1
"Shiro."
A raspy voice in the darkness calls out a familiar name.
"Shiro.."
It was a lonely place, a place that was null of light with nothing going on besides the faint crackling and sparking sounds.
"-"
The voice that had once been calling out the name 'Shiro' has now fallen completely silent. The presence it had been calling out to slowly begins to reach their hand outward, trying to find the owner of the voice that called them into this black realm.
"Shiro!"
The voice called the presence's name once more.
All of a sudden, a boy springs out from his slumber, sitting straight up on his bed. He is completely soaked in a cold sweat, heart beating out of his chest.
Again?!
They let out an exhausted sigh as they turned to the side of their bed and got up slowly.
The boy wearily began to trudge his way to his kitchen, feeling completely famished after waking up from such a terrible nightmare.
"I keep having these recurring nightmares. Is there even any meaning to them?"
The boy thinks about it for a little bit then comes up with a final judgement.
"Nah, it's probably nothing."
The boy gets milk and cereal and starts making breakfast. His throat is dry, making it hard to swallow his cereal. Still though, he can't shake away the anxiety he has been getting from these nightmares.
I can't blame myself for being a bit wary about the nightmare, it's the fifth time I've had this nightmare, it's fair to be a bit curious about why they are appearing.
Shiro slips into his work attire and walks to the front of his apartment where his jacket and shoes await him.
He puts them on and onto work he goes!
2
Shiro, now at work in a shitty fast food kitchen, watches the oil sizzle beneath the greasy patties. Realizing how pathetic he probably looks right now he reflects on his life.
I really am a complete and utter failure. Ever since my mother disappeared I've been forced to work this fast food job just to make ends meet. Dropped out of school to focus on work and finding my mother. Not even 18 yet and I've already become a wage slave.
It might be important to mention now that Shiro has a tendency to bite his lip when pissed off or agitated.
I have no friends, no girlfriend and no family. I really am a loser. The perfect way to describe me is like a reanimated corpse.
Shiro bites down on his bottom lip, a drop of blood begins trickling down his chin.
3
After a couple hours, Shiro's shift finally finishes and he clocks out. When he arrives home he walks toward his bed.
He slumps down onto his mattress and lets out a long exaggerated sigh and then begins to drift into a deep slumber.
It's dark. So dark.
The crackling and hum of electricity fills the air in the void, but it's different this time. The humming is now louder and more defined.
A speck of blue light hovers into Shiro's view. The speck radiates a calming warmth that relaxes Shiro's body.
"What are you..?"
Drawn to the blue speck like a moth to a flame Shiro reaches his hand out towards it, he slowly cages the speck with a fist.
But before he could completely trap the blue speck in his hand, his alarm clock awoke him from his slumber.
"I really wish I would stop having these shitty dreams."
4
Shiro is now back at work again, flipping the greasy patties on the grill like usual.
Out of nowhere, multiple indistinguishable whispers begin to fill the room. No, multiple is an understatement. Thousands of whispers filled the room, all seeming to be directed at Shiro.
"What the-?"
Shiro turns around to confront the whispers but nothing. Nobody is there except the other coworkers doing their own thing working in their own work station.
The manager notices Shiro's puzzled expression and walks over to him with furrowed brows.
"Get back to work you lazy slob, your here to work not to daydream so get your head in the fucking game kid. We got orders coming in left and right."
5
After work Shiro decided to go to a supermarket to get some groceries. But those whispers were still persistent and continued to fill his head, irritating his mind. Each minute the whispers get louder and louder.
After getting the groceries he needed, he handed them towards the checkout lady item by item. Suddenly..
"Awnodirobpdrg- JUDGE!"
"Ahh!"
The voices continued like usual but out of nowhere one word finally became understandable. The word was very loud and pierced Shiro's mind, making him make a slight sigh of pain as he put his hands against each side of his head.
The grocery lady, after seeing this, shows visible concern for the boy.
"Hey are you okay? What can I do to help you?"
"No no no don't worry. I'm sorry for your concern, it's just a migraine I'm having."
Shiro bites his lip slightly, blaming the whispers in his head for causing such an embarrassing moment in front of somebody.
Shiro looks up and sees the checkout lady holding a bottle of water and a pack of medicine saying 'pain reliever'.
"Here kid, take these, they're on the house. You clearly need it."
"Oh, thank you so much"
Shiro grabs the ringed up groceries, water bottle and medicine.
"All good kiddo."
After saying that the checkout lady shoots him a hopeful smile, Shiro feels a bit of relief in his soul but also a bit of worry. He isn't very used to social interaction due to his social anxiety.
Once leaving the store the whispers are still a bit more persistent but now having downed the medicine with the bottle of water it did relieve the pain.
Humans can be nice sometimes.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!"
Shiro, now five minutes away from his apartment, hears a blood-curling scream coming from the next street. People were wailing, begging for help.
The weirdest thing though was how the whispers seemed to be guiding him to the screams even though Shiro could not understand them. He felt obliged to go to the cries of help.
"Oh what the hell."
Shiro drops his groceries and begins sprinting towards the next street, slamming his shoes against the rough road.
Once arriving at the street, a horrific sight is presented before Shiro.
"What the fuck!"
Shiro steps back, heart beating out of his chest. The sight before him was countless bodies strewn across the street, it was a sea of red made of blood. The bodies had their limbs ripped off, and their faces had been disfigured, impossible to identify them from a glance.
Vomit began to fill Shiro's throat as he stared at the image.
"W-what happened.."
Not being able to hold it in anymore, Shiro bent over and vomited into the blood, the mix of yellow and red made him even more sick.
"Hey there~."
6
In the middle of the street a 160cm figure stood there slightly bent over. They wore a roughed up jacket with torn pants. They wielded a short blade in each hand (2 blades).
The most distinguishable thing about this figure though was that it didn't have skin. Instead it was covered in a black shadow-like colour completely embodying the monster. A truly inhuman appearance.
"Ohhh, what do we have here, fresh meat~?"
Its voice is gigglish, the monsters laugh in between words. It was trying hard to hide the fact that they found all of this funny.
"What the hell have you done with all these people..?"
Shiro wipes his mouth of the vomit and tries to stand firm against this monster but it's clear that he is a bit shaky.
"Are you really that clueless boy? I killed them!"
It laughs, its voice dripping with sickening pride as it holds one of its blades up to its mouth and runs their tongue against it, licking the blood off it. The blood and spit mix together, dripping down its chin.
Shiro gets sick seeing the monster do such a grotesque thing.
"So what exactly are you?"
The monster's eyes light up as its face begins to contort into a wicked grin, it stretches beyond human limitations.
"I am Judgement! And I have come here to judge and execute these repulsive sinners! Although, since you can see me, that would make you a Void Hunter wouldn't it?"
Shiro tilts his head in confusion.
"A Void Hunter? Look, I don't know who or what the hell you are- as if I give a shit about that anyway. But that doesn't change the fact that I am not gonna let you hurt anyone else!"
Judgement then throws their head back, cacking out loud and then abruptly pausing. It darts its manic eyes at Shiro.
Shiro takes a deep breath, he clenches his fists and plants his feet into the ground, getting into a fighting stance.
"Oh, so you are for real? Well go on then, I'll let you get the first hit."
Shiro begins charging towards Judgement and once in front of him Shiro closes his eyes and he slams his fist right into the monster's chest.
When Shiro opens his eyes he sees that Judgement hasn't even moved an inch, the punch was completely useless.
"Fine, have it your way."
Judgement blurs for a second then disappears, this action was followed by a wet slashing sound. Shiro hears something drop to the floor and looks down.
Is that-..!
On the floor lay Shiro's severed right arm.
"Ahhhhh!"
Shiro's eyes widen and he lets out a scream, walking backwards but tripping over making him fall on his ass. Blood begins rapidly spurring out the nub he now has. Thinking quickly, he squeezes his nub trying to stop himself from dying of blood loss. He continues to scream out in agony, rolling on the floor making his own blood getting all over himself while also getting the blood of other people on him.
"Oh you poor.. poor thing.."
Judgement plants his hands onto the bloody road, getting on all fours. He starts licking up the blood spurting out of shiro like some horrible beast.
"Truly magnificent, beyond extraordinary and absolutely divine! Yes… Yes! This is the blood of a true sinner!"
After getting a taste of the sinner's blood, Judgement grabs Shiro's neck tightly and stands up, suspending Shiro in the air with his shadow-like arm. The sinner proceeds to throw some weak punches with his left fist but it's not enough.
Fuck.. I can't. I'm too weak.. I can't beat him.
Shiro looks into the beast's eyes.
This thing.. Whatever it is.. I swear that-
"I'll kill you.."
Shiro utters words weakly with a coarse voice. Trying to get a few words out before passing out from the blood loss. His vision begins to slowly blur out, the end is coming ever so slightly closer with each passing second.
"Let me say it one more time, my name is Judgement! My mission is to exterminate dirty.. DIRTY sinners such as you."
Judgement raises its hand up to their side, clenching their fists.
"And now with that encore finished.."
"Gh-!"
Judgement then drives his arm forward, piercing Shiro right through the chest. This was the final blow. This was the death of Shiro Tatsuya.
7
It's dark, so dark again. I'm now in that void from my dreams once more. Am I.. Dead?
"Shiro."
A voice calls for Shiro, beckons for him, and desires him.
It needs him, can't live without him, can't live up to its purpose without him.
Shiro in the black space turns around to see, well, himself. A little bit different though, instead of the copy being made of flesh (like the original Shiro), it was made of a pure, blinding and beautiful blue light.
"You may not be able to recall clearly, but we have met in this place multiple times. Each time you leave this place, you cannot seem to remember anything that transpires here. Shiro, for a few nights now I have called you and now you have answered, not in the way I intended you would though."
The voice coming from the copy speaks with elegance, absolute tranquility roars from their voice, calming Shiro, putting him at ease.
I can't explain this feeling, I feel so calm.
"Oh.. That explains it I suppose.. So where are we?"
"This is the place in between, this is the palace of ########."
The final word the copy says sounds incomprehensible, Shiro can't understand it at all.
"What? The palace of huh?"
"Oh, I see. She is tryi#g to tune #e o#t. She is sev#ring our con#ection in #he palace of ######."
The connection between Shiro and his blue copy becomes more and more distorted as they speak. The copy walks right in front of the boy and places his hands on Shiro's shoulders. The blue light from the copy starts flowing into Shiro's veins.
"There, a stable and direct connection, but I can't hold it for long. All I need to say now is.."
There is a long pause.
"Shiro Tatsuya. Do you want to live?"
A giant weighing scale appears behind Blue Shiro. Both equal, without either tipping lower than the other. Absolute equality.
This is it, my moment. I can feel it now, this is a second chance, a rebirth. Before I died I did nothing but stumble around mindlessly, working in that lousy fast food joint like a wage slave and having multiple sleepless nights. I swear I'll make the most out of this rebirth. I swear that I will be better this time around!
One scale on the Weighing scale slowly lowers raising the other one. An imbalance has been created.
Everything starts shining, the black void becomes white, everything flashing white. All stuff in Shiro's perspective disappears as Shiro returns by death.
8
"He's dead! He's dead he's dead he's dead he's dead he's dead! This sinner has been judged!"
"Hands off me, bastard."
Judgement, celebrating his victory against Shiro, suddenly heard a voice come from the corpse. Shiro slowly stood up, the hole in his chest started to be rebuilt with new flesh, his arm took a few seconds to grow back. Shiro was back to perfect condition.
"What the hell? I killed you, I killed the sinner, I did it! I know I did!"
Judgement clutches his head in frustration, completely enraged.
"How the FUCK are you still alive?! Absurd, unheard of and absolutely taboo!"
Shiro smirks a little, getting happy seeing his killer freaking out like a unhinged lunatic.
"Well, lucky me huh?"
Shiro steps forward a little bit, raising his hands up to his chest in a sort of boxer-like fighting style. Shiro clenches his fists and they erupt in a blue flame around his wrists. Judgement stares at Shiro as he does this, the crazed look in his eyes now replaced with panic.
"This changes nothing! Regardless of whether you have this stupid power or not I'm still going to kill you, again and again and again and again. So die pig!"
I feel awakened, it's as if something that has been resting dormant inside me for a really long time has now finally been awakened.
"I don't really understand how or why I got this power but-."
Shiro then points his thumb at himself.
"I am Shiro Tatsuya, and I'm gonna kick your ass!"
9
Shiro charges at Judgement, his fists now imbued with a raging blue flame, they make a crackling electricity sound as they burn with absurd levels of power.
Now right in front of Judgement, Shiro slams his fist right into Judgement's stomach. The look on Judgement's face goes from worried to winded. A shockwave echoes out as the punch connects, displaying the sheer strength of the punch.
The one who took the hit head on, Judgement, went flying straight into a 5 storey-building, making it completely crumble.
"Ouch ouch!"
The blue flames that once roared with great power have now fizzled out, making Shiro's cool fists turn into regular teenage boy hands.
"Ow, it burns, it burns!"
All the adrenaline from the fight made Shiro forget about the pain, his fists were now covered in burn marks. As Shiro was inspecting his injuries he notices Judgement in the corner of his eye, emerging from the pile of concrete rubble. The stench of bloodlust coming from Judgement was potent and sickening.
Before Shiro can even lift his head up to get ready for a round two (2) with the beast, Judgement blurs once again just like before and appears right in front of Shiro.
"W-wow!"
Shiro holds his arms up in a blocking stance before Judgement sends him flying. Having lost his twin blades, Judgement could only now purely rely on his fists, each punch was a sting in Shiro's arms as the punches were crazed and uncoordinated.
Shit, why won't my fists charge up again?!
As Shiro thinks this, Shiro's stance fails and he and Judgement go tumbling to the ground.
No, I think I get it now, the way I activated them at first was by being enraged. So maybe if I do it again that will help.
Shiro shoves Judgement off him, and slowly gets up. He lets out a sigh, grits his teeth and fists as hard as he can and closes his eyes. Complete zen.
Shiro's body starts getting a slight blue flame aura all over, it burns Shiro's flesh but he tries his best to ignore the pain and focus on channeling his power to maintain the form. Each second the aura grows stronger and stronger.
Shiro then stops channeling all of a sudden from exhaustion, Shiro then instinctively lets out a scream and that's when a giant explosion roars out from him, leveling the whole city block he fought on.
10
Shiro slowly opened his eyes after the explosion, he saw ruined buildings and some stuff on fire. But also he saw Judgement, or the remains of him. Just two shoes, everything above their ankles was now completely gone and Judgement was presumed dead.
Covered in black ash and feeling all the pain catching up to him now, Shiro falls onto his knees in exhaustion. He pants like a rabid dog as he tries to get his energy back.
As Shiro catches his breaths, he hears the sound of slow and calculated footsteps approach him.
"Who's there."
After a few seconds, a few figures emerged from the ashen smoke. The girl in the middle was quite gorgeous, she had white hair and a slender figure. Her and two (2) people standing on each side of her slowly walked up to shiro before stopping right in front of him.
"Arent you just the cutest thing~?"
As they stand in front of him, the white haired woman kneels down and cups Shiro's face in her hands as she slowly lifts his head up, making them look at each other directly.
Shiro's cheeks start to redden as she cradles his face in her soft pale hands.
Those beautiful ebony eyes pierced through Shiro's soul harder and deeper than Judgement's blades ever could.
"I've finally found you, the Body of Hate."
She grins, her eyes narrowing.
"You don't know me, but I know you, so allow me to formally introduce myself. My name is Yumi Kurokawa, and I am the Avatar of Lust."
Now who the hell is this mysterious woman?!?!