[Blue Archive] Substitute

Wrong Person. (Rewritten.)

The serenity of this moment. No pain, yet no pleasure. Nothingness but I feel yearning for something. Everything hurts. I don't want to be here, yet my mind and heart can't decide. My mind wishes to leave to finally be free. My heart cries to hold on to.... stay. It's so cold and dark, I refuse, or should I accept?

My mind's eye slowly builds the scene it remembers last. I see a nice field of grass and rubble, a mirage it has to be. I feel my back against the bark of a tree. I open my eyes to view the scene in reality, only to be sitting in a train?

"Oh you're awake now. Awesome!" A girl sits across from me. I can't make out much else.

"What, where am I?" Getting a grasp on the train, her side is clean and sleek, besides the seat being covered in blood. Mine is rusted, damaged with nature trying to reclaim it.

"Well that should be obvious you're on a train." She laughs at my confusion. She gets up and begins to leave the train car.

"I see that, I'm asking how? I was sure I was in a field earlier." When I speak she simply nods her head, then turns to face me.

"Yeah, I guess that's the confusing bit, isn't it?" Her smile is quite somber.

"Well yeah, no shit I wanna know why." She seems a little taken aback by my response at first before laughing.

"Wow, you have quite the vulgar mouth. To think you're the best choice." She snaps her fingers. "Well I guess that proves how horribly wrong this situation has become." She leaves the cabin to the next. How does my vulgar mouth have to do with me being a choice? What situation?

I go to follow. I've got questions after all and I bet she's got answers. However, a pain in my chest burns greatly. I grasp it tightly, I feel no heartbeat from myself. I do feel my old cross, I take it off and throw it to the side. The pain subsides the second I do.

'Don't follow her' A unbelievably quiet voice whispered in my mind. I couldn't tell if the voice was a man or a woman.

I proceed forward despite the clear instructions from whatever that voice was. I open the cabin door to chase after her.

"Who would have thought it would end up like this huh?" I see her and hear her mutter to herself. "That this kind of option would be needed."

I try to speak but my vocal cords burn. The pain in my chest comes back pathetically weak compared to before. 'I told you fool not to follow her.' The voice in my mind speaks louder, more commanding. After I shake it off I loom to where the young girl was only to see her gone. I move to the next cabin.

"I reject the seven koans and yearn to silence Jericho. Please if you would repeat those words back to me." She is standing not too far away from me now. I'm unsure what to do next, I feel like if I say that back I'll be trapped. Unable to finally stop.

Right as I'm about to speak I feel a different sensation in my chest, a soft caress almost.

'Come young man rest, you've endured enough. Let the mind wonder.' That sounds so nice. I feel my hand gently grabbed bringing me back to the cabin. I'm looking right into the young girl's eyes, our faces practically touching.

"Please say it." Her voice sounds begging almost.

'Don't.' The voice in my mind says softly.

"I reject the seven koans and yearn to silence Jericho." For the briefest moment I feel a heartbeat in my chest. Like at this moment, my heart won out over the mind and could breathe once more. However my body suddenly feels heavy. I fall forward only for the young lady to catch me, she gently puts me on a seat. Removing my damaged glasses from my face.