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Chapter Text

"The clock stopped ticking, forever ago. How long have I been up? I-" Erika pressed her alarm and sat up in her bed, before pushing herself out of bed and grabbing a hoodie from the chair in front of her desk. She slipped it on and sighed, glad she was in one of the few schools without a designated uniform, before putting on her glasses. After that she walked to her bathroom, washed her face and brushed her teeth. Then she walked downstairs and waved at her roommate, Arakaki, who was still asleep on the couch.

"4:30 AM and she's still asleep. How lazy." Erika thought to herself as she grabbed some leftovers from the fridge and heated them up in the microwave. After her food was reheated, so she brought them to the table and ate some. She checked the clock, 4:42 AM. Erika needed to be at school by 7:00 AM, she had a lot of time to kill, so might as well continue that project before Arakaki woke up. She got up from the table and put the rest on the side to finish later.

She got back to her room, powered on her PC and logged in. She stared at her desktop before clicking on Blender and opening an older project she was working on for her cousin. It was a dragon model for a game that he'd been working on for a couple months. Erika looked over the model, finding it pretty much finished with, apart from the textures. She definitely didn't remember finishing it, though, then again, Arakaki sometimes helped out, maybe she finished for her.

Eh, not like she was going to complain. She sent the model over to her cousin and told him he was welcome before he responded. Before opening another file and continuing another project for a bit. Then, checked her watch, 4:59 AM, Arakaki would need waking up soon. She closed Blender and shut down her PC, before going downstairs and sitting on the floor in her roommate's sightline. "It's 5. Wake up." She said loudly, startling her roommate enough to make her fall off the couch.

"Could you stop waking me up like that?" Arakaki complained, at which Erika shrugged dismissively. "Not my fault you're asleep so late." Erika pointed out. "Erika, unlike you I don't have the disorder known as 'being a morning person'." Her roommate countered, Erika ignored her remark and grabbed a pack of store-bought sushi from the fridge. "You alright with this for breakfast?" Erika asked as her roommate nodded while yawning.

Erika handed her the sushi and went to the couch to watch some YouTube until Arakaki was done. She chuckled at a cat meme compilation for a bit until she checked her watch again. 5:21 AM, still a lot of time to kill. She got up from the couch and rounded the corner into the kitchen, where she could see Arakaki on her phone as she sat at the table. "So, wanna play some games?" Erika suggested, at which Arakaki instantly got up from her seat and bolted past her to the couch.

"Yes! C'mon sit down!" Arakaki said enthusiastically before getting the TV set up. Erika grinned before sitting down next to her, before looking through some games they could play. "We could finish that RPG playthrough." Erika suggested, before Arakaki gave her a death glare. "That's for the weekend, if we do it on a school day the celebration will be cut short." Arakaki stated clearly. Erika nodded, before continuing to look through the games... Oh, that reminds her.

"1-12." She said with a grin, making Arakaki punch her in the arm. "I was having an off day." Arakaki lied. "Want me to bring up the entirety of last week?" Erika teased, making Arakaki continue to punch her in the arm. "Off week." Arakaki lied again. "Last month?" Erika teased again, making Arakaki just groan into her hands. "Fine. You win." Arakaki admitted. "0-1. Bad start today." Erika commented. "Shut up and put in the damn disc." Arakaki demanded, making Erika shrug.

A few games went by and Erika won every single one. "I feel like you're getting worse at this." Erika comments, before killing Arakaki's character once again. Arakaki's grip tightened on the controller, before she placed it down on the table in front of her, grabbed a pillow and screamed into it for 10 seconds straight. She then put the pillow back and sighed in relief. "It's been like a month since I screamed into that thing, and it felt amazing to do it again." Arakaki said in the calmest voice Erika had ever heard.

Erika nodded, before looking down at her watch. 6:01 AM... "The bus." Erika said like her sleeper agent had just activated. They grabbed their bags before running out of their apartment and down the stairs. They continued running right past a few groups of people as the bus came into view, thankfully still at the stop. They got on and sat down, panting in relief as the bus closed its doors and drove forwards.

"Man, that was close." Arakaki said between breaths, making Erika nod. "Well, hey, at least we made it." Erika pointed out, sitting up after she caught her breath. "True, but still, bit close for comfort." Arakaki said, still catching hers. Erika took out her phone and checked her messages, nothing. She checked her watch, 6:07 AM, still on time. "We'll get to school before the bell, so we can relax for a bit." She stated, making Arakaki nod in acknowledgement.

Erika looked out the window, staring at the sights of the buildings as they passed by. Arakaki looked at her phone, scrolling through a few memes until she found one she liked. "Hey, Erika, check it out." The girl looked at the meme... It was a frog, wearing a hat with the caption of "I has a hat" in English. Erika smiled at it. "Cute frog." She pointed out, making Arakaki chuckle, only Erika could read the caption. The two sat in silence for the rest of the trip until their bus arrived at the school.

The girls got up and walked out onto the street, before passing the gates and walking into the school building. For a junior high school, it was pretty big, the two of them were trying to keep track of the number of times someone new got lost. Current count was around 142, both were hoping it would round out to 150 before next year. Erika pushes open the door to the near empty class, and sits down at her desk, right next to Arakaki's.

"Hey, Erika! Hi Arakaki!" Called one of the girl's friends from the door. Haruno walked up to the two girls as they waved, before kneeling down to whisper something to Erika. "Can you help with the Algebra homework thing?" Haruno whispered in Erika's ear, clearly desperate. "We were assigned it like a month ago." Erika said at regular volume, making Haruno panic and wave his hands in her face, making her chuckle.

"Didn't have time... And I forgot." He confessed. "Alright, what do you need help with on it specifically?" Erika asked, before sweating at Haruno taking out the entire sheet completely blank. "Do you have yours?" Haruno asked defeatedly. Erika sighed, before reaching into her bag... It wasn't there. Erika's mind raced back to the start of the day, nothing, to the table, nothing, to Blender... She left it on the desk. "...Fuck."

By the time the school day had ended, Erika and Haruno had been scolded by their maths teacher for a collective half hour. "Well. That was annoying." Erika sighed as she and Haruno met up with Arakaki and their other friend Coda, who were both sharing cat video compilations. "Oh, finally, you're both here." Arakaki stated, earning a hurt stare from Coda. "What?" He signed. 

"No, no, no, no the memes were... Good..." Arakaki corrected herself, getting an untrusting look from her friends. "Sure, pal. Sure." Haruno rolled his eyes at the display before walking towards the gate. "You guys wanna walk home together tonight?" Erika suggested on a whim. "We live in different places." Coda signed in response. "Actually, it's pretty similar routes if we walk, so we can walk home together for a while." Arakaki butted in.

"Hm, well, guess I'm not doing much." Haruno shrugged, Arakaki got up and joined him. Coda got up with a small smile, following after Erika. The group all walked down the street quietly, enjoying the sights of the afternoon city. "How long has it been?" Signed Coda, looking back at the rest of his friends while he walked backwards. "Since we walked together like this?" Erika guessed. Coda nodded. "Probably like a month or two." Erika answered.

"Got it." Coda signed back, returning to his friend's side as he did. The walk continued for a couple minutes, with the group finally making it to a fork in the road. "This is where we separate, I guess, see ya both tomorrow." Haruno said as he started walking down the left path. Coda waved as he followed the taller boy. Erika and Arakaki took the path to the right and walked back to their apartment. Erika waved to her roommate as she walked upstairs, and Arakaki flopped onto the couch again.

It was still a couple more hours till the both of them would need dinner anyways, so Erika decided to have a nap. She didn't bother to take off the hoodie and just pulled the covers over her body. As she closed her eyes, Erika thought that she felt something light landing on her ankles and wrists, like leaves. Arakaki called up the stairs and received no answer.

Another call would come from downstairs, and there would yet again be no response.

In fact, there'd be no sound coming from upstairs at all. 

Chapter Text

When she had fallen asleep in that bed, Erika had assumed she'd wake up in that same bed, in that same apartment. Perhaps Arakaki will have made dinner. Or, just maybe there's the chance her other friends came to visit so they could play some games together. If her life went as it should've, then that would've been the most abnormal thing she would wake up to. But of course, the course of what "should be" is a string that is always being pulled apart, no matter whose life it ruins.

Instead she had woken up somewhere different, sitting up she felt a large amount of leaves fall off her face, and the rest of her body. Then, opening her eyes, she saw a large, red room with an ornate wooden table in the centre. She blinked, confused beyond belief of why she was here, before she heard someone open a door behind her. Before she finished turning around, she felt her back against the wall and a soft surface beneath her crossed legs... When did she sit down?

"Oh. A new one?" Came a cold voice from her left, which she saw was an old woman, sitting with her back against the wall beside Erika. "What... What's going on?" The terribly confused girl asked, unfolding her legs, allowing them to hang over the side of the dull grey bed she was sitting on. "You have any plans of making it to twenty?" The woman asked boredly, ignoring her confusion. "...Yes?" Erika answered, wondering where this was going. "Then scrap them. You're in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Longest time you can hope to live for here is a year."

...

Erika pinched herself on the arm, hoping for this nightmare to end... She didn't wake up. She pinched herself again, harder this time. Once she was done wincing at the pain, she heard the woman give a subdued chuckle. "Yeah, most people do that once they get here for the first time. I know for a fact I did." She said, holding a smile as fake as her laugh. "Can we get out?" That time the laughter came from her right. Peering through the metal bars between her cell and the next, she saw a man clutching his sides in hysterical laughter.

"In case you hadn't noticed kid, we're literally trapped in cages. I mean, I get you wanna be positive, but I'd say you should just accept it." He commented after recovering from his laughing fit, earning a sigh from the woman beside Erika. "He's right about the cages part. Saw a guy break his entire arm trying to get one to dent. He didn't succeed." She stated hopelessly. Erika pulled her knees up to her chest. "...I hate this." Came her whispering voice.

"...Keep doing that. At least you'll feel some kind of life in your veins beyond what makes us cattle." The woman advised, piquing Erika's curiosity. "Cattle?" The woman looked over with her dull eyes, before snapping her fingers. "Right, didn't tell ya about the vampire thing. This place is owned by a vampire, her name's Remilia Scarlet. Fast version is that she's insanely strong, fast and is pretty much indestructible." The woman recited casually.

"I mean, one time I saw someone try to stab her through the heart with a bit of broken wood. Maid turned him into a pincushion before he could, but she seemed a small bit surprised." The woman mused, not noticing that Erika had stopped listening. The woman looked over and sighed, before patting her on the back. "Relax, this isn't even the worst thing that can happen here. Could've been sent to her sister the second you arrived." That made Erika raise her head slightly, the woman picking up on her curiosity.

"Flandre's her name, she's like the other one, but less bratty. Her sister sometimes scolds her for being immature from what I hear past the door over there." She said, pointing towards a slightly open wooden door. "Everyday, two of us are taken to either be a meal or a plaything for the sisters. From our point of view, they just disappear, that's the maid's doing... Speak of the non-scarlet devil." Erika noticed the sight of a grey-haired woman in a maid's dress walking down the hall to the left of their cage.

The inmate beside her waved boredly, the gesture wasn't returned. Until the maid vanished, as did the man who had been laughing at her less than a minute ago. "Hm, shame, I kinda liked that guy." Erika's cellmate commented emotionlessly. "...Why?" Erika questioned, her cellmate tilting her head. "Why did she do that?" The girl begged, the stress finally welling up as tears began to run down her face. "To feed her mistress. That's all there is to it. She kills us, bleeds us out, and gives the blood to her mistress." Her cellmate stated, not a hint of fear in her hollow eyes.

"I hate this." Erika whimpered as she pulled her legs to her chest as hard as she could. "You said that already." Her cellmate pointed out unhelpfully. "Could you shut that bitch up? Get over it! You're gonna die regardless, so die quietly!" A yell came from the cell behind theirs, behind the wall. "He's right, you really should be quieter. The rest are tired enough as is." Her cellmate agreed. Erika pressed her eyes against her knees as she quietly processed her situation.

Aside from the shuddering breaths she took to calm herself down, Erika was silent for the next four hours, barely keeping her sobs in as the rest of the cellblock slept calmly. She just didn't get it, how could they sleep knowing death was held over their heads every second? How would she be able to sleep knowing she could die any second? Why was the vampire keeping them locked up when her maid could just grab them from anywhere? Why torture them like this?

Her stressed out mind came to no conclusion. 

Two days later, Erika had lost her cellmate without even being able to learn her name. No one else cared, no one else flinched, no one else cried. The only thing they did was tell her to be quiet and complacent, like them. To shut up, to be quiet, to stop crying. She heard them placing bets and prayers that she would be the next to die. Eventually, she stopped trying to make herself feel better. Her hate for this place just got worse.

On the third day since her arrival, a new cellmate arrived for her, just as confused as she was. Erika hoped she could make their stay just slightly better, that maybe she could keep the new girl's hope alive. Until she disappeared the next day, no final words, no funeral, no grave. Just killed for the sake of a leech. The next day was the same, one would disappear, none would grieve save for her. And the next day. And the next week. And the next month. A small pile of half-eaten meals had spread across her floor as she stared at the wall.

If she was counting right, today was her birthday. Quite the unimportant conclusion, given that it was the last one she made before adrenaline moved through her far too fast to be healthy. Of course, that was because she was in the process of being exsanguinated as the silver haired-maid cut into her trachea. And of course, her brain moved too fast for it to be painless, and too slow to do shit about it... So, this was how it felt to die? Her brain was giving her flashbacks now, trying to find what to do in order to survive.

Playing with Arakaki, learning sign language so she could talk with Coda, the quiet moments she had with her only three friends. And the now, she was here, feeling the insides of her neck get peeled apart by a maid who works for a parasite. Oh, there was the answer to the question she'd asked when she first arrived. Convenience. Her torture, her being locked up in a cell away from her friends and family was for convenience. The blood that spilled from her neck was boiling.

She hated this. She hated the maid. She hated the vampire. She hated the world. She hated everything about this. Then, suddenly, she was on the floor, outside, among a pile of bodies with chunks ripped out of them. Her eyes looked at the wounds through the cloudy lenses of her glasses, the rips in the corpse's flesh. It was... Terrible. She felt so lightheaded, smelling the small puddle of blood that spilled from her neck. Erika closed her hand, dragging her nails through the dirt she lied on. She hated this world.

She clenched her fist more and more, feeling her nails carve into her skin as she stared forwards into the forest past the gate. "Not here." She mouthed, her vocal cords too wounded to make sounds resembling speech. "Not now." She dragged herself towards the pile of corpses inch by torturous inch. "I'm not dying here." She felt something heating up behind her eyes. She placed her hand in the palm of the nearest corpse, feeling it's cold flesh. 

No. 

His cold flesh.

This was a man. 

A person. 

Someone with a name, and a life. 

She held his hand tightly, the heat behind her eyes starting to burn. 

"I don't want to die."

She thought she heard her glasses shattering...

Chapter Text

Erika's eyes fluttered slightly, looking up at the empty black sky far above her... She blinked, sitting up slowly, placing a hand on her neck. It was smooth, clean, dry. It was like she'd never even been cut at all; the blood having vanished as well. 

Not even an echo of phantom pain was in her neck, in fact, she noticed that she felt rested. Like she had just woken up from a great nap, and her time at the mansion was just a dream... No, that was real. Her hands wouldn't be shaking like this if it wasn't. 

She looked down at her legs, without a scrap of blood or dirt, pristine as a model's on a magazine. Beneath them, she saw the ground... The ground was not the dirt she'd died on; it was pure white. She stood up shakily, looking around at the strange new environment. 

The sky was black, pure black. There wasn't a cloud nor a star above her, no light came from above or below... Despite that, she could see just fine. She looked again at the floor, seeing that she was standing on a path, one that looked as if it were hastily drawn by a giant crayon. 

Its exact form flickered, like what happened if you overlapped two objects in a modelling software. Though, she'd seen that enough to know that this was way too slow to be the same thing. The flaked edges were most noticeable, scattered differently every second she looked. 

To her left, there was a house... Well, an outline of a house, seemingly made of the same substance as the floor, and flickering the same way. It was like she was standing in a child's drawing, a place without details or definition. There was probably a metaphor there, somewhere. 

Well, Erika wasn't going to be the one to waste time finding it. She reached for the house's doorknob, a circle that seemed to face her no matter her angle of view. It felt smooth, despite the crude edges she saw on it, she turned it. There wasn't even a click, it was just silent. She turned it again. 

Nothing happened. She sighed, and let go of the doorknob, turning towards the path again, looking all the way down it into the distance... It wasn't actually long; it was like a 10-second walk away to the end of it. Erika rubbed her temples, taking a deep breath, and just deciding to accept it. 

Gift horses, and all. She exhaled again, and walked down the path, reaching the end of it and looking out at the void. She reached out, and saw her hand disappear, before hastily pulling back... Oh, it was just a doorway. She growled slightly, extremely annoyed at the fact that she had been offered literally no explanation for what is happening. 

Erika patted her face before shaking her head. "Just accept it. You're gonna give yourself a migraine again." She reminded herself of that night just before... Before her second cellmate was gone... She was younger than Erika was. 13. She was a child... 

"She didn't deserve it." She heard another voice overlap with her own, faintly, coming from the doorway... Well, she didn't have much to lose. She stepped forward, into the doorway. She felt something hot on her neck, burning hot, like molten metal, pressed on her wound. 

Erika gasped, her lungs felt empty, like she hadn't breathed in years. Erika coughed, a small spittle of blood landing on her hand as she covered her mouth. She panted deeply, stumbling from where she stood, before falling to her knees. The vertigo was like she'd just stopped mid-freefall. 

She felt the floor spinning beneath her, like the gravity pulling her was a carousel put four settings too fast. She breathed faster, trying to slow herself down, but she couldn't. She placed a hand on her neck, fishing for the wound she vividly remembers being carved into her. 

Nothing was there... 

No.  

No no no no.  

She had DIED.  

SHE HAD DIED, ON THE FLOOR.  

SHE HAD BLED. OUT. ON THE FLOOR! 

PEOPLE DON'T JUST GET UP AFTER THEY DIE! 

WHAT WAS GOING ON?!  

WHY WAS SHE NOT DE-?! 

Erika's thoughts were cut off as she felt her throat flood with bile. She lurched forward, staining the dirt beneath the grass with the nearly digested contents of her stomach. Her eyes flicked between the piles of mush in the acid, before another wave of pale green hit the floor. 

She took shaky breaths, a string of saliva hanging out of her mouth, before she spat out the bits of pulp stuck behind her teeth and on her tongue... She felt weirdly better now. Maybe just the fact that she knew she was still human. Humans vomit under extreme stress, so... 

No, she didn't feel better, she coughed, spitting up some phlegm into the puddle she was staring into. She pushed herself back, landing on her ass, still breathing heavily, but somewhat stable. She took her time breathing slowly, staring into the horizon to calm herself down... 

She swallowed what had built in her mouth, just saying saliva would be inaccurate. She hiccupped, feeling tears well in her eyes. She rubbed her fingers along the sides of her neck, feeling no gills... Her hiccups stopped as her brain remembered millions of years of evolution. 

She continued rubbing her neck for a bit, swallowing again, continuing to stare forwards... Okay, calmed down a bit... So, she had died. Then, she woke up in crayon world with a locked house and a path that led to a black door. She walked through the door, and... Came back to life... 

That makes absolutely no fucking sense... But then again, she was sitting in the courtyard of a vampire's mansion. Sense was evidently worthless here... Yup, someone was flying in the distance, how convenient. Erika inhaled and exhaled deeply. No use in denial. 

She stood up shakily, breathing deeply again, before looking back at the mansion. "Not going back there." She muttered, turning to the gate and seeing someone standing there. Meiling, if she remembered right, it was the guy two cages over that told her, right? 

She turned back to the pile of bodies... Should've guessed he wouldn't be there. She shook her head, turning back to the gate and gatekeeper. Meiling was a youkai, weaker than the vampires, but once you get past "one-hit kill" it doesn't really matter who's stronger than who. 

So, the gate wasn't an option. Then, what was? She quietly jogged to the east fence, opposite the corpse pile, and looked up... Yup, too tall to climb. She punched the brick wall out of frustration. Her knuckles scraped it slightly, pulling up bits of skin. It burned... Like her neck had. 

She looked down at her hand, seeing small strings of red pulling the bits of skin back onto her hand... They looked like the path, edges flickering like constantly shedding snakes. They slithered out of her knuckles, onto the wall, pulling back the scraps of skin that had been left behind. 

Erika stared, eyes wide and unblinking, as they pulled the bits of skin back onto her knuckle, fusing them back together. Then, when they were done, they just disappeared, no effect, no lightshow, just gone... Erika was glad her stomach had already been purged, because if it hadn't, she'd have puked again. 

Well, at least she knew why her neck wasn't slit anymore. It made her wonder what would happen if she had gone through the door before it was don- YEAAAH, nope, stopping that train of thought, she was not about to try it out. She certainly didn't want to die again anytime soon. 

Though, if she was going to stay alive, she was probably on a tight time-limit, so, she'd need to get past the wall quickly... She felt a weight in her hand, along with the burning sensation. Erika brought her hand up, seeing what was in her hand. There was a sword.  

The blade and handle were dark grey and the handguard was red, as was the pommel... "Time." Erika flinched, hearing a small voice in the back of her head... She was still on a time limit, wasn't she? Oh well, questions could wait. Besides, she wanted to hit something now. 

She gripped the handle tightly and swiped the sword at the wall. It caved outwards, the bricks shooting out onto the floor outside in steaming chunks. Erika stared at the hole she'd left; it was wider than she was, and its edges were slightly melting. She could see the heat distorting the light around it... 

Magic sword, noted, pack it away to freak out about later. She dashed through the hole, careful not to touch the edges, and didn't stop running. It didn't matter how, she was free, and that's all that mattered... She felt like she was being watched... She needed to run faster. 

Sakuya stared through the hole carved in molten brick, at the fading form of the fleeing girl. You may wonder why she hadn't just grabbed her or killed her for that matter. Well, she'd probably say that the girl wasn't the mansion's problem. That, or she'd show a rare bit of empathy. 

Maybe she'd argue that her mistress had already drank her blood, and there wasn't any point. Or, even say that the girl could only survive by becoming a youkai, and that it was Reimu's issue now. Well, those last two would have been understandable, both were valid reasons. 

But they weren't true.  

If they were, she wouldn't have her lips pressed so tightly together. 

Chapter Text

Erika panted, looking behind her as she stopped finally. She'd been running for a couple minutes now, taking turns at random to make sure she couldn't be tracked. This should be enough distance for her to relax, she slumped next to a tree, breathing heavily as she leaned against it.

She stared up at the sky, finally able to stop and think about what to do. Okay, so she was out of the mansion... Alright, starting to regret not learning more before she got here. Eh, best to just keep moving until she finds something, after she's done with her quick rest.

... 

The sky was nice. She'd never noticed how nice the stars could look. Like a huge tapestry, weaved for the sight of people who'd never even see it's source while it exists... She clenched her hand around the grass she sat on, taking in a deep, slow breath. Freedom.

This was what freedom felt like, looking up at a sky that wasn't obscured, sitting down out of want, instead of need. Enjoying the smell of grass, and grass alone. Erika had missed it. Just how free she was just a month ago, but, now, maybe she could get back to it. To Arakaki...

Maybe she could confess to her. Confess to wanting to be more than friends. More than they had been for 12 years... She nearly cried, thinking about Arakaki's smile. She had nearly forgotten what she looked like, after seeing nothing but the maid, and the people just adjascent to her.

Erika swallowed, feeling a tear run down her face, a month of bottled up isolation coming back to bite... She wiped it away, it could wait and it would wait. She needed to get moving, now. For all she knew, the maid was already starting to prowl. Erika went to prop herself up with her swor-

...The sword was gone, she had a card in her hand instead. She looked over it, the front was orange with the outline of a flaming sword in white, along with some star-like decorations. As she turned it over, the front seemed to turn to face her, it reminded her of the doorknob in that crayon world.

Now that she looked again, there was a word at the top: Firebrand... It was in English, for one, so that was interesting. Was that like the name of the sword? She went to drop the card into her other hand, jumping as the card suddenly switched to the blade in a burst of fire. 

"Well, that's... Convinient, at least." Now she wouldn't have to carry a full sword everywhere she went. As she tried to drop the sword, it switched again, to a card. She practiced switching between them a few times, before putting the card into her hoodie pocket.

She stood up, finally starting to walk as she rolled her arm, enjoying the lack of weight on it. It didn't take long for her to reach a clearing, though, it was a bit hard to see much detail, given the mist everywhere. She walked out into it, smelling the vapor in the air, as she saw a lake come into view.

She jogged a bit when she saw it, hoping for some water... But then she remembered that lakes weren't fit for drinking. They're stagnant, bacteria would be everywhere in it. She sighed, starting to walk around the edge of the water, through the mist. The mist shifted quickly.

Erika's eyes instantly locked onto the shape moving in the mist. It came into view just in front of her: A huge chunk of ice. She felt it hit her chest... She couldn't feel her right arm, she looked down at it... Half of her torso was gone, she could see inside her remaining lung and saw the trail of her intestines behind her.

She buckled, the chunk of flesh that remained on her left side the only thing connecting her legs to her chest. Erika heard static rising in her ears as her only lung failed to inflate, and her blood poured onto the grass. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't think, she couldn't stand.

...Why her? Why, in any god's name, was she the one dying again? She knew she could come back. She knew very, very well she could die over and over again, if she needed to. But why did she need to? Why did she need to be the one who died? 

She felt a burning behind her eyes again, and a voice spoke. "How many have asked the same question?" Erika felt the world freeze, and grow dark. "I know that it hurts. And I know you want it to stop. I can tell you want to give up." She felt someone was standing behind her.

"But I want this to end, for everyone. For everyone like you. Everyone who doesn't want to die for the sake of a world that doesn't love them." She felt a hand pressed on her shoulder, the burning alongside it. "I want to make sure that no one else has to ask that question."

"But I can't rely on anyone but you to make a difference. Even the humans that live here want the cycle to continue. I need someone like me. Someone that hates this world, and doesn't try to just accept it. I need someone like you." Erika's head drooped, and the world went black.

Erika jolted awake, breathing shakily, laying on her back, she saw a sky above that was uniformly blue. The cartoonish sun was directly above her, which didn't hurt to look at, despite the light... Crayon world, again. She looked just behind her, seeing a black doorframe.

Tilting her head to the side, she saw the floor she was laying on was concrete, not cartoonish concrete, genuine concrete. The small raised edges of the platform made her assume she was on the roof of a building. The crayon-drawn clouds just beyond the edges didn't disprove that theory.

"...Stop distracting yourself, you can admire later." Erika told herself, sitting up and crossing her legs, ignoring the sights around her. She needed a moment to think about what she'd been told by... About what she'd been told... She needed to digest everything that had happened... She took a few deep breaths, and sat still, thinking...

"How would I feel if Arakaki, Haruno or Coda disappeared here?"

...

"If I don't, why would the next one? Or the one after them?"

...

"How many have already died for nothing?"

...

She didn't have an answer to those questions.

...

But she knew what to do.

She stood up, Firebrand appearing in her hand. She took a deep breath, trying to prepare herself. She knew she'd hate it... But she'd hate herself a hell of a lot more if she just walked away. Besides, who'd miss a world like this? It's a death trap wearing a fantasy world's skin.

Well, she could see the door, she knew what to do. She walked along the roof, pausing briefly as she saw a black silhouette standing at the edge... No, like a literal silhouette, there wasn't anyone there. Erika walked next to it, looking down at the same angle, at the street below...

She saw her and Arakaki walking side-by-side, holding takeout... She ate that takeout the morning before she got here, didn't she? It felt so small, at the time, just something they did at the end of every other Friday. Just something they did to treat themselves, a quick cheat day.

Tears started welling up in Erika's eyes as she remembered her routine from before. It all had felt so insignificant back then. But it was time with her, wearing those... Erika checked her right wrist... She placed a hand on the red, blue and orange weaved friendship bracelet.

This was what she had left. If not anything else, this proved that she was real, that her life was important to someone. It proved that Arakaki, Haruno and Coda were all out there, somewhere... That she had a life to get back to... One day... After she's done here.

"Hold onto the hate. It's what'll get you to her, in a better world." She told herself, wiping the tears off her face as she walked past the silhouette, making out it's shape as she saw it from other angles... She turned away and walked past, she had enough on her mind already.

She stood before the next doorway, and took a deep breath. The heat behind her eyes felt as though it had finally rose to the surface as she walked through. The world was black as she felt her torso and left arm burn, noticing that it hurt less than her first death.

Erika stared into the mist ahead of her and squeezed Firebrand's handle, the mist dispersing slightly in response to the sudden heat. She squinted into the mist, making out a shape in the fog, before pulling Firebrand back. On a whim, she thrusted the sword toward the shape in the mist.

As if knowing her intentions, Firebrand's blade ignited with a roar as she began to thrust it forward. A huge plume of flames erupted outwards as she did, the mist dispersing to make way. She stared at the burning grass as the plume dissipated, not having expected that to work.

In the gaps in the mist, she saw a girl flying, patting down the fire on her clothes, but ultimately seeming fine. The small, blue-haired girl pointed her arms at Erika and started to fire out small spheres of energy from them. "Hey! Who do you think you are messing with me?"

Erika jumped to the side, avoiding one of the bullets before blocking another with Firebrand. She continued to dodge through the barrage until she found a small blindspot and decided to try something. She pointed Firebrand towards the girl directly.

It ignited and started shooting it's own stream of energy. A haze of blue and orange lit up the mist as the bullets collided, obliterating each other as they did. "Wow, you're pretty good at this!" Erika heard among the thunderous noise of the clash between the two of them.

Her only response was the roaring of flames. 

No need to waste her breath on a murderer. 

"Let's see if you keep up with this! Ice Sign "Icicle Fall"!"