deadendsmile | 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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For Hiroshi, the full implications of what Rust was telling him took a moment to wash over him. When they did, they hit like a sledgehammer in his gut. "Impossible. They never left the confines of the mansion! I know they had the opportunity to do so, and they..." He shut his eyes as the memory came back. Him, fleeing for his life from the Oni he knew once as Takuro. He hadn't been sure exactly when Takuro had stopped pursuing him, but he knew at some point he'd simply... stopped. "They would not just leave like that. If what you are saying is true, then where did everybody go?"

Rust rested his chin in her hands and smiled.

"That, I think, could be a question that Irezumi could answer! If you had a chance to meet your friends again, where would you go? Assuming you didn't kill them I mean."

Irezumi bit his lip and it took a moment for him to answer with something that didn't involve breaking the mirror.

"I'd...go and try and find them." Rust grinned again and looked at Hiroshi. That should clear it up, shouldn't it?

He furrowed his brow. This didn't seem to make any sense, but. "Are you trying to say that they're wherever I go to look for them?" he asked incredulously.

The light in the room flickered and that feeling of dread began creeping on Irezumi. "Hiroshi...." The voices also started up again, adding 'please' to their chanting.

"Perhaps. But you're also a little slow to helping them, last I remember! So maybe...just maybe, they've decided to come find you."

...What?

Hiroshi turned ashen white, backing away from the mirror, his eyes darting around the room. Something was happening. Something bad. No way... They couldn't be here. They couldn't. He'd have seen something. Felt something. Wouldn't he? It wasn't THAT dark in this room...!

He began to fumble in his bag, looking for his flashlight, his hands shaking. He wanted to write it off, say it was Rust trying to scare him. But the voices in his head, and the lights...

And the door is locked.

He found his flashlight and began shining it wildly around the room, barely contained panic just under the surface of his actions.

And standing right behind them is Takeshi. His skin is blue and he seems...bigger, somehow. Hiroshi probably knows why.

"Now..." Rust was saying. "I just finished the first thing I came here to do. Being a distraction is rather fun!" The mirror shattered into pieces and Irezumi dropped it, loudly cursing.

At the same time all the lights in the room turn off, even Hiroshi's flashlight and won't turn back on again. The last thing that happens is Takeshi taking a step forward towards them...

"Ta...Take..."

No no no there's nowhere to run the door is locked how could he have been such an idiot and now both he and Irezumi were going to die this wasn't happening this wasn't happening...

The flashlight fell from his hand. The last thing Hiroshi sees before everything goes dark is a hand reaching out towards him.

Luckily enough, it isn't a hand grabbing him but someone tackling him out of the way. The last thing Irezumi saw was Takeshi reaching out towards his friend and he knew he had to get Hiroshi out of the way by any means. Hopefully it knocked them far enough though...

"Find the backup light in the back!" Irezumi hissed. "I'll try and hold him off!" He had no idea of the backup power source would even work anymore but they had to give it a shot! He would not die down here again, not again. Not without a fight this time.

Irezumi's interruption was all it took for Hiroshi to snap back to his senses. Somehow, Irezumi had bought them some time... but if Hiroshi didn't move fast enough, Irezumi might end up a sacrifice.

Hell no. Not again.

He nodded, even though he couldn't be seen, and fumbled towards the back wall, hoping to find the backup light. It was around here somewhere, he was sure of it.

The light was exactly where it was before. The only difference was that the switch was coated in something that burned. He could still get a grip on it, luckily enough, but it was going to hurt slightly.

With the lights back on, Hiroshi can see some interesting things. The Oni had yet to change its form back to its original, monstrous shape and instead was still "Takeshi". The reason for that may seem to be a practical one. While the basement itself was unusually large the ceiling was low. If it changed forms then maybe it would get stuck. But had that stopped it before, back in the mansion?

Either way, it had Irezumi down from a punch to the stomach. Hiroshi will have to be watching closely but on the ground there's that organic rust spilled like blood, although neither of them seemed hurt. Finally, the door creaks open on its own.

Darkness takes over again when the light actually shatters this time. With the door open, their escape was clear, if Hiroshi could get to Irezumi. But he had to ask himself...where were his other two 'friends', if they all came looking for him like Rust said?

He recognized the burning sensation, although he rather wished he didn't. He'd felt Rust spray a similarly burning substance on him that time. So Rusts influence was growing stronger already...

He gritted his teeth through the pain, forcing the switch down. Turning, he saw Irezumi down on the ground in the brief moment of light they had. But it was enough for him. He didn't have time to think about things right now. Instinct Hiroshi took over from Thinking Hiroshi, as it had in the past. He dashed towards where he remembered seeing Irezumi, reaching down to grab him by the arm as he made his way to the door as quickly as he could. He wasn't going to abandon ANYBODY this time.

It takes Irezumi a bit to get going. Much of what he had done thus far was just simply adrenaline and he did not share the same fear that Hiroshi did of the Oni. He could fool himself into thinking "Takeshi" was human but he couldn't do it with "Sabitsuki". It wasn't dead, why wasn't Rust dead?!

The door remained open for them but doesn't shut behind them either. The Oni could come up at any moment when it wanted to and there's something going on upstairs as well, loud noises and things breaking.

And the front door is locked, if he tried. "Back door," Irezumi muttered. "Rust can't have shut everything..."

In Logic, the Symbolic Dream

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