They hadn't been walking for very long – maybe fifteen or eighteen minutes worth. Shōko had her flashlight to light up the dark of the night, but it didn't do much because of the thick fog that seemed to suddenly appear out of nowhere.
Shōko's gaze was set forward, either looming at the map on her phone or at the ground in front of her. Count, on the other hand… Well, he was just looking around, analyzing their surroundings, making sure to keep pace with her.
She glances back over her shoulder at the cat. "Notice anything, Mr. Count?" She inquires, getting eerily anxious. Must be the fog, and the weird sounds… She mutters in thought before listening to the cat's answer.
"Indeed, I have. I'm sure you are avare zhat almost as soon as zhe sun had completely set, zhe fog appeared— instantly, almost. How very peculiar."
"Yes, I have. What's your point??" Her words were shaky and clearly on edge, a stark contrast to the cat who remained fully calm.
"Vell, I vould suspect zhat zhe fog comes from zhe trees. I know it doesn't make sense, but even if it vas rainy, it usually still takes a vhile for zhe fog to appear. But zhis appeared almost instantly, and nothing else fits zhe bill more zhan zhese trees…"
Shōko stopped suddenly and turned around to face the cat. Her breath was heavy and she seemed to be on edge.
She then spoke, her voice low and shaky. "H-how could… fog come… from t-trees? Of all things, Mr. Count…?"
The cat observed her with an eyebrow raising, as she was acting a bit strange. He looked around a bit at the fog surrounding them. It had seemed to thicken, turning from a gray mist into a dark, desaturated purple miasma.
He sighed before replying. "I don't have zhe answer to zhat, Miss Shōko. Although one thing I can say is zhat zh-zhis fog is very dangerous. Ve'd better do vell to exit it quickly and find zhat shelter—"
Shōko scoffed before interrupting the cat. "You think I don't know that?!" She turned around back onto the path before finishing. "Gosh you're insufferable. Damn cat…"
She began walking, while the cat just stood there, surprised by her behavior. He followed after and tried to wrack his non-existent brain around it. He looked up at her and noticed how she was looking around erratically, her head swishing and turning around. He managed to noticed how clenched her jaw was, despite the faint moonlight that was being filtered out by the miasma.
They walked on for a bit more before Shōko stopped again, her chest clearly heaving underneath her shirt and coat. She took the makeshift cane and held it out in front of her, almost like a lance. Her breath was hot and visble in the cold air of the night, very clearly seen despite the miasma.
She spoke in a soft tone. "Mr. Count. There's something infront of us. I don't know what it is, but it seems dangerous..."
The cat raises a confused eyebrow, looking forward and seeing nothing. Alright, maybe it's because he's short and the miasma is blocking his view. So he steps in front of her and still sees nothing.
"I don't see anything, Miss Shōko. Could you point to vhere you are looking at…?"
Shōko points in front of her with the stick. The cat squints his eyes but still can't make out anything.
"Vhat does it look like?" He asks, trying to see if he'll spot it if he knows what the shape of the silhouette looks like.
Shōko replies, her voice still soft. "I-I'm not sure. It seems like a large animal, l-like a wolf, maybe?"
The cat takes a step closer but still can't see anything. He walks ahead and says. "Vait here. I'll go check.
"Wait what?! N-no you can't—"
Despite Shōko's protests, the miasma has already blocked him from her view, leaving her standing there alone, scared, and trembling. She gulps hard, her eyes darting every direction, her flashlight doing little to illuminate the path due to the thick miasma.
A few anxious seconds passed, and Shōko could see a small figure approaching her. She took a step back, brandishing her stick before the cat appeared.
"Zhere's nothing zhere, Shōko. Are you alright? I zhink this fog is messing vith your perception..."
Shōko dropped her stick slightly, her breath leaving her in little huffs. "Th-then, how come you're alright, Mr. Count??"
The cat held his chin and replied. "Hmm, vell maybe zhat's because I'm a doll. And zhe stuff I breath in can't affect me, because I don't have organic internals."
Shōko sighed slightly, one of relief. But then she asked. "O-okay, but then why were you smoking a pipe when we met yesterday?"
"Can't a cat have a hobby?" He replied with a question, his eyes meeting hers. He noticed in the faint light how bloodshot her eyes were.
He turned around and added, "Vell, ve should really hurry up. Who knows vhat vould happen if you stayed in zhe fog too long."
Shōko nodded and gulped, her anxiety lessening slightly. She continued walking with the cat right beside her.
They continued walking quietly and stealthily. Little words were exchanged, only Shōko pointing out something in the path and Count cofirming or denying; mostly denying, which proved his theory that the miasma is some sort of hallucigenic true. I mean, a few times Shōko exclaimed that something was right in front of them or charging at them, while Count was the one to deny and calm her down.
They were close to their destination now, a couple hundred meters away. She could feel it. And so could the cat. But then they heard it – a twig snap and a branch crack far off into the distance behind them.
Both their heads turned to face the sound before turning to look at each other, with Count confirming that what they heard was real. Shōko dropped her dress and pocketed her phone, holding her stick with both hands as she stepped back and to the side.
"C-count..! I-I'm not imagining things, right? Something's there..."
The cat nodded as his expression hardened.
Shōko turned her head to face the cat and asked, "Count, do you think we should confront it, or run?"
The cat held his chin, and before he could answer, something whizzed past inbetween them. It made a loud *bang* or *thud* sound behind them as it lodged into a tree. Their heads snapped behind them, and their eyes caught an axe lodged into a tree.
The axe vibrated in the tree before suddenly flying backwards in the line it came from. Their eyes met, both filled with confusion and realization. It's the axe Shōko had spoken of earlier.
Shōko immediately went behind the tree she was next to, while Count crouched down, his short stature and the thick miasma practically making him invisible. Shōko stood there, her head pounding, her hands gripping the stick. Meanwhile, Count focused his sight and noticed a figure approaching.
Their footsteps were audible. Not loud, but audible. Count managed to make out the axe in their hand, held tightly in their grip. They turned to the cat's right and charged their weapon, throwing it akin to one throwing a rock to skip it across water while muttering something faint.
"Log Splitter…"
The axe flew past, clearing the miasma in it's path before coming in contact with a tree, slicing right through it, then falling to the ground behind it. The sound of the tree falling echoed through the night, with branches breaking, twigs snapping, and bark splitting. The axe then flew back towards the person and landed in their grasp as the tree hit the ground.
"A-argh, stop talking! I'll handle— I'm handling it, alright…!!" The voice yelled out, seemingly to no one. Their voice was clearly agitated and aggressive. "For the love of Mila, just. Shut. Up."
The cat crawled closer to Shōko. "Shōko, zhis'll probably end in a fight so you'll have to prepare your Spiral energy—"
The cat stopped talking and payed attention to her shivering, quivering body.
"Shōko?" He asked as he stood up slowly. He gazed at her face and noticed that there were tears streaming down her face.
"Shōko? Shōko, are you okay??" He asked again, his worry accumulating.
She pointed in front of her, making Count inclined to look.
"A-are they real, Count?
The cat looked confused, as he didn't see anything. He shook his head and turned back to face her.
"No, Shōko, vhatever you are seeing is just a hallucination induced by zhe fog... Don't be fooled."
"Okay…" She muttered as she slumped down, her body shivering violently.
Count put his hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her. "It's okay Shōko, it's not real…"
He could tell that whatever she is seeing is something from her past.
By now, a couple trees had been cut down, the sound of crashing trees masking Count and Shōko's conversation. Count could tell they were getting closer, as the tree they were ducking behind was one of the only ones in the perimeter.
He steeled himself and spoke again. "Shōko, I'll distract zhem, and you'll find a chance to run. Okay? Run as far as you can!"
"W-wait what—?" Shōko tried to protest, but the cat had already run off into the nearest area that had been cleared of miasma by the axe whirring past. The person spotted him, their expression hardening as they charged their axe.
"Found you, intruder! I'll have your head...!!"
"Try your hardest, you scoundrel!!" He yelled back before narrowly dodging the 'Log Splitter' attack.
The attack cleared quite a bit of miasma, so much that if it wasn't for it being nighttime, Shōko would have been spotted.
The cat turned around and dodged the returning axe with relative ease. The person caught the axe and took a few swift steps forward before throwing the axe once more, only for the cat to dodge both the incoming and returning of it. All the while Shōko watched, clutching her stick to her chest.
I-I have to help him but... no, I must go, that's what I should do...! She thought, not truly knowing what to do.
She turned around and began to slowly crawl away, the sound of the person's grunts and insults along with the cat's taunting fading into the background. She stood up and began to run before stopping in her tracks, the sight in front of her not only shocking, but also frightening.
"Are you going to run away again?" She spoke in a soft, dejected tone, her posture slumped down, and her little pleated dress flowing in the miasma.
"Ah— I… uh… n-no, I'm... W-wait how are you… no. You're not real, you're just a hallucination. C-count told me so...!!" Shōko protested to the little girl, clutching the stick to her chest even tighter.
The girl looked up at her, her dead eyes seeming to glare into her soul.
The girl – no older than nine or ten – spoke again, the malice in her voice increasing. "No, I'm not real. But what happened is. It is real, and you know that, you coward…"
She took a step forward, her expression slowly shifting into a scowl.
"Are you going to let the cat die, just like you let –#– and –#– die?" She asked, the last word muffled by a weird sound. Although Shōko knew full well what she was referring to.
She swallowed hard, her head pounding and sweat soaking her entire body. She stepped back and held the stick in front of her in a mock attempt to defend herself. "N-no! No no no no...!! That's not, I-I had no choice then, a-and I don't have one now—"
"NO!! Stop lying to yourself, coward!!"
The commotion of Shōko yelling at the figure – at herself – had attracted the axe wielding person, their gaze snapping onto her general area before they threw their axe, with it whizzing past her and clearing some of the miasma.
"Found you~!" They exclaimed before the axe whirrled back towards them, landing in their grasp, their arm charging up once more.
"Shōko!! Vhat are you doing?! Look out..!!" Count yelled as he started running towards her. Meanwhile, she was still lost in her own world. Being confronted by her past self…
Her expression suddenly changed from one of fright and regret to one of anger.
"You can blame me for the mistakes of the past, but don't forget that it was actually you who made them, not me!!"
"Well you're about to repeat them, you coward...!"
Shōko continued to argue with her hallucitory past self, all the while Count dashed towards her – yelling for her to get out of the way – all to no avail. The person threw their axe, aiming it straight at Shōko, who still hadn't come to her senses.
Time seemed to slow for the cat, his eyes shifting between the flying axe and Shōko, his expression turning grim. He pushed his soul to it's limit, his feet digging into the ground to propel himself faster than the axe.
And luckily, he did.
He leaped forward, directly into Shōko, pushing her out of the axe's way and bringing her back to reality. He yelped loudly as the axe made contact with his legs, slicing through both and making them fly off as he and Shōko landed.
"Shit!!" He yelled, the pain as immense as getting impaled. He lied on top of her, huffing heavily before pushing himself off and rolling onto his back.
"You damn idiot, are you trying to get yourself killed, Shōko??! I zhought I told you to run...!!"
Shōko sat up abruptly and noticed the cat's missing legs through the disorientation, the situation reminding her even more of back then. She looked down at her hands, images of the blood that stained it all those years ago flashing in and out. The throbbing in her head still hasn't died down, and all the surrounding noise isn't much help to her situation.
She hears a faint call for her name, but can't quite make it out. Only when she looks up does she notice where it's coming from.
The cat.
"Shōko!! You need to escape from zhis area right now! Zhis is not a request but an order from me as your guide..."
"B-but then, what about you—?"
"Forget about me, I'm functionally immortal... even if I'm chopped into bits, I von't die." Despite him saying that, it didn't do much to calm Shōko. She clutched her stick, holding onto it like a lifeline before nodding at the cat as she stood up.
"I-I'll come back for you, Count. I promise—"
"Ey, no you won't…"
The voice said as they held the axe blade to Shōko's throat. She looked up at the person and took in the sight of them. It was a woman, with long curly crimson hair and dark skin, as dark as dark chocolate. She held a manic grin as she stomped her boot on the cat's chest.
"Now," She began, her eyes shining at an opportunity. "Where did you two bloody come from?"