pepper woke up feeling dizzy. "Ku...mo...?" pepper muttered, as he slowly opened his fuzzy eyes.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." The girl responded.
"Where... am I?" pepper asked, the girl, as he turned his eyes to the left and saw gray trees.
"You're in a place known as Hell's Gateway, or some may call it the In-Between." The girl answered.
"Oh, so I'm not on Earth?" pepper asked, hoping that wasn't the case.
"Correct, this realm isn't a planet though, it's just a space that drifts around, people who randomly appear, such as yourself, are known as drifters, and drifters aren't meant to be here." The girl explained, sounding a little worried about something.
"Does this place lead to Hell?" pepper asked, curious if Hell exists.
"No, they call it Hell's Gateway because this is the land of dead people, but only certain dead people, people you may be familiar with." The girl kept explaining, sounding like she's enjoying talking to pepper.
pepper looked to the right. "Your shirt... there's blood on it, why?" pepper asked, seeing nothing but her shirt when he looked to the right.
"That's my blood, it's from when I died." The girl responded, seeming uninterested in the topic.
"Oh, so you're... a ghost?" pepper asked, not extremely shocked by it.
"Indeed, I am a ghost. Everyone here is a ghost... except for him..." The girl said, looking upset.
pepper leaned up off the girl's lap. "So, tell me, what is your name?" pepper asked, repositioning himself on the bench.
"I'm Polly, and you?" Polly said, curious of pepper.
"I'm pepper, you seem pretty nice, and I feel... connected to you. Are you, by chance, a female pepper?" pepper asked, realizing the connection he feels.
"Yes, I am, and you're a male one... just like him..." Polly said, still feeling upset by the mention of this man.
"You keep mentioning this man, who is he?" pepper asked, curious if this male pepper is evil, just like the others have been.
"I'd rather not talk about him..." Polly said, closing her eyes.
"Okay, then... people that I may be familiar with... What do you mean by that?" pepper asked, not understanding the meaning.
"Well, everyone here... is a female pepper, unless they aren't meant to be here, like Zero..." Polly said, unintentionally saying the man's name.
"I see. And I assume Zero is the man you've been mentioning?" pepper said, not realizing exactly what she meant before she brought up Zero.
"Yes, that's his name..." Polly replied, trying not to say too much.
"Tell me about him." pepper said, sounding a bit rude, unintentionally.
"He's very much into chemistry, he can make all sorts of cool things... and some not so cool things... like poisons and deadly gases, but he used to make really pretty bombs, nothing that'd damage anything, but just a colorful explosion... then it all changed... so long ago." Polly said, looking sad, and clearly not wanting to talk about it.
"What caused it to change?" pepper asked, wondering if his hunch is correct.
"I'm not sure, but many years ago, Zero just felt... off and more violent... and so has every other male pepper, other than you." Polly replied, still bothered by the topic.
'What the hell caused this? And why wasn't I affected? though... back when I faught reppep, he seemed to not like being evil, he wanted to change but he couldn't fight the urge to hurt. But he apologized to someone, so he still cared, deep down.' pepper thought, pondering the cause of this misfortune.
"And... eventually... Zero killed me." Polly said, finding it hard to cough up the sentence.
pepper instantly looked at her, as if he could find Zero just by looking at her. pepper could only feel anger towards Zero and they haven't even met.
"Where is he? Take me to him." pepper demanded.
"N-No, you don't understand how dangerous he is, his ability is... impossible to beat..." Polly said, wishing that wasn't the case.
"Okay, fine. I'm sure I can beat him, but if you don't want me to fight him, then I won't. But if he tries to pick a fight with me, then I'll have no choice but to fight him, got it?" pepper said, hoping that's good enough.
"That's fine by me." Polly said, hoping that doesn't happen.
"Oh, by the way, you said that you're a ghost, right? How exactly does that work?" pepper said, trying to learn about new species.
"Well, you see, I am in a physical body, see? You can touch me, and I'm not see through, as most people would assume ghosts are, thought they aren't entirely wrong." Polly explained, placing her hand in pepper's to prove she's physical.
"Oh, you're right. How aren't they wrong?" pepper asked.
"Us ghosts can turn see through, but not completely invisible, we can also phase through physical objects in this form, but when we return to our normal form, we have to go back to where we changed form, it's more for observing than for roaming." Polly continued explaining, not sure if pepper understands.
"Hmm... I think I get it, that's pretty interesting, and it can be useful." pepper said, thinking of Polly as a spy.
'Well, if he tries he can listen and understand, I suppose I underestimated him.' Polly thought.
"Well, I really gotta get out if here, I've got my girls waiting, they're probably worried sick." pepper said, thinking about Kumo, Utsu, Niku, and Muma.
"Girls?" Polly asked, curious about pepper having multiple.
"Yeah, there's Kumo, she's a really sweet and nice girl. And Utsu, she can be cute but normally she just seems sad, I feel bad for her. There's also Niku, she seems very caring but it's hard for her to express herself so she'll just yell at you. And there's Muma too, she's a succubus, I think that says enough." pepper said, while smiling.
"That... sounds nice... and happy." Polly said, while wearing a sad smile. "But I've never heard of anyone having more than one female pepper, usually we'd get jealous. I've heard a male pepper will become stronger with more female pepper's by his side, but I don't know how true it is." Polly continued, interested in pepper's life.
"You don't like this place, do you Polly? You seem like you want to be happy, but you aren't. Why don't you just leave?" pepper asked, questioning why she's here.
"I never really considered leaving, but I'm sure Zero would be mad if I did. He needs me for his chemical experiments..." Polly said, looking sad near the end.
"How so?" pepper asked, wondering what exactly Zero does to her.
"Well... he likes to test how certain things react to a body... and if they die from it..." Polly said, stopping herself there.
"Die? You said you died once already, are you immortal?" pepper asked, wondering if he can be immortal too.
"Technically, yes. All female pepper's are already immortal, unless something kills them, they just won't die of old age, we stop aging when we realize what we are at a certain age." Polly said, still having more to explain.
"Oh, I see. I think Kumo mentioned something like that at some point." pepper said, trying to remember.
"But my case is different. Since I've died, I'm here now, it's like a prison, I think, I've seen other female peppers leave, but I never really had anywhere to go even if I did leave, so it never crossed my mind. But those girls always left with a male pepper, whether that has anything to do with it or not is not something I know. Basically, it seems that if I want out, someone has to break me out, but for all I know I could just walk out of the next portal." Polly explained, trying to figure it out as she goes.
"Well, if that's the case, I'd gladly help you." pepper said, offering a hand.
"Like I said, I have nowhere to go in your realm. I've always been with Zero, when he killed me, he came here..." Polly said, refusing pepper's offer.
"Oh..." pepper said, feeling disappointed that he can't help.
"But, if I die here, I just appear here again. And if I die in your realm, I'll just die, I'm gone, no heaven, no Hell, no In-Between, gone." Polly said, thinking if how sad that is.
"That's... awful... How do you know?" pepper asked, curious of how she got this information.
"Zero told me, he could be lying, but he usually doesn't lie. He told me that none of us can go to Heaven or Hell, it's a miracle that there's this place to house the female ones, but the male ones are just gone once they die. It's all Zeus' fault, he said. Zeus has some odd hatred to our kind, and he thinks it links to the evil that fills the male peppers' hearts." Polly said, explaining some things that Zero told her.
"I've heard if this Zeus guy, he tried to kill me once. If he hates our kind so much, why does he have a male and female pepper working with him, what's his goal?" pepper asked, hoping she new anything.
"Hm... if one is born as an Angel, then it's likely that they're somehow forced to work for Zeus. But if they aren't Angels then maybe they made a deal, I don't really know." Polly said, trying to give her best guess.
"You might be right... Tenshi seemed like she was forced to do it, but she was scared too. I feel bad for her." pepper said, thinking about how he could've helped her.
"Anyway, we've gone way off topic. You said you needed to leave, right?" Polly asked, making sure she heard correctly.
"Yes, my girls are waiting, they're hungry too so I can't wait long, even though I've just been sitting on this bench with you for probably ten minutes, and who knows how long I was unconscious." pepper said, starting to ramble.
"Okay, the only way... is to talk to Zero, he can come and go, he's a bounty hunter so he just opens a portal to wherever and does his thing. Maybe he'll let you leave if we talk to him." Polly said, hoping that Zero doesn't instantly act out in violence.
"Okay, let's go." pepper said, following Polly as she gets off the bench. 'I heard I have a bounty, I think it was Niku who said it and it didn't seem like a lie so I just have to hope this Zero guy hasn't heard of me.' pepper thought as he looked around to check the place out better. pepper sees a lot of gray trees, he notices that there's hardly any color at all, the sky is dark and the clouds are almost invisible in the darkness. Infront of the bench is a path, following the path to the left is the gate that pepper first saw. Following the path straight, leads into gray trees, but if you eventually turn right along the path, you'll go down a long path within the trees, though not much is visible down it. Through the gate is a small bridge that goes over a seemingly long but not very wide stream, the path continues off the bridge's end, the path goes diagonally right and dies off, but points towards what looks like a beat up house. Polly takes pepper through the gate and across the bridge.
As pepper and Polly walk along the path past the bridge, pepper notices a tree stump that sat on the edge of the path. A girl sat on this tree stump, pepper could tell she was another female pepper just at a glance.
"Hey, Polly, who's she?" pepper asked, Polly, as the girl eyeballed pepper with pure hatred in her eyes.
"Oh... her... Her name is Hiraki, she's usually just called The Vengeful One. Don't pay attention to her, come on." Polly said, hoping pepper would mind his business.
"Hey, I hear you're Hiraki." pepper said, walking up to Hiraki.
Polly stopped in fear. "Hey! I said not to pay attention to her!" Polly shouted.
"What? She looks like she needs a hug... poor girl." pepper said, feeling bad for Hiraki, who looked angry and mentally broken.
"NO!" Polly yelled. "Don't touch her!" Polly continued exclaiming.
"Why? When I'm upset a hug always calms me down, and same with Kumo, Utsu seems to enjoy hugs too. Everyone likes hugs." pepper said, holding his arms out, about to hug her.
"pepper, don't!" Polly shouted, trying once more to stop him.
"Hug me... and you'll die..." Hiraki said, with wide, baggy eyes. Her voice sounded so dry, like she hadn't talked in ages.
"I see, fine then." pepper said, as he instead gave Hiraki a head pat. Polly's face was written with fear, as she saw his hand touch her head. "I know life was tough for you, I can see it on your face. And it may feel like you're hated, but that doesn't mean you have to hate others, I promise there's someone that cares about you, it looks like you feel hated, or abandoned. I know there is someone, because I care about you, seeing you so hurt, hurts me, you obviously have something against male peppers so I won't stay too long, but I hope that one day, you'll find something to make you happy again." pepper said to Hiraki, with a genuine smile, before walking away.
"You're lucky she didn't kill you, I've seen plenty touch her and they just melt as if they turned into magma." Polly said, as both her and pepper walk away from the stump that Hiraki sat on.
'He felt... different... Was it fake? He didn't feel hostile. I don't trust it, I have a lot to think about now.' Hiraki thought, to herself, as she watched the two walk away.
pepper and Polly walk into the shack of a house, to the left is a dining table that was littered with science stuff that pepper didn't understand, past the table was a staircase, it looked extremely loud. Past the loud staircase is a wall, but it's the wall to the kitchen, which was a straight shot from the front door. Like the table, the kitchen counters were littered with science stuff that pepper didn't understand.
"I don't see anyone." pepper said, wondering where Zero is.
"He must be out on a bounty, that explains why he didn't question why I wasn't in my room upstairs." Polly said, mostly talking to herself.
'I can't really sense anyone... I noticed it when I first got here but I didn't really care enough, but now that I know what's going on, that could be a problem. I think this new place just messes with my senses.' pepper thought, to himself.
"Maybe we should wait outside, Zero doesn't like when people mess with his stuff so it'd be better to wait out there." Polly said, sounding a bit worried abd cautious.
"Oh, alright." pepper said, walking to the door, behind Polly.
Polly opened the door and was immediately greeted with Zero, standing infront of the door, his face was calm but his aura felt upset. pepper jumped to his guard since he was used to sensing when people are around.
"Ah! Zero!" Polly yelled, in surprise.
"You know I don't like it when you're loud, shut up." Zero said, with a scratchy voice, it sounded like he was ill.
pepper took a moment to observe Zero, he noticed that Zero wore a suit, just like pepper, reppep, and Shushu. but Zero had a black suit, like reppep's but it was white in the middle, and Zero had a neck tie rather than a bow tie like the others. Much like the other male peppers, Zero's hair was blue, he had an ahoge that was green, and he wore a face mask for some odd reason. His skin was also pale, but not like Utsu or Polly, it looked a sickly pale.
'This guy is... odd... to say the least. I don't like how he talks to her.' pepper thought, keeping himself calm.
"So... my suspicions were correct." Zero said, looking up with what seemed to be an eerie smile hidden under his mask, though it was hard to tell. "You've been... cheating on me, Polly... Just like I thought." Zero said, in a still scratchy and slow voice.
"I've told you already, I-I'm not, I promise!" Polly said, fighting the urge to freeze in fear.
"Haha... You still refuse to admit it? Fine then, if I kill him, there'll be no one to cheat with." Zero said, looking intensely at Polly. "I killed you, that means you're mine! And now, it's time to kill you too!" Zero yelled, jumping at pepper.
"No!" Polly screamed, she was sure that pepper was going to die. pepper's eyes widened and he shouted as he fell.