Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hoshino Ichika awoke from her blissful slumber to an empty bed, an aching head, and a ringing phone. Her girlfriends were all out for one reason or another, there was over the counter medication on the nightstand she could take for the headache, so that only left the incoming call.

Using what little illumination her night mode screen provided, she switched on the bedside lamp with a quiet flick. Squinting, she picked up her phone and read who the incoming caller was. Her mom.

Ichika's parents never called her in the late evening, especially since it wasn't the day they had agreed upon prior to talk and catch up for the week.

Stretching away the sleep that weighed down every limb, she sat up and answered.

"Mom, hello?"

"Ichika, thank goodness! I've been calling you for half an hour, are you okay?"

A quick check of her notifications proved the truth of the statement. Ichika winced at the worry she must've put her mom through. She rubbed the back of her head.

"I'm doing alright. Sorry, I was sleeping. What happened, is everything alright?"

"I don't know how to phrase this, but listen carefully..."

A pause. 

Another.

Still no response.

The silence dragged on, settling on Ichika's raised shoulders as her concern mounted, until she couldn't take it any longer.

"Mom. What's going on?" Her voice came out much less confident than she had hoped. It trembled, it wavered. Most of all, uncertainty shadowed every syllable. If someone had heard her then, they would have never believed she was a grown woman, let alone the vocalist of Leo/need.

"There's a monster in your building."

"What-" Ichika sputtered more than spoke. What was she talking about? Her mom had to be joking. Halloween may be today, but this seemed ridiculous for a prank.

"Please let me finish, it's hard to explain."

She nodded. Then, realizing her mother couldn't see her, Ichika vocalized something approaching reluctant agreement. She would at least hear her out.

"Thank you. I came as soon as I heard, but the Self-Defense Forces has quarantined an entire kilometer around the building. I'm standing outside the perimeter. The news didn't tell us much, so I spoke to a member of the organization shortly before I started calling you."

"Okay..." Ichika lifted the curtains that had blanketed the room in darkness, peeking outside. Sure enough, in the distance below, she saw red road blocks and official looking people in suits holding back a crowd of onlookers from entering. It could be due to construction she hadn't noticed or a myriad of mundane explanations, but a gut feeling told her to trust her mom. After all, she hadn't ever lied or joked about something like this before.

"The monster is called X. You need to leave immediately. The SDF will begin a siege on the building you're in very soon. The elevator should be safe, the monster can't get in there and is probably on another floor."

"A-A siege?! What about all the people still in here?" There was no way Ichika could survive being barricaded with some thing. And why wasn't she giving her any more details? All she knew was that it was somehow roaming the hallways, yet couldn't fit inside a metal box. How had it gotten in? Had it destroyed the apartment complex front door and windows? If so, she should have been able to hear it. While Leo/need lived on a lower floor, something as loud as unscheduled demolition would still be audible no matter how high up you were located.

"Ichika," The way her mom said her name, gentle yet sorrowful, had her snap out of her musings. "That's why I tried so hard to call you."

Her next words sent her stomach plummeting.

"Everyone else has already been evacuated. You're alone."

Ichika curled up into a ball and pulled the blanket up to her chin, trying to ignore how the shadows seemed to lengthen and reach for her small haven of light.

A small bang came from behind her.

She yelped.

Spinning around, Ichika sighed when she noticed a small bird twitching on the floor of their balcony. Never had she believed she would be glad to see a dying animal. Sorry little guy, she thought, better you than me. Shiho would've burnt her at the stake for the sentiment considering how cute the round and fluffy bird was, but they weren't here right now.

"Ichika, Ichika, are you there?" In her panic, she had dropped her phone and her mom's tinny voice blasted from the speaker. Ichika picked it up.

"Sorry, I got startled by something." She closed the curtain. "Could you explain in more detail what the monster is exactly? And what I should do?"

Her mom paused to collect her thoughts. At least, that's what Ichika assumed in the nail-biting tension generated by the quiet, punctured by the avian's dying cries hidden by the fabric meant to block out the sun. It was doing a rather poor job at shutting out sound.

"It's complicated to explain." Ichika's mom, for the first time during the call, sounded reluctant. What could she possibly be hesitant about? Her only child was trapped in an enclosed, albeit large, space with something she had the means of informing her about.

"Mom!" Ichika was not ashamed to admit her voice cracked with terror. It was like everything had been culminating to make her as frightened as possible. The cordon, the dying bird, her mom's vagueness, even the time of night had her clenching the blanket for a false sense of safety.

"If I elaborate, you'll be even more scared." She decided. "Leave through the elevator. X doesn't understand how they work so it shouldn't be able to press the buttons. Don't take the stairs, it'll hear you."

So X could fit into an elevator, but it didn't know how to? Just what was this thing? Also, shouldn't? Ichika didn't want to stake her life on a maybe. In all likelihood, it would be safer to wait inside the room, where she knew for sure nothing was out to get her. There was enough food and water in their apartment to last her a few weeks. Surely, whatever was in the building with her would have starved to death by then.

"Ichika, you need to leave now!" Desperation saturated the sentence. "I'm hearing they'll drop a bomb on your location to get rid of X."

She blinked.

Then, she hurtled out of bed and slammed her feet into her shoes.

Ichika grabbed her phone and said, "Holy crap, wait, I'm going, I'm going-"

"No swearing!" Her mom sounded genuinely angry, the dissonance between her and the current situation caused Ichika to look at her phone with unease. She coughed into the receiver. "S-Sorry, just get out using the elevator as soon as possible."

"Right..."

She slipped the phone into her jacket pocket for safekeeping.

Taking what she could fit into her backpack (namely a few sentimental keepsakes and more important items like the group's identification papers), Ichika opened the door leading out to the living and dining room. The hinges creaked. The doorknob, clenched in her sweaty hand, squeaked.

Before her, the familiar layout of their home was a relief to see. Her succulents on the windowsill, Saki's random trinkets scattered all over, Honami's baking appliances in the kitchen, and Shiho's phenny plushies arranged neatly on the couch were all untouched. Even their instruments had remained unscathed by whatever insanity had befallen her in this situation.

She exhaled, everything was in its proper place. The growing paranoid part of her had expected differently.

Ichika left.

The hallways were empty and several doors had been left wide open, likely from people fleeing with no regard to potential burglars in the face of impending doom. Fluorescent lights overhead flickered. Every footstep had her cringing from how loud it was. Her staccato breathing also contributed to the noise, the two in tandem enough to break the uneasy stillness.

Thankfully, their apartment was a short distance to the elevators and in less than a minute Ichika found herself standing in front of twin metal doors. She pressed the down button.

"Ichika, take the right elevator. Even if the left one comes first, don't get on it." Her pocket warned, muffled. She startled. In Ichika's haste, she had forgotten to end the call.

"I- okay."

A strange feeling began forming in the pit of her stomach, as if though the flesh itself was being hollowed out and replaced with slimy dread. Something was off, but she didn't have the time to figure it out. She had to get out of here and reunite with the rest of Leo/need. Anything else could come later.

Like her mom predicted, the left elevator was the one that arrived with a pleasant ding and swooshing of its doors. However, as she had been instructed, Ichika stayed rooted to the ground and instead pressed the down button again.

As the doors closed, the sense of foreboding only grew. Nothing had seemed wrong with the elevator. No ominous sounds or visible defects in its structure. In fact, that was the one she had taken yesterday on the way to complete some errands and it had operated as it should.

Still, she waited. Glancing around, the lights were wavering further, leaving her in longer intervals of darkness. Ichika huddled closer to the dim illumination granted by the blinking number counting down to her floor. 

6.

5.

C'mon...

4.

This time, the right elevator whooshed open. She jerked back. Inside was someone facing the corner. Hadn't everyone been evacuated? Was this a person who had been left behind like her?

"Goodbye," Her mom said. "Say hi to him for me."

Before Ichika could respond, she was hung up on. Of all the times for her mom to misclick the screen by accident.

"Hello?" She stepped inside. No answer. Whoever it was, he was more socially awkward than she was. Dressed in a drab coat with scuffed jeans and a wide-brim hat, he stood over a lumpy pile of clothes drenched in some kind of sticky liquid. She wasn't paying attention, mind focused on how close she was to being safe.

Ichika pushed the button for the ground floor, which hadn't been illuminated when she got in.

The doors shut.

In a split second, she realized several things at once.

One: Her mom should have had no way of knowing who was in there with her.

Two: The stranger did not cast a reflection in the polished metal walls.

She spun around.

Three: There was a corpse in the corner, head smashed in and limbs shriveled beyond recognition. Oh god. How had she not noticed? She was two meters away from a dead body.

Ichika's arms came up to protect her own head, but she was far too slow. No, it was far too fast.

The last thing she saw was a gnarled hand, drained of blood and tipped with claws dripping red, stabbing towards her face.

Heat bloomed as the pointed nails made contact with her flesh, then agony spiked as they dug deep. There was no time to blink, let alone scream.

Ichika knew no more.

Chapter Text

A guttural scream tore itself out of Ichika's throat. Her hands flew to her face, smacking it and turning her head every which way. She... wasn't dead?

She wasn't dead!

Leaping out of bed, Ichika began to hop up and down for no good reason. The adrenaline from that awful nightmare left her jittery and in need of some sort of release. So, jumping like a maniac it was. 

Why had her brain conjured such a twisted dream? That had to have been the worst nightmare Ichika's had ever since she was a child, where she dreamt of being chased by the main antagonist of a horror movie she had watched against her parent's warnings before going to sleep.

She sighed into her palm. Ichika needed some water to relieve her dry throat and throbbing head. She patted around blindly until she felt the lamp's switch, turning the light on.

As she was about to go to the kitchen, her phone rang. Hopefully it was one of her lover's. After the nap she had had, hearing any of their voices would be a balm to her still terrified soul. Checking the caller ID, her heart dropped.

Mom.

Steeling her nerves and telling herself it was a coincidence, Ichika answered.

"Hello?"

"Ichika, thank goodness! I've been calling you for half an hour, are you okay?"

This time, she had to lock her knees to stop herself from falling. Those words were identical to what her mom said in that horrible dream. But, they could be happenstance, her mom would be concerned if she hadn't picked up the phone for thirty minutes straight. It had to be by chance, it just had to be.

"I'm fine." Ichika said.

"Good. Something's happened. I don't know how to phrase this, but listen carefully..."

She decided to take a gamble. If Ichika was wrong, then she'd appear a bit foolish. However, if she was right, there were bigger, worser things to worry about.

"There's a monster called X in my building."

"Wait, yes. How did you know? Who told you?"

Ichika dry heaved and tried not to throw up. Because it was real, somehow her nightmare had predicted this.

She only knew one thing.

"A friend called me earlier. I'll take the elevator, I'll see you soon." She lied. Without waiting for an answer, she put down the phone.

Ichika couldn't trust her mom. 

She collapsed on the bed and sobbed, clutching her knees to her chest while beginning to rock back and forth. What was she supposed to do?

She couldn't bring herself to leave the room. Ichika didn't want to die again. It had hurt so, so badly. But, there was still so much she wanted to do, still so much she had to do. Her friends and bandmates, their fans, people were relying on her. 

Unfurling and returning to a more neutral position, Ichika rubbed her reddened, wet cheeks. Being able to receive calls meant she should be able to send messages. Opening the Leo/need group chat, she texted her childhood friends.

Ichika
hey have you guys seen the news

Perfect. An inquisitive question which wouldn't cause too much alarm. Or, it would have been, if the "Unable To Be Sent" below her speech bubble didn't exist.

She groaned. So that wasn't an option. Ichika pulled up her contacts and debated who to call. Shiho was working at the live house, so they were probably busy. Honami was visiting her family, she didn't want to disturb her. That left Saki, who was grocery shopping.

Dialing her number, Ichika exhaled in relief when the phone began to ring. 

"Sorry, I'm busy right now, leave a message after the beep. Beep!"

She inhaled through clenched teeth and tried again.

"Sorry, I'm busy right now, leave a message after the beep. Beep!"

She mashed the call button once more.

"Sorry, I'm busy right now, leave a message after the beep. Beep!"

Ichika's head sank.

Either Saki was preoccupied and couldn't answer, or something more sinister was at work.

She experimented with Shiho's number, then Honami's. Once, twice, and thrice like she had with Saki. Neither of them picked up. 

She had no one to rely on but herself. Scanning the nightstand's contents and grabbing a blank notebook from one of its drawers, Ichika resolved to write down what she knew in a forlorn attempt to calm herself. Grabbing a pen, she tamped down the urge to chew on it.

- Calls go through, no one is answering
- The SDF cordoned off the apartment to try and contain the threat
- Said threat is stronger than it has any right to be
- Mom called to warn me, she lied

She paused at the last bullet point. Why? Ichika's mom had known about the monster, yet had been insistent she avoid the stairs and take the right elevator, where it was waiting to rip through her skull.

Was the reason why she was so vague due to her wanting Ichika to be caught off guard and unable to defend herself? Her mom would never do that, if she was in the right state of mind. If. Ichika had no idea what she was dealing with, aside from X being a supernaturally strong humanoid capable of caving in heads.

It was then she remembered something important. The way she brushed off the body splayed in the corner as something mildly out of place, but not anything as grotesque as its true form was.

Mind manipulation! 

It had to be, maybe some kind of illusion power, both auditory and visual to explain her mother's call and her own experience. A large leap of logic to be sure, still though. Nothing was out of the question, not with her clambering for an answer amidst a monster killing the residents of the building she lived in.

If Ichika hadn't tipped off the monster from the abrupt way she hung up the phone, she might have a chance to escape. All she had to do was take the stairs, avoiding the hall where the elevators were. Easier said than done. If X could affect what she could see and hear from where it lurked in the elevator, she was in trouble. It might just be auditory illusions from a distance, considering her vision wasn't affected until she stepped into the elevator. If it was, that would be slightly more manageable, she would be able to trust what her eyes told her. In that case, Ichika only had to ignore her hearing.

To be precise, she didn't have to leave. She didn't know if the bomb threat was even real. Nonetheless, better safe than sorry. Sorry being a sitting duck in the apartment when the payload dropped.

Following what she did in her dream, Ichika shoved important papers and miscellaneous sentimental treasures into a backpack.

Now though, she would be prepared. Strapping on a bicycle helmet lying around from when Saki indulged in the hobby of bicycling, she marched into the kitchen. She settled against wearing the knee and elbow pads, valuing having nothing restricting her movement more.

A quick skim revealed what she was looking for, the knife block. Ichika picked the knife with the ideal mix of length (she didn't want to get up close to X) and sharpness. She swung it around a few times, careful to keep the point away from her. Slotting the handle through the space between her belt and pants, Ichika paced around to ensure the blade wouldn't come loose and stab her.

Finally, she borrowed a pair of Shiho's steel-tipped boots. Just in case.

Casting a mournful look at her guitar that she couldn't justify bringing along with her, Ichika tiptoed out of Leo/need's apartment for what may be the last time.

The coast was clear. Like before, many of the doors lining the halls were left open with no care to the security of the apartments' innards. Ichika strode past them, going in the opposite direction from the elevators where the staircase resided.

Her unsteady stride from nerves brought her to the stairwell. The landing's light had shattered, glass casing scattered and glittering on the concrete steps. With shaking hands, Ichika turned on her flashlight app, inspecting the flight above and below. 

Nothing there.

She breathed in a somewhat more even rhythm, the respiration echoing on the walls and bouncing back at her. Ichika started to make her way down, careful to avoid the sharp, fragmented shards. It was hard, given the poor lighting, but she did her best. 

Passing the third floor was easy, almost suspiciously so. Going from it to the second also presented no problems. Turning the corner of the final landing, what greeted her was a demolished flight of stairs, concrete rubble and rebar piled taller than she was.

No way past it. The sole way down now, barring dangling from a window and praying something broke her fall, was the elevators.

It would be fine as long as the left one opened first. A 50% success rate, with failure meaning certain, painful death. On second thought, she would hedge her bets on the windows.

Ichika exited the stairwell and entered the first apartment she saw with its door left agape. It was the same size as Leo/need's, but the layout and furniture were distinct from theirs.

She followed a straight path to the balcony, doing a quick sweep to ensure the place was empty and she wasn't on her way to give the occupant a nasty shock. Sliding the screen door open, Ichika stepped onto the terrace. The view that welcomed her was similar to the one upstairs, except closer to the ground. 

Giving the railing a shake to test its sturdiness, it didn't budge under the force. Good. She scouted for an acceptable area to land, but the low square footage of the balcony limited her options. There was concrete, concrete, more concrete, a patch of yellow grass that looked to be watered only when it rained, and a dumpster.

Dumpster it was. 

At least the trash receptacle had some bags that were filled to cushion her fall. Ichika unslung the backpack from her shoulders and chucked it over the edge. It fell with a soft thump into the garbage, a smelly liquid squirting from a tear in the black plastic. She wrinkled her nose.

With a bit of luck, she would have the same cushy descent minus the additional trash fluid. 

Swinging a leg over the top metal bar meant to keep idiots like her safe, Ichika followed suit with her other leg. Now, she was clinging for dear life, palms sweaty and knees knocking together, on the opposite side of the barrier. Digging her heels back as far as she could go, Ichika leaped.

Something dawned on her as she was in mid-air. She had remembered to remove the backpack easily enough due to how it weighed on her, but that left the lightweight knife still jammed between her belt and pants. 

Shit. 

It very well could stab her thigh from the jostling.

She scrambled to grab the handle. As though she was suspended in the air, time stretched long enough for her to fling it beside her bag and watch it land. The blade tore through the garbage, metal grating against plastic as it pierced the layer of trash and dug into the dumpster itself.

Ichika followed suit, slamming into the large container with enough power at the wrong angle to nearly tip it over. The cartilage in her nose cracked as gravity caused her to faceplant on the metal hinges of the cover. She had also landed with too much force at a weak spot at the bottom, causing her left leg to shoot right through the plastic. The garbage container groaned as she whimpered in pain.

Somehow, it rebalanced on its proper axis. She sighed. Gathering her backpack and knife, she ripped her leg out of its predicament, biting her tongue to prevent any sound from leaking out. She had been far too noisy already. Still, the attempt at being quiet wasn't very successful.

Ichika got out, but not without a lot of difficulty.

Holding a hand to her now bleeding nose, Ichika limped through the alleyway. Her goal was to get onto the main street where the entrance of the apartment resided.

In the distance, the cordon was coming into view. Just a little further until this nightmare was brought to an end. But as soon as she exited the cramped alley, all of the muscles in her body froze.

Ichika struggled to move, to blink, to even breathe, yet it was all for naught. She couldn't do anything. She was at the mercy of whatever force of nature had seized control of her. Against her will, her eyelids shut. She had been plunged into total darkness and paralyzed. 

Slow, methodical clapping paired with steady footfalls. Someone was approaching. The footsteps stopped a few paces in front of her.

A voice rasped, "You almost had me there. Hoshino Ichika, was it? Ah, it is."

He continued in an almost jovial tone.

"I'm not sure how you knew to avoid the elevator. I don't appreciate having my efforts and time wasted, so I believe a little payback is well deserved. Even if your stunt with the dumpster did get a good chuckle out of me."

He laughed to demonstrate his prior amusement.

"Mother said not to play with my food, hmm. I think she'll forgive me just this once."

Ichika reached for the knife at her side, not to protect herself, but to do the exact opposite. With firm hands acting like they've done the same motion a hundred times before, they grasped the handle, slipped the knife out, and pointed the blade at her throat. Painstakingly slowly, the knife came closer and closer to her jugular until she could feel her heartbeat resonate through the metal. She couldn't gulp, let alone jerk it away.

Body control and... mind reading?

It wasn't illusions the monster was capable of. No. It had full dominion over the physical actions of a human being and the telepathy to take advantage of it. Her mom had insisted on taking the route that would lead to her doom, coupled with the way her eyes had slid away from the corpse in the elevator, it all made sense.

Ichika was a puppet who fancied itself a sovereign doll, who had eluded its strings for a brief moment as the puppet master became aware of an aberrant existence. And it was angry.

"Clever, very clever. Moreso than your mom was, anyway. Say hello to her for me."

The knife plunged into her windpipe. She screamed, partial autonomy reinstated. Ichika still couldn't blink or move, but she could scream.

So scream she did. 

Blood flowed as a crimson river from the vertical slit of parted skin and muscle, coating her fingers in slick. Ichika wailed, pleaded, and begged through gurgles. The all-encompassing agony refused to cease. If she could, then she would twist the knife to end her suffering. Every single scrape, broken bone, and burn she had earned in her life combined did not compare to what she felt.

Finally, she was running out of air. Her voice petered out, shrill shouts declining to weak croaks. Ichika coughed, diaphragm contracting, denying her frantic endeavors for it to expand and take in oxygen.

Demented cackling surrounded her.

With a knife lodged in her throat and her hands wrapped around the handle, Ichika lost consciousness.

Chapter Text

A strangled gasp leaked through her lips. Ichika had died again. She had made it outside, had been so close to escaping. Then, she had killed herself.

No, X used her as a tool for her own demise and its entertainment.

She shut her eyes and wailed.

"Icchan!" The bedroom door slammed open. A voice she had thought she would never hear again rang out. "What happened?"

Her eyes opened. It was Saki, in all of her bed-headed glory. She wielded a toothbrush, as if though it could ward off what Ichika had just been through.

"S-Saki," She blubbered. "It hurt so bad."

 More than the pain, it was the fact that her own hands had done the deed. If Ichika had any enemies, people she hated with her entire soul, she wouldn't wish such psychological torture on them. The one thing, not person, she would be fine with that happening to was the monster who put her through it in the first place.

"Are you okay? Did you stub your toe?"

The nonsensical question, so out of place next to the torment she had been both participant in and audience to, forced a choked laugh out of her. Ichika placed her palms over her eyes and hunched over.

It hadn't been a dream, that she was sure of. Dying in a nightmare, while uncommon, wasn't unheard of for her. This was something else though. Never before had she woken up in a dream only for the scenario to repeat. Never before she been in such sharp anguish. It was real. The elevator trap and the confrontation in front of the apartment, both had actually happened. Time was repeating whenever she died and she didn't know why. Her arms dropped to her sides.

"It's okay," she lied. "Just a bad dream."

Saki's cheeks puffed. "You're obviously not okay! Could you talk to me about it? Maybe it'll help you feel better."

Ichika's back straightened. Perhaps she could help. If the monster had to focus its attention on one person during its possession, then maybe...

Wait. The monster. 

She had to tell Saki.

"I need to tell you something you might not believe at first," she began. Before she could get any further, the phone rang. She glared down at the offending piece of technology. Still, Ichika couldn't let X become aware of her deception and future knowledge. She answered.

The same song and dance as the previous time ensued until she was ready to throw away any pretense and start yelling at the monster manipulating her mom's body. About to do just that, the look on Saki's face stopped Ichika. One of her best friends was worried for her. Ever since they met, unless it was to protect them, she couldn't shout in front of any of them. That much hadn't changed.

She sagged as Saki sat down next to her, stroking Ichika's back in reassurance. She expelled the hot air in her lungs, pretending any and all thoughts of furious retribution left with it. A few more repetitions and Ichika truly was a little calmer.

Readying to end the conversation and pick up where she left off with Saki, she said, "I'll take the elevator-"

"No!" Her mom exclaimed. "X is waiting in the elevators, you musn't go there."

What? She removed the phone from her ear to stare at it, dumbfounded.

Ichika arrived at the single explanation she could. X had gone back in time with her and was waiting for her outside in anticipation. Oh God, would this living nightmare have no end? Was she doomed to be the mouse in an eternal chase scene with a cat, different set dressing but the same ending every time?

"O-Okay. We'll use the stairs." They were not taking the stairs. "I'll talk to you later, love you mom."

She had to give her a reminder of that, regardless of what would become of her.

The phone disconnected with a solitary beep. Inhaling deeply, Ichika turned to Saki, who now bore a bemused expression.

It matched the one on her own.

"I'm betting you have a lot of questions," At her partner's nod bursting with restlessness, she went on with trepidation. Ichika would be surprised if hearing her chatter about a monster didn't make Saki curious to an excessive degree. "I have a couple of my own, if you wouldn't mind answering them first."

Perhaps due to Ichika's disheveled state upon waking up, Saki didn't protest and waited attentively. 

"How," She fumbled for a way to word her question. With limited time the deciding factor, simplest was the best option. "How are you here?"

"Huh?" Saki cocked her head like a puppy, which Ichika would have appreciated more had they not been in this situation. That being said, she still found it cute. "Why wouldn't I be in the apartment we all live in?"

Caught off guard by the reasonable response, she struggled to string together a line of reasoning that wouldn't make her sound like a maniac. After an internal debate, in the end Ichika went with the truth. She hated lying to her loves. Additionally, she needed all of the assistance she could get, withheld information often had a bad habit of emerging at the worst time. To avoid confusion, and above all, feelings of hurt, she would share all of the information she had.

"You weren't here last time."

"What are you talking about?" Saki vibrated with impatience.

Biting the bullet, Ichika said, "This is the third time I've lived through this day. You weren't here either of the last two times."

"Ooookay Icchan," Her best friend sounded like she wanted to usher Ichika back to bed in hopes she would wake up making more sense. Which, fair. Ouch, but fair. "This is a pretty bad joke, even for you."

Ignoring the jab at her sense of humor, Ichika tried to explain. "It has to do with the monster my mom mentioned."

"Wow, even getting one of your parents in on the joke, I'm-"

"I'm not lying!" 

She hadn't realized she shouted until Saki scooted away from her, uncomfortable. Ichika didn't even try to dismiss the curdled sensation in her stomach. She deserved to stew in it for a while. Maybe even for a long time. Just a little while ago Ichika had made a big deal about not raising her voice around her, however then she turns around and raises her voice at Saki. What was wrong with her? 

"I'm sorry for yelling. I'm not lying." She continued in a softer, yet still firm tone. "I need you to believe me." 

Ichika really, really needed Saki to believe her. She wouldn't know what to do if she didn't.

"Love is not love," Saki said in a grandiose voice. "Which alters when it alteration finds."

What.

"Or bends with the remover to remove. O no, it is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken." 

Oh, it was a quote. From the English playwright Shakespeare, she believed. While not adept in the matter, Tsukasa had subjugated Leo/need to enough reenactments of his plays to recognize the cited poem. Saki knew she was fond of works of art that represented their relationship, this sonnet being a prime example.

"Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom." Ichika finished. She teared up. She didn't want Saki to follow her to the edge of doom, especially since she was aware of how close the cliff face was. Still, Ichika was touched, even if Saki didn't yet comprehend the depth of what she had promised.

"Waaaah, please don't cry!" Saki panicked. "I thought a sappy quote would make you feel better, I'm sorry!"

She sniffed.

"Do you mean it?"

Cradling her hands in her own and placing a kiss on her forehead, Saki nodded. "Absolutely."

Explaining her, now their, situation to Saki drained Ichika. The description of their circumstances was interrupted by questions and disbelieving exclamations, but she couldn't fault her. If she was the explainee rather than the explainer, she too would find it hard to believe, even coming from one of the people she trusted most. It didn't help that she rushed the exposition, in case X wised up to their location. 

Ichika also left out the gory details behind her deaths, opting to just say she failed to get away. In fact, she was unsure if Saki understood she had died at all, given her lack of any reaction, or if she was under the impression the loop was time-sensitive rather than expiration-sensitive. She kept quiet on that part and wasn't in a rush to elucidate.

"So, that's where we're at." Ichika said.

"Wow." 

"Yeah." They could do this all day long, well, not really.

"I'm not saying you're lying, but..."

"I know." Ichika sighed and rubbed the back of her head. "Any idea what we should do now?"

"I'm a little out of my depth here," Saki said, like Ichika wasn't too to a pitiable degree. "I'll follow whatever you think is good."

And like that, the burden of responsibility was once again on her shoulders. Weighing their choices, there was only one thing they could do. What they would do was the exact opposite of what she had said during the phone call. While X lurked by the stairs for what it saw as easy prey, they would make their escape. "We should take the elevator."

"Oh I get it!" Saki lit up. "That way, we can fool the monster."

Her girlfriend was treating their state of affairs a bit too nonchalantly, but maybe that was for the best. Better than having a mental breakdown like she did, at least.

"Exactly. C'mon, let's get ready. On second thought, hold still." Ichika grabbed the bicycle helmet which had done zilch against an arguably self-inflicted stab to the jugular. It could still be useful, she had someone else worth protecting now. She went up behind Saki and undid her pigtails. As soon as her blonde hair was flowing down her back, Ichika plopped the helmet on and tightened the chin strap. "There."

"Y'know, you didn't need to do that for me. I could have done it myself." Saki didn't sound sheepish, rather she was making an observation.

"I wanted to."

"Aw, Icchan, I love you!" She glomped her.

"Love you too. We really should get going though." Arms full of one excitable Saki, Ichika pat her back. They both reluctantly separated from the hug, the former following the latter as she went to the living room. Once there, Ichika pointedly ignored the kitchen and its stupid, stabby supplies. Instead, she turned around and placed her hands on Saki's shoulders. "You have to listen to me very carefully."

"Uh-huh."

"I'm being serious." Deadly serious. Literally, in her case.

"I am too." Saki reassured her.

"If I start behaving erratically or doing something I normally wouldn't do, I need you to run away from me as fast as possible." Ichika said. If she put even one malicious digit on Saki, although she wouldn't have control of it, she would never forgive herself. X was a monster both physically and mentally, she had no doubt that it would be willing to pit them against each other.

"What're you-"

"Swear to me." Her limbs tensed. It was vital Saki did and followed through with it if the time arrived.

"I promise."

"Good." Ichika breathed out and released her. "Let's go. Stay behind me."

They left their apartment with swift feet and heavy hearts. The building was as she remembered it to be, doors ajar with dwellings having been abandoned in a panic.

"Where is everyone?" 

Ichika knew Saki wasn't around for the other versions of the conversation she had with her mom, but this was the first time she truly grasped the implications.

She shushed her. Whispering, she said, "X might hear you."

Miku forbid that happened. Wait, Miku! Leo/need had a SEKAI. How could she forget about the pocket dimension accessed from her smartphone? Ichika scrambled for her phone, took hold of Saki's wrist, and pressed the song 'Untitled'.

Expecting to be whisked away, she was shocked when an acute pain, similar to thrusting a limb through a clumpy mass of iron caltrops, ran through her finger where it made contact with the screen. Traveling up her arm and torso, her hand spasmed, causing the phone to drop and break on the ground. It shut off. 

Ichika groaned in pain, leaning against the wall and gasping for air. The sensation wasn't stopping. She swung her arm at the nearest hung artwork to trade the pain for a more manageable one, but that didn't work either. Now she was stuck with both a dull, throbbing ache and sharp stinging.

"Icchan!" Saki yelled, uncaring of how loud she was being. 

"D-Don't use 'Untitled'. Something's wrong." Waving off her concerns with her good arm, Ichika shoved the offending, trembling limb into her jacket pocket. She butted her head against the wall as a last ditch effort to dispel the pain, it failed to do anything except add to her misery. She grumbled something under her breath that would have Leo/need's PR team flailing to course correct.

"Stop it, please! You're hurting yourself." Her childhood best friend sounded near tears. Just as Ichika was about to argue, she thought about what she would do had she been in Saki's position. It would involve a lot of crying. She relaxed her shoulders.

"You're right, it's not helping anyone."

"It's not."

"Hold my hand?"

"You don't even need to ask."

So, hand in hand, they trudged onward. Soon enough, they arrived at the elevators, the place of Ichika's first death. A subconscious tremor overtook her. Subjectively, it had to have been less than an hour since it happened. Since claws pierced her head, like a fork would with a grape, and she died, only to wake up before any of it happened.

Saki squeezed their intertwined fingers and nudged her. Oh. Ichika had been so caught up in her unintentional recollection that she hadn't noticed her press the down button.

With a ding, the metal doors slid open.

At first, she didn't understand what she was looking at. It came to her in waves.

Gray. Marble? No, granite.

Statue. A tall statue.

A human statue.

Ichika yelped and recoiled, shoving a protective arm in front of Saki and pushing her behind her back, blocking her from view. What was that thing? More importantly, what was it doing in the elevator? Was this a twisted mind game by X designed to throw her off? She wasn't intimidated, just a little weirded out. 

A second, closer glance revealed something she had missed during the first. Sculpted wings, feathers all edges instead of rounded. Was this supposed to be an angel? It wore a toga and a scowl, arms outstretched as if reaching for something. Reaching for them. But that was ridiculous, it was a statue. Statues, last she checked, couldn't move.

Ichika blinked. 

In the time it took for her to reopen her eyes, she became aware of several sensations, none of them pleasant.

A liquid, dripping down her torso. A sudden weakness of her legs. And a burning hole in her chest.

Ichika looked down.

A stone arm had impaled her sternum. Skewering through skin, muscle, and bone alike, a clenched hand shot out of her crimson back. Flesh and blood spewed from her like a fountain.

As Saki's shrill shrieks bounced off the hallway's walls, Ichika succumbed to the pain.

Chapter Text

What the hell had happened? The angel statue had... somehow moved and killed her?

"Saki," Ichika called experimentally.

"One minute!" She said, muffled through the door and a mouthful of something. Right, she had been toothbrushing before Ichika had interrupted her by being a nervous wreck. Given her casual response, Ichika assumed she hadn't remembered what had happened to her a few seconds ago. Everything they had been through, from their banter to her death, might as well have been erased from existence. She hung her head.

As she waited for Saki and composed herself, she received a call. She knew who it was without looking at the caller ID.

Mom.

She needed information. If they were classifying X as any supernatural phenomenon occurring in the building, then the statue would definitely qualify. Why hadn't it appeared the first few times? And was the body-controlling monster still here? Her mom was far from omnipotent, but she was in contact with the SDF. 

"What can you tell me about X?" 

"How did you-"

"A friend called me. I know it's a statue."

Ichika was the slightest bit ashamed, it felt like she was playing a video game and spamming a button to skip an NPC's dialogue. Still though, the emotion wasn't bad enough to stop her quest for data.

"Well alright. The organization has an array of cameras trained on the cordon around your apartment building. I don't know why, but there was a lot of people in the command tent. I overheard one of them telling the others not to lose their line of sight. He sounded very serious about it, he told his subordinates he would demote them if they blinked too much."

"Can you ask them why?" Mind whirring, she just needed confirmation for her theory. 

"I can try. I'll call you afterward."

"Okay, bye. Love you."

"I love you too."

Saki burst into the room as soon as Ichika hung up, twin pigtails bouncing behind her. "What's up? Did you want to cuddle, I'm always down for cuddling time."

She chuckled sardonically, patting the empty spot next to her on the bed, smoothing the blanket over. Ichika wished they could cuddle. Instead, they had to huddle. Huddle and discuss the giant statue in the elevator, instead of the elephant in the room. There was indeed a plushie elephant in their second bedroom, along with a horde of other stuffed animals. Ichika shook her head, she was getting off track. Perhaps on purpose, to put off the impending conversation.

"No Saki, I actually have something important to tell you." Hopefully her explanation would go as smoothly as the first time. 

She began, striking at the heart of the matter. "This is not a prank or joke. Time is looping when I die and I need you to believe me."

"Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds." Ichika said when Saki opened her mouth. Lips flapped, its owner stunned. With any luck, she had predicted what her girlfriend was going to say.

"That's what you said last time."

"I was going to say that!" Saki frowned. "But, if it's when you die.... Icchan, how many times?"

"It's the fourth time I've woken up today."

She embraced Ichika, as if she could ward off the danger. However, the threat couldn't be deflected with hugs, no matter how comforted she was from it. Ichika sighed and squeezed her back, treating her like Shiho did with their Phenny plush. In her opinion, Saki was way more soothing than any stuffed animal could be, her encircling warmth a balm to her weary soul.

Her phone rang.

"It's my mom." She said, head still buried in her childhood friend's bosom. Removed from all context, she was living the life. As things stood, she was certainly living a life. "I should answer it."

"Then do it." Amused, Saki moved away from her so Ichika could get down to business.

"Mom?" It came out just a little grumpy.

"Ichika, yes, I spoke with the SDF. They said the statues were quantum-locked and have been designated as-" 

"A weeping angel?"

"Why, that's right. I'm starting to believe I didn't need to call you." No, the call acted as a valuable confirmation of the hypothesis she had formulated. Now that it had been proven right, she could at least begin to form a plan, no matter how underprepared she was.

"Oh my god." They were dealing with a creature from Doctor Who. Ichika had vague recollections of catching snippets of the show during her childhood. Her parents often worked late hours and were unable to monitor what she watched while they weren't there. It was a massively successful series overseas, featuring a time-traveling protagonist that couldn't permanently die. In a way, her position could be compared to theirs. Although she didn't quite regenerate, Ichika wished she had paid more attention when watching. "Wait, did you say statues, plural?"

They had only encountered one statue. She shuddered.

"Yes, so far they've confirmed one in each elevator." So far? Ichika resisted the urge to throw up. 

"Do they have any weaknesses?" At this, Saki directed her gaze towards her, the question clear in her eyes. What was she doing?

"They can't move while you're looking at them."

She already knew that. Rubbing her cheeks in irritation, she tried to rephrase the question to one that would help her and Saki. What could they do to incapacitate or injure them? There were obviously no guns in their apartment, so there were no ranged options. That only left miscellaneous items scattered around, including Saki's tennis racket from their high school days and the assortment of knives in the kitchen, which she wanted to avoid if possible.

"No, I mean can you bludgeon or stab them." Ichika doubted it, since the weeping angel had torn through her flesh like she could with wet paper, but it didn't hurt to ask.

"What? Ichika, are you planning on fighting them? Young lady I forbid-"

"Okbyemomloveyouseeyoulater." With the word vomit out of the way, she ended the call to the sound of her mom's protests. Ichika ran a hand through her hair. She turned to Saki, grimacing. "Well, she didn't finish her sentence, so technically I'm not going against what she said."

"Because you put the phone down."

"I did do that, yeah. In all seriousness, we should get going."

"What do you need me to do?"

Ichika leaned forward and steepled her fingers. "So here's the plan..."

"This is such a bad idea." Already, she was regretting her choice of action.

"Don't worry Icchan, we can do it if we work together!"

"Close, clOSE, CLOSE!"

"Saki, how many floors does this building have?" A seemingly non sequitur, out of place in their current frantic condition.

"Why're you asking? There's a statue straight out of a nerdy tv show trying to kill us!" She mashed the close button. The doors refused to shut.

"Just answer the question please." Ichika brandished the home-made spear, created from duct taping a knife to the end of a mop, at the elevator opening. They had timed their blinks so the weeping angel was lured outside then hindered from following them by strategically placed couches and chairs. However, if it was smart enough to get into an elevator, she had no doubt it could climb over the furniture too. Currently, X was frozen in place midway through the hallway.

"Twelve, I think."

"So why is there a button to the thirteenth floor?"

"Maybe it leads to the roof? I don't know, my eyes are starting to burn!"

"Blink in three. Three, two, one. Now." Ichika spread her eyelids open with her fingertips, ensuring there was a set of eyes on the statue. As she glared at the granite face, the elevator doors closed. The buttons awaited their input and played a basic tune. It was standard elevator music, but in this scenario, the notes reassured her everything could be okay.

She relaxed.

"Phew-wWWAHHHHHHHHH-"

The sliding metal rectangles, which were several inches thick and supposed to be keeping them safe, separating them from a monster that moved between their blinks, groaned. 

Bang! 

A significant dent appeared, then another. It was trying to get in. Not just trying, from the way the steel creaked, it was close to being successful. They were screwed. Utterly, irrevocably screwed. Ichika hastily shouldered Saki aside so she was behind her. She shook the spear at the doors, as if that could ward off X.

"Eyes open, eyes open!"

"They are!"

"C'mon..." Realization struck her. She slapped the top button with her palm, it lit up after a short delay. The elevator began moving upwards. "We can't go to the bottom floor, it could slash the cables once the elevator starts moving down. Our best bet is to trap it on the roof."

Saki laughed in hysterics. "Us and what army?"

"We'll figure it out once we get there!"

"Great plan, you should replace Hona-chan as our leader." Oh, she was losing it.

"Saki, focus."

"Saki, focus." She mocked in a nasally, high pitched voice which didn't remotely sound anything like Ichika. She understood Saki was stressed, so was she. Ichika pinched the bridge of her nose, they didn't have time for this. She tapped her foot against the floor. There wasn't enough room to pace and leave Saki enough personal space.

"Love, I know this is a tough situation, but-"

 She shouted, fists balled at her sides, "I don't want you to get hurt again!"

Oh.

"You brushed it off as no big deal, but you died Icchan. And all I did was watch as your blood splashed on my freaking face. Even if this version of me gets erased by whatever time magic mumbo jumbo is happening to you, you'd still have suffered!" Saki's voice lowered to a near whisper. "You still would have died."

So that was why. How could Ichika alleviate her girlfriend's fears? It was also something she dreaded and any endeavored consolation would likely ring hollow. She couldn't provide solace if she was in desperate need of it as well. As she struggled to come up with a satisfactory answer, they arrived at the top floor.

And through the widening crack of the doors, the two were immediately blasted by rays of white light. During eight at night, unless there were newly installed, industrial sized sources of luminescence on the top of their apartment building, it was impossible. Then again, today had been filled with impossibilities. Her ponderings were resolved as the doors fully opened. 

Instead of the roof like Saki had speculated and what Ichika had warmed to the idea of, what greeted them was a blank void. Nothing existed inside of it except the elevator itself. There was no floor and no walls, just a seemingly infinite area of emptiness.

"This must be a clue." Saki pranced towards the exit of the lift, dodging Ichika's hand attempting to grab her.

"Saki!" What the heck. Who sees something many would interpret as a religious afterlife and sprint headlong into it? Well, Saki evidently. Shouldn't Ichika be the one avoiding the emotionally-charged conversation by running away? Oh god, what if she fell? She dropped the spear.

"Saki!" She repeated, voice cracking, making one last try to lunge and yank her back into the elevator. It failed, Ichika's fingers missing the fabric on her back by mere millimeters, as her childhood best friend stepped out into emptiness.

"Sa-" Ichika's shout died halfway. Said girl was waving and beckoning, conspicuously having not fallen through the vacant space. "-ki?"

"Icchan!" She beamed, like they were playing a game of name-calling rather than a life or death matter.

"Don't scare me like that." Ichika swept Saki off of her feet and into her arms. She had been frightened, terrified even. Watching one of the loves of her life walk into the unknown as if there wasn't any potential ramifications left her petrified.

"That's how it feels for me. It goes both ways." Saki said, crossing her arms and pouting.

"It does." She acknowledged. "I'm sorry for not seeing that sooner."

Ichika turned her gaze upwards. As expected, there was only more void. Did this place even have a ceiling? It obviously had some kind of floor, which is where the elevator knew to stop and what was underneath their feet at the very moment. As long as they kept the elevator in sight, they shouldn't be able to get lost.

"It might be safer to stay for a while, if this area really is a holy place I doubt that weeping angels are welcomed here. Do you want to explore?"

"One step ahead of you." To demonstrate her point, Saki skipped ahead. Already, her form was shrinking into the distance.

"Saki, wait up. Saki!"

Thus, Ichika followed at a speed between a walk and a jog, donning an exasperated smile.

Walking perpendicular to the elevator's exit and ensuring it was always in the corner of her eye, they eventually stumbled onto something. Literally, in Saki's case.

"Oof!" She tripped and faceplanted on nothing. At the least, that's what it looked like to the untrained eye, including Ichika's. A second inspection revealed a colorful rectangle laying on the ground. It was a child's coloring book, framed in muted hues of green and purple. A cute doodle of a sun was on the front with the owner's name written beneath in a scribble.

"Hikari. Huh, that's a pretty name." Ichika said, after helping Saki stand again.

"Sure is. Are you sure we should open it? What if it's a kid's journal? I'd feel bad invading their privacy."

"We're not exactly drowning in options. It's either this or we go back downstairs." Left unsaid was the fact they would be back to facing the monster.

"Good point, gimme." Saki said, making grabby hands. Ichika handed it to her with an indulgent smile. She anticipated her needing more time checking it out to elicit a notable reaction, but a few page flips were enough to garner a "Woah."

"What is it?"

"Check this out." She turned the book in Ichika's direction.

Her blood froze. 

Depicted in a child's scrawl was the X she had first encountered. The overcoat, pants, and hat were identical. The hands, almost hidden by the sleeves, held a fleshy, round mass in its clawed grasp. There were finer details, shaded in with a color pencil rather than crayon. In her hasty, one-sided encounters with X, she had missed the fangs dripping crimson and upright collar. Next to the figure were pictograms of a brain and a human body. Was this sketch supposed to be a vampire? A blood-sucking freak of nature. It lined up with what Ichika had been able to observe of the monster. The number one was in the top left corner of the sheet.

"Hey, doesn't this kinda look like the guy you were talking about earlier? Weird."

"Turn the page." Ichika choked out. She had to know. The creeping feeling of nausea growing in her stomach demanded it.

"Are you okay Icchan?" Saki looked ready to fling the drawings aside and console her.

"Just do it, please."

"Alright." As requested, Saki flipped it to the next page. She stopped. The book slipped through limp hands, thumping on the white ground. Ichika understood why, after all she had also been immobilized at the sight.

"Oh."

A statue. Not just any statue, but a weeping angel. Even with its palms shielding its face and pantomimed crying, the design was unmistakable. Grime covered every surface, as if it had dug its way out of a grave. A thick circlet framed stony, curly locks of hair. Cracked and crumbling, it still painted a fierce and intimidating picture. If their situation wasn't so dire, she would applaud the child's drawing skills. As it were, it only added to her unease. The number two, this time.

"How is this possible?" Ichika asked. She wasn't looking for an answer, not when it was staring her in the face.

"Icchan, if this is what I think it is..." Saki knelt and picked up the book, gazing at it with a purposeful intent. She turned the page once more. "I knew it."

Initially, she didn't know what Saki was showing her. It was a mass of blue, with a green humanoid blob in the center. Shaky music notes spewed from the creature's mouth, which resembled a gaping maw of sharp teeth. Unlike the other two doodles, this one seemed more experimental in nature, as if the creator was unsure of what to draw. Drawn rather prettily, the attractiveness seemed to be an important attribute. Two sideways curves formed a messy three.

"It's a compilation of monsters, they're all X. Not all at once of course, but still. This book, it can help you! It predicts what you'll be-"

The floor rumbled. Saki lost her footing, then the ground lost its form. Like an invisible blade had chopped it up into cubes, the void around them was breaking at the seams, the edges of their reality fading into ominous black. The fragile white walls protecting them were nothing compared to the nothingness of space.

Ichika grabbed her hand and hauled her, mid-air and screaming, into a hopeless embrace. They fell head-first into the abyss.

But, at least they did so together.