CHAPTER THREE

Out of the Frying Pan…and Into the Fire

To say the least, Saya was amazed with what Ness and Lucas had to share with her. The first order of business was their age. Ness was thirteen, the same age as Saya, while Lucas was twelve. The second order was where they got their PSI abilities. Ness had gotten his from touching a meteor that had crashed down in his hometown Onett, while Lucas had gotten his from holding his head underwater for a long period of time (which he admitted made little sense now that he thought about it). They were travelling together because Lucas had mysteriously appeared in Onett one night, and…

"…I'm trying to find my way back home."

"Where are you from, Lucas?" asked Saya.

"Tazmily Village. It's in a place called the Nowhere Islands."

"Do you have family there?"

Lucas suddenly grimaced, signalling Saya to drop the subject. That was something that she had noticed about their stories. Ness had a mother and sister back in Onett while his father was travelling abroad. He also had three close friends named Paula, Jeff, and Poo. Lucas, on the other hand, had mentioned nothing about his family or how he had even appeared in Onett. Then again, it looked like he didn't want to tell them.

"Never mind…"

"So what about you, Saya?" asked Ness. "What's your story?"

It was Saya's turn to grimace. She knew her past but dreaded remembering it, thinking about it, and especially talking about it.

"It's complicated…"

"Our stories were pretty complicated, too."

"Yeah, but mine is like really super complicated. I don't like talking about it."

Ness and Lucas looked at one another with a look of concern. They weren't sure what was compelling Saya to suddenly get so introverted, but egging her on to keep talking wouldn't do any good.

"Well anyway," Ness said, breaking the tense silence. "What did that woman want with you? Who was she?"

"She said her name was Juri…and I have no clue what she wanted with me."

"She looked like she wanted to rip your throat out."

"I guess she's just crazy."

"I wouldn't doubt that. I myself have seen a lot of crazy things in my travels."

Saya smiled…until her vision and hearing faded out. What replaced the scene before was a black void with the only thing visible being a strange red mass with what seemed to be a moaning skull in the center. What replaced the train chugging along the countryside was a quiet disembodied voice that echoed from everywhere around her, almost sounding like it was struggling to breathe. Scarier still was what the voice said.

"Ness…it hurts…it hurts…I'm h…a...p…p…y…"

Then she heard Ness, and it sounded…it sounded like he was panting…starting to cry. And he said a name. A strange name that Saya could make no sense of. With that, the mass released a gigantic wave of energy right as Saya's vision faded back in. She shook off what had just happened while Ness and Lucas stared at her in confusion.

"You alright?" Ness asked.

"Yeah…just started daydreaming, that's all."

If she were to tell the truth, Saya did know what had just happened, but she couldn't tell either of them that. She didn't need another person thinking she was a hopeless wreck. That face, though…what was that thing?

As soon as Saya noticed that Ness was playing with Ammy, Saya tapped on Lucas' shoulder.

"Lucas…who is Giygas?"

Lucas looked at Saya like she had done something wrong.

"How in the world do you know that name?!"

"I…never mind."

"No, it's okay, it's just…wow. We weren't thinking anyone else would know about him."

"It's a 'he'?"

"Yeah…sorry, but I don't know too much about him. The one to ask would be Ness, but…he doesn't like talking about him. I asked him about Giygas once and he started to talk about him but when he started to mention the battle he had with him…he suddenly looked like he'd never be happy again."

"Oh…heh. I guess we all have our secrets, huh?"

"Yeah."

They both shared a brief chuckle, but somehow Saya got the feeling that Lucas was hiding something even more painful than Ness, and she was even greatly surprised that Ness would have a frightening secret like that despite how he looked so fearless on the outside. Just the way Giygas looked was enough to scare Saya, let alone the way he talked, but the idea that the encounter now had Ness dealing with post-traumatic stress was a testament to how brutal it must have been.

It was like she had just said, though: everyone had secrets…and she was no exception.

She sighed, and as if on cue, the train started to slow down. The three children raised their brows and looked out the nearby window. They were stopping on a bridge that had to be at least several hundred feet over a lake. They could see the city of Osaka on the horizon, relieving Saya when she realized that she was one step closer to absolute safety, but then came the obvious question: why were they stopping?

Then they heard someone scream at the back of the car: "Oh my God! Someone's putting bombs on the bridge!"

Saya, Ness, and Lucas looked out the window and saw in shock that the passenger hadn't been lying. Someone was indeed putting bombs on the bridge, but more shocking was who that person was.

"Juri?!" Lucas sputtered. "How did she catch up to us so quickly?!"

"Why isn't the train moving?! We've gotta get out of here!" Saya cried.

Ness focused his vision toward the front of the train and saw that train's wheels was grinding the tracks at an insane speed but it was being met with a heavy amount of resistance. And then he saw what it was. Judging from how the creature's hand was glowing a dark blue as it held it out at the train, it seemed to be holding the train back with telekinesis (something Ness was quite familiar with). The problem was trying to figure out what the creature was in the first place. It was nearly seven feet tall, and its violet body was toned in an odd way. Its eyes were closed as though it felt guilty for what it was going, and its long purple tail was drooped uselessly on the ground.

"Is that a Pokémon?" Ness muttered to himself.

Meanwhile, Juri had laid down the last bomb and looked up to see Saya staring at her in fear. The Korean psychopath smiled devilishly at the young girl and coyly waved at her before casually walking away, holding what was undoubtedly a detonator in her hand.

"YOU BITCH!" Saya shouted after her.

"Everybody move forward!" shouted the conductor as he burst into the car. "Get the front of the train now!

Everyone started to rush forward, squeezing through the door and shoving each other over as they tried to be the first to get out of danger. The three children tried to make their way out into the aisle, only to be shoved aside and tossed all about until Saya was tossed back into the wall where she hit her head against the metallic frame and fell down unconscious.

"Saya!" Lucas cried, rushing to her side almost instantly. "Get up! We need to go now!"

"She's not gonna wake up, Luke!" Ness shouted, bending down and cradling Saya to the best of his ability. "Here, let's go!"

Ness, Lucas, and Ammy finally to get into the aisle just as they were the last ones left in the car. They ran toward the door as fast as they could.

They didn't make it.

Juri activated the detonator and the section of the bridge she had planted the bombs on blew apart, leaving a massive gap. The last two cars on the train slipped into this gap, and their weight strained on the coupling until it broke apart, leaving the car freefalling toward the lake below with the fours innocent victims trapped inside. Gravity forced them to the front of the car, each doing a fair amount of damage to themselves as they slammed against the wall. Ness and Lucas continued to scream in terror until Saya suddenly found it in her to stir awake and see what was going on.

"No…we won't die here…not by her hand."

Saya reached out with her limbs, wrapping her left arm around Ness, her right arm around Ammy, and her legs around Lucas. With that done, she gritted her teeth and let out a loud and almost inhuman shriek, the air around the four filling with a brilliant light and loud wind until they found themselves skidding into the dirt on the lake shore, the sound of the cars crashing down into the water ringing out from a good distance away.

All four took a few moments to catch their breath, Ness and Ammy shaking off the terror of the situation.

"Phew…Saya, what did you…" he started, but stopped and stifled a laugh when he saw the position Saya and Lucas were in.

Since Saya had grabbed Lucas with her legs and she had landed on her back, Lucas had unfortunately face-planted into her chest, and Saya was now blushing as red as a tomato.

"Umm…L-Lucas?"

Lucas groaned as he realized what he was doing, and then yelped before jumping back and skittering away from Saya on his rear end.

"I-I-I-I'm so sorry, Saya! I didn't mean to…"

Saya smiled at him before getting to her feet.

"The important thing is that we're all okay."

"I'll say." said Ness. "How the heck did you do that, Saya?"

"Do what? I didn't do anything."

"You just teleported us to the shore! You just saved us!"

"Ness, I didn't do anything, I swear. Just call it divine intervention or something. Besides, didn't you say you had a teleportation PSI skill? Maybe you did it!"

"Fat chance. I mean, yeah, I do have a teleportation skill, but it's not that easy to pull off. I need to have a good empty stretch of land 'cause if I touch anything while trying to do it, I blow up."

"Uhh…"

"As in my hair stands on end and I get a huge puff of ash in my face."

"Oh."

Ness wanted to further object to Saya's claim, finding it very hard to believe that what had just happened was "divine intervention", but couldn't when Ammy suddenly growled in the direction of the lake. Turning their heads in that direction, the three children saw why: Juri had seen them survive the fall and had dove into the lake from a safe height, now swimming toward them as fast as she could.

"Oh, no you don't!" Lucas growled before getting to his feet. "PK FREEZE!"

A sphere of ice formed in Lucas' hands and he threw it out toward where Juri was. It landed right in front of her and created a giant blanket of ice that wrapped around her and pinned her arms to her sides. She grunted and kicked, but she was undoubtedly hindered for the moment.

"Won't she drown?!" Saya asked in concern.

"Who cares?!" Lucas panted. "Run!"

And that was exactly what they did. Their legs pumping as fast as they could go, the four ran and ran and didn't stop for anything. They jumped over bushes, maneuvered around trees, really anything so long as they were able to keep moving.

And then came the one thing Saya was hoping wouldn't happen: someone dropped from the treetops and landed in front of them, forcing them to come to a screeching halt.

"No!" Saya cried. "Not you! Not now!"

"Take it easy, kid." said Dante. "Look, I'm unarmed, I'm just walking toward you, and…"
"BACK OFF OR I'LL KILL YOU!"
"Sorry, sweetheart. You couldn't do that even if you tried."

Saya gritted her teeth and yelped as she bumped into someone from behind, realizing that it was Kat in an instant.

"You! How could you side with this maniac?!"

"He's not a maniac, Saya!" Kat said. "He's just trying to…"

Lucas and Ness stepped forward with their hands throwing out sparks and their lips curled into frowns.

"She said back off." growled Ness.

Dante did nothing more than smirk.

"Don't try it, kids. You don't wanna know the kind of stuff I could do to you."

"We don't care!" shouted Lucas. "We're not gonna let you hurt Saya!"

Dante opened his mouth to speak again, but he was interrupted by a sultry voice that seemed to echo out of nowhere.

"Saya? As in Saya Kusanagi?"

"Oh, for Pete's sake, how many total strangers know my Goddamn name?!" Saya whined, clearly not paying attention to the fact that the voice had come out of thin air.

She may have been whining then, but she felt like screaming when she suddenly felt herself seized around the middle by an invisible force, a column of shadows forming around her. All everyone could do was stand there and watch as Saya was steadily driven into unconscious by a shadowed woman who began to chuckle to herself.

"You don't mind if I steal her for a little while, do you?"

"SAYA!" Lucas screamed, running toward the portal but promptly being pulled back by Dante. "Let me go! I have to help her!"

"Don't get ahead of yourself, kid! You'll only get hurt!"

Dante didn't let Lucas go until the portal disappeared, and both the woman and Saya were nowhere in sight. Lucas turned toward Dante with tear-stricken eyes.

"You…you unbelievable jerk!" he yelled, punching Dante's stomach as hard as he could and yet somehow inflicting no damage. "How could you just…"

"Quite frankly, you should probably be thanking me. That thing you just saw was a succubus. She's dragged Saya into Limbo."

"Wha…what are you talking about?"

"You can't save her. I can."

Dante turned to Kat.

"Alright. Send me in. Head to the next closest rift and lead me there once I find the kid."

Kat nodded before whipping out the paper from the tube on her back and laying it on the ground, then yanking out her spray can and spraying over the symbol. Afterwards, she pulled the paper back and revealed the perfectly drawn symbol on the ground that began to glow. Dante stepped into it and gave Kat a quick and nonchalant salute before he too was engulfed in a column of darkness and vanished.

"Okay, back up a second!" Ness demanded. "What the hell is going on?"

"Look, guys." said Kat. "All you need to know is that we're all on the same side here. Dante's got this. Let him save Saya, okay? You'll see her again soon."

Kat ran off into the forest, leaving Saya's companions alone in the clearing. Lucas fell to his knees and panted as though he were about to start crying.

"I can't believe I just…I just let this happen to her."

"Hey, Luke, it's gonna be okay." Ness assured, laying a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder.
"How do you know, Ness? How do you know Dante's not just going to rip Saya limb-from-limb once he finds her? We don't know him and he knows that."

Ness was suddenly interrupted by Ammy stepping forward and looking deep into Lucas' eyes…before somehow speaking without opening her mouth.

"Fear not, dear Lucas. Saya is far more powerful than she may appear."

"What the…you can talk?!" Lucas and Ness sputtered.

Ammy seemed to smirk.

"I can't say that your surprise is unnecessary, but I was under the impression that you could communicate with animals, Lucas."

Lucas sat motionless with his mouth dropped open before he answered.

"Well…yeah, but…by that I meant I can understand their barks and yelps and stuff! You're actually speaking a human language!"
"Ah, I see. My apologies, then. You see, children, my name is Amaterasu."

"Amaterasu…funny." Ness said with a knit brow. "There's a sun goddess in Japan's Shinto religion with that name. Are you saying that you're the same goddess?"

"I prefer to keep a humble profile, but by human definition, yes. I am indeed a goddess."

"How do we know you're telling the truth?"

"You simply have to trust me. Are you curious as to why Juri and Dante have been searching for Saya?"

"Sure."

"It is because Saya houses a power that she won't dare reveal to anyone, and as Ness pointed out, she utilized a portion of it to save us minutes ago. She attempted to lie about it in order to keep it a secret, and though I'm not one to criticize a child, it seems she wasn't very good at hiding it."

The two boys took that to mind and began to think: what could this power be? Both were somewhat unsurprised seeing as there was no way they could be the only ones around with PSI abilities, but that was just it. What Saya had done didn't look like any PSI ability they had ever seen.

"What exactly…is this power she has?" asked Lucas.

"She will tell you herself when the time comes. I can assure you that Dante will bring her back, and when he does, we must be there to assist her."

Lucas stood up and clenched his fist.

"Okay! What do we have to do?"

Amaterasu smirked again.

"Your emotions hold much promise, Lucas. I cannot wait to see what you can really do. In any case, we must first obtain an ancient relic in order for me to regain my power."

"Huh? But I thought you were a goddess."

"Indeed, I am, but I have not performed any truly "incredible divine acts" in quite some time. There is a reason for it, but I do not have enough time to explain it to you. I sealed away my power for a time when I would need it, and that power rests near the summit of the Mountain of the Gods."

"Mountain of the Gods…Mount Fuji?"

"Yes. There lies the Celestial Brush. I shall explain more when we arrive there, but I can only make this a request. I am not here to make the two of you do anything, but I am no use to you without that power."

Ness and Lucas looked at each other with nervousness. They were smarter than to just blindly follow a talking dog that claimed to be a divine being, but if they were going to be of any help to Saya, they couldn't just stand around and wait for a miracle. They needed to put their faith in the most absurd of places if they wanted her back.

They looked back at Amaterasu and nodded.

"Count us in."

Amaterasu smiled.

"Excellent! Come! To Mount Fuji!"