The Prince is Dead

Ren opened his eyes in a never-ending corridor. Closed doors lined both sides. He scrambled to his feet and walked to the nearest door. He pressed the handle and pushed the door open. Inside the room was his sister, Reiko, sitting up on her rickety bed with her legs pulled up, reading a book. He had almost forgotten how much she had grown. Ren felt as though he was watching exactly what was happening in his real life right now. He wanted to be there with her, to take her away from the house they grew up in and give her a better life for her high school years.

He wanted to step through the doorway, but something wouldn't let him cross the threshold, no matter how many times he threw his body against it. He left her there and walked to the next door.

Behind the second door, Miki, his girlfriend, was sitting at her desk doing her homework. Next to her was still their shared picture, which she looked at often, but finally turned face down. Ren's heart stopped for a moment. He wanted to scream and pound on the door, but the girl ignored him; she just continued scribbling.

The third doorway revealed Toya posing in front of the mirror, trying on the new clothes resting in a bag on the bed. He had always loved fashion and often criticized Ren, but in the end, he always lent him something when they went into the city together.

"It's a date!" he constantly chirped as they walked around the town.

From Ren's angle, he could see the photos plastered above Toya's bed: pictures of the two of them, with Miki, or the three of them together.

The fourth door showed Haku practicing her sword fighting in the open air against several training dummies. She sliced through the human-imitating targets with the same practiced movements as before. Her red eyes sparkled, and a pointed canine tooth peeked out from under her smile. She was clearly enjoying herself.

The fifth doorway offered a view of Zel walking the sunny streets of Ivory Concord. The citizens happily greeted him and chanted the word "Hero," which he accepted with a smile, though he didn't engage in conversation. He enjoyed the sunshine and the quiet solitude. With a brightened face, he closed his eyes and looked up at the sun. He took a deep breath and basked in the caressing sunbeams with a serene expression. Zel's idyllic day seemed quite boring to Ren, but it was the first time he had ever seen Zel so carefree.

Finally, the last door opened onto Lily sitting on her bed in her house, wearing her long, floral nightgown. She concentrated with furrowed brows on something she was scribbling on a small piece of paper, which she then stuck to the wall next to her head before taking a bite of the bread on the plate on her nightstand. She chewed heartily as she peered at her masterpiece on the wall.

Suddenly, all the doors Ren had opened slammed shut, pushing him back onto the floor.

"What the—?"

He tried to open the last door—Lily's door—and a strange feeling came over him. He stepped closer, and this time, nothing stopped him from entering. He backed away and let go of the handle; the door slammed shut with a loud crash right in front of his nose.

Something was wrong. The strange feeling made Ren believe that if he entered one door, he would never be able to leave it. It was as if he had to commit to one person and let go of everyone else. But how could he do that? He didn't want to and couldn't prioritize his friends. He didn't want to think about it, but the knowledge that he would have to say goodbye to the friends here and leave them behind was painful enough. He had shared a lifetime of adventure with them and was growing to like them more and more.

He made his decision. He wouldn't choose. Not yet. He would enjoy every second of his time here so he could go home and write about Haku, Zel, and Lily in a novel.

He smiled at the idea. The thought had just occurred to him, but he liked it very much. He wouldn't even have to think about world-building, and he could be rich.

Nothing happened. The silence was deafening. The blue-haired boy thought that if he figured out these feelings, the place would release him, but nothing happened. He raised his finger in the shape of a pistol toward the doors and 'shot.' Nothing. It was as if the walls and everything around him were invulnerable. With an unwavering focus, he deliberately pressed his index finger to his temple and concentrated his magic power into his finger, intending to explode into atoms with the explosion power.

All four of them sat up at the same time, jolted awake from the strange memory-induced trance. They all reacted differently. Haku glanced over them with a peaceful, happy face, full of love, as if she had found her zen. Lily clenched her hands to her chest for reassurance, slightly startled, and bit her nails. Zel nervously furrowed his brows and pressed his clenched fists into the dirt. Ren's head was still buzzing from the internal explosion, and he trembled from the pressure.

"So," Ren asked, rubbing his temples, "did you guys also have to choose a door?"

All three of them looked at Ren strangely.

"No, no doors for me," Zel clarified, his voice rough. He glanced at the phantoms circling above. "But I saw a human thing! It's called karate, and it's about fighting, you have to beat the other one!"

Zel proudly straightened his back, while Ren was barely able to hold back his laugh, both about how Zel said karate and how he described it.

Haku raised her arm, showing she wanted to talk, "I saw a machine that made it possible to talk to someone who's far away."

"Oh, that's a phone. It's an everyday thing in my world."

"What did you all see?" asked Zel in a low voice, as if he were asking for a secret.

They shared their experiences, omitting a few things they didn't want to disclose. Ren was sure, based on the others' stories, that they helped the already deceased spirits move on from their bad memories by rewriting them.

"Wait, Ren saw his own memories?" Haku began stroking her chin thoughtfully. "Maybe because he's not from here, he could only access his own."

This trial appeared to have significantly improved the Oni's logic, as it became much sharper.

"So, we can be confident that these are humans' spirits from earth," said Lily.

"But where are they coming from?"

"What if…" Zel slowly stood up, with his hands spread out, and his eyebrows shot up to the middle of his forehead. "They are the phantoms we know?"

"But phantoms are aggressive, not like this." Haku looked at a close creature who went through a tree with a straight face.

"Actually, you're onto something!" Lily shook her index finger at Zel. "Gōwan said that according to the Mage, our world is above the human world. Is it possible that phantoms are the souls of dead people? If this hypothesis is correct, it means that there is a rift between the two worlds, and if this rift exists, it explains how the Mage ended up in the other world." Lily paced up and down as her gears turned.

"But, how did Ren get here? He's not a phantom, as far as I know." Haku, to make sure, squeezed the boy's shoulder, which cut into him painfully.

Lily pursed her lips and shook her head. She had no idea.

They walked further onto the island, passing through the ghosts or phantoms. The trees began to grow denser as they went deeper until they reached a strange area lined with eerie trees. There were many tombstones here. The gravestones bore names and dates. Japanese names. This place was a cemetery for people from Earth. The creatures were the spirits of humans, or, even more likely, they were the phantoms themselves.

One of the gravestones was deeply overgrown with moss. A chilling silence fell over the small clearing. Ren stepped up and swept it away, revealing the inscription about the deceased:

"The Prince is dead."

Ren and Haku stared questioningly at Zel, who stared back with a deadpan expression.