DISCLAIMER: DDLC and its characters belong to Team Salvato. Scenario and and original characters are mine. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1 – Good Morning!

Sunlight peaking around the curtains of the sole window in their room at the inn eventually worked its magic on Sayori, and she rose from her dark sleep. Stirring groggily, she noted that Yuuto, her adventuring companion, must have woken up some time ago – he and his belongings were absent. But their shared belongings remained, entrusted in her care. It happened every day, yet it still surprised her – and put a smile on her face.

Giving herself a 'good morning', she prepared herself for the rest of the day. Having finished the quest that brought them here, they would be heading off to a new place with their rewards and a new task in hand. A few healing spells were prepared just in case they ran into trouble. Unlike Yuuto, she couldn't simply draw in mana whenever she wanted, so he had to guess what kind of fights they might get into, if any. Dressing in her usual blue robe, and gathering everything else, she left to go join her best friend.

Heading downstairs, she could hear snippets of a conversation between many unfamiliar voices, with one familiar one chiming in every so often.

"There's no way you defeated 100 oni by yourself!"

"Hmph! Did so! You should've seen it. I was totally surrounded, and didn't have any backup…

"Which means no one to disprove you. Clever plan."

"You want to get smacked!?"

"Hahahaha! Oh, but please do go on…"

"So, this is the famed "Kurobara', huh? Not what I expected, I have to say…"

"Oh? And what were you expecting? Someone as tall as house and with arms as thick as tree trunks? I've heard that one before… I'm still not sure how I feel about it…"

"Not sure how anyone could confuse you for a giant…"

"Ahahahahaha~!"

"Uuuuuu…! That does it! Come here!"

"Ah, hold on! This is no place for a fight!"

"Yeah, what he said!"

"Hmph! Coward! Now then, let me finish my story…"

Sayori softly giggled. The conversation sounded quite lively, and just hearing it was enough to give her some more energy to get through the day. She skipped the rest of the way down the steps and towards the dining area where all the commotion was. There, she saw Yuuto sitting at a table with a group of other people, likely other wandering souls – here for now and gone soon enough. The innkeeper was also at the table and was the first to notice her.

"Ah, good morning! I think there's still some food left, assuming our famous girl here hasn't eaten it all yet, hahaha."

While the recipient of that little jab fumed and Yuuto chuckled, Sayori thanked the dark-skinned man and took the remainder of a loaf of bread for herself, along with a few other small morsels. At some point between waking up and getting to the ground floor, the aroma of breakfast reached her and changed her primary mood from 'sleepy' to 'hungry'. She sat next to Yuuto, who finally greeted her, patting her on the head.

"About time you got down here, sleepyhead."

"You could've woken me up, you know! It's not like I want to sleep in so much…"

"I'd hope I would know that by now considering how long I've known you. Besides, you could use all the beauty rest you can get!"

Sayori flushed and smiled. "Awww~ than-" She paused, realizing the second level to what he meant. "Yuuto! That's so mean~!" Her face turning a deeper shade of red, she turned her eyes away from the rest of the table and dove mouth first into her meal. The rest of the table burst out in laughter, while Yuuto chuckled, smirking all the while. Sayori was so fun to tease, he thought to himself.

Pausing from her (delicious!) meal, Sayori turned to Yuuto, stared directly into his red eyes intently, a serious expression set on her face. Yuuto stared back. This continued for a few moments, until Sayori broke the mood by sticking her tongue out at her best friend. "Meanie~!" she repeated, flagrantly stealing the rest of Yuuto's food and shoving it onto her plate. She was too busy scarfing her meal down to engage any further.

One of presumed adventurers sitting at the table laughed at Yuuto's expression. "My my my, you certainly deserved that one, Yuuto~" He chuckled, his cat ears wiggling and tail swishing about behind him, and then started licking clean his plate.

"Hah! It's not like you deserve any slack!" added the one called 'Kurobara'. She was a rather short black-haired woman wearing plain brown leather armor and carrying a small brown leather bag that likely contained her few personal belongings. "You should consider yourself lucky to be in the presence of someone as great and experienced as myself." She smirked as she continued with her rant. "In fact, whatever quests you were planning on doing, you can just not bother. I'll handle them from now on."

"No thanks!" Yuuto retorted. Sayori nodded in agreement while still eating.

'Kurobara' laughed. "Hahaha! Guess you have more fighting spirit than I thought!"

Yuuto rolled his eyes and didn't reply.

Sayori on the other hand, had just finished her meal and recovered a bit of the good mood she was granted earlier. In that same spirit, she chirped up. "So, you're the one called 'Kurobara'? It's nice to meet you! My name is Sayori! And Mr. Nekomimi, you are…?"

"I go by Tamao. Very nice to meet you." Tamao's appearance was similar to that of any other black-haired and light-skinned human, but he had black-furred cat-like ears instead of human ones. The cat-man and Sayori bowed to each other. 'Kurobara' likewise exchanged bows with Sayori. "Ah, but we seem to have forgotten… 'Kurobara', your story? You had just found the leader of the oni that were raiding a certain village, and he challenged you to fight 100 of his best men."

'Kurobara' blinked. "Ah! Right! Sorry, I kept getting distracted! Anyway…" And so, the girl resumed her tale of an epic battle and her supposed victory, starting back at the beginning now that she had a new audience member in Sayori.

Eventually, the adventurers ended up leaving the inn and going their separate ways. Sayori and Yuuto headed towards the center of town, looking for the questor's hall. Each town's hall was different – in the major cities, they were much more prominent, bigger, more striking in their design. But this village was a smaller one, beset by a vast forest on all sides. To the north and west, the forest became denser and denser before running into the mountains and terminating sharply. To the south and east, the forest slowly transitioned into grassland, and then to the shores of a vast ocean. The questor hall in this town was a plain building that blended in with the designs of its neighbors. Only a wooden sign hung on the outside gave any indication that this was the place they were looking for.

The two of them stepped inside, Yuuto leading the way. The inside was just as plain as the outside – a few tables with chairs; scrolls and other artforms placed seemingly at random on the walls; a ladder in the back leading to somewhere unknown; and a few large books on one on the tables in the back. An old man was sweeping the floor, while a younger man was in the back keeping some sort of inventory. On reflex, the old man greeted them, and the duo replied back with the same.

"Weren't you two just here yesterday? What might you be looking for today?" the old man asked. The two had come by yesterday looking for more quests to do, and had taken one up that would keep them in the area. "Did you already finish your quest?"

Yuuto nodded. Sayori added, "Yeah, it didn't take long at all! Though I'm not sure why someone would feel the need to hire adventurers just to cut down some trees…"

"Who knows?" piped up the younger man in the back, who was now walking towards them. "We just get the requests; we don't ask too many questions about why we're getting them. Works out better that way."

"Ah, I see…" Yuuto said.

Sayori chirped up, "What else do you have?"

Nothing had changed since yesterday, and the old man said as such to them. They had their same pick, but with one gone. This worked out fine for them, as the duo has discussed one particular request the day before, and decided to stock up on supplies so they could tackle it.

It seemed that for some time now, that this village – along with some nearby ones – was being haunted by some specter that lived in the surrounding forest. Many who passed through reported a strange sense of being stalked from afar. They felt dread and menace emanating from something – they would not be approached by the monster, only terrified by it from afar. Domesticated animals, however, were less lucky, and many would be attacked and killed if left alone at night. Strangely, they seemed to have been drained of their blood. Many wild animals could be found in the same condition.

This was leading to rumors that a vampire was in the area – a highly intelligent and extremely dangerous demon. In the past, many human settlements had been decimated by a single vampire before anyone could figure out what was happening and retaliate. The fact that it seemed satisfied with only scaring people away was an odd but welcome gift. But no one could say how long the uneasy peace would last.

It seemed that the two of them had shown up at just the right time.

"That creature… the rumored vampire. We'll try out hand at that one," said Yuuto with confidence.

"Good luck with this one, you two. Many people have tried to corner it, but the blasted thing just evades capture. It's quite smart. Don't underestimate it." The old man said all this as his younger counterpoint began searching around in the back for something again.

Both Sayori and Yuuto nodded. "We just need to scare it off, right?" Sayori asked. "I'm sure we can do that!"

"You mean I'm going to do that. You're about as scary as a small dog," added Yuuto.

Sayori frowned. "Yuuto! I can totally be scary~!"

"I'm not sure I can believe that, Miss 'only knows healing spells'."

"Hmph! Whatever. I'll show you someday and give you a great big scare~!"

"That'll be the day…"

As that conversation ended, the younger man returned with a scroll containing all the known information regarding the quest, as well as their expected reward should they succeed. Contained within was a map of the forest, with approximate locations of where each of the monster's attacks occurred. The creature could seemingly be anywhere it wanted, but most of the attacks seemed to center towards a dense patch of woods not too far west of town. It was far enough out, however, that they would have to set up a temporary camp while they searched for it… or more likely they would be resting there when it approached them at night.

The quest accepted and with the scroll in hand, Sayori and Yuuto promptly started heading out of town. It was still mid-day and they could make good distance into the forest in search for trails or clues before needing to make camp. And as they were leaving town, they saw none other than a certain black-haired and short girl who was supposedly one of the fiercest warriors in all the land. They were originally going to simply pass her by, but to their surprise, she was the one who waved them over.

Yuuto had to get in the first word as they bowed to each other and exchanged greetings. "And to what do we owe this honor, oh great one?"

'Kurobara' crossed her arms as she replied. "Hey, drop the attitude! I'm just trying to help you out, you know. You ought to be careful! Word is there's a vampire in these woods. I wouldn't have any problems, of course, but small fry like you" – which she emphasized by pointing at them, lingering mostly on Sayori – "will just be food for that beast."

Sayori frowned, but before she could defend herself, Yuuto had to interject again, this time with: "I don't think I want to be called 'small fry' by someone like you, even if you are supposedly super-strong…"

'Kurobara' had the fury of 100 rampaging oni etched into her face. "EXCUSE YOU!? I ought to do that vampire a favor and just wring your neck and leave you for it as a peace offering!" She gave off a menacing aura and the air around her began to ripple the same way it does on a summer day. And was Yuuto imagining things, or was she getting more muscular…?

Luckily for him, an embarrassed Sayori intervened, covering his open mouth with her free hand and shifting the subject back to the original matter. "Please excuse my friend, 'Kurobara'! We're grateful for your concern… but we already know about the vampire. Actually, we're on a quest to go deal with it… and… well, we may not have as much experience as you, but please have more confidence in us. It's not as if we're new to this, after all…."

'Kurobara' raised an eyebrow at that, and the menacing aura faded and the wind that had suddenly started to blow calmed down. "You two are going to fight a vampire? I mean, you don't look that weak, but…" She paused and considered something. "Say, why do you want to fight it anyway?"

Sayori hesitated, and turned to Yuuto. The two locked eyes for a moment before Yuuto nodded and answered the black-haired girl. "Vampires are smart and well-traveled creatures. We're hoping that it might know something… see, my parents have gone missing and I'm hoping to figure out what happened to them, Sayori volunteered to help out since she didn't want me to go alone. I would, of course, be just fine, but I'll gladly take the help if its freely offered."

'Kurobara' didn't quite believe that last part, but as for the early bits… "And you think some random vampire might know where they are? What, are they famous or something?"

Yuuto told her who his parents were, and her eyes widened in shock.

"Ehhh!? Those two are missing? How!?"

Yuuto shrugged. "Haven't heard from them in months. We're running out of possibilities… I know they like to go around and help random towns with their problems, so we're trying our luck here."

Sayori piped up. "You haven't happened to run into them, have you 'Kurobara'? You're a wanderer, too, right? If you have any ideas at all…"

'Kurobara' frowned. "No… I think you're on the right track, though, knowing them…" And of course, now she wanted to know what might have happened to such a powerful duo now that they've seemingly vanished. "Hey, tell you what… how about I help you out? Now you've got me curious."

Sayori moved her staff out of the way so she could clasp her hands around those of the other girl. "Really? Thanks so much for your help!"

Yuuto was more skeptical. "And what are you getting out of this, exactly?"

'Kurobara' chuckled. "Hahaha… didn't you just say you would take help if it was freely offered?"

"Yeah, from a friend… which you're not."

"Hmph, fair enough. But you're reading too much into this… I just want to fight against whatever it is that has your parents off in hiding. Besides, we're going the same way… at least for a while."

"Oh? And what are you up to?"

'Kurobara' hesitated, looking away from the duo. "It's… personal. I'll tell you later. When we're friends." She then gave a bright smile. "Now come on, we're wasting daylight!"

"Oh, alright… I guess I can't say no to that."

"Yaaaaay~!" chimed in Sayori. "A new friend!"

With that, the duo became a trio and they finally left town.