a/n: this is terrible but here u go pls dont mind me and my stupid ships

"Naomi."

"Y-yes?"

I swallowed, clenching my fist around the handle of the blade.

"We're going to have to cut the palms of our hands, and put our blood into the dish." I said, my voice hoarse with pure fear.

Naomi slowly nodded, the knife in her hand beginning to shake as she cuts the skin of her palm.

I did the same. As the blade ran across, the sharpness dug into what was like my own consciousness. I gritted my teeth, trying hard not to cry out because of the excruciating pain.

The blood collected together, and I began reciting the incantations with a sting on my hand.

I spoke the final word, and the photo of Mayu blew up in flames, leaving nothing behind. The paper doll was unscathed.

"Ayumi… did we do it?!" Naomi panicked. She seemed to have forgotten all about the gash on hef hand. "I-is Mayu alive…?"

I was startled by footsteps above the hidden room.

The footsteps were one after the other. One, two. One, two.

It was strangely robotic, in a way.

I could hear her coughing now. She fell to the floor.

She…
She could be alive.

"Suzum-!" Naomi began, but I shushed her, placing my hand over her mouth.

I heard Mayu gasp.

She came towards the vault door.
Her footsteps were real.
Down the stairs.
Even closer.
I saw her.
She saw us.
She was alive.
Every part of her.

"Naomi!? Ayumi!?" she shrieked, tears beginning to flood.

My voice was too broken for words. I threw myself into her arms. She was taller than I remembered.
"Ayumi! Naomi! I'm so glad you're both okay!"

I felt her put her arms around me. She pulled me closer, and her tears streamed down to her lower jaw.
Naomi came over, and patted our backs.
"It's okay now, right?" she said with a smile. She was crying too.

"Yep! We're-"

Mayu was interrupted.

Runes of some sort traced her thighs.

"M-Mayu?!"

Then her arms.
"Aggh…gh!"

Then her neck.

She cried out in pain as rounded saws began to dig into the skin where the runes had appeared. Blood sprayed out from the wounds, some onto my face.
The saws were horribly sharp.

Her blood mixed with my tears as I stared in confusion and disbelief.

Mayu fell onto her knees.

"Aaah…YAAAAGHHHHH!" she began to scream. At this rate, she'd be dismembered in a matter of minutes.

Crying, I tried to put out the roaring flame that engulfed Mayu's paper doll. It got weaker, and so did the saws' force.

"AYUMI! NAOMI! HELP, PLEASE!"

I yelled out in frustration, slapping the fire. I couldn't feel the heat anymore.

The saws were almost at breaking point.

Naomi joined me, whacking the fire with her uninjured hand. She tried blowing on it too.

Mayu still groaned, the fire fading.

It burnt out at my last movement.

"It hurts…. It hurts so much!" she shouted, the wounds beginning to recover as the blood stained saws drop to the ground with a metallic clunk.
I inspected the cuts. I felt them.

They were healing inhumanly quickly, but the thigh marks were going to stay. The neck and arm wounds began to fade.

"Nnnngh…"
She croaked, still in pain.

I wiped the tears off of her face with my thumbs, then holding her shoulders.

I remembered that so much of this was for her sake.

I looked at her paper doll. Burnt, but still intact. The legs were gone.

Mayu was shaking.

Even though that terrible turn of events only lasted minutes, it felt like hours. Her cries of pain were still trapped in my mind.

My eyes widened as I was struck. In the same places, no less.

I tripped backwards and into the wall. My neck, arms, and thighs were all being pierced. I couldn't move at all.

I lost my vision, and all awareness of anything.

I felt tons of blood leave me as the objects were driven deeper, and deeper into my body.

I must've cried out in pain.

My legs felt weak.

Then, I realised.

Was I going to die in Mayu's place?