The lucid dream felt too real.
Haruka stood in an empty, white room. Weird noises... maybe raining, but nothing was visible. In front of him, another Haruka lay asleep on the ground... breathing steadily, peaceful, completely unaware.
The sleeping one still had both eyes intact. No blood. No guilt. No memory of holding Yume while half her face was missing.
Haruka stared at him for a long time.
His own voice... the broken, furious one... echoed inside the dream.
"He is... this Haruka... with no memories of Yume's death... but with memories only from this place huh?... Is... is this a dream? But I am conscious of it... and it's not ending... what is this place?..."
He stared into the sleeping body of the other Haruka...
"I should call him with some other name... Ruka? or... something like βHaruka?...yeah Beta-Haruka sounds better."
βHaruka's eyes open slightly. He stared back at Haruka.
βHaruka said quickly, "W-what is this!... who are you?! Oh... a mirror?"
Haruka looked at him. He was a bit scared as he saw someone identical to him talking with him; it would've creeped out anyone.
βHaruka got up, he said, "Wait... It's not moving like me... where is the sync?"
βHaruka was quite flabbergasted by seeing Haruka. He asks, "Who are you?... w-what are you!... what do you want! wai- wait! You must be the reason why I lose control of my body a few times!"
He immediately took Haruka by his collar.
βHaruka was so mad for some reason. But Haruka, on the other hand, was confused about what was happening.
βHaruka: "WHAT DO YOU WANT!"
Haruka simply took βHaruka's hand off his collar and sat on the ground... The room was weird; it started to bother him. It was all white, even the ground, weirdly clean and weirdly detailed, which was not normal for a dream. This has to be some other place where his soul and βHaruka's soul have gone, must be a place like Atience and Rideuous P's place.
Haruka: "Listen, I am you... But from... somewhere else, another reality... I just... look, think of it, I lost my home, now I have to live with you and share this body, I can't just get out, it's my only chance that God gave me."
βHaruka: "Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop right there, another reality? Only chance? What do you mean by all that... I mean, how is that possible?"
Haruka: "Listen... you don't wanna know what happened in my reality, and not even I know how I got into this reality and into this body of yours. But hey! Is it us right? You and you, me and me... isn't it fun?"
βHaruka was as keen and sharp as Haruka; they were both kind of the same, but there were a few things that made them different from each other.
βHaruka: "Uh huh... so... what exactly happened in your universe?"
Haruka: "Well... take this for now... Sakura died, Kenjiro and Marie too, Yume and I too. Maybe the death triggered the transmigration."
βHaruka: "Possibly... But tell me... what was Yume to me in that reality?" A faint pink blush was visible on βHaruka's cheek.
Haruka, in his mind, "I see... so I am the same idiot who loves Yume even in this universe."
Haruka: "Well!... we died after we both confessed...So... yeah, you can imagine the pain."
βHaruka: "Oh... I-... I am sorry for you- I mean... myself, I mean-...you get me."
Haruka: "Yeah... What about this universe? What are the rules? Like, how do things work? Any superpowers? Technologies? Cyberpunk?"
βHaruka: "Well... nah... but we have underworld Villains and Upperworld Heroes who often fight each other, like we got Ferixo and Alastor stones. Heroes use Ferixo to make their weapons, the Ferixo- Wait, do they have it in your universe, too?"
Haruka: "No, continue what you were saying."
βHaruka: "Ok ok, well, Ferixo is used for the heroes, Ferixo stone's unique quality is to tell the personality of the user, if they are worthy of it, they can use it, and the stone adapts to the power of the user, if the user of the stone is a mage of Wind, Light, Darkness, water, fire, earth or anything, they will adapt to that, if the user of the stone is an assassin then the stone will take the shape of the perfect weapon that can be used by them, about Alastor, these stones... they are the corrupted version of Ferixo, same qualities but instead of justifying their personalities the stone gives the user a curse mark and the stone becomes one with their soul. They say that corruption finds corruption, destroying the stone will kill the user, the Alastor stones are often red or black or red-black gradient, and the ferixo are Green or white or green-white gradient."
Haruka knew this universe worked a lot differently, and it indeed was pretty unique.
βHaruka continued speaking, "Well, when I touched a Ferixo, it denied me... I don't know... why... all I wanted is to fix... the world."
Haruka frowned.
Haruka: "Fix it? How?"
βHaruka looked straight into his eyes. There was something vicious behind that stare. βHaruka: "Humans are the only reason sin exists, right?"
Haruka felt a chill. This version of him wasn't just different — he was filled with hatred.
βHaruka suddenly laughed.
βHaruka: "C'mon! You wanted to fix it too, right?!"
Haruka: "But… I would never think of wiping out humanity. I'd rather fix them."
βHaruka sneered.
βHaruka: "Fix humanity? Don't make me laugh. You're even stupider than I thought. No wonder you failed to protect Yume~."
Those words struck a nerve.
Haruka's expression changed instantly. He grabbed βHaruka by the collar. Haruka: "DON'T YOU DARE SAY THAT! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ME?! I HAVE NO FLASHY POWERS, BUT I STILL WANT TO PROTECT EVERYONE— ESPECIALLY YUME!"
Before he could finish, βHaruka punched him hard and broke free.
βHaruka: "How can you save anyone with that weak mentality? Just get the fuck out."
Haruka's blood boiled. He activated Chrono-Split for the first time in this universe. His right eye glowed bright blue.
βHaruka's eyes widened in shock.
Before βHaruka could react, Haruka kicked him in the stomach. As βHaruka fell, Haruka jumped on top of him and started punching his face — all his anger, grief, and frustration pouring out with every strike.
βHaruka's nose started bleeding, but he still smirked. βHaruka: "Well… no wonder she died… hah! Sucks to be you—"
That was the final trigger.
Haruka grabbed βHaruka's throat and started choking him. His grip was iron-tight.
βHaruka's eyes began to bleed. A strange, wet sound filled the white room as blood spilled onto Haruka's face.
Suddenly, a sharp ache exploded in Haruka's own throat and eyes.
With a painful scream, he jolted awake.
But it wasn't a dream.
He was sure of it.