"So, you think... I mean, I am Inanna," Hisako said carefully. She sat with her knees together, inspecting her injured leg. Inanna sat behind her, cross-legged, unabashedly half-nude and not quite glaring at the others, but still giving off plenty of negative feelings. She couldn't exactly glare; upon a second look, Hisako was greatly surprised that the woman was blindfolded underneath her long, shockingly violet hair. It seemed like she was all reds and purples and browns, except for her blue staff and gold necklace.
"You are my sister, after all. You may call me Ereshkigal," the other woman said cheerily, complete with a grand smile. It was amazing how quickly this had gone from civil to violent to death threats to lighthearted conversation. It was dizzying. "He is this land's guardian, of a sort. This is Nergal, my consort."
She tried not to make a face at the mental images that conjured for her. "These names, they're not Japanese. Where are you—we—from, exactly?"
"We lived together a long time ago. In the land of the living, not this world below."
There was a change in her composure that prompted Hisako to lean forward and ask, "But not anymore...?"
"Inanna, it's done with. I would rather not rehash the past with you. I've finally come to peace with it all. Please, just let us start anew," Ereshkigal said.
Hisako relented. She looked up at the being looming over her. Inanna tilted her head down at her, mouth drawn into a thin line. She looked very much alive and pretty healthy, whereas Ereshkigal looked like she was dying—or dead. And considering where they were, Hisako could glean enough from that. She decided to change the subject. As pleasant as getting a break of all of the madness was, she still had a very pressing matter to attend to outside of it all. "Um, there was a boy who came down here before me."
Ereshkigal raised both eyebrows and looked at Nergal, beside her. "Nergal, is this true? Has another come through?"
"She was the first human I had seen." He frowned, though, and stole a glance over at Hisako. Neither of them seemed to actually see the giant woman sitting behind her. It made her wonder how they were viewing her. "I had not realized it wasn't human."
"I am too human," she huffed. The fact that neither of them were about to kill her had given her some stubbornness back, even if it was likely misplaced. "And I am not an it! I'm a girl!"
"Of course you are. But what are you doing here? You have no need to be, Inanna dear, " Ereshkigal replied, tone soothing.
"I told you, I have to find a boy. Human boy with black hair and long horns sticking out of his head!"
"Horns?" They exchanged an uneasy glance. It didn't sit well with her. "When was the last time she...?"
"If she's up to mischief, I would need to know. I have not seen her in far too long… There is no need to worry, though," she said quickly.
Nergal still looked unsure. "But if she is, we will have a massive problem on our hands…"
Hisako stayed silent, unable to come up with a response that didn't involve sarcasm.
"I will investigate this matter, but Inanna, Irkalla will always be open to you. Nergal will not forbid you entry again. And I, dear sister, will help too." She waved her hands in the air, and a delicate, golden chain appeared between them. She hooked it around her finger and drew little lines; from where her finger touched the links, a small charm appeared, with three in total. She handed it down to Hisako with another kind smile. Inanna leaned over her shoulder, emanating curiosity. "Should you need me, I will come at your behest. I only have three Tablets left, but they should keep you safe on this minor quest."
"Oh. Thank you," she replied, surprised by the gesture. She was going out of her way to be kind, if not strictly apologetic for the earlier happenings. It still sounded like a massive mix-up, but she wasn't going to turn down help. "But please... You don't know where my friend could have gone?"
"He must have gone somehow into Irkalla. It's the only place that we cannot currently view," she said and gestured at the open space surrounding them. "I will go; I would have words with Dumuzi and that sister of his, provided I can find the two..."
"Thank you," Hisako repeated. She stood up, a little shakily, and dusted off her skirt. She didn't have any problems with continuing on her own. No matter how polite Nergal could be or how outright nice Ereshkigal seemed, it would be nothing but a relief to be alone for a bit. Even hurt, even lost, she wanted some time to herself to think.
Ereshkigal placed a goodbye kiss on Hisako's forehead, and then disappeared with a gust of wind. Nergal pointed out the way towards the first gate, and she was on her way. A little more battered than she would have liked, but alive and upright, at least. And with a large, silent guardian following her.
"You don't talk, do you?"
Inanna replied by vanishing. Hisako whirled around, looking for any sign of her, but she was completely gone. She had to roll her eyes.
"Great. Okay. Let's just find Yuri-kun and get out of this place before something even worse happens..."
The only real lighting in the area came from the base of the walls, with that same, soft, white glow she could see from the outside. Up close, the walls were even taller than she had thought. The gap hadn't led to a path as she had hoped, but instead two diverging paths. One turned fairly soon, and the other forked into another pair of routes.
Irkalla was a maze.
Hisako went the shorter way, peeked around the corner, and then pattered back down the other corridor. The lighting was dim enough not to cast shadows anywhere; her sense of space and depth were messed up. The seamless walls and twists and turns weren't helping things. She wasn't sure how she was going to find Yuri... or get back out of here. She didn't have anything to write with. She patted down her pockets, double-checking, hands stinging from the scrapes on them.
She stared at the red smeared on her hands. It would be better than getting lost. The blonde girl pressed her palm against the corner of the hall she was turning down, but it only hurt her. The mark she left was hardly visible. Gritting her teeth, she pressed harder. She managed to leave a fairly visible red handprint, but she also succeeded in making her hand actually bleed. "Great."
Her leg was still oozing blood out of the torn socks. Next time, she was just going to finger paint with that. And those were Suzuka's socks!
"How am I going to explain this to anyone...?" At bare minimum, she would have torn and bloody socks to explain to Suzuka, injuries to explain to her father, and several hours missing with Yuri to explain to everyone else. No one would believe the Irkalla or Nergal bits, or the horns, and definitely not Inanna.
First, she'd have to find him. She was still hoping Yuri would have more answers for her, and maybe he would. He had better. It was easier to be angry than scared, angry at him and at how her leg stung when she swiped up a little bit of blood to mark another wall, because getting scared would only have her crying or curled up in a corner. The sooner she found him, the sooner she could demand answers, and the sooner they could leave. She could bandage herself up and put ice on her chest. It still felt like Inanna truly had clawed her way out.
Okay, find Yuri, yell at him, run out of here, and sleep for twelve hours... That sounded like a nice plan. There, she had a focus now. Everything would be okay.
A shriek cut across her planning and she jumped horribly, only catching herself with the nearest wall. The sound died down into a keening, high-pitched laugh. It sounded like something out of a horror movie—a real monster, then, not another polite one. It made sense, right? She was in hostile territory, of course it wouldn't be that simple. Hisako edged along the wall and peeked around the corner.
It was like seeing a documentary; two hyenas circled around something else, barking and laughing. At least, they looked like hyenas... although their colors were all wrong (black with splotches of bright red and blue) and their backs looked a little too hunched and they had masks on. Human-face masks, just sitting atop their heads, with their snouts poking out underneath. It would have looked silly had their teeth not been visible even from where she was standing.
Okay, hyenas. Are there other animals down here? Nergal had a lion head... Hisako took a deep breath and peeked around once more. The masked hyenas had circled around, allowing her to see what they were picking on: a smaller dog-like creature. Where their fur was dusty and broken by splashes of color, it was sleek and pure black, almost shiny. The only contrast was the pretty gold necklace and anklets it wore. It reminded her of stylized Egyptian art.
They were blocking the only path forward. She could double back and check another route. Inanna hadn't reappeared, and with her leg hurt, she didn't fancy another chase. As Hisako backed away, the creature in the middle howled again, matching the earlier sound. The hyenas' laughter overtook it as it died off with a whine.
Then, as one, all three canines turned towards her. The Egyptian one had pure white eyes, no pupils, but a solid gold mask on the front of its necklace. One of the hyenas chuckled lowly as Hisako turned and ran. "Inanna!" she called as the monsters tore after her, barking and cackling, but the huge woman didn't reappear. "Inanna!" Hisako screamed again as they rounded a corner.
She dared a look back. The smaller one had taken the lead, easily outdistancing the larger two, and it had almost caught up to her already. Hisako dodged down a hallway that wasn't marked, hoping against hope to magically stumble upon Yuri soon.
A squawk was her only warning as she turned a corner, the black dog nearly upon her, and the two of them collided with a giant feathered thing. There was a heartstopping moment of nothing but claws and teeth and feathers as they fought to separate, and then Hisako stumbled out away. The new monster kicked the dog away with a snap of its sharp beak. This, like the hyenas, she recognized immediately, although it came from mythology books, not documentaries about the African savanna. The gryphon arched its neck back and flared out its wings, looking even larger. It was already taller than she was.
The gryphon was green and brown, and it, too, had a mask. Its beak was almost non-existent; the mask seemed to smush its face into something flat and owl-like, making it seem even more bizarre. Bizarre and dangerous, Hisako reminded herself. "Inanna?!"
The hyenas caught up, skidding to a halt with scared whines as they caught sight of the gryphon. The blonde darted past it, narrowly avoiding getting clipped with one of its massive wings. Putting it between her and them seemed like a good idea, especially since Inanna was a no-show. Irrationally, a small part of her was mad at that. She appeared, saved her from Nergal, impersonated her (or was Hisako the impersonator?), and then vanished.
The monsters behind her broke into fighting, distracting themselves from the escaping girl. She turned as many times as she could, set on putting walls and corners in between them, but that only put her in the middle of polished white walls and dark floor and distant ceiling and absolutely no directions. The blood on her leg had long since dried.
Running is my only option, but I still need to find Yuri, she thought sourly. Really, she should be more frightened. She knew she should be curled into a crying ball somewhere. And she was scared, but it was just overshadowed by anger and annoyance. Anger which had really only appeared after Inanna had...
Hisako saw movement at the end of a long hallway. It made her jump again, but the figure seemed human. It was walking on two legs, at any rate. She watched it while she caught her breath, determined not to run into further danger. The figure seemed to be human... Probably male. She hadn't seen horns, but maybe they had disappeared once he had entered into Irkalla? It was better than gryphons and hyenas and jackals.
She suddenly lost her balance; the wall she had been leaning on vanished. As she faltered, she turned to stare at the wall. A giant mouth had opened up on it. She snatched her hand out of it just as the teeth snapped shut. That could have taken her arm off! All around, eyes opened up on the wall, and several more mouths opened, showing off sharp teeth and lolling tongues.
She couldn't help her scream. An arm with too many joints pulled itself from the wall, reaching towards her. Hisako smacked it away and backed up—the other wall behind her stayed smooth and innocent. The hand reached for her again, making grabby hands like a child, but she was well out of its range.
Well, she had already made noise. Hisako steeled herself and ran down the corridor towards where the figure had been. It would be better than staying to find more dogs or monsters trying to eat her.
Around the corner, it was indeed a man she found. It was not, however, Yuri. Hisako jumped with a kneejerk reaction of anxious alarm at the doctor's coat. The man turned around to face her, and she could see that the masks were going to be a recurring theme of Irkalla. His was elongated into a strange caricature, mouth open with a lolling, curled tongue, eyes squinted half-shut in something like pleasure. It looked perverse.
"Hmmmmmm?" the doctor hummed with a sort of strange lilt. He sounded nearly flirtatious and it made Hisako's stomach churn. The thing looked human in all regards, aside from the monochrome mask, and it was a well-built adult male. Not exactly what she wanted to see.
Walls with mouths and eyes and hands behind her, creepy humanoid thing in front of her. And no warrior with handy blue staff to help her in sight. "Inanna, if you've left me here, I will—" Okay, so she didn't have a suitable threat for a giant topless goddess. At the sound of her voice, the doctor monster trilled and lurched towards her, horrifically large scalpel in hand.
At least the wall had been stationary. The blonde turned and ran, and even with a limp she could keep ahead of him. That one, anyway; rounding a corner, hoping to lose him, she found another one. This one, while sporting an exact replica of the mask and doctor coat, was undeniably female, if the breasts nearly as big as Hisako's head were anything to go by. She skidded to a halt and ducked under the jab with the large syringe the monster had.
Wait, syringe? The other one hadn't had one—Hisako yelped as the scalpel in the female doctor's other hand came down on her shoulder. The masked monster moaned breathily and forced the girl to the ground. By that point, the male doctor arrived and Hisako was fairly certain this was about the end for her. She pulled the scalpel out of her shoulder, kicking and scratching at anything within reach, and then lashed out with her new weapon.
She managed to take two fingers off of the man's hand and he didn't stop attacking. Her breath caught at seeing the digits fall so easily from his hand, but he wasn't stopping, so neither could she. Hands grabbed at her hair, her shirt, her tie, her skirt. One of them stepped on her ankle, and another tried to kick her head, and no matter how hard she slashed or punched or kicked, they weren't stopping. Her hand was slick with blood and she couldn't let up long enough to get up or wipe it off and damn it why won't they leave me alone?!
Finally, the scalpel was knocked out of her hand as the female doctor monster stabbed her needle into the back of it. The male stepped on Hisako's wrist to keep her arm down and the woman cupped her jaw, forcing her chin back. She cooed and traced along her skin and Hisako spat up at her. "Let me go! I have to—Get off of me!"
Her bloody hand felt ice cold and the anger burning at the back of her mind finally snapped. There was a flash of light and frost and suddenly everyone was coated in ice.
Inanna stood over them. Hisako blinked up at her, not so angry any more. "You're here." She didn't feel cold, although her injuries still hurt.
Inanna snorted and nudged the male monster off of her. Once he was away from the girl, the dark-skinned goddess shattered him with a vicious blow. Hisako scrambled to her feet and shoved the female doctor off of her, and Inanna finished her off too by smashing her face.
"I'm not complaining, but I am very surprised at how easy that was for you," Hisako admitted cautiously, dusting all of the frost off of her clothes. It was melting very slowly, and actually didn't feel anything more than slightly cool to the touch. Perhaps it wasn't frost at all. She sighed and knelt back down, taking stock of her new injuries.
Inanna hovered over her. Hisako pretended not to notice and started tearing strips off of her skirt, but stories had never quite prepared her for how badly that actually worked. Few of the strips were long enough to tie around any part of her, and she had no idea what to do for her shoulder.
"So, any chance you know where Yuri-kun is?" Hisako abruptly leaned back on her hands, looking Inanna in the face. She started and frowned, physically backpedaling, and Hisako had the impression that she wasn't going to get many answers out of her. "You really won't talk to me?"
Inanna flickered irritably, as if threatening to leave again. Hisako narrowed her eyes up at her.
"Will you at least help me? There are things in here that will kill me, but you, you're strong."
Inanna preened, smiling with a closed mouth. Evidently warrior goddesses were easy to please.
Hisako fought to hide her own smile and pressed the issue. "You took out those doctor creatures with one blow. I bet you could have even fought that gryphon. I can lead the way, and I'll find my friend, but this would be faster if you'd help me."
And with that, Inanna vanished.
Hisako screamed into her palms to vent her frustration. But that only made her hand sting, and she glared at the red all over her. This would be a problem to explain to anyone, and if she got caught again without Inanna she likely wouldn't survive, but this entire trip was so ridiculous it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep normal things in perspective. Monsters weren't behaving like horror movie villains, and those that were were animals and doctors, of all things. And her only allies were gone.
So there was no way to go but forward. Hisako got up once more, straightened her uniform as best she could, and traipsed onward.
Stealth was her true friend. Many of the creatures were busy attacking others or completely didn't notice her. It wasn't as if she had a set direction to head in, either, so she didn't mind about skipping over inhabited paths to find emptier routes. She was already lost; hopefully Yuri would have some great answers for her, because she was going to need help getting back out.
She found another wall that tried to eat her, and heard another cackle of a hyena. There was an immobile cactus in a corner that she gave a wide berth, since she was fairly certain she saw something glistening on its spines, and she caught a glimpse of something down a long corridor that gave a wail and actually fled from her. It wasn't human-looking, so she didn't bother investigating.
And then, the scenery started to change.
It was difficult to place how, but the floor slowly gave way into polished tile, the ceiling closed in, and the lighting became sharper until it looked like she was in a building. A real, human-made building, not some cave of horrors deep underground. Hisako wandered with curiosity and caution in equal amounts. Surely this was a good sign?
She turned into a room and suddenly found out what this was aiming to mimic. The room had one exit, was completely white with harsh lighting, and had a single painting on its far side. It was an art gallery. Hisako approached the painting, resolve strengthening as she realized that this was a sure sign of Yuri's presence. The frame was taller than she was, but the painting inside was a couple sizes too small, as if someone wanted to show it off regardless of the ill-fitting frame.
The painting itself was beautiful. It portrayed a lovely woman, curved around the left and upper edges, using her arms as the rest of the fake frame while her honey-colored hair acted as a backdrop. The entire work was done in greens and browns, giving it an earthy feel. The subject had her eyes closed and her smile was one of the prettiest things Hisako had ever seen. She had never seen any of Yuri's paintings, but she could believe that this was one of his.
"Hisako?"
She whirled around, but there was no one there. Her heart rate was through the roof again, and she could have sworn she had heard someone... And her name, no less. Not even Ereshkigal or Nergal called her that. Keeping an eye over her shoulder, just in case, she turned back around to the painting. Maybe it'd have his signature, or some sort of clue.
As she faced it once more, the woman in the painting, with unhinged jaws, leaned out of it and over Hisako's head.
She threw herself backwards and managed not to get her head bitten off, but the painting had her by the hair, and the woman was still fighting to get further off of the canvas. Hisako pushed against her, but it was like digging her fingers into wet paint.
"Inanna!" she cried as she tried to pull her hair free. Astonishingly, instead of waiting around or leaving the girl to fend for herself, Hisako felt that same temperature drop and then, with a flash behind her, Inanna appeared once more.
And the giant woman just stood there.
"Help me!" Hisako shouted. The painting freed one of her hands and started pulling Hisako's away from her face, starting to gain leverage.
Inanna cocked her head to one side.
"Attack it! Do something, anything!"
Inanna nodded, and then swung her staff around like a bat. She took the top of the painting's head clean off, splattering her against the floor and wall, and the rest of the body splashed onto Hisako and the floor. The actual canvas continued to bleed bits of dead shades of brown in front of her.
Hisako sat there, trying to catch her breath. Her head throbbed from all of the hair-pulling and paint was slowly dripping down her bangs and onto her cheeks. "You... You would have let me get eaten?"
Inanna squatted down beside her, dipping her fingers into the paint. It froze solid at her touch.
"Why didn't you get her off of me?"
This time, Inanna grunted. Hisako blinked up at her, surprised at the sound; she had never made any sort of real vocalization before. Mouth pressed into a thin line, she jabbed her finger at Hisako—straight into her injured shoulder. She hissed in pain, batted her away, and glared as Inanna held up a bloody finger.
She pointed down at Hisako with the same scarlet finger.
"Blood? You were—you were waiting for me to bleed before attacking?"
Inanna stuck the finger in her mouth and sucked off the blood. Hisako felt ill. While it was nice to have some sort of link between when Inanna would appear and her own situation, it wasn't what she had been looking for.
"W-Well," she began shakily, "I'm still bleeding, so you can follow me for the time being. I think we're getting closer to Yuri-kun."
The labyrinth turned into something more akin to a true gallery, with a predictable floor plan and everything. There was a main hallway, with rooms lining it, and paintings within them. Most rooms only contained one work each, but there were two that were simply covered in violent slashes of color. Hisako didn't venture into those rooms.
None of the other paintings tried to eat her, but she wasn't going to tempt fate by getting too close to any of them. Although from afar, most of them were pretty. The lighting got progressively dimmer, returning to the same sort of ground-level lighting near the walls, which once again took away most of her depth perception. But the overall feel of being in an art gallery persisted.
The main path twisted and as Hisako stepped around the corner, Inanna vanished. Warmth flooded back onto the scene and she fanned herself, taken aback. "Inanna?" she whispered. No response, because of course the giant blindfolded woman would take that moment to respond to her. Hisako tried again anyway, "Inanna?"
She crept into the nearest room, keeping her distance from the painting—mostly white with a far-off figure standing near a doorway, outlined in blue—and looked down at herself. She was still injured; it wasn't as if those had gone away, as much as she wished. Okay, so she wasn't bleeding, but they were going to have issues if that's the only time Inanna appeared.
Hisako grit her teeth and looked at her scraped palms. Before she could prepare herself, she spotted movement out of the corner of her eye. Whirling around, she found nothing. Empty room and the painting's figure was still a tiny speck. She glanced back out the door, and then cautiously approached it, hand hovering over her shoulder just in case.
It wasn't a painting. It was a mirror.
The blonde was first astonished at her appearance; half of her braid had come undone, dirt and blood and paint were smeared all over her, her uniform was hardly recognizable, and her eyes looked half-crazed. She laughed helplessly and after making sure the mirror was solid and not going to eat her, tried to fix herself up as best she could. Hopefully Yuri was having a better time of all this.
Yuri, where are you? she thought, distressed.
Over her shoulder, something in the reflection moved.
She caught someone moving out of the doorway and by the time she turned back around, there was no one there. Even running out the door, she couldn't find any sign of man or monster. Just in case, she swiped her finger firmly against her shoulder and called out, "Inanna!"
Paying attention this time, she caught how the blood froze on her fingertip. The temperature dropped to something more comfortable and Inanna appeared in a flash of light, looking grumpy.
Hisako reached out and pressed her palm against Inanna's bare leg, just above her boot. "You're cold," she said wonderingly.
Inanna placed her hand against the wall and ice splintered out from her touch.
"Can you—is that a sort of attack?" One of the gryphons she had seen earlier had been breathing fire, so maybe this sort of stuff was normal. Could be useful. "Could you—"
She caught another flash of movement, and drawn reflexively to it, she stared at the mirror from across the room.
The doorway behind her was not empty in their reflection.
Atticus leaned out, right behind them, craning his neck around to see all of the room. Octavia had ducked under his arm and beckoned Hisako towards her with a warm smile. Inanna was still frowning down at her and didn't seem to notice.
Turning around, Hisako found the actual doorway empty. But the mirror... Cautiously she approached it again. The doorway was ringed in a soft blue glow, reminiscent of the room she normally found the twins in. She reached out and touched the mirror, but it was solid. Glancing back again, her own doorway was empty and not blue.
"What is going on in this place?!" Hisako demanded, kicking the wall to vent some of her frustration. It didn't help, but Inanna cracked a smile above her. "Octavia, Atticus—is that actually you two, or is this another murderous trick of the place?"
The twins leaned back into the doorway to speak, mute to the blonde. After a moment, Octavia pulled out a sheet of paper, and her brother wrote on it. Since it was a reflection, however, it turned out backwards. Hisako leaned closer to the mirror to try to read it, but Octavia smacked him upside the head, waved her arm over the blocky writing, and it magically flipped over.
'WE SAID YOU WOULD COME TO VISIT US ON YOUR OWN', it read. Hisako pressed her hand against the mirror again but it was frustratingly, positively solid.
"I can't get through this. I can't walk through mirrors!" Inanna even tapped the topmost corner, and aside from coating it in a thin sheet of ice, couldn't do anything.
'NEITHER CAN WE', Atticus scrawled out.
"Let me in there!" Talking to other beings would be reassuring, not to mention helpful. Maybe she could get some answers about Inanna, or what had happened to Yuri. Ereshkigal had mentioned some sort of woman involved, so surely that was the one they had wanted to warn her about? "How do I get in to you?"
'USE THE KEY TO OPEN THE DOOR'.
Because that was helpful. Inanna tapped the mirror a little more forcefully. "I don't have a key," Hisako muttered rebelliously, searching her pockets. None but her apartment key.
The pale-haired twins exchanged a glance. Atticus looked rather embarrassed, and Octavia pulled out something on a chain from her coat's breast pocket. She tossed it towards them, and to Hisako's great surprise, she heard a clink behind her.
A blue key on a blue chain was on the ground.
She decided then and there she wasn't going to question any more supernatural occurrences in her life, so long as they helped her.
Hisako scampered over and retrieved it, and excitedly presented it to the mirror. Which stayed nothing but a mirror. In the reflection, Octavia rolled her golden eyes and Atticus hid a grin with his shoulder. It was sort of strange seeing them so expressive, but Hisako couldn't pay much mind to that. It almost seemed as if they were teasing her.
"Where do I put this key now?" she asked as calmly as she could, tapping it against the mirror.
Inanna nudged her shoulder with her knee. Hisako tried to shoo her away, but the dark-skinned woman pressed more insistently. Turning around, she finally saw what the hubbub was about: a blue doorway had taken over the room's actual doorway. The door was shut, and, looking back at the reflection once more, she found that the assistants were gone from view there, too.
Progress was progress. Hisako ran to the door, shoved the key into the lock, and entered into the Velvet Room with a huge sigh of relief.
Inanna did not follow her in. As soon as she stepped into it, there was a tug and a flash of irritation, and then the giant woman was gone.
Atticus, Octavia, and Igor welcomed her into the room. The door swung shut behind her and Hisako sat down, feeling disheveled and out of place with all of the proper surroundings. Even the assistants were far more reserved in there, standing ramrod straight. Atticus had his hands clasped behind him and Octavia held a large azure tome.
"...Can I repeat that?" Hisako asked without preamble.
"Anywhere you find the door, you may enter with that key," Atticus responded. Although his grin was gone, he sounded a little pleased. Or so she hoped.
"Look for the door in reflections of your world," Octavia added helpfully. It was weird, but she could remember that. Find reflections of the door, use the key wherever it appeared. Or something like that. She'd figure it out.
"It seems as if your power bloomed even sooner than we anticipated," Igor announced and the twins fell silent, shifting backwards. He folded his hands under his absurdly long nose and inclined his head towards his guest. "You have been gifted with your Persona, as you no doubt have realized."
"Yes, that word... That's what she is? I mean, I thought of it, but..."
"Yes, the gift of Persona. You have been given this strength in order to face the tribulations that lay ahead. You have already encountered your first: your friend has been kidnapped to that deathly realm."
"Kidnapped? I saw Yuri-kun, he walked down here on... his own..." It had appeared so. Hisako trailed off, recalling those long horns of his. Had that been some sort of mark? "He had horns, is that significant?"
"Look for these signs, however they manifest, and you will find who your adversary has targeted," Igor confirmed. "We cannot directly help you to face her or her power, but we can aid you in other ways. With your first Persona," he waved his hands in the air, and a spinning blue tarot card appeared in front of her, much like the first time they had met, "you have received much more than... just..."
The card froze in midair. Its back was to Hisako; all she could see was a generic stylized mask design. Octavia tightened her gloved grip on her book and Atticus backed up another step.
The card dropped abruptly half a foot and Igor regarded Hisako over it with a scary amount of intensity. "This is not the Wild Card."
That made absolutely no sense to Hisako, but Atticus gasped and Octavia nearly dropped her book. Igor didn't bat an eye and steepled his fingers, taking a deep, tense breath. The card flipped over, showing the other three its face: an arcana card labeled 'The Fool' with a little smiling silhouette going on a journey. There was a flower in their hair and a knapsack over their shoulder.
"...You do not have the Wild Card," Igor said with the air of someone realizing they were terminally ill. Hisako reflexively scooted back in her seat. "...I'm sorry, my dear guest. There must have been some sort of mistake. I—we are here to aid in the creation and recall of multiple Personas, a skill those who possess the Wild Card may utilize. The gift of Persona is a rare gift indeed, and even rarer that humans may wield several. You are a Persona user, that much is certain, but... The rest remains to be seen. I must think on this. Atticus, Octavia, please show our guest out. Drop her off closer to her goal. If she is unsafe out there, I wish to minimize her risk."
"Yes sir," the twins murmured in unison.
"And miss, please do not fret over this stumbling block," Igor added as Hisako stood up. "I will investigate this matter personally, and I will call you back here once I have made sense of it all. But please, refrain from utilizing your Velvet Key until that time."
"Um, alright." With Octavia on one side and Atticus on the other, Hisako was escorted out of the train car, and through a doorway which seemed to be in a far different branch of the art gallery than she had left. Neither assistant seemed pleased with her now, and with grim-faced bows as farewell, they all but pushed her out the door.
So much for getting help.
-.-.-
"Yuri-kun's been kidnapped and Igor said that the horns were because of the woman—whoever she is—doing it all. Ereshkigal knew her, so that's good enough for me. She can take care of it for us, we'll find Yuri-kun, and we'll all go home happily. Right?"
Inanna said nothing.
"Right," Hisako agreed with a forced smile. Progress was progress; she knew how to keep Inanna there with her, Igor was going to look into those other problems, Ereshkigal was going to look into the land of the dead problems, and the art gallery had narrowed down to one absurdly long corridor.
She knew what happened at the end of absurdly long corridors. Boss battles, or epic showdowns, or plot twists. Sure, Nergal wasn't quite the horror movie monster she'd been expecting, but there had to be something at the end of the hallway. And Igor had said that she was closer to her goal.
Positivity was about the last thing she had going for herself, but she was going to cling to it with all her might.
The hallway ended into a large open room. The floor looked closer to something out of a cave, the lights were slightly brighter, and there was a massive glowing door on the far side of the room. Just so long as it didn't try to eat her, she and the door would get along fine.
More importantly, however, was the tall figure with horns standing in front of the door.
"Yuri-kun!" Hisako burst out, stumbling into a run. Inanna floated slowly behind her, her caution lost on the girl. The figure turned halfway around, caught sight of her, and did a double take.
She didn't slow down until Yuri asked, "What are you doing here?" There was some surprise, but no warmth or gratitude. His voice was… off.
She stopped. "What do you mean? I'm here… I mean, I came down here after you." Risking a peek back her shoulder, she saw that Inanna was still keeping her distance. It dawned on her that maybe she shouldn't have been so keen on running towards the boy who had more or less been confirmed as being possessed.
Yuri looked her up and down, rather pointedly. Hisako tugged at her torn skirt and tried not to feel self-conscious about her state of disarray. He, at least, looked fine. "You're a mess."
"It's been difficult finding you," she responded warily.
"I don't want you here. I didn't ask you to come here—and you have no place here," he said with a harsh, cold tone. There was something buzzing underneath his words. It set her teeth on edge.
"What do you mean? You're standing in the middle of a maze full of monsters."
"You probably tracked your filth all over my gallery, too," Yuri muttered without seeming to hear her. Then, he gave a start, and whipped back around to face her fully. "You didn't touch my paintings, did you?"
"Um—" To be fair, it had tried to eat her.
"All I wanted was a nice place to display my art. A respectful place that wouldn't disturb their beauty. It would enhance them, you see?"
Hisako didn't see.
Yuri turned back towards the large door and gestured up towards it. "It's been cordoned off, but that's fine, isn't it? This is a grand place. My art will stand here forever. First, I'll just paint, but soon I'll change this place, too. It will all become beautiful."
"There are monsters out there. I don't think painting will help them. Why don't we just go back out and—"
"What do you think the purpose of art is?" he snapped, cutting her off. Inanna made a low growl in her throat and crouched down beside Hisako. Yuri shook his head in agitation, like a mad dog. She suddenly got the feeling that this was spiraling, and fast. "The purpose of art is to give hope and beauty to the world. To transform it. If all is well, then it will reflect that on the outside, see?"
"I think we should both just calm down. Your paintings are very pretty, I've always thought so. But if you stay down here, you can't show anyone else."
"No one else matters!" Yuri roared and a wind whipped up out of nowhere. The horns were definitely solid now; his hair curled and swayed around them.
Inanna pressed closer to Hisako, summoning her staff, and before them, Yuri curled in on himself. He pulled at his hair but then scraped his fingers along the base of his horns, eyes shut tight against them.
"If I stay down here, I can make this world beautiful and pure. I can paint over the mess and violence and monsters. I can do this, I can," he shouted over the wind. "I don't need anyone else!"
"What about your friends, your family?" Hisako called back. "Suzuka-chan liked your paintings!" She didn't know anything about his family, and little of his friends. He was in some sort of art club, but didn't have any names of members to pull him back to reality. "What about Mika-chan?"
Yuri froze and the wind died at once.
"I thought you were going to paint her one day," she said.
With a crack, the tip of one of his horns fell off onto the ground behind him. Yuri looked up at her and she couldn't understand his expression. But before she could count it as progress, the wind returned, this time aimed at her. The gale pushed Inanna back and completely bowled Hisako over. The giant woman dug her staff into the ground and used it as a brace, then caught Hisako with her boot and dragged her back forward.
"I can bring my own beauty into this world, it's mine, it's going to be mine! I don't need hers, or yours, or anyone's! They don't need mine, so this is only for me!" Yuri roared and the wind echoed him. His voice had definitely changed now, becoming higher, more menacing, and he seemed to speak through the air around them rather than out his mouth.
He swung his arms around and too late, Hisako realized that he was actively guiding the wind. It was sharper than before, cutting into her arms and legs, as well as Inanna's. The moment it began to die down, and before Hisako could say anything, her Persona took matters into her own hand.
Perfectly mimicking his arm swing, she threw what looked like a spear of ice at him. Yuri yelped and dove out of the way, and dodged the second one with the help of his storm. "Stop it, don't kill him!"
Inanna shook her off and lobbed another chunk of ice at him.
"I order you not to kill my friend!" Hisako shouted and Inanna halted. Yuri sat a distance away, blinking at the large icy spear that had almost bisected him. "Yuri-kun, you shouldn't hide away down here. Don't you want to share your art with your friends?"
"Why should I?" he muttered rebelliously, and she could have sworn his eyes flashed red.
"Because—I want to see more of your paintings. I want to go to one of your shows, and I want to see that red blotch you did of Suzuka-chan. I want to try painting too and I had hoped you could give me advice. I just want to go back to the outside world, with you, and why can't we look at that beauty instead?" Hisako pleaded.
"It's just fake and shallow," he growled. It was the only warning she received before he threw another gust of razor-sharp wind at them; Inanna ducked down in front of her, protecting her from the worst.
"No it's not!" Hisako snapped back over Inanna's hip.
"Fake and shallow just like all of the girls who want me to paint them," Yuri sneered. He swung his arms back for another gust, but Inanna beat him to the punch. She pulled her staff out of the ground, swiped it at him, and coated half of the area with frost and ice, Yuri included. He stood half-frozen, staring down at his immobilized body with shock.
"That's not what I wanted you to do," Hisako said and smacked Inanna on the thigh. The woman crossed her arms. Hisako approached him, hands up to show she meant no harm, and told him, "They're not fake or shallow. They're just people."
"People can be ugly," Yuri spat venomously as he tried to scrape his arm free with his unbroken horn.
"They can be nice, too. That's why you paint, isn't it? You only paint people so you can show others their beauty," she said soothingly. She stayed out of arm's reach of him, but up close, she felt slightly better about talking him down from this.
He turned his head from her as much as the ice would allow. "You hardly know me. I just wanted a place to myself. I could turn this place into something grand, something with true worth."
"Let me get to know you better through your paintings," Hisako offered. He cracked open an eye to regard her suspiciously, so she smiled up at him. "I want to see you start one—I've never seen an artist's process before. Show me how you do it."
Yuri stared at her for a long moment. "...Why don't you want me to paint you?" he finally asked. His voice was almost entirely not his own, but he was really looking at her, and she could see something raw in his eyes.
"I'm not going to tell you what to do with your life. I mean, aside from coming back with me, because I really don't think you should stay down here. It's dangerous and I think—Yuri-kun, I think staying down here would kill you."
"But it's my land. It wouldn't kill me," he replied, perplexed.
"This is not your land," Hisako told him. And then, taking a risk (despite how she felt a jolt of panic from Inanna), she took his unfrozen hand in her own. She expected him to feel cold, or clammy, or maybe outright evil somehow, but he was warm and dry and slightly rough. "This place, it's not for us. It's bizarre and dangerous, and I wouldn't be surprised if a gryphon was eating your paintings right now."
"They wouldn't." She wasn't really surprised that he already knew about the monsters out there. Especially when his voice was soft, feminine, and familiar. But just when she thought she was making great progress with him, Yuri grasped her hand tighter and exclaimed, "I know! Stay down here with me!"
"Wh-What?" She tried to pull back, but he didn't let go. His grip bordered on painful. Not progress.
"I'll paint you! I can see it now—it'll be all glittering ice, draped in blues and it'll contrast with your light hair, bright colors like almost washed-out but—" he began to babble, and worse, his hand continued tightening on hers. Hisako tried to pull away, even bracing against the ice he was encased in, but she just managed to twist her fingers painfully.
"Yuri-kun, that hurts! Please, let go of me!"
He didn't appear to hear her. "It can be a longer canvas, using ice as a frame around it, but reflections—no, no, that wouldn't work, just keep the bright colors up—and you can stay down here with me! It'll be perfect!"
"Ow! Let go of me!" Inanna hovered over them, wringing her hands. It was strange seeing her temporarily unsure, but it wasn't helping the situation at all, so Hisako swung herself around to shove her Persona with her shoulder. "Stop him! Ow—ouch, stop it! Let go, let go!" Something was going to give soon, and it was looking more and more like it'd be her fingers.
Still he obliviously babbled on, "I'll hang it up here, let this entire room be its reflection. Have to get the lighting up but this blasted door will work fine as a—"
"I don't want you to paint me!" Hisako shouted.
After a beat, his grip went slack. She fell away from him, shaking out her hands, blinking back tears. Yuri stared at her and hurt didn't begin to describe his expression. He opened his mouth to respond, but a gust of wind knocked him on his back and sent Hisako rolling away from him with a yelp. Inanna pounced on her, covering her with her body like a shield.
This confused her until she heard Yuri's scream.
She fought to get her head out from under Inanna, but when she did, she almost wanted to duck back in. His back was arched unnaturally, his hands scratching at the stone, and his horns were breaking themselves as he thrashed. He was bleeding from the mouth and nose, but little droplets were flowing upward, hanging in the air above him.
It didn't strike her as familiar until there was a flash of light, and then something pulled itself from his chest. Inanna shoved her face into the ground and Yuri's scream abruptly died.
Hisako's ears rang from the silence. But then, she realized it wasn't quite silent: a small breeze whistled around the room, and it sounded like someone was crying. "Let me up," she said and Inanna obeyed.
Yuri lay on his back, trembling violently. His tears mixed with the blood. A massive figure knelt over him, at least as tall as Inanna, but even bulkier. Male, with a mask connected to a headdress shielding his face, and a tattered white cape covering much of the rest of him.
As Hisako carefully crept closer, Yuri breathed, "Enlil," in that not-his voice.
The man reached down and grasped him by the shoulders, and then viciously pulled. Hisako started forward, but he hadn't lifted her classmate at all; another figure was pulled up and out of the same space Yuri occupied. It was a woman, a woman with a wild mass of dark hair and a threadbare traveling cloak.
"Why are you here," she said in the same voice Yuri had been using.
Enlil remained quiet. But the woman backed up as if she had received an unfavorable answer, and caught sight of Hisako and Inanna. Although like Ereshkigal before, she only had eyes for the blonde. Panic flitted across her expression and she whirled around on the spot, disappearing with a low whistle.
Yuri groaned, sounding like himself. He gingerly sat up, his horns crumbling to dust as they fell off, and Hisako took that as a good enough sign to run to him. "Yuri-kun! You're—are you alright?"
"I'm going to be sick," he eloquently answered, and then he rolled over and did just that. Enlil stood up, and the movement revealed some sort of weapon he was hiding under his cape. Hisako carefully stayed on Yuri's other side.
After a moment of fretting, she began rubbing circles on his back. She tried to ignore how red his vomit was. "Are you alright? How do you feel? Do you feel, um, normal again?"
"I feel like I swan-dove off of a skyscraper," he moaned and curled in on himself. "What happened…?"
"...It's a long story," Hisako replied diplomatically. "I'll tell you after we get out of here. I think you should be in the hospital."
"Wait, Fujihara?" He turned and squinted up at her. She tried to smile reassuringly for him. "What are you doing here?"
"I, um, came to save you?" It sounded so anticlimactic now. Although to be fair, the Enlil newcomer had done a fair share of the work. "Come on, stand up. Can you stand for me?"
She had to help him a great deal, and at one part even Enlil propped him up with a large hand, but Yuri could stand. Sort of. At any rate, he was upright, and Hisako was back to counting any little thing as progress. He wasn't possessed, his horns were gone, and he was still breathing.
He talked in little bursts as she helped him out. If only they could take another shortcut through the Velvet Room, but the gallery was mercifully empty of monsters. He didn't seem to remember much, although he did recall a strange woman (Hisako had a pretty strong guess as to who) promising him a place of his own. As they wandered through said place, he shuddered.
"And I remember you called my painting of Sakuraba a 'red blotch'."
"Of course you remember that part," she said with a sigh.
Yuri chuckled weakly. Hisako risked a glance back at Enlil and Inanna, who trailed behind them silently. He was indeed larger than her, in height and muscle, and now that they were walking—well, floating after them—she could see that most of his body was clothed in white. And he had some sort of thing hooked onto his belt. Probably a weapon.
She was sharp enough to gather that this was the same type of deal as her and Inanna. A Persona. They were both roughed up enough to guarantee that they stuck around for awhile, and Hisako was sure she had never been so glad to be injured. Although, she wasn't sure she had ever been so injured. She hadn't had a particularly rough childhood.
"So, am I allowed to ask why there are giants following us yet?" Yuri broke into her thoughts, as if reading them.
"Do you want the long version or the short version?"
"How long until the exit?"
"Long version it is," Hisako said with another heavy sigh. She recounted her fight with Nergal, describing the feeling of having Inanna claw her way out of her, and he nodded along in agreement. She described the labyrinth and all of the different types of monsters—whom they still hadn't run into thankfully—and what she had learned about the power. She even described the Velvet Room, but he seemed totally lost on that subject.
By the time she finished, her voice was hoarse and they were back into the maze proper. Yuri was leaning more heavily on her than ever, which worried her. The gallery had been a straightforward path. The exit could be anywhere from there. "Stop," he gasped out, and they took another break.
"Can't you do anything?" Hisako all but whined, craning her neck to look up at her protector. Inanna had been helpful in providing ice to place against injuries, but that was about it.
"Do they talk?" Yuri asked. He seemed a little shy around Enlil and preferred to ask Hisako most of the questions. Granted, she was practically an expert by his standards, but she really didn't feel like she knew what she was doing.
"Inanna seems to understand me, but she doesn't really talk. Sometimes I sort of get random feelings of irritation from her, though," she replied with a shrug. And on cue, she felt a little prick of annoyance in the back of her mind.
"Can you do anything to help?" he asked.
Enlil pulled his weapon from his waist, and contrary to Hisako's thoughts, it was not in a sheath. It was actually just a large paintbrush with fanned-out bristles at the end. She covered her mouth to hide her smile and she thought she saw Yuri blush a little.
"Yes, well, yours is topless so I don't see how—" he cut off with a splutter as Enlil unceremoniously painted a slash of mint green over half of Yuri's body. He flailed and shook his head, rubbing at his eyes and spitting it out of his mouth. "What was that for?!"
"Did it help?"
"It was disgusting!" Yuri shook his head and then froze. He looked down at his hands, and then shook them out again. "...I feel better," he said with awe.
"It actually helped?" Hisako echoed, no less surprised than he. Inanna leaned over her shoulder with curiosity. Yuri looked over his body, wiggling random parts without wincing.
"Yeah, I think so. Can you do that to her, too?" he asked, pointing at her.
Before Hisako could protest—and she had a small suspicion that Yuri only did it to share in the paint mess, although she had already gotten hers in that gallery of his—she received a face full of paint. It tasted foul, but it was surprisingly light, drying in seconds. And she did feel better. Her shoulder stopped aching and the scrapes on her palms actually disappeared.
"They do different things, right? It looks like mine is magic," Yuri remarked, but he sounded pleased. He stood up, on his own, and only then winced. "Alright, I'm a little dizzy. I think—let's not do that again."
"Okay." It was easier going now that they could walk without limping, but they were still lost. Neither Persona could help them with that, but eventually Yuri decided to have Enlil mark paths they had already been down. It cut down on backtracking and circles.
There was no real sense of time; it all dragged on with conversation and walking. The labyrinth was entirely devoid of other beings, however, which Hisako was thankful for, although it did mean she felt somewhat crazy when describing to Yuri what she had been facing up until she found him.
And then, she caught a glimpse of the outer wall. Hisako broke into a run with a wordless shout, and without asking, Yuri started after her. It took another bit of circling around to get to the actual exit, but considering the fact that she was beginning to believe that they'd be trapped down there forever, she was glad they made it out at all.
She ran straight out. Yuri ran out far enough to catch a look at Nergal, yelped, and then ran back in. "Wait, Yuri-kun! He's on our side!"
"Is this the one you were looking for?" Nergal asked, clearly curious but restraining himself in order not to frighten him further. Such a polite guardian.
"Yes, this is Yuri Kikuchi. And Yuri-kun, this is Nergal. He guards this place and he sort of helped me, after he figured out what I was doing."
"He's not human," Nergal sniffed.
"He is too human," Hisako replied dangerously. With the end within sight, she was not about to get into this argument again. And maybe having both Inanna and Enlil there gave her some courage on the matter.
"Whatever you believe," the lion-headed man replied tactfully. "Are you departing from Irkalla now?"
"Yes, thankfully," she said as she dragged Yuri back out of the maze. "Come along, he won't hurt us."
"Weren't you just telling me earlier—"
"Shh. It was a misunderstanding."
"I bid you two farewell," Nergal called after them. Yuri seemed glad to be leaving his presence, although the winding staircase gave him some pause.
Nergal stated that he hadn't seen Yuri enter, and Yuri hadn't recognized him at all. But Hisako didn't see how else he could have gotten in, really. Surely the whole possession issue had something to do with it, but there was still only one entrance to Irkalla.
Oh well, Hisako thought wearily. That can be figured out later. After sleep. With her injuries in a better state than before, rest was the only thing on her mind. Rest and a doctor's visit, but mostly just rest. The grave they entered in was still open, and they broke into sunlight. She was surprised; surely more time than that had passed? Unless—no way we were in there all night!
"What time is it…?" Yuri asked, shielding his eyes from the afternoon light.
Their phones beeped as service returned, and Hisako was perplexed to find it about the same time as she had followed him in. Exactly a day had passed? No, the date was the same.
"...Wait." No time had passed? "I don't—how does that work?" Hisako exclaimed, shaking her phone. It remained the correct date and time.
"I don't remember much of… today," Yuri admitted. He pressed the back of his hand to his forehead, suddenly looking rather pale. "But isn't it a good thing we don't have to explain where we were?"
"...I suppose." She was going to stop questioning the supernatural goings-on around her. For real this time. Hisako helped him out of the grave, noting how he wobbled a bit. Dried paint flaked off of him, disappearing as he clambered out of the hole. "Are you alright?" she asked, concerned.
"I… don't know. Where is Enlil?" The pair paused, looking about for their Personas. No sign of either of them. She looked back down into the stairwell, but that was nothing but darkness. "Are they gone?"
"They must be…"
"I feel like before." They barely made it back to the main path before he had to sit down. He was sweating and very pale, and Hisako was beginning to feel a little warm as well. "This is real, right?"
"Yes, this is real."
"It all happened?"
"Yes. I think so."
"I'm going to be sick again." He staggered to the nearest bush and threw up. Hisako cringed at doing that in a cemetery, but what other choice did he have? She ignored the sound, feeling her own stomach churn, and helped him along the path afterward. He was leaning heavily on her again.
During their next break, where Hisako was definitely sweating and feeling sick and Yuri dry-heaved once more, she sensed that this wasn't going to go away. She had to get him help, but the graveyard was empty, as it was before. They made it to the street again, and she barely made it to the trashcan on the corner before it was her turn to be sick. Yuri had collapsed against the metal fence behind him, eyes shut as his head lolled.
Hisako remembered she had a working cell phone again, but dropped it with her sweaty hands. "D-Damn it." Was she shaking? This was worse than she thought, and the chances of getting out of this mess relatively safely was dwindling. Without their Personas, they couldn't fix themselves, and she could barely press buttons on her phone.
Her call went through just as Hisako collapsed. The operator on the other line asked what her emergency was, but she could only breathlessly whisper at that point. Her throat felt like it was closing up and her vision was swimming.
After everything, she might just die on an empty sidewalk in the middle of the city. No Inanna to save her this time.
Dimly, she heard shouting, and then became aware of someone helping her to sit up. Progress.
Hisako passed out.
-.-.-
Knowledge: level 1/5 (+2)
-Harebrained
Confidence: level 2/5 (+5)
-Secure
Charm: level 1/5 (+0)
-Awkward
Empathy: level 1/5 (+5)
-Tolerant