deadendsmile | In Logic, the Symbolic Dream

In Logic, the Symbolic Dream

It's been a few months since the situation with Rust and Irezumi was settled. No dreams or unexpected trips to another person's mind happen. No monsters that don't obey the laws of physics and reality appearing. As far as everything was concerned the world went on without knowledge of who the Oni or Rust was. Almost as if those horrors never existed. But that isn't going to last.

It's any old day and any old situation when this begins. Hiroshi could have been in class and nodded off. He could have been going to sleep or just about to wake. As long as his eyes close for a period of time, he will feel a tug like a sudden thought in his mind before being pulled into that same void. The fall down the pitch black abyss is long and cold but the impact with the ground is surprisly soft this time.

The area he finds himself in is much like the one in Irezumi's mind, a black void that emits occasional static like a faulty TV set. Unlike his, however, is the color of the ground. Blue is scattered around like scribbles in a book or rather, as the image may invoke, scribbles drawn on the floor and ceiling from a place that's probably very familiar by this point. The door before him is the exact same as the one to the entrance of the mansion as well. But there's no shaking the feeling, regardless of the set up, of warmth in this place. It too was familiar in a way that Hiroshi has been here before. It's his own home, his own mind this time, without being connected to anyone else. But as always in this place, someone or something is watching.

Welcome back to the Nexus.

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It continues for a little bit, before tapering off like a broken cassette player...

"Okay," Irezumi began, mostly to talk himself through what happened so far. "We have rumors that have, one way or another, lead to people dying. No one like the police or anything are looking into them despite this. I can't even find anyone who knows about the Rust disease."

It was like once it was destroyed, that was it. Rust and the people he had destroyed disappeared with him. And now he also knew that on Hiroshi's end, no one had really looked into what happened with the Oni.

"....Hiroshi, do you think something is stopping people from knowing?"

"Don't..."

Hiroshi closed his eyes for a minute, taking in all the pieces of the puzzle. When he opened them again, his eyes showed a grim determination.

"I believe that is exactly what is going on, Irezumi. Something beyond standard human reasoning. The question is, why?"

"I don't know...what sort of questions were you asked? By the dolls, I mean."

Irezumi could write it off as their minds trying to work their way through whatever happened in a very odd manner but the end results that seemed like the dream tearing itself apart made him re-think that mind set. They had to go over everything.

Hiroshi thought about that, trying to recall the precise questions. It wasn't easy, what with the way he received them. "I... believe they first asked specific questions about the Oni. Where the rumor had come from. Why nobody had looked into the matter with any clout."

He furrowed his brow, suddenly worried. "They... asked about who was watching me when I was destroying Rust in your mind. I'd forgotten that I had briefly seen myself from outside myself when I was accomplishing that. And... then it asked who was watching now, and where they were."

The voice, perhaps?

Maybe, but the ones saying "Don't" sound much more desperate than those dull, dead voices of the dolls.

Irezumi raised one hand and forced himself to put it back down so he didn't scratch his scars again. "You know...when Rust beat me, he stuck what I didn't put in the Home Door into the Memory Door. When I was there I always felt like I was being watched by something that wasn't him."

A thing that could be in the real world and in the dream world, if the watcher was the same person. Dull, digging, like colorful worms in watery dirt...

"...please."

Sorry, voice, Hiroshi couldn't oblige you. Not when something had already just tried to kill him.

"This is... troubling," he commented finally, a massive understatement if there could ever be one. "We need to figure out the nature of this thing. I have no doubt whatever it is means us ill. The only question is, how are we even to know where to begin?"

The voices get a little louder. It kind of feels like they're scratching on a wall in Hiroshi's mind. They're very instant on him not doing something but it's kind of useless to warn him about that when they don't tell him what it is.

Irezumi sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I...I hate to say it but out best bet is back in the dream world or the places where we met the Oni and Rust. Ochiki's house and the mansion."

And judging by the look on his face, Irezumi liked neither of those ideas. But really, what choice did they have? The dreams centered around those places so it was ether those two homes or the dream world, which they knew nothing about.

Hiroshi massaged a temple. The voices were definitely unsettling. Why were they so insistent? What could possibly be worse than what had already happened?

"My suggestion would be Ochiki's. You were, as far as I know, the only physical threat in that place. The mansion that I went to has many, and I do not believe anything has changed since then." Honestly, Hiroshi would not be surprised if more people had disappeared in the time since he'd left that town.

It really does make sense going to Ochiki's place first. Irezumi was the only person who could hurt them and since Rust was gone, that threat was gone. Neither of them had to worry about being jumped by something. That didn't mean he liked the idea of going back, though.

"...yeah. Yeah, you're right. The buses are still running so I think we can make it if we go now. That alright?"

Hiroshi felt sorry for Irezumi. Just because logically it was easier for the pair of them didn't necessarily mean it was easier EMOTIONALLY, a distinction Hiroshi had only really started to be able to get a handle on. He pushed his glasses up, sighing. "That would be fine, yes. Hopefully we can find whatever we need and get back in a reasonable amount of time."

Though he was under no delusions they would find everything, and he was not looking forward to going to sleep tonight...

Maybe, maybe not. That's how these things usually went. But either the voices agreed with going on or something was up because they have stopped.

The bus trip there was pretty uneventful but the closer they got, the more uncomfortable Irezumi felt. Doctor Ochiki's home was still intact, not demolished, so they really didn't have any reason not to go into the basement as soon as they could. He didn't want to go.

The first warning bell should be that everything inside was untouched. Even the rotten fruit in the kitchen was there and the smell of blood was still in the air, although that and the bodies have been cleaned up. The police had come to collect them but that didn't explain why the rest of the house was left alone.

The door to the basement was closed but not locked. It took Irezumi a moment to open it and enter. Inside it was the same, same darkness with that tiny light, same smell of blood. It was sick.

"...don't know if there's anything in here but...maybe those boxes from before." He tried.

Irezumi's discomfort did not get past Hiroshi. He definitely understood. After all, he wasn't entirely comfortable returning himself considering their mutual experience there. But he had to admire Irezumi for going through with it anyway regardless of his distress. The older boy definitely had strength of character going for him, something Hiroshi doubted he had himself.

The house was... undisturbed. Worrying. He KNEW the police had been here. Surely some sort of evidence should have been extracted? Why was it like that? He followed Irezumi into the basement, but made a practical point of pulling out a stick of chewing gum, chewing it for a bit before sticking it in to prevent the door from locking on them. Not that it necessarily WOULD. But Hiroshi didn't like taking chances in places like this.

He nodded at Irezumi's suggestion, heading over to the boxes. Yep, there was the one with the hole in it, even. Hiroshi opened the boxes again, looking.

He may need to be careful in one of those boxes, as there is glass littering the bottom. The chunk of hair from Yuki was in that box in particular along with the mirror that Smile had used to jump Hiroshi when the light went out in the basement. Again, oddly enough, the mirror was intact when it had broken before. Everything in those boxes were in the same state they were before. Put the bodies back and it'd be the exact same.

Irezumi meanwhile was looking in the back. He was trying to avoid where Yuki and Sabitsuki's bodies once were but found himself drawn there eventually. There was something carved on the wall. Remembering what Hiroshi had said about voices over the phone, Irezumi called him over.

"Didn't you say you could hear people telling you 'don't'?" He pointed at the wall. There was the word 'please' carved in with a knife a number of times. "I don't remember doing this."

What the hell... Broken things don't just fix themselves. How could everything be back in place? Did the police conduct an investigation or a cleaning job?

Hiroshi blinked as Irezumi's call to him brings him back into the present. "Yes, that is true, but..." He stopped, staring at the wall. Please... Hadn't the voices in his head also said that? "Are... are you certain?" he asked, a sick feeling settling in his stomach.

"Yeah...they look fresh." He ran a hand over the carvings, thinking. "I might have said it to Ochki once or twice when I was awake...but he made sure I didn't have anything sharp. Rust found that hammer, so..."

What were those voices trying to warn them of anyways? 'Please don't' sounded desperate, not hostile like a good chunk of all the creepy voices they had encountered. But why just tell them that instead of telling them what they needed to not do? He knew these things didn't make sense often but seriously he was starting to wish that they would!

"Either way, I think we should try and figure this out. It's warning us about something so--"

But he's interrupted by the sound of the door snapping shut and...a giggle. A girl's voice.

"....Sabitsuki?"

Hiroshi frowned as he listened to Irezumi. So everything was the same as that time... EXCEPT for the writing. What did it all mean? Why couldn't the voices just tell him what was going on? Why the hell did everything need to be so enigmatic! And please tell him he didn't just hear the door slam shut.

Hiroshi rushed towards the door, checking it. Surely his preventative measure...?

No dice, it's locked tight. Nothing seemed to be holding it shut this time though.

Irezumi, meanwhile, was trying to follow where the 'voice' of his friend was coming from. He was frowning because he knew Sabitsuki as someone who didn't laugh a lot and when she did, not like that. Not a giggle.

His eyes finally rested on the boxes and he called to his friend. "Hey Hiroshi! Did you find that mirror?"

How was that even possible? The gum should have prevented the door from closing properly! He hit the door in frustration. Locked doors. Why was it always locked doors?

He turned, blinking. "Ah, yes, it was in the box. Actually, it was still intact, which does not make any sense..."

Irezumi started digging through the boxes, tossing one over his shoulder when he couldn't find the mirror in it. He remembered this set up, remembered it from the bits and pieces by watching from the Home Door and oh god if it really was that--

He finally found the mirror and the girl's high pitched laughter could be hear. His face twisted in anger.

"Hiroshi. Get down here now."

Because on the other side of that mirror, much like Smile from before, was Sabitsuki. But the smile on her face wasn't her's. Rust's.

Hiroshi heard the undertone in Irezumi's voice, saw the look on his face. He headed over to where he stood and looked at the mirror. His brow furrowed. "That's..."

But she was dead, right? The only one who could be Smile anymore was Irezumi, and Hiroshi had put an end to that. So what did this mean...?

'Sabitsuki' giggled and Irezumi had to resist the urge to smash the mirror then and there. Why why why--

"It's been awhile you two! I didn't think I'd see you again." She said. "Are you in over your heads again?" Because it looked that way from the disease's perspective. Did they really think they were safe, coming here?

Hiroshi was the first to say the name out loud. "...Rust. I suppose it was overly optimistic of us to assume you could not survive without a physical form," he growled. He could only imagine how Irezumi was feeling right now, seeing Sabitsuki in that state. If it was one of Hiroshi's friends...

"Why are YOU still here?" There was no reason for Rust to still be around here. Nothing left for it. Right...?

"Two reasons, one of which has nothing to do with you Irezumi, so stop looking at me like that." Irezumi's grip doubled on the mirror and he growled. "What?" The disease asked. "This was the form I took when we talked in the Memory Door and since you two did a number on my other one, I had no choice but to take this body again. See...?"

The view on Rust's side moves until a body comes into view. It's twisted, broken and still somehow was leaking that organic rust but can be recognized as Irezumi, or at least the form that Rust had taken once upon a time. The disease laughed again and turned the mirror back onto herself.

"But I should get the last thing I need to do. Hiroshi, I have a message for you!" And the sing-song tone of Rust's voice is a sign that this isn't a good one...

A message for him, but not for Irezumi...? Hiroshi felt a cold sweat on the back of his neck. "What could you possibly have to give to me?" he asked, low and terse.

"From your friends...they're lonely in the mansion Hiroshi, with just the Oni. But you would have been safe there if you had gone instead of come here. It's all empty. Everyone is gone."

Irezumi felt cold. He lacked the experience that Hiroshi did with the Oni, having only seen them through reading his friend's memories, but that was enough to know that for however goofy-looking they may be, the Oni were terrifying creatures. And if what Rust meant what he was thinking, then....they might be loose.

In Logic, the Symbolic Dream

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