Holosekai

IV

Suisei drives the car into an empty slot in the garage and tells Marine to exit. Marine unbuckled the seat belt and opened the door. She then grabbed her bag and put it on her back and stretched her arms whilst yawning.

"You have a good sleep?" Suisei asked.

"It was okay" Marine replied

"Anyways, follow me," Suisei continued "We can take the stairs this time if you want."

Marine and Suisei start walking up the stairs and Marine starts asking about this world and everything she would need to know. Suisei gives her a brief explanation of everything she would need to know.

"So you're able to live here because you've lost something important to you, whether that be a physical possession or someone close to you. We have no known reason why people who've lost something arrive here but it all started after the Catastrophe. The Catastrophe was a devastating multi-wave event that happened a few hundred years ago where a demon king travelled to our world and caused devastation to our once peaceful world. Millions of lives were lost and cities erased off the face of the planet. The demon king's ability caused a rip in our world which opens a permanent, one-way rift to our world. The demon king would use this rift to summon monsters into our world, with this being the 3rd wave of its attack Eventually, someone had stepped up to defeat the demon king, successfully defeating its army and the demon king. But they didn't kill the demon king, instead, they had set up a seal that prevents the demon king from escaping. Occasionally small bursts of monsters enter our world, which we call a Wave. Groups of monsters emerge from the portal and try to fulfil the demon king's wish."

"Uh-huh," Marine replies "But why do I need to know this?"

"I'm getting onto that," Suisei says back as she clears her throat to carry on "You need to earn money so what you can do is participate in a Wave and depending on your performance, you can get rewarded by Synthesis."

"What's Synthesis?"

"Synthesis is basically the adventurer's guild of our world.

"Alright that's cool"

"Yeah, so depending on what you kill during the wave and how many, you get rewarded by Synthesis, hence why I have so many weapons in my cars."

"Alright, so you're not just a psychopath."

"I mean, people in Synthesis do call me Suicopath, I try to find exciting new ways to kill monsters during a Wave to make it feel less dull and more fun."

"Nevermind, you're just a psychopath."

Suisei chuckles as they ascend the flight of stairs.

"Anyways, do you have a weapon? You can borrow one of mine for the next Wave and we can also sign you up for Synthesis so you can redeem rewards."

Marine shakes her head and says that she had lost her sword in the last battle she was in, before arriving into this world. Eventually, Suisei stops walking up the stairs and instead, opens one of the doors leading into a large hall decorated in the same colour scheme as Suisei's clothes. "This is the main room, where you can do whatever. Bathrooms are up these stairs, kitchen's that way, although, word of advice, do not eat Haato's cooking at all." Suisei explained

"Who's Haato?" Marine asked

"You'll find out eventually." Suisei said, "Anyways, follow me this way, the rooms are here." 

Suisei lead Marine down a hallway and stopped when she reached one of the doors. "Your room is H-0rNi, section H, row zero, right side."

"What does the "Ni" part mean?" Asked Marine

"Nothing, I thought it was funny to add because it would spell out horny."

Marine stared at her with disappointment.

Suisei carried on "Here's your keycard, just tap on the card reader here and the door should slide open. If you need me I'll be in the main room."

I guess I'm home. Marine thought.

And just like that, Suisei left. Marine touched the card reader with the keycard and the door slid open, making Marine jump back. Marine entered the room. The room was massive. It had two stories and still was in the same grey-blue colour scheme like the rest of the building. She looked out the window, into the starry night and she thought back on everything that has happened. She woke up from a battle after losing her friends Pekora, Noel, Flare and Rushia, then waking up in a weird place where she knows no one and now living in a new place. She closed the blinds and threw her bag on the cushion nearby and slouched down on a chair, still thinking about what has happened within the last few hours. Then she realised that she arrived here weeks ago but was in a coma for most of that time. Marine then recalls the vision she had just before arriving to this world of the small girl with the angelic voice, telling her to find her after finding her friends. She tries to remember the facial features of the girl but is unable to as she only got a glimpse of it before going into her coma. She tried to force herself to remember it, but it started to hurt her head and so she stopped and decides to explore her new home.

She first starts walking up the stairs to the second floor which was just where the bed was. It was a platform with a railing facing towards the rest of the room. She goes back down and opens the door that leads to the room directly under the bed. Turns out, the room was a bathroom. It was equipped with a toilet, shower and bath as well as a sink. The essentials of a toilet. There were towels neatly stacked near the shower and bathroom and the grey mats sat just in front of them. She left the bathroom and entered the main room of the room once again and stares at the table, where a black rectangle stood. Nearby was a table and there was another rectangle. Ones with buttons labelled with numbers, weird symbols and colours. She picked up the contraption and pressed the red button labelled 'On'. This made the rectangle light up with various colours as well as noise. The rectangle displayed a man, he was explaining what was happening currently and it seemed to be called a news program. Marine ogled at the screen, confused about how it worked and what was happening. She pressed another button which then caused it to change. It went from a news program to an animated show about a hero having to fight their friend who had been turned evil. It was a re-run of the show and it had piqued Marine's interest and Marine decided to watch it.

A few episodes in, Marine was already feeling drowsy. She struggled to keep her eyes open and kept on telling herself one more episode. She finally passed out until she was awakened by the knocking of the door. Marine gets up and stretches her body and yawning. She looks towards the rectangle which had turned off. She thought to herself, I was still watching that... Before walking towards the door. Marine opened the door and was presented by a blonde girl, just taller than her. "Good morning!" said the girl in an excited voice

"Goo- Huh!? Morning?" Marine stuttered as she looked towards the closed blinds. She could see the morning sunlight seep through the gaps of the blinds.

The girl continued "Since you're new here, I made you some breakfast."

"Wait, who are you?"

"I'm Akai Haato!"

The two stare at each other. Just as Marine was about to say something, Haato enters her room and places the covered dish on the table and just as quickly as she arrived, she left. Marine, trying to figure out the situation, goes to sit on the couch and, remembering the advice Suisei gave her, feared opening the food platter. Her hand shaking reaches for the cover and slowly lifts it up. As she lifted up the cover, black energy started emitting from under the cover. Marine slammed down, covering the dish and thinking to herself What the FUCK? That dark energy is something that even Flare isn't capable of, and she's a dark elf who specializes in dark magic! Marine heard the sound of her door opening and jumped back when the door slid open.

"MARINE!" Burst Suisei, "DON'T OPEN THAT!"