A week had passed since Alice met that strange girl who had immediately recognized her manga figurine, although she would never openly admit it, with each passing day Alice wanted to run into that girl again more and more. The ephemeral connection that they had shared was something that could hardly be described with words. Yet even if she were to never meet her again it wasn't that bad, a group of homeless people had built a sort of shelter under a nearby bridge and they had allowed Alice to stay with them for the time being. The camp that she now lived in consisted mostly of tents in varying colors, in total about 30 people lived there. Despite the countless cars passing over them each day, the cement bridge blocked a surprising amount of noise and unless one listened closely the sound of wheels upon the road was barely audible. Those who didn't have some sort of skill that made them valuable, like Alice, would have to resort to begging strangers for pitiful amounts of money as their way to contribute to the collective.
The one who had introduced her to the camp was Ishida, an older man in his mid 40s with lighter hair than most. He had been homeless for almost 15 years now and was considered a sort of veteran around the camp, in a way he was Alice's mentor of sorts teaching her how it was to live on the streets like the litter of a street dog. Everyone at the camp had their own reason for becoming homeless, some of it could be attributed to just pure bad luck but in the majority of cases they themselves were the driving factor. Empty beer bottles could be seen lying around some of the tents, most people here didn't really want to better themselves, they just wanted to keep living like they have done for the last couple of years now. Alice didn't really know what she wanted to do, the sense of community and belonging that she found at the camp was something that she had never experienced before yet at the same time there was a nagging feeling in her chest saying that she couldn't stay here forever.
As Alice reflected on her current living conditions she was suddenly pulled from the tranquility of her thoughts as an accented voice called out to her. “Oi, you there, just loitering about?” The voice belonged to a younger man who seemed to be around 20 years old, the tone his words carried was kind. She would nod her head in response to this, it was early in the morning and Alice was getting ready for another day of begging. She found it to be incredibly degrading at first, but after having watched Ishida do it without a second thought had been enough to accept it. Still, she resented having to do it and only did so because she didn’t want to be a burden on the kind people who lived here. “Well then, if you don't feel like begging on the street today I think I found a quick way to make a few coins.”. Alice didn't really know what the man meant with this, although she had learnt the names and personalities of a few people over the last few days she was far from acquaintances with everyone. The first thoughts that entered her mind when she heard about his offer was that of prostitution. Although she would have liked to ask him about it directly, Alice did not exactly possess the confidence to do so. After all that would have been an extremely awkward thing to do If he wasn't referring to that. Still, Alice Wanted to know more before entrusting her to this strange man. “If you don't mind me asking, just what did you have in mind?”, “It's nothing complicated, you just have to watch me for a few moments, that's all.” It was clear that Alice Wasn't completely sold on the offer and the young man realized that as well. “Well if you don't want to, you don't have to. I plan on doing it in half an hour if you haven't made-up your mind by then I'll just find someone else to do it.”
The man's nonchalant attitude caused a slight stinging feeling to appear in her chest as she remembered just how unimportant she was. The man leaned back against the concrete pillar that he had been resting on and closed his eyes, Further indicating that Alice's decision was of little consequence to him. Not being able to decide whether to accept this strange man's offer or not, she would begin to look for the little dog that she had found a week earlier and named Timman. After just a few minutes of searching she found this small fluffy creature lying between two tents happily gnawing away at a piece of bone that is not found somewhere. The poor little creature seemed to have a thing for the inhabitants of this collective as it didn't shy away from any of them and even those who lived here who were afraid of dogs would pet it from time to time.
Immediately upon seeing Alice the dog would get up and walk over to her, for some reason it seemed to have gotten oddly attached to her over anybody else. Perhaps it had been because she had been the first to show the creature some sort of kindness? She picked him up and as she did she could feel that merely holding another being was soothing. She walked over to the edge of the camp and looked down at the smaller river that shared the space under this bridge with them. At one point it had been much larger but now it was more like a small puddle compared to its former glory. She felt a bit sad for it, but at the same time if the river had not decayed in size then not her or anybody else would have been able to live under this concrete bridge. Alice put her hands against one of the pillars that supported the bridge, she could feel the vibrations of passing cars through it. Although it had been less than a minute, Timman already wanted to run around on the ground again and began struggling against Alice's grip on him.
Although Alice was the type of person that was naturally suspicious of strangers, the people of this camp had shown her nothing but kindness so far and as such she eventually decided to accept the offer of the strange man. Roughly fifteen minutes later Alice once again stood before the man, it would appear that he had put on a pair of sunglasses while she was gone. With every passing moment the morning sun was slowly but surely creeping its way up the sky. Without saying a word the man with sunglasses reached down and grabbed what appeared to be a nearby rope. He got up and started walking out of the camp indicating that Alice should follow him.
As the duo walked the streets of Pandemonium most people that they passed would shoot them strange glances, but nobody tried to interrupt or stop them and before long they were in a monthly uninhabited part of town. In some places there had even begun growing plants and vines on the buildings. After walking through this strange part of town for what felt like half an hour the man eventually stopped at what looked to be a secluded courtyard. It was the kind of courtyard that was shared by multiple apartment complexes; given their sorry states it was hard to believe that anyone actually lived there anymore. In the distance, Alice could hear something that sounded akin to an amusement park, although the only thing she had to use as an indicator was the sound from old movies she had watched in the orphanage.
In the overgrown courtyard where various different types of plants and small trees fought for the few rays of sunlight that shone through, An old fashioned well was located. Most likely a relic from a bygone era kept as a decoration. The strange man, who had told Alice that his name was Kaijiri on their way here, took the rope he was carrying and tied it to a nearby tree. “This is a wishing well you see, through the countless years that it has been here, hundreds of people must have thrown their coins into it to have their wishes granted.” Kaijiri stopped speaking for a moment as he approached the well and eventually threw the rope down it. “And now, it's time for this well to grant us our wish.”
The hair on Alice's arms stood up when she realized what the man was about to do, the thought of him disappearing into that deep dark abyss made her shiver. Alice took a few steps forward as she uttered the words “Wait, don't leave me-” As she said that Kaijiri would simply have a bright smile on his face, “I'll be fine after all I have you watching over me.” and with those words the tanned man would descend into the well of wishes. The pale girl quickly ran over to check that he hadn't fallen down but all she saw was the man slowly descending using the rope as support. The last thing she could see before he descended completely into the abyss was his smile that seemed plastered to his face at all times.
“If I'm not back in 5 minutes you can call for help.” Alice could hear resonate from the wells walls, because even if she had just met this man an hour or so ago she was still worried about him, that was the kind of person Alice Yuki was. Not having any kind of watch or other timekeeping device on her, Alice began counting the seconds; if she ever were to reach the number 300 she promised herself that she would immediately run for help. She had barely been able to reach the number 100 before a familiar visage rose from the depths of the well. The moment the now soaked man put his feet on solid ground he immediately began shoveling coins from his pockets, yet even as Alice had trouble counting the amount of coins Kaijiri claimed that there was still more in the well. In total the man took three trips up and down the well, after counting the amount of money they had managed to get out of it was enough to feed the entire camp for the entire week.
A smug smile rested on Kaijiris face, it was clear that he was proud about what he had managed to accomplish and Alice herself could not help but feel that she had been part of it as well. As they returned to their humble abodes, Timman had been waiting for Alice to get home and immediately greeted her by trying to jump up her leg. The young woman responded by crouching down and petting the dog while her companion went further into the camp to report what they had managed to scavenge. Later that evening it had been decided that the money would primarily be used to buy food, however, each inhabitant of the camp was given a small allowance to do with as they pleased. Alice almost immediately used her allowance to buy dog food for Timman.
The dinner they were served that night by the camp's cook was the usual meat stew; however, this time he had been able to afford a few spices and as a result everybody at the camp were much happier than normal. Ishida, the man that could be considered Alice's mentor of sorts, sat down next to her and watched as Timman hungrily devoured the dog food that Alice had given him. As the man who already had a few gray hairs on his head watched the dog eat he would breathe a sigh of disappointment, Ishida had spent the day looking for various odd jobs that he offered to perform at a miniscule wage, however he hadn't been able to find anything and was forced to bear the shame of coming back to the camp empty handed. Fortunately he wouldn't have to worry about finding jobs tomorrow as he already had something planned with a young couple who were moving houses; they needed help with transporting their furniture and Ishida had offered to do it for them.
“If you don’t have anything else planned for tomorrow, maybe you could help me move some stuff…” Ishida was a quiet mannered type of guy, but when he thought it could benefit others he did not shy away from making his voice heard. Alice had come to like that about him, while the others at camp were mostly the talkative sorts, Ishida was a nice respite from all that chatter. It wasn't like she disliked speaking to others, it's just that after a while it got tiresome for her. After he had asked Alice for her help the man would take another spoonful of the flavored soup and put it in his mouth. It had been roughly an hour since the sun disappeared from the sky and nighttime officially began. Alice will simply nod her head in response, she preferred being quiet over speaking, mainly due to a lack of confidence that she had carried through most of her life.
As Alice went to sleep inside the small green tent that she had been given she could hear the sound of the homeless people outside speaking amongst themselves, still, it was not long before she drifted into the land of dreams. When she woke up the next morning Ishida was already prepared and ready to head out, after saying goodbye to Timman the two of them departed from the camp. As they walked none of them said a word, the people they passed tried their best to ignore them even as their shabby clothings eventually drew a glance or two. After what felt like an hour, but probably barely was a third of that, they were finally at the apartment complex where their contractors used to live. Alice could already see a young couple carrying some lighter furniture out one of the house's doors. The moment the young pair saw the two of them approaching they would put down what they were carrying and wave at Alice and Ishida.
A small truck was parked nearby and if one peered into it they could already see that a decent chunk of furniture had been loaded. Ishida and the young man exchanged some pleasantries, after which the four of them immediately started working on getting everything into the cramped truck. Really it was more similar to laying a jigsaw puzzle than actually moving furniture but after what felt like the entire day they were finally done and the job was completed. The young man gave the homeless man a few bills of yen, with a smile and a wave he and his lover departed shortly afterwards. Alice peered over Ishida's shoulder and counted the money, in her opinion; it had been less than half of what they actually deserved for their efforts. Yet she didn't say anything and simply watched as the older man took the money and put it in his pocket.
He had a solemn expression on his face for a moment but that quickly faded away as he turned his face towards Alice and smiled; “Well then what do you say, should we be on our way then? The people back home must be getting worried by now.” Alice would Once again nod her head in agreement and before long the two of them were already walking back to the camp. Although it was the time when students headed home from school the sun had already begun to set, as it usually did at this hour during November. As they walked through the city they eventually came upon a street that was just a few hundred meters away from the camp. Alice saw a couple of students who looked to be around her age and her eyes followed them as they moved through the street, she eventually saw the two boys enter a building with the words ‘arcade’ outside of it. Ishida noticed this and chuckled; “Kids these days huh, back in my day we didn't have anything like arcade games.” He would look at Alice for a moment before reaching down into his pockets; “You're a good kid, go have some fun. I’ll meet you back at the camp.”
Stolen novel; please report.
Before Alice had a chance to protest him, her mentor had already disappeared in the crowd and all that remained of him was the single hand that waved in the distance to her. Looking down at the little money she had been given she estimated that she couldn't play for long, but at the same time she wanted to honor Ishida's wish and as such she headed it into the arcade. Truth be told Alice was a little scared of getting kicked out due to her shabby clothing and otherwise dirty appearance however the owner of the place didn't seem to mind, therefore she sat down at a nearby machine And looked at its digital screen. “Medara’s Magical Adventure: Magic Showdown” It seemed to be a fighting game where you could either fight the computer or another player, the machine had inputs on both sides which would allow two players to compete against each other. As Alice played the game she thought about how fun it would be to play this game with Evelina.
The flashy colors on screen combined with the sound made for an experience that she had never seen before in life. Unfortunately the game was quite hard and Alice ran out of money quickly, for this was the kind of game that made you pay money for every match. Despite that she was still satisfied with the experience and a big smile rested on the black-haired girl's face as she headed out of the arcade. After about five minutes of walking she could see the camp where she lived in the distance and her pace increased as she got closer. The little kindness Ishida had shown her had really touched her heart and she couldn’t wait to play with Timman once she got back. Truly, being homeless wasn’t as bad as Alice had first imagined.
Yet there was something strange about the camp that Alice now called home, from a distance it seemed more quiet than usual. The usual gossip and occasional laughters that one could hear emanate from it was nowhere to be found and although that did strike the girl as odd, she did not think that hard about it as her legs were now practically on autopilot towards her newly found home. But Alice could never have imagined the gravity of the site that she was soon to behold, even with the traumatic experiences of her past, what she soon was going to see was unlike anything she had ever experienced in her life. As such the moment Alice was within sight of what had happened she could see dozens of body parts strewn about the floor.
At first she didn't want to register them as body parts, her brain came up with all kinds of excuses to make the objects lying in smaller red puddles on the ground be anything other than the limbs of her former friends. The otherwise colorful tents were now stained primarily with a single color, that of fresh blood. Alice took a step forward, her brain not knowing what to do in this situation, as she did her foot accidentally touched a warm, round, soft thing on the ground. Alice didn't dare to look down for the first few seconds but eventually she was unable to control her eyes as they focused on the small globe of fur and flesh that had at one point been the head of her much beloved dog, Timman. A blood curdling scream escaped from the lips of the traumatized girl, but regardless of how high it was there was only one person who could hear it.
The young man who was walking over the long bridge that connected the two halves of Pandemonium city, the southeast and the northwest, he was heading South from the north part where he had tried and failed a job interview. Oda ran his hand through his blonde hair which had become a habit of his over these last few days. He was wearing the only suit that he owned, its color being dark blue. Suddenly a blood curdling scream that seemed to pierce one's very soul could be heard, although Oda wasn't able to pinpoint its exact location it seemed to come from somewhere under him and as such he leaned out from the bridge. Looking down he could see a girl wearing darker clothing with black hair and pale skin seemingly frozen in horror.
At first Oda wanted to ignore her, however, as he thought about whether to help her or not the ex-addict realized that if he wanted to be accepted by society again he would have to do everything in his power to become a better person. Even putting one's life at risk was a worthwhile gamble if it could net him a ticket back into the light of the world that had kicked him out. Even then, he found it hard to move as he was practically forcing his legs forwards with each step, truly he wasn’t cut out for stuff like this.
As such Oda began running towards the end of the four laned bridge where he could safely slide down and ended up next to the screaming girl. That's when he realized why she screamed and immediately regretted his decision to help her. Upon seeing the sight of so many mutilated corpses before him it was as if every single cell in his body told him to get away from there as fast as possible. Oda saw the girl next to him drop to her knees as tears filled her eyes and she began sobbing uncontrollably. After what felt like an eternity he managed to muster enough strength to grab his cell phone and dial the emergency number. After a short pause he was put through to an operator. Oda did not blame the operator that responded to him, despite its harrowing name the city hadn't had any major cases like this in the last 50 years. He could hear a heavy sigh from the other end of the line, the operator clearly didn't trust him but at the same time from her responses it became apparent that they were going to send a patrol card to check things out anyways. It made sense, in a quiet town like this it was better to be safe than sorry.
After the first police car came it was not long until the second arrived and after that it was like a continuous stream of vehicles arrived at the bridge. Before men clad in colored clothing rushed down under it, trying to save who they could, their efforts were wasted, however, as whoever had done this hadn't left a single soul alive. Both Alice and Oda were taken to an nearby ambulance and given warm blankets, yet the shock of what they had just seen rang clear in their skulls. Alice was certain that she had seen what used to be Ishida's lying next to a few empty beer bottles. Oda on the other hand would never forget the sight of a smashed head with a single eye looking out from it, staring directly at him. After what felt like an eternity the two of them were led into an ambulance and before long they could feel how it started moving.
As they were escorted to the hospital images of what they had just seen flashed through their minds, the combination of red blood, gray concrete pillars, green grass and the multicolored tents who were now mostly wrecked made for a palette of horror in their minds. Oda would eventually be able to snap out of the traumatic events that he had seen and regain some sense of control over his body, he would look over at Alice who still seemed to be deep in shock. When they arrived at the hospital Alice and Oda were shown to two separate rooms where various counseling specialists awaited them, trying to ease the impact of such a traumatic event a little with their expertise. Yet, neither of the two young adults wanted that, instead both of them opted to reject the kindness offered to them by the hospital and were left alone in their respective rooms as a result.
As the days passed, Alice didn't want to admit that what had happened had actually happened. But eventually the cold truth of what had happened got to her as well, Alice wanted to retreat down under the hospital blanket, to just pull it over her face and disappear from the world forever. But as the hospital staff examined her they came to the conclusion that she had no physical abnormalities and as such she was going to be released from the hospital in another two days. During their time at the hospital both of them had been interrogated by police officers many times, from the way the police officers talked to him it was clear to Oda that they didn't really believe what he was saying. After all, just a year ago he had spent every third night inside the cold interiors of a jail cell. Oda wanted to give the men some credit, if he himself had been in their situation he would probably have acted in the same way or possibly even harsher.
After being forced to repeat every little detail of that fateful night time and time again it seemed like the police were finally satisfied and with that Oda was allowed to finally leave the hospital. Good riddance, he couldn't wait to leave this sorry place. The food was more akin to something that you would find in a prison and the constant pampering from the nurses was enough to drive him mad. All in all Oda couldn't wait to get out of this sorry place. Completely unlike Alice who wanted to stay here and hide from the world forever, when she was told to leave she could probably have refused, she could probably have kicked and screamed and nobody would have blamed her after what she had experienced. Yeah when the day came the traumatized girl simply nodded her head as she gathered the few belongings that she had left before leaving the hospital.
That day, no that moment, just happened to perfectly coincide with when Oda was released from the building as the police finally moved on from interrogating him. A light rain tapped against the concrete building as Alice took her first steps outside of it for the first time in a week. She had nowhere to go, with her former home being destroyed and her former friends brutally slaughtered. When the blonde man was about to leave the hospital himself he could see the black haired girl simply stand in the rain outside, even as the rain slowly but surely soaked her she did not seem to mind in the slightest. The automatic doors to the building parted the moment they could feel him walking towards them, allowing some of the rain to stain the perfectly white hospital floors. In the very next moment the rather tall man stood next to the petite girl in the boring rain. Even if no one had told it to him, Oda was able to figure out a thing or two on his own, and he believed that this girl no longer had anywhere to sleep for the night.
“Do you have somewhere to sleep tonight?” Although the words he uttered were few, the kindness that they carried were true and even Alice could feel that his intentions were pure. Oda genuinely wanted to do good in this world, even if it just was a way to better himself. Alice would shake her head and as she did she would think about all the people whose lives she had ruined indirectly, she truly was a cursed child. If this kind man was going to take her in it would surely end in disaster, he probably wouldn't even survive the sheer misfortune that surrounded Alice. Despite that, the prospect of being all alone with nobody to protect her scared Alice more than anything, and therefore she took a selfish decision. She would warn him and if he still wanted to blindly give his kindness away she would take it. “I am a cursed existence, If you take me in I will surely bring misfortune.” Seeing that Oda was basically at the lowest he had ever been in his life, he would simply laugh off Alice's comment with a heartfelt laughter.
“I don't have a car so we are going to have to walk a little to get there.” The warm feeling of doing good now greatly outweighing the possible consequences of his actions, Oda began walking towards the other side of town where he lived. It would probably take an hour to get there. Before long Alice also started walking, making sure to keep a few steps behind this stranger who had offered his kindness to her. As the rain gently tapped against their bodies, Oda thought about how the little money he had left probably wouldn't even be enough to feed two mouths until the end of the year. Alice, on the other hand, could only think about how she should have been among those who were killed on that night, someone like her didn't deserve to live.
Eventually they arrived at the downtrodden apartment that Oda called home, it wasn't anything special really, two rooms, a toilet and a kitchen, comparably average in size. It was located on the fourth floor in a six story tall apartment complex, from his bedroom window he had a perfect overview of a nearby convenience store. Oda could sit there for hours and watch people walk in and out of it going on with their daily lives. Really, waiting had become a bad habit of his but it wasn't like he could do anything about it, waiting for possible employers to respond to his phone calls, waiting for the government to respond to his applications, Oda Had more than enough time on his hands but little to do with it. He would let Alice enter first, trying to act like a real gentleman for once. Well inside a faint smell of mold and cigarette fumes would meet Alice, although she didn't like the almost toxic smell she kept her mouth shut since she knew it could have been way worse.
Oda Was clearly embarrassed about showing his sorry state of living to another but he did his best to hide it. The blonde immediately invited Alice to sit down on a chair in the dirty kitchen, it was apparent that he hadn't washed his dishes for weeks as they formed skyscraper-like constructs in the sink. As Oda opened his fridge he looked for the single milk carton that hadn't expired and About a minute later he placed it down on the table for Alice to drink. As she did that Oda would go to the other room and prepare a temporary bed for Alice, although it wasn't much it was better than living on the street. He would sigh, just what had he gotten himself into this time?
Evelina watched the TV in front of her with great interest, although she did not usually watch television, this case had awoken a curiosity within not only her but hundreds if not thousands of people all over Pandemonium. The strange case where almost 30 homeless people had been found dead in the camp that they had used to live in, all of their bodies were destroyed and mangled and many had bite marks on them along with several body parts being completely missing from the scene. The government means that this is the work of some strange cannibalistic cult, however how they were able to kill that amount of people without anybody noticing is still unknown. Needless to say, fear had spread through the city and many people didn't dare leave their homes after a certain hour. Even if the city that she lived in was named after the capital of hell it had been unusually quiet, with even a single murder being a rare occurrence that happened less than yearly.
Yet it seemed like that was about to change, especially with a strange case like this popping out from nowhere. Evelina would use the remote control in her right hand to turn off the TV, she had seen enough and it was getting late. As she lay down in her bed, she could feel the soft fabric of her pajamas brush against various parts of her body. Not long after she closed her eyes, one of the most ridiculous thoughts she had had in a while popped up in her head. “If I had been a magical girl I could have prevented it.” Truth be told it was ridiculously stupid, first magical girls weren't real, they were something confined to the pages of childish mangas. Second, even if she somehow had the power to become a magical girl somehow she couldn't possibly have known what would have happened under that bridge. Truly, Evelina had to let go of these childish thoughts if she ever wanted to become a proper adult. Right now she couldn't help but feel like she was stuck in the border between this world and the next, the border separating the world of children from that of adults.
Indeed, growing up was hard for most people and especially so for Evelina. As she started slowly drifting to sleep she thought about how gifted she truly was, she had a loving family with a big house, she lived in a good part of Pandemonium where crime was a rare occurrence and her grades were miles above that of her classmates without her even exerting herself. But she had everything but the one simple, childish wish that she really wanted. No matter how much she tried, Evelina couldn't let go of the desire to become a magical girl.