Chapter I- Mass Disappearance
Ai Enma frantically looked all over the Purgatory World in which she called home. Something was amiss, but she did not know what it was... and the growing feeling of her not wanting to know sank in her closed heart. This....this shouldn't be happening.
First, it was Ren. He was sent on an errand to fetch a client with a most peculiar request. It would take days for him to fetch said client as this was the type of "show up and take me away from this wretched world!" When he should've returned... he didn't.
Wanyudo was sent after him. The exact same thing happened. Then, Hone Onna, and then Yamawaro.
The kitsune twins, known as Broken Love and Blood Raven (the former being male and the latter female), refused to move an inch from where the only tree was. They just would not budge an inch no matter what was thrown at them. Blood Raven kept wailing in the dead of night as though horrific nightmares plagued her. She refused to speak of them at all.
They're watching me... She'd say over and over again. They've condemned us all...
And then, they too disappeared, leaving only a feather from each of their wings. Kikuri went missing at the same time they did. On the tree was a note hastily scribbled in blood in that pseudo-cursive mess the Raven always wrote.
Save us all... help....... they're after you...... don't go!!
Reading the note confused Ai, but in a rather ominous way. 'Don't go'? The hell did that mean? And who were 'they' that Blood Raven kept murmuring about every five seconds?
But the words that took the cake were 'save us all'. Only one thing rang in her head: She'd have to embark somewhere.
She ran back to the computer that accepted people's grudges. It had the name, address, email, reason for the request, and... the current location of the client.
"No...." Ai almost gasped as she stared wide-eyed at the screen. On the location were two words and two words only: Silent Hill.
The cursed ghost town only whispered of in legend. She never heard of it herself until Blood Raven came along, as she sometimes swore left, right and fucking sideways she'd been there before.
Now, she'd have to put that alleged boast to the test.
Hell Girl had arrived to a desolate forest in her school girl uniform. A heavy, foreboding fog covered so much she'd have to be within a few feet before she saw even a silhouette of an object. She breathed heavily as for some reason her act of teleporting took almost all her strength. What's more, she could not use any of her other abilities. In short, she became as useless as the so-called average human being.
"No wonder they didn't come back..." Ai said under her breath.
Twigs started snapping as though someone walked on them, which sent the immortal girl running faster than a rabbit. Dark silhouettes of deciduous trees passed by her rushing form, some too close for comfort and others almost lost in the haze. She heard more twigs snap under her feet than the whatever-it-was that pursued her.
Suddenly, a wire fence stopped her dead in her tracks as her hands frantically clutched the new obstacle before her. Ai started looking for any sign of escape, but there was none to be had. She looked down and was about ready to accept defeat when something caught her eye. It was a baseball bat Blood Raven came to possess, and it was made of metal. It had a dent in it but was otherwise untouched, as far as violence was concerned. It was silver with a sort of "gold" rust on it. Next to it was a silver-and-pink radio whose antenna was broken. It had a cup handle on top of it for grasping fingers, with two buttons, labeled 'reset' and 'scan' on either side of its speakers, which surrounded a large silver disk that served no purpose. Dark grime formed on the silver parts of this radio, but it left the pink untouched whatsoever. This had also belonged to the Raven, and it fit in the palm of her small hands. But what was foreboding about it was a soft static noise emitting from its speakers, which was odd because the damn thing was broken. The static grew louder, and twigs being crushed once again snapped Ai back into reality. She suddenly picked up the bat with both hands and turned to her pursuer with her back against the wire fence.
The creature was reddish-grey in color, with stitches making up the whole of its head. Its arms were bound to its body with its own flesh like it was in a straightjacket. But the most defining thing about this monster was that it looked...heavily pregnant. What the hell happened?!
Hell Girl gripped the baseball bat tighter as she eyed the fiend. "You can't attack me!" She said.
As if in response, the creature's arms freed themselves from their fleshy confinement, revealing talons on its hands where the fingers would be. They were long, sharp, and made of what looked like metal. The delicate internal organs were exposed behind crumbling rib cages as the heart pulsated at a hastening rate. The monstrosity let off a hideous shriek of pain as it rushed toward Ai, who immediately hit it on the head so hard it caved in.
"I stand corrected." She said as she looked down at the body of the monster she just finished off in one hit. She then turned to the radio, which had fallen silent. The immortal girl picked it up with caution and then shook it close to her ear. Nothing. She took off the red bow-scarf that made the base of her collar before tying the radio to it and then making it into a necklace. It was no wonder the Raven did not use this bat unless she conjured an illusion thereof--it was light in weight but heavy in damage when wielded correctly. She looked back at the creature. In its ribcage something was glinting. She moved a clawed arm out of the way before digging into the decaying flesh with a look of disgust. Her arm was then pulled out with a trail of blood and slime following suit. In her hand was a key. It was a brilliant gold with a wheel on the side opposite of the lock-cracking end. It...somehow reminded her of Wanyudo. Was it the wheel, or something more?
Ai looked back at the fence. It was now ripped in two, with a gap just large enough for her to clamber through.
"So, I'm being played with. Lovely." Ai snarled as she realized she started talking like Blood Raven. Then again, that kitsune was a fucking looney. It did not hinder her tasks at all, it was just that she was a fucking lunatic.
She walked through the now-broken fence as if it was a casual thing. Now under Hell Girl's feet was a sidewalk, and next to said sidewalk was a street. Apart from the monster and the fence and the fog, it looked like any other street. She turned around. The fence was now back the way it was.
"Talk about a warm welcome..." Murmured Ai, who was somewhat dumbfounded. A soft static snapped her to her senses as she drew the baseball bat again. It was another one of those pregnant things shambling toward her. It was flailing its upper body profusely, and then it landed on its back emitting shrieks that made Ai think twice about going into battle. Something tore its way out of the womb in the wost manner possible before standing on top of the now-dead benefactor and glaring at Hell Girl.
The creature was wisps of darkness, standing on two legs. Its right arm was practically nonexistent, but its left arm held even longer claw-daggers; so long in fact it reached what she assumed was its ankle. A jack-o-lantern's expression was where the face would be, and the mouth and eyes were glowing a soul-piercing gold. Ai felt a new-found fear shake her very being as she kept staring at the creature's eyes. It too remained unmoving, as if waiting for her to strike. The grin widened as Ai started shaking. Her mouth moved, but no words formed.
Suddenly, the creature wailed as another ear-piercing shriek of one of the pregnant monsters sounded. But these shrieks sounded... oddly feminine. Too feminine if you asked either Ai or the shadowed creature who started panicking. The static started picking up as more shrieks sounded in the distance. In the distance along the street the silhouette of a running creature was approaching the stand-off. As it got closer, the sounds of rattling shackles were paired with the screams. The dark creature fell on its rear end, holding out its clawed arm as it continued to shriek for what Ai only assumed was mercy. At last, the creature who brought the sound of rattling shackles emerged from the fog.
"No...." Ai said as her ruby eyes dilated in a mix of shock and sadness as she stared at the source of the rattles. It too was a pregnant monster, but much more refined in a way. Its right arm was in front, subdued the same way as with the others. The arm rested under the creature's chest, which had the trademark fatty deposits. Its left arm was on its back, bent in such a way it looked painful. Its mouth was sewn shut, and its eye sockets empty and bloodied. Shackles were on the neck, where the wrists would be had they been free, and the left ankle of the creature. The creature, like the other two pregnant monsters, was heavily lacerated, with a unique gash linking the private parts to the belly-button clearly visible. On its head was....long, brown hair, hideously tangled and dripping with blood. Short bangs, not going past the nose, were neatly brushed to the sides of its head. It opened what little it could of its shut mouth and let off another wail at the shadowed creature, who inexplicably died right then and there. It....no, she turned to the still-terrified Hell Girl. Her expression hinted sadness.
"Blood Raven....?" Ai stuttered, to which the creature nodded.
"They're...corrupted.....help us...." Blood Raven said before she ran away into the fog once more, dropping something in the process as the radio ceased buzzing. Ai walked over and picked up the object. It was a necklace shaped like the Mark of the Covenant, and it was strapped onto a note that was once more scrawled in blood.
The man on the burning bridge rests in the west.
The bloodied swords stay in the east.
The former prostitute lays in the northern range
While the mushroom man keeps to the south.
Three beings roam the forsaken streets:
A little girl, a young man, and an abused young woman.
Each wish for their corruption to end,
And only She who helps the corrupted souls can hope to stop it.
Ai gulped as she re-read the riddle. It...spoke of her and her recruits (as well as Blood Raven's sword, who was a non-transformed tsukunogami). Behind the note was a map of the town. It detailed things such as houses, a school, a hospital, and many other things, though she'd had to look closer because a lot of the writing faded away. On the map, in the right-hand corner, was a little compass scrawled in blood, probably once again drawn by the Raven. She looked at the map again using this compass. There was a warehouse on...a Chariot Street?
Wait a minute! Chariot Street?! That meant the key was--!
"This is...strange. Now I see why she dropped it." Ai whispered to herself as she turned westward. According to the map, she'd have to walk past two intersections and then take a right. Past two houses and she'd be at the warehouse. She started walking to her new destination. Upon reaching the first intersection, which wasn't too far away from where the Raven shamed the shadowed being to death, there was a bag just laying in the road. She picked it up and examined it inside-out. It was empty, save for a loaded handgun and a flashlight in the bag. "Might as well." She told herself before placing everything but the baseball bat in the bag and putting it on her shoulder. She resumed walking to the warehouse, remembering to pass the second inter--
"Damn." Said Ai as she stood near this chasm that appeared from fucking nowhere. As far as she could tell, it led to the center of the earth. She turned around and walked back to the first intersection, and this time, took a left. A soft static noise began ringing as another one of those pregnant things was in the distance of the fog. It was heading to the chasm for some strange reason. She simply shrugged it off and kept on going northward, keeping a slow pace to her walking speed. Once she saw another intersection, she took a right. "I'm going to that damn warehouse one way or another." Ai whispered, her voice hinting some determination.
Chapter II- When One Thing Goes Wrong...
Hell Girl was now standing in an alleyway, looking at the map again. It said the alleyway led to Chariot Street. But if that was the case, then why the hell was there a wall with a middle finger painted on it in blood red blocking her? Yes, that's right, there was a middle finger on the wall flipping her off. She walked closer to this wall to examine it. It had a hole which was small enough to be crawled through. She threw the bag through the hole, followed by the baseball bat before crawling through herself. Being in a pre-teen's body had its benefits. After falling onto her luggage, she picked up the bag and put it on her body where it belonged. The baseball bat was returned to her hand should she need it.
She then emerged from the other end of the alley before looking both ways. "South it is." She murmured before heading southward. The warehouse was coming into view now, and she broke into a sprint before stopping before its door. She tried the knob, and it was locked. Above the knob was an indent of a wheel crudely scratched on the rotting wood. She took out the wheel key from her bag and put it in the lock before turning it as a click sounded. The key became stone as Ai turned the knob and opened the door. It was dark and dismal, the putrid stench of blood flooding her nostrils as she took out her flashlight to examine the insides of the warehouse. Her normally-keen night-sight had also been removed from her reservoir of demonic abilities, so she had to make do with what she had. Furniture was scattered about as well as some decayed, mummified corpses. Like the furniture, some bodies were whole and others ripped limb from limb as parts hung from meat hooks above.
Her eyes caught sight of a music box that was delicately perched on a three-legged table. She walked over to it and looked at it closely. It was black with a colorful floral design. It was primarily a rectangle in shape and it had a little silver key on its backside. She turned the key until it would not go any further. The music box played 'Silent Night, Holy Night' and opened on its own accord. The bottom half was a silky red velvet on the inside, and on the inner sanctum of the top half was a mirror. Crystal clear, and unbroken. There was another box inside the bottom compartment, which Ai took out and examined. It was white and primarily a square in shape. It had an indent on its top that looked like the Mark of the Covenant. She took out the necklace Blood Raven dropped earlier and held said necklace and the white box side by side. Then, Ai decided it was time to test a theory: to see if the necklace would fit onto the box. The necklace snapped into place on its own, and the white box opened as the music box had before it. It contained a silver key with the hilt of a sword on one end, which she put in her bag, and another note.
One world brings confusion, yet another brings panic.
Should this box be opened the realms shall be switched to and fro.
Reading these words, Ai's heart dropped straight to Hell as the music box stopped abruptly. A siren was heard in the distance as she lost consciousness.
When Ai woke up, she felt lightheaded. She struggled to get up off of her back and continue her mad searching for her companions. She stood on her legs for five seconds before falling over on her stomach. In front of her face was the same music box she opened. And when she looked into the still-unbroken mirror, her eyes widened. She was now equine with hooves instead of hands, her eyes even redder now in her new form. She had a dark grey pelt, her mane was still the same. Pointed, equine ears jutted out from the top of her head, as well as a unicorn's horn from her forehead. Ai turned her head to look behind her. A black tail was settled just at the end of her hind quarters, and the Mark of the Covenant, as well as a straw doll complete with the scarlet thread, was sitting on both of her flanks. The bag was still on her body, perched on her right side with the strap becoming better suited to her new form. Her radio-necklace was still on her neck, thank Satan.
"Of all the things I could've been turned into....." Ai said as she shook her head before standing up once more, this time on all fours. She was a bit wobbly, but after a bit she stopped the shakes altogether. Next to the music box was the baseball bat. She concentrated on the bat before it was encased in a black-and-dark-purple aura and almost flew to her, which nearly knocked her on her ass. She swished and swashed the bat back and forth in front of her for a few seconds before becoming satisfied at learning how to be a unicorn for once in her 400-year-lifetime. Embarrassing, yes, but she had to persevere if she was to see her friends again. She then looked at the landscape around her and nearly jumped out of her new skin.
The world around her was very much twisted, contorted even. The ground under her hooves was a metal grating, and beneath that it gave off a sinister red glow. The walls were made up of what looked and certainly smelled like charred flesh. The ceiling was still wood, but even that was ablaze. From the ceiling were chains holding caged, burning bodies. The smell of boiling blood filled the room worse than when she first entered the warehouse. A soft static knocked her back to her senses as another shriek of the pregnant monsters sounded not too far away. The mare turned around and saw the monster approach her. It would've emerged those death talons if it wasn't repeatedly whacked upside the head before dying first.
"In the name of all things demonic...." Ai sighed before examining the wall where the creature had emerged. It was just that, another burning flesh-wall. She turned around and started trotting in the only other direction available: forward. As she was trotting, she kept the bloodied bat close at hand....err....hoof. Yeah, hoof. If she had changed, then why didn't the monsters change? The realms shall be switched to and fro... So this is what the riddle meant: two entirely different realms would swap, and when they did, all non-corrupted persons somehow became ponies for whatever reason, and the inverse was also true. Ai kept her ears perked at all times, listening for the slightest movement, looking for a single mishap.
"Maybe I should call those pregnant things Shamblers.... and those things that tear out of them Dark Abominations...." Ai murmured as she kept her steady pace. One thing really bothered her: Since Blood Raven herself was a Shambler, how did she keep herself composed unless Ai was being attacked? How did she retain what little sanity she had left even after she became corrupted? What was the force keeping her loyal to Ai Enma? And just how did the Dark Abomination perched inside her womb not emerge? She stopped in her tracks as a wall blocked her. On it was a door with a large wheel indent in its center. Next to this door was a quarter of the missing wheel, which was inserted into the indent with a click.
Behind her appeared another door that wasn't there before. It was wide open, as if telling her to enter. She trotted inside, and found three more doors behind it. Each had a set scripture carved into the walls. The first one read:
Hoards of fiends lie beyond this door.
All are defeated, the gun serving its last purpose
As the mother of the fiends emergeth from behind.
The second one was equally as foreboding:
Many an obstacle can be found here,
From spiked ceilings to flying spears.
Approach with a shield from the first door.
The last one was no better:
Lots of riddles to solve,
Complex meanings behind simple scriptures.
Answer carefully or death will head your way.
"First door it is." Ai hissed as her hoof pushed the rotten door ajar. Beyond the door was quite literally a hoard of shamblers, about a dozen with seven more. She galloped into battle, senselessly swinging the baseball bat and caving face after face in, sometimes sending a shambler or two flying against a wall. As she was senselessly swinging the weapon, more and more shamblers started dying, and when the last one died...
...Ai turned around, and saw the whole of the burning ceiling form a very crude image of an enlarged shambler whose lower body was missing. It was so huge it looked like the ceiling would collapse on itself. Imbedded in its head was another piece of the wheel. Right where a giant, pulsating heart was. Remembering the scripture, Ai drew the handgun from the bag and fires six shots clean into the weak point. It let off its final death throes before the wheel was ripped from its head by a black-and-dark-purple aura. The creature then thrashed about, which caused the whole room to shake. Not wasting another precious second, the mare jumped through the door before it slammed shut behind her, merging with the black flesh that made up everything else in this....otherworld. The best word to describe it was an otherworld. In the place of the door appeared a metal shield, like the ones used by the ancient Romans.
Reluctantly, she took the shield and entered the second door. It suddenly began raining spears from the spiked ceiling, and to top it all off there was another spiked pit at the bottom. On the sides of the room, many more shamblers were caged in prison cells. After curling up under the shield to avoid the spears from above, Ai got a very good idea. Once the rain from Hell ceased for a solid minute, the Jigoku Meuma (meuma= Japanese for mare) started ripping shamblers from their holding cells and impaling them on two spikes at a time. They were in a neat line so a bridge was formed between her and the target: another piece of the wheel. The gap was twenty feet, so she needed about thirty shamblers just to form a wide-enough walkway. Another rain of spears occurred, but it lasted only thirty seconds. The ceiling started to let off a sound which only meant one thing: get on the bridge now.
Ssssccccrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...........
Ai jumped on the bridge and started running like fuck toward the wheel fragment as adrenaline was pumped throughout her body. The awful scraping metallic noise made by the ceiling only kept her going faster. In ten seconds flat she cleared five feet already. Another thirty seconds and she was at where she wanted to be. When she snatched the wheel fragment, the ceiling went up. She started running back the way she came, and then the flesh-bridge under her hooves, as well as the surrounding spikes, all started going up as well. It was moving faster than the ceiling had done so, which forced the mare into all-out RUN LIKE FUCK mode. She kept on galloping, closing her eyes as she prayed to Hell that she'd survive. It was about to make her go splat had she not jumped, then rolled, past the doorway.
She sat on her rump panting like a dog. Her throat was dryer than a desert perched in Hell, and that said a lot! Her muscles ached so badly the best thing aside from a fucking oasis right now was a nap. Her horn suffered the worst of pains, as both wheel fragments and the shield dropped in front of her. "Fuck.....fuckity......fuck........fuck.....fuck.....FUCK IT HURTS!" Ai wailed as she continued to recover. She sat there cursing out her heart's content for fifteen solid minutes before she looked at the last door. She stood up, taking the shield and fragments with her should something attack. "Better safe than sorry," Quoth the Raven in the back of Ai's mind. She opened the door, and there were three riddles blocking her and the wheel from contact.
The first riddle read this:
Omens of bad luck,
Always bringing a curse.
Who have you met that is currently stuck
With such a spell first?
The second went like this:
What exactly reminds one
of the curse she hath bear.
Was it sometime after she had a son?
Or when she was dragged into the wolven lair?
The third was equally cryptic:
When she was brought to a haven,
Did she ever have a second thought?
What rhymes with flooded shaven
Has earned quite the lot.
Ai turned to each of the scriptures, and she thought carefully. The first one she looked at again. "My fifth recruit." She answered. With a shaky rumble, it sank into the cold dirt waiting below. Then, she looked at the second scripture. "When she was dragged into the wolven lair." Ai murmured before the scripture fell like the first. And then, the third. "Bloodied Raven." She answered before the same thing occurred. She then trotted over to the last fragment, took it, and went back to the wheel door. All three pieces went in with a click, and then the door opened on its own. She stepped inside. The room consisted of black flesh for a floor and a ceiling, with the walls on fire. The static started ringing once more as a creature crashed though the ceiling and roared at Ai square in the face. The lower half of this behemoth was entirely wooden in structure, complete with chariot wheels. The upper half had four arms and a wriggling mass for its head. It was made entirely of the black flesh, with a maw filled to the brim with broken spears for teeth.
The mare stood her ground, gritting her teeth as she tapped the baseball bat on the fleshy floor. The creature roared again before charging at Ai, who swiftly dodged the oncoming attack. She skid on her hooves as the creature ran smack into a flaming wall before it turned around to face its adversary. As it turned, its wooden backside caught fire, but the ember was too small to do any real damage. But then, an idea lit up a candle in Ai's mind.
"Hey, four-armed monster! That's right, try getting this hot piece of flank right here!" Ai said as she purposely mooned the behemoth, which provoked another charge that added to the ember that first appeared.
"Not quite, flesh-thing!" Ai hollered again before dodging another charge. She did this fifteen more times, each time firing an insult or two.
The wooden half of the creature burned off, but the fleshy mass remained unaffected. But there was a flip-side to this: it exposed Wanyudo's body, held captive by the corruption. Ai's horn began flaring around her recruit as the behemoth roared again. It started charging at the mare but stopped right in front of her face. A smile crept on her muzzle, and saying sayonara, the creature roared as it rammed into the blazing walls over and over, its captive now free and floating next to Ai. The creature let off a howl from Hell before collapsing over itself. A portal to the purgatory world opened up and Ai threw Wanyudo through the portal before it closed. After the deed was done, a siren blared and she passed out once more.
