Life in Parallel to Human

How awfully shrewd. She noted his observation. The pale lady braced for the impact as the pit that had become their place of fight trembled in their wake.

Just before, Toru had defied her simple asking.

Now…

"To hell with you!" He shouted as the punch connected with her scythe, sending both of them flying in opposite directions.

It forced her to spin in the air. But she recovered by planting her feet to the ground. Her scythe was spinning and unlike their first interaction, she had taken the fight more seriously. Booming with excitement regardless.

She used her speed advantage to flash toward the tumbling Toru. But just before her attack hit, he recovered in time and burst her out. The scythe experienced such force that it was forced her off-balance. She tried to return to a more favourable position. But the inertia disallowed her, speed isn't too much of a factor when it comes to this.

Now, Toru stood from where he is at, spying over her who's flung over the pit. He ran to the corner and scale the wall. Despite how looming the overhang is, he managed to grab its edge and scale out of the pit that had trapped him.

*You cannot,* she piped, her tone was of thrill instead of worry.

She regained control of the scythe and vanished. Then reappeared before him in a shimmer of mist. The blade spun around her body like an extension of herself, slicing him with the completion of its motion.

But Toru blocked, parried, and forced her back. A dance, a gaffe that sparked gusts of wind that nearly snuffed the torches, leaving only the glow of her and every waking destruction that is the weapon and her violet eyes bring.

The silhouette dimmed, but from their very perspective. An outline that form a ridge between them. He managed to riposte each and every attack of hers that was sent to his way. It feels like he was blessed with god of time by how quickly he predicted where her attack will land.

In fairness, it was a big scythe, a weapon that has always been inefficient as a killing machine. Maybe an area denial, sure. But the fact that the blade is going inward with limited set of motion given the pivot will kill any idea of it actually useful in combat.

But her speed and core strength should allow her to use it the greatest. Yet it feels cheated that she seemed unable to pierce his defence.

Well, a battle of attrition will do. Apparent by how much sweat he generated; some dropped to her scythe, some dropped into her office uniform. It was clear this fight won't last longer. All she needed to is get the last blow.

She chuckled, with apparent grin.

There it is, a hole in his defence.

A leg of him got kicked. He winced and bent in response. Distracted, she swung the scythe to him. It creates a deep, nasty wound but stumped midway. Only the muscle of the hand was cut.

A glow of golden caramel announced itself behind her. It was Ohto, using the same exact incantation he used to knock her attack before. Again, managed to save Toru in a pinch of time. Too bad, she still managed to get a hit, it would take long to recover from those.

"Ohto!" Then he cried a pain, his arm grasping where the wound had manifest.

"I'm sorry I failed my mission, let this be my punishment." He thrust the scythe back. Knocking her off balance. The act made gurgling liquid spilling free from the deep wound.

Worry, no, a glorious smiling fiend, she got them again. Huh, she seems to have to deal with them two then.

"Get yourself something to wrap around. I'll hold her off."

She groaned, again this 'holding her off' gesture thinning her.

*At least be more original with the presentation,* she mused.

"If you are finished with what you're doing, can you fight me now?"

The men exchanged a nod. Ohto moved ahead, rolling his wrist once as he straightened the cuff of his school uniform.

"Sorry, my lady, I think we are done here."

"Sorry, too, that I pushed you earlier. I mean it feels funny is it not?" She paused, letting the question settled. "Just seeing you get launched like that, man." She put her hand in her hips.

"Anyway."

She twirled the scythe to her back. Another bright display shone from her face. Preparing for the umpteenth fight she has today. If it was not clear at how high-pitched her voice is, she was excited, truly. Wisps of energy bouncing beneath her ground, each absorbed into the scythe.

"Stop!" Boomed a voice from a platform that was further higher from the ground. So far, that it hasn't been registering to both men.

"My darn!" Her scythe bobbed angrily. "Marius!" She shouted toward the source of the sound. "Don't butt in! It was starting to get juicy."

"You know you're in losing ground right now," voiced him, there was no figure to connect to the voice because of how far he is. Only name attached to it.

"What did you say!" She butted his voices. "Ehhh?!" She screamed, showing her frustration.

"Come here, Lady Nozomi," he commanded.

"Don't call me that in front of them!" She pointed behind her, to Ohto attending Toru's wound.

"Alright Saintess' Grace."

"Too late," her grip on the scythe loosen as her head cocked back. "What is it?"

"Our donator, she requested your presence, about their mother."

"You mean Nanoka? She's 54 door to the west"

"I suppose… I could tell her." He took the information and leave them both. At least it seems so, there was no way to confirm.

"You know, you shouldn't talk like that guy, if you don't want to be him," she muttered when her gazed upward, confirming that he indeed left. Afterward, she turned her head: "Now where are we?"

"When you're losing?" Toru said, wound already wrapped in article of clothing that was torn from his shirt.

"No! That guy doesn't know anything," she motioned her hand in declaration. "Come on, give me your best!"

She charged with a straight gait of her feet. Her scythe was put behind her to create a wide arc meant to hit Ohto who had Toru in his lap. The force forced Toru to roll away and move briskly as he pressed the wound. While Ohto managed to hit her back.

She continued her attack toward Ohto, ignoring Toru who's not in the fray. Ohto got an incantation going in instant and push to her direction, almost causing her to stumble if not for the light feet she has.

She used the same momentum of her body to draw back the scythe, spinning about their centre of masses in the air. The ground got hit first by the end of the scythe blade, then she used it as a pole to trample away from him. Flipping her entire body in the process. And, by using the mass of her body, she quickly returned the scythe, preparing for another attack.

That's when she charged again, her attack connected to shield incantation. It was so great that it chipped the metal part of her scythe. It reacted with the air and caused a spark that brazen their face. But it also did a great number to him as he got thrown toward the other side wall.

She teleported thereafter, using the advantage to land another attack. Though it seems that it got blocked despite being unconscious. Or not, since he tried to wrench himself free.

"Dear goodness, what a pity." She then pressed another attack that hit his abdomen. That's when the blade got chained into his hand.

She tried to force it out, which in the process also setting him free, barrelling toward her. An incantation hovered in a curled fist of his, and bam. The attack connected on her head, forcing her head down.

She quickly got up, returning quick to her feet. A forced smile was apparent on her face. But somehow something feels heavy, her vision goes blurry and the tounge inside of her got soured.

Vision swam to dark musk, then swam back to clearer outline. Was she really having a concussion? It cannot be, no, it can't. Her finger does tremble, trying to keep herself fully awake.

Her knees give out first then the rest follow then she fell flat on the floor that had shattered and over by their earlier clash. Ohto didn't imagine that it would take her this to finally be beaten down. But he decided not to complain, when Toru was clearly wincing from his pain.

Ohto jump down the pit then scale it easily with magic, going for the straight line. He had wrapped Yuuki wound with torn cloth earlier. But it was clear the blood, at least to them, was letting out in great amount. They need to apply pressure, the tourniquet they made were not up to standard. He needed to redo it again and put proper pressure.

Creak. Crack.

A sound of stone collapsing behind them. Nozomi planted her hand on the cobblestone wall. A bad aura had gathered around her. She started walking, carrying with her the scythe she always put beside her. And she kept walking, approaching them silently with only the heaving beat of the scythe metal scratching the ground. Ignoring even the pit as she walks on the air.

Ohto and Toru cursed, tried to dip, but found themselves with nowhere to go. There are no doors leading inside, maybe from where that man speaks. But it was from such height, even Ohto unsure if he can scale it alone. This place is basically a glorified killing pit. And they are prey for slaughter… or entertainment for her.

Anxious feeling arose from them. With Nozomi pinching her way closer and closer. A foreboding that arose from her behind. Spinning scythe, who'd picking up sparks of electricity on her wake, charging for a more brutal attack. Very much done with horsing around.

Then, she stopped.

She bent her knee backward, as she put her scythe in front for full display.

She blurted out cries, with no hint of manic, more of desperation.

And the distance, they keep decreasing, inching closer and closer. A surface-to-air missile seeking heat signature. They — Ohto and Toru — are her heat signature. Ohto drop Toru and put himself in between, bracing for when the distance hit zero. The pressure difference of her boom made him feel the wind in great wake.

"Stop."

A sudden spike in intensity cause dust and moss to ever so risen like a colunimbus cloud. It creates a vortex, like a barrier was erected between them.

It's the second time they got interrupted. Albeit, the voice quality told them it was woman this time.

"A 'Saintess' Grace' shouldn't act this way."

No responses, seems that the erected barrier did a number on her.

"My grace, thou did bay, and knowest thine shanth done rightfully fulfilled," another voice, a more mature with stronger presence.

The world convulsed into masses with no discernible shape, breadth or depth. It twists in on itself, creating vortex that travel along the line, and when the distortion stilled they stood before five figures.

The first was a lady swathed in white, her translucent pallid skin nearly indistinguishable from the flowing robes that clung and drifted like water, concealing yet hinting at the shape beneath. Beside her loomed a woman in black, Shimizu, her gilded robe gleaming faintly, the cut recalling the sorcery house found in manga. A man mirrored her attire but setting in a more masculine side, Marius. Another presence lingered in shadow, face hidden beneath the folds of a black hood. And last, a smaller figure clutched behind the gilded robe, their fragile silhouette trembling against the darkness of the gathering.

"I bid thee welcome unto most simplest of our company," the white-clad figure speak, her voice is soprano and alto on top of each other, like heaven speaking. Her eyes is also noticeably shut despite her talks.

"Who are you?" Toru asked. He had known that he, Ohto and Nozomi got teleported into this place. Given the source of the sound, maybe the same balcony from where Marius spoke.

Shimizu, who had quite carefree look on her green eyes, put a hand on her hip. "She is the Saintess."

"I to be introducing myself. Forgive mine trespass," the woman cut, with her hand clasped. "I am but a simple woman; yet thou seest I have been entrusted with a solemn charge, and I shall abide steadfastly in mine appointed duty."

"Join our cause," shimizu complemented. "Who do you call yourself?"

"What do you mean?" toru asked puzzled.

The saintess raised her hand like she got the answer. The hand swayed from Nozomi, "a tyrant." Ohto, "a lost child." To Toru, "you?" The palm of her hand faced upward, in an inviting gesture.

He visibly clenched his teeth. Despite already doing so for his pain.

"Liminal."

A nonhuman who tried to be human, they are, one who cannot experience emotion and lie forthright. They who gain wisdom and power to everything with the cost of nothing normal. It's good to say they're afterlife of their own thought.

However, this place, and everyone who attack him. From the dominion that is the red sky. The girl who used a scythe and ability to conjure up arcane crystal at her own will. A mysterious lady who had the ability to transport someone to another place with teleportation. It all pointing toward Liminal.

Despite that, nothing feels familiar to him. Like he just discovered another branch, another hole that lead to a place he realized he couldn't go back. The return to the original form. It broke all the mental model he had. Yet somehow warranted, somehow something he had long expected coming.

She, the saint, clasped her hand. "Liminal, aye. Had we not be apart, then light upon thee, alas withdraw led thee out of the land."

"How do you end up here?" Shimizu asked.

Toru looked back to Ohto who has been in defensive stance for quite a while. Also the flattened Nozomi or also known as 'Saintess' Grace' behind him still not moving an inch.

"One of your guy caused red sky, she then appeared out of nowhere, fighting us endlessly, until we end up here."

"Oh, she really utilized the red sky well." She said, gazing somewhere else with irritation on her voice. "Then you don't have to worry, we will put you back to where you at."

"Where are Ichiha and miss Momiji?"

The hand of the robed man with small stature bunched, tighten on itself. Shimizu, who was in front of her looked back: "She is now among one of us."

"One of… yours?" He asked, or rather he gave a visible threat.

"Us, you, we, are just who you call Liminal."

"A being of liminality, a nonhuman who occupy toward the boundary of human."

"What a nice insight, you ought to tell me more about what you know."

"That's not the point. I don't see how Ichiha is Liminal, she was frozen stiff on that event…"

She tapped her feet, while the Saintess stilled, content with shimizu handling it. "That depends, if we're using your analogy. It's like someone had stumbled upon such being. The dominion simply did not accede to that status, thus frozen, a Liminal of Liminal I supposed."

Toru did not know how to respond.

"Ah, I suppose my explanation did not suffice to quell your thirst for hunger. I mean curiosity."

"Bring her back." He cut her speech short with another threatening voice.

"I'm sorry. I'm afraid I can't do that. It's her own volition."

"Where is she!" He barked, continuing to be enraged.

She laughed, then coughed black dust. Her hand clutched on her chest as she gazed toward Toru. "I think you know well where is she."

"The person behind you?"

She nodded to Toru question. A confirmation. One that led him to walk to the robed person with small stature, he then grabbed her by the wrist but she protested instead. Putting a lot of force to untangle herself.

"You're not understanding me!" She screamed, the robed that had obscured her face now reeled back, confirming her as Ichiha

"What is it that I don't!"

"Be not vexed, aye. temper your spirits" The Saint put herself between the two.

Ichiha coughed as she reeled back her robe. "There is nothing I want to do with you, sir Toru."

Toru clenched his teeth, he spoke but of longing, "come back to human life, please."

"What is good with human life!" she lashed out, her robe bobbed in contention. "I am just a loner with no friends! Nothing of value comes out of me!" she continued hastily.

He has turned to grasp at the last thing he can find. "You're the school president, are you not?"

"Funny." Like she has forgotten it. "Nothing — and I said it, nothing of value comes out of me. Please let me live as this…" She hinted to frailness to her voice.

Ohto placed his hand on Toru. Causing Toru to wince in pain. But those feeling quickly healed.

It was the Saint, her clasped hand glowing in green aura. Same aura also glowing on where the wound had nattered a wound.

"I grant unto thee mine sincerest wish; a mending is all I may render, for the grief my child hath wrought upon thee."

Toru spat, and the aura diminished. "Just get me out of this godforsaken place, please."

The Saint tilted her head like she is confused. But she thankfully understood. "Thy command shalt be mine to fulfil."

And by virtue to her word, they both felt as the world quaked, melting, turning into mere mirror of nothing with liquid swirling from the very dark design of the room. Then red peeking and suddenly the liquid form back into the red dominion. The world they lived, just painted in red like a swarm of locusts.