Blast From The Past

“... Sis?” I called out. It wasn’t a confirmation, but a preliminary question. As much as I wanted to believe that it was indeed Reiko, the odds were too against the idea.

For one, from the start, it had always been Kana. It was the only explanation for her fatally wounding me in the old world to bring me here, and Arja had known her since childhood as well. This wasn’t a case of merely stealing someone’s look — Kana and Reiko were two entirely different people.

However, I called out to Reiko nonetheless, simply for one chance: the tube. Reiko was undoubtedly in there, and wasn’t anymore. Even if she had died, I knew for sure that Kana must have had something from her — her reaction towards me back on Earth was too familiar to be considered just a stranger knowing about me.

Which meant that there was a chance for Reiko to be in there, whether it was just a memory, a personality trait, or…

“Ren… ji…”

The girl responded with a quiver. Her body bent forward, while one of her hands reached out towards me. It was working.

“Reiko, it’s me, Renji!” I called out once more. “Uncle is here as well! We…”

Before I could finish, however, the girl’s hand had already curled into a fist. Fast as lightning, her punch struck.

On her own face.

“Damn it!” Now it was a scream of anger and frustration. “Stay down, Demon!” The girl continued to lash out.

“Reiko! I knew you’d be in there!” I continued to push forward. “Uncle, help me out here!” I called back to Uncle Kuroda.

Meanwhile, the girl started to move. But she had long lost her lightning-fast speed. Thanks to the constant headache, she was clearly struggling to move forward. And that meant even someone like me, with no transformation available, could match her.

In movement, of course. I wasn’t stupid enough to fistfight her right now, headache or not.

I wasted no time to stand in between her and Uncle, my arms raised to the sides acting as a shield. “Reiko! Sis! Fight it! I believe in you!”

“Renji! Don’t act rashly!” From behind me, Uncle Kuroda warned. But the girl was one step faster than him.

Even as she still held her head in pain, her steps were still thunderous. One stomp, one crackling sound, and she had already blinked several meters forward, completely erasing the distance between her and me.

Her other hand curled into a fist, preparing for an uppercut. However, I didn’t defend.

To say that I believed in the chance that Reiko would take over would be foolish. Especially after losing my emotions, I couldn’t bet on something as uncertain as that.

However, I did believe in the fact that this girl, whoever she was right now, was struggling, and that was enough to delay her reactions. And on this front, I was right.

As her fist flew in the air, it halted for another second, as the girl once again winced in pain. Taking it as a chance, I quickly kicked her right in the stomach, pushing her away just in time.

“Don’t let it control you Reiko! Fight it! I know you can!” I continued. My feet, however, continued to move and kick her, not giving her a chance to retaliate. Honestly, I doubted that it worked — she was still fully armored, while I was not. In fact, with each kick, I felt a little less from my legs. But I continued nonetheless, not for hope of a comeback, but because…

I glanced at my shivering arm.

Perhaps, this time I’d listen to this burning call within me.

“Renji, stop!”

However, I wasn’t the only one around. And neither was the call behind me.

Like a shadow, Duna had gotten up again, and sneaked himself in between me and the woman lying on the ground. Without another word, he thrusted his staff into my abdomen, sending me flying and crashing as well. Thankfully, there were no splinters where I landed, or my back would have been riddled with holes.

Before Duna could move forward, however, from behind, the girl had grabbed him by the shoulder and forcibly dragged him backward, using the action as momentum to launch herself forward.

“Out of my way!”

At the same time, the third gunshot sounded.

The bullet, this time, made its way straight towards the girl’s right eye. There was no mistaking it — Uncle had come to his conclusion. And it was that…

“Who… are you?” He sounded, almost not believing his eyes.

However, what appeared before me was completely contrary to his words.

Perhaps it was a sign of her losing control, but her armor seemed much weaker than Duna’s. With only a single shot, the mask that covered her had already cracked. And from the crumbling black shards emerged an all-too familiar eye to not only me, but for Uncle as well.

It was brown. A beautiful, familiar maroon color.

“Rei… ko…” Both Uncle and I sounded at once.

At that moment, her hand curled into a fist again. And it was that moment that made me realize.

That time when she slit my throat. That time when she tried to kill me. Every time she had hit herself so far.

It was always from her left.

Once again, she spoke. “Get out! Get out of my mind!”

But this time, “she” answered her call.

“Never! It’s you that needs to disappear!”

“You’re just a ghost! An insignificant human! I have much that I need to do!”

I couldn’t bear to watch it anymore.

“Chief,” turning around, I raised my hand forward. “Give me the gun.”

“Renji, you’re not trying to…”

I took a deep breath. It was finally time to drop the mask. To reveal my current self to him.

“I told you before, right?” Forming a bitter smile, I answered. “I’ve lost my desire to find Reiko. In fact, I’ve lost all my emotions, really. All that has kept me moving forward… is logic alone. And right now, it’s enough for me to conclude. Reiko is gone.”

“So you’re saying that the least you can do is end her suffering?”

I simply nodded.

“Renji… you remembered what I told you back when we last met at your office, right? You’re a good kid. Don’t do this… Not when she’s still there.”

“... I’m sorry.”

I took the gun from his hand. It wasn’t much of a struggle in the first place — he was still an old man after all, and even if I couldn’t compare to the armored wielders, my current half-monster body still meant that I was stronger than the average adult. Of course, I did make sure to be as careful as possible, avoiding any action that could result in a broken bone, so it was a rather peaceful attempt.

I’d never actually shot a gun in my life. It was Japan, after all, and I never went through training. And only now did I feel the weight in my hand; not only the gun, but the implications behind it.

I raised the gun towards the struggling girl. Reiko, Kana. It didn’t matter anymore. She was clearly not herself, lost in the constant madness of another thing inside her.

I loaded the barrel. The sound of the roulette spinning echoed through the empty room.

I had known it since I held the gun, but right now, it was the clearest.

The sweat on my palm. The widened eye, yet narrowed pupil of the person on the other end. I couldn’t see her face, but fear was my guess to her emotions.

I could listen to the pumping of my heartbeat. See the rising temperature of my breaths. Feel the shivers that run through my body like electric jolts.

I knew that it was a possibility from the beginning. I was too afraid to consider it. But not anymore.

This… was the feeling of being alive.

… But I didn’t pull the trigger. Or rather, I couldn’t make it in time.

I was too careless. My opponent was still, essentially, a superhuman. In the moment when I was still reveling in the sensation, she had already moved. In a blink of an eye, she had regained her ground, and with another crackle in the air, she had left her spot.

This time, she didn’t aim at me, but rather the person behind me.

Before I knew it, the girl had already pierced her hand through the Chief’s chest, her arm soaked in a crimson river.

But that wasn’t what shocked me the most.