Chapter Text
A soft smell of smoke wafts through the air, settling in with the cloying, nearly permanently oppressive atmosphere of this Corridor. It is quiet—it usually is. Deep blue lights bathe the tatami mats and the fusuma doors in a tactile coldness. In a room, there lies a figure, just putting out a cigarette with languid movements, dressed in white and blue. She sensed movements from beyond the door, as she wouldn’t have wasted half of her vice otherwise. Resigned, the figure lies down and closes her eyes, gathering whatever bliss and reprieve unconsciousness grants.
Beyond the door, the only other person in this Corridor stirs awake from the deepest, most vivid of dreams. A man of pale skin, short, black hair parted down the middle. One that wears a black turtleneck, a similarly black hakama, and a long white ōdachi settled next to where he was kneeling. His haori fluttered softly with the draft that always unmistakably brings the smell of nicotine to his nostrils. “Hmnph…” His eyes part slowly, groggily, taking in the sights around him while his mind catches up.
This immediately felt off for the man, but nothing was truly wrong. The area around him, he knew it well, very well. But it grew unfamiliar, dissonant to the white expanse he became accustomed to. Smell. When was the last time he smelled something that wasn’t her hair? Or the last time he smelled this pungent miasma. “Master…” He muttered with disappointed annoyance on instinct, his mind still going through the motions after all this time.
Then, reality caught up to the swordsman. “What…” His eyes shot wide, taking in the sight of the Pinky Corridor like it was the first time he had stumbled into it. “I’m… back?” He inquired to himself, unsure. Ren starts getting up, dusting his clothes. He must’ve dozed off whilst meditating, how becoming of an aspiring Star and a student to— “Why did I say I’m back…? It all feels so… vivid…” The Pinky Apprentice clutches his head in growing confusion.
A bit restless, he paces through the rooms of their Corridor until he finds a drawer. Inside, an agenda. She didn’t appreciate acknowledging the passage of time, so he hid it. Ren flipped through the pages, going to the latest entry. “What the… August? 984? That was six months ago…” It was quite peculiar, since Ren catalogued everything that happened every single day, without missing a single one.
And whilst reading, his mind noticed another major inconsistency. “Master!” She was here. She is here, currently. The Pinky Apprentice pads hurriedly through the rooms, navigating the corridor with efficiency. How can that be, since Ren knows he’s seen it with his own two eyes, how Araya died by Yoshihide’s unknowing hands? He stops right before the door where she was residing. Through it, the silhouette of a sleeping person is clearly visible, rustling in sleep, looking as peaceful as she can be.
Ren’s world tilts on its axis. “How… How…?” He takes a step back, then two more, breaking out in a cold sweat. He is back. He has to be back. “Catherine… Whatever happened there… did it…?” It was the only reasonable, plausible explanation he could stick to instantly, a lifeline in the sea of confusion and mounting dread. He is back in the damn House of Spiders. “Dear… Wings…” He wheezes, trying and failing to steady his breathing.
A long moment passed. Ren let reality settle in, all the way down to the marrow. Now that the spider has tasted the freedom of the sky, how can it not be restless to return to its web? Deep breaths. “Think through it… You’re back… You know how the future goes… I’ll be able to change it, right?” He tried to sound hopeful, talking to himself. The swordsman thought about it for even longer, parsing through the implications logically. “Wait… if I’m back, then…?” Alert, he stands up on his feet, a wave of adrenaline and anticipation rushing through his veins. Ren’s heart beat and throbbed, awakened to longing. He grabbed his sword and, with steps that bordered on desperation, he walked out of the Pinky’s Corridor. Thankfully, his destination was the very next Corridor in line in the House’s layout.
A dull, sterile room. Perfectly sized for one person. Walls that are lived in but lack a personality. This is the place where Sora woke up. Her very own room, as granted by the Prescript and ordained by her Nursefather. The Index Apprentice’s eyes were blown wide in disbelief as she took in the familiar place, now restrained once more in those chains of hers.
A beep from the outside. Then, a knock. “C-Come in!” The Apprentice calls out
The knob turns, and the door to her room creaks open. Through it came a tall man in a black suit, black hair with white streaks and white gloves. The left side of his face was encased in a mask, whilst the other carried a soft expression, his yellow eye standing out in the muted colours of the room. “Good afternoon, Sora.” He greeted.
Sora froze, feeling a wave of emotions wash over her. “R-Rien…?” Sora gasped with an airy voice, as if she didn’t believe what she was seeing.
The Nursefather quirked a brow. She never referred to him without ‘Mister’. But he didn’t want to pry. “Your lunch has been prepared. That is all.” Rien nodded slowly with his eye closed.
With that Prescript completed, he turns away to leave, but Sora stops him. “U-Uhm…! What… day is it?” She gives him a strained smile, realising she probably sounded silly asking that.
The Proxy was now even more confused, but not enough to stir a facial expression. “The 12th… of August.” For a second, he seemed like he wanted to ask why, but figured against it.
The door gently clicks behind him as Rien completes his departure. And Sora is left more conflicted than ever. Last she remembers, he let her go to her death against Yoshihide. “R-Right… That too… Rien says we’re in the past and I’m back in my room and… What did Cathy do?” She was slower on the uptake. Everything since waking felt like a dream, having her float in disbelief.
Silence. Her cuffs are constricting—she didn’t realise how much she liked the freedom until now. And the collar is overbearing, covering half of her face. She channels a bit of Shin and… The bindings on her arm are gone, broken apart by her strength. Sora wants to take down the collar as well, but she realises something.
A date in the past. Rien is here. The House of Spiders and… BEEP… The Device. The feeling of dread coalesced around her pager. She didn’t even dare glance at it. Hesitantly, she reaches out.
[ Eat the meal at the table in 12.3 minutes ]
And she recognises it. Not because she memorises all Prescripts, but because all of them are different in some way: wording, duration, etc. And she knows for sure she has already done something very, very similar, circa 6 months ago, before she got erased.
Her stomach grumbled, so, with a bit of distaste, she figured completing it wouldn’t be too bad. Out of her room and into the brutalist architecture of the Index’s Corridor. She walks down the hallway to where a table is set up. A single casserole with chicken and a salad lies there, despite the three chairs present at the table. It is wrapped in plastic, looking store-bought.
Sora sits and tries to enjoy the meal, but she hardly finds the appetite despite her hunger. Something about having the Prescript ordain even this is… off to her. And that’s a unique feeling, one she’s not sure she quite likes or hates yet. She picked idly at her food, her mind wandering. Eating is still second nature to any human, but after going so long without requiring it…
Speaking of, everything that happened did in fact happen. Her memory is far too vivid for it to be anything else, really. The game of cards, the training, the W⬛⬛t⬛ B⬛lle⬛— “Agh, that guy is probably still erased…” And most importantly… Sora blinks, finally realising what was missing. “Ren!” She wolfs down the rest of the food in record time and stands up. Her Device beeps with completion, but she doesn’t care—she starts marching. Empty mind, channel Mang, rip the collar off. She had to meet up with him, so she moved with bordering desperation towards the Corridor of the Pinky.
A crossing in the Corridors within the House of Spiders. Not too uncommon, most of this residence is interconnected already. And here, from opposite directions, come two people with busy footsteps. Then, synchronously, their footsteps slow down, sensing the presence of another. Their individual missions are to be overt, you see. Picture their surprise when both the Index Apprentice and the Pinky Apprentice run into the exact person they were looking for. They stop a few paces away from one another, each bearing a poker face.
After a far too long moment of silence, Ren is the first to greet. “Sora.” He says with his eyes fluttering closed and with a courteous bow of his head. His composure is pristine: back straight, arms crossed, expression utterly frigid—like how he used to act all that time ago.
Sora takes longer to respond, trying her best not to get mesmerised by his face or to give any sort of reaction in his presence. It was really difficult for her, even while she rationalised that he might not be her Ren. The Index Apprentice cleared her throat. “R-Ren.” And gives a quick nod of the head as acknowledgement.
A beat. The fact that neither has moved past the other communicates that there is more they want out of one another. Ren duly notes Sora’s lack of golden accessories, but, for the sake of not being too hasty, ignores their significance. “Sora.” He repeats, more flatly, in a firmer tone.
Sora purses her lips. “... Ren…” She repeats as well. There is now beyond a shadow of a doubt that they want something from one another.
“Sora…?” Ren says her name again with a questioning tilt.
The Index Apprentice takes a step forward. “Ren…!” She responds to his question by also saying his name right back. Something seems to click. Her expression lights up.
And Sora being happy also makes Ren happy, so his lips curve into a smile as well. “Sora!” He announces, looking like he just found the greatest treasure in the world.
She giggles, the tension in her shoulders vanishing. “Reeen!!” Sora beams. Unable to stop herself any longer, she opens her arms wide and throws herself into him for a big, loving hug.
Ren meets the hug with the same energy. “Sooraaa!!” He holds her tight and does a pirouette, nuzzling into her hair and holding her tight, afraid she might vanish.
A melodic laugh rings out through the Corridor, then doubled by a second voice. They laugh in relief and joy. Sora pulls her head back to look him in the eyes before promptly throwing an all-out attack onto his lips. The couple, reunited, kiss for the longest moment. “I’m very happy…” Sora whispers, still holding onto Ren.
Ren chuckles. “Me too. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t here.” He gives her another cheeky kiss.
“Do you think this was Cathy’s doing?” Her voice drops to an even lower whisper.
He nods. “Most likely. I’d guess she’s in the same position as us…” Ren muses.
Sora. “She’ll manage, I know she will. Maybe we can go and help her?”
The Pinky Apprentice shakes his head. “It’ll be hard to enter T Corp’s Nest as we are. We have to lie low for a while. Besides, there’s much work to do here as well, right?”
Sora nods with a serious expression. Not only doing things differently to ensure their survival, but to change the people they care about for the better, and, by extension, the entirety of the House of Spiders as well. They were privileged, a piece of web removed from the greater snare, carefully untangled by Catherine. And now, they are the single point of stability in this massive knot of threads. Slowly… slowly but surely, thread by thread, the web will be untangled… And maybe, when the way back home eludes them… Were they to follow the thread back to the knot that hurt the most… they won’t be trapped by the spider’s web.
The couple, now determined and satisfied, walk hand in hand off into a direction, looking for more privacy to discuss and hang out, lest they be hunted—metaphorically speaking. And neither, for their heightened senses, could spot the bewilderment radiating off someone.
She was just walking, enjoying her day. She didn’t even mean to eavesdrop, the Corridor’s within the House are just so convoluted they ran into another! And she was too embarrassed to ruin the moment. It is a miracle they didn’t hear the sounds of chains clinking as she covered her mouth to muffle her gasps, though her purple eyes were shot wide in shock. After the two Apprentices walk off, the third one allows herself to breathe in again. “What… The fuck… Did I just—...” Despite being witness, she couldn’t believe her eyes. “Ren and Sora a-are…” She sputtered, tripping over her words. “And t-they… k-kissed?!” Kira clutched her head, her face reddening once more as she recalled the series of events again. Utterly mortified, she stormed off.