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subby_gamergrlTitle: Once More From The Grave
Fandom: Fatal Frame
Rating: M (Cursing)
Summary: Kei finds Mafuyu at last in a black box at the House of Joining and bears him down the mountain following a vicious attack from a shrine maiden. A familiar presence supports and guides them to Mikomori Station safely after.
With a final snap of the shutter, Kei exorcises the spirit of the haggard woman before him. She writhes like the rest of the priestesses he’s encountered on the mountain, screaming gibberish and fading into thin air in a spray of watery foam. He staggers backwards and falls against the wall, leaning on it heavily while he catches his breath. Mio’s camera remains clutched tightly in his hand, though, and he wouldn’t dare let go in a place so dangerous.
“He’s here,” Kei tells himself as he pants and tries to stand on his own two feet again. “Mio’s visions are never wrong and I’ve seen his shadow myself. He has to…”
The large black box at the rear of the room causes a greasy lump to drop into the pit of his stomach.
Returning the camera to the strap around his neck, Kei approaches the casket slowly and stops before it with his heart thundering like the waters of Mikomori Falls.
“Please,” he begs whatever deity willing to listen. “Please let him be…”
He grasps the ornate handles atop the box and pulls back on them with a grunt. The box is as sturdy as it is grim, he relents with a determined frown, and it takes considerable force to throw open the doors. Telltale water pitch as the night sky over Mount Hikami sloshes around as he finally gets it open and the body submerged within steals his breath away.
“Hm…” stirs the man within, blinking away sleep from his eyes, and he lifted his head just enough to peer up at Kei. “What are you…? How…?”
“Mafuyu,” Kei breathes his name at last and drops to his knees to embrace him. “Shh. It’s okay now.”
Remembering why he came here to begin with, Mafuyu’s eyes glaze over with regret and it spills into the black water surrounding him. His muffled sobs echo around the room as he grasps Kei by his shirt front and buries his face into his chest.
“I-I’m so sorry,” he manages to get out. “She was here, Kei. I saw her.”
Kei heaves a sigh and strokes the top of his head sympathetically. “Perhaps she was, but she is no longer. The mountain has deceived you into becoming one of its pillars and I won’t allow it to take possession of you.”
Mafuyu struggles to regain his composure as Kei lifts him up and helps him out of the box. His clothes are in tatters from the black water having eaten away at them and his physical constitution weaker than he realizes when he tried to take that first step out.
“Whoa, whoa!” Kei cautions him and catches him before he can fall. “Careful. Here, put your arm over my shoulders. I’ll support you.”
The two men stumble out of the casket room and into the open air courtyard. Mafuyu tries not to drag his feet but his limp is obvious and Kei compensates for him the best he can.
“I made contact with one of Mr. Takamine’s students,” Kei explains and hefts Mafuyu up so that he doesn’t slouch too much. “His name’s Hojo. Sound familiar?”
Mafuyu’s eyes widen. “Descended from Dr. Asou?”
“Directly,” Kei answers and pauses a moment so that Mafuyu can catch his breath again. “All of Mio’s visions have proved correct. Ever since she and Shizu came to the city at the base of the mountain, she’s felt your presence.”
Turning with a weary smile, Mafuyu thanks him, “You never gave up on me. I knew you’d come.”
Kei looks at him with a wry smile.
“She said you were coming for me,” Mafuyu adds. “As for how I got here in the first place, I thought I could make contact for real this time and I got in over my head. I really am sorry.”
“Stop apologizing,” Kei shushes him and presses his lips to Mafuyu’s temple. “I would have come regardless of our relationship. Yuu and I made a promise that I intend to keep in his stead.”
Mafuyu’s face burns hot in spite of the chill settling deep into his bones and he swallows hard with a nervous smile of his own. “You’ll never stop seeing me as your junior, will you?”
Kei laughs and is about to playfully retort when a ghostly mist fills the area. He stops in his tracks and gently pushes Mafuyu towards the wall behind him, readying the Camera Obscura.
“No matter what happens,” he says to his boyfriend, “stay behind me.”
A veiled woman appears on the surface of the water surrounding the courtyard with her pale lips set into a grim line. It’s the same shrine maiden that accosted Kei in the ceremony room, he knows, because of her garb and gait as she comes towards them.
“None may leave the mountain,” she declares. “Show me your sins and secrets. Become one with the water. With me.”
Kei waits for his opportunity, and as she starts dancing like mad, snaps the shutter at the perfect moment. She screams in agony and falls backwards, catching herself and fixing her unseen sights on them once more. A queer black mist envelops her hand, a method of attack that Kei has never witnessed, and ebonfire strikes him hot in the chest a moment later.
“Argh!” he cries out and squeezes his forearm. “T-The tattoo…Gods, no. It can’t…”
A serpentine pattern weaves its way up his arm and flares out across his back with searing pain. His vision is stolen and he glimpses scenes from the Manor of Sleep, Mio wandering its halls as she laments her sister’s death. He sees the long-haired woman floating towards him with blood running down her face. Yuu walking away from him into the Shrine of Engraving. Mafuyu searching desperately for Miku and unable to hear his voice.
“There you are.”
Reika suddenly appears before him and reaches out. Needles scratch against the wooden boards beneath Kei’s feet. A thousand ghastly apparitions form hands out of the wall and hold him fast to it as she gets closer, closer, and closer still…
“Kei!”
A gentle warmth spreads throughout Kei’s body as Mafuyu breaks a box of Purifying Embers over him. The shrine maiden’s spell is undone and the poison from the black water leaves him at last. As his vision focuses once more, their enemy is only inches from his face. The tattoo remains but he summons just enough strength to lift his arm and snap another photo.
“Nngh. Fuck,” Kei curses and falls back against Maufyu, which results in the two of them collapsing onto the wooden floorboards as the shrine maiden fades with a shrill howl. The tattoo also vanishes with her successful exorcism, and while Kei would love to take a moment to rest, this place is far too volatile for that. He forces himself to get up and drags Mafuyu along with him. “Come on, we’re almost there. Stay with me.”
Mafuyu coughs up black water and shivers in his embrace. “I’ll only weigh you down, Kei. You should escape while you – “
“Don’t even suggest that!” Kei shouts and feels his strength slowly returning again. “We’re gonna make it down this gods-damned mountain together and then we’re going home! There’s no way in hell I’ll give you up, got it?”
Taken aback, Mafuyu surrenders with a murmur, “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
Kei inhales sharply through his nose and shakes his head. “It’s okay. You’ve been through a lot and haven’t had time to process any of it, but we can do that once we’re free of this place. Me, you, and Mio, ‘kay?”
“Uh-huh,” Mafuyu agrees with a weak smile. “Just like old times.”
Old times, Kei thinks with a solemn sigh as he continues to drag Mafuyu along as best he could. I wonder how many people we’ve lost up until this point because of this damn Camera?
As he misses a step and staggers, he feels a weight at his back and something gently corrects him to grab Mafuyu again before he can fall. Perhaps it’s a trick of the mist or the falling rain, but he swears that he glimpsed a familiar shadow.
Keep going, his friend tells him. Everyone is waiting for you and you’re almost there.
With his boyfriend secure in his arm and an old friend at his back, Kei makes his way down the winding paths of the Forbidden Valley and back to the Shrine of the Ephemeral. For a blessing, no spirits come near them and he attributes that to the powerful presence behind him that urges him onward.
Mikomori Station is such a welcome sight.
Kei boards the cable car and sets Mafuyu comfortably into a seat while he goes to start the car itself. When he returns, Mafuyu’s shivering has gotten worse and he looks paler than before.
“We’ll get you to a hospital,” Kei promises and removes his jacket to drape it over his boyfriend instead. He smooths Mafuyu’s bangs from his eyes and cups his cheek, leaning in to press their foreheads together. “I’ll be damned if I lose you to something as ridiculous as hypothermia after all we’ve been through.”
Mafuyu offers him an exhausted smile in turn. “That would be stupid.”
They share a laugh in spite of their predicament and Kei leans in to press his lips to Mafuyu’s, never having forgotten what his love tastes like even after so many months of absence. A warmth flickers between them and spreads throughout the cable car as it makes its way down the mountain.
Fandom: Fatal Frame
Rating: M (Cursing)
Summary: Kei finds Mafuyu at last in a black box at the House of Joining and bears him down the mountain following a vicious attack from a shrine maiden. A familiar presence supports and guides them to Mikomori Station safely after.
With a final snap of the shutter, Kei exorcises the spirit of the haggard woman before him. She writhes like the rest of the priestesses he’s encountered on the mountain, screaming gibberish and fading into thin air in a spray of watery foam. He staggers backwards and falls against the wall, leaning on it heavily while he catches his breath. Mio’s camera remains clutched tightly in his hand, though, and he wouldn’t dare let go in a place so dangerous.
“He’s here,” Kei tells himself as he pants and tries to stand on his own two feet again. “Mio’s visions are never wrong and I’ve seen his shadow myself. He has to…”
The large black box at the rear of the room causes a greasy lump to drop into the pit of his stomach.
Returning the camera to the strap around his neck, Kei approaches the casket slowly and stops before it with his heart thundering like the waters of Mikomori Falls.
“Please,” he begs whatever deity willing to listen. “Please let him be…”
He grasps the ornate handles atop the box and pulls back on them with a grunt. The box is as sturdy as it is grim, he relents with a determined frown, and it takes considerable force to throw open the doors. Telltale water pitch as the night sky over Mount Hikami sloshes around as he finally gets it open and the body submerged within steals his breath away.
“Hm…” stirs the man within, blinking away sleep from his eyes, and he lifted his head just enough to peer up at Kei. “What are you…? How…?”
“Mafuyu,” Kei breathes his name at last and drops to his knees to embrace him. “Shh. It’s okay now.”
Remembering why he came here to begin with, Mafuyu’s eyes glaze over with regret and it spills into the black water surrounding him. His muffled sobs echo around the room as he grasps Kei by his shirt front and buries his face into his chest.
“I-I’m so sorry,” he manages to get out. “She was here, Kei. I saw her.”
Kei heaves a sigh and strokes the top of his head sympathetically. “Perhaps she was, but she is no longer. The mountain has deceived you into becoming one of its pillars and I won’t allow it to take possession of you.”
Mafuyu struggles to regain his composure as Kei lifts him up and helps him out of the box. His clothes are in tatters from the black water having eaten away at them and his physical constitution weaker than he realizes when he tried to take that first step out.
“Whoa, whoa!” Kei cautions him and catches him before he can fall. “Careful. Here, put your arm over my shoulders. I’ll support you.”
The two men stumble out of the casket room and into the open air courtyard. Mafuyu tries not to drag his feet but his limp is obvious and Kei compensates for him the best he can.
“I made contact with one of Mr. Takamine’s students,” Kei explains and hefts Mafuyu up so that he doesn’t slouch too much. “His name’s Hojo. Sound familiar?”
Mafuyu’s eyes widen. “Descended from Dr. Asou?”
“Directly,” Kei answers and pauses a moment so that Mafuyu can catch his breath again. “All of Mio’s visions have proved correct. Ever since she and Shizu came to the city at the base of the mountain, she’s felt your presence.”
Turning with a weary smile, Mafuyu thanks him, “You never gave up on me. I knew you’d come.”
Kei looks at him with a wry smile.
“She said you were coming for me,” Mafuyu adds. “As for how I got here in the first place, I thought I could make contact for real this time and I got in over my head. I really am sorry.”
“Stop apologizing,” Kei shushes him and presses his lips to Mafuyu’s temple. “I would have come regardless of our relationship. Yuu and I made a promise that I intend to keep in his stead.”
Mafuyu’s face burns hot in spite of the chill settling deep into his bones and he swallows hard with a nervous smile of his own. “You’ll never stop seeing me as your junior, will you?”
Kei laughs and is about to playfully retort when a ghostly mist fills the area. He stops in his tracks and gently pushes Mafuyu towards the wall behind him, readying the Camera Obscura.
“No matter what happens,” he says to his boyfriend, “stay behind me.”
A veiled woman appears on the surface of the water surrounding the courtyard with her pale lips set into a grim line. It’s the same shrine maiden that accosted Kei in the ceremony room, he knows, because of her garb and gait as she comes towards them.
“None may leave the mountain,” she declares. “Show me your sins and secrets. Become one with the water. With me.”
Kei waits for his opportunity, and as she starts dancing like mad, snaps the shutter at the perfect moment. She screams in agony and falls backwards, catching herself and fixing her unseen sights on them once more. A queer black mist envelops her hand, a method of attack that Kei has never witnessed, and ebonfire strikes him hot in the chest a moment later.
“Argh!” he cries out and squeezes his forearm. “T-The tattoo…Gods, no. It can’t…”
A serpentine pattern weaves its way up his arm and flares out across his back with searing pain. His vision is stolen and he glimpses scenes from the Manor of Sleep, Mio wandering its halls as she laments her sister’s death. He sees the long-haired woman floating towards him with blood running down her face. Yuu walking away from him into the Shrine of Engraving. Mafuyu searching desperately for Miku and unable to hear his voice.
“There you are.”
Reika suddenly appears before him and reaches out. Needles scratch against the wooden boards beneath Kei’s feet. A thousand ghastly apparitions form hands out of the wall and hold him fast to it as she gets closer, closer, and closer still…
“Kei!”
A gentle warmth spreads throughout Kei’s body as Mafuyu breaks a box of Purifying Embers over him. The shrine maiden’s spell is undone and the poison from the black water leaves him at last. As his vision focuses once more, their enemy is only inches from his face. The tattoo remains but he summons just enough strength to lift his arm and snap another photo.
“Nngh. Fuck,” Kei curses and falls back against Maufyu, which results in the two of them collapsing onto the wooden floorboards as the shrine maiden fades with a shrill howl. The tattoo also vanishes with her successful exorcism, and while Kei would love to take a moment to rest, this place is far too volatile for that. He forces himself to get up and drags Mafuyu along with him. “Come on, we’re almost there. Stay with me.”
Mafuyu coughs up black water and shivers in his embrace. “I’ll only weigh you down, Kei. You should escape while you – “
“Don’t even suggest that!” Kei shouts and feels his strength slowly returning again. “We’re gonna make it down this gods-damned mountain together and then we’re going home! There’s no way in hell I’ll give you up, got it?”
Taken aback, Mafuyu surrenders with a murmur, “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
Kei inhales sharply through his nose and shakes his head. “It’s okay. You’ve been through a lot and haven’t had time to process any of it, but we can do that once we’re free of this place. Me, you, and Mio, ‘kay?”
“Uh-huh,” Mafuyu agrees with a weak smile. “Just like old times.”
Old times, Kei thinks with a solemn sigh as he continues to drag Mafuyu along as best he could. I wonder how many people we’ve lost up until this point because of this damn Camera?
As he misses a step and staggers, he feels a weight at his back and something gently corrects him to grab Mafuyu again before he can fall. Perhaps it’s a trick of the mist or the falling rain, but he swears that he glimpsed a familiar shadow.
Keep going, his friend tells him. Everyone is waiting for you and you’re almost there.
With his boyfriend secure in his arm and an old friend at his back, Kei makes his way down the winding paths of the Forbidden Valley and back to the Shrine of the Ephemeral. For a blessing, no spirits come near them and he attributes that to the powerful presence behind him that urges him onward.
Mikomori Station is such a welcome sight.
Kei boards the cable car and sets Mafuyu comfortably into a seat while he goes to start the car itself. When he returns, Mafuyu’s shivering has gotten worse and he looks paler than before.
“We’ll get you to a hospital,” Kei promises and removes his jacket to drape it over his boyfriend instead. He smooths Mafuyu’s bangs from his eyes and cups his cheek, leaning in to press their foreheads together. “I’ll be damned if I lose you to something as ridiculous as hypothermia after all we’ve been through.”
Mafuyu offers him an exhausted smile in turn. “That would be stupid.”
They share a laugh in spite of their predicament and Kei leans in to press his lips to Mafuyu’s, never having forgotten what his love tastes like even after so many months of absence. A warmth flickers between them and spreads throughout the cable car as it makes its way down the mountain.
