"Fufu, you're a smart kid to notice that. Yes, that is a door. You may leave once you answer my riddle: what makes meat slide off the bone by itself?" Rosemary poses her disturbing question to Rachael.
"Slow cooking? Meat needs to be flavored with time." She walks past, feeling outwards as a door appears, made from white-painted wood in a manner that matches the table dressing. Arata stands up behind her.
That's too ominous. What are these fairies hiding, just in case I need to be the one to open the door, since I can just die and rewind if something goes wrong. "Wait, Rachael, doesn't this all seem a little bit weird to you? Don't you not fully trust the idea that the door is the exit?" Arata shouts, trying to put some logic into her.
Rachael sighs, understanding Arata's intentions but knowing he's wrong, "It's obviously strange, this is the dream world, I didn't come here for a tea party. I came for what's on the other side of that door."
The door has a golden handle, perfect for opening with Rachael's foot. She kicks down the door despite her small frame; she has the physical strength of a silverback gorilla.
The hallways behind were dark, and the smell was sickeningly sweet with hints of dirt. A certain musk floated through the air, which Arata did not appreciate. He turns to see if the fairies shut him in yet; to his surprise, he can only see the back of Chive's head. They continue the tea party as if Arata and Rachael had just left. A button was right next to the entrance.
Was this a trick? I can't make out anything in this room… wait near the door.
Arata presses the button as the lights come on in the room. Arata freezes at the sight. The place looked like a butcher's shop, yet it went on forever. A hallway led to another open door. It was like a crappy computer procedure had generated the rooms. Various walls were clipped into fridges, cutting boards were pierced by meat hooks.
There were several kitchens, knives strewn about the red-stained floor and in the background was the sound of a revolving wheel and crunching bones. Some steaks still moved, sausages shook and some kind of mystery meat hung up on hooks, which spoke in a human's interpretation of a cow.
"Moo! moo…" The meat obelisks sang a monotonous chorus in unison as they saw Arata and Rachael enter.
All that didn't distract Arata from the main sight he saw, an anthropomorphic pig with tusks and a short trunk in place of a nose. Its breathing was like a pug's; it struggled as though it wasn't a natural process to the creature. The creature was morbidly obese and slow, but its size gave it some strength; it was around twice the size of Rachael. It began to hum a horrid noise while walking over to a meat hook, lifting it in one hand, which allowed Arata to get a good look at the pig. The creature only wore a butcher's apron, which was painted in yellow and red.
From the meat hook was a disgusting mass. There was a tube of tiny bodies connected by meat glue, wings and all. There were some parts still recognizable in the mass of meat which served as green accents; it was several heads of Rosemary. They had various lifeless faces, some in agony, some in peace and some showed no reaction.
The pig creature strolled his way towards the source of the bone crunching, a large metal meat grinder. He put his plate at the bottom of the machine and fed the string of corpses to the top. Freeing the mass of fairy from its hook, the pig dropped it in. Blood spurted out the top of the machine, splattering across the pig's tusks. Onto the plate poured a pretty pink slime. A pile of gore filled with glitter, with some bone fragments and otherwise included for extra calcium.
I got to look away, I'm going to be sick. What the hell is this place? "Hey Rac- Rachael?" He turned to one side, but she was nowhere to be seen.
Rachael had dashed forward, jumping up onto a ledge of the meat grinder.
The beast is suddenly crying out in pain. Arata turns back, Rachael snuck up behind the beast, grabbing it by the tusks, the left one is yanked off its face with the assistance of gravity. The other one was to hold the pig in place over the meat grinder. The beast lets out a blood-curdling scream as the front of its face is reduced to mincemeat. It has a hard time pulling away from the meat grinder.
Suddenly, the creature grabs her, trying to crush her ribs, yet through his thumb cuts a large blade. The creature screams out in rage as Rachael jumps back. Arata is still stunned watching her. The weapon she wielded couldn't be called a sword; too much of the weight was distributed near the blade for it to be practical. For some reason, looking at it reminded Arata of sushi.
I thought she was just a kid; she's actually scary, doing that with her sword. She's probably stronger than that damn bug! Arata yells at her, "Hey, what's going on here? What's that thing!"
"Baku, a type of yokai, I thought it was obvious? Haven't you been told the story by your mother as you drift off to sleep?" Rachael asks him, her voice laced with confusion.
"Who would do that?! Although I do know what a baku is, I thought they were benevolent!" Arata shouts back to her. Both of them, however, are interrupted by the cries of the baku.
"EEEEEEK!" The creature is getting pulled further into the meat grinder, its trunk getting pulled further as the machine stops, sounds of tearing followed by a loud squelch. The face of the creature is ripped open. Yet the thing pulls away, his tongue ripped in half, skin peeling and crimson flesh and bone are exposed right where his trunk and parts of his mouth once were.
The baku pulls out its cleaver. Its face now mutilated and one of its hands sliced up, it probably couldn't put up much of a fight. Arata thought that until the severed thumb began to regrow, only the trunk, which was reduced to mincemeat, couldn't grow back.
The environment around the two begins to shift, a stone pillar manifests itself behind Rachamah, halting her ability to step back. Surprisingly fast, it charges at Rachael as they lock blades; it sounds like a gunshot as they enter the bind.
In the bind, the poor thing had no chance; the cleaver had no guard, yet for some reason, Rachael didn't demobilize the arm. No metric to determine how the healing factor works… while she worries about its speed, it's very possible they could trade cuts. Could this be the baku's dream, altering its form to prevent her from stepping back?
The beast is pushing further on her sword. Rachael buckles back a little, stumbling before, in a blink, she's behind the Baku, slashing its tendons, the beast falls face-first in front of Arata, the pillar shattering against its skull.
Nevermind… she doesn't really need to worry… scary. The Baku creates a room, Rachael is separated from Arata as pale subliminal walls trap Arata with the Baku.
It recognizes me as the weak link? I don't have a sword! I can't even sleep without a weapon.
Arata dashes back, grabbing the wall behind him. Arata activates Demiurge's Foundry as he tries to convert the wall behind him into flames. Yet it doesn't budge; nothing materializes.
Woah! I thought I created the image of fire? Same process as the bugs no? Arata quickly ducks out of the way as the Baku's cleaver slices towards Arata's chest.
Alright, focus on breathing… think, let the oxygen fill your- wait. There's no oxygen in here… but outside, I remember breathing in air. Have the laws of physics changed?
That must've been why Rachael fought so cautiously, why it can regenerate any wound; the rules changed inside the Baku's dream. Agh! Why does my ability work differently depending on physics! Think simpler, just move electrons! Get the magic wall out of the way.
Arata's fingers brush against the wall as yet again, Arata attempts to reshape the magic. Arata imagines the fire, yet zooms in even simpler, to electrons. They begin to zigzag as the Wall's image peels apart, coming off of it are sparks, followed by a flash bang of light, pure white painting over the gory space. Both Arata and the Baku are blinded.
Rachael dashed back towards the creature in its moment of weakness, swinging her blade at the creature's head. Yet the blinded beast in turn rushed at her.
The baku, in a rage, wanted to sever her spine, swinging at her, which she surprisingly did not move to block. Instead, her shoulder quickly shifted into iron and the cleaver chipped itself against the base of her neck when her body quickly turned back.
She lodges her knife into his neck. However, she didn't cut deep enough; she was stuck in the beast's neck. The creature yelled out in pain, yet it could still move; it gripped her ribs, the reinforced structure formed from mana encased Rachael's torso beneath her shirt.
In its struggle, Arata decided to act, reaching over from a nearby wall for anything he could hold. Arata snuck up on the creature, wedging a filleting knife into his thumb, mimicking Rachael's movements at the beginning of battle. Arata lets out a manic cry, with a bit of sawing, the knife can distract the creature into dropping Rachael.
Yet the creature wasn't even holding her anymore; the girl had already freed herself and had climbed onto the beast's shoulders.
Rachael's blade began to heat up, with the sound of a gust of wind, Rachael severs through the baku's bony neck. The head came clean off. The energy coming off of Rachael's sword dies down.