A/N: First and foremost, I'd like to thank Stofen for his support of this work, along with anyone that might be reading this. Its a bit of a pet project for me, and while it might take a while for the next update, I'm definitely enjoying writing this one.

Anyways, on-wards with the chapter.

Act I: The World Ended… And Then it Burned

Chapter 3: Whispers from Sunlit Shadows

(Track 2)

"So who's the 'Fuuka-san' we met earlier?"

They were almost done with the day's patrol, finishing a final sweep along the outskirts of the opposite end from where their underground bunker was located when Hamuko finally spoke up. Yukari, to her credit, didn't look at the brunette as she responded, "You mean Fuuka-chan? Well, I've personally known her for a while now. We used to play together when we were younger; her parents were engineers at the lab my dad used to work at. Back before all this," Yukari vaguely gestured to one of the many destroyed buildings bordering their settlement, "happened".

"I see" Hamuko quietly responded; talking about before this hell began wasn't something people did often.

Yukari quickly picked up on Hamuko's somber tone of voice, "They're not dead, you know. They actually helped create most of the original barricades from what I've heard. Fuuka-chan helps them out from time to time if she isn't needed elsewhere"

(Track 12)

Before Hamuko could respond, a man ran up to the two frantically.

"Mr. Ono?" Yukari responded and Hamuko tensed up immediately, "What's wrong? Something happen?"

"Thank Oda I found you Yukari-kun!" The man paused again to gather another breath, "We've got a problem: one of the kids walked out!"

"The hell do you mean 'walked out'?" Hamuko instantly bristled at the claim; something clearly wasn't adding up here.

"Forget that!" Yukari grabbed back control, "Where did he go?"

Mr. Ono started running again before he responded, "The Eastern barricade!"

The two brunettes easily kept pace with the taller man as they ran a block and a half to where the make-shift barricade stood blocking off what was once a major roadway. Several people stood nearby, one of them peaking over it as they arrived.

"Can you still see him?" Mr. Ono approached the man on lookout and questioned him.

The lookout turned to face the new arrivals, "He just turned right on Main Street. I think he's heading for the waterfront".

"Alright, someone needs to go and tell the rest of our squad. I'll go and make sure no one else has run off. Hamuko-san I need you t-" Yukari started ordering a few bystanders around before being cut off by Hamuko brushing by her. Before she could be questioned, Hamuko reached the barricade and vaulted it, easily landing on the other side.

"Hamuko-san!" Yukari ran up to a small section that was raised off the ground, "What do you think you're doing?!"

"We're going to lose him if we wait any longer. I'm going after him, so just cover me!" Hamuko quickly replied before she sprinted down the destroyed streets. Main Street was only a few blocks away and the brunette easily covered the distance. Turning around the right corner, she spotted the teenager slowly walking towards the waterfront.

Hamuko pumped herself down the last block to the guy; it might have still been daytime, but that didn't mean that certain kinds of Shadows weren't lurking around. She closed the remaining distance and clamped a hand hard down on his shoulder, forcibly turning him towards her.

(end music)

The first thing Hamuko noticed was how dilated the teen's eyes were; despite the close distance they still didn't look like they were focusing on her. The second thing Hamuko noticed was that the teen was muttering softly, almost to himself rather than to her.

"What was that?" Hamuko quickly asked, shaking the teen to try to get a response out of him.

"I-" The teen started, "I can hear him… calling to me"

"What?" Hamuko felt her stomach drop further.

"He's calling… for me…" The teen brushed the brunette's hand off his shoulder and continued to walk down the street, "Wait for me… Morpheus…"

Hamuko gritted her teeth as she followed the teen and prepared to punch him back to his senses when a rustling drew her attention to an old alleyway. Slowly rolling its way out of the alleyways was a garbage can lid; one that had more than a few claw marks and a small chunk of it that looked like it was torn out.

(Track 4)

A thinly veiled growl snapped the brunette back into focus and she rushed the teen. Giving no time for the oblivious teen to react, Hamuko grabbed him around the waist and threw him over her left shoulder.

Sprinting back to the barricaded street, she couldn't help but noticed the way that the shadows seemed to get longer without the help of the coming dusk. As she turned the corner to the last stretch, Hamuko nearly gasped when she felt something brush against her consciousness.

Her Grandfather had informed her that the Shadows had some basis in the human psyche, but he'd warned her that only unusually powerful Shadows would ever attempt to enter her consciousness.

Hamuko couldn't help the wedge of fear that lodged itself in her head as she twisted to look behind herself. There weren't any Shadows in sight, but that only meant that this one was able to hide itself from her.

She was three blocks away when she noticed that there was movement at the top of the barricade, various people running back and forth before Yukari appeared and pointed Hamuko out.

She was two blocks away when Yukari's eye's visibly widened and she pointed somewhere behind Hamuko. Hamuko pushed her slightly aching legs harder to get back to the barricade.

She was one block away when Yukari screamed out to her. Hamuko looked up at the archer, only to hear a small movement of air before she was lifted off the ground. The brunette let go of the teen and he felt to the ground in an indignant heap. She struggled and tried to twist to see what had grabbed her when a voice reached her.

"Hamuko-san! Move out of the way!" Yukari shouted out to her, her bow drawn and ready to fire.

Hamuko quickly complied and moved as much as she could in her suspension to give the archer a clean shot. Yukari released the bolt and Hamuko felt it fly by her before it impaled itself into its target.

The Shadow let out a loud shriek as the bolt pierced it. Hamuko gripped it and pulled herself up to see what it was. The Shadow eerily resembled an eagle, save for the large mask covering its face. The Venus Eagle struggled to keep flying before it sharply careened to the side. Hamuko braced herself as they slammed into the window of a mostly destroyed high-rise building. Her rut sack's straps snapped upon impact and Hamuko was thrown into the floor as she and the Shadow finally separated.

The brunette rolled back to her feet and faced the wounded Shadow as it struggled to get back up. It had her rut sack still within its talons and Hamuko realized that that was how the Eagle grabbed her in the first place. Pulling her naginata off her back, she cautiously approached the Shadow. Before she could finish it, another screech grabbed her attention as a second Venus Eagle flew in through the opening they'd made.

(Track 6)

Hamuko barely got her guard up before it slammed into her, sending her flying backwards into a door and demolishing it. She stumbled to her feet as the Shadow exploded the wall next to her with a wind attack; the Eagle almost casually flying through the debris up to her. Noticing how small the current room was, Hamuko did the sensible thing: she ran.

Naginata in her right, the brunette turned and broke down the door behind her with her left shoulder. The Shadow let loose another screech as it probably took off behind her; Hamuko didn't bother to look behind herself to check if it was actually.

Sprinting down the darkened corridor, Hamuko could feel her heart hammering away in her chest as cold adrenaline flooded her veins. She needed to get to a large enough area that she could use her naginata effectively without fear of breaking it mid-swing on a wall. The hallway she was travelling veered off to the left and Hamuko continued to follow it. If she could make it to the atrium this building possibly still had, she'd have enough room to maneuver herself around effectively enough that she'd have a shot at taking out the Shadow still hunting her down.

Conversely, if she doubled-back now she'd be able to end this a lot faster. There was only one extremely wounded Eagle between her and what was easily an entire army's level of firepower. But she didn't know how many more Eagles were lurking around; the one hunting her at the moment was already giving her more than she could handle at the moment.

Hamuko flew sideways, the door to her right gave way easily as her body collided into it. The brunette rolled end over end until her momentum crawled to a stop.

She was stunned. Her muscles locked up and she couldn't move. The Venus Eagle had returned. Hamuko tightened her grip on her naginata, only to realize she must have dropped it back in the hallway.

It had flanked around the entire building, broken down the door on her left, and hit her right in her blind spot. Hamuko winced as she shifted: at best the Shadow just cracked a single rib. The Eagle loomed over her after it landed on top of the destroyed doorway.

Hamuko crawled backwards and further into the decrepit apartment.

The black sun fully set below the horizon and cut off any light source until the moon would take its place. The little light entering the apartment vanished and Hamuko rapidly blinked her eyes in an attempt to gather what minuscule amounts of light were left in the air. Gripping her side tightly, the brunette quietly crawled into what she guessed what was a kitchen at some point in time.

The Venus Eagle quirked its head from side to side, trying to adjust itself to the darkness and find its wounded prey. It stepped off the broken wood beneath its talons and onto the hard floor.

Hamuko rested her head against the kitchen's island, drawing in breaths that were quiet enough to not be heard, large enough to get oxygen flowing back in her blood stream, and slow enough to keep her fragile rib-cage in place. She could hear the Shadow's talons on the hardwood floor of the apartment and reached out with her left hand to try to find where the side of the island ended in the low light.

She froze when her hand knocked into something evidently metallic. She quickly realized she'd stumbled upon a toolbox who ever had last occupied this residence left behind at some point. The Shadow's footsteps ending directly behind where Hamuko was hiding.

She took a deep breath before throwing open the toolbox, uncaring of the horrible shriek it let out from the rusted hinges and grabbed the first thing she could.

The Venus Eagle leaped on top of the island and let out a shriek, only to get knocked off of it by Hamuko suddenly jumping up and smashing it in the face with a wrench. Her ribs ached as she vaulted over the island to land a kick on the Shadow, knocking it back onto the ground from where it was struggling to get up.

"What's the matter, huh?" Hamuko tauntingly spun the wrench in her hand, "Not a fan of blunt force trauma?"

The Shadow, seemingly responding to the jab, screeched back before the brunette lunged forward again and smashed the tool into its mask again. The Eagle desperately tried to bat the weapon away with one of its wings, only to be side-stepped and bashed again.

The two combatants backed away and eyed each other wearily, Hamuko nursing her ribs as the Shadow tried to shake off the recent counter.

The moon, a small sliver against the dark green night, seemingly flooded the room with light and Hamuko widened her eyes as she saw the damage she'd caused. The Eagle's mask had a large crack down the center of it, with several smaller cracks splintering outwards from it.

Gripping the wrench in both hands now, the two foes tensing before they lunged. The brunette leaned under the Eagle's talons and slammed the wrench, widening the crack once again.

Hamuko instinctively backed up when she heard the attack hit, and with good reason: the entire head of the wrench snapped off. Discarding the scrap metal, she jumped and ducked backwards as the Shadow took again to the air and pressed its advantage. Rolling past a close fly-by, Hamuko pushed herself to get back out into the corridor when she'd at least have a weapon to keep the Eagle's sharp claws away from her throat.

The Shadow gave chase and Hamuko slid on her knees out the doorway as it flew overhead. Grabbing back her dropped naginata, the brunette tensed herself as the Eagle slowly circled around the room it previously destroyed.

It gave one final shriek and she steadied herself.

Steel met claw as the Shadow effectively impaled itself on the edge of the pole arm. Black ichor dripped down the blade and Hamuko flung the dissolving carcass to the side.

Grabbing her ribs in her right hand and leaning her naginata against her left shoulder, the brunette started to retrace her steps back to where she knew a certain Shadow had her gear.

(pause track)

Hamuko mused that she must have dozed off or something as she quickly found herself back at the broken side of the building she'd entered from.

While there was no obvious sign of her rut sack or the wounded Shadow, the streaks of ichor rising slowly off the floor told Hamuko more than she needed to know. Following them, she led herself to a half-open doorway to a smaller apartment than before.

"Be gone!" Mitsuru pierced the mask of the eagle-like Shadow with her rapier, carefully drawing it back out to not damage the weapon as it dissolved into nothingness. The new Shadow had been tough at first, but a combination of Caesar's abilities and Artemisia's ice skills had severally debilitated the flier.

Sheathing her weapon away, the red-head walked back to the barricade and easily crossed over it. Akihiko had already joined Yukari in standing by the building their new arrival had apparently crashed into and were waiting for her to eventually exit.

"What happened that she's taking this long?" Yukari mused out loud.

Akihiko shrugged, something that made the thick duster he was wearing over a set of body armor move in its entirety, "She should be okay, right? You saw how powerful her Personae were last night right?"

"Have you heard of any Personae being summoned from that building, Yukari?" Mitsuru joined into the conversation.

The archer just shook her head sadly, "I heard a bit of a scuffle earlier, but it's been quiet since then".

"Come on people! Get back to your shelters already!" Shinjiro was nearby, trying to get the few curious people still lingering around to get back to safety so he could meet up with the rest of the team.

"We're going to need to investigate that building" Mitsuru started to the boxer and the archer, "We'll wait until Shinjiro fi-"

(resume track)

Mitsuru was cut off as a window in the building shattered and a dark mass flew out of it. The mass hit a nearby trash dumpster before rolling onto the street.

Yukari gasped when she realized that it was Hamuko grappling with the Eagle she'd shot out of the air previously.

Hamuko pinned the stubborn Shadow's wings beneath her knees before reaching for her naginata. Grabbing it in both hand, the brunette wasted no time burying the pole arm in the Eagle's mask.

She stumbled off the dissolving carcass, still favoring her right side, and moved to use her naginata to help her stand.

Raising her head back up, Hamuko saw a small crowd of people staring back at her.

A/N: So this is going to be the last update for a good bit as I've got to go back to working on The Journey of Two. Regardless, let me know how this chapter turned out. I tried to go for a more 'horror'-y feel to the fight scene, but I'm not very experience in that area so let me know if you have a suggestion to make it better.

Until next time.