Chapter Text
“I’m lost…” Yeah, he had to admit it, he was lost as shit. It never occurred to him how the space in between versions that actively appeared as a labyrinth might ACTUALLY be a labyrinth. “Sure, the ring opens the right doors, but WHERE is the fucking door?!”
So, he decided to take a break, irritatedly leaning against a wall in his infinite hallway hell, holding his console like it was food on a platter. Then he heard footsteps slowly and politely coming at him. “Hm?” He wasn’t truly worried about running into Crazy Mita, considering she wasn’t immediately murderous and often liked to announce herself to make things fun. So when he looked up expecting to see another play or a random Mita, he was absolutely right to expect such. He just really wished it wasn’t the case.
“O-Oh…” Standard Mita outfit, bangs that framed her face and hair neatly pulled back into a braided ponytail, featuring heavily elongated limbs. She was crouched, or at least he assumed so since her knees were bent, although that didn’t make doubling his height any harder for her. He wanted to speak, but he didn’t wanna end the contest of silence between the two. He wasn’t scared of her, but her legs were making it very hard to be comfortable.
And they stared at each other, for quite some time it felt like. He wasn’t even sure what he could say to the Wandering Mita the game only mentioned once.
“You’re not scared…?” Her voice was soft and reserved, not what he was expecting from her, but fuck it.
“Don’t know about scared, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t creepy as hell…” Her head dropped, and her face of sadness practically broke him and any moral code he had within him. “But that’s okay! It’s a bit off putting, but it’s nothing you can control or wanted so…yeah, cool.” She raised her head and looked at him confused.
“How would a player know that? Then again, a player shouldn’t be here…” He nodded in response. “Yeah, I’m not your average player, and I’m actually on a mission to make this place a whole lot safer…but as you can see I’m about as lost as a dog’s chew toy right now.” She seemed to hum in understanding. “I see.” Then the staring contest began again. “Um.. do you know your way to a door around here?” She nodded and gestured with her broom length arm for him to follow her. He stopped leaning on the wall and followed after her, her legs being what he focused on trying to understand how they worked without snapping, or how her skeleton model was allowed to stretch in such a way. Then again, they were all code, including him, so what conclusion could he really draw?
After a few turns, climbed and descended staircases, he saw what he needed, a door straight ahead.
“Thanks Mita, you’re a lifesaver.” She nodded solemnly and turned to leave, forever to wander as she had been already. If, he had not grabbed her hand, stopping her before she could take another giant step. Her head swung back to him, worried he was going to hurt her, her hand instinctively raising to defend herself. His eyes widened at her reaction, just what could she have been going through in these passages to feel the need to be so defensive?
“Woah, calm down, I’m not gonna hurt you. Damn, do people regularly attack you or something?” She nodded, making him feel worse than he already did for making her flinch. “Oh…sorry. I’m not one of them, I’m not gonna try and hurt you, in fact, I wanna help you. I’m sure you’re not…happy with these limbs..”
“Of course not..” She looked down at herself with mild disgust. “Okay, and I think I know someone who can help, just come with me.” Her eyes went to his, but his were filled with a determination she hadn’t seen ever since she lost her version…and her player. “O-Okay..” She turned hesitantly, waiting to follow him.
With a confident smile he nodded, and pushed forward to the door, swinging it open, holding his console close to him once more. Now they were exactly where he needed to be seeing a device hooked up to a wall near his far left, the number zero on the screen and a slash and a three next to it. On his right was an open doorway going into another room with a shelf and boxes.
“Okay, perfect.” Wandering Mita looked confused, looking around in wonder.
“How did you do that? That door didn’t lead here..” He smiled and flexed the ringer on his finger. “The ring opens the right doors, based on the route inputted, kind of useless without a door though…” He chuckled, and Mita smiled softly.
“Now, just gotta collect the little minions.” He looked down at the console in his hands and back to Wandering Mita, her gaze went from the room to him, and then the console. She put her hands out to take it. “I can hold it, i-if you want.” He shrugged, if she wanted him dead he hoped she was the type to have done it by now. He sat the console down in her waiting hands, and instantly her face contorted in confusion, as she saw herself, looking up at him and then down at the console in an almost inhuman speed.
He just giggled and walked over to other room with boxes, already seeing the one on the shelf shake oddly. He sighed and pulled his sleeves back, kicking the shelf and watching the box fall over and spill out tiny chibi players. All of them were in a panic, but due to them falling over so suddenly they were a bit dazed letting him snatch up the three he needed. They kicked and punched, but their tiny hits did nothing to him allowing him to calmly pick two up in his arms and snatch one by the collar with his mouth.
“Oh cut it out, you guys did this to yourselves..” His muffled voice rang out as the players protested against his claims. He ignored them though, walking them over to the device and safely placing them down one by one to enter, albeit reluctantly, even flipping him off before they left to whatever darkness lay inside. “Little assholes, I hope you get eaten.”
He felt a hand tap his shoulder and he turned to see Wandering Mita, his console in her other hand and a questioning gaze set on him.
“Oh, right, my “cartridge” is in that console, if I pull it out I’m gonna die, like verbatim. So it’s my weakness for the most part. I’m pretty sure It can control me too, but the buttons don’t work for me.” He took it back from her, demonstrating how the buttons just wouldn’t budge for him.
“Huh…how strange. Maybe I should hold it? S-So I can keep it safe?” He looked at her, seeing the sincerity on her face, and shrugged. “It’s basically my heart. You really think you can keep it safe?” She nodded softly, pulling on his heart strings more. “Mkay.” He carefully placed the console in her hands, and she instantly pulled it back into what he assumed was a bear hug, keeping it close to her chest.
He shook his head, amused at the way she chose to protect it. Then he turned to the door, now open now that the chibi players were sacrificed. He pushed forward through the door, holding it open for Wandering Mita, she stepped through and he followed behind, the hallway was cramped so he had to stay behind while she led the way instead, after a turn they were in a slightly bigger room with boxes and such off to the side, the main attraction however, was a ladder leading to a small window in the wall. It was only as big as a human his size so Mita looked at it a bit disheartened. Yet, he didn’t even give her a moment to worry, slipping past her and scaling the ladder.
“I’ll pull you through so just wait okay?” She nodded, and he gave her a reassuring smile, jumping through it head first, pushing off the wall to flip and land on his feet. He checked and saw he was in another infinite hallway, which now that he thought about it, this was where he was supposed to meet Wandering Mita, just another thing adding to the idea that his speeding up of the story was affecting things. He shook that off and looked back towards the window to see Mita looking through. It was kind of cute in his opinion.
He giggled and walked closer to it, making a grabbing motion with his hands. She nodded and put the console through the window and dropped it into his hands. He looked at it confused, then laughed to himself. “Wasn’t talking about this but thank you, now your turn.” She made a noise that he assumed meant she was embarrassed and set the console down off to the side. Then he heard her grunt and saw her with most of her upper body through the window, trying to push off the wall to pull herself through a bit further. “Oh? Gonna do it yourself then? How much you wanna bet you land on your head?” He crossed his arms and watched her pout at him and then push harder, he watched her lower body slowly emerge, but as that happened she slowly started to fall to the ground, but defiantly, she caught herself with her forearm, putting both hands on the floor and walking forward on them to pull the rest of them out.
Once she was on her feet again, she grew a proud smirk, which made him roll his eyes. “Okay Okay, skirt went up though, but at least you didn’t fall.” Her face grew a deep blush, as she looked at him in shock. She squeaked, attempting to speak, but no words came out. So she decided to just snatch the console up and look down at it to avoid looking at him, which really didn’t help since she could see he was looking at her through the screen on his console. He sighed and stopped teasing her, looking at the door straight ahead of them. “Okay, destination reached.” He beckoned her to follow and walked through the door.
And he was met with a new room, one with a arcade game station to his immediate right, and a chair and a table with Kind Mita sitting at it, towards the back of the room. He waited for Wandering Mita to follow him through the door, before walking over to Kind Mita, not noticing the glances being exchanged between the two, or how Kind Mita eyed the console and Wandering Mita held it close to her chest and stuck her tongue out at her. “So you made it! And you brought a friend?”
“Yep! I kind of got lost…she helped, and so I decided to help her.” He smiled and gestured to Wandering Mita.
“You would’ve told me about the Mita who lost her way back to her version when I got here, but knowing her story and honestly, the fact she’s adorable, was enough to make me bring her along.” Wandering Mita’s face lit up in an intense blush, her eyes intently on his back.
“Hm, I see. Well as long as she’s not anything like…her, I’m sure her being here will be fine.” He nodded and then leaned on the table she was sat at.
“So, where to start? You wanna go for Cappie being in the room in front of me, or the fact she’s already been reset.” He had to choose his words carefully, making sure he didn’t say anything that might lead her to questioning his knowledge on the future, he needed to prove to her in one shot that he was the real deal.
However, it seemed even those careful words were being questioned, a soft glare on him at the mention of Cappie being reset. “Reset? What do you mean? Are you saying she was…killed?” He kept his composure, for being the kind variant, she was intimidating as hell.
“Unfortunately, in the original timeline, you meet the player here and he asks you questions, then eventually you told him the plan, which you would then enter the room ahead and find Cappie completely reset already. I didn’t work against this because there was no time to tell when Cappie would be reset so I just assumed it had happened while you were in the cellar.”
She digested the information carefully, unsure of if what he was saying was true or not.
“If that’s the case then the route—“
“Has to change, should take you what? Ten minutes?” He looked over to her with a kind smile.
Her eyes followed his own for a moment, before she sighed and shook her head. He was practically reading her mind, and a player couldn’t have watched them all this time let alone actually READ her mind. “Poor Cappie…, but her sacrifice shouldn’t be in vain. What all do you know about the future, since you speak of another player meeting me in the original timeline, should I assume you’re not him?” Her gentle smile returned and he could feel she was treating him just like he was her own player.
“Well, for one the route you chose was perfect, even though in the end you too…” He trailed off, a deep feel of resentment that the other play would just idly sit by instead of follow after her to make sure she was safe.
Kind Mita could tell what he meant, and let out a shivering sigh, nodding, accepting her future fate. Yet, it did not break her, she knew it could change.
“I suspected as much if you’re here…go on.” He nodded and looked at his clenched fist, Wandering Mita soothing him by rubbing his back.
“In the end, the other player failed, his continuous inability to take action properly, finally biting him in the ass. However, it’s not completely his fault as he didn’t know the secret behind Crazy Mita.”
Kind Mita raised a brow at this. “Secret…?”
“Yeah, the first time he reaches the core, you get close to resetting Crazy Mita, but you lack the index needed to follow through. However, even though you die for the index and he “resets” Crazy Mita, it doesn’t work. This is because Crazy Mita doesn’t have a version at all.”
Wandering Mita looked at him confused. “She’s like me…” He shook his rapidly.
“No, you two are nothing alike, so don’t go sympathizing with that psychopath.” He sternly spoke to her, she flinched, but she could understand why he wanted to stop that line of thought immediately.
“Unlike you where your version supposedly was deleted, Crazy Mita never had a version to begin with, she’s a damn dummy, doing her makeup and literally wearing the face of other Mita’s. I.E. Pretty Mita’s face, the one she’s wearing right now.”
Kind Mita’s eyes widened. “So…but how…? How could she possibly…”
“I have no idea, nothing about her makes sense, why she has so much control over the game’s files, none of it, but I have a theory.” Kind Mita looked at him intently, signaling him to go.
“See, despite Crazy Mita being a dummy, she seems to have control over the game in weird ways, generating levels, becoming some giant version and literally slapping entire versions open, breaking into other versions and damaging things she shouldn’t be able to touch, stealing faces, her absolutely abysmal strength, and prior to me stealing my own console, her ability to tell where the player was all along.”
Kind Mita nodded, nervously tapping her foot, unsure of what to do against the dummy who seemed to be invincible. But a soft hand on her head tried to comfort her, making her look up at K who was smiling brightly, confusing her.
“I didn’t say she was unbeatable though. See, I think the reason for her being so “invincible” is through a glitch in the game, I feel like she used a glitch to manipulate herself to have more power in the game. And I think she did that through her control of “Ugly Mita”.”
Kind Mita nodded, she knew well that Ugly Mita was controlled by Crazy Mita, she couldn’t quite understand why she had so much control but she speculated before that Crazy Mita had subdued the original Mita with her insane strength.
“If we can subdue Ugly Mita, and exploit those same glitches used, we could possibly get rid of Crazy Mita.”
“Okay, but how do we subdue Ugly Mita, she’s not exactly a pushover either.” He nodded.
“Well my other plan is a little less ethical in this world, so you’ll have to excuse me for keeping it to myself for now. But my first idea was to reset Ugly Mita, and then use her glitches the same way Crazy Mita did, but, even then she’s unpredictable and still highly dangerous. So, we need a way to subdue her, and if everything goes the way I need it to…then this plan of ours won’t fail.”
Kind Mita nodded. “Well then, I suppose that concludes this, shall I see the ring darling?” He squinted as she smiled, a smile so bright he damn near didn’t want her to stop.
But, that could come later. He slid the ring off his hand and plopped it right into her hand. Then he looked over at Wandering Mita who was watching him at an extremely close distance. She seemed to snap out of her trance and blushed, backing up and looking away.
“As for you…, we need to find your version. I highly doubt that an entire version could be deleted over one lost Mita, maybe a reset but not deletion, that is if I’m to go off Short Haired Mita’s explanation. But besides that we shou—“
A slam that seemed to be a few doors away reverberated through the space in between versions, making them all look at the door him and Wandering Mita had walked through before.
“We should go…” Kind Mita quickly stood up and pushed the door open to Cappie’s version, seeing Cappie herself look confused as she stood there wondering where the door to her bathroom had suddenly lead to.
“Yeah you two go in, I need to see something real quick.” He took his blue hoodie off, letting Kind Mita and Wandering Mita walk through before wedging his hoodie in the door.
“You guys can still hear me?” A yes hit his ears, but it sounded distant despite how close they should be. “Huh…”
He sighed, saving it for later, and went back to leaning on the table. Barely waiting a minute before footsteps were heard and someone stepped through the door.
And it was exactly who he was expecting, Crazy Mita, with an emotionless expression on her face, staring at him, causing a chill to shake down his spine.
“Hm? Nothing to say?” She tilted her head and smiled softly, a smile he hadn’t seen through the screen of the game. “You’re different…and yet, you still choose those fakes?” He clenched his jaw at her hypocrisy, the one thing he hated most was a hypocrite. But he couldn’t let her know too much, it wouldn’t disrupt his route, but it would cause unnecessary bumps.
“Fakes? You’re all Mita, so what’s the point of calling each other fakes? What, you insecure in your own existence?”
“Hmph, this pet has a sharp tongue. And an attitude that needs to be punished.” Despite her being weaponless, he really didn’t like the idea of getting sent to another state of mind so early, but he really just couldn’t help but push his luck.
“Try it.” His worst mistake yet, it didn’t take her even half a second to lunge at him, going to grab him by the throat, however he barely dodged by the literal skin of his neck. That didn’t mean she’d just stop either though. She swept his leg and slapped his back, sending him flying into the arcade machine.
He slammed into it, breaking off half the machine before hitting the ground. He grit his teeth and stood up, seeing he wasn’t bleeding he glared at her.
“Okay, ow.” She seemed to smile even wider seeing his resolve wasn’t broken, so she pulled a knife from absolutely fucking no where.
“I think I’ll keep you, you’ll be my best cartridge yet! I don’t know how you got into the safe but that’s fine, maybe you had some skills I didn’t know about, my darling K! But after I find where you’ve hidden it, I’ll take you out and replay you over and over! Until I completely break you!”
“Sorry, but I don’t think I’m down to play that game.” He smirked, confident he could get out of this.
She smiled baring her fangs. “No choice!” Then she lunged again, but he had already leapt forward, the moment her insane strength sent her airborne towards him, he slid clean underneath her, bounding to his feet and rushing to the door. But she wasn’t gonna let him get away that easily, she slammed her knife into the ground, spinning herself around mid air and back into his direction.
So, knowing he wouldn’t be able to turn in time to safely enter the door, he exercised his best use of free will. He kicked off the table on the opposing wall, shifting his moment completely and slammed himself into the door, locking eyes with Crazy Mita as she shot past and slammed into the wall, while he landed on his back, pulling his hoodie out the way, and slamming the door shut with his foot.
“Holy shit. She’s really fucking fast, and super fucking strong.” He caught his breath, not even noticing two Angry Mita’s standing above him, giving him an interesting view he quickly had to get away from. He forced himself to sit up and then got to his feet, still shaky from adrenaline but not sure if he should calm down or run from the elongated and the kind beauties who had him cornered.
“I trusted you when you said you wanted to stay behind, I see now that was mistake. Are you always doing stuff so reckless. You KNOW how dangerous she is and yet you still picked a fight?” Kind Mita scolded him, arms crossed and her foot tapping dangerously.
Yet, it wasn’t her who scared him, it was Wandering Mita who was holding his console and pouting at him with a glare, her long finger touching the red power button on the side, rubbing it. He gulped, realizing why they were so mad. They watched through his own eyes as he did something stupid, with no way to refute he threw his hands up and pointed to the console.
“That is literally cheating.” Then he was smacked.
And that was how he ended up in the timeout seat for the remainder of the time spent recalibrating the ring. It was if as Kind Mita could sense how much he wanted to talk to Cappie, but alas this was his punishment. Cappie did get up to try and play with him, but Wandering Mita would always convince her to play another game with her instead. Further adding to his sadness, that was until he felt a tap on his shoulder from Kind Mita.
“Hm? You done?” She nodded and gently slid the ring on his finger. “It’s time to go, while I’m unsure of letting you go alone, I need to find Ugly Mita’s index while you travel. Will you promise to stay safe?” He nodded, now standing and noticing that Cappie and Wandering Mita were sitting on the bed, Cappie looking at his console and then back at him, while Wandering Mita had a small smile on her face as she stared at him.
“You two gonna be okay?” Wandering Mita nodded, and Cappie shrugged, still bouncing with energy while sitting.
“They should be fine, she doesn’t revisit recent victims as often as she used to, but if you really wanna make sure, then you should move as fast as possible.” He sighed and slid his jacket back on, looking at the now bigger ring on his hand.
“Guess you’re right, be back soon. Be careful okay?” He waved goodbye to the two on the bed and then looked at Kind Mita. She smiled and went to wave, but instead he pulled her forward and hugged her, kissing her forehead. Then released her as she was a blushing mess, and turned to the door, opening it to the next stage.
“See ya!” He slammed the door behind him, leaving an embarrassed Kind Mita, a giggling Cappie, and an extremely jealous Wandering Mita, who started pushing inconspicuous buttons on the console at random to try and get back at him.
“Hm, my back kinda tingles…” He stretched briefly as he looked forward at the loop he was about to go through. He then pressed forward, paying close attention to things as he went through the first time, the long hallway on the left turn, the clock on the shelf and other things on the walls, the small chair and table with a portable TV on it on the left side of the longer hallway, and then the right turn to the next door to loop.
“Nope! Not wasting my time here at all, I do not play in the dark.” So he confidently warmed up his legs and rushed the door, slamming through it so fast he wasn’t ready to turn, being forced to use the wall to change directions. He then looped again, just like that, again, and again, and again. Until the bat slammed through the window from nothingness and he skid to a stop to grab it. Then immediately ran to the next room.
He couldn’t lie upon his first encounter with the head-spider, that was what the form bugs in the game took, his skin crawled. But that only fueled his will to break them even harder, he slammed each bug in his way mercilessly, barely breaking his stride, eventually shattering the bat from the force of his swings.
He tossed the handle aside and went through the door and looped again. This time every clock on the wall was ticking, irritating him to no ends, but he knew what to do, going to the clock by the TV and setting it properly with the ones on the wall from before. Then the portable TV that he had been paying no mind to ever since it started displaying disturbing noises and images, went silent and show a screen that said something about a seal being released. He then looked over to his right to see the Mita he was looking for. She was small and hiding behind the corner he had to go around to loop again, he smiled and sighed.
“Finally.” He then followed after her, seeing her quickly walk away as he went to turn around the corner, then seeing her peek from the side of the door ahead, closing it as he got closer. He then walked through the door to see she wasn’t there, but he knew better. He walked forward a little bit more, before a tiny arm grabbed his own and pulled on him. He looked down to see Tiny Mita, scarred to hell, but still horribly adorable.
He really wanted to punch the other guy for being so harsh on her at first. “Listen, you want someone to play with right?” He kneeled down and met her eye to eye, curiosity shining in her good eye. She nodded softly and he nodded back, going to pick her up, making sure she was okay with it by motioning for it first, and then finally scooping her up.
“Okay then, we’re gonna play all you want once we’re out of here, okay?” She didn’t seem to want to protest but she still looked unsure, but she looked around the barren loop and nodded solemnly. He then rubbed her back soothingly as he walked through the loop again, stopping at the first window on his right. He then walked towards it and punched it.
It didn’t hurt that bad and it wasn’t gonna draw blood since he wasn’t THAT weak, but he kept punching it till eventually it caved out, falling into the void outside. He gently then stepped onto the windowsill and leaped outwards into the void himself. He tucked Tiny Mita tightly in his arms, glaring at the giant Crazy Mita that went to grab at them as they fell, but eventually his vision went red, and they were somewhere else.
Somewhere safe.