"Could this be Risette in PUBLIC?!"
"New scoop shows a disguised Risette shopping with friends in Okina! Her bodyguard's there too?!"
"A secret meeting! Hints of a forbidden love?! Read now for more details!"
The headlines were sickening. Kaoru gripped his phone tightly and launched it into the backrest of his sofa, resisting the urge to flip his table and scatter his myriad magazines and fan letters across the floor of his dressing room.
But God, how tempting it was.
Why him? What the hell did that lumbering, hard-headed imbecile have that he himself didn't? He was an idol! Famous, attractive and young! Practically perfect in every way! And where was his invite to Okina? Probably trampled on the bottom of that blue-coated asshole's shoe, that's where!
Storming over to his closet, Kaoru threw open the doors and laid eyes on the one section that could calm him. Calendars, magazine cutouts, promotional posters, albums, anything and everything that bore the name "Risette" in any fashion was arranged meticulously on one side.
Looking into the multiple depictions of her gentle, beautiful eyes, Kaoru ran his thumb over the scar on the back of his hand. "What am I missing? What does he have that I don't?" He asked a framed picture of a smiling Rise, grasping it in both hands and shaking it violently. "What do I have to do to make her love me?!"
"One might suggest calming down, for a start."
The closet was slammed shut in an instant as Kaoru wheeled around to meet the face of the voice he'd just heard. A peculiarly-shaped face bearing a large moustache, belonging to a thin man in a suit.
Kaoru cleared his throat. "Oh, please excuse me, I mustn't have heard you come in!" And like the flick of a switch, he was back to normal, smiling gently and clasping his hands together. "What can I help you with, Mister…?"
"You are troubled over the affections of Rise Kujikawa." The man continued, ignoring Kaoru completely and noticing the layer of sweat that appeared on his brow at the mention of Rise's name. "More importantly, however…" The man took a few steps forward, staring down his sizable nose at Kaoru. "...you are troubled in regards to the one called 'Just Astaire.'"
In a flash, the facade dropped as Kaoru sneered and began poking the suited man in the chest. "I don't know what you think you know about me, but you'd be smart to forget you ever heard it. You don't want to know the things I could do to you."
Unfazed, the suited man slapped Kaoru's hand away. "Pah! Tragically little, I wager. You are as feeble and meandering as the rest of your kind, and you'd be wise not to forget it." He spat, forcing Kaoru back as he strode forward once more, hands behind his back. "Unless, of course, you were to change that."
Whoever he was, Kaoru had to admit, he was one creepy bastard. "Change what? What are you saying?!" He barked, his wall of threats thoroughly crumbled, leaving him exposed.
"I am here to make you a proposal. One which I believe you'll take a... considerable interest in." For the first time since he'd spoken, the man smiled. A wide, unsettling, large-toothed smile.
Yet as unsettling as he was, Kaoru found himself intrigued. "...Go on."
"Agree to the terms of my offer, and I can grant you power the likes of which you could only barely imagine. The power to fight against the hand life has dealt you. Perhaps, even…" The suited man smiled again as he observed the interested glimmer in Kaoru's eyes. "...the power to best Just Astaire once and for all. All we ask is that you do as is required of you."
Kaoru's face twitched slightly, and the suited man could tell he'd already won. The want of the heart was the strongest want of all.
"Do we have an accord?" He asked, outstretching a long, thin hand.
Kaoru clasped it greedily with both hands, shaking like a man possessed.
And so the pact was made.
"Eeeeh?! What do you mean you haven't seen Ka-kun all day?!" Miyano-chan whined like an injured puppy, her eyes welling up with tears.
"He's our D'artagnan! We can't continue filming without our D'artagnan!" Haru-chan whined in a similar manner, stomping the stage and kicking her dress up in a huff.
"If he hasn't told us where he is, and he hasn't told you," Kida-chan said, unable to contain her venom for even half a sentence, "then who has he told?!"
"Don't know, don't care. He's your problem, not mine." Rise shrugged, secretly lapping up the trio's misery like a cat at a bowl of milk. "Could you please get off the stage already? We're supposed to be rehearsing here." She said bluntly, not even attempting to hide her contempt.
Kaoru's floozies all shot her unfriendly looks as they reluctantly stormed off-stage, desperately looking for someone else to pester about the object of their affections.
Rise rolled her eyes as she went back to dancing. Why the heck did they think she'd know where Kaoru was? A lot of her time was already devoted to trying to forget he even existed at all, and that's when he wasn't missing! If anything, this was the best thing that'd happened all week!
...Then again, it was a little strange. Someone as dickish as Kaoru didn't just stop answering their phone all of a sudden, nor did he just quietly slink off without telling anyone, especially not his chosen groupies. Looked at from a certain angle, it was as though he'd dropped off the face of the earth.
Pfft, as if she'd be that lucky. Rise shook her head as her rehearsal came to a pause. If Kaoru wasn't creeping after her or picking fights with Astaire, that would make her break all the easier to enjoy peacefully.
Kanami was late. Not that Astaire especially minded- because he'd only accepted her invitation for dancing lessons so she'd cease blabbering about them- but it was bad form after she was the one who'd arranged the time and the room in the first place.
Looking himself up and down in the mirrored wall for the umpteenth time, so often that he imagined he could draw himself from memory now, Astaire sighed. Sod this, he had a charge to be keeping watch over. He made for the door and-
"I FUCK THE MUSIC, I MAKE IT CUM! I FUCK THE MUSIC WITH MY SERPENT TONGUE!" Kanami screamed as she viciously kicked the door in, flailing her arms about and headbanging wildly. So immersed was she that it took her a few seconds to realise Astaire was even present. Flailing stopping but her energy undying, she whipped her headphones off and shot him a smile. "Sorry! I got a little caught up on the way over. You ready to dance?"
Astaire's eye twitched in time with his outstretched arm, frozen halfway to the door. He looked like he'd just had a bomb go off behind him. Such wanton vulgarity and lasciviousness was cause enough for alarm under normal circumstances, but from Kanami? Who seemed so innocent and bubbly on the surface? It was a wonder he hadn't wound up in a coma from the shock.
"What… in Gwyn's name are you listening to?" Astaire asked slowly as he began to regain normal motor functions. "That wasn't music, was it?"
"Sure it was! C'mon, c'mon, are you going to dance or not?!" Kanami asked insistently, bringing her rucksack around to her front in order to retrieve her portable speaker, as though she hadn't just entered the room like a hurricane loaded with explosives.
Astaire sighed to himself and shook his head. This girl was a headsore."Fine, have it your way. But I'm not doing anything to the sound of… whatever that was."
Kaoru going missing, Rise could deal with. But Astaire wandering off on his own for no reason? That never happened. Something funny had to be going on.
Following a wild goose chase of vague hints and 'Uh, maybe'-s, it was beginning to look like she might never find him. One studio on its own was a big place, after all. Just as she began to lose hope, something perked up Rise's ears. The muffled sound of music coming from one room further down the corridor. The name escaped her, but it sounded old. Like, symphony orchestra old.
Well that explained where Kanami was, at least. Maybe she'd know something. Without a second thought RIse made for the musically-inclined door and pushed her way in. "Hey, Kanami-chan! Have you seen…?"
What awaited her on the other side was Kanami, held deftly above Astaire's head with one arm, her pigtails swinging below her and her arms and legs splayed out to the side. "Hi, Rise-senpai! DId you come by for dancing practice too?" She asked cheerfully. "Maybe you could help Astaire-san suck less, this is the only thing we've got right all day!"
Astaire craned his neck back and shot Kanami an upside down glare. "What do you expect?! You're asking me to do things that'll wrap my legs around themselves like some kind of ragdoll!"
Kanami waggled her eyebrows and crossed her arms mid-lift. "Your footwork was fine when you were fighting Ka-kun~!" She singsonged.
"That's a different situation entirely, they can't be compared." Astaire added quickly and monotonously before shifting his attention back in front of him. "Anyway, is something troubling you, Ms. Kujikawa? You were asking if we'd seen something?"
Rise at last broke her solid glare on Kanami and shook herself lucid again. "N-No, no! Everything's just fine and dandy here, really! I'm just gonna… uh…" Oh, screw it. Rise gave up and shot out the door again without another word, leaving a very confused Kanami and Astaire in her wake.
"Huh. What was that about?" Kanami asked as she fell limp on Astaire's arm.
"Haven't the foggiest. Perhaps I should pursue her and find out." Astaire wondered out loud, rubbing his chin with his free hand.
His pondering was interrupted as Kanami reached down and lightly slapped him in the cheek. "Aww c'mon, just one more try? Please?"
"Must we?" Astaire sighed as Kanami nodded her head, smiling brightly. "Ugh. I suppose I must."
She could dance. Astaire even said he liked her dancing. Why didn't he ask her to teach him? It wasn't like Kanami was any less skilled or busy than she was, she just worked in another studio.
Such thoughts plagued Rise as she idly spun around in her chair in her dressing room, moving only to stare at her reflection as she passed it by.
She needed to let off steam. It was time to find someone to send angry texts to. Like a vulture moving in for the kill, Rise's hand dove into her bag to grab her phone.
Damn Kanami. Damn her and her cutesy attitude and weird music and shapely hips and massive boobs and…
Wait a second. What was that? It felt kind of rough and cold, and it left a sort of chalky residue on her fingers when she touched it. Curiosity blossoming, Rise hauled the offending item out into the open.
Oh yeah, Astaire-kun's White Stone thing! She'd almost forgotten it was in there. Rise turned it over in her hands, trying to brush the white off her and failing to do so. It was chalkier than chalk itself, somehow.
"...simply write my name on the floor and touch it. Do that, and I'll appear at a moment's notice."
...Hmm. Really now?
"Higher, higher! Woo!" Kanami cheered as Astaire spun her around on the spot above his head, giggling uncontrollably.
"I can't help but feel like this no longer classes as dancing anymo-"
As if his cord had been unplugged from the wall, Astaire suddenly shut up and fell completely limp, crumpling to the floor and landing he and Kanami into one uncomfortable heap.
"Ow! Hey, what gives?! I just about felt like I was flying for a moment!" Kanami complained as she picked herself up and dusted herself off. "Gosh, that was dangerous. Hope you didn't break your neck, Astaire-kun!" She laughed as she gave Astaire a jab in the side with her foot.
To which he didn't respond.
"Huh? Astaire-kun? Hey, are you alright? Hello?!"
Well that was underwhelming. Nothing happened. "So much for being here at a moment's notice…" Rise sulked, tossing the Soapstone back in her bag and pouting. Breaking promises didn't seem very knightly.
Then she heard a noise. It was hard to describe, but the first word she thought of was 'magical'. In any case, it was coming from behind her. Not only that, but it was growing louder.
"What the heck is- AAAAAAAH!" Rise backed away into the corner of her room as the head of a pure-white, humanoid figure began to slowly rise from her dressing room floor. "Ohmigod ohmigod ohmigod stay away from me!" She screeched, putting her hands between herself and… whatever the hell it was.
The figure arose until it was fully formed, taking the shape of a man in a long coat, possessing wavy hair and… oh. Oh! "Astaire-kun, is that you?!" Rise asked through her fingers.
The Phantom opened its dead, pupil-less eyes and blinked. Then it began to look around itself, clutching at its coat and opening its mouth in a manner which kind of looked like talking. It was definitely Astaire, but he looked really confused.
"Oh thank god, you almost gave me a heart attack! Why didn't you tell me that's what the stone did?!" Rise sighed in relief as she walked up to Phantom Astaire. His luminescent brow creased as he flapped his lips wordlessly, gesturing in a manner that suggested he was less than pleased. "You know I can't hear a thing you're saying, right?"
Astaire ran a hand down his face. Godforsaken Phantom limitations. He pointed to the door, imitated his stance when holding Kanami up, then let his upper body fall limp all at once.
"Wait, do you mean your not-glowy body is still up there?!" Rise gasped. Astaire nodded. "...Were you still holding Kanami up when it happened?" Again, Astaire nodded.
...As bad as it sounded, Rise almost wanted to giggle. That'd teach her.
But Astaire was watching her, hands on his hips and one foot tapping impatiently. A look of "Why on earth did you summon me when I'm just down the hall?" on his face. She'd just have to stifle herself for now.
Thank goodness for Senpai's good timing. "Oh, I wanted to tell you that I just got a message from Senpai! He wants us all to meet up at Junes later!" Rise held out her phone for proof, which would've been great if Astaire could've read it. "Sooo... yeah?* She shrugged. Would it be a good enough reason?
Well, it was better than no reason. Still, if Astaire had eyes he would've rolled them. He instead sighed a silent reached inside his coat and retrieved a hunk of black crystal, layered in white cloth. He knelt down and pressed the crystal to his chest. It visibly glimmered, and before long Astaire was sinking back into the floor again.
"Eheheheh… See you later…" Rise laughed sheepishly, giving Astaire a little wave as he sunk away under the carpet entirely.
That could've gone better. It could've gone worse, but that wasn't saying much.
"Gee, I hope his body's alright…" Rise thought to herself.
Kanami clutched her phone with sweating palms, eyes scanning Astaire's body up and down in a storm of worry. With much effort she had rolled him onto his back. But he wasn't breathing. "H-Hello?! Emergency services?! I need a paramedic out here, like, now!" Kanami squawked in panic. "I-It's my friend! He just fell limp all of a sudden and now he's not breathing!"
Ooooh this was bad. This was very very bad. Rise-senpai was going to skin her alive if she saw this. She had to fix this ASAP. With the operator on the other side of her phone yammering away, Kanami decided to take action.
Hoo, boy. If Rise-senpai wouldn't like this situation, she was really going to hate this.
Kanami placed a hand over Astaire's mouth. Definitely no breathing, as if his unmoving chest wasn't evidence enough. Keeping her phone held to her ear with her shoulder, Kanami put her hands to Astaire's chest before pressing down. God, she hoped she was doing this right.
Thirty compressions later, Astaire wasn't looking much better.
Kanami sighed. "Sorry, Rise-senpai…" Mustering up the guts, she took a deep breath and lowered her head towards-
Thwack.
Astaire's suddenly-awake head coming to meet her.
"BWAH, HE'S ALIVE!"
"ARGH!"
Kanami rolled back as Astaire rolled to the side, both clutching their faces and suddenly feeling a little more concussed than they had been before. "Owowow, my nose…" Kanami said in a nasally voice as she tried massaging the pain away. She sat herself upright, coming face-to-face with the fellow who'd been suspiciously close to 'dead' a second earlier.
He looked at her blankly as a large red hue overtook his nose. "I think it would be wise of us to continue this later."
"Good idea."
Sunlight graced the food court of Junes, filling it to the brim with the sounds of laughter and joy from groups of every age. It was the perfect time to go and enjoy a sunny, summery day out.
It was a less than perfect time for a meeting with nine people crammed in like sardines around one table. Hustling in closer to avoid drawing attention was easier said than done, especially in the boiling heat. Such was life when lived as creatures of habit, as the Team had spent the better part of a year becoming.
"Holy shit, seriously? Somebody's stalkin' you two?" Kanji leaned in to the table and kept his voice low, glancing suspiciously at everyone walking by. "An' he was outside my frickin' house?! The hell is that about?!"
"Pretty stupid stalker if he's following Rise around after what happened to those other two guys." Yosuke pointed out as he swung on his chair's back legs. He nearly fell off at the collective pointed gaze he got from everyone at once. "I'm just saying! Either he doesn't read the news or he just really wants his fingers broken." He shrugged.
"He spoke to you, right Rise-chan? What'd he say?" Yukiko asked, ignoring Yosuke completely.
Rise bit her lip and gazed at the table's surface as she tried to remember his words perfectly. "He wanted to know how… close Astaire-san and I were. He said he'd leave once I told him." Even under the sun's burning gaze, Rise shuddered. "What a freak."
"Used my first name and all. Whoever he is, he's well informed." Astaire mused, running a hand down the long sleeves of his shirt and relishing the airflow compared to his coat. "Feels a bit odd after all this time, really. Nobody in Lordran ever called me 'Just Astaire' either."
Rise raised a hand to her mouth as she giggled. "Ooh, it even feels weird to hear! Last time we used it was…" And then her giggle faded, her face sinking. "...It was…"
Whatever conclusion Rise had just come to, it seemed to spread out amongst Naoto, Yu and Yukiko at the same time. Suddenly extremely interested in the conversation, Yu leaned in until he was practically lying atop the table. "Astaire-san. When was the last time you or somebody else used your first name?"
Gods, that must've been a while ago. "Hmm… I believe it was… when I first met you all, right? Back when Ms. Kujikawa introduced us all. I've introduced myself as Knight Astaire ever since to avoid the confusion."
Putting aside how 'Knight' didn't raise as many questions as the given name 'Just' might, the thought taking form in Naoto's head clicked. She leaned in and cast a serious look around everyone at the table. "Has anyone here used Astaire-san's first name since our first meeting?"
Everyone looked between themselves, looks ranging from concerned to confused. Half wondering what the deal was, and the other half wondering why it was.
"So what you're saying is… nobody in this world should know what Astaire-san's first name is besides us?" Yukiko summed up.
The atmosphere suddenly seemed to coalesce, becoming dense and hard to breathe. A vague sense of unease crept up Astaire's arm as he finally realised what they were getting at.
The only people who knew his full name were those present inside the TV when he was rescued.
So how did that explain the suited man knowing it as well?
"...I think it would be a good idea if we kept an eye out for this suited man in the future. If anyone sees him from here on out, be sure to tell the rest of us as soon as possible." Yu said seriously, trying to ignore the goosebumps that were populating his arms. "But for now, I think we'd better focus on the task at hand. Is everyone ready to mobilise?"
"Just bearly! With all this running around as of late, I think my joints are turning into jelly! Especially after I had to scrub my suit clean last night!" A notably suit-less Teddie moaned, clearly having not anticipated how difficult blood was to rinse out.
Yu rolled his eyes with a chuckle. "Other than Teddie, is everyone ready to go?"
The cacophony of everyone's chairs getting pushed out from below them was a pretty good indicator. "You betcha! Let's go kick Astaire-san's world in the ass!" Chie said enthusiastically, punching one of her palms.
Making very sure not to get spotted by anyone in the surprisingly active electronics aisle, the Team slipped in one by one as their latest expedition began.
It seemed like every journey into the TV World as of late was designed to show everyone how they took fresh air for granted, because the Boulder Giant's vaporised corpse didn't smell much better than the Lightning Drake's had. There was a good reason nobody sold 'Dried blood, gunpowder and rotting flesh' air fresheners.
At least it wasn't as sticky as it had been when wet. A parade of crumbled, crusty footprints were left along the floor as the team made their way toward the large door set in the tower's side. The dark, aged wooden boards lightened up towards the center, where a small orb of light seemed to be set in the middle. "Ooh, pretty!" Rise acutely summarised.
"I'm a little worried about what answer I'll get, but… Astaire-san?" Yu said, looking around to meet Astaire's now-armoured form. He'd apparently swapped out his armour from before to another set, adorned with a blue and yellow tunic on the torso and steel plating everywhere else. "Care to wager what we're walking into?"
Hmm. Elite Knight armour was surprisingly comfortable. Whyever had he stopped wearing it? Wait, no, now wasn't the time. Shaking his head and forgoing a helmet, Astaire pushed his glasses up his nose as he examined the light set in the door. "I don't recognise the door, I'm afraid. It's unlike anything I've ever seen." He then turned his attention to everything around the door. Stone bricks mottled with moss and thin vines. "...But that greenery worries me."
Greenery like that only meant one thing, and it wasn't what normally came after Sen's Fortress.
"Unless worryin's gonna clear out everything on the other side of this door, I doubt standin' here's gonna help us much." Kanji said with a shrug, setting his Drakeshield down to put his shoulder into the door. Surprisingly, it didn't budge an inch. "D-Damn thing's stuck or somethin'!" Grunted Kanji, his feet slipping underneath him as he tried and failed to push.
Time for a bit of the old elbow grease. Yu, Astaire, Teddie and Yosuke stepped up beside Kanji and put their shoulders to the weathered wood. "On my signal, we all push at once, alright?" Nodding at Yu's command, the boys braced themselves. "One… two… three!"
There was a sharp, sudden sound, reminiscent of glass shattering and a bullet being fired all at once. The orb of light split into innumerable pieces, flinging the door open easily and flinging the guys to the floor as a result.
Picking himself up and gazing at their path forward, Astaire realised he'd been right to be worried.
From a spatial standpoint, it didn't make sense. It was completely impossible. There shouldn't have been a fully-formed, overgrown, dangerous, ancient-looking forest at the top of a tower that was far from ground level. What's more, it shouldn't have been in the dead of night either. But there it was.
"Darkroot Garden." Astaire announced grimly as he picked himself up. "This… mightn't be good news."
Yeah, as if a spooky-ass forest in the middle of the night was going to be anything but bad news.
"Holy cow. Who'da thought there'd be a whole other forest at the top of that deathtrap from last time?" Chie asked, stepping out from the stone slabs beneath her onto the-
"Wait a second!" Astaire bellowed, wrenching Chie back by her shoulder.
She took it about as well as could've been expected. "Hey, get off me! What gives?!"
Astaire didn't answer her. His brow was taut as he leaned over the divide between forest and tower, straining his ears for any noise. Quickly he leapt back and produced a pair of binoculars from his bottomless box, scanning between the trees.
Squinting at the darkness and seeing nothing, Naoto spoke up. "Do you see anything out there?"
"No." Astaire tucked his binoculars away and fished out his claymore again, glaring at the forest all the while. "But it's not going to stay that way. Everyone be on your guard "
Confused, curious and cautious all at once, the team took their first steps into the Darkroot Garden.
Astaire turned on a heel to look back at the fortress before his eyes went wide. "Curses."
A wall of fog had solidified behind them, locking off their only known exit from the forest. Rise's eyes were quick to widen too. This wasn't the first time this had happened. "Oh no… Does this mean-?" She turned to ask Astaire worriedly.
The forest took it upon itself to answer her instead, as a familiar, magical-sounding noise pierced the silence in the air.
"Dark Spirits. Forest Hunters." Astaire confirmed, taking off from where he stood and sprinting into the bushes and trees off the beaten path. "Everyone over here, quickly! Keep yourselves hidden!" He whispered as loudly as he could.
Considering the last Dark Spirit everyone had known of was immortalised in stone and stabbing Astaire in the back, nobody was quick to protest. Everyone dove into the flora and kept themselves low, daring to peek out above the brush.
Sure enough, slinking out from the trees and moving with silent footsteps was a phantom of deep blue, dressed in flowing robes and carrying a long, thin staff cloaked in crystals. It stepped out of the undergrowth, the sound of shifting moss and leaves falling completely silent as it set foot on the beaten path.
The Forest Hunter stood in the clearing and lolled its head back. It took one look at the fog wall and quickly turned its attention to the rest of the forest.
He knew they were there. He just didn't know where.
Nobody dared to breathe. Nobody dared to move. Their hearts beat so strongly that they swore they would give themselves away. The blood in their veins ran cold as the Phantom's gaze swept over them.
Inside, they begged. Please don't find us. Please move on. Please.
But the Phantom didn't move. It only surveyed the surroundings. It knew they were there. It was waiting for their move first.
Bloody sorcerers. Always so cautious and frail, even if their spells hit like a charge from a boar. Astaire ground his teeth as he slowly, carefully reached into the bottomless box, never letting the phantom leave his sight.
If it wanted a first move, it was bloody well going to get one.
The Phantom's line of sight drifted, far enough to give Astaire his opening. He quickly retrieved his item of choice, a small pebble of some sort, and tossed it over-arm into the bushes on the other side of the clearing. The plant life underneath rustled as it broke the fall.
The Phantom reacted in an instant. A mystic tingle cascaded over the skin of everyone present as magic filled the air. A mighty Soul Spear dashed through the woods and bushes, leaving a clear path to where the noise had originated from.
Of course, there was nothing there. The Phantom began to move to investigate the area further, only to catch another sound as the Soul Spear's influence faded away. Footsteps, hard and heavy.
Astaire's claymore ran the Phantom through from back to front, leaving it limp on the blade. With another thrust he forced it to the ground before he brought the sword down again, scattering the Phantom into a fine blue mist.
Perhaps stabbing him from behind hadn't been the most knightly thing to do. Nor hiding in the shadows and striking when he was distracted.
Oh well, his fault for being a sorcerer.
Bloody sorcerers.
"God, that was tense! I thought I was gonna explode!" Yosuke sighed. The thought of what that spell might've done had it actually hit wasn't a pleasant one. "So are we good? Can we keep going?"
Astaire shook his head. The fog wall still stood in place. The forest remained active. From somewhere else in the woods, far off from where the team stood, the sound of another Phantom being summoned reverberated through the trees.
"We can keep going. But they're going to keep coming."
There was no end to them.
As the team followed Yu and Astaire's backs, kneeling down and slinking through the greenery like a platoon of commandos, more sounds filled the air, each one signifying the arrival of yet another Phantom.
To worsen matters, the further into the Darkroot Garden everyone went, the more concerning the scenery grew. Large tree trunks with gashes and gaps, some so large they'd fallen completely. The remnants of crystal sorceries, leaving tiny, sparkling spikes hanging onto low-hanging leaves like an early morning dew. Sections where the plants and the ground were flattened, no doubt under the might of a greathammer.
One detail remained consistent. There were weapons everywhere. Large swords lay lodged in the ground. Spears stuck out of rusting, mossed-over suits of armour, Battleaxes stuck out from the trees like iron branches.
Darkroot Garden had seen every type of battle there was, and it had the scars to prove it
It wasn't the most inviting of environments, even outside the circumstances. "Wait!" Yu whispered and brought up a hand, bringing everyone behind him to a halt. Another Phantom, brandishing a lengthy halberd in both hands, trudged through. the moss and vines nary a few feet ahead of everyone.
Another Prism Stone tossed through the air. Another Spirit distracted. Another mighty thrust through the back from Astaire, and the spirit was gone.
Everyone let out a breath in unison. This stealthy stuff was hell for one's nerves.
Naoto peeked through the bushes and occasionally worked up the courage to peek above them. All around, as far as she could see, were trees, trees and more trees. "I don't mean to sound impatient…" She whispered, so quietly that she wondered if anyone could actually hear her. "...but do we actually have a target in mind as far as destinations go?"
"As dangerous as that fortress was earlier, at least we were only ever moving up. It seemed pretty hard to get lost in." Whispered Yukiko. "Now it seems like anyone's guess where we're going…"
Rise gave Astaire a nudge in the side and shrugged. "What'd you do last time you came here?"
"Artorias' Grave. That was my destination last time." He replied instantly. It wasn't an easy situation to forget. "Though I'd be unsure of whether or not it's our destination now, given how perplexing this world proves to be."
Then again, Artorias' grave had been surrounded by swords and weapons as well, much like forest at large seemed to be now… perhaps they were closer to the mark than they realised. Either way, the best bet seemed to be carrying on as they were. No point in making themselves any easier to see.
"This is hopeless, we're probably just going 'round in circles now!" Yosuke hissed quietly as he fended off branches from assaulting his face. "Rise, can't you do something about this? Do a scan or two and find out where the hell we are?"
"With that amount of light and sound, we'd be targets for everything in here in the blink of an eye." Yu answered for her.
"Oh c'mon! You really think all these ghostly dudes could take us if we all ganged up on them at once?!"
"And how many is all of them, Yosuke? Do you know how many of them are out there?" Yu asked as he carefully navigated through the roots of one massive, moss-covered tree. "There could be three or three hundred of them, we just don't know!"
Passing the same tree, Yosuke thumped his fist off the trunk. "It'd only take the one scan to find out! Why don't we-" He stopped.
Something had shot out of the tree. And it was wrapping around his arm like a snake.
"AAAAGH GET OFF ME!" Yosuke yelped as he strained against the constricting force.
His voice echoed throughout the forest.
"Yosuke-senpai, you goddamn idiot! Keep your voice down!" Kanji said lowly, no longer bothering to whisper.
"I SAID GET OFF ME YOU FREAKY BASTARD!" Yosuke screamed regardless, ignoring his friends as they simultaneously rounded on him with anger and fear in their eyes. Easy for them to do, considering they weren't all being tangled up by some long, thin-limbed green monstrosity that had hidden up in the branches.
The weird lizardy thing had constricted Yosuke's arm with what appeared to be one of its two necks. The snake-like mouth around his arm snapped at his face, while the other flailed wildly, fending off anyone else from getting too close.
"Oh, screw this! Takehaya Suzano-o!"
The same phrase rushed to the forefronts of everyone's mind at once.
"YOSUKE, NO!"
But it was too late. Takehaya Suzano-o ripped through the tree lizard like it was made of paper, throwing it into the branches overhead as the trees and bushes blustered in the breeze.
The sound of Yosuke's summoning, the tree lizard's death, and the rustling or snapping of branches all reverberated through the trees, like the roar of a hurricane that had suddenly disappeared.
Everyone froze on the spot, fearful anticipation gripping their hearts.
The ground beneath their feet seemed to shudder as the lizard's body hit the ground, before the entire forest seemed to begin rustling angrily around them at once, as though every creature from every corner had begun listing for flesh at once.
Astaire raised his claymore to the trees ahead and backed away towards Rise. "It, uh…. might be prudent of you to start scanning now, Ms. Kujikawa."
Looking on the bright side, at least everyone found a way of getting Astaire to run from a fight.
"There's fifteen- sixteen- there's… there's a whole freaking lot of them, Senpai!" Rise cried from Astaire's shoulders as he dashed and dove between trees for the both of them, Kouzeon's form chasing behind her alongside damn near everything the forest had been hiding.
A luminous blue wave of Phantoms, carrying weapons and armour of all shapes and sizes, chased after the team with dogged determination, following Kouzeon's light as though it were a lighthouse's beacon. Thankfully, armour and armaments weren't exactly crafted for running through the forest at speed, so there was at least some distance between them and the team.
Distance which the beasts of the forest filled readily. "Augh, these things are disgusting!" Chie gagged as she punted another gross red frog-slash-manta-ray creature into the thorny briars to her side. "And they won't freaking die either! Rise-chan, tell me what they're weak to!"
Focusing on one target was difficult with this many enemies at the best of times, never mind while trying to keep her balance atop somebody's shoulders. "It's- It's- um… C'mon, c'mon… Fire! They're weak to fire!"
"Oh, that's my cue!" Yukiko chirped up, flicking her fan out and reeling back to strike her Arcana card mid-run.
She almost hit it, too. Yosuke dashed alongside her and clasped her upper arm roughly. "Are you out of your mind?! We're in a forest! A forest! Things are bad enough as is without us getting roasted alive to top it all off!"
Thankfully, a problem ice magic didn't have, as Teddie sprinted and froze woodland beasts all at once. "Well someone is going to have to take over for me eventually! I can't keep this up forever!"
"There's some kind of bridge leading out of the forest up ahead! I think that's where we're supposed to go!" Rise hollered as she dismissed Kouzeon, leaning over Astaire's head and pointing in the direction of the bridge. "It was that way, not much further!"
A bridge leading out of the forest? That sounded familiar. And if it was familiar for the reasons Astaire suspected, it might've been just the solution they were looking for.
There was no time to waste. As the canopy seemed to grow thicker and lower overhead, Astaire whipped forward, rolling Rise off his shoulders and into his arms, bridal style. "Everyone! If we incite the wrath of whatever awaits us across that bridge, the fog wall will stop these beasts from following us in! We must hurry!"
And hurry they did, (Save for Rise, who hadn't much choice.) With the Frog-Rays nipping at their heels, the trees themselves seeming to spring to life and grasp at them, and a veritable army's worth of Forest Hunters hounding their every move, the Investigation Team finally breached the edge of the Darkroot Garden.
True enough, leading off the edge of the cliff that awaited them was a lengthy stone bridge, extending across to a massive stone door with a glowing white fissure down the middle. As impressive a sight as it was, nobody had time to stop and stare. Everyone's heels clicked as they sprinted for Artorias' grave.
Or, what Astaire assumed would be Artorias' grave, anyway. Which raised another problem, actually. Fighting Sif yet again. Gods above it'd been hard enough the first time, and difficult besides. Putting down Artorias' faithful companion twice wasn't a welcome thought. But it was more welcoming than being put down himself.
As the team approached, the fissure of light began to part in the middle. Both massive doors rumbled open, giving the team their first sight of…
...What in Gwyn's name?
It was Artorias' grave. The wide open space, the massive gravestone, the plethora of weapons, everything was there. There were only two differences.
Artorias' massive sword looked as though it'd been dredged up from the bottom of a lake. It was rusted and corroded, a far cry from the signature luster Astaire knew it to have.
The second difference was Sif. She was there.
But she was already dead.
Damn, if he wasn't mid-run he could've tried to puzzle it out. "Hey… is that the wolf you said you killed to make your ghost-killing sword?" Rise asked from below his chin. Astaire have her a quick nod. "Okay… so why is it still dead if it's in here?"
"You don't think… you don't think somethin' got to it before we did, do ya?" Kanji asked anxiously.
Naoto glanced at him incredulously as she held down her cap down mid-sprint. "And what manner of beast do you propose could do such a thing so easily?" Kanji motioned his head back towards Astaire. "Ah. Well, yes, I suppose that makes sense."
If a normal human- as normal as humans from Astaire's world could claim to be- were capable of killing such a monster, it left plenty of room for speculation, none of it good. It could've been anything.
Crossing over the threshold that was the giant stone doors, Rise chanced a look over Astaire's shoulder. The forest monsters had given up, but the Forest Hunters were as dogged as ever. But that wasn't the most concerning thing. "There's no fog wall! Guys, the fog wall isn't appearing!"
"Oh, that's just great! Now we're stuck in one big dead end with a million angry glowing dudes after us!" Yosuke moaned as everyone drew closer to Sif's body. He swung around and ran backwards to face Astaire and Rise. "Any more bright ideas?!"
Well, it was an idea. Astaire doubted many would call it bright. "Kanji!" He cried out before sprinting up to Kanji's side and quickly offloading Rise into his free arm. "Look after her for me. I'll handle this."
Both Kanji and Rise opened their mouths to protest, but Astaire had already ceased running. He swung around with his claymore in hand, primed to strike the first of the Forest Hunters who rushed him.
If You didn't know any better he'd have sworn he had a death wish. "Damnit, we can't leave anyone behind! Everyone form up!" He commanded sternly, whipping around to face the oncoming horde of Phantoms head-on.
One by one everyone fell to a halt. This was crazy. There was no way they could take that many of them on at once. By sheer numbers alone they'd already won. But they were cornered. Their presumed target was already dead. They had to fight, as slim as victory may have been.
The air was rife with fear. A set of eight Arcana cards lit up the faces of their wielders as Astaire drew his sword behind his back to strike.
"Per-!"
Suddenly, the air distorted around the Forest Hunters. Every single one of them stopped on the spot, then began to dissolve into tiny blue particles, blowing away on an unfelt breeze.
The tip of Astaire's claymore hit off the dirt underneath as his face twisted with confusion. "Goodness. Which one of you did tha-?" He began to ask as he turned to face everyone. The first thing to stop him was the look on everyone else's faces. Their confusion was on par with his own.
They hadn't even got as far as summoning their Personas, so what happened?
"Everyone…?" Astaire spoke up again, bringing his sword up again and staring at Artorias' grave worriedly. "What happened to Sif's body?"
No way.
Yet turning around on the spot proved him to be right. Sif's body was gone.
Worse yet, so was Artorias' sword.
"H-How is this possible?! It was right behind us, we would have heard something happen!" Rise squeaked as she cupped her hands around her mouth.
Where the sword had been, a long, thick hole was left in the dirt. Naoto stepped over and knelt down to examine it. "This is…" She quickly recoiled and drew back the hammer on her revolver, eyes scanning the trees bordering the clearing. "The markings on the hole suggest the sword was pulled out cleanly. Something is close by."
The forest surrounding the grave seemed to undulate and quiver, like an ocean made of leaves tossed up by an unseen storm. It seemed like an attack could've come from anywhere or everywhere. Taking it upon herself to nail down what the hell was going on, Rise focused and evoked Kouzeon above her.
What she saw drew a gasp from her. "G-Guys… I don't know w-what I'm looking at here…" She trembled as she spoke, her irises shrinking to pinpricks inside her visor.
There was one massive, forest-wide enemy signature. The entire map lit up an angry red, dwarfing the signatures of every other forest beast like an all-consuming red mist. It didn't make sense. There was nothing that big above the forest, and it could hardly have been underground. What did it mea-
A sharp pain in Kouzeon's side shattered her into pieces and transferred the pain directly to Rise herself. She screamed as she fell to her knees. The pain was unlike anything she'd ever felt before, deep-set and boiling hot.
The team was of two minds. Naoto, Yukiko, Yu and Kanji glanced around at the trees, trying to figure out what exactly had hit Kouzeon. The rest, "Ms. Kujikawa!" were knelt next to Rise in an instant. "Gods above, are you alright?!"
As immense as the pain was, Rise slipped a hand under her shirt and felt the skin around her pained side. Perplexingly, it was as smooth and soft as ever, despite feeling like something had taken a bite out of her. "Don't worry, I'm alright…" Rise said as she staggered to her feet. The pain would subside. For now, the team still needed her.
Even though she was only slightly worse for wear, Astaire felt his temper flare up regardless. "Sif! You four-legged coward, come out and face us! Is this the way Artorias taught you to fight?!" He roared into the trees, expression twisted into one of inscrutable anger.
The trees shook violently as the forest seemed to roar back at him. From across the bridge, a long, sustained howl sounded out within the forest. Loud enough that it evidently wasn't the work of a normal-sized wolf.
Impossible. Sif couldn't have somehow resurrected, crept away behind everyone's backs, then somehow crept over to the forest just as quietly. Formidable though she may have been, she wasn't what many would've called light-footed. Something about the whole situation stunk like a rotting corpse.
Curiosity and caution played subordinate to anger as Astaire ran off towards the bridge, bloodlust filling his bespectacled eyes. Nobody harmed his charge and got away with it, not even a companion of Artorias.
"Astaire-san, it's a trap! Whatever this is, it doesn't want to fight us on even footing!" Yu called out, nonetheless sprinting after Astaire and bringing everyone else with him in turn.
"Well then it's hardly going to be the one coming to us then, is it?!" Astaire yelled back, eyes fixated on the darkness between the trees, waiting to catch sight of the Great Grey Wolf's prowling form. "We'll have to kill it sooner or later, Mr. Narukami, and I'd much prefer it to be the former!"
It was toying with them.
From outside the forest's confines, the team had picked up on hefty pants, low growls and the occasional howl from within. Inside, all fell silent. From the sounds of it, Sif had disappeared on the wind, never to be seen again.
"The beast can't have gone far. Has anyone else seen anything?" Astaire asked everyone behind him as he kicked up the flora at his feet. He only stopped moving when he didn't get an answer. Turning around, it suddenly became evident that he had been talking to thin air. The team were no longer behind him. "Oh, hell."
When and how had it happened? How long ago? Was it Sif? How hadn't he heard her approach? Why hadn't anyone said anything?
The more questions he asked himself, the more isolated and trapped Astaire began to feel. He could handle himself, and he trusted that the same could be said of Yu and everyone else. That wasn't the issue. The issue was what had happened to separate them in the first place.
The rustling of bushes off to one side grabbed Astaire's attention as he swung his sword around. The snapping of branches behind him spun him around even quicker. Even though he was inside the TV, a wind coursed through the trees and seemed to let out a low, howling moan, like the laboured voice of one in their death throes. The cold breeze nipped at the gaps in Astaire's armour as it passed through and over him, swaying the canopy above him to and fro as though it were alive and watching him.
It was impossible to tell how long ago he'd gotten separated from everyone else. It was also impossible to know how long he'd ran for, or how far. This version of Darkroot Garden seemed infinitely massive compared to the original. The sort of place one could run forever until their mind began to fade and fail.
Considered the entire forest seemed to snarl and lunge at him, and his focus seemed impossible to maintain, maybe that was exactly the case One's mind needed not be Hollow to be addled. Perhaps he'd wandered so long that his had finally been lost altogether. For the briefest of moments, Astaire's guard dropped as he pondered his situation.
As if on cue, a pair of dangerous yellow eyes sprung open between the trees before lunging hungrily at Astaire's back, so quickly that he almost didn't have time to roll out of the way. Whatever yellow-eyed fiend had lashed out at him, its lunge ended in the trees, where it seemingly disappeared before Astaire's eyes.
That's how it had done it. It was lunging from one set of trees to the other, barely spending any time out in the open. Whatever it was, it was much faster and stealthier than Sif had ever been, and likely twice as deadly. Not wanting to get caught out again. Astaire raised his sword to his shoulder and stood deathly still, straining his ears.
Another lunge from his right. Astaire rolled forward as the undergrowth whipped up beneath him, his attacked large enough to whip up a vicious wind in its wake. If only he could get a proper look at what it was.
The lunges only became more fast and fearsome as time went on. The enemy struck from every angle with lightning speed, leaving Astaire time to do little but roll and dodge desperately, praying it'd be enough to stop him getting diced to pieces.
He couldn't go on like this. The situation was quickly becoming a war of attrition between him and… whatever monstrous entity was attacking him, and the likelihood of him outlasting such a being seemed remarkably slim. He needed a plan. He needed to strike. But when?
Then it became noticeable. As his muscles began to tire of consistent, rapid exertion, Astaire realised something. The attacks had a rhythm. A tempo. He clicked his teeth together in his mouth, keeping time every time the unseen force launched a strike from the trees. Indeed, he wasn't imagining things. The attacks were unrelenting, but they were also consistent.
"Which means an opening should present itself right around…" Astaire's teeth clacked once more. He rolled to his feet and spun around on the spot, both hands to his sword as he threw his weight into one massive swing. "There!"
A sturdy hit, punctuated by the sound of branches breaking and flesh giving way to metal, was Astaire's reward for facing the danger head-on. A muffled, pained cry escaped whatever he had hit, and the undergrowth shifted and flowed in time as the enemy's considerable mass landed with a thump off the ground.
At last, Astaire was face to face with his attacker.
Horror, mixed with a twinge of sadness, spurted from his heart and lodged a weight in his throat.
He'd been right the first time. It was indeed the Great Grey Wolf herself, Sif.
But that was only half of it.
The wounds around Sif's body were scarily familiar. Thick gouges parted her fur where his Zweihander had cut her back in Lordran, with parts of her front legs cut to the bone. Innumerable wounds and scratches ran up the wolf's face, above a patch of burnt, exposed skin where his pyromancies had bit at her fur.
It was definitely the same wolf, if not a very convincing replica. But the wounds alone should've been enough to put her to sleep eternally.
That was the other half of it.
Dark, thick branches seemed to tear out of Sif's skin, as though her pelt were a cover for a barren tree. The wood seemed to stretch across the worse of her wounds, almost like attempted wooden sutures. Worse yet, they seemed to be moving, and growing. It almost looked as though they were alive. Where the branches writhed and attempted to close over her wounds from the inside, the patches of exposed skin began to turn green and sprout leaves in place of fur, which had begun to spread across the rest of her body.
Finally, Sif's face came into view in the moonlight. The branches had worked up her neck and around her face, culminating in a thick, painful-looking thorned muzzle around her mouth, to which Artorias' rusted, dilapidated greatsword seemed fused by the new matter that slowly overtook it.
It was horrific. An abomination. A beast reclaimed by the forest around it and paraded around like a mottled, rotting puppet on wooden strings. It was all Astaire could do to contain his horror at such an unnatural, sickening sight. This wasn't Sif. This wasn't the one Artorias had fought alongside. It was an uppity garden wearing her like a barely-functioning fur coat.
Was this the fate that awaited those who died in the forest? Inside this part of the TV World? If he or Rise were to perish, would this be their eternal future?
Even without the thought to sober him, Astaire felt his anger at the forest reach a boiling point. That Sif should've met such a fate was horrible enough as it was. He wasn't going to let it happen to anyone else. He caught his breath and raised his sword again as 'Sif' got to her feet and shook her head, glaring at him with eyes long-dead.
It was time to put the old girl to rest once and for all, even if he had to do it on his own.