Chapter 04

|mc pov|

"Flattery.. it will not save you." The woman on the throne said, looking down at me as she covered her face with her sleeve.

Disappearing in the next second.

Even after seeing this, i did nothing as i smiled. Looking up as the woman stood in front of me. A short katana in her hand, placing the tip at my neck as i looked into her golden eyes.

"It is not flattery, if the words one speaks.. are fully true." I said, feeling blood drip a little from my neck, seeing her turn her face away.

"Even if they are.. true, it does not matter.. leave this place." The woman spoke, waving her hand as she walked back to her throne.

Only to turn around with a strange. expression, hearing movement as she did.

"No, i came all this way.. i think i'll stay for a while, hell there is even a beautiful woman here." I said, sitting on the white stone floor. Putting my knee up as i leaned on it and looked at her.

"Have it your way then.." the woman said, sitting as she pointed her finger at me, one of the large snakes moved its head as it looked into my eyes.

'How long do.. you plan to let that feeling hold you in place? Why do you run from your feelings? You as much as i do.. hear the care held in just those few words.' The fox woman thought, feeling the snake womans fear.

The large snake moved in, lashing out as i sat there. Flying towards me with great speed as I smiled and placed my hand out, if I was going to be sent out anyway what was the need in fearing it. My smaller hand reached, placed on the snakes nose as I stopped, feeling me rub gently as its hissing became steady and rhythmic.

"If you truly plan to send me out, then you must do it yourself." I said, watching the snake wrap around where I was sitting. Its large body pressed against my back while i leaned back on it.

"Ah, useless.. very well." She said, her eyes glowing as the snake I laid on shook. It rubbed its face on me as it moved away. Disappearing, she placed her foot on my chest, pushing me back to the ground as she held her katana up. Driving it down as the place went silent for a few minutes.

"But that's the problem isn't it, you can't, can you.. Shinso?" I said, looking next to me at the katana by my face, then up to the woman who bit her lip. Biting down hard as her eyes filled with tears, they dripped on my face as I became confused.

"Why did you wait.. wait so long, to call.. my name again?!.." Shinsō said, disappearing after she looked down at me one more time. I laid there for a while not understanding, my arm that was out to the side, I squeezed my hand. Trying to come up with an answer, only to see a shadow over cast my face.

"You handled that well, do you truly not remember? Has it been that long.. gin?" Standing over me, the fox woman's chest moved while she bent her body and tilted her head a little. Her voice clear and sweet and full of a sad feeling as she spoke about Shinsō.

"I don't understand, what do you mean? What am I supposed to remember?" I said looking at her smile that slowly disappeared, shaking her head as she leaned down to me. Falling to her knees, she gently grabbed the back of my head with one hand, using her other hand to gently brush my hair to the side.

"You truly don't remember? Let me ask you, on the journey here.. did you not find it strange that there was no color?" The woman asked, leaning her head down as she spoke softly. Her breath blowing on my forehead as she said what I had been thinking.

"A world of white, I wondered where the color was, but thought it was Shinso's wish to have it as such." Thinking about the detail, yet lack of color in this world. Still I didn't get the meaning behind her words.

"Yet, you failed to look at yourself.. if you have forgotten, then I should show you." The woman spoke, leaning down as she pressed her forehead against mine. A light shined as I was taken back.

|flash back|

When the boy known as gin was sent to this world, he held great hope. He started slowly as the world had different seasons but only dusk and night day cycles. He train day in and day out swinging his sword, tirelessly going over the basics until they became second nature. Sleeping under the stars after months of training and talking to his partner.

This continued, no matter the times he wished to sleep or was lost on what to do next. Many rainy nights the boy would hold his sword close and with such care, telling her stories he heard in his past, romance, blood and war. Caring deeply as eventually he was able to call out her name. Over hundreds of years the boy and the sword grew close but it would soon change.

The boy gin and his ever present smile, did not want help from the goddess outside making sure he had food. One day the boy asked for a favor, he wanted her to create powerful beings for him to fight, the goddess complied to his request. Faceless hollows, Quincy and shinigami were made from nothing. Sent here daily as the boy would fight, they started off low ranked but eventually grew in power.

The boy never stopped caring for his sword but he had made a mistake. He wanted to do it with his own power and skills. Never calling her name as he would be beaten and almost killed many times. Yet this did not stop him he would grow, becoming stronger and smarter with each fight. After a few hundred years the boy would clean and make sure his sword was safe everyday, never realizing he hadn't heard her voice in a very, very long time.

|different view point|

It took her a while to wake up, wake up to nothing but darkness in this place. All around her was nothing. Eventually the woman Shinso, would feel alone and this became her life. While learning of herself, she would go on to use her power to create friends, two giant white snakes but this did not bring, a end to her loneliness. While she cared for them she wanted more, she wanted something she could not explain.

While walking this endless world of nothing, she came across a white and black fox. In the farthest corner of this endless nothing. The creature slept peacefully, something she could not do, at first wanting to kill it but seeing it so different from her. She took the fox in and they walked this endless place together.

After a hundred years, the fox had grown and changed shape. Talking and playing with the woman. No matter the smile she put on her face, the girl fox could always see the sad and loneliness in her eyes. Eventually the fox could not take it, but that is when a voice came to her, in a place far away a spiral of twisted grey could be seen. The fox girl listened and looked into it. Seeing a boy with a smile and his eyes always shut, talking to someone.

The girl became happy, and one day dragged the woman here. The woman watched and listened to the small stories but this only made her angry. Believing this boy was not talking to her but to the fox girl, still she let it go and stayed near this place with the fox. After some time the stories became longer, full of sorrow and happiness, sometimes the woman shinso would catch herself imagining such worlds. Until she grew angry that there was nothing like this in this world of nothing. She was going to leave this place until one day she heard something that would change her world.

"Even if you do not speak.. it is ok, when you are ready.. I will be here. I wish I could tell you more, or that we could speak but it will be ok I will, always be here waiting, shinso."

She heard the boy call out a name, a name that sounded so far away. She knew her name but had long stopped calling her name out. When she heard this her heart beat as she looked at the boy with care little by little. He would show her care and patience, many times she wanted to speak but could not bring herself to do so, thinking this feeling would leave if she tried to.

Listening to stories and seeing him use her, as if he needed her made her world change. The feeling of loneliness lessened as she started to create a world of detail and no color. Starting off small as it grew more and more. She would laugh, cry, and smile at these stories as she built a world along with the fox girl.

Still all things do not last forever, the palace she made had the spiral sit at the center as she would listen. Even getting to the point where the fox girl pushed her to talk back, they did and even if her voice could not always be heard, when it did she was happy. Until one day, the boy stopped. She waited and waited but nothing.

Becoming worried she would look through the boys soul and eyes. Seeing the boy fight, worried she called out but her voice fell on deaf ears. Watching over him as he was wounded and almost killed many times, for hundreds of years she waited but his voice never came again. Unable to stand it anymore she cast it out, closing the doors to the palace, and the world outside, until once again.. she returned to her loneliness.

|mc pov|

'How much of a fool can i be.. I forgot.. I truly forgot something like.. this.' Watching the memories, i could only shake my head to how dumb I had been, she was always there with me, but I stopped listening.

"She was so afraid.. so afraid to lose you, she shut herself in this world.. she could not bring herself to hate what she.. what she loved so much.. so she sent it away." The fox woman leaned her head back, looking down at me with sad eyes. Her face showing how long she had to watch shinso feel this way.

"I'm.. I'm.." I tried to say but the fox placed her finger on my lips, speaking softly.

"You thought to yourself..why? Why this world had no color right... why it is blank, look at yourself." The fox said, rubbing my head gently.

I watched my purplish white hair pass over my eyes, then to my healthy, yet kind of pale skin, the color of my clothes, my sandals and black socks. Seeing the reflection of my pretty teal eyes in hers, as I opened them a little.

"Do you finally understand? Do you.. know why it is like this..?" The fox said, I tried piecing it together in my head but i had an idea, shaking my head as if I had an answer, she cut me off and spoke.

"What did she say again.. it was her favorite.. ah, yes..You are, the only color in my world.. and yet you..make it so beautiful."