Behind the open door was a room the size of a wide hall. And a man was standing there in the middle.
"I've been waiting, Aoba-chan."
"…"
Toue…!
"You kept your promise. I'm grateful of your good faith. I haven't called up anyone except you. I'd like to talk. Your comrades wouldn't have stood for that."
"…I want to talk to you about something."
"Then you and I have the same intention. What luck." Toue smiled.
"I'll get right to the point. What is your real objective?" I asked.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I've heard from Granny the gist of what you've been doing."
"Seragaki Tae, hm? What are your thoughts on it, then?" He asked.
"Your end goal couldn't possibly be just to take control of every person on this island."
"Fufu…"
A mysterious smile appears on Toue's lips.
"You have good intuition. That's right. This island is just the beginning." He said "I'm going to make this island an independent country."
"A country?"
"Yes. This island is pivotal for my research: however, there is no point if it's only a country. One needs a powerful military force to expand a nation. State-of-the-art weaponry, troops, facilities, capital. But as it strengthens, a side effect manifests. The feelings of the citizens. The publics' ethics turn them unruly and lead them to raising their voices asking for peace and power."
"Yes it's the nation's duty to protect its people. There hasn't been a mighty nation that hasn't fallen. They ruin it all without thinking because their lives are hard, and don't think about what happens next. But even if they do think, their ideas never go quite well in the real world. A common occurrence."
"I don't like going half-way. So I thought of how I could seize the will of the public. I'd make a country full of soldiers who wouldn't dare to disobey their leader. Something like a religion, in a sense."
"If anyone questioned my ideas, then they, along with other rebels, would be massacred. Then the people would be united by fear. However, it's different for me. I realized something I hadn't before. The thought came to me without a single other question in my mind. I thought of a way to stylishly and dramatically murder someone."
"…! So you became that leader figure." I said.
"It was inevitable, I was the initiator of it all." Toue said.
"What happens after you create your country? Do you plan on being a king?"
"There seems to have been a misunderstanding, I don't have any world desire. It's not a tangible wish. I want to have a challenge and see how far my ideas will take me."
"Challenge… who?"
"No one in particular. In clichéd words, destiny, or the gods…if I may say. If my ideas are righteous, my plan should go smoothly with little difficulty. But it all ends if I make a mistake somewhere. I'm blessed by the fact that my plans are still moving. Although, it does not mean I've won my bet against fate yet."
"So you'll go as far as you possibly can?" I said.
"That's right. I have interest in the human mind. How far can another person go with someone else's mind?" He said. "I will expand my sights even further, against fate. However, it's boring having victory handed to me. The higher the difficulty, the more fun games tent to be, no?"
"…So human life is a game to you, and that's all?" I glared heatedly at him.
"Life is win or lose. Not just for me, but for everyone. Family, friends, people will fight over anything. Am I wrong?"
"…! …That might be what you think, but I'm not going to let it be that way. And the people around me… I won't let you treat them as pawns, either. Don't drag people into your little game. No one is here to participate in it. and you even brought Sei into it, too…!"
"Sei, hmm… Without him, my plans wouldn't have made it this far. He is a vital existence to me. And now you, the other part of the puzzle, have appeared. What could this be other than fate?" He said. "You two twins are the greatest pieces fate has given to me."
"!"
What is… he saying!?
Sei and I are just pieces of a game, pawns to be moved?
…Not a fucking chance.
The anger festers in the bottom of my chest. "…I won't forgive you for treating people like tools, you bastard… Do you think I'm just going to take that silently? You're just like me, some human."
"I wanted to stay and talk, but… Don't you have a purpose for coming here?"
"Why don't you take a look."
"Heh-he, you're overreacting. Are you here to become my enemy? You, with the same powers as Sei, are my greatest opponent."
"So what? I can't stand you. That's it."
"Well, all right. There's only one answer: either you or I will win. Or rather, whichever one of us destiny chooses. You know well that the place where you wouldn't be able to run from, the place where we'd fight to the death would be here."
"!"
"Aoba!"
.
.
This is… A Rhyme field…!
"Rhyme… So it's Toue." I said getting on guard.
"Seems so." Ren said appearing next to me in his avatar mode.
This will be the second time I've fought with Toue in Rhyme. This wasn't the field form last time, though. So this much be Toue's real field. A mysterious place with a gloomy and ghastly mood to it.
I lost last time, now… I feel more powerful.
The scenery begins to shake, and two figures appear. One of them is Toue, and the other…
"Wha? Is that…Usui…!? Why does Usui look like that?"
"That's Toue's Allmate. That is Usui's true form." Ren said.
"Are you serious…!?" I gap in disbelief.
"Now, shall we begin? Your turn first, Aoba-chan." Toue spoke in a calm voice.
"…!"
A clam and cool smile rises to Toue's face. His carefree attitude just fires me up more.
Can I really win this?
"It'll be fine, Aoba."
When I turned my eyes to his strong affirmation, I found Ren looking right at me.
…That's right.
I have Ren.
"Well, ready or not!" Nodding my head I gave Ren instructions as he went straight towards Usui. I let out a small 'tch' seeing that the DURABILITY hardly took a scratch. "-! He's pretty tough."
"Now it's my turn." Toue said.
Usui shot out multiple glowing balls of light right at us and I quickly took action "Ren DEFENSE!"
"Understood." Ren cast a shield around us but that hardly stop the damage we took from Usui's attack.
"Ren, are you okay!?"
"Yeah."
"Shit…!" I gave another instruction to Ren who launched another attack, but the results came out the same "We're not even making a dent on him…"
"Fufu…" Toue let out a low laugh "This Usui is also modeled on Sei. They have the same face can't you tell?"
"!"
"Sei and Aoba. The twins chosen by fate. Sei, given a name that means life, and you, a child who died after birth…chosen by death itself. Sei has the ability to give birth to things, while you hold the power to destroy. The two of you are one. There were many times when Sei was comatose for the sake of brain and consciousness research."
"Sei, who had lost his liberty, had only his heart working, and gave birth to a large scale self-consciousness. I would liken it to as if he had divided his own consciousness into a large amount of fragments. When following the electro-magnetic waves of the consciousness he created, one can enter various places. It's simple as a network system."
"It does not mean that the consciousness functions on its own, but if one follows down the network, they can reach an area of their choosing and access it. Aoba-chan. It's even possible to communicate with you across it."
Sei communicated to me…?
That must've happened at some point.
"As we put Sei's ability to use, we created personal dolls by brainwashing them by injecting Sei's consciousness into them. Usui is one of them. And so, Rhyme was created. After that, Sei's consciousness began to diffuse and gradually became weak."
"…"
"Usui is the second Sei, in a sense."
And before I even had the chance to register what he was saying Usui launch another attack. This time stronger then the first one and our DURABILITY took more damage.
"Ren!" I yelled out his name.
"-! I'm still fine…"
"Aoba-chan. You should've realized it by now." Toue said "You should've know that the moment you thought you were going to win, you had already lost."
"…Kuh-!"
"What do you think happens to people the moment when they put their intentions high on a pedestal, thinking of themselves noble? Nothing. Only when people lock their desires and emotions away can they achieve true bliss. If there is desire, there is battle. When that is erased, people will be able to achieve equality, tranquility, and pure bliss. You think my ideas are wrong, don't you?"
"…!"
"Do you think that a world that's run by greed, where life is pointlessly taken away is right?"
"…No, I…!"
"You hold the power of destruction. A direct link to death. What you've been using to kill off Sei's consciousness's that we've spent so long on, hm?"
"…!"
…No.
It's true that my power is only good for destruction. But it's not like that.
"Death and destruction aren't always the same thing." I said "It's a release from something. To end something to begin anew. That's why there's death!"
"…I see." Toue said "If you think so, then try to overcome it. Show me how you'll stop my 'life' with your 'death'. Then maybe you'll be able to release me as well? Fufu…"
Usui begins to launch the same attack as before.
"Shit! If that happens again Ren won't make it…"
