Chapter 12:

A Body to Call My Own Pt.5

DEAD//END: In the End, the world shall bow to Death!

On that morbid night, amid the vast and immense purple darkness of the sky, a star stood out. Above the coastal city, shining brightly, it radiated its brillig in all directions — a truly inexplicable brilliance. It was so radiant, as if seeking unoccupied eyes.

In the face of such beauty, even chaos paused to appreciate it. Far from the rising star, a cemetery was on fire, a torrent of smoke rising into the sky. However, it did not matter: the black smoke only hid the dim stars in the background, highlighting the cosmic spectacle that adorned the skies.

Necks craned upward. The rebels burning the elite's cemetery paused their act just to appreciate the illuminated beauty. Everyone turned to look at the sky.

That star was, in fact, me and Tadashi.

It is complex to describe the beauty of a soul. Human sensation and perception try in some way to summarize that beautiful vision, divine particles multiplying among themselves, into something like a burning flame. It is more comfortable for the mind to interpret what the simple “is” cannot measure, as a frivolous expression or reference of life.

But now, it wasn't a fire, but a star — another expression of life.

After the triple sneeze (I even feel bad, in such a beautiful part, talking about the triple sneeze...), we were expelled at extreme speed. The kick was so strong that something rarer than sneezing happened — a restart of the soul, so to speak.

Our soul had shattered, and roughly speaking, what it did was basically call its pieces back. The luminescence was like a mother's song calling her children back home.

Multicolored particles returned to that supernova. Immense, there was proof of how powerful our soul was. The energy was so massive that it shook the ground, almost splitting the skies and clouds in half.

I was there, I was the green particles.

It was simply indescribable.

Reading this, one might get the impression that I am rambling and verbose — that my speech may be empty philosophy. What they don't realize is that every description becomes like this precisely because, in doing so, it is through mere human words. These are also too limited.

What I am trying to say is that, in the sky, there was the core of an exposed soul. It was not like a star, but that is what it became through the terrible rational-logical filter of the human brain.

And even so, it was beautiful.

After the light show and all the noise and shaking caused by the large amount of energy moving around (which in this case was mine, because Tadashi's soul was kind of thin), the process was complete, our souls restored.

We returned to our original forms, we were ghosts again, standing in the middle of the sky. With our backs to each other, I felt Tadashi distant.

We were both floating... wait, both of us?

“You? Flying? See, I told you I'd learn on my own.”

“Huh? I'm flying?” Tadashi noticed his aerial surroundings, but was unimpressed. After everything we've been through, I doubt anything will impress him. "After I lost my fear of dancing in public, I think I can do anything! Including flying,” said Tadashi, bragging about his development in the last chapter.

Dancing... that's right.

“Don't even mention dancing, or I'll get pissed...”

I wanted all that dancing business to be forgotten in that damn chapter. I'm a serious writer, it's a joke to read that excerpt between my writing.

Hey, I'm getting better at narrating... little by little.

The more time passes, the more I believe that I am the one who should control my body and actions!

You should’ve made a better contract, then!

I noticed that the chain that bound us together was getting a little worn. Rust stains and scratches everywhere — either the incessant exchange of bodies wasn't good for the bond that united us, or fighting for four chapters straight had impacted our connection (in every sense of the word).

Still not on speaking terms, we decided to investigate the place we had been thrown into — a beautiful coastal city.

Clear, its streets had sidewalks with a baroque and detailed design. It was strange to see so many beautiful engravings in a place made for walking, but it wasn't just on the ground that beauty could be seen.

Light poles, benches, squares, and even trash cans — everything could be displayed in a museum or, perhaps, imagined in a Renaissance painting.

With each step, our souls felt more oppressed by the size of the mansions that inhabited the city.

Are we in a wealthy neighborhood?

It was a good question from Tadashi, but as we floated a little higher, we realized that as far as the eye could see, there were only beautiful mansions and swimming pools.

Huh... a city of rich people. Why do they need so many pools if they live next to the beach?

Luminocity, a huge sign adorned the entrance to the city.

I thought about it, and we didn't know the names of the cities we had been to.

It's true... we are terrible protagonists.

Unlike the city where we found the villain, where the overall tone was more technological, here a more aristocratic atmosphere ran through the air. I never sympathized with nobles and their riches, but I would be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy the sight of their stupidly expensive excesses.

The final touch was the beach. It didn't add to our view, it was already night, little could be seen of it. However, the sound of its waves created a relaxing atmosphere.

We sat on the roof of a huge mansion. Tadashi, in his student form, huddled, even though he couldn’t feel the cold.. He missed his family, his home, and his daily life.

The city is so very beautiful. Asaka would definitely like to come here. She would take so many pictures that her cell phone would explode, he thought.

It wasn't just an observation, but a feeling that spread to me.

Our souls may have been separated, but sometimes I saw images: a girl annoying me while I played a video-game; a mother bringing fast food because she didn't have time to cook; a beautiful family on a Sunday night, all sleeping on the same sofa.

As much as our forms and personalities were separate, we still had a connection too deep to just ignore.

“I'm sorry we couldn't have the adventures you expected. What we've been through so far has been more misadventures than anything else,” I said, scratching my head and looking away. I didn't want him to think I felt sorry for him.

“It's okay, a story can't always be happy,” Tadashi let out a somewhat fake laugh, he knew there was no prospect of improvement. “But you're kind of screwed too, the fresh start you wanted so badly went down the drain.”

It was true. My dream of discovering the feeling of birth and my first breath was now in the past. Nothing had gone according to plan, but still, Tadashi was the only one by my side.

“Shi-nii, as our soul was restarting, it was like a dream. When it spread everywhere, it was like part of me merged with the landscape. The breathing of the trees, the still waters and the waves, even the fire in the cemetery. So much life, which I had never felt before.”

“You felt like an entity. Humans have souls that protect themselves from the outside world because, after all, they are fragile. Entities are not afraid; we spread throughout the universe because we are, in a way, its foundation. Our soul, in order to recover its pieces, opened itself completely to the outside world.”

“Huh... I see. So that's how you felt. And you, what do you think about being a soul?”

“It's strange to be part of a soul. On the one hand, there are so many feelings, but most of them come from within. I've always lived observing from the outside; for me, that was what mattered. I never thought about how I felt, because to tell you the truth, I don't think I ever really felt anything.”

I was overcomplicating things.

“What I mean is that it's all very new... I think I ended up getting lost in my dreams of greatness and forgetting about you.”

Somewhat embarrassed, I scratched my wig, looking away:

"Sorry...."

A handshake. Almost instinctively, we shook hands, as if something inside us was conspiring for our reconciliation.

Sorry — That message was conveyed without us even having to speak.

“Kiddo, I'll stop overruling your decisions from now on.”

“Okay, I'll stop being so annoying to you, Shi-nii. Let's get along!”

Some laughter echoed, and cutting through the bad mood, we started talking about what really mattered:

“What the hell, we left the capital and since then we haven't seen a single mecha... To be honest, I love mechas,” said Tadashi, looking at the old-fashioned city.

“I'm not a big fan...I'm more interested in magic.”

Remembering the cemetery, Tadashi began to jump, the chain on his arm making all kinds of noise:

“Did you see that at the cemetery? I kicked those guys' asses!”

“Heh, yeah, that was pretty cool. If mana means magic density, we should be pretty OP. The only problem is that to have that cool fight scene, it caused all that commotion in the cemetery.”

In the last view we had of the place, they set it on fire. It was a little too late to cremate the bodies, but the citizens didn't seem to care much about that.

In addition to the villain's death, we were responsible for that destroyed cemetery.

I mean... the villain is more your responsibility than mine, right?

We just made up, please let's not think about it.

“Anyway, we can walk more calmly now. If no reaper came after that little light show we put on, it must mean there are no entities in this world. So let's just calm down and take a good look at the situation before we decide anything."

“Yeah, you're right...”

A world without entities was a curious idea: humans armed with magic and complete freedom to shape the world they inhabited.

But there was no more time to think under the night sky. Before we knew it, the sun was already rising on the horizon.

A sound of running came to us in fury. A figure, bathed in the orange light of the rising sun, came toward us.

A blond boy with a blank stare had found us.

A boy stumbles upon a skeleton and a student on a rooftop… sounds like the setup for a terrible joke.

“What's that smell?” Tadashi sniffed a few times.

It wasn't really a smell, but if the soul preferred to interpret it that way, so be it.

“It's the smell of a water bottle when it's been left empty for a long time," Tadashi said.

Hahaha... that was one way to put it.

I jumped down next to the boy, Tadashi being pulled to the ground.

“Don't worry, Tadashi, he won't hurt us. Tell me, what do you see with your third eye?”

Tadashi concentrated, every particle of his phantasmagorical form giving 100 percent to make sense of his vision.

“Nothing... I don't see anything...” Tadashi said, disappointed.

“Exactly, you got it right!” Upon hearing my answer, Tadashi gave me a doubtful look. “This boy has no soul. He's just a body, with a remnant of a soul that keeps him standing.”

It was like witnessing the spiritual version of brain death — alive in body, but empty in mind.

“How is something like that possible?” Tadashi looked at me, confused.

“I don't know. I'm new to this world too.”

“So what does he want?”

“I don't know. I already told you — I'm as surprised as you are… How about we ask him?”

"Talking may not be the best approach. He seems kind of... disconnected."

I analyzed the boy's situation, using 100 percent of my knowledge as an entity:

“This goes against everything I know, but if I had to guess... we put on quite a show, our souls revealing their purest form in the sky. On one side, a body without a soul; on the other, an immense soul without a body.”

“Wait, you mean…”

“Yes, like a termite flying toward the warm light. He came for us. But we can't just gladly accept a gift from the universe. Something about it is definitely wrong.”

We heard other footsteps, a gentleman who looked like a butler arrived, almost fainting.

“Mr. Zero! M-Mr. Zero, wait... you can't just run out of the house like that!”

Zero...

His name was Zero — just like the protagonist of the Chronicles of Zero.

Tadashi looked at me.

Shi-nii looked back at me.

For the first time, our souls were in harmony.

ZERO! WHAT A COOL NAME!

“Are you okay, sir?” asked the butler.

“Huh...” he said? Or was it a groan?

“Let's go home so you can have your breakfast.”

“Okay... sorry," the boy muttered.