Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 297: Interlude - 16: Matter Inside Mind

Her body was thrown into the sky and she raised her sword high, "Webbing Lightning!" the next thing she saw was a bright yellow flash of light, as—"CLATTER! BLAST!"—a bolt of yellow lightning shot into the sky...

"JOTOU!" the voice of Fumeko yelling out.

Soaring through the oceans of clouds, the chill past her ears and the air so thin... "Woah," Asobi’s voice rang.

"Sobi?" a male voice uttered.

"Huh? Who’re you?" Asobi queried back.

"It’s me; wait, are you seeing this?"

Both voices spoke with no form. The only thing they could see was the clouds and in fact, they could feel the thin air in their lungs and the cold brushing against their skin...

"I see, the pretty clouds-" Asobi noticed the blonde bangs fluttering over the scene she was experiencing—blonde bangs that ended in black. "This is Jotou’s memory. It’s exactly how she said it!"

"Yeah, I can see and feel it. I was just wondering if you could see my memory too. Where are you?"

"I don’t know... I can’t feel myself, I feel like, I’m in Jotou’s memory; I know I’m me though. But what do you mean your memory? Who is this?"

"What’re you talking about? It’s me, Jotou. You’re literally looking at my memory."

"I’m confused..."

The memory played, just as the sword was pointed down and lightning began to fizzle, it all went dark—instantly with no sound. Everything around was pitch-black.

Popping into the middle of the darkness, was a soft pink flash; now standing in its position, was an elf in magician’s clothing. She spun around the emptiness, looking for anything at all.

"This is scary..." however, the wand gripped in her hand brought her comfort.

"Tell me about it."

Asobi twisted around with a little yelp. The male voice she heard, now taken physical form much like her. About six feet he was, with tousled black hair that was somehow still tidy.

Black jeans and some dark-hued t-shirt; over which he sported a dark grey hooded jacket. He approached closer to the elf who stared from her position.

"I expected something a little different than just nothing," he uttered. "Though, I do feel an odd sense of déjà vu," he looked to the magician. "Are you alright?" he knitted his brows.

"Of course there’s déjà vu, we all live in our minds, no~?" an ostentatious voice echoed before a form poofed in with a soft pink flash in between the two.

Pearly white hair that glowed like a beacon of light as it flowed, like they were being carried by a river. Face not even needing makeup, since it was flawless from every angle.

Two pinkish mouse-like ears and a tail that swished gracefully behind. The dress she wore was completely white, with silver twinkles all over. Her eyes however, were not amber at all; instead, a splendour of colours completed the circles of her irises.

"Iridina, you look so pretty!" Asobi cheered. "But, who’s that?" she pointed.

"I told you, it’s-" Jotou raised his arm a little and noticed the comfy dark grey fabrics which the bottom of his palms nestled in. His eyes narrowed in realization.

Iridina giggled playfully, "Why, that’s your friend."

Asobi tilted her head and looked at his eyes; the same brown ones, "Jotou? OH! Silly me, you were once a boy!" she beamed as she hopped towards him. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

He barely even noticed that his voice was not her voice, "Sorry, I don’t blame you. I’m so used to hearing myself like this in my head."

Asobi examined Jotou from left, then sprung to the right. "You looked cute in your old world!"

Jotou blushed and shifted his eyes away, "I wouldn’t say that... but thanks."

"That’s why I’m saying it! It’s funny, you look cute from this angle," Asobi then looked at his right side, "then you look handsome from this angle."

"Stop it," Jotou said. "I love compliments, please keep praising me, I love it so much, I need attention, Asobi’s so adorable, her compliments are the best, they make me feel so happy, like butterflies-" Jotou also said? However, his lips never moved...

Jotou knitted his brows and went redder and redder. Asobi glanced around; it seemed the voice didn’t echo, but it somehow was coming from all around.

"Oops!" Iridina chuckled. "Accidentally leaked the innermost thoughts there, sorry~" She didn’t seem sorry at all.

"How do you possibly mess that up when you’ve been in countless minds?" Jotou glared.

"Perhaps your suspicions are not without merit," Iridina grinned, her irises turned into an orangish-yellow then back to a ring of colours.

Asobi giggled like a gremlin, "I didn’t know I made you this happy! I’ll make sure to compliment you ten times every day; and more whenever I can!"

"What? No, no need for that! Those are just, well, my thoughts without any inhibitions. So, I’d appreciate not letting them fly all over the place!" he huffed at Iridina.

"That much is true. However, it doesn’t make these thoughts false. Hm..." her irises went grey. "I suppose these thoughts are amplified and slightly distorted.

The feelings of elation from... I see. Seems they’re rooted in something negative. Very well, I’ll keep them silenced for privacy’s sake," her irises went back to every hue.

"It’s so dark in here," Asobi tried to form light at the tip of her wand, but, "Oh no, I got no magic," she shook her wand.

"Apologies, it’s the mind. I’m the only one with magic in here."

"You came here to do one thing, but I’m more curious-"

"Why I’m like this in your mind? Why I said I might be different today, in real life?" Iridina finished Jotou’s question. "You see, I’m confused as to who I am."

"Oh, do you know your name?" Asobi uttered.

"I’m still Iridina Alfar of course, the Iridescent Special," her eyes went purple for a second then back to their original state. "I meant that my actual body in the world is often confused.

You’re wondering how? Well, to put it in your words, it’s the drawback to my affinity. I’ve been through a million dreams and hence, gleaned countless different lives and personalities.

My drawback, is that I don’t remember any of it; and by extension, this version of me. This version that you see now, is what anyone sees when I first enter their minds.

They request their dreams or memories they want to relive and I enchant it to be so. I can be present or if the client wants privacy," Iridina disappeared. Jotou and Asobi glanced around.

"I don’t have to be here," Iridina’s voice hushed before she appeared again. "But once I leave the realm of the mind, this version of me, no longer exists.

So, anything I learn or glean, no longer exists in my actual body’s mind. I don’t remember what I see, I don’t remember what I granted.

However, once I’m back in here and in this glowing white form, I remember everything again," her form grew to that of a giant in an instant, her voice booming down like a god; and then as Jotou and Asobi looked up, she was no longer present.

"All the knowledge and wisdom," Jotou looked to his shoulder to notice a tiny Iridina standing on it. "Every dream and enchantment I’ve given," no wait, she was on Asobi’s shoulder now.

Iridina appeared standing right before them at normal size, "I am the ultimate form of Iridina Alfar, she who knows the path of endless dreams."

"If she doesn’t remember anything, then how did she know to tell me she’d be different?" Jotou doubted.

"Simple. Because the real Iridina sleeps, but she cannot dream. That is why she forgets who I am; the dreams and memories of others become her dreams.

Of course, I’ve said this all before to numerous other clients. You will remember everything. Some of them have been kind enough to tell my awake-self about me. So she’s aware of my presence and knows how her affinity affects her.

Make no mistake, Iridina is herself. However, she sometimes takes on other traits from the people’s she’s enchanted the minds of. So, every single day, there’s a chance she might not act the same, due to her subconscious vaguely recalling the dreams of others."

"That begs the question then; who is Iridina Alfar, truly?" Jotou squinted.

Iridina giggled and her irises went bright yellow, "Perhaps one, perhaps them all. Such philosophies often have a fun answer; why not both? Your memories are who you are. If I have the vague memories of others that shape who I am, that would still make one me, no?"

Asobi scratched her head with her wand. Iridina’s eye colour went back to the rainbowish ring, "In any case; we came in her for one purpose."

"And I seem to be seeing nothing so far," Jotou looked up into the inky void.

"Yeah, brains are full of imaginations and dreams, this is just, blank," Asobi replied.

"Right now, we need to go deeper. I’ve just pushed past that barricade around your mind to enter the first layer. You yourself brought that memory, allowing me to enter alongside Ms Asobi.

We need to find your subconscious and where your memories lie. I can sense them, which is why I leaked them just now. It should be... right over there," Iridina pointed in a random direction.

Jotou and Asobi looked to nothing. However, they felt the inky void stretching and compressing somehow; their bodies felt motion, but they never moved an inch.

Speedily approaching was a glass-like dome in the darkness; like it was speeding towards them and! It stopped; or rather, they stopped right at the entrance of some dome structure that loomed over them.

A dark purple miasma glowed around the dome... "This is my subconscious...?"

Iridina nodded, "You see that purple taint all over it? That’s the enchantment barricading your mind. Doesn’t look much like a ’protection’ spell now, does it."

"It looks slimy," Asobi observed.

"And still somehow cloudy," Jotou added.

"Normally we could just step in," Iridina took the air and flew around speedily around the dome. The ’glass’ were in various shards and fragments, bound together in the structure.

"Not this time however. There isn’t an opening in the barricade anywhere," she appeared behind the two.

"How do we get in then?" Asobi stepped closer.

"Well, how do you get into a locked house?" Iridina tapped the barrier- "SNAP!" The barrier extended two slimy jaws and attempted to snap her. Iridina disappeared and reappeared behind Asobi, who recoiled.

The miasma retracted. "I get it, I’m the key," Jotou walked forward and reached his hand for the barrier. It didn’t react till his fingertips were nearly touching it.

A hole began to form and the dark purple began to retract like vines away from Jotou’s hand. Jotou’s hand went through the crystal-like dome beneath.

Jotou went further, letting part of his body get engulfed into the fractals of glass. The miasma scurried away, leaving a large gap where he stood.

"Now’s the time Ms Asobi," Iridina disappeared.

"She means go in."

Asobi nodded and rushed past Jotou and into the crystalline dome. With her rushing past, Jotou stepped in and... The inside was not too different from the outside.

It seemed like there was a garden? A cottage? Flowers all around with a bicycle over there? Like snow, it was all under a coating of dark purple.

Moths fluttered by in the same hues and as their eyes gazed across the dome of the ceiling, the fragments and shards that made it up were all just, murky. "No different here," Jotou uttered.

"Oh, you’re back!" Asobi looked to the blonde, the voice of a songbird she heard.

"Hm?" Jotou looked to her hand to notice her fingernails were not bitten. She wore a white dress till her knees, a hood over her head that concealed the feeling of the hairpins on it.

"Something doesn’t seem right. You look, not right," Asobi couldn’t quite place it.

"Her eyes are blue for one," Iridina noticed.

"Wait, what?" Jotou glanced up. She pulled a strand of her bangs down and to that her eyes widened. Her hair didn’t end in blacks...