Song of Cinders

There was something different about this dream, Hikari could tell right away that it was neither a normal dream, nor a vision of the Dark Ocean. There was something nostalgic to the feelings she had as she walked through the empty space that seemed like it was made up of pieces of the Digital World that made even less cohesive sense than ever.

The land around Hikari was a twisted jumble of pieces that didn't quite fit together, like a tree weaving in and out of a building angled on a diagonal. What she mistook for a breeze making the branches sway were actually the blur of glitching as the areas where the two overlapped in space competed for dominance. The ground was hills and pits of blackened bits scorched by explosions and twisted in shapes that reminded her of illusion puzzles that hurt her eyes to look at for too long.

A tiny flicker of glittering light caught Hikari's eye and led her on through a place that no longer made sense. She thought she heard whispers that invoked nostalgia from years ago, but she couldn't make out a word.

Hikari quickened her pace, chasing the light until it disappeared behind the remains of a wall that had frozen in midair as it was falling down, a halo of bricks, ash, and sparks surrounding it. The presence of so many time points of light made it easy to lose track of the little lights that led her there and frustration cut through the unease of the place.

"Tenraimon?" Hikari called, uncertain but hopeful. "Are you there?"

An unfamiliar voice answered, but what they said was too distant to make out. Hikari paused to listen, but realized after a moment that the person wasn't speaking, they were singing. She followed the sound around the forever falling building and stopped instantly at seeing the chaos behind it.

There was a hole, massive in size, scorched with flames that did not move ringing the edges and a halo of frozen smoke. Parts of the ground had been stretched upward and away in unnatural directions, as though someone had changed parts of it to putty or squared blocks in a computer art program. A grid peeked out from different angles, frayed glowing lines that shifted from color to color, making it the only thing that moved in this place but her.

The whole area was wrong, broken, Hikari could feel it in her bones. While the Dark World had a sensation of malevolence and despair, the area felt sickly with no hope of recovery. She shuddered a bit as she couldn't think of her own chronic issues with illness, but she knew she couldn't stop now. This dream had some sort of meaning to it, she was sure of it.

With a growing sense of dread, Hikari realized the singing came from the deep dark depths of the pit before her, which was nothing big a black void as far down as she could see. Although the animal part of her brain screamed against what she was doing, she followed her instincts and jumped into the hole.

There was barely a second of the sensation of falling before Hikari was on her feet again. To her dismay, her surroundings were gray and dreary, and she knew that she had returned to the Dark World. This time, however, she was not alone.

A battered plush black cat with two eyes like blue gems lay sprawled at the feet of a girl with her back to Hikari. Even from behind, Hikari could recognize the long black hair and dress as belonging to the girl who she had only ever seen trapped in the mirror - Keiko. There was no mirror between them now, yet the Chosen of Light found herself slowing her pace as she realized it must have been Keiko's singing that brought her there. Although Hikari had been dying to meet Keiko for so long now, she hesitated to interrupt the other girl singing such a beautiful melody.

In spite of reluctance, Hikari's feet continued forward, a urgency pressing her on despite the increasingly terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach that called for her to wait. For one surreal moment, it was almost as though she was watching someone else touch Keiko's shoulder, whispering the Chosen of Darkness' name.

The dark fabric crackled beneath Hikari's fingers, and the shoulder below crumbled as hairs that brushed against her hand disintegrated into ash. A scream died trying to escape her through as the girl in front of her fell apart and blew away like the remnants of a fire. The singing continued all the while, fading away on the breeze as the ashes of the Chosen of Darkness spread to the four winds.

Hikari woke up screaming.