PILOT TW: BLOOD, VIOLENCE, GUNS

3117

“You are the one; let’s play a little game, Yura..”

“The people have decided your fate.”

"But at least you’ll have something to lead you on your path.”

[Yura receives the LU set.]

(Current time)

It was a vacant landscape, a ghost town ruined indefinitely. While the man-made destruction fills the scene, so does the light of nature, the sun shining in a bright blue sky, the moss that grows onto the abandoned buildings, and the little birds that call the place home. An even more glowing light approaches the landscape like a car entering the scene's center. The car turns off, shutting all noise as the door swings open, and out comes a tired-looking girl. Unkept, in a hospital gown, and slightly trembling.. this was Yura Akagawa, our heroine. The only thing she had to her name was her piercing red eyes, rumored to be a family curse by a world before these ruins. She stumbles out of the car, landing on her knees as she looks around.

Yura was up the block in Hirasaka. Cars blocked the way for the vehicle she was driving. She catches her breath, stands up, and then walks down the street until she stops in front of the Kuzunoha Detective Agency. She couldn’t yet read this sign for her understanding, but it seemed like it’d have good supplies based on the surrounding bodies, so she entered the building to look for such supplies. Upon entering, she immediately finds a revolver on the front desk; lucky find. As she picks it up, she notices a man leaning back in his chair, where the revolver is pointing. With a shift in her expression in sadness, she holds the revolver closer to look at it, noticing a skull keyed into it, though it looked to be from law enforcement ties, maybe.. from a detective? Giving Yura a sense of justice while holding it, she lowers her arms, then walks more profoundly into the agency; she finds a shower room and decides to set the revolver down and test the water. To her surprise, it worked, and it was hot water too! Yura took half an hour to enjoy this shower; once done and wrapped in towels, she went behind the counter, where she’d found a set of clothing in good condition, nothing but a lucky finding. Guessing it would be better than the hospital gown she was currently in, she decided to change into it. She is now wearing a black suit, and as she puts on the outfit unknown to her, she finds Rei Reiho’s suit. Suddenly, she heard the door open, which made her grab the revolver and back up against the wall to hide. She peered around the corner to see a little boy enter the agency, walking up to the center of the room to pick up a ball as he gently squeezed it. Yura’s eyes widen as she walks out of her hiding spot.

"Little boy? Little boy, I’m a survivor too..”

Yura reaches out as she approaches the boy from behind, who stops his movements. She stops moving and lowers her hand, her red eyes beaming with worry as she lowers her tone.

"Don’t be afraid, okay?..”

Yura slowly takes a few steps toward the boy, confused at his silence.

“Little boy?..”

The boy turns around with a pistol pointed at Yura, which makes her gasp as she tilts her head and shakily sighs.

“Dammit..”

Yura backs up as she raises her revolver to the boy, and two shots are fired, one after the other.

BANG! BANG!

Yura struggles to find words; as she slowly reaches up to the now shut-eye, blood leaks from her face, and she whimpers, more shocked than hurt. As the boy walks up to Yura, he holds his gun out to her once more. Then his eyes widen as he recognizes her.

“Wait.. you’re.. oh shit.”

Yura frantically pants, continuing to whimper in shock and confusion, as the boy rushes over to try and comfort her, reaching up to his shirt to call someone over walkie-talkie, as our heroine slowly falls into a fateful coma.

…

“Hello? You must get up.”

A voice enters Yura’s head, waking her as she slowly gets up. Yura was already blind, so it wasn’t surprising to have no clue where the hell she was. However, the atmosphere tasted like iron, or more accurately, blood. She recognized that this was not expected; she slowly raised her hand to her hair, which was long, unkempt, and even messy. Yura sighed, as her numb mind had no memories, which was a problem. She had awoken to a cold day with an extraordinary environment.

“This way, I’ll guide you.”

The voice was now close to it, and Yura decided to trust it, slowly following it as she tried to think back to who she was. Her shoe stubs on an object, and she falls flat on her face. She starts to hear cars and the footsteps of civilization. Eventually, one set of footsteps approaches her and stops before she hears the creak of jeans as they kneel before her.

“Hello, ma’am. Can I help you in any way? Looks like you’re all alone. That can’t be safe. What’s your name?”

The voice was sweet and somewhat masculine, sparking something in Yura. She pitifully picks herself up and looks at the boy before her.

“Y-Yura..”

He seems caught by surprise as his voice lowers with sympathy.

“Oh, are you wearing a blindfold?.. listen, I don’t usually do this, but.. come with me, Yura. Also, you might scare someone with that on.”

She feels herself being pulled up with the bandages unwrapped around her eyes as she is led by hand into a building full of life. He takes her to a seat, and when he returns, he sits across from her. His hands were on her own, making her gasp. She looks over at him, knowing where he was from the .

“I.. why are you helping me?.. I’m.. a stranger.”

Yura mumbled, almost sadly, not knowing how she felt about being pitied like this.

“You aren’t just a stranger, Yura. You’re a human, just like me. And.. well, you’re cute.”

Yura felt warmth on her cheeks and ears, and she looked down with a little smile.

"Okay.. thank you.”

She could tell he was smiling, too, and then he realized something as he took his hand off hers.

"By the way, my name is Izaki. Izaki Seiji.”

She hesitates before deciding to give him the rest of her name.

"Yura.. Akagawa.”

He recognizes this name and sits back in his seat.

"Akagawa? Like that stupidly rich family? What happened with you then?”

Yura looks off to the side, slowly nodding, but doesn’t elaborate.

"You wanna know what the difference between men and women is?”

Izaki was surprised by the question as he raised an eyebrow.

“Uh.. This some kind of joke?”

Yura closes her sightless eyes and shakes her head as she crosses her arms.

"No, seriously.”

Izaki then nods with a nervous chuckle.

“I guess not then, go ahead.”

Yura sits back in her seat, narrowing her brow.

“A man asks a woman to do something for him, like cook or clean. Now, with my different chromosomes, I ask for a little.. compensation for that hard work. I mean, not even money, just.. anything. And he’ll rant about how I don’t do anything, how I’ll amount to nothing because I can’t do a simple task without complaint, and how I’ll be the end of the world. And you know, sometimes, I must invoke some knowledge onto the guy. So, I, the blind and apparent new maid around the house, turn to a more reverend side of thought. I quote something from a higher spirit telling him, ‘Um, mister, you and every other set of pecs on this planet that if a favor maybe goes both ways with some common decency as a dominator behind your every command, maybe we wouldn’t have to worry about the world ending!”

Izaki rubs his chin as he listens to Yura rant, leaning in.

“You said all that to him.”

Yura shrugs.

“The polite version that still earned me this tone from him. And then the demons come out of him, yelling, ‘You sound like my motherrr!’ And with one little fit, he kicks me out of the house, always yelling about how if I know so much, why don’t I try applying it to the real world without his help.”

Izaki was still listening, so he tilted his head.

“And what do you say to that?”

Yura chuckles,

“I know what I want to say. I’d say, ‘Mister, you mean to be telling me you’ve heard this your entire life, and you are still too damn stupid to learn how to clean up after yourself.”

The two exchange a laugh as Yura then clarifies.

“You know, I didn't actually say that..”

Izaki nods

“I’d imagine it would be bad.”

Yura nods with him, smiling.

“I’d go with the polite version there, two.”

Izaki nods one final time, smiling back.

“Very, very wise!”

Yura laughs again before they both exchange silence as the waiter sets a melon pan in front of her, and Izaki decides to learn more about this woman he helped from the streets.

“So, how’s this old man of yours?”

Yura grumbles at the personal question, evading him with a joke.

“He’s good, I tell you. Real good at cleaning up after himself now.”

Izaki laughs as he shakes his head.

"Not what I meant, Yura.”

Yura stops as she shifts uncomfortably then her tone becomes more emotional.

“We didn’t have a good last few nights..”

Izaki sighs,

“Hey, I may not be the best listener, but the least you could do is answer.. Honestly.”

Yura lightly trembles as he easily breaks through her evasion with words alone. She tenses her mouth.

“That’s- that’s what he always says, speak. Speak.. you’d think I was the quietest girl he’s ever met.”

Izaki sighs,

"Well- do you express your thoughts? Do you share your feelings? That kinda stuff?”

Yura takes a deep breath,

"The thing is, lately, whenever I tried, everything I said made him impatient, like he didn’t want to hear it

after all. It’s like he’s.. pissed at me all the time, and I don’t know why.”

Yura sounded ready to cry, as it was the only father figure she could now.

Izaki frowns as he moves over to sit next to her, hugging Yura with one arm.

"Look, girl, it’s just something you go through with your parents. You know, it’s a.. it’s a phase.”

Yura sighs as she looks over at Izaki.

“The last thing he said this morning was, ‘Sometimes I wonder if you even care about me.’ He said that all after my hard work to make him proud.”

Yura tenses her mouth again, this time out of anger, with eyes glistening with tears.

“Imagine having to go to school after hearing that difference between men and women in your head. I would never say something that cruel to him. Certainly not before he had to go.”

Izaki slowly nods as his phone rings, grabbing the two’s attention as he leaves the seat.

“I’ll be back. Enjoy the melon pan.”

Izaki walks off to answer his call, leaving Yura to her thoughts.

(An hour later, Izaki leads Yura back to where she was as she claims she knows the way back from where she was.)

As Yura starts to walk through the alley, that same voice from before enters her mind.

"Just around the corner.”

Yura gets curious and decides to take a wrong turn...

Everything got dark, but with a sudden change of elevation, Yura began to fall down a flight of stairs. As she slowly stood up, she felt a sudden coldness. Further on, she heard the whimper of a boy. Concerned, she made her way to it, and when she did make it, she kneeled down in front of the boy.

“Hello? Do you need help?..”

The boy whimpers and hugs Yura then cries into her shirt.

"The monster…”

Yura’s eyebrows raise, and she hugs back, not knowing what he means.

“I-I’ll protect you, I swear.”

The boy then raises his head as he frowns.

“You can’t see, can you?.. I’ll.. I’ll be a man!”

The boy doubts Yura and wiggles out of the hug to pick up a wooden sword, then runs off to face his fears.

Yura gasped as she stood up and quickly followed the boy’s footsteps, but it wasn’t easy. She heard some fighting, and she tried chasing it with a lot of effort, almost stumbling a few times. She made it to where the fighting was loudest; she had found them. Though she couldn’t help, she heard a slash, then a scream, and suddenly blood splattered onto her face and into her eyes; she fell to her knees as, for some reason, it burned as she watched the boy’s final moments. And then a new voice enters her head:

"Yura, you have to why you’re here, what you are meant to do, and then you’ll understand why you are as powerful as you are now.”

Yura struggles to stand up as she is still crying in regret; she slowly opens her blood-red eyes as she looks at the powerful demon in front of her. And with a new determination and grit, she calls out:

"PERSONA!!”

After that, all she could see was red; nothing made sense, and nothing ever would from here on... Next, she knew she was sitting up in a hospital bed, in a hospital gown; she looked at her hands and then held her head with a grunt as she fell out of bed. Getting up slowly as she leaves her hospital room, holding herself against the wall as she ventures down a dark hallway, confused about why she could see things for the first time in her life, tearing up as everything was too bright for her. She suddenly stopped at a set of double doors, written on it in blood; it would say: “YOUR FATE/LIVE DIE.” Yura stared at the door; she couldn’t read it yet, so she tried to open it, but there was wood blocking it shut. A hand bursts against the door, slipping through a creak as it uses this moment to fuse in with Yura, making her stumble back as she cries out in pain, markings appearing on her body as she crawls back in fear of what just went inside her, in turn making her fall down the hospital stairs. After she’d be at the bottom of the stairs, the only light coming from the door creaked, finally making out outside with a bright light almost blinding her. As she looks at the outside of the hospital, she sees bodies wrapped and put out in rows, the lack of humanity put on display, and then as she makes her way to the gate of the hospital, she sees one human crucified, she felt.. disillusioned, she makes her way out of the hospital and into the parking lot, looking around she sees a few cars, most of them out of order. With a stroke of luck, she finds one she can use; as she gets in the driver’s seat, she notices the fuel is low. She has to make a location decision, and quickly, she looks back and understands where she is... Sumaru City. Yura turns on the car, making her way into the city.

Now

3131

Yura wakes up to the sound of water, and a warm rag is set on her eye, making her wince; then she is welcomed to the sight of a somewhat familiar girl, except Yura can’t get herself to , then another wince as her hand comes up to grab the girl’s wrist.

“Ngh! Stop, stop.. Please..”

The girl gasps as she retracts her hand and then frowns. She is wearing a red cheongsam-style shirt with long sleeves that have white sleeve cuffs at the ends and are wide.

"You’re.. Alive?..”

Yura raises an eyebrow,

"If I wasn’t, why are you caring for me?”

The girl looks down, shrugging.

"You are our only hope; if you weren’t going to make it, you deserved a proper embalming before you vanish."

Yura’s eyebrows raise,

"What? What’re you talking about?”

She explains,

"We are souls.. now... Yura. This is limbo. And.. an entity we call the “Goddess of Sin” is responsible. [They hope to become some Holy Grail and not only corrupt humanity but destroy reality. Using all of our sins to make herself more and more powerful, Sumaru is being controlled by her Lust Generals. It’ll be a year when she achieves the ‘Expanse”

Yura looks away and then narrows her brow as she stays focused. Reaching up to grab the girl’s shirt, she frowns.

"Where is this general? If we defeat him, we’re one step closer to freedom, yes?”

She slowly nods, shifting around as she gently grabs Yura’s wrists.

"Relax, you can trust me. My name is Yumi, and I’m a lost soul. I can guide you.”

Yura takes a deep breath and trembles before letting go of Yumi then tears up.

"What happened to my eye?..”

Yumi sighs, looking down.

"That was.. a group of bullies around town. One of the , Riku, brought you to me. He said he needed you patched up and claimed you were the only one who could save us.”

Yura drifts off in thought as Yumi stands.

"I’ll make you dinner. It's been about two weeks, so you need something to eat. Come when you’re ready.”

Yumi leaves the room.

Yura gains her composure in the next few minutes. She gets out of bed and looks out the window to see it is nighttime. She goes into the kitchen and takes a seat at the table, looking at the soup in a bowl in front of her.

Yumi notices Yura’s saddened and curious expression, deciding to make some conversation.

"I can tell by your outfit that you’re somewhat of a person of law, so that makes me hopeful. I trust you with my life, Yura!”

Yumi beams

Only because I owe you..”

Yura mumbles as she starts to eat the soup.

Yumi looked away, slowly nodding as she tied the two braids of her hair as if she had a monk appearance.

"You know... I’ve been in this place a very long time and can answer any questions you have.”

Yumi offers

Yura finishes her soup, looking up at Yumi.

"How long?”

Yumi thinks for a moment, then looks at Yura.

"Showa period.”

Yura jumps in reaction as she slowly looks down.

"There’s no hope..”

Yumi stands up and goes around to comfort Yura.

"No, no, no, it’s fine! It’s fine!”

Yumi pats Yura’s back, then sighs as she walks deeper into the house and backs up behind Yura, slipping a medical eyepatch over her missing eye.

"Stop worrying so much. At least you look cool! Never mind the questions. Just get some rest, Yura.. I’ll keep watch.”

Yura narrows her brow and then nods. She gets up and returns to the bedroom, sleeping off her worries.

3132

The following day, Yura would be up against her first demon, Yumi, at the side to ensure she’d be alright. Yura summoned her persona, sending a cleave toward the lowly Pixie, almost killing it with one hit. The Pixie replied with a simple Zio attack, which was a massive hit to Yura. She killed the Pixie by shooting it with her revolver, then her persona vanished, and she fell onto her knees, panting heavily, holding a hand over her eye.

Yumi takes Yura to the Akagawa Manor, where she tries to open the door. But it is locked. They aren't going to have any luck with this yet.

"If your family is alive, then maybe they started on their way to those Lust Generals.”

Yumi sighs, trying to keep Yura’s hopes up.

"Look... I’ve.. heard that a group of survivors are holed up at the Elysium-”

What the hell is that?”

Yura interrupts.

"It’s the home for souls blessed after death, but I’ve heard rumors that it’s a code name for a secret hideout located in the Colosseum. I can get you started on your way. Do you want my help?”

Yumi curiously asks

Yura thinks momentarily before nodding, backing up as they double back to the car.

Arriving at the docks, they walk onto Ebisu Beach, and Yumi looks at Yura.

"As you can see.. the water is contaminated.”

Yura walks up to the water, which is as red as her eyes. She kneels down to reach into it.

"It’s.. blood..”

Yura looks up and sees a bunch of ships and stuff.

(An hour later)

Yura would be messing with a ship, pressing a green button as if it hummed to life and made her smile, as she was proud of herself.

Yumi was returning home. As she was on her way, she stopped in front of her porch. With a frightened sigh, she backs up. As she sees the shadow of her little brother trying to enter the vacant home, she tears up as she knows what she has to do.

…

Yura would be traveling across the blood ocean now. She picked up a communication device and decided to try to reach out to see who was nearby.

Krrrrrr- hello? Is there anyone out there?”

…

On the other side, a woman hears Yura’s voice and kneels by the communication device as she answers.

Copy? Who is this? This Aoi Seiji, over!”

…

Yura heard a voice, but there was too much interference to make much of it.

"Uh- I can’t understand, but whoever you are, tell me where you are; I’ll look for you if I can!”

...

A katana gets impaled into the stump, and the communications device is on as a younger boy takes the talkie from Aoi.

"Hello? This is Riku Akagawa, reporting from the Sakishima Islands. Since our boat isn't sailing, assistance would be greatly appreciated.”

...

Yura looks at the device, sighing as she puts up the radio. She pins a family photo of her, Riku, and a sister between their ages to the dashboard as she honks the horn for tradition.

…

Riku looks over at Aoi, then sets the talkie down.

"Welp, lady, looks like it’s just you and me from here on.”

"You know, that could prove dangerous. Who knows who’s on the other end.”

Aoi mention,

Riku sighs.

"It could be, but then again, you’re a worse threat, yet here I am just fine. Leave the worrying to me”.

Riku walks off after picking up his katana, sharing Yura’s piercing blood eyes and serious gaze as she slices a few demons, bloodying his clothes and face as he smirks.

Aoi sighs, chuckling.

“Sure, let me leave this to the kid.”

…

Yura is walking through the island landscape when she finds a lighthouse. Peeking through a window, she sees nothing, though unbeknownst to her, the wall just beside the blind side of the window has been painted in blood:

“GOD IN CHEMS!”

Yura sits down against a tree, sighing as she looks at the ground. Then she raises her head to find a fine horse tied by lead onto a fence post. Seeing as there were no cars, this was the luckiest find. She approaches the horse slowly to keep it calm. The horse takes a liking to her as she gently pats it, then hops on top of the horse and begins to ride off into the distance with her new ride.

.

Yura takes the horse across an island-hopping bridge, taking her time as she doesn’t want to tire the horse out too much. In the distance, a damaged city with a slightly damaged bridge is visible, and all around Yura are crashed boats and bodies floating in the blood river. She looks down to avoid thinking about this too much.

.

Yura makes her way into the city, which is unfortunately empty. Yura goes down street after street, looking for something.. anything! She needed a few friends for the ride and the fight ahead; if it were here, she’d find it. The city is still reasonably deserted and small; as she attracts the attention of some shadows, she es a tank, just sitting in the middle of the road; she raises her eyebrow at it but doesn’t comment. The space would rumble, making Yura snap her head upwards as she saw a plane flying dangerously close above her towards Taiwan. She sped the horse up to follow it, turning the wrong corner. She was met by a shadow horde, making her jaw drop. She quickly turns the horse the other way and meets with another crowd as she tries to run away, but the horse freaks out and bucks her off onto the top of a car.

"Ngh!”

Yura slowly gets up from the car as she sees the shadows decimate the horse. She quietly gets out of the car, but the shadows get alerted to her anyway as she dives under the earlier-mentioned tank. When some shadows began to make their way under, Yura started shooting some of them, one, two, three, four, and five, and she was almost out. As the shadows begin to get closer and closer and leave her defenseless, she begins to feel like her luck is running out. Yura starts to freak out as she looks around, then brings the revolver to her head as she whimpers.

"I’m sorry, Hoj-”

Yura suddenly notices an opening at the bottom of the tank. She climbs into it and closes the hatch. Sitting down in the tank for a moment to catch her breath, she finds shelter and temporary safety.

Yura looks to the right and sees a corpse lying in the tank with her. She looks down before noticing it start to move, and she jumps and aims at the shadow, killing it.

BANG!

But at the cost of her hearing, as the gunshot rings in her ears, making her grunt as she falls onto her side, holding her head as it slowly goes away, she notices the top hatch is open too, as she stands to close it she sees one of the shadows look at her eerily, then she closes it. Sitting down, actual safety at last.. she checks her revolver, and now she is out of rounds. Yura sighs. Finding herself in a pickle this time, huh?

She rests the revolver on her forehead as she takes a moment to think, a tear going down her cheek as it seems all hope is lost.

The radio begins to buzz to life as static erupts before a voice can be heard,

"Hey, you.”

Yura slowly raises her head, looking at the radio. Her eyes shimmer as she convinces herself it was a hallucination for a second before it comes through again.

"Hey, dumbass! Yeah, you’re in the tank. Cozy in there?..”

…

…

…

To Be Continued.