Inside-Outside-In

 

Shay

Taking a stance, Shay readied himself for the final spar of the night. His opponent was a guy who was new to this particular gym. He was only new to the gym, though, not the martial arts themselves. Like Shay, he had been practicing for many years.

The spar began, and Shay was once again pleased by how close in skill the other man was to himself. He had been looking for a new main sparring partner, and this man might just be him. They were both good enough to push each other’s skills further without it being too one-sided.

I’m just looking for a fun fight more than anything else.

Improving his techniques both in and out of a spar brought him great joy.

Once he was done with the spar, he took a shower, then headed for his parent’s house to pick up his sister, who would be spending the weekend at his apartment.

Shay had lived on his own for a couple years now, and would normally have moved far, far away from his cruel parents, but his little sister was still too young to move out, unfortunately.

She was miserable there, so Shay stuck around and visited frequently. As soon as his sister, Victoria, was done with high school, they would move away as planned she could finally start her transition.

Shay had actually planned to continue at home until then, but his parents were under the impression that once you are eighteen years old and have graduated high school, then you must immediately leave home. They were pretty adamant about it. An upside to this is that Victoria can visit frequently to get away from them.

Shay left the gym and drove carefully, as it had snowed heavily last night. It had been plowed, but it was still slippery in some places, even with the salt.

Arriving at the obnoxiously-large house that was home to only three people, he had barely even pulled into the driveway when Victoria came running out the door, looking furious and ready to cry.

She threw her bag into the backseat as she got in, saying, “Let’s fucking go.”

Shay just nodded. He had been in many such moods himself when he still lived with his parents.

“What happened this time?” he asked.

“They both just barged into my room as usual, this time for a really long rant about how manly I should be while also criticizing every single thing in my life. It went on for nearly an hour this time.”

“Shit, that’s awful, Vicky. But hey, that cute skirt I ordered for you arrived at my place yesterday.”

A small smile was briefly visible on her face before it vanished again. “Yeah. …Dad literally said to me today that he would shoot me if I ever turned out gay. Even if he was somehow okay with me being trans, I’m still a lesbian.”

“Damn, that’s more fucked up than usual. I’m so sorry.”

If Shay hadn’t currently been driving on a slippery road, he would’ve pulled over to give his sister a hug.

“Why are they like this? What do they get out of being so horrible?”

“They’re miserable, horrible people. Bringing everyone down to their level brings them some kind of sick satisfaction.”

“Well, if they could hurry up and go to the Hell they believe in so much, I’d really appreciate it a whole fucking lot.”

Shay gave a slight chuckle. “Me too, Vicky.”

The siblings continued to complain about their awful parents all the way to Shay’s apartment, where an unopened package was sitting on the counter.

“Is this it?” Victoria asked.

She replied, “Yep. Your other stuff is folded in the chair. I think I put your sketchpad there, too.”

“Thanks!” she exclaimed, rushing to the bathroom to change clothes.

Shay’s apartment was really small, but it was only meant for one person. It was incredibly difficult for him to afford a place on his own, especially because he was only a couple years out of high school.

He worked a lot to afford the place, all so that Victoria could have a space to be herself without anyone judging her. The town they lived in was small, and was populated almost exclusively by trigger-happy bigots.

When Victoria came out of the bathroom, she was wearing different clothes than she went in with, including the new skirt.

“I really love it! I don’t have anything that goes with this design, but that can be fixed soon. A green top, maybe?”

Shay smiled. “That’s good. It does look cute.”

The two played games together for a couple hours before Shay eventually had to leave for work. He changed into his uniform, said goodbye to his sister, and was on his way.

He exited his car a half hour later, having arrived at the store. He mostly just worked in the warehouse in the back, putting his muscles to use. His other job generally only required standing around.

But Shay never made it into the building, because, at the exact time and place where he happened to be standing, Something not normally a part of this world appeared.

In a department store parking lot, an old car had been left with its door still open. A phone with a cracked screen and the shredded, slightly bloody remains of a left shoe were all that was left of its driver, next to a set of footprints that indicated only three steps had been taken, before abruptly ending.

 

———

 

In another world…

Elna

“This the spot, Merrin?” a tall woman wearing scaled armor asked.

“Yep,” another woman replied, staring into the air at seemingly nothing. She was also wearing armor; hers being a simple leather set.

“Well?”

“I give it a few more hours before it opens.” She turned to the man behind them and briefly raised her hand, almost like she was going to wave to him. “Thanks for leading us here.”

The man reciprocated the gesture and nodded, then replied, “No problem, miss. I’ll be on my way now.”

Elna, the first one who had spoken, asked Merrin, “Anything else you can tell about it now that we’re here?”

Merrin shook her head. “No. It’s going to be a rift soon, and that’s all I know.”

Rifts in space were rare, but did happen on occasion. Fluctuations in space magic would sometimes meet, and the result was a hole punched through reality for a moment, leading to other worlds entirely.

The fluctuations had been discovered by a hunter only a few hours ago, and the two women were the only mercenaries on hand who could deal with anything that might come through the rift.

They had only just been passing through the small town, but when the mission came up, they gladly took it. Things didn’t often come through rifts, meaning this mission was basically free money.

They also had to prevent anyone from touching it once it formed, which would be easy, considering that they were in a forest in the middle of nowhere. If someone or something touched the rift, they would get pulled through to the other side of wherever it led.

The two sat down and waited for several hours, passing the time with idle chatter and a deck of cards. When the air in a specific spot began to wobble like a heat wave, they stood up and readied their weapons. Elna extended her claws, and Merrin pointed her spear forward.

The vibrations condensed, and a sphere formed a couple meters above the ground. It flashed red, and a pile of flesh, bone and blood slopped onto the ground.

“Ugh, gross!” Merrin exclaimed.

Elna commented, “Yeah, even as a flesh mage, this is a bit much for me to look at.”

Her eyes flicked back up to the rift. The view of the other side was distorted, appearing upside down and warped at the sides.

Lots of snow. And a building of some kind. Wherever it is, it looks cold there.

“Wait, was that a person?” Elna asked. Looking closer, she noticed bits of cloth among all the viscera. “Oh shit, it was! They must’ve been standing in the exact wrong spot, and their insides came here first. If they had just touched it like normal, they would’ve been fine.”

Merrin shrugged, keeping her gaze locked on the rift. “Sucks to be them.”

A little over a minute later, the rift wobbled again before dispersing. The women settled their gaze on the disgusting pile that had come through.

“Think they had anything valuable on them?” Elna wondered.

“I’m not digging through that, flesh mage. You’re on your own,” Merrin responded.

Elna rolled her eyes and grabbed a nearby stick. “You don’t have to use your hands.”

“Just because I’m not touching some still-steaming gore with my bare hands or a stick or anything else.”

Elna pushed the mess around, looking for anything interesting. A set of keys briefly caught her eye, but whatever they unlocked was literally a world away. After moving aside a larger chunk, a small, glowing orb was revealed.

She gasped. “Merrin, look! Their soul’s still here!”

The other woman hurried over, now actually interested. “Huh, that’s strange. …Ah, I see. Being sucked through the rift like that coated them in space magic. It’s rapidly dissipating, though, and the soul will vanish too in just a few moments.”

“How does that work?”

“Hmm… Like a wet cloth drying in the sun, the water will evaporate, leaving only the clothing behind. That’s not the best example, though, because souls take not even a second to vanish after death. There will just be a corpse soon. …If you can even call it that.”

“Wait, how is this soul still around, then? They are most definitely dead.”

“The magic is holding them together right now. Had they not been rent apart from the inside out while passing through a rift, this wouldn’t have even been possible. This is a total freak accident. Not even a group of high-level space mages working together could replicate this.”

Elna looked at the little shimmering speck that was the only thing left of this stranger’s soul. What had been their body was still there, still hot enough to seem alive.

Alive… The word stuck in her thoughts.

“What if…” Elna started. “What if I made them a new body?”

“What, like reshaping?”

“Exactly! The body is still here technically, and the soul is too, so I think I can do it. I’ve reshaped someone a couple times before, but it absolutely wrecks me for a week and makes me feel like shit, so I hate doing it.”

“You want us to be stuck in this dinky little village for a whole week because you felt like saving some random person’s life?”

“Well, no, but… They’re right and front of me and I can help them. I’m going to try.”

“Ugh, fine.”

Elna kneeled beside the pile, not minding the blood on her clothes. “Fuck, I have no idea what they looked like. Can’t tell anything from this. Other than… tall and beefy? I think?”

Merrin rolled her eyes, but refrained from commenting on Elna’s haphazard action.

I’ll just go with myself as a base for a new body, then make them tall and muscular and change the looks enough to look like someone else. I’ll be way off no matter what, but they can get themselves reshaped later.

“Space magic will fade soon,” Merrin reminded.

Elna nodded and got to work.

Okay, skeleton first. I’m sensing enough bone matter for a tall person, but… what if some got lost on the other side of the rift? I’ll have to create entirely new flesh to compensate… Ugh, that means more work than just manipulating.

Elna worked fast. Her skill with flesh magic was excellent, meaning she would likely finish before the soul vanish, according to how much time Merrin said was remaining.

She first reconstructed and developed the torso and skull, making sure the necessary organs for the stranger’s immediate survival would be there. She finished, and the soul had not yet dissipated, which Elna took as a good sign.

After that, she made the arms and legs, and then followed those up with cosmetic changes and increased muscle mass.

Elna was sweating and panting heavily from the exertion, but kept going. When the newly-constructed body began breathing, Elna collapsed backward.

It’s like you’re stealing the air straight from my lungs.

Reshaping a person was strenuous because it required a lot of delicate and precise work, and building a whole new body like this was a stupidly difficult task.

Something like this has probably never been done before. At least I have that going for me. Shit, I don’t think anyone will believe me. No one’s ever come back from death.

Merrin looked at the naked woman on the ground. She was tall, muscular, pretty, and covered in blood. “Wow, you actually pulled it off. I’m impressed. You may have gone slightly overboard, though.”

Between breaths, Elna asked, “What do you mean?” She was too tired to even lift her head to look at her handiwork.

“Well, they’re perfectly fine and healthy and all that. I just mean that you spent a long time basically sculpting a work of art.”

She chuckled wheezily. “New body, new world, new life… I wanted to do something nice for them to compensate. Even if it turns out they hate it.”

The stranger on the ground groaned as they began to wake. Merrin had her hands on her spear just in case, but didn’t have it pointed at them.

The stranger looked around in confusion, then noticed their body as they sat up. They exclaimed something in shock.

Elna groaned. “Right, of course they wouldn’t speak Tiirve.”

“That only occurred to you just now? Idiot,” Merrin retorted.