Gareki looked around cautiously at the new black surrounding. He used his arms to push himself into a sitting position, but then suddenly paused.
Before when he had been in this black world, there had been nothing to indicate which direction was which, but now there was something hard beneath him. In fact, it felt an awful lot like...
"Concrete!" Using his hands, he felt the surface that spread in each direction around him. While most of his surroundings remained black, the white concrete beneath him was definitely there.
Gareki watched the concrete extend until he could no longer see it before he looked to his right. He imagined blacktop running parallel to the concrete and to his surprise, it appeared. Familiar yellow and white lines formed in the correct places along the blacktop, completing a replica of a road.
Gareki smirked in victory as everything was finally coming together. His world was coming together! Gareki felt a rush of excitement as he then looked to his left.
A large rectangular building began to rise from the ground. It continued to rise until it was near fifty stories tall. The building itself was a deep black color with intricate golden colored designs tracing the dark tinted windows. Standing at the front were large gold double doors.
Curious as to what would be inside, Gareki approached the doors. He reached forward but just before he could grasp the handles, everything disappeared.
Bright lights assaulted his eyes when he awoke. He tried to shield his eyes with his hands but found he couldn't move them. Before he could figure out why a shape appeared above him, blocking out the light.
"What did I tell you about using your powers when I'm not here?" A familiar voice scolded him.
Gareki rolled his eyes and went to protest but found that his voice came out weak. He moved to sit up but his arms refused to respond, the most he could do was flex his fingers. He groaned as a sharp pain shot through his head at his attempt to move.
Hirato sighed. "How many times must I stress the importance of supervision during your training?" Hirato sat back in a chair that was sitting next to the bed, forcing Gareki to turn his head sideways to avoid the blinding light.
"While I do congratulate you on your remarkable amount of progress, I must also remind you of the dangers of overusing your powers. Too much at one time can be overwhelming for the mind and sometimes physically damaging, which is why you are currently in the medical facility now."
Gareki looked away. He had already learned this the hard way from his last fight down in the city. Besides, it wasn't like he had been doing it on purpose, it had happened so suddenly and he had just went along with it.
Hirato stood up and grabbed Gareki's chin, turning his head to look at him. Gareki didn't fight him, not that he had the strength to do so anyway.
"You're lucky I returned when I did, had I not been there to stop you you would have died." Hirato had gone to check on Gareki the previous night after seeing Akari and had found the teen collapsed on the bed with barely any heart beat. After forcibly removing the raven from his inner world, he had brought him straight to the medical room with Akari. The doctor had been a bit flustered and unprepared from their previous encounter and after shouting some colorful words at Hirato, he had preceded to stabilize the teen.
"You let your powers consume you and drag you into your mind," Hirato said. "While you will find it easier to manipulate your world this way rather than when you force your way in, you won't be able to judge your physical condition."
Gareki couldn't stop the look of surprise that came across his face as Hirato let go of him and began walking to the door. How did he know so much? Weren't he and Karoku the only ones with this ability?
"You should get some rest, we will resume training as soon as Akari clears you." Hirato grasped the door handle and paused. He glanced over his shoulder at the teen, "Interesting world you got there by the way." With that the door shut behind him.
Gareki awoke the next morning to the bright sunlight streaming in through the open curtains. His headache had decreased to a dull throb and he had already regained some of the movement in his arms.
Akari and some nurses came in shortly after he had awakened and while the nurses began running a check up, Akari gave him a lightweight ball. He was asked to squeeze the ball ten times and then raise it into the air ten times to test his strength, much to his annoyance.
Gareki had been left slightly exhausted by the simple arm exercise, not that he would tell Akari that. The doctor always seemed to be all knowing anyways so he was sure he had known whether he had told him or not.
Just before Gareki could be bored out of his mind, the trio came in as if on cue. Tskumo, Yogi and Nai all stood there with worried looks on their faces.
"Are you okay Gareki?" Nai asked in his cute voice. He jumped up onto the end of Gareki's bed, eager to see his injured friend, but then paused when Gareki winced from the sharp pains in his head the sudden movement had caused. "Do you hurt?" Nai asked, a look of guilt flashing across his face.
"No, I'm fine," Gareki replied quickly. "It's just a little headache."
"Will a kiss make it better?" Yogi asked asked after a moment of silence.
"A-a what?!" Gareki exclaimed, automatically leaning away from Yogi's sudden close proximity.
"I want to give Gareki a kiss too!" Nai said innocently.
"Hey! I don't need-" Gareki cut off suddenly, opting instead for a sharp intake of breath as Yogi's lips were now mere centimeters from his own. He was trapped between Yogi and the bed and with nowhere to go, he could do nothing but wait in anticipation for the blonds next move.
Yogi's lips brushed his, just barely touching before they disappeared completely. A light kiss was placed on his cheek before Yogi pulled away, smiling at Gareki's surprised reaction.
"Lets keep the intimate actions to a minimum," Akari said as he walked in. A clipboard rested on his arm with a pen in the opposite hand as he scribbled down notes, not even glancing up from his papers.
"Why?" Yogi pouted. "It's not like you and Hirato hide-" A loud smack resounded through the room instantly shutting up the blond. The clipboard that had hit the blond upside the head was gripped tightly in the doctors hand.
"I don't need any backtalk from you," Akari stated angrily. He grabbed Yogi and Nai and dragged them to the door. "Gareki needs rest, you can see him tomorrow."
"But I didn't get to give Gareki a kiss!" Nai protested as the door closed behind him.
Gareki's hand touched the place where Yogi had kissed him. Why was a simple kiss making his heart beat so fast?
Gareki once again stood on the white concrete in the endless black pit of his mind. It had taken him a while to get back to this place, since he had to make his own way in this time but he finally made it.
Stepping forward and moving to the right of the black colored building, Gareki imagined multiple skyscrapers lining the sidewalk. Each building that appeared had a unique design from the others, none had the same appearance. Even from the simple creation of the metal structures, Gareki could feel the energy drain from his body and feel his breath become labored.
"You're showing signs of exhaustion," Hirato's voice floated around in the darkness.
"I've hardly done anything," Gareki protested.
"On the contrary, whether you recognize it or not you've actually done quite a bit." Hirato said. "Remember in the law of physics that something cannot be created from nothing. You are creating a world in which matter does not exist but since matter cannot be created or destroyed you are forced to use something else."
"Like what?" Gareki questioned. "If you don't remember this place is completely blank. There's nothing here."
Hirato sighed. "But there is something there, you are there. In this world you are able to convert your energy into solid matter. Therefore the more you create, the more energy you use."
"What if I can't control what I'm creating?" Gareki asked as he eyed the row of newly formed skyscrapers. "When I create something, I can't control it's appearance."
"You are subconsciously creating the objects from memory. This way only you are able to recognize every part of your world," the captain explained.
Gareki nodded, even though he wasn't sure if Hirato could see him or not. Walking forward until he was in line with the last building, Gareki stopped to examine the side walk. Since it seemed to go on without end, he decided to bend it instead.
Reaching his hand out forward, he grasped the air like he was holding the long sidewalk and pulled his hand to the left. The cement immediately followed his hand and curved until it lined up with the left side of the building.
Although he felt the exhaustion returning even stronger than before, he tried to ignore it. He instead turned to look at the road. Since the sidewalk turned, there will need to an intersection at the curve. Gareki closed his eyes and willed a four lane road to appear along side the sidewalk. Opening his eyes he saw the white and yellow painted blacktop in its appropriate place.
Just before he could move on to the next object he had in mind a sharp knife like pain shot through his head, causing him to drop to his knees. Both hands flew up to grip the sides of his head as he tried to draw in a deep breath. The air seemed to stop before reaching his lungs and no matter how hard he tried, his lungs refused to respond. Panic began to grip him as he felt his energy leaving him.