Beta read by Shigiya and GamerCrusher55
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-Fuyuki, Shinto, Semina Apartments, Floor Eleven Room 2-
Given this was not her first time on this floor, it shouldn't have come to a surprise that a sense of unease would follow whenever she stepped into it. But knowing something and experiencing were two completely different aspects as she explored the new room.
"This place feels creepier than before," Ayako mumbled to herself, unable to hold back those thoughts. Her voice was just barely a whisper in the creepy silence of the bedroom.
Despite there being plenty of furniture around, a bed, bookshelf, a table and all the amenities one would find inside a regular home, the space still felt as empty as ever. In a weird way, she would have felt more reassured if it were just a bare mattress on a rusted frame and a single, dusty dresser. Those were the standard aspects one would expect from such an environment.
Of course that didn't deal with the main concern…
"Why is this place still filled with furniture? Shouldn't they have cleaned this place up after they figured Mr. A wasn't coming back?"
After looking around for a bit, Ayako held an E.M.F* reader she had gotten from an old electronic store.
"No reaction…" With a disappointed sigh, the girl turned around to look at her bespectacled, silver-haired friend, who was examining the far wall with a composed expression. "Does nothing ever scare you, Kane?" Ayako joked, trying to ease up the slowly building awkwardness within her and release some tension if she were being honest.
"It's not that nothing scares me," Kane replied, pushing her glasses up her nose. "It's just that panicking doesn't help. I'm trying to keep a composed outlook for our new guest here."
"...Are you trying to impress her or something?"
Kane just gave her a side glance, "Have you seen that cute face? I just want to pinch her cheeks. So adorable." She said with a dry tone and a stoic face.
"Seriously?"
"She looks like she's around our age, could be joining our school for all we know. As a senpai, I need to look cool."
Ayako nodded in agreement before going back to her search. "Maybe here," approaching a wooden bookshelf on the other side of the room, where she found several books that were still left behind, covered in thick layers of spider webs. She flashed her torch beam over them, realizing they were old pieces of literature. "Why would they just leave these behind? It seems like a waste to not rent it." she wondered aloud.
Then it hit her.
"Ah, right. People can be superstitious. If someone just so happens to die in or disappear from an apartment under mysterious circumstances, finding another tenant to rent the place sometimes ends up being next to impossible. They'd assumed the place was cursed or haunted and just not go to. I wonder if that's the same case for this apartment here."
While thinking about that, her curiosity about the books grew. She traced her fingers along the spines of some of them, wiping away the accumulated dust. One particular book caught her attention; it seemed to be related to the subject of archery. Reading the faded gold title on the spine, she said, "The Art of Archery? Quite a grandiose name."
Curiosity eventually got the better of her. Reaching between the dusty volumes, Ayako pulled the book free from the shelf with both hands. A faint layer of dust scattered into the air, making her wrinkle her nose.
"Cough, Cough!"
Light shifted, the faint rustling sound from curtains in the living room disappeared from the background as though the faint sounds from outside had somehow become more distant while the area slowly nestled deeper within the embrace of darkness.
Raising her flashlight, she opened the book and swept the beam across the first page right as the corners grew darker than before, the long shadows from the page casting upon the shelf. The book itself contained nothing remarkable. A list of simple instructions regarding posture, breathing, and maintaining a proper grip. The kind of things any beginner would hear on the first day.
"Surprisingly basic," Ayako muttered with a disappointed look, then again, she did not expect anything astounding from a book with such a title. "Who doesn't know this stuff?"
Another page followed with equally mundane advice. Breathing techniques. How to avoid straining the fingers. The proper position of the feet — albeit a bit more useful than the last one. She flipped again, revealing a simple sketch of an archer drawing a bow.
"Not bad," she remarked. "Whoever drew this actually knew what they were doing."
The pages continued in much the same manner; drawings, notes, different examples and some more detailed than others. "I didn't know you could use a position like that…" Yet as she continued she frowned, as a faint sense of discomfort slowly crept into her mind.
Worst of all, she couldn't explain why this sensation arose in the first place. She pushed it to the back of her mind, perhaps out of the nervousness she felt.
She continued to observe the Archery book, as the air felt slowly cooler against her skin. Despite the book itself being several years old, nearly a decade by now, there remained no smell of old paper, dust or decay.
She moved her fingers and delved deeper.
The silence had become so complete that the sound of paper turning beneath her fingers seemed loud. Even the beam of her flashlight appeared weaker. 'I changed the batteries just recently, is this flashlight going bad?'
She continued reading the book to settle her nerves, subconsciously knowing she needed to move on, but still either from pure distraction or the refusal to acknowledge the sinking feeling inside her heart — Ayako could not stop herself.
…Eventually, she paused on a page showing another figure with a different bow and stance. Her brow furrowed immediately.
"What? Strange, the grip is wrong," Ayako said quietly. "No one would hold it like that."
She turned the page, expecting a correction or explanation, only for her hand to stop halfway. Her eyes narrowed.
"Huh?"
The writing had changed.
Not only were the characters different, but the entire style had changed with them. The neat printed text from the previous pages had vanished. These lines looked handwritten and messy to boot, practically illegible. Some letters were larger than others. Certain words leaned awkwardly to the side, while others seemed cramped together. What unsettled her most, however, was the color. The ink was no longer black.
It was a dark red.
The brunette blinked several times before moving the flashlight closer, wondering if it was perhaps her imagination just acting wildly.
"This can't be… Did somebody write in this book afterwards as a prank?" she murmured while letting out a nervous chuckle.
Her fingers brushed the page out of habit, expecting dried ink or some rough texture. Instead, the surface felt perfectly smooth. Almost too smooth — almost slippery, as if the liquid had not yet dried.
And as her light lingered over the strange writing, she could have sworn that one of the lines hadn't been there a second ago.
But unlike the previous pages, which had contained instructions on how to properly hold a bow and release an arrow, the writing before her now looked completely wrong. At first, Ayako thought it was simply a different style of handwriting, but the longer she stared, the less sense any of it made.
The words were just not words at all, they couldn't even be mistaken for a different language.
Lines twisted into one another, letters stretched unnaturally, and entire sentences dissolved into meaningless symbols that seemed as though they had been scribbled by someone whose thoughts had broken apart.
Turning another page only made it worse. The handwriting became increasingly erratic, the strokes deeper and more jagged, as though whoever had written them had been pressing harder and harder into the paper.
Her breathing slowed without her realizing it, feeling more uncertain whether or not she should even turn to the next page.
But she couldn't just stop there. That sudden decision was met with increased confusion, for the next page no strange writing could be found this time.
Instead, a crude drawing had been made with that same dark red ink. It depicted the very room she was standing in, down to the shelves and the entrance.
No more than that. 'It depicted her! Standing there without Kane or anyone else present except…'
What made her blood run truly cold was seeing in the book the figure standing in the doorway.
Even from nothing more than just a drawing… she could tell.
Almost felt it down to her bones.
A hooded silhouette with an unnaturally wide smile stretched across its face, its head tilted slightly to one side as though it were watching whoever held the book.
That… thing, had just ever so slightly tilted its head towards her.
"—Ah!"
A scream escaped her mouth before she even realized it. The book slipped from her hands and hit the floor with a loud thud. Stumbling backward several steps, she crashed into a cupboard hard enough to rattle the dishes inside.
Ignoring the pain her eyes shot instantly toward the doorway.
Nothing.
"Hah… hah… hah…" The entrance was empty. No hooded figure. No smile. Just the hall beyond. Her chest rose and fell rapidly. "Hnrgh…W-Was I imagining it?" she whispered, trying to calm herself. Swallowing nervously, she forced herself upward, rubbing her head. Slowly she approached the book again.
"It was just a drawing… that's all…" Kneeling down, she reached for it. The moment her fingers touched the leather cover, she felt something wet and warm. Startled, she immediately pulled her hand back and stared in disbelief. Blood. Fresh blood covered the tips of her fingers, and it didn't come from her head.
"Wh-What!?" Panic spread through her. "K-Kane! Ayaka!" Her voice echoed through the apartment.
"Shirou! Where are you!?" There was no answer. No footsteps. No voices.
Nothing.
Before she even realized she was alone.
Fear finally overcame reason. Forgetting about the book entirely, Ayako rushed into the living room. "Guys…"
Her voice trembled despite herself. The room was empty. The couch. The television. Their belongings. Everything remained exactly where it should be, yet there wasn't a single sign of another person. "Kane?" she called again, weaker this time. "Shirou? Uh… new girl… wait what was her name? Oh right the color! Gray!" Silence answered her. Her eyes darted around frantically.
"What's going on?" she asked herself, almost pleading for an explanation. Fighting back pure anxiety from claiming her, she hurried toward the front door and practically threw herself outside. The corridor beyond the apartment was deserted. No neighbors. No sounds. No sign of her friends around. Even the usual noises from outside the building seemed absent.
"Hello!?" she shouted. "Anybody!?" Nobody answered.
Her feet carried her toward the stairs. "Just calm down…" she muttered, gripping the railing tightly. "Get downstairs they probably left without me. Find them and tell them it wasn't funny."
She descended quickly, almost tripping over herself. One flight. Three. Four. Eight… Ten… Eleven, tweleve… Wait I was on floor Eleven!? What the heck!?
She continued going down stair after stair that shouldn't have been there as her breathing became uneven. "How many floors…" The girl knew for certain that the building shouldn't have been anything that high.
The journey felt far longer than it should have been to the point her legs started to feel sore from all the running. Finally reaching what she thought had to be the ground floor, Ayako lifted her head, "—!"
And felt her stomach drop.
The corridor before her looked painfully familiar. The old wallpaper on the right side. The small water stain near the ceiling. The flickering light at the far end that buzzed every few seconds, displaying the number of the apartment she had just left.
Floor Eleven.
Her eyes widened. "This is impossible…" Turning around, she looked back up the staircase. "No, no, no…" Her voice cracked, denial settling in. This could not be real, maybe, she'd finally found what she'd been looking for.
Ayako stood there for a second still before violently shaking her head as if to wake up.
No, she was just being paranoid! Whatever the case, she must have made a mistake somewhere. She hurried down another flight and then another. Yet every time she stepped out again, without fail the same corridor greeted her. The same light. The same worn wallpaper and the same rumored apartment complex.
"..."
If she were any less nervous and fighting then a joke would have escaped her lips. But this certainly was not the time nor did she feel any humor.
"Welp that settles it! Either I've been hoodwinked by one of the worlds greatest prank shows or… It's magic after all. Haha this place really was haunted. I've been living in the same building for years and never noticed."
Ayako stood rooted to the spot, unable to breathe properly. The silence around her felt unnatural now as she didn't know whether to panic or to get excited as her face felt like it could smile or be afraid at the same time. She could not even hear the wind rustling the trees from the outside nor had she heard the sound of any passing cars.
It's like she'd left her world entirely for an eerie similar replica.
It was as though the entire building had become hollow. Her eyes slowly drifted toward the end of the corridor where the flickering light buzzed weakly. For a brief moment, she could have sworn that something had been standing there between one blink and the next — a small shadow that barely entered her perception.
Then the light flickered again.
And nothing was there.
"Was that… Red Ri… ding…?" She mumbled nervously, unable to even finish your own words, the girl voice a mixture of disbelief and rising panic. Getting the EMF reader out of her pocket only to realize nothing was there.
Trembling and feeling her heart rate skyrocket, Ayako tried to calm herself. "Deep breaths. Don't panic," she whispered to herself. "What do those people in movies do in a situation like this?" After a few moments of focused breathing, she felt she had better control over her emotions.
"Uh, h-hey I didn't mean to bother you or invade your home or anything! I just wanted to see if you were real! Look I'd really appreciate it if you could let me meet back up with my friends at the building entrance. That's okay, right?"
With a better resolve built within, the girl took another few steps below, this time carefully keeping her eyesight on the floor ahead she was currently on. Practically walking backwards, descending while watching where she'd been. Right as she appeared midway through the stairs and was about to head to the floor below, she quickly switched her gaze downward. "Alright, the floor looks different, and… Now!"
With a quick shift and jump, Ayako made her way downwards. Unfortunately, it ended up being the exact same floor.
"What kind of sick loop is this?" she questioned aloud.
Since going down the stairs proved useless, Ayako stood there breathing heavily, scratching at her head while trying to think of another answer. "I guess that's a no then?! Is this some kind of puzzle? Do I have to go back and find a clue or something?"
Maybe whatever was happening right now had started back inside the apartment and the answer was there as well. But the moment her eyes settled on the open doorway down the corridor, a cold sensation spread through her arms. Her feet refused to move. The thought of stepping back inside made her stomach twist. Nothing had physically harmed her so far which was good…yet every instinct she possessed screamed that returning there right now was a terrible idea.
"Come on, Ayako, you can do this!" She slapped both cheeks several times and forced herself to breathe. "There's nothing to be scared of," she muttered to herself. "I'm not hurt. This has to be some kind of hallucination at least. Something's just messing with my head, that's all." The words sounded weak even to her own ears, but she repeated them anyway and forced herself forward.
Step
Step
Every step through the long dark apartment entrance she took felt heavier than the last one. No light to show her the way but her flashlight.
"Huh?"
The apartment looked wrong the moment she stepped inside. Nothing damaged or covered in blood as she feared;no something worse had happened.
It was simply empty.
The television was gone, furniture was gone, and even the curtains had disappeared. The room looked abandoned, stripped down to bare walls and floorboards. All the items that had been here for years, had vanished leaving an empty apartment ready for a new tenant as if to answer her prior query. "If the previous apartment didn't give enough of a haunted feeling, this definitely feels more appropriate." She couldn't even laugh at her own words.
Slowly, Ayako backed away, intending to leave and figure things out later. Before she could take another step, the door behind her slammed shut with enough force to make her jump with a…
Slam!
"Ah!"
Her heart almost gave out from that, she spun around immediately, ran through the long hallway to the door and grabbed the handle. "Open! Damn it, open!"
Thunk! Thwak!
Twisting it repeatedly and ramming her shoulder against the door proved to be fruitless.
Even when kicking it hard enough to make her leg hurt brought no result. "Open already!"
Bam!
Another kick followed, then another, but the wood remained completely unmoved. There wasn't even a sound from the other side. Breathing heavily, she stepped away from it, her voice shaking. "This thing... whatever it is... it's messing with me."
Looking around again, realization dawned upon her that there was only one other place left she hadn't checked; the bedroom she had come from earlier when all this started.
"Hah…" Exhaling nervously, she walked toward it carefully. The sound of her heartbeat rang through her eardrums loudly echoing throughout her bones and blood. Upon reaching the doorway, she cautiously peeked inside. Somehow, the room looked dimmer than before. Taking a step forward, Ayako immediately noticed something different and froze.
Something soft and wet spread beneath her shoe. Looking down, her mind blanked. A dark red puddle had formed around her feet. Blood.
Fresh blood.
She stared at it in disbelief before following the trail leading deeper into the room. At the same time, another sound reached her ears.
Crunch!
Wet gnawing noises.
Her body stiffened.
Slowly turning her head, her eyes landed on something she had never expected to see here — a creature.
Bigger than a human and covered in a dark brownish fur with several dark patterns and markings etched upon its surface. Its eyes were pure yellow and its tusks were tipped with blood. But what caught her attention mostly ended up being the sense of familiarity.
For she had encountered this 'animal' before.
'Isn't this…'
The same boar-like monster she remembered seeing the woman in a suit kill. Shirou called it a chimara, something that should have no longer been a problem. Except this time it wasn't dead. It sat hunched over in the corner, its massive shoulders rising and falling as it tore out chunks of flesh with jagged teeth out of a mysterious corpse. Blood dripped from its mouth and stained the floor beneath it. For several seconds, her brain simply refused to process what she was looking at. Then her eyes drifted lower, catching sight of brown hair spread across the floor. Familiar clothes. Familiar hands. Familiar shoes.
More to her, than any other.
"No… How…" she whispered weakly.
The body being eaten was her.
Her face went pale.
The room seemed to spin around her. Every thought vanished, replaced by empty horror. She couldn't breathe. Nausea welled up within her at the sight of her own dead body being feasted on as her world went through vertigo. She couldn't even let out a scream and in the next moment, took a simple step back outward.
Splash!
"—!"
Her foot landed in her blood. The sound echoed louder than it should have.
The creature stopped eating.
Its chewing ceased.
For a moment, nothing moved.
Then the monster slowly turned its head toward her.
Its mouth remained filled with strips of flesh, blood running down between its teeth. Pieces of her own hair hung from its jaws. Two yellow eyes stared directly into hers. They were not the eyes of an animal. They were the eyes of a demon. There was recognition in them. Awareness. As though it had been expecting her. The thing remained motionless for several unbearable seconds, merely staring while blood dripped from its mouth onto the floor one drop at a time.
"Not again..." Ayako muttered, backing away while shaking her head violently. "No, no, no..."
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"
The creature lunged again,
"Khyaaaaa!"
…and a shrill scream escaped Ayako's throat as instinct forced her body to throw itself to the side.
Bam!
The boar-like thing missed her by a hair and smashed headfirst into the wall with enough force to crack its plaster and scatter fragments across the corridor. She moved, scrambling on all fours, as she rushed back to the apartment door and clawed at the handle in desperation.
"Damn it!" It refused to move.
Panic made her movements clumsy, and in the reflection of the polished metal she noticed something rushing behind her. "No!" Acting without thinking, she dropped low. A second later the monster flew over her head and crashed into the door instead.
Crack!
Wood exploded outward, the impact tearing the frame apart as the boar rammed forward past her. Not wasting the chance, the terrified girl bolted out into the corridor. Behind her came the sound of heavy hooves tearing through the doors remnants, scraping against the floor, and wet snorts that made her stomach turn.
The stairs became her only hope once more to escape.
She ran down them as fast as her legs could carry her, taking entire flights without slowing down, gripping the rail whenever she nearly lost her balance. Yet every time she reached the bottom and burst back into the corridor, she froze.
The same sight greeted her once more.
"This can't be real… this can't be real… this can't be real!" Looking upward only worsened the feeling twisting inside her chest. The growls were still there, echoing from above, and each time she descended another floor she caught glimpses of the thing again. Its bloodied snout appeared around corners. Its pale eyes watched her from the stairwell. Somehow, no matter how far she ran downward, it always emerged from behind her. The realization made her breathing uneven.
The only reason she was still alive was that she was always moving and that thing couldn't walk down the stairs properly.
Desperate thoughts raced through her head, but none of them led anywhere. There were no windows large enough to escape through, nowhere to barricade herself, and even calling for help felt strangely difficult.
"Shir—" When she opened her mouth to scream Shirou's name, the sound caught in her throat…
Her mind went blank and she paused.
"...Eh?"
A strange hesitation had just stopped her. Confusion briefly overtook the panic.
Why had she paused?
Why had even saying his name suddenly felt wrong? Before she could even dwell on it, her foot slipped. "Ah!" Her body tumbled forward, striking the stairs hard. The world spun around her as she rolled downward before crashing onto the floor below. "Ugn!" Pain exploded across her side, and for several seconds she simply lay there coughing and gasping.
Raising her head slowly, she realized with mounting horror that she had ended up on the same corridor yet again. At this point, it no longer served as a surprise to the reddish brunette.
The monster itself was nowhere in sight, but that only made things worse. Its growling still echoed from above as it recently attempted to recover from its new enemy above her, the stairs.
Its wrath was accompanied by the sound of hooves descending one step at a time and a bellowing snort.
Trying to stand brought another scream from her lips as a wave of pain flooded through her. "Aah!" Agony shot through her leg. Her knee felt like it had been twisted badly during the fall, and even putting weight on it made her vision blur. Tears gathered in her eyes as she crawled forward, dragging herself with her hands. The only other apartment door remained shut. Every hallway corner offered nowhere to hide. The only place left was the apartment she had fled from. Cursing through clenched teeth, she forced herself toward it.
"T-This should work… please…"
Crossing the ruined doorway again, she noticed that the room had changed once more. Unlike before, the furniture now returned, standing neatly in place as though nothing had happened. The overturned chair had returned to its original position. The tablecloth lay perfectly straight. Even the broken pieces around the entrance had vanished.
At this point, Ayako could not care less about the changes. She threw and toppled as much of the furniture as she could to blockade the hallway. If there was one saving grace for having an apartment with such a wide hallway, it served as a good barricade that also told her where her enemy would appear.
"▂▂▃▃! ▄▄▅▅!"
The boar of her nightmares had arrived only to be met with resistance by a bunch of worthless knick knacks that only served to annoy it. She could hear it crashing through the tv as it electrified it and ripping through a coach as it got stuffing in its eyes.
Searching desperately for anything else, her eyes settled on a wardrobe standing in the corner of the now clean of blood bedroom. Limping and crawling the remaining distance, she pulled the doors open with trembling hands and squeezed herself inside. Clothes brushed against her face as she tucked her injured leg inward and slowly closed the doors.
Darkness surrounded her immediately. Pressing both hands against her mouth to suppress her breathing, she sat completely still inside the cramped space. Outside, silence lingered for several long seconds. Then came the sound of hooves entering the apartment.
The sound of the destroyed furniture had stopped, telling her the wild beast had finally broken free.
Clack.
Clack.
Clack.
The noises of hooves stomping on the ground had stopped.
Bump!
Bump!
Her heart pounded so hard she feared it would give her away. Sweat dripped down her face while she stared into nothing but darkness hiding between the hanging coats, trying not to make a sound. Then something new made her blood run cold.
The growling had stopped.
It had never stopped.
And in the silence that followed, very close to the wardrobe door, came the unmistakable sound of something breathing.
Trying to keep her breathing under control, Ayako practically heard the monster on the other end of the wardrobe door walking into the bedroom.
'C-Can it smell me?!'
Its steps each made a low rumbling sound as it looked around for her. The stench of pure iron and blood it carried wafted to her nose, making her almost gag.
'The scent had to have come from the thing it had just eaten. Or that illusion of me, or whatever that thing was…'
She could feel her heart beat double and her hands shake as the creature came in closer and closer until it was right in front of the wardrobe. The shadow peeking through the gaps on the wardrobe's door created its form inside the wardrobe as she closed her eyes and prepared for the end.
'Don't move, don't move…'
It turned and looked around for her, its nose obviously being just for show. Soon enough, the sounds of hooves and heavy breathing faded away. Whatever the creature had been doing, it eventually wandered off.
Even so, Ayako remained inside the wardrobe for what felt like hours, unable to force herself to move, as she cried silently to herself. Sweat soaked her clothes, and her body trembled every time she imagined hearing another growl or a scraping sound beyond the thin wooden doors.
Eventually, after enduring nothing but silence for so long that her racing heartbeat became the loudest thing she could hear, she finally gathered enough courage to push the doors open slightly. Holding her breath, she carefully peeked outside.
"I-It's… gone?"
The beast was nowhere around, finally giving some form of relief to the terrified maiden, as she wiped her tears away.
Slowly crawling out, she immediately regretted moving. "Hn, ah… Ngh" The pain in her knee sent a sharp sting through her leg, making her grit her teeth and stifle a cry. Forced to lean against the wall, she hobbled forward one step at a time, keeping her movements as quiet as possible.
Upon reaching the doorway, she cautiously peered into the living room. The room remained empty with nothing but the discarded remains of carnage around her, and for a brief moment, she considered that perhaps the creature had finally left, finally letting out a sigh of relief.
'But if it isn't inside, then where has it gone?' That thought alone made her skin crawl, but that only lasted a moment until she looked up and noticed something that had completely escaped her mind during everything that happened.
"What am I, an idiot! The balcony! It has a fire escape!"
She had lived in this apartment, so of course she of all people would have known that this whole apartment complex had come equipped with a fire escape in case of emergencies.
Before heading toward the balcony and searching for another way out, her eyes drifted toward the kitchen counter. A single dilapidated knife lay there neatly arranged, old and covered in dust.
"..."
The sight made her hesitate.
A part of her wanted to ignore it and continue onward. But another part refused to walk around helpless anymore. "It's better than nothing." After standing there for several seconds, the girl quietly limped into the kitchen and grabbed the knife.
The cold metal felt strangely reassuring despite knowing it probably would not save her if that thing appeared again. Her thoughts drifted back to the story surrounding the apartment. "Could that creature have been what had killed the family?" she whispered. "Was it never the father?"
The question faded almost immediately. Even if she discovered the answer, it would not change anything. Right now, surviving mattered more.
Clutching the knife tightly enough for her knuckles to turn white, she made her way toward the balcony. "Quite high, I could use the bedsheets and curtains."
Maybe whatever strange loop trapped her inside the building would not work if she could physically see the ground below. Maybe she could find Kane and Shiro outside. Maybe there would be other people. The possibilities, however desperate, were better than remaining trapped here. Reaching the sliding door, she slowly pushed it open but did not step out shocked at the sight before her.
She could see outside for sure, and the city before her was deathly quiet, but what made her heart sink more was the sight of her sole hope, the fire escape. Being linked to the other apartment Room 1 instead of Room 2.
'You've got to be fucking kidding me.' Ayako stood there staring at it in utter despair not knowing what else to do. If she focused clearly she could see the fire escape that led to her apartment. What she wouldn't give to go there and spend the day laughing away with her family. They'd probably harass her about keeping up with her martial arts train…
"Wait a second…" She examined the distance from the balcony and the fire escaped closely as if just staring at it would solve her problems. Finally after a few moments of careful observation she came to a realization.
"I-I think I can jump it." It wouldn't be possible if it were anyone else, but her family had always harassed her about training her physical body. If it was her it wouldn't be that much different from her school's long jump. She didn't know if she could make it with the problems with her leg, but if she could just manage to grab the railing she'd be home free.
"Alright I can do this. The others are going to get an earful when I find them. Just where are the other—"
The sound immediately made her freeze.
Crunch
Squish
Another wet crunch followed.
Every muscle in her body locked. Slowly, very slowly, her eyes drifted backward toward the corridor outside the apartment entrance. Fear gripped her again, but this time another thought crept into her mind.
Those same noises had accompanied the sight of that creature devouring the grotesque corpse that looked exactly like her.
Was it doing the same thing again? Was another twisted copy lying out there? Or had it caught somebody else? Countless possibilities rushed through her head, each worse than the last. Logic screamed at her to stay hidden and keep the balcony as her escape route. 'No, I can't leave them!'
Standing there between the balcony and the apartment entrance, Ayako felt her breathing become uneven. The knife trembled in her hand. Every disgusting crunch and tearing sound coming from outside made her stomach twist harder. Part of her wanted to run.
Part of her wanted to know all of this magecraft world, while another part of her wanted to stay alive and despite how much she wished otherwise, curiosity had already begun to overpower her fear.
The biggest question ringing inside her mind was, 'Where is everyone else? Did they perhaps come here to help me get out of this strange place?'
Shirou's face flashed across her mind. Realizing that despite her plan being to potentially leave the building while using the balcony as an escape route, she could not actually bring herself to do it just yet, especially if she couldn't find him — not to mention her friend and the one he brought along. Guilt was eating her on the inside, believing that this wouldn't have happened if she did not call them here.
The grip around her knife tightened. "Shirou told me about the dangers of this kind of scenario, and I acknowledged them," she said to herself. "I can't just run away after just one setback."
Swallowing her fears and steeling her resolve, Ayako turned around and gazed at the door in the distance before carefully making her way over there. This time, she used both legs despite the pain shooting up her knee. She endured it as much as possible and went over.
"—!?"
Right as she went over and peeked to the side, she found the monster again, feasting on something else. This time, she got a clear view of what it was or rather who it was. Auburn hair that matched the color of crimson closely, so that one could barely distinguish it from the blood on the ground. Open, nearly lifeless golden-brown eyes staring right back at her.
"N-no…"
This… this couldn't be true.
A horrifying state of his body that balanced between life and death. The realization struck her so suddenly that she practically stopped breathing. Ayako, who had initially nearly ran away by pure instinct, now found herself unable to do even that as well. For she stood frozen, eyes widening as memory after memory surfaced without permission.
The day she'd met Shirou.
The day she found Shirou injured after trying to save her.
When she woke up to him in her bed.
When he told her, his dream at the park.
The day Shirou met for the first time when she fell off her bicycle and injured herself. This led him to carry her back to the café.
Their constant banter during archery club practice. Every occasion she teased him at school and while he worked.
The times she scolded him while wrapping bandages around his burns and cuts. Countless ordinary moments that had once seemed unimportant now flashed through her mind with painful clarity. His exasperated sigh whenever she caused trouble. His awkward smile. The way he always brushed off his own injuries while worrying about everyone else.
"No..." she whispered, tightening her grip around the knife. "No, no, no..."
The blade rose, but her arm stopped halfway. Every instinct inside her rebelled. Her body refused to move. Fingers trembled so badly that the knife rattled in her grasp. "Move..." she muttered desperately. "Move, damn it...!" Tears welled in her eyes as she screamed internally at herself to stand up and do something.
Before she could even mentally convince herself or muster the courage to set aside her fears, the girl had already crossed the distance between her and the monster before jamming a knife right onto its back.
"▄▅▅!"
It howled in pain giving her a small enough window of opportunity to pick up the red-headed boy with all her might and just start rushing away. She acted without any plans whatsoever, and even though she knew this move made no sense, as her chances of survival would be even lower with the added weight, but regardless she could not just let him go either. "You're not dying on my watch, just like the first time I'm taking you with me!"
Despite having no plans whatsoever or ideas where to run, she did not stop descending the never ending loop of stairs as the enraged boar chased after her bleeding out. Jumping several staircases again and again to the point that even her knees started to go full numb but she could not stop moving that would have meant all of this was for nothing. As the boar grew more winded with blood loss, her escape plan right then and there re-surfaced in her mind, "the balcony!"
With the monsters following her this time it gave Ayako a clear path to rush back into the apartment. Not even attempting to create a rope with the bed sheets since she had no time for that she dashed ahead hoping to reach the fire escape. Upon seeing the balcony in the distance, she knew what she had to do. "A broken leg is better than losing one's life."
"If he survived jumping from something twice as high then so can I!" She wouldn't lose to him! Not to mention, she was pretty sure there was some shrubbery below to cushion her fall at the least.
And with a single leap, She jumped straight out of the balcony while still holding on to his body as carefully as possible and as tightly to her chest as possible. Aiming for the fire escape ladder to the side she felt confident as her feet looked like they'd make it. The demon boar, unable to stop its rush, slipped through the balcony tumbling down to the ground below.
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"
Her eyes closed, ignoring her fears was the easiest choice for her right now. The wind rushed past her hair and several seconds passed by yet no painful sensation emerged and as her feet touched solid ground she was still fine. Instead, more than fine…Hope bloomed in her heart, believing she had made it. "Huh?"
Yet upon opening her eyes back up, what appeared around her was not the outside; but instead both of them being back inside the bedroom. "You can't be serious…" 'So from the beginning, I… I never had a chance?'
Creak!
The floor creaked, each noise making her heart shudder.
"No-No way! That thing fell to its death!"
Not knowing what awaited on the other side she moved. "Shirou!" Looking at the boy next to her, she found him now barely conscious and almost feeling like he could see her. Ayako mustered the last of her courage and tried to show him a fearless smile. "D-Don't worry, I got this handled!"
She moved outside and with a loud clang, closed the door of the bedroom behind her with him still inside locking it. Upon seeing no one on the other side and the noise absent her knees gave out immediately, leaving her sitting helplessly against the door itself. No longer caring what creature heard her, she buried her face between her thighs and wrapped her arms around her legs. Broken murmurs escaped her lips between shallow breaths. "Sorry, Shirou... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."
Hatred welled up inside her, directed entirely at herself. She hated her own curiosity. Hated ignoring his advice. Hated dragging everyone into this nightmare. Most of all, she hated how powerless she was right now.
"I'm useless..." another whisper escaped. "I couldn't do anything..."
The words came out barely louder than a breath. Her shoulders trembled as dark thoughts filled her head. Time lost all meaning. Seconds or minutes passed in silence until a strange sensation made the hairs on her neck stand up.
Something was standing directly in front of her.
"...So this is it..." she muttered weakly. "Fine..."
Expecting the monster, Ayako slowly raised her head. The words died in her throat.
"...Eh?" Her own figure stared back at her. "No..."
The being crouched before her with the same posture. Same clothes. Same brown hair. Same body. Yet where a face should have been, there was nothing. No eyes. No nose. No mouth. Smooth flesh where features should have existed. Despite that, she could feel it looking directly at her.
"W-What...?" Her voice trembled. "What are you...?"
The faceless thing tilted its head slightly. For a split second, something changed.
Ayako blinked.
The hair became hidden beneath a hood. The body seemed taller. The shape beneath the cloak looked wrong, stretched in ways she couldn't understand. Something resembling a wide smile flashed beneath the darkness where a face should have been.
Then it was gone.
Her copy sat there once again.
On the ground, a note had appeared. The faceless Ayako pushed it towards her. Her lifeless eyes looked downwards to see what this strange entity had passed over. Ayako read out loud the words that were inscribed on the paper; "Want to become better?"
"Yes," those words escaped her mouth without any hesitation.
If she had the means, or even the tools to make a difference, then none of this would have happened. She wouldn't have needed to call Shirou, to rely on him for all of this. She could have done it herself alone. Even if it would have resulted in a bad outcome, at least it would have been only her, and no one else. She wouldn't have needed or even thought of endangering her friends like this. No one would have suffered, and the sight she had seen outside would never have occurred.
First and foremost, she wished she could just undo her mistake, to fix all of this and never let it happen. To be able to go back to class tomorrow and have the red-headed boy greet her, banter with her, and for them to practice archery together, her days always feeling so cheerful and bright.
All of this happened because of her initial desire to get to know more of his world, to spend more time with him and see a side of him others hadn't. To cross the gap between them. But now she couldn't even do that.
At the same time, the note on the ground and its text seemed to change. A new phrase appeared, "I can grant you that wish."
Even though she hadn't said it out loud, this thing had clearly understood it perfectly. In her heart, which had become an endless dark abyss, a ray of light had appeared as soon as she read those words. In her desperate moment, she latched onto it as if her life depended on it.
The being extended her hand, and Ayako did so as well.
If all this could be fixed, whatever the cost, then she was willing to pay the price—Whoosh!
"Don't!"
"Ah!"
Yet as their hands were about to touch, the sound of a crow filled the room. In the next second, a black object, shrouded by a dark-colored energy struck the faceless Ayako, bringing it down. Slowly the energy bled into the copy to reveal a crow's black feather sitting in front of the real Ayako.
She stared at the change in sight with numbness not understanding what just happened. Then, a painful sensation struck across her face as she fell to the ground, returning back to her senses ever so slightly.
…
"...u…p..!"
Huh?
"A…o…me!"
This voice…
"...yako!"
Her body started to stir as a faint voice continued to scream at her several times, though she couldn't hear it well.
Slowly and surely she opened her eyes. The world and voice got more clearer until she realized someone was calling her name.
…
"Ayako! Can you hear me now?"
With one blink of an eye, she found herself staring at the ceiling, with none other than… "Ayaka?"
The girl let out a visible sigh of relief upon hearing her name being called. "Yes, it's me. Good thing I got there in time." She said, kneeling next to her, looking at her worriedly.
"Got… to me? Where…"
"Here, I brought you and Kane inside the bedroom and made some… um, preparations to make sure nothing bothers us. Ah, I didn't mean it in an ominous way, it's just complicated okay." While she tried to explain, the person she addressed merely gently rose up and glanced at the entrance, recalling what she had just done.
"Ah!"
Ayako got up swiftly, only to realize she was no longer inside the living room but rather inside the bedroom again.
"Hey, don't move so suddenly! I still need to check if you aren't suffering from any physical or psychological injuries or maybe head trauma when you fell. Lie back down and at least rest a bi—hey!"
But she was unable to pay much attention to any of Ayaka's questions.
Spotting her friend Kane also unconscious next to her. Upon seeing this, the first thing that crossed Ayako's mind immediately was the person who should have been in this room. The realization sent her into action as she got out of bed, practically jumping off it, much to Ayaka's dismay as she called out to her,
"Don't just step out of the bounded field! Ayako! You shouldn't run!"
But Mitsuzuri didn't listen as she ran through the apartment, not forgetting to look around the living room first before heading outside the front door and looking around floor eleven's hallway.
She realized that there was nobody there, no blood, no nothing. A sense of relief flooded her body as she felt tears start to stream down her face. "Thank God... thank God... he's not dead. It was all a dream…"
Soon, a hand came to rest upon her shoulder that jolted her to focus on the presence that placed it, "W-Where is Shirou? Did you see him? Did h-he leave earlier!? Is he safe!?" Asking the question desperately, she barely had control of her voice's volume, practically screaming at Sayjou.
"C-calm down, Ayaka, I didn't find him but I'm sure he's safe. I'll bring him back before any harm comes upon him." She answered rather confidently. "I know what I'm about to tell you will sound crazy, but I don't have a choice here, I'll just erase your memories later. He must also be trapped in this Mystic Code's illusion. Maybe it could even be a spirit of sorts, it's hard to tell but wouldn't be surprising…Fuyuki is filled with them."
"Erase my memory's? Mystic Code? Spirits?"
Looking at how Ayaka Sajyou is as serious about what she said, it only then clicked in her mind at that very moment…that Shirou wasn't the only magician in her school.
.
.
.
While Ayako still continued to bombard Ayaka with more questions, a certain red-head opened his eyes upon realizing that he was no longer within the apartment itself nor facing the Red hooded figure.
Cold air brushed against him, frigid not to the point of killing someone but just at a point to make one feel uncomfortable.
There was dirt and snow underneath his hand making him think it had started snowing, which wasn't uncommon in Fuyuki. Looking around nothing but wilderness spanning across his view. "Huh?" Shirou immediately got up, recalling hearing a crash, then heading into the apartment in a hurry and then… then…
"Carefull, none of this is real."
"Ah!"
A startled reaction came out of him upon hearing Rider's voice echo right behind him. Turning to see the woman holding out her hand for the snow to fall upon her open palm. "You were about to get swallowed by something similar but I pulled you out in time, but it seems like another distortion had occurred near us, and we were swallowed by it."
"Distortion?" Hearing that word and remembering her prior ones, he once again looked around at the trees and faint but present greenery covered in snow. "You're saying this is an illusion?"
"Kind off? It's a mixture of both." She answered with a slight head tilt, "it's not exactly my area of expertise, but closer to a hollow pocket we were dragged into. It… doesn't look malicious, I have not encountered anything out to harm us at all. Think of it as an advanced form of bounded field that distorts reality around it to alter the space somewhat. No, it's not a Reality Marble, as those replace reality entirely with fantasy, so it may be something lesser considering the distortion isn't at that level."
"But the blood," had he really just imagined that? "Right, you… didn't see it."
To that, Rider shook her head. "Must be something targeting people personally. The same must have happened to the others, as for who could have dragged them in here, I'm not sure."
In the distance, an old rural village could be seen, he did not recognize it nor did he believe it had any connections to Ayako or the others. Or maybe it had connections to whatever was here, the Mystic Code Gray mentioned?
Not like he had any other ways to find the answer than to simply "Just find it."
"Let's go and check that village, I'll be counting on you, Rider."
—--------
*(An E.M.F. stands for Electric & Magnetic Field. The reader is used by paranormal ghost hunters to detect minor electric and magnetic wave changes in an empty environment in order to detect possible ghost activity.)
The next 5 chapters of Snafu, and my other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters, Steel Eyed Faker soon to be 3 chapters, Taimanin with 3, Hound having 3 and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.