The Butterfly Effect

This Is It

If I want to go back, then I must face whatever awaits me on the other side of this door.

With a deep breath, I raise my hand to open it. However, it slides out of the way before I've even touched it. Someone is waiting for me, someone has to be. Whether that be Valt, or whoever else.

I know this room. I know this place. All around me, kids are training on different kinds of machinery, working themselves to near death, trying to get stronger. I can hear their screams, their grunts, the machines creaking and snapping. The smell in that room is worse than the smell in any gym. Puddles of sweat stain their clothes, the floor.

These rooms are rooms of misery. The first time I came here, I never even went out on this floor once. Ashram chose me to take over the Snake Pit the moment I set foot inside of it, when he saw how desperate I was, how broken I had become.

I swear I recognize the boy over there. His deep green eyes look so familiar, but I can't remember his name. He must not have been that important to me, in the other timeline.

Why am I still staring? I shake my head and look away. I can't dwell on it too much. I'm here for a reason.

Like he knows what I'm thinking, like he knows why I'm here, a voice, one that I recognize and one whose name I actually can place, comes from somewhere in that room.

"Shu Kurenai, I figured you would come here eventually."

"Ashram," I say. "Where is Valt!?"

"Valt? Valt Aoi?" I hear him chuckle, like my demand amuses him. "Didn't he tell you? Valt Aoi is dead."

I look around, desperate for a glimpse of him.

Ashram... the man that ruined my life. I blink. Ruined my life? Where did that come from? He didn't do anything to me in this timeline. Why do I see him as such an evil person?

Is this how Valt saw him?

"Then who is he?" I demand. "If he isn't Valt anymore, who is he?"

"He's one of my Bladers." He pauses, as if to give me time to process that. "He is Brown Eye."

"That sounds kind of lame, honestly." I had meant to say that in my head, but once it came out of my mouth, I couldn't stop it. Besides, it stopped me from saying the thing that I really wanted to say, the thing that would have made me appear so weak that I never could have showed my face again.

He laughs again, and I wish I could see him, just so I could glare at him. "There are only so many colors in the world, Mr. Kurenai. For example, if you were here, you would almost certainly be Red Eye."

Don't let him get to you. I clench my teeth. "I would never join your side."

"Really? You joined the Bulls, and that's my public side. Or did you only do that to get closer to your friend?"

Has he rehearsed these lines? Why can't I focus? All I can do is spin around like an idiot, looking on every balcony, every raised platform, everything I could see, trying to at least figure out where the man is standing.

"I can tell you're trying to see me. Allow me to make it easier for you."

He steps forward, and at last, I see him on one of the many balconies in that room. A staircase from the floor I'm standing on leads upward. It's blocked off by a rope, and guarded by one of the Masked Bladers, but I know I can get through him and to it. Besides, it's only Silver Eye.

Suddenly, I despise Silver Eye, and I barely even know him. The pure anger and despair and fear that I feel takes over my entire mind. All I can think about is the 'what if' scenarios. What if I can't get Valt back? What if he's too far gone? What if I never see him again?