Kohaku's O-Megumi Shi was identical to the real city in most ways. It had the same layout, despite the occasional strangeness of the architecture, which meant Hisako could navigate it with ease.
Hisako led Amajiki down familiar streets. She stared at them curiously, discovering every little difference and quirk.
There were no people.
There were plenty of animals to add ambience–even ones Hisako didn't usually see, like rats and raccoons in alleys.
Each building was oddly quiet and dead. Ideal for urban exploration, Hisako figured.
"Are all doors like this on the inside?" Hisako asked as they passed the nth konbini.
"Cities? No, cities are actually somewhat uncommon. Most people don't long for the concrete jungle. They like the countryside or the beach. Small towns are common too, I suppose, and some people's door worlds are just one property."
"So they're not always so big?"
"This world is not big. It's a trick."
He stopped and pointed down a street perpendicular to them. Hisako looked closely. She recognized the street, but realized quickly that in the real world, it didn't look like that.
The buildings were repeating, like a mirror. "It's like a video game. It's a skybox," she realized.
"A skybox? Sure. If you keep walking in that direction, you'll find that you aren't really moving. It's like an endless hallway."
Hisako nodded. Everything was starting to become a lot clearer in her mind. It was like a video game world–a hidden level shaped by Kohaku's mind.
Hisako picked up the pace as they neared Kohaku's apartment. Amajiki kept his casual stride.
Hisako blew past the doorway and into the complex, bursting up the stairs and into Kohaku's apartment.
She staggered when she saw the inside.
It had been changed completely. The apartment wasn't an apartment anymore; the exterior wall was gone, and the rest of the walls were made of rock. The room looked like a cliffside cave.
She carefully traversed the rock floor and found that even the bathroom had become one with nature. A pool of water hung on the wall instead of a mirror, and the floor was thick grass on hard dirt.
"Kohaku wants their apartment to be a mountain?" she breathed. She shook her head after a moment. "No. It's nature."
She looked around more calmly. The apartment was comfortable in its own way–in Kohaku's way.
They could lie on the stone and see the stars outside. They could literally scale the walls, and they could leave the apartment and climb up and down the exterior as they wished.
It was very Kohaku.
She relaxed fondly. Kohaku wasn't just safe here; they were probably happy.
She frowned. Would Kohaku want to stay? They had everything they needed… Everything but Hisako, if they even needed her.
She needed them.
Amajiki caught up. He hummed curiously as he peered around. "Is Kohaku some kind of forest person?"
"Explorer," Hisako corrected.
"So they're not here."
"No."
"Okay, best friend," Amajiki teased. "Maybe try harder to figure out where they are this time."
Hisako nodded and set off again, jogging about. It was starting to become eerie, the lack of humans. Despite it, Hisako felt the uncomfortable prickle of being watched.
Maybe it was just Amajiki's scrutiny.
Hisako glanced into each building and konbini she ran by. With so many perfect opportunities to explore, maybe Kohaku was just puttering about.
She made it to the site in record time. Maybe the city wasn't to an exact scale.
She jumped over the little barricades and ducked into the building's skeleton. In this world, the frame was completed, and their crew was starting the paneling, judging by the tools and materials lying around.
She wandered through the site, confused. "Kohaku!" she exclaimed. "Kohaku! Where are you?"
"Not here either, huh?"
Amajiki appeared from seemingly thin air, rounding a corner. "Maybe you're not understanding how this world works."
"Then explain it," Hisako gritted out. "Please."
"This place reflects Kohaku's deepest wishes. This is how they see their world. It will be their ideal, more or less. People don't bother with trivial things in a world of their own. People don't work."
"I-I thought… This is where we spend most of our time together."
"If you could choose any place to spend your time with them, where would it be?"
"The arcade, playing games together."
"And where would they want to take you?"
"Exploring. Someplace they love. Something fun to do." She paced. "Something they can't do in the real world?"
"Yes. Where would they go?"
Hisako stepped out of the site. She looked up at the skyline. If she squinted, she could tell which buildings weren't real. A single building stood tallest against the false towers of the skybox–a silver skyscraper plated in glass with a peak shaped like a modest crown.
"Princess Megumi Tower," she breathed. "It's here. It's the tallest building in O-Megumi Shi. If they could climb it, they would."
"That's your final answer?" Amajiki asked.
"Yes," Hisako replied immediately. "Yes, they're there. I know it."
Amajiki gestured, and Hisako led. This time, when she broke into a run, he did too.
Hisako hadn't been to the building, but she'd been around it and knew where it was.
Unlike the more familiar part of the city, the area around the towers felt larger than life, and it took longer to get through it. Maybe that was how Kohaku perceived the bustling area.
Hisako had to slow down as the streets became foreign and the alleys became far too numerous.
Amajiki looked around cautiously.
"The real city isn't this… ominous," she promised.
The shadows seemed to stretch abnormally, and the clear sky had become clouded over.
"Slow down," Amajiki warned. "The world has good and bad."
"That darkness you were talking about?"
Amajiki took the lead, creeping through the streets. As the alleys became wider and darker, the streets became narrower.
Kohaku liked alleys but not this much. Hisako kept close to the Doorkeeper.
They reached a crossroads, and Amajiki stilled. "Look."
Ahead, milling about the crosswalk, was a person.
Almost.
It wasn't shaped right. They hunched over, and their skin drooped on sharp, elongated bones. Their eyes were visible from where they stood; they were so big and wide, like they lacked eyelids.
Their face was pug-ish, with a crooked, open mouth. They made a mumbling, warbling sound in their throat, and their crooked, just-too-long fingers tapped at their thighs.
The creature wasn't wearing clothes, but it seemed clothed. Its skin fell in odd flaps as if it'd melded with a t-shirt and pants.
The sight was unpleasant and unnerving. Hisako hid behind Amajiki, heart rattling in her chest.
"What is that?" she breathed, so quietly she questioned if he'd heard.
"A Doorwalker. The only creatures that live inside every door, regardless of who owns it."
"Why does it look like that?"
"They look different, door to door," Amajiki explained. "I'm sure you can imagine why."
Hisako took the logical step. "It's unique to the person's world. Their fears?"
"Any darkness inside them."
The thing swiveled its head, eyes bulging, looking every which way, rolling separately from the other. It chirped repeatedly. It sounded like… laughter. A mocking laughter.
What did these monsters mean to Kohaku? Hisako struggled to understand.
More chirps rang out and soon another of the creatures waddled in, then another, until three paced around the crossing. They looked mostly alike, but different, as individual as people in their structure and the way their skin sagged and creased.
"Why aren't they leaving?" Hisako whispered urgently.
"They can sense outsiders."
"They'll attack us?"
"Yes."
"What about Kohaku? They're not safe, are they?"
"No. The Doorwalkers will attack them too, and then, after they kill the door's owner, they'll leave the door and attack others."
"That's why going into doors is illegal?"
"The walkers will leave the door's world to find the owner, whether they open it or not. Going in just makes it harder for me to do my job."
Hisako nodded. "The door. It disappears. That's why you found me at my door–because Kohaku's door reading was weaker once they went in." She glanced at him with alarm. "I have a monster world, too?"
"Everyone does. Even keepers. What makes someone a Doorkeeper is being able to overcome the door."
"Do we sneak past them?" Hisako whispered.
"You do," Amajiki said. He sighed after a moment. "Since there are only three, we can sneak by them. There's no benefit from fighting the minor Doorwalkers–they're just obstacles, and they're endless."
"They spawn infinitely?" Hisako asked.
The man chuckled. "Sure. Yeah."
"They've got big eyes," Hisako murmured. "Otherwise, they seem normal. Normal enough, I mean. For monsters. They shouldn't be too hard to sneak by, right?"
"Mmhmm. Follow me."
Amajiki shuffled them to the end of their hiding space, then, when the monsters turned away. He rose in a half-crouch and hurried along. She followed hastily, eyes locked on the monsters.
"Walkers tend to be based on real-life things," Amajiki explained when they cleared the crossing. "If the walker looks humanoid, it probably has predator eye position, and thus won't be able to see with such a wide field of view."
Hisako nodded. "What happens if one sees us?"
"We run or fight. Rather, you run and I fight."
"Is it hard to… kill them?"
"They're not real-real," Amajiki reminded her. "Fake things don't 'die'. But no, these are weak. There are much stronger ones. The stronger the person, the stronger the door, and the stronger the walkers."
"What makes someone strong?"
"A lot of things. The owner's natural talent, training, and a bad matchup can all cause trouble for an unprepared keeper."
"So Kohaku's door isn't a problem for you?"
"No, but anyone can get caught off guard when outnumbered. It's never a walk in the park to enter a door, especially alone."
Hisako blinked and paused. Amajiki kept sneaking along, so she had to scurry quietly to catch up.
"You're alone!" she hissed.
Amajiki turned and smiled cheekily. "No. I have you."
She clicked her tongue and shoved him gently. "I'm a construction worker! What can I do here?"
He stopped, and she ran into him. "You did something most people wouldn't do; you went through a door–a door you summoned back into our world. You're halfway to being a Doorkeeper!"
Hisako scowled at him, narrowing her eyes. "You're up to something, old man."
He gaped at her. "I'm not that old. Come on. We're getting close. If your friend is at that building, there'll be more walkers."
"Whoa, whoa. How many? If they're climbing that building, how are we going to save them?" She grabbed the cuff of his dress shirt. "What is the plan?"
"I'll fight off the walkers, and you get your friend."
"And then we escape?"
He made a noncommittal noise. "Ehh. When the person enters the door, it gets more complicated. Getting your friend to summon the door should work."
"Should?" Hisako hissed. "What do you usually do?"
"Someone needs to beat the core Doorwalkers. The owner needs to be strong enough to overcome the walkers and beat the darkness."
"The darkness in their heart."
"Yes."
"Okay, how?"
"Epiphany. Or catharsis"
She ran into him once more. She opened her mouth to question him when she noticed the movement up ahead.
In her peripheral vision, she hadn't noticed it because there was just a sea of gray against washed gray stone.
What she'd ignored as part of the landscape was a giant migrating horde of the walkers. No two were alike, but they all looked like those ghastly humanoids from the crossing.
"Hm," Amajiki hummed casually. "This is too many."
"What?"
"We're not even on the same block as the building."
"Yeah."
"They've surrounded the whole block. There are way too many."
"W-what do we do?"
"I'll fight them, and you'll run," Amajiki replied. "You run and get your friend."
"You can't fight all of them, can you?"
Amajiki shrugged.
Hisako shifted anxiously. "Okay! Okay. Yes. You distract them, and I'll get Kohaku. D-don't die, okay? They can kill you, can't they?"
Amajiki shrugged again. "Are you ready?"
"Ready?" Her teeth felt light–her jaw was ready to chatter. "Ready, yeah." She jumped in place, loosening up. "Yeah, I'm ready. Are you ready?"
He looked at her with amused incredulity. "I'm always ready, miss."
"Oh, I never–I'm Mochizuki Hisako."
He smiled warmly at her. "Nice to meet you. Don't die, okay?"
She nodded shakily.
"Now, I'll show you what a Doorkeeper can do."
She crossed the road carefully, ready to run as soon as he distracted them.
He readied himself, dropping into a slight stance. His face shifted into something grim and controlled, and a set of grand doors snapped into existence behind him.
The doors were crimson and gold–something luxurious and heavy. They opened and a brilliant gold light glowed from the empty void. From the white emptiness appeared a roulette table
He snapped his fingers, and the roulette wheel began to spin. The monsters also heard and turned to look at him.
The wheel spun loudly, and the monsters were drawn in. Hisako inched forward.
For as vision-based as the monsters were, they didn't seem to care about her shifting around their periphery once they were hooked on Amakij.
The wheel stopped, the roulette ball settled, and the light turned blinding as something appeared in Amajiki's waiting grip.