The second day of Shin's training had started off great. It had been rather boring watching him run through the woods with nothing but a bunch of youkai trailing after him. But it was also the second day that Tenma realized that his daughter was far more protective of her son than she was of her daughter.

Tenma found himself pressed up against the wall with the business end of Akari's Mystic Gear, Ikazuchi, pointed at his throat.

Akari had the fiercest glare on her face. Touki surged from her body, producing a visible aura and creating massive pressure around them.

"Let me get this straight, Dad," she spat. "When my darling Shin decided to ask you for training, you decided to drop him off at the base of Mount Benizakura and just left him there? Are you insane!?"

Rowan sat at their son's bedside, checking his pulse for any abnormalities. Ran stood at the ready, prepared to do anything that could possibly benefit her master.

"Hey, hey, point that thing somewhere else. Besides, the kid asked for it," Tenma said, gently pushing Ikazuchi out of the way.

"That doesn't mean you have to drop him in the middle of a youkai-infested forest!" Akari screeched.

"Look, you survived. Kureha survived. Akane survived. Why can't Shin survive? Besides, it's just a little Baku toxin. No harm, no foul," Tenma said.

"Baku toxin is highly valued for the fact that it can drive people insane or render them vegetative in the right amount!" Akari argued.

"Look, let's agree to disagree. Baku only douse their foes enough to knock them out and disorient them inside their minds. We know that Shin is probably inside running around inside his dream-"

"While the poison is driving him insane! Where in that asinine mind of yours did you think that it was a good idea to send him there and seal his Contract!?" Akari demanded.

"Well, it was a pretty good idea," Tenma said.

"Ugghh! You're hopeless! You better hope my son wakes up or I'll flay you alive and scatter your bones over the Pacific," Akari said, stomping back over to her son's bed.

Shin did not head to Hatch Potch as he intended. Rather, he knew that his alternate self would be there, waiting for him. His alter had grasped Yaldabaoth's Authority within their mindscape faster than he did and would no doubt possess far more skill with it than he does. And so, Shin did what he felt like was the most appropriate thing to do. Plan for the encounter.

The use of Yaldabaoth's Contract would be minute and used as a surprise attack to catch Shin Alter off guard. His most frequent use of weapons would be Secace and its Released Form.

Shin grimaced. Would that even be enough to get the drop on him? He thought. Shin shook his head. This was perhaps his greatest chance other than fighting him head-on. And if he was just a rogue aspect, Shin could always use his greatest weapon in this fight and that was manipulating the state of his mind as best he could. His goal was to overpower and defeat his Alter. Any method of victory would be used and be welcome.

It was what Akane had always taught him during training now and a few years back.

Remember that to Contractors who lived as hired guns, information is the most important weapon we have.

And information he did have. After all, Shin was just fighting himself. He knew all of his strengths and weaknesses. All he needed to do was plan accordingly. If there was one thing his family made sure he knew, it was how to set a trap.

Shin Alter seethed at the thought of being caught off-guard by the foolish conscious self. He ran across Kuoh, searching for any presence of his conscious counterpart. He would make the conscious self suffer immensely before devouring him. And then, he would devour the weak Shin and become the only persona that exists. A persona that can reach the power that the three of them sought.

If I were me, where would I go? He thought. He came to a stop in a plaza in the shopping district.

Shin Alter slapped his forehead in frustration. Hatch Potch. The fool would run to Hatch Potch and hide behind the mind's iteration of Akane. However, Shin Alter knew for a fact that the Akane of this mind was nothing compared to the Akane of the Waking World. There was no way he or his conscious self could accurately conjure a phantom of Akane as strong as the real one.

Grinning to himself, he jumped into the air and began to skate across the sky at rapid speed. Yaldabaoth's Authority had made everything easier and the fact that his conscious self was not able to grasp its use escaped him. Not that he cared anyway.

Shin Alter landed in front of Hatch Potch. The moment he did, he raised an eyebrow in slight surprise and confusion. His counterpart was waiting for him there.

Shin looked up when he saw Shin Alter land. He had spent the past fifteen minutes getting everything ready and memorizing the things he needed for this fight. If defeating the Dark Counterpart was what it took to get back, then Shin would not hold back.

He threw the whetstone to the side, knowing full well that he didn't need it to sharpen his blades. Shin gripped Secace's hilt tightly and stood.

"You took too long," Shin said.

"Eh? You were waiting for me? Are you really that desperate to die?"

"No, I'm just ready to wake up from this weird fever dream," Shin said, constructing Clarent in his other hand.

"Ehehehe," Shin Alter let out a chuckle that devolved into full-blown laughter.

"Ahahahaha! You? You beat me? Come me. We're good at math. Run the numbers. I'm you. The embodiment of your ambition to never be weak again. I'm not saddled with restraint like you and the other one. What could you possibly do to beat me?"

Shin's eyebrow twitched. The other one. Who was the other one? Whatever, first off, I need to kick this guy's ass. Embodiment of my ambition? Is my ambition really that psychotic? Or... am I really that psychotic?

"Before I do this though," Shin Alter said, "No hard feelings okay? We'll still be us. Just a better more equipped version." His eyes flashed red before he dropped into the stance of the Musou-no-Onigari-Ryuu.

Shin narrowed his eyes and dropped into an entirely different unknown stance.

"Mmm?" Shin Alter narrowed his eyes. That stance still has the base stance of the Onigari-Ryuu. Is he compensating for the two swords?

"!?"

Without warning, Shin appeared in front of his dark counterpart and swiped both blades at his throat.

Shin Alter barely had any time to react and was forced back. His eyes widened considerably. What? That speed!

"Haaah!" Shin did not let up. He would not allow his counterpart to gain any breathing room.

Clang!

Clash!

Clang!

Shin Alter felt himself losing ground more and more.

Shin's relentless barrage of slashes was neverending. He gritted his teeth and roared, sending a wave of touki that vaporized the ground around them.

Shin dodged by jumping into the air. His eyes glowed blue as he summoned several Failnacht-modified naval battle guns. "Ready! Set! Fire! Exterminate Ray Salvo!"

Shin Alter used his Contract to slide backward, shifting the spaces around him. He began to go on the defensive as he ran at full speed away from Hatch Potch.

A series of explosions leveled house upon house, sending scraps of wood and pieces of concrete everywhere.

Shin Alter jumped into the air, using Tehom to create a spatial platform.

Shin looked up and aimed his guns at Shin Alter. "Fire!"

A series of violet beams simultaneously shot forth towards Shin Alter.

"Damn you!" Shin Alter channeled Yaldabaoth's Authority through him. A black aura appeared around his version of Clarent. With one swipe, he cut the salvo of magical energy to pieces.

A sonorous explosion ruptured the sky and vaporized the entire area where Shin Alter was.

The ground shook violently beneath Shin as he struggled to maintain balance. "Step 1 is done!" He channeled Touki to his legs and took to the air. He fired Failnacht, using the recoil of the guns he summoned to propel him through the air.

When he reached the dust cloud, he sliced it in half, only to reveal that it was empty.

Shin scanned his surroundings, looking for any trace of Shin Alter. "Damn…" he cursed.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he turned around and saw a black sphere hurtling straight towards him.

"Shit! All guns fire!" Shin ordered.

The naval guns fired another salvo of Exterminate Ray. The series of energy blasts collided with the black sphere, holding it back for a few seconds before the sphere tore through them.

"Now's a better time than ever," Shin said.

He reached out and summoned a small black shield. He raised it into the air in front of him. "Around-Round Shield: Sacred Form Release: Thousand Year Bastion!"

A massive blue construct began tracing itself in the air around Shin. Turrets and towers rose from nothingness. A thick castle wall manifested itself out of thin air and Shin stood in the middle of this rising construct. The construct exuded a blue aura that began to expand over a vast area. The black sphere that threatened to consume Shin was nullified by the potent aura of the castle.

"Now for the next one! Failnacht: Sacred Form Release: Celestial Bullet Hell!" The naval guns all shifted form and became an array of machine guns. The machine gun barrels began to glow and an endless wave of energy bolts from Failnacht flew across the sky towards Shin Alter. It was a bullet hell that had no signs of ending.

"Damn you! Musou-no-Onigari-Ryuu: Shin'en Kogeki!" Shin Alter roared.

He sheathed his blade and unsheathed it, performing a multitude of slashes that managed to fend off most of the energy bolts. However, several of them made it past Shin Alter's defenses, tearing through his clothing and searing his flesh.

W- What!? He was able to pull it off!

His eyes widened when he saw a fist fill his vision.

Shin Alter's fist ground into his skull before sending him crashing through several buildings.

"F- Fuck," Shin said, rubbing his jaw. "He was able to… no…" His skull was shattered by Shin Alter's boot. However, his dead figure faded.

It was just an afterimage.

Shin landed a distance away and glared at his dark counterpart.

"Did you really think you could pull off any tricks? I have Onee and Yaldbaoth's powers! How do you think you were going to fare against me, you sad sack of piss!" Shin Alter screamed.

He began attacking Shin with reckless abandon, using the techniques of their older sister to force Shin into the defensive.

Shin stepped back, using Clarent and Secace to block his Alter's fast, powerful strikes.

"You are nothing! You're just a side character in your own story!" Shin Alter yelled, slicing through Shin's bicep.

He winced but managed to counter Shin Alter's strike with a kick to the stomach.

Shin Alter slid back a few feet. "You were never going to be good enough for anyone! Do you know why you trained Issei?"

Shin said nothing and just stared at him.

"You were merely looking for a reason to look good. You used Issei as your foil, knowing full well that he was weaker than you. You deliberately helped him gain the Balance Breaker to look like a good friend," Shin Alter said.

Shin clenched his jaw. Hearing it from someone else was horrible but to hear himself outright admit his insecurities in front of him was downright demoralizing to listen to.

All of his mistakes and shortcomings as a person were being laid bare before him by no one other than himself.

"And Irina. You should have told her not to do it. But… it's too late. You rushed your two best friends into a relationship and for what? Self-satisfaction? Everything that you've done so far is also for self-satisfaction. Self-satisfaction in knowing that you're needed in your pathetic life. Knowledge that by doing this, you will look like the ideal person in front of others. Someone who will always help their friends by elevating when in reality, they were all just a means to an end! A means to make you feel better about yourself," Shin Alter said, swinging his sword in a downward slash at Shin's skull.

Shin raised Clarent and Secace to block the attack. However, the force of Shin Alter's blow forced him to his knee. The floor trembled beneath them and the ground cracked underneath.

"You know how I know this? Because I'm you. I know all your secrets. Your fears. Your insecurities. You are a hollow character. A shell of a friend to the protagonist with no character traits. A parasite to the people who drive the story of your life forward," Shin Alter said.

"But if you were to be gone and I were to be the one that remained, we'd finally take control again. We'd be strong enough to be like Onee just like we dreamed.

"And then others will see that we're just like Onee. No, even better than Onee." Shin Alter broke the lock and tried to bisect Shin.

However, Shin spun and deflected his blades before jumping back.

A beeping sound caught Shin Alter's attention. He looked down and saw a bomb primed to explode. The bomb exploded leveling the rest of the house.

Shin landed on the street outside, stumbling on his legs and falling to his hands and knees. He panted as he looked back at the burning remains of the building he was in. "Did I get him?"

His question was answered when a vacuum wave sliced through the flames and into his arm. He screamed and dropped Clarent. Shin fell on his rear and backpedaled away from the flames.

Shin Alter walked through the raging inferno. A pixelated glass barrier revolved lazily around him before shattering. His red eyes glared into Shin's blue ones.

"Even now, you're still being so pathetic," Shin Alter said.

"So what?"

"Huh?" Shin Alter raised an eyebrow at his sudden statement.

"All that shit you said back at the house. So what?" Shin yelled, shakily standing up.

"Was all that shit supposed to break me? I know I'm pathetic! I know I'm not even a main character in my own life! Everyone around me is better, more polished, and progressing through while I'm still stuck in the same old rut! I'm just a nobody!" he said.

"BUT!" Shin slammed his foot on the ground and took a step towards Shin Alter.

Divine power surged from his body and mixed with his touki. The sheer density of his divine power created gusts of wind that shook the trees and blew away small debris.

The ground underneath trembled underneath the weight of his power and fissures began to form around him.

"I'm not going to stand here and let you dictate what to do with my life! Even if you're me, the path I take forward will not be based on our jealousy and some obsession to become our older sister nor will our life be defined by how we're playing second fiddle to the Red Dragon Emperor! This is my story and I'll write it in any fucking way I want!"

Shin Alter felt a blade cut through his side. He stumbled back, seeing that Shin had suddenly appeared in front of him with Secace thrust forward.

"I know I'm weak! I know I'm not as strong as Onee!" He swiped upward, cutting Shin Alter across the collarbone.

Shin Alter roared in pain and jumped back. "Worthless pest!" he screamed. He created a series of swords and fired them all at Shin.

"I am jealous of her but…," Shin said. He closed his eyes and swung Secace multiple times in an extremely fast manner.

The swords were sliced to pieces and shrapnel before they even reached him.

"But if being strong means becoming like you, then I'd rather remain that pathetic crying child that hid behind my older sister's skirt!" Shin roared, rushing forward. He jumped and performed a horizontal, spinning slash.

Shin Alter tried to deflect all the swipes but failed. A multitude of cuts appeared on his body.

On the final cycle, Shin performed a powerful Touki-enhanced downward slash. A sword wave flew from Secace and cut the houses behind them in half.

Shin Alter howled in pain as his arm slid off his chest. He fell to the ground, clutching whatever shred of meat remained on his shoulder, Blood flowed freely and stained the ground crimson.

"Secace: Sacred Sword Release: Silent World of Elysium."

Secace's blade transformed into a living flame. The flame fluctuated and danced yet it retained the shape of a blade.

"Hahaha, so this is your resolve?" Shin Alter said. He coughed, spitting blood out from his mouth.

"You drove away your two best friends because you believed they were conspiring against you. You strained your relationship with your older sister because you were jealous of her skill. Do you think getting rid of me will magically fix your relationship with any of them?"

"No. I know that it won't… well, except maybe Onee. She'll help me no matter what fight we've had. But… I'm not going to kill you. You're part of me. Killing you would be killing part of myself," Shin said.

"W- What are you-" he was cut off when the flaming blade of Secace stabbed through his chest. "B- Bastard!"

"You're me and I'm you. And it's time I took you back. I'll accept you and all my faults!" Shin said.

Shin Alter roared in defiance as he was sucked into the blade. The flame of Secace's blade traveled up the hilt and into Shin. Shin stumbled back as he felt an immense amount of force slam into his body.

The mental environment in which Kuoh was situated shook violently and began to fall apart. The sky cracked and the earth ruptured. Spires of black and red crystals towered into the skies and blue lightning crashed into the ground around him.

Shin felt a rush of memories from the outside flow through him. He let out a sigh and reoriented himself back to reality. A wave of guilt passed through him as everything Shin Alter had said to him replayed over and over in his head. He felt so pathetic at thinking that his sister had abandoned him. He felt guilty for taking his anger towards himself out on Issei and Irina. But most of all, he felt angry at himself for allowing his jealousy of his older sister and his desire to become stronger to take control of him.

However, he did not have time to dwell on the past. He needed to get out of here. He needed to find the Other One.

"If the Other One is just another me, then…" Shin looked around the apocalyptic environment of his mindscape. "Hatch Potch."

Shin jumped across the fragments of Kuoh as it began to slowly crumble away. He made it to the door and threw it open. He shut the door behind him as Kuoh slowly imploded into nothingness.

Shin blinked. He was… in this place again. The base of operations for the Abyss Team and the place where he experienced his brush with death. Shin felt a chill run down his spine as he took his first step through this horrid hellscape of a memory. Everything about this place made him uncomfortable.

Even after all these years, this place was still a trigger for the trauma he suffered at Tobio's hands.

Shin scanned his empty surroundings and winced when he saw a brief flash of a memory of him fighting Tobio Ikuse and another of Tobio Ikuse's scythe going through his abdomen.

"You're finally here," a young voice said. "I've been waiting for you since that baku knocked us out."

Shin looked around for the source of the voice but could not discern its source.

"I'm right here," the voice said.

Shin turned around and saw him standing in front of him.

The Other One was in reality, just a younger version of Shin. It was the Shin from 4 years ago. The wide-eyed innocent Shin whose dream was to become as strong as his older sister. And the Shin that died the day he was given the realization that he was just a burden to her. The source of the current Shin's obsessions and turmoil.

He flinched when he saw that this Shin had Tobio's scythe sticking out of his chest. Blood flowed freely from the wound and stained his clothes. The Other One smiled at his presence and took a step forward, becoming more wounded with each step.

"Y- You," Shin said.

"I'm the you that you want to forget. The you that had a brush with death. And the you that you feel is a burden to Onee. The you that spawned the us of today. The us that had the obsession of never being weak. The us that was jealous of Onee and everyone around us. And you, the conscious us whose decisions are based on the ones beneath the surface of your mind," the Other One said.

"You're the real me," Shin said.

"Yup," the Other One said. "I have to admit that we are pretty pathetic."

Shin let out a small laugh. It seems that both his ambition and his real self viewed him as a pathetic being.

"But… I disagree with what our Jealousy said. We helped Issei out with genuinely good intentions in mind. We helped Irina because we didn't want her to die without professing her love for Issei. However, I'm disappointed that we were so blinded by our jealousy and our quest to become as strong as our older sister that we practically shoved them aside," the Other One said.

"That's…" Shin found himself being able to come up with a feasible response.

All of the responses he had lined up just sounded like excuses. Ways he could delude himself into thinking everything was going to be okay. But deep down, he knew that his relationship with Issei and Irina might never be the same again.

"Yaldabaoth really got to us, didn't she? And so did seeing Onee's progress," the Other One said. He took another step forward.

"I don't want to fight," Shin said.

"Neither do I."

"So what now?"

"Well, that's up to you. Now that you've seen me, what do you want to do?" the Other One asked.

"I want to get back to the waking world. I want to continue my training to become stronger. And I want to stop running away from myself… by being us, we can finally figure out who we are without the people around us right?" Shin asked.

The Other One smiled.

"You already know who we are. The people around us are part of who we are. I think we forgot the whole point of that after the whole Tobio thing. We were so busy trying to prove to ourselves and to our family that we weren't a burden that we forgot who we were as a person. Being with the others. Training with Issei, Vivi, and Ran. Having fun with Sophia. And spending time with Akeno. Those people helped bring out the real us.

"When Onee returned, our jealousy of her skill. Our need to prove to ourselves and to everyone else that we weren't a burden blinded us to who we actually were and we became a hollow shell of ourselves. You know that. You fought that version of who we are," the Other One told him.

Shin stayed silent, allowing everything to sink in.

"Acknowledging me is the first step to becoming us. If you accept me, you'll accept the failure we felt and pain that we put our sister through," the Other One said.

"I…" Shin began.

The Other One sighed.

"I know," he finished. "That's something I can never run away from but… it's something I can make sure will never happen again."

"It's not going to be easy. Acknowledging me is completely different from coming to terms with it," the Other One said.

"I know but when has that ever stopped us?" Shin asked, grinning cheekily at his counterpart.

The Other One smiled. "When you wake up, make sure to apologize to Onee. We've hurt her enough," he said, walking over to him. He held out his hand for Shin.

Shin grabbed it and the Other One was engulfed in a brilliant light. The Other One's body began to fade into a stream of particles that merged with the original Shin.

Remember… Knowing is different from accepting. You can know the past but accepting it is a whole nother matter. To become your true self, you must accept who you are and know that who you think you need to be isn't who you ought to be because by becoming someone else, we are no longer…

"Ourselves." Shin closed his eyes as the world around him crumbled into nothingness and he was swallowed by the infinite white of the void.

A bit shorter this time. Only about 4 thousand something words but I felt like it was a good place to stop. No, before you ask, this won't magically mean that Shin is over whatever he's over. He still has to deal with the consequences of his actions and he'll still feel inferior from time to time to his older sister which will trigger his jealousy of her but this time, he won't go off the deep end. No, this won't magically fix his relationship with Irina and Issei. That's something I have two entire arcs planned for and not something that'll happen when he sees them again. If you've noticed, all of Shin Alter's comments were all feedback I got from my fellow writers about how Shin currently was. I basically took all your reviews and used it to add/change some stuff I had planned for the Dragon Festival Arc. With that in mind, let's continue on with the Dragon Festival Arc aka the second shortest arc in this entire fanfic!