Chapter Text
How long had they been in this place?
Days? Weeks? Months?
It was hard to keep track when the sky never moved.
For all the members of Xsoleil knew, time moved differently in this labyrinth— if they could even call it that. The more they explored the place, the more it felt like a whole other world. There was no rhyme or reason for any of it. Hell, the only consistent detail of the facility was the brick walls, concrete floor, and there only being two levels. Everything else looked as if it was randomly generated. Offices with no windows, rooms recreating roads, or—perhaps worst of all—a carpeted kitchen. Meloco couldn't get the image out of her mind.
But that wasn’t the strangest thing.
Oh, no, far from it.
Monsters still wandered the maze. Seemingly following pre-set paths with how they moved. So far they’d made sure to avoid them or, if necessary, scare them away. Some were skittish and turned tail with a flourish of Ver’s flames or Hex’s shadow blades.
But not all of them.
Some liked to put up a fight, or worse.
They had to get out before one of those found them.
The group entered another storage space. One they hadn’t seen yet— they could tell from the lack of charred spots courtesy of Ver. Just like the others, catwalks hung from the ceiling and boxes were scattered across the floor, but the layout was always slightly different. And hey, maybe some of the crates will actually have something inside them. They’d found quite a few useful items before.
“Hey Doppi, think you can pry this one open?” Kotoka asked.
“I got it!” The tall man walked over and looked closer at the crate. The lid seemed loose enough that he could pry it off. His hands were coated with a glowing magenta aura as his newly improved powers kicked in, giving him the strength needed to pry it open with ease. And when they looked inside...
Nothing.
“Dammit! Every time!” Kotoka cursed, exasperated.
“I think you have bad luck with loot crates, Koto.” Doppio responded.
“Well if I’d known I needed gacha luck for some backrooms-ass place, I might’ve saved it instead of pulling for that stupid banner.”
“What about this one?” Meloco called out, pointing to another crate. Doppio jogged over and opened it— sure enough, there was something inside. Meloco let out a noise of surprise as she nearly dived into the container.
“Wha— are you serious?!” Kotoka shouted.
“YES! MY BL!” Meloco responded, holding up a book with two boys on the cover. Kotoka facepalmed. She didn’t know what else to expect.
Ver, meanwhile, was carefully inspecting the room for any sign of...anything, really. But nothing seemed out of place. The crates—or rather, the ones Doppio hadn’t opened yet—were untouched. The walls and floor had no signs of battle or anything moving through here.
“Hex, you see anything up there?” Ver asked.
“Nope. Doesn’t seem like anybody’s passed through here.” Hex responded, dangling from the catwalk. He finds a new use for those shadow blades every minute.
Ver hesitated to consider the place safe. It felt like something could jump out at them any minute. Another monster, a ghost, even Luca being his usual prankster self would be unpleasant. He could almost hear the man’s mischievous cackle...wait, no, that was just Doppio.
The student council president sighed and continued his search around the room. Who would create a place like this? Why would they bring them here? Or did this place just...spontaneously spawn into existence? A million questions ran through his mind, with no answers for any of them. If anything, he just added more questions to the pile the more he explored this place.
F̵͖̕Z̴̗͛Z̴̤̀T̷̞̎-̵̘̈́Z̶̳̎Z̵͖̾T̵̎ͅ.
“Wait.”
Ver held up his hand to signal the others to stop. The others paused what they were doing— Hex lowering himself from the catwalk, Kotoka and Meloco stopping mid-playful insult, and Doppio slowly putting down the crate in his hands.
The whole room fell silent.
Everyone stood in place, listening carefully. It felt like time had stopped. Maybe it was just an old pipe?
F̵͖̕Z̴̗͛Z̴̤̀T̷̞̎-̵̘̈́Z̶̳̎Z̵͖̾T̵̎ͅ-̵̘̈́Z̶̳̎Z̵͖̾T̵̎ͅ.
There it was again.
Ver’s eyes darted around the room. Nothing had moved. All of the boxes were in the same spot they were before. There weren’t any shadows on the walls, either. Where was that sound coming from?
Crrreeeeaaaakkk...
Was it...above them?
“Get down!”
Ver leaped backwards as something slammed into the ground not far from him. Did one of the catwalks break? Was everyone okay?! Shaking his head and turning around, he discovered the source of the sound casting a shadow over them.
He wished it was the catwalks breaking.
Because the true reason was much, much worse.
It was another one of those things. A bigger one, more of a massive lump or wave than a monster, staring—from what he could assume, given the lack of facial features—down at him. He knew what this thing was. He’d seen it before. Ver got up and scrambled back to the others, who had all grouped up.
“How the hell did that thing get here?!” Doppio shouted.
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t look happy.” Hex responded.
As if confirming his suspicions, the beast let out a distorted roar. This was bad, this was really bad. This wasn’t one they could just scare away with a little soul flame. They had to fight. At least now they actually had the power to do so.
But the monster didn’t attack right away. Instead, its body formed four “legs” and an unnaturally long neck with three heads— the damn thing looked like a nightmarish mimicry of a hydra. The heads dipped closer and flooded the room with eerie whispers, bouncing off the walls and straight into their heads.
It was creepy, but not painful.
“No...no, no, no, not now...”
At least...not to everyone.
The others turned to see the source of the unexpected reaction— Doppio. He was frozen in place, eyes wide with horror. The man clutched his head and fell to his knees and his breathing grew heavy, completely overwhelmed by the thousands of voices.
“Doppi!” Kotoka kneeled down next to him. “Hey, hey! Are you okay?
“No, no, stop it, stop it, stop! Just shut up! Shut up!”
It was then that they realized what the creature was saying.
Hachiroku.
Hachiroku.
Hachiroku. Hachiroku.
Hachiroku. H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ Hachiroku. Hachiroku.
H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ Hachiroku. H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ Hachiroku. Hachiroku.
H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ Hachiroku.
H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ Hachiroku. Hachiroku. H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴
H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ Hachiroku. H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ Hachiroku.
Hachiroku. H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴. H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ Hachiroku.
H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ Hachiroku. H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴
H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴ Hachiroku. H̷a̶c̷h̸i̵r̵o̶k̶u̷.̴
They needed to kill that thing. NOW.
“Kotoka, get Doppi out of here!” Ver ordered.
Ver, Hex, Meloco, and Kotoka immediately sprung into action. Kotoka quickly placed her headphones over Doppio’s ears and led him out of the warehouse while the other three raced towards the monster. They had to hurry. One second too late and it would overtake Doppio completely, and they already knew what would happen if he lost control.
Hex skidded to a halt and sent his shadow blades towards the monster. They twisted in the air before slicing into the monster’s body, cutting a few of the wires. It was quite tough— he’d only managed to cut some of the smaller ones. But he kept up the assault, all the while the beast was thrashing around, swinging its heads at the trio.
Ver conjured twin soul daggers in his hands, leaping up and stabbing the monster in the leg. It barely had an effect. Its entire body was made of those wires, making stabbing useless. He switched to handaxes in hopes of dealing more damage— that seemed to do the trick. But it was moving too much to land a hit.
“Meloco, restrain it!”
Meloco’s umbrella and tattoo began to glow faintly. Purple orbs materialized around the creature and fired glowing strings, wrapping around the beast’s limbs and body. The creature thrashed and pulled against its restraints.
SNAP!
And then it broke free.
“Eh?! I can’t!”
“Wha— how did it—?” Hex asked.
“Doesn't matter! Plan B, just keep chopping!”
Meloco unsheathed her sword and tossed the umbrella portion aside. If her exorcist powers didn’t work properly on this thing, her sword sure as hell would. She dodged one of the beast’s heads and sliced at its neck, earning a pained roar. In most cases aiming for the head would be a surefire way to take down a monster, but she didn’t want to rely on that with this thing. She’d just have to hit wherever she could.
But the monster was too strong. It seemed like for every hit they landed, it hit them back with twice as much force. Every time they made it stumble, it got right back up. All while whispering that godforsaken word.
Ver ran over to a pile of crates and clambered up. Curse his noodle arms...but he eventually made it up and swapped back to his daggers. Maybe if he could get it close enough, he could jump on it. But how? Meloco’s restraints didn’t work! But maybe something else can...?
“Hex, try to knock it off balance!”
Hex nodded and wrapped a shadow blade around the beast’s leg and pulled as hard as he could. The damn thing was heavy, but he managed to make it stumble. Its tail—or what Ver would assume was its tail—swung close enough for the soul prophet to jump on and cling to it.
“Ver, are you insane?!” Hex shouted.
“Just keep it still!” Ver shouted back.
While Hex kept hold of the creature’s leg and hacked away at its wires, Ver held on for dear life as he slowly climbed up its tail. If only he could’ve landed anywhere else. One slip up would end with him slamming against a wall or into a pile of crates. But he had no other choice, so he kept making his way towards the creature’s torso. Surely this thing had a weak spot, right?
Hex, seeing what Ver was doing, sent out a shadow blade to wrap around the monster’s tail. Ver breathed a sigh of relief— now there was slightly less risk of being sent flying. He quickly made his way onto the creature’s back, the thing now thrashing and bucking wildly in an attempt to throw him off. Chopping away at it wouldn’t work— there didn’t seem to be any main wire connecting everything together, and even if there was, it would be impossible to cut through. Clearly blades didn’t have much of an affect on this thing, and he doubted any of his other weapons would do much, either.
But what about fire?
Ver’s eyes widened. He had an idea.
“Hex! Melo! Back away, NOW!” Ver ordered.
“You’re still clinging to that thing! It’ll crush you!” Hex retorted.
“Just trust me on this, I have a plan!”
Hex grabbed Meloco and sprinted away from the monster. Ver always managed to have something up his sleeve. He’d gotten them out of trouble on countless missions, and Hex didn’t doubt that he could do it again. Surely his idea would work out in the end.
Ver took a deep breath as the tattoo on his arm glowed even brighter. He had no idea if this was going to work, but it might be their only choice. Gripping his dagger even tighter, he plunged it as far into the beast as he could. He could feel the wires coiling and shifting like worms as the thing moved, still trying to shake him off. Ver closed his eyes and focused as hard as he could.
And in an instant, the creature was engulfed in flames.
An ungodly shriek erupted from the monster. Hex and Meloco covered their ears as they watched it flail around, crashing into the crates and catwalk and spreading the flames. So...this is what Anima Veritas was capable of. No gasoline. No oil. Just pure soul flames, burning a deep crimson. It was almost beautiful, in a way. A true display of their council president’s newfound power.
With a final distorted groan, the creature collapsed, and the flames vanished as quickly as they had appeared.
And there sat Ver Vermillion.
Hex and Meloco ran over to him as quickly as they could. The man tried desperately to catch his breath and looked down at his hand, still glowing faintly. Those upgrades were no joke. A feat like that would’ve been impossible in the past, but now he only felt a little tired.
“Ver, are you okay? Are you hurt?” Hex asked, pulling Ver off of the monster’s corpse.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I...” Ver looked at the pile of wires. “...I didn’t think that would work.”
The trio looked at what remained of the creature. Those wires...weren’t normal wires. They were shiny, sure, but they sure as hell weren’t metal. They looked too organic. Hex stepped closer and kneeled down next to it, picking one of them up. They were solid black all the way through and slightly squishy. Almost like slightly warm gummy candy.
“What is...that?” Meloco asked. She didn’t dare to get close.
“It’s not a robot, I can tell that much.” Hex answered. “I don’t even know if it's an animal. It didn’t bleed and I can’t tell if it actually burned.”
“It’s not a spirit or demon, either. It was hard to get on it. Maybe I could if I focused longer, but...”
Ver stared at it in silence. He’d seen some strange things before, especially on missions with Meloco, but this was something completely different. Something unnatural.
“Whatever it is, it’s dead now. We need to go check on Doppio.”
Right. Doppio. God, they hoped Kotoka was able to calm him down. Hex and Ver stepped away from the monster and headed in the direction they saw the pair go. Meloco grabbed her umbrella off the floor and put the sword back in, following close behind.
It was eerily silent as the three of them walked down the corridor. What could they even say after all that? They barely knew what exactly they were fighting, or how it knew what would trigger Doppio. That had to be the strangest part. How did it know that word would set him off? Could it read minds somehow? And how the hell was it even talking when it didn’t have a visible mouth? Once again, they were left with more questions than answers. But that didn’t matter right now. What mattered was making sure Doppio was okay.
Ver peeked into one of the rooms—a locker room, by the looks of it—and saw Kotoka sitting next to Doppio, rubbing circles into his back. A massive weight lifted itself from his shoulders. They were safe. Kotoka noticed them and her expression immediately brightened.
“Hey, you made it! Did you take it out?” Kotoka asked.
“It was difficult, but yeah.” Hex answered, stepping into the room with the other two. “Those things are a lot tougher than they look.”
“Hey, Doppi.” Ver stopped in front of the 1st year, scanning his face. His heart immediately sank when he saw his expression. His eyes were puffy and red, his arms loosely wrapped around himself as he looked up at the council president.
“You feeling okay?” Doppio nodded silently. “Good, I’m glad. You won’t have to worry about that monster again. We took care of it.”
No response. Doppio just cast his eyes down to the floor.
“The headphones helped block out some of the sound.” Kotoka spoke up, unusually serious. “You can keep them a little longer if you want, Doppi.”
He shook his head and took them off, handing them back to her.
Hex and Meloco glanced at each other before walking over to Doppio and wrapping their arms around him, with Ver and Kotoka following suit. The enforcer immediately closed his eyes and leaned into their touch. If there was ever a time Doppio really needed some reassurance, it was now.
“You’re safe now, Doppi. We have you.”
Doppio sniffled and hummed in acknowledgement. Not a single word spoken.
Oh, what any of them would give to hear him crack a joke again.