Part 2
"Kouichi…"
The sound echoed in his chest rather than his ears, pulling his attention to the darkness surrounding him.
"Spirit."
From the depths, a figure took shape. Tall and humanoid, and Kouichi offered a smile at the familiarity of it. But the hope and happiness welling up inside him was paralyzed by an eerie red light. The warm iris of Lowemon's instead chilled him in his bones, unassured by the darkness snaking at his sides.
Kouichi stopped breathing as more eyes opened up to stare at him, wide and red-lined, appearing on the other's armor. Kouichi recognized it before the creature could fully form, staring at them sternly.
"Duskmon… ?"
Said spirit turned his head away, all of his eyes gazing off into the distance. Yet still Kouichi felt the stare like hot iron wrapped around his skin, unwilling to let him out of its hold. He breathed out harshly.
"The spirits — what happened!?"
He breath came with a hot puff of steam, heart quickening when the corrupted spirit seemed to pay him no mind. Kouichi honestly wanted to shout and cry in confusion, blaming himself, when he realized that his emotions were getting the better of him. So he clenched his teeth in order not to yell and blinked away the hotness behind his eyes.
"The true spirits of darkness were unlocked, weren't they?" He asked with a barely-wavering voice. "They were purified! So how?"
His panting seemed to finally reach the warrior, who simply moved a dragon gauntlet into his line of sight, turning it to examine the details. Kouichi took a step backwards as Duskmon unsheathed a certain crooked red blade, the sound of it sliding down his throat like ice.
"I don't understand…" the boy admitted with a small voice, curling his fingers to keep his hands from shaking. He couldn't look at his counterpart, at the sword that had done so much damage. He couldn't look at himself who so much anger and sadness inside them that made Kouichi's thudding heartbeat ache.
"What can I do…?" he asked to himself, letting his eyes slip closed to combat despair from surrounding him. The darkness was starting to hurt and Kouichi honestly feared that he didn't have the power to stop it.
"Everything's alright,"
A voice echoed through him, familiar, yet far away. Kouichi opened his eyes and looked to Duskmon leveling the blade in his face. The boy didn't flinch.
"I'll be with you now,"
Kouichi drew in a breath as the demon lifted the blood-colored sword and crashed it down upon him. He woke in a sweat to the calm world in his living room. Everything in its place, accompanied by a soft stream of sunlight. His mother's coughing could be heard from down the hallway, the only sound other than Kouichi's own staccato breaths. The boy held a hand to his heart, sitting up and orienting himself in the plane of consciousness.
His chest thudded with some strange and familiar weight which pulled his head down into his palms to hold himself within the confines of legs pulled up beneath him. It hurt, but it was a good kind of hurt, he decided…
to do anything otherwise was to reject an integral part of him.