NOVEL WEB Chapter 3: Realization.
Aoi looks up at the woman "Wait a minute..haven't I seen you before..?" Aoi asks as he takes a look at his surroundings, a desert with no buildings or anything like that in sight, just him, back on the hot sand, facing a girl he could've promised he's seen before..
"You? Sir I've never seen you before in my life, and I definitely haven't seen your style of clothes..questionable indeed.." The woman says, examining Aoi's expression and his clothes "That doesn't matter too much anyways….Kira Yuunagi, it's nice to meet you, well…not for you it looks like-"
"But..I've..seen you before..all of this just feels like a really bad fever dream" Aoi says, getting back up on his feet and brushing off the sand on his clothes….. "My name is Aoi..Aoi Takamura."
Kira's eyes widen once she heard that name, before grabbing Aoi's wrist with surprising grip "Say you're lying! Don't you dare..EVER lie like that again!"
Aoi snatched his hand back "What are you even talking about?! That's my actual name! What's so bad about it?"
"That name....just…just come with me" Kira says, gesturing to the camel behind her
Aoi and Kira ride the camel until they reach to what seems like a kingdom in the desert..this is where Kira lives, Aoi suspects that Prime Aoi's words are true, and that there's actually different versions of him in EVERY world..
"This…This is the kingdom I live in..a warlord claimed this kingdom and killed its king..that warlord, he too has that same name." Kira says, her tone hushed as she faces Aoi
"I knew it." Aoi says, looking at the Chrono-Watch on his wrist "Is there anyway I can meet him somehow?"
"Sure if he doesn't immediately try to kill you" Kira says, moving past crowds of people without being noticed "This warlord caused a event around 20 years ago, my mother tells me stories about it, I was very young back then. The "Zero Hour" event."
Aoi's eyes widen "So my variants are not only stronger than me, they're older than me?" Aoi mutters under his breath
"What'd you say?" Kira raises her eyebrow
"Nothing." Aoi reassured
Aoi and Kira begin to head towards the Gladiator arena, Kira states that the warlord goes there almost everyday to find a warrior that's worthy of his life. At the entrance, the two are met with two guards standing on both sides to the entrance
"Warrior or spectator?" One guard asked, his expression stern and unchanging, always having his hand at the hilt of his sword.
"You should participate, you'll get a chance to face him-" Kira states, urging Aoi to win against the warlord
"I want answers, not a reason to die! If I go in there, I'm finished!" Aoi panicked, the guard was getting irritated by the second by Aoi and Kira's banter
Kira, without Aoi's consent, chooses to make his decision herself "he'll be a participating, thank you!"
"Will you too be participating" the guard says with a expression of pure irritation
"Of course not" Kira says, walking straight past the guard,going straight ahead
Meanwhile, Aoi takes a right to go to the gladiator room, where he meets a bunch of random gladiators, all in various different armor pieces and their own special tactics for them to win in battle. Aoi begins to look for another one of his alternate self's in the room, but he's nowhere to be seen, he can't be missing him because he's supposed to look exactly like him in appearance..before Aoi can investigate further, a guard walks into the room.
"All fighters report to the ring for the 1st phase." The guard says as all the participants step out of the room, some with enthusiasm, others with calculating glares, and some downright scared for their lives.
Aoi moves nervously, not only has he never been in a fight, he was FORCED into a fight
"I guess there's a risk to everything…" Aoi mutters nervously to himself.
All the fighters gather in the middle of the ring, the crowd is huge, buzzing with excitement and anticipation, the guard from before steps up.
"First phase will consist of a free for all between all fighters. Death is allowed and most likely encouraged, the second phase involves the winner of the free for all to face our very own warlord!" The guard says with full confidence in this warlord version of Aoi
Soon after the explanation, the battle begins in a free for all in a small ring surrounded by water. based on the environment, to Aoi, it seemed like if you weren't dead. you weren't truly eliminated, Aoi weaves through the battlefield, the clashing of swords and weapons in general is all that can be heard. Aoi hides behind nearby pillars or huge rocks, this worked for around 25 minutes. But that's when he's approached by around a group of 3 gladiators, it looks like they've formed a team of 3 to quickly eliminate participants.
"Well, should we just throw him into the water or just give him a painless death?~" One of the three taunts, the rest laugh with him.
"Nah, I'm feeling a little brutal today~" the second one grins as he unsheathed his sword.
"Yeah, maybe let's toy around with him a little!~" the third one says as he inches closer and closer to Aoi.
"I'd rather die quickly than listen to your poor attempts at trying to scare me.." Aoi mutters under his breath, but he just made a grave mistake.
All of a sudden, the 3 gladiators rush towards Aoi in unison, Aoi is forced to run away and expose himself to the other gladiators, thankfully they were to focused in their current fight to care, some people were facing a one on three, some challenges others to a one on one duel, Meanwhile, Aoi was trying his best to outrun the trio, but he was failing miserably. These gladiators were trained, honed to near perfection, so there was no way Aoi was going to outrun even one of them!
Aoi hurdled over a huge rock before using a nearby group fight to mask his presence and hide behind another pillar. But when Aoi turns around, another nearby gladiator was behind him, a huge war-axe in hand. Aoi had no time to react, and the axe connected with his torso, seemingly slicing him in half, killing him instantly. But that's when, Aoi woke up again, his body was fine, and facing the same gladiator with a war axe once again, dashing towards him in the same way as before. But this was off..something was off. Aoi was confused until he remembered Prime Aoi's words: "With that watch, you can do anything time related." The words remind Aoi that he still had the Chrono-Watch. And that means, that Aoi had went back in time to just a 1 minute before he got killed. That's when Aoi realized that the Chrono-Watch also responded to Aoi's situation and feelings..