Drip! Drip!
Whoosh!!!
A blinding white light flashed, and Igarashi Amaha slowly opened his eyes, cautiously surveying everything before him.
"This is... my inner world..."
Inside a pavilion atop the sea, Igarashi Amaha sat facing a handsome man across a game board.
"Then... who are you?" Igarashi Amaha asked blankly. This man... he's so familiar. Who is he? I can't remember...
The handsome man visibly froze, but quickly recovered and answered with composure, "It's only been a few years, and you've already forgotten yourself?" With that, he smiled helplessly and extended a hand. "Igarashi Amaha, nice to meet you. My name is He Liangchuan. I look forward to getting along."
"You... I... how is this possible!?" Bewildered, Igarashi Amaha murmured in disbelief.
"Nothing is impossible. This is a very miraculous world, isn't it?"
...Yes, miraculous... even something like rebirth... is possible...
Igarashi Amaha's awareness gradually returned. He calmed down and said, "Tell me why you're here, and what exactly you are. I'm He Liangchuan, and I'm also Igarashi Amaha. Besides, I don't remember He Liangchuan ever liking to run around in mourning clothes." He looked at the figure dressed in white mourning robes before him and raised an eyebrow, seemingly waiting for him to defend himself.
The white-robed man shook his head with a laugh. "You always focus on the strangest things." He paused. "I came here to fight you to the death, but seeing the state you're in made me change my mind." With that, he looked at Igarashi Amaha, waiting for his reaction.
"Go on." Igarashi Amaha nodded without interrupting, signaling for him to continue.
"A healthy grown man like me killing a child whose consciousness isn't even fully clear? People would laugh their heads off if word got out. So..." He pointed at the board before them. "Let's use this. Let's use your favorite game to decide your fate."
"Pfft... hahahaha!" Igarashi Amaha couldn't hold it in after hearing that. He slapped the board and burst out laughing.
After a while, seemingly having laughed enough, he pointed at the man in mourning robes and said, "That's fucking hilarious. Quit feeding me that useless bullshit. Even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit. I've known that since I was little. We both play this game, so don't tell me you don't know it. If you're under restrictions, just say so. Quit acting so righteous. Who the fuck are you trying to fool?"
As though his thoughts had been seen through, the mourning-robed man's face briefly flushed red. "Y-you! Why are you swearing at me?"
"Because I fucking feel like it. Shut up. If I could, I'd beat your ass." After that tirade, Igarashi Amaha felt thoroughly refreshed, the manners he had kept hidden for years now laid completely bare.
"Hmph." The mourning-robed man snorted, stiffening his neck as he said, "All these years, and you're still the same. I won't trade insults with you. If you're afraid, that's fine too. Give up playing against me. Give up your only chance of survival."
Snap!
Igarashi Amaha snapped his fingers, and the board changed. The scattered pieces disappeared, replaced by a complete, brand-new set.
He extended a hand and raised an eyebrow at the mourning-robed man. "After you."
The mourning-robed man did the same. "After you."
The game began, and he also began recounting his purpose and origins.
"You're right. I'm not He Liangchuan. I'm his shadow. In other words, your shadow."
Igarashi Amaha chuckled. "So, what now? Planning to... usurp my place?"
The mourning-robed man ignored him and continued on his own. "When humans reincarnate, the world chooses to plant shadows within them to maintain balance, balancing a person's yin and yang, good and evil. This is the fate we bear from birth."
"You humans have a saying: when you're in a bad mood, spend some time in the sun, and those bad feelings will disappear. Hehe, that's not entirely wrong. There's just one part that's mistaken. Negative emotions don't disappear. They're merely transferred."
"Your dejection, disappointment, unease, anxiety, anger, despondency, pessimism, loneliness, despair-all of it is transferred to us shadows, doubled. We're like trash cans for negative emotions. To you, these emotions are psychological discomfort, but to us... they're physical torture!"
Clatter!!
A savage aura spilled uncontrollably from the mourning-robed man's entire body. But just as he was about to pound the board, several black chains suddenly appeared out of thin air, binding him tightly and leaving him unable to move as wisps of black smoke rose.
Sss!!! The sound of flesh searing rang out.
"Hahahaha! See? These are your negative emotions. You loathe them, yet they become shackles that protect you and torment us! Hahahahaha, hahahaha!"
Feeling the burning sensation from the chains, he burst into deranged laughter.
"I'm different from the other shadows. I was conscious from birth. Everything you can do, I can do too. And what you can't do, I can still do. Do you know why? I have you to thank for that, you devil. You were born with yin and yang out of balance, good and evil uneven. If you want to blame anything, blame your overwhelming evil thoughts for creating me. Hehehehe."
"I have no way to make you suffer the torment of these shackles, but I can become shackles myself and lock you down, then strip away all your consciousness, bit by bit. I've waited so painfully long for this. Hahahaha."
"Finally, finally, heaven rewarded my perseverance. A devil like you actually got to experience rebirth, and with such a miserable start, too! Hahaha! From that moment on, I knew my chance had come. My chance to strip you of everything."
"All acts of depriving others are sinful. Ever since I was born, I have been depriving others. Survival is the process of committing sins. Life itself is sin. I know that I am sin, but you are the beginning of that sin."
The mourning-robed man... no, the shadow suddenly smiled gently. "Come on. Kill me. Annihilate me completely, and you will reclaim your consciousness and return to reality. Conversely, if I kill you, you will turn into drifting fluff and vanish from this world. From then on, there will be no He Liangchuan, no Igarashi Amaha. There will only be me, Shadow!"
Igarashi Amaha nodded with a smile. "In this life, ever since I became conscious, I've felt something was missing. I thought I was imagining it. Looking at it now, my feeling wasn't wrong. So you took the opportunity to steal it."
"Come on. Today, I'll cast off these old shackles. He Liangchuan's story is already over. Igarashi Amaha's story begins here!"
Please support me in every way you can. I'd be endlessly grateful.