In stark contrast to the futuristic lab he’d awoken in, the cave felt rudimentary. Dark and torch lit, it felt more like a medieval dungeon than a weapons storehouse. Either that, Shiloh figured, or some sort of ogre or homicidal maniac was waiting inside, ready to mangle him into bits. He grinned, how exciting. It was like a movie come to life and he forgot to be apprehensive, forgot the fact that normal logic would dictate being afraid of the dark and of the unknown.

Instead he skipped down the steps two-by-two, eager to see what lay in store below.

His disappointment, however, was tantamount when he was confronted with very small room, and not a weapon in sight.

“Shucks,” he mused, glancing up and down the wall. Maybe it was a puzzle. The tablets on the wall were glowing. Maybe you were supposed to touch them... He was definitely going to touch them. Shiloh stared at the wall carefully, one arm folded across his chest, the other busy tapping his chin as he considered carefully which one to touch first, as if it might make some sort of difference.

Oh, to hell with it, he thought after a moment's pause, reaching out and poking at the nearest tablet with his finger. The rune on it glowed a shining blue, briefly, in response to his touch but nothing else happened and the glow faded as quickly as it had appeared. Frowning, he touched it again, to the same effect. Then he touched the one next to it, which glowed green, but again, there was no monumental upheaval of the wall, no monsters bursting forth to eat him, no weapon, no nothing.

He touched another, and this one time he was rewarded with a fleeting whisper along with the pale yellow glow but, once again, it faded without incident. Shiloh took a step back, considering the wall. Maybe it was like that game, like Simon. Maybe he had to hit them in the right order or something. Maybe he was just going to touch them all anyway.

So he did. At first he tried to work out some sort of pattern, but when that produced a whole lot more of nothing, he really did take the Simon approach and simply started hitting random tablets to produce their effects, one right after another, finally laughing at the absurdity of it, of trying to produce a weapon from a wall. His laughter was light, the sound airy and cheerful as it echoed around the chamber. It seemed so out of place in the darkness.

That was when he heard it. The voice was as light as his laughter, child-like and bubbly with giggling.

“おはよう！Are you here to wake me up?”

Whirling around, he half-expected to find some hunter playing a joke on him, teasing him. But there was no one there, and nowhere to hide; he was most certainly alone. Or, at least he thought he was, until the voice rang out again.

“That’s a fun game you are playing. But you won’t win a thing choosing any of them. You must pick me. I am the winner. Together, we will win against them all.”

He stood staring, dumbfounded at the wall.

“Come, wake me, so we can be friends.”

A rune on the wall suddenly glowed before him, obnoxiously bright, a fiery mix of orange and yellow in hue. He hesitated, wondering if this was what he was supposed to do, if this was how he ‘won’ whatever game he'd found himself suddenly thrust into. A strange sense of longing lapped at the edge of his mind, the feeling seeping into him before he could even realize it hadn’t been there before.

“Who are you?” he whispered at the tablet, fingers trailing over the stone, tracing the edges of it curiously. It seemed to come alive beneath his touch, humming so loudly the sound vibrated through his hand and up his arm.

“I am Haruko,” came the tinkling, girlish voice. The sound of it cheerful and inviting, it swept over him with sudden warmth, cozying up to the very marrow of his bones. “I am yours. I want to be yours. Wake me, please!”

Those three words closed over his heart, and he couldn’t help but smile. This was all so weird, and so strange, but here was some creature, some being, telling him that she was his. It should have taken more convincing but her tone was so pure, so innocent, and so earnest he couldn’t help but believe her. Shiloh grasped the tablet with both hands, pulling it from the wall with sudden and surprising ease.

The transformation was immediate, and what had moments earlier been a stone tablet in his hand was now an set of metal jaws, Eastern in design and outfitted with rows of pointed teeth. As he pulled, a chain followed, and followed, until the entire weapon had emerged, the head resting in his arms while the chain coiled at his feet.

“Now we can play together,” came the voice again, bright and excited.

“Forever!”