Colt struggled to clear the lump in his throat, "Mitsuba..."

The young woman stared straight into his eyes, without an ounce of emotion reflecting across her face. "Who?"

"M-Mitsuba...It's...it's me..." Tears began to stream down his face as he reached out to hold her.

The key to that box contained within him was visible again. Hell, it was right in front of him. He could see himself reaching out to the key. However, as he clenched his fist around it, it was pulled away from him.

The woman stepped away from him, refusing to let him touch her.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Huh?" A broken smile formed on his face as he started wiping his tears, "C-Come on Mitsuba...It's me..."

She continued to stare at him with that disassociated mask.

Once again, he tried to reach out for her, only to be avoided again.

"Sir. Please stop this."

"Sir?" The distanced identifier pierced his heart, sinking it into the deepest depths of his stomach. Just as his heart sank, he fell down to his knees in a wreck.

His vision was clouded by his own tears, stinging his eyes into this grim reality.

The same lean figure he had always remembered. That same beauty mark on the lower side of her cheek, just as he remembered.

Was this a prank? Did someone decide to dress up as Mitsuba just to spite him?

No. Of course not. Even her voice was the same, albeit a little bit deeper. That was to be expected. The last time they spoke was three years ago.

"You really don't remember me?" he asked with desperation lining his voice.

She continued to stare at him as he scrambled on his knees. That same condescending gaze she casted upon the beast was being casted upon him now.

"I have no idea who you are."

The lock to the box in his heart had been refortified, twisting and contorting to form even more locks over the original. That distance separating him from the truth only grew in size, leaving him in an empty void.

There was a stinging pain in his chest as he clutched at it, gasping for air. This pain was far more intense than anything he had experienced in any fight. It crippled him so, to the point that he had to lie down on the wet bathroom floor. Not even the cold, dirty water could bring him back from the grueling shock weighing him down.

"W-Why?"

Tears flowed from his eyes like dead rivers, becoming one with the sink water that covered the entire floor.

"I have no idea who you are."

"I have no idea who you are."

"I have no idea who you are."

The world around him spun violently, leaving nothing visible to his broken eyes. White noise emerged from within him, drowning out all other sources of sound. With the white noise came a numbing static, oozing through his vacant body, ridding him of any need to even more.

This was it.

This was why he was afraid of seeing her again...

The pain was something that he had no preparation for at all. Crashing into him like a train bursting from its tracks onto the sidelines, with no regard for who came crashing down with it.

All thoughts in his mind ceased to exist, and he slowly drifted away.

Where?

He had no clue.

"Well well...Look who it is..."

That voice...it brought him back down from wherever he was floating. The same voice that introduced him to this world was the one that brought him back to it.

Fuchsia stood above the broken boy with a twisted smile on her face. "Colt West...how have you been? It seems like it's been forever since I've seen you." She wrapped her arm around Mitsuba's shoulder and giggled like a child, "Why is it that every time I see you, you're lying on the ground?"

He was forced to lay down like a beaten dog, to take her verbal thrashing as if it brought him some sort of pleasure.

"Look at this..." She squeezed on Mitsuba's shoulder and laughed, "I knew I had heard your name before, and I did a bit of research, and it turns out that you were the boyfriend the CCU interviewed when I killed this girl."

"What?" By some miracle, he found the will to speak; However, it nearly sapped him of any final remnants of strength.

"Oh, I guess you wouldn't get it." She playfully sighed, "Mitsuba, I had her killed by one of my core beasts. I made it from a fish, didn't you remember seeing it?"

The key reappeared, but instead of him taking a hold of it himself, it jammed itself into the locks, shaking the box. An image of a large beast that was somewhat reminiscent of a fish flashed through his mind. He could see the dark night skies, and the murky water it rose out of. Sharp fangs, and grotesque arms reaching out towards him...Or whoever's point of view it was.

Fuchsia chose to carry on, "And that's not even the crazy part! Her core awakened right at the moment of death, just like you!" She started playing with Mitsuba's hair as if she were a doll. "Isn't it weird? I was just out, experimenting to see how fast a fish could kill a human if it were a core beast, and I stumbled upon a miracle!"

She rammed her fist through the chest of Mitsuba, piercing her heart in an instant. "Unlike you, I managed to turn her into a core beast soon after."

He struggled to lift himself from the ground as Fuchsia's omnipotent gaze tore at his soul. Watching her just toy with Mitsuba, just like that beast did, the anger within his soul began to force its way through his waves of sorrow.

"She was my first human experiment." said Fuchsia, "I never approached humans, and they always managed to escape if I ever sent one of my dumb beasts after them. Little Mitsuba was my lucky break. With her, I realized that I could use my power on humans too." She looked down at him and spat on his face, "And that's where you came in. After a bunch of successful operations with humans, you were the only one to fight me back. I could've killed you initially, but then, it hit me!"

She walked over and squatted right above him, "I need you, Colt."

"Wh-What are you saying?" he groaned and struggled to meet her gaze through her face covering.

"And you need me...I can read the thoughts of all of those that I tampered with, and that includes you. I know that you want to find a way to revive the dead, so look." She pulled Mitsuba's heart right from her chest and tossed onto the ground, right next to Colt's face.

The foul stench elicited a gag from deep with his stomach, making him roll over onto his stomach. Threatening to break the bones in his fingers, he clenched his fists and glared up at the perpetrator of this pain. She soon began to fade away as his vision was drowned within a veil of rage, with anger burning at his throat.

In a matter of seconds, Mitsuba's mortal wound healed.

"Did you see that? She just survived a mortal wound," Fuchsia reached out to Colt, "We both have our imperfections and downfalls Colt. If we work together, we both can accomplish our goals."

"What?"

"Don't act confused...We both know that I'm right. Your potential is being placed in the wrong hands if you're not with me."

Throughout this entire ordeal, Mitsuba hadn't moved an inch. Her icy gaze remained focused onto him.

He could see it, almost like it was yesterday. He could see that charming, captivating, heartwarming smile that she always had on her face. No matter came his way, she found a way to make it all better. She was his other half, his everything.

Now...She was reduced to nothing but a dead doll.

"Fuchsia!"

Colt jumped up as core energy burst from his entire body like raging flames. The heat of his fury burned at the base of his lungs, bringing pain with each manic breath. Through his reddened eyes, he locked onto the origin of all of this chaos.

Mitsuba held her hand out in front of her, creating portal that Colt's wild swing went through.

What?

"How do you like it?" Fuchsia jumped back and pulled out two large hand fans and unfolded them. "That's Mitsuba's core power! She can create portals!"

"I'm gonna kill you!" He pulled away from the portal and tried to run around Mitsuba, but he only ended up outside in the parking lot.

These damn portals!

Gaining his bearings, he fell through another portal that had been placed beneath him. The sudden shift in space brought forth a crippling sense of nausea. He found himself falling from the sky, free to plummet just as the cicada beast had tried earlier. Compared to the turmoil swelling within the chambers of his mind, he could barely react to the turbulent winds from his descent.

Just as he braced for impact, he fell through another portal.

I'm falling in a loop! What is she doing?

Losing track of time, he finally received an answer as the portal beneath him faded, sending him crashing into the pavement. Even with his core energy, the sharp pain of something dislocating within his arm drew a groan from him. Blood leaked into his eyes, obscuring his vision as Fuchsia's laughs grew closer.

"Why did you even try to hit me?" She asked. "I'm the Yin to your Yang."

"Sh-Shut...up!"

Blindly relying on his hearing, he swung forth, hitting nothing. He continued to violently thrash about, praying that one of his shots in the dark would strike their target.

"Colt, stop!"

Mitsuba's voice cut through the storm of confusion, bringing him to a screeching halt. Those gentle taps of her feet drew closer, just as they did in the theater. This time, he found himself greeted by a gentle hug from behind. Her warmth overpowered all of the cold hatred surging through his veins, steadying his heart.

Thinking back on his past, she'd always do this for him.

Back in high school, he was jumped by a group of classmates, and left to rot in the rain. When she arrived, he was too embarrassed to face her; However, she still embraced him in that affectionate hug.

With her, all was good in the world.

"Mitsuba?" His vision cleared as tears began to drown out the blood. More memories began to flash through his mind, all reminding him of what he had lost. No matter what he'd face, as long as he had her, things would be alright.

As he continued to travel down this road of memories, everything shattered as a burst of core energy exploded from his chest, sending him shooting across the parking lot.

The roaring agony cried out from his body, inviting the cold air of the night into the gaping hole in his chest. He struggled to rise to his feet, trembling as the anger began to subside.

What just-

"Good job, Mitsuba." Fuchsia walked over to Colt and sighed, "Dude, she already said that she doesn't know who you are. How did you fall for such an easy trick?"

"I-I-"

His head snapped back as her foot crashed into his face, nearly bringing him back to his feet.

"What? Are you actually trying to do something about your shitty life?" She slammed him back into the ground, grinding his face into the rough concrete, "People like you always bitch and moan about how life screwed them over, but you came with the same tools that everyone else did! Isn't that strange?"

She lifted him from the ground and smashed her fist into his stomach, shooting another burst of core energy through the air. The explosive force blasted him into the walls of the theatre, knocking the wind from his lungs.

"Just like in those trashy isekai novels!" She shouted as she pinned him against the wall, "The loser in the real world gets sent to another magical world, where they suddenly find success? That's just fiction! There is no real and fake worlds, the Seishin Realm coexists with the Normal Realm!"

Even as he was being thrashed around like a dog, each and every one of her words struck deep into his already battered body.

"You don't get a clean slate, Colt." She giggled, "Without me, you'll never be able to reach your dream, and no amount 'hard work' is going to change that."

As she stepped back, he came crashing to the ground, motionless.

"The moment you accept that fact will be the moment you'll get closer to making that dream a reality." said Fuchsia. "I've drained you of all of your core energy, so hurry up and show me your true side."

What?

A dark filter came over his vision as a chilling breeze of wind tore through his body. As if he had been put into spectator mode on his own body, he was forced to watch some strange aura waft out from inside of him.

Seeing just what was happening was already a challenge, but he was barely able to form cohesive thoughts.

Before he knew it, he was back.

"Colt, cast aside whatever pride it is that's holding you back," She stepped forward and reached out to him, "You're borrowing the strength of my people. I'm the one who brought you into this world, so that makes me your master! Doesn't a good dog roll over and bark? Be a good boy-"

"What are you doing to my zombie?"

Yuri?

Fuchsia and Mistuba leapt back as Yuri stepped onto the scene. Her footsteps gradually grew louder, right up until she stood above Colt.

"Why are you on the ground?" She asked, "You look better when you're standing."

"Y-Yuri...I messed up..." Colt covered his face in defeat, "I-I'm sorry..."

"What did I tell you about saying that shit? This ain't the time to roll over and die!"

"But...What's the point?" He let out an exasperated sigh and gazed up at her, "I-I can't do anything. No matter how hard I try, it just won't work out. I'm still gonna be the same failure that I was always destined to-"

"Colt! There was this kid I knew, and she always treated herself like she was worth jackshit...She was already despised by most of the world for who she was, but she was still her toughest critic." Yuri gazed off into the stars, "She believed she was weak, and a failure amongst the rest of her peers."

"That sounds like-"

"But that's when she hit a breaking point. After standing face to face with what she considered her limit, she not only surpassed this challenge, but she grew far beyond what anyone thought was humanely possible. She became a god." said Yuri.

Fuchsia smirked, "The tale of the Lazy God, eh?"

"Once you accept your limits, the natural course of action lies in surpassing them!" shouted Yuri, "If you understand that, get the hell up and fight!"

Sh-She's right...Jax and Dakota have already spent time hammering in the knowledge of core energy into my head. But Fuchsia's right, too. I've hit the same wall that's been keeping me from evolving.

The strength returned to his body as he realized his wounds had been healed long before Yuri even arrived.

I always thought that that wall was something that only appeared for the incompetent, but that was wrong! Everyone reaches it at some point...It's a marker, a test to determine if you're hungry for what you truly want out of life.

"I get it." muttered Colt.

"I can't hear you."

He sprang from the ground, leaving behind his defeated frown in place of an invigorated smile, "I understand!"

"Good," said Yuri, "I'm sorry for running late, I had some beasts to fight back at the party."

"I thought we weren't saying that word." teased Colt.

"Shut up..." she muttered with sarcasm.

Fuchsia giggled, "I smell a 2v2 upon us."

"You ready, Colt?" asked Yuri.

"Osu!"