“—Ah.”

Two white sleeves, contrasted with the exposed and butchered black sleeve which lay defeated on the cobblestone, spread themselves out in contempt. However, these slowly outstretching arms welcomed the rest of them in, as if to play. Whether this was an embracing gesture, or an indifferent shrug, Cobalt was unsure.

“AAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!” And in tandem, the man who had been tormenting the both of them screamed out in pain. That scream, piercing the chilly night sky, echoed the strange slice which had pierced through it just seconds prior.

This man… This frail man cloaked in white…

Had he done this?

There was no blade in his outstretched hands. There was no emotion nor compassion in his emerald eyes. Instead, his unconcerned expression showed nothing but disdain.

“I believe I had made myself clear,” those eyes, sparkling in reflection to the high-contrast alleyway lights, as well as the blood-boiling scene in front of them, spoke fiercely and cleanly, like a knife. “That you lot were not the focal point of my intent. This whole mise-en-scene, it... does nothing but bore me. Your dull eyes serve nothing at all for me. No beauté . No resolve.”

He closed his eyes for a moment, breathing in the atmosphere, and looking up towards the glimmer of light the background street lamp provided him with. “In fact…” He stretched his neck, seemingly ascending away from the thugs in the lowly world below him.

“It would be much better if they all just dropped dead—wouldn’t you agree?”

The question by the unreadable man in white was posed to Cobalt, but still reeling from shock, he could formulate no answer.

But none would need to be given…

Surrendering his hand to the cobblestones, the leader of thugs turned tail and ran. 

As did the others; they all ran away like squirming rats. The strange man here felt the obvious inferiority among them, however Cobalt, lying motionless on the ground, could not possibly be so sanctimonious.

The men all fled, but the man in white paid them no space in his mind, nor attention from his eyes. For those green irises rested solely on Cobalt.

Feeling silence between them for the first time since they laid eyes on each other…

The eyes of a man in white, gleaming with dauntless aspirations of excitement…

And the eyes of a man of darkened blue cloaked in red, gleaming with flames that echoed that excitement, as well as hatred.

Repeating the words he had said to Cobalt, the man requested of him once again…

“Stand.”

It was a simple request. Cobalt felt as though he was being tested with it.

I know you see that as well… I can see it in your eyes.

Cobalt’s eyes?

For the last six months, the only emotion he had held within his eyes was a lack thereof. He felt completely soulless. Like there was nothing left for him in his old world…

His old world…

He had made a promise to himself.

A promise to leave that hell behind.

To carve it into the deepest parts of his memory, never to be visited again.

Initially, he had made that promise to someone else.

A mutual promise to escape and experience life. To experience truth. To experience a reason to live.

That was truly, honestly his aspiration.

But when cast that question, he could only now bite his tongue remembering the cruel response to the lively young woman’s proposal.

After being thrown away by both worlds now, he was unsure of the look the man in white saw within his eyes.

His eyes which had been soulless and monotonous all this time.

Although feeling the stings of being thrown away like trash, he returned that hatred for the world tenfold.

For if Cobalt had a mirror, in this very moment…

He would see his eyes glowing with a fierce fire of hatred.

He winced against the change in movement at first.

However, swallowing that down within him, he allowed himself to accept the change in course.

The strings of blood snapped at the tension, falling to the cobble.

And what rose simultaneously was an entity which had been thrown away time and time again.

Rising against the dual worlds’ absurdity, there was no reason for this sudden stance.

There was no reason to stand up again. No reason to feel pain. No reason to wake up. No reason to keep trying.

But amidst that meaninglessness, he threw all of that away just as those worlds had done to him.

And so, he stood.

Seeing Cobalt rise against the scratches, and the bruises, and the gnashes, and the dripping blood, a sudden smile appeared across the man in white’s face.

A smile that read nothing but sheer amusement.

“—Hmh.”

A short chortle escaped his nostrils.

“It’s quite obvious you’re not used to taking beatings like that,” his voice had risen from his previous boredom, and within that excitement showed the true colors of his inflections. The rhythm of his voice, which sought out excitement.

“So why did you stand? Your raison d'etre if you will.”

It was difficult to put a read on that voice. It seemed somewhat untrustworthy, teeming with ambiguity and uncertainty. It almost seemed like the voice of a wild animal, yet also charming in a charismatic sort of way. There were multiple impressions to be drawn on at once. Many red flags, yet many beacons of hope.

Yet despite all of those mixed signals…

“I don’t have a reason.”

Not a single ounce of him cared one bit.

“There’s no reason to try, and no reason not to try.”

“...”

The man in white was taken aback by that response, and began thinking to himself.

Were those the words he was looking for?

Regardless of ideality, those words were the truth.

And the man in white understood that as well.

“What’s your name?”

Finally, he didn’t have to exhaust himself on the questions he didn’t know the answers to.

“Cobalt.”

A simple reply. But still in partial shock from the head blows, it’s not like Cobalt Aspire had the energy for smalltalk.

This man… Cobalt didn’t feel indebted to him. He wouldn’t call him his “savior”. He didn’t know what to think.

“Je vois…”

Somehow, the unhinged and irrational nature of the darkened boy matched with the man in white’s flawlessly.

That look of purposelessness and apathy…

That look of hatred and defiance…

“Then in that case…”

Standing at about the same level as Cobalt, just a couple meters apart in a gruesome, high-contrast, grainy alleyway lit by the sole street lamp in the distance, the man in white smiled. A smile reserved for himself or for the beaten and bruised young man, that much was uncertain…

But among the meaninglessness the two felt. Among the absurdity. Among the undependable and dishonorable world between the two, he spoke… 

“Moi c'est Irvelle.”

His eyes shared in his flames of solitary defiance.

"And it is truly nice to meet you... Cobalt."

And thus formed the crossroads between purposelessness and the desire to seek it out. Within both worlds, Cobalt was adrift, no hope nor aspirations. However, the vacuum that made up the world he knew may be able to blossom into the type of goal he could cling to. The reason and purpose he needed to finally start enjoying life.

Or maybe…

That cruel world would never be so kind as to allow Cobalt to possess that sort of resolve.