/jp/ - Otaku Culture

The tunnels were strangely warm, even if that was only relative to the frigid temperatures outside of the mine. "Oh, that's - Well...I guess it is better. I mean, it could be, uh...More better." Ki said, breathing out thankfully. "Look, I can't even see my breath anymore." I didn't think that was quite the greatest metric with which to measure how warm the place was, but I decided that I would just have to go with it. It was very difficult to tell what Kisami actually thought about something, sometimes. I'd gotten stuck between whether or not it was her airier, more flighty mood or a serious mood from time to time.

The darkness had more or less fully taken over by this point and I'd finally been forced to ask Ki to use some danmaku so that I could see what we were doing. "Hmm..." She'd said. "Could you wait until we're out of the stairs? It's just...There's doorways that lead out onto some of the other levels as you go, and they're not exactly...Empty." Fairies? "Some. Some other things. It's just - Best not attract unwanted attention." Sighing but seeing her point, I decided that I'd just stick as close to her as I could. "You can hold my hand if you want. Unless you think Yams will attack me for it." If that was enough to make Yamame attack her sister, I'd probably have to reconsider marrying her. I reached out blindly for Kisami's hand, managing to poke her in the forehead, eye, chest, and arm before I finally caught hold of her hand. "You trying to blind me?" She asked me dryly. "Because...I really wouldn't recommend it down here." Blinding her didn't seem entirely smart in general, I replied. Not to mention how cruel it would be, and I didn't go for that sort of stuff. "I'd have to reconsider you marrying Yams if you did." Ki told me.

Down and down we went, further and further into the ground, and it started to feel just a little bit warmer. I kept a tight grip on Kisami's hand so that I wouldn't somehow end up lost, even though we were on a tight staircase.

Knowing me, I'd somehow get lost anyway.

Fortunately, gripping her hand seemed to work well, and it wasn't all that long after that I bumped into Kisami when she came to an abrupt halt on the staircase. "Hold on..." She muttered. I frowned. I could see the staircase going further down, and I could hear that rhythmic thumping echoing upward from somewhere deep below but I could barely see anything. I could feel something, though. A deep, intense sense of foreboding, like I'd never be cheerful again and I suddenly knew, with complete certainty, that if I spoke, I would die.

And then I heard it. Somewhere, faint and in the distance, from the exit through the staircase that I could just barely make out slightly below us. The very faint sound of a human voice screaming for help. After the scream, I could hear what almost sounded like sobbing, as if there was someone injured or in pain down those tunnels. Immediately, my eyes widened and I went to say something, only for Kisami to spin around and slap her hand over my mouth. Her eyes were intense and, worryingly, slightly scared. She stared at me and then very slowly shook her head. I heard the faint scream a second time, and the cry for help again, but something about it just...Sounded wrong. Incorrect in some faint and confusing way that sent dread down to my very bones. What? What was it? A third time, the voice screamed for help, and this time, it dawned on me with a feeling that made me feel like I'd just been submerged in ice. It was the same. The same scream. The same sob - Two inhales, a hiccup, then a hitching sort of exhale. It was repeating. Immediately, I felt the panic surging through me, and Kisami gripped my hand tighter and kept her hand over my mouth. Her eyes screamed to me not to make a single sound. Not even to breathe.

We remained there for a few moments longer, and then, abruptly and mid-scream, the noise stopped. Suddenly all I could hear was the thundering in my ears and the pounding of my heart.

Kisami mouthed a count to me, from one to thirty. Once she finished, she let out a sigh of relief. "It's gone." she breathed into my ear, seemingly not daring to speak any louder. "Come on. Let's keep moving." She slowly removed her hand from my mouth and paused for a moment. "Off of this floor, at least. That mining sound you're hearing down below? I'd rather take my chances with that over whatever we just heard." Somewhat unsurprisingly, I couldn't find it in myself to disagree, so I ended up sticking even closer to her as we edged down the steps At the landing where I'd been hearing the noise coming through, I couldn't help but glance to the side. There was nothing, of course. Just the pitch blackness, but it felt as if it was something more than darkness, like all light, all that was good in the world, disappeared through that opening in the staircase. Kisami and I hurried further down, not wasting a single moment.