The Disillusioned Land

Chapter 10 - Descent Into the Nightmare

Kyoko goes first, hesitating at the door. It seems like she's trying to listen to see if there's anything happening inside. After a few seconds she kicks down the door, I guess stealth is out of the question.

"Was that really necessary?" I asked her as we step on the broken glass from the front doors, entering Yakumo Corp.

"Shut it, I have my methods." She continues walking inside, but I hesitate to follow her. Staring at the lobby where I just met Yukari again is making me nervous. It feels like she's going to jump out at me again.

"Hey!" Kyoko shouts at me, snapping me out of my thoughts. "You ok? You went pale just staring at me, I don't like it."

"Y-yeah, I was just thinking about why we were here, that's all." Wasn't exactly a lie, I don't know why she thought to bring me here instead of bringing me to an evac point, journalist cover up or not.

"Well I thought a big shot journalist like you would want to find out what started this whole incident? This is apparently the place, the Hakurei said those feral youkai came from around this area, and I was the closest around to take care of this."

Well, I could have figured that out on my own. Of course Yukari is putting her plans in motion, but I thought she needed me to finish it? Letting a bunch of ravenous youkai run rampant, destroying parts of the City in the process feels like a misstep.

Unless... she knew I would come running right back to her front door, just like I did. No time to think about that now, I have to stop her, finally put the past to rest. No more mistakes.

"Hey!" Kyoko shouts at me again. "Will you stop staring off into nothing?! It's freaking me out, things are screwed up enough as it is, I don't need you going weird on me!"

"S-sorry Kyoko, I was just thinking over what you told me. I don't think I'm going to be much help if it started from here, I don't want to burden you." She made me toss my knife from earlier after all.

"Tch, I'll be fine. I didn't get to be a Hakurei maiden by just being able to fend for myself. I have plenty of talismans on me, they won't get to you." She smiled confidently when she said that. I haven't seen her fight much, but from what I saw she was more than capable of backing up her words.

"Alright then, let's go." I followed her into Yakumo Corp. The building was quiet, no workers, no tortured souls, nothing. I felt like we were being watched, and we most likely were, Yukari has eyes everywhere. We walked further down into the building, passing by the former laboratories where I committed those atrocities. Kyoko was silent, I didn't want to say anything to her.

"Do you smell that?" she suddenly spoke up. I stopped to try and smell whatever it was she did.

"No, what is it?"

"You don't have any magical ability do you? It smells like hundreds of spell cards activated around here."

Spell cards? No, it can't be... She couldn't have kept doing those trials over and over, even after I was gone?

"It's right in here." Kyoko motioned for me to come over to the door at the end of the hallway. I can't hesitate, not anymore.

I walked up to the door, and confronted the nightmare.