Hisako didn't sleep. Her body buzzed with excitement, so she did her stretches and a few jogs around the block instead, and then showered and lay in bed.
When morning came around, she ate a hearty breakfast, then finally found it in her to nap.
Amajiki didn't text her that she needed to bring anything, so she gamed some more with Byakko and ate lunch.
Without a job, she had a lot more free time, but she also had very little to do. When she was recovering, she spent almost all her time with the also-recovering Kohaku, but now Kohaku was hiking Fuji with an outdoors group, and she was bored.
When dusk finally arrived, she waited on a bench in the more popular part of the park.
She dozed for a bit, letting the night settle around her.
After a dozen or so minutes, someone else joined her in the park: a mixed, darker-skinned Japanese woman with dark brown curly hair pulled back into a frizzy bun. She wore a baggy dark coat over a sleeveless athletic shirt and streetwear baggy pants. It was fashionable–it fit her sleek form; Hisako, with her relatively broader bulk, didn't think she could pull it off.
Hisako watched as the woman passed. A few minutes later, she passed again. Then again.
"Are you lost?" Hisako asked.
The woman ignored her but didn't pass by again.
The next person was finally Amajiki, pushing through thick bushes to reach her.
"Ah," he panted. "I got lost without the door on the radar. I think I passed the same tree five times."
Hisako snorted as she stretched out the stiffness of her rest. "If you called, I could've helped."
He shrugged. "It was a good exercise in humility," he joked. He glanced around. "Sasaki-san isn't here yet?"
"Sasaki-san?" Hisako echoed. "Is that the lady who's been passing by?"
Amajiki withered humorously. "Oh, so she made it here first."
"And left. And then made it first again, then left again," Hisako chuckled. "She'll pass by again anytime. She took the loop that the older people use to exercise. It just goes around the quiet side of the park and then back here."
Amajiki snorted in laughter and sat down next to Hisako.
Silence fell between them. Hisako was sure it'd be comfortable if not for the thoughts worming through her mind.
"Do we need someone else to go with us?" Hisako asked quietly. "I don't want anyone to see…"
"Your darknesses?"
Hisako nodded subtly.
"We won't judge you," Amajiki said. "What you're about to do, we've all done. We still face those problems, but being a keeper is about having the courage to keep doing it."
"I-I'm not sure what mine will be."
"What are you afraid of? My door was all about losing." He shivered at the word, like a true gambler.
"I don't know. Losing Kohaku was the worst thing to ever happen to me, but we saved them. Will it still be that? Losing them?"
Amajiki shrugged. "It can change–especially in this line of work; you can lose all your progress. Trauma changes people, and it'll change your door if it ever happens to you again, but all you have to do is own the fear. It's not about not being afraid, Mochizuki-san."
Hisako nodded quietly. The silence that fell then was more comfortable, though Hisako still hugged her arms for reassurance.
After a few minutes, the woman came around again, this time perking up in surprise when she saw Amajiki.
"Amajiki-san," she greeted with a bow. "Sorry for being late."
He chuckled and waved dismissively. "It's fine. We're all here now."
Sasaki looked at Hisako, this time taking her in fully. She didn't look very impressed.
Hisako had put her work uniform back on–navy blue cargo pants, a black sleeveless undershirt, and a navy long-sleeved shirt-jacket left half-buttoned.
She probably didn't look any bit impressive, but it certainly showed on Sasaki's gloomy face.
Hisako stood up before she could make any more of a fool of herself. She bowed deeply. "Hisako Mochizuki. Thank you for helping me."
Sasaki was taken aback by her greeting, but recovered quickly with poise. "Nanae Sasaki. Soon-to-be E-Grade Doorkeeper."
"Sasaki-san is Doorkeeper royalty," Amajiki mentioned. "Her family is the main line of the Sasaki Clan."
Hisako bowed deeper.
"But," Amajiki chuckled, "she's only here to qualify for her E-Grade exam."
Sasaki scowled at them. "It doesn't really matter what my reason is. Let's just get it done."
Hisako internally flinched. Sasaki was not the kind of person she wanted to expose her heart to.
Amajiki placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You may summon the door whenever. Just like before, okay?"
Hisako closed her eyes and envisioned the door standing in the clearing from before. She felt the shift in reality, and then she heard the wind chimes.
"This way," she murmured, leading. "I can hear it."
"Hear it?" Sasaki muttered derisively.
Hisako shrank back, forcing herself to walk normally instead of hugging her arms again.
"What do you hear?" Amajiki asked kindly.
"The wind chimes."
Amajiki glanced around. "We don't hear them. It's probably an element of your door's presence. Has it always made wind chime sounds?"
"Yes."
"Hm. But it has no chimes on the door itself. Another interesting feature of your door," he mused aloud. "This will be exciting."
He sounded happy; it made Hisako feel more grateful, especially with Sasaki's negativity bringing her down.
The door was where it had always been. Amajiki motioned for her to just go for it, so she reached for the handle immediately and pushed it open slowly.
A gust of pleasantly warm air washed over them when she did, and the golden sunlight dazzled their eyes briefly before they could adapt.
Amajiki and Sasaki both made a soft sound of surprise. Amajiki's was more of interest, and Sasaki's was more of awe.
Hisako was quiet in her wonder. She stepped through first, ensnared by the idea of entering the beautiful grassy hills before her.
She'd been in Kohaku's door, but she still couldn't believe how real the door-world felt. The ground was sturdy beneath her feet, and the grass was soft as it lapped at her in the wind. Each gust created a natural melody, and the field rippled in waves.
She'd never been to the countryside much–going out to the city's end the other day had been the first real venture in her adult memory. She didn't know why her world was the countryside, but she found she liked it very much.
"Hm," Sasaki hummed absently. She brushed at the grass with her hand. "It's so… vast."
Amajiki looked around with a more critical gaze. "It is," he realized. "This isn't a 'skybox'. It's all here–truly."
Hisako looked around, confirming his suspicions. Kohaku's world had been clearly limited. There had been an uncanny feeling to the limits of their door. Hisako's world lacked that artificiality.
Sasaki took off, sprinting through the field ahead of them.
"She's testing it," Amajiki whispered between them.
They watched as she ran and ran, becoming a speck on the horizon. Then, the grass swallowed her.
"Hm," Amajiki murmured.
A moment passed, then another. Hisako squinted, shielding her eyes against the sun.
They heard rustling behind them and fast footsteps nearing.
They turned around and saw Sasaki running at them. She stopped and caught her breath when she reached them.
"How is that possible?"
"Well, it must be." Amajiki hummed, looking around. "All doors are limited spaces. They can grow with the Awakened's ability, but they're not infinite. How does a finite space appear infinite?"
"When it's a trick," Hisako replied. She turned around in a circle. "Maybe it's like a video game here, too; maybe when you're not looking and you're not nearby, it doesn't exist. And, when the world runs out of space, it spits you back to where it does have space."
Sasaki looked at Amajiki skeptically.
"It's uniquely you," Amajiki said warmly. "We can assume it works in the way you understand it."
"Whatever. I didn't see any walkers," Sasaki reported. "Just more hill and grass."
Amajiki looked at Hisako curiously, but didn't mention anything.
Was the loneliness Hisako feared manifesting literally?
"The big bad walker–do you think it also has its location loaded in?"
"A boss AI? Maybe. Sometimes it has a loaded area, sometimes it's just loaded and floating in space, and sometimes it spawns in based on the player's location or a trigger."
"That doesn't help," Sasaki said, scowling. "By that logic, it could be anywhere or nowhere."
"That wouldn't be fair, though," Amajiki countered. "It must be 'loaded in'–that's how the door world works… As far as we know, at least. That means it's either somewhere here, or somewhere out there."
Hisako looked around nervously. If hostile areas only had one enemy–the boss enemy, in this case–the enemy was usually formidable.
All she could see was endless grass and the bright blue sky. There were no forests or structures, or even tall hills. The ground waved in rolling hills, but even those did not obscure the distance.
If the boss walker was around them, she thought, then it was hiding in the waist-high grass, and bosses that hid were always difficult for her to beat.
Bosses who hid were smart. They would not be taken down by just charging in and swinging.
"It's either hunting us or hiding from us. What you mentioned earlier in Kohaku's world, about the walkers wanting to kill them especially, is that true for all doors and walkers?"
"Yes," Amajiki confirmed. "The door desires to overwhelm you, and the walkers are the manifestation of that will."
"Then it must be hunting us," Hisako concluded quietly.
Sasaki spun around quickly, dropping into a sturdy, balanced stance. "I can't sense anything."
"You can sense walkers?" Hisako whispered, shifting to form a defensive triangle between them.
"The door's nastiest walkers exude a signature like the doors do. You can learn to feel it," Amajiki explained. "I don't sense anything either, but some of the worst can hide their signature."
Hisako was sorry for being right. She gnawed at her lip and tried to concentrate. She tried hearing beyond the gusts and their breathing and seeing through the golden waves.
Nothing.
It made her skin prickle. Her worst nightmare, whatever it was, was made manifest, and she couldn't find it.
Was it a trick? This was her special level with its own special gimmick. Of course, her boss had to be special too. She'd figured out the special gimmick, so perhaps she knew how the boss would be special, too.
"It's a stealth boss," she thought aloud. "It's cloaking its presence and hunting us. What could it be?"
"Fear of being predated?" Sasaki asked sharply. "Whatever it is, we need to do something about it. We can't just sit here and wait; this is the walker's home ground, not ours."
"You lead the way," Amajiki said. "Your world can't just be this. There is more, Mochizuki-san, you just need to find it."
Hisako nodded. She turned. None of the directions screamed "right way," so she decided to go towards the gusts, into the wind.
Unfortunately, there was no telling direction any other way: the sun was at its peak in the sky, and there were no markers to tell north from south.
They walked for what felt like dozens of minutes with no avail. The wind continued to blow from the same direction, but there was no hint of a structure or walkers on the horizon.
She stopped, frustrated. She turned to Amajiki. "Is there anything I'm missing? This can't be right; it feels like we're not moving. Everything looks the same."
Amajiki paused in thought. Sasaki paced angrily.
"What does your door feel like to you?" Amajiki asked. "You know your door, you just don't know it yet."
"It feels nice. I don't know. It's strange. I've only ever been in the city. I don't know where this place comes from."
"Is there anything familiar?" Sasaki asked. "Something that reminds you of the real world?"
Hisako looked around, thinking. Not even the sky was the same. No city sky was ever this blue, and the clouds were never so white. The wind wasn't the same, either. The wind cut harshly between buildings, or it rushed through the streets. The wind here flowed freely and cleanly.
Nothing in the world was familiar.
She paused.
The world itself wasn't familiar, but something about the door and its presence had been.
"The wind chimes."