Fictions Mentioned:
Episode 11
OP Song:
Corpse Party - Shangri-La - Romaji and English Lyrics
Insert Song: Start
A Decaying World - Corpse Party: Blood Drive Music Extended
Eons ago in a parallel dimension...
The Ancients, an archaic god-like humanoid race, were fighting a brutal and seemingly endless interspecies war that spread out to not just one but several worlds. This was a time of blood and conflict, a time of civil unrest, and a thousand years of nothing but endless strife with little to no meaning that began only with a trace of fear and discrimination.
They all fought out of ignorance, out of evil, and out of hatred.
Sometime later, many of the warring Ancient factions slowly discovered a psychic force springing up within many of the armies' units; the power to read minds and manipulate the brain, in other words, the power of a psychic. Little is known of their mysterious power and the origin that lay behind it. But from what can be gleaned from fragmentary sources, it was the result of unethical experiments that came about at the hands of their scientists.
Out of foolishness and the greed of the Ancients, some of the warring factions stretched their powers to their very limits beyond what it normally is considered to be safe and sound, spawning terrifying concepts ‒ The Evils. Darkness and unspeakable evil were spread out among the stars and even to parallel dimensions. Unspeakable horrors, brainless swarms of zombies, and beings of pure evil were unleashed on the Ancient's homeworld.
Because of the scale of this particular conflict that is now termed to be known as the "Ancient Psychic War", it had warranted the attention of the Temporal Powers Alliance. And thus, the Gallifreyans and other Higher Races took note of this Evil and its dangers to the wider multiverse, and decided to purge it with all of their might and will. They assisted the Ancients, whose factions all united in one common goal, tense as their relationship is due to an eternity of conflict with each other, banned together as one, facing their greater demonic foe that spawned many shapes of horrific atrocity that plagues even the gods.
What had happened next as a consequence was a terrible and bloody aftermath that resulted in numerous temporal paradoxes that had to be sealed with sophisticated time locks and the near-extinction of the Ancients. Almost 1% survived.
Before the Ancients near extinction, the wisest and most powerful Ancient psychic, The Wise One, vowed that their power must be kept safe from the Evils, lest their multiverse collapse under a tribe of pure chaos and so used the last of his energy to seal the psychic power in a type of ancient stone fortress that could not be penetrated by normal and abnormal means.
The Castles.
During The Wise One's own gruesome last stand, he wrathfully cursed all Evils, living and unliving, dead and in limbo, to be forever bound to guard the Castles against any intruder.
And thus comes the Book of Shadows ‒ a dark, magical tome filled with instructions on how to perform various spells. Crafted from human skin and animal hides, and has a skull design sewn onto the front cover. There are two scratch marks resembling two Fuþark (Futhark) runes, Ansuz and Hagalaz, on the upper left and bottom right corner of the cover respectively.
What little does anyone realize is that this Book is perhaps the one dangerous grimoire that could potentially spell the end of everything in several worlds. For The Evils have returned after their eternal slumber at the hands of The Wise One. Once, The Evils have been awakened into existence and non-existence during the Last Great Time War. And now, at this present moment of time after an eternity of conflict that shook the Multiverse, have all gained a new master to follow, her psychic potential unbound based on her blessed and cursed bloodline, as they and many evils throughout many multiverses get dragged into the pit of Nirvana.
There will be blood. There will be horror. There will be death.
No one escapes Heavenly Host...
The five companions and everyone else who was listening to the Eighth Doctor's story regarding the Ancient Psychic War and how much of an atrocious time war it had turned out to the point where it heavily warranted TPA Intervention.
They all look at each other, concerned as they all are, as they take in the sheer scale and gravity of what they were dealing with. Then they look at all of the corpses of the stick figure zombies that were all lying in mere shambles, evaporated into mere nothing except tons of body parts and pools of unnatural blood.
"You've got to be kidding me, Doctor," Kyon muttered as he pinches his eyes, mulling over the history lesson that he had heard once before in TARDIS School Classes now being brought up for this specific moment.
"I wish I was Kyon," the Eighth Doctor replied sadly as he glances at the piles of stick corpses. "If these types of monsters, the types usually associated with the Castles, are running loose on this unnatural dimension, and if my sonic screwdriver wasn't malfunctioning when I performed a thorough scan of the corpse, then I shudder to think as to what else that our dear old ghost had managed to inadvertently unleash if she had reacquainted the specific dimension where the Castles are and reappropriate them here by the likes of old dark archaic magic. In any case, we would need to keep our guard up once we venture through these dimensions and find any survivors and clues." He turns towards Reimu Hakurei, Hibiki Tachibana, and Miku Kohinata. "You three should go back to my future self's TARDIS for the time being and monitor anything from the surveillance feeds and holomaps of the main console room. If you detect any signals regarding any survivors, do not hesitate to help them and bring them to the TARDIS where it's safe."
"Of course, Doctor," Reimu nodded seriously. She looks at the two girls with her. "Come on you two, let's go." And so, they begin to fly ahead as they head back to the TARDIS, with the Eighth Doctor, the companions, and the ghost watching on as little by little.
The Eighth Doctor begins to look at Dhruv Varma, speaking in a serious tone. "Tell me, Dhruv, what exactly have you found out so far while I and the boys are out scurrying about the school?"
"Well, I couldn't really find much, Doctor. Just dead bodies and restless spirits everywhere. Of the restless spirits, I think that you all should watch out for the bad ones. They are usually phantoms that appear all misty black looking with red eyes as if you need to take warning. Aside from them, you might have to watch out as well for any vengeful ghosts that have been brought into this place, and there are all kinds of them, many of which are the worst kind," the friendly ghost explained.
"Anything else besides that?" Kamijou asked.
"Well there's this," and at that point, the ghost begins to grab something from his pocket. From what can be known from his clenched fist, he appears to be holding something. By the time his fist was unclenched, there appeared to be a blue type of flame. It was a fragment of a soul.
The moment Kamijou looks at it closely and with his Force senses tingling, he begins to widen his eyes in surprise. He recognized the fragmented soul that this had belonged to. "...It can't be..." he muttered softly as he drew closer, mindful not to let his Imagine Breaker touch this fragmented soul. "Where did you find this fragment, Dhruv?" he asked the ghost.
"Somewhere around one of those classrooms. I believe it was Class 3-A if I'm not mistaken. Like hell, if names matter as the classrooms are all the same to me no matter where I go hover off too, plus the fact that the dimensions tend to unnatural change," Dhruv explained in a serious tone.
"Touma-san, you know this soul?" Sota Mizushino asked, noticing the surprised tone and expression of Kamijou.
"Yeah," Kamijou nodded seriously. "This fragmented soul...belongs to none other than the father of Sachiko, Shinozaki Seiji."
"What?!" everyone exclaimed, looking at the fragmented soul with interest.
"But what was this fragmented soul doing there?" Lelouch asked.
"I don't know for sure," Kamijou grimly said as he glances at the grey-colored sky. "In fact, last I could recall, I've managed to at least save Shinozaki Seiji from certain death as this was the catalyst that made Heavenly Host, or specifically Nirvana, possible in the first place. If I saved him, Heavenly Host is history."
"If that's the case, then why is this place still standing?" Lelouch asked, concerned at the issue and possibility of a temporal paradox.
"Good question. Considering that Heavenly Host lies outside of time and space, it stands to reason that even if I did manage to save him, Heavenly Host would continue to exist regardless. But it isn't even that that bothers me," he looks at the blue fragmented soul that was being held by Dhruv Varma. "It's the fact that a fragment of his soul exists here. Perhaps this could be a clue that we are looking for."
"We find all of the fragments, we bring the soul of the father whole and intact," Conan proposed.
"Right, but I doubt finding all of them would be easy, especially with all of the monsters running around here," Sota pointed out in a concerned tone.
"That's not all though. Say we find them all, then what? Some miracle happens and we let the girl get scolded by her dead daddy or something?" Kyon deadpanned.
"As disturbingly hilarious as that might look like, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, Kyon," the Eighth Doctor spoke with amusement. He uses his sonic screwdriver to scan the fragmented soul that Dhruv was holding and trace its biodata signature. "There, I scan the soul and managed to trace the signals for us to keep track of. Now all we can do at this point is keep moving forward, search for more clues, and more survivors."
"And we need to find the others, both the other five students of Kisaragi Academy and the rest of the Club members," Kamijou grimly added.
Insert Song: End
Insert Song: Start
Dies irae - Animation OST: AHIH ASHR AHIH
Somewhere in the TARDIS was a place called the medical bay.
One of them anyway.
It was a specific location on the TARDIS meant to render medical aid to both the crew and the passengers. This one feels less of a medical bay and more of a hospital ward that is as far as the eye could see. Advance medical equipment and technology were seen on all sides, sophisticated and well thought out, it almost felt like seeing something from a sci-fi movie come to life in a spectacular fashion.
Ayumi Shinozaki was lying down on an infirmary bed. Feeling a bit dizzy, with her head was placed on a pillow against the wall, allowing her to form a sitting position. She looks around to find a few other students that have been rescued from Heavenly Host and are now safely in the TARDIS, casually talking about either their recent brush with Heavenly Host or the more recent predicament that they all had found themselves in.
Not that Ayumi could blame them as she too couldn't help but feel that this place is the literal definition of "reality", "normal", and "logic" being thrown right out of the metaphorical window due to the way that this ship operates on.
"(Sigh). Are you alright, Shinozaki?" Yoshiki Kishinuma asked with a smile, sighing heavily. He was currently sitting next to Ayumi, with a chair that looked like a mixture between wood and technology, and it was placed right beside the bed.
"Y-Yes, I'm alright," Ayumi nodded with a smile. "Thank you for asking. But..." Her face dropped all of a sudden, turning serious as she pondered what had just happened. Even more so was she mulling over and processing the memories of dead-end timelines that she had experienced many times before this very moment.
The times she lived. The times she died. It was weird. How does one process the fact that she had lived so many lives and yet could not recall any of them whatsoever? Reincarnation is definitely out of the question. What has happened appeared to be experiences of past events; meaning that every single time that she and her friends ended up in Heavenly Host seemed like a predetermined outcome. They were all stuck in some kind of twisted time loop, and this time loop had lasted for a very long time. Hundreds? Thousands? It can't be overstated or counted at this point.
And then...there was Touma Kamijou.
It got her attention, especially the attention of Yoshiki Kishinuma and Yui Shishido, the latter was in fact somewhere walking around the large complex ship known as the TARDIS, having felt a lot better as, like Ayumi and Yoshiki, she got to rest up a bit on the admittedly comfortable bed.
It was weird. And yet...they were all worried for the young man. The history between him and them was quite profound, surprising, and a little bit sad.
After so long, they finally meet up once again. The young man who is known as Touma Kamijou had been known by another name and alias. He called himself...Touya Otohime. That was the name that he went by. But at some point, he revealed his real name to them all.
"My real name is Kamijou Touma. Please to finally meet you all. Well...again..."
Both of them sighed as they looked at each other, not knowing what to make of these memories that were sprouting from the back of their minds. They were so real and they knew that these memories belonged to no one but theirs and theirs alone. Still, what was mind-boggling was the different stature and physical appearance of the young man. When they first met this young man who looked and sounded far older than an eleven-year-old should be, they and the rest of their friends didn't know what to make of him. They always managed to bump into him one way or another, in spite of the many unnatural tries this had occurred. They remember being with this young man as they appeased the spirit dyed in red, the one who controls Heavenly Host, Sachiko Shinozaki, and it was a process that was repeated over and over and over. But why hasn't it stopped? It may have worked, but then...it worked specifically at one point while it didn't at another.
They were all trapped in some kind of time loop that spans the universe and beyond. They had no idea how long they had been reliving this moment. The exact memories are hazy at best. For Ayumi Shinozaki and Yoshiki Kishinuma, it probably felt that it was a very good thing that their clear memories were limited to important events somewhat, otherwise they might go a little mad on the revelation.
"You're thinking about Touma, right?" Yoshiki asked, calling him by his first name without some kind of honorific; using a familiar tone, which in fact was weirding him out, and yet felt quite right.
"...Yes," Ayumi nodded, just as worried for the young man all grown up as Yoshiki was. "I just...I...I never thought that we could see him again after all this time..."
"Heh. You and me both," Yoshiki smiled slightly. "Even more when I couldn't believe that we had been repeating this moment over and over again, you know, you gathering all of us and performing that stupid charm."
Ayumi only smiled sadly, her eyes lowering with guilt and pain in remembrance of events that had happened in the past...or was it the future...? "I'm sorry," she apologized.
"(Sigh). Don't blame yourself, Shinozaki," Yoshiki smiled reassuringly, patting Ayumi on the head which surprised her somewhat but nevertheless made her smile, recalling the times when he used to do that as one of many treasured and happy memories in spite of everything that had happened to them. "Still though," Yoshiki's face turns to worry. "Touma's out there with his friends right now. It doesn't feel right for me to not be there by Touma's side in order to help him as well."
"Kamijou-san is all grown up," Ayumi spoke softly with a smile. "Last time we saw him, he was just shorter than the rest of us."
"Heh. Yeah, he looked like an eleven-year-old out of late elementary school, but even way back then, he was always acting like the oldest," Yoshiki couldn't help but muse at the mind-boggling concept of Kamijou actually being a little taller than what he was used too.
"You're all talking about Touma-oniichan, right, Ayumi-oneechan?" Yuka Mochida said with a smile as she joins in the conversation with interest, limping towards them while holding an icepack on her head due to a similar experience of recalling memories from timelines that never were in a limited capacity the same as the rest.
"Right, Yuka-chan," Ayumi smiled, looking at the younger sister of Satoshi Mochida with a smile of relief. "How are you holding yourself up?" she asked out of concern.
"...I'm fine," Yuka said with a smile. Then it turned into worry. "But...I'm more worried about Touma-oniichan..."
Both Ayumi and Yoshiki could only empathize with the girl as they too were just as worried for the young man as anyone else. As the silence grew from moment to moment, both of them begin to notice that there was someone missing from the group.
"Speaking of which...where's Yui-sensei?" Yoshiki asked, noting in concern.
Yui Shishido was simply walking down the corridors of the TARDIS.
From every corner, she could see various blue-colored lockers, probably belonging to the numerous students who once graced these hallowed halls of learning and adventure. She felt the marble floors from her own two feet as she walk step by step, the echoing sound being the only thing that was heard. She felt amazement and awe at the architecture that stretches beyond one's imagination. She sees the simple dome-like rooftops that were marking the center of the various corridors containing the lockers.
After a few meters walk, she sees something from the hallway. It was a significant rectangular picture from the center. She walks ahead, passing by a few empty classrooms, and draws closer. And from what she saw were a group of individuals wearing basketball t-shirts, blue and white in color, with one of them carrying a trophy signifying victory.
Some who were in the picture were non-human, and the same could also be said for the crowd from the background. from what she could tell, however, the ones wearing the basketball uniforms appeared to be male in gender. She recognizes at least five of the young men that she had met who was in the picture wearing the same basketball uniforms, especially two who were Shinichi Kudo and Touma Kamijou, the latter of whom was nearby the trophy that was carried by some kind of anthropomorphic light blue cat with round eyes.
The former was a surprise for her as she recognized the son of the famous mystery writer, part-time detective, and consultant. The latter was someone that she was looking at with concern and awe. She had met the young Touma Kamijou before during the times when she and her students were all trapped in Heavenly Host, and step by step, he always manages to save whomever he could as long as the unnatural time loop kept turning.
To see him this way, a happy young man who is enjoying the festivities alongside his friends is quite the relief for the young student teacher as she always recalled the serious and rarely smiling eleven-year-old who always foils the plans of the ghost.
She touches the glass, specifically at the part where Touma Kamijou was located, and she smiled.
"Thank goodness," she said with a smile. "At least, you had a happy childhood."
"That and so much more."
"?!"
She turns around to find the Twelfth Doctor standing there, all hands in his pockets, as he strides towards her direction and looks at the picture.
"Oh! Doctor! I didn't see you there!" she said, looking sheepish.
"What did you think of the TARDIS so far, Yui-sensei?" the Twelfth Doctor asked with a smile.
"It's quite wonderful, Doctor," Yui answered with a smile. Although, said smile appeared to be a little sad. "In fact, I'm quite happy that Touma-kun at least got a normal life because I can definitely attest that he deserves it."
"And I share the same sentiment, Yui-sensei," the Twelfth Doctor shared a sad smile, and it was one that held meaning that told a story indicating the boy of the topic. Said boy is now being stared at by the two teachers. "In fact, Touma's childhood is...complicated in a way that is riddled with so much suffering."
"What type of suffering?" Yui asked in a worried tone as she needed to know the young man who seem to have grown up so fast, the eyes of whom were a stark contradiction to his entire physical appearance at the time.
"Well..."
And thus begins a long story about a young man who was forged by suffering and how he had risen above and beyond them with nothing but his mind and his heart and of the memory of his friends and family.
Every truth that was hammered out to her would want to make her cry more than anything.
The young man who had been a hero to her and to her students. The young man who had saved so many lives in so many lifetimes. But the repayment that he had gotten was suffering and more suffering to add on to his burden. And it all started back in his very own childhood.
This is how the story went by.
Once upon a time...
There was an ordinary boy. One with an unordinary right hand. A right hand whose origin is an unknown; a mystery unfathomable to many. What is only known about his right hand is that it has the power to negate the powers and abilities wielded by those who belong to the ranks of a magician, esper, and other forms and methods of supernatural phenomena. It was one that this young boy has yet to know and realize fully as it was yet to come to pass in his future.
A power that can negate anything, even to the likes of the divine. A power that is both passive and active. A power that has such promise, such potential that defines both greatness and downfall. A power that would, unfortunately, become the source, if one of many, of what amounts to the concept of misfortune.
One random event. One coincidence that amounts to a couple of stones that could and would be thrown against him despite his one constant desire of never truly hurting anyone. And they would all happen in complete succession. Step by step. In every time and place. One way or another, anyone and anything around him would tend to share in the misfortune in whatever shape or form.
God of Pestilence. Plague. Demon.
Such monikers were as insulting as depressing in and of themselves. Toxicity was his lot. Pain was his lot. Suffering was his lot. Misfortune was his lot. And such was to define him as dictated by history.
There were only a few blessings that he would be received and given that could never be termed as a misfortune despite the odds that were against him. His own two parents who loved him with all of their beings, even in the most trying of times, when for one reason or another, they would undergo the undeserved harassment of the neighbors every single day of their lives. And so would other neighborhoods seemingly follow in the footsteps of harassment that seem to come in such droves of mixed signals. Such was the lot that seemed bleak and depressing, for in the fullness of such darkness, all they ever really had was simply each other to count on and look after in contentment.
For in one instance, when the young boy only wanted to play with the other children in the simple playground, he was unfortunately shunned due to reasons that stem from either of the following: out of fear; because of the other children's parents who would forbid them from even interacting with him, never mind to play and have fun with him. It was all because of either reputation of hearsay, gossip, and rumors that have yet to be confirmed; or through their own personal witness as they see the dominoes fall.
Financial problems. Health problems. Other problems appeared to come completely out of the blue with no amount of warning. Such was the unfortunate lot that surrounds the young boy that only wanted to live a happy and simple life.
In another instance, when someone who had a deeply subtle and disturbing grudge against the boy, blaming him for ruining his career, drew graffiti outside of the family house while no one was there at the time. The graffiti would contain words such as "DIE, GOD OF PESTILENCE!" or "FUCK YOU, PLAGUE!" and other foul, painful, and terrible words of the implication that which could or should not be uttered even by children before their pre-teens.
In another instance, a random tree branch would crash down on a random street which would cause an automobile accident that would wound the passengers inside. The result of which led to some of the passengers requiring immediate medical attention due to critical conditions.
In another instance, pieces of hardware and equipment from the mall would suddenly go completely haywire for no reason.
Many more still followed. Many more were unmentioned. Many occurred only in passing.
But even after all of that, the young boy remained unharmed at the very least, safe for the very moment, because no one had no just cause or even good reason to harm him physically.
Yet.
But one day, everything had begun to change. Whether for better or worse is all a matter of simple perspectives.
For the past, present, and future is about to change forever. Nothing could truly overturn this. The moment of a hopeful encounter. One that would allow the young boy to meet a mysterious strange who would forever make an impact upon his own life. One mysterious stranger would show him the stars.
And that stranger was the man standing right before Yui Shishido. The man that was known as the Doctor introduce himself to her in a simple way that he was an alien from a planet whose civilization is as old if not older than the very concept of time and space itself, whose technologies and wonders and discoveries were remarked as one of the finest that the Multiverse had ever graced upon existence, to give a short summary.
Yui could only blink and be excited at the prospect of meeting an actual alien from an advanced civilization. But...said excitement could only be cut short, replaced only with tears as they fall one after another. The Twelfth Doctor described the morbid situation that Touma Kamijou had been through in his childhood with as much detail as it is allowed too.
The painful fact remained so clear.
Everyone hated him for something that he had no absolute control over. It was just not fair, she shouted from her mind. She had seen the kindness behind the mostly serious elementary school child of long ago, and she had been inspired and amazed by his example to lead in the most trying of times, and he never once flinched at the darkness and fought it with nothing except his right hand which smashes the illusions of every form that the darkness of Heavenly Host could dream of to psychologically scar its victims.
But why...
Why was he hated?
Why did he suffer these things even as a mere child no more than just starting out in kindergarten?
Why did he had to endure these things since he was a child?
Even worse. This wasn't the end of his sufferings. And there were many of them. Far too many.
Yui Shishido was being patted on the back by the Twelfth Doctor, the former hugging the latter who could not help but cry for the young brave man who traverse the darkness and stared at it with no fear whatsoever, unimpressed by whatever lay ahead and pushed on.
The echoing cry reached the ears of those who were to pass by from one corner as they were looking for the crying sensei. It was the three students of Kisaragi Academy: Ayumi Shinozaki, Yoshiki Kishinuma, and Yuka Mochida. Tagging along was another student from another school by the name of Kokuhaku Akaboji, the young girl of the famous dojo who had accompanied Yuka a while ago.
They all noticed the crying sensei as they rushed headfirst without hesitation.
"Sensei?!" Ayumi exclaimed, looking at her teacher with worry.
"What's wrong?!" Yoshiki asked, worried as much as the rest.
And so, they were told the same story once again, with contributions from Yui Shishido who was stuttering as she was crying for the young man who didn't deserve the sufferings he had been given.
And little by little, it settled into the three young students of Kisaragi Academy who were listening in horror and other mixture of negative feelings.
For Yoshiki Kishinuma...
"Damn it!"
He cursed as his clenched right fist hit on a nearby locker, the echoed sound followed soon after which set the tone for the conversation that had been told to them as much detail as it was able to be said.
"T...Touma...onii-chan..."
Aside from Yoshiki, there was Yuka Mochida who muttered the name of her inspirational figure, crying vehemently as she realizes the suffering that the young spiky-haired man had been through. The same could be said for Ayumi Shinozaki who cried just as much as Yuka, and both girls were embracing each other. It wasn't just something that they could shrug off. Not now. Not ever.
It wasn't just Heavenly Host. There was far too much suffering, more than what one single man could possibly bear.
Touma Kamijou was to give a comparison Atlas ‒ the Titan condemned to hold up the heavens or sky for eternity. That was Touma Kamijou's life in a nutshell. He bore every sin and suffering quite literally and pressed forward with a smile on his face, his dream of making others smile and break illusions that twist such a dream knew no boundaries.
They cried. And cried. And cried. And cried. The three girls of Kisaragi Academy, both the two students and the teacher, cried. Yoshiki, despite not being a crying person, couldn't help but shed a few tears as the sufferings were described to them one by one.
Kokuhaku Akaboji, who had been listening as much as the rest, couldn't help but cry as well as the sufferings were described in such detail.
The entire atmosphere has been turned into nothing except sadness.
Sadness. Pain. Suffering. Regret.
It was the heavy cross that Touma Kamijou is forced to carry as if it were ordained.
It was his lot. It can be alleviated. But it can never truly be taken away.
That was the burden of the promise for The One Who Purifies God and Slays Demons.
Insert Song: End
Insert Song: Start
Medieval Music - Sir Gawain
After a few moments of crying later, Ayumi Shinozaki, Yoshiki Kishinuma, Yuka Mochida, and Kokuhaku Akaboji were sitting at a cafeteria table.
As to where they are, they are in one of the cafeteria halls of the TARDIS. Orange painted wall frames, blue walls with yellow polka dots, and white painted pillars that are stacked in perfect order. It was quite large, probably to accommodate all of the TARDIS School students, staff, and other visitors that once graced these halls.
They were all quiet. They were simply eating their admittedly delicious meals that were on the table, having gotten them from the line. There were vegetables and fruits, with a little rice. There was also ice cream, a mixture of chocolate milk. When looking at the empty cafeteria, it felt more like a five-star restaurant where a bunch of fancy foods and drinks were served for the noble and rich instead of mere commoners like them, some of whom have to work to live by in the case of Yoshiki Kishinuma.
But no, for this place was open for all, available food and drinks to choose from to their heart's content.
This would normally be a time of delicacy had it not for the last few moments of crying in remembrance of the young spiky-haired hero.
They couldn't shake it off, even with the delicious food on the table.
There was only silence throughout the table.
And yet, there comes a person who was walking by as asked by the Twelfth Doctor after heading back to the main console room and tasked this person to watch over them.
Rika Kamijou.
But they only know this blue-haired girl, simple and beautiful, by the name of Rika Furude, still wearing her middle school sailor uniform, while showing an empathetic expression.
She tiptoed her way to the table and spoke softly with the grace of a high-class lady as both of her hands reached her back. "Hello everyone, how's the meal providing for all of you?"
The occupants of the table stopped what they are doing as they turn to Rika with surprise and curiosity. One of them, Ayumi Shinozaki, smiled as she said. "It's alright, um...Furude-san. The food is actually quite delicious."
"That's right," Yoshiki added, glad that the brooding mood was diverted in part if only just a little. "It's like you're in some kind of five-star restaurant, and the best part is that everything about this place is free for all without us having to pay for it. Just what kind of school do Touma and his buddies actually go to?"
"The best and once-in-a-lifetime kind," Rika answered with a smile, for she too was a student of TARDIS School.
"Speaking of which, just what is your relationship with Touma-kun, Rika-chan?" Yui asked with a smile.
"?!" everyone among the occupants begins to stop eating, turning to look at Yui and Rika in a back and forth kind of way.
"Wh-Wh-What do you mean by that, sensei?" Ayumi asked, curious about this question relating to the spiky-haired young man.
"Oh? The Doctor told me about Touma-kun being part of a special kind of club, with him as one of the main members," Yui looks meaningfully at Rika who paid close attention with a graceful smile that appeared to glow a little brighter than normal when asked the question. "And you, Rika-chan, are a part of this Club, are you not?"
"That's right, Yui-sensei," Rika answered with a nod and a smile. "As to what my relationship is with him, well, some might not believe it at first when told the first time, mostly based on our physical appearances."
"Are you implying what I think you're implying, Rika-chan?" Yui asked with a knowing smile.
"Oi, oi, wait a minute, don't tell me that you're his girlfriend or something?" Yoshiki asked, curious about this talk as much as the rest of the girls who are at the cafeteria table.
Rika Kamijou only gave a meaningful smile in response. And then came the silence that lasted about a moment...
"Eh? Seriously?" Yoshiki uttered in shock.
"Close, but not quite there, Kishinuma-san," Rika said, her smile turning into something deeper, something real and profound that could not just be explained. From her outward smile, it remained the same, but it was subtle and meaningful.
"Ah..." Yuka Mochida, being the youngest among the group, could look at Rika with agape, realizing immediately as she was the most well-honed 'sixth-sense' among the other Kisaragi Academy students and much better at it than her older brother. "You...You...and...onii-chan...married...?"
"Eh?" Ayumi, Yoshiki, and Kokuhaku looked at Yuka in shock. Then they looked at Yui who was only smiling widely in wonder. Then they look back at Rika who was simply smiling like the hidden graceful ojou-sama that she was. Then it was back and forth until finally... "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHH!" they all shouted in shock, with all of them standing up and coming near towards Rika.
"W-W-W-Wait, it's that kind of relationship already?!" Yoshiki asked in shock.
"Kamijou-kun got married!" Ayumi asked in shock.
"What the?! How?! When?! Where?!" Kokuhaku asked in shock.
They wanted to know how this was possible. In fact, how on earth and in the hell did Touma Kamijou get married? They were curious since of course, it had been a very long time since they last saw Touma Kamijou, and that was during the endless retries as an eleven-year-old boy. Now his appearance was that of a fifteen-year-old teenager. Even then, he was older mentally. How old? No one among the eight students and one teacher of Kisaragi Academy knows until the Twelfth Doctor explained that one time Touma Kamijou was far older now to the point where numbers hardly even manner.
Rika Kamijou only smiled, saying softly. "I could explain if I want to, and I would, but..." she eyed the food that was on the table. "You all should probably eat your meal first."
"Ah...?" they forgot about the food on the table to which they could only sit down, with Yui giggling at the reactions of her two students plus Kokuhaku.
"Second of all, I believe that it would be fair if all nine of you who got sent here by the Sachiko Ever After Charm hear my story instead of just you two," Rika proposed with a smile.
They can't really deny that kind of logic. In fact, Ayumi and Yoshiki agreed with it wholeheartedly as they begin to think about the rest of their friends who were still trapped in Heavenly Host. The same could be said for Yui and Yuka who were listening to this conversation with a nod of approval.
"No need for all of you to worry though, my husband and his four best friends would do everything in their power to keep them all safe and sound, for they are known to perform the impossible as if on a drop of a magician's hat," Rika spoke confidently and with pride which reassured everyone on the table, even more for the Kisaragi Academy students and teacher as they knew the young man personally.
"Still though...a wife...huh..." Yoshiki eyed at Rika with interest. "Um...Kamijou...-san?"
"Yes?" Rika asked with a smile.
"You're from the late Showa era, correct? I mean, the old man once said that about you being from that time along with that blonde girl that we met earlier," Yoshiki explained.
"Ah, yes, I'm from that time period when it comes to my native reality, why do you ask, Kishinuma-san?" Rika asked with a smile, although she was inwardly anticipating something.
"And if Touma was from the Heisei era, then...wouldn't that make you older than him technically?" Yoshiki asked.
"I suppose so," Rika tilted her head, her smile never leaving her.
"Kishinuma-kun, what are you trying to say here?" Ayumi asked, concerned about where this question was leading.
"...Um...Well...I mean...I didn't think Touma had a thing for older women," Yoshiki said hesitantly and with an exasperated smile. And then... "OW!" he got his knee cap kicked by the other girl sitting on the table who was known by the name of Ayumi Shinozaki, her eyes glaring at him in disapproval.
"Kishinuma-kun!" Ayumi shouted in displeasure.
"What did I do?!" Yoshiki exclaimed in shock, still rubbing the part of his knee cap that got kicked.
"Hmmmmm," Rika however instead of being insulted was amused more than anything, her clenched right fist near her mouth. "Y-Yes, I suppose that you could technically say that I'm older than him for a few years since my beloved husband was born on 1993 between January and February while I was born on 1971 in the month of August. But that's if you're taking this on a normal chronological standpoint. I and my husband are much older than the norm, with the latter being older than I."
"It's quite the mindboggling concept though," Yui spoke with a smile, reassured and happy. "Touma-kun married to an admittedly beautiful young lady. I wonder what was the story behind that? From the hints that the Doctor told us, I suspect that the Test was centered around you as one of them correct?"
"Yes," Rika nodded with a smile, but there was the seriousness that it conveyed when discussing that particular topic. "I suppose you could say that I had suffered a similar fate as my husband, trapped in an eternal loop of about a hundred years or so before breaking free."
"...Ouch, that must have sucked back in the day," Yoshiki couldn't help but comment on that part with sympathy.
"Oh, there were a lot of bad ends that I had to endure. Nevertheless, it gave me more than enough strength to carry on and move forward, with a little help from my husband along the way," Rika smiled, subtly nodding as if to thank Yoshiki for his honest sympathies. "Now enough about me, you all should eat. You all need to have your strength up after what amounted to a lot of running in those haunted halls."
"Good point," Yoshiki agreed. "Welp, time for us to dig in our food. I still need to find out more about this place, this...TARDIS right? Even when the Doc said that it was an advanced space ship and a time machine, it still feels a bit unreal."
"Then again..." Ayumi proposed with a smile. "A lot of things back on our Earth are just as weird. I mean, there's all of those supervillains that Night Baron fights daily."
"Oh yeah, speaking of Night Baron," Kokuhaku raised an eyebrow towards Rika. "Night Baron Kid was with Kamijou-san as well. If I didn't know any better, he'd look quite familiar with that other guy from the photo down the hallway."
"Kudo Shinichi, correct?" Yui said with a serious smile. "Yes, I noticed that too, Yoshiki-kun," she turned towards Rika, saying. "Comparing that appearance with his could only mean one thing..."
"Shhhh. No spoilers," Rika raised her forefinger and shushed the teacher from prying any further, smiling with humor. "I'll let Night Baron Kid explain it himself, it's his secret identity after all."
"Of course," Yui smiled in agreement.
"Hmm? Am I missing something here?" Yoshiki asked, curious about how this conversation turned out.
"You'll figure out eventually, Yoshiki-kun," Yui reassured her student.
Insert Song: End
Insert Song: Start
A Decaying World - Corpse Party: Blood Drive Music Extended
The rain didn't stop. The drops continue to flow as the rumbling thunder was heard. Each drop produces an ominous sound that were complimenting the rumble of the heavens that were supposed to produce light to rain down on the earth only to have it turn into darkness and gloom
The Eighth Doctor, the five companions, and Dhruv Varma venture once again into the dark.
They were in a very jumbled-up place that reminded one of an abandoned village where no one had lived for a long time, adding on to the school-like corridors that seem to form passageways and bridges that lead from one part to another. It was like two or more spaces got combined to form something of this unnatural geometrical design.
All they felt when they venture through was pain and suffering at alarming levels. Malice, malevolence, evil, the likes of which were felt from their bones.
And then they spotted something as they walk through a passageway...
"...!"
They saw the bodies of young men, women, and children. No, not just that. They were all staked and crucified, their hands all nailed to a wooden cross, its shape was reminded of the crux commissa. Their bodies are all decayed, with some being white skeletons, and there appeared to be occult symbols drawn from the walls in an intricate pattern. Some of them in fact resemble the shape of a fish or that of an eye with a wiggling pattern. Some were in the shape of an eye at the center of a pentagram. And there were many other occult symbols.
Everyone took a closer and careful look at these bodies, with some of the companions such as Conan Edogawa and Touma Kamijou once again using their glasses to form a Detective Mode scan of their bodies. What they found was chilling to the bone.
"What the hell?" Kyon muttered, his eyes narrowed, looking at one of the crucified bodies.
"I recognized these runes," the Eighth Doctor muttered softly as he scans the corpse with his screwdriver. "They were used to perform dark sacrificial magicks to the likes of malevolent spirits whose names have all but been forgotten."
"There's so many," Sota said, his tone carrying a subtle hint of disgust, anger, and horror at the sheer atrocity that they were seeing right in front of them.
"Many of these souls died terrible deaths," Dhruv said as he floated towards each corpse, inspecting them with a precise eye. "And many of them were innocent, lost from their own time and place."
"Have you seen something like this before in Heavenly Host, Touma-san?" Conan asked as he looks at the young spiky-haired man narrowing his eyes at the crucified corpses.
"...Yeah, I do," Kamijou said simply, recalling the horrors of Heavenly Host and the accursed time loops that he had experienced and lived through. "And it was in timelines where only Mochida Satoshi, Nakashima Naomi, Mochida Yuka, Kishinuma Yoshiki, and Shinozaki Ayumi survived. Some of those timelines in fact have the entire world ending."
"Anything else that you recall from those timelines?" Lelouch asked, listening attentively.
"Nothing except senseless death," Kamijou grimly summarized, his eyes narrowed on each of the corpses and felt through the Force the crying out in pain that would be hidden from the rest except for him and a few. "There were many corpses that were mutilated in ways that would make a normal person absolutely sick to their stomach. And these symbols were something that I sometimes found whenever I look around this place, whether if it was Sachiko or if it's something else. Heavenly Host has always been a place of death no matter who's in charge."
The four companions could only look at Kamijou with sympathy and empathy. The same can be said for Dhruv Varma and the Eighth Doctor, the latter most especially as he had seen and experienced senseless and unnecessary horror in countless lifetimes. In fact, the Eighth Doctor was concerned about one thing only.
How much has Touma Kamijou suffered now?
In the original timeline, he suffered, that much the Eighth Doctor knew in his many countless observations that he had done for the boy in the status of utter secrecy for the preservation of history. But now, everything had obviously changed. And the Test itself was troubling him. What was this Test? His future self, the Twelfth Doctor, certainly knew which is why he revealed less and what needed to be known only in a general summarized format. If he didn't know any better, there was something that he may yet experience himself in a way, being personally involved in another face. When he asked his future self who was ultimately responsible for the Test, it was something that the Twelfth Doctor evaded answering directly and only responded with this ominous statement.
"A Legendary Witch and Game Master by any other name."
"("It can't be...")" the Eighth Doctor thought grimly, sweat slightly appearing in his brow, worried about the true identity behind the Witch. He shuddered greatly at the mere prospect of this powerful nigh-omnipotent being even being greatly involved in this Test. Does this in fact imply that Touma Kamijou has taken the interest of that Great Witch whose power and stature are quite well renowned in the Multiverse? And if that is the case, then why is this so? And this very question would shudder his very being as to how and what importance of interest does she of all-powerful beings have with the Imagine Breaker, the young man capable of feats, great and small, and the young man who braved even the most tremendous sufferings in existence to the point where one would need to question the very resilience of a human being.
Somewhere very far away...
Far away from every universe and realm that one could conceive of, there was the City of Books.
The bookshelves on either side of this canyon are skyscrapers. If one thinks of those emerald green lights flowing beneath us as headlights of a highway, then this does really seem like a city of books.
But the books on the shelves aren't just mere books. That's right. Each volume is packed with an ensemble play. From a simple perspective, they look like books, but if you open one up, you'll find a whole world inside. A whole world that is a multiverse of infinite possibilities. Each world is but one tale among a transfinite set, the boundaries of the concepts that were pierced by divine inspiration by the famous mathematician Georg Cantor provide for such a unique take and spin on everything we tend to know about the nature and process of reality.
In fact, the word "city" was no mere exaggeration. Trying to count them would be almost as crazy as counting all the fish in the ocean.
There was the presence of someone.
It was a "she" in a sense as much as she could be grasped from her physical form as demonstrated to mortals.
Who was she?
Was she not considered to be the owner of this very place?
Was she not considered as the Witch that is Great and in a league all on her very own?
She was a majestic figure, a very tall woman that bespoke of maturity and choice, with long, dark purple hair stylized in a hime cut, with a metallic silver horseshoe-shaped object that seemingly levitates around her head which serves as a memory aid device and records her name, appearance, and other aspects of her personality.
Under normal and official circumstances, she wears a sweeping strapless light pink ball gown that resembles a Juunihitoe kimono; yet the layers seem to be mere stripes in green, blue, and red. A yellow sash-like accessory is draped around the skirt. The dress is held in place by a formal magenta obi with red padding, accessorized with a red and white obijime. The outfit is complete with matching light pink gloves and a light green fringed scarf draped over her left shoulder. Pinned to the scarf is a brooch—comprising of a striped flag matching her dress layers affixed to a star-shaped pendant; resembling a military medal of sorts. There was a brown cane that she uses to walk as if she were in need of it, but such looks can be greatly deceiving.
But as of now, she was wearing a new set of clothing consisting of a shrine maiden outfit with a green sash adorned with a medal and white socks with wooden sandals. She carries what appeared to be a shakujou, one that was a staff topped with metal rings traditionally carried by Buddhist monks, particularly in the East Asian Buddhist tradition, with the adapted use of a rhythmic instrument, and for use as a weapon.
It was a special type of clothing that is reserved for special cases. And the one that she observes appeared to be one of them.
In her position, she transcends all concepts on the hierarchical ladder. She is known as the majestic Witch of Theatergoing, Drama, and Spectating. In the past, she served as the Game Master for several games as a Legendary Witch. Once, her legend, glory, and memory have already disappeared into the past and have been forgotten. Only the solemn medal she wears on her chest contains those memories. Now, she is well known. Why so?
The Last Great Time War.
She was one of the few who predicted such a terrible war that would escalate in an unnatural way that would draw even her very own attention.
And then there was Touma Kamijou.
The young man that she had subjected to a Test that was to be ultimately for the benefit of Multiverse despite the numerous protests from her own allies and beings and individuals. The young man who is chosen as the Understander of the Witch Senate, with the noble titles of "Savior of Thousands" and "The Man Who Defied Fate". The young man who had passed her Test with flying colors which both surprised and pleased the Legendary Witch based on a rare type of determination of the pure will that was exercised even in the face of evil and suffering that is found in a mortal, much less a human.
Her name...
Featherine Augustus Aurora.
And now...
She was smiling. For with her eternal sight that stretches from afar, she sees him once again. She sees Touma Kamijou facing his own past, dark and shrouded in mystery surrounding the very Test that she had once subjected to, along with his four companions, a ghost, and a Lord of Time with whom she is well acquainted. Well, make that two as one was his eighth self located alongside the companions and the ghost while his twelfth self was located inside his TARDIS.
She addresses the Imagine Breaker with a hint of praise, pleasure, and an inquiring smile.
"Oh, child of man, the one who wields the power to negate even the miracles of God, may your quest to find the answers you seek for the girl dyed in red and the dark nature surrounding the anomaly of Heavenly Host guide you to a hidden memory whose greyish clouds recede little by little. I have once said that the journeys of humans make for such interesting stories. And for that, the same may even be said of you first of all as I have given you the challenges that the main character should work to struggle with and develop further. Chosen One of my Miko, may your journey and the journeys of your companions continue on and interest me further."
And then, her smile turns solemn and serious.
"For the Red King Himself and His Scarlet Lieutenant have an interest in you as well. And all of you must be made ready by any means necessary."
Insert Song: End
ED Song:
【Featherine Augustus Aurora image song】 Gloria in excelsis Dea 【Lyrics + English Sub】
Incarnation(s)/Regeneration(s) of the Doctor:
The Twelfth Doctor - A: Peter Capaldi
The Eighth Doctor - A: Paul McGann
Main Companion Protagonists:
Touma Kamijou - VA: Atsushi Abe
Shinichi Kudo/Conan Edogawa/Night Baron - VA: Minami Takayama
Kyon - VA: Tomokazu Sugita
Sota Mizushino/Kamen Rider Decade - VA: Daiki Yamashita
Lelouch vi Britannia/Zero - VA: Jun Fukuyama
Main Love Interests:
Rika Kamijou (née Furude) (Past) - VA: Yukari Tamura
The Club Characters:
Satoko Hojo (Past) - VA: Mika Kanai
The Nine Characters:
Yuka Mochida - VA: Eri Kitamura
Yoshiki Kishinuma - VA: Yūichi Nakamura
Ayumi Shinozaki - VA: Asami Imai
Yui Shishido - VA: Miyuki Sawashiro
Main Enemy Characters:
Sachiko Shinozaki - VA: Ikue Ōtani
New Characters:
Featherine Augustus Aurora - VA: Michiko Neya