Act 2, Scene 2
"...Ugh, just kill me already," Arima moans as the train clatters along, head held in her hands. "Why does this keep happening to me?"
"Motion sickness?" I say. "I get that, I get seasick super easily, so-"
"No, it's something so much worse, and you treating it like it didn't happen is the worst of all," She looks back up at me, her glasses glinting menacingly as she scowls.
"Oh, you mean the chuunibyou?" I ask, prompting another groan of pain from the girl. Eighth-grader syndrome, for any foreigners out there - a terrible medical condition where middle schoolers, especially boys, start to declare themselves to have special powers in order to look cool. Some say it goes away with time, but mine is still smoldering well into my third year of high school, so…
"-Well, if you can actually back it up, it's not delusional, so isn't it fine?" I ask.
"That makes it worse!" She says. "I didn't make any friends in Middle School because I was too busy beating up delinquents…! And I tried my hardest and got into a High School in Tokyo, but on the very first day when introductions came I just rambled about how middle school was a failure- ahhh, I wanna die!"
Ahhhhh… "Well, there's always the next two years…" I mutter hypocritically as I lower my own face into my hands. "My first year, I charged into class, hopped onto a desk and struck a stupid pose. It gets better." No it doesn't.
"...The first day of second year, I didn't even give an introduction. I just glared at everyone and threatened to tear them to pieces," She says. Ah, whoops, she wasn't a first year.
"Well, there's always the third year…" I say after a moment. "My second year introduction, I charged into class, hopped onto a desk, and struck a stupid pose. It gets better."
"...I'm a third year, you know," She says after a moment, looking up at me.
"...What a coincidence, so am I," I reply with a half-smiling grimace.
"...I couldn't even stand up when the teacher called my name, I just sat there and glared at everyone," Arima says with a weak laugh.
"...I cross-dressed as a woman, charged into class, hopped onto a desk, and struck a stupid pose," I admit with my own pathetic chuckle. "...I dropped out after that."
"Snrk," She holds back a laugh.
"Oh, sure, go ahead and laugh…" I say, rolling my eyes. "Here I am, baring my soul to you, and all you can do is-"
"N-no, it's just… what part of that gets better, stupid…?" She laughs openly now, tears welling up in her eyes as she moves her glasses to wipe them.
"-Well, I managed to enter a sort of magic college early due to some circumstances," I say. "And there was a guy there who had already made an even bigger fool of himself than I'll ever be, so for once I wound up fitting in with the class." Not that it hadn't taken a lot to get me in there in the first place.
"...The people around, huh?" She mutters, hiding behind her glasses once more. "That's right, in elementary school, there were always…"
But whatever she's talking about, I can't hear it. The announcement, playing out over the train's speakers, sees to that.
"Now arriving, Shibuya Station. Shibuya Station."
***
Digression
Isolated within the mountains of Japan, there was once a small group of Shugendo practitioners. They called themselves the Myourenji clan, though precious few of those living within the clan were related by blood to the original Myourenji - they supplemented their numbers by kidnapping stray children from the cities and towns at the base of the mountain.
Shugendo is an esoteric form of Buddhism, the origin of the Yamabushi monks who seek enlightenment by asceticism in the mountains - and in their own way, the Myourenji were seeking this enlightenment as well - for exactly one generation.
The first of the Myourenji, their very founder, had failed to become a Buddha - but he was able, through the use of Houjutsu, to become a Tengu. And so, his children followed his path - practicing the Tengu arts, even putting themselves at risk of falling into hell. Worse still, the children they abducted were put through the same practices - and, lacking the magical lineage of the Myourenji, they were all doomed to fail. And so, for centuries after the founder's death, the Myourenji cast countless souls into hell for the simple goal of creating the occasional malformed imitation Tengu.
And then, Myourenji Arou was born.
Not a child abducted from the surrounding environs, but one truly bearing the Blood(Karma) of the Myourenji. From the moment of his birth, he was a prodigy. He looked upon his 'siblings' with confusion and pity, because from the very moment he began his education, he knew their fate.
Among the Myourenji, it was customary to pursue one of six goals - the 'special knowledges' of Buddhism, as interpreted through their founder's delusions. To achieve any one of these abilities would mark one as beyond the human realm, and make the transformation into a tengu over one hundred years of study complete.
-Myourenji Arou accomplished three of these 'special knowledges' by the time that he was ten years old.
The Myourenji rejoiced - surely their prayers had been answered. Fudou Myouou, the destroyer of evil, tutelary god of the Yamabushi, had heard their supplications, and sent to them a son who would show them the path to enlightenment. As the young Arou retreated to his cell and contemplated the things that his knowledge of karma had shown him, the Myourenji celebrated, unaware of the bloodshed to follow.
For, though they had besought the aid of Fudou Myouou - they were unaware that they, themselves, had already fallen into the paths of evil.
The next day, while the Myourenji lay insensate, exhausted from a night of Tengu revelery-
Myourenji Arou slaughtered every one of them, man, woman, and child. The wrath of Fudou Myouou incarnate fell upon the Myourenji. With noose and sword he killed, until the deed was done, and evil was burned away.
Then, taking the name Scandinavia Peperoncino on a whim, he left his past behind and departed the shores of Japan forever.
-And so we come to the present day. Where, against any normal fate or karma, Scandinavia Peperoncino found himself in a bloody mess, bleeding out on the concrete of a Tokyo alleyway, with no knowledge of how he came to be there.
Nearby, he saw a friend - something more, he had wished once or twice - likewise dying. Daybit Sem Void would perish here as well, it seemed.
Not because of any tie to the past, but for lack of them - for had his name been known, he would have been placed into the limbo of the Watchtower's library. Even so-
As darkness closed in on his vision, he thought he saw them. Feathered specters, closing in upon him. Those friends and family he had killed with his own hands, now coming to drag him away to hell. "The Myourenji, huh…" He whispered - and the shadows seemed to resolve into more distinct shapes.
Scandinavia Peperoncino turned his gaze back towards the dull purple eyes of Daybit Sem Void, which seemed to know everything at once - and saw some sort of understanding there.
A realization had been made. His companion to the underworld, whose thought process was beyond all humans, had understood something, as shapes with Tengu masks emerged to encircle them.
"Daybit Sem Void," The man beyond all men spoke his own name. Scandinavia Peperoncino did not understand why.
Then, something wooden clattered to the ground nearby. There was a flash of light, and Scandinavia Peperoncino died.
***
-The bloodstained Tengu faced by Natsuki Subaru is a rumor. A fear, conjured from the worst nightmares of Scandinavia Peperoncino as he lay dying. A hypothetical thought about a fear that was always with him.
"What if I had never left the Myourenji?"
An idle thought, about a reality in which justice had not been executed on that day; in which Myourenji Arou had completed his training and mastered all six of the Rokujintsu, and in so doing become a tengu unmatched under heaven. And even beyond these, such skills as the Flying Bowl Technique, the Fire of the Tengu, and the Shukuchi - that is, the reduction of space between two points - are opened to him.
Already, he has become something beyond humanity - a living incarnation of Fudou Myouou, the destroyer of evil. And as all humans are corrupt - with disdain, he slaughters all he sees without any distinction, a perfect executioner. Until he reaches the Pleiades watchtower, and kills-
NARRATOR, aside: "Ah, but that would be telling, wouldn't it?"
***
Act 2, Scene 3
A woman's scream rings out as the train pulls into the station - followed by a sickening mix between a crunch and splatter that makes clear the reason for the scream. There's a moment's pause as Arima and I stare at each other. Should we run? Hide until the train leaves again?
Then, that noise. Clack. Drip, drip, drip. Clack. Drip, drip, drip.
Arima rises to her feet, and removes her glasses, stepping wordlessly out the open door.
He's waiting for us, as we exit. The three-faced Tengu, his sole remaining arm coated in blood, standing amidst a fresh field of corpses. Many look like Zombies, and several more are wearing Tengu masks like his own. Behind him, the scantily-clad lower half of a woman lays oozing blood, having painted its upper half along the whole side of the train.
I can see Arima start to tremble. The Nausea on her face - right, she's got no exposure to something like this. So-
"Arima, this might feel a little strange. Sorry," I say. "-Come, [Cor Leonis]."
Nausea and terror flood my mind - and at the same time, Arima stands upright, her emotional burdens displaced to me. And, pointing at the tengu, she speaks.
"This is our rematch, evildoer!" What. "The heavens call! The earth cries out!" Oh no, I'm taking all of her embarrassment too. "The crowd roars! All calling on me to strike back against evil!" Arima thrusts her hand to the side, posing like a sentai hero. "You ugly fiend of the mountain - I shall exterminate you!"
Clack. A wooden sandal hits the ground, and the Tengu flickers forward-
The stage dims. The actors freeze in place.
NARRATOR, aside: A distant memory, half forgotten, plays through Arima Miyako's mind as she moves by instinct.
NANAYA SHIKI enters with a spotlight, wearing a panda mask. ARIMA MIYAKO turns towards him, taking on a childish demeanor.
SHIKI: "Miyako-chan, that's just an excuse."
MIYAKO: "But, Panda-sensei, I can't do it! I can't even see you moving, how am I supposed to counter!?"
SHIKI: "Huh? Hitting something too fast for you to handle is the basics of the basics. You'll never learn -snrk- bajiquan like that."
MIYAKO: "I… I don't understand, so please teach me how, Panda-sensei."
SHIKI: "Look for their motions. Movements before the movement. There are always tells, even when you look at me - and beyond that, you should feel the precise moment their Qi changes. At that point - before they even move - you strike where they will be, while avoiding the blow and using their motion against them. Even a superhuman can only react so fast - their own brain usually can't keep up with their motion, so when you're tearing them to pieces, you can usually get them to do half of the work."
MIYAKO: "I see! Feel their qi… and tear them to pieces! Xie-xie, panda-sensei!"
NANAYA SHIKI exits. The spotlight dims, and ARIMA MIYAKO turns back towards her foe.
NARRATOR: "The battle will be decided in a single blow. Myourenji Arou knows all. He has reached true enlightenment - teleportation and super strength aside, he can also read his foe's mind, and knows exactly what she plans. He can see his own future, and knows what he must do to avoid her strike. He can hear every muscle in her body stretch, every joint slide as she moves. Myourenji Arou has already passed into the realm of the gods. And yet-"
-Arima's presence seems to flicker at the same time. She's half a step forward, fist already mid-motion.
NARRATOR: "[Sphere Boundary]. The ability to merge one's presence with the world, if only temporarily. The difference between [The Unobserved] and [The Void] - is something incomprehensible for a near-god like Myourenji Arou, and so-"
-Her fist crashes clean through the Tengu's body, splattering a fresh coating of gore across the platform.
("Now departing. The next stop is Shinsen, Shinsen.")
The tengu staggers, for a moment, holding a hand to his side - and then, he takes another step, and flickers through the closing doors as the train departs.
"-Ah, he's getting away!" Arima shouts, taking a step after him-
Teke. the sound of something drippy, dragging itself across the ground. We both freeze.
Teketeke. A bloody hand reaches up from the tracks, slapping itself onto the platform. Then, another follows.
Teketeke. the mangled upper half of the body of a dark-haired woman starts to haul itself up onto the platform.
"A-ahhhh…" She moans - nope, that's it!
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" Screaming, Arima and I sprint away from the station as fast as we can.