Another Chance | Aki x Reader

9: "We're stuck on the eighth floor..."

**Manga Spoilers up ahead (volume 2 and three)

Everyone was stunned looking at the hideous creature. Kobeni was scared out of her mind, she started to scream when the thing started to float towards her. You were just confused about what it was. You take out a notepad and start quickly writing notes, just key phrases you would remember since you can't keep your eyes on your notepad forever. You knew Makima would want some kind of report on what you saw, you didn't really think this would spark "inspiration" for the engineering projects you had for the division. Maybe Makima has some kind of ulterior motive for sending me out, you thought to yourself. Soon enough, you put your notepad away and focus on the devil that was in front of you. Power formed a small knife with her blood and sliced the devil-thing in half.

"Stupid Devil. It got so scared of me it started floating! Gahaha!" Power laughed, in a victorious tone.

"Wrong" Himeno exclaimed, "That was my power. My ghost caught it!"

"Ghost?" you questioned, facing Himeno.

"I've contracted with the ghost devil. In exchange for letting it eat my right eye, I can use the ghost's right hand." Himeno said, pointing to her eye patch. "It's invisible and super strong."

"So does this piece of the Gun devil," you spoke pointing towards the gun devil fragment "have any reaction to this devil?"

"There isn't a strong reaction. This isn't our devil." Aki spoke apathetically.

"Gottcha... let's head up then." Himeno cheered.

While walking up the stairs you noticed that you were still on the eighth floor. Huh, but you just came from the eighth floor, that's odd. "Huh, that's weird." You retort.

"What?" Aki questioned looking at you with a curious look.

"Why are we still on the eighth floor?" you replied.

"Yeh... Just now, we went up the stairs from the 8th to the 9th floor, right?" The new recruit, Aria said.

"You sure you didn't count wrong?" Denji said.

"No! I'll double-check!" Exclaimed Aria in a panicked state. He quickly stepped down the stairs but he just ended right back on the 8th floor. Everyone was visibly confused.

"Aria didn't you just... go down the stairs?..." Himeno spoke. She decided to test this staircase herself. "Kobeni, stand still and hold up some peace signs." She ran down the stairs only to come out in front of us. "Aki... What the hell is going on?"

"Hmm, this seems like a real-life Escherian staircase..." you spoke, not realizing you were thinking out loud.

"A what now?" Denji asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's like a never-ending staircase that loops back into itself. But it was a myth started at a university back in the states," you state nonchalantly.

"This is probably a devil's power..." Aki responded in a serious tone. "Kobeni, stay there, y/n can you go check in some other rooms for an exit."

"Sure thing." you saluted to Aki and went in the opposite direction, entering one of the hotel rooms. You look out through the window but only see another room connected to it. That's strange, this devil must be pretty powerful, guess we might be stuck here. That is probably why the other devil hunters didn't come back. I should see if I can use the forest devil's power quickly. "Hey Forest," you mumbled. "Ya think you can grow a tiny root, I just want to test something." A small branch grew right beside you, confirming that you can still use Forest. "Well, at least I have some backup plan if shit hits the fan."

"Uh- Wuuuh?!" Kobani screeched.

You walk out of the room you were in, and hear Aki state, "We're stuck on the eighth floor..." Yup, that definitely confirmed your suspicions. We all gathered in one of the hotel rooms.

"Here's the rundown of the situation. No matter how many stairs we climb up or down from the eighth-floor stairway, we always end up on the eighth floor. It's likely the handy work of a devil." Aki said, " We can't get out through the windows, elevators don't work for some reason, even the ceiling leads to the eighth floor."

"Isn't it because Power went and killed that devil? Betting that devil used its power to trap us here and then died without turning it off." Denji peeped.

Power angrily got up and screamed in Denji's face, " YOU said to kill it!"

"Did not!" Denji screams back.

"Enough you two, pointing fingers does nothing." you raised your voice.

The two stood up and stopped fighting.

"Devil's powers are undone when they die. So that's impossible." Aki bickers back.

You turned your face towards Aki and asked, "Is there any movement from the piece of flesh?"

"About that, it completely stopped moving."

"Oh great, just another thing we need. I should've just said no to this..." you sighed, moving your fingers to make quotations, "mission."

"So, we walked straight into its trap, with that devil as bait... this is the first time I had a devil pull this kind of trickery," Himeno spoke while taking out a cigarette.

You sat back, observing the recruits panic about our unfortunate predicament. You felt especially sorry for Kobeni who was forced into this profession by her parents, the poor girl just wanted to go to college. You hear Power laughing at Kobeni's fearful state. "Power, please stop laughing at Kobeni," you state politely.

"Oh Kobeni, fear is the devil's favorite food. If you act like you're scared you're giving it exactly what they want." Himeno cooed while trying to comfort her.

Kobeni replied, "But I am scared!!"

"Hey Aki, is something the matter?" you questioned.

"Yeh, the clock has been at 8:18 for a while. All the clocks stopped at 8:18. So I don't think help is coming anytime soon."

Denji covered himself in the blanket, "That's amazing! Then we can sleep as much as we want."

"Are you stupid? We could be trapped here forever." Arai spoke bitterly.

"It might turn out that way, it might not. Wake me when you figure it out. It would be a waste to not sleep on these comfy beds." Denji state. He closed his eyes and quickly drifted to sleep.

"He fell asleep..." Aki said, dumbfounded by Denji's ability to sleep rather quickly.

You get up from the spot you were sitting on. You walked over to Denji's bedside and saw that he was in fact asleep. "So it appears he did," you said. "Well, imma go walk around. Just yell for me if you need anything."

"I'll be walking around too, I need to see if I can find the devil so we can get out of this mess," Aki said. 

A/n: Yay another chapter is done. I hope you enjoyed this update!