Yori’s voice echoed into the vast complex maze that stretched out before him. But it echoed in a strange way heightening the impossible nature of the place. The volume of his voice increased with each repeat and repeated at irregular patterns. Then it completely closed off in silence only to leap back in behind him near his ear. It sounded almost as if someone whispered it in his ear with seductive tickling. Chills went down his neck and back.

As if he wasn’t already on edge enough, the place itself easily assaulted his mind with impossible shapes and dimensions that he couldn’t hope to comprehend with any sort of words or reference from his reality. He struggled to not allow it to completely break him. Yori wondered how long he could last and remain sane in such a place. ‘The mind is truly a place we don’t belong. I must find Yumi quickly before I end up like Athene and Nerine before me…’

A step forward caused the entire ground he stood upon to shift into an entire new form. Once stone with an oddly medieval almost Western architecture became completely covered in grass and trees. Unchanged was the endless moving and transforming of the space out in the distance. Which unfortunately also meant all of the previous paths he used to have changed. No longer was there a way forward and to the left. The gate behind him now was the only path.

Yori turned his body to match his head. There was only one course for him now. “Is this Yumi telling me how to find her?” It was his only hope. He might have had mental abilities, but they were completely foreign to him. He had no practice with them and had no idea how they even functioned. So any sort of help from her would be welcome. As much as his determination hardened his resolve, a strange doubt grew like roots in stone creating cracks in his heart.

Any bit of hope that Yori held onto quickly disappeared when his only path transformed into a fork. “…Yumi? Are you doubting me?” The space that he existed in was a part of her mind. He could only guess that any change happened because of her. But it was only a guess.

Chapter 382 – Labyrinth of the Subconscious

He could only follow one path as much as he would have liked to have some ability to clone himself. Having only a flip of a coin chance of being right made his mind ache. He only hoped that even a wrong path could become the right path if he did things right. But he had no basis for such hope.

It wasn’t long before more choices came to him. Hesitation did him no favors he knew. If he delayed it would only hurt his chances of finding his sister. Each second inside her mind chipped away at his own sanity. The mere presence of the place threatened him, he could only imagine how existing inside her had on his long term mental state. He still ran forward making choices merely on the feeling of his gut needing to find her quickly.

If he was making progress he couldn’t tell. There was no signal of her or an end to the maze. He had no clue how long he had been running, but he never tired, just as the maze never tired of changes. It was random and constant in a way that was impossible for him to find a pattern. He saw the same thing multiple times, but it didn’t make it any easier for him to know which was the correct path to take.

Then the other shoe dropped, in that the ground fell out from underneath Yori. Dirt crumbled to his step and quickly spread out, preventing him from even running away. Into the darkness he fell until crashing into hard stone.

Groaning, it didn’t feel as painful as he thought it would be, though it still hurt. “Ugh…traps now?” Yori started to look around to get his bearings on the room. Fitting with the transitory nature of the maze, he couldn’t find where he fell through. There was a ceiling acting as though it had always been there.

As he stood up, there was only a single path for him. “At least I know where to go…” He took it as a positive sign. Though he wasn’t sure if he should have done that.

The single hall quickly became forks once more and he returned to the same state as before. He rushed through each hall picking anything that made sense to him. Endless twists and turns piled up on him. A routine started to develop with it, even despite it being completely random. ‘I think I’m starting to figure this out… Somehow this chaos makes a little bit of sense. I don’t know how, but it does…’

Suddenly the path came to an end. No wall saying it was a dead end, just no wall literally. The ground stopped and out beyond him was the rest of the maze twisting and churning about. Worst was that he couldn’t see the path. “Where am I supposed to go now?” He looked behind him and the path he took disappeared. It already completely changed and locked him away. This was the only way to go. “I’m supposed to just jump? But to where?”

Kneeling down to the ground, he poked at the emptiness. He kept poking around at the air hoping for a sign, but came up short. “So it’s not one of those leaps of faith sorts of things where the path is just invisible. It’s just not there at all.” Yori stepped back to take stock of things once more.

He really only had one option and he knew it. “I’ve been running blind this whole time believing that Yumi is just in reach. No time to stop now.” It was the only path that he could take. That much he knew and understood. So he just had to push out the doubt and charge forward.

A running leap, a leap into the void he expected. Everything was connected. He would end up somewhere. That much he could be certain of. He just didn’t know where he would be. With nothing underneath him and the distance too far, it was only inevitable that he would fall into the darkness. But even that shifted to become something else. Nothing remained static and the void followed the same rules, if there could even be considered rules within such a place.

He fell into a field of flowers. Multi-colored daisies and tulips filled the rolling hills that grew out before him. “No more maze?” It was as confusing as anything else in this space. He couldn’t make any more sense of it than anything else he found. Nothing he found really seemed to feel like it fit his sister. He expected things that might represent her, but all that ended at the guards of the gate. Inside, he could make nothing out of any of it. It was just a mess in the least logical way.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

But the colorful sight gave him a bit of a change of pace from narrow passages. Despite being in an open field it somehow felt just as tightly packed and claustrophobic as the hallways. And worse, he had even less guidance on his path. He could only pick a direction and keep running.

Unlike in the walled areas of the maze, he could actually see the sun and clouds. A sense of time and progression actually seemed to hold meaning. Which only made it worse when it became night and he still kept running. The field never ended and never changed. “I almost wish I could have the hallways back. I sort of felt like I was making progress even though it was still just as endless as this field of flowers.” But his wish wouldn’t be granted.

Time continued to pass only making the sense of eternity worse. Without the time he had no idea how long he had been searching. In his mind he could still rationalize reality and perception as to different things. It might have felt like hours, but it was only minutes. Now he knew it was wrong.

He had been running in the field for four days without stopping. That itself seemed impossible to him. But he never fatigued or wished to stop to catch his breath. Which meant he could continually search for her even without sleep as well. But the same sight began to sour on him even more. Seeing no change at all ended up being worse for him. “I just want anything different now. Even the black void would be welcome right now… I feel like I’m going to go insane just from seeing flowers…” Which seemed like a very real possibility for Yori after a week.

“…Yumi…” he muttered as even her name started to lose any sort of meaning to him. “Yumi? Who is that? I keep saying it, but why?” Yori shook his head as the flashes of forgetfulness threatened him. “No, I must find her. I will. You can’t stop me!”

Finally, the fields came to an end. He reached the point where there was nothing more. “We meet again,” he said to the void. “How long has it been now? Weeks?” Without even hesitation anymore, he stepped into the void for it to consume him.

Flat on his back, he didn’t even feel the pain of the fall. He didn’t remember if there was pain. Just a different and welcome ceiling. “I remember you…” It returned to him. The labyrinth that he thought he had escaped. Yet now there was something wrong with the place. Walls stopped being a thing. There were only surfaces in an endless tessellation. And out there was himself. “Why is there more than one of me?” There were countless other Yoris running everywhere. Each one shouting out for someone called Yumi. “So I’m searching for Yumi as well then?”

He began to run like the others did. It only made sense. If they ran it must be because it was important. They had somewhere to be, to find. They had to find Yumi. “I must find Yumi too.” That was his purpose. Right?

Time held no meaning anymore. He just kept running along the path. The sense of the warped space didn’t even unnerve him anymore. It just made sense. It was natural. This was the way things should be. Direction was an empty word for him in such a space.

Run.

Run.

“…Yumi…” Another Yori passed by. They always passed by. Each one had a path and course. Their paths intersected regularly. It was easier to cover more ground with them. They would find Yumi this way for sure. The goal would be found.

However, as the running continued few of them crossed paths as regularly. It seemed time started to mean something. There looked to be fewer Yoris. None of them found what they sought, yet there were fewer with each passing course.

“…tired…I…Yori…is tired…” Those that still held strong no longer ran. It became a sprint, even though a sprint was short it was just an endless short sprint. But they started to jog and then walk. Eventually, they could only crawl.

Collapsed on the ceiling, they couldn’t move anymore. Fatigue finally struck and it wasn’t the same sort of push through fatigue that normally existed. It was completely empty and drained, no reserves, no extra will of fortitude or determination to draw upon fatigue. An immovable fatigue that glued them to the wall.

“…can’t…move…Yumi…must…find…”

It was the end. They wanted to keep searching, but it was impossible. Nothing would move their bodies anymore. They could only lay and it wasn’t even a rest. The fatigue and heavy breathing never ended. It continued no matter how still they remained. It couldn’t be escaped or eased.

They were finished.

“…I must…” They paused suddenly, not remembering. “What…was…I…?” Lying on the floor was their purpose. That must be it. That was what they could only conclude. They never moved. It was something that they had never done before. It only made sense.

“…here…”

A voice echoed through the chamber. It called out to them. Something familiar about it alerted them. They didn’t know why it was familiar. But it had their attention.

“You must find her! Find your sister, Yumi!”

“…sister? Yumi? I…was?” It made no sense to them. That couldn’t be right. “…bas…tard…” It felt familiar to him. He seemed to remember something. Yori lifted his head knowing that voice. “Hayashi…you don’t have to remind me. I will find her! I will find YUMI!!”

He stood up on his feet once more as he shouted into the void. All around him the others disappeared into dust. Then the surfaces disappeared with shattering. The space created within the subconscious broke and all that remained was a familiar room of comfort.

“Yumi’s room…” He walked over to her bed seeing her sleeping peacefully without any concern or worry. It made him smile a little to see that she could be safe and unaware of everything. His sister had been protected.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he reached out for her hand. “Yumi…it’s time to wake up now…”

“Yori!” shouted another familiar and annoying voice from a distance. It pulled him away from her room, but it was fine now. He didn’t have to worry anymore. “Yori! Can you hear me?!”

He groaned in pain as his body and mind ached like nothing he had ever known before. It felt like he had stayed awake for a whole month studying without any sleep or break. Nothing more could be crammed into his brain. And he already forgot everything he had learned. He was useless. “Yes…I can hear your annoying voice…where are you?”

“Don’t scare us like that man!”

“What are you talking about?”

“You stopped breathing for a moment. We thought you died!”

“…oh…”

“Is that all you can say?!”

Yori didn’t really have much more he could say to Seiji. He couldn’t even see him. His eyes wouldn’t open. “I just exhausted myself a little. I’m too tired to even open my eyes.”

“What are you talking about, your eyes are open and completely red.”

“Open? But I see nothing…” He suddenly thought back to Athene and what happened to her while she was in his mind. It robbed her of her sight. The reason for it never made any sense to him. He could only speculate that the experience destroyed her mind in a unique way that it no longer could make a connection. “This is my price then…”

“Price?”

“Never mind that, Yumi? Is she awake?”

“I am…” Yumi said softly to everyone’s surprise.