Editing BlazBlue:Phase Shift 4 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 4===

By the time she took her very next breath, her surroundings were already nothing but pitch black.

The blackness was so deep that she couldn't tell if her eyes were open or closed. She couldn't tell how far it continued, or even if it had an end at all. It might have been a mistake to even be thinking about it in terms of distance.

Isolated in darkness so deep that it overrode the very concept of being 'deep' at all, Celica and Nirvana stood in stark contrast to their surroundings as obvious irregularities, being the only two entities that possessed chromatic color.

Celica steeled herself and quickly checked her surroundings.

This was her second time here.

This was the inside of the Black Beast.

Last time the deep darkness of her surroundings had been so irrationally terrifying that she had felt like she was slowly being swallowed by it, but she didn't have the time to waste on being stupefied by something like that this time.

"Nirvana, are you alright?"

She looked toward where her partner was standing directly behind her, and Nirvana looked back with her big, solid eyes. Reacting to the question may have been her way of saying that she was fine. After all, Nine had remodeled her into a Nox Nyctores for the express purpose of fighting the Black Beast. She was incomparably stronger than Celica, so she was okay.

Deciding to go with that convenient bit of reasoning, Celica took a step closer and huddled next to Nirvana. She thought that she could see herself a little better that way, and the surrounding seithr felt far less suffocating as well.

"First, we've gotta hurry and find Ragna."

Or so she said, but she didn't know how she was going to find anyone in this pitch black darkness with neither a path nor lights.

She did have an idea though. It was an idea that only Celica would have thought of. She unconsciously ran her hand along Nirvana's arm as she took a deep breath in, forgetting about the thick seithr all around her. And then…

"Ragnaaaaaaaaaaa!!"

Using all the air in her lungs at once and bending her body forward, she shouted as loud as she possibly could.

Then she took Nirvana by the hand and started running straight forward in the direction her eyes were facing.

She wouldn't be able to figure out which direction she ought to go or where she ought to look no matter how much time she spent thinking about it, after all, so she just started running and planned to keep on yelling until she found Ragna. This is what she had planned on doing even before jumping in here.

"Ragna, answer if you can hear me! Raaaaaagnaaaaaaaa!!"

The black nothingness she was stepping on felt like a hard floor beneath her feet. It was an incredibly strange feeling, like a sort of phenomenon where simply thinking that there was a floor beneath her made it so.

Celica kept on running straight ahead, continuously calling out Ragna's name. No one answered. She didn't hear any sounds that made her think that someone was out there, either. Naturally, she couldn't even hear the sounds of the battle that deviated from the boundaries of common sense that must have still been going on outside.

Loneliness started to sink into Celica's chest.

There was nothing there.

Her mind was on the verge of being filled with nothing but that thought and the feelings that came with it. Like she was trying to wipe away those feelings, Nirvana suddenly and forcefully wrapped her arms around Celica and brought her to a halt.

"Hya!"

Surprised by the sudden bodily contact, Celica jumped with a yelp. A moment later, however, a far more shocking phenomenon made the arm-bound Celica forget to breathe.

The monochrome black landscape was changing. Like little black pieces flipping over to reveal color hidden on their other sides, their surroundings were widening out into a definite scene... until eventually they changed into a thick but pitifully lifeless forest.

"This is..."

Her lips moved on their own.

Celica gently pressed on Nirvana's chest to get her to let go then walked into the forest like she was being drawn in. It was just like last time, when she had accidentally gone inside the Black Beast. It was the same scenery as then, and it had appeared before her in the same way. This was the deserted village in the forest where Celica had first met Ragna.

"Which means... Let's go, Nirvana! "

A baseless hunch set Celica's legs in motion. She ran off like a kitten and Nirvana followed after her.

She didn't have to run long before she saw something.

In the middle of the deserted village, overgrown with grass and scattered with rotting old houses, a thick tree seemed to be pointing toward the entrance to the forest.

A young man in a brilliant red coat stood before it. Celica sprinted at top speed and leapt onto his red-coated back with all her momentum.

"Ragna!!"

"Uoogh!?"

The man made a sound of surprise as she landed on him with a dull thud.

Reflexively shaking Celica off and turning around with his guard up, his grim face stiffened in shock.

"Wha... huh!? You dumbass, why are you still here! Didn't I just see you leave!?"

He shouted with more agitation than anger in his voice.

He stood much taller than Celica, had distinctive white hair, and seemed to only be able to open his beautiful green left eye. It was Ragna. They really had met again. Completely forgetting that she was inside of the Black Beast, a smile overflowing with joy covered Celica's entire face.

Then the words Ragna had said a moment ago finally clicked with her.

"What do you mean, you just saw me leave?"

Celica had an idea of what had happened even as she asked.

Thinking back on it, she remembered hearing a while ago that there was a strange phenomenon where time passed extremely slowly near cauldrons. The Black Beast had passed through countless cauldrons, so they might have had an effect on it that makes the flow of time all weird here.

"I mean that I just saw you leave, what... oh, I get it. Time flows differently here."

Muttering as he figured the situation out faster than Celica had, Ragna had a discontented look about him as he took his hand off of his chin.

He looked annoyed as he gave a big sigh. Every one of his mannerisms was so nostalgic, and they made Celica so happy, but she took a deep breath and came back to her senses. She didn't have time to be standing around in a nostalgic daze. Squeezing her small hands tight, Celica took a big step closer to Ragna.

"That's right! Ragna, I need your help!"

"Huh? Help? With what?"

"I want to defeat the Black Beast!"

Celica looked up at Ragna with passion in her eyes, but Ragna gave her a hard frown.

"The Black Beast?"

He was obviously perplexed, but before he even finished getting the words out, Ragna's expression changed from doubt to understanding, as if he had suddenly remembered something.

His eyes said that he knew the gist, and he prompted Celica to continue.

"It's that time already, huh... What about the Nox Nyctores? They're done, right?"

"Huh? Why do you know that, Ragna?"

It was Celica's turn to be surprised this time. Her eyes went wide as she took another step toward him, and Ragna got a troubled look on his face.

"Well, uh... that doesn't really matter, right? Do you have them or do you not?"

"Oh, yeah, we have them. Onee-chan made them. Nirvana's one too."

Celica raised her arm to introduce her, and Nirvana stared at Ragna as she continued to stand there silently.

Shrinking away from her inorganic gaze, Ragna's expression looked a little bitter.

"Nirvana..."

Celica stared blankly and tilted her head as she watched him mumble, but before she could ask, Ragna belted out his next question.

"So, how do you want me to help?"

As he spoke, he leaned back on one of the trees making up the forest surrounding the village with a plop. His right arm dangled limply at his side, apparently still unable to move.

Celica's cheeks relaxed with relief. It was no surprise, but she was glad that he was hearing her out like it was the only natural thing to do. With a nod, she started explaining Hakumen's plan.

In order to defeat the Black Beast, they had to strike at both its body and its heart.

In order to defeat the body, they were going to teleport the Black Beast to a certain special place. Its seithr would be repressed there, which would keep the Black Beast in check.

While that was going on, Celica's job was to go inside the Black Beast and find Ragna. She and Ragna were then supposed to find and destroy the Black Beast's heart... doing so at the same time as when its body was destroyed on the outside.

She got mixed up and confused herself as she gave the explanation, but Ragna, still leaning against the tree trunk, listened all the way to the end (occasionally looking exasperated). Celica was worried that she might have forgotten something, but she whispered to herself that she was okay and waited for a response.

Ragna moved his body off the tree, twisting his mouth like he had swallowed something bitter.

"...So that's that masked bastard's plan, then. And my job is to destroy the Black Beast's heart? Jeez, when did I become part of his crew?"

Ragna grumbled a little, but Celica's eyes started sparkling.

"I knew it! You and Hakumen-san know each other."

She had been curious about that for a long time. Ragna had never mentioned Hakumen and Hakumen wouldn't give her a straight answer no matter how many times she asked, but she had thought that there must be some connection between them. Above all, they had that sense of similarity that occasionally stirred Celica's memories, making her think that they resembled each other too much to be complete strangers.

Her curiosity overflowing, Celica's innocent eyes bored into a flustered Ragna.

"You mean Hakumen-san when you say 'masked bastard,' right?"

"You... weren't you in a hurry?"

Ragna's eyes narrowed as he gave her his most exasperated look of the day, and Celica abruptly reigned in her curiosity.

"Oh, right. Well anyway, that's the plan, and I need your help. I don't even know where I would look on my own..."

"No need to look anywhere."

A disturbing note suddenly mixed itself into Ragna's pleasant voice. His green eye was sharp and vigilant, and he slowly rose to his feet.

Ragna's eye was looking over Celica's shoulder at something behind her rather than at Celica herself. Nirvana stood at the ready next to her. Picking up on what was happening slower than the other two, Celica turned around.

When had she gotten there, and how long had she been there? A silver-haired girl clad in a white cape was standing barefoot behind her.

(She's... the girl from last time!)

Celica had seen her before. A memory of a single fleeting glimpse came back to her mind. It was the girl she had seen right as she was leaving Ragna and escaping from inside the Black Beast.

"Ragna..."

The silver-haired girl called out with a lovely, flirtatious voice, looking truly delighted as a smile of ecstasy spread across her face.

"Here you were all along. Nu was looking for you for so, so, sooo long... how cruel of you."

Her name must have been Nu. Baffled, Celica took a step back. Her back bumped into Ragna, and she looked up at him questioningly. Celica's wet soil-colored eyes were met by Ragna's green one as he answered.

"She's what you came looking for."

There was only one thing that Celica was looking for right now, which meant…

"She... is the Black Beast's heart."

Hakumen had said the same thing once before, too. The girl she saw inside the Black Beast was the very heart of the monster that threatened the world.

Celica gulped nervously.

She was here to destroy the heart of the Black Beast, but it was easier said than done. In order to save the people outside, and to save all the people in the entire world, she had to kill this girl standing in front of her.

"...Hey, Ragna? Who's that?"

Exhaling heavily, the smile vanished from the heart-girl's face as ice-cold blood lust lit up her eye. She could only open her left eye, just like Ragna, and it was staring straight at Celica.

"Nu hates her. Hey, Ragna, hurry up and kill her. Nu will do it if you don't."

Her words were as cold as a blade of glass, but she trembled like raging fury was burning her away from the inside as she said them. She was looking at Celica, but it was questionable whether or not she recognized her as a living being. It felt more like she saw Celica as a concept to direct her hatred towards, and Celica was left dumbfounded.

Pushing Celica back behind him, Ragna pressed forward unflinchingly. He seemed to be very familiar with this girl.

"Stay back. Dealing with her is my job."

Firmly instructing Celica to stay behind him, Ragna drew his wide-bladed sword from his hip and stood ready to fight. Nirvana wrapped her arms around Celica and pulled her close to keep her safe and far away from them.

The girl wasn't looking at Celica anymore. A twisted, childish smile rose to her face as she opened her arms wide for a hug.

"Good, come here, Ragna. I'll love you. Ragna is all, all, aaaaaall mine, after all... ahahahaha!"

Her musical voice suddenly gave way to a shrill laugh. She pulled off her white cape and started floating soundless above the ground.