I'm With You (Himeko Soryuu)

I'm With You (Himeko Soryuu)
Date of Cutscene:	03 June 2023
Location:	Soryuu Shrine
Synopsis:	The Vague and the Elusive. Face it, and you will not see its head. Follow it, and you will not see its back.
Cast of Characters:	Pyrite, Mamoru Chiba

---

The entire district that built up around the Soryuu Shrine was empty. No one lived there anymore. There was life, such as plants, wild animals, and sometimes homeless people staying the night, or urban explorers poking around in abandoned homes. However, though there was life it was not a place where anything lived. Himeko had made sure of that.

In her attempts to 'fix' the people in her neighborhood, she had slowly drained the life from the surroundings. The forest around her shrine died. The animals and insects fled, and as they fled they carried the touch of Yomi. They spread the Hell of Japanese beliefs everywhere they went, a mix of Death and Dark Energy poisoning everything and everyone.

People died.

So many people.

Descendants of those who had once prayed to her for salvation, and the descendants of those people who had in turn prayed to her in thanks for saving their predecessors, all dropping one by one. The spread of sickness without obvious cause, the chronic nightmares, strange disappearances, and other frightening events, all obviously alarmed the people of that District whose name is now Forgotten. So they left.

Moving, just leaving, abandoning the district to be fully claimed by Death. The city was set to investigate for environmental causes, or perhaps industrial waste, or test for if some new and insidious disease had originated from somewhere else and been brought into Tokyo... But they all just...

Forgot.

Like how they forgot the Soryuu Kami, the Kami of Murder that they created with their prayers, She who killed sickness, pain, despair, fire, wounds, anything that troubled her worshippers.

They made a Small God for themselves by feeding prayers and wishes to a dead girl, and then they abandoned her.

But it wasn't vengeance that motivated the killing that eventually drove people to leave.

She had fixed her cat, who she named Shiro. She couldn't leave the grounds of the Soryuu Shrine, but she was so much bigger than those grounds now. In her long, long dream, she had become an ocean of herself, and overflowed her container. Now she could seek out what was broken, what was wrong with her worshippers, instead of waiting for them to come to her.

Himeko the Ocean was trying to bring everyone into the painless, perfect existence she had discovered. If they would just let her fix them, they could exist forever too. Untouchable, unhurtable... Deathless because they were already dead.

Yomi's tendrils inside of her, twisting her now that her Light was virtually gone, warred with the the lingering hopes that Himeko had been entrusted with that had almost made her into a Kami. Light, and Dark, and so much Gray, all swirling around, overlapping each other, trying to gain supremacy, and creating ripples that turned into waves.

The deep of Himeko the Ocean was utter darkness, where light never reached. Hope that sank down that far was brutally killed, gutted for the wishes behind it and turned into curses.

The twilight strata of Himeko the Ocean was murky and uncertain, a realm of possibility, but one where possibility easily became terror as the imagination imprinted upon it.

The surface of Himeko the Ocean was a mix of murk and darkness, pollution from the Abyss that continued to leak into her from Yomi corrupting even the uppermost layers of her being. But amidst all that, there was a light foam, sometimes a reflection of something as though catching a moment of sunlight. Little hopes, like golden pearls, mixed in with doubts and fears.

The waves of her overflowed and crashed against each other, making it impossible for any other souls to exist without being part of her. And so the living were pushed out. Only ghosts remained, those 'fixed' by Himeko the Ocean.

Chained but somehow floating in the middle strata, the twilight zone, one girl continued to look up from her gray murk, seeing little hopes fall towards her, and trying to reach out for them like she did once upon a time. But her limbs were bound. All she could do was hang on, and watch wishes die far below her to be used to strike back at those who made them.

Himeko the Ocean was big: so big, that she was lost inside herself. That one girl, that good girl who just wanted to spare others what she had suffered... Could just float there, and wait for someone who could reach her. There had to be someone, right? There had to be someone who would plunge her depths, dare her darkness, and pull her back to the surface. If someone did that, she felt like everything would be okay.

Years passed.

Nothing changed, except that her soul began to decay and flake away. Neither claimed by Yomi nor accepted into the living realm, her soul that had endured for over five-hundred years was finally reaching its limit.

Either stay there and rot, until all semblance of her personhood was eroded and she couldn't even remember that she couldn't remember things anymore, or sink down into the Deep Dark, accept her role as the new Goddess of Death, sitting the Throne of Want in Yomi, the replacement for the missing goddess who had been reborn...

But if she did that, she wouldn't really be her anymore either, right? She'd become something else, shackled with even stronger chains that she might never be able to break. There was still hope for now, that one day she would be able to walk in the Light of the Sun.

She held onto hope, clasped it to her chest as though she were praying... The only wish she had been able to capture...

Her little golden pearl.

--

Hope was dying. It was dying, and Himeko was forgetting what she was hoping for, and why. Well, if she couldn't remember it, it couldn't be that important could it? She did remember that she didn't want to sink for some reason. Why? She couldn't remember. If she couldn't remember it mustn't be important, right?

If she went down below, she would be able to remember things, and she would remember Everything and more, but right now she was comfortable floating. Her hair was scraggly and sparse, features green and black with rot and exposed bone, her simple kimono that had once been white was a ragged gray shawl more appropriate for a funerary shroud than to be worn by a person... She knew that eventually, her face would be smoothed away, and there would be no trace left of her even within herself.

But as long as Himeko the Ocean existed, the people she had saved from death, the ghosts of those she had fixed, would have a peaceful place to exist forever after. There was no way that prayer could ever be wrong after all.

--

Himeko had fractured. Himeko the Ghost was up above, entertaining the other ghosts, repeating the same patterns over and over and not knowing she was doing it. She was a fake version of Himeko the Soul, but she kept the others happy, so that was fine.

What Himeko the Soul was concerned about was the Thing below her. She couldn't see it properly, but sight and eyes didn't really mean much here. Even so, she could perceive there was another version of her down in the Darkness.

A pale her, with long black hair floating elegantly around her, and a perfect white dress (or was it a black military outfit? in whose military? and why would she be--), and red eyes smoldering like burning coals as they looked up at her, wanting everything she had, and willing to drag her down if that meant clawing her way up just a bit further.

Himeko the Curse had come into existence at some point. Perhaps around the same time as Himeko the Soul began considering herself to be Himeko the Soul, and Himeko the Ghost appeared... But time meant less than nothing here.

After all, here in the murk of the twilight of possibility, she had seen a girl throw a circle of light towards a house, accidentally killing her best friend.

She had seen a black cat be saved and turned into a ghost, and her realizing that she could fix everyone the same way.

She had seen a her who kneeled next to a pond, and watched ducks floating, and then they came rushing to her when she gave out breadcrumbs, and she was smiling so brightly that nothing else mattered but that moment.

She had seen a priestess banish her from this place, exorcising her and sending her to whatever lay beyond.

She saw a her who was a creature of terror, a her who could only be called Her, because She was so Other and yet still in some way Himeko, that there was no other title appropriate. Another Her would have to suffice, even if it felt like naming Her at all gave Her more power and a stronger grip on a separate-but-shared destiny. That Her stood in the rain, in a red dress and an umbrella, and the rain fell everywhere except over Her, and She had Fangs for Feeding.

She saw a her who gave up everything, gambling on a chance to devour a god and obtain enough power to fill the emptiness inside of her. A her who lunged forth into the darkness, and bit into that Shadow with Burning Eyes and Sharp Teeth.

She saw that version of her wind up being devoured in turn.

She saw that version of her eat enough of the god that they were on even footing, only for a shining Something to destroy them both, while she made sure to hold on tight until the very end, so there'd be no chance of the evil god returning to hurt the people and world that she loved.

She saw that version of her triumphant, replacing the god as a creature of death, evil, and hate, and look upon the world she had left behind, ripe for the taking, its guardians slain, and even the girl with the Brightness erasing herself and setting everything back as though it never was.

She saw that version of her turn that power upon the world, and turn it into Hell before destroying it, and then turn her questing eyes out towards the stars, still unsated, and slavering over all those undefended, shining seeds of worlds, waiting and utterly unaware for what was coming.

She saw that version of her contain all that evil and death and hate, hold it tight to her chest, like she was praying, but it was a curse, not a prayer, and her own wish was to be consigned to the same prison as the god had been, where she would exist alone, forever, or at least until the Sun exploded and destroyed her in the process.

She saw a hand of Light reaching out to save that version of her, and bring her back to Earth. The hand belonged to the girl with the Shining something, the one who had thrown the circle of Light.

Now it belonged to a girl in pigtails, making a wish so big that it made the girl far larger than Himeko the Ocean, becoming so big that she was the whole universe.

Now it belonged to a different girl with a ponytail, who flew up towards her and simply smashed through all barriers in her way, until she was able to grab that Himeko's hand, Himeko the Fallen Death Goddess, who wanted nothing more than to watch her world live on until her time finally came, but who was dragged back, on a promise.

Now it belonged to so many other girls, so many other people, all of them loving her enough to want to save her from the hell of her self-imposed isolation.

She saw a completely different her dressed similarly to the girl who wielded the Light, standing proud, the guardian of a distant place where few would ever visit. Her duty was sacred, and she would maintain it, even if the whole universe ended.

She saw her and an older her, enjoying themselves at some strange celebration.

She saw her walking down some stairs and stopping, stunned at the sight of someone else. Something else. What was it? Why couldn't she see more of that possibility when she could see so many other things?

She saw two of herself become the girl with the Light, in form but not nature, and be first into that house that was destroyed by the circle of Light, stopping the best friend from dying. Or would it have changed regardless of her actions, because so much else had changed? If she had remained in her Shrine, undiscovered, would all of those other fates have been enough to avert a tragedy?

The more she focused on particular events, the more they slipped away, and the more she forgot everything.

No point in looking further then. She understands.

But down there, at the bottom, close enough to see but too far to touch, there was Himeko the Curse, just waiting for a chance.

Himeko the Soul was close to giving up. Maybe if Himeko the Curse ate what was left of her, she'd be able to do a better job the next time around. Souls reincarnated right? Or did they waste away in Yomi? She couldn't remember.

She couldn't remember anything anymore.

--

A ghost sat in her shrine, playing with her cat, aware of but not able to acknowledge the presence of other ghosts roaming the district that had once had life. Or had it? She couldn't remember.

The ghost felt something though, just a mild impulse, not even a hunch, and she looked up.

As she stared out into the dark with her bright red eyes, that feeling became stronger. Something was different.

Was it a shrine maiden, come to finish her once and for all? Was it like that dead girl thing in the seed? She had been nourishing when the ghost ate it, but it had left her out of sorts, and her insides twisted more than usual. Her doubts were bent, and her fears distorted, and her consciousness was bloated with the dark of it. Too much despair.

A man was approaching. Despite the death all around, there was a living man approaching.

The ghost released her cat, focused entirely on the presence coming closer and closer. Oh, wonderful! She could fix someone again, after so long! Another new friend to join her by the Ocean!

--

Himeko the Curse burned with resentment. She was down there in the shadows, pristine but empty. Beautiful but terrifying. Saved but damned. All she could do from down below was stare up hungrily, hating that she couldn't swim up into the twilight, desperately reaching up and up, trying to find something... Else. Like what, she did not know. But that gray was her sky, her world, and the dark was her special hell, where she had to stay, powerful, unafraid, perfect, fixed, and unable to do anything but remain prisoner to a Boundary of her own making.

No, not her. That other her. The one above her, who just drifted stagnantly, occasionally looking down at her with... Pity.

It made her rage in her hollow, hollow heart, but on the outside she was just a girl of ten years old, standing at the bottom of an Ocean, where no Light ever reached, aware of everything she lacked, and Wanting it more than almost anything.

Almost, because though she was surrounded by Darkness, she was not Dark. Though she stood on the precipice of the Abyss of the Land of the Dead, she did not seek the power that would come with giving up and stepping off the ledge.

So it was just like that. Unchanging. Himeko the Curse glaring at Himeko the Stagnant, who called herself Himeko the Soul, and that useless her falling apart without doing anything to change her situation. She was denied because her own self had already resolved to do nothing but wait, even as the hope she held so close died little by little.

That sounded familiar, didn't it?

A brightness inside that resisted at first, but eventually got eaten up a bit at a time... A... Light.

But that didn't matter. What mattered was becoming free, so she could take her place as Himeko the True.

Then something changed. She wasn't sure what. A shift in the waters of the soul, an alteration to the currents of Himeko the Ocean. Something...

Someone was coming.

A Diver had just plunged in.

--

A wall of hands with dead flesh rushed outwards, converging on their living prey, but he disappeared before they could finish, resulting in them smashing into each other, breaking, and then more hands growing out of the wounds and bones and fingernails, constantly spawning more of themselves, trying new tactics, new directions, while tendrils of shadow lashed out, smashing apart the temple grounds that had remained intact for almost a century after being rebuilt. The ghost was giddy, excited. No one had ever put up a fight like this before. As the arms she manifested were crushed or severed, the tendrils seized as though they were physical things instead of strands of Yomi itself, the nightmares and despair and phantasmal illusions she tried to swamp his mind with warded off and evaded, all she could do was smile and laugh, and clap from her perch on the porch of the Soryuu Shrine.

The ghost stood, finally, and stepped down to the dirty but paved path leading up to the shrine, walking forwards. As she came closer, the man who fought her was pressured more. He appeared and disappeared, he threw black roses that rotted and pierced and severed the extensions of herself so that they could not be remade. He fought like a demon, calmly even though he was clearly aware of the danger he was in. He had not come to the shrine expecting to fight a Small God, but here he was, doing it.

It was going to be great when she fixed him. They could exist together in perfection, with Shiro, who was a very good cat.

They'd almost be like a family.

--

Himeko the Soul had been hoping so long for the Light to save her. She was utterly stunned when what plunged into her waters was not Light, but Darkness. A mass of seething Dark, burning its owner like a mass of wasps, or biting ants. He swam down as far as he could, cutting through the distance between them like it was a physical thing and not a representation of how far away Himeko the Soul was from salvation.

For a moment, Himeko the Soul's golden pearl grew a bit brighter in her clutching, praying hands.

Then the Diver turned and swam back up to the surface.

The depths rose. The Abyss came closer to the twilight. Even the Gray was becoming Black.

"Aah..." she said into Himeko the Ocean, drowning for so long in silence. "Well, this is the end, I suppose."

Her hands started to loosen, and tilt the glowing pearl towards the bottom of the Ocean.

--

He was taking stock of his options. The temple grounds were trashed from a combination of his attacks and hers. Of course he would be thinking about whether it was worth continuing the fight. He could leave any time he wanted to.

But the ghost was suddenly afraid that he would flee. She would be alone again. Just her, and her fixed souls, repeating and forgetting, over and over. An arrangement she was content with right up to this moment was suddenly terrifying. This might be her one and only chance to be free of this Boundary.

She reached out towards the man in black. "Don't leave me here alone!" she called out. Words that were familiar but not. Said by a different girl, a different ghost, with the same face and voice and soul, so very, very long ago, to someone else she wanted to save her. Someone she thought the world of and loved with all her everything.

Someone... Who? She could trace what she couldn't remember or acknowledge back to that point, but no further.

Distracted, the giant hand of shadow spiders that was reaching out towards the intruder fell apart into writhing tendrils that tried to bind him to this place as surely as she was bound. A trade? Her freedom for his imprisonment?

No. She wouldn't do that. Because she was, in the end, a good girl.

He lashed out with his amazing strength and shattered the shadows, and in the brief reprieve from battle, he met her eyes.

"You can see me?" she asked in her tiny, little-girl voice, not willing to believe it's true, but wishing it fervently. Could he hear her too?

In answer he threw a black rose.

This time, she made no motion to block it or avoid it.

She reached out her hand.

The rose pierced her.

--

Himeko the Soul was startled out of her almost-acceptance of erasure of her being, as another even deeper disturbance in Himeko the Ocean grabbed her attention. Reflexively, she clutched her hands closed around her hope. She still wanted to make it out of here after all, she realized. So what was that up above? That plunging weight that pierced her as surely as a blade, or perhaps even more sharply? She could just barely make out bubbles, and shadows. The Darkness Above was even stronger now.

The Diver had returned.

The golden pearl began to shine brightly enough that even Himeko the Soul, here in the Gray, was starting to glow like a beacon.

--

There were impacts against the Ocean. Himeko the Stagnant was doing something that made her glow. Himeko the Curse ached for that Light, hurt on a scale no being of bone and sinew and nerves could ever imagine. It was the pain of being dead, not knowing it, and Wanting something she would never have again. Just constantly wandering in Darkness, not knowing why she was suffering, or why she was alone, or why she couldn't remember who she was, but that gnawing hunger inside, clawing its way out until it made the soul hollow from wanting to breathe once again.

Himeko the Curse felt another tremor. The creeping shadow coral that had grown to cover her feet and legs, the sweet whispers from the Abyss that told her it would be so easy to take one step and be done with it, all loosened, weakened, and became muted for a moment.

Himeko the Curse did not miss her chance.

She broke free.

As she began to swim upwards, towards the twilight, she reached out her hand.

Before anyone could take it, a different hand landed on her shoulder, burning her with hate and hunger that eclipsed her own, and heightened by Malice. Himeko the Curse looked furiously at who was trying to keep her bound down here in the Deep Dark.

It was Her. Another Her. A Her in a black kimono, with long black hair, and red eyes, and paper dolls floating around her, and a huge pair of blades, and Shiro there following mournfully behind, loyal but sad for his owner, and also it was Her older, in a red dress, and a parasol, with Fangs for Feeding, and Shiro was nowhere to be found, and also it was just a seething blackness with smoldering eyes like Himeko the Curse's own.

"I go first." said the Himeko only known as Her or She. Another Her. Something alien to all the others, warped beyond recognition except for that outer shell.

She began to rise upwards. The black handprint on Himeko the Curse's shoulder was another weight burdening her. A curse on top of a Curse.

Himeko the Curse looked up towards that monster who would surely break everything that Himeko the Ocean was trying to protect, and Himeko the Ghost was trying to fix, and Himeko the Stagnant was hoping to be rescued by.

Himeko the Curse wanted so much to be the one to emerge and find out what was beyond the twilight, to see if there was more to the sky than murky uncertainty. She wanted it enough to steal the place of Himeko the Stagnant, and condemn her own other self to Darkness.

But she was still a good girl, who didn't want anyone other than herself to suffer what she had.

As She reached a hand up towards the unaware Himeko, who had become Himeko the Hopeful...

A hand grabbed Her in turn, gripping tight around Her ankle.

"That is undesirable." Himeko the Vengeful said simply and defiantly as she focused all her animosity and pent up resentment not on the her she had been loathing for so long, but upon the Her that threatened the happiness of others.

She bared Her teeth and drew Her blades.

"I will have what I desire, even if I have to kill you all one by one." Then She tried to sever that reaching hand from Himeko the Vengeful.

She would kill all the other Himeko momentarily.

--

The Light became brighter and brighter as the Diver descended. It revealed that what Himeko the Hopeful had perceived as a tiered Ocean was actually a series of shelves. None of her were bound in the darkness. They could all reach the surface if they swam upwards. And if they helped each other out, they could all be saved, and become just Himeko Soryuu once again.

Himeko the Hopeful looked down towards the Darkness to tell Himeko the Curse about this, only to find her other self grappling with a monster. A creature wearing their face, but with no desire but to create a world of death as punishment for all its crimes against Her.

The Curse was in the process of transforming into something else. Himeko the Avenger? None of them needed to fight. They could all go to the surface! There was no reason to fight! Perhaps even that Other Her would see reason once She could breathe again...!

Then she realized what she had to do. The golden pearl had stopped being an object, and had become embedded inside of her heart. It was turning her entire being into Light. She looked up at the Diver, who was struggling to save all of her, while She sent up blades of spite to ward him off, to hurt him so he wouldn't come any closer. Down here in the gray, interspersed among the blades, there were Nine women -- or were there Five, or One, or Ten, and was that girl with Himeko's silhouette also one of them? -- gathered around, and one at the center, with a Light. It pulsed like a heartbeat.

Himeko the Hopeful felt that pulse of Light inside of her, and gasped. She inhaled Himeko the Ocean. She was weighed down by the massive Himeko who was medium and world all in one, but she just felt peaceful. She understood now. The golden pearl inside of her was changing shape under the pressure of these depths, stretching and sharpening, into a shard of something. A sliver of a greater whole. She was becoming replaced with Light, as Himeko the Light dove downwards. Now she was a Diver too.

--

Himeko the Vengeful was about to become something greater, something more powerful, but She was far stronger still. As bits of her were clipped off, to drift down into the Abyss, the tatters of Himeko continued to fight with the hungering monster. No more hurting. No more dying. If it's a choice between bringing more pain into the world or being down here forever...

Before she could commit to her decision, the surroundings were suddenly illuminated. It burned deeply and shallowly, reached to her core and failed to penetrate the many layers of hostile that served as her armor -- her protection from more pain.

She was screaming in fury. Himeko the Vengeful looked up, and saw a beautiful vision. A girl made of Light, a princess of Japan, and a princess of the Earth, and a princess of a distant place where none dared travel, and also just a normal girl.

That Himeko reached down to her, and the Himeko that had dwelled in Darkness reached up to her, and She reached out as well, to attempt to prevent their union.

The Dark and the Light touched each others' fingers first.

But She was not far behind.

Himeko the Dark was hurled upwards, not pulled as she had anticipated. Himeko the Light had chosen to put her Darkness ahead of herself.

Himeko the Dark looked down in confusion as bubbles rose around her in curtains that obscured her sight.

She was screaming silently in hate, Her features distorted to show the monster She truly was while sinking deeper and deeper. With Her, making sure She stayed, Himeko the Light held on.

The Light was embracing the hateful monster as they both fell.

The Dark only watched for an eternal moment, and then turned her attention back to what lay above.

--

Monster though She was, and all the pain She could potentially inflict if She were freed, Himeko the Light saw now what was hidden before. All the hurt and hunger and malice was also a part of her, as destructive as She was. She was the parts of her that she hadn't wanted to acknowledge. The Her who wanted to punish those who had done this to Himeko, not forgive them; to demand answers for why this had happened to them, even if at the point of a knife; a Her who, no matter how justified, took Her thirst for retribution and the power to hurt and terrorize others as She had been to extremes. A facet of their soul. Simply another side of Himeko Soryuu.

Though She could not be allowed to rise to the surface, Himeko the Light didn't want to leave Her alone down here to hurt even more.

Now that her heart was beating, she could hear it beating inside of Her too. A tortured, labored sound. The ache of the natural response to being deeply hurt, accumulated for centuries without being allowed to vent in any way.

Someone had to stay at the bottom shelf of Himeko the Ocean, to make sure everything stayed in balance.

And if She was going to have to be in the Darkness because of it...

Then the Light would stay in the darkness too.

"It's okay." she said quietly, with a smile, to Her other self. "I'll never let you go. From now on, you'll be Safe and Sound."

She could only foam and writhe and scream out vitriol and bestial noises. She just couldn't understand why anyone would ever do that.

--

The Diver was still swimming down to her, even as those blades sent up by Her inflicted pain and injury upon him that turned the Gray into Red. He was so strong, and despite being full of Darkness, just like Himeko the Dark, there was more to him than that. An Ocean of Him.

The Diver had run out of air. It was too late to try to go back to the surface. He had doomed himself in his attempt to save all of Himeko.

Himeko the Dark gathered shadows around one of her hands as she reached up towards him, wanting to hurt him to drive him away, so he wouldn't suffer for her.

"Leave me alone!" she cried out.

Then other hands rose around her. Pushing the slowly descending and floating Diver in the back. So many hands, from so many people. Lives he had touched and changed for the better. People he loved and who loved him in return. Now they were returning the favor of being saved.

And Himeko the Dark had tried to wound him to change his mind about saving her.

She watched the Diver rise, and felt even more loathing and frustration. Himeko the Light had accepted being trapped in the Darkness, while Himeko the Dark had rejected help so she could suffer by herself. She was awful. How dare the Light side of her be so noble and self-sacrificing? How dare the Light side of her have everything she lacked? How dare that brighter self make her feel even more worthless and empty than before?

There was a shock that tore her from her thoughts. Everything was beginning to move. No, not just move... It was beginning to spin.

--

The ghost was holding onto the hand offered to her, and pulling up the Diver to the surface in turn. It wasn't working at first, but there were others bolstering him. People he had met, and others he would meet, and others he might never meet but who all were bound into this web that was karmic destiny. Everything was connected.

The Diver exploded out of the Ocean with so much force that he flew through the air, and up into the sky, breaking free of the ghost's grasp in the process. The ghost could only stand by and watch in amazement. He really was so cool! She smiled widely, and then looked down at what had once been an Ocean. It was now a giant whirlpool. A raging Charybdis-like maw that would tear everything that got too close asunder.

She looked up at the Diver, who was wearing black armor. Or was he wearing a strange suit? Or was he a figure in white and gray, looking at ghostly as the ghost herself? People could be many things. Because everything was connected.

He was floating there in the air, and looking down at the whirlpool.

The ghost... Himeko was her name, wasn't it? She looked down too, and saw another her. One with long black hair, and a white dress (or was that a black military uniform?), and glowing red eyes, momentarily brought to the surface, at the very center of the vortex. She had just opened her eyes and she and the Diver saw each other. That other Himeko began to sink back into the water. The Diver prepared himself to dive once again.

Himeko Soryuu reached out her hand again, accepting the severing of her bonds in exchange for protecting that man.

As he fell down, he saw her. He grabbed her hand.

She became a conduit for what imperiled the Diver, starting with his Dark Energy, and then his Pain, and then his Memories. They all flowed through her, and down into the water below, to the very bottom, for safe keeping. She would keep him safe, and make sure he didn't drown.

Even if there was a Her who sorely wanted him to.

--

The rose pierced the monster, and all those shadows fell away. The illusions and spectral limbs and the manifestations of Dark Energy all crumbled.

Behind it all, was a little girl, who couldn't remember much before just now. But she remembered her name. "Hello. I am Himeko Soryuu." A 'mrrrow' indicated that Shiro had returned. "This is Shiro, my cat. He is a very good cat." she said seriously and enthusiastically.

Then she reached out her hand to the man in front of her, as she stood amidst the destruction and ruins that were once the temple grounds.

"Would you please take me with you?" she asked.

After a moment's consideration, Hematite reached out and accepted.

He was prepared to Dive once again.

Himeko would be with him when he did.