Lost in the Fog

A Glimmer of Hope

Izuku bowed, showing further respect. She took it in stride, and let him leave. When he got back to the library, a TV was in the center of the room, and it activated, showing the cursed tape yet again. After a few moments, it flicked to a picture of a well and stayed there, where Sadako clambered out and walked to the TV. Izuku brought a chair over, next to the one he was usually sitting at when studying the Entity's knowledge, and so he sat down as she exited the TV. She was surprised to see him. "Izuku? Where are we?"
"Entity's mansion. Its memory bank."
"I see..." She took the chair he placed.
"How are you?"
His concern for the Onryo caused her cheeks to blush slightly, which were, fortunately for her, covered by her long hair. "Good. It's only been a week... I think. Time is convoluted here."
"Yeah..." He pondered for a moment. "Have you seen anything... weird in the trials?"
She asked, both innocently and teasingly, "Do you count?"
He glanced over at the Onryo, with mild amusement. "Very funny. No, I mean anything in relation to symbols? I'm stuck, and it says that killers and survivors have to harvest them..."
Sadako paused for a moment, before thinking aloud, "Hm... there are the glyphs..."
That got his attention. "Glyphs?"
She nodded. "Sometimes, there are seals that grant a boost in power... only temporarily. Survivors have their own, and we killers have some too."
Looking at the cover of the book, he asked, "How many are there?"
"Seven that I know of..."
"That's it! I need the power of those glyphs... but I can't leave..." Izuku tore out a page from his notebook, and wrote a note.
"If you see Felix Richter, Elodie Rakoto, or Laurie Strode, please give them this note."
"Right." She nodded. "You're onto something, aren't you?"
"This book..." he gestured to it as it rested on the table. SHe looked over at it, and then ran a hand along it, feeling the grooves. Izuku continued to explain: "...had a riddle that I only recently decoded. It referenced seven signs... and there are seven glyphs."
She looked back at him. "That would make sense. I'll send the message."
"Thanks. Now, did anything positive happen while I was gone?"

After a few hours of enjoyable company, the Entity made Sadako leave, as she was selected for another trial. All Izuku could do was wait, and it was boring. To pass the time, he casually read memories. The Pig's was fascinating to him, as it was a level of psychosis that he didn't think was possible at times. After all, if you believe in redemption, but don't give a way to do so, how do you not have cognitive dissonance? Her evasiveness of the point was... not entertaining, but again, fascinating.

The construction of her "Reverse Bear Traps" were simple yet ingenious... and fit her quite well. However, as he started to read about Detective David Tapp, the TV behind him flickered on, and the distinct sound of Sadako entering the room was clear as day.

Turning, he smiled as she approached in her usual undead gait. "Good to see you again!"
"You too..." She pulled out a few different objects. "I got a few of the glyphs with their help. Laurie was particularly helpful."
"Wait, really?"
"Izuku, it's been two weeks for us. Remember, time is convoluted."
He was shocked a little, but then remembered how Henry had aged in between their meetings. "Right... so, which ones?"

"Laurie brought a blue one, Felix found a yellow, and I brought a Red. Laurie also found a White Glyph, whose power is stored here." She gestured to the frost covered mirror she placed down. Looking at the book, Izuku grabbed one of the objects. It was a small crystal with a glyph on it. "How was this made?"

"When we approached where they were, a rift would open with the symbol on it. We'd have to interact with it, putting all our focus on it, and making sure to compress it into those crystals. Before, we would just take the energy in, but that makes it vanish over time. It was actually Felix's idea for the crystals. It allows the energy to be stored forever."
Bringing the blue crystal over to the book, the slot with the same glyph glowed blue in response. Putting it into the groove, the book's pages shined blue for a moment before returning back to the dull parchment color they were before. Clamping down the clasp for that crystal, he secured it into place. "Thank you... I know it's a great risk to do this..."
"No problem... you've given the survivors a lot of hope with their goal, and I think that it won't want that boost to go away."

He nodded in agreement as he secured the yellow and red crystals, with the same effects as the blue. After that, there was the mirror. It was large, but clearly powerful. And there was only one place to put it: Over the moon. It had seemed strange to Izuku that the moon on the cover was depressed into the leather it was bound in, but now it made sense, as he placed it in there, and secured it. Content that he'd placed all of the ones he had, the greenette was eager to see what had been revealed. Sadako watched with amusement as Izuku eagerly opened the book... only to find random letters had appeared. There were some words he could kinda make out, but he could only guess. The first sentence was the only one that was fully revealed: Good for discovering the secret, continue to the rest.

"Well, at least that confirms it."

"Indeed..." Sadako responded, before hearing something Izuku could not. "I am sorry, it wants me to leave."

"That's fine. Stay sane."

She nodded, understanding that being safe was impossible here, but that sanity was something she could control. For the most part. In a flicker of static, she was gone, and Izuku was relieved. Finally Vigo, I made progress with your book.