Sureiyazu

Episode 34: Stumbling in the Dark

It was even worse being in the dark when she was alone.

Had there always been odd noises in this place? Faint whispers? Distorted footsteps? A low howling? It seemed so much more terrifying without the rest of her team there to take her mind off it. But now she was on her own.

She set off down one of the halls off of the strange half-spherical dome of darkness she had woken in. 

How nice would it be to have some control over her powers of light now? The darkness pressed in from all angles, even more gloomy-looking than the other hall she had been in before.

From out of the unknown came a moan like nothing Akuma had ever heard. 

But there was something about it that made the hairs on the back of her neck  stand on end. 

"Aaaakuuuumaaaaa . . ."

Someone was calling her.

And from the sound of things, they weren't going to last long without her.

~~~

Kasai woke to an unconscious Heishi. 

The first thing she noticed was the smell - wherever she was, it reeked of mold and rotting flesh. Kasai crinkled her nose. 

Looking around, she saw that she was in some kind of cavern, with red rocks sticking jagged out of the sides of the walls. Upwards was a gaping hole with no end that Kasai could only figure was the hole that she and Heishi had fallen through when Aya activated the magic thingy she had found.

Heishi stirred. Kasai glanced down at him, but then looked around, intrigued at her surroundings. It was so different from the dark passage she had used Inochi to discover. 

"Ew, this place smells" was the first thing Heishi said as he sat up, his voice slightly slurred. 

"I'm gonna figure out this place," Kasai said suddenly.

"What do you mean by 'figure out'? That could mean a lot of -" But he stopped when he realized she wasn't listening. 

Kasai, with her incredible speed, hurled herself into the air, into nonexistent ceiling above.

It would take too much energy to do again - she had to make this one jump count. She needed to find out everything she could with this one shot. 

But what she saw was unforgettable.

A giant eye.

~~~

All Yuri saw at first was a bright light. 

Then she realized it was a candle. A giant candle, with a giant flame.

Its glow the only thing in the darkness for as far as the eye could see. 

"What is this?" asked a voice behind her.

"I don't know," Yuri said to Mizuki. "But it's pretty."

Mizuki rolled her eyes. "Anyway, we should probably figure out how to get out of here."

"Ohhhh," Yuri cooed. "Yeah, okay."

"What do you think it is?" Mizuki asked. 

"I don't know," Yuri shrugged. "Maybe we have to climb it! Ooh! Maybe it's like a tower and there's someone inside and we have to save them! Like a fairy tale!" 

"I doubt that," Mizuki said. "Did anyone ever tell you that you're happy too much?"

Yuri shook her head. "No, why?"

~~~

And Aya found herself floating in midair. 

With Taichi's voice in the distance:

"Aya? Is that you?"