Hey! This one here is a big chapter for the story! I think the title of it gives away the reason why, but read and find out! Anyways, later in the chapter I wrote "time skipped" that's supposed to be when in anime everything stops and the colors turn negative for a split second. I didn't know how else to put it, but if anone knows the correct term, I'll happily put it in. Thanks for all the support, I really didn't expect to get so many positive reviews and story favourites, so keep the reviews coming, I wouldn't be able to do this without them! Finally, there might be some iffy stuff in this chapter, I don't know if I should move it to M or not but... READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED ... Always wanted to say that...
Chapter 6 – "Per-so-na"
February 15, 2018 – Saturday, [Fujihara Apartment - ?, Late Night]
Ryo looked up from his phone; the world around him began to crumble. As numbers crept up the walls and other various pieces of furniture, they were being destroyed at the same time. Ryo blinked, and in a second all he could see is the red-tinted ruins of what was once his apartment with random numbers floating from the ground. He panicked and got up from the couch which was now a pile of ash. The walls, roof, and most of the floor were now gone and all the furniture was destroyed, everything also appeared burned to a crisp and had a black charcoal feel. The night-time sky had no stars or a moon in sight and instead of being pitch-black with city lights glowing in the horizon; it was navy blue with a bright green grid, almost keeping something back.
"AIMI!" Ryo shouted, but no one answered. He made his way out and walked down a flight of surprisingly sturdy stairs that remained. He ran out into the now deserted road with huge fire-damage. "AIMI!" Ryo called again, but to no avail. For once, Ryo was scared. He felt a warm tear come down from the corner of his eye. His mind was clogged with fears and ideas that prevented him from thinking straight. On instinct he ran down the street continuing to shout for his sister.
What seemed like an hour had passed before Ryo became tired, he still felt like he was holding a massive weight on his back. Eventually he rested on a shattered piece of concrete to catch his breath; the air here was dusty and hard to breath. Ryo rested his head onto a broken wall and saw the moon once again. It was massive, and it glowed extremely bright in the navy blue sky. The moon then shrunk rapidly until it looked like a star, the new object descended down to the land like a shooting star, creating a streak of light. It crashed into a building, and in its wake, a giant mushroom cloud appeared kicking up dust and creating powerful winds. The winds knocked Ryo off his feet and his baseball cap flew off. He hit the ground hard, after a second or two, he began to crawl toward his hat and put it back on.
Ryo rose to his feet and looked into the distance. There was still a massive cloud of smoke in the air where the meteor had landed. The voice inside his head began to pull him toward the object against his will. "What the hell am I doing!" Ryo thought to himself, but he had no control over his body. After a great time walking in various alleyways, Ryo arrived at the crash site of the meteor, but there was no meteor. There was nothing in the crater except an indent at the center where the meteor should've been. Ryo heard footsteps coming, in reaction he looked up in fear. From another dark alley, Michio appeared. "M-Michio!" Ryo said astonished.
Michio broke out of his daze and realized who was standing across the gap. "Ryo! Holy crap, I didn't think anyone else was here…" Michio then looked back down, analyzing the crater. Another set of footsteps could be heard again. Behind Michio came Takeo. He looked as mystified as Ryo and Michio looked when they arrived.
"M-Michio-sensei! Ryo! What's going on?" Takeo asked, tears coming from the corners of his eyes. "Why is no one around?"
"I… I don't know Takeo-kun…" Michio confessed. He looked up at Ryo, "Maybe we should search around town together, it would be safer that way."
"Yeh…" Ryo replied weakly. The trio began to walk down the third alley that connected to the crater. As they walked, they could feel a powerful presence in the air.
Takeo stopped, "Something's wrong…" he said with worry on his face.
"What is it Takeo-kun?" Michio asked, scared himself.
"The world doesn't feel… good." Takeo managed to say.
"What does that mean!" Ryo asked a little irritated.
"I-I-I don't know!" Takeo said bursting into tears and falling to his knees.
"It's all right, Takeo-kun…" Michio said crouching down beside him, "Ryo didn't mean to get angry… Right?" Michio turned his head giving Ryo a death stare.
"I'm sorry Takeo…" Ryo said half-heartedly. After the apology, the three continued down the alley until they reached a rusty chain link fence that was a good 20 feet high.
"Well… Dead end. Great!" Michio stated. Just as they were turning around, a rattling could be heard. When they turned around, Viper had just leaped off the fence that blocked their way.
As Viper was getting up, he noticed the three. "Whoa! What the hell is going on… Why are you three perdedores doing here?"
"We… Don't know… Better question, why are you here?" Michio replied.
"Like it's any of your business!" Viper said as he shoved the three out of the way and walked toward the crater. From the distance they could hear a female's scream. All four rushed toward the crater to find Katsumi at the bottom crying. Ryo was the first to slide down and assist her.
"You alright?" Ryo asked as he came closer.
"Y-Yeh I think, I fell *sniff* and I think I twisted my ankle though…" Katsumi tried to get up but failed. Katsumi's uniform was dirty and she had scratches on her face and arms.
"Let me help" Ryo offered. He held onto Katsumi as she attempted to get up again. Ryo looked up and saw Aimi coming from the alley that he came from. "Aimi!" He exclaimed in relief.
Aimi noticed Ryo holding up Katsumi and took a step back. "Ryo…" She looked around and saw the others as well. Takeo walked up and Ryo let Katsumi rest on the burly teen. Ryo ran up the slope and hugged his sister.
"Thank God you're okay!" Ryo said "You had no idea how worried I was!"
Aimi pushed Ryo away and made a phony smile, "S-Same here…" She looked down at the crater mystified like the rest. "What's everyone doing here?" She asked.
"We don't know…" Michio replied in place of Ryo, "Everyone that we had contact with for the past couple of days were drawn here it seems. Not to mention how it looks like we're the only ones in this place."
"First I got a spam message and now this…" Katsumi complained while messaging her ankle.
"Yo! I got spam too!" Viper replied.
"I got a text message that said 'do you want your life to change?'." Takeo said.
"Same here!" Ryo said looking down at Takeo remembering the text from earlier.
"I got one too so, maybe that means whoever did get one was placed here." Michio concluded, "Aimi, did you get anything?"
Aimi hesitated, "N-No…"
"Really? Maybe that is not the case then." Michio continued.
Ryo remembered something else, "Hey, did anyone else hear that voice when the blue-wave-thing vanished?"
"Yeh! It was all like, about the fates or something?" Viper said confused.
"That's the one!" Ryo was about to jump back down when another screamed echoed from the alley that Takeo and Michio came from. Hikari came running from the darkness screaming. She stopped just before falling into the crater. She looked around and saw the other teens.
"RUN!" Hikari screamed and ran around the crater into the alley that Viper came from.
"Wait, Hikari-san!" Takeo yelled and ran after her, leaving Katsumi with Michio. When he disappeared into the shadows with Hikari, a loud, low growl came from the alley that she came from. Everyone froze in fear; Aimi was the first run away into the same alley as Takeo. The rest of them soon followed suite, trying to escape whatever was coming. They all ran down the long alleyway until they reached the rusty fence again. Hikari was banging her fists on the fence trying to get out.
An extremely loud screech could be heard down the alley. Hikari froze; she slowly turned around to see the monster appearing from the darkness. At first glance, it looked like a beautiful woman with light-blue skin veiled in white silk ribbons, but on further inspection, its face was reptilian-like with pure black, soulless eyes. Its long blue and light blue hair was actually long metallic tentacles coming from its head. It wasn't walking either, it almost seemed like it was floating just above the ground, releasing a mist underneath all the ribbons that hid its lower body. It came towards the teens and looked up; its mouth opened revealing rows of sharp teeth inside and two long pincers that extended out.
Nobody moved, nobody made a noise, nobody breathed. As it came forward, two piles of black sludge spilled from it's the ribbons along with blank masks that had two small eye holes and lines cascading down from the eyes with a zero on the forehead. In a matter of seconds, the black sludge piles formed into gangly, long-clawed apparitions. The body was disproportioned and the extremely large neck held the blank mask. The creatures shuffled their way over, as they were being weighted down by giant iron balls. Hikari screamed, and as if on instinct, the two creatures leaped over everyone and pounced onto Hikari. They began to tear her body to shreds. Blood and entrails were spilled everywhere. All that could be heard were Hikari's muffled screams of pain, until finally one of the creatures clawed at her rapidly beating heart. Like a pack of wolves, they began to devour what was left of the carcass.
Everyone was paralyzed, except Ryo. A fit of rage and hatred overcame him and countered every other instinct he had in his body. Ryo picked up a sharp piece of metal lying on the ground and began to slash away at the two creatures without mercy. They didn't have a chance to react, and as soon as Ryo was tired all that was left of them were two piles of the black sludge that they came from. The creature's masks feel down to the ground and shattered, turning the sludge and the shattered mask pieces into black dust. The alien-like monster let out another screech, this time in pain. It rushed toward Ryo, ignoring everyone else.
Time seemed to slowdown for Ryo in this instance. All he could think about was what the creatures did to Hikari. That voice in the back of his head chimed again, this time loud and clear like when he first appeared in this place. "Do it…" It called, "Summon your true self, do it…"
"Per-" It began.
"Per-" Ryo followed.
"-So-"
"-So-"
"-na"
"-na"
A blue light enveloped Ryo and knocked back the alien-like monster. Time returned to normal, and in Ryo's hand he held a grey device that looked like a tamagotchi device, but it had a small antenna at the top and a card reader on the side. It also had a blank grey screen and what looked like a barcode scanner at the top. Ryo, without thinking, held down a button on the side and waved the device in front of him in a straight horizontal fashion. As he waved it, a bluish-green stream of numbers and algorithms formed. When Ryo released the button the stream broke into blue shards and the blue light enveloped him once again. This time though, Ryo felt a burning up sensation that he had never felt before. Behind him, his shadow glowed blue like the light.
From Ryo's shadow came a creature with black sludge covering its body like the creatures that killed Hikari. It had red beady eyes, a giant pair of sideways pincers, and a large and bulky body that was covered in a beetle's shell. Its forearms were extremely large, with tiny nubs for fingers sticking out. Its feet were barely that, it had tiny legs with three claws extending out. On its built body, at the center of the chest, it had the same mask as the two creatures wore. The featureless white one with a zero at the forehead. The newly born creature rose above Ryo and roared.
"THOU ART I, AND I ART THOU." It roared, "Thou hasth searched the sea of thyne soul, and had found ME, Charon, The Death Bringer." Charon's voice was deep and gravely, but filled with hatred and spite.
When Charon roared again, Ryo fell down to his knees screaming in pain. His pupils dilated and his eyes instantly became bloodshot. He held his head screaming even further. Now, Ryo could think of nothing because of the pain he felt. Time skipped for a second and then Ryo quickly got up, picked up the metal he used earlier, and rushed into the alien-looking creature. He screamed at the same time as Charon roared. Out of Charon came a wave of purple energy with knocked down the creature. It screamed in pained as Ryo took this opportunity to attack with all he had. His slashes cut through the fabric and cut a deep wound into it.
The creature became dizzy from the onslaughts of attacks, and couldn't stand back up. Now Ryo screamed and Charon roared once again creating another wave of energy hurting the creature immensely. The creature had finally recovered and stood up. It raised its hand and a series of ice shards gathered around Ryo. He only felt this cold once before, but it didn't injure him like this. Ryo had enough. He rushed it once again, this time with Charon in tow, and attacked it simultaneously. It let out a sharp cry as it disintegrated into black dust. Charon faded into Ryo as he felt a surge of energy and the experience of a thousand battles. Something inside of him changed. He felt… Stronger than before.
Ryo turned to see the others in shock of what they just witnessed. Ryo looked down and saw the little that remained of Hikari, including her lifeless face filled with pain. Ryo collapsed, dropping his piece of metal that left deep gashes in his hands. With the last speck of dust fading, numbers started to rise from the ground covering everything. Before they could realize it, all of the teens were transported back to the same alleyway in regular Chichibu, now densely populated and very noisy. All of the pressure from the other place had now been lifted. Aimi dragged herself toward Ryo, and fell to her knees. She yelled for help and screamed for God's mercy.
Raptured Chichibu - Waking Up (Shadow the Hedgehog)
Normal Battle (And this Boss Fight) - Green Forest (Sonic Adventure 2)
Hitoriga127: Glad to hear someone is anticipating the next chapter, it really feels special somehow. And thanks for pointing out my mess-ups, I'll try and look out for them more.
Twinkle Ace: Thanks!