Train to Nowhere
Leitmotif: "Home" — Silent Hill soundtrack
-:-
The Lynch Street platform of South Ashfield Station was quiet. Eerily quiet. At this time of day, it should've been bustling with activity, but right now, it was empty, save for a lone young man with a mop of black hair and wary amber eyes.
Makoto Itou turned around. He thought he'd heard a girl sobbing behind him, but when he looked, no one was there. Had he just imagined it?
He turned back around. Yeah, he must've. Stupid creepy magazine… Why isn't that damn train—?!
Shove on his back.
Face-first on rails and cold concrete.
Train horn.
By a hair's breadth, Makoto scrambled back onto the platform just as the train screeched to a stop. When he opened his eyes again, the teen saw something completely out of place in a subway like this. The train before him reminded him of those super sentai shows he'd watched as a kid, with the lead car resembling a red mammoth, the next car resembling a T-Rex, and the caboose resembling a triceratops.
"What the hell…?"
A door suddenly opened, revealing a guy dressed like a bōsōzoku*, with long unruly black hair and the iciest blue eyes Makoto had ever seen. Compounding the latter feature was the deep scowl the newcomer wore.
"The fuck were you doing on the tracks, Itou? Finally decided your life was shit and wanted to end it once and for all?" the delinquent asked. "Less messy ways to go, y'know."
"…Who …who are you?" Makoto asked.
"Who am I?" The delinquent blinked before a look of incomprehension crossed his features. He took out his flip phone to check it and he grimaced. "Damn, wrong world. Fucking great." He glared at Makoto. "Hey, who are you dating right now?"
"W-what? What does that—?"
"Answer the fucking question!" the delinquent snapped, eyes narrowing. "And answer carefully," he growled.
In the presence of fanglike teeth and almost leonine eyes, Makoto truly felt like the mouse before the lion and tried to come up with a satisfactory answer. "W-well, uh… it's… very… complicated…"
"No, it's not. It's quite simple. Who are you dating?" the delinquent repeated, enunciating the question. "Unless, of course, you're some kind of man-whore."
Makoto's shifty-eyed silence said it all.
The delinquent sighed. "So you are a man-whore this time 'round… Are you fucking half the girls in your grade now?"
Makoto started. "No! Not that many! Although…" he started rubbing the back of his neck. "…among them is… a guy."
The delinquent blinked, once, twice, three times, having not expected that from Makoto.
"Ryuji-kun, why did we stop? Are we there yet?" a girl asked as she stepped off the train. A very familiar girl. "Makoto-kun, is that you?"
"…Kotonoha…?! Wh-what are you doing he—?!"
"It's him, but not the one you know, Koto-chan," the now-named Ryuji answered the girl.
"I see…" Makoto began. "I'm dreaming. This is all a dream. That's why there's a super sentai train in front of me." He began laughing, in a way that was bordering on hysteria. "Or maybe my plane crashed, and this is a dying dream…!"
"Oh, great. Now he's having a nervous breakdown," Ryuji observed as Makoto continued laughing.
"Ryuji-kun!" Kotonoha urged. "Help him!"
"Really?" The delinquent looked back at her incredulously. "You want me to help him? He's not the same guy, Koto-chan."
"He still needs help, Ryuji-kun. Please."
"Fine," Ryuji huffed. He went and grabbed Makoto's arm. "C'mon, Itou. You look like you could use a drink." He dragged Makoto inside the train and shoved him into a chair in the dining car. Ryuji then went over to the fridge and grabbed a can of Yebisu beer. He popped it open and handed it to Makoto. "Here. It'll help you relax."
The youth stared at the beer can, then back at Ryuji. "But I don't drink."
"You look like you need to take some of the edge off," the delinquent replied as he grabbed and popped open a can for himself. "Cheers."
Makoto stared between Ryuji and his beer again before saying, "Oh, to hell with it!" and took a swig. He began coughing.
Ryuji chuckled. "The first sip always gets you." He took a swig of his own, savoring, then put it down before staring hard at the other boy. "Now spill, Itou. What the hell are you doing halfway around the world?"
That shifty gaze returned. "I'm… going to Silent Hill. My dad wanted me to meet him there."
Ryuji suddenly looked like he was holding back bile. "Better get me another one, Koto-chan." The long-haired girl obliged, grabbing a beer for herself as well.
Eager for a distraction, Makoto took another look at the Kotonoha doppelganger. Like Ryuji, she too was clad in biker gear, but she otherwise looked just like the Kotonoha he knew. He just couldn't understand it…
"Hey! Itou!"
Makoto snapped back to attention, getting an eyeful of Ryuji's arctic glare.
"Don't you start ogling my girl!"
"I-I wasn't!" Makoto stammered. "It's just… you two… how'd you—"
"Get together, Itou-kun?" Kotonoha finished as she took a swig of her own beer.
"…yeah."
"You and I dated back in my world, but you cheated on me with Sekai. I was heartbroken, but Ryuji-kun was there to help me pick myself back up. He was there for me when I needed a shoulder to cry on, and he even introduced me to his friends. I started falling for him and we've been together ever since," Kotonoha explained. She cupped Ryuji's face and his eyes softened. He then put his hands around her waist as they locked lips.
Makoto watched them kiss passionately, tongues dancing around each other. They soon broke the kiss, with Kotonoha wearing a blush and a bright smile. Ryuji just smirked victoriously, his hands never leaving Kotonoha's waist. Makoto could only avert his gaze, once again reminded of just how royally he'd fucked up.
The movement hadn't been lost on Ryuji. "So back to you. Why are you really going to this Silent Hill place?"
"I told you! To meet my dad!"
"And why the hell would you wanna go meet that sonofabitch?! At least where I came from, you hated your old man's guts!"
Makoto sighed, unable to think of any convincing lie. "I needed to get away for a while, to clear my head. And my dad's letter just… came at the right time, and I couldn't think of anywhere else to go. Not without having to explain myself…"
"How royally did you fuck up that you thought going to meet your deadbeat sperm donor was a good idea?" Ryuji growled. "You knock up some girl or something?"
Makoto paled. "Not that I know of. I hope not."
Ryuji's face went deadpan. "You hope not? You hope not?" He sighed, then pinched the bridge of his nose. "Better stay on beer duty, Koto-chan."
They continued to drink, though Kotonoha drank juice instead. Just as well, Ryuji thought. Whenever Kotonoha got plastered, everything she bottled up inside would spill over, and he didn't want her getting embarrassed like that. As for Ryuji himself, his unique physiology prevented him from getting drunk. That just left Makoto, whose face was flushed as his speech began to slur after his second can. Good. In vino veritas.
And what veritas the vino yielded. The man-whore before Ryuji spilled about everything leading up to his being in Ashfield. Forming a harem with Kotonoha, Sekai, and Setsuna. Forming a second harem with Roka and the Ashikaga siblings. The first harem finding out about the second. Receiving Tomaru's letter and plane ticket. A chance to get away.
Ryuji didn't think he could be even more disgusted. He had no problems with the LGBTQ community, but the way Itou handled the whole situation just made him sick. Ryuji felt the urge to just toss him out of the train, but Kotonoha put a hand on his arm to calm him.
"So really, it's just as well I accepted that asshole's invite!" Makoto half-ranted, half-sobbed. "He's the cause of all this! He's why I'm a man-whore!"
"Itou… you're a fucking douchebag. You know that, right?" Ryuji asked. "I mean, starting a harem is one thing, but then you cheat on the first harem by forming a second harem? Seriously?! Do you do all your thinking with your dick?! And yeah, your old man's an asshole and you have every reason to hate him, but at some point, you have to take responsibility for your own actions. Karma just bit you in the ass. Also, not even telling them where you were going?!"
Makoto would have argued or tried to make excuses for himself, but instead, he collapsed like a sack of rice. Ryuji just growled in annoyance. The fuckwit couldn't even stay awake long enough for him to berate him. Lightweight.
"What should we do with him?" Kotonoha asked.
"I'd throw him out and move on," Ryuji answered, scowling. "But now I'm curious about his old man. Why would he ask him to come to some backwater town in the US?"
"Sounds like a mystery. We should check it out," Kotonoha remarked, smiling. Ryuji knew that smile. She saw this as an adventure waiting to happen and she always had a thing for spooky and creepy things. He knew this from her horror memorabilia, which included his personal favorite, Romero's Night of the Living Dead films.
"Fine," Ryuji sighed as he got up. "Let's wait 'til he wakes up and then we'll check out this Silent Hill. Just bring something to protect yourself with, Koto-chan."
The girl grinned as she reached behind her back and unsheathed her trusty dozuki.
"I'm always prepared, Ryuji-kun."
"Heh, that's my girl." He gave her another kiss. He was so proud of her. She had truly broken out of her shell.
-:-
Makoto awoke with a hangover, his head pounding as if Setsuna and the Ashikaga siblings had been playing soccer with it. He groaned as he opened his eyes. Ugh, why wouldn't the light just shut up?!
"Wakey-wakey, sleeping beauty," Ryuji said as he poured something into a glass and handed it to Makoto. "Drink that. Hair of the dog."
Makoto sniffed the glass and recoiled in disgust. His face turned green and he looked ready to vomit.
"You puke on my floor, you're cleaning it up," Ryuji threatened.
Makoto swallowed his bile and in one gulp, downed the entire glass. His eyes went wide and he began to cough. It tasted horrible, but he felt his hangover lifting. He got up from his position on the floor as his head started to clear. "Ugh, what happened?" he asked, rubbing his head.
"You got shitfaced and spilled your guts," Ryuji answered (thinking, though not the way I would've preferred). "Two harems, and one of them with a guy? Never knew you swung both ways, Itou."
"Neither did I. Not until Yuu's wig fell off."
"Wow. Guess you'd fuck just about anyone who gave you the time of day," Ryuji huffed. "Now, come on. Let's go meet your deadbeat dad."
"Huh? You're coming with me?"
"Koto-chan talked me into it. Besides, you're in the middle of nowhere, and from the looks of things, you need all the help you can get," Ryuji said.
Kotonoha entered the dining car and went to make herself a cup of coffee.
"Are you boys ready?" she asked.
"Yeah. Just told Itou here we were coming along," Ryuji said.
"Good." Kotonoha sipped her drink. "Did you give him a weapon?"
"A weapon?" Makoto blinked.
"Nah," Ryuji shook his head. He dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out a sheathed hunting knife. "Here, better than nothing. Just try not to hurt yourself."
"Do I really need-?"
"Yes," Ryuji and Kotonoha cut him off at the same time.
Makoto looked at the knife warily. "Okay…"
Before long, the train screeched to a halt. The doors opened, revealing a backdrop shrouded in fog. If one's gaze adjusted, they could just make out a lake, along with some hills on the other side. Ryuji disembarked first and looked around, unimpressed. "What a dump."
"It certainly does seem like a ghost town," Kotonoha observed as she too scanned the place.
"Yeah, and the eerie silence doesn't help either," Ryuji scoffed, crossing his arms. "Alright, Itou. Where to?"
"Well, um…" Makoto was at a loss. Only now had he realized that his father had never told him where in Silent Hill to meet him.
"Let me guess: Tomaru never specified a rendezvous point, huh?" Ryuji rolled his eyes. "What an asshole."
Makoto didn't dispute that.
"Well, perhaps we could try a public meeting place," Kotonoha suggested. "Small towns like this would have diners, right? Maybe we should try and check there."
"Dad!"
Ryuji and Kotonoha turned in the direction of Makoto's cry, ready for anything. When the figure resolved itself, however…
"No. You're… not…" It was hard to tell if Makoto was disappointed, or relieved.
As for the newcomer, he was indeed not the Tomaru Sawagoe that any of the trio knew. He was instead a broad-shouldered sandy blond man, wearing jeans, black boots, and a green bomber jacket. Ryuji could've sworn the man looked amused at Itou's mistake. The man chuckled. "Sorry to disappoint you."
"Who are you?" Ryuji asked. He didn't know what it was, but something just felt off about this guy…
"I'm James. James Sunderland."
-:-
As the trio made their way along Wiltse Road, that feeling in Ryuji's gut just wouldn't go away. That James guy. He and his wife, Mary, just seemed too… happy to be living in this fog world. And Ryuji had so many questions about Mary's "miraculous recovery"…
Then there was that Angela girl they'd met at the graveyard. Angela reminded Ryuji of Kotonoha right after Itou and Saionji's betrayal. And that warning she'd given Itou about his old man… Ryuji exchanged a glance with Kotonoha and it was clear that she was thinking the same thing. Ryuji also knew that Kotonoha's heart went out to that Angela girl.
As for Itou, it was clear that this place was already getting to him. He looked more exhausted than either Ryuji or Kotonoha, on top of which the boy just looked ready for something to jump out at him. Remembering Itou's near-hysteria in the subway, Ryuji decided to head off another fit here and now.
"Hey, Itou."
"Wh-what?"
Ryuji promptly cuffed him upside the head. "Snap out of it." The last thing Ryuji needed was to have to babysit him. Before Makoto could protest, he and his companions had finally reached the town proper, which still had no signs of life. It was like something out of a post-apocalypse movie.
"Where is everybody?" Kotonoha asked.
"Good question," Ryuji added. He took out his flip phone. "I'm gonna call Ant. Maybe he knows something." When he tried to call his friend, however, Ryuji saw that there was no reception on his phone. "What the hell…?"
"Oh. It's snowing," Kotonoha said, holding out a hand. Sure enough, a multitude of white flakes were now falling from the sky.
"Nice touch," Ryuji snarked. He'd watched enough anime to know what non-Christmas snow usually implied. "Be on your toes, you two. I can't get in touch with Ant and the DynoLiner's already left. Looks like we're on our own for now." He could've sworn Itou gave a whimper at this. Chickenshit.
"If only we could contact your sister, Ryuji-kun," Kotonoha said.
"The bounty hunter or the mercenary?"
"Either or. I bet they'd be able to track down Itou-kun's father."
Suddenly, a crackling sound emanated from Makoto's jacket pocket. "What the…?!" The boy took out his trusty pocket radio, the source of the static. He shook it, then tried to fiddle with it, but the white noise only persisted. Persisted, and grew louder.
"Ryuji-kun!"
At Kotonoha's scream, the boys looked up, sighting a feminine-looking being with pitch-black hair just as long as Kotonoha's. Clad in Sakakino's blazered uniform, the creature would've been mistaken for human were it not for the grotty deathly pale complexion, the cloisonné face resembling that of a slit-mouth woman, and most prominently, the gargantuan blades in place of hands.
Ryuji immediately got between the other two and the creature, swiping the pass across his belt.
"Henshin!"
[SABER FORM!]
A black suit materialized over Ryuji's body with matching gauntlets and boots. His breastplate had a raillike pattern going down the middle. His helmet was also plain, mostly black with a silver mouth-plate and lacking other accessories. A mask then appeared as it slid over the front and snapped into place. It had glowing red slits and points that resembled fangs.
"Now, it's extinction time." Blue flames burst from his hands, forming into a pair of ice-blue sabers.
The schoolgirl monstrosity charged forward, brandishing a blade-arm. At the last second, Ryuji ducked, causing the Schoolgirl to stumble forward. Just as he turned around, the Schoolgirl's "face" split down the middle and opened, revealing a fleshy mass with what looked like a vertical mouth. Out of this mouth, the Schoolgirl launched a rusty-colored mist right at Ryuji's face.
Thanks to his mask, Ryuji suffered no ill effects aside from the disgusting smell, but he was certain that the spray was meant to be toxic or acidic.
Ryuji knew he had to act fast. He swiftly flipped his swords into a reverse grip and buried the blades into the Schoolgirl's chest, causing her to ice over. He then slashed downward, shattering his frozen quarry into many pieces.
The enemy vanquished, Ryuji shifted back to his everyday self before racing over to the other two. "Koto-chan! Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine, Ryuji-kun," Kotonoha answered, a little shaken. "But Itou-kun…"
If Kotonoha was shaken, Itou was even more so, ghastly pale and his pupils now pinpricks of fear as his mouth hung open. When his speech had returned, so had his hysteria. "This has to be a dream. This HAS to be a dream! Wake up, Makoto! WAKE UP!"
At his wits' end, Ryuji gave Itou a sharp slap, stunning the boy into silence. "That enough of a wakeup call for you, Itou?!"
Makoto, who was now rubbing his reddening cheek, stared at Ryuji. "What the hell was that?! What the hell are you?" He had just witnessed Ryuji transform into… whatever the hell that was! to fight a freaky schoolgirl monster. Things like that didn't happen in real life…!
"The guy who's gonna have to save your sorry ass, apparently." Seriously, this version of Itou was an even bigger pussy than the Itou he knew! He and Kotonoha helped Makoto to his feet.
"This is gonna be a long trip…"
-:-
A major thank you to Kamen Rider Chrome for collabing with me on this!
*Bōsōzoku: motorcycle-riding delinquent
Makoto Itou, Tomaru Sawagoe, Kotonoha Katsura © 0verflow
South Ashfield Station, Silent Hill © Konami
Kamen Rider series, the DynoLiner © Bandai
Kamen Rider Days, Ryuji Hasuma © Kamen Rider Chrome
Silent Days, the Schoolgirl © me