When you sit at home comfortably in a chair beside a computer, have you ever thought what goes on outside there? Probably not. You click on a webnovel and read about lesbians and stuff, getting a kick from people and events that never happened. You're doing it right now. You read about life at Urasaria thinking about how maybe you'd like to be friends with them, or at least how you'd like to talk to them. Even the old otakus did it, spiced their life with figmas when they sat watching Neon Genesis Evangelion and watched giant mechs rip a bunch of humans apart, reveling in terror & blood. Oh, it's great to watch, alright. Life through a keyhole.
But day after day goes by and nothing like that ever happens to you so you think that it's all in anime and not in reality and that's that. Which is true. But remember this: there are things happening out there. They go on every day and make Naruto look like a wimp, because he never snapped a man as one might snap a wishbone or had to deal with Chimera. It might terrify you, but it's real; but then again, I'm not you, and writing about these things is my job. If you're a Urasaria student, you have to be quick, and you have to be able, or you become one of the snapped, and if you can kill first, no matter how and no matter who, you can live and return to the comfortable chair and the comfortable screen. But you have to be quick. And able. Or you'll be dead.
Those were some terms I learned from Serena, by the way. At ten minutes past nine I finished up my breakfast in our hotel room and she came in through the door. A puzzled frown tugged down my brow in this gray & white world. My phone was a typewriter.
Serena spoke first. "Is this how you've been seeing the world?"
"Sure has."
Serena pulled up a chair beside me. I heard Naomi and Julia giggling over in the other room, probably a bit at my expense. It was true, alright; we had been attacked by a Revenant. "Sweeth- Serena, it's looking like we're in a noir. And I'm letting you know now this god-damned thing affects speech."
Serena nodded, but she had a look of sadness, sadder than I had ever seen her before.
We had headed into another town after confirming that orange-haired scum's power was duplicating Revenants, too. I had read over reports of Hammerstone before, from other students; most of them had disregarded it at first. They said that whoever was hosting this hallucination Revenant wasn't dangerous, so there was no use of a student investigating it. Yeah, peaceful, alright. Every host is peaceful until someone winds up dead.
Yesterday we had gone through a refraction of Manhattan that was Julia's vision. I haven't ever seen someone so disquieted by their own sense of self. The opened identity of Julia was not something she had ever exposed to rejection in that manner. Maybe we were similar in that regard.
I adjusted my fedora and set another sheet into my typewriter as Julia and Naomi stepped inside. Julia was smoking again. I am not actually sure if that was recividism or... anyway.
"Revenants." I said. We all checked them; they were still there, alright. Every Revenant is there until-- right. "Right. Doesn't look like it affects our Revenants. After what Julia... did yesterday, I doubt there's a host in this city that doesn't know we're here."
Julia sighed. "I-I - first of all, what type of museum curator puts up Jackson Pollock paintings? I-I did a favor to all of us destroying that crap."
"Kid, I'm not interested in your artistic taste -- I'm interested in results. Get out of my sight and don't come back until you've got some damn leads. … Also, take Naomi with you."
Naomi shrugged and stepped outside with Julia. I turned my chair and looked out the window of our dingy hotel. It was starting to rain. All I could see were streaks of black & white lights that were cars passing through the foggy road below, and the sun was tucked into bed. Which was odd, because it was 9:15AM. The brilliance that was the city at day had been reduced to drops racing down the glass and a mist that distorted the apartment windows beyond. How do you track a Revenant? Motivation, sure. That's always been easy to figure. Fighting, too. But the actual tracking is always the difficult part of it. I don't hope for the day where criminals grow a sense of caution. What I did know is when I would find him I would put a hair bullet in his gut. I might stomp his teeth out and watch him die, slowly.
I heard Serena behind me. "Aren't we going, too?"
I nodded. "We'll head to the museum. See if it's some type of focal point."
I have a good working relationship with Serena. She's a hell of a fighter and I have more respect for her than most other students. I often wonder things about her; there's some traits, the way she talks, that makes me wonder if she came from a life in the gutter like I did. But, that-
"Uh, are you coming?"
I shot up. "I- yes."
We came out to the hall and down into the streets. I doubted we would find him in the morning; all of the animals usually came out at night. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.
We took a right at the corner and almost ran into a street walker. She looked putout over one of us walking with a dame -- I wasn't sure who. She took a long drag on her cigarette and asked us if we were in the mood for any service.
I asked: "You talking to me?"
"I certainly am, darling. Don't students get lonely?"
She was right, but I saw that same look of sadness. She looked a bit younger than I was: maybe a few weeks over 18. Yeah, she was good-looking. And I say that as someone who firmly likes men: actual men, not what they have nowadays. My eyes rode her all the way down, and she had a tattoo of roses extending below her stomach.
I doubt I would've minded finding out how far it went.
"Uh, have you seen anything suspicious lately?" said Serena.
I nodded. "Right. Any men who don't look right to you?"
She took another drag. "All the time, lady. Sometimes, there's new girls who show up on this corner, and after a week I don't see them no more. I don't know where they go, or if they..."
This seemed like a repeat, but I went with it: "You need a way out of this life. You can't waste your youth like this."
"Well, I-I wish I had a choice, lady. It's my john, you know. He comes around and he checks up on all of us. And I know I can handle it - whatever he puts me through, I can handle it - but I'm not going to say I don't get scared sometimes, too, how he's going to react if I don't take in enough clients a week."
"Does he have a Revenant?" said Serena.
"I don't know, mister."
I started: "She's a-"
"I'm a woman." Serena laughed.
(This was not a reaction I usually expect from her.)
"O-Oh. I... because of the spiked jacket, I..."
Wait, why the hell was Serena still wearing her jacket? I don't mind the look, normally, but she looks like a goddamn fool here. I tilted my fedora so I didn't have to see it as much.
"B-But I don't know if he has a R-Revenant or not. But I'm not gonna think about that. I don't let myself get - get caught up in worries like that. Right here, this is my corner."
I dug some bills out of my pocket. It wasn't much, but it was I could offer to her. I told her in simple language what I had already learned: she needed to get out of town, and a young girl like her needed to be thinking of dating a good man and getting married to one.
"You're - you're right. Thank you!" she said, and started to run off down the sidewalk.
I nodded, feeling Split's ponytail grow taut. She needed a one-way ticket out of this town, and I decided to pay for it.
"Kate, why the fuck did you do that?" said Serena.
I slapped my face. "Oh God, why the fuck did I do that?! Wait -- stop! Urasaria!"
"Urasaria! Stop!" shouted Serena, and in the next instant -
- we turned their backs with the speed of light; Split formed a tight cloak for myself, streams of fog filled Serena's jacket -
- and the hollow point of one bullet entered the back of Serena's skull & out the front; she screamed as she staggered ahead of me, using me for her cover -
" - actually fucking hurts!" she winced, streams of fog filling her wound. One parked car was beside, and in the next instant -
- I threw her through the window & to the driver's seat -
- and swept in to the passenger's side with her, pointing to the woman running past the corner now - " - follow that dame!"
"S-Sure." Serena winced, fog flying in to the ignition with a perfect match. The traffic was full of honking as she started driving, but we kept close to the sidewalk as we started up, and as we passed the corner -
- I saw the dame standing on another corner arguing with a cabbie; she shrieked when she saw us driving towards her, handgun rising to their tires -
- but streams of fog repaired our wheels before her gunshots could even enter it, more fog reinforcing their windshield as Serena pulled up right behind the broad -
- who ducked in to a nearby store. With no time to waste, we got out, and I shouted some coarse words after the scum as we went after her in to the store. On the other end was our foe, shouting "Smoking Gun!" as a molotov cocktail appeared in those delicate hands; she threw it towards us -
- we dodged underneath, but the flaming projectile hit the wall behind -
- and Serena nodded as nothing happened, pulling her cup out of jacket. Streams of fog filled it as she threw it towards the woman staggering at the back wall ahead, and as it hit the wall -
- the asbestos within burst in to blue clouds; the woman gagged & coughed as the two cleared the clearing -
- and one hairpunch to the stomach folded her like a jackknife. Something gurgled in her throat, her hands clawed at her groin. This time I aimed it right. I stepped up and kicked her face in. This evil thing before me started to vomit.
"Lady." I said. "I loved y- uh, nevermind."
I shook my head and one Split knife sliced the woman's stomach open. The woman looked up at us. It'd only be a few seconds before I'd be speaking to a corpse. Hours, minutes passed as I crouched over her.
"I sentence you to death, as judge, jury, and executioner."
"H-How c-could you?" said the woman.
"It was easy."
The woman fell rigid, and her gasp escaped as a bloody gurgle and she died -
- and we sighed when nothing changed in the black&white world.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" groaned Serena.
"Looks like we'll have to deal with every last Revenant in this town, ki- - Serena."