For a moment, it was pure silence.
Dust hung in the stale arcade air, drifting through faint rays of light that leaked through boarded and broken windows.
Daiki exhaled slowly, trying to calm down the unnerving feeling in his chest.
Jimmu didn't move.
Didn't blink.
Didn't even breathe, as far as Daiki could tell.
He just stared into the swallowing darkness down the hallway.
Daiki broke the silence, "...Do you feel something?"
Jimmu tilted his head just a bit. "...Thinking."
"About the Yurei?"
"No."
A couple of long seconds passed.
"About what game I'm going to play when I get home."
Daiki blinked, a bit irritated. "It's really not the time to be thinking about that."
"...Ohhh. Right."
Before Daiki could respond, something moved.
Something loud scraped against the hard and cold floor.
Both of the boys froze.
Jimmu's eyes sharpened instantly. "There. Back left corner."
Daiki squinted. "I don't see anything."
"You're not supposed to see it yet," Jimmu murmured, stepping forward. "Yurei don't announce themselves unless they're stupid... or hungry."
"That's really not comforting..."
CRACK.
One of the old claw machines buckled inward as if something punched it from the inside. A rain of broken glass scattered across the floor.
Daiki yelped like an animal. "OH SHIT, IT'S HUNGRY!"
Jimmu didn't even flinch. "Mm. Seems that way."
The machine trembled again.
A low, husky growl vibrated from within the plastic prize chute.
Jimmu sighed like someone annoyed by a long checkout line.
"Alright. Step back. Behind me. And don't scream in my ear, your voice is too high."
"HEY....!"
CRASH.
The prize machine finally exploded outward, metal bending and wires whipping through the air. A pale, twisted shape crawled out. It had long limbs that dragged across the ground; its face was a fusion of a ghost and a human; and its movements were like those of a possessed puppet.
A Yurei.
Daiki stumbled backwards.
Jimmu took one slow step forward.
No fear.
No panic.
Just irritation.
"...Great," he muttered, raising one hand. "This one's ugly."
The Yurei screeched and lunged like a bad frame of animation. One moment it was crouched, the next a blur of twisted limbs and cracking joints.
Daiki barely had time to inhale.
Jimmu opened his hand.
A thin, needle-like spear of condensed Reiki[1] snapped into existence in a flash between his fingers. He flicked it lazily, barely even aiming.
SHNK.
The needle struck straight through the Yurei's shoulder in a streak of blue light. The creature shrieked, stumbling off-course and slamming into a dust-covered rhythm game machine, denting its metal casing with a loud clang.
Daiki froze.
"...Dude."
Jimmu blinked at him. "What?"
"You... didn't even try!
"I did. Mostly."
He tilted his head a bit.
"Probably."
The Yurei twisted its head unnaturally, mandibles scraping against its own flesh as it glared at them with hollow sockets.
Daiki felt the hair rise on his neck, but a relentless fire in his chest forced him to step forward despite the fear.
"Alright... let's go."
The Yurei screeched and sprinted at Jimmu on all fours like a predator, its limbs clattering across the arcade floor.
Jimmu didn't move until the last possible second.
FWOOM.
Reiki burst beneath his feet, launching him upward in a clean, precise arc as if invisible platforms appeared under him. The Yurei lunged under him instead of at him, swiping the air where his torso had just been.
Daiki's jaw fell open.
"You can fly too...?!"
Jimmu, still midair, raised his eyebrow. "No. I'm just cheating gravity."
"That's... flying you idiot!"
Jimmu landed lightly on top of a broken crane game, balance perfect, Reiki swirling around his palm. The Yurei leapt upward toward Jimmu.
That was his chance.
Daiki didn't hesitate. He grabbed a broken, dislodged metal pipe from a nearby wall, his grip charged with unnatural strength as Reiki burned through his body, and he hurled it forward like a javelin.
CLANG!
The pole smashed into the Yurei's ribs midair, knocking it off-course. The creature crashed into a vending machine, sending snacks flying everywhere in a little rain of chips and pretzels.
Jimmu landed lightly beside Daiki.
"Your Reiki goes crazy during combat," he said.
"I've been told," Daiki shot back. "As long as I live to see tomorrow, I don't care."
"Mm."
The Yurei twitched, its limbs jerking as it crawled out of the debris. Daiki watched black particles drift into its elongated spine, as if it were absorbing them.
"Hey," Daiki said, eyes narrowing. "Reiki Expert, I've never seen that before. What is it sucking in?"
"Residual Reiki," Jimmu replied. "Ours."
"And... that's bad."
"It'll get stronger if we let this go for too long."
A couple of seconds passed before Jimmu thought of a comparison.
"Like a final boss."
Daiki tightened his fists, Reiki beginning to flood through his whole body like a wave.
"Then let's bring its health to zero."
Jimmu blinked at him, almost surprised. "You're direct."
"Yeah, well, these things don't respond to subtle."
Daiki rushed forward before Jimmu could respond.
The Yurei surged forward, visibly taller now, its body swelling and distorting. Daiki ducked under a wild swipe, slid across the dusty floor, and slammed his foot right into its knee.
CRACK.
The impact made its knee joint bend the wrong way, and the Yurei toppled with an ear-piercing shriek.
Daiki's eyes widened with sudden energy and excitement.
Jimmu stepped up from behind him, Reiki spiralling into a single condensed point in the form of a spear in his hand.
"Move."
Daiki darted to the side just as he hurled the spear.
SHNK.
It pierced right through the Yurei's head with great force, pinning it clearly to a pillar.
Dark vapour hissed from its body as it dissolved, evaporating into nothingness.
Silence.
Daiki exhaled, shaking dust off his sleeves and pants. "Man. And this is only the first floor...?"
Jimmu brushed some dirt from his shoulder.
"...Annoying."
"Annoying? It tried killing us."
"And it failed."
"That's not the point..!"
Before Daiki could finish arguing, Jimmu began drifting off again, mind clearly wandering into a different plane of existence.
Daiki ran after him, snapping his fingers in front of his face.
"Bro? Hey. Hey!"
Jimmu blinked. "I just remembered I left my laundry in the dorm washer."
"We almost died, and you're thinkin about your socks?!"
"They'll wrinkle.
"That's REALLY not important right now!"
A scream that sounded a lot like a child's echoed from deeper within the arcade.
Both boys froze.
It was coming from the second floor.
Daiki straightened, trying to calm the endless dread in his stomach. "More?"
Jimmu sighed. "...Yurei don't travel alone in places like this."
He stepped forward, posture relaxed despite the worsening tension.
"Stay close," he said. "And keep on being reckless, it helps me a lot."
Daiki smirked, taking that as a compliment. "I gotcha."
Together, they advanced into the dark.
[1] Jimmu's Ketsugojin, Formless, allows him to freely manipulate Reiki in its purest state. Unlike most Ketsugojin, which convert Reiki into specific elements or enhance the body in defined ways, Formless treats Reiki as a flexible substance. Jimmu can shape it into weapons, alter its properties, and control it both within and outside his body.