Chapter Six: Pushing Through
In comparison to all the other hospital rooms, this one was almost completely empty, the beds and machines gone. Isamu was there, lying on the ground, hog tied with a couple of tattered sheets and a metal pole the Pretas had got from somewhere. There was one binding his hands and feet together, plus another one around his mouth. Both sheet strips were tied to the metal pole. However, for being captured by three Pretas, demons notorious for their voracious appetites and lack of table manners, the human looked n very good shape. Still possessed all his digits, still alive, just a little tiny bit scared.
He's still got his hat, The Pixie realized with a blink. He's even more attached to it than Jack is to his own, and it isn't even a part of him. No, wait-scratch being a little bit scared, this guy's producing enough Magatsuhi to feed the five thousand. That Pervert's not absorbing any of it though, for some reason. Oh well, more for me. She sucked it up, all the Magatsuhi in the room and sighed blissfully at the heavenly feeling. Ah. Lovely.
Meanwhile, Naoki had at first thought Isamu was dead – he didn't seem to be moving at all, he was stiff as a board. As he removed him from the metal pole, however, he saw signs of life – Isamu's eyes were open wide, staring back at him in complete disbelief and horror.
The poor guy must have been completely freaked out by those Pretas.
The realization somewhat calmed Naoki's guilt at hurting them like that – he wasn't a violent person, right?
Right?
"Isamu. . .Isamu, it's me – Naoki Kashima. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"
No answer, except for a few horrified gasps and incoherent warbling. "Relax, buddy," Naoki tried to speak soothingly as he untied the last few straps, giving Isamu a pat on the shoulder. "Calm down – we'll – "
"DON"T TOUCH ME!" Isamu shrieked, kicking out at him in panic. Naoki only just managed to avoid the flying foot.
"Isamu!"
His eyes were blank There was no hint of recognition, just a human trembling at the sight of a new monster.
He's scared of me. He thinks I'm going to hurt him.
Naoki tried to calm the situation by retelling a story. "Isamu! It's me! Remember? Your old buddy, Naoki Kashima? You know, right? We've been buddies for years, ever since you saved my life. You remember now, don't you? I was a little kid, getting my ass kicked by a bully triple my size and weight and you leaped in to save me. Then later, we promised each other to stick together through thick and thin. Well, I'm going to keep that promise, Isamu "
Naoki decided that telling Isamu about the aftermath of that fight – in which both Isamu and Naoki were beaten to within an inch of their lives and hung on a flagpole by their jockstraps for the rest of the afternoon – wouldn't exactly help this situation..
". . . Yeah. This is all well and good," Pixie said from the other side of the room, "but we've got a problem here. Those icky Pretas are back for round 2 and one of them must have eaten the Pass Thingy."
Demonic growls heralded the approach of the three Pretas, coming back inside the room. They were nursing broken bones and bloody pelts, but they were alive and they were pissed. "We.. . tricked. . . Want Magatsuhi!"
Naoki freaked. "They - they ATE it? But we. . . but we needed that! What do we do now?"
"Ha! The pixie grinned. "We do what we should have done earlier, Pervert. Hit them harder and make them stay dead!"
"Al – alright," Naoki replied. He turned to Isamu, indicated the metal bar on the ground, tried to be as brave as Isamu was when they faced down that bully back then by repeating his line. "What do you say, Isamu? Let's kick their .. .uh . . . bums . . . back to . .. err. . . the other place!"
The actual line that had been said back then was "Let's kick their asses back to hell!", but Naoki presumed it was the thought that counted.
It certainly seemed to have the desired effect. Isamu stared at the bar, shot his hands out and grabbed it, seemingly snapped out of his mind freeze. Naoki nodded, turned back to the three Pretas as they advanced upon them.
"Okay, that settles it. Uh . .. I'll take the one in the middle. . . Pixie can take the one of the right. . . how about you take the one on the –" He didn't have time to finish, as in the next instant he was falling forward onto his knees, his ears ringing.
CLANG!
"Ooh," Pixie giggled in mid lightning cast.. "THAT'S got to hurt!"
"What just – " Naoki spun around, saw Isamu holding the Iron bar, still panting from the sheer exertion required to swing the bar hard enough to knock Naoki upside the head. "Isamu . .. what are you doing, buddy? They're the monsters!"
"You. .. ." recognition seemed to flash in Isamu's eyes but was just as quickly gone. He composed himself, got ready to swung the bar a second time. "No. You're not Naoki! You're a monster! Get away from me, I won't let you kill ME!"
...What? NO!
The bar hadn't actually hurt Naoki that much, just rattled him. It was more the mental realization, the sheer fact that it was Isamu who had hurt him. Naoki's expression darkened, anger rising in his soul.
"Isamu . . you . .. YOU BASTARD!" He shouted at the human, grabbed the bar before Isamu could swing it again, bent it in half with barely any trouble. Before Isamu knew what was happening, he was lifted clean off his feet and slammed into the back wall hard enough for cracks to appear, gasping for air and clawing for Naoki's hand on his throat.
"HEY!" Pixie shouted from behind him. Naoki spun around, realized they had a problem. One Preta was dead, its body smoking and twitching from a billion volts flowing through it. Another was trying to eat the door, biting great holes out of its wood, while Pixie struggled in the gaping mouth of the third as it tried to clamp its jaws shut. "Stop spacing out, pervert!"
Naoki stared at the scene, stared at Isamu.
What – What am I -
Stunned, he released his grip and let the human drop to the floor. "I. . . I'm sorry, Isamu. . ." He shook his head, turned away from Isamu and went to help Pixie defeat the Pretas for good this time.
It was like his body was being controlled by someone else. He reached the Preta just as it closed its mouth and tried to swallow, causing Naoki to freak out and grab it by the head. He then slammed his fist into its stomach, thinking perhaps that it would merely make the Preta spit her out.
Instead, his fist kept going, straight through its innards, until he was in the Preta to his shoulder and his hand had burst out through the other side. Strangely enough, the Preta was completely unperturbed – it slashed at him with its claws and shrieked.
"EAT! WANT EAT!
OH GOD!
Naoki panicked, grabbed it by the neck, ripped its head clean off of it's body, freaked out and tossed the head like a hat thrown at graduation. The head rolled along the floor, coughing and gurgling, taking its pixie meal with it, her voice muffled by undoubtedly shouting obscenities. It came to a stop by Isamu's near comatose body.
It should have horrified him, but instead he merely turned to the next Preta. One left...
The one surviving Preta was eating the door, but looked up as Naoki advanced on it. "Magatsuhi. . . . ?"
Naoki glared at it, waiting for it to come at him. He was still high on his own adrenaline and he had to fight his own body's demands to punch the Preta to the moon then eat its intestines.
No.
He'd give it a chance to run away. He was still a human. He'd wait, wait for it to do the first move. He'd only use this strength and power to defend himself.
Nothing happened. Neither side gave an inch. Then, suddenly, the Preta reached its head back and howled.
"AWOOOOOOOOO!"
The Pixie crawled out from the gaping mouth of the dead Preta, rubbed blood and guts off of her leotard, saw the howling Preta, freaked right out. "IDIOT! Shut it up, shut it up!"
"Wh – why?"
"Don't ask! JUST DO IT!"
Naoki moved to obey. He ran forward, grabbed the Preta by one arm, swung it around so that it had its back to him, moved his hand to cover the Preta's mouth. The Preta reacted completely predictably – it bit his hand and tried to eat it.
Well, it's shut up now.
"Oh for the love of – NOT LIKE THAT, Pervert!" The Pixie screeched. "Snap its neck! Hurry!"
Naoki stared at her, hesitating.
Then the proverbial hit the proverbial fan.
Preta demons came running, from every room, from every shadow, from every discoloration on the ground lured by the sounds of battle, the smell of blood and the Preta's howl. They burst through the windows, came out from under the hospital beds, jumped down from the ceiling, came up through the floor, came out from every crack and nook and gap. Where just a few seconds ago there'd been only one Preta demon facing him down . . .
There now was well over a hundred.
"Ah, SHIT," the Pixie said, summing up the situation perfectly and readying her lightning spell for an intensive workout.
This is bad. This is really bad.
"Wh- What do we do now?"" Naoki asked, backing away from the room door, back into the room, trying to put a barrier between them and Isamu.
"What we do best, Pervert," the Pixie told him, trying to sound a lot braver than she actually was whilst simultaneously looking for cover. She eventually found it by standing behind Naoki himself. "Fight like the devil!"
Naoki nodded, readied himself for the fight as he watched the Pretas swarming around the open hospital door. But they weren't coming inside - they were merely standing their ground and chanting, manoeuvring their hands exactly in synchronization with each chanted syllable.
"Maaaa. . . Gaaaaa… . Tsu .. . .HIIIIIII. . ."
The Pixie's eyes went wide and she swore. "SHIT! Naoki, hurry! We have to kill them NOW!" She redoubled her efforts, threw lightning spells out of both hands as fast as she could as though she were throwing rocks. The few Pretas she dropped were merely trampled on and replaced by new Pretas.
"Wha – why?" The Pretas weren't attacking – they were simply taking a deep breath, pointing their hands at him, and chanting. "What's wrong?"
"Oh for – " HOW CAN SOMEBODY BE THIS STUPID?"They're about to cast an Agi spell! Now shut up and help me kill them before they cast it!"
There were too many of them – her lightning spell, Zio, was simply not strong enough – it could only attack them one at a time. Meanwhile, Naoki was simply blinking at the Pretas, not comprehending. Pixie secretly wondered if the reason Naoki hadn't sucked up the Magatsuhi from earlier was because he was too stupid to notice it.
Meanwhile, the Pretas pointed their hands at them in a double fist, their hands mimicking the top and lower jaws of some sort of animal.
"WAAAAANT . . . . "
Their hands began to glow and a little bit of fire appeared in their palms. Naoki, who was staring at them like an idiot, began to have a suspicion that something was about to happen.
"Just what is an Agi spell?" He asked the Pixie.
"You're about find out if you don't get moving, IDIOT!" The Pixie yelled back at him. "It's too late now! Get out of the way! All hands on -"
"EEAAAAAAAAT!"
Then they were pointing their hands at him, and the little balls of fire were suddenly GOODNESS GRACIOUS GREAT BALLS OF FIRE, hurtling through the air, straight towards him
Ohhhhhh, so THAT'S what an Agi spell is.
In a few split seconds, multiple things happened. Pixie slapped her hand to her face, wondering how any demon could be so stupid yet continue to exist. Then she heard the rush of fire and braced herself against his back, hoping that he would be incinerated instead of her. At the same instant, Naoki turned around, turned his back on the horde and their fireballs. Hs free hand flew through the air in a blur, giving the Pixie just enough time to say one word: "What –" before grabbing her by the upper torso. His other hand was still inside the Preta's mouth, said demon chewing on it, seemingly oblivious to the chaos around it.
Then he was leaping for Isamu, colliding with him and knocking him to the ground, pinning them into a corner of the room, flattened beneath a pile of demons. Pixie, much to her outrage, found herself squished in between a fidgeting, whimpering Preta and a human who was in a state best described as catatonic, but before she could protest a hail of fireballs came flying into them, consuming the room in fire
PHWWWOOOOOOOOSH!
"GAAH!" Naoki shrieked as the fire burned his skin. He had taken the brunt of the damage, protecting the Pixie, Preta and person underneath him from harm at the expense of his own body, feeling pain rocket through him for what seemed the fiftieth time in less than a few hours. His demonic body was far more resistant than Isamu's body was, so it was far from being the worst pain he'd ever felt – not that Naoki really wanted to feel a pain that could top the centipede-boring-through-your-eye experience. It hurt, LIKE HELL, but he didn't care about that. He had to make sure the others were alright.
No matter how much it hurts. . . . I have to help Isamu!
For his part, Isamu was doing pretty much nothing. He curled into a ball, wrapped his hands around himself and trembled. "Make it Stop! Make it Stop! Make them go away!" He was shouting at the top of his lungs, but the roar of the fire and the chanting of the Pretas was so loud, SO LOUD. The Preta horde was coming now, charging into the room, the claws on their feet scratching on the floor, advancing on the corner.
We're pinned down,Naoki realized in shock, the Pixie flailing in his hand. I can't hold off this fire forever. I tried to protect my friend but instead I've put them in a terrible situation. I should have stayed at the front door, where I could fight these things off one at a time, but instead I was too busy being a selfish pacifist.
This, of course, was not a new thing. Everything Naoki did had a tendency to snowball – or fireball, in this case – into a major to total disaster. What bothered Naoki this time was that now all the responsibility was on HIM. He was the one given the power to fight back, not Isamu, but all he was doing was curling into a corner. Just like a coward.
The fireballs kept coming, kept pelting Naoki, but far more of them were missing the target wildly and impacting into the walls, and suddenly there was a crash as the wall behind Isamu buckled, swayed, then collapsed completely, falling away and down from the hospital towards the ground.
Naoki found himself staring at daylight and freedom in the form of a red sky and a desolate landscape. He looked down, tried to see how high they were, wondering if maybe they could jump down. . .but saw only more Pretas, climbing the outside of the Hospital from below.
"MAAAAAGATSUHI!"
"I can't take this much longer!" He shouted over the fireballs, shouted to make himself heard.
Pixie freed herself from his hand, shouted back. "I know, we need to push through! !I've got an idea! On the count of three, point that Preta of yours at them. One. . . Two . .. "
She steadied herself, gave a little yell, then punched the Preta in the stomach, causing it to gurgle.
"THREE! Turn it around, turn it around!"
Naoki obeyed, finally getting his hand out its mouth, pointing it at the hordes of Pretas mere seconds away from them, just in time for his Preta to give an enormous belch. . .
And incinerate absolutely everything as it vomited up a variety of tables, chairs, Preta skeletons, humanskeletons, partially digested medical instruments, X-rays – all of it came up and went - literally – hurling through the air at the horde in front of him in a mess of flaming goo and half-molten metal and fire.
Napalm vomit. These things have Napalm Vomit.
The Pretas screamed as the vomit came raining onto them, their fireballs interrupted as they took a taste of their own medicine. The closest ones were killed instantly, clearing a temporary path through the horde. Pixie didn't give the Pretas time to compose themselves – she was firing electricity bolts left and right.
"Now's our chance! Let's get out of here, Pervert!"
"Not without Isamu!"
"Forget him!" Pixie shouted back. "We need to get moving, now!" The demons were advancing, approaching from all directions. They had to move, but Isamu seemed nailed to the floor in his terror, while Naoki was nailed to the floor by his own incompetence.
"I'm not leaving without Isamu! Isamu! Wake up!"
"I told you, leave him here!" What sort of crazy demon IS this guy, nearly dying just to save a human? Something funny's going on here.
Naoki continued to protest. "But he's holding the access key card!" It was true – Isamu was holding the card in his left hand, holding it in a grip so tight it he knuckles had turned white and the blood was dripping down from where it had cut into his skin.
"Bah. . .Fine!" the Pixie grumbled. "But that human's not going to listen to you, not unless you do it . . . " sparks flew from her hand, spinning around her fingers, then a bolt of lightning leaped from her hand and nailed Isamu square in the ass. ". . . LIKE THIS!"
Well . . . her method is effective. . .
Isamu was up, on his feet, sprinting through the room screeching as he went. He took one look at the Pretas, then did a flying kick through the air towards one of them, one of the Pretas that had been hit by the Napalm Vomit.
The Preta blinked.
"Want –"
Then it was reeling backwards as Isamu's shoe impacted with its nose, snapping its head back and sending the human cart wheeling through the horde out of sight. Pixie cheered as she flew back onto Naoki's head.
"Hi-ho Human, AWAY! Let's go, Pervert!"
Naoki took her advice – He held his Preta close, put his head down, charged into the fireballs and scratches of the Preta horde, collided with them and kept going. He could hear the Pixie firing electricity all around them, could hear shrieks of pain as Pretas were thrown left and right, could feel Pretas falling underfoot and being crushed beneath his shoes.
He had to block it out. These Pretas were mere distractions, obstacles in his way. "Wait for me, Isamu!" Naoki shouted as he charged through the horde of demons. He noticed dimly that his Preta, the Preta he was still holding onto, was helping out, albeit indirectly, by chomping at its own kin as they went past. He also noted that the Pretas were not holding their fire – literally – for one of their own – they were scratching, throwing fireballs freely at Naoki, completely uncaring that one of their kin was taking the brunt of the fire. For its part, the Preta seemed completely uncaring, only shouting "WANT EAT!" at the mayhem all around it.
Where is Isamu?
Naoki couldn't see a thing – his world was full of chaos. All he could see was purple fur, slashing limbs, orange fireballs, demonic blood. All he could feel were bones breaking, blood flowing, lightning arcing through the air. All he could taste was blood. All he could smell was sulphur and blood and vomit and death. All he could hear was the buzzing of electricity, the screeching of demons, the sound of his own voice yelling, his Preta yelling "WANT EAT!" every five seconds, the sound of combat and death. His whole world was combat and death.
Then a flash – he head-butted a Preta out of the way and pushed through the horde, came onto daylight.
"GO! GO! GO!"
"Waaant eaat!"
From here it was a mad sprint down the hallways, pursued by a multitude of Pretas and other demons that had joined the party, mostly disembodied skulls but a couple of other monsters as well. Naoki continued to run until he saw his goal – Isamu, shoving a trembling hand into the Annexe security machine, unlocking the door to freedom from hell.
Naoki cheered. "Way to go, Isamu!"
They had managed to fight their way to the Annexe, the end was in sight. The Annexe security machine inexplicably still functional. Naoki's heart surged in relief as the machine beeped as though greeting them, the friendly beep of an accepted card and the gate swinging open like a lover's embrace, Isamu jumping through the gap to safety.. .
Relief that quickly turned to horror when Isamu began pushing buttons on the other side, causing the machine to beep red again and start to close.
No.. . he didn't' just – No, no no no no no no no no!
"Don't tell me that he – HE HAS!" Pixie shouted behind him. "Frigging human's locked the gate!"
"Isamu! What are you doing!" Naoki shrieked as he watched the gate close, realized that he's friend was abandoning him to the horde, panicked. He doubled, tripled, quadrupled his efforts, punching and kicking his way through the mass of Pretas, lunging desperately for the rapidly closing gate. . .
He made it! But only by one hand, jamming it in the gate to prevent it from closing. Isamu screamed, ran for the gap as Naoki tried to open it further. He stuck his leg through the gap, began stomping on Naoki's fingers, urine flowing down from his pants as he frantically kicked at his friend, preventing him from opening the gate further and pursuing him further.
"GET AWAY!"
No, this was not his friend – this demonic boy covered in the blood of the demons he had slain with his own hand. This demonic boy who's blood no longer ran red, but black, a sticky black substance identical to that of any other run of the mill demon. This was not his friend.
This was a monster.
"GET AWAY!" he shouted again, trying to dislodge its fingers.
Naoki grunted with the pain, struggled with the gate, trying to open it further, wide enough for his ally to pass safely. "P-pixie!" He shouted. "Hurry, get through!"
The Pixie flew through the group with nary a backward glance. "Don't mind if I do. See you around, sucker!" She flew off, over Isamu's head. Isamu barely noticed her - wouldn't have cared too much if he did. His attention was completely focused elsewhere, on the monster in front of him, the monster in a vaguely humanoid form. "Damn you! Damn you!" He shouted in time with his kicking. "Hurry up and DIE!"
Naoki gasped, still holding his Preta in one hand, kept holding onto the gate, even as the Preta horde from behind began to envelop him in fire and blood. He tucked the Preta underneath with his free arm, shielding it from the fireballs and the claws, still held into the gate as he was buried under a pile of demons.
Despair filled his eyes as he began to beg. "Isamu, why! Why are you doing this?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Isamu shouted back. "TO GET AWAY FROM YOU, DEMON CHILD!"
Naoki stared, his eyes widening in shock, his will to struggle and survive draining from him like a bottle of water slashed open at the bottom. No....
Was it a hallucination? Did Isamu actually say those words? How could he have known them?
Then the horde was upon him, slashing him, burning him, and he was falling to the ground, whimpering, the last few glimmers of hope fading from view as the gate slammed shut, as Isamu abandoned him his fate, to be consumed by a horde of raging demons as the burning light of Full Kagutsuhi shimmered in the Annexe hall. . .
He was alone for six whole days. Nobody noticed he was gone from his primary school classes, nobody rang up, nobody knocked on the door, nobody cared. Naoki as a five year old was left by himself, alone except for his mother's dead corpse, alone in a house that was locked up tight. He spent the first four days in a strange daydream state, not comprehending what was happening. Nothing made sense. His mother wouldn't get up off the floor, wouldn't cry, wouldn't do anything. The sun came up, the birds sang, life outside continued as normal. Inside the house, it was as though time had come to a complete halt. His mother had come to a halt, the routine had come to a halt, Naoki himself had come to a halt. For two full days, Naoki didn't move, didn't leave his mother's side. He didn't speak, eat, didn't drink, didn't even sleep. He didn't leave her side, even though his body physically responded as normal. It complained of hunger and first, defecated and urinated, staining the carpet behind him. The sun rose, the sun fell. Darkness to light to darkness to light and back again.
On the third day, the telephone rang and Naoki moved for the first time in nearly 90 hours – he was startled out of his stupor and face planted onto his mother's rigor mortised corpse. She was cold – ice cold, and quite obviously couldn't answer the phone.
He turned his head towards the telephone where it sat on a table in the kitchen, ringing for all it was worth. He blinked at it, trying to remember what it was, what it was used for. He had never used the phone before, but he'd seen her use it. Sometimes she used it to ring up for a pizza.
Maybe that's who was ringing up now. Someone to give him food.
The phone rang eight times. That was how long it took Naoki to go less than five meters from his sentry duty beside his mother to the phone on the table. He reached it on the eighth ring, picked up the handset, put it to his ear.
He heard a voice. "Hello? Yurii? It's your mother, speaking. Are you there?"
He opened his mouth, moved his tongue in the proper way, moved his lips the way you were supposed to, the way he'd done so many times before. No words came.
Fine then, be that way, give me the silent treatment, it won't change anything. Do you know what's just happened, Yuri? I've just been visited by the police. The police! What were you thinking!"
Speak, he told himself. It didn't work.
"I thought when you had that bastard son of yours that it would be enough of a wake up call for you to change your ways! You TOLD me you were a different person, YOU told me you'd moved on! But instead, the police came knocking on my door, telling me you've fallen into your old habits again! How, Yuri! How could you defy the Lord Jesus' commandments AGAIN?"
SPEAK! He told himself. It didn't work.
"Can you believe what they asked me? They asked if I could take custody of that bastard boy! They actually asked me that! During a prayer meeting! Right in front of the pastor! Now the rumours are circulating around the church! My reputation is ruined, an IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"
SPEAK! Why can't I speak? His mouth opened and closed like that of a fish but nothing came out.
"Do you want to know what I told them? I told them 'I have no idea what you're talking about Officer, I haven't got no daughter like that.' Did you hear that, Yuri? I told them, 'I have no children, officer'. Do you know why I said that? Because it's true. You're not my daughter – you're a witch, destined to go to hell. Just like your bastard son! Yuri, did you hear that? YURI!"
There was no answer. There was nobody home.
"Goodbye, Yuri. I hope you feel regret for what you've put me through."
Click.
Naoki didn't return the phone to its hook, let it swing freely.
On the fourth day, Naoki's body finally got tired off his inaction and forced him to make the decision to live. Whilst mentally he was still stopped, physically his body was moving. He got a drink. He went to the fridge, took out a bottle of orange juice, drank it from the bottle, emptied the 2 litre bottle in one sitting. Then he took some bread and cheese out of the fridge, and ate that too. He also finally read his bible again. God was probably really mad at him now, for forgetting to read the bible for five full days in a row.
Mother was gone. He wanted to go too. But where the mind was weak, the flesh was willing and the flesh had made the decision to stay. So he did.
On the sixth day or technically the first one or two hours of the seventh, Naoki was sleeping in the lounge room when he was awakened by a noise, the sound of the front door being jiggled. He had been finally rescued by –off all things – a burglar, who had noticed the lack of activity for nearly the past week and had decided to take advantage of the situation. The burglar picked the lock, opened the door, entered the room, found themselves face to face with a small boy in racing car pyjamas, smelling like death warmed up, looking up at him with dead eyes. He'd taken in the scene – dead woman on the ground, mentally dead kid by the corpse. He'd entered the house, walked straight past the scene.
"Don't judge me, kid," the burglar said to Naoki as he left, struggling with the big screen TV.
But he left the door open, and Naoki saw his chance. He was already running, running through the streets, running as fast as he could in the middle of the night, shouting and shrieking for donuts. Why donuts? Why not?
Somebody saw him, came out, grabbed him, dragged him back kicking and squealing to the house, tossed him inside, shouting for his mother to take better care of her bastard son, but as they pushed him in they stepped in the mess he'd made on the floor. By sheer coincidence, a passing car lit up the room like a lantern.
There came a scream, a hand rushing to a mouth in horror, then the clattering of footsteps and the hasty dialling of a mobile phone to the police. Words were spoken, agreements made, and suddenly things were happening around him, people talking to him and asking questions, ordering him to do things.
But something was missing, something integral, and he couldn't speak, couldn't communicate, couldn't tell them how he felt. Something was gone, something important.
That something was happiness.
Naoki did an amazing thing, something he seriously didn't think he'd ever do again after that mess. He opened his eyes.
...I'm awake again.
This did not feel him with enjoyment.
Why am I not dead? What just happened?
Everything hurt – his back felt like the skin had been sliced off with a samurai sword, his joints ached, his mouth was dry like sandpaper. He reached out with his senses, noted some things. He was lying on the floor, face down, stretched out, the floor cold to the touch. He couldn't see anything, but he could hear voices. More specifically, demonic growls. They should have been incomprehensible growls, but Naoki could understand them clearly.
". . . So, a unicorn walks into a bar, right? And the bar manager looks him up and down, and asks: Why the long face! HAHAHAHAHAHAA!"
Silence for several seconds, then it spoke again. "Oh, COME ON! Don't you guys get it? Why. . .the long. . .face? Because it's a unicorn?"
Another male voice, childlike, sounding even younger than Pixie's. ". . . I don't get it."
"You've seen unicorns right? They've got long faces. So when the manager asks him why the long place, he means "Why are you sad?" Because he thinks that the guy's got the long face because he's said? Get it now?"
Another voice, this time female, sounding a lot like the Pixie, but it was not her. ". .. I still don't get it. You suck at telling jokes, Shiisa! Why is it funny?"
"Be- Because. . . because. . . BAH! Hey, Shiki – you think my jokes are funny, right? RIGHT?"
"No, I don't," More growls, but different, coming from a different monster. "I think that they're really pathetic."
Naoki blinked, rolled over to his side, open his eyes.
He STARED.
From his vantage point on the floor, Naoki could see that he was back in one of the hospital rooms. He could also see that he was surrounded by a freak show of five monsters, one of them easily recognisable as a Preta rubbing its stomach painfully. Of the others, one looked a lot like Pixie, only with blond hair, red skin and white clothes, whilst another was a lion/dog thing that looked very similar to the statues he'd seen on Shinto Shrines – except that this lion-dog was not a statue. It was very much alive and telling bad jokes to a little blue thing that looked kind of like a floating lollipop with a face made up of three red squiggles, while a long paper snake thing floated in the air.
Great. What's going on NOW?
