The world didn't actually explode. It just felt like it did.
One moment I was standing in my dark bathroom, staring at dozens of demons outside my window. The next, my vision split into three.
I could see through my own eyes—terrified, uncertain, frozen.
Through Hikari's perspective—calm, analytical, already calculating angles and weak points.
Through Kage's view—excited, bloodthirsty, seeing the demons as nothing more than prey.
Three consciousnesses. One body. Zero idea how to make this work.
"Akira, listen carefully," Hikari's voice cut through my panic. "We don't have time for a full explanation. Those demons will break into the building in approximately thirty seconds."
"Twenty," Kage corrected. "They're faster than they look."
"I don't know how to fight!" I hissed, backing away from the window.
"You don't need to," Kage said, and I felt him pushing forward, trying to take control like he had in the alley. "Just let me—"
"No." Hikari's voice was sharp. "If you take full control now, Akira will never learn. He needs to understand how to work with us, not just surrender to us."
"There's no time for a training montage!"
"Then we'll have to teach him fast."
The window exploded inward. Glass sprayed across my bathroom as a pale figure pulled itself through, bones cracking and reshaping as it squeezed its too-large body through the frame.
I stumbled backward, my heart trying to break out of my chest.
The demon grinned at me with a mouth full of needle teeth. "Found you."
"Left hand," Hikari said urgently. "Feel the warmth, the light. Draw it forward."
I didn't understand, but I didn't have a choice. I focused on my left hand, and—
Blue-white light exploded from my palm. Not much, barely a flicker, but the demon recoiled with a hiss.
"It burns," it snarled.
"Good! Now right hand—" Hikari started.
"My turn," Kage interrupted.
My right hand moved on its own, faster than my brain could process. Dark red energy coiled around my fingers like living shadow. The demon tried to dodge, but Kage was faster.
The shadow-claws raked across the demon's chest. It screamed—a sound like breaking glass—and dissolved into black smoke.
"I did it!" I gasped. "I actually—"
Three more demons crashed through the window.
"Don't celebrate yet," Kage said dryly.
What followed was the most terrifying, confusing, and weirdly exhilarating three minutes of my life.
I didn't fight them alone. I couldn't—I had no training, no experience, no idea what I was doing. But I wasn't alone. Hikari and Kage fought through me, with me, guiding my body like invisible puppeteers.
"Duck!" Hikari commanded, and my body obeyed before my brain caught up. Claws whistled over my head.
"Counter—left side," Kage added, and my arm swung out, trailing red-black energy that cut through demon flesh like paper.
"Defensive barrier, now!"
White light formed a shield on my left arm just in time to block a demon's charge.
It was like being a passenger in my own body, but also being the driver, but also having two backseat drivers shouting directions. Disorienting didn't begin to cover it.
A demon lunged for my throat. I panicked, throwing up both hands instinctively.
Light and shadow erupted simultaneously.
The explosion threw me backward into the hallway. The demon... didn't exist anymore. Just ash floating in the air.
I lay on the floor, panting, staring at my hands. The left one glowed faint blue. The right one pulsed with dark red.
"Not bad," Kage said, sounding almost impressed. "For a complete amateur."
"You're a natural," Hikari added more gently. "Most Dual Soul bearers can't use both powers their first day. It usually takes weeks."
"How many are there?" I asked, my voice shaking. "Demons. How many are outside?"
Silence.
That was answer enough.
I forced myself to stand, legs trembling. Through my destroyed window, I could see them. Not dozens. Hundreds. Pale figures filling the street, climbing the building's walls, all converging on my apartment.
"We can't fight all of them," I whispered.
"No," Hikari agreed. "We can't. We need to run."
"I don't run," Kage growled.
"You will if you want this body to survive the night."
I didn't wait for them to finish arguing. I ran.
I made it to the building's roof access—barely. Demons poured up the stairs behind me, their inhuman shrieks echoing in the stairwell. My lungs burned. My legs felt like lead. But Hikari kept feeding me energy, keeping me moving when my body wanted to collapse.
The rooftop door slammed shut behind me. I shoved a metal pipe through the handles. It wouldn't hold long.
The roof was empty except for old AC units and satellite dishes. No exit. No escape.
"Great plan," I gasped. "Really stellar thinking."
"Akira, can you jump?" Hikari asked.
I looked at the edge of the roof. The next building was at least twenty feet away.
"Absolutely not."
"Then we have a problem."
The door began to buckle. Dozens of hands clawed at it from the other side.
"Let me out," Kage said, his voice deadly serious for once. "Full control. I can get us out of this."
"Akira needs to learn—"
"He can learn when we're not about to die! Let. Me. OUT!"
The door exploded off its hinges.
Demons flooded onto the roof. Too many to count. Too many to fight.
I backed up until my heels hit the roof's edge. Nowhere left to go.
The lead demon—the tall one with bone-white skin from earlier—stepped forward. Up close, it was even more wrong. Its proportions shifted as it moved, like it couldn't quite hold a single shape.
"Dual Soul bearer," it said, its voice like grinding stone. "The Equilibrium offers you a choice. Come with us willingly, or we take your corpse. Either serves our purpose."
"The Equilibrium?" I repeated. "That's the organization?"
"Yes," Hikari confirmed quietly. "They've been hunting Dual Soul bearers for centuries. They want to harvest our power."
"That's not ominous at all," I muttered.
The demon smiled. "What do you choose, boy?"
I looked at my hands. Left—blue light. Right—red shadow. Two souls sharing my body. Two voices in my head that I'd known for less than a day.
This was insane. All of it.
But standing here, facing down a demon army, with two ancient souls offering me power I didn't understand...
What other choice did I have?
"Hikari," I said quietly. "Kage. If I let one of you take full control, will I... will I disappear?"
"No," Hikari said immediately. "You'll still be here. Still conscious. Just... not driving."
"Think of it like letting someone else take the wheel," Kage added. "You're still in the car."
I took a deep breath. "Then do it. Get us out of here. But—" I fixed my will on them, on these two presences in my mind. "You bring me back. Understand? I'm not just a vessel. This is MY body."
"Understood," both voices said together.
The demon lunged.
I let go.
Later, I wouldn't remember the details clearly. Just impressions. Sensations.
Kage took my right side—pure offense, pure destruction. Every movement was violence incarnate, cutting through demons like they were made of paper.
Hikari took my left—perfect defense, strategic positioning. Light barriers deflected attacks I never saw coming.
And between them, coordinating both, was me. Not in control, but present. Aware. Learning.
This was what a Dual Soul bearer could do.
My body moved faster than humanly possible. Light and shadow danced together, complementing each other perfectly. Where Kage's brutal power created openings, Hikari's precise barriers protected. Where Hikari's strategy set up attacks, Kage's raw strength finished them.
We fought as one.
The demons fell back, regrouping. The bone-white leader stared at us with something like respect.
"Interesting," it said. "Very interesting. You're untrained, yet you achieve partial synchronization on your first night. Perhaps you're worth capturing alive after all."
"Now," Hikari said. "While they're hesitating. Run."
My body turned and leaped.
Twenty feet across to the next building. Impossible. Insane.
We made it.
Barely.
I hit the opposite roof rolling, something in my shoulder definitely not feeling right. But we were across. We were—
An ice spear embedded itself in the roof an inch from my face.
I looked up.
Standing on the roof's far end was a girl. Silver-white hair. Ice-blue eyes. The same girl from school.
She held a katana that gleamed with frost. Ice crystals formed in the air around her.
"Dual Soul bearer," she said, her voice cold and sharp. "I'm Shirayuki Yuki, exorcist of the Shirayuki Clan. And you're either coming with me for questioning, or I'm putting you down right here."
The demons on the other roof screeched in frustration but didn't follow. They seemed... afraid of her?
I raised my hands slowly, light and shadow still flickering around them.
"Okay," I said, exhaustion finally catching up. "Okay. But can we skip the part where everyone tries to kill me? Just for like, five minutes?"
Yuki's expression didn't change. "That depends. Can you control them? The souls inside you?"
"Tell her yes," Hikari urged.
"Tell her to mind her own business," Kage countered.
I looked at the ice-wielding girl who could apparently kill demons with a thought. Looked at my hands, still glowing with powers I didn't understand. Looked back at the demon horde that wanted to capture or kill me.
"Honestly?" I said. "I have no idea. I just found out they existed six hours ago."
For the first time, something other than coldness crossed Yuki's face. Surprise. Maybe a hint of... sympathy?
"Six hours," she repeated. "And you survived your first night. That's..." She lowered her sword slightly. "That's actually impressive."
"Thanks, I think?"
"Don't thank me yet." She pointed her blade at my chest. "You're still a threat until proven otherwise. But I'll give you a chance to prove it."
Behind us, the demons' screams grew louder. More were coming.
"We need to move," Yuki said. "Now. Can you run?"
I looked at Hikari's calm blue glow. At Kage's violent red aura. At this silver-haired girl who might be my only chance at survival.
"Yeah," I said. "I can run."
"Then follow me. And try not to get yourself killed."
She turned and leaped to the next building, impossibly graceful.
"I like her," Kage said.
"She tried to kill us," I pointed out.
"Exactly."
I didn't have time to process that. The demons were coming.
I ran after the ice exorcist into the night, two souls guiding my steps, and absolutely no idea what I was doing.
But I was alive.
For now, that was enough.