Chapter Text
It began on the darkest of nights and when the moon was its fullest. Maybe one of his enemies made a wish on a falling star, or the planets were aligned just right to fuck him over.
The wind was howling, whipping through his hair as he stared off the edge of a cliff. Eiji was terrified, but he couldn’t fight this, he couldn’t walk away from the cliff.
“I could jump and kill us both you know.” He whispers to himself quietly.
Eiji was convinced this was all a dream. Just another nightmare that came with all he’d been through in America, until he realized they were no longer nightmares at all. He can’t be in denial anymore.
***
Eiji wakes up from a deep slumber.
He was slumped over in an alley and his torso was drenched in blood, it was splattered across his white shirt. At first, he was startled by it, and he jumped up almost immediately when he noticed.
“What?” He asks quietly and examines his hands; they were also covered in blood. His eyes widen in horror before he stumbles out of the alley. White signs with different red characters decorate the streets.
He was in Chinatown. How did he get to Chinatown? When did he get to Chinatown, and at this time of night?
As he stumbles through the streets, limping because of his apparently swollen ankle he sees Shorter in the distance with two other men. He looked incredibly serious probably conducting business related to his gang. He spots Eiji over the other men’s shoulders and looks at him from the top of his shades.
As Eiji approaches them, he hears “we’ll talk about this later,” then he walks up to Eiji and offers him a shoulder to lean on, “Eiji, what the hell are you doing here at this time of night? Alone?”
“Shorter, where- why am I here?”
“Hell if I know,” he pauses, and asks the question that any other sane person would in this situation, “that your blood?”
“No. At least … I don’t think so.”
He can see Shorter’s eyes widen in shock behind his shades before he starts moving in the direction of what he assumes is he and Nadia's apartment. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Eiji feels himself passing out again. The world goes black and the last thing he feels is the reassuring touch of Shorter before he becomes dead to the world.
***
He has a dream that he’s drowning. Dark, viscous liquid began to fill his lungs while he attempts to scream.
He sees everyone, but he doesn’t recognize them. They look different. He can feel that they’re them. But they look like … monsters with long claws, huge teeth, and the bodies of animals.
Dino is standing behind him, he can feel bugs crawling on his back. He can hear them hissing in his ears. He sees them squirming before his eyes.
When he wakes up there’s light streaming into his eyes, it irritates him.
It begins as a dream, everything started as a dream. Until he realized the world he’d been picturing was very real.
“So, are you gonna tell me how you wound up on my part of town, covered in someone else’s blood? It’s a bit concerning.” Shorter had brought him a glass of water, and what he assumed was some aspirin. “This should help with your headache.”
“My … how did you know …?” Eiji trails off as he says a silent thank you while taking the pills and drinking the water.
“You kept telling me about it, don’t you remember?”
“Remember what?”
“Okay, you’re acting really strange, you know?”
Eiji scrunches his face up at him in confusion, Shorter was the one acting strange.
“I don’t know, and I don’t remember anything about winding up in that alley, I just … woke up and I was there.”
“You blacked out? Maybe it was that guy Dino and some of his men. You don’t remember, anything?”
“For the 5th time Shorter, no.”
“Well, you definitely weren’t asleep, your eyes were wide open. They were lighter than usual, almost red I’d say.”
“I never told you about-”
The world around Eiji seems to deteriorate. Shorter goes away, his apartment goes away, Chinatown and America all go away, and Eiji is transported once more, to the dreamscape. It was dark, and vast with fields of black grass stretching in every direction.
“Oh! You’re back!” He doesn’t know how, but he identifies that voice as Yut Lung’s.
“Stay away!” He screams on impulse and shields himself from them.
“How odd, usually you do tell me to get lost, but not in a way that shows you’re terrified. Are you okay?” Their tone was sickeningly sweet, it left Eiji more on edge than when they were mean to him.
“You … you’re asking me if I’m, okay?”
“Yeah, of course silly, I worry about you, you know? You’re always up to something that can put you and- oh …” They stop short, and a gentle smile graces their lips, it sends a chill down Eiji’s spine. “… you must be … him … right now …”
“Him?”
“You should come with me; Dino has been looking for you. You know how that old man gets.”
Eiji is reluctant, but he nods at this being who he assumes is Yut Lung. That meant he couldn’t really trust them, but they were the only person here, for now.
He follows them to a shack in the middle of the fields, there are several of these shacks littering the fields, they go into one directly in the center.
***
“I don’t know Ash, dude woke up covered in blood when I got him, he was pretty beat up too, looked like he got into a fight.” Shorter talks in a hushed tone to Ash before he pats his shoulder and heads towards the door, “I’ve got some business to take care of, keep a close eye on your boyfriend.”
“He’s not my-!” Ash starts, but Shorter just shoots him a look that quiets him before he leaves.
Eiji is staring at his bowl of soup placed in front of him.
Just. Staring.
Ash rubs the back of his neck.
Okay, that is kinda weird.
“Hey, Eiji, is everything okay?” Ash reaches for his shoulder and Eiji flinches away as if he didn’t recognize him, his eyes are a startling shade of red, so unlike his warm dark brown eyes.
A smirk spreads slowly across his lips.
“Peachy.”
“Did Max teach you that, or do they use that expression in Japan too.”
“The old geezer taught me.”
It sounds like a lie.
He picks up a spoon and plays with the soup absentmindedly.
“Hungry?” Ash asks.
“Yeah.”
“Then how come you haven’t touched your soup?” Ash presses his hand to Eiji’s forehead. He must be sick because strange doesn’t even begin to describe how he’s acting right now.
“You’re not running a fever.”
Eiji pulls his hand away and snaps at him with a snarl, “I feel fine.”
“You’re not acting fine.” Ash snaps back. “The hell is wrong with you?”
“What are you mad that I’m not acting like your punching bag right now? Upset that I’m not taking your shit right now?”
“No- I- What?”
“He hates you know, for all that you’ve done to him. You’ve tainted him.”
They stare at each other for a few moments before suddenly Eiji’s eyes fade back to their dark brown color. And he falls forward onto the table right beside his soup.
“E-Eiji?” Ash asks.
When he sits up again, he looks terrified.
“Did I fall asleep again?”
He rubs his eyes and then looks at Ash as if he hadn’t seen him in days, maybe months, and he’s finally relieved to be with him again.
“Are you gonna tell me what’s going on with you? You just said some really weird stuff and then snapped at me.”
Eiji’s eyes widen. “What weird stuff?”
“Something about you hating me.”
Oh no, what did he do while Eiji was out?
“Jesus Ash,” he stands up goes to where Ash is and puts his arms around him, “I could never hate you.”
“Oh, okay.”
Ash reluctantly hugs him back.
“I’m sorry I was acting strange.”
“Shorter told me you woke up covered in blood. That’s odd for you.”
Oh no.
“That’s a long story, can I tell you later?”
“Yeah. Sure.” Ash would rather he tell him now, but he’ll gladly table this conversation for another time. He’s not sure if he can stomach all that Eiji has to tell him right now.
***
“You let him walk out of here?! You let him have his body back and just walk out of here?! What’s wrong with you?! I was so close to having him, to having everything!”
“I-I’m sorry Nou-chan, I didn’t mean to upset you!” Doppel Yut Lung says before they’re thrown to the ground. They groan in pain while Doppel Eiji stands over them breathing heavily. His whiskers almost touch their face. “I just thought that you’d want me to help him, you know, because you need him to be healthy before you can go through with your plan-!”
“-Shut up.” Doppel Eiji whispers harshly before he stands at full height and then bends forward, he brings up a claw under Yut Lung’s chin. “You’ll help only me from now on, understand?”
“Yes Nou-sama.”
“Good.”
He stands up and leaves them. He actually hated to get upset with them. But they could prove to be a real hindrance to his plans of observing the other world and getting ahold of the other Eiji. His plans were to be kept secret until he could execute them.
“Yue ruining your plans again?” Doppel Ash asks him.
Doppel Eiji snarls at him, “what do you care?’
“Something’s going on with you, and I want to know what, but I’ll trust that you’ll tell me on your own time.”
“Your trust is much appreciated. Where’s Dino?”
Doppel Ash’s eyes widen with trepidation, “Why? Do you need him for something?”
A smirk spreads across Doppel Eiji’s face, “I do actually”
Something was about to happen in their world, something rather important and he’d be needing Dino for it.
“I don’t know where he is.” Doppel ash responds.
“You mean you don’t want to know.” Doppel Eiji turns away from him and starts heading into the city not too far away from where their shacks were to search for Dino.
He was running out of time, and getting impatient. He was going to make sure he got his way, even if it killed him.
***
“I had this really weird dream. I saw you, Shorter, everyone, but you weren’t exactly like yourselves. You looked different, sounded different.” He starts to cry, “You were all really unhappy.”
Ash gently wipes his tears away, “I think maybe the past few days have been a lot on you, so take a deep breath, Shorter is coming back so you can tell us both what happened.”
“Yeah, actually, I think I need you both for this, I feel crazy.”
“You’re not crazy Eiji.”
“You don’t understand, I definitely feel crazy. I need someone to tell me none of it was real. That I didn’t see a world of monsters masquerading as everyone I know and love.”
Eiji …
Eiji’s eyes widen with fear. The sound of that voice was back. Metal grinding on metal, harsh whispers banging against his eardrums.
“No … no get away from me …” He presses his hands to the sides of his head, “Leave me alone.”
You don’t wanna tell them, you should keep quiet, or else I’ll make you regret it.
“No! Please!”
“Eiji?”
Eiji suddenly starts staring straight ahead, his eyes once again turn a bright shade of red as a smile spreads across his face.
“I’m fine Ash.” He stands up pats him twice on the shoulder and walks out of the room to the bathroom.
He stares in the mirror and just for a moment human Eiji comes back.
“I can’t breathe!” He yells and claws on his throat, gasping for air.
Doppel Eiji just smiles in the mirror when he hears him. “Of course you can’t, you’re drowning.”
“What are you?!” Human Eiji asks suddenly. “Give me back my body!” He’s still gasping for air when he returns to his body, Doppel Eiji was finally gone. He leans over the sink and breathes heavily. His mind was running at a thousand miles a minute and blank at the same time.
“Eiji! Are you okay in there?!” He hears Ash on the other side of the door, knocking, and yelling, he must have heard him.
He opens the door to a worried looking Ash before he turns to the toilet and vomits.
It doesn’t look like food, what is that? Tar? And blood?
“Eiji!” Ash shouts before he rushes to his side, there’s a comforting hand on his back. “What the fuck is that, okay, let’s get you to bed.”
***
“So, you’re telling me, you got transported to some mystical place where everyone looked like a bunch of mutated animals, and the one that was supposed to be you, tried to kill you and take your body?”
Eiji is too weak to move, he’s laying in Ash’s bed while he was trying to explain the situation to Ash and Shorter.
“I’ll have to admit it doesn’t make sense to me either.” Ash agrees.
“And you two think it makes any sense to me? Why would I make this up?”
Ash and Shorter share a look. Eiji had made a good point.
“There’s something sinister about the one that’s supposed to be me. Something I don’t like whatsoever. Like he has some kind of plan with all of you.”
“And you don’t know when you switch, but you know how to get your body back?”
Eiji nods at Ash’s comment.
“One of the others told me how to do it, Yut Lung.”
“Yut Lung? You mean the guy who blackmailed me, tried to kill us both, and inject me with a drug that would drive me insane?”
“Yes. His doppelganger was very kind. A little too kind, it was actually rather unsettling. They acted as if they’d do anything I say. Which means they’d probably also do anything the other me says too.”
“Well,” Ash says giving Shorter a pointed look, “I believe him.”
“I don’t know if I do.” Shorter glares back at him.
“For what reason?!”
“It sounds like a bad case of nightmares to me.”
“But the same nightmares, over and over again, and in different locations with different people?” Eiji asks.
“I mean maybe you’re just under a lot of stress.”
“No, Shorter, I wouldn’t make this up.” Eiji says weakly, he sounds exhausted.
Shorter seems to give in at that moment. Something tells Eiji that he didn’t want to believe what he’d told them. Eiji doesn’t blame him, he didn’t want to believe it himself.
“Fine, I believe you. So, we both do, what the hell do we do about it? I can’t exactly kick this guy’s ass if he’s you.”
“I don’t know yet, but I was thinking I could ask if I could you know, go back there but voluntarily.”
“Oh hell no, you’re not going back there, at least not alone.”
“How are you guys supposed to come with me?”
“I think Eiji has a point Shorter. It seems like the only real problem is his doppleganger, the others seem relatively not hostile.”
“Hm.” Shorter crosses his arms and seems to think it over. “Do you think you could even handle going back there again, you said it’s painful to enter that world. You said it feels like you’re drowning.”
“Yes, but it’s temporary. I think finding this thing, and killing it is more important than the temporary pain I get from going back there.” Eiji looks serious when he says this, he really was ready to kill someone.
“Let’s think this through before we jump in and do this.” Ash says calmly, knowing how reckless Eiji could be. “We’ll need more information before we do anything.”
“Okay.” Eiji replies before his eyelids droop, and he falls into a deep sleep.
***
This time he does have a nightmare.
The monster that was supposed to be him was staring at him, next to him was a monster with two faces, Arthur? His form sent a particularly cold chill down his spine. There was something off about all of them, but something in particular was wrong with Arthur. Why did he have two faces? Why did they seem to shift and change a variety of their emotions? If he could he’d probably throw up again.
“You think you can stand up to me and win?”
Eiji can’t reply, his lungs are filling with something again, his eyes fill with tears. He wants to speak, to curse this version of him out, but he can’t. He’s just as helpless as every other time he came in contact with this thing.
“I told you, if you defy me, you’ll regret it.”
Eiji still can’t respond, he feels himself clawing at his own throat on a silent scream before the world fades to black.