Entrance to the Underground Geyser Center
"Well, here we are. Watch your step... I keep telling Kanako we should put a fence or railings or something around the shaft. Ah, well, I didn't fall into it this time so little enough harm done, I suppose."
"You fell into this? How could you miss a hole this size?" Kyouko looked at the gaping pit, easily fifteen meters across. Mami couldn't help but wonder herself.
"I didn't actually fall into it. I just said I didn't fall into it this time. Like, as in either. Like the other times I haven't fallen into it." Sanae protested, but it seemed a hasty lie. "And Reimu fell in too- I mean, even though I didn't- so what's that tell you, huh?" Sanae protested.
"Shrine maidens are vulnerable to pit traps?" Kyouko suggested, eliciting a chuckle from Keine and Homura.
"No, no... I think it's that everyone here has their heads so far in the clouds that they can't see their feet." Homura jested with a light grin. Mami laughed along with the rest, but... she couldn't have heard that right. Had Homura ever cracked a joke before today?
Homura was acting oddly, yes, but... maybe this was just how she displayed the trust Mami had secured through her duel. That would mean that Homura had never trusted any of them before... a chill ran down Mami's spine. She grew more and more certain that she had done the right thing.
"No, it means she's not as good as I am." Sanae crossed her arms and pouted.
"Alright, fine. So... I suppose we just fly down, then?" Kyouko let it go as she rolled her eyes.
"Yeah... This will take us to the control center, which opens directly into the Blazing Hell. From there, I would think Chireiden would be obvious enough... I've heard the place is huge." Sanae relaxed as she explained, prompting a doubtful look from Kyouko.
"'You would think?' 'You've heard?' You don't sound very sure."
"Of course I'm not! I'm not an idiot." Sanae said as she jumped into the shaft and began to float down, encouraging the others to follow suit.
"And we are?"
"I guess not... you at least have a good reason to go. I doubt even I could bring the dead back to life... and no, I'm not willing to try." Sanae swiftly added as she noticed Keine about to speak.
"Well, it would save us a trip, but I can't blame you for wanting to stay in the ministry's good books." Keine shrugged.
"You've mentioned it before, but what's th-" Mami began to ask, but Sanae clapped her hand over Mami's mouth and tried bringing up a new topic.
"Did you know we actually got cold fusion working here?" Sanae released her grip, allowing Mami to respond as the group continued their descent.
"What's that?"
Sanae took a deep breath and prepared to speak, only for Keine to answer first...
"The Ministry of Right and Wrong is the branch of the celestial bureaucracy that deals with the judgments of the deceased, determining their fate after death. Souls judged free of sin are allowed to reincarnate, while those with sin are sent to one of the hells at their disposal, where the souls are purified of their earthly attachments and allowed to reincarnate. Whether the spirit needs purification or not, the amount of enlightenment it achieved or retained determines where on the karmic ladder the soul reincarnates. There have been space concerns within the Netherworld and Heaven, if they are to be believed, but..." Keine kept talking, but even Mami was finding it hard enough to keep listening... She instead began to focus more on the flight, paying no more attention to Keine than she was to Sanae, who had started her own lecture about cold fusion in the meantime, one which Homura was still listening to intently.
Mami noticed the walls seemed well lit, but with a lecture going off in each ear, decided to maybe hold off on asking exactly how it was illuminated. The temperature near the surface had been almost chilly, but as they descended, it swiftly began approaching the warmth of the summer sun they had left. It was minutes later that they finally reached the floor, a still platform that filled the entire chamber. Both of them wrapped up their lectures..
"And that's why Kanako has such respect among kappa." Sanae finished.
"That's all we really know about the Blazing Hell." Keine's conclusion worried Mami... hopefully Keine hadn't given any useful advice. Considering she wasn't asking everyone eight times whether they understood, Mami was fairly certain not... but still felt a little bad for paying more attention to the surprisingly distracting walls than Keine's lecture.
"Ahem. I hope everyone's feeling nice and chilly, because it is seriously going to get hot in a few seconds here." Sanae said, and cast a simple spell to cause a breeze to sweep over her, despite the otherwise still air. Mami envied her, then, for the air was already warm... warm enough that Mami was beginning to sweat in her clothes, far more suited to more temperate weather. Homura had wisely already taken off her outer layer, and Mami followed suit after noticing Kyouko had wrapped her jacket around her waist. Keine's clothing must have breathed better, or perhaps she used some magic to ward against the heat, because she seemed quite comfortable.
Then Sanae took a deep breath and opened a large, electrically powered steel door...
Entrance to the Blazing Hell
Everyone recoiled. It felt like they'd just opened the door to an oven, and the scalding winds that washed over them made Mami gasp in shock, which did nothing apart from draw the searing air into her lungs. The shock from this, in turn, caused her to immediately cough up what air she'd taken in.
The wind picked up, and while it may have lowered the temperature slightly, all it seemed to do was spread that hellish heat throughout the chamber. Looking at her companions, though, she was doing fairly well.
Keine was completely unconscious, and as Mami watched, Kyouko was just finishing passing out,
Sanae seemed to have it worst by far, though. She was engulfed in flames, though within a few seconds a raincloud appeared above her and doused her, leaving her drenched and wearing badly burned clothes as a result. She seemed otherwise fine, though the water that continued to rain around her evaporated into steam in short order. This steam was making her have an even harder time breathing than anyone else, and her skin was a bright red, and she clenched her eyes shut in obvious pain.
Homura seemed to be in much the same condition as Mami herself. Conscious, and strongly wishing she wasn't.
"Shut the door!" Homura screamed.
"If we can just get to Chireiden we should be fine!" Sanae looked between Keine and Kyouko "I... I think they just fell under temperature shock... We should... be able to... survive at these temperatures... Reimu... Marisa... did." Sanae said as she spoke between breaths of the steam that surrounded her. For all her words though, she too lacked to strength to stand at the moment. The three conscious girls were on their knees... Mami had propped Keine into her lap to get her face off the scalding hot floor, while Homura did the same for Kyouko. Both sported minor burns where their exposed skin had touched the metal floor.
"We... should... probably take a few..." Sanae gasped. "minutes... to adjust..."
Mami looked up at the impossibly tall shaft they were within... Given how much her head was swimming, she doubted she could concentrate enough to fly. Sanae seemed to be right, though... Mami found her head clearing slowly. Though she couldn't help but worry she only felt like she was getting better.
The relatively cool breeze Sanae's winds offered to the whole group was invaluable, but Mami noticed that she kept the cooling rain to herself... Mami eventually mustered the strength to gesture at the raincloud.
"Why not... share?"
"Steam... hot. Very... uncomfortable." Sanae manage to gasp out.
"Then... why?" Homura croaked.
"Kappa cloth... seems... burns easy... steam... beats fire... " Sanae gasped out, reminding Mami of the flames that had earlier engulfed her.
The three simply sat, then, trying to adjust to the hellish temperatures.
Homura, Mami and Sanae had done what they could for the two fallen. Mostly, this involved keeping them positioned in the breeze Sanae provided, though Sanae extended her raincloud to catch them as well. Between the water and the breeze, it was only very hot instead of the inferno it had been, more like a sauna than anything else.
Kyouko awakened after a few minutes, still dizzy from the heat. Mami offered a nod in acknowledgment of this, but no one could muster more of a response than that.
Sanae occasionally poked her head outside and withdrew, seeming relieved as she fully reentered the relatively cool elevator shaft.
"Don't know... where... go." Sanae moaned out. "All fire..."
Mami merely sat in silence... She took in her surroundings again... they still hadn't changed, apart from Kyouko sitting up on her own now. She caught a glimpse of her Soul Gem, and her heart nearly stopped. She transformed it into its gem shape to get a better view, and she then showed it to Kyouko and Homura... who took out their own in turn.
All three gems had been bright before the descent... the recent Kouchoumagan sleep had ensured that. But now, they shone with all the brilliance of a candle. There was still a fair amount of magic within them, but it was clear resting here wasn't much of a rest at all.
"Got... to go... no... time... hurry." Mami found thought difficult, but Sanae seemed to get the general idea.
"Where..." Sanae suddenly got an idea...
"Suwako... come here? Lead us?" Sanae managed to gasp out.
Sure enough, Suwako appeared. To Mami's annoyance, she hardly seemed to notice the heat.
"Sorry, Sanae, I can't. The hell-fire is too dangerous to me... Kanako was crazy to come here on her own back then..."
"You... dive through... magma..." Sanae was too exhausted to do more than that, to Mami's surprise.
"Yes. The pure, molten earth and iron that we use in the geyser center... not the flames of the Blazing Hell. They're tainted with sin... I'd burn in them more than you, probably, even if one of the vengeful spirits didn't get me first. You'd better get moving though... you look in rough shape. " Suwako gestured at Sanae's ruined outfit.
"auto... ignition... point." Was the only response.
"I'll let the Kappa know. I guess they turned the heat up since Marisa and Reimu came down here..." Suwako mused aloud as she looked into the Blazing Hell." I wonder if they plan on restarting the hell. Anyway, just try to find one of the workers here...they should lead you fine. Utsuho's probably around, and she's hard to miss. Make us all proud, now." Suwako said before vanishing...
"Better... get... going..." Sanae wheezed as she stood, despite her tattered, burnt and drenched remains of clothing trying to weigh her down.
Mami followed suit, and Kyouko and Homura did as well, both carrying the still-unconscious Keine.
The three Magical Girls were not yet terribly practiced at flight, and thus had to devote most of their attention to the act with how badly the heat disoriented them. Mami looked downwards into the rolling flames of hell and felt sick. Not only was the temperature even higher out here, but Mami knew that failing to continue flight would land her in that roiling inferno. She grew dizzy at the thought and instead tried to focus her gaze ahead on Sanae.
Sanae still had the rain cloud follow her, but continued having trouble breathing.
"How much... further?" Mami asked.
"I... don't know..." Sanae sobbed. Mami felt her heart sink. It suddenly became harder to fly... The hells themselves threatened to swallow them... they'd been fools to try this...
"Oh oh oh!" An excited voice issued from ahead, and Mami lifted her head to get a good view, thinking it impossible anyone could have that much energy in this sort of heat.
"Utsuho?" Sanae looked relieved. "Lead... us... to... Satori..."
Utsuho was a sharp contrast to Sanae, Mami, and the others. She wore a knee-length green skirt and simple white blouse, with a green ribbon adorning her waist-long raven hair. Two enormous black wings spread out over a starry field she wore on her back, and Mami looked into the red eye that sat upon Utsuho's chest. When it seemed to return the gaze, Mami was so surprised she nearly let her magical flight bubble dissipate. She closed her eyes to keep enough focus to fly, and once she steadied herself, she hadn't the nerve to look at Utsuho again. Something had been weird about Utsuho's arms and legs, but Mami decided having her curiosity satisfied wasn't worth risking a fall into the Blazing Hell's flames.
Utsuho replied to Sanae "Oh oh! Ok, I know this one. We duel, right? And I can get something if I win! Ummmm." Utsuho seemed to be pondering, before she finally declared.
"Help Satori! That's probably reasonable?" Utsuho proposed.
"'Kay. dueling now..." Sanae stammered out, not bothering to haggle... they simply didn't have the time, and she lacked the breath.
Sanae was hardly in a good condition to duel. Soaked from head to toe, hardly even able to breath, and dizzy from exertion to boot. All of this became secondary, though, when the duel started. She seemed to transform almost as thoroughly as the Magical Girls often did, and though her clothes were still tattered and soaked, she paid them no mind. Although her body was fatigued and weakened from shortness of breath, she showed no signs of such. For now, she was back to being the vigorous Sanae that Mami had become familiar with, and the quiet tune that had filled Mami's Soul Gem exploded into a crescendo, intertwining with a frightening, overpowering one that Mami guessed came from Utsuho.
Sanae opened with a volley of magic, and the manic spray of blue and red stars surrounded Utsuho, who clearly wasn't a very graceful flier. Mami wondered how Utsuho had even intended to win, as Sanae had no trouble dodging the straight beams the crow fired out as she flew in wide circles. Despite her slow flying, though, her reflexes were still fine, as she declared a spellcard once she realized she'd have flown into a magical star otherwise.
"Nuclear Fusion!" The declaration was audible even over the warning klaxons that Mami's Soul Gem seemed to hear. Whatever was coming was big.
Mami immediately understood that Sanae's stars were merely an icon... a symbol commonly described as such. Mami also understood how Utsuho had intended to win. Nearly a dozen spheres of superheated plasma flew out from Utsuho, completely engulfing her within them before spreading out, filling the air around her.
Mami had thought it was hot before. Now, hardly a hundred meters away from multiple suns (And extremely thankful the duel had already moved to that distance), Mami would give anything to return to the heat that had sapped the team so thoroughly. She shielded her face and suddenly envied Sanae for being nearly covered in water. Mami didn't have a thermometer in hand, but she doubted it would help... the sort she'd have had would simply have burst anyway.
Sanae didn't seem to notice, but her skin was reddening even more as she dodged not only the miniature stars, but... yes, when Mami squinted she saw some smaller projectiles. She blinked and covered her eyes for a moment before forcing herself to watch. Her eyes watered as she stared towards several suns to watch Sanae weave through them... thankfully the stars dissolved shortly after they passed beyond Sanae, leaving the observers relatively safe.
Meanwhile, Sanae was countering with more of her smaller, more traditional depiction of stars. Utsuho hardly needed to dodge, but the shrine maiden's movements carried her far and wide. After nearly a minute, one of Sanae's smaller stars broke apart near Utsuho, causing her to panic and declare her next spellcard.
"Giga flare!" The cry was once again accompanied by warning sirens, and this time by another slew of small stars, though these quickly shrank to nothing as they got too far from Utsuho. Sanae used this to her advantage and hung back a ways, but there were too many suns and they came too fast... she declared a spellcard of her own.
"The day the sea split!" Sanae raise her the stick she carried above her (The paper on the end intact through some miracle) and from nowhere a wave of water crashed over her, and towards Utsuho. The wave and rushing water that fueled it seemed to engulf them both, though given how fluid Utusho's motions remained, she seemed to be in an air pocket or something. She drifted easily up and down left and right, forward and back, until the torrent stopped, vanishing as suddenly as it had appeared. Sanae looked relieved more than anything else, and Mami suspected the water to be nice and cool. Mami wouldn't mind being doused in some water now, that was certain.
The fight continued with more of the smaller bullets, but Utsuho was clearly outmatched there, and declared her next card, the by now painfully familiar warning blared in Mami's mind, and she braced herself.
"Heaven and Hell Meltdown!"
Mami was confused at first. The attack was rather underwhelming, and certainly far less deserving of the warning siren than Utsuho's previous spellcards. Six small, slow, easily dodged beads flew above, below, and in all four directions around Utsuho. Sanae moved extremely close to Utsuho, and Mami soon understood why.
She didn't see why, exactly, because as each of those small bullets erupted into a blazing star nearly a hundred meters across, completely dwarfing the previous stars and very nearly reaching Mami herself... Mami lost sight of of Sanae. Truthfully, she lost sight of everyone else, too. Everything had turned white, then a black darker than she could remember had replaced it.
She felt an odd sensation on her leg, and after a moment of thinking recognized the feeling, some distant memory reminding her... her clothes were on fire. She beat at the flames, but her efforts did nothing other than exhaust her. Mami came very close to cursing then, and if her reflexive breath at the pain had caught air that didn't scald her lungs and throat, she'd have managed it.
She wanted to fly away, but was struck by a thought even more terrifying than being burned alive...
What if she flew away and no one followed her? She could wander here lost and blind until she fell into the flames... She'd never find her way back to the others or the way they'd come... If she was lucky, she'd just fly the wrong way, directly into one of those suns.
Paralyzed with indecision, she could only hope and wait for the duel to end, burn, and try to continue flying. She hoped Sanae would win, but at this point, Mami didn't truly care. Her entire world was engulfed in flames, and before long the darkness she saw engulfed the rest of her mind as well.
Darkness
Mami woke up... a pleasant surprise. Her neck felt like it had been broken, it was so sore. Her head wasn't feeling too great either. She touched her hand to her forehead and immediately regretted it. Her skin was tender in the extreme... it felt almost like it was flaking off as she touched it. She didn't need to look at her Soul Gem to know that it was nearly at its limit.
"Oh, you're awake!" A feminine voice spoke to her, though she couldn't quite place it.
"The pills. Where's the Kouchoumagan?" Mami fumbled blindly around her environment.
"Huh? You didn't have anything with you..."
Mami nodded, her mind clearing just enough to remember. She reached 'into' her Soul Gem and withdrew the small bottle, then took a pill before offering the bottle to her visitor.
"What are these?"
"Needed. By me, and Kyouko and Homura as well, I bet." Mami swallowed the pills. "Say, could you turn the lights on, miss... Mami left an opening for the other to introduce herself.
"The lights are on. Guess you looked too close at Okuu, huh?"
"Okuu?"
"Utsuho sometimes has trouble remembering her full name, so we just call her Okuu. Way easier on everyone."
"Oh... Well, yeah... I didn't expect the sun to appear right in front of my face."
"Haha! Yeah, you got burned pretty severely from that. I'd show you a mirror because you look just hilarious, but that won't help you much if you're blind." The voice chuckled more.
Mami tried to sit up, but found herself simply unable... even mere conversatoin seemed to be the upper limits of her ability at the moment. "What happened to me?"
"I caught all four of you before you fell into the flames. Well, before you fell too deep anyway. You probably broke a bunch of bones since you fell a long ways. Dunno why you all fainted, though. I mean, it wasn't even that hot."
Mami flinched at the reminder of that scalding inferno and nodded. "Please, I beg of you; give one of these pills to Kyouko and Homura." Mami handed out the bottle. "We should be alright in a day or so?"
"That quick? Didn't think humans healed that fast. Of course, I didn't think any would ever come down here again either. You people are weird."
Mami was too drained to dispute anything. She closed her useless eyes and let the miracle drug and the magic of her wish return her to full life once again.
Mami dreamed... She, Homura, Kyouko, Sayaka were all in a field of flowers, frolicking as though they'd never faced a wraith in their lives. One arrived before long, but rather than attack, it simply nestled itself among the flowers... Mami hesitantly approached it, and reached out to pet it. Its fur was so soft, merely touching it warmed her heart. Mami and the other girls took turns smothering both it and Mami herself with attention and praise, and she soaked up the atmosphere.
The field of flowers gradually faded to leave Mami alone in a warm bed, though it took a while for Mami to realize she was awake. She focused her attention on her Soul Gem, and its familiar warmth lit the room. It was sparsely furnished warm, though not uncomfortably so. It seemed she was alone, but she knew with certainty others were nearby. There was no sense of isolation here. If anything, it was the opposite: Mami felt oddly exposed, but that feeling was quickly explained as she noticed the half open door to the room. It was a humble entrance to the room, so large Mami wondered if it was some mostly abandoned treatment center of sorts. That this room would be used for but a single patient was too bizarre to consider.
"Hello?" She called out. "Is anyone there?"
After a lengthy pause, she repeated her query. This time, she heard a reply.
"I'll be right there!" The voice... yes, it was the same person she'd been speaking to earlier... though when said person entered the room, Mami realized she didn't know just what she'd been expecting.
She saw a girl that appeared to be Mami's own age, give or take a few years. Long red hair was tied into two ponytails, though she also had cat ears poking through it on top of her head. From under her green dress issued two black tails. The girl leaped into the room with such energy that Mami couldn't help comparing her to Sanae.
"Yay! You're all better!"
"How are the others?" Mami asked the first thing that leaped to her mind.
"Sanae woke up, but she's not healing nearly as fast as most of you. She still had all her skin to begin with though, so she's doing alright.
"And Keine? The one in blue?"
"Oh, she's still unconscious. Still alive, too. She won't be getting up soon, though. So... you're here to help?"
"Well, we have our own reasons for helping you... we want Sayaka back." Mami said.
"Yeah, but... I mean, you'll help master too, right? You'll free Satori?"
"Free her from what, exactly?"
The catgirl seemed worried as she shrugged. "I don't know... she'd be able to explain it so much better. There was this thing she started fighting? We keep offering to help, but she... I don't think she's listening... so she hasn't done much else for months, now. She only stepped away like once! I think, anyway. It's really dangerous to get between them now, so we just kinda had to leave her there, so I haven't been able to keep an eye on her. We didn't want to, but-"
Mami had no idea what the cat was suggesting, but she felt fine, so she made a simple suggestion to calm the increasingly agitated girl.
"Show me, please, miss... I'm sorry... I never caught your name."
"Oh, call me Orin. I'll take you, but we'd better get your friends, too."
A short while later had the three magical girls and Sanae (The odd one out, as her skin was nearly as red as a freshly boiled lobster, though she'd apparently changed into a fully intact outfit, thankfully) walking alongside each other, led by a restless Orin. Ahead lay Satori, and with her, perhaps some answers to the questions that relentlessly assaulted Mami.
Author's notes:
So, this probably came across well enough, but it is hot in the blazing hell. Very very hot. Hot enough that normal humans would die in short order. Thankfully, there aren't any 'normal' humans in this party (Keine has magic, shush.)
Did you know? Human hair won't ignite on its own due to a high temperature, and it basically burns pretty poorly, just kinda... melting into ash. I learn weird things while looking up details for my fics...
Also, most clothing materials won't spontaneously combust until hundreds of degrees Celius. So what happened to Sanae here is probably not something anyone in the real world will ever have to worry about. I mean, its still not a good idea to sit in an oven cranked all the way up. So yay hypertech/magic cloth. What, you think Kappa cared about testing how flammable anything they make is? Well they do because enough things burn underwater that it just started being a good idea. They just do their testing underwater.
I'm rambling so I'll stop. Thank you all for reading and see you next time!