Shadow Sets #4 - Fuuka Yamagishi The navigator was the beating heart of any investigative team. They were indisposable, connected to all the other parts and--
Completely and utterly helpless on its own.
There was nothing Fuuka could do when the members who she was supposed to provide support to suddenly dropped off the radar. She could at least make out the usual sounds of battle from the group which had begun ascending up Tartarus after the initial interruption, but as for Yukari, Mitsuru, and Kotone...
Their connection was already far shakier due to being so much further up, and the only things that she could make out from any of them were muffled screams and groans that indicated defeat. At the very least, the minutes of struggling that Fuuka could do nothing but listen to proved that they were still alive, but why were the Shadows going against their usual behavior and taking their time with them? Was it sadism? Were they just drawing it out, or... The sliver of hope mixed with the dread of unknown possibilities had sent every other member of the team up to rescue them. They'd all agreed on it without hesitation -- Fuuka included. None of them even considered the possibility of the navigator being ambushed. They'd simply assumed that because the Shadows had never come down to the lobby, that it meant they couldn't.
The hands that grabbed Fuuka from behind, pulling back her frail arms and slipping atop her mouth to render all possible forms of communication suppressed. Not a single member of her team heard her scream into the slimy palm as the rest of them tore at her clothes, replacing them with strange devices that seemed to lock themselves onto her a-and... make her feel strangely. Her desire to resist waned, her strength draining and her willpower faltering -- even when it was just a simple harness and collar that bound itself to her body! S-She knew she had to try, but even if she could muster out every ounce of effort she could, it wouldn't be enough to resist the chains that forced her up onto the strange wheel.
Echoes of her allies voices drifted away as she was pulled down -- some passageway that none of them had ever even known had existed. T-This basement of Tartarus...
Was a shrine. More hands awaited her arrival, greeting her with an invasive, physical touch as her body reacted with a strange heat mixed it the cold chill running up her spine. She trembled -- yet moaned, shook and squirmed but tugged at the strap pulling at her crotch. Their fingers worshipped her: their new herald who would guide and support the shadows as they expanded their domain. She would watch over the tower dutifully from her sanctuary, forever their faithful guardian...