Chapter 16: Dream Realms

"You heard me right?", the guy in front of me said.

"Heard what?", I replied, not realizing I had spaced out.

"… The directions to the cafeteria? Don't tell me you weren't even listening to me.", he said, sounding annoyed.

"Uh… yeah I did.", I lied.

"Well, either way, just stick to the left wall and you will get to the cafeteria soon enough. Now get out before I throw you out.", he said, going back to staring at the wall.

"Alright, alright.", I said, getting out of the room. He was sweating a lot, like as if he was working out. 

It took another 15 minutes for me to find that damn cafeteria. It was mostly empty. There were just 2 people there. One was Maria, and the other was a boy I didn't know.

Maria was drinking coffee, while the boy was sitting opposite to her. 

I went towards the two of them. They were talking about something, but I couldn't hear it properly. The only thing I got from what I could make out was that the boy had an Indian accent. 

"Hey Maria.", I said.

She turned around and said, "You feeling better?"

"Yeah, I am. For the most part", I replied.

"Alright then, get your ass here, I have a few questions for you.", she said.

"Yeah that's all well and good, but who is this dude?", I said, looking at him.

"Hey there, I am Rajesh. What's your name?", he said, getting up from his chair and offering a handshake.

"I am Cecilia. Nice to meet you.", I replied, shaking his hand and sitting down.

"Now that your little introduction is over, the two of us have a question for you.", she said. Why was she being so… aggressive? What did I do this time?

"Ask away.", I said.

"Who exactly are you?", Maria said.

"What?", I said, taken aback. That question made it clear that she was suspicious of me, although I didn't know why.

"Maria, you are making this sound like an interrogation.", Rajesh said, trying to calm her down.

"That's because this is quite literally just an interrogation. This asshole is the reason I almost lost my life.", Maria snapped back.

Rajesh sighed. I looked at her, and said, "How exactly is that my fault?"

"Because you-", Maria got interrupted by Rajesh.

"Ignore her.", he said. Maria had shut up, but she still looked like she wanted to rip my throat apart and throw it to the dogs. The red aura around him seemed to have expanded, probably meaning he was using an ability, or talent as Maria called it.

Looking at him made me realize, I could now see the red aura around the two of them now. Rajesh had a smaller amount of it, but it looked more refined than Maria's. His aura also had a completely different 'texture' when compared to Maria.

Maria's aura looked more like a river being stopped by a dam, while Rajesh's was more like cloth layered upon one another. 

"Did you do anything to the director?", he asked.

"Huh? I just got to know about this place a few days ago. The hell did I do?", I said, slightly irritated. 

"I don't know.", he said, shrugging. "Although there is one thing I do know. Either you or Maria or both of you, were meant to be disposed of, with the other person being collateral."

"What made you jump to that conclusion?", I said, taken aback. That was quite a leap in logic.

"The director never sends a person to an investigation when they have just joined for 2 days. And especially not an R-2 investigation."

"That's it? That's your only reason?", I said, disappointed that he didn't have a better reason. To be fair, that was a reasonable conclusion to make. Why would he send a random girl out of something as dangerous as an investigation?

"… Yup. Anyway we can talk about that later. I am assuming you don't know what this place is?", Rajesh said, trying to change the topic. 

"No not really. Are we in a a summer camp or something?", I said, trying to make myself sound as clueless as possible. What kind of a summer camp has walls made of metal anyway?

"Close but not very close. Do you know what a military camp is?"

"Yeah I do. So this is a military camp…?"

"Kind of. This is basically a training area for people who can see and use nihilism."

"So this place trains people to help them use their nihilism better.", he said. Then he started to grin, like as if he had a really good idea.

"… What are you planning?", Maria said, sternly.

"Hey Cecilia.", he said, ignoring her. His grin kept growing bigger and bigger. It doesn't really take a genius to figure out that something was up. "Do you believe in gods?", he continued, offering a handshake.

Again? I thought to myself. I instinctively reached for it, out of courtesy. "Why though?", I asked out loud.

The moment my hands shook his, something peculiar happened.

I could tell that Maria was shouting something, but I couldn't hear anything. Worse still, the world around me seemed to be melting. Everything around me was warping, like as if I had a truck ton of drugs.

Then it stopped. I found myself in the middle of what seemed to be an abandoned rundown building. The entire place seemed to be breaking down. The doors were half broken, and the windows were on life support.

Ok but where the fuck was I? I shook his hand… and ended up here. Was this his talent or something?

"Hey there.", I hear him say. I turned back to see him.

"Where the fuck did you take me?", I asked, politely. 

"Here in this training facility, everyone can use nihilism. And nihilism apparently allows for this to happen."

"Stop dodging the question smartass. Where are we? What is this anyway?"

"Patience is a virtue. Anyways, so this place is basically the space between my mind and yours, created by both our nihilisms."

"What?"

"It is like a dream world. Over here, you can kill each other with no repercussions, and nothing gets affected in real life. Activating it is easy, just ask a question to the other person while in physical contact, get them to respond, and think of a landscape and its rules."

"That's it? That can't be all it takes."

"The reason you are here is because you shook my hand and answered my question."

"… What if the rules are conflicting?", I said, playing along with it. Was this really not his talent?

"There will always be some sort of reasonable compromise. This place is commonly used for sparring practice, training, et cetera. Pretty useful for a variety of things. A place where there is no fear of death."

"And why did you tell me all this?"

"Thought it was kind of important for you to know. It is used quite frequently in this facility after all", he shrugged. "Wanna spar with each other to death? As demonstration of course.", he said, sounding more excited than he should be.

"… How do I get a sword?", I asked, open to idea. To be honest, I wanted to see how it worked, if it even worked, to begin with. Then again, the fact that I was here was more than enough proof that it worked.

"Just think of it. We don't have any rules in place, other than the very basic ones, so getting weapons out of thin air is possible."

"And there will be rules preventing me from doing this in a real spar?", I asked, taking out a sword out of thin air. At this point, I wasn't even surprised at the fact that I could randomly get a sword.

"Yup.", he said, walking closer to me.

I felt that feeling of time slowing down again. Does that mean I could now control it better? No, seeing as I didn't do much since the previous time I used this talent, it seems unlikely.

The only times my talent had activated was when my life was in danger. I put two and two together.

My life was in danger right now.

I backstepped as far as I could, but I tripped on something. I looked down right before falling. 

There was nothing there. How the hell did I trip then? I squinted my eyes a little more, and there it was. A piece of cloth extending from Rajesh's body, wrapped around my ankle. 

It wasn't just my ankle that was wrapped in this invisible nihilism cloth thing. I hadn't realized it yet, but my throat was also wrapped in it.

When did he…? Well, this was no time to think about that. How exactly do I get this cloth out?

I tried grabbing the cloth and ripping it. It was less a piece of cloth and more a piece of flexible steel. Nope, not going to work. I drew my sword and tried cutting through it. Still nothing.

Rajesh started to pull the piece of cloth, making it start to choke me. 

I went closer towards him, to make him lose some handle of the cloth, but instead, the cloth itself just shrunk.

Time slowing couldn't do shit for me now. I really started to feel the lack of oxygen now. The fear started to set in. 

"Oh are you feeling alright?", I heard Rajesh say, laughing. "Let me help you!", he said, looking a bit too happy for his own good.

He pulled one end of the cloth. I heard a snap and my world view was tilted 90 degrees. I woke back up in the cafeteria.