Waking up in darkness is not something Byleth is unfamiliar with. He expects to see the same throne Sothis had always been on, empty as usual, but when his eyes actually flutter open to look up, he nearly does a double take.

Said goddess was there, arms and legs crossed, an angry expression on her face, and it isn't long until she stands up to yell at him.

"YOU FOOL!"

Byleth cocks his head, pointing a finger at himself.

"YES YOU! Who else would I be talking to?!" She huffs and plops down once more, the scowl ever present. "How could you be so…so impossible?! Sacrificing yourself for your students like that? Does that satisfy you now, in death?!"

"I'm dead?"

"As tempted as I am to say 'yes', the correct answer would be, 'I am not sure'," the scowl on her mouth lessons into a frown. "If you were dead, you would not be here, and we would not be conversing. Honestly, how could you be so careless?"

Byleth thinks back to the battle he had supposedly 'died' in. He hadn't thought, the moment he saw that axe flying at Dimitri, his body had moved. He was so sure that he had at least one pulse left, but could he have miscounted…?

Well, everything was over now. He could ponder and ponder, but the answer would never find him, right?

"Where do we go from here?" Byleth voices. "What do we do?"

Sothis sighs. "Do I look like I know? I am you, I do not know more than you do. When you fell on that battlefield, I mustered the last of our strength in an attempt to turn back the clock, though I am not quite sure how that fared."

"So-"

A groan.

The two of them whip their heads to the source of the sound. There, a few feet away from them, lay a lone figure. A man – as far as Byleth could see – groans as he pushes himself up from the ground of the Holy Tomb, shaking his head in confusion.

"Urgh…"

"Are you alright?" Byleth offers helpfully.

Sothis smacks the back of his head. "Don't be so polite!"

Byleth understands what Sothis means; another presence is in their mind. Something that isn't supposed to happen. This space is for him and Sothis only, it should have been impossible for someone else to intrude on them.

Yet, as Byleth stares at the grey-haired man, he wonders why he doesn't feel any animosity.

The man rubs the side of his head for a little, finally opening his silver eyes. He is in a strange getup, his jacket and pants black with a white button up underneath. The jacket seems to have some sort of logo on it, though Byleth isn't quite sure what. He peers at Byleth and Sothis through glasses, and blinks for a few times. "Who are you?"

"Byleth Eisner," Byleth says, still keeping his distance. "You?"

"…Which is your first name?" The man asks, slowly standing up. He is probably around two inches taller than Byleth, but the mostly expressionless face and monotone voice reminds him strongly of himself. It isn't only him who realizes this fact, because he can hear Sothis muttering in horror in the background.

"Byleth."

"Then, I'm Yu Narukami," He nods, his eyes not leaving Byleth's for a second. A weird name, but at least it isn't freakishly long like some people. "…Where am I?"

"Why should we tell you such information so carelessly–"

"We are not sure," Byleth supplies.

"Byleth!"

"I see," Yu cups his chin as he seems to ponder. "Thank you."

Byleth nods. "You are welcome."

Sothis slaps her hands to her face. "It is as if I am talking to two brick walls."

The world around him glows, and Byleth –

"-ey, time to wake up."

He wakes up.

"…he disappeared," Yu says, looking at the floating, green haired girl that had a strangely familiar voice.

The girl grumbles and floats up to a throne very high up, settling into it with her eyes glaring at Yu still. "And he leaves me to deal with another block of a human being. How rude!"

Yu tilts his head and picks the polite option. "What's your name?"

She sniffs and turns away from him. "Ask more politely, and then I might indulge you."

Yu masks a sigh.

To think wishing for another chance blasted him into a dank throne room with a tiny, fussy girl.

Everything is familiar, and not at the same time, Byleth muses.

When he woke up to Jeralt's face rousing him from his slumber, Byleth couldn't help but run into his arms. He almost tackled the taller man over with his silent sobs, and worried the man to death, but Jeralt still returned his hug. He was confused though, and asked for an explanation, to which Byleth replies with a 'bad dream'.

He isn't so sure if the life he had lived could be bracketed into a simple bad dream. He doesn't think it is.

When the three heirs show up, Byleth nearly stabs himself with his sword, just to make sure he isn't dreaming.

"Do not do such a thing!" Sothis's voice chimes in angrily. "I will send you back seven more years if you ever so prick a finger!"

"That sounds much," an unfamiliar voice joins, before Byleth realizes that it must be the grey-haired man he had seen in his dreams.

'Sothis? Yu?'

"Yes," the two chorus, each very different from the other.

'…This is strange.'

"To think we share the same body now," Sothis murmurs. Byleth can imagine her crossing her arms with a pout. "How inconvenient."

"If you find my physical body, feel free to dump me in," Yu says, not helpful at all.

Byleth finds it very hard to redirect his attention back to the real world when Dimitri speaks up.

"Please forgive our intrusion. We wouldn't bother you were the situation not dire."

Byleth tries his best to focus. He looks all three of the lords and still can't believe how young they look. He finds it a little easier when he looks at Dimitri's face, a little round, pale as ever, with blonde strands that would catch light and glow like the sun. Byleth can see the innocence, but he is also dimly aware of the fragileness and darkness flickering behind the blue eyes looking at him –

-Wait, looking at him?

The prince slightly lifts an eyebrow in question, a sheepish look on his face. "I'm sorry, is there something on my face…?"

"No," Byleth says instinctively. "Your face is fine. I just got distracted."

The pale skin reddens a little, but before either of them can say anything, they are swept up in a battle against the bandits chasing the three.

The battle is easy, almost laughably so. Compared to everything he had been through, slicing through the wall of thinly guarded human bodies is like cutting through butter. His sword isn't exactly the Sword of the Creator, but it fits well enough that he doesn't mind it too much.

"You're really strong," Yu comments. "What are you?"

"A mercenary," Byleth mutters under his breath, dodging a punch aimed his way before kicking the thug in the head. "I kill for money."

"We don't have those back home. It's strange to see one in action."

'Back home?'

"I'm starting to think that I don't exactly belong in this world."

"Well you certainly look the part," Sothis scoffs. "I've never seen a more ridiculous getup in my life!"

"You mean the one before this one or now?"

"Wha – how do you–"

"I think," Yu interrupts. Byleth sees a man with an axe flying at Dimitri at the corner of his eye, and he jumps in before Yu can finish the sentence. Pushing the prince away with a rough tackle, he mentally apologizes to him as he raises his sword and lets the blade slide across the flesh. Blood gushes out, but he looks away before the most of it can get into his eyes.

He redirects his attention to the prince, blood dripping from his hair, trailing down to his chin and falling to the ground. "Are you alright?"

Dimitri sputters a little, hurriedly standing up to get into a fighting stance once more. "Y-yes, thank you very much!"

A small warmth blooms in his heart as he nods his head. "You're welcome. Be careful."

He charges back into the fray without looking back.

'Sorry, please continue.'

"We can do this after the slaughter."

'No need, it should end soon anyway.'

"Ok. I'm from another world, and I probably restarted the start of my journey like you did." Byleth is impressed at how bland that impossible sounding phrase comes out.

'Were you listening?'

"Kind of. Like the tiny girl said, she is you, and apparently, I am you now too."

'…Alright.'

"You cannot seriously just accept that–"

The last man standing, the one named Kostas as Byleth recalls, charges at Edelgard. Byleth knows what to do now and throws his sword at the ground in front of the man to cut his road off. When the bulky man flinches, Byleth runs and jump kicks the man in the head, successfully knocking him out. It would have been more efficient to kill him, but he isn't so sure whether killing this man would change the future for the best.

Byleth lands gracefully and pulls his sword from the ground. Turning back to look at Edelgard, he asks her. "Are you hurt?"

She looks a little surprised, but something else coats her gaze almost immediately. "…No. Thank you."

He shrugs, sheathing his weapon. Soon after, Alois and the knights charge in, and Byleth dutifully slides up to his father's side. If it looks like he is hiding behind his father, well, he is.

"CAPTAIN JERALT!" The voice booms through the area. He swears he can hear a few winces, two of them coming from inside his head.

As Alois runs through the same motions, Byleth risks a glance to the fallen bandits. Or, they should've been there. Instead, the bodies were mostly gone, save for a few, and he realizes that he can't see Kostas in the ones on the ground. Byleth feels his eyebrows furrow a bit. A kick from him isn't enough to fully knock a man out? He needs to shape up more.

"This is a regular occurrence?" Yu asks.

'You could say that.' Byleth says, thumbing the handle of his sword.

"You could try using a katana next time."

'What's that?'

"A Japanese sword. It's differently shaped, and more specialized in slashing. I use it. Maybe you can too."

'New weapons are always welcome. But what is a 'Japanese'?'

"…This is going to be a long talk."

Byleth briefly thinks that considering the long trek they have to Garreg Mach, they would have a lot of time. He forces himself to return to the real world, and he sees that the three students are in front of him, about to compliment him and introduce themselves.

But he sees that they are a little scraped up and looking a little tired, so he wiggles his fingers and feels something warm seep into his palms. It feels like a heal spell, but it also feels like something else is mixed in it.

"Dia," Yu speaks, a hint of shock in his voice.

'Dia?'

"It's – it's a healing spell that I can use."

"You have magic in your 'Japanese'?"

"Well, yes and no…? And my country's name is Japan."

'I see.'

Byleth isn't so sure whether he 'sees' or not, but he raises his hand and washes the spell over them. It's a little stronger than the usual spell, and it's apparent when all three of them seem to perk up immediately.

"Woah," Claude whistles as he observes his healed scratches. "I didn't know you could heal!"

"I'm not a specialist, but I know the basics," Byleth explains, looking at Dimitri. "I hope it helps."

The blonde nods, almost a little too enthusiastically. "It does a fantastic job! Oh, wait, we have yet to introduce ourselves yet, haven't we? I am Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd."

"Claude von Reagan," the dark-haired teen smiled, a glint of mischievousness shining in his eyes.

"Edelgard von Hresvelg," the princess bows shallowly. "We must thank you for helping us in our time of need. May we have your name as well?"

Looking at Edelgard, he can't help but feel a sense of…resentment? Hate? Anger? He isn't too sure of the strange emotion bubbling somewhere deep underneath the surface but considering everything that she had done in the past, he isn't going to be gifting her flowers anytime soon.

Nevertheless, with Claude and Dimitri's curious eyes on them, he tells them his name.

"Byleth Eisner."

He reminds me of myself, is the first thing Yu thinks when he sees him. With dark blue hair and equally colored eyes, he stared at Yu with a blank look that he thinks what he must look like to others. He stands straight, a little guarded, but curious and somewhat open-minded. Maybe a little oblivious.

"Like you can talk," Sothis – the tiny green girl with twin tails that remind him of Rise – scoffs, still on her throne. "You two are practically twins. If you had Byleth's hair and eye color, you would be impossible to tell apart."

Yu wants to get up on the throne himself, the floor is hard and quite frankly, uncomfortable.

"Do not dare," she snaps, glaring at him. "This is my seat, and mine only. Not even Byleth has sat here in this realm."

"I can be the first," Yu offers.

"NO!"

"Maybe I can summon a futon."

"There will be no summoning – wait, what did you say?"

"Maybe I can summon a futon."

"Not the entire sentence you dolt, the last word you said!"

"Futon."

"Yes, pray tell, what is that?"

Yu blinks. "…Do you know what a bed is?"

Sothis huffs. "Of course, I know what a bed is! What does that have to do with my question?"

"It's a bed without a frame. It's portable."

Sothis furrows her brows. "A portable mattress?"

Yu nods, deciding to go with that. It seems like Sothis can also read his mind, because she narrows her eyes at him anyway.

"So, is summoning a futon still out of the question?"

"There will be no summoning of any portable mattresses of any kind!"

Yu plops down onto the cold, hard floor.

"I am going to die."

"Stop exaggerating, you overgrown child."

"I am thou, thou art I."

"SHUT IT!"

When Byleth plops down onto the bed back in his room at Garreg Mach, he wonders how hard it will be to live a second life with two souls in him now.

This is a thing. It happened. NO REGRETS!

Spending a long time reading Persona 4 and Fire Emblem NewGame+ fics really gets to a person. I am not sure whether I will make this a long story or not, but as long as the motivation is there, this story will continue.

Now, hope for more adventures with two brick walls and a sassy child!