Darkness.
Kat could see nothing except a complete and total darkness she had never seen before. *What even is this? This is worse than a moonlit night and I have demon vision. Why the heck is it so dark.*
Kat's tail tried to flick in irritation, but she found it caught. Noticing this, Kat intentionally tried to move it again but found herself stuck in place. Trying her various other limbs yielded a similar result.
Kat tried to let out a breath to calm herself, but even that was beyond her. There was a brief moment as panic, but she felt herself bring demonic energy up to her lungs in reflex. *Ok… so some things are working.* As time passed, Kat kept an eye on her energy levels and found them to be completely topped out.
*Ok now that is a bit weird. Based on my experiences, I should be losing energy if I needed it to regenerate the fact, I'm not breathing… but I don't feel anything at all. Is this a side effect of the spell that Minor's grandma cast? I thought this was supposed to be real enough.*
*Hey system? Did something go wrong?*
But Kat got no response. Her brows furrowed as she tried circulating her demonic energy again. It moved freely, throughout her limbs, even poking it above the skin and creating fire was perfectly acceptable. Whatever was going on… she wasn't dead. *I don't think anyway…*
At that moment though, the world churned. The blackness became a brown as it swirled around twisting into shapes that didn't quite fit within a reality before settling on a facsimile of a brown wall.
Kat found herself in a chair that actually managed to accommodate her wings. It wasn't as comfortable as the chairs in hell, but it was a long thin straight back supporting her that spread out around the neck area leaving her wings free to hang behind the chair.
*Might be a little uncomfortable to get out of, but I'd take that trade.* Kat's thoughts were interrupted when she heard a sigh from her left. Turning Kat found herself face to face with Minor.
She looked… more sure of herself, than all the previous times Kat had seen her. There was a confidence in her posture and the way she held her three puffy red tails, now straight and fanned out behind her like her mother and grandmother always kept theirs.
Her fur was a deep red, with a slight hint of orange, close but not quite what you would consider normal for a fox. She was also missing the red tips, instead her hair held traces of the blue that must have been inherited from her mother.
As Kat was about to greet her, Minor spoke up "Hi Kat, back again today to rant I suppose. I know you can't exactly talk back to me but I find it helps organise my mind, and I can feel Grandma panicking nearby.
"Really, it's such a shame. I'm sure if she calmed down for a minute or two, she could figure something out, maybe with the old enchanting journals I always hear about, but then again, I've never seen them.
Minor sighed. "Like, I'm trying my best from in here you know. It isn't easy to figure out this mess that Shizuka has created you know. Yes, yes, I know I should be calling her Major for my own sanity, but listen
"I'm not sure how much I want to fix things. It's much nicer in here. I missed it when I was forced into the world. Heck, if Grandma wasn't so worried I wouldn't be bothering at all…
"No that is also a lie" Minor shifted a bit to face Kat fully "I'd like to see you again. Once or twice, perhaps to apologise and perhaps to thank you… both probably. Hopefully Grandma won't complain when I try to summon you again…"
Minor sighed "Dammit, why did you have to screw things up so much Shizuka. I can't fix everything on my own. I don't even know where to start… Well, ok Kat that is also a lie, but I can't do it… I'm… I'm scared I guess."
"You don't seem scared" said Kat deciding she'd let Minor talk enough.
The girl stiffened. Her ears fluffing up and her tails straightening and bristling. "Why can you talk? I don't know you well enough to get you to talk. I tried and I tried…. Are you one of the nightmares now too?"
Tears were threatening to spill out of Minor's eyes. *Oh… welp I need to fix this.* Kat used her superior speed to appear behind her and wrap Minor in her tail. "Nope, I'm the real one"
Minor gulped "Prove it" the tears had stopped but there was still a little bit of fear there.
Kat shrugged as she held Minor closer and wondered back to her chair and sat down. "Well, I'm not quite sure how I can do that. I guess I can say that your grandmother wasn't doing nothing. She managed to figure out a spell to help.
"Apparently she made your mind into a dreamscape and put me inside as well. So I'm here sort of in person? Not quite sure how this whole thing works"
Minor physically deflated. She shrunk down to just two thirds of her original size as she curled up on Kat's lap and cried. "Hey, hey why are you crying, hey Minor" said Kat worried
"I'm" said Minor "Just" between "So happy" sniffles "To see you"
Kat pulled the poor girl even closer and let her wings surround them as well. "Of course, your grandmother asked me for help after all"
"Gg-grandma? Grandma actually asked you for help?" sniffled Minor
"Yup. She was pretty annoying about it but I said yes anyway" said Kat
Minor tried to bury herself further into Kat's embrace. "Thank you so much"
"Hey" said Kat stroking Minor's hair "You seemed to be doing fine before you knew it was me. What happened to that brave face?"
Minor spluttered a little before finally twisting her body to the side. Now Kat was supporting her by holding her tails out to the right and Kat's own tail around Minor's waist "I just… I'm sorry. I like to put on a brave face when talking to you… err, the visual representation I have of you… wait a minute"
Minor turned to face Kat head on "You have horns!"
Kat winced at the shout, not quite prepared "Yes Minor I have horns"
"I'm such a fool" said Minor trying to hide her face with her tails "I should have noticed something was wrong. I didn't know you had horns so I can't give them to you when I summon your image"
"Yeah what is that about anyway" asked Kat
"Well…" said Minor "Because this is my mind as well, I have some control over it. Especially in… uh… think of it like unclaimed territory, the black stuff. So I just sort of come out here summon up some props and pretend everything is fine"
"It is fine Minor, we can work this out" said Kat trying to project her calming aura over Minor… it wasn't working well. Kat could feel her aura, and she could press it outwards slightly, but it increased in difficulty the further she pushed it out. She could only just barely cover Minor, and she was sure it was weaker than normal.
Still it had the intended effect and Minor's breath equalised somewhat. "Thanks Kat. I guess I know it's really really you"
Kat shrugged and asked "Why the sudden confidence"
Minor smiled "Only the real Kat, could have the calming aura. Your fake did calm me sure, but it was more about knowing you were out there, than because you have your proper aura. This is much nicer"
*Hmmm… should I be worried about that thought?* "Anytime Minor. So tell me, what exactly do we need to do?" asked Kat
Minor covered her mouth with the end of her tail as she spoke, looking a little like a fake moustache "Well… um, so, I guess… um"
"Take your time" said Kat
Minor took on a big breath of air… and a little fur before continuing "Ok, so um… the problem is that Major is freaking out… and sort of… lashing out maybe isn't quite the right word but ah…
"Hmm, ok so um… this is just what I've learnt in my time being part of the mind but… ah, the mind really likes to fix itself right? So ah… when it breaks… for lack of a better time… it sort of just flails about and grabs the first few things that look good enough
"And like… I had been helping Major keep herself… sane ish, while I was just a passenger. Nudging a memory aware here, nipping a line of thought in the bud there… and well… now things have gotten out of hand"
"Great" said Kat, with false cheer in her voice