Surviving These Unfair Scenarios [LITRPG - DIMENSION HOPPING]

The mouth of the cave was little more than a fissure in the rock face, and it was nearly impossible to see from a distance. Inside, the campfire's light danced, a warm, inviting glow against the cool stone. But outside, where the two Kazues sat on the ground, the world was a canvas of deep black and impenetrable shadows. The air was cold, carrying the faint, earthy scent of disturbed soil and the bitter tang of ash. In the darkness, the outlines of a half-demolished forest were just visible—a wasteland of broken trees and twisted trunks, all a testament to the brutal fight they had just been a part of.

The atmosphere between the two girls was strained and thick with an awkward silence that felt heavier than the night itself. Kazue hugged her knees to her chest, her gaze fixed on the shadows, occasionally glancing at the other version of herself who sat as still as a statue, her arms crossed and her face a mask of complete indifference.

Despite the tension, Kazue couldn't help but feel a flicker of excitement. The whole alternate universe trope was one of her favorites, and a part of her was simply thrilled to be a part of it. She was the first to speak, her voice a little too cheerful to be natural.

"So… this is pretty weird, huh?"

She said, a small, nervous smile on her face.

"I mean, seeing yourself. It's like something out of a novel… I love that about the system. I always loved stories like this."

Alter Kazue didn't respond. She didn't even turn her head. After a moment, Kazue tried again, her voice a little softer this time.

"I was trying to talk to you guys earlier, but you seemed really busy. How is it on your team? Are you all getting along? At least those two… What were their names again? Oh, right, Charles and Samantha, they are new to me; we didn't have them in our team at all."

A low sound, like a sigh of exasperation, came from alter Kazue.

"Why do you care?"

She asked, her voice dry and flat.

"I don't know. I guess I'm just curious about how things are different."

Kazue said, shrugging her shoulders and a little flustered.

"On my team… Well, we get along really well. I'm friends with everyone. I feel like I can trust Adam and Drake with my life. Katya is my best friend, and Chloe is my second-best friend. They're like sisters to me."

She rambled on, a happy smile on her face.

"And Emir… he's so smart, but he's still just a kid. Sometimes I have to fight the urge to pat his head. Sebastian is like a doting grandfather to me; he's so kind and always looks out for us. Falk is an amazing teacher, and Gregor is someone I can always go to for advice."

Her smile faltered slightly as she mentioned the last name.

"And Li… well, he's Li. He can be a little difficult to deal with, but I like him as well. In the last scenario, we fought side-by-side against a couple of powerful users, and we won. And since then, he's stopped calling me 'kid' and started calling me by my name. It was a big step for him!"

Alter Kazue finally turned her head, her gaze fixed on the other girl with a blank expression.

"How can you be like that?"

She asked, her voice filled with a quiet disbelief.

"Like what?"

Kazue's smile faltered.

"So… happy. So trusting."

Alter Kazue said, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper.

"How can you be friends with them? You're so… open."

Kazue didn't understand the bitterness in her counterpart's voice. She simply looked confused.

"What's wrong with being happy? They're my friends. They're like family to me."

Alter Kazue scoffed and turned her head away again, her silence a wall between them. The conversation seemed to have ended before it even truly began. A few minutes passed, filled with only the sound of the wind and the crackling fire within the cave. Kazue was about to give up and simply sit in silence when alter Kazue spoke again, her voice a low murmur.

"What was your second scenario after the Ghost World?"

Kazue's eyes lit up with a renewed sense of hope upon these words.

"The same one we told Nikolai. We went to 'Steam and Steel'. That's where we met Falk."

Alter Kazue's expression soured.

"Don't tell me that. Tell me how you started the scenario. How did you get there?"

Kazue thought for a moment, recalling the events of that scenario with a fond smile.

"Well, we started on a derelict steamboat. A giant mechanical sea monster attacked us and were about to be defeated when a pirate ship showed up and saved us, or rather, they boarded us."

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"And then what?"

Alter Kazue asked, her voice now sharp with an intense curiosity that belied her impassive expression.

"Adam was able to stop the pirates and make them fight each other. That impressed the pirate captain so much that he decided to take us alive instead of killing us. Drake then made a deal with them, showing off his physical strength in various fights, and they agreed to let us join their crew temporarily until we got to the main city."

Kazue's happy account seemed to visibly agitate alter Kazue, though she tried her best to hide it. The girl continued, oblivious to the other's turmoil.

"It was so much fun! The pirates were great. They treated us all with a lot of respect, and I even won a bunch of rounds in a card game that was just like poker!"

Hearing this sent a jolt of pure rage through alter Kazue's veins. The same faces that had haunted her nightmares ever since, the same savage beasts in human form, had been so different with the other Kazue? Why!? How was that fair!? The happy memories the girl was spewing felt like an unbearable injustice. The seed of hatred was planted, beginning to take root in alter Kazue's heart.

Believing that things were finally going well between them, Kazue continued talking, her voice eager with curiosity.

"So, what kind of skills do you use?"

She asked, a small smile on her face. Alter Kazue answered her dryly, without turning her head.

"The same elements as you, I suppose. Earth, wind, fire, water... and a couple of others."

She paused for a moment.

"But I don't use those ridiculous gauntlets. I use the elements directly."

Kazue seemed genuinely impressed, even after the dissing of her precious gauntlets.

"That's so cool!"

She leaned in slightly, captivated by the possibility of using her own powers in a new way.

"What about your Personal Skill? You used it when you first got here. I saw it, but I don't remember what it's called. It seemed really powerful."

Alter Kazue stiffened, a flash of annoyance crossing her face before she spoke.

"It should be the same as yours."

Kazue tilted her head, confused.

"It's not, though. The name is different… But I don't know how to activate mine yet."

Alter Kazue scoffed and rolled her eyes, her frustration with the other girl's weakness clear.

"You don't know how to activate your own power?"

She said, her voice filled with open disdain.

"That's just pathetic."

A tense silence settled between them, broken only by the sound of the wind. Kazue, feeling the mood shift, spoke again, her voice a little more tentative now.

"Do you remember the shows and games we used to watch and play in the real world?"

Alter Kazue scoffed in dismissal, but Kazue continued speaking, rambling on about their favorite television shows, novels, and video games. She spoke of how they had both been outsiders in the real world, and she thought that the system was like a dream coming true. The conversation was largely one-sided, but slowly, a flicker of something long-forgotten lit up in Alter Kazue's eyes. She started to add her own comments, her voice dry but her words hinting at a deep, shared passion for the same stories. It was a strange moment of connection, as if they were both remembering a piece of themselves they had lost a very long time ago.

As the conversation began to wind down, Kazue said that just before the scenario, she had managed to convince Adam to watch a marathon of one of her favorite shows with her in her room.

"And then Chloe joined in, and it was even more fun!"

Alter Kazue looked at her with a thoughtful expression, trying to imagine watching a show with Adam Scholar. The image was too bizarre to comprehend, and it only infuriated her more. She let out a long sigh and turned to Kazue.

"You seem to have a lot of faith in the Adam from your universe. And you invited him into your room… Do you like him or something?"

However, instead of blushing or becoming embarrassed, Kazue simply gave alter Kazue the purest and most beautiful smile she could have ever imagined seeing on her face. It was so radiant that it completely disarmed the other girl, who was expecting a different reaction.

"It's nothing like that."

Kazue said with clear innocence.

"He's just one of my first true friends, and there are no words to describe how I feel about all of them."

As she said this, her mind went to Adam, Drake, and Katya. The pure and innocent happiness in her tone surprised alter Kazue so much that for a moment, she forgot her annoyance. She let out a defeated sigh, turning to look at the destroyed forest outside the cave for a few minutes.

After a long time of silence, Kazue interrupted alter Kazue's thoughts. Her voice was now nervous, with a hint of a blush on her cheeks as she stammered a question.

"So… I-is what I heard Nikolai say true? Did he… did he mean that you and your Drake were dating?"

Alter Kazue turned, a surprised look on her face. Then she sighed and looked back out at the forest.

"No."

She said, her voice flat.

"Not now at least… For a while, we were a couple. I was trapped in darkness for a very long time, and he was the one who pulled me out of it. I needed something or someone to hold on to, and that someone was Drake. But it didn't last more than seven months or so… Especially not after our first encounter with Team Abyss and Adam Scholar's forces. Something changed in him after that, and he was never the same again. Our relationship became incredibly toxic, so we never even touched on the subject. We just stopped interacting with each other as a couple."

"That's really sad…"

Kazue said, a mournful look on her face. She couldn't imagine dating her own Drake either, but she loved him, just as she loved Adam. But it wasn't the same feeling as… she couldn't finish the thought as a certain guy' face flashed in her mind, someone she had met very recently, whose smile swayed her senses and made her blush a lot. She shook her head, forcing the thought away and her smile to return.

She decided to try and tease alter Kazue to change the subject and forget her own feelings.

"So…"

She said with a sly grin on her face.

"How far did you get with him anyway?"

She expected a look of embarrassment or something similar, but what she got in return was the coldest look filled with the most contained hatred she had ever felt in her life. Alter Kazue had turned to look at her as if she had just given her the biggest insult she had ever heard. The look didn't last long, though, and the girl turned back to stare at the forest.

Kazue immediately regretted her question. She knew that for some reason, she had touched a nerve, and she was smart enough to know that it was best to simply stay quiet… She spent the rest of the guard shift in silence.

The hours passed without incident. Finally, Kazue felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped slightly in surprise. She turned to see Gregor and alter Li, who had come to relieve them.

She thanked them and stood up, dusting the dirt from her pants. She looked over at alter Kazue, but she had already stood up and walked into the cave without so much as a word or a glance back. Feeling sad about what had just happened, Kazue walked back into the cave to get some rest.

As she returned to where her team was sleeping, she saw something that caught her attention. Chloe was asleep, and the Empress, in Adam's body, was as well. They were both leaning against each other with a wall behind them, which gave them a tender and innocent appearance. It was very strange, though… If she remembered correctly, Adam's body was incapable of sleep, so why? Huh, weird.