Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Sanae was doing her best to calm herself down. She woke under a pile of rubble, then was dragged off by Reimu hurriedly behind the bar counter, had a gun literally handed to her and something was about to enter the bar. That something was also out for their blood for whatever reason.
She chanced a peek over the counter to look at the intruder that Reimu had to hide them from. Slowly, she raised her head until her eyes were at least able to get a full view of the bar. There was no doubt that the bar was in ruins; the strewn-about chairs and tables were indication enough. She darted her eyes towards the entrance. The intruder was coming through there but the corridor walls that led into the bar prevented her from seeing the threat.
Marisa, following Sanae's example, peeked as well. She had her mini-Hakkero in her hand just in case things got sour. Reimu, on the other hand, remained crouched behind the counter.
"Keep your heads down, you morons!", scolded Reimu harshly in the softest voice she could possibly manage while angry. "You're going to get us killed like that!"
"Come on, Reimu~", drawled Marisa. "We're just curious to see this mysterious threat of yours that's got you all worked up, ze! Besides, maybe the earthquake might have gotten you all worked for nothing for all you know, right Sanae?"
"Uh…umm…yeah. That's… uh, right…"
"Marisa, earthquakes aren't known for causing hallucinations.", replied a deadpan Reimu.
"Well…you never know with these things, Rei-chan~", teased the witch. "Maybe the intruder is a spooooky scary demon and he's gonna rip ya to shreds~"
"…I hope not."
As if on cue, the intruder creeped out into view, lightly stomping as it moved. The three of them held their breath as it stalked the bar.
It appeared to be an imp as it had the tell-tale slender build of an imp and it had the characteristic long narrow eyes of one. However, they also noted that it was not exactly an imp either. Instead of sharp, pointed ears, it had earholes. Rather than being green-skinned and clothed, it was completely bare and blood-red all over. Its eyes were also different as well as the typical imp's eyes had irises. The intruder had none and both eyes were a shining sickly yellow. Filled with bloodlust. Teeth jagged and serrated.
The peeking duo nearly jumped out of their skin when the imp-like intruder suddenly screeched and tossed a ball of fire at one of the tables lying about.
A cockroach had flown past the imp and landed on the table unawares, which prompted the imp's sudden burst of violence. The table was left a pile of ashes. The cockroach crawled out of the ashes unscathed.
oOo
As Marisa and Sanae were affixed at the creature, Reimu scouted around the side of the counter looking for an escape route. Her eyes darted around decisively, scanning the bar for any silent means of exit without alerting the intruder within. It was a daunting task considering the scattered beer bottle shards and rubble all over the floor.
She had contemplated attacking the creature head on. But then she remembered the note.
'Is it true?', she pondered. She felt her gun in her pocket. While danmaku was never a fatal means of engaging in combat, she reckoned that it still would hurt enough to beat anyone into submission. She would know; it was what she did for a living. Even if she could, however, she wouldn't. She created the Spell Card Rules to stop the brutal ways of youkai extermination practiced by the Hakurei before her. Her mother included.
'Anyway,', she interrupted herself, 'I think that sticking to the walls could get us out of here.' She had mapped out the path in her head: They would first crawl quietly towards the wall that connected to the corridor, carefully pushing away any debris that could give away their position. Then, upon reaching said wall, they would stand up with their backs to it and quietly shimmy their way towards the corridor and hoof it. She grinned. Her plan was fool-proof. There was no way they could fail.
But there was one problem: The imp was facing their general direction. And it was slowly coming their way.
Without thinking, she grabbed the first small object she saw and flung it across the room towards the scattered tables before retreating back behind the safety of the bar counter.
A few seconds passed.
Then, she heard a loud screech. A small explosion followed. She carefully poked her head out to see what the imp was doing…
oOo
It stood there staring at the freshly decimated table it had just made. It had no clue as what zipped past its eyes. Whatever it was, it startled it enough to throw a fireball by reflex.
The pile of ash shook a bit. The imp remained still, its hand ready to throw another fireball to kill off anything that pops out of that pile. It already had its fill of anxious prowling and fearful hiding when the Slayer tore through Hell. Suffice to say, it was not going to be taking any chances in this new Hell.
It cared for life to dearly to part with it just yet. The lives of its comrades could all burn for all it cared.
The Gore Nest it came out of was placed on the outskirts of Old Hell, which meant that there wasn't much left to be killed nor was there many to begin with. Its comrades, a fellow imp and several Unwilling, roamed about the deserted bloodied streets of ravaged districts aimlessly.
It was bored to death. There was nothing left to murder. Anything that could be murdered was either dying or killed by those accursed Lost Souls. Idiots could never appreciate the art behind roasted flesh as it is being ripped apart…
Then, as it wandered off from the group, it picked up the scent of humans. Living humans. Fresh meat. In its glee, it pounced in great leaps up the hill that the scent was leading it towards. It stopped short by the door, however, when it smelled a hauntingly homely smell: Brimstone, sulphur and, most notably, dried demon blood.
No… It cannot be! It shuffled around the flesh-containing building to make sure that hewas not present. The smell was strong yet it became faint as it stopped back by the building's open door. He had just left the premise a short while ago.
It hesitated. On one hand, it now knew that the very threat that had ravaged its home was in this realm with it. On the other hand, it had not tasted the blood of a human for so long and the scent within the ruined building was greatly appetising.
Speaking of humans, the shock of the unknown flying object had made it completely forget about the humans hiding behind the solid wood countertop.
With a loud screech, it prepared a fireball in one hand, hungrily anticipating the beautiful shrieks to come.
"NOW!"
It saw a split second flash before a surge of pain flooded its body, zooming straight for a solid concrete wall.
oOo
Reimu, Marisa and Sanae watched the cloud of dust where the imp crashed.
"Do you think we did it?" meekly questioned Sanae.
"'Course it did! I just let loose a fully-charged Master Spark at 'im!" was Marisa's confident reply. "I mean, who could ever stand up after that?"
An angry demonic shriek answered her boast.
"Well, that imp can." Reimu pointed toward the dust cloud that now had two glowing yellow lights within it. So the note was not lying about their resistance to danmaku… Could this person have lived through the incident of 20 years ago?
"Hey! Snap out of it, Reimu!" snapped Marisa as she shook the shrine maiden's body violently. "We need to go. Right. Now."
"…Got it." Her train of thought effectively derailed, she called out to Sanae who kept staring at the imp, "Oi! Sanae! Quit staring at your boyfriend there and go!"
"Wh-what? Right. O-o-okay!" She then jogged hastily out of the bar to catch up with Marisa and Reimu who were already hovering a few metres from the cliff side, heading towards the power plant.
Unbeknownst to them, however, a small hidden camera in the bar was watching their every move…
In an undisclosed location somewhere within the power plant…
A figure sat hunched by a wide holographic screen. It was the only source of illumination in the room, the room itself pitch black.
"As expected, they dealt with the Hell Imp accordingly." The figure mused as it rested its head on its metallic arm, rewinding the tape analytically. "Their natural skill has helped them escape without a drop of blood to be shed."
The figure then sat up straight and stopped rewinding when it saw a fully-armoured helmeted man appear next to the unconscious Reimu, kneeling down on one knee as he placed a gun by her side. What intrigued the robotic figure the most was the gesture made by the man as he placed the gun: He seemed to gaze upon the shrine maiden's face and putting the gun in her hand gently. "There appears to be a connection between the Hakurei miko and this brutish anomaly. It contradicts what the scrolls say about him."
Skipping forward to the point where Reimu was calling out to Sanae, the figure pressed play and let the video run normally. "No matter," it said in a gravelly voice. "As long as they could get rid of that pesky nuisance, my plans will go on unchanged."
It watched the rest of the video before proceeding to click on another surveillance video. The video was live and could switch between multiple cameras. Its label, "Yagokoro Medical Centre".
Wait, was the Moriya miko blushing when she left the imp?