XXIV. Gone
Time passed.
It passed slowly, but it went on as it always did.
Time had never perplexed Seishiro in the past – it was predictable. It made the waiting tiresome and the expectant edgy. It confused people. Until now, Seishiro had not let the ever flowing concept known as time get to him.
But now…there was not enough of it.
Because of the limit put on him by the Dimensional Witch, on how many worlds he could travel before the vision in his right eye disappeared completely, he had to make use of the time he had in the worlds that he ventured, using every resource to his advantage. In the beginning, while he had been true to his own word, and doing whatever he could to find the vampire twins, perusing dated books like they were the Bible. But that didn't mean that he couldn't make some mischief of his own, to make his mark on the world that he had visited and to let everyone know that they were predictable beings without ever saying it to their faces.
He understood that the Dimensional Witch was teaching him something, taking something away from him in return for her services. All her lesson did, in retrospective, was to make him want to find the vampire twins even more. The want consumed him, his every thought and emotion, directly tied to them and his quest to find them.
Once he had found the vampire twins, he could become immortal, and further explore what he had known his entire life.
One of them in particular stood out in his mind.
Subaru…the one who…
In this past world…the world of Outo…it was then that he really understood.
He didn't truly care about anyone.
At least…that's what he thought.
He had hidden his own emotional center for so long; it was as if he didn't have one.
No conscience.
No guilt over anything.
No heart.
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
He was taught not to feel anything. And he truly didn't feel anything.
He was a ghost in that way. Anything resembling an emotion appeared tacked on, genuine to others.
He was taught to be that way. He was taught to be a sociopath – all of humanity was a nuisance to him, because they were able to express everything that he couldn't.
Any shred of humanity that he had was gone.
It had been gone for some time.
