**Shujin's Perspective**
I disappeared to a large indoor stadium in Shine-C. I was just standing in the middle, nothing to say, nothing to do. I kneeled down and and looked at the grass.
"What else to do?" I ask myself as I drag my hand down my mask.
"How about just let me kill you?" A female voice spoke firmly and demanding.
I stood up and turned around. It was Cathy Mcarthy. An image of a girl calling my name flashed into my head. It was loud and blinding. Who was that? Why does she look like her?
"You killed my best friend, so I'll kill you," Cathy proclaim confidently.
I didn't respond. My head spins, and it hurts to think. My chest was pounding and my breathing was erratic. Cathy created a hand signal with her right hand and casts a wheel of water behind her. Weirdly, it emitted no mana, none that I could sense.
"What was your ranking?" I asked.
"High-rank grade one."
"You lie."
"Maybe."
"You're a Supreme rank, aren't you?"
"Yeah, but I hate that status. Too much responsibility," she said. I think I'd understand her disposition, "now enough talking," she said.
She conjured an orb of water in front of her, I casted an "Inverted Light Blade". She pulls the orb back, stretching it like a rubber band. She releases it, I raised my blade to block. The water orb broke my sword in half and sent me flying to the wall. The wall had about seventy-meter distance from me. I dented the wall. I actually felt the pain. How? It shouldn't be possible. No way that was her True Manifestation. That's too shallow.
I shifted my body to the right and Cathy's fist pierced the wall after a sonic boom. I looked up at her. I pivoted almost a full turn, trying to dodge her, and Cathy punched the wall again. She punched it again. Again, again, and again, each time was closer to my head. A close call. It could cave in my skull.
I repaired my sword and swung at her, she blocks it with a hand blade made of ice. She swung with her other hand and I conjured another sword to block it. She raised her foot to kick me in the chest, it was incredibly quick. I was thrown back a dozen meters away. She runs at me and I quickly change to an iaijutsu stance with one blade. The moment I wanted to draw my blade she turned into a wall of mist, then I was suddenly cut in my stomach. Shallow, but I felt it bleeding. I swing my blade horizontally all the way to the back, Cathy ducked under it and landed another shallow cut on my stomach.
I'm getting sloppy. Why is this? I turned back to my front and saw Cathy kneeling on one knee with both her palms on the ground, one atop the other. I noticed the wheel of water behind her back. It's still not emitting any mana. From under her palm, burst out five line streams of water with heads like a dragon. The water dragons pounced at me. One bit my right arm, one bit my left arm, one bit my right thigh, one bit my left thigh, and the last one bit my head whole. The dragons carried me to the ceiling of the stadium, I slam into it. I cast a Body Spell, turn myself into Inverted Light, and got myself out of it. I traveled to her, then rematerialize and swung horizontally. My sword clashed with an ice staff that was stuck to the ground.
I jumped back and held on. She stood up and pulled the staff out of the ground. It was a spear that had a very distinct design. A design I'm familiar with. I felt a suppressed urge to ask a question. But it just won't surface, no matter what.
We charged at each other, clashed our weapons, and threw our fists. She was enraged, I was... Lost. What is this feeling? A constant flash of images of a burning house, and dead bodies scattered on the ground. What am I seeing? A sound of a man crying, what am I hearing? Is this her doing? I don't think it is.
Sensory overload, my thoughts falter. I was distracted. I was suddenly woken up by an upward slash from her spear to my mask. I can feel it, and see it clearer. She cracked my mask. I slide onto the ground away from her. I can see the part of the mask that was broken on the ground. I touched my mask and looked up at her.
Now I see her face. A person that looks exactly like her, the person I see in these images. She felt warm. Comforting.
"Watashi wa anata o aishimasu, anata no ketten nimokakawazaru," (I'll love you, despite your flaws) the woman spoke in a soft, reassuring voice, that melted my heart. She looked exactly like Cathy.
Another image flashed into my head. I was on my knees, looking down at two corpses of little girls. One looked older than the other. They were covered in blood that was burnt dry. I look up to see three people. A woman and two men. I couldn't see their faces, but I saw their rings. The Dayton Siblings. The next thing I saw was darkness and I felt solitude.
After so long, I held on to a desire to kill. To kill them. To make them pay. To lay waste to everything they've built. A great desire that was born four-hundred-fifty years ago. For that long, I held onto that feeling and nothing else. Now, it feels suffocating. It's disgusting. What... What have I become?
"Your mask is like a parasite, right?" She said.
"What?"
"Its nature is to cling onto its wearer if too long worn. It's been so long that it seemed like it was your actual face. So, saving you and destroying the mask is an option. But I don't care."
"Wait!"
"What?"
"You have a twin, right?"
"Not anymore. Wait, how do you know that?"
"Christine Mcarthy, do you know her?"
"My sister and... Ancestor. From four and a half centuries ago. They share the same name. What are you getting at?"
"I'm so sorry. I can't kill you."
"Good. I'll kill you." She made a hand sign. Her right palm is above her left fist in front of her chest.
"IMAGINARY DIMENSION: LEVIATHAN'S DOMAIN" she yelled her dimension aloud with sheer rage.
"Imaginary Dimension: White Abyss" I cast mine too.
The world around us was split into two. I was standing atop a rock pillar in the middle of an ocean, she was just standing on the floor of a white abyss. We were both held in place. There's nothing we could do. If any of us falter a bit, the opposition can take over easily. And neither of us can use the advantages from the dimensions.
"I can't die, not yet."
"Y-Y- You don't get... To decide that!" She's struggling to get words out.