Other Fan Fiction ❯ A Cry in the Dying Light ❯ Once Upon a Midnight Clear ( Chapter 1 )

All MegaTen references, and characters, are copyright Atlus. Ii Hito is copyright Shin Takahashi, published by Shogakukan. Other characters are copyright their respective owners, to be mentioned as they may occur.

 

“A Cry in the Dying Light”

Should I take it in my hand / it would disappear with my hot tears / like the frost of autumn.

-Matsuo BashÅ

Episode One - Once Upon a Midnight Clear

January 1st, 2001. Tokyo, Japan

Nakaido Chie woke up with a grimace, nursing a horrendous headache. She felt a little woozy, and after gingerly probing through her hair at the immediate source of pain, discovered a rather sizable lump. She prayed she didn't have a concussion. Grabbing the edge of the desk she'd likely hit, the Lightex HR Manager attempted to get her feet back under her. The last thing she remembered had been taking down the decorations from the office party…

“Hey, Nakaido-san, everyone's pretty much done in the other room. Where do you think we should put the bags,” a slightly stuffy voice piped up from behind Chie, who had started to climb up on a chair to reach for the streamers. Chie half-turned toward the owners of the voice, it was Yamada from accounting. She sighed, while it had been nice of him to stay after and offer his help, he'd all but followed her around like a lost puppy most of the night.

It wasn't that she had anything against him personally or professionally for that matter. The man was just, well, not her type, or all that remarkable really. And he was out of shape. Not horribly so, but a tad too round for her taste. She couldn't just turn him down either, since he'd never gotten around to actually asking her out, or making a move one way or the other. Yamada was just sort of here and there popping up when she least expected.

“Nakaido-san…”

“Ah, sorry, go ahead and put them in the hall for now. We'll let the janitor know on the way out. I don't want the girls to go down that alley this late.”

Yamada made a little noise of assent, but didn't make as if to leave.

Chie steadied herself on the chair, and turned to start taking down the decorations. She could feel him still staring up at her, and it made her a little self conscious. At least she wasn't wearing a mini skirt this time. Behind her, she could hear Yamada start to walk away. Hopefully he'd gotten the hint.

In the other room, a few of the girls were laughing raucously at some joke Chie couldn't quite catch. She knew at least half of the office had gotten themselves good and drunk, so it probably didn't have to be a really funny joke to set them off. “Ladies, if everything is all cleaned up in there, go ahead and call down to security and let them know we're ready to call it a night.”

A chorus of `yes ma'am's floated back to her causing her to roll her eyes in mild amusement. The girls sounded like they were making fun of her again. Honestly, she wasn't that much older than most of the new Lightex employees, even if it felt like it most of the time. Five years at a company wasn't that long was it?

She'd gotten three fourths of the streamers down when one of the OL's leaned into the room.

“Miss Nakaido? Me and the other girls, we're ready to go whenever you are.”

Chie pulled another piece down, and turned as much as she dared on the wobbly chair. “I'm about done. Go ahead and head down and call a cab. I'll be there in a few minutes.”

“Alright, I'll let them know,” the girl, one of the recent hires if Chie wasn't mistaken, gave a little smile. “Thanks for getting the higher-ups to approve the party this year. We had a lot of fun!” She laughed a little and disappeared back around the doorframe to tell the others.

The HR Manager felt a small smile of her own forming. It was good to know she was appreciated now and again.

Suddenly, a sound like thunder cracked outside the shaded office windows, followed by a strange buzzing sound from the ceiling that drew her eyes upward. The lights flickered twice before snapping off with a faint hum. Thrust into darkness, a twinge of vertigo hit and Chie could see herself falling in her mind's eye just before she lost her balance.

“Shit,” the words barely escaped her lips before a prickly flower of pain blossomed just behind her eyes, dropping her into an even deeper night.

OoOoOoO

Chie took a peek out into the dimly lit hallway; it looked empty and barren in the harsh glow of the emergency lights. Had the girls already gone down to the security office? Why wasn't the power back on yet?

She reached for her phone, and found the service bars were gone. Sighing, she flipped the phone shut, she'd just switched over to the Au PHS service too since most of the company seemed to be using it recently.

“Kanami? Riho…Miwa? Come on, this isn't funny.”

She waited a moment before calling out again, though there was still no response. They better not have left without me; she fumed, wincing as the throbbing in her head increased for her trouble.

Well, she wasn't going to wait forever, not when everyone was probably waiting for her down by the front doors. Maybe one of them had an aspirin.

The hallway was silent save for the pad of her heels on the carpet and the faint hum of the battery powered halogens in the recessed lighting. Thankfully, the offices that she'd managed to wrangle for the party weren't too far from the building's main elevator.

“Damn it!” Chie jabbed the call button a few times out of frustration. The button was lit, but the elevator wasn't coming. “This is ridiculous, I'm not taking the stairs,” she groaned, wishing not for the first time that the HR department wasn't on the fifteenth floor.

She looked around for a sign pointing to the stairwell on this floor, but didn't see one close by. Like most other Lightex employees, Chie had rarely ever used the stairs in the building, other than the small steps leading into Lightex itself. Well, there was that one time, she recalled, glancing down at her heels.

The stairwell was more of a fire escape really, and she'd broken a good pair of high-heels trying to make it to a meeting. Chie frowned, it was her shoes or her stockings, one or the other was bound to be ruined by the time she got down from the stairs.

Pushing open the door to the fire escape, Chie held up her other hand to fend off the sudden gust of wind that whipped her long brown hair into her face. Moving out onto the landing, the wind died down a little once she let the door shut behind her. Reaching for the hand rail after getting her hair somewhat under control, she let out an involuntary gasp.

Something was very wrong with the sky she saw through the gap in the tall buildings around Lightex. It was a cloudless night, and supposedly a full moon, so there was plenty of light. And therein lay the problem. She could see the moon, but it was far too big, and hung much to low in the sky casting a hazy azure light down over Tokyo. Was it the moon?

“What's going on?” The managers knees started to weaken, but she caught herself on the railing. Chie found herself reaching for the door, then changed her mind and scrabbled for the phone in her purse.

The service bars were still empty. Her eyes were invariably drawn back to the luminous blue in the night sky. Somehow the light didn't seem as strong as before, though it left her head throbbing if she stared directly at it for too long. It wasn't a very clear feeling, but blue or not, the soft light was just, wrong.

Shaking her head as if to clear it, Chie found her footing again, and that's when she noticed it. The sense of wrongness wasn't completely due to the strange light in the sky, but rather more earthbound. Tokyo, it was too quiet. Even in the early hours, there was a tension to the city, a thrum of life and activity. As she took a better look around, it appeared that Lightex wasn't the only building running off of a backup generator.

Not that she could see very far, but what little she saw of the business district was unlit, save for the eerie wash of blue.

She had to get down and find the others, make sure everything else was fine.

When Chie made it around to the front of the building, she was greeted by a completely empty street, there were a few lights off in the distance, but everything nearby was dark. There was no taxi waiting, or any of her co-workers for that matter. This had to be a dream. That was it; she'd fallen and knocked herself out, and just hadn't woken up yet.

But, if that were true, why was her head still throbbing. Her feet weren't feeling much better after having walked down several flights of cold iron stairs barefoot. At least it wasn't cold enough to snow this year. Still, she pulled her coat around herself a little tighter as she started to sit on the front steps of the building to decide where to go.

“Miss Manager!” a voice called out from behind Chie startling her, and she whipped around. There was a faint crack.

Turning to stand, she saw the OL's that had stayed behind all clustered together just inside the doors to Lightex. One of them was calling to her through the slit in between the glass partitions.

“Nakaido-san,” one of the others called. “How'd you get out there?”

Chie made to step forward and ended up sprawled across the top of the stairs. Picking herself up, she brushed herself off and tried to stand back up, almost falling again once she put weight on her right foot.

“You've got to be joking,” she regarded the broken heel, now she knew what that sound had been. Maybe she could fix it. Taking her shoe off for the second time, she stumped over to the front doors. “Where's the security guard? Or the janitor?”

The girl at the door just shrugged.

“Where's Yamada? I told him to get the janitor,” the manager spoke.

“He's back there,” the girl indicated with a tilt of her head. “We all looked, but no one else is here.”

Chie huffed, “Well, I don't have a key either. Just go out the fire escape, that's what I had to do since the elevators weren't working.”

The girls listening on the other side all made faces, and started whining that they hadn't thought of something so obvious.

“Hurry up, I don't like standing out here in the cold all by myself.”

They quickly left the doors, and she lost sight of them once they passed the giant Lightex shoe statue.

Soon, seven Lightex employees were gathered outside the building, mostly staring up at the strange phenomena in the sky.

“What do you think it is,” one of the girls, Riho, asked.

Jun, who was in the same division as the short curly-haired girl, responded, “It's the moon, right?”

“The moon isn't supposed to be blue like that!”

“Well, you tell me then. It's night, that thing is round and obviously shining light down on us. People call that the moon you know.”

“But, if that's the moon, where's the moon bunny?”

“The moon bunny, what are you…hey, where is the moon bunny?” Jun squinted into the azure.

Chie covered her face with a hand in exasperation. “Look I know it's weird, and all, but I asked if anyone's phone had reception? Did one of you try and call a cab,” she glanced down the empty street. “Or the police?”

She was rewarded with two hurt looks, two drunken stupors, Yamada's sad round face, and a glare from her one part-time friend Kanami.

It was the latter that broke the sudden silence. “Chie, the fire escape was a little goof, we know, but what do you think the first thing we tried was?” She pulled out her little company phone. “The batteries are good, but none of us could get a signal. Not even one bar,” she pocketed the useless phone.

“So, what do we do now? I don't think any of us live in walking distance. If the power's out, then the trains probably aren't running either,” Chie prompted.

Riho piped up, “Me and Jun live that way,” she pointed toward the area where city lights sparkled faintly on the horizon.

Yamada made a noise, “I'm in the opposite direction.”

The others made similar comments, which put Chie at odds. She fiddled with the broken heel of her shoe, flipping it back and forth. And it occurred to her. “Okay, how about we head down to the police station; it's just a couple of blocks from here. The trains aren't that much further, so we can find out what's going on, and someone can check to see if the JR is running.”

“What about your foot?” Kanami interjected.

“Huh,” Chie was puzzled, and then she realized she was still holding her shoe. It was true; she really didn't want to walk around in her stocking if she could help it. Belatedly she noticed her toes were already numbing from the cold.

“Maybe you could borrow a pair from the stock room?”

Nakaido regarded Yamada oddly. She hadn't figured he would make such a bold suggestion. From the stares the others gave him, it seemed the feeling was mutual.

“It was just an idea. You can bring them back in the morning. I mean, if we re-sell them after customers wore them, what's the difference?”

The round little man did have a point. Of course, it still felt wrong, like stealing. But, it wasn't like she was going to be taking a walking tour of Tokyo. A short stroll down to the police station would hardly put visible wear and tear on the merchandise. If it came right down to it, she would just pay for them when she came back to work in the morning. Yes, that way it would be fine. She didn't need to lose any sleep over it or anything.

Chie made up her mind. “I'll be right back.”

OoOoOoO

It wasn't very far from the Lightex building, where they encountered the first problem.

The group had been walking for about three blocks when they ran into, it.

“Uh, w-what is that thing?”

Kanami squinted through her glasses, speaking in a hushed tone. “Whatever it is, it smells pretty bad.”

“Is it, eww, I think it's chewing on an arm,” one of the least sober Office Ladies, Miwa, whispered back.

The thing in question was roughly the size of a grown man, and quite a bit larger than Yamada, both in bulk and stature. But that's where the similarities ended. By the blue light, they could see that while its body was humanoid, it bore the horned head of a bull, with two misshapen twisted horns curving at odd angles from the sides. And it was indeed tearing into what could only be the ragged stump of a pale arm.

Currently, it was hunched over next to a car by the side of the road. It would periodically reach into the crumpled front windshield and root around, but other than that the ox-head wasn't budging. Luckily, for them, it was facing away from Chie's group, so it hadn't noticed the arrival of more lively fare.

“I think, I think we need to find another way around,” the manager stuttered, backing up into the midst of the girls. “Come on. Let's get out of here before that thing realizes we're here.”

Almost as one, they backed up several paces, not willing to take their eyes off the chilling sight, which caused Miwa to trip backwards off the sidewalk curb and land hard on her rear in the street. “Ow! Shit! I think I broke something…” Her eyes swelled with unshed tears and fright as she realized just how loud she'd cried out. “Please tell me it didn't hear that,” she whimpered, looking up at the other girls who's attention hadn't wavered from the beast.

A loud gurgling roar cut the night air. Miwa turned her head, and found the thing's blood flecked muzzle was frothing with spittle and gore as it focused on the group. But, she felt like it had singled her out with its terribly hungry stare. The thing huffed out a cloud of frozen breath and flexed its hands, invariably dropping the gnawed limb in favor of fresh meat.

“A-Ah, it's going to kill me!” Miwa scrambled to her feet before anyone else had so much as moved a muscle. She pushed past her stunned co-workers and started running back the way they'd come.

That got the other's attention, and they too turned to get away from the approaching ox-head.

As they ran, Chie didn't have to glance back to know they were being chased. The thing barreling down the street after them roared and thundered on the asphalt as it came on. God, it sounded like it was right on their heels. She swore, if she even so much as felt a hint of it's breath on her neck she was going to start screaming, and probably not be able to stop.

Ahead of them, Miwa was steadily pulling away. Fear had lent the plastered girl wings. Chie lost sight of her when she suddenly turned the corner one block away. The monster sounded like it was gaining on them to boot. If that thing gets us because of that clumsy little bitch, Chie swore internally vaguely aware of the hypocrisy of the idea. It could as easily have been her own fault. Idly she noted that some of the girls appeared to be running barefoot, having either lost or ditched their pumps and high-heels in the heat of the moment.

For such a large and hungry creature, it hadn't followed the group for very long. They eventually lost it, or it was distracted and gave up for an easier meal. Either way, after running a block and a half, the heavy footfalls had faded before ceasing altogether. Warily taking the chance to catch a breath, they all huddled together under an electronics store overhang.

“Did anyone see which way Miwa went,” Nakaido asked, once she'd gotten some breath back into her burning lungs. She could feel her heart still doing its best to hammer out of her chest.

“No, I was too busy trying not to fall behind, Miss Track star,” Kanami wheezed, resting her hands on her knees. She looked down at the ruined hose that a few of her toes poked through. “She's probably still running like her hair was on fire. I think she pissed herself too.”

“I'm surprised we all didn't. What the hell was that thing anyway?” Chie countered.

“I mean, I really think Miwa was so scared she wet herself. I could smell it when we passed the first block.” Kanami wrinkled her nose.

Riho raised her hand for some reason, sticking it up in the air like a little kid. Kanami looked at her with an incredulous expression.

“What are you doing?”

“Um, maybe it wasn't Miwa,” Riho lowered her hand self-consciously, shrinking in on herself at the all sudden attention she'd drawn.

“Oh, you've got to be kidding me,” Jun scooted away from her friend.

“What?” Riho wondered why she was getting strange looks. Oh, that probably didn't sound too good. “No, it wasn't me, I was just saying, you know.” Her voice almost disappeared she got so quiet, “maybe it wasn't Miwa that peed.”

Kanami rolled her eyes and Jun relaxed again. Yamada was still huffing and puffing, unsurprisingly.

“Look, the sooner we find Miwa, the quicker we can get to the police and make some sense of this mess,” Chie said.

“What are you talking about? We're all headed to the same place. She knows where to go. Besides, with the way she's running, she'll probably get there first anyway.” Kanami rolled her eyes.

“What if there are more of those things out there? Look around, when have you ever seen Tokyo this quiet? And Miwa's not exactly in a right state of mind. If she gets hurt, it'd be our fault for not even trying to find her,” Chie heated up as she pulled herself up to her full not so very impressive height, all 164 centimeters of it.

Yamada took the opportunity to cut in, “Ladies, now let's think about this.”

Two glares cut him off before he could put in anymore words edgewise or not. The little man deflated much like Riho had.

Riho and Jun sat down on the store's window sill, not wanting to get involved one way or the other. Besides the two in the argument both had much higher positions in Lightex, and it wasn't worth risking their jobs over.

Overhead, the sky gradually began to darken noticeably, which halted whatever Kanami had been about to say in retaliation.

“Look, the moon's going out,” Riho said for them all.

Jun looked up, then back at the shorter girl, and then back up, “You've got to be kidding me. Is it supposed to do that? I mean, it's not like a light bulb.”

“Maybe it blew a moon fuse,” Riho said helpfully.

“What are you talking about? Mush for brains. You probably did wet yourself didn't you?”

Riho frowned, looking hurt. “I did not. See?” She started to lift her skirt when Jun stopped her. “Anyway, if you're so smart, then you tell us why it's getting all dark like that,” Riho's curls bounced with the force that she jabbed a finger toward the dimming ball in the sky.

“Quit it you two, none of us knows what the hell is going on right now, and I don't think it really matters at this point anyway. Let's get going while we can still see our hands in front of our faces,” Kanami huffed.

“Are we going after Miwa?” Jun asked.

“I don't care. It's up to Nakaido-san after all.”

Chie didn't like the way Kanami said her name, but chose to ignore it in favor of the current situation. They could go find Miwa now. But, the question was, where did the little drunkard get off to? She could be anywhere in the area.

OoOoOoO

The thin whip-like body of the dog lazily twisted around in the air just inside the mouth of the alley. It hadn't taken notice of them yet, but if they didn't hurry it would. Slowly, the little group backed up, with Yamada now leading the retreat. Chie wished he would go faster, and a little quieter. She fancied she could hear his wheezing all the way to where she was pressed against the storefront that bordered the alley.

Once they made it across to the far side of the street safely, she gave a quick shooing motion for them to keep going. Jun and Riho appeared to be having more trouble than the other two. Her eyes widened, Riho was supporting the heavier woman. Jun was clearly favoring her left side. When had she gotten hurt?

Around the corner, the dog-shaped thing suddenly snarled, and it darted forward further into the alley. Now was her chance, it was distracted. Drawing a deep breath, Chie prepared to run across the road just as a high-pitched scream rent the air. Her eyes widened, that thing was attacking someone!

On the other side of the road, she saw Yamada's group draw up short, probably wondering what to do. Her features fell in consternation. Those dog things didn't even look all that solid, who was to say they could even be hurt? But, if it was hurting someone, she couldn't just run away, could she?

The snarling grew fervent, and the scream renewed, making up Nakaido's mind for her. Frantically waving Yamada onward, she un-slung her bag and weighted it in her hand, it wasn't much. Maybe if she swung hard enough she might be able to at least stun it. Creeping up close to the corner, she risked a peek it the alley.

Chie gasped as soon as she saw what was happening. The beast was swirling around in the air, flowing down to snap its jaws at a little girl who'd wedged herself in between the wall and a large trash dumpster. Every time the monster came close the girl cried out. The woman couldn't tell for sure. It looked like the thing had gotten a few bites in already.

It was getting harder and harder to see in the fluctuating moonlight.

Clutching her bag tightly, she padded quietly into the alley, glad for the second time that night she'd traded in her high-heels.

The monster darted down at the girl unsuccessfully a few more times before Chie felt she was close enough to take a swing. Pulling the handbag all the way back past her shoulder she twisted around as she'd been taught the few times Lightex had sprung for company trips to one of the local golf courses. It was the only sport she'd played, and the handle of her bag was just long enough to make it unwieldy otherwise.

Releasing a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, Chie waited until the beast coiled in on itself to attack again and swung with all her might. Swing through, Swing through, the words ran through her head, a mantra from the driving range.

The bag hit with enough force that the zipper broke, and the contents went flying, some hitting the wall and the rest skittering across the concrete.

Apparently the floating dog was even less sturdy than it let on at first, because her clean strike drove it right into the alley wall, where it hit with a whimper and flickered a few times before fading away completely.

Chie waited for a handful of seconds, but the beast didn't reappear. Praying it was over; she peeked into the corner that the girl had worked her way into, to find two bright brown eyes staring back at her. Chie smiled, in what she hoped was reassurance. At this point, it was getting harder to tell.

“Hey, it's okay now. Its gone. You don't have to hide back there anymore.”

The girl made no sign she understood, instead she fixed the older woman with a piercing gaze, one that no child had any right to. Chie held out her hand, but the girl pulled herself further backward, almost vanishing into the shadow of the dumpster. And then, she did.

“W-what?” Chie blinked, leaning forward, knowing she had to have imagined it. The girl probably managed to squeeze around the back is all. Nakaido dropped down to her hands and knees, peering underneath the large metal bin, but all she found was a few discarded soda cans and bits of other trash. Then something shiny caught her eye to the back corner of the bin. A ball?

It took some maneuvering but a few seconds later, Chie succeeded in forcing the bin away from the wall just enough to squeeze into the gap the girl had holed herself in.

Hesitantly she reached down behind the dumpster.

The strange little milky-white sphere was almost reminiscent of a pearl. That was if it hadn't been about the size of a mandarin orange. Hesitantly, she reached out, stretching her arm until her fingertips managed to brush the iridescent orb. Straining, she could almost get it. Her arm just wasn't long enough. Reach Nakaido, reach, she mentally prodded herself. Pushing up completely against the hole, her fingers scrabbled for the silky smooth surface of the jewel. So close!

Chie let herself relax for a moment before resuming her efforts. The thing was infuriatingly just out of her reach. What she needed was something to bring it closer. Pulling her arm back, she sat up and looked around at the mess from her handbag. Nothing looked long enough. She knew she had to have a pen, or a comb. Maybe everything hadn't fallen out. That was it! Grabbing up the discarded bag, she reached in and fished around for a pen. “Hah!” She pulled her hand out and realized she'd grabbed her eyeliner instead. The tube was cracked on one side, but wasn't leaking; better yet it was about the right length.

Soon she was cradling the orb in one hand, holding it up to find that where it touched her skin it glowed with a faint light. The ball wasn't nearly as hard as she expected, but it was surprisingly much lighter than it looked, and pleasantly warm. It pulsed faintly, throbbing to an oddly familiar beat.

Just what had happened to the little girl? Chie gave the orb a little experimental tap, but nothing happened. Not at first anyway.

However, the ball soon began to grow warmer, to the point where it was starting to become uncomfortable to hold. The heat continued unabated and Chie was forced to let go or get burned. To her surprise, the ball didn't crash to the ground. Rather it hovered in place where her hand had released it, bobbing faintly in the air, similar to the way the ghost dog had hung weightless.

Curiously, she watched it for some time, waiting for a further change, but the faintly glowing sphere just hung there, she could still feel the heat it radiated though. Unsure of herself, she reached out to prod it with the tip of the tube of eyeliner that she'd absently held onto in her other hand.

The second she poked it, the ball floated away, coming to rest in the air about a meter from her. It seemed to dim a little as the distance increased. She took a step forward to see if it would float further back, but instead it rocketed forward and smashed into her chest, hard enough to knock her backward off her feet.

And all she knew was pain. So horribly intense that she couldn't move, couldn't do anything to get away. Some part of her mind realized what was happening and refused to deal with it. It felt like every nerve in her being was on fire. Like something was boring right through the center of her chest, tearing through breast and bone. Gods, why was there so much blood!

Chie didn't stop screaming for a long time.