The sound of the latest electronic music was shaking the whole floor, mixed with the strong stench of alcohol, it had been a party fest all week, and Friday night was the last and definitely the biggest.
She was leaving for America first thing Saturday, and she didn't think she'd be sleeping before then.
"I can only imagine what my bill is gonna be like, I'll probably have to ask dad for help this time, but I deserve this right?" One woman asked the other, the one who asked was wearing a spaghetti strap blouse and knee high boots with a short skirt, but her most unusual feature had to be her curly green hair and emerald eyes. "I haven't been in Broccoli Country since I was a teenager and this vacation was boring me to death until you joined me last week, you've dragged me along to ever party since then!" She laughed but then looked around and realized she was dancing by herself. "Donna?" She called before shrugging and dancing still.
The penthouse view was amazing and the blinding lights flashing in all the colors of the rainbow made it all magicalbin her perspective, it was the best party for sure.
"Well, Megumi?" Another woman came up and bumped her on her shouoder. "Aren't you glad you came?" She yelled in her ear over the blaring music, but before the green haired Megumi could even answer her she was pulled away into the crowd of people, rubbing against each other like there was no tomorrow.
"You enjoying yourself?" Megumi heard a deep masculine voice behind her. "Need help?" He asked again, resting his hands on her hips and pressing himself against her body, ignoring any motion of personal space.
She immediately stiffened at his closeness, placing her hands on his and pulling herself free, but as soon as she's free, took her by the hand; she was drunk, yes, but not drunk enough to have some stranger putting his hands where they don't belong, but this person's grip was strong and she found his strength far more than she could handle, so she started to squirm in panic.
"C'mon Megumi, don't be like that." The man began laughing, and hearing her name, she turned in his hands; It was someone she'd met two nights ago at another party.
"Hey... I know you, um, I forgot your... your name!" She began stuttering for words.
"I'm Sai, we met two nights ago, you let me poke your boobs!" He laughed grabbing her hips again and pulling her in for a kiss, but as quick as lightning her hand was between their lips.
"Hold on bubblegum." She laughed, poking fun at his pink hair. "I'm not drunk enough for you to get away with that!" She yelled over the music, to which he just laughed.
"Well I am, so Let's get you as drunk as we can then!" He suggested, and like the brilliant woman she believed herself to be, she agreed to his offer taking a glass of martini from a random passer by and downing it in one drink, and then laughing at the guy who was returning to the bar for a refill.
"Get offa me you damn jerk!" Megumi heard Donna scream above the mucic, and that was all she needed to sober up enough to let go of Sai and start searching for her bestie; what she found was some ass is trying to dip his hand in her skirt in the corner an act that drove her to instant fury.
Stumbling away from Sai she grabbed an empty tray and ran over smacking the man across the back of his head.
"What the f**k is this now?" He turned around rubbing his head. "All you bitches are crazy tonight!" The man yelled, grabbing the trey and lifting his hand to slap Megumi, but in an instant, beautiful pink hair passed her peripheral and the asshead was sent flying by a crazy punch to his nose, before Megumi could make another move Donna grabbed on to Sai like a lost kitten hugging and thanking him almost pathetically.
"Hey, she's way more drunk than us, we gotta get her outta here!" Sai laughed at Megumi. "You were staying in this hotel, right, where's your room?" He asked her, and she paused.
"Across the city in another hotel I think." She replied, too drunk to actually remember where. "I can't drive like this!" She yelled back laughing at him.
"Oh, okay, that's totally fine, I live right down-" Sai stop5, looking out the window. "Yeah, there it is!!" he pointed to an apartment building a few blocks away.
"Let's go Ms Midori, I trust mister Pink haired guy here, he's a good body guard." Donna giggled, causing Megumi to roll her eyes..
"How are we gonna get from up here, to aaaall the way down there?" Megumi started laughing at that point when nothing seemed to be making sense to her anymore.
"That's fine too, I'll call my sister." Sai suggested quickly pulling out his phone and leaning against the glass comically after they'd exited the room.
"You live in an apartment with your sister?" Donna gasped at him.
"Ha-Ha-No, I own the complex." He bragged then went silent. "Hey little sis, you still awake!?" His demeanor changed to childish beyond drunken. "Yeah... Can you prepare a room for me, I have two very drunk girls that need a place to crash, and can you come pick us up?" He asked them removed the phone from his ear when the person on the other end began shouting. " Yeah.. yeah, I'm drunk too... Uh-Yeah yeah, we're at the Equinox party in Raddish Hotel... Yeah I know you leave for mom's tomorrow... Please baby sis... okay, thanks baby sis!!" He barked cheerily into the phone before hanging up with a wide smile. "She wants us to meet her in the lobby." He said ruffling his hair.
"Let's go~" Donna cheered on, taking a full glass of something mixed with something from the same random guy Megumi had bothered before, but before she can put it to her lips Megumi took it from her.
"Ms Midori, Give it back!" Donna started throwing a tantrum in her drunken state.
"No!" Midori yelled back. "You're my assistant, you need to be ready and sober in a few hours so get your s**t together, and stop calling me that, we're not in the working atmosphere right now!" Megumi snapped before downing the burning liquid in her friend's stead. "You shouldn't drink anymore!" She yelled at her again.
Entering the lobby of Raddish Hotel, they're immediately greeted by silence, they only see a pink haired girl siting in the lounge area, slouched seemingly irritated. "Hey Suteki!-"
"Shut up brother, you woke me out of my comfy bed to carry you home to make more noise in a drunken threesome, you're gross big brother." The girl pouted angrily, rubbing her eyes and walking toward the door. "Let's go." She ordered them, and Sai didn't even try to clarify why he was taking the two women home, they'd have stayed in the hotel, but coincidentally all three of them had been picked earlier and were broke while partying like kings and queens.
"Hey kid, we're not that kinda company." Megumi giggled, while stepping into the cold air outside where theyre met with even greater silence than before, the only noise they can hear is the penthouse party.
"Wow, not even a cab." Suteki mumbled, opening the car's door and letting them in, and from there Midori lost consciousness.
When she came to, she was in a room filled with bunnies and bears and way too much pink. "You're finally awake." She hears a familiar girl's voice.
"Not so loud, my head..Ugh" Megumi groaned miserably, using two of the plushies to cover her ears. "Why am I in a child's room?" She asked before whining again from the devlish pain in her head.
"You're in my room Boobs, and I am not a kid." She retorted.
"Looks like a kid, sounds like a kid... Must be a Kid." Megumi mumbled.
"Whatever." Suteki responded sighing. "Hurry up, your friend's already sober and waiting, she says you're flight is leaving at noon."
"What time is it?" Megumi asked rolling and covering her head with more teddies.
"Ten-thirty, so get outta my bed!" Suteki spitefully shouted on top of her voice.
"God damnit kid what the hell?" Donna walks in.
“Good ol' Donna, when I'm sober imma kick your ass for making me get drunk at a party.” Megumi thinks while forcing herself to sit up. "I'm gonna-" She started but stopped, jumping and running in the direction of the pink haired brat's index finger, hitting the bathroom sink and hurling up the garbage shed put in her body the night prior.
"C'mon Ms Midori, It's passed Eleven, we gotta go!" Donna yelled from Suteki's car outside, and she was about to answer when something caugut her eye; a burning car coming at full speed.
"D-Donna-Get out-get out!!" Megumi started shouting in panic, not able to find the right words to alert her assistant.
"What?" She asked obliviously, stepping out of the car along with the teenager just in time to escape a fiery death as the burning car rammed into the other vehicle and both of them went flying. "s**t!" Donna spun around falling on her ass and scooting backward, heaving heavily.
"Suteki!!" Sai came running out and grabbing his sister. "Are you okay, what just happened?" He began looking around panicked.
Megumi chased soon after, helping Donna to her feet and joining the siblings in shock. "Where the hell, did that come from?" Donna asked slowly seeing both vehicles crackle and burn, pressed against the wall of a neighbouring building.
Before anyone else could say a word, screams from upstairs caused them all to look up.
"What now!?" Megumi yelled stepping out into the road to get a better look, and soon enough, she learned not to ask anymore questions when a woman came crashing out of a window and hitting the sidewalk like cake causing her blood to splatter everywhere and sharply broken bones point out of places they really shouldn't even be, ”oh my god!” She heard someone yell, but her eyes couldn't leave the unfortunate accident, someone had just died right before her eyes.
A few seconds passed before she got to witness a man crashing from the neighbouring complex and hitting the road in a similar manner as the woman in front of them had just done; screams all around began drowning out the screaming that the Donna and Suteki had been making, Megumi quickly realized that something greater was happening when the entire city began screaming. "What the hell is happening!?" She snapped finally, looking around in panic. "What should I do?" She looked at Sai who seemed the more composed of them all.
Again, a question raised was met with an answer she wouldn't find the least bit amusing.
"B-B-Blood" Donna stuttered pointing at the body of the dead woman from earlier, and all of them went silent with awe, seeing the blood of the woman start to raise in the air slowly.
"Should we-"
"What, stay around and see what happens?" Sai cut off Megumi's ridiculous question. "Hell no, let's go." He started Walking in the opposite direction.
"Bro!" Suteki spoke at last, trailing behind him.
"Donna let's go." Megumi called out to her friend.
"Wait." Donna said in a whisper, which everyone heard because of a sudden silence that had overtaken the entire city.
"No!" Megumi snapped. "Let's go now!" She grabbed Donna's hand, but she quickly dragged her hand away.
"I just wanna see what happens!" She snapped back.
"What the f**k are you saying right now, Donna!?" Megumi shook from fright out of a sudden fear as she looked back at the phenomena. "Blood isn't supposed to do that, I'm sure whatever's happening doesn't have a good outcome, please, don't be an i***t right now, let's go!" She pled dragging her away again.
Donna was about to protest when a car pulled up beside them. "Sai! Where'd you get a-"
"Nevermind that, get in!" He shouted nervously at them.
"Ms Midori, look." Donna pointed in calm astonishment, pulling at Megumi's arm for her to stay as well.
"C'mon!" Sai yelled again desperately.
Grabbing her shoulders and turning her around Megumi commanded Donna's attention with a stinging slap to her face, and thankfully before she could explode at her for the slap, Sai picked her up and practically threw her into the car.
And Megumi is suit behind her, shutting the door and looking back outside.
"Where'd she go?" Donna asked Megumi excited, pushing to open the door again.
"What the hell's wrong with you D?" Megumi angrily pushed her before looking out again. "Stay put damnit!"
She was right though, the body was gone; all that remained was a floating mass of blood dust and, something she couldn't explain. But all that aside, it became a true spectacle when the dust and stuff started rapidly fusing together, before long, it was no science to figure out a skeleton was being formed.
The view of the phenomena quickly vanished with the movement of the car speeding away. "I don't know what's going on, but I don't like where this is going, that thing you just saw, they're all over the place." Sai commented turning corner after corner.
"Where are we gonna go?" Suteki asked him looking around. "Is there a safe place you're taking us?"
"Dunno." Sai replied.
Megumi had silently observed, but her attention was diverted when Donna began screaming and wailing like a banshee, beating Sailike shedbloat her mind.
"What the hell's wrong with your friend Midori!?" Sai yelled at her, afraid to take his eyes off the road as chaos began rising all around once again.
And just like that, Donna opened the door of the car and jumped out, hitting a utility pole, and as Sai and Suteki there as her witnesses Megumi could've sworn Donna's eyes were black as night.
The Broccoli Country time was announced on the radio right after; it was 11:11am, Saturday, September the 6th of the year 20XX, It would be forever known as the day Akugami appeared for the first time.
"DONNA!!"
This was the last time I would see the world as anything other than fucked...
A flash of dread swept through me in an instant and my vision lost focus, I felt it but couldn't stop myself.
Before I even knew what I was doing, was rolling on the hard asphalt, coming to a halt only when the momentum of my stupidity had died.
It hurt, I was hurting all over; I was in a numb bubble of hurt, but I didn't let that stop me, the sounds of the chaotic world around vanished the moment I remembered why I was in this sudden state; "Donna."
I shakily got to my feet, ignoring the blisters and burning scars, and limply began to walk over to her.
My mouth gaped open on sight though, I regretted it.
Pain seized my insides and I felt something close to death wrap itself around my throat and stomach; her head was touching her back, she was broken like a stick, her hands and legs twisted out and about in contorted positions and twirled around the skinny pole with blood splashed about on the sidewalk as the impact had broken her jawbone.
I lost all sensation in my legs and fell on my knees only. "Donna." I hoarsely grunted, unable to open my mouth any further. "No, not Donna, not my Donna."
I could no longer move, I just knelt there. But before I was knocked unconscious by what I couldn't look away from, I saw the blood trailing away from her begin to slowly rise just like the lady that had jumped from the window.
Her body literally turned to dust, right before my eyes, and when that mass began to merge, I lost it.
I couldn't stand, I couldn't speak, all I could think was “why does this dream feel so damn real?”
Before I could fall on my face though, a strong pair of arms saddled around my waist and lifted me away.
Such a horrid dream, I really need to wake up, I cried internally, so trying my best to wake I closed my eyes, and let my mind fade through the pain, embracing the cold darknessas it tried embracing me.
All I wanted, was to just waste away into Oblivion.
I should've woken in my hotel room, I truly wished that I had. But instead, my head hurt, and my pillow was warm and had a pulse.
My entire body was in pain; muscles ached, and the inside of my skin was on fire… my legs were hardly covered, and I felt a chilly surface beneath them, this was definately not my bed.
"Boobs." I heard a childish voice, I was instantly confused, thinking over what I was feeling, but also trying to figure out why this kid was calling me Boobs, so through the headache I fought an eye open.
Much to my surprise I saw feet, lots and lots of feet, and blinking rapidly in confusion, I turned to face the ceiling. But instead I was met my two bright grey eyes beneath pink hair.
"Bro, Boobs is awake now." The girl spoke again, placing her hand beneath my head and helping me into a sitting position.
"Where am I?" I blankly inquired, "who are all these people, who are you, why are we on the floor, and why are you calling me Boobs?" I finished a line of consecutive questions, rubbing my temples and groaning from the sore aching all over.
"We're in an evacuation shelter." The girl sighed at me in surprise. "Don't you remember what happened?" She asked back, seemingly shell-shocked.
"Why, are we in an evacuation shelter!, Is there a storm?!" I screamed at her, jumping to my feet "Where's Donna!?" I asked again, raising my voice at her a second time, but, at the mention of my friends name, my lips shut tight and a shattering chill hit my insides causing my knees to shake and weaken.
A sick urge to throw up boiled it's way into my body when a rush of unwanted memories hit my mind; my eyes tore themselves open, and my jaws dropped. "You... You're Sai's little sister." I began connecting the dots and frowning when her gaze fell in a depressed stare.
"We were drunk." I began digging deeper. "You came for us at the hotel and... and..." I stopped. "Donna!"
"She killed herself." Suteki responded quietly and I instantly fell numbly to the ground… dead; that's right, she jumped out of the car and before I could even hope of calming down a shriek escaped my throat.
My own ears rang when I shut up, but then taking in shaky breaths I screamed again, my eyes burned with a flow of tears that moistened my cheeks and fell to my lap and I shut my eyes and cried my heart out even more, o could t believe that it was real, what I saw, what I'd witnessed…
"Megumi!" I heard Sai bellowing, but my own screams drowned out anything else after that, then with a tug I felt a hand strike against my face instantly putting me to a halt.
"Boobs, shut the hell up!" Sai's sister demanded, flexing her wrist with a dark glare after just delivering to me the most painful slap of ever felt in my life, I began screaming again, this time out of frustration and anger, but I was again silenced by another slap from her the girl hit harder than her frail arms predicted she would.
"Get a f*****g grip!" She scowled. "A lot people are dead, but we aren't and we need to be silent right now, honestly, calm down and think like a damn adult." She hissed angrily but never raised her voice above a certain octave.
I was stunned
No one, had ever put their hand to my face, maybe my ass, but never my face and as a result my rigged breathing; instead of decreasing, only got louder when the sting from being slapped on wet cheeks fueled my fear into more rage. The girl gave me a skeptical look, narrowing her eyes and folding her fist, the little scamp was planning to punch me next, the nerve of this little s**t.
"That's enough, both of you." Sai spoke up, walking in-between us and sighing. "We don't have time to be wasting energy on fighting with those things out there." He quietly noted before turning to me with a frown that dispersed my anger and frustration.
"Megumi, there's some strange s**t going on that you need to know about okay?" He began, taking my hand and walking to the corner of the giant dome while Suteki quietly followed behind us through the mass of people.
I said nothing, because all I could think about was Donna; she killed herself, but what I couldn't understand was whulybshed done it, was she suicidal all along?
"Hey, are you listening?" Sai frowned yet again, snapping his fingers at me, I turned to him, completely distracted but giving him as much attention as I could, but before he could speak another word, a gunshot rung out in the dome.
He screamed his sister's name running in the direction of the sound, and I eventually followed when I realized that she'd turned back for some reason.
Upon arrival, I saw them both standing along a ring of people. Staring down at...
"He, he killed himself!" I yelped in shock, staring down at a police officer with a hole in his head and a gun in his hand, why did he?
The crowd scattered further when people started shouting and screaming in terror, and for a moment I was confused as hell about what was happening that was until my hand was grabbed.
"Megumi, we gotta get away from here,right now!" Sai croaked tugging me toward the checkpoint that was being flooded with panicking people.
Chaos broke out when another gunshot was fired. And people started falling and crashing and trampling over each other, above the screams of fright was a distinctive sound I remember, someone was screaming, just like Donna was before she had killed herself, how could she sound the same, that shrill inhuman tone they made.
I tugged and turned against the crowd, but as soon as I did, I was thrown feet aback by a shoulder in my stomach, and l I hit the ground on my back with a thump, both my feet flying into the air as I flipped over onto my stomach.
I wheezed and choked up blood, lifting my head when my half opened eyes caught a swift approaching set of legs, before I could even move again, I was kicked dead in the forehead.
Shots of white and black flashed in my vision and I went blank, feeling myself fall on my back again before a pair of small strong hands wrapped themselves around my neck and started squeezing.
When the world stopped spinning and colors stopped flashing I managed to open my eyes again, but what I saw only caused me to throw my hands around in panic
"Stop!" I choked out, kicking my legs and staring at my attacker's wide black and frantic maniacal eyes.
But the girl just kept screaming gibberish and squeezing harder, robbing me of sensation as my blood stopped filling my brain, right as I was about to give in, I saw a foot planting a rather well placed kick, lift her by her chin and throw her backwards.
And as if that was on que, a large portion of the people went crazy with black eyes, turning and attacking people around them at random and while this happened, I was dragged to my feet roughly, then pulled away before the girl could get up again. A woman's scream echoed in greater decibels above everyone else's and the dome once again fell into dead silence as every living being turned to find the source.
"Hey Boobs, let's go!" Suteki yelled through the silence, but curiosity got the better of me and I looked around again.
Gazing through a large crowd of shocked civilians, I gasped loudly on sight of a horrifying beast holding half of a woman in it's hand, and chewing with half opened jaws with blood dripped from it's mouth as the sound of crunching echoed in my ears.
That's it, that's what this turns into; monsters, creatures that mammoth humans, as big as elephants, eating us?
Soon enough though, sunlight blinded my vision of the inside of the dome and I turned my head.
"What the f**k is going on!!?" I screamed as we came to a halt, but before either of them could answer, a nasty choir of growls flooded the outside of the city and we looked on in terror as a stampede of the same beasts neared us. Gunshots burst in rapid behind us and we were forced to run for cover.
The bizarre looking things chased down to the police officers, seemingly unharmed by the relentless shower of bullets hitting their bodies, I believe that out of everything we'd seen, that was the scariest, these creatures were completely unharmed by guns.
Out of immediate danger's way, we ran; for what felt like forever, even after the sun was beneath the horizon we kept going, far out of the city and into a barren stretch of flatland with no end in sight, we didn't know which end of the city we had exited from so we were completely lost.
Deep into the cold night my legs finally gave way, and I fell like a log hitting the dirt in a very unladylike manner.
I gasped and wheezed deep and uneven breaths; teeth clattering from the cold night, and body shaking from extreme fatigue, I was grateful for wearing boots instead of heels, had that been the case I'd have discarded them already.
I rolled to my back and stared into the night, still helplessly panting, hungry, dirty, and hurting like hell, but still all I could think about was Donna, even after all I'd seen, she was all I could think about.
"Boobs, can you move?" Suteki wheezed in my ear before crashing beside me in exhaustion as well.
"Can you?" I sighed back, ignoring the fact that after many attempts to stop her, she refused to stop calling me boobs, I understood that my breasts were average sized, but people honestly made too much of it sometimes.
"Not anymore." Suteki replied to me.
"We're safe for now, even if it is just for a while." Sai groaned, sitting next to me. "We can at least recover our energy before we keep moving."
I closed my eyes, unwinding in deep sighs and forgetting about where I was, until I felt the ground beneath me rumble, we all stood, peering at the lights in the distant, this must have been a hallucination is what I imagined, but it felt real.
"Those are military vehicles, you think they'll help us?" Sai exclaimed in joy, fighting back to his feet and waving them down while we both sat up, laughing and waving as well, but then "bang" went the sound of a single gunshot filling the void of space and we all flinched then warm liquid splattered across my face and body.
And then he fell; Sai died from a headshot from a merciless group of men.
The lights from the vehicles blinded me and I just sat there, my mind going numb once more as my saviour was killed before my eyes.
I held on to Suteki and began crying again, suddenly afraid of her being killed in my arms, suddenly afraid of being killed.
One moment we were in the dirt, the next, we were captives in a truck full of women.
And then the man with red eyes came and killed them all and we were on our way to Ketchup Town; we were safe at last.
Aksara