Chapter 22: The Stairway to Heaven... and Hell

We are climbing. Endlessly climbing.

The air is stale, smelling of rust, old paint, and the ozone tang of high-voltage electricity. The red emergency lights are flickering, casting strobe-light shadows that dance on the walls like nervous ghosts. Every step is a battle against gravity, which seems to fluctuate with the pulsing of the Eclipse outside.

"Floor twenty", Kenuji pants, checking the painted number on the wall as we round a landing. He wipes sweat from his forehead, leaving a streak of grime. "Only... three hundred more vertical meters to go. Give or take".

"My legs", Muji groans loudly. He is taking the steps three at a time, his movements explosive but heavy. "My legs are turning into jelly. Why did humans build this thing so tall? What was wrong with the ground? The ground is nice. The ground doesn't make my calves burn".

"It is a broadcasting tower, you idiot", Inoe snaps, though she is breathing hard too. She has kicked off her stylish combat boots and tied the laces together, slinging them around her neck. She is running barefoot on the cold concrete to get better grip. "It needs height to send signals. That is literally its only purpose".

"It is sending evil signals now", I say, wiping sweat from my eyes. I am in the rear, keeping a pace that I hope I can maintain without collapsing. "We need to cut the wire".

"Less talking, more climbing", Kenuji orders. "If Yoshi can hold off an army at the bottom, we can walk up some stairs".

The mention of Yoshi silences us. We can feel the tremors vibrating through the steel skeleton of the tower. Thump... Thump... It feels like a heartbeat. A giant, angry heartbeat coming from the earth far below. He is fighting. He is alive.

We push harder.

Suddenly, the stairs change.

We run up a flight, our footsteps echoing in the narrow shaft. We turn the corner on the landing, expecting to see the sign for Floor 25.

Instead, we see a sign painted on the wall: Floor 20.

We stop. The momentum nearly sends Muji crashing into the railing.

"Wait", Muji blinks, looking at the sign. "We just passed Floor 20. Did we fall? Did I black out?"

"No", Kenuji says, his voice tight. He walks to the railing and looks down the center of the stairwell. It spirals down into infinite darkness. He looks up. It spirals up into infinite darkness. "We went up. I counted the steps".

"Then why are we back here?" I ask, touching the paint. It is fresh. "Is it a genjutsu? An illusion?"

"Let's try again", Inoe says.

We run up another flight. We count the steps. One, two, three... twenty. We turn the corner.

Floor 20.

"It is a loop", Kenuji realizes, slamming his hand against the rail. "A spiritual barrier. A Mobius strip. Space is folded on itself. We are running in circles".

"Kuro", Muji growls, baring his teeth. "He is mocking us. He is making us run on a hamster wheel".

"How do we break it?" I ask. "If we cannot trust our eyes, how do we navigate?"

"It is a mental construct", Inoe says. She steps forward, her eyes glowing a faint, neon pink in the gloom. "He is messing with our perception of direction. He is feeding false data to our brains. If we look, we lose".

"So what?" Muji asks. "We walk backward?"

"No", Inoe says. "We close our eyes".

"What?" Muji looks at her like she is crazy. "Run up stairs? Blind? I will break my neck".

"Close them!" Inoe commands, her voice layering with psychic power. "If you look with your eyes, you see the loop because your brain expects the loop. Look with your feet. Trust gravity. Trust your instincts. We are cats. We do not need eyes to climb".

She is right. We look at each other. Then, one by one, we close our eyes.

The world disappears. The flickering red lights vanish. The number 20 vanishes.

"Run", Inoe whispers.

Running blind is terrifying. Every instinct screams that I am going to trip, that I am going to smash my face into a concrete step. But I focus on the rhythm. Step, step, step. I feel the cold rail under my hand. I feel the air moving past me.

I hear Muji breathing ahead of me. I hear Kenuji's shoes clicking.

We run for what feels like an eternity. The burn in my legs intensifies. The air gets thinner.

"Open", Inoe says.

We stop. We gasp. We open our eyes.

We are standing on a landing. The sign on the wall is faded and chipped.

Floor 45.

"We broke it", Kenuji says, adjusting his glasses. A small smile plays on his lips. "Good work, Inoe. You outsmarted him".

"I felt sick", Muji complains, leaning heavily against the wall. His face is a little green. "That was like motion sickness without the motion. I hate magic stairs".

"We are close to the Main Deck", I say, looking up. The door at the top of this flight is different. It is heavy steel, sealed with black, pulsating gunk that looks like tar.

"Blocked", Muji says, recovering instantly at the prospect of destruction. "Stand back".

He walks up the steps. He channels his energy. His human hands shimmer, and for a second, spectral tiger claws overlay his fingers.

"Silver Claw: Can Opener!"

He slashes an X into the steel door. SHING. The metal screams as it is parted. He kicks the center of the X.

CLANG.

The metal folds inward, tearing open a jagged hole. Light spills out. Not red emergency light, but the purple glow of the Eclipse.

We step through the hole and out onto the Main Deck.

It is 150 meters above the ground. Usually, this observation deck is full of couples taking selfies and kids looking at the view.

Today, it is a war zone.

The floor-to-ceiling windows offer a panoramic view of the apocalypse. Tokyo is burning. Smoke columns rise like black trees. The sky is a swirling vortex of violet clouds.

But inside, the chaos is closer.

Dozens of people-tourists, security guards, shop staff in pink uniforms-are shuffling around the deck. They are possessed. Their eyes are black pools of ink. Their movements are jerky and unnatural.

"Civilians", I hiss, grabbing Muji's arm before he can charge. "We cannot hurt them. They are innocent".

"They want to hurt us", Muji points out as a security guard spots us and lunges, swinging a heavy flashlight.

Muji sighs. He sidesteps the swing effortlessly. He grabs the guard by the belt and the collar.

"Nap time!" Muji yells.

He tosses the guard gently through the air. The man lands with a soft poof onto a pile of beanbag chairs in the corner of the lounge area.

"See?" Muji grins. "Gentle".

"We need to get to the Top Deck elevators", Kenuji says, pointing to the center of the circular room. "The stairs to the upper observatory continue from there. Kuro is at the top, at 250 meters".

"Blockade", Inoe points a manicured finger.

Between us and the elevators is a wall of people. Possessed tourists are linking arms, forming a human chain three deep. Dark energy crackles between them like static electricity.

"They are a battery", Kenuji analyzes, his eyes darting. "They are feeding a shield around the elevator shaft. If we touch them, the feedback will fry us".

"I will handle the shield frequencies", I say. "Inoe, handle the minds. Break the chain".

I step forward. I gather my light, not as a weapon, but as a dampener.

"Divine Light: Soft Breaker".

I shoot a pulse of light from my palms. It isn't sharp; it is heavy and soft, like a wave of warm water. It hits the dark energy shield connecting the people. The static crackles, hisses, and dies down.

"Now, Inoe!"

Inoe steps up. She puts her fingers to her temples. She takes a deep breath and projects her voice, not just acoustically, but psychically.

"Attention, everyone! Look at me!"

The possessed tourists turn their heads in unison. It is creepy.

"There is a huge sale at the gift shop!" Inoe shouts, pointing toward the souvenir store on the other side of the deck. She projects the intense desire for consumerism directly into their lizard brains. "Fifty percent off everything! Limited time only! The Tokyo Tower keychains are practically free!"

The command hits their greed centers. It overrides the possession command for a split second. The human chain breaks as their arms drop.

"Sale?" one of them mumbles.

"Sale!" another screams.

The mob turns. They scramble toward the souvenir shop, pushing and shoving each other out of the way, completely ignoring us.

"That worked?" Muji asks, watching the stampede with his mouth open. "You saved us with a coupon?"

"Never underestimate the power of a discount", Inoe smirks, flipping her hair. "Humans love a bargain almost as much as they love breathing".

We run through the gap in the crowd. We reach the central area. The elevator doors are sealed tight, glowing with complex runes.

"I need a minute to hack this", Kenuji says, dropping to his knees and plugging his laptop into the maintenance port. "It is bio-locked. Kuro changed the code".

"We need cover", Muji says, looking back at the mob. The 'sale' distraction won't last forever.

"In here", Yoshi-no, wait, Yoshi isn't here. I keep forgetting. "In here", I say, pointing to the 'Tokyo Tower Official Shop' annex.

We duck into the small shop. It is relatively empty, as the mob is busy destroying the main store across the deck.

We barricade the door with a display rack of postcards.

For a moment, it is quiet. Surreal. We are surrounded by plushies, keychains, and boxes of tower-shaped cookies, while the world ends outside the glass.

Muji slides down the counter, sitting on the floor. He looks exhausted. "I am thirsty".

He reaches up and grabs a bottle of "Tokyo Tower Mineral Water" shaped like the tower itself from a shelf. He cracks the plastic cap and downs it in one gulp.

"That cost 500 yen", Kenuji mumbles from the doorway, typing furiously on his laptop.

"Put it on my tab", Muji says, wiping his mouth. He looks around. He picks up a cat plushie from a bin. It is a calico cat. He looks at Inoe. "Hey, look. It is you. But fatter".

Inoe snatches the plushie from him. "It is not fat. It is fluffy. It is ergonomically designed for hugging". She hugs it tight to her chest. "And it is soft. I needed this. Just for a second".

I lean against a display of magnets. My legs are trembling uncontrollably. "How is Yoshi?"

The question hangs in the air, heavier than the corruption outside.

Suddenly, the entire tower shakes.

BOOM.

It is a massive impact. Dust falls from the ceiling tiles. A display of snow globes rattles, and one falls, shattering on the floor. Liquid and fake snow spread across the linoleum.

"That was from the bottom", Kenuji says, looking up from his screen, his eyes wide. "Seismic activity localized at the base. Magnitude 4.0. But only at the base".

"He is fighting", I whisper. "He is still fighting. He is shaking the earth".

"He is winning", Muji says fiercely. He stands up, crushing the empty water bottle in his hand. "I know he is. Yoshi is too stubborn to lose to a guy named Goro. So we have to win too. We cannot be the ones who fail".

"Got it!" Kenuji shouts. "The encryption is broken! The door to the Top Deck stairs is open!"

"Let's go", Inoe says. She looks at the plushie one last time, then drops it onto the counter. "Time to climb the rest of the mountain".

We kick the postcard rack aside. We run out of the shop.

Muji pauses. He runs back, grabs a bag of 'Tower Cookies' (chocolate filled), and stuffs them into his cargo pocket.

"For energy", he explains when I look at him. "Sugar rush".

We sprint to the central shaft. The heavy doors slide open, revealing the final staircase.

This one is different. It is not an internal concrete stairwell. It is an open-air metal lattice that winds around the central pillar of the tower, exposed to the elements.

We step out onto the metal grating.

The wind hits us like a physical blow. It is howling, tearing at our clothes. We are 200 meters up now.

Below us, the city looks like a circuit board on fire. Above us, the purple vortex swirls around the tip of the tower, crackling with lightning.

"Almost there", I pant, grabbing the railing. The metal is cold and vibrating.

"Don't look down", Kenuji advises. "Seriously. Do not look down".

Muji looks down. "Whoa. The cars look like ants. And the ants look like... well, I cannot see ants. But you get the point".

"Climb!" Inoe shouts over the wind.

We climb. We climb toward the eye of the storm. We climb toward Kuro.

The final battle is waiting for us in the sky. And we are bringing hell with us.