Intermission 2: Shadow in the Light

The world around us parted, and we were in the void again. The Warehouse was devoid of any of my past items or possessions, or even the housing, with the exception of a tiny wooden chair with a single young woman sitting on it. The same as she always was, heavy jacket and all.

I could feel a mix of emotions boiling up inside of me, but the worst one was the horrifying sinking in my stomach. I walked forward, Kat not too far behind. Ulmes didn't move from his spot.

She didn't make eye contact with us, her gaze focused on the ground. There was total silence around us. I spoke up before Kat did.

"What happened?"

She lifted her head a little to look at us. She almost looked right past us before she looked back down.

"I'm sorry."

"You're…sorry?!" Kat raised her voice

She didn't say anything more. Kat was more than happy to break the silence for her.

"That monster just happened to follow us around and into that world, and you're just -sorry-?! The streets were full of dead bodies, and all of Japan was torn to pieces! We only won because the only good thing this fucking brainiac could do was buy a tech company to do the work for us!"

Those words stung, but I knew getting angry wasn't going to do any good. We had this argument before. More and more often as the ten-year mark had approached, really. Still, I spoke up, cautious. "Kat…"

"Always going on about how we needed to take a moral fucking high ground, like you had some kind of high horse to stand on! 'Oh, we can't sacrifice civilians, we'd be stopping to his level'…what the fuck are you, a Bruce Wayne wannabe?!"

"Kat." I spoke a bit more sternly, biting back a retort.

"No, that's all you've been! A fucking. Wannabe. Dressing up in a costume, saying you want to go on big adventures, then sitting on your goddamn couch and letting people die because you're scared of sticking your neck out! And now look what happened! People died for it! And you know what?" She was almost flailing, her arms spread out as if giving a demonstration. "I could forgive it! All of it! But you're not even getting mad over it! The fact this -thing- let Smile follow us for a cheap laugh…!"

"Stop." I could hear her voice, barely above a whisper. That made a chill run down my spine.

"Kat, that's enough!" I said, a bit louder.

"Oh, what, NOW you grow a fucking spine?! I can't believe I used to look up to a coward like you! All of this is your fault! Both of you! It's all your f-"

And then she was gone. No fanfare. No transition. Just gone. I blinked once to make sure I wasn't seeing things before looking around the Warehouse to see where she had gone. Nothing. "Kat…? Kat!" I called out.

"She's gone." She said. I looked at her, and she must have read the panic on my face. "She's fine. She's just not here right now." Her gaze didn't move from the floor. "I don't like it when that happens."

"Someone…yelling at you?" I asked, cautiously.

"It's too loud," Was all she said in reply. She finally stood up, averting her gaze from me.

"…what happened, down there? How did Smile follow us?" I cut right to the point, swallowing back my fear. I still had no idea who or what she was, but she was obviously someone who could easily take back everything she had given me. Before, I hadn't given it any thought. She just seemed like an excitable person who wanted a friend or a show to watch. Now, things were put into focus. She was a being with great, unexplainable power, and I felt like I was walking on ice. But I had to know.

She was quiet, barely making a sound as she glanced at me from under her hood. "Are you mad at me, too?" It wasn't a glare. If anything, she looked sad.

"It's done and over with." I avoid the question.

Her hands in her pockets, she took a deep breath and sighed. "When I send you to other worlds…you connect to them. Pieces of it find their way into you. Skills, memories, items…things that reflect the place you've entered. But the more you get, the more strain it puts on the way things should be. Rules bend. Or break. And the world pushes back. The more of its narrative and destiny you pull into yourself, the more the world changes to reflect it. The more it challenges you."

"These worlds are alive?" I asked, incredulous and a bit worried.

"It's the same idea as antibodies. It detects an intruder taking bits and pieces of it, so it reacts to enough stress with danger and contrivance. Either you play ball and deal with it, or…you stop being a problem." She explained.

"And…I don't have control over this."

She shook her head.

"And you don't either, do you?"

She bit down on her lip and, after a moment's hesitation, shook her head again.

"Once you're there, I don't have any control over what happens. I can only observe and pull you in and out. Even that's really hard to pull off, especially if it's a world with things…like you. People who leap in and out of worlds. Just holding them together like this, frozen in time as the chain builds, takes a lot of effort from me. Your presence is like a light, and the way the world reacts is a shadow."

"So when Smile appeared in the World of Kenshin…" It clicked in my head.

"A recurring nemesis. Like The Joker." She said. So the world's 'antibodies' could connect and affect future jumps to other worlds. And the more I got from a single world, the more danger I'd be in. Not even being in another world made me or others completely safe.

But…Kat was right about one thing. I was the one who let Smile continue his rampage in earnest for the longest time. I paid for it. I paid for it dearly.

The Chain of Worlds I was in wasn't just a Journey. It was a gamble.

"…do you want to go home, now?" She asked. "I can send you back. I can even wipe the memories of what happened and let you live without guilt or worry. You can take Voyager with you, and live like a king until the day you die. Maybe even make superheroes like Bruce real, if you worked at it."

It was a tempting prospect, I had to admit. I could easily satisfy all of my material needs. I could even make a living as a 'real' vigilante. But…

"Would I ever see you again? Or other worlds?"

"Never." Her answer was immediate and decisive. It was a statement of fact, something that made my stomach churn. The secret of other worlds would exist only in my sudden acquisitions and changes.

There was total silence in the Warehouse as I gave it careful thought. Then, my mind was made up.

"So, what's the next world?"

She did a double take and gave me a serious look, trying to see if I was joking. "After all of that…?"

"If those are the consequences, then I need to take responsibility for them. No more running away. I will never let that happen again. Not to me. Not to anyone else."

"You don't know that."

"Couldn't hurt to try."

She stared at me in amazement. The only sound was Ulmes picking up a bottle of whiskey and starting to chug on it. Oddly, he didn't seem terribly bothered by this, from his relaxed posture. Or he was distracted by the alcohol. I wasn't sure.

But going home just as I was now was worse than going home empty-handed. For better or worse, I couldn't just turn back and go home. I had come too far to just give up now. More than meeting my favorite characters or getting new abilities…I wanted to go home as someone with their head held high, not someone who turned tail and ran from responsibility.

"What about Kat?" I asked.

She paused for a second before saying, "She'll be back whenever you call out to her. No time has passed for her. You…may want to, soon."

Well, that was something we could agree on.