Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It happened so fast that at first I wasn’t sure what had happened. I’d thought for a moment that Yuri had been devoured by the apple shaped abnormality until I saw clearly that Yuri was fine, Gregor had grabbed her and shoved her away. Leaving himself in the place she would have been.

While I dreaded the inevitable agony that would come with bringing back Gregor, I couldn’t help but be relieved that it was someone who I could bring back that had died. Or.. been consumed in this case? The particulars of his cause of death didn’t matter at the moment though. Ishmael had rushed to Yuri’s side unprompted to pull her away from the rampaging abnormality that she was staring in shock at.

Though I was down two sinners for the following fight with the transformed apple, it really could have ended up worse.

—------------

It could have ended up worse, even as we trudged our way back up the facility without the Golden Bough. What I was dreading the most was how Vergilius was going to react to this, he really didn’t seem like the kind of guy to take our failure lightly, even if it was only because of a second party arriving to take the Bough while we were all worn out from the fight with the apple.

How was he going to react to us asking for Yuri’s continued presence on the bus?

“Seems nobody in our group ‘s getting out with what we came here for.” Heathcliff’s voice caught my attention and I looked to see where he was looking. And there was Hopkins, or what was left of him at least. It looked like he’d been partially crushed by a hammer of some kind, perhaps an abnormality we’d missed on our initial delving down into the facility had caught him unprepared.

Out of the corner of my sight I swore I could see a very small smile on Yuri’s face for the first time since the apple had devoured Gregor, still needed to bring him back but we needed to be in a spot where I could do that first. The bus seemed like the safest place to do that even with Vergilius.

I hoped he wouldn’t have any memories of what the apple had done with his face, that was something all of us could have gone without seeing. Yuri in particular seemed the most bothered by it, I wished I could provide even a little bit of comfort to her but we really had to get out of here first if the other abnormalities in the facility were still around.

—------------

Vergilius was more concerned with giving me a verbal dressing down than he was over Yuri staying with us assumedly. He hadn’t batted an eye after requesting an explanation from Faust about her presence and simply left it at that. She seemed relieved about that, letting out a sigh before settling in the seat she had taken before on our journey.

The pain of being eaten by an abnormality was, as usual, incapable of being put entirely to words but as unbearable as any other cause of death rest assured. I wasn’t completely sure where Gregor would end up, given that his body was completely gone after the apple was beheaded. Luckily for us he simply showed back up in his seat on the bus, rather than being all the way down in the facility where he got eaten.

Yuri seemed a bit startled when he showed up next to her, she’d seen me bring back the dead sinners before but maybe she was startled because it was Gregor. Who she’d last seen as the decapitated head of the apple.

“Gregor I… I should’ve known better. I’m so sorry.” Gregor sighed a little as she apologized, but he seemed at a loss for words. “You got killed because of me.”

That got Gregor to speak up with something.

“Better me than you, Manager Bud over there can bring me back at least.” I was a little bit annoyed at how casual he was about it but honestly? I didn’t really mind this time, so I kept quiet about it.

“Still, it’s my fault for getting so close to it. I worked with that one before, I should’ve remembered.” She sounded upset with herself, maybe not unreasonably in her thoughts.

“Not like we can change the past, we just have to live with it.” Gregor replied taking a moment to look out the window, we weren’t moving yet so I wasn’t sure if he was looking at anything in particular.

The bus was mostly quiet with a bit of chatter here and there between the other sinners, as poorly as our first mission went the mood was fairly light all things considered. It really could’ve gone worse.

“A word miss Yuri.” Vergilius’ voice called from the front, the quiet chatter chilling over as soon as he spoke, he was looking over a few maps with directions to presumably our next destination written out over it. Yuri looked frightened to be referred to directly but came up to him without a word herself.

“We arrived at our destination thirty minutes earlier than expected with your assistance. If you would, I ask that you continue to assist by familiarizing yourself with our next route.” Vergilius explained, holding out the maps to Yuri, who quietly nodded and took them back to her spot intimidated.

The quiet tension that had come from the unknown fate of Yuri evaporated as Rodion spoke to her, a smile on her face with a question ready,

“So you’re our new navigator eh? Care to tell us where we’re headed next?”

“Let me read it myself first.” Yuri said as she pulled her other arm from the sling-like strap she held it most of the time.

“We should be far enough away where it does not matter. Charon?” Vergilius called softly to our driver.

“Off we go, vroom vroom.” Charon responded before starting forward to our next destination, softly humming to herself as the sinners tried to ever so quietly chatter about where we might be going next. It was hard not to feel just a little bit hopeful that we might turn things around with our next mission.

Chapter Text

About halfway through the ride to district 10 Yuri opted to head to the front of the bus to start making sure that Charon wasn’t taking too many liberties with the route. It was her new job here after all, she didn’t want to end up being dead weight here. Like she was back at her old office.

It took her a moment of looking at the map and various marked locations to figure out where they were, and thankfully Charon hadn’t strayed that far from the fastest route seemingly. They were still on it but for all Yuri knew she could’ve taken a few detours on the way.

“We should take a right in the next… 5 miles Charon.” Her depth perception was always a bit trash, part of the reason she lost her eye in the first place, so she was more or less relying on Charon’s ability to tell how far away the turn was.

Charon made an affirmative noise as she continued driving, though she seemed a touch more intent on the road itself than any pedestrians she ended up hitting. Which Yuri felt she was already a touch too used to.

There thankfully weren’t many turns in the route so Yuri started to watch the passing buildings as they glided through the border between the districts. There was actually a noticeable difference between districts 4 and 10 just by construction style, even if she found it a bit hard to focus on the small details at the speed they were going.

Yuri had never seen the districts outside of 4 before really, sure she’d seen pictures of the other districts and wondered sometime what it would be like to be there, but she’d never left the district. It was… interesting she supposed.

So interesting she nearly missed Charon taking a detour down some random side road, it did end up bringing them closer to the building she was eyeing but that was besides the point as she guided Charon back to the path to their destination.

“We’ve arrived.” She called out to the back as the bus stopped a bit abruptly, to the sinners chattering on about things she couldn’t have been listening to. She wondered what she’d missed while helping to save time, she wondered if she’d get to catch up later on that.

“Thank you Yuri and Charon,” Vergilius said softly, and she was relieved that she’d done a good enough job that he was thanking her, “Now the sinners will continue the rest of the way on foot.”

She was a bit surprised but didn’t contribute to the sudden disgruntled and surprised cries from the Sinners, minus Faust who seemed to be anticipating this. Yuri found herself growing distracted while listening to Faust’s explanation, her attention once again drawn to the unfamiliar architecture. It was just… strange to her to see it in person rather than simply in pictures or videos from behind a screen.

She almost missed the departing sinners if it weren’t for Rodya calling out to her.

“See you when we get back Yuri!~ I’ll be sure to tell you all about what happened.”

“Stay safe.” Gregor added in his own farewell as he departed the bus.

“Ah- Good luck.” She waved from her spot until the sinners were all walking away towards… after checking the map again, the pawnshops. Unsure of what to do now Yuri moved to the seat she’d unofficially (and unintentionally) claimed as her own to just sit. Idle. She was used to sitting idle and waiting.

“Miss Yuri, do you have need of anything we could acquire while waiting to see if the sinners are successful this time?” Vergilius’ soft voice carried over to her from where he had been seated the whole time. It gave her pause in the nothing she was doing to think.

“Maybe a change of clothes and pads but, nothing else I really need.” She hadn’t exactly had time to pack her things before leaving, so all she had were the clothes on her back and the sword she’d been provided by her office at the moment. She could use a brush but that was more of a want than a need.

“Is there anything you would want for this journey? It is unlikely to be over in a single month.” Vergilius elaborated, seeming to correct himself on his earlier words. Though Yuri didn’t dare assume that he wished for her comfort.

“... Maybe a brush.”

“Charon thinks Yuri should have a bag to carry her things.” Charon chimed in, though Yuri didn’t know where she’d be carrying her things anyways.

“Alright.” She sighed a little.

“Then let us go to get you some things.” Vergilius stood and Charon opened up the door to the outside, hopping up after she did so.

The door seemed to close behind them on its own, but maybe that was normal for Mephistopheles. It certainly wasn’t a normal bus in other regards so maybe it could recognise it’s driver as well.

Vergilius led the way, and Yuri followed along. She couldn’t help but be nervous about this whole thing, sure she recognised that Vergilius was a Color and was the most dangerous person on the bus at any given time. She should feel safe if he decided to chaperone this, maybe she was just nervous that he’d kick her off the ride at any given time.

“This place should serve well for things for you Miss Yuri.” Vergilius said as he stopped at a shopping center. It wasn’t the best place in the district but it was a general store that should have all the things she’d need. Clothes, a brush, menstrual products, and a bag. That’d probably be all she’d need. All she figured she could have while taking up small enough space to not be considered a nuisance.

The person at the front jumped a little at the sight of Vergilius but didn’t make any comment as he chaperoned the two women around the store. Yuri was the one at the lead this time, looking through the clothes that they had here at the store, she didn’t know what size she’d really need so she was just looking for a bit. There wasn’t really much that stood out to her as something she’d want to wear. She didn’t know what kind of things she’d want to wear in general, there were different kinds of shirts here than what she knew in district 4.

Charon and Vergilius had walked to another section of the store by now while she was indecisively looking at shirts, she eventually just picked out one in her size before walking over to where the other two were.

“Charon, would you like for us to get some snacks while we’re here?” Vergilius asked her, apparently she’d wandered off towards the candy section of the store.

“Charon was just looking at the chocolate.” Was the reply, which somewhat did sound like Charon was subtly asking to get some chocolate to Yuri. It seemed like they might be a bit busy here so she went back to get something else she’d need.

She walked around until she found a section with a few bags on selection, there was one shaped like an apple. It was probably meant for schoolchildren, a backpack, and yet that was the one that had caught her eye. It felt like it would be in bad taste for her to get a bag shaped like an apple however, after what had nearly happened to her.

She wondered what Gregor would think about coming back and seeing that.

“Charon is wondering why Yuri is staring at the apple bag.” Charon chimed in, walking over to where Yuri was.

“I just don’t think I should get that one.” She responded, it might be rubbing salt in the wound.

“The others don’t suit Yuri.” Charon said simply as she picked up the apple backpack for her. That startled her a little, that Charon was just so brazen about it as she walked right back over to where Vergilius still was. She just stood there for a moment before sighing and moving to pick out the last few things she’d need.

A red brush, small package of pads (they could get more later probably, if there would be a later ), and the rest of the clothes she might need. With Charon coming by every so often if Yuri stalled at something with her strong will to pick up whatever Yuri didn’t know if she should pick it or not. Charon had even brought over a second shirt at one point because she somehow figured that Yuri hadn’t picked out one she actually liked. She did somewhat like the one Charon picked more than the one she had .

“This should be all.” She said to Vergilius with her and Charon carrying the things they’d picked out.

“Very well.” Vergilius said gently, leading the two to the cashier who didn’t look entirely there even as they stammered and jumped at every sound Vergilius made. He paid for it all, even the second shirt that Charon had basically insisted that Yuri get. He’d also gotten a few chocolates, presumably for Charon after she seemingly asked for them.

The walk back to the bus was uneventful, Mephistopheles’ door opening for Charon as though it knew she was back. At least that was what Yuri thought it looked like.

“It appears we still have time before the sinners return, Miss Yuri. There should be ample space in the back of the bus if you wish to acquaint yourself with your new things.” Vergilius informed her. Motioning to the door at the back that wasn’t there on the outside.

… Her current clothes were covered in the blood and other nasty stuff that had been coating her old workplace’s walls. And she probably should see if they even fit her.

She decided to use the extra bag the store had given them to carry… the other bag to put her messy clothes that she’d have to wash later, putting the bag full of bloodied clothes into the apple backpack. She’d moved the strap she usually held her arm in to her new sweater though, it was clean enough at least to not dirty the sweater Charon had picked out for her anyways.

The sleeves were a bit long so she had to bunch them up at her wrists but other than that, the clothes fit decently well. She wasn’t entirely sure about her even deserving to have these but it felt nice anyways to have clothes that were clean enough to not bother her.

“Charon thinks that Yuri looks nice.” Charon complimented in her usual monotone when she came back to her spot. Yuri simply nodded and waited for the sinners and Dante to come back with hopefully the Bough in hand.

Yuri eventually closed her eye while waiting, it was quiet in the bus. It smelled a little bit like blood still but she’d gotten used to that a while ago.

She must’ve drifted off to sleep at some point because the next thing she knew she was startled awake by the cheerful chatter of the sinners clambering aboard the bus. She couldn’t quite focus on what they were saying at the moment due to still waking up, but she could make out that Dante was ticking and got a look at something they held out. A Golden Bough.

“Yuri! You’ll never guess what- oh?” Rodya took a moment to notice that Yuri had something new on, she’d been caught up in the excitement of the successful mission. “Guess you’ve been out and about too eh?~”

“Picked up some necessities is all.” Yuri replied, not wanting to make too big a deal out of it. “Clean set of clothes, not much else.”

“An apple bag huh?” Gregor asked, “Was it the only one they had or something?”

“Something like that.” She hoped he wasn’t disappointed or upset about that.

“Nuff about that, take a look at all this I snagged from our manager’s jackpot!” Rodya pulled out a lot of casino chips from a variety of pockets on her uniform. Yuri was wondering how none of them had rattled around before now from how clattery they were on the floor of the bus.

“We can exchange these for money at any casino, so we’ll have to stop by one. Because, if you don’t mind Verg, I’d like to treat everyone to some fine steak.” Rodya called out. Yuri couldn’t help but be swept up by her enthusiasm.

—---------------

The place Rodya had picked out was nice, a little noisy and a bit hard to get seating at but they were a large group and Yuri couldn’t blame them at all for finding it hard to seat 16 people. 

She was sat in between Rodya and Ishmael, mostly because she’d chosen to sit by Rodya to hopefully learn what had happened on the mission (she seemed quite intent on retelling what had gone down) and Ishmael had seemingly elected to sit by her on her own while everyone else was picking their seats.

Rodya was, as anticipated, happily extolling the events of what had happened to Yuri while on her other side Gregor seemed to be waiting for a specific part of the story to come up given by how he was watching for her reaction.

“They were what!?” She couldn’t help but cry out before starting to laugh, “No way, no! They did not!”

“Oh they were very much keeping abnormalities in cages, probably trying to use them as guard dogs.” Gregor explained, a smile on his face as he did.

“Peccatulum, not full abnormalities.” Faust corrected from her spot not that far away before continuing with whatever else she was doing.

“Well there could’ve been some full abnormalities in there that we didn’t see.” Rodya insisted, though that didn’t diminish how stupid Yuri thought the whole thing was to try and keep any kind of abnormality in a cage and expect it to behave. They didn’t even behave outside of their specially prepared cages in the facilities themselves.

That was something she wouldn’t forget for the rest of her life probably.

Still though she happily listened along as Rodya recounted the whole thing. At least until their food was ready, then Rodya was too busy eating to continue talking. All in all, it was nice, it was a little easier to take up space with everyone else around anyways.

It was while they were walking back to the bus that Vergilius handed her the next map, it was late so they’d probably rest for the night before departing but it would be nice to plan ahead.

“Could I help this time with the map?” Sinclair asked as he slowed to her pace, looking at the folded map just a bit curiously. Yuri smiled before replying.

“Sure! It’ll be easier to teach Charon to read it together I think.” She opened up the map so they could take a look together. Though she couldn’t see it, Sinclair paled as soon as he saw the destination. She was too busy crying out in surprise.

“A Nest?!”

Chapter Text

It took longer to get to the border of K Corp’s nest than it did their previous destination, as it stood they hadn’t even reached district 11, so as sundown drew near Vergilius called over to the two in charge of the bus’ direction to find a place to stop for the night. Which Yuri was happy enough to guide them to. She was getting a bit tired and she figured that Charon must be as well given that she was the one driving and Yuri was just navigating.

The rest stop that was the closest wasn’t the nicest place in the district, but it was a place to stop that had bathrooms and those bathrooms were freely available for anyone to use. So it wouldn’t cost the company anything because they were stopping here, it didn’t really matter though since Charon left the driver’s seat as soon as she’d come to a complete stop. Yuri wasn’t sure what for, it could be a variety of things she could imagine Charon needing to do.

Yuri herself didn’t really have a list of things she needed to do here, maybe she was just tired but it was hard for her to think of things she had to do. It caught her by surprise when Ishmael tapped her on the shoulder, she hadn’t noticed her approach.

“I said I’d teach you some sailor’s knots in your branch, now’s as good a time I think. You’re still interested in that right?” She was asked, and Yuri nodded. Charon had taken to putting up Aya’s gas mask up on the rearview window since Yuri’s old backpack had ripped somewhere in the branch. (It was basically a worn out hand me down from her old office, it made sense for it to not last long in rough circumstances.)

“I, yes. I’d still like to.” Yuri affirmed.

“Alright, I’ll be washing out my hair in the rest stop so you might as well bring your brush as well.” Ishmael replied, she had a brush with her after all and headed out of the bus after. Yuri was a bit confused but figured that with hair like that Ishmael absolutely had to clean it frequently lest it become a tangled mess. (Her hair was only kind of long by comparison and even she knew that that much hair must be a pain to keep.)

Nevertheless, she got her brush and headed out to the only place in the rest stop she figured there could be hair washing.

It was a surprisingly clean restroom all things considered, and the first thing she noticed was that Ishmael wasn’t the only one who’d wanted to wash out her hair, Hong Lu looked to be patiently waiting his turn as Rodya washed out her hair in the sink.

“Come to wash your hair too Yuri?” Hong Lu asked cheerfully, though he hardly ever seemed to not be cheerful to some degree. It was hard for it to not be just a bit contagious too but she felt like it wouldn’t be right to not correct that.

“Not exactly, uh, Ishmael thought this would-” She got cut off by Ishmael.

“I’m going to show her some sailor’s knots before my turn with the sink, you’re next I assume?” Ishmael asked after clarifying to Hong Lu. Yuri didn’t really mind being interrupted, if Ishmael wanted to correct him herself she was more than welcome to.

“I might wash mine when everyone else is done.” She added herself, she might as well wash her hair while she’s here. She wasn’t sure when she’d be able to do that next so she might as well do it here.

“I am going after Rodion yes. We’re going in the order we arrived in then?” He was smiling still, not seeming to mind how curt Ishmael was in her tone.

Ishmael herself didn’t seem to pay him any mind after his response, just coming on over to Yuri to start showing her the knots, tugging a ribbon off her headband to show her.

“Do you mind taking off yours to practice with?” Ishmael asked her.

“Sure.” And off the ribbon came into her hands, holding it like Ishmael was holding her’s. Ishmael nodded and started showing her the knot with quick motions that Yuri’s eye was just a bit slow with keeping up with completely and she was pretty sure she missed something within the first few seconds, and sure enough all her ribbon was a knotted mess that didn’t resemble the end result of Ishmael’s ribbon.

She didn’t look that bothered about it though, just held out a hand and Yuri quietly passed her tangled ribbon to Ishmael’s skilled hands to untie. After a moment Ishmael paused to ask a question.

“Yuri, did your ribbon always have a gold border?” Ishmael was taking a closer look at it now and held it out flattened to better look.

“I don’t think so? I could’ve sworn it was all black.” Then again it was something she could’ve easily missed, with one eye her attention to detail was pretty lacking for small details like that. “It might’ve always been like that, I’m not sure.”

“May I take a look?” Hong Lu asked, leaning in closer to look a bit closer before he even got an answer. Though he was quickly interrupted by Rodya calling him over.

“Alright, it’s your turn Hong Lu.” Rodya said as she pulled her head up to dry and brush her hair, there was a hair dryer that someone had brought that she using. It was probably Rodya’s from Yuri’s idea of her preferences but it could’ve been Hong Lu’s, she hadn’t known them for very long after all.

Back to the knot attempts, Ishmael gave her back the untied ribbon to try again with. She was also a bit slower with her own tying this time which gave Yuri more time to process how she was supposed to tie the knot. Even with the slower motions her attempt looked a bit wrong, Yuri wasn’t sure where she went wrong but it didn’t look like how Ishmael’s had turned out.

Maybe it was the new sound of the hair dryer distracting her from doing it right. She decided to untie the messed up knot herself instead of passing it to Ishmael, who had held out her hand again but pulled it back when she saw Yuri untying it herself.

“Show me one more time?” Yuri asked, she was fairly sure she’d be able to get it eventually. She felt confident in that fact, she’d figured out how to do far more complicated things than tying a knot.

“Alright.” Ishmael agreed, quickly undoing the knot made with her own ribbon to do it again but slower still.

This time Yuri was able to follow along well enough to get the knot decently done, it wasn’t as neat and tight as Ishmael’s but she did finally manage to tie it correctly.

“Good job, could do with some improvements but you were quick at picking it up.” Ishmael said, taking a look as Yuri presented her the finished knot. She didn’t look particularly impressed but Yuri considered her words enough to be pride worthy enough.

“Finished with that already? Mind if I ask a few things ‘bout you Yuri?” Rodya butted in while still drying her hair.

“Go ahead.” Yuri was a bit curious herself about what Rodya wanted to know.

“Did you live anywhere particular while working for Lobotomy? I’ve been wondering since you didn’t really mind coming with us.” Rodya asked and elaborated.

Yuri thought for a moment on how detailed she should get about it before deciding to answer to how it was asked.

“While working at the branch I lived in the on site dormitory. Anyone working there could apply and most of the time they were accepted.” She explained, it wasn’t that bad to live in honestly, a little sparsely furnished but that was partly her own fault for not decorating with what she could.

“Nowhere else to stay then eh?” Rodya followed up with another question, to Yuri it mostly seemed like Rodya was just curious about if she’d left someplace behind.

“Not really no, I probably wouldn’t be welcome back at Aya and Hopkins office alone.” She didn’t have to elaborate with that last bit but she still did. There weren’t a lot of places that readily welcomed her, could she be blamed for jumping to the one place that seemed to?

“Sucks to be them then eh? Now we’ve got a fantastic mascot.” Rodya said as she finished with drying her hair, just in time for Hong Lu to finish and for the hair dryer to be passed to him.

“Oh are we asking questions right now?” He asked before continuing to ask his own question that gave Yuri incredible pause, “Is it alright if I ask what happened to your eye?”

Now everyone in the room was quietly looking at Hong Lu, Ishmael in particular looked a bit peeved on Yuri’s behalf but she couldn’t be sure if that was the exact reason for Ishmael’s facial expression.

Yuri herself was a bit lost on if she actually wanted to answer that question or not, on one hand it really was a while ago but on the other who in their right mind asks that question to someone’s face?! She was stunned by the audacity of the question.

“Hong Lu that’s not something you can just ask someone!” Ishmael called out, she hadn’t started washing her hair yet so she was perfectly audible over the sound of the sink with her disgust over Hong Lu’s question. Yuri almost appreciated that response to let her know that yes, it wasn’t just weird to her that he asked that.

“It isn’t? I wasn’t aware.” At least he sounded genuine about it, Yuri still wasn’t sure how to feel about that but at least he didn’t seem to have done it on purpose.

“… An abnormality bit it out.” Yuri answered quietly, loud enough to be heard certainly but still quiet. Seemed like everyone had heard though given by how quiet everyone was still.

“I could help brush your hair if you’d like Yuri.” Hong Lu offered after a while, almost like a peace offering even though Yuri really wasn’t that upset about it.

“If you really want to.” It wasn’t like she was going to say no if he was offering, she didn’t want to be rude or make it seem like she was more bothered than she was. Refusing what might’ve been an attempted peace offering might do that.

“Oh I don’t mind.” Hong Lu assured her as he dried his long hair. Yuri could understand why he kept it in a ponytail so often just looking at it all. It was almost mesmerizing to watch it all be blown dry, or maybe Yuri was just tired.

It would probably take a while for Ishmael to finish washing her hair through, and Hong Lu had accidentally killed the conversational mood so hard that Rodya didn’t even try to pick it back up. It was almost impressive. Or Rodya was also tired, that could always be a possibility for why it had gotten so quiet.

She might’ve dozed off for a little bit leaning against the wall waiting for her turn, the next thing she knew was Rodya gently shaking her by the shoulder.

“Your turn with the sink Yuri.” She reminded her, while also gently pushing her towards it. Yuri figured she just wanted to get to bed sooner rather than later, which she absolutely understood since she was nearly falling asleep on her feet herself. At least with the water running over her head she probably wouldn’t fall asleep.

At least her hair wasn’t as thick as the others so she didn’t have to work that hard to clean it out, though with only water there was only so much that could be done but just rinsing it out would be better than doing nothing. Most of her effort was going into making sure her eyepatch didn’t get completely soaked through, she didn’t have a replacement with her because for some inane reason she hadn’t gotten any while shopping with Charon and Vergilius. She really should have known to get some then.

In any case it wasn’t too wet when she was done rinsing, which was good because it might fall off if it did get too wet. She didn’t want to potentially startle someone if it fell off because the adhesive did not get along with water.

Ishmael wasn’t done drying her hair when Yuri was finished, but that was something she’d expected. Though from what she could tell Ishmael didn’t even want to use the blow dryer, but she was still surprised when it was just suddenly passed over to her and Ishmael just left with her bow ribbon and brush.

Hong Lu hummed a note before turning to her, he’d picked up her brush from where she’d left it with her ribbon.

“Shall we get started?” He asked her, smiling all the while as though nothing had happened. She nodded quietly while keeping a hand over the patch in the hopes that her wet hair wouldn’t get it more damp.

Hong Lu was very adept with a brush, unsurprising given how neat his own hair was. It was easier to dry her hair one handed with his help and it went by quicker than she expected, maybe it was mostly due to her hair not being as fluffy as the others for lack of a better phrase for it.

“Thank you.” She said when the hair dryer finally was finally turned off for the night. Hong Lu was smiling still, he never really stopped smiling from what Yuri had seen.

“It wasn’t any trouble.” He replied before he too left to probably go to bed.

Rodya came up to Yuri from where she’d been to feel out how clean Yuri’s hair was now while she untied her ribbon the tie back her hair with as a bow. Ruffling her hair gently.

“See you in the morning Yuri.” She was told before Rodya left as well, leaving Yuri on her own to tie back her hair.

Yuri was expecting to end up sleeping on one of the bus seats for the night. She didn’t notice Faust waiting for her until she spoke up.

“Yuri, follow me for a moment. There’s something to show you to.” Faust explained simply before she stood from her usual seat to walk to the corridor in the back of the bus.

And what option did a tired Yuri have but to follow as she’d been asked. (In Faust’s way, it was asking.)

The small blockade to presumably keep people from going too far back into the corridor had been moved back a single door, it was that single door that Faust was approaching with Yuri following behind.

“As you are staying with us for longer than initially anticipated, Faust saw fit to provide you with personal quarters for you to use.” She explained as she reached the door, “Furthermore, in the interest of reducing difficulties that may arise upon nest immigration into Nest K you will likely be given a spot as a provisional employee of Limbus in the coming days. Either I or Vergilius may provide you with the proof of such before we reach the Nest K border check.”

Yuri was a bit too tired to really get most of what Faust was saying but got the gist of it. She nodded a bit which seemed to content Faust enough to where she left for her own quarters.

If it was simply being provided to her, she might as well make use of it right? She opened the door to take a look and found a small room that seemed vaguely familiar.

A bed and wardrobe were some of the sparse furnishings of her new room, a mirror and a table were additions but it somewhat reminded her of her old dorm room back in Lobotomy. The walls were a different color, being more similar to the color of Mephistopheles than the cement coloration of the Lobotomy dorms, but Yuri couldn’t find it in her at this point to tell if that was a good or bad change.

Before she set her bag on the ground something on the table caught her eye, someone had gotten a package of adhesive eyepatches. It was a relief at least that she wouldn’t have that to worry about as she finally settled down in a real bed again for the first time since the branch collapsed.

It was quiet and it was calm, and just barely at the edge of her hearing there was the sound of a storm that was probably coming from somewhere else in the corridor, lulling her into one of the gentlest sleeps she’d had in a long time.

Chapter Text

It felt like it was way too early for me to get up, not that I could actually tell what time it was. Heathcliff laughed for what might’ve been an entire hour when he found out that someone with a clock for a head was bad at telling the time, it wasn’t like my head accurately told the time anyways since most of the time the hands of the clock are stuck at nine apparently.

Anyways the most I could tell was that it was really really early in the morning (or just really late in the evening, not like I could tell.), it was still pretty dark out when I walked out to the bus part of Mephistopheles. I barely noticed Faust it was so dark out, I knew she was there from the fact that she was on the night watch but I wasn’t sure where she was on the bus exactly.

“Good morning Dante, before you ask it is approximately 5:15 in the morning. It is early for you to rise.” She commented impassively as always. She’d started telling me the time sometimes since she’d learned how utterly incapable I was of telling it myself.

Though I didn’t get a word in before she got up from her spot to rest in her room, that was just how it was with her a lot of the time, especially when it was her turn with the night watch. So I guess I was left alone for a bit, it gave me time to wake up more at least before the door opened again with Sinclair and Yuri coming out.

While Yuri looked far more cheerful than I’d seen her before, Sinclair looked like he hadn’t gotten much sleep. It wasn’t like he’d explain why if I asked though, none of them were that interested in explaining things to me.

“Good morning…!” Yuri greeted, stretching and shaking her head a little but other than that she seemed perfectly awake. “I wasn’t expecting anyone else to be awake yet actually.”

“… morning Dante.” Sinclair greeted on his own, going over to his usual seat where he’d left Vogel for the night, he was a lot quieter than usual but again it wasn’t like he’d tell me why… actually.

<“Hey Sinclair? Could you maybe help me ask Yuri something? I’ve been trying to understand some of the stuff about Lobotomy Corporation but I think she’d explain some of it better than the notes I was given.”> 

The notes provided to me about what Lobotomy Corporation explained next to nothing at all. Just the name basically and Faust rarely explained things unless they were important. Yuri was probably my best shot at learning anything important ahead of time.

“Huh? Oh sure, Yuri?” Sinclair called out to her.

Yuri was humming a tune to herself while stretching out in the bus aisle but paused when Sinclair spoke.

“What is it?” She asked, moving to a neutral stance rather than the one she had while stretching, slouching down a little as she did. It didn’t seem like she’d relaxed any though, if anything she looked less relaxed then when she’d been stretching.

“Dante wanted to know something about Lobotomy Corporation is all.” Sinclair responded, not seeming to notice the slight change in Yuri’s demeanor.

“Sure, what do they want to know about it?” She asked, it sounded like she was asking Sinclair but she was looking at me now. She was starting to resume her stretching as well, it might be a morning routine for her or something if she was intent on continuing with it.

<“Uh, I’d kind of like to know what it was like there. Maybe some stuff about the abnormalities?”> Sinclair took his role as a translator for me pretty quickly, summarizing what I wanted to know for Yuri.

“In general? Where to start… in Lobotomy there were two types of employees, Clerks who did more menial things and didn’t work with the abnormalities directly, and Agents who did work with the abnormalities to have them produce enkephaline.” Yuri paused for a moment to think and change the type of stretching she was doing.

“I was an agent who worked with the abnormalities, like False Apple, so I can’t really say much on what the clerks did. It’s probably not even that relevant though.” Yuri trailed off around the end, clearly unsure of what she was supposed to elaborate on, which was absolutely my fault.

<“Could you maybe elaborate on some abnormality things then? That’s probably something important to know.”> Sinclair nodded a bit after relaying what I’d said, adding something of his own.

“None of us know a lot about them, well, maybe miss Faust does but, she uh, doesn’t really explain things unless it’s important.” He elaborated, pausing in the middle to yawn.

Yuri nodded, seemingly taking a break from her stretching for a moment.

“Alright, so the first thing that comes to mind is that Abnormalities generally have one of four types of damage they cause. Basic physical damage is typed as red damage, I think most normal weapons do that in regards to how abnormalities respond to them. Some abnormalities don’t attack people physically but just do mental damage, that’s called white damage and is about as common as red damage and the next type, which is basically a combination of the two.”

Yuri took a moment to pause for breath, she was getting pretty into her explanation.

“Black damage hurts both the mind and body, that probably sounds a bit strange but it makes sense to me. I uh, took a bite of black damage to the face on my first day at Lobotomy, so I get what it does.” She trailed off after that, maybe she thought just saying that was awkward but she continued after a moment.

“The last type of damage that abnormalities do is called pale damage, I’m not completely sure what it does because none of the abnormalities in the branch did pale damage. But apparently it can be described as attacking the soul, it’s the rarest type of damage there is from abnormalities so I think eventually we might find one that does it.”

Sinclair was waiting ever so patiently for Yuri to finish before asking his own question, I was busy wrapping my head around pale damage.

“What does black damage feel like? I-If you don’t mind me asking anyways.” He stammered out, curious but also clearly not wanting to upset Yuri. It didn’t seem like she minded in any case, because she answered without much thinking.

“It feels like thorns mostly, coiling under your skin and in your mind. Only the place that was physically attacked bleeds but the thorns can feel like they’re anywhere on you.” She explained, rubbing at the area around her eye patch. I guess that was how she lost it then, on her first day too… that must’ve been rough on her.

“Is there anything you’d like to know?” Yuri asked before tucking in her shirt and flipping herself to a handstand, looking at me and Sinclair from upsidedown very casually.

“Is that a part of your morning stretches too?” Sinclair asked before I could.

“Yes, it is. It’s supposed to be good for balance from what my- from what my old coworkers at Lobotomy told me.” The small smile she’d had for a little bit fell again as she seemingly corrected something she was going to say before she’d said it. This whole conversation seemed to be dragging down her mood, maybe changing the topic would help since we were already on a similar topic?

<“What about E.G.O.? That’s another thing I don’t understand about what was in Lobotomy.”> I asked, it was somewhat on topic anyways with the abnormalities.

“Yeah, it’s different for us I think. Oh right, they asked about E.G.O..” Sinclair translated, was it different? I’ll probably find out if I wait for Yuri’s answer.

She waited for a moment, maybe thinking for a moment before giving an answer. She hadn’t seen the sinners using the abnormality EGOs that often I realized, so she might not have known what Sinclair was referring to off the top of her head.

“Well, in Lobotomy Corporation we had equipment made from the abnormalities to both protect ourselves from and suppress the abnormalities easier. I’ve heard it called wearing the abnormality’s skin as a shorthand explanation for what it is. It was basically the uniforms agents wore, they had differences but most of them were suits of a sort. Maybe some had plated armor but most of them looked just like cloth suits that felt weird to wear.” Yuri took a moment to breathe.

“The weapons could be just about anything though, most of them were melee weapons. A sickle or spear for instance. There were some ranged ones though, I know of at least one that had a small gun for an EGO weapon in my branch… I think they were legal, I’m not sure actually but that’s not the question.” Yuri pondered for a minute, squinting her eye a little before she continued. Leaving me with some tangential information I didn’t even know I didn’t know.

Some guns were legal but others weren’t? But that’s a question that like she’d said, wasn’t the one I’d asked.

“Is that a good answer for you Dante or is there something else about it?” She asked, looking at me as she did.

<“The EGO protected you from the abnormalities? How did that work?”> I asked and Sinclair translated.

“Like I said, it was basically an abnormality’s skin, wearing an EGO suit could weaken the damage an abnormality did. Wearing the EGO of an abnormality that does black damage made black damage hurt and do a lot less than it would otherwise. Like the thorns couldn’t pierce my skin as easily when I was wearing it.” Yuri explained.

That made a fair bit of sense actually, a lot more sense than trying to puzzle out whatever ‘Extermination of Geometric Organ’ meant.

“Oh that reminds me, there’s also EGO gifts too, would you like an explanation on those too?” It seemed like Yuri had almost lost her balance when she thought of that, almost tipping over before using her legs to rebalance herself.

I nodded, figuring that I could communicate that myself. Sinclair had gotten distracted reaching out a little to try and catch Yuri if she fell, it was nice of him to try just in case.

“An EGO gift is kind of a piece of an abnormality willingly given to someone by the abnormality. They tend to have a smaller benefit than the whole EGO but can only be given out by the abnormality itself. In Lobotomy some EGO equipment had some requirements before someone could put it on without corroding from it, so sometimes a gift could give an agent just that little bit they needed to safely wear something stronger.” Yuri explained, it was different to how the gifts worked from my own experience but maybe something had changed about them since Yuri had come into contact with them. Which wasn’t her fault if it had changed since.

<“I think that’ll be good for now, thank you Yuri.”> I said, it was nice to have gotten some clear information from someone for once.

“They said thank you.” Sinclair translated, watching Yuri as she righted herself back onto her feet. It didn’t seem like that was all he had to say, but he also looked like he was trying to think of how to word something before he asked.

Yuri smiled and nodded when she heard, it was small but I think she appreciated being appreciated.

“Yuri, uh, could you… maybe… show me how to do a handstand?” He mumbled and stammered out, was that why he’d been watching so intently?

Yuri seemed a bit surprised about it but she nodded and agreed, giving him some advice while I watched quietly. Busily organizing the new things I’d learned while Sinclair attempted to learn how to do a handstand. At least he was trying to learn until Rodya came out of the backdoor, causing Yuri to let go of holding Sinclair’s ankles steady to greet her and also causing Sinclair to lose his balance and fall over. Much to Rodya’s amusement, though Yuri immediately got to apologizing to Sinclair.

Even if we probably wouldn’t get to our destination today, it might be a good day today.

Chapter Text

It took about a week for them to arrive at the K Corp Nest border, Yuri couldn’t help but be amazed looking out at the nest from outside of it. She’d never lived close enough to the D Corp Nest to realize that the whole place might’ve been built differently than the backstreets, it certainly seemed like from what little she could see over the wall that there were some big differences in how the buildings looked. Or maybe it was just that it was cleaner over there.

Even before they’d gotten to the Nest border she’d noticed the difference between the neighboring districts very quickly, for one the average building style was similar but still distinct enough to be notable. It wasn’t as drastic a difference as between districts 4 and 10 but there were still enough for her to just stare curiously during downtime or when she was helping to feed Mephi (Charon’s way of referring to things might’ve been rubbing off on her already).

She’d nearly got a swipe from what was probably a knife on her blind side once while just looking, in her defense she hadn’t noticed whoever was there and notably they were not in her field of vision even once before Gregor swiped them down. She’d gotten used to it enough by the time they’d arrived to the Nest border checkpoint to where she wasn’t a liability in a fight anymore at least and was able to help fend off the opposition they’d faced outside the immigration center without incident, that was Sinclair causing a small incident because he’d gotten so stressed he’d puked on the bus. But he hadn’t explained why to anyone.

Yuri was a little bit nervous herself, Vergilius had given her a printed out identification card the day before which should’ve reasonably been enough to get her into the Nest safely. It was a long shot to claim that it didn’t look far less official than what the sinners had with them however, which made her nervous that she might end up stopped or detained or some other horrible thing that would separate her from the others and leave her stranded in the district 11 backstreets. There were a lot of things running through her head that might go wrong with Nest immigration that left her stalling as the sinners filed out of the bus.

“Charon thinks Yuri’s worried over nothing.” Charon seemed to muse beside her, it was hard to tell what tone Charon was intending most of the time but Yuri thought she was trying to be reassuring in her own way. It didn’t help much with her nervousness but she figured the thought that counted.

At least until Charon began physically shepherding Yuri out with the oar she had when she continued to stall on the bus, which was probably fair since Yuri wasn’t sure how long she’d continue to stall if left to her own decision. Charon gave her a small wave from the bus once she was down on the street with everyone else at least, and so Yuri had no choice left but to follow everyone into the checkpoint with about as much trepidation as Sinclair seemed to be carrying as well.

If there was one thing, it was certainly very clean in the immigration checkpoint (the floors were so white and just the slightest bit reflective it almost hurt her eye to keep it fully open). Clean and oppressive feeling as she quietly complied with the announcement over the intercom, shuffling right behind Sinclair in the line that had formed. It left her privy to his sobs and she couldn’t blame him personally, the only reason she didn’t cry from her own nerves were her years at Lobotomy stifling a lot of her external reactions.

“Look here, how nice it is to see you all stay in line and behave. Like a brood of chicks on an outing.” The sound of Vergilius’ voice startled her as much as it seemed to startle Ishmael, who was questioning why he was out here.

Yuri listened along as Vergilius explained himself to Dante, quietly focusing on the sound of his calm voice in an effort to make sure she was aware of what was going on. She was pretty sure (actually it was more like completely sure) some of the sinners wouldn’t share the opinion but she was somewhat relaxed by his presence if something were to go wrong. At the very least he seemed to be making an effort to be kind to her, being taken shopping wasn’t something that would’ve been done coldly right?

With her nerves somewhat alleviated she could actually pay attention to the line and not have to be nudged along by Ishmael every so often. It was moving pretty quickly, it was quicker than she’d imagined it would be considering some horror stories she’d heard before about Nest immigration, Ishmael seemed to have heard some too considering the nervous sounding questions she heard behind her. Were they directed at Vergilius or someone else? If she wasn’t just asking them aloud to herself anyways. At the very least they were prompting answers from Vergilius and Faust.

“What about Yuri?” Ishmael inquired hastily after Faust explained that the employee card could be presented instead of words if memorizing a phrase was too difficult, “Her card isn’t like ours, won’t that cause some suspicion?”

“The temporary employee card provided to her should suffice for now if she does not speak aloud.” Vergilius answered, while Yuri would’ve preferred to ask that question herself, it was a small relief that it was something that she wasn’t alone in worrying about.

It let her quietly relax enough to continue paying attention to the movement of the line as Vergilius prepared to take questions from sinners who raised their hands first, like it was school or something. She could probably tune out most of it without issues, just focusing on trying her best to actually make it through immigration without causing an incident so she could breathe easier once they were out of this oppressive atmosphere that was somehow worse than anything she’d been subjected to before.

It was the group’s turn soon enough, Ishmael’s worrying behind Yuri made Ryoshu snippy with her but Yuri did appreciate it on a small level. Gregor and Rodya going first made it seem easy, and it probably was going to be if she just showed her temporary card without her voice possibly stumbling from her nerves when it was her turn, which did end up coming sooner than she’d appreciate but what could she do about it?

“Please state your affiliation and purpose of visit.” Came the bored voice of the checkpoint guard.

Yuri opened her mouth for a brief moment before thinking better of it and just presenting her temporary card, even after the reassurance that it would probably be fine she was still afraid that it might not work.

“…All checked out. Next.” Was the dull response after a tiny bit more time for the guard to presumably read what was on it.

She could’ve just ran over to the others who’d already passed the check, but nerves kept her walking at a slow pace over to Gregor. Unintentionally pressing into his side a little while waiting for everyone else to get through, unbeknownst to her Gregor stiffened a little when she got so close since she was on his right. She didn’t notice since for one, she was taller than him. Secondly she was just way too preoccupied with everything else going on in this checkpoint, since after a while Ishmael drew her attention to something else going on behind a glass wall she hadn’t been able to pay attention to right away.

There was a commotion going on behind that glass wall that bore a lot closer resemblance to the horror stories she’d heard about Nest immigration than the experience she’d just had. It looked like a child being separated from their parent, maybe the parent had broken a taboo or something. She couldn’t tear her eye from the scene, even with Heathcliff’s tease and vocal celebration of said tease. The horror story come to life quietly playing out in front of her had stolen what little attention she’d had left from everything else.

Until the sound of breaking glass shattered the concentration she had placed on the scene unfolding.

And she bolted towards the exit, the same sense of self preservation that had her ignoring Alex in her escape from her collapsing branch taking over her brain.

Until she felt fresh air on her skin and in her lungs.

And she stopped to look in wonder at the Nest before her eye. She’d only seen the tops of buildings on the other side of the checkpoint. The late evening sun bathing the darker environment in the orange of sunset, shadows streaking across where the sun couldn’t shine. People going about their lives quietly, some in the same shade of green as the K Corp employees in the checkpoint and others wearing whatever they seemed to wish.

The smell of cooked chicken was what she noticed next, the entire Nest held a different smell than anything else she’d ever known. Everywhere in the Backstreets the smell of blood and exhaust was ever present, to the point where Yuri didn’t even know that was what she had been smelling all this time. Instead it was just… clean, chilly February air in the Nest, the bitter scent of smoke was still there but it was less pronounced and more in the background of the overall smell. More likely to have come from an accidental kitchen fire from a restaurant than wherever the Backstreets smog came from.

She just stood there, mesmerized as the sun slowly set over the city. Until she heard someone drive up and looked over to see an armored vehicle approach and stop. Yuri took a step back when a door opened, two unfamiliar faces looking out at her.

“You must be Yuri, we heard a fair amount about you from LCB.” The one with the ponytail greeted.

“Saude, don’t you think we should at least introduce ourselves first?” The other one said, sighing. “The name’s Effie, she’s Saude.”

Yuri stared for a moment before nodding.

“Yes, my name’s Yuri. You’re with Limbus as well?” She figured well enough from the company name being on their… flack vest thing that they were with Limbus but she didn’t know what else to ask.

“We’re part of the Before Team, we were waiting on the rest of the Bus division to arrive.” Effie replied, “Are they still in the checkpoint?”

“Yes, I’m not sure what happened exactly but someone broke a glass barrier in there.” She explained, she’d bolted so quickly she couldn’t tell if it was one of the sinners who’d done it or if it was someone on the other side of the glass for whatever reason.

From the grimace Saude made, it was probably evident to these two that it was probably one of the sinners. Which in retrospect was probably true.

“We’re going to be waiting for a while aren’t we?” Saude sighed.

“Since we’re here, might as well give you this.” Effie tossed Yuri something, she fumbled it a little before seeing that it was a more official looking employee card.

“Oh, thank you.” She stammered out, not sure what else to say.

“We’ll probably be back when the Code Purple’s cleared, that might take a while though so we might have to do a few loops. See you then.” Saude gave Yuri a wave before closing the door and the armored car drove off, leaving Yuri alone in the twilight of the nest.

She breathed a bit more, running her finger over the edge of her new card while waiting. She occasionally looked up when she heard a passing vehicle but it was only the Before Team once.

Night had completely fallen by the time the Code had been cleared and Yuri heard the doors unlock, and she began to watch them intently. Sure enough, the sinners soon came out of the doors. Most of them were coldly quiet while Don Quixote was giggling like she was an excited schoolgirl.

“Yuri? Have you been out here the whole time?” Gregor asked, the first to notice her under the streetlight she’d taken shelter by to avoid being in the dark.

She nodded but didn’t get much time to elaborate before Effie and Saude’s ride pulled up to the side of the road to talk with the sinners. Yuri listened along as they explained what they’d wanted to, that employees of N Corp. had been through the checkpoint recently and were at the same destination they were going to. Oh the things Yuri had heard about N Corp., she wasn’t looking too forward to coming close to any division of N Corp when they got there.

Apparently the two were hoping Vergilius would be among the group this time, Yuri could somewhat understand why even if he seemed like a man of contradictions to her, strangely gentle and kind at times and a ruthless force of fury directed at the sinners. Meeting a real life Color Fixer would be a big deal.

It was already pretty late when Effie and Saude left them so everyone could get back to the bus, and what a comfort that would be for Yuri. Mephistopheles was usually a consistent temperature on the inside, and it was getting a little bit cold out since the sun had set. So Yuri would be ready to call it a night if Dante were to be inclined when they got back.

“You’re late. Charon counted to one hundred and you still didn’t come.” Charon greeted them with, which made Yuri feel bad that she’d been kept waiting long enough to adopt an actual tone of voice. She seemed like she had a few more things to say before Vergilius interrupted her and offered to buy her something sweet in recompense, which she seemingly accepted without complaint, returning to the driver’s seat to wait.

Yuri walked over to join her, she could at least tell her that she’d been right and that Yuri had been worried over nothing. At least until Vergilius’ imposing aura of a threat left the bus silent.

“Let’s hear your excuse, Don Quixote.”

Yuri was then privy to watching Don Quixote be slammed to the ground after her flimsy excuse about why she was the one to cause a disturbance. Watching in absolute silence as Vergilius got his point across to her, it felt like it would be dangerous to interrupt this.

It was in fact bedtime after that, with Dante and Faust calling the days work to a close before everyone silently just went to their rooms, and Yuri could not be happier that that whole mess was over.

Chapter Text

It was snowing in the morning, and it must have snowed all night as well because of the blanket of snow that covered the entire windshield of Mephistopheles. That led to a slight delay of Faust (who wouldn’t let anyone else do it) having to climb up to clear the windshield herself before they could get moving, Yuri felt a little bad just watching from the ground but she’d probably feel even more guilty watching from inside. Even though she’d been told not to help, she still felt like she should be out standing in the snow like she was helping.

All that was happening was her getting snowed on and slowly getting colder without her jacket since she hadn’t washed it yet, at least the snow was pretty with it reflecting the lights of the Nest so she had something to look at while waiting for Faust to finish clearing the snow off of Mephi. It had been late when she’d gotten her first look at the Nest, so she might as well take a look with daylight, even if it was obscured by the snow clouds it was an incredible sight to her since it was so new.

The snow crunched as Faust landed behind her. Neither of them spoke as they got back inside of the bus and got to their usual spots, Yuri right beside Charon and Faust at the back.

It was mostly quiet aside from Yuri occasionally providing Charon with directions in advance, some of the Sinners noting that it was probably Dante’s first time in a Nest, and an explanation that the Before Team had been dispatched due to the third party occupying their destination of Calw. Maybe because it was still early in the morning, maybe it was because of the snow that it was quiet. Yuri had always felt like it got quieter when it rained so maybe the same applied for when it snowed.

Her thoughts on the snow were interrupted when the road changed from something Yuri expected to one surrounded by trees. They weren’t all that common in the Backstreets, let alone a whole forest like this, she was mesmerized by the frosted ends of the trees covered in the snow and simply looked around in wonder for a while since they were probably close to Calw by now.

At least until she spotted a slowly rising pillar of smoke and the taste of something bitter began to creep into her mouth, it always crept in before something terrible happened though she couldn’t tell exactly why it tasted bitter right now. She couldn’t see any present danger, and the smoke didn’t look close enough to be the problem specifically.

She heard Sinclair quite clearly when he spotted the smoke too, though she was too busy trying to find what was causing the bitter taste to pay much attention.

“Charon, turn.” Said Vergilius.

“Evasive maneuver. Rumble-tumble.” Were the only warnings Yuri got before a giant nail pierced through the windshield and continued in its arc before landing in the back window.

Yuri fell over from the sharp turn Charon had made, and now she was on the ground, covered in the remains of the windshield and shaking from the sound it had made. She couldn’t focus on what the Sinners were saying in the back at all, all she could do was stay as still as she could and try to not get cut by the glass by moving her hands wrong while trying to get up. The bitter taste in her mouth was as strong as it had been on her last day at Lobotomy Corporation, it wasn’t over yet according to that.

Vaguely, Yuri heard the door to the bus open and the sound of footsteps as several people got off, maybe to solve the problem of whoever had launched that nail. As she calmed down she became aware that Charon was trying to speak to her, she should probably listen.

“-hurt? Pinky’s still shiver shiver.” Was all she could get from only just now listening.

“I…” She took a shaky breath before she could continue, stammering, “I’m fine, I just, that, just scared me.”

She probably should at least try to get up, she’d have to get up eventually. So ever so carefully Yuri raised herself up on her elbows to get her feet back under her.

“Grab hold.” Charon offered her a hand which was quite happily accepted by Yuri, and soon enough a cascade of glass shards and gathered snow fell off her back and neck. She hadn’t even noticed that she was getting snowed on again.

She was still shivering a little as she looked out the new hole that was letting in the snow to try and take a guess as to what was going on. She could see the sinners fighting a group that was clad in armor from head to toe, it wasn’t anything she recognized so she assumed it was the N Corp group they’d heard about from Effie and Saude. Yuri winced a little when Gregor got hit hard with one of their hammers, she must have worried him when she was shivering on the ground.

She also was getting a better look at the village down below, she squinted a little to try and get a better look but it seemed like there was a fight going on down there as well. It might be the Before Team down there, but Yuri didn’t know how they fought so she couldn’t say for sure if it was them down there or someone else. She could also see several fires being lit, some being lit in piles of something and others burning houses. She thought she could see people being dragged out of their homes, and she didn’t want to think of what was being done to them next.

Eventually the bus door opened again to let the Sinners back in, breaking her focus on the massacre going on down in the village. Vergilius greeted them with a comment about if they were trickier to deal with than their previous foes, and Meursault elaborated on the purpose of N Corp after. Sinclair looked and sounded to be just a little bit away from a mental breakdown at the whole ordeal, Yuri wanted to help but she didn’t know how and she didn’t know how much broken glass was still in her shirt.

The advance team’s report did little to settle anything as Effie was interrupted by someone Yuri could only describe as sounding like a monster from the very pits of hell. And something about that set Yuri’s mind, part of it was probably curiosity about what in the world could even make that voice, the other part was deep concern for someone she’d only met once. Yuri decided then and there that she’d go with the Sinners for this, even as she watched Sinclair utterly freak out over the sound of a whistle. She didn’t want to sit idly by for this and listen to Rodya and Gregor have to recount the whole mission for her again.

“I’d like to help this time.” She said softly when the group minus Sinclair headed out to face another wave of N Corp fighters, almost to explain herself to any of them when she joined the herd. She heard Gregor sigh but he didn’t have any complaints he was willing to verbalize currently. She’d been joining in for fights for the past week on their way here without much issue, she could always fall back if she got hurt with 12 other people around as well. She was going to be fine.

Though, she wasn’t so sure that her sword was the most effective thing in this fight as it slipped off of the armor of her opponents. She was quick enough on her feet that she wasn’t hit by the attempted counterattack at least, and it left an opening for Ishmael to strike at with a much more effective hit with her mace. It had cracked the armor where she’d struck which left Yuri an opening for her own followup, much more effective now that her sword could reach the soft insides of her foe.

Sinclair and Dante did eventually come out of the bus after a few minutes, Dante fiddled with something in the corner of her vision before the sinners took on their different identities. It was hard to describe how it looked for the identities to change but that part wasn’t important at the moment, what mattered in the moment was that Yuri made sure to maybe stay away from Ishmael for now since it was her Reindeer Identity that was out. She’d seen other Sinners get attacked by her on accident (at least Yuri assumed it was an accident) and she was not eager to know what that attack felt like personally.

The fight was over quickly after, mostly thanks to Rodya and Ishmael being lethally effective in the fight. Yuri had still tried to help out some, but without an opening in the armor made by someone else she wasn’t doing much actual damage to the inquisitors. It made Yuri feel like it didn’t really matter if she’d gone out to help or not, she still wanted to come along but it was clear to her that she might not be able to hold her own in a fight alone. Reasonably she knew that was fine but there was something about it that felt like she was just burdening the others, she didn’t have anything more effective to fight with to fix that.

It was a shorter drive down most of the way to Calw, where they were let off again. Yuri didn’t feel the need to explain herself again as she rejoined the herd of Sinners, to walk into the burning town being actively massacred as she looked on.

There was a song playing that the others were commenting on, she thought she’d heard Charon humming it yesterday but she couldn’t place if she’d heard it before then, though she might not be able to hear it as a happy tune given what it was being played over. There were more N Corp soldiers here, putting up what Yuri thought might be decorations onto a tree until the group strayed closer to see what was being strung up exactly. The bitter taste in her mouth had a sour note to it now, mingling with the smell of the burning and bleeding organs and limbs hung on the trees.

The snow was starting to pick up into a storm, the wind getting stronger. But even through that she could hear that there were people who were still alive, and Dante must’ve heard them as well since there was a ticking sound from them speaking as the sinners moved in to attack the decorating N Corp inquisitors. Yuri held back this time, feeling like she might end up getting in the way this time, with her hair almost blowing into her eye a few times from the wind. She could mess with her ribbon to try and tie it back, but that sounded like a losing battle with the wind itself.

The Sinners returned after the fight, Dante having to bring back some first but the fight was won and the decorating of the trees halted. The snow had picked up even more in the meanwhile, it was getting a little hard to see through it. Then the loudspeakers crackled and someone began to speak, Sinclair flinched and stared up in the direction of the loudspeaker. It was hard for Yuri to tell if it was fear or rage in his eyes, maybe it was a mixture of both.

“Ah~ Ahh~! Mic test, mic test!! Enjoying the festivities everyone? We’re not even finished with the decorations yet.”

It took Yuri a moment to actually catch on that this was supposed to be a Christmas thing. Maybe because District 4 didn’t celebrate that holiday really, maybe because it was still far away. That seemed to be the part that threw Dante if Yuri could guess from Ishmael’s response.

“My name is Kromer. I’m a humanitarian who loves purity, and the one who grips the hammer. I don’t know how you managed to get here, but you’re trespassing on private property. As you can see… this hallowed ground is undergoing our nailing judgment. I hope you like the decorations being set up. Well, let’s just say that you got lost in this blizzard… Turn back now and a fine will be all you have to pay. I’m feeling generous… Tonight’s the Nativity after all! Oh, before that. Is Guido there?”

Yuri looked around in the howling blizzard as someone she hadn’t spotted before spoke, he might’ve gotten there while this Kromer was talking. She vaguely recognized his voice when he spoke, could he have been the one who’d interrupted Effie?

“Here I stand.”

“Good. Just in case, do you see any heretics over there?”

Yuri could only shiver as she heard him approach to get a better look through the snow, Dante’s head stood out a lot. Like it was another fire glowing in the storm. But it didn’t seem like this Guido saw them right away, instead staring at each of the Sinners and herself in turn before he finally saw them.

“I see an impure one and their followers. And with them… the child you spoke of.”

Kromer cackled over the loudspeaker at his answer.

“Really! My Sinclair is back? Come see me, Sinclair. I’ll be waiting at that familiar spot!”

Sinclair’s response only made Yuri more confused on if he was scared or furious, she could hear his teeth gnash through the storm even though he’d seemed so scared on the bus.

“Take out the rest, Guido. Or should I myself? I wouldn’t mind.”

“I urge you to focus on hammering the impure, O One Who Grips.”

Her cackle at that made Yuri shiver and wonder just what she’d done in the past to make Sinclair react this way to her.

“Good, good!! Let’s keep up the purification! Now then, everyone. Merry Christmas!”

It wasn’t even December.

From the snow, previously unseen inquisitors gathered around Guido. Some seemed to have been interrupted in their decorating given by the reds she could see on their armor. Guido himself was behind them, unmoving but just as threatening if he were.

Yuri didn’t join in for this fight either, sticking to Dante’s side just in case one of the inquisitors slipped past the Sinners. She wasn’t sure she’d be the most effective in protecting them, but she felt like she should try anyways since they seemed to have no combat knowledge to speak of.

It seemed like it was a tough fight anyways, the snow on the ground stained with the blood of both deceased inquisitors and Sinners just the same. But at least Dante could bring back the Sinners. Guido though, he wasn’t going down easily, even as his fellow inquisitors fell unmoving in the cold he remained. Even as he was the last one standing, and no other inquisitors were nearby to provide him backup. Even when he was eventually downed they had to fall back, or was it moving forwards? It seemed like Dante had somewhere in mind to go, but she couldn’t tell what they were asking Sinclair, only that he’d responded to something they said.

“… My house. That’s where Kromer must be.”

Oh. So they were heading for Kromer. Who Sinclair clarified to Rodya as having killed his family, which explained a fair amount of his reaction to her from Yuri’s perspective. She listened as he explained more about this place, his hometown, as it slowly burned around them in this blizzard. And she agreed with Ishmael’s assessment of the inquisitors, that they were lunatics with no higher goal.

She looked on as Sinclair asked Dante how it felt to have a prosthetic head, though she wasn’t able to hear their answer she found herself a little curious too. Though he backed out of the question quickly, it was a question he’d had for a while. It was quiet after, with only the crackling of flames and sparks from the hung up prosthetics competing with the howling wind before they moved on.

It seemed like the fight with Guido had cleared out a vast majority of the inquisitors around, with only two being come across as they walked. Burning the bodies of prostheticed people, maybe the blizzard was keeping them unaware how alone they were now. As she listened to Meursault explain what he knew about N Corp, Yuri didn’t say anything (she was too overwhelmed by everything going on to think of the words) but she agreed with Heathcliff. That it would be nicer to know if Meursault had come to a conclusion on this type of thing.

She was derailed from that train of thought by Hong Lu’s wondering of if the Dante they knew was the person or the clock, she had nothing to add but to her it didn’t seem that unlikely of a possibility. She decided to keep that in mind, or try to anyways, there wasn’t a guarantee that she’d even remember it later and that something else wouldn’t derail her thoughts in the middle of trying to remember that.

They carried on after the two inquisitors were put with the rest, the blizzard was hiding a lot of them that the group could only see from way too close for comfort. Though it seemed to go both ways, the inquisitors didn’t notice the Sinners and Yuri until they were close enough to be seen. And there were a lot more than Yuri had anticipated from the numbers she’d seen with Guido, it left a deeper chill than the snow in her that they could be surrounded and not have any clue. She moved to walk closer to Gregor, not listening too close to Sinclair as he apologized to Dante for something she couldn’t catch over the howling of the wind.

“Holding up okay Yuri?” He asked her once he’d noticed her, moving a little closer himself.

“Huh? Oh, I think so. Why?” She was a bit startled, not expecting to be spoken to right now.

“I wanted to make sure, seemed to me like the windshield got you pretty bad.” He sounded like he didn’t want to press, but he’d been worried enough to ask.

Yuri hadn’t realized he’d noticed that. Then again she’d been right beside him when she’d bolted yesterday, and it wasn’t like she’d been able to pay attention to what was going on when the windshield shattered. Of course he’d have to have noticed, how could he not have? Though, she wasn’t sure if he was asking for an explanation or just if she was okay after that. She wasn’t sure she could give an explanation right now anyways.

“I’m fine, I can try to explain later.” She had a feeling he would ask again later, she didn’t not want to let him know after all. She didn’t want to worry him about it.

She saw him nod in response, she’d have to figure out her explanation sooner or later.

In any case, more inquisitors appeared from the snow and the conversation was over now. Maybe she hadn’t been doing as okay as she’d thought, because now she wanted to help with the fight. Regardless of if she could do much against their armor or not.

It wasn’t long after that fight that they’d finally arrived at Sinclair’s old home. It was still hard to make out much detail, but the scale of it was still evident from the shadow it cast in the snow. It was far bigger than any house Yuri had seen before, though that wasn’t saying much from a backstreets resident.

It took the Sinners and Yuri a moment to spot the nails stuck in the ground of the courtyard. The blizzard seemed to be clearing for just a moment, allowing for just a moment of improved visibility to bear full witness to the gruesome decorations still being put up in front of the dark mansion. Though Sinclair’s attention was drawn to something else in the courtyard, and the noise he made when he saw it drew Yuri’s attention to the patch of disturbed snow and dirt he was staring at in the corner.

“The graves, they’re… dug up…?” He looked around quickly before his eyes landed on three of the bodies impaled on the nails in the yard. Yuri was pretty sure everyone was of the same mind as to who they were, who’s graves had been dug up. Yuri was disgusted by that display, agreeing with Yi Sang that it was nothing short of a devil’s work.

That disgust was immediately directed towards the person who whistled as she walked out of the mansion. Yuri couldn’t even pay attention to what she was saying from both that and the bitter taste that came when the person who just had to be Kromer appeared, strong enough to nearly make her gag. As it stood, all Yuri could do was stay with the group however, the bitter taste warding her away from a fight she very much could not handle.

She was reminded however of what she was partially here for when Outis spoke up, asking about the Before Team. Yuri couldn’t help but look around at the bodies on the nails, both dreading and expecting the worst outcome she could picture so clearly.

And yet

There was nobody she recognized strung up in a gruesome display, neither Effie nor Saude was up on one of the nails. Kromer instead drew their attention to a mess of blood on the snow, it took Yuri a moment to identify who it was though.

Effie, brutalized and with missing limbs sloppily stuck with ill fitting prosthetics in their place. It looked like the inquisitors had planned to string him up like all the others in the courtyard, but that they’d gotten here too soon for that to have happened. Yuri didn’t know if she should be horrified or relieved, horrified that it had happened at all or relieved that they’d gotten here before it could’ve been worse.

Sinclair cried out Effie’s name once he’d seen, rushing over to the brutalized man. Yuri ran over as well, and was relieved when he stirred in response, he didn’t look like he had the strength left in him to do much more than open an eye but it was a reaction. A simple thing that gave her hope, hope that he might make it even as the blizzard intensified around them. Hope that Faust confirmed as a possibility when she approached.

Kromer’s laughter rang out in the courtyard at their reactions, once again filling Yuri’s mind with disgust. How could she laugh at this? What was wrong with her? She didn’t even want to know the answer to that question. It seemed to her that Sinclair had a similar reaction. Though she could only barely see his expression at the edge of her sight, she could hear the calm conviction in his voice as he said that Kromer had to die.

The trail of thought was interrupted by a large figure walking through the blizzard, dragging his nail with him. Guido probably, they hadn’t had the time to finish him off before, and now it was biting them wasn’t it? But what Yuri hadn’t expected was how unharmed he looked, as though nothing had ever harmed him even a little. It once again gave Yuri a chill as she shuffled a little to get more in front of Effie, willing to strike at any inquisitors who approached with Guido.

She watched as Kromer gave Guido his orders before letting out a whistle.

And with a crash of glass the mansion burst into flames.

And Kromer simply walked into the flames, without a care in the world seemingly. It seemed to stun Sinclair for a moment before he yelled her name with the most rage Yuri had ever heard from him, and while she couldn’t possibly understand the depths it went to, it was all likely well deserved.

Yuri hung back with Effie as the sinners battled the inquisitors in the revitalized blizzard, though with the burning mansion it was much easier to see through. The billowing flames offering warmth from the snow as they devoured all they could reach. It felt horrible to Yuri that something that horrible was offering respite from the cold. She heard Effie move slightly and crouched down to around his level, she’d only met him once and yet she was so scared that she never would be able to again.

He was breathing heavily as he tried to get up, trying to prop himself up on his remaining arm with what little strength he had left.

“Could I… do you want help?” Yuri was still a little scared from when she’d thought that he might’ve been one of the bodies that were desecrated all around them. She didn’t want him to end up hurt even more than he already was, the least she could do was offer him help right?

He nodded weakly and Yuri tried to lift him up out of the snow or at least to where he could sit, she ended up having to use both her arms to lift him up. She wasn’t that strong physically, so it wasn’t a surprise to her but it was a mild moment of uncertainty if she should really be doing this at all. It felt wrong, like she might get yelled at, even though reasonably he had agreed for her help. She was partly worried about possibly bothering wounds she couldn’t see on him, she could feel his blood on her hands as she helped him into a sitting position.

“Thank you…” Effie weakly said, opening an eye easier without his face directly in the snow. He was breathing a bit heavier but that was probably better, Yuri wasn’t quite sure but she was relieved that she hadn’t hurt him more by accident.

She should probably get back to making sure none of the inquisitors who’d come with Guido got too close, the Sinners would probably want to talk to him after they were done with the fight anyways. Though when she turned back around she saw that the fight was pretty much over, the only part that she saw was Sinclair breaking open the head of an Inquisitor with Vogel. Though it seemed to her that the inquisitor was already dead when he split their head open, and he was still striking the unmoving body over and over again. She couldn’t tell if there was something wrong since his eyes were hard to see in the snow, though it was probably reasonable to assume there was something wrong from what she’d seen.

She didn’t want to get too close to him to find out though, she wasn’t sure if she felt safe enough for him to not attack her if she tried to get close. It looked like he was in some kind of frenzy mutilating the corpse. She wanted to do something, but nerves kept her in her spot as she watched Don Quixote approach him instead.

Maybe it should have surprised her when Don Quixote started to beat his sense back into him, it was far from normal in so many places and yet it just clicked as something reasonable in her head. Four entire years of working at Lobotomy had settled into her mind that the best way to handle someone in a panic and unresponsive was with force, though there was a very small remnant of the her that had been horrified the first time she’d seen when she heard faintly over the wind that it had been a regular occurrence for Don Quixote. It stuck in the back of her head, dissonantly with what she’d learned before.

She watched as the group made their way back over to her and Effie, who hadn’t had anything to say even if he seemed to be doing better without his face in the snow. Ishmael and Sinclair were the quickest to run over, either the most concerned or just the ones to show it in their actions.

“Effie!” Sinclair seemed overwhelmed, even after Don Quixote’s attempt at calming him. He seemed unsure of what to do, but that he still wanted to do something. “Where- where’s Saude?”

Effie took in a breath and shuffled himself more upright than the slump he was sitting in before. Though he leaned heavily on his remaining arm to do so.

“Saude… should be inside. She was dragged inside before…” He had to stop and breathe in the middle of trying to explain, it felt awful to watch and see him in such a state. It had to be even worse for the sinners, they knew him better than she did.

She saw Ishmael glance in the direction of the burning mansion, and her heart dropped at the thought. Inside the mansion or inside the branch? She wasn't able to tell right away as the fire licked out of broken windows. Bits of ash were starting to fall with the snow, sticking into her dampened hair as it did.

She hoped it was the branch.

Though, where was the branch? That part was never really clarified to her, or at least she hadn't heard if it had been said aloud over the wind.

Yuri pulled her attention back to what was currently happening, at the very least Effie was here and not the one potentially in a burning building. Effie was right here and breathing, and he was trying to tell them how to proceed.

"Keep going, I'll be fine. Just… Just make sure Saude's alright." He said, though Yuri really didn't want to leave him alone out here. Especially since she didn't know if Guido was dead or not this time, she hadn't been watching and couldn't see him when she looked around. Though the bitter taste in her mouth was slowly fading for the first time since she'd set foot into the snow, he would probably be fine.

"But-" Ishmael started to voice her disagreement, looking to Effie again.

"It is likely he will survive until the After Team arrives. There is nothing more we can do for him Ishmael." Faust said, softly as she always seemed to.

"We should find Saude, make sure she's okay too." Yuri added, which seemed to work somewhat better in convincing Ishmael since she stepped back now.

Effie had closed his eyes by now, either trying to get them to go ahead or he was genuinely exhausted from this whole ordeal, Yuri could see either one being true as they walked towards the burning mansion at long last.

The flames had died down enough that Sinclair was able to guide them to the basement without anyone catching on fire, even still Yuri had to flinch away from sudden crackles and pops of the burning building.

It smelled so bitter as they followed Sinclair down, where it was cooler and wasn't on fire, But Yuri couldn't help but take note that the bitterness followed far past the flames through the tunnel, past the inquisitors that were in the tunnel, until at long last she could tell what it was.

It was probably only her who saw that it was a Lobotomy Corporation branch first, and not the various torture devices that had been put there, defaced as it was she could still recognise it so far. Perhaps it was because she recognised this place as what it once was that the horrors around didn't seem so strange as the sinners fought the inquisitors they first came across as they came in.

Until she heard Saude's voice.

And the horrors of this place finally clicked past the her that had grown accustomed to seeing this kind of thing in Calw, the her that had seen nightmares walking the halls of a place so much like this one.

She couldn't hear a thing as it settled into her mind, as well as the fact that it took hearing a voice she recognised to see the defacement of this place.

"... How is he? Alive, yeah? You… must've met outside…" Was what she heard when her attention was grounded again. She must've been asking about Effie, at least that was the only thing Yuri could think she was asking about.

"Yes, he was alive when we met with him." Hong Lu answered her, though he didn't go into detail about his state.

"He wasn't in the best state… but he's alive up there." Yuri added, hoping that would put Saude at ease. She was only just starting to see how wounded Saude was, but couldn't help but feel like it might've been worse if they hadn't gotten here in time.

There wasn't a lot of time to keep talking as peccatula began to approach, it had been a while since Yuri had seen them, let alone seen them fight. So she quietly backed over to where Saude was left sitting, hoping to attempt to guard her in case any stray oddities saw an easy target.

"How is he… really?" She heard Saude ask her when she got close. It took Yuri a moment to think of how to describe it.

"Not well, they… some of his limbs are gone… they… I thought he would've been on one of those nails out there… if we got here a bit… a bit later." Was all she could muster in answer, "He told us to make sure you were okay… he was breathing when we left him."

"... Good." Was all she got in response before Saude fell quiet again, though Yuri could still hear her breathing against the sounds of battle.

Soon though the bitterness flooding her mouth almost made her gag as she heard the sound of a nail dragging across the ground. So this was where Guido had gone.

There was a scraping sound behind her that made her look back to see Saude slowly readying her gun. Yuri saw her gesture quietly towards Guido when Saude saw her looking at her, though Yuri didn't quite get what Saude meant. At least until she saw Saude point the gun at Dante, then it clicked to her.

Even still her mind began to race, the bitter taste in her mouth in addition to what she saw making it hard for her to parse what was being said. Only that Guido was holding Dante up by the neck and almost crushing their head. She could hear it cracking from where she was standing, and she couldn't do anything but watch, frozen in place by everything going on.

She hadn't noticed Sinclair approaching Guido before she saw a nail being forced through Guido's armoring to make him stagger. He had a look of malice and desperation on his face as he did.

It had let Dante escape, and Guido turned away from them to face him.

The bitter taste in her mouth was falling away now, long enough for her to comprehend that Guido was talking about something that Yuri didn't want to understand anyways, inane drivel about Gripping and Sinclair having the potential to be one as well. Whatever that meant.

She heard Dante say something, or to her ears make the sounds of a ticking clock, and Sinclair responded.

"No… I'm not running away anymore."

"... I like that answer, Sinclair." Saude said before firing her gun at the back of Guido's head.

The noise startled Yuri into looking away and closing her eye. So she could only hear as Guido let out his last words and finally fell with a clatter to the ground, hopefully dead for good this time.

Yuri opened her eye quickly when she heard Saude drop her gun, looking down to her once more. Reviving sinners came over as well, trying to offer some kind of help, but Saude turned them down, claiming she couldn't even lift a finger.

Something scratched at the back of her head, an older memory of something before she looked around and saw what she'd need.

"I'll stay with her, I…" The thought of following with the rest of the sinners as they slowly relented and began to move forward brought back that overpowering bitter taste, it wouldn't end well at all but how could she explain that she felt she wouldn't survive continuing forward with them just from a bitter taste? She could explain later, when she thought of the words.

Maybe they were relieved she wouldn't be going with her, because nobody argued about that, simply carrying along.

"Why…?" Saude began to ask before Yuri moved to where she needed to be.

"I… There's something I can do for you, I think, it… it might not do much but I could take you up to Effie. If it's here…" Yuri stammered out as she dragged over something to climb up to a battered camera. It didn't look too badly broken and if she was right about what was in it, she very easily could bring the two together again.

Saude didn't make any other protest as she watched. It was a bit trickier than she thought it would be to take apart the camera but she did eventually manage to open it up.

Tucked away carefully inside were small vials of a greenish liquid, ready to be shot out like a bullet towards a wounded agent. There weren't many left now, how long did the manager last in this branch? How long did the employees? It didn't really matter however in this moment as Yuri carefully set the HP bullets into her palm, they had to be very diluted from her experience with them…

She could still remember the feeling of being bitten, the abnormality's teeth dragging down her face and ripping out her eye.

… She shouldn't think about that right now.

She held her hand out to Saude before she explained.

"I think that Lobotomy had a deal with K Corp., these… there's HP bullets in the camera. Please I… They should help." It might give Saude enough strength to let Yuri help her up to Effie, where there wouldn't be inquisitors and Peccatulum crawling around everywhere.

"Only half… Effie will need some too." was Saude's response. It was better than refusal at least, so Yuri carefully moved a little over half to her other hand, it was hard to be precise with both her hands being used.

She was unsure how the HP bullets should work if not fired or directly injected, nervous as she was she did assume that crushing the liquid into one of the open wounds would be her best chance of actually doing something.

Ever so carefully Yuri lifted the slightly more full hand over the most notable wound of Saude she could see and crushed the bullets, letting the liquid dribble down from her hand into the wound. It did seem like it was working a little, after a few moments when the liquid was gone from her hands Saude opened her eyes a bit stronger and the wound seemed a bit smaller too.

"Alright, let's go." Saude told her as Yuri gently set the remaining HP bullets into her jacket pocket, it was still dirty but it was a better place to keep them than her hand.

Saude was easier to lift up than Effie, for one she had the strength to at least partially support her own weight with Yuri's help (Though it was probably more from the healing than strength Yuri had). Slowly, the two began to walk out of this accursed place, through the tunnel and up into the still burning mansion.

Yuri was extra careful through the dying flames, they were smaller than when she'd first passed through but still be just as dangerous and uncomfortably hot. She didn't want Saude to end up burned from a mistake after all.

After the slow walk, the two were finally out in the snow. Though Yuri could no longer tell if there was more snow or ash falling as the wind continued to blow.

"Here, here he is." Yuri panted out, she was only barely strong enough to have kept this up for as long as she did.

"... Saude?" She heard Effie mutter out as she got down to the ground with Saude, he'd opened his eyes again, seemingly a little stronger from his rest.

"Effie..!" Saude responded, stumbling a little past Yuri to get close to him, she must have been worried.

Yuri took a minute to rest in the snow before moving over to Effie and pulling out the remaining healing bullets to give to him.

"Saude said you should get the other half." She explained before he could ask, trying to find the most exposed wound to let the liquid soak into him.

Again, ever so carefully she held her hand over it before crushing them over it, it was more uncomfortable out here since it was still snowing but most of it got in at least.

"Thank you…" He breathed out, still clearly exhausted from the ordeals.

Saude eventually shuffled herself over to the wall that Effie had been leaned against, to sit by him to wait until the after team arrived. It might take a while but Yuri didn't want to leave them here alone, it was either staying up here with them or going back down into the Branch alone.

So, Yuri stayed up above in the snow, slowly pacing around sometimes but mostly sitting with Effie and Saude, it seemed like the both of them were resting now so they weren't the most talkative.

Yuri was close to dozing off herself when she heard a crunch in the snow, and she bolted up.

The blizzard had died down a lot by now, leaving everything very visible,

There was someone there walking towards the mansion.

Holding a hammer and wearing the inquisitor's armor.

She saw them see her.

She saw them see Effie and Saude.

Yuri got up from the snow and readied her sword.

Her hands were slightly numb from the cold as she gripped it, cold from the snow and cold because she knew she was alone here. There was no one to back her up, nobody with a more effective weapon to break the armor, nobody to protect her but herself. She needed to try anyway, right?

She thought she heard the inquisitor say something about a heretic before she lunged her sword forward to a gap in the armoring, only lightly piercing through before she had to dash away from a counter.

Something itched at the back of her head as she and the inquisitor were essentially locked in a stalemate, she couldn't badly damage the inquisitor and the inquisitor wasn't quick enough to hit her when she dashed away after a strike that didn't do anything. It wasn't the itching of her memory, no this was something physical, scratching, writhing at the back of her head right where her ribbon was tied.

Like it was trying to get her attention.

And then the attention she had on the fight slipped, and something cold and sharp was thrust through her shoulder.

Then it felt like something wrapping itself over her, she could see the inquisitor backing away faintly as she tried to puzzle out what was happening. Then she saw her sword.

Or, where her sword should have been.

In its place was a wooden stave, gilded wood stretching up towards a golden fruit.

She was holding Legerdemain. More accurately she was holding the version of Legerdemain that had been in use by her old co-workers.

She was wearing the old EGO suit too, she saw as she quickly glanced over herself.

Looking back towards the inquisitor, who had resumed their approach by now, Yuri thought she could figure this out later when her life wasn't in danger. She knew how Legerdemain worked as a weapon, she'd seen it in use so many times before.

She grasped the stave with both hands and pulled back before swinging it as hard as she could at the inquisitor, a sickening crack resulted as it struck true on the inquisitor's helmet. She wasn't done however even after the inquisitor fell to the side, stunned by her strike. She couldn't rest until she was sure that Effie and Saude would be safe in her mind.

She struck again and again until the inquisitor stopped making noises, and she plunged the sharper point of the stave into the inquisitor's throat for good measure before coming back to herself.

She slowly grabbed the stave again, wincing as she moved her left shoulder a bit. She was confused as to why this had happened, it wasn't like… wait a minute, was it..?

Yuri pulled her ribbon off from the back of her head and the feeling of something wrapping itself over her vanished in an instant, along with Legerdemain.

Her ribbon had changed from solid black to being mostly golden colored with only veins of black still remaining. Why hadn't anyone-? They had actually, she remembered, when Ishmael had taught her to tie a sailor's knot she'd asked her if her ribbon had had bits of gold in it before. It must have been a slow process then.

False Apple must have accidentally given her a gift when it failed to eat her, when it ate Gregor instead.

…

She could think more on that later, she had so many things to think of how to explain already. In the meanwhile she had a bleeding shoulder wound to try and handle on her own, at least until the Sinners came up from the Branch, or the After team got here. She wasn't sure which would happen first as she settled back into the snow beside Effie and Saude.

As it turned out the After team got there first, asking her a few questions that she tried her best to answer before they scooped up Effie and Saude and told her that she could return to the bus, that the Sinners would probably be a bit later as said by an interesting member of the after team who wore a furry animal head over their own.

It would probably be best to head back now anyways, there were bandages she could use for her shoulder there. The sinners would come back in their own time, they had to.

Never before had she been so happy to see that red coat of Mephistopheles as she walked through the snow again to where Charon had left the bus.

Charon was the only one aboard to greet her when she climbed aboard, there was a cloth covering over the broken windshield to keep out the snow presumably, and someone had swept up all the glass .

"Pinky's hurt?" Charon asked her as soon as she got a good look at Yuri's shoulder.

"It… it's not that bad Charon. One of the inquisitors got me with a nail, that's all." It didn't stop Charon from scampering over to take a closer look, and helping her get out the medical kit on the bus, and generally hovering until the sinners got back at long last.

Chapter Text

Yuri hissed quietly to herself as she dabbed a cloth at her shoulder wound to clean it. She was doing it in her room, self conscious about what the others might see on her if she tended to it in Mephi proper.

The nail had grazed an inconvenient place to get at without her having to take off her jacket and undershirt, at least not without help. She didn’t want the others to see what was hidden under those layers, not yet anyways. Even if Heathcliff had his scars out in the open for everyone to see.

With how fresh the various bites and scratches that ran up and down her arms looked even years later, she didn’t want them to think it was something she’d done recently. She didn’t really want to look at them herself either, it wasn’t just because of the cold that she’d kept them covered.

Her scars tingled from the open air they were being exposed to after so long, at least she could wrap her chest up in a blanket to keep the rest of herself warm as she clumsily tended to herself.

Yuri startled when someone knocked at her door, jostling the bandages she’d brought with her off her bed. Well, she’d have to get up to get those now anyways, might as well see who it was at her door.

“Hey, Vergilius came back with some chicken skewers. Figured I’d bring you one.” She heard Gregor say on the other side of the door. “Also wanted to offer some help, if you want it.”

Now she had a choice to make here. Yuri wouldn’t mind letting him in normally, and there certainly was reason to let him in to give her the chicken. But she already had to explain things to Gregor, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to add her fresh looking years old scars to that list.

…

Yuri hadn’t eaten all day actually, too busy with today’s mission at Calw to think of food before.

The promise of that chicken was making any kind of explaining she’d have to do if he asked about the scars not really matter to her. He might not even mind them.

…

She was too hungry to think about it too much. Yuri wrapped her blanket a bit closer around herself before opening the door and wincing a little bit as her shoulder bled a bit more from the movement.

“I’d … I’d appreciate the help Gregor, thank you.” Yuri said as she stepped back to let Gregor come in.

Thankfully he didn’t make any comment on her visible bite scars as he came in, just looking around a little bit before Yuri closed the door behind him. He did have a chicken skewer with him in his human hand, but Yuri didn’t want to grab at it immediately, she thought that would be rude even if she was hungry. So she just settled for sitting on her bedside to try and staunch the returned bleeding from moving her shoulder to let him in, the cloth was already pretty soaked from her trying to slow the bleeding before though.

After a moment Gregor sat beside her, having picked up the fallen bandages as best he could with his bug arm, having put the chicken somewhere else for now.

“You said there was a straggler inquisitor up there right?” He asked, gently trying to get her to lift the soaked cloth off her wound, probably to get a better look at it himself.

“Yes, there was only one at least.” She didn’t think she could’ve taken down any more than one, even with legerdemain. She hissed softly again when Gregor started to clean it out with a cleaner cloth, one soaked in something to keep it from getting infected probably given by how much more it stung than the cloth she was using before.

“It’ll hurt more if I don’t.” He said softly at her hiss before continuing the conversation, probably trying to distract her from the stinging. “Guess that makes all those fights in the snow worth it then… right, we can probably wrap this now could you..?”

Yuri took the stinging sticky cloth out of his hand as soon as he offered it, the least she could do was make this easier for him, they only really had two working hands between them after all since she probably shouldn’t move her shoulder much after it was wrapped up. She set the cloth aside onto the main blanket to help hold the bandage wrapping as Gregor wound it around her shoulder (she was going to be washing the blankets after this anyways, there was already blood on them). He might’ve done this before from how quickly it was over and done… there was that Tomah guy they’d seen when the Bough of her branch was resonating with Gregor, had he done something similar for him or someone like him? It seemed possible to Yuri.

“… Thank you…” Yuri said after it was done and wrapped, now she wouldn’t be bleeding at least, she could smell that chicken around here somewhere and it was waiting for her. She hoped that it hadn’t gone cold by now, but… “Have you had any chicken yet Gregor?”

It wouldn’t feel right if he’d missed out on his own food by helping her, she probably could’ve gotten it on her own eventually.

“There was one for everyone already, figured I should bring you yours since you were in here for a while.” Gregor explained, which made Yuri feel a bit better about that, since she wasn’t keeping anyone else hungry at least.

It took her a moment to see where he’d put her chicken and get it while still wrapped up in her blanket, even more challenging with only one arm that was safe to move (at least she thought she shouldn’t move her left shoulder that much now that it was bandaged). Gregor had gotten up to try and help her but she’d gotten it by the time it took for him to come to that decision.

It was quiet while she ate finally, normally Yuri did not like meats and meat flavors but she was in no position to get something she’d like more. She was hungry enough to mostly not mind anyways, it was better tasting than she thought it would be too.

“So, didn’t know when to bring this up. But ah, those aren’t…” Gregor sucked in air through his teeth as he danced around his own question, seeming like he didn’t want to push any boundaries. She did get what he was asking though.

“No! No it’s not that, honestly.” Yuri answered quickly, not wanting him to get the wrong idea, “They’re… it sounds like a lie but they’re… most of them are old and haven’t healed more after years. I wish I knew why…”

It sounded so fake even as she said it and knew that it was true, she wouldn’t be surprised if Gregor didn’t believe her at all. The bite marks at least were very clearly not something she could’ve done to herself, and they looked as fresh as the scratch marks too so maybe..?

“I wouldn’t… I wouldn’t do that to myself Gregor.”

She couldn’t look at him, she couldn’t even tell if he believed her or not. She just continued to chew for the little scraps of chicken still stuck to the stick while waiting on his response, trying to focus on the flavors and texture of what remained instead of her nagging fears.

…

“Haah,” She heard Gregor let out a breath, “Good to hear.”

He sounded relieved.

He believed her?

Why wouldn’t he actually? She had no idea the extent of things he’d seen before, he probably had his fair share of wounds that hadn't healed too, though with Dante around they probably weren't the physical kind.

"Will your shoulder stay like that then?" He asked her, a bit more easily and calmly now.

"No, it's just what came from abnormalities." She answered, shaking her head a little, "Anything else heals normally."

"Do they hurt?"

"Not anymore, no… Most of them don't." She corrected herself mid sentence, only one still hurt from time to time. Even four years later it was still bleeding, just slower now and so she could ignore it for the most part. Her empty eye socket.

She gestured to it after a moment of internal debate. She could feel a little bit of blood welling up behind the bandage, she really should have cleaned it out yesterday but all the things happening had taken it off her mind before now. She wondered if Gregor would mind her cleaning it out in front of him.

“… Could I see it?” Well that put an end to that debate, he asked first and she had no reason to say no.

Yuri nodded quietly, not sure if she should even say anything as she raised her hand to the eye bandage. She picked at the edge of it with her safe to move hand to try and make it want to lift away, to more easily peel away and reveal something she couldn’t see herself.

She heard Gregor suck in a breath when she removed the bandage completely and she felt the built up blood start to drip down her cheek. Did it look that bad? She hadn’t seen it herself in a while but she assumed it looked mostly the same, it didn’t hurt more than usual at least.

“… It must look pretty bad, I don’t… I don’t look at it very much…” It could’ve gotten worse in the time she hadn’t seen it.

Gregor made a few false starts to his next question, fumbling over his words a few times before simply just asking,

“How long has it been like that?” Sucking in his breath again once he was done. It must’ve looked really really bad then, maybe Yuri hadn’t been cleaning it out right and it had become a real mess since she’d last seen it.

“Around four years… it still looks fresh doesn’t it?” She knew the answer, she couldn’t even bear to look at Gregor right now, just hearing how hard it was to look at her empty eye made a pit in her stomach twist and coil around the pieces of chicken. She started to chew on the stick again, keeping her remaining eye low and turned away.

She could only bear to listen quietly as Gregor struggled for words once more, she felt bad even though he had asked first.

“You said it doesn't hurt anymore?” He ended on eventually.

"Not much, not all the time… it, it used to a lot more. It’s fine now.” She tried to reassure him, it wasn’t completely wrong to say even if it stung right now.

Gregor stayed quiet for a moment, and Yuri stayed tense even if she wasn’t sure what she was nervous about in particular. Gregor had to have seen worse before…

A cloth pressed into her cheek, soaking up the blood that had dripped onto it like tears. Gregor slowly moving the cloth up her cheek until he reached the edge of her eye socket and froze, seemingly not wanting to just stick a cloth where her eye used to be.

“… Thank you, I can clean out the rest… Thank you.” She wasn’t sure how else to say it, she was glad he seemed mostly okay with her exposed eye socket.

She turned her head back to look at him again, causing the cloth to get dragged over her cheek a bit before Gregor pulled it back. Though as soon as he removed it the blood started to fall like tears again, forever unending tears until she dried them for a time.

Gregor sighed a bit before putting the cloth back to soak them up again, Yuri moved her safe to move hand to hold it in place with him.

“You didn’t have to…” She did feel a little bit like she’d been imposing herself on his time, even though he was the one who’d knocked.

“… I did say you were in here for a while right?” He replied, simple as that. She must have worried him then, she had gone back here pretty quickly after the sinners had come back after all, who wouldn’t be worried by that? "Think you'll be good from here then?"

"I think so.” She nodded as she spoke, she’d cleaned out her eye countless times in the last four years, it only took one hand really. She also figured she’d be fine putting her shirts back on as well when she was done, it might be a bit tricky but hey Gregor could do it with his bug arm. If she wanted to help out more it might be useful to learn in case she got hurt like that again, it probably would be a reasonable assumption with her injury track record displayed all over herself.

“Mmm, well, if you need some help you can ask me. I won’t mind.” And with that Gregor stood up to leave. Looking at her for a moment on his way out with an expression that she couldn’t quite place what it was.

Yuri couldn’t help but feel a little bit more assured about her place here after that, smiling softly to herself as she finished tending to her wounds.

Chapter Text

Yuri crept from the backdoor tentatively, her shoulder and eye tended to and no longer in need of the medical kit it was only right to put it back now. Yet still cautious, unsure on who would be up front and if they’d even care. It was just the sinners but she still wasn’t sure how she felt about some of them yet.

There were only two people still out at least, Faust busily taking out the broken fragments of the remaining windshield (was it just Yuri or did the pieces seem bigger than when they’d first been broken?), and Yi Sang. She wasn’t actually sure what Yi Sang was doing up here, he looked like he was just staring off into the void.

It wasn’t his turn for night watch tonight, technically it was Rodya’s turn but it seemed like she’d decided to just go to bed instead. It annoyed Yuri to see, but then again she didn’t know Rodya that well yet, this might just be how she was. This might just be something she’d just have to get used to from Rodya.

In any case getting annoyed at Rodya not taking her turn wasn’t what she was supposed to be doing up here. She was supposed to be putting away the medical kit, she should do that now. Even if getting up towards the broken windshield made her a little bit nervous, it belonged right up by Charon’s spot. It wasn’t like Faust would break glass right over her, she was a little bit odd but wasn’t antagonist.

In fact it didn’t seem like Faust noticed her coming up at all, her eyes instead focused solely on the remaining shards of glass to pry out. Leaving Yuri thankfully on her own as they did their own mostly unrelated things, though it was a little awkward to put the medical kit away with only one arm. It ended up fumbled a few times and clattered onto the ground and still Faust didn’t look up.

“Might you perhaps need assistance with that?” Yi Sang’s quiet voice carried over from where he’d been sitting, when Yuri looked over he wasn’t looking at her directly still but he had moved his head closer to her general direction. Like he was more watching out of the corner of his eye.

“I… I’d appreciate it.” Yuri hadn’t expected him to offer help actually, he’d seemed a bit distant most of the time to her. And yet here he was walking up to help her, and it was much easier as he assisted. “Thank you..”

Yi Sang made a low note as he returned his hands to the underside of his coat.

“It was the least of the efforts I could give.” As he turned to return to where he’d been sitting he added, “I would not desire to sit idly at the disquiet of one I find similarity in.”

Similarity? Yuri looked on after him for a moment as he returned to his seat, while she could see the similarity that had drawn Gregor’s care seemingly she couldn’t even guess as to what Yi Sang saw as similar between them. And after that moment Yuri followed after him to try and ask.

“Would you mind if I sat here?” Was what she asked first instead though, taking a moment to settle after he shook his head slightly that he wouldn’t mind.

They sat quietly for a moment as Yuri tried to figure out how to word her question, though that thought process was interrupted when Sinclair crept out of the backdoor and out the bus door.

Wasn’t it a bit late for him to go out? She could see where he was going later. Right now…

“You think we’re similar?”

“To loose what must have been an important aspect of one’s life in such a manner, it is a tragedy immeasurable. Such is all I have to say.”

That gave Yuri some pause in her thoughts, what had he been through? Though if she really did want to start joining the sinners when they went out, she figured she’d learn sooner or later. As painful as it might be given what her own past was like, since that was seemingly what he believed was similar about them.

She sat beside him for a while, in mutual silence. With only the sound of Faust still removing the glass shards from the windshield and the wind, it was as peaceful as it could really get.

Though… where was Sinclair going? Her mind circled back around to him, he wasn’t taking Vogel with him so wherever he was going he didn’t think there’d be a fight…

It was late, an hour to midnight really.

Curiosity and concern might be the end of her eventually but even with what little she knew of what went on in his basement, he had to be a mess right now.

He shouldn’t have to be alone.

Neither Yi Sang or Faust looked up she she got up herself and left the bus. Stepping into the snow on the ground as it crunched below her. Having gotten less powdery over time and more willing to stick together meant that Sinclair had left some really obvious footprints for her to follow. 

The village was quiet as she traced Sinclair’s path through it, it was still a mess but someone had put out the fires and had made an effort to take down those awful “decorations”. It still smelled like smoke and burnt flesh though, and she buried her nose into her jacket to try and block it out with the smell of her own blood… it wasn’t working very well and now she was just smelling blood and the smoke.

Eventually Sinclair’s trail led her all the way up to the old estate, she couldn’t see what was left of it very well now that all the fire had gone out but the shadows of the gruesome nails and the bodies stuck to them could be discerned against the snow. Maybe it was because she could only see their shadows that she could walk past them, or maybe it was from the old L Corp desensitizing her to a lot.

Sinclair’s footprints had muddled now, like he’d been walking back and forth as well as dragging something around. She had to be close to where he was by now though, and so she stilled herself to listen without the crunching of the snow to get in the way.

It was quiet, and she couldn’t see him in the dark, but she eventually could hear what sounded like someone digging through the snow. Probably with his hands given that she was pretty sure he couldn’t have brought a shovel.

When she got closer indeed, there was Sinclair, digging through muddy snow with his hands. Beside him were three rusty bodies, his family from what she remembered of the morning.

He looked up at her with a hard to discern expression when she got close enough.

“Would you… would you like some help?” Yuri asked when he did. It wouldn’t be right to leave them up here would it? She only had one arm available but it was better than nothing to help with. They deserved to be buried, and Sinclair shouldn’t have to freeze his fingers alone.

Sinclair didn’t say a thing when she asked and went back to digging, and after a moment Yuri joined him. Clawing away at the frozen dirt, it had already been disturbed when his family had been dug back up, so it was a little easier than she expected to pull up the dirt with her hand, making a pile in the snow that slowly grew and grew as they both worked at it wordlessly.

It felt like they were digging for ages, and yet just when Yuri’s hand got so cold she swore she was losing feeling in her fingers… Sinclair stopped.

Yuri could hear him breathing heavily when he pulled himself back from the dug grave, when he slowly put his family back to where they’d been lain to rest in the first place. She could hear it turn to sobs as the pile of dirt was returned to where it was originally.

It took a long while, less than it took to pull up all the dirt but it still took a while, until at long last the graves were made again.

By that point she could hear Sinclair’s crying loud and clear against the quiet night around them, she wasn’t sure what she could say, if she even should say anything.

“Do… do you think they’d be… happy? If they knew you were still alive?” She said eventually, her voice quiet with both emotion and exhaustion.

She heard Sinclair’s breathing hitch and decided to wait, maybe she shouldn’t have said anything at all-

“They would…” She heard him say, croaky from his tears.

She wasn’t sure what she could do now, it was so late she was having just a little bit of trouble organizing her thoughts how she normally would. Yuri trudged through the snow after a moment to get closer to Sinclair.

She wrapped the arm she could safely move around him in a one armed hug, letting him cry into her jacket. He didn’t push away, if anything he leaned into her as she pulled him as close as she dared.

They stayed like that for a while, and Yuri wasn’t sure when she’d begun tearing up herself listening to him sob into her. It was strange, that hearing someone else cry be one of the only things that could bring her tears, it just was as she quietly joined him with her own tears.

Until slowly, slowly, Sinclair’s sobs faded and his breathing evened out. And she let go, expecting him to pull away. To her tired surprise when he didn’t, instead staying right where he was.

She’d let go for a reason though, whatever time it was it was probably past midnight, though she figured that Dante wouldn’t be mad if they were both tired in the morning (Outis would be though), they should probably head back and get what sleep they could.

“Come on,” Yuri said, tentatively holding onto one of Sinclair’s hands, “We did all we could.”

Sinclair let her take him all the way back without a word. He was probably tired too, at least that’s what she was assuming.

Faust was gone when Yuri returned with Sinclair, and a tarp had been once again placed over the open windshield. When the two climbed up into Mephistopheles she saw that Yi Sang had fallen asleep where he’d been sitting when she left, he looked comfortable, even if it was a little chilly in the bus right now without a windshield.

Sinclair let go of her hand when they reached the backdoor.

“Thank you.” And with just that, he left for his room, ducking into a door to presumably finally get some well earned sleep after everything that happened… technically yesterday, because it was certainly past midnight now.

Yuri debated for a minute if she should just wear her clothes she was already wearing to bed or if she should try and spare herself the additional laundry she’d have to do if she got her bedding covered in leftover dirty snow water.

…

After a moment she just let herself fall onto her bed and just sleep as is, there was already blood on it from tending her shoulder, a little more laundry to do wouldn’t kill her to do in the morning.

Chapter Text

The first order of business in the morning was going to a hardware store so Faust could look for a more durable windshield. And while Yuri wouldn’t have minded if they were all forced to go with her while she looked, it was also apparently grocery day, which was why she was standing by Rodya and Gregor in front of the fruit.

“Well what kind of fruit do you like Greg? If you don’t like any of the ones here what should we get?” Rodya asked, she was pretty adamant that they should get some kind of a treat while they were here at the store. With their own funds of course, she’d heard from Vergie that it was Dante’s responsibility to manage the actual budget for food expenses but it wasn’t like the rest of them weren’t getting paid.

Yuri personally wasn’t quite sure if she deserved to get a treat with her own paycheck, but Rodya’s insistence that she at least take a look led to her tagging along as she tried to wear down Gregor as well into getting himself a treat.

“Haah,” Gregor sighed before turning to her, “I dunno, what about you Yuri? Got any favorites?”

“I… maybe watermelon?” She hadn’t tried many fruits herself, watermelon was just something her old team captain got a lot and liked to share with her. It was probably just the good memories that made it her favorite since she mostly remembered it being somewhat tasteless. And she was the one who mostly ate the part that was supposed to be eaten, Radi… her old team captain ate the rind instead.

"Oooh~, watermelon huh?” Rodya replied in her usual cheery way, Yuri herself thought it was a little strange that she could be so cheerful after everything that happened yesterday but decided to just go along with it. She hadn't gotten much sleep last night from staying up so late, better to just follow after Rodya as she decided to go looking for some watermelon. Yuri wasn’t sure if she’d find any because it was more of a summer availability in her experience.

Gregor followed after the both of them, seemingly not knowing what else to do with himself. Yuri lagged behind until she was walking alongside him, turning her head a little so even though he was on her right she could see him.

“You like watermelon?” He asked her after a moment.

“I liked sharing it.” It was a bit easier to say out loud when she was still a little tired, “I didn’t like the taste but…”

“Asking if I’d like to share them?”

Well that caught her off guard. She hadn’t actually been asking that but now that she thought about it, yes, maybe sharing some watermelon with Gregor would be nice.

“Would you…?”

“Sure, might as well.” He smiled a little as he answered. It felt… nice, to mirror something she did with her old friend with a new one.

Even if it did burn a small pit of guilt into the back of her mind, that she shouldn’t be replacing the dead.

She was smiling back in turn when they caught up to Rodya, holding up a small package of pre-cut watermelon chunks before holding it out to Yuri.

“It’s not a lot sure but here you go. Now back you Greg, sure you don’t want something here?”

As he explained to Rodya that he and Yuri had decided to share the watermelon chunks someone else caught Yuri’s eye, she turned her head to see Don Quixote tugging Sinclair somewhere. He still looked a bit out of it from yesterday and was only mildly putting up some resistance about his arm being pulled by the more energetic sinner.

She hadn't gotten much of a chance to check on how he was doing before now, she was also partly curious as to what Don Quixote was so excited about this time. She might as well go over and check on the both of them with her watermelon in hand now that the chance came up, even if she could talk to them later.

“I’ll… I’d like to go look at some other stuff.” She quietly said to Gregor and Rodya, it would be rude to just walk away wouldn’t it?

She heard Gregor make a noise that she was pretty sure meant that he didn’t mind as she walked off, she really hoped he wouldn’t mind. It was at least something that meant he heard her. And she was planning on spending some of the rest of the day sharing the watermelon anyways. It was fine, probably.

In any case, walking over to where Don Quixote and Sinclair were going revealed them looking at some of the flavors of ice cream the store had. Don Quixote was pointing eagerly at a deep red ice cream that Yuri wasn’t quite close enough to read the label on, she was guessing cherry as she got closer before she heard Don Quixote speaking.

“Forsooth! Such a flavor is not something seen every day, are thou sure?” It seemed to Yuri like she was trying to get Sinclair to try whatever flavor had caught her eye, maybe in her own way of trying to cheer him up? As she got closer however and was able to read the label on it, she quickly understood why she was asking if he was sure.

“They have pork blood ice cream here…?” She asked aloud, while it wasn’t the strangest flavor she’d ever seen, it certainly caught her off guard to simply see it in a grocery store freezer. Sinclair startled a bit, he probably hadn’t noticed her approach.

“Indeed!” Meanwhile Don Quixote either already had noticed her or didn’t mind. “Such is one of the many flavors of ice cream, tis one of mine favorites when found as well.”

Ah, that explained some of her excitement in this case. If her favorite was something as odd as pork blood it must’ve been a long time since she’d last had some, it did make her at least a little curious. It seemed to spark Sinclair’s curiosity as well, just a little.

“What does it taste like?” He still seemed a little cautious about actually trying it though, which Yuri couldn’t say she blamed him for.

As Don Quixote excitedly explained the flavor profile, Yuri found herself smiling again as she listened. And smiling still after Sinclair politely declined to try the ice cream, tagging along with her after something else caught her eye in the store. She… liked this being a new normal, even if in the pit of her stomach she couldn’t help but wonder how long until it all came crashing down once again. For now, there was just the promise of shared watermelon.

Chapter Text

It was later in the evening, sharing the watermelon over some light conversation with Gregor. Yuri wasn’t quite sure what they were supposed to be talking about so the conversations usually fizzled out quietly, not that Yuri minded getting to just sit quietly with him. Yesterday was so much that she couldn’t quite wrap her head around all of it, and she hadn’t even been there to see the end of it. Now that it occurred to her she didn’t even know how the fight with Kromer had gone, she could ask Gregor, that could be something to talk about.

And she was going to ask until Dante emerged from the backdoor and seemed to ask something, at least with how Gregor responded to them.

“Hm? … Haah alright, give me a minute though.” Dante nodded before ducking back after Gregor was finished speaking.

“What is it?” Yuri asked, as per usual having only heard the ticking sounds that Dante spoke instead of words.

“Manager bud wants to head out to the mirror dungeon soon, wants me to come with.” Gregor explained to her.

Yuri for her part just nodded a little, she didn’t understand those at all, and only really knew that Dante tended to take out a group of sinners into it once a day barring any major events like yesterday. It somewhat stirred some curiosity in her, to know that there was something that was a part of her new job that all the sinners engaged with that she didn’t know anything about.

By the time Gregor finished and waved her a farewell, there was an idea settled into her head for tomorrow, because she wouldn’t want to interrupt anything that had been planned for today.

She rolled that idea around in her head as she took the time Gregor was away to do her laundry and check on her shoulder wound, the wound ended up being shallower than she’d first thought and had mostly scabbed over already. The idea was still being worked on by the time Gregor had returned to help her put on a lighter wrapping over her newly scabbed wound.

It wasn’t until after she was settled under her clean and warm blankets to sleep that the idea fully settled into a plan she could take in the morning.

——

It was pretty early in the morning when someone knocked at my door. I wasn't quite sure what to do at first, none of the sinners had bothered to come over to my room before now. And while I stared at the door in confusion, whoever had knocked decided to open the door enough to peek in.

Of all people, I was not expecting Yuri to be the one opening the door. She looked a bit sheepish as she looked in at my room, like she herself wasn't sure of being here.

"If it's a bad time I could go but… could I ask something?" Yuri quietly asked, seemingly careful to make sure I could actually respond with a nod or shake of my head.

<"Uh, sure."> I replied with a nod. Yuri hadn't really approached me alone before now, so I wasn't sure what to expect as Yuri crept her way in further, closing the door behind herself as she did.

She shuffled quietly as she stood there, like she got unsure of what she was going to ask now. Before she took a breath and just asked with her eye closed.

“If… If it’s not too much trouble, could I join you in the mirror dungeon next time?” Yuri took another breath before she opened her eye to see my response. Holding herself rigidly as she did so.

I hadn’t been sure what she’d ask from the start, but whatever I had expectations of this was not one of them. I wasn’t even sure of the answer myself. I didn’t think it would be a problem, but also there was so much I didn’t know.

Faust would probably have a better idea, I should ask her. But then, how would I explain that to Yuri?

The longer I stood without answering her question the more nervous she looked before ultimately she lost her nerve.

“Sorry for asking, I’ll… I’ll go now.” Before she rushed out, leaving me standing there on my own to puzzle out what to do… was her hair ribbon always so gold?

Actually, putting that aside, I guess it would be easier to just go get her once I was done asking Faust, she was usually hanging around Gregor so it wouldn’t be too hard to let her know then right?”

Later on after all the days work was finished, with Yuri notably avoiding looking at me too much, I decided to finally ask Faust while I worked out who to bring out for the Mirror Dungeon.

She paused for a moment, staring out at nothing really like ahe usually did before saying that it should be alright. In that case, just to give Yuri a few more safeguards I could bring out all the Zwei identities I have right now. She might also be a bit more comfortable with Gregor being close by so it should work out right?

Right?

Well, she should be easy to find at least since she was usually with Gregor or in her room when business was concluded for the day. And if I couldn’t find her Gregor probably could, while she was nice to the other sinners it was pretty clear to me that he was still the one she was the closest with.

Time to round everyone up.

——

Yuri looked a bit more nervous than usual once I managed to gather everyone for the mirror dungeon, even with Gregor telling her that she really shouldn't expect much and that it was kind of boring to him. It looked to me like she was listening though, and I hoped that she’d take it to heart while we went through since I really wasn’t expecting much myself.

——

I wasn’t expecting much I thought, the Zwei Identities were doing their very best to keep Yuri safe, which wasn’t very hard in the mirror dungeon in the first place but Gregor was more than making up for the slack left by anyone else. I didn’t really think much of this exploration until we came across where we’d typically meet up with an abnormality at the end of a dungeon.

And I saw someplace completely new.

I wasn’t sure if I’d encountered all the abnormalities lurking within the mirror but I’d seen enough encounters repeat themselves that I was pretty sure that I was at least close to that. But this…

Where we’d come across was a field covered by what looked like a storm just about to burst right over our heads, with the wind howling in a way that I could easily mistake it for the howl of a wolf. I had to brace myself to keep standing against it all. Most of all it felt like we were all being watched by something in the dark, something hiding in the windswept grass around us.

In the corner of my vision I saw Yuri stiffen with a look I hadn’t seen on her before, a look of terror that made me think she knew exactly what was here. 

She began to look around wildly, searching for something while shuffling closer to Gregor. While his Zwei Identity didn’t have all the context it seemed he held a similar soft spot for her, but now wasn’t the time for idle speculation on how he knew her, he maneuvered his zweihander into a posture more equipped to defend on the fly.

The other sinners were entering a combat posture as well, either unnerved themselves or taking the rather obvious cue from the environment to be on their guards.

I myself was still trying to find the abnormality until Sinclair made a startled yelp as something descended upon him.

It didn’t even register to me that it was there until it had already grabbed him by the face with its jaws and was dragging him down to the ground.

It was hard for me to see what it looked like while I hurriedly commanded the remaining sinners, the most I could tell right away was that it had a bright red eye in the center of its head. But it moved too quickly and its body was too dark for me to tell much else.

Yuri had frozen the moment it had appeared, staring into its eye as it finally let go of a now deceased Sinclair.

It looked like it was staring back at her in turn, tilting its head and baring its teeth like it recognized her as well.

It left itself open to attack when it did that though, letting me plan for everyone to get at least one hit on it before it regained composure and leapt back from the sinners. I could just barely make out a canine shape in the darkness.

By the time I had the next turn of attack planned out it was already charging again, this time aiming for Rodya, who was already somewhat worn down by the rest of the dungeon and had less stamina to hold it off. Even with Gregor, Ishmael, and Faust to redirect some of its aggression it still left enough of an opening for it to grab onto her in the same way it had grabbed Sinclair.

That seemed to startle Yuri enough from her fear that she herself lunged towards the abnormality, going directly for its eye with a stab. It wasn’t enough to save Rodya from death but I was not expecting her to just lunge like that. It barely gave me any time to adjust my strategy before it attempted to free itself from Yuri’s sword, lashing out at her with its claws until she backed off to behind Gregor once again. She still looked spooked though, and I could see her sword trembling from her shaking. Maybe it was seeing the abnormality attack one of the sinners that had spurred her into action?

In any case I didn’t want to put her into more danger here, especially since now there were only 3 living sinners left on the field and I wasn’t sure if that would be enough to keep her safe. It had already nearly cleanly picked off two and I had no idea how this thing was supposed to be fought, Yuri might’ve known but she looked like she was too busy trying to gain her resolve to offer advice.

The abnormality was hard to read as combat progressed, which eventually ended up with Ishmael getting overwhelmed and grabbed and swiftly killed like the other two. There had to be something else going on with its attacks since I was pretty sure Ishmael’s Zwei Identity should have been able to survive that. But even still, that attack had left itself vulnerable, even if it was now only 2 sinners who could attack.

The moment Yuri dashed ahead for her attack though, the abnormality lunged for her in turn even though it hadn’t reacted to either sinner that it had been hit by first. Like it had been waiting for her in particular.

Though with Gregor so close he was able to redirect the abnormality’s attack onto himself instead, with its teeth landing on his prosthetic arm instead of anything more vulnerable. Which would’ve been good if it didn’t immediately let go and jump up to bite at his actual flesh.

And that seemingly caused all fear to leave Yuri.

She had dropped her sword to grab at its jaws with her hands to forcibly pull it off of Gregor, even with it trying to bite down on her hands in the process, and giving a perfect opportunity for Faust to finally take it down.

The wind died down as the abnormality faded into its egg, leaving the dark field in relative silence at long last. I could hear Yuri breathing heavily now, and I could hear Gregor asking to take a look at her hands after the Identities were removed.

It was all I could do now to just revive the fallen sinners and leave now, if her hands were injured she’d get more use out of what was actually on the bus than anything we’d find here anyways.

I don’t think I’m going to bring Yuri to any more mirror dungeon runs though, and from the look of her I think she would agree now.

Chapter Text

Observation Log of Black Shuck

Black Shuck is a Teth level abnormality that specializes in BLACK damage.

It doesn't make any noise outside of its howls which makes it difficult to keep track of if you don't know where it is.

When in a fight Black Shuck primarily focuses down a single target by going for their face and shaking until either someone pulls it off or the victim dies.

The quickest way for someone to make it let go is to stab its eye, which is important because of how quickly Black Shuck can kill is left to its own devices.

When I was still working at Lobotomy Corporation I used to be Black Shuck's favorite target, it would break out without a sound and follow me around until I was alone. Or if I walked past its door it would slam its full weight against it in an effort to break the door down to try and finish what it started.

… Sorry, this is getting off topic.

I just… we didn't see it while we were going through my old branch, and I can't stop thinking about the fact that if a person can get in there's really nothing stopping an abnormality from getting out is there?

-Worry not fair Yuri! For even if such foul beast would return thou hath our aid!

-...I'll keep that in mind Don Quixote

Chapter Text

Yuri couldn't stop her hands from shaking.

She'd kept them still enough to write earlier but now that it was late enough for her to go to bed… It felt like there were thorns wrapping around and through them from wherever Black Shuck's teeth had broken the skin. Reasonably she knew that her hands were fine, that it was just because she didn't have any defenses against it anymore.

But that didn't mean she'd stop feeling it.

She wanted to take off the bandages from her hands to check again, she shouldn't, she should just go to bed. It'll be better in the morning. When it's bright out and there are other people she can focus on.

But…

Every time she closed her eye she thought she could see Black Shuck in the corner of her vision, just watching her. And she jolted back up to get ready to bolt but it wasn't there, it couldn't be there but she couldn't feel safe all alone anyways. She was so tense just lying there she was sure she'd be sore all over in the morning if she even fell asleep in the first place.

Maybe walking around Mephistopheles would help, at least to help keep her mind off of it until she got too tired to care. Maybe someone else was awake and she could talk to them as well, she was better at ignoring things when there was someone else to focus on.

It was pretty cold tonight, cold enough to where she figured she should probably put on some socks at least before she went out to the main bus part. It was probably chillier out there after all.

It was while she was rummaging around for some socks that she heard someone walking outside, someone wearing shoes which was strange. Who in their right mind would still be wearing shoes at bedtime, wouldn’t that get their bed dirty?

That surprised her so much she almost forgot about her hands, until the phantom thorns began to prickle when she held still again to process that. Well now she had to go put on the socks to see who that was, keep herself occupied until exhaustion took her.

She'd found some socks more quickly with a more definite goal and padded out of her door to spot…

…

Don Quixote halfway over the partition that Faust had deemed the limit of where everyone should go in the corridor.

Yuri just stared at her for a moment before asking the short sinner what should be a very simple question,

"What are you doing?"

She watched as Don Quixote scrambled back from the partition before looking back at her, she had an expression that Yuri thought was her trying to look all innocent, or that could just be her normal expression and Yuri just hadn't known her for long enough to tell.

"Twas… simply going for a stroll!" She sounded like she was rooting around for an excuse for a moment there. Yuri wasn't sure if she even had the mental energy so might as well just let it slide.

“… I was too.” She still should walk around a bit, but it seemed like that had gotten Don Quixote’s attention as she snapped her gaze to meet Yuri’s.

“Doth the vile beast of afore trouble thy dreams?” She asked without hesitation, and Yuri wondered for just a moment if Don Quixote ever saw something that terrorized her when she tried to sleep. It didn’t exactly fit with the image she’d pictured of the confident and energetic woman before her.

“I… yes.” She was still surprised at how quickly that had been guessed though. “I…”

“If thy would like some company, mine room is open to thee.” Don Quixote offered while Yuri was trying to find something to say.

It was an intriguing offer, while Gregor had visited her room a few times she’d never been in one of the sinners rooms (not counting Dante since she wasn’t sure how to count them). She did also want some company to keep her mind away from Black Shuck, and Don Quixote was doing an impressive job at that already.

“I’d like to.” She agreed, and the beaming smile of Don Quixote gave her a smile in return as Don Quixote took her hand to lead her to her room.

——

Yuri wasn’t sure how surprised she should have been about how the room was decorated, practically wall to wall with various fixer posters. The seeming lack of a bed with there only being a colorful may on the floor was surprising however, it didn’t exactly look comfortable and the concrete flooring even more so. Yet Don Quixote was lying on the mat without issue or complaint, maybe it was more comfortable than it looked.

As she joined Don Quixote on the floor, lying on her belly with her arms as her pillow, she still couldn’t help her mind circling back to the feeling of coiling thorns in her hands.

“Could you… Could I hear about some of those fixers on the wall?” Yuri needed something to keep her mind occupied until she could fall asleep, and if there was one thing she could count on Don Quixote for it was talking for hours and hours about fixers.

The delighted gasp that she heard after she asked told her all she’d needed to know.

“Twould be most happy to do so! Art there any among mine collection whom catches thine eye?”

Yuri couldn’t help but smile a little bit as she pointed out what looked like a poster of what looked like a cinq fixer. It wasn’t anyone she recognized but there was a name under it so they had to be someone in particular.

… Once upon a time Yuri had wanted to be a Cinq fixer, the blindingly fast duels mesmerizing her since she was little. She’d grown past that dream after growing up a bit and learned more about the world, but it would be wrong to say she didn’t still admire them and their poised precision.

So maybe her asking questions and her attentiveness to Don Quixote's story about the second ever director of the association was more than the excitable woman was used to, and soon she'd fallen asleep even before Yuri, apologizing sleepily about not getting to finish the story as she did.

Yuri was fine with this, she herself was on the edge of sleep as the room darkened with Don Quixote's slumber. Yet, from the window in the room, as Yuri drifted to sleep herself she thought she heard for just a moment, the sounds of screaming.

Not that she had much time to ruminate on that, as the heavy blanket of sleep finally claimed her for the night.