Rendezvous CH13 Part 1

Rendezvous

Chapter Thirteen – Losing Control

Bebe and I made it to the hospital in fifteen minute’s time by bus, though we didn’t take a second to dawdle once we arrived. At the back of the bustling white lobby stood Pierre, highly noticeable in dark clothing among the bright scrubs of the nurses and white coats of doctors. As we approached, I realized his face and eyes were splotched with red, tear tracks reflecting the florescent lights from above. His shoulders shuddered violently as his arms held themselves close to his middle.

“Pierre?” I asked breathlessly, once we were close enough, “What’s going on?”

He abruptly jerked his attention towards me, thrusting his arms around my shoulders tightly and collapsing in sobs against my shoulder.

“P-Pierre, what happened?” Bebe asked nervously, trying to meet his eyes.

His shudders battered against my front and his sobs were muffled against my shirt as he vented his distress without words. After about a minute’s worth of crying, he picked up his face slightly, just enough to croak out an explanation.

“She’s in a coma…” he whimpered, “Her roommate found her on the floor in their room…”

…What…?!

“M-Marie…?!” I gasped, “She’s-?!”

He nodded shakily, frantic.

“I don’t know how long she has…!” he sobbed, “She’s my sister…! She’s the only one I have and the one who’s always been there for me!”

He shook his head and burrowed it against my shirt again.

“And I was being such an ass to her… I should have been happy she finally found somebody she was interested in… She’s going to die thinking I wasn’t happy for her… when it was everything she wanted…”

“H-Hey, don’t talk like that,” I said, “It’ll be all right. Someone woke up, remember…? If he can pull through, she can.”

“That was one person!” Pierre snapped, “It’d might as well be a fluke!”

“Pierre…!” Bebe gasped.

“I want my sister to make it, okay?! But I’m not going to fill my head with hopes and fantasies and wait around for some damn miracle if it never happens! As I see it now, I’m losing her and I can’t fight for her the way she does for me! All I can do is watch her die like our grandmother!”

I jerked him away angrily from my shoulder and stared him in the eyes.

“Now you listen to me,” I snarled, “You need to calm the hell down. You know your sister is strong. She can get through this, and so will you. But your pessimistic attitude isn’t helping her fight. If you were the one in the coma, do you think she’d give up on you?!”

Hesitantly, he shook his head.

“Then you’ve got to believe in her no matter what… Really, what harm could that do?”

His hold loosened and he let go of me slowly, wiping his tears away with his sleeve. Though I had him pacified for the moment, I knew his mind was still frazzled with worry and grief. Everyone has their own way of dealing with tragic situations, but I guess I’m surprised his is like this… When he had steadied his breathing enough to speak, he sighed a reluctant surrender.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, “I just… I don’t know what to do without her… Sometimes I think she’s the one who holds me together… and watching her like this without any way to repay her for everything she’s done for me… makes me feel lost…”

Bebe approached him and placed his hand on his arm.

“She’ll make it out of this okay, Pierre,” he said, “I’m confident you’ll see her awake again…”

Pierre shook his head.

“But what if she doesn’t…?” he asked.

“She will,” I said, “Just trust us…”

I don’t know what else I can say to make him believe us. It’s not like we can tell him that we’re personally involved in her fate… But he needs to understand that he’s not losing her… and he can’t give up on her… I don’t want to see him lose faith… With a calm sigh, Pierre closed his eyes and ceased his crying.

“Okay…” he whispered, “For her… I’ll believe she’s strong enough to make it…”

I nodded, though unable to smile through my own concern for our friend. I’m almost struggling to keep my own faith here, but I have to remain confident that we’ll be able to handle her Shadow they way we did Ivon’s…

“Good…” I said quietly.

Pierre shuddered and sniffled, keeping his eyes on his feet. I feel bad for snapping, but it was the only way to calm him down… At least this way, his outlook on the situation can be a bit more positive at the moment…

“I’m sorry…” I said quietly, “…neither of you deserved this…”

“Is there anything we can do to help…?” Bebe asked.

(Aside from saving his sister, anyway.)

“No…” Pierre croaked, shaking his head weakly, “I’m… I’m just going to stay by her tonight… the way she always did for me…”

“Okay… we’ll keep you both in our thoughts and prayers…” Bebe said softly.

“And thanks for letting us know,” I added.

“Not at all,” Pierre said, rubbing his eye, “You’re our closest friends… Even if we haven’t known each other long… I still felt like you should be a part of it…”

After exchanging sympathetic embraces and farewells with Pierre for the night, Bebe and I went back outside to the front of the hospital. The night was quiet, and the wind was particularly frosty for spring. I took a long gaze up at the sky, unable to see stars through the city lights, though the moon stood out nearly full. Otherwise, the sky would be nothing but black… I’m not sure how long we have to save Marie… but I can’t afford to lose her… She was the one who volunteered to help me find Bebe when I had no one else to turn to. She had dreams and fantasies… always beaming and cheerful, like a ray of sunlight. Knowing all of that makes it hard to grasp the fact that a Shadow was growing within her…

“Tetsuya…” Bebe said quietly, “We ‘ave to do somezing quickly, before eet’s too late… I don’t want to break our promise to Pierre… or to ourselves…”

I sighed and took my cell phone from my pocket.

“We’re not gonna break that promise,” I said, “We’ll see to it that she wakes up tomorrow…”

I opened the phone and dialed the first number that came to mind, placing the device by my ear as I awaited his voice. After three rings, a groggy response came through.

“Ugh… Tetsuya, what is it…?” Souji asked.

“We’ve got our next rescue mission starting first thing tomorrow,” I said, “…it’s Marie…”

**

The sun peeked over the top of the courtyard’s perimeter, lighting up the pink petals of the cherry blossom tree that was still slowly withering its flowers for the coming of the bright green leaves. The air was still chilly with night, though that time had passed hours ago. The surrounding campus was silent, without a single passerby to disturb the silence of the moment. Only the seven of us were present.

When I checked in with Pierre this morning, I was relieved that he reported Marie had made it through the night. As long as our luck doesn’t run out, we can have her out of this mess soon. I left it up to Yukari and Aigis to stock up on supplies from the pharmacy this morning, so they’re the only ones besides Teddie who are missing. We’re gonna have to go without Akihiko today, but hopefully we’ll be enough. Souji and his group stood across from Junpei, Bebe, and me, somber and quiet. Though they had little to say this morning, I could sense their determination and will to fight. Even if they only met her yesterday, Marie was sort of important to their party as well…

The sound of rushed footsteps approached alongside a high-pitched squeaking noise. Yukari and Aigis arrived first with breathless apologies for the wait, and then came Teddie in his bear suit trailing closely behind.

“Is it true…?!” he asked, his voice quivering with anxiety, “Is Marie-chan really…?”

I nodded.

“She’s the one we’re looking for today,” I said, “Apparently, she fell fast last night… We’re not sure how long we have, so let’s try to pull this off in one go, all right?”

“I don’t understand what happened…” Chie said, “She seemed just fine yesterday afternoon… There weren’t any symptoms of illness or anything…”

“It’s the first time we’ve all personally known the person who fell…” Yukiko murmured.

Yukari turned and showed me a bulging plastic bag.

“It was still early enough that Ivon was still at the pharmacy when we went down. He knew we were going back to save someone else and offered a better discount. We picked up everything we could carry,” she said, “I just hope it’s enough…”

“I think we can make do with that,” I said, “If not, we can always rely on healing skills.”

Souji looked around at our slightly smaller group with a furrowed brow, clearly bothered by something. His mind is sort of elsewhere this morning. I just hope it’s not going to affect the fight today…

“Are we ready…?” he asked.

“I think so,” I said, then to the rest, “Everyone?”

They all responded with a single nod, though all quiet. Even Teddie. I’d never seen him less than exploding with energy before. I guess I never thought about it but, of all of us, this tragedy has struck him the hardest.

“I’m ready…” he said quietly, “I won’t let her down…”

**

The sight of red was extremely disturbing to my eyes when we re-entered the Dream World. None of the bubbles were green today, which I can only assume is a bad thing. The problem is, with them all looking the same, we’ll have to listen particularly close for Marie in order to find her. She could be just about anywhere…

“Does anyone remember what Marie’s voice sounds like…?” Junpei asked, “I couldn’t really talk to her or understand her, so I dunno if I’d know her by ear…”

“I think I’d remember if I heard it…” Yosuke said contemplatively, “But it’s not like there’s anything unique to her voice…”

“Maybe to Yosuke ears!” Teddie retorted, “But to Teddie ears, there is a difference!”

He cupped his paws behind his little blue ears and began listening to the silence intently, shushing Yosuke aggressively when he tried to speak up. I have to keep my ears open too. Hopefully, I’ll know what voice to listen for, but I’m fairly certain I’d know Marie’s voice over strangers’. I couldn’t even hear the others breathe as we all listened closely for a voice. Any voice. But the silence that responded was making me feel less at ease. If we have no direction, we’ll end up wasting valuable time searching through the wrong bubbles, and we don’t have much time to spare. If we get closer to the bubble field, maybe we’ll start hearing-

“Big Bro? Are you there?”

…that’s definitely not the voice I was listening for…

Souji was already moving, looking around for the source of the voice.

“Nanako, where are you?” he asked aloud.

“Are you here to save me?”

“I’m here,” Souji said, “Can you hear me?”

“Can you hear me…?”

“Nanako?”

The longer it took for her to respond, the more frustrated Souji became. He started passing by the bubbles in the field and listening to each one closely. Reluctantly, the other members of his group began to follow. Augh… this isn’t what we’re supposed to be doing. We’re already a team member short…

“Guys, come on,” I said, “We’ve gotta find Marie.”

Teddie looked up from a bubble quickly, almost as if he’d completely forgotten the mission he was so dedicated to.

“M-Marie-chan and Nana-chan, both…?” he asked.

Yukari and Aigis went forward as well, but I’m not sure who they’re listening for, exactly. Junpei followed them, having nothing better to do, which left Bebe and I alone before the field. Something isn’t right about this… When we heard Ivon here, his voice came from outside, but we couldn’t understand what he was saying at all. Why can we hear what Nanako is saying within our ears when she speaks so quietly…?

“I hear something!”

Teddie began circling about one area of the field excitably, looking at three different bubbles. A faint, incoherent cry rang through the abyss, and I recognized it instantly.

“Zat’s Marie for sure,” Bebe said, going on ahead to where Teddie was.

“She’s in this one!” Teddie announced, waving as he hovered over one of the three red bubbles.

The rest of us gathered around the bubble and watched it carefully. An image materialized inside, blurred by ripples much like Ivon’s. This time, I was able to make out the face of a young girl with blond hair that fell past her waist in braided pigtails. She looked directly up, though not at any of us specifically, overwhelmed by something above her head. She snapped her attention back to her own level, frantic, and began to run away from sight. When she was gone, the bubble turned black inside. No doubt in my mind… I recognized her…

“She’s here… I’m positive this is where she is,” I said, “Let’s be ready for anything…”

“I’m ready…” Teddie said quietly, “I’m ready to get her out safe…”

“Wait.”

Everyone redirected their attention to Souji, who looked behind himself reluctantly before facing me again. I knew he couldn’t stay quiet about his thoughts much longer…

“Tetsuya, you take your group to look for Marie,” he said, “I’ll take mine to look for Nanako.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you talking about?” I asked, “We’ve got five members on each team. We struggled even with eleven total, yesterday. No, we need to stay together.”

“But Nanako’s calling out for help,” Souji said, “You said it yourself. We don’t have much time, and I don’t want to risk losing her.”

“You won’t lose her,” I said, “But Marie’s the one we agreed to look for today.”

“Y’know, you stayed behind to help us find Nanako,” Souji said, his voice tight with impatience, “We’ve figured out she’s here, and now you’re saying we should abandon that? She’s as much our responsibility as Marie is.”

“I didn’t say we should abandon that. I said we should find Marie first,” I responded sharply, “We know where Marie is. We can’t find a direction on Nanako’s voice. Why don’t we deal with what’s at hand before getting lost along the way?”

“We’ve been looking for Nanako blindly since the beginning of the year! That’s why we came here in the first place!” Souji barked, “It led us this far, and we shouldn’t waste any more time! We’re lucky she’s okay!”

“It… led you this far because of us…” I pointed out.

“The hell is that supposed to mean?” Souji snarled.

“He’s got a point, Souji… He and Bebe found this place…” Yosuke said, “We wouldn’t be on the right track otherwise…”

Souji looked back at Yosuke, though his anger was overridden by his pain from the betrayal of his friend siding against him.

“Yosuke…” he muttered.

“Seriously, dude, she’s been okay for awhile now,” Junpei said, “We’re gonna save her too. Don’t worry.”

“I agree we shouldn’t separate,” Aigis said, “Whether it’s to save Nanako-chan or Marie-san, we should stay together to help each other. However, if Tetsuya says we’re going after Marie-san, I won’t change objectives.”

Teddie faced Souji reluctantly, keeping his eye contact elsewhere.

“I wanna save Nana-chan,” he said, “But… I wanna save Marie-chan too. What do we do, Sensei…?”

“I think we should split up,” Souji said hintingly.

“No!” I barked, “What part of this aren’t you getting?! I organized this mission last night. Don’t just go changing the plan!”

“I’m leader, too, Tetsuya. My priorities lie with my own mission, which has been in effect since before you even met Marie. Besides, wasn’t the original plan to return here to look for Nanako? I thought that was the point in yesterday’s meeting.”

“Well, I’m not abandoning Marie after promising her brother that she’d be okay!”

“And I’m not abandoning Nanako after promising her father that I’d find her and bring her home!”

“Will the both of you just stop?!” Yukari snapped, grabbing both of our attention and silencing the bickering immediately, “Nobody said anything about abandoning Marie or Nanako. Do you really think that we’d let either of them die? Look, to be totally honest, I would suggest going after Nanako if we knew where she was. The point is, we don’t. So let’s save Marie first since we know she’s here, and use remaining time to look for Nanako. Easy enough?”

“Yes,” I said impatiently, “Thank you for explaining it to him.”

“Augh, just do your job, Tetsuya,” she sighed, keeping her arms crossed.

While it sort of pisses me off that she had to embarrass both of us, I understand it was to make progress in the mission. I turned back to Souji, realizing he was also less than pleased by the scolding. He looked back at me, exasperated.

“Fine. Have it your way. We’ll go look for Marie,” he hissed.

My irritation faded, relieved by his surrender though also wary of his resent. Well… as long as he stays quiet and does what he’s told… This shouldn’t be a problem. My eyes fall back to Marie’s bubble and I let out my breath slowly through my nostrils. We’re coming, Marie… I reached out my hand and placed it against the bubble, allowing it to swallow the rest of me into the world it contained…

**

The fall was a bit sharper than I anticipated, and not one of us was able to land on our feet. Even if we had, the large pile we landed on gave out beneath our weight. The objects clattered down with us as we all let out an exclaim, Teddie shrieking all the way down the sudden decline. Whatever we were rolling down was hard and managed to drive into every external part of my body. Wait- if this is hurting me, then Bebe is hurting too! We’re feeling this twice!

I finally made it to the base of the pile, facing a pitch black ceiling with other suspended objects. The clatters of plastic still approached, and I looked up at the rest of the group, who were almost at the bottom. I held my arms out to Bebe as he rolled toward me and caught him to assure he landed a little softer than I had, ultimately saving both of us from further discomfort.

“Are you okay?” I asked breathlessly.

“H-Hai,” Bebe stammered, still shaken by the fall, “Arigatou, Tetsuya.”

“Oww, my ass…” Yosuke grumbled from a distance.

The others began assuring we were all okay, though I knew we were already off to a rough start. Most of us suffered an injury of some sort, and I’m sure we’re all bruised pretty badly. The hell did we fall on…? We slowly got to our feet, and as Yukari healed us, I took the opportunity to observe the pile. …huh…? That’s strange… As I looked closer, it came to my attention that the pile consisted of cheap plastic toys. A lot of them were demented-looking dolls with missing parts. All of the missing parts appeared to be in another heap beside the one we had landed on, and beside that was a pile of… …worn plush toys.

“Of course we had to land on the pile of pain…” Junpei muttered, noticing this inconvenience.

The piles didn’t seem to be the only place for the toys. They were covering the floor too… Even outside this place, they lay haphazard in the doorway that led to a long, messy hallway. Bebe kept close, looking around warily at the area.

“Zey’re all over…” he murmured, “Eez zis really ze inside of Marie’s dreams…?”

“It’s so dark and cramped in here… Yukari muttered, shuddering, “I feel like we’re in some sort of giant box…”

I think… I’m starting to understand this environment…

“A toy box…” I said quietly.

Just as the others looked at me, a familiar, but weak voice spoke out,

“A child… small… tiny… That’s how they all see me. It’s not like I asked to be this way… I try so hard to emphasize my age, but they never see past it. They’re always looking down on me… What choice do they have…?”

“Marie-chan…” Teddie whimpered.

…I see… I guess those girls got to her yesterday more than she let on… She always acted like her height never really bothered her. I wonder how long she’s been struggling. A soft touch against my hand brought my attention back to reality, and I met eyes with Teddie. Even in such a weird costume, I can actually see worry in his eyes… Though he harbors conflicted feelings on which leader he should be following, he has a personal agenda… and knows I’m the one on his side. The impact Marie left on his life is something I don’t think any of us completely understand, but enough that I know he’s scared of losing her… Like Bebe to me, Marie is special to him…

“We won’t waste any time,” I promised him, then to the rest, “Come on. Let’s get moving.”

I took the lead into the hallway, trying to avoid the toys on the floor by stepping on the few open spots of solid ground. Plastic clattered behind me as the others struggled to match my pace without stepping on the tripping hazards. The hall stretched several yards before offering any sort of turn, but the piles of toys didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping. When we finally reached the end of the hallway, we were left with a split path. I guess I could ask Teddie if he could smell where Marie was…

“Teddie, do you know which way she is?” I asked.

Teddie ran to Souji’s and my side enthusiastically, sniffing at the air with a frustrated expression. A low whine emitted from the bear suit, displeased.

“Actually…” he muttered, “I can bear-ly smell her at all now. But that smell from before is stinking it up in here! I can’t really tell which direction it’s coming from.”

“Smell from before?” Junpei asked.

“Yeah, that Shadow-y smell…”

“So the Shadows are still here?” Souji asked, as if he’d expected otherwise.

“Somewhere, but I think they’re pretty far away,” Teddie responded, “That other smell is either close or it really just stinks that bad…”

He rubbed his nose with a grimace, disturbed by the acrid smell the rest of us couldn’t pick up. So much for relying on Teddie’s senses… Whatever this… thing is that’s masking Marie’s scent is clearly formidable… Bebe turned to look at me hopefully.

“So, Tetsuya…? Which way?” he asked.

…nice to know he’s relying on me as a leader… As I started to motion to the left, Souji pointed in the opposite direction.

“I get the feeling we should head this way,” he said, and before I could argue, he began walking.

H-Hey, did he just blow me off? Bebe asked for my call. My call. What the hell is with this guy today? He’s narrowed his focus to the point that he’s not even open to my opinion… Reluctantly, my thoughts transitioned to a form of acceptance. Who knows…? His intuition about the Shadows was right… maybe he knows what he’s talking about… I slid my feet from their place and began to follow behind the other leader unsurely, a little sick as Bebe silently followed me down to the hesitation. I’m supposed to be the leader too… Why doesn’t that mean anything…? And why do I get to look like the moron in front of my friends…? Why do I feel like I’m letting everyone down…? Just as we reached the next corner, Souji stopped abruptly and turned around to head in my direction. Out of curiosity, I peeked around to see what had caused the change of mind and realized the hallway shrunk into a small indent, leading nowhere. I wrinkled my nose and turned back where I’d intended to go in the first place…

**
We managed to find a staircase after a few trial and errors, but after about three floors we got stuck. I stopped at a split path, refusing to follow any longer. We’re going nowhere fast, and we have yet to run into Shadows or even Marie. We haven’t even heard her voice since we first came in here… I feel like we’re getting further away from her. Souji’s leading us nowhere… …literally, nowhere. In fact, I’m sure I saw this exact pile of dolls four times now…

“Hold up,” I said abruptly as Souji began turning to the right, “Let me take over for a few floors. I’m starting to feel like we’ve been here before.”

“Everything looks the same here,” Souji said, “Of course you feel that way.”

He ignored my words and continued on.

“Hey,” I snapped, “Didn’t you hear me? We’ve already gone that way.”

“We’re not going in circles, Tetsuya, this place is just repetitive. It’s not my fault Marie couldn’t dream of a wider variety of dolls.”

“Where the hell are you pulling these accusations from? I didn’t say the layout was your fault! But you are taking us in a loop!”

“For the love of God, Tetsuya, we haven’t been here before!”

“Would you just listen to me?!” I snapped, “Get your head out of your ass and hear me out!”

“Screw you,” Souji hissed back, “I told you, you’re wrong. I don’t care if you’re my senpai; I’m following my instinct before yours. It worked in the past.”

“Guys, come on…” Chie groaned.

“Seriously, now’s not the time,” Yukari said.

“Well I don’t know about you, but I’d like to pick a different direction, and I say left,” I said, pointing down my choice corridor.

“I say you’re dense, and we should go right,” Souji argued, pointing down his own direction.

“God, why did we have to make them both leader…?” Yukari sighed.

“I blame Teddie,” Aigis said bitterly.

I faced the rest of the group for support, hoping someone would side with me. Instead, they all nervously backed down, looking in every direction that wasn’t mine. Luckily, though reluctant, Junpei had my back.

“W-Well… Tetsuya was my leader… and he always knew what was best, so… I-I think we should go with him…” he murmured.

“Now hold on,” Yosuke piped up, “Souji was our leader and we never had any trouble at all. Plus, it’s been… what… four years since Tetsuya led anything?”

“Yeah, he was dead and he didn’t feel any time pass. So it’s really only been a few months for him,” Junpei said.

“Well… Souji was the one who figured out Nanako was in Nanparaux in the first place. So he’s pretty good at figuring things out. Like… when something is safe or not.”

“I vote for Sensei,” Teddie piped up.

“Ano… I don’t want to take sides, demo… If I ‘ave to pick, I’m putting my faith in Tetsuya…” Bebe murmured softly.

Chie finally sighed and stepped up to the front of the group beside Souji and me.

“Okay, look. We all trust our respective leader from before. I get it. I really do,” she promised, “But if we stay here arguing over whose instinct we should trust, we’ll never get anywhere. Either we pick a direction or we split up. You decide.”

I looked back at Souji who returned the gaze with a hint of disgust. I’m definitely against splitting up, hence the reason he’s so pissed with me, but I don’t want to put up with this bastard anymore. Let him figure out that he was wrong on his own. Whatever. I’m not making the others suffer as consequence of his stupid mistake.

“Okay, you know what? Fine. Have it your way. We’ll split up from here and meet up at the stairs when I find them down that way,” I hissed.

“So glad we did that for Nanako,” Souji snarled back.

“Oh, leave it alone, you dick.”

“Asshole.”

I shook my head and turned away from him, storming off down the correct hallway. I did this plenty of times in Tartarus. Even when I thought I was wrong, I always found the stairs through instinct alone… Footsteps trailed behind me, and I peeked over my shoulder to determine who had sided with me in the end. It was no surprise that I only met the faces of Bebe, Junpei, Yukari, and Aigis. I don’t really expect Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, or Teddie to trust me over their leader, and I don’t really feel comfortable enough leading them on my own anyway… Still… I guess I’m just a little disappointed only half the group trusts my instinct… I’m glad these four still trust me… I don’t know how I’d feel if any of them hadn’t followed…

(Cont'd in Part 2)