Shadows of the Soul: The Light Shines Through
Authors notes:
The story begins at volume 1 chapter 3 of the manga right before Shizuku first shows up with Yuuto standing at the river. Yuutos brain is suddenly rewriten and he starts acting out his plan.
It's like a time leap from Steins;Gate. All the other characters should be acting like themselves and the world should be the same except I might add some powers or characters eventually like the final form of Yuutos power. There won't be any ecchi maybe some slight comedy, it's meant to be a serious story. There will be graphic violence later on and some slight cursing especially in my notes. Also probably no sex scenes at all so don't bother reading for that.
Now the point of the story is for Shizuku to be the main love interest. To this effect Himari will be treated like shit. Liz won't even exist since this Yuuto sees no reason to bother meeting her. Rinko will be treated as well as I can manage while still getting the story to where it needs to be. As for Kuesu, Yuuto will treat her somewhat like Light treats Misa to the point where he's using her but she is fine with it although it probably won't end well for her. Tama is meant to be a secondary love interest but will probably not show up for a while although I'll probably write a part about what she's doing while Yuuto is doing his thing on this end. Shuten should also be treated decently enough. I'm not gonna spoil what happens to Ageha right now but don't get your hopes up if you like her.
Last thing don't take anything Yuuto says at face value, he is lying his ass off just listen to what Shizuku thinks that's probably the closest to the truth you're going to get for now.
But it is for a greater goal like it says he cannot fail here.
Chapter 1: Fated Encounter
The boy opened his eyes and saw a familiar scene. A river, and a large forest surrounding him.
After starring at the scenery in front of him for a few seconds he calmly closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
-The time has finally come.
He slowly walked over to the river and calmly gazed at the flowing water.
Suddenly a spot in the water started bubbling. Unshaken by this he focused his eyes on the bubbling water.
A girl appears from the bubbles and slowly starts rising from the water. She appears to be a young girl with short green hair, very pale skin and emotionless red eyes, starring directly at the boy.
As she walks out of the water she reveals her one-piece dress which is dripping wet along with her hair and the rest of her body. Finally seeing the girl in plain sight the boy, no longer able to maintain his composure, lets out a deep breath and gently smiles as if the greatest weight in the world had just been lifted from his shoulders. With his eyes almost tearing up as he looks at her, this whole event lasting only a few short seconds, he closes his eyes for a split second and quickly straightens his expression leaving only a soft smile now, taking on a more friendly rather than relieved appearance.
This was the only moment he would allow himself to relax as he knew his whole plan was reliant on him succeeding here.
The girl finally walked out of the water with her bare feet and kept approaching the boy, a little perplexed about his subtle reaction and even more so about why he's standing there so calmly now.
Shouldn't he be at least a little scared? An unknown ayakashi has suddenly appeared before him. The Crimson Blade is too far away to help even if she started running now, not that she'd have any way of knowing he was in danger. Even if he knew she wasn't here to kill him his reaction is still strange.
Of course she would never let these concerns show especially now getting within 2 meters of the boy.
Finally the boy speaks.
-Shizuku, I'm glad you showed up.
For a split second she paused almost breaking her expression as she considered all the different possibilities as to how he could know her name. Having quickly ruled out the obvious ones within a few seconds having hit a wall in terms of further reasoning she responded.
-How do you know my name?
With a clearly rehearsed line he answered.
-Not just your name. You probably won't believe me but I know a lot about both you and other things "this" Amakawa Yuuto should have no knowledge of.
Clearly confused by this strange answer that even she hadn't considered she responds without thinking.
-What do you mean?
-It's a long story. Let's sit by that tree and I'll do my best to explain.
Without waiting for her response he walks over to a large tree, sits down and the ground and leans on it.
Thinking there's no harm in hearing him out at this point she walks over after a few seconds and sits down about a meter in from on him. Having sat down she immediately says.
-Talk.
After a slight chuckle he starts speaking.
-Very well, since you probably won't completely believe my story I'll start by proving I possess information "this" Amakawa Yuuto would have no way of knowing.
Shizuku slightly interested listens on and doesn't interrupt him.
-Well as far as you're concerned I know you've been sent here by a bunch of ayakashi to tell me to stop being a demon slayer and go back to my regular life. You would've just given me a warning today and attacked later if I didn't comply. Of course this was because you were worried that if I awoke as a demon slayer I might eventually become a threat to your little group. I'll just tell you I have no intention of attacking anyone at this point. Sure I'll kill any ayakashi that attacks me first but that should be obvious.
Hearing this Shizuku immediately thinks there's plenty of ways he could have gotten this much information. Even a simple deduction from the current circumstances could have yielded that much information, less her name of course. Of course she has no reason to trust his words about not attacking ayakashi at this point. It could be a ruse simply to stop her from killing him until his powers awaken at which point he could betray her any time he chooses.
-Well with that out of the way let me tell you what I know about your past.
At these words she twitched and looked at Yuuto, this time with eyes eagerly awaiting his next sentence.
-I know that your clan was in the past worshiped as water gods until one day the Jibashiri family came and wiped them all out simply because they were ayakashi.
Shizuku twitched again, harder this time, but before she could say anything Yuuto continued.
-At that time you were away picking raspberries and came back to see that sight from hell. You ran away as fast as your legs would take you and managed to survive. A few months later you learned the identity of the people who destroyed your clan and swore to take revenge one day. However during the great war the Jibashiri family was wiped out forever preventing you from wreaking your vengeance.
Thoughts were flooding into Shizukus head. How could he possibly know her story in such detail. He should have been living a normal life until a few days ago. Even if the Crimson Blade told him about the great war and the annihilation of the mizuchi she shouldn't know so many details. No, first of all how did he even know she'd be coming right at this moment to warn him. It makes no sense until just around 20 minutes ago she was watching him while the ayakashi were attacking. He seemed completely ignorant of everything, that's why she had thought he could return to his normal life and the Crimson Blade also showed no signs of having orchestrated anything this complex.
None of this makes any sense. Was it all an act? Did they know she was watching them?
No impossible, her stealth more is perfect. With all these thoughts going through her head Yuuto kept going before she could say anything.
-I guess at this point I should probably tell you how I know all this stuff.
Shizuku finally snapped back to reality and spoke slightly agitated.
-Tell me.
-Right well the short answer is "you told me". Of course to that you'd say "we've never met" and you'd be right. You've never met "this" Yuuto before however I'm different. Short story is I came from the future.
Very unamused Shizukus face full of anticipation suddenly goes back to being emotionless as she says.
-There's no such magic in this world. Start telling the truth. How do you know so much about me?
-True there is no such "magic" in this world however the thing that brought me here was science.
-Science?
Shizuku questioned immediately.
-Yes more specifically a device was able to open a small worm hole large enough for a few Mb of information to slip through to the past. I then used my powers to send my memories back and engraved them into this Amakawa Yuutos brain essentially traveling back into the past.
Very skeptical of the story Shizuku begins wondering what his intentions are.
Why would he make up something so ridiculous? However she can't come up with any believable reasons for why he would know so much as this point. Deciding to inquire further about this subject hoping to learn more about his intentions she asks.
-So why did you travel back to the past?
-Right, I come from some 2 years in the future. At this point there was a huge war going on. Around a year from now Tamamo no Mae along with Shuten-Douji will come to this city looking to feed on strong ayakashi so they can regain their powers.
Hearing the name of the legendary ayakashi somewhat peeked her interest.
-They went around killing any ayakashi who wouldn't join their army eventually planning an all out war against the humans. And searching for strong ayakashi they ended up attacking Himari. We fended them off for a while until eventually all hell broke loose about a week before I traveled back. Himari consumed Tamamo no Mae along with all her dark energies and grudges of ayakashi she had consumed prior. I tried to stop her before Tama was dead but she disobeyed and killed her anyway.
At this point Yuutos face which had been relatively calm until now suddenly put on an agitated expression and with eyes full of hatred Yuuto looked in a random direction.
Although still somewhat confused herself, Shizuku took mental notes of Yuutos reactions trying to figure out as much from his story, which she wasn't taking at face value, as possible.
Yuuto continues
-At that point she looked at me with the eyes of a beast only wanting to kill. By then I had mastered my powers and had plenty of combat experience. I was getting somewhat agitated by the whole situation so I started radiating hostility and a fight ensued. I was able to kill her without too much trouble and made my way to the second battleground.
Yuuto paused and put on a pained expression.
Shizuku unsure what to make of this urged him to continue the story.
-Go on.
Yuuto brought back to reality spoke.
-Before I go on I should go back to our original meeting.
-Huh?
Shizuku exclaimed slightly surprised.
-Right, it happened like I said before, you warned me right at this river, that's how I knew you'd be coming, and in fact why I came to this time specifically. Oh right, "this" Yuutos brain was altered around a minute before you showed up.
Shizuku was not overly surprised considering she sensed the change quite easily seeing how she's been following him around for a while before that.
-Then of course I didn't listen and kept doing whatever I wanted and you attacked me and Himari at a beach, although you clearly had no intention of simply killing me since you went to the trouble of waiting for me to wake up so we could talk.
Yuuto thinks for a few seconds.
-Anyway after a fight you seemed to figure out I was not some blood thirsty demon slayer and didn't want to fight. You withdrew and the next day came back and said you wanted to observe me and make sure I wasn't lying. That's also when I learned a bit about your past. At that point you started living with us and eventually fighting ayakashi that attacked which brings us to 2 years later and the war.
Shizuku quickly realized what he was getting at and what she might expect to find on the second battleground.
-I guess you can probably tell by now. Yes when I finally showed up it was already too late. You were inside a lake creating a massive barrier around the area we were fighting in to prevent civilian casualties and damage to the surrounding area so we could go all out. On that end you, and a few other allies I had gathered at that point, were fighting Shuten and you were unable to block or dodge while maintaining the barrier. One of the enemy ayakashi launched a projectile weapon and you took a heavy hit.
Slightly irritated that he so casually knows about one of her powers, even the fact she's practically defenceless while using it, Shizuku ponders what if anything would make her take such a risk. And even more importantly what would prevent her from simply dropping the barrier and dodging the attack. Was it that important that nobody got hurt? Did she find something even more important that her own life? Quickly dropping this train of thought she keeps listening to Yuutos story.
-Both Shuten and most of my allies were dead in a mutual annihilation type scenario and you were already gone by then.
Again putting on a somewhat sad expression Yuuto slightly averts his gaze from Shizuku.
-Anyway unsatisfied with the outcome I might have gone on a small rampage through the city and of course the demon slayers together with the government went out to stop me. After a lot of fighting and running away I was badly injured and about to die when a man appeared. He asked: "Are you unsatisfied with the outcome?". After nodding "yes" he continued: "Then rewrite the past" and he told me about the device at which point I used my powers to send my memories back.
Still extremely skeptical of the story Shizuku finally spoke.
-I get the gist of the story. So could you contact this man in this time period so he can confirm your story.
-Impossible, I don't even know his name. Not to mention he might not even have the device at this point. In fact he might have already anticipated my arrival in which case we wouldn't be able to find him unless he decided to reveal himself.
Thinking how convenient that was, but deciding not to point that out right now, Shizuku quickly changed the subject.
-So assuming I believe your story, what's your plan now? I imagine you'd probably want to prepare for the war if you want to change the outcome. Or do you plan to stop it from happening?
-Right I don't expect you to believe my entire story but I still felt like I should tell you. What I need you to accept right now is that I have knowledge "this" Amakawa Yuuto shouldn't posses, especially about your situation, and also believe me when I say that the war is coming. The rest is up to you whether you want to believe it or not although I think after witnessing my predictive powers you won't be able to doubt me forever.
Clearly he is right about possessing knowledge he shouldn't have but I can't simply accept what he says about the future. I suppose if I reject his second premise he will just tell me to observe his less distant predictions and then use that as proof he has knowledge of future events. The fact he knew I would be coming is a good example, I can't simply object to that. But for now I'm more interested in what his plan is after I accept his premises, so let's give it a try.
-Very well, I suppose I can accept both of your premisses.
Showing a slightly glad expression Yuuto continues
-Excellent, then on to the main topic. I need your help.
It was either this or asking me not to kill him and let him move freely while he prepares for war.
-My help?
-Yes, hold on for a second.
Yuuto looks at his palm and after a few seconds yellow static flashes and disappears.
-Hmm, as I am now it would take about 3 days for my powers to return and probably a couple of months before they're fully functional. Also this body is weak, if an ayakashi attacked me right now I wouldn't stand a chance.
-Don't you have the Crimson Blade protecting you for that reason.
-Heh, you really think I could trust her after what happened? She could turn on me any second. And it's not just that, I need someone to help me train as well as eventually help me deal with Tama and Shuten-douji as well as other fights that might arise. You're the only one who can do this.
-Even if what you're saying is true and we fought together in your world, this me has no reason to help you.
-Of course I don't expect you to help me for the same reasons as you did in my world. Here you actually have a lot to gain from helping me.
-What do you mean?
-Well leaving things as they are Tama will eventually reach you and you'd be forced to join her or become her enemy, and that would mean certain death if she wins the war. I'm offering an alternative. We would be working towards a common goal. Other than my knowledge of certain future events I'm also an experienced fighter. If you help me reach my prime again I would be a match for either Shuten or Tama if it was 1 on 1. I just need to strengthen my body and get used to it and I will be as powerful as back then. I'd say in around 3 months I should be at around 50% of my former power and at full power by the time they show up a year from now.
If he truly is as powerful as he claims it certainly would be useful to keep him on my side, however I don't know if I can trust him at this point. He could be laying a trap and his story is pretty ridiculous. Although if he does start predicting future events like he claims he will, it would be an easy way to erase any doubts. And again even if he is telling the truth what if he turns on me as soon as he gets back to full power? It's too dangerous, I will have to refuse. I should retreat for now and plan my next course of action.
-I refus….
-Also if you help me I will make sure you get your revenge.
Cut off mid sentence by Yuutos sudden words Shizuku is pretty shaken and angrily says.
-What are you talking about? The Jibashiri family was destroyed years ago during the war.
-Most of them were destroyed yes, however some of them survived and became inactive. One of their descendants is still living today as a normal human, but her blood is still that of Jibashiri.
Shizuku is left completely speechless by his words and quietly listens on.
-Kuesu, one of my allies knows where she is and can contact her. If you agree to help me until the matter with Tamamo no mae and Shuten-douji is settled I promise after 6 months I will allow you to meet her, and I promise nobody will interfere no matter how you chose to proceed. Of course I'll also guarantee your safety, at least until our contract is over. I'll trust you to keep your promise after that.
I still don't know if I can trust him however he's clearly shown he possesses knowledge that he shouldn't. Whether his story is true or not, what he claims about the Jibashiri descendant might still be the truth. 6 months is nothing compared to how long I've waited, not to mention the fact that I'd thought it was impossible until just now. Even though he might betray me I cannot pass up the possibility of getting my revenge. The answer is obvious.
-I accept.
With a blank expression as if he knew no other answer was possible he said.
-Good. Starting tonight you'll be staying at my place. You probably need to report to Kagetsuki and the others about what happened and get your things in order, so let's regroup in a few hours. You know where I live right?
Of course he casually knows Kagetsukis name too.
-Yes I know.
-Right, wait outside the house at 19:00 I'll walk out and let you in. I need to get everything settled so nobody throws a fit when you show up.
-You need to tell the Crimson Blade your story?
-No, you're the only one I plan on telling. If I told anyone they'd just think I was crazy and there's nothing to gain from it. You're free to tell whoever you want if you think it's a good idea but avoid telling Himari and anyone else I associate with. It would just create unnecessary problems.
I'll just make something up about how I've remembered my past at my grandparents place or something to explain my change to Himari. I've gotta make sure she obeys me unconditionally too for my plan to work. She's probably done with her little bath now, I should probably go back and talk to her. You're welcome to come watch as long as she doesn't see you.
-Very well demon slayer I'll do as you've said and meet you at your house later.
-Oh right, from now on you can call me "Light".
-"Light"? I don't mind.
-If anyone asks why just say something like "It's short for "Light ferry user"" or something.
-Very well then, Light we'll regroup at 19:00 at your house.
-Right.
With that Shizuku jumps into the trees and becomes undetectable.
Yuuto is left sitting alone under a tree, slowly gets up and start heading back into the forest.
End of chapter 1
After chapter notes:
The name of the story refers to the shadows (traumas/bad memories/grudges whatever you want to call them) in both Shizuku and Yuutos souls. Again won't spoil anything but clearly they would be each others light to break through the shadows and it's also Yuutos new name. From here on Shizuku (and some others) will call him this. If you ask why that would be a spoiler but it has nothing to do with his Light ferry and also nothing to do with Light from Death Note. But I will tell you it's short for "Lightbringer" so take that how you will. (Also from here on out I'll refer to him as Light in both narration and notes)
Next chapter Light should talk to Himari and Rinko and establish their future relations, welcome Shizuku into his home and tell her some of the short term aspects of his plan and end after the first night.
Any feedback is welcome including suggestions or ideas about what you'd like to see. I've got the general event layout planned out as well as what happens to each character but I might change my mind if I feel like it. Also tell me if the text format is readable. It should be clear which character is talking but tell me if it's difficult to distinguish between narration and thought. If it is I might put the thoughts in italics or something. Chapter 2 coming soon.