In the listless search for the windchimes, following the new direction of the wind, they found new things.
Objects, large and small, bubbled up from the ground, rising as looming, imposing figures in the mist before they could be properly perceived.
Smaller objects–old tools that Hisako had forgotten about and broken toys from her childhood–were tripped over. Larger structures–former sites and places from her youth–rose half-emerged from the damp dirt and were cautiously approached.
All the while, the dirt became a sucking mud, and the grass began to cling with more strength than a plant ought to. The world of her door was becoming inhospitable.
"What's this one mean?" Amajiki asked, lifting an old, broken gamepad.
Hisako shrugged hollowly. "It's the controller to the first console I bought with my own money."
"Why's it here, though?" Sasaki asked in annoyance, picking at her own dried blood on her pants. "Why's it all old and dusty?"
"I wanted to become a fighting game champion with it. I lost a lot, so I figured I wasn't meant for it. I guess it's in a box in my apartment, in the real world."
"You just gave up?" Sasaki asked.
"A go-with-the-flow kind gal." Amajiki hummed in agreement. "I get that."
"As if. If you didn't win, you'd just try again or play another game."
"Oh. No, I suppose that's right. You just gave up?"
Hisako burned a bit with shame. "I found something else to try to be good at."
"Try?" Sasaki mocked. "You pick something you like and become the best at it. You don't try everything until you finally win."
Hisako rubbed the cold from her arms and looked down at her feet. Her boots were more mud than leather at that point. "I don't really have anything I like that much."
"What do you like?" Amajiki asked.
"I like hanging out with my friends," Hisako said. "I don't care that much about what we're doing while we do it. We play games, we window-shop, we have meals–it's just something to pass the time."
"Do you like fighting?" Sasaki asked.
Hisako paused. "It… It felt good to be there for Kohaku. I enjoyed fighting for that."
"Who is 'Kohaku'? Your boyfriend?"
"Kohaku is my friend. Amajiki-san helped save them from their door."
Sasaki blushed. "Sorry," she muttered. "That's a good reason to fight."
"Why did you two join the Doorkeepers?" Hisako asked.
Amajiki smiled like he was about to spin a yarn–too much of a yarn. Sasaki glared at him.
"I was recruited from inside my door. Like your door is proving to be, mine was odd enough that the keeper assigned to my door thought I'd be a good fit. Her gamble became my win," Amajiki said, keeping it reluctantly short. "That was back when the keeper business was a bit more guerrilla, though."
Sasaki was proud of her explanation: "I come from a large line of Doorkeepers, so I was born with the expectation of joining."
"Oh, so are you highly ranked? Is E-Grade really high?"
Sasaki's face soured, and Amajiki laughed.
"The Grades are 'A' through 'F'. When you join, you'll be Ungraded and have to test into F-Grade," Amajiki explained.
"If you join. If you make it," Sasaki snapped. She was red with embarrassment and kicked her way a few steps ahead to hide it, grumbling. "I only joined a year ago because my clan holds its members to higher standards than this old man here. He'll just get anyone off the street, won't he?"
Amajiki laughed silently to preserve her honor. "Sasaki-san is a rare natural talent in the Doorkeepers, but she still has to test into each grade and qualify for each test. I imagine that she'll be A-Grade before we all know it."
Hisako nodded. "And me? Do you still see a future in the keepers for me?"
Amajiki chuckled warmly. "If you removed everyone with complicated doors from the keepers, we would have no keepers," he assured her. "Your door is certainly worthy of a higher rank."
"Rank," Hisako echoed. "Grades are for people and ranks are for doors?"
"Yes. It mirrors the grade system–Rank 7 is an appropriate challenge for F-Grades, and it ascends to Rank 1s for A-Grades."
"Did you know it would be this dangerous before we went in?"
"No, there's no way to measure how dangerous a door will be without knowing the owner's grade."
"Does that mean I could be a high rank one day?"
"This isn't a game of innate talent," Amajiki said. "Natural ability only gets you so far. It may be easier for those born lucky, but hard work will take you to A-Grade no matter your door's original rank."
"I can grow stronger? Truly stronger?" Hisako asked hesitantly.
Amajiki looked at her carefully. "This is only the first step in a lifelong journey, Mochizuki-san," he promised her.
Hisako stared at Amajiki. Something bloomed inside her; the anxiety turned to anticipation. She looked behind them, towards the gamepad so far behind them that it was out of sight.
She wasn't that child anymore. She–
She ran into Sasaki, getting stonewalled by her deceivingly lean figure and nearly falling backward.
"Back!" Sasaki barked, dropping into her stance again.
Her door flashed between them and, when it faded, she had her gauntlets on.
Amajiki's roulette board also burst into existence in a quick surge of his door. He held his fingers up, ready to snap.
Hisako steadied herself between them, looking around.
From around a broken-down play structure–one of her first constructions–a mannequin appeared. It was a feminine, faceless, smooth construct wearing the wedding gown she'd sworn to her grandfather she'd wear when she found her love.
The gown was a bridal dream with a train longer than the explanation of why it ought not to be worn, and layers and layers of wispy white lace. She'd torn the photo out of a magazine her grandfather had brought from his travels, and had held onto it for many years. She'd finally thrown it out after high school, when she threw out all her girly things and "became a woman."
Another thing she'd given up on.
One she regretted or agreed with, depending on the day. It was the last dress she'd imagined wearing, and maybe she missed being that girl. Or maybe, what that girl had been: just a girl dreaming of a romantic fantasy adulthood–someone who didn't worry about day-to-day life or "what's next?"
The bridal mannequin held a delicate saber in her hand, delicate and artful yet wickedly sharp. Not an ornamental thing but a real blade.
Hisako couldn't help but smile. Her younger self wasn't a completely different person. After everything, she was still her.
"A sword bride?" Sasaki huffed in disbelief. "What part of your life is this from?"
"My pirate bride phase," Hisako murmured happily, just for herself.
Despite the tiger, walkers, and dour memories popping up, she found the adventure nostalgic and reflective in a nice way. She wasn't the aimless, dead-end woman she thought she'd become. She was just herself, in a new stage of life.
She hadn't abandoned her happiness for stability and comfort; she was just finding new ways to be herself, facing stumbles and successes alike.
She stood tall and stepped before Sasaki, confronting the bride.
She pointed brazenly. "I do believe that's mine."
Calling upon her door felt natural, like reaching out and feeling the wind swim over your fingertips atop a building.
It appeared behind her in its entirety and burst open with a mighty, warm gust that whipped the dull fog away.
The light that exploded forth dazzled and cloaked Hisako in a warm embrace. She reached back and found the hilt of her blade with ease, like it'd reached for her in return.
When the light subsided, she grinned widely.
Across her shoulders was a white short bridal capelet. It cascaded down to her waist and was decorated in a white lace pattern that matched the rose design on her blade. In the re-emerging sun, it all glittered and glowed gloriously.
Before her, where the mannequin had stood, was a crimson red dragon. It was triple the size of the mannequin and double the size of Kohaku's big walker, coiling and writhing like it was Ryuujin's evil twin.
It had four legs complete with vicious talons, and a long, powerful, and serpentine body. Its face rippled with a mane of spines, and it had a pair of flowing, dark whiskers that might've made it look cartoonish if not for the shark-mouth of fangs.
All she needed now was a damsel to save in her gown with her silver blade, she mused.
She grinned, lips twitching with a mix of nerves and adrenaline, at Amajiki and Sasaki. "Since I'm new to this, will you give me a hand?" she asked, half-joking.
Amajiki chuckled with wondrous surprise and snapped. The roulette ball rattled, and they readied themselves. Sasaki smashed her gauntlets together, and they sparked satisfyingly.
"You know how to use that thing?" Sasaki asked, eyeing Hisako's oversized weapon.
Hisako hefted it over her shoulder, widening her stance to stay upright. "Just swing until I can't anymore."
Sasaki snorted and rolled her eyes.
The dragon surged forward, slithering through the air at them. It smashed against the invisible barrier protecting Hisako, body collapsing like an accordion. Hisako readied herself, stepping back to give herself room.
Fighting for Kohaku, she hadn't thought twice about waving the blade around. It hadn't been too hard when the walkers were easy to slash away, and the big one had practically thrown itself onto her blade.
She'd played baseball as a youth, and the blade wasn't much different from a bat, if she oversimplified it. It was simply heavier than a sledgehammer and more bladed than an axe, but it was a bat when it boiled down to it.
"Just use your brain!" Sasaki snapped. "Swing hard but don't overcommit. If you get hit, it's on you."
The roulette wheel stopped, and the ball clacked to a halt. As the light flashed, then faded, the dragon fell forward. Hisako lifted the blade in an upswing.
It was heavier than she remembered, and she nearly put too much weight behind the swing. She was sure she looked more like a confused batter than a swordswoman, but it worked well enough.
As the dragon entered her field of attack, she caught it across its gaping maw, shallowly dashing it across the jaw.
Inky, warm blood splashed across her face, and she flinched back in surprise, cutting her attack off early.
Kohaku's walkers hadn't bled.
The dragon bellowed in fury and swiped out with a claw. Hisako dodged only by dropping to the ground like a ragdoll, folding her legs beneath her, and letting the blade fall heavily into the grass with her.
"Head's up!" Amajiki shouted.
On her back, Hisako looked up, behind her to see Amajiki waving a trident over his head. Above him, the remnants of the fog and clouds were condensing into a frothing spiral of water. The outer edges of the loose whirlpool warned the dragon back over Hisako's head.
Hisako hurried to her feet, dragging her sword back out of what she could only assume would be a large splash zone for his attack.
Sasaki was standing back by Amajiki, gauntlets raised to catch splashes of the water. As Hisako looked, she noticed that some of the glow she associated with the doors was woven into the water.
Sasaki caught some of that light, and the keyhole designs on her gauntlets glowed a brilliant blue. When she smashed her gauntlets together again, there were icy splashes of water instead of metallic sparks.
Amajiki finally raised the trident in attack, but Hisako caught a familiar movement behind him.
"Amajiki!" she shouted.
Sasaki managed to turn around, but Amajiki was too far into his attack to abandon it so suddenly. The tiger was flying from the tall grass behind them, right towards Amajiki's turned back.
The collision was inevitable–the tiger slammed Amajikji to the ground, sending the trident flying, causing a heavy downpour to come down on them. It was like being hit with a waterfall of ice–Hisako was instantly winded, and it took a painful moment to recover her bearings and feel her body again.
Sasaki had recovered quickly enough to go to Amajiki's aid, though; she snapped out with a hook and a lash of water whipped out, following the path of her attack to snap the tiger's attention off Amajiki.
The tiger roared wickedly, still pressing the older man down. Sasaki charged them, and they simply snarled and sank their claws into Amajiki's back, like she was no threat to them.
Hisako hefted the blade again, intent on joining them, only to be rammed into from behind by the sea dragon. Instead of falling to the ground, she went up, higher and higher.
She screamed, barely remembering to hold onto her sword before grabbing onto a whisker from the dragon's face. Its hot breath burned her back, and she felt the shape of its bared teeth on her back, making her spine prickle with a primal fear.
As they spiraled into the sky, she felt the warmth of the field shift to a bone-biting cold, and then she suddenly felt weightless. She began to float away from the dragon's mouth, which she felt slowly opening.
She screamed, turning around out of terror to see the dragon's wicked, growing grin and horrible dark eyes.
They looked like they were laughing at her.
Maybe she was the damsel she needed to save.