Chapter--The One Beyond the Interstice
The portal closed without Aoikishi.
That was the first problem.
The second problem opened his eyes.
Nyxus sat upright.
"Where's my honeybun?"
Nobody answered.
Nyxus looked around.
The ACT training field had survived.
Mostly.
Flat stone.
Broken pillars.
Several training dummies.
One blue sky.
Insultingly normal.
Nyxus narrowed his eyes.
"I don't trust this."
Yamiya Miekō sat nearby with one arm wrapped across her chest.
"You asked about food four seconds ago."
"I can distrust multiple things."
Kaosu was lying on the ground several meters away.
His broken arm had been braced from wrist to shoulder.
He opened one eye.
"Can you distrust things quietly?"
Nyxus looked at him.
"No."
Kaosu closed his eye again.
"Worth asking."
Raiyo sat beside a pillar.
Four empty scabbards remained across his back.
He had been staring at them for several minutes with the expression of a man attending a funeral nobody else respected.
Nyxus noticed.
"You still thinking about your swords?"
Raiyo looked at him.
"No."
Nyxus nodded.
"Good."
"I am thinking about killing everyone responsible for my swords."
"Oh."
Nyxus thought.
"That's basically the same thing."
"It isn't."
"Feels similar."
"Stop helping."
Near the edge of the field, Torin was alive.
This required clarification.
Torin had suffered enough damage that several medical systems had classified his condition, reconsidered, and simply written ONGOING.
General Voss stood over him.
Torin tried sitting up.
Voss pushed him back down.
"No."
Torin looked offended.
"I feel fine."
"You deferred feeling."
"Still counts."
"No."
Torin glanced around.
"Did we win?"
Voss looked toward the place where Aoikishi's portal had disappeared.
"No."
Torin considered that.
"Did we lose?"
Voss thought about it.
"Unclear."
Nyxus raised one hand.
"We didn't die."
Voss stared at him.
Nyxus lowered the hand.
"Mostly."
Kaosu groaned.
Yamiya checked the damaged ACT terminal.
Nothing.
No Aoikishi signature.
No return route.
No message.
She checked again.
Raiyo watched her.
"Anything?"
"No."
Kaosu opened his eyes.
"How long?"
Yamiya looked at the timer.
"Eighteen minutes."
Kaosu sat up too quickly.
Pain immediately reminded him of several decisions.
He ignored it.
"He stayed behind."
Raiyo nodded.
"Obviously."
"With my father."
"Yes."
Kaosu looked toward the empty air.
Nothing appeared.
His jaw tightened.
Nyxus unwrapped something.
The sound drew everyone's attention.
Kaosu stared at him.
"Is that another honeybun?"
Nyxus looked down.
"Yeah."
"Where did you get it?"
Nyxus frowned.
"My pocket."
"You were punched through a multiverse."
"Good pocket."
Yamiya slowly closed her eyes.
Raiyo looked toward the sky.
Torin laughed.
Then immediately regretted laughing.
Voss pointed at him.
"Stop."
"Apparently laughing uses ribs."
"Yes, Torin. That's usually how bodies work."
"I've been flexible on that."
"I know."
Kaosu got to his feet.
His damaged arm hung in its brace.
"We're going back."
Raiyo looked at him.
"How?"
Kaosu didn't answer.
"Excellent plan."
"Shut up."
"You said we were going back. I assumed there was a second half."
Kaosu stepped toward him.
Raiyo stood.
Yamiya didn't even look up.
"No."
Both stopped.
Yamiya continued examining the terminal.
"You are both injured."
Kaosu pointed at Raiyo.
"He started it."
Raiyo stared.
"You announced a plan involving no transportation, no coordinates, no method and one functional arm."
"I have Chaos."
"You currently have swelling."
Nyxus took another bite.
"Raiyo wins."
Kaosu turned.
"There wasn't a competition."
"Then you're losing for free."
Kaosu's aura twitched.
Nyxus kept eating.
For a few seconds—
it almost felt normal.
That frightened Yamiya more than she expected.
Three months without Aoikishi.
A war.
Karma.
Millions dead.
Nyxus nearly unconscious.
Kaosu broken.
Raiyo disarmed.
Torin one overdue consequence from becoming a medical textbook.
And somehow they were back on the stupid training field.
Arguing.
Yamiya looked around.
Her expression softened.
Only slightly.
Then space opened.
Everyone stopped.
A thin blue division appeared beside the training field.
Kaosu's red aura ignited instantly.
Raiyo reached for swords that were no longer there.
His hand closed on air.
Raiyo looked offended.
The division widened.
A pale coat came through first.
Then white hair.
Aoikishi stepped onto the field.
The portal closed behind him.
Silence.
Aoikishi looked at them.
Kaosu.
Yamiya.
Raiyo.
Nyxus.
Torin.
Voss.
Alive.
Mostly.
For once—
Aoikishi said nothing.
Kaosu crossed the distance.
Aoikishi did not move.
Kaosu punched him in the chest.
Not hard.
He only had one useful arm, and even that one was shaking.
Aoikishi let the punch land.
"Three months," Kaosu said.
Aoikishi looked at him.
"I know."
Kaosu hit him again.
"Three."
"I know."
"You said not long."
"I know."
Kaosu's voice lowered.
"We thought you were dead."
Aoikishi's expression changed.
Just enough.
"I know."
Kaosu raised his fist again.
Stopped.
Then shoved Aoikishi instead.
Aoikishi allowed that too.
Yamiya stood.
"Six hundred and thirteen contact attempts."
Aoikishi looked toward her.
"That's excessive."
Yamiya's eyes narrowed.
"No."
Aoikishi reconsidered.
"Fair."
Raiyo approached.
Aoikishi glanced at the empty scabbards.
Raiyo noticed.
"Don't."
"I didn't say anything."
"You were going to."
Aoikishi looked at the scabbards again.
"Probably."
Raiyo pointed at him.
"You owe me four swords."
"No."
"One was destroyed while you were absent."
"Still no."
"Another broke fighting Karma."
"Your sword purchasing decisions are not my fiscal responsibility."
Raiyo looked toward Voss.
"Can I join the Corps?"
Voss answered instantly.
"No."
"Understandable."
Nyxus approached last.
He looked Aoikishi up and down.
Then held up his honeybun.
Aoikishi waited.
Nyxus said, "I lost four of these while you were gone."
Aoikishi stared at him.
"That has nothing to do with me."
"It has everything to do with you."
"How?"
"I was stressed."
Aoikishi looked toward Yamiya.
Yamiya shrugged.
"I wouldn't argue."
Aoikishi sighed.
"I'll buy you one."
Nyxus narrowed his eyes.
"Four."
"One."
"Three."
"One."
"Two and you apologize."
"For leaving?"
"For the snacks."
"No."
Nyxus looked wounded.
Kaosu laughed.
The sound caught all of them off guard.
Kaosu stopped.
Raiyo smiled.
Yamiya did too.
Even Voss looked away to hide something dangerously close to amusement.
Torin raised a weak hand from his medical platform.
"Good to have you back."
Aoikishi looked toward him.
His expression softened.
"You've gotten stronger."
Torin smiled.
"Three thousand fifty percent."
Aoikishi stopped.
Voss pointed at Torin.
"Do not encourage him."
Aoikishi looked at Voss.
"Three thousand?"
"Fifty."
Aoikishi looked back at Torin.
Torin raised his eyebrows.
"Pretty good."
Aoikishi stared for another second.
Then said:
"Never do that again."
Torin's smile widened.
"That's what he said."
Voss looked betrayed.
Aoikishi almost laughed.
Almost.
Yamiya crossed her arms.
"You missed more than that."
Aoikishi's attention returned to her.
"I assumed."
Kaosu stepped in.
"No. You really didn't."
Aoikishi waited.
Yamiya gestured toward Nyxus.
"He stopped Final Authority."
Aoikishi looked at Nyxus.
Nyxus corrected her.
"A piece."
Kaosu looked shocked.
"You corrected yourself?"
Nyxus shrugged.
"The piece was still really big."
Yamiya continued.
"A partial fragment entered Universe 963."
Aoikishi's eyes sharpened.
"How large?"
"Approaching universal scale."
Aoikishi was silent.
Kaosu raised his good hand.
"I punched it."
Raiyo immediately added:
"He injured himself."
"I moved it."
"Barely."
"It moved."
"Technically."
Kaosu pointed at Torin.
"He saw it."
Torin nodded.
"He moved it."
Kaosu looked triumphant.
"Thank you."
Torin added:
"I don't think the distance deserves a unit."
Kaosu's face fell.
Raiyo smiled.
"Thank you."
Kaosu looked at him.
"I hate everyone here."
Yamiya continued.
"Raiyo attempted to sever its relationship to our position."
Aoikishi looked at the empty scabbards.
Raiyo's expression darkened.
"Yes."
"Yamiya?"
"I attempted Reduction."
"And?"
Yamiya hesitated.
"Too much architecture beneath the architecture."
Aoikishi nodded slowly.
Then looked at Nyxus.
"And you?"
Nyxus took another bite.
"I said no."
Aoikishi stared.
Nyxus chewed.
"It worked."
Aoikishi's mouth moved.
Once.
A quiet laugh escaped him.
Everyone noticed.
Kaosu frowned.
"What?"
Aoikishi shook his head.
"Nothing."
That was what he told them.
It was not true.
And this is where the narrator should probably leave the matter alone.
It will not.
Aoikishi did not laugh because Nyxus had survived Final Authority.
He did not laugh because Kaosu had punched something approaching the scale of a universe and then spent the next several days bragging that it moved.
He laughed because the fragment had reached Universe 963 in the first place.
The Epithet had put Final Authority into motion.
That part belonged to her.
The fragment—
did not.
Aoikishi was the reason it broke away.
He was the reason that particular piece crossed that particular universe.
He was the reason Nyxus had been forced to deny it.
You were not supposed to know that yet.
Neither were they.
Aoikishi's smile disappeared before anyone could study it.
The narrator did not explain further.
Stories are allowed a few bad habits.
So are men like him.
Yamiya watched Aoikishi.
"You know something."
Aoikishi replied, "Usually."
"That wasn't what I meant."
"I know."
Kaosu stepped closer.
"Where were you?"
Aoikishi looked at him.
"Away."
Raiyo rubbed his forehead.
"No."
Aoikishi raised an eyebrow.
Raiyo continued.
"You do not get to disappear for three months, return after fighting Karma, hear that a universe-sized military fragment nearly killed us, laugh suspiciously, and answer 'away.'"
Aoikishi considered this.
"I just did."
Kaosu's aura flared.
Yamiya raised one hand toward him.
"No."
Kaosu lowered it.
"Fine."
Yamiya looked directly at Aoikishi.
"Try again."
Aoikishi said nothing.
Nyxus finished chewing.
"Use a noun."
Aoikishi looked at him.
"That was unexpectedly grammatical."
"Thanks."
"It wasn't a compliment."
"Oh."
Aoikishi exhaled.
Then looked toward the sky.
Not at anything visible.
"The one beyond the Interstice."
The field changed.
Not physically.
Conversation simply stopped being casual.
Yamiya's expression sharpened first.
"Beyond the Aetherial Interstice?"
"Yes."
Raiyo frowned.
"What's beyond it?"
Aoikishi glanced at him.
"That's the wrong question."
Kaosu groaned.
"There he is."
Torin looked between them.
"What is the right question?"
Aoikishi did not answer.
Nyxus raised his hand.
"Is there food there?"
Everyone turned.
Nyxus lowered his hand.
"Apparently not."
Yamiya took one step closer to Aoikishi.
"You left because of a Flick concentration."
"Yes."
"You followed it outside the Interstice?"
"Eventually."
"Into what?"
Aoikishi looked at her.
"Not a place."
Raiyo sighed.
"Of course."
Kaosu's patience ended.
"What did you find?"
Aoikishi remained silent.
Kaosu's good hand clenched.
"You disappeared."
Aoikishi looked at him.
"We thought you died."
That landed differently.
Kaosu's voice was quieter now.
"You came back, saved us for five minutes, and you're already doing this again."
Aoikishi's expression changed.
Kaosu continued.
"We are done with riddles."
Yamiya nodded.
"Agreed."
Raiyo did too.
"Strongly."
Nyxus raised his honeybun.
"Emotionally."
Everyone looked at him.
"What?"
Aoikishi stared at the four of them.
His students.
His children.
People he had hidden things from because information could kill as efficiently as any weapon.
Maybe more efficiently.
He had a thousand answers available.
Most were technically true.
That was the problem.
Aoikishi closed his eyes.
Then opened them.
"I found someone."
Kaosu frowned.
"Who?"
Aoikishi looked at him.
"One answer."
"That's not how questions work."
"One."
Yamiya studied his face.
Then nodded.
"Name."
Aoikishi was quiet for several seconds.
When he finally answered, his voice contained none of the evasive amusement from before.
"The Observer."
Nyxus stopped chewing.
Torin looked at Voss.
Raiyo frowned.
Kaosu stared.
Yamiya's eyes narrowed.
"The Observer."
Aoikishi said nothing.
She repeated it more slowly.
"As in someone who observes."
"Yes."
"What?"
Aoikishi's face became unreadable.
"That would be a second answer."
Kaosu threw his good hand into the air.
"I hate this man."
Aoikishi almost smiled.
The sound came then.
A communicator.
Everyone looked toward Voss.
The General checked his wrist.
Nothing.
Another tone answered near the far side of the field.
One of the surviving Corps captains stared down at her communicator.
For several seconds, nobody breathed.
The device had been dead since the Karmic theater collapsed.
Now a voice came through.
Broken.
Distant.
But real.
"—remaining personnel, acknowledge."
The captain grabbed the communicator.
"This is surviving detachment command. Receiving."
Static.
Then:
"General Voss?"
Voss crossed the field.
"Here."
"Immediate recall. All surviving Corps personnel are ordered to extraction corridor Seven-Aster."
Voss's expression hardened.
"Reason?"
"Operational command restructuring. Divine Extermination Order is under review."
That sentence drew every eye toward Kaosu.
Kaosu's expression did not change.
The communicator continued.
"Repeat. All Corps personnel withdraw."
Voss looked toward Torin.
Torin immediately said:
"No."
Voss stared at him.
Torin tried sitting up again.
"No."
"That's not how orders work."
"I just got here."
"You arrived months ago."
"I mean here."
Torin gestured weakly at ACT.
Nyxus waved.
Torin pointed.
"I haven't seen them in forever."
Voss looked at his injuries.
"You are currently less a soldier than an argument against anatomy."
Torin frowned.
"Rude."
"Accurate."
Kaosu approached the medical platform.
Torin looked at him.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Their first meeting had involved a village.
A family.
A man who had no reasonable chance of standing in front of Kaosu.
Torin had done it anyway.
Kaosu looked away.
"You should go."
Torin blinked.
"That sounded almost responsible."
"Don't make me take it back."
Torin smiled.
"Still an asshole."
Kaosu nodded.
"Yeah."
Raiyo came next.
He looked down at Torin.
"You still owe me."
Torin frowned.
"For what?"
"I don't remember."
"Then I don't owe you."
Raiyo considered it.
"Fair."
Yamiya approached.
She handed Torin a small data strip.
He looked at it.
"What is this?"
"ACT contact route."
Torin raised an eyebrow.
"You trust me with that?"
"No."
"Oh."
Yamiya almost smiled.
"But apparently you're coming back whether we authorize it or not."
Torin looked at the strip.
Then at her.
"Yeah."
"I know."
Nyxus came last.
He looked at Torin.
Torin looked at Nyxus.
Nyxus looked down at the honeybun in his hand.
Everyone watched.
Nyxus slowly held it out.
The entire field became silent.
Torin stared.
"Is that for me?"
Nyxus looked increasingly uncomfortable.
"Emergency ration."
Kaosu's mouth opened.
Raiyo put one hand over it.
Kaosu shoved him away.
"You don't share food."
Nyxus glared.
"I'm aware."
Torin accepted the honeybun.
He looked at it.
Then back at Nyxus.
"You've never given me one."
"Don't make it weird."
"I'm absolutely making it weird."
Nyxus frowned.
"I can take it back."
Torin hugged it to his chest.
"No."
Nyxus nodded.
"Good."
Voss gestured toward the extraction corridor beginning to form.
"Time."
Torin looked at Aoikishi.
Aoikishi approached him.
Torin's expression turned serious.
"You saved us."
Aoikishi shook his head.
"I moved you."
"You stood in front of Karma."
"Yes."
"For us."
Aoikishi said nothing.
Torin smiled faintly.
"You're bad at accepting thanks."
"I've been told."
"Thank you anyway."
Aoikishi nodded once.
Torin looked around at ACT.
"Try not to start another war before I get back."
Kaosu laughed.
"Absolutely not."
Raiyo sighed.
Yamiya shook her head.
Nyxus raised one finger.
"No promises."
Voss's hand covered his face.
"I regret letting any of you meet."
Torin grinned.
Then the Corps extraction light took him.
One by one, the surviving officers disappeared.
The captain.
The wounded.
The remaining soldiers.
Finally Voss.
The General looked at ACT.
Then at Aoikishi.
"Whatever comes next—"
Aoikishi replied, "I know."
Voss narrowed his eyes.
"I was going to say call."
Aoikishi paused.
"Right."
Voss disappeared.
The light closed.
For the first time in a long while—
ACT stood alone.
Aoikishi.
Kaosu.
Yamiya.
Raiyo.
Nyxus.
The old shape.
Not unchanged.
Never that.
But recognizable.
Nyxus looked down at his empty hands.
Then toward the place Torin had disappeared.
"I regret that."
Yamiya smiled.
"The honeybun?"
"Yes."
Kaosu laughed.
"You're unbelievable."
Nyxus frowned.
"I was being generous."
"You complained after nine seconds."
"Generosity has consequences."
Aoikishi's eyes moved toward him.
For some reason—
that sentence bothered him.
Then Kaosu's Chaos stopped moving.
Every smile disappeared.