Social Links and Genuine Things

by With Death Comes More Death

On the afternoon of his birthday, Hikigaya Hachiman is forced to do something that he wouldn't wish upon his worst enemy: celebrate his birthday. Though, as always, something unexpected happens along the way. (ON HIATUS)

10. Chapter 9

More chapters for your face to enjoy. Enjoy.

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Mandatory Disclaimer: Whatever, whatever, whatever.

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8/14/20XX - Evening (2)

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To say that I didn't expect something like what was currently happening to occur would be a lie, but that didn't mean that I was actually prepared for it. One can learn the date of their own mortality, but that doesn't mean that they themselves were prepared to pass, right at that moment. Things like that needed to be eased into before full-acceptance, which, unfortunately, wasn't a luxury I could be afforded, it seems.

"So, um, Hikigaya-kun…" The moment I heard Yukinoshita sounding unsure of the words he was about to utter, I should've known something was up and bolted out the door, but unluckily, I decided to stay and hear her out, and for my troubles, I got me a question that I knew would take me more than a moment to fully answer. "About those investigations you conduct…" Probably realizing her own trepidation, the ice queen suddenly covered her mouth with a fist and (tried to, but ultimately failed to) clear her throat before speaking again, "Would you mind if I—" She suddenly jumped as if someone jabbed her in the side with their elbow or something, "—um, I mean, we asked you a few questions?"

Having thought that we would go back to our daily routine after all that I said about my 'relationship' with Sagami, I had reached into my bag and brought out a book to help increase me some of my social stats, but seeing that I wasn't done answering questions, it looks like you are once again going unraised my very low Appeal stat. You'll get past the number one some day.

"I don't see why not," I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly as I gave her my answer. "Though, before you begin, I will say right now that I withhold the right to talk about anything that I feel uncomfortable with sharing."

"Of course," Yukinoshita stated with a single nod of her head. "I'm sure that none of us here would do something as abhorrent as pressuring you to answer something you yourself didn't consent to." She then looked at the girls sitting to get right and left, doing so in that order. "Right?"

"Of course!" Yuigahama exclaimed way too loudly, pumping her fist into the air as she did so.

"Y-Yeah, who would ever do something like that…?" Was Isshiki's response to the same question, which didn't sell me at all on her innocence. Sigh. You were totally anticipating doing just that, weren't you? Well, whatever. At least you were already put in place by the iciest of ice queens.

"Alright, now that's been established, I would personally like to know why you chose to keep the existence of the Inverse and your connection to it from us," aforementioned ice queen began, starting things off with a 100 mph four-seam fastball. "Did you simply not trust us enough to tell us?"

I couldn't help but let out a sigh when I heard that question. This was going to be a bitch to have to try and answer without unintentionally offending them.

"I'm not going to lie to you all and say that wasn't one of the reasons, at least at first." Was how I decided I wanted to begin my response, which was a good decision considering that they seemed more understanding than hurt. Alright, now onto phase 2… "At some point, it turned from that to simply not wanting you all dealing with the baggage that I have to on a daily basis."

"And what exactly is this 'baggage' that you believed us unable to handle, Hikigaya-kun?" I almost flinched at the venomous response I got back from the youngest Yukinoshita. Ah, shit. She's misconstruing my words! Quick, Hachiman! Come up with a good defense before she gets the other two believing that it was because of their gender or some shit like that!

"It's nothing like what you're thinking," I state, a good amount of force backing my words. I needed to get this through to her before I'm labeled 'Hiki-sexist-kun'. "What I do in the Inverse isn't like some part-time job that I only have to worry about a couple times a week, it's something I need to think about every moment I'm awake. If I'm not working a case, I'm improving parts about myself to help move future cases along faster than the last. If I'm not doing that, I'm either procuring equipment or information that I need for my trips into the Inverse, or just pondering it, in general. It's a round the clock type of thing."

As I explained, I noticed that the three girls were now looking at me with wide eyes and slightly open mouths. Oi, quit looking at me like I just transformed into a bear or something. You'll catch flies looking like that, y'know?

"Unlike you three, my current, or rather, my lifestyle before I found out worked well with that sort of thing," I continued. "I, being the loner I am, usually have no social ties to worry about whatsoever, which allows me the opportunity to be out doing things. There have been nights where I don't even come back home at night because I'm chasing a piece of information. Do you three, the way your lives were back I first met you, seriously believe that you had the time to do the same?"

Basically, what I was trying to get across to them was that it was my belief that none of them could afford to spend the time that I did working on cases and that's why I chose to keep them out of the loop. It wasn't the most truthful of answers, but it still held water under close examination.

Yuigahama was a social butterfly and had shallow relationships a plenty to keep track of; Yukinoshita was part of the most affluent family in the city and doing the things I did would put her family's reputation, and in turn, her, at risk; and Isshiki was juggling being the manager of the men's soccer club and also being the student council president, all while being a first year student. None of that really made me think they were able to take on the burden that was being an investigator. Not to imply that I thought they couldn't, as they were all very capable (well, maybe except Yuigahama) when they put their minds to it, but I didn't want to add onto the already massive loads they had on their shoulders unnecessarily.

"I-I mean… if you had just asked us…" Of course, Yuigahama, the freest of them all, was the first to try and refute my claim, but she really was doing an awful job of it. She couldn't even look me in the eye and say it. Her eyes kept bouncing left and right as if she were watching a game of table tennis. "I think…" Oi, if you're going to tell me lies, then you should at least— Oh… She was looking me dead in the eyes now. She must've decided to get serious. "No, I know! I know that we would've helped you, no matter what we had planned! I mean, thinking back on it, you were basically doing the same thing every time we dragged you out to hang out, right?"

I didn't know what made me the most bewildered. The fact that Yuigahama made an observation that was actually spot on and very insightful, or the observation itself. Still, the combination of both was a deadly combination that made me flinch back and utter the single word that ran through my mind, "What?"

"Mou, don't make me spell it out for you, you meanie!" Oi, why the hell are you the one complaining? All I'm asking you to do is elaborate on a point you just made? How is that 'mean'? You know what's really 'mean'? Calling people names for no reason like how you just did! Also, stop looking all embarrassed and bashful, I'm the victim here! "I mean, like… You do all of these things with cases and investigations to help other people, right?"

I couldn't help but nod my head. I may be the kind of guy who couldn't take a compliment and would do everything in my power to diminish it, but to say that I didn't care about helping people when I just said that I would regularly trade in beloved sleep to heal them faster would be utterly asinine of me. Sure, there were a lot of perks to continuing to investigate (just ask my bank account), but they couldn't justify me risking my life day in and day out for three years. They just couldn't, which, at that point, means that I actually started to like helping people.

"And you just said that you spend so much time doing it, so I know that it must mean a lot to you…" Yuigahama trailed off, casting her gaze down to the ground as a healthy fluster suddenly appeared on her cheeks, "but despite that, you still find a way to make time for us…" Suddenly, her face got all serious. "Which means that we should able to do the same for you! So, you shouldn't feel bad about asking us to do the same!"

Silence then proceeded to resound through the air between the two of us. Not knowing how to respond to all of that, I simply stood there dumbly, staring at Yuigahama with wide eyes and she did the same, though she did so looking a lot less surprised. Time being an ever-advancing concept that moved forwards no matter what forces got in its way, the seconds continued to tick by as the two of us stood in each other's gazes and as they did so, I felt my face get increasingly hotter, which prompted me to seek salvation by turning my eyes somewhere else than on her, though they only ended up finding things that only aggravated me further.

"Sigh. This conversation took a much different turn than to what I was anticipating…" I heard Yukinoshita mumble that to herself as she closed her eyes and massaged her temple with fingers.

"Wow, to think that Yuigahama-senpai was bold enough to make plays so blatantly…" Looking down at the desk with her lithe fingers cupping her chin, that was Isshiki's response to what just happened to me and the pink-haired airhead.

Raising my right hand up in a fist to mouth level, I loudly, and purposefully, clear my throat to get all of their minds from out of the gutters and onto me. Once that was achieved, I very quickly asked them in hopes of changing the topic, "Any more questions?"

"Ah, senpai, I have a question!" Isshiki was the one to step to the plate. I blink at the energy she said that with and turn my full attention towards the student council president, which apparently prompted her to deploy all her faux cute attacks as she smiled at me brightly and raised both her hands – both being lightly balled – to about shoulder level. "Did you have to buy all the stuff you had on inside the Inverse-thing-a-majig yourself?"

"Uh, are you talking about my clothes and equipment and stuff?" I asked, to which Isshiki nodded her head vigorously. "Oh, um, I got everything at first for free when I first awakened my persona, but over the years, I've had to pay for upgrades and other equipment out of my own pocket with the money I get from killing shadows."

"Oooooh…" Was the response Isshiki chose to give as she went back to her usual contemplating pose, which didn't last long at all as, only a few seconds later, she continued, "That can't all be very cheap, can it, Senpai?" I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly. It most certainly wasn't cheap at all to keep myself well-equipped, but thankfully, I was the only one who needed anything so buying stuff didn't cost me a lot in the grand scheme of things. "So, how much money do you have? You must have a lot if you can so easily afford all that, right?"

It didn't take me long to figure out what she was trying to get at. Isshiki was a money grabber like I was. She liked to have and she liked to keep it, just like I did. So, knowing her, she was probably trying to see how much I've made over time to see if she could use her charms to get me to use it on her.

Now, one might think that I was too smart to fall for such tactics and would keep the amount of money I had tucked inside my secret hiding place at home to myself, but unfortunately, if there was anything I liked more than having money, it was flaunting the amount I had in others' faces passive aggressively – something I don't get to do a lot of unfortunately. So, seeing an opportunity, I jumped on it. I mean, with all of the grinding I have to do, I feel as though I can afford myself this one pleasure.

"About ¥3,000,000, as of right now. All of which gained through killing shadows and pawning items get from the Inverse."

If Isshiki had chosen to drink anything at that moment, I'm more than sure she would have elected to spit the liquid out as she stood up from her seat suddenly, her chair scraping against the floor as she did so.

"Wah?! So much?!" Yuigahama yelled out in shock. Glancing over at her, she was flinching back and looking at me with an expression that could only say 'surprised beyond all belief'.

In contrast, Yukinoshita, the rich girl she was, barely even reacted to what I had said and just sipped on her tea absentmindedly. Oi, just because you're in a position where such large amounts of money are commonplace and unimpressive, that doesn't mean that you have to act like it! At least show some amount of reaction, will you—? Ah, wait! There's the reaction I was looking for! …Wait, why is your gaze being directed out in front of me instead of directly at me? Is there—?

"Seeennnpai!" The moment I heard those Isshiki say that I felt a cold chill run down the length of my spine. Reluctantly looking over to where Yukinoshita was looking, I found my line of sight immediately taken up by hazel pupils. It seems that my student council president has deemed it fit to lean so forward that our faces were directly level with one another and about fifteen centimeters apart. "When is the next time you plan on going to the Inverse?"

"Um… tomorrow? Why are you—?" Before I could finish, she grabbed me by the collar and pulled me forwards, so that her mouth was hovering just next to my left ear.

"Good, because I want you to take me tomorrow! I feel like I'm in a rather altruistic mood all of a sudden if you get what I mean."

Suddenly, she let go of my collar and stood back up straight. The moment she knew that my eyes had followed her all the way up, she smiled at me dopely with a slight tilt of the head.

Tell me again why it is that I choose to continue to associate myself with you, Isshiki. Seriously, tell me. I honestly don't understand it myself at this point.

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8/15/20XX - Evening

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What was Isshiki Iroha to me? If I had been asked this same question just a few months ago, I'm sure that my answer would be drastically different to the one I'd give now.

See, back all those months ago, she was nothing more than a person I had wronged and hence, owed a fairly large debt to. So, naturally, I would go out of my way and do things for her that I'd normally never do, and that was the only reason I'd ever consider spending time with her. Things have somewhat changed, however.

My association with her was no longer solely reliant upon my debt and was now mainly because a part of me had learned to enjoy the strange, little dynamic we had developed. Sure, a fair amount of it was based on us irritating the ever-living shit out of one another, but I enjoyed the fact that there was a girl in the world who, no matter what we did or how much time we spent with one another, I never had to worry about when it came to misconstruing the feelings she had for me.

I was someone she used like a tool. No matter what we did with one another, her goal, in the end, was to manipulate me into doing something for her, that she could've totally done by herself if she just battened down and put her nose to the proverbial grindstone. Yet, instead, she came to rely on me. Why? Well, I couldn't say this and be one-hundred percent sure about it, but it was probably because I was easy for her to manipulate and from that, I'm sure that she had just garnered some sort of preference for me, in that context, over time.

Our relationship was very much give and take, but it just so happened that I tended to give more than I actually received in return. Did I have a problem with that? No, not really.

Isshiki, despite her ever faux-cutesy exterior, was someone who never tried to hide how foxy she was from me and I took a lot of solace in that fact. Maybe too much, given the fact that I'm pretty sure I've done more manual labor for her than all of her lackeys on the Student Council combined, but as I said earlier, she was someone I never had to put too much thought into to fully understand and that was something I found myself cherishing.

In a sort of roundabout way, out of all the people I talked to, she was the most upfront with her motivations that anyone knew. So, that's why I made the decision that I did regarding her request for me to bring her to the Inverse.

Would I come to regret that decision in the future? Oh, most definitely. That's just how people were. Every choice had a bad outcome associated with it and if the reward wasn't substantially more positive than the negative, one would always focus way too much on the bad than good. The only way to combat such happenings was to live your life and stand by your decisions, no matter how badly they turned out in the end.

[…Sleep Soundly…]

"Hey, um, senpai…?" The sound of Isshiki calling out to me made my march forwards come to a dead stop. Looking over my shoulder to look at my flaxen-haired kohai as to indicate that I was paying attention, I waited for her to say what she wanted to say. "I get that you're going out on a bone for me here, but is this really necessary?"

Blinking in response to the question, I turn my head back to what was directly in front of me and let out an affirmative hum. "It's for your own good," I reminded her as I resumed my trek forwards. "The last thing I want is you wandering off and doing something to get us both in trouble."

"I get that and all, senpai," Isshiki began exasperatedly, which was then followed by me feeling something lightly tug on the object of her ire, "but did you seriously have to put a leash on me? How stupid do you think I am?"

What she was referring to was the rather thick piece of rope that connected my belt to Isshiki. Before going back into scene located in that karaoke place, I forced her to tie it around her waist, so that I could always keep track of her while inside.

"Considering that you wanted to come with me to a place that could very easily get you killed when you have no ability to defend yourself, despite me having told you near a hundred times that it was a stupid idea, do you really want me to answer that?" I asked back, making sure that the tone of my voice was as blunt as possible.

Immediately after me saying that I was presented with the sweet sound of silence from my kohai, which was something that made me want to smile a little. Even without turning to look at her, I could tell that she was pouting at the back of my head and that was something that brought me great joy. Great joy, of course, being completely offset by my already present annoyance, thus only making me want to smile a little.

"Oi quit it with your whining. Do I need to remind you that this was your idea? I wouldn't need to drag you along by a leash if you didn't want to come along in the first place."

"I didn't know that you were intending to put a leash on me when I first asked!" Isshiki exclaimed loudly in her anger. "Also, what are you going to do when you have to fight one of those shadow-thingies or something? Won't you have to let me go anyways? So, why don't you just save yourself the trouble and let me go now instead of later?"

"What do you think I'm doing here, kohai-chan?" Puppet, who had spent the last few minutes floating out of sight just over my head, asked the person I was forcibly leading along through the scene. "I'm gonna take over keeping you on your leash when Eight has to fight!"

"Mou…" I could practically hear 'kohai-chan' pouting behind me. Well, actually, I could hear her pouting since she always seemed to make that noise every time she pouted at me. "I have a name, y'know?"

"Puppet doesn't like to use real names while we're in the Inverse," I informed Isshiki, knowing that she didn't have any prior knowledge of my wooden assistant's many eccentricities. Sensing a 'why' about to come from the flaxen-haired girl, I tacked on another answer, "Something about her not wanting to risk our real-life identities being revealed to the people we're trying to heal or whatever."

That explanation never really made sense to me seeing that no matter what we did, the Inverse and the real world remained separate from one another, but I just went along with it. No need to question a nonsensical system if it didn't cause any problems. Doing something like that was really just doing unnecessary work and I wasn't one to do unnecessary things.

"Exactly, Eight!" Puppet said in response to my explanation. I can't even see you, but I already know that you're smiling like a proud mother up above me, which prompted an irritated grumble to come from Isshiki. That, in turn, made me want to smile a little.

Ah… Is there anything in the world more satisfying for a senpai like myself than annoying the ever living shit out of my kohai? If there is, I still probably wouldn't trade it in for the feeling I get from this.

[…Sleep Soundly…]

Compromising and making changes to my own plans simply to appease the needs of other people was never something that I was very keen about. Even after becoming an investigator, a position where having the ability to do so freely would be very useful, I still never really gained an appreciation for it.

Sure, nowadays I would do so if the situation called for it, but that didn't mean I liked doing it and that, as per usual, meant that I avoided it like the plague or areas with a lot of people in confined spaces.

Why? Well, there was simply something unsettling about the practice of allowing my original thoughts to be manipulated by others. I was someone who liked to march to the beat of my own drum and blaze my own trails, and all of those other well-known phrases that basically meant that I liked controlling what happened in my life.

So, knowing that about me, why did I decide to let Isshiki tag along to the Inverse with me? The answer to that question was actually quite simple. See, as I stated earlier, I could change my plans if the situation called for it and as far as I saw it, this situation most definitely called for it.

See, this was something that I very quickly realized when Isshiki asked me to bring her to the Inverse. People very rarely learned lessons on their own. Sure, you could throw a ton of information at someone's face and expect it to stick without ever properly demonstrating how it worked, but that very rarely happened seamlessly unless that person was already more intelligent than most. For those who weren't already gifted with superior comprehension abilities (aka most everyone in the world), they would need whatever concepts demonstrated for them to understand fully.

Unfortunately, there was a huge problem with that sort of process. If the teacher's way of demonstrating the concept was flawed, it would mean that the student's own view of it would too be flawed. A bad teacher always led to a bad lesson and in this case, it was clear that I was the wrong kind of teacher for the lesson I was trying to impart.

From the very moment I had stepped into the Inverse with those who had come to celebrate my birthday, my goal was to teach them all that it was a dangerous place that could very easily get them killed and I did so repeatedly, but that was akin to telling a friend a game was an extremely hard while playing it with a handmade controller that consisted of mainly bananas, meaning that even if I got a huge chunk of my health bar deplenished, they could blame it all on the fact that I was very clearly not taking it seriously. The first event that told me that this may have been the case was Yuigahama going into the scene on her own and nearly getting killed, but Isshiki coming to me and asking to join me was the nail that really rammed it home.

A lot of the nine never really thought that the Inverse was dangerous simply because I was too strong for myself to think anything to be a real danger. Sure, I had taken a few hits during my fight with Lilith, but me immediately shaking the damage off probably lessened any of worries they had.

"Oh, Yuigahama-senpai went into the place and nearly died? Oh, didn't she just end up getting saved by senpai? I'll be fine if I have him with me at all times!" That were probably the thoughts that were going through Isshiki's mind before asking to come here.

Very clearly, I needed to move to rectify such thoughts immediately. Not just for the sake of my own peace of mind, but their sakes as well. Thankfully, if my assumptions about what laid in the deeper bowels of this scene were correct, then that'd be easy. All I needed was to get there.

[…Sleep Soundly…]

If I had to say one thing about the scene that Isshiki, Puppet, and I were currently marching through, it had to be that it was one of the more boring cement hallways I've ever been in. Sure, it was absolutely swarming with shadows that had something to do with sexual reproduction, but I could barely find anything titillating about it at all. The only thing that was keeping me awake as I walked was the fact that I had a mission to see through and the occasional disgusted reaction from the young kohai I was leading along with a leash.

What could I say? They were all rather amusing.

"Master Hikigaya, are you sure that what you're doing is a good idea?" Suddenly, the sound of Job's voice cut through the silence-filled vacuum that had been my brain as I navigated through this part of the scene.

Having been genuinely surprised by my initial persona's sudden appearance, I ended up asking back a question that was pretty benign comparatively, "Oh, Job, that you? It's been awhile since you said something, hasn't it?"

"Please don't evade the question, Master Hikigaya."

Mentally, I clicked my tongue in annoyance. Damn, how did this being that was floating around inside of my head figure out what I was trying to do? Oh, wait, that's actually pretty self-explanatory now that I think about it.

"I'm not evading your questions, Job. If you listened to any of the countless monologues that I had on my way here, you should know that I'm fully confident that this is going to work."

"Even then, you must admit that it is a rather foolhardy path to go down. Surely, simply talking to your companions can reach the same conclusion. Isn't this going a bit too far?"

"Job, you've known me for over two years now, have you ever known me to be someone who willingly did anything excessive?" Subconsciously, I began to roll my shoulders as my aggravation with the conversation began to rise. "I'm not a big enough idiot to risk doing this without putting thought into it first. You should know by now that I know what I'm doing."

With that, silence refilled the insides of my mind and I let out a relieved sigh. Alright, time to get back to finding the next level to this scene—

Conveniently, just as that thought went through my mind, my eyes met with something that stood out from the monotony that was the cold, gray, and dead hallway that I was trying to keep from the forefront of my mind.

It was a Western-style door. Average-sized, plain, and white. There was absolutely nothing spectacular about it at all. Well, other than the small, yellow square that was smack dab in the middle of it. It looked like a piece of paper, a sticky note most likely, with something written/drawn on it, but I couldn't precisely tell what that something was from where I was standing.

"Hey, senpai, is that what we've been looking for this entire time?" Almost as if she was reading my mind, Isshiki popped in from out of nowhere and pointed out the thing that had caught my attention. I could hear a bit of relief in my young kohai's voice as she spoke, which told me that she too had gotten bored of our current location.

"See, Job? My presence here with her has sucked all of the danger from this place. You get what I'm saying now? No matter what I do, this plan needed to take place. For their own safety." I got no response from my initial persona, which was to be expected. He was way too serious a man to let himself be influenced by something as petty as what just ran through my head. I liked him for that.

"Looks like it," I deadpanned in reply, my trekking coming to a complete stop as I did so. Why stop when my goal was just a few feet in front of me? Well, to put it simply, I was the kind of man who exercised extreme caution all the time, especially so when I was working a case, and the sight of what I was looking for just sitting out in the open made every sort of warning signal go off in my brain. "Puppet?"

Reaching down to my waistline, I pulled loose the knot that kept Isshiki attached to me and held the length of rope up in the air for my wooden assistant to take from me. The moment I felt my grip on the thing be relieved, I quickly drew my pistol from its holster and aimed it straight out in front of me in preparation for what I knew was to come.

"Wait here," I told my companions as I began to slowly make my way towards the door, receiving a reminder to be careful from Isshiki when I did so.

My eyes darted from side to side as I approached the door, looking for anything that might indicate something dangerous happening if I approached the door, or rather, traps, which weren't exactly common when it came to doors leading to the next section of a scene, but I've stumbled on and tripped enough to know that they really did exist.

Even when I reached the door and nothing had happened, I didn't put my guard down, which really was a good thing as it turned out, because the moment I reached the door, my eyes immediately went to the yellow square that rested on the door and that told me all that I needed to know.

On that paper, was a crudely simple, crayon drawing - a drawing that very clearly depicted flames.

"Senpai/Eight!" I heard my two companions call out from behind me, alarm and shock crisp in their voices. Seeing as I had already looked to my left and right and found nothing, I proceeded to look in the only direction that I hadn't checked yet: up. "Look out/Above you!"

There, sitting directly above the door was the telltale sign of a shadow-forming and from it, slowly emerged a snow-white head that clearly resembled that of a canine, but had the long, flowing mane of a lion. Its rows of razor sharp teeth were bare and saliva dripped from its gaping maw as it glared at me with the sort of eyes that only an apex predator protecting its home turf could make.

Throwing myself backward as to allow it space to land, I couldn't help but smirk a bit to myself internally while I watched it emerge from its shadowy cloak. Oh, you will do. You will most certainly do.

[… Sleep Soundly…]

Having fought against shadows for close to three years now, I liked to think that I knew what limits were pretty well and the giant, white canine standing in front of me was most definitely something I could handle, even if he was supposed to represent the infamous guardian of Hell's Gate.

"Me am Cerberus, guardian of the door," the beast announced as it lowered its head as if to announce that it was going to attack me, which was probably the most unnecessary thing it could've done. I mean, it was a shadow and I was me, we were going to fight one another no matter what, so why even bother saying that much less signal that you're going to attack? "You want to come through door, you must come through me if—

Not wanting to hear the thing finish whatever it was trying to say to me, which was most definitely something about how I was going to get past it, I sent a bullet screaming through the air and right into one of its big, yellow eyes, causing the beast to flinch back in pain the moment contact between the two was made.

Knowing that this was the best chance to do so, I held my hand out away from my body and willed a certain eyeglass case into existence. I used my wrist to flick the container open and then tossed the contents high into the air in front of me with another motion of my arm.

Discarding the case off to the side to be fade away back into non-existence, I began running towards my enemy, all the while tracking the eyeglasses that I had thrown into the air with my eyes and adjusted my speed and angle of approach accordingly. Was all of this necessary? Oh, most definitely not, but I might as well look a little cool. I sure as hell wasn't going to be able to do so in a bit and besides, this was only going to add to what I was trying to do.

Seeing that my eyeglasses were probably going to land just in front of my white-maned enemy, I reached up with my free left-hand and gripped the pair of glasses that were presently on my face, pulling them off as I threw my legs out under me and entered a full-on baseball slide that would lead to me going straight under Cerberus.

Quickly tucking the pair of glasses that were linked to Job inside my coat as I entered my slide and when I was fully sliding, I used the same hand to reach up and grab the object out of the air and slipped them on, doing so right as my slide under the Cerberus took me right under its underbelly.

Seeing where I was, I fully stopped my slide where I was and put a full clip's worth of bullets right into the shadowy beast's back legs, half into the left and then the other half into the right, which caused the shadow to stagger dramatically.

"Lilith!" I called out to the persona that the glasses I put on contained, which prompted the original succubus, which I had taken into my stable of personas after I beat it into submission, to appear behind my shoulder. Alright, step one is done. "Mabufudyne!"

What happened next was a ball of ice slamming right into the shadow's underbelly and knocked it into the air. Seeing an opening, I reloaded the firearm in my hand and began to let loose yet another clip into its exposed underbody in rapid succession, forcibly keeping the thing in the air until I once again emptied my clip.

Having been with so much damage and an elemental attack that it was weak to, the beast that had once stood proud and mighty fell the to ground, almost as if it was just another shadow and not the mini-boss guarding the entrance to the next level of the scene. Well, to me he was, but that was beyond the point. The whole scene got a cheer from Isshiki, which was a cool thing to hear considering this was the first time in awhile someone has acknowledged the cool thing I did as being cool. What? Don't judge me! When one does cool things, one typically wants people to tell you that it was cool. That's simply human nature.

Walking over to the Cerberus, I did as I always did when I spoke to a downed shadow and positioned the barrel of my gun right in the area between its closed eyes. I could only imagine what sort of broken sentence ran through its mind when they opened back up to see me standing over it with a gun in its face. Probably something like 'oh shit, me boned' or something like that. I don't know. I don't know what goes through the heads of giant, lion-dog beasts.

"Oi, dog, I want to know what exactly is behind that door you were guarding," I told the downed beast as I moved my finger back onto the trigger. Okay, step two is over and done with. "You tell me now or you get put down like the mutt you are, capiche?"

"Me never give up that," the beast shot back with the same gusto it spoke with earlier, though it was stifled a bit because of the fact that I beat him up so much. "Me would rather take bullet."

Letting out a growl of frustration, I cocked back the hammer on my gun and continued to apply the pressure, "Alright, there are plenty of places where I can put a bullet and not have it kill you, so seeing as you're so ready to take a bullet, I might as well go ahead and feed you plenty then."

"Me welcomes threat…" Hearing the beast say that prompted me to begin to squeeze down the onto the trigger, but before I could do so, a feminine voice behind me called out to me in warning.

"To your right!"

My body instinctively thinking that either Isshiki or Puppet calling out to me, my eyes shot to the right and found nothing there, which of course meant that I had just fallen for a misdirection play and there was something happening to my right. Eyes shooting over to the opposite side, I saw something long, thin, and black heading my way, which prompted me to smirk myself internally.

Oh, here comes step three now.

[…Sleep Soundly…]

Not to sound like the trademark edgy character of an anime, but pain was something that I had grown accustomed to over the past few years – getting slammed by shadows' attacks near every day for the past few years would do that to someone – so pain wasn't the thing that I was worried about when I got slammed right in the shoulder by the Cerberus' tail. Unfortunately, there was also enough power behind the attack to send me flying. Not quite ragdoll-esque, but I was most definitely in the air.

Agh! Alright, that one hurt more than I thought it would. Shifting my weight in the air, I corrected myself so that when I landed, the soles of my shoes touched the ground first, though that really didn't do much considering that I was still moving so fast. I ended up falling straight onto my back instead of sliding across the floor.

Goddamn laws of physics and my body's subconscious acknowledgment of them… Making it so that I conserved my momentum even though I wanted to come to a dead stop instantly… Wait, now that I think about it… I wonder if I would able to keep them from applying inside the Inverse if I got a bunch of people to think that they were all fake? I mean, this entire plane of existence is based on people's cognition, after all. Huh. I'm going to have to write that down somewhere for later use.

"Get your head back in the game, boyo," Lilith spat at me from inside my head, breaking me from my reverie, which was a really good thing considering that there was now a fireball heading straight for me.

Rolling to my left and pushing off hard against the ground in the same direction as I got to my hands and knees, I just barely avoided getting hit directly with the thing's fireball. That attack alone wouldn't have killed me, even after taking that first hit from the Guard Dog of Hades, but taking that hit really wouldn't help with my plan at all. I mean, I needed to at least try a little bit. Otherwise, I'm never going to be able to keep the illusion up.

Stupid momentum causing me to roll across the ground, I eventually ended up lying on my back, looking straight up at the ceiling. Knowing that the Cerberus would be to my right, I snapped my head over in that direction, pinpointed its exact location and called out to my persona, "Lilith!"

"Don't you worry your little head, boyo," the snake-wielding persona reassured me as she suddenly formed right above me, a Mabufudyne already beginning to activate.

Mentally thanking the mental construct, I rolled over onto my chest and pushed myself to my feet, doing so just in time to see Cerberus dodge my persona's attack, which was fine. I only needed Lilith to provide me with some covering fire while I got myself back up in a stance that was more conducive with combat.

Releasing the empty cartridge that was already in my pistol (yes, the one I had in my gun was empty throughout the entire time I was threatening the Cerberus as that was sort of the point), I reached back onto my belt and quickly reloaded the thing while the damned beast was avoiding my attack.

The moment I had started to pull back on the slide to forcibly load a new bullet into the chamber, the Cerberus was already beginning its counterattack, which came in the form of a full out, straight on charge at my person. It was safe to say that I wasn't about to let that slide without at least looking like I was putting up a fight, which was actually a lot easier said than done.

In general, it was a lot harder to be good at something and pretend you were actually bad at it than it was to actually be genuinely bad at that one thing. For example, take acting. It was a well-known thing that it was very hard to play actor characters in movies because it more often than not involved having to play someone acting badly. One simply couldn't just act in such situations, they needed to act in the way they believed the character they were playing would go about acting, otherwise the two performances, the original character and the character that the character was playing, would seem like two, entirely different characters rather than an actor doing their jobs and, well, acting.

That might've come off as someone simply over thinking things but that was something people actually noticed and if they noticed something as minuscule as that, I wasn't about to risk having Isshiki see through my ruse. Everything – my body posture, my facial expressions, the cadence of my voice – needed to be perfect if I wanted to pull this off smoothly and I wasn't going to accept anything less.

So, that being my objective, I did as I always did and fired off a rapid series of shots towards my enemy. I just made sure to make some of the shots not hit aforementioned adversary and just the area around the Cerberus as I was sure it would get knocked to the ground if all of them hit. Just needed to let it get close to me so it could get close enough to attack me and… There we go.

The moment the Cerberus got close enough to me, and it was extremely close, it reared up on its back legs and fired a fireball right down upon me. Me, not wanting or being the kind of guy to take such a hit dead on, I hopped to the left and raised my right arm to protect my head area from taking any direct damage.

It should probably be right about now that I mention that taking fire in the Inverse was a weird thing to experience. Mainly because it did in fact hurt - it hurt just as much as someone would imagine a ball of literal fire hitting you would hurt - but it was never painful because of the fact it was hot. It felt more like getting hit by any other physical, but with a tinge of really powerful heat added onto the end. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the fire element of the fireball rarely existed for long before fading away like the magic it was. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that, a few years ago, there was a social media trend over in America where people actively set themselves on fire and that somehow leaked over to Chiba City, Chiba somehow. I honestly just don't know with the Inverse sometimes.

Anyways, the fireball from that just came the Cerberus' maw hit the ground and almost immediately spread to the around the point of impact, causing a small wave of fire to slam against the entire right side of my body, which, again, really didn't hurt as much it sounded. Really, all I felt was a slight burning feeling that was akin to touching the side of the kettle after the watered had finished boiling, which most definitely hurt, but it only usually did so for a second before tempering down to a light stinging pain.

That was what exactly happened after getting hit in the side with that wave of fire, by the way. Momentary, uncomfortably searing pain before then calming to a much less stinging sensation. If I had to assume as to what the wave of fire ended up doing to my body, I would probably be inclined to say that my wallet took the most damage from the attack as I was most definitely going to need to stop by a drug store and pick up some burn cream.

Not seeing that to be enough damage to my body to properly sell Isshiki on the fact that the Inverse was a dangerous, even to an experienced veteran like myself, I once again commanded Lilith to use Mabufudyne and switched out my baton for my pistol.

The powerful ice attack knocking the shadow that was extremely weak to ice attacks down onto its side, I promptly decided to rush up to its head and grab onto its thick, white mane, before then proceeding to wail on the head of the downed creature's head. I got about three swings onto the area around the Cerberus' orbital socket before, from what I had to assume was in response to the blows to the face it was taking, got up from the ground and took me with it, lifting me into the air easily.

Now, one might think that the large dog creature would've done what fairly big dog creatures always did when it got something on it that annoyed them and began to shake its head violently as to get me off it. This jumbo dog creature, instead, decided to forgo its own health and just jumped into the air and slammed its own face hard into the ground, which caused me, who had been holding onto that particular side of its face at the time, to take the brunt of the impact and that weight was nothing to shrug off at all.

My body… While I was much tougher than an average human being in the Inverse, it was not in a good way. My back burned so much that if there wasn't a weight keeping my chest pinned down, I'd be instinctively arching it just to keep from pressing the raw flesh from getting pressed on and that wasn't even saying about my head, which was currently feeling the effects of its back bouncing off concrete and that wasn't a good feeling at all if one liked the world not spinning.

"S-Senpai!" There being a loud, high-pitched ringing noise blaring in my ears, it took me a moment to register Isshiki's words as actual words. "Ugh! Let me go already!"

Feeling the oppressive weight of the Cerberus lift off my chest, I immediately let out a few, strained coughs as the aforementioned pressure had almost made it impossible for me to breathe freely. The first thing I did with my newly regained freedom was roll onto my side and clutch at my burning, aching chest, massaging it to get my breathing back to normal.

"Senpai, get up! You need to move!" Again, Isshiki cried out to me in concern. "Above you, it's trying to use that fire—"

Already knowing the information that she was trying to tell me, I quickly rolled over onto my chest and once again called out to Lilith with a command, "Lilith, Bufula!"

Looking up to where I knew the succubus had manifested, I watched as it fired off a lot less powerful, single enemy version of a Mabufudyne that I only really used because it would take the succubus less time to fire it off when compared to its much more powerful cousin. Still, it was good enough for its intended purpose, which was to take advantage of the shadow's elemental weakness to ice to knock it down and to, most importantly, keep it from hitting me with a fireball.

Now on my hands and knees and knowing that I was going to need to move quickly, as fast as I could, I reached back to the two weapon holsters on my hip and replaced the pistol in my right hand with my baton, prepping myself for what was to come next.

Simultaneously pushing myself up to my feet and turning to face the infamous guard dog of Hades, I found that the shadow had indeed been momentarily felled by Lilith's attack, which was a sight that made me smirk viciously. Extending my baton with a flick of my wrist as I ran, I very quickly closed the distance between the two of us and began to absolutely wail on the stunned beast while on the run.

To put what I was doing to the Cerberus simply, I beat on the beat thing while staying in constant motion. Jumping from location to location around the white beast, taking a swing at it with every new spot. I did so over and over again until I knew the thing had taken enough punishment to put it down for good, before then jumping away from it completely with my back turned to it.

Seeing that my hat had fallen off after the Cerberus slammed me into the ground, I walked over to it slowly and picked it up by the rim with my right hand, dusting it off with a few slaps on my thigh before placing it back on my head. Just then, I heard the telltale sound of a shadow being vanquished.

Turning to look back it with my hand still holding onto my hat's rim, I blinked at the empty space behind me that was once inhabited by a literal ton of white fur and fire and muttered the first thing that came to mind, my voice coming out haggard and tired due to all the physical activity I just put my body through, "Well, that was convenient."

…

Chapter End.