Malphegor
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Ch. 54: Beneath the Surface
🕑 Added 2024-08-26 10:21:07 +0000 UTCThe smell of miso soup greeted Kagami as he entered the house. He found Hayate in the kitchen, stirring a pot with slow, deliberate movements.
"There you are," his brother said, glancing up from the stove. His eyes were tired. "Thought you might've gotten lost out there."
"Yeah, sorry," Kagami chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "I guess I lost track of time." He grabbed some bowls from the cupboard and started setting the table, trying to act normal.
His brother raised an eyebrow. "That's not like you. Everything okay?"
"Yeah, just... thinking." Kagami set the table, trying to sound casual. As he moved, he noticed threads connecting him to Hayate - deep blue, soft pink, mint green. Trust, affection, concern.
As they sat down to eat, Hayate watched Kagami over his bowl. "So, what's on your mind?"
Kagami poked at his soup, unsure how to explain. How could he describe what he'd seen? What he was starting to understand about himself and the world?
"Just... thinking about the village," he said finally. "How different things are for people, depending on where they live or what clan they're from."
Hayate nodded slowly. "Heavy stuff for a day off. Something happen?"
"I walked through The Hollow today," Kagami admitted. He saw worry flicker through the threads connecting them. The mint green darkened.
"The Hollow's not safe, Kagami," his brother said quietly. "You need to be careful."
"I know," Kagami said, waving off the concern. "But don't you ever wonder why it has to be that way? Why some parts of the village prosper while others struggle?"
Hayate sighed, putting down his chopsticks. "It's not simple. The village has problems, sure. But it's still our home."
Kagami nodded, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was more going on. The threads he'd seen, the emotions he could now sense... they showed a world more complex than he'd ever imagined.
"What about you?" Kagami asked, changing the subject. "How was the mission? You look tired."
Hayate tensed a bit, a new thread of deep purple - secrets - weaving into their connection. "It was... tough," he said after a pause. "I was working with an Uchiha as the squad leader."
Kagami leaned forward, forgetting his soup. "An Uchiha? That must've been something."
Hayate nodded, his eyes distant. "He was skilled, no doubt about that. But when we got back..." He trailed off, frowning.
"What happened?" Kagami pressed.
Hayate seemed to choose his words carefully. "I noticed some of the villagers acting... differently around him. Nothing big, just little things. Folks crossing the street to avoid us, talks stopping when we walked by."
Kagami frowned. "That's not right. The Uchiha are part of the village too."
"They are," Hayate agreed. "But there's been tension lately. Rumors going around. It's probably nothing, but..." He shook his head. "Just keep your eyes open, okay?"
After dinner, as Kagami helped clean up, Hayate yawned. "I'm turning in," he said. "Don't stay up too late, alright?"
"I won't," Kagami promised. "Goodnight, brother."
Hayate ruffled Kagami's hair affectionately, sending a warm pulse through their connecting threads. "Get some rest. And try not to overthink things too much, okay?"
Kagami nodded, smiling a bit as he headed to his room. Getting ready for bed, he kept glancing at the covered breeding box in the corner. The spider inside was quiet, but he could almost feel its presence, like a weight on his mind.
'What's happening to me?' he wondered as he fell asleep.
---
The dream came swiftly, dragging Kagami into its depths with merciless force. He found himself sinking in a vast, dark ocean. The water was thick and red, more like blood than seawater. The pressure was intense, threatening to crush him.
Creak... creak...
His joints protested as he tried to swim upward, but his limbs felt heavy, unresponsive. Each stroke seemed to pull him deeper into the abyss.
Thump-thump, thump-thump
His heart pounded in his ears.
In the darkness below, something stirred. A massive shape, indistinct but undeniably there. He felt a presence, ancient and malevolent, turning its attention towards him.
Tendrils of darkness reached up, wrapping around his ankles. They were cold, so cold they burned. Kagami tried to scream, but only bubbles escaped his mouth.
Blub, blub, blub.
The thing in the depths pulled, and He felt himself being dragged down. The pressure increased, threatening to burst his eardrums. His lungs burned, screaming for air.
Just as he thought all was lost, a glimmer caught his eye. The same strand of silvery web drifted through the water, catching the faint light from above. Without thinking, Kagami grabbed it again.
He pulled himself up, fighting against the thing that tried to drag him down.
The tendrils tightened their grip, refusing to let go. For a moment, he was suspended between two forces - the web pulling him up, the darkness dragging him down. He felt as if he might be torn apart.
With a final, desperate surge of strength, Kagami kicked free of the tendrils. The web yanked him upward with incredible force, the sudden acceleration making his ears pop.
Whoosh!
He broke the surface with a gasp, coughing and sputtering. The taste of copper lingered on his tongue, making him gag.
Before him stood the same giant spider, its human-like face more agitated than ever.
"You are not ready," it said. "But he is greedy and interfering. We cannot speak here, in the dream realm. It is his domain, and he listens."
Kagami tried to ask who 'he' was, but no sound came out. His throat felt raw, as if he'd been screaming for hours.
The spider's eyes fixed on him. "Seek out my avatar. We have much to discuss, and little time. The boundaries between worlds are thinning, and the Old Ones stir."
The dream began to fade, the spider's form dissolving into mist. As he felt himself being pulled back to consciousness, he heard one last whispered warning:
"Beware the call of Cthulhu, for his madness knows no bounds."
---
Gasp!
Kagami jolted awake, his heart pounding and his sheets drenched in sweat. "Hah... hah... what the hell?" he gasped, his eyes darting around the room. The shadows in the corners seemed deeper, more menacing than usual.
Tick, tick, tick.
The clock on his wall seemed unnaturally loud in the silence.
The first rays of dawn were just beginning to peek through his window, painting the room in a pale light. His mind swirled with questions, each more unsettling than the last.
'What are the Old Ones?' he whispered to himself. 'Who was the spider? This Cthulhu again...'
As he sat up, trying to calm his racing heart, a realization struck him. Seek out my avatar, the spider in his dream had said. Could it be...?
His gaze fell on the covered breeding box in the corner of his room. He hesitated, torn between curiosity and caution.
'This is crazy,' Kagami thought. 'It was just a dream. Just a dream.'
But even as he thought this, he found himself standing up, drawn inexorably towards the breeding box.
Creak.
The floorboard protested under his foot, and he froze, irrationally afraid of waking the spider.
'What am I doing?' he wondered. 'Am I losing my mind?'
In that moment, the breeding box seemed to loom larger in his perception, as if it contained not just a spider, but all the answers to the mysteries that plagued him.
'I have to know,' Kagami thought.
Shaking off his doubts, he padded over to the breeding box, his bare feet silent on the tatami mats. The wood felt cool under his touch as he carefully lifted the lid, revealing the spider within.
Scratch, scratch.
The spider's legs moved with hypnotic precision, weaving its web.
In just a month, it had grown from palm-sized to something that could no longer be held in one hand. Its body was a deep, lustrous black, with patterns that seemed to shift and change if you looked at them too long.
But it wasn't just the size or appearance that set this spider apart. There was something... different about it.
"Are you... are you the avatar?" Kagami whispered, feeling slightly foolish even as the words left his mouth.
The spider paused in its weaving, turning to face him with deliberate slowness. For a moment, he could have sworn he saw a flicker of intelligence in its cluster of eyes, a spark of recognition. But then it resumed its work, ignoring him completely.
He frowned, disappointment and relief warring within him.
Had it all been just a dream?
Am I seeing things that aren't there?
'Maybe Hayate is right', he thought. 'Maybe I do need to stop overthinking and get more rest.'
As he was about to replace the cover, he noticed how cluttered the breeding box had become with excess webbing. Avatar or not, the spider still needed a clean living space.
"Well, might as well make myself useful," he murmured, reaching for the cleaning stick.
"Good morning," Kagami said softly, more to himself than to the spider. As he began to clear away the excess webbing, he found himself drawn to the spider's eyes. There was something captivating about them.
He leaned in closer, his own eyes widening as he noticed something strange. The spider's eyes weren't the simple, glossy black orbs he'd expected. They seemed to be... moving. Swirling. Like miniature whirlpools of darkness.
