The Mask Shatters

Chapter 25

"A new bond shall be formed, and one that will ultimately determine his fate…"

Author's Note

I'm gonna be AWOL for a little bit as I complete a move. I should be back in five days though. Until then, enjoy this chapter!

He gasped, turning around as swiftly as he could to meet his attacker, but before he could even react, a pair of hands reached out and grabbed him by the collar of his samurai garb, forcing him into a pillar behind him and knocking his facewrap down to his neck, revealing the quivering lips of a frightened young man.

In the heat of the moment, he had barely recognized his attacker, who was a young woman in a white and orange jacket coupled with black leggings and a Shujin-Approved Skirt with her sleek black hair tied into an indistinct ponytail that could, quite honestly, hide her well within a crowd. Her scowl was the second thing he noticed. As she inched closer, her grip tightening around him, he realized just who it was.

Kae. Kae Wakaizumi.

Arthur could feel her breath on his cheeks as he stood there, gulping and trembling. For a moment, she just seethed in place, staring at him with hate in her eyes and vengeful words hidden behind a veil of silence. They were nearly face to face, and Arthur hesitated to speak. She just looked at him in turn, a vein looking to burst in her forehead.

She was clearly angry with Arthur, but for what reason?

"W-what the fuck?!" Arthur finally shouted at her. Kae didn't say anything, and instead only drug him forward, just to slam him backwards once more into the pillar. Arthur grunted, the pain mitigated slightly by his armor.

Kae gritted her teeth together, barring them well for Arthur to see. And with a small inhale, she spoke. Clearly and angrily. "Why are you going around saying we're together?!" She asked him, just for Arthur to give her a confused look. "Huh?! Answer me!"

"W-what?!" Arthur stuttered, unsure of what she was even saying. Together? Where did that come from? "What the fuck are you talking about?! I-I would never…"

Kae grunted, lifting him forward until he was nose to nose with her. "Don't lie to me, American! You won't like what happens!"

"Aggh!" Arthur gasped, struggling in her grip. He had wanted to fight back, but in the same vein he didn't want to hurt her. So instead he sustained it. "I'm not lying, I swear!"

"Then why is it on the lips of everyone in school?!" She demanded an answer, clenching her teeth even more tightly as she slammed him back into the pillar behind him. Arthur gasped in pain, the armor he wore denting slightly at the force it was suffering with.

She then glanced down at him, arching a brow in silent, yet angry, confusion. "And what the fuck are you wearing? Were you on your way to some cosplay bullshit?"

Arthur, the heat of anxiety bearing down on him, struggled even further in her grip, but she maintained a tight clench on his collar. He managed to mewl out: "You shouldn't be here…"

"Shut up!" She shouted at him, shaking Arthur to silence him. She then leaned in close, her breath singing his lips with what seemed to be the stench of some kind of sushi. "Now here's what I'm gonna do:" She slowly sounded out, to which Arthur nodded to confer that he was indeed listening. "I'm gonna let you go. In exchange, you're gonna tell me what the fuck's going on and why people think we're dating. Sound fair?" She asked him, to which Arthur nodded and mewled out a response. She grunted before lifting him forward again, more words to be said.

"And if you try to run, I swear, I'll tear off your balls and feed them to my dog. Got it?!"

Arthur's eyes went wide when he realized she wasn't joking. "Yes, yes, I get it!"

"I mean it!" She slammed him into the pillar again, nearly causing him to collapse in her tight, frightening grip. "You'll wish you never came to Japan!"

"I get it, I get it!" Arthur's panic-stricken voice called out.

Kae looked at Arthur a moment before dragging him forward before quickly throwing him back at the pillar, letting go of him and letting him fly backwards into the stone structure before her. Arthur stumbled, losing his balance and falling backwards, grunting as he struck the pillar with the force that was met.

Collapsing to his rear, he grunted and groaned, grasping at his neck as he looked up at his attacker, and with a breath of air escaping his lips, he tried to speak. But instead all the he managed to choke out was proof of his bafflement.

"Now where did this start?" Kae demanded of him. "And tell me what the hell you're doing dressed as some punk samurai!"

"Is that why everyone's been so… giggly… around me…I- I dunno.. Where it all came from… Really, honest!" Arthur choked out, rubbing his chafed throat. Kae scoffed, obviously not finding a word Arthur had to say to be true.

"As for this…" He gestured to himself. "Well, it's a long story and you wouldn't believe me if I told you…" Then suddenly, his eyes widened behind his metal mask, and the realization quickly set in. He scrambled to his feet, nearly falling onto his knees in the new panic he began to go into. "You-You can't be here!"

He tried to reach out and grab her by her shoulders in an attempt to force her back the way she came, but she simply reached out and slapped him, sending him reeling to the floor. The sound of her hand meeting the skin of his face echoed in the silence around them, and when Arthur looked back up at her, a red hand print was imprinted on his cheek. "What-what the fuck?!" He shouted, as confused as he was frightened.

Not of her, though. But rather, the danger she was in.

"Don't you dare touch me!" Kae shouted at him. "Now, this ends now Williams. Now!" She said as she turned away from him, flipping her jacket's hood over her head.

"Wakaizumi-san, it's dangerous her-" He tried to warn her, but she simply shushed him, looking back at him over her shoulder with a death stare.

"If I hear anymore talk of this nonsense, I'll-" She turned her head away, hands in her jacket pockets, before noticing her surroundings to their fullest. The first thing that caught her attention?

The walled-in courtyard of the bank sitting before them. Complete with the pig statue and the broken, obsolete-looking gate that someone had broken not that long ago.

Kae blinked, confused and baffled.

"Wait… This wasn't here before…" She said, before turning around. Shaking her head in an attempt to forget it. "Hmph. Just an illusion of an angry mind. I'll see you at school, you goddamn idiot." She opened her eyes before gasping, stepping backwards as she took it all in.

Kaneshiro's Shibuya. In all of it's rundown, greenhouse-gassed beauty. From her perch above, she peered down the roadway and could spy hundreds, if not millions, of what looked to be tiny dots moving about the city below. She gasped, realizing just how high up she was.

Taking a step back, she eyed the skyscrapers and their boarded up, broken windows. The ground floor, which played a scenelet of run down buildings, more boarded up windows, and buildings that looked to have been destroyed by some unknown force, revealed the apocalypse that Kae had walked into, and she just stood there, in a sense of both confusion and awe, before taking a moment to give Arthur a concerned look.

"What's happening…?" She asked Arthur.

Arthur scoffed, shaking off the pain he was in to stagger to his feet. "What? You mean the undeserved ass kicking or what I've been trying to tell you?!" Arthur glared at her, dusting himself off as he spoke.

"...and tell me why you're wearing…that…" Kae looked him up and down, squinting to get a better look at him. She was not impressed. "You look like a geek, y'know?"

"Oh, gee, thanks." Arthur deadpanned, staring at her from behind his mask with anger burning in his eyes. For a moment, he was silent, and his gaze lowered to the ground below. Shaking his head and crossing his arms, he clicked his tongue and looked back up at her - a sudden worry in his eyes. "Look. You need to get out of here." He told her, a serious tone dominating his words.

"But where is 'here'?" She asked, gesturing to the city below. "It looks like Shibuya… but…. Something's off about it." She lowered her hand, looking back at Arthur. Confused. "Why are we so high up?"

"Because we're on a floating platform." He deadpanned. Kae just looked at him, baffled at his choice of words.

"Hah…" She scoffed, turning to face him fully. "Did I hit your head too hard?" She asked, arching a brow.

Arthur just stared at her, unblinking and undisturbed in his resolve towards his own words. Kae's expression dropped.

"You're serious." She then deduced before shaking her head, chuckling. "There's no fucking way… No way… No goddamn way we're floating in the air, Williams."

"Look over the edge." Arthur bade her, tapping his foot as he spoke.

Kae narrowed her eyes, but did as she was asked. Slowly, she approached the edge of the platform, and when she reached it she looked back at Arthur, who had remained expectant and still. When he didn't move, she took that as her cue to peer over the edge.

And when she did so, she nearly collapsed to her knees with the fright she experienced.

Her legs turned to jelly, and her eyes went wide. Her mouth went ajar, all the while the breath she had had escaped her lips.

And her skin turned pale. A pale as the moonlight in a clear night sky.

"Oh… what…. The…" She murmured, falling backwards onto her rear as the realization set in.

Arthur was telling the truth.

She took a second to let it sink in, and when she turned back to face Arthur, who was now standing over her with a hand extended towards her, she just stared at him. Baffled.

"Arthur…" She quietly mewled, the shock burning within her system. "...where are we…?"

"Like I said." Arthur said, grabbing her by the hand and helping her to her feet. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." He explained, before quickly adding. "But that's not important right now! What's important is that we get you out of here. It's incredibly dangerous, and even I don't have a full grasp on everything here."

Without waiting a second further, he pulled out his phone and began navigating to the Meta-Nav. "I'm gonna take you back to the real world… We can discuss this later."

"The real world…?" Kae echoed in confusion.

"Over there!"

"Seize them!"

Two voices shouted out almost in unison, startling Arthur and Kae as they both turned to the source.

Two security officers, in their lanky uniforms and with batons in their hands, came running from the courtyard before them. They stopped just a few feet from the two

"Crap!" Arthur shouted, turning on his feet to meet them. A sudden pang of fear entered his mind as he took a step backwards, only to note Kae in his peripheral vision.

"Surrender, intruders! You have nowhere to run!" One of them commanded, to which Kae let out a surprised cry, dashing Arthur's fear as he looked at her. His eyes widened, and the strangeness of seeing genuine fear on her face, when before all he ever noted was belligerence, erased all sense of fear he felt and suddenly he began to feel a surge of bravado.

His hand trailed to the hilt of his blade, and the distantly familiar feel of the sword felt nearly alien to him as his gaze lingered on her, and he chuffed quietly. His gaze narrowed as he turned his eyes back to face his attackers.

All of a sudden, it wasn't just his life at stake. But that of someone who did not wield the power he commanded.

And he knew that only he could defend her.

"Wha-What are these things?!" She asked Arthur, noting their inhuman qualities.

They bent backwards, before melting and suddenly exploding into a dark, brackish liquid that nearly sprayed Kae from head to toe.

Rising from the puddles that the security officers left behind, two towering demonic looking creatures. Wielding twinblades, and sporting small sharp horns on their foreheads and sharp, jagged teeth lining their mouths. With evil, crimson skin and tattered clothes, and eyes that spoke of nothing but evil intentions and hungry for chaos…. They narrowed on the two teenagers before them, and one of them began to laugh in a deep, crazed voice.

Veritable Onis of Japanese lore.

"Aiieeeeee!" She squealed.

Arthur grunted, stepping forwarding and unsheathing his sword as he readied himself into a combat stance. All fear was put aside, all feelings of inadequacy were pushed to the rear of his mind, and all doubts that plagued him were erased. He knew what must be done.

"Wakaizumi-san, get behind me and stay there!" Arthur commanded her, a sudden brave display as he pulled his wrap over his nose.

It was time to put what he had learned to the test.

Post-Chapter Author's Note

Edited by Frozen Foe.