As the light engulfing Amakiji faded, Hisako made out the item in his hand: a large scythe rippling with electricity.
Magic. Magic was real, and people could use it?
She got lost in the moment, but the fear of the monsters shuffling forward jolted her into action. She sprinted, slipping by the shambling mob.
The effect of Amakiji's distraction rippled through the horde quickly, like a spreading wildfire. Escaping past was all too easy.
When Hisako glanced back, she could see the numbers thinning. Lightning crackled above the horde, striking indiscriminately, and she could see the flash of metal swinging about, cutting down the walkers. Amajiki was taking them out with ease, Hisako realized.
The thoughts of magic and Doorkeepers vanished from her mind when she reached the Princess Megumi Tower. The area was still dense with walkers, and they weren't close enough to realize Amajiki was around.
Worst of all, the walkers were flowing into and up the building.
Hisako skidded to a stop at the edge of the block and looked around. Up the tower, many storeys above, she could see a figure climbing the large exterior panes, a little over halfway up the building.
Despite it all, she broke into a smile and tears welled in her eyes. Her heart swelled dangerously.
She glanced around again, incensed. Chunks of stone and brick were strewn about the ground. It was all too easy to pick one up and send it flying through a building across from the tower.
The window shattered with a sound akin to a million tiny explosions.
It alerted the monsters, and they all turned and hobbled towards the sound, flowing into the alley and building to hunt nonexistent prey.
It was enough to sprint once more and catch only the attention of a few walkers. She was faster than them and their hobbled, mismatched limbs, so she rushed past and kept going, into the tower.
Like she'd expected, the lobby had walkers inside, but not as many as she'd feared. They were loosely packed wall to wood-panel wall, but she was able to weave around them and even slide between bowed legs on the smooth marble flooring.
The elevator wasn't on the right floor, and it would just be a metal death trap anyway, so she hurried to the staircase.
The awkward limbs of the walkers made it difficult for them to ascend, giving her yet another advantage, but their ragged fingers on longer arms grabbed at her nonetheless.
She screamed when the first one gripped her ponytail, but instinct led her true; she whipped around, arm flying out to slap the offending hand away.
A tuft of hair was painfully wrenched away, but she had managed to free herself.
Before another hand could grab her, she jumped onto the railing and then to the next set of stairs, climbing like Kohaku had once tried to teach her. It was far easier with the bars and perfect footholds, but it was no easy feat.
Her hands quickly became sweaty, and her arms and shoulders burned with the effort of hauling herself up the railing. Her grip began to weaken, and she grew slower with each set. Still, she forced herself onwards, over railings and across flights.
She panted harshly, and the slower pace allowed the hands to grab her more often. She kicked them back and flailed, but one was finally able to pull her onto the staircase with a few other walkers.
They converged upon her, hands grabbing and faces swooping. Their frayed nails scratched at her, leaving trails of raised scrapes and small gashes that oozed blood.
A mouth of crooked teeth reached towards her neck. She twisted, kicking out to regain control of her limbs. She managed to free an arm, and she immediately reared back, clenching her hand into a fist.
She threw it with her entire weight behind it. The force wrenched her from another grip, tearing a hole at her shoulder blade and causing a deep spike of pain to bloom.
But the fist flew true.
Her knuckles burst through the agape mouth of the walker, snapping its head back with a sickening crunch.
She screamed in shock as she felt bone give, and she withdrew her fist quickly. It stung, not only with the impact against the bone, but with the tooth shards stuck in her knuckles as a result.
She gagged and flailed, falling onto her hands and knees. The walker she'd punched had dropped onto the one next to it, clearing a little gap for her to race up the steps again on hands and knees.
Her body burned, but she didn't feel so tired anymore. On the stairs, the hands scraped at her more easily, but she rose to her feet and moved too quickly and powerfully for them to grab on again.
She didn't bother looking at the numbers as they whipped by–they would only make her wish it would end.
Time blurred. The slashing and pawing became noise in her brain as she just ran and ran.
Finally, she reached the roof.
She tackled a walker through the door. Their body crunched underneath her as they landed. She hurried off of it and stood, slamming the door shut.
She heard more bodies thump against the door. After a moment, she realized they didn't yet know how to open doors, but that didn't mean she was safe.
The one she'd landed on writhed weakly, trying to right itself with crooked limbs, but there were others already on the roof, converging on her.
She ran into them, charging and slamming them into each other, then the fence enclosing the roof. They collapsed like paper dolls, twisting and churning against each other to rise. They were caught awkwardly against each other and the fence, slowing their recovery.
Perhaps monsters, in their imaginary shapes, were not as well made as reality's creatures. She would abuse their weakness.
With them down, she circled the roof, looking down to find Kohaku. They were still climbing, thankfully, and only a floor or so away, but the monsters were behind them.
One of them, now that she was far closer, was far bigger than the other monsters. It did not climb up the wall; it crawled, with thicker, longer limbs and a larger body than the others as well as two extra sets of arms. It didn't look so easy to push down and break.
"Kohaku!" she cried. She clenched her chest as her heart threatened to burst. "Climb, Kohaku! Hurry!"
Kohaku looked up, surprise on their face clear as day.
Hisako had never seen Kohaku so tired, but she's also never seen them so full of life.
"H-Hisako!" they cried.
Kohaku began climbing faster, a smile growing on their strained, sweaty face.
"T-the monsters! Hurry!"
Kohaku looked back briefly, still climbing quickly but not quicker. "Don't worry!"
"What?"
Hisako climbed up on the fence, digging the toes of her boots into the chain links and kicking down the rising walkers. She reached over the top of the fence as Kohaku neared.
When their hands finally touched, they almost slipped apart; their palms were both so sweaty. Hisako could feel Kohaku's pulse hammering in their wrists.
"Kohaku," Hisako breathed, pulling them over and dropping both of them onto the roof.
She pulled them into a hug, dragging their fatigued form back as the plain walkers swarmed over the fence. Behind them, the door finally jerked open, and a group of walkers fell forward as the door swung open.
"The monsters aren't safe," Hisako warned Kohaku.
Kohaku steadied themself in Hisako's arms. "T-they can't catch me," they chuckled between deep breaths. "I'm too fast."
"They're all over the stairs. We're cornered," she said quietly.
"Oh," Kohaku replied. Their nervous smile trembled.
One of the walkers got within range; Hisako lashed out with a viscous kick, kneecapping it.
Kohaku chuckled nervously. "They don't seem so tough."
The massive four-armed one didn't bother climbing over the fence. Its hands grabbed the chains and wrenched backward in a frightening display of strength. The fence ripped free from the roof, allowing a flood of more walkers to climb up.
"Heheh." Kohaku gripped her hand tightly.
"Can you–do you have any powers or anything?" Hisako asked.
"Powers?"
Hisako gestured around. "Your door–did it give you magic?"
Kohaku shook their head. The arm not holding onto Hisako flew out and clocked a walker that got too close.
All the walkers were getting too close. The stair walkers had gotten up, and the whole horde was closing in around the pair.
"Oh, this was so dumb," Kohaku whispered. "I shouldn't have gone through the door."
Hisako grabbed their hand tightly. "No! No, you were brave. Braver than I was. You went through that door, and you climbed this building. I've been scared since I stepped foot in here, but you decided to free-climb a tower here."
Kohaku laughed hysterically. "I'm still afraid, Hisako! I'm always afraid! I just–I need to do this for myself. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't." They sighed. "I guess I'll die satisfied." They met eyes. "I didn't mean to get you killed, too."
Hands reached out and tugged and grabbed, pulling her every which way. She flailed and fought, but Amajiki was right–too many walkers, even walkers so fragile, would stop someone eventually.
There were simply far too many hands to pull away from.
The bite was inevitable, but scream-wrenchingly painful all the same. The teeth dug in and tore in.
After a moment, the pain faded from her whole body to just a tearing burn in her arm. She gasped and struggled.
Before another could bite her, she shouted to Kohaku. She wasn't sure if she was holding their hand anymore.
"Kohaku! Everything will be okay!"
She couldn't hear a response. She reached out, squeezing her hand. She found the clammy, dead flesh of a walker instead of Kohaku's warm, sweaty hand.
Another bite buried itself into her ankle. She bit back a scream and squeezed her eyes shut. A tear slipped out.
The pain made thinking difficult. Maybe she'd been bitten again. Maybe she hadn't. She didn't know.
Was she going to die here? She'd come to save Kohaku, but she hadn't even been able to do that.
What had she done? Like, ever?
She'd played games and built a few buildings, but that wasn't hers. She had nothing to claim for herself. No accomplishment truly hers, for others.
What had she ever wanted? When had she ever been purely happy?
She'd been happy moments ago despite the danger; she'd been proud and overjoyed for Kohaku–at the idea of seeing them flourish and being there to protect them.
She wanted that moment to last a little longer.
Couldn't she make that happen?
Clarity was a painkiller like any other.
Epiphany.
She understood now why saving people after they entered their doors was so hard. It took dying to make her realize.
Amajiki had summoned his door within Kohaku's.
Why couldn't Hisako do the same? She didn't know what it would cause, but anything would be better than this, than dying.
She did as Amajiki had said when she called Kohaku's door. When Amajiki had summoned his door, he didn't need the door to be where it had been in the real world.
She imagined the park by her apartment, and the door standing there in the moonlight. She imagined the ringing chimes and the cool knob under her hand.
She could see the field beyond the door flap. She could hear the breeze and feel the gust.
She felt it in her chest, and her eyes snapped open.
She didn't have to look to feel the door burning itself into existence before her, inviting her forward.
With a final burst of energy, she reached out, ripping free of teeth and claws.
The door didn't open, and she didn't reach the knob, but the door flap opened on its own, and light beamed forward. Just like Amajiki's light when his door opened.
From the doorflap, something emerged slowly. A rod–a handle.
She had no time to wait for it to emerge on its own. She jerked once more, stabbing forward to wrap her fingers around the hilt.
It was solid and hefty, but it fit in her grip perfectly.
It was made for her.
She pulled.