It's Chie's turn to face herself. Happy Thanksgiving. Don't forget to read the Training series -cute stories that take place in the months of May and June. I'll post a stand-alone Christmas episode soon, too. :) Thank you to all of my readers, and happy holidays. :D
21st SCENT: A NEW SELF
The halls of Yukiko's castle...
The crimson hall stretched on forever. Chie caught the railing of the next set of stairs from a dead run, and jogged up two steps at a time to the next floor. She hit the carpet at a full sprint, pumping her arms to speed up. Her shoes hit the velvet carpet at a pace too rapid for a normal Human. For perhaps the first time, she actively relied on her new animal demon abilities. Running this far, this fast, and up as many steps as she did would have seriously winded her by now. "Yukiko," she panted, "I'm on my way. Please hold on." There was a minor hope that her words would drift to wherever Yukiko was, but she held onto it anyway.
Chie had left the boys behind as soon as she saw the other shadow succumb to Yosuke's wind attack. They could handle the strange creatures from there and catch up to her. She needed to find Yukiko and get back to that television as soon as possible.
Dark figures drifted languidly around the room. Some of them tried to dip down to her level to stop her, but she ignored them, cutting sharp angles to avoid their advances. They weren't important. Locating her best friend before that other dog demon, Mitsuo could turn that wicked machine on her was her priority.
Yukiko depended on her. She needed her. If she had stayed awake, this would have never happened.
She pushed through a set of double doors into an empty room. A large rug covered most of black and white checkered pattern on the floor. "Yukiko? Yukiko! Damn, she's not here." Chie left the doors open and ran to the next room, finding it held a similar decor. The next she burst through shouting her friend's name. Again, it held nothing but a rug. She cursed and moved to the next room, up a flight of stairs, to another room, and another.
She turned to go back to a room she hadn't checked when a bright flash of light overcame her. She shielded her eyes with her arm, though when she looked, she was in another location, possibly on a different floor. The layout remained similar, but the wall scones had changed, and the tall, reaching windows yielded only a view of fog. "What the..."
"Chie's always protected me," a voice echoed through the hall.
"Yukiko? Yukiko! Where are you! Yukiko!" Chie frantically looked both directions for the source. That voice belonged to her friend, but it's tone was different.
"Ever since we were little."
Chie spotted a set of rich, mahogany double doors at the end of the hall. Not wasting a moment, she ran toward them through the phantom's words.
"I'll never have to worry again if I'm in trouble."
Chie pushed open the doors. She froze in the doorway, staring into a room that looked exactly like the others, only this time, a large floating cube hovered in the center. She stared at it, sizing it up. A red chest with a domed lid rested behind it. If there was something in it that could help her find where her friend had been taken, she needed to get to it to find out. She bit her tongue in thought of how to get around this stationary strange floating cube, and took two steps into the room, when the voice finished its sentence.
"Chie will keep protecting me... Because now she has no choice."
That made her stop. "What?" She uttered. "That... That's not true... That's not something she'd do!" she yelled to the cube. The owner of the voice failed to show itself, so this odd metallic thing that resembled a giant gaming die became her focus. "Come out!" She moved forward, holding up her fists. "Show yourself!"
No one responded. Frustrated, frightened, but on a mission, she pushed through to focus on the chest at the back of the room. Carefully, she edged her way against the wall, doing her best to be as inconspicuous as possible. Her breath stayed shallow and light despite the heavy beating of her heart.
The die rotated lazily as though it were sleeping, and thankfully didn't seem to notice the girl.
She felt like a kid sneaking past her parents' room to watch early morning cartoons—only her parents wouldn't try to hurt her if they woke up. The dome of the chest barely reached her knees. A gold hook latched through a ring meant to harbor a lock, but no such security measure was present. It was unlocked, waiting, uncaring of would-be thieves. That would be her. She pulled open the chest and peered inside.
A slim, old fashioned golden skeleton key rested alone at the bottom, placed perfectly in the center. The head of the key resembled a yin yang sign, but as a mask -half white, half black. She picked it up. A warm understanding melted through her thoughts as clear as if she'd already known this fact from the start: this key would take her directly to Yukiko. Chie pocketed the treasure, and turned to make her way back carefully around the hibernating die when a staticy feminine silhouette materialized directly in her path. She gasped, startled.
The form stared with unblinking yellow eyes. It glitched and blocked her escape route when she tried to move around the metal cube. It became more clear, more defined as a person, though it still held a static-like appearance, like the signal was being interrupted. The face that stared unsmiling back at her...was her own.
Chie scooted a foot back and held up her fist. "Who—who are you?" she whispered.
"I'm Chie Satonaka, of course." the shadow blurred in a static shift.
"Cut the crap. I'm Chie Satonaka."
"And I'm Chie Satonaka, too."
"No way..."
The glitchy shadow seemed like it tried to fully focus itself, but something was getting in the way. "Yukiko's hot, sweet, and her skin is, like, totally perfect. Guys can't leave her alone."
Chie stared in disbelief.
"Truth is, if I wasn't around, Yukiko couldn't do anything." Her shadow flashed a canus smile. "She's nothing without me, because I'm the one who is truly the top dog around here!" Her laughter cut like a razor through the atmosphere.
Her shadow slid forward, forcing her to back up.
"No... Stay there. Don't come near me!" Overwhelmed, Chie ran past the die, momentarily throwing aside caution.
The metal cube flared to life a the sudden motion. It shuddered once, then flew out of the door directly after the fleeing intruder. It rammed into her side, knocking her into the wall.
The words of her shadow continued to haunt her.
"Yukiko is right," Her shadow purred, running along side her just long enough to speak. "I will protect her, because I have to. I hate her for what she did to me."
"Shut up!" Chie shook her head. "That's not how I feel. You're a liar!"
Chie braced herself against the cool stone, pushing away immediately in a spin to keep running despite the pain. The die kept with her quick dodging movements as she ran, zig-zagging down the hall, cutting down the next at top speed, and running up a flight of stairs. "Get away from me!" She screamed.
"I'm the one who can't do anything on my own," her shadow's voice drifted through her mind. I'm the one who's pathetic."
She risked a glanced over her shoulder. That stupid cube was still on her ass! She had to find the door this key fit into before—
The die slammed into her back, knocking her to the carpet.
Breath exploded from her lungs at the impact. She rolled onto her back and kicked her feet up at her attacker. That barely phased it, and her feet throbbed at the effort. She scrambled backward, wide eyed. There wasn't much she could do against something larger than herself, and made of metal. She didn't have any powers like Yu or Yosuke. She was just a girl—a determined girl barreling head first into a world she knew nothing about to save her only true friend.
Two lightning strikes stabbed through it from behind, making it shudder to the ground. It bounced right for her, clearly weakened, but rolling at top speed.
There was no way she could move in time to avoid being crushed. Was this how it was going to end? She spotted the familiar silver hair of Yu Narukami rushing toward her, followed by a shorter boy in a white ruffled shirt, and round blue ears –another animal demon. Yu's persona, Izanagi, lifted its blade and dove at the cube. "Yu!"
The die, however, didn't give up its mission. It had been placed in that room for one reason, and one reason only. It spun up into the air, opened one of its six sides, and lunged at Chie.
"Chie!" Yosuke dashed in front of her to pick her up and quickly get out of the way, but he wasn't as fast as the cube. His eyes widened as he curled over Chie.
The bronze die slammed over the huddled couple, hitting the floor with enough force for Teddie and Yu to feel the vibration of its weight. It rolled quickly to scoop them up, not caring around their cries of terror, and closed the side.
STOP! The word burst through Yu's mind.
Izanagi's sword froze less than an inch away from the surface of the die.
The two stood away from the now motionless cube.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no! That's a bronze die—a fully formed powerful shadow." Teddie pulled at his ears in frustration. "These things are beary tough to crack."
"Then I'll get it to release them." Yu held out his hand to give an order to his persona, but the bear demon grabbed his forearm.
"Wah, no! You're too powerful! If you attack while they're inside it, you could hurt them!"
Yu lowered his hand. Dammit, there had to be something he could do.
As if knowing it wouldn't be the victim of a fatal blow, the die lifted off the carpet and sped down the hall.
"After it." Yu and Teddie puffed and panted to keep up. "Teddie. Keep tracking it if we lose sight of it."
"I'm on it!"
Sure enough, it left them in the dust, but because of Teddie, it wasn't lost.
Inside the bronze die...
"I'm in a shadow...I'm in a shadow... I'm in a shadow..." Yosuke stuttered.
His worst nightmare had come true. He remembered what happened to the raccoon demon that fateful day. He was sure his fellow classmate had been killed. Panicked, he pressed both hands against the sides, the top, and the bottom, even with Chie in his lap. "Lemme outa here!"
"Hey, take it easy, Captain Frantic." She elbowed him in the gut. It was an easy point to reach since she was sitting across his lap.
"You don't get it. I don't do well with boxes. You have no idea what that week in cardboard solitary confinement was like!"
There was barely room for the two of them in this cramped position. He sat cross-legged, and her feet were flat up against the other end. It left only a few inches of clearance above Yosuke's head. There wasn't any visible light source, but somehow the interior held enough illumination to barely see the other. Either that, or her new vision as an animal demon was being put to use.
The cube tilted, then leveled out again as it took off down the hall. It would have thrown the two off balance if there was any room.
"We're moving," Chie breathed. Whatever this thing was, and wherever it was taking them, she hoped it would be to Yukiko.
"We're gonna die." He gulped.
"Shut up. We're not going to die. It's just taking us somewhere." She elbowed him. "Move over."
He shoved her right back. "You move over."
"Watch the hands, pal," Chie sneered.
"My hands are innocent. It's cramped in here. Maybe we'd have more room if you'd left your pride outside."
She pinched him.
"Ow." He grumbled, shifting to try to become more comfortable with her taking up his lap space. "Why did you run off earlier?"
"You looked like you guys had everything handled. I needed to find Yukiko."
He managed to get one foot up against the other side of the cube at Chie's back so she was leaning against his knee. "This isn't gonna work. We have to change back."
"No. I refuse to go back to being an animal demon. You change."
He shook his head. "Why do you always have to be so hard headed? Why won't you listen to someone else's ideas for once?"
"I do listen to others!"
"And then you do what you want anyway! Have you ever once considered backing off and just going with the flow?"
She tried to squirm away from him in the tight confines of their prison, but since there wasn't even room for him to move his other leg, she was forced to stay in his lap. "You expect me to stop fighting? To just give up and accept what happened to me?!"
"Maybe you should!" He snapped.
Her retort caught on her tongue. She'd been prepared to hear him tell her to never quit—not to lay down, roll over and take it.
He exhaled, calming himself, and his voice. "Maybe it's time you accepted yourself the way you are."
"How can you say that?" Chie, however, was far from calm. "You stupid fox! It's always been normal for you to be this way! You don't even realize what you're asking me to do! I am a Human-"
"No, Chie," he rested his right palm against against the top. "You're not."
She stared up at him.
"You haven't been for over a week. You may look like it on the outside, but inside you're exactly like me and Naoto. You're not a Human anymore. You're an animal demon now. No skill can change that."
She pounded her fist against the closed lid. "I want to be myself again."
"You're a new 'self' now. I'll bet the first language you think in is mine. Say the first word to come to mind."
"No—"
"Do it. Say the first thing."
"Will you stop? No!"
"Say it."
"No!"
"Say it!"
"NO!"
"Say it, say it, say it!"
She snapped and yelled at him, only it came out in a trill-bark that resembled his. Her hand clamped over her mouth below shock-filled, wide eyes.
He exhaled. "You just called me an idiot, but I was right."
"Oh God," she squeaked. Her shadow's accusatory words replayed in her mind. She looked away.
He watched her bit her lip. "Why do you hate it so much? You can run faster, jump higher, I'll bet your eyesight and sense of smell are stronger too, and you probably have some cool power like I do."
She paused with a frown. The silence bit into them, and she knew he was waiting for an answer. "It's... I don't like to be controlled."
A small smirk tugged as his lips. "And you think Yukiko will order you to do something you don't want to do?"
"No," Chie shot back.
"Then what are you so afraid of? No one but her can have that kind of power over you, and she's too good of a person to use her best friend like that. She would never command you to do anything you didn't want to, just the same as Yu wouldn't use that power against me."
The two were silent for a while.
"But seriously, I'm getting a leg cramp."
Chie exhaled. She wasn't ready to stop fighting, but she was willing to work with the new tools she had. She focused on the Change skill and felt something swirl in her mind and heart. Using this skill the first time had drained her. Now, for some reason, this hardly took any energy at all. She watched Yosuke and the ceiling grow taller and farther away.
"See?" He looked down as she crawled over his leg. He pulled his knees up. "That wasn't so bad."
She pushed herself back against the wall as his power swirled around his feet up to his head like a ribbon. As it tightened, he shrank within its vespers until he was her height.
He stretched. "Totally better."
"What if," Chie hesitated, pulling absently on one of her ears, "what if 'giving in' means I lose my memories for good?"
Yosuke arched an ear. "What are you talking about?"
"I've been forgetting things about my life since this started—little things I should know. It stopped when Yukiko said my name, but I've been fighting to become Human ever since. What if I lose all of my memories? I don't want to forget my parents, or my dog, or even my first lesson in kung fu. I almost can't remember that day. It's hazy, and it's getting worse. What if that all disappears if I accept that I'll never be Human again." She wrapped her arms across her chest and slid to the floor. "I don't want to forget who I am."
Yosuke sat down next to her. "What if fighting this is what's tearing your memories away?"
Her large brown eyes locked with his. She hadn't thought of that possibility. Could she take the risk and just let go? If she was right, she'd lose everything she is. But if he was right, she could preserve what's left. She moved her tail over her lap and sighed. "Yukiko would know what to say. She always knows how to talk sense into me."
"I think she'd say, 'What you are doesn't define who you are.'"
"That sounds like something Yu would say."
He chuckled. "Yeah, well." He looked up at the lid. "I think if you stop fighting yourself, life might be a little easier."
But that's what she was; a fighter. Her shadow even threw that fact into her face. What if her dark self was right? What if her own reason for existence was to continue fighting until she couldn't anymore? She would be useless.
Chie waited for their destination. Whatever they faced, she would battle as herself –animal demon or not.
Next Scent: Letting Go