Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpucho: Tou Saigo no Butai

Chapter 1 - SOSUS

Empty. It was so incredibly empty, all around naught but sheer blackness, which left everything suspended in a state of absolute nothingness. Yet there was also a heaviness to this world, and the vacant space had just enough sense of reality that he knew he wasn't weightlessly floating in a void. He was actually somewhere.

After a time, when his eyes adjusted to the dark, Kyouichi Houraiji found he could make out small earthly details: the jagged edges of shattered rocks, a fallen and broken evergreen, and litter scattered up from the forest floor. A mountain top? Was he back on Mount Fuji, after the battle with Munetaka Yagyuu? It would account for the natural devastation around him. But there was something wrong; all of it came across as withered and ancient, as if whatever had occurred here happened years ago.

He shivered, a shadow of foreboding hovering around him. The view wasn't the only thing that felt empty; so did Kyouichi. He felt utterly drained, as if he too had aged greatly. This can't be right. I don't feel right.

In fact, he felt... afraid. Kyouichi's body trembled again, even as he struggled to contain the wretched sensation. He hated feeling fear, and he constantly shrugged off anything that would cause him worry or make him nervous. He was always the type to do what needed to be done, with little to no regard to how he felt. Emotions were not valuable in his world, nor to his mind, which had been hardened by not only the back streets of Shinjuku, but also by his resentment and anger.

That's right. Anger was the feeling he'd rather experience. It had proved more reliable, more adaptable. He wasn't a Goddamn pussy, and he'd shame the memory of his father if he allowed himself to show anything as cowardly as fear.

But no matter how many times he told himself to be strong, an icy grip took hold of his chest, squeezing his lungs until he felt he couldn't breathe. Kyouichi wondered if this was what the medical kind would call an anxiety attack. Over what, though? He had never been afraid of the dark before, nor had a battle ever caused him concern.

Or fear.

What is it you're afraid of? a voice questioned inside his mind. Kyouichi shook his head to ward off the unwelcomed thought, which wasn't his, and felt heat rise at the back of his neck, making his ears ring with a tinny rhythm.

"I'm not afraid," he stated aloud, hearing his voice echo back as if it had bounced off an invisible wall. "I've been here before, and the battle's over. Why should I be afraid?"

Even as he spoke the definite words, he knew deep down they weren't true. The battle wasn't over. Tatsuma Hiyuu was still trying to fight it.

Tatsuma! That was it, the reason he was afraid and empty. Tatsuma had gone off alone when Yagyuu had fled in the midst of the chaos, and although he knew he would have done the same, Kyouichi couldn't stop the fear that settled in his gut like steel. He continued to think about the look on Tatsuma's face before he left – it was a sorrowful and apologetic look that said farewell.

A shudder passed through him again, and Kyouichi's hand tightened on his bokuto; he hadn't even been aware he was holding it. He cursed silently, and closed his eyes on the memory. It was unfair! It wasn't right of Tatsuma to leave them behind, all his friends who had always shared in the struggles they faced. Kyouichi couldn't help but feel slighted at how unfair it was, how he had been left behind in torment, wondering, worrying. Damn you, kid!

Now anger began to fill the empty void inside him, and Kyouichi welcomed the surefire feeling. Alone in the blackness, he felt himself slip back into his old self, the bully of the streets who vented his personal justice on others with an iron fist. Justice, or so he thought. By the time he met Tatsuma, he was already understanding that what he viewed as righteous was nothing more than his childhood wrath. Maybe he was still being childish? What if I am? Was I really wrong back then?

No, you weren't. The voice agreed with him. But whose voice was it? It seemed oddly familiar. You were always alone, just like you are now. You know what you have to do...

Suddenly, he felt something against his ankle, curling around his leg. Opening his eyes, Kyouichi saw it was a snake. Vaguely surprised at finding something else alive in this horrible place, he pulled back from its coiling form, half kicking the tiny serpent away. The snake bolted like a grounded streak of lightning, slithering off as if it's own fear were guiding it someplace safe. Watching it flee, Kyouichi turned –

And saw he wasn't alone. There was someone else there with him in the darkness, only feet away. Neither was the snake alone, now it writhed in a mass of other snakes that were roiling around the feet of the other boy. The teenager was turned sideways, arms limply hanging at his sides, his face hidden behind the hood of a blue sweatshirt. He wore a Magami Academy uniform.

"Tatsuma?" Kyouichi breathed. He was confused, but somehow the image of his friend before him didn't seem strange; it felt like nothing more than an accurately planned meeting. "Why are you here?"

You know what you have to do...

A pained sob broke from the other boy's lips, and it made Kyouichi's foreboding rise. He took a tentative step forward, not bothered by the bizarre turn of events. Indeed, Kyouichi was more disturbed by the revelation he felt nothing at seeing his friend again – nothing but the same fear and anger he'd been feeling, trapped in this place.

"Don't," Tatsuma said, almost accusingly. "Don't come near me."

A flash went through Kyouichi's mind, a quickly dredged up memory of Tatsuma standing under a cherry tree. Kyouichi stood outside the shadow of the tree. Pale pink petals fell around them like snow, but the serene vision was dulled by the expression on Tatsuma's face – a look of warning and pleading. Stay away.

Kyouichi had seen that vision before, and he knew what it meant. Tatsuma didn't want his help. He was being unfair again. "Tatsuma –"

Another strangled sob, and this time the other boy's arms raised, his hands gripping the sides of his head like a vice. The serpents around him were endlessly intertwining, constantly moving, like flowing tides against a beach; a few tree snakes were reaching upward for him, as if to give him comfort. Kyouichi's lips pulled back in a disgusted sneer.

Tatsuma moaned, "They're killing me."

Kyouichi could only shake his head; he didn't understand. The snakes?

"Get rid of them." Tatsuma suddenly withdrew his hands, throwing off his hood as he did so. He began clawing at his own wrists desperately. "I have to get rid of them!"

Tatsuma pulled off his signature fingerless gloves, displaying the peculiar markings on the backs of his hands. And they were glowing with a fierce golden light. Kyouichi watched in stunned horror, and a slight fascination, as the skin around those markings began to peel away, melting like wax under the light of his power. Tatsuma turned to his friend then, and his eyes were huge and sightless, all color completely gone; Kyouichi gasped. The look on his face was terror, and Kyouichi felt that same fear ignited in his own body.

"Get rid of them!" Tatsuma cried again as the flesh began to scorch around his eyes. Kyouichi could see the sinew and muscles of his cheeks now as Tatsuma began frantically ripping at the garments around his throat, as if he were suffocating.

Kyouichi couldn't move, he couldn't even feel his own body anymore as he watched that of his friend's grotesquely falling apart. But Tatsuma wasn't burning away, something else was burning out of him; Kyouichi could see it in the way his muscles were coiling beneath his skin, just like the serpents at his feet.

Finally Tatsuma succeeded in tearing open his clothing, exposing the naked flesh of his chest. He hadn't really realized it before, but now Kyouichi could see there was a great marking on the boy's chest as well, in the same symbolic manner as those on his hands. Light spread from that birthmark, and Tatsuma's ribcage began collapsing inward.

Don't wait. You know what you have to do...

Golden rays burst from Tatsuma's sneakers so that all his extremities were aglow. Four shining marks: North, South, West and East. And the symbol which fate had tattooed over his heart was now practically on fire. All of them were the marks of the Vessel of the Golden Dragon.

And the Dragon was now breaking free from its human container. Kyouichi could tell by the way Tatsuma's cheekbones pulled back, his face elongating like the head of a serpent. His eyes were sinking back into his skull, reshaping into beady points on the side of his face. The pale flesh kept melting away from bleeding tissue that was being slowly engulfed by light.

No, not light. Energy. Pure, powerful celestial energy.

Kyouichi heard his own breaths coming in strong pants now, and he was afraid; he was suddenly very much afraid of what was happening, of the whole black place around him. And of what Tatsuma was becoming.

"I have to get rid of them," deduced Tatsuma once more, begging, beginning to move towards Kyouichi. The pool of snakes either moved with him, or began slipping into the uncovered hollows of his legs, using his bones to curl and climb. Then his clawed hand reached out for Kyouichi, but it wasn't for help. It was threatening and condemning, the manner in which Tatsuma came at his friend. Finally, he growled in a voice that no longer sounded like Tatsuma, "You can't help me!"

You know what you have to do...

With a gasp, Kyouichi quickly raised his bokuto as the creature that was once Tatsuma drew too near, and he pushed the blunt wooden tip against the chest, trying to force him back in warning not to come any closer. A sheen of cold sweat broke out over Kyouichi's skin, it tingled as if pricked by a million needles.

You know what you have to do...

And Kyouichi gasped again as he saw that it wasn't his bokuto he held. It was a true sword, and he had driven the lethally pointed blade into the other boy's heart.

"Kyouichi?" The hollow voice was demanding and shocked.

"I didn't know..." Kyouichi gawked in absolute shock. Had he just been that dense to have failed to notice the weapon? But the voice in his head sounded so sure... He would never have done such a thing, never to Tatsuma!

But it wasn't Tatsuma anymore. Was it?

"Kyouichi?" The voice was still reproachful, but now it held a note of deep sadness and betrayal. "Kyouichi..."

Betrayal. The word burned into his brain just as the light of the Golden Dragon erupting out of his friend's body seared his eyes. The light took away all the blackness and shadows, and gratefully the vision of his blade piercing Tatsuma; it took away everything Kyouichi no longer wanted to see.

You know what you have to do...

Kyouichi felt himself drowning now, the voice in his head distant and mingled with the epic roars of Dragons clashing. He couldn't see, but the voice kept echoing through his whirling mind.

You know...

His body jerked convulsively.

And he woke up, pitching forward, hands flailing for something to hold on to. Like a man afraid of falling over an edge. His fingers curled around bed sheets so tightly the small joints ached.

Then silence. All his brain could register was the sudden pitch blackness around him, and Kyouichi felt fear grip his chest again. Was he still back on the mountain top? He unconsciously lifted a shaking hand to his collar, and realized he was holding his breath. A gasp, and then he began sucking air in through his constricted throat so sharp and fast it made him cough.

That was all he needed to realize he'd just been dreaming.

A fucking nightmare.

Panting, Kyouichi gazed down at his hands balled against the sheets in a death grip. He had to mentally tell himself to let go, slowly unfastening each finger. He was soaked with perspiration, and a chill was stabbing at him, making him shiver. He passed a hand over his face, slick with sweat, and rubbed at his lower lip in agitation. He suddenly felt foolish, thinking how only children should be woken up by terrors while sleeping. And he usually never dreamed, and definitely not about something so serious to his real life.

The sense of foreboding he recalled from his dream came into his waking world.

Untwisting himself from the tangle of bedclothes he must have created in his thrashing, stepping over the pillows chucked on the floor, Kyouichi hurriedly got out of bed. He moved as if chased from it by the unwanted reminiscences of what his imagination just created. It was a trick of his mind, he told himself. It wasn't anything like a vision or foretelling. It was only a stupid dream.

Without realizing it, Kyouichi grumbled aloud, "I'm not afraid. It was just a fucking nightmare." But the ringing in his ears and the anger in his voice was valid enough, and he went to open the window in his hotel room for clean air.

A frigid breeze wafted in, and although he still felt chilled, he appreciated the icy slap of Mother Nature and the sensation of the sheer curtains brushing against him. They were real, and helped to settle his thoughts back into the mundane world. With a gratified sigh, Kyouichi leaned into the frame as he stared out the glass.

The unfamiliar city streets beyond were shadowed under the faint light of a waning moon, bathed in a deep midnight blue color that signaled the hour was late; the sun was far off, and he could still catch some more hours of sleep. If he could coax himself back into bed.

Kyouichi shook his head at himself in indignation. Even after his father was killed, Kyouichi couldn't remember a time when a nightmare had forced him awake. Most of the time he could hardly recollect specifics of any dreams he may have had; he just slept them off. He was a simple guy like that. But he also never shied from a struggle, never broke under hardships; he was strong. So why was he feeling so... helpless? He smirked as he thought, What am I so afraid of?

He knew the answer, of course. He was afraid of what had become of Tatsuma.

Tatsuma Hiyuu, whose own strength came from being sensitive towards others. That same boy was now all alone and fighting a greater threat than anything they had ever encountered together before. Kyouichi made no attempt to feign understanding of Tatsuma's situation, but he knew he could help him whatever may come. Damn, kid... I thought I was the reckless one.

Unbidden, another thought rose to him as he stared at the starry sky outside. Kyouichi's eyes slit in suspicious wonderment as he remembered the voice – a voice that now seemed to be taunting him. He said softly, "You know what you have to do, huh?"

And then his eyes fixed on his subtle reflection staring back from the window's glass. Gazing at himself, Kyouichi saw his own drawn expression, weary and weighted, as if he'd aged significantly. The look in his reflection's eyes was demanding and critical, and suddenly Kyouichi felt unsure. And he hated himself for it.


Note: Chapter is titled after the song on the ACID album "ACID 1.5 -Punk Drunker- " and chosen because I've kept SOSUS in my head as the new opening theme. ^^ Song by © ACID and Hideki Imamura, and no infringement is intended.