on long past it completely forgetting about him. He couldn’t see anything of the little sister that followed him closely around the house anymore. She was gone from his eyes.

“You’re very sure of yourself. But don’t forget that they are just as determined to be the ruler as well. They’ve determined you unfit after your recent encounters. So you’re going to have to prove yourself to them.”

“I plan to do just that! I don’t care whatever you want to toss at me! I’ll take it head on and win whatever trial you have!”

“That’s a fine spirit to have.” The woman stepped back as she started to gesture to her sides, inviting them forward. It seemed that the next trial for them would begin. Yumi stepped forward taking the lead, no longer needing Yuki to push her. She felt comfortable in the position. “But will it last?”

“Just get on with it. I’ve already spent five years of my life in a virtual world, I’d rather not lose another waiting.”

“So impatient. I’ll give you this one warning. Masa’s story was the easiest. The rest won’t be so simple. You have more than just time to lose while you're here. Good luck everyone!” She clapped her hands together with the sound echoing through the void completely wiping everything away. Only nothingness remained with no one even aware of the others around them.

Then in a snap of light returned and they all found themselves together. Considering the way things went in the last world, they sort of expected to have to find themselves again, but they were spared that tedium it seemed. However, they had a new world and new rules to understand.

“We’re in space!” shouted Yuki with all of the energy and enthusiasm of a child on Christmas opening their present and finding that it was the one thing that they wished for the whole year inside the box. And indeed was Yuki ever correct about the statement. They were in space, though not the vacuum of space. Their surroundings were a station, a space station giving their situation, which came as a shocking departure from their last world that was in Japan with demons.

But Yuki's enthusiasm quickly changed as he made another declaration. “And there’s aliens attacking us! Crap!” A large energy wave from whatever he saw filled all of their vision.

Yumi didn’t even have time to process it as danger was already on them. ‘Are we all going to die without even starting?! What the hell is going on here?!’