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Whatever Seiji had been expecting from the graduation exam, being assaulted and hog-tied in the middle of the night, and dragged through the halls blindfolded, had not been it. The gnomes had caught him, no doubt by chance, on one of the rare nights he was alone. He'd been in bed, not quite sleeping, but not quite awake either. The ghost had heard them enter, a faint shift of clothing and the soft creak of old hinges, but before he'd had a chance to react they'd been upon him.

Fighting back hadn't seemed to make much of a difference, they had the numbers to match his strength.

He'd cursed them soundly, right up to the moment he'd been released. Swiping and kicking uselessly at empty air as he yanked the blindfold from his eyes and threw it. "Jacking little cowards, what the ********!" If they heard him, if they were even still there, they didn't respond. There was nothing but the vastness of the room he was now kneeling in, and a silence that seemed to echo.

Oh, and a sign.

Seiji stared up at it a moment, unamused and irritable, then rose to his feet with a resigned sort of sigh. "Whelp, let's get this over with." The excitement would come, he imagined, but for the moment all he felt was annoyance and a hard taught sense of dread.

It had only taken Seiji one room to realize what sort of obstacles he would be dealing with in the 'dungeon'. Mind tricks, confronting fears or weaknesses, the exploitation and manipulation of emotions. All things he'd experienced time and again through out the whole of his academic life here at Amity. So, really, this wasn't much a surprise. Which wasn't to say he was happy about it, by any means, but it was not completely unexpected.

He heaved a heavy sigh as he made his way into the next room, already expecting some manner of change, or shift as he walked steadily across the empty floor. It did not take long. The bare walls warped around him, shifting and twisting, before finally reforming much as they'd been a moment before. The sole difference was the appearance of a slight figure standing midway between the ghost and the exit.

He regarded her warily for a moment from a distance, glowing eyes sliding up from the points of her designer heels, over lovely legs and hand crafted couture, and finally came to rest on emerald eyes. "Junko." The figure smiled, lips red as candied apples. He waited for her to speak, but she said nothing, merely stood there, patiently, with hands clasped lightly over her skirt. With a slight frown the boil moved towards her.

It was pointless to ask what she was doing here, because she wasn't really here. This wasn't his Junko, but a fabrication of his mind, set before him.

When he reached her she looked up, rising up on her toes, and the ghost found himself bending to lay a soft kiss on her mouth. Reactive, automatic. She had always effected him like that. Always had him wrapped around her delicate little finger, even if she wasn't aware of it. He would do anything for her, be anything for her, just to see her smile.

The kiss was a brief one, but the ghoul beamed up at him as he straightened, adoration and warmth reflected on lovely features. Then she was stepping aside, inclining her head towards the door. A silent urge for him to continue. They had so many plans, so much they wanted to do, and all of it hinged on him. He just had to get through this, and their life together could begin.

Seiji smiled back at her, touched her cheek with the backs of cool knuckles, then reached for the door, eager to move on wards.

[Rerolling]

Seiji stumbled through the door into the next room, then closed it hard behind him, leaning against it as he fought for calm again. That hadn't been fair, not at all. Why would they ever go to such lengths? Facing their fears was one thing, but that? That was just cruel. Junko's startled expression was seared into his head. The sadness in her eyes, the shock. He shook his head, palms pressing over his eyes to block it out, but it didn't help.

He didn't really notice the mist at first. The temperature seemed to cool, but Seiji's skin was all ways chilled. He didn't notice until he lowered his hands again, and by then it was thick, swirling around him. As it closes in he feels it, that ever present hunger rising up, growing larger than it ever had before.

Home

It's just a whisper, so soft he nearly misses it, but it's not the last. The voices chime in, one after another, until they like a chorus.

Home, they say. Come home.

The ghost lifts his head, red eyes blazing. It's not a room anymore, it's some half familiar shoreline boarding dense jungle. On a hill there's a light house. Further along the dark shadows of large buildings. The ghost, no the titan turns to them, hunger like a stab of pain through his insides.

Home, they whisper. Urgent, eager, and Seiji starts walking.

His shows have melted away, clothing half formed of mist and fading. Beneath, blackness has eaten away at the grey. Claws for feet, longer for hands. He stalks towards his destination with one thought in mind. Not even a thought. What drives him is more primitive. It's closer to impulse, to need. He must feed, he must devour and destroy. His entire being has narrowed down to this one awful purpose.f

There are others now, in white coats. They're streaming from the buildings, flooding into the field that stands between Seiji and the rest of the island. Small, smaller than they should be. Or perhaps he's grown. There isn't enough of him left to wonder, only that awful hunger.

They charge, hundreds of attacks, small bites like a swarm of angry ants. The ghost--the titan--swipes at them, knocking them back and away with a furious howl.

With a snarl he raises one overlarge foot, bringing it down on two poor souls too slow to scramble out from of the way. Another goes flying into the trees with a casual backhand, then another falls as sharp claws open their belly. One after another. They attack, bleeding him, but it only seems to make him madder.

Destroy. Devour. Come home!

He was beginning to wonder just how many rooms he was going to have to go trough before he reached the end of this thing. The answer came to him as he stepped through the next door. For one, it was round, instead of the square stretch of space the last ones had been. Seiji lingered in the doorway for a long moment, taking stock of the room around him, as as much as he could see of it. Unassuming, at first, but but then the mist started to roll in to lap against his ankles, and from it the sound of metal clanging on rock.

The knight that walked out to face him was both expected, but not. He had assumed there would be a battle at some point, but the nature of his apparent foe was surprising.

The boil leaned, looking around the knight as he came to a halt in front of him, and her could see the exit. More importantly, he could see his diploma sitting on a little stand beside it. All that stood between him and graduation was one large, plate mail wearing knight.

He didn't need the shouted challenge or the javelin clanging into the stone at his feet to know he was going to have to fight his way through this. With a small smirk the boil sank into a ready stance, hands coming up in loose fists. "Aright, let's do this." No preamble, no warnings, no playing around. Seiji charged forward, arm cocked back, , and smashed his fist into the helmet covered head of the knight.

HP: 45
DMG: 4

Another hard swipe lay a cut across the jikininki's cheek, and he jerked back and away, hand coming up to rub at the slash as a heavy, slow line of dark blood rolled down it. "You're not playing around, are you?"

There was't an answer, but then Seiji hadn't actually expected one. Instead he went back on the offensive, this time twisting into a kick to the broad armored chest.


HP: 35
DMG: 2