Alright first of all I need to calm down first.
It's not that bad. It's only like looking at some kind of doppelganger of myself staring back at me.
I mean, compared to suddenly reincarnating into the anime I watched and meeting a weird woman who has a hobby of becoming an idol and uploading it to the internet, this isn't even that strange.
And then learning magecraft and casting spells like I'm inside a video game or some fantasy novel.
Staring at my own doppelganger shouldn't be that weird compared to all of that.
"Hello?" the doppelganger said with exactly the same voice as mine as she waved her hand in front of my face.
"You're Rikka, right? Our main personality," she added.
Not gonna lie, hearing my own voice come out of someone else's mouth with no emotion behind it feels really weird.
"Who are you? What do you mean by main personality?" I said to her.
Right now both of us are standing in front of each other, making it feel like I'm looking into a mirror.
"I'm you."
"What do you mean you're me?"
"I'm you. You're me. The same person, the same existence, the same origin. Another you, another self, another side of the same mind."
Her voice remained completely flat as she spoke, like she was simply stating a fact that didn't need further explanation.
"I'm the same as you. Your reflection, your other half, your other self. Another consciousness born from the same identity."
She looked straight into my eyes. Seeing my own face staring back at me like that was incredibly unsettling.
"The same thoughts, the same memories, the same foundation. We are the same person that became two."
I could feel a strange headache starting to form just trying to follow what she was saying.
"Another version of you. Another you that is also me. The same self that now exists separately."
She raised her hand and lightly pointed between the two of us.
"You. Me. Me. You. The same person."
Her expression never changed even slightly.
"Two individuals. One identity. One origin. One existence divided into two awarenesses."
Then she calmly finished, as if everything she said made perfect sense.
"I'm you. You're me. We're the same."
I had no idea what she was talking about, so the only response I could give was
"I see."
"You still don't understand, right?"
"No, no. I clearly understand everything. No need to repeat it."
"We're the same person, so I know that you don't understand what I'm saying."
"Anyway, that doesn't matter. Stop saying we're the same person already."
I can think about this doppelganger stuff later because I'm here for a different reason.
While I'm here, I immediately pulled a novel from the shelf.
"Ahhh, I miss this."
The cover, the smell of the book, everything was the same as in my memory.
I went to the bed and started reading it, leaving the doppelganger standing there alone.
"Hehehe."
I couldn't help but grin while looking at the illustrations inside the book. It was a shame I didn't have my phone here so I could read the manhwa version instead.
But at least the novel I bought had some illustrations, and after eight years of not reading it, everything felt fresh again. Even though I already knew what was going to happen in the story, it still felt exciting.
While I was enjoying the book, suddenly I felt something poking my side.
Poke.
I ignored it and kept reading.
Poke.
I brushed it off with my elbow while keeping my eyes on the page.
Poke.
Poke.
The poking continued.
I tried to ignore it for a few seconds more, but it didn't stop.
Finally I closed the book slightly and turned my head toward the other me who was now standing beside the bed.
"What are you doing!?" I said with annoyance. "Let me read in peace. If we're the same person then you should know I hate being interrupted while reading."
"We still need to talk," the doppelganger said.
"At least let me read first."
But the other Rikka shook her head.
"You can't stay here forever. The longer you stay here, our places are going to swap."
"What? By swapping you mean I'm not going to become the main personality again? Wait, how does this personality stuff even work anyway? Why do I even have something like this!?"
I closed the book and sat up from the bed, staring at her with confusion.
The other Rikka then climbed onto the bed and sat down beside me, turning so that we were facing each other.
"Fine, I'm also curious about this personality stuff."
So we spent like a few minutes chatting with each other, and from what the other Rikka said, I started to understand what was going on. It seemed that even though my other personality knew I wasn't from this world, she didn't know about my previous world, as she couldn't see it.
And this place can be called my inner world or something, located in the deepest thoughts in my mind. The house and everything inside of it is being created from my memory, and the other Rikka can pull them from this place.
At one point, this place was just a pure white landscape with nothing in it, but thanks to the other Rikka manifesting my old house and everything, the white landscape turned into this place.
"But where do you come from? You tell me about this house, but why do I have different personalities?"
"Like I said before, I'm you, but you already knew that, right? What you want to ask is why I exist?" the other Rikka said, tilting her head slightly.
"Yeah."
The other Rikka started speaking quietly, as if recalling something from far away. She explained that she hadn't even been born yet, that she existed somewhere like in a dark space before life, waiting to take form. She had known that she was supposed to be born, that her soul would take this body, but before that could happen, something pushed her aside. Another soul had taken her place, forcing her in before she could enter the world.
Before she realized it, she was alone in the white landscape, the place that would later become this house. There was nothing around her, no house, no furniture, no walls, just pure emptiness. No one else was there. She had only herself, and the faint memories of what she might have been, waiting in a blank space that was entirely hers to fill.
"You're taking over the body and becoming the main personality while I'm here now," she said.
I just listened, trying to absorb everything as much as I could.
If what she said was true, then does that mean...
Tears slowly formed in my eyes as I looked at the other Rikka, and a soft sniffle escaped me as I began to cry while listening to her. She tilted her head slightly, her expression calm but curious, and asked quietly, "Why are you crying?"
Before I could answer, I wrapped my arms tightly around her, holding her close as the tears streamed down my face. "I'm sorry," I whispered over and over, my voice breaking, unable to stop the flood of emotions I had kept inside.
I understand now... This one was supposed to be the one born in this world, but because of me I stole her place and made her trapped in this place.
Instead of feeling warmth in the orphanage, growing up with everyone and living happily in the real world, I'm the one who took that place.
"I'm sorry for stealing your place and making you trapped here," I said through tears. It felt so wrong... like a thirty-year-old soul stealing a baby's life and leaving that baby's soul trapped inside of me.
"Eh?" From the other Rikka's tone, I could tell she didn't understand why I was crying.
She had never lived in the real world, so of course she couldn't understand what it felt like.
But I'm the one who has lived two lives. I know what she lost.
And that thought alone made me feel even sadder.
Suddenly I felt her arms wrap around me as she hugged me back, even though she still didn't understand why I was crying in the first place.
She probably understood that I was crying for her and not for some weird reason.
It took me a while to finally calm down and stop crying. I think this was the first time I had cried this hard since I reincarnated in this world.
I just felt really bad for this other Rikka.
"Do... do you want to become the main personality? This is your body after all..." I said slowly to her.
But the other Rikka just shook her head. "No. Also this is not my body. This is our body. We're the same person," she added.
"But... you know I'm not from this world so-" before I could finish, the other Rikka cut me off.
"I know about that, but I don't really care much about the real world. This place is much more fun. I can materialize anything from your memory."
"Huh? Isn't that kinda broken?"
"Probably. But thanks to that I never get bored here. Also it's not like I'm trapped here, you know."
"Huh?"
Then she started explaining that we could actually switch who controls the body. But she would need my permission to do that, and we wouldn't share the memories of what the other person did in the real world.
"That's kinda stupid. So if you become the main personality, whatever you're doing in the real world I can't remember it and won't know?"
"For now, yes. Our body is still small, so that's our brain's defense mechanism so it doesn't get overwhelmed by two separate memories."
"I see..."
Now I felt a little embarrassed after crying like that. If I had known we could switch, then that meant I wasn't stealing her life. We could just switch if she wanted.
"But because I'm the main personality, you need my permission to do it?"
"Yes."
Alright... that's good to know.
If she ever got bored, I could just let her swap with me.
After that we started talking about many things. She asked me about the novel and the manhwa she had been reading earlier, while I asked her about what happened when I suddenly appeared in this world.
From what she told me, it seemed that before I fully took over this body, someone-or something-had called for my soul and placed it here.
Unfortunately she didn't know who did it, so there was nothing we could do about that for now. After that the conversation slowly shifted to other things.
I wanted to ask her how I could leave this place since I was still in the middle of saving Sakura.
But before I could even ask, she suddenly spoke.
"It's time for you to leave. Our body should be fine now. You're too reckless using that reality marble like that," the other Rikka said.
"Haha... it couldn't be helped. That was my last resort. There's no way I could fight hundreds of worms alone while trying to protect Sakura."
The other Rikka stood up from the bed and walked toward the bedroom door.
"Let's go," she said, turning her head toward me as she opened it.
"Where are we going?" Of course I immediately followed her.
She led me downstairs and toward the front door that I couldn't open earlier.
But somehow she opened it easily, and I could finally see what was outside the house.
"There is... nothing?"
All I could see beyond the door was a bright white light. There was no road, no yard, nothing like the outside of my old house.
"Go on. You need to wake up. Time moves slowly in this place, basically like when you're dreaming," she said.
Right... I should head back now and see what's happening in the real world.
"But what about you?" I couldn't help asking one more time, just in case she had changed her mind.
"Like I said, I'll be here. And I still want to continue reading, so get out."
She suddenly grabbed my hand and pushed me outside before I could react.
"Eh-what the hell!? At least let me say goodbye first, you stupid!!?"
I wanted to yell more, but my voice stopped.
The last thing I saw was her smiling at me before she closed the door.
Then everything turned white.
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After Rikka left, the other Rikka was still standing in front of the door, quietly staring at it.
"Isn't she cute? She's crying for you and feeling bad for you."
Suddenly, another voice that sounded almost identical to hers came from behind.
"Our main personality is just too cute. The moment she realized she reincarnated into a world she barely understands, the first thing she did was try to rescue someone."
"I hope she stays like that until the end," the voice added.
"What are you trying to say?"
The other Rikka slowly turned around to face the source of the voice.
There was another Rikka standing there. But this one felt completely different from both Rikka and the other Rikka.
She wore a beautiful white kimono, her expression calm and detached, with a shallow gaze that looked almost empty. She wasn't emotionless like the other Rikka, but the atmosphere around her felt much colder.
"Void," the other Rikka said.
"Denial."
Both personalities—Denial and Void—stood facing each other.
"What are you trying to say?" Denial repeated.
For the record, she hated the Void personality. For some reason, Void always annoyed her, the same way that girl in the outside world did.
"You know this world is not kind to someone like our main personality. I can't see her future, since she came from another world."
Void slowly walked toward the front door, passing by Denial as she reached out and lightly touched it.
"But there is a loophole in that. I can look through the futures of the people closest to her. From there… I can see what might happen."
Void glanced at Denial for a moment before turning her attention back to the door.
"It's your choice, Denial."
After saying that, she fell silent, as if waiting for the other to respond.
But Denial simply shrugged.
"Whatever."
She turned around and walked back upstairs, planning to continue what she had been doing before.
Leaving Void alone, Denial's footsteps slowly faded as she went upstairs.
Void remained standing in front of the door, her hand gently resting against its surface. Slowly, she began to caress it, as if feeling the thin barrier that separated her from the main Rikka.
"It's going to start..." she murmured quietly to herself.
"The hour draws near…"
"When steel and silver shall become the vessel."
"When ancient contracts awaken once more."
"When six thrones shall answer the call."
Far away from Fuyuki City, in Germany—
A man with cold, lifeless eyes stood inside a church, facing a ritual circle carved into the floor. Beside him stood a beautiful woman with long silver hair and crimson red eyes, quietly watching the ritual unfold.
The man slowly raised his right arm toward the circle. Mana flowed from his body, pouring into the lines carved into the ground. The circle began to glow, and a violent wind stirred inside the church as if the ritual itself was breathing.
His voice echoed through the empty hall.
"Let thy body rest under my dominion. Let my fate rest in thy blade. If thou submittest to the call of the Holy Grail, and if thou wilt obey this mind, this reason, then thou shalt respond."
Far away in the Fuyuki City, other rituals were unfolding at the same moment.
In a luxurious mansion, a noble magus calmly recited an ancient chant.
"Ye first, O silver, O iron. O stone of the foundation, O Archduke of the Contract. Hear me in the name of our great teacher, the Archmagus Schweinorg."
Deep beneath an old house, a man can be seen saying the chant through clenched teeth with a little girl watching over him
Elsewhere, inside a quiet church, another priest calmly performed the same ritual with unwavering composure.
Different places. Different people.
Yet the meaning of their chants was the same.
Six ritual circles across the city began to shine at once.
The magic formations blazed brighter and brighter, until a brilliant light burst forth from each circle, blinding the Masters who stood before them.
The summoning had begun.
From the storm of light and mana, figures slowly emerged.
A knight clad in shining armor stepped forward with calm dignity.
A golden queen stood proudly as if the world itself belonged to her.
A spearman with crimson armor appeared like a warrior from ancient legends.
A towering conqueror laughed loudly the moment he arrived.
A shadowed figure silently knelt within the darkness of the ritual.
And somewhere, a black-armored warrior radiating madness slowly raised his head.
Saber. Archer. Lancer. Rider. Assassin. Berserker.
Six servant from the distant past had answered the call of the Grail.
And back to the quiet house in the middle of white space that no one else could see—
Void gently rested her hand against the door.
Her expression remained calm, as if she had already seen everything that would happen next.
"I hereby swear."
"That I shall witness all good in this world."
"That I shall witness all evil in this world."
Her fingers slowly slid across the surface of the door.
"Let the Fourth Holy Grail War begin."