Ch 1: I Am Going To Kill Yourself, Now!

Dying.

It sucked. Of course, it sucked. Dying wasn't something that someone typically, you know, did for fun. Death meant the end of things, and that was pretty sucky. Especially when you don't realize it before it's too late.

And Sunny, for the lack of a better word, was having one of those "oh shit" moments, as Kel would've called them.

Why? Well, because he was falling, and fast, off the roof of a hospital. Specifically, Faraway Hospital. Basil, he… he watched him fall.

Oh god, what was he going to do—

*Crack!*

*Splat!*

There was screaming. Lots of… screaming. And… and…

Pain.

Oh god, the pain!

It hurt! IT HURT!

IthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurtIthurt!!!!!

And then… there was nothing.

.

.

.

"Really?"

Huh….?

"That's it? Seriously? What the HELL was that?! I try, and fail, to get your attention for four years, and you ignore me every time, and then, when I finally get your attention, you go off and throw yourself off the roof of a building! Rude!"

Sunny's eyes opened to… nothingness. Pure, blank, nothingness. And in front of him was….

"Mari…?"

It looked exactly like her, down to the last detail. Her snow-pale skin, her black eyes, her long black hair, and…. The noose made of a skipping rope around her neck? The… white cloth draping over her body—wait, no… that wasn't… Mari…. Not as he remembered her….

"Close enough," the fake Mari said, shrugging her shoulders as her vacant, dead-looking eyes bore into his own. "I'm the manifestation of the fear of Guilt, to put it bluntly. What that means for you, is your deepest, darkest sins. Not your regrets, mind you. That's someone else. And since you feel the most guilty about murdering your sister, I come to you in this form, as I do with all of my other… options, shall we put it."

"Wow, right on the nose. Not even going to try and sugarcoat it, are you?"

"Why would I? I'm stating a fact, am I not?"

Sunny blinked. "You can… read my mind?"

"Mari" smiled at him and revealed sharp, triangle, shark-like teeth. Okay, that TOTALLY wasn't Mari, if it wasn't obvious to him now, it sure as hell was now.

"You can't have a mind if you're dead. Specifically, you're in limbo. Typically, this would be where you pass on…. But… we have unfinished business."

As the creature said that, it approached him, and reached out a hand. "You died a pathetic, worthless, meaningless death. And I refuse to accept that. That other Devil, The Suicide Devil, really is an annoying little prick. Let's kill it. But not just it… we'll kill all the Devils in Faraway. You'll be a hero. And, you'll be able to make up for your sins. Take my offer. Make a Contract with me. And together, we can move past this tragedy, just like how you were supposed to."

Sunny studied the hand for a brief second, judging what to do. It's not like he had any other option, did he? And besides, he… liked the idea of making up for his sins. So, hesitantly, he reached out and touched it. "Mari" smiled an impossibly wide grin and spoke in a distorted, almost devilish-sounding voice.

"Make me proud, Sunny!"

-

Shooting up from… whatever he now sat in, he heard several screams coming from his left and right, mostly out of shock and confusion. A part of him was concerned about why that was, but, at the same time, he was more interested in where he was. So, with that in mind, he looked down at himself and frowned.

"Why am I naked…"

He covered his mouth. He… spoke? Why did he speak? Ah, perhaps he simply forgot his vow of silence? Well, there was no need to keep it now.

And then he realized where he was.

He was in a morgue… and to his right was the mortician, scalpel in hand, and to his left was the mortician's assistant. Mr. Bennidict, if he remembered his name correctly, and… he didn't ever remember if he had met the mortician. He was kinda surprised that the mortician was a woman, but, to each their own, he guessed. She… seemed afraid, and… well, that was understandable.

"S-Sunny Suzuki?! H-How are you? I… um… what the hell?" The mortician sputtered, looking at him as if he was an undead freak. She muttered that last part under her breath, but, that wasn't the point. Why did she think he was some sort of monster? He was alive, wasn't he?

Well… if we were being technical here… he did just rise up from a… body bag? Yeah, that was what this black sack was called. And, he was technically an undead freak, seeing as he did kill himself. Or, well, this supposed Suicide Devil, whatever the hell that was, killed him, but… oh who cared, he didn't, so there.

He looked at the blond-haired blue-eyed mortician and stared at her name tag that was placed on the right lapel of her button-down black dress shirt. "Um… Ms. Steward…. Can I have my clothes back? Or… um…. Some spare clothes?"

It didn't even take more than a second for her to run to the back and bring out some clothes for him to change into. A black short sleeve shirt, the sleeves being white, a pair of brown shorts, white ankle-high socks, and black shoes. Thank god he had his outfit back. And his knife, for some reason. Whatever, it didn't matter. Oh, and an eyepatch. Ah! Right, he remembered now. Basil stabbed out his left eye.

Eh, he couldn't blame him. He was hallucinating, and—

Wait… Basil.

"Oh shit!"

By the time he got changed and thanked the mortician and her assistant, he bolted out of the morgue at speeds he hadn't thought possible of moving. He blamed the adrenaline. He hadn't even known how long he had been dead for, and—

Two days. You've been dead for two days, Sunny.

"Ah, got it…. Wait, what?"

Don't question it. All will be explained, just get to Basils. I'll explain our contract after you kill The Suicide Devil. You… do remember that, right?

Sunny stopped dead in his tracks, and skidded to a halt, having to balance himself so he didn't face plant into the sidewalk. Who… was talking to him again. Contract? What Con… tract…?

Oh.

Oh.

Sunny shook his head. He remembered. The white void, the doppelganger of Mari with the impossibly large smile, the handshake… the pain….

"Snap out of it, that doesn't matter at the moment!" Sunny thought, slapping his cheeks as hard as he could. Right, he had to get to Basil, and now. Before it was too late. Basil was already in a bad state of mind, and so watching him kill himself probably made it worse.

He had to go. Now.

Starting up the sprint again, he ran as fast as his frail legs could carry him, brittle bones be damned, he wasn't going to let Basil die. He still had no idea what a Suicide Devil was, but with something with the word "Devil" in the name, it couldn't have been too good.

He felt his knife bounce in his pocket, a heavyweight that distracted him for a split second, but he had to regain focus. He had to get to Basil's house. He needed to get to Basil's house.

Eventually, he found himself staring down a house that he remembered. Basil's Grandmother's house.

He… quite frankly, didn't care for privacy. He felt a heavy dread coming from that building, and it ate away at him. Gritting his teeth, he cracked his knuckles—bad idea, because it hurt, but that could wait until later—picked up a rock, and threw it at the window as hard and as fast as possible. The window shattered, and a shout came from the building.

That was probably Ms. Polly.

He didn't care.

He ran for the opening, and dove in, tumbling with the fall, as a gasp rang throughout the house. He looked at Ms. Polly, who blinked at him as if she had seen a ghost.

"Later. Mention it later. Basil's room, go, now!"

He charged up the stairs with reckless abandon, tripping up a few times, Ms. Polly calling out his name with a mix of anger, confusion, and desperation. Again, he didn't care, he had to keep moving.

He made it to Basil's room, whipped out his knife, jabbed it into the door's lock, and turned, unlocking the door. When he did, he kicked down the door with enough force to blow it off its hinges—where that strength came from, he had no idea, so he chalked it up to, once again, adrenaline—watching as the door landed on the floor with a loud thud.

What he saw in that room made his heart skip a beat.

Basil was standing on a step ladder, a noose on his ceiling, but now, he was staring at Sunny with wide eyes. But… Sunny wasn't focusing on him. He was focusing on the black-and-white doppelganger of himself behind Basil, lurking in the shadows, and he immediately recognized who it was.

"Omori…."

"Correction: The Suicide Devil. It takes the form of whoever the person cared for the most, and mocks them into killing themselves. If you kill it, Basil will have no idea what he's doing, and go back to doing what it was he was doing before. But, be careful, it's quite the powerhouse. And… that is not its true form."

Sunny clenched his right hand into a fist, as Omori—no, The Suicide Devil, walked out of the darkness, glaring at him. Basil looked to his right, at The Suicide Devil, and then to his left, at Sunny, his eyes watery.

"W-Wh—"

"Don't talk. Don't move. Stay still…." Sunny warned, glancing at Basil for only a split second, which was all the doppelganger needed to attack. Its right arm formed into a mass of eyes and malformed jaws, all in one black tentacle. It slammed into Sunny's chest and sent him flying through the second-story wall… and into the street, skidding across the pavement, leaving behind a streak of blood in his wake, along with chips of wood, plaster, drywall, paint, and glass.

Sunny shouted in pain, as he tumbled into the street, slamming into a car door, and leaving a dent where he impacted. He coughed, the wind leaving his lungs as his body trembled. He blinked, and he saw Omori—The Suicide Devil, standing in the hole, his face morphing into a malformed grin, with two wide, inhuman eyes with goat-like pupils.

And, if that wasn't weird, it got weirder.

Way… way weirder.

His whole body morphed into a black slime-like liquid, before taking a solid humanoid form, easily 8 feet in height, with black goo dripping off of its tentacle-like arms, and webbed three-toed feet. It leapt from the hole, and into the street, just a few meters in front of Sunny, sneering down at him as if he was a rodent.

"You're alive…. How dare you?" The Suicide Devil snarled, glaring at him. "After I worked so hard to have you die… you insult me by living? Pathetic!"

The Suicide Devil wrapped him up in a tendril and flung him further down the street. He skipped across the ground, like a skipping stone, and with each impact against the ground, he could feel bones break, as he screamed in pain with each hit. He tumbled and tumbled until he hit a traffic sign pole, coughing up blood, his knife jostling in his pocket as he squinted. He watched as the Suicide Devil marched toward him, a sneer on his face.

He was going to die. Again. Except for this time, it would be far more painful than breaking his neck and all of his bones after taking an 8-storey fall from an 8-storey building. In comparison to what was happening to him now, that was painless, and he got lucky.

But this? This was downright torture, and he wanted it to stop.

"W-Why am I such a-an idiot… did I really think I could fight something like this…? I just got revived for hell's sake! I should be t-telling my family I'm alive! Not fighting t-this!"

He closed his eyes, waiting for the thing to finish him off. He should've just stayed dead. He should've just accepted his fate, and remained the corpse in the body bag, and not whatever the hell he was now. That being some undead freak, a spat against God, and all that nonsense that he was sure was going to come spewing out of the local's faces.

But, like an unwanted barking dog, the voice of that thing that got him into this mess boomed in his head.

"Slit your wrist."

"WHAT?!"

"Trust me. Slit your wrist. Do it! Or you're going to die!"

"Isn't that what'll happen anyway?!"

"TRUST ME, DAMNIT!"

Sunny grabbed his knife from his pocket, grunting and groaning in the process. What the hell did he do to get into this situation? He should've just died… but, he was here now, and he was going to be damned if he didn't keep his word. He wasn't going to let Basil die. He refused to let Basil die.

Not because this thing wanted him to!

"I'M PUTTING MY TRUST IN YOU! THIS BETTER NOT BE A SICK JOKE!" Sunny shouted, and with quick precision, he slit his wrist in a fluid motion, blood spraying everywhere as The Suicide Devil stopped dead in his tracks, its eyes widening, but it stopped, its eyes returning to the same condescending glare it had on a moment ago, as it smirked, holding back a laugh.

"What kind of idiocy are you do—"

But, The Suicide Devil never finished its sentence, as what it saw next made its eyes widen again, except this time, not in surprise.

But in anger and fear.

As pain roared through Sunny's body, Chains wrapped around his right arm, digging into and out of his skin like some sort of strange kind of tree root. At the same time, his left arm's wrist exploded open, chains covering his other arm in the same fashion as well. His head and hands peeled open like a banana, the skin slurping back into the base of his neck, as his head and hands were replaced with an amorphous blob of chains and red glowing lights, with a giant hook on the top of his new head. His mouth was filled with rows of sharp, shark-like teeth, and the ends of his fingers turned into hooked claws.

Sunny looked at himself, confusion washing over him, as a sensation of power roared through his body, mixed with pain. But… it wasn't drastic. It was like a constant hum. Annoying, yeah, but nothing he couldn't handle. This new appearance… was strange, and… for some reason, he didn't feel the need to freak out.

In fact… he felt…. Awesome! In pain, granted, but awesome!

He clenched his hands into fists, before letting out a guttural roar, that made the Suicide Devil shrink into its "Omori" form.

"Y-You gotta be kidding me! Y-You're—"

Sunny didn't let the bastard finish speaking, leaping toward the small thing that looked like a younger version of him, reeled back his now clawed hand, splayed his hook-like claws, and slashed The Suicide Devil's torso to ribbons, purple blood and guts streaking across the ground as the upper half of The Suicide Devil's body flew in the air. On instinct, Sunny pointed a finger at it, shot out a barbed chain toward its head labelled "GUILT" and pierced its head, before slamming it into the ground with a sickening crack.

When the deed was done, the outstretched chain-like finger returned to its normal position, as Sunny's body began to return to normal, all prior wounds healing as if nothing ever happened. He breathed heavily, as he stared at the desecrated remains of The Suicide Devil.

"That… was…. Awesome…."

Just as he heard footsteps running toward him, Sunny felt the unstoppable urge to just… fall asleep.

And fall asleep he did, right there, in the middle of the road.