Sureiyazu

Episode 35: Tests and Trials

Akuma's feet pounded down the corridor. Her breath came heavy as she dashed after the voice she had heard, so familiar, but so in agony, needing to be saved.

"Aaaaakuuuuummaaa . . ."

"I'm coming!" she called. The voice was so close now -

She rounded a corner and there stood Hikari.

But it wasn't Hikari.

Hikari had always smiled; Hikari had been lively, and hopeful, and . . . This Hikari wasn't. This Hikari's skin was gray, and her eyes sunken. Her hair was tossed and mangled, and her feet didn't seem to work right, shuffling along instead of Hikari's springy walk.

"Hikari?" Akuma said in disbelief.

"Akuma," the Hikari that wasn't Hikari rasped, smiling.

"What happened to you?" Akuma asked. "You . . ."

But then she remembered that she was in a different dimension, a dark one. It was as bad as being in a Demon's Domain. Nothing was real. Nothing was real.

But Hikari, standing in front of her, seemed oh, so real.

"You . . . you're gone," Akuma choked. "You can't be here . . ."

"Never doubt anything, Akuma," Hikari said, her face twisting into a smile that wasn't Hikari's in any way.

"But your spirit - it was too weak - and - and -"

"But I came back," said not-Hikari, "for you . . ."

Akuma would have loved to believe that. She would have given anything for the Hikari standing in front of her to be the real one. But it was impossible. Even if this was the real Hikari's spirit, it wouldn't have been acting like this. It just couldn't be.

"Are you doubting me? Shunning me away, after all I did for you?"

"N-no," Akuma defended, "I'm grateful, Hikari, you know I am - I -"

No, stop.

It wasn't her.

It wasn't her.

It couldn't be Hikari.

It couldn't be.

But there was a part of her that hoped.

~~~

"What did you see up there?" Heishi asked when Kasai landed back on the ground and wouldn't speak for several moments.

"An eye," Kasai said simply.

"An eye . . . ?" Heishi repeated, looking back up into the mist.

"Yeah. Just an eye. That's what's up there. It's watching us."

"Um, that's creepy," Heishi said.

"Definitely," Kasai agreed. "But that's not all the bad news."

Heishi shrugged. "How much worse could it get? We jumped through a rip in time and space, and then fell into a black hole, and a giant eye is watching our every move for no reason."

"Pretty sure there's a reason," Kasai muttered. "There's a reason for everything."

"But what's the other bad news?"

"Huh?" Kasai said. "Oh yeah, the only way out is past the eye."

~~~

"Greetings," a voice rang out suddenly, deep and metallic.