Hisako moved over the prone form of Sylvain, slashing upward with Toraichi to ward the ghost walker off. Her blade passed through the phantom, and it snapped in the air toward her, just as quickly as Kamui.
She flinched, bracing herself with Toraichi as a clawed hand flung out. She saw Kamui flash forward in the corner of her eye.
Instead of the bone claws screeching against Toraichi, they went through and caught her on the forehead.
Between the chest-wrenching feeling of the ghost passing through Toraichi and the searing pain of the claws, she felt a little faint. She fell back on weak legs, blade lowering enough to see that Kamui had tried to attack the ghost as well. She had to brush blood from her brow before it blinded her.
Instead of his polearm going through the creature, the ghost had raised a bone hand to catch the weapon by the shaft. Hisako bit her tongue, forcing power back into her muscles, and lunged forward.
Her arm flew past the side of Toraichi, and she went for the creature's face, fingers outstretched towards the bony cheekbones.
Contact.
She almost recoiled instead of grabbing; the skin felt more like parchment paper than skin, and the unnatural chill made her skin crawl.
The bone was solid under her grip, though, so she stomped a foot down, used her ability to urge
"down" to be even more "down", and pushed the creature down, like spiking a volleyball and following through.
Hisako had always hated floating opponents in games; you always had to hit them more to juggle them. It took a heavy hand to send them to the ground so you could batter them.
With the power of her ability behind her slam, the concrete cracked, and she felt the click of bone break beneath her hand.
For good measure, she reared back and aimed a boot to stomp on the walker, but it'd recovered enough to re-activate the invulnerability.
Her boot slammed down on concrete, and the shock of it was enough to damage the floor and rattle her from toe to spine. She shuddered and staggered back, blocking the rising creature from Sylvain's form and having to wipe her brow once again. Dr. Moon hurried into action toward them.
Kamui burst into existence behind the walker, polearm swinging through the ghost uselessly. The ghost craned its head around, spine ridges forming a twisted column as the head turned around like the world's freakiest owl. Kamui performed a whole high-speed attack sequence, and the ghost simply hovered there, unbothered.
Dr. Moon slowed as she arrived, skirting the fight carefully to reach Sylvain.
Kamui clicked his tongue at the end of the dance, then jumped into another. Hisako raised Toraichi, and immediately the skull snapped to look at her—for a moment, she thought she saw the skull part to look in two directions at the point of the crack.
The polearm cut through the ghost, swinging past Hisako. The blade's closeness to her made her feel charged, like she was holding a weak live wire. She swung Toraichi, and the ghost snapped into action.
It sank suddenly, leaving the polearm swinging through the air, centimeters from her nose. She jerked back, slamming into the wall and nearly falling onto Sylvain and Dr. Moon.
The ghost sprang, partially intangible in the concrete, at Sylvain, and Kamui stuck it through with the polearm the second it left the floor.
It let out an earsplitting wail—something more whistling than Strömberg's monster's cries but not necessarily louder—that made Hisako flinch. Kamui's polearm fell through, leaving a sucking hole, slowly closing.
The others keeled over, covering their ears. Hisako was the only one ready. She swung Toraichi to ward the creature off at the very least. As expected, her blade slipped through it, but the creature didn't stop. It lunged at her—through her.
Her body went immediately numb as the creature made contact with her torso. She crumpled, body ignoring her will, and fell to the floor. She cracked her jaw against the concrete and rubbed her skin raw along her cheek. The blood from her forehead finally took her eyes.
She gasped as feeling returned—a sharp wave of pain—and pushed herself up so quickly her body twinged. She blinked the blood away, then wiped it all off with a weak hand.
Her ears were still ringing and her sight was tinged red, so she could almost forgive herself for missing it, but the ghost had tried to get to Sylvain, and everyone had appeared to block it.
Kamui had pierced the ghost through to no avail. Koko had appeared, fingers clenched and ready to snap with his fan raised to direct the explosion. Dr. Moon had—
Hisako's eyes widened.
Her blade was raised to the creature's thin throat. Its hands were reaching toward Sylvain, but it had frozen at the end of her sword. A thin bead of blood, black as ink, ran from the meeting point of blade and ashen skin.
Hisako glanced between the polearm and the sword.
The ghost was still invulnerable, but Dr. Moon's blade had cut it anyway.
"Dr. Moon!" she rasped. "You're our new primary fighter. We'll support you. Will your ability able to keep Sylvain alive during a fight like that?"
She nodded and launched into a sword dance. Hisako watched attentively. It was a more graceful number than even Vice Captain Fujioka's katas, and a completely different style from Kamui's swinging dance.
Dr. Moon's attack pattern reminded Hisako of something ceremonial—something built for beauty, but just as deadly as anybody else. No movement was wasted—every step sent the blade sweeping, and every defensive turn ended in a parrying stab.
The ghost jerked in the air to dodge each attack, retreating and allowing Hisako to stand and guard Sylvain.
She noticed a bloom of black on his throat and leaned down, reaching out a gentle hand. "Sylvain?" she said quietly.
He was still breathing, albeit so slowly that Hisako froze for a moment. She put a hand under his chin, carefully lifting blasted flesh to see the black mark better.
As she did, more black bloomed across his arm, spilling like oil across his arm and the floor in a line she quickly saw was a wound. She jerked back and turned around to see that the ghost had used its forearm to block one of Dr. Moon's slashes.
Dr. Moon advanced, giving no ground to the Doorwalker. Her blade was going to strike true, plunging right towards the creature's bony chest—
"Dr. Moon!" Hisako screamed. "Stop!"
Dr. Moon's attack shifted at the last moment, whiffing past the ghost's chest, between the arm and the ribs.
The ghost reached to grab her, and she flashed away with the help of Kamui. The second she was clear, Koko quickly fanned a small spark at the ghost.
The ghost was hit by the explosion, thankfully, but the only damage done was the internal scattering of bones, which undid itself swiftly in a grotesque sub-skin shifting, putting them back together.
Before Hisako could shout again, another, larger spark travelled. It passed through the ghost this time, blowing the back wall and the exit to smithereens. Part of the ceiling collapsed, but it was just reinforced concrete as far up as Hisako could see, thankfully.
Unfortunately, it left them all coughing up debris, but the ghost was lost amid the rubble.
"What's wrong?" Dr. Moon asked as soon as she caught her breath.
Hisako gently lifted Sylvain's chin to show her the black wounds. "When you cut the ghost with your sword, it damages him."
"But not the other attacks," Kamui added.
"The ghost can't stay intangible forever," Hisako said. "When it attacks, it has to become solid."
Dr. Moon crouched beside Sylvain and gently ran her sword over the wound on his arm. It closed, the black blood hissed as it evaporated away, and the burns and blast wound slowly closed, like a flower un-blooming.
The sword cut through as if a ghost itself, like Hisako imagined it was meant to.
"We'll have to defeat it while it's attacking then," Koko said. "Simple as that."
"Wait," Hisako said. "What is the walker trying to do? It's not just fighting us, is it?"
Kamui bit his tongue. "It wanted to ambush us, no?"
"I may remember wrong, but… don't walkers want to escape?" Hisako asked.
"How does ambushing us in the hotel help it?" Koko countered. He blinked. "Oh. Ah."
"It's very clever to lure us here to open the door for it," Dr. Moon mused, "but perhaps not smart enough to know that we would open the door by defeating it."
"If it possessed Sylvain, wouldn't it know what he knows? Maybe Sylvain can open his own door?" Hisako asked. She shook her head. "But, no, because then it could've just hitched a ride through Sylvain alone. No need for us."
"I follow," Kamui said slowly.
Hisako chewed on her lip. "Can an Awakened's ability be… conscious?"
Dr. Moon narrowed her eyes in thought as she healed Sylvain. "You think the walker is Hisako's ability?"
"It's possible," Koko said. "I've seen it."
"Then they're the same; Sylvain and the ghost—two parts of one being, like a person and their door, or their weapon, or their ability. Is that possible?"
Dr. Moon closed her eyes. "Yes. But that would mean that their separation is temporary. To leave, they have to be one."
Hisako frowned. "Let's… let the ghost go back to Sylvain." She slid back, clearing the way to Sylvain.
After a moment, the others followed, trading cautious glances between themselves.
The ghost stayed still, hovering in place with little twitches and spasms of wire-thin muscles. It jerked aggressively, making Hisako and Dr. Moon flinch, then slowly began to drift forward.
When it reached them, it hesitated again, claws twitching.
Hisako gestured it forward to Sylvain. "You can go back," she said gently.
It snapped at her, face surging into hers, jaw snapping beneath tight flesh. She jerked back, but Koko put a hand on her back, keeping her face-to-face with the walker.
Its skull stayed there. Hisako felt sweat slide down her back. Being so close made her feel a little faint; it seemed to suck the warmth from her, and each breath took effort, but neither of them made a move.
Finally, it unclenched its jaw and turned back to Sylvain. They watched, breaths held, as it reached out a hand to make contact with Sylvain.
Dr. Moon startled, blade almost rising, but she stopped herself. Hisako clenched Toraichi.
The ghost merged with Sylvain, then, startling all of them, Sylvain jerked back to consciousness with a strangled shout.
Hisako nearly had a heart attack, then she shakily crouched down to Sylvain's level.
He was twitching as his wounds slowly closed, as they had before when the walker was one with him. He grit his teeth in pain and made a low, miserable noise, but he didn't get up and fight.
"What happens if we let them both into the world together?" Hisako whispered.
"We'll have to detain him. He'll probably be sent to America—a transfer of custody," Kamui replied.
"And then what?" Hisako asked. "Will he just be a prisoner? He didn't do anything wrong."
"That thing inside him is hostile," Koko replied. "He's a danger to himself and others."
"But he'll get the help he needs," Dr. Moon said.
Hisako nodded.
Sylvain began to sit up, whimpering as his body began to reply, though with great pain. He didn't have that chill in his eyes—there was an entirely new, soft, sad look to him. Hisako knew this was the real Sylvain.
She reached out a hand to him.
He looked at them with wide eyes, face pained and confused—scared.
"Help," she said, pointing at him. She gestured at them. "Help Sylvain. Yes or no?"
He blinked at them.
She shook her hand, palm up and fingers splayed wide. She set Toraichi down on the ground beside her and offered both hands.
He began to reach out. She saw Dr. Moon twitch, but he evidently didn't.
"It's okay," she cooed.
He placed a hand in hers, then another. She planted her knees and helped him up to his feet. He cried out, and she took his weight off his feet, leaning him against her.
He steadied himself, and she turned him to the dark nest. She pointed at it.
"You want to go home?" she asked.
"Home?" he echoed in Japanese.
She pointed at the dark hole. "Home, yes. The door."
He blinked heavily, struggling with the pain. "Door," he echoed absently. "Yes."
She gestured to her head, tapping it. "Remember the door." She lifted her hand, and her door appeared to retrieve Toraichi.
He pointed at it even as it disappeared.
"My door," she said. She pointed at the hole. "Sylvain's door?"
He raised his hand as she had, but nothing appeared.
She shifted so they could see eye to eye. She put a hand over his heart. "Are you okay?"
He shook his head for a moment, then nodded. "I'm okay."
She smiled sadly and shook her head. "It's okay. Sylvain is…" she searched for the most common word, but found no replacement for—"sad. Sylvain is sad, but that's okay. 'Sad' is okay."
He shook his head. "No, no. I'm okay."
She straightened his ruined suit and patted his cheek gently. Awkwardly, she imagined this was what people did to messy dogs.
"'Sad' is okay," she promised. "Do your best? Perfect! Become okay."
"Become okay?" he echoed.
"Tomorrow. The day after tomorrow. Next week. Try to become okay. It's okay."
He frowned, but she could tell he was understanding it; understanding it but rejecting it.
"Tomorrow," she said, "let's get coffee?"
His eyes lit up, face twitching in surprise. "Coffee?"
"Together, we get coffee. Become okay." She tapped his heart and lifted their hands together at the dark abyss. "Let's go. Let's try to become okay. Together."
"You're making promises you can't keep, Hisako," Kamui said quietly.
"I'll keep them," Hisako swore. She squeezed Sylvain's hand. "I keep my promises."
"I'm… I will become okay," Sylvain finally said, so quietly that Hisako almost missed it.
He squeezed her hand back, then his eyes unfocused. After a moment, a door slowly appeared, emerging in sections, from the dark. The shabby apartment door cordoned off with bright neon stripes.
Hisako reached out as it formed, grabbing at the caution tape. She pulled it back just enough to allow the door to open, and then helped Sylvain step forward.
"This is day one," she told him.
He nodded and opened the door.
The moment he did, she let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Behind her, the others did the same.
She let them go through first, then stepped Sylvain and herself through.