Sorry for the hiatus! School work took over my life for the past two months. I'll be hopefully writing a lot this month (attempting to complete Nanowrimo-National Novel Writing Month-for a total of 50,000 words for the month by writing fanfiction!) Look forward to a lot more frequent updates to come! Enjoy :)
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The realm they entered into was filled with mirrors. Hayate narrowed his eyes as he followed behind the girl and the twins. He felt an eerie chill spread through him as he saw his reflections gaze back at him. He looked ahead—and was shocked to find that the girl had no reflection. And the two scythe-holding duo's reflections were even stranger; Yin's reflection was of Yang and Yang's reflection was of Yin.
"Where are we?" Hayate asked finally.
"The place where I was created," the girl answered.
"Created?" Hayate asked—to which she gave no reply.
"The Realm of Reflections," Yin and Yang answered together, linking their hands together.
"What?" Hayate asked in confusion.
"It depicts the you who exists in the various realms that run parallel to our own," Sasame said, walking down a long corridor of mirrors towards Hayate.
Hayate gazed at Sasame's reflections, glad to find nothing unusual with them.
"Other realms, huh?" he thought aloud.
Hayate narrowed his eyes in confusion for a moment. A mirror into the other realms—did that realm include Leafenia? Was there a chance then, that one of the girl's reflections was Himeno? But the girl had no reflection at all…
"What did you mean when you said you were created?" Hayate asked, turning away from his own reflections. It sent a shiver down his spine thinking of the copies of himself in various realms that were choosing different paths than his own. Perhaps that meant that one of his copies had succeeded to save Himeno in another realm…copies?
The girl turned to face Hayate, her eyes hidden from view from Hayate.
"I am not the one you seek, am I?" she asked, her voice betraying for the first time, a hint of disappointment.
Hayate shook his head, but had nothing to say in return. It was true, what she said after all. After a moment's silence, Sasame spoke.
"Can we use this realm to find someone in another realm?" Sasame asked. Hayate looked at him sharply. He wasn't suggesting that they look for Himeno? But Sasame had always asserted that Leafenia did not exist.
"Yes, but there will be a price. Are you willing to pay the toll?" the twins asked gleefully.
Sasame opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by Hayate who answered in the affirmative.
"I will pay the toll for the search. State your price," he said firmly.
The twins giggled and rushed towards him.
"Well something like this needs an official proceeding, right?" Yin asked. She took a dagger out of her pocket and ran the blade across Hayate's palm.
"Blood to seal the deal," she said, drawing a similar gash across hers and Yang's hands.
"The contract is as follows: We will aid you to find whom you seek, but in return, when you find this person, this girl whom you brought with you will be ours," Yang explained, his cold eyes meeting Hayate's fierce ones.
"She is not an object," Hayate hissed.
"Quite the contrary," a voice said. Hayate shifted his gaze without moving to the speaker—Kei.
"Why don't you two crazy twins explain what you know about this girl before you continue the contact business?" Go cried out, bringing his fist in contact with a wall. The anger was so palpable that had magic been permissible in this realm, he would have already had flames swirling around him.
"I would like to hear this as well," Mawata demanded, her hand around Hajime's trembling one.
Shin had awoken from the shouting, and looked around in a daze. Mannen turned away as if the situation did not affect him; he had been so little that he barely remembered Himeno anymore. But she was mentioned in such a secretive way that he had a vague curiosity at best.
"They deserve to hear the truth, Yin and Yang," the girl commanded, "After that, it is up to them to decide what to do."
Yin and Yang bowed to the girl.
"We cannot disobey our princess after all. Very well, we will explain why she is no more than an object," they said. They twirled their scythes around, as if enjoying all the attention they were receiving at the moment.
"This girl is what you suspect that she is, Hayate. She is a copy of your former Pretear," Yin began.
"Copy? Like a clone?" Sasame asked, placing a placating hand on Hayate's shoulder.
"Yes. When the Pretear expelled all of her Leafe to destroy the hoard of demon larvae, she drew upon the Leafe of all of her other selves as well," Yang said with a bored expression on his face.
"And it still wasn't enough?" Go spat.
"No. And she realized this," Yin answered, "so she drew upon the last of her Leafe to create a shell of herself that would be able to finish the battle that she could not."
"The last of her Leafe…" Mawata breathed. A sob caught itself in her throat at those words, but she did not want to betray her emotions in front of the others. She bit her lip, but her distress did not go unnoticed. Despite his own tumultuous emotions, Go placed an arm around her shoulders, which she neither pushed away nor welcomed.
"Then she has truly disappeared," Kei stated matter-of-factly.
"She's not gone," Hayate said in a firm voice.
It was the first time any of them had heard such a denial coming from him, and it surprised them. Sasame especially had been under the impression that Hayate's sense of guilt derived itself from his belief that he had killed her—and his hopelessness grew from the sense that there was nothing he could do to change that.
Perhaps the arrival of the Himeno look-alike had changed that. Perhaps Hayate had a sliver of hope after years of being trapped in his own guilt…
"Finding her is not your top priority now, is it?" the clone asked. Hayate did not turn to face the girl.
"By using her Leafe to create this clone, she has expressed her desire to save your broken world. Her actions don't say anything about rescuing her," Yang said, followed by a yawn. Yin whacked him for his apathy and said quickly, "But of course, it is up to you to decide what the dead would have wanted. They have no say for the living…"
"She's not dead, dammit!" Go burst out, "I dunno about you, Hayate, but I'm willing to trade this girl to find Himeno, especially if this girl isn't real…"
"No," Hayate said in a low voice.
"Who made you the leader?" Go snapped.
"Hayate's right. We can't go through with the contract because then we'd lose the power of the Pretear we have now for another Pretear we might not find," Kei said after analyzing the situation.
"Sometimes I wonder if you have any feelings at all," Mannen said suddenly, "I don't really remember Himeno, but shouldn't we do what she wanted us to do?"
"When did you get so grown up, you brat?" Go said, ruffling Mannen's hair.
Mannen looked up to say a retort, but was met with an expression that left him speechless. A look of pure torture filled Go's expression. His five years of denial were melting away in front of him, and the hope that this girl was Himeno was fading away fast as well.
"I don't care about this world. I'm going to find my sister," Mawata declared.
"Ah, the mortal with no powers! I am afraid your toll will be different than the Leafe Knights' toll," Yin said, almost beaming.
"Name your price," she countered.
"Your relationship as her sister," Yin replied.
"What does that mean?" Mawata asked.
"If you do find your sister, whatever past relationship you had with her will never be reclaimed. You will only be able to approach her as a stranger," Yang answered, once again stifling a yawn.
"Fine," Mawata declared.
"Then this deal is complete," Yin said, taking a drop of blood from the tip of Mawata's finger.
Yin and Yang opened a portal for Mawata.
"You're going alone?" Go called out after her.
"Yes," she snapped, moving forward. Go rushed to fall in step beside her.
"I'm coming as well," he said. Mawata turned to snap a retort when she saw how deadly earnest he was. He needed to do this for his own sake as well, she realized. He needed to confirm the truth about Himeno for himself—or else be trapped in uncertainty.
"Go, we need you here," Sasame said.
"I'm not coming back until I find Himeno," Go said stubbornly. Sasame sighed and nodded.
Hayate had turned away from the whole exchange, feeling his unease grow. Part of him wanted to go along with Go and Mawata, but another part of him warned him that he would only be betraying Himeno once more if he did. He stood in place, torn.
"Don't bother coming back quickly. I'll be more than enough help here," Mannen shouted out to his older brother Go.
Go gave Mannen a thumb's up before entering the portal with Mawata. As the portal closed, Mannen averted his eyes.
"So what do we now?" Kei asked the girl—the clone.
"I need to know why Himeno created me," she said with a puzzled expression on her face.
"Her memories," Yang said, stepping down from his platform. In his hand was a single shard of a gem.
"Here is a piece of the orb that you so unceremoniously broke, Hayate," Yang said, handing the piece to Hayate. Hayate held the glittering object in his hand and felt a familiar sensation rise from the object.
"Give it to the clone," Yin said. Hayate extended his hand out to the girl, who took the piece in her hand.
Suddenly the shard began to glow and enveloped the girl in a cloak of warm light. Of Leafe. Seconds later, the Leafe had entered her.
"A kendama," the girl said, "You were challenging Himeno to a series of tests. One of them involved a kendama. A toy that she did not throw away…"
Hayate reached into his coat pocket and produced the kendama. It had been broken in several pieces, but now it had been glued together whole. The girl took the kendama in her hand gently, a conflicted expression spreading across her face. Tears began to well in her eyes, and she handed the kendama back to Hayate.
"How do we get the rest of the shards?" Sasame asked.
"They are scattered across this realm—most likely in the wastelands where the orb was originally broken. Each shard contains a wealth of Leafe, so I would not surprised if the demons there are already feasting upon them…" Yang replied.
"Then we'll just have to destroy all of them and take the shards back," Hayate said firmly.
Yin and Yang seemed pleased with his response and snapped their fingers. An instant later, the group—minus Go and Mawata—found themselves back in the hotel.
"We head out at dawn," Hayate said, entering an empty room and collapsing onto a bed, prepared to spend another night full of nightmares…