Kenji
Cold.
It was the first thing he felt. A crushing, absolute cold that seeped through his skin and settled deep into his bones.
Kenji tried to gasp, to suck in a breath of air, but his mouth filled with something thick.
It wasn't water. It was ink. A viscous, suffocating darkness that pressed against his eyes, his ears, his throat.
He was drowning.
He thrashed, his limbs flailing in the void, searching for a surface that wasn't there. There was no up. There was no down. There was only the pressure.
'Elysia?! Anyone?!' he screamed in his mind, the thought echoing into nothingness.
It wasn't the empty void where he had met the First User. That place had been warm, filled with the gentle presence of Elysia's fire.
He drifted. Minutes? Hours? Time had no meaning in the deep.
Then, he felt a pull. Not the gentle tug of gravity, but a violent yank, as if the bottom of the ocean had suddenly dropped out.
The darkness rushed past him, before the pressure vanished, replaced by the sensation of wind whipping against his face.
"Ow!"
He hit the surface hard.
Looking down, it looked like a liquid. Definitely not water, but like some sort of gel, that was still hard enough to hurt. Kenji scrambled to his feet, coughing, his lungs burning as he hacked up the phantom ink.
He wiped his eyes, blinking rapidly as his vision cleared.
He was standing on a vast, endless expanse of black water. It stretched to the horizon in every direction, perfectly still, a mirror reflecting a sky that held no stars.
'Where am I?'
He looked up. The sky was a dull, oppressive grey, hanging low and heavy like a lead ceiling.
"Hello?" he called out. His voice sounded thin, swallowed instantly by the vastness.
"You're loud."
The voice came from behind him. It was smooth, bored, and terrifyingly familiar.
Kenji spun around, his fists raising instinctively.
Standing ten feet away, watching him with hands shoved casually into the pockets of his tattered trousers, was… him.
It was Kenji. Or at least, it looked like him. The same messy hair, the same height, the same face.
But the eyes were wrong.
They weren't brown. They were red, burning with a cold intelligence that Kenji had never possessed.
'It's him again!'
And the smile his doppleganger wore instantly alarmed him. It was an arrogant, predatory smirk that got under his skin.
"Didn't think you would wake up again," the reflection said, tilting his head. "I thought I buried you deep, but clearly not deep enough."
Kenji took a step back, the water rippling beneath his boots. "Who are you?"
The reflection laughed. "Who am I?"
He stepped forward. As he moved, the "water" beneath his feet turned red, bleeding out from his steps like an infection spreading through the mindscape.
"I am the one who kept your heart beating while you let that woman turn your veins into sludge," the reflection said.
Then he put a hand under his chin, "For simplicity's sake, just call me Zero. That's what that woman called me anyway."
He stopped, leaning in close, his red eyes locking onto Kenji's.
"And you... You are the idiot who keeps trying to kill us."
"Kill us?"
Kenji repeated the words, confused at what Zero meant. He looked at the crimson-eyed reflection standing on the water.
"You talk like I wanted to get captured by Anti-Entropy. I was trying to save my friends. I stayed behind so Wendy and the others could get away."
Zero snorted. He began to walk, circling Kenji slowly, his boots making no ripples on the black surface.
"You stayed behind," Zero corrected, "because you thought your life was a fair trade for theirs. You looked at the math—three futures against one mistake—and you decided you were the disposable variable."
He stopped, tilting his head toward the invisible ceiling where the waking world lay.
"And look where that got us. Strapped to a table. Flayed alive. Poisoned."
Kenji clenched his fists. "But we're still alive."
"Alive because of me!" Zero roared, his composure cracking for a split second.
The water around them churned, reacting to his anger.
"She cut into us, Kenji. She pumped acid into our veins. And we could have escaped already if it weren't for the little stunt you pulled in the Eruption."
He snarled, "If you hadn't asked Elysia to and fried our healing factor, we could have subdued Wendy, beaten Bronya, and that Aesir mech, but nooo. You just had to play hero. You and your little guilt complex."
Zero stepped closer, his red eyes burning.
"Why? Because you think you owe this world a debt? Because you think that since you 'weren't supposed to exist,' you just have to break your body? Our body?!"
Kenji stepped back, the accusation hitting him harder than he thought it would. "That's not... I have a responsibility. I have this power—"
"You have a death wish."
He closed the distance in an instant, grabbing Kenji by the collar of his shirt. He yanked him forward, forcing them nose-to-nose.
It was like looking into a distorted mirror. The face was the same, but the expression was wrong. Where Kenji saw fear and resolve in his own reflection, Zero wore nothing but contempt.
"I've been watching you," Zero hissed. "Every time you jump in front of a blow. Every time you shatter an arm to save a stranger. You tell yourself it's heroism. You tell yourself it's what a 'Knight' does."
He shook Kenji hard.
"But it's not. It's suicide with morality as an excuse. You don't want to save people. You just want to die with a clear conscience."
"Shut up!" Kenji shoved him away. He stumbled back, his breath hitching. "You don't know what you're talking about! I have friends! I have people waiting for me!"
"Friends?" Zero laughed, throwing his arms wide. "Ah, yes. Kiana. Mei. The cheerleaders for your funeral."
Kenji froze. "Don't talk about them."
"Oh, I like them, don't you worry." Zero said, his tone shifting to something unsettlingly genuine. "They're bright. They're loud. They make this miserable existence tolerable. But let's be honest..."
He pointed a finger at Kenji's chest.
"Every time they cheer you on... every time they tell you to 'do your best'... they are walking you closer to the grave. To the supposed 'miracle' Elysia brought onto us."
"Miracle?" Kenji asked, but Zero didn't bother to elaborate and continued to glare at him.
"They enable your martyrdom. And you let them, because you think dying for them gives you value."
Zero lowered his hand, his expression cold.
"But I don't care about value. I don't care about being a hero. I care about breathing."
He took a step forward, the black water rising around his ankles like grasping shadows.
"If you won't fight for our life... if you're so eager to throw this body away for a 'miracle' or a 'legacy'..."
Zero's grin returned. "Then get out of the driver's seat. Because I'm not done using it."
"I'm not going anywhere," Kenji snarled. "And I'm definitely not letting you anywhere near my friends."
He didn't wait for a retort.
He called upon the power that had become second nature to him. He reached for the warmth in his chest, the stockpile of strength that had carried him through the eruption.
"Haah!"
Kenji threw a punch, aiming directly for Zero's smug face. It was a strike that should have shattered concrete, a blow meant to end the conversation and reclaim his mind and body.
His fist landed straight on Zero's face, but he didn't move an inch.
Kenji's face twisted in confusion. But it was a second later that Kenji finally realized what had happened.
He was cut off from OFA.
Zero simply looked down at Kenji's fist still embedded in his face, then raised his eyes to meet Kenji's confused gaze.
"Did you really think," Zero whispered, his voice dripping with pity, "that you could use her power against me? In my domain?"
He swiped a hand through the air.
A heavy, suffocating red fog rolled across the black water, blotting out the horizon.
Kenji stumbled back, clutching his chest. The connection to Elysia, to OFA, was dead silent.
"What did you do?" Kenji gasped. "Where is she!?"
"Relax, I just locked the door," Zero said casually, shoving his hands back into his pockets. "I got tired of hearing her and the rest of the rejects whisper in your ear. 'Be a hero, Kenji.' 'Sacrifice yourself, Kenji.' It was giving me a headache."
He began to circle Kenji again.
"You don't understand what I am, do you? You think I'm just a quirk? A split personality born from One For All?"
Zero stopped, his silhouette distorting in the red mist.
"When that woman found you, she gave you a miracle. She gave you a trace of her 'Origin.' A power born of pure, selfless love for humanity."
He smiled. "But all light casts a shadow, Kenji. And in a world as messed up as this one, a miracle can't exist without a cost. I am the cost."
He stepped closer, his red eyes glowing brighter as dark red lightning manifested around him.
"I am the Mirror of the Beginning," Zero declared, the words echoing with a strange, distorted resonance. "I am the False Origin. I am the shadow born from the essence of Elysia's core and the grace of THEIR gaze."
'Core? Wait…' Kenji stared at him, the weight of the words sinking in. "You... you're a Herrscher? I have a core?!"
"I am the Core," Zero corrected sharply. "Or at least, the part of it that has a brain. Elysia represents the ideal. The dream. I represent the reality."
"She wants you to burn yourself out to light the way for others. She calls it 'love,' when it's just suicide." He mocked.
"She saved us!" Kenji shouted, finding his voice again. "She helped me save people! She believes in me!"
"She believes in a martyr!" Zero roared back, the calm facade finally cracking to reveal a primal fury. "She is leading you to the slaughterhouse, and you are skipping along behind her because you think you owe her your life! But I don't owe anyone anything!"
Zero grabbed Kenji's shoulders again, a move that he liked to do for some reason. The strength Kenji had tried to summon was coursing through Zero's veins, overwhelming his senses.
"I blocked her and the rest of those Flame Chasers out. Because if I let her keep whispering to you, you're going to get me killed. And I am not going to die just because you have an inferiority complex!"
He shoved Kenji away. Kenji slipped on the black water, falling to his knees.
"You need me," Zero said, looking down at him with cold finality.
Zero clenched his fist, and the red fog swirled around it, forming a jagged, crackling aura of raw energy.
"I don't worry. I don't hesitate. I survive. And right now? Survival requires a monster, not a hero."
He extended a hand—not to help Kenji up, but to demand submission.
"Give up, Kenji. Let me do what needs to be done."
Kenji looked up from the water. He saw the face that was his own, twisted into a mask of ruthless anger.
But he also saw the exit. The surface. The waking world where his friends had arrived to save him.
"No," Kenji whispered, gritting his teeth. He forced himself to stand, his legs shaking but holding firm.
"I don't care what you are," Kenji said, raising his fists in a sloppy, desperate stance. "I don't care if you're a mirror, or a shadow, or a god. You're not hurting my friends."
Zero sighed. It was a sound of genuine disappointment.
"I was hoping you'd be smart," Zero murmured, the red lightning beginning to arc violently around his body. "But I guess we have to do this the hard way."
Kenji got ready to fight as Zero finished his sentence.
He might not have the strength of One For All or Danger Sense to help him.
But he had months of grueling training with Himeko. He had the bruises from sparring with Fu Hua. He had the muscle memory of a hundred fights.
He dropped his shoulder before snapping a sharp jab toward Zero's face.
Zero simply tilted his head a fraction of an inch, letting Kenji's fist graze his cheek.
"Really?" Zero asked, sounding genuinely bored. "That's the best you can do?"
Kenji didn't answer. He pivoted, driving his knee upward, aiming for the solar plexus. Zero caught the knee in his palm. The impact made a dull sound, like hitting a sandbag.
Zero sighed. He squeezed.
CRACK.
Pain exploded in Kenji's leg, white-hot and blinding. It wasn't physical pain—his real body was in a tank miles away—but here, in the mindscape, it felt just as real.
Kenji gasped, his balance crumbling. Zero shoved him, sending him skidding across the black water.
"Your ideals brought you far, I will admit that." Zero said, shaking his hand as if he'd touched something repulsive. "You learned how to throw a punch. How to dodge. You mimicked the Valkyries."
He walked toward Kenji, his red eyes narrowing.
"But ideals are for the weak. It's a crutch for things that have limits—"
"Would you shut up already! God, you sound like a comic book villain trying too hard to sound threatening—!"
Zero lunged at him.
Kenji tried to deflect, grabbing Zero's arm to redirect the force. But it was like trying to redirect a block of steel.
Zero plowed through his guard, his arm slamming into Kenji's chest with so much force that he would have probably died had they not been in his subconscious.
Kenji was sent flying back, but Zero appeared in front of him instantly and slammed him into the ground.
Kenji gasped as the cold, inky fluid rushed into his mouth. Zero was on top of him instantly, hand on his neck, and pushing him into the fluid.
"You fight like a human when we are so clearly above them." Zero whispered, his face inches from Kenji's. "You hesitate. You fear, and that is slowly killing us."
Zero's grip tightened on Kenji's neck.
Kenji struggled, bucking his hips, trying to throw him off. "Get... off...!"
"Nah."
Zero's eyes flared brighter.
The black water beneath them began to bubble. It rose, not as liquid, but as solid, thrashing shapes.
Thick, jagged tendrils of black energy erupted from the surface.
Kenji's eyes widened as he recognized the tendrils, 'Blackwhip!' But they were corrupted, looking more like spiked chains than tendrils.
They lashed out, wrapping around Kenji's arms, his legs, his throat. They pulled tight, pinning him to the surface of the mindscape.
Kenji screamed, thrashing against the bindings, but they were immovable.
Zero stood up, wiping his hands on his trousers. He looked down at Kenji, who was now spread-eagled on the black mirror, held down by his own power.
"You are too weak to do what needs to be done. You bleed. You cry. You try to be noble."
He leaned down, whispering into Kenji's ear.
"Nobility is just a pretty word for dying quietly. And I refuse to die quietly."
Zero straightened. He turned his back on Kenji, looking up at the gray, oppressive sky.
"Stay here, Kenji. Sleep. Dream about your friends. Dream about being a hero."
He reached up, grasping at the empty air as if grabbing an invisible ladder.
"I'll handle reality."
The tendrils yanked downward.
Kenji didn't have time to scream again before he was pulled under.
The black water rushed over his face, filling his nose, his eyes, his lungs. He was dragged down into the cold, silent depths, the light of the surface fading rapidly, then nothing.