Slam Dunk belongs to Mr. Takehiko Inoue. End of story.
A/N: Yeah, there's a bit more of interesting stuff in this chapter then in the previous. I dunno. Does it suck that badly? "looks anxious" Enjoy....
Chapter 3: The Horror is Unleashed
"Bring them all in, Yoshiko. Bring all your friends in."
"What was that?" asked Fujima.
"Umm, that was my okaa-san," Yoshiko gulped. "She asked you guys to come in. But you don't have to if you don't want to."
"Hey, it would be downright rude to turn down her offer," said Maki. "Its all right. We're in no big hurry."
"You don't understand!" Yoshiko whispered urgently. "Uh, my mother is a fortune teller. And she'll -she'll probably want to read your fortunes."
"Nani!" exclaimed Mitsui, Miyagi, Ayako, Fujima, Sendoh, Maki, Jin, Kiyota and Kogure.
There was a pause then Sendoh replied, "Cool! We get our fortunes read for free of charge! Lets go, guys!"
"But she reads them in a very different way! Its - umm, very risky!" said Yoshiko desperately.
"Number One Rookie is not afraid of fortune-telling! How can it be risky?" Kiyota bragged.
"Yeah, we have some time to kill, Yoshiko-chan," said Kogure. "Besides, Maki's right. It would be rude not to accept your okaa-san's offer."
In the end, they all trooped into the semi darkness of the room. Mitsui half-expected to see a woman with a turban wrapped round her head wearing long robes peering deep into a crystal ball. Instead, there was a very plain, ordinary woman, sitting on a chair by a small table. He could not see how she looked like in the darkness of the room, but he could feel an aura of power surrounding the woman.
"I'll get some drinks," said Yoshiko and hurried out of the room. The woman turned her attention to Mitsui and the rest.
"Soruko Minaki," she said calmly. She did not wait for them to introduce themselves and continued, "I can open your minds, reveal your darkest secrets and your most desperate desires. I can open the future to all of you, of course with the help of the supernatural."
Mitsui felt goosebumps creeping up his arm. What did she mean by that? The supernatural? What was that? Then, his eyes fell on the table for the very first time. He had spent most of the time trying to see how she looked like that he had not noticed it. It was a small, very ordinary bowl. But its contents were not ordinary. There was a silver, shimmering liquid swirlind inside, giving out a faint light. Fascinated he continued to stare at it.
"I can penetrate the greatest barriers of your mind walls and uncap the secrets you hide inside. I can open the future to all of you. The future that hides much from us. The future that we all work for, yet it remains as mysterious and unpredictable as ever. And all you have to do is to give me your word."
Mitsui snapped out of his reverie. He listened to her words in fascination like he was being hypnotized. Danger signals began to ring inside his head. Get out of here! You are about to be involved in something you don't understand!
He shook his head trying to push out all those warnings out. He knew it was risky, dangerous. But something...something was compelling him to say yes. Something more powerful then his willpower. He had to say it. He had to know his future. He had to...
"Yes." Mitsui blinked. They had all said yes at the same time. Probably a coincidence, he thought.
He could sense that the woman was smiling to herself. She said, "Very well, then. You have agreed." Then she began to mutter to herself.
What the? Is she talking to herself or something? Mitsui wondered. He tried to understand what she was saying, but could not catch a word. Then it struck him that she was murmuring a strange incantation. All of a sudden, he felt a terrible fear strike him. Get out of here! Leave! Must leave! His mind was screaming frantically.
She threw something into the bowl of swirling liquid. He thought it looked like tiny, glittering fragments of glass. Then, Soruko Minaki began a different spell. Her voice rose maniacally into a near scream. The liquid, in harmony began to seethe and swirl furiously. It was beautiful to watch the silver liquid swirl and froth, but it gleamed with a hellish light. Then she shouted in a loud commanding voice, "I Soruko Minaki open the doorway to the world of spirits!"
A blue flame erupted from the surface of the turbulent liquid. A shriek sounded through the room, followed by another and another. By the light of the flame, Mitsui saw her face for the first time. She had long dark hair and dark eyes, and the power she was radiating was awful to behold. By the light of the flame, he could see Rukawa's eyes widen, and Ayako's mouth open in a gasp of horror.
Then a deep voice sounded through the room. It was a terrible voice. It was empty, devoid of all emotions and humanity. It did not belong in here. Mitsui shuddered as he heard the voice speak, and he could see everyone else in the room shivering as well.
In the kitchen, Yoshiko was getting the drinks when she heard the voice. That voice! That horribly inhuman voice that haunted her dreams each night since she was a child. That voice she had first heard when she was just a toddler. That voice which her mother played around with so often. She covered her ears trying to drown it out, and a scream escaped her lips.
"You have played too long with the supernatural, witch!" came the voice. Soruko's eyes widened in shock and fear. This was not what she had expected at all. What was wrong with the spell? What..?
Then she could feel a powerful force in the room. An evil, supernatural force. More powerful than her own. Something was wrong. Something had gone wrong! Without realizing it she was screaming, "Seal the doorway! Close it! Don't let anything come through! Yamete!"
"What the hell is going on?" shouted Mitsui. How were they supposed to put out the flame? Water? It was not normal fire, was it? Yoshiko emerged from the kitchen. She flung a handful of something glittering that was similar to what her mother had thrown into the fire.
"Go!" she cried. "Leave!" Shriek after shriek echoed throughout the room, and then, there was silence. The flame had gone, and so was the liquid.
Mitsui was too surprised and shocked to do anything. Besides, he did not know what was happening. But he could feel that there was something wrong in the room. Something from another world. Something that was once from this world. Something evil..
"What happened?" he asked Yoshiko who was white and shaking. All the others looked badly shaken up as well.
"My mother, she opened the world of spirits! Something went wrong and she lost control," said Yoshiko fearfully.
Mitsui gaped. He did know what to believe. This was like a fairytale, but what had happened just now was real. "Some - something went wrong," said Soruko her voice was breaking with fear. "It shouldn't have happened. It shouldn't have -."
Then she said something in a barely audible whisper, "Something got through."
* * *
Soruko Minaki sat waiting in the darkness. She was beyond fear. All those times she had played with the supernatural, now it was beginning to play games with her. She sat waiting. Waiting for something to happen. She could hear her daughter talking to her friends. Then she sensed something behind her. Something not human. She was afraid to turn. In her fear, she was shaking badly.
Turn, Soruko. Are you afraid? You have disturbed my slumber, and I am here now, Soruko.
She went pale. Who was that? It was a voice sounding in her head, full of malice and mockery. She mustered her courage to face the voice in defiance. It was a patch of darkness, darker than the darkness of the room. It had the shape of a human being, but it was not human. She knew what it was, instantly. It was a soul of the dead. She must have had disturbed its sleep!
And those eyes! Red, flaming pits burned in what must have been the face. She could feel the dark shadow creature wrap itself around her, surrounding her in a column of darkness. Suddenly, she was all alone, fumbling in the dark. The dark was suffocating her. Then a voice said, no longer in her head, "Taste the flames of your foolishness, witch."
Then the pain came. She could feel her whole body on fire. Burning. She was burning in invisible flames. She opened her mouth to scream, but no scream came out. Yoshiko! She had to call out to Yoshiko for help. But the pain! The pain! The burning pain!
"Yoshiko! Your okaa-san!" said Maki suddenly pointing to Soruko. Yoshiko turned and gasped at what she saw. Her okaa-san was in the midst of a column of darkness, darker than the darkness of the room. She knew what it was instantly. She reached for a handful of the crystal fragments from the pouch in her pocket and hurled it at the shadow.
"Leave now! Be gone!" she cried, fury in her voice. The shadow unwrapped itself from around Soruko. The crystals held power it could not resist. It had to obey. With an unearthly shriek it fled through the walls rushing out into the night outside.
"Okaa-san!" Yoshiko gasped. She ran to the still form lying on the floor. Fujima found the switch and the lights came on. Everyone gasped at the scene before him or her. Soruko lay on the floor, unmoving. The stench of burning flesh was unbearable. The body was burnt beyond recognition and was still smoking slightly. Without thinking, Ayako staggered and retched violently.
"Aya-chan!" cried Miyagi worriedly. Mitsui was more worried about Yoshiko. She was just staring at the corpse in disbelief and horror.
"Yoshiko, daijoubu desu ka?" he asked even though he knew that she obviously was not.
"Everyone get out of here now," said Yoshiko determinedly. "This place stinks of that - that thing. And be careful. It may be outside, waiting for us."
Waiting for us. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting for them. Mitsui felt chills running up and down his spine.
Tbc.
So...howz it? Crappy? Think I should continue? Think I should stop? Flame or whatever, just review, onegai?
A/N: Yeah, there's a bit more of interesting stuff in this chapter then in the previous. I dunno. Does it suck that badly? "looks anxious" Enjoy....
Chapter 3: The Horror is Unleashed
"Bring them all in, Yoshiko. Bring all your friends in."
"What was that?" asked Fujima.
"Umm, that was my okaa-san," Yoshiko gulped. "She asked you guys to come in. But you don't have to if you don't want to."
"Hey, it would be downright rude to turn down her offer," said Maki. "Its all right. We're in no big hurry."
"You don't understand!" Yoshiko whispered urgently. "Uh, my mother is a fortune teller. And she'll -she'll probably want to read your fortunes."
"Nani!" exclaimed Mitsui, Miyagi, Ayako, Fujima, Sendoh, Maki, Jin, Kiyota and Kogure.
There was a pause then Sendoh replied, "Cool! We get our fortunes read for free of charge! Lets go, guys!"
"But she reads them in a very different way! Its - umm, very risky!" said Yoshiko desperately.
"Number One Rookie is not afraid of fortune-telling! How can it be risky?" Kiyota bragged.
"Yeah, we have some time to kill, Yoshiko-chan," said Kogure. "Besides, Maki's right. It would be rude not to accept your okaa-san's offer."
In the end, they all trooped into the semi darkness of the room. Mitsui half-expected to see a woman with a turban wrapped round her head wearing long robes peering deep into a crystal ball. Instead, there was a very plain, ordinary woman, sitting on a chair by a small table. He could not see how she looked like in the darkness of the room, but he could feel an aura of power surrounding the woman.
"I'll get some drinks," said Yoshiko and hurried out of the room. The woman turned her attention to Mitsui and the rest.
"Soruko Minaki," she said calmly. She did not wait for them to introduce themselves and continued, "I can open your minds, reveal your darkest secrets and your most desperate desires. I can open the future to all of you, of course with the help of the supernatural."
Mitsui felt goosebumps creeping up his arm. What did she mean by that? The supernatural? What was that? Then, his eyes fell on the table for the very first time. He had spent most of the time trying to see how she looked like that he had not noticed it. It was a small, very ordinary bowl. But its contents were not ordinary. There was a silver, shimmering liquid swirlind inside, giving out a faint light. Fascinated he continued to stare at it.
"I can penetrate the greatest barriers of your mind walls and uncap the secrets you hide inside. I can open the future to all of you. The future that hides much from us. The future that we all work for, yet it remains as mysterious and unpredictable as ever. And all you have to do is to give me your word."
Mitsui snapped out of his reverie. He listened to her words in fascination like he was being hypnotized. Danger signals began to ring inside his head. Get out of here! You are about to be involved in something you don't understand!
He shook his head trying to push out all those warnings out. He knew it was risky, dangerous. But something...something was compelling him to say yes. Something more powerful then his willpower. He had to say it. He had to know his future. He had to...
"Yes." Mitsui blinked. They had all said yes at the same time. Probably a coincidence, he thought.
He could sense that the woman was smiling to herself. She said, "Very well, then. You have agreed." Then she began to mutter to herself.
What the? Is she talking to herself or something? Mitsui wondered. He tried to understand what she was saying, but could not catch a word. Then it struck him that she was murmuring a strange incantation. All of a sudden, he felt a terrible fear strike him. Get out of here! Leave! Must leave! His mind was screaming frantically.
She threw something into the bowl of swirling liquid. He thought it looked like tiny, glittering fragments of glass. Then, Soruko Minaki began a different spell. Her voice rose maniacally into a near scream. The liquid, in harmony began to seethe and swirl furiously. It was beautiful to watch the silver liquid swirl and froth, but it gleamed with a hellish light. Then she shouted in a loud commanding voice, "I Soruko Minaki open the doorway to the world of spirits!"
A blue flame erupted from the surface of the turbulent liquid. A shriek sounded through the room, followed by another and another. By the light of the flame, Mitsui saw her face for the first time. She had long dark hair and dark eyes, and the power she was radiating was awful to behold. By the light of the flame, he could see Rukawa's eyes widen, and Ayako's mouth open in a gasp of horror.
Then a deep voice sounded through the room. It was a terrible voice. It was empty, devoid of all emotions and humanity. It did not belong in here. Mitsui shuddered as he heard the voice speak, and he could see everyone else in the room shivering as well.
In the kitchen, Yoshiko was getting the drinks when she heard the voice. That voice! That horribly inhuman voice that haunted her dreams each night since she was a child. That voice she had first heard when she was just a toddler. That voice which her mother played around with so often. She covered her ears trying to drown it out, and a scream escaped her lips.
"You have played too long with the supernatural, witch!" came the voice. Soruko's eyes widened in shock and fear. This was not what she had expected at all. What was wrong with the spell? What..?
Then she could feel a powerful force in the room. An evil, supernatural force. More powerful than her own. Something was wrong. Something had gone wrong! Without realizing it she was screaming, "Seal the doorway! Close it! Don't let anything come through! Yamete!"
"What the hell is going on?" shouted Mitsui. How were they supposed to put out the flame? Water? It was not normal fire, was it? Yoshiko emerged from the kitchen. She flung a handful of something glittering that was similar to what her mother had thrown into the fire.
"Go!" she cried. "Leave!" Shriek after shriek echoed throughout the room, and then, there was silence. The flame had gone, and so was the liquid.
Mitsui was too surprised and shocked to do anything. Besides, he did not know what was happening. But he could feel that there was something wrong in the room. Something from another world. Something that was once from this world. Something evil..
"What happened?" he asked Yoshiko who was white and shaking. All the others looked badly shaken up as well.
"My mother, she opened the world of spirits! Something went wrong and she lost control," said Yoshiko fearfully.
Mitsui gaped. He did know what to believe. This was like a fairytale, but what had happened just now was real. "Some - something went wrong," said Soruko her voice was breaking with fear. "It shouldn't have happened. It shouldn't have -."
Then she said something in a barely audible whisper, "Something got through."
* * *
Soruko Minaki sat waiting in the darkness. She was beyond fear. All those times she had played with the supernatural, now it was beginning to play games with her. She sat waiting. Waiting for something to happen. She could hear her daughter talking to her friends. Then she sensed something behind her. Something not human. She was afraid to turn. In her fear, she was shaking badly.
Turn, Soruko. Are you afraid? You have disturbed my slumber, and I am here now, Soruko.
She went pale. Who was that? It was a voice sounding in her head, full of malice and mockery. She mustered her courage to face the voice in defiance. It was a patch of darkness, darker than the darkness of the room. It had the shape of a human being, but it was not human. She knew what it was, instantly. It was a soul of the dead. She must have had disturbed its sleep!
And those eyes! Red, flaming pits burned in what must have been the face. She could feel the dark shadow creature wrap itself around her, surrounding her in a column of darkness. Suddenly, she was all alone, fumbling in the dark. The dark was suffocating her. Then a voice said, no longer in her head, "Taste the flames of your foolishness, witch."
Then the pain came. She could feel her whole body on fire. Burning. She was burning in invisible flames. She opened her mouth to scream, but no scream came out. Yoshiko! She had to call out to Yoshiko for help. But the pain! The pain! The burning pain!
"Yoshiko! Your okaa-san!" said Maki suddenly pointing to Soruko. Yoshiko turned and gasped at what she saw. Her okaa-san was in the midst of a column of darkness, darker than the darkness of the room. She knew what it was instantly. She reached for a handful of the crystal fragments from the pouch in her pocket and hurled it at the shadow.
"Leave now! Be gone!" she cried, fury in her voice. The shadow unwrapped itself from around Soruko. The crystals held power it could not resist. It had to obey. With an unearthly shriek it fled through the walls rushing out into the night outside.
"Okaa-san!" Yoshiko gasped. She ran to the still form lying on the floor. Fujima found the switch and the lights came on. Everyone gasped at the scene before him or her. Soruko lay on the floor, unmoving. The stench of burning flesh was unbearable. The body was burnt beyond recognition and was still smoking slightly. Without thinking, Ayako staggered and retched violently.
"Aya-chan!" cried Miyagi worriedly. Mitsui was more worried about Yoshiko. She was just staring at the corpse in disbelief and horror.
"Yoshiko, daijoubu desu ka?" he asked even though he knew that she obviously was not.
"Everyone get out of here now," said Yoshiko determinedly. "This place stinks of that - that thing. And be careful. It may be outside, waiting for us."
Waiting for us. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting for them. Mitsui felt chills running up and down his spine.
Tbc.
So...howz it? Crappy? Think I should continue? Think I should stop? Flame or whatever, just review, onegai?