CW: Blood & gore
"We're lost."
"We are not," Wendy insists. "It's a maze, there's a way through it!"
Nanami hums in disagreement. "We could be walking in circles if it's just some illusion."
She pokes him in the ribcage stubbornly. "If it was all an illusion, the rooms wouldn't have physically moved locations, and we wouldn't have landed in a closet," she argues. He's very solid under that suit and tie, but Wendy files that away for later. "We've made three turns without anything attacking, and I think that means we're on the right path!"
"And I think it means we're lucky, but still lost," he murmurs smoothly, looking ahead as they approach another junction.
"Center path," she says at once.
"I think we need to try something else," Nanami replies, attempting to sound polite and firm at the same time. "Your earrings don't exactly work like a compass."
Wendy raises her eyebrows at his back. "Then you pick this time. I'm gonna laugh when you get smacked by a monster."
He sighs, mumbling something too quiet for her to decipher. "Stay behind me, but let go of my jacket," he requests. "I don't want you in the way."
You already think I'm in your way. Wendy holds her tongue. This is different from investigating coma patients and curse seals with Yoshi. She's no fighter. She's not exceptionally smart or strong. She's not with Yoshi.
"Fine." She steps back, keeping Nanami just an arm's length away. He pauses at the crossroads, and then takes a step to the left.
Wrong. Wendy's jaw clenches with the effort not to protest.
Four steps into the new hallway, and a slimy creature bursts out of the floor and flings itself at Nanami. He cleaves into two pieces before it can reach them, but then the tiles begin to rattle and crack apart with more oozing black slime.
"Shit," Nanami mutters.
More creatures lash out at them, a blur of liquid black too fast for Wendy. She doesn't try to keep track. A lashing, whip-like arm stretches her way and she, very sensibly, ducks down and covers her head. She can only shrink away from the fight, and listen to it all happen—the sickening splat of butchered limbs; the guttural, inhuman screeches. It's an awful thing to hear, but it's almost drowned out by the sound of her heart pounding in her chest and the rush of blood in her ears.
Don't block it out. Yoshi hammered it into her, years and years ago. Pay attention so you can react.
Nanami grunts, staggering backwards when an oozing black arm slashes at his arm. He gets back up in time to smash another creature, but a third slimy thing rams into his flank and throws him into a wall.
Wendy's mind is reeling with unfinished thoughts and unanswerable questions. Nanami is a first grade sorcerer, and these horrid things are strong enough to lift him off his feet. There's no reason for curses to gather here, so someone must have placed it in the clinic. Was Andrea even worth all this trouble, or was this a trap for Yoshi?
"Go. Before they notice you," Nanami says steadily, eyes locked onto the curses.
"No," Wendy mutters, whispering it to herself. She won't argue with him while he's fighting, because it would distract him. She can't leave him while he's fighting, either.
She feels for the beads on her anklet, counting them in her head. Nanami gets up again, undeterred, and splatters more bluish guts around as he takes on the curses. He puts himself in front of her and keeps slashing. Nanami is strong, but he fights up close with that wrapped-up cleaver—there's so many little curses, and he can only hit a few at a time in the narrow hallway.
The creatures howl, so loudly that it hurts Wendy's ears.
It hurts even more when a curse slams into Nanami again, throwing him into a stray supplies cart.
When there's a lapse in action and his cleaver is lowered, Wendy lurches towards the sorcerer—
"Nanami!" she shouts to him, giving him just enough warning so he isn't surprised when she presses her palm firmly against his back.
Cursed energy flashes over the two of them, quicker than lightning and acrid on her tongue. She thinks of the southern stairwell, and this time—
"Shit!" Wendy feels her left foot slipping, and scrambles for the railing to regain her balance.
"Wha—?" Nanami sucks in a breath, stumbling on the steps. "Stairs?" He twists around and looks at Wendy from two steps below her in the stairwell, bewildered.
The stairwell is dimly lit and freezing cold, but there aren't any curses in here for now. Wendy musters up enough spirit for a cheeky smile.
"Stairs," she confirms, ignoring the heavy, drum-like beating in her chest. "I changed my mind, I'd feel bad if I laughed at you right now."
He exhales so sharply it sounds like a hiss. "I didn't tell you to teleport us," Nanami says, just barely keeping his voice level.
"Well no, but—"
"How many times can you use your talisman before it runs out?" he interrupts.
Surprised that he even remembers that she can't jump as freely as Yoshi can—she mentioned it very briefly during that car ride in Tokyo—Wendy lifts her leg and points to the simple loop of jewel-tone beads on her ankle. "I have eight more jumps."
"I see," Nanami murmurs, his expression still flat. Then he adds, utterly humorless, "Stop wasting it on me."
"No," Wendy replies, amused by his request. She watches Nanami's face tighten with irritation, and frowns right back at him. "What? I don't take orders from you. I was right about the pathways, and I was right to get us both out of that hallway," she says, lifting her chin.
Nanami stares at her, rigid as an ice sculpture, and says nothing.
"I was right," Wendy repeats, staring back. For some reason, his silence feels harsh.
Still mute, Nanami shakes his head and climbs a step up towards her. Wendy almost jerks away when she feels a warm touch on her palm, but it's just Nanami, raising her hand between them and holding it firmly. "No," he answers quietly. "It isn't right to risk yourself for me." He says it so plainly, without a shred of sentiment in his tone, and it makes Wendy feel like a shriveled flower. "You have proved your point about taking the right path. But when you're in danger, you will leave without me."
Wendy recoils, tugging on her arm. "No, that's—"
His grip tightens, but not enough to hurt her. "—Yes, because this is my world and you're not a part of it," Nanami concludes, his eyes intent as he parrots her own words back at her condescendingly. "You know that, don't you? Because you claim you don't want to be a sorcerer, but your actions say otherwise. You should be far away from this place, because you can't help here."
She falters for a moment. He doesn't look particularly angry, and he doesn't raise his voice, but there's no denying the severity of his words. He's so straightforward, so dispassionate and factual, that it hurts all the same.
Nanami may not be angry, but suddenly, Wendy is.
"I don't want to be a sorcerer," she snaps, hating how her own voice trembles. "But you know what I do want? I want to live my life without ever worrying about curses again. I want Yoshi to live in peace, because she deserves it more than anyone!" Wendy grits her teeth. "I can't help by pretending nothing's wrong, and doing nothing!"
"You can't help by fighting curses you can't beat either," he counters, squeezing her hand again. Wendy had forgotten he was still holding it. "You'll just die for nothing at this rate."
"Nanami!" Wendy doesn't know if she's laughing or crying. "That'll happen no matter what I do! I don't care how I die, I care how I live!" She yanks her hand away at last, blinking back tears.
Nanami is silent for a while, but this time, when he speaks up, he just sounds lost. "What are you talking about?" he asks warily. "Wendy, whatever obligation you feel to Yoshi… you don't have to do any of this."
Hurriedly, Wendy wipes at her eyes. Stupid curses everywhere, it's frying her nerves. "Whoever cursed Andrea knows even more about cursed seals than Yoshi, and they're attacking non-sorcerers like me, so yes, this might not be my world but I do have a stake in this." She sighs. "I know I'm a disadvantage for you in a fight, so really, I'm just a little sorry that you're here."
"I'm a sorcerer," Nanami says dismissively. "I chose this profession, and I accept the risks."
"I can take risks too," she replies, calmly meeting his gaze again. "And this was the right choice. Look at where we are." She gestures to the stairwell around them, seamlessly changing the subject. "I was aiming for the stairwell, and that's where we landed."
He leans back slightly. "So not all parts of the clinic have moved positions."
"If I hadn't tried another jump, we wouldn't have figured that out," she says firmly, straightening up.
Nanami tilts his head, pensive. "It's—"
The emergency exit door on the landing above them bursts open in a screech of metal.
Nanami darts around her, blocking her view. Wendy hears a very-human wail, something even more disturbing than the curses.
"Hil-lfe," the person begs, slurring their words. "Bitte h-helft m-m-mir! Es g-gibt Ungeheuer!"
That voice…
Wendy climbs up to the top of the landing, peeking over Nanami's shoulder. Crumpled against the wall, missing a full forearm, it's—
"That's Larsen," Wendy breathes. "Andrea's doctor."
He jolts at the sound of his name, eyes wildly searching for her. "You! W-Wendy! Bitte—" he descends into a desperate tirade, too hysterical for Wendy to understand. His right arm ends in a bloody stump, but there's a rubbery strap tied around it—he had the sense, or perhaps the luck, to find a tourniquet and use it, but the poor man looked to be at the very end of his rope.
Nanami doesn't stop her from approaching the doctor. "Slow down, um. Langsamer," she tells him softly. He keeps saying please, but she doesn't understand much more. "Verstehe ich nicht," she says carefully, reminding him that she only knows a little German.
Doctor Larsen bursts into tears, sobbing uncontrollably.
Nanami goes to the door that Larsen ran in from, checking the state of the hallway. "Looks like he wasn't chased, but he needs to be quieter. Can you ask him about Andrea?"
"Right," Wendy nods, kneeling in front of the pale-faced man. He must be in so much pain, but she can't fix that. "Dr. Larsen, bitte. Lower your voice. Is Andrea—?"
"PLEASE!" he screams, seizing her arm with his left hand. "You have to, Holen Sie mich hier raus!" he bellows frantically, dragging her towards his face. "Alle sind schon tot!"
"Ow, stop it!" She yelps, twisting her wrist away. The young doctor scrabbles for purchase, tearing at the sleeve of her jacket. "Let go, shush! You need to be quiet—!" His fingers dig into the skin of her forearm with bruising strength and Wendy gasps, trying to pry him off. "I said let go, bitte, calm down—!" The doctor just yells over her, incomprehensible.
"Wendy?"
She ignores Nanami and, frightened out of her wits, stops pulling at the doctor's hand and digs her fingers at the grisly stump of his right arm instead.
Larsen gives a strangled scream of pain, releasing her. "DRECKIGE HURE—!"
Wendy shrieks as Nanami's foot slams into the side of the man's head with a sickening thud.
Larsen slumps against the wall, unconscious. Wendy, still sitting on the concrete, scrambles away from the doctor, breathing hard.
Nanami crouches beside her, his weapon tucked under one arm. "Are you okay?"
"That fucking hurt," she babbles, flexing her wrist uncomfortably. "And I think he called me a whore." Her arm throbs with pain, and there's a livid, red imprint of Larsen's hand over her skin. And her other palm is bright red too, painted with the doctor's blood. "This is gross!" she squeaks.
Nanami presses a hand onto her shoulder. "Are you okay?" he repeats urgently. Wendy nods mutely, staring at her shoes. "Come on. Tell me which way to go."
He slides his arm behind her back to help her stand and Wendy can't even find it in herself to enjoy how muscular Nanami is, or how close his body is to hers. She's still looking at Finn Larsen and thinking about how she almost went out to dinner with him two days ago. Nanami herds her past the fire exit and into the clinic's winding hallways.
Wendy doesn't ask about whether it's right or wrong to leave the doctor unconscious in the stairwell, and Nanami doesn't say anything about it either.
"Which way?" he asks quietly, dropping his arm and holding her by the hand instead. He chose the bloody one, and now their palms are sticking together. "Wendy, please talk to me," he urges.
"Tot…" Wendy says slowly, Larsen's screams still ringing in her ears. "He said… alle tot. I think Andrea really is—"
"Dead, dead, DEAD!" A stranger howls, stomping around and appearing at the end of the hallway. "What a fucking SCAM!"
They both stiffen, sensing the cursed energy too late. Sharp and sinister, it's strong enough to make her stomach turn. Whoever this is, they were skilled enough to conceal their signature until the last moment.
"Oya! Lovebirds!" The stranger, speaking Japanese, points at them from afar. His other hand is tied around a thick metal chain that Wendy can't see the end of. "Did you kill my kill?! I'll kill you for that!"
It's a man. He's shirtless, and he's wearing something like a taxidermied dog's head as a helmet. A curse-user. A crazy one, judging by his creepy, lidless eyes.
"Did he just ask if we killed Andrea?" Nanami whispers to her, not taking his eyes off the man.
"Alle tot. Everyone is dead," Wendy whispers back. "I don't know what's going on."
"Then it's time to get out of here." He squeezes her hand meaningfully.
Wendy counts the beads on her anklet, and thinks of the street between the clinic and Petra's inn.
And nothing happens.
"Shit," she mutters. "There must be a veil over the clinic, I can't get us out."
Nanami freezes, and then he drops her hand with a quiet but emphatic groan. "That means I actually have to fight this crackpot."
Wendy hears an undercurrent of annoyance in his tone. "Wait, do you know this guy?" she wonders, watching the man tug on the metal chain. There's a curse at the other end of it, tied up like a pet.
"Move it, mutt!" The curse-user yanks at the chain, cackling when the four-legged curse complies. "Ready to die, lovebirds?!"
"That's Ebina," Nanami mutters quickly. "Mercenary. He's like a rabid dog, definitely not the one Yoshi's after."
"But if he was hired, he might have information," Wendy points out.
"I know," Nanami sighs. "That means I need to let him live—"
And for the third time, they are interrupted.
This time it's Gojo, tearing through the roof and blasting a hole in the middle of the hallway.
"GUUTEN TAAAG!" Gojo hollers in an absolutely atrocious approximation of the German language, floating in midair with a shit-eating grin.
Nanami pushes Wendy out of the way again, but there's no need for it—Gojo's destruction is contained to the space in front of them, crushing the walls and tiles beneath the curse-user and squashing his pet-curse-thing instantly. Rain begins to fall over them, accompanied by a freezing wind.
The cures-user screams in terror, but at this point Wendy is so desensitized to the way the air reeks of fear and curses, she's more agitated by the cold rain.
"Gojo!" Nanami calls out to the white-haired sorcerer. "Don't kill—"
Ebina lets out a blood-curdling scream as his limbs are all torn off at once.
"Goddamn it," Nanami growls as Gojo drops down in front of them. "What've you been doing this whole time?"
Gojo continues to grin, suddenly throwing his arms around Nanami with enough force to make the poor guy stumble.
"What the hell," Nanami snaps, turning his face away petulantly. "Get off."
Gojo laughs again, releasing Nanami before he gets punched in the face or something. "The town's being crushed by icebergs," he reports to them, fully ignoring the venomous look on Nanami's face. "I met a spooky monk child, not sure what that's about. Yoshi's doing her thing, fancy sutra stuff so the good people of Osterby don't die horribly. Evidently there were a bunch of curses released into this clinic, but I exorcised them, you're welcome…"
Wendy pulls the hood up on her jacket, shuddering against the wind. "Does that mean the rooms are back to normal?" she cuts in, squinting at the numbered doors.
"Uh, yeah?" Gojo says, cocking his head. "Why?"
Wendy backs away from the two sorcerers and teleports directly into room 105 without a word.
—/—/—/—
Gojo stares at the spot where Wendy last stood, mouth open in a small 'o' of surprise. He glances at Nanami. "That was kind of rude, don't you think?" he muses. "Trouble in paradise, Nanamin?"
Nanami makes a very alarming growl-y noise, and heads down the hall, carefully picking his way through the destruction.
When he gets to the room, it's very obvious that they're too late.
The room looks relatively untouched, except for the door, torn off its hinges—and the cot where Andrea lays. She's motionless and pale, her left side soaked with so much blood that it's dripping onto the floor. Wendy is standing at the side of the bed, her face turned away from Nanami. He can see her hands fisting in the fabric of her jacket.
"Yikes," Gojo mutters, suddenly appearing at Nanami's shoulder. "She bled out a while ago, huh?"
"She wasn't even killed with cursed energy." Wendy says calmly. "You don't see anything, right Gojo?"
Gojo dutifully pulls down his blindfold, humming. "Nope, no residuals to follow."
Wendy sighs, stepping around the pooling blood to touch the nightstand beside Andrea's bed. She brushes her fingers through the flowers sitting in a pitcher of water on the table, and then drops her hand and backs away from the bed. He can see the profile of her face now, as she looks down at the dead woman. The room is fairly dark, but her cheeks are wet, reflecting the fluorescent lights.
"I think I need to leave now," Wendy says faintly. She doesn't try using the talisman again, but walks right past Nanami and back down the hallway without looking back.
A/N: I cross-post from Ao3, sometimes there are formatting issues so let me know if something looks weird in the text! Also - my knowledge of German is from online translators, so please correct me if I mess up!
translations:
Hil-lfe - Help
Bitte h-helft m-m-mir! Es g-gibt Ungeheuer! - Please h-help m-m-me! There are monsters!
Langsamer - Slower
Verstehe ich nicht - I don't understand
Holen Sie mich hier raus - Get me out of here
Alle sind schon tot - Everyone is dead already
DRECKIGE HURE - FILTHY WHORE
GUUTEN TAAAG - GOOD DAY (this is the extent of Gojo's knowledge of German)