'It's gotten quiet out there.'
Issei leaned against the wall, breathing slowly as he tried to still his heart. Not like it was helping a whole lot, what with all the running he had to do with those angry snakes chasing after them. Whoever thought snakes made for good pets had no idea how scary it was to get chased by one.
Getting chased by dozens of the damn things all but made him swear he would never get close to reptiles ever again!
The pain in his foot wasn't getting any better, either.
If anything, the wet feeling started feeling like it was stinging, raw against the inside of his shoe. Issei was probably gonna have to throw it away when he got back home. After all, if people asked why his shoes were bloody, would they believe him if he said he'd kicked a snake to save a bunch of kids?
It would certainly make him popular with cute girls though!
'That's if I make it out of this.'
And wasn't that the question of the hour.
He did everything he could to set up this plan, wracking his brain for every single memory he had of playing Doki Doki Monster Paradise 5. From all the endings to the combat system to the secret exclusive H-Scenes that he got from buying the deluxe copy.
He wasn't sure if the last part would help, but it certainly motivated him.
Because he was going to make it out of this.
He had to.
Someone had to stop Dusa-chan, someone had to save everyone who got turned into statues. And Issei couldn't wait for someone else to come do it. Not when there might not be anyone at all. As soon as the ship reached whatever destination they were headed to, the monster lady would disappear in the crowd and nobody would ever know she caused this.
Who would even believe him if he told them?
He couldn't even believe this was happening until after he woke up the second day, thinking it had been a terrible nightmare only to see everyone was still stuck as statues.
"Is this even real?"
The thoughts were unbidden, but present nonetheless.
"I'm not exactly the most heroic guy." At least not in the game protagonist kinda way.
Sitting down in a first class plush leather chair, Issei took the chance to prop his foot up on a stool and replace the stuffing in his sock. Wincing the whole while.
"Honestly, this is pretty much just some chuuni isekai stuff, right? A random loser gets to save people from a scary monster. It makes more sense this is just my brain putting together a nice daydream while I die from slipping down some stairs."
Morbidity wasn't something he was prone to, but the teenager was struggling to just… grasp what was going on.
"Obviously Dusa-Chan isn't really from Doki Doki, right?" Saying it outloud made it seem even more absurd. "Monsters aren't really real. And monsters from H-games just sound dumb." Grunting, fishing out a fifteen hundred yen bottle of water - and wasn't that an insane thing - he took a swig and two aspirin when he was sure it wasn't more acetaminophen. "She's here."
That was the truth.
Plain and simple.
He was hurting, other people seemed to be scared, and that one weird European who was obsessed with brains in jars aside, the teenager just couldn't conceive of any explanation that justified the world as he knew it was.
"You know what. Screw it. It doesn't matter."
Eyeing a bottle of champagne, before ignoring it entirely, the young man decided the situation was simple.
"If its a fever dream, then it doesn't matter, so I might as well do what's right. If this is all real, then doing the right thing really counts. Either way… there's nothing to do but try."
Part of him was aware, in a somewhat detached way, that he was scared.
No. Terrified.
Every part of Issei was trembling, most of him wanted to go back to the statues of Mom and Dad and beg them to move again.
Deep, deep down, a part of him just wanted everyone to laugh and start moving and say it was a joke. He wouldn't even be upset.
But he wasn't young enough to spend long actually considering that.
"After all, just like Starry Eyes, Starry Knight, Great Detective Sherry Holmes said, 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'"
He still wanted to cry. But he'd leave that for after.
For now, he had a guest at the door.
Knock Knock!
"Who is it?" He tried to sing out, chest tightening at the chorus of hisses coming from the outside, followed by the rattle of something glass like.
"Not going to lie and pretend you aren't home?"
Dusa-chan… he wasn't gonna come up with another name for her now of all times, giggled from the other side.
"You already know I'm here anyway. What's the point?" He leaned back, careful not to jostle the frame resting behind him.
It had taken quite a lot of effort to hang it there.
"Well, aren't you coming out then?" There was a hissing giggle from the other side of the door.
Issei shook his head.
"Nah, you can come in." He wasn't that dumb.
There was a brief sigh from the other side. Clearly him not playing along with her game was ruining whatever enjoyment she was getting out of cornering him. Which was kinda the point. Even if he was driven to a corner, Issei wasn't about to just open that door and get turned into a garden gnome.
"Ever the gentleman, aren't you? Well, don't mind if I come in then."
There was an audible crack as the door knob turned against its will, metal creasing, bending, and then snapping as the lock was pulled apart with freakish strength. Issei cringed at the noise, watching with bated breath as his last line of defense was torn off of its hinges to reveal the dark hallway outside.
It had completely slipped his mind that it was already this late.
Running around the bowels of the ship didn't do a whole lot for his time awareness, and leaving everything in pitch black darkness seemed to favor her more than it did him anyway.
"You know I don't need to see you to find you, right?"
Really, she was gloating now?
"Took you a while the first go around though. Besides. Power's going on and off. No telling if you're losing your touch or not."
A scoff answered his bravado, though the posturing made him feel a little better.
And let Issei live a little longer.
"You aren't the first to run from me. And I had fun. But you're being rude."
There was the sound of a hand fumbling along the wall of the room and, inevitably, she found the lightswitch. Just like Issei grabbed a hold of the frame behind him.
And when she flicked that switch, cracking plastic in the process, he yanked the picture down and revealed his ultimate weapon.
Light, electric, white, generated by a pair of rather harsh LED bulbs filled the room, bouncing off every single reflective surface he had managed to scavenge in the entire time he'd been here.
Mirrors.
Flat screen TVs.
Broken panes of glass.