Chapter 1 [ https://www.reddit.com/r/MatoSeiheiNoSlave/comments/1uenw70/mato_new_gods_fanfiction_introduction_and_chapter/ ]

Previous Chapter [ https://www.reddit.com/r/MatoSeiheiNoSlave/comments/1uiq4ao/mato_new_gods_fanfiction_chapter_2/ ]

Chapter 3

Delving into the realm between worlds was Shikoku’s preferred method of travel. The God held Yuuki by the back collar of his shirt, dragging him through the viscous and smoke-filled void effortlessly. In this realm where no light shined, Yuuki felt weightless, but entirely contradictory to that notion, it was dense and he was unable to move even a finger. Time seemed to move slower in there, with him unable to grasp just how long they had been traveling. Each of Shikoku’s steps sounded like they were traversing on top of water, and the echo and reverb bounced back to break the otherwise low droning hum of the environment. Every inhalation of air into his lungs was strained, as if the smog around him was trying to suffocate his life. With his vision slowly fading, and Yuuki gradually being consumed by the void, he was suddenly thrust into a blinding light.
Shikoku tossed him through a new portal and into a large room dominated by clean cut stone, adorned with gleaming metal trim, and draped in various banners- something entirely opposite to what Yuuki had just endured. Falling onto his side, he coughed and choked on the remnants of the void still in his lungs, with the God now letting go of his shirt. Knowing he was too weak to even hold himself up, Shikoku silently limped and stumbled away from him and towards an altar in the middle of the room. Though she had escaped death, she had not escaped injury. On the table was an orb floating, which the God gracefully cupped into both of her hands. The orb, while being entirely solid, seemed to coalesce and swirl like ink being dropped into water. The dark blue space within the sphere refused to mix with the jet black space- a yin and yang.
Before Yuuki could even mutter a question regarding what she was doing, the silence was broken by a new portal opening, and the suction of air that followed it. Out stepped Taikyoku, who had clearly been in an altercation with the MDF, which was evident from the damage sustained to her clothing. However, unlike Shikoku, her skin remained without any blemishes or battle damage thanks to her heightened regeneration abilities. Even amongst the Gods, Taikyoku was unique in her endurance that allowed her to heal from any wound that wasn’t immediately fatal. Gently stepping towards the altar in the middle of the room, and meeting with Shikoku, the leader of the Gods looked at her subordinate and the orb within her grasp. Entirely neutral and calm in her speech she asked,

“Have you started yet?”

“No, it took longer than expected-”

Shikoku began to explain, but it was clear that Taikyoku did not care to drag this on any further. Her confrontation with the chiefs of the MDF made her acutely aware of how pressed for time they were. A piercing sound followed by a sharp inhale interrupted their dialogue as the leader of the Gods had summoned a blade and sunk it through the back, and out the stomach, of Yuuki Wakura, who was still on the ground. Blood spilled from his abdomen to paint the pale stone floor beneath him a deep scarlet color. Yuuki’s vision doubled as the shock of both feeling and seeing a sword plunge through his body left him unable to compute what was going on. With his stomach agonizing in a burning sear, he was abruptly grabbed and picked up by his throat by Taikyoku and looked deep into his eyes. 

“If only you hadn’t been born a human”

The indifferent God pulled out the blade before effortlessly bringing him to the stone altar and tossing him down on top of it. The divine stone of the altar was desecrated by his mortal blood, but the duo deities continued in their holy ritual. Shikoku held the orb within both hands and brought it over the opening in Yuuki’s stomach, before gently lowering it to make contact with the human. Upon it touching his skin, electricity surged through his flesh as a clear sign of rejection to whatever they were doing. Yuuki attempted to scream in agony, but his lungs had deflated at that point. Both had been punctured by Taikyoku’s blade. His body wrenched and writhed in pain, but some invisible force held him down.
Shikoku, the God who dared to love a human, released the orb to descend and disappear into his body. Unlike with Kyouka, or any of the other humans within the MDF, her eyes were not of those with malice, but were instead of compassionate pity. With the orb no longer being visible, Yuuki’s reactions ceased. His breath became shallow, his eyes began to glaze over, and his vision blurred. The only thing that remained on his mind was Kyouka- the person who gave him a purpose and a desire to be better. His thoughts were filled with memories of the past and regrets for not appreciating them in the moment. In his final moments a weak smile stretched across his lips, as he then closed his eyes.

Next Chapter [ work in progress ]

Previous Chapter: [ https://www.reddit.com/r/MatoSeiheiNoSlave/comments/1uenw70/mato_new_gods_fanfiction_introduction_and_chapter/ ]

Chapter 2

Shikoku was the judge, jury, and executioner and placed the verdict on all of humanity’s sins onto Kyouka. The gods very much believed in the sentiment of the sins of the father, so in this moment Kyouka was representative of all humans, past and present. It was a heavy burden certainly, but the idea of what would happen if she failed here rested in Kyouka’s mind more than what Shikoku spoke.

“To atone for all of my mistakes, my belief in the good of humans, I will kill you here. Then I will kill your friends and everyone you have ever known. All of humanity will know the wrath of the gods,”

A brewing rage hid behind her voice as Shikoku then collected herself, and she gestured with her arm to the audience of unconscious MDF soldiers around them. At any moment she could use a snake, a black vortex, or even her own hands to kill them and Kyouka wouldn’t be able to do anything. 

“Except for him.“

An outstretched finger pointed towards Yuuki lying in a crater within a wall. At some point during the fight, he had been tossed out from underneath Kyouka and had been unconscious, which knocked him out of his Shuuki form. The smoke that accompanied his detransformation lingered in a thin haze around him. Shikoku’s finger then clenched into a fist, as if she had already visualized claiming him in her mind. 

“He is an exception- the ‘sole’ exception. I know he has all of the gods within him. I will take him and be able to revive my kin-“

Suddenly, her words were cut off and blood began to pour from her mouth. Shikoku looked down at her stomach to see a large spear of ice piercing her. With a shocked expression, she turned her head back to see that chief Varvara was still alive. Her shock turned into a scowl.

“YOU-”

 Before her lips could move and utter more words, Kyouka had taken the opportunity to bridge the gap and to deliver the final blow. Her sword severed the bond between her head and body, and Shikoku’s face silently screamed as her head soared in the air. Like every other god of thunder, Shikoku’s body began to turn to dust and disperse into nothingness. This battle was over, but the war was not yet won. Just beyond the large, towering, doors to their left was the throne room, and within it was the commander taking on the most oppressive god of all, Taikyoku, the leader of the gods. Kyouka sheathed her sword and began to limp over towards Chief Varvara, who was even more battered than her and resting on her knees. Using her weapon as a cane, she made an effort to help up her fellow chief. 

“Varvara, you okay?”

Kyouka asked while pulling Varvara to her feet. The both of them were unstable and wouldn’t be able to hold their own in another fight. Utterly exhausted, chief Varvara could only nod and offer a look of affirmation. Now beginning to look around at their surroundings, their allies were in an even worse state than them. Some had their chest rising and lowering rhythmically with breath, but some were motionless. One who lay still was 7th Unit Vice Chief Himari Azuma. Catching this, Kyouka began to make a strained effort to move towards her vice chief with Varvara’s arm around her shoulder.

“Himari!”

Each of Kyouka’s muscles burned. The unwavering strength she had earlier was catching up with her and her body would not keep up with her commands to move. Through gritted teeth, she put one foot in front of the other.

“Himari, get up!”

The seventh unit chief cried out before collapsing to her knees as her legs gave out on her. Desperately, Kyouka began to crawl with her elbows towards Himari, who was facing away from her, unresponsive. Just as she reached her vice chief and placed a hand onto her shoulder, a black smudge appeared out of the corner of her eye. The sound of air being briefly sucked out, a vacuum was heard, which caught Kyouka’s attention and had her turn her head. She already knew what it was. Surrounding the hardly conscious Yuuki was a thick black smoke that dripped out of the wall like a liquid. From out of the smoke came a pair of pale arms, which then surrounded him in a hug from behind. In a fraction of a second, Yuuki was pulled into a black vortex, which then dispersed into nothingness. The room returned to a silence as realization had dawned upon all who witnessed it. Kyouka didn’t kill Shikoku and Yuuki was just taken by her. 

Next Chapter: [ work in progress ]

Yesterday I had a friend come back into my life after being gone for nearly a year, acting like nothing happened, and it kinda irks me.

I (25M) have known this dude (26M) for about 5 years. We met in college and have been best buds since. We have quite a lot in common, with similar interests, family history, trauma, and generally pretty similar views on things. I don’t really believe in ’best friends’, since my friend group is already pretty small as it is, but he is definitely someone I had trusted for years.

From December of 2024 to roughly May of 2025 we had a falling out. Even now, I’m still not sure how to feel about it. During that time he had gradually turned into a much nastier, often times petty, person following some disagreements. I won’t go into detail about all of it for brevity’s sake, but I’ll just mention that he went beyond the standard teasing my friend group would do to each other, and used it as an opportunity to release clearly unresolved anger. I’m a pretty passive person, so as to not rock the boat, I let it slide more often than I should have. Though, I was starting to get fed up with his behavior.

This all happened online, since we were no longer physically close to each other, and our friend group used games as our way to hang out. It all boiled over when one day I found out he had unfriended me on the gaming platform we play on. He said it was some server error, though I still doubt the validity of that claim. It didn’t affect my other friends and I had never heard of the platform removing friends in the way it did. Regardless, I ended up blocking him on all social media to finally get rid of all the passive harassment he was doing. Following that, the next time I spoke to him was about 2 or 3 months later. We had a heart to heart discussion to try and mend our friendship, and I thought all was well until one day he just wasn’t online anymore. He didn’t join our group for games, nor did he join our call to hang out and chat. For all intents and purposes he vanished and made no attempts to talk.

Fast forward to last week, and I get a friend request on one of my social medias from him. I pondered on it, and thought of it like him extending an olive branch, so I eventually decided to accept. Yesterday I then got a friend request on the game platform we play on. Accepting that too, it was only about 2 hours later that he joins the voice call I was in with another friend. I want to say we caught up, but in truth *he* was the one who updated us on what was going on in *his* life. The goods, the bads, the uglies, etc. He very briefly (and I emphasize BRIEFLY) apologized for him leaving and described it as ‘I had some bad stuff going on’, with no further clarification. He then spoke about the stuff in his life for about 15 minutes before finally asking the other friend what was going on in his life. Not once did he ask what I had been up to, and I had to go out of my way to even bring up the topic.

Over this last year, when he was gone, I had the thought pop up in my head many times that his absence actually made me happy. That I felt much more comfortable without him being there. Part of that makes me feel guilty. Being in the same voice call didn’t always generate this much anxiety, and I think most of all I’m disappointed that yesterday he never fully apologized.

I’m not sure what I want out of this post to be truthful. Part of me wants things to go back to the ways things were, and to let bygones be bygones, but emotionally I feel like that’s not possible at this moment. I’m at a crossroads, where I feel that I can either let this person back into my life or I shut them out forever. Any advice would be appreciated.

Introduction

For millennia, humans have advanced forward with the knowledge that the foundation of all of their achievements and innovations were grounded in science. Although there were differences between men and their counterpart, women, in the modern age when intelligence meant everything, women grew to stand on equal footing with men.
In the twentieth century, the world changed forever when portals began to sprout up across all of Japan. Some of them only appeared for minutes before quietly crumbling apart, while others are now permanent fixtures used daily. All of them, however, led to the same location- a newly discovered dimension that would be dubbed as Mato. Roughly the size of the Tokyo metropolitan area, this place would be appropriately described as hell. Jagged pillars of dark volcanic rock extended out of the ground and coated the landscape, a dark red sky looming overhead that constantly thundered and stormed, and black blizzards of dust that made traversing this realm a tumultuous task. This place felt way beyond the mortal coil, and certainly made it known that humans were not welcome there.
Regardless, the Japanese government made quick work to begin exploring this new region in their territory. Within this territory were monsters of unknown origin, large and hulking humanoids called Shuuki. Even decades after their discovery, there is very little known about their physiology, but there is one thing that is for certain. These creatures will mindlessly stop at nothing to try and wipe out all human life. Thankfully Mato held the key to provide an opportunity for humanity to defend themselves. Deep within caves were ‘trees’ bearing ‘fruit'. This fruit which would eventually be referred to as a Peach. If consumed, these peaches would grant powers beyond what should be physically possible: invisibility, super strength, gravity manipulation, and so much more. There was, like with everything in life, a catch. That was that only women could consume peaches and gain the powers associated with them. The previous power dynamics between men and women collapsed, as they became the matriarchs of society.
Following the discovery of peaches, Japan began to colonize Mato to prevent as many spill-over incidents as possible. Portals would, on occasion, open up to allow Shuuki into the mortal world or for humans to accidentally wander into the realm. To combat this, the Japanese government created a new regulatory agency to protect and defend this new resource and territory. This agency was dubbed the Mato Defense Force, shortened as MDF. The MDF then divided Mato into 9 sectors and had each sector be patrolled and defended by the corresponding Unit. Within each Unit was a captain, a Chief, who was effectively the boss of each area. The boss of the bosses was the Commander, who was equal parts Chief and politician.

In the modern era, on one fateful day, a boy by the name of Yuuki Wakura was walking back home from school when the air around him suddenly became thick with mist, and he stumbled through a Mato portal. The chief of the seventh unit, Kyouka Uzen saved him, and in doing so  she had discovered her Peach ability to control and ride Shuuki could affect him as well. Gaining the ability to transform into a Shuuki-like creature, Yuuki became a part of the Seventh Unit. Shortly after his induction, a major discovery occurred- the Eight Gods of Thunder. 
These ‘Gods’ were humanoid and intelligent beings hellbent on destroying all of humanity. Though attempts were made to reach a compromise, the gods were clear in their intent, so humanity fought back. Through the strained efforts of the MDF, three gods were eventually killed. In doing so, Yuuki, who had personally fought each of the gods, had discovered their life essences were absorbed inside of him. This unique position of his allowed him to communicate with these gods in his dreams. While proving to be a blessing, this also was a curse in disguise, as the remaining gods would undoubtedly intend to revive their fallen kin within him.

Chapter 1

In the home of the gods, a fight was brewing. Down a tall and imposing corridor, steel clashed with eldritch black tendrils that were unrelenting with their pursuit of its prey. Twisting and contorting into the visage of snakes, any bite from these serpents would spell disaster for the swordswoman of the 7th Unit- Kyouka Uzen. The loud, metallic, pang of her sword striking into the snakes rang out and reverberated against the walls to accentuate their battle.

Kyouka was the sole survivor of the Gassan Oisawa incident, and was now fighting the gods. Not some self proclaimed title taken by the strong, but genuine deities of thunder- Raijin. They had suddenly appeared one day, much like the portals that lead to Mato, and had claimed humanity as lambs to be slaughtered. The only people in the way of that becoming a reality to the rest of the world were the Mato Defense Force. In this war against the gods none were exempt from loss, but the gods specifically had been thwarted for too long of a streak.

Sparks flew into the air with each strike of Kyouka’s sword. She was on defense, as even her flurry of slashes, was unable to keep up with the god’s unrelenting attack. Every step backwards grew closer to the wall behind her, and she would soon have to make an effort to get out of this stalemate. The god before her grinned with a sadistic smile at the sight of her prey getting ever closer to death.

In what could only be described as a final stand, Kyouka was surrounded by the torn and scattered bodies of her allies. Of which, she did not know who was alive or dead. Covered in cuts, and parts of her uniform torn, it was clear the endurance of gods far superseded her expectations. Each day she tirelessly trained to pursue a body that would not fail her, like it did that during the Gassan Oisawa incident, where she lost her whole village. She was no longer a scared little girl unable to stand, and if she had anyone to prove it to then it would be herself at this moment. Time almost seemed to slow down as Kyouka had flashbacks of everything it took to get here. Each strike of steel clashing commemorating a time when she came so close to giving up. With a downwards strike Kyouka let out an emotion-filled shout and briefly overpowered the god draped in black- Shikoku.

Shikoku, always being one to err on the side of caution, halted her barrage and leapt backwards to create some space between them. The various cuts to her clothing were already reminders not to underestimate human strengths, much like her sisters before her did. She would not be so ignorant of their so-called “second wind”. Both sides stopped attacking with the air turning mostly silent in the room. Kyouka’s heavy panting could be heard, but her stance indicated she wouldn’t go down without a fight. Shikoku’s serpent-like eyes observed her stance and glanced at her battered and bruised opponent before opening her mouth to begin a monologue.

“I hate you, you know. Humanity- all of you. But in that same breath I’m so enamored by you all. Your ability to be so disgustingly naive to what’s truly happening around you,”

Kyouka hadn’t responded, but took this as an opportunity to regain some of her expended stamina. Her eyes were focused and unwavered by Shikoku’s words. After all, she was a master of deception and would use any advantage she could take.

“-all you humans do is take and take and take. You don’t even know who owns it or if it's even for you! You just take it!”

For a brief moment Shikoku began to lose her composure, a deep rage within her eyes, but then took a deep breath to calm herself before continuing.

 “The land was ruined by your buildings and your talismans, but we were benevolent and allowed you to remain as you were. Then you saw peaches, the fruits of our divinity, and took those too. And despite my sisters’ desire to remove you- eradicate you, I believed in the good of humanity… the potential of humanity”

Shikoku paused her words, letting them linger in the air and let Kyouka think on them. She had corrected herself, as if the past version of her was a fool for ever thinking humans could be good.

“Do you know what you did with that- with this gift? You turned on yourselves. Like starving dogs tearing at each other, with your greed and inability to be content for what you already have.”

The god stared directed into Kyouka’s eyes. Her gaze burned red-hot, like she was piercing directly into her soul.

[Next Chapter: work in progress]