day 8 end.
You remember it like it was yesterday. There was a cloaked figure, and you knew they tampered the hypnotist's body. You investigated it thoroughly and found the fingerprints of a killer. And you managed to save everyone, or, well, save everyone for a little while. But you yourself fell to an unknown evil, and you're pretty you're dead.
How are you alive right now, anyways?
You see the woman at the end of the hallway. Out of exhausted rage, you lumber towards her, a slow groan exiting from your mouth. She knows the answers; she knows why you're here. Why you've all been trapped in here. Why everyone is suffering and why people are dead...
You reach forward to grab the woman, but she seemingly steps out of the way at the last moment, her hair blowing in the wind. You fall past her onto the ground of the hallway and turn your head. You're not sure what to feel anymore. Having touched a dead body once... or twice, you're fairly certain.
"So..." the woman says, holding out a hand to pick you up. You hesitate slightly. At this point, can you trust this woman?
"We're dead, aren't we," you growl from the floor.
"Mhm. You're right on the button. You're pretty smart, huh..." the woman says with a carefree tone that grates on your ears. You grimace at her from the floor. Of course you're dead, you think. You remember the whistling of your life rushing past you, the feeling of death grabbing your body...
"Tell me everything," you say. You're not in the mood for jokes anymore.
"Well, I guess since you got this far, I can tell you," the woman says. She slumps down next to you, her back against the pale wall. "You know, all of you died way back then in that house. Well, most of you. Some are you from other places." She brushes back a strand of hair and smiles.
"Who do you think I am?"
"Do you think I
care? Out. Everything."
"Fine, fine... You could say I'm kind of like the Grim Reaper," the woman said, smiling serenely at you. Her eyes immediately became hollow and empty as she said those words, and your fists clenched. "All of you died a long time ago in that house, but you didn't really die. Kind of."
"When all of you went to my little mansion, all of you were dead. You see, these little... houses of mine? Kind of a way for me to determine who's got a soul pure enough to enter the next world. Those who engage in ... less than savoury acts, like that guy from the house, they're kind of filtered out into nothingness."
"But the last time... there was a little blip in the system. Gosh, that guy and his cronies... They tried to bend the rules a little bit. Take the power of death for themselves and they went and burned down my house. Normally the building burns to signify purification and the end, and whenever a proper judgment is made the house will burn on its own, releasing all the souls."
"That guy broke the rules in your session, so my... ah, benefactor and I, we decided to take matters into our own hands. And bring all of you back for a second round."
This story was too convoluted to be true.
"All that life you lived before you got here was an illusion. Just a bunch of memories carefully arranged, so you'd come back here and be judged, properly this time. A few other souls got caught up in the mix, but whatever."
"However... there was a little... issue, I guess? I mean, when you start tampering with the life flow, things'll get back. There was someone here who was trying their hardest to bring back their dear brother, who caused all the issues from last time! And they hired a little gang and thought it'd be cute to kill some people and summon a dark force. If only it was as easy as reading the zodiac." The woman laughs.
"The dark force was my benefactor, of course, and he was going to have nothing of this. So all of you were kind of lucky in that regard, and I'm only here because everyone's judgment has finished. For a second I was kind of scared the same thing'll happen again like last time, but you all pulled through!"
"W-What... what happens now?" Your voice is paralyzed.
"Well..." The woman pulls out a lighter and flicks it on.
"I think you know what'll happen now."
She drops it on the floor, and the rug catches fire. Soon, the fire spreads towards you.
"Don't be afraid. It's alright, you're all free now.
Enjoy the next world."
A man lays on the ground in a dark room. A shadowy figure walks up to him and kicks him in the stomach.
"Hrk..." the man says, as he opens one eye and looks up. The figure's shadows are gone now - instead, red locks with animal ears and a stern looking face meet him. His voice is gone, though, and he can't move or speak or do anything. He doesn't even know where he is.
"So, you thought you'd be really smart and go and bend the rules, huh," the figure says, unbuttoning his cravat. The man is pretty certain that the cravat is actually made of tentacles and is kind of freaked out by this.
"You even thought of summoning me! How quaint. But, y'know, things just don't work out," the figure continued as he grabbed the man and pinned him up against the wall. "You broke the rules, you know. You weren't supposed to be here. And you know that things like that don't go unpunished."
"We have a contract for you."
How about you work for us?"
T3tsuya was lynched! He was the MAGE. He was MAFIA.
TOWN WIN.