*It is nearly the time. Position yourself near the door.*

The voice spoke, and so Yusuke moved. It was thus.

*And be quicker this time, brat! Don't leave the door open!*

Sluggishly, blearily, Yusuke resolved he would open and close the front doors quickly. The voice spoke, and so Yusuke moved. It had always been thus.

He moved along murky corridors, nearly black but for some minuscule light which always managed to seep through from somewhere else.

He trudged.

To the door.

To where the lady would enter.

Which time was it, this time? The thought stuck in his mind, like a boot in mudslime, straining to lift. Ah, it was that time. The last time. She would come, as she had, but would not go. Just like all the others.

He came to his spot in the bright place. A large room, dominated by two rectangles, rimmed by glowing yellow light. In moments, he would hear a knock. He would open one of the rectangles, and, for a moment, see wondrous things. Things that were not black, or grey, or brown- but… but… different! And there were things that did not stay still. Nothing was still, out there. Even opening the door brought a brush of movement against his face, though he could never see what it was, but it felt cool and smelled of- of… something else.

He'd dreamed of going through those rectangles. Several times, he'd had long dreams. Of chairs that bounced and rumbled. Of people. Men and women. All ages. Holding one another. Spinning around and around and around. The men in black. The women in all sorts of glittery… not-blacks. And strange tinny sounds playing all the while.

That had been a... good dream. He'd only had a few; but, it was going away. Sinking back into the muck. He hoped maybe he would get to dream it again.

*Something's not right…*

Yusuke heard the voice, but it was unsure. It held no power of command, so it passed through his mind and he took no special note of it.

Rap. Rap. Rap.

Yusuke's eyes snapped to the glowing rectangles.

"Mr. Madarame?" said a voice from the other side. High and sing-song. Uncertain. "Mr. Madarame, I've decided to accept your offer."

The voice sounded a little different than last time. Or was it exactly the same? Yusuke's mind waffled between the choices, but his body was already moving, already carrying out orders, reaching for the metal orb.

*Wait! Don't open it!*

Yusuke heard the command. He needed to obey. But the 'open' command was already sent to his arms, to his hips. He was already pulling. Trying to stop the action was even harder than getting it started.

Yusuke pulled the rectangle open; the yellow outline, no longer contained, exploded around him. Brownish mirk melted away, pushed back into the upper recesses of a large atrium: stairs, balconies, dark wood.

He winced against the glare, eyes half-shut in instinctual protection. His hand dropped to his side. The rectangle was open. He'd been supposed to open it. The rectangle was open. Now he was supposed to don't open it. But-... it was already open... So….? What was right to do?

As Yusuke's mind trudged, he stared out into the bright place of strange things which moved. He saw the silhouette of an hour-glass. No. A person. A young woman. Wider of hip and bust than of waist. She was like all the others, but not at all like all the others. The sun glared from behind her head, a halo, a sunburst of life shining through two glowing ribbons of golden hair.

The vision seared into Yusuke's mind. And he woke up.

He was entirely and utterly awake. Stunned by the experience, he reached out a hand towards the sudden focus of his existence: this golden haloed woman, staring at him with wide, blue eyes. Yuskue took a half step forward, hand reaching: Wanting. Her. Needing. Her.

Two scowling men stepped between Yusuke and the golden girl, one man was blond and the other's face was half concealed under a hat. And before Yusuke's enraptured mind could react to the alarm bells now going off in his head, the hatted man's hand was at Yusuke's throat, shoving him back into the dark. Yusuke grabbed the man's steely forearm, fighting with all his strength to pull himself up, to use those arms as leverage to pull himself off the ground, anything just to look over his attacker's shoulder, to keep his eyes on the gold woman.

Then, another young woman: black-haired, smaller, harder, less voluptuous- stepped into Yusuke's vision. Crimson eyes gleamed from under black bangs. A glare. The gleaming steel of a large pistol in her hand.

"Ann, prop the door," said the newcomer, eyes now roving the room behind Yusuke.

"Yes," said the golden girl, and the door opened wider, sweeping the dark out of the room.

And Yusuke knew, amongst the few things he knew, that he would never be in the dark again.