「My eyes…」
The light blinded him.
Not a warm light, not a living light. A total white, flat, without direction. Mike blinked, or at least thought he did. Impossible to tell whether his eyelids were really moving. The silence was so pure it became aggressive, a silence that scraped the inside of his skull.
He floated for a moment, or thought he floated.
No sensation of ground.
No reference point.
Just that white, infinite.
Then his stomach suddenly tightened.
A tiny shift, almost imperceptible.
As if his body, until then frozen in a false rest, had just remembered it was falling.
Mike — "My comfortable desk?"
And then, the fall truly began.
The white twisted around him, sliding backward like a veil ripped too quickly from a window. Gravity seized him with a brutal hand. He plummeted through that immaculate void, without a single shadow to bear witness to his fall.
Mike — "You can't even sleep in peace! What am I supposed to do now?"
His body spun in every direction, trying to right itself.
「What do I grab onto?! I'll die if I hit something!」
10 meters? 20 meters? 30 meters? The distance between him and the ground was unknowable, but what he did know was that the fall could kill him.
「Damn it, my knife!」
The knife slipped from his pocket, sucked into the fall, as if it were taking the opportunity to run away on its own. The blade shot past him, a silvery point already vanishing into the white.
Mike — "Hey! Come back! I'm nothing without you!"
The void answered with an icy breath in his ears.
Panic rose instantly in his throat.
He kept spinning, unable to understand where up was, where down was, where exactly he was going to die.
The voice manifested, slightly annoyed but calm—too calm.
Voice ? — "And what about me? Alright, stay lucid. The air is stabilizing. Breathe."
Mike — "I'm falling into something without a floor! And you're telling me to stay calm!?"
Yet he felt something change around him.
Not a hand, not an external force. Just… the air.
A light current, almost imperceptible, that seemed to slow his fall in waves. As if the place itself were adjusting the speed, mechanically, methodically.
「I'm slowing down… But will that save me? Meh…」
The Voice continued, composed.
Voice ? — "The floor welcomes you. It won't let you die at the entrance. Keep your center. Straighten yourself."
Mike tried to follow its instructions, his arms flailing in every direction like a kid dropped into a pool that was far too big.
Mike — "And dropping me into the void while I was sleeping isn't trying to kill me!?"
Little by little, his body stopped spinning.
Not completely… but enough for him to finally make out what was beneath him.
The white was condensing.
A surface appeared, blurry at first, then sharp: a smooth, pale floor, almost mirror-like.
His knife, meanwhile, was still falling much faster.
Mike — "No no no, don't do that—"
The blade hit the floor before he did, bounced, and embedded itself farther away in a chack.
Mike felt his fall slow even more, as if the air were growing denser still, like an invisible sea cushioning his descent.
One last jolt, pressure beneath his feet…
He landed. On both legs.
Not gently, not perfectly… but alive.
A slight lapse sent him crashing abruptly to the ground, onto his knees, breath short, eyes wide open.
Mike — "I survived?! I really survived!!"
The Voice replied, almost amused.
Voice ? — "See? I told you. No need to panic."
Mike clenched his fists, slowly standing up.
Mike — "That was an indescribable fall! I'm allowed to."
Silence fell again.
His knife slid to his feet.
Mike jumped back abruptly.
??? — "Are you done?"
An annoyed voice he was starting to recognize threw out the words. Sitting behind a mass of steam, it yawned calmly.
Mike — "You're finally showing yourself? HUH—wait, what are you doing here?"
Facing Gekidō's silhouette, Mike stepped back sharply, picking up his knife in the same motion.
He emerged from the steam, revealing his appearance.
Gekidō — "Do you ever stop with your questions?"
Mike — "Uh… what happened to you? You were way better-looking last time. You should've stayed behind the mirror."
Gekidō looked like an almost human body, sculpted from compact embers. His dark surface was crossed by glowing red cracks that pulsed like breathing. No muscles, no flesh—only incandescent matter from which weak flames sometimes escaped. His eyes were nothing but two slits of intense light on a featureless face, and his fingers, long and thin, ended in black, sharp claws, as if carved from coal.
Gekidō — "You're judging me by my appearance? You think I chose to be like this?"
With every step, burning fragments fell from his body, as if he were slowly consuming himself.
A burst of steam, a rapid leap—the incomplete body launched itself at him. Hand—no, claw—first.
Voice ? — "Dod—"
Mike — "Hop there. You're going hard right from the start."
He dodged simply, almost too simply.
But he didn't expect a fast knee strike aimed at his torso.
Gekidō — "Careful, it's hot!"
He couldn't dodge it, so he blocked it with one hand. Which he quickly pulled back while retreating.
It seemed to redden from the heat.
No, it hadn't just reddened—it had partially burned. It barely looked like a hand anymore. Mike stood there, blowing on it rapidly, twisting in pain.
Mike — "It burns, it burns, it burns! What is that!?"
Voice ? — "Mike! You seemed confident, but what are you playing at?"
Gekidō pointed at Mike with what looked like a hand.
Gekidō — "You there, you better not open your mouth!"
Mike seemed disconnected from the entire discussion.
Mike — "Once again, I don't have a choice…"
He set down his bag. The one that was always with him… even during the fall. Quickly retrieving his red bottle.
Mike — "You, you stay here… And you, you're going to be useful."
He opened the bottle, but stopped abruptly, dumbfounded.
「Am I supposed to drink it or pour it on my hand? If I pour it… If I drink it…」
Voice ? — "Watch out!"
In his moment of hesitation, Gekidō moved in again, grabbing the bottle with a simple gesture.
Gekidō — "Thanks."
The plastic began to melt from the heat, like a piece of paper brought too close to fire.
Gekidō — "Oops. Was that important?"
He tossed what remained behind him.
The red liquid splashed onto the floor in thick drops before evaporating instantly with a sinister pshht.
「He burns everything he touches… This is dangerous… Way too dangerous. But wait…」
Slowly realizing what had just happened to his hand and his bottle.
Mike — "But—HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO HEAL MYSELF NOW!?"
Gekidō — "Heal yourself? So that's what it was for?"
He advanced, still at a calm pace, as if every meter cost nothing to a body cracked everywhere, vibrating with heat ready to explode.
Mike stepped back slowly, knife pointed forward.
Mike — "Your hand! Don't tell me that—"
Gekidō glanced at his hand. That hand, which had previously been burning and incandescent, was now glowing. It was slowly reconstructing itself. Where there had only been heat before, muscles were forming, as well as flesh. His hand looked more human, more solid. But despite that, it still seemed incomplete.
He scratched his hand, as if to check whether it was real.
Gekidō — "That stuff of yours is incredible! Got any more?"
「Why was it so fast?」
Mike scratched his neck with his right hand while continuing to retreat, gradually understanding what was happening.
Mike — "No, that was the only one… I would've preferred to keep it…"
Before Mike could react, Gekidō leapt. Faster than the first time, unleashing a barrage of heavier, more calculated blows. Mike blocked as best he could, but it was no use—his opponent was gaining the upper hand, forcing him back.
Mike — "Damn it… Do we really have to fight?"
Each missed attack left an incandescent trace in the air, an invisible but threatening burn.
Gekidō — "You're holding up well… but this is only the beginning!"
Mike tried to counterattack, a knife strike aimed straight at the head. Blocked by one hand. A cruel smile forming along the cracks of Gekidō's face. He scratched his head with his free hand.
Mike — "Can you let go of it?!"
It was impossible to retrieve it. Trapped in that grip, like stuck in a wall.
Gekidō — "Huh, it's not melting? Strange…"
Oddly enough, the simple knife was still intact, not a single heat mark. And yet it should have melted, just like the glass beneath their feet, which melted whenever Gekidō stayed in one place too long.
Voice ? — "Let go of the knife! It's too dangerous!"
Gekidō — "Anyway, it's obvious I'm going to win. fshh… So he doesn't need it anymore!"
He tore the knife from Mike's hand and tossed it into the air like a simple piece of metal. It spun far behind Mike, as if in its final moments, before embedding itself farther away.
Mike — "My knife!"
Mike spun around and rushed toward it like a mouse drawn to a piece of cheese thrown far away. Almost forgetting that a cat was present, with long claws just waiting to burn and tear apart its prey. The cat—or rather, Gekidō—waited patiently for the right moment.
Gekidō — "In the end, you were just bluffing… fshh… Now that I have a body, I don't need you anymore… It's a shame for the others, but you'll just die with him, and I'll get out of here on my own."
As he spoke, Gekidō pulled out what served as his tongue. A short, dried tongue that seemed to struggle in his mouth.
Voice ? — "I didn't want to get involved, but you're really doing everything wrong! As soon as you hit the ground, roll!"
Mike was approaching the knife, but it was already too late: Gekidō was already behind him, ready to strike him down with a punch to the back.
Gekidō — "You're just like before! The one who doesn't want to attack. Just taking hits. Crying alone in a corner! Enduring! So… die."
Mike rolled to the side, trying to defend himself, but all he could do—knife already in hand—was deflect the barrage of incandescent blows. Each of them could have been fatal.
Gekidō — "So, what are you going to do? Beg me to stop? Fight for real? Rely on the other idiot?"
Each deflected strike melted the glass floor behind him.
「It's hot! I'll die if he hits me again! But he… isn't using his claws and is only aiming at my knife…」
Mike — "Are you having fun? Why don't you just kill me!?"
Gekidō — "I wanted to show you something."
Mike was sinking more and more, the glass practically gone beneath him. Completely softened.
Gekidō — "Didn't you wonder how I got this body?"
「Now that he mentions it…」
Gekidō pointed a claw at the ground. Mike followed his gaze and his breath caught. Where he thought there was only melted glass… there was something else entirely: shapes boiling underneath, black and incandescent silhouettes, incomplete, tortured bodies—monsters that seemed to fail again and again… all trapped by the space, all ready to rise.
Mike — "Wh… what? What is all that?"
Gekidō — "My many attempts… or rather, the bodies I designed… Every failure, every attempt, every creation… is here! Compared to some, I tried, and this place gave me what I needed. I suffered like hell, but I got it!"
A loud cracking sound echoed. The ground shook violently, fracturing under the weight of the monsters and their agitation. Mike staggered, the glass suddenly gave way. Both of them fell into an abyss of incandescent bodies—arms, legs, incomplete heads, flames screaming and intertwining.
Mike — "No… no… This can't be happening! I'm just going to burn! Get crushed!"
But Gekidō descended without flinching. The burning monsters tried to cling to him, but he seemed to absorb their energy. He stretched out in that boiling sea. Before feeling his foot get grabbed by a different hand.
It didn't stop like the others. It wasn't absorbed.
「I've got him!」
Gekidō — "You haven't—"
The sounds gradually faded away from Mike—not just the sounds… Everything blurred. Pain was there, crushing, but less precise, like noise turned up too loud. His senses wavered. He felt his body come apart faster than he could understand, and the pain itself began to drift away, swallowed by the fire. Then nothing. The void.
Gekidō — "Did you finally let go?"
No more Mike? No more protagonist? Just Gekidō?
Gekidō — "HEHEHEHEH! Finally dead! Finally! Finally! FINALLY!"
He had finally succeeded! He had gotten rid of that person he found so cowardly, so useless. Tears of joy flowed from his face—or at least what could have been tears. Everything evaporated on contact.
He kept falling alone through flames and bodies, into that incandescent, shifting, almost living sea.
Gekidō — "Oh, his knife! Maybe with that, the membrane can be pierced…"
Approaching the bottom, he found Mike's knife… That knife that had been so useful… would serve once more…
Gekidō relentlessly attacked the membrane and pierced it. Falling to the ground.
Gekidō — "FREEDOM IS MINE!"