11 The Red Door
[Player: Kazuki Arata]
[Level: 3]
[Waza: Black Hand, Thread Cutter, Aura Sense, Dark Rider, Retribution]
[Kegare: 35%]
---
Kazuki’s arms trembled with strain as he carried Suzume through the darkening forest. Fleet loped ahead, sniffing the air warily. The trees seemed to lean closer, their shadows stretching in the light of the setting sun.
“We’re almost there,” Kazuki murmured, more to reassure himself than Suzume, whose face was grey and closed with pain. The trees parted suddenly, revealing a small forest shrine tucked into a clearing. Moss-covered stone lanterns flanked the path, their carvings worn smooth by centuries. The torii gate marking the shrine seemed even older but was still standing, guarding the sacred space. And yet... the scent of cedar mingled with something darker - a fermented tang coming from the soil below that made Kazuki’s kegare stir.
Suzume reached weakly into her robes, wincing as her broken fingers pulled out a small silver mirror etched with kanji. It slipped from her trembling hands, nearly hitting the ground before Kazuki caught it.
“No!” Suzume gasped. “Don't touch it! Your corruption...”
Kazuki gave it to her and withdrew his hand. The mirror’s surface reflected him - veins pulsing black, skin marbled with creeping shadows. The kegare writhed beneath his flesh.
She fears you. As she should.
Whose voice was that? Memories came back to him in a rush - that quiet voice belonged to… Kuro? Kazuki looked down to the small brass bell tied to his belt. Silent.
Suzume wasn't watching. She knelt by the shrine’s basin, chanting. Finally she used the old bamboo ladle at the shrine and scooped up some cold water. Then she poured it on the mirror. Suzume took a deep breath and then dipped her broken hands into the mirror itself as if it was a pool of water. Kazuki stared in disbelief but he could see and hear her shattered bones realigning with sickening pops.
Finally, Suzume took her hands out of the impossible depth of the two dimensional mirror, drops of... water... falling from them. Her fingers looked much better - healthy and straight. Suzume slowly curled her hands into fists but Kazuki could see their weakness. “Days to heal,” she whispered. “Until then, I’m defenseless.”
Fleet pressed against her side. “No you're not. I’m a very good biter.”
Suzume smiled, tired but relieved and grateful for Fleet.
Kazuki turned away. The kegare coiled in his chest, cold and mocking. You’ll fail them both. This time it wasn't Kuro's voice he heard.
It was his own.
Fleet vanished at dusk, returning wet with his fur bristling. “Found a cave behind the waterfall. Smells like dead water… and them.”
“The Kappa,” Suzume breathed.
They arrived at the waterfall just as the sun set. The water plunging over the ridge was heavy and cold but they pressed through the torrential curtain into the cavern beyond. It was nothing but a depthless, black void until Suzume’s trembling fingers conjured a golden orb of light, revealing walls carved with symbols. These weren't kanji and they certainly weren't English. They looked more like snakes and worms.
“These aren’t kappa markings,” Suzume murmured. “They’re older. Much older."
"What do they say?" Fleet asked.
"I don't know," said Suzume as she stepped closer to the carvings. "But they seem to be prayers. To something beneath us.”
The three of them began walking, going through the wet winding tunnels, lit only by the flickering globe of light that orbited Suzume. The tunnels narrowed and widened like a digestive system and bit by bit Kazuki’s vision blurred. The walls pulsed faintly, rhythm syncopated yet familiar.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
“Do you hear that?” Kazuki hissed.
“Hear what?” Fleet whimpered, ears flat.
The fungus glowed brighter as they descended, its light throbbing in time with the subterranean pulse. Kazuki’s corruption flared, veins blackening as the whispers grew louder: Closer. Come closer. This time it was a voice he didn't recognize at all.
Why were they here? What were they doing in the darkness, inside this thing? The knife! The Shirayuki Blade. They had to get it back from the Kappa. That's why they were here. Not to pray.
Not to obey.
Obey.
Obey.
bey.
y.
y.oByee
[WARNING: Eldritch Signature Detected]
[Source: ??? (Corruption Protocol Violation)]
[Recommended Action: Withdraw immediately. Unauthorized entities may compromise system integrity.]
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Suzume froze. “This place… it’s wrong.”At the sound of her voice Kazuki snapped back. What had he been thinking about?
The chamber ahead defied reason - it was huge, vast spires of obsidian twisted like broken bones, staircases spiraling into voids, and a ceiling that seemed to stretch into infinite darkness. At its center stood the Red Door.
Thrummed.
Carved from a single crimson monolith, its surface rippled like blood. Symbols etched into its frame writhed under Suzume’s light, rearranging themselves into shapes that synesthetically hurt. Kazuki’s breath hitched. The kegare roared in recognition, flooding his veins with twitching need.
Yes. This is where you belong.
“Don’t touch it,” Suzume warned, but Kazuki was already stepping forward. The door pulsed in time with his own corruption, its rhythm merging with his heartbeat. Visions tore through his mind:
A colossal entity bound in chains of starlight. Tentacles tipped with eyes that saw into himl. A voice, ancient and ravenous, whispering...
“Kazuki!” Suzume’s shout again shattered the trance.
He staggered back, choking on the stench of stagnant water and rot. Dozens of small yellow eyes blinked open in the shadows. Kappas emerged, their scaled bodies painted with crimson sigils mirroring the door’s markings. They knelt in unison, pressing foreheads to the ground before the Red Door
Somewhere a wet guttural voice from a throat never intended for human words rasped, “The Door hungers. It whispers of you, cursed one.”
Kazuki’s kegare flared, the corruption searing his nerves as the door’s call pounded upon him.
Rough hands seized them. Fleet thrashed, but the kappas just hissed in amusement, dragging them backwards away from the Red Door and towards the royal hall of the kappa king. Wet webbed feet and tentacles grabbed Suzume. Bear sized muscular mutations seized Kazuki...
[SYSTEM OVERRIDE]
[ALERT: Foreign Code Injection Detected in User: Kazuki Arata]
[Scanning... ERROR: Hostile payload identified: [REDACTED]]
[Quarantine Failure: Entity “Red Door” exceeds admin privileges.]
...but his gaze was locked on the ReD DOOR. RE D DO OR
Suzume stared at Kazuki, her voice steady despite her terror: “Fight it.”
He couldn't hear her.
[Status: System Status: ERROR]|
[Status: System Status: ?E?R?R?O?R? ?E?R?R?O?R? ?E?R?R?O?R? ?E?R?R?O?R? ?E?R?R?O?R?]
Banging. Loud, relentless banging.
Kazuki jerked upright in his bed, blinking away sleep as the pounding on his apartment door continued. His small Sendai apartment came into focus around him - the worn tatami mats, the cramped desk piled with textbooks, the faded poster of Mount Zao on the wall. Morning light filtered through the blinds, casting stripes across his futon.
The banging grew more insistent.
"Coming!" Kazuki called, his voice cracking with sleep. He slowly got up, disoriented. How had he gotten back to Sendai? Wasn't he just in a forest with Suzume and Fleet?
His hand hesitated on the doorknob. Who would be pounding like this at - he glanced at his phone -1??????????????????????7???????????????? ????????????????????A?????????????????????????????M???????
Wait.
What?
A chill crept up his spine as his fingers touched the cold metal. Something felt wrong.
Ting.
The delicate sound of a small bell stopped him. Kazuki turned, breath catching in his throat.
A black cat sat primly on his sofa, amber eyes reflecting light from somewhere Kazuki couldn't see. Around her neck hung a small brass bell that gleamed despite the dimness. The cat tilted its head, studying him.
"Kuro?" Kazuki whispered, recognizing the cat from... somewhere. A memory.
The cat blinked slowly before leaping off the sofa and padding into his kitchen, tail held high. Ting. Ting.
Kazuki followed, drawn by both curiosity and dread. The banging on the door continued but it was further away. The kitchen of his apartment was exactly as he'd left it - an unwashed cup in the sink, half-empty container of instant ramen on the counter, his old guitar propped in the corner collecting dust. The cat sat by his refrigerator, the bell at its throat ringing softly though it wasn't moving.
Ting. Ting. Ting.
The sound grew louder, until it wasn't a bell ringing anymore. It became moment after moment a pulsing rhythm that shook the walls and floor. The cat's eyes widened, pupils expanding until they consumed the amber irises entirely, two black voids that pulled at Kazuki as the ringing became deafening; a cacophony of metallic sounds that resonated like a physical force. He covered his ears, but the sound pierced through his hands, through bone, rattling in his core.
TING. TING. TING.
The refrigerator door swung open, but instead of shelves and food, it revealed a rippling crimson surface, a thick liquid pulsing in time with the bell's rhythm. Symbols crawled across its surface, ancient characters that made Kazuki's vision blur.
The cat opened its mouth, but instead of a meow, the sound of rushing water.
Kazuki gasped awake, choking on a gag. His wrists burned where coarse rope bit into his flesh. Old dirty fabric tasting of mud cut into the corners of his mouth. He blinked, releasing the last fragments of the dream.
Kuro's brass bell was clutched tightly in his right hand, its metal edges digging painfully into his palm. The bell was silent now. He had no memory of grabbing it.
The cave. The symbols. The Red Door with its liquid surface and hypnotic pull.
Kazuki was in a vast underground chamber, the distant ceiling lost in black. Phosphorescent fungi clung to the walls, casting a dim blue-green light. Beside him, Fleet and Suzume sat bound and gagged, just like him, immobile, their eyes wide.
Fleet made a small, urgent noise. Kazuki followed his gaze to the center of the chamber, where a massive throne of impossible architecture rose from the stone floor.
The throne was an mineral and organic monstrosity - a foundation of polished obsidian intertwined with living reeds. Pearls of impossible size were embedded throughout and fragments of bone - some human, some decidedly not - created a skeletal latticework upon which luminous fungi bloomed and decayed. Water flowed continuously down channels carved into the structure, collecting in basins where strange, eyeless creatures swam in tight circles.
The throne was empty, but surrounding it were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of kappa.
They were unlike any kappa Kazuki had ever heard of. Some were small and lizard-like, others massive and bulbous. Some had multiple arms or tentacles in place of limbs. A few appeared almost human except for their webbed hands and the water-filled depressions atop their heads. All of them swayed in perfect unison, a rhythm that made Kazuki's stomach lurch with vertigo. Their collective breathing created a sound like waves against a shore.
More lurked in the darkness behind the throne - shapes that defied description, forms that seemed to fold and unfold in ways that made Kazuki's eyes burn.
A drumbeat began, deep and resonant, echoing through the chamber. The kappa's swaying intensified, water sloshing in the bowls atop their heads.
For a full minute, the drumbeat continued, building tension in the vast chamber. Then, abruptly, silence fell.
One second stretched into ten. Twenty. Thirty.
In that silence, Kazuki became acutely aware of his own heartbeat, his ragged breath against the gag. He felt the kegare marks beneath his skin pulse, responding to something in the chamber.
Approaching.
---
[New Achievement: Knock Knock]
[Next Chapter: The Kappa King's Lament I]
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