So yeah…dead guy is dead. Please don't hurt me…I'll give you this chapter if you don't DX
/=+=/
"Oh my god…Kiku…"
"They…they got to him?" Li Xiao rubbed his forehead. "My god, whoever's doing this is getting oddly bold and creative."
Charice bit her lip. If this is the same murderer who killed Carlos, doesn't that mean that she could touch him and magically reincarnate him to make everything better? Wouldn't that mean that she would have to touch the body? The body…all covered with blood…and scars…and stuff…?
Way to go, Charice. Now you'll HAVE to do it.
She bit her lip again. Well, she brought it up and now she has to do it, right? After a few more minutes, she walked forward toward Kiku's bloody body, kneeling next to him and hesitantly (and by hesitantly, she meant it took a few seconds) touched him in the stomach.
Nothing.
She touched him again.
Still nothing.
"Uh…does he look reincarnated or whatnot?" She looked up.
"No, he doesn't." Li Xiao leaned next to her. "He's dead, but not reincarnating…"
"Wait, how does that work?" Charice looked up in surprise. "I thought it's automatic when I touch him!"
"Y-you guys…!" Matthew gasped, shocked. "How in the world can you approach a body like that so casually?"
"Believe me, it's taking all my energy just to be in the same room as this." She sighed. "But I'm the only one who's able to…um…restart the reincarnation process…so I kinda have too…"
"…Charice…w-what are we going to tell the others?"
"Well, until we can figure out how we can restart the reincarnation process, telling them is going to start a state of panic." Li Xiao stated.
"Don't tell me you're planning on STAYING here until you're sure he reincarnates!"
"W-why would you do that?"
"We have to. In order to make sure that we can reverse what happens to him…at least the true death."
Charice looked at the serious look on Li Xiao's face before giving up and turning back to the peaceful look on Kiku's face…despite the fact that he's completely destroyed. Light footsteps echoed from behind her as Matthew walked up toward the body and lightly (albeit hesitantly) touched it.
"…it's so cold…"
"Yeah…that's…a dead body." She rubbed the back of her head. What else could she say at a time like this? "They're usually cold…"
Before she knew it, his fingers started to glow. They looked up as Matthew looked at his fingertips and then stood up, walking toward a part of the room and gesturing his fingers as if opening something. Before their eyes, they saw a strange portal-like thing open from his palm. They watched as he slowly pried it open until it was human sized.
"…what just happened?"
"I…I just opened it up." He answered. "I don't know how, but…"
"Could this be like the TV set that leads to the other world…?" Li Xiao peeked inside. "They look exactly the same."
"Are you saying that Kiku is in that other realm thing?" Charice was confused. "But he's dead! He's right here!"
"I want to assume that whoever killed him sent his soul into the other realm." Li Xiao turned to her. "You're religious. Wouldn't that be plausible?"
"…I dunno! It's only heaven, hell and purgatory to me." Charice blinked. "Unless that's purgatory."
"So…we have to go back in there?"
"For Kiku's sake." Li Xiao turned to him. "You don't have to go if you don't have to."
"But this is for Kiku…I have to go." He said, trying to stay brave. "I am a nation as well…a member of the G8! I have to be brave!"
"All right…" Li Xiao smiled. "Let's go."
/= ["Nine-Tailed Demon Fox" by Naruto] =/
"W-where are we…?"
"We're in a realm Kiku created with his memories…" Li Xiao answered. "Everything here is shaped into something he is comfortable with."
Charice looked around to confirm his statements. They were in a dark forest filled with trees and Shinto gates (torii, if Charice was paying any sort of attention to her International Class) with unlit lanterns. As she looked around, she realized that her clothes had changed as well. However, it was a beautiful red kimono…cut to just above her knee. She also had long red socks on and what looks like geta on her feet.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" She exclaimed. "Why am I wearing a skirt this short?"
"Maybe we're affected by Kiku's thoughts as well."
Charice looked up to see what they were dressed up as. Li Xiao is in his usual uniform (son of a lucky bitch), while Matthew was dressed in what looked like to be a small Shinto priest uniform…without the hat. It looked nice on his small frame, to say the least.
"So our outfits are affected by him?"
"Either that or it's a way of disguising ourselves from the Shadows of this world." Li Xiao stated. "The clothes feel comfortable on me…"
"They do on me too…that's so odd…" Matthew looked at his outfit.
"OK, outfits are awesome…I'm importing them from future Japan later, great." Charice sighed. "Can we please find where Kiku might be before I start getting a little freaked out?"
"The sign hasn't showed up yet." Li Xiao said. "Otherwise, we'll have to wander around looking for one."
"So…we don't know where we are?"
"Dude, we didn't know where we were when we fell in." Charice sighed. "Apparently, wandering's bad for us."
"Ah…like a true ninja, the man of shadows sees his prey…"
"Say what now?"
Everyone turned toward one of the Shinto gates and found a random ninja standing on top of it, wearing stereotypical ninja garbs and posing like one too. And what do you know? The mask was off, and you could clearly see that it was Kiku in the ninja outfit. She could barely see that his eyes were gold…like a Shadow.
"And like all victims of a ninja, they will fall upon the swift blade as black as night!" He exclaimed. "For we are Asians…and Asians are the most skilled in being hidden by the cloak as black as the other side of the moon…"
"…say what now?"
"If you are here for my master, then turn around and return to where you have come from." He said. "He will never return to you and your wasteful ways. He is staying here…where he belongs."
"Bullcrap!" She screamed. "We're bringin' him back!"
"He will never return!" He turned around. "Believe it!"
"Oh, he did not just-"
And he was gone, leaving Charice roaring after him in a fit of fury and the boy staring at just what was flying out of her mouth.
"I thought you knew this, dammit! It's not 'believe it', it's DATTEBAYO! You hear me? DATTEBAYOOOOOO!" She took a deep breath. "His Shadow is so freakin' dead."
"…I'm scared of her now…"
"Where's the damn sign already? I want to kill that bastard…"
Suddenly, the torches on the Shinto gates flickered on. As they stared at them, it was then that Charice noticed something: one of the gates had blue flames, while the others had the usual red and orange flames. The other two boys looked extremely confused.
"What's with the torches…? We can't get anywhere if there's no light…"
"What sign is Kiku trying to give us?" Li Xiao asked as he rubbed his brow.
"I think we go that-a-way." She pointed down a path. "The flames here are blue!"
"Blue?" Li Xiao looked up. "But they're perfectly normal."
"…nooo...it's blue." She looked back up to the gate. "Whatever. This is probably the sign anyway, since nothing else is showing up! Let's go!"
/=+=/
"I can't believe I'm following you."
"I can't believe you can't see the flames." She looked up. "Seriously, they're perfectly blue!"
"What do you mean by blue? They look like ordinary flames to me." Matthew looked up to the gates. "Are you sure you see blue flames?"
"As blue as anything else in this world."
Charice continued to lead them down the trail when she realized that one of the flames was a strange purplish color. Just as she wandered closer to it, the flame suddenly flickered out, revealing a strange Shadow that looked like a man bonded with chains. Five more of them appeared around them.
"Are these…?"
"Yep." Li Xiao stood back. "Let's go."
/= ["Between Life and Death" by Chrono Cross] =/
"Dongbin! Let's go!"
"Here we go, Maguimba~!"
Matthew hung back as he saw the two of them jump in the air and start slashing away the men in chains. It was then that he regretted being unarmed. He turned his head around to hide when he realized that he was looking at a reflection of himself…no…it was his Shadow.
"It's you…"
The Shadow nodded. He didn't realize it at first, but he couldn't help but notice that his eyes were no longer glowing gold. What would that mean?
"I need your help…if you may allow me to ask…"
The Shadow quickly began to glow, splitting into halves. One of them appeared over his hand, transforming into a rifle. The other one appeared over his head in another form: a young man with long hair and shining white armor, his hands holding a white spear.
"Cu Chulainn!"
The Persona swung his spear in the air as the wind began to swirl around the Shadows, destroying them. As one of them dodges the attack and charged toward him, Matthew held Cu Chulainn's hand as his Persona fused with his rifle and turned into a spear. He grinned as he stabbed him straight in the head. The Shadow vanished into nothingness.
/= ["Nine-Tailed Demon Fox" by Naruto] =/
"Wow, Matthew…that's so cool!" Charice chirped. "Your Persona looks so awesome!"
"T-thank you, Charice…" He blushed. "But…it's really nothing…yours looks even nicer."
"Really, it's nothing."
"Save the compliments for later. The longer we stay here, the more the country of Japan suffers without a host." Li Xiao continued to walk. "We need to return his soul to our plane."
"Right, right…" She turned to him. "But still…at least your powers are interesting~! They're so strong and awesome!"
"B-but what about you?" Mathew asked. "I mean…you were summoning so many of those things that I couldn't even keep track of them!"
"Yeah, Charice…what is that?" Li Xiao turned back to her as he walked. "Last time I checked, a person can only have one persona on them."
"Persona…is that what it's called?"
"Yeah…and I really don't see how weird that can be." She shrugged. "I mean, think about it. It's just having access to a different power at another time. I can't even use more of them at the same time."
"But you have the option to switch powers." Li Xiao stated. "I don't have that option, and neither does Matthew."
"That's odd…oh well, it's probably because this is Carlos's power." She stated. "Oh well…let's keep going."
/= ["Prisoners of Fate" by Chrono Cross] =/
As they continued to walk down the pathway of blue flames and shattering Shadows, they found themselves standing in the middle of a clearing. There were Shinto gates around them, but they were all lit with ordinary flames. Charice turned her head around in confusion.
"Are we in a dead end?" She turned her head.
"What's wrong?" Matthew blinked.
"There're no more blue flames…we're at a dead end." Charice turned around. "But this was the only pathway…"
"Maybe we're lost." Li Xiao sighed. "Thanks a lot, Charice."
"Hey, I'm just trying here!"
The flames were slowly illuminating the middle of the area, showing that there was a small island surrounded by a moat. As Charice approached the water, she couldn't help but notice that there were flowers in the moat. Most of them looked like they had their petals pulled out, while others looked like they were just plucked out and left in the water.
"What is this…?"
"I think this is the same as the burnt flags in Matthew's world." Li Xiao stated. "Most of these flowers are pulled…"
"Hm…the daisies and roses are perfectly fine…" Charice blinked. "That's the Italian and English national flower."
"The rose is the English national flower…? I thought that was France's."
"I'd think so too…the Internet told me that." She sighed. "But the rest of them are plucked bare…that's weird."
"No…it is not weird…it is my master's will."
Everyone darted their heads up to see that it was Ninja Kiku standing on top of the small mass of land that was surrounded by water. He turned toward them with his golden eyes, and she could see that they were filled with pain and fear…but of what?
"These flowers have harmed my master through the thousands of years that he has been on this Earth." He stated. "It was then that I have made it my mission to protect him with my life."
"Protect him…the isolation policy that he had followed before?" Li Xiao stepped forward.
"He had been forced out because of them…this pain that he has kept hidden even to the mirror…is because of all of those who wish to exploit him." The Shadow spat. "He will be safe here…away from all of you."
"He will not be safe here. No one is safe here." Li Xiao spat. "He will cease to exist if he stays here."
"Maybe that is better for the master…death over manipulation." He turned to Li Xiao. "Especially from your brother!"
"I thought you knew this: Wang Yao cared for him like a brother!"
"No…he had never cared for my master…if you care for him as well, you will stop and return home…" The Shadow readied himself. "Otherwise, you will die here!"
"Come on, then! Try me! Cause we're not leaving!" Charice readied her poleaxe. "Bring it, Shadow! DATTEBAYO!"
The Shadow stood up and jumped as the purple fog continued to swarm around him. The fog continued to grow, making an image of a dragon with the head of it being the image of the Shadow Kiku. Charice looked up as the back sprouted at least six different wings and let out a roar that seemed to be a mix of Japan's voice and an actual dragon's roar.
"…is anyone else here thinking of Orochimaru?"
"Yes, actually…"
"OK…cause I think we're somewhat screwed here."
/=+=/
Cu Chulainn is a legend of Irish mythology about a man who became one of Ireland's best warriors after he accidentally kills a hound dog off and decides that he was going to take his place. [Matthew Williams- Tower]
Next chapter coming soon~! You're going to be surprised on how the logics work with nations and not human beings!