WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS DARK THEMES THAT MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE BY ALL AUDIENCES. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
{7 Years Ago}
In East Kazahana, there is a small town named Momoko. This town’s name comes from the fact that it is located in the center of the Giant Peach Forest. The area is full of gigantic peach trees inhabited by a species of squirrel called Pink Pit. They vary in size but are pretty large on average.
On the outskirts of the town there are two young boys walking away from a Pink Pit while waving goodbye. One of the boys was cheerful with black hair and brown eyes. The other was the polar opposite. He had these lifeless white eyes and all white hair. The black haired boy shouted back at the giant rodent.
“Look at Lil Jimmy, all grown up! He’s gonna be the best ninja squirrel in the forest!”
“Why do you want her to be a ninja so bad Ren?”
“BECAUSE ANGEL, SQUIRRELS WOULD LITERALLY MAKE THE PERFECT NINJAS!”
Angel looked at Ren with a look that could only be described as squinting at food between someone’s teeth.
Ren responds; “you’re such a bad co parent, I’m obviously better fit to be the man in this relationship.”
Angel’s squint intensifies.
“If that was true, why would you name a female squirrel Lil Jimmy and refer to her as a he?”
Ren decides to pivot from Angel’s question.
“Aunt Hisa is gonna be so mad at us huh. We were supposed to spend the day practicing with Momoko for her recital.”
Angel, though annoyed, decides to move past the squirrel talk.
“I wonder if our punishment this time will be worse than last time”
“Angel...nothing is beating eating live frogs.”
Both boys shudder in disgust.
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They arrive home to Hisa crying and Momoko comforting her. Hisa was a woman with long pink hair. Momoko [Ren’s younger sister] was a small girl with bright curly hair. She was rubbing her Aunt’s back comforting her.
“WBY BUs bOdody hERe cARE aBoU MOnEIyYyyYyYYyy!” Hisa sobs.
The boy’s and Momoko sigh.
Collectively they thought; ‘Here we go again.’
Momoko makes attempts to calm Hisa down but they are futile.
A muscular woman creeps up behind Angel and Ren and begins choke holding the boys.
After the jump scare wears off Ren looks up with a grin.
“MOM!”
Ren and Momoko’s mom had short pink hair and towered over your average man. Her clothes were always dirty and her breath reeked of booze.
“What’s goin on Ren. Why you always gotta make ya aunt cry?”
While she is concerned when saying this, she is grinning.
Hisa stops crying and begins shouting.
“IT’S BECAUSE HE’S A DISGUSTING BRUTE JUST LIKE YOU HINA!”
“Just cause I’m not a princess doesn't make me a brute. You gotta let kids be kids sometimes sis. If they don’t wanna be royal snobs then they don’t gotta be.”
“Unlike YOU, I care about the wellbeing of this family! Once they took Riku away you stopped making weapons for Fawn and that was our main source of income! How could you do something so emotionally charged when we needed you to be the head of the house!”
Hina lets the boys go and looks down at the ground with sorrow. The room has become completely silent.
“I really am sorry for putting us in a position that is hard for everyone...I jus-”
“STOP IT AUNTY! IT’S NOBODY'S FAULT THAT DAD LEFT! THE ONLY ONE TO BLAME IS HIM! HE’S THE ONE WHO DECIDED TO LIE TO THE FAWN SOLDIERS!”
Hisa scoffs at Ren’s outburst and Hina begins to cry. Angel and Momoko begin hugging her tightly.
Hina lets out a soft laugh.
“Well look at that, guess the dancer and the stray still love me.”
Hina looks at Hisa who pouts and turns her head away. Hina wipes her tears and puts on a smile.
“Why don't you guys show me the dance you were working on?”
The kids smile.
“Yes mom!”
Ren grabs his bamboo flute and Angel grabs a taiko drum. Momoko begins to stretch. Ren gives Momoko a warm hug.
“Just like we practiced kay Momo?”
Momoko grins and nods. She was very close to her older brother and looked up to him. Her favorite times were when they would perform together or play in the forest. Ren begins to play his flute whilst momoko dances. Angel beats his drum to the rhythm of a waltz. Hina and Hisa clap to the beat. After their performance is done they all take a bow.
Hina is overjoyed.
“THIS WAS SUCH A GOOD WAY TO END MY NIGHT! MOMOKO YOU WERE SO ELEGANT, REN YOU’RE SUCH A NATURAL AT MUSIC I NEVER GET TIRED OF HEARING YOU PLAY!”
Her voice dies down…
“Aaaaaaaaangellllll, niiiiice joooooob?”
Angel adopts a face of annoyance.
“I played to the best of my ability!”
Ren raises his head.
“Mom, did you finish your latest piece?”
“I sure did. Twenty-four days of hard work. It’s the ultimate staff!”
“Ooooh. When can I see it?”
Hina thinks for a moment.
“If you can wake up at dawn tomorrow, I’ll show ya.”
Hina was a blacksmith and former supplier of weapons to higher ranking soldiers and royalty. Extremely excited, Ren decides to go to bed along with Momoko and Angel.
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Ren wakes up to Angel preparing to smack him across the face. He tries to stop him and let him know that he is awake but receives a slap anyway.
“WHAT WAS THAT FO-”
“SHHHHHHHHHH!”
Ren is shooken up. He was confused as to why Angel was being so serious. Angel whispers that there were loud noises coming from downstairs in Hina, Hisa, and Momoko’s room. Ren gets out of bed and the boys make their way downstairs. The house had been ravaged through. The boys were shocked. They had been robbed before but this was different. Angel decides to check the other room to see if the girls were okay but all he found was a destroyed bed. He yells across the house.
“Ren, I’m starting to get really worried!”
Ren doesn’t respond.
“Ren!?”
Still no response.
Angel decides to make his way over to Ren who was standing near the front door.
“What's up, did you figure out where they went?”
“...”
“What are you looking at on the floor?”
“...”
Angel gets frustrated that Ren is ignoring him and decides to walk up and smack him in the back of the head.
“YO REN SNAP OUT of it-”
Angel’s eyes are dragged down by the moonlight to the bloody beaten body of their mother. He is in awe. He looks over at Ren who seems to have been frozen in time. Ren begins to speak in a bizarrely calm voice.
“She is naked...there are deep hand prints on her waist and neck...do you think that they-”
“Don’t go thinking about stuff that’s gonna make you more upset!” Angel interjects.
“They...touched her...didn’t they?”
“Ren.”
Ren began to clench his fist until they bled.
“What did she ever do to deserve this!”
His eyes were white with sorrow as tears ran down his face.
At that exact moment a thought comes to Angel’s head.
“We need to find Momoko and Aunt Hisa before something bad happens to them. They couldn’t have gotten too far”
Ren sniffles, nods quietly, and slowly follows Angel to their mothers weapon shed. The boys begin to shuffle through the shed in preparation to fight the culprits. Angel picks up Snow, a silver katana with a white handle that Hina had made for a Captain of Fawn over a decade ago. Ren spots a staff that's wrapped up. He unwraps it to find his mom’s final creation; The Black Mamba. The staff was all black and very heavy. The two holstered their weapons and headed east. The pink pit squirrels lived in the area to the west of the town and Angel figured that people who aren't used to them would probably be too frightened to go that way to enter the town. The town was unscathed but most of the lights were out and doors were left open. After a bit of a walk the boys locate a run down cabin. There is screaming and crying coming from it so they decide to sneak up to a window and find out what's going on inside. There are 2 bandits conversing inside and in the corner are Momoko and Hisa tied to large rocks. Both bandits were large with pale skin and black hair.
The bandits discuss their plans while the boys eavesdrop.
“SHUT UP CAN’T YOU SEE ME AND MY PARTNER TALKING HERE,” one bandit yells. The girl's screams turn into sniffles.
“This whole gig was a bust! All we got were 2 girls!”
“The girls are a bonus, remember? We’re killing two birds with one stone here. First we claim the money from that Fawnish prick for doing his job, then we sell off all the women and children as slaves.”
“Yea genius I remember. Just one issue, THE WHOLE PLACE WAS CLEARED OUT BEFORE WE EVEN GOT HERE!”
Angel and Ren are surprised by this.
“Sure, but look at the quality of these two!” The bandit gestures towards the two girls. He walks over to Hisa and grabs her by the neck with one hand and rubs her thigh with the other. He licks her face and gives her an evil look. “Especially this one gehgehgehgehgeh.” Hisa begins to shed tears.
“C’mon man aren’t you satisfied after using that ape of a woman earlier? You’ve already cost us some money!”
“That was different, she wasn’t very pretty anyway, probably wouldn't have sold for much. Besides, what was I supposed to do? She had resisted while I was trying to test her out so I put her down. Woulda been more trouble to travel with her.”
Angel was extremely upset. Hina was like a mother to him. But as he looked over at Ren, he felt like he was drowning in darkness that was on a completely different level. Ren was gritting his teeth and clenching his fist with all his might.
He whispered.
“Angel, on three, we’re hoping through this window and bashing their heads in.”
Angel nodded.
“One. Two. Thr-”
“WAIT.”
Angel put his arm out to stop Ren from moving forward. Ren was upset.
“WHY DID YOU STOP ME!”
“Shhhhhhh. Look around us, something here isn’t right.”
Ren looked around and Angel was correct. The whole forest area had been filled with a pink fog. The boys then looked back through the window to see that the fog had made its way into the cabin. Everyone was confused. Where did it come from? Why was it pink? The bandit touching Hisa stood up.
“What’s going on?”
The other bandit had been leaning on a wall. He shrugged then paused.
“Hey...do you feel...weird. I’ve got a bad headache right now.”
The other bandit responds.
“Now that you mention it my head just started ringing a moment ago too.”
The man reaches to scratch his head, but when he raises his hand he is shooken.
“What’s wrong!?” The other bandit replies. Then he observes his partner's hands.
“AAAAAAAAHG, YOUR FINGERS ARE GON-”
The bandit on the wall begins to gush blood from his eyes and mouth. The same happens to the other bandit and they fall to the floor. Meanwhile outside the window, the boys are shocked. Moments later the front door opens. A large bundle of black fur enters the cabin. The figure is taller than the doorway and has an ox skull in place of it’s head. The boys are startled. The figure begins to speak in an unknown tongue to the girls. Momoko begins to cry out for help and Ren prepares to bust through the window but before he can he hears Angel call his name.
“REN BEHIND US!”
Ren turns to see 3 other figures just like the one inside surrounding them. They all dash towards the boys but Angel stands in front of Ren. The unknown creatures freeze as Angel stares them down. They back off and after a moment, begin to slowly sink into the ground. Once they’ve fully submerged, the pink mist disperse. Angel looks into the window to find that Hisa and Momoko have disappeared!
Ren is once again completely frozen.
------------------------------
The boys now make their way back to the town feeling defeated. Once they arrive Angel suggests that maybe the ox headed figures were responsible for the disappearance of the townspeople. With a concerned expression, he looks over at Ren who was standing in front of him watching the sunrise.
“They may still be alive.”
Tears begin to fall down Ren’s face.
“Then...we’ll find them. We'll save our family.”
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