Welcome to Fira

Everything around me was pitch black.
I had no idea where I was, nor any recollection of what had happened.
My mind was completely blank.
Floating in an endless sea of darkness, I drifted back and forth without knowing what my final destination would be.
This sensation, this feeling, I don’t know how long it lasted.
Seconds, minutes, maybe hours even?
With nothing to show me the time, I could only guess.

After what seemed like ages, the rough texture of tiled stone gradually emerged beneath my hands.
I then realized that I laid face down on the ground.
Despite the fact that I couldn’t see anything still, as the space I was in was completely dark, at least I could now move my body again.
I crawled up to my knees and shouted into the unknown.
“Rai? Mr. Takui? Mum? Dad? Anyone?” 
No response, except for my words echoing far into the distance.
“W-Where am I?”
I stood up and looked around to see if I could find anything that might tell me, but it was useless in this darkness.
So, I sat down again and waited.
Perhaps that someone would eventually find me here?
As I waited, the silence became deafening.
Sitting idle on my bottom for who knows how long, I eventually started getting cold.
The air here was frosty, like on a clear winter day.
I waited, and waited, and waited.
Right when I was about to give up hope, I noticed a dim light in the distance swinging back and forth.
It was faint, but I could tell it was heading my way.
“Over here!” I screamed, as I jumped to my feet.
For a brief moment I was thrilled, but then the light stopped moving and just as quickly disappeared.
There I stood, motionless, having been robbed of the last bit of faith I had left.
I sat down again, letting out a quiet, dispirited sigh.
A singular tear rolled down my eye and I wanted to scream, wishing someone would come and help me.
Without noticing it, the air around my neck suddenly got warmer.
I heard the faint noises of breathing, when a voice whispered into my ear:
“How unfortunate.”
A loud yelp left my mouth.
Startled, I jumped away from the place I was sitting at.
I turned around to look at who spoke to me, but there was no one there.
The sounds of footsteps circled around me, followed by a man’s maniacal laughter.
My head tried to follow the source of the footsteps, spinning around like a bottle cap.
I felt myself getting dizzy, until the sounds abruptly came to a halt.
Without any warning, the place suddenly got illuminated by dozens of torches, revealing the beautiful, mosaic walls of a circular room.
Sitting in pitch darkness all this time had made my eyes extremely sensitive, which were having a tough time adjusting to the light.
I stood up and scanned my surroundings.
As I did, I noticed several murals on the walls.
The figures on them weren’t too detailed, but I could barely make out that their shapes resemble humans.
For a brief moment, I forgot all my worries and kept staring at them with sheer fascination.
I reached my hand out to one of them when I heard the sound of footsteps heading my way.
I turned around and saw a man standing in front of me.
He was quite young looking and was about one head taller than me.
His eyes were light green, and he had long red hair, accompanied by fair white skin.
His getup consisted of a sleeveless shirt with a white and red diamond pattern, a pair of black pants with two leather straps strapped around his shoulders, and a pair of black pointed shoes.
From the get-go, this man gave me bad vibes.
However, there was nowhere for me to go.
I hadn’t the faintest idea where I was, so running away in itself was already a bad idea.
“May I be so bold as to ask you not to stare so much at me? It is quite rude, after all.”
The man carried a creepy smile in the shape of a crescent moon on his face.
It gave me goosebumps all over my body.
“I’m sorry, sir. Do you perhaps know where I am?”
Besides his rather unique style of fashion, he gave off a certain air that I could only describe as menacing.
Perhaps it was presumptuous of me to think that, but he also didn’t try his best to prove me otherwise.
Suddenly, the man started laughing.
Coming back to my question, he replied in a cryptic manner:
“And thus, the Young Boy asked me to share with him his tragic fate. Should I or should I not? That is indeed a good question. Ah, how terrifically complex such simple things can be.”
What did he mean by that?
The man showed me another grin, as he seemed to enjoy seeing me so confused.
In an act of annoyance, I shouted:
“Please, just tell me where I am already!”
The smile on his face disappeared, and made place for a cold stare.
This drastic change in atmosphere was so profound, my arms and legs started to tremble.
To make matters worse, the answer the man gave me was something I’d rather not heard.
“You have tragically passed away, my friend.”
My eyes widened, and a sound of utter disbelief escaped my lips.
“W-What do you mean, p-passed away? M-Me, d-dead? But how c-could that…”
At that moment, the recollection of events that happened prior to when I ended up here appeared from the depths of my memory.
Me getting possessed, slitting my throat, and laying on the classroom floor in my own blood.
These images were so clear that I fell to my knees and threw up.
With the chunky insides of my stomach covering the ground in front of me, tears started rolling down my face.
“I-It can’t be! It can’t be!”
“Sadly, it is true. A light quenched too soon, before it could transform into something much brighter. Just the thought of it makes my heart weep.”
I lifted my face to look at the mysterious man, when from behind his back he grabbed a sword and put it beside my neck.
“Alas, with all that said, I regrettably must kill you now. For it is my role as villain to do so.”
I tried forcing out some words of resistance, but I knew it’d be pointless.
The man was already carrying the blade above his head to deliver a deathly blow.
“Oh, but at least let me show some manners. The name’s Lucifer. What’s yours?”
“Shako Ikitayashi.”
I don’t know why I answered him, but I did.
“Well, Shako, I will be eagerly anticipating our next encounter.” He then swung his blade down and sliced my head clean off.

Yet again, I was drifting in a never-ending sea of darkness.
Its almighty mass engulfed me completely, and a bone-freezing air chilled my entire body.
My mind was in a total haze.
Having been confronted with Death twice in a row, I wondered what would happen to me.
Is the universe trying to tell me something?
Does it really want me to stop clinging onto life?
Are these really my final moments?
“Wake up! Wake up! Please, wake up!”
After coming to my senses once more, my ears picked up on a soft, feminine voice reaching out towards me.
Was it perhaps an angel, or was my mind playing tricks on me again?
Judging by what happened prior, neither two should surprise me any more.

I opened my eyes and tried sitting upright, when the person sitting next to me let out a shriek and moved away.
“I’m so sorry–”
Sitting before me was a beautiful girl with long white hair and bright red eyes.
She had a slightly muscular, yet curvy body with tanned skin.
And her bosom was…quite remarkable as well. You know what I mean.
She wore a sleeveless green top, a pair of black leather pants, and a sapphire crystal earring in her left ear.
Around her waist she wore two leather belts, with one carrying a sword.
She stared into my eyes with a still-shocked look on her face.
The girl then took a deep breath and talked.
“So, you are awake now. Thank goodness.”
“W-Who are you?”
I was still blown away by her beauty, which explains the slight stammer in my voice.
She stood up and offered me her hand to show that I should do the same.
“My name is Kia Diablo. I was wandering around this area when I found you here.”
I felt extremely lucky that she found me here, but also a bit upset.
Who knows how long she sat beside me, watching over my dead body?
Wait! Now that I say that, how am I still alive?
I tried asking her when a stinging pain shot through my throat.
My eyes teared up, and it became difficult for me to breathe.
Once the pain had somewhat subsided, I noticed Kia was lending me her handkerchief.
With it, I cleaned my face and handed it back to her.
“Thanks! My name is Shako Ikitayashi. Nice to meet you, Kia!”
She responded to my words with a kind smile.
“So, Shako, what exactly happened to you?”
“I-I don’t really know. All I remember is that a weird-looking man I’ve never seen before approached me, and then–”
A fire lit in Kia’s eyes as she grabbed me by my shoulders and pulled me towards her.
The look on her face turned more serious, while her eyes narrowed and her breathing intensified.
“WHAT DID HE LOOK LIKE?!”
The grip of her hands was tense. 
For a girl with such good looks, the strength in her palms was nothing short of terrifying.
I was scared she might hurt me, but fortunately for me she let go before it could reach that point.
“My apologies. I do not know what got into me. What I wanted to ask was if you could kindly describe this person to me?”
“Let’s see. He had long red hair, light green eyes, and was about one head taller than me.”
“And can you recall what he wore?”
“I believe he wore a sleeveless shirt with a white and red diamond pattern, almost like a harlequin doll. Besides that, a pair of black pants with two black leather straps over his shoulders and a pair of black shoes.”
Kia swiftly turned around, but I could barely hear her whisper: “I knew it.”
“Do you know this guy?”
Just as quickly as she turned away from me, she turned to look at me again.
From the way she behaved, I figured that I was right.
“I do, but I would rather not speak of him. That man is a menace to our people. He enjoys belittling and torturing other innocent people, especially those who cannot defend themselves. It makes me sick just having to think about him.”
“He mentioned his name was Lucifer.”
“That remark is indeed correct. However, it is not his real name, but merely a sobriquet my people gave him.”
“What’s a sobriquet?”
Kia looked at me as if I asked something dumb, but clarified:
“Apologies. A sobriquet is sort of like a nickname.”
A nickname, huh?
He must be a far bigger problem than I initially thought, if they were willing to give him that nickname.
And if that’s the case, I should probably feel extremely lucky to have survived an encounter with him.
Survived, huh?
Once again, I was stumped figuring out how that happened.
Yet before I could come up with a decent explanation myself, my mouth already reached out to Kia to simplify things for me.
“In short, you have sadly passed away in your real world. Or rather, you are in a state between life and death. Your soul is balancing on a small thread, with on one side the life you left behind and on the other the eternal end which you may meet.”
“So it’s true?”
I closed my eyes, wishing that this was all just a bad dream.
“You may think I am jesting, yet I promise that what I am telling you is the truth.”
Upon hearing her response, tears started to roll down my cheeks again.
I fell to my knees and cried as loud as I could, until my voice turned hoarse.
Kia didn’t know how to respond to my sudden outbreak, so she just stood there and rubbed her forehead in concern.
Then, she said something truly unexpected.
“If you want to, you can stay at my place.”
My tears suddenly stopped rolling, and I stared at her in disbelief.
It was clear from the look she showed me that she said it somewhat forced, which was understandable.
Kia certainly sounded like she wished she had any other way to stop me from crying.
She grabbed my arm and lifted me up.
“T-Thank you, but are you sure I can stay at yours tonight?”
An all-telling sigh left her lips.
“My permission you have, but the others…may not be as consenting as I.”
Kia grabbed a torch that was resting on the floor beside her and lit it up.
“Anyway, shall we go?”
I went along with her, as we set off into the darkness ahead of us.