They tossed the room.
Hisako rooted through the man's suitcase while the others investigated the furniture, his other belongings, and the bathroom.
She shoveled aside folded clothes. She was awed at the antique textures and heavy fabrics; it all felt real, far from the world on a screen—she hoped that doors would always astound her. Aside from the clothes, there were a few papers in folders—medical documents and instructions, she guessed.
She sighed and righted it all, smoothing the clothes out and thumping them back down into the case.
She paused, then kneeled to examine the case more closely.
The space inside wasn't deep enough for how large the case was.
She dumped the clothes out on the bed and tapped at the back. Hollow. She grasped at the patterned material of the lining and found a divot to tug at.
She hooked her fingers through the hole and pulled the backing out.
She gasped at the sight of the empty indent of a gun and a line of bullets. "He has a gun!" she announced.
Moon stepped from the bathroom quickly. "On him?"
"It's not here," Kamui said, slamming his drawers shut.
"He's got it on him, then," Koko concluded.
"He's… He's a walker, so he's going to try to kill Sylvain, right?" Hisako asked.
Kamui hissed out a frustrated sigh. "Yes, that's likely."
"We need to find him now," Hisako said.
She hurried to the door, glancing briefly over her shoulder to ensure the others were following. They raced through the halls—Kamui pointed out the staircase, and they ran this way, then that. Here, then there, until they reached the ground floor and the lobby.
The lobby was not in disrepair, and the maw of the front door wasn't shattered—everything was as it had been before the chaos. The lobby NPCs were present, sitting absently and calmly—all of them save for the elderly man in the wheelchair, though his attendant was there.
"The man!" she exclaimed, drawing their attention.
They looked at her, alarmed and confused.
She mimed wheeling, crouching, and throwing her arms out, then he mimed straightening her tie, then threw her hands up in confusion and pointed around, seeking.
They chattered amongst themselves—one word came up over and over, a name? "Ron."
She mimed wheeling the chair again. "Ron?" she parroted.
The attendee nodded. She pointed about, watching their expression. Finally, it clicked, and they pointed toward the staff door Sylvain had initially led them down.
Hisako broke into a sprint. When she tried the door, she found it locked, and once again sized up Sylvain's door to slam through it. Once again, it gave for her, though in two harder blows, and they continued into the hall.
"He's…" She didn't feel the need to announce the whole thought.
"Yep!" Kamui breathed.
They burst into the stairwell and froze.
Hisako nearly fell when she ran into the man's empty wheelchair; Koko had to grab her by her jacket to keep her from following the chair over the edge. It crashed down into the wall below, wheels whining until they stopped spinning.
The racket was unbelievable; Hisako broke into a cold sweat.
"We go down," Hisako whispered. Even that echoed.
Kamui went first, stepping down gently on the first step. He winced as the clang of his shoe on metal reverberated through the entire shaft. They followed him with just as much care, and all it earned them was the roar of a metal stampede.
"No use," Dr. Moon sighed.
Hisako sighed in resignation as well, then became the first to run, thundering down the stairs.
The staircase was long. Hisako, though she wasn't worried about counting the levels they descended, lost track quickly. They had to be at least ten floors down when the stairs finally came to rest on a cold, concrete floor.
The walls had lost their white wash and were left as bare concrete, smooth in most places, but with chips and holes left unattended.
Another door closed off the staircase. Hisako opened it, and they found a similarly barren, cold corridor.
A boiler and other utilities should be down here, Hisako pondered, but she doubted they really were. The heart of the darkness was likely the only thing they'd find.
Hisako stepped into the corridor and nearly jumped out of her skin when a gunshot rang out, so loud against the silence of the basement that her ears felt attacked by needles.
The sound, followed by a shout of pain, was what quickened her into a run. The hall had no doors save for the one at the end, which swung open at her slightest touch.
Indeed, there was no boiler in the basement. Instead, there was a hole in the wall, as if someone had tried to mine through the basement walls and found a void. Tendrils—dark roots—swam forth, anchoring a tight hold on Sylvain's realm and forming a bird-like nest.
Sylvain himself stood near the whorl of roots, holding the old man by his shirt. A gun had been kicked away from the two of them, matching the empty indent in the suitcase several stories above, and the man's hand bled from a semi-deep wound.
In Sylvain's other hand was the axe, bloodied. He looked up from the man's scowling face and smiled sharkishly at the exam team.
"Hisako," he greeted.
Hisako summoned Toraichi, and the others followed her example, drawing their weapons.
Sylvain lifted the old man into the air and set his axe threateningly against his collar. "Hisako," he warned. He said something bitterly, as if a threat; Hisako only recognized the man's name, "Ron."
"Dr. Moon, please attack Sylvain with your weapon," Hisako said, calm and loud enough that Sylvain wouldn't suspect her of being secretive.
He simply narrowed his eyes at her, muttering darkly in English, though seemingly for his own pleasure rather than communication. The old man squirmed in his grip but kept his jaw squared and his eyes defiant.
"Taniguchi-san, if you would allow me a distraction with your abilities," Moon asked gently.
He chuckled at the formal address, but nodded.
Sylvain barked something angrily, waving the axe threateningly, and then suddenly Kamui was in his face, nearly nose to nose. Hisako almost missed that Dr. Moon had lurched into a sprint, sword bared.
Sylvain flinched, allowing Kamui to free the man and shove him safely behind him. Dr. Moon reached them, and Sylvain swung the axe at her, only for her to easily knock his hand away.
Capitalizing on the close-combat distance needed to secure the old man's safety, he swung at Dr. Moon again, twisting his body and weaving into her space recklessly.
Hisako clenched Toraichi, and she saw sparks as Koko clenched his fists; Sylvain knew they weren't trying to hurt him.
Dr. Moon clattered the axe into the air with the flat of her blade, but Sylvain continued to advance as if he'd not been disarmed. Before the axe could even hit the floor, it was back in his hand, already mid-swing.
She didn't flinch; she swung her blade.
He didn't flinch either.
Hisako bit her tongue. He was calling her bluff; how did he know it was—
Dr. Moon's blade hacked into his arm, and he let out a bellow of pain.
Blood sprayed. His axe arm dropped, and his free hand snapped to the wound, deep and bleeding.
Dr. Moon jumped back, eyes wide and blade wet. Maybe she hadn't expected Sylvain to take the blow, Hisako reasoned.
"Doctor!" Hisako cried.
Hisako stared at him as Dr. Moon retreated to join her. The cut had gone down to bone, and a ghastly aura oozed from the bone, but no healing was occurring.
"Is that how it's supposed to go?" Hisako whispered.
"No. Something is wrong," she replied. "My blade only cuts Doorwalkers. Only."
Hisako watched Sylvain examine his wound as the burning pain became manageable. Then, the aura expanded, and the flesh regrew above it, slowly and erratically, like a man un-rotting from the inside out.
It was a grotesque sight that made Hisako's lips curl as Sylvain seemingly felt more pain in the process, shivering and inhaling erratically as he paled and broke into a sweat.
"He's a walker?" Hisako asked.
"He must be," Kamui said.
He guided the old man, Ron, into the hall. He wobbled on shaky legs, escaping with one hand on the wall for stability. Koko shut the door, and Hisako could only hope he successfully escaped.
"Koko, keep explosions to a minimum for now; we don't want the ceiling crushing us," Hisako ordered. "Kamui, Dr. Moon, please support me and engage as you see fit."
She heard them assent, and then she threw herself at the walker that had called himself Sylvain.
Here, in his underground nest of darkness, she knew he was the final walker, and she would have to slay him to clear the door. She didn't want to think about where Sylvain was, or if there even was a Sylvain.
She pushed her speed with her ability, reaching the walker before he could fully recover. He threw his axe up desperately, but Hisako was already in full swing.
Toraichi swung across his torso, almost completely lopping off the raised arm and smashing into the walker's ribs, sending him flying as she followed through with the swing. The blood that washed Hisako was cold.
The walker writhed on the ground against the wall, crawling upright despite his legs kicking uselessly beneath him. The arm she'd cut was hanging on by a thread. He pushed himself up with his uninjured arm while the other healed.
The arm didn't just re-attach, though. At the mid-upper arm, where Toraichi had bitten, the flesh parted like a fork in a tree. The phantom force mimicked a twin armbone and grew into a whole forearm.
Breathing heavily, his hands clenched in sync—the half-destroyed flesh arm and the phantom bone limb. The bleeding stopped, but the wound was still raw to the bone, like his body had just stopped bleeding. His axe appeared in the flesh hand, and the ghastly hand formed a claw of elongated fingerbones.
He looked at her, eyes sharp and venomous. His face twisted in a horrible scowl. He stood, but the moment he did, Kamui appeared next to him, polearm swinging out.
The walker's eyes widened as he registered Kamui's attack, but Kamui was too quick to be blocked. The blade whistled, and the bell rattled, but instead of the sound of metal hitting flesh and the cry of a wound, they heard metal smash against concrete.
The polearm left massive cracks and a crater in the wall, but the walker was unharmed. Hisako narrowed her eyes. She'd seen Kamui's attack hit him—she'd seen it go through him.
The walker didn't hesitate—he sprang upon Kamui, traveling down the length of the polearm to reach Kamui. Kamui jolted back, recoiling all the way to Koko's side, who had extended a single burning finger.
Hisako's eyes widened, and she saw Kamui's do the same, watching as the spark, just a speck of light, flew from Koko, just quick enough to track it if you knew not to blink.
Hisako realized too late that she should've looked away.
The walker raised the axe to block the blow and braced with crossed arms, legs failing to move himself out of the way in time.
The spark touched his braced forearms, and he exploded.
Hisako didn't have time to squint as his bone and flesh arms shattered outwards. It was the smallest explosion Hisako had seen Koko make, but it felt like the largest.
Once the bloody mist settled into a cloud on the floor and the burning light blinked from Hisako's eyes, she could see the walker slumped against the back wall. He looked dead, eyes unfocused and face slack, but he trembled as his body struggled to heal.
His arms had been reduced to spinters held together by the ghostly aura—Hisako could now see it was more like a ghost skeleton, hiding where his own bones ought to have been.
"Koko! Wait!" Kamui exclaimed.
Hisako whirled around just as another spark passed by. She saw Koko, painted eyes narrowed, with his other hand outstretched. The explosion shook the air before she could wheel back around again.
When she did, her breath caught in her throat, choking her.
The walker was not obliterated; Hisako couldn't tell if it was Koko's restraint, a mistake on Koko's part, or the walker's intangibility coming into play. Maybe all of the above.
Either way, the walker's arms were splayed and broken, his legs were crumpled unnaturally, his head was limp and bloodied, and his torso had been opened, though not eradicated. His ribcage was opened like a ravaged can. Hisako would never look at spaghetti the same again.
"Cratered" was the dreadful word that came to Hisako's mind.
"Is he dead?" Hisako whispered.
He wasn't twitching anymore, and no human could survive such a wound.
Dr. Moon crept forward. Hisako walked with her, Toraichi ready.
They didn't reach the walker's form.
The body came to life, writhing in a silent scream of pain. Bones creaked and flesh tore. Blood splashed. Hisako gagged. The phantom bones rose, peeling from the failing body. The bones, in contact with the air, grew a taut, semi-translucent skin.
"Stop!" Kamui shouted in warning.
The phantom separated entirely from the body, and Hisako's heart sank. Dr. Moon came to a halt beside her. She raised her sword arm to stop Hisako and backed them both away. Her other hand came out, and a gentle white glow engulfed the human form beneath the ghost.
"Does that mean…" Hisako's mouth was too dry to continue, and her throat too tight to force herself to speak.
"Yes," Dr. Moon breathed.
"Is he dead?" Hisako asked.
"No. I can keep him alive, and I can heal him once it's safe," she replied.
"Thank you," Hisako murmured.
She lifted her eyes from Sylvain's broken form to the ghost above him.
The bony ridges beneath the skin looked grotesque, like the visage of a person starved. The skin covered too much—there were no orifices for eyes, so there was only the shadowed hollow of the orbital bones. The ghost had no legs—instead, she could see that the body tapered into a wisp, though the bones for the legs were visible inside, twisted and useless.
The fingers, instead of having nails, were uncovered bone, wickedly sharp and long like the ghost arm from before. The creature made a sound akin to a growl, and Hisako shuddered as jagged teeth pressed against the skin where the mough would've been.
"Ready?" Hisako asked the others, voice wavering.
"Of course," Koko purred.
"We're with you, Hisako," Kamui told her.
"Thank you," Hisako breathed, then moved.