Hyperdimension Sephira Episode 02

**Into The Gleam Eyes** *(輝きアイに,Kagayaki no me ni)* is the second episode of the Hyperdimension Sephira series. It was first published on December 5, 2018, on Fanfiction.net and Quotev.com.

After passing out from taking a hit from the cave dwelling monster, Shizuki  awakes hours later and becomes acquainted with Compa's friend, IF. The next day, they hear about a dangerous monster that's killed many people in attempts to kill it. IF and Compa set out to defeat it to prevent other people from losing their lives to it and Shizuki, although hesitant, joins them. However, things take an unexpected turn when a red haired woman gets involved.

## Synopsis

The Episode opens up with Shizuki having a dream about a town covered in snow. He notices a small girl sitting on the sidewalk weeping while people walk past her either without noticing her, or simply not caring. Seeing the girl continually ignored starts to anger Shizuki a bit, however it is then that a boy around her age approaches her, to which the girl stops crying. As he looks on, Shizuki is unable to make out what they are saying and it is then that the dream ends. Shizuki wakes up to find that he had been sleeping in Compa's bedroom in the apartment complex. Here, he questions whether or not he had been unconscious and then remembers the events of the previous episode that led him to his current position, noting the bandages around his back. As he wondered why he suddenly passed out, the girl who saved them from the Cave Dweller greeted him at the bedroom door. He asks her how long he had been unconscious to which IF answers that he had been out for nearly three hours. She then explains that the Cave Dweller had injected him with a non lethal toxin into his body when it struck his back, and that Compa was able to treat him before carrying him back to the apartment building. After a bit of idle conversation, IF asks Shizuki about his origins being from another world and he confirms it, though states that he had no idea why, how or what had sent him there to begin with along with what the entity told him. In response to being asked if he had a way back to his world, Shizuki merely shrugs, saying that he had no clue how to get back, but also adding that if he did have a way, he would not return just yet. He then remarks that he was never fond of the world (Earth) he came from and that if he were to leave, he may come to regret doing so eventually. IF asked what his plans would be if he had no intent on returning and Shizuki tells her that he wishes to explore the rest of Gamindustri before making a final judgement on whether or not he wants to stay. It is then that a few moments later that they turn in for the night with IF leaving the room, advising that Shizuki get a full night's sleep despite just waking up minutes ago. Before she leaves however, Shizuki thanks her for rescuing them from cave dweller.

Later that night, a pair of siblings; a brother and a sister enters a dungeon to investigate the reports of a powerful monster that had been responsible for the deaths of five different groups who entered its domain to try and kill it for a cash reward. The sister is uncertain about their mission and the brother confidently assures her that they can handle it before teasing her about her fear of the dark. As they pressed on, the pair takes note of the corpses that lay around them with the sister becoming disturbed to the point of hesitating and the brother, although not showing it, becomes a bit unnerved. The sister suggests that they turn back now and the brother vetoes this, claiming that the people at home would never let them live it down and would mock them as cowards. The sister tries to convince him that they were not ready for something like this as they only started going on hunts three months ago. The brother sighs and ultimately agrees to handle the fighting while she remains behind to watch and should things become too hectic, he would allow them to retreat. The sister reluctantly agrees to this and after a bit of playful banter, the siblings press on. They walk through the entrance that was open and notices something large up ahead. There, they are confronted with the massive figure of the Gleam Eyes which immediately strikes fear in both siblings. They agree to flee and make their way for the exit, but then the blue demon makes its first move which cleaves the brother's legs off, causing him to scream loudly in agony. It then proceeds to pick him up and brutally devours him, leaving the sister horrified as to what she had just witnessed. Eventually it all became too much for her to bear and the sister loses all sense of composure and sanity before resigning herself to her fate, allowing the Gleam Eyes to kill her as a for of punishment for allowing this to happen.

The next morning, Shizuki wakes up and enters the living room where IF and Compa are watching the news. They beckon him to join them and he takes his place on the sofa, watching a news report about the two siblings that had gone missing from their attempt at defeating the Gleam Eyes. Hearing this, Shizuki wonders if the Gleam Eyes was the same type of creature as the one they had encountered the previous day and IF regrets to inform him that the Gleam eyes was a much worse beast than the cave dweller and adds that it was capable of killing a party of five in one swing. This disturbs Shizuki making him not even want to know the appearance of such a creature. IF describes it as a blue demon with a giant sword which gave him a vague idea as to what the monster looked like, though it still scared him a bit. To that end, he wonders why no one had bothered putting a sign that forbade entry or sealed it off entirely and IF claims that none of those things would have worked as a sign and caution tape would not deter people and sealing up the entrance to its dungeon may cause it to try to break free and go on a rampage. Shizuki questions why the Goddess of Leanbox was not taking the place of the people challenging this thing, only to learn that she was preoccupied with other matters at the moment and that it usually falls to IF or the captain of the Basilicom's guard force. Shizuki notices that Compa has been silent ever since they started talking about the Gleam Eyes and she then expresses the desire to help put a stop to the creature's reign and IF readily agrees. Shizuki is however hesitant remembering the comment about it killing five people in one strike, but agrees to join them after some light teasing.

The Trio heads down to the Guild Office downtown to accept the quest to put down the Gleam Eyes. IF explains to Shizuki what the guild was exactly and they head over to the desk where they were to take the quest, however they are interrupted by a red haired woman who IF knows. She is joined by her party: The Titian's Hand IF asks, albeit slightly annoyed, what Rosalia and her crew were doing there and she in response mockingly asks her the same question. IF responds and reveals what they came there to do and Rosalia's men laugh at them, making crude remarks as they did so, which gave Shizuki flashbacks of the guys that had attacked him at the start of episode 1. IF states her intent on putting the beast down before anyone else tries to foolishly fight it and Rosalia questions the strength of her party while looking down on Shizuki and Compa as if they were lowly insects. This pisses off Shizuki, though he does not express it outright and IF dares Rosalia to join them to prove her wrong about their strength. Rosalia admits that she was intending on taking the request before the could and IF agrees to split the reward money after they defeat it. Rosalia agrees to this and the two parties join together, although Titan's Hand leaves the building almost immediately. Compa wonders why IF wanted to join forces with a person IF disliked and she admits Rosalia to being a decent fighter along side the fact that having more people in their party would better their chances at defeating the demon. Shizuki expresses his distrust of Rosalia and her party and IF reassures him that she would make sure Rosalia didn't do anything, also citing the woman's competitiveness and overconfidence as factors for her not being a direct danger to them. Compa comments that nothing could go wrong, but Shizuki forcefully cuts her off mid-sentence, not wanting to be jinxed by the words. Meanwhile outside, one of the party members of Rosalia's force questions the fact that IF suggested the alliance before she ever could, and Rosalia reassures him that she knows nothing about their intentions, resolutely declaring that IF's demise was only a footnote in their overall plan, whatever that might be.

After accepting the request and getting ready, both parties make their way to the dungeon where the Gleam Eye's domain resided. As they did, they walked passed the corpses of those who had been slain by the monster, which caused Shizuki to feel uneasy about this whole quest. To calm him down, Compa holds his hand and reassures him that everything will be okay, to which he calms down a bit afterwards. They make it to the door and IF remarks the doors to its domain being impressive and consistent with the information she had gotten. Rosalia teases her a bit, goading IF to be the first to enter and IF does so, opening the doors and stepping inside the domain. The find that the room was very large and was round in shape, with a throne-like structure standing somewhere in the dark background. As they looked around, Shizuki's Danger Perception went off and alerted him that the doors to the domain were closing. he and the girls notice this and attempts to rush to the exit, but they were too late as the doors closed completely. They bang on the door to get Rosalia and co. to open them, but she mockingly remarks that they simply closed on their own before leaving the trio to their fate. IF punches the wall in frustration and Shizuki reminds her that he warned her about the red haired woman. IF regains her composure and focuses on defeating the Gleam Eyes. She has Compa stand by as support for healing and tells Shizuki not to make jump in if he could help it, giving him the role of Compa's protector during the fight. Afterwards, the lights in the domain start to turn on, revealing the massive figure of the Gleam eyes before them.

The battle starts the monster leaps into the air to strike the trio from above with great force, causing all of them to get clear of its attack, though not unscathed as the shockwave knocks them down. IF engages and throws her blades at it only for those blades to be deflected by the Gleam Eyes' own weapon. As she circled the beast, she threw more daggers at it, with one being deflected and one hitting it in its temple, exploding soon afterwards. The two then engage in close quarters combat, with IF using the walls and ceiling to complement her agility in the fight. She uses a flash grenade to stun the monster before firing at it with explosive rounds which it regenerates from. Once she had emptied her clips, she has Compa use her ability, Heaven's Touch to continue to restore IF's body while she used her own ability Level Accel. With the pair synced IF's strength and speed increased and was able to take on the Gleam Eyes with better footing. Shizuki is surprised by their sudden display of their abilities, making him wonder if they were Espers, or some equivalent to them. At some point, the tail of the demon which was also a living creature, stunned IF with a high pitched noise before throwing its massive sword at Compa whom it identified as a threat because of her power supporting IF. Shizuki immediately tackles her to the ground and rolls out of the way, only for Shizuki to find himself on top of her which causes the two to blush in response. The awkward moment is quickly brought to an end when the Gleam Eyes punched IF into a wall. Shizuki laments at his own powerlessness to do anything to help stop the beast when he remembers that he has his Mystic Eyes of Soul Conception. Shizuki, although reluctant at first, decides to use their power to turn the situation around. He pulls IF aside and tells her that he has a way to stop the creature, but that he needs her to distract it so he can land the decisive blow to it. Compa offers to help and he tells her to stay behind to support them like always and then activates his Mystic Eyes to see the beast's Origin Core. On Shizuki's command, the party mobilizes with IF attacking it head on while Compa uses her power once more. IF throws a gravitational device underneath the gleam eyes which pulls it down to its knee. Shizuki rushes in with his wooden sword to attack and the Gleam eyes retaliates with its breath blasts. He narrowly avoids the blasts and is propelled upward by another device IF had planted during the fight, falling back down to the surface and landing a clean hit on its origin core, causing it to turn into dust and fade away. The Gleam Eyes' reign was brought to an end, but Shizuki's power display had surprised the two girls.

Moments later the trio made it to the city where they all explained what their powers were and how they were discovered. Shizuki explained his ability, admitting that it greatly disturbed him that he could see souls and interact with them. With this and his healing factor, he belittles himself, saying he was an anomaly and a freak among freaks. As he was worried that the two might become scared of him, Compa hugged him and both girls assured him that what power he had was irrelevant to them; all that mattered was that he was their friend and that he rescued them from a terrible fate. IF goes on to say that they were not like the people in his world and saw that his strange powers made him more unique, and they could not even think about abandoning him after hearing his story. This revealed Shizuki greatly and with many emotions swirling inside him, his gratitude shined through as he thanked them for accepting him.

While this was going on, a Man in Black had been watching them the entire time from a distance on a building rooftop. He contacts one of his superiors on a cellular device and reports what he had witnessed to them, including the fight and Shizuki activating his Mystic Eyes. The young man speaks of an item that they suggest if in Shizuki's possession and that it was urgent that they retrieve it and the woman on the other end agrees with this, but states that they not act yet as they could risk exposing themselves to Gamindustri's population while remarking that some third party has yet to make risky actions like that. They discuss the topic of a second familiar that was placed in the Domain, believing it to be Rosalia's whom they now suspect is aware of what happened as well. The male asks if he should still remain an observer even if she attacked again and the woman on the other end says yes, as doing so would violate their non-interference rule since Rosalia is presumably a resident. She then adds that if Shizuki is killed, they could just go in and retrieve the item from his corpse at a later time. The male obeys and decided to continue to keep watch of the trio before ending the call. As he looked down on them, he questions why Shizuki could remain in good spirits while being in the situation he is in.

## Major Events

* Compa and IF's innate abilities are shown for the first time.

* Shizuki kills the Gleam Eyes by activating MEOSP.

* Shizuki tells Compa and IF about his abilities for the first time.

## Characters

* Shizuki Tsukamoto
* IF
* Compa
* Vert/Green Heart (Mentioned)

## New Characters

* Brother
* Sister
* Rosalia
* Kojirou Kurosaki (Unnamed)

## Trivia

* Rosalia and the Gleam Eyes originated from Sword Art Online.
* The Gleam Eyes was not going to appear in this episode originally. Instead, a creature from the SCP universe was originally chosen, though Kino-San has not stated which SCP it was going to be.
* The narration makes a reference to G.H.Q, an organization that will play a major role later in the series.

## Unanswered questions

* Who were the children in Shizuki's dream?
* Who was the observer, who was he speaking to and what enemy are they referring to?
* What is Rosalia's plan?

## Quotes

* **Shizuki**:*"I'm not really fond of or overly attached to that place in general despite living there most of my life. I don't have any friends and my only family member is always away overseas, so no one would really miss me. Besides... If I did leave, I would probably go on to miss this place for a long time despite only spending not even a full day here."* (Spoken to IF as he answers why he would not want to return to his world)
* **Sister**: *"H...Hah...Hahahahahahahahahahaha──! Of course..! This is my punishment for being a useless sister... Yes...!"* (The sister going insane from the intense emotions from watching her brother killed)
* **Rosalia**: *"Haha! I do hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I seriously doubt you can scratch the beast, much less slay it. Not to mention your party is greatly lacking in a myriad of areas."* (Spoken to IF as she assesses her party)
* **Shizuki**: *"I'm an anomaly... a freak among freaks. If I'm not a human, and I'm not an Esper... then what the hell am I?"* (Spoken to Compa and IF when revealing his powers to them)

* **Kojirou Kurosaki**: *"Curious... how is it that you are able to remain carefree given your situation?"* (Spoken to Shizuki while observing him from afar without his knowledge)