Chapter 12: Chapter 8 – Within The Dark Abyss

Within the dark abyss, Kagami Ken awoke from a dreamlike trance.

'Well, calling it a dark abyss may not actually be correct...' Ken mused. 'I can't see, hear, smell, taste, or feel anything, after all. So the place could be lit up like it was Christmas all year round and I wouldn't know about it.'

After Ken drifted off into sleep and subsequently died, he had been in this state for who knew how long. His five senses didn't even exist, and all he could do was think.

Ken knew he was about to die as he drifted off, so the only explanation for his current state that he could think of, was that this was just how it was when one died.

As someone with his condition, he had thought about what happened when someone died a lot. Was there really a kingdom in the sky where everyone who lived good lives enjoyed eternity in tranquility, and a dark pit of fire underground where the bad people were punished in perpetuity? Or were you invited to a place where you could drink as much wine as you want and someone would even bestow upon you forty virgin girls? Or did your memory get bleached, then your soul sent back into the cycle of reincarnation? There were plenty of stories about the afterlife from various religions, but Ken thought that they were mostly what the people of the olden times wanted to believe. Realistically, Ken thought that death was simply a loss of all functions, and felt like sleeping forever and never waking up.

But the state Ken was in, where he couldn't do anything but think, was quite a good alternative. In his opinion, at least.

In any case, Ken was never more thankful that he was wrong.

After the first few years, Ken had just imagined how his loved ones were living while drifting about in whatever place he was. Then he fantasized about how the anime and manga that he didn't get to finish reading would end. After a while, Ken even started thinking of new stories, just so he could entertain himself.

But eventually, he grew more and more bored. He couldn't even tell how much had passed, but all he knew, was that he was incredibly bored.

So bored in fact, that he felt he was going to go insane. Ken felt like he was growing more unhinged as time passed by.

Just as he was running out of ideas on what to think about, Ken struck upon the idea that he should try reminiscing about his life. If he ran out of ideas on possible futures, then he would instead just think about the various things that had happened in the past.

Ken tried to recall as far back as he could. Then go from there, until the moment he died. Ken did this over and over and over again.

After every cycle, he would return to the beginning once again.

Eventually, after several cycles(He had already stopped counting, so he didn't know), Ken eventually realized that he could go into a trance-like state where the memories would be incredibly vivid, as if he was actually reliving them.

He could even forget that he was in a trance while in the trance. In a strange way, this enabled him to live his entire life again and again.

Ken started over many, many times. He didn't bother counting. If the state he was in was death, then he would likely be like that forever. Counting would be completely useless.

So, Ken just had trance after trance after trance. He spent only a bit of time ruminating on his life in between trances. He couldn't really change anything, or rather, he didn't want to change anything. He had a lot of regrets in his life, but after spending such a long time in this dark void, Ken realized that it would be a bit of an insult to everybody who loved and cared about him if he denied the person he had become. And if he didn't want to deny the person that he was, he would have to accept that he was a product of a lot of failures and a few successes. That's why he didn't change anything in these dreams, despite the vague feeling that he could should he want to.

Ken had just awoken from one of those dreams.

He had already done this a lot, so he'd run out of things to ruminate on in between trances, so even though it hadn't been long since he woke up, he was already preparing to reenter it. Ken emptied his mind of thoughts for a moment, then focused on the point in his life where he wanted to start from. This time, he felt like starting at the time that Kyouka was born.

Others would say that babies just looked like little monkeys, and in hindsight, Kyouka just looked like a normal baby, but the Ken at that time couldn't take his eyes off of her. He had just fallen in love with her at first sight. Ken wanted to remember that feeling again, so he wanted to start there.

After a few seconds, Ken felt the familiar feeling of his consciousness sinking into a mire-like haze.

 

*****

 

Just like that, Ken spent countless years, just drifting along the dark abyss. Reliving his life, over and over and over and over again...

Ken could see nothing, feel nothing, hear nothing, smell nothing and taste nothing. So he wasn't quite sure whether he drifting along at all. Perhaps he was actually just staying completely still? Maybe he didn't even have a form of any kind, so he wasn't even in a place so to speak.

Ken didn't know, and he didn't have a way of knowing.

So he decided to just accept his fate, and continue with what he was doing. For all of eternity.

 

*****

 

Ken, who was halfway through another cycle of reliving his life, was not aware that his form in the dark abyss was currently being watched intently by an incredibly massive serpent, who was so large that it could easily swallow the Sun if it wanted. It had three golden eyes whose size could easily contain a galaxy in them, and its entire body was as dark as the abyss that it was swimming in. The sheer size of the creature would be enough to drive most people into insanity just from looking at it.

The massive creature, that looked as if it came out of some horror/sci-fi novel, just observed Ken with interest for a while (although nobody knew just how long a while was for this creature), before ultimately deciding to devour Ken's form whole. It barely opened its mouth by just a tiny bit, and yet Ken was easily sucked into the titan's belly.

 

*****

 

"What..." Ken woke up in a daze. He immediately realized that he had somehow been pulled out of his dreamlike trance. In the trance, he wasn't aware that he was in a trance, so he noticed immediately that he had woken up, just from the fact that he was thinking about trances. He then started noticing some other abnormalities, which caused him to freeze up in shock.

"I-I can t-talk..." Ken said. Needless to say, he had stopped having the ability to produce sound after he died. So, the words that he had unconsciously spoken, had confirmed that he could somehow do it again.

Then Ken started observing his surroundings. He was on top of a grassy hill while sitting on a chair with a table set in front of him. The table had a plate of cookies and a cup of smoking hot tea placed on it, which was letting off a delightful fragrance.

Ken tried touching the tea cup and immediately recoiled from the scalding heat. Afterward, he picked up one of the cookies and threw it into his mouth.

'It's actually so good!?!?' Ken exclaimed inwardly. He had never tasted a cookie as delicious as this before, despite the various ones that he and Kyouka had tried in the past. It felt like his tongue was dancing around in joy inside his mouth.

The cookie was the last straw that broke the camel's back. Ken was now sure that he had somehow regained all of his senses. But he didn't know why.

Ken was a bit uneasy about it, but the allure of the delicious cookies and the fragrant tea was too much for him to handle. Aside from the dreams that he had, he had no access to stimuli. The cookies, which he had already confirmed were absolutely delicious, and the tea that was puffing out such a pleasant smell was like a drug to Ken. He immediately started inhaling the cookies and the tea. He had a rather sensitive tongue, which made it hard for him to eat or drink hot food and beverages, but strangely the tea didn't burn his tongue at all.

After polishing off the plate of cookies and the cup of tea, Ken had finally calmed down, although not without feeling deeply regretful about not savoring the tasty treats for longer. He was just about to stand up to investigate the strange place he was in, when he was surprised by someone suddenly speaking.

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"Have you regained your composure, Kagami Ken?" said a strangely familiar voice from behind Ken.

"Wha--!?" Ken turned behind him in shock, only to find an unexpected acquaintance. There was a middle-aged man. The man was quite tall, had black hair that reached his waist styled in a ponytail, and wore a finely made black suit. The man looked to be somewhere in his thirties and had handsome features. Despite being tall, he did not look lanky at all since he seemed to have a good bit of muscles. To top it off, he was wearing a fedora on his head. "Mr. Bertram...?"

"Haha." Bertram chuckled. He still had that trademark smile that Ken found to be strangely creepy. While slowly walking towards the side of the table opposite Ken, Bertram sat down as he said, "Yes, it is I. I'm happy that you still remember me after all this time."

"Uh... huh..." Ken was still a bit shocked at meeting Bertram of all people here. If he was going to ever meet someone in the afterlife, Ken had thought it would be Kyouka or Hanzo. "So you're dead, too?"

"Hm? Me? Dead?" Bertram seemed confused by what Ken said at first, then his eyes slightly widened in understanding, then he started chuckling once again. He then said, "No no no, Mr. Kagami. I am not dead. And you are not in the afterlife." Bertram paused, looking at Ken amusedly, then he said firmly, "In fact, there is no such thing as an afterlife."

Ken was a bit bewildered by Bertram's tone. He sounded as if he was very sure that what he said was fact. Ken decided to probe Bertram for information, since he seemed to know something about the situation. At the very least, it was apparent that he knew a lot more than Ken.

"No such thing as an afterlife? But I'm quite sure I died, Mr. Bertram. Where else could we possibly be, other than the afterlife?" Ken inquired.

Bertram sensed Ken's intentions, but didn't seem to mind at all. He answered matter-of-factly, "Yours was a special case, Mr. Kagami. As for me, I am here because I promised that we would meet again. Do you not remember?"

"A promise...?" Ken thought back to the only conversation he had with Bertram when he was alive.

"I do not know how much time will have passed, but we shall meet again." Bertram had said.

"I see..." Ken nodded in understanding. Ken looked Bertram in the eyes calmly, and asked, "You're like that thing that I met when I was ten, correct?"

Bertram seemed to find Ken's question amusing, and he smiled as he replied, "Yes, young master. I'm a bit different, but I and that rat are quite alike."

"I see," Ken replied serenely. Bertram had just confirmed many things with his reply. The biggest one was that Bertram knew the existence of the rat, and what it really was. Ken was also a bit alarmed about what Bertram said in the latter part of his sentence, but Ken could somehow tell that Bertram wasn't hostile at all, so Ken just chose to ignore it for now.

In any case, If they really were alike, and Bertram wanted to harm Ken, he could have just whacked Ken in the back of the head earlier.

"It seems that you are quite curious about that thing, should I enlighten you?" Bertram interrupted Ken's musings with a suggestion.

"..." Ken looked at Bertram with suspicion, but he still couldn't hold back asking, "Why? would you be willing to tell me?"

"Of course, I'm willing," Bertram said matter-of-factly while nodding his head.

"I'm afraid I do not have anything on me at the moment." Ken shrugged his shoulders and said self-deprecatingly. "I can't give you anything for the information."

"Payment... is it?" Bertram looked a bit taken aback, but still smiled and said, "There is no need. Rather, It is I that owes you, Mr. Kagami." Bertram looked at Ken warmly, while trying to express the gratitude he felt. Bertram bowed slightly to Ken.

'He... doesn't seem to be lying... he really does feel grateful...' Ken mused as he looked at Bertram bowing. Ken had always been good at telling when people were being dishonest, and he couldn't sense anything strange about what Bertram just said, so Ken chose to believe his words.

"You owe me...?" Ken wondered what Bertram was talking about, but he quickly remembered, "Are you talking about the donation?"

Bertram smiled then shook his head. "I am quite thankful for that as well, but that wasn't what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" Ken inquired curiously. He didn't know Bertram very well, and Ken had died shortly after they met. What could Ken have possibly done for this mysterious person, to the extent that he was so thankful to Ken?

"I would like to thank you..." Bertram smiled, and Ken got goosebumps when he saw it. "For the meal."

"For the... meal...?" Ken tilted his head in confusion. "Which meal...?"

"Haha." Bertram chuckled. "The rat, Mr. Kagami. I am talking about the rat you met when you were ten."

"T-the rat...?" Ken was even more confused now. The rat was the meal he was talking about...?

'Wait a minute... Could Bertram have...' Ken had a weird thought, but he shook his head. How could someone even think of doing that...? To that rat, even. It was utterly preposterous.

"Your thoughts are correct Mr. Kagami." Bertram interrupted Ken's thoughts once again, while replying as if he had read Ken's mind. "I did indeed, eat the rat."

"..." Ken just stared at Bertram in shock, with his mouth agape.

"Honestly, I was just minding my own business, when I suddenly felt that rat show up out of nowhere, so I tried to go over to investigate it. But then, while on the way there, I felt its powers had grown drastically weaker. By the time I had arrived, it was weaker than a normal dog. Haha." Bertram chuckled while staring into the distance, as if reminiscing about a fond memory. "So I ate it. It was so delicious. I've never had the opportunity to eat something like that, seeing as it would have been incredibly difficult to fight it. Imagine my surprise when I found it so weak and wounded, ready for the taking? I didn't even have to lift a finger, and I got to eat the most scrumptious meal of my entire life!"

Ken watched the usually calm and composed Bertram exclaim while drool was dripping from the corner of his mouth while beaming at the air like an idiot.

"I even grew by quite a lot because of that," Bertram said after he had snapped out of his ecstatic reverie. He then looked at Ken as if he was the greatest benefactor of his life. "So, I cannot thank you enough, Mr. Kagami."

"I... I see..." Ken replied awkwardly. "I don't quite understand, but I'm glad I helped...?"

"Hm hm." Bertram nodded sagely. He then beamed at Ken, "That is why I am determined, to make it worth your while, Mr. Kagami."

"Make it worth my while...?" Ken echoed. He wondered what Bertram meant.

"I was restricted by Realm Laws, so I couldn't really help you out before, but now that you have been expelled from the Alpha realm, there are various things I can do for you," Bertram said casually, albeit his voice was tinged with a bit of excitement.

'Realm Laws...? Alpha Realm...? What?' Ken's mind was a mess. Bertram had said a bunch of things that he didn't really understand.

"Hm." Bertram sensed Ken's confusion and he nodded while smiling wryly. "Well then. Before I tell you how I can help you, I suppose I should fill you in on some things."

"...ah. Yeah, that would be... greatly appreciated." Ken replied blankly. He was still a bit confused, but he tried to snap back into focus, and listen to what Bertram had to say. After all, Ken believed that being well-informed was better than being intelligent, and Ken knew he wasn't intelligent, so he had to be well-informed.

Seeing that Ken was paying attention, "Well, we don't really have a name for ourselves, so I'll just use the closest thing..." Bertram mused out loud.

"Both me and the rat, are what you may refer to as Gods," Bertram said matter-of-factly.

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