For as far as the eye could see, there was an endless blue sky.
The ground was just one solid slab, black as obsidian. Like with the sky, there was no end in sight.
Running across the visible length of the ground was a glowing, light-blue wireframe.
And floating through the air, placed in seemingly random locations like flying insects, were translucent, light-blue vertical rectangles and squares.
They looked justlike the kind of "pixels" that would be generated whenever Tsukuru initiated his Video Creation Skill.
Suddenly, a mass of these pixels appeared in the center of this strange "area".
The pixels clustered together, creating a small, humanoid shape.
There was a bright flash of light.
When it faded, Tsukuru was standing in the middle of the area, standing on the black ground with the light-blue wireframe.
Tsukuru glanced from side to side, a…confused look on his face.
"This…isn't Power Fighters." He replied.
Despite the fact that he had never played in the game, Logan had shown him video feeds of the matches.
Due to this, Tsukuru knew that Power Fighters was just one, giant white room.
The only thing that existed in the room was the stands that would appear in the fighting arenas for people to sit in, the stands encircling the fighting area like the seats in a stadium.
As Tsukuru looked around, it looked as if the place went on forever.
"This place is giving me major'Hyperbolic Time Chamber' vibes." He muttered, before looking down at the ground.
"Although, it's closer in appearance to 'Invaders Must Die'." He added, seeing the grid.
Tsukuru's voice traveled through the area, his words being swallowed by the emptiness.
Even if Tsukuru wasn't alone in this place, no one would even know what he was talking about.
Both of his statements were references to things from the various "anime" from the old world that he had watched growing up.
"Alright, so where's this 'Battle Arena' thing, then?" He asked, taking a step forward on the endless ground.
As he did, he heard a sound like rustling stones, and he felt something under his foot, lifting it up slightly.
Looking down, he saw a layer of fresh, dried concrete under his foot.
It looked as if he had just stepped inside a hexagon made of concrete. However, there were elongated points coming out of the top and bottom of the hexagon.
Looking at the concrete, Tsukuru noted that it looked as if it had just been poured days ago.
A moment later, the sound continued.
Tsukuru's eyes widened, as he saw the concrete continue to "grow", spreading out across the ground like a living creature.
As the concrete spread, it spread out in narrow lines, almost like planks of wood, arranged in intricate, geometric patterns.
Tsukuru watched the concrete spread and spread, until he was standing in the middle of a four-pointed star, the "star" being the same size as a small bathroom.
The "star" had cut-off points, leaving straight lines along it's four sides.
The concrete then stopped spreading, and silence returned to the strange area.
Tsukuru looked from side to side, confused and now on edge.
A moment later, Tsukuru both heard and felt a rumbling vibration from under him.
Looking down, he saw that the concrete looked as if it was trembling.
Instantly, the concrete star began to rise up into the air like a rising platform.
"W-Whoa!" Tsukuru replied, as he spread his arms out to his side in an attempt to stabilize himself on the now moving platform.
The platform kept rising higher and higher.
Though, due to the sheer emptiness of the area, Tsukuru had no idea how high he was actually getting, as there were no landmarks to compare it to.
All he knew was that at a certain point, it just stopped.
At that point, the sound of moving rocks could be heard again, and the concrete continued to spread and spread.
When it was done, Tsukuru was standing on a large concrete platform in the shape of an octagon.
It also had elongated points protruding from the north, east, south, and west sections of the octagon, and had four platforms like triangles with flat tops coming out of the sides of the octagon in an "X" formation.
Tsukuru looked around him.
Seeing how large the platform was in relation to himself, it made him feel as if he was standing on the roof of a luxury hotel's penthouse.
Tsukuru noticed at that point, that pixels began to appear on the very edge of the platform, far away in front of him.
The pixels began to spread, lining the entire length of the platform's outline.
As the pixels spread, running like a river, the pixels it left behind would begin to disappear, revealing a line of blue along the outline of the platform, like the chalk lines in a baseball field.
Once the outline was finished, Tsukuru glanced at it.
"Huh." He muttered, a strange feeling of nostalgia that he couldn't place running through him. "A large, concrete platform with paint along its outline. Why does this feel so…familiar?"
It was at that point that pixels began to appear under Tsukuru's feet.
Looking down, he saw that the pixels were making a large circle in the center of the platform.
Wary, Tsukuru took a step backwards, away from the center.
He continued walking backwards until he reached the far south end of the platform.
When he reached it, he just stood there.
A few minutes later, the pixels in the center of the platform vanished.
It looked like a glass window being shattered, the pixels exploding into smaller square pixels, which then faded away.
Tsukuru could now see a strange symbol in the middle of the concrete platform.
It looked as if it had been spray-painted on.
In the center, there was a black circle.
But spreading out from the circle from inside was a blue bird like a hawk, its wings spread wide.
The hawk had its head turned to the right, leaving its left eye visible, and it had white covering the entirety of the hawk's chest, and running up the top halves of its spread wings, looking like a white "V".
Seeing the symbol, Tsukuru's eyes widened in realization.
'That…Symbol…' Tsukuru thought, as realization spread through him like electricity.
He now knew why this concrete platform felt so familiar.
Tsukuru stared at the symbol, his eyes widening.
Seeing the symbol made memories flash through him, like water surging through a broken dam.
***
In his memories, Tsukuru saw a young adolescent boy running through a sprawling metropolis.
The boy wore a navy-blue, sleeveless denim vest over a white, long-sleeved hoodie.
The hoodie was slightly a bit too small, only reaching halfway down his forearms.
On his right arm down to his wrist, a black and green tattoo could be seen.
Additionally, he had a thick, steel chain wrapped around his left wrist like a bracelet.
The boy also had a red beanie covering his head, with only a few thin strands of hair sticking out, and he wore navy-blue denim jeans, and white sneakers.
He had a red symbol on the right sleeve of his white hoodie, and the same symbol that was currently spraypainted in the center of the concrete arena was painted on the back of his denim vest, it taking up most of the back.
As the boy ran down the street, he came across a group of around five armed men as he turned a corner.
They wore black body armor with silver parts around the forearms and thighs, as well as yellow armor around their shoulders, biceps, elbows, and kneecaps.
They also wore black helmets with built-in shields like a car's windshield that could be flipped up or down.
On men's armor covering each of their right biceps, it had the letters "D.U.P" written in bold, black letters.
As soon as the armed men saw the boy, they instantly turned their guns on him.
The next second, the boy's body began to break down, turning into wisps of white smoke and glowing embers.
The smoke and embers flew through the air, as if alive.
When the smoke reached the group of armed men, it reconstituted into the form of the boy.
The chain on his left wrist unfasted itself, and it hung down from his hand.
The boy swung his left arm, using the chain like a whip.
As he swung it, smoke trails and glowing embers enveloped it, making the chain glow like heated metal.
After a few hits, two of the armed men collapsed to the ground.
The boy then turned to the other three.
He outstretched his right arm, and a ball of white smoke shot outwards.
It landed on the concrete ground between the remaining three armed men.
When it did, it exploded outwards like a grenade, creating more smoke.
A few cars nearby that were hit by the "grenade" also exploded, their windshields shattering, and smoke coming out of their roofs.
Instantly, each of the three men began coughing, their heads engulfed in the white smoke.
The boy once again turned into smoke and dashed over to each of the three coughing men.
As he reached each one, he knocked them on the ground, them falling on their backs.
Above each man, a spiral of smoke appeared, like an upside-down tornado, pinning them down.
The boy then ran over to a nearby building.
On ground level, it had a circular vent with a red frame.
Once again, he turned into smoke, and went into the vent.
Still smoke, he traveled up the vent, until he re-emerged from the large exhaust vent on the top of the building, him reconstituting himself, and being launched airborne.
As he did, smoke and embers enveloped his hands up to his forearms, acting like rocket thrusters and keeping him propelled.
On the roof, there was another group of the armed men.
The boy reached out his left hand.
He shot out a small wisp of smoke at each man.
As each smoke wisp hit one of the three men in the face, their entire heads became enveloped in the white smoke.
Instantly, they all began coughing.
The man canceled out his thrusters, and landed to the ground.
He then ran up to each coughing man, and pushed them to the ground like he had done on the ground level.
Like before, a spiral of smoke appeared on top of each man.
***