Soul Spark

15 - Soul To Soul

The waves slowly crashed against the sandy beach, the lulling nature of the soft sounds could hypnotize even the most anxious soul into a peaceful slumber. The sun was high up in the sky, warming everything beneath.

Sakuto laid on one of the pale white lounge chairs, under an umbrella that was stiffly shoved into the sand. The wind was very gentle, just gentle to keep him cool. His eye was filled with a sense of strange emptiness, but he looked relaxed. He had his full uniform on but he didn’t feel hot or uncomfortable. He just gazed into the sea.

“Gotta admit, quite the scenery.” Mukawa said, approaching him and setting up another lounge chair on the other side of the umbrella. Sakuto wasn’t surprised, he kept gazing into the horizon.

“I shouldn’t be surprised that you can talk to me.” Sakuto said.

“The dreams I make can be as lucid as I want. I can enter someone’s dream as long as I maintain physical contact with them.” Mukawa explained, laying down. “Not too useful unless I’m trying to interrogate someone and the environment outside is safe.”

“So this is an interrogation.” Sakuto said.

“Nah. I’m just here to talk to you.”

Sakuto took a deep breath.

“Can you make it sunset?” Sakuto asked. “I got bored of this view. Remove the umbrella too while you’re at it.”

“What, you want a mojito with ice too?” Mukawa asked, but he complied with the requests. A few moments and fluctuations in his soul presence later, the umbrella vanished, and the sunset...

The sunset was beautiful. The sky was slightly gray and cloudy, but the sun itself was a bright orange, and its surroundings were starting to fade into a dark, warm red. It didn’t hurt looking at the sun anymore either, it was slowly escaping the sky. Sakuto looked at it and his expression didn’t change at all.

“You like it now?” Mukawa asked, also looking at the scenery. He admired his own creation quite a bit.

“Looks nice."

“Well, how the hell did you not get bored here? It’s been a while.” Mukawa asked. “Do you not feel like you’re...trapped?”

“Nah, it’s peaceful here.” Sakuto said. “It doesn’t feel like a whole lot of time has passed either. It’s similar to the soul crystal, it just...feels like a dream. A really, really lucid dream.”

“Could’ve asked me to conjure up a few extra things or people here too. You know, I could make a living if I could sell custom dreams to the soulless.”

“Yeah, I can imagine that.” Sakuto sighed. “I can imagine that.”

Their silence was occasionally interrupted by the pleasant sounds of the waves.

“You’re not gonna ask how things are outside?” Mukawa asked.

“Does it matter what's outside?" Sakuto asked.

"What do you mean?"

"My only friend just died, and you're asking me to care." Sakuto said. "Just as life was getting better as well...just as I thought I was out of that cycle."

"Yeah...I'm sorry to hear that." Mukawa said, sitting next to him. "I don't think there's anything I can say right now that'd help you."

"I don't think there's anything that can help me at this point." Sakuto said, staring at the sunset. "Conversations, dreams...it all just keeps happening. It's just..."

"Hm?"

"I thought he'd be an exception." Sakuto said. Had his tears not already been depleted, he'd probably cry.

"Damn..."

"Only thing that'd fix everything is leaving the cycling altogether." Sakuto said.

"And...what does that mean?" Mukawa asked.

Sakuto remained silent.

"Oh come on, don't think about that shit." Mukawa said, looking as if he was offended. "You...don't you have your girlfriend? What would she feel if you did that?"

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"She feels as bad as I do." Sakuto replied. "The second body belongs to her own best friend."

"Shit..." Mukawa said, his vocabulary slowly drying out. "Well, in that case..."

"The abyss will latch onto you, he said." Sakuto rambled. "It'll try to drag me down, he said. It...it did the one thing it was never supposed to do."

After a pause, Mukawa continued, now sounding much more confident.

"Sakuto, do you know why I let you live?"

"Because you needed me to kill someone." Sakuto said.

"No." Mukawa replied. "Believe me, killing you was a no brainer. It would have prevented a lot of things, maybe even result in Kaito's death. But I chose to keep you alive."

"Yes, because you needed me to kill someone." Sakuto said.

"It's because I hate it when people die because of me." Mukawa admitted.

"Right..." Sakuto said. "I'm sure your hands are clean."

"When they do get dirty, I try to make up for it by doing the opposite." Mukawa said. "And even when they're clean, I try just as hard to stop people from dying."

"And what's your point?"

"I'd hate it if you died." Mukawa said. "A lot of other people would too."

"Hah..." Sakuto laughed without the joy of it. "You're...strangely obsessed with saving people."

"I know."

"I can only truly care about a handful of people I barely convinced myself to trust, and you're out there bending over for people you dont even know the names of." Sakuto said.

"I know." Mukawa said. "But to me, it doesn't matter. Soulless, soulful...people deserve to be saved."

"You can't save everyone." Sakuto sighed. He still felt the weight of the corpse, its appearance beneath the moonlight...

"Doesn't mean we shouldn't try to save them. Or at the very least, keep going for them." Mukawa said.

"It hurts to care." Sakuto sighed. "It hurts everyone to care."

"But we do it anyways." Mukawa said.

"Yeah, you're right."

Mukawa got up.

"I'll get going now. The operation is starting soon."

"Operation?"

"Yes. We're going to kill Kaito Kamiki."

"Kill...him?" Sakuto said, turning around, looking at him surprised. "You guys...you have the Heisei, you have your guys, and Rin, and maybe some more...you think that's enough?"

“I have a dagger that can replicate his ability.” Mukawa said. “I’ll replicate it and use it against him.”

“I see...” Sakuto said.

"Killing him will put an end to all of this. All these wars, betrayals, genocides..."

"Yeah, from your perspective, it's the best thing to do." Sakuto said. "You've been against him this whole time."

He took a deep breath.

"In that case, good luck." Sakuto said. "I'm not of much use in this, my body is still barely functional."

"But if you could, would you?" Mukawa asked.

Sakuto thought about it for a moment.

"He was the one that sent us to the stronghold in the first place. While we were at war, he was...at an office." Sakuto said. "So I probably would."

"Good." Mukawa said.

"I don't want people who accept my existance to die on me." Sakuto said. "I...never wanted it."

They shared a silence as the calm wind blew by.

"By the way, how's the kid?" Sakuto asked. "How is Hiroshi?"

"Stressed, but...he's safe." Mukawa replied.

"Good." Sakuto said.

"I'll leave you recordings of our planning meetings if you ever need them." Mukawa said. "We can't wait for any longer."

"You want me to be your backup in case things go South?" Orıginal content can be found at novel⁂fire.net

".."

“No.” Mukawa said. “Because if this fails, there’s no more hope.”

“I see...” Sakuto said, “In that case, good luck.”

“Thank you.” Mukawa said. He walked away, slowly fading into nothingness.

“There’s no need to make sacrifices.”

“There is a way...to stop this hatred and destruction...for good.”

In the real world, he woke up. He let go of Sakuto’s forehead and slowly walked out of the room. Yumichi and Hiroshi were both there, they were told not to leave Sakuto’s side and they were taught by Rin on how to act if any medical stuff happens. He looked at Yumichi, who really only cared about his sister. He looked at Hiroshi, who looked like he hated him. With a slightly saddened nod, he left the room.

But as the sadness faded away, he felt a surge of determination. Outside, on the outskirts of the settlement, a cargo plane was waiting for them. There were twelve of them in total, and as Mukawa saw the sight, he held onto the dagger tightly. He held onto tighter than he’s ever held onto anything in his life.

"Everyone..." Mukawa addressed the crowd of combatants.

He felt a little heavier. His stomach burned, his heart wad rushing. He took a deep breath.

"If any of you here are still religious...you should probably pray to your gods while we fly there."

"We're moving out. For the sake of everything that lives and breathes." Mukawa said. "Thank you for fighting for mankind."

They boarded the ship...

They flew south-west and accessed a network station, and, thanks to Yuuka’s and Sofia’s combined skills, assured that the message wouldn’t be traced. And then they flew east along the coast of Northern Africa, landing in the soon-to-be arena. Everyone took positions, set up the necessary equipment, rechecked their radio devices...

Kaito was sent a simple message. It had coordinates and a few words attached - “show yourself. Harm me and you’ll never see your son again". Quite strong words, especially considering that no matter what would happen, his son would remain alive and well.

It was sunny, the area was relatively flat, mostly made up of sand and sandstone, with some sections acting as slight high grounds. On this fateful day, humanity’s last hope was in the hands of an empath.