The suite was filled, every surface covered, and dozens more reflective surfaces hung from the ceiling in the form of clear glass bottles. A veritable prison of mirrors, just like the one used in the game to beat Dusa-chan, who couldn't use her powers in front of a mirror. And since this one kept breaking every single one she found it had to be the same way, right?
Issei, however, wasn't ready for what he saw, either.
Dusa, now that she wasn't pretending to be human, was still pretty. Her skin was white, like unpainted marble, with long rows of blue scales covering her shoulders and arms. Issei didn't dare look at her face, though he glanced at her head instinctively, and saw the short bob of blue hair and pointed, scaled ears, too.
She wasn't merely an inhumanly beautiful human.
She was more.
More than a monster from a game.
More than just some monster chasing people in the darkness.
Because there was shock and vulnerability and weakness in how she stood. Dusa-chan, the horrific thing that had murdered his parents, tried to murder Issei, and seemed to be just as struck in pure surprise at what was before her as he was.
As if she'd never seen herself.
"Beautiful…."
The word hung in the air.
Though he just mumbled it in shock. The silence in the room made it echo in his own ears. Because there was no way that he could ignore something this obvious. Even after everything that happened the past few days… Issei couldn't lie to himself.
She was so pretty it almost stopped his heart.
Unfortunately, that turned out to be the wrong thing to say.
"Beautiful…?" She echoed as if her ears couldn't make sense of the word.
"Beautiful?!" the monster spat taking a threatening step closer.
"What is beautiful about this… half baked form?! I'm not monster, nor human, nor goddess! What is so beautiful in not knowing where you come from?"
By her side, a familiar hammer formed in a cloud of sparkling dust. In her other hand, a small and thin blade appeared much the same way as if to match it.
What was that called again?
A chisel?
"Did you humans think I was beautiful when I rose from the sea as a wicked monster? Did you humans find me beautiful when I was turned into a simple mortal woman? Did you find me beautiful when Poseidon discarded me to suffer at Athena's hand?! Did you think I was beautiful when I devoured my friends and worshippers?!" Her face twisted and contorted, rage and anguish pouring out in equal measure. And both drowned in a smothering of spite.
"You humans could never decide who I was! Goddess! Monster! Human! Now? Now I can't be anything! I'm stuck like this because of you!"
Issei couldn't make sense of what she was saying.
Nor did he have the time to do it as Dusa-chan swung her massive hammer weightlessly, smashing the mirror right behind him… as well as the wall behind that. The impact rattled his body even as he fell to the ground and covered his head.
There was no time to think, he simply scrambled to the side as a sudden breeze blew in through the gaping hole.
The beautiful monster, however, took aim with the chisel and screamed, sending it flying into a TV and shattering it. However, the weapon didn't penetrate, it bounced! Ricocheting into mirror after bottle after tv, every impact sent more and more shards of glass flying.
And yet she could not destroy them all.
On the ground, in the shape of great shards of jagged glass, her broken reflection mocked her.
Hanging limply from frayed strings and belts, her image mocked her.
The monster's face stared out from the scuffed, cracked, scored plastic pieces she crushed underfoot with each step.
And so she screamed.
Holding her hands up to the sky, the immortal thing let out a wail of anguish and confusion and with that wail came a torrent of stone.
Spiraling out from her, the teenager blinked once and lines of grey stone covered everything in the room… save for him. And for her.
That realization saved him.
When he leapt up, panicking, knowing he had failed, the Japanese boy shifted his torso just enough. So when the jagged, branching stone thorns impaled him, he merely felt a freezing-burning force punch through a leg and an arm. Lashing out like the vines of a rosebush, the stone pierced through the side of the ship, others digging deep grooves into the room, leaving hundreds of deep cuts that seemingly reached through the walls, allowing the scent of the sea through.
When he fell to the ground, the stone retracting, he hit with an already wet thump.
Lungs unable to take in air, Issei did not scream. The pain was already gone - merely some vast other, looming over him from beyond a wall of black and white static that shut out an impossibly vast, crushing wave. What little understanding he had of the agony was that he was already feeling cold.
Still, with one arm little more than a flopping broken thing, the other could reach out.
The chisel was right there before.
Not even an inch from his hand.
He had to push with his good leg, feeling glass and debris dig into him, cut fresh scoring lines across his stomach.
His fingers brushed the smooth, warm wood of the handle as the harsh cries of angry seagulls reached him; disturbed by the attack which had torn a hole clean through the top of the ship, they squawked their displeasure.
"Enough!"
Issei stood, knowing his actions had been heard and that there was precious little time left. No time to pray, or think of his parents, or the children, or anyone else. Merely the fraction of a second needed to hope against hope that there was something he might still manage to do.
So he attacked.
Or, rather, tried to.
His left leg was nearly useless, but with one arm and one leg he managed to rise to a knee, bone caught in muscle enough to let his bad leg hold up the good one. Throwing the desperation and strength of a dead man into it, Issei lunged and made his single strike.
And the monster turned on the spot, hearing the motion, already reacting to it.
There was a wet squick and he fell backwards from the impact, but the angle was right. Perfect, even, and the look of shock replaced the earlier look of pain as Dusa slowly moved to grab ahold of that warm, smooth wooden hilt sticking from her side.
For a moment, the world stopped, freezing in place.
…
A single moment dragging itself as a thick red stain erupted from the side of her abdomen.
Before they crashed back into reality.
Issei's leg gave away, his body hitting the torn up carpet with a wet thud. It would have probably hurt a lot more if he wasn't already so busted. Lungs burning with pain with each labored breath, eyes stinging with blood, sweat, and tears as the one lightbulb that somehow avoided being smashed into pieces flickered above him with cool white light.
It wasn't even his kill, not really. Her actions had certainly driven the blade further than his strength ever could.
Not like that mattered much, the room was already getting darker.
'This is it, huh?'
No 'do you wanna retry' window. No way to go back to the start. He should have known this was too terrifying to be just a game.
'I wonder if the others made it?' Without him around, they would probably have to look after each other. But without the snake lady chasing them, that should be easy. They just had to last until someone found the boat.
Issei looked to the side, his actions slow and the air seemingly thick.
The scary lady who'd been chasing him all over the ship was lying right by him. Not as busted as he was. Really, he was lucky she reacted that badly and did half the work for him on that stab. Even now she looked barely hurt, aside from the trickle of blood coming from the corner of her mouth and her closed eyes.
"Did you mean it?"
He would have jerked away if he could.
"Still… alive?"
"I am dying, not dead. Killing someone isn't so clean and easy. Well… this way it isn't. You could have just looked at me." He could hear her rolling her eyes at him.
"No thanks."