"I agree," Gabriel replied calmly. "A battle never recorded… like mist that hides the truth…"
Cid's smile widened just a little.
"And a shadow," he added softly, "that hunts within the shadow."
They fell silent.
Those words met in the air like two overlapping layers of reality, too perfectly aligned to be coincidence.
This would become something the world would never record… yet it would be carved into the shadows.
On Gabriel's shoulder, Morgan let out a quiet sigh, fingers pressing against her temple in tired resignation.
She already knew.
The stage had opened—and the two actors were about to clash atop a train that never slowed.
A moment later, Morgan's form faded, dissolving back into Gabriel's grimoire.
The next instant, the two of them closed the distance, wooden swords swinging toward one another.
Tak!
The glowing wooden blades collided, spraying bluish-purple and pale white sparks into the night air.
Gabriel's small body moved faster than it should have. His steps skimmed over the slick metal like a shadow.
His attacks weren't wild—they were precise, like someone who had already seen the path of the future.
Cid parried with one hand.
Tak. Tak. Tak.
Every strike that should have been fatal stopped a millimeter from Cid's body, halted by impossible blade angles.
Cid smiled faintly.
Oh.
This kid is serious.
Not playing around.
Gabriel spun, lifted for a split second by the rushing wind of the train, then brought his sword down in a vertical slash.
"Begone!"
Cid shifted his foot an inch.
CRASH
The roof of the carriage split with a shriek of metal, wind blasting through the gap.
But Cid was already behind Gabriel.
"…Nice movement."
Gabriel went still.
For the first time, the eye hidden behind his black hair widened slightly.
Cid stood right behind him, his wooden sword glowing faint purple as he raised it toward Gabriel's back.
"…Heh."
Gabriel let out a small laugh.
Just before the tip could touch him, he rolled forward, slipping cleanly out of the slash's path.
In one fluid motion, he was back on his feet, wooden blade leveled at Cid.
"Shadow… I know every pattern of your dance. Don't think something that simple can touch me."
Cid lowered his wooden sword.
A faint smile—barely there—touched the corner of his lips.
"Not bad," he said quietly. "For someone with no name… you dance quite neatly in the dark."
The cloth-covered gaze turned squarely toward Gabriel.
"There's a bit of… shadow in your movements."
The night wind flowed between them.
The roof of the carriage trembled softly beneath their feet, keeping rhythm with the iron wheels roaring along the rails.
Thin snow drifted down, catching in their hair and black coats—only to be swept away a moment later.
Gabriel twirled his wooden sword once in his hand.
"Hm… acknowledged by the Shadow himself," he said lightly, though quiet satisfaction hummed beneath his voice. "An honor no world will ever record."
Cid remained still, blindfold unmoving.
"Then," Gabriel continued softly, "allow me to return that acknowledgment."
He stepped forward.
Not fast.
Not slow.
Just one step—perfectly in sync with the train's rhythm.
The air around him shifted.
Not because of the wind—but because something inside Gabriel was opening.
Cid raised his sword slightly.
"…Interesting."
Without looking—without a signal—Gabriel vanished from Cid's front.
Not teleportation.
Not an illusion.
But a positional shift too clean for ordinary eyes to follow.
Cid turned his body half a step.
CLACK.
Their wooden swords collided just behind him, sparks of violet and pale white mana bursting into the air like fireworks in falling snow.
"You're not using your eyes," Cid murmured. "But you're not fighting with your ears either."
Gabriel smiled beneath his hair and blindfold. "I fight with… the world that leaks between seconds."
He pushed.
A wave of pressure forced Cid to slide several steps across the slick rooftop.
Wood groaned sharply.
Cid stopped right at the edge of the carriage.
Wind howled beneath him.
"…I see," he said quietly. "Not sight… but a sense for the structure of reality itself."
For the first time since the duel began,
the corner of his mouth lifted—more clearly than before.
"Now this is starting to feel like real training."
The train cut through the white expanse, and above it, two blindfolded boys danced along the thin line between play and destruction.
Inside the carriage, the passengers rested peacefully.
Not one of them felt even a ripple of mana, nor did they realize what was happening on the roof—everything masked by the protective spell Gabriel had placed over the train cars earlier.
But there was one exception.
In one of the seats, a young girl stared out the window.
Strange, shifting shadows outside had caught her attention, stirring a curiosity she couldn't quite suppress.
The reflection in the glass showed her clearly: sharp red eyes, long silver hair tied in a ponytail, adorned with a large black ribbon.
It was Alexia Midgar—still very young.
She leaned her small body closer to the window, eyes following every movement of those shadows with genuine fascination.
"Who… are they?" she murmured softly, as if speaking only to herself.
But as she held her breath and looked longer, the figures vanished—swept away by wind and swirling snow, leaving behind only a faint violet glimmer that slowly faded into the night.
Meanwhile, Cid and Gabriel's duel raged on as the train carried them out of the snowy plains and toward a region of steep cliffs.
The wind changed—rougher, sharper.
Below them, a black abyss yawned open like the mouth of the world itself.
One of Cid's slashes met Gabriel's full guard.
TAK.
The pressure was just a little too much.
Gabriel's small body was pushed back, his boots scraping across the metal roof slick with ice.
One step.
Then another—
Crack.
The ice beneath his foot shattered.
Gabriel's eyes widened behind his hair and blindfold. His breath hitched on instinct.
His body tilted.
For a fraction of a second, the world went empty—no ground, no footing, only wind and void.
"—!"
His hand shot up reflexively, the wooden sword slipping from his grip. A purely human reaction—not technique, not power—just the instinct of something that was about to fall.
And then… he was thrown off the edge of the carriage roof.
Mist and the abyss welcomed him.
Cid froze.
Not out of panic.
But because—he could no longer feel the flow of Gabriel's mana in front of him.
That presence… was receding.
Sinking.
Vanishing into a depth even his senses couldn't reach.
Cid removed his blindfold and stared into the gorge, eyes narrowing.
"…I see."
In his mind, a conclusion—perfectly reasonable to him—took shape.
He didn't fall.
Impossible.
Not after everything he had witnessed from that blindfolded boy.
"So he chose to withdraw… not by fleeing… but by erasing his existence from the stage."
The mist curling upward felt like a theater curtain drawing shut.
He turned away.
His coat fluttered in the freezing wind, his silhouette cut against the dull gray light of the winter sky.
"Someday," he murmured quietly, "if we are truly destined to stand on the same stage…"
His footsteps moved farther along the creaking roof of the carriage.
"…you will emerge from the darkness again, as if you had never left."
The train continued racing through the snowfields. And atop it, Cid Kagenou disappeared as well—leaving behind the gorge, the mist, and a misunderstanding he believed to be the beauty of fate.
___
Author's note: Cid has officially misunderstood everything 🤣🤣
Anyway, if you enjoyed this, thank you for reading! Don't forget to add it to your favorites, leave a comment, and give me a Power Stone.