A journey into an infinite dimension

"..."

Looking at the 'Red' who was poking and pinching his cheeks, Jiaye's mouth twitched.

"Hey, someone else changed?"

This time it was Melusine.

However, before the girl could finish her words, her appearance began to change extremely rapidly.

Zero, Aika, Mashu, Ritsuka, Atalanta, Jeanne Alter, Jeanne, and the others were just like the 'one-click skin change' in the game.

However, no matter how it changes, there is never a male. This is not because Jiaye has never imagined what a male looks like. It is better to say that he has even imagined what he looks like, but the person in front of him can only become a female from beginning to end.

This is probably why she said she was a girl?

"Let's just say you know so many girls. You must be a bit of a playboy."

"It's just reminiscing about the people I met on the road."

In response to the girl's words, Jia Ye just replied casually, and at the same time, a hint of interest quietly appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Let's try this this time."

As the girl finished her self-muttering, she once again turned into Hong's appearance, but this time she was no longer the familiar Hong wearing the red kimono, but had changed into a sailor suit.

“It actually works.”

"wait----"

Jiaye's eyes became brighter and brighter. Before the girl could stop him, her clothes began to change into various styles: a dress, a miko costume, an evening gown, a sundress, a suit, a wedding gown, sportswear, a Gothic Lolita outfit, a maid outfit, an apron.

"Hey, that's enough!"

Seeing that the size of the clothes was becoming more and more dangerous, the girl with an extremely speechless expression on her face finally couldn't help but shout to stop Jia Ye.

"Alright alright."

Perhaps because the girl in front of him was Hong at the moment, Jia Ye's attitude towards her became the same as towards Hong.

But he knew in his heart that the person in front of him was not Hong, and he didn't want a stranger to always look like Hong, so after several changes, her appearance was finally completely fixed into a stunning girl with silver hair naturally draped behind her, red eyes like the brightest stars in the sky, tender and delicate facial features that were almost breathtakingly beautiful, and she was wearing a purple kimono.

"That's great, as expected of me."

Looking at the girl in front of him who was completely imagined by him from head to toe, Jia Ye felt extremely satisfied.

Creating a beautiful girl who has never existed in the world and belongs only to you by your own efforts, this sense of accomplishment is really addictive.

"You, knowing you're already dead, yet you still have the time to play dress-up and creative games. I don't know whether to call you insane or mentally competent."

Shaking her head helplessly, the girl stood by the water and looked carefully at her reflection on the water.

"Is this look your original creation? Is it a gift for us?"

"I'll send you back if you revive me."

At this moment, Jia Ye felt that the girl in front of him was "half" his own daughter. After all, her appearance was imagined by him, just like a painter's "own daughter". If he had not considered that the other party was actually a stranger, Jia Ye might have hugged her in his arms and rubbed her tightly.

"What if we say you're not dead yet?"

"Then I can wake up if I jump into the lake, right?"

"It has no meaning other than to make you feel cold."

"So back to the point, where is this place and who are you?"

"In your heart, yourself."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...Don't be silent, say something to us!"

Chapter 36: Close the door and let me go!

"This is the inner world of your consciousness. I am the other you in your heart. Just like yin and yang, where there is yin, there is yang, and vice versa."

"Of course, this is not the same as the mental landscape manifested by the inherent barrier. After all, you've never heard of anyone's inherent barrier scenery being the same as their entire life experience, right?"

"At the same time, I am not your alter ego, but rather a different aspect of the same soul. We are equal. Simply put, only when we exist together can we become 'Ruzuki Jiaye'. Once either of us is missing, we are just the remnants of 'Ruzuki Jiaye'."

"I know you're wondering why I'm half of you but don't know your experiences. It's because I only gain consciousness when you're about to die, and then I take you with me to reincarnate. In this way, I'll be the one responsible for experiencing life in the next life."

In the middle of the lake, a small boat was in existence. A girl, who had achieved a fixed posture, sat on the bow and gently extended one of her slender legs, like white jade, into the water. The moment it touched the surface of the lake, she quickly retracted it, repeating the process over and over again. She looked like a dragonfly skimming the water, or a cat that was afraid of water but very curious. She looked so adorable.

"So, I'm still dead?"

Playing with the oar in his hand, Jia Ye looked at her back and asked.

"Dead, but alive again."

Finally, she seemed to have made up her mind and stretched her legs into the water. In an instant, most of her calves were submerged in the water. But perhaps because the temperature was really low, she shivered after a while, and then quickly pulled her legs out of the water like lightning, but because she used too much force, a large splash of water was created.

"The others were either resurrected while their half-faces were still half-dead and not yet conscious, or they were snatched from the cycle of reincarnation, but their souls had already completed the transformation by then. So you're probably the only one who was resurrected while half of your face was conscious but before the transformation was complete."

The girl's expression seemed to say, "You're so lucky."

"So, I just got a daughter like this?"

Jia Ye raised his eyebrows slightly, his expression mixed.

"And a daughter who would make people think she was born when I was two years old."

"Nonsense! Are you a pervert for wanting me to be your daughter?!"

Hearing this, the girl jumped up excitedly, and the boat began to shake because she exerted too much force.

"In every sense of the word, you are indeed half my daughter."

Holding onto the edge of the boat to steady himself, Jia Ye shrugged.

"Okay, let's be serious. The conclusion is, I'm not dead yet. Someone resurrected me. Now I'm actually just like I'm asleep?"

"That's true, but don't forget that people in vegetative states are still alive."

In order to retaliate against Jiaye's disrespect to her, the girl deliberately responded to Jiaye with an imaginative answer.

Humph, just cry and beg me to help you, you stupid guy.

"It's okay, I was stabbed in the chest, not in the head."

However, why did Jiaye fall into her trap? After all, the problem of vegetative state may be an incurable disease in the secular world, but there are many ways to solve this problem in the magic world.

One of the most well-known methods is the transformation into a dead apostle, or vampirism.

So even if he really became a vegetable, Jiaye was not afraid, because he believed that Hong and the others would wake him up again.

"Tsk, as expected of 'me', you're really brave."

"So are you disgusted or proud?"

“We are thinking about our future.”

"Come to think of it, you originally gained consciousness in order to reincarnate, but I'm still alive, so what will happen to you? Will you lose the consciousness you gained?"

Hearing this, Jia Ye also thought of this problem.

He basically believed that the girl in front of him was his other half. There was no reason, just some strange sense of closeness and intuition.

"Probably not, otherwise I wouldn't be talking to you like this right now."

Resting her chin on one hand, the girl tilted her head slightly and spoke uncertainly.

"So what will happen to you when I wake up?"

"I guess I'll just watch the show here until you actually die."

The girl tapped her slender fingers lightly on the surface of the lake, looking at the ripples and the reflection of Jia Ye's experiences in the first half of his life, and said calmly.

Although her tone was calm, Jia Ye seemed to be able to hear a hint of loneliness in it.

He turned his head and glanced around at the emptiness all around him, and tried to put himself in the girl's situation.

In the countless years that followed, she could only stay in this empty place while maintaining her consciousness, watching him experience all kinds of happy or sad, beautiful or sad things outside. However, she could only watch like an outsider, maybe she would laugh when she saw happy things, or cry when she saw sad things, but the feeling of loneliness would not be eliminated at all.

This is a torture that torments the human heart, even more cruel than locking a person in a dark room with nothing in it and leaving him to fend for himself.

After all, the darkness in contrast to the light is deeper and more unbearable than the darkness from the beginning to the end.

"...Come to think of it, the way we exist now is probably similar to having a dual personality, right?"

As if he suddenly remembered something, Jia Ye asked uncertainly.

"Why, do you still want me to exchange control of your body with you occasionally so that we can go out for some fresh air?"

Glancing at Jia Ye, the girl waved her hand indifferently.

"Although it's possible, it's meaningless because we'll have to come back here sooner or later. Besides, aren't many people with split personalities afraid of being replaced by their other personality? Why did you take the initiative to bring it up?"

"Because you are not another personality of mine, but the same 'me'."

Jia Ye laughed softly, and the last bit of doubt in his heart about the girl completely disappeared.

He never trusts anyone easily, but will test them in the process of getting along with them to determine whether the other person can be trusted, even if that person is only his own half.

"By the way, do you have a name?"

"Kisaragi Kaguya."

"Okay, then I'll call you Kaguya, even though it sounds a bit weird since it's the same as my own name."

Upon hearing this, the girl, Ge Jiuye, couldn't help but curl up the corners of her mouth into a smile.

"It looks pretty good when written in Chinese characters, so I'll mercifully accept it."

"Okay, then Ge Jiuye, before I wake up, let's experiment with the possibility of fusion."

Nodding, Jiaye smiled and stretched out his hand towards Ge Jiuye.

"....abnormal!"

"What are you thinking? I meant to test the possibility of both of us taking control of our bodies at the same time."

After narrowly avoiding the lake water splashed by Ge Jiuye, Jiaye explained helplessly.

"Really? We're the same person, why are you so filthy thinking?"

"It's all because of our past lives!"

Stamping his feet angrily, Ge Jiuye said with gritted teeth.

"....Do you have memories of our past lives?"

Jiaye asked hesitantly.

"From the origin to the previous life, you want to hear it?"

After calming down again, Ge Jiuye narrowed his eyes and said with a gentle smile.

"Forget it. I won't listen."

Shivering without warning, Jia Ye shook his head firmly in refusal.

Although I don't know what this ominous premonition means, at this time, the right thing to do is to refuse decisively.

"Let's get back to the point. What do you mean?"

With a bored look on his face, Ge Jiuye brought the topic back to where it had been previously digressed.

"I've always thought it would be really cool to have another me, because I could play 'Close the door and let me go'—no, it's 'Please, other me'. Now that I have the opportunity, I want to try to fulfill my childhood wish."

With his eyes half closed, Jia Ye said.

"My idea is to allow you to not only see but also feel my various feelings, and then respond when I can't react, but you can. In simple terms, it's like 'one character is controlled by two players at the same time'."

"...What's the point?"

After staring at Jia Ye's eyes for a long time, Ge Jiuye asked slowly.

"What's the point of doing this? You're not a coward, and you can live your life well without help. Rather, compared to those second personalities that can help your other self, this half-face of mine is more of a threat to you, isn't it?"

Because if Ge Jiuye wants to gain the freedom to live her own life, Jiaye needs to die, so in every sense, Ge Jiuye's existence is indeed a hidden bomb for Jiaye.

Because she could kill Jia Ye at any time in order to gain her freedom.