"Where…?"
Wastes. Monstrous and empty. Nothing but dunes of dubious sand as far as the eye can see. There's nothing in this place. Nothing at all. Not even another soul.
"Where… am I?"
A girl walks through the emptiness. She doesn't know why she's walking nor does she know where she's going.
"Who… am I?"
Vague wisps of memory approach her. She reaches out to them but they quickly pull away, teasing her fingertips. The girl feels her face heat up. It's frustrating. Ah– so this is what frustration feels like. She suddenly remembers that feeling's name. Frustration.
There's a force that yanks her back. She looks down and notices there's a chain around her neck. When did that get there? She can't remember. Who put this on her? Did she do something wrong? If she did, she can't remember what she did.
Suddenly there's a yank on the chain. She falls to the ground. The yanking does not stop. She's dragged backwards at what feels like the speed of light. The dunes flash by her vision. Sand gets into her mouth, into her shoes, into her hair.
Suddenly, there is light. Little motes at first, high into the sky. Lanterns, floating away. For a moment, the girl forgets she's being dragged– entranced by the rising stars. Her back suddenly stops grinding against sand and starts skidding along something hard. Cobblestone. Light appears right in front of her face. She's no longer been dragged through a desert and is instead being dragged through streets.
Streets filled with strange things. Vague shadowy silhouettes turn their heads to look at her. Orange lanterns with eyes drawn on them wink at her. A woman with an incredibly long neck sneers at her. She's pulled between the legs of a humongous ogre, it snorts flames as she passes. Even without her memories, this sense of both wonder and fear, awe and terror, tells her that this is a strange place. Just what is this place?
Her back slams into a pair of double doors. A mixture of the flowery smell of soap and warm steam fills her nostrils. That combined with the shallow pools being tended by the women knee-deep in the water clues her in that this is a bathhouse. She skids along the moist tiles before slamming against the foot of a bath. Finally, the chain goes slack. The girl blinks.
"Hm hm hm… what do we have here?" A snooty voice comes from above her. The girl turns on instinct while she massages her sore neck. She isn't sure what she was expecting, but someone who looks like her, a human, isn't high on her list. A lady who seems to be in thirties stares at her through thin-lensed glasses. "Another naughty soul sent straight to hell?"
The girl looks the figure up and down. She wears a long-sleeved leather jacket with a crop top underneath. On her legs are a pair of black leather jeans that complement her not-very-voluptuous figure. A pair of full lips, droopy golden eyes, an upturned nose along with wrinkles in the making adorn her face. Her hair is a short silver bob cut. In her left arm is a clipboard the size of her torso and at her hip is a humongous lock from which a singular chain protrudes. Tracing the length of the chain, the girl notices it's the same chain as the one attached to the vice around her neck. She grasps at the vice.
"Who are you?"
"A better question would be 'who are you?'"
"I don't know."
"Well, fair enough, you only just got here. You're… tut tut tut… Yuki Ryusei? Is that your name?"
A spark. "I think so."
"Good. It says here that you're in hell for… obstruction of justice? Well, that's vague." She makes a face like 'you seeing this?' "Well I guess I'll hook you up with something basic for now. Why don't you help fill the baths or something?"
"Um…"
"You can start right away."
"Wait, uh, where am I?"
"Oh, right, I almost forgot the most important part." The woman claps her hands together. "You're in hell."
"...what?"
"You, me, and several million others have gone against the ICMG in life and now your soul's been sealed in hell."
"Hell? ICMG?" Yuki doesn't have all her memories back but she's fairly sure hell is not a good place to be. And as for the ICMG, she vaguely remembers that it's a good thing but she doesn't know why. And if she remembers that the ICMG's a good thing, why would she have crossed it?
"One of many hells! You don't think this tiny bathhouse can really contain nearly a million people, do you?"
"How long will I be here for?"
"Until you've been rehabilitated."
"When will that happen?"
"It depends! Some souls only take a hundred years, other souls we estimate will take a hundred thousand!"
"A hundred?" Yuki goes slack-jawed.
"If you're on your best behavior."
"What will I even have left to return to by then?"
"Oh you won't be returning anywhere, silly! You'll be reincarnated! And you'll have a second chance at life with new memories, a new body, a new… well, everything!"
"But what's going to happen to my old memories?"
"Hmmm, they're still conking around in that head of yours. Suppressed, of course, since you don't have anything to remind you of them."
"A new body? But… what's going to happen to this body?"
"Oh, that's not a real body."
"It's not?"
"You're just a lost soul at the moment." The lady shrugs. "And it just so happens that souls have a habit of taking the form of your true self, who you truly are."
"So… if this body isn't real. How do I get back into my old body?"
"You don't."
"But I don't want to be reborn, I want my old body back."
"Well too bad!" The lady places her hand, gentle but firm, on Yuki's head. "But you'll have to get with the program. There's no going back. Not for naughty girls like you and me."
"You and me?"
"Yep!" The woman raises her hand to her neck, as she does a humongous vice at least twice the size of Yuki's appears. "Guilty~!"
"What about you? Don't you want to get back into your old body?"
"Ha! Unlike you schmucks, I've lived a pretty full life! I'm ready to proceed to the next one!"
"How do you know for sure? Without your memories–"
"Who said I didn't have my memories?" The woman strikes a dramatic pose. "I'm Calamity Jet! The greatest mercenary Japan has ever known!"
「Calamity Jet」- A Mercenary
"..."
"Lady of Twilight!"
"..."
"Bringer of Night!"
"..."
"Crescent Moon Fang?"
"..."
"Really? Nothing?"
"Christ. Ten years in the joint and everybody forgets your name." Calamity Jet places her hands on her hips. "Look, all you need to know is I'm a living–... well, not-so-living legend. Capiche?"
"What did you do?"
"WHAT DID I DO–?!" Calamity Jet coughs. "Ahem. Sorry, I got a little over excited there. But I'm glad you asked."
"For starters–" She's suddenly interrupted by the sound of something thudding against the floor.
"WAAAAAAAAAH!!!" A high-pitched voice cries out. Looking around, the thud seems to have come from a little girl who tripped and fell into one of the empty baths.
"Ugh, this again? " Calamity Jet looks up, clearly annoyed. Then a look of devious realization passes over her face. "Oh, I just had an idea. Yuki."
"Me?"
"Why don't you play babysitter for a little bit?"
"Me?!"
"Yes, you." The lady pats Yuki on the shoulder. "I'll be honest. It's either this or the boiler for you. And trust me when I say that no one wants the boiler."
"O-okay fine. Jeez." Yuki straightens her blazer as she walks over to where the little girl is crying.
"Um…" She reaches down to wipe her eyes but realizes that she doesn't have anything to wipe them with.
Yuki grabs a moist towelette from a stack. It takes her a moment to realize that there's a worker behind the stack of towels and that she was carrying them somewhere. "Sorry, I'll borrow this."
Yuki looks back down at the child only to realize that she's clinging to her leg. She looks at her with teary puppy dog eyes. "Will you be my mama?"
"Your mama?"
"I missed you so much mama."
"Listen, um, kid, I'm not your mama–"
"waaaaAAAAA–"
"Alright, fine, fine, I'll be your mama just don't cry anymore, please."
"Yay." The girl hugs her leg even more tightly. "When can we go home, mama?"
Yuki dabs the child's eyes with the moist towelette. "Sometime soon, I guess. For now, let's just keep our heads down." Yuki looks over her shoulder at the old lady with the lock at her hip. She feels nothing right now but whenever she reaches up to her neck, the vice and chain suddenly materializes.
"Oh, that!" The child raises her hands to her neck and a vice materializes. "I have one too, see? See?"
"Is there some way to get it off?"
"I already asked the mean lady and she said nope! We're sealed here forever! But I don't believe her! I know mama will find a way out of here!"
"Yeah…" 'Obstruction of Justice', huh? To hell with that… she's getting out of here and back into her old life the first chance she gets. Screw reincarnation. "Let's just keep our heads down for now."
"Okay! Whatever you say, mama!" The girl gives her a toothy smile.
"What's your name, anyway, kid?"
"My name?"
"Yeah, mama slipped and forgot."
"Oh, okay! I'm Shosuko! Shosuko Kuze!"