"...The fuck is this shit?"
Kitagawa Sumire fancies herself to be a well-mannered lady. She is quite polite and courteous at times, but that is usually reserved for when she's helping at Bookworms at the Iwatodai strip mall. Tonight, though, was not one of those times. Surely she can throw etiquette out the proverbial window just this once?
She also have quite the imagination, but she thinks she doesn't have a great one to conjure something as eerie and disturbing as this.
Several coffins were scattered all over the dark street, with blood pooling on the ground like a sea of red haze. The TVs, LED billboards , streetlights, and the stoplights seems to cease working. Above, a gigantic yellow full moon loomed over the green-tinted sky. She might as well have been in another dimension. It's too fucking green, she thought.
Never mind that she hates the color green, but everything felt too real to be her imagination. Maybe the stress of the oncoming exams finally got to her? It's only a few days away and she have only studied half the materials, after all. "Or maybe I am dreaming? Yeah, let's go with that." she thought.
Kitagawa Sumire also thinks herself to be a brave woman. So she moved on – albeit very confused, disoriented and disgruntled – gathering her wits about. She securely slung her shoulder bag that must have slipped when she was busy gaping at the disgustingly large full moon like an idiot. Ignoring everything, she took a right from the coffin-lidden pedestrian lane to where she knew her home would be: near the Iwatodai station.
She had only taken two steps and a half before she stopped again, face scrunching up like a crumpled paper. Her eyes zeroed on a black table with a brown cover. Oddly enough, it was donning a blue mask.
The girl frowned. "What on Earth is a table doi-"
Sumire wasn't able to finish her sentence because The Masked Table lunged at her, legs ready to beat her black and blue. She luckily dodged by just a hair's width. Not wasting any second, Sumire proceeded to sprint towards her destination with the black Table hot on her heels. She mentally thanked her Track and Field club for the agility she has.
The station was still a ways away, but she reckoned her stamina can handle it. In fact, she thought she can handle a few detours to lose the black Table in a frenzy behind her. With a plan in mind, she abruptly turned left through a narrow alleyway. Glancing behind, Sumire checked if the Table didn't follow – it did – but her action proved to be a mistake. With her attention on the freak of nature, she stumbled over a trash can. The clang seemed amplified in the deafening silence.
Sumire grimaced. What a rookie mistake. Her number one rule in running is to never take her eyes off the field, after all. But what's done is done. There were more important matters to think about. Looking at the extent of her damage, the girl hissed. That one's gonna bruise, she thought. And those two wounds were going to be a bitch.
She was brought out of her musings by a creepy laugh that sent shivers down her spine. She couldn't explain it, but the laugh didn't sound like anything on this world. Not quite human and not quite an animal. The laugh seemed to reverbrate both across the dark alleyway and inside her mind. She risked a glance and what she saw made her blood run cold.
The Table was laughing. It was laughing at her with its creepy mask. Whether it was laughing at her stupidity or her predicament, she wouldn't know, because a second after she turned her head, the air around the Table distorted in hues of black and red haze. Four more Tables appeared.
Kitagawa Sumire is a girl of many things. A self-proclaimed grand-daughter of the elderly couple at Bookworms. A Track and Field club member. A senior high-school student. Stand-offish. Polite. Smart. Dumb. Average.
But being brave was not one of them. She's just a human, after all. A wounded one at that.
Ignoring the stinging wounds and blossoming bruises on her hands and body, she hightailed it out of the alley. "Fuck," she hissed. "I ain't gonna fuck with that!"
Abandoning her initial plan, she bolted to the station as fast as her legs can. She can't trust herself to lose that many monstrosities. She deemed it too dangerous.
Sumire weaved through many road obstacles, from the fire hydrants to the damned coffins. At one point she knocked one down, if the sound of clattering metal is anything to go by. She reminded herself to abandon curiosity and focus on running for her life.
After what seemed like a little under an hour, she saw the familiar streets of the Iwatodai station. But what made her sigh in relief wasn't the station, no. It was the figure of people casually walking like they're on a goddamned park. Among them were the familiar faces of her classmates.
Refreshed, she slowed to a jog. "Oi!"
Everyone in the group noticeably tensed. It was rare to have other people besides them in the Dark Hour, much less those popping up suddenly. Whipping their heads in Sumire's general direction, they saw the girl with relief written across her face and five Laughing Tables at her wake. Shock turned to horror when they saw one of the Laughing Tables closing in, but before one of them could utter a warning, the Laughing Table struck her down with a Strike Attack.
One moment Sumire can almost taste her relief, and the next thing she knew, she can taste the ground. Literally. The attack of the Laughing Table sent her sprawling across the ground. "I never knew an attack could be this painful," she thought.
The group wasted no time in moving, with a red-haired girl barking up orders. " Takeba, protect her and provide support. Everyone, attack!" she said. Everyone complied to the commands, all of them shooting their heads with a gun in different ways.
Attacks went left and right. At some time it seemed that the Laughing Tables were no more, but the sounds of battle drew in more shadows. They attacked again, but the numbers were not in their favor. Soon, they found themselves surrounded by several monstrosities.
The girl named Takeba spoke up. "Mitsuru-senpai, we're completely surrounded and out of energy!" She was alternating between healing the group and protecting Sumire from any stray monsters with her bow and strange powers. A boy with a cap and a two-handed sword followed, huffing in exertion. "Oh, man. This is not good."
Mitsuru, the red-haired girl, turned to a blue-haired boy wielding a sword in one hand. "What's your call, Arisato?" she said.
"L-let me help."
Kitagawa Sumire wasn't brave. Not one bit. But since the world's going to hell, she might as well go out with a bang.
Takeba turned to the struggling girl, assisting her in standing up. "No way! You can even barely stand up!"she said. The capped boy hummed in agreement.
Sumire looked up to the archer with a steely glint in her eyes. "Let me help. I know I can help." She then looked at everyone in the group. "Give me one of those guns. I've seen you use it."
When the group didn't budge, she made a frustrated noise on the verge of crying. "Just, just let me help. I know I can help. I j-just know! Let me help."
The group took their eyes off her, gauging each other. After what seemed like eternity, Arisato, the blue-haired boy, gave her his gun. " Are you sure?" he inquired. Nodding furiously, she wasted no time in pointing it at her temple and pulling the trigger. She didn't hear anything else; not the sound of the trigger, not Takeba's gasp, but only the sound of glass shattering.
Kitagawa Sumire is just your average girl. But at that moment, she felt anything but. The rush of power she felt wasn't anything of this world. In a haze of blue aura surrounding her body, she felt an impulsive need to shout out a word – no, a name, that's whispering at the back of her mind.
" Dunisia!"
A woman with long, red hair materialized in behind Sumire. She wore a battle armor of browns and greens, lined with gold trims and white furs on the sleeves, skirt, and its hems. Her hair was adorned with a gold band with emerald stone. She was holding a huge wooden knight shield with her two hands.
Soon, its whispers faded from her mind. The rush of power, while incredibly addicting, was too much for her. But she cannot give up now; she knew what to do. Mustering all her energy left, she shouted the spell that was niggling at her mind since summoning the woman.
"Trafuri!"
The enemies surrounding them were no more.