Chapter Text
Momo’s feet pounded painfully against the ground, each step echoing down the tunnel so loudly it almost managed to cover her heartbeat, loud and booming in her ears.
Her phone was still clutched in her hand, the call long since disconnected. This is your fault, she reminded herself. You could tell he was scared, and you pushed him, and now-
“Now, what, girlie?”
Momo tilted her head to the side to avoid looking at the glowing, ancient eyes of the apparently very real Turbo Granny. Her footsteps matched Momo’s effortlessly and silently, and her wrinkled smile was mocking.
“It’s my fault he’s there,” she gritted out in between breaths. “I’m going to go help him.”
“How? You’re weak. You won’t make it to where you want to go, not at that speed.”
She gritted her teeth further, almost painfully. “So, what?” she asked. “Am I supposed to just abandon him?”
“I never said that,” Turbo Granny said, and suddenly Momo really, really didn’t like her smile.
“…What are you suggesting?” she asked, voice weary.
“As soon as you humans figured out a measurement of speed you could agree on, some tacked on 100kmph onto my name.” She shifted, and suddenly Momo was staring Turbo Granny in the eyes, feet still pounding away at the ground beneath her. “It’s not quite accurate,” she continued, “but I believe you get the idea.”
Momo slowed to a stop, eyes narrowed. “What’s in it for you?”
She cackled. “Oh, don’t you worry about that. Is it so… outlandish that I just want to help?”
Momo paused, considering. This… this sounded dangerous. Incredibly so. What had Granny Seiko always said? There was always, always a price, she remembered hearing. She… couldn’t trust her, right? She shouldn’t.
She moved to speak, to shake her head no, do something, but her phone felt heavy in her hand, and Occult-kun’s scream was still ringing in her ears.
“Fine,” she spat out, sticking a hand out towards her. “I appreciate the help.”
For a split second, neither of them moved. But all of a sudden Turbo Granny’s mouth had split open into a grin too large for her face, teeth falling into place like keys on a piano, and the last thing Momo thought was how dark it was inside her impossibly large mouth.
-*-*-*-*-
Ken came to in a way that felt a lot like riding a bike over a hill.
At first it was a struggle, each thought coming slowly and sluggishly through the fog in his mind. And then he reached a tipping point, thoughts flooding in like an avalanche, and suddenly he couldn’t stop thinking. Not about what the last thing he remembered was, not about how he couldn’t feel any fabric between his back and the cool, soft surface beneath him, not about the sounds he could hear around him, steps over a surface that sounded a mix between wood and steel.
And then he remembered Miss Ayase’s final words, before he’d been caught, and the sudden elation at the thought of Turbo Granny being real clashed with the immediate pit in his stomach. Was she okay? He hoped so. He couldn’t really do much to help, not like this.
But when he finally opened his eyes, all these thoughts screeched to a halt before the final, overwhelming feeling that he needed to get out of here, now.
“Greetings, human male,” a voice said, and though Ken had lost his glasses he could still make out the large, gaping shadows where the being’s eyes and mouth should be. Did they have them, or were they just sunken, drawing in the flesh around them? Ken shivered.
“W-why am I here?” he croaked out, voice hoarse. He got no response, so he continued, voice growing frantic. “D- uh, do you maybe need me to tell you about human society? If so, I can- maybe I can help? I know a lot, so please- I don’t want to die, I can still be useful-”
“We are not going to kill you,” one of them said, and Ken sank back down in relief. “We just want your banana organ.”
Ken froze. “My… what?”
“Your banana organ,” the voice repeated. “We are Serpoians, named for our planet. As we lack a means for reproduction, our society has stagnated. We must study your organ in order to fix this problem.” The one in the middle stepped back slightly, while both of the other ones moved to either side of Ken’s restraints. Ken’s eyes widened, horrified, as the middle one leaned back, something metal and gleaming and sharp emerging from its midsection.
“We would prefer it if you remained still,” it said, and in response Ken only thrashed further. The aliens to either side of him moved closer, each raising a hand to his temple, and in moments Ken felt a strange feeling wash over him, soothing his nerves and calming his spasming muscles. His body stilled, but his mind raced.
“Are you surprised? We Serpoians are masters of psychokinesis. We can use it to manipulate the world around us as well as the world within us. It is something most humans are incapable of.” Its words wormed their way into Ken’s mind slowly, his consciousness barely aware enough to process them.
“Do not worry,” it continued as Ken moved, struggling much less now against the cool material holding him down. “It will be harvested cleanly and painlessly.”
Another frustrated yell forced itself from Ken’s throat as hands moved to spread his legs apart, and he tried, frantically, to thrash against the motion. This- this wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. He called bullshit on this entire thing, actually. He screwed his eyes shut, desperate. Please wake up. Please let me wake up now, let this be a nightmare-
Light flooded the room from one instant to the next, so bright it was nearly blinding. Ken screwed his eyes shut tighter, trying to burrow back into the contraption he was on, but gasps gave him pause. The aliens sounded… surprised. Scared, even, if the sudden release of pressure on his mind was anything to go by. Had the light been caused by something else?
Slowly, cautiously, he cracked an eye open to see the room bathed in bright red, the light coming from his phone, cracked and discarded in a corner of the strange room they were in. The omnipresent whirring coming from the walls slowly grew closer to static, buzzing loudly in his head, and the three aliens backed away with jerky, stiff movements.
And then his phone buzzed once, twice. With a start Ken realized he was getting a call. Was it Miss Ayase? At least that meant she was alright, then. He sighed in relief.
But why did the aliens seem so nervous, then? Did they not know what a cell phone was? That was funny, he thought. Like a cat getting scared of a cucumber-
Ken blinked. His phone looked… weird, all of a sudden. As though the red had escaped the screen, reaching out to the world around it, groping for something to grab… Wait. Ken squinted, eyes barely making the blurry shape any more distinct as it wriggled around. Was that…? Was that a hand?
He got his answer when the hand’s arm followed, joints bending and popping and writhing and then there was a torso, and legs, and a horrifying face with far too many teeth and glowing yellow eyes that looked right at him even as the aliens rushed towards it.
Its mouth moved, slightly, but Ken couldn’t make out the words before it ran into the first alien, body contorting to dodge and weave until its mouth clamped, hard, over the alien’s groin.
The Serpo let out a noise Ken took to be a scream of pain, and metallic clanking followed as the new being discarded the pieces stuck between its teeth. The remaining aliens tensed in preparation but it flew at another one before they could react, biting another chunk out of it.
Ken stared, stock still and wide eyed, as the Serpos pulled at their own skin, the masks falling to the ground like slowly melting wax. This… so this was what they looked like. They were nearly terrifying, except for how ridiculous they looked. They were basically vertical, humanoid crabs.
A crash sounded behind him, something knocking into his… chair? Table? Whatever it was. He flinched at the sudden movement. The sounds of clanging and crashing and fast movement were only growing louder, and he was still bound, and all of a sudden he was confronted with the notion that maybe this new creature was hostile, too.
He pulled at each of his hands frantically, fingers writhing and bending in an effort to make his wrist smaller. Another crash into his confines caused him to pull at his hand even harder, and his cry of pain was drowned out by the rushing in his ears. Again he tried, and again something crashed into him, and this time the impact hit him directly, his arm bending uncomfortably in the time it took for the body to separate and rejoin the fray.
“We must corner it!” And those were the first words Ken had been able to make out, since the thing had attacked. “We cannot use our psychokinesis so close to the specimen.” Specimen. A nice reminder of why he needed to get out of here, please, hands-
Except this time, when he pulled at his left wrist, the cuff gave and now he had a very sore hand to work with. Ken blinked. How had he loosened it? Was it enough to keep trying to force his way out? What had-
Oh. Oh, the cuff had been dented, when that thing had crashed into him. He’d gotten lucky.
He grit his teeth, bringing his hand up in a fist and striking down at his other cuff. He could do this. Nevermind that the other cuff had needed for someone to be thrown into it to create so much as a dent; nevermind that his arms were as thin as noodles and his fists soft as soap. He had no other choice, really. He would get out of this, and he would go find Miss Ayase, and then they could both forget this whole thing had ever-
“Occult-kun!”
Ken’s head whipped around faster than he thought possible, body straining against his restraints. On the far side of the room the Serpoians stood, hands extended towards a crater in the wall, and in the center was Miss Ayase. Or, something that vaguely resembled her.
“Miss Ayase?” he yelled back, squinting. Her body was being pushed into the wall in a way that looked distinctly painful, and the hellish mouth of the creature had parted to reveal hers, face strained and eyes trained on him.
“Occult-kun, I’m sorry!” she yelled. “It’s my fault this happened and I tried to save you but I failed. I-” She let out another pained cry, a single tear rolling down her cheek, and one of the Serpoians left the others to return to Ken.
“We are sorry about the interruption,” it said, and even before it put its hand to Ken’s temple he knew what would happen. God, he was useless, wasn’t he? She’d come to save him, and now she was hurt, and apparently yokai were real but so were aliens and psychokinesis and none of it mattered because neither of them were coming back from this.
His sight wavered and his eyes watered and now there were two, three, five Seropians in front of him and what was psychokinesis, anyway? Some kind of wavelength? It had to be energy, right? How much energy could a mind possibly-?
Energy. Miss Ayase had mentioned it before, when talking about her grandma. A spirit medium, she’d said. She would know, right? A spirit medium would know all about energy. There had been a pose, too. Something to do to release the energy.
His vision swam again and his mind crumpled, mist clouding up the edges of his thoughts. I need to move my hand, he thought. If I move my hand I can- I can… He paused, hand drooping. It felt heavy, like lead. Why was he doing this, anyway? When he could just lay back and forget this whole thing had ever-
“Occult-kun!” His eyes startled open again. Who was that? Right. Miss Ayase. She sounded like she was in pain, why was she in pain? Could he help her? Right, there was something he could do. His face scrunched up in concentration, hand moving to grab his head. It was his hand, right? Something to do with his hand and the sky. His fingers? Yeah. Point his fingers to the sky.
Slowly, agonizingly slowly, his fingers uncurled above his head, his index finger pointing towards the ceiling. His stomach lurched, suddenly, as though it remembered something it had forgotten. He strained, both mind and body. Almost, he thought, middle finger joining the first. Almost-
The world broke apart into a million pieces, a whole spectrum of colors he felt he’d never seen before scattered before his eyes. Everything around him looked sharp, detailed beyond anything he’d ever been able to see before, even with glasses. He moved his hand, slightly, and it all shifted, the surface beneath him lurching to follow his command. He stood, then, and turned. He felt like he was forgetting something, in this grand, cosmic revelation. What was it?
Beneath him, four beings stood, three of them bearing him hostility. With a start he dropped to the ground, batting them away only for the ground to lurch again, momentum building up as they careened sideways.
“Occult-kun!” Right. Right, Miss Ayase, he’d forgotten Miss Ayase!
“Miss Ayase,” he called, reaching out. “Hang on!”
“Where are we?” she cried, ghostly skin rippling around her in vague threat. The ground lurched again, this time downwards, and Ken panicked, gripping her hand tightly.
“I don’t know, I don’t know!”
“Then let’s get out of here!”
He nodded and ran back to the crater, punching outwards in an effort to break through. The wall before him collapsed before his fist touched it and he laughed, disbelieving and light, at the sight of the night sky and the rapidly approaching ground.
“Woah…” Miss Ayase said, the wind weaving through her hair. She crouched to shield herself from it, bringing Ken down with her. “We’re on a UFO! This is amazing!”
“It’s… incredible,” Ken agreed, and for a moment they weren’t falling to their deaths after having been kidnapped by aliens.
But the next moment they were, in fact, hurtling towards their deaths, and it may have been reckless but Ken abruptly pulled Miss Ayase out and into the open air, the both of them now free from the falling death trap.
Ken felt a bubble form around them both, briefly, and it popped as they reached the ground, sending them both flying harmlessly over a grassy field, the cushion only slowing a small part of their momentum.
For a small while Ken lay there, exhausted. He felt like he’d just run a marathon; his head ached, his stomach ached. Muscles he didn’t even know he had ached. Surely staying there a little longer would be fine, right?
Except an instant later another cry for “Occult-kun” came, and when Ken sat up he found himself face to face with eyes that were glowing neon yellow in the darkness of the night.
“Hey there, boyo,” the thing said, and Ken panicked, swatting a hand at it. Strangely, it reacted, the image of the yokai rippling to reveal Miss Ayase underneath.
Ken gritted his teeth. “Let her go,” he said, and the thing only laughed.
“Or what?” it said, and this time when Ken passed his hand over the being he squeezed his fist. It cried out, surprised, before turning a glare his way. “Don’t think you’ve gotten rid of me, punk,” it snarled, and disappeared from view leaving Miss Ayase in its place.
She gasped, her release sudden, while Ken gaped. Had he done that? How? This made no sense-
Miss Ayase laughed, sharp and loud and light. “What the hell,” she asked the sky, flopping down onto the grass. “What the hell was that?”
Something squirmed under Ken’s grasp, and he sat next to her, careful to keep his hand closed. “I think,” he said with a chuckle, “we both were right.”
She snorted. “I think we were,” she said. Then, quieter, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For making you do this. For getting you kidnapped.”
“It… wasn’t all bad,” he said, unsure of what to say. “Besides, because of me you ran into a yokai. That makes us even, right?”
“Yeah, but she didn’t try to kidnap me,” she retorted. “She was… strangely helpful, actually.”
“…huh.” Ken smiled. Yokai really were cool, weren’t they? “So she lent you her powers, or something like that?”
“Yeah. Probably should have specified until when, though. Or the price.”
Ken jolted up. “You didn’t?!” he asked, frantic. “Don’t tell me you accepted without any conditions!”
“I’ll be fine,” she said, but her voice betrayed an undercurrent of fear. “My grandma’s a psychic, she’ll root Turbo Granny out in no time.”
Ken relaxed slightly, sinking back down into the grass. “Alright,” he said. “That’s… that’s good, at least.”
A beat passed before Miss Ayase spoke up again. “What happened back there?” she asked. “And how come you can keep Turbo Granny under wraps?”
“…I’m not sure,” he answered. His fist was still clenched tightly, but he flexed the other one, feeling something else flex with it. “I just- I tried what you told me, about the pose your grandma had you do. It felt like it released a lot of energy all at once, but it was all a part of me. I… can’t really put it into words too well,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
“Not good with words?” she teased.
“Not really. I’m an awkward guy, after all.”
She became unusually still, for a moment, but then relaxed again. They both stayed silent for a while, basking in the moonlight and the calm breeze.
“Hey,” she eventually said, and he responded with a hum. “You know my name, but I just realized I never learned yours.”
“Oh!” Ken sat up, embarrassed. Had he really not introduced himself? “I’m Ken,” he said.
“Ken Takakura.”