Beep! Beep! Beep!
The sound of an alarm rouses me from slumber.
I jolt awake, clutching the wound on my chest- which isn't there.
I blink once, twice, trying to understand - and then the dream is gone, like always. I don't really remember going to bed, but this is my room. I must have been sleeping.
There was something else, but it's already slipped away, just like the memories of yesterday. Just like the memories of tomorrow. There is only today; an eternal, reoccurring 'now'.
Slowly I get my bearings, remembering… right, today isn't a school day. That suits me just fine; I don't have to make it to the train with any kind of speed. Although…
Although, I feel like there was some place that I had been meaning to board the train for. But maybe that's just the strange dream talking.
-Today, for whatever reason, I don't feel like lazing about. I head downstairs early, catching sight of Papa drinking his morning coffee before I slip out the door without talking to him.
The morning air isn't particularly cool. The heat of summer is already in full effect, and even though the sun has barely risen, I feel like I'm in a sauna. It's been bad enough lately that I've had to forego my usual jacket - though it does feel like I've worn it recently. But that must have been at night, since the heat is too overwhelming to go rampaging around in that outfit during waking hours.
I'm free today; I don't have to hurry to the train so that I can get to school. But still, I'm out of the house, so where should I go?
***
In the end, I wander aimlessly through moderately crowded streets. It's a bit of a relief to see so many people after-
(After what? I need to remember. If I keep forgetting, then-)
…Eventually, I come to a small park. It's a gentle, well-kept location, but I don't come here too often - there were a couple rumors, six years ago, about someone going missing near here, and Mama told me to steer clear of the place. And of course, in an alleyway not far from here-
-The monster dog snarls, and ████-chan screams. A loud click, a black shadow with three burning eyes-!
███████ ████████ was never in this world. ████████ ███████ is-
-The sound of a cat's meow breaks me from my strange daze, and I step into the park.
The park is surprisingly quiet for a weekend, but there's some activity going on - sitting on a bench, a few meters from the entrance, a young girl is playing with a whole pack of cats. Actually, playing is probably an overstatement - for the most part, the girl is just sitting on a bench while the cats come up to her on their own, pressing against her and sitting on her lap.
She's cute. Serene, even - like a fairy who stepped out of a story. Long blue hair contrasts her gothic black dress, and dull red eyes seem to bore into me as I look at her. For a moment, I'm enchanted. She tilts her head, and I get the sense that I should approach - even though I'm not the type to talk to strangers, there's something about her that-
"I won't let you escape," says someone, and my heart fills with terror. The world breaks.
Decay. Decay. The park landscape decays, breaking down into squirming red lines as Kishima Kouma claws his way out of the abyss. His hair, still blazing red, fills me with fear. His fingers, erupting from the sea of squirming red, dig into the sidewalk, and he hauls himself out of 'death' with the might of just one arm.
Indeed, this is death. This is the end of the world.
He advances. My legs won't move because of my terror, and he continues to move towards me, one step at a time. Reality twists, and that fairy-like girl is suddenly between us, her arms outstretched - but he casually backhands her, and she flies almost five meters, her body shifting to that of a black cat before she hits the pavement and lies still.
Some part of me understands - she was important. The anchor for this world. The origin of the dream that's keeping me alive, if Kishima Kouma's words are to be believed. But, in my wider consciousness it still doesn't make sense - which is why I run.
I run, stumbling over myself, scrambling trying to somehow escape the nightmare as it slowly dissolves around me and I sink into the writhing red mess. I want to cry. I still don't understand anything, so save me. Won't someone save me? Onii-chan-!
But, Onii-chan isn't here. Even in a dream, he won't appear for me. He left me behind, after all.
Su-kun-!
He's not here either. He's too busy in the waking world, trying to save my physical body. And so, in the delirium at the edge of a dying dream, I remember another name.
"...Ritsu-kun," The name of someone who disappeared from this world escapes my lips, and the world slows to a crawl.
"Hey, there's a name that's interesting," says the voice of a young girl, and suddenly 'the end' vanishes. Once more, without warning, I'm sitting on a deserted train. Kishima Kouma is nowhere to be seen - though outside the windows, I can still see it, that writhing red mass that signifies the encroachment of 'death' upon this dream.
To my side, a black cat is collapsed upon the seat, blood pooling out under her, as a single dull red eye stays trained upon me. 'Caution' is the sense I get from it - an urge for me to be careful. And, on the opposite side of the train, sitting cross-legged on the seat, another young girl with blonde hair gives a toothy grin.
"Yo, Arima Miyako. We meet again," The girl says, and I blink.
"What-?" I start to say, but she just laughs and interrupts me.
"Yeah, you're not gonna remember the first meeting. It'll make sense in time, maybe - I wouldn't count on it, though," She says, and already I feel the urge to punch this brat. "But I've got an offer for you, and you're in no place to refuse."
I still don't understand any of this. Not on anything other than a gut, instinctive level. The dream, that fairy-like girl whose true form is a cat, Kishima Kouma, or the person before me. Absolutely none of this makes sense to me. And so, I follow my instincts and stay quiet as she continues.
"That guy who was about to kill you and wear your skin - The Flayed One, Xipe Totec - I'll help you beat him. All I need in return is a little favor. It's really not that big of an ask, either," she continues, her red sunglasses almost opaque in the shade of the train car. "That childhood friend of yours, who you forgot until now - Fujimaru Ritsuka. I need you to start a rumor about him, once you're out of this place."
My brain shakes. That's right. He was the one I called out for, the final one I wanted to save me. I forgot. I forgot completely about him - how?
Because he's no longer in this world. Because that night, when we were cornered by a black beast that resembled a dog-
Something else is here.
At the end of the train car, a black shadow is suddenly present - not that it materialized, but that it is simply here. It's like when you're watching a movie, and because of a scratch on the disc a few seconds are skipped - and then something new has arrived.
It most resembles a sort of cliche western sheet ghost, but in black - with its red-lined cloth draping all the way to the ground, and no face - only three burning red eyes, drawn where a face might be.
"-Come on, it's not like I'm blabbing too much," the blonde girl says, addressing the shadow with a roll of her eyes. "You're the one who asked for this in the first place. I'm just trying to fulfill the order."
It doesn't give any response, only floating there, eerily motionless as the train rattles down the tracks.
"I'm not trying to start a fight just yet, okay?" The girl continues. "Wait 'til I've cleared the ledger between us, then you can try to kill me."
As abruptly as it arrived, the shadow vanishes.
"-Man, what a troublesome customer," She says, rubbing the back of her neck as she turns her attention back to me. "I really don't need the heat, so I'm not going to answer any questions for you. If you want to learn about Fujimaru, you're gonna have to start a rumor - so with that in mind, what do you say? You want to know anyway, right?"
I swallow. My throat is so dry. With some anxiousness, I flick my gaze to the side again - where that little cat, still bleeding, still breathing so heavily, looks back at me with a gaze that tells me not to have anything to do with this person.
I don't really understand. I'm completely lost on everything. But I know for sure that the little black cat is my ally. Snobby and strange as she might be, she's the reason I'm still alive. She's the one who resets this dream whenever I fall into 'death'. She's the reason the dream is happening in the first place, as opposed to me just dying outright when the Tengu cut my chest open. I get at least that much, even if the rest is a confusing ramble about dream demons and unheard-of cousins.
And in that case… In that case…!
"I don't want to die," I admit - and glance to the side again, looking at the worry in that little cat's gaze. "...And I don't want this girl to die either. So, if you can give me a way to save both of us-"
"Woah, you latched onto Len that quickly?" The blonde girl asks. "-Well, I was going to take care of her anyway. Tohno Shiki paid a pretty good premium so she'd stay safe; lending her to Nanaya was only a temporary thing that I was keeping a close eye on."
"Onii-chan-!?" I blurt out. Wait, what exactly-
"We don't really have time to get into it," She shrugs. "Try to beat it out of Nanaya next time you run into him - at this point it's a little ridiculous for him to keep avoiding giving you answers."
I open my mouth to respond, but the train intercom cuts me off.
"Now arriving at Kisaragi Station, Kisaragi Station."
***
We exit the train onto a platform floating in a sea of writhing red. Death, the end of the world, is all around. Gently, I set the little cat - Len, the other girl called her - down on the ground, grimacing as I do so.
At the other end, Kishima Kouma stands, facing away, gazing into the abyss - as the blonde girl follows me out, he turns to glance at us. "So you're here - Black Tezcatlipoca."
I think I heard that name before, but I can't place it.
"Yeah, here I am, Red Tezcatlipoca," The girl says with a grin.
"Call me Xipe Totec - I'm really not feeling like we're the same person, lately. Are you siding with Arima Miyako, then?" Kishima asks.
"I'm on nobody's side. Are you still pissed about Izcalli? I'm telling you, he wasn't suited," the girl - Tezcatlipoca, I guess - says.
"You're a god of death - for me, a god of civilization, he was perfectly suitable," Xipe Totec responds. Of course, I have no idea what either of them are talking about.
"And yet, here you are, claiming to be 'death' for Arima Miyako. Come on, this kind of attitude doesn't suit you," Tezcatlipoca says with a shake of her head.
"That is the nature of this skin. Kishima Kouma was produced in this dream to embody death - and I am what I wear," Xipe Totec responds.
"What, you're back on the 'I don't have a personality, only skins' idea?" Tezcatlipoca rolls her eyes. "That's obviously false - otherwise it wouldn't be necessary for Arima Miyako to fight for dominance with you."
"...Dominance?" I ask. Somehow, that word catches in my mind.
"Arima Miyako - you are suited to be a vessel. To become a Demi-Servant. That's the nature of the body that you were given upon your arrival in this singularity," Xipe Totec says. "But as of yet, you have nothing. No Heroic Spirit has taken up residence in your body. You are an empty skin, suitable for me to wear - that was the arrangement Tezcatlipoca made."
"What-?" I'm lost again, but from what little I understand-!
"That was the arrangement since you disembarked in Kichijoji last night. It was all Nanaya Shiki could afford when he sold his claim on the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception to me - but since you made your own deal with me, I'll lend you a hand. I declare sacred combat, not one-sided slaughter. One will defeat and wear the other, but the end isn't decided," Tezcatlipoca says, and a bowl of something muddy and brown appears in her hands. "Come on, then."
Xipe Totec steps forward and slashes his palm open with a fingernail, dripping blood into the bowl, and then both of them look at me expectantly. Do they think peer pressure will work for something like this-!?
-They're absolutely right. Arima Miyako is a pushover, after all. I step forward, heart pounding, and stretch out a hand - and Tezcatlipoca nicks my palm with a dagger, dripping blood into the bowl.
Not a moment later, Xipe Totec grabs the bowl, and, raising it to his lips, drinks about half of it before handing it to me.
-What the heck is this!? No, really, am I going to go along with drinking whatever this is!?
"It's spicy!"
Sadly, the answer appears to be yes.
"Xocolatl, is what we call it," Tezcatlipoca says. "The recipe's changed a lot, but you can think of it as a predecessor of chocolate. Of course, in this circumstance - it's an elixir to give a warrior power in battle."
Her words sound distant. There's something, bubbling within me. Tezcatlipoca steps back. Xipe Totec rolls his neck as his hair burns red.
That's it. The demonic nature of Oni, something I understand by instinct if not by reason. Something I am incapable of challenging, no matter what.
Who decided that?
I share blood with the Kishima. They're distant cousins of mine - but the inhuman blood of the Arima is thin, and so I cannot call upon that power.
Who decided that?
There are, after all, rules to how such inheritance works.
And what are rules, to an Oni?
***
Oni are a phantasmal species, something bound to old laws of reality, not modern ones. Genetics ultimately have nothing to do with a human being becoming an Oni, except insofar as blood is a medium for things of the spirit.
Putting aside those spirits born as Oni, the decision of whether a human 'is an Oni' is deceptively simple. One becomes an Oni by behaving as an Oni does.
Violence. Intoxication. Abduction of humans. The eating of humans. Theft. Breaking and entering. Isolation from one's fellow man. And of course, although it is not a behavior, inheriting the blood of another oni plays a role.
In the modern era it is not so simple. The decline of mystery means that even if one exhibits all of the behaviors of an oni, the abandonment of humanity is near impossible without extensive use of magecraft - for those who lack sufficiently strong Oni blood, that is.
-Arima Miyako bears the blood of Oni, but it is weak. So weak that the [Inversion Impulse], the looming urge which causes a mixed-blood to abandon their humanity, is completely absent within her. But as for her behavior-
She has been isolated from other humans for almost three years. Violence has been her language since childhood. Within this singularity, she has robbed a convenience store. She has broken into a hotel. And now, she has consumed an intoxicating mix, created with human blood, for the purpose of bringing out an animal's spirit.
Arima Miyako has met the qualifications for 'one who has behaved as an Oni.' Were this the Heian Era, drinking Xocolatl prepared by Tezcatlipoca would be enough to invert anyone with a drop of Oni blood in their veins. In this era, at least within a dream, this thin-blooded girl who has been prepared by her actions…
For ten seconds, Arima Miyako's hair burns red.
Crimson. Red. Vermillion.
Overwhelming heat fills the false dream world as two demons clash.
Were the foe present the authentic Kishima Kouma, she would have died in an instant. That man is a natural-born miracle - a demon who, by some twist of fate, was already completely inhuman when he left the womb. That he was able to function in human society was an even further miracle - but somehow, as a natural born monster, he had done the things that humans do enough to become one, at least in some sense. Regardless, Kishima Kouma is an invincible monster - Crimson Red Vermillion, a true Oni in every sense of the world
But, all of that is immaterial. Because this is not the true Kishima Kouma. The story of his presence here is different. The body used by Xipe Totec is simple waste information, that ought to have been discarded. Kishima Kouma was Tohno Shiki's mental image of death, and so some time ago, when that man, Miyako's older brother, was brought to this dream world by Len to preserve his life, Kouma materialized within it - but an imperfect recreation. He was simply as much of the real Kouma's power that a young Tohno Shiki had been able to comprehend, the single time the two had met.
All of this is to say - Xipe Totec's vessel is matched in power with Arima Miyako.
Fists wreathed in flame meet each other again and again, and the platform begins to decay, melting into the squirming red mass of nothing that marks the end of the dream.
This is Xipe Totec's path to victory. If the dream is fully destroyed, the trick preserving Arima Miyako's life will expire, and her soul will weaken enough for him to claim her body. She will become a Demi-Servant, not as Mash Kyrielight is, but as Marisbury Animusphere intended the Shielder to be when he created her. The vessel's personality will be completely lost.
Miyako's path is harder. Somehow, some way, she must overcome and kill this 'death' that is blocking her path. But, even empowered by the blood of the Oni, she's in no position to overwhelm him. The only route to victory, would be for her to somehow grasp a power beyond even that.
'Well, there's still a chance,' Black Tezcatlipoca considers. 'I created her current body - the original was incinerated, after all. And Xipe Totec is right, I made her to be a Demi-Servant, with contents consisting of 'nothing'. I can see why he'd assume I picked her out as a vessel for him. She's got a motif of Red going on, after all. That was the plan. But, I guess he wasn't paying attention - the point of that 'nothing' was that she wouldn't get eaten for having a name. It's not actually that her contents are 'void' - it's just something that was already erased. Now, let's see… will she grasp it?'
But, even as she thinks that, the seconds tick down, and the world melts away. Five. Six. Seven. Eight-
***
The overwhelming sensation starts to die. My senses are returning to normal, I can feel it - and Xipe Totec's single crimson eye doubtless notices as well.
The world is decaying. Already, the only ground left is that under my feet, and a few patches that I can't trust. This is as far as Arima Miyako can go.
"White, Black, Blue, Red," He finally speaks, his voice a furious snarl. "Of these, I am Red. I am the blood of death. I am the blood of the womb." His skin squirms, and a seam opens up along his face, going all the way down his neckline, beneath his shirt. I don't understand, but that's fine. I've already given up on thinking. Just tear him to pieces. Just kill him.
"[Tlatlauhqui Tezcatlipoca]!"
He tears open. Something red, made of smoke, blood, and bone pours out, and-
I leap at him, with the last of my strength, disregarding the abyss beneath me.
I need a perfect blow. A singular attack, requiring 'No Second Strike'. The memory of it is already gone. The name of the one who achieved it has been erased. But my body knows the motions.
"[Palm of the Fist KingMiyako Punch]!"
My fist tears through the smoke, and shatters the skull of the thing emerging. And, just like that, Kishima Kouma collapses backwards, skin closing again around the flayed thing within.
…He doesn't rise.
For a moment, I don't believe it. "...Just a punch?"
"Well, at the end of the day, his vessel was already killed by Tohno Shiki once before. He was pretty fragile," Tezcatlipoca says. "Not that that was just a punch. It was []'s Noble Phantasm, you know?"
Noble Phantasm. Su-kun and Recorder used that phrase a couple of times before, but… "I have no idea what that is."
"Hahaha! I guess you don't, do you!?" Tezcatlipoca laughs.
***
Compendium Update - Arima Miyako
Class: Assassin
True Name: Arima Miyako (Neiji Rockheart)
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Origin: Melty Blood, Hana no Miyako, Re:Zero
Manifestation Cost: -
Bio:
The truth was, she was a Demi-Servant. Though Miyako doesn't know what that is, and probably won't even remember the phrase after waking up. After the incineration of humanity, her body was recreated by Black Tezcatlipoca - as a payment for Nanaya Shiki's claim on the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. (Incidentally, Tohno's claim was purchased by a promise to preserve the existence of his familiar, Len, who was at risk of expiration over the year or so that humanity would be nonexistent.)
Her existence is a trap. Black Tezcatlipoca created her as an appetizing vessel for one of his counterparts, the Red Tezcatlipoca, who was holding a grudge against him for a prior incident.
"I'm not on anyone's side, but I will scheme to keep competitors out of the market."
-In any case, the truth is that she is a Demi Servant, bearing the existence of a hero from another world, whose existence has already been erased. This is why the Pleiades Watchtower was unable to consume her, because Neiji Rockheart, having been devoured some time ago by Gluttony, was already nameless.
Parameters
Strength: B
Endurance: B
Agility: C
Mana: D
Luck: A
NP: B
Class Skills:
Namelessness: A
A variant of Presence Concealment. The bearer cannot be recognized as a Heroic Spirit until she displays abilities that cannot otherwise be explained.
Existence Outside the Domain: -
Neiji Rockheart, native to another world, would possess this skill - but Arima Miyako is thoroughly an Earthling, and so this skill is lost.
Noble Phantasm:
Miyako Punch! (Or, [Fist of Justice], [Burning Shining Punch], [Rider Punch], [Mighty Dragon Fist], etc.) - Palm of the Fist King
Rank: B
Type: Anti-Unit
Range: 1
Maximum number of targets: 1 Person
An overwhelming punch that bypasses magical defenses and ruptures the target's internal organs. The ultimate technique of Neiji Rockheart, strangely convergent with the fist of a certain Martial Artist of Earth who requires [No Second Strike].
But, of course, it was never refined past this point. Whether Miyako, an irregular existence, can learn more from this Noble Phantasm remains to be seen.