Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Naoki Kashima was staring at his phone as the train pulled into the station, he was running late. He had agreed to meet up with his friends in Yoyogi park so the three of them could visit their homeroom teacher at the hospital.

If he was honest, he wasn’t feeling especially enthusiastic about this. It was already a chore that involved a lot of traveling via subway and across the city, but today had been a day of one annoyance after another. His alarm clock had chosen today of all days to have it’s batteries die so he overslept, he had to endure a lecture from his mother about his ‘attitude’, ran into multiple annoyingly chatty neighbours on the way from his home to the station, and had been shoved around numerous times by the inconsiderate crowd through his subway journeys (though the lattermost was fairly standard for Tokyo). He was a very calm and coolheaded individual, not one to let emotions control him, but his patience was wearing thin, he was fighting the urge to punch the next person who so much as grazed him. And knowing his friends, they had probably already gone on without him anyway.

He exhaled and returned to his usual, unflappable state. He was nearly finished, this was his last changeover and the train in front of him went directly to Yoyogi park, from there he could just walk the rest of the way- with or without his oh-so-considerate ‘friends’. The station was still uncomfortably crowded, everyone was pushing to get on board before the train left. Not wanting to be left behind, he stepped forward ready to board, when he suddenly felt an impact from behind him- on his right-side. A girl- in her haste to board- had run straight into him, knocking him to the ground.

“Oh god! I’m so sorry.” She turned around, flinching at the sight of him shooting her a death glare like none she had ever seen before. “Do you need any—”

“The door is now closing.”

“Ah!” She tensed up again at the announcement. She looked to the train, then back at Naoki getting to his feet, then back to the train. “Um… UM…”

She jumped aboard the train at the last second, putting her hands together apologetically and bowing her head to Naoki as the doors closed and the train left the station.

“I’M REALLY SORRY!” She shouted to him through the window, before turning to see the other passengers looking at her annoyed. “Oh uh, sorry for shouting…” She said, bashfully rubbing the back of her head before looking at the boy clearly furious with her standing on the platform, disappearing out of sight as the train shot through the tunnel. “Oh jeez… that was really bad of me… I hope I didn’t make him too late for anything”.

The girl, a high schooler, Kotone Shiomi, sighed and leant her forehead against the window feeling guilty for a little while, before standing up straight and shaking her head.
“Oh well, no point worrying about it now, can’t change it.”

She was in Tokyo on a solo vacation. In just a few days she would be transferring to Gekkoukan High, a school on Tatsumi Port Island. While having to say goodbye to her friends at her old school was a rather tearful experience, she was excited about the transfer, wondering and looking forward to what kinds of new friends she could make with her fresh start. She had been saving money- partially for the move, but mostly for this one short-but-sweet blowout vacation, since once she transferred there she had no idea how busy she’d be during her junior year, then the year after that there’d be college entrance exams to stress over. This was her last chance for a weekend away like this.

She’d never been to Tokyo before, and if she was honest all the crowds and the rushed, stressful atmosphere of their public transport wasn’t something she was fond of, she was definitely looking forward to her new home which was comparatively much more chilled out- at least from what she heard. Still, she wanted to see as many landmarks as she could while she was here. Next up was Yoyogi park, then Shinjuku wasn’t too far- and close enough for her to walk (the less time she spent packed into a train like a sardine, the better).

“Yoyogi-koen. Yoyogi-koen.”

“Woah, that was quick.”

As soon as the train doors opened she stepped outside- grateful to once again be able to move her arms without risking accidentally bumping into someone- and rushed outside, desperate to taste the air once more. Tokyo air definitely wasn’t as clean as her old home, nor as clean as she hoped her new home would be, but after being locked in the underground for so long, it may as well have tasted like ambrosia.

“I have no idea how the people who live here deal with that everyday, there are some real unsung champions living here in Tokyo.”

She took the time to loosen her shoulders and stretch her legs a little, stepping to the side so she didn’t block anyone’s path as she did so, and marvelled at all the tall buildings surrounding her. There was a minor chill still in the air, not enough to be uncomfortable, but enough to make her think that maybe she was premature coming out in just shorts and a t-shirt today.
“Maybe I should get some lunch to eat in the park?”

She wandered down the sidewalk, looking for places to eat.
“I’ve heard good things about Wild Duck Burger… I’ve never heard of Big Bang Burger though- they must be pretty new…hmm…”

Deciding she didn’t want to spoil her appetite for a proper meal later on, she decided to test her courage and get a mystery burger to go and a small drink. She exited the restaurant and ate as she walked, the entrance to Yoyogi park was pretty nearby, she figured she could probably finish before she got there.

“It can’t be legal for them to keep the ingredients secret like that… but it’s not actually that bad.” She happily munched away, while also keeping a careful look on where she was walking. The sidewalks were pretty busy, and she had to make an active effort to avoid another collision. She could even see a news crew doing a report of some kind across the other side of the road which made the crowding problem even worse. Admittedly she was curious, but she supposed it was none of her business.

It wasn’t long before she reached the park’s entrance, finishing her burger just in time- and tossing the wrapper in the closest bin she could find. Though her mood rapidly dropped when see saw the entrance closed off, covered in police tape. She looked to her side, it seemed another visitor was similarly disappointed.

“Great… the entire park’s closed off.” The long-haired man grumbled to himself. “They can’t even let a guy in to snap a few photos? Guess it’s not my lucky day… Huh?” He turned to Kotone. “You need something kid?”

“Oh.” She hadn’t realized that she’d been staring. “I was just wondering, how come the park’s closed off?”

The man smirked, she honestly found it a bit off-putting. He was probably fine, but she decided to stay on guard just in case.
“Well, here’s what they said on TV.” He cleared his throat and began his recital: “’Panic erupts as a clash between corporate representatives and a civic organization ends in violent deaths’.”

“Violent deaths?”

“I know, pretty disturbing, right?”

“No kidding, guess I’m fine crossing it off my itinerary for today in that case.”

The man chuckled.
“I guess that would spoil the relaxing atmosphere, huh? Although, those who live on the fringe say it was a deeper struggle between two cults.”

‘Oh jeez.’ Kotone thought to herself. ‘He’s one of those types…’

“Well uh, thanks for the info I guess.” Kotone shrugged “I’ll just move on.”

“Occult’s not your thing, huh?”

“Can’t say that it is, no.”

The man reached into his pocket, pulling out a magazine with a picture of a skull on the front of it, titled ‘Ayakashi monthly’.
“You sure you’re not curious? Why don’t you hang onto this? It’s a copy of our latest issue. Can’t hurt to know what went down here, right?”

The man was being rather pushy, Kotone was getting some real ‘stranger danger’ vibes from him, but she figured her best bet was to just humor him for now.
“Sure, I’ll take it.” She took the magazine and tucked it into her bag, she’d probably just throw it away later on.

“The name’s Hijiri by the way. Author of ‘The ring of Gaea and the scripture of Miroku’. Might wanna give that a read.”

“Yeah whatever, ‘Wing of Gael and strippers of miracles’, I’ll look for it at the store later.” She began to walk away from him.

“In the event we run into eachother again, let me know how you liked my article, okay?”

She waved him off without saying anything else or looking back at him.

“Well that’s a bummer about the park…” She mumbled to herself, looking behind herself as she walked down the sidewalk to make sure that guy wasn’t following her. “Aw well, I guess I’ll check out Shinjuku next?”

~                              ~                              ~

“Alright- that mystery burger was a mistake…” Kotone groaned as she clutched her stomach, as if that’d somehow lessen the agony she felt within. “’I know, let’s eat a questionably-legal slab of meat filled with god-knows-what while I’m alone in a city far away from home’, the hell was I thinking?”

She got more than a few strange looks as she stumbled through the streets, actually seeking out the proper tourist attractions had been forgotten, and she had just been pushing forwards without any real thought as to where she was going. Looking around her surroundings, she wasn’t near any cafés or restaurants where she could discreetly use the bathroom, she needed something otherwise there was a true nightmare-scenario in store for her. She looked to her left to see she was within stone-throwing distance of a hospital- Shinjuku medical centre.

“Hmm… going to a hospital for something like this is pretty overkill, but it’s not like I have many options.”

She ran (or rather- briskly walked, running was probably bit too risky right now) to the entrace, pulling on the door, only to find it locked.
“The hell?”

She saw a notice posted on the door, it read “The entrance to the annex is closed. Please use the entrance to the main building – Hospital staff.”

“Oh for Pete’s sake!”

She rapidly stumbled back onto the pavement and around to the main entrance.
“Nearly there…” She reassured herself as she burst through the door.

The entrance was empty, not even someone manning the entrance desk, all aside from a girl sat in the waiting area, who stood up as Kotone entered.

“Oh you’re finally… oh, my bad, I thought you were someone else.”

“Bathroom?”

“Hm?”

“Bathroom?!” Kotone looked to her with desperation clear in her eyes.

The girl stared blankly at her for a moment, before silently pointing to the toilets near the corner of the room.

“THANK YOU!” Kotone ran off, leaving the girl to sigh and return to her seat.

~                              ~                              ~

“Hoo…” Kotone breathed a huge sigh of relief as she stepped back out in the lobby. “Okay, it’s gonna be Big Bang Burger tomorrow, that’s for sure.”

She flinched slightly when she saw the girl from before staring at her again, eyebrow raised, she really needed to curb that habit of thinking out loud.

“Eheheh… sorry about that.” Kotone fiddled with her hair. “I owe you one.”

The girl shrugged, and went back to reading the magazine in her hands.
“Whatever, we’ve all been there.”

Kotone took a good look at the girl- given that she was in too much of a hurry to do so before. She had nice, long brown hair, and more notably- was wearing more denim than she had ever seen in her entire life- jacket, skirt, even her boots. Aside from her belt Kotone wondered if there was a single thing on her body that wasn’t denim, either way- she seemed to pull it off.

“Oh, my name’s Kotone by the way. Kotone Shiomi.” She smiled and gave a small bow. “Nice to meet ya!”

The girl affixed her with a lasting, hard-to-read gaze. Even at a glance Kotone could tell she wasn’t the especially social type, and not due to a lack of nerves either, she seemed a little annoyed that this stranger was acting so friendly towards her. But Kotone wasn’t the type to give up so easily, she sensed the opportunity to make a new friend and wasn’t about to let it pass her by so easily- especially when it was a pretty girl, she maintained her disarming smile until the girl finally responded.

“Chiaki Tachibana.”

“Nice to meet you Chiaki-san.”

Chiaki raised the magazine again.
“Mm.”

Kotone looked around.
“How come you’re the only one here?”

“Good question.” She lowered the magazine once more. “Something is seriously off here. No nurses, no patients… Even the reception desk is empty. It’s weird.”

“Now that you mention it.” Kotone peeked over the counter, as if expecting someone to be hiding back there. “Kinda creepy.” She turned back to Chiaki. “So why are you here?”

“I’m just waiting for someone. Isamu is looking for her right now.”

“Isamu?”

“Oh, just a friend…” She glanced aside at nothing in particular. “Well I say ‘friend’…” She shrugged to herself. “Naoki would be helping but he still hasn’t shown up.” She grumbled, making no effort to hide her annoyance.

“I see…” Kotone’s eyes drifted to the magazine in Chiaki’s hands, the magazine with a very familiar skull on the cover. “What’s that?”

“Hm? Oh this? It fell out of your bag when you ran through.” She eyed Kotone curiously. “You don’t look like the occult type.”

“Oh no, that’s not mine… not really anyway, some dude gave it to me.”

“You let some stranger give it to you?” Chiaki scoffed.

“It was the easiest way to shut him up, better to just take it and leave than giving him a reason to be even more pushy, y’know?”

“Hmm… perhaps.”

Kotone could sense the girl’s opinion of her improving, if only slightly.

“There’s some weird stuff in this magazine. The special report at the beginning says some things that are more than a little unsettling.”

“How so?”

She turned her attention back to the article.
“According to this, there are a group of demon worshippers that call themselves ‘The Ring of Gaea’, and they’re right here in Japan. They believe in this book of prophecy called ‘The Scripture of Miroku’. In that book it says that chaos will engulf the world.”

Kotone shrugged.
“These kinda prophecies are usually pretty vague like that, so they can really look at anything and try and say they predicted it later, that’s usually how it goes.”

“You’re not wrong, but these people are trying to cause that somehow. Whether their idea of ‘Chaos’ means terrorism or something else entirely, the reporter couldn’t figure that out- but get this…”

Despite the really rather gloomy subject matter, Kotone found herself enjoying how into it this Chiaki girl was getting, there was something nice about listening to people talk passionately explain something to her, even if it was little more than some ‘scary stories’ in this case. Their discussion was cut short when a door across from them opened up, and a boy in a snazzy hat, blazer, jeans, and cowboy boots of all things waltzed into the room.

“No luck finding Ms. Takao” he lamented as she strolled up to them. “I even checked the men’s room.”

“Ugh, didn’t need to know that.”

The boy smirked, evidently he took some pleasure from getting on her nerves, before he looked to Kotone confused.
“Who’s this chick?”

“I’m Kotone Shiomi, though I guess you can call me ‘this chick’ if you really want to.”

“We’re in the middle of a conversation here.” Chiaki was not the type to hide her distain for others it seemed. She ignored the boy and turned back to Kotone. “Now, listen to this part: ‘A hospital on the east side of Shinjuku is closely linked to the organization’s sinister plan’.”

“Lemme guess—” The boy began. “that ends with: ‘find out more in our next issue’?”

“It really does sound like some kinda ghost story, huh?” Kotone chuckled. “Sorry, I didn’t get your name?”

“Isamu Nitta.”

“Nice to meet you Nitta-san.”

“I know it is.”

“Ugh…” Chiaki rolled her eyes.

“Though, it wouldn’t surprise me if that article had some truth to it.” Isamu was having fun with this- by the looks of it. “I’ve heard some real spooky shit about this place. Like how they run deadly experiments on patients, or how a psychic started shrieking and bolted out of here. And of course, there’s a rumor that a cult’s behind it all.”

‘Man I gotta remember this for when I have some late night dorm parties, even I’m getting a little spooked.’ Kotone made a mental note to herself.

“You’re serious?” Chiaki’s reaction was pretty fun too. “I never knew any of that, maybe we really shouldn’t have come here… I almost feel stupid for buying into some bizarre tabloid, but it does get one thing right: how creepy this hospital is…”

“Hmm…” Isamu looked to the ground in thought for a few moments. “We really need to find Ms. Takao, don’t we?”

Cautiously, Kotone raised her hand.
“I don’t mind helping.”

“Seriously? Why?”

“Well I did say I owe you one Chiaki-san.” Kotone smiled bashfully. “And I’m only gonna be in town until tomorrow, so I better repay you sooner rather than later, y’know?”

“You owe her one? What’s that mean?”

“Just some girl business Isamu.”

“Pfft, whatever.” Isamu shrugged. “It looks like you can reach the annex from the second floor, so I’ll take a look up there.” He turned to Kotone. “So if you wanna help, you can search the basement.”

“The basement?”

“Yeah, oh- and you’ll need this.” He handed her a keycard of some description, it seemed to belong to a member of staff.

“You’re the one who found the card, why don’t you search the basement rather than making some girl you don’t even know do it?” Chiaki taunted him. “Could it be you’re too scared?”

“Come on! This is me we’re talking about! The only reason she’s going is ‘cause I’m sure there’s nothing down there!” He turned to Kotone. “Look. All you gotta do is confirm our teacher isn’t in the basement. Got it? Should things take a turn for the worse, just run like hell! Okay? After all, saving the day is my job!”

Chiaki sighed.
“I can’t believe him sometimes…”

“Okay okay, I think I get it.” Kotone shoved the card into the pocket of her shorts. “I’ll head down there, ask for a ‘Ms. Takao’, and when they say ‘no’ I’ll come back up and let you know, okay?”

“Sure, thanks Shiomi.”

“Make sure to tell her ‘Isamu’ is here to see her, okay?”

“Yeah, because I’m sure she’s as desperate for you as you are for her.”

Kotone decided to leave them to it, there was an elevator in the lobby with them, making things easy for her. She waved Isamu off, left Chiaki to wait in the lobby for her other friend she mentioned, and stepped into the elevator.

“Dammit… those spooky stories shook me more than I thought, now that I’m alone it feels like I’m doing some test of courage…”

The feeling only worsened when she reached the basement, the scattered papers, the dim blood-red lighting, the barred off area down the hall in front of her. This was one of the creepiest places she had ever been in her life. She was starting to feel like she made a mistake agreeing to this.

“Wait a sec, am I a prank victim right now? I just so happen to be given that magazine on my way here, with a bunch of ghost stories about this particular hospital, then I’m suddenly sent off alone to the basement?” She sighed. “I’m an idiot for falling for this… but hang on, how did the guy who gave me the magazine know I was coming here? Then again, I never read it myself, that girl could have been making the whole article up and the long haired man wasn’t part of the prank at all? Just gave her the opportunity?”

She shook her head.
“Whatever, I’m down here now, I’ll keep going until I see something creepy, then I’ll bolt out of here, I don’t care if they laugh at me.”

She walked down the hall to the wall of bars blocking her path, with a panel next to a door to pass through. She kind of hoped the card she was given wouldn’t work so she’d have an excuse to turn around here and now, but unfortunately it worked perfectly, and she was allowed free passage.
“Damn…”

With one hand in her bag, keeping her hand on a small can of pepper spray that she brought with her just in case, travelling alone did have it’s risks after all, and if something bad were to happen- this’d be the place for it. Reaching the end of the hallway and turning right, seeing another long hallway stretch out ahead of her.
“Aw jeez… this is gonna take a while…”

She immediately took a left, down the first branching path of the hallway, and cautiously stepped through the door at the end. She froze stiff as she held the door open, there was an operating table right in the centre of the room- not unexpected. There was some blood on it- unpleasant, but not too unbelievable. And a large, incredibly intricate and detailed red rune, depicting a seven-sided star with unreadable writing across it’s edges that seemed to faintly glow under the dim overhead lights, that- paired with the red curtains draped across the walls and the stands holding up banners with pentagrams standing either side of the door she was currently halfway through sent a very clear message- that she needed to leave, right now.

Closing the door as quietly as she could, she spun around and powerwalked back down the hall.
“Stay calm. Stay calm.” She was holding the pepper spray tighter than ever, ready to whip it out at a moment’s notice. It was still possible this was an elaborate prank set up by those two, but she’d rather risk being wrong about that and getting laughed at and probably put on the internet, than risk being wrong about this being a real dangerous situation and falling victim to some truly horrible fate.

“Which way did I come in again? Oh god I need to calm down and think.” She tried to control her breathing, is this really was a dangerous situation she couldn’t afford to panic, unfortunately this was easier said than done, and she was having trouble keeping her thoughts in any sort of order. “God what is wrong with me? Okay think, I turned… right to get here, so I have to turn left to get out again, easy.” She turned left and took a few steps forward. “Hang on, I turned right then left, didn’t I? So now I turn left then right.” She turned right, and rushed to the door at the end of the hall, not registering the eerie sounds emanating from behind the door until she was already half way through it.

She realized her mistake and froze in place as she took in this room’s contents. Contrasting the intimidating red lighting of the previous room, this room was lit in a cool- almost calming blue, under different circumstances it may have lended itself to quite a comfortable mood, but it was what stood in the centre of the room that filled her full of dread. A strange drum-like object stood in the centre of the room, split into three segments of equal thickness, covered on all sides with lettering in a strange language she had never seen before. A number of wires trailed off of it connecting to… Kotone couldn’t tell whether they were lights or monitors, either way it was confusing. And just next to the… drum sat a man in a revolving chair. He didn’t move or visibly react to her entering the room, but with the noise she made there was no doubt that he had heard her.

“Who is it?” He began to spin around to face her. “Who dares disrupt this stillness?”

Kotone took note of immaculately clean (if slightly tacky) spotted brown suit, and the tallest widow’s peak hairline she had ever seen in her entire life- even being as terrified as she was, she found herself slightly amused by the sight. Still, she knew she needed to say something- and fast.

“Ahh… AH! I’m the new cleaner lady! I’m just here part time and I’m still learning where everything is, I’m so sorry to have bothered you.”

She looked at his face, trying to see whether he was buying it… he wasn’t, he very clearly wasn’t. He smirked at her.
“Only a lost lamb…”

He began drumming his fingers across the armrest of his chair, closing his eyes and leaning back slightly, as if reminising.
“A well known poet once said: ‘April is the cruellest month’. Have you any inclination as to why?” He didn’t wait for her respond before continuing. “Because it is then one awakens from a cold sleep and faces the barren world. Our history as a species is similarly barren, comprised of empty trivialities. The worthless overgrowth of a civilization blind to its sins. Continuous war and bloodshed, and thousands of years of repeating the same mistakes, over and over again.”

“Wow, that’s really deep and insightful, you’ve given me a lot to think about.” Kotone smacked her lips. “Anyway, Imma just head out now if that’s cool with you? You know how it is.”

“Hold.” The man spoke without any real sense of harshness, but it was still enough to freeze Kotone once more before she could so much as finish turning around. He was going to finish his monologue one way or another. “The world needs to wipe it’s slate clean.” He flicked his wrist. “The way to salvation was foretold in the Scripture of Miroku, and today, that prophecy shall be fulfilled. The old world will sink like a setting sun, and the new world will arise in its place.”

“And I’m about to let you get on with that, so I’ll be on my w—”

“I think not, from what I recall, you weren’t one of our followers who survived the purge at the park. Are you one of Ms. Takao’s, perhaps? Come to think of it, this was a hospital, wasn’t it? Did you merely come to visit her?”

“I uh—y-yeah! That! I’m a friend of Ms. Takao! But I can see she’s not here, so I’ll head back upstairs.”

“Hmph. Whatever the case, you really are unlucky to have gotten lost here and now, I truly do feel pity for you. However, even a pebble causes ripples when cast in water.” He flicked his wrist once more, this time revealing a set of rosary beads. “Your life ends here.”

The room was suddenly enveloped in darkness, bolts of inexplicable black lightning shot around the room, and a winged figure- clad entirely in shadow- took form from behind the drum, it’s two glowing eyes locked onto the terrified girl, whose shaking knees were anchored to feet that felt like blocks of cement trapping her in place. She had no idea what she was seeing right now, but every cell in her body was screaming at her to run away, and yet she could barely force herself to breathe- let alone flee.

“Do not be afraid.” The man spoke. “All the inhabitants of this world will follow before long. You’re time has just come a bit sooner, that’s all.”

“Am I…” Kotone’s throat was dry. “Am I going to die? I… I have to—"

“Stop!”

A woman’s voice was suddenly heard from behind, and the darkness that had enveloped the room- including the floating figure- vanished in an instant. Kotone spun around, taking a couple cautious steps back, as a woman she didn’t recognise in a white coat, authoritatively glaring at the man.
“What, you can’t even let one person go? What effect could she possibly have on our plan?”

Kotone looked back to the man, restlessly drumming his fingers.
“However insignificant she is, I am not a man of exceptions. You know this.”

“Fine. If you don’t spare her, then consider our partnership over.”

The man’s eye twitched slightly, and he let out a long, weary sigh. Kotone had no idea why this woman was helping her, but wasn’t about to risk anything by opening her mouth just yet.

“You know what we’re trying to accomplish, can you simply not bear to see death in front of you like this? Such a troublesome maiden… Very well, please leave this room. I would like to enjoy this blissful end in solitude.”

And with that, he spun around to admire the strange drum once more, and Kotone let go of a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. She looked at the ‘maiden’, who stared back at her curiously, before beckoning her outside. Not wanting to stay here any longer than was necessary, Kotone obediently followed her outside, closing the door behind them.

“Um…” Kotone got her voice back. “You wouldn’t happen to be Ms. Takao? The teacher?”

“Hm?” The woman’s eyes were curious, analytical. “Yuko Takao. Who might you be? The hospital is supposed to be empty right now.”

“Oh um, sorry. I’m Kotone Shiomi, nice to meet you.” She tried to force a smile, but was still too shaken to give a convincing one, she dropped it once it became clear she wouldn’t get one in return. “I met your students in the lobby upstairs, and offered to help look for you.”

“My students?” There was a strange look of relief on the woman’s face. “So those three made it? Good.”

“I only saw two.”

“Two?”

“Yeah, a girl called Chiaki, and um… what was his name- ah- Isamu. Chiaki said she was gonna wait in the lobby for another friend though, ‘Naoki’, I think?”

“Kashima…” Yuko’s eyebrows furrowed in concern. “Did he not…? But we’re running out of time.”

“Um…”

“Oh?”

“Not that I’m not grateful or anything, but why did you help me just then? What even was that?”

Yuko’s expression dropped.
“No real reason. I guess Hikawa was right, I am just uncomfortable seeing it happen right in front of me.”

“Huh?”

“Nevermind. Don’t worry about what you saw down here, you better just leave. The exit is down that way.”

“But—”

“Please, just leave and…” she sighed. “…enjoy the time you have left.”

The teacher left and walked down the hall, in the opposite direction of the exit. Part of Kotone wanted to try and talk to her again to see what was wrong, but her survival instinct was far stronger than her desire to help others in this case, she simply walked in the direction of the exit that she had pointed out.

“I mean… it’s still not impossible that that was just a big prank, if so those were some amazing effects… I mean… it can’t have been real, right?”

Her thoughts were cut short as she walked through the hall and past the security gate, as she noticed a pair standing just by the elevator. An old woman, holding the hand of a small blonde boy, both dressed as if they were attending a funeral, yet another oddity in what could charitably be described as a ‘very odd day’, people died in hospital all the time, but to dress like that here was a bit… Not to mention the way they were both just staring at her for so long.

“What’s wrong my little master? Are you curious about that person over there?” The old woman spoke, presumably to the child, though her gaze behind her veiled face never left Kotone. The boy whispered something up to her in response. “Oh… does she now? My my…”

‘Should I say something?’

“But right now we have other matters to attend to. Let’s do that afterward.”

In a flash of light, the pair disappeared, leaving the hallway empty once more.

“Okay screw this shit, I’m out RIGHT NOW!” Kotone rushed to the elevator, mashed the call button for dear life, and jumped aboard. “Friggin’ ghosts and cults and floating goat things. If this is just a prank and the whole internet is going to laugh at me let them- they deserve it at this point.” She began another button mashing session on the ‘ground floor’ button.

After what was in actuality probably only a few seconds- but felt like an agonizing hour-long wait- the elevator reached the lobby, she stepped out to find it empty, no sign of Chiaki or Isamu.
“Did they leave? Should I look for them?” She shook her head. “No, so long as they stay out of the basement they’re fine, if they had any sense they would have left- so I’m gonna do the same. I’m not sticking around here another moment!”

She strode over, past the reception desk, and towards the entrance before a sudden flash of light appeared outside and the ground shook beneath her feet.
“An earthquake?”

Another flash, bringing with it another shockwave, then another, then another. Kotone, nearly falling over, leant on the desk for support. She could see out the glass doors and into the street. She couldn’t tell what was going on, so stumbled closer before there was one final flash.

In an instant, everything went white, and silent.

~                              ~                              ~

There was a voice in the blinding, all-encompassing light.

“You, who would enter my world… reveal your heart to me.”

…

“I feel… a light within you… a longing… a reason driven by… connection… And yet beside that… something dark… a great void… immense… and yet silent… and still.”

…

“The potential for both prosperity… and ruin… for the world you might forge… lie within you…”

…

“Go forth! And discover yourself! What will be the legacy of your existence?”

…

~                              ~                             ~

Kotone- through great effort- forced her eyes open. She couldn’t make sense of her surroundings, it was as if she was floating in the void. Before her stood the old woman and child from earlier. She saw the child whisper to the woman. She tried to open her mouth, but no words would come out.

‘I… I can’t speak? I can’t move?’

“Do not be afraid.” The old woman’s tone was friendly, but that somehow only made Kotone feel even more fearful. “My little master has taken an interest in you.”

‘Master?’

“Pitiful human though you are, he wishes to grant you a gift.”

‘Where am I?’

“It is vital that you receive it, and I’m afraid you have no choice.”

Suddenly Kotone felt herself on her back, looking up at the child and the woman- holding her down, not that they needed to, given she couldn’t even blink- let alone move to break free.

“Please try not to struggle.”

‘What’s happening?’

“It will only hurt for an instant.”

‘Hurt? What the hell is going on?!’

The child lifted his arm, holding some strange insect dangling between his thumb and forefinger as he stared down at her with cold, unblinking eyes.

‘What are you doing?’

He boy released the insect, which descended- as if in slow motion- towards her face.

‘Please. Stop.’

“Enjoy your last moments as a human…”

‘Please. Help me. Someone help me! HELP ME! HE—'

Chapter Text

Kotone awoke in a daze, her head was full of fog, and the lights from overhead were blinding, she kept blinking until she could stand to hold her eyes open.

“What the hell… that dream…”

She found herself lying on her back, she looked to her left, then her right.
“A hospital? Why am I in a hospital?”

She had difficulty sitting up, it felt as if her body wasn’t her own, and she had to relearn how to move around in it entirely.
“Did I collapse or something?” She rubbed her eyes. “Maybe that ‘mystery burger’ hit me harder than I thought…”

As her vision became clearer, she noticed the room was completely empty aside from her own bed and a few random tables, none of them with much on them.
“Where is everyone? Shouldn’t there be a nurse here? Actually why am I in a private room? My condition couldn’t have been that serious, could it?”

She stretched her arms out in front of her, still re-adapting to her body’s movement, before she noticed something.
“I… have tattoos on my arms?” She began to panic, inspecting them closely. “Why would they do that?! Hospitals don’t do that… do they?”

She noticed out of the corner of her vision that her legs were similarly tattooed now, and even her torso…

“Wait… my torso…?”

Her eyes suddenly went wide, and she clasped her hands over her bare breasts, cringing slightly at the embarrassing sound of the slapping echoing off of the room’s hard walls.

“Why’d they take my shirt? Even my bra? Did they need to perform surgery or something? What the—” she cut herself off, and took a deep, calming breath. “Slow down Kotone, relax, stay calm…”

She continued her breathing exercise for another minute or so under her heartbeat slowed back to a mostly-normal rate, and she could think straight.
“Okay, there are a lot of questions I need answering. Recap:” keeping one arm across her chest, she lifted her right hand and began to count. “One- why am I in hospital? Two- What did they do to me while I was here? Three- Why do I have tattoos on my whole body… wait, is it my whole body?” After taking a moment to make absolutely sure she was the only one in the room, and no cameras were visibly on her, she reached for the waistband of her shorts (which she thankfully was still wearing) and pulled them up so she could see underneath. “Yup, it’s my whole body that has ‘em… gosh…”

She shook her head and slapped her cheeks (realizing that covering herself was rather pointless when she was alone anyway).
“Okay, back on track: Three- Why do I have tattoos on my whole body? Four- How can I get them removed? While they do look kinda cool, this is really going to make getting a job or making friends really tough…” She inspected them closer, seeing them even continuing down her back. “They really do look like they’re glowing, it’s amazing. They can’t actually be glowing, right? Must be the lighting in here… still impressive though.” She exhaled. “Okay and finally- Five- Where is my bag and how soon can I leave? I still have to be in Tatsumi port island by Monday.”

She climbed off of the hospital bed and got to her feet.
“I’m not going to get any answers waiting in here, I need to find a Doctor or a nurse or something before anything else.”

Her legs felt just as unfamiliar as everything else, so she had to lean on her bed for support for a few moments after standing, but she got used to it pretty quickly. Her body didn’t feel weak at all- on the contrary- she felt pretty good, she just needed to shake off this mental fog. She made her way over to the door and stepped outside.

“This hallway…” she recognized it. “Okay, so maybe that part was real? I must have collapsed shortly after coming down here?” She huffed. “No point speculating, I’ll just ask someone. Ah, there’s someone.”

She approached what looked like a doctor… at least… somewhat. It looked back at her.
“What are you staring at me for?”

“A… a ghost?” He certainly looked the part, it was human-shaped, and wearing some sort of coat befitting a doctor, but he was translucent, and glowing blue. Kotone rubbed her eyes, thinking she’d come to her senses afterwards, but no- the ghost or whatever it was still stood there, staring back at her as if she were the crazy one.

“Is that so peculiar? You’re the demon here.”

“I’m… huh?”

The ghost sighed.
“Well, regardless, if you’re going to walk around the hospital, let me warn you: You’ve chosen a harsh path, from this point forward, enemies will hound you wherever you set foot.”

“Yeah I guess tattoos like this would attract a bad crowd, huh?”

“Never forget your fate.”

“Actually I think I’ll just get them removed, they must have given them to me thinking I was someone else… or something like that. Thanks anyway.” She turned away from the ghost before mumbling to herself. “There’s probably grounds for some malpractice lawsuit, at the very least I’ll get them to pay for the removal.”

Putting the fact that she just made casual conversation with a literal ghost out of her mind and into her repressed memories as soon as possible, she continued her search for an actual doctor to answer her questions. She noticed a path down to another door, with a strange glowing symbol on it that seemed to pulse with light, not unlike a heartbeat. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t slightly unsettled by it, but she definitely heard some activity of some description behind it. This was probably her best bet to find someone to talk to. She cautiously approached, and stepped through the door.

She found herself in a large, circular room. The architecture didn’t match the rest of the hospital at all, the room was split into multiple ‘rings’ each at a slightly lower level than the one surrounding it, almost like steps leading to the familiar-looking drum stood in the centre. And crouched down next to the drum, completely enraptured by it, was the man with long hair, whom she spoke to yesterday- Hijiri.

“You?”

The man let out a muted gasp, suddenly startled out of his trance.
“Woah… aren’t you the kid I met at the park?”

He looked downwards at her body, her eyes quickly following.

“AH!” Given the weirdness with her tattoos and the maybe-probably-ghost she maybe-probably-spoke to, she had forgotten that she was just casually walking around topless. The tattoos technically did cover her nipples just fine, but they didn’t do much to hide the shape. She clasped her arms over her chest and turned her torso away. “DO YOU MIND?!”

“S-sorry! It’s not what you’re thinking, it’s just… those markings… What in God’s name happened to you?”

“That’s what I want to know! I just woke up to find my shirt replaced by some crazy tats.”

“I see… Well, at least you still think like a human.”

“Think like a—the hell are you talking about?”

“You just seem a bit like… them.”

“Who’s ‘them’?”

“Well, they’re definitely not human. My guess is that… they’re demons.”

Kotone’s shoulders dropped.
“Eh? Oh right, I forgot you’re the ‘secret cults’ guy… Whatever, do you know what the hell’s going on here?”

“Heh, you took the words right out of my mouth. Last thing I remember is being blinded by a bright light, next thing I know, I’m in this room.”

“A bright light…”

“I’m guessing you don’t know much more than me at this point? That’s unfortunate, but understandable.” Hijiri sighed. “Well, first thing’s first- as much as I want to know what’s going on out there, it’s not exactly safe to walk around.”

“Why not?”

“Because of these strange creatures, the demons.”

“Right, demons, whatever…”

“Something tells me calling the cops won’t do us any good.”

“You do you, I’m definitely calling them… though my phone is in my bag… and my wallet… I’m screwed if I don’t find it before I leave…”

“Well you’re welcome to give it a shot kid.”

“Hmm…”

“But damn…”

Kotone instinctively turned her torso further away from his gaze, only to realize he was actually looking at the drum again.

“If my hunch is right, there’s an actual explanation for all of this…”

“Really?” She felt a little hopeful that she might actually get some questions answered, though she didn’t get her hopes too high, this guy didn’t exactly fill her with confidence.

“…Though I’d rather not believe it. I think this is Shinjuku medical centre, right?”

“I… think so?” Kotone scratched her head with her free arm. “I think that’s the last place I went.”

“In that case, I can’t rule it out.”

“’It’?”

“The conception. It may have occurred for real.”

“Conception?” A sudden feeling of intense dread crept up Kotone’s spine, her hand shot between her legs. “Wait—conceiving? Did someone… do… to me?”

“Hm?” Hijiri’s eyes went wide. “N-no, nothing like that. It’s not so literal.”

Kotone breathed a muted sigh of relief.

“…Probably.”

“PROBABLY?!”

Hijiri turned back to the barrel.
“You know, I’ve seen a barrel like this before. If I remember right, it belonged to a man named Hikawa.”

“And this matters… why?”

“I’m saying he’s gotta be behind this somehow.”

“What even is ‘this’? Actually no- I don’t care, I just want to get out of here!”

“Yeah, you’re probably right, just standing around here talking won’t do us any good.” He smiled at Kotone, it was intended to be friendly, but she just wasn’t feeling the love right now, she was just done with this. “Listen. If you’re strong enough to fight, could you gather some information while you’re at it?”

“Fight? Oh, right, the ‘demons’. Sure, whatever dude.”

“Thanks, I tried talking to what looked like a ghost, but didn’t have much luck.”

“Huh? You saw him too? The ghost?”

“Yeah, but I’m sorry, I don’t know any more about him than you probably do… What’s happened to the world? And… is there anyone else out there?”

“Of course, obviously.” Kotone rolled her eyes. “They must have just all gone upstairs… or something. I’m gonna head up to the lobby.”

“Thank you. I wish I could do it myself, but I doubt I’d last long against a demon. Besides, I imagine studying this thing has its own merits.”

“Yeah yeah yeah…” Kotone turned around, waving as she left the room. “You stay in here, safe from the scary monsters or whatever and play with the weird barrel, later.” She didn’t look back as she closed the door. “Why’s this weirdo here anyway, does this double as a mental hospital too? Then again…” She looked down the hall she originally came down, seeing the ghost still standing there staring off into space. “N-no, I must be losing it. I’ll just get to the lobby.”

She turned the corner, recognising the security gate- relieved to see it still open. Though just in front of it, another ‘ghost’.
“Who are you? Yet another demon after Magatsuhi?”

‘Just ignore her Kotone… Just keep walking…’

She approached the elevator, and reached out for the call button.
“This place is seriously creepy. I’m not sticking around, I’ll talk to the receptionist, grab my bag and shirt, and leave. I’m figure out the lawsuit and tatt—”

~                              ~                              ~

“—oo removal after I move. I’ll just have to deal with the bad first… impressions… where am I?”

The instant after she pushed the button, she found herself somewhere completely different. Behind her was the familiar elevator door and surrounding wall, but everything else was so… otherworldly. The hallway was round, not unlike a subway tunnel. The floor was made of darkly-colored stone, the walls covered with strange patterns that seemed to shift and move around as she watched them.

She pinched herself in the arm, wincing slightly at the pain.
“Okay… this probably isn’t another mystery burger-induced dream… I think?” She controlled her breathing. “I’m calm… I’m calm…”

The hallway sloped down ahead of her, and was flooded with a strange red liquid. Too bright and translucent to be blood but…

A pair suddenly appeared atop the water’s surface. A woman in black, dressed not unlike the old woman from before, and an old man, sat in a wheelchair, fiddling with a cane.

“Come.” The voice came not from the man nor the woman, but it felt like it came from inside Kotone’s own head. “Show me the strength of a demon.”

They disappeared into nothingness just as quickly as they came.

Kotone’s first instinct was to turn around and try the elevator door again, but the button no longer seemed to work, she even tried to pull apart the doors with her fingers, but to no avail.

“Okay… okay…”

She braced herself, and stepped forward towards the strange liquid. She dipped the tip of her shoe into it and pulled back, trying to see if it did any damage to her footwear. It simply slid back off of her and into the pool, not even clinging to her like water.
“I guess it’s not dangerous?”

She cautiously lowered a foot into the liquid, then the other, and took a few slow steps forward.
“It’s no different to moving through air… huh…”

She kept walking, noticing a split path to her right as she did so. The path didn’t lead anywhere, just another wall, but she noticed a strange red cube floating in the air, spinning on it’s axis. She approached it, waving her arms above and below it.
“No strings or anything… weird.”

She tapped the side, flinching back when it suddenly split part, into 26 smaller cubes still spinning in formation, and held in the centre of them all were two vials of some strange medicine. She reached out to grab them, the cubes parting to allow her to do so, and pulled them out- as if expecting them to suddenly snap shut again, though they didn’t, they just continued their quiet revolution.

She looked down at the medicine.
“Why would you put these in there? I mean it’s cool, I’d love to know how it works but… I can appreciate the approach of ‘style over substance’ but this is a bit ‘show off-y’.” She inspected the medicine vials, but there were no clear labels aside from ‘medicine’. “Not very helpful… should I take them with me?”

The vials turned to light in her hands, seemingly disappearing into thin air, and yet- she could still ‘feel’ them somehow. It was very slight, but she felt a slight pressure on the back of her neck. She reached back behind herself.
“What the—” She felt something stuck to her neck. “What the hell is this?” It felt like some kind of spike, protruding from just under her hair. “How long has this been here?” She tried to pull it off, but to no avail. She realized that it wasn’t just stuck to her neck, but it seemed like it was coming out of her neck, as if it was part of her skeletal structure.

At that thought she quickly let go of it.
“I better not mess with whatever that is, at least until I can talk to a doctor. But… this is so weird, why can I feel the vials in there?”

Driven by instinct, she tried to visualize the vials, and in another small flash- there they were in her hand again.
“Woah…”

Curious, she tried willing it back to the thing on her neck again, and the vial disappeared. She called it back and forth a few times, she had no idea how she was doing this, but she could do it with complete reliability.
“I still don’t feel comfortable with this… like at all, but I have to admit that is pretty handy.” She turned back to the hallway. “I’ll worry about that later, I can’t stay here.”

Adding the strange change to her body to the list of things she needs answers for- she continued down the hallway a little further, but didn’t get very far before a flash of purple lightning shot down from the ceiling. Nearly falling backwards from the shock, Kotone looked up to see two strange ghost-like beings floating before her. Though these were different to the ghosts from before; there was no human-shaped body, just a floating face without so much as a head, that seemed to writhe around angrily in her direction.

“I WAnt eAT!”
The first one rushed at her, trying to ram itself into her, knocking her back a step.

“mE EAt…”
The second seemed to groan, and Kotone felt a pain shoot through her body, some force pulling a strange red energy out of her body which was quickly absorbed into the wisp’s ethereal body.

She couldn’t focus on the second one or it’s strange ‘draining’ ability, the first was still trying to gash at her, biting with teeth that didn’t exist. She threw her fist at it with all of her might, and to her relief it seemed to work. The wisp was sent flying back, recoiling in pain.

“MaGatSUHi…” it groaned before launching itself at her again. It’s predictable assault was easy to jump out of the way of, it’s path leading it directly into Kotone’s fist, the impact dissipating it into nothingness.

“One down.”

She wasted no time launching herself at the next one, fighting through the pain as it drained… something from her once more, slamming it down to the floor with her arm, before stomping on it, fully erasing it. Kotone continued to breath heavily, staring down at her foot beneath the strange liquid where the wisp once was, looking around to make sure those were the only two attacking her, she stood up straight and calmed her breathing.

“I can’t believe that just happened…” Perhaps it was the adrenaline, but Kotone found herself laughing. “Turns out you can just punch ghosts? What’s the big fuss about them if even someone like me can punch them out of existence? Maybe I should have someone teach me to box after I move, I might have a natural talent for it. Ha…” she winced slightly. “Though I do feel pretty weak after that… it pulled some strange light out of me and into him, what was that? Well whatever it is I better avoid it in future.” She looked around at her surroundings. “I better move on, last thing I need is a whole bunch of those guys showing up.”

She continued to wade through the red liquid.
“Were those the ‘demons’ that guy was talking about? Maybe he wasn’t crazy… about them at least… unless I’ve gone crazy too which is… a definite possibility if I’m honest.” She shook her head. “Well I better keep treating it all as real until I find a doctor. If I’m not crazy, then I need to be careful, if I am crazy, then I’m sure some doctor or whatever will restrain me until I regain my senses, it’s all good… probably.”

She noticed another branch in the path to her left- if one could call it that, it barely went a few feet before hitting a wall. Yet next to this wall stood another ghost- like the one outside rather than the ones she just fought.

“By my master’s orders, I’ll treat your wounds.”

Before she could even respond, Kotone suddenly felt all the pain and fatigue leave her body. The strain on her muscles, her slightly sore foot and fists, even her rather tired eyelids all suddenly felt as good as new, she was in top condition.

“Woah, how’d you do that?”

“By my master’s orders, I’ll treat your wounds.”

“Well you did a good job, you didn’t even touch me?” She narrowed her eyes slightly. “Wait, this isn’t some hypnotism placebo thing, is it?”

“By my master’s orders, I’ll treat your wounds.”

“Is that all you can say?”

“By my master’s orders, I’ll treat your wounds.”

“You must be fun at parties.” Kotone sighed, before smiling at him. “Still, thanks.”

“By my master's—”

“I know, don’t worry. But you better get out of here too, this place is REALLY freaky.”

She moved on before he could respond, she was pretty sure she knew what he was going to say anyway. She noticed the path ahead sloped back up and out of the liquid. As she stepped out she noticed none of it clung to her, she wasn’t even wet. Under more favorable circumstances she’d be interested in knowing exactly what this ‘red water’ actually was, but she had more important things to focus on. She approached what she could only assume was a door of some kind, she didn’t have time to really analyse it before another bolt of purple lightning shoot down from the ceiling in front of her. She immediately raised her fists in her best approximation of a battle-ready position, it wasn’t as if she had ever gotten into a fight before, prior to the wisps from earlier.

However from the light this time rose not another wisp, but a strange, naked purple creature in a shape that could very generously be called humanoid. It looked like an unflattering caricature of the human form; skinny, gangly limbs attached to a slouched, pot-bellied body, a long block-like chin with a messy tuft of hair just above a pair of glowing eyes, eyes that were locked directly onto her.

Its movements were creepy and erratic, like an insect’s. Kotone waited for it to approach her rather than charging herself, partly because she didn’t trust that she wouldn’t overdo it and fall over putting her self at risk, but also because she didn’t just want to assume this thing was hostile- scary-looking as it was.

Unfortunately, it was hostile, and her hesitation (and inexperience) let it catch her off-guard as it suddenly scuttled forwards, it’s claw swiping at her. The pain was immense compared to the wisp ramming her, Kotone cried out and pulled away. With her left hand she reached down to hold where the claw met her torso. Looking down to see her hand now covered in blood, and a huge gash down her side, she began to panic. She looked up to try and see the creature, only to have lost sight of it for a split-second, long enough for it to circle around to her right and bite her upper-arm.

Kotone began screaming. She felt its teeth pierce the skin and flesh of her arm, and it had no intention of letting go. With her free arm she jammed her fingers into it’s eyes as hard as she could, the creature recoiled, falling to the ground clutching it’s face. She followed up by kicking it across the room. She tried to raise her fists as she watched it roll away from her, but looked down in horror to see her right arm hanging limp by her side, no matter how much she willed it, it would not move, it just hung there uselessly.

“Oh god… oh god!”

She looked back at the creature, it had recovered and was throwing itself at her in a rage. With her working arm she managed to punch it in the side of the head, but not without it swiping at her, creating a second gash in her torso. Both she and it fell to the ground in agony.

“I’m going to die. I’m going to die. I’m going to die.”

She listened to the unsettling clicking sounds as it scuttled at her again, she kicked it away, and forced herself after it. They both went for eachother, but she managed to hook her arm underneath its long chin, pulling it down to the ground with her beneath it. Using her legs to hold it in place as much as she could, be began to pull it’s neck back. It flailed around wildly, howling and squealing, but she kept pulling and pulling with all her might.
Until she heard the snap, and its body fell limp on top of her.

Kicking it off of her and trying to roll away, crushing her ruined arm further in the process. She fought through the pain, clutching her arm as she forced herself to her feet on shaking legs. She watched the corpse of the strange creature lay there motionless for a while, before disappearing into nothingness, as if it had never been there at all.

Her body heaved as she tried to breathe. She stared at the spot the creature once occupied, then at her limp arm, then down at the ground in front of her. She screamed, and kept screaming until there was no air left in her lungs to scream with. She fell forwards onto her knees, then further forwards so her forehead was resting on the ground as she hyperventilated, struggling to hold herself up with her left arm, and the blood continuing to flow down from her wounds.

Fear gripped her heart once more, and she climbed to her feet, desperately scanning her surroundings for any more of them. The moving patterns on the wall- while they had faded into the background before, now every one of them kept looking like another attacker in her peripheral.

“I’m… I’m alive…” Her whole body shook violently, her knees could barely hold her up. She tried to wipe away her tears before returning her grip to her right arm. “I need help…”

She stumbled back down the slope, it took a lot of effort to descend it without tripping, but she barely managed it, and returned to the ghost from before.

“P-please… help me…”

“By my master’s orders, I’ll treat your wounds.”

In an instant, the hither-to unimaginable pain left her body, she could stand up straight with ease, she looked down to see even the blood had all faded away, even her throat was no longer sore. With hope beginning to seep back into her, she looked to her right arm, and was able to lift and move it around freely.
“Oh thank god…” Tears of pain and terror were replaced with tears of relief. “Thank god… You saved me…”

“By my master’s orders, I’ll treat your wounds.”

“And you did a fantastic job, this is a miracle. I owe you, I owe you BIG TIME!” Kotone bowed deeply to him.

“By my master’s orders, I’ll treat your wounds.”

“I don’t know what your master is paying you, but it’s not enough. If I see him I’ll tell him how amazing you are myself, I promise you that. Ha… haha…”

She stumbled away from him, still rubbing her arm to confirm that she really was better again. As much as she wanted to bask in this, or better yet, just curl up in the corner and cry, she realized staying here was a bad idea, she needed to keep moving. She walked back up the slope, being ready to ambush any repeat encounters with a creature like that suddenly coming down from the ceiling. Thankfully no such encounter was had, and she was able to pass through the strange round door unimpeded.

She found herself in a similar looking hallway, with another slope descending into the knee-high liquid. She took no time to marvel at her surroundings, she simply kept moving forward ready for any more sudden bolts of purple electricity. She noticed however, that the path didn’t continue forward, but rather split into a left path and a right path. Each way looked more or less identical, Kotone was about to simply pick one at random before she noticed the wheelchair-bound old man and woman in black appear down the left-hand path.

“This way…” the voice in her head beckoned her towards them, before they swiftly vanished.

She was faced with a dilemma, could she trust this strange vision? Given that beings had proven themselves to appear and disappear out of thin air and do her real harm, she couldn’t be sure whether she was just hallucinating the old man or if he really was something supernatural. And furthermore, she had no idea whether she could trust him even if he was real. On the one hand it’s possible he brought her here for the explicit purpose of running into those ‘demons’- or whatever they were- in the previous room. On the other, she could be the ‘master’ of the ghost who saved her life, in which case he was definitely an ally as far as she was concerned.

She decided to trust him, and followed the left path, but still keeping her guard up as she progressed around the corner, and up another slope to a door. Her whole body tensed up, she was mentally prepared for another bolt of purple lightning to descend with some threat attached, and she predicted correctly, once she stepped off the slope and onto terra firma, the expected flash came, and from it two strange, floating paper dolls.

She didn’t even wait a moment, she grabbed the one on the left and- finding that it really was made of something akin to paper- tore it in half before it could attack. She wasn’t so fast in catching the other one though, it waved it’s arms and shot a powerful gust of wind at her body. Painful, but nothing compared to what she felt before. She pushed through, punching it to the ground and repeatedly stamping on it until it perished and faded away.

One more quick scan of her surroundings confirmed there were no more threats, and not wanting to risk having another show up she passed through the next circular door with haste. This room was very different to the hallway. The moving patterns on the wall were far more numerous and luminescent, and equally numerous patterns of a strange red energy seemed to fly around the room. In the centre sat a slightly elevated platform, and just behind it, reappeared the mysterious pair.

“So you made it…” The voice spoke in her mind once more. “Your strength… is outstanding.”

“Who are you? What the hell was that?”

The old man simply smiled- almost imperceptibly.
“We shall meet again soon…” He raised his cane-holding hand to point in her direction

“What does that—”

~                              ~                             ~

“—even mean? H-huh? Again?”

Kotone looked around, she was back in front of the elevator, in the hospital, as if nothing had ever happened at all.

“Was that… a dream?” She looked down at her body, the bruise from the powerful and focused gust of wind on her torso was still there, and still hurt to the touch. “No… that was definitely real… how did…”

She looked at the elevator call button again, she still wanted to leave, right now, but…

“What if… no I can’t go back there… but maybe it’s…? ARGH GODDAMMIT!” She threw her arms up into the air. “I DON’T KNOW DAMMIT! I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING!” She stomped around ineffectually for a while, spitting wordless vitriol at the empty hallway.

~                              ~                              ~

Hijiri continued to analyse the drum, trying to make sense of the markings and patterns. Progress was slow, but it was happening, and it was fascinating. His focus was cut short when he heard the door open, for a moment he was fearful a demon had perhaps wandered in, but was relieved to see it was just the girl from before.
“Ah, you’re back, any luck?”

The girl trudged in, shoulders slumped, and looked at him with exhausted, weary eyes, and stared without saying a word.

“I’m guessing that’s a ‘no’ then?”

“No luck yet…” She made her way around the edge of the room, wanting to be as far away from the door as possible. “I’m just going to lie down for a bit, if that’s okay…”

“Sure, don’t mind me, I’ll just be over here.”

“Mm.”

Kotone gently lowered herself down onto her back, and stared listlessly at the ceiling while Hijiri returned his attention to the drum. Out of the corner of his vision he could see her turn onto her side, facing away from him. He tried to simply ignore her, can’t blame her for needing a rest with demons running around after all. She began to pull her knees close to her chest, and breaking the silence as she began to quietly sob.

“Aw jeez…” He sighed, as he listened to her try to stifle her tears, and fail. “This really isn’t my kinda thing… but…”

Hijiri unbuttoned his outer shirt, walked over to her, and draped it over her as a makeshift blanket. She didn’t look at him or say anything, but with shaking hands she pulled the shirt closer to herself. He sat down on the step next to her.

Neither of them said a word.

Chapter Text

Kotone sat up, letting Hijiri’s shirt unceremoniously slide off her shoulders and to the floor.

“You feeling any better kid?”

“Yeah… yeah I’m better now.” She looked down at the shirt. “Thanks. You can have that back.”

“You sure? You might need it more than me, it’s pretty cold down here.”

“Is it? Huh… I don’t feel cold.”

“That so…” Hijiri picked up his outer shirt, in all honesty we was kind of reluctant to put it back on after she had wiped her face on it so much, but he decided to just put up with it, this was hardly a situation where he could be fussy about that sort of thing. “Might be a side effect of your new power.”

“New power…” She looked down at the markings across her body once more, she couldn’t blame it on lighting this time, it was clear they really were glowing. She reached back to fiddle with the spike on the back of her neck. “What the hell is all this?”

“Beats me kid.” Hijiri got back up to his feet and approached the drum, looking back at her. “You think you can face going outside again?”

“Well I’m definitely not staying here with you for the rest of my life, that’s for damn sure.” She glared at him, but swiftly dropped it. “Sorry, I shouldn’t get mad at you. But I’m getting my stuff and leaving, I’ll make sure to tell someone you’re down here though.”

“Not sure there’s anyone to tell.”

“Of course there is… there has to be…” She gathered her resolve, and made her way over to the door. “Wish me luck.”

“Sure…”

~                              ~                              ~

Kotone felt anxiety grip her heart as she approached the elevator. This still remained her only hope of getting outside, but there’s no way she’d ever forget what happened to her the last time she pressed that call button.

“Come on Kotone, it’s probably not even tied to the button, it’s… actually I can’t think of anything to justify what happened, button or no button.” She groaned at herself. “Oh come on! There’s no way to leave without doing this so stop being such a little pussy and push the goddamn button!”

She rushed forward, stopping just an inch or so short of pushing it, before stepping away again. She told herself it was just to check that nothing was sneaking up behind her (which she couldn’t rule out in fairness), but when it was clear that there was nothing else down here, she had to face the button again. She rushed forward and pushed it before she could think about it anymore, immediately jumping back and into a battle-ready position afterwards.

But nothing happened. She was still in the basement, the elevator came down, and let out a little ding as the doors opened to her.

“N-nothing inside?” She checked from all angles, even making sure to check nothing was hanging on the ceiling or above the door, but no- it was completely empty. She had waited so long the doors began to close again before she shoved her arm through to trick the sensors, then very reluctantly stepped on board. She pushed the button for the ground floor, and settled in with her back to the corner so she could keep an eye on the whole elevator interior for her short journey upwards.

She arrived back above ground, and was quick to literally jump outside into the lobby. Everything still looked more or less normal, though there was still no sign of Chiaki or any of the hospital staff.

“Helloooo~ Anyone here?” she called out to behind the counter. “I need to speak with a doctor or someone in management? I got someone else’s procedure by mistake I think, I’d like to file a complaint.”

Complete and utter silence was the only response.

“Maybe I should have left out the complaint part? It might have scared them off… Jeez is there really no one here AT ALL?!”

She hopped over the counter so she could see if anyone was in the office behind, but aside from a few messy desks there was no sign of human life to be found.

“Well now what? I’m not in love with the idea of just walking back out into the street topless but it’s looking like I might have to. I guess I’ll ask someone to call the cops for me, it’ll be embarrassing and this whole incident is going to reflect really badly on me, but the tattoos are already going to ruin any chance I have at a good first impression so cutting my losses sooner rather than later is my best bet.” She groaned as she walked back out of the office. “This is THE worst day of my life…” She paused in front of the exit, looking up at the huge pile of rubble completely blocking off the door.

“…Me and my big mouth. How did…” she tried to think back to when she first got here, yesterday (or was it just earlier today? She wasn’t sure) was a complete blur in her memories, she remembered some parts at least, but one thing she did remember was all the shaking. “The earthquake? I guess that part was real, unless the building suddenly collapsed under its own weight, which I doubt.” She examined the rubble- though not too closely for fear of it suddenly toppling down on top of her. “I can’t even see through, let alone climb over. Oh god I’m not trapped in here, am I?” She shook her head. “No, there was that other entrance on the other side, I couldn’t get in that way but surely I could unlock it from the inside if I still somehow don’t find anyone before then. Okay… okay…” She turned around and walked back through the lobby, glancing at the elevator for a few more seconds, before decided to go the long way and see if she could find some stairs instead.

~                              ~                              ~

As luck would have it- she did find some stairs, and was able to ascend to the second floor. Unfortunately her luck didn’t last, as once she opened the door exiting the stairwell, she spotted not one- but three of those strange wisps she had encountered, muttering about hunger and ‘magatsuhi’ in a repetitive, barely coherent drone.
“Those things are out here too? Shit…”

She briefly considered turning around and trying to find yet another path, but realized it was pointless when she saw two more on the hospital’s other side through the window.
“Guess they’re just everywhere, huh?” She watched them float around sluggishly, often bumping into the walls and biting at the air as if trying to eat the dust particles floating around. “These were the ones that went down pretty easily, so I reckon I could probably take them… but I don’t have that ‘Master said to heal you’ guy up here, they could really wear me down if I fight too many of them.”

She stepped out of the door, and walked forwards as calmly as she could.
“Ideally they don’t even notice me, but if they do, I kill them quickly.”

She maintained a casual pace, but kept her fists clenched ready to throw a punch at a moments notice. They really seemed to be only barely aware of their environment and were busy trying to eat… something out of the air, she really hoped she could avoid this fight, but that hope was short lived. One turned towards her as she was about to pass it, groaning with malicious intent.

“hUNGry…”

She didn’t give it a chance, she immediately swung her arm into it as hard as it could, the impact causing it to immediately dissipate. She heard something clatter to the ground, but paid it no mind for now, her focus was on the other two, which had also noticed her. One charged.

“Brainless!”

Their tactic of just rushing her in a straight line made countering with another blow easy, and it faded into nothing just as easily as the first. The last one hung back though, and began its chant to painfully drain that energy from her body again. Despite her best efforts launching herself at it, she wasn’t able to prevent the spell, her whole body stung as that inexplicable red light was pulled out of her. She noticed however- that it didn’t hurt as much as before, perhaps because she was ready for it this time, she thought? Regardless, she was able to push through it and eliminate the final wisp with ease, she heard something else clatter to the ground.

After confirming there was nothing else targeting her just now, she looked down at whatever it was that feel down by her feet. She saw an odd white stone, almost resembling a scaled up grain of salt. She cautiously prodded it with her feet, easily being able to roll it around, but it didn’t seem to react in any particular way. She crouched down and picked it up.
“Did this fall out of it’s body? Where could it have been holding it?” She felt the spike on the back of her neck. “Then again, I suppose you could ask the same thing about me…”

This stone, it didn’t look remarkable in any way, but something about holding it made Kotone feel… soothed, as if it’s very aura was comforting. As she gripped it she could feel it crack slightly, she could probably break it with her bare hands.
“Is there something inside maybe?”

She decided to follow her whims, and crushed it in her fist. Despite how brittle it was, she still couldn’t help but feel kinda cool crushing a rock with her bare hand, but much more remarkable was the effect she felt immediately afterwards- the pain was fading from her body, the broken fragments of the stone faded into a warm light with enveloped her, and was absorbed by her body.
“I feel… better? Is this what the ‘master’ guy was using?” The feeling was similar to before, albeit much weaker. “If so… wow, we should start making these things standard in healthcare.”

She looked back to the item that fell from the first wisp, another- identical stone. She picked it up and willed it into the back of her neck.
“I’m not much of a D&D player, but I at least know what a ‘bag of holding’ is, this is really helpful.” She called out the stone again just to make sure it still worked, then willed it away once more. “When I have them remove the tattoos, I might ask to let me keep this thing, this is way better than carrying a purse everywhere, and I wouldn’t have to worry about finding clothes with big pockets, I could just pick out the cute stuff.” She fiddled with the spike a little. “I hope it doesn’t put anyone off though… eh, I’m sure they’ll get it when I show them how useful it is, everyone will be asking me to hold their stuff for them… I wonder how much I could get in there…” She shook her head, and continued down the hall. “I better keep moving, it’s still dangerous here. I’ll think about how I’ll be the super helpful ‘camping queen’ later.”

She turned the corner, relieved to see no more wisps just yet. She passed by the elevator- keeping a few paces distance from it just in case- but flinched when she nearly bumped into someone- or something rather. Sat on the floor opposite the elevator, was a creature that could be described as halfway between an ape and… Kotone didn’t want to use the word hag but… that word was pretty much invented for things like this. It was sat cross-legged, with its entire body sans half it’s face covered by long white hair, with a headband holding in place an unnecessarily tall wooden stick with strange writing on it.
‘Must be a patient, I better not stare too much, it’d be rude.’ Kotone thought to herself.

“Good afternoon Ma’am.”

It didn’t respond, or at least she assumed it didn’t, she didn’t stick around long enough to give it a chance to.
“If she’s able to just sit there like nothing matters then clearly the wisps don’t notice her, or maybe that headband keeps them away? She’ll be fine… probably.”

Kotone read the map posted next to the elevator.
“Okay so… to get to the other exit I just have to pass through to the annex? Though this door right…” She stepped back to see the door immediately to the left continuing down the hall. “…there, cool.”

Making sure not to look at the old woman, ape, thing- Kotone walked thorough the door and found herself overlooking the lobby through a large window on her left, and another door to her right.
“Just through here.”

She found herself walking across a bridge connecting the main building to the annex, and realized that with the windows on either side, this was the first time she could see outside. She couldn’t see much beyond the buildings on the other side of the road, but it all seemed normal enough; that was aside from the fact that she couldn’t see any people. None walking the streets, noone driving by, noone peeking at her from the windows on the other side of the road, nothing.
“Maybe Tokyo isn’t as busy as they say? At least not around here…” she was beginning to get worried. “Nah it’s probably normal, there’s nothing to do here except… I dunno, get sick and go to work? They’re probably all just inside.”

She noticed the path ahead was blocked off by a glass security gate, and- more notably- a strange girl hanging out beside it, pacing back and forth. Though that would be using the term ‘pacing’ incorrectly, as she was clearly floating a couple feet off the ground, her wings flapping at a comfortable pace. Despite her body having clearly adult proportions, she was about half- maybe even a third the size of Kotone.

She rubbed her eyes, but there was no getting around it: Kotone was looking at a real life fairy right now.

“Hm?” It noticed her. “Hello there.”

Kotone stared baffled for a moment.
“Uh, hi?”

It flew over to her, it didn’t seem hostile at all, but Kotone was still unsettled. It floated around her, observing her from every angle.
“Ooh, I’ve never seen a demon quite like you before.” It had quite a high-pitched voice, though that was perhaps to be expected with her size. “Kinda cute… annoyingly so actually…”

“Um, my bad? Oh, but I’m not a demon though, I’m human.”

“Huh? Are you sure? You definitely look like one.”

“I’m…” She looked down at her body. “Actually, I’m not sure…”

“Huh, weird.” The fairy poked her a few times. “Yup, everything points to ‘demon’.”

“How can you tell?”

“Demons come in all shapes and sizes, not all of them are lucky enough to be as cute as you or me, but humans are all more or less the same… probably.”

“’Probably’?”

“I mean, it’s not as if I’ve ever met one, but your energy is really ‘demon-like’. If you are a human you’re a pretty special one.”

“You’ve not met one? There have to be some around here? Surely?”

She shrugged.
“I heard some got out through the other side.” She gestured towards the security gate behind her.

“They got out?” Kotone- for probably the first time since waking up, smiled as she felt hope once again fill her heart. “So there are others… I mean, of course there were, y’know? But it’s nice to have confirmation.” She bowed lightly. “I better try and catch up with them, thanks for the info.”

“Not that easy unfortunately, door’s locked, you need some kind of key.”

“A key? OH!” Kotone began rummaging around in her short pockets, but began to panic when she felt them all completely empty. “Where…? Oh goddammit!”

“You good?”

“I had an ID card earlier, but they must have taken it from me when I woke up.” Kotone rubbed her eyes in frustration. “Makes sense, it belongs to the hospital after all… man…”

The fairy floated in front of her, smirking mere inches away from her face.
“It’s alright, I know where another one is! Let’s strike a deal!”

“A deal?”

“I’m looking for someone to take me to Yoyogi park.”

“Yoyogi park?”

“I mean, you look kinda bony and weak, but I’ll let that slide.”

“Who you calling bony?”

“Oh don’t worry about it, your face makes up for it… just about.”

“Rude.”

“But if you promise to take me there, I’ll help you get the card to get through here? I’ll be your demon ally! Whaddya say? Pretty sweet deal, right?”

“Demon ally?”

“I mean I’m sure you’ve seen some of the other demons running around, they’re mean!”

“No kidding…”

“We’ll have a better chance of getting out of here if we stick together!”

“I mean, I don’t have a problem with helping you out, but you don’t exactly look… well you don’t look like the type to throw punches.”

She held her nose up into the air, filled with smug pride.
“I’m tougher than I look y’know! Trust me, you won’t regret this!”

“Hmm…” Kotone analysed the fairy top to bottom, the image of a maybe three-foot-tall woman in a admittedly rather cute leotard didn’t scream ‘strength’, but then again she was sure her own image of a slim (definitely not bony) teenage girl didn’t strike fear into the hearts of monsters either, but she had proven herself capable of smacking a bitch when the need called for it. She decided to trust this ‘demon’. “Okay, it’s a deal then. I’m Kotone Shiomi.” She lightly bowed again. “Call me Kotone, I look forward to working with you.”

“Kotone…”

She nodded.
“Yup, what’s your name?”

“Name?”

“Uh, yeah? What should I call you?”

“I don’t really… a lot of us littler demons don’t have individual names, it usually doesn’t work like that for us.”

“Seriously?”

“Maybe you really are human…” She shrugged. “Whatever, I’m Pixie the Fairy, so… that I guess.”

“Not the most imaginative name, but sure. ‘Pixie’ it is.”

“It’s not a name technically… not for me at least. Eh, whatever. I’m sure we’ll be the best of friends!”

“Friends…” Kotone smiled back at her. “I’m sure too.”

She flew back down the way Kotone came.
“Come on, there are some other demons holding onto the card we need, I’ll need your help beating them up!”

Kotone wasn’t in love with the idea of yet more dangerous encounters, but she realized she probably didn’t have a choice in the matter. She simply nodded and followed Pixie through the doors and back into the main hallway.

“They’re hanging out in this room here, but they’ve locked the door.”

“Oh don’t tell me we have to find another key first?”

“Nah, they’re pretty dumb, I bet I can get them to open to door for us.”

Pixie put her ear against the door, Kotone following suit. They heard groaning through the door, and the chanting of “Magatsuhi…magatsuhi…”

“Ew…” Pixie pulled away from the door. “Those gunky pretas are inside!”

“What’s a preta?”

“Ugly little gross dudes, it’s okay though, I’ll talk to them.” Pixie cleared her throat and spoke in the deepest, gruffest tone she could. “Me have… magatsuhi… brought… lots…”

Kotone found the image of a girl as cute and tiny as Pixie trying her absolute hardest to sound like some kind of groaning zombie amusing, it went a long way to curbing her anxiety about the upcoming encounter.

“Gaah?” Another groan- much more curious-sounding than the others- was heard through the door. “Maga…tsuhi…?” a moment of silence passed before the voices within started cackling like excited apes. “ME EAT! ME EAT!”

“Get ready, they’re gonna attack us for sure.” Pixie warned.

Kotone nodded, stood in front of the door, waited until she was sure it was unlocked, then immediately kicked it as hard as she could, sending the closest Preta flying back as she and Pixie forced their way in. She froze in fear when she saw them though, it was the same purple creature she had encountered in the strange flooded tunnel, this was a ‘preta’? And it wasn’t just one, but three.

Kotone instinctively retreated several steps back, clutching her right arm, accidentally backing herself against the wall doing so.

“Kotone?” Pixie looked back to see her, trying in vain to control her breathing as she trembled, continuing to dig her nails into her upper arm.

“Magatsuhi! Me want eat!” A preta led the charge, scuttling towards Kotone.

“NO!” She kicked the preta in the face, halting it’s charge and knocking it to the ground, she looked in horror to the second and third still closing in.”

“Zio!”

An inexplicable bolt of lighting struck one, the other retreating in fear.

“Zio!” Pixie cried again, a second bolt struck the stunned preta, reducing it to dust.

Kotone stepped forward and punched the fearful preta to the ground, before mounting it, holding it down with her left arm, and repeatedly slamming her right fist against it until it disappeared. Slamming her fist into the ground where the creature just was, she took but a single breath before she felt a claw swipe at her back, the first preta had recovered and began attacking her. It swiped at her torso again as she climbed to her feet, but was cut off by a third zio courtesy of Pixie, stunning it long enough for Kotone to lunge at it, finishing it off.

“Hoo…” Pixie wiped her forehead. “That’s all of them, I was worried you’d be no help at all for a second there, but you did pretty good…”

“…”

“Kotone?”

Kotone was hunched over, still breathing heavily, staring down at the ground.

“Uh… Kotone? We’re done? We beat them?” Pixie approached from her side, Kotone instinctive swiping at her as soon as she came within range, the fairy only barely dodging it. “Holy shit! What was that?!”

Kotone glared at her for a moment longer, before suddenly realizing what she did.
“Oh god, I’m so sorry Pixie. I saw movement in my peripheral and I just… I’m sorry.”

“I get it, just… chill alright?”

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry.”

“That’s the opposite of ‘chill’. Look, you’re not even that hurt.”

Kotone looked down at her wounds, Pixie was right- while painful these wounds were less like the life-threatening gashes from her first encounter and rather a few steps up from a rather nasty cat scratch.
“Um… Pixie? As pretas go, were these ones especially weak?”

“Hm? Not really, pretas are all more or less the same.”

“I guess maybe… that first one was a lot stronger, or just got better hits on me?”

“Maybe? You’re probably a lot stronger yourself. Here, lemme get that- dia!”

A soothing slight radiated off of Kotone, she watched the wounds heal right before her eyes. She laughed.
“Wow, between that and the lightning, you’re just full of surprises. I’m friends with a literal wizard.”

“I told you I’m tougher than I look!”

“I’m sorry I doubted you.”

Pixie swayed her hips proudly.

“I don’t think I got stronger quite that quickly though, I fought one of these guys like… a couple hours ago? Today’s been a work out but you can’t expect results that quickly.”

“Are you serious right now? Wait don’t tell me you don’t actually know how Magatsuhi works?”

Kotone sat down on one of the discarded hospital beds.
“I’ve heard that term a few times now, but I don’t know what it is.”

“You definitely have a human brain that’s for sure…”

“Should I be insulted right now?”

“So magatsuhi is demonic power, right?”

“Just gonna ignore my other question, huh?”

“Everyone is trying to get more of it, all the time, constantly. It keeps us full, makes us stronger… that’s it really, but those are pretty important things.”

“Keeps us full… come to think of it I’ve not felt hungry at all since I woke up… or tired… but I don’t even know what magatsuhi looks like.”

“You’ve been absorbing it just fine, you did so just now after killing those pretas.”

“Huh…” Kotone looked at her arms, wiping some of the leftover blood on her hands off onto the bedsheets. “It’s automatic? Or I’ve been doing it subconsciously? I guess that’s handy but… the mentally of ‘more killing = more good’ doesn’t sound healthy.”

“Welcome to demon life baby!”

“I’m not sure I care for it.” Kotone scanned the floor for the keycard, it had slid under the bed, she picked it up, willed it into her bag of holding, and headed towards the door. “Let’s get me out of here- you to Yoyogi park, then I can tell the police or the JSDF about this place and I can see about getting my life back on track. The sooner I’m not dealing with demon fights and instead dealing with midterms, the better.”

“What’s a midterm?”

“Pain. But less pain than this.”

“Right…” Pixie followed Kotone out of the room.

~                              ~                              ~

“Good, it works.” Kotone willed the card into safekeeping just in case she needed it again as she and Pixie passed through the security gate. “I suppose we could have broken through but that’d get us in trouble for sure.”

“With who?”

“The hospital owners, obviously. I don’t want them to have anything against me when it comes time to sue them.”

“Sue?”

“Human stuff, don’t worry about it.”

“I guess I won’t then. Oh- hold up.” After they passed through the door on the other side, the pair saw through the window down to the annex lobby, not too dissimilar to the main building’s lobby, the only thing that leapt out to them was the huge demon flying around.

“A manta ray?”

“That’s Forneus, he’s declared himself the big bossman of this place.” Pixie sneered at him through the window, though it’s unclear whether he even noticed them. “He’s scarier in person…” She turned back to Kotone. “I think we might need help.”

“Do you have any other friends around here?”

Pixie twiddled her fingers in embarrassment.
“Not as such… I got separated from the others, they’re all at the park already…”

“I see, I’ve got one… well I’m not sure how much of a ‘friend’ he is, but there’s another human downstairs, unless he’s hiding a gun somewhere I don’t think he’ll be much help.”

“We gotta recruit some demons!”

“Pixie you’re literally the first demon to not just attack me on sight… unless that old lady was actually one too, but I’m not going back to check.”

“That’s usually what you have to do to get magatsuhi, us littler demons usually have to settle for what’s floating around in the air… which sucks, it’s barely anything. Whereas you look pretty weak, an easy meal.”

Kotone restlessly rubbed her forearm.
“I guess a skinny girl walking around topless and alone, it’s like Christmas come early for the scum of the earth.” A chill went up her spine. “Would getting stronger scare them off?”

“Maybe… might also make you more of a target, carrying around all that magatsuhi.”

“I can’t win…”

“It’s all about risk and reward for us demons, the more magatsuhi you have, the more of a meal you are, but it also means you’re stronger, so if you get SOO strong they would have to be suicidal to attack you, then I think that counts as winning, right?”

“So we’re back to killing after all?”

“Yup, unless it looks like you can talk to them, then do that. We need as much help as we can get.”

“I guess, next demon I see, I’ll talk to them.”

Kotone left the viewing room and passed through to the annex hallway.
“Okay, any demons around?”

“Hmm… there’s a preta over there, but…”

Kotone stopped listening, she had already grabbed said preta by the back of the head and slammed it against the nearby wall, killing it instantly, before turning back to Pixie.
“No pretas.”

“I thought you might say that.”

Kotone winced as a wisp she hadn’t noticed drained her from a distance.
“OH WOULD YOU LEAVE ME ALONE!” she lunged at it, swiftly ending its life. “Dammit Pixie- why are you literally the only one here who isn’t an asshole?!”

“Um…” Pixie shrugged. “I’unno…”

Kotone, still huffing and puffing, picked up another one of those strange healing stones the wisp left behind, willing it into storage.
“Anyone else wanna knuckle sandwich?! HUH?!” She looked around for the next demon to punch. “I’ve got a whole buffet’s worth, and they’re free! WOW! Come and get it!”

“You sound like a delinquent.”

“I wonder if this is what delinquents feel like…” She noticed more of those strange paper dolls floating around, and was about to charge it too before Pixie called out to her.

“H-hold on!”

Kotone froze, but kept her eye on the doll as it noticed her, each waiting for the other to make a move.

“That’s a Kodama, try talking to it.”

Kotone wanted to object, but thought better of it, being slightly disappointed in herself for giving into bloodlust so quickly. She dropped her guard.
“Hey, what’s your name?”

“Name?”

“Oh right, demons don’t do names.”

“You look weird Miss.”

“How so?”

“You got weird things in your hair…”

“They’re just hairclips.”

“Your clothes are weird…”

“I like these shorts…”

“You have weird stripes on your weird looking boobies.”

“What the—how are they weird looking? These are perfectly normal! Ugh… I’m being body-shamed by a piece of paper…” She sighed. “Look, I’m trying to get out of here, want to help out?”

“Hmm…” The Kodama pondered… presumably, it’s ‘face’ was two little swirly lines only vaguely resembling eyes so it was hard to tell. “I’ll help if you give me a life stone.”

Keeping her eyes on the Kodama, Kotone turned her head slightly to speak to Pixie.
“What’s a life stone?”

“It’s that thing you picked up from the wisp.”

“Hm? Oh yeah.” She willed it back to her hand. “A stone that gives life, guess the name kinda makes itself, huh?” She handed it to the strange doll, which accepted it with glee.

“Awesome Miss. Now give me some macca.”

“Bitch you already—UGH!” She turned again. “Pixie, what’s macca?”

“I’ll get this one.” Pixie sighed, reaching under her long socks and pulling out a coin that was definitely bigger than her leg was thick, it seemed impossible, but Kotone felt pointing that out would be hypocritical; it seemed different demons had different ‘bags of holding’ that defied the known laws of physics, given that Pixie could also shoot lighting and cast healing spells, Kotone had quickly decided to just accept whatever happens without questioning unless she absolutely has to. “Here you go kid.” Pixie tossed the coin over to him.

“Cool. Thanks Miss, I’ll help you out. I’m Kodama, the Jirae. Let’s form a contract.”

“Contract? Oh you just mean an agreement. Sure, you’re ‘hired’ I guess.”

A red glow suddenly emanated from both the demon, and Kotone’s neck spike- she couldn't see the latter of course, but she could feel the warmth.
“Hm?”

“That’s the contract formed.” Pixie nodded. “It’s now yours to command, it can no longer disobey you.”

Kotone’s eyes went wide.
“Wait, really? It’s like a slave contract?”

“Pretty much.”

“Oh dear… I’m suddenly a lot less comfortable with this…”

“Hey, the kid agreed to it fair and square, it’s all good.”

“When you say ‘kid’… is it an actual child?”

“I mean… yeah kinda?”

“Define ‘kinda’?” Kotone looked up at Pixie with desperation in her eyes. “Pixie be honest with me, did I just acquire a child slave?”

“Uh… yeah? Don’t worry though, he can still fight for you, he’ll even die for you if you need him to.”

“OH GOD!” She clutched the sides of her head. “I don’t like this! This isn’t fun anymore…”

“Was it ever fun?”

“…No… but…”

“It’s okay, it’s only until it dies.”

“Please stop talking…” Kotone looked back to the Kodama, seeming content floating around in a figure-8 motion through the air. “Um… well uh… let’s go I guess?”

“Okay Miss.”

“I’m going to hell…”

~                              ~                              ~

“So Pixie, what is macca? Just for future reference.”

“Money, cash, hoolaa, wonga, the sauce.”

“Who calls it ‘the sauce’? But I guess I get the picture, money for demons. I have money in my bank account, but it’s all in yen obviously. Any idea what the conversion rate is? Wait what am I talking about? You’re demons, there wouldn’t be a conversion rate, would there?”

“You can get it from demon’s bodies as they’re disappearing, I was honestly wondering why you haven’t been doing that.”

“How?”

“Just… turn the remnants of their bodies into it? It’s kinda obvious.”

“You didn’t explain ‘how’ at all…”

“I dunno, I’ve never really thought about having to explain it before. You’re able to put stuff in and out of storage just fine, it’s like that.”

“I just have to ‘will’ it huh?” Kotone shrugged. “Sure, makes just as much sense as anything else today. I’ll try it on… that wisp. Kodama.”

“Okay Miss. Zan!” a concentrated burst of wind shot forth, tearing through the wisp with ease. As it’s body disappeared, Kotone reached forward into it’s dissolving body, pulling out a pair of copper coins.

“Didn’t exactly drop much, did it?”

“What did you expect, it’s just a wisp, they’re like the weakest things ever. Plus, why’d you reach in like that, wouldn’t it be better just to will it straight into storage? You won’t miss any that way.”

“Huh, I like your thinking! Kind of a pain that I have to actively think about it while I’m trying not to die, but sure, I guess it works.”

“It’ll become second nature before long.”

“I’m not sure I want to do this long enough for it to become natural.”

~                              ~                              ~

Kotone and her new demon friends continued to fight their way through the hospital, working their way downstairs to the hallway just outside the annex lobby. Now that she was beginning to understand the nature of magatsuhi and macca, things were getting easier as they went on. Demons were going down easier as they processed, the blows Kotone would take would hurt less, and she was getting better at absorbing macca without slowing down in the middle of a fight.

She had even managed to negotiate her way to recruiting two new demons to her cause of ‘let’s get the hell out of here’. Another demon seemingly made out of paper, a Shikigami, though more resembling a squid with a human face rather than the somewhat-humanoid Kodama, costing her just a few life stones (which she always made the habit of picking up after a fight). And now she was halfway through recruiting a Hua po, another demon strongly resembling Pixie, albeit with red skin, blonde hair, and white clothes; this one cost her a little more than macca, and she was really having second thoughts as to whether the new ally was worth it as she felt it’s teeth sink into her wrist, sucking magatsuhi right out of her bloodstream. Thankfully, it was true to it’s word and didn’t suck too much out of her, it pulled away and wiped its mouth happily.

“You better be worth it…”

“Piiipipipipiiii.” As it turned out, despite being humanoid like Pixies, couldn’t speak, instead sounding like birds. Thankfully, Pixie was happy to serve as a translator.

“She says you won’t regret it!”

“I better not.” Kotone crushed a life stone between her teeth as she rubbed her arm, watching it heal up without any lasting marks. “Let’s form the contract then.” The red glow confirmed it, she had yet another contracted demon. “Owning slaves… I’m getting some serious culture clash here…”

“I told you it’s fine, it’s how demons work.”

“It’s not something we make a habit of doing in Japan. If the police ask me, I’m going to lie to them.”

“That’s fine, that’s usually how demons work too.”

“I see…” Kotone stood by the door leading to the lobby. “So that fish dude is in here, right?

“Forneus, yeah.”

“And beyond that, freedom?”

“It’s apparently the way the other humans got out, though that’s likely because they didn’t have any Magatsuhi, so he didn’t notice them, we’re not gonna be able to sneak by.”

“I’ll try to talk to him, but I get the feeling we’re gonna have to fight him.”

Pixie looked back to the other demons.
“I reckon we could take him, you’re getting stronger quite quickly, y’know?”

Kotone wished she could take comfort in this, but not knowing exactly what she’d be dealing with until it was too late, she couldn’t help but feel anxious. Still, there was nothing to be gained standing around like this, she took a deep breath, and stepped through the door.

As predicted, it wasn’t long before Forneus noticed them, and swam through the air blocking off Kotone’s path. Now that she looked at him close-up, she noticed that while his main body resembled a manta ray, he had what looked like a humanoid body on top, as if the two beings had fused together, each with a separate set of eyes staring her down, she didn’t know which set to maintain eye contact with.

“Hey Punk! I’ve never seen you around, and I don’t like your face!” He spat at her, the exact opposite of a good first impression. “You’re trying to get by without paying respect to me, the almighty Forneus?!”

It felt like being accosted by a delinquent in the middle of the street, which strangely made Kotone feel less nervous. With how hard this weird fish was trying to be intimidating, it actually had the opposite effect and made him seem… kind of petty?

“Just trying to get by buddy.”

“Buddy? You wanna die dontcha?”

“There’s no right answer to that, whatever I say you’re gonna take it as a ‘yes’.”

“You’re damn right Punk! I screwed up and let another human escape a while ago, but not this time…”

“So they did come through.” Kotone took comfort in the reassurance, but quickly remembered her situation and remained on guard. “Do you remember what they looked like?”

“Do I look like I give a shit?! I get the feeling you’re not taking me seriously, I have a habit of butchering anyone who disrespects me. I cut ‘em up with these fins!”

She didn’t think the fins looked especially sharp, had this been a normal manta ray she’d be tempted to have a bit of a feel.

“Time to die!” Forneus swiped at her, she dodged backwards- not wanting to risk being wrong about those fins- and reached to try and grab his tail, but fell just short. “The hell you tryna do?!”

A chunk of ice formed in the air and smacked her in the face, the impact managing to draw a small amount of blood that trickled down the side of her face.
“Kodama!”

“Zan!” The wind definitely made contact, and Forneus recoiled in pain.

“Little bitch!” Another burst of ice formed, this time targeting Kodama, who was too slow to avoid it, it cried out in pain.

“Dammit. Pixie!”

“Zio!”

“YEARGH!”

“He really didn’t like that. Lightning works, keep it up Pixie.” Kotone willed another life stone out of storage, and tossed it to Kodama, who strained itself to just about crush it, its pain being soothed.

Shikigami cast zio alongside Pixie, forcing Forneus to keep moving.

“What the fuck! That actually hurts you assholes!”

Multiple shards of ice formed, striking Kotone and each of her party in sequence.
“Damn…” Kotone winced, feeling blood flow down her shoulder. His attacks were no joke, but looking up at him now his movement speed was rather low, it was easy to keep track of. “Pixie, heal me! Shikigami, keep attacking!”

Pixie’s magic helped soothe her, the wounds stopped bleeding, but it still hurt, and it did nothing for the blood already on her. She looked back.
“Hua po?” she had taken the impact of the ice shards harder than any of the others. “Pixie—”

“Hell no!” Forneus focused another ice shard on Hua po, striking it directly in the chest before Pixie could heal her. In the span of a second, its whole body seemed to turn to ice, the flapping of its wings ceased, and its body crashed down to the floor, shattering instantly.

Kotone watched in shock as the frozen remnants of her ally lay motionless on the floor. She had very quickly become acquainted with death after waking up, but this was the first time one of her allies had died.
“I should have healed her first. Shit!” She turned her attention back to Forneus, she would be lying if she claimed some sort of attachment to the Hua po, but she blamed herself for it’s death, her poor decision making meant someone trying to help her died. Any of their lives could vanish in an instant if she wasn’t careful.

She kept a close watch as the other demon’s spells kept Forneus flying around the room, making sure to dodge the ice shards it launched, waiting for it to draw close, then jumping up to just barely grab the tip of his tail.

“The fuck, let go you crazy bitch!” Forneus flapped and flailed, trying to escape, but was unable to as she held him in place, simultaneously being struck by zios from both Pixie and Shikigami.

With a mighty bellow, Kotone pulled the oversized fish down and slammed him into the ground.

“Urgh…” He groaned as he tried to regain his senses.

“Time for an all-out attack!”

“W-wait a second, h-hold on! We can talk about this!”

Kotone leapt forward mercilessly slamming her shoe down on it’s head while the two paper demons repeatedly rammed their bodies into him, Pixie… felt better sitting this part out, it wasn’t long before Forneus stopped struggling and his body lay battered and motionless on the ground. They had won, Forneus had faded away into nothing, and Kotone felt a huge chunk of magatsuhi flow into her.

Kotone leant forward on her bent knees, trying to catch her breath.
“Everyone alright?”

Her three surviving demon companions gave their affirmations.

“Okay cool.” She tossed them each a life stone, crushing one herself.

“I’m tired after that…” Pixie whined as she shattered her own stone, letting the fragments shower down on top of her. “I can maybe cast like 2 or 3 more spells before I’m spent…”

“We’re done now, we can go outside this awful hospital finally…” Kotone stood up straight, before noticing a strange bug writhing on the ground. Normally she’d be grossed out, and use it as yet more motivation to leave as soon as possible, and yet… she found herself strangely drawn to it. She stumbled over to it, picked it up between her thumb and forefinger, and watched it struggle in vain to escape. Despite the part of herself screaming to stop, she was overwhelmed by the compulsion to shove it into her mouth, forcing it down her throat. Only regaining her senses when it was too late, she started choking and gagging, but wasn’t able to stop it wriggling down her throat. “What the hell?! Why did I do that?”

“A magatama? Ooo, lucky you.”

Kotone looked at Pixie in horror.
“A what now?”

“’The essence of a demon’, or something like that. They can give you lots of power if you channel enough magatsuhi into them.” She looked at Kotone sympathetically. “I don’t blame you for gagging though, they’re HELLA gross.”

Now she remembered, this was the same bug that kid forcefed her in her nightmare…
“Was it a nightmare? I don’t…” She slapped herself.

“Woah? What was that for?”

“N-nothing. I can get out now, I’m not wasting any more time here, screw this place- I’m out.” She stormed towards the door. “I’m putting this whole awful nightmare behind me, I don’t even care about being topless anymore, ANYTHING is worth leaving here.”

She burst out through the door and out into the streets, which she noted were still empty and silent. She kept walking down the sidewalk, one arm over her chest for when someone did come along, she’d find a cop, tell them what happened, go into some long-term therapy, complete her move to Tatsumi port island, and never EVER deal with ‘demons’ ever again.

She reached the end of the road, and stared off into the distance. Her arm dropped to her side. Pixie and the others caught up to her.
“Don’t leave me behind! We still have to go to Yoyogi park.”

“…”

“Kotone?”

“…”

“You good?”

“It’s gone…”

“Gone?”

“Everything… is gone…” She looked out at what was once the city, there were still a few ruined buildings scattered around, but it was mostly desert, some areas not even sand, just an empty white void. She looked up, she noticed she- and everything else- were inside a huge sphere, everywhere she looked she saw the same, desert with a few buildings here and there, and in the centre of it all, a huge ball of light she felt glaring down at her. “Where is everyone?”

“What do you mean ‘everyone’?”

“All the people?”

“You mean humans?” Pixie tilted her head, concerned. “They disappeared a long long time ago. We thought there weren’t any left until you and those guys who snuck by Forneus showed up.”

Kotone stared at Pixie, dumbfounded.
“How do we get out the sphere?”

“Out? The vortex world is all there is in this world.”

“All there is?”

“…Yeah, you okay?”

“So… my old home is gone… Tatsumi is gone… everything is just… gone?”

Kotone stood motionless, tears silently flowed down her face as she stared forwards at the huge expanse of ‘nothing’ before her.

“Oh…”