Chapter Text
During his more morose moments, Ken Takakura believed he would die in his house, surrounded by his UFO books and conspiracy magazines, alone and friendless. A boring end to an awkward and mediocre boy. And then he met Momo Ayase, a wonderfully kind and strong woman didn't have to defend him from his bullies, yet did so just because she could. She made him believe he had a fighting chance to drop the ‘alone and friendless’ part.
Now, he could say that at least his death wasn’t going to be boring. Nothing about running in a warped reality while being chased by an honest-to-god yokai who was also fighting a vampire that wanted to drink his blood could be called boring after all.
Ken couldn’t really tell how it happened. One moment he was walking through the dark tunnel, Miss Ayase’s voice in his ear, the next he was coming face to face with a man, face pale, eyes red, bloodied lips, and a fanged smile. Standing over a bleeding corpse of a deer. He screamed and turned to run, but was halted by another demonic face, this time a shock of white hair on brown leathery skin and soulless yellow eyes. The creature twists its head at an impossible angle, before it said, “I’ll let you suckle my teats if you give me your dong”.
He screamed, walked back, slipped and fell, watching these two monsters saunter closer. He felt paralyzed by the twin stares of malevolence and hunger. One was definitely a flesh eating monster of some kind. The other probably Turbo Granny from the rumors.
He stumbled back into a standing position, trying to run between the wall and the one with red eyes, but it was suddenly moving faster than his eye could trace. Before he could react, he was suddenly being slammed on the tunnel wall. The breath is knocked out of him, his hands letting go of his phone.
“Hey! What’s happening? Why were you screaming?” he heard Miss Ayase ask, but she might as well have been underwater for all Ken could understand. His eyes tried to focus, but all he could see were those terrible red eyes. And that gaping mouth with sharp teeth.
“Oh you’d make for a delicious meal, won't you? You’re blood smells delicious”
He whimpers, struggling to get out of it’s grip. “Miss Ayase, help! He wants to drink my blood!”
The shout of “What!” was drowned by the inhuman roar of the man, who then bit his neck. Ken let out a scream of pain as blood bathed his neck. He could feel the man suck, and a dizzying feeling accompanied it. He could feel his blood being drained , his body growing weaker by the second. He was beginning to see spots when the man was suddenly pulled off.
He fell to the ground, limbs weak but still breathing. He tried to catch his breath as the sounds of arguing echoed around him.
“He’s my meal, you old hag!”
“He’s mine to curse for entering my domain, blasted blood sucking bastard!”
He could barely register the rest, only managing to open his eyes enough to spot the glow of his phone. He crawled his way to it, noticing that the call was still on. With every once of strength he could muster, he slowly stood up, then moved as quietly as he could. He hoped that the two were busy arguing for them to take notice. He could hear Miss Ayase screaming for him to answer, but he dared not talk.
“You don’t get the right to him. Twerps like you need to be taught respect!”
“Respect? I’m older than you, stupid hag!”
He was halfway out of the tunnel now. He could feel his strength returning just a bit. Just a little more and-
A twig snapped under his foot. That tiny sound somehow made the two pause. He looked back. He twin pairs of red and yellow eyes staring back. He gulped. They flickered. He started running.
“Miss Ayase!” he screamed into his phone. Ghost and vampire, because there was no other creature that would act the way it did, hot on his heels.
“Hey, tell me you’re okay! I’m already trying to leave this dump. I’m going straight to you. Just try not to run away from Turbo Granny because she takes it as a challenge. She curses anyone who loses.”
Ken wanted to cry. “Why didn’t you tell me that before?! I’m already running!”
He heard her curse. “Well, don’t let her win then!”
‘I’m trying to!’ he thinks, pushing his legs further. “What about the vampire, what do I do about that?!”
There was silence at first, before she shouted, “What vampire?!”
“You didn’t know about the vampire?!”
Whatever she was about to say was left unheard as he was back to being squished into the tunnel wall, none too gently he might add. With the vampires hand on his mouth, pushing him to the wall by his head.
“You can’t take him anymore, stupid granny! I got him first!”
“The rules don’t apply to you, annoying brat! I can still get his weiner because the race isn’t over yet!”
He whimpered in fear as he heard the two bicker on who could own him. Why was the granny so obsessed with his private parts? Why couldn’t the vampire respect the granny? Why did Ken even do this?!
Oh, yeah. Because a decent human being finally talked to him and treated him as something that wasn’t invisible. Finally, he had someone that he could talk to. Someone that could be his friend if given the chance.
He finally had that chance. He couldn’t mess that up now! He couldn’t let a vampire or a ghost take this one true friend away. Emboldened, he tried to struggle his way free. But the vampire’s grip remained strong on his face, and in no near mood to end its discussion with Turbo Granny. So, as a last resort, Ken uses his mouth to bite the vampire’s hands.
He tasted blood on his tongue, bitter and metallic. Then something sweet and savory, delicious. He chased the flavor, grabbing on as he lapped it up. He felt it struggle, but was undeterred in taking as much of that taste as he could. He heard something shout at him, but ignored it for the sensation on his tongue, drinking his fill. It was only when he was painfully ripped away that he finally came to himself.
He heard a screech from somewhere, and looked to find the vampire glaring at him.
“What have you done you little shit!” Then he turned to Turbo Granny, who was looking at Ken with rage. “Look what you’ve done hag! You’ll never get to curse him now!”
She hissed like a screeching kettle at Ken. “No, you’re mine brat! You will have my curse!”
Without warning, she vanished. Ken felt a sudden pressure on his shoulders, and he looked up into the face of Turbo Granny sitting on his shoulders. Suddenly, Turbo Granny shifted into a dark shadowy form. Her dark limbs forcefully open his mouth while he felt himself bound by her legs.
“You will have my curse, you stupid brat! Nobody crosses Turbo Granny and gets away with it!”
Without warning, she was diving headfirst into his open jaw. Ken tried to scream, but it got blocked by the phantom form of the ghost trying to possess him through his mouth. He could feel the cold, ungodly sensation of the spirit entering his throat, choking on the solid smoke that threatened to burst him from the inside out.
He could feel her trying to grip something inside him. The pressure was beyond physical, a more visceral sensation that went beyond the body. Almost inside his soul.
Turbo Granny’s claws were pulling something inside him. The more she tugged, the more he felt himself splitting. And at the same time, he felt a dark presence crawling through his veins. He knew instinctively that this wasn’t Turbo Granny, but something else. Something consuming his blood and entering the same place she was pulling. Dark tendrils that wrapped around him too. He felt the weight of two forces trying to bind his heart and spirit, threatening to rip his mind into nothing.
“No, you’re supposed to be mine!”
But then he was pulling back on both forces. Gripping his own spiritual essence as hard as he could, away from them. He felt them puncture and infect his soul, but he didn’t stop. Didn’t stop until he was the one pulling strings of their essence. He felt Turbo Granny screech in surprise, then in terror as he didn’t let go, just kept pulling and pulling, until-
He could only scream in tremendous pain. He heard something echo his screaming, before he was collapsing to the ground. Whatever pressure was on him was suddenly gone. It left him aching in places he didn’t know he could ache. But he managed to push himself off the ground. Taking a look around, he noticed that both Turbo Granny and the vampire was nowhere to be found.
He survived. Oh god, he didn’t die! He laughed and cried in relief at the same time. Dusting himself off, he heard Miss Ayase’s voice, and found his phone lying on the ground beside him.
Picking it up, he couldn’t stop the smile on his face. “Miss Ayase! You wouldn’t believe what happened. I survive-”
“Help!”
Ken froze, ice pouring through his veins. Miss Ayase screamed louder, the sound of mechanical beeping all around her.
‘No,’ he thought, ‘they got her. Something got her!’
“Miss Ayase, I’m coming!” he shouted, running as fast as he could to get out of the tunnel. He had to get to her. He had to! Whatever was on the other side of the call, he had to stop them. They were hurting her. Hurting the only person who ever treated him as a human.
He couldn’t let that happen.
He couldn’t let them hurt her.
He couldn’t let them get away with this.
A viciousness he didn’t recognize bloomed in his chest, as darkness covered his vision. Heard the screech of bats and the whisper of wind, the spark of electricity. He felt himself lighten, the sensation of his body floating, spooling into nothing. He could only chase that voice. Her voice.
The only thought in his mind was ‘ Momo Ayase ’ over and over again. Dark and possessive. The desire to protect her so strong it overrode his senses. Because, one moment he was in the tunnel, the next moment, he was slipping out of the shadows, in a colony of bats that seeped out of nowhere. He blinked and he was suddenly inside a futuristic room surrounded by screens. The lights were almost blinding to him, but he powered through the pain, and saw a group of strange looking men. One of them had a strange metal looking snake-thing protruding out of their pelvis, standing over a table.
And on the table was…
“Miss Ayase.”
He felt a brutal rage overcome him, and he was suddenly running, jumping unto the nearest man. Without a thought, he was ripping the head of the one holding the phallic machine. Metal crunched underneath his hands, his teeth breaking it’s skull apart. He let out a disgusted noise, before turning to the other creatures who dared touch her .
“I’m going to rip apart anyone who touches Miss Ayase,” he growled in a voice he couldn’t recognize. Couldn’t even imagine where the words were coming from. Just the honest feelings thrashing underneath his skin. In a blink of an eye, he was running, hand out ready to tear their heads apart.
But then he was flying, slamming into the distant wall. The breath gets knocked out of him as he tried to struggle against the hands keeping him there. Except there was no hands. Just the men, no, the aliens using their special powers to keep him trapped.
With nothing to grip, he was left struggling in the air as the alien came closer.
“We have never encountered a human organism with your strength before,” it said. “Our sensors indicate you have been altered in some way. We must investigate you further. We will harvest your banana organ and experiment on the rest.
“Get away from him!” he heard Miss Ayase shout. “Don’t you lay a finger on him!”
Ken could only stare at her. Miss Ayase was strapped on a table, about to be probed, but here she was concerned for him?
No, she was more important now. She was all that mattered. And he couldn’t let her get hurt.
“Take it!” he shouted, making the alien pause. He sent them a vicious scowl. “ Idon’t care if you do. Just let her go and I’ll do what you want! All my life, I’ve always wanted to meet aliens because I’ve never had a friend. I’ve always been alone in the world. I waited for aliens like you to visit so I could finally have someone who could understand me. But you never came!”
His gaze moved towards Miss Ayase, seeing her looking at him with wide eyes. His own burned with unshed tears. He glared back at the aliens with as much poison as he could muster.
“But she did. She was the only person who looked at me and saw me. The only person who recognized me as a human worth talking to.”
With shaking limbs, he slowly pushed himself off the wall, using the well of strength he didn’t know he had to start moving. The aliens blinked in surprise. And Ken could swear he could taste the fear in the air. It made him want to bare his teeth in delight.
“If it means I have to give myself up to you, I’ll gladly do it. If it means I become a monster to save her, so be it. But I won’t let you harm Miss Ayase!”
He managed to fully pull himself off the wall before he was sent flying back again. The alien who was focusing on Miss Ayase had finally joined its brethren. Seems like their combined might was enough to keep him. Even as he tried to push himself, he found his strength lacking against the full force of their psychokinetic attack.
“A barbaric person such as yourself will not do. We much prefer the company of your human females as well.”
He screamed at them to get away, but they only inched closer to her vulnerable body. No matter what he did, he couldn’t get up.
‘I’m sorry Miss Ayase,’ he thought, tears falling down his cheeks. ‘In the end, it wasn’t enough. I can’t save you.’
Then, he felt a ripple of energy, and he was suddenly falling to the floor. When he looked up, he felt his heart leap in his throat.
Right there, in the center of the room, was Momo Ayase, free from her bonds, floating, surrounded by a blanket of stars. Ken couldn’t help but compare her to the sun, bright and shining..
“You have psychic powers?!” he shouted in shock.
“I didn’t even know I had them!”
He was left dumbfounded as she easily slapped their psychokinesis away, then literally sent them flying with a roundhouse kick. Even in near life-threatening circumstances, Ken couldn’t help but think Miss Ayase was the most amazing person in the world.
And inside him, in a place that not even Ken knew, a hunger was growing.
In the wreckage of the UFO, two teens stood as they stared at the flames. Momo couldn't help but wonder if she killed someone important in a previous life for her karma to be this ruined. Aliens, really? Of all things?
"Well, I definitely believe in aliens now. Abductions suck ass."
Okarun nodded beside her. "And I definitely believe in ghosts. Possession is not fun."
"Hey, that reminds me of something." Momo turned to the boy. "How did you get inside the ship?"
"Huh?" He had a confused expression on his face.
"Like, how did you get there so fast? And how did you come out of those bats? Were you swept up by a flock of bats or something?"
Okarun still had that perplexed expression on his face, and Momo just wanted to bash it in. Argh, why was he being difficult! It's not like she wouldn't accept anything else that was weird for today! It was just so unexplainable how he materialized from the bats that flew from the shadows of all places. It made no sense when he was screaming about being chased by a ghost and a vamp-
Wait.
Momo quickly got all in Okarun's face. His face turned a bright pink, as she did so. But Momo took no notice. No, she was looking at his sharp fangs that were peaking out of his mouth.
"Okarun," she whispered absentmindedly, taking his face into his hands. The boy let out a squeak she ignored in favor of opening his mouth to let her finger graze the points of his new teeth.
"Miss Ayase?" he tried to say around Momo messing his teeth. She should probably step back, it was honestly rude to just play with a person's fangs while they were still attached right? (Doubtful they put that little tidbit in rule books, but Momo thinks it should be). But she couldn't help it. If aliens were real, then that meant...
"You said a vampire attacked you?" she asked, stepping back.
Okarun blinked, but nodded his head. Momo hummed, before taking her thumb and biting down hard. She watched as tiny beads of her blood spring up from the wound. She made a face as she realized that she probably shouldn't have done that. She watched a video about how dirty the human mouth was and she suddenly had the image of her thumb rotting away. Ugh, why did she even do this?
Oh yeah, to prove a point.
"Hey Okarun, what happened in the tunnel," she asked, waiting for his response. Nothing came. She looked up and, sure enough, she saw Okarun looking at her bleeding thumb with hunger. And his eyes were glowing red.
The only thought in her head was, 'Well this just got way more complicated.'