"Yoiya!"
A hand on my shoulder, its touch gentle, shook me awake. My returning vision was greeted to me alongside the worried stare of a girl in a large trench coat the color of pine tree leaves. Her eyes were reminiscent of an empty transparent sea as tears welled up at their corners.
"Oh! Thank God, you're awake!"
Throwing herself on me, she hugged me tightly.
Quickly I tossed my vision around, checking my surroundings thoroughly.
The sky was a beautiful hue of violet blue. Countless thin white clouds streaked across the sky like claw marks.
As the girl— Mia, my 'sister', helped me out of the car, I could see a black sphere in the sky, outlined only by a golden halo.
~The eclipse…
Once more, I frantically looked about. Checking even beyond the corners of my own eyes, I turned and twirled as I surveyed the area. After about three or four takes, I spotted him.
A boy with an appearance identical to my own. A crimson gaze that pierced the soul. And a simple grin that sent shivers down one's back.
He was here, my look-alike. The 'me' of the destroyed version of Earth.
Moving his lips slowly, he spoke. Though I could not hear him, I could surmise what he said.
"So the game continues."
Then he vanished amongst the passing crowd of people, without a trace.
"What's wrong, Yoiya?"
Mia looked at me with concern. The tension in the air was thick, suffocating. It was like I was standing inside an enclosed space. A single flame could ignite—
CRASH!
The top of a nearby skyscraper exploded, sending large pieces of iron flying towards the ground in a cloud of glass shards. The screams of a distant crowd soon became muffled as the dust descended upon the streets. Many eyes became locked on the unfolding chaos as another large blast erupted from the window of another building.
A figure slipped by me like a shadow. Its presence was large, despite its small stature. It was none other than him– my look-alike. He disappeared into the building behind us— Cafe Happe.
I quickly wiggled out of Mia's grasp and ran in after him.
"Yoiya!" Mia shouted as she ran after me.
Though, I was too quick for her. She had stopped for a moment. I could see her shock from the far corner of my eyes as I ran into the establishment. Inside, I found a familiar scene.
Blood. The color red stained the walls in such a way it looked as if someone splashed tomato sauce across the wall or shot it with red paintballs. The bodies of three girls lay sprawled out on the floor, skewered by black stalagmites like burned witch corpses. It was a horrid sight.
Sitting atop the counter with a smug smile, my look-alike pointed at me, holding his fingers to form a gun. He pretended to shoot me and opened his mouth to speak.
"Check, my other self. But fret not for the game's only just begun."
With that cheerful comment, he rocked backwards and sank into the shadows behind him.
"Yoiya!"
Mia called out to me, running into the bloody cafe without hesitation. She quickly grasped me in her arms and gave me a tight hug. Her eyes surveyed the red-stained area. The lights flickered and with a crack, a chandelier fell from the ceiling. With it, Mia's arms wrapped tighter around me.
"Let's get out of here, Yoiya."
Mia grabbed me by the hand and turned to the door in a hurry.
BBST!
A massive blast echoed from above. Cracks quickly formed in the ceiling and a large piece of it fell to the floor. Gripping Mia's hand firmly, I pulled her back so she would evade it. The girl before me was speechless, her mouth an empty void just like her onyx eyes.
Kzzzt.
A static ring buzzed through the room and all the lights cut off. A chill ran through the room, creeping up our spines to the point that my sister's legs were shaking down to her very bones. It felt as if I had just arrived in the middle of a roaring blizzard in an isolated arctic biome of another world. The people of this world might compare it to the peak of Mount Everest.
The shadows around us shifted like polar bears plowing through snow. The faint whir of machinery and the subtle sound of water droplets hitting a thin piece of metal created an eerie chorus with the slow crumbling of the ceiling.
Mia was frozen in fear and my senses— wide awake. The cafe was a maelstrom and I could feel the malice bleeding from its walls. It was getting closer, closer, closer— closer with each–
"Time's up. My turn again, my other self."
I turned around, pulling on Mia's arm hastily but–
"Too slow."
A blade pierced her abdomen in an instant, its size growing as it appeared on the other side. The assailant— the other me, looked at me with cold, emotionless eyes and a faint smirk.
I rushed to catch her as she fell forward into my arms. I felt no anger nor fear nor remorse. I could not even bring myself to cry. Everything was happening so quickly. There was no time to think or feel.
Mia, her eyes wide from sudden pain, coughed out blood onto the left side of my face. Weakly, she reached out her hand to me and caressed my cheek.
"Take care of yourself…"
In the midst of speaking these words, her body grew cold, like ice. Her void-like eyes appeared deeper than ever before, so much that I almost found myself lost in them. Her pale golden hair lost its vibrance, as if eclipsed by the night. She slowly turned her head to look at the assailant. Then, she looked at me and smiled. Weakly, she reached out her hand and caressed my cheek.
"...Yoiyami."
The name she had given me were her final words. Her body had become limp and like a broken doll it slipped out of my arms as I sat there.
A single blade touched my neck. The smell of blood still lingered and flames roared outside. The feel of icy steel was a great contrast to it. Amidst the shadows of the unlit gloomy cafe ruins, a pair of crimson red eyes glared down at me.
"Join me." My look-alike said. "With an army of us, we can obliterate Earth completely. No amount of gods could ever oppose us."
It was a grand idea, a grand design. What he had offered me was priceless and considerably fun. Yet—
"I have no interest in world domination nor obliteration. I don't have an interest in any of that nonsense."
I stared him in the eyes and spoke with the utmost conviction.
~World obliteration? Don't make me laugh. The fun in that is meaningless. Everything will end on its own time without any help from us and after it does, there will be nothing left to do.
"Using the power to create for destruction is dumb. I'm sure you remember that much."
"I see. We have come to different conclusions."
He raised his blade high and said his goodbyes to me and swung straight down with a speed undetectable to the human eye.
WHOOSH.
The swing was so fast and powerful it sent a shockwave through the air. The entire room was split in two, creating a crater at his feet and a miniature canyon across the floor. A single arm lay on the floor, slowly disintegrating.
Quickly, the look-alike began to look around. But as soon as he turned his head the second time, I swung a pan and hit him clean across his cheek. The force I used sent him into the wall, creating a second, larger crater.
Propelling myself forward with a kick of my right foot, I burst towards the wall for a follow-up attack. It, however, did not connect. I instead found myself standing before a massive hole in the wall with many small pieces of bloody rubble at my feet. An office sat in the room beyond, the papers, having been swept into the air, rapidly floated to the ground in a rhythmic dance of chaotic flurry.
As the dust began to clear, I could hear the sound of running water. Looking about, a pipe soon came into view. I had burst it from that attack.
Quickly, a chill ran up my spine. I twirled around and leapt backwards. A hand shot out from my own shadow along with large black spikes that pierced the ceiling.
Rumble.
The ceiling collapsed almost instantaneously.
The hand extended out, exposing an arm and eventually a head. I received a glaring smirk from my look-alike as he casually climbed out of the shadows, his eyes gleaming that crimson glow. With a maniacal laugh, he placed one hand in his pocket and pointed at me as if holding a gun. Comedically, he shot at me as he mouthed 'Bang'. It was clearly a taunt.
In the blink of my eyes, he was on me like butter on toast. His fingers pressed against my forehead.
"Damn."
I swept my right hand.
"Bang." He murmured with that same old conniving smirk.
From his fingers, a flash of orange.
Boom!
Half my sight had vanished. There was a burning sensation on the left side of my face. Reaching up, I pressed my hand against my face and it phased through my head. All I could feel was a large amount of energy, mana, leaking out of my head.
I stood there speechless as the other me stared at me with a confident smile. His face was relaxed as if he was implying he had already won our battle; this little game of his. He was toying around.
~Figures. I was never really the type to take competition all too seriously… Then I guess this will be something new for us.
I reached out my arm, channeling all my mana into my palm. My hand began to radiate with visible black mana. Around it, light began to bend and wrapped around my arm like a serpent.
~I'll take this seriously and I'll use that black hole ability he seemed to enjoy so much for my own use…
The air around us seemed to thin out as everything around us began to slowly disintegrate, crumbling into pieces so miniscule that the naked eye could not see it. It was as if my very power was gradually erasing it all from existence.
~A more concentrated version… that will steal all of him, all his energy, all his mana, his lifeforce. I'll absorb it all so he can no longer destroy worlds.
I swept my arm back to my side and poised myself for battle.
In that short amount of time, the look-alike's expression changed twice. First from a smirk to a frown of concern, then from a frown to a psychotic smile that would be impossible for any mortal human to perform.
With a small grunt of satisfaction and a sigh of relief, he charged me without hesitation.