Editor's Note: This is the fourth installment of an 11-part short story written by Shawn Smith, a junior English major from Keene, N.H. A new installment will be presented in each issue of The Norwich Guidon during the 2001-02 school year.

Reality's End

by Shawn Smith

Part 4

I awoke to find myself immersed in water that was warm to the touch. I felt my strength rebuild itself and my senses begin to get clearer. Even with my eyesight still slightly blurry, I could make out simple shapes and objects. By the looks of it, I was in a purification spring of some kind, but not the ordinary kind that all Brothers use for healing purposes. I was alone, no doubt because the Brothers wanted to keep me isolated from everyone else for a while.

I moved around in the water to try to get up on my feet, but my knees were still shaky. I was forced to be content to lie in the healing powers of the spring. I blew air out of my mouth as I rested my body against the side of the spring and took in the view. The spring itself was of excellent quality and design as the actual structure was circular and very large with a small fountain in the middle to continuously pump in fresh water from the reservoir. Intricate designs of Japanese mythology and scripture were on every surface that could be seen; warriors battled monstrous dragons that breathed fire at them, the first stories of the samurai and their quest for the perfect sword to destroy evil, several that I didn't recognize, and the like.

Even with this splendid sight around me, I wasn't content and my anger certainly hadn't completely subsided. I wanted to continue my training so that I could leave the monastery and find my master . . . and kill him.

"Really? Is that what you think?"

As I spun around to see where the voice came from, water sloshed out the sides of the spring. I saw the shape of a girl not much older than I and swallowed hard. She was extremely beautiful, with brown hair and eyes to match. I noticed, too, that her red sash bore two strips of black as mine once had. I blinked my eyes rapidly to break myself from this trance and snapped back into reality.

"What the hell do you care what I think? Nobody else seems to in this damned place," I scowled. "Who are you anyway, huh?"

"My name is Naomi Tiriko. High Master Jensen asked me to look in on you while she attends to the boys that you injured in the courtyard. Even though she's very displeased with you, she permitted you to rest in her private spring."

"High Master Jensen? Is she the same High Master that—"

"Yes, she's the same one that came to you when you first woke here."

"She may be displeased, but she has no concept of honor. She's only a Westerner."

Naomi approached me with a look of distaste for my comment. "She may look Western, as you do, but she's lived in Japan her whole life. She knows of honor, but she also knows of cold-hearted vengeance. What you did to members of your own Brotherhood is inexcusable and should be punished."

I started to rise, but stopped after I realized for the first time that I was naked. I felt my face turn red as Naomi dropped a robe and various garments down on the ground.

"Here, put these on while I wait outside for you." Her tone was of pure disgust and I felt the back of my neck get hot with anger with every word. She went out of the room through a doorway that I had apparently not seen before.

I started to express my anger in a string of profanities directed at her, but decided to hold my tongue for now. There wasn't any use for wasting my time with a girl like her. I sunk back in the water and breathed deeply.

"Wait a minute. What about Kenji-san?" I said aloud.

"He's safe with the masters. Hurry and get dressed." Naomi's voice echoed in my head through magick of the mind.

I returned the favor with a little telepathy of my own. "How do you expect me to hurry when I still can't stand up straight?" I projected.

"Use your healing powers. You seem to be good at that."

I pursed my lips and felt the surge of energy through my body. It wasn't as strong as it had been before, but it was enough to restore my strength to a level where I could walk again. I cursed Naomi under my breath as I got back to my feet.

"Put those clothes on and come outside," Naomi projected telepathically again.

I did as she asked and put on the brown robe and my strangely colored sash, the only reminder I had of happier times at the dojo. I made my way to the door and opened it. I stepped through and found myself in High Master Jensen's chambers. Just as her spring had its elaborate decor, so did her chambers. Tapestries with scenes of mythic beasts and ancient battles of magick hung from every conceivable place, candles with exceptionally bright light — a product of magick without question — lit up the entire room, paintings of sunsets and clouds with exquisite detail and color were framed on walls, and the like. Even her bed was enormous and absolutely breathtaking. I was in the presence of greatness, that was for sure.

"Are you done looking around like some child?" Naomi asked me.

I turned my attention to her and noticed that she had only a red sash around her. "I don't know how you were taught," I began, "but where I'm from, we don't treat higher ranking students with such disrespect—"

"Oh, now you talk about disrespect! I know of your apparent rank in Tir-An-Yi, but it has no value in my eyes right now."

I lowered my head and stared at my black sash with its lone red stripe.

". . . you are between magicks, David-san . . ." I could still hear my master's words even though my hatred for him was unparalleled.

"What? You have nothing to say?" Naomi mocked me.

I raised my head and made my fiery eyes penetrate the girl's very soul. "Listen to me very carefully. Do not insult my honor again. I don't have anything left but that and the knowledge that my master is probably still out there, killing innocent people left and right. Now, you put yourself in my place and see how it feels to have everything you have ever known and cared about ripped out from under you in one swift stroke."

"You don't frighten me, David Sands. Not one bit." Her voice wavered and cracked as she spoke, a clear indication that she was indeed scared and my effect to enhance her fright worked perfectly.

"I can read your mind just as you can mine. You can't lie to me." I walked away from her after I finished my sentence and out the doorway to my immediate left.

"Wait! I was ordered to look after you and guide you through the monastery!" she called desperately as the door closed shut.

I should've kept on walking down the dark corridor, but something inside me prevented me from going on. I couldn't let her face the High Master in shame for not completing her task. As much as I hated to admit it, I just couldn't let her go through that. I took a deep breath and sighed loudly.

"Naomi!" I bellowed so she could hear me through the thick oak door.

The door creaked open behind me and Naomi stepped out. Her steps were light and graceful by the sound of it.

"Yes?" she said meekly.

Dammit, I thought to myself, the effect hadn't worn off yet. I quickly focused my ability at her to end her fear of me. I grinned when I felt it had worked.

"What are you grinning at?" Naomi demanded.

"Nothing. I'll honor your orders from the High Master."

"Are you sure, or are you the one who's lying?"

"No, I'm not lying," I told her in Japanese as I grinned again. "Lead on . . . Naomi-san."

She was taken completely by surprise with my response. Her eyes widened a little, just enough to be noticed. "Oh, of course," she sputtered. She cleared her throat and straightened her robe. "Follow me."

I bowed to her and followed her down the expanse of the corridor. I let my ability guide me in the darkness so I wouldn't run into anything. Naomi, I assumed, had done the same thing as she maneuvered through the courses of the various hallways with ease.

We made our way to a very large training area where scores of masters and their students practiced Tir-An-Yi drill exercises similar to the ones back in the Outer Realm; the entire area was bigger than five or six of my dojos with as many people to fill them. I don't know what tipped them off, but they stopped what they were doing and stared right at us. The silence was absolutely deafening as all eyes followed every solitary movement Naomi and I made.

"Why did you bring me here?" I asked quietly.

"I'm doing as I was told. The High Master said she would be here."

A master, an oriental man, approached and studied me with his eyes. Up and down they wandered, until they focused on my own. He forced himself to bow and I returned his strained greeting.

"The High Master has been waiting for you. This way, please," the master said with effort. He seemed displeased to see me here and his lips were very tight as he spoke.

My face was cast in stone while I bowed. I kept my eyes forward as I passed the rest of the masters and their students. I didn't want to deal with any more challenges or any bad feelings toward me. All I wanted was to get this meeting over with so I could resume my training as soon as possible.

I trailed behind the master while he led me to an archway that led to a smaller training area where High Master Jensen performed kata — a series of blocks, punches, and kicks in all the stances to simulate combat. I observed her fluid movements mixed with the powers of magick as she performed each technique with perfection.

A telepathic impression must have alerted the High Master to our presence because she promptly stopped the kata and faced both the master and me. She fixed her robe and sash with smooth, subtle movements of her hands at the same time she came over to us. Once the traditional bows were out of the way, she told us to stand at ease.

"David, you've no doubt heard I've been waiting for you. Master Orin-Tsung, thank you. You may return to your students, now." The High Master and the master bowed to each other. He hurried back to the training area as she brushed a strand of hair from her face.

I didn't know what she wanted from me. I knew that there would be consequences for my actions, but I wasn't sure what those were. I didn't think I'd be cast out of the monastery, but I had been wrong about things before. Especially about Master Akagi.

"You're wondering what I'm going to do to you, aren't you?" High Master Jensen said. I knew I felt that all too familiar mind scan, but I couldn't block it out; she was too powerful for me to resist it.

"That's right, I am."

"What you should be concerned with is the condition of those you hurt earlier. It's a miracle that you didn't kill them outright. I can't believe that one of Akagi's students could be this brutal and have so little regard for human life as you showed. But I know that you aren't like that. You aren't vicious by nature, but your anger has come back to haunt you, David, and you need to teach yourself how to control it all over again. Without that knowledge, you cannot be a master here or anywhere else."

I bent my head down and looked at the ground. I kicked at a lone stone and shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know what I want anymore, High Master. Everything is blurred and confusing. I know that I'm not like other students, I know that they're afraid of me because of what I can do and what I've done." My mind flashed to the image of Kenji as he lay in the courtyard in a pool of his own blood. "And also, what my actions have done to those I trust."

High Master Jensen put a finger underneath my chin and raised my head up. "It's up to you what happens next. Even though you have committed a grave offense to our monastery and a punishment awaits you, I decided to allow you to stay to complete your training. Since you and Kenji are the last of Akagi's students, and you are nearly a master yourself, we will protect you and train as long as it takes. We owe him at least that."

"High Master, I know that Master Akagi is nearly a legend within the Brotherhood, but why all these special exceptions for Kenji—and for me?

She took a deep breath and smiled. "Your master has battled against some of the worst enemies that we have ever encountered in our long history. His skill is unparalleled even among the High Masters and the only reason why he himself is not one is by his own choice. His joy in life is the relationship between the master and the student and not the matters of the High Council. A High Master is merely a master that holds a position in the Council, as you well know." She took another breath. "He has been producing the Brotherhood's greatest masters and students for hundreds of years. That's why I'm keeping you here and that's why we are trying to find a way to help him."

"Help him? With what, his quest for blood?"

"No. The Council believes that the Aurelians are responsible for his present condition. It's thought that some kind of mind control was used to make him do whatever they wanted without question. I personally find that hard to believe since his mind is virtually impenetrable even against our greatest masters, but the evidence clearly shows some force is controlling his actions."

"High Master, what could make him do the things," I felt my voice waiver, "that he did to his own students and teachers? If he's that powerful then how could the Aurelians control him?"

"I honestly don't know. I can't be sure of anything until I see him and that might be some time from now. For right now, I want you to concentrate on your training and not the outside world. Let us deal with that first."

"I want to teach others what I know. I wouldn't be a sensai if I didn't. The only problem is how people here will react to me. I mean, I used magick against fellow students when they knew not to, so what does that make me? Some kind of coward?" I could feel my anger start to build again. It was wild, totally out of control and I didn't know how to quell it.

"No, it doesn't. You acted out of instinct instead of thought. Most of us must concentrate to use our ability, but you used it as an extension of your physical abilities. Do you know how much I needed to focus on your mind to send you that message as you held that boy in your grip? I had to use almost all of my strength to get past your instinctual barriers; it was like hitting a brick wall over and over again. Your true power hasn't been tapped yet, and we hope to be the ones to complete the training that Master Akagi has begun—if you'll let us."

I swallowed a lump in my throat that threatened to burst out my mouth. I blinked my eyes a few times before I nodded my head. "I want to finish what I started. I owe at least that to the memory of what my master once was". I bowed deeply to High Master Jensen, who returned my gesture of respect.

"Come then, David, let's get started. We have a long way to go."

The punishment that the High Master spoke of waited for me in the form of a bucket and rag. Without any use of magick, I was to scrub every last inch of the monastery by integrating the stances and techniques of Tir-An-Yi to suit whatever I was doing. I would stand in extremely low stances when I washed the floors, then rise up slowly to scrub the walls. I attached rags to my feet to clean the hard-to-reach spots near the ceiling with various kicks, as instructed by the masters. For weeks, I worked my fingers to the bone as my body ached in new and extremely painful ways. The only advantage was that my overall fitness improved drastically; my body became chiseled and hard as stone because I worked from sunrise to sunset every day.

After two months it was decided that my punishment was over, and I began my training under my new masters. My self-control was put to the test each day as High Master Jensen and the rest of the masters constantly corrected me during training exercises in both Tir-An-Yi and magick. If it wasn't my stances, it was my strikes. When it wasn't my strikes, it was my stances. I just couldn't win. The same thing with any magick that I would use; it wasn't good enough or powerful enough or even imaginative. I cursed every day that went by.

As time progressed however, I noticed that all of my techniques were near perfect and my skills with the katana could only be matched by master swordsmen. My powers grew even stronger than before as I now was a master of the studies of time, compositions, and fate. However, that wasn't the limit to my powers. I was still strong in the other studies, but I felt that I hadn't achieved the highest potential yet. The only element of magick that I wanted no part in was the spirits and the spirit world; I never wanted the chance to come in contact with those who had died in the dojo while I remained the world of the living.

As I trained, I refused to wear my black robe that symbolized Master Akagi's dojo, much to the High Master's disappointment. I did, however, wear my black sash with its now four red stripes just to show that I did indeed have rank within the Brotherhood. Whenever I arrived at the training area, all eyes would be on me and my unusual sash; it made me feel like an outsider among my own people, but I tried not to notice or even care. It's as if I were some kind of freak that everyone feared. Each time I thought about it, it made me sick with frustration. When Kenji was finally able, he joined me out in the training area, but it didn't make matters any better.

This feeling of alienation increased after a particular contest of physical and magickal strength against numerous students three weeks after I started training at the monastery. I was commanded to the center of the training area where three students with red sashes around their waists stood ready to attack. I casually approached them and then stopped to set myself up into a fighting stance, still a good distance away. The rest of the students and masters surrounded the perimeter of the area as they watched the events that would unfold.

The group of three attacked at once and I pushed out with a blast of heat and wind to stop them cold. As soon as the wave of energies hit them, the students flew backward and hit hard on the dusty ground. They all lay on the ground with very little movement; I assumed that I had used enough magick to stop them and then some.

I felt a sense of danger from behind me and I turned in time to see a fist fly into my jaw. I was only a little stunned and went with the force of the blow so I could spin on the ball of my foot and deliver a backfist to my attacker's temple. My effort paid off. The attacker stayed in the same place as I came back around and smashed my own fist into the side of her head. I looked down at the body that just struck at me and clenched my fists tightly. It was Naomi.

"Dammit," I spat under my breath. I used too much strength, I should've had more control.

A series of kiais erupted from in front of me as a combined effect blasted me off my feet and into the air. It felt like a telekinetic attack with some aid from the natural elements to get me far enough away in one blow.

I crashed down on the ground on my back, then bounced up and down before I came to a halt. The pain was intense enough that I arched my back and clenched my fists. An equally intense wave of energy flowed through my back as I stood up, totally healed. I bowed slightly to the new cluster of six students bent on my defeat and brushed the dust of my robe. It occurred to me that the only way I could beat all of them at once was to effectively slow them down. I focused my ability and felt an ebb in the flow of time as my body began to feel lighter. The effect sunk in even more as my opponents' gestures and expressions slowed down as my perception of time sped up. Now, my movements would be no more than a blur to them. With a quick shift of weight, I charged full force into my adversaries.

There was nothing that they could do but wait for my strikes to hit home. I moved so fast that there was a considerable delay between my footsteps and the dust that kicked up from the ground as I continued my assault on each student. While I wanted to defeat them all quickly, I managed to maintain control over each technique and only land with enough force to get the job done. My combination of kicks, punches, and throws left all six on the ground in various positions, but all unable to continue for the time being.

I refocused my magick to end the time alteration and return the flow of time to its original state. Once I felt that was completed, I turned back to check on Naomi, but she was gone. What the hell happened to her?

"Kiai!" Naomi yelled as she kicked my leg out from under me.

I caught the ground with both arms and flipped back on my feet before I even landed. I twisted my torso around to face Naomi, but she was gone again. That girl was good, but not that good. She was bending the spectrum of light to hide herself from my view as a chameleon uses its skin to blend into its environment. Well planned effort, I gave her that. Being a master of the natural elements, I knew that my countermagick would force her shield to break and reveal her position to me.

Naomi didn't expect such a move on my part and was too busy setting up for her next attack. Her effect on the light was destroyed and she was left vulnerable again. She looked around frantically in an attempt to figure out what just happened.

I focused my power on her body and levitated it off the ground. I didn't want to hurt her if I could help it, so I just spun her around like a top in the air until she passed out. I gently let her back down and stood over her. She was still breathing, although lightly, and I didn't see a bruise from my impact to her skull.

The sound of objects whirling about in the air at high speeds caught my attention. I turned to where the sound came from and saw two masters and two students with wooden bo staffs in their hands. They were twirling their weapons around and preparing to strike with the long, cylindrical shafts of ash.

I puffed a little air out of my mouth and decided that this little exercise was about over. I was growing tired with each effect that I cast and I knew I couldn't use much more magick without a significant loss of energy. If I didn't have that energy, there was no way that I could throw a single technique and make it land with the proper force behind it.

Everything moved in slow motion as all four came toward me, two in the front and two in the back. Within several paces forward, the two in the back branched out like bull's horns so they could surround and pound me. Their bo staffs were no longer twirling, but held in place ready to deliver multiple blows.

I concentrated on their weapons and remembered my lessons in the study of compositions. With my ability, I sensed the individual bonds of materials in the staffs as they held them together. Then, just as easily as I saw the bonds, I broke them. The resulting effect reduced all four bo staffs into sawdust in a matter of moments. Unfortunately, that last burst of magick left me extremely fatigued and faint. I couldn't summon enough energy to deliver another attack.

The lack of weapons didn't deter my four opponents from pursuing their original agenda. The students attacked first and left me with a bloody nose and sore chest as I lay on the ground. The masters combined strengths and I felt my muscles tighten and spasm all over my body.

I couldn't hold back the screams of agony as tears streamed down my cheeks. I felt my temper begin to rise and break through whatever barriers I had reestablished over the past few weeks. I wouldn't allow myself to be beaten, but I didn't have the ability to counteract the combined power of two masters. Or did I? I continued to scream and claw at the ground in the futile hope that I would somehow resist the effect, but with each moment I began to feel a growing sensation in me. As the torture session on my muscles grew, the sensation increased. There was only one possibility that came to mind, but it couldn't be that. I knew I was capable of sensing basic magickal knowledge of other Brothers, but I wasn't expecting to sense the very essence of my own ability. Only masters could tap into their own ability enough to defy the very fabric of reality with magick.

The students now joined their powers with the masters and made every portion of my body pound with waves of fire and torment. I could barely make out the contorted looks on their faces as the pain forced me to squint my teary eyes. As all four focused their abilities on me, it wouldn't be long until unconsciousness would come over me.

It was that feeling inside me, the essence of magick in its purest form, that prevented me from going under. It wouldn't let me give up and the more I turned my attention to it, the less pain I felt. I allowed the sensation to embrace all of me; it ebbed, flowed, and surged across every corner of my being. I could differentiate between each person's powers as they used their abilities against me; one student was stronger in magick of distances than the other, the masters were strong in all forms, but only mastered the powers of the mind and the natural elements. If they were masters and hadn't mastered as many studies as I had, then what was I? Why couldn't I overpower them? Wait, something just hit me—a foot maybe. A kick? I could barely feel it as the sensation consumed the totality of my body. If I didn't feel the impact of a strike, could I feel the magick effects now? No. There was nothing but my ability, pure and untouched. Is this what the High Master was telling me about my ability not being tapped yet? The feeling of nothingness was almost euphoric, bordering on dangerously addictive.

A student with a yellow sash ceased her effect and picked me up from the ground by my robe. She was about to throw a punch when I looked into her eyes and scanned her mind. Not just the surface where one's identity lies, but all of it. I saw each memory that this girl, Kumiko Sakasawa, ever experienced, even the ones that had faded over time. Her first day at home after she was born, the first day of school, the broken arm she had when she was five, her first crush on a boy named Mikuto, the day she arrived at the monastery, her fears and hopes and dreams when she reached the age of eighteen, and much more. I couldn't control what was happening, I saw beyond what I wanted to see and now I couldn't stop. Kumiko's body was so tense that her grip actually increased as she screamed louder and louder. I felt everything that made her who she was slip away and now all that was left was animal instinct.

Even in my almost meditative state, I began to panic myself. I had to shut the mental probe off somehow. I closed my eyes and focused my magick on her hand and forced the fingers open. I had no choice but to get Kumiko away from me, but I chose to blast an intense wave of pure energy throughout my body instead of hers. I didn't feel the impact of the massive concussion wave and I certainly didn't feel myself flying halfway across the training area, but I still could see everything that was happening.

The sensation didn't leave my body as I picked myself off the ground. In fact, it was strong as ever. I shook my head from side-to-side to clear away some mental cobwebs, then walked back to where the two masters and the student crouched over their companion that still screamed out of pure instinct. For some reason, I couldn't comprehend what emotion I should experience at that moment. I just felt compelled to go back and help her. Not to try to help, but to actually end her suffering.

During the time it took me to walk back over, the entire population of students and masters not in the exercise gathered around the three that tried to revive the mentally-traumatized young girl. When I made my way through the cluster of Brothers, the crowd actually parted to let me by — to this day, I still don't know whether it was because I pushed through or my powers literally did so — in order for me to do what I had to. More so that it was something that should be done rather than what could be done.

I knelt beside one of the masters and said nothing. He looked at me and started to raise his hand to strike. Without a single glance, I grabbed his wrist and eased his arm back down. I turned my head to him, shook my head no, and sent him a telepathic impression to remain calm. He bowed his head in acceptance and I let his wrist go.

"I must do this," I said, more to myself than anyone else, as I placed both hands on the screaming girl's head.

I closed my eyes and focused within Kumiko's mind and poured pure magick into it to repair the damage I had caused. I could see and feel the trauma dissipate as her screams stopped. My entire body began to tremble and then shake as I used every last ounce of my newly discovered strength and power into her torn mind. My eyes shot open as I shouted as loud as my vocal cords could withstand while I used the last of my energy to wake her back into the real world. I thought I heard glass shatter around me as I shouted, but that wasn't the main concern. Only Kumiko's life was important to me.

Her eyelids fluttered, then finally opened slowly. She jumped when she saw me and I offered a little smile to ease her fright.

"It's all right now, Kumiko. You're safe now," I mentally projected.

I started to feel the affects of the magickal and physical combat as my connection with my inner power dwindled. Muscles I never knew existed started to shrill in misery as my bones began to ache. No doubt most of my body was broken in ways impossible to survive from, but I didn't seem to be normal enough for that rule to apply to. I slid on my backside away from Kumiko and the other three on the ground with her, then collapsed. My breathing was ragged and I was losing my vision. I felt a chill run across my body and I knew I was in shock, with death just a few steps behind. Just before I lost all connection with life, I felt a series of small shocks inside me, then surges of warm energy that coated my heart and lungs.

"Please, someone else help me! I can't do this alone!" a voice pleaded in Japanese. I recognized that voice. It was Kenji. Kenji-san was here to help me as I drifted between life and death.

I felt Kenji's powers weaken and fade as he tried to keep me alive. I didn't feel anyone else help me. It was just as well, maybe I was destined to die. It was just as well.

"You will die a very bad death. A very bad one." My master's words rang clear as ever before. Maybe he was right. I should die a bad death. A horrible one. Perhaps . . .

I slipped away from the grips of life. I tried to hang on, but I could only catch the edge of existence with the tips of my fingers. Death would claim me today. I would fall into the abyss of hellish fire for what I had done and for what I was, a freak. I was feared because no one understood me, not even myself. I didn't know what I was capable of. Why should anyone else? No, it didn't matter now. My fingertips slipped slowly off my hold on life. This is reality's end. The end of life and the beginning of death. No more reality, just eternally cold darkness.

"Come back to us. Come back. It's not your time." A collection of voices cried out to me from a light beyond. The light of life. I could see it, but I couldn't touch it.

"This is my time," I replied from my limbo.

" . . . you are between magicks, David-san . . ." Master Akagi echoed again. I was in my own limbo even if I was alive. At least this way no one would be harmed by my actions.

"You must come back. We need you." The voices became more insistent on my return. Did they want me back, or just want me to live so they could sleep at night?

"The Brotherhood isn't my family. I have no family. I live in shame and disgrace. What kind of life is that?" I demanded of the voices.

"It is your family. We are your family. Now and forever. Come back into the light."

A figure emerged from the light. I couldn't make out its features from the halo of light around it. It reached out its hand to me and said, "Please, come back to us. Come back to me, David."

Was it the High Master? Where had she been during this whole incident? Did it matter now? I had no idea and I was dumbfounded. "Who is me, huh? Why—" I began to speak, but my hold on life slipped again and I hovered even closer to death. "Why do you care?" I asked weakly.

"I care because you could have left Kumiko to die. You sacrificed yourself for her safety. You shouldn't live in anger over what others have done to you because you still have a strong sense of honor within. Don't let that die, David. Don't die, please. Come back to me."

If I was alive, I'm sure that I would've cried right then and there. This was sincere. There were no lies in this realm. It was impossible not to tell someone the truth here, that I knew. It was the only thing I did know at that point, but it was the only thing that I really cared about.

The figure drew closer and I took its hand. It raised me back up to my feet, away from the edge of existence and the chasm of death below. For the first time, I could see who the figure was. My mouth gaped open ever so slightly as it braced both my arms with its hands. I didn't believe it at first, but the truth stared back at me through the figure's eyes. We walked hand-in-hand back into the light. Back into reality.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 5

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