"Well, here we are." Cole observed the scene of the crime. The dragging footprints started here, at the mouth of the forest.
It wasn't a bare crime scene by any means, as there was a tent, some empty tins of food and a fire that had, since the night, burned out.
He looked around the scene for a bit, noticing large tracks in the dirt. They were much too large to have been made by any animal Cole had ever seen, they also dragged in the ground. Maybe someone was hauling bodies into the forest...
That was when he saw her. In between the trees, a young lady.
Cole stared at the girl, getting intimidating vibes from being within her vicinity. She was a bizarre looking individual, tall enough to be an adult, but her dress sense was remarkably child like, but with a sinister edge. Her blue dress and pink blouse were in tatters, as if they were a century old. The apron and the cross stitch pattern across the front of the dress only added to those claims, along with the blue witches hat that she wore. It too appeared old and dilapadated, but that wasn't the most eerily creepy thing about it. it had rabbit ears on the rim, but they were stiff. As if...they were real. Aside from that, she wore one long pick striped stocking, with seemingly nothing on her other leg.
Her skin was deathly pale, like someone who hadn't been outside in years, combined with her unnaturally red eyes and white hair making her look like a ghost. The way she stared out of the bushes was like she was observing him, like he was prey or something.
Cole pulled out his Army 45. and pointed it at her. "LAPD! Come out with your hands up where I can see them!" The woman sighed and walked out of the bushes at a leisurely pace, hands in the air as Cole had ordered. Cole couldn't see before, but now he was able to see the other stocking, stuffed with something, presmuably being used as a weapon. She had another 'weapon' too, though Cole doubted its effectiveness. A baguette with nails sticking out of it.
But still, there was reason for Cole to believe that this woman knew what had happened to the four missing teens, and he was going to find out if his suspicions could be confirmed.
"Tell me your name." Cole kept his gun pointed at the woman as she stopped a few feet away from him. "Irisu...Kyouko..." She said. Her voice was quiet, but raspy. She certainly sounded like she was dead, but at the same time, also young. It was a strange combo, but the only way Cole could describe it. Guess what? She was also Japanese. There seemed to be an abundance of young Japanese girls and women around here. Maybe it was Japan, who knew?
He wrote the name down and began questioning. "So tell me, have you seen any teenagers around here lately?" Irisu nodded. She held up her hand, showing four fingers. "They came across...a girl...I didn't like her." Cole noted her strange behaviour, but now he had another lead. "What about this girl? Can you tell me anything about her?"
"Blue hair...blue eyes...ve-" She started coughing profusely, unable to even get out any words between the coughs. "Are you alright ma'am?" Cole asked, showing serious concern for her as she kept coughing, reaching down the front of her shirt and taking out a bottle. Had she reached for it at any other time, Cole probably would've shot her, but she was clearly reaching for a cough bottle.
She took a rather large swig of the bottle, before putting it back down the front of her dress.
"Blue hair, blue eyes and very small." He voice was still quiet, but the raspy side of it was gone. "Did you catch any names, or hear anything at all?"
"They tried to scare her." Irisu explained. "She...kind of scared them back."
"Scared them back? How so?" Cole raised his eyebrow. "I don't wanna talk about it. It was kind of messed up." She seemed so monotone, but she demonstrated some emotion when saying that much.
"I know...murder...can be frightening. But I need you to tell me what you saw. Can you do that, Irisu?"
"No. Otherwise you'll end up like the man who came looking for them." Cole perked up. "The man who came looking? Was he...looking for his son, by any chance?"
Irisu nodded. "He came here last night, and he stayed out here all night. He was calling for his son, and his son came out of the woods with his friends. That was what scared him."
Cole knew he needed to press. It just didn't add up. "I need you to tell me what happened to the four. It's very important."
"Why?"
Cole had enough of the good guy act. He was pressing for answers, and clearly he wasn't getting anywhere fast.
"Because, you tell me his son and his friends all came back to the man, and his first reaction was pure terror? That doesn't make sense, Irisu! Something happened to them, and until you tell me, I have every reason to believe you're the one responsible!"
"Careful..." Irisu warned. "I get angry when someone threatens me..." She started coughing again, though she stopped on her own. She still had trouble breathing though, and so she reached down the front of her dress and pulled out an inhaler. She took about ten seconds to use it before putting it away.
"Do you...have... a lot of problems with your breathing, Ms. Kyouko?" Cole questioned.
"Yeah. Asthma, and this really bad coughing virus. It hasn't gone away in a long time, so I basically live with it." She told him. "Do you have prescription for those drugs, Ms. Kyouko?"
"Not on me." Irisu shook her head. "I'm a long way from home too..." Cole chose to believe her, not seeing the point in chasing such a minor thing. "So back to the case, I need you to tell me what happened. And be serious!"
Raising his voice was a mistake.
"I'm as serious as you are, Phelps!" She snapped, her voice changing immediately from her quiet and innocent voice to one filled with animosity and rage, with a strange edge to it. Like it wasn't even a human that spoke those words. Her face began to recede under her hat, with a nonexistent shade covering her face, with only two crimson red eyes poking out.
"You should have not come here." Irisu warned. "Now...time to go."
Saya playfully walked through the forest, carefree and content that she was by far the strongest creature in the entire forest by a country mile. But there was the problem of food. She was pretty hungry, and those four teens were much better to her as suffering examples to anyone who tried to go against her. She needed someone else...
"YOU LITTLE BITCH! GET BACK HERE WITH MY BOOKS!"
Marisa was back to normal for the time being, as she emerged from the Scarlet Devil Mansion with some of Patchy's books to 'borrow' and a pretty wide grin on her face. It wasn't that she was a thief, no, nothing like that! Just...she had a hard time giving things back. That was all.
She looked around for Meiling, satisfied that she wasn't there, probably having fell asleep at the gate or something stupid like that. It was kind of obvious why Sakuya chewed her out so much, looking at her so deep in a sleep against the gates she was supposed to be guarding.
Marisa ran out of the gates, looking to where her broom was so she could take these home. But walking to her broom felt...odd today. Like she was being watched.
"Thief."
Marisa looked around. "Huh?" She scratched her head. She could've sworn she heard something, but there wasn't anyone around. Either way, she was starting to feel creeped out. She had been down this path about a million times before, but this time...something was off. Not wasting any time, she hopped on her broom and flew off, trying to get away from that sinking feeling.
A woman with long purple hair, wearing a hat with a crescent moon on the front, glasses, and a dress that made her look like Dumbledore's husband came out, looking pretty furious. "Ugh, again!" She stared at the sleeping Meiling, bewildered that she hadn't yet been fired. She chose not to wake her though, knowing Marisa still probably would've found a way to get in and out even if they had anti-aircraft missiles installed.
Saya smiled. A perfect target. What better than a lowly thief?
Cortana's base was less lively, but more packed. The place was spacious, affording every member plenty of space to roam, which might have been why everyone else was so cold.
The Jack was speaking with Cortana. "Look, I have no idea what Sun Kin told you, but the bottom line is, we need each other." The Jack sighed. "I would hate to be working with any of you, let alone all of you together. But I am no fool, I recognize when I am outmatched."
"So you'll work with us?"
"Now this doesn't mean anything." The Jack was quick to add. "I still abhor the concept, and I will become your enemy once more when the fighting is done, but for now...truce." He reluctantly agreed.
Isaac, Marius, Marcus and Chief were also having their own little meeting, the other three knowing Chief to be Cortana's preferred choice for leader.
"Anyone have any ideas?" Chief asked. "Well, I have a list." Marcus threw the sheet of paper into the middle of the table. "28 members." Marius confirmed. "Though we don't know if that figure is final."
"Cortana told me we probably won't get too many more." Chief explained. "She said she'd explain it all later, once she knew 'where everyone was'." Isaac nodded. "She knows all the members of the Microsoft Elite then." Chief nodded. "Not sure how, but yeah, she does."
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but this team reminds me so much of the Playstation All-Stars." Isaac commented.
"PlayStation All-Stars?" Isaac nodded. "That's where I started off." Master Chief considered. If there was another organisation similar to the Elite, then that opened up more possibilities. Maybe there were even more of them out there. Who knew? Would they ever find out?
"Hey Chief!" Cortana called out, causing him to lose his train of thought. "Ah, what is it?" He asked. "Got the last of our recruits."
"We'll continue this later." Marcus suggested. They all agreed as they went to have a look at the new recruits.
A bipedal cat, a Ginger Tom to be more specific, with a funny looking vacuum, wearing a blue jumper and goggles was the first of the new recruits.
The other was far more interesting.
A human woman for a start, with pale skin and long brown hair, which might have made her seem far less interesting initially. But that was only the surface. She looked like an over enthusaistis LARPer, wearing all the typical stuff a fantasy character would. Horned helmet, shirt that covered her torso, but left her arms exposed, shoulder guards, very basic pants that didn't provide any additional benefits aside from keeping you warm when it was already above 15 degrees celsius outside. She did have something of a fur coat wrapped around her waist, but it wsn't a designer brand. It was more like she literally skinned an animal and used its fur as a coat. She had all sorts of weapons too, an axe, a mace and a bow on her back, with a sword in its sheathe beside a small knife and a sickle. She also had a satchel which held a few bottles amongst other things. She didn't speak, and stared at Chief as if he was a frail old man, who needed his armour to keep his arms from falling off.
"Blinx, and Dovahkiin." Cortana announced. "That makes 30 of us. That'll be all, if I'm not mistaken. As far as I know, the rest are with Vert."
"So, you're finally gonna tell me what this is all about?"
In due time, Chief." Cortana replied. "I'll give everyone time to settle in first. We should have a few days before we have to get moving."
ARIA was still firmly fixated on something on a screen, watching paper being made. It wasn't exactly the most interesting thing happening at Ultratech, but nevertheless, that was what she watched.
"What on earth are you doing?" L.O.G. demanded, irritated that ARIA was occupied with such a mundane task.
"The work ARIA does now is vital to our success as a team. I think such a task would seem important." The Shadowman responded. That shut L.O.G. up for the moment, but it wasn't long before they were interrupted again.
The doors flew open, revealing Cinder standing there.
"Say, you think that you guys have a moment?" He asked, very nonchalantly so.
"What is it, Ben?" ARIA asked, not lifting her eyes from the screen.
"Uh yeah. Y'know that demon guy we fought a while back?"
"Gargos." ARIA replied.
"Yeah, well, he's...kind of back." Cinder rubbed the back of his head. "That doctor dude told me I needed to tell you that, cause he had a sense or something? I don't know.
The Shadowman for once, was unaware of the threat. Yukari, Monty, Cortana, it all seemed obvious before. "You neglected to tell me this because...?"
"I thought I did enough to seal him off from the outside." ARIA responded, turning away from the screen. The Shadowman shook his head. He was clearly frustrated, but he was doing enough to hold it all in. "Very well...West is smart enough to know about dimensional rifts. If anything arises, he can take care of it. At least until I can get the Summoning Key."
It approached night, but Marisa still pretty busy, characteristically so.
Marisa's house was littered with books, as per usual, though there was something different about this occasion. First off, they were sorted into two piles. 'Read, and unread'. Unusual for someone usually so disorganized.
Marisa still couldn't figure out what they did. High alcohol levels, weird flavours with no rhyme or reason, they were truly the most bizzare drinks the thief had ever come across. She tried to take some notes, having been zapped by Richtofen for taking the book once before, learning her lesson. As far as she knew, some of them toughened you up, some made you faster, stronger and some made you more accurate.
Time for sleep anyway. Maybe in the morning she would figure out the mysteries of the drinks. Besides, she was starting to get a bad feeling in her gut, and it was only getting worse the longer she stayed up.
Saya was enjoying herself, toying with the emotions of her latest victim, planning to make the thief pay far more than the cost of her crimes.
She then pointed to the four teenagers, who she had forced to tag along. "You four are to go in there and kill her. She shouldn't take too much to bring down, and I need to eat."
The four didn't do anything, only kind of sitting there looking miserable and in tremendous pain.
"If you do it, maybe I'll turn you back." She offered, not entirely sure how that could be done.
Marisa drifted slowly and peacefully off to sleep, knowing that tomorrow, she would solve the mystery. She just would.
About ten minutes passed.
There was a noise outside. Marisa slowly woke, not really sure what was going on. The world was still a haze, and as far as she knew, she had just woken up for nothing.
Marisa slowly opened her eyes. It was still dark outside, save for the moon. She was wearing nothing but her nightdress, and her hair was obscuring her vision. It was strange. She thought she heard something outside, prowling around the forest. But it was so late, that couldn't have been the case. If it were Remilia or Flandre, they probably would have flown around, if at all they left the mansion grounds.
Drowsy, but wanting to see what was going on, Marisa fumbled around for a pair of slippers and her spark, being unable to focus long enough to find it. Marisa didn't bother, viewing her door from upstairs where a lantern hung next to the door, illumninating a lot of downstairs.
But what was it that lay outside? Whatever it was, it was making Marisa more and more anxious, but at the same time, almost calling out to her, as if to draw her closer to the door. She quietly stepped downstairs, only becoming more and more fearful as the noise drew closer.
The sound of something soft and damp making its way to the door. It stopped. How far away? Not far enough if Marisa could still hear it.
"hElP mE" It groaned. Marisa's uneasieness began to develop into panic, not wanting to see what was on the other side. "KiLl Me." Another voice wheezed.
Marisa slowly tried to sneak away from the door. She gently tip toed away, being careful not to step on anything that would make a noise.
The voices still hadn't stopped. They began to occupy Marisa's mind, exploiting the fear of the unknown, taking shape in her mind. Why couldn't she just face up to it? She knew she was being irrational, but she couldn't stop herself. It was like her brain was being coated in fear, and was incapable of any other emotion. Whatever it was outside-
Her thoughts were cut off by a bookshelf she bumped into. Marisa nearly jumped out of her skin, and worst of all, the shelf started to rock back and forth. Marisa froze, silently praying no more noise was made.
The door opened. A grotesque red tentacle hit the floorboards, and that was when Marisa stopped dead in her tracks.
It was a hideous combination of the shades of red you would find inside the human body. It looked like a combination of other parts of the body stitched together in some fucked up science experiment. Worst of all was the eye. A lone, blue, bloodshot eye on the tentacle. It was staring at her. Staring right at her. Right at her. "pLeAsE" It begged, dragging the rest of its mutilated frame into her house.
Marisa had never been so disgusted in her life as she had been with the abomination that entered her house that night. Something that was once a human with one eye on the tentacle, and one eye on what passed for its body. A hideous mound of rotting flesh that barely managed to heave itself into the house.
There were more. Oh God. Each one was more horrifying than the last, and they were all crying out for help. Marisa was shaking. She knew she could easily take out those...things, but there was something in her brain that wouldn't let her get over the shock of seeing them. She was nearly paralyzed in fear, and if she wasn't already slightly insane, that sight surely would have broken her mind.
Marisa felt herself seizing up, like she couldn't do anything to stop these abominations. Her broom and Master Spark were upstairs, and there was no way she was getting up there for those.
She slowly began to back up, taking one step at a time away from the horrors, never taking her eyes off of them, as fear took over her brain like a parasite, dictating her every move. She wanted to look around for something to defend herself with, but at the same time, her horrified gaze would not move.
She let out a quiet and scared gasp of horror, turning to move faster away from them. But that was a mistake.
She tripped over a stack of books and went head first through the makeshift shelves which held her mushrooms and the mysterious drinks, accompanied by a loud crash as the glass bottles shattered on impact with the ground, spilling their contents everywhere.
Marisa's head hurt from the impact too, but she wasn't concerned about that, only getting away from the beasts that had broken into her home. She tried to crawl back, not taking her eyes off of them, and then started to feel a sharp pain in her hands. Crying out, Marisa fell on her back and held her hands up, seeing the shards from the bottles had dug into her hands.
Marisa could only let out a nervous whimper as the hideous creatures got closer, begging her for help which she could not give. There were no weapons nearby, the glass was too small to be used effectively, plus her hands were in agonizing pain with glass stuck in them. She still pressed on, using her feet to push herself away from the creatures, never taking her eyes off them.
Her hands were in seething agony. She reached the wall, and with her back firmly pressed against it, she could only stare wide eyed at the abominations drawing closer. She wanted to tell them to back off, but she couldn't even form words in her state.
She reached around for something, anything to defend herself with. She looked around. There was a stick, some paperbacks, and a bottle. The bottle. That was her last hope. She picked up the bottle filled with grey liquid, with a picture of a spider on the front.
'Widow's Wine'.
Marisa closed her eyes, trying to ignore her bleeding hands and popped the top off the bottle, and quickly drank what she could from the bottle, with her hands trembling so much that the majority of it was spilled on her. But once the bottle was empty, Marisa tossed it at the mutilated creatures, missing horribly.
Marisa shut her eyes as they got closer, never letting up in their begging for help or the awful squelching sound they made as they crawled towards her.
She was trying to scream, but couldn't find her voice, as if it had been stolen.
But as they eventually reached their target, she finally did.
Saya smiled crookedly as the screams rang out, moving towards the house for her first meal in a long time. However, it wasn't meant to be. "STAAAAAAARRRSSSS!" Nemesis bellowed, giving pursuit to the creature disguised as a young girl. "Well, she better be there in the morning otherwise I'm gonna make you my next feast buddy." Saya growled at Nemesis as he stomped down and chased her about as quickly as he could do so, giving Marisa some more time on earth.
Given the things she had experienced though, that wasn't necessarily a good thing.
The next morning rolled around at the Hakurei Shrine, to the sound of a commotion outside. "No! Get off me, now!" Richtofen ordered. A green skinned man, wearing a tattered business suit complete with a fedora that somehow hadn't come off his head. "Brains! Braaaaaaiiiiiiins!" The man cheered as two more individuals tried to pull him off. The first being a teenager with very light blond hair, wearing a blue and green hooped shirt and jeans, and the other being more interesting. An older man, bearded and wearing glasses, also wearing boyd armour which was a metallic grey and orange, with a logo on the chestpiece. Reimu couldn't begin to comprehend what was going on.
Eventually, the older man used a crowbar to pry the zombie man off of Richtofen, which in and of itself was strange. The undead had attacked once before, but they weren't that strong, and they were usually far more savage. As well as that, this one didn't have blue eyes.
Richtofen dusted himself off, walking towards the shrine, stopping when he saw Reimu. "Hey, who are the new guys?" She asked. "Gordon is the scientist, und Cooper is the teenager." Richtofen answered. "And what about the zombie?" Richtofen groaned in disgust. "Stubbs..." He muttered, obviously not a fan of working with the undead.
"Anyway," Richtofen changed the subject. "I have discovered that items from my dimension are
...well, inside your friends house. I'd like them back." Reimu raised her hands in self defence. "Come on, I know you're mad, but you've gotta leave me out of this."
Richtofen raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you hear?" Reimu lookd quizzical. "There were screams coming from the the place where she is supposed to live, und I figured you would like to check up on your fri-"WOAH!" Richtofen screamed as he was whisked away by Reimu at break neck pace, Hoping the trip didn't require any sharp turns.
Reimu noticed that the door was wide open. Very strange, for someone who was a complusive hoarder. Had someone broken in? Either way, there was a horrible stench, and it was obviously coming from inside. What happened? Did someone die?
There was Marisa, messy hair, nightdress stained all different colours, wide eyed and curled up, trembling in fear at a disgusting pile in the middle of her house.
"It's over...it's over...it's over..." Over and over again, Marisa failed to stop repeating that as she stared into seemingly nothing.
"Marisa!" Reimu rushed over to her best friend, hoisting her up and pulling her into a hug. Marisa gripped Reimu out of instinct, starting to slow down the repetition of the phrase.
Cole was the next to rush into the house, barely keeping his hat on as he ran into the house.
"Oh-I...my apologies." He turned to leave. "I'll be back later."
"Wait!" Reimu called out. "You're a detective, right?" Cole nodded. "We could use your help to piece together what happened. Think you can help us?" Cole stopped.
"Of course. Take the poor girl to bed, see if she comes around. I might need to ask her some questions." Reimu nodded, and with that, carried Marisa up the stairs with great effort, and put her in bed.
In the mean time, Cole was looking around. The place was a a pigsty, making the whole place look like a crime scene. But thankfully, it was easy to determine where the actual incident had taken place. The creatures, whatever they were, were piled up on top of each other near where they found Marisa curled up.
"Irisu. Is this what you saw?" She didn't stare for long before nodding to confirm. "My apologies. You can go home if you-" "No. I kind of owe you for beating the crap out of you."
"Thanks." Cole smiled "You've been a-" That was all the poor girl could take as she ran outside to throw up at.
"What happened there?" Richtofen asked, walking in on the spectacle before seeing. "That is rather unsightly."
Richtofen took a smell of the apalling air, confirming it wad far more than simple murder.
"Widow's Wine. That was the perk she used, und a wise choice. Nothing else would have been able to save her in such a situation.
Richtofen knelt down and began slowly pulling at the silk, hoping to reveal a face. As more silk went away, the face became more and more visible.
"That's one of the teens." Cole remembered his face from the poster. "Are you sure?" Richtofen asked. "I'll move more so you can-MEIN GOTT!" He swore. His hands were no longer tearing through silk, but through the flesh. Cole turned away, gaggin at the sight. "Still..." Richtofen hoped to brush it off. "Flesh shouldn't be this easy to tear through, unless..." He stopped.
"What?" Cole prompted him. "Unless what?" Richtofen sighed.
"It isn't just the silk. Their flesh structure is remarakably weak. Now, I'm no expert as to what happened, but if it is like I think it is, I will have no other choice. Anyway, the bottom line is, that I have seen mothers eat their offspring for much the same reason.
Richtofen looked at Cole. "The only reason for them to die like this would be if..."
"Either they were newborn, which isn't the case, or this. Something, or someone was planning to eat them." Cole finished the sentence.
"Exactly." Richtofen confirmed. "But who would-"
They were cut off by the sound of a young girl with blue hair screaming.
Irisu's eyes went wide, recognizing the indivdual immediately.
"Saya...!"
Author's Note
(I'll probably update this A/N in the morning when I'm less tired.)
So poor Marisa. I'm also hoping this chapter is where I can start focusing that much more on Chief's/Cortana's side, especially with all the members there. Gargos is gonna get a bit more spotlight too, and a few characters have been introduced. Not long now until I get to focus more on the character develpoment aspect.
Thanks for reading, and until next time!