It's honestly not a bad idea. One last ditch attempt to escape, to run, to get the hell away from douman with everything she can.
But much like when she reached for the knife--he was waiting for some trick, some ploy, and he won't allow it. Three times spurned. He wouldn't let her, this time. This was his rage, three times multiplied, and he holds fast when she tries to pull away--yanking her back and slamming his hand into her chest.
...where his long, blade-like claws all drive in, burrowing deep into flesh, bone, organ and muscle. Driving in and twisting as he aims to do as much damage as he possibly can. Heart, liver, lung--the sensation of warm blood pooling over his fingers as he inevitably drives into her heart, severing arteries and pushing through until those fingers can't dive in any deeper.
And then he pulls them out. Uncleanly, aiming to cause even more damage on the way out.
And that's where he drops her again, onto a pile on the floor where he's more than sure there's few tricks she can pull to stop from coming close to tearing her heart out.
"...It could have been more fun, Master of Chaldea. Maybe in our next life, we'll get to properly play. Or, perhaps, I'll meet a Master who is less foolish than you, having learned from every past life up until now.
It's truly a mystery.
I'll leave you here, as well. A kindness, so your dear little friends can find your body to mourn over, instead of burning it away and replacing you with one of my beautiful Shikigami to fool your friends.
Consider it my last heartfelt gift.
Goodbye, Ritsuka Fujimaru."
He has no idea what a mistake this 'gift' will end up being, but he will remain at her side until she goes still and silent before all but humming his way out of the door, leaving it wide and open for anyone to walk in to find her 'corpse'.
It had been worth a try. But then the retaliatory attack came so fast and so hard there was nothing Ritsuka could do but let out a strangled cry of pain. She could feel it all too acutely as those monstrous claws pierced her chest, tearing through flesh that shouldn't normally be touched to begin with.
Her eyes went wide. She was afraid, of course she was, she'd never wanted to die. But another feeling lurked alongside that, a feeling of failure, of guilt at letting down her friends, her allies, everyone back in her own world.
But she was going to die. She knew that with a cold certainty as she fell to the floor, already ragged and pained breaths coming ever more erratically and shallowly as blood pooled in the torn remains of her lungs. She was going to die, and there most certainly wouldn't be a convenient god to make a deal with to come back this time.
Something warm and wet pricked at the corners of her eyes, unnoticed beneath the sheer pain she was in, and then her consciousness fled, and she went still but for the slowly pooling blood.
That, and the all too faint, virtually imperceptible twitches as, within her, the torn pieces of her heart still, impossibly, continued to try to beat.
The month- god it's not even half through the month- has not been going well.
Maybe people would argue that. It's doubtful however, with people going missing every few days and the Metaverse flaring up in reply just as quickly. Attacks are happening. The 'Black Order' is responsible, whoever it is they sent to do it. Part of her wants to be suspicious of something, anything she's already encountered but she throws it off with the thought that it's just a response to the trauma around her.
And then the third victim makes his post.
Yasuho isn't even sure why she watches these. She knows she won't be getting any farther up the tower at this point, not until the dungeon is clear- and she knows, for that matter, that trying to help with a dungeon when she doesn't know the victims at all let alone well, is a recipe for disaster.
It's the double edged blade of the set up. Know the victim well enough to accurately navigate their halls and hells, know them well enough to suffer in turn.
The post goes up, and Yasuho decides that's a good time to go over her combat bag- Shio's gifted laptop bag is for her, for her books and computer and things that she properly enjoys. This tiny thing is where the korok pockets activate however, and the only thing sitting in there is a shield, her chalk, and some snacks.
Maybe she'll pick up another bowl of noodles from Shio this evening before the hour starts. Or something from Lucy at the door of the tower, that was always helpful. Making progress through Tartarus has somehow helped curb the worst of how she feels this month, something she's almost certain relates to the dark, shadowy tinge of the sky, but it's still hard to skip through the teleporter and tell herself she's doing well.
Bag in hand as she glances back to the ARCUS to see if any updates have come up, she abruptly freezes. It's not because of anything on the post- no, all there is there is speculation and of course that's all. The Midnight Hour hasn't struck again, the dungeon hasn't dropped, and the next block of Tartarus remains, undoubtedly, locked.
But those suspicions she was holding at bay come flooding back, and Yasuho's body feels like ice.
The Black Order is Clearly Responsible.
Fact. Of course it is. They announced it. They-
You know the voice from the earlier posts.
She knew it but didn't realize. She knew it, and now she does.
Killers and criminals with a need for attention will often insert themselves in the investigation to lure people astray, and as a form of power.
There were plenty of things wrong with criminal psychology in some cases, but in this case it wasn't. It just 'made sense' for that matter, control the investigation, control the....
....crime.
Ashiya Douman claimed to know Ritsuka immediately.
Yasuho doesn't put the bag down, instead throwing the strap over her shoulder and rushing out the door. She doesn't close the phone over instead hurriedly thumbing contacts and hitting dial, heart pounding louder and louder with every dull tone of the unanswered call.
Dial, no answer. Dial, no answer. Dial-
Pick up. Pick up, just pick up, please just pick up, she thinks, and Yasuho curses herself for not thinking to grab her boots or call someone else or-
You don't know that they'd actually be able to help, a sinister thought tells her, and as delicate hooves clack rapidly against the sidewalk she half wishes she inherited the same problem Ritsuka has. Maybe it'd all go faster as...whatever the hell she's been turning into, that has hooves and antlers and a tail like this. She doesn't know. It has to be faster though, she can't even guess how long she's been running, winded and laboring as her breathing already is.
Thank god for the Faeries, she can't help but think, still running as she makes it to the apartment grounds. That stupid marathon really put her through her paces.
Ritsuka, she doesn't shout, her voice caught in her throat. All that escapes it is a strange, gargled choke, too out of breath and too numb and shaking for more. Ritsuka, Ritsuka, RI-
Yasuho stops so quickly she nearly falls over, hand frozen where it was going to go for the door. It's so strange how it swung- almost closed, no doubt because of any air pressure between the hall and apartment, rather than any need to hide. It sits so innocently there, like there isn't even anything to cover up.
Hard to ignore the great hole where the door knob is though.
"R...ri..."
Her voice is hoarse. Her hand shakes as she feels out the air with Paisley Park, a single person and two animals pinging to her attention. People are alive in there, she thinks. The animals are fine, but what if it's not Ritsuka, but the attacker then?
Yasuho draws her sword.
She taps the door as it gives a long, agonized creak, light spilling through from where it had barely gleamed between shards of wood. The light isn't what catches her eye however. No, the light only illuminates everything else, and for a minute she's genuinely frozen.
Three presences.
Two animals.
One 'human'.
All immobile.
Three presences, she thinks as she takes a quiet step in, already smelling the sharp tang of coppery blood.
Two animals, she reminds herself, the sound of whimpering slowly becoming a growl from around the corner.
One...
"MMNHNH-"
Don't drop the sword, she tells herself. Don't drop it don't drop it don't drop it don't drop-
Keke was the first to shrug off the sleeping enchantment, perhaps because she was so much larger than the leafeon. Or perhaps it was just chance. Whatever the reason, the mutt was waking up, and one of the first things she heard was the sound of someone at the door.
And given that one of the last things she remembered was Something Bad coming from the door, a warning growl quickly turned to straight up barking and rushing at the presumed intruder.
She drops the sword, (heck), falls back onto her rear (double heck), and raises her arms in the feeble hope Keke recognizes her before getting the chance to tear into it.
"Keke, shh, shh, please Keke I need...I need to get to Ritsuka, I need-"
She doesn't want to think of if the presence isn't her. If it isn't Ritsuka. If Ritsuka is...
Is...
"Keke, please," she chokes, eyes watering already as an ill feeling comes over her.
Fortunately, Yasuho was someone Keke recognized. Double fortunately, that animal love worked its magic, and after a few more, increasingly softer and more confused barks, Keke settled down. Then glanced back into the apartment and back at Yasuho, before letting out a quiet whine.
At which point the oversized mutt turned and walked back inside pausing only to sniff at Sage as the leafeon began to rouse from his own slumber.
Should Yasuho follow, well. There was certainly no one visibly alive in the small apartment. There was a dent and cracks in one wall from where something that been smashed into it, and a few items Ritsuka had been gathering up scattered on the floor where they'd been dropped (her phone, her mystic code, Keke's leash, a dagger...) but otherwise the apartment was almost eerily untouched.
Well, aside from Ritsuka herself. Or her body, at least, because she sure wasn't moving. Laying in a heap on the floor, one wrist at an awkward angle, and her chest quite literally a bloody mess. Like something had ripped her open, the blood having already thoroughly soaked her shirt and started pooling on the floor around her.
Keke trotted over, licking her owner's perfectly still face, before sitting down with another plaintive whine.
Laid across the floor like this, the items practically retell the story. Yasuho gives one small sob and scratch to Keke before the dog moves off to whine at Sage, and in the meantime she pushes herself back to her feet with the sword in hand. Leash, phone, code, dagger...
Her eyes trace the path as if to avoid what lays at the end, grip shaking more and more as she quietly steps into the room. There's still someone here, there's still someone HERE- her thoughts roar, but all of that comes to a halt as she looks from the wreckage and the cracks and the smears to the actual body.
"Mmng- GHmp-" With a stumble, Yasuho takes a small step back. Her hand over her mouth as that feeling of illness nearly becomes overpowering, eyes wide and watering. Her thoughts reel with counter-productive demands; call for help, scream, run, cry, all of the above, and she can't tell how it is that her grip on the blade doesn't fail now.
Yasuho's tail drifts behind her, the hooved woman breathing rapidly as she starts to approach the girl's body. It must be a trap, she keeps thinking. The closer she gets, the closer the Presence, and it must be a trap. Closer. Closer-
She can see the details of bone...of flesh, a horrific, ragged mess. It sears itself into her eyes as she shakes, still trying not to gag. It's Ritsuka's body. There can be no doubt. It's her body, long beyond the point of anything anyone could ever survive-!
...
(But what was that, just now? ...What was that, that she saw, from this single 'human presence'?)
Ritsuka remained still, deathly so. Still and pale, the blood that ought to be coloring her features instead pooled on the floor around her.
And yet.
As Keke leaned in the lick at her owner's face again, clearly trying to wake her in her own way, did some of her fur move ever so slightly as it passed in front of Ritsuka's mouth and nose? It was almost imperceptible, so weak and small and slow that there wasn't even a noticeable rise and fall to her chest, yeah somehow, impossibly, she was breathing.
And a closer look, if Yasuho could stomach it, at her ruined and torn apart chest, would reveal an equal faint twitching. The torn muscles of her heart still weakly attempting to beat.
Dead, she thinks. Dead, dead, dead, her friend is dead, but her eyes must also be playing tricks on her. It must be an illusion, it must be her own fear rearing its head, or maybe something the murderer has done to drive a stake farther in. It has to be fake-
But the body exaggerates when it continuosly fails to do what it needs. The muscles that work are doing their best to move, and the muscles that are separated practically snap with each botched attempt. They're minute motions, but those minute motions are evident enough that the eye catches them with ease now that she's watching.
...At which point she actually is sick, at least a little.
"ORugh-"
Disgusting, but she can't think about that. How is Ritsuka even moving? God, is that why Keke is just trying to...to he...
Messy hand aside, the woman feels like she's been struck with a bolt.
The human presence is Ritsuka.
She's alive, she's alive, she's alive-
...For now.
Yasuho rushes over with a scream, no doubt startling the dog. Desperate hands fumble to pull the body together where it's impossible, pleas and cries nothing but gibberish from her mouth. She needs help-
Help will not get here in time. Help might bring the culprit back.
She needs someone, anyone, anyone who can heal-
...And as it is, they're probably occupied with the newest dungeon.
The phone at her side gleams with every desperate fumble. Her hands are already red and slick from trying to even assess what's happened as she tries to think of how to bandage wounds like this, and it smears ugly stains across the device when she notices the glow.
She found new rock things for this the other day...right? They were definitely doing some kind of healing in Tartarus, right? They have to be enough. It has to be enough...right??
Something to fix this- Something to keep her alive, something-
An outpouring of magical energy swirled and infused Ritsuka's body as the healing spell did its work. Muscle and bone knit back together, severed veins and arteries reattached, even that one shattered wrist reset itself. Ritsuka made a choked, gasping sound as her lungs suddenly were whole again, no longer struggling to take in a meager amount of air with each breath. Unseen, her pulse became detectable once more, her heart restored to doing its job rather than its shredded remains twitching ineffectually.
It was still horribly, painfully weak, however. A heartbeat that could barely be felt, breaths that remained shallow, her skin pale and almost cool to the touch.
The magic was healing her body, but she'd already lost so much blood. Far, far too much. And so she still showed no signs of waking up.
She feels like she's had the wind knocked out of her. Like something's struck her in the gut, forced all the breath from her lungs with such a blow that she can't get it back. All through it, Ritsuka's body pulls itself together under her fingers though, and so Yasuho calls for herself and her magic to keep going.
...until she can't. "Hahh...hhhh...Ritsuka- come on...please, Ritsuka, please we need..."
Cupping the other's face does nothing but smear blood on it, and Yasuho bites back tears. Something has happened here that the other was left to die, but even with this miraculous prevention of death, how can she say for sure that there's time to try and rouse her.
They need to leave, she thinks, and already her shadow moves to act on those words. Paisley Park creeps out and starts scanning the room for objects and begins blindly grabbing from the floor and counter, starting a small pile at their side. They need to get out of here, they need to go-
And isn't that what she's spent all the last while preparing for?
Thoughts and memories of idle nervous chatter while cutting swathes of fur bring more tears to the girl's eyes, as Yasuho finds the memory blurring painfully overtop of what's surrounding her now. It's hardly a full gore-fest of a mess but somehow the truth of what a brutal scene this is hits harder that way, as if the lack of excess makes it that much more Real.
There is a pulse under her fingers, Yasuho thinks with a swallow. She just...
"Okay." Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. "Okay. ...W...I'll get you out of here. And then I'll keep trying- until you can get up, it's going to be alright..."
There was still no response, no reaction from Ritsuka. Her breathing was no longer pained, but it was still oddly strained, the muscles struggling against the lack of blood. Her pulse was present, but faint and erratic. She would be no help in getting herself out of here, unfortunately.
Both Keke and Sage parked themselves nearby, clearly concerned about their owner, though that did have the benefit of keeping them out from underfoot. Beyond that... Well. Yasuho was already familiar with Ritsuka's apartment, having been here before. She would simply have to use her best judgment for what to do next.
Objects are moving behind her. Ritsuka is in her arms. Yasuho breathes deeply, and slowly in an attempt to calm herself down, and with each second she takes to do it her resolve manages to grow and steady itself.
They need to get out. She spent all that time preparing for what it would take to hide, get somewhere safe, to avoid this kind of thing, but the best she can do now is make sure it doesn't happen again. Paisley's 'sense presence' is on high alert- all there are around them are empty apartments with the occasional animal. The canines themselves are watching nervously, but for whatever reason seem to be behaving...for now.
And Ritsuka is limp in her arms.
She needs something that can move her- something that can carry her, she can't just pull a dragon in here from Hyrule or-
Yasuho's eyes fall on the racecar bed, and she immediately moves to start dragging the girl over. In response to the thought, Paisley darts for the bedroom to pull blankets and pillows off at random, sliding back to help wrap the girl carefully upon it. It's a tight fit- Yasuho's barely going to be able to drive the thing if she's right, and with a look to the dogs that's hardly preferred.
She needs something else then. Something that can carry...
"Keke! Here, up-" The chair. The chair can move, and if she leashes the two items together with Paisley she can probably make it work provided she's careful not to overshoot the speed. "Sage, you too!" Dogs on the chair, she can put what snacks and things will fit there as well...
Kettle on the bed, she'll have to hold that...
...Just one last thing then.
"Phhhheewwww...okay. Okay, please, first try..."
She needs to make sure this door doesn't stick around, but there's an easy way to do that at least. Carefully drawing the chalk around and over the front door after jamming it shut with something on the floor, she takes a look through the resulting portal.
Hyrule.
"Just a bit further then..." It's scary, how well this is working so far, but it's hardly as if that compares to what preceded it all. "Please...hang in there Ritsuka, I'll get you in the house..."
Ritsuka, of course, didn't respond, didn't move. But she continued to breathe, shallow breaths as her body struggled against all the blood she'd lost, but breathing all the same.
The animals did as they were told, even if Keke in particular needed a little convincing to leave Ritsuka's immediate side. But once again, that odd affinity for animals, the one that Ritsuka had once gone to the strange Goodwill and asked the shopkeeper for something that might help her friend with a pet dragon, did its work.
The rest of the apartment was still. Ritsuka's attacker was so certain of his work he spared no thought for returning, but the sooner they were out, the better, in any case.
As long as she's breathing, it's fine. As long as she's breathing, they can pull this off. The longer they take here, in this room of blood and silence, the more tense she becomes however, and so as she readies Paisley as the 'rope' and gets behind the wheel as best she can without jostling anything, Yasuho swallows.
Time to drive.
The car takes off without so much as an engine roar. The chair ambles behind, slower but not so slow that it's completely out of sight when Yasuho briefly brings the car to a stop. With how these chalk gates work, they're not quite at the gate of Hyrule. It works to their advantage, what with the usual one being inside a freaking cave.
Here, they're just beside the cave, which is handy as the chair trundles out. Yasuho grabs a stick from the ground, sticks it through the door...
...And the minute the door is unjammed it comes free from what held the gate together, separated chalk line forcing it to close.
Back to the car then.
It won't be a long drive. She hid that teapot close, who knew how injured they'd be if they needed it after all. But it's at least...easier, in a sense.
Better to breathe.
The car-bed isn't made for this kind of terrain, so at least she has to take it slow enough that the chair can keep up now. Just need to get to the teapot at the honey-cave.
Neither of the pets seemed particularly happy about this whole arrangement, the fact that they were indeed following their own being pretty much the only thing keeping them mollified. Keke in particular was clearly still agitated, looking around and growling at the slightest thing that seemed out of place.
Ritsuka still wasn't improving further, but at least she wasn't showing any sign of getting worse. Stable. But not waking, even as the magic race car bed bumped along the uneven terrain.
It's a short trip at least. And the bees of the hive there don't even move an inch as Paisley slips down low to carry the teapot out from the hiding place there. It was kept covered, fortunately, or they might have a whole other issue.
Still though.
"Alright you two, you first-"
Into the teapot you two, c'mon.
"Paisley, you bring Ritsuka down..."
She uh.
Doesn't really want to just drop the bed and Ritsuka in...
So this is the best compromise. Slide them down, with Paisley as careful as possible...
Keke hesitated when told to go, looking back at Ritsuka's prone form and whining. A little more encouragement though got the mutt to comply, and that was all it took for the leafeon to follow.
Of course, if Ritsuka didn't follow quickly, whether the pets would stay was a whole other question...
this is probably a good close point more or less...
It'll be fine. Ritsuka goes down quick, and Yasuho herself very briefly follows just to make sure everyone and everything has landed 'safely'- that includes the chair and all it's supplies.
"Stay here," she quickly orders, and just as quickly Yasuho's gone. They won't feel the teapot move, they won't feel anything at all really, as Yasuho herself takes off to find herself her 'safety well'.
It'll just feel like...a quiet. Stressful wait, before Yasuho finally comes back.
Comes back, and finally collapses to her knees beside the bed. She needs to do more, she knows that. They're hidden now but that's only part of the battle.
She's just...
(Give her but a moment. She'll be back to it in the end, to try healing magic, to answer messages. But for now she just rests her head against the bed, and lets herself break.)
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But much like when she reached for the knife--he was waiting for some trick, some ploy, and he won't allow it.
Three times spurned. He wouldn't let her, this time. This was his rage, three times multiplied, and he holds fast when she tries to pull away--yanking her back and slamming his hand into her chest.
...where his long, blade-like claws all drive in, burrowing deep into flesh, bone, organ and muscle. Driving in and twisting as he aims to do as much damage as he possibly can. Heart, liver, lung--the sensation of warm blood pooling over his fingers as he inevitably drives into her heart, severing arteries and pushing through until those fingers can't dive in any deeper.
And then he pulls them out.
Uncleanly, aiming to cause even more damage on the way out.
And that's where he drops her again, onto a pile on the floor where he's more than sure there's few tricks she can pull to stop from coming close to tearing her heart out.
"...It could have been more fun, Master of Chaldea. Maybe in our next life, we'll get to properly play. Or, perhaps, I'll meet a Master who is less foolish than you, having learned from every past life up until now.
It's truly a mystery.
I'll leave you here, as well. A kindness, so your dear little friends can find your body to mourn over, instead of burning it away and replacing you with one of my beautiful Shikigami to fool your friends.
Consider it my last heartfelt gift.
Goodbye, Ritsuka Fujimaru."
He has no idea what a mistake this 'gift' will end up being, but he will remain at her side until she goes still and silent before all but humming his way out of the door, leaving it wide and open for anyone to walk in to find her 'corpse'.
no subject
Her eyes went wide. She was afraid, of course she was, she'd never wanted to die. But another feeling lurked alongside that, a feeling of failure, of guilt at letting down her friends, her allies, everyone back in her own world.
But she was going to die. She knew that with a cold certainty as she fell to the floor, already ragged and pained breaths coming ever more erratically and shallowly as blood pooled in the torn remains of her lungs. She was going to die, and there most certainly wouldn't be a convenient god to make a deal with to come back this time.
Something warm and wet pricked at the corners of her eyes, unnoticed beneath the sheer pain she was in, and then her consciousness fled, and she went still but for the slowly pooling blood.
That, and the all too faint, virtually imperceptible twitches as, within her, the torn pieces of her heart still, impossibly, continued to try to beat.
no subject
Maybe people would argue that. It's doubtful however, with people going missing every few days and the Metaverse flaring up in reply just as quickly. Attacks are happening. The 'Black Order' is responsible, whoever it is they sent to do it. Part of her wants to be suspicious of something, anything she's already encountered but she throws it off with the thought that it's just a response to the trauma around her.
And then the third victim makes his post.
Yasuho isn't even sure why she watches these. She knows she won't be getting any farther up the tower at this point, not until the dungeon is clear- and she knows, for that matter, that trying to help with a dungeon when she doesn't know the victims at all let alone well, is a recipe for disaster.
It's the double edged blade of the set up. Know the victim well enough to accurately navigate their halls and hells, know them well enough to suffer in turn.
The post goes up, and Yasuho decides that's a good time to go over her combat bag- Shio's gifted laptop bag is for her, for her books and computer and things that she properly enjoys. This tiny thing is where the korok pockets activate however, and the only thing sitting in there is a shield, her chalk, and some snacks.
Maybe she'll pick up another bowl of noodles from Shio this evening before the hour starts. Or something from Lucy at the door of the tower, that was always helpful. Making progress through Tartarus has somehow helped curb the worst of how she feels this month, something she's almost certain relates to the dark, shadowy tinge of the sky, but it's still hard to skip through the teleporter and tell herself she's doing well.
Bag in hand as she glances back to the ARCUS to see if any updates have come up, she abruptly freezes. It's not because of anything on the post- no, all there is there is speculation and of course that's all. The Midnight Hour hasn't struck again, the dungeon hasn't dropped, and the next block of Tartarus remains, undoubtedly, locked.
But those suspicions she was holding at bay come flooding back, and Yasuho's body feels like ice.
The Black Order is Clearly Responsible.
Fact. Of course it is. They announced it. They-
You know the voice from the earlier posts.
She knew it but didn't realize. She knew it, and now she does.
Killers and criminals with a need for attention will often insert themselves in the investigation to lure people astray, and as a form of power.
There were plenty of things wrong with criminal psychology in some cases, but in this case it wasn't. It just 'made sense' for that matter, control the investigation, control the....
....crime.
Ashiya Douman claimed to know Ritsuka immediately.
Yasuho doesn't put the bag down, instead throwing the strap over her shoulder and rushing out the door. She doesn't close the phone over instead hurriedly thumbing contacts and hitting dial, heart pounding louder and louder with every dull tone of the unanswered call.
Dial, no answer. Dial, no answer. Dial-
Pick up. Pick up, just pick up, please just pick up, she thinks, and Yasuho curses herself for not thinking to grab her boots or call someone else or-
You don't know that they'd actually be able to help, a sinister thought tells her, and as delicate hooves clack rapidly against the sidewalk she half wishes she inherited the same problem Ritsuka has. Maybe it'd all go faster as...whatever the hell she's been turning into, that has hooves and antlers and a tail like this. She doesn't know. It has to be faster though, she can't even guess how long she's been running, winded and laboring as her breathing already is.
Thank god for the Faeries, she can't help but think, still running as she makes it to the apartment grounds. That stupid marathon really put her through her paces.
Ritsuka, she doesn't shout, her voice caught in her throat. All that escapes it is a strange, gargled choke, too out of breath and too numb and shaking for more. Ritsuka, Ritsuka, RI-
Yasuho stops so quickly she nearly falls over, hand frozen where it was going to go for the door. It's so strange how it swung- almost closed, no doubt because of any air pressure between the hall and apartment, rather than any need to hide. It sits so innocently there, like there isn't even anything to cover up.
Hard to ignore the great hole where the door knob is though.
"R...ri..."
Her voice is hoarse. Her hand shakes as she feels out the air with Paisley Park, a single person and two animals pinging to her attention. People are alive in there, she thinks. The animals are fine, but what if it's not Ritsuka, but the attacker then?
Yasuho draws her sword.
She taps the door as it gives a long, agonized creak, light spilling through from where it had barely gleamed between shards of wood. The light isn't what catches her eye however. No, the light only illuminates everything else, and for a minute she's genuinely frozen.
Three presences.
Two animals.
One 'human'.
All immobile.
Three presences, she thinks as she takes a quiet step in, already smelling the sharp tang of coppery blood.
Two animals, she reminds herself, the sound of whimpering slowly becoming a growl from around the corner.
One...
"MMNHNH-"
Don't drop the sword, she tells herself. Don't drop it don't drop it don't drop it don't drop-
(WHERE IS THE HUMAN PRESENCE)
no subject
And given that one of the last things she remembered was Something Bad coming from the door, a warning growl quickly turned to straight up barking and rushing at the presumed intruder.
no subject
"KEKE-!"
Yasuho drops the sword.
"KEKE, Keke, it's me, it's Yasuho-"
She drops the sword, (heck), falls back onto her rear (double heck), and raises her arms in the feeble hope Keke recognizes her before getting the chance to tear into it.
"Keke, shh, shh, please Keke I need...I need to get to Ritsuka, I need-"
She doesn't want to think of if the presence isn't her. If it isn't Ritsuka. If Ritsuka is...
Is...
"Keke, please," she chokes, eyes watering already as an ill feeling comes over her.
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At which point the oversized mutt turned and walked back inside pausing only to sniff at Sage as the leafeon began to rouse from his own slumber.
Should Yasuho follow, well. There was certainly no one visibly alive in the small apartment. There was a dent and cracks in one wall from where something that been smashed into it, and a few items Ritsuka had been gathering up scattered on the floor where they'd been dropped (her phone, her mystic code, Keke's leash, a dagger...) but otherwise the apartment was almost eerily untouched.
Well, aside from Ritsuka herself. Or her body, at least, because she sure wasn't moving. Laying in a heap on the floor, one wrist at an awkward angle, and her chest quite literally a bloody mess. Like something had ripped her open, the blood having already thoroughly soaked her shirt and started pooling on the floor around her.
Keke trotted over, licking her owner's perfectly still face, before sitting down with another plaintive whine.
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Her eyes trace the path as if to avoid what lays at the end, grip shaking more and more as she quietly steps into the room. There's still someone here, there's still someone HERE- her thoughts roar, but all of that comes to a halt as she looks from the wreckage and the cracks and the smears to the actual body.
"Mmng- GHmp-" With a stumble, Yasuho takes a small step back. Her hand over her mouth as that feeling of illness nearly becomes overpowering, eyes wide and watering. Her thoughts reel with counter-productive demands; call for help, scream, run, cry, all of the above, and she can't tell how it is that her grip on the blade doesn't fail now.
Yasuho's tail drifts behind her, the hooved woman breathing rapidly as she starts to approach the girl's body. It must be a trap, she keeps thinking. The closer she gets, the closer the Presence, and it must be a trap. Closer. Closer-
She can see the details of bone...of flesh, a horrific, ragged mess. It sears itself into her eyes as she shakes, still trying not to gag. It's Ritsuka's body. There can be no doubt. It's her body, long beyond the point of anything anyone could ever survive-!
...
(But what was that, just now? ...What was that, that she saw, from this single 'human presence'?)
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And yet.
As Keke leaned in the lick at her owner's face again, clearly trying to wake her in her own way, did some of her fur move ever so slightly as it passed in front of Ritsuka's mouth and nose? It was almost imperceptible, so weak and small and slow that there wasn't even a noticeable rise and fall to her chest, yeah somehow, impossibly, she was breathing.
And a closer look, if Yasuho could stomach it, at her ruined and torn apart chest, would reveal an equal faint twitching. The torn muscles of her heart still weakly attempting to beat.
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But the body exaggerates when it continuosly fails to do what it needs. The muscles that work are doing their best to move, and the muscles that are separated practically snap with each botched attempt. They're minute motions, but those minute motions are evident enough that the eye catches them with ease now that she's watching.
...At which point she actually is sick, at least a little.
"ORugh-"
Disgusting, but she can't think about that. How is Ritsuka even moving? God, is that why Keke is just trying to...to he...
Messy hand aside, the woman feels like she's been struck with a bolt.
The human presence is Ritsuka.
She's alive, she's alive, she's alive-
...For now.
Yasuho rushes over with a scream, no doubt startling the dog. Desperate hands fumble to pull the body together where it's impossible, pleas and cries nothing but gibberish from her mouth. She needs help-
Help will not get here in time. Help might bring the culprit back.
She needs someone, anyone, anyone who can heal-
...And as it is, they're probably occupied with the newest dungeon.
The phone at her side gleams with every desperate fumble. Her hands are already red and slick from trying to even assess what's happened as she tries to think of how to bandage wounds like this, and it smears ugly stains across the device when she notices the glow.
She found new rock things for this the other day...right? They were definitely doing some kind of healing in Tartarus, right? They have to be enough. It has to be enough...right??
Something to fix this- Something to keep her alive, something-
A word comes to her mind.
"T...Teara... TEARAL-!"
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It was still horribly, painfully weak, however. A heartbeat that could barely be felt, breaths that remained shallow, her skin pale and almost cool to the touch.
The magic was healing her body, but she'd already lost so much blood. Far, far too much. And so she still showed no signs of waking up.
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...until she can't. "Hahh...hhhh...Ritsuka- come on...please, Ritsuka, please we need..."
Cupping the other's face does nothing but smear blood on it, and Yasuho bites back tears. Something has happened here that the other was left to die, but even with this miraculous prevention of death, how can she say for sure that there's time to try and rouse her.
They need to leave, she thinks, and already her shadow moves to act on those words. Paisley Park creeps out and starts scanning the room for objects and begins blindly grabbing from the floor and counter, starting a small pile at their side. They need to get out of here, they need to go-
And isn't that what she's spent all the last while preparing for?
Thoughts and memories of idle nervous chatter while cutting swathes of fur bring more tears to the girl's eyes, as Yasuho finds the memory blurring painfully overtop of what's surrounding her now. It's hardly a full gore-fest of a mess but somehow the truth of what a brutal scene this is hits harder that way, as if the lack of excess makes it that much more Real.
There is a pulse under her fingers, Yasuho thinks with a swallow. She just...
"Okay." Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. "Okay. ...W...I'll get you out of here. And then I'll keep trying- until you can get up, it's going to be alright..."
Breathe, breathe, BREATHE-
"It's alright...it's okay..."
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Both Keke and Sage parked themselves nearby, clearly concerned about their owner, though that did have the benefit of keeping them out from underfoot. Beyond that... Well. Yasuho was already familiar with Ritsuka's apartment, having been here before. She would simply have to use her best judgment for what to do next.
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They need to get out. She spent all that time preparing for what it would take to hide, get somewhere safe, to avoid this kind of thing, but the best she can do now is make sure it doesn't happen again. Paisley's 'sense presence' is on high alert- all there are around them are empty apartments with the occasional animal. The canines themselves are watching nervously, but for whatever reason seem to be behaving...for now.
And Ritsuka is limp in her arms.
She needs something that can move her- something that can carry her, she can't just pull a dragon in here from Hyrule or-
Yasuho's eyes fall on the racecar bed, and she immediately moves to start dragging the girl over. In response to the thought, Paisley darts for the bedroom to pull blankets and pillows off at random, sliding back to help wrap the girl carefully upon it. It's a tight fit- Yasuho's barely going to be able to drive the thing if she's right, and with a look to the dogs that's hardly preferred.
She needs something else then. Something that can carry...
"Keke! Here, up-" The chair. The chair can move, and if she leashes the two items together with Paisley she can probably make it work provided she's careful not to overshoot the speed. "Sage, you too!" Dogs on the chair, she can put what snacks and things will fit there as well...
Kettle on the bed, she'll have to hold that...
...Just one last thing then.
"Phhhheewwww...okay. Okay, please, first try..."
She needs to make sure this door doesn't stick around, but there's an easy way to do that at least. Carefully drawing the chalk around and over the front door after jamming it shut with something on the floor, she takes a look through the resulting portal.
Hyrule.
"Just a bit further then..." It's scary, how well this is working so far, but it's hardly as if that compares to what preceded it all. "Please...hang in there Ritsuka, I'll get you in the house..."
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The animals did as they were told, even if Keke in particular needed a little convincing to leave Ritsuka's immediate side. But once again, that odd affinity for animals, the one that Ritsuka had once gone to the strange Goodwill and asked the shopkeeper for something that might help her friend with a pet dragon, did its work.
The rest of the apartment was still. Ritsuka's attacker was so certain of his work he spared no thought for returning, but the sooner they were out, the better, in any case.
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Time to drive.
The car takes off without so much as an engine roar. The chair ambles behind, slower but not so slow that it's completely out of sight when Yasuho briefly brings the car to a stop. With how these chalk gates work, they're not quite at the gate of Hyrule. It works to their advantage, what with the usual one being inside a freaking cave.
Here, they're just beside the cave, which is handy as the chair trundles out. Yasuho grabs a stick from the ground, sticks it through the door...
...And the minute the door is unjammed it comes free from what held the gate together, separated chalk line forcing it to close.
Back to the car then.
It won't be a long drive. She hid that teapot close, who knew how injured they'd be if they needed it after all. But it's at least...easier, in a sense.
Better to breathe.
The car-bed isn't made for this kind of terrain, so at least she has to take it slow enough that the chair can keep up now. Just need to get to the teapot at the honey-cave.
"A..Almost there, everyone..."
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Ritsuka still wasn't improving further, but at least she wasn't showing any sign of getting worse. Stable. But not waking, even as the magic race car bed bumped along the uneven terrain.
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Still though.
"Alright you two, you first-"
Into the teapot you two, c'mon.
"Paisley, you bring Ritsuka down..."
She uh.
Doesn't really want to just drop the bed and Ritsuka in...
So this is the best compromise. Slide them down, with Paisley as careful as possible...
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Of course, if Ritsuka didn't follow quickly, whether the pets would stay was a whole other question...
this is probably a good close point more or less...
"Stay here," she quickly orders, and just as quickly Yasuho's gone. They won't feel the teapot move, they won't feel anything at all really, as Yasuho herself takes off to find herself her 'safety well'.
It'll just feel like...a quiet. Stressful wait, before Yasuho finally comes back.
Comes back, and finally collapses to her knees beside the bed. She needs to do more, she knows that. They're hidden now but that's only part of the battle.
She's just...
(Give her but a moment. She'll be back to it in the end, to try healing magic, to answer messages. But for now she just rests her head against the bed, and lets herself break.)