Editing BlazBlue:Phase Shift 3 Chapter 5 (section)

===Part 4===
Darkness…

Rather, everything looked black.

Celica awoke from her slumber and tried to look around herself. She looked above, below, to the right, to the left — but all she saw was black. It was hard to even tell where she was, or how wide this place was. It was a complete mystery… and for some unknown reason, it was terrifying. Like the complete blackness all around was seeping into her body and paralyzing her with fear. Though it wasn't cold, her body shivered. Her legs shook, even though nothing actively made them so. She choked.

— “S-... sister?” Celica called out from beyond the darkness, helpless and inconsolable. — “Nirvana...? Hakumen?!”

No one answered. In fact, Celica started to believe there was no one there but herself. She was afraid that she had been swept away... she could not understand. It scared her to death. The terror filled her chest to the brim, to the point she could barely move under its weight.

But it dawned on her — she had felt this fear before.

— “…Black Beast?”

Celica spoke aloud while she shuddered in the dark.

Indeed — the Black Beast. This fear, startling and overwhelming, was always felt everytime she came face-to-face with this horrifying goliath. Celica gasped and realized — maybe she was within the Black Beast. She braced herself and took another look around.


Wherever Celica walked, it didn't get any brighter. But she did remember what happened before everything faded to black: she was in that walled city. At the end of an open street, close to the center of the town, she was among a heap of dead bodies, being held in Nirvana's arms. Hakumen was close by, but as soon as he sensed something off, he told Celica to get away and ran off like a white gust of wind. She could not understand, and was at a loss about what to do. 

While holding Celica in her arms, Nirvana ran straight to the town entrance — whether on Hakumen's orders or just a gut feeling.

Before Nirvana could pass through the main street, the city was hit by a violent earthquake that only got worse with every second. The town was engulfed in a wave of black fog, so thick it completely blocked Celica's vision.


And when she opened her eyes, here she was.


— “This black fog… what if…?”


Seithr, maybe. She had seen it erupt from the ground multiple times before.

Black Beasts were drawn to seithr; where there was seithr, they would appear. Maybe this fog was the tremendous amount of seithr that made up the Black Beast, burying everything in Celica's sight. It was the seithr that had gathered up again — Celica had little doubt that she was inside of the Black Beast.

The darkness around her seemed to stagnate, but it was swirling all around. The oppressive lull around Celica was made of hate, hostility, and rage. Painful, sad emotions entered Celica like oxygen into her lungs. Little doubt though she had, it was still doubt.

— ''The Black Beast is sad… no, it’s full of hate.''

Hate against what, and who?

The darkness ate away at the questions in her mind, and bared its invisible fangs to swallow even Celica. This presence was like a murderous intent to eat Celica alive; it shook her to the core with fear.

— “I’m not scared, I’m not scared, I’m not scared…” — Celica chanted, trying to reassure herself.

If this was inside the Black Beast… there was someone she still needed to find. If she didn’t take the initiative to search, when and how would she get to do it?

Even then, no matter how hard she thought about it, her heart was on the edge of collapsing under the fear surging towards her. How would she walk when she was so deeply hurt, she couldn’t even breathe right?


The rage around Celica pierced her even more coldly. She fell to her knees, unable to bear any more of it — until someone tugged at her arm, which had stiffened with fear, and held her close.

— “What—?”

This was just like déjà vu. She remembered it well.


The grip on her arm; the size of this hand; the feel of a glove…

When Celica was pulled, she naturally turned around. Her vision, which had been completely pitch-black until then, was filled with an eye-opening red.
No more doubts.

— “R…”

A man much taller than Celica, with spiked white hair and a green eye, looked at her and yelled…

— “The hell are you doing here?!”
With a sigh of relief, the girl remembered. She could never imagine this happening; he was finally here for her, to pull her out of the darkness.
— “Ragna!!”


The moment Celica called out his name, the darkness faded away to reveal a different place with vivid colors.

She found herself in a dense forest, where the trees rested with ethereal colors to them. A clearing had been carved out between them, with old, dilapidated, seemingly vacant houses.

On the outskirts of this abandoned village, Celica and Ragna were surrounded by countless four-legged wild beasts, their height going up to the girl’s thigh.

— “This place…!” Celica said, taken aback by the view around her.

The beasts looked vaguely like rabid wolves drooling pus from their fangs, their needle-like fur stained with black soot. Like something out of Celica’s nightmares.

Ragna nodded, let go of Celica’s arm, and grabbed the large sword that was stuck to the ground.


— “Yeah… it’s like when we first met.”

— “But how? This place was pitch-black just now. Why are you here too, Ragna? Are you even real...?”

So many questions popped into Celica's mind, and she didn't know which one to ask first. But she asked what came to her head, and Ragna opened his mouth to answer them, only to give up.

— “One question at a time, you know." Ragna said, "For now, I'm the real deal... I think.”

— “What do you mean, 'you think'?!”

— “I just don't―I don't even know what I'm doing! I mean, are you real? ''When'' are you?”


With his sword still wielded in his left arm, Ragna shot a bewildered glance at Celica.

Celica's heart skipped a beat; his eye was green.

— “Hey! I ''am'' real!” Though she sounded indignant, she had no doubts about Ragna.

He was real.

His warm green left eye; his blunt, yet soft voice; the motionless right arm and unopened right eye; they were all the same as she'd remembered.

— “But what do you mean ‘when are you’?”

As he tried to answer Celica's question, Ragna swung his sword to block an attack.

— “Damn, these guys are annoying...!”


One beast snarled and lunged at Ragna, but its fangs were caught by his blade; soon it was thrown back, its blackened body slammed into the overgrown weeds on the ground. With a deafening scream, the monster stopped moving before its body crumbled into a black fog.

...only for more monsters to emerge from the bushes.

— “Y'know, there's a lot I wanted to ask... but this might not be the time, nor the place.”

Ragna was quickly proven right: the monsters leapt at him with harsh roars, one after the other, before he slashed them away with his massive sword.

— “Ragna, behind you!”

— “Got it, now step back!!”

Another one sprang out from behind a bush, and Ragna cleaved at it from below. The lupine beast closed the gap between them, only to be kicked to the side; it fainted from the blow. A large swing of Ragna's sword hit the bridge of a nose that thrust straight into it, drawing out a crunch of bones so sickening, it gushed out a rancid splatter of black blood.

The color and smell of that blood made the beasts so hungry, their eyes looked bloodshot. The sounds of bones and flesh colliding continued in a relentless rhythm, but the monsters did not slow down. They just kept coming.

— “Ragna…” Celica said, worried sick even while protected by Ragna.

The back of his red coat, always in front of her, started pulsing even faster due to his exhausted breathing. How long had he been fighting? The sense of time here was too vague; like days had gone by in mere seconds. This dizziness felt like the haze of a fever dream. As time passed, more beasts gathered, until the place was packed full of four-legged black beasts.

— “Damn it, there's no end to these freaks!” Ragna clicked his tongue and brushed the hair from his forehead, which was stuck to his skin with sweat.

But he would not stop fighting. He kept Celica hidden behind him while he swung his greatsword.

Celica latched onto the back of his coat.

— “Ragna, let's get out of here, or you'll get hurt!” She yelled frantically.

— “I'll be fine. By the way... where are you going? This place―”

They were inside the Black Beast.

Celica suddenly figured: maybe Ragna's voice was just repeating her thoughts.

Either way, she truly was within the Black Beast. The darkness that surrounded her was the Black Beast itself; to escape this place was to escape the Black Beast's entrails. Of course, neither of them knew how to escape in the first place.

— “I can tell you, though... you can’t stay here.” As Ragna muttered bitterly, he heard a strange sound, like a crack.

He and Celica turned around at the same time, and both frowned at the strange view before them. A few meters back from their position, in the forest, their space was torn into like a hole punched into a canvas. Beyond the hole, there was nothing but black, with nobody peeking in... except for a hand desperately trying to tear into the woods.

— “Nirvana!!”

Her sharp claws, tailor-made for battle, tore the rift open so hard that they shook from the sheer force. But the crack that had gaped was pushing back against Nirvana's arms; her claws, which tried to regain their original form, seemed to struggle against the forest, which only sought peace.

— “Hey, Celica!” ― Ragna shouted, cleaving down another beast that had leapt his way. He didn't know the full story, but all he needed to know was those claws belonged to a friend of Celica. ― “That's enough. Get out of here!”

— “Enough...? Come with me, Ragna!” Celica grabbed at the hem of Ragna's coat; she could feel he wanted her to escape alone.

— “Don't worry about it, just hurry up and go. She's here to save you, right?” ― Ragna said, his green eye staring at the mechanical claws pushing the rift open so hard. Then he sighed, with a faint smile, at Celica. ― “Even if I wanted 
to go... I just can't. I have unfinished business here.”

— “Then I'm staying with you! I can't just leave you alone here!!” — He would just ask someone to protect Celica from danger and let her go... again. — “Please...”

— Celica felt her chest crumble, and she put all her strength into gripping Ragna's coat.
Feeling her weight on him, Ragna gave softer swings of his sword, so she wouldn't be shaken off. First, a cleaving motion; then, a forward thrust; then a downward swing to strike the last of the three wolves that had just advanced.

— “I told you already, you can't do that. This is something I gotta deal with alone.” Ragna said softly, planting a foot on the ground so no one could pass him and reach Celica.
He unleashed a powerful, spirited slash of his sword, cutting into two monsters at once. Ragna then stabbed his sword into the ground, turned around abruptly, and with only his left arm, he hoisted Celica by the waist and started running towards the dimensional rift behind him. It used to be large enough to swallow a girl, but had shrunken to half that size.

— “Don't stop pushing! You're getting Celica back right now!!” Ragna shouted at Nirvana.

Unsure if she'd heard Ragna, the machine plunged her claws deep into the edge of the spatial tear and began tearing into it again, with a sound like creaking bones. Little by little, she wrestled with the rift, pushing it up and down to weaken it. Two hands pulling open a black hole in the middle of a dark green forest had to be the stuff of nightmares.

Ragna then held Celica even tighter and thrusted her against the rift, practically pushing her against it. She writhed against this restraint; she couldn't believe she was being held in only one arm. As she was pushed hard against the dark rift, Celica leaned forward and desperately looked into Ragna's green eyes. Celica truly loved that color; so beautiful and gentle.

— “Ragna, let me go! Just when I got to see you...!!” She cried, her throat trembling more painfully than she could have imagined.

How Celica had missed him. She was so sure they would get to meet again. And yet, she worried just as much. She'd heard Ragna had disappeared after being swallowed by the Black Beast; was he even alive? It would be easy for Celica to just bide her time and hold out hope. But it hurt her badly to let go of his hand like this. She drowned in a storm of emotions, as Ragna extended his arm and handed Celica to Nirvana's heavy, metallic claws.

— “Don't worry.” Celica was quickly hoisted by mechanical claws, in a grip soft enough to avoid hurting her. She leaned forward in Nirvana's grip, while Ragna waved at her.

— “See you soon. I promise―I'll be back for you.”

Just not then, or there.

— “You promise…?”

Just like hearing a magic word, Celica's impatience, frustration, and regret were washed away; and instead, she felt a comforting warmth in her chest. She was just happy that Ragna had promised her. It sounded like he'd said this was not the end, and the promise was still alive.

Ragna turned away to face the pack of lupine monsters chasing him. He'd left his sword a fair distance away, so he had to fight barehanded until then. But the red-coated man saw no problem.

Such a strong, kind, and caring man.

Behind him, Celica raised her voice.

— “I'll wait for you! Come back, Ragna… I'll wait as long as it takes!”

— “Once I'm done with this... you know I will!”
Ragna looked back to see Celica smile. While the girl was pulled in by Nirvana, she saw Ragna's right eye open ― it was red, just like the Black Beast's, but it had the same gentle glint in it as his green left eye.

Nirvana embraced her tighter, until the rift completely faded from the woods, as if she had never even been there. While she looked on, she felt herself be pulled away, like she was being lifted from the ocean by a single string.

Strangely, the forest around Ragna disappeared as well. The abandoned village and the hordes of monsters faded to black once again.
Meanwhile, Ragna confronted someone. A small, petite girl, maybe shorter than Celica.
Her eyes, one of them hidden by an eyepatch, had red eyes like Ragna's.

Their lips moved, clearly talking about something, but Celica could not hear anything.
The girl before Ragna suddenly looked back at her and sent an eerie grin her way.

It wasn't long before Celica was pulled out of the darkness, like she'd risen out of the depths of the ocean, and the sudden brightness in her eyes knocked her unconscious.