After the sports festival ended, the ceremony of rewarding began, Etheral was on the top, yet he questioned if that is what he wanted. All Might appeared for the giving, he gave comments on how things could be improved, but that was for the others. He kept his smile and leaned to give Eth a light hug. Before trying to give him a tip on what he can improve on... 'Not really.' After he was given the gold, and the ceremony has ended. The students were moved to the classrooms, where they were given two days to rest. Of course, with his abnormally powerful attack the teachers were talking to him about it.
Everyone were dismissed and they were sent home. Etheral just phased through the ground into lever 11, He felt like he didn't belong on this level, so he just walked around, looking for an exit... 'Maybe i am not looking for a physical exit, but an exit from my current self... Have I lost my way?'
"I need rest." He murmured to himself as he remembered the void after his body failed him once. It was nice, just nothing. Though he had the consciousness to think, it was nice when he wasn't going even more insane.
Eth shook his head
"Snap out of it!" He said as he broke the illusion of his mind. "Huh?" He looked around confused as to where he was, there was a wall and many keyholes expanding infinitely. "What's this?" He walked over to it and brushed his hand onto it, before trying to go through it. It didn't work. "Do you think I have an answer?" Another person said, he had a top hat, a brown trench coat, blue pants and a key tied on a rope in his hand. "Who are you?"
"Who am I?"
"Why did you repeating what I said?"
"Why did I repeating what I said?"
"Just Why?"
"I am messing with you... There are too many possibilities and answers in the world. It's no wonder we are both struggling to keep our focus onto one." The man finally said something that wasn't an imitation of Etheral's words. There was something familiar about that man, it looked like him?
"Shocked huh? Hello me." The man said as he took a step closer and tapped the kids shoulder. "I see you have a lot of questions... Come on, ask."
"If I do you will repeat them."
"Not true, I swear I won't this time."
"Alright, who are you?" Eth asked.
"The kid of mystery. Does this nickname sound familiar?" The man asked raising an eyebrow and leaning a bit down to meet his height.
"No... you are saying..." Eth was called once the kid of mystery during the sports festival, on the news as well.
"Hello... Me." The man said, as the answer was too clear to Ether~The kid...
He was shocked, he laughed nervously as he put the lines between the dots, things were coming together, the possibilities, the~...
"I see you have come to a conclusion... Maybe I shouldn't be here? Because I am altering your choices... your conclusion... I don't want to suffer, because I don't know what to do, because I am losing my way... My will to live." The man's words were as if spoken through Eth's mouth, they weren't any different, except one knows what to do and the other doesn't. But... 'Does this even exist?'
"You will come to the conclusion yourself." The man said as he put out his hand with the key in it, hanging and swinging. "..." There was keyhole right before them both, this all seemed so ethereal, too much in fact, yet it seemed like it was all real. The kid reached out his hand to grab the key, and as he took it, the man just let go and haded away as if he never existed. "What?" He looked confused but his face didn't express it, his expression was empty. In that moment the key created a vibration which was pulling it towards the keyhole. He hesitated for a bit, before he dove into his choice, placing the key into the keyhole and twisting, which caused the whole wall to fade away, before he suddenly woke up on the concrete streets of level 11. He jumped into a sitting position, he was confused to no end, as he looked his hands he saw a key tied around his wrist and fingers.
'How could this be? What was that? Was it a subconscious decision? Why? What did it all mean? Passing through? Who am I?'
It all felt empty yet there was something in its place. What was the key for? Did it had any other properties, or was it just some symbolism?