Year: 17
Season: Summer
Ib: Age 25
Garry had run down several streets that all just looked the same. Every door he saw so far had been bolted shut, and every window was boarded up, so there was no choice but to just keep following the streets that were illuminated by the red sky. He had been running for at least twenty minutes, and there was an intense pain in his legs, which finally forced him to slow down. He collapsed at the next street corner, gasping for breath.
"Damn it." He mumbled, "I – I shouldn't have left him behind..."
He continued to gasp for air, but he forced himself back on his legs, ignoring the pain shooting through them, "I need to find the rest..."
"Garry?" He heard to his left of the intersection he just reached. He lifted his head to look over, and his eyes widened. Standing there was Saya, and a little behind her was Ib, who was holding Mary.
Garry let out a laugh, since he was so happy to see them, and he called out, "Ib!"
Ib had wondered why her mother suddenly stopped. She was just holding Mary in her grip while she almost unconsciously followed her mother's brisk pace. Mary had fallen asleep a while back, the day had exhausted her emotionally, which finally took its toll on the little girl. Ib then heard someone call her name, and her head shot up, seeing Garry standing there, looking a little beat up, but terribly so.
Garry smiled at his wife's surprised expression, but he immediately frowned when tears began to fall from her eyes as she took the remaining few steps over to him at a quick pace, and launched herself into his arms, "I – Ib?" He asked, "What's wrong?"
She continued to cry as she held him in a death grip, "I – I saw you..."
"I think she said it was a nightmare spell." Saya supplied helpfully when Garry gave her an utterly confused look, "She saw some, uh, rather bad things, I suppose."
"Ib," Garry whispered, gently rubbing the back of her head, "It's ok."
"I know," She answered, "It's just... I'm so glad you're alive."
Garry frowned, beginning to get an idea of what she had seen from those supposed nightmares.
"Daddy...?" Mary had woken up from the commotion, and was rubbing her eyes as she sleepily looked up at Garry.
"Hey kiddo." He answered, giving her head a pat, "Were you good for mom?"
She nodded, thought she seemed a bit subdued, "Go home now?"
Garry tried not to let the pained expression cross his face, but some must have gotten through, since his daughter's expression changed to one of dejection. He had to get her out of here soon, this couldn't be good for the poor girl's mental health.
"I'm sorry," Garry said, "I promise I'll get you out soon."
Mary nodded, but did little else.
"Garry, I'm more than happy to see you, truly," Saya said, "But where's Kohta? Wasn't he with you?"
Garry saw the desperation in the woman's eyes, and couldn't help but avert his eyes, "He... He stayed behind so I could get away..."
There was another silence.
"Oh – Oh dear..." Saya mumbled, but her eyes were shimmering with barely constrained tears, "Is he going to be alright?"
Garry wasn't ever one to lie, but he did it just this once, "He'll be fine." He hoped he was convincing. Saya at least looked a little relieved, but Ib glanced up and looked at him. Trust her to pick up on his lying, he only hoped she understood why he did it.
"Come on," He said, "We've got to go."
He led the group, Ib holding Mary by his side, and Saya lagging behind, perhaps due to sorrow that her husband wasn't with them. The walk was very quiet, and soon the group simply stopped at yet another four way stop, and looked around.
"This is insane," Garry said, "To create a world this large requires an immense amount of power! How could they have done this? That girl was strong, but not like this!"
"I know," Ib said, "I was thinking the same thing."
"I've noticed that we've passed by the same few buildings a couple times," Saya brought up.
Garry nodded, "Yeah, I've been trying to go in different directions, but it seems like this entire world is just three blocks of the city repeated over and over."
Ib actually looked surprised, "Really?"
Garry nodded, "Notice those buildings in the skyline?" He pointed to some of the taller buildings out in the distance, "We've never been getting closer to them."
"Is that bad?" Saya asked.
"Not necessarily." He said, "If this was a completely fabricated city, then I would be very worried, sine whatever created this place would be far too powerful all of us to deal with in that case."
Ib frowned, "Whoever created this place is already very powerful to have created a world like this though."
"Yeah," Garry slowly nodded as he looked around.
"You're admiring the world of my mother?"
Garry turned towards the sound of that voice immediately, and saw that Matsuri had appeared, with a deranged smile on her face. Saya let out a startled gasp, and back away towards her daughter and son-in-law.
"Your mother?" Garry asked, "I thought you said she was dead."
Matsuri glared at him, "So what? She's so powerful that she created this world and left it for me and my stupid brother to lure people into!"
"You realize that a fabricated world is destroyed once the person who created it dies, right?" Garry said, "This can't possibly be the work of your mother!"
"Shut up!" the girl growled.
"What's this about her mother?" Ib asked, "What's going on?"
"She and her brother want to use our life force to bring their mother back from the dead," Garry explained, "The boy – Koyomi – is actually not that bad, it's clear that he's not willing to do this... She, however..."
"My brother does too want mother back!" Matsuri screamed, "He even just told me a little bit ago! He's there with her right now!"
"Yeah," Garry let out a forced laugh, "You do realize he just said that to appease you, right?"
"You don't know him!" She said, "He loves mom! He would never betray us!"
"It seems that you're paranoid about that," Garry said, "I never brought up the fact that he was going to betray you."
The girl turned to look at him and yelled, "Enough!"
They watched as she lifted her hand, and Ib felt an immense tug on Mary, and was ill prepared to try and keep a grip on her. The three year old suddenly disappeared out of Ib's grasp, and appeared in Matsuri's. Mary started screaming and kicking, but the girl just held her and grinned at Garry and Ib.
"You let her go!" Garry yelled, "Or I swear I will kill you!"
Ib's heart was pumping so quickly that she could feel it in her ears, "IF YOU HURT HER I WILL RIP YOU APART!"
Even Garry was taken aback by the rage that Ib displayed, but he quickly recomposed himself and sent a hateful glare at the girl in front him.
"Oh please," She said, "As if either of you could beat me, even if you worked together."
"I will-" Ib stepped forward, but immediately stopped with Matsuri started to squeeze Mary tightly to herself, causing the child to scream.
"Stop it!" Garry yelled, his voice cracking, "Don't hurt her!"
"Then do as I say!" She screamed, "If you want this dumb child and your parents to live, then you'll do everything I tell you!"
"Fine." Ib said, her hands shaking as she lowered them to her sides and continued to glare at the girl across from her.
"Good." Matsuri said, raising her hand and using the teleportation spell to move all of them to a new location. The familiar white light followed by the nausea occurred, but everyone was too tense to even bother showing how it affected them.
The new room they were in was similar to the others from the dimension – the floor was rustic metal as were the walls and ceiling, that again had cracks and holes all over in it. There was destroyed wooden furniture scattered everywhere again, except for one notable exception – in the middle of the room was a simple bed with a woman laying down on the mattress wearing silk clothes, her arms were at rest by her sides, her black hair was neatly kept out of her face, and it was clear that she wasn't breathing.
Saya let out a startled gasp, since she saw Kohta leaning against the wall across the room knocked unconscious. She went to run for him, but was immediately stopped.
"Don't move!" Matsuri yelled, from her position by the bed.
Saya stopped, and went back over to Ib's side.
"Koyomi!" Matsuri looked behind her, where her brother was sitting at the bedside with their mother. He looked up, a large bruise was on his face where she had punched him earlier, "Draw the signs!"
"Ok..." He mumbled, making sure to keep his eyes away from Garry's as he went to do as was requested of him. On the left side of the bed, a few feet out, he started to create a pentagram on the floor, and then circled around it with a bunch of other symbols. With that finished, he went over to the right side of the bed and made the same sign on the floor. He stood up, and looked expectantly towards his sister for the next step.
"Good." Matsuri said, "Now, you two, go stand on them."
"No!" Saya said, "That will kill them, won't it? That's what you want to do to them?"
"Shut up!" Matsuri commanded.
"You are trying to revive your mother," Garry said, "Why?"
"Because she was taken from us too soon!" Matsuri said, "I – I need to see her again. To know that she loves me..." She actually look vulnerable for a second there, "No one should have to lose their mother so soon..."
"Then you're a hypocrite." Ib said.
"How do you figure that?" Matsuri asked, meeting Ib's glare with her own.
"That's my daughter you're holding." Ib said, "If you kill me, she'll lose her mother, as you have."
Koyomi took that time to speak up, "I – I agree! That's being a hypocrite, Matsuri..."
"SHUT UP!" Matsuri yelled, glaring at her brother, "You dare side against me?"
"So what," Garry asked, "It's ok if she loses her parents if you get yours back?"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Matsuri cried, "Yes! That's how it is! I don't care about her or her future! I want my mom back! I don't care if she has to lose her own!" Mary continued crying in her arms, and Matsuri finally snapped, turning to the child she screamed, "SHUT UP!"
Mary started crying even harder at that.
"Mary," Ib called, "Please... Calm down for mommy..."
"It'll be ok." Garry added.
Mary was still visibly shaking, but she did quiet down at the sounds of her parents, "I wanna go..." She whined.
"You'll go home once your mom and dad are done here." Matsuri said, "Now come up here!" She screamed at Garry and Ib.
Saya was openly crying now, since the situation was so hopeless, and just collapsed to the ground as Ib and Garry did as the deranged girl asked, walking up to do her bidding.
"Mom..." Ib said, "Take care of Mary for me, ok?"
"I – Ib..." She cried, "No..."
"We'll be fine." Garry smiled at Saya, "You'll see."
"You're so bad at lying..." Ib muttered to him, as the two walked up together.
Garry didn't respond, since he was too busy trying not to give in to the helplessness of the situation, but things were looking too dire now, he had no idea what to do. The only thing he could really think of to do would be to launch himself at Matsuri, but the girl was making very, very sure to stay far away from either of them, so they couldn't do any quick movements to stop her plan.
"Ib." He said, "I love you."
Ib grimaced, realizing that Garry knew at that moment that they had no hope of escaping, but she put on a brave smile as she looked over to him, "I love you too."
The two entered the circles that had been drawn for them, and Matsuri quickly did another spell that bound them to the spots, not allowing them to move. The girl smiled, "Brother! Mark them both with the sign!"
Koyomi walked over to Garry, and took the man's shirt off, revealing his bare chest. He then drew out a knife, and began to lightly carve a pentagram into Garry's abdomen. As he was doing it, he looked up to Garry's eyes, the man being at least a head taller than him, "I – I'm sorry..."
"You can stop this..." Garry whispered, "You know it's wrong."
Koyomi ignored him and finished the sign, moving over to Ib, taking her blouse off, and he blushed and allowed her to keep wearing her bra, and he began to carve into her abdomen the pentagram as well, but then he stopped halfway through the symbol.
"Is there something wrong?" Matsuri asked.
"Yes... Actually..." Koyomi said, looking up at his sister, "W – We shouldn't do this..."
"You agreed to this!" Matsuri said, growing annoyed, "You can't stop now! Not when we are this close!"
"Didn't you listen to them? Do you even care? Look at what we're doing! You killed six men prior to this! Look at the monster you've become!" He blinked rapidly, "I shouldn't have agreed to helping you so many years ago... I had nowhere else to go though, you got me when I was vulnerable!"
"You agreed!" She insisted again.
"Yeah..." He mumbled, "Well... Now I'm done. I'm not doing this. I don't think it's right to do the same thing to that little girl that happened to us."
Matsuri roared in rage, and walked over to him, sizing him up. She was the same height, but he was the first to avert his eyes, "You are weak! This is why I've had to do everything! I don't even know why I've brought you along for all of this!"
"Back then you weren't like this!" Koyomi said, "Please... Matsuri... Let them go, and we can go away, get you some help..."
"You think I need help?" She asked.
"I – I do." He admitted, looking down.
"Damn you!" She screamed, bringing her fist up and punching him in the face again, knocking him to the ground. Mary began to cry out in fear again, but Matsuri didn't care, she just went to her brother's side and began to kick him over and over again, "You're useless! I hate you!" She then reached down and grabbed the knife, "I'll finish this without you, and then you can beg mother for forgiveness when she wakes up!" She roughly carved the rest of the pentagram on Ib, causing the girl to wince.
"I can't believe you two are related." Ib muttered.
"Shut up," Matsuri said, bringing the knife up to Mary's face, "Another word, and I swear I will cut your daughter's throat open."
Ib glared, but didn't dare test that threat, especially since there was literally nothing she could do as it was.
"We're almost done..." Matsuri went over to the bed, and gently rubbed the side of her mother's face, "Soon... You'll be back... If this hurts, just say so, ok?" She then very gently carved into her mother's own abdomen a different symbol than what was on both Ib and Garry, but it still had the pentagram incorporated into it. When she was done, she smiled and went to the head of the bed, "Are you ready, mother?"
Of course, there was no answer.
"Then we shall begin!" Matsuri said, and with some unknown magic, she started the spell. A thin red line formed from Ib and Garry's abdomen towards Matsuri's mother. And the string began to widen more and more. After a couple of seconds, the string was now at least an inch thick, and suddenly what looked like red electricity began to course through the string.
Garry let out a gasp, and tried to hold in his scream – this was the most pain he had ever felt in his life. It felt as if someone was dragging out all of his insides with a straw while he was still conscious. He gritted his teeth, letting out pained gasps every now and then, but soon he couldn't hold it, and he let out a scream. Ib wasn't too far behind him, and shortly after his scream in pain, she also began to scream.
"Yes!" Matsuri laughed, "Music to my ears! Do you hear this mother?" Of course, the corpse didn't respond to her, but there was an almost unholy green light beginning to outline her body.
This was it... Garry could feel his mind going further and further away. It was becoming harder to think, and his voice was getting hoarse with how hard he had been screaming. He tried to keep his eyes open, but it was getting harder and harder to stay aware... He could just sleep, and become blissfully unaware of the pain... That... That might be a good idea...
Suddenly there was a loud explosion, focusing Garry and Ib's mind onto something so it wouldn't shut down, and they looked up despite their immense pain to see that there was a new hole in the ceiling, and a girl that had jumped in.
"Who the hell are you?" Matsuri cried.
"Name's Aiko!" She said, and then looked to Ib and Garry, "What are you doin with them?"
"Get out!" Matsuri screamed.
Garry felt the binding spell being lifted off of him, and someone dragged him out of the circle. That instant, he felt the string keeping him attached the corpse break, and the pain lifted. He let out a gasp as his mind came back to him, and he blinked a few times, clearing the tears out of his eyes, and he looked behind him, "R – Rin?"
"Are you ok?" The girl asked.
He coughed and smiled at her right after, "Do you mind if I kiss you?"
"Uhm..." She blushed red.
Matsuri's gaze turned towards Garry, and she screamed as she saw the spell was interrupted, "I told you if you don't do as I say, your daughter is going to die!"
She lifted her knife, and Garry tried to get up to stop her, but there was no way he'd be able to stop her in time. He watched in horror as the knife came closer and closer...
"GIVE HER BACK YOU BITCH" Ib screamed as her body slammed into Matsuri, sending both of them to the ground. Ib had wrapped her arms around Mary and forced her out of Matsuri's grip as they fought on the ground. The two were still tangled up in the ground, and right when Ib got out of it, Matsuri went to stab her with the knife, but again was foiled when her own brother grabbed her hand with the knife in it with one hand and held her close to him with the other, giving Ib time to get away.
"You dare betray me?!" Matsuri screamed, forcing her arm free.
"You're insane!" He said, his gaze locked onto his sister.
"Fuck you!" She said, piercing his chest with the knife in her hand. She grinned at the way his eyes widened, and he looked at her with pure disbelief in his eyes. His grip on her faltered, and soon he collapsed to the ground, his hands covering the spot where he had been stabbed. She got back up, and spit on his body, "Stay on the ground, where you belong, you worthless dog."
She turned her attention over to the new comers, and frowned – this would be a tough fight. Standing there was Garry and Ib, both of them still bleeding from their chests, and Mary was clutching her mother's neck like a life line, tears streaming down the girl's face as she continued to cry. Her eyes went to the man standing next to Garry, he was dressed in just a white T-shirt and jeans, and his brown eyes were glaring at her. Next to him stood a girl with blonde hair tied back into a pony tail, wearing a blouse and a skirt similar to how Ib was earlier. The last one was girl who was smiling infuriatingly at her, wearing a shirt and jeans like the other boy who had come.
"How did you get in?" Matsuri asked.
"It was hard," Rin admitted, "You built this world very well."
"It's not mine," Matsuri said, "It's mother's world!"
"And she is dead." Garry said, "So it's not hers."
"Shut up!" Matsuri said, "It is hers!"
Aiko was still smiling, "Alright! You lost, there's no way you can beat all of us!"
"Be careful." Ib said, "She is very strong."
"Still," Junichi said, "With all of us, there's no way she can win."
"After the day we've had together, I'm amazed she can even still stand." Garry said, and then he looked aside at Junichi and said, "It sure took you guys long enough to get here, I was starting to worry for a bit there..."
"Sorry about that," Junichi said, "We had some trouble getting in."
"Don't worry about it," Garry answered, "You got here before any real damage was done."
"Are my parents ok?" Ib asked.
"They're fine," Aiko assured her, pointing over her shoulder to where Saya had awakened Kohta, and the two just stood back, allowing them to do their jobs.
Ib let out a sigh, "Good."
"You can't beat me!" Matsuri claimed, "I will kill all of you! I will-!" She paused as she heard coughing, and her eyes widened.
"What's that?" Aiko asked.
"Mother!" Matsuri cried, running from where she was about to fight them all, towards the bed, where the woman who was lying down there was showing signs of movement, "Mommy!"
Rin grimaced, and brought out her phone, dialing Yuki's number.
"Phones work now?" Garry asked.
"Only for a little bit," Rin said, "Yuki is on the other side, preparing a ritual to get us all out of here once we're done. She says that we weakened the border between this world and ours a little bit by breaking in here, so we can call while this world restructures itself to close the tear we created."
Garry wanted to ask more, but he turned his attention back to the silk clad woman as she finally sat up, and swung her legs over the bed as if she hadn't just been dead. Matsuri meanwhile looked as if Christmas had come early, and was crying because she was so happy.
"Mom! I preserved this world as you asked of me!"
The woman looked over at her, "Matsuri, is that you?"
"Yes!"
"You brought me back?"
"I did!" Matsuri said, still smiling as she looked upon her mother, "I did everything you asked, using the spell you wanted me to!"
Her mother smiled, "Thank you, my daughter."
Matsuri wrapped her arms around the woman, her happy cries filling up the empty room.
"Allow me to show you my appreciation..." The woman said, her brown eyes suddenly turning an alarming shade of red. No one expected the woman to jab her arm towards her daughter, blowing a hole right through her chest, her arm emerging from the other side, covered in blood.
Matsuri's eyes widened, and her mouth opened and closed a few times with blood pouring out, and she looked down and then back up at her mother, "W – w – why...?" She managed to gurgle out.
"Foolish girl." The woman said, "Bringing people back from the dead is absolutely impossible. Once a person dies in your reality, they move on to a plane that can not be reached by human means, even if they are spiritually powered." The woman smiled and pulled her arm out, causing her daughter to collapse to the ground, and she smiled in admiration at her blood stained hand, "The only possible things that you may bring into your realm are spirits and demons." She smiled, "The one you communicated with all those years ago, the one who taught you the spell, and told you how much she loved you? That was me. I'm a demon, and I thank you for this body."
"A demon?" Rin gasped.
"Wait," Junichi looked around uncertainly, "Demons exist? I thought it was just spirits!"
Rin relayed that into the phone, and put it into speaker mode, "Guys," Yuki's voice cut through, sounding breathless, "A demon is basically a higher level spirit. They are more destructive and cause far more havoc and damage than a spirit can ever do. If the situation was different, I'd just tell you all to run away, since it's so powerful."
"Wait..." Garry said, "So that thing we fought five years ago?"
"The Kyōken was child's play compared to this." Yuki confirmed his worst fear, "We must NOT allow the demon to escape the fabricated world."
"What can we possibly do?" Ib asked.
"I have the ritual set up here, I need to bring back your parents and your daughter, and then I'll let you know." Yuki said, "Go tell them, but be quick!"
Ib nodded, and made her way over to her parents, holding Ib, "Mom, dad... You two need to get out. I want you to take Mary with you too."
"Are you going to fight that thing?" Saya asked, pointing towards the self proclaimed demon.
"We have to stop it," Ib said, "If it gets out, then it'll cause a lot of damage."
"I – I see." Kohta mumbled, "Ib... Please be careful, ok?"
"I will dad," She said, giving him a hug, and then she gave Mary over to him.
"Mommy!" Mary cried.
"I'll be right back again," Ib said, "You're getting out of her with grandma and grandpa, ok?"
Mary frowned, but she knew better than to try and argue at this point, and nodded, even though there were still tears coming down her face.
"Here, Ib." Saya said, holding up Ib's blouse that had been discarded earlier, "You ought to wear something."
"Oh," Ib said, "Thank you."
She quickly put it on, and smiled and waved to her daughter and parents when their forms slowly grew more and more faint, before finally disappearing from the world. She let out a content sigh, knowing that at least her family was now safe. She looked over to the group, and made her way back, "What did I miss?"
"It was just rambling on about how it wants to eat human flesh and stuff." Garry said as he too was putting his shirt back on. Ib figured that someone must have fetched it for him. He turned to look at her, "You didn't miss much."
The demon in the woman's skin chuckled, "Cute. Trying to bring humor into the situation before I devour you all."
"Ok," Yuki said from the phone, "Ib, your family is here."
"Good." Ib said.
"There's only one way I can think of that you can even do to kill that thing," Yuki said, "You must destroy the core of the fabricated world you're in."
"Core?" Aiko repeated.
"We've never had to do it this way before," Yuki said, "But whenever a fabricated world is created, in the center of that world is a core. If you're unable to get the creator of the world to destroy it themselves, or if you're unable to kill the creator – in this case, the demon – then you must find the core yourself and take it out. When a core explodes, it destroys everything in the world, even a demon."
"Ok," Rin said, "And how do we find this core?"
"Rin, I want you and Aiko to go searching for it. With your natural spiritual vision, you might be able to see something that someone else might otherwise not be able to see. The world is larger than average, and there's a lot of ground to cover, but I will survey what I can up here and relay any information I can to you Rin."
"Got it." Rin and Aiko said at the same time.
"Ib, Garry, I know you're both tired, but I'll need you both to hold off this demon as long as possible. You are NOT trying to kill it, just hold it off, so don't do anything stupid. There is absolutely no way you'll be able to kill it, so don't even try. Junichi, you'll be helping them do just that. Again, don't do anything stupid!"
"Sounds easy enough." Junichi said, though it was clear that he was unsettled by the demon in front of him.
"I'm going to close the tear in the fabricated world I created so the demon can't escape through it." Yuki said, "So you'll all be on your own. I'll begin surveying the world, and don't worry, if Rin finds and activates the core before I contact you all again, I will sense it, and bring you all out."
"Ok." Garry said, "Thank you."
Rin went over and hugged Junichi, "Be careful."
He leaned down and kissed her, "I'll be sure to not do anything stupid."
"Come on Rin!" Aiko said, "We've gotta go!"
Rin nodded, "Ok... Ib, Garry, keep Junichi safe!"
Garry waved, "Won't be a problem."
With that, Aiko and Rin used a teleport spell to get out of the room, leaving only Ib, Garry, and Junichi in with the demon.
"Garry," Ib said, "I know we said it earlier, but I love you."
Garry smiled, "Don't worry, we'll be fine, and I love you too."
"You two love birds ready for this?" Junichi asked, cracking his knuckles as he looked at the woman in front of him, "Not very impressive looking for a demon!"
"Oh?" The demon smiled, "How's this?"
The body she was in began to contort in a very grotesque manner, her limbs began to spasm and twist as they grew larger and larger, her clothes and skin ripping off as the muscles continued to expand. In her mouth dozens and dozens of jagged and pointed teeth appeared, and it smiled at them with an evil grin, standing on two legs, towering over even Garry.
"You just had to say something, didn't you?" Garry mumbled. Even Ib looked a little annoyed.
"Uh, sorry..." Junichi mumbled.
"I'm going to devour you all!" The demon shouted, and it charged at them, ready to tear them apart.
XxXxXxX
Rin ran through the streets of the demonic world, trying to figure out where exactly the core would be. Her eyes scanned the entire cityscape, and after not seeing or feeling anything, she continued down the next block, and repeated the same action. Aiko followed her the entire time, trying to survey the city, but she found absolutely nothing worthwhile in her searches.
"We're getting nowhere like this!" Aiko cried out.
"We have to keep trying! They're risking their lives so we can do this!" Rin said, her eyes scanning the buildings again, trying to find even a hint of where the core of the world may be.
"I know that!" Aiko said indignantly, "But we've got to be smart about this! Running around here isn't going to do much of anything!"
Rin let out a breath to try calming herself down, "Then what do you suggest we do?"
"We need to split up," Aiko said.
"But we won't be able to contact each other!" Rin objected immediately, "We should stay together!"
"You said it yourself, they are risking their lives for us! We need to do this quickly!"
Rin didn't have a retort to that, "You're... You're right." She sighed.
"Don't worry," Aiko smiled patting Rin on the back, "If you find it, just call out my name, I'll be able to hear you!"
Rin smiled at Aiko's positive attitude, "I'll do that."
"Then I'll go this way," Aiko said pointing to the left, "You keep going that way."
Rin nodded, "Good luck!"
"I don't need any luck, I'm amazing!" Aiko said, "Keep it for yourself!"
Rin actually laughed, despite the seriousness of the situation.
With that, the two went off into different directions. Rin continued to run down the ruined streets, block by block, and she slowly noticed that the place was just repeating itself after running for about five minutes. She rested her hands on her knees as she let out her labored breath – it had been a long time since she had to run like that. She continued on, her legs beginning to protest to let them rest, but she ignored the pain and pushed onward.
She stopped suddenly as she ran down another street – she could faintly feel something nearby.
"Is this it?" She wondered aloud, wandering slowly down the street, and she felt it getting even more faint, so she backed up. It was like playing a game, she would wander towards the direction where it the feeling she was getting grew more and more, and then she started to see the faint outline of spiritual residue in the air. She stopped in front of a door to a large building, and frowned. It was bolted shut, and every window was also boarded up.
"Ok." She sighed, lifting up her arm, and using her own spiritual energy, she tried pushing on the door, an ability that didn't require her to call out anything. The door was unfortunately stuck, and she frowned, "Need a stronger ability then..." She raised both arms, "Ventilabis Incantatores!" Instead of the small amount of force she pushed with earlier, an absolutely massive amount of force plowed into the door, as if a truck had hit it at full speed.
The door tried to hold up, clearly being reinforced through some means, but it was not going to last. Rin smiled as the doors flew inward, crushed at the amount of force she had thrown at them. She then shook her head, knowing she had little time to admire her handiwork, so she ran inside the building, and realized how little light there was. "Lux Incantatores!" She said, pushing a lot of spiritual energy that gathered into a ball orbiting around her, illuminating the room in a very bright white light.
There was a staircase over in the corner that led further down into the building, and she didn't hesitate a moment as she ran down the stairs quickly, skipping two to three steps at a time to reach the bottom faster. When she got down there, it was just a large, pitch black room, metal covering the floor, ceiling and walls, but the difference was that it was pure black, and had no rust at all. Along the wall on the opposite side of the stairs was a door, and Rin could feel the immense amount of spiritual energy from there.
"That must be the core!" She said to herself excitedly, as she ran across the room to get to the door. She only had a split second however to dodge to the side as something swiped at the spot she had just been standing at moments before. She looked around, her lights illuminating the place up, but even then, there were still shadows, "Who's there?" She called out to the darkness.
"I'm the spirit guarding this world's core. What business do you have here?"
Rin cursed under her breath as a figure seem to appear out of thin air in front of the door. It was a very thin looking spirit that was completely white. It's torso was only a few inches in diameter, perhaps even less. Its limbs were even less impressive, only being an inch in diameter. The thing lacked a head, but it could still clearly talk – Rin chalked it up to the thing being a spirit. The part she was most worried about was how where instead hands and feet, the things limbs ended in very jagged and pointed spikes.
"You realize this is the domain of a demon?" She asked.
"I'm aware."
"It wants out." She continued, "We can't allow that, I have to destroy the core to stop it!"
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." The spirit said in its gentle voice, "Just turn around and leave. I do not wish to harm you."
"You don't understand! The demon wants to kill people! Do you know the amount of chaos that thing could cause before it's taken out?"
"I see." The figure approached, "I've known its goal for years. It is, after all, the one who forced me to defend his world."
Rin's eyes widened in realization, "You can't control yourself?"
"A keen observation." He said, "And an unfortunately accurate one."
"I'm sorry, but I must defeat you and destroy the core." Rin said.
"I'll ask once more. Leave. If you don't I will not be able to stop myself from attacking you until you're dead." It sounded almost pleading.
Rin frowned, and looked down at the ground thinking. She wasn't a fighter – that was up to the rest of her friends! She just preferred to stay back and support everyone. However, with Aiko gone, and the fact that she had to hurry, she had little choice in the matter.
"I – I see." Rin said, "When I defeat you, I'll be sure to exorcise you."
"That would please me greatly." The spirit said honestly, "But I'm afraid that time will not come. Prepare yourself."
Rin again dodged to the side as the thin spirit ran towards her at an incredibly fast speed, and she barely avoided getting stabbed. She had to rolled out of the way however, when it used its legs to try and catch her off guard. She quickly stood up, and threw her hands in front of her, "Incantatores Protector!" She was truly thankful for the drills that Yuki had forced all of them to go through when it came to the defensive spells.
The spirit attacked the shield, and Rin frowned as a crack appeared, but fortunately nothing worse happened, and she watched as the spirit backed up, and walked around her slowly.
"You've survived longer than I would have expected of a human."
"You must not have faced very many people, if you're impressed with me surviving for ten seconds." Rin said, trying to sound more confident than she felt.
"I admit, I haven't." It said.
Rin dropped her shield then and yelled out, "Ventilabis Incantatores!" She used as much power as she could put into the spell, and watched as the thin figure was unable to handle so much force being exerted against it, and it flew back, slamming into the wall. She warily canceled the effects of the spell, and watched as the spirit got back up, seemingly completely undamaged.
"Very interesting." It said, "I promise I will kill you quickly, so you won't have to suffer, since you've given me such an enjoyable fight, short as it has been."
Rin's eyes widened as the spirit launched at her faster than she could blink, and swung down at her. It was pure instinct that allowed her to dodge to the side, but the blade had cut deeply into her shoulder, and she cried out in pain as she hit the ground. The spirit was not done with its assault yet however, it moved over to her, standing above her, ready to slam its foot down into her head.
"Incantatores Protector!" She screamed in pain and fear, lifting up her good arm to create a shield to block the attack just in the nick of time. The spirit lifted its foot up again, and slammed it down on the shield, causing the shield to crack and an ache to go through Rin's arm.
"Please, do not prolong your suffering." The spirit asked politely.
Rin gritted her teeth as it brought down its foot yet again, creating an even larger crack in her shield. She tried to think of any way out, and she cried, "Aiko!"
"I'm unaware of who this Aiko is," The creature said, "And I apologize deeply for this."
Its leg slammed down, and Rin's shield shattered, and she watched her life flash before her eyes as the bladed foot of the spirit came down to finish her off. She closed her eyes, her thoughts going out to Junichi, apologizing over and over for leaving him like this.
"Ventilabis Incantatores!" A voice screamed out, and the spirit that was about to kill Rin was blown away and slammed into the wall yet again.
"A – Aiko?" Rin called out, opening her eyes and looking up to see that the girl had appeared there.
"I told you to call me when you needed help! Not when you were about to die! What if I didn't come in time?" Aiko cried out.
"H – How?" Rin asked.
"I put a charm on your back," Aiko said, "When I pat you."
Rin's eyes widened, "I – I see..."
"Now..." Aiko canceled her spell, and then cast it once more, slamming the spirit into the wall yet again, "You think you can kill her? You'll have to go through me first!" Aiko canceled the spell, and the spirit looked visibly drained, as it knelt on the ground, "Tonde Incantatores!" Aiko shouted, sending a razor sharp wind out at the figure, which cut its left arm off, "Tonde Incantatores!" The figure dodged that one however, and the spell left a huge groove in the wall right where it last stood.
"T – This pain." The spirit said, sounding as if it was in wonder, "I – I've never felt something quite like this."
"Well you'll be feeling a lot more of it!" Aiko shouted, "Ventilabis Incantatores!" The spirit again slammed into the wall with the push spell, and instead of canceling it, Aiko lifted her other hand instead and shouted, "Tonde Incantatores!" She cut off it's other arm, and then she did it again and again to its lower limbs. "Now it's time to finish you off!" she growled.
"Wait!" Rin got to her feet, her bad arm was hanging useless to the side, "He's being controlled! Don't hurt him anymore!"
"I – I yield..." The creature said, the remaining bits of its limbs attached to its torso moved around uselessly.
"Fine." Aiko said darkly, "If you had killed Rin, I wouldn't be giving you this mercy."
"Aiko!" Rin said, "Stop it."
"Sorry..." Aiko mumbled, and shook her head, "I – I was scared to see you like that..."
"I'm sorry..." Rin said, "I should have called you sooner."
Aiko forced on a smile, and tried to act like her usual self, "Anyway, hurry up and do it! We don't have all day!"
Rin nodded, and pulled out a chalk she carried with her at all times, writing down an intricate circle on the floor, and then she stood in it, biting her finger, and dabbed her blood in the circle, which began to light up.
"Thank you..." The spirit murmured with the last bit of its strength.
"You're welcome." Rin said, "Exponentia Exorcistae!"
With that, the spirit disappeared, leaving the way for them open.
"So through this door is the core?" Aiko asked.
"Yeah," Rin said, stepping out of the circle, using a healing spell to heal her arm, and then she brought up her other arm she said, "Ventilabis Incantatores." The door leading to the core blew open, and revealed an orb, slowly rotating. Its surface looked like liquid metal, and it was almost mesmerizing to just watch it continue to spin around.
"Alright!" Aiko cheered, "Ready to take it out?"
Rin shook herself out of the daze it had put her in, "I'm ready."
With that, both of them lifted their arms, readying their spells to destroy the core.
XxXxXxX
Garry was never fond of using hyperboles to describe desperate situations, so when he thought that today was perhaps the worst day he had ever experienced in his life, he wasn't exaggerating in the least bit. He had started that day expecting to have a good time out with his family, but it quickly devolved to a fight for survival, and now it had devolved even further into a hopeless fight that was only meant to buy time for Rin and Aiko, so they could find the core holding together the world they were in.
Garry quickly brought up the shield in front of him, to block the projectile that the gigantic demon had picked up off the ground and threw at him, and he sent a glance over to Ib, "It's been ten minutes! When are they going to find it?"
Ib was busy gasping for breath, and didn't have time to answer Garry.
"Soon, I hope!" Junichi yelled, and then he used a fire spell, sending a wave of fire at the demon, who resisted its effects like every other spell they tried to cast at it.
They learned early on that the demon was resistant to any spell they cast, no matter what it was. Even if they damaged it a little bit, it would give them an annoying smile and just heal it up, and continue on like nothing had ever happened. All of them got an impression that the thing was just toying with them at this point, not even really trying quite yet.
"I grow tired of this game," The demon announced a minute later, "I'll start with you." It pointed at Ib, who just glared back, but she was stunned when the gigantic demon made it over to her within seconds – something quite surprising for such a large creature.
"You've been holding back," Ib stated the obvious, "Incantatores Protector!"
"I have." The demon admitted, and it slammed its fist into Ib's shield spell, "We'll see how long you last under my onslaught!"
"Ib!" Garry cried, "Electrica Incantatores!"
The lightning bolt hit the demon right in the head, but it just glared over at Garry, and continued to slam its fists into Ib's shield, forcing the girl down to one knee as the shield spell weakened with each strike, cracking more and more.
"Ventilabis Incantatores!" Junichi cried, using as much of his spiritual energy he could in the spell, and he was rewarded when the demon actually stumbled back a bit, giving Ib a little bit of time to drop down her shield spell and quickly reapply it before the demon could continue its attacks on her.
"Pathetic humans!" It roared, he then looked at Ib, and this time it started to strike her shield over and over, slamming both fists into the shield causing greater tremors.
Ib's arms felt like they were going to break, they were aching so much from the pain that would shoot through them every time the demon slammed into her shield. Her legs weren't holding up much better, having been forcing down to her knees as she tried to hold the shield – her arms trembled with the amount of exertion, and she glanced up, realizing that she was going to die.
"This is it!" The demon said with a snarl, and its fist came down, smashing through Ib's shield, and forcing her to the ground, completely spent.
"No!" Garry cried, "Ib!" He tried running over, but Junichi was beside him, and took hold of him, "LET ME GO!"
"Hold on!" Junichi said, "I'm not going to let her die! Just listen to me!"
Garry's struggles stopped, and he looked questioningly over.
"If you run in there you'll certainly die as it is, let me do this!" Junichi told the wounded man, "Exponentia Moveat!" He suddenly disappeared from his spot, and appeared next to Ib, ready to take her and use the same spell to get her out of there.
"I expected as much," The demon smiled, "You humans can't just accept the fact that one of your own will die."
Junichi ignored him, "Exponentia Moveat!"
Nothing happened.
"I will not allow you to move." The demon said, "I'm blocking your spiritual energy."
"Y – You can do that?" Junichi asked.
Ib stood up next to Junichi, glaring defiantly at the demon, "You won't win."
"Taunting me? When you're about to die? If you both beg for your lives, I might reconsider and allow you to live on as my servants." The demon explained, "That's the only reason I've yet to kill you."
"Well," Junichi put his hand to his chin, looking deep in thought, "No. I'd rather die than help you murder hundreds of innocent people."
Ib nodded, "Yeah, screw you."
"You're both fools!" The demon bellowed, and it pointed its arms down at them, spiritual energy gathering, and a wave of fire shot towards Ib and Junichi.
"Depellerent Incantatores!"
The fire suddenly disappeared, and the demon actually looked surprised.
"Electrica Daemonium Incantatores!"
A massive bolt of lightning went towards the beast, and it actually screamed in agony, giving both Ib and Junichi time to get the hell out of there, and both of them were able to sense their spiritual energy returning – whatever that demon did, they were glad the spell was over.
"Ib!" Garry hugged her tightly, "You just shorten my lifespan by ten years!"
"I'm sorry," Ib returned the hug, but quickly released it to look back at the demon, "What happened?"
"Over there." Junichi answered, pointing to where one of the pentagram circles around the bed was. There was the teenage boy from earlier, gasping for breath, with his blue hair drenched with sweat, and his entire forearm was completely black and still had some smoke coming from it, as if he was very badly burnt.
"Koyomi!" Garry said in surprise, "You're ok?"
He smiled, "Y – Yeah... I guess some of the magic that "mother" taught me came in use." He winced as he let his arm drop to his side, "Now back off demon! Or I'll do it again!"
The demon glared at him, "You dare use demonic magic against me? The one who raised you?"
"Raised me?" Koyomi actually laughed, "All you did was make my sister go insane and made me live in a hell that seem to never end! That's not even mentioning the fact that you murdered my sister – the one who brought you back – and you expect me to be thankful?" He shook his head, "No, I'm going to help kill you, and then I'm going to repent for what I've done."
Garry smiled, glad to see the kid had finally gotten some backbone, "Koyomi, can you do that again?"
"Yeah," Koyomi answered, "I can do it a few times..." He lifted up his blackened arm, and pointed it to the demon again.
The demon however, didn't stay still after that, since the boy was the only one who could even remotely harm him via demonic magic, he went straight to the boy immediately, appearing right above him. Koyomi let out a startled gasp, and tried to use the demonic spell again, but the demon swiped at him, hitting him to the other side of the room where he hit the wall with a sickening crunch. His screams of pain followed a second later, it was clear that the boy had broken several bones in his body.
"Koyomi!" Garry cried, he turned to Ib, "Stay here! I'm going to try and go to the other circle!"
"No you don't!" The demon roared, appearing in front of Garry.
Garry threw his hands up, forming a shield to block the fire that was shot towards him. Junichi meanwhile was standing back, firing every spell he could think of to stop the demon, but nothing was working.
Ib saw that Garry and Junichi were busy, so she bolted to the other demonic circle that had been set up around the bed instead, and turned her hand towards the demon and repeated the spell she heard Koyomi speak, "Electrica Daemonium Incantatores!" The lightning bolt went out of her right arm and she let out a pained scream as the flow of lightning incinerated her arm as it burst out, cracking her skin and charring her entire forearm black. She let her right hand fall down to her side, and she tried not to fall down screaming from the pain – she had no idea how much pain Koyomi had really been in when he did that.
The bolt of lightning fortunately struck the demon, and it again yelled out in agony, "Damn you human!"
Ib was prepared for its assault this time, seeing what it did to Koyomi, so she immediately brought up the shield spell with her undamaged hand, and the demon started to pound on it again, but it was noticeably slower, and she could see festering wounds all over the body of the demon. She was glad that she and Koyomi had at least managed to deal a significant amount of damage to it. The only downside was that her charred arm hung limply at her side, if she even moved it a little bit, her whole body would experience a very sharp pain, but what was worrying was that she felt absolutely no pain in her actual forearm.
As the demon continued to batter her shield, ignoring the spells the two males were firing at it from across the room, the world suddenly shook. The demon was momentarily distracted from its attack, giving Ib plenty of time to rush out and make it back to Garry and Junichi.
"What's this?" The demon asked aloud, looking around as bits of the rusted ceiling began to fall down, and it fell to one knee as the world continued shaking, unable to keep its balance.
"They did it!" Junichi said aloud, "We've gotta get out!"
"Ib, stay with me." Garry said, "I'll protect you."
Ib nodded, "Be careful with my arm..." She whimpered when Garry gently took it into his hand.
"Holy shit," Garry mumbled, looking at the damage, not caring about the quaking just yet, "Sana Incantatores." His hand hovered over the charred skin, and Ib couldn't help but worry even more when she felt absolutely nothing happening in her arm as he tried to heal it. Garry unfortunately stopped the spell, "I'm sorry, I can't do anything with all this shaking!"
She looked down at her forearm, and saw that the skin was still charred and frowned, "T – This isn't going to be good, is it?"
Garry just looked down, unable to answer her question.
"Guys!" Junichi cried, "It's not the time to worry about that! We've gotta go, NOW!"
Garry and Ib were torn out of their little world when a part of the ceiling collapsed nearby, and they looked around, trying to plan an escape. It was then that Garry's cellphone rang, and he quickly picked it up.
"Hello?" He answered immediately.
"I'm going to create a tear in the fabricated world at your location." Yuki's voice informed him, not even bothering with saying hello, "It'll only be open for a few seconds, so go through immediately, I don't want the demon to have a chance to get out!"
"Are Aiko and Rin ok?" Junichi couldn't help but ask.
"We're fine!" They heard Aiko's anxious voice, "Now hurry up and get out!"
"Hold on," Garry said, "Wait a few seconds before creating it! I've got to get Koyomi out!"
"We don't have time!" Junichi said.
"We have to try!" Ib countered, "Garry, just teleport over and grab him, come on, we have very little time!"
Garry did as was asked of him, tossing the cellphone to Ib, and he quickly went over to grab Koyomi, who let out a groan when he was picked up – he was in a real bad shape – so Garry was very gentle as he cast the teleport spell back.
During that time, the demon got its bearings, and knew what was happening, "I will not allow you to escape!" It screamed, and it charged at them.
"Shit!" Junichi cried, "The demon's coming!"
"Don't open it!" Ib warned, "It'll get out if you do!"
This wasn't good – they couldn't escape, they were going to die here.
The demon suddenly stopped in its tracks as a very powerful binding spell was cast, "Was is the meaning of this?!" It cried, trying to break free, but it was a futile effort, if it were at full strength it would be able to break out, but being hit by two very powerful demonic spells had destroyed any chance it had of breaking free by itself.
"Mother..." Matsuri was shakily standing in the pentagram, blood still coming from her mouth, "Please... Stop... We can live happily..." She coughed, more blood coming from her mouth. It was clear that the poor girl was completely delirious.
"I'm not your mother you pathetic wench!" The demon screamed.
Tears began to fall from her eyes, "N – No... I guess you're not..." She looked over at Koyomi, and in probably the first lucid moment she had in years, she smiled, "I'm sorry, Koyomi... Go on and live life to the fullest. I'll die like I deserve."
"You don't deserve this!" Koyomi screamed, "Matsuri! No!"
"We don't have a choice!" Garry screamed to the kid, "She has to stay, otherwise we'll all die!"
"Yuki!" Ib yelled into the phone, "Now!"
Next to them a tear in the fabric of the world appeared, "Go!" They heard Yuki cry.
None of them needed another prompt. Ib went first, and Junichi followed right after, leaving Garry and Koyomi in the world remaining.
"I love you Matsuri!" Koyomi cried, as Garry forced the two of them through the tear. Only a mere second after the two of them passed, it closed, leaving Matsuri alone to contend with the demon.
"You've doomed both of us!" The demon roared, "I'll murder you."
"I think I'll just hold you there..." She whispered, her eyes growing heavy as everything got quieter and quieter, "I – I..." Her arms fell to her side, and she fell to the ground shortly after, death claiming her before the demon could do anything.
The demon stomped over to her corpse, and it looked around in terror at the collapsing world around it – it was going to die, and there was nothing it could do about it. The demon let out a primal roar as the world suddenly imploded, killing him and exterminating the entire world he resided in.
XxXxXxX
Yuki couldn't help but smile when she saw her friends coming through the tear she had created, and saw that all of them were all right. Ib had somehow managed to burn her entire forearm severely, as did the other boy that Garry had brought through, but the important thing was that all of them were alive, and would come out of this all right.
"Mommy!" Mary darted to the group of people who had appeared in the middle of the empty restaurant, with all the tables and chairs shoved off to the sides. Mary wrapped her little arms as much as she could around Ib, and began to cry.
"I told you we'd be back," Ib said, kneeling down, and wrapping her good arm around her child.
Garry knelt down beside Mary and Ib, and just wrapped his arms around both of them, embracing his family, so glad to see that all of them were alive and well. There were no words he could say to make the moment any better than it was, so he just stayed silent, making sure to keep a good hold of both of them.
Rin had gone over to Junichi and was doing much the same thing. Both of them had hugged tightly, glad to see that each other had survived the ordeal.
Aiko sniffled at the sight, "I'm so glad everyone is alive!"
Yuki nodded, "We've never faced something like that..." She visible shuddered, and went over to one of the pushed aside tables and grabbed a chair, shakily sitting down on it, her legs were shaking so bad, since she had been so uncertain of what would happen in those last few seconds. Aiko had walked over to her, and quickly embraced the shaking girl. Yuki was surprised by the gesture, but leaned into it and wrapped her own arms around Aiko. Finally she calmed, "Thank you."
"No problem." Aiko answered, letting go.
Yuki looked towards the group and getting back to business, she asked, "Who's the boy?"
"I think he was one of the two responsible for this whole mess," Aiko said, "But he helped Ib out, so I'm not really sure."
Kohta and Saya were present, and they waited for the family of three to stop hugging one another before they approached their daughter.
"What happened?" Saya asked gently, helping Ib up, Garry took hold of Mary, the little girl absolutely refusing to let go of him the entire time.
Ib grimaced at her wounded arm, "It was a powerful spell."
Kohta examined the arm closely, "This is a fourth degree burn! Ib... You might have just completely lost your entire forearm!"
Saya glared at her husband, and then turned a concerned glance back towards Ib, "Does it hurt, dear?"
"That's what I'm afraid of," Ib said, "I don't feel anything."
Yuki had come over, "Ib, give me your right arm." Her voice was commanding, and Ib listened to it without even questioning the order, "Sana Incantatores!" Her healing spell went through the arm, and her frown deepened with each pass over, "There's nothing to heal... The tissue itself is completely destroyed..." She averted her eyes, "There's nothing I can do."
"So..." Garry spoke up, "She's going to lose her hand?"
"Just below the elbow." Yuki answered, "I'm sorry."
Ib put on a smile, trying to be strong, "Don't worry about it, we all lived, and really, that's all that matters."
"Stupid..." Garry shook his head, "You should have let me do it! Why did you do something so stupid?"
"We didn't have time! The demon heard you say that, so I had to do it while it was distracted with you."
Garry gritted his teeth, "I'm such an idiot... I shouldn't have said anything."
Ib frowned as she watched him beat himself up over it, "Garry..."
Yuki looked up at Ib's face, "What caused this?"
"I saw Koyomi use some weird spell when he stood on the pentagram, and it really hurt the demon, so I mimicked it, and... well... This is the result." Ib explained, nodding her head down to her completely limp arm.
Yuki's mouth dropped open, "You used DEMON magic?!"
"I – I guess so." Ib answered.
"It's good that she did," Koyomi said, walking over, "If she hadn't, that demon would have escaped. My sister was close to death when she cast that binding spell. At full strength, that demon would have torn through it with ease..."
Yuki noticed his pain, so she cast the healing spell on him, and he visibly relaxed when his bones were mended, and he sat down on one of the chairs that Aiko had brought over for the group, his arm hung limp at his side, similar to Ib's. Junichi and Rin also came over to the group, and sat down in the widening circle of chairs that were provided, both of them completely exhausted.
"So your sister is the one who ended up saving us all in the end," Yuki mused, "Fate has an odd sense of humor."
Koyomi looked down, "I – I don't know what to do now." He admitted, "For years I've followed my sister's goals and ambitions, doing anything she asked of me..."
"Before you do anything," Junichi spoke up, "You're going to the hospital along with Ib," He pointed to his charred forearm, "I think they should really get going now."
Garry nodded as he glanced over to Ib, "I agree."
Yuki looked out the window, "There should be some ambulances outside. I told the police to lock down the entire area to prepare for the worst case scenario. It's good that it didn't come to pass."
"Isn't that the truth." Aiko mumbled.
After that, Yuki called in some paramedics, who got both Ib and Koyomi onto some stretchers. Garry, Mary, Kohta, and Saya went with Ib, while Yuki and Aiko went with Koyomi. Rin and Junichi were going to go to the hotel room to clean up, and promised to meet them at the hospital in a little while.
Inside Ib's ambulance, Garry was shaking his head, "I – I'm so sorry, Ib..."
"For what?" She asked.
"I should have done that... I failed in my duty to protect you."
She narrowed her eyes at him, "Listen Garry, I do not regret what happened. I did what I had to do, and I had to do it before the demon could notice what I was trying to do."
"I know that," He answered, "I understand, but I still feel worthless. You're going to lose your arm, and there's nothing I can do about it..."
"We're alive." Ib pointed out, "That's all that matters."
Garry frowned, but he didn't say anything else, and just held Mary as he looked pensively down at the floor. Ib knew from that moment on that Garry would blame himself for the rest of his life for what happened to her, and she knew she had to end that guilt here before it became even worse.
"Garry." She said sternly, "It's not your fault, so don't blame yourself."
"I – I..."
"No." Ib said, "If you start blaming yourself and feeling guilty, I'll be very upset with you."
He looked aside, "It'll take a while, but... I'll do as you ask."
"Thank you." Ib said, smiling a little, but the smile slowly faded when she saw Garry still had a pained expression on his face.
Kohta and Saya just watched the scene silently as they went on to the hospital.
Once there, Ib had been taken to the emergency room immediately, leaving the rest of her family in the waiting room. Garry paced around restlessly, while Kohta and Saya were sitting down, both of them seemed troubled, but weren't speaking up, since there were still several others around. Mary was with Garry, but was clearly growing more and more agitated with Garry's behavior, forcing him to finally stop, and take a seat.
"Garry." Saya spoke up, reaching over and placing a hand on his own, "You should really try to calm down."
"I know," He admitted, "I'm just worried."
"That's natural." Kohta spoke up, "But just try to remember that when it's over and done with, that it's about HER and not you."
Garry perked up at the harsh words, "What?"
"Think about it," Kohta said, "You're worried for her – that's great – but you NEED to be supportive. Stop moping around like it's something you have to face alone. You might not have realized this, but it's IB'S hand that is being chopped off, not yours. When she gets out of there, you need to smile, and make her feel like nothing's wrong."
Garry thought back to when he was a teenager, how when he broke his arm, his friends did a similar thing for him, "I – I guess you're right." He admitted, "It's just really... hard, to see her like that."
"Imagine it from her point of view." Kohta said, "Her entire life is going to be different, probably more than she even realizes."
"Yeah..." Garry mumbled.
"Now come on," Kohta stood up, "You're scaring Mary, we ought to go get something to eat while we still can, it'll probably be a day or two before we can even see her."
Garry nodded, "I – I guess."
Saya put an arm on his shoulder, "We're here for you, try not to dwell too much on it, all right?"
Garry looked towards his daughter, who was sleeping against his chest, and then he nodded with conviction, "You're right. I'm not in this alone. When Ib wakes up, I'll be there to support her the entire way. Nothing will change between us."
"Good." Kohta gave him a gentle pat on the back, "She's probably worried most about your reaction, so be sure to tell her that when she wakes up."
Garry nodded, he would definitely do that.
XxXxXxX
Ib opened her eyes, her vision was incredibly blurry, and she couldn't make out anything other than the color white. She heard an annoying beeping coming from her left, and tried to see what it was, but her vision was still just a swarm of different colors. She swallowed, and belatedly realized that her throat was very dry, and the act of swallowing was almost painful. She let out a quiet moan, leaning her head back into the pillow.
"You're awake?" She heard a voice to her right.
"W – Water..." She rasped out.
"Here." She felt a straw touching her lips, so she opened her mouth, and began to drink the water. She never thought water could taste so good, so she drank as much as she possible could. She let out a sigh, and the person removed the straw, and she blinked a few times, clearing her eyes out and getting a better picture of the room.
She was in a hospital – the walls were painted white, and she saw a machine monitoring her heart to her left, which must have been where the annoying beeps were coming from. She noticed that her clothes were also different – she was dressed in a simple hospital gown, and was covered with a thin sheet that the nurse or doctor must have provided for her. She looked over to her right, and finally noticed who was sitting there.
"Garry..." She smiled, seeing him here.
"Hey," He said, smiling back, "Nice of you to finally wake up."
"How long...?"
"Three days," Garry answered, "You must have been pretty tired."
"I was." She answered, "Going through that other world was exhausting."
He nodded, "Yeah, it was."
It was then that Ib remembered why she was in the hospital, and she looked down at her right hand – or lack thereof. Nothing was there, but she could swear that she still felt it. Garry saw her frowning, so he reached over and rubbed her head, She glanced back at him, unable to hide her worry from her face.
"Don't worry," Garry said, "The doctor said that you'd probably be feeling some phantom pain for a while, but it'll go away with time."
She nodded slowly, still not saying anything, but Garry noticed that she kept discreetly glancing over at him, and then looking forward. This must have been what Kohta was referring to.
"This changes nothing. I still love you for who you are, and no matter what, I won't leave you. What kind of man would I be if I did such a thing?" He said, trying to lighten the mood with his smile.
"R – Really?" Ib whispered. Garry had just voiced her biggest fear.
"Of course." He gently hit her head with a knuckle, "You're an idiot if you think I'd leave you."
"Thank you..." she muttered, reaching up with her remaining hand and wiping her eyes, "I – I know it's stupid, but... I just couldn't get the thought out of my head... Not with how you were acting."
He reached forward and touched the wedding ring on her left hand, "I meant it when I said I would stay with you until death. I'm sorry if I gave you any other impression." He replied, "I was just scared, and I wasn't thinking about you at the time... You dad hammered it into my head about how you feel, and I realized he was right. I'm really sorry."
She shook her head, "Don't apologize. It's ok."
"I'm glad." He reached forward and wrapped his arms gently around his recovering wife, and she gladly wrapped her left arm around him.
When they parted, Garry asked, "Are you ok with everyone else coming in?"
She nodded, "It's fine."
Garry got to his feet, and walked over to the door, opening it up. A parade of people came in, first was Mary, who rushed over to her mom's side, "Mommy!" She yelled.
Ib smiled, even as Garry winced at the little girl's cry, "I'm fine." Ib answered, "Want to come up?"
Mary nodded, and Garry went over to give the girl a boost up onto the bed so the girl could lay down with her mother. The girl wrapped her arms around her mother's neck, and seemed very satisfied to just lay there, rubbing her head into Ib's neck.
Kohta and Saya were the next two to come in.
"It's so good to see you're recovering, Ib!" Saya said, "You don't know how scared we all were for you!"
"You've got that right," Kohta said, "Try not to give us another scare like that, ok? We're a bit too old for that kind of thing!"
Ib chuckled, "I'll try! No guarantees though."
Following her parents, the rest of them came in, Aiko, Yuki, Rin, and Junichi all walked in, waving at her and smiling the entire time.
"Hey!" Junichi said, "Glad to see you're awake!"
Aiko nodded in agreement with that.
Rin and Yuki stood back, giving Ib a reassuring smile as she looked over at them.
"What happened to Koyomi?" Ib couldn't help but ask.
"We talked to him yesterday," Yuki said, "Since he couldn't figure out what to do with his life, I offered him to join Yuki's outfit."
"Did he accept?" Garry asked curiously.
"Yep!" Aiko said, "He's our official seventh member! It's good too, because we have a bit too many girls, it'll be nice to have a guy around to spice things up."
Rin rolled her eyes, "You always say the weirdest things, Aiko."
Everyone was excitedly talking, and during that time, Ib looked down to notice that Mary was examining her missing arm. She watched as Mary curiously touched the stub at her elbow, and looked around, perhaps wondering where the rest of it was. She finally looked to Ib, giving her a curious glance.
"I lost it," Ib said.
"Go find it?"
Ib suppressed a chuckle, "I'm sorry, but no. I can't get it back."
Garry had noticed the interaction, as did everyone else, and they all quieted down to allow the little girl to try and process the fact that her mom didn't have her arm anymore.
"Bad?" She managed to asked.
"No." Ib said shaking her head, "Not bad."
She watched as Mary looked back down at the spot where her mother's arm should have been, "New arm?"
"Good question." Ib said, smiling at her daughter, and reaching over with her hand and rubbing her head, "Can I get some robot hand or something?"
"A good prosthetic arm can be pretty expensive." Saya mumbled.
"It's 2027!" Kohta declared, "In this day and age you can get an amazing one for hardly anything!"
Yuki coughed into her hand to get their attention, "I've discussed this with the mayor already. All damages we've incurred will be paid for in full by the city government, no matter the costs." She smiled, "So it'll be fine to get a fairly expensive state of the art prosthetic."
"And even if that weren't the case," Garry said, speaking up, "You're fine the way you are, I'll be sure to help you no matter what happens."
Ib couldn't help but allow a wide smile across her face, "Thank you."
After that, the group stayed for a while longer, and eventually everyone filed out, with Kohta and Saya being the last two to leave, leaving Garry, Mary, and Ib left in the room. Mary had fallen asleep next to her mother, and Ib was beginning to get a bit tired as well, her eyes drooping every few seconds, but she forced herself to stay awake to listen to Garry talk about random things.
"If you want to sleep, just do it. I'm not going to stop you." He chuckled, noticing his wife's futile attempt to stay away.
"I'm sorry." She mumbled, "I'm just really tired..."
"That's fine." Garry said, "I'll be right here, watching over you."
"Then I'll just..." Her eyes closed, "I love you..."
"I love you too." He answered, watching her sleeping beside their daughter. "I'll always be there for you, no matter what." He declared. He leaned back, and did as he said he would – he kept an eye out for his family. They were safe, and for now, that was really all that mattered.
XxXxXxX
Note:
That's the end of Year 17! I had a lot of fun writing this short story, even though it got pretty ridiculous. Initially I was going to have more back story about Matsuri and Koyomi to explain why they wanted their mom back so badly. However, the initial draft had their mom being a horribly abusive parent, and I asked myself - Ok, WHY are they trying to bring this horrible person back? Instead, I made what their mother was like very vague on purpose, and made it into a demon in the end that had driven poor Matsuri insane and ultimately killed her. Furthermore, there was going to be some sort of incest plot between the two of them as well, but that was scraped, though I believe there's one point in the first chapter that shows it, which I probably should have deleted, now that I think about it. Oh well, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.
Ib losing her hand was also a last minute change. Initially it was just really badly burned, but she'd eventually recover. I figured, well, demonic magic requires an actual sacrifice, and losing your hand seems like a pretty big price, so I made it permanently lost.
Anyway, I'm done rambling. The next chapter is the epilogue!
Thank you for reading!