"Where does the Shadow live?" Raidou asked as he stood across from Butterfly.

"That depends on you," Souji responded from across the room.

"The Whale," Butterfly whispered. He had to stand on tips of his toes to look Raidou in the face, and yet he still seemed imposing. "Where all of humanity gathers." His eyes narrowed and flashed. "Where humanity sends its shadows and pain."

"There are many ways to enter and interact with the Whale, and for it to interact with us." Souji looked to Butterfly, but the strange entity seemed intent on looking away.

"We're about to enter it," Raidou reasoned.

Butterfly and Souji nodded in unison, their movements identical despite their different builds.

"What's your method?"

"I bring you in." Butterfly held out his hands, palm up.

Raidou didn't hesitate. Gouto landed on his back as he placed his hands on Butterfly's. He had to trust this strange new companion, and face the Shadow who had confronted him. If he thought it over for even a moment, Raidou knew he'd change his mind. That couldn't happen. Gouto's familiar weight felt good on his , he realized he was in pain.

Raidou Kuzunoha the Fifteenth was used to pain. He'd suffered just about every form of pain in his ten years as protector of the Capital, had trained his whole life for that. This hurt.

Butterfly was inside him, his mere presence tearing Raidou's soul to shreds.

I'm going to die. It didn't feel like a thought. It felt like reality.

Don't worry. This is how death feels, but you are not dying. It's not your time.

The voice echoed in his soul, but it didn't sound quite like Butterfly. That was as far as Raidou's mind got before his very soul erupted in a scream. Two screams. Two very different screams which one moment caused everything to tremor and, in the next, were silenced.

An image of Akira- his Shadow- beaten and bloody, staring in a panic at a wall, flashed through his mind. Wait. Raidou remembered that scene.

He felt the screams once more, this time three.

Souji leaned over him, brows creased against the same glasses he wore in the fight. The screams and pain had stopped, but Raidou still felt his soul throb in lingering pain.

"Sorry. You grabbed his hands before I could warn you."

"What was that?"

Souji tilted his head to the side and Raidou followed it to see Butterfly standing a bit away. "It's hard for him to touch a person without sharing his pain, and harder to touch a soul. It doesn't usually bother him this much."

Raidou sat up and Gouto rolled off his stomach to his legs.

"Are you feeling alright?" Gouto asked, jumping off Raidou's lap and shaking his head to clear it.

"Yeah. You?"

"Just disoriented."

Raidou stood, instinctively brushing himself off. Nothing came off his leather coat. Looking around everything seemed vague, even the ground beneath him. The air was filled with fog- or maybe slowly drifting feathers. Yet nothing blocked his view, merely filled it with haze. Souji's light coloration nearly blended in and Butterfly...

Looking closer at Butterfly made Raidou shudder. In a world of nondescript light Butterfly somehow remained surrounded in shadow, a single blue light shining in the center. The shadow filled Raidou with instinctive dread.

"We should go." Souji looked at Butterfly. "Can you find the Shadow?"

Butterfly nodded, as did the shadow which hung around him, and began to walk off. Souji and Raidou fell in close behind.

"I wonder what everything will look like?" Souji mused as they walked.

"Meaning?"

"It depends on you. A Shadow forms an environment and causes similar shadows to gather."

Raidou glanced down. The rooms he had seen were very traditional and resembled a place he hadn't been to in over ten years.

"Sorry if I'm taking this too lightly."

Raidou shrugged. "You're used to this."

Souji cast him a sidelong glance. "What are you used to?"

Images of the corpses his Shadow had sat upon flashed through Raidou's mind. For a moment he felt the warm sensation of Dr. Victor's blood running down his arms. "Killing."

Souji stopped. Ahead of them, Butterfly halted as well, waiting. Raidou stopped beside Souji, but couldn't look him in the face.

Souji's breathing came out ragged. "People?"

"Yes."

"You can get used to that?"

He couldn't let that question be. It demanded an answer, but lashing out at Souji, whom he really knew very little about, seemed unfair. And something in his tone caught Raidou's attention. It wasn't confrontational, but questioning and truly confused. It reminded Raidou that he was notably older- and more worldly- than the young man.

Looking over he could see Souji standing limply, arms dead against his side.

"I have to." This answer was better; though not specific, it was simple truth.

Souji turned his head sharply and their eyes locked. Raidou could see the questions in his companion's eyes. Souji turned to look ahead once more, and their little group continued moving through the haze.

Author's Note: Look who's back! There should be quite a bit more writing soon, since I really need to stop the timeline from moving too far ahead in my mind (my brain has already finished this story and I'm not quite sure how). Hopefully I can update a little more frequently now. The next couple weeks are going to be rough, but after that I might aim for about once a week.

Hope to see you in the next chapter!

P.S. to Jin: Yes, that's the park in Nocturne.