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Journey Back to the World of Emptiness
[[In progress...Introduced Hika and Mura...and somewhat Tetsuia who will actually make a cameo soon.]]
Aww...crap.
I found myself here again. The world of white nothingness...which means..
"Author-sama! It's nice to see you again!" A white-haired fifteen year old has once again greeted me with a wave, his bangs flopping around as he ran towards me. Wide brown eyes stared expectantly me from his small frame, probably no more than five foot three. A simple white cloak was wrapped around him as he appeared to glide on this world of eternal white.
I found myself responding hesitantly to the child, my creation who took a life of its own and added to my insanity.
"Hika. Why am I here again? It's enough that I have to hear the myriad of you and the other voices in my head." I paused to examine Hika's reaction and caught the slight frown of his face before it was replaced with a bright smile. Quickly amending myself, I added.
"It's not that I don't enjoy your company, but you know that I'd rather not come here too often because of the others. Tet and Fuji will probably try to bug the hell out of me. Ezekiel will be a horror." I inhaled and exhaled calmly, trying to read the face of the child in front of me. I only found innocence and happiness staring back and the face with those qualities had its mouth open to speak.
"I'm not sure why you're here," he replied, "but you might've overworked yourself again like Mura-san always does."
Damn. He's right. A calculus test, an inorganic test, and a lab had certainly kept me up for two or three nights. My face probably had the appearance of guilt on it though I took great care to shift my chin downwards to allow my hair to hide my countenance. Apparently, I wasn't fast or subtle enough.
With a large gasp, Hika chided with wide eyes, "Wait! You're not getting enough sleep again?!" He then unexpectedly poked my abdomen...or rather I expected it...but not that soon. "And you haven't been eating right, have you?" Wide eyes were replaced with narrowed worried ones, Hika's posture suggesting untold horrors as he moved one of his hands to a hip and his other hand having a finger pointed at me.
This must be handled delicately and quickly lest Hika starts on a very long lecture...or me being shackled to a bed like a certain other character.
"Hika. Those tests were important and I did eat. Not as much as I wanted to, but I'll be returning to a normal eating schedule." I then added with a pleading tone, "So don't worry. I stared at Hika who pouted and stared nervously at me.
"And sleep too?"
"Yes." I'm quite sure Hika and I both knew that was a blatant lie. I was never one for sleeping much much rather replacing the blank monotony of sleep with something entertaining. A sigh left Hika's lips as he started to walk off in a direction and I followed.
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We didn't get far until we reached our destination, the edge of this world of pale white. Last time I was here, I fell off the side as I blindly walked about without an escort. That's how I ended up in a coma for several days. Three words from Hika made my eyes widen from shock, my heartbeat accelerating like a cheetah.
"Leap of faith." Hika said with that irritatingly cheerful voice. A gentle smile soothed my fears as I teetered over the edge, trying to stare behind the veil of clouds effacing my view. It appeared to be a city at nighttime, a cathedral and a large clock tower peeking through the low clouds. When I pictured this city the last time, it was decorated with green and red lights, a blanket of cold and ice sheeting the buildings.
My body lunged forward from the pull on my arm and that feeling was replaced by the sensation of falling. I gave the smiling kid an incredulous stare as we plummeted down from the skies, his hand in mine. Yelling as hard as I could from panic, we past through the layer of clouds and into a building.
"HIKKKAAAAAAAAAA!"
Thud.
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I opened my eyes again to find myself looking up to a granite grey ceiling, a large iron chandelier hanging above my head. The cool stones on the ground made me uncomfortable as if I suddenly landed in frigid water. Naturally, I brought my back up and ended up meeting the brown eyes of a crouched Hika, staring at me worriedly. From my new vantage point, my eyes took the sights of large benches as I sat on the altar. Immediately, I figured out where I was.
The Cathedral of Twin Lights. Sanctuary.
"Yup! Author-sama got it right!" Apparantly, I had voiced my thoughts out loud again. The energetic kid right now had begun to skip towards the door, leading to the inner sanctum of Sanctuary. I naturally followed since I'd rather not be maimed horribly by the other denizens here...though I did know that the power behind Sanctuary prevented conflict here.
Better safe than sorry though. I'd rather not have a groinful of lead like Tetsuia who was the victim of that horrible fate. He walked awkwardly for days before the effects of my revenge-driven writing had ended. Teaches the arse right to disturb my sleeping time with "The Song that Gets on Everybody's Nerves".
As we descended the granite stairs and passed the torches, I was reminded of a dungeon, the dreary lighting casting ominous shadows behind us. With a click of a door, we entered into a stone hallway filled with doors and torches; only one was unlocked and ajar. I probably appeared distressed because I was. Never responding well to surprises, I did not like the concept of finding out behind door-number one. It could be an annoyed castration-happy female by the name of Fujitaki or an irate Tetsuia (who really didn't take to being temporarily castrated via shotgun). Luckily for me when Hika opened that door, it was neither of the two.
The room with the ajar door looked like a small cottage with a fireplace to the east, a bed to the north, and a small table to the west. The sources of light came from several lanterns and candles, effectively illuminating the room in a cozy warm light. The air was comfortably warm: not too hot or too cold. The only sounds present was calm even breathing and the ticks of a tall grandfather clock next to the bed. However, my main focus was the person in the feather-white bed, his long black hair covering part of his face as his brown-eyed gaze turned to meet mine.
His skin was of a sickly pallor and the bandages soaked with crimson across his bare thin chest was likely the cause of it. Despite his obvious discomfort, he still managed to narrow his eyes into a glare, his annoyance present. I knew personally what he was annoyed about and was about to say something until Hika started.
"Umm....Author-sama...well...err...", he looked over at Mura whom visibly relaxed and turned his chin downwards to cover his face, "You and Mura-san should have some time to reminisce...and..umm..." He looked over at the bloody bandages once more, adding, "And I need to get new bandages. Please excuse me..." Nervously walking out, he turned his head once more to look at us before going on his way.
A loud rattle came from the bed and I let off a chuckle noticing the shackle tying Mura's leg down to the corner of the bed.
"I still don't get why you try to escape so much. If you were just more cooperative when Hika's taking care of you, you wouldn't be shackled down."
Narrowed eyes focused into a glare directed at me. The effect was ruined by Mura's reddened face though when he finally lifted his chin up. A slight wince of pain was all that marked his obviously uncomfortable movement from lying down to sitting upright on the bed with his legs still outstretched. The glare shifted with a lift of his eyebrow into an annoyed inquisitive look as if asking what I was doing here.
Not one to disappoint, I answered,"I managed to overwork myself and now I'm stuck here...again." In response, Mura's hand motioned over to his own abdomen and then his questioning gaze met mine.
Again, I answered, "Yes. He poked my abdomen right when we met in the Abyss and he knew I was underfeeding myself." An incredulous look appeared in Mura's eyes after that response and he quickly pointed at his now-clanking chains and then at me.
With a grin, I responded, "Yeah...I was pretty impressed I didn't end up like you." I chuckled before adding with a wink, "Probably because Hika likes you a whole lot more than he likes me."
That gave me the response I was looking for, a flustered Mura with a blush on his delicate countenance refusing to look me in the eyes. I laughed at the sight and that earned me a pillow smacking me in the face. Luckily with Mura's less-than-optimal physical condition and the pillow's fluffy softness (courtesy of Hika's weaving of a comfort draft), it was an annoyance at worst. I exaggerated a bit though(a lot) with the impact.
Holding my eye and nose with my hand, I said in a pained voice, "Oww! Now what happened to the Mura I knew and created?" Mura looked at me with a raised eyebrow and that spurred me to continue, "You were such a cute and shy, if silent, child...and then you turned cranky," I then added, "And still silent." A bland look replaced the raised eyebrow on Mura's face, a calloused hand resting off of the bed. The creak of the door caught both of our attentions, once again revealing Hika who had another roll of gauze bandages in his hands.
I turned back to stare at Mura, but a cry from behind me redirected my attention to the white-haired kid. Said kid was picking up a pillow from the ground and staring at Mura who, as my head turned back to him, was pointing at me. Why that little...
Thoughts of causing severe pain to my object of ire were temporarily subdued by the chastising of Hika who was holding the pillow a bit too close to my face for comfort.
"Mura-san's here for rest! And I'd rather not you interrupt his convalescence Author-sama! I thought you knew better than that." The pillow is now smothering my face as Hika pushed it up in my nose. I didn't have to look to know that an amused look was on Mura's face, hidden as he turned his head to the wall. I said a coherent plausible reason involving Mura being the culprit throwing his own pillow with all the eloquence I could muster.
"I..but...Mura...pillow..." Yes...eloquence.
I felt Hika's small frame pushing me out the door as he continued chiding, "I'm going to change his bandages and I'm not going to risk you doing something else to harm Mura's health, Author-sama. You can wait outside." Before I could properly defend myself in my eloquent manner, the door shut closed with a rattle and the sound of grumbling came from inside of the room along with reassuring comments which were likely directed to Mura. I found myself grumbling at the unfairness before I realized that it was my fault.
I was essentially the creator of this world and all of its inhabitants, after all.
Knowing this fact still didn't decrease my ire at Mura for directing Hika's ire at me (not counting the fact that I was embarrassing him purposefully) and Hika for being so gullible.
Deciding that I wanted out of the cathedral and temporarily away from them, I slowly walked back up the stairs and opened the door revealing the outside face and interior of Sanctuary. As I stared at the stained glass windows displaying a white-haired goddess under a blue crescent moon, I took in the sight of Astra's sole cathedral.
Each bench in all twelve rows had a butterfly carved into the wood on its sides while the backing had an eight point star extruded outwards. From the first bench, the marble altar was raised three times before ending with a stained glass portrait of two men, the leader of the Traditionalists and the Progressers signing a peace treaty with weapons at their sides.
It was humorous really. Both sides intended to kill the other that day, a surprise ambush if you will in the guise of peace. They were...rather surprised when their guns refused to fire and their blades blunted. It was then that people realized the power of this place. The nickname Sanctuary was aptly given to the Cathedral of Twin Lights. I smiled at the stained glass windows on the walls spaced between the benches, each depicting a colorful display of the gods of Astra.
Walking towards the doors, I took one last gander at the ceiling staring at the iron chandelier filled with wax candles before my hand pushed on the cool metal door. Welcoming myself to the night.
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Dawn was approaching from what I could tell on the clocktower, a single building in the town square sticking outwards. Several vehicles of different sizes and colors were left parallel-parked on the roads and fluorescent light radiated from the street lamps sparsely spaced in the near-empty city. There were some bums lying around, all asleep in the alleyways which I passed and several passerbys who looked less-than-friendly, but I didn't feel too threatened...at least until my vision was effaced by a warm fleshy object and cold steel on my throat.
I was certainly shocked and certainly scared until the voice behind me spoke. Feminine, teasing, excessively happy.
"Guess who?"
"Fujitaki. Get off of me. Now."
My vision returned from darkness to the view of the clock tower, the cold metal off of my neck. Instinctively, I turned around and met my attacker. Her brown eyes glistened like a cat's, adding to her beautiful devilish countenance. Thin face, red lips, and a sharp yet small nose gave her the air of a connoisseur. Her hands were delicate with clean fingernails...at least they would appear to be delicate if they weren't holding onto that harsh-looking knife. Her attire consisted of a dark purple trenchcoat with a dress shirt and jeans of a similar color. The lady was lithe and a bit lacking in the chest department, but she echoed a sense of commanding presence with her almost tangible aura of confidence. ((This long description though was made by force with her threatening to give me another mind trash again. >_> wink )
"Don't look like that..." She mock-pouted, still spinning the knife between in her fingers. I continued giving her a bland stare and her expression sharpened, "Besides, I'm not the one walking around Astra at...three in the morning. People disappear here...even authors." She licked the knife as she stared at me, eyes menacing. I would have probably been afraid if I hadn't already known this girl's retarded sense of humor.
My calm though reaped its rewards as her face broke into a deep smile and the knife ending up back into the depths of her pockets.
Brown orbs looked thoughtful as she stared up at the clocktower, a moment of calm before the
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