Fractal Plane: Beyond Public Eyes

Chapter 5 - Ghosts of the Past

1

Loud echoes of his hurried footsteps continued following Kazuki as he strode down the hallways. It had not taken too long before the sense of urgency awakened within him.

There was a presence of another person inside. Somewhere deep inside this labyrinth of mirrors was a human being. Worse yet, that person had another presence near it.

A strong Nullity it seemed.

"It's strange, though..." he said to himself while maintaining his pace.

Ever since the presence of the two beings became known to him, he had detected that the two of them were extremely close to each other. With a human and a Nullity in such close proximity, he would have expected one, if not both of those, to have been on the move.

"Wait a minute," he paused after the hallway led him to a larger room.

"No, that's not it."

Just now, he considered a human-Nullity relationship like the last fierce opponent he had, the tandem of Touya Satoru and his Nullity, Setsura. He still recalled the winding tentacles and their strong, bone-crushing grip as well as the sharp blades of the woman that acted as the masked Awakener's extension. Something didn't add up.

He had never sensed Setsura's presence. There was no doubt that Setsura was a Nullity, albeit essentially stripped down to being a husk of one. Yet she exuded none of the Nullity readings that Kazuki had registered in his mind.

However, the memory of the duo triggered yet another memory in Kazuki's mind.

After all, in the very same Fragment was another human-Nullity duo.

He had never made it in time to see the Nullity supposedly born out of Amagi's feelings, but he knew of the vibe that the Nullity had.

"If so, then don't tell me..."

Thankfully, the Class B Nullity whatever person's inside this Fragment spawned must not have been too aggressive... yet. Despite that, Kazuki knew that he had little time to lose.

With his Armament at the ready, he continued his run towards the direction of the presence he felt.

2

Kazuki felt a weight lifted off his body as finally made it to another large room, only to meet with more deformed versions of himself staring at him from all angles. Having seen many versions of himself for minutes on end, it felt like a sight that would have probably taken away anyone's sanity. Fortunately, he had gotten quite used to it.

He panted and caught his breath before letting down his arm and watching the bladed shield transform back into his base form Armament.

The enemies had come sporadically, but the stress of navigating the impossible maze and the distance between him and the lone human presence took more of a toll on him. In a way, it was similar to Tenka Peak.

In fact, the ordeal as a whole gave him unpleasant flashbacks of Tenka Peak.

Nevertheless, he was able to relax when he shut his eyes to activate the Awakener's detector ability once again.

Finally, he was close to the presence.

Strangely enough, the two of them remained together.

"What are they doing anyway? Chatting or something?"

He forced a tired smile while looking at the forked path ahead of him. It was a sarcastic joke meant to lighten his mood, but he did not know what he would have to face.