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He lays in silence.
A white sheet covers the entire world. It extends from the tips of his eyelashes to the furthest horizon, covering all of the waking universe. Like a void, the illuminated, bleached landscape appears endless. It is devoid of anything. Devoid of life, of structure, and of being, the current observable universe exists in a state of complete tranquility.
However, a slight hum can be heard all around. It is calm, bordering on the faint buzz of electric static. No, perhaps it is closer to the quiet ringing you can sometimes hear in your head. Regardless, it permeates the world, engulfing his body in a blanket of noise.
Suddenly, a faint, gentle ringing rides the wind. It is light, hollow, and glass-like. Each iteration lasts longer than the previous. It drags on, like a piece of gum that just won’t tear.
In desperation, he tries to open his eyes, but his eyelids resist, heavy and weighted down by the cold, dense air. When he attempts to move his hands, just like his eyes, they refuse, only letting out slight creaking noises.
Hours, or maybe just minutes, if not seconds, pass by. He does nothing. He wishes to do nothing, but he must. Perhaps the truth is that he has no will to do so, yet, at the same time, he wishes to move, to do something, anything at all.
Just as quickly as he realized he was in the milky white void, he snapped into a new environment. The previously still air came into motion, the sound of a wind chime carried along with it. A clear, beautiful ringing. Glass on glass.
Along with it came the hustle and bustle of human voices which started from a faint murmur before reaching an uncomfortably loud volume.
“Um... Fufu-chan...?” A soft, light voice cuts through the noise.
He attempts to move again, but this time, there is no resistance as he opens his eyes. The bright, afternoon light blinds him temporarily as he focuses on the source of the voice. A young man sits at the desk in front of him, purple locks falling across his pale, rosy cheeks. His eyes, mismatched, one lighter than the other, hover locked in place.
The purple-haired boy pauses for a second before continuing. “Hey, um, you really shouldn’t be sleeping in class…” He adjusts his pale lilac long-sleeve shirt, grazing the edge of his neck. As he moves his hand, it reveals a small, yet noticeable birthmark.
“Sleeping…?” He drowsily blinks a few times to clear his vision. A feeling of confusion and unease overtakes him. Who…? Where? The confused cyborg shifts his gaze, but part of his vision blurs, smearing the world into unrecognizable shapes. As he shifts his head, a slight clicking noise can be heard near him. The low murmur of voices persists.
“Fufu-chan, are you ok?”
The cyborg furrows his eyebrows. Fufu-chan? He means me, right? But what’s with the overly cutesy name?
As the cyborg questions his current situation, an unfamiliar hand enters his field of vision, and Fulgur quickly straightens up, lurching forward and back to avoid it. To prevent himself from falling, he ends up leaning onto the back of his chair with his hand. This startles his onlooking classmate who nearly drops his phone. At the same time, the world completely blurs, becoming an unrecognizable landscape. There is a quiet thunk as something falls.
A slight moment of silence falls between the two as the cyborg glances around in confusion. Did something happen to his IIs? Were they malfunctioning? He would not be able to protect himself if he was caught in this state.
The purple blob slowly shifts, moving closer to the ground before lifting back up. He hands something to the cyborg, slowly. “Fufu… are you okay?”
Fulgur tries to focus on the thing in the young man’s palm. It was something black, but his failing vision couldn’t make out anything further. Carefully, the cyborg took the item from the young man’s hand and lifted it up closer to examine it.
“Um, those are your glasses. You, know? The ones that you just dropped on the ground?”
Glasses? Why would I need glasses? Bewildered, Fulgur fiddled with the item in his hands until he was able to unfold them. Then he carefully slid them onto his face. As he did, the entire world gained shape. He could once again see the purple-haired young man in front of him in full definition. A look of concern shone in his eyes.
“You’re acting really weird. Are you alright?” The young man repeated his question, leaning forward onto the back of his seat to get closer.
“Y-yeah.” Fulgur responded, “I’m fine.” The situation was too bizarre to act on, so he decided to play along for now. Quietly, he sat back down, the chair scraping across the ground as he pulled it forward. “Just a nightmare.”
“Hmm.” The kid in front of him didn’t look fully convinced but seemed to let it slide. “Well, since you’re up, let me call everyone else over.” He said before looking back at his phone. As he did, a purple strap dangled from the phone case. A shooting star attached to the end of it.
Now that the purple-haired kid was no longer focused on him, Fulgur could explore his surroundings. He looked around. A typical classroom, however, this one seemed to be filled with somewhat average-looking people, unlike the crazy avatars he’s used to seeing in Duoverses. Looking to his left, he could view a large field through the classroom windows. A large group of students, all dressed in hideous maroon gym uniforms, were sprinting around an oval track. Some running effortlessly, others struggling, and a fair number seemingly choosing to walk. Overall, there was nothing out of place. However, it seemed a lot more involved and detailed than a general school Duoverse.
The cyborg’s attention shifted back to himself as he lifted his hand up to where the frame of his glasses would be. Fulgur slowly grazed the size of the frame, noting the matte texture. Yes, they were actually there. Quietly, he glanced down at his clothes. He wasn’t wearing his usual uniform, instead, he donned a dark gray hoodie with a large sheep decal. As he examined his attire, his eyes finally shifted to his hands. Fulgur froze and slowly lifted them up, turning them to look at them from both the front and back. His hands were soft, fleshy. Confused, Fulgur pinched himself and recoiled from the sensation. He didn’t have cybernetic arms. Cautiously, he placed his hand on his throat. His breathing implant was gone as well. Then he leaned down and pulled up his pant leg. Flesh. All of his body was organic.
Was he no longer a cyborg? There was no way. Up until this point, he believed he could have been in some sort of Duoverse, but could a Duoverse really do this?
“Did you drop something?” A familiar voice asked.
Fulgur raised his head back up and met the sparkling eyes of his purple-haired on-looker. He was still holding his phone, but no longer focused on it.
“Yes, but I-.”
“Uki~! Fuu-chan~! We’re here!” A very peppy voice cut Fulgur’s sentence short as a kid burst through the door. The owner of the voice was a brown-haired kid with mismatching green and black eyes, donning a black and white button-up short-sleeved shirt. His long bangs were hastily clipped back with two triangle-shaped hairpins that reminded Fulgur of a cat. The black converse sneakers squeaked loudly on the laminated floor as he hopped towards the two.
Fulgur notes the name of the purple-haired young man. Uki.
Two other people enter the classroom, following the loud and boisterous cat-boy. One of them is a relatively tall, bright blonde young man wearing an oversized, black and yellow varsity jacket. It’s completely unzipped in the front, revealing a well-ironed button-down shirt underneath. You’d think it would look stupid, but he somehow pulls it off. Something like board meeting at 7, football game at 8, vibe.
The other young man walks in wearing something akin to k-pop street style. He is wearing all black, from his boots all the way to the choker on his neck. A heavy set of wireless headphones sit on his shoulders. A slight hum of music can be heard playing from them. His eyes glance around, a tiny speck of orange in his left iris, surrounded by a sea of blue. A layer of vibrant, light blue hair peeks out from underneath his black locks.
“Hello everyone~” Says the tall blonde in a serene and soothing voice. He raises his hand in a somewhat half-wave.
“Yo!” Yells the other, popping out from behind his larger-framed friend.
Chairs and tables loudly scrape the floor as the incoming group shifts them around. The cat-boy immediately flops onto the table in front of him, groaning about how tired he is and how he can’t believe it’s only homeroom.
Fulgur stares at the group and clenches at the bottom hem of his hoodie. He is in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. All who seemed to know him pretty well, yet he had no idea who they were. He gazed at them, observing them, from behind the lenses of his glasses.
The kid in all black sets down a backpack Fulgur previously hadn’t noticed and pulls out a mini cooler box, which makes him double-take. Are you even allowed to take these to school? Well, not that he ever went to one, but surely this isn’t something that happens. He watches in disbelief as the young man opens the box with several clicks and snaps and pulls out a Stook and Shook vanilla milkshake. As he pulls out the drink, he makes eye contact with Fulgur.
“Everything alright?”
Flabbergasted, Fulgur looks around, but none of the other members of the group seem to bat an eye. If anything, they seem more perplexed by his reaction. “Y-yeah.” He responds, feeling an urge to just melt away into his chair.
Suddenly the cat-boy breaks out in laughter, which is more akin to a cackle, “What Fuu? Not used to Yugo’s weekly milkshakes yet?”
Yugo, noted.
He continues to snicker, but quiets down, “Hmmmm… speaking about that,” The cat-boy grins attempting to be cute, “Could I have some, please~???”
Yugo stares at him, “What? M-my milkshake?”
“Mhmmm~”
The young man grips his milkshake harder and moves it away from the cat-boy’s grasp as he extends his hand out. “No,” Yugo says in a deadpan voice.
“Uwaaaah, please Yugo~” He says, stretching his arms and legs out. Fulgur moves his own out of the way, bumping into a bag laying on the ground next to him. The cat-boy paws in Yugo’s direction, reaching for the milkshake.
Yugo’s pupils begin to tremble, in slight confusion on how to respond. But the blonde starts speaking before the two can continue.
“Haha,” A soft, calming laugh, “Alban, I can give you my chocolate bar instead.” The blonde pushes it towards him.
Alban’s eyes light up, “CHOCOLATE?” He leans forward and grabs the wrapper with his fingers, holding the corners with his index finger and thumb. “Thank you, Aniki.”
This immediately makes Sonny jolt and turn slightly red, “Nooo, Alban, please don’t. It’s too cute.”
“Aniki?” Yugo chimes in, a curious expression on his face.
“Please, no Yugo. I can’t handle this.” At this point, the blonde, once a collected and calm young man, had devolved into a blushing mess.
“Aniki,” Yugo repeated the word, but this time using a smoother timbre.
“Aniki!” Alban chimed in with a slightly cutesy voice.
Fulgur sat bewildered. He looked over to Uki who seemed to be engrossed in the events. Somewhat blankly staring at the three. But, every so often, his eyes would quietly drift over to Fulgur and then to the blonde. At one point, the blonde seemed to notice Uki’s gaze and glanced back. In response, Uki gave him a slight smile, his eyes narrowing into a deep, knowing gaze. He held his smile as he looked back at Fulgur.
The group continued to banter, making comments while Fulgur sat to the side, trying his best to engage the group as little as humanely possible. Suddenly, he remembers the bag he previously bumped into. It hadn’t been brought there by the others, so it was likely his. Perhaps it had some valuable information.
He leaned to the side and glanced at the black backpack laying against the side of his table. Carefully, he grabbed the tab of the zipper and pulled it open. But, he swiftly closed it back up when he noticed his entire collection of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu books jammed into the small bag. What were they doing here? He made sure to lock them up somewhere safe before, so why were they in this book bag with him? Nervous, he glanced around, making sure no one saw it, but as he raised his head back up, he made direct eye contact with Alban, who was mid-chew.
“What-cha looking at Fuu-chan?” He asked with a grin.
“None of your business,” Fulgur answered, sweating bullets. His hand still on the zipper tab.
“Hehehe, really?”
The cat-boy chuckled as he reached for the bag to take a look anyway, but as he did, Fulgur grabbed the young man’s hand to stop him. “I told you it’s none of your business.” He reiterated.
“Ouch! Okay, okay, I got it, let go!” Alban squeaked and squirmed. When Fulgur let go of his arm, he leaned back and rubbed his wrist, watching him warily. “What the hell…” He said under his breath, pouting.
This resulted in an awkward silence between all of the group members.
“Fufu,” Uki leaned into Fulgur’s field of view, “Are you alright? You’ve been acting weird today.” Yugo and the blonde also chimed in, asking if everything is alright.
Fulgur glanced around. “Yeah, I’m fine… just not feeling well.”
“Oh right, you did say you had a nightmare just now,” Uki said, his purple eyes examining Fulgur’s face.
“A nightmare?” The blonde chimed in, tilting his head. His blue eyes stared at Fulgur as if trying to decipher his code.
“Maybe it’s all the late nights you’ve been pulling.” Yugo said mid-sip, “You know, all that Legatus stuff?”
Did he just say Legatus? So they do know my identity?
“Whaaat?”
“Yeah… maybe you need to sleep a bit more. I know you love writing, but your health is more important.”
Excuse me? Writing?
Uki narrowed his eyes. “Maybe you can skip the creative writing short story submission for this year… I know you’re passionate about Legatus505 but…”
“Now that you mention it, he’s been acting suuuuper edgy and cool all homeroom.” Alban leans onto his table. “What, are you trying to roleplay Legatus now, Fuufuu?” He laughs, teasingly. seeming to put behind the slight altercation between the two.
The world drifted into complete silence as Fulgur, or rather, Legatus, sat completely frozen. There was no way. This all had to be a ruse. Him? A fictional character? Written by “Fuu-chan”? That was impossible.
He took deep breaths as the space around him closed in. The air becoming heavier and increasingly difficult to inhale. His vision became limited as he became unable to see, even with his eyes open. Everything came to a grinding halt as if the cogs of reality fell apart right in front of him.
Was everything he knew just fiction? Or was he just the “Fuu-chan” of this world who believed he was “Legatus”. Was “Legatus” ever a real person? Were any of the people he knew ever real? What about his experiences? His past? His hardships? Did everything that happened to him mean nothing? Just a sentence on a white page? A single page in a student’s literature collection?
No, stop Fulgur Ovid. Snap out of it.
“Really, you need to take a break. Maybe acting like Legatus in front of Vox has only made it worse.”
Fulgur looked at the source of the voice. It was Uki. His eyebrows pulled into a concerned frown.
“That’s true! You do go a liiiiittle bit over the top with that. It’s super funny though!” While Alban seems to be amused by it, the blonde and Yugo seem to acknowledge it, but refuse to comment.
Vox? Who’s Vox?
He quickly glances around to the members of the group sitting around him. Then, Fulgur shifts in his seat and pushes the chair back. “I’ll think about it.”
“Eh? Where you going?” Yugo looks up.
“Bathroom.”
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Fulgur glances around, nervously, as he checks all the non-classroom doors in the building. Many of the doors are locked, such as the boiler room, and the ones that open seem to contain nothing out of the ordinary. Moreover, several of the lights in the building seemed to be faulty. Flickering on and off, almost like in a horror game. But this just seemed to be poor maintenance on behalf of the staff or just a lack of school funding. Regardless, if this was all a ruse, it was too elaborate.
Frustrated, he slams the wall but jumps from the sensation of sudden pain. Gingerly, Fulgur pulls his hand towards him and rubs the side of it. Slowly, a slight shade of red tints the side that impacted the wall as a prickle of pain radiated across his entire appendage. It had been years since he last saw himself with biological hands. A pit formed in his stomach as he squeezed the redness, stimulating his senses even further. It was bizarre. Surrealistic. And somewhat disturbing.
A voice interrupts his train of thought.
“Oh, if it isn’t Fulgur?”
When he turns around, he is greeted by a tall guy with bright golden eyes. Oddly enough, even though he is wearing a classy wine-red button-up and white dress pants, he’s also donning a pair of sandals. His long, black hair with red highlights is tied back into a low ponytail. It swishes side to side as he walks towards him.
“So, tin-man, what are you doing in the middle of the hallway?”
“How is that any of your business?”
Unamused, the guy points at a bright orange armband on his upper arm. “Is your memory as bad as your sense of fashion? I’m the student hall monitor for this period. Geez, you’d think that you’d remember what your stepbrother does.”
Stepbrother?
“Hah…” Fulgur sighs, “As if I care. Leave me alone, I have things to attend to.”
“Woah, woah, woah, there.” He says as he grabs Fulgur by the arm. “I can’t just let you walk around you know?”
Frustrated, he tries to pull away, but that only makes the ‘stepbrother’ tighten his grip around Fulgur’s arm. A heavy moment of silence falls between the two of them before the student hall monitor begins to speak.
“Uh… so… Fulgur. I know the whole Legatus thing is a role-play, so don’t feel the need to keep it up all the time.”
Role-play? Acting like Legatus? Is this the guy Alban mentioned? What was his name again…? Vox?
“Ah… Vox… don’t delude yourself. As if I’d go through that effort.” He tries to pull away again, but Vox keeps a tight grip. “I’m just going to the bathroom. So, if you wouldn’t mind letting me go…”
“Bathroom? Then what the hell are you doing in the basement?”
Fulgur looks at the pipes lining the walls, “I just took the more scenic route.”
Vox raises an eyebrow. “Sure you did.” He sighs and rubs his eyebrows before letting Fulgur go, “Just follow me.”
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The two make their way to the first floor. During the entire walk, the two exchange sly remarks and comments. However, Vox seems to soften up every so often, as if this entire set of interactions is all just a joke between the two of them. Once they reach the bathroom, Vox leans against the side of the wall and motions for Fulgur to just go on in. The lights down the hallway flickered briefly before turning off again.
“Just… get back to class once you’re done, alright?” He comments before walking away.
Fulgur takes one quick glance back before entering the bathroom, closing the door behind him. Ok, well, at least he was now out of the basement. He definitively was not lost or anything. Just sight-seeing. But what was he supposed to do now? He was sure that this was not a Duoverse. No Duoverse would spend the money and resources to develop a random janitor’s closet in the basement.
Tired, he leaned against the white porcelain sinks lining the walls. The mirrors reflect his late teen-looking body. A silver-haired, gray-eyed kid wearing black-rimmed glasses looked back at him. When he moved his hair out of his left eye, he did not see the red markings he usually had. This Fuu-chan looked virtually identical to him in his youth. Except without the cybernetic limbs and breathing implant, of course.
After a few minutes of waiting, Fulgur approached the dark blue bathroom door and gripped the cold, metal handle. Slowly, he opened the door, pulling it towards him. The hallway was completely empty. An eerie silence enveloped his surroundings as he continued to pull the door further. Once, he did a quick left and right check, making sure no one was around, Fulgur stepped out of the bathroom and turned left. At this point, he realized that some of the lights down the hallway had gone out, resulting in areas of complete darkness.
As Fulgur made his way down the hallway, a tall shadow caught the corner of his eye. It reached out to him, about to grab onto his shoulder. Within a few milliseconds, Fulgur swerved around and slammed his upper arm into the wrist of the figure, throwing it off course. Before they could do anything in return, Fulgur twisted his body and slammed his other hand, now in a fist, into the person’s stomach. He could not make out the assailant, but he was of tall stature, slightly taller than Fulgur himself. They folded over from the blow, which gave Fulgur time to plan his next move. Without his cybernetic limbs, he needed a weapon.
He backed away slightly and felt behind him. After a few seconds of probing the wall, Fulgur noticed a cylindrical, cold, metallic object. Looking back, he saw a large red cylinder attached to the wall behind him. With a sense of urgency, he pulled it off the wall with both hands, nearly falling from the unexpected weight. In an effort to stabilize himself, Fulgur spread his legs out further, adapting a lower stance.
It was difficult to make out the other person, but they seemed to still be recovering from the earlier blow. Deciding to strike first and ask questions later, as he was in an extremely vulnerable state, Fulgur swung the large object, somewhat like a pendulum, towards the other person. But he quickly noticed that it did not appear to contact anything solid. When he looked up, he saw the large shadow had stepped out of the way, apparently aware of the danger.
The next series of events happened over the course of maybe 3 seconds. First, Fulgur immediately had realized that, due to his weaker than normal body, he could not stop the momentum of the large metallic object. It kept pulling him further along in the rotation. Desperate, he let go of it, sending it flying down the dark hallway. The object clanged loudly, sending reverberations down the empty corridor. As he did this, the figure approached him quickly, grabbing his left shoulder, which was closer to the assailant, and rotating the front of Fulgur’s body towards the wall. They slammed him full force into the wall, pinning Fulgur. His glasses shifted out of position, digging into the bridge of his nose. The hand shifted to the center of his upper back, holding him in place.
In response, Fulgur twisted his body, trying to wrench out of the wall pin, and aimed his elbow at the person behind him. However, they stopped his arm mid-attack and painfully twisted it behind Fulgur’s back. He was pinned and couldn’t move. Fulgur had lost.
Who is this person? Well, regardless, they had to be someone with great combat prowess.
“Who are you? What do you-“
“Uh, Fuu-chan? It’s me…”
Confused, Fulgur tried to look at the person, but the dark and misalignment of the glasses made it difficult to make them out. Though, at this point, Fulgur’s eyes had somewhat adjusted to the dark, making it possible to see a slight speck of gold.
“Brisko.” The warm, calm, but somewhat menacing voice finished its sentence.
Brisko?
“Shit, I didn’t realize it was you,” Fulgur responded, trying to sound friendly. “Can you let me go?”
“Ahaha, sure.”
The hands holding Fulgur eased, letting him get out.
“Sorry, I got a little carried away,” Brisko said as he pulled at a strand of his hair.
“No… no… I hit you first.” Fulgur said, still feeling discomfort from the position Brisko had held him in. Who knew I would miss my cybernetic arms this much? “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, well, you were gone for a while, so Uki got worried and asked me to check in to see if you’re alright.”
“Why didn’t you say anything before grabbing me, then?”
“Ah, I guess I should have. Sorry for startling you.”
Brisko didn’t seem to have any ill will, but the level of combat capabilities he had were somewhat unnerving to Fulgur. The blonde kept smiling, gently. No use in standing here and doing nothing. Might as well attend classes since there didn’t seem to be anything too notable from exploring.
“I guess we should go back then, Brisko,” Fulgur said, begrudgingly, as he started walking out from the dark hallway. After a few steps, he suddenly noticed that he could only hear one set of footprints. “Aren’t you comi-“
When Fulgur turned to look back, he saw Brisko still standing in the darkness of the corridor. His arms in his pockets. Brisko was staring silently, his blue eyes, steely and cold. A complete shift from his warm and calm demeanor from before.
“Brisko?” Fulgur tries to keep his voice still, even though he can feel his heartbeat rising.
“Fuu-chan doesn’t call me Brisko.” The blonde said coldly.
He stepped forward, shifting from the darkness into the light. Brisko’s blonde hair shimmered in the halogen lights as he slowly pulled his hands out of his pockets. Yet his eyes remained frigid, still, “He can’t fight. If anything, he would just panic.”
He stepped forward, walking right up to Fulgur’s face. Brisko looked down, his voice a low timbre, “He also doesn’t care if his friends try to look at his danmei collection.”
He leaned closer and whispered in a chilly tone, “And he certainly doesn’t make Uki scared like you do.”
The world buzzed around Fulgur as Brisko made his way over, increasing in intensity as the blonde approached him. As the icy blue eyes stared into Fulgur’s soul, the surrounding area began to disintegrate into white. A bell, a wind chime, electric static fill his ears. His heartbeat, a violent tempo, threatens to burst out of his chest.
He wants to move. Yet his feet do not obey.
He wants to look away. Yet his eyes are still.
He wants to scream. Yet his mouth stays quiet.
It’s as if he has no body.
Yet, he wants to run.
He wants to avoid his eyes.
He wants to scream.
A white tunnel envelops Fulgur’s vision as his eyes remain trained on Brisko. The static, loud. He can barely make out what the blonde is saying to him. It keeps breaking up, like a radio station with horrible reception.
“Get out of Fuu-chan.”
.
.
.
Everything goes white. The static ceases.
A void.
He is back in the void.
He blinks once.
Blinks twice.
The third time he blinks, he sees darkness.
Fulgur shifts his head to the side. He is greeted by the dark city skyline outside of his living room window. An all too familiar sight. He was back to reality.
Or was he?