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"...eh?"
"...hm?"
Neither of them were expecting to stumble into the other numa at the entrance of that cave in the mountains.
"What are you doing here...?"
"Otsukin asked me to get something for his alchemy stuff," Marikin explained, already beginning to shine his phone's flashlight into the cave's interior. "You?"
"Uie-sama asked me to get something for their alchemy project," Fukurou replied with a nod.
"Huh... I keep forgetting Uie can do alchemy stuff too."
"Uie-sama has many talents~"
"They sure do...." Marikin huffed, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's kinda scary in a way...."
"So are we after the same thing, then?" Marikin asked, sweeping his light across what little of the cavern interior they could see from where they were. "Otsu said he needs some weird mushrooms that he's only ever managed to find in this specific cave."
"Yes, Uie-sama gave me these coordinates to go to," Fukurou hummed. "This cave is rather isolated from the rest of the mountain, so I suppose unique wildlife managed to thrive inside as a result."
"Otsukin mentioned somethin' weird about this cave though," Marikin muttered, obviously unsettled by the thought. "He just said, like... 'Don't go where it's too dark'...?"
"Hm... Uie-sama said something similar, but didn't manage to elaborate further - They were busy with some things at the time..." Fukurou pondered over it, staring at the ground. "It makes it sound quite ominous..."
Marikin just grumbled, displeased by the obscurity of it all. "...ugh, I don't like not having details like this... Let's just move. We ain't gettin' anything done out here."
Marikin scanned his phone's flashlight over the surrounding cave walls as they continued to walk deeper into the cave. Various odd-looking varieties of plants and moss, seemingly adapted to life in the darkness of the cave system.
Fukurou held her magic light spell in her hand, looking down at the strange critter that skittered past. Some form of a rabbit or mole of some kind - A few of them had been running around, but at least there didn't seem to be any particularly hostile entities in the cave.
"...Any shrooms?" Marikin asked.
"None that match the description..."
They continued to walk through the cave, scanning the area for some weird-looking shrooms that were apparently good for alchemy or something. Good enough to be wanted by two alchemists at once. Marikin wondered why they couldn't just use any other old shroom, but it's not like he really had any proficiency in the actual subject matter...
....Marikin looked up, pausing at the entrance of a side tunnel in the cavern wall.
The darkness in there. Darker than dark. Pointing his light into it failed to illuminate anything or bring out any details. It was like light itself refused to exist in that chasm, at least not prominently enough to be useful in any form.
The darkness. Darker than dark.
Marikin didn't like it.
"Gyah...!"
Marikin jolted at Fukurou's yell, whipping his head towards her. "Fu-- Fukurou...!?"
"Sorry, sorry, I'm fine...!" Fukurou exclaimed from her dark area, trying to reignite her magic light spell. The amount of visibility in the cave had decreased in response to her light disappearing. "I-- I don't know why my light spell suddenly fizzled..."
Marikin began walking over to her, internally still trying to ease away the initial scare from her shout, using his phone's flashlight to help both of them see.
Fukurou kept redoing her light spell. "Eh..? Why isn't it working properly...?" she mumbled, mostly to herself, staring down at the dull light of her magic, far duller than what it was supposed to be.
"That's weird... I can sense the magic spell just fine, but--"
DARK
Marikin flinched and fumbled with his phone as its light suddenly dulled out, plunging them into the darkness of the cave. He backed off from where he had stepped--
The phone light suddenly returned to normal as he stepped backwards from the dark area where Fukurou was, as though nothing had happened. Visibility returned.
"...??"
...Fukurou brought her light spell over to Marikin's side. Her light flickered to normal, illuminating the area around them as before.
Bringing the light spell back to herself, the light dulled once more. It was as though there was an invisible line where light would turn dull once crossed...
....Fukurou and Marikin spent some time watching her hand move the light spell back and forth, the light returning to normal and dulling on each respective side every single time.
"....????"
Squinting at the dull light spell on Fukurou's side, it... Well, it was making light, just as it's supposed to, but it was like the light itself was being... swiftly sucked away towards a direction, like vacuuming up a curtain. Faster than the light source could illuminate its surroundings.
Their vision followed the motion of the light's movement - There sat an odd-looking, dark rock, sucking the light away. The rock itself was difficult to perceive, not because it was small, but because it almost seemed to be emanating darkness from itself, with all light that hit it being absorbed rather than being reflected back into the viewer's eyes.
"...stand over here for a bit," Marikin muttered, pulling Fukurou over to his side so that her light would work properly. With Fukurou illuminating the area, Marikin stepped over the invisible line, his phone light dulling out immediately, and made his way over to the rock that sat beyond the line.
Upon crushing the dark rock and destroying it, Marikin's phone light flickered back to normal. It was like nothing had happened at all.
"....."
"Some form of light absorption...?" Fukurou wondered as she walked up next to Marikin again, her light spell now working as normal, the 'invisible line' no longer existing now that that rock was gone. "Fascinating... Any light within a certain area of that type of dark rock simply gets sucked away...? But how...? Is there a purpose...? That's so interesting..."
...Marikin sighed, not quite as intrigued by the oddity. "....Let's just find those damn shrooms and get outta here," he huffed, kicking the shrapnels of dark rock away from his feet.
"Right..."
......without any time for any reaction, one of the cave rabbits suddenly sprang up, yoinking Marikin's phone right out of his hand and taking off with it.
..........
"...What the h-- Get BACK here...!!" Marikin yelled, charging down the cave after the creature running deeper into the cave system.
"....???"
The cave rabbit ran through the twists and turns of the cave, eventually diverting its path into a dark tunnel. The light from the phone it chewed on seemed to dull, but the contrast of the phone's flashlight compared to the black darkness around it allowed Marikin to pinpoint its location as he ran after the stupid creature.
"You goddamn--!!" Marikin growled as he practically choked the rabbit upon catching it, forcing the device out of its hold. "I'm gonna kill you and eat you for breakfast-- Hey--!"
The creature managed to wriggle out of his grasp, running free and immediately disappearing. Marikin grumbled wordlessly and incoherently to himself, grabbing his phone off the ground, before trying to examine if there were any bite marks left behind.
...It was too dark to see. The flashlight from his phone was ridiculously close to non-existent, far duller and darker than what it was supposed to be. The only thing it made visible was itself.
The light that the flashlight produced was being sucked away from all directions.
...Marikin looked up.
It was like he was in the void itself, in the abyss, in the darker than dark, there was nothing he could see, nothing but the dark, nothing but the darker than dark--
IT'S TOO DARK
The usual glow from Marikin's magic was essentially absent as he began violently destroying the rocks in his immediate area. Most were just normal rocks, but some were the odd dark rocks, returning a small fraction of his flashlight to him as they disintegrated from his cards' explosions.
It's still dark. It's too dark.
Destroy the rocks. Destroy the rocks. Destroy the rocks, destroy the rocks--
Marikin's swinging motion at the rock wall was halted by a hand gripping his arm tight.
"Marikin-san..??" Fukurou spoke, holding the dulled light of her magic spell in her other palm. "Are you okay...?"
"......."
Marikin practically yanked himself away from her grasp, backing off as his head jerked up to look around - Not that there was much they could see in this sheer darkness, though. He bumped into the rock wall behind him from his movement, only for a moment. "...otsu-- otsukin was right, it-- it's not good when there's too many of these-- these stupid rocks--"
He crushed his foot down on another rock, forcing it to crumble under his weight. Normal rock. Not a dark rock. Damn it, stupid rocks--
Marikin glared down at his dulled phone light - Better than when he first got here, but still stupidly dull. Still stupidly dark. Dark. Dark.
Was it always this difficult to breathe? Marikin could hear his own pulse, his own heavy, sharp breaths. Was that normal? No, no it's not. It's not normal, of course it's not. It's the rocks. It's making it too dark. It's too dark to think. It's too dark to breathe. It's too dark to-- to see th--
"Goddamn things--" Marikin growled, reeling his leg back to crash it into the rocks on this goddamn cave wall--
"Marikin-san, hey."
Fukurou had tugged him away from the wall by his arm, interrupting his kicking action.
"What-- What are you doing-- Fukurou, just let me--"
"Marikin-san."
"I want to get rid of these bloody--!!"
"Marikin-san, you're breathing too hard--"
"I'm #@!%ing fine--!!"
The fast motion of violently ripping himself away from her did nothing to help the lightheaded feeling in his skull - If anything, it worsened it, even moreso as his body crashed into the rock wall behind him. The impact made him drop his dulled phone light onto the cavern floor, it's too dark, it's too dark--
"Marikin-san, look at me," Fukurou spoke quietly in a steady tone, moving to hold him by his arms to slow his descent down to the ground. "Look at me. Let's sit down for a moment, okay?"
"N-- Not-- Not here--" It's too dark to breathe--
"It's okay, it's okay. Just look at me. Look at me." In the midst of the darkness, Fukurou was the only thing he could actually see, her face and body faintly lit up by her dulled light spell now floating next to her. "Marikin-san, I need you to slow down your breathing."
"N-- Not here--" Not in this dark--
"Look at me." Fukurou moved her hands to hold his face, her palms warm against his cheeks. "Look at me. I'm here, I'm here. It's okay," she whispered gently, calmly. "Look at me, take some deep breaths, Marikin."
Marikin's attempt at a deep breath was pathetically shaky and weak. He glanced to the side, the void, the dark abyssal--
"Just look at me. Just look at me." Fukurou pulled his face back towards herself, away from the dark space around them. "Deep breath in, hold...." She made an audible inhale, slowly motioning one of her hands upwards in front of her chest. She held her hand in that spot for a few seconds... before slowly bringing it back down as she audibly exhaled. "...and out. Can we do it together? Deep breath in..."
They sat there on the cavern floor as Fukurou guided Marikin with the deep breathing exercises, which he slowly but surely managed to follow along with.
....
....it's... easier to breathe now. Marikin opened his eyes again, unsure of when he had even closed them. He saw her face, gently lit up in the darkness of the cave by her dull but active magic spell at her side, looking over him with quiet concern.
"...there we go.... there you go." Fukurou's hand on his cheek remained as her free hand went to hold Marikin's palm. "...I'm here. It's okay."
Marikin found himself unconsciously clutching the hand that held his, unconsciously leaning into the palm at the side of his face.
....Marikin sighed, staring down at their hands to avoid eye contact. ".....i guess you're wondering... what that was about," he exhaled, squinting away, feeling like he owed an explanation of some kind.
"...Well... Only if you want to talk about it," Fukurou spoke, barely any volume to her voice, her hand on his face moving to hold his shoulder instead.
Marikin turned to look at the dark, indecipherable cave area around them, now remaining calm only because of the warmth of her hands that continued to stay with him. "....normal darkness is fine, but... if it's darker than dark like this, it.... reminds me of.... things," he murmured. "...things i... don't want to remember."
She squeezed his hand slightly. It was comforting, soothing.
".....sorry, i..." Marikin huffed as he looked down, unsure of what else to say, unsure if he could even elaborate beyond that. "....sorry. i'm just being stupid."
"It's okay to be scared, Marikin-san," Fukurou whispered quietly.
"I'm not supposed to be," Marikin bluntly stated, almost like it was a fact.
"Eh...?? Don't say that kind of thing... Fear is a normal emotion. I get scared of things too!" Fukurou said in response. "I'm scared of bugs and creepy crawlies."
Marikin raised an eyebrow, having already been made highly aware of that fact ever since that time Fukurou basically jumped onto his head and face while screaming incoherently at a spider on the floor. "...I mean, yeah, but that's... y'know, not... me," he said. "I... I... shouldn't be scared of... things. Anything."
"What's the difference?
Why are you holding yourself up to a double standard?"
"....i mean, because...." He didn't know how to explain it without sounding like some sort of idiotic self-conceited moron. "....because, i... well...."
....
...A sudden smile crept upon Fukurou's face. "...Hey, you wanna hear a secret? It's about Sigkin-san," she said, a form of playfulness in her tone.
Marikin just stared at her blankly. "eh."
She moved nearer to whisper, even quieter than before, "See, Sigkin-san is afraid of...."
....
...Once again, Marikin gave her a blank stare. "....seriously? That little thing...?"
"Mmhm! Don't tell him I told you that, though~" Fukurou hummed in a lighthearted manner. "But! Does that change your opinion of him?"
"Eh? What do you mean...?"
"I mean, you still think he's a super strong fighter, right? And cool with his abilities and skills and all that?" Fukurou said, some of her own admiration for their friend seemingly bleeding through her voice.
Marikin squinted slightly, still unsure what this whole dialogue was actually about. "Yeah...?"
"Even though he's scared of 'that little thing'?"
"I mean, I can understand why he doesn't like it, and it's not like that invalidates all of the cool stuff that he can... do..."
...Marikin paused as the realisation set in on him. "...you're... trying to tell me that it's fine to be scared of things."
"Correct~" Fukurou sang.
Marikin huffed out an exhale of air, moving to cover his face with his free hand. "I mean, i get what you're saying, but...." He didn't know how to... say this without sounding... "...i dunno, it's just.... i'm just..."
"Marikin-san.
Everyone has their weaknesses.
Even 'heroes'."
......
....Marikin sighed, remaining silent. He didn't have anything he could say in response.
Fukurou just squeezed his hand, gentleness in her gaze, kindness in her hold. He closed his eyes as he leaned into her warmth.
.....
....Marikin opened his eyes again after a while, reaching to pick his phone back up from the floor. "....we should... get back to the main cave, i think..." he mumbled quietly.
"...yeah."
They stood up, still holding each other's hands.
...Marikin paused, looking at the cave wall behind him, and then looking up again. ".....uh, do you.... remember which way we came from...?"
"....um....."
.....
Well shit, they both thought in unison.
They stumbled along the cave wall for a bit until they managed to find an area where light was able to exist like normal again.
"....holy shit that's a lot of shrooms," Marikin blurted out, looking at the space in front of them, the entire floor of it almost covered in weird-looking mushrooms.
"Oh, good! Let's gather up a good amount of them while we're here~"
"....Oh you're kidding me, that room was right here??" Marikin yelled as they exited through a different (not super dark) tunnel connected to the mushroom place, bringing them right back to the normal part of the cavern they had been in before. He was clearly trying to stop himself from just chucking down all his shrooms in a form of rage. "Why didn't--!? We didn't see this opening!??"
"I suppose the angle we entered this area at made it harder to see...?" Fukurou could only scratch the side of her face, still holding onto her own mushrooms. "Well, at least we know the way out from here..."
Fukurou had to stop Marikin from kicking at one of the cave rabbits that ran past as they exited the cave.
Back on the exterior of the mountain, Marikin sighed in some form of relief as the sunlight shone down on them from above, finally turning off his phone's flashlight. "...damn, battery's almost dead. Not like it was fully charged before, I guess..."
"We were in there for quite a while..." Fukurou looked over Marikin's haul of weird shrooms before glancing down at her own. "...Well, we both got what we needed~!" she sang with a smile. "I guess I'll head back to Souhonzan and get these to Uie-sama. Are you gonna go towards Naname Village, where Otsukin-san is?"
"Uh, I mean... I guess I should...?"
"I guess we're going different ways from here, then~" Fukurou hummed, giving a wave. "Take care, okay, Marikin-san? I'll see you around--"
Her movement to leave was interrupted by a hand grabbing hers, grinding her action to a sudden halt.
"...?"
"....."
"...Marikin-san?"
"......."
They stood there in a moment of uncertain silence, both not entirely sure why he had reached for her.
....
"...Well, I guess this mountain's nearer to Souhonzan than Naname... Do you want to just stop by first, Marikin-san? You can recharge your phone over at my place too."
"....y...y-yeah, that... sounds good," Marikin replied quietly, averting his gaze after. "...i, uh, and, i...'m.... sorry about... earlier."
"...Marikin-san."
The sudden hug from her made him drop his shrooms, but he found himself not caring about his dropped items that joined hers on the ground as he melted into her warmth.
.....
"...thanks," he whispered, hardly audible.
Fukurou just gave him a gentle squeeze. "...of course."
...they didn't let go of the other's hand as they walked.