Kir couldn’t tell how long it was until the Stranger returned.
When she did, he was in the middle of staring into the abyss of his mana gate, pondering what would happen to himself if he stepped through it.
He’d tried, once or twice, but each ti he put so much as a finger into the darkness, a sudden and all-consuming dread filled him. And if he tried to put any ntal objects into it, the objects simply disintegrated into black dust, which disappeared as soon as it touched anything.
"I wouldn’t do that if I were you," the Stranger said as he tried reaching in one more ti.
"Why not?" he asked as soon as he recovered from jumping at her sudden presence. "You wouldn’t happen to have rembered your na by now?"
"Hmm... You can na . And as to why not: Sure it’ll get you outside, but you’ll kind of be stuck there."
"Outside of what? I’m trapped in my own head, and while I think my body is moving, the only candidate for using it is probably Kiryu."
The Stranger blanched. "Don’t say that na."
"Why not? I don’t really know anything about you. Do you know him?"
"J-Just... I get a really, really bad feeling when you say it. Like... a shadow over my parents and siblings... Like black claws and the world burning..."
Kir let it go. Knowing what Kiryu did, destroying Earth in a mad quest to create a new universe, he didn’t bla her for fearing his na.
"Can you see outside?" Kir asked.
"Uhh... kinda? I think I’m stuck with a lot of clear goop and... Ooh! A sword! I love swords. A sickle thing with a chain. And an axe, and a long stick thing with a spike on top, and hmm... Gonnes?"
"Guns," Kir corrected her. Kiryu must have been stockpiling magic weapons for Kangetsu, Kir’s sword that carried what was left of his deceased lover, Noir’s soul, to eat. "I think Kiryu must have put you in my dinsional storage."
"Don’t. Say. That. Na!" she held her head. "I don’t want to rember. Everyone fighting... The people that wanted to just destroy everything..."
"I’m sorry," Kir said quickly. "It’s just... he’s been in my head for a few years. Talking to ."
"Well, I’m glad he’s not here now... I’m this close to rejecting you because you said his na." She pinched her fingers together leaving only the barest slit of light between.
"I’m sorry," Kir said for the second ti before changing the subject. "What did you an I’d be stuck outside?"
"Hm? Oh. I ant outside your body. Like... you’d be in a coma in body and the rest of you would just sort of... drift around. Or maybe not in your case? I can feel there’s a soul in that sword. Maybe you could let it take over?"
"He is off limits to . I can’t access my storage from here. Can you?"
"I an, I could. But I’m not going outside. Never again. I made an Oath, not to interfere in the world anymore."
"Why?" Kir asked.
"Because we broke it... my siblings and I. And then the people, our children, tried to lock us away..." She shivered, clearly not wanting to rember. "When my brother, the one I disagreed with, killed , I just... I’m just so tired..."
"So why talk to ?" Kir asked.
"Because... I thought maybe you might be like . Maybe if you were in trouble, I could help. Or at least we could keep each other company. I’ve been lonely since... a long, long ti ago." She held herself, and Kir took a step closer to her.
"Can I give you a hug?" he asked, as she started to cry.
"What’s a hug?"
Kir flinched. If she truly didn’t know or forgot what a hug was, then she might just be one of the saddest individuals he’d ever t. "It’s when soone puts their arms around you and holds you close. A, uh, comforting thing."
"I guess..." She sniffed.
Kir embraced her, petting her back a little as she cried into his shoulder. He stayed silent for a while, thinking about their conversation thus far.
Eventually, the crying stopped. "Um... thank you, Kir. It was better than I thought it would be."
Kir stayed silent a mont longer. "I think I have a na for you now."
"What is it?" she sniffed.
"Namida. It’s... an old na. Older than this universe. It ans ’tears.’"
"I think... it fits. Namida. That’s ... I’ve cried for a long, long ti. Especially when I was surrounded by... I think his na was Helios? He tried to drive mad... but I’m already there."
Helios... as in the sun god? It seed pretentious for anyone to take that sort of na, and since Namida wasn’t calling him her brother, it was probably soone who wasn’t a tatron.
"You sound a little bit like the voice I hear whenever I’ve almost died. I promise, I’m not out to hurt you. But eventually, I do want to go outside, if only to tell that man to give back my body."
"You’re hearing voices? Are you sure you’re not mad?" Namida sighed. "Guess it was too good to last," Namida parted from Kir. "That... hug; was it a sex thing? It’s not going to make pregnant like hand-holding, will it?"
"That’s not how... Did you really get pregnant from hand-holding before?" Kir asked incredulously.
"I don’t know. I never held anyone’s hand before. But I rember my sister telling that... I never got interested in the sex; not like her." Namida shrugged.
Kir resisted the urge to facepalm. "I could tell you about real sex if you want. It, uh, involves a lot more touching... and sotis the parts between your legs."
"No! I’m good. I don’t think I’m cut out to know." Namida shook her head furiously and crossed her arms in an X. "If it’s not the sex, I’m find with hugging."
Kir nodded. "That ans you’re asexual."
"I’m not any sexual!"
"Asexual ans not-sexual. Ace is a shorthand for it."
"Like the playing cards? I had a brother who liked those." Namida rubber her elbow. "Why would people put ’sex’ in a word about not having sex?"
The conversation was rapidly spiraling, but all Kir could do was shrug. "I don’t really know. Right now, I need to find a way outside or at least to contact K-, I an You Know Who."
Namida sighed. "Have you tried going through there?" she pointed at the well of mana that was still frozen.
"It’s frozen solid," Kir said. I can’t even tell if there’s water under there.
"It’s not water you know. It’s mana. Highly compressed and... eh, an okay total for a baby."
"Yes, I know it’s mana." Kir took a long inhale to keep himself from comnting on being called a baby.
"But yours looks like water. Mine is more of a... tree? Yes, it’s a tree. Um... I really liked trees... when I wasn’t alone."
"Were you a druid?" Kir asked.
"Hmm... I was more of a biologist," she looked down guiltily. "I like your tree house. I hope you don’t mind but I took a look inside."
"It’s fine." Namida’s knowledge feels so haphazard... Kir now felt like anything he said could potentially set her off. But he needed to get out and back to the physical world. "Namida..."
"That’s !"
"... do you know how to get through this?" Kir asked, gesturing at the frozen pool.
"Uhh, I think so. You just have to unfreeze it. Or unmake it, but that’ll probably make you explode or sothing."
"I definitely don’t want to explode," Kir said. He pondered the problem for a mont. "How do I unfreeze it?"
"It’s like... how you made all this," she gestured around at Kir’s childhood ho and the Academy grounds. "Just touch it and tell it what to be."
"Why didn’t I think of that?" Kir had accepted the state of the pool as a given after trying to break it with replica picks and hamrs. He’d treated it like a physical barrier when it really sothing of mind and soul...
"Uh... I don’t know you well enough to answer that question."
"Oh, uh." Kir had montarily forgotten Namida during his racing thoughts. "Namida..."
"That’s ."
"I’m going to try to get through now. I’m sorry to cut things short but would you be willing to give a way to contact you?"
Namida drooped. "I understand. If soone else were using my body I’d want to stop them too." She sighed. "I need you to give so of your mana to do it."
"Thank you," Kir said, turning to the frozen pool. "Here goes nothing..."
Kir reached, placing his hands on the frozen water. He imagined the feeling of when he’d last dived through to Kiryu’s place. The lakeside where he and Stella had made love. The lake that bordered half of Norneau.
The surface ice lted instantly, and Kir cupped so of the lt in two hands. "Can you use this?" Kir asked Namida.
"You have to give it to ," she replied, holding out her hands cupped together.
Kir stood and emptied his hands into hers, noting that not a single drop spilled.
Namida stepped back, swirling her arms apart in circles before closing her hands around the floating liquid. A golden light shone from between her fingers, and when she opened her hands it was to reveal an orb of golden crystal.
"H-here... If you talk near this, I should be able to hear you. It’s how I really look... outside."
"Thank you, Namida."
"That’s ..."
"I’ll keep it in the treehouse since you like it. I do want to talk with you more, and I feel like the more we talk, the happier you seem."
"I’m not going corporeal. Not even for you."
"I won’t ask you to," Kir said, inviting her with a gesture to walk beside him as he led the way to the copy of his childhood ho. He placed the orb upon the dining room table, letting it hover just above a little bowl he planned to fill with so mana later. "Would you teach how to make sothing like this, next ti you visit?"
"Maybe," Namida said, hiding her face. "I guess... until we et again?"
"Until we et again, Namida."
"That’s ." She gave him a weak smile, then disappeared without a sound.
Alone, Kir returned to the pool and resud lting his way down until down beca up. He erged into Kiryu’s pool, only to find the beachside house in complete chaos. Every discrete object floated just a little distance from every other. Like soone had pieced apart the house without bothering to sort it.
Even Kiryu’s ocean wasn’t spared. The beach rocks floated in little clouds, and giant water droplets floated, with scenes from Kiryu’s life and Kir’s playing out. Every ti he concentrated on one, he could hear the sounds.
thodically, he searched the house, finding nothing helpful, not even the TV remote. Looking up, Kir saw a place he’d never been to. The master bedroom, a large bed floating just above the floorboards.
As soon as he got to the top of the stairs, he saw sothing he didn’t expect. Simulacra of two people, laying in the bed, staring towards the empty middle. Sohow, Kir recognized that they had to be Aiko and Luda, dressed for sleep.
Luda was closer, and so Kir touched their simulacra first. He felt warmth, and the face of the simulacra beca a gentle, kind smile. "I forgive you, Kiryu. I’ll always love you." Kir removed his hand. He felt like he’d found sothing extrely personal, and was unwilling to violate Kiryu’s mory, despite his anger at the man.
Searching the drawers, he ca across two things that looked helpful. A cell phone and a TV remote.
He knew from visiting this place that the TV remote would let him see what was happening outside, but the cell phone drew his interest first. There was no screen lock, and there was only one thirteen-digit number in the Contacts list.
The na listed for it was Hello World.
Kir searched the bedroom for anything else of note, spying a black sphere with arrow-like sigils all over it. Without wanting to disturb it until he knew what it was, Kir pressed the Call button after selecting Kiryu’s one contact.
"About damn ti, Kid! I was beginning to wonder if you died."
"My na is Kir," Kir spat. "Not Kid or Sport or Kiddo or any of the condescending bullshit you’ve spewed at before. The only thing I have to say to you is: Give back my body!"
"I wish I knew how Kir. Maybe I could try to join you, but I’m in the middle of a fight right now."
"I swear, if you get killed, I’ll make your afterlife a living hell."
"Hey, I’m doing my best here. A lot of people want you dead, by the way. So we’re going to see soone who might be able to help."
"Who’s ’we’? Who the hell do you think could help us?"
"You and ." Kiryu swore as sothing whooshed into the conversation, followed by a roar.
The sounds of magic and rending flesh filled the line for a few monts more before they suddenly quietened.
"I’m taking us to see Luda."
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