“Yowa! Yowamushi! Can you hear me?!” Was the first thing he heard as his conscience came to. His head felt like it was buzzing with cicadas and his mouth felt dry as cotton. Though something was off about it, as if the inside of his mouth was numbed for some weird reason. “Good grief, you're about time you're awake!” He blinked crust from his eyes and glanced around as he had been laid out in the grass. He was in the middle of a field and a bloody mess too. His last concise memory was riding his bike into town to go to work at the supermarket's bakery. Though he hurt everywhere and nothing felt short of on fire, he winced as he sat up and hunched over, totally perplexed by his situation. He took in the view for a moment before he shook his head to clear his thoughts. Who was talking to him? There was no one around from what he could tell.
“What...the hell?” Was all he could really mumble, but again felt like something was somewhere it shouldn't be, somehow. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it was certainly out of place other than being covered in what he assumed was his own blood and sitting stupidly in a open field. Then again, that was no where near where he worked to his memory as he lived in a rather bustling city with skyscrapers and angry honks from overworked salary-men's cars and the like. So where in the world was he?
“Don't look that confused mister, you're embarrassing yourself.” Again with this high pitched girly voice.
“Wait what? Where are yo-” A small child appeared before him in a small puff of cotton-candy tinted smoke. “AHH!!” He yelled and then immediately regretted it as his whole body screamed at the sudden excursion of his movement. She was cute, unnaturally cute, to the point it actually hurt his eyes to look at her directly.
“Well don't give me that look, it's not that great of a outfit.” The girl whom he could only guess was at least ten years old tops, gave off a horrendously momentous aura that made him shudder uncontrollably. She put her little white colored gloved hands on her non-existent hips and leaned forward as if observing him in closer detail. She was extremely flat chested and wore an obnoxious polka dotted periwinkle tutu with a coat that looked oddly enough like a over-sized black puffy cat. She held out her tiny hand and held him with a inhumanely strong grip on his chin to the point he flinched by the surprise. He was more stunned then annoyed so naturally he stared back at her innocent looking pure red eyes.
“I, uh...um...” He stuttered at a loss for words. She seemed to confirm something and returned to her small stance as before.
“Yup. It's as I thought. You're in for a real ride there buddy.” She seemed content in herself and folded her doll like arms in front of her. “You've got it alright.”
“Wait! Hold on, back it up here kiddo. First, who are you? Second, where am I? And finally, what are you going on about?” She held up her childlike sized hands and stopped him before he could berate her with more questions.
“I know you are confused but you don't have much time.” Yowa gave a dazed glare at her and furrowed his brow in agitated confusion, “You're going to die.” She said with a grin.
“Excuse me?” He said in a short ended reply. “How am I not dead yet anyways? Did I get hit by the classic Truck-kun plot device or something?”
“Well no. You saw my Lord get involved with a battle that also happened to spill out into the road you were biking through. Alas, it knocked you out clear into Gehenna so I'm not sure if you can grasp the concept at the moment.” Yowa gave a extremely blatant leer and made to get up from his sitting position.
“Oh right. Sure. I'm in hell is that what you're saying?” He said snidely.
“Yes. And you're going to perish just being here. Only thing that's even remotely keeping you alive is the Demon King's power of course.” She then poked him on the head as he tried to stand and the sheer force slammed him down to his butt. He yelped in surprise and sat with his legs sticking out.
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“Jeez kid. Will you just calm down and explain to me-” A massive ball of energy bulged from the seemingly thin air in front of them and broke open much akin to that of a eggshell being cracked open. The kid turned around promptly and didn't move a muscle as the wind being emitted from the sudden appearance of the crack in the air.
“If you don't accept here and now, you'll die. So what's your answer?” The young looking girl said.
“I don't even know...what is happening?!” The wind suddenly receded into the gaping maw of a black hole and strange slithering shadows made their way around the girl and after Yowa. They reached him before he could even blink and wrapped themselves around his limbs. He was yanked into the air in a exceedingly fast fashion to the point he was possibly going to be sick from the height he was lifted to. “Make it stop!” He screamed down at her.
“Decide! Yes or no?” Was all she seemed to really care about him. No never mind he was more or less dangling about forty feet in the air suspended by shadowy hands.
“Fine!” The shadows suddenly began to pull him down to the ground with enough power to break every bone in his body, “YES!”He yelled, “JUST HELP ME ALREADY DAMN IT!”
“Good to know you're not an idiot after all! Keruberosu! You know what to do boy!” The huge hairy coat that the girl wore seemed to fly off of her small body and turned into a what he could only call a hound from literal hell. It sprung up and at Yowa with incredible accuracy and pushed Yowa to the side as it ripped at the shadows. It seemed to bellow, not bark, and continued to bite at the shadow hands, its two massive head snarling with a pyre of flames from its mouth and steaming flying spit everywhere.
“HOLY SHIT!” Yowa screamed at the top of his lungs like a little bitch and he actually started to cry a little as the hands spewed black fluid and the hell hound caught him on its back with ease.
“That's a good boy Kerukeru!” She held up her little arms as the massive behemoth of a beast landed next to her and dropped Yowa to the ground just as abruptly. He curled up into a little ball and began rocking slightly, trying to make sense of what the hell just happened. “Now go back to sleep okay? You'll get a treat later, I promise.” Just as suddenly the beast appeared, it transformed back into a puffy coat of black fur and she put it on without doing it herself. It simply slipped onto her small frame by itself. “What's wrong? I suppose humans are sensitive to things like this huh.”
He got to his hands and knees and had the urge to vomit but held back as much as he could. He swallowed the sick in pain and breathed heavily as he sweated profusely. The black shadow had left singe marks all over his clothing and yet he had felt no heat from them as it happened.
“WHAT THE ACTUAL FLYING FUCK IS GOING ON?” Was all he could say in a trembling loud voice.
“Oh did I not mention it? Those were Shinigami Claws, they were trying to bring you back into your world's cycle of death. I stopped them and here we are!” She said all of this with a oddly cute squeak in her voice and seemed proud of what she had done. All Yowa could really comprehend was he was about dragged into death's vice and this freaky strong child stopped whatever was going to happen to him.
“T-thanks. Sorry I uh, was...yelling.” He coughed slightly and specks of blood splattered the lush grass. “Could...you at least...tell me what...is going on...?” With a wheeze he was able to sit back down and wiped his mouth with his already stained sleeve. At this point he really didn't care if it was his blood or not all over him.
“Well, my name is Keiken'na! Or Kei for short, like gemstone! I'm sparkly and smart and will do whatever I can to help out another fellow partner!” Kei seemed overly excited yet again and gave no second looks of disdain at his disheveled and battered appearance.
“Wonderful.” He said without a ounce of bitterness or sarcasm. “Can you just...take me home already...”he slumped over and was passed out before he finished.
“Ooh he's a keeper. I like him Kerukeru! Let's take him home and clean him up shall we?” Kei hefted the rather gangly grown man onto her petite shoulder and somewhat dragged him as she walked due to her short stature. “He's a keeper he's a keeper!” She started singing to herself as she then opened a crack like door in the air out of nowhere and stepped through it, back to where Yowa was before being sent to Gehenna.