Yuu and her cargo were spat out from the Void, the writhing portal of madness screeched as it ejected the hateful coffin and the reality anchor contained within. The teen hissed in pain as she landed heavily on the cold iron box and bounced off.
"Ahh! This takes the fucking piss!" Yuu growled as she raised her small fist to the shrinking portal and raised her middle finger at it. Wincing, she stood up and inspected the container to ensure it was still sealed.
Something's wrong. Strength said from within her.
"What?" Yuu asked.
Insane Black Rock Shooter's cannon, it's gone! Strength replied.
"What do you mean gone? Was it taken in the Void?" Yuu wondered, coughing slightly.
Hell if I know, but it's either good or very, very bad. Strength stated.
"Fuck." Yuu sighed, slumping down next to the box. She looked around at the new world.
"I don't think much of this place, what do you think happened?" Yuu asked as she took in the vast expanse of dull grey rock and concrete, broken only by a few ruined buildings nearby.
Not a clue, but it looks like some kind of war, judging by the rubble. Strength responded.
"Great, another war." Yuu spat, pulling her hood down. "I thought we were done with this shit?" She complained.
We can worry about that later, we should check on Black Rock Shooter. Strength said. A distant rumbling caught her attention as she stood up, looking in the direction the sound was coming from she saw a large plume of dust growing nearer.
"Be ready." Yuu cautioned. She stepped out in front of where she guessed the cloud was going and started waving. "Hey!" Yuu shouted as the dust cloud revealed to vehicles. "Hey wait!" The larger of the two machines pulled towards her, a pale desert-coloured Humvee with a roof mounted turret manned by an older man with grey hair, a mask covered the lower half of his face. The vehicle slowed down and stopped just in front of her, the large machine gun aimed squarely in her direction.
"Who are you!" The man demanded. He wore fatigues and body armour the same colour as the Humvee.
"I'm lost, can you direct…" Yuu trailed off as the second vehicle pulled up beside her, a large black trike with two front wheels. It wasn't the machine that caught Yuu off guard however, it was its rider. A pale teen, around fifteen to sixteen years old, wearing very short black shorts, a black bikini top and what looked like a black sleeveless bolero with a high collar. Most noticeable was her hair and eyes, the teen's long black hair was tied up into pigtails, one very short and one extremely long. Her eyes were a bright brilliant blue with white rings and no pupils.
"Black Rock Shooter?" Yuu exclaimed, stumbling backwards. "H-how? How are you here!" The girl looked at Yuu blankly with a hint of confusion.
"I am sorry, I don't remember who you are." The girl said politely.
"But, you can't be here! You're supposed…" Yuu said, stopping herself and racing back to the coffin. With little effort she threw the heavy iron lid off the box and was met by a wave of blue fire, throwing up her arms in response she staggered back and fell into the arms of the grey-haired man who was standing behind her.
"What's going on?" He asked gruffly.
"Check the box, tell me if she's still in there." Yuu said.
"Who?" The man asked.
"Release me." A quiet, soft voice said.
"Who said that?" Asked a boy, also wearing a mask, running over to Yuu and the man.
"I have been in this coffin for millennia, get me out!" The voice demanded.
"Black Rock Shooter?" Yuu asked, she threw the man off her and sped over to the container. Inside, glaring at her with one eye engulfed in blue flame was Black Rock Shooter, looking significantly different from when Yuu last saw her.
"Release me, Yuu." Black Rock Shooter demanded telepathically. Without thinking, Yuu numbly reached down and tore off the metal restraints around her friend's wrists, ankles and neck. Without a word, the occupant of the coffin stood up, never breaking eye contact with Yuu. She paused a moment before hugging her oldest friend.
"You have no idea how long I have been in there." The girl said. She looked at the fist-sized brass sphere of the reality anchor, reached down and turned it off.
"Who are you?" Yuu asked.
"I am me, the combined total of Mato Kuroi, Black Rock Shooter and Insane Black Rock Shooter." The teen said. She smiled before laughing and using her voice. "I am still me Yuu, Mato, but I am also the others, I am the same girl who Strength coached in basketball and the same one who fought you in the Otherworld."
"Mato!" Yuu cried, once again grabbing her friend in a fierce bear hug.
"I see your merging with Strength is increasing." Mato wheezed, looking into her friend's new orange eyes and short brown hair with pure white roots.
"I'm sorry." Yuu apologised. "I didn't know if I would ever see you again, not after what Arachne did."
"It is okay." Mato said, patting her friend's head.
"What's going on?" The boy asked from behind Yuu. She turned, her face split into a wide grin. "Sorry, things didn't add up until now. I am Yuu Koutari and this is Mato Kuroi. We are from a different reality, we have our own Black Rock Shooter, who is the Otherself of Mato." Yuu said rapidly.
"Another reality?" The man asked in disbelief, shaking his head.
"How else do you explain two Black Rock Shooters?" Yuu replied, coughing then looking over to her friend who was squaring up to her doppelgänger.
"So you are me in this world?" Mato asked, telepathically.
"It appears so." Black Rock Shooter replied.
"This is going to get confusing, where did you come from? I am not sensing the Otherworld." Mato stated.
"What... Is the Otherworld?" Black Rock Shooter asked tilting her head.
Mato tilted her head in response. "You are not an Otherself? Mato asked.
"I don't know, I have no memory before a few hours ago." Black Rock Shooter said.
"You are not fully human, your emotions have an 'oily' feel to them." Mato said, placing a clawed metal hand against her lookalike's face. "You are new to this world, just like Yuu and I. You were going somewhere before we met, where was it?" She asked.
"A hospital, there are people in a nearby settlement in need of medical supplies." The native teen said.
"Then we shall help you." Mato declared before walking off towards Yuu.
"You can't seriously expect me to believe that you're from another reality?" The man said.
"Colonel, if I could come up with another, more reasonable, explanation to who we are I'd give it to you." Yuu argued. "But I can't, this is the truth."
"Making friends?" Mato ask as she approached Yuu.
"Mato!" Yuu cried in surprise. "I was just telling the Colonel here how we arrived in his reality and who we are.
"It took us a few years to accept it." Mato said to the grey-haired man. "We lost everyone we cared about, except each other."
"I-I…" The Colonel stammered.
"We have been travelling the Void for years to try and find a way home, we are tired of having to explain ourselves every time we enter a new reality." Mato continued. "It brings up many painful memories. But as we are here, we are able to help you."
"Mato!" Yuu said in surprise.
"We might as well help those who need it." Mato responded.
"Fine, but that's up to the Colonel." Yuu said warily.
"No, it is not." Mato said, holding a clawed, metal hand up in front of the Colonel's face. "We can help them and there is nothing they can do to stop us, just like with the DWMA, the UNSC and the Teen Titans."
"What makes you so sure?" Yuu asked, also holding a hand up to the Colonel's face to stop him from speaking.
"The Black Rock Shooter here is not an Otherself, she is human mixed with machine."
"Really?" Yuu said, surprised.
Mato nodded.
Yuu turned to the Colonel.
"It looks like this is your lucky day, you get our help and trust us, you will be happy for it." Yuu smirked.
"We don't need your help, we have Black Rock Shooter." The Colonel said.
"Well now you have two of them." Yuu said, as Mato walked away towards her counterpart.
"I would like to ride with you." Mato said as she approached Black Rock Shooter.
"You're coming with us?" Black Rock Shooter asked.
Mato nodded. "I feel like this world will require our help." She said.
"So that's the hospital, huh?" The colonel said on a cliff edge, looking through a pair of binoculars at a partially collapsed building below them. "There's beehives on either side and they're pretty big."
"Those are some big balls!" The woman who was travelling with the Colonel, Monica, exclaimed at the two large, many sided polyhedrons floating either side of the hospital. Alongside her, Yuu had encountered one other, a young girl named Miya who was the little sister of the boy, Norito who had spoken to her earlier and who had requested this supply run into the hospital.
"They've gotten bigger since the last time I saw them." Norito stated.
"Let's make this simple." The Colonel said. "Empress, you'll divert the swarm division and destroy as many of them as possible."
Black Rock Shooter nodded.
"Why do they call her 'Empress'?" Yuu asked Mato.
Black Rock Shooter mentioned something about a codename, from what information I have gathered, she was created to be the ultimate warrior. Mato said with her hands, using their own form of sign language they had developed.
"We'll go in and retrieve as many supplies as possible. Focus on portable generators, batteries and of course, medical supplies." The Colonel continued.
"I'm surprised you agreed to do something like this." The woman, Monica, said.
Considering what we've heard about this world, I'm surprised he didn't think of it himself. Yuu signed.
You know what the military are like, help the little people but only if it does not interfere with the main objective. Mato replied.
You'd know more about that than me. Yuu said with a shrug. Mato's fiery crown grew a little brighter.
What is that supposed to mean? Mato demanded.
It wasn't a dig at you, but you were part of the military. You would have more knowledge about them than I would. Yuu quickly explained.
Mato nodded subtly. I apologise. She signed. I have to remember I am not in command of a squad any more. I do not have to be so defensive about them all the time.
"I want to see how powerful Empress really is." They heard the Colonel saying quietly to Monica. "If she is as strong as they say, it would be difficult to sway her point of view."
"I'm going in." Black Rock Shooter said impassively from her trike, its wheels spinning before it rocketed away.
"If she dies, then perhaps she isn't the ultimate warrior we were hoping for." The Colonel said after she had left.
"You're using this as a test?" Yuu growled, storming up to him.
"I need to see if she is the one we have been hoping for." The Colonel replied.
"Asshole!" Yuu spat as she marched back over to Mato. "Can you believe that?"
"Do not take it to heart, how many times have we had to prove ourself every time we landed in a new reality?" Mato replied.
"Too many." Yuu sighed.
Mato took a step towards the cliff edge. "I will need Strength to throw me to Black Rock Shooter if she gets into trouble, look after the civilians." The Otherself said.
"And by civvies, you mean everyone who isn't an Otherself, right?" Yuu replied.
Mato spared Yuu a glance and grinned.
"We cannot all be interdimensional, apex predators. Can we?" Mato smirked, the flames on her calves and around her head burned a little more intensely.
Yuu clambered into the large vehicle and Mato stood in the open door to avoid flooding the interior of the humvee with blue fire as they drove down to the hospital.
"Only carry what you can, we want to make this quick." The Colonel reminded them from his position on the turret. Inside the gloomy building, Mato, Yuu, Monica, Norito and his little sister Miya scavenged what they could find. They loaded up Yuu with their bags after she reassured them she could carry them and she raced out to the car as they continued their hunt.
"So you're also Black Rock Shooter?" Monica asked, flipping her long black hair out of her face as she crouched down to rummage around a low shelf. The filter on her gas mask protruding out like a beak.
"That is correct." Mato confirmed, her blue fire lighting up the dark room. "We are from a different world."
"What was that like?" Monica asked.
"I imagine it was not too much different to this one, before what calamity happened here. But it is gone now." Mato told her.
"What happened?" Monica asked.
"Reality was fractured, Yuu and I fell through the cracks and survived." Mato said, opening a box.
"She's like you?" The young woman asked.
Mato nodded. "She is still merging, it will be some time before she becomes one with Strength." She said.
"Huh?" Monica said, jerking her head up in surprise. "She's your version of Strength?"
Mato turned her head to look at the long haired woman. "Strength also exists here?" She asked.
Monica nodded. "She didn't seem to friendly with Empress though, they were fighting earlier." She said.
A small smile spread across Mato's face. "Black Rock Shooter and Strength, some things never change."
"Your Strength looks different, she doesn't have the giant arms." Monica pointed out. Mato was about to speak when a large mechanical creature burst through the wall, showering them in concrete and plaster. On instinct, she summoned her cannon but stood confused for a split second as a large calibre pistol manifested in her hand instead. Seven-Shots. The name echoed in her mind. She fired the pistol at the vaguely humanoid machine as it loomed over her nearly twice her height, the energised heavy metal slug staggered the machine backwards leaving a gaping hole on it's upper torso. She fired again at its square head, the shot punched through the segmented grey metal and blasted out the other side. It fell to the floor with a low whine as Mato and Monica heard gunfire from elsewhere in the building.
"Time to get out of here!" Monica exclaimed, rubbing dust out of her eyes. Mato nodded and followed her through the hospital back outside to the humvee, where Strength was standing among the wreckage of more robots.
"New gun?" Strength asked as she noticed Seven-Shots. "I've seen that before."
"She really is Strength." Monica said in surprise.
"There is a Strength in this world as well." Mato said in response to the Otherself's questioning expression.
"Enough talk! We need to leave!" The Colonel shouted from the roof mounted machine gun as more robots approached. Strength nodded, quickly swapping bodies with Yuu who jumped into the vehicle with Mato standing in the open door, her claws gripping onto the roof. The large off-roader reversed suddenly, slamming into two machines behind them before ramming it's way through two more approaching from the front. Mato spotted a large swarm of small robots flying around in the distance chasing something on the ground, as they quickly drove away, a large blue energy beam appeared from the ground and incinerated most of the drones.
"Wow, she killed them all!" The boy, Norito said as he poked his head out of the turret emplacement.
"Holy shit, that's a hell of a cannon!" Yuu said from behind Mato's legs.
Mato glared down at her in annoyance.
A strangled cry came from Norito, drawing Mato's attention. The upper half of a robot had grabbed the brown-haired boy by the head and was lifting him out of the car. The pale Otherself threw herself at the machine, sending all three of them tumbling into the road. Rolling to her feet, Mato pulled the BRSBLADE from her back and with one smooth motion, sliced the robot vertically in half as Norito dragged himself away. Black Rock Shooter pulled up to him on her large black trike and drove him towards the humvee, the drone swarm peeled away from chasing the teen and hammered into Mato instead, exploding with tremendous force. Yuu jumped out of the car and raced over to the fading smoke.
"Ow." Mato said calmly, stepping out of the crater and looking upwards. Her black tank top and skirt slightly burnt. Another large swarm circled towards them, the Colonel and Black Rock Shooter's trike already firing at them.
Mato and Yuu looked at each other for the briefest of moments before Mato summoned her cannon in its gatling form and Yuu switch with Strength, together, they added their firepower to the rest. The few drones that got through the hail of bullets were stopped from hitting Mato by a large mass of black metal. The pale teen looked over at Strength only to see her several metres away with shock on her face. Mato turned and saw another Strength protecting her. She glared at Mato with a mixture of rage and confusion.
"Who are you?" The other Strength asked looking at her twin, backing away a few steps. Mato could see her form properly, tanned and skinny like her Strength but wearing a tattered and worn white bodysuit with the legs seeming ripped off, an oversized trench-coat that was open at the front but closed around its high collar with sharp teeth painted on it. Her shock of pure white hair was hidden beneath the dirty hood. The most different aspect was her giant arms which were much larger than the Otherself's, rather than being a part of her they were mounted on a thick circular rail that surrounded the girl's shoulders and upper torso. A large, wide tail also attached to the rear of the device.
"I-I'm Strength." The tanned Otherself stammered.
"Bullshit!" The new Strength spat. "I'm the only Strength here, you've gotta be a copy, both of you!" She shouted.
"We are from a different reality." Mato stated.
"Shut up!" The newcomer bellowed, swatting Mato away.
"Mato!" Strength cried, seeing her friend crash into the ground hundreds of metres away. She turned towards her twin and charged towards her. Giant metal fist met an even larger metal fist as the pair collided, evenly matched they threw each other around the landscape.
"Stop fighting!" The Otherself bellowed. "I'm you from a different world!"
"Lies!" The other Strength shouted back as she hammered a fist into the Otherself's chest.
"I'm not fucking lying!" Strength yelled, catching the fist and throwing her over her head, slamming her into the ground.
"I'll fucking kill you and prove I'm the best! I'm not gonna be replaced by a fucking copy!" The other teen cried.
The Otherself unfurled her extra Ogre Arms.
"I. Am. Not. A. Copy!" Strength snarled pounding her attacker into the ground with each word. She used both of her left arms to pin the girl down as she stood over her, then using a jagged corner of her right hand, she cut a large gash down her thigh.
"Look at it!" Strength growled, moving her twin's head to look at the wound now gushing pressurised black and white blood.
"Does this look normal? Even for you?" She spat.
"What the fuck?" Strength's doppelgänger said weakly.
"I'm not a copy and I'm not a replacement." Strength said, releasing her.
"Whatever, this shit is pissing me off and giving me a headache." The other Strength snarled, walking away. She leapt onto her own vehicle, a large variant of Black Rock Shooters trike, except with many more wheels and sped off.
"Well that was fucking weird." Strength muttered to herself as she watched the cloud of dust disappear into the distance. She turned around, swapping bodies with Yuu and walked to the humvee.
"How was it?" Mato asked. "Fighting yourself."
"A pain in the ass." Yuu sighed.
"Now you know how I feel." Mato said, climbing onto the back of Black Rock Shooters trike.
"Yeah, but you're an even bigger pain." Yuu scoffed as she got into the vehicle.
Later that night, after dropping off Norito and Miya, along with the supplies gathered at the hospital, at a settlement that had been carved into a mountain. Mato, Yuu and Black Rock Shooter were sitting around a campfire. The Colonel was keeping watch from the mounted turret and Monica was lightly snoring in her sleeping bag.
"So you're something called a Hemiteos Unit?" Yuu asked Black Rock Shooter.
"Yes, I've got computer DNA and well as biological DNA." The slim girl answered.
"According to Black Trike, she was human once and was upgraded to become the ultimate warrior." Mato continued.
"Computer DNA? What the fuck is that?" Yuu asked.
Mato shook her head.
"I don't know." Black Rock Shooter said.
"Oi!" The Colonel shouted, looking through his binoculars into the distance. "It's the Education Institution!"
"The what now?" Yuu asked, bewildered.
"The enemy!" The Colonel replied urgently.
"The Education Institution." Yuu muttered, standing up. "I'm getting too old for this shit."
"They're a cult." The Colonel said. "Supposedly those ignorant fuckwits are being educated, but they're just genocidal fuckers."
Mato and Yuu looked at each other.
You feel that? Yuu asked in their personal sign language.
It is personal, he must have lost someone to them. Mato replied.
"Did they notice your rebooting?" The man wondered. "We should get out of here, they're out in force."
Without a word, Black Rock Shooter jumped onto Black Trike and sped off in the direction of the approaching lights.
"Damn her!" The Colonel growled.
"Hey! Wake up!" He yelled at Monica, still sleeping.
"Huh, wha-?" Monica replied drowsily as Yuu and Mato clambered onto the small rear compartment of the humvee.
"It's the Educational Institution! Empress is facing them head-on!" He said quickly. "We've gotta go too!"
"I can drive as well." Mato muttered.
"You'd burn them all to death." Yuu said, looking pointedly at the large flames coming from the back of her metal boots.
"I miss my motorbike." Mato stated as the humvee started moving.
"You mean the giant Brute bike? You had that for all of three hours. Pretty sure it got nuked when the Elites glassed Voi." Yuu stated.
"And my tank." Mato continued.
"Didn't you steal that off it's driver?" Yuu asked.
"He let me drive it." Mato weakly countered.
Yuu ignored her comment and pointed to the glowing lights of several vehicles, as the twinkling lights drew closer the Colonel started firing the humvee's mounted gun at them. Mato and Yuu held on tight as Monica rammed one of the vehicles, a customised off-road, open-topped machine painted white.
"This is my stop." Yuu said as she leapt off, switching with Strength in mid-air, and onto a passing white Educational Institution buggy. She landed heavily, crushing one white robed soldier with her hand as she got up and kicked the other out of the vehicle. She then propelled herself on to the next nearest one, hammering her fist into the front of the machine, the front wheels buckled under the sudden force and ploughed into the ground, flipping the buggy and catapulting the tanned teen forwards. As she landed on the vehicle nearest to the Black Trike and wrenched the driver and gunner out of their seats, the two remaining machines next to her exploded as black rocks infused with blue energy collided with them from behind. Looking behind her, she saw the humvee catching them up with Mato stood firm on top of it. The white-haired girl smiled as she switched bodies with Yuu who sat down in the drivers seat and waved over at Black Rock Shooter, only just noticing now that she had a passenger with her.
"So they were after you, not us?" The Colonel said. "That's a relief, we should keep moving."
"But what about the girl?" Black Rock Shooter asked.
"We can drop her off at a nearby town, I've got enough problems to deal with." The Colonel replied.
"What the fuck?" Yuu cried as she dropped down from her perch on the back of the stolen white buggy. "This girl obviously needs help and you're just gonna dump her off somewhere? The fuck is wrong with you?"
"We have a mission." The Colonel said. "To get to the Peacekeeping Corps."
"You have a mission, but I'm not seeing any other soldiers around here, are you?" Yuu spat. "Everyone here is their own person, free to do as they choose."
"The future of humanit…" The Colonel started.
"Yeah, yeah. The future of humanity is at stake, only one person in the entire world can save it." Yuu interrupted, finishing it for him. "This would be the third…"
"Fourth." Mato corrected, sitting behind her
"What was the last one?" Yuu asked, looking over her shoulder.
"When I brought through the Void Predator after I had gone insane, it will have ended all of existence for them." Mato said.
"Right." Yuu said worriedly. "This is the fourth reality we've been in where the world is danger." She said, looking back at the Colonel. "And cutting yourself off from helping others is not how you save the world, every human is worth saving no matter their importance in the grand scheme."
"Everyone is their own person." Mato repeated, inspecting her pistol, Seven-Shots. "Do not think ours is the only available option to you, we now have an extra vehicle. We can split our forces and we can rejoin you later if you provide us the location you are travelling to."
"That's acceptable." The Colonel answered after a moment of deliberation. "Monica, give them the local Peacekeeping Corps base information."
The slender woman with long black hair walked over to their buggy, leaned over the door and tapped a few buttons on a screen in the middle of the dashboard.
"This'll be the meeting place, this vehicle has preloaded maps of the area, as long as you don't stray too far out, they should help you." Monica said.
"Thank you." Mato said, giving a nod. She clambered into the white buggy and sat in the drivers seat, the flames at her calves melting the faux leather cover. She revved the engine while looking over at Yuu.
Yuu nodded at her then turned her attention to the girl Black Rock Shooter had rescued. She was slightly smaller than the teen, dark-skinned with long brown hair and big clear eyes. She wore a white bikini top, white gas mask and a long white skirt with a wide split up to her hip. She reminded Yuu of an exotic dancer typically seen in films. With no effort Yuu picked up the girl and placed her in the back seat, jumping in afterwards and sitting next to her.
"Lets go." Yuu said to Mato.
The Otherself nodded and gunned the engine, tearing their way through the rocky terrain.
"So, you wanna tell us what's wrong?" Yuu asked.
The girl looked around in fear at the darkness speeding past her.
"Don't worry, Mato can see perfectly fine." Yuu reassured her.
"My own realm was darker than this." Mato added.
The girl took a shaky breath then nodded.
"I escaped from the Educational Institution a few days ago, they've been chasing me ever since." She said tearfully.
"They kidnapped you?" Yuu asked.
The girl nodded.
"And others, they're being put on a train and transported to their main base. We're ritual maidens so we get well looked after, but no one ever returns from there." She cried.
"'Ritual maidens'?" Yuu asked.
"I do not like the sound of that." Mato said, confirming Yuu's thoughts.
"Can you take us to the train?" Yuu asked.
"I-I can show you." The girl confirmed.
"Good, use the map thingy on the dashboard." Yuu said, pointing towards the front of the buggy.
The girl did as she was told, carefully climbing over the front seat and tapping the screen a few times.
"What's your name?" Yuu asked.
"M-Momiji." The girl replied.
"I'm Yuu, and this is Mato." The human/Otherself hybrid stated.
"This will be a long drive, get some sleep." Mato told Momiji after glancing at the map.
"So what's the plan?" Yuu asked, sitting in the passenger seat next to Mato once their guest was asleep.
"It is a train." Mato stated.
"Ahh, so we get ahead of it then tear up the tracks?" Yuu said, sliding down the seat and putting her feet up on the dashboard.
Mato nodded.
"If these girls are important, there's probably going to be a lot of security around them. I wonder if we'll be able to keep Momiji safe as well." Yuu wondered.
"We can put her somewhere far away from the tracks, out of sight, then pick her up afterwards." Mato suggested.
Yuu shook her head.
"We don't know how spread out they'd be, they'd probably have scouts around the perimeter watching for people trying to do what we're doing." She pointed out.
Yuu looked over her shoulder at the sleeping girl on the back seats.
"She's probably gonna die on this trip, isn't she?" She asked.
"More than likely." Mato answered sadly. "But we promised we would help, we cannot leave them in that place."
"This is personal to you, Strength and I can feel it. What's going on?" Yuu asked.
Mato stayed silent for a long moment before speaking.
"I have all of our memories, even the ones from Insane Black Rock Shooter. There is a lot to make up for." She stated.
"But you've also done a lot of good, Mato we saved the galaxy! Twice!" Yuu said proudly.
"But I condemned an entire reality to a Void Predator, you have never spared the Void more than a glance. I have, I have seen what they do, nothing can stop something that does not exist." Mato said with wetness in her eyes.
"You remember being in there as well?" Yuu asked, slightly surprised.
Mato nodded.
"I remember the millions and billions of years passing through a timeless realm, it is not something I would ever care to experience again."
"Why? Can't you just close your eyes?" Yuu asked.
"It is not that simple, we pass through the Void and it touches us, it plays with us."
"I'm guessing you don't mean hide and seek?" Yuu asked fearfully.
"No, I do not. I remember what happens to our bodies and our minds. It is not pleasant, it is how we merged with ourselves." Mato said carefully.
"I thought we already knew that the Void caused that?" Yuu asked, instantly regretting the question as soon as she had asked it.
"It was… Forceful, painful." Mato said.
She refused to elaborate further when Yuu asked, instead she concentrated on driving faster through the dark night.