Chapter Ten
Kamishiro Satoru has a lot of regrets in life.
Not being a better parent, not telling his father no about the company, not letting adults into the isolated beta test.
These were all recent come to think of it.
But still, despite his regrets, he doesn't, he hasn't, he didn't-
All of him screams to run, to escape down the sidewalk and never look back. But if he does, it'll leave this little girl alone and he can't do that.
He can't fail that badly. Even if it means he we seeing his kids again. Yuugo had never hung up on him before, after all.
So, instead, he looks for a weapon. Anything he can use. Something is coming. His hair is standing on end and a cold sweat broke out on his skin.
He glances at the little girl. She's not young. Still a child, of course, but -
Any resemblance to Yuuko fades with her eyes. Her eyes are steady and determined, sure, but just a little bit dark. Like she'd clawed her way back to humanity, leaving something behind.
"Please help me find an easy place to defend."
Not escape from, defend, and he remembers years of running errands in unsafe spaces. He's not an idiot. Self-defense has come naturally to him, but he is rusty.
Still, he listens. The world shudders and warps. His phone still beeps obnoxiously.
"Give up on that," the girl says absently. "As long as we're in a warped space like this, it'll be useless. Worse than that. I'd put it in your suitcase or your pocket for now."
Satoru doesn't waste time asking how she knows or why. Her calm in the situation tells him everything. SO instead he asks. "Is this a normal occurrence around an EDEN gate?" Because if someone saw this, if someone knew, then - it should have been reported or rumored or anything. All the incidents R&D had been tracking had been online. EDEN syndrome was still happening in EDEN, so was this a bleedover from his internet service? It went too far past virtual reality, but even if it was EDEN how was it so real and interfering with the physical world?
"It shouldn't be," she says. "I don't think so. I've logged in and out quite a few times and this has never happened before. This feels … dangerous. Like things are getting closer. Monsters. These things."
"Human. Juri. Let me out."
The tinny voice comes from the thing in her hand, muffled by her palm. "It's cramped in here."
"That's because you take up a lot of memory space like that," she informa him. Just hold on a second. We're almost to a place I can do something."
"Those cards are not meant for human use."
"I'm far past human," she says as Satoru's eyes land a short distance from a clearly defunct train track. They can't work here or he's going to have an awful panic attack jumping down to it. "Don't worry about it." She runs a few through something that looks like an ancient barcode toy and settles by the small corner. Next to it is a strangely placed old looking phone sans booth. "Okay Duftmon, here we-"
The station rumbles.
"Go go go!" She presses the center button as fast as she can and something - monster, a humanoid monster! maybe his grandfather wasn't crazy after all - floats in front of them. The winged lion knight brandishes a rapier, and points it right where the world cracks.
Something lurches out. At first, it's a tentacle. Next, it's a bloody pallid hand, pink, and gold. It cracks the air itself as it clutches the edges of the hole and tears, each finger crunching.
Another monster carves its way out, a strange pile driver on one arm, wrapped in pink, misguided knight's armor. It turns its sightless head around for a long moment. Then it sees them. Satoru swears it smiles.
"Look what i found," it purrs. Satoru notices that its armor is cracked and dinged. "How convenient. It appears our battle can conclude, after all, traitor."
Duftmon says nothing. It sneers. "Die."
They jump as fingers launch into spears. Juri knocks Satoru over and the sharp points pass harmlessly through the telephone, of all things but carve gaping holes into the walls.
Juri slices down again, summoning a light around her fist. "Run, sir!"
Satoru gets up, hesitating. "But you're-"
"Not a chance," snarls the pink monster, but the lion one crashes her into the wall.
"We'll be okay," Juri reassures. "Go, please!"
Satoru runs, hurrying in the opposite direction. There's no help he can get. The best he can do is escape and not be dead weight. It stings again.
He hates helplessness. that's why he made EDEN to begin with.
As he races out, he nearly collides with someone else again. His son looks at him wide-eyed, determined, but confused all the same. Satoru holds him tight without saying a word.
"Dad?" Yuugo repeats. "What happened?"
"… We need to get out of here," he manages. "While that girl is distracting it, we need to go. It's not safe here."
"What do you mean, girl?" Yuugo starts, and then he pales. "You mean Katou-san? My friend?"
Yuugo watches his father turn even more pale, his rumpled business suit covered in dust and Yuuko looks just like him right now but worse and all Yuugo knows for sure is that he has to do something.
"Dad," he says. "I have to go. That's my friend."
"You can't," Satoru's hands tighten on his arms. "I can't … I can't lose you too."
Yuugo swallows the guilt and turns it into anger. "I'm not running away, dad. We've done that enough. I'm going to fight, to protect you and Yuuko." He pulls away. "You looked away all this time. I'm not going to. If I can do something, I will."
"Wait, Yuu-" But Yuugo has run past him, full tilt, facing forward. satoru is immediately trying to stand up, to hold him and stop him, but-
"Daddy?"
Something breaks his heart, and Satoru makes the mistake of turning around. His daughter stands there, pale as a ghost, but there.
He can't move in the face of her supported by one of Yuugo's friends and by the time he turns again, Yuuko in his arms, Yuugo is out of sight.