REDACTABLE - Rufus

[heartablaze]

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[heartablaze]

Yes.

I'm the new Pillar, after all.

[soulus]

[He keeps his focus on the chaotic sea of debris below.]

Is there more?

[Or is this all there is to see?]

[heartablaze]

[She shakes her head, even though his attention is drawn elsewhere.]

If you wanted something that I'm going to show nobody else... then yeah, this is all. Even if I showed you the rest of Cefiro, I'm afraid that it doesn't look much different than this, right this moment.

I'm going to do whatever I can to change it. But that means I can't forget what it's become, and what will happen if I can't make the right decisions. In that way... this is a memory that's dear to me.

[soulus]

. . . Thank you for sharing.

[While it's spoken in a business-like tone, it doesn't sound necessarily dismissive. He lifts his head, straightening.]

[heartablaze]

[In contrast, she takes a step back and bows low.]

Thank you. Your time is valuable, Rufus-san. Thank you for teaching me that, if anything.

[soulus]

[He could leave now, and he nearly does.]

I abide by the contract. The deal was to exchange memories, as well as my time for something unique. Like you, I'll answer a question about my world.

[heartablaze]

[The scenery around the disappears, leaving the empty room full of whatever is in this room when the simulation isn't active. Magical hexagons. Who knows.]

Mmmn. You can choose, then, since you gave me that option. It's only fair!

[soulus]

This and that are different. I had to give you an option to fulfill my request.

[heartablaze]

Oh... you mean because you asked for it to be special, right?

[This is a very confusing bartering system.]

Okay, well... would... you like me to ask you something then, Rufus-san? I don't need anything unique. I just wanna know more about you, if that's okay.

[soulus]

[For a few passing moments, Rufus says nothing. Then he operates the room to transpose the blurry image of a withered landscape where the earth looks nearly dead and what little life there is has been stripped bare of its produce. There are no people in this false reality—only a barren land that seems to exist in the middle of nowhere, slapped together into something livable by another man's trash.]

[heartablaze]

[She's wide-eyed as she watches their surroundings ripple to something unfamiliar, a different sort of bleak than that of Cefiro - something that looked less like the husk of something prosperous and, instead, like something that was just trying to hold itself together out of nothing.]

...It's... it's so empty.

What is this place?

[soulus]

[He doesn't answer right away. The dry stretch of land beyond the cliffside occupies his gaze for a good ten seconds before he turns to Hikaru.]

This is where I live.

[heartablaze]

[A home... To have a home in such a place that seems so barren...

Her fingers clench at the fabric of her shirt as she slowly starts to walk around at the rock and metal under her feet.]

It's your home... Does it have a name?

[soulus]

[She's free to roam. Rufus stays where he is: He knows this area like the back of his hand, even if some of the details here are blurry.]

This part of the Underworld is known as the wilderness.

[heartablaze]

The Underworld...

[Ah, that's right... he'd said something on Saturday, hadn't he?]

During trial, you said you were a demon, right? Did you mean that seriously?

[soulus]

[That draws a frown out of him.]

I wouldn't have said it if I wasn't serious.

[heartablaze]

[She just nods, slightly apologetic.]

Okay. I'll remember.

I know a lot happened during that trial, so... I think it's important that I don't assume one way or another, you know? Not everyone would think that a demon might be real, either. So... thank you for being honest.

You must have lived here for an awful long time, then... You said this is just part of it, though? Is the Underworld a really big place?

[soulus]

The wilderness surrounds the city. It's as big as you would expect of a world where the souls of the dead go.

[heartablaze]

There's a city?

[This does not look like a city. None of this looks like a city... Maybe it was beyond the blurry stone whatever-it-was in one direction? The limitations of the VR room make it hard to tell.

But, more importantly:]

Is... there a reason you live out here, and not in the city?

[soulus]

[Indeed, the city is not pictured here.]

The city belongs to the nobles. The rest of us reside out here.

[heartablaze]

...Really?

[She actually looks a little upset - not at him, but at the surroundings, at the idea of such a separation.]

I though... maybe places like this would be more equal. It's the afterlife, isn't it? What do nobles need to do that forces everyone else to live out here?

[soulus]

The Underworld isn't that different from the material world. Where there's money, there will be the wealthy and the poor.

[heartablaze]

[Mm. She frowns at that.]

So people get treated differently even here...

Do... the poor suffer out here, Rufus-san?

[soulus]

Is there a world where the poor thrive?

[heartablaze]

[A good retort, and one that shuts her mouth for a long moment.]

Not that I know, but...

In a perfect world... in a world I'd want to see... it wouldn't have to matter how much you had. Everyone deserves to live without fearing for the things that they really need.

Was... it hard? To live out here?