Shinrabansho: Myriad Souls

I felt the pressure build between our joined hands before I saw it.

Pure white and black light braided together between us, tight and inseparable. Our power met without resistance, sliding into alignment through habit and repetition earned over countless hours of training together. It drew inward, winding between our hands, tightening between our hands, the vibration running up my arms and striking my chest. My teeth ached. My vision sharpened at the edges as the pressure built and held.

My breathing shortened reflexively. One shallow inhalation. And then another.

Then my body adjusted.

My stance widened instinctively even in midair, my hips bracing, my shoulders loosening as I accepted the strain instead of resisting it. The light sank deeper, threading from our hands.

Reiko’s grip tightened once.

Her squeeze gave me an extra infusion of courage and firmed my resolution.

We drove the power forward together.

“Hyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~!” We yelled together.

The braided light tore free from our hands in a single, unified surge, not a beam exactly, nor an explosion. We unleashed a compressed wave, its edges razor-sharp, its core blinding. The air screamed as it crossed the distance, carving a white-black scar straight through the dream’s fabric.

It struck The Lord of Nightmares square in the chest.

The impact landed and tore into him.

His body buckled violently as the force punched through him and detonated behind him. The sound was off the charts loud, a deep tearing CRACK that split the ground beneath us and sent shockwaves racing outward. Darkness erupted from the point of impact in jagged plumes, as if something inside him had been ruptured rather than pushed aside.

He screamed as the darkness inside him lost some of its cohesion.

The blast drove him backward across the ground, his clawed feet shredding pavement, the remnants of his once dapper hat finally tearing free and spinning away as his body slammed into a warped building façade hard enough to put a massive crater in its front. Black blood sprayed across the fractured wall in wide arcs, hissing as it hit the air.

He slid down the pavement and dropped to one knee.

For a moment, he didn’t rise.

The dream around him shuddered, seams rippling outward from his body as if struggling to re-knit what had just been broken. The darkness clinging to him recoiled, thinning, pulling back from the wound in his chest where our white and black light still burned, eating slowly inward instead of simply fading.

He coughed, a wet, choking sound, and braced one hand against the rubble.

When he looked up, the fury in all his eyes was still there—

—but now there was something else stronger...

Shock.

And the dawning realization that our attack hadn’t just reached him.

It had severely damaged him.

We separated, moving in opposite arcs, still tethered together by the coiled power between us like it was the red string of fate between us. I swept upward, drawing the light into my core, feeling it pool beneath my ribs like a held breath, while Reiko dropped low, spinning hard enough that her skirt snapped like a blade cutting through the air. The space between us stretched and screamed as the energy elongated, forming a taut line of white and black brilliance that hummed with contained violence.

A distance away from us, back on the school grounds, Rui and Ume had never stopped moving.

We could feel them in our chests. We knew instinctively that their steps had shed all self-consciousness, widening and loosening, their arms flung out as their bodies turned and turned again, caught in a joyful rhythm that no longer needed an audience to be effective.

Each motion sent ripples toward us where we were, faint at first, then stronger, each movement boosting our power and momentum. I felt it feed into the tether between Reiko and me, stabilizing the link, giving the power somewhere to pool.

We rocketed at The Lord of Nightmares together into close range.

I thrust both of my palms forward into him.

Reiko struck at the same instant, her heel slamming down, her fist driving through the space beneath it.

The line detonated as a massive sigil snapped into existence between us, half white, half black, rotating violently as it expanded. It wasn’t just decorative. Its edges were sharp, each rotation shaving the air itself. Light poured outward in a steady surge, a controlled release that slammed directly into The Lord of Nightmares’ chest.

The impact was cataclysmic.

The darkness around him ripped apart. Something tore loose from inside his body, brilliant and furious, screaming as it was wrenched free by force that refused to negotiate.

The slimy black mass split with a wet, resisting tear. Viscous tar stretched, clung, then sloughed off in thick sheets as light bled through the rupture. Shapes surfaced inside it, first too indistinct to recognize, but as more of it dripped away, unmistakably human forms emerged, the black sludge sliding off in slow, slimy strands.

Hints of pale gold hair showed first, matted and dripping, catching the light as the tar-like substance fell away. A face followed, furious and stunned, startling blue eyes blazing as they opened.

“Ugh…” Natalia sat up, shaking herself off the way a muddy dog would, then straightened with forced dignity, her jaw tight, her breath sharp.

Natalia-sama came fully free, disoriented.

The other mass of corrupted matter convulsed.

White strands emerged next, stark against the black, followed by fractured reflections that caught and bent the light. Shards of a mask surfaced, slipped, then snapped back into alignment as the remaining sludge tore free. Kagami-no-Kami staggered one step on contact as she steadied herself, one hand rising instinctively to her half-masked face. The tar-like substance dripped off her nine tails.

“…Unacceptable,” she said flatly, fury cutting through her voice as her gaze fixed on Noh-Baku’s displaced form. “You subjected me to something unthinkable. And you will pay for that, Baku.”

Baku said nothing, struggling to hold himself together.

“Do you feel that?” Natalia said quietly, her eyes never leaving him. Her voice was steady now, stripped of shock, edged with cold certainty. “The dream is reasserting itself. Continuance is returning, and his grip is slipping.”

Kagami-no-Kami inclined her head a fraction. “Yes. The distortion is collapsing. He will revert soon.” Her fingers curled once at her side. Then she looked at me. “That power you wielded. Was it born from your dance?”

I nodded. “We meant to help you both, but it misfired and landed on Pon-chan… Akuchi instead. He became the catalyst for our transformation.”

Kagami-no-Kami’s lips curved into a small, knowing smile. “Human imagination never fails to surprise.”

“It’s exactly as I said,” Natalia continued. “I knew they would take our place and fight beautifully. Their battle with Mitsuhiko was nearly as impressive, though we all had our parts in that fight.” She folded her arms, thoughtful. “I would like to see how this ends.” She turned to Kagami-no-Kami. “How do you feel about supporting them in our own ways?”

“You would entrust the outcome to them?” Kagami-no-Kami asked. “Would it not be faster and more certain if we intervened directly?”

“I believe in them,” Natalia said, smiling. “I will restore the continuance of the dream. Please reestablish natural law and order. Between us, and his loss of the abomination power he wielded after consuming us, he will no longer be able to twist the field against them.”

“…Very well,” Kagami-no-Kami said calmly. “As you sought to support us, we will now support you. Fight with valor.”

“If you dance Caramelldansen, you’ll boost Sumire’s power even more,” Reiko said with a smirk.

“…That undignified dance you were performing?” Kagami-no-Kami asked. A faint flush touched her face.

“Yeah,” I giggled, blushing.

“I will pass,” Kagami-no-Kami said sharply. “Do not press your luck.” She turned away.

Natalia only shrugged, smiling. “My hands will be full enough as it is.” She centered herself, breathing slowly and even, light gathering around her.

Color snapped back into place. Gravity settled with a deep, resonant thrumming. Buildings stopped bleeding into the sky and held their shapes as they should. Below us, people reappeared, flickering silhouettes resolving into solid forms, their faces confused, frightened, but alive.

Noh-Baku screamed.

The sound was no longer vast. No longer omnipresent.

It was closer to mortal.

The darkness around him collapsed inward, imploding into itself, stripping away his former bulk and monstrosity. His massive form shrank violently, compressing until his outline became much more familiar. The fake fur burned away in ragged streaks of smoke. All nine shadowy tails vanished mid-lashing. The nightmare peeled back layer by layer.

What remained landed heavily on the ground.

A man in a suit.

Wearing a tall top hat.

An elephantine Noh mask face, cracked, seething with dark energy and furious.

His boots struck solid stone with a dull impact. His hands trembled—not out of weakness but with barely restrained rage.

“My power,” he snarled. “You stole my power from me.”

The dream stabilized further. Light settled across the sky as the distortion eased and the space held its shape again. For a brief moment, beauty returned to his world restoring its warm colors and depth.

I felt it all poignantly.

I feel so much better now, although my ribs still hurt.

I glanced around, wondering if my parents were back, but we were too far from the school grounds and the festival.

I was certain that Baku felt the difference too when he froze.

His posture slackened, his shoulders lowering as his gaze drifted across the repaired streets, observing the restored people, the night sky no longer screaming. The fireworks had ended as though time had finally started flowing normally. His hands opened slowly, as if he were seeing them for the first time and he cried.

Seeing his world crumble around him was so sad.

“…I could,” he whispered. “I could still create beauty like this...”

His fingers curled and uncurled, testing the air.

“I could go back. I could take it all back—”

The tremor returned through his body, but it was extra violent this time.

Darkness surged behind his eyes.

“No,” he hissed suddenly, clutching his head. “No, no—I will not be reduced by mere sentiments. This is looking back, not forward. I will not crawl back to my small existence.”

He straightened sharply, his mask tilting toward us with renewed intent to kill.

“I will take what remains,” he said, voice sharpened into something cold and precise. “And I will use it to break you properly.”

He raised his hands and summoned a cane of pure darkness, then moved, not with mad brute force but with precise and rational steps.

His fist punched through the dream’s fabric, vanishing into nothing before reappearing behind me without warning. I twisted sharply, too late. The blow slammed into my shoulder with crushing force.

He really means to kill us to keep that power for himself!

Pain flared hot, urgently, sharp enough to steal my breath from me as my arm buckled and my balance shattered.

I countered on instinct, driving my elbow backward into empty air as he withdrew his arm and reappeared several steps away, already repositioning, already thinking ahead.

“Careful, my wife,” Reiko snapped, launching forward.

I blushed and nodded firmly. “Yes!”

Noh-Baku stepped sideways into a seam in reality and vanished.

The air where he’d stood folded inward with a dry, tearing sensation, like fabric pulled too hard. I barely had time to register the displacement before the pressure below Reiko spiked.

He emerged beneath her.

The pavement split as he burst through it, his fist driving straight up. The uppercut caught Reiko square in the ribs with a sound that turned my stomach, a wet crack that drove the air out of her in a sharp, helpless gasp.

She flew through the air.

I caught myself half moving to rush to her side as her body tore through space in a sharp arc, struck the ground, and skidded viciously across stone in a rolling spray of dust and a flurry of dream motes. She caught herself at the last moment, her boots carving grooves as she twisted into a low crouch, one knee down, one hand braced against the ground.

Blood splattered dark against the stone as she coughed.

I gritted my teeth and my fists clenched.

How dare you?!

I didn’t think before moving.

I surged forward with white light flaring explosively as my fist connected with his jaw, the impact snapping his head sideways with a sharp, ringing CRACK that vibrated all the way up my arm and into my shoulder. The resistance was solid, bone and force in conflict, and the recoil shuddered through me.

He staggered back a step, his coat flaring open and his shadowy cane nearly fell from his hands.

Then I sensed a smile beneath the mask, rather than seeing it.

“Better,” he said. “Much better.”

The space beside him split.

He vanished again.

My skin prickled all at once. Pressure shifted above me, behind me, everywhere at once.

I dropped, rolling instinctively as a foot slammed down through the dream fabric above me, shattering the air where I was a fraction of a second earlier. The impact was heavy and spiritual power laden enough to crack reality, sending spiderweb fractures rippling outward.

I came up on one knee, momentum still carrying me forward, and slammed my palm flat against the ground.

Light surged outward in a controlled wave.

The force traveled outward in a single direction, rippling across the street, lifting debris with it. Pavement tore free in slabs, bodies and shattered objects flinging up and away as the wave passed through.

Noh-Baku was caught in its path mid-step.

He was thrown backward, his coat snapping violently as he slid across reformed stone, his boots carving deep trenches that smoked faintly with friction. He skidded nearly ten meters before planting one foot and arresting his momentum in a spray of sparks.

He straightened instantly.

The top hat was somehow still perfectly in place.

His hands were already rising.

Reiko was already on him.

She didn’t rush. She entered his space as though she’d pulled off his teleportation trick.

She dropped low and swept at his legs, the strike aimed at his balance. He checked the sweep just in time, his body snapping back as his foot scraped hard against the street. She was already rising. Her knee drove into his stomach, the impact forcing a grunt from him as his torso jolted forward. She followed through without pause, her hook snapping toward the side of his mask. He turned into it, his forearm slamming up to block as his body slipped sideways through a narrow tear in the dream, the strike cutting through empty space where his jaw had been a moment earlier.

His fist emerged again, but not upfront. It launched from Reiko’s own shadow, bursting up from behind her, solid and fast, slamming into her back with bone-jarring force. The impact violently drove her forward, to hit the ground face-first hard enough to fracture the concrete.

“Reiko!”

I screamed her name as I launched myself without restraint.

The distance vanished.

My body moved faster than conscious thought could track. I drove a flying kick straight into Noh-Baku’s chest, white light erupting outward in a focused blast that tore his suit open and hurled him backward. I hit the ground running and pivoted without pause.

My fist smashed into his jaw hard enough to snap his head sideways. I stepped in and slammed my palm into his sternum, white light bursting inward as the impact caved flesh and drove the air out of him in a harsh choke. I followed through with my elbow, cracking it across the side of his mask with a sharp, ringing impact that sent fractures spidering through the surface.

I didn’t overextend. I didn’t chase, just as Aoi-chan had taught me. I stayed just inside his reach, stepping with him, suppressing his movement, forcing him back one stagger at a time, denying him any space to maneuver, giving him no chance to disappear and reappear elsewhere.

He bled for his repeated mistakes.

Black streaks soon spilled from beneath his mask, running down his chin, soaking into his coat, dripping onto the pavement below.

And despite the pain, he laughed.

“Yes,” he said, voice raw and almost delighted. “Fight me! Show me why I should fear losing everything again!”

A fist tore through the dream beside my head, seemingly out of nowhere.

I twisted, the blow grazing my hair as the space behind me ruptured. I knocked his arm aside, catching his wrist and wrenched him through his own tear, his body distorting for a heartbeat before I slammed him face-first into the pavement.

He retaliated fast, hauling himself up on the strength of his trunk alone. Pavement burst apart as he kicked off it, his heel cutting back toward my chest while his arms lashed low, grasping for my legs as he balanced on that single point.

Instead of retreating, I drove in. I crossed my forearms, bracing against his flailing limbs, then vaulted over him, wrenching my legs free as I passed and forcing his balance to break.

Reiko was already at my side. She stepped into the opening I created and struck without hesitation, her knee slamming into his side hard enough to snap his torso sideways, followed by a short, brutal elbow that cracked against the edge of his mask. The hit staggered him, twisting up his footing, and leaving him exposed.

We felt it then.

A sudden, untamed surge of energy. Rui and Ume flashed through my mind, their hips wiggling faster than ever, laughter and their movements blurring together.

Their dancing had lost all structure, every movement wild and breathless, but the energy pouring off them was tremendous. Each stomp sent sparks straight into us, the energy streaming into our bodies, tightening our balance and sharpening our movements as it fed directly into our power.

My stance set and Reiko matched it at the same time.

We aligned without speaking, our shoulders pressed against each other as we closed in. The contact was brief and necessary, a confirmation passing through touch. Our breathing fell into sync, our weight shifting together as white and black light sheathed around our bodies instead of spilling free.

Noh-Baku recovered just enough to set his feet and brace himself.

He stepped back once. Then again.

He struck before we could close the distance.

The ground split under his feet as he moved, his hands slipping out of sight and reappearing from places they should not have been able to reach. A fist burst out at my ribs. I twisted into the opportunity left by his overextension, slipping along the inside of his arm as the punch completed its arc, the blow skimming past instead of crashing into me, and Reiko was already at my back. Her forearm slammed into his wrist hard enough to knock his arm wide. He tried to force the strike through anyway, correcting midaction.

I answered his attempt to recalibrate.

My palm drove straight into the center of his chest, white light surging inward at the moment of contact, pummeling through cloth and flesh alike. His suit tore open as he staggered back, his air ripping out of him. Reiko stayed on him. She slipped inside his reach and drove her knee into his stomach, then turned with the motion and smashed her elbow into the side of his face.

The sound of the hit rang sharp and hollow through the air.

Noh-Baku stumbled, his shoes scrabbling backward as the street cracked under him with the force of Reiko’s hit. He tried to vanish again as he backpedalled, his outline breaking apart, but we were already on him.

You don’t get to do that.

My eyes sharpened as I caught his sleeve and held fast, white light burning through the ripple that he was trying to escape through. Reiko seized the moment and struck hard, her spinning kick snapping his head sideways, sending black spittle showering around, mixed with blood and sending him skidding across broken asphalt.

He dropped to one knee in a heap, his brain rattled.

“Aughhhh…” he muttered, spitting up blood.

One hand slammed against the street to keep him upright, tainted blood dripping between his fingers. The space around him jolted and lurched, light and shadow snapping out of sync as the dream faltered under the strain.

Off to the side, Natalia and Kagami-no-Kami stood motionless, glowing as they focused on stabilizing what remained, their attention fixed inward rather than on him.

He looked at them with noh-eyes, then at us. His face stayed unreadable, but his shoulders sagged and the tension bled out of his stance, the fury draining as his body finally began to give way.

His breathing was incredibly uneven.

“…Enough,” he rasped. “I… can feel it. The quiet.”

The cracks in the dream slowed. The sky steadied. The people below stopped flickering.

“I could still do it,” he said hoarsely. “I could still make something gentle, even after what I let myself become.”

His head bowed.

But then his hands clenched.

Darkness surged violently behind his eyes, snapping his spine straight again as he snarled through his teeth. The street buckled beneath him, nightmare pressure rolling outward from him in waves.

“No—no—this is mine now,” he hissed. “I will not lose it all. It’s everything I ever wanted!”

He tried to rise, forcing himself upright even as his voice thinned into desperation.

Reiko stepped forward and raised a hand, not to strike him.

She looked at me.

“It’s time for me to end this, my wife. Noh Face is my responsibility until you learn how to help me carry it. I will take all of the Noh Face yōkai essence back into myself. Be ready for whatever happens next.”

I didn’t think before moving.

I threw myself at her and wrapped my arms around her, clutching her tightly as if my body could argue for me where words failed.

“Do you really have to? This is your body, you know. I could be the one that goes to sleep. You could help Rui better than me. You’re more of what they need than I’ll ever be.”

“You’re wrong my sweet little baka.” Reiko stroked my hair and brushed her lips against mine. “I have committed too many sins to be able to handle that too. Do you think I could cope with killing the one that I love so dearly? I want you to live for us.”

“I love you Reiko-chan. Don’t do this!” I cried.

“I love you too. Beyond words. These days have been a dream come true.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I wish this dream could have continued for a little longer, but that is wrong. You need to go back and become who Rui needs. You are ready. Do it for me and love her and everyone properly, okay?”

I clenched my teeth, nodding.

“I’ll do my best. But I don’t know how soon I’ll be able to open my heart again. I wish you could stay at my side forever.”

“I’m always with you, forever. I will always protect you, Susu.”

She kissed me then, fully and without holding back, pouring everything she had into it. Our tongues met and moved slowly around each other, memorizing each other, holding the moment with the quiet understanding that this might be the last time.

Natalia and Kagami-no-Kami opened their eyes and watched in silence as the moment unfolded.

Noh-Baku did nothing, allowing us to kiss. His dark aura did not weaken, yet his knees buckled and he sank to the ground.

“I… will… control… my… self… but… please… hurry…” he groaned, his fingers clawing into the earth.

We broke our kiss gently, and Reiko stepped away from me resolutely.

“I’m sorry Baku-san. Thank you so much. I will take that burden from you so that you can go back to doing what you’re best at… creating beautiful dreams. Remember, even if you’ve committed horrible sins, and trust me when I say that I have done far worse things than you… there’s always a way forward. Sumire-chan taught me that life is worth living, even if our circumstances aren’t perfect.”

She laid her hand on Noh-Baku’s face gently.

He said nothing, shaking as the mask peeled off his face.

Darkness surged violently, as it raced up her arm. Her magical girl dress shattered in an explosion of light on contact as the shadow climbed up her shoulder, spreading downward around her torso, consuming her in roiling black energy. Dream particles burst outward, scattering like a flock of white doves taking flight into the sky.

At the same moment, I felt my own power shatter.

We were a pair.

My dress shattered moments later, the fragments dissolving into light as the bond between us snapped.

Baku collapsed as the energy left him, his body folding inward as he reverted fully to who he was before, his breathing ragged.

“I love you,” Reiko said again as her face twisted. Her body changed before my eyes, and every trace of the woman I had fallen in love with in this beautiful dream, Aoi Kurobane, vanished from my sight.

My eyes burned and a sob tore out of me.

The form that remained was the same Noh Face I had fought in the Yamanote, the one I had met in my cell in Mitsuhiko’s skyscraper, the one that had leapt down at us on stage during the kissing scene.

“My wife. My sanity will not last much longer,” she said softly as she clenched a shadowed fist. “Do me one last favor. Defeat me. Show me that your training has made you strong enough to contain me. Use all of your power. Your real power.”

The dream went silent around us in anticipation.

Nodding and wiping away the tears, I stepped forward alone.