Maruka’s House, Present

  Maruka texts Mika: "is niche home?"

  "nah haven't seen him"

  "oh"

  "he's probably fine. wanna hit the mall? sale at that place you like"

  Mall, Present

  They meet up. Mika's trying on clothes while Maruka keeps checking her phone.

  "You good?" Mika asks, coming out of the dressing room.

  "Yeah, just... your parents aren't worried?"

  "Dad's been working late all week. Mom's been working on an operation for a while. Heart transplant, I think. They probably haven't noticed." She spins in the mirror. "This cute or trying too hard?"

  "Cute," Maruka says automatically.

  "Cool. Let's get food after. I'm starving."

  She buys the top. They head to the food court, debating between teriyaki and pizza.

  Cave, Present

  “What is this, Raizen? What happened to me?” Niche asks, now fully formed.

  The mutants back away from his radiating power, retreating into the deeper shadows of the cave.

  Niche stands, his body involuntarily shaking. The mutants have retreated, but their remains litter the cave floor.

  Niche stumbles forward, reaching for where Raizen should be. His hand grasps at nothing.

  "Raizen?" His voice cracks. "W-where did you go?"

  He spins around frantically, searching the cave floor among the mutant corpses.

  "Raizen!” He's on his knees now, patting the ground desperately. "This isn't funny! Where are you?!"

  His breathing gets ragged. Hands shaking. "Please, I can't—I don't know what to do without you. You can't just leave!" Tears start falling. "You said you'd guide me! You've been with me my whole life! You can't just—"

  "Niche."

  "I'm going to die in here alone and nobody will even know—"

  "Niche."

  "I need you! I can't do this by myself, I don't even know where the exit is—"

  "NICHE. I'm right here."

  Niche freezes and looks down. Raizen's sword appears on the floor, seemingly to have come into existence at that very moment.

  "What the hell? Where’d you go? You just left me-" Niche asks, confused.

  "I’ve been right here this whole time, waiting for you to calm down. You looked like a blind person the way you were aimlessly wandering around. What’s gotten into you, Niche?” The sword's voice is deeply worried.

  "But I couldn't see—"

  "You were looking everywhere except directly at me. You literally stepped over me twice."

  "I... but you weren't..."

  "I've been responding this entire time. You were having a complete breakdown and somehow blocking out my voice." Raizen sighs. "Are you okay? You just regenerated for the first time. This time from a complete state of nonexistence. That can mess with perception."

  "I thought you abandoned me." Niche's voice is small.

  "Chill. I'm here. I've been here. I'll continue to be here." A pause. "Though your complete mental collapse after thirty seconds of thinking I was gone is... concerning."

  Niche wipes his face, embarrassed now. "Shut up,” Niche says, grabbing the sword as its form extends like an outstretched arm to reach Niche’s hand. While walking away, Niche holds Raizen way too tight. "Let's just find the exit."

  Something moves among the corpses and debris. Not a mutant, but smaller. A writhing mass of darkness, feeding on the reality-broken flesh, grabs Niche’s attention, who stops for a second to investigate.

  "What are you?" Niche says, approaching carefully. The thing is eating the parts of mutants left over that look distorted. “You’re eating…the mutant’s garbage? Ironic how cruel the cycle of life tends to be.”

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  Raizen materializes as the cat, hissing. "Don't touch it. That's a reality parasite. It feeds on impossibilities,” Raizen warns.

  "On things that shouldn't exist?" Niche looks at his own hands. "Like me?"

  "Exactly like you."

  The parasite inches closer, drawn to him like a magnet.

  Niche takes Raizen, using the tip of his blade to pick up the parasite. Staring at the writhing blob, Niche raises the sword above his head and flings the goop across the cave. The parasite disappears into the darkness.

  “That’s one way to get rid of it,” Raizen comments.

  "Anyways, this new sun power really increased the efficiency of my flames," Niche said, his voice shaky. The regeneration had drained him completely; he could barely stand. "I feel like I just ran a marathon," Niche muttered, walking to a wall to lean against the cave.

  Raizen, back in cat form, padded alongside him. "You're finally accessing what you should have had from the beginning."

  "I can feel the difference. It's like I was trying to use a lighter when I had a flamethrower this whole time."

  They walked through the cave passages, looking for an exit.

  The air is getting fresher. That’s a good sign we’re closing to getting out of this place.

  "Raizen," Niche said, "I will fix whatever's wrong with the sun and take my place among the stars; not as the sun, but as something greater."

  "You’ve told me this before," Raizen mutters, disinterested.

  "The other bearers merged with the sun and became part of it. I’m not gonna do that. I don't have to sacrifice myself." Niche continues, ignoring Raizen’s comment.

  How much did you forget after that transformation? Raizen thinks. Usually bearers are a little disoriented after their first time, but full-blown amnesia? I’ve never seen that happen before. What’s gotten into you?

  Footsteps disrupt Raizen’s thoughts. Not the shambling gait of the mutants, but organized movement. A group of shifters emerged from the outside of the tunnel near the exit.

  Shit, there’s more? Can’t we ever get out of this damned place?!

  Niche’s flames erupt, covering his entire body.

  The fire is a lot easier to release and control now, even though I’m not that angry. Was this a byproduct of the immortality? It feels like I had pores that were previously closed, and now that they’re open, they release fire without any effort or input from me.

  A swarm of shifters rushed forward. Niche walked forward with a red glare in his eyes, more eager for destruction than confident.

  The first one that approached Niche got eviscerated. The others who got in arm’s length of Niche shared the same fate. These shifters, aware of this, fought him from a distance. The sheer quantity of shifters was the only thing holding the group from being completely destroyed.

  So, what are these shifters? Niche thought, his body instinctively fighting. They look just like people, but for some reason their bodies aren’t…solid. It’s as if they are made of liquid, being able to change their form.

  Niche was evidently going to win. Some shifters in this group were more skilled than others, dodging Niche’s attacks and putting a valiant fight against him. With the help of the support and with Niche quickly burning through his energy, the shifter group soon overpowered Niche.

  Shit, they’re…beating me somehow. I’m burning through my energy like crazy. Even though it regenerates quickly, it’s still not infinite. I need to quickly get out of here, but not without answers first.

  Spotting his target, Niche turns his focus to attack just one of them down. He shoots a flame at the shifter with his low energy, strong enough to knock her to tumble down to the ground but not powerful enough to kill her immediately.

  Pursuing this shifter, Niche jumps at her, pinning her down and readying a punch.

  Suddenly, another shifter jumps in the way, pushing Niche on the ground. Niche easily gets on top of this one, laying him on top of the injured shifter like stacked bricks.

  Niche lands a punch on this intruder, but it was significantly weaker than his previous attacks. Soon, his punches diverge from clean attacks, now aiming at anything and trying to destroy both of them using any ability that would deal damage.

  However, the defender wouldn't die. This resistance could be attributed to the shifter’s will to survive, but a more likely explanation was that Niche was now too tired to throw anything stronger than a slap. His attacks got slower, then finally stopped.

  Although arguably still alive, the intruder was still affected by Niche’s punches of fire that were aimed straight at his chest.

  The injured shifter started crying, holding his crisp friend as the center of the body disintegrated.

  After a moment, she asked in tears, "Why do you attack us? We don't want to harm you."

  "Bullshit,” Niche responds apathetically. “Your 'boss' kidnapped my dad. He tried to steal my powers."

  "No, you're wrong. We don't want to harm you. We want to help you. That's why we are here, fighting. That's why-"

  Her words were cut off by an explosion radiating from her chest. When she was eviscerated, Mr. Sutori stepped into view from the outside of the cave.

  "You hesitated. Do that again and you will die,” he warns Niche.

  The explosion had blown up the female shifter, and the shockwave evaporated all other shifters that were part of the group. Even Niche’s body was completely nonexistent until his immortality built him back up slowly out of thin air.

  This second time of full regeneration wasn’t as confusing for Niche, and the boy didn’t seem to mind it at all that he was nonexistent just a second ago. He immediately felt a surge of energy flow through him as the exhaustion from the regeneration lifted and his flames burned brighter than before. His body felt more solid, more durable.

  "Dad? What are you doing here?" Niche asked, not paying any mind to the circular hole in the cave that was created from the explosion.

  Mr. Sutori looked relieved. "Niche? Is that you?” After looking more closely and confirming it was his son, Mr. Sutori continued. “I was assigned to track down a suspect of a murder. The case led me here, into this cave."

  Behind his father, something large moved in the shadows. Niche shot a fireball at it without thinking. The creature shrieked and dissolved.

  "What was that?" Mr. Sutori spun around.

  "Nothing important," Niche said, using his flame to light up the chamber. "Let's just get out of here."

  They found the passage with daylight at the end – not too far away now - and made their way out of the cave. The afternoon sun was almost blinding after the darkness.