"Haruto, what are you doing?"
Something didn't feel right; there was a hard edge digging into his shoulder and one of his feet was wedged underneath an unyielding surface. One hand was trapped against his chest, and the other was numb. He couldn't see. Haruto tried to free his trapped hand, but his struggles got him nowhere.
"Haruto," came the voice again, sounding exasperated this time, and the weight was lifted off his chest. "Wake up."
Haruto blinked, opening his eyes, and the fuzzy outlines greeting him resolved themselves into the coffee table in the front of the antique shop. He had managed to slide off the couch and end up pinned between it and the table, one arm caught on the couch and the other held down by the book Mayu had just removed from on top of him. "Mayu?" he said, as his brain caught up with his eyes and gave his mouth a heads-up.
"Why – never mind." Mayu extended a hand.
Haruto ignored it, laboriously pulling himself into a sitting position and flexing his numb hand. Pins and needles pricked painfully under his skin. "What time is it?" he asked. Sunlight was streaming through the windows, but he was too tired to figure out what the angle meant.
"Late," Mayu said. "Just after eight."
That explained the noises in the kitchen; in theory, the shop opened at nine. Haruto's thoughts felt sluggish, his eyes as though they were full of sand. "Mayu," he said again. "I know what's going on."
By the time he had finished explaining, she had joined him on the floor, staring at him with equal parts horror and fascination. "We should have asked our resident Phantom to begin with," she said when Haruto stopped talking.
Haruto closed his mouth with a snap. He hadn't quite thought of it that way.
"Does he – he can't help with detecting Phantoms, can he," Mayu said.
Haruto shook his head. "Only at a very short range, and he'd have to leave Nitoh's body as far as he can to do it. It, uh, doesn't go well for, um. For the body."
"I would ask if you found anything." Mayu looked at the pile of books speculatively. "So our problem is two-fold; we have to find the Gates, and then we have to repair each Underworld before the Phantoms break free."
"That sounds about right." Haruto rubbed his eyes, but the sandy feeling didn't go away. He rested his head on his knees, trying to pull together some sense of motivation, or at least energy. "I need to see a Gate before the Phantom matures enough."
"Finding the Gates, then," Mayu said, and got a speculative expression on her face. "You know, there are a few people we already know about."
The bottom dropped out of Haruto's stomach all over again with the thought of all the Gates they'd worked so hard to save over the course of the past year, while Fueki had been searching for wizards to power the Sabbath. He gritted his teeth. One in particular stood out. "Kazuya," he said.
"Who?"
Haruto was already on his feet, cell phone in hand and scrolling through his contacts. The call went through, at least; Haruto could hear the phone ringing. And ringing. And ringing. Eventually it went to voice mail, and Haruto left a message. He had no idea what, exactly, he'd said when he hung up, only that Kazuya should get in touch with him as soon as possible. "Naomi," he said, ignoring Mayu's frown.
The call to Naomi went straight to voicemail. Haruto resisted the urge to bang his head against the nearest wall, which was too far away to reach easily in any case, and made for the door. He had Kazuya's address, even if he'd barely talked to his old friend since killing the Phantom that had been targeting him, and it was early enough that Kazuya might still be home. Haruto called Naomi again, leaving a message that her boyfriend was in danger and pleading with her to call him back.
"Mayu," Haruto said, and told her to keep looking for ways to find Gates that none of them knew personally. Mayu agreed, unhappily, and Haruto ran out the door, fueled by a baseless sense of apprehension that he nonetheless could not ignore.
The streets were oddly empty, despite the relatively late hour, and Haruto made good time. He pushed well past the posted speed limit, the roar of the bike's engine echoing through the streets, and nearly convinced himself that he was going to reach Kazuya before the Phantom inside matured and murdered one of his oldest friends. He had reached Kazuya's block when the burgeoning sense of hope was abruptly derailed by a sizzling whip of energy cracking the street in front of him.
Haruto wrenched the bike sideways, skidding to a graceless halt and scrambling to his feet. He left his bike where it was, lying on its side, and turned to face the Phantom. It was a brilliant yellow, glittering under the sun. Its armor looked almost normal, apart from the whips extending from each wrist. They coiled around the Phantom's hands, crackling with energy. Haruto jammed a transformation ring on his finger without looking and activated the Driver.
The Phantom lashed out before the Driver finished its chant, but its whips bounced off the portal, and Haruto was left unharmed. "I don't have time for this!" he shouted at the Phantom. He refused to believe that it was Kazuya, that it was too late. "You're not making me sick," he muttered. "You can't be Kazuya. You have to be a normal Phantom." Bind shot chains toward the Phantom, tangling it and its whips long enough for Haruto to scan Copy and then Special, pouring rivers of flame onto the Phantom from multiple directions.
The chains glowed with heat, and the Phantom sank to its knees. The copies faded away, but the Phantom burst free. Haruto wasn't quick enough to dodge, expecting it to fling its whips at him rather than rush him with an all-out physical assault. It grabbed him and flung him against the nearest wall; Haruto crashed through it, his fall broken by a solidly built headstone. The Phantom was coming toward him, intent on demolishing the cemetery with him in it. Haruto used the few seconds to summon the Drago Timer, shoving it onto his wrist and starting the revolution.
Pain crackled up his calf, and he looked down to see the Phantom's energy whip wrapped tightly around his ankle. It lifted him into the air, and Haruto worked faster. Three clones materialized, each wearing a different color and each pulling mana from him, and he launched a concerted attack on the Phantom from four different perspectives. The Phantom buckled under the combined assault, exploding in the street with a surprisingly contained blast.
The clones vanished and Haruto approached the remains of the Phantom carefully, searching for the body. There was nothing, just a black stain on the cracked pavement, and he frowned at it. There should have been a body, if it had been an abnormal Phantom. If it had been Kazuya. There was nothing. He felt the transformation falling away as the sound of a motorcycle approached from behind.
"Haruto?" said someone from in front of him, but that wasn't where the motorcycle driver was. Haruto frowned, looking in both directions, trying to reconcile the conflicting information. "Haruto!" came the voice again, and Kazuya was running toward him.
"You're not dead," Haruto tried to say, but Kazuya was suddenly gone, along with everything else.
Haruto opened his eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling and voices arguing back and forth a few feet away, making it the second time in a single day he'd woken up not knowing where he was. Both voices were familiar, and Haruto could tell they were arguing about him.
"Stop," he said, sitting up. The act brought a wave of dizziness that nearly pushed him back down, and he swallowed. He could see both Chimera and Kazuya now, heads turned toward him with identical expressions of surprise and dismay. "Whatever you're arguing about, just stop." His head hurt, a dull throb he associated with too much mana drain and too little recovery time, and he wanted to go right back to sleep, but he'd come looking for Kazuya for a reason.
"You need a hospital," Kazuya said.
Haruto swung his legs over the side of what turned out to be a couch and leaned against the back until the second wave of dizziness passed. It wasn't as bad as the first. "It's just mana drain," he said. "It's fine."
"Is that why he –" Kazuya flapped a hand in Chimera's general direction. Chimera had stopped talking when Haruto had woken, and was watching him intently. "He – there was some sort of weird light, going from him to you," Kazuya said.
"You gave me mana – how did you give me mana?" Momentarily derailed, Haruto stared at Chimera in shock.
"That's not relevant," Chimera said. "There have been developments."
"Kazuya is a Gate," Haruto said, but Chimera just looked at him, completely missing the significance. "Kazuya is a Gate whose Phantom was never destroyed," Haruto clarified, which led both of them to stare at him as though he'd sprouted a second head. "I need to see his Underworld."
Chimera sighed, annoyance coming to the forefront. "Stubborn," he said.
"What do you mean, see my Underworld?" Kazuya spoke right over Chimera, looking back and forth between the two of them. "What's going on?"
"Were you in Tokyo, when the – in September?" Haruto asked.
"When the sky went dark?" Kazuya said, quietly, and at Haruto's nod, he took a deep breath. "I was here," he said. "It, uh. It felt weird. I felt weird. It hasn't really gone away." He sat down, next to Haruto. "Is it something you can fix?"
"I hope so," Haruto said, and gave him what was supposed to be a reassuring smile. It probably would have been more reassuring if his hands hadn't been shaking ever so slightly. "Put this on." He handed an Engage ring to Kazuya. "Middle finger, right hand."
"Soma Haruto," Chimera said, voice tight.
"You were the one who said their Underworlds had been disrupted," Haruto said, pointing at Chimera. "You were the one who said that was how it was happening. I can't let this happen to Kazuya. I can't."
"Let what happen?" Kazuya said. He'd been calm, for the most part, taking Haruto's sudden appearance in stride, but now he was beginning to look nervous. It struck Haruto that he had no idea what Chimera had said to Kazuya while he was unconscious.
"It's a long story," Haruto said, and scanned Engage. Kazuya fell against the back of the couch, portal blossoming over him. Haruto stood, bracing himself against the couch for the half-second it took to catch his balance. "Chimera, please – keep an eye on him from out here, okay?"
Without waiting for a reply, Haruto dove into Kazuya's Underworld.
He found himself standing in a soccer stadium, the pitch surrounded by myriad doors. Kazuya himself was nowhere to be seen, but he could have been behind any one of them. Haruto turned slowly in a circle, the sense of exhaustion having temporarily dropped away. The sky overhead was subtly wrong, not quite the right shade of blue, and when Haruto looked closer, he could see that it was covered with myriad cracks.
The nearest door creaked open. Haruto brought his gaze down from the sky and noticed that the turf upon which he was standing was covered in the same fine webbing of cracks. He dropped to one knee and pressed a hand against the nearest break; it felt spongy and wrong. He wiped his hand on his pants and walked toward the door. The ground gave oddly beneath his feet, and it was contributing to the general sense of unease.
The space behind the door was dark. Haruto pulled it all the way open, peering through, but he couldn't make anything out. "Kazuya?" he called.
No answer. Haruto backed out and tried another door, and another. Each of them led to the same featureless darkness. He climbed the steps to the top of the stadium instead, until he could see outwards. The sight beyond the walls almost made him wish he hadn't; Haruto had expected some variation of the nothing that was behind the doors, but instead, the stadium was surrounded by a vast overgrowth. For a moment, he couldn't quite process the sight.
The Underworld beyond Kazuya's stadium settled into a forest, vines looping between huge trees, fleshy leaves brushing against each other. It covered the ground as far as Haruto could see, the looping vines reaching upward to latch onto the stadium walls. Everywhere the vines touched had spread out into a fine tracing of cracks, and Haruto almost expected the stadium to crumble under the slightest touch. It was still standing at his intrusion, though, which gave him some hope.
The color was the worst of the encroaching forest, dull browns and bilious greens, sickly yellows and virulent reds streaking through the foliage. The leaves looked infected and rotting as they grew, glistening with the sheen of overripe fruit about to burst. Haruto backed away, still looking for Kazuya and any sign of his inner Phantom. Anything he could fight, instead of this widespread corruption.
"Kazuya!" he called again.
Movement at the center of the field caught his eye, right where he'd landed when he'd entered Kazuya's Underworld to begin with. Haruto ran back downwards, keeping his eye on the distant figure in case it vanished again, and nearly tripped more than once. He made it onto the pitch without incident, the figure resolving into Kazuya, wearing the same jersey and shorts he had the day he'd been injured.
"Kazuya!"
Kazuya was facing away from Haruto, but he turned around the second time Haruto called his name. He was paper white, dark circles under his eyes and Haruto thought he could see the bones shifting beneath Kazuya's skin. "Haruto," he said, and smiled. It was horrifying.
"Kazuya," Haruto breathed, a third time.
"It feels strange," Kazuya said. Up close, Haruto could see the same reddish streaks peeking out from beneath Kazuya's jersey. "It feels so much stranger, in here."
Kazuya, despite Haruto's attempts to find him, shouldn't have been aware within his own Underworld. It contributed to the sense of wrongness. "I'm going to fix this," Haruto said, but if he didn't have a Phantom to fight, there was nothing to fix. It was the Phantom that destroyed the Gate's Underworld from within – Haruto knew, suddenly, that the Phantom was surrounding both of them. "Of course," he said.
"What?" A patch of skin flaked off Kazuya's cheek, leaving red and raw flesh beneath it.
"It's not maturing normally," Haruto said. He felt as though his thoughts were finally kicking into gear. "The forest surrounding – that's the Phantom. I should have – it should have been obvious. Stay here."
The center of Kazuya's Underworld was the safest place for his soul, and Haruto was torn between being relieved to see him follow directions and repulsed by his not-quite-right movements as Kazuya started idly kicking a ball up and down the pitch.
The forest had gotten denser in the few moments since Haruto had last seen it, dripping wet with half-congealed fluids and sagging under its own weight. Haruto slipped the transformation ring on his finger and summoned Flame Style. "You're my opponent, huh," he said. "Then it's showtime!"
The forest rippled, and Haruto tried to burn it to the ground. The flames fizzled out as soon as they hit it, and so did lightning, floods, and ice. Nothing so much as made a dent. Haruto sank to his knees, panting, feeling the weight of the malevolence staring back at him. The sky overhead darkened, and the ground underneath his feet felt abruptly insubstantial. Kazuya was at the end of his rope; the Phantom was about to break free. Haruto stood and summoned the Dragon. It manifested, roaring, and Haruto flung himself onto its back.
"Help me," he whispered, but it was his will that pushed the Dragon to do his bidding and not his words. It spat flame at the forest, to no avail. Smoke curled up in little wisps, but the forest was undiminished. As high as Haruto went, the forest went forever. It rippled again, and Haruto was gripped with a sense of urgency. "This cannot be hopeless," he growled, and his hand brushed against Koyomi's soul. Hope was warm under his fingers, warm enough to feel through the armored gloves. "Koyomi?"
Hope pulsed hotter, and Haruto slipped the ring on his finger. The driver sang as he scanned the ring, channeling a wave of energy through Haruto and then the Dragon, racing outwards to rain down on the forest like falling snow. The forest shriveled wherever one of the flecks of light touched, blackening and dying while the stadium revived into bright and solid color. The figure of Kazuya faded, replaced by flickering memories.
Haruto landed, dismissing the Dragon and feeling the ground solid beneath his boots. The forest was gone, Kazuya's Underworld strong and whole and healthy. "Koyomi," he said. The ring pulsed again, more weakly than before, but Haruto smiled. "Thank you," he said, and the warmth slowly faded away.
Kazuya's apartment was still brightly sunlit when Haruto emerged from his friend's Underworld; somehow he'd expected it to be dark. Kazuya blinked, feeling at the ring on his finger. "What, uh, is it okay?" he asked.
Haruto released the transformation, letting his armor fade away. "You're going to be fine," he said. "You are fine."
"Reckless," Chimera drawled. Haruto had forgotten he was there. "But effective," the Phantom added.
"I know how to fix it," Haruto said. "I know how to fix them all, if we can just find them." The world was wavering around him, and he rubbed his forehead. It didn't help. "We just have to find them."
"You're not – is he okay?" Kazuya looked from Haruto to Chimera.
"He's stubborn, and reckless," Chimera said, and Kazuya snorted out a laugh. Haruto felt he should have been insulted by the comment, but he was too tired to care, and he had work to do.
"Keep the ring on," he said to Kazuya. "Tell me if it starts feeling strange again."
Unexpectedly, Kazuya pulled him into a hug. After a startled moment, Haruto hugged him back. It was nice, until Haruto found himself needing Kazuya's support to stay upright. He was not going to pass out, he told himself, he hadn't drained his mana that thoroughly, he'd gotten a boost from Chimera, and he was going to stay on his feet and help Mayu figure out how to find the rest of the Gates.
"I'm okay," he said, answering Kazuya's increasingly worried questions. "I'm okay." He straightened, shaky but upright.
"You tell me if there's anything I can do," Kazuya said, searching Haruto's face.
"Stay alive," Haruto offered. Kazuya smiled, but Haruto wasn't joking. He made it down the stairs without incident, and all the way to his bike. It was still on its side, and he couldn't lift it. He crouched beside it, trying to control his breathing, and a shadow fell over him.
"This is ridiculous," Chimera said. He lifted the bike with one hand, lowering the kickstand and steering Haruto toward his own bike. "You can come back for that."
"But," Haruto said.
Chimera actually growled. Haruto was surprised enough that he fell silent and climbed onto the back of Chimera's bike without further protest. He wrapped his arms around Chimera's waist, grateful that he didn't have to think about driving. Not that he would admit it to Chimera, but he was also happy for even the limited physical contact, even if it reminded him of what he couldn't have. He couldn't be upset at Chimera spending months draining his mana, he found; Chimera hadn't actively tried to hide it, he hadn't been malicious, he'd simply been abiding by the contract. They were both at fault for the misunderstanding.
"Stay awake back there," Chimera said over his shoulder, and Haruto tightened his grip.
"I am," he said, the words coming out peevish and irritable. He felt marginally better when they pulled up to the antique shop, enough that he didn't waver on his feet after dismounting from the bike. Chimera was still watching him with an air of displeasure, and Haruto had no idea why. "I, uh," he said. The street was mostly empty, even with the sun high overhead, and it was freezing. Haruto looked at Chimera, willing him to understand, somehow. "I'm going to help you."
"Help me," Chimera said flatly, eyes suddenly hooded.
"Help you get out of Kosuke's body," Haruto said. "I promise."
Chimera sighed heavily. "You've been saying that for months, Soma Haruto. First the business with your friend's soul, and now this. There will always be an emergency. There will always be something pressing that demands your attention."
It wasn't fair, for Chimera to do this now. Haruto squeezed his eyes shut and opened them, but the grainy feeling didn't go away. "I keep my promises," he said.
"You want to," Chimera said, and Haruto had no idea what he meant by that.
"If this is how I feel about you," he started carefully.
Chimera made an incomprehensible noise in the back of his throat, strode around his bike, and cupped his hands roughly around Haruto's face. Without saying a word, he leaned forwards and kissed Haruto on the mouth, hard and insistent. Haruto froze at the feel of Chimera's palms against his jaw, but by the time Chimera pulled away, Haruto was clinging to him.
"I," he said. His thoughts were frozen again. "I thought."
"Take care of your pressing matters, Soma Haruto," Chimera said, and Haruto thought he was somewhere between amused and resigned.
"I, uh." Haruto licked his lips. "Right." Chimera hadn't let go, and Haruto was reluctant to move. "You," he said tentatively. "I thought you…"
"Are all humans this dense?" Chimera said, and Haruto finally felt something besides confusion and the mad blend of hope and wariness churning inside his gut. A flicker of indignation overlaid all of it, giving him the will to break free and back off a solid half a step. He still hadn't let go of Chimera, though, and Chimera was eying him with pure amusement now.
"I'm not dense," Haruto muttered. "You don't communicate clearly."
"Everything is words, words, words," Chimera said. He might have said something else, but the door to the antique shop opened with a crash.
"Are you two coming in?" Mayu said impatiently.
"We will speak," Chimera said, ignoring Mayu. "If you need words to communicate, Soma Haruto, I will use them. When your urgent situation has been resolved."
Leaving Haruto completely and utterly baffled once again, Chimera freed himself from Haruto's grip and brushed past Mayu to enter the antique shop.
"Well?" Mayu said.
"Yeah," Haruto answered, coming back to himself with a start. "I'm coming."
Shunpei, the only person who hadn't caused Haruto some sort of emotional turmoil or distress over the past several days, continued his winning streak by handing Haruto a mug of what turned out to be strong coffee with enough sugar to mask its bitterness. It was thick enough that Haruto was dourly sure that if he dipped a spoon into it, the spoon would stay upright and then possibly dissolve. He all but inhaled the entire cup and asked for another one before explaining what had happened with Kazuya.
"You repaired it," Mayu said.
Haruto, halfway through the second mug, spread out his free hand in a shrug. "Koyomi did," he said after he'd swallowed. "I was just the conduit."
"Koyomi," Mayu said thoughtfully. "The Hope ring." She took a deep breath. "It makes sense, if despair disrupts the Gates, that Hope would be able to counteract it."
Haruto hadn't thought of it quite like that, but he nodded. "The problem is finding the Gates." The enormity of the task in front of him was suddenly daunting, the potential of hundreds of Gates to track down and heal from within before it was too late, and he was all but sure that he would fail to reach the vast majority of them on time.
"About that," Mayu said. "I had an idea."