3.6 Late Night Horror Fight Labyrinth Part 4

For a split second, the only thought in their head was “I know this grip.”

They didn’t register Nana scream or whatever movements anyone else made. They fell into a crouch and then onto their side, leg in the grip of Isshiki Ibuki.

The temperature plummeted.

Junna opened their mouth to say something, but they’d lost all their words. Ibuki’s expression was blank. That was one of the worst parts. Ibuki’s expression was never blank when she was alive. She was full of energy, and animated.

“That’s so cool, how many fish do you have?”

“You’ve been talking to ghosts since you were a kid? You’re so brave!”

“Don’t listen to those old hags, they gossip about everyone around here… but don’t tell my parents I called those ladies old hags, okay? They want me to be polite!”

“You think we should do it? I knew it, I didn’t think any test of courage would scare you! Even my siblings won’t go to that old shrine yet! Let’s go after dark. If it’s you and me, we can totally exorcize anything that shows up!”

“Do you want to see my secret technique? This is why I always keep a few bird bones on me…”

Junna wasn’t really a quiet or shy person, but they knew they appeared gloomy and lethargic. Ibuki was friendly, open, and bouncy. Ibuki was light, quick, and clever. Ibuki always smiled, whether it was in joy or mischief. She could create an entire bird familiar from less than half a skeleton and nothing else. She was the next head of the Isshiki family and every one of them loved her. She was polite and proper when needed, curious and adventurous when she could be. She would roll her eyes at the gossipy old aunties in her small hometown and help anyone who asked her just because they asked.

And Ibuki was dead.

And Ibuki was dead.

Junna had to face this Ibuki, the Ibuki they dragged back from any hope of rest. The Ibuki who never smiled, whose warm dark brown eyes had turned white rimmed in red, whose sing-song voice was raspy and pained from strangulation. This pale, cold Ibuki who moved like she wasn’t fully in control over her body, but instead forcing her surroundings to pull her around out of spite. Who stared at Junna half the time like she didn’t recognize them, and the other half like she hated them.

Junna destroyed their Ibuki’s personality and brought back this Ibuki in her place.

Their face was wet; they had no idea when they’d started crying but at that second they took a deep breath and started screaming. They weren’t screaming words, but in their head was just

I can’t do it, I can’t do it, I can’t I can’t I can’t, I really can’t—

Don’t make me, please don’t make me

I know it’s the one thing I need to do

But I just can’t kill her again.

No more, no more, no more—

Ibuki had one arm wrapped around their calf and her other hand gripped one of Junna’s sleeves. This was only the second time she had gotten so close. Junna’s throat almost closed up in anticipation. Junna couldn’t see their own neck, but bruises from Ibuki’s fingers were there, and the knowledge made their neck feel icy cold.

“With the blessings of Benihime Inari, ignite!”

A bright flash of pink-violet shot past Junna and exploded like a firework in front of Ibuki’s face, forcing her to loosen her grip. Junna fell back into Nana, who lit up another ball of fox fire in her free palm. She was sweating and breathing heavily, looking so much more alive than Junna felt. Ibuki’s grip tightened again, then weakened.

“--retsu, zai, zen.”

A blade of light passed between them, further separating Ibuki from Junna, though she still wouldn’t let go and none of the joints in Junna’s limbs were working. Takuto sighed, seeing his first recited kuji hadn’t worked, and started on words and hand symbols for the next while Shigoro accompanied him with the heart sutra, sounding almost bored repeating “gyate gyate haragyate haragyate bochi sowaka” like he was trying to complete a tongue-twister.

Junna couldn’t simply absorb Ibuki, even if they wanted to. What else could they try? Did they have any talismans in their sleeve? They reached into their sleeve and didn’t find any useful ones prewritten. Instead they pulled out a drawstring pouch full of salt and heaved the whole thing right into Ibuki’s face.

It hit; Ibuki released Junna’s sleeve and reeled backwards, one second suspended, the next back down to her waist in the pitch black water. She twisted her head around in two unnatural motions, glaring at Nana over Junna’s shoulder, and then Takuto and Shigoro to the side.

“Ha… hahaha…” Junna’s eye twitched and their laughter only came through heavy breaths.

This would have been so funny if you were alive.

“Ryou, hyaku, yu, jun, nai, mu, sho, sui, gen.”

Takuto tried a general exorcism kuji: not going to work. Ibuki only glared at him as the blade of light passed by her. Nana dropped down a translucent pink-gold barrier over all four of them like a curtain. The combination of that, the fox fire spells Nana had cast, the heart sutra, the kuji, and the salt couldn’t stop Ibuki, but they were all so spiritually offensive to ghosts that even she started to struggle.

Takuto switched to a juji, a spell of ten words versus the kuji’s nine.

“Fu, i, gun, jin, chu, shu, on, shitsu, tai, san!”

Another blade of light: Takuto didn’t need to carry a sword because he was skilled at both mantras, verbal spells, and mudras, hand seals: specifically the sword mudra. Ibuki retreated further into the water until it was up to the bridge of her nose. Shigoro joined Nana and together, they hauled Junna away from the water by their arms. Shigoro didn’t falter reciting the heart sutra even once and as the repetitions grew in number, Ibuki’s irritation grew. She covered her ears with her hands.

Junna couldn’t breathe. Nana’s hands shook as she pleaded with her brother to help her find a suitable place for a gate; a narrow space they could squeeze through would suffice. Junna nodded vaguely, but more because they were fighting going limp than because they agreed with Nana’s plan.

“Your left,” Takuto said to Nana. Before Ibuki could climb out of the pitch black pond again, Nana pulled Junna in that direction with a surprising amount of strength.

She’s not that strong, she’s just scared.

Shigoro helped when Nana wasn’t moving fast enough for his taste, and Takuto followed the three of them into the space between a telephone pole and a short garden wall. Junna ended up sprawled on top of Nana while Shigoro skipped a step out of the way and released Junna’s arm just in time to not fall with them.

The mist disappeared, the lights and sounds returned. The sky was still black with no stars, but light pollution seeped into Junna’s field of vision once again.

Nana scrambled out from under Junna, putting her hands on their shoulders.

“Where are we, are we close to the shrine?” she asked her brother.

“Mmm, yeah, just a couple of blocks that way,” Shigoro said, responding to Nana’s panic and Junna’s catatonic state with a light shrug.

“Oh, g-good—Junna. Junna! Breathe! Inhale, take a deep breath!”

Those words made no sense to Junna. They wanted to inhale. They wanted to breathe. But they couldn’t. They needed a heartbeat and there was no working heart in their cold, dead body.