The Laughing Swordsman

There was a weeping insect, brushing away its tears. It was upset over being abandoned.

That was when Apollo stepped out of the shadow world and into the real world while Layla tore open space from the blue world to the real world.

Once the two of them set foot on the soil, the insect looked up to them and then raised its arms.

It hadn't been abandoned!

The insect immediately ran over to Apollo and touched his foot, prompting him to look down at it with confusion.

"What do you want?"

Surprisingly, the insect seemed dejected, as though it understood what those words meant.

For a second, Apollo was wondering what this thing even was, until he eventually remembered it was the insect that began following him a while ago.

Layla's tail swayed enthusiastically.

"Do you want to see more tasty things?"

Apollo lost interest in the insect and turned towards Layla.

"Not right at this moment. For now, I need to kill the thing in the center of this place."

Layla tilted her head to the side and placed her index finger on her chin.

"Oh, playing and new friends!"

She raised both hands in the air.

"I can't wait!"

Apollo shrugged.

"Then let's go right now."

Layla nodded.

"Ok!"

With that, the two of them ran towards the center of the toxic wasteland. Apollo left trails of lightning in his wake, while Layla kicked up large amounts of dirt with every step.

As for the insect, it looked on in despair, then began chasing after them as it cried.

Apollo found that they were running for quite some time, but saw no trace of any filth rain to indicate they were at the perpetual raining section.

He decided to multitask during this time and discover what the black flame match did.

Apollo pulled out the match, staring at it for a few moments. It jostled up and down because he was running.

Although Apollo had heard about matches before, he had never seen a real one in person. From what he knew, it needed to be rubbed against a rough surface and would be lit aflame.

Apollo looked at his bokken, then the black flame match. With less hesitation than he should've had, he scraped the match against his bokken, setting it aflame.

For a split second, Apollo saw a black flame appear. Then, his surroundings became pitch black while the flame on his match became white.

...No, that wasn't accurate.

Apollo could still see the ground below him and Layla next to him. However, everything past ten meters was replaced by darkness.

Layla's furry ears twitched after the match was lit. She gasped in surprise.

"Wah! It's so hard to see now!"

Apollo raised an eyebrow.

"I guess. This thing doesn't seem very useful."

Layla remained silent. She turned towards Apollo's direction, but didn't look directly at him. Then, she looked to her right.

Layla couldn't see Apollo.

"Where did you go, friend?"

Apollo rolled his eyes.

"I'm right next to you, what are you talking about?"

Yet, Layla did not respond. She eventually slowed to a stop, prompting Apollo to do the same.

"Why aren't you saying anything, friend?"

Apollo blinked a few times, slowly realizing that the match he was holding might be more than what he expected. From what Layla said, it seemed that while this match cut off his vision of everything farther than ten meters, it would not only make him invisible, but silent as well.

"Ah, friend is here!"

Suddenly, Layla appeared in front of Apollo who had his head down in thought. He recoiled slightly.

"Ah, you can see me?"

Layla's eyes were glowing blue ever so slightly. She nodded enthusiastically. 

"Yeah!"

Apollo rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

"Can you hold this for a second?"

He extended out the hand that was holding on to the match. Layla curiously stared into the white flame before nodding. She pinched onto the match with two fingers.

Almost immediately, Apollo's vision was restored. He could now see farther than ten meters like normal. As for Layla, she had disappeared entirely.

Apollo spun around to confirm that Layla really wasn't anywhere nearby, then held out his hand. After a few moments, he found the match was back in his hand while his vision past ten meters was blocked.

Layla had been holding onto the match and then let go.

"That thingy is so weird!"

Apollo chuckled.

"It really is."

As one last experiment, he stuck the match into the ground. As expected, his vision returned, while the match itself disappeared.

Other than a small unassuming hole in the ground, there was nothing to indicate that anything was there. As for the dirt, although it was 'holding' onto the match to a certain extent, it did not disappear like Layla.

Apollo's eyes narrowed.

There were still a few nuances he wasn't sure on, like what would happen if a corpse held onto the match. However, he could just test those things later.

Apollo picked the match back up and turned to Layla.

"Tell me when you see any rain."

Layla tilted her head to the side, then nodded.

"Ok!"

She began running forward while Apollo made sure not to fall behind. It felt a little strange being unable to see that far ahead, however, it wasn't like Apollo was in a horror movie or something, so he didn't have to worry about jumpscares.

As the two of them ran, Apollo counted the seconds to determine how long the match would last. Although he wasn't the most accurate, it would at least give him a sense of their duration.

Eventually, Layla's furry ears twitched. She turned to Apollo as they ran and pointed forth.

"I can see some rain and a new friend!"

Apollo gave Layla a glance.

"Alright."

By counting, he determined roughly thirty minutes had passed. Along the way, he did several other experiments and found holding onto the match with his clothes would not restrict his vision.

So he pinched the match with the corner of his clothes.

And raised both eyebrows.

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