Megaten: The First Steps into the Otherworld. (Ako. Very brief appearances of Hiyami Nobu, Chad, Mana Houjou, Agent Silver, and the nameless baby sparrow.)

...

The sun was still high in the sky, and the school day had just ended. A lone girl with (excessively) tanned skin sat in the back of the classroom, near the window. Her 'name' was Ako (it was a nickname, but she'd even somehow gotten the teaching staff to go along with it). Her hair was tied up and her uniform was worn around her waist. From top to bottom, anyone could tell she was a gyaru- long nails with glittering polish, make up, jewelry, the works.

With practiced hands, her fingers danced across the screen of her bright pink phone, pestering a dozen friends over LINE. She was checking if anyone was available today- no hits. In fact a few didn't even reply, earning them some angry emotes. She wanted to head to karaoke today, but it seemed that everyone was busy...

With a sigh, Ako glanced out the window, spotting a delinquent looking boy leading the pack hoard of fleeing teens- perhaps he had somewhere to be too? He was... Nobuchi? Something like that. Like herself, he was a fellow member of team dummy, so she'd seen him during make up tests and the like. Turning her eyes back to her desk, she smiled:

(Hehe. 70! I don't get a score this super awesome every day. Like, maybe this is why no one wants to hang. Spent all my luck on this test. Well, whatev. I've got, maybe 2000 Yen? I'll just go shopping or something.)

She happily took a selfie with her test paper and sent it to her mom, complete with a winning smile and a 'V for victory' pose. With that out of the way, she crumpled up the test and tossed it into the trash bin on her way out of the door.

...

Not long later Ako had wandered her way over to the nearest shopping mall, hoping to wander around and see if anything cute caught her attention. Failing that, perhaps she'd visit the DDR machine in the arcade. Her search took her up to the 5th floor through an elevator. She stepped through the threshold and then... She was greet with a sight of ruin and desolation. Rubble dotted the floor, the smooth pillars around the area were all rough and half crumbled, the glass ceiling was shattered, and not a single person was in sight. Even the stores looked like a typhoon had tore through the place.

Feeling the panic set in, Ako turned around and felt her heart drop. The elevator- the one she just rode up- was broken. The sliding doors were dented in like a cannonball just struck it, and the bottom half of the elevator was missing. Her next action was to check her phone, but it wouldn't even turn on!

(This is super not cool. What is this? What's happening? Is this a prank? Terrorism? Did I wander into a movie set or something?)

A sound suddenly comes from Ako's left, that of foot steps, prompting her head to snap to that direction. She sees a person(?) covered in bloodstained rags. Whoever they were, they weren't facing her direction. It seemed that they just exited a store and were looking around for something. She resisted the urge to call out to them and hid behind a nearby pillar (or what was left of it).

The unsteady footsteps gradually became louder- a telltale sign that the bloodstained figure was approaching her. The steps were uneven, like someone with a terrible limp. Bit by bit the figure got closer, until the passed right by the pillar. It was then that she got a good look at 'it'. Rotting skin. Exposed bones. An eye hanging out of it's socket. It's intestines were entirely missing, leaving only a hollow cavity. It was a zombie!

Ako's face contorted in terror, teeth tightly clenched to seal away the scream she wanted to let out. Her head slowly waved back and forth as if saying 'No' to the reality before her. She didn't even notice her own legs pushing her backwards, pressing her back even tighter into the pillar. The stench of death and rot filled her lungs and it felt like every bit of her brain went into overdrive, reading her to turn around and flee the millisecond it started to turn around.

Thankfully, it didn't turn around. She kept her back tightly to the broken pillar, and it slowly shambled forward without turning around. As it's figure started to shrink in her vision, Ako's heart slowed down, closer to a normal rhythm. She quickly and quietly started to walk in the opposite direction, arriving at a large open area with no stores- just a large broken glass window on either side and the remains of various benches, tables, and chairs littering the ground. She approached the window, and promptly dropped onto her knees.

Everything was in ruins. Everything. Every building. Every landmark. Every street... Everything... Everything was gone, replaced with shoddy ruins. Hollowed out versions of their original structures. She herself wasn't sure for how long, but she scanned the scenery, hoping to see something familiar. To see anything still intact. Eventually, she turned her eyes upon the ground near the remains of the shopping mall, and there she saw a young man(?). She couldn't tell exactly what he looked like between the five floors of distance or his messy long hair, but he wasn't wearing a shirt and she was confident she wasn't looking at a woman.

Looking further down the street, a group of those zombies was shambling in his direction, yet he didn't seem to notice. Her glacial mind once again sped up. Wasn't that bad? Wasn't he in danger? Should she shout out? But what if she just lures the zombies? She couldn't stay here anyway, so Ako decided to rush out of the mall before the hoard could spot him. Hopefully he could tell her what was going on.

Only taking enough time to ensure there weren't any zombies directly in her path, Ako rushed down the defunct escalators and descended on floor at a time. She found that her body moved even better than normal. as if she were as light as a feather.

...

Sadly, by the time Ako had arrived, the 'mysterious shirtless guy' was long gone (he left, leaving a series of human shaped holes in the nearby ruins). However it was that he made his exit, it seemed to draw the attention of the zombie hoard! Their shamble had been upgraded into a clumsy sprint as the rotted monsters rushed up and over the debries in search of prey, their eyes locking onto Ako!

"No Way! This is totally the worst, isn't it? Like, complete 'game over', right?"

As she turns to flee, she instead finds a stalwart figure of a 7 foot tall female warrior, who somehow appeared behind her. With a deep and feminine voice, she calls out: "I am thou, thou art I. Thou who would act to bring peace and order to this land, call upon my name and command me! I am To-" "MOE-TAN!"

This entity, known as Tomoe Gozen, whom was currently being hugged by a crying Ako, was the physical incarnation of Ako's mind and spirit. She took on the form and identity of Japan's most famous female warrior, a peerless general that faithfully served the Minamoto clan and helped found the first shogunate. Though the memory was vague and distant, Ako immediately recognized this side of herself, as if Tomoe was an old friend that never left her side. As for Tomoe, her face was a bit overcast, sad that her declaration was cut off like that.

Seeing the hoard closing in, Ako yelled out: "Gyaa! Moe-tan, help!"

With a short "Understood", Tomoe charged out like a blur. Her naginata confidently held in one hand as she swept out and sliced a zombie in two. As she saw the hoard surround Tomoe, Ako started to feel some guilt for sending her friend in alone. Looking around, she saw, rubble, rubble, and more rubble, settling her gaze upon a broken section of pipe. She steadied her heart (with the aid of her persona's influence) and rushed over to the pipe with a speed that nearly rivaled Tomoe!

Seeing her other self rushing towards the hoard with an iron pipe, Tomoe smiled and leapt over the zombies to Ako's side. No sooner had Ako attempted to bash a zombies head in with the pipe did Tomoe split another zombie in half that had lunged at Ako from the side. As for the zombie Ako struck, it fell backwards but otherwise seemed unharmed.

Ako complained: "Eh!? That's it? Seriously?"

To which Tomoe chided while cutting down another zombie: "If you wish to harm them, draw deep upon your spirit and cry out."

Like clockwork clicking into place, Ako 'knew' what Tomoe was asking. She yelled out: "Moe-tan! Holy Strike!"

Ako felt a tinge of fatigue in her mind settle in as Tomoe flourished her naginata and called out in return: "Eight Banners Blessing"

Ako's pipe and Tomoe's naginata suddenly lit up with a soft white light. The blade of Tomoe's naginata cleaved through several zombies at once like cutting through the wind, reducing their bodies to scattered ash. Even Ako managed to easily slay a zombie, a well aimed strike to the head reducing it to ash- whatever that soft white light did, it was clearly some scary stuff. Iron pipes and bladed spears shouldn't be turning things to ash!

A few more kills from Ako later (and several dozen from Tomoe), the hoard had only tightened in around them. For every zombie dead, it was as if two or three took it's place. And so Ako called out again: "Moe-Tan! Mow Down!"

As if waiting for those words, Tomoe grasped her naginata in both hands and held it up to her left side, the tip facing behind her, as if she were winding up for a big swing. Her left foot was planted firmly behind her and rushed forward, leading to the swing of the naginata. Tomoe's entire body pivoted and turned, swinging the blade in a circle and sending out a shockwave in the process! The shockwave passed through Ako harmlessly, but reduced the entire hoard to ash!

Ako felt relief to see the street empty of zombies, but noted a dull pain all over her body- it was odd considering she managed not to get hit. The pain appeared the moment she said 'Mow Down'. Was that the 'cost' of the ability? Like that tiredness she felt from using 'Holy Strike'? She turned around to ask Tomoe herself about it, but found herself to be alone again.

"Moe-tan? Eh? Moe-tan? Where'd you go? Moe-tan!?"

Tomoe's voice rung out in Ako's head: "When you need me, call out my name."

Ako immediately replied: "Moe-tan! Can't you just stay with me? This place seriously creeps me out!"

... " No reply. Moe-tan's a dummy."

Her cheeks puffed out in fake anger, Ako once again looked around, trying to figure out which way to go. Should she check out the human shaped holes in the wall? Return to the mall? Try to head home? Sit still and hope someone comes to her?... Apparently that last option was the correct one, as Ako already spotted someone! It was a white haired girl in a black jacket with a small white shawl hanging off her shoulders.

The mysterious girl glanced at Ako knowingly and walked away, disappearing behind a corner. Ako ran after her and cried out "Hey, hold up!", but the girl had vanished. Scanning again, Ako spotted the girl just as she was rounding another corner. Ako once again ran after her, repeating a cycle of running, losing track of the mystery girl, and barely catching a glance of her again.

Eventually, the mysterious white haired girl headed into a small cove formed from the ruins, but when Ako ran over, she only found collapsed walls and a single door. Where did the girl go? The door? It was unlikely, considering the door was just standing in front of more rubble- it didn't actually lead anywhere. Ako walked up to the door and heard a dull 'clink' from the ground below her- a rough, heavy iron key was on the floor near the door.

On a sudden impulse, Ako picked up the key and pushed it into the keyhole of the door- it was a perfect fit! She turned the key, prompting a quick 'ker-thunk', and the door swung open, revealing a swirling, twisting mass of black and white light. Before she could question if this discover was good or bad, the light from beyond the door enveloped her.

...

Hearing the 'thud' of a door closing behind her, Ako found herself now in an alleyway. There was trash here and there along the alley, but the buildings on either side were clearly intact! She whipped out her phone and sure enough, it turned on! She was back!

Ako clapped her hands together and looked up to the sky: "God, Buddha, I don't know who helped me out, but seriously thanks a bunch. You're totally god-like. I promise to visit the nearest shrine soon-ish. Aaah. I've never been so happy to be surrounded by trash bags."

When she finished her prayer, she examined her right skirt pocket and found a small white and black key, completely different from the big iron key she had a moment ago. This one was delicate looking, and also kind of weird looking. For one, the blade of the key was non-existent. It was basically just a smooth shaft. The head of the key and an elaborate engraving of a key on it, featuring a tarot card- the fool. She wasn't sure how it changed, but Ako figured this weird key is how she returned. She wasn't going to ditch it- if she got stuck in that creepy place again, wouldn't she be screwed without it? She tossed the key back into her pocket and made her way home.

...

When Ako returned home, the first thing she did was give her mom a hug. The second this she did was steal one of her big sister's yogurts. And the third thing she did was flop face first onto her bed. She. Was. Exhausted. Grabbing the yogurt she placed on the nightstand, Ako took small bites of happiness while she checked her various SNS. Apparently, some kind of video had gone viral in her area?

Opening the video, she grimaced- a dead body? She hated crime scene videos. Not that she stopped watching. Gossip was life for a her social circle and she didn't want to fall behind. The body was in the nice part of town, laying right in front of someone's front door. The view on the camera adjusted and showed a clearer view of the body- it was covered in scratch marks and bite wounds. Human sized bite marks. Ako immediately recalled her surreal experience not long ago, and couldn't help but compare those wounds to the zombies she encountered. A man in a brown suit rolled the body over, revealing the face of the corpse- or more importantly the wound on his face. A round hole was dead center on the corpses forehead.

The bullet wound only confused Ako further. Did a murder victim get sent to that weird world? Or did someone get sent there and then murdered? And how did the body even come back? Was it just a coincidence, and the murderer just messed with the body for fun? She couldn't make any sense of it. Suddenly, an absolutely bizarre looking man walked up to the camera. He wore some white body armor over a blue-ish green leather suit, and some kind of gas mask attached the man's helmet to the backpack behind him. At his side was some goofy looking contraption that looked a ray-gun from some sci-fi flick.

The armored man practically screamed suspicious as he walked up to the cameraman and said with a heavy foreign accent: "You there. Stop recording. NOW."

The video suddenly cuts off- clearly the cameraman had complied. Frankly, she wasn't sure what to make of this video. She knew she didn't like it, but that was about it. All she had was confusion and unease...

...

Later that night...

Ako eventually managed to drift off to sleep, but her dreams weren't the comfortable kind. Sights of desolate ruins, hoards of zombies, and a poor, murdered man haunted her. Eventually, it gave way to a sight of a small room. The walls and ceiling all had caved in, causing the room to be shaped like a bowl, with just a few strands of sunlight leaking through the rubble above. In the center of the room, under one of those stands of light, was a small gilded golden cage with a tiny egg inside. She couldn't understand it, but a beautiful song filled the room, giving it a calm and welcoming feeling. Ako reached out towards the cage, and then... she woke up.

Sunlight poked through her curtains to taunt her, and phone played a cute but nonsensical song as a wake up alarm. Ako reached out to silence her alarm and bitterly pulled herself out of bed. What was with that dream? It felt so... real.... So... welcoming? It was like someone was waiting for her. Whatever it was, it had to wait a bit longer. She needed to wake up and get ready for another day of school...