"We do," Rao agreed.
Hisako took a deep breath, cooling herself. "We just need to decide how we'll move forward as a unit, I think."
"We were doing fine on our own," Sasaki said. "You and Serizawa can be our support. Stay closer next time, okay?"
"That can't be our only plan going forward," Hisako breathed. She hefted her sword awkwardly, half-leaning it against her shoulder.
"Your weapon requires quite a wide space to swing," Rao reasoned. "We aren't really able to work in the same quarters. Maybe it's right for you to be slightly separate from us."
Hisako nodded. "And Serizawa?"
"I can stay back. With Stinger, I can attack safely from the backline," Serizawa said quietly.
"And what about our abilities? What are yours? I can control my directions, so I can change my 'up' and 'down' while I use it–that kind of thing. That's how I jumped up so high."
Yasuda produced a crossbow bolt from nothing, holding it delicately in her fine fingers. "I can make myself more bolts."
Hisako figured it was more than that–it'd be far too niche otherwise–but figured Yasuda had her reasons for keeping it simple.
Rao took a moment to think before speaking, just as simply as Yasuda, but more carefully and descriptively: "With my katars, I can make clones, essentially, but I'll be without the weapon, as it's the source of the mirror images."
"You can make two clones, then," Yasuda said, somewhat uninterested.
Her blasé attitude seemed to peeve Rao a bit, but he retained professionalism.
"Yes," Rao agreed.
"My weapon and ability are the same," Sasaki explained, eyeing the other two critically. "I've got magic. I can do anything with it."
Hisako waited a moment for her to continue before realizing she was done.
"The shields and attacks?" Hisako asked.
Sasaki nodded. "Pretty much. That's all I know for now."
Rao hummed thoughtfully, but there was a clear strain showing in his slightly furrowed eyebrows.
Hisako was starting to get a grasp of the dynamics appearing; none of them were on the same page. Rao seemed the most down-to-earth of the louder three, and Sasaki seemed to understand the divide could become an issue, but neither pushed for teamwork yet.
Hisako figured they were thinking "so far, so good," but Hisako knew that every game got more difficult, and then the weaknesses in the party would show all too quickly. She'd do her best to play a flex position for now, to keep everything smooth.
Hisako frowned and looked to Serizawa, her only bastion of hope.
"I can heal, in a way," Serizawa explained. "What I really do is reverse the 'biological clock', which can undo damage. I can't rewind very far as of now, but I can heal injuries or damage that happened within a few minutes. Nakano-san said I'll get a better evaluation of it done once we pass–"
"Okay!" Yasuda piped up. "We get it. You heal, but only if it happened, like, five seconds ago."
Hisako pat Serizawa's shoulder. "That's a great ability," she assured him. "I get injured all the time, so that helps. Stay nearby to me, okay?" She winked playfully, which made him brighten a bit.
"Meeting adjourned?" Yasuda asked, already walking forward.
The others shrugged and continued walking as well. Serizawa and Hisako stepped quicker to catch up, then hung back a few paces to gap the party up.
"So, you named your weapon?" Hisako asked, half-teasing. "Stinger. It fits."
"Nakano-san said it'd make me get used to it all quicker."
Hisako nodded. "I'm also… new to this whole thing."
Serizawa looked at her carefully, clinging to her every word, suddenly. "What did you do before this?"
"Construction," Hisako replied. "I only found out about this all because my best friend went through their door."
Serizawa hung his head. "Yeah. I was just a salaryman. I… I went through my door. I don't know why. I just–I had a conversation at the station one day and felt bold. On my way home, I saw it, and I thought, 'Every new choice is one step closer to a new life,' you know? What a stupid decision. I nearly died."
Hisako nodded in understanding. "I… I also needed something new. It just took helping my friend to understand that." She regarded him gently. "You're braver than me; I would've rotted doing the same thing all my life, but would've been too afraid of change to do anything about it until it was too late."
"It is too late for me." He shrugged with self-deprecation. "I can't fight. Nakano-san said I can help heal people if I get strong enough and then join the Medical Division. At least there I can be of use. All I have to do is hold out until then."
Hisako frowned at him. "Don't be so negative on yourself!" she protested. "You don't even know what you're capable of."
He sighed, disbelieving.
She grabbed his arm, halting them both. He looked at her, and she returned his gaze with a hard stare. "I don't know what I'm capable of, so there's no way you do, you understand? Maybe we'll both rock this thing and you'll laugh about today later."
His lips tightened in a conflicted look.
"After we wrap this test and get our results, we'll have this conversation again, okay?"
He gave in. "Okay."
She clapped his back heartily. "Now get in there, champ!"
He gave a wobbly smile and they continued to walk, Hisako just a step behind him.
"So," Hisako said. "What do you think this door is about?"
The anxiety lessened immediately on Serizawa's face, switching to a pinched concentration. "This door is a lot different from mine. Mine was an office building," he said, thinking aloud. "Maybe the career change was best." He chuckled glumly.
Hisako chuckled. "I'm not even sure what mine was. A field. A forest. Never even left the city before."
Serizawa rubbed at his chin. "Really? So.. Perhaps Vice Captain Strömberg's door is from his imagination, like yours is?"
"I think it's designed. Amajiki-san told me that Doorkeepers can modify their doors. Doctor Moon modifies hers."
"Doctor Moon." Serizawa nodded. "I think I met her. I was–I was really out of it after I went through my door."
Hisako eyed the team ahead. They were facing some opposition–spare enemies wandering the streets alone–but they were no challenge. The others even seemed to be competing over who could get to the lone walkers first.
She sighed and flicked her eyes around the environment with annoyance, trying to ignore Sasaki's giddy laugh as her light flashes struck further and faster than the others could with their weapons.
Her eyes caught a form slumped at the edge of the road, collapsed in some withered bushes. The person–they appeared to be a young man–didn't look as raggedly dressed as the other walkers. Hisako stumbled to a stop to analyze the body.
She reached out with a gloved hand, nudging the face up to see it.
"Is everything okay?" Serizawa asked quietly. He'd stopped just a few steps ahead.
The face wasn't as ghastly as the other walkers', and, instead of having faded away after dying, he remained.
"He's an NPC," Hisako replied. "Part of the story we're supposed to understand."
Serizawa stiffened, inhaling sharply. "Part of the modified door–part of a designed test." He went to wave down the others, but they were already out of sight. He sighed. "Is this meant to be the first clue? It's… obscure."
Hisako chewed on her lip. "No. There was a little girl back at the start, before that fight."
Serizawa looked back, down the dark street. "Should we…"
"Split the party? No, I think that'd be more dangerous than helpful." Hisako sighed deeply. "Sometimes, you can skip a cutscene but still understand the plot."
Serizawa abruptly laughed. "Hah! You remind me of my sister. She plays games professionally, and she's always talking like that."
"A professional gamer?" Hisako's eyes lit up. "You'll have to introduce us after this."
Serizawa chuckled. He crouched down next to Hisako and helped her shuffle through the man's belongings. He was bolder than she'd been, reaching into his pockets and patting him down.
He found something, tucked into the inside of the man's jacket, patched up but still more intact than the Doorwalkers' outfits.
A photo.
Serizawa turned it over and held it out under a flickering lantern for them to see.
A sepia monochrome family photograph. Perhaps not "old" to the door world, but old to them, and it'd taken damage from rain or something, along with getting caked with the dead man's blood. Serizawa had to rub dried blood off to reveal the contents of the photo.
The family was as nuclear as it came: a woman in a bright, layered gown with an ornate hat; a man in a sharp suit standing stiffly at the woman's side; a young boy, in a more colorful, decorated version of his father's outfit; and a baby in a billowing dress like a doll, sitting on her mother's lap.
Hisako touched the photo, brushing at a smear of haziness in the woman's hat. Were the folds of the hat dotted with white flowers, like the ones she'd seen before? The baby girl held one in her puffy hands.
"They look like they're from the Victorian era," Serizawa hummed. He looked ahead. "The walkers, too." He stood, handing her the photo.
Hisako glanced up at him and rose as well.
"It's all very Victorian French horror," Serizawa said.
"Oh?" Hisako asked. "How do you know?"
Serizawa shrugged. "I like history. I used to travel for work, and I tried to make sketches of the interesting buildings I saw. I got interested in architecture. Saw a lot of old buildings. Old things. Old paintings. Old people."
"Alright, Sherlock." Hisako smiled widely at him. "We have a mystery to solve."
Hisako tucked the photo into the inside of her jacket, looking down at the young man. Even if he wasn't real–
She closed her eyes and mentally wished him well. That his family, however fake they were, would weather his loss, and that all would be well for them. That his spirit rested peacefully.
When she opened her eyes, she saw that Serizawa had also closed his eyes and bowed his head respectfully.
When he opened them, she averted her gaze respectfully as he collected himself.
"We should catch up with them," he murmured finally. "I'm sure they're fine, but I can't rewind injuries very far, and I'm no use unless I can completely undo the wound."
Hisako smiled at him. "Yeah. I'm sure they're fine, but… we're a team."
They jogged ahead, guided by the sparse lights on the streets and then, after rounding a corner, the flash of Sasaki's magical strikes.
Serizawa's hand went to his hip, unraveling Stinger. Hisako watched the ease in his movements as he readied it. He guided the weapon into his hands like a bartender poured drinks, like a magician shuffled cards. It was second nature to him.
Hisako reached for her door, just to brush her fingers against the handle. A light touch. Not a demand but a request.
Will you be mine like I am yours?
Like Stinger was Serizawa's?
The blade formed in her hand, her door barely even appearing as a phantom behind her. The door swung open in a burst of light that flashed over the scene ahead of them, illuminating the fight.
Hisako's heart stuttered at the sight, and she inhaled sharply to prepare herself.
She almost didn't see her teammates in the hunting pack of walkers. They weren't lumbering fools like earlier–they moved in units and guarded as much as they attacked, and were supported from afar.
Their teammates had been caught in an ambush.
Rao had his clones out and his unarmed self–his actual self–was huddled to Sasaki's side. One of her hands was splayed out, forming a bubble shield, and the other lashed out, guiding spines of light from the protective orb to attack walkers. The clones struggled to cut through a single walker holding a door as a shield, while other walkers with pitchforks held the clones back.
Yasuda was trying to scale a low balcony to get to a pair of men throwing flaming bottles and shooting arrows down below, pelting Sasaki's shield. Walkers were grabbing at Yasuda, and she had to stab out with bare bolts to keep them from her legs, hindering her climbing effort. Her leg was bleeding from an already-sustained wound. Her pant leg was dark, and Hisako saw dark blood dripping from her boot.
"Aw, crap," Serizawa grunted, breaking into a sprint. Stinger flew from his grasp, launching with a flourish and piercing the closest walker.
Hisako raised an arm to pull herself forward, the other arm coiling to prepare to lash out with her blade.
Was Toraichi a good name?