At some point during his descent, Boss lost track of time. Perhaps somewhere down the line he had lost his mind as well. The darkness was never ending, swallowing him further and further until it was all he knew. At times he thought he might have seen a speck of light twinkle in the event horizon, but it would always vanish before he had a chance to zero in on it.
In every sense of the word he felt like he was losing himself. He couldn't even see his own flailing body with how infernally dark it was. He was even struggling to recall anything about himself or when he'd just been. Madness had wiggled into his noggin like a leech feeding off his brain matter. He was surely destined to face a most grim end, if he was even allowed to die at all. Maybe he'd just keep falling forever, laughing and crying to himself for all eternity.
Then something fluttered by his vision. Gently it weaved left and right, hypnotising him with its majesty. It was a tiny blue butterfly. It sparkled a brighter blue than Sojiro thought possible. Perhaps it was the blackness around it that made it stand out so, but it seemed to have a light source all of its own. It sparkled like starlight, finally settling on his nose.
Ordinarily, Sojiro would have shooed it away, himself never being a particular fan of the insect. Yet he dared not move a muscle, in fear that his only tangle source of light would leave him behind. What Boss could not have predicted was the light that shone forth from this tiny butterfly began to burn brighter and brighter. In a matter of moments, it consumed Sojiro entirely, and where once had been nothing but blackness, was now nothing but white. He felt a ringing in his ear, his mind groggy and his breathing heavy.
"Damn," he muttered to himself. He coughed and sputtered as he felt the wind had been knocked out of him.
The white began to depart, and only then did he realise he had stopped falling. Not only that, but he felt something beneath him that wasn't the now haunting feeling of wind rushing past him. Velvet; the soothing touch of velvet was between his finger tips. He savored the sensation like it would be his last. As his vision returned to him, he was now greeted to the soothing colour of a deeper, richer blue.
Before him was a carpet, and around it a glossy black marble floor. He was certainly not in the void anymore, but he wasn't anywhere he recognised either. As began to regain full control of his faculties, a sharp feminine tone called out into the distance.
"The accused may rise!"
Sojiro shook his head again, now realising he was not alone. He froze on the spot as he felt a trickle of sweat travel down his forehead. He had the uneasy feeling course through him that there were more than one set of eyes upon him.
"I will repeat. The accused may rise!" She called out again, and the Boss was starting to suspect she was referring her to him.
He got onto his knees and lifted himself off of the ground. As he did so, the top of his head whacked against something wooden and hard.
"Ouch," he groaned not so eloquently. He clutched at the sudden shot of pain that travelled over his cranium
"The accused will have plenty of time to focus on his pain later. Court is now in session!"
This lady was starting to get on his nerves. However, a single word she spoke stood out to him immediately. Court? He was in court? His eyes shot open, and Sojiro was finally able to take in the whole room.
Sure enough, he was in a courtroom, but unlike any he'd seen before. Your typical Japanese courtroom was a bog standard affair, white and brown, a long desk with everyone important behind it, and the room split into two sides. One for the prosecution, the other for the defence.
Sojiro was standing at his own podium at the centre of the room. The walls around him were the same colour blue as the carpet. His podium, and the construction before him was a deep black, with a curious symbol fixed at the raised desk where the judge should be. A swivel chair had its back turned towards him, and the Boss could make out the lithe arms of whoever was sitting on it. It was such a grand structure, it seemingly reached to the very heavens, forcing Sjiro to keep his eyes upwards.
Standing before the judges platform was quite possibly the most imposing woman Sojiro had ever seen. She was easily a whole foot taller than him, she had dark skin and a set of fiery eyes that were fixed straight at him. Her long white hair contrasted against her body, her blue outfit matched the rest of the room, and appeared to be a more fanciful version of a guards uniform. Her shoulders were squared up, her generous chest puffed out, and poking out from the hands behind her back, he could make out the familiar image of a night stick held tightly. The most intense part about her were her notable lacks of sleeves, her bulging muscles unable to be contained within the fabric.
"Let us begin!" Lifting one hand up, she snapped her fingers and where there once had been a void of silence, was quickly replaced with song.
As if he appeared from thin air, a man and his piano emerged from Sojiro's left, his whimsical melody filling the room with a tune he had performed for since the dawn of time. To his right, a woman joined in his song with her elegant voice, her highest notes reaching the depths of Sojiro's soul. And lastly, at the top of the podium, the chair spun in place and the judge was revealed. He was a man with a kind, yet twisted smile; half his face covered in a porcelain white mask. As the music reached its peak, his voice travelled down to Sojiro's ears as if he was speaking beside him.
"I am Philemon, a dweller in the rift between consciousness and unconsciousness of all souls. I am you. You are me. I will always watch over you, no matter where you might be." He paused, pursing his lips as he himself seemed to take in the room for the first time. "You must forgive me, it has been some time since I last found myself in this spot. I fear I am a tad rusty at all of this."
"Uh huh," was all Boss could utter, his jaw working overtime to find anything else to say towards this bizarre situation.
"The one I usually entrust with such matters is a bit preoccupied these days. He is recovering from a terrible sentence, so here I am instead."
"Right…"
"I see we've started theming these events as well. Tad dramatic, but I quite like it myself."
"May I ask-"
Before he could finish his sentence, the giant of a woman launched herself forwards and whacked the hand Sojiro had left resting on his podium with her baton. He yelped in pain as she grew closer to his face.
"No questions from the accused. Your time will come later." She returned to her spot as fast as she had left it. As he nursed what he suspected was a few broken bones, Sojiro found himself staring fearfully at every inch of this amazonian woman. He knew if she wanted too, she could have destroyed him entirely, and she'd barely break a sweat doing so.
"Shelley," Philemon admonished with a smile, waggling his finger at her. She sulked and tilted her head down. "Forgive her. She's new and eager to please."
"I-I can see that," Boss stammered, hoping not to invoke her ire again.
"Now, ordinarily, we'd pay you a visit before you accepted any kind of contract, but it would appear that fate is whimsical today. Your journey has taken a most curious turn, Sojiro Sakura. I'm afraid I must find you guilty of that at least."
Ever since he had arrived in this place, Boss had been bombarded with a wide array of emotions. Joy that he was no longer falling, fear of this new unknown, panic at the sight of these strangers, calm at the music, but now he felt a sudden strike of anger. He knew it was not wise, but he had never had the coolest of heads, especially when he felt his back firmly against the wall.
"Guilty!? Of what crime?"
Shelley gripped her baton tighter, but Philemon only laughed, It was not a cruel cackle, but a warm chuckle, as he wiped an imaginary tear from his eye.
"Accepting the devil's bargain, of course. Why else do you think you found yourself here?"
"Accepted? A bargain?"
"Do you truly not recall? Think on what you last did before you started plummeting into the void."
And that's what he did. He recalled all that has happened before. The coffee shop, the disturbing stranger, his bizarre proposition, and most importantly, Sojiro's regrettable decision to take him up on it.
"I-I didn't have a choice!" Sojiro suddenly cried out. Shelly's eyes widened with anger as she stared him down, and Boss suddenly felt himself grow very small. "Well I didn't know he was serious."
"Didn't have a choice, didn't know he was serious, these are excuses, Sojiro. Words spoken like a child dodging responsibility for their actions. Yet a court of law cares nothing for these notions. It only cares what you did and didn't do. And as you have unwisely confessed, you made a deal with the devil itself."
Philemon picked up the gavel and slammed it on his podium. The sound struck like the crack of hip whip, echoing across the courtroom, bringing everything back to an unnerving silence.
"Court is now in session," the strange man announced. "Shelley, your opening statement."
"The accused, Sojiro Sakura, agreed so selfishly to abandon his world and ideals for the sake of a new life in a new body," Shelley growled out loudly, pointing her baton at Sojiro. "He is a wretched man indeed, giving power to a being who will only abuse it. How does the accused plead? Guilty or not guilty?
"What is all this? Is this all some game to all of you?" Sojiro quickly found his fire again in the face of rapid accusations.
"No more questions! Answer me; guilty or not guilty?"
"Not guilty!"
"An interesting stance to take for a man who practically confessed to the crime just moments ago." Philemon cut in.
"And I already told you. I did not know his offer was serious. I thought he was some whackjob godthing, who I needed to bide time with until someone could get me out of that mess."
"So you do not deny agreeing to his deal then?"
"Damn it," Sojiro rubbed his eyes as he sighed in exasperation. "That's not the point. I didn't have a choice."
"A court has no time for such ill-pratter," Shelley spoke up. "Much like your flimsy concept of society, it is kept in check by hardline rules and barriers. If you kill a man, does it matter why? Only that you did."
"But if I kill a man in self-defence, then the context does matter." Sojiro crossed his arms and looked at her sternly. "You can't seriously pretend to not see the difference."
"Did you?"
"Did I what?"
"Did you kill your world in self-defence?"
"K-kill my world?" Sojiro felt his heart stop in his chest. "What the hell does that mean?"
"Your concept of reality, the world you once inhabited is no more. You have erased it, and it has been made anew to cater solely to you. It has become your little playground."
Something in Sojiro's mind snapped. She was lying, she had to be. There was no way everything he knew was now gone forever. Futaba, Le Blanc, the kids, the memory of Wakaba, it was all nothing but dust?
"I couldn't even move! I was nothing but putty in that freaks hands." No, he refused to accept it. He pressed on, pushing it out of his mind.
"Again, you are unable to deny your crime. You chose yourself above all others. Shameful, truly and utterly unforgivable."
"Fine, you know what, yes I did. But you already knew that, all of you. This is just for show. You're playing me for a damn fool."
The music stopped. Silence reigned once more. Philemon and Shelley stared blankly at Sojiro. Neither betrayed any emotion behind their eyes, and the longer the silence went on, the more conscious Sojiro became of the passage of time. And then, with no prompting whatsoever, Philemon smiled a large toothy grin.
"The fool…" He spoke quietly, just loud enough for Sojiro to hear. "The start of a journey. That is what you are, Sojiro, but there is no shame in that. Young and old alike, we all go through times where we must venture into the unknown. Now after so long waiting, your time has begun." The gavel whacked against the podium once more, and the song began to play again. "A verdict has been reached!"
"How do we find the accused?" Shelley asked, refusing to tear her gaze from Sojiro.
"Guilty! Guilty on all accounts!"
The Boss found his heart sink to his stomach as a new sense of dread washed over him. For the first time since he had met her, Shelley grinned. It was a sinister smile, one barely masking her sickening intent.
"And now what becomes of the accused?"
"Why what else? He is given the greatest punishment any one being can suffer through. He must now live his life!"
"... What?" Sojiro muttered as he gave Philemon a confused stare.
"You must live your life in penance, Sojiro Sakura. For your selfish deed, you will get to live this new found existence, but you will not live without responsibility. You live now with the memory of your crimes, and that you must bring others to justice."
"Justice? What are you going on about now?" Sojiro grit his teeth and called out. "Damn it! Give me some straight answers!"
"There have been many men and women throughout time that have taken an important roles in history; some were messiahs, others truth seekers, and a rare few tricksters, but this is not a story for any of them. Your tale - or rather your role - is one of the hunter. Sojiro, that is your sentence, to be this new worlds hunter."
There was so much more Sojiro wanted to say, so much more he wanted to ask, but then he felt eyelids grow heavy. He let out a weak yawn as he was hit by an unbearable state of exhaustion.
"Our time is up, I'm afraid. Sojiro, know this; you are a guest in this velvet room. When the time comes, we will speak again. But only when your role becomes clear. I wish you luck. Remember; I am always watching over you."
The corners of his vision grew dark, he now struggled to stand on his own two feet. Before he knew it he had collapsed to the floor again. His fear was smothered by his own exhaustion, the sounds of that beautiful song helping him to fall fast asleep.