"Man cannot endure his own littleness unless he can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level."
― The Denial of Death
The Fiend dreamed.
He dreamt the sand laden wastes of the Tokyo he remembered. The uncaring glare of the conception's pale sun. Each step his feet digs into the scorching sand the Kagutsuchi knew he would come and collect the price for killing the world. Each demon in his way a feeble attempt to slow him down, becoming little more than stains in his path after being dealt with.
In his dream he could vividly hear their last words, their pleas and curses before finishing them off. Some even would have the gall in begging for a place in his demon band; something he would always find amusing. He sometimes would cater to his whims and take them in only to be fused into the Cathedral of Shadows later on, becoming stronger demons who would be blindingly loyal to his will.
However, only a few select demons he found truly trustworthy. One he would find longing for her more than most.
With these thoughts the Fiend found himself awake in a new universe. The universe he wrung out from the Kagutsuchi, the world it killed in bringing forth the conception.
Kashima Naoki's dreams wouldn't only be remembered by him. The people he once thought of as friends were resurrected alongside the universe. They remembered the conception, they had to.
But after the universe's resurrection, they seemingly have changed. Have they regressed back into their old selves? Naoki didn't buy it.
Not a day in this new world he tried meeting with them.
Naoki couldn't help berating them for everything. In the hospital, for leaving him to escape on their own. In the vortex world, for suddenly having logic leave their minds and pursue some dumbfounded sense of reason. And in the tower of Kagutsushi, for trying to kill him just because he wanted the old world back.
"I'm sorry, alright?" Isamu said after Naoki poured his heart out. It wasn't the apology that threw him off, it was the look his 'friend' gave as he said the words. "Is that what you wanted me to say?"
"That's enough, you two." Chiaki had her brows furrowed, but Naoki could see no regret in her eyes.
"Enough? How would you know what's enough, you genocidal maniac!" Isamu snapped back. He noticed her reaction. "What? Gonna kill me too? It's as easy as breathing for you two, isn't it?"
"As easy as how you finished Hijiri off." Naoki spat.
That made him flinch.
"Oh? Not as innocent as we seem, Isamu?" Chiaki added. "I killed those- manikins, you called them? To create a world where the strong may rule. You, however, merely wished for a corner to cry on."
Chiaki crossed her arms.
"Tch. I don't have time for this." Isamu waved them off and walked away.
"Isamu-!" Chiaki stepped in front of Naoki before he could chase Isamu.
Chiaki stepped closer to her childhood friend, clasping her hand along his cheek. "Your eyes, they're turning yellow."
Kashima flinched.
"You haven't given up your power, have you?" She smiled. "Unlike Isamu and me, who lost our powers when you killed us in the vortex world…"
"I-"
"And to think you rejected my reason-"
"I wanted everything to go back the way it was."
"You did." She let go. "And I will live in this world knowing you needed Yosuga to do so."
Naoki became silent.
"I lost my chance at creating a world, Nao-kun. So, like Isamu, I'll try living in this one you made. I just hope you can do the same."
With those parting words Naoki knew his old life could never be brought back.
Deep in the heart of Tokyo, Naoki visited a grave.
"He looked at me as if he didn't know what set me off. As if giving his apology would calm me down, like I was the crazy one-" Naoki slammed the stone wall he was leaning on, exploding on contact with his fist.
Naoki crouched down, sighing.
His companion ignored the damage caused by his outburst. "It is as if the vortex world they tampered with was a haze. As if the atrocities they committed was little more than a long-forgotten dream. It is as if-"
"…they wanted a fresh start, along with this new world…" Something boiled within Naoki.
Concentrated magatsuhi began leaking out of his body. Red lightning electrified his limbs and when his companion looked at the young man Kashima's eyes turned yellow.
"After what we did!?" Glowing tattoo-like markings appeared along his face. "After what they did!?"
"They might have realized the folly of their reason and resolved to live in this new world you have given to them."
"And they have the guts to look at me like I'm the insane one!?"
"They do. Yet, I suspect they would wish you do the same. To return on the same path of blissful ignorance as them."
"I saw the way Tokyo died, the way the world died." The fully fledged Fiend looked past the wall he had broken earlier. The broken wall showed Tokyo's buildings, similar looking to the ones he saw last before Tokyo crumpled itself into the vortex world. "I thought I could bring it all back if I forced the Kagutsuchi to restore everything."
"Did you not?"
"Not really." Naoki was in this new world for a day, already he felt the difference. "Every face I see who was there before the conception- they're not really the same people, are they?"
The Fiend looked at this companion. "My parents, my classmates. They're all dead. I was kidding myself in thinking I could bring everything back."
"They are the same individuals, are they not?"
"Not the same instance, no." Naoki looked at the Tokyo scenery. "It's like taking a demon from the compendium, they might have retained everything. But they're no longer the instance you met the first time."
"I do not comprehend. But this analogy is from the vortex world, is it not? The world where you attained the power you now wield. The same power your friends expect you to abandon."
"There was no way I could bring myself to get rid who I was. That'd be just spitting on the face of those who were loyal to me."
"Your old demon companions?"
Naoki took a step back from the view, touching the back of his neck. "This horn, these markings on my body, the magatama writhing inside me? They're the only proof of the demon I am, the rest of my demons are back in the Amala. Wherever that place is now…"
"I can feel my own power in you. Was this from the Masakado of the Vortex World?" Naoki's companion was curious.
He nodded. "The same Masakado from before the conception. Can't you remember?"
"I have his memories, yet I am Taira-no-Masakado of this-"
Naoki looked at his companion.
"…this instance. Yes. The instance of this universe you have made, not the one before." Masakado stepped closer to Naoki. "I see. Is this what you mean?"
The demon nodded.
"The reason, then, you sought my council was because I remind you of the Masakado of the vortex world?"
"Honestly, I expected you to remember everything."
"You are not wrong. I chose to call myself a separate instance of the one before." Masakado hummed in acceptance. "I imagine your friends are trying to do the same."
"All that talk of reasons, and they just get to walk away…" Masakado felt the demon's anger pulsing.
"Being a samurai." The samurai looked at the angered fiend. "I would suggest us dueling to relieve your anger, but I am fearful you would obliterate me by accident."
A breath escaped Naoki's lips. "Was that your idea of a joke?"
Masakado noticed his yellow eye reverting to its natural color. Naoki's markings also disappeared. "An ice-breaker of sorts. Or so it was called by one of the visitors here in my grave."
Kashima sat beside Masakado's grave.
The samurai stepped beside him. "Was it your own decision to keep your demonic power?"
Naoki paused. "What kind of question was that?"
"I can understand a warrior's revelry for blood. I am the same." He began. "But beyond your outbursts of rage, I do not see the flame of ambition."
"After everything that's happened, I don't know anymore." Naoki admitted. "But…"
Masakado was silent.
"In time, your true adversary will appear before you. Until that day, stay strong…"
Naoki closed his eyes. "I don't want to treat as if what had happened to me was a mistake. Anything that comes because of what I did, I'll deal with it. I'm not running."
Masakado hummed approvingly. "I see."
The samurai began to speak. "The previous Masakado have memories of demon summoners even before the conception."
"Yeah, the man who brought the conception was one of them." Naoki supplied. "I never knew anything about them before. I don't think anyone living normally did."
"Indeed." Masakado stepped facing the hole Naoki made. "The same could be said in this new world. You see it, do you not?"
"I do." Naoki would be lying if he denied it. Magatsuhi was flowing indiscriminately around the city. It wasn't as dense as in the vortex world, but it was definitely present.
"Demons also exist in this world."
Naoki gave the old samurai a raised brow.
"Beyond yourself, of course." Naoki felt Masakado's amused tone behind his mask.
"I did notice some people I run into with magatsuhi leaking out of them like faucet." The fiend instinctively swallowed. "But with the power they exude, they're closer to the level of manikins rather than actual demons."
"You are not fit to measure another's strength, I suspect."
"How come?"
"You would deem everything weak."
"I don't-"
"What demon, then, do you consider strong?"
"Mot."
"The Canaanite god of death?"
The fiend ignored him and continued. "What's your point?"
"These new demons, how weak they may be, have a chain of command." Masakado began. "If you follow it. You may find the key to the Amala."
"Key…" Kashima parroted.
"The one you spoke of. The one who started the conception."
"You think Hikawa is with these demons?"
"He was a demon summoner in the previous world, was he not?"
Naoki became silent, closing his eyes.
Masakado could see Naoki's expression shift. As the Fiend opened his eyes, the old samurai saw the same eyes of the one who killed his four Devas in the vortex world for sport. The one who demanded his power as if it was the demon's birthright. The one who promised to restore Tokyo.
"This is no time for you to be lost, King of Chaos." The old samurai smiled under his mask. "Even this new world holds no peace."