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.