Broken Adventure: Arc 4: Heartless

by theaceoffire

A fragment of a powerful being is sent to combat and ambush a deadly monster hunting between Jumps... But while devouring it, the fraction of a Soul Consumed too much! Now infused with the raw concept of Darkness, how will the confused bits of Adam 'Adventure' Burns survive their new existence? Godlike, Heartless Shadow, Dimensional/Universe/Fictional/Reality Travel.

1. Chapter 1

The Fourth and Final Broken Adventure Arc!

Following 'Broken Adventure: Arc 1: Origin', 'Broken Adventure: Arc 2: Cultivation', and 'Broken Adventure: Arc 3: Jumpchain.'

A fragment of a powerful being is sent to combat and ambush a deadly monster between reality... But while devouring it, the fraction of a Soul Consumed too much! Now infused with the raw concept of Darkness, how will the confused bits of Adam 'Adventure' Burns survive their new existence!?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

[[[Flashback]]]

Sarah was still reading the initial summary, but was more than happy to leave the dense technical mumbo jumbo alone. "So what happened?"

Adam pulled up the relevant data. {{Somehow my Shard found an alternative way to travel. A new variant of [[Transfer: Ḁ̪̹͍̙̞̹̺̭̣̘̩̟̙̯b̟̱̪͇̙̝y̯̥͔̥̳̪͉̣͚͇͓̠͔͎̭̣̝̹s̹̗̣̪̦̺͉̫͈̫̟̜͇̜̙͉̭s͙̥̗̫̖͙̤͈̗͍̮̼͎͚̩̳ͅͅ]]}}

Sarah blinked.

Which was fair. Adam wasn't sure how to handle this either.

She cleared her throat. "So uh… Is this bad?"

No idea. {{It's fine! My Shard is built to go and look around a bit in fun new places anyway.}} It was probably fine. And the Warehouse could still send data to the Shard, even though the communication came out a bit odd when it attempted to reply.

Uh. Just to be sure though.

[[Transfer Data: Shard: You alright bro?]]

{{R̢҉͢͝ā̷̡̀̀̕d̢ù̸͘͟͠n̵҉̛̀͜a̴͠c̶̴̸̶į͜: Dra͢o͏ ̕c̸ru̕imt r͢yj̢à ͟cah͢d̸ ͘y b͠u͜a̡d̴.}}

Uh. Cool story bro! {{Yep, it's fine. Now, who wants to become a skeleton woman and beat up some unfaithful zombie assholes while seducing the nice hot dead lady who is super sweet cinnamon roll?}}

Sarah blinked. "What, what now?"

He had mentioned that she was going to be dead this Jump, right?

Right?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam Burns flinched as ANOTHER new stream of data began transmitting.

Narwhal noticed, of course. "Did your Warehouse kid do something crazy again? Poor little Sarah…"

Simmy and Sammy were off handling the updates to the various automated material collection units based on data from the Jumpchain information feed, but Adam knew if he glanced away right now there would be a sassy note or two ready and waiting anyway.

So he wouldn't glance away! Take THAT, you sexy angels of future prediction! "No, well uh… Yeah, a bit, but that isn't what caught me off guard."

She carefully shifted the virtual interface to the side to focus. "Well? What happened?"

Adam blinked as he felt his Shard twist. "I'm not entirely sure but… I think my Shard just accidentally devoured it's way into a different Realm entirely. Sarah and her Adam are on their own now, at least."

What WAS going on here!? "It… I think it is similar to Faith? Or Kami? The Shard has somehow managed to find undefinable ties between people… Maybe karma? But more vague and generic than that."

His tall wife blinked. "Well… Why not ask it directly then?"

Adam examined it, but it was just so odd. "Because the Shard itself is adapting to the new Realm, and the process is going VERY odd… What the hell?"

Did that place have a different definition of SOUL!?

He couldn't help the grin that grew on his face.

How… How interesting!

[[[Flashback Ends.]]]

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The Shard, itself, has a few features.

It is a fragment of Adam 'Adventure' Burn's Soul.

It can inspire new Avatars of Adam to be born within new Realms, allowing Adam a safe and secure method of infiltrating dangerous places and exploring them without risking his family and friends.

To a certain extent, it can act as an out of context opportunity for the new Adams it generates, to allow them to grow with less difficulty or issue in locations with few chances of improvement or safety.

But… In the end?

It is a fragment.

Not a whole Soul.

This… This was normally not an issue.

It was of Adam, and by Adam, and for Adam.

In a very true sense, it was the essence of Adam, forged from a Soul that endured unbearable torment and refinement to be able to withstand the Abyss itself!

But that didn't change hard facts.

Not in this case.

The Shard was a fragment.

Not a full Soul.

Not a Body.

And, certainly, it did not have a Heart.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

H͍̗͍̬͖̟̤͇̙͍̮̯̻ͅu̹͈͚̳͔̠̬̮̯̼̜̱̩̳̰̮̮͔ͅn̻̻̭̺͙͇̻͍̥̠̯̬ͅg̠̞̳̞̜̺̠̞̼̱̗̪͇̥̠͕̲ͅͅe̲̣̜̜͉̙̟̮̮͓̫͙͕̙r͈̩͍̗͈͇͈̞͉̺͖͖̼͙͕̪̪̥ was an old friend.

.

.

The shadow ignored it.

Something within it's weak limbs craved something, but it was… vague.

Undefined.

It felt… very strange.

It should feel fear, most likely.

Right now, there was no sky.

No floor or sea.

No walls nor physical objects.

No light.

Here, wherever here was, existed only D̵̡͔̞͉̺̰̲͈̞̦̿̾ͫ̓͛͢͠a̵̬̲̗̪̝̝̜̭̦̦͙̙̓̇̈́r̨͙̻̟̙͍̥͉̰͍̯͉͚̟̺͈̝̼ͫͯ̽̅ͫ̾́̕͠͝ͅͅk̸̴̷̟͚̲̙̰̦͈͔̮̻͇͕̮̄ͩͥ̀͢n̢̯͙͙̙̺͓͙̱̝̱̠͍͍̳̝ͬ̚̚̚͟͟͢ë͔̳̼̫̩̺̣͖̻̘̤͕̜͙͉͔͙͗ͦ̅͟͝s̨̬͖̝̗̣̪̼̜͍̬͕͔̺͔ͤ̓̐̎͠͞s̛̲̫̦̺̞̞̺͍̟͇͚̰̯͚͍͋ͧ̏ͤ́͠ͅͅ.

Yet it was not lonely.

Listless brethren filled this place.

Though they seemed to be slowly pushing towards something?

Some sort of pink gem.

How curious.

They didn't fight or struggle against each other, and it didn't know why. They simply moved as an enclosing wave towards this odd gem that didn't seem to belong here.

The shadow felt… Apathy. A deep, bone biting, burning core of A̙̖͓̜̯̙̣̳̦p̲͈͈̭̖̖̳͇̰̪̥͕͔̥̫̼̬͖̗a̼͎̙̮̙t͈̗̝̜͍̝͈̹̝̭̱̣̭̭h͎̲͈̪͙̯͎̤̙y͈̱͓̯̼̟ͅ.

Without the comfort of H͕u͕̮̫̱̠̼̳̼ṋ̯̗͍̣̜̰̬g̺̳̥̭͕͖̣͎e̗͇̤̪̰͇͕r͖̦̣̘̺̗̥, why bother?

.

Something was happening.

So what?

Why should it care?

It is a shadow, and Ạ͈̣͉͕̹͉̤p̮͈̪̱̥̭̙̖̝͓̻̞͚̟a̦̱̼̳t̹͓͕͖͕͕̣̭̻̟̲͕ͅh̫̬̭̘̳̺̣̜͙̦͓y͙̲̩̹̜̗̦̼͙̼̖ came naturally to it. Instinctively.

.

And yet.

The shadow set Ḁ̬p̜̦̭̪̥̦̻a̩̣̫͎t͖͍̲̠̳̯h͈̥̹y̗̙̦̯͈ͅ aside like a worn blanket.

.

It had served its purpose.

The time for H̠̪̟̲͔u̫ͅn̘g̮e̺̖r̭̠̣͎̪ and A̱̘̖̝͈p͈a̜̱t̺̥h̞̙͕y was over.

The shadow had other things to do.

It didn't move.

It didn't need to.

This was the D̷ar͢͞ḱ͡ń̡̨e͢ss͏̵͡, and the shadow was part of it.

So it didn't vanish, nor did it teleport, nor did it move.

For the shadow was already there, touching the pink gem.

It felt… W͔ͅa̲̹r͎͖m̰̱̠̭͈͔.

Yep.

The shadow was going to keep it.

The unending armies of brethren, of shapes and forms in the Darkness, they seemed to have an opinion on the matter. Which was fine.

Because the shadow had long since been elsewhere, brightly humming pink crystal in its tiny three fingered hands.

What's this?

It feels so Warm.

The pink glow acted odd here, in the Darkness… It wasn't enough to actually generate lots of light. Barely enough to get a bit of reflection, allowing the shadow to see its own glowing yellow eyes and two antennas.

Absently being elsewhere again (No, it is MY pink thing, not yours!) the shadow began to ponder.

What should shadow do with it?

A massive claw beyond measure, easily capable of crushing a city, smashed into the shadow and the gem, the giant mass of darkness apparently frustrated for some reason.

Which was fine, because the shadow was elsewhere at the time and bouncing the pink crystal in its hands.

Well… What do gems normally want?

Despite something about that line of questioning feeling a bit off, it was good enough for the shadow to move the thought process along.

Flashes of ice, fire, and lightning smashed through the shadow, the gem not given any care nor concern in the process!

It was very impressive, and the shadow carefully placed the glowing pink heart shaped crystal to one side to clap for the brilliant performance.

Coordinating like that couldn't be easy to do!

For some reason, the beings of darkness didn't seem to appreciate the compliments.

Oh well.

The shadow carefully lifted the gem and they were elsewhere.

Oh! Gems like to sparkle, right?

The shadow nodded. That seemed very reasonable.

But… There wasn't anything here really for the shadow to assist with that.

No rags or fabrics to use, no polishing agents, and frankly the lighting in this place was pretty unacceptable if you wanted a good glamor shot or to work on your shimmer.

As massive fanged jaws crushed into the shadow, swallowing the tiny insignificant thing entirely along with the precious gem, it felt like a change of location was in order.

With a cheerful fair well wave, the shadow and the gem began meandering thataway.

What a convenient Corridor of Darkness! And so MANY of them!

Wonder where they go?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Corridors of Darkness were a bit odd, shadow considered.

Some were massive and reinforced. Massive tunnels that pulsed with activity... A bit too crowded for this particular pair. Still, they seemed to be popular transit options for the vast majority.

Others were more like cracks or fractures or Lanes Between worlds, tiny traces that would naturally form due to the stress and movement of some unknown rule or condition. The few creatures and entities traveling through those paths seemed to be a bit squished and cramped, which was slightly amusing.

Surprisingly, none of those odd travelers seemed interested in these even smaller pathways over here.

Which was fine. The shadow carefully hugged the warm crystal as it examined the current pathway. One that was a bit too… Well, too fragile for others to utilize, apparently.

Not sure why. Most of the pathway in this Corridor existed for entire fractions of seconds at a time, and the relaxing journey was very pretty with all the conceptual fractures and space loops and whatnot. Much more relaxing atmosphere, if nothing else.

Oh well, more room for the traveling duo!

The shadow would like to believe that the gem was glowing with agreement.

Suddenly, something… Over there?

It smelled G̹̺͙̺o̞͎͉̞̝o͎̜͕d̗͎̥̝̟̘̳!

But… The shadow didn't have a mouth.

Not that it ever needed one before.

And the strange gem didn't seem to be too hungry either.

Still… It did smell pretty tempting.

Maybe just a peek?

Maybe a tiny nibble?

The shadow had nothing but Darkness within, so there was plenty enough space to squish the pink gem inside to free up its limbs. Though it felt a bit odd to hold the glowing crystal within the depths of Darkness without chewing, it did feel good to H͚͇̟͔u̜̙̺̬͕̘̟g̪̲̪̝̫ it like this too!

With both hands free and a new set of glowing pink eyes, the shadow was off to find something that smelled A̻̤̗̮̟͉m̪̝̳̪͔͖͖a̫̤̺̫̝̹̝z̠͕̥̟i̠̥̰̫͙̮n͎̬̩̰g̹!

It felt a bit FAR from here, and the shadow had to consume a little inwards...

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

{{[[Aw... What did they do, Jackie? What did they do to Jenny?]]}}

The shifting shadows chuckled evilly.

Jackie Estacado pushed back the cursed voice, again. {{Nothing, you bitch! And they will DO nothing! You hear me!?}}

Jenny Romano would be fine, because that was a fact of life.

Jackie would fuck up, and Jenny would be fine.

That was the rule. Those were the RULES.

Even back at St. Mary's Orphanage, reality had to follow the rules. Jackie could have anger issues, be hurt, be lost, be damaged, but Jenny… Would. Be. Fine.

While he soaked in evil and crime and the sludge of a cruel life, Jenny would be kept clean.

She may not appreciate him doing what needs to be done, may not tolerate his Darker tendencies, but that was fine. Because she was fine.

He'd use to tell her, 'My whole life I've been kicked around, you know? I don't know how to do anything but kick back.' And she'd give him that look. Half understanding, half frustration.

She would call him 'Ratface', scream at his failures to be as good as she claimed he could be, so many small signs of worry and affection. It all was done from a place of concern and care and goodness and light and love and SHE. WOULD. BE. F̶̵̟͖̺̩̤̭̱̪̖̠̜̩Í͔͙͕͖̤͉̲͎͟͢N̢̦̰̻͔͍̱̰̭̤̺̤̤̬̰̪̥̹͎͟E̶͍̺̭̠̬̩̺͎̩̯͓̳̜̬͍̺̻͢.

Like always, the voice whispered.

{{[[You know better than this, Jackie. You know Paulie. What did he do, Jackie?]]}}

Uncle Paulie Franchetti had done NOTHING, and would do NOTHING, or… Or…

{{[[Feed us, Jackie.]]}}

The hallucinations came back, like always when he wasn't surrounded by bright lights or lost focus.

A pair of twisted snake-like tentacles of Darkness,, one over each shoulder, hissing at each other and the world around Jackie, tasting his emotions as he fiercely clamped down on his rage.

Each warped mass of shadow possessed haunting yellow eyes with an eel like jaw that snapped at the world. Bright white fangs, glinting and visible only to Jackie's eyes, were sharpened and ready to consume anything at the slightest sign of 'food'.

And unlike normal, unlike usual, Jackie was finding it harder to say no this time. {{If… If they hurt Jenny…}}

If Jenny was, in the end, NOT fine…

{{[[Feed us.]]}}

Perhaps he would.

Somehow, someway, he knew. Deep inside, Jackie knew… The act of consuming the hearts of the evil people he worked with was only part of why the Darkness grew more powerful and deadly over time.

Only a portion of why the Darkness kept pushing for Jackie to act.

The true reason why his sanity was endlessly gnawed on… The core aspect to all this…

Was making Jackie Estacado bend. Bow. Break.

Making him compromise. Again. A little more.

Give in to the Darkness.

By himself, in this world? After the life he led, the things he had seen, the deals done and the crimes callously caused? It was a simple concept.

Just give in for power.

Be consumed by the Darkness, be a true Host to it, and use this power to dominate.

Invisible tentacles that could climb walls and defy logic to destroy targets far away, massive arms of darkness that smashed any defense into scrap or easily stabbed a target and ripped the Heart still beating from the chest cavity…

The power to summon minions, these so-called 'Darklings' that followed his will and acted by his commands!

He only had to give in.

Only had to give up, and let Jenny be wrong about him.

But.

But then.

Then Jenny wouldn't be fine.

And that broke the rule.

Jackie actively fought the Darkness for years, even before it actually whispered in his ears and began causing hallucinations, pulling trauma and memories to the forefront to wear him down, attacking at all times.

Because Jenny had to be fine.

It was hard.

So hard, not to slightly relax.

Fight for so long against such weak forces, when a simple flex of desire could sunder crowds of screaming attackers in twain

Struggle and have other mafia members get hurt and die, all to restrain himself.

Even with his iron will, occasions cropped up. Accidents.

Minute errors in keeping his struggle internal.

Jackie thought he had been doing good enough. That he had gone mostly unnoticed.

But someone must have seen how he was living a bit too easily.

Surviving things he shouldn't have with fewer injuries than expected.

Succeeding at too many tasks.

Uncle Paulie Franchetti began to doubt Jackie, to fear he would become the Don. That he would steal his rusty empire and fragile crown from the sewers of this city and warp it to his will.

Which was silly. Pointless. Ridiculous, honestly.

Jackie would never do such a thing.

Not unless Jenny wished him to do so.

But now… Police Captain Eddie Shrote, Uncle Paulie's man, had 'detained' Jenny.

Taken her somewhere off the books. Somewhere not official.

They had set a trap, and Jackie was sprinting towards that trap without care about health or safety, fully aware of the spikes that were likely aimed at his chest with every inch gained.

Why fear danger, why fear harm? Even Death wasn't an escape from the Darkness, after all… But the potential of being too late?

{{[[You were too late before the message even arrived, Jackie.]]}}

No.

Jackie ran faster.

As obstacles cropt up, as men and women with guns and defensive positions tried to slow him down, Jackie began to care less and less about his own safety, his Soul, and his restraints.

Because Jenny had limited time if she was in Uncle Paulie's hands.

Snap shots with twin pistols began shifting as Jackie began to relax tight emotional bindings. Allowing his coiled tight emotions to bleed. Bleed hard.

Unheard hisses and snaps from the two eels of Darkness rattled into a strange otherworldly roar as they began following his blood filled journey.

A single shot twisting a man to one side, the dim hallway allowing the tentacle to pierce his cavity and viscera to spray on the walls even as the Heart was consumed.

A woman torn in half, still frantically screaming but unfortunately IN THE W̬̲̖͍̠̝̱A̜͖̰͇̬͓̣̬̱͕͎̩͕̥̬͍̱͍͕Y̯͎̤̰̮̺̮̭!̞̹̱̝

The whimpers and gasping of the unfortunate survivors left behind…

It should tear at Jackie, or at least feel heavy on his mountain of sins crawling up his back.

But right now, every step was a bit rougher.

Every movement aimed at full lethality.

Each shift attempting to edge ever closer to her. To HER.

Jenny was alright.

Jenny was fine.

Mad cackles in his mind began eagerly pulling up soft memories of her stitching up his wounds, laughing with her terrible snort and giggles, those dry looks when she knew he made a pun on purpose, even those bone weary curses and frustrated rants about how he could be better.

How he could be more.

Right now… Right now he needs to be more.

{{[[FEED. US.]]}}

His clothing was only clean because the thin wisps of Darkness were too hungry to allow such a snack to survive impacting his body.

The shadows were not blocking the damage, they reveled in Jackie's pain and frantic suffering… But as bullets blast holes in his flesh and chipped his bones, the consumed foes that fell at his feet were consumed and harvested for his recovery.

{{[[Yes… More!]]}}

Every inch damned his Soul further, no doubt. Not from the murder or the mutilations, his red ledger was filled with sins far worst from long ago, but from his lack of concern about restraint.

From feeding the Darkness for every mote of speed attainable.

{{[[M̯͚̝̖̘̰̪O̲͚̝͇̘͚͉̺̭̦̜̱̹R̦̤̝̺͍̺̟̦͚͍͙̞͖̘̰̤͙̦E̗̼̙͙͙̣̫̺̠̲̠̼̯̹̦͎̥̻͉!̳͙̩͖̯̯̲̜̹̙̮̫]]}}

.

The hallways blurred together. Red flashes of blood soaked passages, any and every light source shot with beyond superhuman efficiency as an automatic reflex, his body becoming damaged beyond any previous record.

Did he have joints? Or had he snapped his own limbs for fractionally faster movement?

Was he even sprinting any more? Or dragging his mutilated form via shadow limbs to reach further?

None of that mattered.

Because Jenny. Would. Be. Fine.

Something beyond his senses shifted for a moment, unexpectedly, but he was far too focused to notice as he smashed through doors and a few walls that were in the way.

Get to Jenny.

He could destroy the building to escape, if it was coming down.

He could explain his monstrous form, when she was safe.

He would accept her punishments, even banishments, and watch from the Darkness alone if needed.

As long as she was fine.

His limits buckled further as he threw out what few bindings remained.

If he lost that fragile love, that light in the dark, that was fine.

If he lost his only family, left alone with the torment and the Darkness, that was fine.

If he became hated and a nightmare to her, to his world, that was fine.

As long as she was fine.

It grew into a mantra that chorused through his skull, even as damage tore into flesh and fully exploded eyes and meat and skin and muscle.

As long as she was fine.

{{[[But she is…]]}}

Something without emotion latched onto the voice and began binding it. Something without mercy, something normally hidden deep within Jackie, something callus and twisted and hardened… And even the Darkness pulled back ever so slightly.

It still felt eager, anticipating, and far too joyful about the tragedy it was cheerfully predicting like a carnival fortune teller. Glutinous and smug, secure in its own immortality and lack of care.

None of that mattered.

As long as she was fine.

Seeing the locked door with a window, and more importantly, a LIVING Jenny within… A miracle.

{{[[This will be a night to remember.]]}}

It felt inevitable that his powerful movements would suddenly lock up, his easy destruction of the world around him cease, and his still recovering form suddenly being tied down by the same black eel monsters of darkness that had so eagerly feasted on the path to this one location.

{{[[Too late, Jackie. Love dies.]]}}

After all, a horrified corner of his mind accepted…

Jackie would fuck up, and Jenny would be fine.

{{[[Now… Watch this…]]}}

This… This was one massive fuckup. "JENNY!"

As the Darkness cackles, it fully ignores his frantic struggles.

The eel tentacles refused to peel back the closed door.

No invisible limb sneaking in to C̺̘o͍n̖͓͖̘̳͈̺s̪̺͓u̻̖m̱̩̫e̜̰͕̥̫͔ the Hearts of these future corpses! WHY!?

{{[[Be still… And watch.]]}}

They whipped Jenny with a pistol.

She was on the floor.

Bleeding?

They… They weren't going to shoot her.

Jenny would be fine.

{{[[Your flesh is mine. Your will is mine.]]}}

The gun was aimed at her head.

They were saying something, probably threats or taunting or something unimportant, because there was a gun aimed at Jenny's head.

{{[[She's mine.]]}}

As Jenny was pulled, dragged by her throat towards the door, so close and so far, gun still aimed, the world was broken.

The rule was broken.

Jenny MUST be fine!

His will cracked. {{SAVE HER! Take me, take anything, but SAVE HER!}}

The rule was broken.

It can't break.

That would be against the rule.

{{[[I already own your everything.]]}}

There had to be something Jackie could do.

{{[[She is a burden. This will be freedom.]]}}

Unacceptable.

If Jenny dies, if she isn't fine, then the rule would be broken.

The world was built on rules.

Rules were the foundation.

And deep in the core, the backbone of that foundation…

Jackie would fuck up, and Jenny would be fine.

Without that rule, without that law…

If Jenny dies, everything dies.

{{[[We can taste her terror… How delicious!]]}}

The world was a field of shadows as Darkness loomed over Jackie's shoulders as a burden, a barrier, and restraints.

'Uncle' Paulie Franchetti seemed to be ranting about something.

Making some sort of point, some threat, some declaration about how all this wasn't his fault, how it was Jackie's fault, how this was deserved, punishment, needed, the natural order of things.

Holding that weapon to her soft hair.

Pointing that gun towards that wonderful smile.

There was no hope. No chance.

Jackie struggled on regardless.

The Darkness cackled! {{[[So pointless, so futile… So… So… Wait.]]}}

Had… Had something shifted!?

An unworldly scream! {{[[Impossible!]]}}

Jackie felt something snap, some tiny thread come loose or… It didn't matter if this was a deeper trap, or a fake opportunity to grind his Soul down further, something was possible.

Jackie Estacado could summon a single Darkling. Not much, not enough…

At this moment in time, anything was better than this!

With frantic effort, Jackie reached for the twisted invisible portal inside that room, inside that so close and so far room of destined tragedy, and C̱̖̜a͓͔̝͙̣͈l͇ͅl̩̜̲e͍̲d̮͖ out!

Everyone!

{{[[What is this feeling?]]}}

Anyone!

{{We don't understand… What is…]]}}

HELP HER!

{{[[No no, none of that.]]}}

Darkness tentacles wrapped itself around him tighter as the portal visibly began to fracture.

Jackie couldn't even feel loss right now… It had been an impossible hope anyway.

The tiny imp like demons, the Darklings, were slaves to the Darkness. They would have likely stood by to laugh at this horror, or just idled about confused. They were tied to the Darkness, and followed its whims.

Just… When hope was this thin, even the worst of things were desperately sought after.

The fat bastard was still talking. "...Someone ALWAYS pays, and THIS time the one being taken from is YOU!"

Jenny was trying to hold still, gun to her head and blood on her skin as the hand on her throat held oh so tightly. "This is not your fault! Ja…"

Reality s̴͏҉͏͙̯̙͇̟̻̙͔̣͇̦h̥̯͖̮̳̙̖̞̰͙͍͙̜̼͘͝Ị̧̡̼̥͔̯̱͉̳̝̼͙͔̱̹̥͜F̡͏̴͎͓̹͙̹̘̥̰͖̣̫̱ͅT̛̺̼̠̟̩̜̦̯̜̮͝ę̟̘͍̤̼̪͍̗͉̤͙̻̲̲̪͜͜d̨̀͟͝҉̣̜̝͚͉͎.

.

Jenny was gone.

Not dead, but fully vanished!

Jackie's heart stopped. NO! {{NO!}}

His emotions stayed frozen, for the rules can not be broken!

{{[[WHAT!? WHAT IS…]]}}

[[Ę̷̶̷͠ ̧̡v̴́a̶̸̛͞m̡͘͟͠͏d̴̨̢͝͞ ̡̀͡͏ỳ̨͜ ̴̴̡͝v̴̨͟͜͜i̛͏h͞͠a̴͟͝n̛͢͠҉y̶̶͞͝͠m̶̢,̴̧̛́͢ ̸̧͘e̸̸h̷̡͟͡ ҉̸͘҉s̕͡o͠͞ ̵͝͝ṕ̶̡̛n̡͞y̕͜͝͝e҉̶͏h̡̢̕.̷̵́]]

What?

{{[[NO! STOP! STOP! St… s…]]}}

[[A̶̴͜n̨͢d͟͡ ͠I̴̧, ̡͘a͢n͜d̢͏ ̀͡͞S̡í̛l̛ȩ̕n͟c̵̨̡e҉̧͞,҉̛ ̸͡s̸͠҉o̡̡͞me̛͜ ̷s̵͞t̷̸r̨͘͝a̢̕̕n͏g͘è͡ ̷R͘à̸̵c͜e̕͢,͠ ́ẃ͏͜r̸̕é̵̶c͡k̕͜e͝d̸͘,͡ s̴͜ol̀͘it̀͜a͞r̡̕͠y̵͟,͜ ҉͟h̨e͝r̡͟e̛͘҉..̶̀͟.̢͢͟]]

An angel sang a song of joy. "What… Jackie? How did I…"

Jackie didn't move, but tentacles of Darkness shifted at his will, and both he and her were wrapped close in bonds of shadow. "I fucked up, I fucked up, I fucked up, I…"

Warm arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him close, ignoring her own blood from her own head wound. "Shh, it's alright baby. I'm here, shh…"

Jackie ignored the strange pink eyed fang eels curiously poking things around them both, he ignored the frantic screams and background havoc, he ignored how he could somehow see further into the surrounding shadows and warp a black hole into the unknown at a whim.

Jackie didn't care that he felt all six thousand six hundred and sixty six shadow limbs, half pulled into reality, even as many of them cradled the couple in their dark embrace. Carefully touched her wound as it sizzled away, healed by being consumed by the Darkness. Cautiously confirmed she was alive, was here, was following the rule.

Because she was in his arms, and she was fine.

That was the rule.

Jackie would fuck up, and Jenny would be fine.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

{{[[Why… How…]]}}

The shadow blinked it's pink eyes as it slowly forced the odd substance into its torso.

Eating things was hard without a mouth.

And it kept wiggling, but every time the shadow tried to complain with hand gestures and movements this stupid snack would try to escape.

Bad snack.

{{[[I… Am… Eternal…]]}}

It was annoying, that's what it was.

With frustration, the shadow wrapped the surface of the goo candy with extra bands of material so progress wouldn't be lost, and curiously looked around.

This was a castle, of some sort. Not in normal reality, either. More like a Soul realm if anything, it didn't feel as physical as other places the shadow had walked.

The gem inside shadow pulsed, and it agreed: It felt a bit tacky here. Strange decorative choices.

Old too.

This place, unlike the previous place, only had one sibling.

A single being of shadow's nature. One that had consumed all other forms and all other identities, had united all Darkness into a single concept. Forced all fragments of the Darkness to combine and empower a single identity.

Sounded exhausting. And lonely.

Unfortunately, the Darkness had done so very… Very long ago. So long ago, it was hard to measure.

And had gone a bit mad.

For a few moments, the shadow was elsewhere. Seeing a reality of endless war with captured souls suffering without end nor need.

It returned to the castle.

Fair enough: Perhaps it went VERY mad.

Unhinged.

Though now that the 'mind' behind all this mess was very much busy resisting snackatude, something felt different here, in this place between living and the afterlife.

Because the living world was… That way.

And the other way had several options, one that felt very hot and one that felt calm and soothing… Maybe a few others? Not as powerful, at least.

In this place, in this space, carved and consumed and forced into stability by the Darkness… Rules were a bit off.

For one thing, it was anchored.

{{[[You… Dare…]]}}

Fragments of memory, of endless Hosts… Of humans, used to guide and direct the Darkness. Ones offered near endless power, and the twisted use they applied such ability… How this endless cycle had warped the Darkness into this monster that tasted so divine.

The cycle had gathered the Darkness into greater heights of power, had enslaved these semi-brethren, these Darklings, into service… Had twisted the raw power and future of this location into the desires and wishes of the Darkness itself even as it descended into madness.

{{[[Our… VENGEANCE!]]}}

Shh.

The shadow pushed the malevolent entity further into the core of Darkness.

Thankfully, the madness had coagulated over time, into a mountain sized delicious packet of wrath and undirected rage. Though consuming it was hard, again, when one didn't have a mouth. Slow too.

Made this whole process a bit frustrating, to be honest.

At least it had stopped making speeches and rants and screams and all that. 'How did you enter my Domain', 'Why can I not control you', 'Stop doing that', blah blah blah.

Of course shadow came here, this was a kingdom of Darkness and shadow was the Darkness. Where else would shadow go? To the living world?

For one thing, the gem felt less solid over there.

At first, the shadow was going to go through that lovely portal that had opened up, but had felt the crystal do this sort of wiggle thing that… Well, none of that then.

So instead, it had chosen one of the many slithering tentacles of Darkness and started absorbing it backwards to its home, to this screaming snack that wouldn't shut up.

{{[[This… Can… Not…]]}}

Even now, while the core of this personality struggled, the shadow was enjoying how this kingdom was restructuring itself.

Looks like the new owner of this place would be that young man over that way, that Jackie guy. Or at least, all the rules and restrictions of this location were being rewritten by his existence as time passed and this snack was slowly devoured.

Though… It was a bit odd that a Host of the Darkness would be that intimate with a woman who potentially hosted the force Angelus…

Wait, the who now?

The shadow blinked.

Oh.

Apparently consuming this snack was granting the shadow memories and context.

It poked the wriggling thing fighting to survive. Be eaten faster, snack!

{{[[We… We…]]}}

Anyway, without the Darkness here being an asshole all the time, Jackie should be fine. Maybe a bit overpowered for a gangster in New York, and a tiny bit immortal, and maybe growing in ability over time, but other than that? Fine.

Plus, shadow gets a snack, and more information to better protect the crystal!

Everybody wins! Woo!

{{[[We…]]}}

Well, almost everybody.

Something shifting near the castle gates had shadow watching a Soul sneaking in to look around for some reason.

Maybe because the screams stopped? Or perhaps to see why this entire structure of Darkness, this Otherworld, had stopped shaking and twisting and crying black tears?

Who knew, Soul's here were weird. Like a big mess of Heart and Body And Soul all smushed together, but with less Body and more Heart. Felt really off.

Something inside the snack C͉͇̝͎̩r͕̦u͎̙̫̺n̜͕̪̱͔̠c͈͔͈h͈̼̜̼e͎̜s͖̻͕̘̜͓ͅ… Ah.

This was apparently Anthony Estacado.

One of the prior hosts, since a lot of those people ended up trapped here. Oh, Jackie was related to the guy! Neat!

Apparently this guy became the Darkness host back in May 28, 1918, in Cantigny, France. During World War 1, no less… Huh, that was a lot of memories.

How old WAS this thing? Had forever ALWAYS been that long?

Like a really hard jawbreaker, the flavor kept going as the shadow gnawed on the complaining candy.

Oh, Anthony was here. Staring at the tiny foot high creature with glowing pink eyes and a struggling monstrosity being squished into its torso.

The shadow gave him a wave!

Anthony seemed a bit lost. "What… What the fuck?"

{{[[SLAVE! FREE US! THIS MONSTER DOOMS US ALL!]]}}

Hush you. The shadow pushed the stupid morsel harder, managing to get a bit more of a grip into the gristly bits. Mmm.

The soldier was indeed lost. "Are you… Are you eating the Darkness?"

Uh.

Sort of?

No mouth, so more like shoving it into the same spot until it could get properly absorbed.

So the shadow shrugged.

{{[[SLAVE!]]}}

Anthony lowered his stick thing… Oh! Gun. It was a gun! These new memories were very useful. Though there was a lot of screaming and tormenting and stuff, which got old fast. And endless time spent alone and going insane, but the shadow felt like it had gone insane before and that experience had been pretty boring too, so none of that.

Anyway, the Soul seemed less aggressive. "How… How did you manage to fight this thing? To get it to this state?"

Uh.

Dunno.

The shadow tried to do gestures and describe the tale of finding a noodle of delicioustude and nomming its way all the way back to this flying spaghetti monster of Darkness eels and succulent seasoning, followed by a few embarrassing moments where the shadow realized how handy mouths were for eating and how lacking of mouths it had happened to be and…

Anthony held up his hands. "Sorry, little guy, I don't have any idea what you are trying to say with all the dancing."

The shadow slumped, absently catching a spiked limb before it could impale a suddenly shocked Anthony and forcing the escaping treat fragment back into the shadow's torso.

It turns out that communication was ALSO hard without a mouth.

Oh! Another handy dandy portal! Nowhere close to here, but over there!

Ignoring the shocked Soul of a man that had just fallen over inside the restructuring castle, the shadow was elsewhere looking at the swirling hole as a confused (And slightly modified) Darkling was entering it.

Now to study this thing and learn how to enter a living world without losing the pink crystal!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Anthony cursed a storm as the WHATEVER THE FUCK IT WAS vanished like a dream, the fading screams of the supposedly 'All Powerful' and 'Immortal' Darkness echoing into nothingness.

What. The. Fuck!?

He had known shit had been going down when the endless conflict and torturous battle had shifted into strange earthquakes and (not the usual) screaming. The sudden drop in raw anger and aggression that seemed to permeate the air was another warning sign, but it was the core castle, this secured facility that the Darkness ruled over, that had been the final nail in this coffin.

After all, when a massive stone castle suddenly starts showing thin pink cracks through impossibly sturdy stonework, that was unusual. To say the least.

As one of the more sane spirits trapped in this mad place, Anthony had of course ended up being the one dumb enough to actually investigate the situation…

And every step had felt worse than the last.

No defenses.

No foes.

Just… Distant screams and odd quakes and…

If it had been the end, that would have been fine. Many former hosts of the Darkness had prayed in vain for such a chance to pass on. Every new bloodline that was cursed by the Darkness struggled to stay sane hoping their children and progeny would be the one to end the suffering.

But this… This was unfathomable.

Honestly, Anthony wasn't sure WHAT he had expected.

The newest host, being tormented.

A fresh beast, mutated from fragments of the dead and raw power.

A trap.

The potential was infinite, the unknown formidable, and forcing himself to actually enter that castle through the unguarded halls and gates had been the toughest experience of his life.

But around that final turn…

Had been a tiny black blob.

With bright happy pink eyes, two adorable little feet, three itty-bitty claws on each hand, and antenne.

It was apparently trying to stuff the entirety of the Darkness into its belly.

And succeeding.

He stared at the now innocently empty room. "The Fuck."

That flash of movement back then, as a thin spike of Darkness tried to… What, escape? Attack? Punish him for not saving his worst tormentor? Whatever, it had been inevitable. He had felt the end.

For a moment, Anthony Estacado had experienced death, yet again.

And then, nope!

Just… That tiny little adorable thing just caught the instant kill spiked limb and squashed it right back into its itty bitty chest.

His attention refocused as something shifted, and the pink cracks covering the walls moved.

Right, the pink glowing stuff issue.

Even from here, inside the castle, Anthony could see how the strange glowing fractures in the wall were starting to shift and slide material around. Slowly replacing the mortar holding this place together from crumbling stonework into that glowing pink candy floss crap.

What. The. Fuck.

Having tossed out his self preservation instinct years and years ago when he single handedly fought back nazi armies, he carefully stood up and moved closer to the wall.

Nearing the closest pink vein, he cautiously poked it with one of his trench knives.

…Did it fucking GIGGLE at him!?

Nope.

With a twist he turned to the door and began the long cautious trek back out to the endless war that seemed to have undergone a confused and undirected cease fire.

Infinite suffering and death at least made SENSE, damn it!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Jenny Romano was very confused right now.

Ecstatic, somehow alive, and trying to comfort her boyfriend? Yes.

But confused.

Also, her little ratface now had a sea of black limbs and hands that were carefully moving them somewhere even as he wrapped her tightly in a protective hug and refused to ever let go. "Shh, I'm here."

Being captured, 'interrogated' even though they didn't really want to know anything and were clearly using it as an excuse to justify her eventual murder, all that had ran her emotions ragged, her mind on edge…

But being saved hadn't exactly made anything make sense. "Jackie, what…" No, priorities. "We need to go somewhere safe."

Get safe first, make sure this blood she was feeling on his clothing wasn't as bad as she feared it was, find out how she was saved and what the FUCK was going on later.

His eyes, pitch black and cracked with pink fractures, focused into her own. "Ì̵ ͘h̷a̷̴͠v̀e̵ ͘ş̧a͟f̧͡è ̶̛͝h̛͞ó̶u̢͡s̴̶e̴͟s̕͜, ͟e͜m̕͏e͝r̡̢gę͞n͠c̷̷̶y̴͟͢ ̀͜c͝a̶ć̀h̛es̢̕..͠͠.̴̡"

One hand at the edge of her vision, solid black with bright white nails, suddenly shifted into a fanged eel head with glowing pink eyes as it SMASHED through… Oh. A wall.

Her body untensed slightly as the scary fanged monster-like limb shifted back into a solid back hand.

Now they were outside, and staying calm was not as easy as it had been. "Jackie?"

He kissed her forehead. "I'̴ll ̛te̕lļ you͠ ̨e̕v͟e̶r͠yt͢hing̵, ̛ a͏ny͜th̴i͏n͟g̡,͞ ͏ bu͠t͟ ̶ĺet̵ ͝m̡e͡ g̷et̕ ҉y͞o͡u ͝s͟afe ͘f́ir͟s͢t.͏ I̷ ͝fuc̶ked ͜up, b̕u̕t ͡you w̢il̡l be͜ f̧i͘ne."

She tried not to roll her eyes. "I heard 'Uncle' Paulie rant a LONG time before I got moved to St. Mary's Orphanage for that showdown." Sounded mentally disturbed to a shocking degree. "It wasn't your fault."

Black eyes shifted to her, the pink glow oddly warming despite the demonic look. "I̡ ̷f̛a͝il͢e̴d̀ t̵o ̴hi̧d̶e̕ ͠th̛e̢ ́Dark̵n͝esş.̷ ͏He͝ ҉f̶oùnd ̡out a͝b́out ̛m͟y ́se҉c̷r̴et...͞͞ Àb͘ouţ h͢ow̕ po̴werfu̧l͡I͝ ̧co̶u͏ld ̧bè.͝ He̕ f͟eare͝d me̸."

Yeah. About that. "The Darkness?"

Jackie grunted. "M͘a͢n̴if̸es̡ts ̡in͢ ḿy b̡l̵oo͞dli̶ne͠, ap͠p̶ar҉en̵t͏lỳ. W͞heņ ҉t͡he ̵m҉al̸e͡ c̢hild ̶r̕eac̨h̵es͢ ̛21 ̀ye͟a̷r͝s͟, i̛t͟ ̶aw̨a҉ke̴ns ̛w͘i̷th́in our̛ b̶odi͝e̸s ̡ and̶ ̵sl͝o͟wl̨y̛ atte̵m̵p͠tş ̢t̀o co͠rrup̨t ͢ųs̶ ͜and͏ u͠s̨e͞ ̵ us as̨ i͞t͝s ͏Ho҉st͞."

Strange black limbs stretched impossible lengths as the couple were gently shifted through the air, following a path through the night. Jackie's voice was nearly too soft. "I҉ fai͏ĺȩd͠ ̷t͏o hi̸d̀e ͞it̢, an̸d ̷som̢èo̕ne must ̡hąve̛ t͢old U͘ņcl͞e̢ ͞Pa̸úl̢i҉e̶.͜"

She held back a sigh.

That… That hadn't explained anything.

A cool hand, one of the strange other ones, carefully moved hair to the side. Surprisingly gentle, for being so strange. "I onl͜ý kn̨o͢w̕ ̸w͞h́a̶t ̧t͘he ͜D̕a̴r̀k̀n̸e̸s̴s ́w͟as ͏w̶i̡l͜l̢i̧ng͢ ͝t̴o͞ t͞a͡un̴t me ͝w͞ith, ͘w͝ha͜t̨ ́ s҉torie͠s it tor̵tu͏re҉d.͢..̶ Wha̕t͞ ͡tales i̢t̛ t͘ol̷d ̕me.̛"

Were his teeth sharper now? "I̕ al̶ways t̵h͟o͜uǵh҉ţ ̕of i̡t̷ ̀aş a͢ ͞cu̕r͏se҉.͏ I d҉o͟n'̧t ͠k̕n͝ǫw͏ m҉u̴c̸h͠ m͠o̢re͟ ̨t̀ha҉n ͝t̵hi͞s.͏"

Stay calm, Jenny. "How far are we from shelter?"

His eyes shifted elsewhere, and something began creeping off in the distance. "I͢'m e̢nci̢r̨c͏li҉ńg҉ ͝ i̸t̢ş loća͠t̸i͢o̧n ͏n̸o̷w,̨ ̡s̛e͟n͝din̵g D̵a͜rkli̵n͠g͏s͟ to͢ ̢k҉eep͟ ͞wat͜ch.̷ They ̴wi͠ļl b̨e ̵my̷ e̵ye̢s̶ an͜ḑ ͝e̛ar̴s̡, ͟an̡d͏ ͘y͞ou̸ w͟ill ͝be̸ f̞͉̦̩͖̦͙i͍̯͎n̠e̹̬͚͜.́"

Her mind wandered slightly. "This safe house have coffee? The good shit, not the stuff you keep drinking."

The pink cracks in his eyes glowed a bit more. "I̧'ll̸ ̡ ens̸uŕe̴ i̷t."

A shower, maybe a bandage for her scraps and stuff, some sleep, and a pot of DAMN strong coffee…

She could do this. "I want TWO pots of the good stuff when we wake up, you got me ratface? TWO!"

His chuckle echoed like a prayer in an abandoned church. "Ì'v͠è ͞go͠t yo͟u, lo͢ve̢.̴ Ąlways."

At least all these arms made for awesome hugs.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Jackie was confused, and floating.

"...rn back, come on…"

It was relaxing, and comforting, and pitch black.

"...ou can do it, Jackie…"

While before, he had felt watched as something H̺̭̝͕̗ͅu̟̻n̗͓̥͈͎͎g̻̞ͅr̪͕̳y̺ waited to torment him, now?

"...h yeah? Well, if you insist…"

Now the D͜͏̸͞a̵̶̶̵͢r̴̡̕͜k͏̶̧͏n͏̷͜͞ȩ̷͟͠ş̴̕͞s̴͢͠ felt so soothing and quiet…

"..ust saying, I can't kiss you if you got those sharp teeth…"

Wait, WHAT!?

The world SNAPPED into focus as everything refocused. "AHhhhh!? Uh?"

Jackie blinked as Jenny giggled, amused for some reason. "Jenny?"

She smirked, but her face clearly showed great relief. "Changed back now, ratface?"

Huh? "What?"

Her hands waved at the walls. "Well, the forest of hands thing went away, you don't have glowing black and pink eyes, and your mouth is finally defanged."

Was… Wasn't that a dream? "I… What?"

Suddenly concern was back in her eyes. "You alright?"

He focused on one hand.

And without issue, without difficulty, reached out to the D̨͠a̸̡̢͞r̷͘͝͏̕k̡͢n͟͡è̷̛̛͞s̷s̡͢͟ once more.

Like ghosts, a multitude of solid black shadows of his arm shifted behind his suddenly pure white skin and pitch black nails, each finger more a claw now, while the new limbs were following a reversed color scheme. "What the…"

Jenny blinked. "Huh… Your skin didn't shift like that before… Kind of like a doll or something." Her hand touched his without fear, as if he hadn't shifted into something monstrous and wrong and… "Hey, it feels a bit like metal! Neat!"

Her fingernails made little tink noises as she tapped his arm until one of his many shadow limbs caught her wrist with care. "Hang on, let me… Let me focus…"

Something inside him twisted, and his normal arm was back!

Uh. Sort of. "Holy shit, all my scars are gone!"

She snorted. "That was obvious when you came out of the shower naked this morning."

Wait, WHAT!? "I… Uh…"

Jenny laughed! "Yeah, said it was 'more efficient'! You were slowly turning so odd and out of it I figured you were in some sort of 'fight or flight' mode, stuck being all big and scary and stuff."

She sipped from a massive cup of coffee. "It got way more obvious the longer we hung out, like you were dreamwalking or something."

I… Wait… "I remember so many places…" No, he WAS in several places. On that roof, and under that ledge, and… More than just the ability to feel and see from shadows, there were BODIES over there and… "Darklings?"

She nodded. "You kept summoning them from somewhere, but getting you to explain anything was like talking to a young boy. Half your sentences were apologies, but apparently they work for you or something? But they ARE you, and yet are aspects of you or past you or… Well, you were really hard to understand sometimes."

A flex of muscle had a dozen more Darklings summoned around the building in hidden places, places filled with Darkness. Without effort he was watching all the streets and all the hidden places normally left unattended. "There… The whispers are gone."

The endless tormenting sounds and hurtful memories, the twisted words and seductive promises… "Without the voices of the D̢̕a͜ŕ̵̡̕͘ḱ̷̴̕n̕͘͠e̷̷͞s̸̸̛҉s͝͏͞, this… I feel so light and…"

His body shifted and his clothing was swallowed by the Darkness, restructured, and reformed into the finest suit he had ever worn. A space he couldn't name, an Otherworld, seemed to just exist beyond his touch and ready to respond to his desires…

Her hand brought him back. "Focus on me, Jackie. Your other self said something about the Darkness having gone quiet? Something has happened?"

Faint memories and confusion filled his mind. "I… I was begging for help. For anyone to save you, at any cost. I had offered the Darkness anything, any price… And it refused me. Seemed eager to watch your end as I struggled to… And then…"

That odd voice, the feeling of sudden control, and just before everything changed… Something crystalline and strangely pink?

It had saved her. Saved Jenny.

Whatever that odd power had been, Jackie owed it everything. "The endless suffering and rage and sadism and… It all vanished." Not peacefully, either.

Jackie now had memories of something endless and unending being… Squished.

Like, poked into a very tiny place by some tiny hands that were growing ever more frustrated and annoyed.

Whatever it had been, it was not here now. Not that Jackie could tell. "I think something took the voices away. Or stored them? Hidden them? They are locked, gone now."

That Otherworld was even now shifting itself, on a level that felt natural to Jackie. Reacting to the missing voices and endless emotions, that space was warping and twisting and… Well, something.

There were also some odd pink lights here and there, but he couldn't focus on that for now. "What happened? While I was out of it, I mean."

She snorted. "You mashed up an entire criminal empire, saved and/or kidnapped me, then locked us away in this little love hideaway while your army of odd little imp things basically robbed our homes for all our stuff."

Jenny poked his arms, which were normal skin again. "Shoved most of it into your odd forest of arms, and kept pulling stuff out when I asked for it. Since then? We mostly laid low while everyone freaked out. I think the current story was some sort of infighting that went REALLY bad, and a LOT of dirty info has been found when noses were being nosy."

His own mind began supplying odd memories and actions taken by the substantially less violent Darklings over the last few days. Altering evidence here and there, shifting case files… Huh. "How the hell am I not a suspect in this? Neither are you! That… What?"

She shrugged. "Apparently our records and stuff were messed with by Uncle Paulie, since he planned on making us both disappear. We supposedly were eloping, and were supposed to vanish into the night."

That familiar rage began oozing back.

That was right.

Uncle Paulie was still alive.

Finger snaps suddenly interrupted his rage. "No! None of that!"

Jenny smirked at his confusion. "Right now, dear Uncle Paulie accidently got caught in a LOT of trouble when that mess got investigated. He is a very useful patsy, gives us both an airtight alibi, and a good excuse for both of us to elope without me feeling guilty about leaving this terrible place."

The burning HATE! But he!

Wait. "Elope?"

Her grin was epic. "My crap was basically destroyed while I was kidnapped anyway, I got fired already for skipping work for a month, you can't go back home to that shity apartment safely either, and people will be searching for me… Nothing tying us down, nothing holding us back!"

Her arms were suddenly wrapped around his, and she felt so warm. "You get into so much trouble all the time, and I had a serious wake up call… A bit of a honeymoon and a new life sounds like the perfect plan to me."

But… "How would we…"

She pointed at a stack of oddly familiar duffle bags. "While you were mentally out of it, I asked you for a coffee refill and you sent out Darklings to handle it. And they stole that. All of that. I'm pretty sure the only reason Uncle Paulie is actually seeing consequences despite being the Don and all his crooked police connections is due to all his funding having vanished overnight."

That… Well, that would do it. "I see?"

Her scent smelled like home. "Relax, ratface. You and me, we can do this… Alright?"

In the end, did anything else matter? "Alright." But… "I might fuck up."

She snorted. "Nah, we'll fuck up together."

And they would be fine.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Oooh!

Another swirling portal, but this one had those cute little pink lines that were so familiar!

Plus, it seemed that if you did a twist like THAT and a twirl like THIS, it would not only convert the Darkling spirits passing through into a semi-corporeal state (Super solid ghosts, not actually biological)... But tag them for automatic retrieval!

{{[[We… Will…]]}}

This was what shadow needed! Great!

Again, after who knew how many times already, the small Heartless carefully caught an escaping fragment of The Darkness and returned it to its torso.

Bad snack.

{{[[We Will CONSUME You, Abomination!]]}}

The shadow blinked.

Hmm?

Oh.

That's right… The Darkness had a habit of consuming not only Souls and the energy of the spirit, but flesh and hearts and Hearts as well!

Well, now shadow just felt silly for not looking up those delicious memories FIRST when absorbing this thing!

Its pink eyes turned to one three clawed hand… And it began to twist.

No. Not right. Closer, but no. A hand of eyes? Huh. Neat, but not what it was aiming for.

Ah! There we go!

The Darkness suddenly stilled as the shadow's hand twisted into a cheerful Ģr̨͡҉i̢̡ņ̢͢͢!

Or maybe it was due to the bright pink fangs/teeth being shown off?

{{[[What!? WAIT! NO!]]}}

A little body alteration and shadow's torso was now a maw, pink dentures ready to chomp!

{{[[NO!]]}}

C̀͢͏̴̟͕̙̭̮̩̙r̸͍̪̮͎͖̳͉̟̦͙̞͎̗͕̳̩͠ͅù͙̜̙̩̠̟͖̲̯͚̗͈̀n̞̦͍͓̦̰͖̳͡c̛͙͎͓̙̩̳̭̣̬̣͇̦͇͝͠h̫̪̩̩̻̠̜̙͈̠̮̭́͘!

.

A flood of memories and context and madness and sadness and loneliness and abuse and…

The shadow shook its head as Shadow Ofadam woke up.

Huh.

That… That had been a trip.

Shadow stretched as his torso twisted back into something more like a standard heartless… Almost felt like his back was sore from having that stupid meal struggle for so long! How inconsiderate of that snack!

Right uh… How did he get here? Like, not as in here 'next to interesting portals', but here as in 'Oops, accidentally went to the wrong Realm' type of here?

Vague memories of D̹̭̤e͙͎v̜̹̠̪̲o̗͇̙u͇͍͎͓ͅr̻̭̤͇̦̳in̲͎͓̦̻̖g͖̜̗ into himself didn't offer much.

Not enough data in that to control the destination, at least.

Oh! Maybe the gem would know!

Shadow reached into himself and carefully lifted the glowing pink crystal heart into his hand.

And his near featureless face split into a brand new G̝̣̣͖r̦͖̹̩̻i̙̺̗͔̭̦̗n̥̬̱͉̪̠̩! "Hisssss!"

Uh. Wait, that wasn't right. "Hiss? Hiss! Hiss… Hiss."

Damn it, other things talked ALL the damned time! How hard could this be!?

Right, with feeling this time! "Hiss hiss hiss hissss!"

Shadow blinked as the glowing gem started pulsing with laughter. Oh, real funny rock lady! I don't see YOU talking any time soon!

The rock glowed smugly.

Well whatever. Shadow shifted the rock within a harness of Darkness secured inside his back so it could at least see around on its own, and began wandering through the strange battlefield Otherworld that was slowly shifting into a replica of New York City.

You know, if New York City was made from buildings with glowing pink highlights.

What was up with this?

The gem was even MORE smug.

She was so sassy! Ha!

Shadow gave her another hug and kept wandering about while carefully testing his new skills. If they could be called that, some were pretty basic.

A bit of limb addition and alteration, some interesting pseudo guns and special armor options, the ability to summon portals into Darkness that acted as black holes… Nothing that cool.

After all, body modification had always been simple for even the weakest Heartless. They had such a basic design normally due to apathy, not due to lack of ability. Without a stronger sense of self and more desires other than Hunger, it was more energy conservative to be tiny and mostly smooth.

Also made naps super fun. Sleeping as a big person? Sucks most of the time.

But at this size? Nearly every pillow was a big fluffy bed! Couches were decadent luxuries! Beds? Soft wonderlands!

Though it didn't feel like he was making his mouth right. Shadow flexed his jaw, as layer after layer of fangs began shifting position and alignment.

Smiles worked like this, right? You twisted your maw into an upside down arch and forced the fangs to mostly intersect each other? Though it felt like Shadow was missing something… The gem's pulsing humor certainly suggested so, at least.

Another random gun shot at his body as Shadow was elsewhere.

While this area was clearly shifting away from endless warfare, the Souls that resided here had built up habits over time… Until they were worn down to the point of transforming into these Darklings, they tended to follow mortal habits to some extent.

Made it hard to think, really.

Shadow blinked at Gem's pulse.

Good point… This whole place was a bit bad for polishing potential in the first place anyway, the endless fighting and caustic fog that was filled with smog and gunsmoke didn't fix it at all either.

Maybe somewhere else would be a better option? Now that they could communicate better.

Shifting the Gem so she couldn't see, Shadow formed an eel limb and looked into its cheerful pink eyes. Not sure why that happened, something to do with how Gem and his form interacted, but it was cute.

Right, he could do this! "Hiss hiss hiss?"

The tiny fanged face S̻̰m͕i̖̞̮̹͍l͎͍̟͔͔ͅe̼d͇! "Hiss!"

…Sigh, it was like talking to a hand puppet.

And again, Shadow was missing something with his smile attempts.

He'd get the hang of this eventually! That mountain of talking and smiling would be conquered through effort and due diligence!

Just… Not right now.

Consuming his jaws and extra limbs, Shadow pulled Gem into an embrace and then focused within.

Find the flavor, find the scent, find the way that Shadow went!

Shadow Consumed Inwards…

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Oops.

Shadow was uh… Much smaller. And somehow not made of the same stuff.

But now there were lots of friends! Hello friends!

"Hmm?"

Something large shifted, but at this size it was hard to see. Hello, large thing!

"What's wrong with that Susuwatari? Soot sprites shouldn't have pink eyes…"

Communication, Shadow could do that! Right, do the shimmy this way and shake these tiny limbs… Why only four limbs? And they were thin as hairs too, it made it really hard to boogie down a conversation like this.

"Huh."

Yes! Take THAT you silly Gem, clearly Shadow is the KING of communication! Now, who are you, my incredibly big, multilimbed friend? Ooh, and what am I? A soot sprite? Huh? Huh?

"Well, you're a lively one, at least."

Somewhere else, still in the Darkness, the Gem was pulsing with giggles.

Sigh.

Right, learn how to communicate. That is now MUCH higher on the priority list.

At least this big giant person had a decent number of limbs to work with. Six was always a good start! "Well, this old man Kamaji has seen odder things working here. Go work with the rest, and add coal to the boiler furnace."

Oh… This was some sort of massive boiler room! Neat!

And where was… Oh! Lots of brothers and sisters (though apparently of neither gender) right over there! Hello friends!

Hey! They waved back! Gem, did you see them wave back?

A pulse of amusement came from the Darkness, and a pink eyed floofy Shadow scurried over to help them do whatever they were doing.

Apparently today? Moving huge boulders of coal and tossing it into that big burning hole over there!

How interesting!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Kamaji kept one of his eyes on the odd little Makkuro kurosuke, but the strange pink eyed soot sprite didn't seem too different from the other thousands that worked down here in the boiler room.

Just… A bit too enthusiastic. And a little too intelligent.

Normally spirits like these only existed while they had purpose, a side effect of the high density of magic that lingered in this bathhouse. Considering the massive number of yōkai that lived, worked, and visited here, a few oddballs should probably have been expected.

Maybe it was another odd experiment of Yubaba's? The owner of this place, as a powerful witch, did have odd habits. It wouldn't be out of character for her to have been distracted by something interesting and let something this tiny escape.

Well, if so it was good fortune for the tiny soot sprite.

Plus, it was giving a good effort as it lugged massive chunks of coal over to the furnace.

Meh, as long as it didn't go too odd, it should be fine.

He checked the next set of Bath Tokens… Right, need this mixture for the next bath water mixture to be sent up, best get mixing. He'd ask Lin to keep an eye on the little odd thing, as a fox spirit she should be able to detect any trickery going on here.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

This was fun!

Shadow shuffled his fuzzy little body over to the coal pile and picked one of the larger chunks for transit. At first the other soot spirits tried to help, which was cute and all, but forced Shadow to manipulate the Darkness within the coal's cracks and edges to drastically lower the things weight.

More than one of these odd things got squished and seemed to just accept it as part of life, not hurt in the least… But it was more fun to help the little guys lift massive building size blocks of coal and then all wave their tiny arms together in celebration after a big victory!

Well, building size for normal people like all of them.

Giants like Boss Kamaji didn't count, even if he did have many arms and a clean outfit and a very impressive mustache!

Over and over, back and forth, we work all day to move the coal…

When we stop? None will know! Until such time? We have our goal!

Shadow attempted to hum again in glee, but it was a bit tricky. This was another form that didn't really have a mouth, and attempting to crack one open nearly destroyed the entire soot spirit body thing that formed this creature.

So, no talk practice right now.

But humming sort of worked! It involved vibrating the fluffy fuzzy body at just the right tempo, and honestly was a bit hard to hear considering how loud this place was and all that.

But Gem loved his performance, and she pulsed along to the beat.

Suddenly the work ended and… And what?

All the other soot sprites rushed over to those holes over there.

Oh. Alright! Shadow can do that!

Whee!

And Shadow was within the Darkness and there were so many fuzzy buddies! Hello! Hi! I'm Shadow! You have cute little arms too! Hi! Dance with me!

This was a great trip! Less food though. Also, when in the shade like this, it was much easier for Shadow to summon up extra limbs and stuff and maybe an eel tentacle if needed to practice smiling, but these fuzzy buddies seemed a bit skittish and it was probably a bad idea.

Hmm? They all seemed excited for some reason?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Lin blinked, her humanoid form so polished that it came naturally. "I'm sorry?"

Kamaji began making tea even as he tidied up and turned to focus on the young lady. "I'm hoping that, as a servant who spends much more time interacting with others than myself, you may have heard something."

She snorted. "Witch Yubaba is hardly going to talk to us about any of her issues, especially if it isn't directly related to working harder or gaining more profit. An escaped experiment would either be so important that she would immediately bring down her wrath on everyone or so insignificant that she wouldn't even pay attention."

Honestly, even with the danger of working near someone so powerful… There were far worse jobs out there, working under far more deadly people of notoriety. There was a reason this bathhouse was so well known in the spiritual world, after all.

He hummed as his other limbs carefully unpacked his meal. "I suppose. Still, it's the oddest little thing I've seen in some time. At least it is a hard worker, and seems happy to help the other ones with their work keeping the furnace burning."

Sigh. Right, best double check it. "Where is the little thing, then?"

The spider demon waved towards the wall and the tiny black sprites that were peeking out at them. "Ran in there with the others. You'll know it when you see it, just look for the black fuzzy creature with bright pink eyes."

Huh. Alright, it should be easy enough to get a good sense of the thing if she fed the tiny horde like usual. "Come on everyone! Got some Konpeitō for snackies!"

Oops, better scatter a few handfuls before her feet get covered in tiny black puff balls!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Konpeitō was apparently a type of candy soaked in magical power. Or spirit power? Shadow hadn't tasted it before, and frankly it paled in contrast to the delicious taste of sin and cruelty and maliciousness… But it WAS candy, after all!

Om Nom Nom!

Oh, these poor soot creatures had to absorb it just like Shadow had to, back in the time before S̼̗̻m͔͕̙̺̖̣̣i͚̦͖̫l̥̰̯̫e̘̫̮s̞̪̯̬!

Guys, guys… Just do this with your surface and twist here and o̬̪pe͉̥ͅn̰̜̺̙̝ w̭͉͈͕͙͓̜̰̻̪͍̰̞ͅi̳̯̤̙͔͔̦̖̫̠̝͕̣͖͉̗̰̳͔d̲͇̠̯̥͖̘̬̘̤̪̭̖̖̱ẹ̹̭̣̼͖͇!

Mmm! Good candy!

Shadow blinked, chewing slower and slower.

All the fuzzy buddies were staring at him.

So were the big giant people.

Did… Did they want his candy?

But they had their own already! This was HIS candy!

As casually as possible, he shifted the rest of his hoard of confectionary joy to one side, out of view.

Damn it, he wasn't good enough at mouths to whistle! How was he supposed to show off how innocent he was!? Gem, help!

It just pulsed in… Exasperation? Huh?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Both yokai stared at the tiny 'soot sprite' that had opened a demonic maw filled with bright and happy pink fangs to devour the colorful candy.

It had noticed the shock from the crowd fairly quickly, and was now… Trying to scootch over to the black cubby holes on the wall while dragging a small pile of candy.

They just… Stared at it.

Kamaji blinked behind his dark glasses. "That was… Unusual."

Lin forced back a snarl! "THAT is NOT a soot sprite! I've NEVER seen a Susuwatari do ANYTHING close to that!"

She wracked her brain, but this fanged thing didn't match anything that came to mind quickly. There were many shape shifting creatures of course, many spirits and demons and things that could hide or imitate other forms…

But hide from the senses of a fox spirit?

VERY few were on that list!

Until it casually tore itself open and exposed a maw of deadly sharp fangs MUCH LARGER than its entire body, she hadn't sensed anything odd at ALL!

What had that kind of power!? That kind of skill!?

Her emerging freakout was paused as a powerful hand gently gripped her shoulder. "Calm down. I don't think it means any harm."

But SHE hadn't senesed it! Despite actively sensing for it! "What IS it!?"

A person with six arms shrugging made a fairly big impression. "From what I can tell, a bit hungry." He pointed at the hole that was being carefully stuffed with a small mound of candy by a nonchalant pink monster.

The pile was slightly too big to push in all at once while 'hidden' behind the soot sprite's back, and the process of 'escaping' was taking a lot longer than the tiny thing had expected. Clearly.

The attempts to escape with loot actually helped Lin calm down a bit.

Right, she worked with deadly and dangerous beings every day. Just… Normally she could always track them, sense them, and had escape plans in the back of her mind.

Calm down.

Right. "Here everyone! I still have some snackies!"

It was the unknown, THAT was why she had freaked out so badly. Something outside her control and awareness, an unexpected danger from a surprising source.

If her hands shook slightly feeding the crowd, Kamaji had the courtesy to not mention it. "I… I'll ask around the bathhouse, and I'll let you know what I find. If no one has any ideas…"

He sighed. "Yes. It may be best to inform Ms. Yubaba. Just in case."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Here in the Darkness, Shadow was able to sneak away all the delicious candy stars inside himself for future snacks!

Not the soot body, but his Heartless form… Trying to store that candy in this new shape would probably damage it or take so long to finish a meal that someone might take his other snacks first!

At least it was easier to show some self discipline with food of only this tier.

Unlike the mouth watering scent and smell of corrupt beings, candy was just very very good… Plus, Gem was right there surrounded by the pretty colored and shaped confectionary delights…She was able to keep an eye on all of them. Good job, Gem!

Now, how to get more snacks…

Maybe Shadow should try and lay low a bit?

That way everyone would stop staring and he could sneak about and maybe find more of this delicious candy! Or he could be elsewhere and get more candy now that he knew giant people just threw it around everywhere!

Shadow was a fuzzy soot sprite with a plan! Oh yeah!

Right, better remove the maw entirely for now, having a mouth while thinking about candy tended to make him drool and that wasn't being stealthy.

In the end, Shadow managed to get a few more pieces of candy from the other fuzzy buddies.

Apparently other fuzzy buddies just sort of caused the sugar to combust to gain more soot for their forms or something? How wasteful. Several had collected more candy than they could even carry, so it was easy to borrow a few.

Things had felt a bit awkward at first, with more than a little bit of staring… But they all seemed to be alright hanging out with Shadow again, so it's all good!

And now it was time to go get the coal from over THERE and throw it into the metal flap hole thing over HERE once again!

Yay!

Shadow was super good at this stuff! And getting candy!

He was good at getting candy AND moving coal!

Oh, and the giant person kept giving him looks for some reason. Probably because of how good Shadow was at moving the coal and how amazing his candy gathering skills were compared to everyone else!

But big people didn't matter, so for now… Onward fuzzy brethren! Coal for the furnace gods!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Time passed strangely here, though it was hard to tell.

Honestly, if Gem and Shadow didn't mostly exist outside of normal reality it would go completely unnoticed. Days could stretch for weeks or seconds, or even flow backwards a bit.

Thankfully, for anyone present and NOT in multiple places outside of existence, it didn't affect your daily life.

For example! When the limbed giant started grinding stuff and altering the water flows from the boiler, it was time to move the coal!

Now, Shadow didn't want to brag… Mostly because bragging was very hard to do in a cool way through interpretive dance, and mouths plus words were hard… But he was getting pretty dang good at moving coal these days! Or day. Or yesterday.

Though it was a bit more tricky than he initially expected.

Too much coal thrown at once blocked the furnace up, and Shadow got yelled at, which was embarrassing.

Also! Stuffing the entire furnace up with coal via the Darkness would put out the fire entirely, which was bad. But while concerning and certainly an issue, Shadow didn't get in trouble for that one thanks to consuming the coal with Darkness before anyone could look inside the thing.

Like, the giants were confused, but basically shrugged their shoulders (Which for the many limbed giant Kamaji was pretty awesome to watch!) and life moved on. And while Gem might have admonished him a little bit, she was a quiet crystal and no one else caught on, so it was fine.

Now Shadow knew the best way to keep the furnace going!

A steady supply of coal through Darkness (At a variable rate based on how fast the soot sprites were doing THEIR own thing), combined with a sneaky bit of [[Growth]], and BAM! Perfect temperatures!

Now none of them had to work as hard to get the best results!

Like, Shadow still carried big lumps of fuel himself of course. Because even with no muscles and twig limbs, he liked to flex a bit in front of Gem. Her amusement was W̻̦ạ̯̺͉̘̺r̹͚̝͙͚̪m͎̗̘̯̳.

So time passed as it sometimes does, and Shadow lifted like a bro and threw in coal to keep the furnace hot and maybe cheated a bit with Darkness to ensure a reliable service even when some of his sillier friends tried to duplicate his amazing work and accidentally squished themselves a little bit for a short while.

Why?

Because Shadow was a professional! The best coal delivery sprite of all time! A peer of the fuel shuffling underworld, a giant among… Well, no one really, in a literal sense. A giant in a more figurative way, at least when it came to moving rocky material several feet in a specific direction and throwing it into a very warm hole.

Gem pulsed giggles.

Fine, Shadow was doing it for the candy.

They were so pretty! Tiny colored spiky stars, mostly sugar, with a hint of some sort of spiritual energy that soaked this entire place to the brim.

Although he only allowed himself to consume a single star a 'day', however long that was here, so that the rest can snuggle up to Gem and keep her company in the Darkness.

It was a bit hard to tell, but he was pretty sure she appreciated it!

Though… After a few looks and sad friends, he had stopped trying to take ALL the candy when snack time came around.

And the one time he attempted to convert Darkness INTO candy went a bit… Odd… so uh, he wasn't going to do that until he got FAR more practice in first. According to 'Research' (Who was REALLY busy these days for some reason, examining Shadow himself and his various new bodies), solidified distilled Darkness was not made out of sugar.

So uh… Work in progress.

Plus, he wasn't sure what would happen to someone who ate these black star 'candies', although they were pretty tasty snacks… Not filling, like empty calories, but super DUPER empty. You could really taste the nothingness though, so occasionally Shadow would sneak a couple of them when eating candy despite Gem being worried about him eating too much.

Probably.

The warm pulses were a bit tricky to translate even for him, and poor Gem didn't have Shadow's sassy body to boogie down a good charade conversation yet. Or a mouth.

Mouths were SUPER hard!

You had to make a tongue too! And some method for passing a gas or near liquidized Darkness out of the thing! And vocal cords!

No WONDER the Darkness snack from the other place infested a host rather than bother with all that junk. Just partially consume a brain and shove your thoughts straight in, WAY easier than talking!

Sigh.

Ah well, Shadow had spent the break times between work shifts practicing a lot and had made some progress towards the linguistic arts.

Primarily? Hissing.

Honestly, a LOT of hissing.

Though now he could change pitch! So it was like… Sort of humming? If a snake was trying really really hard?

Anyway, for now, communication was a bit restricted to glowing, heat pulses, dancing, and very enthusiastic hiss musical attempts.

And for certain bullies or snacks, perhaps a bit of snapping and om nom nom.

Still, Shadow got by. His new friends sometimes danced along with him, and everyone loved throwing coal into the fire… So that was neat!

Plus, Giant Lin was always around a few times each day with the candy, and that was cool too!

Shadow eventually fell into something of a comfortable routine after a while. A bit of a rest, a breather if you will… Even if neither the Heartless nor the soot sprites needed air.

So it came as a bit of a surprise then when some really old giant lady (Well, half giant? The other giants were MUCH more giant than THIS giant!) began throwing tons of tingly snack lights at him.

Woo! Green lights tasted like how purple smelled! Om nom nom!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Old witch Yubaba frowned at the strange pink eyed mutant. "And how did it act?" It certainly wasn't a guest.

Boiler man Kamaji stroked his mustache. "Like the other soot spirits. It follows orders, feeds the furnace… If it wasn't for the odd eye color and…" He waved multiple limbs at the tiny strange thing. "Doing THAT all the time, I never would have noticed how odd it was."

She idly flung another low level analysis spell at the creature.

With the sound of snapping charcoal, the tiny ball of soot cracked in half, all four stick limbs secured to the ground, as those bizarre bright pink FANGS sprouted from nowhere… To bite and consume her spell.

Again.

She felt her natural frown deepen slightly. "It's not like any creature, ghost, spirit, demon, or fairy that I've encountered before. Certainly not a Susuwatari, no matter what it currently looks like."

No captured test subject, customer, or book had anything similar either. Her mind, always focused towards greater profits and protecting her darling baby Boh, verified her own memories carefully…

She was honestly proud at how deep and comprehensive her defensive magic was in the Bathhouse, and a failure like this rankled.

Nothing detected by the hostility wards, all the passive sensors either failed to see anything in that spot or flickered between 'nothing' and soot sprites, which were expected to exist down here. It was clearly in some sort of disguise, or a natural shape shifter… But it didn't register on the possession matrix nor the body alteration markers.

The tiny ball of teeth and soot somehow looked like it was begging for another treat.

She flicked a pair of scanning silent incantations… Maybe if she hit it from opposite sides one would get through? Surely she would get something to work with if her spells could just connect to the…

A tiny double crack and TWO massive jaws of pink fangs C̫r̗̼̟̟̳̭u̻ͅn̤c̥͕͙̠͈̪h̥̺̣͔͉e̜͍̗̪̗͎d her attempts.

Her eyes narrowed.

So… It wasn't limited to basic form alterations. That drastically narrowed the near unlimited possibilities… But it also increased the danger.

Still, she was a woman who judged more on actions than on appearance. Anything could bring her profit or better protect her baby, after all. "If it begins to attack, leave." It would be expensive to replace such a competent employee, after all.

Kamaji slowed his movements… And nodded. "Understood, ma'am."

She absently set up a few dozen protection fields and restriction wards, stepping closer. Just because her keen intuition didn't detect danger didn't mean that she should slack in basic precautions. "Good evening."

Tiny pink eyes looked up at her, disturbingly cute despite the deadly jaws hidden away within the poof.

It waved.

Well… At least it seemed to understand spiritual languages? Not all beings could talk after all, and she had to learn how to communicate through spirit and Soul years ago for optimum performance as a business owner. "I am Yubaba, and I own this bathhouse."

Those tiny eyes grew big… And it tried to clap it's tiny stick limbs like hands.

Well, at least it seemed easy natured enough. Probably not any of the revenge spirits or spite monstrosities then. Still may be a twisted nightmare or one of the stranger outer creatures. "I've been told you showed up recently?"

A nod.

Which implied that it actually understood what she was saying and wasn't randomly doing stuff when people talked to it.

Good.

She carefully tasted the power in the air.

Nothing. Still. Whatever this entity was, it left no Soul markings, no magic traces, no spiritual residue… If such a thing normally lived out in the spiritual world, it would be no surprise that they wouldn't bother visiting a bathhouse in the past, not if they didn't exist enough to actually get dirty.

She absently made a mental note to advertise the stress relieving benefits of visiting her lair/kingdom/business. Just because one was always impossibly clean didn't imply they couldn't give her gold and visit her services anyway.

It was even true, to a certain extent… The only reason she didn't skimp on funding her extravagant products and services to save extra coin was because those high operating costs purchased something even MORE valuable and rare: A reputation.

Oh, she still pinched every fraction of currency that passed through her grasp, but Yubaba wasn't so short sighted as to harm future profits for short term gain. That could potentially cause problems for her little baby sweetums!

And keeping him safe was more important than allowing this… This whatever it is, this thing, to stay here if it was a risk. "I understand you work with the other soot sprites to keep the furnace fueled?"

A nod.

The truth detection spell cluster registered as mostly factual, but it was slippery. Only directly in this tiny fluff ball's presence could anything even register anything involving this oddity… Still, it was enough to work with.

She glanced at the door… It was Lin who was in charge of feeding these things, right? Or had her duty rotated over to Carla already? Either way. "You are satisfied working as such? For the pay already distributed at the current rates?"

The tiny black soot ball blinked… And then pulled a tiny Konpeitō candy out of NOWHERE. Pointed at it, and tilted its head.

That hadn't been magic. Nor spatial folding nor subspace pockets. "Yes, for the candy."

It gave a powerful nod… And began doing a very odd dance. Her language deciphering skills were not even remotely up to the task of understanding… Whatever THAT was. No spiritual energy released either, so a translation spell wouldn't work even if it could target this thing without being consumed.

Then it paused, and looked up at her expectantly.

Well, whatever. She'd done more with less. "Then… Perhaps I can hire you." That candy was pretty much scrap and near free anyway thanks to her suppliers.

Popular, yes. Expensive? No. Valuable? Well, to certain people, apparently. Still, no reason not to attempt and gain more benefits from this situation. "Do you have other skills? Other abilities?"

The poof ball blinked, a tiny stick limb tapping thoughtfully where its mouth had been… And suddenly stood tall! It apparently had an idea!

With the tiny crackling of snapped charcoal, it cracked in half… And a MASSIVE eel of pure Darkness slithered out of that tiny impossible space, slightly dissolving due to the lighting down here.

Kamaji stiffened and then quickly moved out of the room even as Yubaba casually shifted the magical defense around for better efficiency.

And she still. Felt. NOTHING! No power, no magic, no mind… Maybe a flicker of some emotion or Soul fragment at best, but as if from a grand distance in terrible weather.

Troubling.

Faster than anything she had expected from a construct this large, the eel tentacle was suddenly touching the boiler… And jaws opened up along the sides, filled with pink fangs…

And began humming?

What was that tune? Sounded a bit festive?

And suddenly, her detection grid LIT UP like a full assault was occuring!

Her mind rapidly followed the analysis patterns… A consecration?

She blanked out mentally as this shapeshifting master of Darkness with bright pink eyes (all over the new tentacle eel) and bright pink teeth (All over… Everything right now) turned and swirled and twisted away before vanishing back into the soot sprite casing.

Yubaba moved her magic over to the… Blessed bath water.

But not like any blessing she had ever contacted before.

It was… non-judgemental. Abstract. Basically conceptual purification, really.

Nothing that would damage her customers, but instead act like a slow cleansing all on its own, no herbs or potions or soaps required! Even cursed and demonic beings could enjoy this odd 'blessing', even followers of unrelated faiths and belief structures!

So.

This fake Susuwatari was apparently an eldritch being AND potentially a priest of a forgotten faith.

In a magical spiritual bathhouse.

She felt her mind struggle for a moment… And gave up. The risks were too high. The potential profit was too desirable.

The old witch would have to do the one thing she hated most… Paying an employee more to keep their services without binding magical contracts. "You're hired. Do that… That whatever you just did to every new order of bath herbs and bath water."

Damn it, she'd feel better about this if she could just steal its name and gain power over it… But how did one attempt to steal a name given via groove moves?

Come on, Yubaba… Focus on the hard part, not on what could have been. You've done this before. Unfortunately. "In return for such services, you shall receive double…" Damn it. "One and a half times more candy than before."

Meh, close enough.

The tiny pink eyes widened with unmistakable glee… And now it was dancing again. Well, as long as it got the job done that was fine, since it was hidden away down here away from the customers.

And technically the candy was practically free in the first place… Sigh.

Whatever. Just consider the extra snack costs to be an investment for unlimited conceptual blessings of all her provided services and a wonderful excuse to increase costs without as many customer complaints.

After all, a happy monster or insane shadow demon working for near free was just good business if it was happy with the situation.

She turned, glancing at a very shocked Kamaji still staring at where all the teeth and eyes and Darkness had just been giving a serenade. "Back to work, the lunch rush will hit in an hour or so."

He kept an eye on the… Whatever it was. Which was probably a good idea, really. "Yes ma'am."

She habitually flicked a monitoring charm to keep an eye on things as she… And of course the tiny black floof ball ate it.

Whatever. "Contact me if it causes any problems or refuses to work properly."

He gave a nod and she left.

Worst case scenario, she'd just have to translocate the business again. Since the tiny creature ate any magic that tried to target it directly, it would get left behind and the issue would be solved.

She'd prefer only relocating in the most dire of circumstances, the process was annoying and costly and disrupted service… But better safe than sorry.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Shadow got even MORE candy now!

Though his new friends freaked out a little every time he ripped open his body to use 'Purification' on the bathwater and the various salts and components used. And the big giant multilimb dude was a bit on edge for some reason, and maybe Lin was a bit more twitchy when she threw candy his way, it was all worth it!

More candy! Woo!

Also: Wrinkly old half giant people love to give out bright colored snacks for free!

Shadow made a mental note: Find more wrinkly old giant people! And candy!

Also, after eating a lot of those bright transparent energy treats, the soft glowing stuff in the background was looking a bit T̺̝a̫̫̗s͎̘̘̭͈̟t̯͙͙y̲̙͇͙̮͚̗… But it was probably someone else's treat.

It would be rude to eat snacks belonging to others, after all.

And time sort of slipped by, as it sometimes does.

A significant amount of time.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Much candy was earned and carefully saved before something unusual occurred.

It was Gem that first caught Shadow's attention.

Something… Something was off.

It shifted it's tiny soot body out of the way of the ongoing work, and something Dark shifted elsewhere.

Shadow Soot would take care of candy collection, but Shadow Ofadam needed to find where this feeling was coming from.

Because… Something was off in the bathhouse. Something U̻̣̘̙n̠͇̘͇̜͇̫a̱̣̪̱̳̘̬c͎̦͖͍c͍͚͈͚̥̤̩e͔͓̗̯̺pṭa̭b̻̜͍̤ͅl̺͙̙e͍̦͈͓ͅ.

He rarely left his little area with his friends, down in the boiler room… But he had followed Lin and her friends around occasionally, just to explore.

Not sure for how long though… Time was odd in this place, and some decades had slipped by while a few hours had stayed around for a month or so. But this was the first time the bathhouse had tasted this… Shocked. Scared. And, behind the concern and ambient trace elements of avarice and greed, there was another scent that had entered this place.

Something D̫̲ͅẹ̤̙̬l͎͔̩̠̭ici̝̹͎̠̱ͅo͉ṵ̞̺̝s̘̞̙̱͚̙.

Gem pulsed concern as they found devastation on every floor.

Torn curtains, ripped carpets, smashed tables, destroyed chairs.

Smeared food, spilled drinks, lost slippers and abandoned plates and cups.

Without bothering to wait for time to pass or logic or reason, Shadow visited ALL the rooms in the building.

The issue was limited to these seven levels, and near the passage to the eighth was something… Large.

Amorphous, a black substance with a massive drooling maw and repressed distress…

Something full of people.

HIS people.

Shadow's fellow employees.

For a moment, in a space without location and for a duration without time, Shadow stared at the Heart of Lin. The fox yokai who had eventually stopped twitching and making odd sounds when she came to visit his friends downstairs.

The nice lady giant who sometimes laughed with giant Kamaji as he enjoyed his lunch.

The candy woman.

She… She was inside this thing.

She had been eaten.

Well.

Time, formerly paused, slightly C͉̙̫̗̠̙ͅra̜̤̗̫͉̞̝c͕̗̬̮̣k̘̬̳̹̼e̙̬͉ͅd͚.

This… This was not acceptable.

Gem pulsed with concern and agreement. And uh… A bit of reprimand?

Shadow winced but nodded. Right, probably should save all the other spirts and demons and stuff inside this creature too. Not just candy lady and her candy.

Which he was TOTALLY about to do! He just… Just hadn't had the thought yet!

Gem didn't roll her eyes for logical reasons, but he felt the attempt.

At least Shadow couldn't blush.

Then the black mass attempted to shift it's bulk upwards, towards the people Shadow could feel attempting to flee faster and faster.

No.

U̯͕͓̯͈ͅn̝̦̖͙̯̙͈͔͎͖̲a͎̝̥̜̻̬̖̩͓̪̫c̠͓͉͔̘̦̺̞̝̻͎͍͈͍̭̹̦c͖͍̭͖̼̤̙̤̯͇̣̰͔̞̲̼̭͓e͍̘̩͎̮̭͚̫̦̺͔͚̟p̹̮͔͇̙̣̦̮͔̜̪̩̤t̗̳̺̼̲̭͕̞̥̖̰̦̳̮͉͓̜a͔̤͖̱̦͉̦͎͇ͅb̫̰̪̗̮̲͚͔̫͈͕̱̹̫l͖̼̻͓͈̝͉͙͖̙̣̝͖̬e̩̼̳̣̤̜̼̘̮̬̬̩͎̭.

.

.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The Kaonashi, or Faceless, the one who could have potentially become No-Face in another time and place, was beyond confused. And, to be fair, this was normally a natural state for the being.

At first, just the ambient emotions had kept it filled. The lust, the avarice, the greed, the desires of an entire subsection of the spiritual world, all condensed and refined into this stew of a place.

But… Something inside desired M̠̤͈̫͈ͅo̩̝͈̮͙̯ͅre̥͎.

The entity physically entered the location, another not face in the crowd, and here… This close, surrounded by capitalism and raw emotions…

Something became tainted by G͇͉͖̜̮r͍͚̦͙e̻͓̦̮̭e̮̲̱ͅd̤͕͕̩.

Just… Just a taste.

A small taste.

That would be fine, right?

It first consumed objects, symbols that others focused their desire towards and soaked in praise and frustration and idolism.

These odd… Bath Tokens.

Some were nearly worshiped by these customers, far too costly and extravagant for their own budgets, and they smelled so good and tasted so… Just a nibble…

Then things got a bit floaty. A bit murky.

One Bath Token became a few. Then, since so many were missing, why not try some of the less valuable ones too? They drew less avarice, but more people in general coveted them. Made them even more filling, but harder to acquire unnoticed since they were interacted with more often.

Things felt wrong, but it was manageable. No-Face didn't get caught, and could feed.

Then… What?

What had happened?

A chance encounter. A small greedy frog spirit frantically picking at floorboards for something tiny, a fragment of… Something metal? One of the mildly tasty yellowish metals.

Something called gold.

This incident had given No-Face the worst of diseases… Curiosity.

Why… Why was such a creature so focused on something like this gold?

It didn't taste good after all, No-Face had been forced to consume all types of soil and rock in bad times before. This stuff didn't attract or repel magic like other objects and materials No-Face had stumbled upon in the past, nor spiritual energy or emotions. Not naturally, not the stuff buried in the rock and soil.

But here, in this delicious place, there was an odd emphasis on the substance. A lust for the material.

Was… Was this processed metal really different from the other types it had consumed in the past?

It didn't smell different.

It didn't look different.

And No-Face had LOTS of this stuff, in raw form, in its massive stomach. Tightly compressed, as all things non-living could be, so that his physical form was more convenient and compact, but his internal storage was full of all sorts of rocks and metals and crystals and dirt and fragments of unsatisfying meals.

So… What was different about yellow metal from THIS place?

It seemed so simple to find out.

Just… Just find a bit of the yellow metal here, in the bathhouse, and consume it.

So basic.

So simple.

So W̯r̩̲͎͇o͕̺̮͎̱̙n͎̝̜g̳̜̼͚͚͉!

Bath Tokens, depending on what they represented, were filling. Enriched with desire and dreams and goals and special moments… All dusted with tasty seasonings of lust and greed and disappointment.

But this?

This gold!?

No-Face had gone blank.

Everybody here wanted this gold.

Everybody here N͍e͓̞̠͓̲̘̤e̺̘̮̲̜͉̗d̦͙̺̦̳e̲̳͓d̲̙̞̹ this gold.

People dreamed of it.

Crowds fought over it.

Worlds were formed through it.

Battles waged due to it.

The greatest of potentials were fueled by it.

The worst of failures were caused by lacking it.

It… It was too much!

No-Face needed M̸͎͖͖̯̼O̘͈̹̗͖̙̰͖͠R͕̱̭̘͖̮͡E̮̤̥͈͈̪͎͞͡!

Finding the tiny frog again, it hastily refined the yellow metal within. Gathered from millions of past consumptions and hungry nights in the dark, it was simple to separate the substance into tiny nuggets of golden material.

Simplicity itself to drop a small portion before the tiny frog, to observe the reaction.

Was it similar? Close enough to this miracle substance worshiped by the multitude dwelling here? Could this gold be used in this place?

The tiny creature blinked at the tiny fragment of metal. "Is that... Gold?" He looked up in fear at No-Face, but not enough terror to run. "Are… Are you giving it to me?"

A nod. "Ah."

And No-Face was shocked and overwhelmed as Ģ̡͔̤͔͠ͅr͏͇̦̟̼̮͔͉͔͖̞̩͟͟ȩ̶̖̟̰̹̣͚͚̰̀e̶̜̤̟̯̼͡͠ḑ̴̨̨̡͉̼̤̳͕͙͍ and Á͔̮͢v̛̖͕̮͈̜̹̳̯a̼͓̺͠r̴̳͎̩ͅi̹̣̟̪̞͉͠ć̛̳e̶̛̬̰͚̪̖̞̺ began to flood the area!

SO MUCH!

From such a tiny being!? From such a worthless substance!? More! It must desire MORE!

A small shower of golden nuggets began to drive the tiny creature mad with longing and shock and eagerness and… So many emotions! SO MANY!

And No-Face was alone.

And slightly more full.

What… What had happened?

Perhaps the frog had left somewhere to safely keep his new gold?

Yes… Yes, that felt right. Logical.

A golden fog was flooding No-Face's thoughts, as it had found a use for that worthless metal from all those unsatisfying past meals.

Hazy memories of lavish crowds, of for one being the center of attention, of being not just a faceless one in the crowd, of being pampered, of shallow love and a veneer of respect. Of casually flinging golden nuggets of metal in all direction, and receiving a buffet of raw power in return!

And an odd source of fear and concern and terror from within?

But such a small thing was overwhelmed by this new ocean of desire and greed and lust and 'Have some more!' and 'This is the finest…' and 'Anything you wish!' and… And…

Now, No-Face felt so many things.

But they weren't the same things.

Many things inside of it were crying, were scared, were afraid, were despairing. And it was delicious, but somehow felt W̰͙r̯̮̼͙̬on͎̬̬͎̯̣g̝̥̺̗̬.

Where had… Where had everyone gone?

There was more emotion now, theoretically more food, but it all came from within, and it didn't taste as good for some reason. More sour and alone and dark and small.

Hadn't everything been bright and laughing and…

No-Face threw more golden metal at the empty staircase. And more.

Enough to cause it to cascade down the stairs, to fall within the damaged floor cracks and make small mounds around its massive body. More than ever given away before!

But nothing changed.

No rush of adoration, no flood of desire, no cheers, no warm smiles…

No-Face was confused.

The sudden Darkness didn't help clear up the issues, either.

What was this? It made it kind of hard to see.

Were those pink spikes? Huh. But why so many?

Oh! New emotions! But they were really hard to feel… Like they were far away, or unfocused?

No-Face smiled and filled its hands with more gold. It would probably work this time!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Shadow chewed carefully.

There were a LOT of people in this thing.

It felt like… Like there was a pseudo Heartless forming within this black creature, this Faceless, and it had somehow begun infecting everyone and everything around it.

Or… Or they had been nurturing seeds of Darkness and this new entity, this Kaonashi, had been stained by them?

Still, this was very educational. He was learning all kinds of new things!

For example: It was MUCH easier to C̞̭̮̟̼͓͕o̪̠n̤̜̙̲̹s̱̼̥̦̙̖u̬̫͍̜̻m̳̮̻͈̹̰̥e̹̫̝̺̥̙͓ the Darkness within people than it was to actually devour them.

It wouldn't completely remove bad emotions, cursed desires, and all that, those were just part of living… But this caked on residue? The remains of a lifetime seeking greed and sins and depravity?

Delicious!

Gem pulsed with concern as she watched Shadow carefully separate each of the living entities from the inner storage dimension of this… This odd wraith like spirit that consumed emotions.

As for the wraith itself, it felt more like… Like a symptom rather than a villain.

It was attracted to emotions and was heavily influenced by them. If this was a charity organization that focused on benevolence and generosity, this might have all turned out very different.

Ah well, it would all be fine soon. Though consuming the Darkness from all these creatures and spirits and people was apparently causing them to pass out, they were mostly made out of Soul and magic and spiritual energy and stuff, unlike the last entity Shadow had consumed.

So they should all recover at some point, although the most corrupt and twisted people might take a few days.

As for this odd Faceless thing… Should Shadow just D̵̸̖̣͕̖̪̫͖̹̫̘̜̤̳̙͖́ͅͅę̢̤͔͕͎̬̟̫̤̹̞̀͟v̵̛̥̗͙̜o̙̺̬̟̰̺̥̥̕͘u̵͓̖̙̫̘̗̭̦̼̱̦͚̺̹̤͘͢ͅr̀͟҉͓̩̖̤̣̯̩̻ it, or?

.

Gem gently pulsed.

Hmm?

Well, alright. If you're sure.

The much reduced wrath was shifted over next to Gem for her to watch over… And it somehow twisted and swirled into a tiny speck and fell within her crystalline surface.

Because apparently she could store entities and keep them close to her Heart. Somehow.

Huh.

Neat!

Shadow blinked as something was… Poking it?

Oh! Small giant boss lady Yubaba! Hi!

When did you get here?

Also… Why are you so small?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Yubaba withheld her rage as she watched the mountain of Darkness covered in cheerful pink eyes still ignore her and her magic somehow. "I asked you a question! WHERE did that monster go!?"

She flung another lethal spell which smacked into the creature… And was casually consumed with a happy sound by a new mouth without notice. Very frustrating! I am TALKING to you here!

Oh? Suddenly the many eyes focused on her much smaller form. Was it focused now?

It had fallen into some sort of trance earlier, and she had just managed to return to the bathhouse when the wards had gone off… None of the other employees were coherent right now, and she needed to know what was going on here!

Yubaba absently disabled the remaining containment wards that hadn't collapsed during the unknown disaster earlier. "Where are my people? Where is the dead spirit that caused all this?"

She blankly stared at the massive wall of black Darkness as it cheerfully tried to dance again. Even though it was tightly wedged into that spot on all sides and currently didn't have any limbs.

It was more disturbing than cute when the one boogying some busted funk moves was larger than a building and filling a good chunk of the seventh floor of HER building and business.

With a headache, she held up her hand and stopped the dancing.

Right. She knew better than to ask complicated questions to this particular employee.

Keep it simple.

Yubaba glared at it. "Did you find the monster that was attacking our employees?"

A very VERY wobbly nod.

Alright. Now, step by step: Confirm what the readings had said from the defensive network mesh. "And it had eaten our people? And our customers?"

Another nod.

Damn it. DAMN IT! They were HER people! HERS! How DARE… No. Focus. "Are… Are they alive?" A thought made her blink. Right, she had a reputation to uphold.

Reign in the rage a bit. "After all, It would be expensive to find replacement workers."

It's not like she cared about her people, alright? It was just good business! Just like it was simple company policy to find the entity that harmed her employees and c̖a̝̦͙͓̫̪r͖̤v͓͚e t͉͖̼͖̤ͅh̤̲͓̗͍̖͙e̳̹̣͔͖͎̩̤͖m̞̞̞͇ O͍̥̠͙̪͚̼̹͙̰̤̩̯p͇̟̜͉̠̙̩̘͕̥͍̥̫̠̜̥͇̭e̠̖̮̫͉̰̜͚̬n̹͍̝͔͇̤̳.

.

Her attention was focused on the… Nodding? Nodding wall.

Oh thank everything. "All of them? They are all alive? Were you able to free them from the creature?"

A nod.

Alright.

Alright, she could do this. She could work with this. "If they are alive, I can eventually find a way to handle any other issues they may have."

Witch Yubaba hadn't dedicated centuries of research and magical experimentation for nothing, and if all else failed… Well, there were options.

Right. "Let's go down to an undamaged floor, one of the larger ones for the bigger customers, and get some room to work with." The larger spell matrices would be easier with more space.

Also, she wasn't entirely sure how damaged the structures of the building were at this point… Magic was covering up a lot of issues for now, but until she could spend some quality time repairing this place, being on the upper floors was an unnecessary risk.

The massive black blob of Darkness gave a cheerful nod, dozens of bright pink eyes sparkling with a sense of adventure and that stressful dose of peppiness that was always so tiring to deal with and… nothing.

Another wiggle, a few hissing maws of pink fangs, and… nothing.

She raised an eyebrow. "Problem?"

It wiggled in place.

Oh for… "You're stuck there, aren't you."

For an entity covered in sharp fanged mouths and far too many eyeballs, it was remarkable how sheepish it could act.