AlphaOmega

by Shinova

[Tsukihime] A stranger is stalking the streets. He can see lines of death. Tohno Shiki intends to find out who he is, where he came from, and why he's here.

3. Chapter 3

Alpha/Omega

A Tsukihime fanfiction by Shinova

Tsukihime and Kara no Kyoukai are creations of Kinoko Nasu and Typemoon

All other works belong to their respective owners

Chapter 3: Moonblade

The light of late morning basked Misaki town in its warmth. The streets were once again busy with the sounds of people going here and about carrying out their daily lives. The birds chirped, the insects buzzed, and for all intents and purposes the world was happy and content.

Arcueid Brunestud was not, in contrast. She stood in front of the Tohno premises, staring at the mansion in front of her. Shiki would normally be long awake at this time, but she had not seen him anywhere in town so figured that he must still be in bed. What for, she could not guess.

Making up her mind, she climbed over the gate, approached the front of the building and climbed the mansion wall up towards where Shiki's bedroom was on the second floor. The window was half open so all she had to do was open that all the way then climb right in.

Shiki was sitting on his bed, his head in his hands, which were wrapped in bandages. He looked up to see Arcueid enter his bedroom.

"Shiki! I thought you'd be awake so I looked all over town for you, but nope, couldn't find you. So I came here thinking that maybe you were still asleep, but nooo to that also, you were actually awake! So time to get up, Shiki! It's a great day outside, and it'd be a waste to spend it in bed. It's not good for your health you know," Arcueid said in an admonishing tone, wagging her finger for emphasis.

Shiki said nothing. He merely stared at his lap with a blank expression. Arcueid folded her arms across her chest, obviously displeased at his response. She walked closer toward him, looking at his face for any signs of a response. She sighed, and looked around the room instead and her eyes caught sight of Shiki's glasses on the desk...or rather what remained of them.

"...You broke them..." Arcueid remarked, an expression of mild surprise on her face. She walked over to the desk and picked up one of the pieces and looked it over, noticing the small bloodstain at one edge. She looked back at Shiki and noted again the bandages around his hands.

"What happened to them?" she asked.

There was a long pause of nothing from Shiki. Arcueid started to turn away but was stopped by Shiki, who said, "I got careless."

Arcueid blinked. "You got careless?"

"Yep. Those glasses had been with me for so long. I must've started to take them for granted since who knows how long ago. I never remembered that they're precious things too, and precious things can be easily broken. And so I got careless..."

Shiki fell backwards into bed, then rolled away from Arcueid to face the wall. Arcueid stared at the broken pieces for a little longer before walking up to Shiki's bedside. She grabbed the sheets and threw them aside.

"What the---what are you doing?" Shiki shouted angrily.

"Helping you get up. It's not healthy to stay in bed during such a fine day like this," Arcueid replied, folding her arms in annoyance.

"I don't wanna get up!"

"Well, you should!"

"So what?"

There was a tense and uneasy silence between the two. Arcueid turned away, gazing at the far wall. "It's the lines, isn't it?" she said. Shiki gave no reply, but Arcueid knew she was right. "Maybe I don't know everything about lots of things but I'm pretty sure I know enough. Sleeping and running away from those lines isn't the answer. I think you know that too."

There was no reply. Arcueid walked back over to Shiki and leaned over to place her hands on his shoulder comfortingly. "So why don't we go outside for a bit? Enjoy the air, eat lunch, go sightseeing again, like we did yesterday, what do you think?"

Shiki turned over to glance at Arcueid's smiling face. For a long moment they simply stared at each other, before a smile appeared on Shiki's face and he sat back up. "Always that easygoing you again," he remarked. He swung his legs over the side and stood up, stretching his arms. "I guess you're right. It'd be a real shame if I stayed in the whole day, with school being cancelled for a while. Alright, let's go then!" he decided with a note of confidence.

"There we go," Arcueid said happily. "The weather's great outside. I'm sure it'll cheer you up real quick."

"Yeah, it sure does look real nice outside. Even better than yesterday, maybe."

"See! I told you it'd be a good idea to go out!"

"Okay, okay, sheesh, I'll get ready."

Arcueid laughed as she went outside to wait for Shiki to get ready.

As Shiki got out of his pajamas and into his day clothes he thought about how easy it had been for him to get out of bed and actually go out and face the world, when Arcueid had been encouraging him to do so. At that moment he felt really glad he knew her.

-----------------------------------------------------

The lines were everywhere. People he walked by, the signposts, the street, everything. He was almost compelled to constantly watch where he was stepping, afraid to accidentally run the edge of his foot across a line and destroy the pavement. He had to be careful with Arcueid too; there were lines running across her as well.

It was horrible...like stepping across a world where Death hid behind every crack and shadow, silently mocking him. Arcueid was with him, however. Her constant smile and joyful mood gave his own spirits a very-needed lifting. She talked about things she talked about everyday, as if Shiki had never lost his glasses in the first place. The sense of normalness she projected helped make Shiki feel as if none of the horrible things last night had ever happened as well.
He concentrated on the color and texture of the pavement, not the red lines cris-crossing them. He focused on the faces of people he passed by, not the lines running across them. And more and more, he felt that he could somehow manage and live normally, even if the world seemed ready to fall apart at any moment. He imagined that Arihiko might suggest that they were reminders that he had better start appreciating the world more and do it some service and gain back some good karma...like by being Arihiko's personal cab service, for instance. Shiki chuckled at the thought.

"Hmm? Did you say something?" Arcueid asked as the two walked along.

"No, I was just thinking of something funny Arihiko might say if he knew about all the trouble I go through often," Shiki replied. He looked around himself at the line-infested downtown and said, "You know, it might not be so bad."

"Really?

"Yeah. If I focus more on the things themselves---like what's important: faces of people and such... If I do that, I think I might just get along fine. Might not be that bad after all." Then as an aside, "Of course having you around helps a lot."

Arcueid brightened. "Really?"

"Yep. Having a never-exhausting smile walking besides me helps," Shiki said, laughing.

"Hmph!" Arcueid's smile disappeared. "You make me sound like some kind of machine." She turned away, pouting.

"Nooo! The smile, it's gone!" Shiki wailed with fake distress. "Come back!"

"Nope."

"Ah, err, ehem...what can this lowly servant do to appease you, Arcueid-sama?"

"Hmmm..." Arcueid thought about what she could have Shiki do to make up. As she mused over possible options, Shiki started to fear the toll this day might have on his wallet.

Arcueid spotted the movie theatre and pointed at it. "Take me to the movies," she declared.

Oh crap, Shiki thought, smiling weakly.

-----------------------------------------------------

One pair of movie tickets plus snacks and drinks later, the pair left the theatre, Arcueid stretching her arms and going on about how fun that movie was while Shiki was gazing down at the rapidly approaching bottom of his wallet.

"Ah, that was fun! Let's go here again sometime," Arcueid said.

"Sure...sometime..." Shiki replied, still inwardly relenting the movie expenses. And who would've figured that Arcueid was a fan of Hong Kong-style action movies? He could just imagine Arcueid in one of those movies, wearing a spotless white suit, blasting enemies away with guns and Shinso-fu.

Afterwards the pair toured the city some more, visiting shops they've never been to and some they have. The two then stopped at the game center.

Arcueid stared at the entrance for a moment, then turned to Shiki while pointing at the game center. "Let's go in here," she said.

"And me get beaten to a pulp again? I dunno," Shiki relented.

"Who knows? You might've gotten better."

"Ah well...alright."

The two went inside. Arcueid waited near one of the machines while Shiki went to get some tokens. He stepped up to the change machine at the same time as someone else. "Oh I'm sorry, if you were here fir..."

"My, what a pleasant surprise, Shiki."

Shiki's expression instantly darkened as he glared at his doppelganger, who simply stared back with an amused expression.

"So...why are you here?" Shiki asked.

"Just enjoying myself like how you appear to be in the process of doing," the other answered innocently.

"Right..."

"You can check a couple of those machines over there. I set a couple of new high scores. Maybe you can try to beat them."

"Maybe I will."

"Excuse me, but can we use that?" a pair of small kids spoke up from beside them. The two Shikis stepped out of the way and allowed the children to use the machine.

"So...how is life, now that your connection to the Source is unimpeded by those glasses of yours?" doppelganger asked with a smirk.

"Heh...it's not bad at all," Shiki replied.

"Really?"

"Yes, really. The lines and the dots---they're there...all over the place. But I'm learning to ignore those and focus on what's important. Actually look at people's faces instead of the lines on them, for instance."

"Oh really? Just that? Nothing at all?"

"You know what I think?" Shiki said, gazing at the other with a look of confidence. "Now that I've given it some thought, you said before that you had somehow found the strength to not snap and look beyond the lines and dots... But you're wrong."

The doppelganger raised an eyebrow in response.

"You weren't strong...you were weak," Shiki continued. "You couldn't deal with the lines, so instead of learning to cope while still holding onto the important things, you just gave up... Gave up on those important things that really mattered, and just surrendered yourself to the lines like a coward. When you look at a face, you can't really see it, can you? A real face, not just a crude mess of lines. People's faces...their smiles... You're really missing out. And now here you try to somehow excuse the truth by convincing yourself that you were somehow strong in giving yourself up. Pathetic. Really."

"Oh? Is that so?"

"Yep. Those lines and dots may show you the beginning, end, and connections of everything...but that's all you see. You don't see the things themselves. You can't see what really matters."

The two gazed at each other in silence, one defiantly confident, the other seemingly amused.

"Let's get away from these weirdoes."

"Yeah, they're like those otaku freaks who pretend to be some anime character in public. Let's go."

The two kids that had been watching them quickly left to play at the machines. The Shikis ignored them and continued to play their staring game. The doppelganger finally said, "Oh well, whatever floats your boat. Just remember that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Give my offer some more thought and come back to me. I have all the time in the world." He then turned around and walked out of the game center.

Shiki smirked as the other left. He was hardly seriously concerned about the misguided bastard anymore. He grabbed some tokens and walked back over to where he had left Arcueid.

"Sorry, Arcueid, I was talking with someone and...where are you?"

Arcueid was nowhere to be found.

-----------------------------------------------------

The doppelganger headed towards a relatively quiet alleyway, seeking some peace and quiet away from the noisy downtown area. He pondered over what the other had said with a sense of amusement. If Shiki wanted to believe that he was stronger by refusing to accept the connection, that was fine with the doppelganger. Sooner or later, he would have to face the reality that was his connection to the Source and accept it as truth.

Even if Shiki refused to help him eventually, the doppelganger could still accomplish his goal---albeit taking more time to do so, but it was still achievable.

The doppelganger walked on down the alleyway, enjoying the quiet atmosphere, when he suddenly sensed, or rather saw, someone approach the alley intersection just up ahead. Arcueid stepped out from around the corner and stood in his path, facing him.

The doppelganger's mouth hung open in a mixture of surprise and delight. He then smiled widely. "Ah...I haven't seen that face in a long time," he remarked, watching Arcueid glare at him. "Arcueid Brunestud... So, what brings you here today?"

"You're the one who's been giving Shiki trouble lately. You must also have been the one who broke his glasses," Arcueid stated, rather than asked.

"Correct, although I personally wouldn't call it giving him trouble---rather just trying to enlighten him to the truth. As for his glasses, he doesn't need them."

"That's up to him to decide."

"What if he didn't know better? But whatever. I'm here to request his help on a little something I've been trying to do. I'm taking it that he hasn't decided yet."

Arcueid narrowed her eyes. "I can sense that you don't actually belong here. Whatever you're here for can't be for Shiki's or the world's good. What are you trying to do?"

"It's not something one who is not a Shiki needs to know...or can understand, even," the doppelganger replied mockingly.

"Why don't you let me decide that?"

The doppelganger smirked. "No."

"Well, whatever it is, he obviously doesn't like it. Since that's the case, I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you...'disappeared.'"

Arcueid suddenly rushed the other with a clawed hand. The doppelganger flipped open his knife just in time to block the attack. The two pushed against each other, but Arcueid was slowly but gradually gaining the upper leverage through her superior strength, her hand inching toward the other's throat. Arcueid then lashed out with the other hand as well. The doppelganger disengaged and dove backwards to avoid the slash. The two stood, facing each other. The stranger flipped his knife a few times, always keeping that same amused expression on his face.

"You can't beat me," the doppelganger said calmly. "Your Shiki was able to kill you effortlessly before you could react. What makes you think you can defeat me?"

Arcueid narrowed her eyes at the other. Then her eyes flashed gold. The doppelganger could see the vacuum pockets coming and slashed out at the air in front of him, killing the Marble Phantasm attack before it could manifest.

"I can see everything," the doppelganger spoke once more. "It's hopeless for you. Give up."

Arcueid narrowed her eyes, then launched a fury of attacks against her opponent, slashing, kicking, and dashing here and there, interrupted by the occasional Marble Phantasm attempt, which the doppelganger kept killing before they manifested. The two zipped back and forth across the ground and the walls, Arcueid's attacks tearing giant gashes out of the pavement while the doppelganger stayed on the defensive.

Arcueid stopped for a moment and gazed up at the buildings around her. She swiped her hand upwards. Giant chunks of concrete ripped themselves off of the buildings and rained down towards the doppelganger, who looked up at the incoming debris with a bored expression. He reached out with his knife towards the incoming rocks and made a few short swipes. The concrete pieces shattered into smaller, harmless ones. "I don't need to be up close, you know," he said, blocking Arcueid's hand as she lashed out at him. The two traded a few more hits before disengaging.

"This is getting boring. Even Ciel was more interesting than this," the doppelganger commented out loud as he jumped away from Arcueid to give himself some room. "You're supposed to be the princess of the Shinsos...the ultimate one. Even with consideration of what Shiki's done to you, is this it?"

Arcueid frowned. She materialized a hail of air blades surrounding the doppelganger and accelerated them towards the him. The doppelganger's knife flew once as he killed the Marble Phantasm behind all the air blades.

"Short, mid, or long range, nothing of yours can hurt me. Shiki is the only one who can possibly match me. Give up, and I'll just forget about you," the doppelganger said.

"No," Arcueid replied, crouching down to attack again.

The doppelganger sighed. "Alright then," he said, finally going on the offensive. He made a single slash at the air. Arcueid stumbled briefly as her connection to nature was weakened. The doppelganger then slashed at the air and disappeared, reappearing behind Arcueid, who tried to turn around in time but failed as her opponent made a single stab into Arcueid's body.

Arcueid's eyes widened and she fell to the ground as her connection to nature was permanently severed. She could feel her power dwindling at an incredible rate.

The doppelganger stepped around Arcueid to stand in front of her. "If it exists, I can kill it. Whether it'd be actually there in physical space, or something you can only think about. That is the power that we posses: your Shiki, myself, and an unknown number of others. I've just cut you off from your source of power. That is the weakness of the Shinsos. A dependence on an outside source of power. Rather pitiful, if you think about it."

Arcueid's eyes suddenly glowed. Her opponent's eyes widened as he felt his upper body become separated from his legs. His halves crashed into the ground, blood leaking like a flood out onto the pavement.

"Getting careless, are we?" Arcueid taunted, lifting her head off of the ground to watch the doppelganger's blood pool further over the concrete.

"Heh," the doppelganger spoke up from where he lay on the ground. "If you were Shiki, I'd be in trouble since the very meaning behind my body staying together would be destroyed. But since you are a mere Shinso, not a Shiki, you cannot do so, which means I can do this."

The doppelganger raised his knife and made a slash across where his abdomen would be. And suddenly, in a blink of an eye, his body was whole once again. The blood was gone, the doppelganger could move his legs freely---it was as if they had never been separated in the first place.

Arcueid lay in shock. The doppelganger noticed her surprise and said, "Think about it. I simply killed and refuted the existence of your action of having cut me in half, hence by definition it never happened in the first place. This is something only those with eyes like ours can accomplish."

The doppelganger then kneeled beside Arcueid's prone body. "And now," he said, raising his knife, "I return you to the Source..." He stabbed down at her dot. Arcueid's eyes widened for a split second before her body and essence faded away into nothingness.

The doppelganger stood up and brushed the dust of his clothes, gazing down at the pile of clothes that was all that remained of Arcueid.

"Good night, Arcueid Brunestud."

The doppelganger then walked away.

-----------------------------------------------------

Shiki ran through the streets, desperately searching for Arcueid. The other gamers at the center had mentioned they had seen her walk out of the center. Shiki could think of no reason for her doing so other than to follow his doppelganger. He glanced left and right, scanning the crowds for her familiar face. Suddenly a piercing pain erupted inside his head. He grimaced, stumbling a bit, grasping his head. He looked around and saw something...a pattern of lines...a dot disappearing. For some reason, he felt that was where he had to go.

He dashed into an alleyway, glancing left and right at each intersection he passed through. He had gone about four intersections in when he turned his gaze to his right and spotted a familiar set of white and purple clothing on the ground.

"Arcueid!" he called out, running down that alley toward the clothes. He could see craters and what looked like giant claw marks all across the ground and nearby walls.

Shiki finally reached the pile of clothing and stopped. A moment later he collapsed onto his knees, his trembling hands reaching out and grasping the empty clothes.

"Ar-Arcueid...no..." he managed to choke out, tears running down his face. He hugged the jumper to his face, his tears wetting the fabric, his body rocking softly. A few barely held back sobs escaped his throat, muffled by the fabric.

Minutes passed as he grieved her passing. He then slowly laid the clothes back on the ground and ceremoniously stabbed their dots with his knife. The fabric disintegrated into dust and drifted away into the air.

Once that was finished, he got up to his feet, wiping the tears off his face with one sleeve of his jacket. He looked up, a dark expression over his face. He concentrated his eyes, willing them to see farther---to see deeper. In the midst of a chaotic cloud of lines and dots which made up all the things in the area, he could see one dot which had a giant line running off to somewhere...a somewhere Shiki could not see but could guess was the Source. That dot was his doppelganger.

Shiki broke out into a furious sprint, heading straight for that dot. When Shiki found the doppelganger, there was going to be a lot of explaining...and payback to be done. This had to be settled, one way or another, and Shiki was going to settle it in the most final way he could think of.

He didn't have to run far until he spotted the familiar black-clad figure standing in a dead-end alley, his back to Shiki.

"Hello again," the doppelganger spoke as Shiki slowed down and stopped a few meters behind the former, who then turned around to face the other. "About Arcueid..."

"You killed her," Shiki said in a low voice exuding fury.

"She attacked me first. I reacted in self-defense."

"But you didn't have to kill her, you bastard moron!" Shiki shouted, his voice echoing off of the walls of the alley, which was in fact the same one where he had first talked with Arcueid.

Shiki took a deep breath. "You must truly see the world and all the people and living things inside it as nothing more than sets of lines and dots. So wrong..."

"Right and wrong are entirely subjective. Absolute truth is not," the doppelganger replied, turning around to face the alley again.

"Is that what you think? You're hardly human. You're a monster," Shiki accused.

A long silence passed between the two. Shiki was busy trying to think up of plans on how to take down the doppelganger when the latter suddenly spoke up.

"Is she nice?" he asked.

"Who?" Shiki asked, taken somewhat by surprise.

"Arcueid. Is she nice?"

Shiki pondered the question for a few seconds before answering. "Arcueid wouldn't hurt a fly, unless there was a really good reason."

"I see." The doppelganger spoke nothing else.

Shiki was about to say something more when the doppelganger interrupted him.

"Arima Shiki."

"What?"

"Arima Shiki. That's my name. Quiet and interesting coincidence, don't you think?"

Shiki inwardly nodded. Now he had a name to associate the doppelganger with.

"Do you want to know where I came from?" the doppelganger, Arima, asked, turning around to look at Shiki, who made no response. Arima simply turned back around and continued anyway.

"I'm from a parallel universe. One of many, or an infinite number---I don't know yet. I came here by killing the barrier between universes for a brief moment. You may have felt that."

Shiki remembered the strange dream he had experienced in the first night.

"It's truly interesting...to have lived in my world---my Earth, that is. Imagine a world where Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Shinsos live together in almost perfect harmony, each respecting the other and recognizing them as fellows...comrades... Family...

"We Humans are known for being versatile and adept with different environments and situations, and with whatever's at hand or given to us. The Dwarves are the master builders and forgemasters. A few here and there from these two races can use magic, but the Elves are magic masters. Every single one of those pointy-eared people can use magic to a great degree.

"And then you have the Shinsos. Almost walking deities...masters over all of nature. There is almost no animal on the face of the planet that wouldn't piss itself in the presence of a Shinso, even a young one. You would think everyone would be quivering in their shoes every time a Shinso walked by, but no. They're like big brothers to us, almost.

"And most of all, they're nice. Really nice, generous, and kind... Almost too nice. I suppose being incredibly powerful grants them the luxury of being too nice. Sometimes I wish I had that luxury too."

Shiki was rapt with attention now. He figured he could put off taking Arima down until he had heard all about this very interesting world the other came from.

"You know what's really funny?" Arima asked.

"What?"

Arima chuckled a bit before going on. "We have schools, like you do. Most kids have to attend some kind of school, one way or another. Shinsos don't have to though, since they just suck the knowledge right out of their environment and suddenly know it all. But a few do occasionally go to school just for the hell of it---you know, the social and cultural experience and all. But really, you should see results...dead hilarious, especially when Arcueid attended ours."

"Arcueid?" Shiki's eyes widened.

"There are two Shikis here: you and me. Would it not be too far of a stretch of imagination for there to be two Arcueids as well? Anyway, you get kids who keep trying to tackle her and beat her in a wrestling match during the break hours. Of course, she almost just tosses them aside. They never gave up though." Arima had a genuine smile on his face, as he recalled memories from his past. "She was a big friend of mines. We always went everywhere together. She'd keep making stuff like tasty snacks and toys for me with her Marble Phantasm ability. I guess it's their way of showing they care.

"It seemed like paradise. Until my mom tried to stab me to death and put me in a coma for several months."

Shiki's mouth opened slightly in shock. He couldn't quite imagine how it'd be like for a child if their mother suddenly came at them with a knife.

"So after the coma," Arima continued, "I could see the lines, things got tough, then I picked myself back up, and several centuries later, here I am---pissing you off, I suppose."

Shiki chuckled a bit. He said, "I suppose you still haven't given up on finding that absolute truth thing."

"Nope. That's always been on my mind," Arima answered. "It's just that it's really great to feel nostalgic at times. Gives one a sort of...peace of mind."

Perhaps there is some human left inside him, Shiki thought.

Arima turned around to face Shiki, whose body tensed in response.

"I will now leave, and take this universe with me. As for you, if you do manage to save yourself, then find me. Then perhaps we can talk again," the black-clad doppelganger spoke, raising his knife into the air.

"Wait, what do you mean 'taking the universe with you?'" Shiki shouted.

Arima simply smiled, then drove the knife down into himself---no, he was stabbing something else. Arima's form started to flicker, as if fading in and out of existence. He then made a second cut across the air.

Shiki stumbled as the entire fabric of everything seemed to buckle and waver. He started to realize what was going on: Arima had stabbed the death dot of this universe, and it was in the process of returning to the Source. He could feel his own thoughts and essence pulling apart at the seams. He panicked, frantically trying to come up with a way to survive, then remembered the first stab Arima had made on himself, and realized what it was the doppelganger had been stabbing at.

Shiki searched his own body and concentrated his eyes harder than he had ever done before. He began to feel a searing pain in his eyes and head as the pain escalated rapidly and filled his perception. He searched and looked deeper until he at least found what he was looking for.

Just as the entire alley started to get sucked away, Shiki stabbed down at his target with all his might. The world seemed to explode with light as his knife hit its target, and he lost consciousness immediately afterwards.