idolpro | Izanagi's Heart Game

[He can't really sing or play any instruments. He doesn't know any poems to recite, and he can't juggle or play the wine glasses or anything like that. His only skills are like. Brewing a really good cup of tea. Or being athletic.]

[Since only one of those will probably work performatively, he does the latter.]

[Slowly, he performs a couple of yoga poses he knows - ones that require flexibility, and strength, transitioning smoothly from one to another until he's doing a handstand. He walks - carefully, haltingly - across the stage on his hands. Then he lets his legs fall forward as he pushes himself off the ground, doing something like a leap into a standing position.]

[Look, he's no gymnast, and it's been a while since he's done this. But it's one of his few skills, ok. He's doing his best.]

You’re playing basketball.

It’s a tough game, but you’re winning - your teammates, a ragtag group as they are compared to your clearly skilled opponents, keep managing to get the ball to you to score. It’s exhilarating, the cheers of the audience, the praise of your teammates. You’re the center of attention because of your abilities and it feels great. You can’t remember a recent time that felt any happier - like a ray of sunshine after so many grey and stormy days.

...Or at least, that's the scene you believe yourself to be in for a brief moment. Once you return to the present, you find yourself still standing on the stage. And, should you check, your badge is glowing faintly as one of the fragments goes from clear to silver.

You've found another Fragment. And not only that, but now that they have been collected, all of them begin to glow and float on their chains, pointing at a specific patch of flooring on the stage.

[Aw. This is cute.]

[Oh the fragments are doing something. What are you trying to tell me, fragments?! He follows where they're pointing]

They dip a little, pointing at an untouched square of stage. Actually, on further examination - there’s a thin line forming a square in the wood, and a hole one might use to stick their fingers into the piece to pull it off.

[He's going to do that, then.]

[off it comes!]

Pulling off the piece reveals a long metal ladder that extends down into utter darkness. Looks like the stage was hiding a trapdoor all along.

The Fragments are still pointing into the depths of the hole. If tested, the ladder seems secure and sound, even if there’s absolutely no indication to where it might lead.

[DOWN WE GO]

[TIME TO FIND WHO IS SLEEPING UNDER THE MANSION like the whispering hallways told him about.]

[Hopefully it's a VERY CUTE devil.]

As you descend into the darkness, you become aware of a consistent, shrill sound... It seems electronic in nature, and it grows louder, though never overpowering as you descend rung by rung.

Eventually your foot meets a tile floor, and you find yourself in a dark hallway. Enough illumination comes from a door at the end of the hallway to see that the walls and flooring all seem to be a sterile white - and whatever’s in the room has got to be the source of the sound. The door is ajar, although there is nothing in particular visible from this part of the hallway.

The Fragments float up again, pointing towards the door.

[To the door of the... hospital(?)]

You enter a hospital room.

The heart monitor is flatlining, leaving it droning, a consistent and inescapable whine. Laid in the bed with white sheets drawn over a hospital robe is the thin and pale body of one who you may know better as Izanagi, eyes closed and unmoving.

Oddly enough, the light no longer seems as consistent - in fact, the Fragments are pulsing now, blinking in a steady beat. They seem to be tugging towards the body... and with a soft click, the badge loosens from your clothing, leaving the badge sagging.

It seems it may now be removed, although no matter how it is moved, the Fragments will continue to pull on their chains as they point at the body.

[Uh oh! This seems very dire suddenly.]

[He hustles over and lays the badge against Izanagi's chest.]

The Fragments continue to pulse, steady and strong, the light growing stronger as they near the body. Once close enough, the Fragments begin to lose their color and shine - but Izanagi’s body gains it instead, skin flushing as the blood flow resumes once more.

Slowly, his eyes open, a glint of gold in the otherwise coldly lit room.

He’s alive.

[OH WHEW...]

[Quietly, he looks for a chair or stool to sit on (if there is one) and silently sits down beside his bed, keeping an eye on him as he comes to.]

[Breathing in... and then out. And sitting himself up with a smile.]

...You saved me after all.

Thanks, Cobalt.

[He smiles, reaching out to take his hand and giving it a squeeze.]

Thanks for calling me to you, Izanagi.

--Hizumi.

Why are you here, though? In a hospital bed, I mean.

...Because "He's" been trying to bury me. And he almost succeeded.

Just like everything else here, I'm just a few pieces that make up the whole heart. The part that "believes he is already as good as dead," and the part that "wants to be saved despite that." But...

"He" decided it's too painful to hope to be saved. So he's been trying to stop.

To kill me off for good.

Jeez. That doesn't sound great.

I knew things were rough for him at home, but I didn't realize things were still that rough with the change of environment. I didn't realize that he still intended to go home.

His line of reasoning is... if his existence is objectively a bad thing for his world, why would it be any different for any other one?

What would be his opinion on using a wish to lift the curse?

...Even before he came to this world, he hardly desired to live. So becoming a demon to get a wish to prolong that isn't even up for consideration.

Although... someone did offer to use their wish to lift the curse. But he doesn't trust in anyone to make good on it.

Hope is scary to him.

That's understandable. Hope is a risk. I think it's normal to be afraid of feeling vulnerable.

But if everyone goes to Hell when they die, doesn't going back home and dying mean ending up right back here again?

...It's possible for souls to disappear entirely, isn't it? Without enough sense of self, you are simply lost.

I suppose.

Pardon me for saying so, but it still doesn't seem like an ideal solution. Especially since I am starting at the proof that he doesn't truly desire that.

Not that my opinion has anything to do with it, but... in truth, I don't wish for that for him, either.

It sounds like what he really wants is, not to die, but rather not to hurt people. Do you think that's accurate?

It isn't. But for someone who couldn't hope or trust in anyone else, it was the best option he could think of.

[...]

While it's true he doesn't want to hurt people... What he wanted most was to be saved.

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