Hikigaya Hachiman felt the steady, yet gentle movements and vibrations long before he woke up properly. And when he did? A strange sight was upon him, blue, darkness, a table and a man with a rather long nose looking at him, with a rather off putting smile. Not to mention that giant clock behind said man, the weird emotionless looking lady dressed in blue next to him, everything, everything was just so off putting. And yet, Hachiman couldn't figure out why.
Why he felt so oddly comfortable despite it all.
Was this a dream? If so, What a weird fucking dream. Come now, why this of all dreams? Surely he couldn't just dream of something normal? Like a hot girl asking him out on a date? Or him doing something awesome and having everyone chant out his name in cheer and excitement like in the old cheesy movies he used to watch?
Why?
Why this?
Why does he feel so calm and comfortable despite all of this strangeness?
"What a strange occurrence. You should, in every sense of the matter, not be here. And yet you are….how intriguing." The high pitched voice of the man snapped him out of his thoughts, bringing in even more questions.
"Well, it doesn't matter. Welcome to the Velvet room my door young man!"
"My name is Igor, ...I am delighted to make your acquaintance!"
"This is Elizabeth. She is a resident here, like myself." The man known as Igor said, subtly nodding his head in the lady in blue's direction.
"Pleased to meet you." Was her curt response not too warm nor cold. Merely a neutral greeting.
"This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter."
"I would say that you are the first person in years to be welcomed here as a guest, but alas you have been beaten, oh and only by a few days at that!"
A short pause, one of unease and of excitement from "Igor" as he smiles at Hachiman.
"You have not signed the contract, and yet...you are here. I don't think that this has ever happened in all my many, many long years here as a resident of the velvet room."
"..Would you like to sign this contract?" Igor asks with an eager gleam in his eyes. Making a contract appear with just the snap of his fingers, Elizabeth steadworthly silent as he does so.
"...Man, what an absurd dream…" Hachiman mutters to himself in disbelief as he looks at both Igor and Elizabeth .
"...I better remember this when I wake up." Hachiman utters to himself in amusement and intrigue.
"I've never had a dream quite like this, you know? What even is this? an elevator?" Hachiman asks thoughtlessly as he picks up a nearby pen neatly laid out on the table, and proceeds to write his name on the contract.
"A correct deduction! Even more impressive that you got it by just looking." Igor said excitedly, his eyes never once leaving Hachiman's figure.
"Well, the see-through cage behind you gave it away, you think you'll reach your top once I'm gone?" He asked with a bit of sarcasm and snark. It was his dream after all.
"Interesting...and what makes you think we're going up?"
"It's because it feels like we're going up, am I wrong?" He asked with a raised brow, trying to get a rise, a reaction from Igor. It was, once again, a dream. And he was going to enjoy it dammit.
"No. No. I was just trying to get a read on you. To figure out what kind of guest that you will be, the usual."
"...What a weird fucking dream." Hachiman said, off put by how weirdly Igor worded out his response.
"And you are a weird guest, but that is not so bad in itself. No, since you have signed this contract I am pleased and eager to welcome you to the velvet room!"
"I only ask of you to abide by the contract, to take responsibility for the choices you make."
"Ah yes, I must also ask you to hold onto this." Igor said pleasantly, with a snap of his fingers, a blue key was conjured upon the table.
Taking it curiously, Hachiman examined it. As to which, it seemed to disappear, it's smooth edges and all.
"You will need it to come here into this room, much as you need me to hone your special ability."
"...Ability? What Ability? You mean some super sentai rangers childish ability that requires friendship energy to defeat the big bad evil dude at the end of the 30 minute mark of the episode ability?" Hachiman asked sarcastically with a snarky grin as he chuckled a little bit inwardly at his little comeback.
"Indeed, it is a rather unique ability as well, not that many people have it."
"..."
"..."
"...Man, this dream is really starting to drag on." Hachiman said after a pregnant pause, uncomfortable as Igor refuses to relent from looking directly at his eyes.
"Heh, very well, we shall let you go. But a word of advice?" Igor asked with a slight chuckle.
"Yes?"
"I'd suggest you reel in all that snark, mortals I believe, find it all...what's the word?..ah yes, unpleasant."
"..."
"..Wut?-" Was all Hachiman could utter before he found himself descending into darkness.
A darkness that seemed to go on and on like a maze in a dungeon.
He woke up uncomfortable, with his entire body seemingly feeling like it got crashed into full force by a truck going at mach 4 speed. It was as if he was on death's door. Except that death was seemingly staring him in the face. Yes, violently, suddenly and angrily as if a lightning struck, He was greeted with a most dreadful sight.
He felt it almost instantly, the cold, the fear and the dread. It was as if he was once more a child, awake from a nightmare and unable to once more sleep. He saw before him what he could only describe as a doll, a giant overgrown creepy ragdoll, much like the ones used to ward off the rain.
Except this doll had one eye, one terrifying eye wide open gazing upon his very soul. It has a black dress that has chains overlapped upon each other on it. The chains seemingly failed to seal in all of that dread that he felt ever so presently. It had two long creepy and eerie arms, along with two long creepy revolvers that complimented it.
It was silent, it was cold, and it was damn right terrifying. Hachiman didn't say anything, hell, he didn't even think anything. All the hairs on his body seemed to stand up and he was on his feet and running before the organized notion of so much as a cognitized thought formed in his head.
He just ran.
Why?
He didn't know why. Correction, he couldn't pin on the exact reason why he ran. His body, his gut reaction, instinct? He just knew that he had to get out of there as soon as possible. Otherwise he would have been hurt, or worse dead.
His fears, his gut reaction, his..instinct proved him right unfortunately. As he ran into...slimes? Blobs? Well whatever they were, they were just ugly, monstrous beings that attacked him on sight. Slinging...well, he didn't know what it was that they were slinging at him, but they definitely were slinging something.
Between all this and the terrifying doll puppet thing, Hachiman continued to flee, looking around desperately for a door or a hole, something that could help him just leave. And that was when he saw it. The stairs. For some reason, in this...a mess of a situation, something inside of him, just as before when the very same thing urged him to run away, something inside of him urged him to go up the stairs.
He didn't have time to question such things, so he did as his body yelled, screamed at him to do. He ascended the stairs to this all to cold, terrifying dark hell.
Relief, exhaustion and despair were the things that he felt once he climbed those stairs. Relief that the terrifying feeling of death was no longer following him. Exhaustion from the fact that he ran for such a distance, and despair once he came to a realization that he was still stuck in this.. This hell.
He did everything he could think of, pinching his cheeks, slapping himself. Trying to will himself to become awake, he screamed, he yelled, he did everything. And yet the only thing that answered him back was the silent, cold empty hallway that he was currently in.
The air was still, cold, uncomfortable. He hated it. It was dark as well, and he, in only his tracksuit pajamas was not only shivering in desperate need of heat, but also blind as well. Perhaps that is why he didn't see it, hell he didn't even hear it in his panicked state. It was another one of those...blobs, those things that seemed to belong to the shadows, and were probably a part of the shadows themselves.
He never saw it coming, the adrenaline had died down already unfortunately, and thus, he was to bear the full wait of the tackle. Taken off guard, the monster with two grubby creepy hands that seemingly protruded from it's sludge-like body.
With a blue mask for a face, Hachiman could only watch petrified as the monster slowly but surely moved to him, its grotesque arms hanging out and eagerly awaiting for its turn to no doubt mess him up. Flat on his ass and surrounded by all of these..things. A single thought, a single sentence flared up in his mind.
It was odd really, he was fearful, terrified, petrified, all the words and all that, but for some inexplicable reason, he chuckled. It wasn't false bravado, nor was it madness, it was a realization, an epiphany. He wasn't happy, joyfull, if anything he hated his current situation that he was in. It was like being scolded by your parents, or getting accused of something that you didn't do. For some reason, even though you shouldn't, you smile, making them think that you're even more guilty and making the situation worse, it was very much like that. Save getting reprimanded by words and a lowering of one's social status.
No, His life was on the line here. He couldn't run, the monsters around him didn't even make a single sound as they closed in. He was, for the most part, dead. It was inescapable, infuriating, unfair, what did he ever do to deserve this? Was it his eyes? Was it because he saved that damned dog from getting hit by that damned car? Was it because he wasn't magically loved by society? Was it because he was a loner? Why? Why? Why? Why me?
With all of that, he found it shocking that he could even smile. Much less speak, speak throughout the dread and rage. It was so unfair, so humiliating. The only cognitive thoughts that he could bring to bear was a simple question, and a simple fact.
Why me?
"I'm dead."
He didn't fight it, merely accepted, laid there as those beasts closed in on him. He watched them with open eyes, wondering how and why exactly it all came to be wrong, messed up, his life that is.
And finally once they came close enough, just one swipe away from death, Something happened. A strange occurrence, in a sea of dread and confusion. A voice rang out, the monster nearest to him was struck, cleaved in twain as mist now formed from within the corpse.
THOU ART I. AND I AM THOU,
FROM THE SEA OF MY SOUL I COME FORTH.
I AM THE NEKO SHOGUN, MASTER OF WARFARE
COMMAND ME, AND I SHALL OBEY.
FOR THOU ART I, AND I AM THOU.
At that, Hachiman merely gulped, and looked at the monsters who flinched at the passing of one of their comrades. And he said the words that truly mattered.
"Beat them back so I can get the hell out of here!"