Chihiro stared at the locked door before her as her hands gripped the doorknob tightly. Mustering all of her courage, she opened it.
"Gah!"
Something suddenly leaped on her. However, this time, Chihiro wasn't surprised. Of course, she was scared, but she had already expected something to attack her. Therefore, as if it was an automatic reaction from her body, she swung the broom and hit the flying creature before it reached her.
Being blown away, the creature hit the wall and fell on the ground. Chihiro gripped the broom tightly and approached. As she looked at what was supposed to be the demon, she couldn't help but voice her surprise.
"A...fairy?"
It was a really small female, so small it could fit in the palm of Chihiro's hand. She had fairy wings and was dressed in blue clothes. The fairy, still rubbing her head, finally noticed Chihiro's presence and snapped.
"What do you think you're doing, you psycho?! Are you trying to kill me!?"
Chihiro was taken aback by the sudden outburst. It took a few seconds for her to find the proper words to argue.
"Y-you were the one who leaped on me! You are a demon, aren't you? I was just protecting myself!"
"Hmm?" The fairy gave a small smirk began flying. She approached Chihiro, who gave a step back. "You're pretty gutsy for a human, aren't you? Rather, there aren't many humans who know about us." The demon giggled. "Is this your house? It's not too shabby, so I guess it works."
"Works…? For what?" Chihiro frowned. She didn't like where this conversation was going…
"Simply put, I'll be staying here for a while."
"W-what?! Why?!" It was so sudden she couldn't comprehend the request. Her mouth was open agape and she couldn't even find words to refuse it.
"Well...it's an embarrassing story so, if you tell anyone, I'll rip your nose off." The fairy winked, shifting to a sitting position as she kept herself in the air. "There are these ugly demons; their names are Gaki. They're completely depraved jerks, not to mention bullies as well," she explained, nodding to herself. "Can you believe it? A group of them ganged up on me and tried to eat me! I defeated most of them with my fire magic, but they still managed to hurt me, so I had to flee."
"Fire magic?" Chihiro's eyes widened in curiosity, but the demon answered with an angry face.
"Hey, I'm telling a story here! Save your questions for later. Honestly, what a rude human…" sighing dramatically, she continued "Well, I'm sure they are still looking for me, but I ended up wounded and exhausting my powers. So I need a place to hide and recover. It pains me that this place ended up being a human house, but at this point I have no choice."
Certainly, the fairy was covered in bruises. Before, Chihiro thought they were from being hit by the broom but maybe they were also from being attacked.
Chihiro frowned. She didn't know what to do. Up until now, she believed demons were only murderers who were behind the series of freak deaths in her town. However, this demon was genuinely asking her help.
If this demon was telling the truth, then she genuinely didn't want to turn down.
"Alright." Chihiro smiled. "Just keep the fact that you're here a secret from my parents. I don't want to get them into trouble."
"Very well." The fairy grinned. "That's right, I haven't introduced myself, right? I'm fairy Pixie, nice to meet you!"
"I'm Chihiro Ogino, nice to meet you too." She bowed politely.
"I don't like owing favors, 'specially to humans. So in exchange of letting me stay here, I will let you make a contract with me. If you need anything, just summon me, alright? As long as I'm recovered, of course." Pixie smiled, but Chihiro frowned. She couldn't understand the meaning of those words.
"Contract? Summon? What do you mean?"
"Don't pretend to not know! I can sense it, you know. A summoning circle inside your pocket."
"A summoning...circle?"
The only thing that was inside her pocket was…
Her smartphone.
Chihiro took out her phone and opened her app. An icon with Pixie's name was there now, under the detection bar that was now blue once again. Pixie, curious herself, approached to see the screen.
"Weird, I thought I sensed a summoning circle, but the energy I'm feeling comes from this device." Pixie frowned, now confused herself. "No, this definitely can summon me, I'm sure of it. Maybe it has the same properties of a summoning circle? Human technology is surely weird…"
"I've never heard about something like this either," Chihiro replied. "I mean, a few days ago I didn't even know demons existed."
From what Pixie said, she now could make a few conclusions, though. First is that this app allowed her to detect and summon demons. Second was that it didn't summon demons out of nowhere. It only summoned demons who allowed her to be summoned. In other words, demons who she made a contract with.
"I guess I at least understand it a bit better than before, though. Thank you." Chihiro smiled. Pixie blushed and looked away with a 'hunf'.
"O-of course you need to thank me! It's an honor for a lowly human to be able to summon a demon, you know! Now show me the bath! That chase made me all muddy and stinky!"
"Sure!" Chihiro beamed, feeling like she had made a new friend.
"A gap?"
"Yes, that is how I arrived here."
Inside Chihiro's bedroom, she chatted with Pixie. She had a lot of questions, so it was really useful to know a demon to talk with.
"I'm sure it's probably the same for the others," Pixie explained. "That's why there are so many demons in your world right now. Rather, I'm sure the number will just keep increasing."
Chihiro didn't like that idea. If just a few demons were enough to cause so many murders, what was going to happen if they swarmed the country? It was an ominous thought.
"I still don't understand exactly what this 'gap' thing is. Can't it be fixed somehow?" she asked, voice filled with worry.
"Well, I said gap, but it's actually much worse." Pixie scratched her head, thinking of a way to explain. "Basically, between the world of demons and the world of humans, there is a boundary. This boundary stops both from crossing sides. There are rare cases where the line between these worlds becomes thinner, allowing crossing but…" Lifting a finger, the fairy stared directly at Chihiro. "This time, it disappeared completely. Basically, a permanent connection between our worlds was made."
"So now demons can come here at will? But how did that happen in the first place?"
"Rumors say that a human did it. Through human technology."
"A human!?" Chihiro couldn't believe her ears. She remembered the words that Pixie said about their technology. So there was a reason for that. "B-but there should be a way to revert it, right? If we find the human who did it, maybe…"
"Don't ask me, I'm a demon. I don't really know that much about human stuff," Pixie retorted flatly.
"Still-" She bit her lip, looking down. "If we find a way, everything will go back to normal, right? We won't be in danger anymore…"
"I agree that it will minimize the damage on your world, but it won't be that easy. Even if you manage to create a new barrier, there are already a lot of demons here. And the longer you take to do it, more demons will show up."
"Pixie…" Placing her hands and knees on the floor, Chihiro touched it with her forehead as she simultaneously lowered her body. "Please, help me! I have people I need to protect!"
Pixie grinned. "I like that. Sure, why not? I made a contract with you, after all. I'm under your orders."
"Thank you," Chihiro said as she raised her head with a smile. However, Pixie answered with a rather stern face. Chihiro wondered if she said something wrong, but soon noticed it was the fairy who wanted to say something important, instead.
"Now listen. As amazing as I am, there are stronger demons than me. If you think you can charge blindly just with my help, you are wrong. The broom caught me by surprise last time, but you better not rely on it. Since you're a human, you can't get strong like us. Therefore, I suggest a weapon."
"Wa-wait...are you telling me to carry a weapon around?" Didn't Nao said the same thing the previous day? "Doesn't a pepper spray work?"
"No! You need weapons. Like a knife, a sword or maybe...what's the name of that thing that shoots...things from distance? C'mon, you humans use a lot." Pixie has seen it before, but she didn't remember the name. Chihiro, however, had a pretty good hunch.
"A gun…? I can't carry a gun! I'll be arres-"
Pixie raised a hand, interrupting her.
"I think you don't understand how dangerous demons are. Are you really serious about this?"
"Even if I am...where will I get a gun? There's no way I'll be able to get my hands on one." In truth, Chihiro wished she didn't need to use a weapon. Especially a gun. They were made to kill people. Even if they were demons, to carry a weapon meant she was ready to kill.
She didn't want to kill.
"That is...up for you to figure out. I have no idea how you humans are able to do it." Pixie sighed. "Listen, I'm lending my power to you, so don't disappoint me, okay? It'll be embarrassing for me if my new master dies."
Chihiro nodded half-heartedly. "Alright."
Chihiro's parents were reluctant to let her go to school on Monday. However, since there weren't any reported murders during the weekend and they couldn't afford Chihiro to lose more classes, they had no choice.
"Chihiro," Pixie called her before she left. "Be careful. Today is a full moon. Full moons always make demons excited."
"What do you mean?" The girl turned around. "Plus, the moon's only out during night."
"Just the fact it's the day is enough." The demon smirked. "Demons are strongly influenced by the moon phases. Be careful today, alright?"
"...Alright." Chihiro understood she had to be careful, but she didn't exactly understand what Pixie meant by 'excited'. She decided to keep the warning in mind as she went to school.
The school was rather empty compared to other days. It was obvious many people were absent. Still, it has never been so noisy before as it was now, because even though there weren't any reported murders, the number of rumors increased drastically.
"I saw, I swear I saw it!" A boy from her classroom talked with his classmates. "Some weird thing banged at my door during the night! It wasn't an animal and was staring at me!"
"Dude, calm down...you were dreaming," the friend answered, but the third boy from the group shook his head.
"I'm not sure...my friend told me she would be staying home today. It seems she went to the karaoke yesterday and something kept chasing her. She got this huge wound on her leg while attempting to flee."
"Why didn't she report to the police!?"
"And you would think they would believe her? At most they would think it was a prank!"
Small groups were talking to each other and discussing the current events. It continued for a long time, since the teacher hadn't arrived at all. Nao also used that chance to talk with Chihiro.
"Hey, isn't our teacher awfully late?" she said, concern showing on her face. Even if the teacher decided to stay home because of the incidents, wouldn't he call the school first? They hadn't received any news about the teacher at all. Homeroom was almost over already.
"That's unusual…" Chihiro nodded. "I've never seen him being late before."
A chime rang. It was the sound that always played from the speakers in each classroom before a school broadcast.
'Attention, students. Due to a certain incident, all classes were canceled. Please go back home straight away. Repeating. Classes were canceled. Please go home straight away.'
The chattering sound increased.
Nao glanced to the speakers. "I wonder what happened."
Chihiro nodded.
"Hey, Chii. I've been wanting to ask you something." As Chihiro, Yuka and Nao walked together home, Yuka asked. "Can I stay with your family for a while?"
"Huh?" Chihiro looked surprised. "I don't mind, but I have to ask my parents. Why?"
"You see, with all this commotion going on, my father is hardly at home anymore. So he thought that it would be better for me to stay with someone I trust than stay home alone."
"Well, you make sense when you say that." Nao nodded. Then, she halted her steps as a big grin formed on her face. "Actually, Chii-chan. Your house is pretty big, right? If there's an extra person you wouldn't mind having two instead, right?"
"Wha-" Chihiro could barely open her mouth to say anything. Nao didn't even wait for an answer.
"Count me in too! I'll stay at Chii-chan's house for a while! It's not fair for you two to have fun alone!"
"Nao!" Yuka scolded. "What about your parents? There's no way they'll let you."
"It's alright! We won't be alone and they trust Chii-chan's parents! I'm sure that if I explain everything, they'll agree!"
"Your life's devoid of any concerns at all, isn't it?" Yuka muttered as Chihiro laughed.
"Maybe we should be more like her, Yuka-chan," she said with a smile as Nao nodded proudly.
"That's...just nasty." With a handkerchief, Detective Hashimoto covered his nose in an attempt to block the awful stench that filled the area. Before him, the remains of a man could be seen. It was the body of a teacher from the high school of his daughter. Once again, another murder has happened.
"It seems he bled to death. He's also covered by teeth marks...whatever killed him, I certainly don't want to meet it," one of the detectives said.
"Okay, let the forensics team carry the body away. We're done here." Hashimoto ordered as he took a few last notes in his journal.
"Hey, what's that?" One of the detectives pointed to something. Everyone looked. Then, the detective felt a chill run down his spine.
Whatever that was, it wasn't human. It was an abomination. A humanoid form without a face. It only had a fang bearing mouth which ran from its head to its hips, like an open fly on a piece of cloth. It was joined by many similar creatures. Soon, the detective and the other policeman in the scene were surrounded.
"W-what are they!?" a newbie screamed while trying to back away.
"I don't know, but I don't think they'll be willing to let us go." A veteran answered, trying to stop his body from shaking.
Detective Hashimoto bit his lip and raised his gun. The other members did the same. They were all afraid. Those monsters...they were probably the reason behind the freak murders. If they didn't do anything...they would end up the same as the rest of the dead bodies.
With his finger on the trigger, the detective thought about his daughter, Yuka. It was a good thing he suggested her to stay over at a friend's house. He had the feeling he wouldn't be able to go back home to be with her anymore.
As the demons jumped onto the group, screams and shooting sounds echoed.
After her parents' consent, it was decided that both Nao and Yuka would be staying at Chihiro's house for a while. To inform her father, Yuka called his cell phone. She waited for a while, but nobody picked up.
"Weird…" Yuka muttered after a while, trying to redial the number.
"What's wrong, Yuka-chan?" Chihiro asked.
"I think his phone is turned off."
"Are you sure he didn't turn it off because of his job?" Nao raised an eyebrow, while Yuka nodded.
"Maybe…I'll try calling him later."
"Alright." Chihiro smiled and, making sure her parents weren't nearby, she clapped her hands together. "Let's go to my room! I want to introduce you two to someone!"
"Someone? Don't you tell me...a demon?" Nao smirked, joking around. However, as Chihiro answered her back with a bright smile, Nao's face turned into one of bewilderment. "Wait. Are you serious?"
"Let's go!" Chihiro walked ahead, but then stopped when she noticed only Nao was following her. Yuka stood still, gazing her phone worriedly.
"Yuka-chan?"
"Ah- Sorry, yes, let's go!"
For some reason, Yuka couldn't help but keep feeling uneasy. She gazed at the turbulent clouds gathering outside the window before finally following her friends. A storm was probably coming.
Authors Note:
Sorry for taking so long to update! Here is chapter 4. Things will now begin to take a darker turn. The demons featured in this chapter were actual demons from Shin Megami Tensei. They were Pixie and Pisaca, the latter one being the creature who attacked the police officers.
If you enjoy the story, please leave a comment! I would love to know everyone's opinion. Of course, flame is not allowed, though. Also, you have any questions, you are welcome to ask as well!
Anyways, that is it for now. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!